Jeff Bezos(Amazon) comes up with “Kindles” Wednesday, Nov 21 2007

Amazon, the largest online bookstore has come up with a e-book reader, which dares to revolutionalize the way people will read in future. It is called “Kindles”, so named by Bezos, to evoke a lightning spark in our brain.

Kindles is a thin and sleek e-book reader, which wirelessly connects to the 3G network (EVDO data transfer) to download ebooks,magzines, subscribe to blogs, and also a free wireless access to wikipeadia.It never needs to be connected to a computer. The reason that Amazon can give away this wireless access is because most of the time you are using it you are spending money on something at Amazon.com. A book costs $10 and a subscription to Fortune $1.50 per month. Amazingly, the company has designed the wireless service so that almost any book, even one of 1,000 pages, can download in under a minute.

It is very light weighing just about 300 grams (10.3 oz), and it replaces all the books you will ever need to carry. With 256 MB inbuilt memory, it has an expandable SD slot. Its battery life is said to go for a couple of days without recharging. If the wireless is turned off during nights, the battery extends upto a week, without having to recharge. It calls its screen(800×600) to be very convenient and the user will feel just like reading a paper. Easy to handle and has a qwerty key pad also, to quickly search through the documents.

The device, (which Jeff calls a service) is tagged at a staggering $399/-. I am pretty sure that the price is over rated. Here’s a link you can follow:

Amazon:Kindles

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Visits to Seoul Tuesday, Nov 20 2007

Its been quite a tiring stay here at Samsung, Korea on weekdays. Weekends have not been any softer on us. If it is a weekend, its a trip to Seoul, or to places around the city. I have been here in South Korea for almost 6 weeks now, and almost all of them were filled with fun, and excitment.

Before we could do anything or go anywhere, we first needed to buy a Digi cam, to capture every single moment of our life here. Yongsan is a place near Seoul, similar to S.P Road or National Market in Bangalore. All the electronic items were supposedly cheap out here, but the fact is, only the local korean electronic goods are cheaply available. The foreign brands like that of Sony, Cannon, Fuji and all are just the same. We roamed around the entire place. saw various gadgets all showcased and very attractive. If you are a gadget freak, you’ll love this place.

The following day we went to this place called COEX mall, Short for Convetion and Exhibition Center. A huge one indeed. This is the largest underground mall in Asia. It houses many many sub units, like a cool world class Aquarium, a multiplex of 16 screens, and a verrrry huge bookstore. Can spend a complete weekend in here, without even realizing the entire day just pass by.

Nam-dae-mun ( South Great Gate) is a National Treasure of South Korea. It is especially beautiful in the night, daylight doesn’t hide its charm. It has this magnificence and beauty, so typical to the Korean architecture, which will soothe you instantly, and take you into the marvelous history of the Korean War. You’ll find guards of the gate standing there, less to represent the prevalence of Joseon Dynasty, more for the photographs which tourists love to capture.

You have this Namdaemun market, just beside the gate leading to a vast variety of items, local goods, foreign ones, expensive, cheap, and serving to all the age groups. Clothes in particular are a popular buy here. Again the night life is well lit and is said to be the best buy time.

Gyeoungbok-Gung Palace is one of the five grand Palaces built by the Joseon Dynasty. You can go to this palace to have a look at the typical korean architecture portrayed popularly in those korean war movies, where spears fly around in all direction and the warrior hero, keeps jumping from one building to another miraculously escaping each spear. Its a peaceful place and you can easily spend 2-3 hours even if you just click around trying to capture the curves of the buildings.

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Anyang Haseyo !! Saturday, Nov 3 2007

