Krishna Kumar

Played

2009-02-11T12:03:00.000-08:00

Bioshock
FarCry
GTA 4
Super Mario Galaxy
World of Goo
Crayon Physics Deluxe
Crysis
Diver
Doom 3
Prince of Persia
Passage
Marriage
Drop7
Tomb Raider: Underworld
NFS: Undercover
Fifa 2009
medal of honor 2
call of duty
closure

- so far in 2009. Keeping good on the promise. Also, Want xbox. Just to play street fighter.

And some pete sampras tennis from 96. Cricket games havent changed one bit. Go play brian lara cricket (from 96 too) and tell me.

Interchange Foo

2008-07-13T21:32:00.000-07:00

At work, data serialization between internal servers used to be a big pain until last year. We used something entirely built out of XML to solve this problem. Though they weren't optimized-enough to affect scalability/performance greatly, it did let us make that wonderful single method call to load them all. We weren't cool enough to open up its source like its being done with protobuf though.

Never odd or even

2008-07-07T21:46:00.000-07:00

Who else could do this, but Improv Everywhere! Love their work.

Carjacks

2008-06-04T02:04:00.000-07:00

Somebody should do this for Liberty City.

Raison d'être

2008-03-29T13:48:00.000-07:00

I knew it had it purpose. Here it is. And here is its purpose.

NTF

2008-03-24T11:24:00.000-07:00

Damn! Flickr is a lot of fun. Now go Name that film.

Cricket Scores

2007-12-29T11:07:00.000-08:00

These days, I like checking cricket scores this way. Nifty, eh?
Not so nifty for cricbuzz/cricinfo/willow. I mean look at all the people so not clicking on those links once they get the score. This in a medium where attention is everything!

This reeks of Porter's 'forward integration'. And the funny part is everyone is desperate to give content way for free (SEO anyone?). So is this, in Porter-ish terms, the same as hawking of others' goods and giving absolutely nothing to the original supplier? Given sufficiently advanced web applications, maybe.

Looking around, this looks like a common pattern with information whose 'time to assimilate' is very low. Typically numerical information. Like - What time is it in San Jose? Whats the temperature outside? Whats apple's stock price today?

Home

2007-12-21T23:22:00.000-08:00

A good friend of mine was in Moscow on a work assignment. He works for one of India's nice fat banks and was shuttling there on and off. Last week, he was walking down a street when a couple of skinheads attacked him. Hit him in the face. Put him down and kicked him. He's alright now.

Last night I was driving back from work. Had to hit the brakes, got locked, vehicle skidded and I was down. Should have seen the people who flocked around me. They took me to a doctor, got me stitched, asked me if I needed money, fixed something minor with my bike, said bye while I left. It felt like home. Exactly what you gotta experience once in a while.

Fotos - tests and formats

2007-12-15T21:29:00.000-08:00

"This is the city that is home to some of the greatest works of art, from Michaelangelo's beautiful sculpture of David to Botticell's ethereal painting of Venus - masterpieces that still evoke gasps of admiration from visitors."

- Cradle of Renaissance, today's The Hindu Magazine.

I haven't travelled much. Atleast not as much as the crazy kids are doing it these days. So I was reading the lonely-planet-ish last page of the Hindu Magazine and came across that evocative article and started day-dreaming about the sights of Florence. I needed a little more context and wondered how easy it was to take photos there - you know, if we can tote a monster SLR or have to take them inconspicuously. Well, the best place to find that out turned out to be flickr. Florence, Medici - lots of photos taken inside the church. Florence, ufizzi - again lots. Florence, piazza della signoria. Looks like they do allow it. Then I checked out a couple of places, where I do know photography is restricted, and ya, no results in flickr. But people are managing to sneak in cameras in some restricted places too.

Also, I realized there is no way to store negatives/roll films digitally. A lot of people are shooting film these days (film is such fun!) and using Noritsus/film scanners to flickr them. But with better and better scanners coming up, people tend to re-scan which is such a bore. Now how to do it? I am guessing some variant of vectorization with the color capability equal to atleast RAW2. Am not very sure. Guess I'm vainly trying to quantize film goodness. Lets see if the people at canon, nikon or even flickr figure this out.

Data Channel!

2007-09-27T01:04:00.000-07:00

Never thought of my credit card bill this way. My bill entries have been pretty much spot on so should try this - A low-bandwidth, high-latency, high-cost, and unreliable data channel

Wii thoughts

2007-08-24T14:17:00.000-07:00

* Out of the box. I observed this because of a terrible experience a friend had with a Acer laptop. The laptop pre-installed with linspire which wouldnt boot since it wouldnt detect the hard disk until the BIOS is updated, which can be done only at a Acer service center. So the first thing you have to do on buying is to go to a service center! Wii - It packed a game with it. It even packed the batteries for the wireless controller.

* Like Google's got search, the Wii has its controllers. Great technology to create new experiences. Think of them as new verbs on old nouns and you could explain/generate most products based on them.

