David Pogue is the personal-technology columnist for the New York Times. Each week, he contributes a print column, an online column and an online video. His daily blog, “Pogue’s Posts,” is the Times’s most popular blog.David is also an Emmy award-winning tech correspondent for CBS News and a frequent guest on NPR’s “Morning Edition.” His trademark comic tech videos appear each Thursday morning on CNBC.

When I was in college, the most interesting thing that I came across in my Economics text books, was Communism.

I liked the way that Marx  analyzed human history . ( may be I am yet to read something better than that, if there is any, sorry ). Till then, history was like a library with all its books out from racks, a complete mess. But, with the Marxian view of History, you get a better, organized version of the story.

But, when the same thing was presented to me through books in Political science, I didn’t like it. It’s not just the goal that matters, right ?

Now, in the same way, the Communist Party in Kerala, is taking a step forward ( unfortunately, away from what it is supposed to be ). Investing in a water amusement park, worth Rs.35 corers. I am not here for an argument, ( business run by a political party ? water theme park when there is no water no rain ? no for coke or pepsi, but a big yes for part’s water theme park ? ). But, I feel, they are walking away from where people expect it to be, from what people want it to be.

If you are in Kerala, or Know kerala a little, there is another organization, or a leader who is actually walking in the opposite direction of what he is supposed to be. Yes, I said OPPOSITE.

Guess ?

Hey, is this word new to you ? then read on …… I will tell you what a splog and what they do…..
Have you ever seen trackbacks ( links to your posts ) saying “Wrote an interesting post” or “talked today about” or similar words? They do not have their own content but links to lot of other blogs.. and you thought that someone liked your post and linked there ? Yes, they are splogs.

Splog is What ?

Let’s start with Wikipedia

Spam blogs, sometimes referred to by the neologism splogs^{[citation needed]}, are artificially created weblog sites which the author uses to promote affiliated websites or to increase the search engine rankings of associated sites. The purpose of a splog can be to increase the PageRank or backlink portfolio of affiliate websites, to artificially inflate paid ad impressions from visitors, and/or use the blog as a link outlet to get new sites indexed. Spam blogs are usually a type of scraper site, where content is often either inauthentic text or merely stolen (see blog scraping) from other websites. These blogs usually contain a high number of links to sites associated with the splog creator which are often disreputable or otherwise useless websites.

Why a Splog ?

Continue reading →

Strikes, Bandh, Harthal … oh no !! nothing new to us keralites. See, today it is “Education Bandh”. Yesterday and day before yesterday they had Harthal in Malappuram district. Last Friday it was private bus operators strike and there was a strike by Merchants association last week……. yes, we are familiar with these stikes, and we know how to celebrate them ….

So, need a vacation ? try if you can find a job in Kerala, or get transferred here ….. Welcome to Gods own Country ( and devil’s own people ok ? )

This time, the strike loving keralites made history by killing an innocent school teacher while he was attending a meeting.

Sirji…. what an idea Sirji !!! kill a teacher to protest against the textbook !!!!

I can’t find words to express what I am feeling now. So leaders, ( small and big, left or right, ) when its time for election, don’t ask me for my vote.. because my vote died with that poor teacher ….

Hi, My name is .. hmm name is not important, right ?. I am 9 years old and studying in 4th standard.

Yesterday, my Mom left me alone here at home and went to the Hospital. I told her many times that I can not stay alone here. But she did not take me with her. She is really cruel right ?.

So ? I decided to protest. I am not a member of any political party or any organization and I do not have anyone to celebrate Harthal or Bandh to support me. So, I decided to something funny.

I took the phone and dialed a number… guess what … “100″ . Now listen carefully, I told them there is a bomb in that hospital and they have 30 minutes to save those poor souls in there.

What happened after that ? hmm Police went to the hospital and started searching for the Bomb. But something that I did not expect, also happened. Somehow they figured out the number from which they got the call from !!. So, they came looking for me and I got nicely from the inspector sir

It was fun, until I was caught !!

———————————-

This is something really happened !!.  I found this news in the Newspaper today.

If you elect me to the Ministry of Education, I will make blogging a part of the school curriculum for sure. Or, at least , a part of extra curricular activities and we can have exams or competitions for blogging. What you think ?. “State Level Blogging Championship 2008″ vow !! sounds cool….. isn’t it ?

Okay, that was not a joke. Isn’t it a good idea to introduce children to blogging right from the school ?. Or, introduce them to “Web 2.0″ in their early ages ?.

The future is Internet, ( questions  anyone ? ) and the future ( or present ? ) of internet is Web 2.0. where knowing things earlier than everyone else, and having access to information is the key factor.

For our children to be able to compete there in the future, they need to know “how to know things fast”. Or, let us say, to use Google effectively, to know the “How To”s of blogging, Social networking, and more. ( Yes, you can add more to this list !! )

Do you agree ?

My knowledge about this topic is very limited. It is possible that someone, somewhere is actually doing something like this, or something better than this. If you know anything about this, please let me know, because I am really interested in this.

Yes, that’s right !! Kerala Government will soon implement a new law,  that will  ban children from using mobile phones in schools.

‘All what we have now is a mere government order that mobiles cannot be used in schools. But now it has been decided that we will introduce new laws to this effect, banning the use of mobiles in all schools,’ Balakrishnan told the state assembly.

Do they really need cell phones in Schools ? I don’t think so. Well, its not because I did not have a mobile phone when was in School .. ( yep, I am not jealous !! ) but, I really don’t see any use for mobile phones in school, at least when they are in the Class rooms.

But, if you ask if I have seen any one misusing Mobile phones in schools, sorry, No, but I think there are chances, ( like any other place ) but, we don’t expect any such incident from Schools right ? What do you think ?  Its time for some serious discussion now !!!

News Source