Zap!!
Lately I've been interested in more niche types of non-mainstream music. If you would like to know about some of the interesting music I have found feel free to IM me. I like B i s h o p A l l e n ' s work these days, particularly their song Busted Heart (you can download it at their website!). You can look at the current music part of my entries for some other ideas if you don't feel like talking to me, also.
A n o t h e r thing.
Today I saw the movie Hum Tum, an Indian film (as can be inferred from the title) selected by my parents as always. Unlike Main Hoon Na, I thought this was a respectable movie. Its a romantic comedy, as most Indian movies tend to be, but I think it was done well and wasn't irrational as some Hindi films are. The story line was interesting, the songs were directed well (the dancing wasn't anything special, but the choreography wasn't bad either) and I thought the acting was fairly good throughout the film. Also, Rani Mukherji doesn't hurt the film at all. Though some of my peers don't seem to find her that great, I think she's better than average and sometimes better than Aishwarya Rai (current queen of Bollywood). She's probably a better actress than Amrita Rao, but I still think Rao is better... for other reasons...
Time for a r a n t !!!!
Not much in this world is free. I think most of us can agree on that. Then why assume the same is true for services on the internet. For example, some shareware programs have piggy-back programs such as Gator software, which is pretty much spyware and adware. Most internet-saavy know this already I'm sure. But what about services online such as IMChaos? IMChaos allows people do a variety of instant messenger related things, such as the subprofiles, quizzes, and a list of people who click on certain links. It was this last function that caught my eye. Via an associate who mistakingly put in the administrators link into her away message, I was able to see the information they see: not just the screen name, but also IP address and location of the person clicking on the link. This of course immediately got my hackles up. I'm not the paranoid type usually but I know when my privacy is being invaded. I'm sure on the privacy policy people see when signing up for this thing (if there is a privacy policy and they even care/bother to look), the company specifies information of the IMChaos user won't be sold or used for any nefarious purposes, but I'm equally certain that they don't include any stipulations about the privacy of the hapless "buddies" that innocently click the links. In the span of a few moments I was able to infer one really unscrupulous usage: those IM advertisements. I'm sure many of you have gotten these messages which go along the lines of: "Hi! I'm Jenny and me and my co-ed roommates just got a new Webcam! Want to chat with us :) CLICK HERE". They are very annoying and have actually resulted in one of my friends actually changing her screen name due to the harassment!. I had wondered where they got the screen name from since it would probably take a long time to randomly generate sequences of numbers and letters to get a correct and active screen name (mine is 9 characters long!), and after I saw IMChaos tidbit, everything started to click. The point is: I will never click a link with an IMChaos url (if you hover your mouse over a link, you can usually see the http:// address [url] for the link). I urge anyone that reads this to stop using IMChaos, if you do. It's a for-profit company that is sneaky. How do you think they pay the bills and can stay in business? Why not just put the direct link into your profile? You needn't be so insecure as to require to know how many people and who exactly clicks on your links. That's my story.
A n o t h e r thing.
Today I saw the movie Hum Tum, an Indian film (as can be inferred from the title) selected by my parents as always. Unlike Main Hoon Na, I thought this was a respectable movie. Its a romantic comedy, as most Indian movies tend to be, but I think it was done well and wasn't irrational as some Hindi films are. The story line was interesting, the songs were directed well (the dancing wasn't anything special, but the choreography wasn't bad either) and I thought the acting was fairly good throughout the film. Also, Rani Mukherji doesn't hurt the film at all. Though some of my peers don't seem to find her that great, I think she's better than average and sometimes better than Aishwarya Rai (current queen of Bollywood). She's probably a better actress than Amrita Rao, but I still think Rao is better... for other reasons...
Time for a r a n t !!!!
Not much in this world is free. I think most of us can agree on that. Then why assume the same is true for services on the internet. For example, some shareware programs have piggy-back programs such as Gator software, which is pretty much spyware and adware. Most internet-saavy know this already I'm sure. But what about services online such as IMChaos? IMChaos allows people do a variety of instant messenger related things, such as the subprofiles, quizzes, and a list of people who click on certain links. It was this last function that caught my eye. Via an associate who mistakingly put in the administrators link into her away message, I was able to see the information they see: not just the screen name, but also IP address and location of the person clicking on the link. This of course immediately got my hackles up. I'm not the paranoid type usually but I know when my privacy is being invaded. I'm sure on the privacy policy people see when signing up for this thing (if there is a privacy policy and they even care/bother to look), the company specifies information of the IMChaos user won't be sold or used for any nefarious purposes, but I'm equally certain that they don't include any stipulations about the privacy of the hapless "buddies" that innocently click the links. In the span of a few moments I was able to infer one really unscrupulous usage: those IM advertisements. I'm sure many of you have gotten these messages which go along the lines of: "Hi! I'm Jenny and me and my co-ed roommates just got a new Webcam! Want to chat with us :) CLICK HERE". They are very annoying and have actually resulted in one of my friends actually changing her screen name due to the harassment!. I had wondered where they got the screen name from since it would probably take a long time to randomly generate sequences of numbers and letters to get a correct and active screen name (mine is 9 characters long!), and after I saw IMChaos tidbit, everything started to click. The point is: I will never click a link with an IMChaos url (if you hover your mouse over a link, you can usually see the http:// address [url] for the link). I urge anyone that reads this to stop using IMChaos, if you do. It's a for-profit company that is sneaky. How do you think they pay the bills and can stay in business? Why not just put the direct link into your profile? You needn't be so insecure as to require to know how many people and who exactly clicks on your links. That's my story.