Paths & Directions

Bing or Google

2009-06-10T18:35:00.000-07:00

Of late, there is a lot of noise from Bing and Google is trying to hold its stand (does it really need to? May be !?!).

Bing has a neat desktop view, colorful and attractive. Google has a clean white simple search page.
Bing and Google both seem to show the results in the same fashion - I remember seeing a video where Bing supposed to be more intuitive, rather than searching for the texts it is supposed to identify what the user is looking for and give results based on that. May be it does, but I have not noticed it in particular.

I know the best comparison always would be to look at the search results, and here is what I did:

Searched for my first name "anandh":

The results from each were completely different, though they matched / looked for the name "anandh" with a 'h'. Google was good in showing the "www.anandh.com" in its result, while Bing did NOT. Google wins.
Google intelligently showed wiki of "Vishwanathan Anand" - while that is good, but not the right one - it thought I misspelled the name. Bing was more specific, it only showed "anandh" and no "anand" - the generic form. Google wins.

Searched for my last name "mahalingam" (rather my father's name):

Google started with results from Wiki first, then some YouTube videos (of T.R.Mahalingam) and then finally commercial sites. But Bing directly went to commercial sites - with Wiki results coming later. When someone searches for a "name", they most likely may not be looking for commercial establishments, they would rather prefer to know about that person - at least thats what I wanted to do. Google wins.
Google presents a time taken for this search (which was showing 0.37sec) while Bing does not. While I dont know what it actually means (did the entire round trip from my browser to server and then back to my browser made within 0.37 secs or something else) or how helpful it would be to a user (I should see the results fast, thats all.. nothing else) - I see it is cool to see that. But Bing does not give any statistics at this moment. I dont think it gives any vote to Google, but if Bing shows some sort of search performance, it may add value to a user.

Searched for my official full name "anandh mahalingam":

Google returned results mostly related to me amazon profile, linkedin profile, etc etc.. but it was also suggesting whether I was looking for "anand mahalingam". It gave results for anand mahalingam as well. Bing gave results only for "anandh" & "mahalingam" and nothing else. It also seem to index recent pages, as I see results from pages that were updated in mid May (about 15-20 days before). I will give credit to Bing for the very fact that the results were latest and were exactly matching my query. Bing wins.

Searched for my school:

Google was smart enough to provide me a map, while Bing was showing only pages from the web. This looked cool. While I cannot compare the results for the relatedness, as almost all the results matched the given search string.

So, Bing or Google?? I think it will take some more time for Bing to mature to a competent search engine. But the very fact that it has created a good first impression with the results is impressive. Time will tell ...

I'm impressed !

2008-04-11T21:45:00.000-07:00

I'm impressed by this guy - Mohnish Pabrai(an article from TOI).

I recently started reading more on investments and came across an article about this guy. A techie fellow, who also had a bite on ventures decided that investment is the best bet for him and started a Hedge fund in 2001. His fund has been raking money all these years - though recent I like his investment principles. They are nothing but that of "Oracle" of Omaha - Warren Buffet - but Mohnish's honesty is worth appreciation, that he himself accepts that he is a simple "cloner" of Buffet's principles.

The Hedge fund is available for only those investors who are ready to lock in 100 grands !! - I wish I could invest in his Hedge Fund though.

Want to know about a comeback product? - Ask

2007-12-28T15:10:00.000-08:00

Have you recently visited the Ask search engine?

I saw their ads in TV and looks like they have got a cool looking interface. May be they are redefining the way the search experience has to be for the users. I think it is a cool looking interface with rich graphics, yet doesn't seem too much to load the system. I will give it a try sometime and see how good they are. Though I am not sure about their search results !

December shopping spree !

2007-12-03T01:53:00.000-08:00

December has come and so is the shopping for US. I heard that an average American spends about one grand during this season !!

While I am not an avid shopper, the very first weekend in this shopping month took away a good chunk of money. The same shopping mall, which I went earlier and returned just buying a jean calling it not having much options to shop was fully crowded today with lots and lots of options for me. Thats interesting. I have never seen such a crowd in a mall, I have no doubt that the sales figures will be true.

Also from my last years' experience, I see that this is the best month for shopping. For
one, all the shops will have lots of goods in stock - so lots of options,
two, great discounts, and it is for real. Most of the dresses I bought are for real discount.

I think I will wrap up this month equalling an average american ! (while last month ate up a lot thanks to my new electronic gadget using which I am writing this blog - MacBook)

Local or Foreign Bank

2007-11-26T15:21:00.000-08:00

I hate to comment about "Indian" mentality. But on and off I come across people who remind me that. I am sure everyone of us would have had similar experiences.

