Page Views by OS and Browser

Blogger.com Stats tab looks amazing. It provides the blog owners with many statistics about their blog which helps them manage it and the audience well. But I could also notice two of the stats on display, which basically tells not about popularity of your blog but tells about the popularity of OS and browsers!

For example, here is the statistics and a pie chart showing what percentage of my audiences used which operating system:

 

So it appears that Windows is still the undisputed leader and will remain so for a long time to come…

Now, something about browsers:

 

Chrome is the leader here with 41% of audience using it to access my blog. Firefox is the second most used. IE has lost much ground but still has decent user base. Others are too small.

These stats may not be a fair global poll. Now there is also Stats for the places from which the audiences visited my blog: 

Most of my readers are from India. But there is sizeable presence also from the US and UK and some from Canada and Singapore. Now I was surprised about visitors from Lithuania. Frankly I had not heard about this country. I got to know that Lithuania is a member of EU. Its history dates back much into the past. Like India, it also shares a spell of colonial past. Soviet Union (USSR) and then Germany occupied it by turns. In the Wikipedia article the section of “Independence from” is much large. In 1990 it finally became an independent nation. Lithuania also has high human development index. So I realize that Blogger Stats are also to expose the blog owners about new things!

It feels good to go through overview of Blogger’s Stats section. I always learn something new from it!

- Rahul

Note: Views are personal and do not represent views of any organization associated with the author. [Detailed disclaimer]

Sadhu Vaswani Mission

Wishing all of you a very happy and successful new year 2013! Also sharing something good: After coming to Pune, we have had the chance to know about Sadhu Vaswani Mission. It is a humanitarian service org which does lots of service to the society. We had the pleasure to take part in its langar and also bought some books at its center. It also runs a very good medical facility in the form of Shanti Clinic near Pune Rly Stn at very small cost. After I 'Liked" its Facebook page, I have been able to know more about its activities. If you like, you can search and know more about it. Or visit http://www.facebook.com/sadhuvaswani to get a snapshot.

I could also find its website: http://www.sadhuvaswani.org/

Also, India Yogi website gives a very good overview about it: [Link].

Bing Homepage: Better than Google!

Every time search engine Google.com does something special with its main search page graphics, it becomes news. Newspapers bring out news items telling users about it (perhaps they believe their readers do not use google and hence need to be informed of this important update :), people discuss it on social networking sites and it is also a popular talk when friends meet over lunch or tea. Google has such a huge brand recall value that all other search engines get eclipsed. Have you checked out Bing.com?

Bing is the web search engine from Microsoft. When it was inaugurated, it came out with many great features which Google also copied and made use of. I especially noted features of scroll in image search and snapshot views at the right hand bar, which were not present in Google earlier but they introduced it later on. It still has many features unique and better than google. But I wanted to discuss the home page and graphics here.

Bing changes its background image daily. And what a fabulous pictures are those! Just keep reaching bing.com daily, or make it your homepage so that when you open your browser bing opens, and I am sure you will be mesmerized by the wonderful collection of images it brings… The background images also mention information about the things shown in the image.

Why I am prompted to blog about it is because today I noted a moving visual in its background image! It shows a dog resting on the ground, but it opens its eyes after sometime and then casually shuts them back! It is so cute and wonderful… 

It has its eyes closed:

Now it opens its eyes slightly:

Even the grass moves a little. 

It is possible to view the image on full page and also download it.

Do give it a try and explore more! I am sure you will like it!

Note: Views are personal and do not represent views of any organization associated with the author. [Detailed disclaimer]

Maharashtra Desha: Uddhav Thackeray Photography

On Diwali eve, we found some new roadside vendors joining the festivities in Pune. We noticed an unusual seller: a woman was selling "books" on a table she had put on the roadside. We found that all the books and magazines on sale were in Marathi language. Then I noticed a book by Uddhav Thackeray. The book "Maharashtra Desha" is a collection of Uddhav's aerial photography across the state. When we asked the lady if the book was also available in Hindi or English, she replied, "the person whose book it is, is a Marathi and hence the book is also in Marathi." I liked her pride and attitude. We bought one book and came back home. When we checked the book out, we were awestruck with the brilliant and wonderful photographs published in the book. We could not resist but went back to the lady and bought 2 more books which we have gifted to our parents. Pieces of beautiful Maharashtra and some reason for the lady's pride have traveled to far places now...

The book महाराष्ट्र देशा is divided into sections: (1) Forts, (2) Temples and places of worship, (3) Rivers and Roads/Highways, (4) Landmarks in Mumbai, (5) General photography. 

