Chrome 10: Close to a perfect Web Browser 10

I’ve liked the Google Chrome Web browser since it first showed up in 2008 . Today, with the slipstream release of Chrome 10, I may finally be ready to retire all my other Web browsers.

The reason I’m considering doing this is quite simple.Chrome 10 is screamingly fast. It’s more than ten-times faster than its first version was in dealing with JavaScript. It also leads all other of today’s Web-browsers when it comes to raw JavaScript processing speed with its new “Crankshaft” V8 JavaScript engine .

How much faster? Well on the SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark 0.91 test, Chrome left most, but not all of the other Web browsers eating its dust. I tested Chrome 10 on my Mint Linux 10 PC and was impressed. For benchmarking it though I decided to run it on my Windows 7 SP 1 system so that the forthcoming Internet Explorer 9 could get its innings in.

My Windows 7 test PC is a Gateway DX4710. This PC is powered by a 2.5-GHz Intel Core 2 Quad processor and has 6GBs of RAM and an Intel GMA (Graphics Media Accelerator) 3100 for graphics. It’s no speed demon, but it gets the job done. It’s hooked to the Internet via a Netgear Gigabit Ethernet switch, which, in turn, is hooked up to a 25Mbps (Megabit per second) cable Internet connection. On this system, I then ran the SunSpider benchmarks three times for each browser,

IE 9, despite my hopes that it would show better, came in, a dismal last with a mark of only 1,185.8-ms (milliseconds). As for IE 8…. Well let’s just say it lagged even further back. That said, it should be kept in mind that only a year ago IE 9’s numbers would have been great. Today, not so much. IE 9 was followed by Firefox 3.6.15, the latest shipping version, with 945.0ms.

 

Apple’s Safari 5.03 took third place in my impromptu Web browser drag race with an impressive 422.1ms mark. And, coming up right behind Chrome, there was the Firefox 4 beta 12 with a time of 388.0ms. But, winning by a small margin, there was Chrome 10 with a speed of 321.0ms.

If it were speed alone, it would be a close race, but while Chrome 10’s pure speed is impressive, it’s not the whole story.

Beyond Pure Speed

Chrome now places its setting in its own tab. This makes it both easier to get at them and to work with them. It didn’t sound like much of an improvement to me, but after a few hours of tinkering with Chrome 10, I actually found it quite useful. If you’re not sure where the right setting is, Chrome also includes a search mechanism so you can quickly find it.

The new browser also gives you the power to sync Web browser bookmarks and passwords between all your PCs using Chrome no matter whether you’re running Chrome on Linux, Mac OS X, or Windows. I loved these feature in Xmarks, which is still, to the best of my knowledge, the only browser extension that lets you share bookmarks and passwords across Web browsers, and I love seeing this functionality built into Chrome. If you’re like me, and using multiple PCs and laptops during a day, it’s an invaluable addition to your Web browser arsenal.

Chrome, which has always scored well in security, has extended its sandbox security style to its built-in Adobe Flash Player. What this means is that even if something tries to use Flash to put malware on your computer, the mis-behaving program is stuck inside a virtual sandbox where it can’t get to the rest of your PC. This technique has worked well enough that Google is offering a cool $20,000 to anyone who can break out of the Chrome sandbox and exploit a Windows 7 PC in the upcoming Pwn2Own 2011competition.

Even if a security hole is found, I’m not too worried about it. Not only is Google willing to put its money behind finding and fixing bugs, Chrome is based on open-source code so its problems will always be easy to tind and then fix.

The only thing that some people will object to is that Chrome 10, as Google had announced, no longer supports H.264. I don’t see this as a huge problem because, like it or lump it, the default video standard for the Web is Adobe Flash. Google hopes it will become its own VP8/WebM video codec and container standards, but that’s a story that’s going to take years to resolve. Suffice it to say that if you really need H.264 support in Chrome, and you’re running Windows,Microsoft has a H.264 plug-in for you. If, in the end, it turns out H.264 does become the Web video standard, then Google will restore this functionality.

In short, while Web video standards are a big deal, Google not supporting H.264 in this version of Chrome isn’t a big deal.

Today, I’m not worried about H.264 support. Today, I’m happy that Chrome 10 is proving to be such an exceptionally secure and remarkably fast Web browser. A perfect 10? No, not quite, but closer than anyone else out there for now.

Love @ first sight !! again..??

Love @ frst sight again...!!



the beginning

Lets get back to time.. When.. Our hearts were true.. Where v had true friends...:) school time...wow.. I still remember. The time.. So much fun irrespective of so much of pressure n discipline it was the best part of my life. I still cherish the fun n masti we did.. It is really gud sumtimes ride down the memory lane...!!

