S Anand

Yahoo has come up with a ‘conversations‘ site. Will it pick up? (BTW, the new version of Yahoo Messenger supports webcams, message archives, and file sharing.)

Among all concepts I have encountered on the Web, this one is the most intruiging. Ideosphere has created a futures market for ideas. You put a claim on this website, and people can buy/sell coupons based on these ideas. When the claim becomes true/false, these coupons increase/decrease in value. Of course, no real money is involved — it’s just a score. Very interesting, nevertheless, to get a feel of what people think. (There’s a similar exchange for Bollywood.)

The new GNU C Compiler GCC 3.0 includes a Java compiler.

Google just goes on. They’re working on voice search now.

A bizzarre calculation on the limits of computing power using fundamentals of quantum mechanics.

The Ancient History Sourcebook contains many ancient books in full-text (English), such as The Odyssey, The Code of Hammurabi, etc. Also included are the Manusmriti and Chanakya’s Arthashastra. Chanakya has also written a lesser known Niti Shastra.

New School’s History of Economic Thought website is an excellent collection of contrasting viewpoints on business and economics.

I listen to radio on Real Jukebox‘s Radio Tuner. They offer 2,500 channels, including business talk channels and western classical (my interests).

The University of Virginia computes the Bacon Number for any actor, similar to the Erdos number in mathematics. We trace the acting links of Shahrukh Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, and even Prabhu Deva to Kevin Bacon. (BCG did the same for consultants who have worked together, and it turns out that I have a Bruce Henderson number of 3.)

My friends, Dr. Jani and Dr. Jigs, have written theses on “Local Intelligent Control In Biological Systems And Industrial Processes” and Modified Microporous Aluminosilicates As Novel Solid Acid Catalysts.