Hello Buddy! | வணக்கம் தோழா | नमस्ते दोस्त

लोकाः समस्ताः सुखिनो भवन्तु

Lokāḥ Samastāḥ Sukhino Bhavantu
May all beings find happiness and freedom. May my actions help bring joy and liberation to everyone.

Hey there, I'm Balakumar Muthu, an International Award-Winning Technologist, TEDx Fellow, and Entrepreneur recognized with the Top 50 Asia Innovation Award from SingTel Singapore, Top 100 Startups Award from NASSCOM, First Prize Winner of the Java Master Award & Duke's Choice Award from Sun Microsystems and BenQ Siemens Germany, and the Red Herring Asia Award for technology innovation.

With over 19+ years as a multidisciplinary software consultant and architect specializing in UI/UX design and product engineering, I've worked with businesses ranging from B2B/B2C startups and SMEs to enterprises and Fortune 500 companies, with a particular focus on Japanese companies. I have extensive experience in designing, building, and scaling exceptional web applications, SaaS platforms, e-commerce sites, community and Social Networking Services (SNS), online marketplaces, and enterprise applications to address both technology and business challenges across various domains.


My Entrepreneurial Journey

↪ some of my notable early startups and ventures


I specialize in most aspects of web business, including Product creativity, design, development, strategy, and scaling growth. Throughout my entrepreneurial career, I've launched various startups, successfully scaled businesses from scratch to successful exits, and also learned invaluable lessons from ventures that didn't succeed. Listing some of my notable previous startups and ventures:


LoveLogger As an entrepreneur, my journey began in 2007 when I founded LoveLogger, the world's first private pair-blogging social platform for any two people, which received a massive viral response from China, Hong Kong, Japan, and South Korea.

LoveLogger was awarded the "Asia's Top 50 Apps Award" from SingTel Singapore and the "Red Herring Asia Award" for Technology Innovation. I designed and developed the complete idea, UI/UX Design, architectural framework, and web cloud hosting for the LoveLogger website, successfully scaling the platform from zero to over 80,000+ users before its acquisition.

LoveLogger was featured in many prestigious internet magazines, including Yahoo! Japan, MSN Japan, Infoseek, Japan.Internet.com, Livedoor.com, Sina.com, and various other popular Asian publishers. Learn More »


Coworkable In 2013, I founded Coworkable, an early pioneer in the coworking space industry. Coworkable is a global network and community for discovering and renting affordable, accessible Coworking spaces, Shared office spaces, desks, Business centers, and meeting rooms in the Asia-Pacific region.

Coworkable gained significant recognition in the startup ecosystem, being selected as one of the Top Startups at the NASSCOM Product Conclave. I designed and developed the entire UI/UX, architectural framework, and web cloud hosting for the Coworkable website, successfully scaling the platform from zero to listings from 387 cities across 42 countries in the Asia-Pacific region before its successful exit. Coworkable.com also served team members from various leading global organizations including Google, Zoho, Citibank, BBC News, JLL, Serv Corp, and Coca-Cola.

Coworkable also forged strategic partnerships and collaborated with prominent organizations, including World Startup Fest, Coworking Europe Conference, Global Coworking Unconference Conference (China), Startup Weekend, BarCamp Bengaluru, YourStory TechSparks, Coworking India Conference, World Office Expo Conference, BITS Pilani's Conquest Entrepreneurial Center, Devspace Conference by VIT & Computer Society of India, STARup Summit, Tomorrow's India Conference, and Construkt Startup Festival, among others (view full list). Learn More »


Note My current ongoing ventures are not listed here for business reasons.


My Core Tech Expertise

↪ end-to-end web applications are my specialization—ux/ui design, development, and scaling


UI/UX Product Engineering Expertise in crafting human-centered, intuitive experiences through Design Thinking, User Research, Cognitive Science, User Experience (UX) Design, User Interface (UI) Design, Interaction Design, Prototyping, Usability Testing, Information Architecture, Product Design, Frontend Design, Dashboard & Portal Design, Typography, Color Theory, Branding, and Accessibility

Full-Stack Product Development Building and scaling exceptional experiences across Web applications, SaaS platforms, E-commerce, online marketplaces, social networks, payment gateway integration, content management systems (CMS) and enterprise applications.

