The World in a Grain of Sand

Because some things need to be said again and again.

2009-03-14T11:47:00.000-07:00

http://www.anniezaidi.com/2006/03/streets-stories-strategies.html

I need

2008-05-03T03:27:00.000-07:00

a Java class which implements a Map that preserves the order in which key-value pairs were added to it. The best solution I have so far is maintaining both a Map and an array. Are there cleaner ways to do this?

Internet. Brought to you by Philips!

2008-04-17T22:38:00.000-07:00

This and this and much more give a strong indication of where online (and offline?) business models are headed. (Give me a C, give me a P, give me a C.....aaaaaaand what do we have?) And while I have nothing against advertisements (I did sing ad jingles on school trips. Doodh, anyone?), it does make me wonder: Whatever happened to the good old pay-for-what-you-need concept?

Being ad-supported is definitely a safe bet for an early-stage service trying to reach critical mass. But surely, there must be enough users willing to pay for value adding services they use frequently. We do have folks like Flickr, Netflix or Amie Street who monetize the Web (1.0/2.0) without relying solely on ads. I will *not* pay to be poked on Facebook, but I am willing to pay for things I use for my research or finding the closest Macys :). And I'd rather pay $5 than click on 25 annoying ads. Not to mention (shudder) pop-ups. Heck, I might even pay Facebook to avoid something like this (NSFW).

My grudge with being entirely ad-supported is the conflict of interests it creates. The primary motivation for the service is maximizing ad-revenue. So the model pushes the business towards optimizing the service for advertisers, shifting focus from user experience. The designers are asking "Where do the ads go?" before (and more frequently) than "Where does the content go?", and that's when you get pages like this. Or brilliant ideas like Beacon.

Through one channel or other, you are going to pay, because the service has to make money. The choice is between pay-for-what-you-need or be-assailed-by-annoying-ads-and-buy-stuff-online for what you need.

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Sources: Techcrunch, cnet, (my beloved) Valleywag, Lorelle VanFossen.

Blogit

2008-04-16T11:22:00.001-07:00

Testing Six Apart's new tool.

Mexico Highlights

2008-04-10T19:26:00.000-07:00

High points of my recent Yucatan trip:

Asking the waiter for coffee and getting in reply a blank, uncomprehending stare along with a vehement "Corona? Pina colada? "
Asking the lady at the taqueria to recommend tequila, and being referred to the in-house specialist - an eight year old boy. (Who by the way, was *extremely* knowledgeable.)
A series of road signs all of which read "Follow the signs".
A vendor offering to sell a trinket for a dollar...which turned out to be a 'Mayan' dollar : 8 USD apparently.
Bruising my gums on a nacho (which my Cuban friend convinces me is a part of the initiation)
Finding a village called 'Number 2'.
Harry Potter in Spanish!!!
Eating cactus. Well, drinking it too :D

TBC......

To get me there...

2008-03-13T22:12:00.000-07:00

Gates to Congress: Microsoft needs more H-1B visas

In testimony before the House Committee on Science and Technology on Wednesday, Bill Gates warned that the US was at risk of losing its position of technological leadership. He urged the committee to take steps to improve the education system, increase funding for basic science research, promote private-sector research and development, and allow high-tech companies to hire more skilled foreign workers. more

[Source: ars technica]

Let it be known that I am joining Microsoft, and will need the Big H. Anyone else see the connect?

Why I do what I do...

2008-02-05T17:56:00.000-08:00

And why NLP + Complete World Knowledge would not create the perfect Language Understanding system

http://hci.stanford.edu/~winograd/shrdlu/name.html

Ah! to sleep...Perchance, to dream!

2007-09-18T15:58:00.000-07:00

Dedicated to Neha, Kalc, Suji....and esp. Deeksha.

Where the sheet is without tear,

Where the pillows are piled high,

Where sleep is guilt-free,

Where the sublime snores of slumber have not been broken up

By raucous persistent alarm clocks

Where the sweet dream of snooze land

Has not lost its way

Into the dreary desert sand of early blurry mornings

Where tireless striving

Stretches its arms towards hibernation

Where the mind is led forward by thee

Into ever prolonged sleep and more sleep

Into that heaven of freedom, my father,

Let me, for once, awake!

