08-Feb-2010

Seth Godin of Squidoo fame posted this yesterday in his blog – the iPad app of my dreams-the digital talking pad -

He calls it a ‘digital talking pad’ but the write up seems to suggest that(or at least thats how I understood it) what he has in mind is a presentation app. I think what he wants is available in “Slide Sorter” view in Powerpoint but that view can be used only when editing the slideshow or presentation. He says, “Instead of it being linear (like Powerpoint or Keynote), the pages are arranged in a grid or checkerboard.” I think his idea is that, you should be able to randomly jump to any slide from any other slide from the speaker’s point of view. So the slides are to be arranged like window tiles. This will be the presenter’s view. The actual output view would show one slide at a time (as seen by the participants).

The reason for the success of English as a widely used business/communication language

In English, whenever someone comes across something new, they immediately give a name to the concept or phenomenon. With the advances in civilization, almost everything you could possibly come across, has a name referring to or denoting/documenting the concept or phenomenon and it can be found if you spend some time searching for it. Whatever you can think of, if you google it, you will see someone has already given a name to the concept you just thought of, even though further research may not have happened on it. English is very accepting of foreign transliterations (like the word ‘catamaran’), this is one of the reasons English is rich in expressive meaning when the appropriate words are used (getting exposed to ‘vocabulary’ and diction as a measure of learning is one the facets of learning English for competitive tests). For example, just the other day, I came across a post in Friendfeed about ’samutrika lakshanam’ even though it originally is an Indian/Sanskrit concept, English has a parallel word for it that means the same thing – and the word is ‘physiognomy’ (I didnt know of this before).

Commented on “5 super useful notebooks”

Eventually we should be able to ‘beam’ or ‘transmit’ what we want to remember (”things to remember”) using commands directed to a computing device we are carrying on our personae (like Microsoft Sensecam), that we would otherwise need a notebook to write. But we are going to need ‘thought’ commands and computing devices that operate from a wireless frequency range if we are to take notes during such activities as sleeping, jogging and bathing lest the computing device which we are supposed to carry in our personae will become wet and the lack of probability of carrying a computing device with us all the time. (especially during activities like trying to sleep and when suddenly an idea strikes your fancy and you want to note it down somewhere)

Remembered that I had come across the word ’syllogism’ somewhere and realized that I didnt know or couldnt recall the meaning of it, so went to Ninjawords and looked it up. Here is the definition of syllogism:

(logic) An inference in which one proposition (the conclusion) follows necessarily from two other propositions, known as the premises.

I did some more searching of good examples of syllogism, and these I came across in a Yahoo answers page that have more ‘mental stickiness’ factor as I try to commit to memory what this word means.

Example A

If all syllogisms are stupid,
and this is a syllogism,
then this is all stupid.

Example B
If Jesus loves Stephen Fry
and Stephen Fry would love to have a Big Screen TV
then Jesus would love for Stephen Fry to have a Big Screen TV.

How would you like your name to be linked to on the web?

This is a self-interview question that occurred to me today. I am thinking about the concept of “name/email/website” fields to be filled, found on most blog commenting systems. My thoughts: Most people without websites of their own would probably want their name to be linked to their twitter account page, if they have one. If they have websites of their own, they would put their website URL to link to, from their name.

Added “Nixo-facto” to my vocabulary

As I was browsing the link for syllogism found on the Yahoo answers page, referred to above, I eventually ended up learning another phrase. This word is “Nixo-facto”. The word has been defined by Wikia quite nicely. Basically it means, “if the President does it, then it is not illegal”. From the word it also seems that, it must have had its origins around President Nixon’s time. I then checked UrbanDictionary to see if they have more funny usages for this word, but seems at the moment they dont have any.

