This is weird, but it happened to me. Lately I noticed that Google links weren’t working and my Google search page had a ‘Google Kindle’ link at the bottom, which they don’t sell. This wasn’t just on my PC, it affected my iPad and everything on the WiFi network. So I figured the virus/malware was on the WiFi router, which it was. Which is a trip. Anyways, here’s the symptoms and a cure.

Janith has updated Kottu with rims and shit. Seriously, it looks pretty good. You could say the desktop look is cosmetic, but check out the mobile. Kottu now looks like an app with settings and menus and such. The biggest problem with K2 is me, ie, it now takes me up to a month to respond to emails. OMG I’m scared of my email. But Janith’s done this code and design update all by himself and it looks pretty good. Check it out. There was one bug with the previous page link. Lettuce know if there’s any more.

This is highly dubious. Miss Travel is a travel/social networking site that connects ‘Generous’ and ‘Attractive’ travelers. To, like, travel together, I guess. It all seems a bit like arranged prostitution and trafficking. This is part of a broader online trend to connect rich men to younger, attractive women. Sites like seekingarrangement.com connects women to ‘sugar daddies’ already. I guess Miss Travel is just taking that trend international. Wait, I checked, it’s the same guy doing both.

There’s nothing wrong with pornography, but there’s a lot wrong with porn. Nothing wrong with watching people have sex, but too often that sex is brutal, senseless and coerced. I mean how many couples are coming on each others faces every day? Hence, philosopher king Alain de Botton – after calling for a new atheism, replete with temple – is now calling for a new pornography. One which is “fit for thoughtful, good human beings”. Good idea.

Arunoda Susiripala is a great geek. Here is on the MTV Sports morning show, which I happened to host. I am not great at TV but I think this is still an interesting interview. If you’re a developer or user or in the online scene, you must know Arunoda. He’s developed Yalu, which is the most popular (SMS) app on AppZone, and he’s made money doing it. Then, like any good entrepreneur, rather than leaving a ladder behind him he left an elevator. His online service kodeincloud lets anyone create similar apps through a drag-and-drop interface. It’s now responsible for around 60% of the new apps on AppZone.

I’ve been testing a lot of apps. A very interesting one is iPlayboy, from Playboy magazine. It’s bad porn but a good magazine, especially since you can read issues from its cultural heyday – the Mad Men era of the 60s.

Guy Gunaratne is a Sri Lankan Briton who I met while he was down here filming The Truth That Wasn’t There. I haven’t watched it cause it’s largely unavailable/expensive on the web, but I think I’m in it. I’ve had random drunken NGO types accost me but I don’t remember exactly what I said. Anyways. Him and Heidi are in the running for a meeting with Richard Branson to pitch their idea (and prototype) for layered web video, which looks cool. I recommend watching the video above and voting for them.

I was watching this video on fan art and I saw these cool images of Internet meme faces, drawn quasi-realistically. These faces are used all over the world for all manner of jokes, including Sri Lanka – for everything from bus rage to dansal hijinks. It’s interesting seeing the usual line-drawn rage faces in quasi-realistic grossitude.

I’m selling my car, so I’m always on the lookout for alternate transport. This electric bicycle from Specialized seems pretty damn cool, if Sri Lankan roads weren’t so damn hostile. There’s one bike path near Independence Square and, randomly, Mattakuliya, but besides that, riding a bicycle in Colombo can be quite dangerous.

Blogging used to be the easiest way to express yourself online, but it’s not anymore. Tumblr and Facebook and Twitter are easier and you can reach more people faster. It took my like 10 years to get like 300 core readers, daily (about a 1000 total). On Facebook you can buy that amount of fans (thru ads) for about Rs. 5000. Times are a’changing.