All web applications are pull-based in nature, in effect meaning that the client (your browser) can request more data from a server, the server cannot send data voluntarily to the client.  Thus while a client can ask the server for the body of a known email, the server is unable to inform the client of any newly arrived emails unless the client specifically asks.  Hence, for data that may change without interaction from the current user (eg prices, bids, chat, email) the client must poll the server to discover any changes to the data set. Currently, this is how most of the web applications work. Comet Comet is a Ajax based technology which overcomes the push-limitation of the web by using the ability of a server to hold poll requests until either a timeout or an event occurs, so that the server can send a response at any time to communicate an event to the client. A very nice layman intro to Ajax-Push or Comet technology can be found here . For more info: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_(p...

I wrote about an idea of a high-speed railway service for India which I christened द्रुतगामिनी Railroad . Indian Railways is now planning a small pilot in a similar direction - a bullet train connecting Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Pune [ HT reports ]. Inspired by China’s plans to develop the world’s fastest bullet train, the Indian Railways has taken the first step to construct high-speed corridors on the Pune. Mumbai-Ahmedabad route for bullet trains running at speeds between 300 km and 350 km per hour .. it could mean the 93-km Mumbal-Pune stretch could be done in 20 minutes. The fastest train on this route, Deccan Queen. presently takes 3 hours 15 minutes.  Similarly, 444 km between Miunbai and Ahmedabad could be travelled in 120 minutes. The fastest train on this route, Shatabdi Express, currently takes 6 hours 45 minutes. Even if it wasn't this blog post which sparked the fire, it makes me happy that the idea is going to be a reality. However, the only grouse is that the Indian rail...

Those who are Google Fans would have by now already installed the new Google Chrome browser. For those of you who have not, here is the link to download the installer (~450KB). [ Caveat : The installer downloads the app from the web, so you need connectivity for installing also. The app downloads about a 100MB of files during installation.] For a long time the industry has speculated about the Google OS and so many have proclaimed Google search engine and Google Adsense to be the [notional] OS of the web; rumor mills and fiery debates have been done across blogosphere - but none of these has been convincing enough. But surprizingly enough, since the release of Chrome, no one has revisted the debate - apparantly people are too precoccupied with testing the browser and revealing its privacy flaws .  I believe, Chrome is what we all have been waiting for as the Google OS . When they themselves proclaim in their introductory comic book - [ Ref : Page 4] "We are applying the same...