Auto-rides: 5

Purchased: Frontech joystick and wireless router(netgear 54 Mbps)

Visited: Paigah tombs (the making of the ruins)

Lunch: Nan King

IceCream: Famous IceCream

No. of Googlers I bumped into: 4

Colourful flowers bloom on a couple of trees and a couple others bear fruits. Often I wake up to the sweet sound of birds chirping on these trees. Sometimes the cab guy wakes me up when I am late for work.

Things I enjoy doing on my terrace:

1. Star/moon/clouds/sky gazing in the night.

2. Reading/writing. Gives me the feeling that I am on a holiday and all I have to do is relax. The ideal time for this is in the evenings between 1645 and sunset.

3. Having a conversation on the phone. Only place in the noisy city where I can talk freely and not ask the person on the other end to repeat what they said.

4. Host friends on the terrace and yap about the above 3 benefits to them and let them experience it for themselves.

One of the chief reasons why I agreed to take up this house on rent, was the terrace and till this date I dont regret the decision.

Sadly, we were not allowed, no matter what we tried. We couldn’t bribe over way up. Hindi is not understood, we were disappointed. Then, with a heavy heart we took a U-turn. And the group decided to pay a visit to my humble house. I’ve never had 6+4 guests at home at once. Never ever in the last 18 months have I hosted so many people. It was special for me. The group had fun, played around like kids, splashed water all over. Also, they loved my terrace and clicked photos. I am happy I left work early on the Friday.

“Dare to dream” are the kind of dreams which are about something you want but are not willing to accept that as a possibility even in your dreams. Short sightedness, cynicism, fear and negativity cloud your rationale and discourage you from even thinking about the things you really want to do/ you always wanted to do. Life is not a movie, get real, think practically, etc. is what you tell yourself, because this is what the others have told you. Why do we let others to teach us to think? or rather let others set boundaries even on our imagination?

Dreams are a waste of time. Dreams are where you want to take your life. Jealousy exists. Even in your dreams. Why else would you compare in your dreams? These are still dreams.

I urge you and DARE you to dream. Dream beyond your fears and insecurities. Dream about the things you dreamt as a kid in school or as a 17-year old rebel. What stopped you? Did the priorities change for good? Dream about what you want your life to be in 5 years and think how will it be in 5 years if you simply continue without working on the ideas that you just dreamt.

For the media its simply business, they are happy that they have some interesting masala news which they can keep streaming in as Breaking News on their channels. One particular channel was showing live gruesome footage of blood and dead bodies/body parts at the crime scene with an apology for the images being so horrid. WHAT IS THE POINT? Why are you showing it if you feel it is inappropriate, isnt there some sort of censorship on the kind of gore that can be shown on TV? Did your channel plant the bomb? Did the terrorist call you up and let you know so that you could be the first one to broadcast this? What are you so proud of? You are all smiles that you could put it up on your channel before the others could reach there? Did your TV crew bother to help the injured who didn’t have enough ambulances available at that moment?

Zero security, insufficient rescue efforts, super bureaucracy, commercial news channels and ever-rising prices come along with the drudgery of being a middle class or a lower class person. These are the harsh truths of being an Indian, there is absolutely no security. Bribes are a way of life. There are positives, but these negatives cannot be ignored and they are the ones that always haunt us perpetually.

1. FREE (as in freedom)
2. Control (to customize it using add-ons)
3. Cross platform… be it Windows or GNU-Linux or Mac its always there.

Maybe there are other browsers which don’t consume 200+ MB of RAM… however none are as extensible as Firefox. My internet experience is actually defined by the way I have conditioned myself to browse and surf the Internet through this browser. I love it and here is a list of the add-ons which I use.

Add-ons I use heavily:

1. Gmail Manager
2. GreaseMonkey
3. FireFTP
4. Tab Mix Plus
5. Video Downloader
6. Google Browser Sync
7. All-in-One SideBar
8. Google Toolbar
9. IE Tab
10. Foxy Tunes
11. Auto-Copy
12. Tab Counter
13. WordPress Sidebar
14. Firefox Extension Backup Extension (FEBE)
15. Nightly Tester Tools

Add-ons I use regularly but not heavily:

1. Scribefire (used to be Performancing)
2. Add-to-Netvibes
3. Linkification
4. Smart Middle Click
5. StumbleUpon Toolbar
6. Amazing Media Browser
7. FlashGot
8. Bumble Search
9. Google Advanced Operations Toolbar
10. FullerScreen
11. Gmail Space
12. Gmail Skins
13. User Agent Switcher
14. Faviconize Tab
15. Customize Google
16. PDF Download

Extensions which I don’t use so often:

1. Page Addict
2. Stock Ticker
3. GooglePedia
4. DragDropUpload
5. BugMeNot
6. Google Notebook
7. Resize Search Box
8. TalkBack

Gimmicky extensions but i still like them and use them:

1. Splash
2. Colorful Tabs
3. Tab Sidebar
4. Tab Effect (I enable it to show off otherwise its disabled)
5. 
   

Somewhat Annoying Add-ons:

1. Download Statusbar
2. Split Panel

Add-ons that I realized I’ve already installed and am now considering getting rid of them:

1. Dictionary Lookup Extension
2. InformEnter
3. Answers
4. Clipmarks (Google Notebook makes more sense to me than this fancy add-on)
5. CoolIris Previews
6. Free Download Manager Plugin (coz i already have FlashGot)
7. GTD Inbox

Add-ons which I used at home and have stopped using after joining Google:

1. Adsense Notifier (I had to shut my Adsense account)
2. Adblock Plus (I work on internet Ads!)
3. Mouse Gestures (to learn more keyboard shortcuts instead)

On Themes:
Due to the number of add-ons I use, there is no single theme which works without breaking the aesthetics. I did find the Mario Bros. and Harley Davidson themes amusing. And have tried several popular themes like Noia, Pinball, Redshift, Midnight Fox, Aluminium Kai 2, etc. However, eventually the default theme “just works” for me.

This is just a classification on my usage and preferences. This doesnt necessarily imply the extension is bad (or good). In fact the choice of all these extensions is what makes Firefox so special. There is something for everybody. I really admire the effort put in by everybody involved in the development of all the add-ons out there.