The Tour De France starts from a few minutes from now. But for the first time, I have no desire to watch it.
It feels strange.
The king of cycling is back (with a perpetual shadow of dope allegations still following him), which in all probability is his last Tour (still unconfirmed). The defending champion has already made his plans on neutralizing the king’s threat and win one more Tour.
I don’t care anymore. The black swirl of doping allegations around this sport, has robbed all the credibility, interest, spark and soul from it. The Yellow Jersey has lost its meaning and purpose.
Long live the Peloton.
Showing posts with label Blogger Musings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blogger Musings. Show all posts
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Google Search Blocked!
It is not every time that you will come across an news article on Google screwing up.
Few days ago, I had read that all of Google’s searches were classified as malware and it was fixed within an hour.
Google had apologized that this was due to an human error and “processes had been put in place to avoid a repeat.” The phrase did sound familiar and later realized that my manager uses that quite often when we screw up.
But today, google searches were not happening. An error message said that the search query looked similar to automated requests from a computer virus or spyware application. You can click on the image for the rest of the error message.
What’s happening Google?
Few days ago, I had read that all of Google’s searches were classified as malware and it was fixed within an hour.
Google had apologized that this was due to an human error and “processes had been put in place to avoid a repeat.” The phrase did sound familiar and later realized that my manager uses that quite often when we screw up.
But today, google searches were not happening. An error message said that the search query looked similar to automated requests from a computer virus or spyware application. You can click on the image for the rest of the error message.
What’s happening Google?
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Google Is Abandoning Its “Page Creator” In Favor Of “Google Sites”
I got a shocker of news when I was browsing through Lifehacker, which said that Google is abandoning its “Page Creator” in favor of “Google Sites.”We have extensively used Page Creator to upload images and other information displayed in our blogger templates. When one tries to login to the page creator, the following message is displayed at the login screen:
About Google Page Creator
We are no longer accepting new sign-ups for Page Creator because we have shifted our focus to developing Google Sites, which offers many of the capabilities of Page Creator along with new features like site-level navigation, site-level headers, control over who can see and edit your site, and rich embeddings like calendars, videos, and Google docs.
If you are currently a Page Creator user, you can continue to use Page Creator and your pages will automatically be transitioned to Google Sites later this year. We are committed to making this transition as smooth and easy as possible, and we will post more details as we get closer to the transition time. You can also manually move your web pages from Page Creator to Google Sites or other service providers at any time.
Existing users can continue using the page creator until it is stopped and Google says that the pages will be automatically transferred to the Google Sites. Yes, but what about the URL’s? Will they remain the same. I do not think so.
I guess we will be updating our hosting site very soon. So please bear with us, as some of the images or sections of the current template might not work for a day or two.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
A Crazy Media Analyst’s Perspective On Blogs And Freedom Of Expression
The so called dot com boom, also known as the web revolution, gave us a new form of media which goes by its popular moniker “Social Media.” People all over the globe reveled in this new find, which gave them the freedom to express their thoughts and ideas to the world like never before.
This gave birth to a phenomenon called “Blogging.” The “freedom of expression” had found another champion promoting its cause. One could post anything under the sun on the net for all who cared, no restrictions. It seemed like the “Holy Grail” for budding writers and casual line droppers, or is it?
I came across an article on the TechCrunch written by Erick Schonfeld titled “Blogging Is Not A Crime.” Apparently he had come across data which said that the number of bloggers incarcerated has been on an increasing trend.
A majority of those bloggers were arrested by their respective governments. It seems that the certain governments couldn’t resist tracking and censoring blogs. Curbing the basic right to one’s freedom of expression seemed to be their favorite pastime.
But the following sentence from Eric’s article caught my eye:
“As blogging expands internationally, so do the risk of speaking one’s mind. (Something many of us take for granted).”
The comment in brackets “Something many of us take for granted” really jolted me out of my senses and I started to do some soul searching. I am lucky to have been born in a country wherein the right to freedom expression is considered as a birth right. Somehow it has been inoculated in my mind that freedom of expression is something we should take for granted.
Don’t we have the right to take the freedom of expression or speaking one’s mind, for granted? For another perspective, see my article on Mass Media And Its Responsibilities.
Yes. People living in countries governed by oppressive governments do not enjoy this valuable right to expression. Keeping that in mind, those who do take it for granted, should utilize it properly; try and become the voice of all those unknown voice-less people living in such countries. We should spread awareness and highlight the issues affecting them.
Social media along with mass media can reach out to mind blowing number of people in a very short amount of time. With this kind of power in hand, we can address a lot of issues. But then again will it really happen, especially in this age of monetization and every given opportunity on the web. Will people still be interested in reading the plight of less fortunate one’s suffering from oppressive regimes. Even if they do, can we bring about a change?
At least we can try. They say it’s foolish to live on hope and build on dreams. But I believe I can. But I can’t do it alone. I am willing to provide the spark. I need you to convert the spark into a raging fire.
Source: TechCrunch
This gave birth to a phenomenon called “Blogging.” The “freedom of expression” had found another champion promoting its cause. One could post anything under the sun on the net for all who cared, no restrictions. It seemed like the “Holy Grail” for budding writers and casual line droppers, or is it?
I came across an article on the TechCrunch written by Erick Schonfeld titled “Blogging Is Not A Crime.” Apparently he had come across data which said that the number of bloggers incarcerated has been on an increasing trend.
A majority of those bloggers were arrested by their respective governments. It seems that the certain governments couldn’t resist tracking and censoring blogs. Curbing the basic right to one’s freedom of expression seemed to be their favorite pastime.
But the following sentence from Eric’s article caught my eye:
“As blogging expands internationally, so do the risk of speaking one’s mind. (Something many of us take for granted).”
The comment in brackets “Something many of us take for granted” really jolted me out of my senses and I started to do some soul searching. I am lucky to have been born in a country wherein the right to freedom expression is considered as a birth right. Somehow it has been inoculated in my mind that freedom of expression is something we should take for granted.
Don’t we have the right to take the freedom of expression or speaking one’s mind, for granted? For another perspective, see my article on Mass Media And Its Responsibilities.
Yes. People living in countries governed by oppressive governments do not enjoy this valuable right to expression. Keeping that in mind, those who do take it for granted, should utilize it properly; try and become the voice of all those unknown voice-less people living in such countries. We should spread awareness and highlight the issues affecting them.
Social media along with mass media can reach out to mind blowing number of people in a very short amount of time. With this kind of power in hand, we can address a lot of issues. But then again will it really happen, especially in this age of monetization and every given opportunity on the web. Will people still be interested in reading the plight of less fortunate one’s suffering from oppressive regimes. Even if they do, can we bring about a change?
At least we can try. They say it’s foolish to live on hope and build on dreams. But I believe I can. But I can’t do it alone. I am willing to provide the spark. I need you to convert the spark into a raging fire.
Source: TechCrunch
Saturday, May 10, 2008
What’s Your Geek Rating? Take The Blog Readability Test And Find Out Now.
Hey all you blogger’s out there. Want to know whether your postings is for people with the geek bent of a mind or plain Jane’s and Jack’s can read and understand them? There is this site offering a tool that somehow determines the intellectual level that is required for reader’s reading your posts. So why don’t you find out now. Just enter your blog URL at: http://www.criticsrant.com/bb/reading_level.aspx and put a badge on your blog proclaiming the rating your blog gets.
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