Recently I got a call from a well-known private Indian bank. This is for their NRI product. The person who called was a Relationship Manager designated by the bank to take care of my accounts. He was explaining me about a new offer that they have currently and was encouraging me to open an account. First of all, I was very much impressed with the call. I was more impressed after coming to know that he is calling from India and that too promptly at the scheduled time (which was late night for him).

Though I was happy with the call, I was not much interested with the account, as I already had a similar account with another bank. It was one of the Foreign based Indian bank. I was also somewhat OK with the service I get. I told this guy about that I politely rejected his offer. Then it started. He started comparing the services offered by both banks, but beyond a point he started claiming that the foreign bank will not provide certain service which only his bank will. I told him that it is not true, as I have already availed of those services which he mentioned. He went further claiming that it might be one in a million case where the foreign bank provided that service. He also mentioned that being a "Indian" bank, his bank is more service oriented for NRIs as compared the foreign based Indian bank.

At this point I got completely pissed off. The fact is that, the same bank when I tried to open the same account in India, denied me stating that I am not eligible. After their rejection only I went to the Foreign based Indian bank. The relationship manager there spoke to me for an hour explaining about the products they have. Even though I could not open the account with her, due to want of some documents at my end, I was completely satisfied with the service. It was also easier to open the account after coming to US later, as the bank had a representative right in the city where I live and I could meet him personally. The account opening as well as the later services offered were a breeze. I was also pleased with dedicated NRI service centers in India, where I could walk in and get the service.

I was so irritated by the way the Relationship manager talked to me - he was complaining about a Bank which to my knowledge is the first foreign bank to have understood the concept of offshoring and has the largest back office in India. I really don't understand when these people are going to change. They not only bring down their value, but also damage the credibility of the bank they represent.

When do these people change?

Microsoft - Face(off)book

2007-10-27T14:11:00.000-07:00

Everyone knows about the talk of the town - Microsoft MSFT buys 1.5 % stake in Facebook for $240 million. Microsoft also gets to serve ads in the social-networking website. This makes the valuation of Facebook at a whooping $15 billion ! The very next day Microsoft released their quarterly result and we see the stock has jumped almost 10% in couple of days. While many argue that this deal makes no sense, some say it is a fair deal.

Mostly companies are valued with what they have today and what they can offer tomorrow. In that sense, Facebook with about 50 million customer base - each customer is valued at around $300. This is quiet a good money, considering the fact that these are young people (often students) and serving ad. to them may not make them spend more. In this perspective, the money paid by Microsoft looks too much for the return it gets.

What is Facebook going to do with this money? May be it will hire more talent and set path towards a successful technology company. May it will grow to take on Google GOOG and the likes. May be when it starts showing up signs of ready for a war, will Microsoft invest more in them. If you look in that prespective, may be Microsoft is feeding a pet (heavily) to take on its rival. There is also a phenomenon brewing up recently - Microsoft's going the way of Berkshire Hathaway BRK.A (just saw this theory in a blog). May be all these are focussed towards this direction.

One thing is sure - until someone from inside say the real reason, it will take time for others to understand. Till that time there will be theories and its gonna keep the company name reflected in many places (brining in free publicity). No wonder, why Warren Buffet doesn't interests investing in Techonology companies.

Do you get the underlying business here?

Microsoft pays $240 million for stake in Facebook
Microsoft's Facebook deal makes no sense
The greed of Facebook
More evidence Microsoft's going the way of Berkshire Hathaway

(Uncanny) Canned drinks ?

2007-10-26T16:59:00.001-07:00

Do you see the dirt in the paper towel?

Well, this is how it started. Thought of having a drink and when I open the refrigerator, I found it filled with cans. Choose the guava - the one I like the most. As usual, showed it in tap and wiped it out with a paper towel. I was about the open the seal and thats when I noticed it.

It looked to me that the rim is still black. Out of curiosity, I folded the paper towel and with the sharp edge started wiping the rim thoroughly. When I finished this is what I got.

I have read about articles that say "be careful with canned drinks, quite possible that the elements in the rim may lead to serious disease". And here is the real proof !

Be careful when you get your next canned drink - be it a soda, a light beer or my way a simple fruit juice - you gotta be careful.

The tao of Warren Buffet

2007-10-24T19:47:00.000-07:00

This is one book that I finished reading recently. I got interested with Warren Buffet ideas after reading few articles from newspaper. When I saw this book in the library, I decided to give it a shot. This book is not a biography of Warren, rather a collection of his quotes. Some of the quotes are really interesting and I like the book. Here are couple of quotes that I like:

"Our method is very simple. We just try to buy
business with good-to-superb underlying economics
run by honest and able people and buy them at
sensible prices. That's all I'm trying to do."

