Rungta’s Webmarks

Rungta’s has been Minted ∞

I’d been following Shawn Inman’s blog for some time now and have been tempted to use Mint (“an extensible, self–hosted web site analytics program” created by Shaun) multiple times since then. Shawn Blanc’s recent review sealed the deal and I’m happy to report that I’ve been very pleased with it so far. The slick interface alone was worth it! Highly recommended.

HEMA ∞

Wait, and watch. (Via Subtraction)

The Real Lost Season 4 Trailer ∞

Boy oh boy, this looks good! 42 days and counting… (Via The Tail Section)

J.K. Rowling appears on PotterCast ∞

Amongst other things, Jo talks about her plans for The Scottish Book, Harry being a Horcrux (or not) and about Hermione going back to Hogwarts to complete here N.E.W.T.s, unlike the other two.

Peter Jackson reconciles with New Line, agrees to produce Hobbit movies ∞

Sad that he won’t be the one directing them but good to know that this probably means we’ll see a lot of the roles being reprised by the Lord of the Rings actors.

New Weblings ∞

Some interesting websites that I discovered recently:

• Dopplr – A travel log which also keeps tabs on fellow travellers, wrapped in a beautiful interface
• Overheard.it – For some good laughs
• CommandShift3 – It’s like Hot or Not for websites

The Tales of Beedle the Bard ∞

Amazon.com, the winner of the auction for one of the only seven handwritten and self–illustrated (by J.K. Rowling, incase you’re not a Harry Potter fan) copies in existence has been kind enough to publish reviews of all the stories (two of which are up already) and share a few high resolution images of the book.

Realigns ∞

A few sites that’ve undergone a recent realign. In most cases the changes are very subtle and improve what was already an excellent design.

• Scott Stevenson’s Theocaco (as on 15th Dec’07)
• Shawn Blanc dot net (as on 15th Dec’07)
• Formula 1 (as on 15th Dec’07)

Climate talks in Bali near end amid row ∞

The Bush administration and their excuses to get away from reducing emissions in the US against most of the rest of the world. Curse them!

Lost Season 4 trailer online ∞

Can’t wait for it to get started. (Via The Tail Section)

Do websites need to look exactly the same in every browser? ∞

Go ahead, find out. (Via SimpleBits)

It’s official – Alonso is back with Renault ∞

Here’s hoping that Renault delivers a race–winning car and turns 2008 into one heck of a season, both for the drivers and constructors championships.

Sunny Affairs ∞

My friend Souvik’s new blog over at blogs.sun.com keeping track of the happenings of the open source world (sunny and otherwise) and his experience as Sun’s Campus Ambassador for UIET, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India.

Bee Movie ∞

Vanessa [Human]: …but I wanted to be a florist.
Bary [Bee]: Really?
Vanessa: My only interest is flowers.
Bary: Our new queen was just elected with that same campaign slogan.

Very enjoyable. Recommended if you like comedy and/or animation. (Official Site | Apple Trailers | Wikipedia)

Tesla Motors ∞

Startup sports car company on track to launch a car with sexy exteriors and zero emissions. 100% Electric. The car’s not yet in production but specs on their website claim 245 miles on a full charge and just 3.5 hours for a full charge. Oh and 0 to 60 mph in 4 seconds. (Via Rakesh)

Scribbles ∞

Simple new drawing app with a very clean and easy to use interface. The strokes are so delicious that I feel like licking them! (Via Daring Fireball)

LinkedList gets a 0.1 update, becomes 1.1 ∞

An update to my JavaScript plugin for displaying (well, sorting actually) blogrolls in a fancy way. New features include the ability to smoothly fade in the list when its done loading and, a feed detection system for links that aren’t syndicated feeds. Wordpress users stay tuned for a fancier way to add LinkedList to your blogs.

Planet Earth ∞

David Attenborough’s opening narration:

A hundred years ago, there were one and a half billion people on Earth. Now, over six billion crowd our fragile planet. But even so, there are still places barely touched by humanity. This series will take you to the last wildernesses and show you the planet and its wildlife as you have never seen them before.

By far the best documentary I’ve seen till date. Watching it’s 11 episodes brought feelings of wonder, sadness, amazement, fear, excitement, respect and awe. With breathtaking imagery, capturing sounds and stunning cinematography, I cannot recommend watching this enough. (BBC | Wikipedia | Trailer) (Via Rakesh)

Success ∞

One of those experiences every geek must’ve had.

Line Multiplication ∞

Cool trick! (Via Abhishek)

Its official: India to host its first Grand Prix in 2010 ∞

Apologies for the delay in reporting this news. The circuit is going to be build in Noida, which is part of the National Capital Region (NCR).

