Happy April Fool's Day

This is what I got through mail from a friend of mine, and, believe me, I couldn't stop laughing :D

Update: One of my friends actually didn't realize that there is no F13 key. He just didn't press it when he read the poster because he didn't agree to the first paragraph!!! :D

My Blog v2.0

I changed the look of my blog completely today. Yes, as it is quite obvious, the theme is completely redesigned - had to do some HTML coding to tweak an existing theme to make it more functional. And of course, the address of my blog!! Yes, yesterday, I bought a domain (I was in fact a bit surprised to find this domain name actually available, so without thinking twice, bought it).

It has been almost 3 years now since I started blogging here. Now when I read through my earlier posts, I find them quite amusing. Yes, 3 years is a long time. But here I am, posting another post on my good old blog :) . It will be quite interesting to see this post another 3 years down the line (maybe a new design will be due by then? Or maybe I'll have my own website hosted with this URL?)

Btw, to comment on this blog, you just need to click on the bubble near the title of the post. :)

Update: Do you see that cute little "AB" icon in the address bar of the browser? That is also a new addition :)

The Earth Hour

Yesterday, at 8.30 PM in the evening, we switched off the lights for an hour for the "Earth Hour". I have been getting mails, not only from my friends, but also from my company, reminding me about the importance.

When I first heard about this a month back (I suppose ), I laughed it off. I mean, what were these people who decided to start this even thought of achieving by switching off lights for an hour? I kept getting more and more mails about this event. I was amused at the same time - we anyways have a 2 plus hours load shedding every day - so is it a double "Earth Hour" every day? :)

The main difference I find here is "choice" - if i switch off all the lights voluntarily, instead of forcefully every day, it symbolizes how much we are concerned about the current environmental condition. If we can stop what we are doing, and participate in this event, it should serve as an eye-opener for all the world leaders out there who have the power to make a change.

So there I was, coming back home, and I chose to use the stairs instead of taking the elevator. Let us hope that something is done to ameliorate the current situation.

Update: A few cities in Maharashtra (for example, my friend's home town) have a daily load shedding at that time, so she didn't have to take an extra effort in switching off lights and fans :P

The Internet and Me

We have come a long way. I remember the first day I connected to the internet (was it 2002? Yes) using a dialup modem I just installed. The series of weird dialing tones you got when you pressed the connect button - and voila!!! You are connected. Dialups were so costly those days, had to keep a track of my internet usage (@56kbps :D ). I remember the first mail account I created - it was hotmail - and I still log into the mailbox every once in a while (not to mention the number of times it got deactivated coz of non-usage).

That was how I looked at internet some 8 years back - have a mailbox to receive and send mails - the only way to connect to friends. And then there was Yahoo chat. All my friends used that. And of course, Google was still there. Our online presence was limited to mails chats.

I guess, for me, it was Google's new services in 2005 which started changing how people used the web. Gmail came, with it came an integrated chat client. With the same google account, you could now use Picasa to share pics with friends (I remember the pain in attaching all the pics in mail and sending it to friends earlier), social networking revolution with the introduction of Orkut, blogs, YouTube etc etc.

I have noticed a shift in the trend from those early days of my internet usage. I used to write mails to friends, share pics with them. But now, its more about broadcasting "whats on your mind" to all the people you know at the same time (and sometimes, to people you haven't even met before) - thats what the social networking sites do. It all about "publishing" your thoughts. I hardly use my personal mailbox to send message to a friends asking how is he/she doing - now I just post a message on his online scrapbook/wall, open for anyone else to read!! With online services dedicated in broadcasting what you are doing (Twitter), to sharing interesting links online (Digg/ Delicious), to sharing your musical tastes (LastFM), we have a lot of services online these days to help you have your presence in the Internet. Everything seems to be shifting towards social networking.

Now, you are connected to the internet as soon as you start your computer, see which friends are online, and what are they doing these days. Truly, the Internet has brought the world a lot closer :)

About This and That..

As the title says, I am in that "random" mood again, it seems. Another uneventful day in office has made me really tired, and so after an one hour nap in the evening, I decided to just update my blog. Yes, today's Friday, and I don't seem have much plans tonight.

I have been reading and smiling at the articles about the latest AIG bonus fiasco, and the hum-drum its causing across America - my take? Those idiots deserve to be treated like that (90% tax?? Ha ha :) )

For the last few days, I have been absorbed with the new Facebook home page - which, after giving an initial scornful look, I seem to like it. I mean, seriously, what's with this "what's in your mind" stuff? I liked "Abhishek is ..." better. But as they say, you get used to the change. But now, I am addicted to the new layout. The best part? I can comment on anything!!! And I just love people replying to those comments, and some of them are really witty replies :). Wonder, how come I didn't miss this feature before?

Listening to trance again - my current favorite being "Metaphorique" by Cape Town - truly mesmerizing :)

Decided to learn German, so, without thinking twice (after hearing about a good institute), enrolled for the weekend session. They are supposed to start tomorrow, so excited about it too :)