Ram Gopal Varma

I would say Ram Gopal Varma is the catalyst for changing the face of Bollywood. Not just in the creative aspects, but also in the business sense. Before Ramu, there were many acclaimed directors, many acclaimed producers, many acclaimed writers. But story telling was not what used to drive the industry. It was all what the industry calls as 'proposal making'. The producer will go around to find who is the IN hero, IN director, IN music director etc... and it's about stars and making money. Then ascended Ramu for the south. Successful or unsuccessful, his movies are about telling a story than about star value or music or gloss. And that set the wheel in motion with other willing to do movies that are not bound by commercial constraints. The came the big push, that put the industry on a race car. Ramu, the producer. Probably the first time in India, movies are being produced by a 'Creative' person who understands cinema and not by deal makers. He started giving directing opportunities to his assistants who are also driven by story telling. Though he is not highly successful overall, that opened the gates. Yash Chopra's yashraj, Yash Johar's Dharma productions, Ghai's Mukta, Bhatt's Visesh films, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Shankar and Maniratnam (wow, that was a list) also got into production. They are the best and they are the most successful directors. They know the talent of their assistants, they drive the projects and the change in the quality of cinema is for all to see. Indian Cinema has made a big leap.
I think with out the fearless Ramu, taking the big stride to become a producer, Indian Cinema would not have come this far.

Two telugu personalities

I was checking the blog of Janus Friis (creator of Kazaa and skype) and came across this term 'disruptive technology', technolgy that is responsible for a paradigm shift making the existing technology obselete. Good.

May not be totally related, but that reminded me of two telugu personalities who brought change that was 'disruptive' in India.
Ram Gopal Varma and Chandrababu Naidu.

I'd follow up on why I think they are important.

Web based apps vs Desktop apps (Take Two)

Wow!!
I was talking about this earlier on which of the two is better.
And i said i think there is a middle ground i believe is the way to go.
And you've got it.

http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Apollo

This new run time (??) would do exactly that.

The developers need to develop flash based or html based (and more) applications and they can be run on this Apollo run time. (like java run time).
The good about this platform is the interface is not constrained by the web browser, you have access to desktop resources, its cross platform.

It sounds like it is the future of apps.
Can't wait to see the beta and the products.

USA - Then and Now

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/10/09/emails.1967/index.html

What is so right about Google??

What is it that makes people love Google so blindly. Why do people lose objectivity when Google or even Apple is in the picture.

Apple and Google are great companies with a lot of innovation and marketing and most importantly some great products. But that doesn't make them invincible. Are they?

Though Google is churning out a number of unsuccessful products like a factory that are supposed to change the world, no one mentioned the lack of integration of all these features and lack of a common thread that connects these dots, every one gives it to Google and assumes that Google knows something that other mortals doesn't even comprehend and would surprise every one, until the CEO himself came out and said they are going in a wrong direction and mentioned the need to have features, not the products.

Until yesterday, when google bought You Tube, for a crazy 1.65 billion dollars. No one in the world said or though, that a company with 67 employees and no business model to generate revenues is worth even a fraction of that. Now once this unthinkable happened, people assume google knows what it is doing and even comment that news corp got myspace for a paltry 600mil??

What did you Google see in YouTube that is worth 1.65 billion dollars. Definitely not the technology, since they have their own video site, which is pretty good, if not great. Users? I don't know. I don't know what it is.. Nobody does, every one speculates what can be the reason.

Many are trying to guess something that would make sense out of this deal. I don't see anything that is worth 1.65 bil, unless it starts generating revenue 'yesterday' . I don't even want to go into the copyrights issue. Is it just because they have money that is lying there unused, they just fell like spending so much? In good intentions for the share holders, I wish they really have something up their sleeve, that works like magic.

I Like this Video... Innovative

India Shining???

