Qualified Blogger ?

Answer any 3 of the following:

How do you add an image to the blog post?
How do you retweet your friend's tweet?
What is the wikipedia site in france named as?
What steps can you take to prevent spam commenting on your blog?


This can be one of the sections in the 5th Grade Examination paper soon.
Be prepared to teach your children about the social media, and for partime bloggers like me, watchout for a graduated batch of Bloggers who may come out some premium institutions soon.. to compete/subside us.

Okay, this may be a bit of exagitation, but the news has it that online communication and social media to be made a permanent part of the UK’s education system.

Experts from the article:

No, it is not April 1st yet. The British government is proposing that Twitter is to be taught in primary (elementary) schools as part of a wider push to make online communication and social media a permanent part of the UK’s education system. And that’s not all. Kids will be taught blogging, podcasting and how to use Wikipedia alongside Maths, English and Science.

Children will also learn “fluency” in handwriting and keyboard skills, and how to use a spellchecker. Luckily they will still be taught how to spell themselves, rather than rely on Mr Clippy.

Personally, i felt it a little funny.... But you know... the Britan way, everything has to be tought from a book... Who knows, we may soon follow that.. But one thing i wish i had in school was SPELL CHECKER. My teachers used to have a competetion in finding the maximum spelling mistakes in my paper. Every time each one of them would feel that they have definitely won after correcting my paper, as that would be the maximum spell mistakes in the history so far.
When i search google for SoAnadSo and it asks me do yo mean SoAndSo?, I used to wonder "How do u know that.. Are you Mr Brahmaiah (my english teacher in college)",

I wonder how my life would be without a spell checker.... Horibal (i mean.. a misspelt horrible)

Hope the next gen kids will not face any problems with spellings like me, if spell checker is made a part of the education system.

P.S: I am writing this post without a spell chekar, and leave the competetion of finding mistakes to you.

Accelarators: Welcome to Internet Explorer 8

Welcome to Internet Explorer 8: "Before you begin browsing, take a few seconds to discover two of our new time-saving features.
What's New
Get things done faster with Accelerators

Start searching, mapping, emailing, and translating from the page you're already on without navigating to other websites.
Watch a video to learn how to use Accelerators."

All that it took for me to post this blog, is a right-click on my internet explorer, and use the "Accelerator" to post it on to my blogger.
I am not a big fan of microsoft, but i liked this feature.. A very good use of the web services.

But could have been better, if it could copy the image I selected to the blogger.
Considering it is microsoft, you can't ask for more.

Waah !! even blogger !!! I cant add label to this post from the blogger webservice that IE opens up

Awesome Students

Refer to the ‘Wattha Hell Series: The introduction’


Long time since i've found something for my wattha hell series..
Not that I am finding the world perfect, its just that I am bored of these "how much is too much?" news... Pols, terrorism etc

My Yahoo mail today has a surprise mail

The mail is from some one who apparently wanted some help on the project that i have presented a paper on, some 3 years back in "Map India" conference.

Considering the fact that he wanted help on some project he has seen on internet, this mail of his definitely qualifies for the wattha hell series..
No more commentary on the mail, read it for yourself..



Now I am definitely not thinking about sending my project report to him, but thinking whether this Manglorean can sue me if I dont reply politely.

Back Then

On an otherwise boring weekend, setting up mail client for my gmail account on my Mac gave me something to think about. For some time I was irritated that the client is downloading mails from the time the account is born, which was in 2006. Those are the days when gmail was introduced and brought ‘.’ Into the legal mail id characters. I was too excited to see this and hence created an ID with as many of them as possible making m.s.a.sandeep my gmail account.

While the client is downloading the mails of its account’s sunup, I’ve been transported to the 2006 days, digesting with difficulty the fact that its been 3 years since my psenti sem (In BITS Pilani, we call the final semester as psenti sem). Those were days when a forward mail from friend with ‘Sardar Ji jokes’ makes me laugh full out. Not only would I forward that mail to all my wingees, but also go to each one of them to make sure that they get the joke. They surely used to laugh, if not at the joke, at my desperate attempt to make them laugh.

Those were days when the world (rather my world) was a lot younger. The gift that he would buy to his friend for their friendship anniversary was the top concern for one of my friends, not the financial concerns and the family responsibilities that he is now deep into. Meeting professor for project after an era of idle life used to be trouble of the time, not the present project deadlines and the job security, for the other. Those were also the days when a gate-call from or to girls’ hostel used to be an achievement, .01 raise is CGPA used to be a celebration. The biggest disappointment was when India looses the world cup (2003 world cup), not when share market collapses. In short, life was quite simple and lively (or livelier, if that word is not a myth).

