What would Google do

I was recently reading a book called 'What would Google do'

The video gives a sneak-preview of the content of the book
http://fora.tv/2009/02/18/Jeff_Jarvis_What_Would_Google_Do

The book is about Google's philosophy and how the internet is revolutionizing modern day economics. The book tries to extend Google's philosphy to other industries do. So, pick an industry and think how Google would operate in that domain, asking yourself 'What would Google do' - that's what the book is about.

One other interesting observation is that modern day's connectivity makes you more connected than ever before. Since you can't really lose in touch with anyone, does that make you more accountable? (connection to iterated Prisoner's dilemma? :D) Something to think about.

Jeff Jarvis refers to a quote by Eric Schmidt in this interview:-


I have a specific suggestion that it should be common and legal to change your name at twenty-one and say, "That wasn't me. It was a different person. Kind of looks like me but I've changed a lot."
- Eric Schmidt

The quote echoes what's going on in my mind. I think most of us would have felt a big change in ourselves after 21 years. Our principles and outlook on many of the major issues of life - career, money, God, friendship, love, society would have changed. Not that I don't believe in accountability - I always believe that you reap what you sow. In our childhood, we are heavily influenced by parents and immediate society. I think you are truly yourself when you think independently. And when you do realize what really matters to you, you find yourself very different from who you were in your childhood. Stranger in the mirror! :)

If you cant do it right, do it random!

I was trying to understand how random projections can be used for dimensionality reduction instead of PCA. It was not obvious how random projections could even attempt to match projections computed through Eigen decomposition of the covariance matrix (which sounds computationally demanding!). After a discussion with my friend, I realised that random projections were essentially similar to finding the Eigen vector through the Power method. I was really amazed as I thought of Power method only as a numerical method.

Now for some philosophy :-)

I was trying to build some intuition / wondering where else this method could be applied. Probably, I am stretching my analogy, but I couldnt help notice a strong connection to life. We all want to find something that we are good at, a job/lifestyle that is well oriented ( Now, thats more like it :-) ) with our skills and interests. How do we find it ?
You start doing something random, see if that suits you, and based on how you feel, you update what you are doing. If you persevere (iterate) enough, your lifestyle will converge to what you truly want!

If you cant do it right, do it random! And hope that the dots will connect! :-)

(Yet another) History of life as we know it.

Unveiling the "Sixth Sense," game-changing wearable tech

Simply mindblowing. I am amazed by the versatility of the device!

http://www.ted.com/talks/pattie_maes_demos_the_sixth_sense.html

xkcd !

Some of my favourite xkcd strips

http://xkcd.com/247/

So much for computer security!
http://xkcd.com/538/

Socially hopeless :)
http://xkcd.com/173/

Useless!
http://xkcd.com/55/

Life is NP-complete!
http://xkcd.com/287/


:-)

Yeah right !

A linguistics professor was lecturing to his class one day. “In English,” he said, “A double negative forms a positive. In some languages, though, such as Russian, a double negative is still a negative. However, there is no language wherein a double positive can form a negative.”

A voice from the back of the room piped up, “Yeah, right.”

Benford's law

Counter-intuitive, highly interesting law ! :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benford%27s_law