~ Humans are evil ~

We humans are more barbaric than any other species on planet earth. Am disturbed watching this video. The massacre of gentle giants; 600 of them. 

~ Myth of Doomsday ~

21.12.12 | 13.0.0.0.0

13.0.0.0.0 is the representation of 21 Dec 2012 in the Mayan Calendar for you. The highest possible day in their calendar. After that it will switch to 0.0.0.0.1 which is 22 Dec 2012. For Mayans this was a very significant event to OBSERVE and hence the popularity of today.

Well I learnt all this via this beautiful talk by Bill Saturno. He is a National Geographic grantee and archaeologist. How I wish my history classes in school were narrated like this. Do watch the video.

~ Zeitgeist 2012 ~

Google today revealed their annual Zeitgeist report for 2012. Year on year, as Internet become more accessible to the masses, we see a growth in the number of searches for various things. The numbers are mind boggling - 1.2 trillion searches across 146 languages. 

Considering the 3Q12 of IDC report, we see the burst of Android devices across the world, would have given Google Search more traffic.

Chart: Worldwide Smartphone OS Market Share, 2012Q3

However, the Google Zeitgeist report doesn't share the % of searches originating from various devices or Operating Systems. Am sure that people searching on their smart phones is increasing every passing day. One of the main motivation for Google to keep Android Open-Source, is to push their Search algorithm into mobile devices.

Here are few top 10 searches across people, places, movies in India. Looking at the type of searches made by people, no wonder that the entertainment business makes movies for the masses ;)

To see the worldwide zeitgeist go here. You can view the report as PDF here.

You can also read 'The crucible of Phone market'

~ Indian Metal Fest & Gojira ~

A big thanks to NH7 for organising weekender festival, that overlapped the Indian Metal Festival (IMF). NH7 helped filter all the non-metal heads from this festival, which is good.

According to the IMF organizers this was supposed to be THE metal festival which had lineup of 6 International & 2 Indian bands, playing for about 540 mins || 9 hrs. 

At about 10:30 am, the organizers leave a message on their FB wall stating:

Well, in reality the gates opened ONLY @ 17:30 hrs & considering the strict rules in Bangalore, everything needs to wrap up by 22:30 hrs. That gives only 5 hours of air time, which speaks volumes of the organizers - ORKA & Sweet Leaves.

A changed lineup among the bands, 


Indian Acts

• Gutslit (Mumbai) 
• Eccentric Pendulum (Bangalore)
• Agnostic (Guwahati) 

International Acts

• Flayed Disciple (U.K)
• Bloodshot Dawn (U.K)
• Xerath (U.K.)
• Gojira (france) - HEADLINER
• Inner Guilt (Lebanon) 
• Cerebral Bore (Scotland) - Co-Headliner

Eccentric Pendulum were pretty decent. Didn't know they were from Bangalore who play progressive metal.  They have also played at WACKEN Open Air festival in Germany.

Didn't like Gutslit performance. Then followed the bands from the UK- Flayed Disciple, Bloodshot Dawn & Xerath - in the order mentioned.

Amongst the three UK bands, liked Bloodshot Dawn. 

At 20:30 Gojira took to the stage & performed to the crowd. Joe kept the crowd engaged throughout the performance, unlike the Axl Rose who never uttered a word. They started from their latest album L'Enfant Sauvage & played songs Love, Child, The Art of Drying,  Mario's Drum Solo, Esoteric Surgery, Backbone, The Link, Flying Whales, Wisdom Comes & few more. They even dedicated the song Wisdom Comes to the late Pandit Ravishankar.

The only saving grace of IMF was Gojira. Am happy that they chose to perform in Bangalore. Unlike the other Metal bands who tour (or visit) India during their fag end of carriers. Gojira is currently at their peak & one of the best Progressive Metal bands in the world. Raghu mentioned that Gojira's drummer - Mario, is one of the best drummer of modern metal.

