Been to Bangalore on an official visit. So, couldn't update the blog for the past two days...even today, have nothing great to post...Had planned for a good 9 day leave for Diwali..But, with the Project go-live this month end, that leave had been scrapped...So will have to come to work on the inbetween 2 days- 2nd and 3rd.

But, there is one respite inspite of all these..I would be working from Bangalore for those 2 days..so would return back to Bangalore on 2nd, work for two days and return back to Chennai for the next three days..When I first heard the schedule, I was really saddened..But then, as I reflect back, it seems that this is better than returning back to Mangalore and staying there for three holidays, alone..atleast if I am in Bangalore, I can go home! So, totally satisfied now!

And to do some Justice to the title of the post:

Happy Diwali to everyone!..Let Happiness be in your lives forever!

I dont know whether to laugh or to cry on the topics that people search for. What would I do, if I were a server in the Googleplex...Simple- I would just shut down and refuse to reboot!

Examples of searches that people had used in the last 3 days to access my blog:

But thinking aloud, these are certain other searches too:

Umm...it seems people have other work too!!!:P

As always, Google tops the list with 88.46% of all search traffic and Yahoo with a 7.69% second.

தமிழில் எழுதுவது என்பது எனது நேண்ட நாள் அவா. ஆனால் எவ்வாறு எழுதுவது என்று ெதரியவில்ைல. ஆனால் எனது தோழியின் உதவியினால் இன்று எழுதும் வாய்ப்பு கிட்டியது. நன்றி. இன்த ஏட்டில் இனி தமிழிலும் குறிப்புகள் இடம் ெபறும். வணக்கம்.

Of late, Google had been in a variety of law suits and it is wriggling its way out by variety of means- compromise[Repetition of the earlier link], defiance, compliance and back tracking. But, what they eventually are doing in this case of Google Print, is not being unnoticed.

And that is the case of surprise/worry/astonishment for many across the world. Though there are many voices for and against the venture, it seems that there is more at stake than mere publisher's gaurding their rights.[Atleast thats what John claims]..Just have a look at the AAUP's Peter Gilver's open letter to Google's MacGillivray about the AAUP's concerns and issues that face the project!..To me, the AAUP seems to be overly concerned about the unprecedentedness of the venture...that is what is repeated great many times in the letter!

There is also a parallel issue being brought to light by this post! The post rightly points out that, Google is increasing it's stake in the issue by comparing the web search with Library's book search. There is a valid question- What if Google looses this case, on which it has staked it's entire business essence? A terrifying proposition indeed!...Will have to wait and watch!

It seems that, both Yahoo! and Google have posted encouraging results this quarter! [It seems almost all IT companies are reporting better results!:O]

BTW, the latest kid on the block had just been launched! I tried it and I reserve the detailed comment on it for future!

But, still Google is obsolete in this aspect....the issue had moved further away from our Bare Chested Majesty!- Oops!..Made a mistake...Bare Chested- oh! leave it!...I am not getting it!

Sometimes, we get information from wholly unexpected sources and hitherto unforeseen places..But those bits of information leads us to find more and more and more...

One such information I got was that, this is the World Physics Year- I mean, 2005 is being celebrated as the World Year of Physics..you know for what? This is the Annus Mirabilis of Albert Einstein. Though I made a post on him sometime back, I never knew that, this year is being celebrated as such in commorating him.

Also, have you heard about this Law?- Godwin's Law.[Wiki Def.]Quite interesting I say...I hadn't seen the proof of it...just because I was not aware of this phenomenon itself. Now, that I knew it, I will keep a watch over the science message/discussion boards!..Let me see, if this law is validated. In simple terms the law states that,

As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1.[via Dopppsy]

If you are an ardent reader of Slashdot, you would not have missed the recent contest for change in the design of the site!..Got hold of an interesting article/opinion piece about the entire issue.

How many of Bushisms [Wiki Def.] had you heard? If you want more, you can find them here!

If you want to know how can you put your brains to use, take this man as your role model...Oops..did I say, role model?..Sorry, then you might end up like himself!:P

It is interesting( and saddening) to see how Science [wiki def.] is being butchered...For someone, who had marvelled at the thought of evolution and the innumerable surprises(well, more expected surprises) that the theory throws up, this debate is frightening!!

Add to that fear, the results of a poll by some sundry newspapers, and the recent argument being put forward by schools themselves, makes me wonder, where are we heading towards? I wonder, if this is the darkest age in Human history?

But, all is not so bad!..Think of the Soviet Perestroika [Wiki Def.] and Glasnost [Wiki Def.] and the chief architect!..When one reads through the auto-biography of Michael Gorbachev, one can understand that, there are more to it than Gorbachev! One such man- Alexander Yakovlev, passes away!

