Feast for Thought

Today I bid a no-regrets farewell to my Adsense account. No, I didn’t check the balance. In my work with Google Adwords, I come across that company's oft-changing policies that leave account holders at loose ends. After hearing and reading (first-hand and reported) Adsense horror stories, and experiencing Adwords’ whims and fancies, I took the decision to un-clutter the sidebar in this page. Sour grapes? So be it. I have doctor's advice to stay away from them! For some light read: 10 reasons for hating Google Adsense I wish to be fair though. There must be success stories too – here they are

Indrani's 'Tagged' gave me an idea. Here's a saying in Tamil நிறை குடம் தளும்பாது. (nirai kudam thalumbaathu) The English equivalent is probably 'Empty vessels make most noise' I invite interested bloggers to post equivalents in other languages.

The sight of any object reaching upwards is a wonderful image that implies a sincere attempt to do well and rise above the ordinary. ISRO's PSLV-C9 presented just such an image this morning as it carried ten satellites to their orbits, in its 13th flight. The entire team at ISRO and all its labs, and the private players who have helped in this mission, deserve the warmest salute from the entire nation for this achievement. We wish that Team ISRO continues to complete even bigger projects and ISRO remains a place where 'tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection'. Picture courtesy: ISRO's website

It's nice to be called 'one in a lakh', isn't it? That too repeatedly. That's how the local greengrocer welcomes us, and our shopping bag, on our visits to his rustic, well-stocked outlet. It's two years now since we began frequenting this friendly neighbourhood grocer for weekly supplies. In all this while, we have noted several changes in these still rural precincts. - The narrow highway became a well-laid four-lane runway including median and new road lights, - Two-wheeler riders switched to cars, and small car users switched to SUVs and plush sedans, - Newer showrooms displayed gadgets, trendy clothes and fancy stuff - the local ISP grew from 1 customer to several hundred - the sabziwala added a fresh juice counter for the benefit of thirsty highway traffic. But the grocer continues to give away plastic carry bags to his 'valued' customers. He's actually forced to spend Rs 3000 on gifting garbage every month, all because the Kings and Queens (re

What kind of sound would you like to wake up to? BhoopAla rAgam ? Wake-up bugle notes? The tweet of a warbler here and the coo of a cuckoo there? The landline’s dial tone will do nicely for me, thank you. In the last three weeks the phone has been dead and / or the broadband (ISP: BSNL, enabled by an ADSL Ethernet modem / router) was not ops, so there was frequent enforced abstinence from the Web. The routine read: no dial tone/ no adsl link - register complaint at 1500 (BSNL’s universal helpline) - then call local NIB helpdesk or the server office direct, then wait. At these times, I'd remember Indrani’s phobia predictions and Raji’s ISP experiences , while catching up with offline and ‘home’ work. After several hours or several days, the phone’s dial tone and the modem’s blinking lights would gladden the heart for - pardon the repeat - several hours or several days. Then my 1500-dialing fingeritis would afflict me all over again. Yesterday was one such. A neat Net conference wa