Ooohh. I remeber dis thng. :P it was the time when i was in 11 standard n we were like having our so called final practicals. Hah.! They were fun.lol !!
Our last practical was of physics. Wuh darn i still hate dis subject duh!... Grrr...! Ohk.. By any how. By tepofying the readings in d experiment and by giving d so called viva by hook or crook we some how managed it :p
but v guys were happy to give the practical.( dnt get it wrng.. Hehe.. It was only because of the teacher v had... Wow.. Evry boy had crush on her .. Wow .. Osm ) ooopse cmng to d topic :p
so v had d pract thng over.. N evryone was happy as they finally got rid of the 11th class.. Or wait. (result will decide bt for the time bieng evrybody was on cloud 9) and so was me...!!

Returning to my class room from the phy lab.. With thoughts in my mind planning for that evening out with friends... But WAIT what i saw.. THOUGHTS JUST GOT SHOO AWAY..!!
OMG OMG... what i saw was.. Group of girls belonging to commerce section of my batch...but dis time it was something unusual with them... I got my eyes fix on this somebody..!
I saw her for the firsttime .. @ d school. Wow. Mahn.. I was dumb struck.there only...

She was like a osm blossom :p
her eyes omg m still not over them. With d lil kajal arnd dem. N somewhot thodi chinky chinky types..
Her streak of hair. On her face.. Sliding through her cheeks. Wow dis had olready blown me away...
She was busy. With her commerce file work ...
Huh THAT WAS THE SECOND TIME I THOUGHT. Y I AM NOT IN THE COMMERCE STREAM. HAH! DARN..!! Never mind..
Aftr i recovered from ol these mind boggling thoughts..

They were olready in their classroom....
Me too, recollecting my thoughts, Joind my gang. And went towards my class...!!

Time goes n passes away... Evryone gt through 11th.. N stepped into last year.. OmgLAST YEAR OF SCHOOL...!! .. N guess what i was still not able to gather any courage to approach the commerce girl. :P(dis name i will b using in dis post 4 her :p)
still evrytime i saw her in school i dont knw what went through my Mind. I was dumbstruck..!! Jst.. Smiles eyes woukd do all the stuff..lol but only from my side haha.!!

AROUND MID OF THE YEAR. A SCENE OF THE LAST PERIOD..

As the diwali was on its pace so did.. D cracker burstin in d school. So as usual all the council teams had to be on duty in the last periods. And fortunately i was a part of it. and M VERY GLAD TO BE IN As due this only i cLD OFFICIALLY BUNK MY CLASSES. Haha..
So it was usual day v were on our corridors.. I ws with my group which comprised of some fun loving n vichitre pranise.(humans) haha but they r very special to me till nw. :))
yea so what v saw that the commerce girl was coming from another corner of corridor...
I was like dis fatu person. Jst went into the adjacent class room..
But my friends r my friends. Haha as she was arriving nearer.. They all started. Shouting.
'manik come outside there is somebody to meet you..mahn i was shy.. They were teasing like hell.. And she could hear all that if she wanted to... '

but wait a second. What just happens..

Commercegirl :' hey ____(reffering to my frnd) can you just give this to manik.handing over a bunch of circulars'

me: wtf... She knows me.. Omg.. *Blush ...

Frnd: hey w8 he is inside the class. Better you hand this over to him directly...'

commerce girl: ok..! (coming inside d class) hey u r manik na???

Me: (on cloud 9) yes.. Whathappen??

Commerce girl: (smiling) these our basant house nxt ajendas . Rashi ma'am gave them to me to give it to u..'

me: ohhh.. K.and then i said smthng( i dnt remember Only thng i remeber last Was her smile...:) ).

After she had gone i was like in OMG Mood... :) @last i had a word with her. Amazing.. ONE OF THE BEST DAYS OF MY LIFE :P..!!

this incident kept me moving for a few upcoming days....:))
evrybody were helping me out to reach her.:) or just to be friends.z:P:D
whatever all this was useless.:x cause as soon as she comes infront of me.. umm like speechless totally..!!
while in the mean time i tried the best way to approach a girl or to be with friends and ie our FACEBOOK..!!!
i tried each and every combination of her name to find her.. but evrytime i got 6 results of her name.. in which she was no where..
i tried searching in the best way i could.. but social thing prooved to be failed...!!
never-mind .. i boosted up my spirits.. and tried to make things normal . with my self..!!
and i thought. it to be just another eye-catching crush for me.. so i gave it some time so that i can shoo her out of my memories. or mind or wotever...!!

time passes by. so does stndrd 12.. but my friends were still the same teasing n pulling leg. about her.. but some how it felt good to listen or talk about her..:))





TEACHERS DAY..!!

as part of senior council team. its duty of them to make the function of junior most kids teachers day function for teachers a success.:)
it was fun to teach tiny tots dance.. fun to be with them..
we guys were almost on oficial bunk from last past one week,busy with the little kids.

