Not that anyone is going to care

But I have moved to CRI, this blog will be used for archiving.

Another one

It is a pity that Bhajan became extinct in 80's. I am sorry, what I meant was it is a pity Bhajans didn't die in 80's. Instead they assumed undead existence as paradies of Bollywood music (the main culprit, to no one's surprise, T-Series), but fortunately some Bhajans still managed to be written which could move you.

Keynesian Advaithin

In the long run we are all Maya.

I don't what Scott Adams is talking aboot

... but one of the reasons to like Gmail is its awesome interface. How awesome is it, well it's so awesome that I make do without hot keys. Frankly I have no idea, why one will find multiple buttons so objectionable, they are just there to make life easy, man.

Aphorism: Reason & Freedom

Reason is like electromagnetic radiation. Freedom is like mutation. Use discretion.

RIP

Nanaji Deshmukh (1916-2010)

Riddle me this.(Updated)

Why is it appropriate to call Pakistan Freddiestan ?

You people suck, really. Anyway the answer, not that anyone is interested is, Freddy Krueger was conceived as a result of his mother's rape by the insane inmates of Westin Hills hospital. Same is the case with Pakistan, except it was conceived as a result of violation of Mother India by the Islamic Hordes. 

From Department Of I Never Expected To See This

In Pune Grapes is cheaper than Daal.

Danger Of Being Earnest

1. No babus don't take bribes because public is masochist and likes to be screwed by the babus, they do because they can.

2. Being sincere may be endearing to Gen X. Hell that and Gandhi surname may even make you a PM material. But that is no substitute to having a brain. 

Suggestion (Updated)

Does anyone have any ideas on what is the best way to order books online within India?

Well, as long as we are on this, any suggestions on sci-fi. So far I have read (most of )Asimov, (most of ) Heinlein, (a little of ) Clarke and H2G2. 

Reference Point

Here is an admission. Frogji's comments on my earlier post have kind of perplexed me. He asked why language in bollywood cinema so infused with Urdu. This was news to me. Assuming he is talking about contemporary bollywood cinema, its language is that its audience is most comfortable with, i.e. Hindi/Hindustani. Urdu ceased to be a language of cinema long ago, and since use of Sanskritized Hindi was never widespread it is hardly an option.
Then it struck me that the reason why our observations are so divergent has to do with our experience. Frogji not hailing from Hindi heartland is obviously not familiar with Hindi the way it is spoken there. Therefore it makes sense to make explicit my reference point, which is the video embedded below. This is what I will consider Urdu infused language.

A note here, this too is relative. For my father's generation which actually could read and write Urdu this video won't be very difficult to understand.

Strategery

Amarji asks how can Hindu Fascists can get hold over Hindi film industry. This is an important question. As it happens I have a plan

1. People pimp my blog like TOI pimps Sherlyn Chopra. increasing page views and ranking.
2. With increased visibility my blog-fu becomes more awesome.
3. I take down sec-lib establishment.

Now I am truly depressed

Hey Bhagwan

I don't get it

But it is awesome

Poor User Interfaces

Scott Adams discusses some of the terrible user interface that irks him no end in his latest post. Now properly speaking this topic falls under Neelji's area of expertise, but as it happens there are quite a few user interfaces, specifically of telephone custom service, which despair me of life every time I try to use them, in increasing order of annoyance they are.

1. Inconsistent interface: The principle behind user interface design is astonishingly simple, it should be easy for the user to use it. Now the use is made easier if the designer tries to follow the generally accepted practice as much as possible, that way user doesn't have to learn anything extra for using the interface. This is why right mouse click works almost identically in the similar contexts. Which is why there is no reason (except that customer care is staffed with sadistic sociopaths) to explain the fact that quite a few companies design the interface so that the number to input in order to directly talk to their customer care executives is different from the usual one (number 9). This is irksome because one has to listen to complete automated message and remember the particular option as exception.

2. Not retaining Input: Now it seems obvious that if user enters some input (for example during authentication) it should be remembered for further use later in the process. Which is why it is very annoying when one has to repeat the same inputs to the customer case executive.

3. Non intuitive interface: The worst infraction is the interface which simply doesn't make sense, for example one has to go to enter a series of option before the option for direct communication with the customer executive becomes available, which is extremely frustrating when one has to do exactly that.

Bloggers Anthem

The List

Here is what I want to write about if the notion strikes me, swiss minaret ban, Pratap Bhanu Mehta, and Swapan Das Gupta.

Violence

Violence is the last refuge of incompetent. *

Isaac Asimov

Communism ....

Is acne of rich people.

Pat Buchanan Of The Cartel

Apparently Desi John Galt has gone full retard (bit.ly link).