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Philipp at Google Blogoscaped has put up a list where he asked the likes of Dave Winer , Joel Spolsky , Chris Pirillo , Om Malik , Niall Kennedy , Steve Rubel , Jeremy Zawodny and others "about their most popular, or one of their most popular, blog posts – the kind that made an impact on people, had skyrocketing traffic numbers, or triggered a meme or changes" Here's what they considered their most popular posts: Darren Rowse ( ProBlogger.net ): 18 Lessons I’ve Learnt about Blogging Joel Spolsky ( JoelOnSoftware.com ): How Microsoft Lost the API War Chris Pirillo ( Chris.Pirillo.com ): Windows Vista Feedback Dave Winer ( Scripting.com ): Scripting News: 9/11/2001 Nathan Weinberg ( BlogNewsChannel.com ): Banned Xbox 360 Ad: Best Ad Ever! Michael Arrington ( TechCrunch.com ): Completely Unsubstantiated Google/YouTube Rumor Om Malik ( GigaOM.com ): Six Apart buying Live Journal Niall Kennedy ( NialKennedy.com ): ...

It has just struck me that of late I am spending more time documenting stuff rather than developing. Typical case of a developer in a large corporation. Long long time ago I had written that You remove fun from programming, include a whole lot of responsibleness and bring in hierarchy, what you get then is 'software engineering'. And I wasn't wrong then. If I were to throw a random number, I'd say I am documenting for about 40% of my time. Huge and terribly bad. Its been ages I've logged onto Orkut . The Facebook account is dormant ever since I registered. It's high time the nice folks at Google release an Orkut API so that we can have something like this Facebook Firefox Extension for searching, notifications, and sharing. Great work there by Facebook developers. And it's all open so you can go ahead and modify it the way you like! Then there's this new site I was looking at that Sun Microsystems have put up- The Big Mashup that'll feature ...

Are we a snotty bunch of people? Given the way we like to flatter us and our fellow countrymen as a polite, accommodating race, the question might not seem appropriate. But this is how I am beginning to feel in the past few days. First, we behaved in a ludicrous manner with Brangelina when they were here. And the couple themselves did nothing wrong. What instead we gained was the emergence of one of our cities on the global tourism map . Here were two of the biggest Hollywood stars, roaming freely carrying their children around towns in India , taking the Mumbai's trains , walking the seaside- what better endorsement could our Ministry of Tourism could have got? And yet we created a ruckus when none of their bodyguards supposedly 'abused' an Indian, something that none has been able to establish. With the treatment meted out to one of the most celebrated couple, it'll be hard to see India's already tattered image getting any better across the globe. The next in l...

Not for the first time in my life, I am struggling to beat a deadline. I've always wondered how engineers like me always make it a point to meet the deadline. Never beating it. Anyways, here is some random stuff: This guy wrote on his blog, how he wanted to drive an aston Martin . And guess what, he got to drive it. The super cool people at Aston Martin SA arranged for him to spend a day driving an Aston Martin. The new Apple 'Get a Mac' ads are out. I haven't been able to see them because somehow Quicktime declines to install on the machine I am currently on and the ads weren't yet on YouTube the last time I checked. Wired is "asking for your help choosing the brainy men and women who filled your Google search boxes and fueled your dreams. " So go and leave your suggestions ! " Avoid the loony Zune ." Thats how Andy Ihnatko titled his blunt review of the Zune where he wrote that it'll be dead and gone within six months . Till this mo...

Watch some Webcasts,part way with some information and get a free copy of Windows Vista and Office 2007. Not bad at all. But doesn't make sense to me but who cares! So here's how you can lay your hands on a free copy of Windows Vista and office 2007. Just a simple 1-2-3-4-5 process Visit the Power of Together website Sign up (it's only for US residents only) Watch three Webcasts/vLabs each for Windows Vista and Office 2007 within 30 days of registering Wait 6 - 8 weeks Your software will be delivered to you free of charge Reminds me of the last time the folks at Microsoft were distributing free XP CDs. I was there and yet returned empty handed :( And I am yet to decide what was it that Microsoft wanted me to see and what it did not in this video: Source: » Get a free copy of Windows Vista and Office 2007 Technorati tags: windows , vista , office 2007 , software