My journey:Day 1

I had a flight on 30th October 12:30 A.M, to Bangkok(Thai Airways). Got in, and in no time it was already early morning and we were in Bangkok, at 5:30 A.M (All the timings henceforth will be mentioned in their respective local times ..hehe), Had a transit to make to another terminal and It was a pretty huge distance to cover between two terminals and we did not have much time left with us. We again had to collect our boarding passes for the connecting flight to TAIPEI. The crowd was real bad there and it was so frustrating to stand in a long and slow moving queue early in the morning in a country that is not even yours,and among the faces(other than our team) that don’t even distinctly looked pleasant. (Believe me when i say, Air hostesses of THAI AIRWAY SUCK BIG TIME,but Cut Cute East hasn’t made its entry yet). Our connecting flight was at 7:10 AM and it was already 6:45 A.M and we were still standing in the queue with tons of people still ahead of us waiting just like anybody else to grab that boarding pass and rush to the flight. Just then, a cute lady came and said something . I couldn’t make out a word of what she said, cos firstly she might have spoken Thai, and secondly, I was yawning to my hearts fill, which had completely blocked my ears, and all i was doing was checking her out.(SO totally not my fault). But to a great relief,she had actually opened up WHOOPING 10 more counters, and people just got distributed into those 10 lines and believe me, they were giving a damn about dignity then.

Finally got our boarding passes just in time and headed for the plane. Took off as soon as we sat, and flight was off to Taipei. Journey was around some 4 hours. We were served breakfast and i did not like it. I hardly cared about the food. There was seriously nothing interesting to do. The so called IN Flight Entertainment SUCKS in Thai. Guess what, they were screening Mr. Bean…….Oh crap…!!! And moreover, nobody around to check out too…(Remember what I said about Thai Air Hostesses…?!)..SO I dozed off again.. and when I woke up I was over the Southern seas of China and we had just entered TAIWAN.

Time was 13:30 now. Had a one hour halt here. We were asked to wait outside, so that they could clean the flight and “Make our fly More Pleasant” (Huh…Pleaseeee).. Came out and roamed around the airport of Taipei, and had a view of the roads outside. This was the first time I was seeing such broad and clean roads, with all the cars following amazing discipline. It was as if they were programmed to move around the roads…We were careful not to move away too much from the terminal. And then it was again time to board the flight (1430 HRS). We were headed to Incheon Airport, which supposedly is voted the best airport on the planet (No exaggerations, check this link out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incheon_Airport) . Journey was again a boring one with nothing great to do. I was just waiting to land.And after 3 more long hours,my wait was over.

We came out and went through all the necessary formalities…and collected our baggage. We exchanged a few dollars at the airport. (1$ is around 900 Won, though the exchange rate may say 920/930..we get just 900 in hand, cause of some Buying and Selling concepts). Once we were done with the exchange, we headed out to Gate no.7 where we were told to catch a Limousine. I was certainly thrilled, but it turned out that the Limo was in fact a BUS.(Later when I tried “define:Limousine” on Google the first definition that pooped out was “Limousine” means a vehicle for hire, with a driver, that is used for the transportation of passengers and that has a seating capacity …

So we were in the land of morning calm, and in the CUTE CUTE EAST. Samsung Electronics is Head Quartered in Suwon, another city near Seoul (About 20 miles). Took the ticket (costs 12000 Won man…..). Got onto the bus, and this was no less than areal “LIMO”. This bus would be “Hyundai PowerTec”. They are much similar to the Volvos which we have back in Bang…but just that, PowerTecs are not the best ones out here, and Volvos are the best ones out there. This ride was around One and half an hour, but the best ride I have had in my life. For a car fanatic like me, it was a feast to eye. Hyundai is the leading car manufacturer here, followed by KIA Motors (Which also is a subsidiary of Hyundai), ans then the Samsung Motors. (Yes, Samsung is involved in automobile too….not just that, they are analogous to TATA) Samsung is i almost every industry out here. There were tons and tons of cars. All with amazing beauty and amazing streamline, cutting through the wind like an arrow.

And the best part was, I was sitting on a spearhead too…Our LIMO, was going at constant 120kmph. And who doesn’t like experiencing SPEED ??. The roads were amazingly smooth (Now i know why they call “INDIAN ROADS”). Equally smooth were the transmissions and the suspensions of our PowerTec. And finally we reached Suwon after 90 minutes on dot journey.We had already booked guest houses from India and they were waiting at the Bus terminal to pick us up. We reached the guest house called PARK 22. Its an Indian Guest House (IGH). Quite near to our place of work. It was already aorund 2030-2100 in the evening. Food was ready…Yes Indian, No..not great, just OK. And then went to our rooms made calls to home and slept offfffff. That was a very very tiring Day 1.

