2010

Every year this blog has a retrospect post looking back through the archives..

This year was not worth the blog archive search.

We got memories worth a lifetime during a two week stretch in our India trip, first when the little one agreed to do her mottai with Daddy and came back to the USA to brave abuses like "you are a boy girl"

and this was followed by a spiritual connection at Manikaran and Manali in the Himanchal, a one of a kind experience!

There were sicknesses in the family that pretty much want us to forget this year and they pretty much made us feel that there are things that are way out of our control and made us ponder spirituality to a higher level.

The blog and blogger have not strayed significantly from the usual routine, save for the MAJOR upgrade to the Photo/Video department. This blog has seen the photographer learn new tricks (and hopefully show others that anyone can take pictures by following instructions and practicing), show a few cooking tips that show that if I can do ladoos, mixture and mysorepak, you can too.. and chronicle the kid raising experience with day to day tidbits that make us reflect and go "what were we thinking". Sure those tidbits make you LOL!

On the camera front, just like how a bachelor got married and decided to have kids as he realized that there was a progression to things, the point and shoot was replaced by a DSLR over time and the DSLR changed to a full frame camera this year. The only thing that beats having kids is to get them married, but usually there is a long gap between having kids and getting them married!

So someday this blogger might make a short film or documentary, but that will be a long long time from now!

Blogs have gone the same way as Temples. I know.. I know.. you are thinking "what the !!!" Let me explain. Today there was a conversation with my brother about going to temples. When we go to Kabali temple (in Mylapore) or Padmanabhaswamy temple (in Adyar) you find that 90% of the population in the temple is 50+ age group. Why?

A theory was that thirty years ago(when we were kids) there was not that much TV, internet, cell phones. The temples were not just a place to worship god, pray for your sins to be absolved, wishes to be granted, illnesses to be cured, feel closer to god, but also to meet your friends, find matrimonial matches for that nephew or niece of cousin, get up to date on neighborhood gossip, movies worth watching, etc. etc. or just plain get some exercise going around a large temple or walking to it.

Today the traffic and pollution have made that exercise an oxymoron. The cell and internet give you the gossip and info. Google, Youtube, Facebook, Bharat Matrimony and Shadi.com have made the rest of the temple visit unattractive. My parents listen to Velukudi Swamy on Jaya TV or Vijay TV. For all we know, even Velukudi Swamy is probably happy to spend more time explaining Bhagavatam in a studio than be stuck in Mount road traffic!

This blog is one such place. Facebook and Twitter have changed the way blogs are read. Ever since Blogrolling.com was hit as a virus site and blocked by browsers like IE and Firefox, the links to your favorite blogsites on the sidebar are all gone! It is like losing your phone book.

Still there are folks who visit the temple whatever be their reasons! Blogging has become like going to the temple. A place to revisit your thoughts, shout into the ocean, make new friends, have a conversation with everyone and no one in particular, just like talking to god!

So, on we go with more pictures, videos and words!

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Meeting buddies...

One thing that we managed to do on this trip was to meet and chat with two blog buddies.

Took the kids to visit PK in Chennai and visited Kavi in Mumbai on a busy office day.

It was great catching up with them. It is one thing to share ideas over the net and another to meet face to face over a cup of coffee and chat.

These guys could easily pass for brothers of mine. There is a level of tacit understanding of why we says things the way we do that always beats me.

These guys are my eyes and ears in India as much as those gtalk conversations with my brother and parents. That said, it was interesting to see their take on the two cities we have come to love, albeit with reservations on my part.

These guys set me straight when it comes to accepting Chennai or Mumbai for the good of it and ignoring what bothers me. At least they showed me glimpses of how they do the ignoring bit.

Next time it is their turn to visit us here...

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Buzz ain't bad for a bumblebee like me..

Ok, there is a lot of negativity these days around anything Google.

Since I am not employed by google, am a self proclaimed techno nerd (not the software type though), and have had an open love-hate relationship when it comes to the products they dish out, here is an open heartfelt feedback of why this is actually a good thing..

1. Now that they fixed this contact business, it is no different from facebook. You can share all info to all public or choose to share your info with select people. You do have to invest some time and effort to set up the group lists for friends, family, etc. etc.. then what you share gets viewed by different people. Have checked it out and it works nicely. (it also tells you which items you shared with the world and which ones with family).

see the example shot below..

