Here's stuff I found on my travels through the Internet today.
LifeHacker.com - downloads, websites and shortcuts to save time.
LifeHack.org - this is a similar sounding site on productivity and "getting things done".
MinimizeToTray - this Firefox extension allows the Firefox browser to be minimized to tray.
AJAX - this technology has been made popular by Google via its various services such as Google Maps and Google Suggest. Here's a good example of a web-based service developed using AJAX.
OneLook reverse dictionary - describe a concept and get back a word. Simple.
Google Blog Search - Finally Google unveils a specialized search for just the blogs. I searched for my name and found a link to my blog and also this post on another blog.
Visual Studio 2005 Express Editions - Yes Microsoft actually gives away "express" versions of its Visual Studio software (includes free versions of Visual Basic 2005, Visual C# 2005, etc).
Sunday, September 18, 2005
Sunday, September 04, 2005
Cool stuff for the week
Here's some stuff that I am trying out currently.
Qurb - this software provides spam protection as well as a "challenge-response" mechanism to keep your inbox clean of unwanted email. It also has a very fast email search facility for Outlook.
Audible - Listen to hundreds of books, magazines and radio shows. I'm addicted. Atleast this way I read/listen to one book every month.
RhymeZone - When you haven't got the time, to make up a rhyme - visit the RhymeZone and get tons of suggestions.
Qurb - this software provides spam protection as well as a "challenge-response" mechanism to keep your inbox clean of unwanted email. It also has a very fast email search facility for Outlook.
Audible - Listen to hundreds of books, magazines and radio shows. I'm addicted. Atleast this way I read/listen to one book every month.
RhymeZone - When you haven't got the time, to make up a rhyme - visit the RhymeZone and get tons of suggestions.
Engineering the environment
I was listening to Michael Crichton's State of Fear last month (yes, listening and not reading - I finally subscribed to Audible). The book's excellent and well researched like most of Crichton's books. This book and some real life incidents have set me thinking.
In the book, an organization working for environmental protection and against global warming resorts to engineering natural disasters like a tsunami, hurricane and so on in order to prove its point that global warming is leading to disastrous changes in climate.
Over the past month two natural disasters occured that I am aware of - one was the torrential rains that hit Mumbai in the North of India and the other was the Hurricane Katarina that hit the Gulf Coast of USA. Both incidents resulted in unprecedented losses of life and property.
I'm not saying that these incidents are due to global warming. But I am thinking what would happen if real life mirrored fiction and terrorist organizations started engineering natural disasters by manipulating the environment? Would this lead to "eco"-terrorism?
In the book, an organization working for environmental protection and against global warming resorts to engineering natural disasters like a tsunami, hurricane and so on in order to prove its point that global warming is leading to disastrous changes in climate.
Over the past month two natural disasters occured that I am aware of - one was the torrential rains that hit Mumbai in the North of India and the other was the Hurricane Katarina that hit the Gulf Coast of USA. Both incidents resulted in unprecedented losses of life and property.
I'm not saying that these incidents are due to global warming. But I am thinking what would happen if real life mirrored fiction and terrorist organizations started engineering natural disasters by manipulating the environment? Would this lead to "eco"-terrorism?
Sunday, July 03, 2005
Memories and a lot more
Beep.
That was me booting up. After being in hibernation for a month if not more. Somehow I can't seem to "find time" to write. Or maybe I'm just plain lazy. Its been so long I wonder if anyone still checks this page for updates.
This past week has been eventful. I got duly food poisoned by some fruit juice I had last Sunday and spent the best part of Monday and Tuesday this week vomiting and rushing to the bathroom - not necessarily in that order.
Morbid as it may sound but this was also probably my first experience in passing out. It was a strange feeling. I was seated in my chair trying to get some rest. At first it felt like a rush of blood to my head. As though my brain suddenly needed more of it. I felt my vision blurring. And then there was nothing. It was like as though someone had just switched me off. After a few seconds (or maybe a few minutes, I don't know) I was switched on again and was in a different place (in front of the wash basin actually - put there by mom who was splashing water on me face). What happened in between I would probably never know. It was a strange feeling.
We take so much for granted. Sight, sound, smell, thought, ... I wonder what someone that didn't have one or more of these senses would do. What if I couldn't see? What if I couldn't speak or hear? When you're alive, you exist - and that feeling of existing is felt both by others and by you. You know you exist. Others (even if they choose to ignore you) know that you exist. What would the person that was in a coma feel? Will their existence be of any meaning to them? Will their existence be solely for the purpose of other people, who hoped that one day they would switch themselves on again?