DAY 2:
We got up pretty early at around 6:00 in the morning and took all the necessary stuff (Like laptops,given by Samsung India and necessary docs and all). Head quarters is my dear friends….MIND BOGGLING. It is just like any other sky scrapper but, today i was actually gonna work in it !! Completed all the formalities, got our ID Cards, and headed to work area..Setup our laptops on the desks and then…….IT was ALL WORK WORK WORK WORK and WORK. How much work ??? Work enough till i slog, work equivalent to three times the effort I put in back in Bangalore,and work enough to stay in the office till 1200 in the midnight…Almost daily, and bloody work enough to keep you so occupied that you are afraid to even open your gmail and reply to the mails or atleast check them.

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Evanescence…explained Thursday, Oct 25 2007

It has been quite sometime since my last post. Am I the one to blame..?? I don’t know. But what I do know is it is not easy to keep updating the posts at the same speed as you used to back in college. Many of you here will disagree with me, but hey..opinions differ. Let me briefly take you through the past ..4-5 months of my life.

Back in June, I finished my internship at this company called Genesis Microchip, which specialises in the display video processors. After finishing my internship, I headed back home for a month vacation. That would be a final summer vacation ever in my life. June 23rd 2007, was the day when I recieved my degree. It was packed in a HUGE yellow cover (Typical to BITS-Pilani). I don’t know. Somehow I was not very much excited about it.

Then time just flew by and nothing important happened ( as far as i can recollect now), and it was time for me to pack my luggage and head for a whole new world. It was time for me to enter the prfoessional phase of my life. July 13th was the date of joining for Samsung India Software Operations and I caught a flight to Bangalore the previous day. And then it was the freshers orientation time. It was an awesome orientation and they brilliantly took us through the korean culture, various Human resourse values, Interpersonal skills and teamspirits, and all things that could possibly be involved in a freshman orientation was in it. Then there was a fort night typical techy training of C and C++ and other stuff. We were assigned our departments and there was a mini project kinda thing assigned, which was for a months long duration.

Now the best part : Within a months time, our team had a requirement at the headquaters, South Korea. Voila…we were on a BUSINESS TRIP TO KOREA. It was fun. The feeling was a real good one. It came as a shock and delight to us. We got done with all the official requirements and packed our luggage. And we were off to Korea!!

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Being Sick….SUCKS Monday, May 21 2007

It was all fine till Thursday morning, when all of a sudden, a sharp pain started in my head. The typical head ache, when you feel your head is gonna burst open, or somebody has magically gone in there and has taken a huge hammer along with him, just for the reason to see if he strong enough to knock my head off. And then over half an hour it dies down.

After that, it was all sick. This weird of….well let me better not describe it in detail…LEST you feel irritated. Ok let me put it in one line and wrap it up.  ” HAD A VERY BAD STOMACH”. It was all nasty. The only thing i had in my mind was….when will this thing get over. When will i be relieved of this dreadful sickness. Went home early that day from the office, slept like a log that entire evening and then woke up to have some coconut water and some tablets, which were offered by my roomies. Took them and had a lil curd rice and back to bed again.

Woke up the next day. THE thing was still there. All my roomies, had this elderly image inside them, once i was down with fever. Advices started showering on me, Go to Doctor, Take tablets on time, do this, do that, ohh..CRAP. I know it is out of concern and care, but still, the feeling that you are helpless, have to just lay down on the bed sucks. Went to Doctor that morning. ( Was actually taken there by force). I just hate this Place, the doctor’s clinic. As soon as you enter, you have this most absurd smell of antiseptic in the clinic, which i guess most of us HATE. And then it would be all the gloomy faces, every body would be patients out there, or somebody to accompany them. It’d be soooo dull that the very though makes me go plzzzzz… But fortunately, the place was diff.  No “Aroma”, No gloomy faces, cause i guess it was just me who cud have taken to sickness in such an odd season, when every body was all happy and healthy and of course BUSY.  Doctor was happy to see me, ‘ Oh gud, so after all, there is somebody who is today’, he thought.  “Come Come. Whats the matter boy? “

“Doctor, I have a very bad Stomach, and fell tired and sick, and have headache too doctor.”

