Passing Clouds

Apple iPhone has a good ring to it

2006-12-13T17:01:00.000-08:00

Back after a long blog-break! Numerous topics bookmarked away for later blogging; but it may take a while before they get out. So decided to at least make a start with a short post.

Apple! These guys understand their customers so well. Most products in the market are not truly consumer-ready. They require some form of tweaking or the other before their true potential is exposed. Not so with Apple. Its always, IMHO, a true plug n' play experience. That leads on to the topic I wanted to write about. The Apple iPhone.

When I first heard rumors about it, I decided to wait - even if it meant a year or more, before buying a new phone. Because I knew Apple would finally get the convergent device right. For years, I have looked for a good convergent device. But either they are bulky or unweildy or lack key features (good example: Treo 680 with a less than 1MP camera! What were they thinking!!). Apple's design will hopefully change all that.

I know I may be asking too much, but I hope the iPhone gives me a phone that works (like the Nokias and not the Treo - I love the Treo but the phone sucks), a good music player (like the iPod), a good email/calendar/PIM client (Good Technology rocks), a decent camera (still & video) with at least 3MP, WiFi, QWERTY keyboard and TouchScreen! And all this in a package about the size of the Nano.

I doubt if Apple will partner with Carriers or go the MVNO route. 611 calls are not what Apple would want its customer support staff to field! My guess is they will come out with a SIM-based, Carrier-independent phone that will work across networks. Option 3 on this article. Consumers gladly pay $300 and up for the 60-80GB iPod. They will have no hesitation paying that if it adds the phone feature, even if the capacity shrinks to 20-40GB.

But as they work towards the launch, Apple may have to redo some marketing material and labels!

Apple's delay has not kept its fans from guessing though. This iPhone concept blog set up by Okan Vardarova has quite a few decent designs (but none that meet my requirements yet :))

And I pray it does not look anything like the phone in this video.

Kevin Rose's spill tho appears a little staged to me. You can never tell what a few drinks can do! :)

Related Tags: Apple, iPhone, Innovation, QWERTY, WiFi, Camera, Phone, TouchScreen, MVNO, Carrier

Determination pays off - GradsWanted.com goes Live!

2006-08-23T02:38:00.000-07:00

After 4 months in hibernation, Sunder, emerged from his den today with the launch of his very cool job hosting service GradsWanted.com catering specifically to fresh graduates and interns. On his last birthday he made a promise to have something to show for the year and true to form, he now does. Sunder is determination personified. Enough said about Sunder. Lets talk about GradsWanted.com. I have been wanting to for 3 months now! :)

GradsWanted.com is a very simple Web2.0 service that does pretty much what most job hosting sites do - connect employers to prospective candidates. The difference however is in the way the employer is interfaced with the candidate. A clean clutter-free interface, intuitive design, simple easy steps and market focus are among the key differentiators. And its FREE!

The basic service is free. Students can search as much as they want to and apply to as many jobs as they would like to. Employers can post as many jobs as they would like (unlike other services that typically charge per posting), view any profile and contact any student (contact information provided by students is always available to employers). In the future, there may be a fee charged to employers when they make an offer to a candidate and for other premium services that may be introduced subsequently. The beta release carries no ads. Limited and targetted ads to students may make a in-the-distant-future release.

Most importantly, Sunder has already lined up employers such as Capital One, Georgia Dept of Transportation, RapLeaf, OPNet, EMG, Brownshoe and MulvannyG2. A few others are in the process of signing up. So when students sign in and post their details, they will already have someone eager to review their profiles and make the offer if their requirements are met.

Key Features:
Employers:

Employers can create job postings.
Employers can tag their job postings. Employers can also select the auto-tag feature to automatically generate tags.
Employers can search for candidates by University, Location, GPA, Tags, etc.
Employers can schedule events such as recruiting campaigns or career fairs.

Students:

Students can create their profiles and upload relevant documents.
Students can tag their profiles. Students can also select the auto-tag feature to automatically generate tags.
Students can search for jobs based on Location, Tags, etc.
Students can sign up for events scheduled by Employers.

Overall, GradsWanted.com is a very practical web2.0 application focussed on a niche segment. What started off as a birthday resolution has resulted in a fun service and a fun company that is bound to grow. Sign up now!

