TauFu (n.): The act of talking to one’s computer / pleading with it / re-opening a software at a later time / hitting the keys harder, as if that is going to change the outcome of the executed command. (And with something as unpredictable as Windows, it works). Also known as Reboot Voodoo.

Nice, simple lyrics for a change. Enjoy.

Feel the rain on your skin
No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips
Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins
The rest is still unwritten…

‘Unwritten’ by Natasha Bedingfield. Read the rest of the song here.

A pretty neat tool, for a very relevant consumer need. Caught my eye, am using it now, and am already blogging about it.

I receive on an average 25 emails a day (on a normal day) that goes up to 50 or more; Make that 600 emails a month, and important data, files are bound to get lost in the chaos. I had a tough time finding mails and files I needed (I still do), but now there’s at least a little help.

Xobni. Nice plugin to Outlook. Organizes mail, searches in a jiffy, lists all the files I have shared with my contacts, makes conversations out of my mails. See the demo video below to understand more.

[This useful discovery thanks to Rahul]

Convergence drives me crazy. And one nifty example I have here.

Post photos on Flickr of a concert you found on last.fm, take both information and post it on blog. Now you have a gig you attended, with photos tagged, date noted, tracks, albums and CD covers attached to it. That’s Gig Taggr for you. (This app is not quite there yet, but getting there).

Someone will soon add Google Maps, Youtube, Amazon and Facebook integration to this. So with one click you have added music, location, video, photos, reviews, CDs, reviews, books to this.

Just imagine.

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“XYZ is almost certainly the best online photo management and sharing application…”

“…possibly the best radio station in Singapore.”

“…probably the best Indian curry that you could ever have!”

A new clan of pseudo-claims.

What are claims? (Not the insurance types, and definitely not the legal ones). For the non-branding junta, claims are what the word means. Marketers make claims for their brands based on the product performance, efficacy, credentialing by third party, external certification, internal R&D etc. Look around you and you’ll see claims everywhere (”Toothpaste most used by dentists themselves“, “Reduces dandruff by up to 100% and prevents hair fall“, “Best satisfaction guaranteed or your money back“, “Certified by American Health Association“, “Fights 7 signs of aging” and so on and so forth). I will not call out the brands and their associated claims, but you get the idea.

What is catching my attention is the slow movement of claim history towards more and more murky claims and pseudo-claims. ‘No product is better than X‘ translates to ‘X is as good as any other’. ‘Possibly the best‘ and ‘Definitely superior performance‘ always crack me up. Possibly? Superior? Superior to what? Your own performance 2 months ago, possibly.

And the opening claim is absolutely hilarious. ‘Almost certainly‘!!! How certain are we? Almost? But then, can’t blame the brands nowadays. Especially Web brands have their positions and superiority challenged on a daily basis. So no point wasting time, energy and resources to go for the superiority claim (one has to research into the details, do massive surveys and involves agencies to say that one is the best product / brand / service in the industry). So one would rather use a murky claim that supports and emphasizes the goodwill that Web brand has.

Like I used to say before; such great insights one gets only on my blog. Possibly the best branding blog you’ve never read.

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Michael Jackson. What a genius, what a voice, what a career. I am not particularly fond of pop music (of the Boyband-girlband variety) but this man is something else. He has been an inspiration in composition, voice, performance, and sheer creativity. And he turns 50 today. A tribute is due.

From the time of the famous Jackson 5, who were the biggest names in Motown in their early teens, Michael was something special. I remember the first time I saw his video when he was about 8 years old: in complete control of the stage, and more importantly, of his voice, and the crowd as well. Such energy, and the voice too powerful to ignore. A voice that overpowers the wonderful accompanying instruments and voices of his brothers. He was the star, clearly.

