Category: Uncategorized

Prof. Manindra Agarwal and two of his students, Nitin Saxena and Neeraj Kayal (both BTech from CSE/IITK who have just joined as Ph.D. students), have discovered a polynomial time deterministic algorithm to test if an input number is prime or not. Lots of people over (literally!) centuries have been looking for a polynomial time test…

What comes to mind when I mention these names? William Buckley, Dan Quayle, Ken Starr, and Tom Delay. Did you say cruise? I thought so! Click if you dare…

Great article from Strategy + Business, Booz Allen’s in-house publication: CEO vs. CIO: Can This Marriage Be Saved? It focuses on the unfortunate tension between many CEOs and their CIOs. Some relevant quotes: The problem is that most CEOs are interested in technology only to the extent that it adds value to the organization. To them,…

Give them credit for trying: Optimize Magazine, a new title in the InformationWeek empire, has launched “The Business Blog“. Unfortunately it looks like they’re updating weekly, and not exactly in the easiest format to make it useful. (Another minor nit, though it’s too early to tell: the URL appears to point to issue-specific entries, which…

A great catch by Phil Wolff about the social characteristics of web logs: Blogging Alone. Stephen Dulaney applies Indicators of Social Capital to Web Logs. Levels of giving (blog ecossystem) reflects people’s propensity to give to others when they themselves may not directly benefit. The economy of giving links. Participation and engagement (What we do when…

Terahertz lasersLasers now work at new wavelengthsAug 8th 2002 [Economist.com: Science & Technology] Enough progress on this front will dramatically expand the market for wireless communications. Lots of hurdles though – not least of which is getting the lasers to be stable at room temperature. But breakthroughs in medical imaging are almost certain to follow,…

And, as I opined last year, I am skeptical that funding ( from VCs, Microsoft, or anyone else) is a key limiting factor influencing the amount of software innovation. Right up until 1994 or so, VC funding for software was nearly impossible to get. It was in this austere environment that TCP/ IP, SMTP, NNTP,…

What does this mean? – Iraq is the tactical pivot– Saudi Arabia the strategic pivot – Egypt the prizeRead Jack Shafer’s article at Slate to learn more. It raises important questions: Why was this goof invited to present to the Pentagon? Is anyone (gasp) taking him seriously? Is he open to some basic PowerPoint tips…

TIPS is being run by “America’s Most Wanted” [bOing bOing] I’m having trouble believing that this is true, but by all measures it sure seems to be. According to this article at Salon, callers to the Operation TIPS hotline are routed to America’s Most Wanted. Guess Ashcroft was right after all – there really won’t…

Joy nails it. P.S.: Joy, can you please, please please fix your RSS feed? I’ve missed you!