Not about Apple…

Posted by Prashanth | Filed under Blogging, College, Headshot, Humour, Random thoughts, Technology

Drafted on 13th Jan, 2009

Ever since I got my hands on a broadband Internet connection, which happened to be when I was in class IX, I have been looking up to owning something which was on display on this site. Infact, anything. There was something about those creations, that to my mind, they were as perfect as things could get. They had such a hypnotic aura surrounding themselves, that just their thoughts negated any close or better alternative/competitor from the vicinity of my mind. While browsing the site, a part of my head refuses to accept that this could get any better, in the nice way that is. All of it was just perfect.
Each time there was a new product, or an update to an old one, I used to be astonished to why I couldn’t imagine that it could get this much better. It challenged me for a very long time to imagine significantly revolutionary improvements to anything Apple, and that holds true even today. It was and still is very irrational to be frank. People have shown me, and have rationally tried convincing me to look beyond it for other alternatives. A much cheaper Alienware for instance for a MacBook Pro… I became a hypocrite subsequently to accept and even argue with Apple fanboys that it is always better to buy alternatives. But then, I knew that if given a choice, I would get myself an Apple no matter what.
But then eventually I realized that I need not keep my fetish towards Apple confidential anymore. I started admitting to people that Apple’s website serves the same purpose to me as Art of Living Programs do to some and pørn does to others… Even my endocrine system started giving weird reactions to this stimuli called Apple. Be it a silent mention, or a few pictures… The effect of a video or a keynote lasted even longer. I used to be lost in thoughts whenever I saw someone using an Apple. Mind you though, this was the story till the later half of 2007. But it took me a lot more maturity which I acquired much later to realize what kind of change fantasizing this way of Apple brought in me. I can probably call it the equivalent of taking a course in Technology Appreciation and Criticism (along the same lines as Music or Movie Appreciation). Appreciating elegance in interface, build quality aesthetics, and their subsequent (long-term) benefits amongst other abstract concepts.
Feelings like these grew stronger around the time I became serious enough to think about my career when I happened to read the Market Profile pages on Apple’s website. Wherever I think of myself on a job of my dreams, some or the other product from Apple made its way to fit just perfectly giving me insane satisfaction of my own job/work in dreamland. There were several nights which were spent sleeplessly pondering of working in a big Fortune 100 company where I used to dream more of the Apple product I would be using there than the actual job profile itself.
All this might seem just too kiddish, but it isn’t really as much as you think. Apple became more than just the PC-equivalent of a BMW, it turned into a symbol of technological elegance, or rather excellence. I badly needed to own one now and preach the whole world on what makes it rule so much with an even more powerful urge to turn the whole world into a technological critic. My interest towards learning and education jumped up with this new drive in me, just because I know that I would get to learn loads of new things to apply which I would use Apple computers like the real scientists. Now that I didn’t feel as odd as before to be vocal about my ancient obsession with Apple, I felt the time has arrived to have a part of Apple around me. And yes, I was being a cautious hypocrite when I questioned the likes of a few people when they got themselves an Apple while paying a hefty premium at the price of which they could probably get better hardware.

PS – This was written in a state of severe craving for an Apple product post a remarkably dreadful pre-bored examination. Due to acute lethargy, I decided to keep it un-edited or un-proof-read. Gives a more uncut, realistic feel to it I guess. Good luck for the rest of the entry if you endured it till here… :D

Five Months Later… A week before DCE-CEE…

I got myself an iPod Touch and soon after using it, Dad got himself an iPhone 3G. Therefore, the whole purpose of the post concluded.

my-ipod-touch
I just couldn’t just start a post with this. To add to this aesthetic complex of mine, I am chronically infected with writer’s block from the other person who calls this blog home. So well, I dug up some of my half written posts, around thirty of them from an unorganized text file, and put the most relevant one as a preamble. And then warning you, the rest of this entry could be even more unpleasantly unreadable than what you encountered before. Forgive me until I get over writer’s block, I’ve barely managed come out of the shocker Indian entrance exams detonated on almost every aspect of my life… I’ve done my job of warning you, every line of this post might eventually start looking like a rant.
Since both those devices were purchased outside India, they weren’t quite as pinching to the pockets as they would have been here. For some reason, Apple thinks people here are too rich to buy Apple products. Haven’t they seen Slumdog Millionaire themselves? [I choose to change the topic before this too grows into a rant]
Note: From here onwards, this blog would refer iPod Touch/iPhones as iPhods as they are equivalent devices with the key difference being in the ability to make calls using a GSM network.
And well, I expected nothing less than this from Apple. It feels just so great in the hands, and its a pleasure to use it. Everything is just so intuitive, your guesses on how to go about the interface are more or less usually right, with the smallest learning curve over any device I’ve used before… Apple has made a daunting substitute to the stereotyped smart-phones from RIM and HTC. Before I got to own it, I was just awestruck with a YouTube video of Google Earth running on it. Overall, a neat piece of technology with its own share of rant-able aspects as well, which I, for now think is forgivable or overlook-able.