We see the articles every day on how Indian economy is booming like there is no tomorrow. And how great a super power we are going to be in all the news papers and web sites. But we all know the reality that hides behind this.
It is quite cotrasting that you can get a 15Rs aquafina (pepsi co) and kinley (cocacola co) and other branded mineral water in every nook and corner of the country, but how difficult it is to get some clean water in the pipes even in the most affluent areas...
When would India be a great place for every one to live happily with all the basic amenities like water, shelter, food, clothing, hygeine, education and self respect.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/29/world/asia/29water.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5088&en=0059effdd12b7233&ex=1317182400&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

EDIT:
Another article from nytimes on india water crisis.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/30/world/asia/30water2.html?hp&ex=1159675200&en=d2aae862bcec6ce9&ei=5094&partner=homepage

You are being watched

It has to happen, it happened.
AOL accidentally released the searches performed by it's users on the web. And it pulled them out quickly. It was enough time for people to download that info and mirror it everywhere. And if you look into those searches you'd really get scared.
the identity of the user is not revealed. But each user goes by an ID. I guess they track these users based on browser cookies.
You can understand why the Govt. is requesting this kind of information, there are people out there who doesn't have right intentions.
Most of the big companies submitted their saved searches but Google complains that it is unethical and Govt is crossing the line in doing that. And google has become sort of hero in every ones eyes. Good for us.
But why in the first place should these companies store these search queries with out any warning, with out informing the users. Is it ethical for these companies to store such information? How is it different from recording all your phone conversations? How is it different from taking your photographs or video with out telling you? Is it not Un ethical?? It is a blatant abuse on privacy.

But what is ethical and what is not decided by us. It is decided by the big guys :)

Web based apps vs Desktop apps

While google is trying to move apps from desktop to the web. Microsoft is attempting to bring some of them right back on to the desktop. At least one of them, that is online blogging with a desktop publishing - Live Writer

I think there is middle ground for this 'every thing on the web' vs 'everything on the desktop'. That is, to have light weight zero foot print clients on the desktop and have the information on the server. In that way you could use both the power of processing and rich user interface at the desktop and have your preferences and data at the server. You can have nice interfaces with out getting into the limitations of web based technologies like flash and AJAX standards. And you can have access your data every where.

British rule in India

I have seen a discussion in one of the forums about what are the +ves and -ves from british rule-- there are people who think that british rule has done good to the country by giving railways, administration etc...

Only thing that came out of British Rule is INDIA.
The Identity of an Indian. The Unity of Indians under one flag.
There were 565 princely states that were put together by Sardarji.

the misconception the british gave us railways, postal system and electricity are bullshit. they would have come to India anyways.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_past_GDP_(PPP)

%share of India in world gdp
1 AD 32.9 rank1
1000 AD 28.9 rank1
1500 AD 24.5 rank2
1600 AD 22.9 rank2
1700 AD 24.4 rank1
1820 AD 16.0 rank2
1870 AD 12.2 rank2
1950 AD 4.2 rank?
1973 AD 3.1
current 6.3

It is in the 1700s that the colonial rule started...
SO.. what do you think??
they just looted us.. we missed the industrialization bus because of them...
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And some intelligentsia say that the british gave us English, which is the most precious thing ever... and we are on our feet only because of english...
Hmmm....


chinese can't speak english..
German can't speak english
japanese can't speak english
french can't speak english

And they are in the top 5 economies.
english is offical lang only in 5 countries.. with less than 5% of world population
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MS partners got Zunk'd

MS announced zune. And what is the response from the blog community??
All the web is resonating with articles and opinions on how the MS partners are zunk'd.

Strange, no body knows for sure what this zune is about. What constitutes zune?
And these kids are already writing swan songs for the microsoft partners and their players.
Saying that Microsoft would stop supporting them.. (MS stop supporting Windows Media Player?? Can any one think about that happening? -play for Sure' is nothing more than a marketing campaign)

Stranger thing is that people claim, MS can gain the market share only from their partners and not from apple. Or at least they say zune would have to step over the MS partner players before it can challenge ipods.

There is not word yet from MS on what kind of players they would be releasing. flash or hard disk?? what is the price range. 100 or 400?? What kind of service they would be providing?

Above all, not even a single partner complained about the Zune yet. So what is the problem for these bloggers? Why do they care so much for the small time mp3 players? Or are they afraid that MS would be a strong competitor for their favourite Ipod. Why is the rush to write off MS. Let's wait for the MS to announce the details of ZUNE.

