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… 
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.
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.
The impromptu post
Posted by Uma Damle | Filed under General
I do detect a couple of jaws hanging down at the sight of a new post on this blog.I tell you..only the realization that I have a submission tommorow and have hardly begun my work and am already dropping off can give me a kick enough to go down this path again.
Life’s good.Life’s preety busy rushing by me while I only have time enough to raise my head from my various assignments to see a blur of a life passing by in a huff.As the end of the semester approaches it seems as if the proffs are compensating for the two months of relief that we’d have after this by piling on more and more and some more work we’ll they still have time left.
But it’s better than the first sem.Back then I used to use (Oh that sounds funny..hic I must be drunk) all my time in wondering why the hëll I have to do a certain assignment and what’ll I get out of it and hence was left with little time to actually do those assignments.We do do (That sounds funny too (Starting to sound like Phoebe now)) some preety challenging stuff with way more leg room for thought and innovation now . But I am afraid I can’t go into it now…I think I saw the Beast of Writer’s Block stir in it’s sleep.
Can’t wait to start working on ITP (I am not gonna tell you the full form.It feels nice to throw around words no one understands.Ha). We have to basically use the skills that we have acquired in this year to make a product or an installation( Another word you won’t quite get.) For some it’s the skill to outsource everything and get away with it. The process of actually doing this is the best part.We have to start by choosing a theme (That, unlike school is not “Summer holidays” or “My friends”), researching, doing brain storming, creating color boards (Another word.Ha ha) , mood boards (Another…Ok have to stop doing this) then moving onto form generation , moving onto customer profiles and then finally fixing on a product/installation, making a prototype, then figuring out the structure, the material and going sourcing for the material.Then comes all the welding of wires and cutting of wood and bending of metal strips.Need not add that this part is not as fun.
Gotta end the post as abruptly as it begun.I definetly hear the Beast growling now.
Bluegen…AAAAAAAAA…..<a long painful wail of terror><fade to><sounds of chewing ><end scene>
Tata Crucible Campus Quiz 2009, New Delhi
Posted by Prashanth | Filed under General, New Delhi, Quizzing
Yes, its back again… You might like to have a look at the previous year archives before participating though. Click HERE and HERE…
Details
The 5th Edition of ‘Tata Crucible Campus Quiz 2009′ is scheduled to be held in Delhi on 15th March 2009 at Taj Palace, Delhi.
View Larger Map
Registration starts at 2.00PM.
The regional winning team will get Rs.75000/- and the runner-up Rs.35000/- along with lot of goodies from the house of TATA’s and gets an opportunity to compete with 15 other national regional winners and winners from UK and Singapore universities for the Championship with all expenses paid trip to mumbai and a cash prize of Rs. 4 Lakhs along with other prizes.
Also lot of interesting audience prizes for participants.
For registrations and other details please logon to www.tatacrucible.com or contact Mr.Harish@9910447784.
Please spread the word around in your group.
PS – I just finished my English bored exam today. I hope it goes to a sane examiner… Wish me luck. For the first time in my life, I actually completed an English paper. I had left about 4 marks in class X too. learning a few lessons from that traumatic experience, I gave my language a little ease this time. Hope it pays off…
I will try my best to make it to the event too…
finally got a direction 4 ma carrier,,,,,,,,,part-2 of our...
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