Well, I have moved on. I no longer update this blog as I've acquired my own domain www.venu.in
So my new blog is at http://www.venu.in/blog - powered by Wordpress of course. Somehow it slipped my mind that I should announce it here. :( Most of the posts on this blog have already been migrated to my new blog.
Request you to update your RSS/ATOM feeds. See you there. :)

Windows Starter Editions for "Emerging Markets"

This morning while driving to work, I was listening to Leo Laporte and Paul Thurrott’s TWiT podcast  – Windows Weekly. (A must listen for people interested in Microsoft technologies.) The topic under discussion was the various versions of Windows 7 Operating Systems – in particular, the “Home Basic” or the “Starter” edition of Windows 7 planned for the politically correct “Emerging Nations”, which in plain English denotes the group of third world nations including India/China.

 

The so called “Starter” edition is a heavily stripped down Windows – No Aero, no gloss, only three applications running at a time. It is supposed to be the poor man’s window to the world. While I appreciate this nice gesture of Microsoft to serve the poor and the needy – I would like to see some statistics on how many Vista Starter editions it has sold till now in these “emerging markets”. Let us talk India since I am an Indian and I stay in India. I have traveled well – from the tech savvy Metros to the What-Is-A-Computer parts of India. I have used various computers. These computers have either a pirated version of Windows XP Home/Vista Home Premium operating system or simply Ubuntu. I am yet to come across a Windows Vista Starter edition.

 

Piracy is rampant in this part of the world. It is a menace that Microsoft is trying to tackle in a wrong way. The solution lies in making the software affordable to the common public of India – not in offering a skeleton of the OS and charging for it. People would simply buy the pirated version (Available at 2 $ - Any software) or load Ubuntu. If Windows Vista were available today for say – 50$ instead of the insane 150$ (for the premium version), the revenue Microsoft gets from these third world nations will be far more than what they are getting from the sales of Windows Vista Starter – which I believe is a big zero. The key is in differential pricing – not differential features.

 

I am not advocating piracy here. Please don’t get me wrong. I am one of the very few legal owners of Windows Vista Home Premium operating system in India. I am just amazed by the lack of business acumen demonstrated by these big corporates. They have consistently failed to read the Third World script and they haven’t learnt from their mistakes till now. I reiterate – fight piracy and boost your revenues by lowering the prices – not by stripping down the features. It just doesn’t work that way.

 

By the way – you can follow Leo Laporte’s TWiT podcasts on www.twit.tv

The Language Story

I have suspected it for a long time. It has been out there lurking around the corner waiting for the right time to strike. And boy! It did – with full force. The “it” here is the realization that my language skills have been going down the drain steadily.

It defies logic actually. There is this age old wisdom shouting from the rooftops that knowledge is permanent and that it can only improve. Once learnt, it stays with you till you die. Of course there are exceptions to this rule as you probably cannot solve an integro differential equation as deftly as you could fifteen years ago. However “language”, I have been of the opinion, is a permanent fixture – something that gets printed on your subconscious mind and is readily available in chaste purity whenever its services are called for.

Of late, I am beginning to realize that this opinion is merely a hypothesis concocted by a defiant mind which is far removed from reality. No wonder the Chromagnus human beings believed in the adage - “Practice makes a man perfect”.

If you don’t practice – you lose the skill – whatever skill it may be. Language is no exception to this. Unless you keep reading good literature, write grammatically sound sentences by putting some effort into making it clean and precise, you are going to go down the drain along with your language skills. If you are of the opinion that content is more important than structure, congratulations – your journey to the bottom of Mariana Trench has already begun.

This morning, while warming the nice cozy bench in the office, I decided to read a couple of my stories/reviews from 2002. I couldn’t believe that I wrote them. They were great. They had long sentences with proper punctuation and grammar. I am not saying that in 2002 I was giving P G Wodehouse a run for his money. Those writings had their usual share of grammatical as well as spelling errors. However, the density of such errors was minimal back then. Now, I write four sentences of which at least three break some rule of grammar and the remaining one, though pure from a grammar/spelling point of view, is as awkwardly constructed as possible.

This set me on an introspecting expedition. What has changed since 2002?

1. I came back to India from the US in 2002.

2. My reading habit has taken a beating. I don’t read Wodehouse anymore. My reading these days consists mostly of Chetan Bhagat and Digital Inspiration blog on the internet.

3. I have become more politically correct.

The third point in the list above requires some explanation. Back then, I was a free bird. I had no affiliations. I would skin alive anything and everything if I didn’t like it. However, today I think twice before recording a negative view about the stuff I review. I try to an objective assessment and in the process lose the focus and thereby the interest. By the time the article crosses the midway mark, my mind is elsewhere and the only goal dictating the proceedings is the burning seven year itch to complete the article and post it on the internet.

The second point, I believe, is a big influencing parameter. I started “writing” in English after my graduation at the age of 21. I was unbelievably raw (for want of a better word) in English and I must thank P G Wodehouse, O Henry and even Michael Crichton for showing me the way. I practically grew up under their able guidance. When I was on a Jeeves spree, my articles resembled Wodehouse style. (Let me make it very clear. I can’t write my name and P G Wodehouse together in a sentence without causing the great man turn in his grave restlessly. I am only talking about the style factor here. At best I could pass off as a Bad Wodehouse Wannabe.) When I was reading O Henry (or William Sydney Porter) my stories had the proverbial and inevitable twist-in-the-tale. My friends used to play a guessing game. They would guess what I was reading the night before, by going through my articles.

What happens if P G Wodehouse is then replaced by Chetan Bhagat and O Henry by Amit of Digital Inspiration? You sound like them – Don’t you? (Again, no offence to Chetan or Amit. It is just that they have a different purpose in literature and life than P G Wodehouse.) It is alright if the article in question is a blog on the internet discussing something technical/political. However if it is a story, Being Amit is not the best approach. In this case, the affiliation or the style inspiration should be P G Wodehouse. By the same yard stick, I wouldn’t want my “Windows 7 First Impressions” blog to sound like P G W. On second thoughts, I think that would be cool. I should try that sometime.

That brings us to the first point in the list above – the drastic change in the environment. I would attribute a major part of my English refining process to the four years that I had spent in the United States. Not that US English is the best of the lot, but it did help me polish my language. The number of opportunities that a person gets to interact in English is far more in the US than in India. At the end of 2002, I sold my Corolla and traveled back to India (The Software Engineer Who Sold His Corolla). I did not get any spiritual insight into the way things worked but I did manage to lose the grip I had so painstakingly developed over the years.

Today, I don’t proofread my articles. I don’t check them for grammar or spelling. In the mad dash to get the article posted on the internet, I don’t even check if the purported central idea is respected throughout the piece of writing. I just start – write – finish and post. And there lies the problem. I am keeping my bar low because I feel that the blogs do not need a fine piece of writing. The posts that I make on the internet do not have to be exquisitely composed. If I am writing a novel or if my blogs are going to be compiled into a book version, I would probably spend more time polishing them.

This is more like a page from my diary. However, I think there is a takeaway or two from this write-up for everyone. Keep your influencing parameters high (Read P G Wodehouse) and don’t ever lower your bar. (Assume you are writing for TIME magazine or The Hindu newspaper.)

For now, I will just go back to my bookshelf, dust the copy of “Life at Blandings” and start reading it again.

