Microsoft Tafiti
Friday, August 24, 2007
To quote a blogger, this is what he pasted:
If you’re looking for a search engine that requires a plug-in, disables your
back button, won’t allow you to right-click URLs to copy them, needs pop-ups
enabled, and doesn’t let you use your mouse wheel to scroll, look no further
than Tafiti.
Tafiti, (you will need SilverLight installed on your m/c for viewing) which means "do research" in Swahili, is the latest development from Microsoft.
It's a new search tool built on top of Live Search and uses Microsoft's SilverLight technology.
And it's a typical MS product, it's the best in what MS is known best to do:User Interface
and not so good in which MS is known to for incompetency:functionality
It has a great GUI, innovative drag and drop save search facility and then a tree view of your search results. You can, through a slider, change the number of leaves in the tree, stripping the results in the order of importance, rotate the tree to see all sides. A nice set of rotating icons, let you oscillate your search b/w web,blogs,books,photos etc.
It's a search tool to play with, but when it comes to finding your search results in .65 seconds flat, no one can beat Google.
As a test I searched 21bakerstreet on Google as well as tafiti, Google took me to my blog, but tafiti could not even search for it :-(
So for me it is a good tool to admire technology and kill yourself from boredom, but when it comes to fast search , let there be Google.
So be it Yahoo! Mindset or Tafiti, long live the Google.
As far as SilverLight is concerned, it's a great technology. You can view a demo site which uses SilverLight: SilverLight Demo
On a different note, i came across a site : YMII (Your Man in India) , it's growing to be a popular site among NRIs. They undertake your works, saving you precious time. You can outsource your data filling jobs, writing emails, meeting someone in India, on your behalf, they will shop for you, will take your friends for sight seeing, whatever you want.
so, that's all to write as of now.
Posted by :ubuntu at 12:14:00 AM 1 comments
Labels: Microsoft, search engine, SilverLight, Tafiti
Books as of now
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
I have finished reading
iCon: Steve Jobs, The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business
It is a marvellous book about the life of Steve Jobs, he is a man of substance.
This book is an unofficial biography of the man, and his quest of power, how is thrown form his own company and later makes a comeback.
He in the process founds two more companies NExT and Pixar and how his fortunes takes him on a roller coaster ride. Being a ardous follower of Zen and a strict veggie, he often projected himself as a harsh fellow, disrespecting people's love for non-veg.
This book nrrates many anecdotes of his life and is a must for every bibliophile.
Steve Jobs was the most shrewd manager one can have, employees in Apple stopped using the elevator which he use to use, for the fear of losing their jobs by the time they exit from the elevator.
I simply loved this book and will recommend this to everyone.
Presently I'm eyeing the book
The KaoBoys of R&AW by B Raman
The book is on the author's memory lane while he was in R&AW and i have heard this book reveals quite a few astonishing facts.
My flatmate purchased it and once he finishes it i'll grab it.
I'll surely post about this also once I finish it.
:-)
Posted by :ubuntu at 9:41:00 AM 3 comments
Labels: books, iCon, RAW, readings
Co-incidence [Twice]
Sunday, August 19, 2007
This has happened with me before, but when it happened second time, i thought I'll post this with a pray in my mind that my good luck (in some things) does not ceases after me telling this to the world.This use to happen in mythological tales that if a person bestowed upon by a benign wish happened to share it with the people , the magic use to cease ...
OK , enough blabbering now to the point ..
On Saturday I planned for the movie Chak De India with my friend. The tickets were not available for the 10 am show in INOX (multiplex in B'lore) and only few were available for 12:30 show, I got this insider info :-)
But still we decided to try for 12:30 show , so it was decided I will do to INOX early and my friend will come there directly.
So I left my home early 9:30 am.
On the way I discovered a new Murphy's Law :
When you are in a desperate hurry to reach a place, your auto rickshaw will stop at every single (yes each and every) traffic light on the way.
So I reached theater at 10:05 am. The tickets were still available for 12:30 show but were showing fast filling ....
Queue was long but I got in ....no other option ..
By the time I reached the counter the tickets were over, so now nothing left to do...
I told my friend about the tragedy and was waiting .... and then magic happened ...
Two boys approached me and asked me whether I want 2 tickets of Chak De India for 12:30 show, they were not black tickters, two boys who had cancelled their plan.
So I got 2 tickets of the movie for the show i was looking for ....
This thing happened to me before when I went to see Cheeni Kum with my friends , the tickets were over by the time we reached theater, then a guy approached me asking me whether I want 5 tickets for Cheeni Kum , so exactly same number of tickets for exactly the same show I was looking for .
So all things went fine. The movie was great, good to see SRK in a non-glamorous role.
That's it, that was how my Saturday flew.
Posted by :ubuntu at 11:43:00 PM 2 comments
