Mobile phones expose human habits

The whereabouts of more than 100,000 mobile phone users have been tracked in an attempt to build a comprehensive picture of human movements.

The study concludes that humans are creatures of habit, mostly visiting the same few spots time and time again.

Most people also move less than 10km on a regular basis, according to the study published in the journal Nature.The results could be used to help prevent outbreaks of disease or forecast traffic, the scientists said.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Mobile phones expose human habits

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Where Google App Engine Spanks Amazon’s Web Services

For building scalable web applications quickly, App Engine beats AWS by a surprisingly wide margin. Note, however, this refers specifically to web applications. For anything custom, you need Amazon. Because App Engine only supports Python, you also need Amazon for running any non-Python code. While this is a significant difference, many good developers are facile with multiple languages and can move rapidly between them. Amazon’s flexibility makes it win out for many applications, but not for the most common application there is: web sites. App Engine is more of a “domain-specific cloud” for web applications, but it’s shockingly good at what it does.

Where Google App Engine Spanks Amazon’s Web Services: S3, EC2, Simple DB, SQS « Route 183

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Religioscope: India: does Hinduism exist? Interview with Martin Fárek

Religioscope - But when people speak about Hinduism, what is problematic?

Fárek - It also depends on the position of the person speaking about Hinduism. When a Westerner speaks about Hinduism, I see several problems. One of them is the notion that it is a unified religion. There have been so many different attempts to define Hinduism itself; I myself have written an article about these discussions and definitions. Some people say that the term "Hinduism" makes no sense. In academia, you have radically diverse opinions on the very basic understanding of what Hinduism is.

Behind this, there are more serious questions. When we speak about Hinduism in Europe, in our classrooms or in the media, we are conveying to people the idea that a religion such as Hinduism exists and that this is what Indians are. By doing this, we are explaining what the people of India are, what they do, why they do it, etc. We make sense of Indian cultures and traditions according to this definition of Hinduism, very much connecting it to the caste system and a range of other issues that have arisen at the conference.The question is: Does all this really help us to understand people in India?


Religioscope - Do you expect such an undertaking to have any impact outside of academic research? Do you see it as something more than an intellectual exercise - something that could initiate changes in Indian society?

Fárek - I think it can. But there is a question of several layers or groups when one is speaking about Indian society. At the conference in question, during several sessions and discussions, one could observe that there are people whom we call "Hindus" who rarely use the word, and if they did, it was because they had to complete forms for the government or respond to census questions such as : Are you Christian, Hindu, etc., i.e. What is your religion? It was on these occasions that many Indians first heard about "Hinduism"! Many of them decided: "OK, I am Hindu!" But this obviously did not mean much to them. So we must think first of all about how many people in India still live in villages - I think possibly 70 per cent of the population. These people are not touched by these emerging notions of "Hinduism" so much and whatever other terms are used. Of course, then you have the educated strata of society, not only intellectuals: I think they are the real targets of the conference - the educated so-called "Hindus". Many of them experience difficuty in understanding who they are and what their tradition is. Some of them feel that they are anglicized or modernized, but what are the alternatives? There is a lot of heated discussion around such questions. This is a sign that this conference can achieve a more general outcome.



The paper about untouchability was wonderful in many ways, and in one way it showed that you cannot solve untouchability in India as a problem without dealing with the broader issues that arose at the conference. The researcher presenting the paper, who himself had occasionally had very painful experiences with regard to untouchability, told us: "You see, untouchability has nothing to do with religion, with Hinduism. There is something else behind it. And what I say after doing a great deal of research" - i.e. these were not statements just based on his personal experience, even though he had actually thought originally that untouchability had something to do with religion - "is that at least in Karnataka, religion does not fit into the picture." He said that, at the moment, the government of India is more or less approaching the problem of untouchability as a religious problem, and since India is a secular state, the government will never interfere with it. There are laws demanding equality for all citizens, but this is not the solution to the problem of oppression. He said that, in some areas, because of this secular approach, the problem of oppression of some groups by other groups is getting worse. We do need to rethink the whole idea of the caste system, but this problem is very much connected to the notion of "Hinduism" and how the structures of Hinduism are perceived. We have first to deal with this issue, because it is blocking our search for possible solutions to the problem.

