Bing!

Doesn’t it sound funny to your ears? Or are they trying to pull a Google here? The irony is, I don’t think Google ever sounded funny in anyone’s ears. One of the reasons might be that it’s been a household term for years now.

By the way, just in case you missed the “big” news, Bing is the latest search engine launched by Microsoft. I remember the days when there used to be something called an MSN Search. When it was rechristened to Live Search, most didn’t pay attention. Maybe that’s a good-enough reason to come out with a name which will become a crowd-puller—because it’ll ring a bell (in your ears). Like Google? But only, it’s Bing! I can understand people exclaiming “Bingo!” every time they find something they’re looking for. But, Bing?

Anyway, like everyone else, I also tried Bing! (Sorry for repeating the word too many times—as I already said, it sounds funny to my ears )

When you go to Bing.com, besides the search engine bar, a user gets a random picture (of some significance) with information tagged to it. Good call… but I wonder how useful this idea is considering no one would stay on the homepage of a search engine more than what he takes to enter the keywords for the information he’s looking for.

This is exactly what Google understood years ago—there should be bare-minimum elements on the homepage that doesn’t distract the user from what he’s looking for. Remember the other search engine giants from the 90s—AltaVista, Lycos, Excite, et al? Where are they now? Most of them would try to bombard the user with information right on the home page, without paying much heed to the fact that user a is here, in the first place, to search for something. You got to provide that service first!

Let’s talk about the core matter here: search! Try and enter the term “Linux” in it. Do the same on Google also. Compare the results. Notice the difference?

I mean, what the heck are certifications and events doing on the first page of Bing’s search results? There’s even a link for “Linux on Laptops”! OK, so there is Ubuntu too. But, what about Red Hat and Debian? Also, compared to about.com’s definition of Linux, isn’t kernel.org more important?

It’s the search algorithm that you’re using, mate. Gotta improve it, a lot! Until then, decorating your homepage and asking users to install Silverlight if they want to check out the older home page backgrounds from your archives won’t help you one bit. Because, that’s not at all what “search” users will be looking for when they land up at Bing, if at all.

Boy, September 14, 2008 is also gone! My last post here was on December 14, 2007. That makes it 9 months since I disappeared, huh? Oh well, a lot has changed in these last nine months—most importantly, I’ve got married! It’ll be five months on the 29th of this month. Who would have thought I would be hitched, eh? Kudos to me wife—the kid has a lot of patience to be putting up with the likes of me. Well, what can I say? She’s a great human being—yeah, and that’s not just because she married me of all people; but because she actually is. And, to add to that, she’s great fun to be with. By the way, that’s her on the post titled ‘imagine’.

Anyway, I haven’t been around because of a few things: didn’t have time, forgotten that I had a blog,  busy cribbing that I don’t get time for this shit anymore, etc. Got a good spanking for the wife, so back here!

So, what else is new? Nothing much, really! I still swear by music and free software. Oh and I have a new computer finally, too. It’s an assembled one. Did quite a good amount of reading up before getting it glued. Reason I didn’t go for a branded PC was because: first, I didn’t wanna pay the Winduhs tax; second, didn’t find a good enough AMD configuration to choose from the lot! Well, I dunno why, but had been wanting an AMD for the past one and a half years now. Wife had an AMD too, and she was pretty satisfied with it. Sys admin dude at work had good things to say about it too. So, I went ahead and got an Athlon X2 5600+, with each core capable of clocking at 2.8GHz. With 2GB of RAM, I’ve been happily VirtualBox*ing for a couple of months now.

By the way, in case you didn’t know, there’s a new version 2 of VirtualBox out there for grabs. [Just in case you dunno what VirtualBox is, don't expect me to spoon feed you—there's a reason I've provided you the hyperlink somewhere already.] Anyway, since I’m not really one of those geeky dudes out there, I have always been using VirtualBox over para-virt stuff like Xen. Boy, Xen is a pain for the lazy folks, hi!

For those who knew what system I used to use, would recall how I used to be a big PCLinuxOS fan. Well, that’s also past—have gone back to Mandriva, which is what I run on my work laptop. And here at home I’ve been primarily using openSUSE 11—simply, because I get to try out the latest KDE 4.1 builds. However, as soon as Mandriva 2009 comes out next month, I’ll be sold.

