Netflix prize

Netflix has released a sample of its customers’ movie ratings at Netflix Prize. You can download these (700 MB), create an algorithm that rates the training data, run it against the test data, and see if you can get better ratings than their algorithm. If you do, you win $1 million. (Chris Anderson explains why.)

The view from my office

The view from my office is pretty good. Comments Anonymous 30 Sep 2006 7:35 pm: Neat. Is it your office or your current client’s office? Have you guys broken even? Or is it still lifeline from the parent? S Anand 30 Sep 2006 9:20 pm: Thanks! This is the Infosys office, not a client’s. As for breakeven, yeah, we actually have!

Top 10 bittorrent sites comparison

A comparison of the top 10 bittorrent sites. BTJunkie emerges the winner. Comments Dhar 27 Sep 2006 10:55 pm: Not convinced with the comparison. Looks like the chappie Renald is just using to blog to promote BTJunkie. Checked the features of BTJunkie, they are nowhere close to Torrentspy, yet it gets a rating of 9. No way anyone can confirm BTJunkies claims like Torrents Indexed, Torrents Added Daily etc. Neither does the author specify how he confirmed these points. “At first I thought BTJunkie’s numbers must be fake, but I assure you it is real! I tested the number posted with the number in the actual directory for the day and they matched for a week straight!” Yeah, sure! S Anand 28 Sep 2006 6:47 am: Does sound like a plug, doesn’t it? :-) I’m planning to do a test myself. Why don’t you try one too? Sumit Dhar 8 Oct 2006 12:54 pm: http://torrentfreak.com/the-largest-bittorrent-search-engine-on-the-web/ S Anand 8 Oct 2006 2:50 pm: A solid rebuttal. I tried BTJunkie last week. Wasn’t very impressed. And the few movies I couldn’t find anywhere else, I couldn’t find here either.

Calvin and Hobbes trivia quizzes

Calvin and Hobbes trivia quizzes.

London Test Automation Conference at Google

Presentations and videos from Google’s conference on test automation at London. I was at the event, and learned a lot.

Where you host determines your page rank on Google

Google’s dirty little secret talks about how Google determines whether your site appears on top for a search depending on whether you and the searcher are in the same geography or not. So if your server is in Kazakhstan, expect fewer hits.

Employee management at Saravana Bhavan

Employee management at Saravana Bhavan. (via Vadivel.)

Google internal subdomains

Google’s internal subdomains.

Blue Oyster Spiral

Blue Oyster Spiral is a video zooming into the Mandelbrot set for two-and-a-half minutes. Hard to believe that it’s just one simple equation. Comments Ki 20 Sep 2006 3:45 am: neat

To videoblog or not to videoblog

Scoble on To videoblog or not to videoblog.

Hrishikesh Mukherji movies

Down the memory lane with Hrishikesh Mukherji’s movies via Shruti.

The laws of simplicity

The 10 Laws of Simplicity.

An honest in-flight announcement

What would an honest in-flight announcement sound like? Among other things, it would say… Please switch off all mobile phones, since they can interfere with the aircraft’s navigation systems. At least, that’s what you’ve always been told. The real reason to switch them off is because they interfere with mobile networks on the ground, but somehow that doesn’t sound quite so good.

Arrange books by colour

Arrange books by colour. It looks lovely.

The best time to buy everything

The best time to buy everything: when to buy air tickets, get great deals on electronics, and so on.

Waiter rant

Waiter Rant: daily experiences of an anonymous waiter in New York. via Shruti’s post on Waiter Rant

Music video filmed backwards

This entire music video (set to the song "Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometime" by Beck) has been filmed backwards. Comments Jeremy Lutter 11 Sep 2006 12:00 pm: Hey Cool backwards music video! I filmed video backwards as well.. mine is a little dark and a little violent. http://www.memelabs.com/indiemv/index.php?play=475 I need your help I’’m a bit behind on votes. can you help out a fellow backwards filmmaker? Jeremy www.brokenmirrorfilms.com

Why Linux does not need defragmenting

Why Linux does not need defragmenting (via Google Operating System’s article on fast disk defragmenters.)

Film and TV quizzes

Solve several TV and film quizzes in Excel. More at Yahoo’s online quizzes. Comments shanthi 24 Sep 2010 2:51 pm: Extremly brilliant! we stay in jakarta and I usually host all diwali and new year parties..i always conduct film quizzez audio video round..now its easy for me to get information from this site…thanks its very interesting also..

Google news archive search

Google news archive search lets you search news over the last 200 years. Along with Google Print and Google Scholar, this is a great research tool for printed material.