Firefox marches ahead

As Microsoft keeps delaying the release of Vista and along with it, the release of Internet Explorer 7, Firefox, the only other worthy competitor in the browser market, has been steadily marching ahead. There were some doubts as to whether the popularity of Firefox had reduced, but this Macworld story, says that it has not.Statistics at OneStat.com have proved that the number of Firefox users has increased in the month of June. A rise from 11.79% in May to 12.73% in June, is a considerable jump. All this at the same time that IE use has declined by 2.12% to 83.05%.

Niels Brinkman, co-founder fo OneStat.com, says “We thought that Firefox growth had slowed down. It seems it’s increasing again. That’s a little bit of a surprise to us.” OneStat.com uses real-time Web analytics to look at which broswers are being used to view Web sites and to determine their popularity across the Internet, Mr.Brinkman added.
All eyes have been on the Mozilla Foundation the last week, expecting them to release the browsers next version. Firefox 2.0 Beta 1, has been released and has some new features. The early reports are that the new build, although in Beta is pretty stable. There are some screenshots here of the beta and it does look promising. The challenge for Firefox will come in adding more features to the default browser, while still keeping the developer community interested in writing more extensions.

With its growing popularity, everyone seems to like Firefox more than IE 6, Firefox does face a huge responsibility of keeping its audience attracted. With its next version out, more features, more security and an active user community attached to it(some like me are also emotionally attached to it!), it seems like good times are here for Firefox. At least for now.

Orkut Testimonials can have an effect on the sub-conscious

I don't know why, but I just felt this was a valid point. As the heading suggests, the testimonials section on orkut is bothering me a bit. I have no problems with the idea of having other people write each other testimonials, but my shout and cry is with the way its designed and the probable impact that it can have.

The testimonials appear on the Profile page by default, and appear on the professional and personal pages too. As I was browinsg through my friends list, and their friends, and their friends, and so on (which is the purpose of orkut), I kept seeing that so many of them had testimonisla written. Invariably, these testimonials are very positive in emotion and sentiment. Smart, brainy, wonderful, lovely, sweet, best friend, bestest friend, charm, comfort, comforting, love, lovable, loving, and many more. How does it feel after reading that sentence?

The book Blink by Malcolm Gladwell explains somewhere how the mind can be influenced by a series of english words one is exposed to. He explains that the mind gets tuned to negative emotions when exposed to some negative and destructive words. Not good, right? The case is just the opposite here, too much of something good can also be bad. Thats what I saw happening here. I did not come across one testimonial where there was something negative that anyone had to say. Of course I realise that that is the very purpose of a testimonial. You aren't gonna get a testimonial from someone who doesn't like you, or who has some revealing facts to say about you. Thus, my botheration with the design and the way it appears too often. 

Don't know if that made sense, but a point worth pondering about…..     

Programmer Vs Coder - What do you call yourself?

Is there really a difference between the two. More and more people, at least in India seem to be addressing themselves as Developers, in the broader sense. An interesting read.

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When I just cannot sleep

I dont know why, or what it is, I just cannot fall asleep tonight. I think my Blood pressure levels are down at the moment too. So helped myself with a mouthful of tried-to-get-something-sweet, but ended up taking sugar. Wonder what the real problem is.

More from the pondicherry trip and moving on

The pondicherry trip was fun, short and adventurous. I wonder if I'd ever go on a relaxing holiday. It was meant to happen by the end of last year itself, but never did. I have uploaded some pictures from the trip here and here.

Since then, I have learnt that I suffer from a sleep disorder called………SNORING! I will be getting it set right soon, yea, I'll be removing those damned speakers and woofers from inside me. 

Driving to Pondy

Soon, I will be going to pondicherry. A drive along ECR on a day like today(wonderful cloudy weather in madras)! Awzmo!!

We met Surya again, and this time….

A group of us friends had been to the new hotel, Raintree in St. Mary’s road. This is what we came out with, other than a pretty good meal and a great time with all the guys.

P S: This is the second time we have met Surya.

An occasion to Remember-my association with cultural historian Randor Guy.

As my fellow committee members and I were suggesting names of known personalities to
inaugurate the 19th Anniversary of YACM(Youth Association for Classical Music), i hit
upon the idea of inviting Mr. Randor Guy for the same. As i suggested it to the other
members, some of whom hadn’t heard of him, they ended up asking me to approach him, talk to him and convince him(if necessary) to preside over the occasion. Well, so much for team work. Anyway, brushing that aside, i decided to go ahead with it for two main reasons. Its been the practise in YACM to have one personality(from the music fraternity) and one other from any other field of practise(movies etc..). We had ignored this system last year(2003) and thus i wanted to get it back into practice. Movies and movie personalities are something that’s always fascinated me and thus thinking along those lines, i thought of Mr Randor Guy, who alongwith Mr S Muthiah,are believed to be the authorities on the cultural history of Madras.

I had once met Randor Guy at a common friend’s place.But i did not want to count on that and assume that i knew him and asking him to come would be easy. So i proceeded to get his number from Sriram V of sangeetham.com and called him. A deep voice saying the numbers “0381″ (the last 4 digits of his phone no) responded from the other end. As i asked the voice if i could speak to Shri, er..sorry, Mr Randor Guy, he said “Yes, speaking”. And then i went through a process of self introduction, explained the kind of activities YACM was doing and then asked him if he could preside over the function. He patiently listened and said he was free and then stumped me by asking me “Everything is fine,dear friend, but how do I, being a cinema historian fit into your circle of things?”. I dint know what to say. I told him that it was our practise to call some people from other areas of expertise also, and thus he was more than qualified to grace the occasion. That was it, he was convinced and told me he’d be there. I asked him if he needed to be picked up and he said yes. I deemed it my pleasure. I called back Sriram and thanked him.