Recent Update:

Read this for a very detailed story on how I got Dad’s iPhone 3G turned from a fat iPod Touch with a camera to the coolest smart-phone an MTNL Dolphin SIM has ever entered in the Vietnamese way… More on that soon…

I upgraded to iPhod OS 3.0 on my iPod. Neat changes. Some might not even notice it, but every refinement Apple makes to its already beautiful interface makes me smile with contentment. A simple change of making a sliding gallery of screenshots at the end of app descriptions in the App Store app is an excellent UI enhancement. The ability to recognize long sequences of numbers in the Notes App as potential contacts makes a utilitarian addition. I bet Spotlight Search is something everyone finds useful. I use GNOME-Do a lot on my PC, alongside Google Desktop Search, with an excellent calling hotkey. I am more of a keyboard guy who avoids going near his mouse. Maybe I have evolved to become one due to the weird table I keep my PC on. And a salute to Apple for making Spotlight search just a flick away, literally. And repeating what Abhishek once told me after he made a similar upgrade, I can finally use my iPhod as a netbook replacement in my college thanks to phod-wide copy-paste which is a pleasure to do. The implementation is definitely better-thought than (m)any others I’ve seen.
Also, being in company of Mac-sexuals (do notify me if there is pop-culture term for such people!), and me having turned into one already, I have in a very small insignificant way become an interface, quality and polishing/refinement observer at least, if not a connoisseur. Perhaps every Apple fan-boy is one. The old timers are probably perfectionists. A R Rahman for instance. Those who buy an Apple brainchild while not looking at it as a status symbol are potential visionaries, or better said by this beautiful piece of literature, Hyper-Critical. (BTW, special thanks to Prateek for linking to this and phrasing what I want to say with that tiny post. And thanks to Abhishek too for pointing out this particular Webmark… I had almost forgot that I am supposed to read my Feeds/Live Bookmarks while in that ordeal…) Look around you, see someone using a Macintosh? Chances are pretty high that he could make an interesting company… Now that’s a tip I’d use at airport lounges from today…

For those who are curious, I am most probably headed to do Mechanical Engg. at Vellore Institute of Technology University. For those even more curious, I am NOT happy about that.

Read more | Comments (4) | June 16th, 2009

‘Twas my B’Day and Life’s just on @the Pinnacle…

Posted by Prashanth | Filed under Birdwatching, Blogging, College, FIITJEE Pinnacle, General, It's My Life, Linux, Photography, Quizzing, School Life, Shutterbugs, Technology

Sorry to intercept your flow of feeds from several blogs around cyberspace with this distantly familiar web page with a forgotten author(s), but well, my blog did miss attention from people everywhere including me. And so did I. Loads of things happened since June, when I last made any kind of an update, (not referring to the blogroll) on the blog. Anyway, its nearly 2 months since then, with a few sharable events.

You people must have read this previously on the blog that Uma is not between us anymore. She left this place on the 24th of July. Anyway, things have been fun there as per what I hear from her these days. I am quite sure things must be very different in an all new place where someone has to get used to not having those family pampers in all it’s bounty amongst many other things. After all, it is kind of impossible to fit eighteen years worth of an eventful lifetime in three suitcases and one tiny little skull! (This line is by Uma herself!) And it isn’t everyday that your bestest friend in the whole world leaves to another place and sudden change in how often you speak or the detail in which you tell things just doesn’t feel right. There is immense nostalgia for so many things in her head for now. Just wish her good luck. She is finally studying what she wanted to, something very few people realize in time. You people MIGHT hear more from her once she gets her PC there.

Yes, I turned seventeen last Thursday, the 28th of August. Not particularly eventful, except that I almost had my hips and my back broken. Had dinner at Chopstix, an amazing place near Siri Fort Auditorium. More on that later, but then nothing really worth too much mention. Coming to gifts, my parents decided not to buy me anything that could engage me, like for instance books, or new hardware for the PC, etc. I didn’t turn up at Matrix-Ecomm 2008, @ MSM as these days I am more serious about getting into IIT and doing well with my subjects than I ever was before.

