Web2.0 …..and some facts

Today we are in 21st century where every thing gets modernized,every thing gets changed day by day. When comes to internet its the market which changes too rapidly.Nobody who came with what new things.Every body this is a trend of Web2.0 where every thing is user friendly applications.Whats web 2.0 ? how it came? so many ?’s appears in everybody mind.Lets go through this in detail.

Before Web:-

This is the generation where the well know organizations comes like Microsoft,etc.In this period most were competing computing technologies,while some competing OS.Then Windows came into market where it comes with set of packed software applications having tightly coupled API’s.

Then came the Web (web1.0):-

Here this trend(web) is based on client-server technology and hyper linking,where we can see the emergence of sites like Rediff,Yahoo,Britannica,Double Click..etc . And this is one way web , i mean to say read only web,here you can only gathers information.They mostly interfaces Netscape & IE.Websites are some what sticky(reach in UI design) so to get back the users.

Then came web2.0:-

The sites comes under this can be seen as Google,Wikipedia,Flickr ,Blogging,etc. They concentrated more on users instead of design pattern.So the are more user friendly and its a two way web ,that means here you can read and write. Following are few points regarding web2.0

• This is user rich experienced technology,
  1. very user friendly
  2. Feature rich
  3. very usable
  4. stable
  5. but has more text than image,Lots of white.

• Technology,
  The technology used by Google is know as Ajax.Internally if we bind all this XHTML, CSS, DOM, XML,XSLT,XMLHTTPRequest& JavaScript we can get Ajax.It’s also no accident that scripting languages such as Perl, Python, PHP, and now Ruby, play such a large role at web 2.0 companies. Perl was famously described by Hassan Schroeder, Sun’s first webmaster, as “the duct tape of the internet.” Dynamic languages (often called scripting languages and looked down on by the software engineers of the era of software artifacts) are the tool of choice for system and network administrators, as well as application developers building dynamic systems that require constant change.

• Design pattern

  These application use mostly uses the browser to handle its data.So most of thing happens in client side.Only data fetching happens in server side.Means Java script is used to handle in client side and data sending & fetching is done using ajax request(i.e XML or text type).

• They are open source & give free API ,here you can create content (Blog),share & distribute your content(RSS ,feed-readers).

There is a nice article which explains better about web2.0 where Tim O’Reilly president & CEO of O’Reilly Media, Inc. ,..in What is Web2.0…

How they are earning money if every thing is free?

If for a news company ,news is not copyrighted,and its freely distributable,how they were able to make money.In some like MapQuest who can license for its day are giving thing for free.So in the end you are not selling data,product,service.Its the traffic which you can gain that means more revenue in terms of ads.

What will be next:-Web3.0?
What will be next web ….lets list some points where further development could be taken place.

1. Making it more collaborative.
   
2. Making web enabled services.
3. Moving completely away from desktop storage.
   
4. Moving away from desktop applications.

As definition in wikipedia “Transforming the Web into a database, a move towards making content accessible by multiple non-browser applications, the leveraging of artificial intelligence technologies, the Semantic web, or the Geospatial Web.“

Further there is a nice blog which tries to explain the web3.0 architecture by “Cédric Mesnage”. So lets see what trend going to affect this wide growing market.

The 200 most successful websites on the web, ordered by category, proximity, success, popularity and perspective. We have done it again – and better. Upon popular demand – here is iA’s next Web Trend Map:

P.S :- You can find a well explained difference in technology from O’Reilly. Where he compare different technologys with companies.On my part if there is any thing wrong matter i apologies for that.

Toooo smart….:)

Interviewer said, “I shall either ask you ten easy questions or one really difficult question. Think well before you make up your mind!”

Interviewer said, ” I shall either ask you ten easy questions or one really difficult question. Think well before you make up your mind!”

The candidate thought for a while and said, ” My choice is one really difficult question.”

” Well, good luck to you, you have made your own choice!” said the interviewer.

