Getting Through The Recession

Three of my colleagues were "let-go" last week. Doesn't seem like a big number, until you take into consideration the fact that the total strength of the work-force at my office, here in Bangalore, is 50-odd.
Needless to say, the news had most of us reeling in shock for a while.

Here's some advice on getting through these trying times.

1. Invest in yourself.

Brush up on your core skills. Learn, sketch, design, code, write, do whatever makes you better at your job.

2. Be frugal.

This one is more pertinent to those of us, living in the metropolitans, where not visiting the mall on the weekend, or watching a weekend movie show for 250 bucks, or dining at that expensive restaurant, or binging on Mr. Mallya's precious produce, has us feeling strangely guilty and cheap.

Presh Talwalkar explains what it means to be frugal here, along with loads of other excellent advice.

"The word frugal is widely misunderstood. Frugal does not mean being cheap or saving money. Frugal means avoiding waste and being efficient."

He goes on to quote Theodore Roosevelt on frugal living :

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”

3. Take time to unwind and relax.

Its easy to let the pressures of the work-place get to your nerves, what with all your customers crying their throats hoarse all the time.
With the Christmas season closing in, it's a good time to take some time off, to spend with your family, and give yourself some time to collect your thoughts, and put things in perspective.

Enhancements on Flickr

A few enhancements that I'd like to see on Flickr:

1. Maintain a default set of recently uploaded pictures, with a refresh rate of say, 2 days.

2. A way to maintain a list of people whose work I'd like to follow on Flickr

Through the Flickr blog, or through "Explore", I often come across the profiles of some very gifted people whose work I'd like to keep track of. As of now, there seems to be no other way of doing this other than by adding them as a contact.

What I'd like to see is a feature by which I can mark a set of people whose work I'd like to "follow" on Flickr, and get updates from them, the way you get updates from your contacts, but without really having to add them as a contact.

3. A way to auto-publish content at specific points of time in the future

One of the inherent dynamics of User Generated Content is that, a profile attracts more attention when it is updated regularly, than if the same amount of content were to be posted at one shot.

To elaborate, let's consider the case of blogs. If you were following Seth Godin's blog, would you rather that he posted 30 blogs over a particular weekend, every month on a variety of topics, or that he posted one every day(, or for that matter one every few hours) ?

One of the secrets to having a successful blog or any community-based profile is to post regularly.

When you post content regularly, you not only give people who follow your work, time and space to digest what you are posting, and ruminate over the subject matter, but you also give them a reason to expect more.

Google gets this, which is why blogger seems to provide a feature of auto-publishing content at pre-defined points of time in the future.

It would be great if Flickr could follow suit and allow such a feature, allowing you to auto-publish your pictures at specific dates in the future.

4. Last of all, I'd like to see a wee bit more intelligence on Flickr, in that it doesn't scream out, "Please come back, We Miss you ! Renew Your Pro membership." , even for a first time Flickr user, who's never been Pro to begin with.

Also, I feel the line itself sounds very affected, and has scope for improvement.

A Vision For Photography

Philosophy Alert !!

I was reading through the comments of an old interview on the strobist blog, interviewing the phenomenally talented 17 year old Joey L . One of the comments that stuck me was when someone remarked that Joey's pictures had a singular vision. A vision that seems stamped into each photograph featured on his website (seems to have some issues with Firefox3, be warned), giving the viewer a sense of assertion of Joeys ownership of his pictures. Ownership, not just in the material sense of the term, but in terms of the vision.

Joeys' pictures are depressing and incredible at the same time, to most people over 17, depressing because you hadnt heard the term SLR yet, when you were 17 and incredible because, ... well, because they are incredible, take a look !


The picture of the dead bird, lying in the gravel, with its belly facing the sky, while a group of similar birds take to the skies in the background. The wandering Holy Men of India, defining their own boundaries of thought, all in the name of enlightenment, the tramp who refused to step down from posing until the photographer left, the beggar holding out his jar in the middle of the busy thoroughfare, the young couple that had tattooed most of their body lying on the ground ...

All powerful images, conveying a powerful vision ...

So, all of this got me thinking.

Thinking about whether the pictures I shoot have that vision, heck, any vision. In case they dont, if I should be thinking of adopting a vision (yeah, I know that sounds ridiculous).