Quincy Jones and ‘Off the Wall’ happened, followed by ‘Thriller‘. My oh my. What an album. Multi-platinum, multi million selling, multi-Grammy winning and whatnot. Every song is a fricking lesson in song arrangement, voice modulation, instrumentation, bass lines and clarity. And then the ‘Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever‘ TV special happened where he first performed his Moonwalk. And the rest was not just history; it was Michael fever everywhere. And then, to follow it up with Bad, Dangerous and HIStory. How much great music one has to have within himself to come up with albums like that.

I have a lot of personal favorites: Lyrics arrangement and Van Halen’s guitar in Beat it; the rhythm pattern in Jam (the first English song I ever heard); powerful chorus in the live version of The Way You Make Me Feel; beatboxing in Stranger in Moscow; Liberian Girl, Invincible, Bad, Billie Jean, Earth Song, They don’t really care about us; and I’m not even talking about any of the videos. Just the bleddy songs. Unbelieveable!

Almost all his songs are genius material; hence no point listing all of them. He is a true legend, in the sense that he has been the material of public paranoia many times over; has been inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (twice); 13 Grammy awards, 13 number one singles, 750 million albums sold worldwide; the Moonwalk, the Crotch Grab all becoming parts of the repertoire of many budding dancers world over.

Sheer Musical Genius.

But there’s one thing I would like to say to Michael.

Stop whatever the fuck you are doing. Sleeping with children, dangling your baby from your balcony, painting your face, drafting skin from your ass onto your chin; Stop all that for fuck’s sake.

And get back to making your music. That’s your only emancipation. That’ll save you from yourself.

[Pic courtesy: Yahoo.]

Wordpress rocks. In extendability (widgets, plugins, that too all free and open source); in design (beautiful free themes, wonderful CMS capabilities, magazine styles, et al); and in ease of use. Just for starters, the plugins I use on my website (which are listed by using another plugin!):

There are 60 plugins used: 35 active plugins and 25 inactive plugins.

Active Plugins

  Akismet 2.0.2
» Matt Mullenweg (url)
Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not. You need a WordPress.com API key to use it. You can review the spam it catches under “Comments.” To show off your Akismet stats just put <?php akismet_counter(); ?> in your template.

  All in One SEO Pack 1.4.6.13
» Michael Torbert (url)
Out-of-the-box SEO for your Wordpress blog.

  Asides widget 1.0
» James Carppe (url)
A widget to display the content of the n most recent posts from the specified category - designed for aside usage.

  Audio player 1.2.3
» Martin Laine (url)
Highly configurable single track mp3 player.

  Category Cloud Widget 1.3
» Lee Kelleher (url)
Adds a sidebar widget to display the categories as a tag cloud.

  del.icio.us widget 1.0
» Automattic, Inc. (url)
Adds a sidebar widget to display del.icio.us links

  Feed Statistics 1.3.1
» Christopher Finke (url)
Compiles statistics about who is reading your blog via an RSS feed and what they’re reading.

  FireStats 1.3.6-stable
» Omry Yadan (url)
Statistics plugin for WordPress.

  flickrRSS 4.0
» Dave Kellam (url)
Allows you to integrate the photos from a flickr rss feed into your site.

  Flickr Thumbnails Widget 1.2
» James Carppe (url)
Displays thumbnails from Flickr based on the user/group/tag you provide.

  Google Reader widget 1.8
» James Wilson (url)
Adds a sidebar widget to show your latest shared stories.

  Google Reader widget 0.1
» Miguel Ibero (url)
Adds a widget with the links to the stories shared or starred or of a certain tag of a google reader

  Gregarious Reaching 2.0
» Ankur Kothari (url)
The ultimate social bookmarking plugin. Need I say more?

  Lightbox JS v2.03.3 Plugin 1.7
» Peppe Argento (url)
Used to overlay images on the current page. Lightbox JS v2.03.2 by Lokesh Dhakar.

  Random Redirect 1.1
» Matt Mullenweg (url)
Allows you to create a link to yourblog.example.com/?random which will redirect someone to a random post on your blog, in a StumbleUpon-like fashion. You can also specific in the URL `random_post_type` or `random_cat_id`.

