Archive for August, 2005

Google Talk: My Take

Monday, August 29th, 2005

What’s my take on Google Talk? I downloaded it on the first day itself, installed it, clicked around, had a conversation or two, closed it, and haven’t started it again. The tool I use for IM is Gaim for all the four majors (The 4): YIM, MSN, ICQ, and AIM. Combined I have 300 contacts […]

Internet Is A Tool

Monday, August 29th, 2005

I have a friend with whom I was discussing about what’s safe and unsafe on the Internet in a very broad sense. In the middle of the conversation, I wrote the following; something I wanted to share: Internet is a tool. No tool is safe. It is how one uses it. If you follow safe […]

Why I Like The Register

Monday, August 29th, 2005

There have been times when I’ve wondered why I read The Register. Then comes along a report like “Student constructs hamster-powered mobe charger” with gems like We’ve often wondered for what purpose exactly hamsters were put upon this earth, and now we know: to charge mobile phones. and Perhaps if he’d knocked together a desktop […]

East India Company Nearly Dismantled Taj Mahal

Sunday, August 21st, 2005

When it comes to Taj Mahal, seems like not a year passes without a controversy of some sort. There was the Taj Corridor Project that most likely did some permanent damage to the monument. And now there is the Waqf Board trying to claim it as theirs. Of course, there are the descendants of Shahjahan […]

NASSCOM Cries ‘Entrapment’

Friday, August 19th, 2005

As the focus shifts to India further, expect more sting operations in India that try to spread the FUD on how insecure BPO outsourcing is, especially in India. NASSCOM calls it entrapment, I call it humbug.

DIY-GTD Blogs Hit A Spot

Thursday, August 18th, 2005

Greg Storey finally lets off some steam on the excessive DIY-GTD blogginess craziness over at his site and proceeds to put up a rather humourous “How To Stop Breathing Through Your Mouth”. When your mouth has been successfully closed, try to draw air into the lungs through your nose. If everything works like it should […]

New Computer

Wednesday, August 17th, 2005

I have a new HP computer (dx6120 MT) at office. I got it on Friday night and spent the next 3 holidays I had (Saturday-Monday) doing the data transfers and setting it up. The RAM was still the default 256MB till a few hours ago. With the new video card (I installed a XFX NVIDIA […]

Online Wanderings

Monday, August 15th, 2005

Virals: BPN Feed The Viral Factory. Some awesome virals in their portfolio. Rock-On-Rock: Un-Balancing. Not sure if this is really a viral in the true sense but it sure looks like one. Flash Stuff: Motherload Snowy A dog for all seasons Fire on Hands. Andreas Rehnberg takes webcam motion tracking in Flash 8 to the […]

Global War(m/n)ing

Monday, August 15th, 2005

Head over to the Global Warming: Early Warning Signs to read up on how terribly we are screwing up our planet. A look at the signs in India on the Asia page made me wonder if I’ll see a glacier-less himalayan range within my lifetime. Update: I came across a report in New Scientist about […]

India’s Top Spies

Monday, August 15th, 2005

Spies: From the celluloid British 007 to the ones in Discovery documentaries, I always wondered where all the good ones from my country were. But then, the good ones are talked about after they’re gone and done doing their deed. Learn more about the best Indian spies and their acts that made them so.

Independence Day

Monday, August 15th, 2005

1857: The struggle officially began. 1947: The struggle finally ended. Happy 59th Independence Day! The last 58 years of independence have been a crazy story of growth, progress, restraint and vision. From a British colony to a regional super-power, riding the IT and BPO boom, we have come a long way pretty fast and the […]

When Think-Tanks Lack Thinking

Wednesday, August 10th, 2005

Caught a story on Rediff about a new report by RAND titled “Exploring Religious Conflict” (PDF). It clubs RSS as a NRM (New Religious Movement). It goes to the extent of naming it in the same sentence mentioning al-Qaeda! NRMs can be found in Hinduism (the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, or RSS), Israel (Gush Emunim), Christianity […]

Online Wanderings

Monday, August 8th, 2005

Virals via. Ad-Rag: We Hear Scared People to raise money for Childline, the helpline for children in UK. Inspired by The Sixth Sense, shot by Lee and Dan, produced by Quiet Storm (everything was done mostly for free). Stella Artois ‘Film Live’ by Lowe London and the report with solution. I know this wasn’t really […]

My Team

Saturday, August 6th, 2005

One thing that I have tried religiously to do is keep most of my work-related stuff out of my blog. It’s been slightly tough since I spend an average of 130 hours a week in the office (out of a total possible of 168). There are a few things that have crept in of course: […]

And Another Year!

Wednesday, August 3rd, 2005

Happy birthday to me. Happy birthday to me. *toot* *toot* Okay, so I completed 27 years today. Wow. Twenty-Seven. I still feel 18 though. That’s gotta be good in some psychiatric interpretation. 😉 I’m in far better spirits than last year. Lately I’ve become a hard-core positive thinker and I’m rather enjoying the energy it […]

Best Use of Extranet (Basecamp)

Tuesday, August 2nd, 2005

We use Basecamp to manage work and interact with our clients. We call it our Extranet. My boss has started a little competition (I guess you can call it that) where he will rate its effective use by all the Project Managers and award the one to use it best with a box of Ferrero […]

Online Wanderings

Monday, August 1st, 2005

Virals: Carlton Draught Big Ad was created by George Patterson Partners, shot by Andrew Lesnie who has won an Academy Award for cinematography (he’s worked on Fellowship of the Ring) and co-produced by Animal Logic. via. Ad-Rag Peperami Noodles is an exceedingly amusing viral for … Noodles! The Groundhog Chase Paper Wad Fun from last […]