Server & Cloud Infrastructure Cloud Computing, Open-Source Technologies, Linux Server Administration, Ubuntu Server, Linode Cloud Server, Web Hosting & Server Setup, LAMP Stack, Apache, Docker, Server Administration, Server Hardening, Firewall Configuration, Web Security, DNS Management, Email Server Setup, Backup & Recovery, Server Migration, and Server Monitoring.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Emerging Technologies Building intelligent automation, AI-driven products, Generative AI (Gen AI), Large Language Models (LLMs), AI Agents, Prompt Engineering, Computer Vision (CV), Open Source AI Models, Robotics, and non-fungible tokens(NFTs).

Growth Hacking & Digital Marketing Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Social Media Marketing (SMM), Content Marketing, Email Marketing, Copywriting, Creative Campaign Development, Landing Page Optimization, Marketing Automation, Google Analytics, Keyword Research, Market Share Analysis, Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising, Google Ads, and Brand Positioning.

Industry Domains Experience spans across multiple industry domains, including Education Technology (EdTech), Social Networking Services (SNS), Retail Technology (RetailTech), Real Estate Technology (PropTech), Job Portals & Recruitment Platforms, Logistics & Supply Chain Technology, Content Management Systems (CMS), and Cloud Architecture.


Awards & Recognitions

↪ some of my selected honors and achievements



Google India Selected me as one of the Top 5 Finalists for Google India - Interview after 8 rounds of challenging and rigorous technical interviews out of 16,000+ total applicants. Created Google Kids, search engine prototype for Kids — which I demonstrated during the Google India interview.

NASSCOM Top 100 Startups Award – Selected my Startup as one of the "Top 100 Startups" to get showcased at NASSCOM Product Conclave (NCP), Asia's largest platform for Product and Startup Companies to connect with Software Product leaders.

SingTel - Asia's Top 50 Apps Award My Previous Startup LoveLogger, the world's first Collaborative Blogging & Private Network for Pairs, was awarded the “Asia's Top 50 Apps 2011 Award” (winner lists) from SingTel, Singapore and the Winner of "Red Herring Asia Award" for Technology Innovation. It was also featured in many popular magazines & portals from Japan, Korea, and China.

Java Master Award First Prize Winner of "Java Master Award " contest, conducted by Sun Microsystems and BenQ Siemens Germany. Received Sun Microsystems Duke's Choice Awards - 10 Year Celebration of Java Technology and Sun Microsystems appreciation for my contribution to the early versions of Java Platform.

TEDx Fellow Recognized for innovative thinking and selected to share ideas worth spreading that inspire change on the TEDx stage.

Certified Yoga Instructor An Officially Certified Yoga Instructor and Practitioner Specializing in Hatha Yoga. As an alumnus of Ramakrishna Mission, I approach yoga as a profound lifelong journey of learning and self-discovery. My yoga practice is rooted in the holistic teachings of Swami Vivekananda, Yogacharya B.K.S. Iyengar, and the Swami Sivananda tradition.

Korea Honorary Reporter Selected as the Official Honorary Reporter for the Korean Culture and Information Service of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to promote South Korea to Indian audiences by showcasing its travel, culture, and food through my articles.

Top Tech Blogger, India I started tech blogging in 2002 during my early days and listed as the 'Top 30 Tech blogger' by 'Blog Street India' and rated as the 'Top 50 Tech Blogger' by 'Blogs Top List'. My Tech blog is also listed as Favorite Blog lists at their Official Sun Microsystems Web Blog. My Tech blog posts have also been featured at Google Blogoscoped.com, Netscape.com, Java.net, Webpronews, Planet Mozilla, Linux Toy and few other popular blogs.