2. if all your buddies put their accounts and share it in the buzz stream, you get to see their feeds, tweets etc. just like you see blogposts on reader. the look and feel of a reader is maintained.

3. You don't have spam on this yet with stuff like "so and so took the How much do you know Shah Rukh Khan quiz and scored 13%. would you like to take the quiz?", in a quiz where even Shah Rukh would score only 5%.

4. the picture viewing is great!

5. It is almost a blogger and reader combined into one.

Now, if google makes you selectively embed links and images into the text box.. in other words, integrate the blog editor into buzz status updater, and have the ability to selectively show only my posts in the buzz stream, then will I even use blogger? highly unlikely.

So when people say Buzz is trying to replace facebook, twitter etc.. it also seems to be trying to replace blogger and blogreader as well!

They should have done this two years ago!

Just look at who are on your facebook list. Friends from school, college, work, friends you make thanks to who your kids go to school with, friends you make because of your hobbies and that is pretty much it.

It is usually the same bunch of people you email the most. I fundamentally had an issue with Facebook calling everyone a "friend", be it an acquaintance or a thick pal and almost stopped using it because of how it had security issues. Facebook fixed those issues and have a way to send your status updates to select folks only and have a way for you to say "NO" when it comes to information on your profile going out.

Buzz is doing the same thing.. It does surprise me that they didn't learn from the mistakes of Facebook before launching Buzz! The good thing with Google is that the react fast when you point out things to them.

Looks like someone heard my plea for a one stop shop with one login!

The second impression on this one is "I could get used to this!"

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Adsense

Today we were having dinner with a relative who works at google.

He convinced me to use Adsense. He was asking me why I don't use Adsense. I did not understand. Told him that

1. somehow the ads would clutter up the template
2. don't care about the money
3. don't want to be indirectly responsible for suggesting products that I might not recommend

and he said "totally not true!"

You can completely select what kind of contextual ads to place and it might actually help you, if not the people who read your blog and point them to some interesting related links..

So tried it.. and it messed up my template for sure. So have signed up for an account and now I have to figure out how to get it into the sidebar instead of the top of the blog!

If google wants me to use Adsense, they should make it more idiot proof for simpletons like me (who are still on the same old template from four years ago!).

Maybe those who have this on their blog can give me some pointers?

Does this actually help point you to interesting links?

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Copy wopy, plagiarize vagiarize...blog shwog..

Have been watching how the mommy blogger circle is catching up on plagiarizing of posts. Kiran, who I read regularly (especially her self deprecating posts crack me up) was copied. So were other Mommy bloggers.

One possible theory based on a funny conversation I had at a party recently with a friends friend.

Me : So what are all those guys in that circle doing these days?
FF : Most of them have gone back to India over the last two years.
Me : what about that dude? and his roomate?
FF : "that dude" is still here. His roomate went back and is now settled in UP and he is doing great.
Me : what does he do?
FF : Oh, he is making a lot of money in advertising!
Me : Wow! that is nice. didn't know that he was into advertising..
FF : No NO.. not that type of advertising. He is making money by generating internet traffic!
Me : ????

FF goes on to explain

FF : He has hired a lot of women, mostly women with kids who want to work parttime from home. They all generate a network of websites using blogger and generate cross traffic. The people he hires read other blogs, pick up things of interest and create cross linked blogs. He promotes these and gets a cut on the ad. revenue!

Me : My god.. this puts Amway to shame by a wide margin! This is like the Borg that keeps assimilating things in star trek! Even people who are not part of the original clique will get sucked into this ring!

FF : exactly!

This conversation is now three months old. I guess the whole thing is so legit that it has blurred the difference between real traffic and fake traffic.

Imagine a thousand people clicking on each other's blog ad's a few hours a day..

now Imagine some dude laughing his ass off watching people who pour their heart out in blog posts realize

1. they have been plagiarized
2. they are fuming
3. the more they fume the more traffic comes to these sites
4. the copycats get to make money and blur the lines
5. they can calmly lose a few of the sites and start new ones and keep making money

It is a funny world, no?

ps. Not sure if that is what is happening here, but thought all bloggers should know that there is such an outfit out there with hundreds of "employees" working on a blog generating company!

pps. How do you find out if you have been plagiarized? Is there a utility? Or like the iphone ads say "is there an app for it?"

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