Guldasta

Some weeks ago I was introduced to the Times Reader, a utility that gets the top stories from The New York Times to your screen. For FREE. I am usually wary of new technology on the block and reserve my time to trying out only those technologies that are accompanied by compelling reasons (read significant improvement in quality and experience). Like, I am yet to try Twitter. I am not eager to tell the world every thought and action that constitutes my life. At the same time, I blog because I find it gratifying to share my distilled thoughts with the world.

I tried the Times Reader without a second thought. Coming from a publication as venerable as The New York Times, it had to be good, right? And boy, good it is! Now the goodness is not entirely an attribute of the technology (the reader software). A large part of the goodness comes from the sheer standard of writing. That is a double whammy and I love it. Exactly what I meant when I was saying “significant improvement in quality and experience”. The improvement in quality comes from the superlative standard of journalism. The improvement in experience is that I get the news wherever I am, colour pictures and all, and the text on the screen is easy to read, and feels like the print edition. I am still on version 1.1.3, while the latest available version is 2.0, because my friend, Deepanjan, posted this article.

But that should not deter you from trying it out. You will need to download and install the software to enjoy the technology. But if you are hesitating wondering whether it will be worth it, here are links to three stories I read today. It is no doubt a matter of personal opinion, but I find the writing perfectly marinated with hard facts, brevity, and cogency.

What Does Your Credit-Card Company Know About You?
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/magazine/17credit-t.html

My Personal Credit Crisis
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/magazine/17foreclosure-t.html

Suze Orman Is Having a Moment
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/magazine/17orman-t.html

Another honourble mention is the Newsmap website which does data mining of all the news out there to give you the most published news stories. The stories are logically organized into sections such as World, National, Business, technology and colour coded for quick browsing.