Links

Kiruba’s interview with Google. Nice questions! And good to see the post on MetaFilter. via MetaFilter

Scientific American’s review of the Simputer. Perhaps the greatest obstacle for the Simputer, though, is cost. Will people in developing countries be able to justify the expenditure of $250 on a device that may be helpful but is not essential? via Kamat’s Potpourri

Strange quarks causing earthquakes. Literally. via RobotWisdom

What technical skills are in demand? Just a quick sketchy search by Keith. Intruiging that the top 3 technologies in demand are SQL, UNIX and Oracle, followed by C and Java.

Tuvalu is a small country with 11,000 people. It’s highest peak is under 5 metres. (Yes, metres.) It pretty much gets submerged every year. Incidentally, it’s also the home of the .tv domain name. via Maltesh

The Economist argues that in making ’ethical practices’ and ‘social responsibility’ prominent, corporates create a vicious cycle of guilt-until-proven-innocent. I agree with that part. But I wonder if the incentives in companies are aligned to benefit all stakeholders. Sure, in the long-run, everything is factored into the stock price. But the short (not even the medium) run is what managers need worry about, given the dynamic job market.

There’s some good tech stuff at Accenture’s R&D page. via andersja

Ilayaraja’s Rakkamma on the BBC Top 10 songs via Prachi

Your recommended blog list via Anita

Bought one of these Eicher Maps. They’re fantastic. I sure wish I had access to the GIS on their website! Have a whole bunch of cool ideas.

How the FBI hounded Bobby Fischer via Pathologically Polymathic

Lazy Geek on the possibility of Mani Rathnam and Kamal Hassan working together on Dragon Fire.

IBM has this cool tool: Multimodal browser extension. With this, I can create a textbox on my site, which you can fill in by speaking to the web page. The underlying standard is W3C’s XHTML+Voice. Two years ago, I’d have downloaded it and had it on my site in a few hours. Today, I’m a married consultant. I don’t have a few hours. :-(

An intruiging case of 22 Patels in a cricket match. via Kamat

An article in the Scientific American linking two-leggedness, non-vegetarianism and our brain size. Contrast that with this (funny) talk.origins post on the trade-off between a large brain and two-leggedness. via Ravikiran, via RobotWisdom

The Mumbai police are using a hacker to resolve some cybercrimes. It’s interesting to note some of his efforts: freeing the IDBI, HDFC sites from hackers, and tracking Chhota Shakeel’s money laundering. via FilterCoffee

Does education really pay? An interesting article on Forbes arguing that education does not cause higher salaries, but is merely correlated with it. The logic sequence is broadly: Labour markets want smart people. Smart people tend to want education. Hence labour markets appear to want educated people.

Gates beats Stallman in India. via RobotWisdom

Cute letters to Einstein from kids. Dear Sir, I probably would have written ages ago, only I was not aware that you were still alive. I am not interested in history, and I thought that you had lived in the 18th c., or somewhere around that time… Tyfanny Dear Tyfanny, … I have to apologize to you that I am still among the living. There will be a remedy for this, however. … ...

Microsoft (2002) vs IBM (1982). An article on whether Microsoft will go the IBM Way. Microsoft’s ability to adapt and prosper hinges on meeting a third main challenge: creating trust.