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Hi! I’m Brazilian! Would you tell me who Bharat Bandh is and what he did?” I was amused to see this tweet. Just as I got over this to realise the innocence that followed, my friend Tinu Cherian gave the Brazilian a quick explanation. “He is the most useless Indian, but loved by our political parties,” Tinu tweeted.
Bharat Bandh being on the top 10 trends on Twitter is a feat which is a first for any Indian topic. For the uninitiated, Twitter trends are an outcome of tweet scans posted by millions throughout the day. Words being talked about most are classified as trends. There have been many instances when Indian topics have been trending. But they have always been people as against an event and never topping the trend list.
“Sachin is God,” on the cricketer hitting a double century was trending for quite some time. World-wide topics such as World Cup and Wimbledon were perpetual trending topics this season. The bandh had actually proved to be more popular than even God Bless America, which coincided with the US Independence Day on July 4, and Last Airbender, the latest film of Indian-origin Hollywood director Manoj Night Shyamalan.
According to trendsmap, a software that maps trends geographically, the majority of the tweets on the shutdown were from Mumbai, followed by Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata and Chennai. From reports on the status of the strike in their area to sharing jokes, and giving views on this method of protest, Twitter was buzzing.
“(L K) Advani, (Nitin) Gadkari, Lalu (Prasad), Mulayam (Singh Yadav), Prakash Karat should join Twitter because Bharat Bandh is getting more success on Twitter,” someone tweeted. I agree. They would have been happier with the the success of their objective of drawing public attention.
Maybe they too would have tweeted, “I am courting arrest at Jantar Mantar or Andheri station.” Or, might actually deploy their men on to the streets after reading tweets like, “Bharat Bandh. Reached office in a record time of 25 minutes. Didn’t see any blockades en route. Unusual.”
L K Advani’s statement, “Even we do not claim prices will come down due to Bharat Bandh. The solution lies with the government. Unfortunately, there is no indication the government has a solution.” This could well have been a tweet.
A postmortem of the word ‘bandh’ was also done. “Originally, a Hindi word meaning closed, bandh is a form of protest used by political activists in India and Nepal. During a bandh, a party or a community declares a general strike,” someone tweeted. So, while tweeting was big at 12 tweets per minute, no tweeple were not ready to observe a bandh.

Article by Aditya Anand , Mid-day , 08 July 2010
http://www.mid-day.com/opinion/2010/jul/080710-Bharat-Bandh-useless-Indian-Opinion.htm

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On March 5,2010, twitter had crossed 10 billion tweets ( update message from its users). It crossed 1 Billion tweets in November 2008 and 5 Billion tweets in October 2009.  If it took around 11 months to leap from 1 Billion to 5 Billion, it needed just another 4 months for the next 5 Billion tweets to reach 10 billion in total.

I had predicated then that twitter will reach the next milestone in less than 5 months. Today , 31 July 2010, 9:18 PM IST, twitter crossed the next milestone of 20 billion tweets, according to the website, Gigatweet counter.

The 20 billionth tweet was made by a Japanese twitter user @GGGGGGo_Lets_Go , a graphic designer in Tokyo who works at an advertising agency.

Babel fish translated it as “@OJAL_jp whether it comes quietly at amount and after shot in rapid succession,… w

“It looks like I posted the 20 billionth tweet. I’m getting replies from people all over the world. It’s scary. What are the chances? Maybe I’m going to die. Is it more amazing than winning the lottery? I thought it was a joke,” he said later (Translation according to computerworld)  in another tweet.

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It’s common enough for night owls to be confronted by cops on duty. But now, youngsters are faced with a new problem — fake policemen! Those without uniform claim to be plainclothesmen in mufti while others go to the extent of getting khakis and even fake ID cards. Among the recent exploits of these conmen, are theft of vehicles and jewellery and extortion.

One such ‘cop’, 23-year-old Mahesh Gowda was apprehended recently. Mahesh and his associates used to flag down vehicles citing traffic rule violations. Masquerading as Central Crime Branch constables, they got into the vehicle, left the driver on the outskirts of the city and drove away. In fact, one incident took place right in front of RT Nagar Traffic Police Station.

The sheer audacity of these men is shocking, as they con people in broad daylight too. Two women, Anasuya and Padmaja learned that the hard way when two men claiming to be policemen in mufti made away with their jewellery worth Rs 3 lakh. The ‘cops’ approached them as they were leaving a marriage hall and asked them to remove their jewellery and put in in a bag there had been a robbery in the area. By the time the women realised their mistake, it was too late.

Other cases include that of pick-up boy Sampath Kumar, who was picked up by two ‘policemen’ on the pretext of an enquiry and forced into a vehicle. The men then robbed him of his mobile and Rs 1,000 cash.

Software professionals seem to be a soft target for these conmen. As engineer Tinu Cherian points out, “Most employees in software firms are from other parts of the country, so they don’t live here with their families, nor do they speak the local language. Also, people have the misconception that all techies are rich so naturally we are a soft target.” After more than one or two such incidents happened to his colleagues who were returning home late at night, the company issued instructions to all employees, informing them about the modus operandi of these conmen. “Now, we all have stored the numbers of our company security officers as well as the Cheetah police on night patrol,” he says, adding, “In India, we don’t question the police. I am afraid to ask a cop for identification because I don’t know how he will react. But with such incidents taking place, we need to know the real ones from the fakes.”