Related Links:

Link to GradsWanted
Inside GradsWanted - How it works
GradsWanted Blog
Sunder's birthday resolution
Some of his inspirations Ruby On Rails & Getting Real

Ustad Bismillah Khan - A Rare Jewel

2006-08-20T23:28:00.000-07:00

Ever since I heard Ustad Bismillah Khan was ill, I have been praying that he recover well enough to play the Shehnai on Republic Day (Jan 26th) from the India Gate as per his last wish. The news earlier today that he was recovering well and singing songs to the doctors gave me a sign of hope. But unfortunately, Ustad passed away on the wee hours of the morning today. His last wish was not to be! :(

A true patriot, when he was offered citizenship during a concert in Europe, he is supposed to have asked the sponsors - "Ganga bahti hai kya idhar? (Does the Ganga flow here?)".

Just a few hours ago, I was listening to the very patriotic song from Swades in which the Shehnai plays a haunting tune. I believe the notes for this are by Ustad Bismillah Khan. The song "Yeh jo desh hai tera, swades hai tera, tujhe hai pukara, ye woh bandhan hai jo tooth nahin sakta" rings true of one of the best musicians that ever graced the Earth!

He lives on through his music.

Links:

Some milestones
Obituary in Rediff and Hindu
When two legends came together - Ustad Bismillah Khan and Pandit Ravi Shankar
His last wish - "not any raag, but badhai"
This generation's Kabir
Music Nirvana on Ustad
Some pictures
Wikipedia on Ustad Bismillah Khan
A video documentary ($4.99)

Will Italy lose the World Cup?

2006-07-11T16:42:00.000-07:00

There has been some talk of Italy losing the World Cup if FIFA's investigation of the Zidane-Materazzi establishes that Materazzi used racial slurs. This is of course, if FIFA decides to go to the extremes to impose disciplinary action.

Here are the rules - Amendment to Article 55 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code
...Par. 1: Anyone who publicly disparages, discriminates against or denigrates someone in a defamatory manner on account of race, colour, language, religion or ethnic origin, or perpetrates any other discriminatory and/or contemptuous act, will be subject to match suspension for at least five matches at every level. Furthermore, a stadium ban and a fine of at least CHF 20,000 will be imposed on the perpetrator. If the perpetrator is an official, the fine will be at least CHF 30,000.

If any player, association or club official or spectator perpetrates any kind of discriminatory or contemptuous act as described by Par. 1 and/or 2 of this article, three points will automatically be deducted from the team concerned...

In the case of matches without points, the team concerned, if identifiable, will be disqualified...

Very unlikely that they will take the cup away. That will cause quite some outrage. But I sure hope Materazzi is fined/suspended, if found guilty.

In Zidane's defence, if someone's on the field for 90 minutes, repeatedly heckled, physically assaulted and his family's name brought to the field, it will take a lot of determination to keep from hitting back. For a player of his stature, Zidane should have known better, but I think Materazzi got less than he deserved. Zidane should have let his clenched fist do some talking too.

Speculation on what Materazzi told Zidane:
1. BBC - "I wish an ugly death to you and all your family, go **** yourself. A high ball is "not for feccia like you". ('Feccia' is an Italian insult meaning scum or shit.)
2. Sun - "son of a terrorist whore". (Zidane's mom, Malika, had been unwell for a few days.)
3. Some others say he called Zidane's sister a prostitute.

Of course pyschologists must have their say too:
Panelist Gerard Ernault, editor of France Football magazine, suggested Zidane may have acted unconsciously as a reaction to his impending retirement. "We could ask ourselves if he refused this consecration, this crown atop his head, by making suicidal gestures as a way also to reject his exit, his retirement".

Related Tags: Soccer, Game, Sports, Italy, Portugal, Germany, France, World Cup 2006, Fake, Footwork, Foul, Red Card, Zidane, Materazzi, BBC, Sun, FIFA, Suspension, Fine, FIFA Disciplinary Code, Article 55

Anger Management or Better Sportsmanship?

2006-07-09T23:11:00.000-07:00

In continuation of the excellence exhibited in the Germany-Portugal clash yesterday, the World Cup Soccer Finals played out very well today. Unfortunately, the final verdict had to be deferred to a penalty kick-out. But more than Italy's 5-3 victory over France, more has been said of the Zidane-Materazzi incident. From the video, it appears like Materazzi got what he deserved. I would have liked Zidane to have been spared the misery of sitting out the last few minutes of what is probably his last game. But at this level, and with his experience, Zidane should have known better.