Yes, I now am a proud owner of a month old Pomeranian puppy whose name is still in the beta testing stages. It’s biscuit brown in color and is really small, soft and cuddly. It feels like a lovely toy. When it first entered the house, I thought of naming it on people whom I really consider as dogs, but then eventually I fell in love with it so much that, now I don’t want it to remind me of dogs anymore! It learnt barking just a week ago. Anyway, a few pictures should be enough to have all of you green here…

Suggest me some cute and catchy names please… And, before I forget, its a GUY!

Had a really fun meet at Yo! China with Abhishek, Roshan, Ayush, and Uma before Uma left Delhi. The meet was ornamented with PJs and fun talks followed with window shopping at Om Book Shop.

I used Gutsy(7.10) previously, and upgrading wasn’t really hard and it isn’t as bad as some people claim it to be. Heck, I have even heard of Linux enthusiasts migrating to Windows Vista after using it! On the contrary, it is zippier and the experience really isn’t very different from what I used before. The bug fixes and performance tweaks and other minor changes make it a release with nothing much to be excited about, but then you wouldn’t regret an upgrade. With better hardware support, I finally got my ancient HP 1100 printer working with Ubuntu.

  1. The Dark Knight – Awesome! A review is scheduled soon. Take my word, it isn’t your normal superhero flick.
  2. 21 - “Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!” An amazing watch again. really brilliant camera work and direction. The girl was good too. MIT is reason enough for many to watch it.
  3. The Man from the Earth – An unconventional movie which is nothing more than a gripping discussion between university professors. Simply brilliant. I wish I could write this movie a review.
  4. Sicko – Micheal Moore. Period.
  5. Disney’s Mulan – If you liked Pocahontas, you should find this one okay.
  6. Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dam – Had seen it long time ago, but saw it once more and I still find it just as good.
  7. Pulp Fiction – I guess I would be the only person on the planet to hate it. Before you hurl curses and other vegetables on my taste in movies, just know that I really love South Park, Friends and even Simpsons. I just hated this movie. Even with the subtitles!
  8. Goodbye Lenin - Another recommendation by Uma, just like many others in this list. Was fun.
  9. Stranger than Fiction – Fabulous. Really witty and engaging. Suttle yet a powerful comic storyline. Amazing direction! This was Roshan’s recommendation.
  10. Following - Christopher Nolan zindabad!
  11. Sarkar Raj – Copied storyline or not, the movie is a refreshing watch. Brilliant camera work. Wonderful dialogues!
  12. Khuda Ke Liye - Angering plot. Makes you wonder – just how many problems could you put on one family? It might frustrate you a lot. But nice music scores, especially those in the background. Good camera work and filled with appealing/pleasing colors.

Would love to go on in this list, but there are other events to cover.

Or perhaps a get-together that Uma, Roshan and I had planned in JNU with our cameras. Had a fun time laughing, throwing lame PJs, bickering, birdwatching, trailing in the woods, getting caught in the rain, eating canteen food, and even watching a movie in the end. Will dedicate a post on this. ‘Twas a memorable time spent there.

Went with an all new team consisting of two ex-DPS Damanjodi students and Sourabh from the previous team. Reached the semis, and were tanked out after that. Wasn’t really good as I heard that many questions were rip offs from other quizzing events. Too bad I couldn’t take advantage of the situation. Was kind of boring this time. I don’t think I would dedicate a post on it now.

Our JEE syllabus is almost complete now. really gearing up for 2-2.5 months of review sessions. Solving the entire 25 year IIT-JEE archive end to end making sure that everything is crystal clear. CBSE based exams are bugging in the middle of all this and to my surprise (read: shock!) it isn’t seeming as easy as swatting a fly this time. Nonetheless, the situation seems to be in control, but then I do need to take a long term Sanyaas or a penance to the sins committed against IIT-JEE prep last year. This year, I plan to waste very little of my time in the least no. of competitive events. Delhi students need not start celebrating yet, as I might surprise you! :P

Tons of changes at school. Will write a lot about it too. Also, upgraded to Wordpress 2.6…

For now, please don’t unsubscribe to the feeds or don’t get rid of my blog’s link yet. I would keep it active for a very long time for now.

