ivipul.com

Now, lately Facebook has been releasing new features at a furious pace. (A lot of them blatant Copycats from Google+ like the FB Lists, Subscribe feature, etc). But I can’t complain, because Google+ itself is heavily inspired from Facebook.

But today, Facebook launched a major interface Redesign. And I am disappointed. From a usability standpoint, there are few things that immediately caught my eye. Tell me in the comments below, if you noticed them before, and do they really affect you at all.
Facebook Redesign – An Organized Mess

Mess no.1 – Swapped Home and Profile Buttons

Notice, the position of the Home and the Profile tab has been swapped for some reason. Everytime, I tried to navigate to the Homepage, I had to readjust to click on the right link, since I was habituated to the earlier layout. In terms of usability, this is a horrible change. Why completely reverse the earlier behavior?

Also, if you look at web standards, Home is generally the left-most link. This new layout makes no sense to me.

Mess no.2 – Where’s my “What’s on your mind box”?

Now, isn’t Facebook meant to make to easier for people to share whats on their mind? Hence, it made sense to have this box available readily to the users on the Homepage. Now facebook radically decides to hide this box, only to make it appear if you click the “Update Status” link.

Just making things more difficult.

Mess no. 3 – The Jumping Ticker Box

The worst of the package is the new Ticker. In terms of usability, when you start scrolling the page, the ticker scrolls for some time, become static after a point, disillusioning the user. Try it out!! I personally am no fan of static elements on a page. They just break the flow of a page, and make it more confusing.

Now, try enabling Chat. The Ticker “magically” jumps to the right of the page and gets fitted on top of the chat window. WHY, I ask?

Final Thoughts

The new layout adds too many options and makes things a tad too complicated. My “ohh-so-simple” feed is now split into Top Stories, Recent Stories and the Ticker. Where should I look for what?

A major userbase of Facebook are the mom-and-pop accounts. I am not sure how easy will it be for them to get used to this new design. Your views?

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Wandering through winding paths…
I pass beautiful landscapes; I pass run-down rotten alleys.
I pass smiling faces, and also grimaced troubled hearts…
I see both good and bad,
I see both cheer and love, and also pain and hate…

The winding paths I talk about are the recesses of my mind,
‘Nd the journeys are my thoughts, my feelings…

I start my journey…
I am like a stranger in a foreign land.
Unsure, unsteady, unaware… But learning…
It’s like a toddler who’s learning to walk, ahead of a long journey;
My mind is learning to think, to comprehend…
I journey on…

I am on a young path.
Shadowed by the handloom of trees on both sides,
Shadowing me, protecting me at all times.
My mind grows in the shelter of my two trees,
Cared for, protected.
Its journeys are shaky, but guarded.
I tread out of the shade into the sunlight; I Burn.
I’m still learning.
I journey on…

I come across open fields… Untouched. Virgin.
Places where others can’t go.
I come across thoughts that open my mind,
That are mine… Personal.
Which others can’t understand.
Those are my paths; those are my thoughts.
I journey on…

I come across violent seas… Crashing;
Things I don’t understand, I disagree…Thoughts I battle with…
Unrest.
I come across calm waters, a serene lake.
I feel like staying there, let time freeze.
Cause here My thoughts are my thoughts,
and I am at harmony.
I journey on…

I am surprised how an open highway…
Where my thoughts are flowing,
Gets converted to a traffic jam..
I know not where to go.
I journey on…

I meet people… Some hold my hands…
I look at them and they smile.
Some just move on, but some others…
They join my journey.
They catch me from falling off steep cliffs,
At times they bank on me to save them…
I like this journey…

I journey on…

I am in a crowded street…
There are noises, confusion, people shoving you around.
I hear people selling things..
Bbut..Bbut..There are so many!!!
What do I buy?? What do I do??
My mind is confused… My thoughts are torn apart…
I grab a fruit (an opportunity); but is this what I want??!!
I turn around…
People are running…Sprinting…Its a blurrr…
Something tells me I need to run too…
But why can’t I ??
I grab a foothold and I start running…
It’s like an aphrodisiac…
I feel the breeze blow by and it feels good.

I am in the run…
There are so many paths…diversions…Do I know which one to take??
Absolutely not!!!
But I am in the run…
After all it’s the journey, ain’t it??!!
But baby,
I am in the run…!!!

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Its amazing how a really bad day can become so exciting in a matter of moments (and then, actually manage to turn sour again). Today was one of those exceptional experiences I had, courtesy livin’ in a boys hostel in Pune.

The chain of events started with 3 sixes of 4 balls by Sachin against Australia, on a off-resolution television set at a roadside restaurant.

Now, who can walk away from that!!!

I was hardly aware of the Indo-Australian one-day cricket series going on, let alone the fact that there was a match today. Australia had posted a mammoth total of 350, and India had started off pretty well, thanks to our ever-reliable Sachin!!! If not for any other reason, we got stuck with the match as Sachin was storming Australia as a terrifying one-man army.

Somehow we (me and two of my friends) managed to leave the match and reached our hostel, with all the plans to get to our books. But once there, we could hear hoots and screams every 30 seconds coming from the TV room in our hostel. We resisted for 3-4 mins, but soon were sprinting towards the TV room ourselves to catch the last few overs of the match.