Fleas interest me so much

2007-09-17T13:38:00.000-07:00

Fleas interest me so much
that I let them bite me for hours.
They are perfect, ancient, Sanskrit,
machines that admit of no appeal.
They do not bite to eat,
they bite only to jump;
they are the dancers of the celestial sphere,
delicate acrobats
in the softest and most profound circus;
let them gallop on my skin,
divulge their emotions,
amuse themselves with my blood,
but someone should introduce them to me.
I want to know them closely,
I want to know what to rely on.

Pablo Neruda

SF and en route Yosemite

2007-09-10T10:44:00.000-07:00

Taipei

2007-09-10T10:39:00.000-07:00

Dove proage

2007-08-14T11:49:00.000-07:00

I've always wondered why stores targeting older women have 20 somethings in their ads...And so it's nice to see this.

Funny though, since the products all contain anti-oxidants and other anti-aging stuff...So essentially this is a pro-aging anti-aging product line???

Still, it's always good to see stereotypes broken.

Last Supper

2007-07-11T15:44:00.000-07:00

Da Vinci has so been outdone! Dinner anyone?

For those who want to know more : the movie

Paycheck?

2007-07-11T15:39:00.000-07:00

My top song of the moment : Must be the money. :-)

Paycheck

2007-07-10T19:50:00.001-07:00

And so I feel rich.

Laptop-Coffee-Maker

2007-06-05T00:18:00.000-07:00

Conceived at 10:30 p.m. in Green Library by three sleep-deprived, cs227-frustrated C.S. Masters students. In other words, conceived like all great ideas are conceived.

Laptop-Coffee-Maker

- a revolutionary coffee maker that uses the heat your laptop generates to boil water. Ever noticed the amount of heat the average laptop generates while running some exceptionally screwey (read java) code? Pity, so much enery going wasted in a n energy-starved world. Enter LCM.

The tougher the problem, the quicker the coffee. Is that motivation or what?

(c) : Rick, Heng n Me!

Crash

2007-04-30T15:39:00.000-07:00

For the first time in over 7 months, my Mac crashed on me. Right when , after much procrastination and dodging, I was finally starting work. Divine sign? I take this to be!

Scolded

2007-04-30T15:18:00.000-07:00

...by the cops for jaywalking. Kicked :-)

Penguins

2007-04-14T23:20:00.000-07:00

Conceived by me. (clicked by someone else. I still take credit.)

2007-03-14T11:31:00.000-07:00

On my wish list: Portable Internet Radio (here)

Seattle

2007-03-09T03:12:00.000-08:00

My New Boat!!!!!!!

2007-03-09T03:00:00.000-08:00

My boat :-)

Starbucks

2007-03-09T02:49:00.000-08:00

The first ever Starbucks (Pike's place, Seattle).
Notice the mermaid - before she ate the corporate apple and became conscious of her undress :-)

WTC Ground zero

2007-03-08T09:29:00.001-08:00

Taken from the 35th floor of my hotel...

Sigh

2007-02-22T19:45:00.000-08:00

a sigh floated up one day
meandering dreamily it made its way
vaguely redolent of a gentle caress
a vagrant breeze teasing a soft cotton dress
murmuring lightly, so soft so quiet
silk skirts rustling on a cold winter night
the faintest of colours had just the slight trace
of pale pink scarves around a scarlet face
when touched, it was the smoothness that lingers
when soft lace is run between softer fingers

silently it rose higher into the sky
just another moment, unnoticed, passed by

yesterday...

2007-02-19T21:47:00.000-08:00

woh bachpan ki yaadein...

DD

Ishaara?

2007-02-06T14:05:00.000-08:00

(Excuse the absence of a Hindi font. Hope its decipherable...)

khade the poori tayyari ke saath
arambh ki pratiksha bekarari ke saath
man utsahit, pairon mein udaan ki chaahat
na vyatha ka koi tinka, na tanik bhi ghabrahat

laga humein hazaar manzilen kar rahin thi ishaarein
aseemit, ananth aasman humein hi pukare
aur hum bhi bechen the nikal padne ko
nissandhe, nirbhaya, har rukavat se ladne ko

tha intazaar us ek ishaare ka
jise dekh aage badhthe hum
bandook ki ek daag
jise sun dodh padhthe hum

par kisi ne ishaara hi nahin kiya

aur hum kadhe ke kadhe hi reh gaye.

2007-02-05T00:22:00.001-08:00

how penguins count:

one

oops.....

