Indru Netru Naalai | இன்று நேற்று நாளை

Indru Netru Naalai | இன்று நேற்று நாளை 

Edward Snowden

Edward Snowden - a man, who is same age as me, has assumed far greater risks for the sake of openness and privacy of world citizens.

Edward Snowden gives a TED talk in Canada, TED2014 - via telepresence robot - Here's how we take back the internet

"We don't have to give up our privacy to have good governance. We don't have to give up our liberty to have security. We can have both open government and private citizens " - Edward Snowden

http://www.ted.com/talks/edward_snowden_here_s_how_we_take_back_the_internet#

The play of stars

Time Lapse video add a different dimension to otherwise mundane subject or context. If your subject is as magnificent and expanse as the sky, the resulting time lapse video is breathtaking.

With the wonderful galaxy as our jewel, do we really need diamonds to decorate us ?

I saw this spectacular two and half minute video and was completely bowled over by the beauty of our galaxy and solar system. I can assure you it is well worth your time. This video made me appreciate what a beautiful palette the galaxy is and that we should cherish and consume every moment of this spectacle called life.




Captured by Nicholas Buer [http://vimeo.com/nicholasbuer], this video is called Ancients and is shot in Chile. For more detailed information on the stars and galactic activities that you can observe in this video, please check out
http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2014/01/25/time_lapse_video_ancients.html

Drones

When drones can be used for wonderful activities like this, why use it for killing ?

May be it was invented for the purpose of inflicting maximum damage, but it can surely be used for other varied functionalities for the betterment of humanity.

Here is another one - Amazon Prime Air.

What will your verse be ?

Such a wonderful, aspirational and philosophical advertisement and I love the below line:

"The powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be ?

One of the best TV Ads I had seen and in the same league as Apple's famous 1984 ad. It is aspirational advertising at it's very best and as +Robert Scoble puts it, "so few companies can do this and do it well".

Narration of the Ad:

We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering. These are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love. These are what we stay alive for.

To quote from Whitman,

“O me, O life of the questions of these recurring. Of the endless trains of the faithless. Of cities filled with the foolish. What good amid these, O me, O life?

Answer: That you are here. That life exists and identity. That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.”

“That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.”

What will your verse be?

---

Such a wonderful, aspirational and philosophical advertisement and I love the below line:

"The powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be ?

Person of the Year - 2013 | Edward Snowden - A Real Hero

Edward Snowden has two profiles :

- a rogue NSA contractor who stole US National data and revealed them to the wider world public.

- a NSA contractor who stood for the freedom of expression and privacy rights.

Depending on which side you come from, you would believe in one of the two perceptions or both of them. Irrespective of how anybody may perceive Snowden, he has changed the world by blowing the whistle on the biggest data snooping methodology by US government. I owe my life to computer science engineering education and love the openness of the Internet. I had always been a staunch supporter of retaining the freedom of internet away from government hands. However, US has killed the openness of the internet by exploiting the openness and technological advantage of US companies in the internet space for it's own benefits. In light of these development, I foresee a world where every country may rightfully demand the data of it's user stay within it's physical borders, there be restricting the openness of the Internet. 

Edward Snowden is only 14 months elder to me and was in a well paid Govt job. He however chose to give up all the comfort of the material world and undergo extreme isolation in this world when he decided to release information on data snooping which he believed is unconstitutional. His stand was vindicated when a US district court gave a judgement questioning the constitutional validity of the snooping process carried out by the US government. I consider him a hero for his guts to take on the most powerful government in the world and it's spy agency, and for the conviction of his belief on what is right and wrong. 

He is a beacon to the entire world on privacy rights and is my person of the year.

Merry Christmas !!

Wonderful Christmas card video - let the festival spirit flow on. Love the kids in the video too, especially the last laugh. :D

Energy Architecture Performance Index

Drone future

Amazon Prime Air

Are you kidding me ?

I'm not sure how this is going to pan out, however, as a concept and an idea, it is outstandingly bold and innovative in the last mile of delivery. If proved viable, Amazon Prime Air can potentially alter the cost of delivery and tilt the experiences in favor of online retail and Amazon by an exponential factor.

Jeff Bezos "Nutters" attitude probably created this.

Official link : 

http://www.amazon.com/b?ref_=tsm_1_tw_s_amzn_mx3eqp&node=8037720011

My thought on this spectacular and pathbreaking idea is brief coz I'm caught short of words.

