The Lonesome Road

At the Apple Keynote today,
Steve Jobs had a lot to say
Leopard was the topic of choice,
And he spoke in a bold tone of voice!
One by one the features were called,
Which left the audience members enthralled.

64 bit apps were taked of first,
Then the bubble of time was burst.
Time machine Mr.Jobs said,
Brings back all files from the dead.
It seems to be an idea neat,
But what happens to space when you delete?

Three toys were then on us bestowed -
Bootcamp, Photobooth and Front Row.
Virtual desktops came on next,
If you steal from Linux - take the best!
Core animation is so pretty,
Screen saver coding can be so gritty.

Text-to-speech was the next new feature,
It was shown to be a whole new creature.
To-do’s and notes were also touted,
Till his voice was hoarse Mr.Jobs shouted.
Dashboard widgets - a bag of tricks,
From webpage to widget in just a few clicks.

Last but not least comes the new iChat,
I say Adium is more non-fat!
To be honest, as I saw what he said,
I prefered to use my XP instead.
The moral of the story - where do I aim?
Yes! Tout not featues that are totally lame!

Well, Anshul and I were seeing the live transcript of the WWDC presentation together - and we both though that the features on Leopard sucked. While Anshul put down his thoughts in words[anshul.info], lack of sleep caused my thoughts to come out as a bad poem.

Enjoy!

This is not a public service message to encourage you to vote during local elections - but hey, go vote!

Anyway, this is more about the whole reality tv crap that has been going on forever. I’m pretty sure most of you know this, but for the few who don’t, more people voted during the American Idol season than during the Presidential election. And here’s the best part - they *paid* so that they could vote. Does it get dumber than this?

Anyway, here’s the part that always gets me. I was channel flipping yesterday and I came across “America’s Got Talent” and decided to stay awhile. (Well, it’s like the ghoul factor. You know, like people always stop to look if there is an accident). Don’t judge me! So, here’s the funny thing. The show was being broadcast live (?), the host kept reminding people to vote *after* the program got over. The really funny part was that even though this message was being repeat after every performance, people were still calling in before time. Now I do understand that you want your voice to be heard, but at least hear what the man has to say.

Now came the thing that really cracked me up. I’m currently watching a repeat telecast - and now after every act, there is a big orange bar with a large font message that says - “Previously recorded. Voting now closed” or something in that vein. How much do you want to bet that as of this minute there are people calling to vote for their favourite contestant?

I used to think that with the glut of reality TV shows that the whole voting thing would have become old by now. But it seems that I am wrong - and the phone and television compaines are making a lot of money with the whole game. Well, more power to them.

A wise man once said that Lottery is simply a tax on stupidity. Seems that times have changed…

As I have written earlier [loneroad.info], I am a big fan of reading the information that is written on cans and other packing devices.

Now, the thing is, for the most part, the labels are normal. They simply provide information about the product and some nutritional statistics. But every once in a while, there comes a label which provides enough amusement to make up for the effort.

Now we take a tanget.

It’s nearing the end of the mango season in India. Unfortunately, in the US mangoes are really expensive. But, summer will not be summer unless mangoes are eaten. The solution - mango pulp. Yes, I know there are artificial flavours and preservatives, and added sugar. Who cares - it tastes like mango. So shoo. Also it costs $1.49 for a large can making it very affordable

Anyway, the purpose of that long winded introduction was to set up the warning label that I read on the can. It says :

“Factory: Product made in a nut free area, but nuts elsewhere”

What in the name of God does that mean? Of course, the rational (and correct) answer is that there are no traces of nuts in the factory where the pulp is produced, but there may be nuts in the area where the product is stored/stocked or during transportation.

I leave you, constant reader to draw your own conclusion from what you read.

Until next time - may your area be nut free

My friend and I were cooking dinner today (yes, I do cook - so there) and we had to get a new can of salt.

Now, I have this thing about reading ingredients from cans. And this one boldly proclaimed itself as REAL SALT - with Iodine. I was intrigued. Iodized salt is something I am familiar with - Real Iodized salt was something new.

So, I turned the can around to see if they provided any more information. That brought me to the second piece of information : Real Salt - with 33% less Sodium. Now, I am a poor computer engineer and have not actively been reading chemistry books for the last 5 years. But some things do stick in ones mind. One of them is that common salt is made of Sodium and Chlorine. Na+ and Cl- in an electrolytic bond form NaCl i.e common, table salt.

Now, if these guys have 33% less Sodium in their “salt”, it logically (to me) suggests that there is an imbalance in the sodium/chlorine ratio. i.e it’s more like salt with free chlorine. I know that excess sodium is bad for health - but I don’t think swapping it for chlorine is a better option.

I decided to see if they provided an explanation that did not involve the presence of excess chlorine. According to their box : “unique flake shaped crystals are larger, yet lighter than cube shaped granules which help you consume less sodium with every use.”

Again, I have no concept of crytal shapes affecting the chemical composition of a molecule, but I don’t think that flakes of salt with have any less sodium than cube chaped granules. But then, that’s me.

Personally, I long for the iodized salty salt of home.

Salt ho!
[PS : Please, please do not take this article seriously. Oh - you didn’t. All right - I’ll go now.]