Here is your question: ” What comes first, Day or Night?”

The boy was jolted into reality as his admission depended on the correctness of the answer to that one question. He thought for a while and said, ” It’s DAY sir!”

” How?” the interviewer asked.

” Sorry sir, you promised me that you will not ask me a SECOND difficult question!”

Moral : Technical Skill is the mastery of complexity, while Creativity is the mastery of simplicity

Green Signal for $100 Laptop production…..XO

When i was a kid people having a Desktop PC’s are treated to a prestiges person’s in the society any how Desktop pc’s gone now Notepad & laptop took there places .Now a cheap Laptop starts around $500 .But couple of days back a green signal is given to organization to develop laptops for $100.For the first time the development of such a cheap laptop came in 2002.Production of a laptop for just $100 is remarkable achievement by the organization & its founder Nicholas Negroponte.

“There’s still some software to write, but this is a big step for us,” Walter Bender, head of software development at One Laptop per Child (OLPC), told the BBC News website.

This laptop was introduced under OLPC scheme in Nigeria.

 

Factfile: XO laptop

The One Laptop Per Child project is one step closer to releasing the completed machine to millions of schoolchildren in the developing world. But what makes the computer so unique?

The XO will be produced in Taiwan by Quanta, the world’s largest laptop manufacturer.So lets discuss some of the facts it has…

1.Internal Hardware:

• No moving parts i.e
• No hard drive,CD or DVD.
• As it has low power processor so cooling fans removed.

2.Storage Capacity:

As there is no hard drive it has given 1GB of internal flash memory similar as we have in digital cameras.Where memory can be extended SD memory slot underneath the screen or by plugging in peripheral devices through the USB ports.

3.Processor:

• The processor is developed by AMD,its much slower compare to today PC’s runs at a speed of 433MHz.
• Memory : 256MB SDRAM
• Auto shut down off of the Processor
• In built Graphic Card
• To conserve as much battery power as possible the wi-fi adapter can operate even when the main processor is switched off or asleep. It is able to do this by having its own in-built low power chip. The adapter supports standard wireless protocols used in most homes and offices.

4.OS:

The system has a Linus OS developed by a Open source organization Red Hat.In comparison to standard operating systems (OS), it is very small when compressed, taking up just 130MB of space. By comparison, Windows XP takes up around ten times that amount, requiring 1.5GB of hard drive space.

5.Screen:

• 19cm (7.5 inches) LCD display
• Colour mode: Resolution 800×600 (133dpi); power consumption 1 watt
• Black and white mode: Resolution 1200×900 (200dpi); power consumption 0.2 watt; sunlight readable.

6.Keyboards are child size so that its easily used by children and the keyboard is sealed with green rubber to make it waterproof.

And it come with dual power supply i.e rechargeable batteries and Power slot.This whole setup is placed in a case which is waterproof and dustproof.And you can know further details here.

At last we can conclude the whole cost configuration which make it cheap, in the form of a pie chart shown below;

The XO currently costs $176 (£90) although the eventual aim is to sell the machines to governments for $100 (£50).So let’s what they do to bring down that difference.Any how its a great achievement by any organization.

Note :- I gathered most of the information from BBC news.
PS:- Wish to see laptop in each hands of a child.

Nested tags and JS concepts..

Last week i come across some weird situations while coding,so here i just want to share those with you people.

1.Nested Form tags. (never do)

Every Java developer knows that what ever appears on the browser is an out come of Java script and HTML.So to pass the values from HTML to a specific URL’s we mostly use form tags.Forms are made of text boxes, check boxes, radio buttons, drop-down lists, and other input fields.

The representation of for tag is

to open and

the close of the tag.
So the code seems to be as
<’form’>
//your HTML code
<’/form’>

so the problem i regularly faced is the nested of the form which you shouldn’t do while coding.