I'm a Mac. I'm a PC . And now we have I'm a Mac tablet PC ! (Why use the word PC ???) From Smarthouse : "Apple researchers have built a full working prototype of a Mac tablet PC and three Companies in Taiwan are now costing a product for a potential launch in mid 2007." Surprising given that Steve Jobs has maintained a NO/UNSURE stance on a tablet so far. September 2002: [via MacRumors ] "We're not sure the tablet PC will be successful. It's turned into a notebook that you can write on. Do you want to handwrite all your e-mail? We have all the technology ourselves to do that - we just don't know whether it will be successful." June 2003:[via MacObserver ] There are no plans to make a tablet. It turns out people want keyboards. When Apple first started out, "People couldn't type. We realized: Death would eventually take care of this." "We look at the tablet and we think it's going to fail." Tablets appeal to r...

Just got to know from Atishay that he and his team will be giving a demo onthe super cool Project Looking Glass at the foss.in this weekend. I must say the demo is pretty slick and if you're anywhere there, do not miss this chance to see and experience this "Minority Report like UI" . For those of you who haven't heard about lg3d: Project Looking Glass, here's a little something about lg3d from the Project Home : What if your desktop was actually a 3D environment? What if your CD or movie database became a 3D jukebox? Project Looking Glass is based on Java technology and explores bringing a richer user experience to the desktop and applications via 3D windowing and visualization capabilities. It is an open source development project based on and evolved from Sun Microsystems' Advanced Development division. It supports running unmodified existing applications in a 3D space, as well as APIs for 3D window manager and application development. At the moment, ...

Just yesterday, c|Net tried putting up a list of Top 10 Girl Geeks . And no surprises, they had to include a cartoon and Paris Hilton (yes, Paris Hilton!!!) to fill the list. Here's the complete list: 1. Ada Byron , world's first programmer 2. Val Tereshkova , went to space 3. Grace Hopper , found computer "bug" 4. Daryl Hannah , eco-friendly geek icon 5. Rosalind Franklin , chemist 6. Mary Shelley , wrote Frankenstein 7. Lisa Simpson , future president 8. Marie Curie , plutonium in her pockets 9. Aleks Krotoski , very chic geek 10. Paris Hilton , famous girl gamer I'd say put Lenna on this list too :P Technorati tags: paris , hilton , lenna , lisa , girl geeks , cnet

Wandering aimlessly, flipping pages after pages of my feed reader (which these days is showing lots of 500 errors), I came across this new iPod shuffle ad on UNEASYsilence . Cool, but definitely not extraordinary! Talking of ads, you ought to see these amazing HP's Computer is Personal Again ads that Justin pointed out. Technorati tags: Apple , ipod , shuffle , HP , advertisement

I just realized that a long long time ago, I really thought that our men in Blue were Champs and not Chumps ! Something, I am afraid, is not the case anymore. What if the Final Frontier could not be defended. As Team India lies all battered and bruised at the hands of visiting Aussies, why have millions of cricket lovers donned their hats of critical analyzers and have come up with the unanimous verdict- Ganguly's men have failed them. Why is it that contempt is all what the public is throwing at 'its' team. I seriously think our players deserve much better treatment than what they are being meted out. This is the same team that took India to the World Cup finals, the same team that stunned Australia, with the very same bunch of 'invincible' players, on their own soil, and tamed the Pakistanis in their own den. The Men in Blue have not played upto their full potential. But no one likes to under perform. The guys are out there giving it their best, and they are th...

Another of the many reasons why Dilbert is the magnifying glass and mirror to a geek's life! Source: Dilbert.com

This guy was lucky enough to lay his hands on the new Zune ! And he's put up this image that shows up when Zune install failed for him. [ via Angry Asian man | Boing Boing ] OK. This hardly makes any sense to me! Can you make out what's going on here in this image?