BBC’s Day in pictures: 13th November edition ∞

Skyline, child labour, exhibition, pollution, strike, bad crop, Santa and snow.

Saawariya ∞

You’ve probably heard enough about this movie if you’ve been in India for the past month, so this is for those of us not in India. “Saawariya” is, to quote Rohit Nag, “Sony Pictures’ first Bollywood venture, or for that matter any [Hollywood] studio’s.” Its directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali so it’ll definitely be worth checking out. It also marks the male debut of the fifth generation of Kapoors in Bollywood. (Official Site | Apple Trailers | Wikipedia)

Why open source? ∞

37signals’ David Hansson talks about the ways in which open source helps them. Also check out the excellent slides from Souvik’s presentation on an introduction to open source and Sun’s role in the open source community.

twitter.com/rungta ∞

Follow my tweets on Twitter.

Sleevage ∞

Blog about album cover art and its design. Some good ones (read: ones I read about) they’ve posted about - Metallica’s ‘Black’, Coldplay’s ‘X&Y’, Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’ and Fatboy Slim’s ‘You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby’. Oh and don’t forget to lookup the meaning of sleevage. (Via SimpleBits)

Panjab University Elections ∞

Souvik Das Gupta speaks out of experience:

One thing that I have learned in the past one month is that college life is more of an adventure than fun. And if one does not agree with, come to Panjab University during the elections.

I’ve been reading Souvik’s (or S.D.G. / “Dada” as we like to call him) blog since its inception and I’ve enjoyed it thoroughly. He wrote a new post about this year’s elections at Panjab University recently which prompted me to go through his archives and make a list of all posts with election stories / experiences because they’re too good to not pass on. So, here’s the list:

1. Election Nightmare – September ‘05
2. The Conspiracy – April ‘06
3. Think Different – September ‘06
4. 10..9..8…7…. – November ‘07
5. Side-Effects!! – November ‘07

Now some of these posts have non-elections content too so skip over that if you’re just looking for the election experiences.

Update: Added “Side-Effects!!”

TextMate’s ‘Create HTML From Document’ ∞

Scott Stevenson talks about how he used TextMate’s HTML export function to post syntax coloured code on his blog. Let me share my experience with syntax colouring code while we’re at it.

From the TextMate manual:

To the amusement of some and the frustration of others, TextMate currently features only limited printing capabilities.

While I discovered this to my frustration, search for an alternative solution led me to the ‘Create HTML from Document’ set of commands in the TextMate bundle. It does add an extra step if all you want to do is take nice print outs of your code, but I’ve found it to be really useful whenever I need to present code in any medium (by making use of Safari’s ability to preserve formatting of copied text).

Check out the article’s comments for some other suggestions for serving up syntax coloured code online.

More Music from the Motion Picture “Gladiator” ∞

The original soundtrack is brilliant, no arguments there. In fact that is what made me buy this one without much doubt, and boy am I glad I did. Its got some beautiful tracks, with ‘Duduk of the North’ being my favourite. Some of the score that was missing from the main album, like in scenes such as the desert journey, going under the carcasses before the first fight etc. is all there. Highly recommended for all soundtrack collectors.

Fight Club ∞

I had one of my most disturbed sleeps after watching the movie last night and I still haven’t fully recovered from it. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not, but its not ranked #28 on IMDB’s Top 250 movies of all time for nothing. (Official site)

Good and bad logo redesigns ∞

I’d come across a statement in a presentation by Cameron Moll:

Good designers redesign. Great designer realign.

This comparison is a great example of the same. (Via Signal vs. Noise)

Papa CJ ∞

इसने तो अंग्रेजों की बुरी तरह 'ले ली'।

The Superest ∞

Superhero showdown contest between Kevin Cornell and Matthew Sutter. (Via Daring Fireball)

WebKit gets CSS Animations! ∞

Absolutely great news! This is the kind of progress we should be seeing in web technologies.

Transitions are specified using the following properties:

transition–property – What property should animate, e.g., opacity.
transition–duration – How long the transition should last.
transition–timing–function – The timing function for the transition (e.g., linear vs. ease–in vs. a custom cubic bezier function).
transition – A shorthand for all three properties.

Download the latest nightly build and see the animations in action for yourself.

Californication ∞

Raunchy new TV series for mature audiences that just completed its first season (12 episodes). It may not cater to everyone’s tastes (or so I have discovered) but I enjoyed it. Long wait for season 2 though.

Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle ∞

I wouldn’t call it great, but it did have its moments. Good for one-time viewing. A sequel’s on its way.

