Tuesday, November 30, 2004

Pain

Sorry, for the lack of posts - haven't been feeling well lately. My head feels like as if its gonna blow any moment. Couple that with a terrible shoulder pain. I ask my colleague for a remedy and he tells me that the place where I feel the pain is the pectoral girdle. For the uninitiated, thats the set of bones which connect the upper limb to the axial skeleton on each side. So much for the remedy!

Really not upto it, so I'm gonna go home.

By the way, I saw a five rupee coin on the sidewalk today!

G'nite.

Video search soon!

Google, Microsoft and Yahoo are quietly developing new search tools for digital video, foreshadowing a high-stakes technology arms race in the battle for control of consumers' living rooms.

"Google's trying to bring TV to the Web the same way they're bringing books to the Web"

Microsoft is working on the interactive TV market for cable providers. It is building technology that will let people with a Media Center PC or Internet-connected TV sift through and find specific video files available over the Internet, broadcast and video-on-demand networks.

Google is working on a multimedia search for internet only video. Google has apparently demonstrated the new technology to a few major TV broadcasters in an attempt to forge alliances and develop a TV-searchable database on the web.

Yahoo is starting off small working with news aggregators to index video clips that are already online.

It will be interesting to see how the three come out with their respective versions of the same.

Wednesday, November 24, 2004

Confess your sins and come clean

Come Clean is a fun flash advertisement for Method. The idea is to confess your sins and come clean about it. Come clean also allows you to view the recent confessions that people made. A few, are shown below

"I stole toilet paper from school because I did not want to buy it or my apartment."
"I lied on my resume."
"I used a used paper towel."
"I voted twice."
"I hate my husband's mom."

Check it out. Its funny!

Tuesday, November 23, 2004

Code search

Koders is a search engine for source code that enables developers to easily search and browse source code in thousands of projects in hundreds of open source repositories.

Monday, November 22, 2004

GMail bugs

Something caught my attention while using GMail today. A friend of mine had emailed me about his plans to come to Bangalore. I had replied almost instantly. GMail has this great feature of automatically grouping an email and its replies as a sort of conversation to keep things in context. Well, what caught my eye was the following-



Apparently my friend had emailed me at about 11:59 am. My reply to that mail would have been atleast 2 minutes later. But thats not what GMail tells me. If you look at the image above, you will see that I had replied to his email even before I got it! Wow! GMail must have thought that I have sort of extra sensory perception.

You would probably argue that its because both our system times dont match! That his email was sent to me with a time stamp of his system. Correct. But I simply could not have sent a reply 7 minutes ago to an email which I got only 5 minutes back!!! You see the point?

Is GMail becoming creepy?


Friday, November 19, 2004

The Good Food Guide - a compilation

When it comes to food, there is no place like India. Just like its people, there is diversity in tastebuds too. From north indian favourites like chaats, sarson ka saag to dosas and idlis of the south, we have it all. One of the advantages of living alone, is the sheer pleasure of trying out new cuisines, restaurants and the many eat-outs that Bangalore has to offer. Quite recently a friend and I had made a sort of a pact; to try new places to tingle our taste buds.

I managed to compile and put up a list of all the places that one can try in Bangalore. Hope it is as useful to you as it is to me. Incase, I've missed out on anything, do let me know.


Indian cuisine
  • Golconda Chimney - Airport-Whitefield Road Tel : 91 80 2487 5532
  • Grills-N-Oodles - 8th main, Malleswaram Tel : 91 80 2346 4517
  • Herbs & Spices - Whitefield Main Road Tel : 91 80 2845 2803
  • Jamavar - The Leela Palace, Airport Road Tel : 91 80 2521 1234
  • La Casa - 4th Block Jayanagar Tel : 2691 0732
  • Lotus - Grand Ashok, Kumara Krupa Road Tel : 2226 9462
  • Maharaja Multi Cuisine Restaurant - 80 Feet Road, Kormangala Tel : 91 80 2552 6408
  • Monsoon - The Park, M.G. Road Tel : 91 80 2559 4666
  • Raaga - CMH Road, Indira Nagar Tel : 91 80 2525 2189
  • Ramana's - Cunningham Road Tel : 91 80 2226 3200
  • Samudra - Gangamma Circle, Jalahalli East Tel : 91 80 2372 1042
  • Shezan - Cunningham Road Tel : 91 80 2228 7895
  • Shiv Sagar - Narayan Pillai Street, Off Commercial Street Tel : 91 80 2509 8892
  • The Monarch Hotel - 54 Brigade Road, Tel : 91 80 2552 1915
  • Samarkand - Gem Plaza, Infantry Road Tel : 91 80 2552 3901
  • Wanley Restaurant - 17th F Cross, Indira Nagar 2nd Stage Tel : 91 80 2525 3463