Religioscope: India: does Hinduism exist? Interview with Martin Fárek

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Where Would General Motors Be Without the United Automobile Workers Union?

Without the UAW, GM would have an average unit cost per automobile close to that of non-union Toyota. Toyota makes a profit of about $2,000 per vehicle, while GM suffers a loss of about $1,200 per vehicle, a difference of $3,200 per unit. And the far greater part of that difference is the result of nothing but GM's being forced to deal with the UAW. (Over a year ago, The Cincinnati Enquirer reported that "the United Auto Workers contract costs GM $2,500 for each car sold.")

Where Would General Motors Be Without the United Automobile Workers Union? - George Reisman - Mises Institute

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Blue Jeans Cable Strikes Back - Response to Monster Cable

Further, on that point: one of the design patents you attached is closely related to a utility patent applicable to the same design, and you failed to point that fact out. I need to be able to rely upon the completeness and accuracy of the information you send to me and I find this sort of omission deeply disturbing because it is clear that the effect of this nondisclosure is to obscure the real significance of the patent features. Similarly, as I note further below, you omit reference to another patent Monster has held which appears, frankly, to be fatal to your position. If you expect to persuade me, you had better start making full, open and honest disclosures; I will find out the facts sooner or later in any event, but the impact upon your credibility will not be repaired. It looks like when you sent this letter, you were operating on the premise that I am not smart enough to see through your deceptions or sophisticated enough to intelligently evaluate your claims; shame on you. You are required, as a matter of legal ethics, to display good faith and professional candor in your dealings with adverse parties, and you have fallen miserably short of your ethical responsibilities.

  I have seen Monster Cable take untenable IP positions in various different scenarios in the past, and am generally familiar with what seems to be Monster Cable's modus operandi in these matters.  I therefore think that it is important that, before closing, I make you aware of a few points.

            After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1985, I spent nineteen years in litigation practice, with a focus upon federal litigation involving large damages and complex issues.  My first seven years were spent primarily on the defense side, where I developed an intense frustration with insurance carriers who would settle meritless claims for nuisance value when the better long-term view would have been to fight against vexatious litigation as a matter of principle.  In plaintiffs' practice, likewise, I was always a strong advocate of standing upon principle and taking cases all the way to judgment, even when substantial offers of settlement were on the table.  I am "uncompromising" in the most literal sense of the word.  If Monster Cable proceeds with litigation against me I will pursue the same merits-driven approach; I do not compromise with bullies and I would rather spend fifty thousand dollars on defense than give you a dollar of unmerited settlement funds.  As for signing a licensing agreement for intellectual property which I have not infringed: that will not happen, under any circumstances, whether it makes economic sense or not.

            I say this because my observation has been that Monster Cable typically operates in a hit-and-run fashion.  Your client threatens litigation, expecting the victim to panic and plead for mercy; and what follows is a quickie negotiation session that ends with payment and a licensing agreement.  Your client then uses this collection of licensing agreements to convince others under similar threat to accede to its demands.  Let me be clear about this: there are only two ways for you to get anything out of me.  You will either need to (1) convince me that I have infringed, or (2) obtain a final judgment to that effect from a court of competent jurisdiction.  It may be that my inability to see the pragmatic value of settling frivolous claims is a deep character flaw, and I am sure a few of the insurance carriers for whom I have done work have seen it that way; but it is how I have done business for the last quarter-century and you are not going to change my mind.  If you sue me, the case will go to judgment, and I will hold the court's attention upon the merits of your claims--or, to speak more precisely, the absence of merit from your claims--from start to finish.  Not only am I unintimidated by litigation; I sometimes rather miss it.

Blue Jeans Cable Strikes Back - Response to Monster Cable — Audioholics Home Theater Reviews and News

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Bribery, Corruption and Fictitious Capital

At its peak, InfoSpace was the Northwest's biggest Internet business, worth more than $31 billion. Jain, a man obsessed with being more successful than Bill Gates, was himself worth $8 billion. He bought a palatial waterfront home in Medina down the street from his idol and another nearby on Mercer Island, along with two yachts and a piece of the Seattle SuperSonics.

