Life Of Navin

"Google is by far the best search engine out there!!" How many times have you heard someone claim that?? Well, maybe it was, but somehow its results seem to be getting more and more irrelevent by the day.

Have you noticed the ever-growing number of Google-owned sites that have crept into the search giant's results? Doing a Google search for Mentos and Coke will take you to a results page where over half of the items are videos on Google's two video sites: YouTube and Google Video. And lets not forget AdSense, and those never ending ads towards the right hand side of the search results page. The search I've mentioned returned ads from sites such as Monster.com (offering me jobs in Coca Cola and Mentos!!).

However, the entire issue set into me to a much higher extent when I stumbled across Timo Paloheimo's blog. This guy from Finland seems to think the all-around increase of Google-owned sites in the results is impeding with what the search engine is all about (My point exactly!!). To remedy this he's put together a Google custom search called Google minus Google that removes all of Google properties from the equation. It's like any other Google custom search, except for the giant handpicked blacklist of Google properties. So that basically means the Original Results -Blogger -Knol -YouTube -Google Videos!! But AdSense ads still exist!! There is NO Google custom earch engine that can exclude all AdSense!!

To Google Minus Google's credit, doing the same search puts a Wikipedia article on top, followed by the Eepybird people, who were the creators of the video that's the best known example of the Web phenomenon. Hmm... but it all depends on what you were originally looking for....... if you were looking for the video then Google did manage to get the job done right?? All a matter of perspective I guess!!

Hmm...what form factor is your phone?? a 'trad' candybar, or a 'suave' slider, or the 'ultra-oomphy' flip?? Or maybe its the 'Bend'!! Oh yeah...that's drool worthy eh??

The Bend Mobile Phone concept, with a extractable camera and bent double screen sounds is more of a "like it or hate it" kinda concept....count me in the former!! I'd say this is one of those designs that designers come up with an idea that, while impractical, would at least be interesting should it ever be made (read "the Plica").

The Bend, which is meant to be easier to get in and out of the pocket. It packs a sideways sliding camera with squashed up components at either end as if an elephant had sat on it. This phone would hardly fly off the shelves.The dual screen idea, which seems to be the only thing designers want to put into phones these days, looks very bizarre with a number of bits stuck on the side randomly.


Oh, and not to forget the keyboard.... It's touchscreen!! Unfortunately though, the keys appear to be the size of pinpricks (or maybe even smaller!!).

Wait for its international lunch this November.Pure genius this one!! :)

Paolo Coelho: not someone who really needs an introduction. The multi-million selling author and writer of such classics as The Witch of Portobello, Eleven Minutes, and The Alchemist. Now that's an author huh?? And definitely someone who's a staunch opponent of Piracy right?? Well....wrong!!

Paolo Coelho has actually claimed that online book piracy has actually increased sales of his books in hard copy instead of decreasing it. Amazing huh??

One of Coelho's fans supposedly posted a Russian translation of one of his famed novels on a file-sharing site and since then, sales of his books increased in Russia from 3,000 to 100,000 to a staggering 1 M in the timespan of three years.

"This happened in English, in Norwegian, in Japanese and Serbian," said Coelho. "Now when the book is released in hard copy, the sales are spectacular."

However, HarperCollins, Coelho's US publisher pulled him up on a supposedly unauthorised version of one of his books that the author had linked to from his own website. Supposedly the unauthorised version was found to contain Coelho's own author's notes!!

Coelho has long been known as one of the most tech-savvy authors. He Twitters, he blogs, he encourages his readers to submit their thoughts on developing stories (or their pictures to Flickr). However, in his own words, "he still believes in print."

It gives me a lot of joy, because writing is something you do alone. -- Paolo Coelho on why he writes

How many times have you heard a joke and found it to be mind-numbingly stale? Well, it certainly doesn't get older than this. Researchers have found the oldest one of them all!!

The world's oldest recorded joke has been traced to roughly 1900 BC and seems to suggest that toilet humour was as popular with the ancients as it is today. The joke, which is an ancient Sumerian saying, was recorded from modern day Iraq and goes: "Something which has never occured since time immemorial; A young woman did not fart in her husbands lap." Get it?? Neither did I when I read it the first time!

This "joke" topped the list of top 10 oldest jokes and was followed in second by a 1600 BC gag about the pharoah King Snofru,which goes: "How do you entertain a bored pharoah? You sail a boatload of young women dressed only in fishing nets down the Nile and urge the pharoah to go catch a fish". Din't get this one either?

OK, here's the one that I found the best: A joke from the 10th century AD which is definitely not one for the kids: "What hangs at a man's thigh and wants to poke the hole that it's often poked before? Answer: A key". I bet I know what your answer was !!

"Jokes have varied over the years, with some taking the question and answer format while others as witty proverbs or riddles," said the writer of the report, Paul McDonald. He also added " Modern puns, especially sex girl jokes and toilet humour can all be traced back to the oldest of jokes identified in this research"

Visit this link to view the list of Top 10 Oldest Jokes.