TweetDeck: What a Delight!!

I just started using TweetDeck and i have only one thing to say...Brilliant! I am kinda late on this application but spent almost 2 hours dissecting it and integrating it with my  debian interface. So now iam quite comfortable with it. Well , tweetdeck covers the majority of marketspace as far as twitter related apps are concerned.It can be used on almost any platform including Windows, Mac, Linux even ipad and iphone.

As you can see the interface is really clean and columns can be arranged to show different tweets, re-tweets and recommendations.The most thoughtful feature i think is you can actually group people and follow their tweets. The deck is esentially a adobe AIR application and can be synced with linkedin, facebook and myspace.

Quite cool!! Will definitely recommend it for everyone who wants to simplify twitter.

(I can think of few people like Nikita..and ya ramit also)

Google Image Search: Re-Vamped

By now every one must have noticed that google overhauled it's image search pages. The results are more like arranged in tile like format which expands on mouse action. This is significant improvement. It's good to see that google is concentrating on commonly used features. So far , i found google to be pretty busy with lesser known features like adwords, pagerank and labs.

Keep up the good work...

"America! You are depressed!"

I really thought a lot before publishing this post. And i hate to post this. But you know, some things are so intolerable and shameful that you hardly keep it to yourself. Democrat senator of new york Charles E Schumar is spitting out criticism on companies that outsource high end tech jobs to indians. He thinks that companies like infosys are "chop shops " where used cars are dismantled and parts sold seperately. The comments were made during the disccusion of border security meeting.

This senator needs to know that his america doesnot produce enough skilled people to do these high end tech jobs.Mr Senator, you need to tell your kids that boozing and fuckin around is fine but not sufficient to build nation. Mr senator you also need to know that america is technologically dependent on these "chop shops". Should we give you a demo- Let's make 15 august an absolute holiday. Shut down all support, maintanence and operations supporting american lines. What do you think will happen? It would not be less than an information blackout in US. Someone tell him how many engineers are working in american organisation like Microsoft and IBM. This senator is a complete jackass and puts a big question mark on american people's judgmental ability. The senator shows the current picture of american people- Low IQ, Arrogant fool, Selfish giant and a Shining Gasbag.This senator represents the class of american people who are afraid of hard times, competition, co-existence, mutual support and politeness. His statements are really sad and shows that he is frustrated and lacks the ability to analyse the facts, judge the right path and act accordingly.American people like him are bringing down the image and popularity of  this pioneering nation.

I hate to say this but america is definately a racist country. White americans still hate black americans. British don't like you, French hates you, Russians make you uncomfortable, Arabs wants to kill you, Chinese say "mind your own business", iranians say "Go fuck yourself", Pakis are making fool of you..and the list goes on. Mr Senator, it seems india is the only friend you have got. Those who have not seen racists in 21st century america can actually see Obama's presidential campaign movie. America as a country is very greedy, self centric, arrogant and impolite.

America needs to change it's self perception. Come down to earth , ol man!. Be modest and humble.Regain the respect of other people. Don't blame others for your own mistakes.You went through recession because american people created sub prime mortgage crisis, because you spend billions on war- not because indians snatched your jobs. you need to stop fighting and arguing with others. You are america, but the world is still big for you ol' man!Take responsibility of your own actions.

The world is an imperfect place but the people who are knowledgeable and are from advanced civilisation can come together to make it little more perfect. I still see america as an often right, often wrong country but the time asks for bigger changes in american mindset and thinking.

Crooks, Currency and Commonwealth Games

Hello...

I am returning to maverick's zone after a long time. I was bit busy with OptSEO and so far things are going steady with it. Within last few months lot of things happened and really wanted to write about those.So will try to cover some of those in this post.

 The most disturbing of those was about Commonwealth Games(CWG). Games are barely 60 days far and it certainly looks like a nightmare and huge embarassment for india. Politician and bureacrats are busy passing the buck, indian media is making huge sensational drama out of it and indian people , as usual , are not bothered about it. i wish people were more aware about "Tax- payers money".I think it's high time that each government organisation gets an inbuilt but independent quality control department which can report directly to central vigilance, parliament or PMO. When i hear and read about these huge scams i wonder why everyone calls india so poor.There's lot of money but indians don't want to share it with their own countrymen. Rich people in delhi want to earn but don't want to pay tax, people in mumbai want to snatch everything, people in kolkata will die or kill for 25 paisa and people in chennai will not spend the money on anything. It's sure a land of variety but one thing is present in almost all indians- they are easily corruptible and they can infect others with this. Bofors scam saw italian job, bhopal tragedy saw american selfishness and commonwealth saw corruption crossing boundaries and touching the shores of england and australia. Last month Mr David Cameron said that there's no need to sent development fund to india as rich indians should be able to take care of their own countrymen. Instead, after a week he came in india to sell 50 hawk jet trainers and sign many trade agreements. I don't know what others are thinking about india- a cash pond maybe. Uh ..Indians are already called as cash cows in australia. So much for a third world country. I wonder what Mr Kalmadi is thinking ..or what is going through the mind of DDA officers. An apartment in paris maybe... with euro bills in swiss bank. Mighty dream ..isn't it? Mighty dreams calls for desperate attempts..like stealing money from own country..Country ??? Wait a minute...what the hell are you talking about?..It's globalization age. The world is the country. India is for poor . I want to have an apartment in paris and want my children to work in big investment firms in US. Indian dreams are apparently bigger than any other dream and you know what..it's growing.