As I entered the TV room, there were close to 150 people sprawled around a single TV set, straining to get a glimpse of the screen over a sea of heads and limbs. Some had found chairs to sit, most were sprawled on the floor around the TV, and uncountable others standing around to catch the match. Some had even got a small ladder in the room, to get a view over all the standing people..!!!!

The atmosphere was as electric as watchin’ a live match, if not more. There was applause and whistles on every single run scored or even a wide-ball. In the case of a boundary or a six, the noise was deafening!!!! Well, in the case of a dot-ball or a wicket, the slur of abuses was even greater..!!!

Everyone was cheering Sachin to make a double century, chanting everytime he came to the crease. But 40 odd runs away from victory, Sachin lost his wicket. Then came the ohh-so-familiar scene with Indian cricket. Once Sachin was out, the Indian batting fell like a pack of cards, losing finally by 3 runs. The disappointment of the 100+ crowd was tremendous. Chairs were thrown around in frustration, people were pissed as hell. Not as pissed as I was!!

But soon as the frustration of the loss went down, a totally different side of the episode came to me…..

Its amazing how so many people, who hardly know each other, speak the same language and share the same emotions when it comes to cricket!!!

Its amazing how the 150 people in the room (and millions all over the country) simultaneously roar together, as a natural response to a sixer by Sachin, how they gasp at a miss-run, how they simultaneously groan when Sachin got caught. I wonder how many people must have thrown stuff around in frustration of India losing.

Its amazing how at the end of the match, I realized one of the guys sitting amongst the 150 was actually blind. I had seen the guy hooting all along the match, and not realized once that he couldn’t see. Such was the atmosphere that you didn’t need to be able to see, to feel the intensity.

Its amazing how I was so engrossed in the cricket match, that I was slouching over the shoulders of the cook of the canteen where I eat everyday, together shouting at every ball. In any other setting, I wouldn’t have imagined doing so.

Its amazing how much better the experience of watching the match was given that you were watching it with a group of 150 people instead of watching the match alone at home!!! Even though India lost the match…the experience was, well….

AMAZING!!!!

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First some random good links for video tutorials…

1) The IIT resource lectures on youtube..
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=nptelhrd&view=playlists

2)Maybe check the computer programming section on this page…though good resource for other wide range of topics..
http://lecturevideo.blogspot.com/search/label/Video%20Lecture

3)another good source
http://freevideolectures.com/index.php

now some topic wise tutorials…

1) Computer Sc – Software Engineering
Lecture Series on Software Engineering by Prof.N.L. Sarda, Prof. Umesh Bellur, Department of Computer Science & Engineering ,IIT Bombay .
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=8751DA481F0F0D17

2) RDBMS
http://www.archive.org/details/arsdigita_10_databases

3) Oracle: Introduction to Oracle SQL and PL/SQL Tutorials
http://www.vtc.com/products/Introduction-to-Oracle-SQL-and-PL/SQL-tutorials.htm

This post was submitted by supervipul.

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On 22nd July, 2009 we witnessed the longest Solar Eclipse in the 21st century, which will stay unchallenged till June, 2114. Early yesterday morning when i was glancing through the paper I noticed the path of the Solar Eclipse through various parts of India.

The Eclipse first became visible at 5:28 am at the eastern coast near Gujrat, and then left India at 10:42 am from over the North-Eastern part of India. Nothing seemed fishy to me at first, but then my dad posed me a question.. That the sun moves from east to west, then why so does the solar eclipse move the other way round..??
Hmmm..Intersting!! So I decided to look it up.. (Given that I had nothing else better to do. )

Now, first how does the Solar Eclipse take place. In the lamest terms, amongst all the randomness of the celestial motion of the earth, moon and sun; now and then, the three bodies line up together in a straight line. When the moon comes in between the earth and the sun and hides our good ‘ole sun…Walla..we have a Solar Eclipse!!!
When the moon blocks the sun partially, its a partial solar eclipse. Instances when it shadows it completely (like in our case on 22nd July), its called a Total solar eclipse.

Now the question at hand…
The Earth revolves around the Sun from West to East. (surely, because this motion gives us the apparent sensation the the sun is moving the other way round. i.e., East to West.)
The moon revolves round the Earth from West to East as well. (Watch Moonrise on successive nights and you’ll see that it rises later each day as the Earth’s rotation needs more time to ‘catch up’ with the Moon in its orbit. )
The Moon orbits at a velocity of 1 km/sec, thus its shadow also moves at the same velocity. However the Earth is also rotating around its axis in the same direction with almost 0.5 km/s at the equator, slower with approaching poles. As a results near the equator Moon’s shadow advances about 500 meters per second.
The easiest example to understand this is, assume to cars are moving in the same direction, at the same speed. They appear stationary to each other.
Now a case when one is at 20 km/hr and the other at 40 km/hr. Now from the perspective of the faster car, the other car is moving backwards.

Similarly, even though Earth and the Moon are moving in the same direction (West to East), the relative velocity of the Moon is higher, it advances with respect to Earth.

Now there are various exceptions to this case, but this much is enough for my curiosity. If you are interested more, have a look at this link.. Mechanics of Solar Eclipses.

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Readers are leaders..so as and when we read new and interesting things we’ll post it here..if u share our interests, do share ur views so that we can look at all sides of the coin..

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well, hopefully only the first of many blogs that will make this site helpful for many and one. Hope to talk about anything and everything thats worth talking about in my life.

A place where me and my friends and family can speak their mind. Amen.

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