Commented on “Steampunk: A Mobile Device Concept for Rural India” as follows

Summary of my comment: “People have to go through a learning curve in order to interact with advancements in technology. It is expected and normal.”
First, I like the style behind the piece and the topic it has covered. But, as much as I like the concept of making technology more user-friendly, and while I dont want to be seen as a snob or as someone looking down upon rural populace in India (Most of us city dwellers have rural origins and have migrated to the cities anyway), I would say that there are some concepts which need to be learnt and adjusted to. You mean to say ‘many of these people havent seen an envelope to be able to understand the iconography behind an envelope symbolizing Mail/SMS on the mobile.’ What I am saying is that people once they get used to the idea of western iconography go through a (often delightful) learning experience and they immediately begin to associate an envelope symbol appearing on the mobile interface/UI to that of SMS/email on mobile. I see a drawing in this piece showing a mobile with traditional dials for measuring battery power left etc. Why make the mobile more of an electro-mechanical device? It is more of an electronic instrument and its UI should reflect its intended design philosophy. I just coincidentally read this article here – http://orderedlist.com/our-writing/blog/articles/stop-being-an-idiot/ which addresses the topic of designing for the ‘lowest common denominator’ or ‘assuming users are stupid’. After this I read this piece and I found fundamentally they strike the same chord – I think you should read this link which I have given here.

I can see one of the flaws in my own argument – that, technology needs to adapt to the needs and usage of the existing people, not the other way around, but we are talking about designing for a lowest common denominator factor here – I am looking at history and evolution about ‘the age of arrival of machinery’ here – TVs, DVD players, music systems were designed their own characteristic iconography/functional symbolisms and people had to learn them in order to operate them. Going a little way back, car dashboards and controls were not made to look like instruments that a farmer would use and interface with, daily, when we evolved from an agrarian society towards a knowledge oriented one. In short, conclusively, I am saying that, learning new interface concepts, symbolisms, iconography, are but an inexorable way of evolution in this knowledge economy. Rural populace should not expect electronics, information and communication designers to change their user interfaces into steampunk concepts.

That said, I can further add that, I always dread the thought of buying a new mobile phone/iPhone for I have to go through its instruction manual to understand its concepts and how it operates. One of the problematic concept in mobile phone design (from the point of view of a rural, non-literate person) is how to look up and call someone in contacts/address book, given only the name. There are some things that HAVE to be learnt.

Commented on “Stop Being an Idiot” as follows

I agree with some points – users arent that stupid. There must be an ‘attempt’ on the user’s side to understand something. If you think of it, when graphical user interface was first introduced in the computing scenario, people had to learn something new of a way of interacting with a personal computer. They had to learn the concept of applications, files, file systems, drives, icons, how a double click opens applications from the ‘desktop’ etc. Similarly when learning internet browsing, users need to have learnt the concept of what is a web URL, where to type it in and what to expect. So we need to change the definition of “designing for the lowest common denominator” or “keep it simple stupid because users are stupid” design paradigm to something of a design mantra/guide like “make it powerful BUT easy to learn and intuitive, that is, the step of learning something new (like an interface of a web application) should be able to completed within a short period of time. The ‘learning’ should also be able to be completed in as intuitive and fun a manner as possible.

Commented on Download Squad article “Can we continue to trust electronics made in China?” as follows

Agree very much with this article! Sometime back I read an article in alternet “Is someone in China reading your emails“? From that time onwards I have felt sure all hardware manufactured in China have been ‘bugged’ to transmit information like keystrokes, screenshots, etc. to a hidden central location. It is perfectly possible with the state of current technology. If it is possible, then it must have been done already. Syllogism-> So it must have been done already, somewhere, by someone.

Links

100 ways to develop your mind – Link.

10 ways to improve memory – Link.

What makes women happy? Time article – Link.

05-Feb-2010

Commented on Mike Kujawski’s blog “My response to the Twitter debate on the NYT and New Yorker blogs” -

Twitter is good as a real-time conversation channel and you can follow people that you wouldnt have otherwise have had access to. For example, take celebrity personalities like Obama and BillGates. Without Twitter, would you have had access near them or would they even post their thoughts or what they are doing at the moment where anybody could read them? In one of the comments (or in the article I cant remember clearly) someone has said Twitter is like a river into which you can dip your cup have a sip and go about your work. If you have any more than 100 people you are following you can quickly see how overloaded/overflowing this river is and how good of an exercise it is in sorting out the chaff (people posting blatant spam, quotes, re-quotes, etc., nothing original). This sort of information overload when we are faced with, will help us evolve into better handlers and consumers/propagators of information, in the long run.

