The Corner: How Amazon’s KDP Select Saved My Book

An excellent demo of how authors can leverage Amazon to publicize their work. Also highlights the way in which the long tail can go mainstream using the power of free. Chris Anderson would be really proud.

tags: amazon book publishing longtail

How to name a web browser (by those who have) – thebeebs – Site Home – MSDN Blogs

Interesting post on how the browsers have been named – not all are from direct sources though.

tags: web browser naming

Bill Gates: ‘I wrote Steve Jobs a letter as he was dying. He kept it by his bed’ – Telegraph

Bill Gates: ‘I wrote Steve Jobs a letter as he was dying. He kept it by his bed’ (@maryriddell… http://t.co/WOqWTR9k http://t.co/tue24U6A

tags: twitterfav

Bustling Movement of Megacities – My Modern Metropolis

Through long exposures, photographer Martin Roemers captures the hustle and bustle of megacities. http://t.co/iEjxSQB2

tags: twitterfav

How to Get a Good Night’s Sleep: Grooming + Health : Details

For the weekend: Steps on how to get a good night’s #sleep http://t.co/KNks1KOo

tags: sleep twitterfav

Your Own Evil Lair, Available Immediately! : Discovery News

A real steal at $3m – comes with a 20,000 sq foot building, 2 bedroom house, helipad, wells & the ability to withstand a 5-megaton nuclear blast

tags: discovery news facility

• 20,000-square-foot building, basketball court, three-bedroom house, helicopter landing pad, two wells from which to draw water and a barn
• Fiber Optic OC-48 cable
• the facility can withstand a 5-megaton nuclear blast.
• rock bottom price of $2,950,000.

For $2 a Star, a Retailer Gets 5-Star Reviews – NYTimes.com

This is how you game the review system it seems, till the systems games you.

tags: reviews nytimes ethics amazon

Art masterpieces drawn on an office whiteboard by Bill Taylor – Telegraph

Art masterpieces drawn on an office whiteboard by Bill Taylor http://t.co/AVxGPm5q

tags: twitterfav

The Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights in Britain – Telegraph

Pictures: The Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights in Britain http://t.co/htVP0Vyx

tags: twitterfav

A Healthy Information Diet: The Case for Conscious Consumption – Maria Popova – Health – The Atlantic

RT @TheAtlanticHLTH The case for conscious information consumption: http://t.co/RCSpBmg7 by @brainpicker

tags: twitterfav

Rare Pictures From the Dawn of NASA Spaceflight

Rare photos from the early days of NASA spaceflight: http://t.co/XQFXNh1a

tags: twitterfav

Retro Future Ads For Facebook, YouTube & Skype

Quite creative for sure

tags: facebook ads twitter retro skype humour youtube

Does Online Piracy Hurt The Economy? A Look At The Numbers – Forbes

Does Online Piracy Hurt The Economy? A Look At The Numbers http://t.co/bBgWNhVD

tags: twitterfav

Amazon setting up first fulfillment center in India| Reuters

Amazon setting up first “fulfillment center” in India (@rtrswalibarr / Reuters) http://t.co/nbqdaAhR http://t.co/MtW4JwxQ

tags: twitterfav

Fantastic Fireballs Frozen in Mid-Air – My Modern Metropolis

Have you ever seen a fireball frozen in mid-air? http://t.co/yJj69oCk

tags: twitterfav

Famous Photogs Pose With Their Most Iconic Images | Raw File | Wired.com

You’ve seen their photos. Now check out this gallery of famous photographers posing with their iconic images http://t.co/Qw3CmS1r

tags: twitterfav

I Won a Samsung Galaxy S II – My Review | cek.log

From a WP7 user’s perspective (also don’t forget that he actually developed the WP7 platform). Not flattering at all.
Summary:
“A typical non-geek consumer would be absolutely-fraking-crazy to pick an Android phone over a Windows Phone. Windows Phone is vastly more refined, cohesive, and easy to use. Period.
People who enjoy “managing” their phone might enjoy “managing” their Android smartphone. Those folks will probably forget how much fun “managing” a smartphone was after they’ve used Windows Phone for a while. Instead they’ll see how much fun it is to “use” a smartphone.”

