moved. It'll come back to this domain again soon, but in the meantime, blog updates can be found in their safehome at:

http://brianistheman.wordpress.com  ¶ 6/12/2008 02:02:00 PM 0 comments links to this post

test test again  ¶ 6/11/2008 11:31:00 PM 0 comments links to this post

Zemanta Image via Wikipediatrying to broaden my blogging appeal, i'm switching onto to Zemanta to pirate some copyrighted images from the web and spice up the old blog. But first, I'm going to write about Infosys Bangalore, and it's going to hopefully suggest some new photos of the campus. Especially the washing machine building. Here it goes baby   ¶ 6/05/2008 02:17:00 PM 0 comments links to this post

blog migration hell help me! trying to hassle with website stuff is such a nightmare. Especially when an ocean separates me from my server. FTP timeouts, import problems. Grrr. This is why I'm no longer a hands-on techie.  ¶ 6/05/2008 02:04:00 PM 0 comments links to this post

migration while it will soon reoccupy www.brianistheman.com, for now future India blogging will be on brianistheman.wordpress.com  ¶ 6/05/2008 01:37:00 PM 0 comments links to this post

India So here's the promotional video of the program I'm on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SN9rfrbuPLw Thus far it has been extremely mellow. The campus they've built here is like a large university campus, though certainly more sterile. They have 45+ buildings, immaculate lawns, health clubs, artificial ponds, meandering landscapes, a half dozen subsidized cafeterias (dinner=$0.50). From the video it looks like just another corporate park, perhaps a nice one. What's amazing about it though, is the contrast with the India right outside the gates: cows crossing the streets, roadside produce carts, honking polluted traffic. Infosys is ahead of the game by American standards, but is *lightyears* ahead of the game that's right on their doorstep. The kind of vision and worldliness it must have taken to build something like what they've built is pretty impressive I have to say. That said, living here is a bit like moving back in with my parents. The guest rules forbid: smoking, drinking alcohol, sex, loud music, sloppy dress, etc. while on company property (which will be 8 weeks for me). What with the security guards checking when I enter or leave the campus, the 50 minute taxi rides into town, and the acceptable use policy on the hotel's internet . . . I definitely feel like I'm 15 years old again, living in the suburbs.  ¶ 6/02/2008 09:22:00 PM 2 comments links to this post

Simcity Bangalore? I just got back from the four-hour honking pollution fest that is a taxi ride into the city. If all the trips are like that, I can easily imagine not wanting to leave my little work / hotel compound. Tailpipe fumes making me sick. Bleh.  ¶ 5/31/2008 10:25:00 AM 0 comments links to this post

South Asia Yay - my first blog post from India. Just arrived today and have high-speed internet in my room. (Travel + Internet) = (the good life). A few notable things before I collapse into jet-lagged napping: 1) The moustache is alive and well in India. Everyone's got one. Perhaps I need one? 2) Large trucks have written on their bumber "sound horn", as if drivers need any more encouragement. Honking is alive and well in India. A *lot* of honking. 3) I arrived in Bangalore's new airport, seven days after its opening. 4) There is an overabundance of service. waiters, security guards, taxi drivers. However many people you think a USA business might employ for a given job, India seems to have triple that.  ¶ 5/30/2008 04:13:00 AM 0 comments links to this post

North Korean inspiration I finally scanned some of my contraband and posted it here. Yay! http://drop.io/northkorea  ¶ 5/27/2008 09:59:00 PM 0 comments links to this post

Haiku One modern form of poetry that really doesn't get enough credit is the spam subject line. Trying to say "Cheap penis pills" without actually using those words (because of spam filters) is now a well honed art form. "Make a mountain in your pants" or "She'll never leave your bed" is so much more descriptive and evocative than just "Buy my fake Viagra".

Along a similar line, I think the Blackberry's belabored keyboarding encourages a lot of this kind of shortened, condensed writing. Most of my emails these days are four sentences or less, because tapping out anything longer is a hassle. Twitter is similar. You have 200 characters to express some meaningful personal status, so you choose your words carefully: economizing space with colorful word choice.

In effect, our always-on, shortened attention span internet generation has no time to trudge through multiple paragraphs of writing. We all start demanding clear, concise, short messaging so that we can quickly flit onward to the next task. Hence, we all become a bit more poetical in our writing.  ¶ 5/26/2008 11:10:00 AM 0 comments links to this post

Trust != Privacy My theory on the coming decade's erosion of individual privacy is as follows: Privacy and trust are inversely related. For instance, I don't really want anyone to know that six months ago I paid my cell phone bill late. But because that information and three hundred other data tidbits just like it are on my credit report, I can submit that credit report to a bank and convince a total stranger to give me thousands of dollars. My lack of privacy increases my trustworthiness, and therefore greases the wheels of commerce. In the same way, I don't trust someone who is in the tech industry and doesn't have a LinkedIn profile. Could this person be living under a rock? Are they trying to hide something? Do they have no friends? Either way, no one in my industry, in this day and age, should not be on LinkedIn. And they certainly should have a long and growing online trail. So in the coming world where we all have Facebook profiles and LinkedIn resumes and embarassing photos of being drunk in a bar and funny old high-school pictures up on the web and beyond our control, it will humanize and make accessible complete strangers who wouldn't otherwise trust one another. And in doing so, we'll all be more willing to play nicely together.  ¶ 5/24/2008 11:56:00 AM 0 comments links to this post

M$FT

My conspiratorial theory on Microsoft is that they have to continually invent bad business development ideas like buying Yahoo! because if they don't come up with silly ways to waste their excess cash, it'll become obvious to regulators how preposterously, wildly profitable is their business in Office and XP. If those undiluted fat margins suddenly showed up on their income statement, a lot more EU regulators would be calling for blood. So MSFT needs to reinvest the cash into low-margin businesses so that, on average, it doesn't look like they're minting money. Which they are.

  ¶ 5/23/2008 03:21:00 PM 0 comments links to this post

NYC schools To subjugate their colonies, one useful psychological tactic the British employed in Egypt was constructing towering and imposing government buildings. Everything had 20 steps leading up to oversized doorways with imperial columns, and it all said 'you are tiny and insignificant'.

Public school buildings are like that in New York. For some reason, every elementary school has a door three times the height of a normal human, and windows twice as big. The floors seem to be twenty feet high, and the labels over the doors force you to crane your neck to peer upward at them. The buildings impose themselves on you, constantly reminding you of your petty insignificance and inviting obedience.

I'm pretty sure I would never send my kid to one.  ¶ 5/14/2008 12:14:00 AM 0 comments links to this post

Horse Race For the forseeable future, there can no longer be any blow-away elections. At least not at the national level. This is because, in a media environment where huge money is made on prolonged attention to the political horserace, the media will always support the underdog at the expense of the leader. A no-contest race is uninteresting, and the media has newspapers to sell. So anyone who pulls far ahead will immediately have their coverage cut, until such time that they're back even with the runner up. In this way, all future elections will be won by razor thin margins.  ¶ 5/11/2008 02:49:00 PM 0 comments links to this post

Yankees I just returned from the hypothermia-fest that is a nosebleed seat at Yankee stadium in April. Apparently the key is pre-drinking so you don't notice the cold, and alternating hot chocolate with miller light.

Yankees lost, and took my hopes and dreams with them. I'll never cheer again.  ¶ 4/29/2008 11:14:00 PM 0 comments links to this post

Today “Things fall apart; the center cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity” William Butler Yeats  ¶ 4/28/2008 12:10:00 PM 0 comments links to this post