Andhra
  • Amaravathi Restaurant - 45/3 Residency Road Cross Tel : 91 80 2591 3718
  • Bheema's - Church street Tel: 91 80 2558 7389
  • Gongura's - 100 Feet Road, Koramangala Tel: 91 80 2552 5944
  • Maurya Andhra Style Restaurant - JC Road Tel : 91 80 2670 9222
  • Nagarjuna Residency - Residency Road Tel : 91 80 2591 3717
  • Nakshathra - 27 Lady Curzon Road Tel : 91 80 2559 0777
  • Nandhini Palace - Rajaji Nagar Tel : 91 80 2335 0055
    Gandhi Nagar Tel : 91 80 2220 3842
    Sankey Road Tel : 91 80 2344 8985
    Indira Nagar, 100 Feet Road Tel : 91 80 2528 8881
    Jaya Nagar, 4th Block Tel : 91 80 2699 1199
    Koramangala Tel : 91 80 2563 0202
  • Plantain Leaf - New Thippasandra Main Road Tel : 91 80 2529 7407

North Indian
  • Aangan - Lady Curzon Road Tel : 91 80 2558 2528
  • Dhanush - Airport Road Tel : 91 80 2527 6770
  • Magnum - Jayanagar 3rd Block Tel : 2653 0052
  • Nizaams' - BDA Complex, Indira Nagar Tel : 91 80 2525 1097
  • Northern Gate - Gateway Hotel, Residency Road Tel : 91 80 2558 4545
  • Palki - Residency Road Tel : 91 80 2558 0440
  • Ramana's - Cunningham Road Tel : 91 80 2226 3200
  • Samarkand - Gem Plaza, Infantry Road Tel : 91 80 2552 3901
  • Sigri - 42, Castle Street Tel : 91 80 2509 8308
  • The Basil Hotel -8, Sampige Road, Malleswaram Tel : 91 80 2331 5123
  • The Royal Afghan - The Windsor Manor, Sankey Road Tel : 91 80 2226 9898
  • Tiger Trail - Harsha Park Inn, Park Road Tel : 91 80 2286 5555
  • Tijori - The Atria, Palace Road Tel : 91 80 2220 5205
  • Treat Restaurant - 80 Feet Road, Indira Nagar Tel : 91 80 2528 2137

South Indian
  • Dakshin - Windsor Sheraton, Opp Golf Course, 25 Sankey Road Tel : 91 80 2226 9898
  • Konkan (Manglorean, Goan style) - 6th cross, 6th Block, Koramangala Tel : 91 80 2552 1530
  • Mavalli Tiffin Room (MTR) - 11 Lal Bagh Road Tel : 91 80 2222 0022
  • The Palms - Highgates Hotel, 33 Church Street Tel : 91 80 2559 7172

Hyderabadi
  • Hyderabadi House - Raheja Arcade, 18th Main Road, 7th Block, Koramangala


International Cuisine
  • Civet - ITPL, Whitefield Road Tel : 91 80 2841 1678
  • Dahlia (Japanese) - Church Street Tel : 91 80 2558 0958
  • French Bread Pizza - Residency Road Tel : 91 80 5114 4111
  • Grasshopper - Bannerghatta Road Tel : 91 80 2659 3999
  • Sue's Food Palace (West Indian) - Indira Nagar Tel : 91 80 2525 2494
  • Zaks (Arabian) - Coles Road Tel : 91 80 2530 1307

