Browser War : What say you?

With both Firefox 2.0 and IE7 gone gold, the browser war has just become more interesting.

Having used both of them since their early betas, I must admit there is no clear winner. It all depends on how each of them stacks up to your daily needs.

Before I go about putting my personal verdict out there, I must confess I am guilty of one sin : Cherish the underdog status. Thats what lead me to embrace Firefox in its early days. But make no mistake, Firefox is an underdog no more(at least in its feature set). It is in fact IE, that has been trying to catch up with Firefox since 1.5 was out.

This list is by no means a reflection on the complete feature set, its just about WHAT I LIKE....and you guessed it right : Go for Firefox baby !!

- Download manager and a plethora of extensions to customize the look and feel
- Find as you type, Browse with caret, Spell Checking, Session Restore, Live Titles
- Close on each tab without having to view the tab as in IE
- Much more powerful RSS reader than IE ( the bare bones implementation is supposed to be in line with the RSS platform strategy Microsoft is working on )
- As a developer I love View Source editor compared to the crappy notepad
- IE is so tied up to the OS, if something goes wrong, it brings the whole system to its knees
- Far better support for web standards. (IE is the worst out there in this regard)
- Easy patch update cycle to enhance security
- IE required two restarts(had RC build) to install and had a larger EXE. Though it is a one time thing, it turned me off a little bit.

To end, Firefox is not without its share of problems, which i might detail later. In all fairness to IE, i like quite a bit of its features,especially the quick tabs.

The debate as to which is a better browser will go on until something new comes around, but as far as i can see the true winner is really the user.

Yahoo Sign-In Seal

<< Thoughts on New Technology >>

Yahoo is the first major web portal to push into the realm of Sign-In Seal, a security service to prevent surfers from landing on fake look-alikes of yahoo websites.

The idea is to associate a Yahoo sign-in seal with an individual computer. The seal is chosen by the subscriber, which can be text, color or image of his liking. This seal will be shown each time the user goes to a log-in page for a yahoo service. This helps the user verify if he is on a legitimate yahoo page.

The service has not yet been officially announced and has been rolled out to customers on a random basis.

This is very similar to sign-in seal that Bank Of America and IngDirect already use. But these are associated to the person's id instead of the computer itself.

Impressions:

I like the Bank Of America model better than the yahoo one. Since the seal is associated with a computer, someone else using the machine can change it without your knowledge and deletion of files and cookies affects it as well. In the Bank Of America model, the only fear is of giving away your user Id.

When I tried using the service, I had to associate a Sign-In Seal for each browser I was using. One for IE7, One for FireFox Beta 2 and One for Opera 9. The image did not propagate to all my browsers. I am not sure if this is intended behavior or may be I was missing something.

But this is definitely a huge step forward to prevent surfers from phishing attacks. Lets' see if others like google, hotmail embrace similar technology.

Been Six Weeks..huh

<< Ramblings : Keep you healthy >>

been six weeks... long time... huh

I checked my 'Profile Views' today and was astonished to see 73 hits. Not bad for a nobody like me...not at all.

So I decided to knock some rust off, just in-case I have repeat audience, the unwary surfer who accidentally ends up here…again. you know ... I don't want to disappoint them.

Now I wonder what took me so long.
Not that I do not have 'stupid' ideas to fill up pages.
It is that, I do not find time.
hmm...

To Quote Charles Buxton:
'You will never find time for anything. If you want time you must make it.'

So I decided this was the day to assimilate my ideas of 'To Be Blog Entries' and dump them here for later expansion.

So, here goes the list.

Big Fish & its off-beat director Tim Burton
The buffer size problem with vjs*.dll zip functionality
A Beautiful Mind: Ron
Malicious Disobedience
Self-realization
Unexpected behavior of Firefox Beta 1 on SI.com
The Day His World Stood Still
Stupid JavaScript SPAN error and all the laughs we had

funny how time flies by.
Lets see when I will come back to expand on these

till then…Over and Out

Where the hell is Matt?

Matt Harding, The man who danced his way around the world.

