An interesting quote!

The next important moment in my life was in 1955 when I decided to become a programmer; I took that decision because I had concluded that of theoretic physics and programming, programming embodied the greatest intellectual challenge - Edsger W. Dijkstra

Early morning catch!

A blog that posts free fonts that don't suck
Another article about the Google founders.
Michael Brundage on "Working at Microsoft". A nice and interesting read.

Killing Google's Autolink

After listening to days and days of ranting from bloggers about Autolink, someone has come up with a script that webmasters can insert in their webpages, which effectively kills Autolink.

Fake NASA Exam claim!

This story of Saurabh Singh proves how the press is ready to just jump over any sensational story without really verifying the authenticity of the events. Coverage also by BoingBoing. Also try Google search on nasa exam for the press reports which reported the lad's success(!) in the exam.

Today's catch

• What Google is and What it is not?* - A good article by Michael Cusumano. Michael is a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management
  (* subscription required)


• Chris Justus has done an elaborate analysis on how Google suggest works. A bit older blog post, but i just found it.


• Most Software Stinks! - Added to my ToRead list!

Just a passing thought!

Doesn't it make sense to have fingerprint identification for voting, instead of the voter id cards we are given? This should also prevent bogus voting to a considerable extent. Agreed that it will not prevent people from capturing entire polling booths and then mass voting for the candidate of their choice, but it will atleast make sure misrepresenting identity during voting would not happen.

Today's Catch!

• Writing bug-free C Code - Online book


• Metaclasses and Reflection in C++


• The C++ source - A C++ blog

Test post!

Test post using w.bloggar

• Linux 2.6.8.1 CPU Scheduler Documentation (pdf)
  
• I wish i could do this to the telemarketeers calling and bugging me while at work.
  

ICFP 2005 Programming Contest

Check out their webpage

This year's competition rewards programmers who can plan ahead. As before, we'll announce a problem and give you three days to solve it. Two weeks later, we'll announce a change to the problem specification and give you one day to adapt your program to the new spec. And you guessed it: the second half will be worth considerably more than the first.

That is an interesting competition idea!

This is broken!

I got this prompt when i plugged in my Sandisk USB drive into my Windows machine!



Look at the third entry in the list of options i have!

RMS Blog

RMS had a blog at https://www.fsf.org/rms-blog. It seems to have been moved somewhere in either the FSF site or in the GNU site. Google, MSN and Yahoo all point me to the old location. Th FSF blogs page too does not list it. Does anyone know where it has been moved?

Update : Found it at http://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms

Some random links

• Kottke has some explanations on why we call toilets as 'loo'
• In case you need some royalty-free music, you can go here. Pricing is on the higher side, though.
• A novel design for a light bulb. Mahendra Chauhan and Sanjay Rajput propose a novel way to double the life of the common lightbulb
• Top 55 blog directories

Salem Kitchen

Found a new Tamil restaurant "Salem Kitchen" in Indira Nagar. Its actually a house-turned-restaurant. Loved the Dosa and the accompanying chutneys/sambar. Better than anything i have had in Bangalore so far. As we reached there a bit late, the non-veg items were over, and so couldn't lay our hands on those. Certainly worth another visit.
Route: From the CMH Road-100ft Rd intersection, proceed on 100 ft Rd towards Airport Road. On the first signal on 100ft Rd, take a right. Once on that road,take the first right lane. Keep going on that bylane till you see "Salem Kitchen" on the left.

Looking for some VB.NET fun?

In case you dabble in VB.NET, Eric Lippert has a set of interesting questions for you. And if you manage to answer the questions with full explanations, you can even win a free autographed copy of his book "The VB.NET Code Security Handbook"

How does Google Maps Work?

A very nice analysis of how Google Maps work.

Google India Code Jam 2005

Google has announced Google India Code Jam 2005. The competition will be in C++ and Java. The Qualification round will be held on Feb 27th, 2005. As the website explains,

Google is looking for engineers with the programming skill to rewrite the world's information infrastructure. The Google India Code Jam 2005 is one way we hope to find them. While we don't impose arbitrary deadlines on our engineers, we do put a premium on well-implemented code.

Also,

Google is using the results of the GICJ05 to identify possible employees for Google's Research & Development Center in Bangalore, India

This should be the first time a company in India is resorting to a coding competition to identify potential candidates for employment.

Blogmap

Chandu Thota has a nice blogmap utility. You can register your blog at his site, and you can then view your blog's geographical location on a map. A nice way to browse blogs quickly. Here's my blog map. (Warning : Works only on IE)

Ukraine has a new prime minister. Should be one of the best looking prime ministers in the world today. :)

Bookpool has an excerpt from the upcoming Vol 4 of The Art of Computer Programming by Donald Knuth. (Available in pdf)

I had applied for the BSNL broadband sometime in December' 04. I haven't been contacted by BSNL since. Does anyone know of someone in Bangalore having already got the broadband connection, or atleast been contacted by BSNL.

Just completed reading The Davinci Code by Dan Brown. An excellent and well reasearched novel, and the author has managed to retain the suspense till almost the very end.

Taiwan has rejected the theory that Subhash Chandra Bose died in a plane crash in the country on 18th August 1945, saying that there was no plane crash at Taipei between 14 August and 20 September 1945. Will the Bose mystery ever get solved?

History of Computer Languages - From 1954 to 2005.

Check out Telecom Italia's ad featuring Mahatma Gandhi. :)

Stumbled upon Learning Curves - A blog by someone teaching and doing math. Interesting!

20040098536. This number has a significance for me. Lets see if anyone can guess it correctly!

Tim Oren writes about New Model Software Startups: Two Stage Ventures