Surfin’ [Redmond,] USA

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.

Kidnapped!

Kidnapped! I haven’t read this R.L. Stevenson book, but I know a similar plot.

…so, you kidnap a guy and ask one of his aides for ransom. This is how a typical telecon goes:

Flaming Dragon dude: We are Flaming Dragon. Speedman is with us now. For 50 million, you will get him back.

Les Grossman: This is Les Grossman. Who is this?

Flaming Dragon dude: [agitated voice] This is Flaming Dragon.

Les Grossman: Okay. Flaming Dragon. Fuckface. First, take a big step back and literally fuck your own face. Now, I don’t know what kind of pan-Pacific bullshit you’re trying to pull here, but Asia, Jack, is my territory. So whatever you’re thinking, you better think again. Otherwise, I’m gonna have to head down there, and I will rain down an ungodly fucking firestorm upon you. You’re gonna have to call the fucking United Nations and get a fucking binding resolution to keep me from fucking destroying you. I am talking scorched earth, motherfucker. I will massacre you. I will fuck you up.

[Hangs up the phone!]

Les Grossman: Could you find out who that was? Go.

That’s Tom Cruise, the studio executive behind Tropic Thunder.

Back in Black

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!!

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Anesthetize…

Never want to be old
And I don’t want dependence
It’s no fun to be told
That you can’t blame your parents anymore

I’m finding it hard
To hang from a star
Don’t wanna be
Never wanna be old

Sullen and bored the kids stay
And in this way they wish away each day…
Stoned in the mall the kids play
And in this way wish away each day…

The song’s called Sentimental. Great song. And, awesome drumming. Swap says he read somewhere Neil Pert likes the drummer of Porcupine Tree, and I guess I kinda have an idea where Neil comes from.

Names already decided: Dolores and Keith. Standby names for the next two: Janis and Roger. But I’m having second thoughts. How about Ani and Neil? I’ll let her pick the names. Oh well, anyway…

freed.in rocked! So, am eagerly waiting for foss.in. BTW, “dot in” rocks, no? You can put a dot-in after anything and it actually makes a lot of sense. Anyway, where was I? Yeah, apart from the fact that Anesthetize is perhaps the best song in Fear of A Dark Planet, I think there’s a thin line between music and Free Software. Illusion and reality? Yeah, well… I don’t need to think about it. Both of em have some sort of connection, isn’t that’s why I got into the later? What’s the connection you ask? It’s all about ‘Freedom’ and independence.

And I don’t want dependence. Adios!!

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The Art of Shredding…

Hey there’s an interesting post by Aaron Seigo available here, which talks about how this is not 1997 anymore. For me it’s not 2002 anymore. In fact, when I’m made to work on Winduhs (yeah I picked that from Raj Mathur, I like totally copying stuff when I like it) I go like: ‘OMG this system is so primitive.’

So anyway, I played with KDE 4 beta 1 for a while today, and it was quite fun. I can see now how it’s gonna be a killer desktop once the final version is released. (Even that GNOME zealot Puthali might just finally switch. Yeah flame me for all I care, GNOME is sucky!) Anyway, many of the things aren’t working as they should yet. Then I’m not sure whose fault it is, as I pulled the stuff off Feisty-backports. Anyway, most of the stuff are working. By the way, Dolphin, the new file manager, rocks! Good job guys.

Okay, so I am listening to Pantera since I flipped in the evening and I dunno it’s weird, shredding calms me down I guess (tho I’m not really into Megadeth and the like). So I’ve been smoking and using her lighter to lit the ciggies every hour or so. It’s a pretty cool lighter, hi! (Okay its a regular lighter. But I think it’s cool, so sue me!) Anyway, all of a sudden I hear Planet Caraven, and I was like what the fuck is Sabbath doing in a Pantera album? But it wasn’t Sabbath. And the cover was just perfect. Good job guys!! Mushi’s bro Wasim got me into Pantera, it just took me a concert video to get into em. Wonder what’s up with Wasim. He’s a nutcase (in a good way) n’ keeps playing guitar all the time. And then would watch a video and try to figure out what the hell the guitarist is doing. and then try it himself. Oh and he’s way too cute too, even Mushi agrees. So all u chicks out there can watch out for him when he makes it big. lol!! Off the record: I’d a crush on him too.

Okies, me outta here! Adios!!

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Strip to Soul…

Iqbal is one of the best fuckin movies I’ve seen this year. So what if it was originally made last year. ’nuff said!