Reliance contradicts, says Mukesh Ambani not the world's richest ∞

Turns out I was right in suspecting the numbers reported by Times of India.

Reliance Industries moved swiftly on Tuesday to deny a report that company chief Mukesh Ambani has become the world’s richest man thanks to a surge in stock market.

Of course they didn’t find it necessary to mention that the report in question originated, as far as I could track, from the Times of India group of publications.

Times of India: Mukesh Ambani world’s richest now ∞

I wouldn’t swear by numbers reported in a ToI article, but man it feels good to read that an Indian is the richest man in the world.

Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard: the Ars Technica review ∞

The most anticipated review of a Mac OS X release — John Siracusa’s on Ars Technica — is now up. A must read for any self–respecting Mac geek.

[Edit: The last sentence was originally ‘A must read for anyone who calls himself a geek.’]

Hamilton – why there’s still so much to celebrate ∞

With his on-track intensity and off-track charm, Hamilton has set Formula One racing on fire this season.

Indeed. Can’t wait to see how the next season unfolds and how the no–longer–a–rookie Hamilton performs.

Kimi Räikkönen wins the 2007 F1 World Championship ∞

The biggest race it was supposed to be, the biggest race it was. Seven points behind the leader Lewis Hamilton before the race and the winner of the season opener closed the season the same way. What a race it was!

Brazilian Grand Prix race preview ∞

Get set for the biggest (and the last) Formula 1 race of the 2007 season.

Cringley on the Apple/Google relationship ∞

Google needs Apple on that team for its financial power, its sense of the market, and to keep Steve Jobs in a known position so he doesn’t make any trouble. But I’m also sure Steve is questioning the strategy on a daily basis and twice a month threatening to pull out of the consortium of bidders Google has assembled.

However, I still find the idea of a Google Phone hard to digest. (Via Elsewhere.subtraction.com)

Shipley Ideas: iPhone games edition ∞

While listing the great iPhone features that can be made use of:

No other handheld consumer device is always on. Laptops go to sleep, as do DS Lites. Always on means that if we write social software, our iPhone can find other iPhones to talk to for us based on some criteria, and then notify us as it finds matches. Welcome to the REAL social, bitches.

I simply love this guy’s style of writing.

The Beginnings; synopsis ∞

Star Wars, Harry Potter, all the same. No? (Via Daring Fireball)

WooHoo! Leopard arrives 26th October ∞

9 days and counting…

Massa set to be behind a Ferrari till 2010 ∞

That puts an end to the ‘will Alonso move over to Ferrari’ speculation. Räikkönen’s current contract lasts through the 2009 season.

Annoying Orkut customs/habits ∞

Another one to add to the list of opinions on orkut that I’d published earlier. (Via Abhishek)

An Incovenient Truth ∞

The documentary (or global warning, as the poster says) that Al Gore shared this year’s Noble Peace prize for, just in case you haven’t seen it, or worse, haven’t heard about it yet.

Book now for the flight to nowhere ∞

All they want is the chance to know what it is like to sit on a plane, listen to announcements and be waited on by stewardesses bustling up and down the aisle.

वह कहावत है ना, “इट हैपेन्स अोन्ली इन इन्डिया!” (via kottke.org)

MacBook Pro Battery Update 1.3 Woes ∞

Battery Update 1.3 seems to have caused more problems that it solved. Since I’ve updated, my MacBook Pro shuts down (without a warning) when the battery has 50% charge remaining and my charger light starts flickering between orange and green when the battery charges up to around 92%–93%. I hope Apple issues a fix soon.

Microsoft System Center Ad ∞

Only Microsoft could possibly see a big panel of buttons and think “this must be what our customers want”.

Go Microsoft!

SahulTime ∞

The concept of SahulTime is similar to GoogleEarth, except that SahulTime extends each of GoogleEarth’s paradigms through a further dimension in time.

Created by Matthew Coller, my ‘Website Authoring’ lecturer.

StarCraft II Gameplay Videos ∞

Hi-Res Terran and Protoss gameplay videos. They’re huge downloads (around 650 MB) but definitely worth watching. Can’t wait for the game to be released.

Flight Patterns ∞

Video simulations of 24–hour flight patterns across the United States.

DesktopLyrics ∞

Nifty little (highly customizable) tool which display’s the currently playing iTunes song’s lyrics on your Desktop. (Via Macworld)

John Joseph Bachir interviews Allan Odgaard ∞

[JJB] ...if you hit “show scope” you sometimes see 4 or 5 levels of scope — for example SQL strings in PHP are scoped as SQL and are highlighted accordingly, but if you have a PHP variable in there, that’s scoped properly too — it’s just gorgeous. It’s a very sophisticated interaction one has with a text document. When you’re programming you know that the text has all this meaning. When you become a programmer, and as you become a better and better programmer, you become more aware of the different levels of meaning in a text document, and I think TextMate really brings that out.

