Ankur Jain's musings

He should have taken the motorbike instead :)

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 10:00:05 -0800

He should have taken the motorbike instead :)

Visualizing User activity on Google+ For network theory nerds,...

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 10:00:05 -0800

Visualizing User activity on Google+

For network theory nerds, watch what happens with strong and weak links between community clusters.

USB stick sized DNA sequencing device! Imagine, what researchers...

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 08:24:29 -0800

USB stick sized DNA sequencing device! Imagine, what researchers can do with this.

Oxford Nanopore Technologies has said that it’s disposable gene sequencing device will be available by the end of 2012. Priced under US$900, the MinION device plugs into a computer and delivers results via the USB port.

A minaturized version of the company’s larger GridION device, the MinION uses pores made from bacterial proteins. An electric current flows through the pore. The DNA bases interrupt the current in different ways as they go through.

How Speeding The “Most Important Algorithm Of Our Lifetime”...

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:00:06 -0800

How Speeding The “Most Important Algorithm Of Our Lifetime” Could Change This Modern World | Fast Company

Math breakthroughs don’t often capture the headlines—but MIT researchers have just made one that could lead to all sorts of amazing technological breakthroughs that in just a few years will touch every hour of your life.

Chilling at more than 10000 ft!! It was an amazing day of skiing...

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 09:41:41 -0800

Chilling at more than 10000 ft!! It was an amazing day of skiing at Heavenly ski resort in Tahoe.

Brilliant concept! Elephants Parking Stand - similar to a taxi...

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 01:08:23 -0800

Brilliant concept! Elephants Parking Stand - similar to a taxi stand!

I am always fascinated by interactive advertising. This is a...

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 10:00:06 -0800

I am always fascinated by interactive advertising. This is a brilliant idea from BMW to promote its brand.

What goes around, comes around!

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 10:00:05 -0800

What goes around, comes around!

Life is indeed beautiful. Just need eyes to appreciate the...

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 08:43:40 -0800

Life is indeed beautiful. Just need eyes to appreciate the beauty!

Stuck!

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:15:37 -0800

Stuck!

This will be my next car!

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 10:00:05 -0800

This will be my next car!

Twitter Tracks Cholera Outbreaks Faster Than Health...

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 10:00:05 -0800

Twitter Tracks Cholera Outbreaks Faster Than Health Authorities

Shortly after the 2010 earthquake and hurricane that struck the country, Haiti was (and is) deeply immersed in an outbreak of cholera. Amazingly, social networks accurately tracked the spread of the disease, faster and more accurately than traditional tracking methods. As Rumi Chunara of Harvard Medical School details in CHE:

The social media matched the official reports very closely right at the start of the outbreak, in October 2010, and right after another surge when the hurricane hit, in early November. But the reports were ahead of the official records by two weeks. And with Twitter in particular, they identified the geographic locations of the cases “because a lot of people were Tweeting from their phones, right where they saw patients” in villages, Ms. Chunara said. Not all cholera patients go to hospitals to be counted officially, she noted.

It’s safe to assume that tracking a disease by social media alone wouldn’t be perfect, and further studies will be required to prove that this is a reliable method by which to base the distribution of medicine and supplies. Even a few days advantage can make a huge difference in an outbreak like this, though. By tracking real-time data, patients could be located and catalogued before they even saw a doctor.

I’m fascinated by the blossoming uses of geographic information coming out of Twitter’s API. Just this week, these infographics by Eric Fischer showed up on FastCo.Design:

You can practically re-draw traditional maps based on the density and geography of geotagged tweets. The possibilities for real-time information tracking seem endless (for good and evil). Any ideas?

(via The Chronicle of Higher Education, photo by AP)

Flags and food always go together! Guess the names of the...

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 07:20:52 -0800

Flags and food always go together! Guess the names of the countries associated with these flags.

Good bye 2011, Welcome 2012!

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 09:47:31 -0800

2011 was the most happening year for me in the last twenty years. Many things happened during the course of the year when I laughed and I cried - sometimes both at the same time! At times, I also cringed with fear. But, there is one thing that I am proud of - I never lost hope. One of my friends from high school told me this famous saying many moons ago - “When the going gets tough, the tough gets going”. This helped me throughout 2011.

There were so many things happened in my life in 2011. I launched my first multi-player prediction game Khelocricket and it was well received by thousands of people (Techcrunch post.). It is quite satisfying to see when people love your product. I had never worked so hard - I spent early mornings, nights and weekends working on Khelocricket - my roommates and friends can attest to that since I talked to them about Khelocricket only.

I spent five years of my life at Kosmix - joined this fledgling startup in the summer of 2006 (just few weeks after graduating from Stanford). On 18th April 2011, we got acquired by Walmart for $300m+. I achieved what every Stanford student dreams of - work in an early stage startup and take the company to IPO or through acquisition. Kosmix was my family in the US, away from my family in India. I am proud of what my team at Kosmix achieved. It was a BIG roller coaster ride but I must say it was LOT of fun. Everybody should experience this. It will make them a better person.

There were few other things that happened in 2011 that only my close friends know about. I may write about them some other time.

However, there is one thing that I waited for 28 years and I achieved on 2nd April 2011. It was the day India won the cricket world cup. I still remember my emotions when MS Dhoni hit the final six to win the finals against Sri Lanka. I laughed, shouted and cried! I couldn’t believe what was happening. I was at a friend’s house and everybody was hugging each other! We were standing few centimeters away from the TV to watch the awards ceremony as if we couldn’t see the TV from the sofa. It was surreal. It was unreal! Another dream came true in 2011.

2011 was a special year indeed. I am confident that 2012 will be another great year. I welcome 2012 with open arms. Let’s see what is there in the new year. I am ready to explore the new world! It will be lot of fun! Join me in my adventure.

Can you imagine the size of 5MB memory in 1956? This picture...

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 09:53:31 -0800

Can you imagine the size of 5MB memory in 1956? This picture says it all.

Santa claus in India uses a rickshaw instead of nine reindeer...

Mon, 26 Dec 2011 01:36:25 -0800

Santa claus in India uses a rickshaw instead of nine reindeer sleigh!

Who remembers Potassium Chlorate from chemistry class in the...

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 11:00:05 -0800

Who remembers Potassium Chlorate from chemistry class in the high school? I would have loved to do this experiment to ‘annoy’ our chemistry teacher - Bhargav Ma’am :)

1,000,000,000,000 (one trillion) playbacks on YouTube in 2011 =...

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 10:01:06 -0800

1,000,000,000,000 (one trillion) playbacks on YouTube in 2011 = ~140 views for every person on the earth.

This video shows a pretty amazing material which changes colour...

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 04:27:52 -0800

This video shows a pretty amazing material which changes colour in response to mechanical stress. It works by using large numbers of spheres that diffract light into composite colours. This effect is similar to that seen in gemstone opals only without the change in colour. By deforming the material the orientation and arrangement of the spheres is altered leading to different colours under different conditions.

Is India the broken BRIC?

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 09:54:00 -0800

An interesting insight by Fareed Zakaria on India’s performance.

New Delhi has for years expressed pride in being part of the BRICs. If it doesn’t get its act together, 10 years from now people might still be praising the BRICs, except that the “I” in BRIC might stand for Indonesia, not India.

Details on CNN