the swash register

Bookmark your GMail Messages

2009-05-04T18:14:00.001-04:00

I recently discovered you can bookmark you GMail messages. You may ask why you'd ever need to do this. Suppose you are looking for a specific email which is buried in your GMail inbox (which maybe 45% full!). When you find and open the message, the URL in your browser URL bar is unique to the email, and it can be saved as a bookmark. Later when you want to open the same message again, just open the bookmark you saved.
I think I'll find this useful when I get receipts for things I buy on the web. The receipts usually have a link to tracking packages or order status. I can bookmark the email making it easier for me to check later -- Beats having to do a search again.

How to Use Twitlet from the iPhone

2009-03-24T23:33:00.003-04:00

Every now and then when I am browsing through websites on my iPhone, I have felt like Tweeting the website or the webpage link in a Twitter post. Its very easy to do this from your desktop via numerous tools - TweetDeck, Twitter website, etc. But on the phone, the only way to send a link to Twitter has been via SMS. But with no cut/paste in the iPhone (at least so far), I just didn't know of a way to send a link to Twitter without using SMS.

On the desktop, I have found the Twitlet bookmarklet to be the fastest way to tweet a link. But I tried it on the iPhone - it works like a champ. I didn't know earlier (and many probably still don't know) that some bookmarklets work on the iPhone browser too.

So try the Twitlet bookmarklet on the iPhone.

Follow the following steps:

Create a Twitlet Bookmarklet with your Twitter account info in your Safari browser on your laptop/desktop computer which you use to sync your iPhone.
In iTunes, in your Device page, under the Info tab, select Sync bookmarks with Safari.
Sync your iPhone.
Now, when you are browsing on the iPhone, and you come across a webpage you want to tweet, simply open your bookmarks and select the Twitlet bookmark.
A popup will show where you can tweet the page using the Twitlet. Even the #this syntax works to include the URL

For your convenience I am including a screenshot of the Twitlet bookmarklet in action in the iPhone.

Readability Bookmarklet Makes Reading a Clean Experience

2009-03-24T23:13:00.007-04:00

If you are like me, you find your favorite websites or blogs more and more cluttered each day. I usually find articles and news items in websites like CNN, or blogs in a slender column on the left of the browser page, with a smattering of ads, links, flash widgets, Google ads, and other such annoyances all over the body of the article and to the right of the article.

The Readability Bookmarklet has taken care of this headache for me. Save this bookmarklet in your browser link bar and click it when you want your reading to be a "clean" experience. It simply removes the clutter around the main body text you want to read, changes to font to a larger, easily readable one, and provides a clean white background. I am not kidding, it makes a world of a difference. And not to forget, its a much cleaner format should you decide to print the article too. (Added benefit, you might save some trees by not printing the random junk a.k.a. ads, and banners etc)

You can customize your bookmarklet to show you your article in any of the following formats: Newspaper, eBook, Novel, and Terminal. It allows you to select your text size, and the margin widths. I suggest you check out the Readability experiment website, the video within, and follow through to the bookmarklet setup page. You wont regret it.

And now to show you an example, I am uploading a screen shot of the browser with a news article open on CNN.com. The first picture is the regular webpage. The second one shows what the Readability Bookmarklet does to enhance your reading experience.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

New meaning to jump suits

2009-02-12T00:02:00.002-05:00

Short post here at midnight. Check out this video of guys jumping off cliffs wearing wing suits.

At the first sign of bad economy

2008-12-18T22:42:00.000-05:00

On a recent US Airways flight, I noticed this when I lowered the tray table. You know the airlines are not doing well when they have started making money off of the tray tables with commercial ads. Not to mention the $2 I had to pay for a can of coke. Peanuts don't come with your drink.

Speeches left me speechless

2008-11-09T19:23:00.002-05:00

The election night speeches left me speechless...both of them. I thought, like many, McCain's speech was very well balanced, and he left on a gracious note. I thought Obama's speech was, as expected, perfect. Nothing less was expected. For my own convenience, should I feel the need to see them again, I am posting both the speeches here...in order.

Fastest Browser: TheWorld is Quite Enough

2008-10-27T11:16:00.004-04:00

A hardly known browser TheWorld has impressed me. Frustrated with the sluggish memory hogging Firefox, I tried quite a few browsers out there. I talked about Safari for Windows before and thought it was quite fast. And now we have Google's Chrome which I think is fast too. But quite a few months ago, I chanced upon TheWorld browser, which I continue to use despite all the other mainstream browsers. This Chinese browser uses the IE engine, is extremely small in size, offers tabbed browsing and a no extra frills browsing experience, really really fast. One big advantage for me is when I use it at work, all the Intranet websites that only IE compliant dont have a problem showing up in TheWorld browser. Now the only warning is, it is based on IE 6.0 so some websites (rarely) don't show up properly, but if you want a fast browsing experience (yes, sometimes faster than Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and IE), without a large install file (there is a no-install version too) try it out. Did I mention, it opens on my machine within a second.

Finally a Speakerphone That Works - Motorokr T505

2008-10-18T23:54:00.001-04:00

I vote Bluetooth as one of the most bothersome consumer wireless protocols to date. Yes, some may argue there may have been others, but none have really caused as much frustration for me as the damn Bluetooth headset for my cellphone.

I used one for almost a year with all the irritations that came with it - Needed to charge it using a tiny charger tip that was unique to the device, people on the other end could not hear me when the battery was low, the thing would not fit in my ear properly, and always had the nagging feeling a device transmitting at 2.4GHz almost half inserted into my brain was doing a better job at cooking my brain!

Recently, with some of my team members at work situated in Ireland, morning conference calls have been plenty. And of course, they have to coincide with my commute to work (yes, I know, those who know me point out its not really a "morning" commute!). Having given up on BT headsets, I reverted back to the old faithful, yet unfitting-in-my-tiny-ears wired headset that came with my Blackberry. But the wire dropping down the side of my face, and getting entangled with the rest of the wires in my car was still irritating. Ok, enough background. I have now found, bought, used, and tested the perfect device for my car. The Motorokr T505 Bluetooth Speakerphone. I vote this to be one of the must-haves for gadget fiends out there. This thing looks like a space-age garage door opener, clips on to the visor, and pairs with your Bluetooth enabled cellphone in a jiffy. The device has a built-in speaker that is amply loud and clear (mind you, louder than the speaker on the Blackberry 8800 which many believe to have one of the best spearkerphone capabilities). The microphone is sensitive, and in a few conversations, the person on the other end could not tell I was on a speakerphone. The T505 packs in impressive echo and noise cancellation that helps you be heard clearly on the other end without any annoying feedback. Now, here is the kicker -- you can press a button on the device, a sexy British woman's voice announces an unused FM radio station that the device dynamically finds and starts transmitting at, for your car's radio. This allows the speakers of your car to take over -- the person you are talking to can be heard over the car's audio system, while the microphone on the device continues functioning. Voila! There you go -- fancy car bluetooth system that you can use even in your Ford Pinto! Trust me the device works well.

A few things I wish it had -- should have given you the choice of your own FM station, a little LCD screen to show the frequency, the power ON and the FM station buttons on the front of the unit.
Sidenote: It will also transmit over the air any music from your phone to the FM station; that is if your phone has audio over Bluetooth.
Check out other specs here and buy from Amazon (thats where I found it to be the cheapest).

