Confused Soul

When I wrote my post about 'Kung Fu Panda', one of my friends suggested me to watch WALL-E as it was the best rated animation flick. I watched WALL-E very next day but waited to write this post till the release of WALL-E in India. Since WALL-E has been released in India last Friday, it's the perfect time for a post over it. This post may turn out as a comparison of WALL-E with Kung-Fu-Panda at times, so please bear with me.

Plot: Wall-E (short for Waste Allocation Lift Loader. Earth class) is the only one of his kind of robot left on earth after a botched attempt at trying to clean the earth that has been overrun with garbage. He developed a personality over 700 years, after humanity had deserted the planet for a "five-year" cruise in which they expected the multitude of Wall-E to clean and restore the planet to habitable conditions. One day, Eve(short for Extra-terrestrial Vegetation Evaluator), a sleek (and dangerous) reconnaissance robot, is sent to earth to find proof that life is once again sustainable. WALL-E falls in love with Eve. WALL-E rescues Eve from a dust storm and shows her a living plant he found amongst the rubble. Consistent with her "directive" Eve takes the plant and automatically enters a deactivated state except for a blinking green beacon. WALL-E, doesn't understand what has happened to his new friend, but true to his love, he protects her from wind, rain, and lightening, even as she is unresponsive. One day a massive ship comes to reclaim Eve, but WALL-E, out of love or loneliness hitches a ride on the outside of the ship to rescue Eve. The ship arrives back at a large space cruise ship, which is carrying all of the humans who evacuated earth 700 years earlier. The people of earth ride around this space resort on hovering chairs which give them a constant feed of TV and video chatting. They drink all of their meals through a straw out of laziness and/or bone loss, and are all so fat that they can barely move. When the auto-pilot computer, acting on hastily given instructions sent many centuries before, tries to prevent the people of earth from returning, by stealing the plant, WALL-E, Eve, the portly captain, and a band of broken robots stage a mutiny.

As far as the plot of movie(WALL.E) is concerned, it's amazing and may turn out to be true in late future. The direction and emotion emitted by the robots are just awesome. It's a perfect example of how action speaks louder than words. The protagonists of the movie are robots but the way they show their feeling to each other is just awesome, especially the love expressed by WALL-E to Eve, when he offers his beloved possessions to her. The way he protects Eve brings a smile on audience's face. Also the self repairing by WALL-E is great to see. It is easier for an human actor to show feelings but one should go only to Pixar to know how machines can express feelings. First half of movie is speechless except some mechanical sound by WALL.E and Eve but it is so well framed that audience are bound to watch every second of it. The movie is not only an animation but also it provides a message to save earth. I have never seen any animation flick with a message but this movie is a great work of animation with a message to mankind.

Look at this high quality trailer of WALL-E to get an idea about the movie and see a glimpse of a great animation work:


When I tried to compare WALL-E with Kung Fu Panda, I was just clueless. Both of these movies are a piece of excellence in itself. If there are hardly any word in WALL-E, a lot of chatting is a part of Panda. Kung-Fu-Panda is based on a Chinese story based of Kung-Fu while WALL-E is a nicely woven plat taking robots as protagonist. Both are awesome and must watch movies for animation lovers. I hope that such great work of animation will continue in future.

PS: I watched Kung-Fu-Panda again yesterday on my 32-inch LCD screen and loved it even more :)

Prologue: This is another copy-paste post from an email forward. I have got this mail a long-time back and found it a good read. It's not that I am agree to every word here but this was something which lighten my mood and I hope that you also agree to me. It may seem a piece of crap to you guys but at the same time it may also appear as a fact to some other people...

We want to find a reason for everything, a purpose for everything. We want to analyze and understand everything. People even try to understand their dreams. What is the use? Whatever dream you have had, so what? Whether you are sitting on horseback or on top of a train in your dream; whether you see a crow or a duck or a pigeon or swan or a mouse or a cat in your dream, what does it matter? Why do you waste so much time interpreting dreams, trying to know something about dreams? We call ourselves wise because we want to understand. We want to do something only if we get something out of it.

