Why so serious?

His scars itched unbearably, his mirth coming out in maniacal laughter. Only the laughter was in his head, filling the emptiness inside. He craved it, his life existed as a game, a game where there would be only one winner.

The countless hordes milling around had no sense of the injustice about the prison they have trapped themselves in, with their stupid morality and even stupider rules, playing a game that came up with rules faster than they were assimilated, until there was nothing left but rules, dropping out of the sky and into you, like so many dust mites.

He licked his cracked lips, there is so much help they need, they need to know freedom, but they resist. He shrugged, perhaps there is only sport left to be made of these herds. Making their little plans and laying them out in so much array, like children from a forgotten childhood, making sand castles only for him to land on them and scatter them. Sport.

Hmmmm.... the laughter filled him up again as he thought of 'his' latest plan. Play along, play along, a hop, skip and a jump and whoopee!!

The above is a peek into the mind of the Joker as played by Heath Ledger in the Dark Knight. Completely fictional.

Chrome - the fastest browser in the West

OK, I got carried away by the title, but Chrome from Google is fast, seriously fast.

Available for download at http://www.google.com/chrome, this browser can seriously challenge IE and the timing looks suspiciously like a gauntlet thrown at Microsoft around the time Internet Explorer 8.0 beta 2 is out for public download.

I am typing this post on Blogger using Chrome and barring a few connectivity issues to the Blogger server and a small blip when it said cookies were disallowed when in fact it was, the browser is purring along just fine, thank you.

The first thing that strikes you after you do the rather quick download and install is the clean and minimalistic interface. This is what a clean browsing experience should look like IMHO. The Settings and the Page control icons are at the top right and the Google logo is visible only when you run it in default mode, maximize it and there is no logo. This is a refreshing change.

Tabbed browsing is supported by default and in a rather cool manner, thumbnails of frequently visited sites are displayed when you open a new tab. No more trying to figure out the site you visited from the history folder.

Another option which I found interesting is the incognito window, which allows you to launch the browser in a mode that prevents any history from being maintained of your visit. Now what would I do with that. Hmm.

The settings page is clean and uncluttered with minimal options and the ability to change the settings and view of just the tab your browsing and not of the entire browser experience, neat.

The language encoding is extensive with support being offered for languages like Thai and Cyrllic. I'd rather use Auto-Detect.

The most stand out feature for me so far has been the speed at which pages load, I have seen reviews on ZDNet and a few other sites which compare various browsers, but I'd take those with a pinch of salt. Developers have been optimizing for browsers for a long time now and a new browser is going to take time to gain acceptance.

Microsoft is the undisputed leader in the browser space, commanding a huge share simply by virtue of being the default on the most popularly distributed operating system. It remains to be seen if Google can catch up and overtake FireFox and then take on Internet Explorer.

The lines are drawn and the battle for the control of your interface with the Web begins in earnest.

The Thumper

When I was much younger, which feels like a long while ago, I was fascinated by the thump and presence of the Bullet, that venerable old warhorse that came out of the World Wars in England. The 350 cc Bullet started life in 1939 made its way to India around 1949 and started being made in India around 1955. Why the history lesson? Just that there appears to have been precious little changes in this baby since about then. The basic seems to be around the same.

Coming back to moi, after pottering around on a 50 cc moped and then a 125 cc experimental engine, I finally got my hands on a 350cc beast. That was the start of my love affair with this bike. There is something so distinctive about each bike, a character, if you may call it so. 

You develop an attachment that is difficult to describe except that when you are on the bike and riding, a calm settles in and the miles begin to melt. Not to mention, the tinkering with the parts and the whole involvement thing of getting your hands greasy and wondering where that darned nut went.

I now face a question that I must answer, do I buy another Bullet or succumb to the fiber body, digital speedometer, the supposedly insane speed, handling and the various blandishments (gorgeous women dropping out of the sky or swooning when macho stud boy pulls a stoppie) that project a certain image to the bike and by association the rider.

Methinks I will think on that while I go for a ride on my borrowed thumper.