[AO] And the more TextMate knows about your document, the more functionality you can actually hook up to it. For example commenting stuff– no matter which context you are in the commenting stuff will always do the right thing, as long as TextMate understands which context it’s in.

I absolutely love these particular TextMate features. The shortcuts stay the same, the bundles adapt their functionality according to the current scope.

Very insightful read about the development of TextMate. Allan also discusses some of the features he’s planning for the Leopard–only TextMate 2. (Via the TM Blog)

Unforgettable Photos ∞

On a much more serious note, some striking, disturbing and truly unforgettable photos. Makes me wonder what must’ve been going on through the minds of the photographers when they were capturing these moments. (Via kottke.org)

The World in only 7 pictures ∞

Oldie but goodie.

Vijay Mallya on his plans for ‘Team India’ ∞

Not sure how I missed this seeing as its been out since September 11th, but here’s what Mallya’s got to say:

The real excitement with an Indian-owned team will be the 200 million new fans that India will add to the Formula One community.

He’s also going to have the word ‘India’ in the team name and make the tricolour a part of the team logo. Overall this deal (which has now been approved by the shareholders) is going to, like he says, significantly boost Formula 1 interest back home.

Grimmy gets Lost ∞

Sadly, there’s no way of getting the fourth season anytime soon.

40 iPod Nanos ∞

Gotta say, they (both the Nanos and the photographs) look superb! (Via TUAW)

What a comment stream would look like in a meeting ∞

So true!

Design Can Change ∞

Noble cause, beautiful design, stunning photographs!

Will Pearson: London Photography ∞

Beautiful panoramas. (Warning: The website maximizes your browser window.)
(Via Aditya)

The Titanic sinking report from the New York Times archive ∞

Very interesting. Accessible to all now that they’ve got rid of their paywall. (Via kottke.org thru Daring Fireball)

iPhone & iPod: contain or disengage? ∞

Wil Shipley on recent Apple trends such as buy–twice–to–make–it–a–ringtone, buy–again–to–game–on–the–new–iPods, AJAX–apps–are–better–than–sliced–bread etc.:

But Apple has to always remember that simply making money CANNOT be its point of existence. The point of any company should be to make customers want to give it money, NOT to get money from customers. It’s a subtle distinction that is the difference between good and evil.

International Smartphone Market Share Distribution ∞

Interesting indeed. (Via Daring Fireball)

Yuvraj Singh shows what he's made of ∞

So it’s the end of the 18th over of a Twenty20 world cup match between India and England, the Indian batting innings. Some words are exchanged between Andrew Flintoff and Yuvraj and we see the umpire telling Yuvraj to back off. Then it was just pure AWESOME as the Punjabi munda hit 6 sixes in the six balls of the 19th over. Boy am I glad I watched this innings.

Update: Found a video of the six sixes on YouTube.

New Minimalism in web interface design ∞

Shouldn’t come as a surprise that I’m a fan of minimalism when it comes to design. (Via Elsewhere.subtraction.com)

Panic's Steven Frank on Windows vendors ∞

Having just set up XP in Boot Camp again over the weekend, I’m amazed again by how much better the experience is than using a Windows box built by an actual Windows box vendor.

You just install Windows from a retail disc, install the Boot Camp drivers from a second disc, let Windows Update reboot about 20 times, and you’re set. The resulting system is really fast and all the hardware works.

Although he’s just talking about his experience with a Sony VAIO, I’m yet to come across a single Windows vendor who has the common effing sense of bundling all their drivers into a single installer rather than 50 odd individual downloads.

Google Apps gets Presentations ∞

Presentations joins word processing and spreadsheets as part of Google Docs.

The 10 most polluted places on Earth ∞

Two Indian towns land the 3rd and 4th positions on the list. What’s worse is that the report claims ‘virtually no attempts’ are being made to clean up.

Josh's iTunes Album Art Grabber ∞

Unencrypted hi-res artwork from the iTunes Store is back! Just copy the album’s url from iTunes, paste it in the input field, hit ‘go’ and enjoy up to 1425x1425 1500x1500 pixels of album art goodness. You can also search for the album directly. (Via TUAW)

The micro compact home [m-ch] ∞

Apparently the few students who lived in them have all extended their stays for the entire year. (Via Rakesh)

Breathing Earth ∞

Watch as we continue populating the Earth and making it less sustainable.