A fool is somebody who does something and doesn’t get anything out of it. Their foolish acts, even those you can interpret into meaning and purpose, you see they do them without any purpose, without any meaning.

Since childhood we have been told, “Don’t be a fool.” What is wrong with being a fool? What is wrong with standing alone, apart from the crowd? Let the crowd act however it wants. I stand apart from that. I act my way!

A fool is somebody who does something very unique, which is not accepted by others. All entertainment, including games, are foolish acts. Just think of a person from another planet, maybe Mars, comes here and sees a huge crowd watching a team of boys on this side and another team on that side, trying to fight for a ball and put it into a basket. It would appear absolutely funny! One ball in the middle, a team of boys here, trying to push it there, trying to push it that way. Why all this trouble? Why don’t they just take the ball and put it in the basket? What difference does it make whether they put it in this basket or that basket? It is so foolish, playing soccer, playing basketball. For hours together other people sit there, howling and yelling and clapping.

George Bernard Shaw said somewhere, “Cricket is a game where eleven fools play and eleven thousand watch.” It is true . All games are foolish acts. A game is a game because it is foolish. If you find meaning, purpose, aim and competition, you destroy the whole game.

If you are not foolish in your life for some time if possible all the time, if not possible, at least some time-you miss your life. You miss the joy in life. If somebody calls you a fool, how do you act? Your eyes become red. You start grinding your teeth! However, it is a great compliment. You should wait for such a compliment because this is very difficult to get. People may feel that you are a fool and they often don’t say it to you. If some people, with great courage, come and tell you that you are a fool, you should feel happy. The greatest problem for us is being a fool. We try not to be fool.

All our life we resist and fear arises in us. A fool is one who acts with freedom, who has all freedom, isn’t it? That is how he could be a fool. If somebody has not experienced freedom, he cannot be a fool. Freedom is behind every fool. God loves you being a fool. He doesn’t love wise men so much. He is bored of their philosophies. He is terribly bored by all the books written about Him.

Make the whole life a game. A game means there is no purpose, there is nothing. Just take it lightly, easily. Play the game. That is worship that is celebration. There is nothing that you do that will please God. There is nothing that you will do that will displease God. He is not waiting there with a staff, just waiting for you to do a mistake so He can punish you. Don?t have such cruel picture of God as someone who is judging, who is going to punish you if you do this or that. If He doesn’t want you to do something, you can never do it. It is impossible. The very fact that He has allowed you so much freedom to do anything you like, means He says, Don’t take anything seriously, it is all a game. It’s all like a dream!

Epilogue: I strongly disagree the last bold line. Instead, I firmly believe in the following quote by Eleanor Roosevelt:

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”

In this age of computers, how software is controlling the life of humans. Now a days, people rely on computer/softwares more than their own brain and while doing this they forget that a bug in the software can do a harm for lifetime. Unfortunately not only it can mess-up things but also it can't take a corrective actions. On the contrary, human brain can handle such situation very comfortably. Having softwares is good and eased one's life but can end up to a big disaster also.

Below is a presentation, which explains how software bugs can turn into disaster. It gives a visually appealing account of how software bugs have been the root cause behind many of the technology/scientific disasters (the context is US space exploration & other telecom /nuclear related mishaps).

These days, I'm facing a very high degree momo fever. let me tell those who are getting MOMO something else that momos are nothing but Nepalese/Tibetan dumplings. There was a time when I can't even look at someone eating momos and used to think that how can a half baked (read boiled/steamed) peace of floor with some stuffing pass one's throat. But once I started liking it, it becomes the most irresistible edible for me. Veg momos are just great and when the chatni with lots of chillies makes it awesome. In my opinion it's the chatni which makes it more tasty.