PS: I don't work for Motorola although this blog post makes it look like they paid me fifty bucks to write this post.

too = two... Sergey Brin's new blog

2008-09-18T19:25:00.001-04:00

too

Sergey Brin has launched his own personal blog. He is talking about Parkinson's Disease, his risk of getting the disease, and some other posts. The blog is very new so doesn't have much content but I think I will be reading it fairly regularly. It's called TOO, kinda like google is malformed googol, Too is played off of Two. According to him on his first post, Two = in addition = his life outside of work.

Sidenote: Really ugly blog design, cannot believe of all the standard templates Blogger has, he chose something that's this hard to read.

Free WiFi at Denver Intl Airport

2008-09-11T19:51:00.002-04:00

Nothing like free wifi at an airport where you might be waiting for what feels like a lifetime to get a flight. At Denver, I was suprised to find free WiFi. It connected pretty fast, and then I noticed how they are paying for this. Simple. Through advertising. I know it sounds very 1995, but, for a frequent traveler like me, its a boon. I don't mind the one inch wide banner on the top of the browser as long as I get the job done. Since I travel mostly for business, I can get reimbursed for paid WiFi, but the hassle is too much -- pull out the credit card, enter all the information, wait for it to process, then get access to the internet (sometimes a weak signal, not worth the money), and of course, remembering to expense it a month later when I do my expenses seems hardly worth it. For now, I am blogging from Denver International Airport, and owe it to the colorful banner ad you see in the screenshot. Are you going to ever do this Boston Logan Intl Airport!?

drive pricing: I am spending money to get to work!!!

2008-07-10T18:07:00.000-04:00

drive pricing
I am spending way too much money to get to work. This website calculates based on your driving distance, the zip-code where you fill gas, and your car's fuel efficiency to do the simple math we never bother to do. Which is why I didn't know I spend almost $16/day getting to+from work. That's almost $350 a month. This I will factor in for sure the next time I ask for a raise.

Wake up Rogers! Your customers know better

2008-06-09T22:11:00.004-04:00

Ha ha! This is really funny. After all the announcements on the upcoming iPhone 3G (releasing on July 11th), Rogers Canada (their largest wireless company) has on it's website "Something Really Big is Coming July 11th"....no, seriously, what is it? The suspense is killing me!

Check out the screenshot.

What is Garmin smoking? Can I have some?

2008-05-05T01:00:00.000-04:00

No, seriously, what is Garmin smoking? With the 3G iPhone with GPS, almost around the corner, for $200, why would anyone buy this. Okay, maybe I am missing something here, but $500 is too much for any phone in my opinion.
Garmin Nuvifone hitting AT&T for $500 plus? - Engadget

$200, 3G, GPS, the iPhone is a done deal for me

2008-05-04T03:06:00.000-04:00

Need I say more...
FORTUNE: Techland AT&T to cut the price of Apple’s new iPhone «

Stuff Indians Like

2008-04-17T00:25:00.001-04:00

My search for entertaining desi sites never ends. Today I have found that one desi blog/website that has the potential to keep me up the whole night. Its one of those blogs that makes you go "Oh! Please, please, please, can I contribute to this blog??! Please!?". I have already started to think of my own list of Stuff Indians Like.

Enjoy the blog for a while, come up with your own list, let me know in comments or email, repeat.

Five Myths About Drinking Water : NPR

2008-04-04T10:44:00.004-04:00

All these years people lied to me about drinking water...and as a result I chugged gigantic volumes of water over the years. I thought it was going to improve my skin, remove toxins, purify my blood (whatever that means), help lose weight, keep my memory robust, and do all sorts of good stuff. Now it's all useless. I feel cheated. :(

Five Myths About Drinking Water : NPR

R2 D2 will wake you up: Clocky

2008-03-27T00:41:00.002-04:00

Toin and I have been waking up using the alarm on my BlackBerry. While it does the job, you cannot imagine how painful it gets to maneuver the trackball to hit snooze. But can't try the snooze stunt with this little monster: Clocky. Clocky is kinda cute and freaky at the same time. The alarm clock will wake you up with a beeping alarm, and then after some time to keep you from snoozing, it will jump off the table...no seriously, I am not making this up...it really will jump up, and scurry away into a hiding place. Yes, you guessed it...it will beep and tweet like mad from its hiding place. But I can't buy it, Toin will kill the damn thing once she finds it the first morning. Not sure? Why not check out this pesky gremlin in action at YouTube.

Keep them questions coming - Prashnottarang

2008-03-27T00:05:00.004-04:00

This is the kind of stuff that makes me feel guilty...guilty of spending countless hours on the internet and not coming up such ingenious ideas for bridging the gap between the illiterate and the Internet. Prashnottarang or the Question Box is a very simple telephone intercom which requires no computer literacy (in fact, not even literacy). A user simply presses the green button, talks or asks a question, an Internet user (a volunteer) on the other end browses the web for an answer, and responds to the user of the box. This has started as a non-profit project in India (in two villages). These boxes are placed near a shop where people have easy access to it. Well, wont spoil the fun...read all about it here, Question Box. While you are at it, check out their Flickr page too.
Some ways I imagine the villagers would use it would be: to find out weather forecasts for the region, cricket scores, which politician has what agenda, and most of all, symptoms of diseases and other healthcare related information, etc etc. I am sure the list is infinite.
Mobile?: On the for-profit side, I thought I had heard of services where you can just call a service and get someone to find something out from the web. I have called my friends or my brother on numerous occasions to find out about an address on the web, or listings of movies in the area....i sure could have used a Question Box. Could there be a potential for a company like ChaCha (the search engine where a live quide chats with you) to have a version of their service accessible via a regular phone call. Those damn tiny qwerty buttons on my Blackberry don't make it fun to browse the web on the mini screen!

Quite Fast on FastCompany

2008-03-26T23:44:00.005-04:00

You know a social networking effort is in its infancy when my blog with only two posts shows up as one of the Featured Blogs! A few weeks back I had talked about how FastCompany had jumped on the social bus, with social networking type features including a blogging engine for anyone and everyone to write. So in a fit of experimentation, I started one on there. But quite amusing to see how it made it to the "top of the charts" so to say. So take a look at the screen shot to the left of this post in case you are too lazy to follow the link - and follow the link if you are really interested in knowing what I am writing about. Leave a comment or two.

Staple Free Stapler: No more "Where are the staples now!?"

2008-03-17T17:53:00.004-04:00

I will add this to the list of things I don't need but I badly want.
As with the other stuff on my list of things I don't need, I didn't know such a device existed. Remember the Ginsu knife that can cut through a shoe? Well, now add this to the collection. A stapler than staples up to 5 sheets of paper without staples. We might as well call this the Stapleless Stapler, or better yet, Stapleless-er!
ThinkGeek :: Staple Free Stapler

Safari, my favorite browser now

2008-03-13T18:30:00.006-04:00

I accidentally came across the Safari browser for Windows. My experience with other Apple software I have used in the past, namely iTunes, has been a tad bit frustrating, RAM wise. I was a bit hesitant to download and try the new browser. But then Firefox had become a royal pain in the ass to use (again RAM wise) anyways and I was just looking for a change, something faster, something cleaner, and something that would give me a good viewable area. I looked around the web for reviews on the Windows version of Safari and came across this article. I promptly downloaded the program. Call me a sucker for font smoothing, but when I saw the rendering Safari did for the webpages I was pleased. The browser looks cleaner, gives me more viewing area, and somehow makes reading on the screen much better. I also like how login windows drop down from the top panel, and generally the light blue highlight around text input fields makes me wanna input text...if you know what I mean. Some shortfalls include, no fancy RSS reader (just a simple single page showing the RSS items), no addons a la Firefox, no Sidebar a la Firefox, some websites may not open properly (very rare) and damn, no Google Toolbar available for Safari. But, I like doing more on the web (if you can believe it) via the Safari browser.

