Expressions... They do make a difference...

Yahoo, MSN, Google... there is an endless list of IM services. They are very useful for software engineers like us who spend best part of our days in front of this "smart" terminal. But sometimes it makes you wonder whether one can really communicate through it. Here is one such funny incident which happened today.

Today I got a mesg from one of my friends. She informed me (with I donno what expression): "U know what... Salman got jailed". I didn't know how to respond and foolishly I said what first came to my mind: "Good". Now, all you intelligent people must have figured out what a mistake I made. I don't presonally dislike Salman but if he has been jailed for something he has really done, I can't feel sorry for him. But it seems the "poor guy" did not do such a crime to deserve such "cruelity" on the part of our law system. Well, I did another mistake of pointing out that he is not exactly a poor guy and he owns best of the cars available in India and killed some really poor guys with that. Now the second part was my mistake and not the mode of communication. But I guess I made my point, so lets move on.

Well, obviously I am not worried about Salman Khan here. But coming back to the thing which i find more concerned about is the expressionlessness of this thing called IM. I guess most of you guys must have used it (while at work or home) to stay in touch with family and friends. Things are not always funny. It is not only Salman you talk about.

All the people who agree can put comments here. All those don't agree, send me an IM. ;)

Love of technology transforming Korea

Korea's love for technology is something which you can not miss. It is sometimes impressive and sometimes stupid. But this is what interests everyone.

Interesting article in NY Times: Robots in every house

(Reminds of Will Smith's iRobot)



South Korea, the world's most wired country, is rushing to turn what sounds like science fiction into everyday life. The government, which succeeded in getting broadband Internet into 72 percent of all households in the last half decade, has marshaled an army of scientists and business leaders to make robots full members of society.

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South Koreans use futuristic technologies that are years away in the United States; companies like Microsoft and Motorola test products here before introducing them in the United States.

Since January, Koreans have been able to watch television broadcasts on cellphones, free, thanks to government-subsidized technology. In April, South Korea will introduce the first nationwide superfast wireless Internet service, called WiBro, eventually making it possible for Koreans to remain online on the go — at 10 megabits per second, faster than most conventional broadband connections.

South Korea, perhaps more than any other country, is transforming itself through technology. About 17 million of the 48 million South Koreans belong to Cyworld, a Web-based service that is a sort of parallel universe where everyone is interconnected through home pages. The interconnectivity has changed the way and speed with which opinions are formed, about everything from fashion to politics, technology and social science experts said.