While writing this I am visualizing the plate full of momos and wishing that if law of attraction works. I hate those people who promise for momos to someone and then forget(This is intended) but loved the way when they come up with uncommitted momos. I wish that this momo fever never come down...

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray's deadline to shopkeepers in Mumbai to change signboards to Marathi ends on Thursday. This diktat changed the look of Mumbai completely. Several shops in Mumbai have changed their signboards after Raj Thackeray's notice. Thackeray had warned shop owners that if they do not comply with the diktat of putting up Marathi boards by Thursday, they must get ready to face the wrath of his men.

Have a look at the below pictures and get a feel that how the new MAHARASHTRIAN MUMBAI looks like:


Courtesy: IBN Live

Yesterday, I got a mail from one of my friends about new fraud strategy at Shamshabad airport, Hyderabad. I am putting it here to bring in your kind notice and also to save you from such cheaters.

About 4-5 days back, my friend went to the Shamshabad airport to pick up his dad. As usual the drive in the morning was pleasing and the approach to the airport fascinating. But to his utter surprise as soon as he was about to take his car in the arrivals section, he was stopped by the security guard who was posted at a blockage barricade just before the fork between the roads leading to the arrivals and the departure alleys of the airport. To his surprise he was instructed to turn right and go via a rounding road along the parking lot. Unsuspecting, and believing that this was probably just a diversion for some maintenance work, he complied, just to reach his second surprise.

As he made the right and moved forward he was greeted by the parking ticket machine. Now slightly confused (and in a hurry to pick up his father) he took the ticket and entered the rounding road leading to the arrivals bay. Just as he was about to leave the parking lot, he was stopped at the parking payment plaza and asked for 30/-. That is the time things became clear to him of how he was being duped. On arguing with the booth person over how he was instructed by the guard to take the diversion and now he was being forced to pay for the parking which he never used, a simple explanation given to him was that it is not in their hands as a ticket has been issued and the price for it is 30/-. Things got really bad and he was really infuriated. After much hustle and after standing there for about 15 min. and arguing, he blew them off, paid the money and went straight to the airport authority (GMR) counter.

Now is when the interesting thing happened. he was told by the concerned people that there is not supposed to be any such barricade, and everybody is free to bring their cars in the arrival bays, without any diversions. That is when he totally lost it, he really shouted at the people, filed a complaint and even threatened them of filing an RTI case against them. That is when they apologized and assured him that action would be taken.

So he would like to request everybody who is visiting to the airport to be very careful and not be cheated by the damn security guards or the parking people. They DO NOT have any authority to stop you from entering the arrivals bay. Make sure you pass this information to anybody you know who might be visiting the airport and who might be currently being cheated out of their money.

I hope we are able to bring the culprits to justice.

PS: Thanks Salil, Manish to share it.

Yesterday, Abhinav and I were in office restroom and no one else was there. There are 7-8 urinals in our office restroom and we occupied urinals at a gap of around 4 urinals between us. Suddenly inquisitive Abhinav started a conversation about restroom etiquettes. We both were discussing that no two persons should occupy adjacent urinals in restroom and to our surprise just then one person came and took the exact middle urinal between us. So this theory was being strengthened but just after that Neeraj and Mr.X stepped in, took adjacent urinals and started talking so loud... now what else to say...

After then I researched and found some informative/funny videos for that... The first one is particularly for taking adjacent urinals and the other one is for complete male restroom etiquettes. If you go to youtube and read comments below second video clip, it would be fun. Please read comments specially those from ladies, I'm copying some comments from below the video, have fun reading those ?