//Its a wrong way to handle

<’form’>(Parent form)

//your HTML code-1

<’form’>(child form)

//your HTML code-2

<’/form’>(child form closed)

<’/form’>()

(NOTE:- there shouldn’t single cot in the tag *’*. I introduced ‘ because other while it accepts as a form tag.)

Any how you will never face the problem in Firefox i don’t know how it able to find the closed parent form object before starting the child form.But IE won’t allow you to do this in it ,it throws a JS error.

So in above image i have created a request form which ends at the last of the page in between i used another Task form which is present in a div -shown as Task tab .now when i click that tab it throws a JS error which is not shown in Firefox.

Here are some cases when one can do this mistake mostly

• When your are including one jsp in another jsp.
• When you are hiding and showing the div and the div has a form .
• while constructing through iframe.

well here i said few of the possible cases.

2.Difference between “var a=3″ and “a=3″ in JavaScript :-

Every Java developer knows the difference between “var a” and “a” i.e if you are declaring var a=3 ,’a’ will be assigned locally; but when you declare ‘a=3′ a will be declared Globally.This is theoretically i to know but practically no, so one of my college explain me practically which as follows,

Case1:
<’script’>
var a =3;
function 123{

a = 4;
alert1(‘a=’+a); //alert1

}
alert2(‘a=’+a);
<’/script’>

Case2:
<’script’>
a =3;
function 123{

a = 4;
alert1(‘a=’+a); //alert1

}
alert2(‘a=’+a);
<’/script’>

Case1:-So suppose here u called a function 123 now what would u expect those alert results. so the ans is 4 & 4 respectively .So here if you define a variable a as var a=3 it will lost its value if any function called over writes ‘a’ value.

Case2:-So now what you expect the result here.Here it will be 4 & 3 respectively.Once you define a variable global then it will retain its value globally through out the script even if you used inside any function it wont lost its value out of the function.

Love & Life…

This story tells us something about LOVE & LIFE.
My husband is S/W Engineer by profession, I love him for his steady nature and I love the warm feeling when I lean against his broad shoulders. Two years of courtship and now, five years into marriage, I would have to admit, that I am getting tired of it. The reasons of me loving him before, has now transformed into the cause of all my restlessness.
I am a sentimental woman and extremely sensitive when it comes to a relationship and my feelings. I yearn for the romantic moments, like a little girl yearning for candy. My husband is my complete opposite; his lack of sensitivity, and the inability of bringing romantic moments into our marriage has disheartened me about LOVE.
One day, I finally decided to tell him my decision, that I wanted a divorce.

“Why?” he asked, shocked.

“I am tired. There are no reasons for everything in the world!” I answered.

He kept silent the whole night, seemingly in deep thought. My feeling of disappointment only increased. Here was a man who was not able to even express his predicament, so what else could I expect from him?

And finally he asked me: “What can I do to change your mind?”

Somebody said it right… It’s hard to change a person’s personality, and I guess, I have started losing faith in him.

Looking deep into his eyes I slowly answered: “Here is the question. If you can answer and convince my heart, I will change my mind.

Let’s say, I want a flower located on the face of a mountain cliff, and we both are sure that picking the flower will cause your death. Will you do it for me?”

He said: “I will give you your answer tomorrow….” My hopes just sank by listening to his response.

I woke up the next morning to find him gone, and saw a piece of paper with his scratchy handwriting underneath a milk glass, on the dining table near the front door, that goes….

My dear, “I would not pick that flower for you, but….please allow me to explain the reasons further…..

This first line was already breaking my heart. I continued reading.

“When you use the computer you always mess up the Software programs, and you cry in front of the screen. I have to save my fingers so that I can help to restore the programs.

You always leave the house keys behind, thus I have to save my legs to rush home to open the door for you.

You love traveling but always lose your way in a new city. I have to save my eyes to show you the way.

You always have the cramps whenever your “good friend” approaches every month. I have to save my palms so that I can calm the cramps in your tummy.

You like to stay indoors, and I worry that you will be infected by infantile autism. I have to save my mouth to tell you jokes and stories to cure your boredom.