* Wonder which was created first. Wii sports or the controllers. I mean, though many games have been developed/released since launch, no other game comes close to Wii Sports in terms of 'using' the controllers.

* Got to to try out the iPhone recently. There's so much to like and compare in the Wii controllers and iPhone.

* Next-gen? Old-gen actually. Since it has made a lot of older people take up video games!

* Great usability. You are your wiimote. Whichever Wii you may go to.

* Fun. Intuitive. Pain in left shoulder. Should move to house with a bigger living room.

* Got any good games to reccomend? Let me know.

* It would be cool if somebody put a couple of turning weights in the wiimote and let it charge by movement. Just like those flailing kinetic watches.

Randomese

2007-06-03T22:53:00.000-07:00

* Foleo should have, simply, been a LiveCD. Still could be.

* Great doma.in names to buy from rediff or yahoo domains -

zeppel.in
y.in
virg.in
viol.in
verm.in
villa.in
tox.in
ra.in
quatra.in
lo.in
log.in
hero.in
gro.in
gr.in
elf.in
doma.in
bullet.in
boff.in
bra.in
aspir.in
tox.in
beg.in

IMDB redesign

2007-02-19T09:40:00.000-08:00

I tend to spend a lot of time on IMDB. And they have redesigned it. There is a lot of good than bad with the new design. Love the reccomendations, top of page, slicker looking, rollover rating, the subtle ajax, etc. And probably, the bad is that they have changed rather than the changes itself.

What I couldn't stand was that the links are kind of getting lost in the text. Scanning the page, which used to work great isnt good enough now. The redesign tends to make me concentrate rather than scan carelessly.

So here's a greasemonkey script to fix it. It simply emphasises the links. Thats it. Tested with Firefox 2.0.0.1 and Greasemonkey 0.6.6 on Ubuntu Edgy Eft and OSX 10.4.6.

List

2007-02-16T22:50:00.000-08:00

Some of the best series of games I've ever played -

* Star Wars - The unforgettable Rogue Squadron 3D. If the Wii plays the old Gamecube versions of Rogue Squadron, I would buy it for Rogue Squadron alone! The Age-of-Empires clone (don't remember the name). Racer. Jedi Outcast. Knights of the Old Republic II. Empire at War.

* C & C - The original. Red Alert 2. Yuri's Revenge. Renegade. Generals (currently playing). Its brilliant!

* Max Payne - Loved the story and the telling and the action. Plus it barfed C++ code when you cheated! :)

* Winning Eleven - Best football sim ever.

* Quake - Like an old pair of jeans you never throw away. The makers know this and the newer versions are simply more of the same.

* Diablo, GTA, NFS - genre-defining.

Mixd

2006-12-01T22:08:00.000-08:00

Cool idea. Looks good. Love the comic-bookish pastel artwork.

Hindu Digital Edition

2006-09-09T21:56:00.000-07:00

From today, Hindu is available in glorious digital form. Its subscription based though its free for the first three months. Take that TOI! Now TOI has achieved closure in uselessness.

Blog

2006-09-09T09:13:00.000-07:00

Clever. Beautifully done. indexed.

Dark City(1998)

2006-05-16T07:19:00.000-07:00

Imagine there's no heaven. Imagine a hundred minutes of pure atmosphere. Imagine a hundred minutes of raw science fiction. Imagine a hundred minutes of psychedelic cinematograhy. It will be called Dark City.

Probably the most overlooked movie of the 90s, Dark City is comparable to the likes of Blade Runner and the timeless Metropolis. It is a different from Blade Runner because the plot is more a picture in the puzzle than the puzzle itself. The classic sci-fi plot has been setup like a detective story. The story starts in true film noir style with a man wanted for a series of brutal murders. But he cannot remember whether he did them or not. In fact, he cannot remember anything. Thus starts a tale of discovery and a wonderful hundred minutes.

What makes sci-fi movies fun is the transportation of the viewer into its world and Dark City does this well. For quite some time in the movie, the plot unfolds like a crime story - but slowly and creepily leading into its sci-fi elements. And when it starts, its a lot of fun. The Strangers start chasing Rufus. They find out much to their surprise that Rufus can also 'tune in' like themselves. And then there is a kid with superpowers and has a couple of interesting encounters with Rufus. And the unforgettable Jennifer Connelly. For once in a movie she is being sought after and plays the ingenue to perfection, unlike most of her famous ventures where she is nursing crazy protagonists. Her memories are mixed up by the Strangers and she does not remember who Rufus is. By the end of the movie, Rufus has to start wooing her again. Nice.

What makes Dark City Dark City is the atmospheric canon of light and darkness. Dim lazy sets. A confused but determined Rufus Sewell. The creepy Strangers. Its a work of great imagination and packed a wallop when I watched it in an empty theater 6 years ago. Maybe this impact is what Manoj Night Shyamalan was talking about in order to stop studios' plans of releasing the DVDs of movies on the same day as their theatrical release. If somebody saw Dark City on DVD today they might never understand why its so good a sci-fi movie.