Complete Male Restroom Etiquettes:


Some Comments:

• wow being a girl, this is definitely not the same with us. lol we talk and talk and this is definitely not going to end the world.
• LMFAO!! This is soooo freaking funny!!!!! Wow... girls openly talk when in the washroom... we'll even ask them to pass some toilet paper if we're out...
• they should have a book on this people should abide by these rules im talking to u! people who stare when standing next to me!!!
• When only one urinal is available, I usually stand back and arc into the urinal from about six feet back. This provides the necessary symmetry. When all are unoccupied, I stand in the same place, but spray evenly back and forth. When there is a line, it is acceptable to use ONE of the sinks as a urinal.
• ok you know how you NEED to stare straight forward the whole time? we'll I was in a bathroom that had polished metal tiles by the urinals the were like mirrors.we need a rule book for the construction of restroom.

Some days back, I was traveling with Delhi Metro from 'Vishwa Vidyalaya' to 'Indraprastha'. In my way near Indraprastha metro station, there came WHO building and I was surprised to see that behind this building there is one of the largest slum of NCR. Attach is a screen shot taken from Wikimapia.
I was shocked that an organization, which is supposed to be the biggest caretaker of people's health, is carrying a big slum with it. An agency, whose objective is the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health, is not able to see the developing insalubrious condition of all age groups. If this agency can't take care of its own surroundings, how can it make people believe on it?

Let's hope that WHO will do something for the health of people in this slum and not only in this slum but also in other slums all over the world.

I was driving to Ghaziabad station to receive my parents today morning. As everyone knows that today is India's Independence day and you can listen to the Jana Gana Mana every where on TV and Radio, specially after the flag hoisting ceremony.

For those who don't know, 'Jana Gana Mana' is India's national anthem and we Indians always stand up when it is played anywhere in order to show respect to our Country. Unfortunately, when I was driving to the station, it was the time of the flag hoisting ceremony and I was listening to the speech of our hon'ble prime Minister. Just as the speech lasted, Jana Gana Mana was played. Since I was on NH-24 in full speed, I couldn't stand up at that time. This didn't make any effect on anyone under the sun but I felt guilty by heart and I am writing this post only to confess.

Please forgive me Mother India...

Today is India's 61st Independence day and every true Indian is happy and celebrating it with his heart. But here are some questions which came into my mind and forced me to think a little inside...

Yesterday night, I set my status message on Gtalk as "Happy B'day India, celebrating 61 years of independence...". One of my friends from Peru pinged me and congratulated me on India's 61st independence day. Alone with this, she asked that how I am/We are celebrating this and this put me in deep thinking. Is hoisting flag at your office/home enough to celebrate this occasion? Or having a competition to wear traditional Indian wear in office for a day is enough? Or changing your status message/display name for one day is enough? No it's not, at least in my opinion. If you are true to your country's independence then every breathing moment in open air of your country should be a celebration of independence for you. Some may argue that celebrating this occasion with above methods gives you at least some sense of the specialty of the moment but doing only this is not enough. Celebration should mean to spread happiness in your surroundings and independence means equality to everyone. I am not against celebration in any manner but why not extend these celebrations through the year and sense the independence of you and your country in every living moment.

When Federer lost Wimbledon title to Nadal some time back, one of my colleagues set a status message on his G-talk as "FED is EX". That time I thought that Nadal is a very good player and Federer lost this match after 65 consecutive victories on grass court. I thought of writing a blog post after ongoing Olympics in which I was sure that Federer would turn out as a winner. But since then he is not playing well and his loss to US no. 1, James Blake, seals this.

After loosing Wimbledon, Federere retained his No. 1 ranking. But he lost the No. 1 ranking on August 18th after early exits in his next two tournaments. At the 'Rogers Cup' in Toronto, Canada, Federer received a first round bye and then lost in the second round. He also lost to Ivo Karlovic at the 'Cincinnati Masters', ending his hope to defend his title.

Now you guys decide: is this great player come to an end? Is Federer era ending? Is Nadal all set to replace Federer and writing history? Whatever the future is, one thing to say that Federer is an all time great player and he has raised the standard to be world no. 1 and mor importantly retaining that position.

