What Drives Bloggers? I think what most bloggers are doing is thinking out loud. It’s a little misleading to talk of “putting things into words,” because that implies the ideas come first. In fact, expressing thoughts creates them. And especially expressing thoughts to other people, even people you don’t know. So I think the reason many people like blogging is that they like the thinking it causes.
The Great Google Float. Interesting article on how Google makes money by holding Adsense payments until it hits $100.
How to get Yahoo Mail Beta. Since I’m in the UK, I have it already. It’s excellent. I now actually check my Yahoo mail thrice a week, and feel happy while doing it.
Top 10 Windows XP tips of all time. Comments Ashwin 3 Sep 2006 10:43 pm: hey….nice set of links u have here…btw…the xp link is down i think…and i’m gonna try the torrents thing… the calvin search is awesome except for the fact that u can’t read the stip immediately….but its real good….thanks… S Anand 4 Sep 2006 6:59 am: Thanks, Ashwin! I’ve fixed the Windows XP tips link.
Pirates still exist. According to the International Maritime Organisation, 266 committed or attempted acts of piracy were reported last year. Although this was a lower figure than in 2004, in part because many small-time pirates died in that December’s tsunami, risk experts say that a more brazen, violent and organised strain has emerged. Pirates are said to have injured or assaulted 152 crew in 2005; they abducted 652, of whom 11 are still missing. They hijacked 16 ships; a tug and a barge are unaccounted for. ...
How to tie a bandage without it falling off. It’s in Japanese, but the video is pretty clear.
Create Google calendar events via SMS. Just SMS 48368 (in the US) with a message like “dinner tomorrow 7pm”. 48368? GVENT?
The virtues of a second screen. So now, while I am editing this article on my main screen, the screen beside it shows the outline or earlier draft I am working from – and, sometimes, Web sites or other documents I keep referring to. When I edit photos, the second screen lets me compare the copy I am working on with the original, or shows tool palettes and thumbnails of other images, and I can blow up panoramic shots for closer viewing (though with a bar down the middle, like the central pillar of an old car’s windshield). ...
These are quotes from books. How many titles can you guess? (Case insensitive. Ignore punctuation. So "Hitchhiker's" is "Hitchhikers" without the apostrophe. Don't forget the leading "A" and "The". Harry Potter books begin with "Harry Potter and the...".) Anything over 10 / 25 is impressive. Comments Dhar 21 Apr 2006 4:28 pm: Anand Man… LOTR is one book in three parts and not a trilogy. So LOTR is the correct answer to a couple of questions instead of ROTK etc. Dhar 21 Apr 2006 4:35 pm: Hmmm, a particular quote occurs in more than one Ludlum novels. In fact, I suspect that particular one is there in all the three. Dhar 21 Apr 2006 4:40 pm: Finally got 17 / 25. But I suspect that is because we have been reading similar stuff lately. S Anand 21 Apr 2006 5:05 pm: Agreed: LOTR is a single book. Loved it so much I had to put in a quote from each part! Chitra 22 Apr 2006 3:14 am: Nice one :)! JLT 22 Apr 2006 8:03 pm: And just like that, bumped into your blog . walked through 10/25 mark without realising. u could raise the bar. suhas 23 Apr 2006 9:46 pm: hey, how do i find out the answers to the ones i have not been able to figure out? S Anand 24 Apr 2006 6:45 am: You can e-mail me. root dot node at gmail dot com. S Anand 10 May 2006 5:29 pm: Test comment. Mayur 6 Jun 2006 7:20 pm: Hey nice quiz this, i usually dont quiz but i guess i found someting im decent at 12/25 Natasha 19 Nov 2006 6:36 am: yay i got 12/25 by myself and with help got 14!!! i congradulate you on a great quiz! Hemant 7 Feb 2007 10:24 pm: Actually, LOTR is not 1 book. JRR Tokein actually wrote it as three different books. We now read it as one. I read this in the first few pages of the first book. simplecoffee 21 Apr 2006 12:00 pm: Um, well, ‘Cain is for Charlie and Delta is for Cain’ is only used in The Bourne Identity. Supremacy has ‘Cain is for Carlos and Delta is for Cain’, while Ultimatum hasn’t got it.