Status Quo

2006-04-08T02:52:00.000-07:00

With Macs becoming OS-agnostic, am eagerly awaiting a change in the status quo. Preferably with enough drama before and after the event which will cause the change. Like the classic climactic Mexican stand-off in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Hopefully, like in the movie, the hero survives.

UPDATE: The guys from TBWA/Chiat/Day have never let Apple down. Their ipod ads were 'iconic' and now they have come up with these series of Mac vs. PC ads. See them here.

Very Sonia

2006-03-25T21:54:00.000-08:00

My first post was about Sonia Gandhi. I called it a masterstroke when she refused PM-ship and offered it to Manmohan. And now this.

Either she doesn't care about holding seats of 'power'. Or she really 'sacrificed' the post. Whatever the reasons, she gives the impression of doing the right thing at the right times. And its the small things like these which will stand out in people's memory. Simply because 'normally' people here resign only after they have been issued arrest warrants by courts, ultimatums or promises by party leaders, etc.

On a lighter note, I overheard some people at the electronic city bus stand saying, 'why doesn't sachin resign from his office of profit'. Thats a first, isn't it? - sportsmen asked to learn from politicians. ;)

What is your dangerous idea?

2006-02-20T14:10:00.000-08:00

"If I have no access to what goes on in my brain, how can I be so proud, (how can anybody be so proud) about scientific achievements?" - Ernst Poppel

Will we ever make contact with aliens? - Nah. We are too busy playing video games, says Geoffrey Miller.

"We shall understand the origin of life within the next 5 years" - Robert Shapiro

Relativism is over-rated, says Martin E P Seligman.

Every year, Edge asks groups of people different questions, and this year its"What is your dangerous idea?". All their responses are great to read and think about. Not an essay is to be missed.

Why sell computers?

2006-02-19T22:40:00.000-08:00

Cellphones are a huge business these days. They have some processing power and are great communication devices. In that way, even PCs are good communicators. If cellphones and PCs are used more and more for communication purposes, why do cellphones come with the network and PCs don't? Both are used for work, play. Even while working don't people spend more time 'online' than on the 'cellphone'? Definitely. So if the activity on a network is higher, isn't it more valuable, in terms of making the user pay for it? Why isn't using the Internet much more expensive than using a cellular network?

Its not. For purely technical reasons. The network operator does a lot of things well. He takes care of information from the time it leaves a cellphone handset to the time it reaches the recipients'. He creates opportunities for communication by making his user mobile. All this involves loads of technical activities like creating the infrastructure, services, ensuring the service, support, etc.

But all ISPs do (after sufficient abstraction to make my point) is routing. Cellphone companies route too, but it cannot be considered the core of their activity. Plus, it takes way more processing power(and cost) to route on cellphone networks than on IP networks. ISPs route using very simple rules - as simple as, "if recipient=A, forward message to A". The essential algorithm is this much only. There is lot of complexity in handling the incidental details(like where is A, who knows A, etc.) But again, the complexity is much more in cellular networks than IP networks. Bottom line - a network operator spends for the user much more on processing power than an ISP. (Also, cellular networks satisfy the ego by giving their users global uniqueness which ISPs never do.)

Its easy to see that PCs and cellphones are at oppposite ends of processing power spectrum. Conventionally, if the processing at user side is more, the processing at the operator side is less. And vice versa. PCs are expensive and broadband connections are cheap. Cellphones are cheap and cellphone bills are huge.

Why don't PC makers twist this balance?

Guide to Cricket - by sidin

2006-02-14T09:07:00.000-08:00

One of the funniest posts I have ever read. Must read for cricket fans. Musn't read for Venkatesh Prasad, Kumble, Raju, Sanjay Manrekar, etc. fans.

Collective Chaos screening Andrei Tarkovsky movies

2006-02-12T04:25:00.000-08:00

Collective Chaos has started this year with a bang - a series of Andrei Tarkovsky movies. Tarkovsky Retrospective - February 17th to 19th. At Guru Nanak Bhavan, Bangalore. For the uninitiated - Collective Chaos are this group of people from Bangalore who screen some of the good movies in the world. In the past, they have screened some outstanding movies like Ikiru, 12 Angry Men, Spirited Away, Dogville.

Coming back to Andrei Tarkovsky - he's a grandee of his generation of film-makers alongwith Stanley Kubrick. He made the wonderful Solyaris, which is my favourite sci-fi movie ever. Well, I actually have never seen the one by Tarkovsky, just Steven Sorderbergh's remake Solaris starring George Clooney. This will be a great chance to watch it and his other movies like Stalker, Sacrifice, Mirror, Andrei Rublev.

Equations in frames

2006-01-29T22:40:00.000-08:00

Justin Mullins has framed some mathematical equations and is showing them at a gallery in London. There is a site towards this and has the entire gallery with explanations on each equation. The photos of the equations themselves are lets say, 'alrite' but its the text accompanying each which is fascinating.

The Art of Justin Mullins