What did you tweet when Facebook was down?

After Facebook went down on Thursday, thousands took to Twitter to share the news, vent their frustration and get their fix of social networking. The two-and-a-half-hour outage for the users was like they were drug addicts going through withdrawal. Facebook's more than 500 million users have grown accustomed to sharing updates from their daily diets to pets. Twitteratis were not behind in expressing their humor in 140 characters. I have collected a few interesting tweets below: -

@OPB: BREAKING NEWS: Facebook is down. Worker productivity rises. US climbs out of recession #facebookdown

@BugFrog Congress considering emergency funds to help out Farmville farmers hurt by Facebook outage,"

@maxxhendriks "Facebook is down! Users are roaming the streets shoving photos in people's faces and screaming "DO YOU LIKE THIS? DO YOU?"

@alqaeda #facebook is down. Not sure if  we did that, but we should claim anyway. Hitting the infidels where it hurts, etc.

@vladimirRS - Facebook down due to explosion in Farmville's manure composter. Five million people forced to work

@MTVClutch - Facebook is down. We can't tell who's hungry or tired

@joeschmitt - Either Facebook is down or Mark Zuckerberg just set everything to PRIVATE

Twitter Conversations on Common Wealth Games

The Common Wealth Games (CWG) to be held in Delhi in October 2010 have been slammed by national and international media for lack of readiness. I believe some of the officials may have screwed up but the games will definitely happen and the Indian government is working towards it. Lot of negative publicity churned with mishaps at the venue has given some of the potential hosting candidates like Australia and New Zealand to speak foul. Nevertheless, the humor being shared among twitteratis with the use of #cwg is worth reading. Please see below a few tweets that are making round in the twittosphere: -

@nidhi_narain The running track at #CWG says "Men at work, go slow" http://yfrog.com/28fuxgj

@khuliyar If the #CWG is cancelled, does it mean we can keep all the gold medals to ourself? We can give away silver medals to Pakistan. #fail #fb

@kousik I guess the loot from #CWG is being invested in SENSEX/NIFTY.

@a_sanan @ibnlive @CWG2010PR #CWG #Delhi #India #Commonwealthgames We Know Our CWG Officials' National Song - "DHAN DE MATRAM" ! #ProfitablePolitics

@Miss_Imp0ssible Suresh Kalmadi tried to hang himself, after the #CWG fiasco..but the ceiling collapsed !! :P

@Krafty_Karan #CWG quote of the day:'We've fallen flat on our faces or should I say on our 'feces'.' -M.S Iyer on @BDUTT 's show. :-D

@meetneo instead of #CWG chair, kalmadi should be made to sit on the 'chair' of UTV bindass show..atleast get the devil out of him!!

@swamitwitanand @HeadlinesIndia The #CWG stadia can be used to store grains.Pawar can join hands wit kalmadi

@KiranKS #British bookmaker Hill has begun to take bets on whether #CWG will go ahead. Latest odds 4-1 for cancellation #CongressWealthGeneration

@iabhishek How times change! From 'Chill Madi' to 'Kalmadi' #CWG

@kishiarora #CWG baba baba kalmadi have uany shame,nosir nosir common loot game, crores 4 my partner,crores 4 my dame,crores 4 me 2,putting india2shame

@weemundo Brilliant. Can all of you #CWG haters please read this : http://bit.ly/dux5HU on SMH cc (+ve one)

@htTweets  Games security 'extensive and well organised': Australia http://bit.ly/dBRVgt #cwg #ht (+ve one)

Photographs of Google Office in Dubai

Check out the below link for few unofficial photographs of the Google Office in Dubai Internet City. The office has a modern Arabic look with dedicated area to work and relax. Most of the meeting rooms are named after famous Arabic cartoon characters.  Google opened its office in Dubai Internet City in early 2008 as part of its plans to focus on its Arabic language services.

Google office is located in Dubai Internet City, Building no. 9.

Address Details of Google Office


Updated on Nov 19, 2011

Google UAE
Dubai Internet City
Building 4, office 306
P.O Box 502966
Phone: +971 4 4509500
Fax: +971 4 4509523

Photographs are courtesy @ghonim. Click here to view all the pics.

Blackberry may not be banned in UAE

This is what we all would like to hear, don’t we? To put things in perspective, UAE and Saudi Arabia are not banning the BlackBerry device produced by Research in Motion Limited (RIM). But instead it is the BlackBerry mobile services like e-mail and text messaging by October 11, 2010.

The reason for this ban is a dispute between the UAE and RIM concerning RIM's encrypted data system. The system makes government monitoring of data more difficult. The problem for RIM is that the other GCC countries may follow suit, which will have a major business impact for the company. India has also been negotiating with RIM to access the encrypted information being exchanged on Blackberry devices.

