Thursday, September 18, 2008

The (sc)roll out of the next big thing

When one is in college, especially one where attendance, classes etc are not mandatory, and where students spend their lives getting wasted away without gaining an ounce of knowledge, and where the internet speed is so brilliant that people eventually manage to live by without it, it is not surprising to find them completely weaning away from regular thinking. It is only when we step into the outside world, that we miss the comforts we so much took for granted.

To those of you who are currently in an office space of roughly 1000 sq feet, with people moving all around you whilst you pretend to be working on something in front of the computer that is so important that you can’t notice anything, while all you actually do is try and squeeze in a small period of time, say, at least a few seconds when there’s no one behind your back so you can sneak peek into sites as simple as Dilbert’s blog, which obviously won’t be taken in good humor by the office people if they catch you reading it, this will be a familiar feeling. However, since I know that I am not a world famous blogger, and that the handful of people who actually put up with all this nonsense are not likely to have experienced such situations, either because they are still in that abode of joblessness, college, or because their stations do not qualify within miles of the above mentioned criteria, this might not particularly qualify as a basic necessity. However, I suggest you hold on, because you never know, you might just be the next one!

After that massive preamble, lemme come to the point. Due to the above-mentioned extreme circumstances, I am unable to savor the use of net when I get it. Instead, I have to pretend to be extremely interested in some web pages pertaining to some arcane topic quite beyond my ability of comprehension in this environment.

So, I need an invention from you comp sci guys. Actually branch is no bar. Im just assuming that going by the average knowledge of CDCs among engineers, I reckon Comp sci ppl are best positioned to act upon this, although the difference is not much between them n other branches on how much they know about computers. Ok, so I need some sort of mechanism to scroll a web page that is in a tab not in front of you. The tab is in the background, while you are looking at some other page on your screen. I want to scroll up or down the page in the tab that’s next to it, without actually going to it. It could be through some shortcut keys, u know, like ctrl+tab+arrows or whatever. This is so that there is lesser chance of being caught when all you are doing is scrolling a webpage. OK, if youre reading it in front of everyone, then obviously ur a dumass. But getting busted because of a stupid scroll, that’s an insult to the entire generation of such sneak peekers. Think of this as a philanthropic act for the future generations. Or maybe if the idea sells, charge for the services. Just remember who the founding father of the idea was, and give it to me for free. Of course, if you become a billionaire or something in the process, generous donations are welcome.

so whoz up to it ?

10 comments:

V01c3 of 1gn0ranc3 said...

Don't know abt ane software..but the japanese have a type of mouse with one extra button; if u click that button, the explorer window on that screen vanishes and a safe window appears in its place...all in the blink of an eye...chk out ths link...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/08/asia_pac_tokyo0s_gadget_heaven/html/4.stm

Hopefully useful.. :D

Anonymous said...

Haha yes, nice one, but ctrl+tab is a decent substitute for that sort of thing :P. It would be great though, if we could scroll up or down without actually opening the tab!

moon said...

Next you'll ask doctors to give you eyes that can read what is in the tab you're trying to scroll :P

Oink said...

@W yes, ob, the last time i heard, service to humanity was part of a doc's job!

Harish Aditham said...

Your requirement seems redundant.. if people wouldnt notice wats on ur tab when its still... wouldnt it be all the more tuffer to notice wats on it wen ur scrolling it? So why wud u want to hide ur screen on a diff tab and then scroll the one u r actually reading frm there?
-pegasus

PS- oink oink oink oink oink :P

Anonymous said...

yoyo pegasus !
no no, i open the tab when no one's behind my back (which is RARE), but it pains me to see that the precious free time is being wasted in scrolling :P

bOOn said...

work is worship...kaam kar kaam :P

Prachi Bansal said...

lol...u kno..it IS an interesting idea...i would hav been tempted to work on it.. but i have no such prob in my PS :P :P
have a good time...

and btw...please increase your blogging frequency!! this one came after a looooong time!

Anonymous said...

use linux.

choose settings "focus on window with mouse in it".

this means you can change the focus WITHOUT clicking on the webpage you want to read. you can continue showing some other page on top. when it is all safe, read the page of your choice (hidden in the background)

-- LUG

Anonymous said...

n1 LUG, but for that you'd have to install linux first :-\