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 [...]

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 [...]

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.

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 [...]

Income Per Natural

A recent paper by Michael Clemens and Lant Pritchett analyses if people matter more than places.
It is easy to learn the average income of a resident of El Salvador or Albania. But there is no systematic source of information on the average income of a Salvadoran or Albanian. In this new working paper, research fellow [...]

China, Olympics, Human Rights, etc…

As expected by everyone, protests started off in Tibet regarding the Chinese occupation. Two posts about Chinese human rights violation and India’s spineless reaction to the atrocities triggered this post.
This ruling congress governement along with lame communists are worst combination that India can get as ruling parties. In the times of dangerous Chinese hawk hovering [...]

Six Letters for Success. Can you believe it?

It is very true.
Only six letters for success and the best part is : it is awfully simple.
It is : Action.
Source.
Great people are those who implement their idea immediately. Action is the key.

Mobile Platform Fever 2

With the release of iPhone SDK, mobile application developers are pondering what to do next. The options are to shun iPhone or wait for some other way to enter the iPhone, possibly web.
Think of the plethora of mobile platforms/OSes…(I have excluded the variants)

Palm
Windows
Symbian
Android
Java OS
iPhone
Brew (almost dead)

Apart from this there are million platforms that sit on [...]

Can we mortals do Telepathy?

A recent demo by a company called Ambient makes voiceless communication possible. The device, actually a neckband, picks nerve signals and wirelessly sends them to computer which converts them to voice.
It is cool that now,
1, we don’t have to shout at the top of our lung in a noisy ambience (like theatre or mall)
2, we [...]

The Band’s Visit

Sometimes, We take life for granted. The house, the water, the sun, the air, the food, the …
A music band comprised of Egyptian police people visits Israel to play at the inaugural ceremony of an Arab arts center. No one comes to pick them up at the airport. They are lost in the country. They [...]