Anyway, I just downloaded the Amarok 2beta, but it kept crashing on me. So, thought of updating the whole KDE 4.1 stack—had v4.1.0, and now in a few minutes I shall have v4.1.1. Yes, I know, it’s only rock n’ roll. But I like it! Yes, I do. Anyway, lemme go play with for a while now! Adios!!

QOTD: If life gives me lemons, I’ll squirt them back at life’s eyes. — Noel, a 14-yr-old blogger.

My puter is fuckin dying. Gotta get a new one. Anyway I gotta get this book called The Shia Revival. Saw this hot dude reading it on a jam-packed bus last month. I hope I can manage a paperback. The hot dude was reading a hardbound one. Something about the Shias and the Sunnis are very interesting. I dunno why they keep on fighting. One of my ex-colleagues and former sutta partners was a Shia. She looked like she’s from West Asia or something. But actually she was from Lucknow. My other former colleague turned best friend is a Sunni. He reads Namaz once a day, but I guess he does it outta habbit. He’s a metalhead by default and is currently headbanging somewhere in Dubai.

Anyway, Pam Constable’s book, whatever it was called, was really interesting. I dunno where I’d left it half way through. You gotta like Pam. She writes awesome stuff. You might have seen her on CNN too. She is a correspondent with the Post. Oh yeah, the book’s called Fragments of Grace. You should read it. And once you are done, lend it over to me.

People keep asking me what kinda books I read. I’m never sure. But I guess I like these kinda stuff. Or memoirs. I dunno. I guess if I like the style of writing I can read on, or I dump a book. But I really haven’t read anything for so many months. I feel like I’m getting kinda dumb. I dunno how can my other best friend Gox keep on reading James Joyce. I think Joyce was fuckin… I dunno, I just didn’t like his writing when I tried. But then I really like these Irish writers like Rhody Doyle and Franc McCourt, if I can call McCourt Irish.

But I guess I really wanted to read Alexandra Fuller’s Don’t Let’s Go to The Dogs Tonight, tonight. That’s again a memoir. I remember falling in love with her writing the instant I read the first sentence in that book. That was 2003 when I was a member of the Kolkata BCL. Now, I often go and look for it, but people have never even heard of it.

Please give me a second grace.
Please give me a second face.
I’ve fallen far down, the first time around,
Now I just sit on the ground in your way.

Am I, Zen and Tubai Dada the only ones who love Nick Drake? I’m not much of a singer, except for I’m pretty good at imitating David and Roger sometimes. But I wish I can bring this hopelessness into my voice like Nick’s. This song just makes me insane. It’s so bloody good! Why do good songwriters always have to die early?

Please tell me your second name.
Please play me your second game.
I’ve fallen so far for the people you are,
I just need your star for a day.

I really wish either Mushi or Gox was over here. Cuz I’m so piss-ass bored right now and need some nerve-stimulating conversation. In another one-and-a-half years from now I’ll be 27 as well. But I guess I’d still be pretty much alive even after that. Wish I was good enough to die at 27. That’s certainly a magic number or somethin, wouldn’t ya agree? Not that Nick died at that age, but that bugger Kurt did. Lucky bastard!! No offense to Kurt and his millions of fans. Even I like his songs; I wonder why tho. I wish I liked happy music, but all I find myself listening to are all these fuckin depressing stuff. Maybe I’m just addicted to it. Anyway I guess people liked Kurt so much cuz he wrote simple stuff.

Rape me
Rape me my friend,
Rape me,
Rape me again.I’m not the only one
I’m not the only one
I’m not the only one
I’m not the only one

That isn’t even verbose, and still is able to get the message across. Adios!!

Powered by ScribeFire.

Some of these female singer/songwriters from the 90s used to make good music. Guess it took just one song on the radio to get into them such as Alanis Morissette’s Hand In My Pocket, or Shawn Colvin’s Sunny Came Home, or even Jewel’s Hands.

