The niches of the internet

I continue to be fascinated by the niches of the internet. It is like the long long Long Tail. If there is one place on earth that can bring people of interests together across the world, it is the internet.

Whether is a specific cooking method or a baking bread or a dance form or art form or even something like making paper airplanes, the internet has it all.

In that sense, never before has technology united humans in this fashion ever.

At the same time, because of these niches, there are other areas which one never gets to see (well, that is the same in the real world - so this argument does not entirely wash).

So, well, keep exploring...

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The man who saved Pumpelsdrop

This was a story we had in college if I am not mistaken. Perhaps it was in school, but a delightful story it was. The story goes somewhat like this ( reproduced from here ), but the college version we had was slightly different from this. I t was a dull, gloomy and a depressing morning in a town named Pumpelsdrop in northern England. The Great Depression had brought all the businesses to a standstill. The bored automobile dealer was spending time alone, as usual. But, this seems to be an unusual morning as an odd entity (customer) appeared on the horizon. A man in a bright suit walks up to the dealer and says, "I need to buy a Rolls Royce Phantom II. We have a business conference coming up and I need to impress my customers". Then proceeds to pay 10% of the deal with a single check for 2000 pounds. The rest he says will pay when he takes the delivery. The auto dealer was stunned. He was delighted to hear that someone is holding a business conference of some kind and ...

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Serendipity and Learning

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