My Thought Blob 01:00 PM

Read the newspaper article about “biologically tampered” brinjals and opposition to it - thinking : so previously they were calling it “genetically engineered” “genetically modified (GM)” now they have started calling it BT – Biologically tampered. But arent genetic engineered foods taste better and isnt this all for a common good? If they are genetically engineering it, then there must be some advantage in it right? Thinking seedless grapes, seedless oranges, etc. arent they better to consume than traditional seeded ones? It is a choice to consume GM foodstuff, nobody is forcing anybody to buy only GM stuff? There are both organic foodstuffs available on the market, and GM ones, we could go with whichever we please?

My Thoughts 03:00 PM

Thinking about game mechanics, verbs used in games and how they can be applied in common information consumption situations (like RSS reading). You “shoot” an email to someone, “jump” from RSS feed to RSS feed, etc. etc. and so on.. What other verbs that can be seen as ‘common’ between game mechanics and information consumption?

My Thoughts 04:00 PM

Digesting of information is what is called as “takeaway”. People say “My takeaway from this discussion/meeting whatever is such and such”. That said, thinking why Readers’ Digest is not doing well in circulation (read it somewhere). Digests are supposed to be interesting topics, succinct, brief and with brevity, clarity, expressive in every word (meaningful) and covering every sense with no room for differing inferences. Thinking about my previous sentence, that sounds like a good thought for how a good email (or a piece of information) should sound like. Just recalling how some blogs write “Comments may be edited for brevity and clarity”.

My consumable links recommendations

10 tips to help you stay organized – Link.

Periodic Table of Smellements – funny infographic – Link.

9 unconventional steps to a thriving, “very small” business – Link.

Alternet article – the 6 weirdest things women do to their vaginas – Link.

14 key skills and attributes for Public Relations professionals – davefleet.com – Link.

‘Why People hate marketers’ from “The Art of Non-Conformity” – Link.

Guyism – the 7 worst ways to propose to a woman – Link.

14 ways to get breakthrough ideas – Link.

20 hilarious school exam answers – Link.

People judge someone’s facial attractiveness within 100 milliseconds – Link.

Commented on Friendfeed

about Internet censorship in Australia – in Friendfeed here.

Reproduced here below

“It is best to ignore this lest it will generate attention prompting companies to come up with more “bigbrother watching stuff”. Those people doing censorship should think that, their children and grand-children, down the line, will be watched and judged (even cornered and punished) for innocuous stuff on the internet by unrelated people if they build censorship stuff like this, i.e., the tools u build today can and will be used against you and your progeny by others!

Thinking how do people go about researching or finding out about a topic on search engine like Google? I am not a newbie to searching just wondering how others compare to me, how much time do they take before arriving at the results, how many search results pages they visit and the time they spend on each result, etc.

Learnt new word ‘asinine’ from the following usage “To claim that a product has failed before it’s even started the race is… asinine.” Then looked it up in MnemonicDictionary.com to help remember the meaning. Trying to remember “Ass in Nine (9)” Just like an ass or donkey. Vocabulary = Vocabulary + 1

Searched on Google “how to remember meaning of words with pictures” Amazing Google’s search quality is – clicked on two of the results (the justinelarbalestier.com one and the Amazon result). This caught my eye in the search results “Paramnesia — not being able to remember the meaning of words.” Nice to know! Now I have to try remembering the meaning of paramnesia..

Wondering why no search engine has an option to ’save this search so I can more deeply research it later when I get the time’. Sure, Google has “Web History” to store anything you search for, but it stores any and all search queries, with no option to save only the individual searches, and I have purposely turned it off (not because of privacy concerns but afraid of it being one more thing to manage in my radar, like periodically going through it).

Came across this in Google adwords and clicked on it “Need Better Search Skills?” seems the site is selling an ecourse for betterment of search skills. Interesting, now thinking about how can one better search does not matter, how can one digest/absorb/able to recall what just went flying by on the internet is what ultimately matters. We are going to need a course on information absorption, information management, information digestion, information consumption without succumbing to information overload.

