my kids’ anatomy class ;)

Watch it once for each. They both have different expressions and tasks.. chiccheswaram & banneswaram are the latest nicks doing rounds..

thanks,
<balu />
గెలిచేవరకూ ఓడిపోగలిగే సత్తా ఉన్నప్పుడు కోరుకున్నవాటికన్నా కోల్పోయినవే ఎక్కువుండటం పెద్ద సమస్యేంకాదు.

flickr vs picasa :: a hard comparison

I waited too long to publish these points just for the sake of cross checking ‘em all.. but now I realized it is not possible without actually using the Picasa.  And I won’t be doing that anytime in the near future.. so I just decided to publish the raw table as is and take the help of my friends and other readers to do the corrections wherever necessary.

	flickr	picasa
storage	100MB every month (means unlimited in the end) is enough for many of us	1GB total. Anything addl to be rented
Viewing	for free accounts, only the latest 200 pics are shown to viewers. You can still upload new ones every month based on monthly limit. Old pics linked in blogs etc continue to appear there	you can’t upload anymore once the 1GB limit is reached.
private sharing	guest pass – you can view stats on each pass	auth code – share by email.. no further stats
image sizes	stored in various sizes automatically	one original size optimized for web viewing if needed
license	various types of creative commons	copyrighted to invidivual
groups	lotsa pro circles to share/discuss	not any that i know of
social	twitter,facebook buttons and various blogs	same here
publish	who knows, some magazine can call you for a pic anytime	not any that i know of
upload	mobile, desktop, email and also some one touch apps	same here
downloads	visitors can download any of the sizes available	only one size
videos	only 90 sec duration (2 per month for free accounts).	1gb per video
people categories	different controls for friends,family, public, private	only public and private
picture categories	a basic photo stream, then sets and then collections	albums
geo features	geofence – a privacy control based on geo locations	not available
editor	3rd party editors	same here
seamless integration	not available	picasa tool is available
upload type	JPEG, PNG, non-animated GIFs. anything else will be converted to JPEG	only JPEG (remember this is a lossy format)
HD videos	you can upload 1 as a free account, but only pro accounts can play back in HD format	no HD
feeds	RSS feeds on uploads, comments etc.	not any that i know of
community	leaps and bounds ahead of the 2nd place with millions of users.	i don have numbers but its not the first
automatic face recognition	not available	available (someone pl confirm)
Search	superior. you can search based on content, tags, comments etc	available. (pl give your feedback)
Cost	pro account costs some ~25$ p.a with unlimited space, upload limits etc	~5$ p.a starting “20GB”
Inactivity	free accounts are deleted after 90 days of inactivity	tied up with G account which is eternal

.
pl let me know if you find any discrepancy or wherever you want the content to be modified. I want to make this the final comparison as I don’t find one this exhaustive anywhere in the web.  Now I believe this helps you making a choice and perhaps you can let me know in the comments section

t h a n k s ,
< balu />

I saved the kitten but..

When my wife told me that there was a kitten at the gate, I knew what could possibly be happening downstairs.  Two humans trying to push it outside with a stick and the two dogs waiting on the other side with gleefully dirty claws.  And when I picked it up, i could see that strange expression on their faces. I knew I can’t keep the kitten at my home for various reasons., but I also knew i can do something quick. I brought it up and found that its mustaches were trimmed may be by those unruly kids on the road.  There were 3 wounds not exactly bleeding but explaining why the kitten was shaking wildly.  It was not even drinking milk.

I had only two options.  Raise a request for adoption or call  some NGO that takes care of the kitten.  I really appreciate CUPA for responding immediately. (inside veterinary college campus, near mekhri circle, bangalore. phone: 22947300). The 15 km drive to their place was so soothing inspite of the bumpy roads and insane bangalore traffic, may be because I knew I was doing a good thing. But then, it opened gates to another new world I was not completely aware of.

In the past, I visited ICUs, old-age homes, rehabilitation centers and even mortuaries that exposed me to the pain of human beings. But, I never knew there was so much suffering in the animal world too… at least, I never thought of it seriously till today.  I saw so many dogs almost of all sizes and other animals there in very bad physical conditions. Most of them were strays rescued from the streets.  The center was a large space doing a very good job. I couldn’t stop appreciating the courteous staff that quickly admitted the kitten and made me sign some papers. May be that was all I owed to that hapless kitten.

When the suffering makes you deny the existence of God, the saviors let you believe in him.

In the end, this episode made me take only one decision. That a tiny part of my salary from today would go to animal welfare too…. just the little i can do for now

thanks for reading,

balu.

why/how FireFox beats every other browser

‘I use Chrome for its speed’

‘I am surprised you don’t use Safari.. its so integrated you know’

‘I am used to it and happy with IE.. am only 55 years old no?’

‘I don’t have a choice but use whatever I feel is suitable for my work/environment.. so using xxxxxx’

These are only few of the comments we frequently overhear from the people who chose to use a particular web browser. There can be many reasons for that choice or may be none.  The Web Browser market currently has only a few big players like Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera and some other minor share holders. With every new release by a major vendor, there will be a certain effort to come up with some technical statistics to prove which browser is best and which is not (at that point of time).  There can be differences in the way two such independent efforts calibrate a browser and their units of measurement, where one says X is the best and the other argues against X.  This only adds to the confusion of the user and it is true that he perceives/approves what he ‘blindly’ believes.   Of course, not everyone will have time to personally check it out.