Or you know the ones on the Hard Rock Cafe Live show (at 2300 hrs on TNT, every Saturday night) with Melissa Etheridge, whose albums I couldn’t ever find in stores. This specific show was rather good and many of the performers were those I’ve never heard of before — like Bush, and many others whose names I don’t even remember now. Whatever happened to the radio and TV shows? Now listening to albums like Jagged Little Pill reminds me of those shows.

The radio shows that I used to listen to was this one every morning at 8am and this female jockey was rather good as she would tell us about the albums and things related to the song or even her own personal recollections. Then the evenings were good too. And yes of course there was this Wicked Hour Show. What happened to those shows and those programs is what I wonder now after six years. First it was the TV that got corrupted with MTV Most Wanted hosted by that idiot VJ we had named Shehnaz. Yea, so I liked Maria and Mini Mathur, but they were at least fun and smart. Shehnaz was just plain dumb and irritating. Maybe Most Wanted should never had got rid of Rahul Khanna? OK, he hosted that show when I was like in 6th grade or somethin and I probably don’t even remember whatever he talked about and the songs he played. Then the show that followed at 6pm had this real cool and funny VJ. I’m not sure if it was on [V] or MTV. But I remember there was this one time, thats when the Val Kilmer movie Saint was released… and he kept raising his eyebrows to some background sound pretending to be the Saint.

Anyway, probably they were also just pretty faces, but at least they knew music. Then came Shehnaz, Peeya and the rest of the gang who were just plain DUMB. Meanwhile, the radio was still airing variety and it had intelligent people hosting the shows. Well, until 12th grade at least cuz after that I moved to Kolkata. And to be honest for a city that has so many musicians and stuff like that, the radio was total crap. But that wasn’t the worst part. To my surprise when I moved back here after three years, the radio that I remembered had transformed into something of a Hit Machine. So rather than play new or just variety stuff, it only played the same big hits throughout the day. Obviously, most of the old jockeys had left too by then to be filled in by the dumb-asses. And maybe that’s why we’re now surrounded by a generation of so-called music lovers who depend on the media to tell them what they should be listening to rather than make their own fuckin minds. And thus we have folks who are pretty pathetically Shehnaz*ified.

Anyway, so what do you say when you chance up on this co-worker, who just grabs your mp3 player and puts it on asking what the hell she is listening to? So, I reply…

Tool.

What?

It’s a band called Tool… the album is from the mid 90s…

Don’t you have any decent metal in it?

Like what?

umm… like Metallica, or Linken Park?

Don’t really listen to em much.

But you should. They are so popular. I love them. They are just so popular, you know?

OK

Yeah, like nobody listens to Tool. Who listens to Tool?

I need to care? What do u listen to?

You know good bands like Guns N’ Roses, Pink Floyd, and you know…. yes, like I said Metallica and Linken Park.

You like Floyd??

Yes, I love em. You know they are like so popular.

OK

So, maybe those aren’t the exact words. But she was so stuck on that “popular” word that she didn’t even think of needing to provide any other reason for liking those bands. Not that I believe Tool is like the ultimate band there is, but I was listening to them a lot last year around this time, and incidentally AEnima was in my player that day on me way back home.

Anyway, this girl, who was also a sub and had joined a couple of weeks before me, and I hardly ever conversed. But discovering someone I never thought of digs Floyd should have got me excited only to be put off by the word “popular” repeated to many times to justify what she listened to. I dunno how old she was — probably my age or a bit younger — and I have no clue since when is Floyd a popular band around here, apart from the university campuses probably. But there she was digging Floyd and probably only cuz they were supposed to be “popular”. Oh well, good to know that. See ya around. Adios!!

powered by performancing firefox

GrokLaw editor Pamela Jones headlined the deal as Novell Sells Out, and here are some more updates from her regarding legal issues concerning the deal. While Bruce Perens also has an interesting piece here. However, since a lot of people are showing their disgust with Novell currently, I’d space u with that and quote somthing quite interesting from Perens’ article’s comments section…

jwwjr: I wonder how Linus Torvalds feels right now. His arrogance toward Richard Stallman regarding GPLv3 has been sickening. Richard enabled Linus, Linus did not enable Richard.
Is Linus ready to be Bill and Steve’s bitch now? Does he care?
Linus is a great programmer and project manager, but in terms of vision and setting strategy for free software (disregarding Mr. Stallman’s philosophical zeal, looking at this on the merits only), Linus is not fit to carry Richard Stallman’s water, and is in fact, dangerous. He doesn’t know the edge of his competencies.