 

Praja Rajyam in Andhra Pradesh

Found this near Nellore – A great statement (unintended though) for Chiranjeevi’s political party: Praja Rajyam. Elect us and we will give you what you see in this picture. :)

(I am not a supporter of Praja Rajyam. I am neutral as far as politics are concerned. Found this to be interesting. Hence the post.)

Telugu Movie Review: Konchem Ishtam Konchem Kashtam

Back in the days of yore, movies subscribed to a particular format – Rope in a big hero; Four fights; Six Songs; A heroine whose IQ hovers around 35; A big lengthy brawl at the end with some molten metal complete with an insanely complicated pulley and lever arrangement whose sole purpose is invariably to kill the hero’s kith and kin in the most difficult way possible. Oh yes! I forgot about the police jeep arriving into the photo frame on which the beautiful phrase “The End” is eventually printed much to the relief of the patrons.

The nineties saw a different formula. Rope in a big hero (no change here.); Four fights again; However these fights have three important factors that distinguish them from the eighties movies.

1.       These fights do not end. Period.

2.       There is no room for gravity in this world.

3.       The hero is more powerful than Samson and Achilles put together are.

Once the fights are thus conceptualized, rope in the leading women. Remember the golden rule here: there is no upper limit. The more women the better it is. Now plan six songs and place an order for a hundred Tata Sumos of which ninety have nothing much to do except mutely watch the hero deliver punch lines to the villain. The remaining ten Sumos occasionally travel on the road and a select group of these Sumos gets to travel in the air – mostly upwards like rockets but sometimes in a parabola too. Being innovative in the screenplay means the Sumos executing a hyperbolic trajectory.

After a deluge of such movies, we have seen a whip of fresh air – movies that offer something new and where “image” and Sumos do not dictate the screenplay. Frustrated by the macho men of the nineties, audience lapped up these soft subjects. Bommarillu is a case in point. It ushered in a completely new era for Tollywood.

Now, there are two ways to read the message here. One, people do not want to see beaten-to-death formula movies and need fresh subjects. The other, people want Bommarillus.

Sadly, the filmmakers have chosen the latter interpretation. After Bommarillu, an avalanche of such movies has started to hit the marquee. Boy meets girl. They tease each other. They fall in love. They face an obstacle – which has something to do with the upbringing of one or both of them. Being the ideal sons and daughters that they are, they correct the problem – almost always involving the parents on either side. The boy and the girl show an incredible maturity for the age they are and are willing to sacrifice anything and everything for the happiness of their parents. All the characters in the movie are so disbelievingly sweet that it suffocates you. You gasp for breath. You cannot take the sugar anymore. You yearn for some mirchi – something hot – something not so perfect. Hell! You want those flying Sumos again! However, this is the Bommarillu genre. There cannot be any projectiles here. Therefore, at the end of the thirteenth reel, a series of heavy conversations take place in the movie – often sermonizing on the art of parenthood – glycerin flowing freely - and people live happily ever after and you come out of the movie hall with moist eyes and 4 out of 5 rating.

Cinema is an escapist medium I agree. Reality is not picture perfect. We do not want to see the same stuff on the celluloid. However, beyond a certain point, it becomes difficult to accept these beautiful characters that exhibit no shades of grey. The latest Siddhartha Tamanna starrer Konchem Ishtam Konchem Kashtam (KIKK) suffers from the same problem.

KIKK is Bommarillu served in a not so new bottle. You have tasted Thumbs Up; you have tasted some Pepsi as well; now you are served Coca Cola.

It is not a bad movie though. It is superbly shot. Cinematography is the best I have seen in the recent times. The villages and the cities come alive on the screen. The camera angles are great. The background score is fantastic. Songs look great on the screen. I loved the way the song “Abba cha” has been choreographed. Tamanna looks great but has miles to go in the acting department. Siddharth sleepwalks literally. He has been essaying the same role since 2005. Prakash Raj turns in a good performance. My pick of the lot is Ramya Krishna who has underplayed her role to excellent effect. Brahmanandam entertains as Gacchibowli Diwakar.

When the movie ends and you are walking down the hallway towards the exit, a sense of déjà vu engulfs you. Been there; done that. The movie has nothing new to offer.

Rajni might have sung – “Kick YekkelE”. But this KIKK ekkalE.

My rating: 3 out of 5.

 

Indians can live without food but take “controversy” off their dictionary, I bet they would choke in a day! 

It is amusing to see all these discussions on Slumdog Millionaire. It may or may not be a great movie. However the “controversy” part has suddenly become bigger than the movie itself. In fact it has now reached quite an unmanageable state with people losing their mind and becoming victims of unnecessary jingoism.

Here is a nice bit of tip for all those people. Movies are just that. Movies. They are not political statements. They don’t ascertain the supremacy of one race over another. They don’t change the world – for most parts that is. Sadly in India, they do seem to change the way we live!

Yes. Slumdog Millionaire shows the slums of India. Well, isn't that what the story is all about? When you are making a movie based on the life of a slum-dweller, do you keep the backdrop as the slums of Mumbai or the five star resorts of Rajasthan? The movie is based on a novel written by an Indian by the way– (Q & A, by Vikas Swarup) and this novel talks about the slums in even greater detail. The novel was released in 2006 if I remember correctly and I was one of those who bought the author-signed copies in Landmark, Chennai. I liked the novel but did not find it great.

Arguing that the movie would result in the West thinking about India as a land of slums is akin to Indians forming an opinion on the US based on what is shown in Basic Instinct or for that matter – Scary Movie!

Watch the movie for the entertainment it offers and no one can deny that Slumdog Millionaire is entertaining. It is racy; interesting; hard hitting and ends on a positive note. The movie is all about the rags to riches story of a Slumdog. Probably next time Danny Boyle makes a movie with an Indian backdrop, we can request him to talk about CityPigeons featuring our pigeon hole apartments facing the beach or the river.  (Or cats, horses, rhinos – whatever you want.) And we can all beat our chest saying “This is the real India.”

Or still better. Let us send “Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham” to the Oscars next time and shout from the rooftops, “Oh West, Oh West – form an opinion on India based on this movie. This is so much better than the slums you have seen earlier.”

 

 

Telugu Cinema: Arundhati - Review

I confess. I had no plans of watching a movie in the cramped two day trip to Nellore, my hometown. However when my cousin called me from London and told me about the rave reviews this movie had been getting, I decided to check it out. Another compelling reason was: The movie hall was just a block away from my house.

Saturday night show – no tickets. Sunday noon show – no tickets. Black market touched 3oo rupees (for a 50 rupee ticket). Finally, I managed to get into the matinee show. (Paid the face price!) I was all excited to see Anushka in what is reportedly her first performance oriented role.

Arundhati has a lot going for it. The producer M. S. Reddy is known to have lavish budgets for his movies. He is also a great CGI fan and churns out graphics stuff that is always of its time – at least in the Telugu industry. (Case in point: The “hand” in Ammoru and the wonderful depiction of Lord Shiva in Anji.)

The director, Kodi Ramakrishna, a known face in the fantasy/mythological circuit, is a veteran in dealing with such subjects. His movies are known for edge of the seat action sequences and of course plenty of divine intervention.

Arundhati has everything aforementioned and some more. In fact it is so extravagant that you feel suffocated at times. The story unfolds at breakneck speed and throws unmanageable events at you one after another. That lovely jaw of yours that is supposed to drop in awe at the sequences happening on the screen is not allowed to actually drop as another sequence starts right away. You gasp for breath and you stare at the screen disbelievingly. It takes a while to acclimatize to the high pressure screenplay of Arundhati.