Amazing way to place an order at a drive in - Giorgio Fareira sings his way in to fame !!

This is just an amazing way to place an order at a drive in - Just wow :)




Here is Giorgia: http://www.youtube.com/user/321GGO/about

All Digital information to have physical manifestation ?

All Digital information to have physical manifestation - Wow !!!

The advent and continued innovation of human mind reflected through technology never ceases to impress and inspire me.

I'm not sure how or to what extent these developments will have effect on our life, but just the concept of "All Digital information to have physical manifestation " is mind blowing !!

MIT research on progress from GUI to TUI - Graphical User interface to Tactical User interface is great research work. I would love to know the underlying technologies, the connections from computer and how these pins move for the command etc.

Source: http://www.theverge.com/2013/11/13/5098926/mit-inform-dynamic-shape-display-video

There's something about apple

On 24-Apr-2012, Apple posted its quarterly results:-


$39.2 billion in revenue and $11.6 billion in pure, unadulterated profit with 35.1 million iPhone sold alongside 11.8 million iPads.

If in case it doesn't ring out loud for you, let me quote it one by one

• $39.2 billion in revenue
• $11.6 billion in pure, unadulterated profit 
• with 35.1 million iPhone sold 
• alongside 11.8 million iPads

and all of this for a quarter - which is 3 months.

WOW !!!

The organization for which I work posted its quarterly results and it crossed 10 Bn in revenue for the year, full year. And, it is Revenue not the profits. I know how hard it is to even get these numbers and how much successful this is in the IT delivery sector of India. But all of this pales away in comparison with the numbers posted above by apple - 11.6 billion in PROFIT, for 3 month period. Wow. I keep saying this word. Wow.

Just to put things in perspective, less than 15 years ago, Apple was barely 100 days away from declaring as bankrupt. And, to come from that place to be the most successful company in the world, is a no mean feat. Many would have already told a tonne about this but here is my 2 cents.

Apple, is apple, coz it is apple. Simple.

When I look back at what apple had done as a company, only few points I observe. They are doing only what they want. May be sometimes, what they probably can. And, they are doing what they want, the way they want. And, it is the doing it best. But never what they find it as convenient. Apple, could have done so many more business and other things but no, they didn't choose to do all of them and decided to do only what they want and thanks to that, they are now the most profitable organization in the world. 

The Mac was never really a market leader in terms of share, but they still made it as best as they can do. The iPod was never existing but they made what they wanted to do and made it best. If apple, when pushed to bankruptcy 15 years ago, had thought to target the bigger market share than mac or building on mac, they would have recovered too, may be, coz they open themselves to larger pie. But, they didn't do that. They build what they believed to be best. This is a key lesson to all organization in the world, do what you want to do, well, you will eventually be successful. Never focus on short term growths and results. Build a long lasting pipeline and focus on long term and sometimes, at the cost of short term coz it is long term results that matter. 

I do foresee issus, troubles and other things with apple on few of its spheres of operations and other things. I don't know if they will remain the most profitable organization in the world for another 10-15 years, but I can see that they are in right position to do so, not by their size of revenue but by their focus and products.

Build the best products; earn the most money !!! Apple.

What is it?

I seldom have headache or head pain. I always shrug it off at the very least, when hit the nadir and kinda move. May be small drag may reside within me but it wouldn't be sufficient enough to bring me to nought. Coz, being nought or idle is not something that I'm good at, maybe :D.


So, what is it, this collision of two things, which are vying for the same mind space of mine, that deals with the common thing of mine -  what I do (did or want to do) ?

Life is a game - I have always played it, will always end up doing so. Sometimes, there is a small amount of fear/hope that clings on to me so as to have an ok sort of outcome. I think it is good in a way to have that but it shall may not be limiting oneself. 

Be happy and play it, wherever you may play and however you may play.

Steve Jobs

I mentioned about Steve Jobs in one of my earlier post last year. Even then, I decided to save off writing about him for later time. I wasn't really sure on how to capture all about him in a post. I have been fighting the same question in the last couple of days as well. Alas, I have decided to just list down all I think of him and leave it at that.


But, never did I think in my horrible thoughts that I will be writing about him after his passing away.iSad. Really, really really sad.


