Year: 2003

The Code Book by Simon Singh is the last book I read. It’s also the only non-fiction I managed to finish in two years.

Now you can pay for railway tickets online.

Scope is an interesting new Microsoft technology. It lets you see your e-mail, tasks, calendar and alerts on a circular panel. The items are positioned by priority around the circle (centre is more important than periphery), and the shape of the item (circle, star, etc) determines whom it’s from (work, family, only to me or to other people also, etc.) See their demo to get a better idea on how it works.

The 591 spellings of Britney Spears on Google searches. What’s also interesting is to read the sites that have linked to the mis-spellings.

Google is fiddling around with algorithms to make PageRank 5 times faster. Wonder why they want to do it. The article mentions something about personalised search engines, but I don’t quite get it.

Yet another example of the regulation doing the opposite of what was intended. The CAS – Conditional Access System Bill was introduced to ensure that customers pay only for what they want to see (and hence, presumably, less than before). However, the customer is likely to pay 2-3 times as much. Of course, the other objective of making local cable operators pay their full dues is likely to succeed.

The most interesting review of The Matrix Reloaded I’ve read, rating the film on spiritual grounds. Of course, the film does badly. Have a look at the “WISDOM” graph to the top-right of the page. The film barely makes a ‘D’ and half an ‘M’ on this scale.

About Webmap. It maps the Web topographically, offering a different way of navigating. Pity, the download is not available any more.

Full text of Jeffey Archer’s short story: The Perfect Gentleman. A nice introduction to Archer’s style, if you haven’t read him. And here’s some more from Harper Collins.

PS: Here’s an introduction to backgammon.