Once you learn to handle it with the seatbelts fastened and oxygen mask kept ready, the movie takes you through a detailed and gory portrayal of a family haunted by the ubiquitous evil spirit. Only one person can stop the force. And you know who it is, even before the movie has actually hit the marquee.

Let us be very clear. This is not a movie for everyone. If you are faint hearted or under 18 years of age, stay clear of this movie. Please do not take your kids to the show. They cannot handle it. It is too violent, gory, bloody, sadistic for them. I pity the kids in the movie hall today. I can give it to you in writing that they would not be sleeping peacefully for the next one week. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if there are any long term psychological impact on these children.

That makes me wonder. Why do parents, who are otherwise very responsible and wish for the best for their kids, expose their little angels to movies such as Arundhati? The movie would earn an “R” rating in the US – Not even a 18.

Please do not take chances. Leave your kids with their grandparents if you are planning to watch this movie.

That said, there is not a single dull moment in this movie. The action starts the moment the censor certificate disappears. The songs do not stand out. You won’t even notice them. The director has ensured that the tempo doesn’t come down anywhere. The first half, the interval bang, the second half, the climax – such differentiation has no place in this movie. Every scene has all the elements to excite you and make you wait for the next scene. Only, before your wait starts, the next scene ends.

The story is pretty much predictable and the end is what you have foreseen in the beginning. There are some silly rituals and methods thanks to the creative liberty available in fantasy genre. The process of setting up the grand annihilation of the evil spirit starts to look very contrived after you leave the theatre and your dazed feeling begins to wear down. However when you are in the middle of the action, such thoughts don’t cross your mind and spoil your experience.

Anushka doesn’t disappoint. She proves that given a good role, she can come up a credible performance. Her dancing skills however are inadequate in the context of this story. The classical dance movements fall absolutely flat. A great classical dance performance helps in elevating the scene to the highest level. (For instance, Shobana’s stellar show in Mani Chitratazha – the original of Chandramukhi.) Discounting this minor hiccup, Anushka has risen to the occasion.

The rest of the cast is adequate. Another stand out performance is given by Shayaji Shinde – as a good hearted Phakir who helps Anushka in her battle with the evil spirit. The evil is efficiently personified by Sonu Sood. The role requires him to look menacing and – basically “evil”. He manages that commendably.

Fortunately, there is no comedy track diluting the experience. The CGI work is pretty good though not in the same league as Hollywood. Given the budget constraints we have in the regional cinema circuit in India, the graphics work is fantabulous. You are not going to see anything like this in the Telugu Cinema – for a long time to come.

Background score is very good. Koti has turned in a lovely score though the first song reminds you of “Amma Brahma demudo” song from Govinda Govinda.

I have a question though. If you have seen the movie, can you tell me who the husband of Arundhati (Jejamma) is?

Final Word: Strictly not for children and for people who cannot enjoy sadistic horror. For the rest, don’t miss the movie.

My verdict: 4 out of 5 (with some riders – discussed above)

 

Windows 7 Beta: First Impression

Windows 7 has been carrying positive reports ever since the limited Beta was provided to a few niche Technology bloggers. While the individual opinions do differ on the details, all these bloggers agree that Windows 7 is what Vista should have been.

It looks like Microsoft has finally got its act together. So when the Beta opened up for public download, I didn’t think twice before installing it on my laptop in dual boot mode so that I can get back to the XP installation anytime I want.

Installation:

Installation was a breeze. On my Core 2 Duo laptop with 1 GB RAM, it took about twenty minutes to install – with all the inputs required from the user taken in the first one minute. There are hardly three input screens. If you are installing it in dual boot mode, ensure you select the right partition here so that you don’t lose your existing setup. Then you simply sit back and relax. Windows 7 gets some brownie points here.

Look and Feel:

It resembles Vista in every possible way. In fact it feels like a lovely skin on the top of Vista. The task bar is a great surprise though and I love way the open windows are grouped in the task bar. When you hover your mouse on the task bar group, it shows all the open instances of that group. (See image below) Another set of brownie points into Windows 7 sack.

Here’s the best part of the UI redesign. After persisting with the same design for over a decade, Microsoft has finally revamped the UI of the following programs.

1. Calculator:

 

2. Paint:

However, notepad still remains the same. In fact, I wouldn’t want to add any frills to notepad because its USP is essentially its simplicity. So no complaints there. However, the GUI rework of Paint and Calculator is a nice gesture. They have the look and feel of a modern program now.

Usability/Options/Features:

When you install Windows 7 beta, you are given just the operating system. Yes, it is the “Ultimate” version of Windows 7 but still there is no office suite or internet tools such as an instant messenger or an email client. Another glaring omission is the Anti-virus software. When you boot into the system for the first time, the OS tells you that there is no anti virus software and provides you three options to choose from. None of these options are free. However you can download AVG anti virus software – the free version – from http://free.avg.com It works fine with Windows 7.

Here, let me take a small detour and talk a few lines about Windows Live. (You can download the latest version from Microsoft and it works fine on Vista too.)

The first thing you should be doing after installing the OS is to get the Windows Live suite of products installed. This provides you with a very useful set of applications such as the Live Writer for blogging, Live Photo Gallery, Live Mail and Messenger. I am typing this review in Live Writer. It can interact with any Blogger/WordPress/TypePad/LiveJournal based blogging platform.

Live Photo Gallery looks pretty much identical to what we have seen earlier. However one important addition is its ability to recognize the presence of human faces in a photo. When you open a photo in Live Photo Gallery, it identifies the faces in the photos and asks you to name them. Then you can search photos based on those names.

Getting back to Windows 7, working with network connections is now simpler than ever. Also there is a new option - “Adjust Commonly Used Mobility Settings”, which I found to be incredibly useful. It packs most of the adjustments we need to make – at one place.(Screenshot below)

The new Windows Media Center retains the same Vista interface with a couple of minor changes. For instance, you can now view the games installed on your PC from Media Center and play them. Solitaire has undergone a nice UI revamp and looks better now.

Windows Media Center of course runs on the top of Windows Media Player, which also has been tweaked a bit.

As you see, there is a preview option available for the songs. Also the interface is less cluttered and more user friendly.

Before I forget, let me talk about two new programs added to the standard repository of Windows. This blog post uses one of them quite extensively. It is called the Snipping Tool and it takes screenshots. You can take the entire screen or select a portion of it. This functionality, earlier provided in One Note 2007 – is pretty handy especially when you are writing reviews like this that require quite a few screenshots.

The other program is called “Sticky Notes”. It doesn’t need any explanation I guess. However it remains to be seen how many of us will actually use this when programs like EverNote are around.

There are hundreds of such minor tweaks and additions. The underlying principle governing these changes seems to be to provide an unmatched user experience.

The only issue that I have encountered so far is – Windows 7 failed to recognize the C drive of my XP partition. The other drives have been recognized and mounted automatically. The fix is simple though. You just have to fire up the Disk Management utility and assign a new drive letter to that volume.

The operating system, as said by Microsoft, works just fine on computers which do not have great specs. On my 1GB machine, the experience is very good. Sadly the same thing cannot be said about Vista.

Based on my first impression – a marathon run of about four hours on Windows 7, I give it a thumbs up – In fact two thumbs up. The beta is quite stable and is almost end user ready. Microsoft finally gets it right. I hope they ship this on time this year. It is expected to release during 2009 holiday season but already there are indicators that it might be delayed.

