One of the most awe-inspiring speeches I have ever seen. Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs at Stanford University’s Commencement on June 12, 2005. It is one of those blog posts where I don’t care how many people see it. I only put it here because I liked it so much. It is that good.

P.S. Thanks to Dilip for bringing it to my notice! And it is pure coincidence that my previous post was about Apple’s Safari

Ever since I first came to know about a browser called Safari ( Apple’s browser that is available for Windows also) , I have been using it. No, I’m not one of those guys obsessed with Apple since I was a little boy. Infact I’ve been using Safari only for the last 6 months. Its (read as Apple’s) font-rendering technology amazes me. Even as I type this blog and as the words come out, I just love the style of these fonts. They are so easy on the eye especially for a guy like me who reads tons of raw text on the computer screen everyday. But lately I have been facing one major problem with Safari. The webpages don’t load( Isn’t that what it’s supposed to help me out with? ) The commonly displayed error message has been “Safari was not able to find the server.” It was utterly frustrating. To my shock, when I downloaded Opera 9.5 and installed it, it was displaying those webpages easily. No error messages. No frustration. 

But then since I liked Safari’s font rendering technology so much, I just couldn’t give up on it. I downloaded Firefox 3 on “Download Day.” And to my surprise I found something strange about Safari and Firefox. When I have both Safari and Firefox open side by side, I don’t get the problems I usually get with Safari and the missing server. Also if I login into Gmail using Firefox, I’m able to use the same through my Safari. I wonder what kind of mysterious bond is shared by the two. I guess there might be some sharing of cache memory or cookies ( or whatever technical jargon I’m currently ignorant of ) But fact is they both are working great. But I’m using Safari ofcourse. Apart from its font rendering, some of its other merits are

• Simple user interface. Once you use it, it’s really the easiest there is.
• The menus and address bars occupy very little space, leaving the major portion of your screen free to display actual webpage content.
• The bookmarks window is really good and simple. Not only does it automatically get the previous bookmarks from your already installed browser, it makes organizing your bookmarks a breeze. 
• The auto complete feature for webpage addresses includes bookmarks as well. This is a feature that I haven’t seen in many browsers. When you type your URL in the address bar, it automatically lists similar entries found in the bookmarks(as opposed to entries in the History which most browsers normally display)

Apart from that it has all the usual features of a webpage. I’ll give you a few screen shots to give you a glimpse of what I’m actually talking about.

Safari Sample Webpage (Click to view full picture)

Firefox Sample Webpage (Click to view full picture)

Opera Sample Webpage (Click to view full picture)

So if anyone happens to know why this actually happens, do drop in and post a comment telling us all about it.

Download Link for Safari ( for Windows)

Update on 10th July 2008

I found this really cool blog about Safari and its really good features. Do check it out. It’s comprehensive with a lot of screenshots. http://destraynor.com/serendipity/index.php?/archives/151-9-things-Firefox-should-steal-from-Safari.html

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Link to this blog post: http://shadowspeak.wordpress.com/2008/07/09/what-connects-apples-safari-and-firefox/

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So I have decided to take my blogging experience just a bit further and have started to blog professionally on a popular blog. And I’m now an active blogger at Mutiny.in, one of India’s premier blogs exclusively on Indian issues. I have been there probably a little more than two weeks but it has been a revelation. To write blogs professionally is very easy once you start typing with your heart rather than your hand. The kind of issues that I usually have it bottled up in me have found a new outlet through Mutiny. And it is amazing to see the kind of debates that go on there. Do check it out! (especially if you are an Indian reading this) And to see my page on the Mutiny check it out here.

Ah! I always thought India was a land of clarity amidst chaos. And it is exemplified especially by the traffic here. As a regular biker in those heavily traffic-ed roads, I have always wondered how a video of the live traffic would look! Now as I came across it in the Net, I just cannot refuse the urge to put it up in here. Take a look. It sure is worth one! Make no mistake about it, you need a lot of skill to be out there kiddo!