tags: samsung galaxy review android

Observations on film art : Pandora’s digital box: From the periphery to the center, or the one of many centers

A very interesting look at the way home video technology, particularly the VCD has evolved. A pretty lengthy read.

tags: film art vcd technology evolution

[Updated] The rise and fall of personal computing | asymco

A very pertinent way to look at the shipment of true personal computing devices that includes tablets & smartphones. The traditional PC shipment is stagnating while the portable devices are seeing explosive growth. It is more of a case of market penetration & expansion rather than actual death of the traditional PC.

tags: computing devices market smartphones tablet shipment

Fragmentation Is Not The End of Android | cek.log

As an open source project, Android couldn’t have asked for more success. However, the primary backer – Google – is in a very unenviable position given the kind of returns it is getting for the efforts put in.

tags: android fragmentation

OK, MG, I Take It Back | TechCrunch

Google is really following in Microsoft’s footsteps with their very own version of IE6\WinXP in the form of Android 2.X. Honeycomb was kind of like Vista (lots of hype, with little market impact) while ICS shows signs of being like Win7.
Also, the fact that Amazon has based the Kindle Fire on Android 2.3 is going to guarantee even more headaches for developers (unless Amazon beats other OEMs to the ICS upgrade)

tags: techcrunch android ios development fragmentation

Falser Words Were Never Spoken – NYTimes.com

A very relevant article on how words from different sources get shortened and at times even misattributed.

tags: quotes attribution authenticity

For Consumers, Android Is More “Clopen” Than Open

This doesn’t seem to have mattered much so far, but we’ll get an idea of the actual market impact as Windows Phone gains traction.

tags: android open

Android as we know it will die in the next two years and what it means for you

“As we know it” being the key here

tags: android development predictions

A Christmas Message From America’s Rich | | Rolling Stone

Makes for very sad reading. The more things change, the more they remain the same. Human nature hasn’t really changed a bit – just look at the way civilizations & societies evolved, and you’ll see the same story being repeated everywhere & every time. And best of all, it’s all happening in the land of liberty & capitalism.

tags: economy Business rich usa

Zittrain in Technology Review: The personal computer is dead

Now you know why they’re calling it the “post-pc” era. It’s the “personal” bit that’s history.

tags: technology computer mobile apps pc

Does Airport Security Really Make Us Safer? | Culture | Vanity Fair

Follow up to the “Security Theater” post. Pretty much highlights how nicely the governments and security agencies have actually helped in spreading the “terror”.

tags: security airport defense

ifakesiri.com | Generate your own Siri conversations

I now wonder whether all those Siri screenshots that showed up were genuine or not

tags: iphone siri tools generator

Daring Fireball: BlackBerry vs. iPhone

All points pretty valid even today, and RIM has pretty much sealed its fate.

tags: blackberry iphone apple technology smartphones

The Art of Borrowing | OPEN Magazine

A classic piece on how to borrow & get rich in a kinda sorta questionable way. In all likelihood, we have dozens of examples of such elite in India.

tags: finance Business borrowing

The Protester -Person of the Year 2011- Printout – TIME

Really makes you wonder what type of system actually works – communism failed, dictatorship usually reaches a violent end, and looking at US & India, democracy also has its pitfalls once the politicians game the system.
“Globalization and going viral have been the catchphrases of the networked 21st century. But until now the former has mainly referred to a fluid worldwide economy managed by important people, and the latter has mostly meant cute-animal videos and songs by nobodies. This year, do-it-yourself democratic politics became globalized, and real live protest went massively viral. But as they’ve rejuvenated and enlarged the idea of democracy, the protesters, and the rest of us, are discovering that democracy is difficult and sometimes a little scary. Because deciding what you don’t want is a lot easier than deciding and implementing what you do want, and once everybody has a say, everybody has a say. No one knows how the revolutions will play out: A bumpy road to stable democracy, as in America two centuries ago? Radicals’ taking over, as in France just after the bliss and very heaven? Or quick counterrevolution, as in France 60 years later? The mostly liberal, secular young people who made the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt last winter have been subordinated, if not sidelined, by better-disciplined political organizations. And they all agree it’s partly their own fault, a function of naiveté about the realities of democratic politics.”