W3C HTML5 Working Group & Internet Society (ISOC) India Served as an early contributing member of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) HTML5 Working Group, which was responsible for developing the HTML5 specification and advancing it to formal W3C Recommendation status. Also a member of the Internet Society (ISOC) India Chapter, supporting internet development and advocacy .

Wikipedian Contributed to 100+ Wikipedia pages across Computer and Internet Technology topics including software development, web technologies, programming languages, networking protocols, and emerging tech trends, improving technical knowledge accessibility for a global audience.


My Travel & Culture Photo Journal

↪ finding & documenting my travel & culture through photo stories


Casual Walker Casual Walker is the most travel + culture phogo guide and one of the top 50 travel blogs in India — a curious discovery journal that I started in 2017, having travelled across 637 cities and locations, and authored 650+ travel photo guides, finding, exploring, and documenting uniquely authentic local photo stories, guides, and tips.

At Casual Walker, I visually discover and showcase thoughtful documentary photography stories and guides covering Travel Adventures to Timeless Indian Traditions, Ancient Indian Temples, Mesmerizing Art Galleries & Exhibits, Cultural Events & Festivals, Museums & Historical Sites, Vibrant Flavors of Local Indian Food and Culinary Delights, Hotels and Stays, Dance Performances & Art Forms, Yoga & Vedas, Wildlife, Nature & Living, and Reviews.

Casual Walker's work has been featured in Hinduism Today Magazine, British Council India, The Better India, Times of India, Puthiya Thalaimurai TV, Thanthi TV, Citizen Matters, and various other media. Learn More »


Personal Interests

↪ my favorite hobbies, activities, and passions


I travel extensively, mostly on solo trips, and love backpacking and trekking. I'm deeply drawn to minimalism and simple living, and have zero presence on most social media platforms. I enjoy immersing myself in exploration, photography and nature, and love reading books. I'm fascinated by the depth of Vedanta, Yoga, and Zen philosophy, art, and culture, particularly Indian, Japanese, and Korean traditions. I love spending time with my dog and tinkering with personal DIY projects. I'm also a huge fan of classic Western movies and comics.


CONTACT ME

↪ send me a message drop me a line and let's talk


I'm passionate about connecting with fellow entrepreneurs, innovative minds, and creative thinkers. Whether you have a project in mind or you're looking for a UI/UX product designer, design advisor, or long-term design partner—feel free to drop me a line. I enjoy meeting new folks, discussing startup strategies and product engineering, and personally respond to every message.



My Early Open Source & Community Advocacy



As a strong supporter of the open source and free software movement, I have had the privilege of meeting with influential pioneers in the field, including Richard Stallman (RMS), founder of GNU and the Free Software Foundation, and David Axmark, Cofounder and VP of MySQL at IIT Madras and Jimmy Wales cofounder of Wikipedia at WikiCamp Chennai for spreading the open source and free software movement.

I co-organized and active supporter of the early edition of Mozilla Firefox Party India, celebrating the Firefox 2 release, along with IdeaCamp Pune, BarCamp, BlogCamp, - Unconferences to regular attendee of major tech conferences including Sun TechDays, BEA Dev2Dev Days, Oracle Developer Forum, Google Developer Days and many other tech conferences.

Brand designer of the first edition of DevCamp India Unconference Official event brand and WikiCamp conference India event brand, participated by Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales. Being a big supporter of Linux - Ubuntu & Open source movement, organized the "Ubuntu Dapper Drake T-Shirts Contest" to create more awareness and interest for the early versions of Ubuntu Linux.

Made my own blogging site at Yahoo! Geocities as geocities.com/i5bala (screenshots) in early 2002.

My Works featured at press / media


My works have been featured & covered by ZDNet Asia, Economic Times, British Council India, Times of India (TOI), Citizen Matters, Yahoo! Japan, MSN Japan, Infoseek, Japan.Internet.com, Livedoor.com, Google Blogoscoped, Netscape.com, Java.net, Webpronews, Planet Mozilla, Linux Toy, DeveloperIQ, Sina.com and many other popular Asian publishers. Java.net published my Java Duke Holiday Pictures from 1000's of submission.

