Thought Garage

NDTV website now features new ad formats : ads right on top of the content itself. The ad displayed right on top of the content doesn’t go away unless you click on the ad. What a crap? Is NDTV so desperate?

We have created a custom News Paper called “ On The Cloud ” to stay on top of News around Cloud Computing and platforms of interest to us. As of now, we have included news on the following topics : Google App Engine Microsoft’s Windows Azure Amazon Elastic Cloud Force.com and all general topics around Cloud Computing Here is a screenshot of the news paper on NewsCred.com NewsCred allows anybody to create their own news paper based on topics of interest. Unlike others, NewsCred also allows to write your own editorials that will go with the news paper.

I love the way Paddy Hirsch explains complex market place dynamics in the simplest way possible that even I can get a glimpse of how it works. In this week, he explains how banks are making money without practically lending to people or small businesses that desperately need it. How the big banks make the big bucks from Marketplace on Vimeo . This is almost like a scam. How can this be all legal and allowed? Why do Government allow these banks to buy Treasury Bonds with money given by Federal Reserve for lending activities. Wouldn’t buying treasury bonds considered as an investment?

Ever wonder which State produce Rice in India? Well, except Rajasthan its in every state in India, with West Bengal leading with 6.15M hectares. Here are snapshots showing the map and top 9 states from a latest report(2009). Source: Hybrid Rice Seed Scenario in India : Problems and Challenges (PDF)

Image via Wikipedia Its quite remarkable. Scientists have developed a rice seed that can survive floods (under water) for more than 2 weeks. It is not uncommon to see many of us loosing the entire crop due to floods almost every year (particularly so in Andhra Pradesh, India). Hope, this will change our fortunes.   I have seen proof that agricultural science can make people’s lives better. This summer, I attended a roundtable discussion in New Delhi with scientists who developed a new variety of rice called Swarna-sub1. The amazing thing about Swarna-sub1 is that it can survive underwater for more than two weeks, which means it could revolutionize life for millions of farmers in flood-prone areas of India. The researchers used a fascinating technique called marker assisted selection to introduce a single allele, a version of a gene, into an existing rice variety to make it flood tolerant. I also met with representatives from local NGOs, seed companies, and the ...

iPad is now official and awesome. And in my view, there are two categories of products that will suffer a great deal if not completely get ignored in the market: Netbooks and e-Book readers (like Kindle) .  iPad will be a real break-through not because hardware (despite gigantic touch screen) or for software, but for great and intuitive user experience in consuming content. Finally, consuming content on web feels like reading a book or magazine, close to your heart. Something I always wanted. Hmm, I will be poor by at least another $500. The fact that any of those 140K apps that run on iPhone or iPod touch run on iPad without any modification is quite irresistible. And for those who already have an iPhone or iPod touch, using iPad is just natural and hence nothing exciting. It not only looks and feels like a gigantic iPhone or iPod touch, but powered by the same software core.

Happy Republic Day and Best wishes to all fellow Indians.  We have come a long way, but even after 60 years, the Dream of India is not fulfilled, yet. We can talk about history. Or we can make history. You decide . (via NDTV.com ) ‘You’ meant me, you and all Indians. Ever wonder how our Constitution looks like. Here is a a copy of the first page of Constitution of India. (Picture of Indian Constitution @ Library of Congress ) You can access the latest copy of Constitution of India at the Ministry of Law website here . We can talk about history. Or we can make history. You decide .