The internet today isn't an alternate source of communication anymore, infact it is THE communication medium for communication whether its chatting on yahoo to your friend about the movie on sunday or making a Million Dollar deal with an industry hotshot. Although no one would have thought it 10 years back but internet is an integral part of life. Conversations over the internet whether real time or not have one major difference from communication in real life, the only thing that gets over to the other side are words(Video and voice over internet may change this but its a long way off).But sadly most of the people I've met do not seem to realize the fact that the way you use your words make a deep impression on the person you are conversing to. Just as your expressions and posture are important when you converse in real life, the way you write something in an online conversation may make you gain or loose the respect of the other person. You have got to to get your listner to take you seriously and respect you to have a meaningful conversation. Unfortunately online conversations have become quite a nightmare for me where new 'slang' is invented everyday to just look 'cool' or save a few microseconds of time. To be respected you need to follow some basic stuff which can be though of good manners on the internet. Here are some things you should definately follow in conversations over the internet. Do not use all CAPS it is the web equivalent of shouting and should only be used when you really want to emphasize something. Even in that case do not capitalize more than one or two words in the sentance. Use proper capitalization. It just takes very little effort to press the shift key for a tiny fraction of time while you type the first word of your sentence."How are you?" looks much better than "how are you" in my opinion. Use proper punctuation. Always end your sentences with a period '.' or '?' if you are asking a question. Using commas in appropriate places can be a real relief for the reader. Compare "Thank you for the dinner last night, it was great." to "thank you for dinner last night it was great" and you would know what I mean. Do not repeat alphabets to represent your excitement. I see a lot of people using "hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii how are you" to represent their excitement on meeting a friend. I would ask wouldn't "Hi! how are you?" suffice? Use simple smilies and don't overuse them. "Hi :)" this shows all your emotions, you definately don't need to resort to something like "hiiiii :)))))))))" which is plain stupid. Don't overuse abbreviations. Using abbreviations like RTFM or IMHO is ok if you don't overuse them but using "u r" for "you are" or "c" for "see" is an overkill and sometimes the reader might have trouble understanding you. Don't use numbers in place of alphabets like '3' for 'E' or '1' for 'I'. IMO this is the single most irritating thing on the internet and has even earned itself a name, '1337' speak or 'leet' speak for those unaware. But the most common misuse of freedom of online conversations is cutting short words. I do not understand what purpose it serves. How much time would it take to type "Regards" instead of "regds" or does saving the time required to hit one key to make "gud", "good" give you any major benefit? Practicing what I mentioned does not take a lot of effort and no skill whatsoever, but the advantages you gain are huge in the form of respect from the people who read you.
Read More......Monday, October 23, 2006
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Python script for fetching your orkut scraps
Google's social networking site orkut has become really popular especially in India and its popularity isn't showing any sign of stopping. I will tell you that I hate orkut and the only reason Im using it is because a lot of friends use it. Its just like the time I'd downloaded 3 different IMs until I found gaim. The reasons I hate orkut are:
Enough of my rant, I basically use orkut to read scraps and I don't like to login and navigate to scraps and then read it. So I wrote this script which fetches my last ten scraps.
This script does no error checking and is at best just a hack. But it can be really useful(especially in office).
Here's the script : http://www.osix.net:80/modules/folder/index.php?tid=12868&action=vf
Enjoy! . Do tell me if it doesn't seem to work or you like it.I might work on it sometime when Im free.
Update: I've added proxy support for the script, if you need proxy support here's the script:
http://www.osix.net:80/modules/folder/index.php?tid=12903&action=vf
Monday, October 02, 2006
Defining Nothingness
Im usually not very philosophical but there are some things which although scientific in nature cannot be described without being philosophical. One such thing is the inability of the human mind to grasp the simplest thing in the universe. Something that simply has nothing to be understood about. Something that has no property. Im talking about nothing. Its rather strange that we have to associate nothing with something in order to understand it. Some people associate nothing with the dark, some associate with a closed room with 'nothing' inside it. But what we don't realize or ignore is that nothing is not something. We cannot see nothing we cannot smell nothing. Nothing is at the end of the universe which again brings in a lot of imaginative stuff. What comes at the end of the universe? Almost everyone agrees universe is finite but what is beyond that ? If we travelled to the end of the universe what would we see? Even if we don't see anything it doesn't mean its nothing because we are aware of its existence and that's a fact about nothing that it doesn't exist or its existence can't be proved. So that brings me to what I would call the ultimate question, does 'nothing' exist? Maybe its things like that which make us human, the fact that we simply cannot grasp something that isn't around us. We are not machines that would assign nothing=NULL, which although is value zero in its registers but for all purposes serves as nothing. Maybe I should leave it that, the more I think about nothingness the more nothingness I destroy.
Read More......Sunday, October 01, 2006
Microsoft and piracy
This post is about my thoughts on Microsoft's policy 'against' piracy especially in Third world countries. I can bet M$ wouldn't want you to believe a word of it. Everyday we hear/see plenty of slogans here and there about putting an end to digital piracy but then I would like to ask(this question applies to people in third world countries) how many original CDs of M$ Windows have you seen and how many people you know who have got into trouble for using pirated software . The answer to both questions would be quite low, much lesser than what 'anti piracy' dictates.
First a word about M$'s policy in developed countries. In those countries mostly people do not assemble thier computers and they don't mind paying extra if all software comes pre-installed on it. This is where M$ cashes in. It has contracts with all the major hardware producers to bundle windows with thier hardware. Believe me its very difficult to get a computer without windows installed on it in the US or UK or any other developed nation. When a user has already paid a lot of money for a software that came with thier computer why would he/she remove it? Secondly the piracy in these nations is not very rampant and M$ keeps strong tabs on it too.
But the situation is vastly diffrent in the Third World countries like India. If a person was asked to pay a huge amount of money to have S/W pre installed on his/her computer they would plainly refuse. If no other option is available they might not even buy a computer. But their are two solutions available Pirated software or Linux. If piracy wasn't an option it would lead to a huge number of people using free software which doesn't help M$ in any way.
Not only do M$ lose money but they lose user base which might lead to free software coming to the attention of H/W and S/W makers and more importantly the industries. But what the biggest loss to M$ would be is loss of manpower. Microsoft employes a huge amount of Indians if the number of people using M$ platfom dwindled it would really hit M$'s work force. What this would also do is that since the quality of M$ trained manpower would drop, the big corporations might decide to move to a solution which is more popular with the work force.
So would it really benefit M$ if it tried to curb piracy. I don't think so. What do you think?
Disclaimer: Everything above is my personnel opinion and is in no way an attempt to defame M$.
Its almost 5 am and Im sleepy so pardon me for any mistakes/typos in the post.