Read more | Comments (5) | August 31st, 2008

Uma’s Brainwaves revisited #1

Posted by Uma Damle | Filed under General, Headshot, It's My Life, New Delhi, Technology

<Prologue>For some reason that only people who have visited the seas of Arthemalafasta on a planet called Zenkygnoziata in a galaxy called Farfarawaay (Bear with me here…I am currently suffering from EhtuGeetuitis) understand Prashanth who wanted me to transfer some of my posts from the old blog to this blog. Although just posting a link on the side blog would have been much less painful I figured its no big deal anyway since my blog didn’t go beyond a royal six posts (I’ve told this before haven’t I ?) and it would at least stop him from grumbling about me not posting here for a blissful 43 minutes.This post is a little behind times so please put appropriate correction factors here.</Prologue>

Autodesk Solution Day

Disclaimer:I am typing this post on an old dusty AMD K6 machine running on Win98 whose ancient cherry keyboard has been lying unused for ages, because the new computers are being hogged by other inmates of my house.V on this keyboard is very moody and works only when I thak-thak-thak it half a dozen times. So to spare me and my keyboard all the pain you guys will have to do without V for the rest of the post. I will refer to V as wee.

1st June was Autodesk Solution Day Conference at Hyatt Regency, Delhi. I attended it with my Dad who has been using AutoCad for over 13 years now and wants me to walk along his footsteps in 3D. Though I am tempted to give you a blow by blow account, I understand all the details might be too boring for most of the people.I’ll just giwe you the highlights.

Since teenagers and young students like me weren’t officially invited, I figured it wouldn’t be smart to go in there in my usual jeans and tee and look 16. That does not mean that I put chalk in my hair and wore a sari to look 60. I just donned a professional looking attire of black shirt and trousers. Apparently I managed to achieweee the desired effect with it. An elderly web developer who sat next to me in the conference asked me which company I served and at what post.I decided against lying and said I was a student.When he asked me the name of the college I said I was just a high school student. For one moment I was afraid he was going to yell,”Guards, seize her!!” but he said he was amazed and impressed that somebody so young could sit though all those demos and speeches with interest (that is without nodding off like the guy in front of me did)

The morning half of the conference was slightly dull with the only interesting things being a demo of AutoCAD 2007’s radical new features(Unless you want to nod off too,you don’t want to hear me talk about them) and a fabulous demo of 3DS Max. To my disappointment that was the only Discreet product they showcased from the unbelievably large range of software they for multimedia and movie development.They pretended as if Maya did not exist(I suspect they plan to kill Maya now that they own Alias.They’ll just upgrade 3DSMax with Maya’s features)The rest of the morning they spoke about User Licenses,Autodesk Dewelopment Network and stuff like that.

Lunch was served at Djinns,one of the hottest night clubs for the uber rich people of Delhi.I couldn’t believe I actually got a chance to see it from inside.The decor was a beautiful mosaic of old world artifacts.There were interesting things all over the walls and the ceiling like a pig’s head,a wooden fish as big as me (Which isn’t saying much), a dart board, old guitars, an ancient yellow parchment sign asking wisitors to keep their horses in the stable and their swords with the owner of the inn, beautifully crafted models of old airplanes just to name a few.There was an old western style telephone booth in front of the bar.The music was great.The lighting was breathtaking.I didn’t notice what I ate for lunch but the dessert (Apple struddles and custard caramel) was wery good.

The second half was broken out in 4 different fields called breakouts by the Autodesk people.Manufacturing Solutions, Building Solutions,Infrastructure Solutions and Education Solutions conducted by domain experts from the respectiwee fields.I sat in the education one for a while and got bored with the people on stage yakking about Autodesk’s efforts in the field of education over and over again.I sat for most of the time in the architecture break out which was excellently conducted by architects using Autodesk Software in architecture.They demoed Revit(I hawee typed “wee” here with a lot of efforts) and Architectural Desktop.They made designing magnificent buildings look so easy that for a moment I was tempted to think about architecture as a prospectiwee career option.There was this guy who designed and airport right in front of our eyes.

The best part of the whole conference was one right at the end. A demo of Alias Studio in the Manufacturing Solutions. I went into manufacturing break out just for that and it sure was worth missing some of the last bit of the Architecture solutions. It was presented by a Canadian who was using a Wacom Intuos 3 drawing tablet which is one of my ultimate fantasy gadgets. He sketched a conceptual wrist watch and converted it into a streamlined 3d model. The end product was beautiful. Since Alias Studio is used world over for styling cars he designed one right there in front of us.

From this post onwards I will be starting a blog series (for want of a better word)called Flotsam. They’re just random thoughts floating through the ocean of my brain that come on the blogshore carried by my brainwaves.

Flotsam:I wonder why web logs are called blogs. Wouldn’t it be fun if they are called Ogs? Then we will all be Ogres.

BlueGeneMaid


Bluegenemaid

Read more | Comments (0) | May 19th, 2008

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