“Any cold or cough or throat pain?”  he asked. ” No doctor” I told him recollecting, there was not such incident in the past two days. He asked me to lay down on a bench, and then took his primary analysing device, stethoscope. Held it against my chest and stomach and then, he gave an expression which implied, ‘Ok, so thats the problem’.

” Ok…I`ll give you an injection,”….(Ohhkkkk…..Now this i did not imagine. An injection for after all just a bad stomach? may be, who knows…I am not doing MBBS) “and then will write you some tablets.” he said.

” What is the problem doctor?”, I was inquisitive, as i could not measure the sickness degree upon the thought of injection.

“Nothing, you just got a indigestion problem”.

I went and fetched him the medicine and the syringe. These days the needles have become so advanced that you don’t even feel the prick when pierced. ‘GOOD’ , i thought. And then he wrote me tablets and thats it. was done with the doctor thing.

Came back home, when all other friends of mine had left for their work places, as that day was a working day.  Took those tablets and slept off again. AAAHHHH…felt so nice to sleep again. By evening, i was quite normal again. and was not feeling tired. But still had that stupid feeling. By the next day, It had all gone. Thanx to those wonderful medicines, which recovered me so soon. And as soon as i recovered, had a sumptuous treat at Pizza corner. Wow..felt good after 48 hours of only tablets curd rice and coconut water.

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Top View Wednesday, May 16 2007

The other Sunday evening, weather was just rocking here at Bangalore. It was all cloudy, cool breeze and of course, I was having all the fun on top of my apartment. To the east, it was totally dark and cloudy, and the to the west, sun shone brilliantly, through the thin and dull clouds, giving them a superb silver lining. I just couldn’t resist capturing those scenic beauties. And whats more… I stay at Marathalli, in Bang. And the airport is just a K.M. away. The runway is Just across some 3, 4 streets away, and the landing of the fights, are just brilliant. They just graze the buildings while landing and the view is just awesome.I just saw this quote in some blog and wanna quote it here.

” If you have been in air before, you will look up to those flights and say to yourself ‘ I had been there once’ ” And I say….”If you have never been in air before, you will long to get up there. You would say ‘ I’ll be up there one day’ “

These are some of the snaps i had taken that day, and also a video.

A view of thick dark clouds in the east when the sun was shining brilliantly upon the buildings

 

Sun hidden among the clouds

 

 

A snap shot of the Emirates Airline

 

And here is the video

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Of Doodles and Creativity Monday, May 14 2007

Remember those good old days, in school and colleges, when the professor used to just blabber crap all the way and we gave a shit about what he was saying. Those times when our mind is occupied with some weird stuff, pen in one hand and the head lazily resting on the other hand, with your eyes starring at the notebook on your desk. Your pen all of a sudden magically somehow acquires A.I. and starts drawing around whatever crap it can think of. This very stuff is termed as doodle. It lets your imagination fly high, go crazy and the creative “YOU” is unleashed.

So much for a doodle ?? Oh yeah….So much is not really so much. It is very little. We are done with Ice age, Stone age, Iron age, Bronze age, Industrial Age and now with Information age. ( I am not sure if the chronology is right, but…..) Once the memory devices get cheaper and cheaper and still cheaper, every body can store tremendous information at a very low price. And then the information age will be over. Then a new age will dawn over, That would be the age of Innovation. It would be innovation every where. There would be degrees pertaining to innovation like, Bachelor in Innovation(Hons.)…..B.I(Hons.), Masters of Innovation….M.I. The creativity and the imagination would be two major factors based upon which people survive. And what I want to convey is, Doodles, is a very very effective tool to boost your imagination, creativity, and create a new “INNOVATOR” in you.

What are you waiting for ? (This post to finish of course, but…) grab a pencil or a pen for yourself, turn to the last page of a notebook ( to get a feel of good old Days…..) and start scribbling. you needn’t just use your pen and paper. You can even turn to Image editor, like adobe photoshop and create doodles of you choice. Doodles has become my latest hobby. Allow me to show you two of my very first doodles…..( Oh Yeah…more to come for sure)…

I used photoshop to edit my first two doodles. Will upload other soon. Your doodle may could look something like this

 

 

or like this

 Keep doodling and have fun.

