Post on Blog - the metablog

I have recently read some fascinating articles on the activity/phenomenon called blogging from the new yorker. Here are the links - Rebecca Mead first wrote in the New Yorker in 2000, click here to read the article in full.

Given the fact that it was 6 years ago, the blurb on the article says "How to put your business, your boyfriend, and your life on-line." The story is about Meg, who setup Pyra that was bought by google and is today known as blogger. Her courtship with Jason Kottke features prominently in the article. Those were early days in blogging and in trying to grapple with the concept, the analogies, today, appear thin, e.g. - "Blogging is like having your own version of the Readers digest magazine".



Then in 2006 July issue, Nicholas Leman deals with blogs in the contemporary context- the blurb says "journalism without journalists". Click here to read the full article. There is a historical perspective (which is humbling) in relation to the pamphleteers and periodicals of the 17th century which later evolved/metamorphosed into the mainstream press as we know today, in Britain and America.

"Will blogging replace mainstream journalism" - that question is asked frequently, however me thinks it is a naive, if an earnest one. Typically technologies, tools, and concepts get co-opted as opposed to discarded. Be it the big debate (at least in engineering in the circles, in the 1930's) between riveting and welding. Everyone thought riveting as a technology was over when welding came along - however both have found different niches for use, or the debate on mainframe computers vs desktops, technologies have found their individual niches, usecases and markets.



Having said that, the nuances of the evolution of blogging may be more interesting than "closed" technologies like riveting or the mainframe computer. The sheer ubiquity, the sheer number of people involved makes watching the evolution of blogging a fascinating phenomenon. I hope it doesn't get copted by the mainstream media.
Dept: of cynical quotes on blogging - "everyone will be famous for 15 people".

No milk Please - awesome blog

For those of you who are thinking about mortality, your bad-sad job, the declining years, the bombay blasts, the commute, the sense of loss, the price of tomatoes, whatever - I draw your attention to this this excellent post (his other posts are awesome as well). Click here - and chill.
The post definitely made me get up and hit the gym. Why shouldn't I show off my biceps - once I get some, that is.

I grow old, I grow old
Shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled

Blogging the Block

So, - the ISP's have blocked all blogspot.com sites based off a government directive. For details go here and here
This is a classic pavlovian response to a situation - when we don't have a handle on causality and have no clue how to approach the situation.
In the meantime if you can read this - that means you are already using pkblogs.com or some such site.
Tchk, Tchk..

Six degrees of seperation and one toll bridge

It is a small world - turns out that my post on the funny incident on the DND expressway caught the attention of a fellow blogger who in turn turned out to be the guy for whome I swiped the card. He left his comment on my blog and his profile is here
What can I say, such twists and turns are what keeps us in awe of life and the internet.

EBook Fair

The world's largest ebook fair is on - click here to go to the fair. 330,ooo goodies. Yummy.
Lasts till Augest 4th. Click away and stream those yummy bytes across that fat broadband pipe.

Mumbai

Firstly I hope that if you have friends or relatives in Bombay they are safe.
Secondly if you are looking for information or ways to help here are some internet resources - besides the news channels and print media.
indiauncut.blogspot.com has a comprehesive list of resources for information and ways to help. mumbaihelp.blogspot.com is a great one as well. Mumbai metblogs are buzzing as well - well, if you go to indiauncut you will get a fairly comprehensive list.

Update: Linking Mridula's post on the insenstive programming on the blasts.

Chinese, anyone

I am compiling a list of Chinese restaurants in NOIDA with a blurb thrown in. Here's what I have so far - and yes, I don't like Bercos. Please feel free to add.

Bamboo shoots
Excellent food, a little more light might make the place cheerier, hmm.. is that a word - cheerier, yes it is - I like the sound of it.

Fortune Cookie
I have been there a couple of times but somehow don't recollect anything. Nada - I was not that drunk.

Oriental Octopus
Out of the way, parking trouble, particularly if you go for lunch with with the burgeoning HCL campuses all around. Food is good, but I'd pick Bamboo Shoots with better light anyday. Apparently the Oriental Octopus in Delhi is only for members. Is that so - I wonder why?

Skywok
Excellent ambiance with a view of the NOIDA skyline (don't take a window seat at lunch unless you want to see all the thrash that we merrily throw - you are safer at night). A restaurant big on space, you can probably pack in 3 bamboo shoots here. Unfortunately that's that - food ain't great.

Just realized that this is so subjective, running people and places down - after all the so much of effort must have gone in and I am not a trained food critic anyways. Maybe they just had a bad day. This thought then meshes directly with the thought of the power of instant publication, of information, of technology and that takes me to Kevin Kelly's excellent blog (he of the wired magazine fame). Click here to wonder about the speed of information.
Food for thought.