I'm probably crazy, but such thoughts do make their presense felt in me and I wanted to put them down some place.
I went and had a hair cut today and saw many small kids getting their hair cuts. Their dads were proudly standing behind the chairs directing the barber - "hey not so close, leave it natural". I normally don't go to the saloon on Sundays since it would be too crowded, but today was an exception. The sight brought back memories. Memories of when I was a kid and my dad used to take me to the saloon. It was a big event. The Sunday visit to the saloon. We used to go on my dad's scooter (a 'Lamberta' or something - he had to actually wait 5 years after booking the scooter to get it delivered, such was the demand for scooters those days). The saloon was right next to Kamal Haasan's (the Tamil actor) house and it prided itself in having him among its prestigious clientele. The barber used to be delighted to see me. Maybe he was like that with everyone but he made me feel special to sit there in his chair and get my hair cut. He would go about his business telling interesting stories (and gossip) to all those that cared to listen to him. At the end of his labor of love would be me, spanking clean with a nice hair cut and smelling of talcum powder. Wonderful memories.
The past week also saw some techie announcements that I have been following. First of all, iTunes 4.9 is out and it has podcatching support! Which means I can just click and subscribe to podcasts within iTunes and they sync automatically to my iPod. Cool one. And then there was also the announcement from Microsoft that their (here soon now) Longhorn OS will natively support RSS feeds - which means blogs can stream to your desktop, inter-person communications can take place via RSS feeds, and a lot more. Both these announcements were made at the Gnomedex 5.0 conference organized by Chris Pirillo (did I spell it right?). The power of blogs and podcasts meant that I could follow the conference happening in Seattle right from the comfort of my home. The written word, the photos, the audio, the video - created a picture of all that was happening at the conference. The wonder of technology...
A couple of things about the conference. Adam Curry's keynote speech (which was at the end of the conference) - was totally awesome. He is a great podcaster and I admire the way he timed his speech, inserted the punch lines, raised emotions with Rob Costlow's success story and left the audience cheering and clapping and thinking. The showman extraordinaire! And then there is Dave Winer. He's the guy that came up with the RSS specification that lead to the birth of blogs and podcasts. Together they make a great team and have, along with several other pioneers, launched the next big revolution in media and broadcasting.
The future is being podcast! :-) I think podcasts will be a serious alternative to radio and other media sooner than we think. And just wait till iPods get video capability and then we can see a surge in videocasts as well. And that could lead to maybe professionally produced (short) films downloadable to your iPod. And a whole new industry of "indie" (as they call it) media.
There's one thing I noticed with iTunes 4.9. When podcasts are downloading there is no way (atleast as far as I could see) to pause the download. Sometimes when 3 or 4 podcasts are downloading it eats up all available bandwidth and I can no longer browse any other site (or its extremely slow to be usable). In some cases I may want to actually pause the download and then restart it after I'm done browsing. When I cancel a download it actually now starts downloading from the beginning. This is something that will probably need looking into.
Oh well, I go from one topic to the other without any proper sequence but thats the beauty of blogs.
I watched "Black" - a Hindi movie - on DVD today. It generated a wonderful, touching, emotional experience. Sort of encapsulates some of what I've said above - the feeling of being lonely, the feeling of darkness all around, the feeling of succeeding after years and years of trying. I would give it a ten out of ten not because everyone's raving about it, but because I really felt the emotions the director was trying to convey with the film.
Soon it will be a year since I started blogging and I need to clean this place up and give it a new look. Or maybe you would like me to vacate this space forever? :-) Suggestions are welcome.
[o&o]
That was me booting up. After being in hibernation for a month if not more. Somehow I can't seem to "find time" to write. Or maybe I'm just plain lazy. Its been so long I wonder if anyone still checks this page for updates.
This past week has been eventful. I got duly food poisoned by some fruit juice I had last Sunday and spent the best part of Monday and Tuesday this week vomiting and rushing to the bathroom - not necessarily in that order.
Morbid as it may sound but this was also probably my first experience in passing out. It was a strange feeling. I was seated in my chair trying to get some rest. At first it felt like a rush of blood to my head. As though my brain suddenly needed more of it. I felt my vision blurring. And then there was nothing. It was like as though someone had just switched me off. After a few seconds (or maybe a few minutes, I don't know) I was switched on again and was in a different place (in front of the wash basin actually - put there by mom who was splashing water on me face). What happened in between I would probably never know. It was a strange feeling.