The cops numbering BCP 467 & BCP 3467

Bangalore: Beautiful evening sky

 Flayed Disciple

 Crowd acknowledging the band

The Organizers should "Awaken" :P

 Bloodshot Dawn

The sound engineering console

More controls

 Xerath wrapping up

 The crew of Gojira setting up the instruments

 Gojira

 Wisdom comes

 Joe Duplantier kept uttering Shukriya (Thank you in Urdu or Hindi) after most songs

Gojira were very happy to perform in Bangalore & so was the Crowd :)

I don't think me or Raghu missed Testament performing in NH7 today ;)

~ Socially Me ~

The life of an technophile living anywhere today, is expressing those moments of emotion as a constant stream of data to various Social Networks - FB, Twitter, Instagram, Path, G+. The power of smartphones & data connectivity has exploded into data bomb. Will not be surprised, if the Governments tomorrow are not elected by tweets :) 

I personally use all of those networks for various means:

1. Instagram: For clicking moments when am travelling & without my DSLR around. 
2. Path: For places  - restaurants, movies, leisure - all for audit trail purpose. 
3. G+: For sharing information w/ co-workers on various news items - tech, political, football.
4. G+Messenger: For 3 months, have been using it mostly to connect with Gooners who are spread across the globe. We share the latest updates, rants, news or anything to do with ArsenalFC. Happened to meet few of them in Bangalore & watched the Arsenal vs Manchester United game with Bangalore Gunners. This week we were amongst the first to have Arsenal FC Fans G+ Community.
5. Twitter: Consuming or sharing instant updates about anything under the sun which I like.
6. FB:  Updates from college friends, (ex)colleagues, travel, interests, etc.
7. Last.fm: For scrobbling songs.
8. Also there are numerous tech blogs which I follow on a daily basis.
9. Using LinkedIn more often over the last 2 weeks. Most of you who are connected would have noticed the activity :P
10. Youtube subscriptions are active, but not regular.

By now you have figured out how much of information over-load I go through in a day from various apps at various point of time. This definitely isn't good when you are working or otherwise. Your attention span takes a BIG hit & distracts from your task. Off-late {for the past 2 months} have made  conscious effort about how & when I use - Twitter & FB. I check them during lunch / tea breaks & post dinner, during weekdays. On weekends, my usage of Twitter & FB is high; considering football games.

The trigger for the post was this article by Roger Cohen - Thanks for not sharing, on NYT. 

Like everything else in life, when it comes to usage, technology too has its share of pros & cons. Instead of blaming - technology, smartphone, social networks, information overload - for not having enough time for loved ones or pursuing your hobby or reading a book or going for walk or run or meeting friends, etc. It boils down to the individuals' approach on maintaing the balance in the eco-system of life. Be it virtual or real, we still have control over ourselves. The day hasn't arrived yet, where machines have taken over & we have limited options. It isn't far, surely gonna happen. But till then, we are the masters of our own lives & we can maintain a healthy balance. Be the judge the next time when you are about to share or like something w/ the rest of the world :)

Take a look at the Socially Awkward Infographic. 

Image source: DigitalQuarters

Update: 26 Jan 13

If you are a developer, then I recommend you read Christian Grobmeier post 'The 10 rules of Zen programming' This should definitely help one focus & achieve more in the age of social distraction {Twitter, FB, Whatsapp, Emails, SMS, et al}

~ Facebook governance vote ~

Facebook today evening sent an email on their Global Site Governance Vote. Anyone who read and understood - Feedback,  Proposed policies - please explain in simple words what they mean?


Explanation of Changes

Proposed Statement of Rights and Responsibilities

Proposed SRR Redline

Proposed Data Use Policy

Proposed Data Use Policy Redline

Here is a snippet from The Registration & Account security section

Facebook users provide their real names and information, and we need your help to keep it that way. Here 

are some commitments you make to us relating to registering and maintaining the security of your account: 

1. You will not provide any false personal information on Facebook, or create an account for anyone 

other than yourself without permission.

2. You will not create more than one personal account.

3. If we disable your account, you will not create another one without our permission.

4. You will not use your personal timeline primarily for your own commercial gain (, and will use a 

Facebook Page for such as selling your status update to an advertiser).purposes.

5. You will not use Facebook if you are under 13.

6. You will not use Facebook if you are a convicted sex offender.

7. You will keep your contact information accurate and up-to-date.

8. You will not share your password (or in the case of developers, your secret key), let anyone else 

access your account, or do anything else that might jeopardize the security of your account.

9. You will not transfer your account (including any Page or application you administer) to anyone 

without first getting our written permission.

10. If you select a username or similar identifier for your account or Page, we reserve the right to 

remove or reclaim it if we believe it is appropriate (such as when a trademark owner complains 

about a username that does not closely relate to a user's actual name).

Guess most developers violate #2, #7, #8,  #9. Related to #4, why can't one use their personal timeline for marketing their own commercial gain?

Thinking of  minimizing my footprint on the Social Network with so much of Rule changes.

Links: Feedback | Governance Vote Email

~ Happiness can win ~

The warm video of Michelle Jenneke is warm. Her state of happiness & smile rubs on you, that competition need not be ugly & tense provided you have the right outlook. Enjoy the video.