If you are still on XP and are contemplating a shift to Vista, hold on to XP for now. You may want to skip Vista altogether and go to Windows 7.

I will be talking about the individual features of Windows 7 in greater detail in the coming months. Hope you liked this teaser preview. Don’t forget to leave your comments.

Testing Live Writer Beta

I am just testing the new Windows Live Beta from a Windows 7 machine. This post will be removed immediately.

First Impressions on the Google Phone G1

Some of you are probably aware that I had ordered a G1 phone sometime back. The phone arrived in one piece in a large UPS box flummoxing my family members. When we opened the box however, we realized that 90% of the box was empty. The remaining 10% had the G1 – The Android Dev Phone.

Since I already have an iPhone 3G, the primary user of this phone would be my cousin. He didn’t have GPRS enabled on his Airtel SIM card and G1 wouldn’t boot until you supply your gmail id and log into it (Or you can create a new one.) Quite dumb I would say but it didn’t spoil the party because GPRS activation with Airtel took hardly 2 minutes. We were able to log into the phone to see our Email and Contacts already set up. It pulled the data from the Gmail server.

Before I forget…

1. Yes, you can forward messages.

2. Yes, you can send MMS.

3. Yes, there is Copy Paste.

All set for killing the iPhone? Read on… 

The surprising omission in G1 is the PC interface. The phone has no such interface. When we connect it to the PC, it shows up as a removable drive. How to install Applications? How to upgrade the firmware? Absolutely no clue out of the box. Yes, the phone has a lovely Google app preinstalled though and a search on Google solves most of these issues anyway. Maybe that is the idea!

My cousin had no clue how to transfer the contacts list from his MS Outlook to this phone. Finally he found a freeware application to upload those contacts to Gmail and then let G1 synch those contacts with the phone. Unconventional but it worked!

Following are my personal observations on the phone.

Touch Screen: If you are an iPhone user, you will instantly recognize the difference. It is not as responsive as the iPhone. You have to apply a little – a tad little – extra pressure and the response time is frustrating. You touch the screen and you wait for the phone to respond. If you are scrolling through a big list, you swipe your finger down and stare at the motionless screen. Then all of a sudden the scrolling starts.

Also the touch screen functionality is kind of limited compared to the iPhone. For instance, to zoom in or zoom out, with an iPhone you just have touch the screen with two fingers and spread them farther or nearer. The G1 has no such trick. It shows a Zoom In button and a Zoom Out button on the screen. You have to repeatedly touch those buttons to zoom.

Accelerometer: The phone boasts of an accelerometer but the native OS version that comes with the phone doesn’t support it. If I change the orientation of the phone, the display does not change. To get to the horizontal orientation, I have to slide open the keyboard. This is not a big issue because I am sure a firmware upgrade will fix it.

Keyboard: One of the pain points of an iPhone is that it has no physical keyboard and using an on-screen keyboard can get a little tricky. G1, on the other hand, has a nice keyboard that slides in and out smoothly. The layout is pretty much in line with the standard QWERTY computer keyboard. However, even if you want to type a single letter – you need to slide out the display and use the keyboard. There is no on-screen keyboard at all. This is a big problem because the sliding mechanism is prone to wear and tear. If you have to slide it out every time you type a message, I am not sure how long it will last. The build quality of the phone is excellent though. Again, a firmware upgrade can fix this issue by providing the on-screen keyboard as well.

Another pain area: There was no dictionary!

Camera: There is a 3.2 MP camera but the quality is so poor that my E61i with a 2MP camera outscores it completely. Also the camera has a dedicated button on the side of the phone unlike the iPhone where the “click” is also a touch. This button has to be pressed physically and most of the time it results in a shake. This can also be fixed by providing a touch interface.

Aesthetics: Contrary to the reports, I found the phone to be extremely pleasing on the eyes. It feels solid and the sliding mechanism is “cute” to quote my wife. I love dedicated Call and Call-End buttons. The track-ball is a nice addition. Battery life is not as good as the iPhone (which itself is quite poor!) but I expect a better performance when the next Android version rolls out.

Final Word: All these are my first impressions. The phone has a lot of promise and is let down only by the software that runs on it. I am sure, given “open” nature of the OS, the phone is bound to get better in no time and offer a great alternative to the iPhone. I am excited by this phone and I look forward to developing apps for it. All we need now is a proper Android Store and an easy interface to download apps from it – like the iPhone App Store.

Price: Including shipping and taxes: $571.

My rating: Thumbs Up. 3 out of 5. Not yet an iPhone killer though.

 

Creativity and Relativity

What is creative to me is not creative to you (and vice versa).

 

Well, what exactly is “Creativity”? Is it the ability to “create” something? If I write a sentence, I am creating a fresh instance of that sentence (doesn’t matter if I copied it from Wikipedia – it still is a fresh instance.) So the sentence thus created is a fine example of “Creativity”? I have my own reservations about it. However I do realize that Relativity plays an important role here. It all depends on the reference frame (and the frame of mind of the observer.) It is just not Physics. It is Psychology too. It is not sufficient to pinpoint the coordinates of the observer in the universe. You should also describe the mental makeup of the observer because this mental make decides how he or she or it is going to perceive what he or she or it is observing.

 

Maybe you are lost there. Let me take an example. Rama, apart from being a good boy, is our observer. Bheem Bhai is our second observer.

 

Rama is standing inside the company campus near the Smoker’s Gazebo (or whatever it is called). Bheem Bhai is standing right next to Rama. While there sure is a couple of dozens of inches of space between the two observers, we can probably assume with our fingers crossed that it is a fair statement albeit an approximation that both these observers are on the same observation platform. Thus any physical phenomenon occurring in the space in front of them should look the same to both. Right?

 

WRONG.

 

Rama has just been given a nice dressing down by his boss. Reason? Rama doesn’t agree with the Creative Framework that his boss has prepared. Rama is sure that his appraisal is going to be worse than expected. He is hence angry with every damn thing under the sun – over the sun – by the side of the sun – Java – MySQL (because all these are Sun products – at least now.)

 

Bheem Bhai is a remarkable young man. He talks only when it is absolutely necessary for him to talk. Most of the times he doesn’t even listen to what people around him say. The age old adage inside the campus goes thus. “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction assuming we are not talking about Bheem Bhai.”

 

Why he is standing near the Gazebo today – is hardly a matter of debate – not because everyone knows the reason… but because everyone knows Bheem Bhai doesn’t need a reason for doing anything. He is pretty random. He hates Reason. (That’s what others say. He doesn’t say anything anyway.)

 

Enough of character development. In fact I am getting increasingly tempted to feature Bheem Bhai in my next unfinished story but for the time being let us move on to the “incident” that these two caricatures are going to observe.

 

You should make a mental note that the incident I am going to describe is exactly what it is… a description of the incident from my point of view. It may not be the actual incident because it is only my perception. To understand this perception of mine better, you need to – you guessed it! You need to understand me! So for the next five hundred words I must talk about myself – my childhood, my interests, my blood pressure levels.

 

Or you can do yourself a favor and bestow that esteemed title of “Absolute Observer” on me. I understand it is an “assumption” but maybe we can live with one.

 

The incident – A guy from facilities is carrying two large suitcases all the way from God knows where to a Tata Indica waiting on the road while the owner of the suitcases is smoking a cigarette (the whole area is a smoking zone, you see. If you don’t see, go back to my talk on – Absolutism of Relativity, the podcast of which is available on my blog.)