His looney dance, which started as a crazy idea has been watched by millions of people. His destination count : 39 countries and ALL 7 continents.



A second video Where the Hell WAS Matt?
He was also on Good Morning America

On You Tube as some of them commented
'Sometimes the best ideas are the simple ones. Brilliant!'
'It made me feel good as well..I don't really know why..'
'its great how he just left everything to see the world. and that dance will be his trade mark like, FOREVER!'

He reminded everybody that this is a beautiful planet.

Matt, I am your fan !

The Namesake Review

<< Books : Friends For Life >>

gatorIndex: 3.0/5.0
When/Where : On Continental from CLE to PHX

I picked up this book as the next great read from the Pulitzer winner Jumpa Lahiri, expecting an emotional journey down memory lane.

Well I hate to say, the book disappoints a little. Not that it is a bad read or anything. As is said, You are a victim of your own success. Lahiri set high standards for herself with the The Interpreter Of Maladies and this book, I am afraid to say, is not at the same level.

The intensity did not match her previous one and lacked the depth to carry me through the same emotions as the namesake felt.

The author seemingly innocuously bounces off complete years from Gogol's life without warning and on more than one occasion, I had to go back to see if I had unintentionally skipped over some pages or left out some prose.

The curtness with which the author decides to end the four-odd courtships that Gogol has also strikes me as absurd.

A few pages into the novel and you will realize lahiri's fascination with detail. But in a 289 page book that walks us through the life of the namesake, hardly a page ON THE WHOLE is dedicated to the breakups. May be she just wants to do away with the pain and go on with life?

Ruth, from Yale during his undergrad years
Maxine, from his days at Columbia
and Moushumi
all walk out of Gogol's life in less than a page worth of words.

hmm... enough of my analysis, like anybody cares.

Lets wait and see how the movie of the same name directed by Mira Nair comes out like and I believe it will no different.

All in all, the continuity and intensity to sustain my interest was missing in this book.

Influence:Shawshank Redemption

<< Life Lessons from The Silver Screen >>

As I watched The Shawshank Redemption for the umpteenth time, I realized how much I was in love with the movie and its characters especially Andy Dufresne played by Tim Robbins and Ellis Boyd 'Red' Redding played by Morgan Freeman.

Frank Darabont did a wonderful job adapting the 1982 novella 'Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption' by Stephen King.

Hope, as the movie puts it, is the best of things. Brooks dies because he loses hope, the will to survive,the zeal to get going. Red, though on the same path, is saved by Andy.

Values and integrity is another trait the movie puts forward. Albeit all the scum surrounding him, Andy maintains his values,resists pressure and comes out clean on the other side of the shit pipe. Values are important and you should never forego them, not for a better life, not for a better job.

It was nominated for SEVEN academy awards but won NONE of them.Wondering what hogged all the lime light that year at the academy awards.None other than our own Tom Hanks for Forrest Gump and Quentin Tarantino for Pulp Fiction.

Personal best quotes from the movie

[reading a note left by Andy]
Remember, Red, hope is a good thing. Maybe the best of things. And a good thing never dies.

[after Andy Escapes]
I have to remind myself that some birds aren't meant to be caged. Their feathers are just too bright. And when they fly away, the part of you that knows it was a sin to lock them up does rejoice. Still, the place you live in is that much more drab and empty that they're gone. I guess I just miss my friend.

Ever seen both ends of the rainbow

I have :)

If you ever visited Niagara on a sunny morning, you know what I am talking about.
Img 1. Right Half. Img 2. Front View.
It was really an amazing experience.

Where to tap

<< Interesting Reads >>

I receive sooooooo overwhelming email forwards each day, my patience runs out scanning through them. When will people understand Bill Gates is not giving a $100,000,000 f0r f0rwarding mail, there is no little girl waiting for heart transplant and you will not get lucky forwarding an email that says so. Grow up Guys !

But now and then, some interesting stuff comes through and makes an interesting read. This is one of them. Learn from it and you will grow leaps and bounds in life.

