The Intellog Blog

After a long wait, iPhone is now available on the Telus network in Canada.  There was no question this was going to be the way I was going to go, and made good on that commitment recently.  With the help of Paul McFedries’ Portable Genius (review coming up), I’ve been pleased with how quickly I’ve been able to learn the new functionality.  The only disappointment so far is with the Visual Voicemail.  When I tapped the Voicemail icon, instead of the beautiful Apple Visual Voicemail screen — pictured to the left — I got something akin to the old functionality of my recently ditched, demon spawn Moto Q.  Huh?

It will come as no surprise that Apple’s Visual Voicemail does require the co-operation of phone company, and as of the date of this post, Telus has not taken up the challenge.  I even went so far as to send them an enquiry, to which they promptly responded; “TELUS Visual Voicemail does differ from Apples Visual Voicemail, because they are different products. Visual Voice Mail is not available for any HSPA+ product, including the iPhone. The $7.50 price they are referring to, is for CDMA devices only. Visual Voice Mail for Apple will be introduced in the fall of 2010.  Please be advised, TELUS did not advertise any Visual Voice Mail for the iPhone, nor did we proactively offer this to clients. Any client with Visual Voice Mail on their iPhone has been or will be credited when removed as per our credit policy, and was most likely added via self serve.”  Well, at least it was not the dreaded “no plans to support it at this time”, which frankly was what I was expecting.

Other than that glitch, the iPhone experience so far has been magnificent.

Think of this as the book David Mamet would have written if he had written on the subject of faceted search.  For about $29, it was little surprising to see how thin the volume was when it arrived – a scant 70 pages of reading.  The text is part of the Synthesis Lectures on Information Concepts, Retrieval, and Services which is described on their website as “50- to 100-page publications on topics pertaining to information science and applications of technology to information discovery, production, distribution, and management.”  I’m afraid I didn’t follow the reference to ‘lecture’ – but I can only assume the author has lectured on the subject at some point, and the text captures the essence of his presentations.

But in truth, if you strip out the fluff that accompanies most texts, it’s likely you’ll wind up with something not much longer than Tunkelang’s book.  It’s a worthwhile (and very quick!) read and takes the reader through a brief history of the subject, identifies the key concepts, compares academic research and commercial applications and finally deals with some of the practical concerns of implementing faceted search.  There are 119 references which form the basis for lots of additional reading.  Actually, it’s not a bad approach.  Read through the text in a couple of hours or less to get an overview of the subject, then use the references to expand knowledge if interested or if additional explanation is required.  There are at least a couple of referenced books and websites I’m inclined to follow up.

As the author says on page 25; “You might wonder why you have picked up an entire book on faceted search only to find it summed up in a couple of pages…not quite halfway through.”  Indeed.  But as he alludes to shortly thereafter, faceted search is a simple concept which gets complicated in the details, many of which are introduced in the balance of the book.  But in summary, you could spend a lot more money and time getting the same basic information Tunkelang provides in his book, and it’s therefore recommended reading for those looking to get up to speed quickly on the subject.

I finally managed to get through the 463 pages of this well researched, extremely well documented and reasonably readable tome.  Nandan Nilekani, the co-chairman of India’s Infosys Technologies Limited has prospered handsomely since the introduction of political reforms in the early 90s. His business rock star status means he is often asked to provide his explanation of the Indian economic miracle.  Imagining India is the collective response, and he has answered the questions exhaustively to say the least.  The only downside is he felt the need to squeeze his answer into just one volume.

The first 340 pages are a fairly dense history of virtually every aspect of Indian life including politics, education, health care, national infrastructure and, of course, business.   While necessary to provide a context for where India is today and where it is going in the future, I almost wished the author had put this information in a separate book, which could be optionally read.  It certainly paints a very complete picture of the period from India’s independence in 1947 to the current day.

For someone like me who was otherwise unfamiliar with India’s history, the most significant surprise is the wide diversity of cultures which make up the country.  Naively, I had assumed a certain homogeneity for all parts of India.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  To describe India as one nation would be the same as describing Europe as one nation.

However, the most interesting part of the book started for me on page 341 through to the end, where the author talks about the status quo, and the things which will need to happen in the future if the boom is to continue.   He makes what seem to be practical and workable suggestions.  However, they do appear to be variations on the theme of deregulation and getting the suffocating Indian bureaucracy off the backs of the fundamentally entrepreneurial Indian people.

It’s interesting to note that in July of this year, Nilekani was appointed Chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India.  This is one of the subjects he spends quite a bit of time on in the book.  Simply having one, universal identification system for each Indian – when there are nearly 1.2 billion of them – is a monumental task, and Nilekani sees it as a key enabler for further reforms and the continued rapid development of the economy.  Unfortunately, his move into this position has necessitated the discontinuation of his blog.  In the last post he states “In my new role, I can no longer comment on government policy.”  Not only do we lose a useful point of access to this exceedingly bright mind, but one also hopes this is not the first step in Nilekani being subsumed by the bureaucracy, as opposed to being a useful and constructive critic of it.  Time will tell.

Imagining India is a long and fairly difficult read, but well worth the time and effort to get a sense of a country which is going to have a huge impact in the future.  (Also, for those interested in the subject, watching Charlie Rose’s fairly brief  interview with Nilekani is well worth the time.)