This one is about hiring people:

"In looking for someone to hire, you look for three
qualities:integrity, intelligence, and energy. But the
most important is integrity, because if they don't
have that, the other two qualities, intelligence and
energy, are going to kill you."

Warrens' philosophy of buying business with excellent underlying economics at good price is superb. He has built an excellent portfolio with his business model. There are a lot of lessons that one can learn from his investment concepts. The concept of buying business is something new for a normal trader, it takes time to get it. Once a person gets this, he will start understanding Warrens' concepts.

I have to figure out one thing though, how to hold on to a stock when the business you bought goes down?

(Note: The quotes above are from the book, if it is against any copyright, let me know and I will remove it)

Michael Clayton

2007-10-21T01:41:00.000-07:00

Yet another George Clooney movie - in his own class. The movie starts with a midnight poker game played by Clooney in a New York bar. No sooner we see his car burst into pieces in a blast, when he just walks out. The movie goes back in time and it takes a while to catch up the entire plot. From then on the movie goes on and on ...

A 2 hr movie with an excellent plot. There were moments when I was checking my watch - not because the movie was not good, but because it took a while to catchup with the story. Nevertheless, it is a Clooney movie. I see the typical Ocean's series Clooney in his own deep - will worth a nomination.

Another best thing I liked in this movie was the camera - great credit goes to Cinematography. Excellent coverage. Quiet artistic to see the camera rightly focusing the object of attraction in a crowd and in another scene a complete discussion goes on and on while the camera sweeps around the place without showing the persons who talk.

Overall, it is a movie worth watching.

Disneyland visit

2007-10-01T00:16:00.000-07:00

I visited Disneyland with my brothers' family last weekend (22nd and 23rd). The trip was excellent, with Rahul taking the charge. Here is the slideshow from the photos taken there.

------ Edited on Oct 21 ------

Replacing photo slideshow with the link to album.

Nasha yeh pyar ka nasha hai ...

2007-09-30T13:51:00.000-07:00

This is one of the songs that made me vote Amit as Indian Idol. His voice was so melodious that this song just flows like a breeze. In the show, Udit sang in his own voice along with Amit and it was wonderful. Also, this is one new song that I have started humming recently.

But I was so disappointed to see that it is a copycat song from an Italian version. So amazing to see how well it has been copied !

Indian Idol

2007-09-30T13:17:00.000-07:00

Indian Idol 3 - this is one program I started following when they shortlisted 11 candidates for the final round. Wonderful singers - most of them. After couple of initial rounds (where few were dropped), I could see the competition growing steadily. Some of the girls were really good singers, and their voice echoes when they sing the right song - worth noting were Dipali and Puja Chatterjee. Unfortunately the audience (the general public) were so biased to male singers and voted out both these girls.

Right from beginning my favorite was Emon Chatterjee - wonderful voice, but a young mischievous boy not keeping his voice quality in all the songs. He made few mistakes which costed him to be voted out - he made it to the top 3 though.

But the best male voice was from Amit Paul - songs "Nasha yeh pyar ka nasha hai" and "pehla nasha pehla gumaar" were great. After hearing these two songs, I decided that he will be the crown prince of Indian Idol. Disappointed though to see him not being crowned. But he sure will make it as a great playback singer in the coming days.

Prashant Tamang became the crowned prince - he has a melodious voice, except for a couple of songs he did not show a striking performance. Looks like he won the public heart with those two songs very well.

My favorites would be Amit, Emon, Dipali and Puja. Heard that music director Anu Malik has given playback opportunity to Emon and Dipali - so be ready to hear them on the big screen soon.

Finally, youtube (and its members who upload clips) played a phenomenal role in bringing these shows across the world. While there are few cable TVs in US which broadcasts Sony TV, I have none of them except for internet and youtube.

A birds' story

2007-09-12T20:24:00.000-07:00

Caught this story in NPR the National Public Radio.

A man holding a wounded almost dead bird in hand asked a wise man "Is this bird alive?". His plan was to prove the wise man wrong. If the wise man says "the bird is dead", then he will open his hand and show that the bird still has some life. If the wise man says "the bird is alive", then he will pinch the birds' neck and kill it before opening the hand. In anyway, he will prove the wise man wrong. Now can you what the wise man would have replied?

The wise man said calmly "the answer is in your hands"

The speaker told the story as a comparison to people who claim that the global warming is not reached the level of attention that it needs. I like it.

Restart

2007-09-12T20:22:00.000-07:00

It has been a while writing anything in my blog (have I written much before !!). Let me see how often I can write from now on ...