~ Season of music festivals ~

The Great Indian OctoberFest 2012, Bangalore 12-14 Oct. 8th Edition seems to have a good line-up of artist. View the artists line: PDF | HTML | Atom | RSS

The Artists am looking forward to - Taalavattam, Shaair & Func, Advaita, Soulmate, Indian Ocean, Agam, Papon & East India Company,Benny Dayal with 'GROOVE #3',Children of Bodom,Shankar Tucker (T),Raghu Dixit Project

Well the color codes represents the artists performing on 12, 13 & 14 respectively. Take a look @ the HTML or PDF.

Slayer in Bangalore on 20 Oct 2012 | Rock in India

Santana performing in the city on 26 Oct 2012 | Vladivar Rock in India

Gojira & host of other artists performing 15 Dec 2012 | Indian Metal Fest

If you are an EDM fan then Above & Beyond are in town on the 10th Nov

~ Reinvention doesn't always help, unless it's better ~

The author nails it on the head *Apple, you really shouldn’t mess with things that work.* That suggestion applies to any company or any individual.

Unless you can improvise an existing product or service for better functionality then why even bother venturing into it. Apple could be doing that for strategic business reasons, which most of us know:

1. Reduce dependency with Google or Google products
2. Youtube being the first
3. Maps being the next
4. Siri's dependency on Google's Search API is reducing
5. Thermonuclear war ;)

The consumer will / should always be the king. They deserve better products or services for the money they pay. Today after many users upgrading their devices to iOS6, loyal iPhone users have been complaining about the home grown Maps app by Apple.

Most products or services get better with time. There is lot of ideation, time & energy that goes into product iterations before seeing the light and being accepted by end users. Am sure Apple is gonna turn around and address these trivial burning issues.

However, what appears strange is how can the quality of software deteriorate from an Apple stable. If your next question is why are so many people complaining much for just one app? Well maps is an app which has daily usage by many - for turn-by-turn navigation, finding public transport, etc. Also, Apple has always set the bar high be it - UX, Product Design, Innovation, Ideation, even Project Management. (How do I know about PM? I have been lucky to work with Apple on their Developer Forums community in 2008). When you have set the bar so high, it's natural that people notice the flaws when they are using them.

If Google releases their native Maps app for iOS, then it would be great to see how many users would prefer it over the pre-bundled app.

If I Were Google, I Wouldn’t Release A Native iOS 6 Maps App For Six Months

New Apple maps app under fire from users

The Irish government isn’t happy with Apple’s Maps – this ‘airfield’ isn’t an airfield at all

The Apple iOS 6 Maps are amazing. Not.

Just Googled for the title of this post & found Jeff Atwood's  post - Don't Reinvent The Wheel, Unless You Plan on Learning More About Wheels - written in 2009. Makes a good read.

Updates: 

25 Sep 2012 
Has Apple Peaked?

29 Sep 2012 
Tim Cook's apology
Tim Cook's apology shows that Apple cares, but still needs to fix problem

~ Late to the '4G' party ~

As I was going through the launch of EE in the British Isles, came across this section { http://ee.co.uk/#section-4gee}and noticed that I don't see an iPhone in the advt. 

Strangely, Apple for once is late to arrive on the 4G scene. With 25 hours to go for the launch of iPhone 5 & Apple to introduce it as the yet another amazing iPhone. Let's see where the battle of smartphones will go.

I feel the hype-cycle for smartphones, tablets & mobile OS is passé, which has reached saturation level for many OEMs. Hope this launch will not trigger another round of battle. Been reading these rumors y'day - Samsung will reportedly sue Apple over LTE use on iPhone 5 

The goal of technology should be more of an enabler / catalyst to make our lives comfortable, than anything else.

On a side-note, Naveen is very happy with EE launch :{

Update: 

Viewpoint: Apple's iPhone launches no longer excite

~ Illegal Aliens ~

If I have to visit any country on this planet, either for work or pleasure I need a passport and an appropriate visa.

But that rule isn't applicable to the country on the far east - Bangladesh. The very country which was liberated by us as East Pakistan is causing a near civil war in India. People from Bangladesh have been entering and leaving the country at will. Since, we cannot easily differentiate the race, they can easily pass off as Indians. They have settled in various parts of the country; pre-dominantly in the Assam, West Bengal, North Eastern States & most recently Kerala.

