Because some things need to be said again and again.

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

I need

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!

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

Testing Six Apart's new tool.

Mexico Highlights

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...

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...

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!

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

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

Taipei

Dove proage

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

Da Vinci has so been outdone! Dinner anyone?

For those who want to know more : the movie

Paycheck?

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

Paycheck

And so I feel rich.

Laptop-Coffee-Maker

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

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

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

Penguins

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

On my wish list: Portable Internet Radio (here)