Apple Introduces Safari for Windows

2007-06-12T03:56:00.000-07:00

Is it a apple comeback into the personal computer world !! I think Apple has found what Microsoft did decades back, but the beauty is MS forgot it now. I think it is a marketing ploy to attract more people towards the Mac world, with a cool appeal right on the Windows desktop.

Mac family of products has an appeal and they are fast climbing the market share. While the Mac's enthuse the homely customers, the iPod series looks like a sure winner in the audio world. Now Steves' Pixar & their association with the Disney is poised to make it big in the media world.

Looks like Apple is venturing into every possible arena and wants to stand in the front. So far they are doing good - as far as I see, but only time can tell how real impact such a group can make.

Time has changed - really?

2007-02-14T23:46:00.000-08:00

Time has really changed. Gone are the days in college when we used to fight with the Placement co-ordinator to come up with a Marketing CD-ROM for college, highlighting the infrastructure, accolades and merits of the students to invite companies for Campus interview. But today, the widespread use of internet and media has made the life easier.

Today happen to see the Indian version of "Summer of 69". Interesting to know that it is an official commerical of one of the well known Indian Universities - Manipal University. The idea of an idea with song is cool. I have seen the commercial of Amity School couple of years back, thats when I came to know such a Private institution for MBA exists. It definitely served the purpose.

Though the Manipal University version commercial looks good, they need not have copied the "Summer of 69" - am sure they could come up with something creative - even the students can come up with some blasting ideas, and truly prove that their school is the best.

I think it may need some more time for a successful change ...

Original version of "summer of 69" is here.
Indian version is here.

Best of 2006

2007-01-07T10:54:00.000-08:00

I was attracted by a blog which listed the authors best and worst of the year. I tried to write down my list ...

Best of 2006

Best Movies

vettaiyadu vilayadu - 2006 (tamil)
The Shawshank redemption (english) - a 1994 movie which I happened to see only this year
Life is beautiful (Italian)

Best place visited

Yosemite National Park - July 4th long weekend

Best book

Ponniyin Selvan (tamil)
iCon Steve Jobs: The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business (english)

Best hike

Hike to Upper Yosemite Falls - July 3rd, a memorable 10+ hr hike to to the Upper falls, coming down as the last set of people around 10PM

Best Holiday

Dubai & India trip - For a person living outside home, vacation at home is always pleasant and enjoyable. Add to that if you are going to see your 8 month old nephew for the first time ! Funfilled marriage of my cousin and get together with relatives was all fun and enjoyable.

Best websites came across

www.wikimapia.org

Best purchase

My Honda CRV (and of course the costliest for this year)

Shawshank Redemption

2006-12-19T15:49:00.000-08:00

Hope !

this is always an interesting subject to me.

a simple story. a topclass banker, locked up for killing his wife and her lover - life sentence in prison. what happens to him in prison over years and how he changes so many others' life - including the warden and captain is what the story is all about.

there is a saying "you may be fooled by what you see, what you hear - your conscience will tell the truth". hope is a inside out subject, you cannot use what the world around you says, you cannot believe what you see. hope will take you places you have never been - and it is the mother of all inventions and victories.

add involvement, perseverence and a sense of being to hope - you will get what you wanted. thats what the story says. how a prisoner sentenced for life comes back with colors.

the hero has perfectly merged with the character and it is good to see such a nice pick by the director. no wonder it is in the #2 of IMDB top 250.

Links:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111161/
http://www.shawshankredemption.org/

Why you need your own website?

2006-12-19T15:31:00.000-08:00

the past two days has been little confusing for me. it all started on sunday, when i was checking my email. i went to Y! mail web page, entered my username & password and then submit. bounced back immediately with a message - "Invalid Username or Password". i got a bit shocked. i have been using Y! Mail for about 6-7 years now and most of my personal transactions goes through it. havent changed my password for quite a long time now - and here i am stranded and not able to access my own account.

it took nearly 2 days to get control back to my account. dont know what happened to the old password and which mischievous guy freaked into my account. since some of the security information was way out of my mind (after i created the account 6 yrs back), i had to recollect them to answer Y! signon-help questions.

all it tells me is just one thing - if i had my own site - where my identity is confirmed not just through my login name & password, then may be it would have been easier to gain back control at a much faster time.

it well goes with the saying "you get what you pay" !

Nalanda is back

2006-12-15T00:00:00.000-08:00

The last time I remember hearing about Nalanda University was in my history books way back in my school days. This is the finest of Universities, first of its kind founded in the entire world around the medieval period when Buddhism had a much wider presence. People from various asian countries studied in the Nalanda university. History says, that the entire university got destroyed over a period of time due to various political and economical reasons.