I found this Ad in Economic Times today and found it quite humorous to share with you guys...

This post is to salute Abhinav Bindra to earn a gold medal in Olympics 2008 for India in 10 meters air rifle event. He made India proud and ended the 28 year drought of gold in Olympics for India. He won India's first individual gold medal in Olympics. Before his feat, India had won eight gold medals in hockey, six of them at successive Games, three silver medals (two in athletics and one in hockey) and five bronze medals from the Olympics.

Here are some more images of Indian Hero...

I found a great presentation on male vs female thinking. I am embedding it below to share with everyone.

Abortion

Look at the above presentation and you will get to know what I'm going to talk about. It's about the much hyped case of Mehtas who want to abort their 6 month old fetus because the baby will be born with a terminal illness. By looking at this presentation you may think that I'm going to advocate the decision of the court. No, I am playing neither for Mehtas nor against them. It's an open question what one should do in such case and how the court listen to this.

NOTE: This is to be cleared that court didn't know about the clerical error as admitted by hospital later. In its first report, the hospital had said that there "are very fair chances" that Niketa Mehta's child would be born incapacitated and handicapped. They meant to say there "there are very few chances" according to Dr Subnis.

Let me ask you guys how many of you want an incapacitated baby. Raise your hands if you like to have a baby who is to be put on respirator just after its birth. Having babies are always good but ask those parents whose babies are suffering from any fatal disease. Their baby may die or may survive but those parents die every minute until the baby is declared out of danger. So getting a baby who has very rare chances of survival is correct or not especially for those parents who can't afford the cost of treatment.

According to rules in India, you can't get abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy. An embryo converts into fetus much before than 20 weeks so shouldn't be allowed to get an abortion before 20 weeks also. In many countries you can get an abortion if either mother's or baby's life is in danger. Finally Mehtas have to give birth to their child. Let's pray for good health of baby and mother.

For a list of abortion rules around the world, click here.

Just in a mood to listen "Please forgive me" from Bryan Adams again and again. Posting a video of this song and the lyrics for no apparent reason :)

Still feels like our first night together
Feels like the first kiss
It's getting better baby
No one can better this
Still holding on, you're still the one
First time our eyes met
Same feeling I get
Only feels much stronger
Wanna love you longer
You still turn the fire on

So if you're feelin' lonely don't
You're the only one I ever want
I only wanna make it good
So if I love you a little more than I should

Please forgive me I know not what I do
Please forgive me I can't stop loving you
Don't deny me this pain I'm going through
Please forgive me I need you like I do
Please believe me every word I say is true
Please forgive me I can't stop loving you

Still feels like our best times are together
Feels like the first touch
Still getting closer baby
Can't get close enough
Still holding on you're still number one
I remember the smell of your skin
I remember everything
I remember all your moves
I remember you, yeah
I remember the nights, you know i still do

So if you're feeling lonely don't
You're the only one I ever want
I only want to make it good
So if I love you a little more than I should

Please forgive me I know not what I do
Please forgive me I can't stop loving you
Don't deny me this pain I'm going through
Please forgive me I need you like I do
Yeah, believe me every word I say is true
Please forgive me I can't stop loving you

The one thing I'm sure of, is the way we made love
The one thing I depend on, is for us to stay strong
With every word and every breath I'm prayin', it's why I'm saying
Please forgive me I know not what I do
Please forgive me I can't stop loving you
Don't deny me this pain I'm going through
Please forgive me if I need you like I do
Babe, believe me every word I say is true
Please forgive me if I can't stop lovin' you
Yeah, believe me I don't know what I do
Please forgive me if I can't stop loving you
Can't stop loving you

I found this article on Digital Inspiration and found that it may be very useful for all fellow bloggers. At least this article taught me a lot about image formats for my blog.

The quality of screenshot images and illustrations used on your website can make a difference.

