Author name: S Anand

More web scams.

Bottom line. A blog on the economics of IT.

I just bought a Fuji Finepix 2600. Should be getting it in a month.

False mathematical proofs. I ended to get all except the first wrong! (BTW, Math Mistakes is a good read. Thanks, Sriram!)

If you see the sun at the same time from the same spot over a year, it traces a pattern called analemma.

People’s Daily from China. In English. I’ve found it quite a good source of news recently.

This article on supercomputing mentions that supercomputing is beating Moore’s law. Computing power is doubling roughly every 15 months (instead of 18).

An intruiging experiment on designing a better keyboard using a computer.

Guardian’s favourite blogs. Satish’s Random Thoughts is on it.

Why is a CD 74 minutes long? Answer: Beethoven.

Sony and Philips worked under the following constraints:

• The bits to be etched the CD had to be 0.83 microns long and 1.6 microns apart. Hence about 750,000 bits fit in 1 sq. mm
• CD uses 16-bit audio with 2 (stereo) channels.
• Sound is sampled at at 44.1 KHz for historical reasons. So 1 sq mm translates to about 750,000 bits / 44,100 Hz / 32 = 0.53 seconds of music.

Philips came up with a 11.5cm CD that could store about 65 minutes of music. Sony made that 12 cm because 11.5cm can store around 65 minutes of music, while a CD that’s 12cm can store about 74 minutes. One of the supposed reasons is that a slow rendering of Beethoven’s 9th symphony (a popular piece in Japan) would take 74 minutes.

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