We (Indians) have really got to get our act together. For starters, we need to get rid of stupid politicians who are hell bent on banning sex education in schools rather than increasing public awareness about the seriousness of the issue.

Designer talk: I’ve come across similar simulation websites but none so beautifully designed and logically implemented. Not a coincidence that my ‘Website Authoring’ lecturer was the one who showed it to us during today’s lecture.

Vienna 2.2 ∞

Better search and a refined UI amongst other changes in the latest version of the feed reader that I use.

Google Reader gets Search ∞

Finally!

Tendulkar is NOT retiring anytime soon ∞

“I am batting brilliantly at the moment. Even the thought of retirement has not crossed my mind,” Tendulkar said.

“I am still enjoying the game very much and want to play for as long as I can. Cricket means a lot to me,” he said.

The media just luuvs blowing things out of proportion, doesn’t it?

Be Afraid ∞

Awesome! (Via Daring Fireball)

David Pogue: “It was a joke, dude.” ∞

This is just sad.

“Tomorrow, Dreams Come True” ∞

I hope they do (and that would mean no fat nano)! (Via Daring Fireball)

Mallya and Mol set for Spyker takeover ∞

Sounds like its a done deal!

Vijay Mallya bids for the Spyker F1 team ∞

This can only mean good news for the scene of Formula 1 in India and if successful, will definitely make an Indian Gran Prix seem more realistic.

The Original Macintosh User Manual ∞

With sections explaining things like scrolling! Like the author, I find it strange though that all the pictures feature only men using it. (Via Elsewhere.subtraction.com)

Nokia's iPhone ∞

I guess a “Finland, start your photocopiers” banner is due at Macworld. Oh wait, they already did. (Via TUAW)

Mac OS X Welcome Movies through the ages ∞

I’ve always loved these movies. (Via Impulsive Highlighters)

Pray for Tarun ∞

I just found out about this. My friend Tarunvir Khurana and three others (Akshay Tyagi, Rahul Agarwal and Satvik Bhan) met with an accident near Rajpura in Punjab early morning yesterday. While the other three were critically injured, Tarun has gone missing since the incident. I call upon everyone to pray for his return and safety and a speedy recovery for the other three. I am grief-stricken and still finding it hard to accept this news.

Ferrari, McLaren, Ferrari, McLaren ∞

Damn, I can’t believe I missed the qualifying broadcast! Fours hours back I stopped my BBC and ToI news feeds from being updated so that I could watch the qualifying session of the Turkish Grand Prix without being spoilt but only 9 minutes after the broadcast ended did I remember why I was sitting bored waiting for something. Ah well, can’t wait to watch tomorrow’s race after almost a month without any F1 action.

Sigh… ∞

More on the subject:

• Ork/Cut, by Varenya
• Guide to Orkut: Part 1, by Tapan
• Orkut, by Aditya

That should give you a pretty good idea of what I think about orkut.

Seam Carving: content-aware image resizing ∞

Interesting new technique for resizing images dynamically and non-destructively. “Seam carving” uses information from the image in order to preserve the important features. You have to watch the demo to see it in action to realise how cool it really is. (Via Elsewhere.subtraction.com)

But there's only so many ways to do something, right? ∞

Jason Fried:

As a web designer you have a lot more options and variables and possibilities than a watch designer. Build something that’s yours. Make something you can call your own. Make your own mark. Cut the excuses and be a designer.

Apple Mail Nicknames Bug ∞

This was one of my biggest gripes about Mail.app. I was shocked when I first realised that Mail not auto-completing nicknames to their matching addresses was not some error on my part — the damn thing didn’t do it at all! Of course I don’t use Mail anymore, thanks to the lovely proxies at Monash. (Via Daring Fireball)

Impulsive Highlighters II ∞

A short description of the blog’s redesign. More on how we went about redesigning it in a week and our thoughts on Internet Explorer on Karan’s blog.

PolarClock ∞

A new concept clock. Available as a screen saver and a dashboard widget.

Google India Labs ∞

Indic Transliteration and Indic On-Screen कीboards — Google’s new offerings that they hinted about on Independence Day.

Impulsive Highlighters ∞

Yeah!!!

The Bourne Ultimatum ∞

My favourite from the series. Oh and I recommend waiting to watch it in a theatre if it hasn’t released in your country yet.

Combine PDFs ∞

Simple freeware utility to merge multiple PDF documents/images into a single PDF file.

Apple’s One–Time Hardware Discount for Students ∞

[…] if you’re planning to purchase an expensive Apple computer like a MacBook Pro and also happen to be a student above 18 years of age, you’re in fine luck.

Just in case you meet the above description and are unaware of this.

