Chicken or egg conundrum - extended

I was talking to my cousin the other day about how our god, Ganesha, has not grown since we have come to know him. He is still the little boy who shows up every year to eat kadabu and escort his mum back to Kilasa. That's true with all the other gods too - Shiva, Vishnu, Brahma, Shanmugha - they seem to have been stuck in the same age not growing older. To this my cousin replied, "this is similar to The Simpsons - Bart Simpson being stuck in 3rd grade every year for the last 24 years, Maggie Simpson remaining a toddler for the last 24 years, the southpark kids not growing up in the last 16 years etc". These stories are all human creations being stuck conveniently in a certain state, however, everything around them being contemporary. This led to an interesting parallel to the conundrum mentioned in the title - did god create man, or, man create god? Go figure!

Alpha and Beta releases - Did we know them as kids

Did we hear about alpha releases and beta releases when we grew up? Now a days every kid knows what an alpha or a beta release is. Thanks to software industry. Every other manufacturing industry has been having pre-releases before the launch of the actual product. It’s only that the household consumer, like me and you, was not directly involved with testing those releases and hence didn’t realize their existence.

For example, engine companies do pre-releases. Their consumers, namely the OEM’s, do the testing. Hardware companies do pre-releases and their consumers, other industries, test it out. The book and newspaper industries also have pre-releases. The publisher and editors do the reading and make it fit for final release. Even industries like food and medicine companies, that directly affect the household consumer, have pre-releases. However, they are tested by select group or base of consumers – again do not involve everybody.

It is completely different with software releases. The important aspect here is the reach of these pre-releases to all the consumers. The consumers are not some select group. It is a growing community of the young and the old, the shy and the outgoing personalities, men and women etc. If I’m using an application, all I have to do is visit the website of the manufacturer and check for new releases. I check it out and spread the word. The internet and software industry have brought the manufacturing process close to the common man. My 6 year old sister knows when there is a beta release of the Firefox browser – thanks to the update messages she keeps seeing on the screen.

By the way, this is the only release of the article! Do not google for any beta or alpha releases.

Words heard over and over again in the radio land

As I have mentioned several times, my window to the outside is the NPR and I listen to it whenever possible. During the week, I listen to the following - Morning Edition while getting ready for the office, All Things Considered while driving back home, Fresh Air and The Story whenever I can. Over the past two weeks, I realised something really interesting and would like to share it with you.
There were some major events along with the usual suspects in the news. Even NPR seems to be obsessed these days with these events - after all its public radio that reflects the taste and mood of the public. I made a list of 10 words and phrases that I heard over and over again in the past two weeks. Twitter came in first ahead of Michael Jackson and California. I heard it in many different contexts - an entire snippet on the word itself, and over and over again in other serious and light hearted conversations. MJ came in second. He is as popular being dead, as being alive. People just can't get enough of the pop star. The Uighur uprising got a good share of coverage. Now they need a charismatic leader like the Dalai Lama to continue their cause. This was followed by California - 7th largest economy in the world issuing IOU's!! GM was mentioned as well; it came out of bankruptcy in just 38 days. Of course, the other usual suspects were the Middle Eastern countries, Afghanistan, North Korea, Obama, US congress and the economy. Roger Federer and Sampras concluded the list with the former making tennis history by winning his 15th grand slam event.
Here is the complete list of the words and phrases:

1) Twitter
2) Michael Jackson
3) Uighur minority
4) California
4) GM
5) Stimulus money
7) Iran/Iraq/Afghanistan
8) Obama
9) US congress
10) Federer and Sampras

I have to share this with you people. Honda Insight is the hybrid counterpart to Toyota's Prius. The whole concept of moving onto Hybrid is to conserve fuel and reduce impact of burning fossil fuel on the environment. There are so many initiatives taken by government and the auto industry to promote the use of hybrid. For example: On top of the savings you get from consuming less fossil fuel, you also get additional tax benefits for owning a hybrid - courtesy the US government. The picture to the left makes a mock of all these efforts. Its an advertisement for the Insight which is carried by an airplane or a glider(not seen in the picture). Burn unnecessary fuel to promote something that uses less fuel! Sometimes I don't get the marketing folks - Hello/Heaveno...What the hell (or heavens) were you thinking?
The picture was taken over Chicago downtown skies on July 3rd, 2009.

What is the first word you said today morning?