We take so much for granted. Sight, sound, smell, thought, ... I wonder what someone that didn't have one or more of these senses would do. What if I couldn't see? What if I couldn't speak or hear? When you're alive, you exist - and that feeling of existing is felt both by others and by you. You know you exist. Others (even if they choose to ignore you) know that you exist. What would the person that was in a coma feel? Will their existence be of any meaning to them? Will their existence be solely for the purpose of other people, who hoped that one day they would switch themselves on again?
I'm probably crazy, but such thoughts do make their presense felt in me and I wanted to put them down some place.
I went and had a hair cut today and saw many small kids getting their hair cuts. Their dads were proudly standing behind the chairs directing the barber - "hey not so close, leave it natural". I normally don't go to the saloon on Sundays since it would be too crowded, but today was an exception. The sight brought back memories. Memories of when I was a kid and my dad used to take me to the saloon. It was a big event. The Sunday visit to the saloon. We used to go on my dad's scooter (a 'Lamberta' or something - he had to actually wait 5 years after booking the scooter to get it delivered, such was the demand for scooters those days). The saloon was right next to Kamal Haasan's (the Tamil actor) house and it prided itself in having him among its prestigious clientele. The barber used to be delighted to see me. Maybe he was like that with everyone but he made me feel special to sit there in his chair and get my hair cut. He would go about his business telling interesting stories (and gossip) to all those that cared to listen to him. At the end of his labor of love would be me, spanking clean with a nice hair cut and smelling of talcum powder. Wonderful memories.
The past week also saw some techie announcements that I have been following. First of all, iTunes 4.9 is out and it has podcatching support! Which means I can just click and subscribe to podcasts within iTunes and they sync automatically to my iPod. Cool one. And then there was also the announcement from Microsoft that their (here soon now) Longhorn OS will natively support RSS feeds - which means blogs can stream to your desktop, inter-person communications can take place via RSS feeds, and a lot more. Both these announcements were made at the Gnomedex 5.0 conference organized by Chris Pirillo (did I spell it right?). The power of blogs and podcasts meant that I could follow the conference happening in Seattle right from the comfort of my home. The written word, the photos, the audio, the video - created a picture of all that was happening at the conference. The wonder of technology...
A couple of things about the conference. Adam Curry's keynote speech (which was at the end of the conference) - was totally awesome. He is a great podcaster and I admire the way he timed his speech, inserted the punch lines, raised emotions with Rob Costlow's success story and left the audience cheering and clapping and thinking. The showman extraordinaire! And then there is Dave Winer. He's the guy that came up with the RSS specification that lead to the birth of blogs and podcasts. Together they make a great team and have, along with several other pioneers, launched the next big revolution in media and broadcasting.
The future is being podcast! :-) I think podcasts will be a serious alternative to radio and other media sooner than we think. And just wait till iPods get video capability and then we can see a surge in videocasts as well. And that could lead to maybe professionally produced (short) films downloadable to your iPod. And a whole new industry of "indie" (as they call it) media.
There's one thing I noticed with iTunes 4.9. When podcasts are downloading there is no way (atleast as far as I could see) to pause the download. Sometimes when 3 or 4 podcasts are downloading it eats up all available bandwidth and I can no longer browse any other site (or its extremely slow to be usable). In some cases I may want to actually pause the download and then restart it after I'm done browsing. When I cancel a download it actually now starts downloading from the beginning. This is something that will probably need looking into.
Oh well, I go from one topic to the other without any proper sequence but thats the beauty of blogs.
I watched "Black" - a Hindi movie - on DVD today. It generated a wonderful, touching, emotional experience. Sort of encapsulates some of what I've said above - the feeling of being lonely, the feeling of darkness all around, the feeling of succeeding after years and years of trying. I would give it a ten out of ten not because everyone's raving about it, but because I really felt the emotions the director was trying to convey with the film.
Soon it will be a year since I started blogging and I need to clean this place up and give it a new look. Or maybe you would like me to vacate this space forever? :-) Suggestions are welcome.
[o&o]
Monday, June 13, 2005
Some thoughts
Here's something I got in the email today. It set me thinking and its a welcome change from the geeky stuff that I post here. :-)
What would you do if every time you wanted someone they
would never be there?
What would you do if for every moment you were truly happy
there would be 10 moments of sadness?
Monday, June 06, 2005
ipod at last
After months of waiting I finally have an iPod Photo and a Bose SoundDock. More about this including pics later. My "gizmo wishlist" is now zilch. I seem to have everything that one could ever wish for. Well almost everything.
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