Da Vinci Code Game is better than the book and is, of course, better than the yet unreleased movie. In fact, anything is better than Dan Brown's best-seller.
Da Vinci Code Game features 12,358 original puzzles created by Googlers. They'll be released over the next 24 days, in the form of six different challenges at four difficulty levels.
Saturday, April 22, 2006
Sunday, April 09, 2006
Reservation will backfire, say academics
The government's move to introduce reservation in all central universities, Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMS) will bring down the quality of education and may backfire in the long run, say professors at these prestigious institutions.
"Proposed reservation in IITs, IIMs and other high learning grounds will certainly affect the quality of education. Reservation will compromise with the quality of student intake and it may affect the quality of teachers as well," said Jagdeep S. Chhokar, a senior professor at IIM-Ahmedabad.
"If they are going to increase the number of seats in these places, the student teacher equation will be adversely affected. Currently there is a shortage of quality teachers in IITs and IIMs and if the number of students increases, there has to be a corresponding rise in the number of teachers," Chhokar told IANS on telephone from Ahmedabad.
"When we are finding it difficult to get quality professors, how can one get more teachers for these extra seats? The only way out is compromising on the quality, which means poor teaching and devaluation of the brand name and the certificate," he added.
On Wednesday, Human resource Minister Arjun Singh said his ministry had decided reserve 27 percent seats for backward classes in all central universities, IITs and IIMs.
Currently, central government-funded institutions reserve 22.5 percent of seats for students belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
Chhokar said the reservation move could also lead to polarisation among students on the basis of caste.
"Though I think that students in IIMs will not accept the proposal, it will divide students on the basis of caste and social background. When we should feel proud as Indians and respect talent, plans are afoot to inject a sense of casteism and socially insecurity," he said.
"When reservation could not make much difference in the last 60 years, it can hardly benefit the needy now. It's the creamy layer who will take all the advantage", he said.
"Government should not overburden these institutions. There should be focus on creating high-end educational institutes that can compete with IITs and IIMs," said Kothari, who was a former director in charge of IIT-Delhi.
Krishna Kumar, director of IIM-Kozhikode also did not elaborate on the institute's stand over the reservation issue. "We have not received any directive and would not like to comment before that."
Sign an online petition here
"Proposed reservation in IITs, IIMs and other high learning grounds will certainly affect the quality of education. Reservation will compromise with the quality of student intake and it may affect the quality of teachers as well," said Jagdeep S. Chhokar, a senior professor at IIM-Ahmedabad.
"If they are going to increase the number of seats in these places, the student teacher equation will be adversely affected. Currently there is a shortage of quality teachers in IITs and IIMs and if the number of students increases, there has to be a corresponding rise in the number of teachers," Chhokar told IANS on telephone from Ahmedabad.
"When we are finding it difficult to get quality professors, how can one get more teachers for these extra seats? The only way out is compromising on the quality, which means poor teaching and devaluation of the brand name and the certificate," he added.
On Wednesday, Human resource Minister Arjun Singh said his ministry had decided reserve 27 percent seats for backward classes in all central universities, IITs and IIMs.
Currently, central government-funded institutions reserve 22.5 percent of seats for students belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
Chhokar said the reservation move could also lead to polarisation among students on the basis of caste.
"Though I think that students in IIMs will not accept the proposal, it will divide students on the basis of caste and social background. When we should feel proud as Indians and respect talent, plans are afoot to inject a sense of casteism and socially insecurity," he said.
"When reservation could not make much difference in the last 60 years, it can hardly benefit the needy now. It's the creamy layer who will take all the advantage", he said.
"Government should not overburden these institutions. There should be focus on creating high-end educational institutes that can compete with IITs and IIMs," said Kothari, who was a former director in charge of IIT-Delhi.
Krishna Kumar, director of IIM-Kozhikode also did not elaborate on the institute's stand over the reservation issue. "We have not received any directive and would not like to comment before that."
Sign an online petition here
Saturday, March 18, 2006
What is Pixel Promotion All About?
There exists a new type of advertising that is going great. Watch out, it could be the next most prominent event since Google Adsense. At present, site owners expend immense amounts of money in order to get visitors to their web page. They try pay per click ads, banner ads, popup ads, and a hundred other, often nefarious, methods of acquiring traffic. The newest way of attracting visitors has become known as Pixel Advertising.
The basic premise is that pixels (the primary unit that makes up a graphic on a website) are made available on a web page. These pixels display graphics that link back to the advertiser's website. The page becomes a mosaic that can often equal the best pop culture art. The outcome is a web page that gets qualified traffic with a link back to their site, this in turn causes sales which, in anyone's book, is the name of the game.
