First, he appears on The O’Reilly Show and never breaks character.
Then he has Bill O’Reilly himself appear on his show and mocks him openly. Priceless!
December 9, 2006
After a lot of deliberation and introspection, I’ve decided to transition to a product manager position at my current company. I’ll be working on Trust & Safety related products and services – fraud detection and prevention, user verification, creating safe buying experiences, case disposition, automated classification, learning and prediction of content and user behavior. This is a really important strategic focus right now not just for my company but also for Web 2.0.
Goody, can’t wait to start. In the same sprit, I’m starting another blog to focus more on the professional aspects. This blog will continue to be my personal-ish blog.
December 9, 2006
Its been really busy lately and I haven’t found time to blog that much. This post however is so hilarious, sad and amazing all at the same time that I just had to note it. Its a recording of a customer’s call to Verizon and the Verizon CSRs can’t distinguish dollars from cents. Just listen to it…
For everyone who complains of math and why you need to go through all those basic arithmetic exercises in school, here’s a perfect example of why math is needed in real life.
November 13, 2006
From the Qutub Minar
To the Straits of Malabar
We remain similar
And remain singular
-Midival Punditz
November 5, 2006
With the success of Wikipedia, everyone knows what a Wiki is these days. They are perfect for creating web content quickly and easily, as well as linking to other content. For a long time, I’ve been looking for a wiki as a personal
structured notebook that is
- Simple
- Text/file based; no database
- Accessible from multiple computers, either over the web with access control or data synchronization features
- Private
There are tons of ToDoLists, web notepads etc. out there, but they control your data, and who knows how long they’ll stay in business? So, I was delighted to find a lightweight standalone tool like WikidPad. Based on my experience so far, it looks to be both robust and useful. Its a desktop system that uses text as data with Python under the hood. No databases! Use NetDrive to map an FTP server to a windows drive, save your wiki file to this drive location, and voila, you have data synchronization! Another option for sharing is FTP autosync.
Other options for personal wikis include TiddlyWiki and Wiki On A Stick. These are single HTML/DHTML pages, where all of your entries are saved and displayed on the same HTML file. This simplicity makes it ideal for storing on a USB drive, so you can access it wherever you go, even without internet access.
November 5, 2006
I’m watching DMB Live at Red Rocks on PBS as I type this. Man, do these guys rock live! I had always heard that they were much better live than recorded, especially this performance.
You have to see this concert (its available on DVD) if you’re a fan.
November 2, 2006
Yesterday I went to the Warriors season opener game against the Lakers. It was fun to watch an NBA game live and soak in the atmosphere after a long time (my last visit being to the raucous Arco Arena with the Kings), although the game was completely uneventful. As expected the Warriors lost handily even though Kobe wasn’t playing. Is there a franchise with less-enthused fan base. These guys are the Arizona Cardinals of the NBA. It was so bad the crowd was booing the home team when they missed free throws in the 4th quarter and trailing by 14 points.
We left early to beat the crowds on BART. As we were walking out of the stadium, we were greeted with ads for anti-spyware and Oracle products. Only in Silicon Valley can you expect something like this to happen and people don’t even bat an eyelid.
November 2, 2006
Yesterday (Halloween evening), there was an explosion in one of the buildings in my office campus.
I don’t work in that building and thankfully there were only about 3 dozen colleagues there given the late hour and Halloween. No one was injured. Property damage was limited, with a few broken windows and other localized damage. Supposedly the explosive device was left outside a door that employees working in that building use during their breaks. The campus was closed today for investigations but life will go on tomorrow according to the regular schedule. eBay/PayPal business was not disrupted.
Police are saying its not an accident. Who would want to bomb eBay and PayPal (which is co-located there)? A lot of people have had bad experiences and complain bitterly, but I can’t believe that anyone would be crazy enough to bomb a place for that. Employees are humans too.
P.S. This is nothing new but Slashdotters are jerks. Most normal people can distinguish between a company and its employees but not these fine internet citizens.
October 26, 2006
Noah Kagan has a list of what to look for when you get the cravings for Mexican food. Here’s how to identify authentic Mexican restaurants:
1. They serve horchata. Mexican sweet cinammon drink.
2. They don’t have any advertisements outside the door.
3. They don’t have white people working there.
4. They charge extra for chips.
5. The place is not the cleanest out there.
6. It has the word “la” or “el” in its name.
7. The burrito must cost less than $5.
After all my experiments in the Bay Area, I completey agree with this list. My favorite is Taqueria El Grullense in Palo Alto, CA.
October 20, 2006
This kid is just amazing; the tabla is one of the tougher Indian instruments to learn, let alone master, and this kid is well on his way there! The amazing thing is that he has received no formal training. His parents are looking for an appropriate teacher to further develop his unusual skills. The family is based in New Jersey. Please let me know if you have any recommendations/guidance.