Angry or negative people can be bad for your brain.
The Economist takes a good look at retailing in India.
Determine a sex by name. If you don’t know if a name is male or female, just search for the name on Google images. (e.g. “Priti”) Comments Umasuthan 18 Apr 2006 5:36 pm: That is not always true. Try ‘Kiran’ S Anand 18 Apr 2006 10:17 pm: You’re right. The article does warn of unisex names!
It’s worth starting a startup based on an idea even if it is easy to copy. First of all, it will take competitors a long time to realize that your idea is even a good thing to do. Even when competitors realize your idea is good, (a) it will take them a long time to implement and (b) they’ll probably screw up critical things. And finally, working on your ideas will lead you on to new ideas. So you’ll be a moving target; by the time competitors copy what you’re doing now, you’ll be doing more. ...
The IIMB PGP99 Birthday calendar is online. You can add it to Google Calendar, iCal or Mozilla Calendar. Here’s the XML version.
Why is nanotechnology in the top Google queries from India? Comments ravi 15 Apr 2006 10:48 am: from all countries in the list indians are the only one with something technical in their queries. hurrah for that Prabhu 17 Apr 2006 6:03 am: Could be due to the fact that Sujatha is writing an article about it in a tamil weekly S Anand 17 Apr 2006 7:37 am: If so, Tamil Nadu would have to be a big chunk of India’s Google searches. Given the absense of other Tamil queries, I doubt this was the only factor… but it sure must have contributed! Gautam 26 Apr 2006 6:05 pm: funny how sania mirza ranks over aishwarya, though !
I was reading John Battelle’s The Search , and realised: We don’t sit down on the computer and say, “Let’s do a search”. True. We want to get something done. We know it’s out there somewhere. We search. So every search on a search engine is a commercial opportunity. Contrawise, every site must let people to do what they want to do on the site. Think… What do people want to do when they’re on YOUR site?
Meet the Author releases short videos of authors introducing their books on Google Video. It covers fiction and non-fiction, like James Surowiecki on The Wisdom of Crowds, Richard Dawkins on The Selfish Gene, Jeffrey Archer on False Impression and Frederick Forsyth on The Avenger.
Google Calendar is out. But for some reason, it’s too slow for me. Comments Dhar 13 Apr 2006 8:08 am: You are right. It was too frigging slow in the beginning. But after the initial wait, things worked out. :)) Krishna 15 Apr 2006 5:48 pm: Do you still see it being slow? S Anand 16 Apr 2006 6:45 am: It loads slowly, but is OK now. I’m having problems importing data in the iCal format, though.
Grow by shrinking a market. For every dollar of revenue Microsoft made, it took away six dollars of revenue from their competitors. Every dollar of Microsoft’s gain caused an asymmetrical amount of pain in the marketplace. They made money by shrinking the market.
Packaging can make a huge difference to products. It really hit me when I saw this bottle of Heinz’s ketchup. My two big problems with normal ketchup bottles are: (a) the sauce spills to the side of the bottle and sticks to the cap, and (b) it’s tough to pour the last bits of sauce – you have to hit the bottle a lot. Now, I didn’t know I had these problems. But when I saw this bottle, it hit me. You keep the bottle upside down – so it’s easy to pour the last bits of sauce. And they way the nozzle valve is designed, the sauce doesn’t stick to the cap. Perfect! Since then, I don’t buy any other ketchup bottle. Even if I WANT ketchup, I don’t buy it unless I get this bottle. Packaging made be brand loyal. (Caveat: I’m not REALLY brand loyal. I’d buy any ketchup with this packaging. But only Heinz has it right now.) ...