“We’re In This Together” ∞

Daniel Jalkut (of Red Sweater Software) on the 3rd party Mac software scene:

The Mac is a really attractive, trendy retail district. If the shops don’t remain classy, then the customers won’t keep coming. So it makes sense to support our competitors. We’re in this together.

Nice essay about the Mac developer community’s current state.

Chaos Theory : In India, a Retailer Finds Key to Success Is Clutter ∞

Mr. Biyani says he soon figured out what he was doing wrong. Shopping in such a sterile environment didn’t appeal to the lower middle-class shoppers he was targeting. They were more comfortable in the tiny, cramped stores — often filled with haggling customers — that typify Indian shopping. Most Indians buy their fresh produce from vendors who keep vegetables under burlap sacks.

Not very surprising but interesting nonetheless. (Via Signal vs. Noise)

Ninjawords ∞

A really fast dictionary… fast like a ninja.

When they say really fast, they mean really fast! Uses Wiktionary as its source. (Via Daring Fireball)

BuiltWith ∞

Enter a URL and BuiltWith tries to figure out and report the technologies that the web page uses. See what Rungta’s Webmarks is built with. (Via Aditya)

Google says “Namaste India!” ∞

Happy 60th birthday, India! We can’t wait to celebrate, but we’re going to wait a few days for the formal unwrapping of our gift to Indian users.

Let the speculation begin!

Keynote’s Alpha Tool ∞

I haven’t had a chance to try it out myself yet but it does sound promising.

Daring Apple ∞

But the point I’m making is not about the quality of the software, but the quality of the decision that made it possible. It is daring to the core and completely the sort of thing that Apple does and why people love Apple.

A must read.

Aamir Khan's Blog ∞

I came across the blog today morning and even though I really liked it, I decided not to link it here. In spite of that, I found myself recommending it to two friends, so I though I might as well post about it here. The blog was created as marketing fodder for the Lagaan DVD release but seems to me like Aamir’s caught the blogging fever.

“Get the fuck out. Now.” ∞

Months of research and development by a team of India’s top physicists have resulted in an ambitious plan to get them the hell out of the overcrowded, impoverished nuclear powderkeg, sources revealed Monday.

I stole the title so I refrained from stealing the quote as well. (Via Karan)

P.S. - You’ll have to follow both the links to make sense of what I’m talking about.

Of Keyboards and Men ∞

Bruno Fernandes offers an explanation for the re-arrangement of the special function keys in the new keyboard. I’m still against this move because a) I’m a left-handed user and b) switching back and forth between my MacBook Pro’s keyboard and the new one would be a real pain in terms of muscle memory. (Via Daring Fireball)

An Important Message for .Mac Customers ∞

Khoi Vinh offers a more accurate version of the .Mac upgrade announcement.

Dear .Mac member

We’d like you to know about some changes we’ve made to .Mac. We gave you more disk space. Aside from that, the service still sucks.

Since we know you depend on .Mac’s Sync functionality, we’re looking forward to getting another $100 from you at renewal time.

Sincerely,

The .Mac Team

Apple's Strange Moves ∞

While Apple launched some great products at their Macworld mini, some of their decisions made me go “what were they thinking”. Rob Griffiths points out three such moves in the linked article.

While I’m not so bothered by his third point (“the unspoken upgrades”), their keyboard sort of tears me apart. On the one hand I think it looks absolutely gorgeous, on the other I see the number pad missing from the wireless one and the completely random layout of the special function keys. I can think of no explanation to why they would do this. More on the keyboard at Maniacal Rage.

Macworld First Look : Numbers ∞

Rob Griffiths takes a look at Apple’s take on spreadsheets—Numbers, the new addition to iWork’08 which was announced at Apple’s August 7th special event.

I love the Numbers approach of having a canvas with multiple tables (and other objects) on each sheet rather than the entire sheet being an ugly grid.

Galaxy Wars ∞

Dr Rines likened the collision to “four sand trucks smashing together, flinging sand everywhere”.

The resulting galaxy expected to be formed by this merger/crash will supposedly be up to 10 times as massive as the Milky Way.

Fake Steve Unmasked ∞

You probably already know this if you follow FSJ but forgive me for sleeping at night.

MSN Censorship ∞

Adium developers have discovered that Microsoft censors IM messages with certain URLs (eg. ones with .info) in them.

The reason MSN gives for this censorship is that it’s to protect users from exploits that use certain URLs. The problem with this reason is that any URL could be an exploit URL; filtering by keyword just isn’t enough, because the attackers can always invent new filenames. The correct solution is simply to fix the exploits.

