Beta testing Gmail

After some interesting discussion over blogger I shifted focus to Gmail. To my knowledge one of the longest Beta product is Gmail. One strong feature I like is labels, which is far more superior than historic folder. Today surprisingly noticed a unexpected behavior in the labels, I call it a bug.

The steps are simple to reproduce:
1) select any mail conversation in your Inbox thats labeled, Open it.
2) Expand the conversation and delete the first message of it. (Yes Gmail allows to delete a single message from a conversation)
3) Return back to Inbox.
4) Now look at the conversation, Err! the label is deleted. :)

You need to relabel the conversation. The engineer has optimized the logic of associating the label with the first mail of the conversation. So when thats gone, the label vanishes. Instead, it should associated with a conversation or all mails in the conversation. Or add a condition

if(message.isFirst() && labeled == true && conversation.isNextAvail())
conversation.getNext Message().label = message.label;
del(message);

You can follow any progress on this from here.

Happy Days

Its about a movie and not any personal crap that I'm going to bore you with. My rommie got this Telugu movie (Happy Days) over his last visit to college. A perfect place to flick one. This is my best ever non-tamil South Indian movie I have ever watched. The character sketch, the college life was beautifully crafted. Rather making 10 movies that make your tear glands work over time, one such movie was really worth a million. No bad scenes in the name of youth, though the English teacher was over reacting. ;)

Humm, learn't a bit of Telugu too. Neeku intha movie chala chala istam aieunthu. :) The "may be..." faith of Tyson, was interesting. The way they meet and make friends, the seniors juniors fundus are a fitting addition to the movie. A must watch recommendation for all Tamil folks! Since Tamil movies of this sort are no where near it. :) If you haven't watched this movie, go grab your DVD's and have a jolly ride of each one's Happy days.

Meee

She carried me!
She fed me!
She choose my first Birthday dress!
She tied my shoe lace every morning!
She scolded me when I was naughty!
She smiled and made me smile when I cried!
She fought for me when I got disturbed on my illness!
She happily posed with me when I grew above her shoulder!
She blessed me for a bright start!
She kissed me on my success!
She lends a shoulder when it matters most!
She guided me, on the right road!
She gave me character!
She took at most care that I don tarnish further!
She waits for me when I come back late!
She addicts me with some mouth watering food!
She even wrote my assignments!
She relentlessly comes out standing every single time, when I start off!
She is the one that I call everyday!
She holds the honor of longest ever friend I have!

Happy Birthday Meee (Mom)! Wondering if she is really growing old or still a kid! Love you!

Here and There

6:45 AM
Vijay, Get up! No answer... Snooze for 5 mins. Yenga, see Vijay, ask him to get up! Vijay get up! Some distant sound of an exhaust fan and seethe of water sparkled over a hot pan. He starts to move and hides himself from the nearby window light using a towel.

zZZZzZZZ. No sound here! Just the circumvolving fan only contributer for sound.

7:15 AM
Volume increases! The pull over is pulled outside. Getup and hot water is ready! He starts guiding himself out of bed as though he had several rounds of tequila.

zZZZzZZZ. Still no movement here!

7:45 AM
Ah! Again idly is it? 4 in the plate vanish asap with some boiling onion sambar right from the stove. Do you need boost? No is the default answer. A quick scan of reminders to see if he was missing something. Now all set to go.

You need not guess! He's still sleeping.

8:00 AM
She stands at the top of the stairs and says, "Drive carefully". Via Saibaba colony, Gandipuram, Lakshmi mills, PSG Tech. Quickly he throws the bike in the parking, ah the same scooty is again near by. By the time he crosses xerox shop his eyes tried to do a search Green Maruthi, 6162. Its not there, heavy sign of releaif.

"Anybody there... Anybody there... Anybody there... Anybody there... Anybody there..." Ahhh slam that alarm god.

9:30 AM
Already feeling sleeply, next hour is more killing man!

Finally pulls down the geyser switch and out in a flash and ready to go! Oh no one more guy still there, get up get up.

10:30 AM
He goes over taking the professor! No no not for asking doubt but to get quick in the canteen queue for 2 tea and 1 pakooda. Heavenly and charged up.

Non moving traffic and multiple speed breakers makes him slow. By that time the play school is over and parents wait to collect their kids.

That's how I compare life on a morning...

Google + Yahoo + AdSense = Better Web

A Small Step for Man, A Giant Leap for Mankind!
-Neil Armstrong

This time it was Jerry Yang! Earlier in the week, Google announced that it will share its AdSense for search and AdSense for web page content on their US and Canadian market. Also more interesting was their interoperability in instant messaging service.

Official blog post.

Flickr - KISS

KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid.

Lately I have been using Flickr heavily due to my serious hobby and the fact that my PicasaWeb account ran out of space. When I evaluated what Photo sharing site that I will upgrade, Flickr won with the only vote that it has unlimited storage and bandwidth. So I labeled myself as a Flickr user. I hated many things about it, its damm slow even in a good high speed connection, I cannot share my photos without explicitly sharing it. My viewer are never happy after I switched to Flickr. Changing the time of upload to maintain the photo order. One more annoyance today! I tired deleting some of the blurred an repeated images from my sets. Err look what happened..

Click1: Ok! I have selected the Photos, now delete them.


Click2: Oh yeah! The usual warning before doing an permanent action. Yes, I have given it a thought you can delete it.


Click 3: Hummm.. One more? Ok! May be a double confirmation for such an action. Just an extra click than the usual right, thats ok. Yeah, go ahead and delete it.

Click4: "really, really!" Whats happening here..