My Travel & Culture Photography


Contact & Reach me


Want to work together, grabbing a coffee, or say hello? Good! personally, I have zero presence on Facebook or Twitter. You can ping and text me:


Self - made man

the statue I greatly admire & the principle I strongly believe

“... left to his own devices, man will use his god-given talents to be creative, productive, & prosperous...”
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Kmail : Colorful EMail

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Kmail developed by Freedman, an e-mail system based on Kromofons which is a new alphabet where each letter of the alphabet corresponds to a color, allowing messages to be embedded in color images. People can send messages from their Kmail accounts, which are generally read by recipients as plain text. But if a Kmail user receives a message in his account, the message appears in the color alphabet. It's really so fun and different to read our mails in such way. >>

Top 15 Things We Wish Someone Would Invent

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Technology proceeds at such a breakneck pace that sometimes it feels like we're rocketing into science fiction territory's like Animal cloning, unmanned aircraft and space tourism are all recent realities. For some, though, invention isn't moving fast enough. Check out the 15 amazing things we wish someone would invent. >>

reCAPTCHA : CAPTCHAs to Reading Books.

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A CAPTCHA is a program that can tell whether its user is a human or a computer. We have probably seen them colorful images with distorted text at the bottom of in most of the Web registration forms. About 60 million CAPTCHAs are solved by humans around the world every day. In each case, roughly ten seconds of human time are being spent. Individually, that's not a lot of time, but in aggregate these little puzzles consume more than 150,000 hours of work each day. What if we could make positive use of this human effort? and this is 'reCAPTCHA' does exactly that by channeling the effort spent solving CAPTCHAs online into "reading" books. >>

Smartphone Spying Soon to Hit Near Us!

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Smartphone spying is where dark-souled hackers with bad intentions use readily available technology to track every move we make with our cell phone, Bluetooth or personal digital assistant. As more and more devices are synchronizing, more and more people are loading data and corporate information, and malware attacks are going to go through the roof. From identity thieves to corporate raiders to jealous boyfriends, the world of smartphone spying is open to anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of digital technology and the hundred bucks or so it takes to buy eavesdropping software on the Internet. >>

Creating Your Own Mobile Codes

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Mobile codes are codes in the same way as ordinary barcodes are, but their matrix structure can hold more information. Now we too can create our won mobile code with a few simple clicks to write a message, your phone number, or a link to a website and change it into a mobile code, which can be scanned using a camera phone. Simply start typing away the text you want to convert and watch the mobile code being generated instantly. Once done, name it in any way you want and scan, print or save it for sharing the way you choose best. >>

Star Wars Fans, Send Your Pix to Wired Magazine

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For marking the 30th anniversary of Star Wars, Wired Magazine wants to see proof of the star wars fanhood. It can be an art, snapshots of your DIY creations, pictures of you in star wars costume, collector's items related to Star Wars, which will be posted in a front page photo gallery. Visit Wired News Star Wars Submissions on Flickr to upload your pictures. >>

YouTube Sketchies : YouTube's Comedy Sketch Contest

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YouTube conducts a competition, titled "YouTube Sketchies", for nine weeks. Just create your original video around 3 minutes in length and upload it to the Sketchies Contest page. Your videos will be judged by a panel of Hollywood experts. The last date to submit your best comedy video is May 31st. >>

Tribler : Social Community Filesharing Tool

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Tribler is a social community that facilitates file sharing through Peer-to-Peer network. When the tribler program is started it will automatically start searching other users that have tribler running on their computer. When a connection is established it starts exchanging information. First it exchanges personal information, such as our avatar picture, our friends list, download history and information about files that are available in the network. These files can be personal, shared files, but also files that one has received from another person. Information about the discovered files and persons is available in the Tribler program. By browsing through the files and persons each user can find their prefered files and users. >>

Infectious Web Pages Threats !