Signed up for this free ecourse – How to Beat Information Overload by Jane Plass. The more you deal with information, consume, filter, try to remember and recall it at the appropriate moment, the more you crave for it. It is like an addiction. I would call this information addiction.

Thinking about the use of the symbol “/” to denote “balance” or “sameness” in meaning. Instead of choosing one word OR the other, using “/” to write multiple words that mean the same thing -could possibly evoke clearer mental pictures on the part of the reader/consumer of the written word/material.

Thinking whether this: outline of my next book (Guy Kawasaki)- could be a pre-cursor to what I would call “social book authoring” or “collaborative crowdsourced book authoring” (on the lines of several authors who cooperate on the topics, and comment, suggest, and guide the writer/author what to write about, exactly what topics to cover, etc. Authors/writers could use their blogs/public internet outlet to collect feedback/ ideas / suggestions from interested people on how best to cover the topics intended for the book.

Idea bulb What if there existed something like Google SideWiki, where people have succinctly summarized a very long article or blog post with just the main points if the author has failed to do so (like highlighting the main points with bolded text). Often times I feel like ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) and SAS (Short Attention Span) I cant bring myself to read/consume/digest a particularly long article. Couldnt be there a collaborative literary effort of people who actually read long columnists fully, summarizing what they just read, and what the takeaway is… This could be entered in the comments field with a special indicator like /*TAKEAWAY*/ so readers/visitors would know this is a precise/succinct precis/summary of the ongoing post/article.

Searched Google for “adjective of brevity” . I expected with the new Google’s “answers within the search results” facility I would get an answer inline within the search results page but it took the first click on the first search result and reading through three paragraphs of text that “brief” could be considered adjective form of brevity.

Contemplating I need to spend some time adjusting the fonts of my Windows 7 installation with its default font set. I think the option should be somewhere in the Display applet in the Control Panel. More on this later.

Wondering just how many emails do people have to face/cope with everyday. Somewhere on the internet, there will be a published study.

Contemplating is there a word to describe people who think too much or too deeply about any given thing? If there exists no such word as yet, how about ‘thinkmaniac’. I was also thinking whether ‘thinkophobia’ would fit, but that would be a fear or aversion towards thinking. Also considered ‘ninja thinking’ and OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder). Speaking of OCD, OCT would fit probably – obsessive compulsive thinking!

Commented on TechCrunch article “Facebook’s Project Titan: A Full Featured Webmail Product” as follows.

Not. Emails are still very much alive and kicking, and will continue to exist in some form though they may have evolved and become known like a ‘message queue’ or a ‘buffered message’ system. There is simply no substitute for a form of communication that does not demand real-time attention, that you can attend to sequentially as time permits. Read PBS article ‘email is far from dead’ here – http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2010/02/email-is-far-from-dead033.html. That said, facebook launching email to go along with your social presence is a cool idea. Facebook is seen pioneering the merging of email inbox and social media messaging dashboards conceptually.

Wondering if people would soon tattoo their personal digital ID like a QR code on their person, voluntarily, then you will not need any form of identification to use any government service.

Remembering I thought about this long time ago – “Google Store View” concept where you can virtually visit a physical store from far away, all via the Internet. Theoretically, from Google Maps Street View, you can double click on a particular business door to get inside and do shop-browsing. Eventually this may happen in real-time, using web cams. As regards Google coming to your shop and filming photos on-location, it just has to give local business owners a dashboard to upload their own pictures and panoramas of their shops. Google thumping a new world order and its omnipresence and brand awareness means business owners would only be too happy with the promise of more business and more customers, to voluntarily photo-shoot their own businesses and shop outlets and submit the photos/pictures of their shop/store innards to Google via a console kind of system. Update: I just found EveryScape.com has been doing likewise for a while now!