  Snap Shots™ Plugin 1.3
» Ajay D’Souza (url)
Add Snap Shots to your blog. Go to Options >> Snap Shots to configure.

  Sociable 2.0
» Peter Harkins (url)
Automatically add links on your posts to popular social bookmarking sites. Go to Options -> Sociable for setup.

  Twitter widget 1.5
» Sarah Isaacson (url)
Sidebar widget to display your Twitter timeline. The widget allows you to choose to display your twitter username in front of your updates. You can also choose whether to display the time before or after the twitter post.

  Wordpress Automatic Upgrade 1.2.2
» Keith Dsouza (url)
Wordpress Automatic Upgrade allows a user to automatically upgrade the wordpress installation to the latest one provided by wordpress.org using the 5 steps provided in the wordpress upgrade instructions. Go to Wordpress Automatic Upgrade to upgrade your installation Thanks to Ronald Huereca for making the plugin run in automatic mode.

  WordPress Database Backup 2.2
» Austin Matzko (url)
On-demand backup of your WordPress database. Navigate to Manage → Backup to get started.

  WordPress Related Posts 0.9
» Denis (url)
Generate a related posts list via tags of WordPress

  WordPress XML Export 2.0
» Aaron Brazell (url)
This will generate a WordPress XML export for import into other WordPress blogs. Based on code provided in 2.1+ versions of WordPress and originally written by Matt Mullenweg.

  wp-cache 2.1.1
» Ricardo Galli Granada (url)
Very fast cache module. It’s composed of several modules, this plugin can configure and manage the whole system. Once enabled, go to “Options” and select “WP-Cache”.

  WP-EMail 2.20
» Lester ‘GaMerZ’ Chan (url)
Allows people to recommand/send your WordPress blog’s post/page to a friend.

  WP-EMail Widget 2.20
» Lester ‘GaMerZ’ Chan (url)
Adds a EMail Widget to display most emailed posts and/or pages on your sidebar. You will need to activate WP-EMail first.

  WP-PageNavi 2.11
» Lester ‘GaMerZ’ Chan (url)
Adds a more advanced paging navigation to your WordPress blog.

  WP-PluginsUsed 1.00
» Lester ‘GaMerZ’ Chan (url)
Display WordPress plugins that you currently have (both active and inactive) onto a post/page.

  WP-PostRatings 1.11
» Lester ‘GaMerZ’ Chan (url)
Adds an AJAX rating system for your WordPress blog’s post/page.

  WP-Print 2.11
» Lester ‘GaMerZ’ Chan (url)
Displays a printable version of your WordPress blog’s post/page.

  WP-Stats 2.11
» Lester ‘GaMerZ’ Chan (url)
Display your WordPress blog statistics. Ranging from general total statistics, some of my plugins statistics and top 10 statistics.

  WP-Stats Widget 2.11
» Lester ‘GaMerZ’ Chan (url)
Adds a Stats Widget to display stats from WP-Stats Plugin. You will need to activate WP-Stats first.

  WP-Sticky 1.00
» Lester ‘GaMerZ’ Chan (url)
Adds a sticky post feature to your WordPress’s blog. Modified from Adhesive by Owen Winkler.

  Yet Another Related Posts Plugin 2.0.4
» mitcho (Michael Yoshitaka Erlewine) (url)
Returns a list of the related entries based on keyword matches, limited by a certain relatedness threshold. New and improved, version 2.0!

  Youtube Favorites Plugin/Widget 1.0
» Ozh (url)
Customizable display of your latest Youtube favorite videos. (quick readme & manual)

  YouTube widget 1.1
» James Wilson (url)
Adds a sidebar widget to show a YouTube video.

