Atheism

Pics of Nargis

The Burmese storm, Nargis has claimed more than One lakh lives and here is Nasa pics. It is cool.

Self-Reassembling-Robot

Seven Habits of Highly Successful People

Do I have to say anything more ?

Why things cost 499 and not 500 ?

Almost all price tags have numbers ending in 9, like 499, 899, 999, etc. I always have wondered what was the logic behind the pricing.

A recent paper explains it. It says that people calculate the worthiness of a  product in whole numbers and pricing not in whole numbers confuse the consumers.

buyers were less likely to negotiate the price down as far when they encountered a precise asking price.

This is another reason. It gives an illusion that the seller has calculated the price precise to the last digit.

One more tactics might be to make the price look lot lesser than actual price. For example, 999 is not 1000, which also means it is 3 digits and not 4 digits. Since we read from left to write, it looks lot less.

One more argument is that store owners don’t want cashiers to do the math in mind and want them to do the math in the machine and in turn make them enter the sell in the system. This too sounds reasonable.

I guess lot of research needs to be done.

Ohh The Google App Engine

I am very sure you would be drowning in Google App Engine (GAE) announcements news with people excited/ disappointed with it. We are digital people and hence we can only be 0 (disappointed) or 1 (excited).

At first sight, it looks like Amazon’s AWS. But, it isn’t. It is more like a walled garden. You can only code in Python (atleast for now). You can only use G Ads. You can integrate only Google apps (signup, gmail, etc.). Term of use is one more dark area. No one is talking about privacy concerns.

I can see the Google’s business model. They want to show you more Ads. They gave you blogs (only Google ads), they gave you Gmail, they are giving you Android and now, they will give a platform on which you build web-apps and many more. The model is simple but I seriously doubt the model. It is not sustainable.

Nevertheless, I am very interested to know what Google will do to sustain this model and its sliding stock price.

I am not against the whole concept but GAE is trying to lock down developers into a platform and an Ad platform which is what is worrying me. Are we seeing one more Microsoft in making? Only this time, Google is trying to lock users using opensource tools.

I would prefer AWS anyday since it is flexible both in hardware and software options, unlike GAE. Let us see how the developer community take this one. There is no traction among developers both for Opensocial and Android. No wonder, $10 Million was announced to develop apps for Android.

To sum it up: If you are late to the market, Open (opensocial, android) it. If you are first few and very strong, keep it as walled garden and monetize on the ad . This is Google philosophy.

Customer Complains

In this compettive world, negligence of customers happens. What is disheartening is that this customer waited for 30 Mins. That is 1800 Seconds. When customers start leaving in 5 mins of no service, then there is hope for change.

I wish I were…

Lyrics of “Tree Hugger” -Kimya Dawson from Juno

The flower said, “I wish I was a tree,”
The tree said, “I wish I could be
A different kind of tree,
The cat wished that it was a bee,
The turtle wished that it could fly
Really high into the sky,
Over rooftops and then dive
Deep into the sea.

And in the sea there is a fish,
A fish that has a secret wish,
A wish to be a big cactus
With a pink flower on it.
And in the sea there is a fish,
A fish that has a secret wish,
A wish to be a big cactus
With a pink flower on it.

And the flower
Would be its offering
Of love to the desert.
And the desert,
So dry and lonely,
That the creatures all
Appreciate the effort.

And the rattlesnake said,
“I wish I had hands so
I could hug you like a man.”
And then the cactus said,
“Don’t you understand,
My skin is covered with sharp spikes
That’ll stab you like a thousand knives.
A hug would be nice,
But hug my flower with your eyes.”

The flower said, “I wish I was a tree,”
The tree said, “I wish I could be
A different kind of tree,
The cat wished that it was a bee,
The turtle wished that it could fly
Really high into the sky,
Over rooftops and then dive
Deep into the sea.

And in the sea there is a fish,
A fish that has a secret wish,
A wish to be a big cactus
With a pink flower on it.
And in the sea there is a fish,
A fish that has a secret wish,
A wish to be a big cactus
With a pink flower on it.

And the flower
Would be its offering
Of love to the desert.
And the desert,
So dry and lonely,
That the creatures all
Appreciate the effort.

This is life to us.

Save your Willpower

The brain’s store of willpower is depleted when people control their thoughts, feelings or impulses, or when they modify their behavior in pursuit of goals. Psychologist Roy Baumeister and others have found that people who successfully accomplish one task requiring self-control are less persistent on a second, seemingly unrelated task. In one pioneering study, some people were asked to eat radishes while others received freshly baked chocolate chip cookies before trying to solve an impossible puzzle. The radish-eaters abandoned the puzzle in eight minutes on average, working less than half as long as people who got cookies or those who were excused from eating radishes. Similarly, people who were asked to circle every “e” on a page of text then showed less persistence in watching a video of an unchanging table and wall.

How willpower works ?

Before and After Death

I feel that death is something that is keeping man sane. It is one thing that is full of mysteries and untold territory that man is trying to grasp.

Nothing is as certain as Death (well, also Tax).

Except for death, this world will be a mess, not with over-population but with people’s mind working in the wrong way.

How different people take death after knowing it is very near is a fascinating sociology study that I am waiting for someone to do. It would be interesting. Some may take it with joy, some with tears and some silently. It is strange and un-empathizable (may be wrong word).

Here is a set of photos of people before and after death.