(I dont have an HD TV, but apparently you can browse the web with Safari HD, Apple TV, and nice big HD TV. )

Gramlee, online grammar check! Take that MSword

2008-03-12T18:00:00.005-04:00

Funny I was talking to a friend about this today. Many employer's most common complaint with fresh hires is the lack of decent business writing skills. Despite b-schools focussing a lot on students writing reports, business plans, memo-to-the-CEOs, and case analyses etc., employers everywhere still see that as the single-most deficient skill in incoming graduates. Softwares can only do so much. MSWord grammar check can be the most frustrating, and certainly not correct more than 50% of the time in my opinion. Yes, humans created language, and humans alone know best how to correct any errors therein. Grammar check is one thing, but easy readability is just completely something else. In comes, Gramlee. Real humans editing and correcting your words. One benefit I see right away - no more embarrassment in having a friend edit things for you. You simply submit your written passage, and for a meager amount, an expert on the other end poedits the mistakes, makes it easier to read and passes it back to you in 24 hours. Sweet! Where was this when I was writing my MBA entrance essays!

On a related note, take a look at this book too. Its been on my to-do list.

Alienware Android Cell Phone, First Pictures

2008-02-17T10:59:00.000-05:00

Google or no Google, Android or no Android, 3G or no 3G, I wouldn't be caught dead carrying this evil looking thing around. I cannot imagine walking into a customer meeting with this in my hand, and looking serious about my job. Check out the cheap looking thing here -- Alienware Android Cell Phone, First Pictures. In any case, this one is from Alienware (acquired by Dell), Apple is already big into the cell phone market, and Garmin announced its coming out with a 3G cell phone with built-in GPS. Seems like a big shakeout with traditional cell phone players getting left behind, only to be taken over by brands we didn't associate with mobile phones.

Fast Company hops onto the Social Bus

2008-02-14T00:05:00.009-05:00

Not sure why I browsed over to FastCompany.com but once there, I was pleasantly surprised by the new features. Fast Company has gone social. It pitches the idea of becoming a part of the business community, exchanging ideas with other readers on business issues, and engaging in activities like blogging, discussing in forums, answering posted questions etc. Its interesting to see how user based content is getting more and more adopted by websites as a strategy for making websites sticky. My take on this is: its a cross between Blogger/Wordpress, LinkedIn, a business magazine, discussion forum, and slow servers to host the applications.
Well, give it a try and see for yourself if you see the value. Its still quite new, and my test blog there "What's That Again?" showed up in the Featured Blogs section within minutes. It will be quite interesting to see how this latest social effort is faring in a few months. More updates on this coming soon.

Blogger Frustration

2008-02-11T18:42:00.001-05:00

I am super pissed with Blogger. I have spent the last two days trying to fix the template so my damn blog looks good...no, actually forget good, normal at the very least. I am frustrated with Blogger, but don't want to change where I blog mainly because I have been on this system for 7 years. Damn right! I started blogging when no one had even heard of blogs in the mainstream internet user base. Anyways...this is just a test post. I have had to delete a whole bunch of posts, and somehow I am just not happy. I have to insert an image to test it too. so here goes.

Back in action

2008-01-23T19:00:00.001-05:00

I have been missing in action from my blog for quite some time now....in case you didn't notice. Was traveling before the December holidays for work, then came the holidays, and then didn't quite get back into the whole Internet thing for almost all of January...actually until a few days ago. So I am back...woo hoo!!! And thanks to Zeya, his recent more than frequent updates has sort of jump started my blogging....so here they come, a whole slew of blog posts.

Airplane Toilets: The 12 germiest places in your life

2007-10-25T00:00:00.001-04:00

This is absolutely disgusting. Your bath tub has more than 100K bacteria/square inch! And get a load of this, your kitchen sink has 500K bacteria per square inch. And this will turn up the knob on your gag factor - "the volcanic flush of the commode tends to spew particles into the air,
coating the floor and walls with whatever had been swirling around in
it (airplane toilet). And speaking of knobs, the typical ATM buttons are dirtier than the doorknob on a public restroom. Let me pass on the reading to you. Soap up! The 12 germiest places in your life - Health - MSNBC.com
Technorati Tags: health, advice, unbelievable, germs, bacteria, disgusting

Gmail - finally with IMAP

2007-10-24T15:12:00.001-04:00

Not all my readers are going to understand this, but most who care about getting access to Gmail from devices or email clients or anything else other than the browser, and want their actions (delete, forward etc) to be consistently seen from wherever they access GMail will be pleased to know Gmail is switching on IMAP for all users. I might actually start using Microsoft Outlook again with my Gmail account. Yipee yay! Here is the announcement...
Official Gmail Blog: Sync your inbox across devices with free IMAP
Technorati Tags: gmail, google, email, imap, productivity

Not sure when to buy your plane tickets?

2007-10-24T14:51:00.001-04:00

If you are like me when it comes to travel planning, you are never sure if the price your favorite online travel booking website quoted is the lowest possible you can get, nor do you know if the price is going to drop two days after you buy it. Enter Farecast - it will predict if the flight you want is going to be cheaper or more expensive in the future, giving you a clear indication if you should pull out your credit card and buy it. Check it out. Farecast | Airfare Predictions, Find Cheap Flights, Airline Tickets
Technorati Tags: travel, airfares

Happiness Quotient - Astoundingly unhappy millionaires

2007-10-19T10:30:00.000-04:00

This is an article many of us just simply need to know by heart. So the next time, we feel compelled to buy or acquire that one extra thing we feel gives eternal happiness, we can pull a print out of this article and read it out aloudto it. And for those amongst you too lazy to read this...here are some good excerpts:

"Psychologists have spent decades studying the relation between wealth and happiness," writes Harvard University psychologist Daniel Gilbert in his best-selling "Stumbling on Happiness," "and they have generally concluded that wealth increases human happiness when it lifts people out of abject poverty and into the middle class but that it does little to increase happiness thereafter."

In a typical survey people are asked to rank their sense of well-being or happiness on a scale of 1 to 7, where 1 means "not at all satisfied with my life" and 7 means "completely satisfied." Of the American multimillionaires who responded, the average happiness score was 5.8. Homeless people in Calcutta came in at 2.9. But before you assume that money does buy happiness after all, consider who else rated themselves around 5.8: the Inuit of northern Greenland, who do not exactly lead a life of luxury, and the cattle-herding Masai of Kenya, whose dung huts have no electricity or running water. And proving Gilbert's point about money buying happiness only when it lifts you out of abject poverty, slum dwellers in Calcutta—one economic rung above the homeless—rate themselves at 4.6.
"Americans who earn $50,000 per year are much happier than those who earn $10,000 per year," writes Gilbert, "but Americans who earn $5 million per year are not much happier than those who earn $100,000 per year."
(Curiously, although money doesn't buy happiness, happiness can buy money. Young people who describe themselves as happy typically earn higher incomes, years later, than those who said they were unhappy. It seems that a sense of well-being can make you more productive and more likely to show initiative and other traits that lead to a higher income.

