Year: 2002

Water problems at Chennai. And Mumbai. And Ahmedabad. And Andhra. The rest of the world will, too, in a short while.

Why onions make you cry. via Potti

Good article on how Google Answers works. Unfortunately, the guy who wrote it was fired from Google Answers. (Incidentally, this Fortune article mentions that Google makes over $100 mn a year. That’s incredible!) via GoogleBlog

‘A frequent visitor’ wrote in asking if I meant ‘guy’ as in ‘guy or girl’, because the person who wrote it is a girl. I didn’t know that. Thanks! (Wonder if that re-inforces the stereotype of the female librarian…)

AllTheWeb’s Alchemist: customizable CSS interface. Possibly the first non-Google search-engine innovation I’ve seen in a few years. AllTheWeb lets you customise the look and feel of your search results. It looks quite flexible, but I wonder how much the interface will be constrained by the bounds of Cascading Style Sheets itself. Google’s API may end up being the truly customizable interface. via andersja

Microsoft’s ‘true story’ of a Mac-to-PC convert isn’t true. The “convert” works in a Public relations firm hired by Microsoft. And probably didn’t switch in the first place. (The original ad)

After Lessig’s hearing at the Supreme Court, here’s the next step towards rationality on copyrights. The US Copyright Office is asking for public opinion on what could be considered an exception to the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. via Scripting News

How do I kill thee? Let me count the ways. Several end-of-world scenarios — scientific and religious. via MetaFilter

Music-swapping continues. An RIAA spokesman says,

The problem would have been far worse if we had not stopped Napster. We would have seen far more venture capital companies taking a shot (at P2P sites) if Napster had succeeded.

However,

consumers are continually becoming more accustomed to downloading music for free

KaZaa’s the most popular right now, but not for long, perhaps.

KaZaa also faces a possible Napster-esque end. The recording industry has sued the service and court date looms in December