 

Let’s get back to Rama:

 

Rama’s view of the incident: The guy is smoking while the poor facilities fellow is fretting. This is the gap between the rich and the poor; the haves and the have-nots; the PMs and the SEs; the Delivery folks and the Facilities team; the Onsite traveler and the Offshore Reveler. World is indeed not fair. I see a gross social, economic, philosophical, materialistic, monumental, civic, geographical, Florida-ic injustice happening right in front of my eyes.

 

Now, Bheem Bhai’s view: There are two guys. One is smoking. The other is carrying two suitcases.

 

Depending on who you ask – assuming you have the ability to extract information from Bheem Bhai – you get two different observation reports of the same event.

 

That’s where the mental makeup or the personality of the observer assumes importance. When you define an observation desk or a reference frame next – ensure that you take care of the mental makeup of the reference frame too. Believe me, what you had for breakfast in the morning – dictates whether you find a particular post in Creative – creative or not!

 

Thus, The Special Theory of Creativity. Or is it the General Theory of Creativity?

 

And yeah! in case you are still searching for that podcast, here's a tip: Go get a life.

We Condemn!

Don't we? It is what we do - day in and day out - Condemn the dastardly attack on the spirit of X (Replace X with Mumbai/Hyderabad/Ahmedabad/Bangalore/Delhi/Guwahati/India). Our honorable home minister wastes no time in issuing a strong condemnation. We are experts of condemning. We are the best in this area. After every attack, we see a million such statements from every Tom, Dick and Harry. This apparently absolves them of the guilt, the responsibility and the blame.

You cannot blame me - See? I condemned it the moment it happened.

Condemn it damn it... The sooner you do it, the better it is for the media. They can show it as a "Breaking News" on their marquee. "So and So condemned the incident", "Expressed solidarity with the people of", "Pledged support", "weed out terrorism". If they don't have such breaking news, they will show live coverage of the strategic positions of our NSG commandos, the snipers who are trying to gun down the terrorists and the police strategy - Everything will be covered live and will be seen by everyone including those terrorists. Unless the Police ask them not to, the TV channels will not stop this coverage. After all, this is breaking news and TRP ratings are sure to fly off the roof.

So please condemn my deal politicians... Condemn as fast as you can. Make a mockery of our system.

Whoever is reading this - Take a deep breath and gather all your inner strength and say "I CONDEMN THESE ATTACKS. I DO. Now, what is the score of New Zealand?"

Say Nah-NO to Tata!

The recent controversy in Singur about the land allocated to Tata Nano project received widespread criticism from all quarters of the society except people belonging to the Trinamool Congress party.

“Clearly Anti-Development” cried one newspaper. “West Bengal is pulling down India’s image as an investment friendly nation.” lamented an editorial. “The dream of millions of middle class people to own a car – squashed and murdered” said a thoughtful journalist.

It was as if the entire nation was up in arms against Trinamool Congress. Tata’s knee jerk reaction of “pulling out from West Bengal” was met with expected gasps from everyone.

As George W. Bush Junior once famously said, “You are with us or with them!”, anyone who is not excited by the very concept of a cheap car like Nano is automatically thought to be a Mamata Banerjee devotee.

I hate Nano. I am not a sympathizer of Trinamool Congress. And I don’t idolize Mamata Banerjee. If you feel this is an impossible situation, I don’t blame you. We have been brainwashed by the media for years that Small Car is Good for Middle Class Indians.

Why am I against Nano? To start with, let us talk about Global Warming. What exactly are we doing to arrest this menace? Sunderbans are going to disappear. The Government itself released a report a couple of days ago predicting a grim future for our coastal economic hubs such as Chennai and Mumbai. The report says that the “refugees” from these two cities will make the in-land cities such as Hyderabad and Bangalore even more congested.

Can the infrastructure of these cities keep pace with the incoming millions?

The answer is an emphatic no. When the ailing infrastructure of these cities (Chennai and Mumbai included) is unable to handle today’s crowd, how can we expect them to ramp up on a war footing basis to accommodate the multifold increase in the number of people?

Alright. Maybe you don’t believe that Global Warming is a reality. (There are people who say it is all hogwash.) Even then, the infrastructure vows of these cities are appalling. At six in the evening a drive from Tolichowki of Hyderabad to Himayat Nagar of Hyderabad takes about an hour. The distance covered is hardly 10 kilometers. Thanks to a booming economy and increased buying power of the metro Indians, traffic on the already choked roads is growing at an alarming rate.

Everyone wants to drive a car. Everyone wants to drive a luxury car. Public transportation is a taboo word – rightly so. The buses are in dilapidated condition. The local train service doesn’t cover even 1% of the office/school going crowd.

Now, imagine what Nano can do to this situation. A car for 1 lakh – a budget that quite a few motorcycle owners can stretch to. This will lead to an uncontrollable increase in the number of vehicles plying on our battered streets. If you think you’ve experienced bad traffic jams, wait till Nano makes its debut.

The Nano Jams…

At a juncture when the focus should actually be on improving the public transportation system, reducing the carbon footprint we leave behind and discouraging gas guzzling four wheelers, we are all awed about Nano – the potential death knell to the environment in this part of the world.

Mamata Banerjee may not have thought about all this. However she did the right thing. Nano should be driven out – not only from West Bengal – but from the entire world.

iPhone 3G, Steve Jobs and “I am Rich!”

I have been reading a lot of articles about iPhone 3G these days. Somehow I can't get enough of it. A couple of articles made me literally roll on the floor laughing.

Let me talk about them.

If you own an iPhone 3G, you can buy third party apps for it, through iTunes. However there is a catch. All such third party apps need to be approved by Apple first. And guess who approves these at Apple? According to a report, probably a rumor - It is none other than Steve Jobs himself. Apparently he cannot trust any of his deputies to do this highly skilled mission critical job. Hail the dictator!

Ok. Maybe we should not believe such preposterous rumors. What is evident is that the team which authorizes these iPhone applications is very small and is commanded by none other than Steve Jobs.

As a fall out of this, there is an insane wait period for getting your application listed on the App Store. It is around seven to eight months! There are hundreds of wonderful Apps and games out there waiting to be listed.

But maybe this is all for the greater good. When you buy an App from iTunes, you are assured that it is a great App and that it is not Joker! Yes? Hell no! A very creative App titled "I am Rich" has found its way on to the impregnable Apple iPhone Apps store. This happens to be the most expensive App ever - with a price tag of 999.99 USD. (Why this price? Because that the maximum price limit set by Apple for iPhone Apps).

All that this application does, is to display a bright red ruby on your phone. When you click on it, it displays a message "I am Rich." The idea is that if you have this application on your phone, it signifies how rich you are. You have spent close to a grand to earn that title.

What can be sillier than this? Guess what! Eight people actually bought it. Some of them were perplexed, it seems, because the application did nothing much. They complained to Apple whining that they didn't buy it intentionally and that it was a mistake. Last checked everyone needed to enter his or her password and confirm the purchase on the App Store. So how they ended up buying the App "unintentionally" is a mystery best left to Sherlock Holmes.

Well, finally Apple relented and pulled the application off the shelf. It reportedly refunded the amount too.

My opinion? It is a very creative thought by the developer. If there are people willing to buy the application why take it off the list? The application has already undergone a screening test conducted by none other than Steve Jobs!

"I am Rich" may not be missed by people but there are a couple of other applications that met the same fate as this one. There's an app that allowed your iPhone 3G to be used as a Modem so that you could surf the net from your laptop. This is in direct contradiction with the contract Apple has with AT&T. (Such a blasphemy! Intelligent Customers are taboo!) So the application was pulled out.

