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Haptic technology lets you “touch and feel data”. Surgical-simulation devices are currently the bread and butter of many haptics companies. Recently, haptics have also been finding their way into consumer products. Many video-game controllers, such as force-feedback steering wheels and joysticks, already contain simple haptic devices to enable virtual rally drivers and pilots to feel the bumps of artificial roads or the rumble of machine guns. Mobile phones are next. Just as existing phones can be programmed to play different ring tones depending on the caller, VibeTone allows for different vibrations. Without reaching into your pocket, you will be able to tell whether it is your boss, spouse, or babysitter who is calling. ...

Amazon’s Best books of 2004, All consuming, and Daypop Amazon Wishlist are good places to look for books to read.

Google domains is next, possibly leading into site hosting with 1GB space, and linkages with Blogger. Comments Bhuvan 2 Feb 2005 12:00 pm: nice to have you back Anand S Anand 2 Feb 2005 12:00 pm: Font size of comments? Or the whole page? The latter can be increased through View - Text Size - Larger Sumeer 2 Feb 2005 12:00 pm: can you do something about the font sizes

The Economist talks about how mobile phones are used for deception. SounderCover allows certain Nokia handsets to play pre-recorded bursts of traffic noise, airport announcements or other sounds in the background during a conversation. Two services offered by American operators, Cingular’s Escape-A-Date and Virgin Mobile’s Rescue Ring, allow customers to prearrange a call at a given time, to enable them to get out of a disastrous dinner date or boring meeting. ...

MSN search has a feature that lets you rank results your own way. Go to “+Search Builder” and select “Results ranking”. You can decide how important recency, popularity and accuracy are to your search.

My new commenting system is based on the principle of “scribbling on the margin”. If you’re interested, have a look at the source code for this page. It is as clear as mud, so best of luck! Comments Ammadio 1 Feb 2005 12:00 pm: Where do these comments get stored Navneet 1 Feb 2005 12:00 pm: Nice commenting system. A couple of points though…It took me a while to figure out how to post the comment :). Maybe a note on that somewhere would help.. Also the text colour when I’m typing in the comment is almost invisible. S Anand 1 Feb 2005 12:00 pm: I fixed those two. Is it OK? Anything else? TOPFRAME 1 Feb 2005 12:00 pm: Good to see you back, Anand. :)

Winners of The Future of Time contest by Timex. Showcases futuristic designs for watches. I liked the “nail watch”.

Google’s search for meaning. Paul Vitanyi and Rudi Cilibrasi use Google to determine the similarity of words. (Pairs of words that get higher hits are more similar to each other.)

Esref Armagan, blind painter. He has been blind all his life. Yet his paintings are realistic. Neural scans indicate that when he is painting, his visual cortex is stimulated as much as it is for normal people when they see objects. Comments naru 29 Jan 2005 12:00 pm: this guy (esref) is cool..a genius of sorts,,of course stud is cool too S Anand 29 Jan 2005 12:00 pm: I would also mention the genius of evolution. If he can know things like perspective without ever having seen, it means that sort of thing is hard-coded in our brain!

Puzzles at kuro5hin.org. If you’re a puzzles freak, the rec.puzzles archive is also recommended. Comments Aditya Chaturvedi 28 Jan 2005 12:00 pm: Yes, Java Scipts. Goto http://rootnode.freestarthost.com/comments.js you will find source code. Some Part is taken from http://www.webreference.com/js/column8/functions.html. S Anand 28 Jan 2005 12:00 pm: Yeah, coded it myself. Still several bugs and interface features to iron out, though. Any critique would help! SHAMIT 28 Jan 2005 12:00 pm: Great systen of commenting - its a innovative step in evolution of blogs, if you or whoever has done this … Simplifies things. TOPFRAME 28 Jan 2005 12:00 pm: Hi Anand… This is a really cool tool

The Thought Project Over a period of three months, the 28-year-old Danish photographer stopped random passersby on the streets of Copenhagen and New York City and asked them what they were thinking just before he intercepted them. Then he snapped their photos and transcribed their thoughts word-for-word.

Thinking, a book by Hardman and Macchi, says people would much rather let bad things happen, than take a risk to stop them: Decisions with identical outcomes are judged as worse when they result from acts of commission than acts of omission. For example, most people are reluctant to vaccinate children against a potentially lethal flu when side effects of the vaccine can cause death. Faced with a flu epidemic that is expected to kill 10 out of 10,000 children, most people are not willing to accept a 9 out of 10,000 risk of death from vaccination, and the median acceptable maximum risk is 5 in 10,000. Apparantly, killing a child with a vaccination (that is, an act of commission) is perceived as worse than causing its death by failing to vaccinate (that is, an act of omission). ...

Why do Americans work so much more than Europeans? Because America has lower marginal tax, says Prescott, the 2004 Economics Nobel Laureate. The important observation is that the low labor supplies in Germany, France, and Italy are due to high tax rates. If someone in these countries works more and produces 100 additional euros of output, that individual gets to consume only 40 euros of additional consumption and pays directly or indirectly 60 euros in taxes. ...

False advertising. Ads that make fun of famous ads / logos. Comments Aditya Chaturvedi 27 Jan 2005 12:00 pm: Really Cool

Google video. Not very relevant yet, but probably will be, once movies are included. Could rival IMDb, maybe search movie scripts also. Comments Aditya Chaturvedi 25 Jan 2005 12:00 pm: Good to see all the new Google Items from your page S Anand 25 Jan 2005 12:00 pm: Thanks, Adi. I get most of my updates from the Google Weblog Anonymous 25 Jan 2005 12:00 pm: Really Cool

I’ve managed to get my commenting system to work. Feedback welcome. Comments ashish 25 Jan 2005 12:00 pm: cool harish_an 25 Jan 2005 12:00 pm: hey snand… howdy? back to regular blogging i guess ritzkini 25 Jan 2005 12:00 pm: good to have u back anand…been irregular with ur posts last few months… SHAMIT 25 Jan 2005 12:00 pm: Javascript ?

On the impact of ‘rel=nofollow’ tag. Or, perhaps, some prominent webloggers will use “nofollow” as a money-making technique: for a fee, they’ll take the “nofollow” off your link and let you have their PageRank.

My RSS feed is back.

Naive in Thailand. The misadventures of an unprepared 43-year-old Brit who drops everything to try and help with tsunami rebuilding. Pet peeve? “The only real irritation has been the American Christian volunteers.”

The Skycar. It’s a flying car. Priced at close to $1 million, but probably better than using a helicopter.