tags: time revolution protest

• Globalization and going viral have been the catchphrases of the networked 21st century. But until now the former has mainly referred to a fluid worldwide economy managed by important people, and the latter has mostly meant cute-animal videos and songs by nobodies. This year, do-it-yourself democratic politics became globalized, and real live protest went massively viral. But as they’ve rejuvenated and enlarged the idea of democracy, the protesters, and the rest of us, are discovering that democracy is difficult and sometimes a little scary. Because deciding what you don’t want is a lot easier than deciding and implementing what you do want, and once everybody has a say, everybody has a say. No one knows how the revolutions will play out: A bumpy road to stable democracy, as in America two centuries ago? Radicals’ taking over, as in France just after the bliss and very heaven? Or quick counterrevolution, as in France 60 years later? The mostly liberal, secular young people who made the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt last winter have been subordinated, if not sidelined, by better-disciplined political organizations. And they all agree it’s partly their own fault, a function of naiveté about the realities of democratic politics.

String Tripod

Another useful hack to gain camera stability without a full fledged tripod

tags: photography diy tutorial camera tripod

DIY Lighting Hacks for Digital Photographers

A pretty useful collection to improve your flash lighting

tags: photography diy lighting hacks tutorials

DIY Reflector-Diffuser

Make a diffuser (images at the bottom of the post) for you flash. Interesting set of materials used, and the results seem to be pretty effective too.

tags: flash photography diffuser diy lighting tutorial howto

flash photography essentials « Neil vN – tangents

A very helpful article that gets you started with the basics of flash photography. One point in particular that is a striking difference between flash & general shooting is that the shutter speed does not have impact on exposure as long as you are in the sync speed range.

tags: flash photography tips

Newton Papers – Cambridge Digital Library – University of Cambridge

Very interesting initiative that has digitized many of Newton’s notebooks\papers. Not all the notes are easy to decipher though.

tags: university newton digital library science notes

You Have Downloaded – We show what you downloaded

A site that tells you what stuff you have downloaded using torrents

tags: torrent downloads tracking

Canon DLC: Article: Back-Button Auto Focus Explained

Using the Custom Functions to change the default behaviour of the shutter half press & AE lock buttons. This can be very useful if you don’t want the focus to get affected on the shutter half press.

tags: canon photography settings focus

মন আমি

My Mother’s blog. It’s in Bengali & deals with psychology and spirituality.

tags: blog Bengali psychology

17-year-old wins 100k for creating cancer-killing nanoparticle | Geek.com

Another step towards longevity?

tags: cancer nanotechnology medicine

5 Minutes on The Verge: Paul Thurrott | The Verge

Very interesting thoughts:
“I make fun of Kinect, but it’s important to see this as what it is: The incredibly unsophisticated predecessor of tomorrow’s Skynet Terminator robots. On that note, I hope they don’t remember what I said about them.”

tags: microsoft interview technology

Android: A visual history | The Verge

Quite a comprehensive article. Google did do some things right and before Apple, after all.

tags: android history

FAQ: What does a more expensive lens really buy you? from Adorama Learning Center

In case you ever wondered, this article explains quite a bit.

tags: lens photography pricing

How To Use A Monopod & Multi-Purpose Tripod

There are quite a few ways to use a monopod it seems, and treating it like a tripod & putting it in front of you is the weakest option of them all.

tags: photography monopod guide tutorial

Waldo Jaquith – On the impracticality of a cheeseburger.

In case you ever wondered what kind of progress we have made as a civilization, this articles the best example you can find.
“A cheeseburger cannot exist outside of a highly developed, post-agrarian society. It requires a complex interaction between a handful of vendors—in all likelihood, a couple of dozen—and the ability to ship ingredients vast distances while keeping them fresh. The cheeseburger couldn’t have existed until nearly a century ago as, indeed, it did not.”

tags: progress technology civilization food cultivation

• A cheeseburger cannot exist outside of a highly developed, post-agrarian society. It requires a complex interaction between a handful of vendors—in all likelihood, a couple of dozen—and the ability to ship ingredients vast distances while keeping them fresh. The cheeseburger couldn’t have existed until nearly a century ago as, indeed, it did not.
• As Carl Sagan wrote in Cosmos, “If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.”

