Google Chrome

When Internet revolution came to me, the browser wars were officially over and IE was the undisputed winner. I used IE for a long time till Mozilla FireFox 2.0 was released with a lot of fanfare. I was a hardcore convert.

Mozilla is really cool! It is made cooler by the plug ins/themes which can be used to modify the looks and functionality and what not! Heck you can make stuff yourself or modify the look yourself if you are too finicky about it!

There were others like Apple's Safari. Safari is the browser used in iPhone and Macs and is supposed to be really good. I find it to be gloomy and clunky looking browser thanks to the grey colored interface. It is light and it is fast but not destined to be used by many, at least on the PCs.

FireFox 3 was launched and made a world record. Yeah it is pretty cool (new interface and stuff) but it takes time to load (maybe something Bill Gates did to promote IE?) but it was the best thing around and was my default browser.

Then came the launch of Google Chrome which promised a "A Fresh take on the Browser". Intrigued, I donwloaded it. I found it is faster, has a sleeker and a cleaner interface and has tonnes of cool features. My favourite Feature is the Create application shortcut feature. Chrome is there to basically screw Microsoft and this feature proves it. You have Gmail, Google Docs and Google Spreadsheet (competition to Outlook, MS Word and MS Excel) and you create and application shortcut feature. Now you double click on it, thanks to Chrome being super fast you get it immediately on screen!

This is going to be a fun battle to watch out, Google vs Microsoft. Wait and watch.

Till that time keep using chrome.. It is pretty cool!

Bye Bye IPL 2

Lalit Modi announced yesterday that IPL has become a global phenomenon, and left no stone unturned to prove it. Be it having Eddy Grant (I didn't know who he was before IPL closing ceremony) or Akon (who repeated two songs for 30 mins, and his sound system had some issues) or Katrina Kaif (Jai ho, Pussycat Dolls remix, she couldn't dance but looked GORGEOUS).

I think Lalit Modi thought that by Smack That, Akon meant smacking of ball with the bat. Akon won't agree to that that that meant something else (is it correct English? I think so). And he was lip-synching! If they wanted to hear a tape of Akon why fly him in and his DJ? Akon also presented Miss Bollywood her crown while singing Beautiful. This lady is hot but wooden. All in all this section was a letdown.

Then came Katrina Kaif, radiant in white, while Jai Ho (Pussycat Dolls remix) blared in the background. Barring KK everything else sucked. Be it choreography by Shiamik Davar or the song ( I hate it! It murders the spirit of the song which is ok ok not even an Oscar winning compostion, Rahman has done better work before). And that was it! Just one song and it was over! Such a mega letdown!

The fire drummers (Phoenix something) were the best performers for the closing ceremony. The performance was mindblowing and suited the occasion (African drummers, playing with fire in darkness, yeah it was good).

Eddy Grant's performance was pretty good. I liked the song, Gimme Hope. But then it was ruined by one and only Shiamik! Vande Matram couldn't have been sung at a worst event. It felt out of place and inappropriately put in. Grow up! You guys want to be global but then have to show off nationalism at such places!!!

If Lalit Modi ever read this, a piece of advice, don't have so many speeches! SA Premier was more interested in soccer, you were more interested in wife and kids and glamor. And please have longer Katrina Kaif perfomance!!!

Why H1N1 fears India

After SARS , Avian flu here is another global virus, Swine Flu or H1N1. And people globally are scared and running around for a cure and getting paranoid and the usual hoopla. 

Living in a country which has 0.6 Doctors per thousand people, I should be scared. Cursory checks at airport (the government is on High alert, my foot!) and approx 50 milion tourists coming in, the probabililty of swine flu coming to India hovers somewhere around one. 

I should be scared. I am not scared! Im from this country where I have to fight daily for my survival with 1 billion human beings, and a stupid virus will kill me? I have this (kind of stupid) theory that this fight for survival has made Indians the most resililent population group in this world. These new kids on the block (SARS, flu and the bunch) can't compete with the terror of Blue Line buses in Delhi or Arun Lal's commentary, or Sooraj Bardjaitya's flicks (MPKDH and Vivah). 

Come on H1N1, Come to India and we will ensure that you fear us!

Dariya Dil - Tu Mera Superman

Lazyness strikes again, so I am uploading another priceless video.....