Question to Steve Jobs: How did it get into the App store in the first place?

The so called impregnable App Store apparently has a secret passage or two. Nothing else can explain the need for the "Kill Switch" that Apple put on the iPhone 3G. The phone calls home (Cupertino, 1 - Infinite Loop) periodically and checks a list of "Harmful" applications on the iPhone. If there are any such apps, the Kill Switch swings into action and kills the application on your phone - All this without your knowledge. (Till date, this list is empty by the way.)

Questions to Steve Jobs again:

1. If every application on the App Store is authenticated by Apple (Steve Jobs in particular), what is the need for the Kill Switch?
2. When you said "Harmful" who exactly is it harmful to? AT&T or the actual consumer?
3. What is the policy for killing an App or approving an App to be on the App Store?
4. If Apple can sell Apps to Indian Consumers, what is stopping it from selling iTunes music to the consumers in India?
5. Why disable Podcasts for Indian consumers?

Steve Jobs again is the talk of the town these days... apparently for non-technical reasons. His health has been called into question. The rumor mill is working over time saying Jobs has cancer. The investors are tense. The problem is, there is no strong second-in-line for Jobs. And if Jobs himself has to approve each and every App that wants to get on to the App Store, I don't know what will happen to Apple in the post Steve Jobs era. I hope Jobs is doing fine. May he live a thousand years healthily. But may he remove the dependency on him as soon as possible.

A hunch at the back of my mind tells me that the iPhone 3G is a great entertainment product... Not just for the users but for the entire media world. They are not going to stop talking about it for years to come. And there will be many a rich "I am Rich" App that will entertain us - iPhonians or Not!

Kuselan – Movie Review

I have a strange problem. I cannot watch a movie if I miss the start - even if it is just the display of the censor board certificate.

Therefore, I leave two hours in advance - to factor in the unbelievable traffic snarls of Hyderabad. However, as luck would have it, I do not actually run into any such jams and end up at the movie hall one-hour early feeling like a complete dufus.

The movie starts promptly at 7:30pm.

Before I go any further, let me state this: Rajni Kanth does not have much of a role in this movie. So if you are thinking that this is a Rajni paDam, wake up and smell the decaf! The hero of this movie is Pasupathy. Rajni only has an extended guest role.

The first hour is incredible. The titles are imaginatively shot. Pasupathy gives a stellar performance as a poor but upright barber in this fictitious town. You see only the barber and not Pasupathy. Kudos to him. He should win a national award for this performance.

The movie starts its downslide the moment Rajni Kanth enters the scene.

Did I just say that? Did I say that Rajni heralded a downslide? Never thought I'd live the day to tell you this but let truth be spoken. Rajni the superstar is the main reason why this movie will not be seen in the theatres after three weeks.

Where do I begin? Just to cater to the larger than life image of Rajni, a beautiful little story has been tweaked, raped, defeated - all in the name of "Commercialization". There are sequences that are meant to provide comic relief to the audience but they end up being crass. I have no idea how the movie managed a "U" rating but some of these "funny" scenes are downright X rated. Take my advice: Do not take your kids to this movie.

Vadivelu, I believe, is still a force to reckon with in the Tamil industry. Here he seems as if he is long past his sell-by date. It is excruciatingly painful to sit through his assault on our intellect in the guise of "humor".

But wait! The desert does have its oases. Now and then, you are transported back to what the movie is actually about - the barber. These nice little sojourns to the main theme provide you with the much needed relief and equip you with enough firepower to withstand the idiotic sequences coming next.

The so-called "moving" climax falls absolutely flat - Thomas Freidman would vouch for the flatness of this debacle. I never thought I would say this but Rajni's histrionics in the climax are painfully artificial. He delivers a speech and in the middle, he breaks down. Instead of pumping up the emotions, he successfully manages to send the audience bursting into laughter. You see Rajni Kanth there, "acting"... You do not see Ashok Kumar (the character he is playing) breaking down.

On second thoughts, I do not think it is acting at all. It is more like hamming.

And then, the actual showdown - the moment of truth - the coming together of the titans - the emotional clash of them - the disbelief in the audience - the tempting rage to pull your hair and run out like a rat set free from the cage... Alas! I am running out of adjectives and words. You have to see this movie to understand what the feeling is all about.

Here is a golden rule that the makers seem to have forgotten. There are no "art" movies and "commercial" movies. There are "Good" movies and "bad" movies. The good ones entertain people and keep them riveted to the seat. The bad ones too entertain people - in a clownish way.

Kuselan is one such clown. No offence to the original Kuchelan!

Pasupathy's brilliant portrayal is rendered useless by the insane script.

Stay clear. Skip the DVD.

My rating: 1 out of 5.

The New Way of Life

Of late my blogging habit has taken a beating. I am spending more time watching TV, reading news on the net, discussing movies on the umpteen discussion boards out there and watching movies on DVD than ever. Last night, The Divine Light spoke to me in a thunderous tone that I was ignoring my core competency. That set me thinking in the middle of the night.

I love blogging.

So why am I not blogging that often these days? There are reasons several. I have gone through a lot in my personal life in the last one year. My views on life, God and charity have changed drastically and simply put – I am a different person today. It is all like the transformation of Robert Pirsig’s Phaedrus (Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - . Phaedrus memory is wiped out clean and he is given a new personality.)

OK, maybe not so much but you get the idea!

But I still love blogging.

Today, I am starting a new regime of life.

1. Wake up at six in the morning as against nine-thirty. (Check: Successfully completed.)
2. Go to the nearest park to do some brisk walking. (Check: Successfully completed.)
3. Shun coffee. (Till now, successfully resisted).
4. Update blogs! (A friend tells me that you don’t write blogs – you simply write posts on your blog. In other words, you keep updating blogs.)

There! That should explain why I am sitting in front of my laptop at seven in the morning sipping a God-awful green tea.

I must confess, the walk in the park was not exactly a cakewalk for me because my legs were simply not used to that kind of a physical exercise. It was a great enlightening experience though. I never realized I was physically this unfit! I should do this more often and I am sure it would do wonders to my bulging waist line Aha! That’s the main reason, you know. When all your life – you are slipping into 32s and suddenly one day you realize you need at least 34, realization dawns upon you and you are in the park before dawn breaks to fulfill your brisk walking promise.

I hope I would be able to sustain this new way of life. My friend has been quitting cigarettes for a long time and every time he breaks the vow, he sighs and tells me that he is able to resist the first sensation of craving but can’t handle the second one.

If I wake up early tomorrow and if there is another blog from me sometime this week, I consider myself traveling in a different boat. A better one at that.

The Mantra: Wake up and don’t smell the coffee.

Good day ahead to you folks.

Open Source India Week - Bangalore - Day One
This is Venu reporting about the opening day of Open Source India Week from Bangalore with no camera person :)

Woke up at 5:30am and got ready by 7am. Did not want to miss any part of the event. And did not want to underestimate Bangalore traffic. Got into a Celcab at 7:10am. Reached JRD Tata Auditorium, Indian Institute of Science by 8am.

They were sweeping the floors. I stand corrected. They were preparing to sweep the floors. The early morning sun was trying hard to squeeze into the dense trees found in the campus.