Bruce Perens: Linus is playing Alfred E. Newman, the character from Mad magazine whose motto was “What, Me Worry?”
His response was “Why assume that everyone has to be enemies? Let’s see how this plays out”.
I agree with you, Linus botches strategy outside of software and it would be best if he’d shut up about it.

I’ve even said it before that you can call me a fundamentalist prick but I only care for stuff coved by GPL. I understand there are other “Free” licenses, like the BSD one, that give you many of the freedom w/o putting any restrictions but they do more harm than any good — need I ask you to say hello to the MacOSX kernel? We do need some restriction to protect our freedom. Thanks to upcoming GPL v3, we’ll have some new statements covering patents and DRM issues that were not previously covered. Although, the Linux devs can choose not to accept it and go down the drain for all I care. Adios!!

Debs has been a firmware writer for a while now, however, she’s specializing in device drivers for embeded stuff. Had an interesting discussion Sunday evening, which kinda left both of us more confused. Apparently, she’s still using the kernel 2.4.x series to write stuff, and I was insisting how 2.4.x is not that widely used now. I may be wrong tho, cuz I know zilch about embeded devices. The stuff that left us both confused was when I pointed that the API in the 2.6.x series is not stable, and sometimes has been reported to break backward compatibility.

She said API doesn’t matter or somethin like that. (I don’t wanna misquote her cuz I only have a vague idea of what an API’s function is and the specific area where she’s workin.) She also tried to explain me the difference between the 2.4.x and 2.6.x series of kernels on how functions or instructions are called and executed. Well, I’m no geek, but I can say this confidently that I understood absolutely nothin. Bal and Suchos, who’re both computer science students and later switched to pursue MBAs and were getting pretty irritated with the discussion, also pitched in with some basic stuff that seemed pretty advanced to me none the less. Anyhow, since the other two were really not interested in the discussion, we thought of just letting it go. But hey it’s fun to talk to geeks man, cuz most of the time u don’t really know what they are explaining. lol!! OK but I’m serious.

Anyway, y’day being a Monday, was reading the DWW and Ladislav mentioned how two Mandriva developers have criticized (one, two) the kernel developers and derived how “Linux” will never be ready for the desktop. Interesting thing they’ve noted and again pointed to the same thing how the kernel API needs to be stable so that third-party hardware vendors can write drivers which work alright even after a kernel upgrade. So I’m back to square one: Hello kernel API!! Now the real problem arises from the fact that I’m not a technical person by any means, Debs on the other hand is an electronics major who’s just recently starting to take a hard look at Linux. (Please note that when I mention Linux, I mean only the kernel, otherwise I’ll say GNU/Linux.) So, anyone who can chip in with some info in lay-man terms will be very helpful.

Meanwhile, certain kernel developers like Greg KH need to get over their ego and pull their acts together so that they can offer a stable API, which others have been asking for a while now. Certainly the Mandriva developers made some sense, too bad that most of the DistroWatch readers and the site itself bashed the company over nothing w/o trying to give it a thought. Was the first one way off mark when he said: “…Now if those kernel-developing idiots would get their act together and give us a 2.6 kernel that was a) stable and b) supported for more than a week, then I’d really be pleased”? I don’t think so.

The two blog entries were constructive criticism. Besides other high-profile kernel developers like Alan Cox and Andrew Morton have also wanted an API that is stable and doesn’t break stuff. Over to Beranger’s if u want the quotes and sources from a while back… Adios!!

powered by performancing firefox

Read an excellent history-type article on the Apple vs Microsofy lawsuit of the late 80s. At least Microsoft owns a lot of patents and has a lot of copyrighted stuff, but doesn’t go on suing it’s compititors, at least not yet — it does, however, bad-mount a lot. However, can we just assume then Apple was the one that started this whole ugly game of ownership rights? I dunno, and to an extent don’t care, cuz I’m not an expert and dont have the knowledge. At the end of the day if I’ve the “freedom” to do stuff with my computer without it insisting how I must use it, I’m a happy rider.