Having got elaborate directions from my mom and a collegue, i wreached his house by 5:15 pm as promised. It was a long drive from Aynavaram to Mylapore. He proceeded to tell me incidents/anecdotes about musicians and movies and some of them had me in splits. His inauguration speech was very colorful. I think all those present there on that day would agree if i said that it was his attractive speech that added some excitement to the otherwise morose first day proceedings. He kept addressing me as his ‘dear friend’. Initially, though i was thrilled, i later learnt from someone that he calls just about anyone his ‘dear friend’! Still i dint mind being one of the many. He had to leave in a hurry as he had to proceed to another function at the American Embassy. All in all, a very satisfying evening for everyone in YACM, amongst the audience and personally too. My choice for chief guest had worked!

P.S Am trying to get some pictures of the Inauguration too. will be up soon.

My favourite team does it, finally!

Let me begin by admitting that I did not watch the finals of the Champions Trophy. Though I was enjoying myself elsewhere at the same time as the finals were being played, i would have loved to see the action live! I havent yest been able to see Lara’s blinding catch at mid-wicket, the England innings and more! But im happy I could at least catch the West Indies innings highlights including that mtch winning ninth wicket partnership. Meanwhile I have tried and caught any article/report/interview/pictures about the finals after coming back…the sources have been good ones like Cricinfo, bbc.co.uk, sport.telegraph.co.uk, The Hindu etc..Would love to read more from other sources.

West Indies cricket has always been close to my heart. My parents tell me that I used to be able tell the names of the whole West Indies team of the mid-eighties. During their tour to India in the eighties, my parents/grand dad even took me to see them and got one of those small cricket bats with all their autographs. I cant think of any great reason as to why i like them so much. But they won a lot of supporters during the eighties and earlier by the way they played their cricket. I may have been too young to take not of that then, but i guess West Indies fanatism is something that has always been around at home. My dad’s (an amateur cricketer himself) favourite was Sir Garry Sobers, Garry, as he says in that stylish manner. May he’s passed it on to me, but i dont care. Brian Lara has been my most favourite player ever since i played under-13 cricket. I was floored by his stylish strokeplay, was amazed by the flick-of-the-hip shot, that was named the ‘Natraja’ shot, owing to its resemblance to the posture of the Indian deity, Lord Nataraja. The opening spells of Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose are still vivid in my memories.

Though most West Indies supporters, myself included, have been let down by their dismal performances in the recent years, the win over England in the mini world cup has been very heartening. Whether this may be the turn around, we dont know, but there was a wonderful display of commitment and determination by the whole team, all along the tournament. Something they have been lacking lately. So many issues yet to sort out, captaincy, how long is Lara going to be around, etc..but for the time being West Indies Cricket has a reason to celebrate, and so do its supporters.

ICC Super Series- a mouth watering prospect

Come, October 2005, the world of cricket will turn its eyes on Australia, anxious of some great cricketing action, but not just because Australia wil be playing, this time, they will be facing a combined Rest of the World(ROW) team in three one day internationals and a one-off six day test match, yes, SIX days. Hold on, the series has been scheduled to be played between the ‘top team’ in world cricket by April 2005 and a ROW team. In all probability the top team then should be Australia.Any other team having to face a combines eleven featuring australians will be blown away. The prize money for this series is ONE MILLION DOLLARS, and hence the tag million-dollar series has already been coined. The test match will be played at the SCG (Sydney cricket ground) and the one-days under the roof of Telstra Dome, Melbourne.

The last time such an event was held wa sin 1970-71 when Gary Sobers lead a ROW team feturing the likes of Sunil Gavaskar, Rohan Kanhai, Tony Greig et al against a strong aussie line-up captained by Ian Chappell (i think!). The world witnessed some of the best cricket action then, with Sobers playing a magnificient innings of 254 at the WACA,Perth. He was out for a low score in the first innings (might have even been a duck) by a frightening bouncer from Dennis Lillee. Sir Don Bradman described that innings of Sobers as the best ever he’d seen.
Action like this has been missing since then. Well, to begin the idea is a great one, commercially as well as sport-wise. Its pretty obvious what the series would do commercially, and cricket-wise it tests the supremacy of the Australian team against the worlds best. For youngsters like me, who have only read about the previous such series, seeing this series should be a great experience. Ive already ear marked Oct, 2005 for this series!

Ah, here we come to the exciting part of ot, who’d be in the ROW team? I’m gonna put my eleven, it would be great if u guys could share your thought on the team too. Michael Vaughan, owing to his sublime form Down Under, will open, along with Rahul Dravid who will be bumped one position above (than his usual one). This makes way for the two greats of this era and proven peroformers against Australia, Brian Lara at three and Sachin Tendulkar at four. Steve waugh once said “If we can get this guy out, it’d be a miracle”. He was talking about VVS Laxman. Undoubtedly, VVS stays at no.5. The all-rounder spot will be a battle between Freddie Flintoff and Jacques Kallis. According to their performances in the coming year, one of them could be drafted. Kumar Sangakkara will keep wickets and bat at 7. The new ball will be taken by Shaun Pollock and Steve Harmisson. They’ll be followd by Shoaib Akhtar and the wily old fox, aussies favorite-foe Mutthiah Muralitharan. I’d dearly love that Stephen Fleming be in there and captain the side, but none of the above players can be traded for him. So the thinking cap will be worn by Michael Vaughan, and assisted by Sachin Tendulkar. Wonder what the one-day eleven should look like…

“Here goes the ICC Super Series, the worlds number one fast bowler, Steve Harmisson bowling to the worlds best batsman, Matthew Hayden….”. Cant wait for it to happen!