Firefox 3.0 is available

As you read this blog post your eyelids are becoming heavier and heavier. Everything around you is slowly becoming a blur. There is a cool breeze blowing and you can no longer hold your eyes open. Your eyes are so heavy that they are about to close. You are now breathing very slowly and deeper than usual.

Now you shall do what I ask you to do. You, my dear reader, are completely in my control now. Go download Firefox 3.0 from this link now! I mean now! Click here ....

Stupid jokes apart, I do not find a single reason why you are still waiting to download Firefox 3.0. If you have already been using Firefox 2.xx before, downloading Firefox 3.0 and upgrading it is a breeze (just double click and you are done!). Firefox 3.0 gracefully installs where your old Firefox 2.xx was, and it also upgrades the extensions that you already have to suite itself. What more do you expect?

Also, if Firefox 3.0 is not your favorite browser, you can also set it to be not your default browser. Simple!! If you have always been waiting to download Firefox, today is the most auspicious day. Go download Firefox now.

And finally, to help Firefox set a world record of maximum downloads, please make up your mind and download the fastest browser on earth before 10:00 AM PDT on June 18th 2008, which is 10:30 PM IST on June 18th in our country.

The whole world is downloading. Don't believe me? See this...

And if you have already downloaded, do not forget to collect your own shiny certificate of a Guiness Book World Record :) from here ..



Updated 04th July '08: The Guinness book record is now official. Firefox was downloaded more than 8 million times that day, to be precise 8,002,530 downloads on June 18 2008. Congrats everyone, we all are record holders now :) !!

Pulsar Mania

Yaa, ya I know I am not a motorcycle fanatic. I am so bad at recognizing them, that for me all bikes above 400cc look the same. I know most of you motor-heads would love to kill me for that statement of mine. However, lately I have been hanging out with some biking enthusiast junta, and came across this amazing advertisement promoting the Bajaj Pulsar. If you are in India, I bet you have seen this advertisement atleast once. But then, seeing is one thing and assimilating it is quite another. Off I went on a quest to unravel the mystery behind this masterpiece of an advertisement and here is what I could gather. Before I get behind the history of it, here is the video...

And here is the trivia:

Budget: 2.5 crore INR (approximately 600,000 USD)

Location of the shoot: Capetown, South Africa

Ad Agency: Ogilvy & Mather

Riders: AC Farias, Matte Griffin (and others!)

AC Farias and Matte Griffin are professional stunt riders and quite famous in Europe. AC Farias' bio says that he has been 2nd in World Championships since 2007. Though I couldn't find much details about Matte online, here is AC Farias' website translated in English, thanks to Google :) !!  

Music: Paul Norwood (Audio Militia)

What strikes me soo hard about the commercial? Well to start off with, they aren't really ranting about how good their product is. The video just starts off with some amazing choreography on stock bikes (mind you all the bikes used in that commercial are strictly Pulsars easily available in India!), as the advertisement progresses, the song tempo increases, and so does the intensity of their stunts. The advertisement is simply awesome, you have to feel it to believe it :) !!

And while I am at the subject of bikes, I would like to sign off with this funny video about "how bikes sound like their names", that has been doing the rounds of the Internet for quite some time. Enjoy...

Cuppy Cake Song

Can't believe myself that I am actually writing a blog post about this. Couldn't get this song outta my head this evening and thought I do some research about it. So here is the Cuppy Cake Song in all its glory:

You're my Honeybunch, Sugarplum
Pumpy-umpy-umpkin, You're my Sweetie Pie
You're my Cuppycake, Gumdrop
Snoogums-Boogums, You're the Apple of my Eye
And I love you so and I want you to know
That I'll always be right here
And I love to sing sweet songs to you
Because you are so dear

The Lyrics are copyright Amy J. Music and more details about the song can be found here. Since most of you have already heard it, let me present to you the video of the girl singing it live. She is Amy Castle and when she sang it she was just 3 years old.

And having seen a lot of Jackie Chan movies all my life, how can I not treat you to the bloopers and the out-takes of this song. So video for it is here:

And all cute kids grow up, so Amy Castle also happens to be an established actress now. See her IMDB Profile here. I hope I have laid to rest all your doubts about this video once for all :) !!

Bowling

So bowling has caught on me lately. Not because I like that game, but because every one of my friend is crazy about it, and it is the only decent game that we can play in the evenings without getting sweaty.

My bowling skills are breathtaking. I can throw the ball in the gutter from any angle. I guess I am so good at it that I can probably aim for the gutter blind-folded. I know you guys must be smirking at the fact that I can't even bowl. But you got me completely wrong.

I am gonna start a new organization called PCBP - Prevention of Cruelty to Bowling Pins (pervert minded souls - stop making other *meaningful* acronyms out of it :P) Imagine a job in which you have to stand miserably close to each other for 8 hours a day, only to be hit by a huge ugly ball 5 times your weight! If you are not hit in the first chance, the other employees that fell are cleared off the floor and you are made to stand alone, facing the huge bull charging at you. No lunch breaks, no tea breaks, no meetings, not even appraisals. Do the same thing over and over again every day of your life!

Every time that I stand to bowl, I see the harmless pins waiting in anticipation of the agony that they are going to be meted out, and my heart goes out to them. I can't change their life, but I can definitely not cause pain to them. That's the reason why I throw the ball in the gutter. Next time that any of you comes bowling with me, stop laughing at me, and think about the Pins... I may not become a Lettuce Lady, but I definitely feel for them (for the pins I meant :P).

