I chose the red pill » Technology

Google India Comes Up With Music Service With Search

hari — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 10:15:02 +0000

Finally, Google has also jumped into the music-bandwagon! Google India today launched Google Music India – a fully-blown music streaming service.

The Google Music home page with album listings.

The service, which was launched earlier today under ‘Google India Labs’, is available at http://www.google.co.in/music and is accessible by users all across the world.

Google Music is pretty-impressive – especially the search part. Existing streaming services like Raaga and MusicIndiaOnline have appalling search – and that’s where Google‘s service scores. The search feature is quite comprehensive. You can search with the movie name, the lead actor’s name (e.g. a search for ‘Shah Rukh Khan’ lists songs from his movies), songs according to time period, and what not. You can even use complex queries to find out Guru Dutt track from your childhood that you’ve so badly wanted to catch up with, using some smart search queries.

Fresh from watching the movie, I badly wanted to listen to the songs. Lo and behold, Google comes to my rescue.

The service does not use a native ‘Google‘ player, neither does it host tracks in its server. The songs are sourced from ‘Saavn.com’, ‘Saregama’ and ‘in.com’, says the Google India Blog. Users can choose the player of their choice, for some songs.. The audio quality is decent. ‘Saregama’ and ‘in.com’ players do a good job, while the ‘Saavn’ player quite buggy. The streaming works well in a 2 Mbps+ connection, but the songs stutter in 256Kbps. Another drawback is that the service does not offer playlists.

Currently, Google Music has a comprehensive collection of Bollywood. Tamil, Malayalam, and other regional tracks are yet to make it.

The service is fully legal – since it offers just streaming and not downloading. It is a successor to Google‘s music search service in the US – which offered search and previews of tracks.

Google has also launched its new music service in China.

The extent of Google Music’s success is doubtful since India has a strong ‘downloading culture’. Users prefer downloading songs rather than listening to audio streams online – they would still opt for pirated tracks available for download. Another major con would be the slow internet connections in the country – the service needs at least 256Kbps (or above) for smooth playback. Besides, a bulk of India’s internet users use internet plans with data-transfer caps – such users would give this service a miss, in all probability. Then again, Google will have to tackle many established players like Raaga.com and MusicIndiaOnline.

However, the service is a boon for all music addicts. Foraging for that long-lost-track, can now be done in just a click. Enjoy!

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The Curious Case of Collective Attention Deficit Disorder

hari — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 18:04:31 +0000

It’s a bright, sunny morning. Airily filling up your lungs with a (city variant of) the fresh morning air, you rev up your car and drive to work. As you’re half-way through, you notice a very obvious vibration from your jeans pocket – it’s the usual suspect, the mobile phone. You pick up the call – it’s your soulmate. She rants on and on about the brand-new outfit her dad purchased for her…But you’ve no clue as to what she’s talking about, do you?

Ah, yes. You’re driving – but did you just notice a city bus shave off the side-view mirror and the side-beeding of your car? Oh, okay, you were on the phone.

Yeah, right.

Later that evening, you watch one of those art-house flicks at the friendly-neighborhood multiplex – with your girlfriend as arm-candy. Suddenly, the screen goes dark – it’s apparently a part of the movie which is standard art-house flick material. You jerk your arm into the pant pocket and jerk out your office BlackBerry – can’t miss those mails from your US-based Boss, can you? It took you a long ten seconds to realize that your arm-candy wanted to make, err, ‘better use’ of the ‘dark break’. You take five more seconds with the BB, before you give in to the girl.

Any of these situations ring a bell?

The second one might be a tad too far-fetched (it’s true though – scene from PVR Mumbai, circa December 2009. ‘Avatar’ was the ‘arthouse flick’, however). But the issue is indeed a grave problem we all have faced at some point in time

Welcome to the new millennium of Collective Attention Deficit Disorder.

Image Courtesy: http://www.flickr.com/photos/brookhavenlab/

Patients with ‘Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder’ would find it difficult to focus on a particular task over a period of time. They get bored with the task fast, and quickly move on to other tasks. They have high tendencies of procrastination and exhibit escalated physical movement.