Meanwhile, the full version of PCLinuxOS 0.93a, code named “BigDaddy”, was released early this week, and I installed it over the PCLOS MineME base I was running and can’t be any more pleased with it. Like always, Texstar has made sure that all the plugins just work and made it even more of a for-the-lazy-bums-type operating system which just works. Texstar was an early 3rd party packager for Mandriva, then Mandrake, and forked away as he made more and more changes to his likings. Because Mandrake is GPLed software, it was possible, and I as an end-use have this excellent piece of sofware to work in me puter.

PCLOS is just brilliant! It was like when I first tried a computer I was on Windows and it was easy to learn. But over the years I didn’t have a clue on how to maintain it property without it disrupting the way I wanted to work — sorry I am still not a geek. As I looked for another option, GNU/Linux was as easily availble. It was definately tough to learn, but as I leaned the basics it became so freaking easy to maintain. And then… along came PCLOS into my life last year. It was like forget learning if u can’t be arsed by it and just use it. Initially based on Mandrake it comes with all the great GUI admin tools, however, without it’s bugs to hinder your work. Thats what I call “radically simple”.

Thank you Tex and the Ripper Gang! Adios!!

powered by performancing firefox

My cousin bro mentioned Orkut today… and I thought of saying hiya(s) and stuff in his profile. Then I thought of playing around with the thing and went community hunting. It’s pointless cuz I don’t even use it. And I better not be community hunting on music, especially when the search term’s Pink Floyd.

I came across a ‘Pink Floyd in India’ group and there’s a forum post on the subject of ‘Gilmour or Waters’. Good that I’ve to be approved by the admin before I can comment cuz I had got that itchy trigger finger to dive into another pointless, all-out war on the Gilmour fanboys. OK so I wont go back there perhaps, but these Gilmour fanboys are irritating or what? They know zilch and yet always seem to go blah blah blah… or more… blah blah blah blah. Lets quote some dumbass ‘madness’ dude here…

Gilmour no doubt… Waters was never a Floyd man… for me the band is far, far superior to the band members put together… Waters never respected this fact… his In The Flesh proves this point… on the other hand Gilmour put his life at stake & reformed Floyd with Pulse… he rocks for sure… and I strongly believe Floyd’s popularity multifolded only after Division Bell… Where was Waters then eh…?!

Hell yuh! Lets sell out in the name of popularity. Britney Spears was also so damn good, eh? I don’t even get what’s his point when he says “his In the Flesh proves this point” on how Waters never respected the group. Come again? I see Waters half the times in sidelines and the focus in on another band member in the DVD. Put in that PULSE thingy and all I see is Gilmour all over the screen (and even in the fuckin living room). And this one says “on the other hand Gilmour put his life at stake & reformed Floyd with Pulse”??? Really Gilmour put his life at stake to cut an album/tour or what? And this guy better gets his Gilmour facts right at least. A Momentary Lapse of Reasons and the following live album Delicate Sounds of Thunder came out 7-8 years prior to that, hello? I don’t see a point arguing with a dumbass like this madness guy.

Now lets have what another guy has to say…

Wanted to mention this but in recent times Waters has shown a marked interest in regrouping as Pink Floyd. Gilmour has had a “NO … period” for the idea.

If you’ve seen / heard the Live 8 concert, Waters is heard saying “It feels great to be playing with you, sharing the same stage … to be counted amongst you” (may be slightly rephrased) – duniya gol hai… life has come a full-circle for him.

I also heard that Waters was aiming to tour with Mason (and who knows, use the Pink Floyd name?). Seems his income is trickling.

Ah, yeah? How come I as a Waters fanboy could possibly have missed that? Shame on me! Seriously, where do they pick up these lame stuff? He did say somethin like it was great to be back with the band, playing and stuff before Wish You Were Here. However, when the press got too excited about a possible reunion, Waters was quoted as dismissing any intentions. (I guess even Rolling Stones published an article.) Oh and who used the name Pink Floyd to earn his bread again in the 80s? Last I read, Waters toured under the banner of ‘Roger Waters’ (multiple times). I bet some other crook was touring under the banner or ‘Pink Floyd’. Damn! Who was it?