Commented on the page How should web browsers render alternative text? as follows

Commenter Chris, FF has the wrong implementation in my opinion. I posted about this in Bugzilla @ Mozilla last year (opened a bug report), that Firefox is not rendering the ALT text as a tooltip when you mouse over an image, and they said it is as per design, and that the web page author should use the TITLE attribute of the IMG tag for FF to display any intended tooltips for the image (if the image renders successfully). If the image is non-existent (404), then FF displays the ALT text only with no indication that the image was ‘missing’. They said this is as per the HTML working group recommendations. I didnt concur, since my stand is that, lets say the web page author hasnt specified TITLE attribute for the IMG, but has specified the ALT tag, then for the sake of describing the image, FF should still display the ALT contents as tooltip even when the browser is able to render the image correctly. This is because as a user/browser of the page in question, I would still like to see how the web page author has described the image,  and I dont know how to compile my own Firefox, so I ended up installing the FF plugin “Popup ALT attribute” which shows me the ALT text as tooltip in case of images successfully rendered.

03-Feb-2010

Up until now, I have only been linking to other interesting posts on the web in my blog. From today, I have started posting my comments about other blog posts that I see on the web right here so there is a single place where you can read all my comments for better clarity and personality visualization through the written word.

It is easier for others reference and for my own reference later also, to see what ideas and opinion I had about different opinions expressed by different blog authors, in a single place.

Comment about ReadWriteWeb article “4 Tech Trends you must undersand to be an effective marketer” – here it is.

“Perfect product placement” is all the more important than all the other mentioned factors in this article, in order to understand and do effective marketing. I believe this can be achieved only through more personally intrusive, personality-nabbing, personal interests profiling and usage of personal privacy-engorging techniques so as to tailor the most effective personalized/customized marketing message possible that is able to convert viewers into buyers. Marketing firms and agencies will find themselves wanting to build 360 degree social profiles of customers in order to perform the most effective and personalized result-oriented marketing possible.

And I dont agree with the Google product manager who has supposedly said ‘we can make the mobile web better than the PC web’. Mobile web can never become better in functionality, support and usage experience factor when compared to PC web. Mobile web will always be limited in functionality and usage due to the form factor of the devices on which it is used/viewed.

We will have more devices like the iSlate, iPad, iTablet etc. whose form factor and screen resolutions, height, width, weight, etc. are more conducive towards using the PC web itself, in an instant anytime anywhere usage model by carrying the device in our person. Browsing through a device with a form factor similar to an iPhone will be limited to popular websites only. People will long to get their hands on a real keyboard with a real wide desktop-like screen when it comes to browsing the PC web. So we have to make devices (with the form factor of iPad etc) for matching the usage factor of the PC web, rather than inventing mobile web as a different paradigm/strategy platform for which we need devices other than a mobile phone with the existing form factor of an iPhone. More and more new devices on the market with the form factor of iPhone, like Nexus One, Nokia, HTC etc, will only lead to fragmentation of the handheld device segment with different manufacturers supporting different standards, operating systems and protocols and interoperability and portability of applications will be a nightmare. For example, if you buy iPhone app, it will only run in your iPhone. It wont be able to run in Android or handheld Chromium operating system, or Nokia Symbian or Windows Mbile operating system.

We need to remember that it is due to the popularity of Windows, that you were able to buy or download any software made by anyone (without control or big-brother censorship ones like Apple iTunes store or Google’s upcoming App store where you have to get permission from the respected companies before listing your app for sale in their stores) that the internet usage.adoption rate increased in the first place. Then people today are switching to Macs Linux etc after using Windows and claiming them to be more stable and secure (than Windows). But by buying Apple products you are getting locked into everything Apple – hardware made by Apple, software has to be approved by Apple before allowed to be running on Apple devices (think iPhone App store). Just few years down the line, people will feel Windows was more interoperable and flexible in allowing any and all third party development to happen without restriction and you could be confident that such programs written would be able to run in Windows, without needing approval from Microsoft.

