A shoe was thrown at Mr. George W. Bush. The guy who did it became famous and so did the shoe and the entire exercise. So much so that another guy repeated this possible fad with the Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.
There is a certain pop culture that seems to have surrounded this event. People rallying for these guys who threw the shoe at these leaders. Both the guys having landed in prison for committing this act and breaking some bones in the process.
In another part of the world, Airplane engine failures have resulted in miraculous crash landings not resulting in deaths. The Hudson river crash landing was quite iconic in the fact that a major airliner crashed in the water without getting anybody killed. The Captain of the flight Captain Chesley Sullenberger was hailed as a hero in these desperate economic times. Well, somewhere (Australia?) someone (Steve Bolle?) was taking notes.
It could be a coincidence but maybe History repeats itself in some way.
p.s: don't forget to click the links.
Friday, February 06, 2009
Thursday, January 01, 2009
URL Shortenings
Ever had a long long long URL that you had to send out to a friend on IM or email? It was so long that it stopped being a URL? A good example of these types of URL are shopping site URLs.
like this:
http://cgi.ebay.in/NEW-4-3-GPS-CAR-NAVIGATOR-HOLUX-NAV-55A-WITH-WARRANTY_W0QQitemZ380093271536QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_203?hash=item380093271536&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A1|65%3A1|39%3A1|240%3A1318
Phew! That was long. You might already know a few sites like www.tinyurl.com that shorten/make tiny your long URLs. But here is a comparison of five of them that I found from this link.
Here is a comparison. I've put my Google Reader Shared Items as a test link.
Test link: http://www.google.com/reader/shared/15393105146633867508
Resulting Short links: (no. of characters excluding the 'http://')
http://tinyurl.com/8uu4rd (17)
http://is.gd/eloE (10)
http://bit.ly/jGb (10)
http://snipurl.com/9c2v5 (17)
http://cli.gs/GYgrnj (13)
looks like is.gd and bit.ly tie for the first position. Get more info by visiting the sites and reading the article linked.
like this:
http://cgi.ebay.in/NEW-4-3-GPS-CAR-NAVIGATOR-HOLUX-NAV-55A-WITH-WARRANTY_W0QQitemZ380093271536QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_203?hash=item380093271536&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A1|65%3A1|39%3A1|240%3A1318
Phew! That was long. You might already know a few sites like www.tinyurl.com that shorten/make tiny your long URLs. But here is a comparison of five of them that I found from this link.
Here is a comparison. I've put my Google Reader Shared Items as a test link.
Test link: http://www.google.com/reader/shared/15393105146633867508
Resulting Short links: (no. of characters excluding the 'http://')
http://tinyurl.com/8uu4rd (17)
http://is.gd/eloE (10)
http://bit.ly/jGb (10)
http://snipurl.com/9c2v5 (17)
http://cli.gs/GYgrnj (13)
looks like is.gd and bit.ly tie for the first position. Get more info by visiting the sites and reading the article linked.
(Un)happy New Year
Not a Happy New Year
Every Year, we 'celebrate' a Happy New Year! It is not always 'Happy'.
People make a step into a year in a drunken delirium. Unfortunately, these are also the most vocal, cacophonous of the celebrators, disturbing the midnight peace of the sleeping masses.
This year is even worse for some nations. Palestine for example is faced with a violation of its independence at the hands of Israel. 380 dead and counting. This appears to be a more serious attack than the recent Mumbai attacks. Indians had the option of defending themselves, killing the terrorists. What can the Palestinians do? The mighty military operation being conducted on it has left hospitals overflowing with dead bodies of innocent citizens. Being bombed in the name of smoking out Hamas, Israel nor the Hamas are ready to back off.
There is very little to celebrate and these senseless celebrations should be auguring in better times, but that is not the case. With fire crackers going off, I write this at an unearthly hour.
May peace prevail this year in spite of random incomprehensible chants of "Happy New Year!" by drunken drivers on the roads
Every Year, we 'celebrate' a Happy New Year! It is not always 'Happy'.
People make a step into a year in a drunken delirium. Unfortunately, these are also the most vocal, cacophonous of the celebrators, disturbing the midnight peace of the sleeping masses.
This year is even worse for some nations. Palestine for example is faced with a violation of its independence at the hands of Israel. 380 dead and counting. This appears to be a more serious attack than the recent Mumbai attacks. Indians had the option of defending themselves, killing the terrorists. What can the Palestinians do? The mighty military operation being conducted on it has left hospitals overflowing with dead bodies of innocent citizens. Being bombed in the name of smoking out Hamas, Israel nor the Hamas are ready to back off.
There is very little to celebrate and these senseless celebrations should be auguring in better times, but that is not the case. With fire crackers going off, I write this at an unearthly hour.
May peace prevail this year in spite of random incomprehensible chants of "Happy New Year!" by drunken drivers on the roads
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Variations on Website
Recently a couple of my friends decided to get married!!
Right!!