Then there's this quote by the Greek philosopher Whitehead that has stuck with me for a long time.
It goes "The essence of dramatic tragedy is not unhappiness. It resides in the solemnity of the remorseless working of things."

He then' goes on. to explain, "This inevitableness of destiny can only be illustrated in terms of human life by incidents which in fact involve unhappiness. For it is only by them that the futility of escape can be made evident in the drama."

The way I understand it , Whitehead seems to say, that tragedy is implicit in the way things work. An effort to focus on unhappy events to merely depict tragedy is simply redundant. All life itself is a tragedy. OK, so maybe thats stretching it, but you do see my point, don't you ?

Not really? Well, here then is what I'm trying to say.

Would a vision that focused on the tragedies of everyday life, translate to a good vision, because it depicted reality ?

Or would it be more powerful, if not inspirational, if my pictures were to focus on the small victories, triumphs and the hopes that also seem to dot the tragic landscape of life that we all inhabit ?

Distributed Production Grade Systems

When do web applications move beyond being hosted on proprietary production grade systems, and move to more wide-spread "production centres" distributed world-wide, a la CDN. Would that not help with lightning fast responses to serve user content ?

Similar to having distributed data centres, but hosting production level servers, where code could be deployed securely and remotely.

One argument against this could be that syncing all the distributed content would be difficult.
Another could be that production grade systems need to be absolutely secure, and impregnable, but couldn't systems evolve to tackle that ?

Chasing monsoons in Goa

My two month overdue Goa post :

I had always wanted to go back to Goa since my first trip there last year, when I stayed at Anjuna. This time around, we stayed at a place near the Candolim beach.
The onward journey was a complete nightmare, owing in part to Bangalore's notorious traffic jams, and a lousy bus, which had no shock absorbers whatsoever.

However, once we got to Goa and had taken some much needed rest, we lazed around, drank made merry, sat staring at the Ocean till well past midnight with a bottle of Zinfandel, took long walks on the moonlit deserted beach, wondered at the abandoned mysterious "River Princess" anchored and left desolate in the middle of the ocean, the dark silhouette of a ghost ship, just off limits to the people on the beach.


Late in the evening, gorging on tuna sandwiches, fried fish and the ever-dependable beverages churned out by the flamboyant Mr. Mallya, sitting by a shack half open to the breeze blowing in from the sea, and listening to some good old live music, I was convinced I was in paradise.

Fortunately for me, my cell phone conked and refused to start no matter what I did, worked well for me. With no one to bother me, I felt totally liberated. From chasing peafowls perched on stark tree tops early in the morning, waiting for the sun to shimmer down and dry the dew of their beautiful feathers, hoping no one would notice them, to observing fishermen returning to the docks early in the morning after a night out on the violent sea, unloading their catch, an early morning drive through Goa is a revelation in itself.


Soaked to the bone by the monsoons, devoid of too many tourists, hotels that are not too over-priced, and with only the occasional junkie touting heroin and ecstasy, Goa I discovered, is just a slice of pure heaven in the off-season.

So, so you think you can tell ??

Don't you just love it when you rediscover the brilliance of an absolute gem of a song that you had long dismissed for a cliche', and whose musical value you had equaled to no more than the drone of a house fly !

The flip side of the combination of cheap digital storage and "sophisticated" music players , is that you end up with all these gigabytes of songs lying in your hard disk, but do not devote enough time to let them grow on you. The songs just play in a sequence, and you hardly ever pay any attention to the music or the lyrics.

Given that I don't consider myself a luddite, it would be stupid, not to mention futile, to oppose the innovations in the field of digital storage technology.

The need of the hour, is therefore, either better design, or more intelligence in music players.
Something that can make it easy for listeners to organize their music, by tagging, intelligent rating, or ways of creating playlists that people can actually use.


Cover Art :

Album art, is another feature, that is in jeopardy of being lost into oblivion with the rise of digital technology, and is in desperate need for a revival by means of integration with music players.(fortunately there has been some relief in this aspect with most major players recognizing this need already, notably Apple, Winamp etc ...) .


Informational Tidbits or Trivia :

Often I have noticed that when I like a song, its not just because of the music or the lyrics, but also because of the history behind that song, or what you could call trivia. It helps people relate to the song, and helps create a more lasting impression.