How to Land Your Kid in Therapy – Magazine – The Atlantic

Pretty interesting article on the pursuit of happiness – maybe we aren’t designed to feel happy all the time.
“Happiness doesn’t always make you feel happy.”
“Happiness as a byproduct of living your life is a great thing. But happiness as a goal is a recipe for disaster.”

tags: psychology happiness parenting

• Happiness doesn’t always make you feel happy
• Happiness as a byproduct of living your life is a great thing
• But happiness as a goal is a recipe for disaste
• Dan Kindlon, a child psychologist and lecturer at Harvard, warns against what he calls our “discomfort with discomfort” in his book Too Much of a Good Thing: Raising Children of Character in an Indulgent Age. If kids can’t experience painful feelings, Kindlon told me when I called him not long ago, they won’t develop “psychological immunity.”
• When ego-boosting parents exclaim “Great job!” not just the first time a young child puts on his shoes but every single morning he does this, the child learns to feel that everything he does is special. Likewise, if the kid participates in activities where he gets stickers for “good tries,” he never gets negative feedback on his performance.
• In fact, rates of narcissism among college students have increased right along with self-esteem.
• Kids who always have problems solved for them believe that they don’t know how to solve problems. And they’re right—they don’t.
• parents who protect their kids from accurate feedback teach them that they deserve special treatment
• The irony is that measures of self-esteem are poor predictors of how content a person will be, especially if the self-esteem comes from constant accommodation and praise rather than earned accomplishment. According to Jean Twenge, research shows that much better predictors of life fulfillment and success are perseverance, resiliency, and reality-testing—qualities that people need so they can navigate the day-to-day.
• “Research shows that people get more satisfaction from working hard at one thing, and that those who always need to have choices and keep their options open get left behind,” Schwartz told me. “I’m not saying don’t let your kid try out various interests or activities. I’m saying give them choices, but within reason. Most parents tell kids, ‘You can do anything you want, you can quit any time, you can try this other thing if you’re not 100 percent satisfied with the other.’ It’s no wonder they live their lives that way as adults, too.”
• underlying all this parental angst is the hopeful belief that if we just make the right choices, that if we just do things a certain way, our kids will turn out to be not just happy adults, but adults that make us happy. This is a misguided notion, because while nurture certainly matters, it doesn’t completely trump nature, and different kinds of nurture work for different kinds of kids (which explains why siblings can have very different experiences of their childhoods under the same roof). We can expose our kids to art, but we can’t teach them creativity. We can try to protect them from nasty classmates and bad grades and all kinds of rejection and their own limitations, but eventually they will bump up against these things anyway. In fact, by trying so hard to provide the perfectly happy childhood, we’re just making it harder for our kids to actually grow up. Maybe we parents are the ones who have some growing up to do—and some letting go.

Why Apple’s cheap | Felix Salmon

The journey has definitely been interesting for Apple

tags: apple stocks market future

Ananym – Wikipedia

So there’s more than just ohm\mho:
“An ananym is a word whose spelling is derived by reversing the spelling of another word. It is therefore a special type of anagram.”

tags: wikipedia language

Travel Photo Clichés and How to Avoid Them – NYTimes.com

Useful tips by Michael Freeman (photographer & author of Photographer’s Eye\Mind books)

tags: travel photography nytimes tips

Kodak’s long fade to black – latimes.com

The Kodak moment gives way to the iPhone moment.

tags: kodak technology photography Business businessmodels

Kindle Fire Usability Findings (Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox)

Steve Jobs was onto something with the 10″ form factor for tablets, it seems. This study indicates how difficult it is to use regular (desktop versions) websites on a 7″ tablet. Even though the screen is much larger, the user experience is better with the mobile version of a site on a 7″ screen.

