Is Orkut Downmarket?

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Some random google searches helped me conclude that Orkut is still the number one social networking site (4th overall) in India but as suspected facebook is catching up fast. Not in the least is it helped by the fact that most of the western countries prefer facebook.

Similar to what Amit described here, I have independently observed that orkut indeed is considered sidey (that's not my personal view though). People guess based on the personality where would a person be on social networking scene. Comments like "Oh him, he must be on orkut" followed by a laughter are the ones that I have chanced upon more than once in last one week. 'Still stuck to' orkut (just orkut) is definitely not seen as cool.

Internet speed test

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This is what I get out of my 2MBPS reliance connection :(
You can test yours @ http://airtel.impatientones.com/myspeed_standalone.html


9/11 - The Quiz that never happened

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This is strangely how I have my memories of 9/11. I was reluctantly trying to prepare for a quiz on "Design of Steel Structures II". It was the time after my placement was over and I was living a life of no worries. Anyone who has stayed in an IIT hostel would vouch for the fact that it is almost impossible to study in the evenings unless you are living a life of total isolation. Noises came about planes crashing in building in NY and all news channels going berserk. I kinda ignored it for a while, and continued droning on DSS 2. The time was around 7 PM or so, a little before our dinner starts. I took a mental note of going to the TV room which was next to our mess before having my dinner. Others were faster in catching the significance of this happenstance and the noises grew. Having found a valid excuse to not study for my quiz, I came out . It all happened in a hurry then, we all rushed to the TV room which was by now packed to its full strength.

When we came back to review what has just happened, our biggest worry was centered around the quiz and how we should try and get it postponed. And our willing professor complied and canceled the quiz next day since we could not study due to all the things happening around.

Few months later, when I would have least expected, this event gave more wind (or rather pulled out more steam off) to the dot-com bubble burst. I almost lost the job that I never actually started. As weird as this may sound, but I think this one event did a lot to improve everyone's understanding of the world outside their own country. For a lot of first world countries, the largest continent on the planet came into being for the first time.

Beyond the immediate impact of killing 3000 people, the after effects of the incident has since been seen in our minds. Racial tensions got a whole new life. The world got a new metaphor to describe extreme disasters meted out by terrorists. Somethings that used to be just alien now became scary.

Since then, I have been to ground zero twice and found a gaping hole staring, the full import of which cannot be felt watching it on TV. Much like the small holes that most of the folks related or even unrelated to the incident carry in their hearts that gets translated into random acts of hatred every now and then.

vòng tròn

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Re: What have I been doing..

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Well finally "Iss Jungle Se Mujhe Bachao" is over and I got some spare time at hand. After years of watching unorganized television, a series of reality shows got me hooked back and at the same time I rediscovered my love for American sitcoms. All said and done, last couple of months seem like a blur now. As a result there is tons of stuff on my todo list including some fresh rants to be blogged about. All in due time.