Some examples of these that stand out for me, are U2's "Stuck in a moment ..." as a tribute to INXS' Michael Hutchence. Pink Floyd's "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" incident where Syd Barrett walked into the studio, where they were recording the song as a tribute to him, after an absence of seven years.
The more popular one, might be Don McLean's "American Pie", the interpretation of the lyrics for which, radio stations devoted entire shows.

It would be great if there were meta-information of this kind, that is released along with every album which contains tidbits on the songs, including but not limited to the history of the band, the composers involved, the circumstances that led to the composing of the song, the kind of guitars or pedals or other relevant instruments used, the lyrics of the song, the music sheets for the songs, and any other relevant information that they might consider significant from the perspective of the enthusiasts who buy their albums.

Considering that before the advent of the digital age, most of this information was part and parcel of the physical album art, I am at a loss to understand why this most straightforward of all adaptations has been overlooked when producing digital media. The absence of it just makes everything that much more fuzzy.

The meta-information could either be hosted on a site for music players to retrieve online or could be embedded as part of the cd itself, or perhaps both (Considering not all music players have access to online information) Either way, the goal is for music players to integrate and use this information and provide it to the end listener.

The benefits of adapting this way are bidirectional. It would greatly aid the cause of the musicians by helping them fixate the impression of their albums in the minds of their fans. It would help music enthusiasts differentiate between different genres, understand the music they listen to, figure out what kind of music appeals to them ...

In short, it would help people understand the music they like.



Or, maybe its just me ? :)

Run Baby ...

You, in your track suits, and your plugged-in ipods, when will you learn to run up to your lofty gymnasiums, enclosed in its air-conditioned, glass-walled goodness, blaring Ricky Martin on surround-sound, high-wattage speakers .

'cos that's the only way you're ever gonna lose those extra jiggly pounds.
Not by driving up in your swanky air-conditioned car with your tinted windows pulled up, nor by buying a two thousand dollar 8 in 1 home work-out machine.

Run baby run ...

Been there, done that

Dressed in black tees, and blue jeans, the two men must've been pushing their late fifties. Both of them sport elegant gold rimmed spectacles. One of them is semi-bald while the other one has managed to keep that damned of all human phenomena at bay.

Surprisingly, for their age, both men are refreshingly lean, and have not given way to the corpulence that seems to accumulate with passing years.

They sit at the bar now, leaving it to their waiter to worry about a table. They don't seem to mind the exuberant chatter of the bunch of boys, seated a little distance apart, waiting along with them. Not as long as the beer keeps coming, and the music is not too loud, and no one interrupts their peace.

As if from a distance, the discordant chords of jazz waft in. One of them takes out a cigarette and smokes. The other one joins him. Obviously they don't take the statutory warning on the pack too seriously.

They don't exchange much conversation. They probably don't feel the need for it. All they seem to want is some time off, to sit abstracted from the bustle of life, and the incessant demands of whatever it is they do for a living.

A word now, then a smile in agreement, and a smoke more ...

Walking The Line

I'd seen the little girl a couple of times before, She must be around 8-10 years of age, always in the same clothes, a green and red dress, accompanied by who I reckon are her brother and mother. Around the narrow lanes of Eejipura they wander, setting up their little make-shift setup for the show.

The setup is simple. A couple of wooden poles are placed a few feet apart, each supported at the base by three small pieces of wood. A rope is firmly tied between the poles and the little one is hoisted up. Slowly and steadily, she gauges herself and makes some adjustments for balance.
With small steps, she starts walking the rope, initially with the help of a horizontal wooden pole in her hands for balance, which she then proceeds to do away with.

The mother of the family slings around her neck, a hollow piece of wood covered by some cheap leather that passes for a drum, and starts off with a song. Passers by stop to check what the commotion is all about.
Soon a small crowd gathers around gaping open-mouthed as the little girl performs her tricks. I wonder what they goes on through their minds. the sight they witness today is by no means uncommon . Yet they gather and stand and gape in what I like to call "stoned" amazement. I guess it's part of all that "diversity and culture" that we boast about and wear on our sleeves and are so proud of as Indians. The little girl , though is unruffled by the crowd; a true professional, she does her act with elegance, poise and precision.