But what would be more worthly- the rightous path or just the destination. What is worthy is a complex question and iam sure people like Mr Kalmadi skip that question every night before going to sleep. Mr Subroto Roy also shared some lime light when he got his “public appeal” printed in the daily copy of Times Of India. He actually asked media to stop the CWG scam coverage till the end of the game. According to him this issue can be handled after the games. Mr Roy..I think I should tell you that it's information age. You cannot contain information and do you really think that “later” word has much importance in this situation. You are basically asking for more time - for cover up maybe!

I think let the world know that our politicians and beauracrats are actually sophisticated crooks and are complete jackass. I think all the development funds from so called rich countries should be stopped. India is self sufficient. I think people should stop paying the extra tax in delhi, independent cost analysts and engineers should check all the documentations related to CWG obtained through RTI and let this scam be a trial by the people, through the people and for the people.

Uh..here you go..Another drama was hatched in bihar few weeks ago and just now it reached delhi. Mr Nitish Kumar is in delhi to ask for Rs 5000 Cr. Oh no..He is not putting up a request to host CW games in bihar. He is really touched by the drought situation in bihar. Now this is strange, I knew that bihar suffers from flood disasters. I thought that bihar has pretty well water sources and it gets good rain every season. So much rain that rivers Ganges and Damodar floods half of the bihar. Mr Nitish kumar certainly needs lessons in natural resource management- water management to be precise. But Mr kumar what will you do with Rs 5000cr? That's a lot of money.I think bihar will vote for next assembly within next few months. The election commision team is already there in patna..isn'it?So how are you planning to spend the money- Deposit 1000 cr in your swiss bank account, 2000 cr for your peers, goons , renegade ganglords, 500 cr to buy independent MPs and maybe spend some of the remaining on the relief work.Oh ...but you have relief in your mind..what about re-construction, rehabilitation. Hmmm..so you are already thinking about your next trip to delhi..How much will you ask next time? maybe Rs10000 Cr? But i wonder what happened to bihar's savings account...is it empty? Oh i forgot..Your state is one of the poorest provinces in the world..majority of the people don't fall under income tax slab and those who fall don't pay it...also Mr Lalu Yadav sweeped the savings account a decade ago. I understand Mr Nitish ...You do a tough job in Bihar!

Mark the Bills

India adopted a new symbol for it's currency- The Indian Rupee. Today india joined the elite club of few countries who have unique identities for their currencies.This is the perfect time - India is slowly attaining a big economic status and there was a need for a currency to represent india's growing stature.

The new symbol is really good and iam really happy that they used the devnagiri script. It's a mix of modernity and culture. The two parallel bars on the top represent equality.A very simple design but unmistakably represents india.

The design has been created by D Udaya Kumar. He's a postgraduate student at IIT, Guwahati.The new symbol will show up on all new notes.

Great Job!!

She is armed and he is dangerous

"She is armed and he is dangerous" ! that's how the program starts. It suggests a action packed romantic nick nack..well, atleast that's what i expected! I am talking about the "Castle" show which is aired by Star world and has certainly gathered good amount of fan following..ahem..including me , actually.

This is one of the smartest shows i have watched lately and i find myself keep coming back to it. Because of work i often miss it on TV but i make it a point to watch it on internet. You can imagine how much have i grown on this show.The show is smart, chic, urban,classy, interesting and deadly.The introduction is one of the best i have seen in ages, well composed and disarmingly mischievous.To be honest, iam absolutely in love with Stana Katic. She plays detective Beckett and is like smokin hot black haired girl(Oh!! no..no i don't have any fixation for black haired girls..I sometimes find red headed girls attractive too) and blows your senses(at least mine)..Nathan Fillion plays the lead character of castle who is a best selling author based at NY. Well, I kinda expected that! americans just cannot seperate "classy" and "elegant" from NY, which indeed is true. So what's this all about. Well, A good homicide story, some intriguing plots and twists, some anger-outside-romance-inside clashes between castle and beckett.. and a brilliant presentation and script. What more you can ask for?