The last excerpt above is my favorite.
Why Money Doesn’t Buy Happiness | Print Article | Newsweek.com:
Technorati Tags: wealth, money, economics, happiness, life

Improve English, End World Hunger

2007-10-18T15:22:00.001-04:00

Next time you feel like killing time, improving/testing your English, and contributing to the end of world hunger, all at the same time, scoot to FreeRice. For every vocab question you get right, they donate ten grains of rice.

Now Solitaire can't do that can it? FreeRice

Listen to your iTunes Library on your Blackberry

2007-10-16T13:22:00.000-04:00

The title of this post is what it is since I think this seems to be awesome for us Blackberry users on unlimited data plans. I still need to try it, but this service can stream your iTunes library to your phone. Will need a download. The only thing my Blackberry cannot do now is cut through a shoe like a Ginsu but pretty much everything else.
nuTsie.com! Listen and Share your iTunes Music, Playlists, Songs, MP3s and CDs - nuTsie

For the iPod Wishlist

2007-10-16T13:06:00.000-04:00

Here is something I wish the iPod could incorporate into its next software update -- some way of just auto-categorizing my music by moods. It has something like that based on the Rating system, but its too unidirectional for me. For example, I don't feel like listening to all my 4-star songs one after the other every time I want to hear my favs. Well, give this a spin and you'll know what I mean.
Musicovery : interactive webRadio

ShrinkMyTunes - more music on your iPod, MP3 player or mobile phone

2007-10-12T11:58:00.000-04:00

Calling out to all those iPod Nano 2GB users - if you are pissed off at not being able to fill up your iPod with more music, here's a way to get 4x more music (that's 8GB for you 2GB-weak-in-math-Nano-user). Try the ShrinkMyTunes software. I have not tried it since I am still 10GB away from using up my 30GB iPod, but give it a try before you cry about less music in the tiny flash drive your music player has. $39.99 does not sound like much if you are going to save all that money by not upgrading to a gazillion-GB iPod!
ShrinkMyTunes - more music on your iPod, MP3 player or mobile phone

Online Storage: More options.

2007-10-11T12:05:00.000-04:00

Online storage for files is a crowded space. We've seen several options to send large files, now some of them have added features of having a folder online to save the files you send. I knew Amazon was interested in online distributed storage services, but now it seems they are almost ready to unveil a service soon, called Dynamo. Others like "Wuala, your files online" bring free distributed storage for Internet users. I am not sure I am ready to transfer my entire music folder online yet, but the website seems to offer a good service (no guarantee on how long they will last). I have long wanted an online storage service that enables a drive letter mapped to it (You know, like having a K: drive or a Z: drive show up on My Computer)...today I found one that does exactly that -- who.hasfiles. It gives you a 100MB free option, after that its $1/GB/month which to me sounds very reasonable, especially in theory since it will replace your USB drive. While I am at it, let me tell you Adobe has launched an online storage service called Adobe SHARE (Lousy name and still in Beta). Okay, so now that I have options, I have to figure out what to upload where, and how to keep track of it.

WipBox | The easiest way to sell on eBay or Craigslist

2007-10-08T14:49:00.000-04:00

If you have tried to post something on eBay or Craigslist before and found it too cumbersome making it look pretty, this might help. Similar to vFlyer but this gives you the added benefit of stats and analytics to better tune your listing.
WipBox | The easiest way to sell on eBay or Craigslist

Technorati Tags: ebay, craigslist, classifieds

Mint a.k.a. Find out why you are a financial idiot.

2007-10-08T11:36:00.000-04:00

Those of you who have been following Techcrunch will probably already know this....Mint is the hottest personal finance management website. I feel less privileged now that the website is letting new users sign-up (I got a Beta invite a few weeks back). But anyways, here is what I found it can do for you. Mint pulls in all the bank statements, credit card statements etc...and shows you a consolidated view of all your money/debts/expenses etc. It shows you graphs of categories of expenses...for e.g., a bar graph of how much money you have spent on entertainment vs. groceries in the past few months. The best part is you don't have to spend any time syncing accounts, or manually pulling in data from different accounts. Once you've set it up you know its going to sync up every night. I noticed a few days ago, it also sends out a reminder for paying your bills if you have online bill payments set up. Sweet! Now the bad part...its now easy to see how idiotic you can be with your spending, in a graphical format.
Mint | Refreshing Money Management

No Search for Me

2007-10-08T08:53:00.000-04:00

Apple has screwed it's users again. I saw the search feature in Bhai's new iPod Nano, and for whatever reason I was sure Apple released a new firmware update to add the much-needed search feature in all iPods. But, no! I connected my iPod to the computer hoping to get a new software, only to find my iPod was already updated, and didn't have a search feature. First I thought I was doing something wrong....but seriously, where would I go wrong doing something as simple as this. But a little searching on the web revealed that Apple has in fact left this feature out for old iPod users. No seriously, why would I want to buy a new iPod just to get a search feature. Do they really think this feature will be enough for people to upgrade their hardware. I think not! I know a few iPhone users who are pissed off they paid more than folks buying it now. Now, with this, I am pissed too!

Stupid but enlightened

2007-09-27T01:29:00.000-04:00

I feel stupid but enlightened! Stupid because I had not been able to figure out in the last 1.5 years what a NAME SERVER record in DNS Management means. Enlightened because today I have figured it out! And this helps answer why my Google hosted email for www.indobundee.com has not been working. Simply irritating. Tomorrow, I should have everything working for me.
PS: If you don't know what a NAME SERVER record means, it does not imply you are stupid. That works only for me....since I consider myself to be an above average internet user, and above average internet users know this.

Moonlit morning midair

2007-09-25T23:56:00.001-04:00

Moonlit morning midair
Originally uploaded by swash buckler

Changed the layout in my Flickr account. Posting this picture just to check what it looks like.

Sparkling Iced Tea

2007-09-25T23:45:00.001-04:00

Can't remember who I was talking to about sparkling iced tea. I had sparkling iced tea in Germany or the Netherlands, and totally loved it. Recently I started appreciating flavored seltzer a la Polar Beverages (I know, I know, its weird but this is not the first time). BTW, still can't seem to find the difference between Seltzer and Club Soda. Tastes the same to me....and no, seriously, don't tell me Seltzer is naturally effervescent....thats a load o' crap, because I don't think Polar is naturally effervescent!

Sparkling Iced Tea, originally uploaded by swash buckler.

Three-column format! Screw it!

2007-09-25T23:35:00.000-04:00

Blogger is behaving today. I liked my new three-column blog layout until the last post. The Scribd document I posted in the previous entry wouldn't fit in the middle column. Fugly! So anyways, screw the three-column layout. Also managed to change the default font to Tahoma (my favorite font), and fixed the FRENZ link on the right, added the Statcounter code back in the blog (gotta count the few who visit this blog), and now I think I am all set.

Google sued! (yawn!), but for crimes against humanity (Wow!)

