December 2006

New Search Engines

December 31, 2006

Here is a new search engine: http://quintura.com/ with an interesting look-and-feel. The blog which had this link expresses my thought exactly: http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/003581.html It will take a huge effort or fundamental shift in how Internet search is done to displace Google from their current position as search leader. For example, Live Search, Yahoo! and Ask are all […]

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Criticism and Improvement

December 31, 2006

By definition, improvement implies change. You cannot improve if you keep doing exactly the same thing. How do you know when to change? There are 2 ways. One way is to to realize this yourself. Typically this happens through experience or gaining knowledge through books, conversations or training. Another way is to have other people […]

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Disinclination to Learn

December 31, 2006

Here is an experiment. Before trying it, put some physical space between you and the subject. Ok, here goes. Call the subject a stupid person who is unable to learn anything. We all know what will happen. Everyone gets angry if they are accused of being inferior intellectually. Yet, many of the same people revel […]

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The Enemy of Action

December 29, 2006

Why does the deer not step aside when the headlights start rushing towards it? Here is a nice poem about it. I have heard and read many people talking about fear as a motivational factor, but in my opinion, fear is perhaps one of the most paralyzing feelings. It prevents action even when it is […]

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JotSpot Lockdown

December 29, 2006

After Google acquired JotSpot, the site is locked down for new registrations as they migrate to Google’s systems. I wonder how much of a good business strategy this is. Right now, companies are in a mad rush to embrace Web 2.0 technologies and use all kinds of collaborative software to run their businesses — from the […]

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Kill Google Base

December 29, 2006

Google Base is one of the most puzzling products I have ever seen. I cannot comprehend why users would use it with all the other applications out there. Let’s take some examples. If Google Base is meant for people to quickly post some information to the web, make it available publicly (or by selected users) […]

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Rear View Mirrors

December 29, 2006

Several years ago when I took my first license test in the United States, my friends advised me to periodically look at the rear view and side mirrors while taking the test. So as the police officer took me around a block in Salem, New Hampshire (deserted, one-lane back-roads), every few seconds, I would methodically turn […]

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Poor Man’s CAPTCHA

December 28, 2006

My friend Prashant recently did a post on CAPTCHA. A CAPTCHA is basically the opposite of a Turing test which a computer can pass if it is sophisticated enough to have a conversation with a human being without the person unable to detect that it is a machine. The CAPTCHA is used to differentiate a […]

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Google Indexing — Coincidence or Big Brother?

December 28, 2006

It has been less than 24 hours since I posted my complaint about the problems with using Google Custom Search on my site. I was a little shocked to see (and happy to report) that Google has re-indexed my site since then. It is obviously a coincidence, but if it isn’t, is it because there is some code […]

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Problem with Google Custom Search

December 27, 2006

With great enthusiasm, I went to Google Co-op and created my own custom search engine that would allow users to search the contents of this blog and also my site (krishami.com). Google provides a lot of functionality that makes creation of the custom search a breeze. I also obtained code to put on my website […]

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