Looks like the booming asian market wants to rejuvenate and enlighten the glory that it had in the past. Now leaders from South Asian countries of Singapore, India, China, etc are talking about starting the Nalanda University again. A University with multinational student and teaching community will definitely bring in much broader perspective to the growing market. It will take the people of the region to the next level of understanding the neighbor in a much better manner. It can also lead to many world-class initiatives, given the fact there are more minds (people) that needs a focus.

Currently they are talking about US $500 Million to start with and an additional US $500 Million to provide the adjoining infrastructure. Sure these are small numbers for an University of that gratitude, but then it is just a start of talk and am sure they will be able to pull in grands - considering the booming markets in the sub continent.

A welcome salute to the upcoming University !

Link: Really Old School

Adrenalin

2006-12-05T02:20:00.000-08:00

I was simply stunned by this guy. He is a extreme sports practitioner, especially "free-soloing" (which he demonstrates in the video). Unfortunately this guy died while doing a free-soloing at Yosemite, as the rope he used for his fall got cut. Poor guy.

Dan Osman - video powered by Metacafe

Additional links:
Video of Dan Osman scaling a 400-foot sheer-wall cliff in under five minutes
Video of many safety rope jumps and free-soloing up to a 5.12b (11 min)

Follow up on "Forward this!"

2006-11-04T19:11:00.000-08:00

The "Forward this !" blog brought in a good amount of rebuke from my close circle. From then on any mails that I forward (even important ones) will bounce back with a quote from my blog (atleast for some time).

Then one day I saw this story, again as a forward to my inbox. Wait a min.. I am not complaining here. The message itself came with a sarcastic note on forwards.. Follow the link: Sanjay and his car ... to read the story...

Celebration

2006-10-02T09:51:00.000-07:00

Today is a day of importance for every Indian. It is the same day in 1869 Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born. He fought and won for independence and a statehood to India.

To me, it is a day of double importance - it is also the birthday of my nephew Rahul. He is one year old now and becoming more and more mischievous. The birthday boy was tapping the phone when I wished him (over phone) with the Happy birthday song, happily enjoying the day with parents and grandparents.

Forward this !

2006-07-19T00:55:00.000-07:00

I open my mailbox to see this mail from a friend who is also in IT field. The mail subject says "If you don't forward this you don't have heart". Immediately I understood that it is yet another forward to delete, all the same I was surprised by the subject. How dare someone writes a mail like this? Out of curiosity, I looked through the mail. Looks like it has hoped a minimum of 10 mail boxes before reaching me and all of them have faithfully forwarded it with all the mail header in place. It took a while to go down all to see the message. The mail is about a child who is going to get a complicated medical treatment and each forward of this mail will earn 5 cents to the childs parents.

During my very early days of computer literacy, I have received such mails and faithfully have forwarded it thinking it is going to benefit someone. But the moment I understood the background of e-mails the first thing I did is to stop forwarding. These are such a scrap which will simply take up network traffic, storage (in each persons mailbox) and the precious time from the reader. I was really surprised to see such forward from a friend who is working in IT - he cannot say that he has no knowledge about e-mails. These mails grow like a banyan tree and it is real waste.

If you really want to forward, forward this post - claiming everyone to delete any such forwards. Somehow please put a stop to such forwards and make use of the resource for something better. There are so many other constructive things that can make use of these resources, lets give for them to proceed.

Before I close, the first thing I did after reading the mail is to trash it and went to bed with a satisfaction of breaking one tiny branch of a banyan tree email.

"Company"

2006-07-11T00:26:00.000-07:00

I came across this movie when I was looking at the Indian video section in the local county library. Read the back cover review, and somehow got interested.

What a movie! Its a classic depiction of the underground don world. Two people join up, form a "Company" - a underworld group, soon becomes a empire. Police smells them, but they move on to Hongkong and they become untouchable to many. They also enjoy the luxury of a foreign land still holding the reins in the Mumbai underworld. The only way the "Company" can now fall is by its creators. Situations brings in a clash within them and they start fighting themselves. What happens to the "Company"? And that is the story.

Interesting movie, unlike many traditional Hindi movie style, this has been taken with a difference. Director has done a very good job in the making of this movie. Though the story is simple, the picturisation and screenplay is very good.

The actors have been rightly choosen - Ajay Devgan and Vivek oberoi have done a very good job. Especially for Vivek Oberoi, it doesn't look like a first movie at all. Mohanlal plays the classical Police commissioner role.

A good Indian movie after a long time. A very good one to watch.