Recent Posts :- Click to Subscribe (RSS)

Recent Posts :- Click to Subscribe (RSS)

Monday, December 29, 2008

Lets go Clubbing da...

5 Expert Comments

Ok, all city folk know that you aint no cool until you go clubbing.

When I landed in madras a while ago, some old friends of mine also flew down, and we really did not have much to do except meet up at the beach, eat someplace, talk for a while and and then go home. Thats when somebody came up with the 'lets go clubbing' idea.

Apparently, there are a large number of pubs and discos in madras, and clubbing is a major activity of the hip and cool. It usually involves payment of some kind of fee to enter the pub or disco, and inside theres some really loud music and other stuff going around.

Confession - I havent been to one of these places since my awesome experience in the second year of college. I wasnt blogging then, so heres the summary of that event - I went in, couldnt see much cos the lights were bad, couldnt hear much cos the music was loud, friends got completely sloshed and had a real bad headache after I got back home.

Realisation - nothings changed. The lights have gotten a bit worse, but apart from that, nothing. A friend i knew knew someone who knew someone else, so our entry was 'taken care of'. We went down some wierd looking catacomb like thing and entered a predominantly green looking room, with smoke and rays of light going thru the air. It was like something out of a bad LSD commercial, if they were allowed to make one.

So we got around to catching a place to sit, and ordered some snacks, but never got to talk. So much for catching up. We quit the joint asap, and headed straight down to the beach. My impression of the clubbing activity has sort of gone down this week. Doesn't appear as cool as it used to in college.

I went back home and hit the urban dictionary, and looked up clubbing :

1. clubbing 380 up, 115 down

A favourite activity of the moronic majority, this involves being shunted like cattle into a converted warehouse... sadly not to be slaughtered, but to wear ridiculous trendy clothes, listen to crap eardrum-shattering music, try to pick up brainless members of the opposite sex, and generally stand around aimlessly in a desperate but pointless attempt to show how cool you are.
"Wanna go clubbing tonight?"

Looks like I'm not the only one.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Finally, Firefox with the goodness of Chrome da...

2 Expert Comments

Yeah, tech stuff. I did not imagine that Itd feature on my blog either. But Ive finally got a great looking and performing Firefox - which looks like chrome, and has the add-on capability.

Heres a list of things I really liked about chrome -

1. Minimalist - the design is awesome. The color scheme is also good; doesnt cause as many headaches from constant work with the lappy.

2. Speed - streaming videos load fast, and theres a visible difference in how long a page riddled with javascript takes to load. (compared to Firefox 3.0, ie)

3. The new tab page - The recent bookmarks, search history, and recently closed tabs with thumbs of most visited pages was well received. Infact, this new format for a new tab is very useful.

These were the things I missed about chrome. But then, firefox has the 'add-ons' capability, which is way too handy to give up, even for these chrome given advantages.

With a heavy heart, I sacked chrome and got back Firefox. 3 days later, I googled up what I needed to do in order to get the best of both worlds. im sure theres someone in my super long list of faithful readers who shares the need.

Heres the checklist -

1. To make FF look like chrome - get Chromifox. Its a cool skin. Looks very much like Chrome.

2. New tab - get the JumpStart addon. replicates the exact same functionality as chrome, but also plans to enhance the search to run thru previously stored bookmarks, and a general google search.

the speed with which streaming video websites are handled are pretty much the same with FF 3.0.5 and Chrome. So no complaints there. In addition, I use addons like scribefire, greasemonkey, and also imported all my bookmarks from chrome. (Yeah, thats easy nowadays).

Finally, a great looking and super performing browser.

In the streets of Madras, Da...

3 Expert Comments

Ive you've read my earlier post about getting caught driving fast in the US, you wouldve inferred that I did drive in the US. Now that I'm back in Madras, the difference between the american and indian ways of getting places is just so apparent.

I landed at Anna Intl airport and walked out to the road at 3am. As with any 'foreign return' flight, a huge crowd of drivers and anxious family members had gathered to welcome the 'foreign returns'. In this case, 'Amreega returns'. Anyways, I dragged my overloaded trolley out onto the road to look for my contact person. The agreement was that Id wait near an airtel Phone booth. Sadly, my contact had other more important matters of national importance to attend to. (snoring to glory inside the car in the parking lot).

This gave me about 35 minutes to look around and observe. I noticed when I landed in the US how everyone diligently follows a lane discipline, ie sticking to lane on the road and indicating when lane changes are about to be made. In good ol madras, its a free for all. I saw 3-4 ambassadors speed and screech to a halt in front of the departure terminal, only to be screamed at by a huge family waiting there. Meanwhile, several auto drivers took the opportunity to squeeze their monstrous vehicles of doom in the gap between the family members in order to overtake the ambassador. its like theres some adrenaline induced frenzy to stay 2 feet ahead of guy in front of you in a packed road. Frankly, it defies all logic.

After I met my elusive contact, my journey home began. In short, it was like sitting in a crash test vehicle. After every 15 seconds of fast driving, a near sudden brake would be made since the car's overtake attempt was foiled by the angry SUV driver in front.

Yeah, there are stupid people in the US too, but our country needs an overhaul of traffic rules. People should start making petitions, actively campaigning for some sort of system level change. This is all the more important when considering the sheer number of vehicles our cities have in comparison with the width of the roads.