2007-09-23T12:38:00.000-04:00

I wonder if there is a website that tracks all dumb lawsuits. I know there is one that lists all the dumb laws. In any case, if you find a dumb lawsuits websites, this one definitely is for the hall of fame. Dylan Stephen Jayne is suing Google for crimes against humanity -- he claims his social security number when turned upside down, and de-coded spells Google! How creative! I wanna smoke what he is smoking since that might help me solve a few sudoku puzzles!
A bit more amusing I found was the copy of the lawsuit filed....written by hand, but still legal.

My New Three Column Format

2007-09-11T08:52:00.000-04:00

After much effort, this new three column format seems to be in place. But I lost a lot of the extra features I had in my previous format. Forget features, I had to delete the last few posts from my blog since I suspected them to be the culprits. Damn Maxthon! Lost the www.syncone.net bookmarklet/link. Gotta still put the Statcounter in here. Not to forget my bookmarked songs from Pandora. Etc. Etc. Feedback appreciated.

How to ruin your blog?

2007-09-08T12:39:00.000-04:00

I keep trying new software, mostly freeware. More often than not, these freewares help me in some manner - either improve my productivity, or provide hours of timepass. But every now and then it comes and bites me in my ass! Desperate to get tabbed browsing on an IE platform, I installed Maxthon. Then I went ahead and installed a blogging plugin into Maxthon. Then needless to say, I used it only to screw up the formatting on my blog. I am super pissed about this now.

The Gender Genie

2007-04-19T21:02:00.000-04:00

The Gender Genie says I write like a girl. That's pretty deflating, isn't it? I mean, I write like a girl. And who is the computer that's computing this. I demand justice! And just so I sound like a man, i am going to say WTF bitch! Well, the Gender Genie is nevertheless interesting. "Inspired by an article and a test in The New York Times Magazine, the Gender Genie uses a simplified version of an algorithm developed by Moshe Koppel, Bar-Ilan University in Israel, and Shlomo Argamon, Illinois Institute of Technology, to predict the gender of an author." And yes, all that research still goes wrong in this tool. ("Uh heh heh...you..you said tool! - Beavis and Butthead)
The Gender Genie

Google Paper, coming soon to a mailbox near you!

2007-04-01T02:46:00.000-04:00

I have been fooled by Google. Yes, it did last for about ten seconds, and then I realized Google did what they have always done on April 1st in the last few years. There was the whole research center on moon, and some other gag about Google Romance, and now, this year it's Google Paper. It says, Google will print your emails and send it via mail...and that too unlimited emails. Now, Gmail was announced on April 1st, and it doesn't surprise me, they have chosen the Gmail log in page to play the joke. And if this turns out to be true in any manner, I will ....ok....this will never be, and can never be true. Google 1, Sumit 0

Gmail: Highlighting Text

2007-03-15T00:30:00.000-04:00

One of the features of Gmail I really wish was there in Outlook is the text highlighting feature. There are so many colors available it gets me all highlighting-happy! In my experience, the quickest way to direct your recipient's attention to a particular piece of text is by highlighting it - but the reason I stress on multiple colors is because sometimes I will highlight something in yellow, and comment about the yellowed text, and then highlight using orange, and write a different comment on the oranged-out text. All in all, its very easy. Now in Outlook, it is not easy to highlight. You can do it only if you select the option of using Microsoft Word as the email editor. Yes, there is an option to do, but its clunky...sometimes, MS Word takes too much time to load up in my compose window.
Okay, I should go to bed now.

Save paper, stop printing junk! Click2Zap Bookmarklet 1.1

2007-02-22T17:05:00.000-05:00

Have you ever pulled up driving directions on Mapquest, then wanted to print it, only to find you end up with three pages because it prints out the three maps (which you didn't care about in the first place) and then prints out the adverts for low mortgage rate (or any other irrelevant-to-you ad). This not only wastes your toner/ink, it also wastes paper. So why not be able to get rid of all that junk and print only the relevant material -- enter click2zap. It's a bookmarklet for your browser that lets you remove elements from the webpage you are on, so you have a clean webpage remaining in the browser window waiting to be printed. I know, some would argue, selecting text and printing only the selection can work too, but what if you want to select several portions and print those out -- click2zap makes that easy. Try it out for yourself. mrclay.org » Blog Archive » Click2Zap Bookmarklet 1.1

Another alternative for removing elements in Firefox is an extension called "Nuke Anything" which adds a "Remove this Object" to the right-click context.

Whatever you end up using, I'd like to remind you to recycle materials, both paper and toner/ink cartridges!

YouTube - Human face fish

2007-02-18T03:14:00.000-05:00

This is a bit freaky!
YouTube - Human face fish

India won't be a superpower until it alleviates poverty - Feb. 9, 2007

2007-02-13T10:21:00.000-05:00

After Khettry-da mentioned this article, I had been wanting to read it. I just came across this. Although, it doesn't say anything earth shattering or unrevealed before, it's good to remind us Indians that the development and the surging economy still has problems that have not been addressed yet. I am not arguing that we need to linger on these chronic problems but keeping in mind these issues may help us think outside the IT box!

India won't be a superpower until it alleviates poverty - Feb. 9, 2007:

"To look at it another way, the 1 million Indians working in IT account for less than one-half of one percent of the entire working population. This helps build reserves (and national confidence, and tax revenues) but is not the poverty buster that labor-intensive development is. As Prime Minister Singh told Luce, 'Our biggest single problem is the lack of jobs for ordinary people.'"

Checkershadow Illusion

2007-02-12T18:43:00.000-05:00

This is really cool. Squint your eyes, take back a few steps and marvel at the way your mind plays games with you.
Checkershadow Illusion
I think I should go home now.

Learn Hindi from Bollywood Movies

2007-01-29T13:32:00.001-05:00

Interesting.
http://cuttingchai.castpost.com/

Cool A4 paper cut art

2006-12-20T15:28:00.001-05:00

This is really cool. I am not sure I am going to try one, but if I find one on sale, I might buy it
A4 paper cut art

Go dogg! Fetch! Sports statistics search engine

2006-12-13T22:43:00.000-05:00

Speaking of dogs today, here is one that wont hump your USB port (see the previous post), but instead get you sports statistics from the web. Everyone knows how I suck when it comes to knowing anything about sports -- but everyone also knows how I kick some serious ass when it comes to finding cool new websites on the web. Ever get into an argument over what Sachin Tendulkar's batting average has been or who won the 100m men's finals at the last Olympics, and when you searched on Google to verify your argument, felt frustrated at Google's over-generous results that included among relevant results, links to Sachin Tendulkar fan websites, or annoying links about the fart olympics. Well, worry no more, ask Statdogg and let it fetch the cleanest results from all the top sports statistics websites. I have to warn you, this website will suck away at your time.

Humping pooch at it, at your USB port!

2006-12-13T22:38:00.000-05:00

Of all the various devices that connect to your USB port, I guarantee it, you don't have this device - the USB humping dog. Yes, it humps your USB port as soon as you connect. Like this blog post says it, it robs us all of precious dignity. I never thought a little motor could be put to such creative use. So, if you don't quite understand what I am talking about, see for yourself in this video.

Naughty Marks & Spencer

2006-12-12T11:05:00.001-05:00

You might fall in love with this USB pole dancer. Marks & Spencer carried this toy, got heat from public.

