Google turns 10!!!

The Google doodle (as seen on Google.com homepage) on its 10th birthday (today) is explained by Marissa Mayer, VP Search Products & User Experience, and Dennis Hwang, Webmaste, on the official google blog (http://googleblog.blogspot.com) -

Today you'll see a special design that commemorates our 10th birthday. We've incorporated a little bit of history by using the original Google logo from 1998. And since everyone keeps asking what we'd like for our birthday (besides cake and party hats) -- the first thing we thought of was a nice new server rack.

(Interesting) Did you knows about Google -

1. When the "Google Guys" (Larry Page and Sergey Brin) met at Stanford, and started a search engine... it was initially called BackRub! It was so widely used in Stanford that many times the servers went down. A web archive from the stanford library saying that the search engine is down is below (click on the link) - Sorry, many services are unavailable due to a local network faliure beyond our control. We are working to fix the problem and hope to be back up soon. 12/4/97

2. The academic paper they submitted at Stanford explaining the PageRank algorithm is here. Click on this link - Academic paper.

3. Google's first headqurters.... was a garage!!! Click here to know more on the house that helped build Google.

4. Google's April fools jokes -

Google MentalPlex - (Year 2000) - FAQ and Illustrations for correct usage :))
Googlunaplex - (2004) - Google hiring for its new research centre on the moon!!
Google Romance - (2006) - Google Romance is a place where you can post all types of romantic information and search for your Soulmate! :)

Read on for more of Google history here - Google Timeline

Happy Birthday Google!!! :))

India @ 61.. Happy Independence Day!

It turns 25.... :-)

Its easy to get lost in this (Digital) world.. the place where we make friends, talk, share with people whom we wouldn have even met. Yet when someone sends a casual smiley to us, we respond in the same casual manner. They may be sitting in some remote part of the world, yet some of them form a close circle of frends and people who share the common interests, views and likings. Yes, a lot of social networking sites and chat rooms have mushroomed over the years which never make u feel alone on this lonely planet. So, if you are one of those net animals, glued to the web chatting, browsing, blogging.. here is something i wud like to share with you all. It has become the most commonly used lingo across the net world, and it turns 25 years today. Its the smiley :-) ...

The creator of the original the emoticons :-) and :-( , with a specific suggestion that they be used to express emotion, was Scott Fahlman. Below is the text of his original proposal, posted to the Carnegie Mellon University computer science general board on 19 September 1982.

19-Sep-82 11:44 Scott E Fahlman :-)
From: Scott E Fahlman

I propose that the following character sequence for joke markers:

:-)

Read it sideways. Actually, it is probably more economical to mark
things that are NOT jokes, given current trends. For this, use

:-(

Click here for a compiled list of netlingo emoticons... an interesting list actually. Many of them are really quite thoughtful.

Swami Vivekananda (January 12, 1863 - July 4, 1902)

Big bright saffron turban… yes, the first thing that comes to our mind when we think of Swami Vivekananda is this. From when did Vivekananda start wearing the turban, and why? I just wanted to share this small piece of information, on this great monk who is believed to have walked like an "Incarnation of God". The turban that Vivekananda used to wear is believed to be suggested by Maharaja of Khetri. But some historians and researchers view that Vivekananda visited the Swamithope Pathi during his visit to Kanyakumari in December 1892 and believe that he was impressed by the principles behind rituals of this monistic faith, such as wearing a head gear during worship in temple, worshipping in front of mirror etc., and started wearing a turban from then on. Some say that Vivekananda received some spiritual instructions from the disciples of Ayya Vaikundar. It is also said by many that while he was a child, he was impressed by the turban of the horse cab driver, who used to ferry his father on his daily work. Subsequently when he renounced the world and took to sanyasa, he started using one himself.

On his birthday today lets experience one of the most famous and influential spiritual leaders of Vedanta, who is regarded by millions as the Messenger of God, through his preachings. This is what the greats had to say about Vivekananda:

Rabindranath Tagore - If you want to know India, study Vivekananda. In him everything is positive and nothing negative

Mahatma Gandhi - Swami Vivekananda's writings need no introduction from anybody. They make their own irresistible appeal.

Some of the sayings of Vivekananda:

As different streams having different sources all mingle their waters in the sea, so different tendencies various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to God.

Our duty is to encourage every one in his struggle to live up to his own highest idea, and strive at the same time to make the ideal as near as possible to the Truth.

All the powers in the universe are already ours. It is we who have put our hands before our eyes and cry that it is dark.

The Man who walked like an Incarnation of God

I happened to read an article about Swami Vivekananda in 'Wisdom'. The article was about the first couple of meetings betw Naren and Sri Ramakrishna. A classic of an article. I had thought that the first time they met was in Dakshineswar. But its not so, it was actually in Calcutta. A relation of Narendra used to advise him to visit Ramakrishna at Dakshineswar, who, he said, would be able to remove all his doubts about religion. In the year 1881 at the age of eighteen for the first time Narendra happened to meet Ramakrishna at the house of a neighbour. Sri Ramakrishna had gone to Calcutta to the house of a devotee which was near Narendra's. Devotional songs were to be sung during Sri Ramakrishna's visit, but the singer failed to show up. The devotees invited Narendra, their neighbor, to fill the gap, knowing he excelled in both singing and playing musical instruments.

Thus came Narendra to the house of the devotee and sang one of the most touching songs in Bengali. This was their first meeting and Sri Ramakrishna was visibly moved by the sincerity and quality of Narendra's voice. He invited Naren to visit Dakshineswar at his earliest convenience.

As the days passed, Naren began to grow restless about the various riddles that religion presented to him. He particularly wanted to meet a person who could talk about God with the authority of personal experience. In November of 1881 Narendra went to Dakshineswar with some classmates. The second meeting betw the Guru and the disciple was even more eventful. Sri Ramakrishna treated Narendra not as a stranger but as as old friend. Commenting on this first visit Narendra said, "It was most unusual kind of meeting. I could not understand the peculiar behaviour of that 'mad, monomaniac Brahmin'. I was reluctant to visit him again, but his simplicity, genuine renunciation, and love for God pulled me again and again, despite protests of logic and reason." His skepticism and logical mind was not ready to accept the 'powers' manifested in Sri Ramakrishna. He thought that this 'simple insane' Brahmin might be playing tricks with others in the form of hypnotism or mesmerism. In fact Swami Vivekananda postponed his next visit to Dakshineswar for about six months, although he had promised Sri Ramakrishna to visit him soon.

Swami Vivekananda's inspiring personality was well known both in India and in America during the last decade of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth. The unknown monk of India suddenly leapt into fame at the Parliament of Religions held in Chicago in 1893, at which he represented Hinduism. His vast knowledge of Eastern and Western culture as well as his deep spiritual insight, fervid eloquence, brilliant conversation, broad human sympathy, colourful personality, and handsome figure made an irresistible appeal to the many types of Americans who came in contact with him. People who saw or heard Vivekananda even once cherished his memory even after a lapse of more than half a century.

Lets salute the giant today, on his birthday, who is regarded as the "Man who walked like an Incarnation of God".

One of his preachings....

"Wherever there are many, there is fear, there is danger, there is conflict, there is strife. When it is all One, who is there to hate, who is there to struggle with? When it is all He, with whom can you fight? This explains the true nature of life; this explains the true nature of being. This is perfection, and this is God. As long as you see the many, you are under delusion."

Swami Vivekananda
(January 12, 1863 - July 4, 1902)