“Often, the victims are under the impression that they are on the wrong side of the law,” points out independent filmmaker Hrish Thota, whose colleagues were harassed by a ‘cop’ who claimed that they were driving rashly.

But, it is women who need to be most cautious. Says student Keerthi C, “My friend and I were walking home after a late dinner when we were pulled up by a ‘cop’ in plain clothes. We saw him ‘patrolling’ the area and talking to other traffic cops, so we believed he was one of them. Only after he divested us of Rs 250 did we find out he was a conman. We were lucky he didn’t harm us.”

Article by Tenzin Dechen , Deccan Chronicle 30June2010
http://www.deccanchronicle.com/tabloids/beware-%E2%80%98con%E2%80%99stable-911
http://www.dc-epaper.com/DC/DCB/2010/06/30/INDEX.SHTML?ArtId=105_003&Search=Y

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After the God of cricket, Sachin Tendulkar (@sachin_rt), joining twitter, here comes another living legend, the Paa of Bollywood , the Big B- Amitabh Bachchan as @SrBachchan , to the most popular social networking website.  His first tweet was addressed to his own son, Abhishek Bachchan aka @juniorbachchan.  Big B tweets as follows ” @juniorbachchan hey baby !! I made it on twitter !!! Yeeaaaaaahhhh !! … sorry.. just got carried away .. safe onward flight and love” ( 18 May 2010 , 11:02 AM IST)

His twitter handle must have been inspired by Abhishek Bachchan’s @juniorbachchan and most probably, it must be Abhishek who urged him to join the networking site.

Media man @PritishNandy was one of the first celebrities  to confirm BigB’s arrival “@SrBachchan Arrey, when we met last evening you never mentioned you were coming on twitter! Welcome. This is the place to be.”

The Junior Bachchan announces later ” Ladies and gentlemen. HE IS HERE!!!” and he tweets furtherBigB in da house!!!! @srbachchan welcome Pa. Show him the love tweeps!!

This is not the first time BigB on  a social networking site. He  himself blogs at bigb.bigadda.com regularly.

And there begins the mad race of tweeps following the Senior Bachchan on twitter ! The account is not verified yet but tweeps trusts the confirmation from the other known celebrities on twitter.

Thanks to Mid-day reporter Aditya Anand for sharing with me this news of BigB joining twitter.

To follow Amitabh Bachchan on Twitter, head straight to the link  http://twitter.com/srbachchan and click “follow” !

Update@ 18:27 PM : After @juniorbachchan, Big B follows @sachin_rt and tweets@sachin_rt Sachin !! a delight to connect to you. Are you out of the water yet ? lifebelts and all !! have fun

Update May 22, 2010 : The account is now “verified” by twitter.

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Wikipedia, (en.wikipedia.org) the world’s favorite online encyclopedia, gets a new look from today, May 13, 2010 , 8:00 AM UTC. The major changes include vector user skin by default, improved navigation for reading & editing pages, a link wizard that simplifies addition of links to external sites & other wiki pages, search improvements etc.

The new design is a part of the usability initiative, started more than a year ago in April 2009 and was being tested in other Wikimedia projects like Wiki news and Wikipedia Commons. Earlier, in Dec 2008, Wikimedia had received an $890K grant from the Stanton Foundation to fund a team of developers and a project manager to examine and ultimately improve usability for the wiki editing interface for Wikipedia and all of Wikimedia’s projects. The recent new interface launch on the sister project, Wikpedia Commons, was retained by over 90% of the project contributors and this is now rolled out to the most famous Wikimedia project, the English Wikipedia. The new vector skin now replaced the previously default Monobook style. The new interface will soon cascade to other language wikipedias in the next few weeks.

So what’s new on Wikipedia?

Look and feel: The vector theme will now replace the default Monobook skin. But if you prefer the legacy interface, you can click on the “Take me back” link on the top of the page, to return to the old interface.

Wikipedia new Title Bar

Navigation: Now the tabs on the top of the page will more clearly define whether you are reading or editing the page. The collapsible navigation on the left sidebar hides the items that aren’t used often.
Editing Improvements: Formating pages is now simpler. A new table wizard helps to create tables easier. A new “Find and Replace’’ feature is also introduced.
Search improvements: The search text box is now moved from left sidebar to the top right side of the page. The improved search suggestions will help the user to get to the seeking page faster.
Pediapress book creator: Helps you to convert Wikipedia articles into a PDF or open document.
Updated puzzle globe and wordmark: The world famous Wikipedia globe and wordmark is now enhanced. Wikimedia has introduced Linux Libertine, an open source typeface to help support the creation of hundreds of localized Wikipedia wordmarks, and the internationally-recognized puzzle globe has been recreated in 3D and includes even more languages.

Will I retain the new interface?

I did personally like the new interface which is simple and clean, but there are few things that irritate me, especially the lack of support of the existing JavaScripts. As an advanced editor and admin, I use them heavily.
It will take some time for me to adjust to the arbitrary relocation of the search field to the top right of the page. My eyes will still be searching for the old search box on the left sidebar. But top of the page is a standard location for search boxes in most websites and hence it is sill Ok. But till I get back support of my javascripts, I think I will stay with the classic monobook theme.
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