I didn't know much about Steve jobs before my college. Well, I didn't have a personal computer before college and so no clue of him. But, what I did come to know of Apple were the colorful machines and apple computer with their apple logo in colors. Thats all I ever knew then.


But later on my curiosity grew on apple, to know more that Macintosh is different from PC, it doesn't run on windows but on something much much better. But, thats all about Macintosh and me till I owned one myself. But, I become aware of iPod much more earlier and in detail than Mac, thanks to Music and what iPod meant for music. It was this mystical costly player that I could never own, alas I choose to spend a lot of money on it. Thankfully, I got the first generation iPod shuffle as a gift from my uncle and boy didn't I love it. stuffing in my pocket and flashing the white earpieces and the chord. Wow, I will stand out in a crowded bus where all used to have black ear pieces and chord. Though it didn't have any visual, I still loved the portability and the way in which I can throw it, and still nothing can happen to it. I throw my stuff - thats me. 


Then came the iPod Touch; a lucky break in a portal competition in bangalore. I was not the original winner, I was a close second. But they chose to give to me a prize coz they liked the way I designed that portal and also had a story to tell for that portal. Others only did the compliance check to showcase the portal. I actually chose to ignore few of the compliance thing coz it was too cumbersome to find and win that point to win the competition. Instead I designed what I liked and explained it in a way I liked. Well, they liked too :). Thats how iPod touch came to me. The first time I could pinch to zoom a picture - aaahhh. What a happy feeling to do what I saw Steve Jobs do in the iPhone presentation a year back. It was indeed magical to pinch a zoom a picture. Now, it has become a standard but boy isn't it a wonderful thing to have in a touch device. The technical side of it is one of so many things we should be thankful to apple for.


To touch a device and communicate - you need to have the following things working.


- touch capable screens, location mapping of your fingers, observing the action that you are doing (say you are scrolling swipe or pinch swipe), then pass this information to the OS which actually determines the swipe functionality I said above, then seeing what screen you are and doing corresponding action. Coz a picture pinch to zoom is different from the browser pinch to zoom, functionality same, app is different and OS has to determine that as well. All this and may be more may be happening just for the pinch to zoom. 


And, all of these have to happen simultaneously, so that you can see the picture zoom in front of your eyes, as you do it. Wow :)


Then came my mac - to have a PC that can boot fast is sufficient enough reason for a mac :). Enough said.


Steve Jobs - to me, he summed up one thing. Be yourself. At the core, he never really changed. He did things he wanted to do and did it well. Everything else, he didn't care. He just didn't care.


[There is a tonne of material out there in the net that talks about his visionary skills, drive and how he created things. Im not even going to touch upon those qualities with my writing skills and constrain them. ]


Apart from being oneself, he also symbolized what drive can do. He loved what he did and coz of that, did it well. He was brutally honest in some of his/apple's failures or shortcoming and didn't try to hide behind few good things. He wanted all of them to be good, even the minute details of anything apple, to be good.


A read of the below post by Vic of Google would say how much he cared for the tiniest of tiny things.


https://plus.google.com/107117483540235115863/posts/QNWKwJTFmki


Or, what is the need for a CEO, to come down and explain his store to the world like he did? Explaining isle, products etc..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLTNfIaL5YI


Everything apple meant to him - he was ready to do everything to anything of apple and knew everything of apple.


One of the very few people in the world who can solely claim their entire career is their own. And, the one of the only handful ceos who can do whatever they want with the company - coz it is theirs. Every other CEO in world is off late appointed for few years tenure and they have no connect with company as Steve did with Apple.


Apple has its fair share of questionable policy, platform initiatives, but off late, what I come to understand is that, they are excessively supremely controllable of anything that is apple, coz they love their products even beyond the sale. I dont like their restriction of iOS environment or OS, but they want to make sure that the device doesn't break once it reaches consumer hands. I dont agree with this stand, greatly. But, I have stopped questioning their intent off late.


And, only a person like Steve jobs can choose to be so outrageous with his demands and still pull it off. Who can ever forget the iPod deals?


Apart from being a successful product, iPod needed a legitimate way to download music to make sure that product is sale-able in the market. Till then, music industry refused to accept MP3 downloads as a valid way to get the music and even that format. iPod changed all that. He was famously quoted as saying to all the 6 big music labels, "If I can't sell a song for 99 cents in iTunes store, then there is no deal". Music labels agreed. And, now we have legitimate and easy music downloadable industry in the world.


