Even before Nazi-gate happened, I had given up on Indian newspapers. The usual male morning ritual of taking the newspaper to the loo was replaced with my iPhone. Google had a great version of their RSS news Reader for the iPhone and I used to catch up on news using that. Notice that I said had.
The new version is all AJAX’y and stuff, with spinning status indicators and in-line reading without page reloads. But is it better than the original HTML static interface? Alotofusersincludingmyselfseemtothink NOT.
The older interface had blazing load times, with the pages showing a snippet of the news which the user could click to read the entire article. The new one actually loads the entire post content in the background so it can snappily display the entire article when the user clicks on it. The older interface allowed quick navigation using relevant links and support for the browsers back button. The new interface greets you with a spinning wheel all the time. To top it all, the new interface defaults to showing the “All Items” view, which obviously means that load times are always high.
The users are clamoring for the old interface. Let’s see if the Reader team gives them what they want. Interestingly, this must be a deja-vu for them since a similar thing happened when they switched from the original scrolling Reader interface to the present one.
It is well known that the openness of the web has fostered many applications that have become indispensable to users. Indeed, most of my every day applications live in the internet cloud, so I can switch machines and operating systems painlessly. AJAX and RIA’s have managed to deliver a great user experience for applications of ever increasing complexity, but there are specialized apps that are tied to specific operating systems.
It’s a tough job for internet application developers, what with the myriad web browsers that have sometimes unique interpretations of published web standards. They have to carefullytweak their websites for each browser so they can keep their vast user base happy. This issue is fast becoming a major pain point for a lot of software developers, who have to waste time on getting their applications to work on various browsers. So what’s the solution?
Flash holds great promise, and Adobe’sdonation of the ActionScript runtime to the Mozilla foundation has very exciting ramifications, one of which might be the ability to run C and Python code in the browser. But Flash is not an open platform - developers have to wait till Adobe can fix bugs and implement new features. Google tried their hand with GWT, that promised to take away the issues related to cross-browser compatibility, but in reality that too doesn’t hold up every time.
So, do we need an open runtime environment supporting a rich API that will work on all platforms and browsers and will be available in various form factors? I think yes. Adobe’s already got the Open Screen Project running, which has the mission of “enabling a consistent runtime environment across desktops and devices”. But given its slowness in opening up the Flash platform (which forms part of future milestones) and the difficulties regarding search indexing, usability etc., it may make sense to have a competing platform from a heavyweight like Google that provides a consistent, high-performance runtime environment and is community developed.
I think they might just be doing an Android for the web.
Listening to Eddie Vedder singing the OST for Into The Wild as I drove to the office today, I started reminiscing about how much the movie had moved me. It’s an extremely unpretentious, no-frills, simple movie, reinforced by the one-band soundtrack, with Eddie Vedder providing all of the music.
There’s a wonderful relationship between the music and the visuals - both of them merge effortlessly together. The voice of Eddie Vedder is like a beacon in the ocean, something that allows the viewer to anchor on as the film progresses.
Sean Penn shows that he’s more than capable as a director, sticking to the theme of the film all throughout. He did have great material to work with, actually. The story of Christopher McCandless is very moving. As a fellow traveller, I can relate to the feelings of anxiety and euphoria that Emile Hirsch displays beautifully in the film. As a story, there’s something so real about it that it manages to affect the viewer without being over-the-top. I won’t sacrifice the plot here, better watch it and hear it yourself. I highly recommend both the soundtrack and the movie. Eddie Vedder’s comments on the soundtrack are also a very interesting read.
Gmail is my email aggregator of choice. I use it to consolidate all my different email accounts and it works pretty well. Since it’s got a lot of storage, I also use it as my online briefcase, mailing links and attachments to myself. But since the Inbox is stuffed with thousands of emails, finding these mailed items can be a bit of a chore.
The awesome search feature allowed me to find these items by giving a search criteria of “from:me to:me”. But I wanted to save this search so that I wouldn’t have to type it over and over again - something like having a permanent link to click. I had submitted this wish to the Gmail team long ago and with their new Labs features, they have introduced “Quick Links”, which allows me to do exactly what I want.
Now I have a neat link which I can click to instantly get all the items I emailed to myself. Now if only I could get the Quick Links box to sit above the Labels box.
I’ve never been a fan of gaming consoles, what with their joypads that work effectively at getting Mario to jump around but otherwise hopeless at sim racing and first-person shooters. Then the Nintendo Wii came along and breathed fresh air into the whole console market with its innovative input system. Even then, I didn’t give in to the temptation of buying one since I believed in the ability of a PC to be the better platform for gaming.