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Computer criminals are evolving their tactics to subdue our computer. Each time we invest more money and time in staying safe, the bad guys just find another way around our defenses. Their newest method may be the trickiest yet, Web pages booby-trapped with infectious computer code. While the consumer browses content normally, a computer virus or Trojan horse program is silently installed. In a study, Google found 300,000 Web sites laced with such malicious code, and another 700,000 suspicious sites. >>

Pencil : Free Animation Software

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Pencil is an free and open source animation and drawing software for Windows and Mac OS X. It lets us to create traditional hand-drawn animation cartoons using both bitmap and vector graphics. Its main purpose is to make traditional animation. It is intended to be a simple program enabling anyone to make 2D animation. >>

Lego's Next Generation Mindstorm NXT

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Lego's Mindstorm NXT robot construction kit offers endless possibilities for creative play, but it may be just a bit too complicated for adults. Using the 519-piece kit to assemble and program robots that can catapult Lego bricks, fill a dog's food bowl, and play Twister. >>

8 Alternative Services for Twitter

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Twitter is the current favorite when it comes to instant presence, But it doesn't exist in a vacuum. It may be getting all the buzz, but there are other services that offer similar features, and take advantage of the same underlying concepts like 3jam, Dodgeball, Jaiku, Jooopz, Jyngle, Loopnote, Pinger, and Swarm-it. >>

15 Tech Myths Busted and Confirmed

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PCWorld came up with 15 common myths in the tech world and did some digging to reveal the real story. Some rumors are wholly bogus. Others turned out to have more than a grain of truth in them. To give us a sense of how real these myths are. >>

Top 25 Most Desirable Employers for Undergraduates

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According to a 2007 ranking of the most desirable employers by researcher Universum Communications, compiled from a survey of 44,064 U.S. undergraduates. Asked to list their ideal employers, students favored organizations where they felt they could make a difference. >>

Hacking eBanking Virtual Keyboard !!

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In some countries outside of the US, Citibank has a login option to enter our PIN by clicking on the display of a keyboard rather than with the physical keyboard. Perhaps the idea is to defeat keyloggers, but a researcher has demonstrated that it's easy for malware to capture the PIN anyway. >>

iPods Make Pacemakers Malfunction !

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iPods can cause cardiac implantable pacemakers to malfunction by interfering with the electromagnetic equipment monitoring the heart, according to an recent study. The study tested the effect of the portable music devices on 100 patients, whose mean age was 77, outfitted with pacemakers. Electrical interference was detected half of the time when the iPod was held just 2 inches from the patient's chest for 5 to 10 seconds. The study did not examine any portable music devices other than iPods, which are made by Apple Inc. >>

Top 5 Games to Play at Work

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Everyone knows that the company computer is for work and not for surfing the web or playing games. We can't type things into this electronic box all day long without taking little breaks here and there, maybe even play a couple of levels of a game. Here are Top 5 games to play at the office. >>

BlogSigs : Your Blog Signature

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BlogSigs allows us to easily and automatically include the title of our latest blog post in our email signature so that we can drive more readers to our blog. BlogSigs works with GMail, Outlook, Yahoo! Mail, and Hotmail. >>

Sun's Superpackage for Java

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Sun Microsystems announced at JavaOne conference in San Francisco that Java Standard Edition [SE] 7 will feature a "superpackage" capability for improved distribution of small pieces of software. It's new JavaFX technology, featuring a new runtime that enables deployment of visual applications from the desktop to devices, will be expanded beyond the current JavaFX Mobile, for deployment on phones, set-top boxes or in-dash displays in cars. JavaFX Mobile is built on top of a Linux kernel. >>

Greatest Web Software Ever Written

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InformationWeek has listed down the 12 most important programs seen since the modern Internet began with the launch of the Mosaic browser in 1993:
  1. Apache Server
  2. AltaVista
  3. Craigslist
  4. The Well
  5. eBay
  6. Amazon.com
  7. XMLHttpRequest object set
  8. Wikipedia
  9. World Of Warcraft
  10. Hotmail
  11. Digg
  12. AOL Instant Messenger
I feel the list misses few others. Check out our list, and see if you agree. >>

Are You a Tech Omnivore ?

