Here is a small exercise I got from the June 2005 issue of Reader’s Digest to test your mental agility.

Count
backwards from 100 in sevens:  for example, 100, 93, 86, etc.  Try to
time how long it will take for you to get to 1.  If you’re under 40,
you should manage it in less than 20 seconds.  If you’re 40 to 60,
under 25 seconds…

Solutions has become a buzzword the last 10 years. Most of us introduce ourselves as solution providers.  According to SGV review, the word dates back to 1375 and is derived from the French and Latin words for “loosening or unfastening.”

The word therefore focuses on providing answers to problems. IN a figurative sense, a problem is having your hands bound or handcuffed.  A solution is one that will untangle the knots to set you free

There was a time when a photograph could be an iron clad evidence or would tell the story.  Now its not.  Digital Photography have taken photo recomposition to new levels of ease and credibility.  CNET shows a photo gallery of famous pictures printed on news magazines and papers worldwide that were not what it appears to be.

Desktop hard drives holding 1 terabyte, or 1,000 gigabytes, of storage will likely debut in 2006, according to Bill Healy, senior vice president of product strategy and marketing at Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. These drives, which will have a 3.5-inch diameter, are expected to be incorporated into PCs and home servers.

- storage for 125,000 MP3 songs, or 1500 CDs.
- equal to a 1.42 mile-high stack of 1.44 floppies
- 2 weeks, 2 days, 19 hours, and 12 mins. of continuous DVD movies
- if 1 byte is represented by 1 sheet of paper, it’s a stack of paper 66,000 miles high.
- if 1 byte represented 1 heartbeat, it’s 2 minutes, 24 seconds worth of all the human heartbeats on earth.
- 8,000 times more data than a human brain retains in a lifetime.
- if 1 byte represented 1 grain of sand, it’s enough sand to fill a 240 ton mining truck.

Here’s a nice gallery that shows the evolution of GUI in the computer from 1984 to the present.  From Macintosh System 1, KDE 1 and Windows 1.0 to the present. Its nice to see how it has all evolved.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has joined a burgeoning international community - by starting his own weblog.

The launch of his blog  was reported on state TV, which urged users to send in messages to the president.

Mr Ahmadinejad’s first posting, entitled autobiography, tells of his childhood, Iran’s Islamic revolution, and the country’s war with Iraq.  More …

When you make an investment or go into business, you should consider what is the effect of inflation, and the effect of taxation on your returns. Here’s a great analogy from Warren Buffet:

If you (a) forego ten hamburgers to purchase an investment; (b) receive dividends which, after tax, buy two hamburgers; and (c) receive, upon sale of your holdings, after-tax proceeds that will buy eight hamburgers, then (d) you have had no real income from your investment, no matter how much it appreciated in dollars. You may feel richer, but
you won’t eat richer.