You always stare at the computer, and that will do nothing good for your eyes. I have to save my eyes so that when we grow old, I can help to clip your nails and help to remove those annoying white hairs. So I can also hold your hand while strolling down the beach, as you enjoy the sunshine and the beautiful sand…and tell you the colour of flowers, just like the colour of the glow on your young face…

Thus, my dear, unless I am sure that there is someone who loves you more than I do… I could not pick that flower yet, and die … “

My tears fell on the letter, and blurred the ink of his handwriting… and as I continue on reading… “Now, that you have finished reading my answer, and if you are satisfied, please open the front door for I am standing outside bringing your favorite bread and fresh milk…

I rushed to pull open the door, and saw his anxious face, clutching tightly with his hands, the milk bottle and loaf of bread….Now I am very sure that no one will ever love me as much as he does, and I have decided to leave the flower alone…

That’s LIFE, and LOVE. When one is surrounded by love, the feeling of excitement fades away, and one tends to ignore the true love that lies in between the peace and dullness.

Love shows up in all forms; even in very small and cheeky forms. It has never been a model. It could be the dullest and most boring form …

Flowers, and romantic moments are only used and appear on the surface of the relationship. Under all this, the pillar of true love stands… AND THAT’S LIFE

OnLine Bookmarking Sites……..

Intro:-
As we are in a generation where world is running out of time , where technology changes day by day,its hard to any body to have all know knowledge whats happening everyday.For this he has to go through various journals ,magazines ,newspaper, ..so on.Thanks there is internet where anybody can search and get updated information which he wants.

So anyone whats to know any thing they can search through Google or Yahoo(well known search engines) an can get there informations.Now every one know there are n number of site presents for knowledge,News,innovations,exploring… .Now its the matter how to remember those sites.Off course there is a option where one can save those sites as a bookmarks in there browsers.So here problem solved to some extent,i mean to one can only see once bookmarks only in his own system browser.They cannot have those data in any other system,so its a big problem for any body who has huge number of bookmarks.

No prob’s you are in a generation where everything possible there are few site which provides you various features in additions to save your bookmarks these sites are called social bookmarking sites.At present there are almost 50+ sites .I have give below some which i know to extent.

• 30daytags
• BlinkBits
• BlogHop
• BlogLot
• BlogMarks
• BlogMemes
• BlogPulse
• BmAccess
• browsr
• Fark
• CiteULike
• clipclip
• clipmarks
• Complore
• Connectedy
• Connotea
• de.lirio.us
• del.icio.us
• digg
• diigo
• fantacular
• Feedmarker
• Feed Me Links
• Furl
• Gibeo
• GoKoDo
• Google Notebook
• IceRocket
• Kaboodle
• linkaGoGo
• linkfilter.net
• linkroll
• Listible
• Lookmarks
• ma.gnolia
• Netvouz
• Newsvine
• openBM
• RawSugar
• reddit
• Rojo
• Rollyo
• Scuttle
• Shadows
• Simpy
• Sitetagger
• Smarking
• Spurl
• StumbleUpon
• taghop
• TailRank
• Ticklr
• unalog
• Yahoo My Web 2.0
• yoonoo
• ……so on

Well at present the market is at steady state with dominant leaders as – del.icio.us and StumbleUpon.The rest of the pack, including Yahoo MyWeb2.0, appears to be substantially behind.Lets see whether they catch up them or not.I have account in up to 10 site from above.So i can say some of the here, where others i hope to here from you people.

This social bookmarking era has been started from our leader del.icio.us .The simple concept behind is tags present in different web site and blogs.The idea of storing your bookmarks and sharing them to public what you have bookmarked has make the web a rich knowledge storage ecosystem.So lets starts the discussion with the leader ….here i mostly concern with pros and corns .

