Prax

Prakash and I went to the same high school in Kathmandu, and later the same college in America. He hails from the mythical Dolpo region of Nepal: much of it is behind the Himalayas. Here he is seen with his wife Chas. They have a house in St. Louis, I've been.

Australian Woes
Kathmandu Woes

Cutting Crew: Just Died In Your Arms Tonight

Now playing on the sound system at the cafe.

"It Was A Nigger!"

Entertainment Weekly: Rosewood (1997)

In 1923, the residents of Rosewood, a tranquil all-black agrarian village in central Florida, bask in their hard-toiling prosperity. Several generations removed from slavery, they have farms, businesses, a community. They have freedom — or, at least, a hermetic approximation of it. For it's a freedom they can share only with one another. In the adjacent, comparatively poor all-white town of Sumner, the citizens look at Rosewood with suspicion and envy. The very power of American upward mobility has shaken the firmament of Dixie — its racial-social hierarchy. ...... When one of the whites gets beaten up by her extramarital lover, she's so flooded with rage and guilt that her hysteria explodes like shrapnel at the most convenient available target. ''It was a nigger!'' she wails. There are rumors of a recently escaped black convict, and with this mythical culprit in mind, the men of Sumner form a lynch mob. They never do locate the suspect, but in a sense they start to see him everywhere — in the face of any innocent black man who knows nothing of the crime. Out for ''justice,'' the mob consumes its own purpose, becoming an end in itself, a jamboree of lynching, shooting, burning, slaughter.

Little Flickers Of Racism
Tim Berners-Lee: The Internet Is Not A Country
Race, Gender, Tech
Caro, Get Off The Summit,That's A Volcano
Caroline McCarthy On Gender

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• 100% of White Racists Vote Rightwing (robertlindsay.wordpress.com)

Little Flickers Of Racism

Those little flickers of racism matter. To say they don't matter to a group dynamics guy like me is to suggest software bugs are just fine, and bad design is okay. No, it's not.

Race, Gender, Tech

I plot to go into the red circle in this diagram from the tech angle. And for someone of such ambitions the flickers of racism matter even more. They are bread and butter. That is extra true of flickers of sexism, the obvious kind and the internalized kind, both, especially the internalized kind. Women with advanced degrees of internalized sexism also tend to be the more racist kind.

My Web Diagram

When I meet early stage entrepreneurs in town, one way I gauge how far they might go is by trying to figure out how much of a post-ISMs individual they are.

Rudiments Of A Corporate Culture
Third World Guy
Web 5.0: Face Time

The world of physics felt pretty much complete and all set and done when Einstein showed up. But then he noticed light rays bent near the Sun, and based on that one flicker he turned the world of physics upside down. Innovation happens at the edges. The abandoned petri dish is where the magic is at. Little flickers of racism are fascinating like that.

+1: Turning Search Results Into Status Updates

Image via CrunchBaseThat plus one button (+1) might be Google's ultimate master stroke in the social space, it might not be Google Plus. Search continues to be huge. People search. That is what the web is all about. Otherwise we already had the water cooler crowds. The web liberated us from the confines of geography. People want to go online and search far and wide.

Before the +1 button the search results belonged to Google. Searching was a spectator sport. Now Google has allowed us to participate. We have become part of the secret sauce Google algorithms. We change the search results just as we consume them.

But this is just a start. I want much more say in what happens to my +1 activity. I want some kind of an internal display. I want my +1 action to become the mother of all bookmarks. I want some kind of an internal dashboard.

Ultimately I want my own very personal Google. I want to be able to search though only sites I ever pressed that +1 button on.

Pressing that +1 button is the simplest of status updates for now. You are not having to write up anything. If you press that button enough times, you should have mapped out your personal interest and knowledge graphs. That is powerful.

Tech And Terrorism

Physical

Americans Are Fat

Sunday afternoon plan: free lunch at the Gurudwara near Jackson Heights. My childhood best friend's wife is Punjabi. Evening plan: Ace Hotelless than a minute ago via web Favorite Retweet ReplyParamendra Bhagat
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Just did 1000 situps. Tech consulting interrupted.less than a minute ago via txt Favorite Retweet ReplyParamendra Bhagat
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30 minutes of crude yoga. Feeling good.less than a minute ago via txt Favorite Retweet ReplyParamendra Bhagat
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1000 units of tummy muscle exercises.less than a minute ago via txt Favorite Retweet ReplyParamendra Bhagat
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Making yogurt. Nobody makes it better in NYC.less than a minute ago via txt Favorite Retweet ReplyParamendra Bhagat
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500 pushups. Yoga next. Yoga: not easy. The mind wants to wander.less than a minute ago via txt Favorite Retweet ReplyParamendra Bhagat
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120 minute walk. Hello Vig Bar. Happy birthday Soraya Hareez.less than a minute ago via txt Favorite Retweet ReplyParamendra Bhagat
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Headed to the Ace Hotel for some good music this evening. But first the free lunch at the Gurudwara near Jackson Heights.less than a minute ago via web Favorite Retweet ReplyParamendra Bhagat
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Haddaway: What Is Love

Just heard on the sound system at the Ave Coffee in Sunnyside.
Ace Sundays
No More Beer, No More Soda

Android Has To Be Kept Free

Microsoft making money from Android is criminal behavior. Oracle attempting to make money from Android is criminal behavior. This has to stop. Android has to be kept free. These attempts by PC era companies is the non innovative way to go after Android. Oracle does not even exist in the smartphone space, but I guess the Oracle CEO's best friend does. That is taking friendship too far. Microsoft is a distant also ran in the smartphone space, and so it has decided to play foul.

Microsoft And Oracle Misbehaving On Android



Android being free is fundamental to what Android is all about. Charging for Android from the back door would be a major setback to the Android phenomenon.

Considering the smartphone is how the vast majority of humanity will come online, it can be argued this is to be the Android century. Android is robust and it is free. It is as good as any in performance and it is free. If it is no longer free, that takes away from the shine of Android.

Microsoft And Oracle Misbehaving On Android

Image via CrunchBaseI have not dug into the details, but what I know is Android was supposed to be free. And I get the impression both Microsoft and Oracle are after Android. This is sad.

But Sun's Java went open source a long time ago, no? What seems to be the problem?

Larry Ellison going after SAP is fun, but this is leaving a bad taste in my mouth. Android has to be kept free. It is to do with humanity. The leftover swathes of humanity, if they ever will come online, Android will be it. And it makes no sense to jack up the prices. You do that and less people get to come online.

For the first time I am wishing retirement upon Steve Ballmer and Larry Ellison.

Leave Android alone.

The gist of the story is this: the PC guys - Steve Jobs, Steve Ballmer, Larry Ellison - are going after the Internet guy - Larry Page.

The story should end thus: software patents should be disallowed. The patent trolls have been creating mayhem. Takes energy away from innovation.

Plus, Face

Image via CrunchBaseGoogle's first successful social experiment is - you might have heard - called Google Plus. Plus is arithmetic. It is to do with numbers. Google has always been about numbers. The name Google itself is googol misspelt. Googol is "the digit 1 followed by one hundred zeros."

With the Facebook name, the emphasis is on Face. The emphasis is on human relationships not on algorithms.

It was this very mismatch in DNA that prevented Google from cracking the social nut for the longest time. But finally they did it.