Comment about “Why Closed Works: Moving Past Steampunk Thinking About The Future Of Computing” – here

The primary unit of information management in a computing system was and is and will continue to be, a file. It is universally understood even by computing beginners. Anytime someone changes this ‘base’ of a ‘file’ metaphor is going to be a difficult time to understand the concept/paradigm. File is the physical and logical unit of storage in a file-system. It is the file concept that is common among Web and desktop OS’s. Apps can live in the cloud and eventually apps paradigm may be redefined by service paradigms, but the files concept will live on the cloud somewhere happily in a file system.

Comment on “Email is far from dead” – here

Email will always be around for a long time. Even with the advent of real time communication software tools like Google Wave, Social media sites, Instant Messageing etc. people need a ‘buffer’ or ‘cushion’ so they can say ‘Send it to my email’ so they can look at it later as time permits and be comforted that everything is saved sequentially/chronologically until they are able to get to it. But that kind of ‘everything is saved until I am able to get to it and I will be able to get to it easyily’ feeling is not available with scrolling fast real time social media displays like Twitter, etc. People can safely turn off their computer and ‘return to emails later’ when they get time, people cant spend all the time they have in front of computer looking at fast scrolling twitter displays and friend status updates from facebook. Email provides more sophisticated way of communication that operates in near real time ifboth the sender and receiver are online at the same time. It is also a faceless means of communication providing a protected feeling. So for these reasons, and advantages of email, which are that email can be saved, exported, and shown as evidence later, referred to , archived. etc. email will be around for long time, if not forever. Until we start making info archives for personal and professional use that are easily available at the making of a query from anywhere anytime, like Microsofts SenseCam. All records of interest can then be stored in the cloud, recent entries and bookmarked/favorited entries can be stored in a handheld, something like iPad, iPhone, Nexus instrument, Google Tablet, etc. Then the usage factor of email will start coming down, and email may eventually die to lack of patronage.

Comment on”The value of design to startups-BusinessWeek” – here

Marketing cant sell a defective product or a product that falls  short of user expectations and fails to fulfill what is expected of it. Then competitors will quickly move in and close the gap left by lack of functionality in the product. I would still say, ‘make a good product, and they will come, users will find it if it addresses their problems, /if/ they look upon it as a solution to their problems’. A Good product automatically drives value addition and adoption rate for products and probably wouldnt need much investment in marketing efforts. The product will sell itself because happy users are likely to tell other users about the product.service they are using (thus influencing their purchases).

Comment on “Using the hReview Microformat for your review pages” – here

I am slightly disoriented with this whole microformats thing. Instead of developing a semantic ontology-based description language that defines structure and content rather than presentation, microformats are like a complement, an addition or an addendum to what is essentially a presentation markup language (HTML). Just thinking about it, they only have microformats description language for hReview, hCard, hProduct etc. The hProduct format is severely lacking in describing products via appropriate product description attributes, as at the moment. The microformats keywords sound like they have been taken from someone who invented the vocabulary of LDAP. (I am talking about microformats attributes being named ‘fn’ etc.) They need more polishing to sound more like web 3.0 (like ‘firstName’).

Comment on “Harvard Business Review – how Apple tells us what we should love” – here

I dont subscribe to this theory that big companies like Apple tell us what we should love and buy what they have available for us, just because they tell us to and everyone else has it. Unless I see specific value in a product, I wouldnt buy it. I research a product (and its available competitors and their feature sets) well before I buy a product. If I find value in a product, I would buy it anyway, even if their marketing is non-existent (I.e., even if it didnt ‘tell me to’). Even Apple has to have had a brainstorm about what peoples’ needs are, what an existing need or problem is, being faced by prospective customers, and create a solutions addressing problems.or.needs. There are very few, if any instances, where solutions go looking for problems and have been successful. Problems and needs are already existent, they just have to be bought out or publicized. Then somebody comes up with a solution.

Take iPad for example – Apple didnt do anything ‘innovative’ about it. The need was already existing, there were other similar players before the iPad (like a Tablet PC which does multitasking and has USB). Apple didnt create a solution for a new problem that nobody has addressed before, if you see iPad as an ebook reading device, the Kindle was ahead of that, if you see iPad as a tablet computer, the Microsoft Courier tablet device was announced before it. iPad only locks down your device into using all-Apple software and hardware (for example Safari internet browser).