I live alone, at least for the time being. I listen to NPR almost all the time I'm at home. I wake up listening to the radio, get through my morning business listening to radio. I sometimes laugh or smile or frown depending how I perceive whats on the radio.
Then I realize I haven't uttered a single word yet. I have listened to the audio bits, analyzed and thought about some of them, planned what I'll first do when I get to the office - still I haven't uttered a single word. Its like a scene from one of the arty movies that shows a person going through mundane things without any dialogs. Then suddenly couple of words come out, working out the vocal chords that have been silent until now. The ears that had been perceptive to the outside noise hear your voice for the first time - husky to start with but gets clearer with time. There you go, your first words for the day. Sometimes I go all the way to the car without uttering a single word. Simply surprises me.
Today there was an article about mangoes being imported from India to the US. The contributor talked about Alphonso being the king of mangoes. It was then I remembered rasa poori mavinahannu, their smell, their colour, and the soft pulp waiting to be eaten. With these thoughts running in my mind, I said it out loud. They you go - Rasapoori mavinahannu were my first words for the day.

What were yours?

What more could a kid want?

Caution!! Going down the memory lane Chooo Chooo Chooo Chooo...
I'm thinking about those summer holidays when we explored the streets around our house with rented bikes (baadige cycallu). It was the summer of 88 when I first learned to balance a bike. Then on, spent the entire summer riding them with my cousin and friends. It used to cost us 50 paise for every half hour. Myself, my cousin, couple of friends - all of us had our preferred bikes at the shop. Some of ours had stands and some didn't (My cousin brother, who was the eldest of the lot, got the bike with the stand). We were kings of the roads. We used to gang up and discover new roads and shortcuts between home - Bal-Bhavan, home - VVS grounds and home - bakery...
We attended Bal-Bhavan in the mornings - it was fun to some extent, but it still resembled school. Since whole of our mornings were spent at Bal-Bhavan, I eagerly looked forward to the afternoons when we could hit the roads. We used to do all sorts of things - go fast down the grade, play catch up, overtake, take tight corners - all these on our tiny bikes. Really, those were the best fun filled half hours I looked forward to every morning.
Here is the reason for the post. The weather is getting more summerish - its almost June for crying out loud. Well, that was just my frustration. Here is the real reason. I recently purchased a motorcycle. Even for this day, like a little kid, I come home and put my bags down, get my helmet and gloves on and off I'm on my bike. I take her out for a ride on the open, calm, narrow, winding, country roads near my home. Like before, I explore new routes and new neighborhoods and get back home ready to track them down on google maps!! Never before did I feel close to the elements as I feel now on my bike.
You and I know know its been 20 years now and to top it, I have moved out of namma Bengaluru as well; hoever, I still feel nothing has really changed. Its only the datum that has changed. I'm still the little kid ready for a new adventure every evening.
Care to join?

How about just the tele and not the crappy in-bult speakers

That really was a long sabbatical and I'm glad that I'm back here. It's a little difficult to sit and complete a blog with all the distractions accumulated over the past couple of months. Like any good citizen in this land of consumerism, I was lured to the offers that were given out during this year's super bowl. This is today's topic.
On the eve of super bowl, I decided on impulse to buy a tele. That was a no brainier: take advantage of the great discounts that last till the super bowl weekend, or else wait till thanks giving and Christmas. So I, with my cousin and another friend, got to one of the retail stores and took a look at the displayed models. Each one seemed to be better than the other. At first glance, we looked at the picture quality, then we fiddled around a little bit and turned all the teles in the row to the same channel. Finally, we thought we should set all the teles to the same settings. This was not to be done - we came to know that the original settings were the best for the individual models and should not have been tampered with.
Anyways, I searched out this good offer - 40" 1080p LCD Sony Bravia V series HDTV for just $1200.00! Great, I decide to buy one and my cousin got one too. It didn't end there. I got an offer - 100$ off of any Hi-Def DVD player. Took advantage of this and added a Toshiba HD DVD player for just 100$ (Its close to $300.00 these days) to my cart. With the DVD player, I got 5 HD DVD's free ( 3 of which I'm still expecting in mail). I have a brilliant tele, state of the art DVD player - what's missing? Yes, a good sound system. Thats where my itch with the tele manufacturers.
Any enthusiast who invests on a good Hi-Def tele and a Hi-Def DVD player, would definitely buy at least a decent receiver and speaker system. In such a case, why should the tele manufacturers come up with speakers? They just serve the meticulously sought symmetry and aesthetics! Instead, they can just give me a tele without the speakers. This would have brought down the price and I could get more goodies at the same time.
I'm not sure if you agree with me; however, I feel cheated to buy speakers that I won't use at all!!!