MS Haters

I see a lot of people don't like Microsoft, for the trouble they had gone through using windows. Windows is a very good OS for sure in terms of functionality and usability. The problem is with the security. With spyware, viruses and popups. It is perfectly alright not to like MS.

But people call MS evil for a lot of things. Which doesn't make sense.
One major complaint every one has is that MS killed Netscape by providing IE for free. That is ridiculous. MS is in business and not in charity. If some one introduces a new application, it doesn't mean MS has no right to build a competitor?
If Netscape is that great, people would still have used Netscape as it is also a free software for most of the users. People simply didn't bother because Netscape doesn't give them any thing great.
What has stopped Microsoft from killing firefox. They couldn't. Simply because firefox is simply a better application and had a better marketing strategy to outfox MS. The same people have introduced thunderbird mail application and a calendar. They didn't take off, since they didn't have much for users to move from their outlook applications. Simply MS has a better product here and is providing what the users wanted.
May be if google comes up with a better online office suite, atleast consumer market would go for it even if MS provides office with Vista for free. If openoffice is as good as they claim it to be, what is stopping the users from using it, at least in the consumer market if not in the corporations. I've used it a while ago, when openoffice is not upto the mark. I cannot comment on th quality now. If they really have a great product rivaling MS, they simply lack proper marketing skills. If they don't have money, they can go viral, just like firefox did. Same with Linux machines. You cannot put the blame on MS, for their own failure.

bigamy illegal

based on indian religious personal laws
a muslim can marry more than one woman. And a Hindu cannot. If a hindu guy marries twice, he would be put in jail.

where in the scriptures that bigamy is prohibited for hindus. most of the gods have atleast 2 wives. so why this discrimination against hindus. marriage is a personal choice and if all the parties agree, a guy should be allowed to marry two woman and vice versa.

genuine doubt.
What say??

EDIT: This is to point out the stupidity of Indian SICKular (i.e. pseudo secular) politics. Even the islamic countries like pak, iraq, turkey etc. are reforming their laws and doing awy with such stupid clauses. But India, cannot dare touch the muslim law.

Why blame Pakistan, when we have people like Mulayam

"I feel that considering the opposition of the local people, the police station should be built in a cosmopolitan area where there is a mix of Hindus and Muslims. The present location has 100 percent Muslim population," - Samazwadi Party MP Abu Azmi

Look at the argument, so now we can't even open up a police station where we want??? Is it a bar or prostitution house?? This statements is given after Two policemen were allegedly lynched by a mob after two persons died in police firing in his textile town during a violent protest against construction of a police station next to a mosque.

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"SIMI is not a terrorist organisation. Some of its members may be involved in terrorist activities and action should be taken against them," Samajwadi Party state general secretary and state PWD Minister Shivpal Singh Yadav


SIMI is a terrorist organization banned for last 5yrs by the central government. Both by BJP led and Congress led governments. SIMI is widely believed to be against secularism, democracy and nationalism, keystones of the Indian Constitution. SIMI maintains that these concepts are antithetical to Islam. Its slogan is "Allah is our Lord, Qur’an is our constitution, Muhammad is our leader, Jihad is our way and Shahadah is our desire". SIMI believes that Osama bin Laden is an outstanding example of a true Mujahid, who has undertaken Jihad on behalf of the 'ummah'. They also blame the 9/11 attacks on Israel's Mossad.

***********
The Kerala Assembly, meeting at a special session on Holi, passed a unanimous resolution calling for setting free the same Islamist extremist on parole. We are speaking about Abdul Nasser Madani, the alleged mastermind of serial blasts in Coimbatore on February 14, 1998, in which 58 people lost their lives. "Had the Assembly claimed that Madani was innocent and wrongly incarcerated, it would have been understandable. But calling for the parole of a person charged with terrorism is nothing but crass opportunism and amounts to - however leery we may be about the term - minority appeasement."

************

Sorry state of Indian politics in the name of secularism

Second Green Revolution in India

60% percent of Indian work force rely on agriculture and related industries.
And yet they contribute to 20% of the Gross Domestic Product.