Guys watch this for it's superb homicide plots, Stana and the associated drama and gals watch it for the very confusing, sometimes-off-sometimes-on romance between castle and beckett. These days i hear that NY audiences are literally begging the producers and director to bring beckett and castle more closer..(i wonder what that means..Note: "closer " has many different meanings in NY.)Iam sure star world people will definitely come up with something, coz americans are not known to have good patience levels.Personally, I would like the relationship to take time to marinate and than be put on cooking pan. But more than anything i like the creative genius of the director and awesome screenplay. My favourite scene- the last part of the first episode-"And she walks away in the alley" brilliantly composed scene and kudos to nathan that he actually brought it up. People can actually see that "I fell in love with her the moment she walked away from me"...M sure many people gasped..but not for long coz "I don't want to loose her"......

There's lot many things which are absolutely interesting in this shows. Personally i find lot of connections with my own life. Perhaps that's why i feel bit biased for the show.

Tollywood Queens

I just finished watching the final part of antaheen on youtube. Sadly i could not arrange for the dvd or vcd of the movie as none of the stores here have that. I will have to probably get it when i go back to kolkata. I have not seen much of bengali movies but recently watched some excellent movies like Antaheen, Arunanan, Choker Bali to name a few. Bengal certainly has got talent as far as movies are concerned. People are well aware of bong presence in Bollywood and Music industry but not many people know about the mainstream actors and actresses in Tollywood(comes from Tollygunge), that's the name for bengali movie industry. Confusingly tollywood is also used for telugu movie.


As far as actors are concerned rahul bose is the only one who does smart work. But to be honest i would like to talk about bengali actresses only!

Here are the best 5 of them..

1) Rituparna Sengupta: She is probably the best known tollywood actress with huge fan following in bengal and some considerable and serious work in bollywood also. Lately, I saw the trailor of Mittal Vs Mittal..Looks like a really serious role movie.

2) Koel Mullick: She's a superb actress.The girl is beautiful, smart and acts really well. Why not! She's got the acting gene from her father, Ranjit Mullick(Who is a legendary actor).She really has that typical urban bengali girl looks.

3) Swastika Mukherjee: She's my favourite! One of the prettiest faces in tollywood , she has huge potential.I first saw her on a pathetic blog but i kinda instantly fell in love with her beauty.The girl-next-door type looks and superb screen presence are her real strength.

4) Raima Sen: She needs no introduction.Eldest of the two sisters, She is not exactly type- 'hot' actress like her sister riya but she illuminates the screen with her superb acting.She is the daughter of moon moon sen and grand daughter of legendary actress suchitra sen.









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Ma, Mati Ar Manush

Mamata banerjee sweeped the kolkata municipal election just to prove that marxism is no longer viable in bengal and urban bengal wants to get some momentum. Didi's slogan of 3M's or Ma, Mati and Manush has been accepted by the people of urban bengal. Not long ago Buddha babu dismissed this slogan saying "Oh! it's a jatra'.

Municipal elections are not that big in magnitude and most of the people(outside that particular municipality) are not bothered about who forms the council to administer the urban areas. But kolkata municipal elections were really important. Bangla has been under lot of media coverage- mostly for bad things- frequent bandhs, Lalgarh, Singur, Falling Industries and lowest GDP. This election, smaller in magnitude but was of utmost importance.People in delhi were also concerned about this election. Why? Well the loss of marxism shows that the decades old communist bengal is ready to rub off the rust and wants to be in motion and embrace a new life.

Here are the results for this year's civic polls in bengal

Battle for Bengal (Total 81 seats)
	Left Front	18 (-36)
	Trinamool	33 (+22)
	Congress	7

	Battle for Kolkata (Total 141 seats)
	Left	33 (-42)
	Trinamool	95 (+53)
	Congress	10 (-5)

Mamata's Ma, Mati and Manush really worked well and connected with people. But many people don't know that this indeed came from a jatra. Long back, in 1975 when mamata was 20 and buddha babu was being groomed for bigger thinbs things in life, a jatra called Ma-Mati-Manush, scripted by Bhairab Ganguly, was topping the charts in Bengal. The coinage has struck the bengal people and communists are really not happy about it. Elections are always fun to follow, people spitting on each other faces, throwing shoes on each other and giving statements and counter-statements in media. Lot's of things happens and infact those people who think that politics is no good can try to think again. These times can be really entertaining1..yes you heard it right..entertaining.

For Example, Bengal CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee during the run up to civic polls said...

“Every day, some new train is being inaugurated like duronto, uronto, jhulonto, dubonto (fast, flying, hanging, sinking). What is happening? Is this maa, mati, manush?’’

 

XpressoStill and OptSEO: Tiny Steps

 

I just finished adding two new pages on my OptSEO blog.I am really excited about XpressoStill and OptSEO. Many people, including my family members have asked me what future does it holds? Well, I believe in taking chances and on my abilities.

It's always good to go off the track and do something which gives you lot of peace and contentment.

stay tuned to Maverick's Zone for Updates!!!