Oh! God. It deletes 20+20+20... photos.

Click5: "Thanks!" Errr.. For making me do those many extra clicks! Though such actions could be a rare done by users! Some really do it often and it becomes messy! Guess this part of the application again has to undergo an usability review.

A Night at the Train Station

Damm! Fixing bugs until 7:30 is pain when you want to catch your train at 10:00. Finally got a lift from Santy to reach home on time and sent the last mail for the day. I had only minutes to start of for the travel. So I just threw all the things that are to be packed that I *remembered* and stuffed them into a bag. (Now, I realize that I had drew a blank more than what I remembered. :)). Then the phone rings and my friend at the other end saying he was not able to make it to the travel due to his work (everybody seems to take the same road when it comes to work...). So I need to travel alone then :(. Ah I still haven't got back my MP3 player from my friend which I though I can use to fill my loneliness in travel. Or a book!? But then fore casted that it would be less time to read a few pages in my speed before I go to sleep.

I don want to talk about those unmerciful autowala who take every opportunity to make a hole in your wallet. By the time I reached station, I was happy to see the Global warming getting some attention. There was a live CO2 and N2O reading meter at the entrance. I even tripped on a lady's suitcase on watching it. Directly went to the large screen to scan for the train number 1013. Finally there it was Kurla express at 22:05 in Pt #3. Had a little snack and took my seat in a passengers waiting bench. Kanyakumari express set out on time. After a brief dinner was waiting for my train and there came "Chennai mail" on the platform. Err! that was a surprise.

Then came a voice in the announcement speaker "Passengers, your kind attention please! Train Number 1013, Kurla Express, From Kurla, via Bangalore to Coimbatore is expected to arrive at 23 hours 55 minutes". Yes my heart skipped a beat and I concentrated to listen in other languages too, they all meant the same. The train was two hours late. What can I do until then? With the last bit of battery that remained in my mobile I call my home and friends to say that I will be late. Well I decided to take a walk in the station until then. The walk was beguiling.

I saw a diversified on the station. The first group I saw was a gang of three who were sitting inside a immobile train talking about their old days. On hearing the news they started thinking of how to spend the time until then. Finally they decided to go to the nearest bar :). A maintenance worker of the station came and started to switch off the lights in that train and started to close the doors. I needed to get down and start walking again. Few of them were on the phone making their own chit-chat. Some were having their earphone plugged and some even put the music on the loud speaker. Many decided to catch some Z's until the train comes, they caught hold of news papers, carton boxes and bedspread, put them on the floor. A girl with tear filled eyes talking to a nun. Two full walks over across the entire stretch of the platform.

When my bottom of my foot started to ache. I decided to take some rest right below the steel staircase where some workers lockers are kept. As my clock clicked two drunkard came to that place, I sat ignoring them. One was not able to stand soon lied down on one of the metal case to opposite to me. Then other decided to smoke by moving away from light to hide himself. Few minutes passed and both the men took off since some policemen was passing that place. Then again I saw alone with some company in the ground. Rats! :) Yes they were of all sizes and running all over in search of food. In my observation they use both their sight and smell to live those conditions. Now and then they come out and sniff the air for any food and their eyes in constant watch out of any danger. With the slightest movement they sped into the dark.

Then came a old women who with a stick who was unable to walk. I noticed her some time back in the walk who was asking for some penny to people. She was very weak and her look mean so lost. Soon she started the conversation with me asking is the train late? (in kannada) I nodded my head in positive sense. Then she asked when is it coming? I never knew the translation of 12. But managed to tell the same in Tamil and she interpreted that it was 00:00 and responded back the same in kannada. She then asked did you have you dinner(utta)? I said yes. She took out a half pack of Goodday biscuit that someone donated and asked me to have one. I was full with my cup noodles and politely denied it. With the sound/smell of the biscuit packet in her hand the rats below got excited and started to run across more frequently. Taking all the risk to come as much near her feet to sniff for some food. Then one of drunken men returned to the place, the old women asked him too if he had taken his dinner. The guy replied negative. Then she took out a small bag that had some food and gave it to him. Since he was using his seventh sense din know what to do with that pack and let there and went. Out of that half pack she donated a half piece to the rats and a full piece of biscuit to the dog that came across. I realised that not every one who demand money are bad. She was one kind good women. Then she said bye telling that she cannot sleep here since those drunkards would come back.

Finally time was fast approaching Midnight. Again the same voice that came out, "Passengers, your kind attention please! Train Number 1013, Kurla Express, From Kurla, via Bangalore to Coimbatore is expected to arrive at 01 hours 30 minutes". Ahh, its frustrating than ever. Finally when the train arrived at 01:30 I din find my coach S10. So I walked till one end of the train until unreserved and returned back to the other end to find "10" written in 3:1 ratio giving a look of S1. Finally boarded the coach and slept. No TTR came to disturb my sleep, after all they are also humans.

Reached Erode at around 8 in the morning. Went to the lodge to refresh myself before going to the wedding hall. Frustration again to find no water :/ Then finally reached the wedding hall to find everyone taking rest after a nice breakfast. Meet the wedding couple, wished them and clicked few. It was like "In pursuit of Happiness..." that small moment to see - I call it Happiness. Took rest for few minutes, started towards home and reached home at 4pm.

If you have reached this point reading all the above, by now you could have realised that it was as painful as like reading this post. Also if you were on the station on that night reading this post, revert back I will buy you a coffee ;)

Update: When I saw the second image, I only remembered my tester bugzilla attachments who uses rounded red rectangles to point out that the data in the report is wrong. :)