tags: usability tablet amazon kindle android design

On Magazines and the iPad — carpeaqua by Justin Williams

The user experience is pretty messed up it seems, even after the introduction of Newsstand.
This also indicates why Android has trouble with user experience (touch responsiveness & smoothness in particular). It all depends on the designer in the end, and iOS is no exception.

tags: magazine ipad design publishing

The 45 Most Powerful Images Of 2011

Also serves as a roundup of the major events of the year

tags: photos media news 2011 photography

The Dangers Of False Equivalence | Media Matters for America

2 keys points:
Drawing false equivalence is not only “taking sides,” it’s taking the wrong side
Drawing false equivalence between unequal sins incentivizes bad behavior

tags: media equivalence opinion

• drawing false equivalence is not only “taking sides,” it’s taking the wrong side
• drawing false equivalence between unequal sins incentivizes bad behavior

9 Reasons Wired Readers Should Wear Tinfoil Hats | Threat Level | Wired.com

If you thought facebook had a privacy problem, then better avoid this article.

tags: wired privacy security

Windows Phone Demo

An online demo to try out the Windows Phone 7 interface. Especially designed for mobile phones, so if you are on Andorid or iOS, give it a try.

tags: WindowsPhone demo

Whatever works for you – Marco.org

Simply said by the creator of Instapaper:
“Previous-me tried to persuade everyone to switch to my setup, but I now know that it’s not worth the effort. I’ll never know someone else’s requirements, environment, or priorities as well as they do…
You should use whatever works for you. And I no longer have the patience or hubris to convince you what that should be. All I can offer is one data point: what I use, and how it works for me.”

tags: computers software troubleshooting apple

The Sketchbook of Susan Kare, the Artist Who Gave Computing a Human Face | NeuroTribes

The article also includes images from Susan’s sketchbook where she designed many of the “iconic” icons

tags: design apple mac inspiration icons history

Variation Facts and Fallacies: Digital Photography Review

“The main points are fairly straightforward:
1) Every lens and every camera exhibits slight variations relative to its twins that are detectable, but rarely significant.
2) Variations that wouldn’t make the slightest difference in a print may seem quite different when the numbers are presented in a lens review. And, just because one copy of lens X is sharper than one copy of lens Y, doesn’t mean they all are, or that they all will be in your camera.
3) Occasionally, an acceptable lens mounted to an acceptable camera combine their variations in a way that makes them unacceptable together. The lens may be fine with a different camera, and the camera fine with a different copy of the lens. 
4) Really bad, soft, out-of-acceptable range lenses do occur. They are fairly rare though and easy to detect.
5) Camera autofocus is more variable and less accurate than you think.”

tags: photography lens manufacturing quality variation

“This Lens is Soft”…. « Canon Rumors

Quite enlightening, if you ever wondered why many lens reviewers say that they needed to try 4-5 copies of a lens before they got a proper one. Then again, also makes you slightly paranoid about whether your camera body+lens combo works properly. Summary:
“The mechanical parts that are assembled to form a lens, lens mount, and sensor are going to vary a bit with every lens and every camera.This variation will cause every copy of a lens, and every copy of a camera body, to have slightly different characteristics.A lens may be fine on one camera and not another. A camera may do fine with one lens and not another.Some lenses (and cameras) will be far enough out of spec to just suck, no matter what they are mounted to.It seems logical that ‘bad batches’ can occur because a shipment of one or more parts is defective and not caught during routine testing (or the manufacturer decides it’s cheaper to ‘ship and repair’ than to hold a shipment).When the manufacturer knows about a “bad batch”, they probably identify the problem and correct it for future lenses, but they aren’t going to announce it unless they absolutely have to – when something is so bad it’s affecting overall sales of that item. Roger’s Rule of Problem Announcements: Once its announced that 5% of lens X has a certain problem, 50% of the members of any online forum will announce their lens has the problem. Whether they own lens X or not.Of course future batches aren’t necessarily better, just different. Problem A may have been fixed, but the new supplier of part 32543 may make a bad batch, or the machine tools used to lathe the last set of part 2433 may have become more worn and less accurate.”

