S Anand

The home page competition results are out. Congrats to Section C, and to Section A, who were close behind.

A (almost) live update on IIM-B’s placements.

Genome browser.

Some interesting electronic toys have come up at ToyFair.

Celera has released the human genome.

Google bought Deja. I don’t know which is better news – that they have money to buy companies, or that I can now search the Usenet.

Napster must pay.

Take two plates. Bring them very close in a vacuum. They will attract. The Casimir Effect (free subscription required).

Today, we will know if Napster will survive or die. We will also know what our genes are made of. Speaking of genes, biotech reports are the hottest selling at MultexInvestor.

Eric has updated The Cathedral & the Bazaar

Yahoo’s auction listings fell 82% when they started charging for auctions. But the sales apparantly is steady, and quality of listings is going up. Amazon may follow suit. Looks like the pay-model is the one that will survive on the Net.

Prof. Vijay Kumar was kind enough to give us hints on how to prepare for placements. How to prepare for interviews Have a list of intelligent but unoffensive questions for each company. Contact alumni who are working there, and find out what work is like. What should I find out How does the work improve my employability or value? Specifically in terms of the Nature of work The experience that I get Skills acquired What will the salary growth be over time? What are the perks at different levels? What are the promotion and growth opportunities? What industries does the company focus on? How many people are there, and what is the employee growth rate? What do clients feel about you? (Talk to clients themselves – maybe friends in client organisations.) Which is the largest office? Where are most of the projects executed? (It makes a lot of sense to get into this office. Project staffing is usually done with people in the same office.) What should I question ...

Fantastic images at the Internet Ray Tracing Contest and at POVRay.

NASSCOM 2001 is on.

Typographical errors on San Fransisco sidewalks.

In Delhi & Mumbai, you can send voice messages, and soon (hopefully) use the telephone to access e-mail. Through Indivoice. They have a long way to go, though, to get on par with Yahoo! by Phone.

Fucked company reports that X-Drive.com is likely to lay off people. Given their accuracy, I’d recommend anyone having files on X-Drive make backups in the near future.

The Annals of Improbable Research have sent all kinds of things by post. Almost two-thirds were delivered. I doubt if it would happen in India.

Dream Research and Dream Bank. Lots about the analysis of dreams.

Of the films selected by the National Film Registry for preservation in 2000, I haven’t seen a single one! Not even read the script of any, for that matter.