the day had arrived junior wing teachers day function .. it was supposed to start @around noon.
so for a change we guys visitited our so called classes. n guess.what chemistry teacher was there with unit test papers haha.:P
but not to worry the result was not too bad ..:D

As the function got started.. it was nice to see little kids dancing.. away.:) on love aajkal songs.:) it was a once more performances
by them..
but wait let me c the stage clearly..:)
wowo who was @ the coordinating section wow wow.:P she was the commerce girl.:)
i kept my self calm. and enjoyed the show. then whole of our senior team was called on the stage for dance performance. we did that..
n after it was a casual dance and ya how can i miss that. she did join with us and was just after me..
we shared smiles and yea i missed one more chance to bring out my feelings to her..
cause by this time i was sure that its not the regular crush..!!:)




FAREWELL : BID ADIEU

It was the time for farewell and every one was excited about it..
its a day to remember.. for lifetime...!!

everyone was excited about the clothes/dresses they were gonna wear.., last time meeting school teachers, last time to see their school, last time to be a part of it...
we were having so many emotions attached with the school it was started.. by nurturing us from tiny tots to a perfect gentleman..or human being . It has given so much to us.. so every one was excited. and were in full swing.

on the day of farewell ie 17 february 2010...

wow the students were looking grown ups now.:) it was very nice to see all the girls in sarees and suits and boys in coats n suits,:)
we were sitting " dere respective seats.:) and insanely clicking pictures of eachother.:)
we were enjoying the function and various dance performances..
suddenly one of my friend asks me to just c who is sitting behind my seat..
(hahaha dude its the destiny now).. she was the same commerce girl.. wearing red maroon colour saree looking gorgeous like ever,, and believe me she was the best looking girl in that hall at that time.:)
omg i have lost my self again..haha i looked i smiled and said hi.. she did the same,,
but damn i wanna say more then that to her.. but i could not.:x
never mind we guys enjoyed the function , did lots of dance. till the dj lasted.:)

evrybody were clicking thousands of photographs with eachother with the teachers...and so was i...
the function was over.. everybody was having some plans to hangout..
then for the last time my friends boosted me up to go up to her.:) and ask her out..
usualy i dont come under their influence so easily .. but this time was different..haha me my 1 of the friend. walk aftr till the school gate. she was standing there with one of her friend.. waiting for her car..
and by chance her friend was busy on call or something.. as a matter of fact she was alone. and i have full chance to go and ask her out..
i can bet my heartbeats were as fast as metro rail that time... i started moving towards her.. omg i was nervous hell.:P :d
she was just 10 -15 steps away from me..
but i stopped i could not move any more. dont know y.. and until i change my decision again her car was already there she was about to move..
damn. i was the fool i lost such an amazing chance...shish..!!


it took me 2 hard canes of thumsup to regain the momentum on myself after that.:P :D..!!!




BOARDS STRESS... FUTURE.. URGGHHH SYSTEM DOWN..!!!
boards were arriving...
9 days before our first exam that is phy exam.. it is like evrythng is messed up but stil i could get some time for socializing my self,,
surfing facebook i just by chance searched her name.. but wait a second i cant believe this 3 result in the list was her with a mindblowing display pick .. i was again lost in it hah .!! damn...
i sent the friend request.. and believe me that day, i went online after evry hour to c weather it is been accepted or what.:P :d
next moring 10.45 am.. i got a msg on my cell. from facebook
"____ ____ has accepted your friend request,,,"
waoh.. but unfortunately that was used to be my sleeping time.:x so by the time i saw it it was already 11.30 by my watch and she was offline..
but yea it felt nice. then i went through her profile reading each and evry thing.. with more concentration as compared to in preparing for phy course.:P :d

and i was the first one in her friend list from our school..:)
i started it with by messaging her on facebook,.!!
and i got positive and friendly reply from her..
we started talking interacting with each other.:)
i was on coud 9 those days.:)
finally on the morning of physics exam.. we all guys gathered @ the examination centre. i told my friends about all this and they were like .." haha you did it atlast." :P
exam was over..
and i was too much escited for my next one cause that is of english. one of the subject science student and commerce ones have in common.:)

morning of english exam i was excited.:D my eyes were searching her in the vast crowd of 2 different schools ..
and i found her. wow as usual such a refreshing face. :)
" we met. wished Each other good luck and moved into the respective rooms.."

like this the exams went by and by..!!
now i was left with two exams. maths and computers..
and maths was the last exam which the two streams had in common... so i had decided to convey my feelings to her..
but thought came was disturbing me.. that its better i should do that aftr exams cause if something bad happens i dont wana screw up with any of my exams..

maths exam was over.. just left with 1 last exam.. !! n my friends have already lost any hope that i would ever speak out anything to her...

as soon as the exams got over..i decided to write something to her. dont know what but something...i thought whole night..
and ended up writing this stuff.." ..


