Blog closure

To all the imaginary readers, this blog shall not be updated hence. I am not deleting the blog as such, because I have done a lot of deletion in my life, I have repented later for.

The vanishing act – Feed stats

Feed Stats, which was a feature available at WordPress for bloggers to look at how many people are reading their blogs with feeds and using which software, was shown the pink slip about a week ago. The official announcement is here. Personally, it was just another graphic to look at every evening, and wonder how the heck could these chaps use feeds for my blog.  Another of the routines in my digital life.

It is interesting to ponder what could have led to such a decision: scrapping a feature? The blokes were genuine enough to mention that the page was in a beta, and that everything there wasnt spot on. And so it was understood. But to scrap a feature after it has been in beta for a long is rather unusual. The only possible thing I can think of is the stats being completely bogus or there being a big hole in the code somewhere. It is difficult to estimate feed readers especially with the gamut of available reader services. Or maybe it was hard (resource intensive?) to keep track of everyone who accessed the feeds.

Anyways. It was a good feature. Even if slightly off target, many bloggers seemed to like it as another number adorning their blogging ethos. Hope it comes back soon, as is promised.

F1 in New Delhi

India agree deal on Grand Prix. That means a Grand Prix in New Delhi in 2009! Yeah you will have your fair share of conditionalities that need to test positive. But still the very thought that this is happening is exhiliarating. From a personal point of view, I really hope it is in the early part of the 2009 season, as that will be the year I shall pass out from IIT, and dont know where I shall land afterwards. Coming to think of it, maybe an additional dimension would be added to Formula 1, that of smog induced visibility loss.

Religion and tea pots

Of late my life seems to exist as little clusters of thought which are formed every week, and slowly collate to form some theme of sorts. This time it is the turn of God, to be paraded through my blog, whether he wills it or not.

Religion is, I think, the next most talked off topic, rather the next most thought off topic (since its still a taboo), after love, of course. Its perennial rivalry with science is so popular that it finds its way into beauty magazines too. This post is another drop in this ocean, another discussion of what I make out of this enigmatic facade to human life.

Ah the sweet smell of vindication

The ink has not yet dried from this post of mine, and Hamilton pulled off a sensational victory in Montreal. It was indeed a dramatic race. 8 teams among the top 10. Did I say 8 teams? Yes. When did that ever happen before? Godspeed Hamilton. You made up for the disappointment of sitting in Switzerland and watching Federer lose out. What a day.

Of feeding Orkut and being fed by Google

Orkut has added another feature to its bouquet: that of adding your feeds to your profile. This could mean you can add your Flickr or Picasa Album feeds, or even your Blogger or WordPress feeds. Other feeds like news and jokes from popular websites can be added, if that is sensible. Google also acts Googlish (means smart) and automatically adds Blogger or Picasa feeds under the same account as your Orkut account. Since Orkut is diametrically opposite Facebook in the universe of Internet, and Facebook has recently started its immensely popular Facebook applications, this move makes a lot of sense. Slowly but surely, Orkut will add the popular features.

In other news, I added Google web history to my Google account. This is not a new feature and has been around for more than a month (thats like ages in the universe of Internet). I tend to browse a good 100 pages a day. Multiply that by 7 and in a week I have been through pages enough to fill the fattest book I have read, and the fun part it is searchable. So Google figured this out and did what it does best: Store and search. Again its surely an invasion of privacy, and the fact that Google is so pervasive in one’s online life, could be a matter of concern. But frankly I don’t mind. There might be others who would. Its green, make your turn.

Time to call in the bets

My previous post on Formula 1, painted a certain dilemma in my mind regarding my allegiance in this season, after the ground breaking deals and a certain retirement, at the start. With four races behind the start line, its time to throw in my hat too.