I shifted from Netscape Navigator to Internet Explorer because I could cut and paste tables from IE to Excel. But now that I’ve downloaded Opera 5.11, used its zoom function, it’s gesture keys, and so on, I’m moving over to Opera. Long live Opera! (Which, given Netscape’s fate, is perhaps no more than a fond hope.)
Nomic is a game that you play by changing the rules of the game. You start with an initial set of rules and then players can vote to change the rules. Steve Gardner has produced a summary of many such games played on the Internet. If you’re interested in legislation, or online games, this is an interesting topic.
Amitabh, Xavier and I, after considerable deliberation on the choice of tonight’s restaurant, ended up at Gaylord, again in the Churchgate area. We sat at one of the tables near the entrance, informed a (relatively young, clean shaven) waiter that we’d like a seat inside ASAP, and we’d have drinks in the meantime. Just to be on the safe side, Xavier confirmed with him that it was OK if we got a seat in-between our drinks and we could take the drinks inside. After a few rounds of explanation, he seemed to get the point, and nodded. But the explanation must have done him more harm than good, because he forgot to make our reservation. ...
By the end of the year, Bangalore will become a zero piracy zone. First, the Karnataka Government will try and eliminate all piracy within. Then it’ll appoint compliance officers who’ll walk into offices and check randomly. And this will reduce piracy. Right. What of corruption?
Orbitz, the travel site backed by Delta, Northwest and American, is online. It cuts through travel agents and lets passengers book flight tickets directly with the airlines. (I tried booking a flight from Mumbai to Bangkok, but for some reason, it kept giving me an error.)
Kamdar’s Just Around The Corner is, in fact, just around the corner opposite Churchgate. It’s supposed to be Raveena Tandon’s favourite hangout, so hopes ran high. Rajesh and I walked in, sat down, and started discussing the the hope that the man in a white chef hat sitting at the adjacent table would come over. After a few minutes, we figured that Just around the corner is a self-service restaurant, and the man in the chef’s hat at the adjacent table was a guest. So we got up, walked down the food aisle through the exit gate. (The manager gave us a dirty look, but I’m hoping it was because he was jealous we were thin enough to squeeze through.) There were soups, salads, pastries, sandwiches, and burgers. Except for the salads, the items were 75% non-veg. But the variety was fairly good, despite that. A bit on the expensive side, with sandwiches at Rs. 80, salads (a side order) at Rs. 70, and my apple pie at Rs. 45. But the ambience was nice, so were the people around. There were just 3 or 4 groups dining, while the place could seat several more. ...
While in the US services sector employment is falling, high tech employment, which is about 8% of the services sector, continues to grow. Meaning technology is still growing, despite the recession. Strange!
The Indian Patent Facilitating Centre helps Indians develop and register patents.
After B2C and B2B, is it now going to be B2E?
I’d been to the Samrat restaurant (near Eros theatre) with Vinod. A bright and clean place, serving Gujarati cuisine. Having decided to try only new items, We picked corn bhel and fried baby corn for starters, and makai nu shakh with reshmi paratha and rumali roti for the main course. Makai nu shakh is “cream corn, cooked in milk with coconut, coriander and green chillis”. It tasted rather like Au gratin, and rather nice, in my opinion. Corn bhel was excellent – just bhel, except corn was used instead of puffed rice. Figuring there was too much corn on the plate, we had onion rings (instead of fried baby corn) which taste the same pretty much everywhere, I suppose. ...
Viruses are bad. But some are good, and others, ugly (hoaxes, that is).
50% of all Net surfing is done on the sites of Yahoo, AOL, Microsoft and Napster. There’s consolidation of web properties for you!
Mumbai dabbawallahs have been given a 6-sigma rating. I might start ordering dabbas online for dinner.
thedumb.com is about dumb laws, facts, and warnings.
While on the subject of movies, the animation film Shrek is supposed to be pretty good.
Spielberg’s next movie, A.I., has sparked a weird game. I read the article on it at ZDNet and searched for Jeanine Salla, listed as the movie’s sentient machine therapist, which lead me to her site, (at the so called “Bangalore World University”!!) and from there to others… it really is a wierd game. Those with enthu, do try it and let me know your progress.
Cool Site of the Day: another way to learn about interesting sites. Google recommends Netscape’s new and cool, USA Today hot sites, The Internet Tourbus, and the Glassdog.
Subjex, like Ask Jeeves, handles searches in plain English.
Cybelle lives in AgentLand. She’s 100% virtual (having admitted it, she asked if I was disappointed), and guides people through their site. It’s a new and interesting way of having a search engine on a site.
Why do people say “Bless you” when you sneeze? The practise may date back to the plague in London, though there are several theories.