Visualizing Fibonacci Series

I was playing with programming and visualization, had this silly urge to visualize the Fibonacci series. I wanted to know how the series was growing.
I tried the series with different limit (plotting the series upto a value). I found it interesting to see that the pattern remains similar at all limits - A steep hockey stick curve. Like a simple fractal pattern. Many successful social/web user growth has a similar growth curve. YouTube had it in early days, FB did and I guess now Google+ does.

Here is the visualization.

Tools used: 5 lines of python code to generate the Fibonacci series. MS Excel to generate the charts. I generated multiple charts and manually placed them together.

Wake Up Microsoft!

• Share of time spent on Internet. MSN is bleeding

• Smartphone growth rate. Microsoft is beginning to have negative growth

• US Mobile browser market share. MS figures in others!

I'm wondering what is happening at Microsoft camp?

Bing did get positive reviews, but it is no where near the threatening limits of Google. The lesser said about Zune, better it is. Xbox did emerge a strong player, but WII killed all the mindshare of X-Box.

I'm an open source enthusiast, but I'm not Microsoft or any specific technology basher. Care for a wake up call to Microsoft, is due to my respect for the significant contribution the company has made to computing field and getting technology to layman.

I believe Microsoft is torn between enterprise business and consumer business. The call to "Cloud Computing" by Setev Ballmer is interesting. It talks a lot about the consumer experience. However I believe it will push Microsoft as another IBM - Relevant but no excitement in the consumer side.

Tiruvalluvar, Kabir Das the original Twitterati!

Twitter has taken the Cyber world like a storm. If you don't have a Twitter account you are as good as someone without email-ID in year 2000!

I have always wondered the reason behind Twitter phenomena and "until now" amazed about the stupendous popularity of this simple tool.

"Until now" - Why in quotes? What has changed now?

I believe the principle behind Twitter is age old, and much older generations have witnessed the principle behind Twitter.

IMHO the original Twitterati was Thiruvalluvar. He authored the Thirukural, from Wikipedia: "Thirukkural (or the Kural) is a collection of 1330 Tamil couplets organised into 133 chapters." Each couplets consists of 7 words and even the English translation can mostly fit into the 140 character limit of Twitter.

Other early Twitterati are:

• Kabir Das was also an early Twitterati. His Dohas can easily fit into 140 C limit.
  
• Haiku poets. Haiku poems can easily fit into 140 C limit of Twitter.
  

Can you think of any more examples? If so please share your list.

Book Review: Outliers

This is Twitterish review of Outlier by Malcom Gladwell

"Super stars success story is equally attributed to opportunity, economic, community and social system factors as to genius and hard work. "

Why blog this than twit it? My supposed-to-be blog post needed good graphic skill and I wasn't able to do justice to it. To save my blog from rusting I'm blogging.

May be this is the reason behind twitter's super success. It so easy to twitt! A decent blog post sucks lots of time and energy.

Relevance of News Agencies and Syndication in Internet era

Pre Internet era:

Your local Newspaper covered International News mostly by sourcing the News article from News agencies, Newspapers and other publications by paying small fee.

This service was valuable, even if they printed the News verbatim without any change, as one did not have any easy option to access such News article. Of course you can fly down to place or get the publication couriered, but for most this simple re-printing service was valuable.

Now coming to Internet era:

Explanation with an example - Check the original article: Top Technology Breakthroughs of 2008 from Wired Magazine.

This same article has been syndicated to an Indian publication Indiatimes and re-published in this article titled: Top Technology Breakthroughs of 2008

Now the key question: What value has Indiatimes added by re-publishing this article in Indian website?

- The original article was presented well and better photographs.
- The original article loaded much faster in my browser

So the "value add" by Indiatimes is none!

Wait. May be "The brand awareness". How many Indians (as Indiatimes' target customer base is India) know wired magazine?

Well it fails here too.

I found the article link through Slashdot and other online feed aggregators (Google readers). I'm an Indian - TG of Indiatimes.

In online World the "power of sharing" through feed aggregators and search engine is bigger than brand.

Evolution of a Blogger

Marketing communication lessons from Apple - Part 1

Update: After a good friend made valid points in the comments:

• 2008's Top gift. Link 1, Link 2 (you might have to scroll down)
  

You have just launched "add on" service/facility/function to your flagship product and your job is to entice user with this just launched "add on".

Just launched means you can't make tall claims such as "Number 1", "Fastest selling", "Most sold", etc.

Here is what Apple does : -


This advertisement was for newly launched 'gift card' facility for iPhone 3G. I've underlined the interesting part in 'RED' in the advertisements = "Talked-about".

Now, how can anyone dispute 'Most talked-about' claim?

Lesson: When you can't make objective claims, make subjective claims that no one can dispute!

iPhone- surely has the buzz, but not the 'Gift card'. So you try to steal the buzz of iPhone and pass it on to the 'add on'. By reading this adverstisement you don't know - 'Much talked about' is about the iPhone or the 'Gift card'. I'm sure not many talk about the 'Gift card' - Pleazzze...there is never a buzz about 'Gift cards'.

Isn't very smart and simple communication? At the same time making 'indisputable' tall claims which most users don't realize.