Gmail Mail Fetcher: Another deathly stab at Hotmail

2006-12-11T14:50:00.000-05:00

I don't have it yet, and I am not happy about it. Any new feature on Gmail, and me not having it leads to an unhappy situation. But okay ignoring this feeling for the moment, the future holds email bliss for me and others like me. Google is going to be able to fetch other emails, yay!! I was waiting for it to be able to do that, i.e., get other POP3 mail, but I am really curious to see if it actually gets Hotmail and Yahoo even if you are not signed up for the premium POP service in Hotmail or Yahoo. Do you know the answer to this? Please leave a comment below and let us all know! I think it's time for me to stop obsessing about email or Gmail.....but I really wish the Mail Fetcher feature works for Hotmail and Yahoo accounts. Hotmail's spam filter is horrendously incapable of filtering out crap, and Gmail's spam filter is horrendously efficient.
Well, if you have Mail Fetcher in your account, here is how you would set it up. (Thanks Rakesh for letting me know all this)

UPDATE (12-12-06): I know now Gmail mail fetcher wont fetch my Hotmail or Yahoo at least as long as I don't pay Hotmail or Y! for the premium POP3 access. :(

Ugly, Ugly, Bollywood Fugly

2006-12-10T02:53:00.000-05:00

Not too many times do you see a seriously funny website on Bollywood....you know how most are boring with stolen reviews, wallpapers, pictures, annoying pop-up ads, and lame animated gifs -- but this one really is. It's called Ugly, Ugly, Bollywood Fugly.
Check it out, the webmaster has really spent a lot of time taking those screen shots. I love some of the more obscure oldies and the their take on it!

Weekend's over, fever's over

2006-11-28T11:02:00.000-05:00

The Thanksgiving weekend came and went. I had some fever (thanks KT!), and now the fever is gone too! But the highlight of the weekend was watching movies on the Optoma DV10 . This DLP projector kicks some serious butt, especially for the price. And now I just wish we had a Netflix membership and ten more days in a Thanksgiving weekend.

i heart delhi

2006-11-18T22:49:00.000-05:00

I am considering getting one of these coffee mugs for myself from Indobundee. I wonder if anyone would want "i heart jhumritaliyya" design!

Working away in the building

2006-11-18T22:44:00.000-05:00

For no reason except I have some extra time right now, and that I liked what I saw in Bakhtyar's post on a crane crashing into an apartment, I am inspired to show the world where I work in a similar manner as his post. Yes, it's the big block of a building with ample parking at the back, and some wooded area around. I know it doesn't look like its anywhere near downtown, but that's okay, because it's not, and I can't do anything about that! But that's where I have spent most of my last three years! So whenever you come back to this blog, and if it's a work day in the US, you can imagine where I am sitting. Not that it's something you'd wanna do, but what the heck!

Blogging platform confusion

2006-11-13T16:17:00.001-05:00

Even though this blog doesn't get enough traffic, I am thinking of trying out some other blogging platform. I considered Wordpress.com but not satisfied with any of the free template offerings.

I know Typepad does not offer a free hosted solution. And don't want to use Rediff or indiatimes or any of the "portal" type of blogging tools.

Finally, electric cars in India

2006-11-08T14:48:00.000-05:00

I really think it's time for India to handle the economic boom with some respect for the environment. And these pictures prove it -- we have started. Desi electric cars

India ranks 70th in corruption,...1 being least corrupt.

2006-11-07T17:40:00.000-05:00

Will save my comments for some other time. For now take a look at the table of corruption index, starting with Finland being the least corrupt.
Transparency.org's Corruption Index

Deepak Parashar? His bigg-est break after all

2006-11-07T11:04:00.000-05:00

I didn't get too much time to read this website, but from what I gather this is the biggest break Deepak Parashar could have gotten...ever. A bunch of Bollywood celebs (if you really want to call all of them that!) get together and live in a house, divvying up the household chores, and have a go at it in whatever manner they can. Hmm...is this worth getting some desi channels added to my cable plan? Check out the website for yourself, Bigg Boss. What would I not give for the possibility of watching Poonam Dhillon get upset and cry (she deserves that btw, for having a lame website poonamdhillon.com)!

Google + Firefox = Free Music Downloads

2006-11-03T09:13:00.001-05:00

In case you ever want to find music on Google and want to download the MP3's or videos for free (and of course, as the author mentions, you own the files for sure, but you still want to download the songs and videos etc) then please follow the instructions on this page: Google + Firefox = Free Music Downloads. I am just simply amazed how people figure these simple tricks out. I tried it and yes, its awesome.

Gmail on the go - super fast Gmail app for your phone

2006-11-03T08:42:00.001-05:00

Google says it's new and fast - I say it's absolutely smashing! Made my day yesterday when I was browsing through Techcrunch and found the announcement for Gmail App. Quite frankly, it wasn't something I was waiting for or even expecting Google to come up with....in fact, I had not even thought about a Java app that would do email for me. But for those who are still wondering what this Gmail app is, in short, its a Java app that you download from www.gmail.com/app , install it on your phone, and use Gmail. Why is it better than checking Gmail on your browser you ask? Because its FAST!!! Enough said!
Here's what Google says about it:

Download it once, and start accessing Gmail on your phone with just a click or two. You'll also like it because:

It has the same Gmail interface you know and love
Your account stays synchronized whether you access it from your computer or the phone
You can easily view attachments such as photos, documents and .pdf files

Yes, the last bit, I tried. I could view the text in a PDF file I received as an attachment.

A kid you wont regret giving drums to!

2006-09-18T23:04:00.001-04:00

I am not only stunned by this, I am overjoyed to see this freak of nature! Yup, that's what I would call this kid,...a freak of nature. All of 4 years old, and plays drums better than the drummer of Def Leppard could at the peak of his career!
Child Drummer 4 Years Old

No excuse to be dumb anymore

2006-09-06T11:44:00.000-04:00

Google has answered my prayers once again. Now there is no excuse for not knowing every random detail about the world we live in. Google News Archive's timeline feature is the best. I did some random searches on "India", "awasthi" and some random inane queries....and I liked what I saw!
I didn't know there was free access to archives dating back to 1902 and before...
Google News Archive Search

Shut that TV, Big Brother's listening!

2006-09-04T02:34:00.000-04:00

This amazes the hell out of me. No really, this amazes the hell out of me. I have never really been scared of privacy invasion as such, so doesn't bother me if someone knows what I am watching on TV, but for Google to develop a software that listens to background noise around a computer's microphone and serving relevant ads is quite simply unexpected.
Google developing eavesdropping software | The Register
Technorati Tags: google, privacy, amazing, interesting, news

Stay with me. Read as fast as a bullet.

2006-08-16T10:49:00.000-04:00

I am amazed at this tool. Simple yet effective. Copy text, paste into the text box, and press the "ZAP It!" button, to get done with your reading in 1/10th the time.
Zap Reader
Technorati Tags: zap reader, management, time management, lifehack, simple

Kickass Template

2006-08-16T08:19:00.000-04:00

Finally managed to get rid of the template I had earlier for this blog. This is much cleaner,....something I had been looking for. Something funky with blogspot too....it didn't take too long before the previous template got mucked up and a generally mucked up version changed the look of the page. Thanks to Zeya for pointing it out. Okay peeps, enough for now. Let me get back to reading my old posts in a new look. Tags: sumit, templates, blogging

Mobile Gmail in Firefox Sidebar

2006-07-21T14:45:00.000-04:00

After I looked Erica Joy's post where I learned how to put Google Personalized Page in the Firefox Sidebar, I liked it so much I set out to try different things I could load in the Firefox Sidebar. I tried Meebo. It was pretty useful since I could load an IM window in the sidebar, without installing any IM application on my computer. But then I tried Mobile Gmail. I must say that was just awesome and simple to do. It's useful because now I dont have to load a new window to read Gmail, and if I need to read the whole message, it comes in a quick-to-read format on the main page.
You'll know what I am doing once you try it for yourself.
Steps:
1. Right click on the Bookmarks Toolbar

2. Create New Bookmark

3. Use http://m.gmail.com as the location

4. (Important): Check the "Load this bookmark in the sidebar" checkbox.