The reasoning behind this new medium is the idea that PPC advertising costs too much. Ten PPC clicks per day at 50 cents per click works out at $1825 per annum. Often pay per click costs a great deal more than this depending, obviously, on the competition.
Pixel adverts are usually a single cost and are valid for years. It is not uncommon to see pixel site owners providing their space for 5 years. With a good quality graphic, it could attract more visitors to your website than pay per click advertising resulting in big savings. Spaces are most commonly sold in 10 by 10 pixel blocks at 5 cents per pixel up to over a dollar a pixel. A 10 by 10 block comprises 100 pixels. The 10px by 10px minimum format is usually the norm as this is logically the smallest functional space. Blocks of pixels generally have to form a square or a rectangle.
Pixel advertising is just in it's infancy. It is much too early to tell where it may lead, but for what they cost, the pixel ads tend to be most likely money well spent. Overall, it's likely to be a small price to pay and could benefit site owners with a good collection of inbound links.
The basic premise is that pixels (the primary unit that makes up a graphic on a website) are made available on a web page. These pixels display graphics that link back to the advertiser's website. The page becomes a mosaic that can often equal the best pop culture art. The outcome is a web page that gets qualified traffic with a link back to their site, this in turn causes sales which, in anyone's book, is the name of the game.
The reasoning behind this new medium is the idea that PPC advertising costs too much. Ten PPC clicks per day at 50 cents per click works out at $1825 per annum. Often pay per click costs a great deal more than this depending, obviously, on the competition.
Pixel adverts are usually a single cost and are valid for years. It is not uncommon to see pixel site owners providing their space for 5 years. With a good quality graphic, it could attract more visitors to your website than pay per click advertising resulting in big savings. Spaces are most commonly sold in 10 by 10 pixel blocks at 5 cents per pixel up to over a dollar a pixel. A 10 by 10 block comprises 100 pixels. The 10px by 10px minimum format is usually the norm as this is logically the smallest functional space. Blocks of pixels generally have to form a square or a rectangle.
Pixel advertising is just in it's infancy. It is much too early to tell where it may lead, but for what they cost, the pixel ads tend to be most likely money well spent. Overall, it's likely to be a small price to pay and could benefit site owners with a good collection of inbound links.
Sunday, February 05, 2006
Indians come up with Kosmix to challenge Google
Two Indian computer wizards who studied along with Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin at Stanford University are now launching a start-up to compete with the world's best known search engine.
Anand Rajaraman and Venky Harinarayan are betting that Kosmix with its deep search technology can challenge Google by gleaning more about the overall content of Webpages searched instead of their popularity.
Google basically searches pages based on a sort of popularity contest and not necessarily its content, but Kosmix creators says they took a different approach and developed a new kind of categorisation technology.
The two Indians, who were among the co-founders of web database company Junglee, hope their deep search technology can improve upon Google's one-size-fits-all approach.
Kosmix asks users to define a category for a search. If a search term is related to health, users can make a query in a health-related search box. That way, it can find Webpages closely associated in meaning with the search term.
It then looks at what Webpages link to other pages to take a bigger stab at judging the pages subject.
If a Webpage says something similar to the page it links to, you can get enough information to categorise it by topic, says Harinarayan.
The company, set up last year, will officially launch at the DEMO conference for start-ups in Phoenix next week.
Kosmix has already started testing a health search on its Web site. Over the next year, the company will release numerous categories of search?from health to travel, politics and finance. It plans to unveil a general search box within a year.
Anand Rajaraman and Venky Harinarayan are betting that Kosmix with its deep search technology can challenge Google by gleaning more about the overall content of Webpages searched instead of their popularity.
Google basically searches pages based on a sort of popularity contest and not necessarily its content, but Kosmix creators says they took a different approach and developed a new kind of categorisation technology.
The two Indians, who were among the co-founders of web database company Junglee, hope their deep search technology can improve upon Google's one-size-fits-all approach.
Kosmix asks users to define a category for a search. If a search term is related to health, users can make a query in a health-related search box. That way, it can find Webpages closely associated in meaning with the search term.
It then looks at what Webpages link to other pages to take a bigger stab at judging the pages subject.
If a Webpage says something similar to the page it links to, you can get enough information to categorise it by topic, says Harinarayan.
The company, set up last year, will officially launch at the DEMO conference for start-ups in Phoenix next week.
Kosmix has already started testing a health search on its Web site. Over the next year, the company will release numerous categories of search?from health to travel, politics and finance. It plans to unveil a general search box within a year.
Monday, January 02, 2006
Potter star receives honor from Queen
Along with twenty-three people who were victims of the London bombings last summer, Robbie Coltrane (Hagrid), has been made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). These honors are given to those who have done something special in life. They are nominated by the Queen of England with the advice of the Prime Minister.
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