kinshuk sunilit aint no, dessert if therez no caek

I don’t know but the Redmond Area winds don’t seem to be favorable for the Microsoft think tanks… Microsoft, that has always tried to be a market leader and innovator (at least, on the looks of it) has always been an emulator and an imitator :P Be it the DOS, Windows or even Vista UI

And then there is OOXML and well, Shared Source… Fancy this:

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Microsoft kills its ?Get the Facts? anti-Linux site by ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley — On August 23, Microsoft pulled plug on the “Get the Facts” site, replacing it with a new Windows Server “Compare” site. Why did Microsoft make this move now? And is Compare anything more than “Get the Facts” in sheep’s clothing?

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After Microsoft came up with a patent violation claim, it came with a Shared Source concept and well promotions of Open Source… I am a business graduate pursuing MBA.. I understand what business is and what Marketing is all about.. but really.. Microsoft…. What are you trying to do? Fight more important battles!

On a personal front.. I was sitting in class when a friend asked me about the OOXML affair.. and I was ignorant about it… the only thing I could remember was oXML and I lectured her for about half an hour about oXML until she went berserk :D Only later to realize… back home… that OOXML is MS Office Open XML :P

To add insult to injury.. I am writing this blog using Windows Live Writer on a Vista Ultimate PC ;)

I woke up this morning.. had received an Orkut scrap from a friend and needed to check it. so I went to the Orkut web. And my first reaction was.. where did Orkut go? What’s this new site in place of it. Took me some time to realize that Orkut’s got a new look.

I love this look :D Its a funky white layout over the typical Orkut blue… but its nice.. with lofty and curvy edges. The only thing they need to change is the old Orkut logo. It doesn’t gel much with the Orkut concept.. I never liked it anyway.

But this is a nice change to Orkut.. and you can also embed HTML and images in scraps now.. way to go Orkut.. way to go..

On other fronts.. Life is going good. resolved some issues with friends. happy again :D

Happy Independence Day!

India turns 60 years old today. Wonder what it means to me? The streets are the same. The people, the same. Hardly any difference in the 59 yr old youth and the 60 yr old one. Youth? Well, India is more likely a kid as far as independence is concerned. Isn’t it so?

What i find most amusing about our Independence day is that it is actually a commemoration of Lord Mountbatten’s great naval victory in the pacific front of the great war (aka WW2). So much for the independence of a 5000 year old, peace-loving Culture.

Needless to say, every independence day i think a lot abt Lord Mountbatten. Here’s what wikipedia has to say:

“Admiral of the Fleet Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas George Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, KG, GCB, OM, GCSI, GCIE, GCVO, DSO, PC (June 25, 1900–August 27, 1979) was a British admiral and statesman and an uncle of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. He was the last Viceroy and first Governor-General of independent India, and First Sea Lord, as was his father, Prince Louis of Battenberg. Mountbatten was assassinated by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), who planted a bomb in his boat at Mullaghmore, County Sligo in the Republic of Ireland.”

There is a greater debate on his role in Indian Independence and the subsequent partition. But why talk of it? As we move forward in time, lets look towards the future. The Super Power Free India is poised to be!

But really are we still free? Free as in Freedom? Look around, ask questions! Isn’t it time we really start asking questions, not only from others but us too, and more importantly, find answers to these questions. Why do we have to be spoon fed everything?

So much so more.

Well, actually I am working on a few aspects of managing a course and more likely marketing a course and I am trying to make sense of my freedom there. More so making people aware of the freedom they have! Politics and Power-play scar people for long, independence is the ability to overcome that scarring and getting people back on their feet. Rest, the people have to make their own way… No one can actually make you walk, right?

Since the 20th of July, 2007, A lot has happened in my life… I faced my first ever hospital admission and a lot of health issues… I wanted to blog about all of it, but the backlog just kept increasing… So, I’ll be skipping most of it and talking in overviews.

On 20th July, I experienced an unbearable pressure in my right kidney angle, for which I had to be hospitalized. After three days of pain management I was discharged. But soon admitted on 27th to undergo a stone removal operation. While the stone was successfully, I was told my grade II Hydronephrosis will take some time to heal all by itself. A follow up is pending. Since, I have been advised to avoid strainous labour, long sitting sessions, drink at least 6 liters of water and discipline my lifestyle. As a consequence, my sessions at the PC have been reduced not only in quantity but quality too. Tell my parents about Quality-implications or the present day business!

On a second note, I had a fabulous dispute and disagreement at my college and with friends involving a lot of mud slinging and personal commenting and stuff. Glad to claim, I am learning from our model of democracy (talking of some exceptional events, not demeaning the Indian Democracy, which is Fab as compared to rest of the world). Needless to say, i don’t have many fans at college these days.

But, on a brighter note (where is the sun?), we have got a prodigious bunch of juniors at GBO… ok, maybe i exaggerated, but they do have a lot of zeal and enthusiasm.

I had this post in edit mode for about 3 hours… so this is volume one.. I post the later half, later…