2009 saw lot of new, useful and innovative products that resulted out of simple human dreams. The creators saw what the present [and the future] generation needed the most and put their ideas on the design table. We saw the release of several OSes by computing giants this year. Includes Windows 7, Google Chrome OS and Mac Snow Leopard. I am not including Ubuntu 9.10, because I believe that the October 2010 release  of Ubuntu shall defy all standards.

Because Google has been foraying into several new fields and many of my friends are Google fanatics, they asked me if it is OK to switch to Google Chrome OS.

My answer, “It ain’t the time”.

What the cloud has to offer as is software and even hardware as a service and over the internet. It offers to provide software and hardware as a pay by use model rather than permanently investing on it.

Yes, for people in countries like India it is not the right time to move onto Google Chrome OS. The most important reason for this belief of mine is the fact that Chrome OS is dependent on the cloud.

Cloud computing is the new talk of the town. Everyone wants to know about it and wants to use it.

Google Trends for "Cloud Computing"

See how people have searched for cloud computing on google? It started somewhere around October 2007, and kept rising with occasional peaks and falls. But I can observe a fall by the end of 2009. We will have to wait and see if the term continues to generate interest in 2010. Also, the largest number of searches were from India, especially from Bangalore [source: Google Trends]

From what I have understood, Chrome stores your data on the cloud. Your computers hard disk, stores the Operating System alone. Every other thing from software to storage space is provided over the internet. (Google Services cater to the softwares of the cloud and your data will be stored in your Google Account Space).

Though the term generated so much of interest in India, yet it is dependent on Internet speeds in India to become a feasible facility in Indian households. Till then we will have to buy our own Hardware, and Software (if you aren’t exactly an open source fan).

So we will have to wait for internet speeds to catch up for Google Chrome OS to become a plausible replacement. Even then the existing drawbacks of Cloud Computing (later on this), might just leave people with the option to use non cloud Operating Systems.

Technorati Tags: 2010, chrome, cloud, google, os, trends

I read. You may be reading a lot. And you may be coming across several new words, whose meaning you are not sure of.

Of course, dictionaries are one solution. Google is another. But the best I consider is, Definr. This online dictionary that claims to be really fast, does keep up to it’s word.

To search for a word, say for example “procrastinate“, open a new tab, and type out “definr/procrastinate” and press, [Ctrl + Enter]. The page should open up the definr website, with the meaning of the word displayed. Use the search box, to search for new words, and meep!. There is even a clever suggestions feature, so you don’t need to type out the entire word!

Visit Definr Now!

Technorati Tags: dictionary, internet, Web

Lately I have been seeing this. About blogging being dead, and fast being replaced by lifestreams. If you haven’t yet heard about it, then I think this post will be helpful.

“Posterous is the dead simple way to put anything online using email“. So you mail them anything and everything you find/found interesting or that others will find interesting, and it will appear in your blog. No moving around. Log into your email account and do everything. It gives a new meaning to email accounts.

“Posterous has already made Tumblr look old“. That is what some comments I found on popular websites and blogs say. Posterous is seriously the easiest way to post contents (read as posts and media) online. And they also push the content to other services like YouTube, Facebook and Flickr, based on what you want them to do.

However, you don’t have the option to choose themes like in Tumblr or WordPress. Every Posterous based mini blog has the same minimalist look. Well, think this is an attempt to keep things simple.

Posterous is currently for those who aim at pure blogging. It’s a boon for those who don’t want to spend their time choosing themes, adding plugins, optimising for search engines. It’s a boon for those who don’t want to mess up with the few complexities of blogging and want to post content directly to their blogs.

Do you know the part I liked the most? You are just back from a birthday party and want to upload the pictures to facebook and also to your blog. Just mail all those photos in attachments to the guys at posterous and they will take care of the rest!

Am falling in love with it. Even before using it. Is it just the hype or is it worth? You will soon know.

Current users of Posterous have said the verdict, clear and loud. Posterous is the Web’s Big Thing for now.

Here are some other links which I found useful to know about Posterous.

http://www.steverubel.com/

Posterous vs Tumblr

Minimalist Blogging

Technorati Tags: Blogs, internet, lifestream, posterous, posts, Web

Do you tweet? If yes, good. Skip the first paragraph. Read the rest. If you don’t tweet, very good. Read everything.

It’s all about twitter. The microblogging service, that has become a part and parcel of  everyone’s life. And many a thanks to latest technology, you can tweet from your mobile phone. Twitter asks you to answer this question. “What are you doing?”. And it expects you to answer in less than 141 words. You might think why it became hip among the online community. It’s all because it became a new novel way to find and share web content and connect with friends. This video should make things clearer. (Or you can read one of my older posts.)

So you do tweet. Well, let me ask. What do you tweet? I know people who because have unlimited internet access, who are lazy to leave their computer desktop and who can tweet from their mobiles because they can. They tweet from the point they wake to till they fall into slumber.

Something like a live commentary probably. So if you think you fall in that category, a piece of advice. Please don’t tweet every minute and second of your life. Tweet reasonably. If you don’t then mind your trouble is around the corner.

What trouble? Don’t follow if you don’t like!

I like to follow my friends, and it isn’t their live commentary about their own life that bothers me. The thing that bothers is that, your everyday tweets are enough to reconstruct your life. So what? You become predictable. You may think it’s cool. But people are crossing the line and into your privacy.

You might argue. “No, I am careful, not to tweet everything”. Unfortunately, tweeting is addictive like texting. It happens automatically. Look at your tweets and think how useful it will be to a stranger.

Well friends. It’s time to think twice before you tweet.

P.S. As an example. There was news that a tweeter’s house was robbed when he and his family were out on a holiday. Here is the link to the article published at Mashable.

Technorati Tags: Life, privacy, twitter

Technorati Tags: Networks, tweets, twitter, twitterbar, twitterfox