What to do now?
Apart from the usual courting, Date Fixing and stuff they decided to create a "Wedsite".
NO!! that was not a spelling error my dear friend. That, was one hell of a play on the word "website". I really liked it.
But mind you, the Wedsite and the play on website brought another immediate thought to my mind. It was "Deadsite" a place whee people (terminal patients maybe?) will go to talk and discuss about their deaths. It is a macabre thought but quite possible.
I can imagine promoters of such sites labelling their websites as deadsites. I have thought about other variations on the word website but haven't really come up with anything apart from the occasional unfunny ones like "Breadsite" - A place for breads :)
Can you suggest a few?
Right!!
What to do now?
Apart from the usual courting, Date Fixing and stuff they decided to create a "Wedsite".
NO!! that was not a spelling error my dear friend. That, was one hell of a play on the word "website". I really liked it.
But mind you, the Wedsite and the play on website brought another immediate thought to my mind. It was "Deadsite" a place whee people (terminal patients maybe?) will go to talk and discuss about their deaths. It is a macabre thought but quite possible.
I can imagine promoters of such sites labelling their websites as deadsites. I have thought about other variations on the word website but haven't really come up with anything apart from the occasional unfunny ones like "Breadsite" - A place for breads :)
Can you suggest a few?
Friday, October 10, 2008
The Hazards of a Wireless Router
Hell NO!
I am not talking about the terrorists using your wireless connection on an unsecured Wireless Router to send a bomb blast notification to the media, I am talking about the other hazards (the more romantic ones).
Recently, my friend got a wireless router to ease the household tension of sharing a single internet cable. He was blissfully pleased when he configured it. He was happy sharing with me the advantages of having such a router. He mentioned to me that now he and his wife (also an IT employee) will not be fighting for the single cable.
Now comes the hazard i want to talk about, they will stop interacting now. They will not fight over the cable. Each on will sit in their own corner and chat away with friends like my friend was doing right now. Update their Facebook. Complete their half-baked work from home and other such activities. That is a sad thing.
Thinking of ways to improve the situation i came up with only one idea. The computers should be placed with their backs to each other.
Guy _/ \_ Girl
Like the above. This way they can look at each other and laugh at their stupid status messages.
I am not talking about the terrorists using your wireless connection on an unsecured Wireless Router to send a bomb blast notification to the media, I am talking about the other hazards (the more romantic ones).
Recently, my friend got a wireless router to ease the household tension of sharing a single internet cable. He was blissfully pleased when he configured it. He was happy sharing with me the advantages of having such a router. He mentioned to me that now he and his wife (also an IT employee) will not be fighting for the single cable.
Now comes the hazard i want to talk about, they will stop interacting now. They will not fight over the cable. Each on will sit in their own corner and chat away with friends like my friend was doing right now. Update their Facebook. Complete their half-baked work from home and other such activities. That is a sad thing.
Thinking of ways to improve the situation i came up with only one idea. The computers should be placed with their backs to each other.
Guy _/ \_ Girl
Like the above. This way they can look at each other and laugh at their stupid status messages.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Undersea Cable Cuttings
Do you remember the internet outages that occurred a few months ago? Well after the event, the event is still alive in some places. Some people are investigating why that happened. Some people are now preparing alternative ways to avoid internet outage due to the cutting of the cables.
But why did I write an entry now? because I came across a screenshot I took of the messages that I sent to myself during this internet outage. The browsing and even the simplest form of internet the instant messaging took a tremendous hit. See the picture below, shows the duration between me sending the message and then receiving it. Going as high as 6 minutes and 16 seconds for the “zzup”.
Saturday, August 02, 2008
Website hits
I was just sitting there.. pondering on the news that google has now indexed a Trillion pages. Talked about Here and Here. Then my thoughts crossed over to the websites hosting these pages. The unlimited number of .coms that are out there in the tubes.
I tried a few random strings with .com added to them. here are the results.
www.overandoveragain.com doesn't end anywhere..part of lyrics of a linkin park song.
Then i tried, auntytoldso.com hahaha i don't know where that came from but it is not there. Disappointed i thought about trying a single word. www.catalyst.com led to a software company website.
Have you ever tried this type of internet adventure? (no sending messages to the gmail email id you wanted does count as an adventure :P)
note: i have not been regular at blogging, a sign that my offline life is going very well and busy and occupied and happening and all that. will keep experimenting and posting.
I tried a few random strings with .com added to them. here are the results.
www.overandoveragain.com doesn't end anywhere..part of lyrics of a linkin park song.
Then i tried, auntytoldso.com hahaha i don't know where that came from but it is not there. Disappointed i thought about trying a single word. www.catalyst.com led to a software company website.
Have you ever tried this type of internet adventure? (no sending messages to the gmail email id you wanted does count as an adventure :P)
note: i have not been regular at blogging, a sign that my offline life is going very well and busy and occupied and happening and all that. will keep experimenting and posting.
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