MSN mucks up URLs in other ways too. It wasted quite a lot of Karan’s and my time couple of years back when it was converting ftp.prateekrungta.com into ftp://ftp.prateekrungta.com. The program Karan was instructing me to use required the URL to be entered without the ftp:// prefix. Naturally it didn’t work. I can’t remember how we discovered that MSN was changing the instructions but I do remember that it left me with a bitter taste. I’m not sure if this is still true because I haven’t used MSN in ages and like the linked blog post, I recommend switching to Google Talk and convincing your friends to do the same.

Alonso stripped of pole for delaying Hamilton ∞

I shouldn’t have missed the qualifying session of the Hungarian Grand Prix yesterday because it was a very eventful one. Confusion between Massa and his engineers lead to his Ferrari not being refueled and landing him 14th position. Nick Heidfeld (BMW) outpaced Kimi’s Ferrari and finished with 3rd position on the grid. But the big controversy of the day was Lewis Hamilton being stalled by Fernando Alonso during their final pit stop not leaving him enough time for a final lap.

The Steve Ballmer Zune Ad ∞

Apparently, the Microsoft employee who created this got fired. (Via MacUser)

Document Palette ∞

Donationware that duplicates the Windows ‘New File’ contextual menu, Mac style. (Via MacUser)

The 50 Greatest Sex Scenes in Cinema ∞

Should come in handy when you’re trying to decide which movie to watch next. ;-)

savvySeed : My first paid stint ∞

I’ve been working with Rakesh and Tony (the co-founders) for about four months now and am really enjoying it. The savvySeed website is the first bit of my work to go public, but that’s just the teaser (if I can use that term). Stay tuned for the real thing.

One of the funniest webpages I’ve come across in a long time ∞

Don’t forget to try clicking! (Via Pogue’s Posts)

Microsoft Remote Desktop Client for Mac 2.0 Beta released ∞

I know a lot of people had been waiting for this.

Uncyclopedia ∞

From their ‘About’ page:

Uncyclopedia is an encyclopedia full of misinformation and utter lies. You might say it puts the “psych!” in “encyclopedia”.

Further down the same page, in the ‘Who runs this place’ section:

The wiki was launched to great acclaim, particularly when the British discovered it and proceeded to fill it with humour, rather than humor. At which point the Americans didn’t understand it any more.

Understanding HTML, XML and XHTML ∞

Its not exactly a new article but I just wanted to point this to everyone who writes code for the web. Some of your concepts about XHTML pages will certainly be squashed, I know mine were. I’ve been serving my pages as valid HTML ever since I read this back in September 2006.

The Dark Knight Teaser ∞

Yahoo! I’d been waiting for some update on the next Batman movie desperately.

Update: The Dark Knight teaser on Apple’s trailers site.

Karan’s review of Deathly Hallows ∞

The best review of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows I’ve come across so far. Obviously its chock–full of spoilers so I’d recommend not reading it if you plan to but haven’t read the book yet.

Behind the scenes of “1984” ∞

Behind the scenes footage of Apple’s revolutionary “1984” ad. (Via MacUser)

[HP Spoiler Alert!] Jo reveals a bit more post Deathly Hallows info ∞

Nineteen years after the Battle of Hogwarts, the school for witchcraft and wizardry is led by an entirely new headmaster (“McGonagall was really getting on a bit”) as well as a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.

She also reveals that Harry and Ron sort of take control of the Auror department and Hermione ends “pretty high up” in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. She hasn’t however told us who the new headmaster and DADA teacher are. (Via MuggleNet)

Faceball: your face, our balls ∞

Looks like real fun. Now I wish I had a beach ball to try it on someone. (Via Daring Fireball)

Evening clouds over Toronto ∞

Almost every photo on [daily dose of imagery] is worth linking to so I would highly recommend you to subscribe to ddoi’s feed. This is one of those where I think Sam outdoes himself!

Wall•E ∞

Pixar’s next movie, just incase you haven’t seen the trailer.

The Darjeeling Limited ∞

Should be a nice movie.

Thought Different ∞

Each iteration of Apple’s homepage, archived right from July 1997. (Via MacUser)

Store Wars ∞

“Your path will not be easy, for you must confront the evil lord of the dark side—Darth Tader.”

“YaaAaaa!”

“Tader was once a pupil of mine, before he turned to the dark side of the farm. He’s now more chemical than vegetable…”

Featuring Cuke Skywalker, Obi Wan Cannoli, Lord Tader, Princess Lettuce, Ham Solo, Chewbroccoli, C3Peanuts and Tofu D2.

Update: YouTube link, in case it is unavailable on the website.

