Karu’s blog

Spectrum had an interesting note on the generic question that comes up in technical talks: “are you aware of so and so’s work.” The author of the article describes this at length and has a short summary:

“Many questions following technical talks seem intended more to show the expertise of the questioner than to elicit information. This situation is such a normal part of our culture that we don’t even notice it’s happening. The questions about whether a speaker is aware of this or that work are a particularly flagrant case; the object isn’t just to highlight the questioner’s knowledge but to assert a knowledge that is superior to that of the speaker.
”

http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/mar07/4934

In all the news of Coca Cola buying Glacaeu for the astronomical $4.1 billion, Tata’s nice 2X profit and arguably clever investment in Glacaeu a year ago is interesting. Tata paid $677 million for a 30% stake, and now will get $1.2 billion in cash for that investment. Nice work

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2003722791_coke26.html
http://www.finanznachrichten.de/nachrichten-2007-05/artikel-8314382.asp

This is pretty intriguing…

“It’s a last-resort tactic that animals use when they absolutely can’t find another mate,” Dr. Hueter said.

While it has the advantage of ensuring the survival of a species in the absence of males, it also comes at a cost: a loss of genetic diversity. And that, Dr. Shivji said, may spell conservation problems for some shark species whose populations are declining. If it becomes more difficult for female sharks in the wild to find a mate and instead they reproduce through parthenogenesis, then the offspring will be less genetically diverse, making the species more susceptible to diseases and other problems.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/23/science/23shark.html?ex=1337572800&en=a18b46b92d3b7467&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Pretty neat idea…a bicycle with automatic gear shit. And the gear shift if powered by a generator that feeds off the rotation of the wheels. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/10/technology/10bike.html?ex=1336449600&en=c19a74ee9cd43f9f&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

I was quite impressed by this. Skype works completely out-of-the-box inside vmware. I am able to make phone-class and hear loud and clear when Skype is running inside vmware.  Only thing I had to set up was a HTTPS proxy connection setting.

I was in home depot buying a fence of sorts and happened to see bright orange signal cones! Couldn’t resist buying one – it is completely useless. Well when I have a water spill on the floor, I could mark it now with the signal cone, but apart from that it is useless. Anyway I am now the proud owner of an official signal cone I can use to mark danger spots.

I was talking to my brother about this useless purchase and he came up with the insight that I should carry it in the trunk of my car, so that in event of my having to pull over to fix a flat etc. I can place the signal cone to warn traffic