Greatbong has some priceless comments on this song here

CID

Sony has this long running program, CID. I neither like nor hate this show, but over the years (it has the Longest running crime investigation serial award, Wikipedia informs me), we have found some common things that happen in every single episode of CID. These include:

1. ACP Pradyuman (third from left, in the suit) has this line, in which camera zooms into his face, his eyebrow snaps up and he says, "Ab dekhta hoon yeh mujrim mujhse kaise bachta hai"
2. If there is any dangerous work, like going up an electric pole or diving underwater for some thing, Inspector Fredricks (second from left in the picture) always does that. 
3. Inspector Daya (extreme right in the picture) slaps the criminal and the scene cuts to the crime branch (this happens in every episode I have seen)
4. The team finds some common thing (paan stain, pesticide etc) and ACP Pradyuman says "Jaao, poore Mumbai shehar mein __________ (insert the item from the list above) ki dukano mein jaake dhoondo ki kisne _______ (date of crime) tareekh ko yeh samaan khareeda tha". The funny thing is that the shopkeepers ALWAYS keeps records of the people coming in and going out!

Long Live CID!!!

Big Brother

I have always been a big fan of google. It was the White knight which was free. It was a cool company with coolest people working there and making great things. It stood (or still does?) for everything anti Microsoft.

I have grown up on MS software (MS DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.0 is my earliest computer memory) and initially was in awe of this behemoth. Then thanks to media frenzy I realised they were forcing their products on me. Fine by me, one gets used to IE icon and can choose not to use it. Big Deal. What I didn't like is these guys killing companies like Lotus (acquired by IBM), Borland (which made C++) and Netscape. They scrwed these all by integrating their software in the windows shell, and making these look like slow clumsy programs (disclaimer: I might be wrong)  

Going back to Google, I embraced google happily, using every product they threw @ me and testing it and giving feedback (do they even read it?). I fear though that is google becoming the Big Brother? If some paranoid cop thinks that I might have commited a crime (I wont!!) all my surfing habits will be handed over to him? Will 2024 be like 1984?

So many people claim to be Google Killers, be it Cuil, or to be launched Wolfram. I don't think they can! Google is too big to be killed by these. The only one who can kill google is Google itself and Sergey Brin and Larry Page are smart asses, so doomsday for Google is far far away.  

Shera

Here is a video from another Mithun-da classic.. Shera... 

Disclaimer:Watch it at your own risk :)

Kolkata Knight Riders- K K Haar?

Korbo, Lodbo, Jeetbo Re. The War cry of the King's men. Seeing that video makes me feel sad. Sad for KKR, Sad for SRK, Sad for the crazy Bengali Fans. SRK is refusing to go back to South Africa and is dancing in some builder's son's wedding. He is reportedly so depressed with the performance of his knights that he wants to bid good night to the franchisee. 

I personally think this year the team is destined to screw up. Last year it was Deccan Chargers. This year it is KKR. Yesterday, in the match with Delhi Daredevils, KKR looked like a team which was carrying its bad luck apne saath (they could talk to Sunny Deol)

I think (I am talking like a cricket expert, but come on, if Gaurav Kapoor, Chang and Mandira Bedi can so can I) they should put their heads down, pray for a miracle (only prayers can help them) and wait for IPL Season 3. And God Forbid if they under perform in Calcutta...  

 

Cost Of Democracy

Election season is on in India. Lok Sabha has 543 seats and around 7,000 candidates. The average spending per person (officially is around 15-20 Lakh) comes to one crore (citation needed). This means 7,000 crore is spent by the candidates themselves. On top of that there is expenditure of 1,120 crore budgeted for election expenses.
All this money is being spent.. To what end? Why???
My question is.. Do we need this political tamasha? Where a fading actor promises to hugs a dalit woman and is dragged to courts on grounds of obscenity? Don't we have enough entertainment from daily life that we need this horribly expensive tamasha?
Is democracy needed? As it is your vote doesn't make a difference. Whoever wins, the politicians get richer by the day, and the poor people poorer. At times like this i think either we should have a dictatorial government or voting should be allowed only to educated people (say 10th pass or something) so that they understand their responsibility. As Ben Parker said, "With great power comes great responsibility". We have the great power to elect our representative but no sense of responsibility. God Save us all!