"Hey ________. Realy wntd to. .say smthn to u! Its been 1 year. .4m d end of clas 11 i have been seing u. ! N i was just! Wow! Was krazy 4 u. I thot it would b some attraction or something. .but. .twas not d case dis tym yar !:-) i tried to approach u many times but. .every time tere samne aake i usd to b speechless! Ur osm eyes olways make..me nervous! seriously yar. .dere is always an unusual smile after seeing u! I stil remember during junior students teachers day u joined d dance stage with us! N even d day when i found u on facebook. .twas like dream cum true! 4 me! :-) really ♥ ♥
i even tried to ask u out on farewell wen u were bout to go. .n was standing alone outside d school. .but damnd?! Ws speachles as usual!
Though i know that. .u dont know me that well. .n its too early. .4 us! So atleast can v b good . .frnz. . Twld b very kind of u!:-)
n m realy sory if i hurt. .u in any way. .i know its very stupid of me! Saying u all dis! But. .i can least do dis. ! N i think. .twld b last tym v wld b seeing each other on 22!! So now its all on u. .wot to do?? Plz dnt take me wrong in ne case. !! I respect ur decision whats so ever it is! I hope u will take dis in good spirit!:-) .

_____"



omg i wrote this before my last.. exam..:) ~~
i dont know what came into my mind i just send this on her facebook message ...
atlast i have conveyed my feelings to her i was relaxed..
i was not afraid of her decision cause i only wanted her to b a good friend ....



HER REPLY. OR THE CHANGING MOMENT..!!

I kept waiting for her reply unfortunately they had their last exam to go . she was not coming online from some days..
i again sent her message after 4 days of the message.:

"hey yar..no reply..hmm..!! yar agr tjhe bura laga ho to sry..:|./"....

no replies that day too..
but after exact 5 days n 4 hours and 24 minutes. i got a reply....

"ts okay....but m already cmtd...but ya we can be gud frnz....leave ur fon number...l contact u"

i dont know what reaction to give on this reply.. weather to be happy as she said to be good friends..
or said cause she was already in a committed relationship..!! but was ok..
i left my contact number to her...!!

next day she texted me ...
and we started talking like whole day long for days...shared talks..
and soon become friends.:)

time passes by and by..!!!
At present we are in different cities..!! text each other.. once in a month..
but still evrytime i see her pics on facebook my heart skips the second beat..:)

BUT YEA:
LIFE"S MOVES ON AND SO DID I...:))

"The One" [ITales Vol. 3a]

One night not so long ago I was talking to someone special or so I thought – “The One”.

She called me at 11:30, after that I lost track of time. I don’t know whether it was 3:00 or 4:00 but it was late. I have never been so happy, so thrilled. In the end she said something and I felt like someone hit me in the n*ts. An agonizing ache, like a bite from a Giant red-ant. I swallowed my pain and waited for the sun to rise so that I could call Ron and Ted.

At 7:00 mom came into my room, I heard the footsteps and went inside my blanket, covered from top to toe. She thought I was asleep, so left. Few moments later I took my cell phone and rushed to the grocery store to buy some milk. She was amused as I never did that willingly. In my heart I was dying 100 deaths. When Ron and Ted heard about the night they too were shocked. They comforted me by singing funny songs. Ted cracked few grown-up jokes, which in reality lit up my mood by a little. I went back and my mom made nice cup of tea and served me my favorite butter and cashew cookie.

To know what happened lets back up a bit.

Ron and Ted went to high school with me, but we moved apart to different cities due to some reasons. I and Ron were at the top of our high school class. Ted’s always been the funny and imprudent. We came from entirely diverse culture and family background. But this vividness became the prime reason why we fused well. The story of how we met is kind of funny.

In our last year of high school I had this monstrous crush on our sections hottest girl “Veronica”. I mean she was so hot that if she went in hot tub it’d have vaporized. They had these special tone which they used whenever she passed by me. I never tried to meet her in person, as it was just a crush in my opinion. Yet those bastards always joked “it is love”. Just before our last semester destiny gave me a chance to meet her. When she heard that I had a monster crush on her she hugged me. I realized then what I had wasn’t crush, it was pure love. But we never said “I ♥ you” to each other.

