Note to recruiters

Note to recruiters: We are quite aware that recruiters, interviewers, VCs and other professionals generally perform a Google Search before they interview someone, take a pitch from someone, et cetera. Please keep in mind that not everything put on the Internet must align directly to one's future career and/or one's future product portfolio. Sometimes, people do put things on the Internet just because. Just because. It may be out of their personal interests, which may have nothing to do with their professional interests. Or it may be for some other reason. Recruiters seem to have this wrong-headed notion that if somebody is not signalling their interests in a certain area online, then that means that they are not interested in that area at all. It is worth pointing out that economics pretty much underlies the areas of marketing, strategy, operations and finance. And this blog is about economics. With metta, let us. by all means, be reflective about this whole business of business. Also, see our post on "The Multi-faceted Identity Problem".

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

TECHNOLOGY: Hackers reverse-engineer NASA's leaked bugging device

From the New Scientist:
RADIO hackers have reverse-engineered some of the wireless spying gadgets used by the US National Security Agency. Using documents leaked by Edward Snowden, researchers have built simple but effective tools that can be attached to parts of a computer to gather private information in a host of intrusive ways.

The NSA's Advanced Network Technology catalogue was part of the avalanche of classified documents leaked by Snowden, a former agency contractor. The catalogue lists and pictures devices that agents can use to spy on a target's computer or phone. The technologies include fake base stations for hijacking and monitoring cellphone calls and radio-equipped USB sticks that transmit a computer's contents.

Thursday, July 10, 2014

Office hours - and learning Malayalam in 21 days

Office hours for next month are scheduled for Monday, August 4th.

I have been on a "Learn Malayalam" project this summer. I set myself a target of learning enough Malayalam within a 21 day period. It has been working quite well. I am almost done, and have reached the desired level of fluency.

This three week period happens to coincide with the World Cup. Which was nice. Because I could cheer for Team USA in malayALam. The best thing about America is that it is a country that celebrates diversity. It is quite awesome that you can cheer for Team USA in whatever language you want.

And, while on the topic of learning Malayalam, I wanted to send out a quick shout out to Gita Natarajan Shankar, Aruna Govind and Rita Maheshan for offering time to talk to me in malayALam, and/or offering resources. This is exactly the type of "constructive cooperation" I need. I am quite sure that it is this sort of "constructive cooperation" and support that is also responsible for the success of Indian-Americans in Spelling Bees - it is important to identify for other people what they need, when they need it and given them the right support at the right time.

And below is my thank you note on Facebook to my Facebook friends.

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I hope to have brought some Germany-like efficiency to my Malayaalam learning. I truly believe that it is possible to learn languages quite quickly (And this has important implications for Reading/Writing [well, I think they are important] and for improving literacy levels in the world too, but that is a different matter. I am close to the end of the scheduled 21 day period. Still have a few more days to go, but I think I have reached the desired level of fluency now. It should be smooth sailing from here on. It has been fun cheering with you all. Thanks, Avinash Kishore Shahi Ujjwal Sinha Partha Basu Stan Veuger Anusha Iyer Sundar Pichai Sunil Ravipati Arnab Pal Shalin Patel Raghav Krishnapriyan Nirupama Bulusu Pradeep Madhavan Louis Osofsky. And for the finals, best of luck, Deutschland! Viel Glück!
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