Naveen Jain grew up in a culture mired in bribery and corruption, yet in a religion that deplores dishonesty.

But memories are short, it seems. After leaving InfoSpace Jain started a new company, Intelius, across the street from his old offices in Bellevue, Washington. The company sells background information on people - they describe themselves as an “information commerce company.” They’ve grown rapidly and now claim that over four million people have purchased products from them. Revenue has grown from $18.1 million in 2004 to $88.5 million in 2007. In their most recent fiscal quarter, ending March 31, 2008 the company had $31.8 million in revenue, a nearly $130 million run rate. They are also very profitable, with $22.5 million in EBITDA in 2007.

It’s no surprise that the company’s revenue growth and profitability have led them to pursue an IPO. Well known investment banks Deutsche Bank and UBS are underwriting the deal, which was first filed with the SEC on January 10. The most recent version of their registration statement, filed on May 19, is here.

Given Jain’s history, you’d think he’d go out of his way to be squeaky clean at his most recent startup, particularly as the company is going public and under significant scrutiny. But that may not be the case.

Well.. the culture and bribery talk is all crap! They deplore Naveen while they seem to think that everything with stock market is legal. in 1920 the whole of the stock market business was illegal cos it creates fictitious capital. -- RK

http://libcom.org/library/fictitious-capital-loren-goldner

Bose in US Inventors Hall of Fame

Dr Bose, a former MIT professor of electrical engineering who has revolutionized the quality and concept of stereo loudspeakers, is only the second Indian American after Dr Rangaswamy Srinivasan, whose invention of ultraviolet surgical and dental procedures resulted in what is known today as LASIK surgery, to be inducted in the Hall of Fame.

According to MIT's biography of Dr Bose, who is both an alumnus and former professor of the institution, his passion for technology continued at MIT, where he earned Bachelor's, Master's and Doctoral degrees in Electrical Engineering. He embarked after his BS on a personal crusade to invent a stereo loudspeaker that would reproduce, in a domestic setting, the vivid sound that a member of the audience hears at a great concert hall.

In 1956, he was asked to join the faculty at MIT, where he taught until 2001. His research at MIT led to the development of new, patented technologies.

In time he succeeded in achieving this goal inventing the direct/reflecting speaker system in 1968, one of the first stereo loudspeakers to utilize the space around them instead of reproducing sound as if in a vacuum. He has also worldwide fame with customized sound systems for automobiles and active noise reducing headphones.

The Hall of Fame has noted that under his leadership 100 per cent of profits of the company are reinvested back into the company, enabling advancements in non-audio areas.

In 2004, after 25 years of research, he introduced a revolutionary suspension system that combines superior comfort and control in the same vehicle.

Bose in US Inventors Hall of Fame

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How India calculates inflation

India uses the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) to calculate and then decide the rate of inflation in the economy. Most developed countries use the Consumer Price Index (CPI) to calculate inflation.

The main problem with WPI calculation is that more than 100 out of the 435 commodities included in the Index have ceased to be important from the consumption point of view. Take, for example, a commodity like coarse grains that go into making of livestock feed. This commodity is insignificant, but continues to be considered while measuring inflation.

WPI does not properly measure the exact price rise an end-consumer will experience because, as the same suggests, it is at the wholesale level.

How India calculates inflation

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Govt - Worst Enemy of Small Business

Over-Criminalization of Small Business Laws

Small businesses are required to comply with more than 75,000 pages of federal regulations, and more than 27,000 of these pages of regulations carry criminal penalties. Unfortunately, an increasing number of well-meaning, unsuspecting small-business owners are being convicted and serving jail time for regulatory crimes and small business laws they did not even know existed. In addition to facing criminal prosecution for not complying with U.S. regulations, small-business owners can face criminal prosecution for violating foreign regulations of which they might not have been aware. The NFIB Small Business Legal Center is fighting the trend to over-criminalize regulatory violations.