Chinese
  • Aromas of China - Richmond Circle. Tel : 91 80 2212 4275
  • Bamboo Shoots - Museum Inn, Museum Road. Tel : 91 80 2559 4001
  • Beijing Bites - Richmond Road. Tel : 91 80 2207 5060
  • Chinese Hut - 4105/4106, High Point, 45 Palace Road. Tel : 91 80 2226 7364
  • Chung's Culinary Art, Varthur Main Road. Tel : 91 80 2854 0049
  • Chung's Pavilion - 3047, 80ft Road, HAL 2nd Stage Indiranagar. Tel : 91 80 2525 4142
  • Chung Wah - 45/1 Residency Road Tel : 91 80 2558 2662, 2555 0053, 2558 0708
  • Continental Restaurant - Centre Point, 56 Residency Road. Tel : 91 80 2559 7756
  • De Noble House - Infantry Road. Tel : 91 80 2558 0208
  • Jade Garden Mahjong Room - Windsor Sheraton, 25 Sankey Road.Tel : 91 80 2226 9898
  • Mainland China - 15/16 St. Mark's Road.Tel : 91 80 2227 7722
  • Mandarin Room - Grand Ashok Hotel, Opp Golf Course. Tel : 91 80 2225 0202
  • Memories Of China - Taj Residency, 41/3 M.G. Road Tel : 91 80 2558 4444
  • Opium - No 1, Carlton Towers, Airport Road.Tel : 91 80 2527 6770
  • Outhouse China - 26 Wood Street, Off Richmond Road ,Ashok Nagar.Tel : 91 80 2530 6555
  • Schezwan Court - The Oberoi, 37-39 M.G. Road. Tel : 91 80 2558 5858
  • Shangrila - Brigade Road. Tel : 91 80 2558 8994
  • Shangrila Bar & Restaurant - 182 Brigade Road. Tel : 91 80 2558 8994
  • Silk Winds - The Atria, Palace Road Tel : 91 80 2220 5205
  • Silver Wok - Sheriff House, No 85 Richmond Road. Tel : 91 80 2224 2288,
  • Taipan - Krishna Manere, 14/1 Wood Street, Richmond Road. Tel : 91 80 2554 5637
  • The Oriental Haveli - 100 ft Road, Koramangla. Tel : 91 80 2553 6239
  • Three Quarter Chinese - 2 Church Stree. Tel : 91 80 2532 7982

Italian
  • I-Talia - The Park, M.G. Road Tel : 91 80 2559 4666
  • Little Italy - 100 Feet Road, Indira Nagar Tel : 91 80 2529 7482
  • Ragoo's - 16 K.R. Road Tel : 91 80 2676 2940
  • Sunny's - Kasturba Cross Road Tel : 2224 3642

Mexican
  • Latino's - 9/11 Lady Curzzon Road Tel : 91 80 2509 8873
  • Little Italy - 100 Feet Road, Indira Nagar Tel : 91 80 2529 7482

Sea Food
  • Chillies - Opp Bangalore Club, Residency Road Tel : 91 80 2207 5050
  • Kabini - Infantry Road Tel : 91 80 2286 8673
  • Konkan - Coles Road, Frazer Town Tel : 91 80 2506 6613
  • Kubay - Koramangala Club Road - Tel : 91 80 2552 1530
  • Oasis Restaurant - 1 Church Street, Off Brigade Road Tel : 91 80 2558 6081

Thai
  • Lemon Grass - 32, Castle Street Tel : 91 80 2536 1167
  • Shiok Far-eastern cuisine - 12 CMH Road, Indiranagar Tel : 91 80 5116 1800


Thursday, November 18, 2004

Firefox 1.0 features

Its slightly over a week since I've been using Firefox and I couldn't resist the temptation to write about some of the features that I liked in it.

Here are some features that I like, in no particular order -

Secure site - Firefox makes it very clear when you're visiting a secure website. The address bar glows yellow and a lock appears on the rightside.

The integrated search is a very good feature in firefox. It allows you to select your favourite search-engine from a drop-down list and even allows you to add one if its not listed.


As a part-time web developer, I find myself fishing through the output of the View Source… menu looking for some little snippet of code like a needle in a haystack. The Mozilla and Mozilla Firefox browsers have a great and little-known feature that makes this job much easier.




Select an area of a web page in one of the Mozilla browsers, and right click on the selection. Choose “View Selection Source”. This option brings up a view source window showing only the source from the area around your selection, the with exact source of your selection already selected in the View Source window.

Very nice.

Google Scholar - search Research!

Google scholar is a new search service aimed at scientists and academic researchers. All major scientific and research publications indexed on the web is now accessible universally.

This is a blessing for students who want to research on certain specific topics for their projects/dissertations.


A query for "fast fourier transforms" for example, pulls up 30,800 references along the left-hand side of the page, clearly identified as articles from the Web, or pointing to offline material such as citations or books, which when clicked on are presented much in the same manner as a library card catalog.
"Google as a company has greatly benefited from academic research and this is one of the ways we can give back to the community," - Anurag Acharya, Project Lead, Google Scholar
I remember while I was student, I would spend hours at the library looking for certain specific publications of IEEE for my final year project. The only other alternative were the online search engines. How I wish Google Scholar was available then!