Instead of asking fellow Indians (i.e. people from north east) to move from various cities across India back to North East. Why can't the Government of India or State Governments take any action against the illegal immigrants (Bangladeshis) & deport them back to their country?

Why can't Indian government deal with such large scale illegal settlers in our country rather than witness their own citizens fight amongst themselves?

We become laughing stock for all such governance issues. Congress has been the main culprit over the years in using these illegal settlers for vote bank politics. They are equally communal as the BJP. Being pseudo-secular is a bigger threat to the country. Both of these political parties have been using Religion for their own agenda of gaining power.

I hope the citizens of India - irrespective of which religion you follow or not follow. COUNTRY comes before RELIGION. If an Muslim is killed in Myanmar (Burma) then you don't attack Buddhists in India. If an Hindu is killed or abducted in Pakistan then you don't attack Muslims in India.

Killing anyone for that matter is a crime and should not be tolerated. That's just isn't correct; whether you belong to any religion or not.

I hope some common sense prevails in these mind-less attacks in the name of RELIGION. Illegal immigrants are illegal no matter which religion or country you represent. FYI, Tibetans who have been given Asylum aren't illegal.

Thought process started from this post.

Some more fodder:
Bangladeshis in India - aliens or muslims?
Illegal immigration in India
Illegal Bangladeshi Immigration: People Take the Mantle When the Government Gives Up
I don't care if you are a Muslim
The-illegal-bangladeshi-immigrant-do-the-bogeyman-numbers-add-up-
India's 'Mexican' Problem: Illegal Immigration from Bangladesh
Illegal Bangladeshi Migration to India: Impact on Internal Security
Illegal Bangladeshi immigrants threat to India: court
Illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, a big problem: Government
Manufacturing Muslim rage, generating vile hate
How Pakistani site incited Muslims in India against northeasterners
‘Pak Muslims destroy our temples and abduct our women’

~ Hello Mars, once again! ~

Curiosity just landed on the RED planet a.k.a Mars 9 hours ago, with a perfect landing.

I'm safely on the surface of Mars. GALE CRATER I AM IN YOU!!! 

Just spell bound by the success of the mission. There is so much of complexity involved in every stage of the project till the Curiosity is safely landed and does it's job for what it has been sent to. I can only imagine the effort put by various teams which were involved in this epic journey.

The work is Magnificent. I am into software development. My work isn't as complex as these guys; rather some simple social web applications which helps businesses and customers. The nature of such work just eclipses mine.

To achieve a near perfect landing, it would require a lot of testing. Testing on various levels - electrical, mechanical, pressure, EDL (Entry, Descent & Landing), software, environment, etc. If testing fails to uncover any faults, then project would just burn Billion Dollars of tax payers' money. Therefore for such kind of projects - test plans, coverage, benchmarking, regression - is very vital for the final outcome. I feel testing is more valuable than development at certain phases of the project. The statistics from the endless testing would finally pay the dividend for the over-all success of the project.

Bugs / Faults are essentially part of the software development system. The journey of the product is to evolve every passing. If it isn't, then it's better to quit! In a mission critical project like MSL (Mars Science Laboratory ) my guess is that the fault tolerance level would be a near 0.

Following are some of the interesting references:
Science Goals
The challenge of complexity
Technology
Planetary protection
Robotic arm
Instruments on Curiosity
Mars Missions 

Here is a video which covers the various teams who are involved in developing the rover over many years. Gives us an insight into various domains and the kind of rigorous testing it undergoes before lift-off.



Curiosity is also Social Media friendly. It has a tweet handle - Curiosity Rover - in case you want to follow it's life on Mars on a daily basis.

Updates:
Oscars for Geeks
Next Gen, Nuke powered Rover
The Creative and Business Lessons from MSL

~ Switcher to Adopter ~

I became a SWITCHER five years ago, while I was consulting in the UK. Thanks to Rory & Martin, who sold me on OSX & MBP. However, my house-mates thought I was blowing my money on piece of hardware that was nearly 40% more than the Windows equivalent option.


Since then I have had no qualms about moving to OSX. Have enjoyed the stability n features of the operating system, design of hardware & the simplicity n UX of the applications. 


I have been waiting for Apple to refresh their MBP line and eventually they did couple of months ago. I would have upgraded to MBP, but then they introduced MBP RD. Was contemplating whether to upgrade to RD or not. After reading iFixt tear-down of RD, was bit held back.


