The Tea-Master's Column

Just within 2 weeks of listening to one Nobel Laureate, I had the good fortune of listening to another - Prof Robert Aumann at IISc at a conference jointly organised by IISc, IBM and IIMB. Prof Aumann was born in Frankfurt in 1930, completed his PhD in Mathematics from MIT and got the nobel prize in 1905 for his contribution to Game Theory. A team of about 15 people including Professors, Research Fellows and students from IIMB made it to IISc. The gathering consisted of elite group of scientists, thinkers, academicians, business leaders listening to a Wise Man. Prof Aumann enthralled us with his views on suicide bombing, altruism, pragmatism, ideology and game engineering. For the benefit pf the audience, he defined the basic assumption of all players in Game Theory as rational beings -" A person's behaviour is RATIONAL if to the best of his knowledge, it promotes HIS goals. " Hence, war is rational and Prof Aumann even extended this to suicide bombers whom he considered ...

Its always a rare opportunity to hear a Nobel Laureate live! Living in India which is at the cusp of transformation, a Fourth Estate - 'The Hindu' through their pioneering journalism is trying to empower citizens with such nobel interactions. Professor Joseph Stiglitz won the Nobel for his analysis of markets with asymmetric information - in short Information Economics. Today, quick and fast information is the key to success. Information is easy to spread but hard to control, easy to create but hard to trust. Hence, today's economic decisions are based on this Enigmatic, Effervescent Element called Information. The question often comes to mind whether globalisation is the result of quick availability of information or vice versa? That may be a topic for another day. But am sure most Indians would thank both Globalisation and Information for the intellectual resurgence in India. However, Dr Stglitz started his lecture stating - Globalisation is not working. Bit taken aback a...

The following is the unpublished first chapter of the Kevin Mitnick (MTN) which is available only on Internet. MTN is famous for ingeniusly hacking his way up: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/01/13/chapter_one_kevin_mitnicks_story/ It is a very interesting write-up and after reading it, feel that one needs to take a holistic view of hacking and take actions accordingly. Few facts about Mitnick (MTN) as described in the article ● Stole data, software from Motorola,Sun, Nokia and Univ ● over 10 million damage ● starting firm – help companies prevent attack, being honest and productive ● Adviced govt on computer security ● Book – art of deception ● front page of NYT ● disputed Markoff's book ● refused movie contract ● cyber laws introduced later- hence not illegal ● naive – not unethical ● social engineering ● self- learner ● motivated by curiosity John Markoff (MKF) is the CNN reporter who busted MTN. MTN alleges the following about MKF ● gave untrue information ● defamed MTN ● wi...

Everytime, I look for it in the library, it is issued. So after a month of running around, I got a chance to see the video - " The smartest guys in the room " - the story of Enron. And least to say - I was aghast, apalled by the complete lack of morals, ethics and unscrupulous behaviour. Roger Ebert in this link describes the story aptly http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050428/REVIEWS/50413004/1001 . The question that came to my mind after seeing the film is what people can do for money and least to say simply anything. I was shocked to see the confidence with which Kenneth Lay addressed the employees dismissing all reports of mishandling. A person on whom the entire company and world trusted was deceiveing them day in and out. More importantly if Corporate Governance is anything to talk about - lets look at who were on the board of Enron - Norman P. Blake, Jr. (1994 - 2002), Interim Chairman of the Enron Board and formermember of the Enron Financ...

By far the most fashionable byword in this internet era is " Lets Google ". Ever since its inception, the company's journey spearheaded by couple of young Stanford grads has been just fascinating. It has revoultionsied information availability and simplified life in ways beyond measure. I have been hooked by the company's products, its work culture and whatever it does. On the flip slide, because of Google I do not try to remember much facts or technical details knowing that I can always get help from the the search bar on my browser. I have been completely oblivious of it. Yes, only when Google acquired it did I get to know of Youtube. Yet, again I had to say "Wow!". A technology by which I could record my life events on video and share it with people. Consider, Orkut - a networking website by which I can not only see my friends but their friend's and so on. What an idea ! A public forum where I can see what others are writing to my friends and vice-ver...