Firefox Gear !

Firefox Gear !

It's a kinda range with non-superstitious-internet-geeks to flag a getfirefox banner in web pages, portfolios, support forums, RSS feeds etc.,. Seems they've taken a public oath to spread firefox like a wild fire ! It's true and agreeable in the era of Ajax & rapid Rich internet applications, where IE still sucks to the core in handling them. But surely there're loyal followers of IE. Most of the applications and web based UI's are preferably meant for IE only. Conventionals are those who're blessed ! ( Old is gold-proverb is strictly prohibited in the context of browsers ! ;)

Since, web is under heavy metamorphosis both in presentation & speed, the need of the hour is updated version of IE in tandem with W3C recommendations. I'm still wondering, with such a tight & monopolistic business model, what cause MicroSoft to be stagnant in updating Internet Explorer. After loosing significant portion of user ratio to Mozilla FF, IE has finally woken up to update its version to beta 7 for xp service pack2 OS, it's out for developers review.CSS2 is a rage, and w3C is on anvil to roll out CSS3 recommendations in very short span of time. It's hightime for MS to come up with stable, secure & CSS supportive browser rendering engine since major ratio of conventional users still depend on it or atleast to counter the wildfire firefox !

Since the inception I'm kinda addicted to Firefox ( A compact, lithe browser available on planet ;) In less than 2 years it has seen 7 builds !. I think firefox experience is obsolete without extensions & themes attatched to strippped version. In the era of customization, Firefox surpassed its peers allowing user community in creation of extendable plugins which flexes FF to esteem level of browsing experience.

My favorite list of extensions for Gecko/20060111 Firefox/1.5.0.1 :

• Deli.cio.us (Open Source social bookmarking service)
  
• Web Developer (a toolbar with various web developer tools)
  
• IE Tab (Embedding Internet Explorer in tabs of Mozilla/Firefox)
  
• SessionSaver (Restores browser -exactly- as you left , every startup)
  
• Downthemall ( Downloader, but i use IDM v5.2)
• Flashblock (Blocks swf in frames, iframes and standalone Flash swf files)
  
• Adblock ( content filtering plug-in )
  
• Aardvark (CSS Developer tool)
  
• stylish (To manage CSS rules to change the appearance of web sites)
  
• MyStickies (To place sticky notes all over the web and organize them)
  
• PDF Download (To view a PDF file inside the browser, as PDF or HTML)
  
• Sage ( For RSS feeds)
  
• Deepest Sender ( Blogging extension)

My current FF theme:

Whiteheart ( simple & clean: the way i like it !)

Ewww ! Don't touch that !

Ewww ! Don't touch that !

It's sensible, somewhat hysterical thought though!

Often, most of us use common toilets, rest rooms in offices, public places, shopping malls, hotels. And most probably whenever the need arises finding a suitable place to go for it ! Even after having your hands pampered by handwash gel, don't u touch toilet handles and door knobs..?

Say, your colleague who suffers with chronic & infectious illness, calls for a help in his PC, benevolently you walk in and solve his problem touching his keyboard or mouse...and get back to your work station, as if everything is cool. Have you washed your hands after using their mouse ?

Guess what ?

More than 77 per cent of people were aware of the importance of washing hands, only 47.9 per cent actually bothered to wash them. The survey, carried out by the Korea Consumer Protection Board, found most of these commonly used mouse/public toilet handles spread of infectious diseases...

The Dirty Half Dozen:
1. Shopping cart handles - 1100 CFU* per 10 sq cm
2. Internet café computer mouse - 690
3. Bush hand straps - 380
4. Public toilet handles and door knobs - 340.
5. Lift buttons at 130
6. Train hand straps - 86

*CFU-Colony Forming Units.

Health concerned ? Try this link here.

Cute Ruby !

Cute Ruby !

Color, contrast, focus, smile, clothing, backdrops, skin tone, eye lashes, curvy lips, smooth hair, cute fingers..everything is adorable about Ruby..

PS: Ruby is a elder sister of Miro. Hope you've visited him in my previous blogs.

Kodachadri : the peak.

Kodachadri : the peak.

ನೇಸರ ನೇಪಥ್ಯಕ್ಕೆ ಸರಿಯುವಾಗ...

ಹಸಿರು ಹೊದಿಕೆಯ ನಡುವೆ
ಝರಿ ನೀರಿನ ತನನ
ಕಾನನದ ಕಪ್ಪು ಮೌನದ ನಡುವೆ
ಸುಳಿರ್ಗಾಳಿಯ ಮರ್ಮರ

ಅದೆಲ್ಲೋ, ಕಣಿವೆಯೊಳಗೆ
ನಿಂತು ಹೋದ ಕ್ಷಣದಲ್ಲಿ
ತೋಳದ ಊಳಿಗೆ ಮಾರ್ದನಿ
ದಟ್ಟ ಕಾನನ

ಮುಂಗುರುಳ ಸವಿಯಾಗಿ
ಚುಂಬಿಸಿ ಸರಿಯುವ ತಿಳಿರ್ಗಾಳಿಗೆ
ಪೂರ್ವದೊಳಕ್ಕೆ ಸರಿಯುತ್ತಿರುವ
ಬೆಂಗದಿರನ ಕಿತ್ತಳೆ ರಂಗಿನ ಸಿಂಚನ

ಕೊಡಚಾದ್ರಿಯ ಶಿಖರ ಶೃಂಗದಲ್ಲಿ
ನೇಸರ ನೇಪಥ್ಯಕ್ಕೆ ಸರಿಯುವಾಗ
ಧರಿತ್ರಿಯ-ದಿಗಂತದ ಅದ್ಬುತ ಮಿಲನ.
ನಿಶ್ಯೇಷ ನಿಶ್ಯಬ್ಧ ನಿರಂತರ ಮೌನ.

