Category: Random Draws

Delusional People

Two items today from this amazing web. First, a simple rant telling monotheists that they should stop being delusional. Nothing fancy but a lot of fun. Next, a great conversation with Susan Blackmore at the Point of Inquiry. “In this far-ranging discussion with D.J. Grothe, Susan Blackmore talks about her research into the paranormal and near death experiences and why she left that field of study, memetics and religion as a meme, free will and the question of moral responsibility, consciousness and the illusory nature of the self, and Zen Buddhism and meditative practice, among other topics. She also explores why is it more important than ever for scientists to speak out about important issues of concern in the world today.”

The $100 un-PC

Entrepreneurs, philanthropists and established computer firms have for the better part of a decade invested millions of dollars to lower the cost of a desktop PC and develop cheaper alternatives. Intel has made its Eduwise laptop; AMD, a Personal Internet Communicator; Microsoft, the FonePlus. MIT computer guru Nicholas Negroponte’s Children’s Machine, now called the XO, is the most publicized recent attempt at converting the poor into computer users. But Negroponte’s idea is to spread computers to the poor, with the help of heavy subsidies from private and public philanthropy. His price is still about $140, too high for India. Indeed India rejected Negroponte’s offer of a million for cost reasons. Jain’s motive is different: he wants to make money.

And he knows India. Despite the country’s rise as an outsourcing hub, PCs are selling slowly—far more slowly than mobile phones or motorbikes—because they are too expensive, too complicated to use and too difficult to maintain. What people have been waiting for, some experts think, is a new approach to computing that boils the essence of Internet access down to its lowest cost—and lowest risk. Jain plans to offer all this in lease deals that include easy-to-use hardware, Internet connection, application software and service—for $10 a month.

Read it all.

This Amazing Web — 1

Check out this site. Click on the little square after the site has finished loading. Like that instruction on the shampoo bottle, repeat. Isn’t the web an amazing place? Why? Because the world is full of inventive, amazing talent and it allows people to showcase their ingenuity, and because we get to share in the joy of discovering those nifty ideas.

When Are We?

Today is 27th January of 2007 of the common era (C.E.) calendar. The date is just a name, a nominal entity only. Different calendars give different names to the date. Even though it is just a name, it is still interesting to know names. Did you know that the epoch we live in is called Holocene?
Continue reading “When Are We?”

In Spite of the Gods

A NY Times book review (Hat tip: Pankaj Narula) begins with a classic gambit: “All eyes are on China as it races to become the world’s next great power. Smart bettors would be wise to put some money on India to get there first, and Edward Luce explains why in “In Spite of the Gods: The Strange Rise of Modern India,” his highly informative, wide-ranging survey.”
Continue reading “In Spite of the Gods”

The Still Point of the World

T.S.Eliot’s poem Burnt Norton begins with

Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past.
If all time is eternally present
All time is unredeemable.

Continue reading “The Still Point of the World”

Talk on Entrepreneurship at XIMB

“He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils, for time is the greatest innovator.” With that quote from Francis Bacon (1595) I introduced the topic of “Innovation and Entrepreneurship” at the XIMB’s (Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar) conference on “Innovation and Entrepreneurship.” I was asked to give the concluding keynote talk on 13th Jan.
Continue reading “Talk on Entrepreneurship at XIMB”

Konark and Beyond

“We shall do such things, what they shall be I know not, but they shall be the terror of the earth”. That’s Shakespeare’s King Lear making his new year’s resolutions, I suppose. My more modest goals are to blog more regularly, and avoid matters related to religion and politics. How one can reasonably comment on the economy without reference to R & P is a mystery to me. But I shall strive.
Continue reading “Konark and Beyond”

Goodbye and Thanks for all the Noodles

This post will make no sense to most people who have not had the experience of being an impoverished student in the US. Very few who read this blog can relate to Top Ramen. But for those of you who do, I am sure you would be saddened to learn of the passing of Momofuku Ando, who died in Ikeda, near Osaka, at 96, the inventor of ramen, according to this appreciation in the NY Times. [Hat tip: Shrikant.] Mr Ando invented ramen noodles way back in 1958.
Continue reading “Goodbye and Thanks for all the Noodles”