The other day Arun sent me this invite to check out their latest trend-tracking application- mymuv and today I finally got to take it for a spin. I wasn't even remotely sure of what to expect but just as I keyed in the invitation code, I must say I found it pretty slick. I'd refrain from using the word web2.0 here for all the uncoolness that's now associated with the word but it's one of the best "next web" application we've seen from India. The Idea Lets begin by calling it a memedigger for trends. The whole idea is simple. Lifestyles change. The trends around you always change. So what do you do? You set a trend, or make a "muv" and let others rate it as cool or uncool, post comments on it, discuss the trends. As "mymuv Dilberts" put it, "you get to be cool! set trends. track trends. and tell others, what you think of their muvs!" For example, if you're making a muv from a PC to a Mac, you'd mark this changing trend...

Alright. Just as Team India's departure to The South African Safari has made news for being sent off without official blazers or any formal attire, I was just wondering what happened to the Team India's navy blue one-day kit that Kiran More showed off sometime last December??? I thought this darker version of blue looked "much more smarter" :P than the current blue that Indian Team sports. But then, I am known to have a pretty bad taste in colour. What's your take on the Team India blues??? Picture: Kiran More poses with the new Indian one-day kit last December© AFP

Certainly not a behaviour expected from the world champs! Perhaps they dont realize that the same enthusiasm and attitude on the field that makes them champions transforms them into an ungracious and arrogant lot off the field. Just wondering what Mr. Dalmiya and Co. would be thinking on this. What they've been trying unsuccessfully so far was so easily accomplished by Ponting and Martyn: nudging Mr. Pawar aside. Technorati tags: Ponting , Martyn , Pawar , Cricket , ICC Champions Trophy

What's the first movie that comes to your mind when you see Mark Wahlberg on screen? Does it ring a bell?? Oh, I know, I know, he was in this movie; Arre yaar , I just can't get the name. How can I forget??? The answer, folks, is The Italian Job . This I figured out after one full day of watching Scorsese's The Departed . The Departed is the fourth Scorsese movie I've watched after The Avaitor , Goodfellas and Cape Fear . And I can say that it is as good, if not better than any of these with a star line up of Matt Damon , DiCaprio , Jack Nicholson and a cop-mob plot that redefines deceit and deception. Synopsis: The plot isn't all that complicated. You've got a sadistic Irish Mob Boss Frank Costello (Nicholson) and a team of good cops, Captain Queenan ( Martin Sheen ) and a rough, ever-the-foul-mouthed sergeant (Mark Wahlberg). In the middle of all this are two moles placed in each other's camps- Bill (Leo DiCaprio), a young Irish kid working for Qu...

My favourite Professor from college, Shiv, was on television yesterday talking about the findings of the fourth India Today-AC Nielsen-ORG-MARG survey on sexuality. The half hour piece on Headlines Today, was a discussion on his recent essay on India Today 's cover story, "Men In A Muddle". For the better half of those 30 minutes, I was frantically trying to reach all my friends asking them to turn on their Television sets and while some did manage to do that, some just had to make do by swearing at their cable wallahs. And so, I thought I'll just post here some of Shiv's lucid statements, which we've all been so used to of hearing in those Humanities lectures back in campus: On Bollywood's role in changing the outlook of men on sensuality: "Bollywood is the magnifying glass and the mirror of the middle class." On Pornography: [Hehe, we've all heard that often, haven't we ;) ] "Pornography is a part of the Information Revolutio...

And finally it appears that this long hiatus is coming to an end. It's been over six months that I last blogged here and the whole idea excites me again. These past few months were quite something. Things moved at quite a pace and a lot of those did indeed make blogworthy content. But as ever, procrastination got the better of me and my return to the blogosphere just didnt seem to be happening. But now, lets just hope that updates here are not few and far between. So, here's just a quick round up of what I've been upto recently: I finally graduated . Yes, this'll come as a surprise to many who knew how keen some people were back there in the campus to have me around for a little longer :P Crossed all limits of indecision, just as it came down to deciding which company I'd have pay me for going to their office daily. (It is quite a story and at some point of time, I'll be elaborating on that for sure.) Moved to a new city, a city where I had spent three bli...