Zidane's initial response to Materazzi was subdued; but Materazzi's continued tauts irked Zidane enough to momentarily lose his cool. Even as he struck Materazzi, the look on Zidane's face and his body language exhibited the regret; but it was too late and his illustrious career had to end with a red card.

So, would anger management classes have made a difference for Zidane? I don't believe any degree of anger management is going to take out all of our anger, unless of course you are on the path to becoming a monk - a very good one at that. What could have definitely helped is if Materazzi had exhibited better sportsmanship and played the game fair instead of resorting to extreme mind-games as a few teams repeatedly do in Cricket.

I hope the next World Cup is played with more fairness, less fakes, better sportsmanship and more spectacular footwork and strategies.

Zidane-Materazzi Video:

Update (Jul 10)
Materazzi's skills: (via digg - there is no escaping the past)

Related Tags: Soccer, Game, Sports, Italy, Portugal, Germany, France, World Cup 2006, Fake, Footwork, Foul, Red Card, Zidane, Materazzi

Finally, some good soccer!

2006-07-08T12:15:00.000-07:00

After a disappointing semi-finals where Italy and Portugal players competed for best fakes, we are finally getting to see some really good moves on the field. Germany and Portugal are going all out in the fight for the third place. In 20 minutes there have been at least 10 attacking shots at the goal; 2/3rd by Germany. So far, Germany has displayed superior technique and some excellent footwork. And also fouled the most. The refrees though, are being a lot more lenient in this game.

Back to the semis - Italy's practice sessions sure came in handy for their game vs Germany. But Portugal went one up in their game with France. If it took the slightest contact for Italian players to hit the dirt; the Portuguese went down if they were within 6 inches from an opponent. In one instance, 2 players went down when the ball passed between them. The funny thing was neither of them came in contact with an opponent player or the ball. Nonetheless, both appealed! :)

Italy's Practice Sessions:

Update:
Germany scored a well-deserved win (3-1). They played the game aggressively from the beginning and kept the pressure on Portugal through the game. 3 of the 4 goals scored in the game were awesome; the exception being the self-goal by Portugal. If only Germany had played with this spirit in their semi-finals game with Italy, they well could have been facing France tomorrow! Lets hope the game tomorrow is just as exciting as this one.

Related Tags: Soccer, Game, Sports, Italy, Portugal, Germany, France, World Cup 2006, Fake, Footwork

Google Video offers free videos

2006-06-27T23:42:00.000-07:00

I chanced upon Google Video's new "Free Today" feature. Videos that typically cost $0.99 to $14.99 are offered for free. These are sponsored by advertisers such as Netflix, HP, Burger King, etc. I came across some real good stuff including this 1915 Charlie Chaplin video. Only wish they offered these as downloads as well! :)

Related Links:

More Charlie Chaplin. Some more Charlie Chaplin.
A touching oscar-winning documentary on 9-year old Nadia who is afflicted with Spinal bifida.
A video on Alaska.
Underwater Movie on Sharks.
Technorati Tags: Alaska, Charlie Chaplin, Documentary, Experimental, Google, Google Video, Shark, Spinal bifida, Video

Trying hard to please...

2006-06-26T19:06:00.000-07:00

Catering to each individual
A couple months ago I was at P.F.Chang's for lunch with 6 of my colleagues. Lunch done, we were served the check. We paid for it with 7 cards! Our very attentive and witty server left the table with "I will be back in an hour". :-) He was back in 5 minutes. He called out each of our names without once looking at the cards - even my very "Indian" name. He also knew where each individual was seated! Amazing memory. But more importantly, he lent it a very personal touch. Needless to say, he got a hefty tip from us. Personalized Customer Service at its best!

"We try harder" or should it be "We hardly try"?
Yesterday, I tried to reserve a van for our trip to Crater Lake this long weekend. I found a deal on Avis.com and booked it. But then realized they had limited miles (200 a day). So I looked up Orbitz and sure enough, found the exact same Avis offer on Orbitz, but with unlimited miles. So I called Avis and asked them to match the Orbitz offer. But they refused. So I asked them to cancel the reservation and they did without blinking an eye!

The Avis Offer Screenshot:

The Orbitz Offer Screenshot:

It is very unlikely that I will go over the 800 miles they had on offer. They could have matched the deal and retained a satisfied customer. But instead, they preferred to lose the business to a competitor, created some negative "word of mouth" for themselves and lost a customer. So much for "trying hard"!

