Sentence of the day

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the people to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders.  Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.”

-Antoine De Saint-Exupery,
Author of The Little Prince

Google Vs. Bing Vs. WolframAlpha search comparison on Factual Questions

Just did a quick experiment between the three search engines on a factual question. Results and comments below

I simply asked for the GDP for Malaysia. Google obviously gave the most hits 2.75 million. It also pointed me to the official statistics website for Malaysia in first 3 hits. Bing is far behin with 1.15 million hits but I like their side bar with related searches. It’s more elegant than one at the bottom for Google.

However I found the Alpha results the most useful. The graph trendline is a nice touch, it converts to local currency on current date.

Going forward this is my search strategy for factual questions, give wolfram a try first, then go to Google for comprehensiveness and then maybe Bing.

Will try some more combinations and post results when I more time.

Will Pakistan cease to exist?

I predict that over the next five years Pakistan as an entity will completely cease to exist.
I think the shooting at Sri Lankan cricketers will be the straw that broke the camel’s back.
I completely understand the warped logic of shooting at Englishmen, Australians and SA. They are after all white and thus by definition oppressors and should be shot at, Indians also I get, they are THE mortal enemy, but the poor sri lankans.
WTF!

MC Esher’s Economics Models

Absolutely brilliant

Deficit Financing

Deficit Financing

To chase away Monday Morning Blues

Online Survey

Trying to make sure get enough responses for the survey @
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=hSJZwnFkycPylC6uX6cFBw_3d_3d

Feeding the Soul

Words of Wisdom in these hard times

If thou of fortune be bereft,
And in thy store there be but left,
Two loaves, sell one, and with the dole,
Buy hyacinths to feed thy soul.

Sheikh Sa’di – 13th Century Persian Poet

Reality Bites

Bloomberg at the bar

Yesterday evening saw Bloomberg TV playing at the bar which usually shows EPL matches. Obsessing over the Financial Crisis news has now reached a weird state.