Category Archives: Info/Trivia
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May 25, 2007

Best in Silicon Valley 2007 - List by SJ Mercury News

San Jose Mercury News - Nothing but the best in Silicon Valley for 2007

Nice little list .. Note that this is only for Silicon Valley so excludes large parts of the Bay Area like SF, etc.

March 15, 2007

What to eat -excellent article


The following article about nutrition is excellent. Escpecially read the 9 points in the end of the article.
Unhappy Meals - Michael Pollan - New York Times

January 22, 2007

california to get global warming labels on new cars from 2009

My comment to this entry: Green Wombat: California Cars to Get Global Warming Ratings:

It is strange to see almost all the comments opposing the idea.. that also on a business2 blog, where I thought gathers some intelligent readers.
I am from a different country, have been in the US for 5-6 years now, and this new law counts among the things that I love about this country.
What is right, must be done, and not be forced -- it is subtly brought to public information and let the public decide -- sometimes financial incentives accompany.
Getting more information about Global Warming does not harm -- just like the nutrition information on food products -- but allows the consumer to make more informed decision as per his preferences. In my country there are no nutrition labels, and the stuff I have been eating was way unhealthy. Now I am more conscious of what I eat, after coming to the US. Is this good? DEFINITELY, I would say.

To learn more about Global Warming, watch the very nice documentary by Al Gore. Its not boring I tell you. Its a must see.

I think its time that somebody do something abt global warming -- the whole weather this past 2-3 years, all over the world, has been rather weird, and breaking records either to the low or to the high. I am afraid it might be due to what we are doing to the enviroment, of which global warming is definitely one thing.

December 8, 2006

Google Pagerank Algorithm Explained

The following link is a feature article, which explains the basic math behind Google's pagerank algorithm nicely -- I followed most of it, except the "how does the power method work" section:

How Google Finds Your Needle in the Web's Haystack


October 19, 2006

Gandhi's omission in Nobel Peace Prize


This is not the best article about Gandhi's omission from the Nobel Peace Prize, but anyway, this one is short and precise.

Gandhi not getting the Nobel was the biggest omission'

August 5, 2006

Moral responsibility for war

A good article which has a couple of simple but good methods for reducing US's affinity to war.

A Moral Hazard of Global Proportions: The Naked Economist - Yahoo! Finance

February 7, 2006

an avid traveller couple

I had come across "Huzefa Mehta" in my stepz dance class at cisco a few months ago.

He just came back from travel from galapagos islands and ecuador with his wife and two small kids.

Just learned that both he and his wife are avid travellers, divers, doctorates, etc.

He maintains travel articles on the web:

http://www.geocities.com/huzefa_mehta/travel.html

Must see are the photo slideshows he sometimes attaches to his articles. For ex, click on the first link on this page:

http://www.geocities.com/huzefa_mehta/ecuador.html

Read his biography:

http://www.geocities.com/huzefa_mehta/bios.html

Must say, they are probably the most travelled people I have met in my life till date that I know of!

They are amazing....and inspirational!

January 7, 2006

science links

Heres a very interesting article about red rain that occurred in Kerala, a state of India, in 2001; it has been claimed to have been caused by "bacteria living cells like" particles, that came from a meteor!

http://www.world-science.net/exclusives/exclusives-nfrm/060104_specks.htm


Heres an article describing a hypothetical propulsion scheme to reach Mars in 3 hours (currently it takes 6 monhts)

Scientists moot gravity-busting hyperdrive


November 22, 2005

Safe/Dangerous City Rankings

Newly released rankings of safe and dangerous cities in the US by Morgan Quitno Press.

City Crime Rankings by Population Group

October 28, 2005

Dont trust that Internet will always work

Never knew such things can happen.. Suddenly many many people stop getting disconnected from many many other people. Internet has become so critical now, that such things can possibly cause havoc!

Net firms reach deal to avoid new blackout | CNET News.com

October 24, 2005

P. A. Semi

I dont know much about this -- but seems like the DEC had the best of the microprocessor designers.. The high flowing companies like Sibyte, Cavium, and now PA Semi, (and many others in the middle) had people from DEC.

P.A. Semi - Power to Perform

His one discussion with some other bigshot, might be a good read for people interested in Processor VLSI.
http://www.acmqueue.org/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=75

October 18, 2005

Comedy Bush Movie

Humorous George Bush Movie

October 16, 2005

ps260 -- an excellent design company

This film on ifilm is extremely hilarious. Would make sense if you have seen the film The Shining (1980)/:

IFILM - Viral Videos: Shining

It was designed by ps260, who have an extremely well made flash on their website.

iTalk for proving that you are right

iTalk is for adding voice recording functionality to an iPod.

I was reading its page: iTalk - Griffin Technology: and in the list of Top 5 uses of iTalk, Griffin Technology sneaks in this very funny one. Ofcourse, that sure is one way to use it, (and even I might use it that way), but is still funny:

- record your next disagreement - then play it back and prove you were right!

October 15, 2005

Silicon Zoo


This CNET article talks about a very interesting piece of information -- chip designers sometimes put drawings of various things (cartoon characters, gods, animals, etc) on chips, and the drawings are very thing -- less than 1 mm, generally in a few thousand nanometers. The images can be found on the web page, rightly called Silicon Zoo:
Molecular Expressions: The Silicon Zoo.