* * *

Tweets I liked from my own tweets. Best of my tweets – my own tweet digest.

From my own experience-having a blog of your own, improves information filtering, classification, categorization and paraphrasing skills- Twitter status message 8581361265.

How to sound like a guru – always use innocuous, pompous, sophisticated words like paradigm, strategy, synergy, etc. that mean little. – Twitter status message 8582144117.

Only these software.webware will survive, in the ‘knowledge worker’ generation ->those that can s(h)ave  effort in one form or the other-effort involved in remembering something, doing something, etc. Such efforts can be quantized in the form of mouse moves, clicks, page transitions, tab switches, keystrokes, etc. The lesser and faster, the better. – Twitter status message 8582278314.

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My own forum posts (judged interesting by myself)

Posted in “Are you faster than your computer?” thread

writers have already started drawing parallels between the brain and electronic memory/storage circuits. Just the other day I came across a lifehacker article that linked to an article about how to ‘defrag’ your brains. So there, we are going to treat our brains more like hard disks with infinite storage capacity the only differnnce is that our brain cells operate with dual functionality – both storage as well as processing. (OR easily Brain cell Neuron = CPU + Hard disk). The time may come when we are able to purchase additional bio-storage devices that somehow compliment our brain’s rememberance and recall functions – think of it, we dont need to remember anything, heck we only need to know some keywords to search for and the machine will give us the result by searching (an ‘electronic drudgework slave’). Makes me recall someone once said, ‘it doesnt matter whether you know, it matters if you know how to find it when and if it becomes necessary’). The lifehacker article is here
Defrag Your Mind in Five Steps – Defragment – Lifehacker

Also read this - How Nanotechnology gives computers a human-like brain- researchers have already read transistors that can mimic the functions of brain cells or synapses. So eventually the day may come when we are able to make artificial brains. When we die, we will simply insert the artificial brain replacing the physical brain and possibly continue to live forever as the brain regulates all the physiological and neurological processes in the body. We will simply upgrade our “Brain OS” that controls bodily functions to new versions as and when new fields of knowledge are discovered. So we never will need to learn or memorize anything. Anything knowledge-based will be available just by searching, and eventually we should be able to think and search, rather than using our hands to operate keyboards and mouses. We should be able to get search results of knowledge documents directly transferred into our brain or through a bionic eye system that whose inside viewing screen lies just to the front of our natural eyes.

Link for bionic eyes research progresses – Bionic vision and optoelectronics on a contact lens.

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My submitted bug reports for various software

Submitted bug report to Cintanotes Forum – Tag Sidebar starts appearing even when turned off

29-Jan-2010

Love’s new frontier – polyamory – It’s not monogamy. But it’s not cheating or polygamy, either. It’s called polyamory – Link.

The neural basis of unconditional love – Link.

Brian Tracy’s Top 11 essential tips for living a successful life – Link.

Why some people almost always are successful – Link.

Why all mums say baby looks just like daddy – Link.

Portrait of a multitasking mind – handling information overload – Link.

Why corporations are not people, and the unsavory consequences of pretending that they are – Link.

Startups – 9 Startup steps, learned over 22 years – Link.

How to recognise a good programmer – Link.

The 7 psychological principles of scams – protect yourself by learning the techniques – PsyBlog – Link.

Sex Differences in Jealousy – Recent research attempts to provide a more nuanced look at the long-held view that men are more jealous of sexual infidelity than emotional infidelity. - Link.

25-Jan-2010

Music Improves Brain Function – Link.

The Neural Advantage of Speaking two Languages (bilingualism) – Link.

How Brain Cells deal with mathematical rules – Link.

Those less motivated to achieve will excel on tasks seen as fun – Link.

Top 10 common faults in human thought – Link.

How nanotechnology gives computers a human-like brain – Link.

Why you should invest in a minimalist office – Link.

Why are Narcissists (Initially) so Popular? – Narcissism – Link.

An essay on “Writing English as a second language” – Link.

5 Things that immediately turn off women – Link.

22-Jan-2010

4 simple ways to decrease stress in the workplace – Link.

