ghoom

amar du-chokhe Ghoom
tumi ele neel shari pore

Mercury remains high

Highest temperature stat:

1958 – 43.7 degree C
2002 – 43.0 degree C
2009 – 42.1 degree C

Kolkata, with entire South Bengal, is passing through a terrific time. Heat wave of Central India reached South Bengal this year. Initially humidity was low. Citizens of Kolkata are habituated with humid weather; dry summer makes them sick.

Now, the heat flow continues and humidity level also goes up – what a painful situation. Met office recorded 42.1 degree C temperature on May 9, 2009. Humidity was 87 percent on that day.

However, today’s storm followed by a sufficient splash made the situation better.

But, this is the time to think again – “are we on the right track”? Such abnormal hot summer can be an indication of global warming. Beware before it’s too late. I have started saving water and energy as much as I can – WHAT ARE YOU DOING?

I tweet

Whenever I open this blog and see the date of last post, I feel sad. I really really want to post on web wings, but I hardly get time these days. So many works to do – so many indeed! Office from 10:00 – 7:00 (officially), preparing for my music exam that is due in June, then helping my friends to manage their blogs (voluntary job, but of huge responsibility), top of all abnormally hot summer in Kolkata this year - sometimes I really feel exhausted and tired.

Please note that whether I am posting web wings or not, I spend a lot of time surfing the net. After orkut, facebook and linkedin, twitter is my latest crush.

I am tweeting heavily these days – got a lot of followers and am following others religiously too. I receive a lot of news updates, resources, quotations on twitter everyday. And it feels good when someone starts following me. Even I got some #FollowFriday mentions on last two Fridays.

So follow me (Find Saikat Sengupta on twitter) on twitter and stay connected. If you do not love twitter, read this article.

But I still love Notepad

Notepad – my favorite editor. Even after working with popular word processing applications, I feel comfortable with Notepad. And when I edit HTML, instead of any WYSIWYG editor, I like to write codes in Notepad.

I really do not know the reason for my endless affection for Notepad; psychologists might be able to reveal the truth. As I am an avid typist and I rarely make spelling mistakes, I do not need spelling assistance. I like the simplicity Notepad has and I do not lose my attention in the crowd of uncountable icons. Black fonts on white background resemble century old conception of writing pads that my eyes and mind are habituated with.

I must admit that MS Word provides the rich text editor with helpful formatting functions that help to create documents without getting puzzled.

And I really feel overwhelmed when I enter today’s theme-specific world. Themes are everywhere starting from Durgapuja pandals in Kolkata to Gmail Inbox. Themes on Durgapuja pandals help to rediscover our forgotten cultural heritage. But why do we need these themes with an email application? So many images, colors, fonts – why? What is the use behind making the web more bulky?

Carbon footprint of Internet industry has already grabbed the attention of expert minds – web pages with more images, videos, animation and other special effects generate higher amount of CO2 when viewed by the surfers. Then why we are up to make our pages heavy?

I access my email inbox to receive messages – text messages. I feel comfortable to read them over a white background with no funny creature popping up from the corners. Hence, I reject the proposal of installing themes on Gmail – I am going to use the traditional and classic look.

Even on Orkut, I do not use any themes. Some of the themes pain my eyes and reduce readability. I am not against innovation and creativity. I understand that it involves great deal of knowledge to integrate these themes with applications like Gmail and Orkut. But, why they are doing this? Are they innovating just to innovate OR to show how expert programmers they are?

Whatever, I will stick with my Notepad affinity when it comes to write something or take down some notes.

Happy New Year 2009

Can't help it quoting from wikipedia:

2009 (MMIX) is the current year of the Anno Domini/Common Era in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. It is a common year starting on Thursday. It is the last year of the 2000s decade.

2009 has been designated as the:

• International Year of Astronomy.^[1][2]

• International Year of Natural Fibres.^[3]

• International Year of Reconciliation.^[4]

Wish all of you a very happy and prosperous New Year.