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N. Nagaraj

Looking back in time. - K. BHAGYA PRAKASH

With many lifestyle ideas going `retro', it was only a matter of time before IT systems and IT people did that as well.

And how! Many hardcore IT professionals have a great nostalgia for command line interfaces, especially if they have been unlucky enough to have to move out of the Unix or Unix-derived environment.

But some of them have been fanatic enough about it to design a few modern command line interfaces for things that we use and do today. One early example is the 20 GOTO 10 Web site (http://www.20- goto-10.com/). It is a proof-of-concept site that uses a dos shell-like interface to navigate the site and do Web search using Google.

There is no need to use the mouse and, best of all, people will think you are an extreme geek: running commands on the Internet.

Of course, try this on a youngster or your grandmother, because the older tech guys used to access the Net this way anyway.

Another Web site that has gone `retro' in terms of the concept of the command line rather than the look and feel is YubNub (http://yubnub.org/).

This site lets you create your own commands for using the Internet. You can create commands that will initiate predefined searches through Google or a specific Web site.

YubNub is more than just eye candy if you search for the same stuff every now and then and at different sources. For example, if you are a keen blogger, you can create a specific search for your name in Google blog search just to massage your ego a little bit!

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