Safari 3.0.2

Have been trying the new Safari beta for a week or so now...and the thoughts are mixed. If you are coming from IE 6/7, you may just love it, but if you are a Firefox addict anywhere close to me, you may be in for a slight disappointment. Let's see what I found...

New: snapback...ultra cool...and how thoughtful..when you do your next google, try safari..you don't need to track your search results page by going fwd or back..when u do a web search using your the standard search box..the results page is marked as a snapback page..so no matter how deep you have hyperlinked your way thru..you can get back to the search results in a single click...way to show...

Good:

Looks: the typical Apple looks more like QuickTime and iTunes...none of which are much to my liking, crisp toolbars and uncluttered buttons, the lack of lines separating the menu bars, the tool bars, the address bar, all merging onto one. the smallish status bar is cool, and you will not notice it unless you want to. All this translates to more area assigned to the web page and although it does not have an F11, I hardly needed it. that's where it scores over FF, but then even IE does better than FF in this department. the address bar doubles up as the page download status bar as well..and thats really cool..

Speed: Compares to and scores over FF in browsing speeds. Download speed is more or less the same.

stabilty - hasnt crashed yet...but then I havent used it so much..I forced it to crash..half expecting FF's restore session or something similar..but was disappointed..but then..it didnt crash..

Bad:

Navigation: No good shortcut keys, thats where FF is damn good, so I need to use my mouse all the time, a big pain in my fingers :( there is no ctrl+tab..the equivalent is ctrl + } or ctrl + {..so u gotta press shift as well..and that's a pain...

When you type in something in the address bar..and you get some matching choices to show up, you can't edit them as in FF..that's something which I don't do often, so it's not a major inconvenience..

Search: Defaults only to yahoo and google searches, no wiki, no answers.com..but hey, it's just a beta

bookmarks: the default install comes with hundreds of bookmarks: yahoo, NY times, and all the usual yankee crap..but its bookmark management is not that intuitive, like FF or IE; know what I mean..but honestly, I haven't tried enough yet..and yeah, it imports your FF/Mozilla/IE stuff by default. but there lies a catch. I want a central bookmark repository, not one for IE, one for FF and one for SF(Safari); and none of them has this feature. So I have to keep importing 3C2 times all the time :P. It also doesn't have the 'open in tabs' feature from FF..and that's another cool thing amiss here..

scrollbars: they are a real pain..esp with orkut, somehow it does not wrap up everything and I have to scroll an inch horzontally everytime.. I call this a pita(pain in the @$$)...

blogging...good...I am typing this in SF, there is a marked difference between this and FF as I can see how much I have written. Let me confess my laptop has a small screen, and I use a small resolution of 1024 x 768. It is so much better than FF, where I would use F11 all the time..again, for all its good stuff..the Devanagari transliteration is screwed big time..FF does a wonderful job when it comes to showing Devanagari fonts..SF has some homework to do..first up, it messes up with the इ and ई symbols...and moves them around the consonants...so not much fun there...it also screws up the mixed consonants and although you cn read it, it's an eyesore..but wattheheck..it's a beta..I just hope they fix it..sooner the better...

Advanced web features: Not that great with custom UI..php and js things...some things that are expected didn't show up. not sure how good it is at running applets..but then who has designed web apps keeping safari in mind..it's not going to hurt anyone..

ugly: nothing really..

summary: it's a good cross between the appearance of IE and the speed and usability of FF, but as many a wise men said...miles to go...I am a avid fan of microsoft (I hear knives being drawn ;))when it comes to UI...but this is as good as it gets with a beta...and it beats FF 9 out of 10 times when it comes to speed.

verdict: download, install and use...and it's not FF losing it's share... it's IE.


P.S. Here is what it looks like. See for yourself..much more content..but the transliteration went haywire

What's cooking?

Nothing exotic there, I must say; but I don't have a clue why I did such a thing. If you don't understand what I am saying, you obviously haven't experimented enough!