It's my small criss-cross write in Kannada after hearing a lot about the beauty of Kodachadri from my frenz, who had been to this peak recently.
And we're seriously planning for a excursion !

Kodachaadri:
This is the highest peak in Shimoga District, Karnataka/India. At the peak it's believed that 'Shankaracharya' did meditation. And to substantiate the same you will find a 'Sarvajna Peetha' at the top. En route to the peak you will also find a moderate sized water fall deep inside the evergreen forest of Kodachadri, which is called 'Agastya Teertha'. The peak presents a not to be missed life-time opportunity in the evening as the sun sets in the west. The sunset showcases the sexy orange tinged sky view on the peak ! You can also have a golden glimpse of the Arabian sea for a moment.

Why uglier the better?

Why uglier the better?

It’s a tiny chip from my busy UI work station.

Telecom rocks everywhere, especially when it's wireless. True, it's a hot segment. Life is barren minus communication. Pardon granted to network jamming in Bangalore. With a new brand guidelines, international presence over wireless -knowledge transfer, ultra catchy UI specifications I started my new tenure. Days are yummy with aah! like coffees, toffees, ultra thin LCD's, tightly scheduled meetings, compact neo designed cubicles, hot & sour fms, flexi hours, music flowing into earphones...

I'm delegated to understand, overhaul, redesign, refurbish, uplift the GUI of one of the successful application.I built a fair idea about the app from usability perspective. I pinged my architect to fathom the ratio of demographic application usage & web usage stats. His reply was simply astonishing. It's one of the most widely used application & is buzzing global wireless circuits in a macro sense. I was much keen on product user count, though it has less impact on my cubicle informtion architecturing & laboring !

Reason was simple. It looks like a legacy design with a marginal effort on styling & presentation. It resembles 3.1 window interface in a neo era of dynamic applications. It seems technology arrived prior to design in choked interface, aborted usability, hard coded xhtml & forbidden CSS ! Obviously, It was designed way back in '97, where UI designing has less prominence over functionality. Till date only functional updates are upfront. As a result usability & accessibility lacks to the core. But in P/L margins it's a best- of-the-breed in the par-applications segment. It's packed with tight application framework and vested with powerful technology available around.

Interestingly, it's built by one of the finest software firms of India, which is accountable for Silk Board traffic choking every morning in Bangalore !

In placid words, it's nothing new. It's a common phenomenon that applications very frequently undergo re-skining. Instantly, the query birthed like a tiny bug inside me and started nagging in 24/7 ishtyle*.

Why ? even the saddest looking applications do better business contrary to impressive ones. Why uglier the better? Why users hardly raise a flag against interface-less apps. What matters a most? The so-called 'Goodwill' factor Or the intelligent brand strategy? Comprimising nature for a good service or a strategic marketing of the company? Lack of know-how on clean UI or not bothering about it at-all? Why Slashdot rocks? Is it because of content or speed ? What matters most ?

Today, all these doubts're resolved with this nicety blog of Aaron. It's a must read simple post if you're using Gmail & Microsoft etc & STILL have queries about the sloppy interfaces.

* style, manner, in a way.

End of DVD era ?!

End of DVD era ?!

Holographic-memory discs may put DVDs to shame.

A computer disc about the size of a DVD that can hold 60 times more data is set to go on sale in 2006. The disc stores information through the interference of light – a technique known as holographic memory. The discs, developed by InPhase Technologies, based in Colorado, US, hold 300 gigabytes of data and can be used to read and write data 10 times faster than a normal DVD. The company, along with Japanese partner Hitachi Maxell announced earlier in November that they would start selling the discs and compatible drives from the end of 2006.
"Unlike other technologies, that record one data bit at a time, holography allows a million bits of data to be written and read in parallel with a single flash of light," says Liz Murphy, of InPhase Technologies. "This enables transfer rates significantly higher than current optical storage devices."
The discs, at 13 centimetres across, are a little wider than conventional DVDs, and slightly thicker. Normal DVDs record data by measuring microscopic ridges on the surface of a spinning disc. Two competing successors to the DVD format – Blu-ray and HD-DVD – use the same technique but exploit shorter wavelengths of light to cram more information onto a surface.

From the NewScientist article HERE:

Color photos taken in 1909 !

Color photos taken in 1909 !

When K.Asif started shooting for 'Mughal-e-Azham' in 1914 he had less hopes of processing it in color mode. More over cine-photography was merely constrained to Grayscale or Sepia mode then. Color photography was a thing of distant dream & digital imaging technique to colorise photographs was unavailable then. Contrast to the same, I found something very interesting here which disputes that perception. Read this very interesting stuff on color photography here:

"Color film was non-existent in 1909 Russia, yet in that year a photographer named Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii embarked on a photographic survey of his homeland and captured hundreds of photos in full, vivid color. His photographic plates were black and white, but he had developed an ingenious photographic technique which allowed him to use them to produce accurate color images."

This is quite possibly the most fascinating thing I've read in a LONG time. I've sent this link to lots of people. Amazing, that's all I can say…

Read more.

Wow ! this is thrilling...

Wow ! this is thrilling...

" Being in a land of sand, in Dubai the most popular mode of transportation are the SUVs. Usually, over the weekend or during the holidays, folks go over to the dunes for some fun in the sun - A Desert SAFARI. We also do a lot of sand surfing too :)

The desert safari in these SUVs is an experience to cherish. It actually feels like you are in a ocean floating with the high tides. However, if you are in the drivers seat, you certainly need some training. Safari is always done in pairs... coz if one car gets stuck, the other one is always there to pull you out :) "

Flickr Link