5. Now press the newly formed bookmark button and enjoy minimalist look and feel of the Gmail Mobile interface in the sidebar of the Firefox.

Do keep in mind, since its the version of Gmail that loads into WAP browsers, you may not be able to read the whole message in one screen, but there are simple links at the bottom to go to the "Next Page"

Let me know what you think.

Here are some more screenshots.

Still love the landline

2006-07-18T19:19:00.000-04:00

Hardly the kind of post you'd expect after my absence from this blog these past few months. In any case, wanted to stop by and let the whole wide world know I still love landline. Yes! I said it! I still have a landline. The other day someone (a 24 year old!) in office made fun of me...."Dude, you have a landline!?" But I still prefer it! The voice is damn clear, no white noise or background noise, and seems to be less stressful. Whew! that said, here's whats going on my wishlist next!
Personal Tech Pipeline | Blog | Why You've Never Heard Of The Best Phone Ever

Funny menu

2006-05-25T13:47:00.000-04:00

No time to write a review on this site...but this is hilarious.
rahoi.com

Two wheeled Forrest Gump

2006-05-10T17:03:00.000-04:00

This is such an amusing story. I am going to start on my bike too. Seems like the best way to while away my time.
After 335,000 Miles, a Robbery Splits Man and Bike - New York Times
Technorati Tags: bicycle, bike, strange, travel

Live the Windows way

2006-05-10T17:01:00.000-04:00

Windows is trying to catch up. And now they have the newest version of Messenger...the Windows Live Messenger. I haven't tried it yet, but the feature that appeals to me the most is the Foldershare feature (which is why they bought FolderShare). But here is the new problem I have. The fact that Google Talk is integrated into my Gmail account, and most of the friends I chat with are on Gmail, and they chat when they and I check emails, how the heck will I ever get a chance to use Live Messenger. Well, I live to appreciate new products on the Internet, even though I can't always use everything.
Windows Live Ideas – Homepage
Technorati Tags: live, microsoft, chat, instant messaging, new

Automatic Book Scanning

2006-05-03T18:33:00.000-04:00

I am going to file this in my list called "Things to become everyday things in 5 years (or less)", but I am seriously amazed as to how people find time to do something like this. Or maybe I am overestimating the time it takes, but it sure is expensive. This scanner opens each page of a book and scans the page. Now, like a flash before my eyes, I am seeing some copyright issues popping up in the future....the DVD industry is not alone.
Fullauto Bookscanner - a scientist's toy box
Technorati Tags: books, piracy, scanning, technology, robots, automatic, amazing,

Sick Americans, my reasons!

2006-05-03T09:48:00.000-04:00

First, I will let you read this story on Yahoo! News. Then I'd ask you to come back here and read my reasons below.
Study Shows Americans Sicker Than English - Yahoo! News
Speculative Reasons why Americans are sicker:

Paranoid population. Yes, everyone is paranoid and scared....scared of losing money, scared of getting mugged in the parking lot, scared of terrorist attack, scared of neighbors, scared of pharma companies, scared of employers, scared of spouse, scared of getting attacked....I could go on and on. But one thing is clear, Americans are a scared lot. I don't think that's healthy.

Greed. Everyone around me is greedy for more....more money, bigger SUV,...more food on the plate in Applebees, bigger, economy size, more powerful, 100 lbs or 100's count FREE!! Yes, we in America want more and more. That's not healthy. Not healthy when we get more stuff, and not healthy when we don't get more stuff and feel cheated and dissatisfied.

Because of the first reason, people are not eating properly. There is too many non-fat food items, and not to forget the whole zero-carb craze that had my friends and family dieting away too! Its not normal, so it can't be healthy. Something somewhere comes around and bites you in your ass!
We in America complain and cry a lot. Wah!! Wah!! My neighbor has a super-duper tractor I don't...wah!!! I have not gotten a promotion in 6 months!!....Wah!!!! I don't have a super model girlfriend,....wah!!! My kid didn't make it to the school's soccer team! Wah!! My govt. is not doing enough for me...! Wah!!! All those illegal immigrants are taking away our jobs!!! Wah!!! All our jobs are being outsourced to India...wah!!!!!! wah!!!! Is this healthy!??!? Wah!!! This can't be healthy!! Why can't my doctor charge me less!!! Wah!!
Social fabric is as thin as a single-ply cheap toilet paper....maybe, I am not being clear,...(WARNING!! Serious opinionated statement coming up here)....people don't care about others. We don't know our neighbors (related somewhat to the first bullet), we don't know our colleagues families, folks live in very nuclear families, mothers charge sons rent to stay in their homes, senior citizens lead a very lonely life...basically, the ills of familial life attirbuted to modern societies. Does this sound like its a spiritually healthy way to live like this? I am not so sure.

I will keep adding to this list. Drop your comments in the comments section below. Lets see what else you can come up with.
Technorati Tags: health, foods, unhealthy america, diet, paranoia, craze, news

200 Generations to Recover Genetic Materials!

2006-04-26T14:14:00.000-04:00

Yes! That's what it takes after life forms have been exposed to nuclear radiation. Its been twenty years since the Chernobyl accident, and quite frankly it has taken me twenty years to realize and feel the trauma that it brought to human lives. This gallery of photos can be gut wrenching and saddening, but it will certainly make you realize the enormity of the problems of nuclear waste and the evil damage it brings to even unborn generations to come! I feel sombre.....and, I feel ashamed of having things in my life that need electricity...i feel ashamed of complaining about the little problems in life...i feel ashamed of....!
nuclear NIGHTMARES
Technorati Tags: nuclear, chernobyl, pollution, russia, photos, gallery, photography

Soccer nose

2006-04-25T18:17:00.000-04:00

Lufthansa's latest design for its aircrafts.
Technorati Tags: lufthansa, soccer, world cup 2006, football

20 Amazing Facts About Voting In The United States

2006-04-25T17:39:00.000-04:00

I didn't know most of these...
20 Amazing Facts About Voting In The United States

Technorati Tags: voting, united states, politics, amazing facts, interesting, amazing, unbelievable, bush

No bidding - just spend your salary away

2006-04-24T11:18:00.000-04:00

When was the last time you heard someone say "I don't use eBay coz that whole bidding/auction thing is a pain in the ass! And I don't like buying used items!". Well, take this website and shove it in their face. Because now eBay makes it easier to spend away your salary on new stuff. Simply put, this is just like a regular online shop. Since eBay is making most of it's money from Paypal, I wonder if the whole online auction thing is becoming a pain in their ass too!
eBay Express | eBay Express
Technorati Tags: ebay, ebay express, shopping, new, spend, pita

The Apostrophe S is there alright!