Creative quotations for brainstorming, lateral thinking and problem solving techniques. – Link.

88 important truths that I have learned about life – Link.

100 little ways you can dramatically improve your writing – Link.

How to live to be 100+ – Link.

6 logical fallacies that cost you money everyday – Link.

5 future technology myths – Link.

12 Cool products for tea lovers – Link.

A quantitative study on how profile pics affect girls messaging you – from OkCupid blog – Link.

Top ten reasons relationships end – Link.

Too Much Sitting may lead to shortened lives – Link.

6 productivity principles to live by – Link.

A New Framework for business models – Link.

Are you a verbal learner or a visual learner? Education – learning styles debunked – Link.

21-Jan-2010

How restaurants entice us into choosing expensive meals – Guardian article – Link.

Earning more money – how to turn your skills into services that people will pay for – Link.

5 ways to master your emotions – Link.

Seven Writing Quotes – 7 quotes from 12 books – Link.

Have Miles but Can’t Get an airline Seat? How to Snare One – Link.

A Little Less Conversation – Have you ever invited employees to a meeting just so they wouldn’t feel left out? If so, you may be an overcommunicator.- Link.

Robotvision: A decent early stab at augmented reality - Link.

Stanford’s Entrepreneurship Corner: David Heinemeier Hansson, 37 Signals – Unlearn Your MBA – Video - Link.

You Dropped Food on the Floor. Do you eat it? Flowchart from SFWeekly – Link.

CareerBuilder has an article on how and why you should craft a candidate rejection letter or email, with plenty of tips and examples for your personalized candidate rejection letter. – Link.

What every 21-st century educator should know – education – Link.

Negative calorie foods: Diet gimmick or weight-loss aid? - Link.

20-Jan-2010

6 ways to create brand loyalty – Link.

3 things your customer won’t tell you – unless you ask – Link.

3 great online resources for writing a business plan – Link.

Power writing for fluency – Presentation – Link.

8 simple steps for setting your priorities in life – Link.

Harvard Business Review – What really motivates workers/employees – Link.

5 new ways to compete for book PR – Link.

The story of a man who refused to buy a girl a drink (interesting anecdote) – Link.

Why poor countries are poor – Reason magazine – Link.

Blondes may be more aggressive than brunettes because they attract ‘more male attention’- Link.

19-Jan-2010

Men’s Fitness – 101 ways to lose your gut – Link.

Bringing online and offline living together – The psychology of cyberspace – Link.

Collective Intelligence – the need for synthesis – Link.

Why nice people will win big time in the long run? – Rajesh Setty – Link.

Why is $2.33 cheaper than $2.22? – consumer research – Link.

Etiquette 101: Dress Codes from Condé Nast Traveler on Concierge.com – Link.

The 20 best productivity and personal development blogs – Link.

Clay Shirky – A Rant about women – Link.

The 6 Myths of Creativity – Link.

Thought Leadership – are you a thought leader? – Link.

Decision-making may be surprisingly unconscious activity – Link.

Start running and watch your brain grow, say scientists – Link.

Why men use prostitutes – The reasons why many men pay for sex – Link.

Interesting letterhead designs – Link.

University students have average attention spans of just 10 minutes – Link.

Presentations – 8 indispensable items for presenters – Link.

10 strategies for getting the best plane seats – Link.

How to thwart a car thief – Link.

18-Jan-2010

Test-Drive your car salesman – advice on buying cars – Link.

Chemist divulges how to bake the perfect cookie – Link.

Freelancing – how to start a freelancing company – Link.

Watching TV may shorten life span – LA times article – Link.

Personal Development – 100 ways to screw up your life – Link.

How has the internet changed the way you think? – Essays – Link.

2010 – Living in the Future – the book – Link.

Top 10 conversation hacks from Lifehacker – Link.

Innovation: the relentless rise of the digital worker – Link.

Seriously Cool workplaces – interior design and architecture – Link.

Startups – 5 myths that can kill a startup - Link.

A Practical Guide for being a healthy workaholic – Link.

50 ways to get your site noticed – Link.