Ever heard the story of the giant ship engine that failed? The ship's owners tried one expert after another, but none of them could figure but how to fix the engine. Then they brought in an old man who had been fixing ships since he was a youngster. He carried a large bag of tools with him, and when he arrived, he immediately went to work. He inspected the engine very carefully, top to bottom.

Two of the ship's owners were there, watching this man, hoping he would know what to do. After looking things over, the old man reached into his bag and pulled out a small hammer. He gently tapped something. Instantly, the engine lurched into life. He carefully put his hammer away. The engine was fixed! A week later, the owners received a bill from the old man for ten thousand dollars.

"What?!" the owners exclaimed. "He hardly did anything!"

So they wrote the old man a note saying, "Please send us an itemized bill."

The man sent a bill that read:

Tapping with a hammer ........................ $ 2.00
Knowing where to tap ......................... $ 9998.00

Effort is important, but knowing where to make an effort in your life makes all the difference.

Well said dude !

Omnipotence Paradox

This paradox really interests me because it tries to apply logic to the notion of an omnipotent being..colloquially called God in religion.

Can/Does such a being really exist. Lets see what logic says.

The paradox is based around the question of whether or not an omnipotent being is able to perform actions that would limit its own omnipotence, thus becoming non-omnipotent. The question is often framed as follows:

"Could an omnipotent being create a rock so heavy that even that being could not lift it?"

It is possible to analyze this question in the following manner:

The being can either create a stone which it cannot lift, or it cannot create a stone which it cannot lift.
1. If the being can create a stone which it cannot lift, then it is not omnipotent.
2. If the being cannot create a stone which it cannot lift, then it is not omnipotent.

Either of the scenario seems to prove the impossibility of the existence of such an entity.

But who said everything follows logic !

( Some Text Quoted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omnipotence_paradox)
( Image Courtesy : The Paradox of Altruism www.gla.ac.uk/)

"Dead," was all he answered.

Last line of 'The Death of the Hired Man' from 'North Of Boston' (1914) by Robert Frost.

The thing I like about this poem is the definition of 'Home' that the author offers.

“Home is the place where, when you have to go there,They have to take you in.”

It all depends on what you mean by home.

Though kinship generally determines your home, it is not always where you seek emotional support.

Home, for me is where my heart lies, where I attain emotional fulfillment, where I always yearn to go

...and fortunately for me and many others, its their own beloved family.

Silas in the poem feels more at home on the farm and returns there to die. His self-respect prevents him from seeking shelter and offers to work again.

I especially love it towards the end

. . . I'll sit and see if that small sailing cloud.
Will hit or miss the moon.
It hit the moon.
Then there were three there, making a dim row, The moon, the little silver cloud, and she.
Warren returned--too soon, it seemed to her,
Slipped to her side, caught up her hand and waited.
"Warren," she questioned.
"Dead," was all he answered.

Home.. my little piece of this world.

Heard of Hydropolis?

Hydropolis will be world's first underwater hotel.

Where?? Persian Gulf, Dubai.

"It costs £300 million, has 220 suites and covers 260 hectares, about the size of London's Hyde Park. It will be about 20 meters under the sea, or 44 feet. it has been planed that it will producing their own clouds, to protect guests from the persian gulf sun. One of the reasons it was built is that so people who cannot swim will be able to explore the wonders of the sea."
--Quoted from Wikipedia

Man, I wonder what other freaky ideas these Dubai guys will come up with ... and it turns out there are quite a few of them...

Check out these dubai-project visuals..believe me they will blow you away.

http://necromanc.blogspot.com/2006/02/dubai-projects.html
http://www.funonthenet.in/content/view/127/31/

What has become of me !

My Life..Alas,what has become of it!

Every slate starts clean..as did mine.

Eons have passed and time with it has left indelible impressions and many a scars.

Now that I look back and try to make sense of what,how and why of the Crossroads I am standing at -.. All I have got is a 'Scribbled Slate'.

I stare at it ... and hmmm It stares back at me.

Though it's kind of overwhelming right now, I am determined to piece together 'The Man who used to be ME'.

...and hence, The Journey Begins!!