It is interesting to note, who the early adopters of .com revolution are. Take a look at the oldest .com domains still in use. While the usual suspects like, Apple, Cisco, IBM, etc are present, the most unusual for me was the absence of Micros**t. Having been founded in 1975, it is surprising to note that, Microsoft didn't have a website even by late 1987 in its own name.. So, what was Microsoft registered as..any idea?[Spotted via John Battelle's Search Blog]

I am bored of people, who think they had taught me something in life, while what they have really done is to make themselves look miserable and pitiable in my eyes!

- Anonymous

Right from the day that Blogsearch was launched by Google, I had been searching for my name almost daily and see what results that Google Blogsearch throws up. The first two days was absolute disappointment. My search for Krish, would throw everything but Straight Angle..But as the days grew, the search was getting better(ie, for me :P)..My blog started getting to the first three results of the search...

But then, suddenly diaster struck!..There started a Best Insurance Search Blog, by Krish..and you can see the results for yourselves! I think this is splogding(Splog Flooding- My coinage!;)), what with the sort of updating that goes on in this site and that I am unable to even view the site!

But, it seems that, there are people who make noise that is heard!- Lets see what comes of it!

And to add to that, there is an interesting piece of work on Trends in Software development, posted by Somasegar!- A thought provoking post indeed!

A nasty way to get more readers- rather more eye balls...I mean, I had been into Bloglines for quite some time now and I subcribe to my daily reads in that...I have the setting that, updated posts be shown as "New"- ie, even if I had already read a post and if it is updated after I had read it, bloglines will show it as "New" when I log in again...this way, I thought I will be able to keep track of not just the daily reads, but also the updates of the older reads...

But, to my astonishement, I am seeing some strange development. I had put up Slate Magazine too in the feeds. When I logged into the bloglines account today, I was surprised to find that there were some 32 new items in the Slate feed. Wondering whether I had wrongly named the Slashdot feed as Slate, I open the feed to find this:


This is not the first time that I am seeing this. Take a look at the first picture and then, come to the second one.. Do you notice the interesting point here? An article that had been posted two days back, is still being updated...I wonder what is the added/updated content?..I checked the two articles...I don't remember readingy anything new..may be there was some grammatical error- an omission of some "a"s or "an"s or "the"s in the article- I wonder!

Why is this practice?- with some 14,297 subcribers(including me, just in Bloglines alone), there is a huge potential to make your post appear as fresh as ever. I had already seen this sort of empty, "bot"ted updating happen every few hours(even, every half hour- if I am right!)!...I know...This can come only from Micros**t.

A nice article from Ramachandra Guha- [Via India Uncut]

What do you think is Investigative Journalism....God...Forgot Journalism...what do ya think is Investigation??..I dont think any more...I know....

This is it!!

A superb work, complete with irrefutable proofs, with solid evidence, of whatever! I only wish, my Internet connection was put to a similar or even a distantly similar work!..Good Work.. Thalassa_Mikra..Good Work![Via India Uncut]

On a different note, what Sonia Gandhi prescribes, might look good...on the face of it, it does look good...but on a very subtle note, I was aghast to note that, the rules were not just for the ministers, but also for the officials...I beg your pardon Madame!..Under what capacity are you formulating these directions( or rules..or whatever) to the officials...I completely understand your right mindedness and your yearning for simplicity and I respect them. But, tell me, where you got the authority to direct a government official...

The code lays down strict measures like only economy-class air travel for ministers and government officials, putting a cap on official telephone bills of ministers and officials, cutting STD and international call facilities on official phones and specifying that red lights and sirens can be used only on vehicles of the governor and the chief minister.[Reproduced Verbatim from the TOI site]

It is absolutely fine with me, if you are directing your party functionaries and Ministers...they are answerable to you are the party chairman...But to Governmentr Officials?..Did I hear it right?...:O[Via India Uncut]

There used to be a friend of mine, who longed for turning back time...ie, he would love to rant that, had he not met a certain person, he might have been a lot more different than now!!..that had he not taken that decision, he might have been very different now...

I used to have(even now, I have) only one question for him...What would have been your name then?. It seems to me as just ridiculous to think on those lines...to keep telling, "had that thing not happened to me, I would have been a lot different"...All I ask is, how different...what surety is there, that you would have not been a lot more pathetic, pitiable and worse off...This ingenuity of human mind baffles me...to transfer all blame on the others shoulders...to make others the reason for your failure!

To say, you made me do that...Are you so weak to let others take control of your life? Weren't you the one who made the decision..whatever damned decision that was?

