Freer Martha and 3 links for the afternoon

Free Martha. The awake will understand that the 'free' in 'Free Martha' is not a verb (transitive) but an adjective (just like 'awake').

Heres 3 windows to escape from the dreary work afternoon -

A supari for Azar?
Spanish Organic Holi?
Prehistoric Stowaway.

Nooooo ooo oo o (echo)

Great. Now we have Google talk. or GMail Talk .. I forgot the name. We already had Yahoo Messenger, MSN messenger, ICQ, AIM, Gaim, Trillian, Kopte, Web messengers and many more which I have used but forgotten.

So now here is how my life is gonna change. I call up a friend with whom I havent talked in like the last thousand years.

Me: Hey man!! Whatsup? I never see you online these days! I was wondering whether you are alive or not.
Him: Hey .. I was also thinking where you have disappeared to. Huh? Man .. Its *you* whos never online.
Me: Kya bol raha hai yaar. I'm online every day from work.
Him: Arre dude .. you are not on Gmail Talk .. thats why. Why dont you get that. These days everybody uses that only. Noone uses Yahoo messenger nowadays.
Me: (realizing that this was the last nail in the coffin .. sort of like someone who knew he was about to get fired but was not fired yet). NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Thats exactly how it is going to be. With each one of them bastards who are just ready to jump into anything that Google makes. Cos it makes them good. Damn you Google. Same thing happened with GMail itself. I resisted but was'nt strong enough. The clean interface turned me over. But this is IM for gods sake! We are talking about a couple of hundred contacts .. don't make me do this. Please. Sniff. Sob.

So anyways. I opened my email today and there lay some 8-10 odd invitations for Gmail Talk .. or whatever its called. Is it really that much more superior to yahoo or other messengers? What do I get that I havent already got?

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon

BusinessWeek has a HUGE issue on China and India. Exhaustive. It will take me a more than a week to go through all of that! Okay, a month. [I work on the side too].

And what are the by-products?

Scientists in Singapore have developed a pee powered battery. People not familiar with gobar-gas will probably wrinkle their noses, but I think its neat. Practical uses might be limited though. The linked articles says they intend to use it to power biochips. AFAIK biochips already have a decent enough design which enables them to derive/harness power from external electromagnetic fields.

Coming back to gobar-gas. Why did the whole concept dwindle off? I am not sure how extensively it is used even in rural India nowadays, but my impression is that the use is decreasing. We are a country with the largest cattle population in the world. Put all the stray cattle to use! Might as well get some good old methane out of all of them huh?

Can't do without #2

So I have just shifted into a new apartment. The last week was totally crazy .. putting in 12 hour workdays and then coming back home to pack / shift / unpack. Plus I did'nt have an internet connection at home for the first few days and it was tough. What was worse was that when I finally got the cable connection setup .. I didnt know what to do with it. I mean .. I had just checked the email, read the news, figured out where to go for dinner .. looked at the menus of local restaurants that is; said goodbye to friends who were online, checked email again, rechecked to see if there was any breaking news .. before leaving work. So here I was, relieved that I finally had the net connection going at home .. but doing absolutely nothing about it. So I am scratching .. hold on .. don't jump to conclusions .. scratching 'internet access at home' or atleast 'internet access at home for a few days' from my Can't do Without list .. if it was there.
One thing that I found out I really can't do without is the goddamned microwave. It was so hard to eat anything without it .. primary reason being all I was eating was last week's carry outs from various restaurants. So here I am posting from home .. drinking a nice hot glass of Complan (courtsey microwave).