Most of the ideas in the world, the big ideas that change your life, the little ideas that make your coffee better, the interesting ideas that change the nature of computing, the mundane idea that keeps important things working, most of these ideas originate from a small pool of people and are used everywhere.

This is especially noticeable in small every day things, things that can be done in multiple equally good ways, but is done in one way. And when you see things being done the same way in two countries like the United States and India, you know that the idea has travelled far -- not because it was a brilliant idea -- no, but it was good enough to get the job done, and the job it gets done is something so uninteresting, no one ever bothered to see if there's another way to do it.

The way a door knob is designed, the way a post office is run, the way normal houses are designed, the way bureaucracies are run, the way clothes are designed, the way toilets are flushed, the way your nail-cutter cuts nails, the way cloth is weaved  etc. For a world this large, it is surprising how little variation there is in how the small (and big) things are done.

There are three works of fiction that will change your perspective of this mundane existence forever.

The Foundation Series (Isaac Asimov):

Psychohistory - a fictional concept so brilliant, that it could almost be real. History is used to predict the future. And not predict as in crystal-ball-psychic prediction. More of an if-you-throw-an-object-at-velocity-v-and-angle-θ-in-vacuum-in-presence-of-gravity-where-would-it-land sort of prediction. Once you read this, you'll understand how the universe is really a huge complex system of random or deliberate triggers and directed events that follow the path of causality, and an infinite number of such paths being formed simultaneously.

The Matrix (Wachowski Brothers):

Everything is maya. All stimuli that you experience is the result of electrical impulses in the brain. And hence, if you give those electrical impulses directly to the brain, you can avoid the inconvenience of reality. And it would make no difference to a human whatsoever, as long as his/her body brain is well nourished and kept alive. Once you see this, the nature of reality will be understood.

The Selfish Gene (Richard Dawkins):

Evolution isn't a "process".  It is something that is inevitable. As inevitable as the fact that if you throw a ball upwards near the earth's surface, it will come down; as inevitable as the fact that if you try to try to herd a bunch of cats, you would fail. And it happens whether you believe it or not. And hey, if you study it, it actually follows really cool mathematical patterns. Once you read this, you'll look at the whole world differently, and understand things you've never understood before.

This is something that I've wondered about for quite some time - _why_ should news be interesting? It's just a collection of events that may have an effect on peoples lives. It can be utterly and terribly dull, except for the small populace actually affected by the event.

Of late  For a long time now, news papers have started to sensationalise everything. Blow small things out of proportions. And, this is the worst of all, mix reporting of news with the reporter's own opinions (gasp!), with colourful adjectives tossed in for good effect.

The last one is the most unforgivable of all crimes. For a news article should be free of adjectives, impersonal, and to the point. If I wanted to read the damn reporter's opinion, I'd read the damn editorial.

News is just a collection of events happening in a place that may have a impact on peoples lives, either on a small or large scale. And it should be reported as such.

And the use of ethically questionable methods to obtain news, all just to sell more newspapers, or get more viewers for the news channel is quite unforgivable.

And if you think about it, there is no reason why news should be interesting, or made interesting. Mind you, I'm not saying news has to be uninteresting, but making news "interesting" just to sell a few more copies of newspapers or get a few more (well, ok, thousands more) viewers of the news channel is a crime deserving punishment far worse than being sent to hell!

When Google Chrome came out, there was much rejoicing. It was supposed to be the IE-Killer. Well, it's a great browser and all, but not really good enough to replace Opera (more on that later). But there is one particular feature which is particularly useful and convenient - "Application shortcuts". Its functionality is similar to Mozilla Prism, but much more robust.

What it does is allow you to create standalone browser windows sans any of the browser bars - navigation-bar, status-bar, menu-bar etc. which are quite useless anyways for sites like Gmail, Yahoo! mail ; and it allows launching of these from shortcuts directly from the desktop, start menu and quicklaunch.

So all you have to do is double-click an icon on the desktop, and lo and behold Gmail or Yahoo! mail opens. With a lot more screen space, and with fewer clicks. And without the overhead of other unnecessary browser UI elements. Lesser memory, lesser CPU usage.

One of my favourite poems of all time:

Leisure

WHAT is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare?—

No time to stand beneath the boughs,
And stare as long as sheep and cows:

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass:

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night:

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance:

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began?

A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

- W. H. Davies

Putting it here for archival purposes.