And then there was this vast invisible world. When I repeated a course, or shed blood to see my friend as our assoc secretary, there was no reason. I used to like this picture a lot, for some reason that I am unaware of. For me this is the picture of a train that is traveling on high skies whose tracks are invisible. May be this is the picture that is close to my feelings when I was following my instincts, and not the morass. The ‘invisible rails’ in the picture is my invisible world, which I used to believe in.



Now I know too much to believe in all those. The invisible world is now a stroke of luck, or a coincidence. Now I know that I’ve to be concerned about my investment returns, but not calling home when promised. I know that forward mails are funny, not fun… and a lot more.

For sure, “Ignorance Is Bliss”

A Tribute

Love at first sight was a myth, until it happened to me. These were my initial days in Bangalore, one of the Sundays… was roaming around marathalli with friends. Nothing under the sky has changed. The same traffic jammed roads of Bangalore, the buildings of the shops’ anxiously gazing to encroach any available land before them, the ruthless auto drivers ready to run over anyone on the way (whom I hated the most for their ridiculous fares and the harshness in driving and otherwise). But they all seemed interestingly pleasant.
Definitely … love is in the air...

As there is nothing else to do we went into one of those numerous shops in there. A cool breeze greeted me into the shop. Was not sure if it is the breeze of the AC or the presence of her that made me twirl my head, but I couldn’t take my looks off her for a minute. That minute seemed longer than an era and shorter than an eye blink. Her perfect looks, her smile like a flash… I am not a PhD in BS (Beauty Sciences not Bu** S**t), but I knew that she is the epitome of beauty. I instantly knew that her company would make my life colorful.

Frns said “go for her”… parents said a BIG NO… The fight was big with all the electronic media as the battleground. Email, chat, phone, fax, sms… no means was left untouched in frns and family giving me suggestions in favor or disapproval of my decision. The battle ended when I said “enough” and walked to the shop where I saw her first and… bought her for 25K to make her “My Nokia N73”.

Yeah I am talking about my mobile… the first gadget that I bought for myself after I started earning, that was in my company for the last 2 years. The 3 MP camera made sure that all those happy moments with friends are captured and stored safely, my source of entertainment with a high-quality music player, not to forget the GPRS and the great experience brought by the web browser. The best moment that’s captured… I think was Amir Khan’s visit to our office campus for shooting Gajani.

Given the careless guy I am, there is no wonder that I lost my mobile. But it hurts to part something that has been the very part of my life all these years. Something that’s been with me in my good and bad times, happy and unhappy moments bringing me all those tidings from across the world that I am part of.



This blog is a tribute to my dear one, which is no longer with me. For me she was a part of my life… But for someone who stole it, its a second hand- 2 years used and worn out mobile, without any accessories. I wonder how much he expects to make out of selling such stuff leaving the real owner in a total mess (trust me… apart from all these psenti feeling, loosing all the contacts, number, messages, snaps leaves you in a real mess)

Good that men are not Canibals by default :P

Population of Singapore Same Weight as Amount of Turkey Consumed for Thanksgiving

According to the National Turkey Foundation, approximately 690 million pounds of turkey were consumed in the United States during Thanksgiving 2007. This equals the weight of 4.48 million individuals of average weight (154 pounds); the population of Singapore as estimated by the last census in 2005.

just a fun fact.. no inferences.. 

Happy Thanks Giving 

$S for Domain Name

Refer to the ‘Wattha Hell Series: The introduction’

Last week has been a bit busy for me with no time to read my RSS feeds. A list of 999 feeds showed up (The maximum that my Google reader would show).
Was quickly glancing through the reader, making the max use of “Mark all as read” button on the top of the page. But this one caught my attention. Not sure if it the “what recession?” phrase in the title or the $1 Million - which is a lot of money (or the picture in the post :P) that pulled my attention, but ‘wattha-hell’ was the immediate reaction after reading it.

The news is:
“Privately-owned PriveCo, which specializes in retailing embarrassing products online, has paid $1 million for the acquisition of the domain name vibrators.com”

May be I am jealous, that some one could make a Million $s just by selling a domain name, but there are lot many reasons that makes me feel that this one deserves a ‘w-h’. A dedicated site to sell these products, ships 1500+ packages a week. And they claim that they are ahead of the competition (which means that there is competition too). And they could spare 1 million just to buy a domain name. Never thought that in this interesting world, domain name can also be an investment.