State of the Union: Small Business, Large Regulation

Regulation imposes a huge burden on consumers and the economy. While precisely calculating regulatory costs is difficult, a recent study performed by economists Thomas Hopkins and Mark Crain for the Small Business Administration estimated that regulations cost Americans $843 billion in 2000, or some $8,000 per household – close to what Americans pay in income taxes.

The same report found that small businesses, historically the most effective creators of new jobs, bear a disproportionate share of this cost. Hopkins and Crain estimate, for instance, that firms employing 20 people or less face regulatory costs of almost $7,000 per employee, compared to about $4,500 for the largest firms.

Wayne Crews of the Competitive Enterprise Institute

Crews is working on this year's edition of CEI's "10,000 Commandments," an assessment of the regulatory state. He notes that the Small Business Administration estimates the cost of federal regulations to U.S. businesses - an indirect tax - at about $1 trillion a year, more than a third of the direct cost, at $2.7 trillion, of the federal budget. The Federal Register, the official record of new regulations, weighs in at 75,000 pages a year of new rules and mandates that Congress doesn't review.

Streamlining (and eliminating) regulations would do much more for U.S. competitiveness across the board than subsidizing the production of scientists and mathematicians and tinkering with the tax code. It wouldn't hurt to make it easier to hire people rather than more complicated. Then we can look at reducing taxes across the board.

Innovation comes less from official guidance than from unexpected breakthroughs and applications by mavericks and established companies alike. The best way to facilitate it is through freedom rather than central planning.

States and Small Business Health Insurance: An Overview

Small businesses are driven crazy by soaring employee health costs, an expense that surveys show has become the biggest headache and obstacle to growth. Now, a growing army of consultants and benefits experts are promoting new health plans and services aimed at owners desperate to rein in costs.

The Double Trouble of Taxation

The burden of complying with the income tax is tremendous. Since its inception in 1913, the tax code has gone from 400 pages to over 67,000. The Tax Foundation estimates that around $265 billion dollars and 6 billion hours are spent just on compliance. That expense amounts to about 22 cents of every dollar the IRS collects. Imagine the boon to the economy if we spent that time and money expanding our businesses and creating jobs!

Aside from the direct loss of money and productivity, the funds from the income tax enable the government to do some very destructive things, such as vastly over-regulating economic activity, making it difficult to earn money in the first place. The federal government funds over 50 agencies, departments and commissions that formulate rules and regulations. These bureaucracies operate with little to no oversight from the people or Congress and generate around 4,000 new rules every year and operate at a cost of about 40 billion dollars. There are some 75,000 pages of regulations in the Federal Register that Americans are expected to know and abide by. Complying with these governmental regulations costs American businesses more than one trillion dollars per year, according to a study by Mark Crain for the Small Business Administration. This complicated system drives production to other countries and shrinks our job market here at home.

Google Doctype

Doctype is a Google-sponsored open encyclopedia and reference library for developers of web applications. By web developers, for web developers.

• Open source
• Open content
• Open to contributions from anyone

Cancer's Cruel Economics

There are two cancer risk factors about which scientists have no doubt: tobacco and age. Smoking dramatically increases the risk of cancer--90% of all lung cancers cases can be linked to smoking. Eliminate cigarettes and cancer deaths would drop by a third. Not much can be done about age, however. Our cells constantly replicate themselves throughout our lives. As they do so, tiny genetic mistakes are made. Live long enough, and these mutations accumulate until they ignite uncontrolled tumor growth. The reason cancer is expected to become the nation's biggest killer in the next decade is becuase the population is aging, thanks to the baby boomers. Also, so much progress has been made against heart disease, currently the biggest killer, that we are living longer.Hopefully more progress will be made in deciphering cancer over the next decade, and new drugs will result that can change the outlook to the point where, we can live with cancer, not die from it. In the meantime, the best way to reduce risk is to quite smoking (or don't start), lose weight, and go for regular screening.

BusinessWeek

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World Community Grid - Research - Nutritious Rice for the World

The objective of this project is to predict the structure of proteins of major strains of rice. The intent is to help farmers breed better rice strains with higher crop yields, promote greater disease and pest resistance, and utilize a full range of bioavailable nutrients that can benefit people around the world, especially in regions where hunger is a critical concern.