Never had the brains to get into IISc the student way. So I thought I would take a leisurely walk around the campus. The campus was beautiful. There is a marked difference between organized lawn/garden management (a la Infosys) and the forest like atmosphere found in IISc. I instantly fell in love with the surroundings. If only I could trade my cubicle for a desk under one of those trees... Sigh! I should have studied harder in B-Tech and got into an MS program here. Damn! Realization comes in ten years late.

The canteen was yet to open for the day. So I went back to the Audi.

Note to self: No Coffee! WTF!

It was around 9:15am by the time I completed the registration. I thought I would go to the Audi early and catch some nice seat. I was the first person to enter the premises. Three more followed suit driven by my courageous act of entering the deserted auditorium.

9:30am- Total strength: 8 members. No activity yet. The session by Klaus Knopper was supposed to start at 9:30am.

9:42am- Total strength: 15 members. Still no signs of starting the show.

9:48am- Total strength: 10 members. Somebody comes in and boots the laptop. The overhead projector comes alive and we are all treated to a nice looking WINDOWS start page.

9:54am- The Knopper couple is in. The fiasco with Windows XP was resolved and a more agreeable Mandriva session is projected on the screen. Well and good. Looks like someone is testing the Microphones too. Wow - I believe something's gonna start pretty soon.

10:00am- Klaus steps on to the stage; apologizes profusely as he fumbles with the connections to his laptop. Couldn't this have been taken care of by the organizers?

Note to Self: Klaus has an Ubuntu laptop!

Alas! The projector won't budge; won't work with Klaus. It flatly refuses to show what Klaus has on his laptop. No one has a clue. All are standing on the stage white faced.

Klaus then perfectly rises to the occasion; ditches his presentation; walks to the middle of the stage and talks eloquently about Open Source. He doesn't require a presentation and has a mesmerizing speech up his sleeve. The topic? "Why Use Proprietary Software?"

He rattles off quite a few reasons but only the following two stuck with me.

1. Everybody is using it. Hence every other body wants to use it. (Windows)
2. Unavailability of Games!

And I thought he would tell me something really serious! His speech basically explains to the informed audience the various meanings of the phrase "The Power of Habit". He says that Games are not popular in Open Source because of the following reason: <i>Open Source guys don't pay for a copy. They pay for an upgrade or for the future!"</i> Game Industry works at the other end of the spectrum. Each copy is supposed to be bought by the customer - because that's their business model. Since this model is not in line with the Open Source philosophy, there aren't many games out there.

I am impressed Klaus. I really am. Actually you should have paid more attention to the balding guy standing right next to the stage when you were uttering those priceless comments about Microsoft and Windows. That guy is from Microsoft and he is waiting patiently to deliver his lecture on Open Source. (WHAT?) To his credit, the MS fellow managed to keep a straight feace when Klaus was skinning Microsoft alive.

Now it is time for Q&A. One VIT fellow asked the cheeky question: "Do you really think Linux UI is as good as Vista UI?"

That brings in a period of complete astonishment and silence. After recovering Klaus tells the VIT fellow about how KDE/GNOME is far better than Vista UI. He tells him - excited in the same way as a five year old kid would who has just been exposed to XBOX 360 - that "3D desktops are cool". Uber cool you know!

Another question from a Linux geek: "Why offer Windows versions for Open Source softwares like Open Office? Aren't we compromising by doing that?"

Klaus answers: "We'd like everyone to have absolute choice. Moreover it makes the eventual migration to Linux - fast and easier!"

He signs off with a nice comment: If it is Open Source, anyone can support it. (Anyone who knows it). If it is proprietary, only the vendor can support it. (Because others won't know a thing about the software.)

Amidst thunderous applause he leaves the stage and Mr Rohit Kumar Rai - from Microsoft walks into the limelight. I am skeptical about Microsoft's presence in this forum. However they are one of the Diamond Sponsors of the event. So they should get a chance to voice their opinions. I try to be as neutral as possible.

Microsoft's Talk: "Open Source @ Microsoft"

Rohit talks about Open Source quite eloquently. To his credit he is a great orator and knows what to talk and what not to divulge. He is quite candid about Microsoft's interest in Open Source. "We are not a charity organization. We are profit oriented. All our objectives should be aligned with our company goals." he says. In his opinion, Microsoft is genuinely interested in working closely with Open Source community to resolve interoperability issues and to ensure these open source products run well on Windows.

So Microsoft's real interest is in ensuring that people can stay with Windows even if they want to use the Open Source products?

He tells us all about programming for multi core processors. He talks about Hashkel programming language which is supposedly Open Source. Microsoft has obtained two Open Source licenses approved by the Open Source community. They are almost the same as LGPL and BSD. In fact I am yet to find a difference. If any of you have an idea where these licenses differ from LGPL and BSD, please let me know immediately.

Microsoft has its own cute little open source team, which takes care of their own version of SourceForge - CodePlex. This was launched to fill in some glaring gaps found in SourceForge it seems. There is no version control of the projects and there is a lack of a good repository for documents and file management in SourceForge. CodePlex supposedly addresses all those gaps. "It was a need that we had to address" Rohit says. (Not his exact words but that's the meaning.)

I have a question on this but a gentleman in the penultimate row throws a tantrum before I voice my opinion and tells Rohit in a quivering voice full of emotion that Microsoft is doing a great disservice to the world of interoperability by bringing in a new document file format OXML when there is already an established ISO format ODF readily available. Yawn!

Rohit plays the usual line: Customers expect choice. These two formats can coexist. We are committed to support ODF too. We have converters available.
Yawn again!

That gentleman firmly says that he is happy India voted against Microsoft's format. Rohit smiles and tells him everyone is entitled to his/her opinion.

When I finally start with my question, the organizer hurriedly steps in and closes the session as we have already crossed the grace time.

Anyway - my question is this: Why didn't Microsoft offer to plug in those gaps found in SourceForge? Why did it have to come up with an entirely new "Open Source" project repository? It could have worked with SourceForge people and made SourceForge a better product!

Alright - I will send him an email :) and hope to get an answer.

If you are interested in knowing more about Microsoft's Open Source initiatives, please head to http://www.microsoft.com/opensource

Don't just write them off. The last speaker of the day has a lot of good things to say about Microsoft.

I come out of the Auditorium and visit the stalls there. First stall belongs to Microsoft and the reason it attracts me is the attractive young lady womanning the stall. I go there, she gives me three puzzles which I solve. She gives me a Laser Pointer as a gift. Thank you sweetheart. How about a cup of coffee tomorrow?

Then I head to a talk about John Smedley, from Ingress. He is quite a guy! He gets all irritated if questions are asked. He growls and swears at people "Lunch time! I am starving." Yes I know he is kidding and I know it is all in good humor but he overdoes his part there and gets on to everybody's nerves.

In his marketing talk about Ingress (Titled misleadingly as - Open Source Software Appliances - while in reality it is nothing but "Ingress is best; Ingress is best; Ingress is best") he says that his company delivers high performance "software appliances" that solve all the problems of his customers. Suppose you are looking for a Data Warehousing solution, earlier you would have to buy a system, load an Operating System on it, hunt the market for the perfect RDBMS solution (Ingress is the best) - get all the reporting tools for the RDBMS - customize them and deal with a whole lot of vendors for support. Now Ingress in all its wisdom has come up with the concept of a "Software Appliance" - which is nothing but an OS, a Database, All the reporting modules and the support required for all these - in one single installable package. (How does one install support?)

