Google Location Search: Basically some sort of automatic yellow pages. The coolest thing about it is that all the spots are highlighted in one single map! I mean, one can develop a great amount of applications, having a very large database of everything (and a great engine)!

And, here is an interview with the creator of award-winning Google News... You know, basically something similar to the world-famous sarkhat.com, but in English! :-)

AP: Amazon.com invades Google's turf with Silicon Valley startup.

The product search market is now going to be a very tough one, IMHO. Yahoo! has recently redesigned Yahoo! Shopping and added a lot more features and Google is doing the same thing with the difference that the online shops are not affiliated with Google itself but they are, in Yahoo!'s case. Amazon.com's new technology has a different story, it [apparently] performs a search in its own database but as you may have noticed, it usually pulls up many many out-of-stock items. Well, just my two cents.

Seems everybody's going after Google; however, amazon.com hasn't disclosed how much money they're planning to invest on their new tool. All they said was that it's going to be a more focused search engine than Google and they're going to start with 30 employees, not very far from Google's headquarters here in Silicon Valley.

This weekend's links are very cool; Make sure to check them out! Happy Mehregan. :-)

Some BIG THINGS!

Quite interesting: How mathematics is featured on my favorite TV show, The Simpsons. Here is a comprehensive collection of links related to the Simpsons Math. I have always wondered why a lot of jokes rely on math for amusement!

Become a DJ And mix you own music! (flash)

Soundbug is the new sweet portable tool that sticks to the window to play a loud music!

Flash Game: RSVP

Rockface Rescue has a very interesting flash game now!

And, the best link of this week to make the flash games collections complete: the Telescope Game! It gets a little hard after the 8th level, but it's still doable. I'm kind stuck at the 10th!

I'm gonna have to postpone introducing the new web site due to some technical difficulties; however, please stay tuned for this new tool!

Let me instead write about Eliyon. Eliyon Technologies provides the most comprehensive source of information on business professionals available.

The beauty of their work is that the database is growing every second using sophisticated extraction and artificial intelligence software.

I think Eliyon can be next generation's most comprehensive source of information on individuals and companies if its accuracy is proven. It generates an automatic resume of individuals and shows relevant information about the companies next to the employment history.

Eliyon can become one of the greatest and most useful tool in recruiting business since it basically eliminates the effort of searching for a specific individual and going through all the links weather they are relevant to that person or not. This is one other example of how text processing, information extraction and artificial intelligence play a very important rule in today's technology and competitive IT market.

Test the power of Cambridge, MA based Eliyon for yourself. I tested it on the start-ups I used to work for, and received pretty impressive results.

You're gonna be surprised when a new web site is unveiled! :-)

Google is looking for engineers with the programming skill to rewrite the world's information infrastructure. The Google Code Jam 2003 is one way Google hopes to find them.

Do you have exceptional programming skills? Can you make computers perform like silicon puppets with just a few well-expressed commands? Are you at ease when faced with a hard stop and a group of peers evaluating every line of your code? Here.s your opportunity to display the grace of the true professional in a reward-rich environment.

This is probably the coolest competition since US Puzzle Championship sponsored by Google. Registration starts Oct. 1st. First price is $10,000! :)

Speaking of Google, CNN reports that Microsoft is planning to go after Google. They are trying to to build technology that would eventually surpass Google's. (Thanks, Eangelica!)

David Letterman [photo] is going to be a father at 56! :-)

Do you remember Nixie displays, the mother of all electronic numerical displays? I'm sure you do, if you have been obsessed with electronics for quite a while or have seen old NASA digital displays or old copy machines.

"IEEE Spectrum" featured an article on Nixie's spirited comeback and how some home hobbyists used them to design and build a digital clock with Nixie-tube display!

Mini How-to

Now, this is getting really hilarious!

North Carolina cops are searching for a guy who successfully passed a $200 bill bearing George W. Bush's portrait and a drawing of the White House complete with lawn signs reading "We like ice cream" and "USA deserves a tax cut."

Imagine how drunk/whatever the cashier had been when she accepted the money! This is the second time a 200-dollar bill [picture] is being spent this week.

Has anybody noticed all of a sudden there is no "Page Not Found" error anymore?! Type a non-existent dot com domain name in your browser and hit enter. It will be redirected to Verisign's Site Finder!

Yes! According to slashdot, verisign added a wildcard A record to the .COM and .NET TLD DNS zones. The IP address returned is 64.94.110.11, which reverses to sitefinder.verisign.com.

That basically sucks! Now we cannot examine the network to see if a domain name is looked up and actually exists (of course, unless we don't use ICANN's root servers). In addition to that, there will be a lot harder to guess if an e-mail is spam or not since the domain name is always looked up!

If it's not cybersquatting and it's not illegal, what IS this?! They apparently even patented the technology! :) [Network gurus and technical people are gonna love this document!]

Kamato Hongo, world's oldest person, celebrated her 116th birthday today. She slept through most of the birthday celebrations since she sleeps for two days and then stays awake for two days! She never smoked but she did start drinking about 20 years ago in her 90s according to her grandson.

Masha-allah and happy birthday!

Photo from BBC/AFP.

Aoccdrnig to rseearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is that the frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe.

Sotp frdaoinwrg tihs rcsaeerh to me! I hvae adaerly rveiceed it mnay teims!

[Text scrambled using Word Scrambler Thing!]

And finally: Here is this weekend's links... Enjoy!

The unedited NASA film from the triumphant Apollo 11 mission! :-) [Via sargardoon]

Peeing Mexicans

10 Iranian men we love.

Find out how rich you are.

Mugshots: Three things you can count on in life: death, taxes, and screwing up. (Thanks, Pouyan)

Stealth Disco (Thanks, Tekno!)

I didn't get the chance to watch the premier episode of Whoopi with Woopie Goldberg and Omid Djalili (IMDB) as Nasim but I heard from my roommates that it was quite funny.

The next episode will be on air this coming Tuesday at 8:00pm.

Related: Whoopi by Bruce Bahmani.

I have been pretty overwhelmed with work and other activities for the past few weeks, even didn't get the chance to put weekly links here. Here's an awesome short TV clip I really liked (thanks to Iman!) and I'm sure you'll like it as well if you're a J-walking fan:

How much do Americans know about the world?