There is clearly skewed. A lot of Indian farmers are committing suicides unable to pay their debts as the crops are failing. Crops fail not just because of lack of rain, but many other reasons contribute to it. Even the crops are good, they won't get the right price for it as the indian agriculture industry is segmented and unorganised and the sellers (the farmers) have a little say on what they get for their yields.

So there is a definitive need for an organized agriculture sector, putting right crops in right reason in right places, get higher yields with proper use of technology , proper distribution channel. small farmers do not have the knowledge or have enough resources available, even if they have te knowledge, they would ntot be able to affor them. Corporations should come into agriculture.

Increase the productivity and then make fewer people rely on agriculture. Develop alternate industries that require man power and make use of the people displaced from agriculture.

Looks like Mukesh Ambani is stepping in the direction. Hopefully he leads the coutry all the way to successful results.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1740294,0002.htm

Da Vinci Code banned

in Punjab, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tamil Nadu and Andhra after being cleared by the Censor board and the union government.

It may hurt religious sentiments of Christians.

Rome doesn't have a problem showing this movie and it became biggest block buster in Italy's history.
But the great secular Indian states with less than 1% Christian population ban the movie.

Way to Go!!!

Apple and Google

IPod and Google Search are great products to start with.
They created these markets and are the leaders.
But now we have other players who offers better products.
But the market share of these products keep growing.
the notion is that their simplicity is the key selling point.
But I say it is all marketing. Free publicity. First mover advantage.

Ipod shuffle is a BULL product, but it sells better than other cheaper flash players with a display, FM transmitters and SD slots to upgrade memory.
Yahoo Music and Napster gives you a better music download plans for the real music buffs.

And coming to search, Yahoo gives you better functionality, fewer clicks, social networking in search, great shortcuts,
and wonderful 'also try' feature and many more. But google is growing bigger and eating up yahoo search's mkt share. (firefox and DELL are also major influencers by bundling ;))

That is because these names have become synonyms for what they do.
People plan to buy IPods, they don't plan to buy 'MP3 Players'
People don't search, they google.

Most of them I believe don't even explore further. They just go straight to them!!!

Greatest Leader of Modern India

Mahatma Gandhi is a great leader and so is Nehru. People say Bose is also a great leader. But after reading few articles on Unification of India post independence, it's got to be Sardar Vallabhai Patel the most important person and the greatest leader of modern India.

Sure, Gandhi has brought the entire nation to fight against the British with the most powerful weapon, non violance that is. Nehru had a great role in building India after hundreds of years under the foreign rule. Bose is a great freedom fighter who wants to settle with nothing but independence. But there were some loose ends, and British might have given us the independence sooner or later with or with out Gandhiji. And many of the freedom fighters might have filled in the place of Nehru with out any problems. Bose anyways couldn't contribute much to Nation in the end.

But Patel, is the one who is responsible for the boundaries of what we call india now. He was the person responsible for the political integration of india from a staggering 565 princely states. Imagine having an independent states of Junagadh, Hyderabad, Travancore (kerala) and having jodhpur indore and jaisalmer as a part of Pakistan. I could imagine what could have happened in such a scenario. Another Africa??
Thanks to the great Iron Man of India. We all are Indians. We are ONE.

Boot Camp

So the fizz is gone - 10% increase in AAPL share price in one session. What were they thinking??

It is easy to get lost in this Apple euphoria and forget the reality.

For the business desktops, the IT guys are not even ready to install a patch fast enough fearing compatibility. Moving to Macs is very very far away.
And as for the business servers, forget it. With Vista looking to provide virtual Linux on their servers, even independent Linux vendors should watch out. Mac Servers, only in dreams.

And for the home users, the reality is simple, Mac is way too expensive. They can increase their mkt share by a couple of percentage points slowly. Nothing more than that. You cannot expect Ipod phenomenon to happen with Mac. Dell offers a lot of value for this market. You can get a Dell PC with large flat screen for just $399. And when it comes to the number of applications available and the things you can do with these systems, it is not even a contest.

Letting people run Win on a Mac is like 1 step. Virtualization with leopard enabling Mac/Win run in parallel would be a leap. But the real stroke would be to let Mac OS run on PCs.

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