The Last Lecture - Randy Pausch

Randy Pausch who inspired many people by his speech "The Last Lecture", passed away.

From the Google Blog:
7/26/2008 10:25:00 AM

Randy Pausch, a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University and a good friend of Google, passed away last night. In addition to being recognized as a pioneer in virtual reality research, he became widely known as a gifted teacher and a mentor to many. Millions of people saw his inspiring "Last Lecture" on YouTube. Read more about Randy and his contributions on our Research Blog.

Thank you Professor.

Ad-o-mania

I have long resisted putting ads on the website, simply because they take away the charm. But I see a lot of people who earn enough to support their websites running cost. So one day when I had nothing better to do (and lot of time at hand), I thought why not play with it a bit. If we generate enough revenue then we can buy a domain of our own and pay for the hosting charges. So just on an experimental basis, we have put some ads here and there throughout the website (this does not include the image banner ad at the top of the page which is added by our free hosting website 'webng'. I hate it!).

This is just a test to see how much we can collect. If the collections are more then expected, we can channel the excess revenue to other better things.

So long my friends...

Anyone Can Post!

So often I browse through forums. Read it. Think "I think I can contribute here". Click on reply. Start typing a reply. Its almost done. I stop to think. BOOM!!! I click on cancel and leave.

I am sure this happens with many of you. A lot of people think, and think again, and yet again. And then decide not to add anything. I've been wondering why people are so shy to post anything, even if they know about the topic.

One reason is people are scared. What if I am wrong? My friends will think I am so dumb. What if i dont speak any sense? I will be ridiculed. Or simply, why should I share my knowledge?

This way we end up not telling even little of what we can share with others. If we seek information, why dont we give information?

We all have used Wikipedia. Sharing is the essence of Wikipedia and the reason for its very success. Because of this collaborative effort, it has all the potential to surpass any encyclopedia.

In a very non-preachy way I would like to tell you to pleeeeeeze share information. Dont worry if its non-sensical or off the topic. And no, you dont have to be as intellectual as Shreekant, or as analytical as Avishkar. You dont have to write paragraphs and paragraphs (250 word essays are history!). You can be as stupid as Prateek to post virtually anything here. A simple one liner will also do. The point is to take things forward and get interested.

Phew, took so long to draft. Hope all this effort is paid off.

P.S.: The topic of this post was inspired from Chef Gusteau's cookbook "Anyone Can Cook!" from the movie Ratatouille. :)