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Corporate Lessons…so that you don’t get dumped Friday, May 11 2007

Recently, I received this forward from a friend of mine (Arun Karthik…aka….AKA). It was so lucid, so straight, so “Panchatantrik“, But still it carried an awesome moral. Perhaps the best stories which every one of us out there should be aware of in this CORPORATE AGE. Here are the stories…

Story Number 1:
A crow was sitting on a tree doing nothing all day. A small rabbit saw the crow, and asked him, “Can I also sit like you and do nothing all day long?”
The crow answered: “Sure, why not.”
So the rabbit sat on the ground below the crow, and rested. All of a sudden, a fox appeared, jumped on the rabbit…..and ate it.
Moral of the story: To be sitting and doing nothing you must be sitting very, very high up.

Story Number 2:
A turkey was chatting with a bull.
“I would love to be able to get to the top of that tree,” sighed the turkey, “but I haven’t got the energy.”
“Well, why don’t you nibble on some of my droppings?” replied the bull. They’re packed with nutrients.”
The turkey pecked at a lump of dung and found that it actually gave him enough strength to reach the first branch of the tree. The next day, after eating more dung, he reached the second branch. Finally after a fortnight, there he was proudly perched at the top of the tree. Soon he was spotted by a farmer. Who promptly shot the turkey out of the tree.
Moral of the Story: Bullshit might get you to the top, but it won’t keep you there.

Story Number 3:
A little bird was flying south for the winter. It was so cold; the bird froze and fell to the ground in a large field. While it was lying there, a cow came by and dropped some dung on it.
As the frozen bird lay there in the pile of cow dung, it began to realize how warm it was. The dung was actually thawing him out! He lay there all warm and happy, and soon began to sing for joy. A passing cat heard the bird singing and came to investigate.
Following the sound, the cat discovered the bird under the pile of cow dung, and promptly dug him out and ate him!
Now this story has three Morals….
1) Not everyone who drops shit on you is your enemy.
2) Not everyone who gets you out of shit is your friend.
3) And when you’re in deep shit, keep your mouth shut

Story Number 4:
Once there was a meeting in the human body as to who would rule them…and be their leader… all the parts thought the heart (since it controls the blood circulation, suplpies oxygen and nutrients) should be the leader, some thought that the brain (since it controls the functioning of the entire body, regulates and does memory functions) should be the leader. After a debate, they made brain the leader. Now asshole was very depressed and it raised its voice. ‘I want to be the leader’. No one supported it. The asshole with its anger and disgrace stopped functioning. The entire body systems and functions were affected by it! Now everyone couldn’t bear this instability in the system and made asshole the leader.
Moral of the story : U need not be an intellect (important) to become a leader. An asshole could do it!

Now these are not some SHIT are they ??

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You can do anything for living….even Just TALK Friday, May 11 2007

The latest film i have watched “Thank You For Smoking”, introduced me to a new LEGAL OCCUPATION, a Lobbyist. What does he do? He “Talks” for his living. Literally, a Lobbyist is a person who represents a group (like a Union Leader) and persuades the government bodies to enact legislative laws which are profitable for the group. It is an art to persuade someone to act in a manner where you have the edge.

Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart), happens to be the cheif Spoksperson for Academy of Tobacco Studies. He speaks for the cigarettes which kill 1200 people in America in a single Day. He apparently promotes cigarettes but never states so. All he does is to filter out the truth and project a picture where in he has everybody’ s attention drawn and proves the other person to be wrong. Because if the other person is wrong, then he would be right. Nick has a 12 year old son, and like every father, he wants to be a role model for his boy. Take a look at the dialogue between the pair. His son is Joey Naylor. they are discussing Nick`s profession, and Nick defends himself as thus:

Joey: So, what happens when you’re wrong?.

Nick: Well,Joey, I’m never wrong.

Joey: But you can’t always be right.

Nick: Well, if it’s your job to be right, then you’re never wrong.

Joey: But what if you are wrong?.

Nick: Okay, let’s say that you’re defending chocolate and I’m defending vanilla. Now, if l were to say to you “Vanilla’s the best flavor ice cream,” you’d say…?.