It's then time for the second part of the act. The beat of the drums reaches a feverish pitch. Her brother tosses over a steel plate. One arm out, she catches it. She now balances herself on the steel plate and with short rhythmic movements of her feet, she starts walking the rope on the plate.

On slow days, when the gathering is few, she is made to sport a cheap pair of sunglasses. It works like a charm. Today is one of the bad days. The poles have been just set up by a busy thoroughfare. The girl is hoisted up. She starts to walk. The drums are played with extra vigor. People stop to watch her as she precariously walks forward and back.

And then suddenly it happens. In a split second, the poles give away with a screech. The child loses her balance and lands on the hard asphalt with a thud. The crowd lets out a collective gasp. At first, she doesn't realize what has happened, but as she slowly comes out of the shock, she realizes shes hurting, and starts wailing. Her brother and mother rush to her side. Her brother frantically rubs her forehead, in an effort to alleviate the pain, but the child is inconsolable.

To me, the child's crying seemed to go beyond physical pain. It was as though she was crying out at her existence, and at what she had to do to earn her bread, at time never spent on playing, at time spent walking the streets under the hot sun, at the lack of an opportunity to get an education. The mother tries to hush her up. Experience has taught her that the crowd is not sympathetic of cry-babies, and sympathy doesn't help anyway, not in her line of work.

The crowd is unmoved. People walk on. The circus has come to an end. Not the perfect start to the day, the trio had hoped for , but by the looks of it, this was not something new. They fold up , it's time to move on a few blocks down, put up the poles and go about walking the line one more time.

Photographs and Flickr ...

Something about an instant in time, and the ability to freeze and capture it, that cannot be paralleled by any other form of art. Something about beauty in sophistication of an SLR, about that indescribable sound of the electro-mechanical components working in tandem to create something artistic.

It's been a little over two months since I bought my camera, and I have developed a healthy respect for Flickr, in particular and the concept of user generated content in general.

Many people have this misconception of Flickr as yet another online photo storage application, a la Picasa.

1. The subtle difference is that although you can upload your pictures to Flickr like with any other photo-sharing tool, Flickr mandates you to focus on the quality of your uploads by imposing limits on monthly uploads (atleast for non-Pro accounts).

In doing so, it indirectly prompts the user to pick only a subset of pictures that can narrate his story.

2. Flickr provides support for Creative Commons meaning that the user gets to choose the "Some Rights reserved" paradigm as opposed to the "All Rights Reserved".

This helps promote and realise the true power of user generated content, by encouraging users to build upon others content, and express it in a different way.

3. The other thing about Flickr is that it has taken off in a way that promotes learning.

One of the important features in this regard is Flickr's support of EXIF data. For the uninitiated, when you look at an photograph, and wonder what settings were used to achieve the effect in the picture, the EXIF can give you a few pointers in the right direction.
That is of course, assuming that the photograph was not retouched by a software application such as Photoshop or Picasa.

Communities are another of Flickr's greatest assets. The active reponses to queries, and the eagerness with which people share their own secrets of photography are quite inspiring.

4. Lastly, as Flickr is positioned specifically to appeal to amateurs, hobbyists and photograph lovers in general, and does not have much of an appeal for people who just want to vent out their disgust, it has managed to somehow remain sublime, and has not attracted any of the distasteful comments that YouTube cannot seem to shake off.

Latest discovery on Flickr : The Bokeh sets. Have fallen in love with the beautiful Bokeh pictures out there, especially when colored serial lights make up the background, just cant seem to get enough of those. I feel the desire to learn how to shoot some, or maybe upgrade to some lenses that can help me achieve and experiment with that effect like for example this one
Hawaiian Rainy Bokeh by AppleJan .

Gmail conks on FF3

Observed Gmail conking on FF3 today. Haven't been able to reply or Compose a mail, shows up "undefined" in the list of autocomplete suggestions in the recipient text area. Seems to just work fine on IE though.

The US Presedential Hopeful

Barack Obama makes you want to sit down and weep your heart out. This guys got great oratory skills !!

An excerpt from one of his election campaign speeches :

"Hope is not blind optimism, It's not ignoring the enormity of the task ahead, or the roadblocks that stand in our path. It's not sitting on the sidelines or shirking from a fight. Hope is that thing inside us that consists despite all evidence to the contrary something better awaits us if we have the courage to reach for it, and to work for it and to fight for it. ... "