Lets put a glance :-

del.icio.us

As i already inform that del.icio.us is the dominant share holder of the users,the main features they the reliability its a bit fat easy to use.So we can say its a more user friendly site.You can easy search the tags and get most adequate data.You can categorize your bookmarks.
Where comes to draw back they provide very few additional features with it.They don’t provide any marking tools,comment tool.The site too not so fancy.

I don’t know exact figure to how many users they have.But on September ,2006,25 they reach to 1 million registered users and on March,2007,29 they reach to 2 million now guess how rapidly they were growing.I have joined to it after that particular mark.

StumbleUpon(Discover new sites)

It was founded on 2001 by Garrett Camp a 28 yr old software engineer along with his 2 friends.Well its has now 2,868,807 registered users today.They provide you a tool bar which is configurable to Firefox & IE browsers,a nice tool bar.Well they provide you to search your site related to videos,photos and you can share them with your friends,you can meet people that have similar interests.So i suppose a differed approach help them to get users.Would be great to have directory and browse related.

diigo

Diigo is different, though. The service is only in beta testing at this point, so you have to actually request an invitation to participate. Diigo not only lets you save a bookmark to the page, but it also allows you to highlight content. It lets you add virtual sticky notes to the page. This really is the ideal tool for research and blogs. You can access your thoughts about a certain web page from anywhere in the world, right on the web page. How many times have you wished that blogs and webpages worked like books. You wish that you could add margins. You wish that the margins could be either public or private. It’s all possible with Diigo.
As i came to know about this site just a week back,so i have used it for a week only but i had much pleased with this site.They provide a tool bar and u can configure it a you want .If you are book marking a site you can also update your del.icio.us bookmark not even only delicious but also few more like shadow,spurl…around 10 well known bookmarking site.You can have a demo on the site itself.
Any being new to market it have very few users in account around a thousands.But any how hope soon it can find its image in market of Social bookmarking sites.

MyWeb2.0

Here’s the yahoo he will put his leg every where i suppose.It has been launched on June 29, 2005 by Yahoo Inc.You can tag your bookmark site either as public or private and share it with your friends .As we already have Yahoo tool bar so just we need to upgrade the older bar as new one contain this My web tool bar so that you can bookmark site itself from there.
The main draw back is it doesn’t have feature as other bookmarking sites provide.Lets see how they will come up in there

BlinkList

BlinkSpaces – create a community out of your links, nice browser tool bar, all and all really nice.Well it also slag behind when comes to additional features.

Digg:

Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. From the biggest online destinations to the most obscure blog, Digg surfaces the best stuff as voted on by its users. You won’t find editors at Digg — its a place where people can collectively determine the value of content how worth fully is it shown. Once something is submitted, other people see it and Digg what they like best. If your submission rocks and receives enough Diggs, it is promoted to the front page for the millions of our visitors to see.
The number of registered user reach to 1 million on march ,2007,7. So its totally based on its community i.e its users.Any how i didn’t tested it well.Waiting for your comments regarding this.

Shadow,furl,simpy are some of well known site but i didn’t use those yet.

Technology Used:

Most of these sites are based on Web2.0 technology.As this the technology which a customer likes more no refreshing of the pages,smooth effects on eye.The basic concept on what this sites are developed is tagging & keyword SEO(Search Engine Optimization) operation.These sites mostly go through the blogging sites.

At last:
Any how these are the few social bookmarking sites which i have used.Lets see who will be leader in future.As the number of sites increasing day by day.Essentiality of this site plays as important role.Thats it friends from my side ,now i am waiting from your side

A True Love

Hi friends here is a heart touching one…..

This is what True Love is all about:

It was a busy morning, approximately 8:30 a.m., when an elderly gentleman in his 80’s, arrived to have stitches removed from his thumb. He stated that he was in a hurry as he had an appointment at 9:00 am.I took his vital signs and had him take a seat, knowing it would be over an hour before someone would to able to see him. I saw him look at his watch and decided, since I was not busy with another patient, I would evaluate his wound. On exam, it was well healed, so I talked to one of the doctors, got the needed supplies to remove his sutures and redress his wound.