"Please hold. Your business is important to us." - Is it? Really?
This one takes the cake. A Comcast technician, put on hold for an hour by Comcast Technical Support, dozed off at a customer's home. The customer, Brian Finkelstein posted a clip of the dozing technician on his blog and word soon reached the upper echelons at Comcast. The technician was fired and Brian had a few guests from Comcast who worked thru midnight to fix the problem. Why does it have to take so much effort to get companies to provide basic support?

Customer Rules! And can be easily pleased!! Just ask the server at P.F.Chang's.

Technorati Tags: Avis, Business, Customer, Customer-Service, Marketing, Service

Riya 2.0: Rapid Improvements or More Spin?

2006-06-21T03:04:00.000-07:00

When I first reviewed Riya a few months ago, it fell way short of what was advertised then. Riya's CEO Munjal Shah pointed out that my test failed because I was using low-resolution images from the web and that Riya works only with resolutions of 2MP or higher. But a recent post on Munjal's blog and TechCrunch indicates that Riya may have now made that quantum leap to finding any image on the web.

Quote from TechCrunch:
"...When it’s ready, users will be able to search on an image (the easiest way will be via a browser plugin to search right from the page containing the images). See a rug on ebay that has a pattern you like? See other rugs from across the web containing similar patterns...See someone’s picture on MySpace that you like? Search on their photo to find single people who look similar and who have profiles up on match.com or other dating sites...".

If this is true, then a business model is finally emerging from Riya. The question is if this is a viable business model.

So, will it work?
The shift in strategy does indicate that Riya is under pressure from VCs to deliver a working product with a revenue stream.

The costs of indexing billions of images from across the web are pretty high. And then there is the issue of real-time responses to end users. Google's text-based searches have acceptable response times. When we change the input from text to images, we have to multiply that response time a few times. That will clearly put it beyond acceptable, unless Riya has some ground-shaking magic sauce.

Riya has also lost some time to a few possible competitors in this space. The recent departure of their marketing force, Tara Hunt, only add to its woes.

In summary, the costs associated with this shift are too high in comparison to the actual revenue which will likely be referral fees. Riya may have to go back to its drawing board very soon.

Related Links:

My test of the alpha release; Munjal's response; Tara's response
Riya 2.0 Announcement on Munjal's blog and TechCrunch
Technorati Tags: riya, photosearch, soalphaithurts

Dr.Rajkumar - An incredible entertainer

2006-04-16T21:58:00.000-07:00

Dr.Rajkumar, the leading thespian of yesteryears, passed away last week. Through his life, he played a very significant role in promoting Kannada and its rich culture and lived true to one of his popular songs "Naaniruvudhe Nimagaagi". In fact, Kannada and Dr.Raj had become synonymous in the current era. His passing has created a huge void.

Dr.Raj, popularly known as "Annavaru", acted in about 205 films in a career that spanned 45 years. Not only was he a versatile actor, but also a good singer. Just a couple months ago, I saw one of his best movies (again) "Babhruvahana" and it brought back memories from my childhood. I remember being grounded for watching the movie instead of studying for my exams; but then I cannot resist mythological and historical movies! IMHO, few actors can carry off those roles as well as Shivaji Ganesan, Dr.Raj, NTR and Mukesh Khanna. On my last trip home, I bought 2 of Dr.Raj's movies - "Bedara Kannappa" and "Satya Harishchandra" and almost the entire collection of his songs.

Annavaru was a pure gem in India's crown. A simple man to the end. His legacy will live on.

Related Links:

Dr.Raj's eyes donated.

A brief introduction to Annavaru.

The man who changed Kannada Cinema.

His journey through time.

More on the legend.

His best movies and songs.

Technorati Tags: Dr.Raj, Annavaru, Rajkumar, Movie, Kannada, Entertainment, Karnataka

Riya - Alpha Release: So alpha it hurts!

2005-12-19T10:30:00.000-08:00

After 3 weeks in my draft folder, I finally got around to this today. I was one of the lucky 1000 selected to try the alpha release of Riya. There had been so much buzz about this on Slashdot, Digg and TechCrunch, that I was talking about this application's capabilities to friends and colleagues long before I got to see the application. And I learnt a big lesson. No matter what the experts say, hold off talking about an app, till you have actually test-driven it.

My experience with Riya's alpha release has been very disappointing. Well, to start with, it is probably my fault because I had high expectations, especially after I read this on Wired "Currently in alpha testing, the software has proven sensitive enough to tell the difference between twins and recognize members of the same family.". Forget twins, Riya failed to recognize the exact same snap of the same person. In my testing, Riya failed at some very basic image recognition test cases.