Watch it on Google Video here

Ramji

For a crazy football fan like me, it would be really strange for me not to have a post about Euro 2008 in my blog. Come on now. Most of the time I’m idle I think about only two things- either myself or football (read as Euro 2008 for the current month) So firstly I’l tell you why I have not been watching matches. It all started with the first day of the Euro and all of a sudden my tv was showing pictures I never dreamed I would see in it. Yeah I got no Set Top box at home but there it was! The opening match of Euro 2008 Live before me. I was jumping for joy(Watched those 2 whole matches) only for it to be cut short the next day. Since the Asia Cup had started, my most generous cable operator had switched over to providing those free channel viewers the chance to see it. But damn it DD was already showing those matches. Then I realized what a biased country this is towards Cricket. And to be a football fan here. You could as well be in Mars (exaggeration, I admit) 

But then I wasn’t one to give up so easily. I started searching for any live streams that might be on offer on the Net. Infact there were many of them - Sopcast, TV Ants etcetera. But problem is my broadband internet speed is about 256kbps which is not suited for watching live streams. So I gave up on seeing the Euros…………………………….. until today!!! I finally found a stream link that gives me uninterrupted streaming of all matches of Euro. Just watched Spain edge it past Sweden. Unlucky Sweden, but good thing Spain are showing signs of a lack of killer instinct. Man, I want them to face Netherlands in the Semi’s or Finals and get thrashed! Yeah I support the Netherlands. Been supporting them ever since World Cup 2006 where I was just drooling over their play. This time they are showing some real spirit and drive. Hope they win it. 

Btw here’s the stream link is below. I honestly do not know if its illegal or anything. But then who cares. I’m not Scobliezer

Stream Link
 
Ramji

It was a desolate place. Filled with disease and sorrow, you could feel that chill descend on you. It almost engulfs your mind. But it had an added effect on me. An almost surreal happiness. It was then that it dawned on me how lucky I am - a healthy body and a functioning mind. No diseases. No need to go to hospitals often. No scans no tests no therapy. Atleast not yet! No it’s not funny and this is not a funny post so if you’re looking for one you might as well leave now. And yes, I am talking about the Cancer Institute here in Chennai. Yet for all the distressing things that I have mentioned, it is the place which is the hope for many people here. For some it’s their last hope to life. For most it’s their only hope. If you want one disease which has been most talked about - from street talk to movie satire - it’s cancer. Its much vaunted status stems from the long struggle it took to find the cure for this disease. Now that we finally have some medicines for it, it has changed from a quest to find the cure to a quest to finding the money to buy them. Many people for quite obvious reasons struggle to come to terms with the fact that they have cancer. Its ways and means of penetrating a body are versatile that sometimes one doesn’t know how he happened to get it in the first place. Overcoming this mental trauma is just the first part as one of my own family found out. Its such an expensive disease to treat that even the simplest therapies could cost you your life’s savings. 

And cost, it does. Even if the Cancer Institute does provide free treatment the medicines could cost you a lot. But still its probably one-tenth of what the private hospitals charge. So, there I went, to see him. It happened by chance. My only task was to pick up my mom once she had completed her visit there. She was there to see one of my family who has had a sudden unexpected attack of Throat Cancer. Read that as unexpected discovery because the disease had been there for about 3 years. Ultimately it’s when you don’t give much importance to your own body these things happen. So, coming back, I just had to pick up my mom. Simple job. Oh what a coward I would have been if I had done only that! What I felt there is unspeakable in terms of words, and “un-typeable” in this blog. An experience of a life-time. The entrance has a temple - a place of hope. But one look at the persons sitting lost there, you realize they have very little hope if any. I move on.

I went inside the block where he was admitted. Again it was a bit of shock. I ashamedly admit that I haven’t gone to a Government Hospital before. So having got used to those cosy private hospitals with their clean tiled floors and air conditioned rooms, this was a place which was down to earth to put it exactly. It had simple things with simple people around. There was even a small B/W Tv to watch for the persons staying with the patients. Yes it wasn’t sparkling clean but it surely wasn’t dirty. It didn’t smell of those sick-sweet hospital fragrances but it didn’t stink either. There weren’t any air conditioners nor would anyone demand for that here. For if they could afford that, they wouldn’t be here in the first place. I realized it wasn’t a place of clinical efficiency which guarantees you absolute certainty of recovery. It was rather a place of survival. A place where they use the Government funds to provide the patients with a bare minimum- medicine, food a comforting bed and most of all a way back to their lives. People here fight to survive. There are no easy ways here. No so called “pain-killers.” It’s you and the disease and you fight it albeit with some help from the medicines. 

