I just had to mention this, even after talking about the same topic a few days back in Learn Browsing. This new one is SO bad, that is actually good. Sample this editorial page article in HT, by Jhoomur Bose:

Between Google and Wikipedia (wikipedia.com), you can find answers to almost anything on the internet.

Columns like these really suck - when they’re written by people who know shit about computers; and just to make up for it keep on inserting some web address every few sentences thinking it’s uber-cool. There was more. Within the same article, look out for a web address which has a space in it, in the subdomain name. Never knew we all could do that too. :p

Yahoo! seems to’ve given up totally on social networking as a viable business. They’d already been ignoring Yahoo! 360 for a while. Then they launched Yahoo! Mash, their beta attempt at a social network. Doesn’t seem to have worked either (obviously, because I’m only one in my circle I know who’s on Mash, apart from Lord Vader that is), because I got an email from them today:

Dear Yahoo! Mash member,

Thank you for trying out our Mash Beta service. We hope you had fun with it.

Please note that we will shut down Mash on September 29, 2008. As a result, your current profile on Mash will no longer be available. We strongly recommend that you return to http://mash.yahoo.com and copy the content that you wish to save onto a separate document.

For a list of FAQs, please refer to the Mash Help Page.

Thanks for trying out Mash!

Matt Warburton
Yahoo! Community Manager

In a way, it does make sense. Yahoo! is concetrating more on developing platforms than services itself. It’s a member of the OpenSocial Foundation, and since it’s anyway too late for the Yahoo! - or even Google - to enter the social networking game they find it easier to create platforms which everybody else uses, like OpenSocial.

I was offline all these days because I was a) studying; b) my Net connection was down for the past few days because of the incessant rains in Delhi courtesy mckennasallweatherhaulage.com.

I saw a funny thing in yesterday’s Hindustan Times - they’ve started some new series on ‘women stories’ or something, and this particular bit in the side column had me ROFL. They’d given a few ’sites for women’, and below that, they wrote this (titled as ‘Tip of the Week’):

Never logged on to the Internet? Still wondering what the Web is all about? Come on, it’s really easy. On your computer, look out for the blue ‘e’ icon. Click in the space next to the word ‘address’. Here, type www.yahoo.com or www.google.com - you get it, right?

And below that, inviting entries to some supposed ‘quiz question’:

What is a search engine?

People accuse me of cackling like a hyena throughout the day ‘without any reason’ - but stuff like the ones above always provide me solid rebuttals to that (starts ROFL). I just don’t get what’s their point is with the astonishing ‘tip of the week’ - girls are dumb and can’t even start a browser? I certainly don’t think so. So maybe it was a simple pointer for n00bs. If it was, then these were a pathetic set of instructions. “Look for the blue ‘e’”. Oh please, gimme a break. And if our woman subject in question has never launched a browser, ‘looking out for its icon’ certainly won’t start the browser.

The ‘quiz question’ is even more funnier. HT expects that women around Delhi would be eagerly waiting for next week’s issue for the answer. Really, HT should stop trying to insult their readers’ intelligence. I must admit that I haven’t come across many (any?) girl geeks, but that doesn’t mean they don’t know how to use technology in their daily life.

Chef in Darth Vader costume in South Park

Isaac Hayes, the singer, died day before yesterday - but he’ll probably be better remembered (at least by me) in the role of Chef in the South Park TV series. Too bad that he left the series over a silly dispute on Scientology, especially since everyone in South Park seemed to liked his ‘chocolate salty balls’. Till the time he was on air, he used to be quite funny, with his constant advice on how to ‘lay women down by the fire’. This particular picture on the right was a parody of the Star Wars series movie Revenge of the Sith, where Chef is dressed up as Darth Vader (complete with a glowing spatula). This episode was especially funny, as they ripped Scientology apart once again. Now only if Matt Stone and Trey Parker would get back to their humorous streak…

Chef in the South Park episode Scott Tenorman Must Die (that one was so AWESOME, to use Cartman's catchphrase)