A few pictures of forts are can be seen here: 

You can also see a Rediff Slideshow on the same book and Uddhav Thackeray's photography: [Link]

Paperback edition of the book costs only Rs 100 and can be found here: http://www.sahyadribooks.org/books/MHDesha.aspx?bid=508

When I tried to find some photographs on the internet, I could find mostly pictures of forts. But the photographs of other sections of the book including the last general photography titled "Adbhut Desha अद्भुत देशा" is so wonderful that unless you see those, you won't be able to guess the beauty. Our parents viewed the pictures and were mesmerized. The photographs not only show the international level photography talent in Uddhav Thackeray but also his thinking and humility. There is a picture of a man washing his buffaloes in a pond, a family traveling in a boat in a river, a farmer with green turban sitting in his fields with specks of greenery, a variety of crops making a mesmerizing visual delight, a group of womenfolks waiving to the photographers while they were sowing rice in the fields, or four boys resting after having hearty swimming... The width and depth of the images are unseen before... Kudos to Uddhav for this book and for his photography... 

With the exceptional quality of photography and the unparalleled coverage of Maharashtra, the book is actually priceless. If you love Maharashtra or want to know more, it is a must buy. 

- Rahul

Reading List by Amazon on LinkedIn Gone?

I used to use the Application “Reading List by Amazon” on LinkedIn for many years. Whenever I read a book, I went to LinkedIn and listed the book’s title on the Amazon Reading List, including a review about the same. But today, I do not find Amazon Reading List App at all on LinkedIn!

A Q&A search tells that LinkedIn has stopped supporting this App. And perhaps it did not warn users before stopping it. It feels bad to see our years of efforts go in vein, in this manner. 

Read about it here: 

http://www.linkedin.com/answers/using-linkedIn/ULI/1079628-23155484 

After many years of using it, I had listed around 250 books that I had read and also had several "followers" who were following my profile for my reading interests. Though I kept posting larger reviews on my blogger.com blog also, but I had many books in my Reading List for which I had not got time to write reviews. Alas, all is gone now.

I still hope LinkedIn would start supporting the Reading List app and would also retrieve all our data/details which we entered in the app.

- Rahul   

Note: Views are personal and do not represent views of any organization associated with the author. [Detailed disclaimer]

Dabang 2 and Portrayal of Religion in Movies

We watched the recently released flick ‘Dabang-2’ and found it very entertaining. We thoroughly enjoyed it. But as afterthoughts I am left wondering about the trend of negative portrayal of religions in our movies.

The main villain of Dabang-2 is a criminal turned politician called Bachcha Singh Thakur (played by Prakash Raj). In the first shot when he appears in front of the audience, he is shown as taking part in a Yagna in a temple. His goons have prevented any other devotees to enter the temple while he is busy offering oblations to the gods. When his brother is killed by ‘Dabang’ Chulbul Pandey, he performs proper last rites and also scolds his other brother for not going to immerse the ashes into river himself (this event turns out to be game changer in the story). In the end, a war happens as the climax between the hero and the villain and it takes place at the remains of an ancient looking Hindu temple. During the fight, when Thakur Bachcha Singh becomes sure that Chulbul Pandey has been subdued and defeated, he tells his goons, “make preparations for his last rites while I come back after thanking the God” and moves towards the temple along with his brother for prayers. All through the movie, the villain’s religious affiliations are clearly shown as a remarkable feature. But if we think about the plot and the story, these religious dimensions were totally unnecessary and irrelevant.

The plot and story would have lost nothing whether the villain was introduced while performing Yagna or while addressing a mass gathering. Or if the climatic fight happened in a ruined fort rather than a Hindu temple. But if the filmmakers had chosen not to highlight religion (in particular Hinduism) in the manner they have done, it would not have resulted in a trend worth getting disturbed about – increasingly the film industry in India is showing religion (in particular Hinduism because it is most tolerant in the lot) in the wrong light. On one hand villains are shown to be practicing religious men, the ‘Heroes’ are shown as irreligious guys who do not practice any rituals or religion. Hero’s religion do not matter, but villain’s religion becomes a point worth being highlighted – why such a double standard? Do the film makers want to make us believe gradually that religion is bad and practicing it is not “cool”? They will never accept it but what they are doing certainly means the same…

I am fully with the creative industry’s rights and freedom to fabricate whatever kind of villains and heroes they want for their creative offerings, but when movie after movie a disturbing pattern emerges, it is worth being made a note of.

I liked Dabang 2 and would always remember it for its nice representation of family values and fun. Sonakshi’s role as a wife, Vinod Khanna’s as a father and Arbaaz Khan as brother in a typical Indian family sharing little joys of day to day life is so wonderfully portrayed. But if they had not chosen to go the run-of-the-mill way of presenting religion as a kind of demonist characteristic to be painted on the villain, it would have been much better and fairer.

- Rahul

Note: Views are personal and do not represent views of any organization associated with the author. [Detailed disclaimer]