Test approach:
I did not want to upload any of my personal pictures. So I chose to use pictures that are already widely available on the web - celebrities, Bollywood celebrities to be precise! The folks at coolbuddy were kind enough to give me permission to use pictures from their website. 569 photos of Aishwarya Rai, Amisha Patel, Bipasha Basu, Preity Zinta, Sonali Bendre, Tabu, Urmila, etc made their way to my Riya account. And I got started.

Identification:
Riya automatically recognizes areas of the photograph that appear like a face and marks it for identification. This is however not consistent and many faces were not auto-marked. I had over 50 Aishwarya's pictures and so went about identifying her snaps. The more snaps recognized by the user, the better Riya is trained to recognize the rest of the snaps. I started with recognizing 10 of Ash's snaps and some of Amisha, Amrita, Bipasha and Preity. I then let Riya recognize the rest. The results were rather poor with some of Aishwarya's snaps being recognized as Amrita and Bipasha. So I went through another round of recognizing some more Aishwarya's snaps to better train Riya; but there was little improvement in the auto-identification by Riya. Next, I recognized 31 of Ash's snaps (one more than what Riya considers great for auto-recognition), but this did not change the end results.

Test Case Summary for identification:
1. Identify some images and then let Riya do its magic. Test Result: Poor
2. Use mirror images of the same person. Test Result: Failed
3. Tiled images of the same person. Test Result: Failed
4. Use different size images of the the same photograph. Test Result: Failed
5. Use the same photographs, but with different sharpness. Test Result: Failed

I expect an image recognition application to positively identify the same people with different expressions and also at different ages. But Riya fails at this. In fact, a scaled down version of the exact same snap of Aishwarya was not recognized by Riya even though I identified Aishwarya in the bigger image. Even text recognition works only when the text is crisp and normal.

So IMHO, this alpha release of Riya is ways away from where the Riya team would like it to be.

Here are some actual examples where Riya failed:

In this picture, Amisha Patel's picture is tiled multiple times. (i) Riya wrongly identified Amisha as Esha Doel. To be fair, I trained Riya with only 8 Amisha snaps. (ii) Even if this was correct, it should have identified all instances in the image as Esha, but it did not.

In this picture, we have mirror images of Twinkle Khanna. Riya identified one of the images as Preity Zinta and the other as Amrita Arora.

Same images of Aishwarya - one is a mirror image and the other is brighter. I trained Riya with these 2. But it wrongly identified Asihwarya in this picture as Amrita.

Mirror images of Sonali Bendre. I trained Riya by recognizing one and expected Riya to identify the other. But it didn't.

Faces are not always recognized. Here are some examples (1 2 3 4). Riya did not think any of these were faces!

Market Perception:
A lot of hype has been generated around Riya by veterans such as Michael Arrington at Tech Crunch and Robert Scoble at Scobleizer. It would be interesting to see some of their test images that went through Riya. In the current form, the only gain for anyone acquiring Riya is getting them for a lot less than when the application actually works! It appears like Google is not interested for now.

The business case for Riya is very strong. There are a lot of uses for a technology such as Riya's - when it works. Here is hoping the next release does better.

Related links:

More test photos on flickr

Technorati Tags: riya, photosearch, soalphaithurts

Syriana - A movie that could have been. (3/5)

2005-12-11T14:18:00.000-08:00

Movie Review - Syriana. My Rating 3/5. Worth a watch, only because it exposes the deep nexus between American businesses and the Government and how political agendas are set based on business interests.

Two powerful scenes that sum up the movie:
On being charged with corruption, a protagonist explodes:
"Corruption charges...Corruption? Corruption is Government intrusion into market efficiencies in the form of regulation. That's Milton Friedman. And he got a goddamn Nobel Prize. We have laws against it precisely so we can get away with it. Corruption is our protection. Corruption keeps us safe and warm. Corruption is why you and I are prancing out here instead of fighting for scraps of meat out on the street. Corruption... is why we win."

Prince Nazir in a frustrated moment on being pushed to a corner by the US for accepting the higher Chinese bid for his nation's oil tells Matt Damon:
I want to rebuild my nation, set up an independent judiciary, a parliament, reforms for women. I want to do whatever possible to introduce efficiencies to maximize profitability; profits that would then be used to rebuild my nation. Except your President rings my father and says I have unemployment in Texas, Kansas and Washington state. One phone call later we are stealing out of our social programs to buy overpriced planes. We owed the Americans, but we have overpaid our debts. I accepted the Chinese bid, the highest bid. And suddenly I am a terrorist, a communist.