Joey: “No, chocolate is.”

Nick: Exactly. But you can’t win that argument. So, I’ll ask you. So you think chocolate is the end-all and be-all of ice cream, do you?.

Joey: It’s the best ice cream; I wouldn’t order any other.

Nick: Oh. So it’s all chocolate for you, is it?.

Joey: Yes, chocolate is all I need.

Nick: Well, I need more than chocolate. And for that matter, I need more than vanilla. I believe that we need freedom and choice when it comes to our ice cream, and that,Joey Naylor,that is the definition of liberty.

Joey: But that’s not what we’re talking about.

Nick: Ah, but that’s what I’m talking about.

Joey: But… you didn’t prove that vanilla’s the best.

Nick: I didn’t have to. I proved that you’re wrong and if you’re wrong, I’m right.

Joey: But you still didn’t convince me.

Nick: Because I’m not after you. I’m after them.

Here “them” is referred to the others, the onlookers who are not directly involved in the argument, but are impressed by the argument. Nick teaches his kid to Argue and not involve himself in a negotiation to win. When in the movie, Joey asks her mom for something, which she refuses, he gives an argument which stuns her mom. Nick is surprised when Joey has what he wants, and Joey just says… “I was not negotiating dad, I arguing”. If you have a proper argument you are never wrong. You need not convince them, if you just prove them wrong, even when they are right, they’ll be taken aback and the battle will be won.
My Favorite dialogue : Michael Jordon plays Ball, Charles Manson Kills, I talk.
Have a look at the trailer of the film here : Thank you for Smoking

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Indian Celebs Melting into History at Madame Tussauds Friday, May 11 2007

Amitabh Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai and now Shah Rukh Khan have melted into History at Madame Tussauds. Madame Tussauds is a famous wax museum in London with branches in a number of major cities. It was set up by wax sculptor Marie Tussaud. Madame Tussauds Born in France, Marie moves to Paris with her mother who is housekeeper to Philippe Curtius, a doctor and wax modeler who opens his wax museum in 1790. Curtius dies in 1794 and Marie inherits his collection and some properties in Paris. Marie, now Madame Tussauds, brings the collection to England in 1802. Whats so special about having a wax double ? And why is it that only a select few get into the elite hall of fame ? What takes to get into the Tussauds Museum ?

Shah Rukh Khan becomes the fourth Indian after Amitabh Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai and the much less heard about wax idol of Mahatma Gandhi, to be cast in wax. Ben Lovett, PR manager, Madame Tussauds, says, “We aim to reflect the celebrities currently in mainstream public consciousness. Our stars are as big as they get – Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Kylie Minogue, and Shah Rukh Khan. Normally, when stars are immortalized in wax it’s because they are so successful and popular — and because they have made a significant impact on society (global and/or UK).”

Ben gives an outline of how the process of “selecting” the figures for the wax model is done. The details were kept a secret, but he did reveal that exit polls are key to the selection. An exit poll/survey is conducted among the visitors of the museum and King Khan’s name kept coming again and again in those polls. Internally, representatives across Madame Tussauds London meet regularly to discuss customer feedback and any relevant cultural trends, releases, news stories that might feed ideas for a new figure.
Earlier major figures like Adolf Hitler, Winston Churchill, Shakespeare, Queen Mother used to be cast into Wax models. The royalties and political figures have given way to pop stars, film stars and sport stars, thanks to today’s ‘celebrity’ age. Ben says : “We had to reflect this relatively recent cultural shift”. And that is the reason, why we see Will Smith, Johnny Depp, Madonna, Amitabh, Brad Pitt, Jennifer Aniston and others.

Now here is the interesting part. It takes some 500 intricate measurements to get the body details right. The making of the wax model is a very detailed process. On an average the figure takes some four months to make and costs £150,000. While making a wax double of SRK, the hardest challenge was to capture his charm, his on screen persona. To get his body language right, Mansfield, the key sculptor even watched some of SRK’s movies. Madame Tussauds runs a private Figure sales business where in individual figures can be made and bought on demand. So next time when you Go to Madame Tussauds and get desperate to have your own wax model made, carry some £150,000 (or may be even more) and take one home. Here are some of the Wax models at the museum.

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