Some links and news

Soon this person may also be joining us in blogging. Most of us use Microsoft products in our workplaces. But I bet you never knew how Microsoft develops its software. Kicha, some good news for you, I think you might soon get to play around with these tools.

trouble with spam

The QSS blog got spammed yesterday. Some bloody @&*&%# spammer had posted comments yesterday. It took me quite a lot of time in deleting them and closing all the open posts. So I have decided to close all comments after a week. I still don't know if I had deleted all the spam comments. But to a hectic schedule, I missed out watching the Euro 2004 Cup matches in tha last week. But thanks to BBC, I was able to watch the goals scored. You might need to install the latest version of Shockwave if you don't have it. I suggest you download the latest one. It is worth the download.

Who is this kingsley..???

The one who has posted some comment on jax's post below...

Spiderman sighted in India!

We have seen Spiderman swinging from American monuments several times. Now we can get to see him on Indian monuments soon. We wont't be seeing him in a complete body hugging suit. Instead our friendly Indian neighbourhood spiderman will be wearing an Indian traditional kurta with a mask ofcourse. No, I am not talking about a Bollywood version of the Spiderman blockbuster series. I am talking about Spider-Man India, the comics. Marvel COmics is bringing out a Indian version of Spiderman. "Spider-Man India interweaves the local customs, culture and mystery of modern India, with an eye to making Spider-Man’s mythology more relevant to this particular audience." Read more about it here. Nice desktop pictures are also available.

books read...

Just a short list of the books I managed to read this year...

FireFox 0.9 is out...

FireFox 0.9 has been released yesterday. Due to heavy traffic, the Mozilla FireFox site is swamped. I found it very difficult to connect to the website. The latest version is smaller than the previous versions (around 4.8MB). Anyway any one of you wants it, I can mail it to you (i.e if your mail server can handle 5 MB attachments).

Wanna eat free lunch..???

Airtel raised the local sms rates to 30ps for Aitel-Airtel... which was free until then.. and national sms to Rs.2 from 30ps... If the latter was accepted with a squeaky frown by the users (including yours truly), the former was a shocker... How the hell can they charge for something which was free until now.. After all, in Chennai/TN people enjoy free national sms.. We could find a couple of unpleasant things about the mobile services that I hope would change sooner than later.. but when it comes to charging I feel Airtel (and other service providers in Karnataka) has set the right example which ought to be tagged on by others as well... My queston is.. Why do u want something for free..?? Businesses are not here to give something out for nothing... Talking of a capitalistic economy which forms the order of the world, its as simple as 'if u use something, pay for it'.. Freebies make people take things for granted... atleast.. in the case of sms its very true... There are umpteen girls who get some rubbish sms to their mobiles from anonymous numbers... Just because sms is free some unscrupulous idiots resort to such insane mischiefs.. Lets see how much of this comes when sms is charged at Rs.2. Besides this, with such freebies the means outlives the purpose... phone/mobile/sms/mms are primarily a means of communication and not for teen hijacking... there are many articles in papers where parents of teens worry about their child's addiction to sending messages which cost absolutely nothing to the parents in terms of money but costs a lot to their peace of mind... and not to mention unnecessary distraction for the teens for whom the "interesting" anonymous guy at the other end always adds lots of "glamour" to their living... The moment u add a price tag.. its intersting how things change rapidly... teens need to go back to parents if they want to dole out some currency for their mobile.. thereby giving parents an idea of their usage and hence a constant check... the mischievous jacks are sure to find spending 2 rupees for every mischief they do become harder by the day.. after all, if this is their only occupation then they are likely to run out of money soon... and for the other "professional" users this would make their hair sit up and use the means within the boundary of its purpose... In the age when we talk of removing all subsidies and a no free electricity for farmers syndrome et. al., why should the salaried class be spared with freebies..??? A lesson learnt..!!

This is how America rewards you for being onsite...

Friends and supporters of Tejas Parmar, a programmer with SysMind, say he's in urgent need of rehabilitation after sustaining fractures in his neck region and paralysis of the lower body. ....the situation, she said, points to an extreme double standard in America's health care system. "If [other] short-term immigrants come here, is this what they will face if they get injured?" she asked. Read full-story.

Compassionate capitalism

Narayana Murthy on BBC... We believe that if India has to solve its problem of poverty, we have to embrace capitalism, ensure that jobs are created, and make sure that market-driven policies are accepted," he said. "However, to do that, the people who are the evangelists of capitalism, must conduct themselves in a manner that will appeal to the masses. "People must be able to relate to them easily. They must lead a normal life, a simple life, and people must be able to say, 'look, if these jokers can do it, we can do it better'." Read full-story

யாக்ைக திரி means...

Ayuthe Ezhuthu was nice. I have watched it twice in the last week. Anyway, I was wondering what யாக்ைக திரி meant until I found about it here.

Incidentally, I also found about the new features in Nokia's 3220 there. "Wave writing" seems to be an interesting idea. I wonder when it is released in India.

rains and traffic

John Grisham's The Last Juror kept me company during the journey back home last night. Heavy rains and traffic kept me seated for almost three hours. Luckily I had the book to read. otherwise, it would have been a terrible waste of time. But somehow I managed to get home without getting soaked.

Ram and Kicha, how did you fare last night?