Days passed and my proclivity grew stronger. However I never knew back then how she felt, as they say “Love is blind”, I was just a spectator of both our lives. Everyone knew that we liked each other but we never came face to face, our interactions were reduced to a minimum. Days passed without hearing her voice, we hardly shared 1 or 2 SMS in month. I always wondered on what I should do. So I asked her for a coffee. Firstly she giggled but eventually agreed. We went to a fancy café …..To my misery I forgot my wallet and to be frank I was ashamed. She laughed when she saw my face and paid the bill. To see her laugh like that just made my day. We went out in cold and sat on the bus stand.We started a game; the prize was to get whatever other wished. The rules were simple : Close your eyes and guess the hotness of persons reaching the stand on a scale of 1-5. If partner agrees by the guess +10 if not –5, and you can’t pass. I won it 120-85 and asked her to dance with me, she took a pause. It was getting late so she asked if we can keep the dance for later. I wanted to say no, but you can’t say no to a beautiful girl, so I agreed!

Next day, I discussed the date with Ron and Ted. Ron said “dude, she definitely loves you”, Ted however said the opposite. I wasn’t sure what to believe. I mean I used to hear a lot about her boyfriend from other places, but I always believed she was different. Apparently “love also makes you deaf”.

When we first met she said to me that she will never have a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship and hence I never expected her too…
But as days passed everyone including me noticed her spending a lot of time with another. I wasn’t jealous or anything but Ron & Ted were angry with me. That summer her favourite band was gonna perform, so I bought 2 tickets for the concert. I called her but she politely turned down the request. I didn’t mind as I knew she must have had reasons. I decided not to go, instead gave one of my tickets to Ron. Ted also had one so they went with few others friends. An hour to midnight Ted called me and told that it was Code RED. I ran to that concert just to see that they weren’t kidding about that. Code RED was a unique code for Veronica, when I first saw her she in a red dress. So I knew it was about her, but what I saw just broke every bit of nerve I had. She was with the same guy everyone talked about, his group also accompanied him. She seemed happy and he was all over her. I just couldn’t take more so I bolted out. Ron & Ted came out with me. I wanted to confront her, but with hindsight, I had no right to do so. I mean I never said that I loved her. So if she wishes for someone else, it her choice. We sat in the parking lot for about an hour, and then went home.
I never heard from her again.


High school ended and Ron, Ted and I went our separate way. I felt all alone for the first time in a long time. The pain was unbearable, all I did that summer was craved, what would have happened if I told her. Does that have made any difference? Then College life started, I had new friends, my life became super busy. I devoted most of my time in Facebook and studies. Now whenever Ron or Ted called we used to laugh on how many juvenile things we did back then. I googled her, searched on Facebook, tried to get her contact number but no luck. In the end I gave up.

Five years passed since I saw her, I was working as an intern in a MNC. One day, I was on my way to a conference when I saw a huge crowd before a pet shop. Some girl was blaring on the owner for not taking care of her pet “Schwan” – a feigned rat! For heavens shake I chuckled in my mind, her voice was so sweet that I was hauled to the crowd. And there she was, with “zombie kiss” black top and denim jeans, perfect figure to be cocky. Her fierce face was covered by golden locks with brown highlights. The moment she ran her perfect hands through them, I fell in love. I had the meeting so I didn’t get to say hello, and to be true I’m glad that I didn’t because given her mood she would have slapped me.
A year later
One day while coming from work my driver stopped abruptly. When I asked he said a dog came in front of the car. When I sneaked a quick look I saw that a cat was chasing a mouse and the dog was chasing the cat. I stepped down and ran towards the rat, few cars stopped nearly killing me but I didn’t stop before I seized that big grey rat. When I looked closely it turned out to be a beaver not rat. I was knelt and just when I leaned down, a high-heeled boot came near my face. I was bent down, and hence everything was upturned, her face was not clear. When I unbent myself I was astounded. It was the same girl, I saw at the store that day. She was breathing heavily and so was I. All those sweat made her look divine; her beauty was at its acme; however it made me look like a pig.

