Microsoft in an official release to the public has announced what features (read enhancements) they can expect from the much hyped Internet Explorer 8. This was at the MIX08 conference held at Las Vegas … you can read about the entire details here (beware, it is encoded with the usual marketing spin). Will list down some of the salient features here –
Activities – Users can add more extensions to their browser (the way Firefox does already). These activities would enable the users to do more, in short, Microsoft gets a whole new way to bundle their failed products with the new and improved browser
WebSlices – Users can subscribe to content from within a page. The moment the content is changed, the users will be notified in their Links Bar.
Automatic Crash Recovery – That’s reassuring!! This feature is being marketed actively instead of an implicit indication that it was always there. Anyways, how is this adding value over Firefox or Opera for that matter.
Safety Filter (thats Anti-Phishing) – This is to be improved and enhanced, which will block sites known to contain malicious scripts. No comments here. I am actually hoping that this works, people do not realize how important this feature is. And those who do, do not use IE :-)
Compliance – IE8 will now be more compliant to the CSS standards. Finally, some sense, these days too many sites are relying more and more on CSS instead of flash or complex javascripts for glitzing up their websites
AJAX Navigation – Hmmm … this is a nice touch I must say. In all the AJAX based portals, whenever we click the back button of the browser, the browser goes to the page which was last submitted completely and not the last AJAXed state. Having this might be a blessing for normal users, I know the techies had just learned to live without AJAX navigation
Integration – IE8 promises ready made integration with Facebook and eBay, et al. So, thats a plus for all facebook and eBay users … dunno how many of them will actually use it though.
All this and a lot more kids! These have been promised to the doe-eyed of Microsoft … you can almost see the bunch of users in the background using their respective other browsers waiting and watching to see what happens next. I am one of them.
As of now, if you do want to try out the beta, try the IE8 Readiness Toolkit and then proceed for the installation. One word. Apprehension.
But I came across this great site. Its iimjobs.com.
Its a portal for all job hunters or for those of us who want to know our market value, and feel good with that information. The site has a simple layout with all the recent job openings on top. Plus, if you are particular about one stream only, then you can browse through the job postings by specialty.
And the best part about the site is that you do not have to register to get to the content.
Kudos Tarun!!
Coming back to this post after a decade, and can say so much has changed about IIM Jobs. It has become one of our default sites to post jobs, and also refer to friends and family when they are hunting for opportunities.
Had gone to Mumbai over the weekend, my mother talked me into watching this movie on Saturday night. Since I did not have anything else to do except visit my ophthalmologist, I complied.
It has been over 4-5 years since I have watched a marathi movie in a theater. And I was pleasantly surprised with the new age of marathi movies coming. Valu in marathi means a bull which is unleashed in the wild, it is not to be tamed and not to be tampered with either.
So the movie starts off with a no-nonsense forest officer who is dispatched to capture a rogue wild bull who is disturbing the peaceful proceedings of some nondescript village. The forest officer is miffed at this prospect, that such an important person like him is now relegated to capturing wild bulls instead of leopards and their ilk. Nonetheless he goes there, along with him, comes his younger brother … and his video camera. The entire movie is about different perspectives from different villagers about one problem. A wild bull. If you do understand marathi, then definitely worth a watch.
What is more interesting, is how the movie was made. The producers of this movie are not your regular Sippy’s and Bokadia’s … they are not even millionaires, they are simple middle class people like you and me. The aam aadmi of Maharashtra. How did they come up with the moolah? Well, through their friends, relatives and friend of their friends.
Its my favorite browser. My only browser for that matter (yes, I sometimes do use Konqueror) and only use the more ubiquitous IE but only to go to Mozilla site and download the latest release of Firefox.
Its great to know that all of us have contributed to the magic number. 500,000,000. There’s hope to this world after all :-)
One more example of how the user and customer opinion and feedback was taken into account while developing the product. It sometimes becomes very difficult to choose between the two dictums Customer is always right and To thine own be true. Many a times people have to make those hard choices in order to keep a business running. So what if the product is slightly flawed … the customers wont complain, because they do not have any other obvious choice. Yes I am talking about you-know-who-who-bundles-their-browsers-with-their-operating-systems. Try uninstalling IE from WinXPSP2 and you will know what I am talking about.
Well, now they do. And they know about it!! Power to the people!!
Its 4pm today (read day-before-yesterday), when I have started doodling this blog post. Yes, I am one of those people who sometimes write their blog post on paper before they digitize it. This is being done in the throes or should I say meanders of a meeting. It had started 2 hours ago, and I am getting shudders remembering it. From the start, all of us knew that it was going to be a monster of a meeting.
Still, we managed to touch base upon pollination of flowers, onion and potato rates and how interesting the commodities market is becoming. We had assembled to finalize SAP process flows. We are a retail merchandising firm. I love meetings.
The ideal number of people in a meeting is 3-4, the moment it goes above that, you are asking for trouble. You will have atleast one person (like moi in this case) who will be doodling on a piece of paper.
Focus Prasad!! Focus!!!
Its 8pm now, and we have managed to cover some ground, but it looks pretty glum from my end. I decided to put together a small list that people like me can do when they end up in meetings such as these –
Think about the more recent interesting stuff you have read
Start a screensaver in your mind, I personally like the Hufo’s Smoke on a linux machine
Butt into the meeting with something that borders between sense and incoherence to make your presence felt
Try listening for a change and even add “value” to the meeting
Try playing your favorite tune in your head
Send stratified SMSes to your loved ones
Make lists such as these, preferably with a straight face
Think about new ways to customize your blog and your website
Order for coffee and biscuits
Move about the meeting as if people are calling you out for something important or the other
Drink enough coffee/water that you have to visit the water closet
