A new hope for the genitally challenged

This is the most hilarious comic strip at Fly You Fools – just have a look. The bit that follows will definitely leave you with a smile!

Interesting eh?

The Lost Generation

A good message…

100-Word Election Speeches

In a humourous attempt, Ramesh Srivats writes 100-word election speeches for some of the prominent faces in Indian politics. From Advani’s Ram Rajya, Sonia’s Rome Rajya and Mayawati’s Scam Rajya, to Vijay Mallya proposing a Rum Rajya, read the 3 posts (links below) as politicians in India gear up for the upcoming elections. Laloo, Karunanidhi, Prakash Karat also find ’serious’ issues to propagate their agenda, but the best by Srivats is reserved for those stealing the limelight – Sanjay ‘deep conviction’ Dutt, Raj ‘annihilate Pak’ Thakray, Mamta ‘farmer/ no industrialization/ strike’ Banerjee and Barkha ‘TRP’ Dutt.

The 100-word election speeches: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

A Touch of Wisdom – Ale Ramírez

   

A touch of wisdom – Ale Ramírez, originally uploaded by Ale Ramirez.

“Somewhere near Hampi, in India, we met a sadhu. It was a warm and humid day and he invited us to have a rest at his cool and shadowy house. He had rasta white hair covered under a colourful orange tunic and a messy white beard as well. His hands were long, very long and expressive. This is the moment when he takes my friend’s palm and starts telling her tings about her self. It was a magical moment. “

Some interesting photographs on Flickr..

Cuil – A new search engine

A new search engine was launched yesterday - Cuil. Though I don’t think it can threaten Google at present, I think it may just have the potential to topple Google’s monopoly.

Its USPs:

1. It claims to search 3 times as many webpages as Goggle and 10 times as many as MSN.
2. Suggests search words (Google already has this)
3. Categorizes searches and displays these categories on the right side of the screen – pretty helpful if you’re searching for a very general term.
4. Tabbed searches – you’ll figure this out when you use it
5. Search results are displayed in columns (apparently this makes it easier to read)
6. And lastly, its developers are the ones who’ve built/helped build Google. This lends some credibility to the processes it uses.
7. Stronger filtering capabilities (i.e. it’s better at removing adult content and streamlining results)

However, the functionality and impressive developers don’t overshadow some downfalls:

1. No options to search for only images or videos.
2. Few search results per page as compared to other search engines. This is quite annoying because I don’t really want to move more than a couple of pages to find the result I’m looking for.

Probably the biggest reason why Cuil can’t think of breaking Google, is because unlike the latter, it does not resort to online advertising (yet). However, Google commands a $150 billion market cap, with 99% of its revenue coming from online advertising.

Next. Cuil’s searches are not exactly great, and they are pale in front of Google. If you type a phrase and search on both engines, you’ll see far more results on Google while Cuil may just not find a single match!

Overall, I don’t really think Cuil is a threat to Google. But it would be interesting to see the market players react. Microsoft has been bidding for Yahoo only to compete against Google. Now with Cuil in the picture, a new allegiance could form. Lets watch.

And most importantly – unlike Google, Cuil did not find my blog. (Urghh!)

Plagued

Yes, I was surfing some shady sites and now my laptop is ailing.. Spyware, viruses, the works..

Before running your brain cells off balance, let me tell you that I was on the hunt for a serial (key) to make Adobe Dreamweaver C S3 work. I did find a serial which worked, but I suspect that the short hunt on a couple of sites are the cause for my current problems.

The last day and a half were spent implementing some corrective measures. I was unaware of a couple of things and so I’d like to point you to some simple steps to strengthen your security while surfing the web.

The best source I could find was at TechMonkeys. 2 pages that really help are:

1. Basic tutorial to Anti-Virus, Anti-Malware, Anti-Spyware which can be found here.
2. Guide to safe surfing which is here.

I’d missed only a couple of steps and fell victim to some nasty spyware..

Hope this helps!

Btw: I hate IE !! Firefox rules !! And Safari is catching up..