Anyway… but, yes I give up. I finally see the light and agree with people who say stuff like “The Division Bell is deep man.” But, hey… Hit Me Baby One More Time was even more popular than Coming Back To Life. Doesn’t that make Britney’s stuff so much more “deeper”?

Perhaps, this is the worst side-effect of selling out your band: you drag a whole lotta new fanboys who understand shit about what the band stood for and go all blah blah blah… and more… blah blah blah blah. Adios!!

powered by performancing firefox

BJP president Rajnath Singh thinks he sounds so cool when he labels the ones behind the Mumbai blasts as Islamic terrorists and jihadis, hey doesn’t George W. also use something similar too often? Stuff like this just plain irritates me. Terrorists are terrorists, you just don’t have to label them with any particular religion bullshit. BJP is associated with things like Bajrang Dal for crying out loud. I could rather label that a Hindu terror outfit, but I wouldn’t cuz LeT and Bajrang Dal are both full of assholes. And thus anyone who’s associated with those is an asshole too.

So here’s what I have to say to LeT: Keep ur struggle for independence or whatever to yourself; and to Bajrang Dal and BJP: Keep your religious fundamentalism to yourself. I just don’t want to see a crazy man with a bomb on my way to anywhere, especially if I am at the receiving end. Maybe they should go buy a piece of land in Antarctica and take their differences there. Just don’t bother the rest of us with it. Or hey Russia could lease out parts of the deserted Siberia to anyone who wants to fight it out. Hey Mr. Putin, these guys are filthy rich, so go grab the opportunity to make those barren pieces of lands productive.

Bajrang Dal could easily borrow some cash from those filthy rich temple trusts. LeT maybe a bit poor, but hey ring up Osama and criticize the West a bit, and get the money to continue ur “struggle for independence” over there. Besides it’s also profitable, since you can sell exclusive TV rights for live broadcasts. That way the cash continues to flow in and helps sustain ur struggle for/against freedom/god (or whatever is the hip stuff to fight for in future). And if in the end you get bored of fighting, at least you’d have loads of money to amuse yourself with something else. Adios!!

At least 100 people are killed as seven bombs explode on the train network in India’s financial capital, Mumbai, police say.

…reports the BBC. You know what, I don’t really care about stuff like bombings and people dying when I get the feed from channels like CNN-IBN. Their Web site’s news report doesn’t read as bad as the channel reporting it live, but it reads poor none the less. But when we have a sissy government at the Center and a media that is more into advertising it’s channel on how it broke the story first, it kinda becomes funny. No offense to those who’re affected by this incident, but I was fed on the news by the wrong sources you may say, and I got disgusted before I could grasp the incident. Maybe, I’d have reacted in the right way if I were to pick up the stuff from the BBC. Well, I definitely would have picked up the stuff from beranger.org. I wish I did, then I wouldn’t have to deal with my insensitivity.

Meanwhile, does Materazzi know he reads rather funny when he says…

“I am ignorant, I don’t even know what an Islamic terrorist is; my only terrorist is her,” he said pointing to his 10-month-old daughter. “I did not bring up Zidane’s mother; for me a mother is sacred.”

We’ve to believe in stuff like he’s not aware of the term “Islamic terrorist”? Has he been living in Mars for the last five years? He wants us to believe that he’s also unaware of terms like “War on Terrorism”? Funny how Herman (Dutchonline) said it first, even before the match, that Footballers are not the smartest people. But they surely outta be kidding me if they think they can pretend to act dumb and fool us with their total-lack-of-knowledge-with-current-affairs crap.

On a completely unrelated note, the upgrade of SLED 10 using openSUSE repositories went alright. Just points to show how SLED and SUSE Linux are after all pretty compatible as my system is neither broken nor unstable after more than 24 hours. Good job Novell, I just became a fan. However, that doesn’t mean ya’ll can get away with the broken package managers. Fix it! It’s dead slow. Adios!!