Amar E. Chakravarthi’s Blog

Some companies say, What product should we build with this technology?

Some companies say, What technology do we need to build this product?

Some companies say, What product would this customer buy?

A crime-blotter blog. E-mail alerts. Anonymous tips via text message.

Now comes the next high-tech weapon for the Boston Police Department: A sergeant in the emergency dispatch center has been experimenting with Twitter, the micro-blogging tool that facilitates group conversations in 140-character bulletins to subscribers via computers and cellphones.

The updates can be found on twitter at @Boston_Police.

One goal is to interact in real time with the public during festivals and large-scale events about bottlenecks, closed roads, and crowd-related problems. For example, officers could warn their Twitter followers about an intersection to avoid because of an accident. A member of the public could respond, in a few keystrokes, that the suggested detour is also bumper to bumper, warning other users to try another route.

The first significant trial will come Sunday when thousands of revelers inundate South Boston for the St. Patrick’s Day parade.

“Primarily we are going to send out information, with no expectations” that the public will respond with feedback, said Deputy Superintendent John Daley. “The idea is to just get a sense of whether or not it has value.”

To read the entire article…

Police to alert public with Twitter dispatches

As I did a little more research here are some other police departments that are finding value with Twitter:

milwaukeepolice

ModestoPolice

WMPolice

westyorkspolice

SanAntonioPD

torontopolice

For those of you who dont get Twitter. Give it a try. Its very easy and very addicting. Its also a very useful tool.

People trying to register .tv domain names are being warned that the island of Tuvalu, which the domain represents, is sinking.

Domain registrar GoDaddy is even claiming that, because the Pacific Ocean island could go the way of Atlantis, users should opt for .com or .net domains instead.

As a result of global warming Tuvalu – which at it’s peak is just 5m above sea-level – could disappear, and if it ceases to exist so will .tv domains.

What the odd news means for us at newslite.tv is not clear … but we have our bathing suits ready.
Web domain bosses ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) say that if the Tuvalu government was to disappear .tv domains would be retired.

It caught my attention. I beleive it is real when I think back about some of the Job Interview questions I have had.

Tricky, funny and interesting, these are some questions people claim to have been asked at job interviews with Microsoft and Google. And IKEA, sort of…

There are some serious brain twisters in there, so enjoy! (Or be baffled… )

Questions by Google

1. How many golf balls can fit in a school bus?
2. You are shrunk to the height of a nickel and your mass is proportionally reduced so as to maintain your original density. You are then thrown into an empty glass blender. The blades will start moving in 60 seconds. What do you do?
3. How many piano tuners are there in the entire world?
4. In a country in which people only want boys, every family continues to have children until they have a boy. If they have a girl, they have another child. If they have a boy, they stop. What is the proportion of boys to girls in the country?
5. Describe a chicken using a programming language.

Questions by Microsoft

1. You have a bucket of jelly beans. Some are red, some are blue, and some green. With your eyes closed, pick out 2 of a like color. How many do you have to grab to be sure you have 2 of the same?
2. Pairs of primes separated by a single number are called prime pairs. Examples are 17 and 19. Prove that the number between a prime pair is always divisible by 6 (assuming both numbers in the pair are greater than 6). Now prove that there are no ‘prime triples.’
3. Imagine an analog clock set to 12 o’clock. Note that the hour and minute hands overlap. How many times each day do both the hour and minute hands overlap? How would you determine the exact times of the day that this occurs?
4. How much does a 747 weigh?
5. Imagine a disk spinning like a record player turn table. Half of the disk is black and the other is white. Assume you have an unlimited number of color sensors. How many sensors would you have to place around the disk to determine the direction the disk is spinning? Where would they be placed?

The Question that I remember most when I was early in my Career..

Why Are Man Hole Covers Round ?

If you think you know the answer to this or any of the others, please post a comment. I would enjoy some of the answers and I think others would also..