Off the record: Suchos is the the best damn flirt I’ve ever known. She just pulled a Joey on me. ’nuff said!

Adios!!

P.S. –> Porcupine Tree is one heck of a band I’ve begun to fall in love with. Don’t forget to check out the nerve-racking stuff in Even Less Slave Called Shiver. ’nuff said!

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Idiot Prayer

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!!

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When I Come Around…

Do you have the time to listen to me whine
About NOTHING and everything all at once
I am one of those
Melodramatic fools
Neurotic to the bone
No doubt about it
 
Sometimes I give myself the CREEPS
Sometimes my mind plays tricks on me
It all keeps adding up
I think I’m CRACKING UP
Am I just PARANOID?
Am I just STONED?

Good lord! I still love that song. Even after more than a decade since I first heard it. I guess I saw the video, and it was an awesome video. And well… I guess I probably was cursed or somethin cuz the most attractive part of the song for me then was the intro power chords (aye, still is… but hush hush!! I hear they kick you outta the grownups’ club if you are found praising stuff like the Basket Case and power chords). But you know, I wish I had one of those cheap Ibanez thingys. I woulda been playing the same riffs all day long till my folks threw me out. And yes, of course, Billy Joe is a fuckin rocker.

Hey, it isn’t too late, is it? OK so, who’s gonna buy me a cheap Ibanez, which I can use to play these power chord riffs all day? Hey, at least I didn’t say I’ll shred — I dunno how to, so moi neighbors can chill. But then, shredding is real cool too… it just drives me insane (which is not really bad, unless I’m really pissed or somethin). Anyway, the point is… I’ve always been a fuckin awful guitarist — that is if I can call myself one — even when three of us had a band for two whole months. And as much as I wanted to be able to play the bass back then, I never woulda been able to anyway cuz I’ve always been a slack. So, the next best thing is to go get one of those cheap Ibanez thingys, bang those power chords and end up impressing the hell outta the weirdos. Neat idea, eh?

Anyway, in things not so related to the above: I haven’t seen any of my net pals, apart from Jo-not-so-fine, for over a month. Wakey wakey Robin, Gox, Zen, Sandy, Pompy, Vicks, et. all. And my best fuckin mate Mushi seems to have disappeared as well. And the thing is he’s gonna show up in a couple of months and bad mouth me over no big deal. Yeah, well, unlike others, I have two best mates for Mushi and Gox, and both of em bad mouth me when the fault is actually at their end. Assholes!

In other news: Bal has moved to Mumbai. Debs is probably gonna get married in a year and Suhos may follow suit soon afterwords. So, my whole fuckin group from school is all set to be nuked. Pretty impressive, eh? And look at this Jet band thingy singin Move On. Morons!! But it’s so 60s sounding. I love it. It goes like…

‘Cause every once in a while
You think about if your gonna get yourself together
You should be happy just to be alive
And just because you just don’t feel like comin’ home
Don’t mean that you’ll never arrive

Yeah I’m gonna have to move on
Before we meet again
Yeah it’s hard
If you had have only seen
Take control
Don’t be afraid of me

Adios!!

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MACHINA II/The Friends and Enemies of Modern Music?

Just chanced upon Puthali’s take on Apple and DRM. A good read, as most of us are as much confused as the next person on what’s a typical solution. We don’t wanna rip the musicians out and definitely want them to continue making good stuff by supporting em in any way we can, don’t we? But it’s also a fact, the more the industry insists on putting restriction on what we do with the stuff we paid for, the more we turn to alternatives. Carla Schroder in her article Bah humbug commercial radio, hurrah for Internet radio summed it up as following…

These are very strange times we live in, where the big entertainment companies treat us like enemies for wanting to be their customers, and god forbid they should deliver something we actually want. Hurrah for the Internet, the great leveler. Buhbye big globalcorps, you’re on the path to becoming big globalcorpses, and I am not sorry.

A typical Schroder article full of word play and good humor. Am I the only one who thinks it’s funny with MPAA and RIAA joining hands and launching a Web site to project themselves in short as MAFIAA? So, they have an inkling that people consider their motives to the likes of mafias? Then I must say, good job folks over at both the institutions!

Years ago, when I discovered the deal with Creative Commons after reading Niyam Bhushan’s column in LFY mentioning the same, I chanced upon an interview on the site featuring Scott Andrew. I like his stuff. Have downloaded all of his songs from his site, and havent paid him any cash in exchange for it. Maybe I’ll buy his next album, maybe not. But I sure have nagged Robin to death, who also lives in the Seattle area, to check Scott out time and again.

