Orkut or Facebook?

I have been using Orkut for more than year, and came in touch with loads of friends - infact orkut was the first social-networking site I joined and enjoyed. Simple interface, nothing complicated - you add friends, view his/her profile, scrap/ message them, become their fans, write a testimonial etc etc - I mean how difficult can that be? Now, the limitation on the number of the photographs has also been removed, allowing people to share loads of photographs to the whole Orkut community. There have been loads of improvements every now and then, but the essence of Orkut has remained the same - keep in touch with friends.

Last month, after loads of invitations from loads of my friends to join Facebook, I finally signed-up (I hate those bulk invitations which many sites have - you just need to enter our email and password, and voila!!! It will then automatically send invitations to all your contacts). I was initially a bit skeptical about joining another social-networking site - I already have most of my friends in Orkut, so why join another one??? But, I was curious, why are so many people sending so many invitations to join Facebook??? I agree, it is too popular in US, but not that much here in India - I don't think it is possible to beat the popularity of Orkut in India. Whatever, I finally joined. Its not exactly like Orkut, or to that matter Hi5 or other social networking site. Its different. Ok, you have the usual make friends stuff, but there is something else too -Facebook apps. The great thing about these application is that you can add any number of applications in your profile page, and share them with your friends. There are games, just for fun applications etc etc already available in Facebook. Then, you can even change the position of all these apps in the page, and loads of other stuffs to keep you busy!!! There was one more thing which I liked - here, you can share your albums your friends only - public sharing is also available as an option.

So, what do you prefer, Orkut or Facebook? Frankly speaking, Facebook is different, provides you loads of things to pass your time with, and having many new and interesting features. But again, most of the groups/ networks are US oriented, so its not easy to find an Indian network that easily. Also, most people in Facebook (those I have in my friends list ) already are a part of the Orkut community, which is growing every day. And, somehow, I like the simple way of scrapping people in Orkut (it has become such a familiar interface by now). And. Orkut has been such a helpful tool to keep in touch with old schoolmates. So, I still love Orkut (even though I hate it when it says there is no donut available for me).

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Now playing: James - Alvida - Reprise

Back to the dots

I was getting bored of the plain old blogger template which I was using for the past year... As I was browsing through the existing templates, I came across "dots".

Then I remembered that I had used this when I had created this blog.... So here I am again, back to dots.....

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Now playing: Linkin Park - Leave Out All The Rest

In search for a song.....

Recently, I was listening to only 1 song in a continuous loop (lets say, for 1 whole day)...

I had mentioned somewhere in my earlier post about how enthu I was for watching "Frank Miller's 300". This was mainly because of the breathtaking trailer I happened to watch last year. Apart from the great cinematography, the other great thing was the soundtrack. Didn't know the name of the song that time, but I kept watching the trailer, as the combination of the video and the soundtrack was intoxicating!!! 300 turned out to be "bloody" great movie (apart from some of the "bloody" violent scenes when I kept my eyes shut)... Then, some days back, I got hold of the soundtrack from the movie. I started playing all the songs to search for the particular song I wanted. Unfortunately, I didn't find any thing even faintly resembling the one I wanted. Disappointed (the soundtrack distributor had tricked me into getting an album I wasn't going to listen - the songs were not that great when you just listen to them, it sounds better as a movie background)... Whatever, I was disappointed... But, then I searched for "300 soundtrack" in wikipedia (the great!!!), and this time, I wasn't disappointed. Turns out, the music in the trailer was never included in the OST, as it was composed by a group called "Nine Inch Nails" about 10 years back. But nevertheless, I got the name of the song, did a bit of googling, and was able to download it (god bless the person who had uploaded it to some file sharing site :) ).

BTW, the name of the song is "Just Like You Imagined", and it felt great to listen to it in a loop... Its hard rock, with some great piano in the background.... And this time, even without the video/trailer, it was good....

Some Random Thoughts

It has been more than a year since I started blogging. If you look at the earlier posts, you can see that this blog was created as I was getting bored after my college had finished, and I had nothing much to do for some time. Then, once I started working, gradually I got busy (this was in Nov 06). New place, new friends, new responsibilities.... Now, as I am almost about to complete a year as a working professional, I am trying to recollect how the past year has been for me. In a word - "GREAT"!!!! :)

The biggest problem I have in life is that I just cannot sit idle. I need something to do, something to keep myself busy all the time, maybe work, or maybe some time-consuming pass-time... Things were fine initially, with training and all for the first few months. I was excited.... Then, we got out of our training, and a few months of no work. Fortunately, I was one of the lucky few to be allocated in a project in March, and thats when I really got busy (but, I still manage to post some random article on my blog at that time, something related to the excitement of watching 300 the movie etc etc).

In April, we had a short trip to Goa. It was fun, but it turned out to be a too short visit. I remembered some of the places from my previous visit to Goa (that was way back in 1990, i think). And, I managed to click loads of photos.

I got shifted to a new project in June, and had the opportunity to work with a new team. The work was great, and I had a chance to learn about so many new things, was given new responsibilities.

I got a 30GB iPod video 5th generation (late 2006 model) from the U.S. As, I had mentioned somewhere in my previous post, I always wished to own an iPod. Now, I have one. I bought it in July. I was aware that Apple is going to release the new versions of iPods in Sept, but I didn't mind buying the 5th generation model. Even now, after I have read the reviews of the new classic and the touch , I don't regret buying that. :). I have my whole music collection (worth 16GB of songs) with me in my pocket... What else do I want??? It has now become a faithful companion....

So, here I am, as always, sitting idle on a Saturday morning, wondering what to do next.... BTW, here are some pics I had taken some time back, and I thought of posting them on my blog......

This photo was taken from my hostel room way back in college. I loved the way the photo captures the approaching rains.....

This one was taken on our trip to Sinhgarh fort in Jan 2006. I love taking photos of the setting sun
This one was taken on the Surya Kiran airshow in Suratgarh AirForce Station in Sept 06. I loved the red-planes-on-the-blue-background contrast.
This one was taken on my trip to Goa (I told you, I love taking photos of the setting sun)

Fireworks on display at Corenthian Club, Pune (you can check the video in my previous post)
This photo was taken at dusk. I had disabled flash, and had kept the shutter speed to around 8 sec to get the effect of daylight (just check out the yellow street-lamp visible in the photo)

Fireworks At Display

It had been a long time since I had made this video, and edited it. Recently I created an Youtube account, and decided to upload this video today... This shot was taken on our company's annual day celebrations earlier this year at the Corenthian Club, Pune. And surprisingly, the video turned out to be pretty clear. The sound was not at all clear, considering there was a show going on the stage, and people were shouting and screaming, so decided to add some sort of music instead. The soundtrack is Yanni's "In Your Eyes" (Album: If I Could Tell You).

Just for sharing, I thought of posting it on my blog too.... I am a bit too busy these days to post anything worth on my blog. Hope you like it... Do comment on the video, either here or directly on YouTube.