It makes me wonder - will the Scholar turn out to be the perfect tool for plagiarizing?

GMail, now with POP3 support

Now with GMail, you can finally download your email messages from GMail servers to email applications on both PCs and wireless devices like PDA.
Along with this and the other continuous enhancements that are being made, GMail stands to be the most feature-rich Web mail service available.

Tuesday, November 09, 2004

Firefox 1.0 & Google

In a surprise move on Tuesday, Google cut a deal to let its home page be co-branded with Firefox as the default home page for the publicly released version of Firefox.

Is this is one of the many steps towards the Google Browser? Only time will tell!

Firefox ver 1.0 - Its time to take back the web!

The wait is finally over.Firefox ver 1.0 is out! It was launched at around 5pm IST. I've just installed it and by first impression its really sleak. I'm gonna test this baby now!

Make the switch today and you'll see the difference.

Thursday, November 04, 2004

How George Bush won the election

An excellent article giving you an insight of American ideology -

"..Half the country is not stupid. We're all stupid. We're convinced several times a day to do things that aren't in our best interests. We work too hard. We're drinking, eating, medicating, and smoking ourselves into early graves. We overextend ourselves on credit. We knowingly stay in emotionally or physically abusive relationships. We let television raise our children. We're deliberately mean and nasty to people we don't like or agree with. We learn science from the Bible. We stay silent when speaking out would help someone. We fear the future. We fear death..."

Yahoo! and the future of search

Jerry Yang on the future of search over in Yahoo's Search Blog. Nothing mind blowing here, but it's sure nice to read his blog.

"Ten years ago, we were focused on a simple yet vast problem: finding better ways to aggregate and organize information so people can find it. Today, the challenge is different. On the one hand, there's a lot more information to aggregate and it's not just more in terms of quantity; there's a larger variety of content as well -- from products and images to news and business information. In addition, we're pulling content from more sources than ever before.

On the other hand, our user's expectations have also changed. It's no longer enough to simply provide a structure for users to find what they want on the Web. Today, people expect to find precisely what they're looking for exactly as it relates to them. It's the old example of the "Java" search query. Are you looking for coffee or for the programming language? People want to define what's relevant to them in their own personal way. They also want to tap into the source of their information at will and they want to manage it all to personally suit their needs.

That's what is exciting about where we are today. Search as a problem is still far from being solved. The user is in the driver's seat: they want an experience that is increasingly personal, more relevant, and ties into their task more integrally. Search is just a way to get that integrated experience, but it's all about what the users want - when they want it, how they want it, and who they want it from."


Tuesday, November 02, 2004

US Elections 2004

It’s election day in the US and it’s possibly the most important election we’ve seen in a long time. I tried to keep politics out of this blog, but I’m sure you’ll forgive me this one time. I’m not going to stand here and tell my American readers what to do. It’s your elections and at the end of the day the buck stops with you. However as one of your allies in the world, if your friends lean over to you at a party and tell you that you’ve had too much to drink and are making a fool of yourself, it’s probably worth listening to. If you choose to carry on, when you wake up in the morning with a screaming headache and the realisation that you pissed everybody else off at the party and won’t be invited again, you’ll only have yourself to blame.

I’m sure most of you would have made up their minds weeks, if not months ago. With early voting many of you will have already had your say. As it stands the elections results will be decided by around a million undecided voters in half a dozen swing states. It will be decided by glossy commercials, staged appearances and millions upon millions of dollars, all of which will need to be paid back in one way or another.

At the end of the day, this election will determine how the worlds largest super power is perceived by the rest of the world. Do you want to be seen as the popular kid? The one everybody wants to be like, who gets invited to all the cool parties, gets admired by all the cute girls and is nominated “most likely to succeed”. Or do you want to be seen as the hard drinking tough kid. The one who pushes the smaller kids and gets away with it because he’s bigger than everybody else and has equally tough friends.

Monday, November 01, 2004

Words..

Is it useful to use large, obscure words when smaller, more well-known words will do? I agree that we can all use a little vocabulary workout from time to time, but when does one cross the line between creative vocabulary and just plain showing off? If the meaning of your communication is hidden from the user (unless they have a dictionary handy), then why bother saying anything at all?