Determining the structure of proteins is an extremely difficult and expensive process. However, it is possible to computationally predict a protein's structure from its corresponding DNA sequence. The Computational Biology Research Group at the University of Washington has developed state of the art software to accomplish this. The difficulty is, there are thousands of distinct proteins found in rice. This presents a computational challenge that a single computer cannot solve within a reasonable timeframe. Therefore, volunteers of World Community Grid are invited to assist in this daunting task. Through collaboration with agricultural researchers and farmers, the hope is to eventually improve global rice yields and quality.

World Community Grid - Research - Nutritious Rice for the World

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HOWTO: Be more productive (Aaron Swartz's Raw Thought)

"With all the time you spend watching TV," he tells me, "you could have written a novel by now." It's hard to disagree with the sentiment -- writing a novel is undoubtedly a better use of time than watching TV -- but what about the hidden assumption? Such comments imply that time is "fungible" -- that time spent watching TV can just as easily be spent writing a novel. And sadly, that's just not the case.

Time has various levels of quality. If I'm walking to the subway station and I've forgotten my notebook, then it's pretty hard for me to write more than a couple paragraphs. And it's tough to focus when you keep getting interrupted. There's also a mental component: sometimes I feel happy and motivated and ready to work on something, but other times I feel so sad and tired I can only watch TV.

If you want to be more productive then, you have to recognize this fact and deal with it. First, you have to make the best of each kind of time. And second, you have to try to make your time higher-quality.

HOWTO: Be more productive (Aaron Swartz's Raw Thought)

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Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies

The Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies provides a range of consultancy services, workshops and resources to help learning professionals understand, implement and use new and emerging technologies.

* Directory of Learning Tools contains over 2,200 tools that range from "traditional" course authoring tools to E-Learning 2.0 collaboration and sharing tools as well as tools for managing your personal learning. Find out what's new this week
* Top 100 Tools for Learning has been compiled from the Top 10 tools shared by over 130 learning professionals worldwide and categorised into A Core Toolset for Learning 2008. Suitable for someone who wants to cut down their choices to a handful in each tool type.
* iTouch Learning is a specialist section of the website devoted to the use of the iPod Touch and the iPhone for learning and performance support. It includes a list of the top web apps for these mobile devices as well as tips and tricks and supporting resources.
* Short Course Unit offers a growing list of (onsite and online) short courses and workshops including An Introduction to E-Learning, 25 Tools and the upcoming online workshop:- Moving Learning 2.0.

Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies

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Crooked Timber » » Money Ruins Everything

Dan Hunter and I have a paper coming out in the Hastings Communications and Entertainment Law Journal, which economic and technical innovation is increasingly based on developments that don’t rely on economic incentive or public provision. The main examples, obvious enough for readers here, include open source software, blogs and associated technical and social innovations, and wikis. Abstract and links to SSRN over the fold.

Paper is at SSRN (not paywalled, I hope)

Abstract:
In the economy of the 21st century, economic and technical innovation is increasingly based on developments that don’t rely on economic incentive or public provision. Unlike 20th century innovation, the most important developments in innovation have been driven not by research funded by governments or developed by corporations but by the collaborative interactions of individuals. In most cases, this modality of innovation has not been motivated by economic concerns or the prospect of profit. This raises the possibility of a world in which some of the sectors of the economy particularly the ones dealing with innovation and creativity are driven by social interactions of various kinds, rather than by profit-oriented investment. This article examines the development of this amateur modality of creative production, and explains how it came to exist. It then deals with why this modality is different from and potentially inconsistent with the typical modalities of production that are at the heart of modern views of innovation policy. It provides a number of policy prescriptions that should be used by governments to recognize the significance of amateur innovation, and to further the development of amateur productivity.

Crooked Timber » » Money Ruins Everything

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Distributed Proofreaders

We’re so quiet that few people know about us, but Distributed Proofreaders is an all-volunteer effort that has prepared nearly 13,000 free ebooks over the last seven years. We’re getting better at it, too.

