Of protocols and standards...

Have you ever spared a thought for why, despite your using shitty Internet Explorer or the popular Mozilla Firefox or the uber-elite Safari or the wannabe-cool Chrome, this post that you are reading looks pretty much the same? Of course, if you are the techie like me, you would have put the title of this post and the last question together and figured out the answer. If you have the answer please feel free to skip the next paragraph and read on. The others, hang on a little...

Ok, so the deal is this - standards and standardized protocols. What it simply means is that it is a pre-determined and agreed steps of communicating and interpreting. If some bit of software, or hardware for that matter, says that it supports a protocol or a standard it means that if you were to use another similar program or hardware from a different vendor that claimed to support the same protocol or standard, the results you would see would be similar. The advantage is, quite simply, that your life is a little bit simpler. I want my readers to see this blog with a gray background and I know that despite what you are using to see this, you are going to be seeing a gray background. Why? Because this page has been generated by HTML and CSS (in addition to others) which are standardized. To put it in perspective - if you went to a restaurant and asked for a glass of water, you would be served a clear potable liquid that consisted of H20 (mostly). Everyone understands what water is!!! That is the beauty - all you need to understand is something that is publicly available and if you do understand that then it means that you will be able to communicate clearly and lucidly to anyone who understands that. Simple!

At this point you might be asking yourself what is this guy trying to get at, in this beer induced state? All I am trying to say is that webpages and cellphones and other assorted technology is not the only thing that ought to be standardized. Personal interactions could be standardized as well. My biggest gripe is that there is no clear cut way to express that you like a certain member of the opposite sex without running the risk of embarrassing yourself in some manner or the other. Ask a number too soon and you are labeled horny, desperate or a host of other disparaging titles. Keep waiting and some total dumb-idiot will come and sweep her away. And the worst part is, he will be the kind who can string three words into a sentence, or will be some arcane philosopher idiot who walks with his head so far up his rear-side that he cannot see where he is walking.

In short, there has to be some accepted method where it is perfectly normal for a guy(girl) to ask a girl(guy) he(she) has met not so long ago for a number or express interest. In case, she(he) is already taken, there is some respectable way to say that as well. Both parties walk away with their pride and self-respect intact. No loose or horny labels. Personally, I think there will be a lot less trouble or violence that way.

And, yeah, screw all the excitement and mystery that you might probably not get. If I want mystery or excitement, I'll go read Doyle or watch a Tarantino flick.