Now, enters the author (its me yar ). I spend at least 10 or more hours every day in a browser and an equal time in chat & IRC clients.  Because its the way my job is defined.  I am one of those true netizens, half in the least of whose daily life is Internet.  So for me, the technical statistics alone won’t suffice to make a choice.  So I looked around to see what actually is happening in this market. So I observed people why/how they are choosing… and so I have observed why/how they are missing the point

As I see it, choosing a web browser must always consider the 4 following pillars of thought (in that order):

• performance
• user-centricity
• monetization philosophy
• add-ons

I don’t talk anything about performance., because there are always an innumerable tests conducted with various industry metrics.  You can easily find them, if you care to. Firefox (latest build) obviously tops the charts, more or less.

User-Centricity is something I find very interesting.  Everyone wants to lure the user and wants him to stick with.  How much more convenient i can make something for you?  How can I make it more appealing to you? et cetera  .. It all revolves around ‘YOU’.. I need not explain this and I find the usability/accessibility features in Firefox are only getting better with every release. And I agree, its the same with other browsers too…

Monetization is something that quickly follows.  How to monetize a user’s browsing patterns? What can be done to make more money, because this user is a dumb-ass and blindly makes choices… is what drives certain browsers. Many people don’t know what happens internally when they browse.  Its not just you asking for a web page and the server returning it.  How many clicks you make on a page, where you clicked, what amount of a page you scrolled down, how you are moving in between web sites, what data are you storing thats related to a site, how many web sites you visit, what are they, and what type (adult content, sports, news.. ), how many tabs are you opening, what and where are you searching, typing it in the url bar or in the search bar, then your search patterns… oh! Everything you do in a browser is being tracked by someone somewhere.  And they want to make some money out of it Pl check the PS section below to know why I think Chrome lost in the ‘monetization philosophy’.

And then, the Add-Ons!  what we call the saviors.. From a ‘downloadHelper’, WOT for normal users to the ‘FireBug’, ‘foxyproxy’ likes for the savvy, the super rich repository of Firefox is just unbeatable.  You only have to experience them, to understand the comfort and power that adds on.

So, how would it all make up to choose firefox?

Because as I see it, firefox deals with all these four points very graciously.  And there is absolutely no trade-off between any two of the four points above.  The single most page that I so admire is the ‘mozilla’s mission’ saying ‘We are building a better Internet’. The kind of proposals they come up with for a better future like ‘do-not-track’ or ‘browserID’ etc are only a taste of the philosophy behind an awesome community that truly respects the user.  I can go on writing unique comfort points like url-tagging etc but I don’t want to make this a technical discussion.

I choose firefox because it respects me and my browsing experience.  Every other browser has lost the battle in at least one out of these four points.

t h a n k s ,
< balu />

PS:    I can’t derate the technical prowess of Google or their investments (time, money, research.. ) in trying to make anything simple and efficient… Most of the products are surely cool for all registered users and thats a pretty good business G is doing with this ‘coolness’. So, what do you think are the reasons for Google coming up with a browser? Do they want to track ‘unregistered’ users too? (that would be tons of times more money than ‘registered’ users can ever generate)… Or is it because of the increasing role of a browser as a standalone answer application and they want to build a better Internet around it? aaah! one thing is ‘definitely certain’ that they want to make good money out of it. Chrome is a business for Google where as Firefox is a passion for the community. Chrome tries to grab as much information/behavior of you to ‘serve you better’… Google Search would return superior results if you search for a ‘Chrome Privacy Issues’ too.. but how many of the users would be caring for all this instead of happily generating more money for G? On the other side of the world, Mozilla and Stanford’s Do Not Track submission to the IETF etc are only few of the hints that they are trying to make it rather a truly better and ‘healthy’ Internet. In Mozilla’s own words: ‘Web is a shared public resource to be cared for, not a commodity to be sold’. Even simpler examples:

1. What is the first page that is opened when you install/open a chrome latest? ‘angry birds’? and what with Firefox? so what is the difference?
2. Try visiting http://donottrack.us/ from Chrome and then from Firefox. why? why? why can’t chrome offer this functionality, if a better web is what they wanted? :p
3. I can go on more.. but for now

I hope you understood why I said Chrome lost in the ‘monetization philosophy’.. pl let me know.

My favourite words on Individualism

Many years back, when I read those paragraphs, I shivered to grasp the intensity with which it promotes Individualism and the Freedom of Mind.  I admired Ayn Rand for the famous work ‘The FountainHead’ and I present here to you my most fav part of the novel, the appealing speech mr.Roark gives defending himself.  This is one of the audio bits i always wanted to collect and keep in my library.  It is little contextual but the verve it propagates is universal. I thank the author and all the crew who made this work available to the audience like me and I am deeply thankful to all of them for enriching my experience and broadening my mind.

I believe you will not feel the 6 minutes wasted, by listening to this.  Pl let me know.

thanks,
<balu/>

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