Recent news has vindicated my belief and it looks like 2008 is going to be an amazing year for PC gamers. There are two aspects that show promise of great changes - the GPU and the Input system. The two biggies in the GPU (graphics card) market - nvidia and ATI (AMD) are both entering a new battle with their latest generation products, the GX 280 series and the RV770 respectively.
Contrary to the nvidia product, which seems to be an upgrade of the last-generation technology, AMD seems to have a technological breakthrough on their hands, which they are calling the Cinema 2.0 experience. Showcased in this video, the RV770 is expected to deliver performance over and above all the other graphics console systems available today combined. Let’s hope they can both live up to the hype.
The other area of interest is the input system. OCZ, a well-known manufacturer of memory modules, recently started shipping their NIA product which aims to augment the keyboard and mouse as a third input system. NIA, which stands for Neural Impulse Actuator, uses brain signals and facial expressions to provide input to the PC. For instance, to move your character forward you can relax your facial muscles and tense them to move the character back or stop. Similarly, you can think about glancing and it is supposed to actually move the on-screen camera. As you may imagine, training the system to recognize your inputs is a very difficult task. The Overclock3D guys have been at it for some time and have a running review about their experiences with the product.
But the most interesting technology is potentially also the simplest for the user. A new startup named Camspace aims to enable users to use basic household objects as input devices, requiring a bog standard webcam! The demo is just mind-blowing and the best part is that they are planning to give away the software for free! If it actually works like the demo shows PC gaming will never be the same again. The entry barrier for games that require complicated hardware for correct inputs, like flight simulators and racing games, will no longer apply for the casual gamer. Of course, the enthusiast will still stick to his G25 and more exotic hardware, but Camspace promises to be a massive breakthrough nonetheless. Don’t miss the video -
Recently I was looking for a way to create a tag cloud and found TagCrowd, which did a fairly decent job. But yesterday I stumbled upon Wordle via Digital Inspiration and it knocked my socks off.
Wordle calls it a text cloud, and I’m itching to make a huge one and plaster it all over a wall. Jonathan Feinberg is the geek world’s Picasso. Here’s a cloud that I generated from my defunct del.icio.us account.
Recently I read a blog post about Glassdoor, a new startup that allows one to rate his/her employer on various criteria. For now, Glassdoor is focusing on tech companies in the SF Bay area. Closer to home, another startup named Criticat has sprung up, which seems to be more frequented by Indian software professionals.
Unfortunately, these websites operate on good faith and verifying the opinions provided or even making sure that the person reviewing the company is actually working for the company is a very difficult task. It’s up to the user community to make sure they don’t make a mess of something that can be beneficial to everyone in the long run. I hope to see more intelligent comments and reviews than the ones usually seen on Techtree and YouTube.
Since childhood, I have taken a certain amount of pride in the way my country looks in its Political Map avatar. There’s a certain balance to it - a human appearance, if I can call it that. The prettiest part by far is the “head” at the north, what with its groovy hairstyle and all. But it was not till the past few years that I realized that it has been a farce all along.
Even before Kashmir officially became part of India, portions of it were occupied by Pakistani guerilla forces tribals. Indian authorities have never been in occupation of these portions ever since. In spite of that, the government continues to depict the Political boundaries as they “should have been”.
The ground reality is that almost 60 years have passed since this debacle and people on both sides have been assimilated into their respective occupiers and the occupiers economy and culture. Granted that there are certain areas still under active dispute, such as the Siachen glacier. All I ask is that the Line of Control should be depicted in our political maps so that people like me and the younger generation is not misled into believing something that never was and never will be ours. The impression it gives is that we have lost those regions to war - on the Chinese side, maybe; but not on the Pakistan side.
Calling for a reality check and prevention of a big misunderstanding.
Recently I had blogged about Cognitive Fun’s web based n-back task. They’ve just added another test for a dual n-back task. A dual n-back task is one where there are two inputs to be monitored instead of just one. Eg. there would be an auditory input as well as a visual input. Check it out.
Listening to 
But I wanted to save this search so that I wouldn’t have to type it over and over again - something like having a permanent link to click. I had submitted this wish to the Gmail team long ago and with their new 
Now I have a neat link which I can click to instantly get all the items I emailed to myself. Now if only I could get the Quick Links box to sit above the Labels box.
The ground reality is that almost 60 years have passed since this debacle and people on both sides have been assimilated into their respective occupiers and the occupiers economy and culture. Granted that there are certain areas still under active dispute, such as the Siachen glacier. All I ask is that the Line of Control should be depicted in our political maps so that people like me and the younger generation is not misled into believing something that never was and never will be ours. The impression it gives is that we have lost those regions to war - on the Chinese side, maybe; but not on the Pakistan side.