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D. Murali

We are the second largest consumer market in the world, we have more degree holders than the entire population of France, and over 40 per cent of the 500 largest corporate firms worldwide have their back office processing in India.

STORIES of rags to riches, and Opposition to Treasury, are what dreams are made of. But news and books are equally devoted to how bang ends as whimper, and how what was once shining fusees out the next moment. Nina Munk's Fools Rush In, from Harper Business (www.harpercollins.com) is about "a fusion of guts and glory" that simply spilled over. "A mega-marriage of earth and cyberspace" as the AOL Time Warner deal was described in the media, managed to decimate hundreds of billions of dollars of shareholder value. The book, as the blurb announces, "is the definitive account of one of the greatest fiascos." For Nina, the debacle was different from other "unworkable mergers and acquisitions, questionable accounting practices, massive insider stock sales, giant layoffs" and so forth. She views the scandal as "the absorbing egotism of two men: Jerry Levin and Steve Case." Part two of the book is about the "Internet Cowboys". For Case, inspiration had come from Alvin Toffler's The Third Wave. For him, "AOL wasn't an impersonal second wave business, but a brotherhood of passionate, inspired men and women who were discovering their soul mates in cyberspace." But Case was not a fast decision-maker. In times of crisis, such as when customers were deserting AOL to move on to cheaper ISPs, "Case kept himself cloistered in his office, communicating largely by e-mail and instant messages." Somebody had to send him an angry mail: "This company needs a CEO! Stop acting like a brand manager. You're not at P&G anymore."

In the late 90's AOL's market cap was so high that Case's problem was to decide what to buy. Ultimately, Time Warner was the target. On January 10, 2000, their historic merger was announced. "A company that isn't old enough to buy beer," noted The Wall Street Journal, "has essentially swallowed an ancien regime media conglomerate that took most of a century to construct." And this is what Levin of Warner had to say: "I accept the market capitalisations in the Internet space because I think something profound is taking place." But that an abyss is also as deep as profound can go was something he wouldn't have guessed then. You would be wiser to rush in... to pick up a copy Fools Rush In.

Brain = 1200 terabytes memory

EVER imagined building a computer powerful enough "to hold a complete neuromodel in its circuitry"? That's what Project Trinity got to almost halfway. "The human brain is fairly slow in terms of speed, but it's massively parallel." Meaning? "It contains over a hundred trillion possible connections, all capable of simultaneous calculation, and that's just for processing. It also holds the equivalent of twelve hundred terabytes of computer memory." How much would that be? "Six million years of The Wall Street Journal." That's just a snatch from Greg Iles's The Footprints of God, published by Coronet (www.madaboutbooks.com) . It's the story of "the biggest artificial intelligence study the world has ever seen." If you're ready for more, here: "IBM is building a computer called Blue Gene that will rival the processing power of the brain, but it'll still be unable to do things any five-year-old child can." How big will Blue Gene be? It will fill a fifty-by-fifty foot room and need 300 tonnes of AC just to function. And Trinity? Just the size of a Volkswagen Beetle. In contrast, "human brain weighs three pounds and uses only ten watts of electricity." The goal of Trinity was not to create AI by reverse-engineering the brain, but "by digitally copying it". Then, there is something more dangerous to computers than Osama: EMP. "An EMP strike is very simple. A large nuclear device detonated at sufficient altitude creates an electromagnetic pulse — a massive burst of electromagnetic radiation — that can destroy or shut down every modern electrical circuit." That's because "computers are especially vulnerable to this energy pulse" and on the positive side, there would be "minimal loss of life." Now, where are your feet taking you?

Temple with a door to IT

DON'T despair you're not in London or Paris, New York or Tokyo. Pavan K.Varma is bullish that this century will be India's and his book Being Indian, published by Penguin (www.penguinbooksindia.com) says it all, "drawing on sources as diverse as ancient Sanskrit treatises and Bollywood lyrics." The blurb identifies its audience: "A must read for both foreigners who wish to understand Indians, and Indians who wish to understand themselves." The introduction gives interesting statistics: We are the second largest consumer market in the world, with a buying middle class numbering over half a billion; we have more degree holders than the entire population of France; the Indian diaspora, after China's, is the second largest in the world; and over 40 per cent of the 500 largest corporate firms worldwide have their back office processing in India. "In Cyprus, maids and servants come from Sri Lanka and the Philippines; software experts come from India," writes Pavan. "Will most Indians be happy to remain software coolies?" For IT enthusiasts, there is a separate chapter on technology. "Narayana Murthy qualified for the IIT Kharagpur in 1962 but could not join because his father, a government servant earning Rs 500 a month, did not have Rs 150 a month for the hostel," recounts Pavan. "There may be more PCs in New York than the whole of India, but over 500 portals are being launched in the country every month." But that could be at the top of dotcom boom, one may think. Among the successes that the book narrates is one about Embalam village in Pondicherry: "The local temple runs an IT outlet for fishermen." Pavan does not omit mentioning what you may not like to acknowledge: that "the real incentive is the salary of an IT professional which is much higher than the amount spent by him to acquire his skills"; "good students from good institutions are proficient but rarely inquisitive"; and that lack of confidence of most Indians that is rooted in "a deep inferiority complex". Why does creativity take a quantum leap when the Ganga flows into the Californian desert? Any answers?

(Books courtesy: Landmark www.landmarkonthenet.com)

Tailpiece

"I joined a slimming course where they gave a multimedia CD with animated video of all tasty dishes of the world. And we were asked to watch it three times a day."

"Before or after your meal?"

"Instead of."

Books2Byte@TheHindu.co.in

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