I could see that when I saw him. He was a broken man. He had gone through a lot in his whole life and now this. The last 3 months had been hell for him I guess. If I probably hadn’t gone there and seen him today, I would never have forgiven myself. His happiness on seeing me shone in his face. And I got that kind of feeling that even if my life ends now, I had probably done something worthwhile with it. He was in pain and couldn’t talk. His throat was in stitches. He couldn’t stop his tears as they came. His sheer despondency was obvious. He was probably wishing he could run away from all this and start a new life. I stayed for a while and talked some strength into him hopefully. What more can I do? I’m not God. Who knows he might be sleeping soundly right now because of my visit, the thought of which makes me sleep ever so sound. 

I don’t know why I wrote this in my blog. I had to get it out. It was such an experience that I don’t want it to fade away in time from my memory. I want it to remain here forever in this blog and it will. It’s a happy life that most of us reading this blog enjoy in so many ways. A very lucky life removed from all the possible suffering that may befall us. May we appreciate it and cherish it forever!!

Ramji

It was around this time last year when I first put hand-to-keys to my first ever serious blog. The blog was titled “My B’day Bash” (and i believe its still hanging around in this site!) So just as I am at the threshold of yet another birthday, I start to write the few words that defines the birthday for me. For me it is, undoubtedly, the most special day of the year currently- ranked above May 5th ,October 21st and December 25th(not for Christmas!) in the current rankings. That’s simply because it’s a day made for me. The one day where I am the celebrity; I hog the limelight. I am the guy people want to meet, the guy people want to wish and shake hands with. And by people not just “any people,” these are people whom I love and respect and identify with. Like I said you don’t get to be a celebrity everyday so isn’t it special?

To all those people whom I mentioned before, I swear I am as eager to shake your hands as you all do. I feel as much happiness as you do. And each and every wish - both told and untold- makes me immensely happy.

…..Article will be completed soon…..

Hi fellas,

Now that you have reached this page and this line, you would probably know you are in a WordPress blog. Had everything gone normally in my blogging life, this would have been a Blogger blog. Yeah that would be www.shadowspeak.blogspot.com. But i switched over to WordPress for a simple problem. My blogs in Blogger were just not getting listed in Google search. Even if i search the exact words i had blogged about, I still didn’t get the results in Google search. That was highly disappointing. The reason you,me or anyone would blog is for others to read our blogs, find it useful and start a discussion. But whats the purpose if your blog is not connected with people who are searching for something like your blog?

WordPress is just awesome in that respect. The moment i post something it gets listed in Google and so many other search engines in less than 24 hours. Great! Just what a blogger needs! I had one of my friends complaining to me about the same problem yesterday. he had posted a couple of dicey topics hoping to start off some hot discussion, but with no responses its understandable he’s a bit pissed off. After all if you are using Blogger, you are using Google’s blog and still you don’t get listed in Google search. Not funny MountainView!

And today I just found out why! Its because Google thinks that blogs are special. So special infact that they require a entirely different Search engine! Check out Google Blog Search A stroke of genius you say? I say No. Come on i don’t expect a majority people to search separately for blogs and websites. The difference has clearly been blurred in recent times with all the supposed news websites, changing into something like a blog. So suit up Google. Because for an ordinary user not really bothered about ads and other stuff and focussing mainly on the content of what he writes, Blogspot has become a major letdown. In that way WordPress really has a knack of not only getting listed in Google but also high up too.

P.S. Hope someone from the Blogger team reads this!

Links!
1. Blogspot.com
2. WordPress.org
3. Google search
4. Google Blog Search

As always
Ramji

Hi fellas,Been a month since i blogged. This really seems to be the opening lines of so many blogs I have been reading recently. Funny how many people like myself are finding their own pile of work big enough so when you go upto them about blogging all they say is “No thanks!” I would said the same thing if you would have asked me that yesterday. Anyway back to business. I bought a new phone last month. You must have known it if you had been watching you cricket ! Sure its the model in the title. Motorola W230.I actually went to a forum and posted that I bought it and no sooner was I getting emails requesting more details and some “I bought it too” mails which were very sweet responses really. So why make people wait for my reply mails while I can put this up in y blog and let it remain for eternity. So here goes my review.