Many countries including India claim that such moves are driven by national security. Many will suggest that this is simply an excuse to block data, but others suggest that this is a viable excuse to limit data. There can be a business reason to block the service, citing the possibility that service providers in UAE may come out with a similar service for the subscribers.

UAE's Telecommunications Regulatory Authority noted that "certain BlackBerry services allow users to act without any legal accountability, causing judicial, social and national security concerns for the U.A.E." Countries like Qatar have come forward and have announced that the service providers will not block the Blackberry service. Don't know if they also feel the security threat or not?

RIM will have to rethink its position on not sharing the data information, as potential business may be lost. UAE and Saudi Arabia has around 500,000 and 400,000 blackberry users respectively. Assuming the remaining GCC countries may comprise of another million users; RIM can’t afford to lose so many users while they are expected to unveil the new BlackBerry 9800 at a press event on 03 Aug 2010. U.S.-listed shares of Research in Motion (RIMM.O) fell 1.6 percent in early trading on Monday as the ban news spread across the world.

When discussing UAE’s adamancy with RIM to provide access to the data, it’s worth highlighting the fact that it had unsuccessfully attempted to install a application, rumored to be a spyware, on the devices of Etisalat users in 2009, informing the user’s that the patch would enhance the performance. The region has always attempted to block websites, which pose threat to the existing regimes.

Could this ban impact RIM’s business? The rumors are that RIM is already in talks with the Middle East governments to have a work around. There are more than a million Blackberry users in GCC and if even half of them change mobile devices, there could be major loss for RIM.

Zaraa Hatke Quotes on Facebook

English Translation - 'Awesome Quotes on Facebook'. More often than not many of us write hilarious, thought provoking, opinioned quotes and share with our friends. I decided to keep a track of these quotes, by my friends, over the past few weeks on Facebook and below is the outcome. Every quote has been credited with its respective source and are selected on the basis of being hilarious and thought provoking..(ps. the original source of the quote "may" be different)

Agar duniya main Mehnat ki Qadar hoti To Gadha sub se zayada izzatdar hota....! - Boski G

Call me Miss Flintstone, i can make your bedrock - Mansi S

Vaadon Aur Yaadon Me Kya Fark Hai?
Insaan Vaadon Ko Tod Deta Hai,

Aur Yaaden Inshaan Ko Tod Deti Hai - Aashish B

life is : leaving the house in morning dressed in clothes , that u brought with credit card for work ,driving through traffic in car that u still paying for ,putting in fuel that u cant afford,in order to get to the job u hate but need so badly so that u can pay for the clothes,car fuel and the house that u leave empty the whole day , in order to live in it - Kamal A

kutte. CONGRATS BUDDY!!!! Who is the lucky girl? when did you get engaged - Rishi S (The Dharmendra Style but for a different reason)

Khatta Meetha - ahem, I m allergic to Bullshit - Sapna R

Can you get Drunk without Drinking??? - Seema KB

A man who smiles when things go wrong.... has already thought of someone to blame it on :D - Rohit

Well when we Indians goto a baba who has a Parrot who picks up a card and predicts future ..... World goes OMG look at "dot heads" for everything they goto an "Animal"....... Join the gang u Focktupusians ..... :) - Anil A

Beware its gonna get 'MESSI' - ARGENTINA!! - Sandeep B

The entire German team will be arrested outside the stadium for publically raping not only a team but d entire nation (In context of Germany v/s England Fifa World Cup 2010)- Atul B

Life is like a coin. Pleasure and Pain are the two sides. Only one side is visible at a time. But remember other side is also waiting for it's turn. - Varsha S

Reality is more interesting than fiction - Varun B

Nothing is personal if you don't take it personally - Khushboo B

Dubai sheher ka saara, Meena Bazar Leke - Vishal M

Conclusion - clothes are supposed to fit us - we are not supposed to fit into the clothes ! -Satyen C

Facebook is for people you went to school with. Twitter is for people u wished u went to school with - inspiration 4 ppl wanna b on twitter - Source Unkown

World's Cheapest Laptop @ $35 - The Indian iPad

The Indian Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) announced the launch of $35 laptops; cheapest in the world.

The Linux based device will also have provisions for running on solar power besides the usual battery operated systems. A student at VIT, Vellore came up with a mother board design, and the PCB of the same was later fabricated in IIT, Kanpur. The Rs 1,700/$35 computing device is expected to first target hit higher education institutions starting 2011.

Features

• 5/7/9 inch touch screen gadget
• Internet browsers
• PDF reader
• Open Office
• Touchscreen
• Remote device management capability
• Multimedia input-output interface option

Is this India’s answer to the iPad even though the customer target varies?