I offered her a ride, after catching my breath I realized she was changed, her haunted look now became more sophisticated. Her curls were the same, tough her top was plain white. She looked like a princess with that pink flesh. She introduced herself as Allie “Alison”. I was a bit diverted by her face so never bothered to introduce myself. I also never cited about that previous incident. She admired my Audi, and I just said you are beautiful in a friendly way. She said Schwan is the only one she trusts and she would do anything for him. It was adorable! Moments later she stopped the car and went home. 30 seconds later she came with “Thank You” cookies, and thanked me for saving Schwan. She asked if I wanted to come inside, but I didn’t want to show her that I was frantic,
so I said later. She grinned and went inside. My driver winked at me and after going a little further stopped and said engine failed. I acknowledged him for being there for me, and ran to her. She broke in laughter again; I checked why just to find that a bird pooped on my head of which I had no idea. She scoured it and offered me hot coffee.
She lived alone and I liked her from the very first moment I saw her. We became friends; I spent nearly every free moment with her. This went for over a year. One day she called @ 2 in the morning, Schwan died and she was distressed. I tried to ease her but she just couldn’t grasp moaning. I told her things that leave us, if ever loved makes their way back to us. So be faithful! She kissed me and we said goodbye to the reason we met. Since that day Allie and I were one. Whenever and whatever she needed I tried in my best effort to make it come true.
Meanwhile, Ted was in headway of a wonderful career prospect and Ron had already begun working on an ultramodern project. So they had no time for some silly matters of mine. However I called them to tell that at last I found the love of my life. That summer they came to visit me where I found that Ron was in a relationship himself. Bastard kept it a secret but when you stand-up suddenly from dinner and run out, it logical to think that something’s fishing. Usually we ignored but once he was in bathroom and when I passed I overheard his conversation. All six of us went out for dinner. Oh! Wait, the sixth member was my friend Carl a co-worker at the firm and one of my entourage. After that when they left we decided to go for a walk. She swiftly ran to a graveyard. I could see the tear drops around the corners of her eye. She said it was of her best friend who died few years afore we met. It was dark and frankly I wasn’t interested to know about her deceased friend. I mean why dig the past if it only brings gloom in present. Later in the car she felt asleep. I didn’t want to wake her up, so I stayed inside my car for the night.
Things were pretty romantic, our relationship was blossoming.
Yesterday she called, everything was normal when……. She asked me whether I will be joining her or not to 3rd memorial service of her friend from the graveyard. I wanted to be with her, so I agreed. In the end of our passionate conversation she repeated “Be there for Veronica’s rite’s by 2:00 pm sharp!”
I was like what….???? Is she…..How…..This can’t be true….I …I…..

to be continued….

“What we cogitated doesn’t always materialize unless

the deity wants that for you”

ps. We met and we lived happily ever after. She’s still the same and there’s only thing I know…We were made for each other.

STORY BY SAURABH K.
FOR MORE OF HIM  FOLLOW
http://saurabhk15.wordpress.com/2011/03/05/irreplaceable-tales-vol-3a/

Irreplaceable Tales Vol. 1

“Whatever happens, happens for the good!”

I don’t quite agree with this principle. I mean if someone in your life passes in your childhood and 10 years later everyone tells you that “he was the noblest, most charming person they met”, it hurts to not know him. So my faith in the aforementioned quote is shallow. However, sometimes we witness events that makes us believe that it isn’t so.

One of such happened with my friend Ted who wanted to become a cricketer and then he wanted to be an actor. One day he came to visit me. He had grown beard, looked all pale and withered, like something bad, really bad happened in his life. I hadn’t talked to him due to my finals. So I was unaware of his life’s situation. We started talking but he kept his silence and then he asked to sleepover. At 11:00 we went to our beds, I dim the light and as I turned to sleep, he spoke –

“I knew her from 11th, when she first walked through our schools corridor I knew that she was something special. To this day I remember what happened then. Whole school was erupted in pursuit to see a glimpse of her beauty. She was wearing a blue sleeveless dress. I swear to god, I was gone and so were my fellow classmates. Everyone in our school from 2nd graders to PGT teachers were out, of course boys! For me “that’s awkward!” but I myself was out to see her. Few girls from our class went to meet the reason of this crisis. They were just a little jealous to be frank. And once in my life god listened to my prayer – she got admission in my section. I have never been so happy and nervous at the same time.

Days passed but she didn’t show up. Some said she transferred, but 6 days later when I came to school, there she was sitting in the front row, laughing with her newly bonded cluster. I mean everybody wanted a piece of her. Our state is always under the cloud belt, so unexpected rain wasn’t something new. It was dark outside and those lighting thunders made it a complete memorable day. When our economics’ teacher asked her to introduce herself, I heard the sweetest voice of my life. In that cherubic voice she spoke “Hello, my name is Stella”. The class erupted to greet her back; I however was looking out of the window, admiring the dark clouds and the louring sky. In a few days she became the undisputable queen of the school. Her style was something everyone drooled on, her perfectly curled hair with a slighter light shades near the ends, perfectly pressed uniforms and always fresh looking gorgeous face. But most importantly what made the difference was the sparkly red lipstick she used. You just can’t resist the thought of kissing them. She became friends with everyone except me. She didn’t come to meet me. When I asked one of her friend, she said Stella thought you were “arrogant, selfish bastard!” and the reason for that was the first day. I wasn’t very welcoming and didn’t even say “Hello” to her. So I decided to see her and clear some air between us.

On the following day I confronted her, in the end she said “We’re Cool!”. I sat behind her desk and day by day my passion for her grew stronger. A year passed and in the fall of 2008 it reached its limit. It was the festive season and we were in the last year of our school life. One day I dreamt “After 4 years in college we were married and lived happily ever after”. I mean I don’t have a financial problem, my sister had a love marriage which is successful and my parents are cool about it. What could’ve gone wrong!