REVIEW

The phone has been an absolute delight. I had originally been planning and decided on buying Samsung’s C160 or C170 for Rs.2000. Both had FM radio along with GPRS - two of my most needed features. That was until this bolt from the blue from Motorola. This model actually came out two days before me buying it and it has a terrific feature of micro SD slot something unheard of in this price range. Along with a mp3 player it was a cool music phone with some good looks to boot(The blue keypad light combined with the black phone at night looks awesome!) So i decided on it at first sight. Price was 3k but you can get it for 2.9k. According to me the best value for money mobile in the market today.I’l separately list its various features here.

Messaging

Most people are scared of Motorola when it comes to messaging but it’s not that difficult actually. If you are switching from Nokia you will probbaly have a problem for the first month. But most young people should catch up. Some old ones might find it very difficult to change but I dont expect them to use the messaging much anyway. But if u are a nokia lover and are reluctant to change about speed of text messaging better stick to Nokia. But as they say Change is good!

User Interface

Its decent and not at all bad. Nokia is probably better by about 5% but that’s not such a big difference because Nokia has no phones in this price range with this much features. So if you are buying for less don’t go for Nokia. Go for motorola or samsung.

Music Experience

Coming to the biggest feature of this phone music experience is great. Ofcourse if you are too much used to ipod or the Sony Walkman series this isn’t music phone for you. But if you like listening to some good music with some good clarity and quality then its for you. Headphones are pretty loud. I use them in crowded buses and still find them good to hear. Usually shops give you a 256mb memory card for 3k and its upgradable to 2gb. So use it! Speakers are good. You can set mp3 alarms which is what i wake upto daily nowadays. And you have mp3 ring tones as well

FM

FM radio is clear and sound is a bit louder than mp3 player. Its certainly better than the FM in Nokia 6030. You can also record FM and use it as alarms.

Specs and Links

1. Specs from Motorola Website

2. Check out the phone in Univercell

SO thats basically the gist of it. If u need more info just send in your comments and i’l reply. Also do comment if you got a different view!

Signing off

Ramji

Update on 31/3/2008:

Bought a crystal case for the phone for Rs.20. Phone looks cooler inside the case. Also lends the sturdiness of Nokia phones. Motorola phones aren’t usually sturdy and strong as far as the panel and outer design goes.

Its January. Half a month past. And the rest of the month is gonna be an absolute drudgery. Im worried. Im really worried to be honest. Im using this BSNL broadband plan500 which lets me use 2.5GB per month. It is quite a lot i agree but suddenly i wake up on the 15th and find just 400MB remaining in my account. Granted, I do use a lot of Bandwidth for voice chat and use the rest of it for browsing. But still this much of usage just midway through the month is simply unacceptable. Still you can’t just blame the company. Its got a decent record and its website shows exactly the times i have used it. Well im really shocked to be faced with this. But then shock is no reason to be irrational. Oh no…

I know a lot of people using broadband out there in India face the same problems. It essentially arises because its a new concept that has come in and taken us all by storm by its sheer power and addictive nature. When people here go out and get a broadband connection here they don’t know what a 1GB per month usage equates to in actual use. Its one of the old tricks by the companies. Tell the people about something they don’t know. They end up thinking its something sophisticated not realizing its nothing but a marketing gimmick to fool them. Well i am one of them who knows what it means but still my usage keeps shooting up every month. Yet I don’t think i use more and more. The best option for me is to live with the present and plan for the future.

From next month i guess i gotta keep some stringent measures to check if there is any flaw in BSNL’s billing system. Another option may be because there is a problem with my own PC. So im make my long intended switch to the Opera browser. It actually shows you the amount of data being downloaded in the taskbar which is exactly what I need. But so far as this month goes i’m just hoping i got college every single day. Because simply sitting at home not able to use the Net is something that’s sure to test my nerves.