flock

browsers are old hat. there has been no significant enhancement in the browser experience since the ancient days of NCSA Mosaic (read up on the history of Mosaic here). browsers have basically evolved to model themselves around the data that is being streamed to users. going from basic text to images to multimedia. today a browser can let you view/interact with dynamic content, but not much more. the browser itself acts just as a window to the world (wide web).

all this is about to change with a new browser on the block. Flock. the internet paradigm is slowly shifting towards communal activities. orkut, hi5, friendster, blogging, flickr, et al being strong cases in point. Flock is based on the mozilla/firefox codebase and extends it to allow accessing some of these communal services from "inside" the browser. some of the services that it provides is, communal favorites (share your favorite links with other people using the "StumbleUpon" toolbar and "del.icio.us"), access multiple blog services from inside the browser, upload/access flickr photo services, et al. i use the StumbleUpon feature quite regularly now. you can rate the websites you stumbleupon for others to see. and you can select what subject matter Stumbleupon will spew at you. it's pretty neat; check it out.

so here is your chance to test a "developer preview" of the new flock browser. please be warned that this is an early, pre-release, version of the browser. use it with extreme prejudice. it is not meant as a replacement for your regular browser... yet.

Step 1: Open this link in your current browser: http://www.flock.com/developer/download/preview/

Step 2: Most people should select/download the Windows version. If you know better, or are the owner of an exotic/alternative operating system, go ahead and knock yourself out.

For a list of 13 things you can do with flock: http://www.flock.com/fiveways/togetstarted/13.php

laters. and may the forks be with you.

strange days

strange days are upon me. to quote another dialogue from a movie, "life has taken a turn for the surreal". here is a mail i wrote to a friend, lets call her N, recently. presented here is an excerpt.

"...my recent attitude towards girls. its almost bordering on the pathological N. these days i just dont find myself being attracted to a girl. i mean on an emotional/intellectual level. and no i am not turning gay either. bordering on a misogynist is more like it. i hate women their scheming conniving ways. their fake attitude of being a girl. they are so immersed in being a girl that they forget all about being a person. they lie, they bitch, they flounce, they pout, they flutter, act mysterious, and generally act all icky and foolishly self-assured (of nothing). do they really think that men will bow down to their every whim and fancy and treat them like a china doll? are all women like that? i know very few who arent. ps: this aint an anti-feminist or pro-male propoganda. just seeking a peaceful and simple co-existence.

i dont know where its stemming from, or why it exists. i have started consolidating my circle of friends to just a few people now. i call it my "Periodical Pruning of Tangential Associates" program. but i guess deep down i think its a disturbing trend. i am not usually a person consumed with such pathological hate for anyone. let alone an entire group of people. i'd been thinking about it, so i thought i'd mention it.

... a side point; its something i've noticed recently. ever see a poor man wrestling with inner demons? i havent. too many external ones to get a chance to reflect upon the self. which gives rise to some interesting questions. does a poor man, in his act (or non-act) of not reflecting upon the self, lose the inner demons? if so, is every poor man inherently a good person? if not, whither demons? where is their manifestation? dont tell me about the crime statistics which shows that poor people form a major chunk of criminals. two things to that: organized crime originates amongst the rich ones. it takes birth there and germinates with the lower echelons of society. and petty crime amongst the poor is just a reaction, a natural one, of an underpriviliged spark of life in an inherently disinterested and uncaring world. what we are talking about is... such things as... are we alone in this world? what is my purpose? who am i? am i a bad person? what constitutes a bad/good person? and other such philosophical/psychological goobledegook, the answers to which, constitutes and consumes our inner selves.

my point is a very simple one to this long argument. do we really need to think about all this to be able to lead a better life? or to be better people? do we really need the answers? or more importantly, do we really need the questions? i think these questions, philosophies, et al are products of an idle mind on a boring sunday afternoon. the prerogative of the rich in contemporary times. inventions perhaps? maybe i am being too simplistic in my point of view. but believe me, that surely is deliberate. a simple, uncluttered, complexity free, existence for a change. i want to get out of the vicious loop of analyzing the how's, why's, where's, et al. of everything around me in life. at least for a while. a break. i just want to feel and to react. i want to engage (not indulge) my senses in feeling the world around me and to react to it as naturally as possible.

i must say your writings have made me solidify my thoughts. whatever i have written is what came to me naturally, on reading it. i apologize if it sounds preachy. i dont know what my intention was when i began writing this mail. i just think we need to pay more attention to the life that is happening around us, rather than the perception of it thats living inside us..."

hmm... thats all for now.

TV(iew) Archive

Google has just put up a copy of the "Archive of American Television"'s collection of videotaped interviews with TV legends. It's a first person view of the history, creative and business aspects of TV programming in the US.

Go forth and couch-potatofy!

Here is the Google Video link

Vidi

Symbiopsychotaxiplasm

From Fight Club:

Tyler Durden: "Man, I see in fight club the strongest and smartest men who've ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off."

nano - just a pea (of a) pod

i got the iPod Nano 4GB. its small and its cool.

i like it.

interregnum

2 months to the date. this is the time that has elapsed since i wrote last over here. quite a few people have actually given up on the blog. including me. never really wrote for anybody, except myself; i guess i didnt have anything to say to me. this came up in a recent discussion with a friend of mine. she insisted on writing blog entries that would generate popular interest in them. she tried to convince me too, but i guess ghosts of legs dont understand with words.

so much has happened since my last post. moved out of college. landed a job. changed 4 residences within a spate of 3 weeks. got mugged somewhere in between that. got a new laptop. a new cellphone. tried ecstacy. got 3 'excellent' ratings for my work during periodical reviews. clocked in 60 hours per week consecutively for 2 weeks. came dangerously close to being labelled a workaholic. went back to being a bum. saw 16 movies. got 2 haircuts. 5 nail clipping events. and so on and so forth...

i dont particularly feel like recounting any of the above. i dont know how i went from '--verbose' to '--quiet'. but this is how i feel for now. i think its a transitionary phase. triggered off by a change in lifestyle, time available for personal indulgence, noticeable changes in the attitude of dear friends, resurfacing of long buried feelings, a very tough decision that i had to take regarding it, the aftermath, et al.

i am quite enjoying my work over here. i havent yet joined the bandwagon of Cubicle Cribbers. i like what i do and i dont have any psychobabble qualms about it.

i recommend the following movies: saher, maatrabhoomi, maine gandhi ko nahin maara and pyaar mein twist. each one has its own merits. worth a watch.

thats it. who says i am long winded.