The Opti-Mystic

Google's googly

Anita writes about the wrong 'un bowled by Google by redirecting it users to language editions based on where the user comes from. A well-meaning step by Google... but one that proved to be a minor irritant for its countless users who are so used to seeing Google in its regular English avatar. Google has since withdrawn this feature.

However, I must admire Google's efforts at internationalizing its interface.

Ohh btw, the article mentioned here contains my two cents too! :-)

I'm gonna live longer!!

Science and medicine students go on to live longer and healthier lives than those studying other subjects, according to a survey of men attending university between 1948 and 1968.

Peter McCarron, at Queens University Belfast, Northern Ireland, and colleagues examined the medical records of nearly 10,000 male graduates of Glasgow University. The researchers found that science, engineering and medical students had a substantially lower risk of mortality than arts students.

However, medical students went on to have the largest number of alcohol-related deaths and death from suicide or violent means. They were also the heaviest smokers as students, followed by lawyers.

Ahem! LOL!!

India will vote electronically...

The Election Commission (EC) of India has announced that it plans to conduct the general elections, due next year, wholly using Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs).

About one million EVMs will be required to accomplish this mammoth task. Also, the voter's identity card will be a mandatory requirement for voting during the general elections.

I found this link via slashdot.org where I spent a long time going through the comments on this piece of news.

I don't believe this!!

An adviser to Malayisan Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has declared that Malaysian Muslim men can divorce their wives via SMS.

"SMS is just another form of writing," the daily quoted Hamid as saying, following an Islamic court decision Thursday that ruled in favor of a man who served divorce on his wife using SMS.

The Intelligent Pill is here!

Hark! Tiny machines are here to crawl into your bodies to treat you!

Well actually, its the iPill, the latest in drug-delivery systems, which combines the diagnosis and the medicine in a single pill

Engineers at the University of Calgary have developed a pill that, once swallowed, will determine how healthy or ill the patient is, and will release just the right amount of medicine accordingly.

Dubbed the Intelligent Pill or iPill, the new drug-delivery system packs a micropump and sensors that monitor the body's temperature and pH balance into one pill. If the body's temperature and pH reach certain levels, the iPill responds by pumping out more or less of its drug payload. It could be used to treat many ailments like AIDS or diabetes.

The future's here!!

Cat 'Photoshop' Schwartz

Cat Schwartz of TechTV put up some of her photos on her weblog. Pretty normal, you would say!

But what she did not realize was that there exists a teeny weeny obscure bug in Photoshop. What is this bug all about?! ... Photoshop generates a small preview image for images it produces and hides it in the original image. If you then just do a minor change to the original image like cropping it down and if you then save the image with the same name, the preview image hidden in the original picture gets saved as it was before the original image was cropped. Then when you click on the image in the File Open menu, Photoshop picks up the preview image hidden in the picture and displays it in the preview window of the File Open menu.

What happens then is for all to see. But before you click on the following link, I must warn you that there is a little bit of nudity involved here. So, if you are easily offended, please refrain from clicking.

Click here to check out the Photoshop bug that lets you keep "abreast" of whats happening in Cat Schwartz's life! ;-)

After what would have undoubtedly been a passage of time where one would've seen a red-faced Cat Schwartz, she recovers well and handles this embarassing episode pretty well.

[link via Metafilter]

Fun with Google

How do you like your daily Google?... It's available in more flavours than you can eat!! ...

• The Bork, Bork, Bork! flavour


• The Laloo Yadav philavour!


• Wheee!! Elmer Fudd fwavouw


• The Hacker lingo


• The Klingon flavour for the Trekkies


• The Pig Latin Lavourfay

This is in addition to an assortment of Indian languages that the Google interface is available in!

Cool!!

Ad watch

I wonder why Rediff's main page still shows an ad that asks the readers to preorder a copy of The Order of the Phoenix?!!

Someone's not doing their job, obviously!!

Las 'Raigad' Vegas

The Maharashtra Government is seriously considering a proposal for the first ever casino in Maharashtra.

Commenting on the project, a Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) minister said, “It will bring in some good revenue and also be a tourist attraction. But since elections are round the corner, we have to be a little careful.”

Good Cop, Bad Cop

While RIAA bares it fangs at music 'pirates', MPAA tries to politely ask people who download pirated copies of films over the Internet, to stop doing so.

A classic case of the good ol' Good Cop, Bad Cop routine!!