S Anand

14 years ago, I was introduced to the process of normalising grades. Professors “fit” students’ marks into a normal distribution and assign grades based on that. (I still don’t know how they do it). Since then, I’ve encountered normalising a lot. My performance at work is normalised. I normalise my song ratings and movie ratings. I’ve normalised all kinds of things at work: lead-time of delivery of fans, movements in savings account balances, calls to a call centre, demand for a resource… you name it. ...

Running for beginners.

The man who robbed a robber.

The 7 habits of highly effective designers. Number one being: Work quickly, produce a lot

Krugle is a code search engine. Comments sheikh 14 Dec 2006 3:08 pm: Thank you anand, It was very useful

5 different stories about how Google was named Google. This is mentioned as the probably correct version: “Lucas Pereira: ‘You idiots, you spelled [Googol] wrong!’ But this was good, because google.com was available and googol.com was not. Now most people spell ‘Googol’ ‘Google’, so it worked out OK in the end.” Comments OverSkies 11 Dec 2008 8:29 am: Google’s founder’s son’s first words were : google.That is why they named it google

Philipp Lenssen analysis different kinds of events in the post Different types of Google trends. He graphs (using Google Trends) the search popularity of different types of keywords over time, and observes how known events have a steady rise and sharp drop (e.g. Christmas) while unknown events have a sharp rise and steady drop (e.g. tsunami). And so forth.

What do you find when you search Google searches? Comments Sheikh 14 Dec 2006 3:09 pm: Thank You Anand. It was very useful

See how fast you can type. I averaged 100 words per minute. Comments Sri 20 Jul 2006 9:24 pm: WOW. @ 100 WPM even if each word had only 3 letters you typed 300 keystrokes in 60 secs not counting spaces. Which is about 5 keystrokes per sec. WOW. S Anand 21 Jul 2006 2:21 pm: I’m not the fastest typist I know. When I was at LBS, almost everyone around me typed (what seemed like) two keys for every one of mine. Sri 21 Jul 2006 5:17 pm: amazing. I have trouble hitting the keyboard 5 times while saying 1001,1002. Thats like hummingbird speed. I can manage 100 CPM and about 50 WPM. S Anand 22 Jul 2006 2:05 pm: Practice, practice, practice :-)

How to safely land a plane - by blowing one of its wings off. Strangely, that’s what Superman does in Superman Returns. (see video of Superman saving a plane).

In his article on The Power of the Marginal, Paul Graham suggests (among other things) a way of picking courses at college. One way to tell whether a field has consistent standards is the overlap between the leading practitioners and the people who teach the subject in universities. At one end of the scale you have fields like math and physics, where nearly all the teachers are among the best practitioners. In the middle are medicine, law, history, architecture, and computer science, where many are. At the bottom are business, literature, and the visual arts, where there’s almost no overlap between the teachers and the leading practitioners. It’s this end that gives rise to phrases like “those who can’t do, teach.” ...

Are video games going the TV show route? Will we have game mega serials? Is this the next wave? Personally it would be a welcome relief. I don’t often have the time to complete a full session of Age of Kings these days. Chunks of half-hour scenarios would be great.

Funny ads in London. To My Mugger: Last night you stole my phone on Holloway Road, you also stole my heart. I was the tall brunette in dungarees and psychedelic t-shirt, you were the hooded man on the bike. I was captivated by your white teeth and hypnotic eyes. My home number is stored on my contacts under “me”. (Please don’t call me at “me work”, or my boyfriend, “Josh”.) ...

I work across multiple computers (my office laptop, home laptop, client desktop) on a daily basis. I used to transfer data across these by e-mailing them before I travelled. (I often forgot to do so.) Mostly, these are notes – like telephone numbers, things to buy, places to visit, etc. Google Notebook solves the problem. But not entirely. I store a lot of my notes on spreadsheets, as lists. For example: ...

McDonald’s video game is a full-fledged business simulation game (like SimCity) based on McDonald’s. It’s written entirely in Flash. You don’t need to download it – just play the game on your browser. Comments emily burns 28 Feb 2007 8:33 pm: i think that this game is awesome.. i love it soo much love emily burns

In the long run, people tend to regret having missed out on opportunities for pleasure – and they wish they hadn’t been so diligent about working. Based on research at Columbia University. Clive has a nice article about it titled In the long run, we regret virtue more than vice. Comments joe bosco 3 Jul 2006 1:12 am: finally - some math that buttress my arguments. enjoy maaadi :) - indulge in sinful pleasures

Microsoft adCenter Labs has a demographics prediction engine. Based on a person's search queries and web sites visited, it can predict their gender and age. So I tried that on parts of the body, to see what men were interested in vs women. topicmalefemale hair25%75% eyes33%67% cheek33%67% hands33%67% lips36%64% ears39%61% fingers40%60% forehead42%58% nose43%57% neck46%54% beard55%45% moustache58%42% leg60%40% palm61%39% toe64%36% While I can understand men being more interested in beards and moustaches (perhaps even legs), why are they far more interested in toes than women? ...

Fred Gratzon’s advice on work I just do what I want to do and learn what I want to learn and enjoy what I want to enjoy and sometimes I get so wonderfully and powerfully caught up in some project and I start dreaming expansive daydreams and I go for it with every ounce of energy and enthusiasm and love that I can muster. And the money . . . it just takes care of itself. ...

55 ways to have fun with Google. Comments Dhar 25 Jun 2006 7:59 am: Just finished the book, didn’t find it too interesting. :(( S Anand 25 Jun 2006 8:52 am: Me neither. :-(

How to remove carpet impressions. Just steam iron the carpet. Comments ankit 24 Jun 2006 5:58 pm: it really works.. http://virtuously.blogspot.com/ S Anand 25 Jun 2006 8:52 am: You actually tried it? I was planning to, except without using steam.