While taking care of his wound, we began to engage in conversation. I asked him if he had another doctor’s appointment this morning, as he was in such a hurry. The gentleman told me no, that he needed to go to the nursing home to eat breakfast with his wife.I then inquired as to her health. He told me that she had been there for a while and that she was a victim of Alzheimer’ s Disease.

As we talked, I asked if she would be upset if he was a bit late. He replied that she no longer knew who he was, that she had not recognized him in five years now.I was surprised, and asked him, “And you still go every morning, even though she doesn’t know who you are?”

He smiled as he patted my hand and said, “She doesn’t know me, but I still know who she is.” I had to hold back tears as he left, I had goose bumps on my arm, and thought, “That is the kind of love I want in my life.”

True love is neither physical, nor romantic. True love is an acceptance of all that is, has been, will be, and will not be.

With all the jokes and fun that are in e-mails, sometimes there are some that come along that have an important message, and this is one of those kind. Just had to share it with you all.

FireFox ,Opera & other Internet Browsers…….

Hi every body ,

Most of the people uses internet in his daily life for various purposes ,so we get connected to the live world through a tool known as browser.So lets discuss few browsers today.There nearly 10+ browsers available today supporting various operating systems.Among this most known browsers are Internet Explorer , Mozilla, Mozilla Firefox,Opera , Netscape, and Safari.Lets discuss few of this here considering different aspects.

Internet Explorer (IE):-

IE browser is developed by the Microsoft Corp. This is the most widely used browser , today most of the PC’s have IE 6 browser.The problem with IE6 is that it doesn’t have multiple tabs , each time it opens a new window which makes our explorer a mesh of window.However this problem is overcome in there updated browser IE 7.

The main problems with the IE browsers are that they throw script and html errors frequently. From developer point of view its a headache to handle there Java script and JSP codes in IE. Suppose if your using one form in another form it will through an error as a result it throws an alert which is hard to understand for this we require visual studio(developed by Microsoft) ‘is this is a business tactics by the organization[:)].Its not friendly to web developer point of view.

 

Any how due to well established in the market they are 1st in place.But if the development in developing there browser is slow like this then its a big problem for them. If you want to download the IE7 you can get from here.

Mozilla & Mozilla Firefox:-

In my point of view this is the best user as well as developer friendly.These two products are developed by Mozilla Corporation.These browsers are open source and come up with huge number of add-ons (themes ,web developing tool bars,etc.), here you can create your own extension but need to know some technology.The main advantage of mozilla is it supports Windows Mac os and Linux in .It come up with multi search engine sights and you can configure it.
Among this add-ons well famous ones are,

• cooliris Previews:-its just similar to snap shots its open the link in a dialog window you don’t need to go that page.
• firebug:-This the feature which every developer would like to have.Using this u can see the page download time,can see how many requests are being passed while loading the page,you can dynamically change the HTML code and see the changes at that instance.
• Dictionary Tooltip:- Here you can see the meaning of unknown word.
• FoxyTunes:-You can listen online music while surfing in web.
• Web Developer:-Adds a web developer tool bar which can be used while debugging the code of web based applications.

…and lots more.

The draw back of firefox is it crashes more when compare to other browsers.But any how the updated version is some what stable.You can get Firefox updated version from here.

Opera:-Opera browser comes for the windows machines.The following considerations they make in there updated version.Let me discuss some salient security features here.

Security: -

• Fraud Protection:-It will protect your personal data from being steal by the websites.You can see the demo here
• Encryption:-Opera supports Secure Socket Layer (SSL) versions 2 and 3, and TLS. Opera offers automatic 256-bit encryption, the highest available security of any Web browser.
• Cookie control
• Security bar are some key features.

You can see all features in opera downloading site.

Safari:-Safari is developed by Apple Inc. Its totally performance based browser.Its available for Mac OS & windows think so. They(apple) clam it to be a fastest browser on any platform.You can see stats and download product from this link.So these are some of the browsers which i have used.Please share your view, opinions and if you know any thing more about the browsers.
Lets see in coming years who dominates in the world.