The after effects....

Overheard: There are some days when you only have the hope of happy hour to give you strength.

And a master piece from Private Opinion
दिन गुज़रा बड़ी मुश्किल से, फिर तेरा वादा-ए-शब् याद आया

Jokes...

I don't know why, but I keep running into really funny stuff...

Sycophancy redefined...

and this is just on the back of this one...
It happens only in ...

And another one....

http://navbharattimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2151935.cms

Federal...are we?

I am back, with more political masala :)

http://www.indianexpress.com/story/202619.html

So Mr Moily and team recommend legislation to give sweeping powers to the center in case of 'breakdown of constitutional machinery'. If I were to list three most hated and most misused terms in India's post independence political history, they would be the emergency, the numerous instances of the so called breakdown...and the one that I have talked about in my previous posts..secularism...

the first and third tend to give dictatorial powers to the central government, and the second has defined post babari politics of India, although I must say that the literal meaning of the word is more than forgotten..but let's not digress here..i was talking of Mr Moily and his team's recommendations.

Prima facie, I would welcome the move to empower the center to deploy armed forces in extreme situations, but we cannot overlook history here...These powers will hardly be utilized in a godhara-gujrat scenario, or a more recent gujjar-raje-reservation scenario..they would be probably be used against naxalites, the north-eastern states..and wherever the central government sees an opportunity to grab power...

breakdown of constitutional machinery inevitably leads to president's rule in a state...I don't know why the government is hell bent on a new legislation for this scenario...if there is a breakdown, u impose president's rule, and send the armed forces..why bother with a new legislation...the only reason i can think of is that the imposition of president's rule has to be passed in the parliament's both houses, and this act would summarily bypass and such procedure...so the law and order in a state is in the hands of the central government while there is a puppet government in the state capital..aren't we giving the prime minister musharrafsque powers?

And while you ponder over (just in case), let me know your three most hated words in indian polity...

Polity...redefined..

Gary is gonna eat his words, only if he was hungry :)

Just as I am going to hit the sack for a 3 hour nap...the hindu throws in this

the lady-in-waiting tries to be bold in her own backyard..and ends up infuriating historians and muslim social activists...mind you, she may be factually wrong (I dont know much of medieval history anyway), but the import of her statement should not be lost

Must say it's a nice beginning...only if she can carry the same attitude through her would-be-tenure. Hats off to you madame!

Polity thy name is ... secularism

Check this out

So it does not matter who is a better candidate. All you need to be is 'secular' and flaunt it as well. The fact that these small-time wannabes of Indian politics are not able to make up their minds for supporting an ex Vice President against a near-anonymous candidate goes to highlight the insecurity of these regional parties. I am no avid supporter of Shekhawat, I can't recall what has he done for the people of Rajasthan, much less India. But then, who has. As for Patil, who just happens to have right marriage of feminism, loyalty to Gandhis, a surname (or middle, or whatever) to appease the Marathi jingoism and placate the Rajput शान and an not-so high profile name, all I needed to hear was her declaration that she will not be a puppet। Pardon me, madame; but who has ridden a royal bagghi on Janpath on the 26th January and not be on virtually a payroll of the ruling party. KRN and APJ are notable exceptions, and Indian democracy would be a lot poorer but for these men; but what is noteworthy is that they are puppets: KRN could not do anything but to watch Gujrat burn in hell, and APJ was coaxed to sign the office of profit bill. They tried, as much as they could, never mind the result, but the efforts would go a long way in redefining roles of the Indian president. Let's not flag the dead horses of operation bluestar and Zail Singh.

I cannot think of a single Indian who would not want Kalam to continue, except for the ones running the show from Lutyens' bungalows. All concerns point to the next General Elections, where the verdict, as has been recently, is expected to be fractured. That's has been the real कर्मभूमि of the Indian president, of late. Let's hope the chosen one stands up to the occasion when it comes, whosoever it is.