3 internet startups that I never thought would make it

I have always had much faith in the web, but I guess even I got surprised at times. I'll cut to the point: I never expected startups like Twitter or StumbleUpon to succeed. Or, though admittedly on a much smaller scale, techqi, which is this blog. Who would have thought that people would get so addicted to microblogging? Well, I didn't. Or that a random site-loading toolbar would be delightful and win over millions? Me again. I was wrong in both cases, and as a result I'm now a happy member of both Twitter and StumbleUpon. Very honestly speaking, I never thought techqi would even survive on Google. But it has, and has received thousands of hits (half a million pageviews, to be exact). Even AV Scan, which came much later, has long crossed the 10k visitor mark. I'm very optimistic about both these blogs, and that has in turn triggered my perfectionist instinct. Now I'm not satisfied with techqi's looks and overall organization, so I desperately want to give it an overhaul. I intend to transform techqi into a webzine-like experience ASAP, and if the heavens approve, it will be a blast. Unfortunately, that will take time, so I might have to chug along the way things have been, for at least some time more. If you've been following my posts you know I haven't been great for a while, and I still have loads of academic chores. I'm still missing a computer. Just keeping alive.

Read More

Online fatigue

Sometimes you don't feel like going anywhere, even online.

Read More

After having a bad dream

I had a bad dream. The details are immaterial, but if you have had your fair share of nightmares you know that dreams as such have a cascading effect on your day's unruly events. Alternatively, -- which is the best it can get -- you try to get back with your usual self by thinking your week hasn't been great, and this bad dream is just the culmination of your age of horrors, which is another way of thinking it's the end of your bad week or month or year, and you cheer yourself up. It doesn't generally work. Sometimes it's ghouls that scared your bedsheets wet when you were a kid, sometimes it's witches that lurk in shadows; sometimes it's a screening of you losing someone you love, and in other, more terrifying moments, it's about a part of your soul that is so true and so maniacal that you wake up in a sweat, a lot like the times when you were scared of ghouls as a kid. Make a guess about my bad dream. Yeah. In particular it hasn't been a bad week (I'm trying to be overtly optimistic): I wrote a paper I was happy with, my blogs are getting lots of hits, I'm learning Sanskrit, and I watched the latest Indy movie. I even had a haircut today, which is a day of celebration for anybody who's doomed to go bald in the next something years. (Ask anybody who fits into that category if you don't believe me. I don't blame you if you don't. Even my wife doesn't realize how tragic my shortage of hair is to me. At this point I ought to post a recent photo of me, but I don't have any on me right now, and this is a public computer.) On the downside, I'm so busy I can't even tell my right foot from my left and I miss-don't-miss home oh so terribly. There's also a mongrel out on the loose who's lifting material from my blogs, and I haven't even had time to write food reviews or suggest any more Really Useful Stuff. In addition the earthquake in China and the cyclone Nargis in Burma (which was in close succession to the cyclone Sidr in Bangladesh) have made me feel horrible. What's wrong with the world? Are we set for a major environmental disaster within our lifetimes? I think I'll settle for my bad dream.

Read More

It's mumbling season

Finally, I'm done with one of the 2 papers I was supposed to write. Almost broke my back; despite having started on it over a week or more ago, I ended up without a wink of sleep, writing all night before the deadline. Why am I such a strange creature?... every time, I have time, I don't use it, I try to use it, it won't work... and it all boils down to the umpteenth minute. It's terribly exhausting, and I try my best every time to avoid such happy endings, but alas... Anyway, the good thing is I now have one thing less to worry about. But it's mumbling season again. Mumbling season is the time of the year when I suddenly lose my linguistic prowess in one or more languages I use. For instance, right now I'm feeling uncomfortable speaking English (writing is never affected). The words kinda roll up inside my mouth and I also can't find the right words. I've also suddenly lost my accent. It's so utterly frustrating. It's worse when the same kind of thing happens with Bangla. I then have to do with English, or stuttering Bangla. But we Bangladeshis are very emotional about our language, and people who're convinced I'm trying to be a snob with an Anglocized Bangla accent or simply arrogant don't give me nice looks at the end of our conversations. By the way, Bangla, or Bengali, is my native tongue, but English was the language I learned first. Therefore I pretty much use both of them in my head. Imagine my distress when I'm malfunctioning in either of these... or in both. In such cases, I generally end up being mum or uninterested in conversations for some time, trying to get my mind off it knowing that it's going to go away in a couple of weeks. I don't know why this happens to me, and I'm not pulling your leg here. This really happens to me. I've given the thing a lot of thought over the years; almost nobody believes me, so I've given up talking about it. Is this a psychological thing? I don't think so. Everything else is okay. I'm perfect or as good as I was yesterday in every other respect. It's just the language part. Perhaps a neurological or genetic disorder? Is there any literature on this? Does this happen to anyone else? Nowadays, I'm learning Sanskrit. I'm thoroughly enjoying it, but God knows what's going to happen when Sanskrit is the only language I'm fluent in, in some foreseeable mumbling season. I told you I was weird. Posts will be more frequent, and hopefully deal with more realistic issues.

Read More