"What do you do when you get a problem with the OS? Dial our friendly call center. What do you do when the DB doesn't work. Dial the same friendly call center. We are 24X7. It means that if you get a problem on Friday evening at 7pm, you don't have to wait till Monday morning 9 o'clock to get it resolved." John Smedley has a twinkle in his eyes when he says "24X7". He is so proud of it. Come on John! This is the 21st century and we are in 2008!

The question by one of the irritated listener - "John do you have a software appliance for document management too?"

For this question, John is wide-eyed first and gapes next. After this dramatical theatrical histrionics he says in a la Phoebe Buffet - "Yes and No". He then explains, "Yes, we have an appliance ready. No it hasn't crossed Alpha stage yet."

NDTV did a small story on my son Ishaan. It was aired yesterday on NDTV 24X7 and NDTV India. You can watch the clip online at:

http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/videopod/default.aspx?id=22630

I hope this clip spreads the message across and results in more people opting for organ donation.

The Tool I Hate Most

My boss gives me an ultimatum - I have to come up with a five line article on the tool (Not the friendly neighborhood hack-saw! Software tool please) I hate the most. I say politely that the answer to that question will utmost take two words - not five lines and certainly cannot pass off as an article.

That's when I come to know that I need to offer an "explanation" on why I hate that tool. Now, come on! Some things we just hate. Don't we? Have you ever sat down and tried to figure out why you hate certain things? For example Nisha Kothari? Or Ricky Ponting?

Alright, I think I shouldn't be questioning the integrity of some people here or else I shouldn't be standing here I suppose. So let me just confine my rants to the software tool I am supposed to hate most - with a justifiable explanation.

To start with let me just list out the tools I hate most with no explanation whatsoever. It is surprisingly difficult, now that I think about it, to identify this list.

Windows Desktop Search:

ACDSee

As per the unwritten restriction that a list should have more than one member, I think this is a good enough list. Personally I don't like to hate any tool because every tool must have gone through a really boring phase called "Development". Branding it as "bad" will hurt all those worked on the tool.

But I have no way out, Have I? Boss orders. I shall follow.

Let me talk about Windows Desktop Search first. A little bit of digression here: Back in the late nineties when there was a burning need for search engines that scout the Internet for information fast and efficient, Yahoo and Microsoft took their own sweet time to come up with one. Google burst on to the scene with a wonderful product Google.com and snatched away the Search market from Yahoo and Microsoft almost overnight right from under their noses.

I thought Microsoft would learn from this debacle and be more proactive in identifying such opportunities in future. When users were asking for a better way to search the folders and files on their computer, before Microsoft could revamp its pathetic windows search function, Google simply ported with its immensely successful Internet search program to the desktop resulting in a highly efficient desktop search.

Google Desktop Search enables the user to find documents, photos and videos stored in the most inaccessible corner of your computer in a fraction of a second. The program has a small download footprint and installs in seconds. The one time initial indexing takes sometime but once it is done, you won't see it interfering with your work.

Windows Desktop Search was more of an afterthought. Now that Google has a solution, why not imitate it! - Seems to be Microsoft's mantra. When Windows Desktop Search was unveiled, Google had already had a sizable chunk of the desktops in its kitty.

I have used both search tools and while I am thoroughly impressed by Google's, Windows Search is disappointing. It has a larger memory footprint; is slow compared to Google and it uses its own windows to display the results. Google on the other hand uses the default web browser. From the user's point of view this offers a seamless integration between web searching and desktop searching. They need not worry about yet another program to learn.

However, it is not always that the best program will survive. (Remember Netscape browser?) It all depends on market dominance. Microsoft will continue bundling the Windows Search tool with its operating systems. So the users don't have to actually download Google Desktop Search tool anymore. Personally I don't see a future for Google Desktop Search but it will forever remain in the history books as a pioneer in this field.

More on ACDSee in my next blog. Till then, happy searching!

Okka Magaadu - Telugu Movie Review

Let us start with a helicopter in which a minister of the state is traveling. It develops a snag and has to land in the middle of nowhere. When it does do the emergency landing, it does so on a proper helipad - complete with the "H" mark - in the middle of nowhere by the side of a village - Venkata Puram.

If you have any questions about this incident, do not let them out because if you do, and you have to follow the same yard stick, half your life will be spent asking questions. The remaining half? You guessed it right... hunting for the answers. So let us save all that trouble and accept whatever YVS Chowdary throws at us in the form of Okka Magaadu, Balakrishna's latest offering on the marquee.

The mantra seems to be pretty simple. Shun Logic. It would have actually helped us if the director were kind enough to display this warning too along with the Tobacco warning. "Please do shun logic at this point. We are not responsible for any brain damage arising out of an unnecessary logical appraisal of the events happening on the screen."

However for an intelligent viewer having an IQ of at least 25, the implicit warning is pretty much there in the face within the first two minutes of the movie when the helicopter lands. So I wouldn't hold YVS responsible for any technical snag in my brain.

This movie categorically states that most beautiful women in this part of the world are so sex-starved that they are always hunting for "The Man". They don't have any other feelings. They can't do anything else - Sometimes they dream about The Man. Sometimes they talk about The Man. Sometimes they behave in a lewd manner unable to resist the very thoughts of The Man. And that's pretty much what they do. Quite interestingly they come, they see, they show, they conquer, they sing, they dance, they disappear. Fifteen minutes later the same cycle repeats. I know this is the standard formula for most Telugu movies these days but to show them just as sex maniacs with no other goal in life is stretching it a bit too far. YVS needs a reality check. The audience has moved on if the reaction to these scenes are indicative of anything.

Nisha Kothari and Anuskha are two dunderheads who epitomize the male chauvinism of the scriptwriter. A word of advice to Anushka - Ma'am you need to reinvent yourself. Otherwise you will be spoken along with Jayamalini and Silk Smitha.

Before the release of this movie, YVS gave a press interview in which he made an emphatic announcement that his script demanded three heroines and hence the movie had three glamour dolls. I guess he was either talking about a different script or had very low opinion about the IQ levels of the viewer. Anushka and Nisha appear in two paise roles clad in one paise garments and have exactly 2 minutes of footage outside the songs.

Let me not get into the illogical sequences in the movie as I have already stated that anyone looking for logic in this movie is probably going to be brain dead immediately . The sequences unfold at breakneck speed with everyone shouting at 150 decibels for no apparent reason. And such shouting and mindless violence is served as "Freedom Struggle" complete with voice overs for Mahatma Gandhi and Chacha Nehru. Jingoism is equated to freedom struggle.

The fighter goes to China; watches Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon; comes back and kills all the British single-handedly. He resurfaces after 60 years and continues his struggle against the corrupt and the callous people of India. If that reminds you of another movie, you are not alone.

I don't know what the hero learnt in China but YVS sure learnt third degree Chinese torture techniques there and uses them on the hapless viewers reducing them to vegetables by the time the credits start rolling up.

The movie could have done away with two of the three heroines, one of the two Balakrishnas (the younger one to be precise) and a little bit of matured handling of pre and post independence Indian conditions. But that is probably too tall an order for YVS. If it were not for Balakrishna's relentless efforts, the movie would have killed all the viewers.

That brings us to the man who has given it all. It was refreshing to see Balakrishna mouthing ferocious dialogues and creating an impact naturally. Let's admit it, it is a sheer pleasure to watch Balakrishna when he is in his elements. Sadly all his efforts are wasted in this pointless and badly executed movie.

I hope this serves as a wake up call to Balakrishna. He needs to look at fresh ideas - try something radically different and give the new generation a chance rather than persisting with people who refuse to move beyond the decade before the last.

My Rating: Bad.