September 2, 2005

Interview with Subhash Kak

The Rediff Interview/ Dr Subhash Kak

Subhash Kak is a well known authority on Ancient Indian History, as seen by his histroy page.

August 29, 2005

Startup ideas with readily-funds-available!

Ideas VC's are ready to fund for a startup.

The $50 Million Giveaway

August 24, 2005

desipundit: the meta-desi-blog


http://desipundit.com

This is a very nice blog: its 5-6 authors constantly keep finding good blog posts from MANY desi blogs throughout the day.

You can subscribe to its RSS.

Landed up here from desipundit's main author patrix's own personal blog:

http://patrix.typepad.com/

which is an excellent blog by itself.

August 22, 2005

How Indian culture/professionalism can benefit from Team Work


This article:

Benefit of Team Work: Sam Pitroda

may seem trivial, but I now think that it consists of excellent practical wisdom; and something that I have experienced in my recent time in the US.

It is a must read for Indians. (and especially Indians in the US will be able to appreciate it completely.)

Ancient Indian History


One very good article on Ancient Indian History

David Frawley, one of the leading experts on Vedic Knowledge in the West, interviews.

June 17, 2005

live traffic cams at CA freeways

Caltrans Live Streaming Traffic Video

June 16, 2005

Google ranking algo details

Great Site Ranking in Google The Secrets Out

June 15, 2005

immigrants to US performing well


It is no unknown fact, that immigrants and their kids do very well in the US.

Immigrants' Kids: Nation's Brainy Superstars

I think, somehow the "work-hard" ethic (remanant of adverse societal conditions back in their home countries) combined with the richness and individual opportunity of the United States (which is now more in a have-fun and self-express ethic) results in a winning combination.

June 13, 2005

Chess rankings - US 3rd

We say so much that India is ahead in Chess. In the top 100 players of the world, India has already 3 in.

But, we Indians are unaware that US is actually 3rd in Chess, while India is 15th. And US has around 5 players in the top 100.

Top ranked countries in Chess by FIDE

June 6, 2005

breathing dissolved water

A man designs an apparatus to breathe in water by using water separated from water.

Link

Helicopter lands on everest

Everest 2005: The Helicopter land on Everest with video: But it is good?

May 27, 2005

Airport Screeners

Airport screeners could see X-rated X-rays | CNET News.com

May 24, 2005

Interesting Story about Math Wizard

George Dantzig, had solved two unsolved mathematics/statistics problems, mistaking them as homework problems.

Urban Legends Reference Pages: College (The Unsolvable Math Problem)

May 19, 2005

Super Water kills Bugs Dead

Interesting Story.

Wired News: Super Water Kills Bugs Dead

May 18, 2005

Building his own Segway

Trevor Blackwell made his own Segway - with great description of how he built it.

Amazing...!

Building a Balancing Scooter

May 6, 2005

Outsourcing to the sea

Interesting Idea: Twist to Outsourcing:

News Article about Sea Code

Sea Code Website

January 20, 2005

Life extension

Cryonics: Alcor Life Extension Foundation attempts to preserve the human body after death by doing cryppreservation, in the hope that future technology will be able to repair the human body back to normal health. It has already 50+ patients cryopreserved, and 500+ alive customers.

This Technology Review article talks about a man's claims that biological immortality will be achieved within our life times.

December 14, 2004

Google massively digitizing books

The New York Times > Technology > Google Is Adding Major Libraries to Its Database

Hmm. Brave.

December 3, 2004

The China Price!

4 excellent articles on how China (and India) is underbidding the US on price..!

http://businessweek.com/magazine/toc/04_49/B39110449china.htm

There is a smaller editorial article in the same businessweek issue which sums up things:

http://businessweek.com/magazine/toc/04_49/B39110449china.htm

How can such an excellent magazine (if u want to subscribe to One magazine, subscribe to businessweek) give such excellent articles away for free on their website?

December 1, 2004

Indian Bloggers

This seems a good way to start doing some time pass.

http://indianbloggers.blogspot.com

You can read various Indians' blogs from various parts of the world.

November 16, 2004

earthquake prediction right?

Some UCLA Geophysicist had predicted in April 2004 that an earthquake atleast of power 6.4 will strike Southern California before Sept 5, 2004.

Hmm, did the prediction work?

The list of worthwide significant earthquakes shows only one significant earthquake in california in this year, which is the one that occurred on September 28.

Well, if this one is considered as the earthquake he predicted, the prediction went wrong for many reasons

  1. the earthquake occurred on Sept 28, 23 days after his deadline
  2. the earthquake occurred in Central CA, and not southern CA
  3. the earthquake measured 6.0, so was less than 6.4

Another earthquake prediction gone awry.

November 11, 2004

google and yahoo search

what the heck,

Yahoo! Search's page (http://search.yahoo.com) is now almost a mirror of Google. (http://google.com).

I would have thought of Yahoo as one of the last companies that would run out of ideas and just copy pages from another website!! (well they have a different search engine itself from Google though)

May 4, 2004

Library Home

This was interesting. A student "living" at the school library.

http://homelessatnyu.com/
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Absolute Morality?

Well, so United Nations also stipulates absolute morals...

http://www.unhchr.ch/udhr/lang/eng.htm

Some of these are really humorous.

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