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Laptops, PDAs, Web 2.0, MySpace and YouTube. Are you the kind who can't live with them ? If you can't live without your high-tech gadgets and gizmos, and you're an active user of Web 2.0 technology in particular, you may be what a new study calls an Omnivore, a "voracious" user of technology. A new study released this week indicates that widespread access to communications technologies has led to widely varying uses of Web 2.0-type expressive and social networking activities. The study defines Web 2.0 as people expressing themselves online and participating in the commons of cyberspace. >>

Mozilla CEO on Future of Firefox

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Mitchell Baker, CEO of the Mozilla Foundation, has taken Firefox from nothing to a $US55million per year business. According to her, Firefox is just at the beginning of its life cycle. In an one to one interview with APCMag.com, she talks about where Firefox came from and where it’s going. >>

10 Techs That Give us Superpowers

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Faster than a speeding bullet. More powerful than a locomotive. Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Admit it we are fantasized about soaring through the sky like Superman or swinging from building to building like Spiderman. Unfortunately, superheroes exist in only comic books, cartoons and movies. But with scientists apparently drawing inspiration from the comics they read when they were kids, the line between science fiction and science fact has become blurred. Superheroics suddenly seem like a viable career option. Checkout how we, too with today's technologies, can spin webs and get superhuman strength. >>

Email may be Hazardous to Your Career !

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Sometimes bad email happens to high-achieving people. Richard Phillips, an IT specialist at the London law firm reportedly sent his secretary an e-mail demanding she pay the £4 dry-cleaning bill he incurred after she spilled ketchup on his pants. The secretary chose to forward the e-mail to colleagues, and Phillips soon became tabloid fodder as "Ketchup Trousers." For most of us, common sense and good values keep such problems at bay. But there are plenty of gray areas when it comes to e-mail, and even sensible executives the ones who stayed awake in the HR training sessions can be tripped up by an unintended nuance or other inadvertent slip. Fortunately, following a few surprisingly basic rules can help. >>

Does Google Copied My Logo ?! :)

Just few days back, Google has branded it's “Google Personalized Homepage” as 'iGoogle'. The logo which Google used for 'iGoogle' looks very surprising :) to me and mostly similar to the one I have designed during my Google Interview in 2005.

Look at the similarity in the font usage and patterns used for the character 'i' in their logo.

Google's new iGoogle Logo:

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My 'I love Google' Doodle created in 2005.

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Does Google Copied My Logo?, I think it may be an coincidence or what you feel?

20 Things We Didn't Know About Robots

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Modern robots can respond to emotion and the smell of fine wines. Discover Magazine listed out the 20 things we didn't Know about robots:
  1. “Robot” comes from the Czech word robota, meaning “drudgery,” and first appeared in the 1921 play Rossum’s Universal Robots [R.U.R.].
  2. The first known case of robot homicide occurred in 1981, when a robotic arm crushed a Japanese Kawasaki factory worker.
  3. More than a million industrial robots are now in use, nearly half of them in Japan.
  4. Archytas of Tarentum, a pal of Plato’s, built a mechanical bird driven by a jet of steam or compressed air—arguably history’s first robot—in the fifth century B.C.
  5. Leonardo da Vinci drew up plans for an armored humanoid machine in 1495. Engineer Mark Rosheim has created a functional miniature version for NASA to help colonize Mars.
Checkout the other interesting factors about robots. >>

Dell selects Ubuntu for Desktop Linux

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Dell announced it has selected the Ubuntu distribution for its new Linux desktop machines. When Dell asked which distribution of Linux Dell should prioritize on, Ubuntu was the most requested option. It will offer the latest Ubuntu 7.04, as an option on select Dell consumer models in the US in the coming weeks. >>

Top 25 Things that Shaped the Internet

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Twenty-five years ago the Internet as we now know it was in the process of being birthed by the National Science Foundation. Since then it's been an information explosion. From e-mail to eBay, communication and shopping have forever changed. Checkout the top 25 things that shaped the Internet. >>


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