Power laws

Most people who know me well quickly realize that I am fascinated by networks. I've been reading Albert-Lazlo Barabasi's "Linked" which goes into interesting aspects of networks of all kinds - from why Google was an overnight success to the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. Most networks as it turns out follow "power law distributions" in their connectedness and nodes dont get connected randomly as previously thought.

He does go into a more plebian discussion of the "six degrees" game and even as he went into early proofs of the "average distance between you and anybody else on the planet being 5.5," I realized that I was separated from Barabasi by exactly 3 degrees. He has worked closely with Malcolm Gladwell the author of "Blink!" and "Tipping Point"( both books I highly recommend). Malcolm is a friend of Prof. Raymond Fisman at Columbia University who taught me Micro-Economics and who I continue to keep in touch with.

CrackBerry

I finally gave in and bought myself a BlackBerry e-mail+phone device. I've wanted one for a few years but never got around to doing so. But RSA Security (my employer) recently announced support for the enterprise version of the Blackberry service so my boss urged me to go get one. The frugal part of me went hunting on eBay and Craigslist and found a decent late-model (BB 7230) for $150 in good condition from a local dude. I am not sure if it was the contract extension that T-Mobile required or that they wanted me to cough up $300 for the exact same device (probably both) that made me go looking for a used device.

Now that I have it, I'm hooked. T-Mo has this great unlimited data add-on and I am beginning to think I can actually stop lugging my recently stylish and ultra-portable laptop around (a Toshiba M100).

What I love about it:

• Real-time access to both corporate and personal e-mail accounts. No more VPNs required unless I fire up that laptop. I can look at most spreadsheets and word documents right on there.
  
• Over-the-air synchronization of my calendar, tasks and address books. I dont need to cradle/sync this device
  
• A real sweet tactile keypad
  
• Charges right off my USB port
  
• Uses a standard USB-to-MiniUSB cable so I can use the same cable that came with my Camcorder if I misplace the one that came with the device
  
• The battery life is amazing
  
• Reception is actually much better than my erstwhile favorite phone: Sony Ericsson TMS 610
  
• SMS with a real keyboard instead of going tap-tap
  
• Voice calls from within emails and notes
  
• Thousand of Java based applications including some real cool ones like BBToday (like Outlook Today for MS-Outlook) and Berry411 (Location based directory services - off of Google Local)
  

I can't think of much I dislike about this device except perhaps that I am an addict now. I am reading my email even when feeding the kids. Ive been resisting that urge to communicate when driving :-)

Linking envy

I've been using Linked-In for a while now. My use of the fairly nifty networking tool has paid off in some ways. Searching the web of connections is always interesting.

I noticed that the size of individual networks doesn't always reflect their true connectedness outside of the tool. Some of them (like me) are passive users who are on the network only because:

• They respond to others' invites but dont themselves recruit new links
• They invite new users only if the invitee asks to be invited
• They locate and invite existing users of Linked-in who they know
  

Others seem to harvest entire mailing lists. It makes me wonder how strong some of these relationships really are and if they can sustain the purported utility of the tool itself to hop the degrees of separation to achieve professional and personal goals. I contend that unless you have in some form (work, school, family) been directly (and favorably) associated with a person, or if you are close enough to know their kids'/parents' names, you are unlikely to propagate a favor through a link to that person.

The growth of the network is fascinating nevertheless.

Let me know what you think.

Come see the babies... they're growing

I will be posting regular updates to the pictures of the girls on their very own website.

Welcome to the world of personal publishing!

Arent all things supposed to start with a "hello world?".. so this is it.

So everyone in the extended family/friends circle is welcome to get in touch with me (you know how..) to get access to:

• Your very own @kamadolli.com email address
  
• Posting privileges on this site
• Share your online-presence (personal websites, photo-blogs, other blogs, etc.) with the rest of us

Enjoy!