Here is a movie that could have easily made it to the top; but falls short because of mediocre direction, poor editing and poor screenplay. The movie has been unnecessarily stretched and as a result dilutes a powerful story.

Syriana is about how the West is going all out to exert its influence over the Middle East to ensure the Western oil pipelines never run dry. If it takes assassinations, regime changes to replace moderate elements with corrupt ones that favor the West, payoffs, so be it! The end objective is for the West to have the oil.

But the director loses his bearing with the narration swinging between gripping scenes and meaningless charades. In the end, a good story is floundered and the audience is left with a very watered-down message.

The scenes with the Mid-East workers on the oil rigs is by far the worst. It is almost like these scenes were force-fit into the movie to show both sides of the story. This is followed closely by the CIA agent's (George Clooney) interactions with spooks and terrorists. Very amateurish handling. If this is how spooks work, then the terrorists have nothing to fear! If not for George's acting, this would have taken first spot on worst scenes. Also, for some strange reason, the director has some of the oil-rig workers speaking in Hindi. Hindi in that region?!?!? BTW, I always thought my Hindi sounded real poor because of my South Indian accent, but after hearing these guys speak Hindi, I feel so much better.

All criticisms aside, go watch it to see how the US Government manipulates its people and the rest of the world! If you are only looking for a good "spook" movie, then Spy Game is the one to watch.

Related links:

A few key scenes (video).

Syriana's website.

The movie is loosely based on this book - See No Evil, by former CIA agent Robert Baer.

Yahoooo! Delicious!!!

2005-12-09T14:47:00.000-08:00

Tagging is the cool phrase VCs love to hear these days! Close on the heels of CNET acquiring Consumating (!!!), del.icio.us announced that it is now part of the Yahoo family.

Yahoo has had a very aggressive last 2 quarters this year, taking the fight into the Google camp. They have upgraded most of their key services and added new ones to meet Google's challenge - Yahoo Mail, Flickr, Yahoo Maps, RSS feeds from any source to any device, going after Skype and now del.icio.us! Good comeback Yahoo!!! Microsoft is running a distant third in this space, but more the big players, the merrier for us end consumers!

There is some chatter on the web on whether this union is good for users. IMHO, what end-users need is a one-stop shop or a few-stop shops to meet their daily needs. If I can get most of it at either Google or Yahoo, awesome! Consolidation benefits the end-users as much as the companies coming together. Also, both G and Y! are fiercely competing to deliver better services, and both understand the importance of social networking. So, this acquisition can only be good for the end-users.

Here is a good interview on why del.icio.us is useful. Stuart's response to the first question sums it up. And here are some useful tools that extend del.icio.us

Finally, a useful wiki for travellers

2005-12-08T22:09:00.000-08:00

Very detailed wiki for travellers covering most every country on the globe.

Main wiki here. My home town in India - Bangalore. And my home for now - Portland.

One stop shop for Public Transport maps/schedule

2005-12-08T12:10:00.000-08:00

Yet another new "beta" service from Google. Provide a start and end address and a time and it will show you the best public transportation combination to get there, ETA and costs. This release only covers the Portland Metro area (OR).

Example: If you have to get from NW 13th Ave to the Airport at 7PM, look up directions using this text: 800 NW 13th ave, Portland, OR 97209 to pdx at 7PM to get these directions. It even shows what the public transport would cost vs driving!

Here is a snippet from the GBlog:
With it, commuters will be able to easily access public transit schedules, routes, and plan trips using their local public transportation options. This first release covers only the Portland, Oregon metro area, but we are working to expand our coverage very soon.

They seem to do better with the 20% projects than their regular day jobs! :)

The magical tapestry they wove!

2005-12-07T23:48:00.000-08:00

Watched Dev Anand's CID (again) and the special features section had a documentary on Guru Dutt! Took me thru his movies I have enjoyed over the years, almost every one of them, more than once. Pyaasa, Aar Par, Mr.&Mrs.55, Kaagaz Ke Phool...

When I think of the best Bollywood artistes from that era, quite a few names come to mind, but Guru Dutt and Madhubala remain my all-time favorites! Maybe someday I will write more about them, and also Dev Anand, Waheeda Rehman, Utpal Dutt, Vyjayanthimala... The ladies sparkled with their eyes and beauty, while Guru Dutt captured the emotions splendidly on celluloid! The song picturizations are mind-boggling! True entertainers!!