2006-04-05T00:53:00.000-04:00

Finally arrived in 's-Hertogenbosch last night! And checked into the Movenpick. Now, this has turned out to be the best hotel in this round of visits. The other one (Ibis) in Munchen, was essentially more like a motel (maybe a little classier than a motel, but still, no room service). And that is surprising, since I picked Movenpick randomly after doing a search on the internet. And yes!!! the apostrophe before the "s" and the dash after it appears in the name all over. Can't get over saying the whole damn thing... "apostrophe s dash hertogenbosch!"

200 kmph on the Autobahn.

2006-04-04T11:02:00.000-04:00

Technorati Tags: autobahn, munich, germany, travel

CL2: Hot Date!!

2006-03-16T23:40:00.000-05:00

Okay, so the Google fan in me can't wait for this new upcoming Google feature. The CL2....Calendar application tightly integrated with Gmail. This is it. After 100's of calendar applications that have failed to strike an interest (Yes, I still find using MS Outlook synced with Plaxo the most effective), it seems to me the CL2 might be the answer to keep me on my toes on my payments, laundry pickup, and general event planning. Now, if only they could come up with a way to inject an API into my brain so I can fill my calendar just by thinking about things....well, maybe not details like when I take a shower etc....but I just can't seem to remember mundane tasks that fill up my life!
TechCrunch » Exclusive Screenshots: Google Calendar
Technorati Tags: cl2, google, gmail, calendar, apps, plaxo

Now, that's what I call free beer!

2006-03-14T00:54:00.000-05:00

This is simply amazing...why don't I have a bar for a neighbor, and an eff'd up plumbing in the house! Ok, tis too late, I should just go to bed!
Woman Gets Beer From Her Kitchen Faucet - Yahoo! News
Technorati Tags: beer, free, oddly enough, odd news, miracle, sweet, amazing

Buy that lottery ticket now!

2006-03-13T11:13:00.000-05:00

I have always known this. I have always felt it. I have just never been able to explain it to anyone (or to myself) this easily what it means to buy that $1 ticket to the Mega-millions lottery. But this is a great article on risk, and I personally like the Russian Roulette exercise towards the bottom of the page (kinda similar to my now famous "what would you charge to live the rest of your life in Wuhan, China"). On Risk: The Universe of Discourse
Technorati Tags: lottery, risk, chances, megamillions, probability, interesting, arithmetic

Nice job kiddo!

2006-02-28T19:07:00.000-05:00

This just hot off the press. Love it! 12-year old sticks gum on a $1.5 million piece of art! When you see this painting you might wonder why its valued at $1.5 mil. I personally, think the chewing gum could have only made it better. I now regret not painting on the walls at home growing up. I could have done some awesome graffiti. My mum would have kicked my ass, but it wouldn't have been this big a deal.
LaptopLogic.com: News: Boy Sticks Gum on $1.5 Million Painting
Technorati Tags: art, chewing gum, fuck up, kids

Schachter makes it big

2006-02-28T11:30:00.000-05:00

All you delicious fans out there...read this and be impressed.
Tag Sale
Technorati Tags: del.icio.us, delicious, tagging, yahoo, sale, impressive

Will wants to be Big W...just like Big B

2006-02-27T20:17:00.000-05:00

(photo courtesy: nowrunning.com)

Will Smith wants to be like Big B here....he wants to be called Big W! Read right here. Yeah baby!!
Technorati Tags: big b, amitabh bachchan, will smith, india, cool, funny, sarkar, godfather, entertainment, bollywood

Counter-intuitive: E-bay behavior still baffles me

2006-02-27T20:04:00.000-05:00

Can't seem to understand this one. I did know there'd be things on sale for $0.99 and S would be $10, but here is the established research into why that works. Shit! I am so going for the Free Shipping options wherever I can!!
Marginal Revolution: Make Money on eBay
Technorati Tags: ebay, make money, ideas, research, non-intuitive, business, behavior, baffling

Automatic Book Scanning

2006-02-25T23:44:00.000-05:00

Technorati Tags: books, piracy, scanning, technology, robots, automatic, amazing

Google Page Creator: One more under the umbrella

2006-02-24T14:10:00.000-05:00

It is amazing how I think what the next thing Google needs to do, and it ends up doing it. Not that I am causing Google to come up with new products, but sure enough, since the company went public its going gang busters on bringing new products for folks addicted to the Internet. Although, I have not been able to test the system (I have signed up for the beta testing), Google has come out with the Page Creator.....basically, lets you design a new web page on the Internet, and assigns a subdomain based url (http://yourusername.google.com/) and without downloading any software, you can publish away to glory. I think this is going to play tag team with Google Base. But for now, sign up for the beta on Google Page.

Technorati Tags: google, page creator, html, free

More advice on women

2006-02-18T21:36:00.000-05:00

Don't ask me why I am finding more and more websites that give advice
on women. But this is the best list doing the rounds on the internet.
(Chances are your work proxy server is going to block this!). But jokes
apart, there is some long lasting wisdom to be gained here guys! (And,
seriously some shit I had no idea was the really true!...maybe I still
don't know). But check it out, and if you know something that's
missing, post it in the comments.
100 Things You Need to Know About Women MAXIM ONLINE
Technorati Tags: advice on women, women, tips, sex, wisdom, lists

Colors in India we didn't see

2006-02-18T21:19:00.000-05:00

Growing up, I couldn't really see all the colors in India...(you know the type firangs used to see!)....didn't see it in people's clothes, didn't see it on houses, didn't see in people's attitudes. And now after living in the US for years, I see color!

Atul's friends Jill and Stephan went to India and captured some awesome photos....and trust me, all you desis out there, these pix are awesome (maybe not all 678 of them) but do take a look. Maybe, the next time I go to India, I'll see a good subject for a photo in everything I see.

SmugMug - India 2006
Technorati Tags: india, desh, desi, photos, photography, album, atul, swash

My blog is worth zilch!

2006-02-17T08:42:00.000-05:00

This is what this blog is worth! ZERO! 0!! Nada! Zilch!

Really cool tool I found that shows you the value of your blog. It's based on data from Technorati and inspired by research from Tristan Louis. The tool is available here.
Now Chhavi's blog is a different story. I am a bit impressed....and of course she deserves it and more! I won't spoil the fun for her by posting the value here!

My blog is worth $0.00.
How much is your blog worth?

Technorati Tags: value of my blog, swash, technorati, tristan louis

Zeya's Blog: Zephyr

2006-02-17T08:24:00.000-05:00

Zeya's blog is kicking ass these days. Well, I don't know how many visitors are dropping by, but I certainly am! How the heck are you getting the time to write all this stuff man!
Z E P H Y R

Technorati Tags: zeya, blogger, blogs, personal

Shut up, think and then say: "Listen to her" advice

2006-02-15T16:40:00.000-05:00

Sometimes profound thought and advice just surfaces on the internet and makes you think, "WTF! Why didn't I think of this earlier?!" This advice couldn't be anymore succinct and simple - learn how to listen to her. All those guys out there who could have used this one too many times in the past have a chance at being a good listener. (too bad this could have been very useful to you yesterday when just flowers couldn't do the trick!)
Willowbend ? Blog Archive ? HOWTO Listen to Women: The One Thing Every Mangeek Should Know