tags: photography lens manufacturing quality

Coffee Time: Market Share vs Profit – journal – minimally minimal

The % share picture changes drastically depending on whether you are considering the OS share, revenue share or profit share. Not to mention the kind of product segmentation difference between Apple & the others (Samsung shown as an example here)

tags: apple samsung marketing segmentation products profits

NYTimes eXaminer | An antidote to the “paper of record”

Interesting site that “examines” the articles posted in the New York Times

tags: nytimes paper analysis

ExifTool by Phil Harvey

A very handy tool (albeit commandline based) that allows you to work with image metadata. You can even extract the metadata to a file for detailed analysis.

tags: photography software metadata tools perl exif

Conducting – Wikipedia

Of the musical kind. In case you wondered whether the orchestra conductors just waved in the randomly or not, the techniques section should help clarify any doubts:
“Conducting is a means of communicating artistic directions to performers during a performance. Although there are many formal rules on how to conduct correctly, others are subjective, and a wide variety of different conducting styles exist depending upon the training and sophistication of the conductor. The primary responsibilities of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble. Communication is non-verbal during a performance, however in rehearsal frequent interruptions allow directions as to how the music should be played.”

tags: wikipedia music technique

What the Vaio Z says about Sony’s little design problem – Boing Boing

Changing your design with every new launch kind of defeats the purpose of coming out with a good design. This is another area Apple seems to get much better than its competitors. In fact, Apple has stuck to designs inspired from others longer than its original creators.

tags: design sony apple

ideas are just a multiplier of execution – O’Reilly ONLamp Blog

A simple numerical demonstration of the importance of execution.

tags: execution ideas numbers

Steve Jobs: The parable of the stones – Fortune Tech

It’s not just enough to have a good idea. It’s the execution and final polishing that counts. Explained with a nice metaphor.

tags: apple stevejobs design ideas execution

Financial Lessons From Four Nations – NYTimes.com

This is what makes it difficult to call Economics a true science – experiment results are rarely replicable given the number of variabilities.

tags: nytimes economics policy finance

Unpatriotic   – Slate Magazine

Substitute US for India, and it will read pretty similar. That’s progress since independence for you.

tags: patriotism nation loyalty

End Bonuses for Bankers – NYTimes.com

All very valid arguments, but who will bell the cat?

tags: nytimes banking economics risk

• Adam Smith himself was wary of the effect of limiting liability, a bedrock principle of the modern corporation.
• Consider that we trust military and homeland security personnel with our lives, yet we don’t give them lavish bonuses. They get promotions and the honor of a job well done if they succeed, and the severe disincentive of shame if they fail. For bankers, it is the opposite: a bonus if they make short-term profits and a bailout if they go bust. The question of talent is a red herring: Having worked with both groups, I can tell you that military and security people are not only more careful about safety, but also have far greater technical skill, than bankers.
• What would banking look like if bonuses were eliminated? It would not be too different from what it was like when I was a bank intern in the 1980s, before the wave of deregulation that culminated in the 1999 repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, the Depression-era law that had separated investment and commercial banking. Before then, bankers and lenders were boring “lifers.” Banking was bland and predictable; the chairman’s income was less than that of today’s junior trader. Investment banks, which paid bonuses and weren’t allowed to lend, were partnerships with skin in the game, not gamblers playing with other people’s money.

Disruptions: The 3-D Printing Free-for-All – NYTimes.com

Another interesting bit of technology to look forward to. Reminiscent of the object copier by Professor Calculus from Tintin and the Lake of Sharks.

tags: printing copyright 3d technology design

Jeff Bezos Owns the Web in More Ways Than You Think | Magazine

Remember the argument of iPad vs the rest in the tablets wars? Guess who’s the content distribution king on the web. Now, once the device market saturates, and the focus shifts entirely to content a la TV, who do you think will be reaping the rewards – Apple or Amazon?

tags: interview amazon strategy cloudcomputing technology

Radiosity (3D computer graphics) – Wikipedia

In case you wondered what the real world application the optics chapters of Physics were during your classes.
“Radiosity is a global illumination algorithm used in 3D computer graphics rendering. Radiosity is an application of the finite element method to solving the rendering equation for scenes with purely diffuse surfaces.”

tags: computer graphics wikipedia lighting physics