And now they "discover" the lies!

2005-12-01T17:11:00.000-08:00

Just before the war started, I wrote this post on how the American Government was embracing the principles of Goebbels. And now they talk about investigating the recent allegations of the Pentagon planting stories in the Iraqi media. Who will investigate the lies in the American media?

Related links: BBC, Reuters, Al Jazeera, Guardian, Christian Science Monitor.

Mr. Sunder Iyer graces blogosphere

2005-11-30T12:33:00.000-08:00

Another post thats taken its time - but this time under 2 months! :) Sunder hit the blogosphere, finally, last month. He is one of those very few determined go-getters I have come across, extremely creative and a born entrepreneur. We met during our BSc days at MES, Bangalore and since then it has been one fun ride after another. We spent more time loitering in IISc than we did in college, had similar attendance records, got caught bunking classes... the list goes on. His enthusiasm and creativity easily rubs off on everyone interacting with him. For long, he steered clear of blogosphere, but since he got in, its been one awesome post after another.

Here is what he says about himself, his first post on a person we spent hours talking about over the years and the main page of the blog itself. And here are some pictures of us from 4 Thanks-Givings ago.

Welcome to the blogosphere buddy! Keep the posts coming!

The Google clout

2005-11-30T12:15:00.000-08:00

A good consolidation of Google's wares has been posted on Wired.

Also here is an excellent video of where the world will be in 2014... I have been meaning to blog this for almost a year now... I guess I will just dump all those "waiting to be blogged" links in one big post. Bala is procrastination's middle name! :)

Am alpha-testing Riya. My first impression - they have lots to do before it hits prime time. More on that in a subsequent post.

Get the stars to sing your song!

2005-11-23T22:35:00.000-08:00

And here is an interesting site that will have the stars singing your songs! This service finds existing songs that use the words in the lyrics you write and then concatanates them together to create a new song, a bit off-tune mostly, but, hey, you have the stars crooning your lyrics! :)

WOW! Genius!!!

2005-11-23T22:28:00.000-08:00

This service from Google is incredible! Great thinking!!!

The Volcker Report - Guilty or Not?

2005-11-07T12:57:00.000-08:00

The Volcker Report - Guilty or Not?

Two of my favorite commentators have slightly different reads of the controversy generated by the Volcker Report - B.Raman (former RAW additional secretary) says the US does not like Natwar Singh and T.V.R.Shenoy (Journalist - remember the insightful last page in The Week) talks about the Congress' idiotic threat to the UN.

Yahoo Maps 2.0 (Beta) - First Impressions!

2005-11-04T20:14:00.000-08:00

Yahoo Maps 2.0 (Beta) - First Impressions!

When Y! Maps was launched a few years ago, I was very fascinated with the detailed turn-by-turn information that it dished out, esp since I am extremely spatially challenged and can get lost driving home from work (I blame it on deep thoughts bouncing in my head, but...)! MapQuest didn't do much for me. And then along came Google, brushing aside all the competition with its AJAX-powered, simple, intuitive rendition of global maps! Since that day, I have not been on Yahoo maps again, until today.

With this new release, Y! has shaken up its maps application and enriched it with numerous new and useful features. Here is my first impression of Yahoo Maps 2.0 Beta.

The Good:

Page refreshes for every single action has traditionally frustrated users on Y!. GMaps showed why non-intrusion is key for a mapping application, esp when the user wants to move around, zoom-in and zoom-out. Y! has achieved this using Flash resulting in a much better user experience.

The most useful feature I liked was the ability to get directions to multiple locations on the same map. All these years, its been maps from Point A to B and back if necessary. I usually have more than one place to go, and would have to look them all up separately. Y! maps does a one-up on Google by throwing in this capability. Not only can I look up directions to n number of locations, but can also move the order of the locations around. Example: Assume I get directions from "Home" to "Best Buy" to "The Mac Store" to "Macy's" To "Groceries" and back to "Home" and my wife comes along to see the itinerary. Doubtless, I will have to move locations around (after a quick well-anticipated stare from her) so we get to Macy's and groceries before we venture anywhere else (if at all). With Y!Maps, I can just drag the locations around and the maps engine reworks the directions for me in no time. WOW!

It highlights sections of the path when the user mouses-over the directions. Some good thinking there for poor lost souls like me!