I got the answer the very next day. It was a celebration time as one of our teachers was retiring and we being the seniors were supposed to organize a farewell function. It took only one look at her and I just couldn’t control myself. I went up on stage and sang a song about love which I composed myself. Everyone appreciated it, well she did too! She came to me and praised how versatile I was. Then……..

I said “I love you!”…

CONTINUED......
@

Wireless USB -the game-changer

Last week Intel made a big deal about the official launch of its Light Peak technology — now called Thunderbolt — which enables much faster data transfers (10Gbps) and the ability to consolidate accessories and video connections into one cable with a connector that is half the size of a USB plug.

First let me tell You a little bit about Intel's Thunderbolt.

Intel has lifted the lid on its much-anticipated Thunderbolt I/O technology. Here’s a quick rundown of what we know about this new technology.

Dual-channel offering a whopping 10Gbps per port (to put that into perspective you can push a full-length HD movie through the connection in less than 30 seconds).
The port is bi-directional, so it offers 10Gbps in both directions simultaneously.
Dual-protocol support for PCI Express and DisplayPort.
Fully compatible with existing DisplayPort devices.
Daisy-chain up to six peripherals (compare this to Firewire which supports 63 devices, and USB which supports 127).
Supplies 10W of power over bus to peripherals.
Supports electrical (copper) or optical (fibre optic) cabling.
Low latency.
Supports HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface)/HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection)
Apple is the first to offer Thunderbolt to its customers.
Note: Thunderbolt is an Intel trademark term, not Apple.




While those are useful features, the arrival of Thunderbolt had me scratching my head and asking two big questions:

What happened to USB 3.0?
Where’s Wireless USB?
Both of those technologies have been in development for years, but somehow Light Peak/Thunderbolt was able to leapfrog them, at least in terms of getting the green light from Intel and its partners.

Some of that certainly has to do with Apple getting on board with Thunderbolt. Apple’s new line of MacBook Pro laptops are the first computers to include Thunderbolt. Also, while Thunderbolt was originally expected to use the same type of connector as USB (a confict with USB-IF apparently prevented that), when Thunderbolt was unveiled last week it was surprisingly announced that it will use a Mini DisplayPort connector — a technology developed by Apple and licensed without a fee.

One of the big advantages of Thunderbolt is that it’s capable enough to handle LCD monitors and other displays so it can replace the need for VGA, DVI, or HDMI ports on laptops and desktops. That means users only need to worry about one type of cable for all of their accessories. However, USB 3.0 (also called “SuperSpeed USB”) has been developing the same thing. A number of display manufacturers have mentioned in recent years that USB 3.0 will eliminate the need for those other video connectors in computers and allow users to connect their monitors to a USB port. Will display makers dump the work they’ve been doing preparing for USB 3.0 and switch to Thunderbolt? I doubt it, at least not right away.

Also, keep in mind that USB 3.0 is backward compatible with the millions of existing USB peripherals as well, while Thunderbolt will require adapters to work with them. The only drawbacks to USB 3.0 versus Thunderbolt are 1.) it’s half as fast (5Gbps for USB 3.0 vs. 10Gbps for Thunderbolt) and 2.) the USB 3.0 connector is a little larger.

However, the real missed opportunity here is Wireless USB. That’s the technology that I would love to see Intel pushing instead of Thunderbolt. Sure, Thunderbolt will deliver faster file transfers and consolidate cables, but Wireless USB is a much bigger game-changer. It can reduce accessory cables altogether and has the potential to introduce a universal wireless docking solution that could turn the computing industry on its head. In fact, the latter is probably why Intel isn’t pushing it — that type of radical change isn’t in their self-interest. More on that in a moment.

First, let’s talk about the elimination of accessory cables. This is long overdue. At the same time Wi-Fi first came on the scene a decade ago and launched the concept of the WLAN (that’s wireless local area network), there was another hot new term at the time called PAN (personal area network). The idea was that not only would computers connect wirelessly to corporate networks and the Internet, but that there would also be mini wireless networks centered a desktop or laptop machine itself, in order to connect mice, keyboards, monitors, printers, scanners, headphones, PDAs (now smartphones), etc. The hope back then was that Bluetooth would be the enabler of the PAN, but that hasn’t happened because Bluetooth is flaky, slow, and difficult to set up. To make the PAN happen, we need something more robust like Wireless USB.

Building on that concept of the PAN is the idea of the wireless docking solution — this is the killer feature of Wireless USB. Accessory makers have been chomping at the bit for a couple years to get this because it would make it infinitely easier for mobile users to dock a laptop to a full monitor, keyboard, and mouse (using a Wireless USB connection a laptop could simply connect to a dock that has legacy peripherals plugged in).