At times, I think, it would have been a lot better, had I not started blogging!

What you think one can do with a simple Sine Sign(I mean it- the Sine in the dreaded Trignometry).

A group of internet musicians have taken up the challenge of creating complete musical compositions derived from a single one second 440 hz sinewave tone. This tone (often called a test tone) is simplest musical unit. The musicians had to manipulate the sinewave into new tones by changing the pitch and harmonics of the noise and passing the tone through effects to create new sounds. These were then used to create complete pieces of music. Three volumes of sinewave music are found in Audiobulb Records 'project' page under the title Root of Sine. The label has posted a 'Prime Numbers' compilation on their front page- (From MetaFilter)

More details can be found here!

Google had become a true Corporate Citizen..I mean, they have taken the route to ultimate recognition!..But, I am hating it...why should they too fall into this trap of helping society?..I mean, do they think Men are incapable of helping themselves and they need someone powerful to help them?..I dont think any corporate does this out of moral reasons...n there isnt anything morally wrong in not helping a non existent, non responsible entity called society!..What is Society?..Who defines what is Society?..But, these are my perpetual questions, for which none seems to have anything close to an answer!...But anyway, as the Society says, Way to Go!

YM and IM interoperability?...Whom are they targeting? AOL or Google Talk?...or am I being Paranoid about Google?..I am not sure of either!- and I am sure of both!

What is your biggest Email Peeve?- For me, this one isnt...coz, I use GMail!:P [Via Techdirt]

When I first heard, that Google might be investing in AOL, I thought it to be good move...With 12% of the Ad revenue coming from AOL and Micros**t already in the bidding for AOL, Google might be in a spot...Then, thinking about it, further, there might be another motive too, in that...that is to push up the value of AOL's stock, there by making MS bleed more than it ought have bled without Google...Google had cleverly tied up with Comcast for this bidding...so, even if it didn't get a slice of AOL, it can still be happy- atleast, MS had paid a higher price!

Metafilter reports that, MIT students had succeeded in proving a conditional setup that the Archimedes Death Ray might have existed and might have even been used to destroy the ships.

Ancient Greek and Roman historians recorded that during the siege of Syracuse in 212 BC, Archimedes (a notably smart person) constructed a burning glass to set the Roman warships, anchored within bow and arrow range, afire. The story has been much debated and oft dismissed as myth.

Sadagopan raises a point on the direction the Enterprise Software Solution Industry is moving and says that it is time there is a structural change in the industry!

Though it is quite true that the agreement that was reached between Google and Sun was a breakthrough, I am still not convinced as to the impact it would have on either of them. The agreement says that Google Toolbar would be bundled along with the Java RunTime environment download- as in, there would be an option for the consumer to download Google Toolbar alonog with Java Runtime environment...SO?..what is it that these companies get?..Google gets to have more downloads of its toolbar...so what is the use?..Business Logic of this announcement escapes me...Will have to wait and watch!

The Google Reader, rocks!..But having got used to Bloglines for quite sometime and having got quite a large collection of daily feeds and the lack of an OPML file output option is bloglines, makes me to think thrice before making it to Google....I am lazy- thats the fact of Life...even before I got hooked to Google, I was Lazy....So, it has got more priority than the more recent addiction!:P

Having posted a robust Q2 results, Infosys still gives the foreign press, an image of an outsourcing destination!...What had happened to the image turnaround and "Breaking the league" purpose of the Infosys Consulting?

Well, I know, I had been following this story for quite long,(infact right from the moment it started). But I hadn't got any inclination to make a detailed post on this issue till it got really big anf nasty!

Everyone knew the status of the Institute in question-or so I thought..but the institute itself thinks differently I guess. There had been quite a lot of distasteful comments on both Gaurav Sabnis Blog and also a friend of mine- Arun r's blog. Infact to the extent of another "Arun r" commenting on the original Arun r's blog, virtually, denying everything that had been written previously!

I had mailed Gaurav about this too..But the latest update from Gaurav makes me go red with rage..I think, if there is nothing to hide, or nothing wrong in what the institute in question is doing or claiming, then there shouldn't be any issues when there are allegations raised. If what Rashmi Bansal did was not fair, then it had to be tackled with logic and proof. Not with sick personal allegations and comments!

This shows the commentors had not got a faintest idea of what is decency...If the commentors hadn't got it, what can be thought about the institute that they study in? I leave it to you!

But the point is, as the latest post by Gaurav shows, the freedom of speech has been stiffled with, by using some silly threats and indirect pressures! Gaurav has made it a point to clearly mention that IBM hasn't pressured him to quit and that his decision to quit was his own...But, the point of burning laptops and using that as a threat is something that has to be condoned in strong terms!