Category-based search has a good coverage and allows easy refinement of criteria.

Another big plus is the numerous APIs exposed. Provides developers multiple options to integrate mapping into their applications. It imposes similar terms (restrictions) as Google on developers.

The Bad:

Category search could have been simpler. Too many categories have been buried on a small panel on the left. Usability suffers as a result. Google does better on this front.

Ability to move locations around on the description/directions panel is real nice. It would have been better if it allowed the user to drag the whole text box around instead of just the "balloon".

The translucent bird's eye map with the zoom control should have been minimized by default so it didn't overlay on the main map.

It would have been good if the addresses collapsed when locations are moved around. Else it tends to fill up the directions panel pretty fast.

I am not sure what the "Live Traffic" option is for. It does nothing to the map. I must be missing something. Anyone know what it does?

The Ugly:

"Send to phone" only sends a link to the map. I would have liked to see step-by-step driving instructions in the message. Often times I call friends for directions. It would be so much simpler, if they could look up directions and text them to me via the "Send to phone" option.

I tried to add a smart keyword for Yahoo maps in Firefox, but was not able to. One, the URL doesn't show the parameters and so I can't use %s to set the keyword. Two, right-clicking in the directions field doesn't give me the "Add smart keyword" option. This is a big negative. I have "map" set up as my keyword for GMaps and can get to any place in an instant on GMaps (example: map 97209 or map pdx). Without smart keywords for Y!Maps, I will turn to it only if GMaps cannot get me to someplace (not happened in all the time I have used it) or if I am looking for directions to multiple locations.

Zooming could have been a lot better. It is jarring when it first zooms deep in a little more than required and then steps back a bit to settle at the required zoom level.

The tool-tips are redundant.

I know this is a beta, but they could have done better QA with it. I ran into some basic bugs in the locations panel with locations being duplicated, lost, etc.

A missing feature (I think) is the ability to look up directions to multiple locations from one central point, ie, A to B; A to C; A to D; A to E... Lets say I am planning a trip to the coast and I have 3-4 beaches to choose from. I would like to see, on one map, the paths to each of the end points so I can make an "intelligent" decision. Assuming, "Live Traffic" does what it is supposed to do, it would enhance my decisioning process! :)

I may have more bullets under Bad and Ugly, but some of these can be easily overcome or addressed thru minor fixes. Also, remember, this is a beta. Overall, IMHO, this is a real good response to GMaps and sets the tone for improvisations by the other players. Very good job Y!

For the geeks!

2005-11-04T10:39:00.000-08:00

For the geeks!

Here are some utilities that I find very useful:

mp3tag: I have been using this for more than a year now and this is, by far, one of the best mp3 tagging utilities I have come across. It allows a very intuitive and easy editing of ID3 tags for audio files and supports more than just mp3s. Not only does it allow you to derive ID3 from the file name, but once you have the ID3s refined, you can derive the file names using the ID3. Must try utility! Thanks to mp3tag, my audio library is as good as it can get. Link to the website.

MKS Toolkit: UNIX on Windows! Guess that says it all. grep and make to your heart's content! Link to the website.

cURL, WGET: Ever wanted to save multiple images or songs or other files from one website. cURL or WGET is the tool you want. These are command line utilities that spider out into the web to retrieve files/web pages for specified URLs. You can decide how deep you want to go into a site. It can stop at the first level or follow links from the first level to the next one and so on.

Here is an usage example. Lets say you are an Aishwarya Rai fan and you come across a site such as this one. Instead of right clicking on each one to do a "Save As...", use cURL or WGET to recursively run through the site to retrieve the files.

The command to accomplish this is a single line:
cURL http://www.bollywoodscreensavers.com/wallpapers/indceleb/imgs/Aishwarya[01-10].jpg -o "Ash#1.jpg".

This will recursively pull the files Aishwarya01.jpg, Aishwarya02.jpg... and save them in the local machine as Ash01.jpg, Ash02.jpg...

For the Ash fan, my example pulls only 10 images, but the site has over 60 Aishwarya images! For the music fan, if you come across a site with plenty of mp3s (non-copyrighted), here is how you can easily get them. ;)

Link to the websites: cURL, WGET and WGET for Windows.

Plenty more such as Slickrun, but I will leave that for another day!

Stable but volatile?

2005-10-19T12:47:00.001-07:00

Stable but volatile?

Is it just me or is this headline on CNN today self-contradictory?
Weakened dam stable but 'extremely volatile' :)

The source.