You may use the good-old Print Screen key or any of the professional screen capture tools to grab your desktop but the basic requirement remains same - the output image should be sharp and that the file size be well within a reasonable limit.

Now PNG, JPG and GIF are the three most popular image formats for sharing screen captures on the web. Of course there’s another format called BMP but people rarely use that for obvious reasons.

Text & Clipart - If you are capturing text (like a block of source code or Google search pages or a navigation menu), always use GIF or the PNG format - the screenshots are clear and file size remains pretty low.

Regular Desktop Windows - If you need to screen capture a regular window on your screen, dialog boxes, Windows Explorer, DOS command prompt window, Google Maps or even splash screens - use the PNG format.

The advantage with PNG is that it preserves all the colors and yield a much sharper output when compared with JPG. See this Photoshop splash screen for a comparison between JPEG and PNG quality.

Videos & Photographs - If you doing a still image screenshot of a video (YouTube Flash video player), Google Earth, video games, Flash animations, desktop wallpapers or photographs (like Flickr) - always go with JPG instead of PNG because the image file size would be smaller without much degradation in the quality.

To give you example, this Wall Strip video on YouTube would take around 92kb when saved in PNG format but that would fall to 20kb if we changed the format from PNG to JPG. Surprisingly, there isn’t any remarkable difference in quality.

Source:'Delhi Times', a supplement with 'The Times of India'
Date: Tuesday, March 5, 2008
Article link

I was very excited about new iPhone 3G and was all set to purchase it. One of my friends is in US these days on an official trip and I asked him to get me one. I was very happy that I will own an iPhone very soon. But what all I got to know was nothing but sad. This time, Two-year contract from AT&T is required to get an iPhone 3G and this contract is all set to make iPhone users bankrupt. In the initial version of iPhone, no such contract was mandatory and anybody could easily get an iPhone without AT&T contract. Aware of various softwares used for unlocking iPhones , Apple and AT&T this took this step. This step has shattered dreams of many to get an iPhone and I am one of those :(

Though iPhone is much cheaper this time than its initial version this contract made it out of reach of many probable customers. IPhone 3G costs $199 for *GB (Black) and $299 for 16GB (Black/white). In addition to this let's have a look at AT&T different plans for 3G iPhone:

Despite these expensive plans, there is no fall in demand of new iPhone and there is a huge wating on iPhone delivery after purchasing. There are versions available to have an iPhone without AT&T contract but those are too expensive. If you want to use the iPhone with your own mobile provider all you have to do is pay the price of an unsubsidized iPhone. You can purchase the iPhone 3G without a contract. How much will the iPhones cost. The 8GB is available for $599 and the 16GB will be available for $699.

Also despite the best efforts of Apple and AT&T, it appears that the latest version of the iPhone has been unlocked via the same method as used on the original iPhone. To know how, please follow this link.

If anyone knows, Please let me know the way to get an iPhone-3G without AT&T contract and that too on subsidized price.

Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first man-made object to orbit the Earth, on October 4, 1957. The surprise launch of Sputnik 1, coupled with the spectacular failure of the United States' first two Project Vanguard launch attempts, shocked the United States, which responded with the creation of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on July29, 1958. With the Soviet Union's launch of Yuri Gagarin in April 1961, and driven by Kennedy's challenge, this Space Race took pace and John Kennedy, America’s president at the time, responded to Gagarin’s flight by saying that an American should go to the moon by the end of the decade. In response, the United States launched its own astronauts in capsules with the mythical names of Mercury, Gemini and Apollo.

Here is a nice flashback on the achievements and failures of NASA. For reading full article with videos please click here.

1961: KENNEDY MAKES MOON PLEDGE
President John F Kennedy called for millions of dollars to fund a space programme to get the first man on the Moon by 1970. In his 1961 State of the Union address to Congress, he asked for an extra $1,700m (£600m) on the federal budget. In September 1962, Kennedy made a further speech in which he spoke of wanting to further his space ambitions "not because they are easy, but because they are hard".