European Grand Prix 2007 ∞

I know I’m a little late in reporting this, but what a race it was! Lewis Hamilton had a good start and thanks to the two BMWs colliding with each other, he was 4th at one point after starting from 10th. Then the track turned into a stream as it started raining heavily and cars were just flying out of the track, especially at turn one. It was quite funny to watch really. Then there was the red flag, yet another technical fault with Ferrari and Alonso overtaking Massa when we thought the race was over. All in all, a great race.

J.K.Rowling’s request ∞

I’d like to ask everyone who calls themselves a Potter fan to help preserve the secrecy of the plot for all those who are looking forward to reading the book at the same time on publication day. In a very short time you will know EVERYTHING!

Please please please don’t spoilt the book for us if you already know what’s going to happen, its totally uncool. We’ve waited for a long time for the seventh book and we deserve to find out things the way Jo intended us to. (Via MuggleNet)

iTrapped ∞

Clever thinking! (Via Zeldman)

Frenzic ∞

Addictive!

Happy iCal Day! ∞

:)

Banc de Sang Advertisement ∞

I have no clue what they’re trying to advertise but its surely worth a look. (Via Authentic Boredom)

Keep up buddy! ∞

Nice ad. (Via revieware)

Intel joins forces with Negroponte’s OLPC initiative ∞

After competing with the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative with their own $200 ‘Classmate’ machine, Intel seems to have finally been hit in their head and told to “do the right thing”. This is good news indeed for OLPC. Now, if only someone would hit the Indian government in their head and tell them to “do the right thing”…
(Also on Macworld)

No more US Grand Prix ∞

Well, not in 2008 at the very least. Everyone knew this was coming. It was just a matter of when.

Megazoomer ∞

Maximize your front–most window by hitting Command+Enter. (Via Karan)

QuickTime 7.2 ∞

Support for full screen viewing in QuickTime Player

Finally!

AppTrap ∞

A simple, free preference pane that allows you to delete an application’s associated files (in other words, perform a clean uninstall) when you drag the application to the trash. (Via TUAW)

Will it blend? ∞

Probably one of the most brutal videos you’ll ever come across.

Die Hard 12 : Die Hungry ∞

“He’s alone, he’s tired…”

Go on, watch it. I won’t spoil it for you.

Bellatrix’s role in Deathly Hallows – ‘very significant’ ∞

Helena Bonham Carter (Bellatrix Lestrange in OoTP) on Bellatrix:

“J.K. Rowling sent a message saying she’s going to be very significant in the last one.”

(Via MuggleNet)

Cursorcerer : Hide that nasty cursor ∞

A nifty little tool to hide your cursor at will. Useful when you use the control+scroll zoom or are watching something in full–screen.

Wil Shipley says, “Be Inflexible!” ∞

Another one of Shipley’s interesting posts. A must read if you’ve written computer code for something other than school. I’d flagged this article for linking to it when I read it back in May.

Harry Potter Book 7 – a bloodbath? ∞

Jo recently appeared on the Jonathan Ross show and at one point said two characters who were originally going to survive through the end are now going to die. She then said this doesn’t mean that only 2 characters die in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – its going to be a bloodbath! Well that’s not very surprising but hearing it from her seals the deal. She also said that there’s a chapter towards the end, finishing which made her “absolutely howl”. Did she kill Harry? Was it Ron, Hermione or all three? Eleven days before we find out. There’s also a Dumbledore’s Army scence from the OoTP movie in the linked video. (Via MuggleNet)

The 'New' Seven Wonders of the World ∞

I’m glad Taj Mahal made it, although I don’t think internet voting was the best way to reach a conclusion about something like this.

iPhone : The Musical ∞

You’ve got to simply love funny man David Pogue’s videos. You can get the lyrics for this one from his blog.

The new Batmobike(?) ∞

Looks cool! We’ll have to wait until July 2008 to see it in the sequel to Batman Begins – The Dark Knight.

Leopard Beta reviewed at ImHi : Speed, Stability and Compatibility ∞

Dashboard seems to have gotten its much required speed boost.

Leopard Beta reviewed at ImHi : System Preferences ∞

Better grouping of the services and firewall; Printer Setup Utility merged with the Printing preferences.

Leopard Beta reviewed at ImHi : UI, Finder and Dock ∞

Stacks (in Leopard) could do with a bit more polish. Excellent review though.

Hello World ∞

Welcome to my Webmarks list. Ever so often I come across a webpage which I want to tell people about. Emailing the link to friends works just fine but that has a limited reach. So, here’s my attempt at a ‘Webmarks’ list. Don’t worry, its not going to be a blind copy of whatever goes on Gruber’s Linked List, I’ll shuffle some words before copying ;-).