Iron Man - The Movie

So I took my dad for the Iron Man movie. Dad was perplexed, horrified and spent rest of the day thinking how could the Iron Man do all that. Here is a gist of the conversation that we had during the movie:

Dad: How can he create a source of energy so small (arc reactor!), in a cave in Afghanistan when he couldn't build it (that miniature!) in his own laboratory in the United States?
Me: Dad, he is a superhero!

Dad: How can he withstand a Shell fired from a Tank?
Me: Dad, he is a superhero!

Dad: How can he break the sound barrier?
Me: Dad, he is a superhero!

Dad: Why is this popcorn making me light-headed?
Me: Dad, you are watching a superhero movie, it happens!

Finally at the end of the movie...

Dad: Isn't that noise something you play a million times at home?
Me: Yes, Dad thats "Iron Man" by Black Sabbath, one of my favorite songs of all times!

Conclusion: Don't take a technically minded, analytical dad to a superhero movie, especially when the hero can fight terrorists, fly, dodge missiles, lift cars, break the speed of sound and also fall in love with Gwyneth Paltrow all while wearing an exoskeleton made of some bizarre metal. As for me, hmmm I loved the movie, amazing special effects, great body suit and nice fight sequences. And the title track rocks!! And people call my generation stupid!

Here is Iron Man by Black Sabbath:

Turn off your computer!

I bet the blog title sounds funny to be coming from me! Yeah, yeah, I did not literally mean turn it off right now! If there is one thing that really irks me off in the office, it has to be the people who never turn off their computers after office hours!! The most common arguments that I have heard from people keeping the computers on at night is:

• I might have to log in from home!
• It takes a lot of time to boot my computer in the morning!
• The life of the computer reduces if it is turned on and off every night :) !!

I couldn't have heard sillier excuses than the ones given above. I understand that people at times do need to log in from home. But most of the times we know before hand if we might need to log in, and it never happens everyday. So much for the first excuse!!

And if someone does believe in the myth that the computer's lifetime reduces because of it being turned on and off everyday, its completely baseless. Keeping the computer on throughout the night however does reduce its lifetime! And most computer equipment today is designed so robust, that it generally out lasts its useful life!

Well, what initiated this post you ask? I came across this article today about 50 ways in which we can help the planet. And I thought I do my bit by blogging about it. Do check out the link, some places we all can contribute!!

Snoozzze

Have you ever wondered that we inevitably start our day by procrastinating getting up by repeatedly snoozing every day? So the root cause of major suffering for mankind today is the pitiful "snooze" button on your alarm clock. To fight world hunger, poverty and the energy problem, first we should learn to get out of the bed on time every time :) !!

I have perfected the art of snoozing, and today was like the worst day of my life. I snoozed from 05:30 AM to 06:30 AM 1 hour straight. Considering that my alarm snoozes only for 9 minutes, thats a whooping 6 times!! So much for wasted time that I could have better spent elsewhere.

Snoozing is an addiction. You set your alarm clock only with the intention of snoozing yourself to glory. I mean, I could have easily gained that calm deep sleep without snoozing if I had set my alarm for the final time that I really intended to get up. But no, not me, I derive pleasure out of the 9 minutes of bliss that I get before the alarm goes off again!!

How to lose a customer?

True story.

Have been going to the same sports store as long as I remember. A small family run store in the heart of Sec-17 Vashi. Went to get a pair of swimming goggles last week. Picked up one, and went swimming only to find out that the protective film that was put on the glasses had got stuck to it (must be because it was in store for a long long time!). Instinctively went back to get it exchanged.

Take two.. The owner becomes angry and starts shouting at me. I protest, and walk out of the store forever. The cost of the goggles? Rs. 200 (approx 5$). The outcome? The owner lost a loyal high-spending customer (one of those wannabes who buys all the high-end sports equipment hoping that his game would improve :P) along with half a dozen of that customer's close friends!

Ironically, I got a better pair of goggles by the same company at a cheaper price in a factory outlet close by! As for my swimming, I still am equally bad with or without the goggles :) !! Just that now I look a lot more cooler, and most people can't recognize me as the same old bad swimmer, in the pool :) !!

Candle lit...

I did the most romantic thing that a single 27/M/Mumbai can think of. Yeah, I had a candle lit shave! "Candle lit shaving" is the art of shaving in candle light when you are getting late for office and the electricity in your home is cut off. Its the pleasure and pain of cutting yourself and not figuring out till you apply after-shave. Its the grandeur of leaving stubble at hard to reach places cause the candle light wasn't bright enough. Its the magnificence of making your face look like a lawn mowed by a drunkard. All said and done, the romance was soo intense that my face is still burning 3 hours after the act...

Horn OK Please?

So Mumbai decided to observe the World Health day by designating it as a "No Honking day". The city where the first thing that you do after buying a truck is paint "Horn OK Please" on the back of it with a motley of colors available at your local painter's shop (with his take at artistry) its ironic to expect people not to honk for a day.

I decided to not honk and live up to the expectations of the Traffic police. And lo-behold I took 45 minutes for a 3 km drive which I otherwise took 20 odd minutes coupled with honking :)

Well, not honking in my city is not practical. For us to not honk, we should first learn to follow lanes. There is no lane discipline. Most of us just inch towards our destination by pushing our vehicles in every conceivable place on the road that we can imagine (that includes the oncoming traffic lane too!!). Also, almost every road in my city has been dug up. It feels more like driving between craters, than on roads!! All this with people crossing the road, the bicycles and the auto rickshaws (The article on Autorickshaws in Wikipedia is very informative, check it out :) !!). I bet the only reason auto rickshaws are built with a single wheel in the front is for them to sneak into spots that 4 wheelers cant go and create trouble. All said and done, this is my first "protest" blog. Please follow lane discipline, and silence and peace will follow :) !! I really pity the Mumbai Traffic Police. They have a tough job to do!