1969: ARMSTRONG TAKES 'ONE SMALL STEP'
American astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the Moon on 21 July 1969. Armstrong and his partner Buzz Aldrin spent 21 hours on the lunar surface after Apollo 11's landing craft touched down.

1975: SPACE RACE RIVALS MEET IN ORBIT
The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project in July 1975 was the first joint flight by the American and Soviet Cold War enemies. A US module carrying three astronauts successfully docked with a Soyuz capsule carrying two cosmonauts in orbit, and signalled the end to the "space race".

1981: FIRST SHUTTLE FLIGHT
The space shuttle Columbia made history when it launched from Cape Canaveral on 12 April 1981. It was the first of the winged, reusable craft to be used by Nasa as the US sought a departure from the capsules of the 1960s and 70s.

1986: CHALLENGER SHUTTLE DISASTER
Seven astronauts died when the space shuttle Challenger exploded just over a minute after take-off. The astronauts' families and millions of Americans witnessed the world's worst space disaster live on TV.

1990: HUBBLE "EYE IN THE SKY"
The giant Hubble Space Telescope was delivered into orbit by the shuttle Discovery in April 1990. Although dogged by early technical problems, repairs and upgrades resulted in stunning images of deep space.

2004: BUSH'S NEW MOON PLAN
The US will send astronauts back to the Moon by 2020, President George W Bush announced in 2004. In a speech about Nasa's future, the president also unveiled plans for a manned mission to Mars.

2008: PHOENIX LANDS ON MARS
Nasa's Phoenix lander sent back historic first pictures of an unexplored region of Mars in May 2008. The probe had survived a fiery plunge through the planet's thin atmosphere following its 680-million-km (420-million-mile) journey from Earth.

A nice slide show explaining NASA's 50 years can be found here. For a complete write-up on NASA's 50th anniversary by Steven J. Dick, NASA Chief Historian, please click here.

What do you think - Googlers are smarter than ex-Googlers or vice versa. If you think that ex-Googlers are, your days of using Google as your default search engine are over. What is new and better now a days is CUIL. Cuil(an old Irish word for knowledge pronounced as "cool") is all the buzz since its launch the day before yesterday. It's a new and purportedly "better" search engine started by ex-Googlers.

Cuil claims that it searches more pages on the Web than anyone else—three times as many as Google and ten times as many as Microsoft. It may be, but my initial few searches showed that it has a smaller database than Google and also the page ranking algorithms are not as good as Goolge. But really Cuil is a very fast search engine and very cool (as it is pronouced).

It gives you certain widget and result organization is also very good. I do like the look of the results pages, if only because they are a welcome change from the usual style of results pages on Google and other commonly used search engines. Instead of usual text results it gives you a feel of the actual link, a small screen shot of each search result. (have a look at the screen capture of results of searching Adobe). There also offers tabs that organized the results and the neat "Explore by category" widget on the right, something very similar to an old search engine called CLUSTY. You can also arrange your results in 2 coloumns or 3 coloumns.

Let's have a look at complete feature list offered by Cuil:

Drilldown: “Explore By Category” widget with a list of subjects related to your search. If you roll-over a category, it will open and show refinements related to your search.

Roll-over definitions: Really nice. When you pause on a subject suggested by “Explore By Category,” a definition of that term may appear. This gives you additional information to help you decide whether or not to click on that term and so save you some time.

Tabs: Cuil helps you to search by offering you other choices and suggestions. Cuil will show you “Tabs” that suggest ways to clarify your search.

Navigation suggestion: When you type a query, sometimes you'll see a search suggestion with an icon representing a website. Click on this link and you will go directly to that website.

Their claim of bigger database still needs to be verified. When I searched for my blog "akashthoughts.blogspot.com", cuil gave no results while google produced 3 pages. Same thing happened for many other searches. But I read at many places that it gave more results than google for many users.