Anyway, what Scott wrote soon after in a blog entry here (googled it out while commenting on Puthali’s entry, and thus read it again today after a couple of years) made a lot of sense from an indipendent musicians’ perspective. But what about the major label artists, who for a change make good music or the old ones whose stuff are owned by major lables, and they dont even care releasing 90% of the stuff here? File sharing at least makes those stuff accissible and I say the lables should shut up until they make all the stuff we need available in a city we live in, wherever it is. What’s worse for an artist: people not discovering him/her ever cuz the TV/radio never broadcast their stuff or getting it from p2p and then goin all ga ga if we happen to like what we’re hearing? The bad part is both ways artists dont get a penny for their work, however, while in the former case we dont even know they exist, in the later case we like their stuff. Maybe someday the mainstream musicians would like to answear that. Adios!!

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Nowhere To Go!

A few days ago Amarok 1.4.4 was released. With the Last.fm radio integrated a while back what more could we’ve asked for? Ummm… how about an integrated music store? Hey yuh! Magnatune’s been integrated in this release.

In case you don’t know what Magnatune is, well, their tag line says “We Are Not Evil“. And they certainly aren’t and I’ll tell you why. Firstly, no other music store gives you so many choices once you buy an album — from letting you decide in what format you want the song to what price you wanna pay for the stuff (anything between USD 5 and 18). Secondly, they don’t put DRM and support the indie artists. Hey even Brad Sucks is in there. Please visit Magnatune.com for more info on their vision and mission.

Anway, here’s how Magnatune streams work from inside Amarok….

Click for full image!

The first time you run it, you need to click that update button on the bottom left-side pane and watch it download the Magnatune collection database. Afterwards, just like your local Amarok collection, it’ll also be arranged alphabetically. Of course to make your life easier, there’s a genre drop-down menu on top of the collection browser, so you can browse bands/artists by their genres. You’ll notice I’ve Punk Rock selected.

Anyway, so that’s how you can keep trying out new bands and stuff. And yes they stream the full songs and each and every song from an album. So, what if you stumble upon this one band you just can’t get enough of and wanna buy the music?

Click for full image!

As you can see you can simply click on that Purchase Album button on the left-side pane! You enter the basic CC details and choose the amount you wanna pay and that’s it. Oh and another cool thing is, once you buy the album they let you give away three copies to your friends (or enemies if u prefer). Check out the store shitheads! Adios!!

P.S. –> Oh and don’t forget to check out Sonny by The Napoleon Blown Aparts  from their album Thrill Hype. Great song!!

P.P.S. –> Following’s my mail to Magnatune.com sometime back requesting logos and Amarok integration and their prompt response. I posted it from somewhere within the Web site and xxx@gmail.com is of couse me.

From: Teresa Malango    
To: “xxx@gmail.com”
Date: 08-Jun-2006 00:36
Subject: Re: more logos

Hello-
Thank you for your message and support of Magnatune!  Your suggestion about the logos is a good one and I’ll see what we can do. You can link directly to Magnatune shoutcast radio streams off our website at www.magnatune.com/info/shoutcast  but the idea about including this info with the amaroK integration is a good one- I’ll forward it along too!
Best regards,
Teresa Malango
Magnatune
yyy@magnatune.com

On 6/6/06, xxx@gmail.com wrote:

    Hi! I came to know about this company from the amarokLive project. kudos to what all you guys are up to! I was wondering if you guys can make more logos available for us to put on blogs to refer to you guys… the logo has to contain your tag line “We are not evil” or maybe “They are not evil” cuz a thrid party is referring to this. Just an idea…

    All the best for your awesome venture. And thanks a ton for not being evil, also for embracing Free and Open-Source Software.

    just another fan

    P.S. –> Also, is there a streaming radio available? Then that’d be awesome way to tell people more about Magnatune. Maybe it can be based on genres… Genres-based radio is important cuz people should not be distracted by the type of music they aren’t fond of. And it’s gonna be a great way for us to know what kinda music is available in stores. Oh and if the radio is availble please bug the amaroK devs to integrate it in, cuz I dont see it there. Thanks again!

So, as you can see, both sides eventually came up with something a helluva lot better than what I’d initially requested for (and I’m sure a lot of others did too!).

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