The decision made by Gaurav is a tough one and would require immense courage and belief in what one writes!..A good job Gaurav and a blod one indeed!

Life, they say is a roller coaster ride...I would say, it is a bloody roller coaster ride!...Sometimes, we just wounder at the events that keep happening around us, over which we have no control(or, so we think- may be we dont want to own the responsibility). I dont know why something happens, or why it doesn't!

But, I do know for sure, there would be logic and reason for everything that happens..That logic might not be a convincing one for the receiver, but for the action itself, it must have been a sufficient condition. So, instead of crying over the spilled milk, just go over and clean up the surface and next time, take the milk in a half full glass!

Uff..guess that blabbering would do for a post. But for the kind reader who would be wondering about the sudden slag in the posting, I would just like to throw up the reasons, why I didn't post. May be the reasons are not convincing enough for you...But remember, these were the sufficient conditions for me not blogging!

Been to Agumbe!..Yeah again!..But this time, to the real Agumbe. Regular visitors here might remember the agumbe visit that we did when I was in TAPMI. Being in Mangalore, and being with such wonderfully, enthusiastic friends, one can possibly think about such an adventure to be the obvious weekend trip.

I mean, when we went to that place last time, we thought that we are going to Agumbe. Since, we had the car with us, we never thought of even asking anyone for the route and all..we just went straight ahead to some place and thought that it was Agumbe. But, when I confidently told the office guys that I had been to Agumbe and that I would organise the trip/trek, little did I know the potential mind field that I was entering!

From now, I will enter the conversation mode!
The Scene: Inside the hired cab.
Actors: Me, two collegues- let us call them, V n S

V: ennanga, where is Agumbe!
Me: Just 5 minutes from here!
V:But, wasn't it supposed to be a trek?, We are now, climbing the mountain in the vehicle itself...where do we trek then?
Me: We will trek down!
V: Ummmm...

After some uncomfortable turns and more beautiful scenaries cross,

Me: This place is so beautiful...I hadnt seen this like this before!
V: What? U hadnt come here before?
Me: I think I hadnt come here before!
S: Stop!!...Driver Stop the vehicle...Where are we going?
Driver: Agumbe Sir!- We would reach there in 5 minutes!
Me: Driver- is there any other way to reach Agumbe than this?
Driver: No sir!..This is the only way, that we take to reach Agumbe!
Me: But I had never come to this place before!
V n S: Then where the hell had u been?
Me: I had been to Agumbe!
Driver: This is Agumbe!
Me: This is not the Agumbe that I came to!
Driver: There was just silence...

There was confusion for the next half an hour, with me making frantic calls to people from Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai and all trying to wake them up from their deep slumber of a Sunday morning!

Then, got the number of Raj's home and called him up...then got the biggest shock of my life...that place that we went that day, was not at all Agumbe..I had all along been thinking that, I had been to Agumbe...but in reality, I had been to a place that is a full 6 Kms before it, and is called "Sita Falls"...take a loook at that here!

Right now, as I am sitting in front of the computer, I want to hear songs badly!!...I hadn't taken my head phones to the office with me now and the speaker(monitor speaker) volume output is pretty low!..I had to literally poke my head into the monitor..The track too is a very low stringed number and so, I am left with no option but........

I can take up my landline, call my cell number and put the receiver of the landline near the speaker and put the cell in my ear...Problem Solved!!....Local call you see!!:)

But, I am still not comfortable in doing that...it seems to me as heights..Let me control myself!!=))

Did you try the latest from the Yahoo! stable?...The Site Explorer! A very useful application for the web master and ofcourse for the narcissist bloggers. Just to find how many pages of your blog had been indexed by Yahoo! gives you a sense of devaju..isnt it?

BTW, this is the first time that a search engine had opened the doors of its index to public view and no doubt it is going to lead to huge changes in the SEO busines, by making the web masters aware of the pages that had been indexed, there by increasing the probablity of their pages getting the top ranks- in the sense that once I know which of my pages had been indexed and the links that come into my site, there is a good probability for me to tweak the meta data, so that, I retain/get to the first place in a specific search string!

Also, Yahoo! had given the developer community, by throwing open the APIs. Nice proposition. Of late, it has been a trend that most of the application had been open the APIs. This makes a good marketing option too, as the more developers gobble up your APIs, the more innovative application that are getting built around your basic application- there by ioncreaing the visibility and popularity of your application. Think of Google opening up the API of its Maps, to the developing community. This lead to more application being developed, more visibility and more trust!!..So be Open!..be known!!