Same applies with iPhone. Before iPhone, a phone's price, data plan, and the Tenure were all determined by Cellular carrier. When Steve Jobs launched iPhone, he had stuck a deal with AT&T to launch it at 199$ price, for two year contract and unlimited data plan. What you have to notice is that, Apple, a device manufacturer, is dictating a Carrier business when they are launching their product. The status quo till that time was other way around. 


A vegan.


And believer in heart and instincts, he did mistakes and corrections. Never one to be ashamed of his actions, he did one of the greatest comeback in history of the world business to turn a company on the verge of bankruptcy to be the most valuable company in 14 years time. Wow.



How respected would you have to be to have your competitors mourn your loss? Google paying tribute in the home page, Wired.com blacking out its entire page. Google and samsung celling their own mobile event due to the untimely passing of Steve Jobs.




I still cannot believe he is gone - Im really pained and shocked.



[Im giving links to some of the most wonderful Steve Jobs video, article around now.]




http://www.fastcompany.com/pics/steve-jobs-obituarites-most-innovative-powerful-different#0


A tribute to Steve Jobs below

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-BXzifkxsk

Think different Ad with Steve Jobs own voice

Im not an apple fan boy, but of Steven P Jobs. iRespect. iLove. iMiss.

Have you blogged lately?

How globalized are we?

http://www.barackobama.com/live/

Just finished watching obama live on his website. And, I couldn't help wonder at the globalization that has dawned on this world.

To win an election in the state of Illinois, Obama had to bring in China, had to bring in Singapore, had to bring in Germany. You can no longer say that what you want to do is right, just by the virtue of it in politics. You had to quote example and draw attention to the practices in other parts of the world to add virtue and credential to your argument. It also tells me how interlinked all our actions really are in this world, now.

And, boy don't I love it.

Born Indian, worked for Americans while I was in India and working for Americans while Im here in America. Allright, globalization has to be a two way street, how can I be enjoying it an US not enjoying it. They do, not only in terms of quality of work, time and cost. But the two way street of it. Indo US nuclear deal opens up billions of dollars to american firms to build nuclear reactors to India. American firms engage in upgrading Indian military, air-force and navy. Deals running to the tune of billions of dollars.

China's globalization policies may be slightly different in execution but it is all the same story - two street . US companies get quicker product development cycle with less than a quarter of investment to make the product and that is not the only reason they grudgingly shift the jobs. China is the largest investor in US government bonds. China if it can dare, may shall hold US govt for ransom on account of its investments. No - they wont do it for US companies investing in China run its middle class family.

It is the same or similar story all over the world with globalization. It is more dependency amidst nation. The challenge lies in striking the balance. A nation should be self reliant, driven by home grown and outside innovation but be prepared for crisis. If outside driven innovation and money is not there, it should not lose its livelihood. It shall afford to lose its luxury but not its necessity. I think India is on the path of striking that balance but still far fetched. We need more leaders like Manmohan Singh, P Chidambaram and Montek Singh Aluhiwalia, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, APJ Abdul Kalam. I hope I can add more leaders to that list as well.

US has got Obama. And, may be few more whom Im not aware of.

While watching it live, I was waiting for him to quote India. However, he did not. May be he genuinely believes India is not doing any greater harm to US. Or, he is preparing himself for the India State visit.

PS: For erstwhile Imperialistic nations like UK - please innovate or perish even before you can see. You can make tougher immigration laws and close your markets or make them more open and competent enough to enter anywhere else in the world as well.

Curiosity is the most powerful thing you own.

In 1991, when I first saw Terminator 2- Judgement day with my dad in Alankar theatre in Chennai, I was scared. How can a person get bullet hits and still walk along, can melt down and back to life again. How can computers walk at all?

My dad had no answers. But he did what he could - took me to that movie.

Few years rolled over and when I was in 9th standard, me and friends watched the same movie at a friends place. We were completely engrossed in to that movie and started discussing it, without having any clue. And, it was dusk by the time me and a friend of mine started back to my locality in a bike (cycle). And, on our way return, out of no where we heard this huge sound of engines and machines rattling up and smog raising engulfing the entire road ahead. For a second, we had our hearts in our mouth - me and my friend. I was still in that movie inside me and to see such sudden change of things right in front of us in a peaceful locality was a shock to me.