In fact, it would not only be easy, it would turn Wireless USB into a universal docking solution instead of the current situation where each laptop maker has its own proprietary docking connectors and then badly overcharges for the docks. A universal wireless docking solution would have two big effects for mobile users — it would make docks a lot cheaper and it would likely spawn a lot more places to dock. For example, offices and other institutions could set up public work areas where people could dock to work no matter what platform they are running (Windows, Mac, Linux, iPad, etc), as long as it has Wireless USB. I can even imagine Internet cafes offering docking areas.

However, once we take this idea one step further, then we start to see why Intel may not be so enthusiastic about it. Think about the Motorola Atrix. This is a dual core Android smartphone with 1GB of RAM and Motorola’s “Webtop” software, which allows it to look and act like a full PC when loaded into the desktop dock (with monitor, keyboard, and mouse) and the laptop dock.

Now imagine if the Atrix and other dual core smartphones could perform the same feat, but without having to dock at all by simply using Wireless USB — which offers plenty to speed to accomplish this with 480Mbps at 3 meters and 110Mbps at 10 meters. Suddenly, a lot of smartphones would become potential PC replacements. Same goes for tablets. They could wirelessly dock and become full desktop computers when people needed to do more serious work. Since virtually all smartphones and tablets are powered by mobile ARM chips rather than Intel chips (and Intel has repeatedly been unable to break into the mobile market), this scenario could be apocalyptic for Intel because it would enable people to replace (Intel-powered) laptops and desktops with (ARM-powered) smartphones and tablets.

However, this scenario would be fantastic for consumers and business professionals. But, without Intel to push Wireless USB, who will step up and lead the charge?Yea seriously WHO?

something that caught my eye

How do i shop smart online ?

This is a pretty common question and I call this a "how do i shop smart online", an important question in this day and age. Let me show you how I do this kind of research.
First off, there are a number of interesting price comparison Web sites so I usually go to a few of them, starting with Shopping.com. Go to Shopping.com and type in "Sony PSP" and you'll be inundated by every related peripheral, game, and gadget associated with the PSP. Not good.
Instead, narrow your focus by looking at the results and figuring out a more specific description. For example, a search for "PSP" generated 105 matches, but most of them aren't what we seek. Digging around a bit, however, it turns out that one of the categories that matched is "Video Game Consoles". Click on that and you'll see that there's a match for Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) Console with prices from 33 stores, ranging from $208 to $750. Click on that and you'll see the matching products (click on Total price to ensure that they're sorted from lowest to highest too):




Now, let's go to another shopping site and see how the Amazon price for the "PSP Value Pack" compares. One of my favorite alternative venues is Yahoo! Shopping, since one search shows you results across thousands of merchants. Again, click on Search by Price, then skip the obvious false matches and you'll see something like this:




I would suggest that you skip auction sites because something in high demand like a Sony PSP is unfortunately more likely to be a rip-off or con than a legit new merchandise sale. So "Yahoo! Auctions" is something I personally would steer away from.
However, look here! Yahoo! Shopping shows Amazon.com offering the PSP Value Pack at only $210, rather than the $250 that Shopping.com displayed. Most odd. Click on it and you find out why: it includes a less popular game (Gretzky NHL) and it's not being sold by Amazon itself, but by sellers that are part of Amazon Marketplace. No free lunch after all. :-)
Yahoo! Shopping does lead you to Mobile PC's $199 refurbished Playstation Portable, however, so if you're okay with one that had a problem and has been fixed by the manufacturer, you can save a cool $50-$60 on the purchase. Not bad for under $200.
Finally, I always just Google what I want to buy and see what advertisements show up. Try searching for buy sony psp value pack and you'll get various Web sites in the so-called "organic results area", but instead look at the advertisements on the page. Buy.com shows up with an ad promising $237.99 for a new Value Pack, the best price yet, and on the right side, I see a pile of interesting ads too:




Note the very bottom link, More Sponsored Links. Click on that (or just click here if you'd like) and you'll see all the advertisers who want to match our specific search - all of whom would be worth checking out if you want to do a comprehensive search.
Finally, after all this research, it does indeed appear that Buy.com has the best price after all, with its $13 discount making the PSP Value Pack, new, only $237.49.
And, speaking personally, I think that the Sony PSP is an amazing game system and device. I watch movies on it, listen to music, show photos to my friends and play various games. It's a superb device for on an airplane, that's for sure. Highly recommended! :-)
Hope that helps you see how to do the legwork to get the best possible price on a device on the Internet. Sometimes it's hit or miss, but these basic steps should almost always lead you to the best trustworthy price. Remember, if someone's selling the device for an unbelievably low price, it's probably a rip-off, trick, or con. 'Taint no such thing as a free lunch, after all.
And happy shopping!