2007-01-31T14:41:00.000-08:00

"Between the conception
And the creation
Falls the Shadow"

I spent a large part of last quarter complaining I had nothing to interest me. This quarter when I do have a nice project to work on, I'd rather sleep. Mankind would progress in leaps and bounds if only someone found a cure for the chronic illness of getting bored with things as soon as they take on some tangible form - and that doesn't apply only to research!!!

Uncyclopedia

2007-01-25T13:55:00.000-08:00

The uncyclopedia.org entry for Google Technology. Cant help loving them! (I'd definitely work for Google if this was true...) More on

http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Google_%28company%29

Technology

Google gathers information about web pages using spiders. These spiders, usually wolf spiders or jumping spiders, but occasionally black widows or daddy longlegs, are outfitted with tiny cameras that take pictures of everything they see, including web pages, and miniature radio transmitters that relay the information back to Google headquarters. Google has massive spider-breeding facilities located in Palo Alto which allow them to raise the billions of spiders required for this undertaking, and as such are the world's largest purchaser of flies. People have rarely been allowed in to see this spider-raising operation, but those who have seen it in operation describe it as "really icky".

The data collected by spiders is then relayed back to Google, who stores it on server farms. Google built its server farms by slashing and burning huge sections of the Amazon rainforest, and then planting the servers in the soil. The nutrients of the soil are quickly depleted, so Google must harvest the servers and then move to another part of the rain forest. To do the difficult manual labor of watering and tending the servers, Google employs thousands of illegal laborers from Mexico, paid about 25 cents a day.

Finally, the data is sorted by a process called "PageRank", where young boys dressed as medieval pages rank the sites according to relevance. Because the huge number of pages required to rank the information, Google has taken to purchasing young boys in bulk from Third World orphanages. There is also an algorithm called "PageRank" which allows Brin and Page to rank the boys according to which has the best boyish good looks and nubile young bodies.

Remember Pi?

2007-01-25T13:45:00.000-08:00

I wish I was one of those super-brains who can breathlessly rattle off the first 100 (1000, 10000...) digit of pi. But I'm not. And so :

Can I have a small container of coffee?

See, I have a rhyme assisting
my feeble brain,
its tasks sometimes resisting.

How I wish I could enumerate Pi easily, since all these horrible mnemonics prevent recalling any of pi's sequence more simply.

How I want a drink, alcoholic of course, after the heavy chapters involving quantum mechanics. One is, yes, adequate even enough to induce some fun and pleasure for an instant, miserably brief.

How I love a white christmas

Negligence...Callousness?

2007-01-03T14:01:00.000-08:00

December 30th. I was at Kovalam watching the local fishermen pull in a huge fishing net. It is a sight to behold - 50 or so chocolate brown men pulling rythmically to the beats of some folksongs. After about an hour or so they drew in the catch. Unfortunately, about 20 or so puffer fish and eels had come in along with the other fish. Puffer fish, though a delicacy in some places, have no market in Trivandrum, Kerala. And so they were left to die.

It is heartbreaking. It costs nothing to pile them up into a catamaran and drop them back in the sea. Or to even manually fling them back in. Just a little time and a little care. But evidently many of us lack that.

I've worked with WWF, and its appalling how many olive ridleys lose their lives due to similar callousness. It is extremely frustrating when you realise that its not greed or luxury or even sport that these animals die for, but blatant callousness.

Its about 10 minutes of work to fling a dying fish back in the sea and ensure that the waves dont bring it back. Its worth the effort. Please.

Grad Student Cooking

2007-01-03T13:55:00.001-08:00

They say cooking is a simple deed
A good book of recipes is all you need
i have one.
fat lot of good its done.
My food still tastes like fermented sea weed

I remember when mom did the cooking...ah, happy days of yore!
Now my lunches are a study in gore
Battered and burned
All that I've learned
Is cooking is much more than your average household chore.

Even more than an art - it is a battle of the nerve
Between you and the chicken you are trying to serve
It rises from the dead
And conspires with the bread
To get the vengeance all its forefathers did deserve

I follow each recipe down to the letter
In the vain hope that this time the outcome will be better
But the instructions get jumbled
My fingers get fumbled
And my tummy just keeps getting upsetter.

Restaurants could have saved me, but my wallet aint got dough.
And after a while my tummy gives instant food a "NO GO"
Almost about to starve to death
I appeal to you with my one last breath...
If you can cook, please let me know

Thathastu

2007-01-03T13:54:00.000-08:00

"We dont write because we want to; We write because we have to."

I never ever try to understand what I write (mostly because I cant). If you can, let me know.