Well, thanks to Chennai corporation, that was the mosquito repellent sprayer vehicle which rattled up spewing smoke at us.

And, then started my romance with James cameron's film. I have seen almost all of his films, barring one or two. And, I have seen all of his films multiple times over. It is through this films that I realized that I have struck a similar chord with the man. Science fiction, Space science, Exploration, the thrill of it and boundless amounts of excitement this nature and our minds have in store for us.

And, I saw the following video a short while back and I told to myself, James Cameron, no wonder I love you.



Some of his inspiring lines from the speech are...


Curiosity - its the most powerful thing you own.
Imagination - is a force that can actually manifest a reality.
Don't put limitation on yourself.Other people will do it for you, don't do it yourself.
Failure is an option - but fear is not.

PS: Another author whom I love is Michael Crichton. Sad that he is no more :(

Orkut - now and then. And, when......?

http://www.orkut.com/Main#Profile?uid=2880291781645158378

I have been accused of living my life in Orkut at one point of time in 2006. That is how insanely I love orkut. It is my first social network site and the one that I really thrived on. I love meeting people, connecting with them and orkut provided me an opportunity to do that online what I never could do so far in the net.

Having said that, this post is a look at what Orkut is now (so called new version) and how I still like the old one better to this one. And, my own suggestions on it's road map - for I love Orkut and as a member, I'm allowed to have my vision for Orkut. C'mon, Eric ain't the only person who has vision for Google products :-D.

I can't list down and do a through a differentiation between the old version and the new version. However, I'm going to list down the key features that I noticed and why the new one doesn't seem to be just right yet.


Old Orkut

• The UI has three vertical pane - better and intuitive way to navigate.
• Scrap book opens up in a fully blown page retaining the left pane which helps in navigation.
• Photos are displayed in much bigger size - which is really good.
• There is a difference in content when you switched between home and profile page. The middle pane displays different data while the left pane remains the same and maintains the consistency in navigation. Right pane is also there - which can go away and display some thing else if needed.

New Orkut

• The UI has 2 vertical pane display.
• Scrap book opens up in the same place as the updates from the other user would be.
• Photos are displayed in a small size compared to the previous version.
• The right pane - it is as static as the old HTML is. All I can see is three boxes on the right side of the display that doesn't change if Im viewing the home page or profile. It is just static and to be frank, kinda annoys me too.
• All the friends are displayed in the friends box. I don't think anybody would want to view all their friends in the same tiny box using a list sort of UI.
• Rating the user as Fan or Cool or Sexy is not present. Or, Im not able to find it.
• Color customization is an ill equipped customization and not feature rich and also for the below point.
• OLD Orkut appears when,
• I click on the fans on profile
• Settings
• Manage friends
• Manage communities
• More info link on the profile page.
•  I think the rendering of old UI is still called or used for some of the links. And this brings about inconsistency in the look and feel.
• I LIKE
• The ability to approve members on home page
• The option to view friends based on their classification/groups.

Remove

• Search Web button. If I want to search the web, I will use google in a next tab. I dont want to have an option that lets me use Orkut to search web - too many buttons. And even if it is there for a purpose, it needs to be presented in a better way.
• Remove multiple links in the page. Profile is listed twice in the page. And, Home and Profile stands as two separate tabs on top - looks incomplete.

Please see the below image - Green is the one I like; Red needs another look by orkut folks.

Vision

Orkut can mimic the real world socializing - this brings in a huge scope of things that can be part of Orkut but select few can be tried and tested as feature. Like,

• Get Introduced to - this feature can be used by members to get introduced to other members.
• Collaborate more with google's other social products. Bring in features that can involve interaction between orkut and Picassa, Blog, Maps. These are all web user driver app and they can be integrated with orkut in more ways than one.

Curious question to Google

Why is orkut coming up in the first few listings of the search of my name? Is it a conscious decision by apple to not promote its own app in the listings? Not even my blog (this one) gets listed in the search results of mine. See below.

This is how it is - Now and then. Orkut. Question is when? and what do orkut has to offer and when?

iPad

It is quite a feeling to write about Steve Jobs, right after I did about Bill Gates - I'm going to save it for some other time.

However, this is about one of his creation - iPad. As I watch this event, online and hear it, I feel the endless urge to be part of creating something like this.