The Web Revolution

The larger part of you (visitors) are going to simply cruise the net, day after day, downloading updated browsers and appreciating the beauty of the web while tapping on the vast amounts of organized information available. For some of you, however, the web is a never-ending pain of cross-browser issues involving Javascript, CSS and dysfunctional Div Tags. If life wasn't already hard for you, the introduction of AJAX didn't help at all. Everyday, there are now new issues, new cross-browser problems to fix, and WebServices to deal with.

A good, modern website usually contains/requires the following:

• HTML (or XHTML - most of us have switched to XHTML nowadays)
• CSS (2.0. CSS 3.0 is coming out pretty soon)
• JavaScript (Call it JScript, JavaScript or ECMAScript - we're currently at the third version of the language. The fourth one is coming soon.)
• AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript And XML)
• Server-side code (Whatever language you're familiar with - JSP, ASP. PHP, ASP.net)
• Database code (SQL queries, stored procs - that depends on your DB)
• Flash (With Actionscript 2.0)
• Accompanying WebServices for JavaScript and/or Flash.
  

If you're planning to go into Web Design, think twice. With every single day, the web design business is getting more and more specialized. You can't be a jack of all trades. I, for example, can work my way around most of the technologies required for a website, but I won't ever match with someone who has worked closely with JavaScript and AJAX. Nor do my CSS skills match those of a talented web designer.

The problem with the web is that it has been built upon HTML. Years and years have gone by, but the core has remained the same. To "improve" the browsing experience, layers and layers of new technologies have been constructed on top of sad little HTML pages to make the web what it is today. It's like trying to make a car made out of wood, and running on steam fly. The amazing thing is that it IS flying.

I personally think that it's time to introduce a new format. Something totally different. On the client side, (X)HTML, CSS and ECMAScript need to be unified. And new graphical capabilities need to be added to browsers (which would cut out the need for Flash), as well as support for direct server communication (for streaming), while allowing the code to "mutate" and change itself. And yeah, pop-ups need to be killed.

On the server side, one single type of code should be able to generate the business logic, the presentation layer, query databases and at the same time deal with direct client communications to provide painless streaming functionality.

That's it! We have our requirements. Let's hope the W3C takes note of this blog post, and starts another one of their committee to study this case.

This Web Revolution of mine might not happen now... but I have high hopes for humanity, and the internet.

My first chain letter!

Have you ever wondered where chain letters came from? Well, after receiving numerous chain letters, I decided to create my own. Here goes:

CONGRATULATIONS!!!! SOMEBODY THOUGHT OF YOU AND FORWARDED YOU THIS BEAUTIFUL CHAIN MAIL! YOU'RE IN LUCK, BASTARD. READ ON.

This chain letter is for real. Well, you might as well ask Jean-Luc Dominique Emmanuel Coccio A., resident of Cité Barkly, Mauritius. He received this email in his inbox on the 7th of December 2006. He didn't read it. That was mainly because the computer he had was a stolen one, and there was no fucking way he'd put an internet connection on it. So he couldn't read it. And that's when weird shit started happening.

On the 17th of December, a few days before Christmas, a mad donkey barged into his house and raped him.
And as everybody knows, mad donkeys attacks are pretty frequent in Cité Barkly. He thought it was just bad luck. He still didn't check his email. Well, he couldn't anyway. A few days later, seven donkeys barged into his house and gang raped him. Still, he thought that was just pure coincidence.
On the 22nd of December, Jean-Luc Dominique was arrested for possesion. His inmate was Dr. Miko, a famous Mauritian sadist. Jean was basically in jail, and he really wished he had bought the pirated copies of Prison Break.
On the 23rd of December, he learned that there was an unread email in his inbox. Unfortunately, due to a lack of facilities in Mauritian prisons, he couldn't do anything about it.
On the 25th of December, his inmate, Dr. Miko, castrated Jean-Luc.

That was the end of him, and his sexual life.

See? You MUST pass this email on. You NEED to. I'm sure you don't want to be raped by a mad donkey with a disproportionate penis, do you? I treasure my asshole's virginity as much as you do. Think twice.

Now comes the magic part of this email - the one that will bring you luck and all that shit:

*
***
*****
***
*

See? It's a diamond! With little stars!
Yay!!
...
Right, get on to pass this email. Now.

AND REMEMBER! THE MAD DONKEY'S WATCHING YOU. EVERYTIME YOU TAKE A PISS. EVERYTIME YOU BRUSH YOUR TEETH. EVERYTIME YOU WATCH PORN. IT KNOWS. BEWARE, BITCHES.

Saying thanks to you, Ashwinee Ramchurn.

I wasn't the most popular kid back in school. And I'm not talking about high school. I was the king of nerds at high school (well, vice-king until some dude named Arvind left, heh). I'm talking about primary school here.

Primary school was hell for me. I was wearing those huge glasses - like, miniature TV sets right in front of my eyes. I wonder if that did me any good. I didn't have many friends at that time - just a few ones. But it wasn't hell because I was being bullied by the bad guys... or anything of the sort. It was hell because I was shy. And shit would incessantly happen to the shy guy who just wants to be invisible. And I'm talking about un-bloggeable shit. Man, primary school was hell.

Somehow, I managed to graduate first of my entire class. Which sent me to middle school (middle school and high school's the same stuff in here). And then shit stopped happening to me, and I started to gain some self-confidence.

But that's not the point. This whole story is about a girl. Her name's Ashwinee Ramchurn. I think I got the name right... I remember she moved to another school for some obscure reason. I wasn't really good buddies with her - she was just in my class. She wasn't the cute girl I had a crush on. She wasn't the school bully. Right now, I just... kind of remember her face really well. Her very serious face. I remember she was pretty good at Hindi. And at almost everything else.

Why her? Why are my memories of her so vivid? Why am I looking for her right now? That's funny actually. Okay, it's not funny. It's actually quite touching.

During the occasional shit that would occur to me, Ashwinee one day popped up, and offered me help. Somehow on that day, my lunch had fallen over and was lying sprawled across the classroom floor. And she just turned around, and offered me her lunch. She opened it up, and asked me if I would have it.

The genuine kindness that emanated from her - still a kid - at that very moment marked me. And until now, I haven't forgotten. I was shocked at that time... she was some kind of stranger to me - we had never really talked. But then, she was graciously offering me help without me asking... and... I guess that had never happened to me before. The authenticity of her gesture would probably remain unmatched by a stranger throughout my life.

I refused her lunch, mumbling something about it being okay. And until this day, I kinda regret I never really talked to her. When she changed school, I remember going back home and crying on my bed. I don't really know why. I guess I was sad. Well, kids cry when they're sad. It's funny though, when you're a kid, you are a slave to your emotions, even if you don't understand them yet.

It's been nearly five years since I started looking for her. And man, believe me, when it comes to finding someone on the internet, I'm pretty good at that. I followed most of the leads... but... nada. Nothing. From time to time, I visit social networking sites, hoping to meet her there. I'm not obsessed or anything... (well, maybe I am due to the fact that I can't find someone I'm looking for) but I just want to meet her once again. Just for a few minutes. And find out about the person she became.

And then say "thank you."
Because I think I forgot to do that back in primary school.

It's weird, how stuff from your early years can affect you.
Very weird.