Alpha Beta Gamma Google

Did you know that Gmail is still in beta. Its been more than 3 years since it has come into existence and since then it has been in beta!

Given that the company in question, you would expect it to have moved out of beta long back. But as the googlesystem blog says ,

"Gmail still has problems with scalability and server errors are still frequent"

For me, Gmail has hardly thrown any errors. Maybe 5-6 times in a year perhaps. Hardly noticeable. High standards perhaps but I am still curious how different the final release will be from the current version.

And Then We Could Go No Further

Memories of a great trip to Sikkim. Will write more some other time :)

Pure Genius!

Its a joy to see pure genius at work. I always wondered how it would have felt when Einstein's Theory of Relativity was first published, or when the news of the Wright brothers' first flight got around. How it must've felt to have witnessed history in the making.

I guess it wouldn't have been different from what I felt during the recently held Wimbledon Finals between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. It was an epic struggle lasting for 4 hours and 50 minutes!!

Well that's beside the point. All I want to say is that it feels really good to have grown up in a time which has seen its own share of geniuses( a fairly large share at that ! ) and feels even better watching them create history. Like watching Federer make a sublime backhand return, or Sachin hitting a boundary with a cover drive, or Amitabh delivering a dialogue in his trademark baritone or Rahman dishing out fresh songs with even fresher sounds!!

Buffalo Buffalo Had Had Had Had

1. Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo

2. James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher

The two sentences you see above are grammatically correct ( except for missing punctuation marks ! ).

Surprised??Unbelievable??

Check out the Wikipedia links then

The Buffalo One The Had Had One

So much for lexical ambiguity !!

P.S: It took a while before I could comprehend the wiki entries :D

The Magical World Of Hayao Miyazaki

Advanced graphics and animation, with 3d figures and great motion physics can be awe inspiring. But then, what is animation? why should we use animation?

Profound questions. No I won't even attempt to answer them. Its too much effort and every answer I can think of would be too trivial. So thats it.

But then I have to share with you relatively unknown but so creatively refreshing animation style of a Japanese animator - Hayao Miyazaki.

Miyazaki follows the clear animation style, much like the style used by Herge in Tintin. Clear and simple lines, and simple colours. And like his animation the plots are equally uncomplicated.

There are no villains in his stories. And the hereos aren't invincible either. They are plain simple folk, like us, often enmeshed in a magical world. Like Chihiro in Spirited Away, whose parents are trapped as pigs by the witch of a bath house( meant for spirits), or the two kids ( Satsuki and Mei ) who find a magical creature as they explore their new home in the country side in My Neighbour Totoro .

Each movie is a treat to watch and it is impossible to be untouched by the magical world of Hayao Miyazaki !

Of Democracy & Intelligence

Just came across today's (1st July, 08 ) news article on CNN-IBN regarding the nuclear deal with the US and the UP chief minister, Mayawati's reaction ,titled : Maya lashes out at UPA, calls N-deal anti-Muslim

Her logic , as the article states .... ‘‘the deal is being made at the cost of cheaper gas from Iran and the Muslims are vehemently opposed to it.” ...
She took a stand on the n-deal, and is now giving reasons far more worse than what a 5 year old kid might give. I mean, the only Muslims who "might" be affected in an adverse way would be the ones in Iran.

Take two hot issues ( in this case, the n-deal , and the Muslim vote bank ), use them in a sentence and you've got a nice press statement. Way to go !