Saturday 20 September, 2008

Celebrity Blogs, Google Apps, Ubona.

Been a while since I blogged. Life is a bit down in the dumps, am out of rhythm, am not sleeping well, and dont seem to have a grip on the daily grind thats called life.

Its showing too - my dark circles have gotten darker, have started sprouting pimples, have a constant mild headache in the back, am so distracted and switched off. Days seem to roll into each other - cant figure a monday from a wednesday from a friday or a sunday.

Speaking of days, I watched the movie "A Wednesday" last week. Its a great movie. I had read a few reviews/blogs about the movie and I knew that the theme revolved around the 'common man'.

Apart from entertaining, the movie also strikes a chord with the common urban Indian - what with all those 'low intensity' blasts that have recently happened across the country.

When it happened in Delhi, all of us frantically called S to check if she and her family were fine. When it happened in Hyderabad, the same with N. Folks called me when it first happened so close to my workplace in Bangalore. For 'aam janta' like me and my sisters, those moments are scary.

That apart, I have been reading a few Bollywood Celebrity Blogs regularly. While most of them are trite and shallow - two blogs that catch my interest are - Mr Bachchan's and RGV's.

AB's Blog is by far the best celebrity blog I have read. I love his blog. I think, mostly because I never expected him to be such a fantastic blogger.

A writer yes - what with his literary legacy, but blogger, no! The details he shares, the clarity with which he connects - is simply amazing.

Ram Gopal Verma's Blog is interesting in the details of his life that he shares. When he is touting his beliefs ( or the lack of them ) or his movies, he sets out to provoke... but right now he is talking about his Hyderabad days and they make for a great read.

Both these bloggers regularly post! I think a lesson for me somewhere, there. Both have a disdain for the media and the misrepresentation they suffer at it's hand. And hints at the limited IQ of these scribes.. which I totally agree. One look @ the quality of the press coverage in popular newspapers and TV channels is enough to confirm that.

Now on to Google Apps. I know I am saying this in a half - ass way - but I have realised that I am no fan of google software. I used google desktop on Windows for a while - and am now using Google Chrome. Installed it the next day after the press release.

Clean looks etc - but there is always a mysterious slowing down of my desktop when I install google applications. I will write up a more coherent review on google chrome one of these days.

But right now, I am thinking of uninstalling chrome.

Ubona was recently in news in Bangalore press for interesting application of their Voice recognition technology. They have a foodie hotline - 080 40700000 - where you can call in and say the name of the food-spot you want to hit and get connected to make a reservation. A very cool application. I liked it and have started using it.

As usual - new technology from a startup, its application has gaps which we all can chip in to fill. So I have asked them to point me to a place where I can file in these issues.

So thats it. My random, wandering post.

See you soon, my cyber doppel.

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