mere funde

Category: Tech

  • Google Wishlist

    Following this wishlist from Pandia fellows, I came up with one of my own. So what do I want from Google in 2007. Here you go:

    1. Allow comments on all official Google blogs and answer them.
    2. Keep up the work on Google Patent Search. Expand coverage, jurisdictions and search options. Maybe add intelligent assignee optimizer and show related news. Something like Google Finance.
    3. Advanced search operators.
    4. Search result RSS feed.
    5. Powerpoint equivalent on Google Docs. (Think. Rather Thinkfree)
    6. Better Google Books.
    7. Better Blogger. Rather close Blogger and adopt WordPress.
    8. Mashup between all Google search tools (Websearch, blog search, patents, etc) and Google Docs (spreadsheets).
    9. A functional and effective GDrive.
    10. Stop launch of any new services till all products are out of beta.

    And did I forget the Google India Blog??

  • Google’s Patent Search

    The inevitable has happened. Google has finally launched a patent search engine. You can check it out at http://www.google.com/patents

    For long I had wished that Google gives a better patent search option, and it has finally happened. Complete with advanced search options including assignee, inventor, IPC classes, and date limitations it is gonna be one heck of a tool for prior art search. I hope it does normal language search more effectively than concept search on PatentCafe.

    Though the jurisdiction coverage is currently limited to granted US patents only, I am sure it would not be long before it adds other major Patent Offices like EPO and WIPO to it and published applications/pre-grant publications.

    I sure see some competition for us in the future and also for IP service providers like Thomson Scientific.

    What I now want to see is a mashup which combines Google Patent Search and Google Spreadsheets & Docs. That would be so much fun!!

    PS: The official post is at http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/12/now-you-can-search-for-us-patents.html.

  • Tech and Art

    Do you see beauty in a recursive loop?? Do the curves of a V-twin engine of a Harley Davidson remind you of finely carved Greek statues?? Do you hear music in the sound of a V-10 F1 engine (you will be missed)? If your answer to all of these is a yes, then you are a technologist at your heart, whether or not you have a tech degree.

    Ever since I joined Evalueserve, I had always wondered why they called it the state-of-the-art instead of state-of-the-technology, or why they called it prior art instead of existing technology. Finally stumbled on the answer yesterday while reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

    Turns out that the word technology is derived from the Greek word techne, meaning art, skill or craft. One of the wisest races to have ever existed, the Greeks, in all their wisdom, never saw any difference between art and technology and never had different words for them. No wonder their buildings are considered works of art in the modern world.

    So next time you find yourself comparing Bach to Knuth or Michelangelo to the engineers of Ferrari, don’t be surprised.

  • Return of the IT!!

    The IT department of our company had been lying low for pretty long now, and I was kind of caught napping when they moved. Last time they did something stupid I wrote about was in February.

    Digg was officially blocked by them late yesterday night. Though I agree that it does not contain business related information for us, but it is huge source of up to date IT knowhow and throws up tools every now and then which help work in several ways. One more “Message Boards and Clubs” dies a silent death. There will be only a few people who will mourn this but I am bewildered at the nonsense behind this all.

    Someday, which I doubt will come, I hope they realise their mistake and understand that in a time when Web2.0 is the buzzword and collective knowledge sharing by people online (e.g., Wikipedia) is a huge hit banning such websites will only prove negative for them.

    PS: This comes at a time when our department is all gripped by a new internal initiative which promises to change the way we work by the use of AJAX etc. Now this is called irony!!

  • Kamal Hai!

    Quillpad is an online transliterator (complete with AJAX and the works, with a very Web2.0 feel) which I have started liking immensely. An Indian startup, it does a pretty decent job and provides you a very very clean and simple interface. It also supports Kannad, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi and Malayalam. Below is a sample, lyrics of the song Tere Bin from Bas Ek Pal. Since my Hindi is not great I do not know if the spellings are alright but they seem decent.

    तेर बीन मैं यूँ कैसे जीया
    कैसे जीया तेरे बीन
    तेरे बीन मैं यूँ कैसे जीया
    कैसे जीया तेरे बीन
    लेकर यादें तेरी रातें मेरी कटी – 2
    मुझसे बातें तेरी करती है चाँदनी
    तन्हा है तुझ बीन रातें मेरी
    दीन मेरे दीन के जैसे नही
    तन्हा बदन तन्हा है रूह नाम मेरी आँखें रहे
    आजा मेरे अब रूबरू
    जीना नही बीन तेरे
    तेरे बीन मैं यूँ कैसे जीया
    कैसे जीया तेरे बीन
    तेरे बीन मैं यूँ कैसे जीया
    कैसे जीया तेरे बीन

    क़ब्से आँखें मेरी राह में तेरे बिच्छी – 2
    भूले से ही कही तू मील जाए कभी
    भूले ना मुझसे बातें तेरी
    भीगी है हैर पल आँखें मेरी
    क्यूं साँस लूं क्यूं मैं ज़ीयू
    जीना बुरा सा लगे
    क्यूं हो गया तू बेवाफ़ाा मुझको बता दे वजह
    तेरे बीन मैं यूँ कैसे जीया
    कैसे जिया तेरे बीन …
    तेरे बीन मैं यूँ कैसे जिया
    कैसे जीया तेरे बीन …