Most of these are wonderful in functionality and are easily customisable. Do check them out for using in your website. And if you are using anything other than Wordpress to run your blog, it’s time to change, I say. Download the Wordpress engine and host your own; or get a free blog at Wordpress.com.

Click on image to enlarge. Taken from Google trends on the iPhone for India. Lets try to read the story this graph shows.

Until late June, not much was being about the iPhone in India (on Google, I mean). Suddenly, PR kicks in, news channels and TV is flooded with talk about the iPhone, blogs start writing about the steep 31k price tag, Airtel starts its holistic marketing campaigns, and finally it also reflects in search requests, with Google spiking in July and still showing high queries in August. Similar buzz can also be noted when the iPhone 3G was launched world-wide, and India has already started searching for tidbits in early June.

Even more reason why pre-seeding works well in technology, blogs and WOM. Apple would want Engadget, CNet and all other gadget reviewers to go ga-ga, early. And sustain the search volume to reach critical mass in awareness first; then with the actual launch, people are already camping outside the stores, blogs have hyped up the functionalities; Steve Jobs is smiling his way to the bank.

Another interesting observation from the Trends link: Mangalore beats all other cities (even Mumbai and Bangalore) and Gujarat tops the searches for both iPhone and iPhone 3G (Surat and Ahmedabad being the main contributors). Unlikely candidate for the geekiest state, beating Karnataka and AP, don’t you think? Or is it just a reflection of buying propensity?

[Try Google Trends. Pretty darn interesting.]

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From Mutiny.in, one of the blogs that I read, a write-up by Saurabh Garg:

I got this SMS from a friend

While v celebrate 61 years of independence, i hav just
one ques fr u - after spending more than 2 decades in this 61-yr old
country, r u a proud indian or an apprehensive indian? I first heard
the latest rabbi song ‘bilqis’ 5 days back on india’s
independence day and am still haunted by it. And i am still looking fr
n ans to the ques raised - ‘jinhe naaz hai hind par woh kahan
hai?’

And since its 9:30 PM, I am in office and don’t have anything
important to work on, I thought why not some self-reflection. Please
beware that this is going to be a rant where I go on a mental trip and
hopefully get an answer. And to put things in context, the song that
Sonali is talking about is this. And while I am writing this, I am listening to it.

So the question asks me if I am a proud Indian or an apprehensive Indian. In one line, a short and sweet answer is that I am a proud Indian.
And more than apprehensive I am confident, curious and motivated, all
three at the same time. If you asked me why, I would have no real
reasons except for the statement that everything India is, defines me (large, full of contradictions, basking in the past glory, struggling to cope up with realities of world fast changing world) and everything I am, defines India (young, mediocre, forward-looking, ambitious, trying to prove a point, wanting to lead the world).

Echoes pretty much what I feel about Des. Especially what India means to me, and what I mean to India. Just to get you thinking. How do you feel about being Indian?

Don’t know what to gift a dear friend for his / her birthday? Thinking of buying an expensive shirt / perfume / watch which might never be used?

How about spending exactly the same amount of money, and gifting a donation? How about using the money you would’ve spent for a momentary pleasure to sponsor a year’s education of an underprivileged child, lets say?

I am not going to exalt the merits of charity or advantages of doing good to the society. Some like to do it, some don’t care. People should be fine either way. But for those who like to contribute, and especially for those who have friends who would appreciate such a gesture, there is www.Giveindia.org.

Very simple in design, takes a minute to create an account, and you can choose different causes to donate; old people, children, education, upliftment, food, water, rehabilitation etc. Choose your cause, enter your amount, and gift the donation to someone dear. My favorite choice is Children’s Education; you can choose your favorite from the many options available.

How is this different from the thousand other charity websites out there? First of all, Giveindia is just a portal, a funnel or a filter that makes sure money reaches the right hands. It is also an NGO (or so I think) but it validates and verifies all NGOs associated and registered with it. And the abundance of choice and ease of transaction add to the experience.

Give it a try. Giveindia.

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