Instant Messangers.and Online Web Messengers

Update:- Snimmer has been directed to kkurok. 

I have have used many instant messengers like yahoo messenger , g talk, jabber, hot mail…etc .Of this i love to use yahoo messenger ,think just because there we can have chat rooms so we can make new friends. Now yahoo thinking of internationalization , i mean to say they are coming up with different regional languages.Do any body know about meebo its to a instant messenger but they also allow to use g talk,yahoo,jabber,AOL & hot mail .It seams to be a cool as there is no need to download any setup here .Off course now yahoo,g mail….all this supports this feature through there mails. In meebo you can create your own rooms where u can invite your friends.Any how this(meebo) is not as fast as other messengers (i think browser depended messengers are a bit slow.) .

Yahoo is the only messenger which has expression image you can integrate few images plugins to it too (smiles ).I thing g talk don’t think of creating new friends so they are not providing any chat rooms. They(g mail) also don’t support Cam integration .Here are the places where all other lags behind..yahoo

1. Different rooms are available so u can make new friends
2. Huge number of expressions which adds color to your chatting …your feelings
3. You can chat through cam .
4. Its UI

But at few places it lagged those are

1. Huge number of ads which some time irritate users.
2. Voice chat is not that much clear(compare to g talk).

This is a huge market as this is the place where every body of all age group come up.So lets see what new features going to come in future…

Here are some online web messangers

	Networks						Mobile	Chat conference	History Recording	Registration Required	URL
eBuddy											visit
ILoveIM											visit
Yahoo Web Messenger											visit
MSN Web Messenger											visit
Google Talk											visit
Meebo											visit
Kool IM											visit
Radius IM											visit
Snimmer											visit
Mabber											visit
EasyMessenger											visit
IMunitive											visit
Messenger FX											visit
AIM Express											visit

Worthful to read …..A window.

Two men, both seriously ill, occupied the same hospital room.

One man was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour each afternoon to help drain the fluid from his lungs.His bed was next to the room’s only window.The other man had to spend all his time flat on his back.The men talked for hours on end. They spoke of their wives and families, their homes, their jobs, their involvement in the military service, where they had been on vacation.

Every afternoon when the man in the bed by the window could sit up, he would pass the time by describing to his roommate all the things he could see outside the window.The man in the other bed began to live for those one hour periods where his world would be broadened and enlivened by all the activity and color of the world outside.

The window overlooked a park with a lovely lake. Ducks and swans played on the water while children sailed their model boats. Young lovers walked arm in arm amidst flowers of every color and a fine view of the city skyline could be seen in the distance.As the man by the window described all this in exquisite detail, the man on the other side of the room would close his eyes and imagine the picturesque scene.

One warm afternoon the man by the window described a parade passing by.Although the other man couldn’t hear the band – he could see it. In his mind’s eye as the gentleman by the window portrayed it with descriptive words.

Days and weeks passed.

One morning, the day nurse arrived to bring water for their baths only to find the lifeless body of the man by the window, who had died peacefully in his sleep. She was saddened and called the hospital attendants to take the body away.

As soon as it seemed appropriate, the other man asked if he could be moved next to the window. The nurse was happy to make the switch, and after making sure he was comfortable, she left him alone.

Slowly, painfully, he propped himself up on one elbow to take his first look at the real world outside. He strained to slowly turn to look out the window beside the bed.

It faced a blank wall.

The man asked the nurse what could have compelled his deceased roommate who had described such wonderful things outside this window.

The nurse responded that the man was blind and could not even see the wall.

She said, “Perhaps he just wanted to encourage you.”

Epilogue:

There is tremendous happiness in making others happy, despite our own situations.Shared grief is half the sorrow, but happiness when shared, is doubled.If you want to feel rich, just count all the things you have that money can’t buy.