You can find our books at Project Gutenberg, but also at manybooks.net, mobipocket, and other ebook sites. Many of them don’t credit us in the slightest. Sometimes that makes me feel sad; sometimes I just feel like a secret mistress of the universe.

I survive, barely, on what I make copyediting and proofreading books for pay. But my heart and soul are in the books I do for free.

Crooked Timber » » Money Ruins Everything

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When You’re Twenty-Seven Years and Single

And so the time came for me to pick a boy. To marry. “You know, because twenty-seven years is the perfect age and your daughter has finished her education Mr. Agarwal,” and, “It is the right thing to do before she gets too old and all the good ones get taken,” and, “Because the good ones do get taken early Mr. Agarwal, in fact, it might already be too late to find a well-bred, single doctor/engineer boy for your daughter.”

And so, like most Indian girls whose parents start looking for an eligible match, my singleness was the topic of many a long conversation at miscellaneous social gatherings. “Beta, did you not find any nice boy all those years in college?” Translation: “You poor thing, you really should have gone on that diet I told your mother about last year.”

When You’re Twenty-Seven Years and Single : When You’re Twenty-Seven Years and Single, Kanishka Agarwal blogs on sulekha, Personal blogs, Kanishka Agarwal blog from india

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Buying Web Domain Names - Some Tips and General Precautions

Essential background checks for web domain names

When you are in the market to buy an existing web domain name, always ensure that the site you are about to buy has a clean track record. Here are some online tools to help you run background checks against any domain for free.

1. Archive.org - The Internet Archive Wayback machine maintains snapshots of web pages as they change over time. You can use this service to find the kind of content that was earlier hosted on the domain that you are looking to acquire - stay away from porn and hate sites.

2. Dogpile - The next step is to find web pages that mention that domain name in their content. This is again to get an idea about the previous owners of a domain and what kind of content was available.Always do a search with and without ‘www’ added to the domain name (e.g., abc.com OR www.abc.com). You could either perform these searches on different search engines individually or use Dogpile that will simultaneously search Google, Yahoo, Ask and Live.com from a single page.

3. AdSense Sandbox - You want to make sure that the domain you are about to buy is not banned by Google AdSense.Type the domain URL in the sandbox to confirm that Google Ads are available for the domain else you may miss an opportunity to monetize the site via AdSense in future.

4. Yahoo! Site Explorer - This tool shows a list of web pages that are linking to a particular domain.Yahoo! Site Explorer, in combination with Technorati Search and Google link: operator, will help you ensure that the domain is not part of any bad neighborhood.

Buying Web Domain Names - Some Tips and General Precautions

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TED | Talks | Larry Lessig: How creativity is being strangled by the law (video)

Larry Lessig gets TEDsters to their feet, whooping and whistling, following this elegant presentation of "three stories and an argument." The Net's most adored lawyer brings together John Philip Sousa, celestial copyrights, and the "ASCAP cartel"

TED | Talks | Larry Lessig: How creativity is being strangled by the law (video)

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Health insurer's letter seeks to get coverage canceled - San Jose Mercury News

Citing an effort to hold down costs, health insurance giant Blue Cross wants doctors in California to report conditions it could use to cancel new patients' medical coverage, it was reported Tuesday.

The state's largest for-profit health insurer is sending physicians copies of health insurance applications filled out by new patients, along with a letter advising them that the company has a right to drop members who fail to disclose "material medical history," the Los Angeles Times reported on its Web site.

"Any condition not listed on the application that is discovered to be pre-existing should be reported to Blue Cross immediately," according to the letter obtained by the newspaper.

One of the conditions noted in the letter that could force a new patient to be dropped by Blue Cross—pre-existing pregnancies.

WellPoint Inc., the Indianapolis-based company that operates Blue Cross of California, said it was sending out the letters in an effort to keep costs at a minimum.

"Enrolling an applicant who did not disclose their true condition (and the condition is chronic or acute), will quickly drive increased utilization of services, which drives up costs for all members," WellPoint spokeswoman Shannon Troughton said in an e-mail to the newspaper.

Health insurer's letter seeks to get coverage canceled - San Jose Mercury News

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