After speaking to Navneet & Rory, there was no looking back from RD. I have taken a 3 year warranty, in case of any contingency. Thanks to Deepak R, who helped minimize the financial effect on my wallet :)


I eventually got to lay my hands on the MBP RD on Sunday. TBH, I was pleasantly surprised with the form factor. Simply beautiful. My old MBP was twice the size of this and heavy. Of-course Retina Display :) Boy, this one beats all the ultrabooks which are in the market.


After 3 days of usage, there are couple things which I miss as of now:

• The keys on my earlier MBP were much softer than the latest iteration.
• Chrome for RD is surely missed. Safari does it's job better for rendering websites. 

Here are some pictures of 2007 MBP against 2012 MBP RD.

If you are looking for more detailed review. Anandtech has a detailed one.

~ Getting things done ~

Over the past 2 months I have kind of moulded myself into work mode. 9+ hours of work and no distraction. The partial reason to that would be there was too much on my plate which hardly gave me any scope for getting distracted. Another reason could also be, given the fact of living in different timezone (CST); most of the active social activity spike (FB, Twitter) would have passed by without much attention.

Prior to 2 months, the likely distractions were from the - Twitter, Verge, TechCrunch - for every 30 mins. Now even though 'm back in the IST zone, the distraction levels haven't got the better of me so far :)

The reason still could be due to the fact there are lots of interesting things to be done @ work and can hardly spare time for the enigmatic sites. However, I do use Path frequently than before, which isn't disruptive :P

For those who are planning to reform their habits and getting things done, here is an interesting illustration on how to increase your focus for GTD from Yumi Sakugawa.

Illustration copyrights held by Yumi Sakugawa & Wonderhowto. She has some great illustrations, do visit her website for more.

~ EPL 2012 ~

For the 14 years of watching EPL, I have never seen the frantic last day of business in the league. There is lot at stake for the two Manchester clubs. Manchester United would like to retain the title; where as Manchester City would like to be crowned as the New Champions of English football.

Elsewhere the battle to finish on sweet 3rd place just got bigger between Arsenal, Tottenham & Newcastle. All the three clubs need a win to stay in the next season's Champions League. To end the season with 3rd place is more crucial, as Chelsea controls the destiny of the 4th spot for Champions League as of today.

If Chelsea win the Champions League against Bayer Munich next week at Munich. Then they automatically qualify for the next season, despite finishing outside the top 4 positions in the EPL.

Common Gunners give it a good fight and let's end the season with a 3rd place finish.

~ Attachment Parenting ~

I happened to stumble upon a tweet which took me to this article. Initially I thought this must be an hoax, so I googled on Time magazine and finally found out that the real cover for Time's May 21 Cover is hard to be ignored.

It was odd to understand what exactly the title & the photograph tried to portray - "Are you Mom enough?" Read the article and came across this concept called 'Attachment Parenting'.

My two cents, on the so called 'Attachment Parenting' -

• Breast feeding is a natural form of food intake for infants by a mother
• There is a time where this natural process evolves to a different form of food intake
• This change is brought about by parents especially a mother who is the first teacher to many things in life
• Mother of-course has a lot of attachments to their kids however old we grow. That doesn't mean you create this attachment and raise like this

I don't believe in the artificial attachment create by a mother towards their kids. Sorry, I haven't read the book 'The Baby Book' by Dr Bill Sears who has been the author of 'Attachment Parenting'. If anyone of you have read about this, do let me know the benefits of raising your kids this way.

Would like to know what are your thoughts on this subject?  


Update: A natural age of weaning 

~ Bringing awareness to self-indulgence ~

I finally managed to complete the movie 'Barah Aana'. Nothing great about the story line. A simple story which revolves around 3 people who go by their day- to-day life. Depicts human emotions, short comings, economic imbalance, governance, self-respect & how the M factor drives the world.

I loved the message at the end - "What do you need to survive in this world? Two meals, shelter, pair of clothes & respect. Little Respect" Watch the clip here.


The message got me thinking. Once you have the basic necessities for living - food, shelter, clothe & respect, one can afford to think of achieving or doing something else in life. Everything else comes later. Money is such an essential commodity in the present world which decides many situations in our lives. 


Many of us have a decent job & steady income and get on with our life without much worry for the necessities. Then there are those, who are struggle to meet the ends for basic necessities. 


Looking back at the past 4 years, I have been operating on the lines of materialism. Somehow there is never an end to the affinity towards certain materialistic world. There is never an end for your desires. However, one can strive towards being contented in the materialistic world and stay grounded.


The movie has definitely brought some amount of awareness & sense in my materialistic indulgence. The next step is to apply it while staying in the world capital of Materialism i.e. United States of America.


Completed a month in the US as of today ;)