Saturday, March 31, 2012

Tech blogs

Just to be "cool" and may be to an extent actually stay up to date with technology, I started following the popular tech blogs like mashable.com or techcrunch.com. But they are so utterly boring. There is hardly any talk about some good technology in them nor any good spicy news.

It is the same old apple, facebook, google, MS and these stories repeated again and again. To their credit, they will have blogs about getting repeated over and over again also but will never get out of it.

It gets tiring after a point. Og the retina display of iPad is awesome and some 20000 articles on it. OK I get it. It's just a feature enhancement. It need not be talked into detail so much.

Another such example is social websites. It's crazy. So there's this new thing called pinterest. And even before it really kicks off, it is already termed as a success. And then I think ok, lemme see what it looks like and so I google it. And all the top articles suggest that it is a women's social website. Women like to pin things to their walls. Weirdness.


Then there are pages and pages on layout stuff. Or twitter changed it's layout today. The new top right corner has this white space (made up story) which shows promise. And they will go on and on about it.


But yet, I still read them, and talk about them and worse, now even blogging about them. New promises: the draw something app and kinda cute social book-keeping website Goodreads.

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Tag-a-Thon

Thanks for tagging - Anupama of Volatile Spirits.

Here are the rules of the Tag-a-thon

Rule#1: Put the rules on your blog.

Rule#2: Every person tagged should answer the 11 questions asked by the one that tagged you, tag 11 other people and ask them 11 different questions.

Rule#3: Let the people whom you tagged know you've done so.

Rule#4: Don't tag anyone who's been tagged before.

Rule#5: Really do tag 11 others; don't go all ''if you want to take this tag''. [Yikes!!]

Here are Anupama's questions:

1. What does blogging mean to you?
A: For me, it is an avenue to compose and channelize my thoughts. It's like a scratchpad, but because it is public, I tend to be focused and thus focus my own thoughts.

2. Name the person who influenced you most.
A: My brother.

3. Which is the last book you read?
A: Inheritance, Christopher Paolini

4. Which are the subjects you hated most in school and college?
A: The ones that fetched me the lowest marks. Usually Hindi or Social Studies. BUt it could have been Physics, Maths as well.

5. If you were to become a sports celebrity overnight, who would you choose and why?
A: Tom Brady. He is passionate and 6/50 states in the US are passionate about him + Giselle is his wife.

6. Name your dream travel destinations- India and Abroad.
A: India: All Indian Lighthouses (bonus: Kutch to Sunderbans)
Abroad: Mauritius, Hawaii, Caribbean and Harry Potter Theme Park in Orlando.

7. Describe your job briefly.
A: An engineer trying to make life easier for fellow engineers.

8. What is your alternative career option?
A: Goss columnist who writes off twitter feeds and google searches. No actual travelling journalism.

9. Do you really think the world will come to an end after December 2012?
A: No way!

10. What are the things you would like to do before you die?
A: Go to HP Theme park, Orlando. Put whatever money I have in some good cause.

11. Your views on television soaps?
A: A society gets what it deserves.


Now here are my 11 questions:

1. Five years from now, who will still be in news: Rakhi Sawant or Rahul Dravid, and why?

2. If you are given a chance, which year of your life would you want back (eg, my 21st year, or final year undergraduate etc).

3. Fill in the blanks: I am a -----------. ( An adjective which starts with a consonant)

4. Favorite movie theater?

5. Next in the sequence: Hu Jintao, Kate Middleton, Mark Zuckerberg, Nelson Mandela, ...

6. Favorite sports/game as a kid?

7. If you want to kill a celebrity, who would it be?

8. Who should retire first: Madhuri from movies, Sachin from Cricket, Anna from his fasts, HM Queen Elizabeth -II, Chetan Bhagat from writing

9. Your last meal should have ..... (Only 1 item, please dont say some Thali or something as vague as ice-cream (name the flavor) )

10. What is a must for iPhone 5?

11. If I unleash an boggart in front of you, what would you see. (You can cheat a bit here, we really don't want to open our private lives in public).


I am tagging the following people:

1. Advay of Advay's world
2. Deepak of From the Capital
3. Esha of Esha Trueself
4. Mahesh of l'ineffabile
5. Mukesh of My Expresso
6. Nikhil of Reflections!!!
7. Nirmal of Howdy
8. Sambaran of Oshantomon
9. Sandeep of Random Rumblings
10.Sidvish of Mostly Harmless
11.Sayantan of Sayan with wings

And if you like to answer these questions, and I could not include you here; consider yourself tagged and take it on!!! If you don't blog, write as comment. If you do, blog it, get back into habit, and leave a comment.