Today, this disorder is spreading rapidly, directly proportional to the growth of technology in our lives.

It’s necessary evil. We’ve accustomed ourselves to a ‘fast food culture’. We just cannot wait – we want instant results. Be it in any field – we rue traffic blocks, for they don’t allow us to reach our destinations on time. We curse slow computers, ’cause they don’t help us complete our task on time. Our bosses want tasks to be done in unrealistic deadlines. And in this survival of the fittest era, you can’t afford to budge.

Reading is a direct casualty of ADD – first it was hesitation to read long books. Thus, abridged versions were born. Then, people didn’t have time to read even abridged versions; short stories and blogs became the order of the day, for a while. Then came twitter, smashing all existing ‘literature’ with its 140 tiny characters. No, twitter and microblogging is yet to win over traditional publishing – but at this rate of exponential growth, that too could happen.

Even ‘Google’ has moved with the times, pun intended, with Google Instant, for lazybones like us reluctant enough to press the enter key on our keyboard. Remember ‘Google Wave’? It had the ‘revolutionary’ technology that directly posted what we typed (making the ‘enter’ button redundant again) – thus ‘increasing productivity’. In fact, Google’s obsession for fast results was evident by their hiring of the guy who made YouTube instant.

Alright, what’s wrong with shifting attention spans?

Simple – you’d end up wrecking your mind. Accept the fact, we’re not made of Dual Core processors – at least the males amongst us. Women have been multitasking for a while, but they too have a limit. Quoting a friend of mine, “Multitasking IS screwing many things at once.” You may not realize it – but you will, over time. Every time you indulge in more tasks than you can, simultaneously – your mental capacity takes a toll. Your mind’s like any machine – it needs rest. Give it some cool-off time, will you?

With short attention spans, you’d simply reach nowhere.

Here’s a DIY test:

Lay your hands on one of those short stories. Any simple story would do – it shouldn’t be too long. Get a stopwatch, set it on zero. Now, open the first page of your book and start reading – remember to switch on your stopwatch when you start. Once the story is over, note the time spent to read the story. Now that the story is over, choose a second short story of roughly the same length and complexity as the original one. Repeat the process – with one difference. Switch on the music – it should be your favourite track, and read the short story. Record the time taken.

Needless to say, you would have taken at least 50% more time, when you read the story with music on. And trust me, you wouldn’t even remember a lot about the second story – you’d just have a broad idea of what happened. You wouldn’t have enjoyed the music either.

Enough proof, innit?

So how do you tackle this attention deficit disorder?

The sad reality is, there’s no definite solution. You just cannot dump your blackberries and iPhones into the dead sea – they’ve irrevocably become a part of your life. But you can always try to give your full attention to one task at a time. While you are at a critical task, avoid interferences – you’d have the mental push to reply to that text – and if you intend to do that, you may certainly go to hell. Spend some time with yourself each day – take a walk, enjoy the beauty of the stars and the night sky (don’t forget to leave that confounded mobile handset in your couch as you go about it. ). Try meditation and yoga – with time, you’d be more focussed and productive.

Attention definite disorder is necessary evil – but you can’t afford it to ruin your life. Push it to the wall and leave it there. Go about your life, focussed and ready.

And yeah, give that new BlackBerry/iPhone a miss. it ain’t worth it.

P.S.
You CERTAINLY suffer from CHRONIC attention deficit disorder if you did not complete reading this post.

P.P.S.
Watch this video.

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Ban on sales of MS Word – Another nail in Microsoft’s coffin

hari — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 03:40:53 +0000

Finally, I get my retribution. Microsoft is banned from selling MS Word and/or any applications that can open DOCX/DOCM/XML files in the USA!! Whee!! The ruling that made Bill Gates Steve Balmer pee in his pants came from a judge in Texas – a landmark for GNU/Linux, I might add.

i4i Inc – a company operating from Toronto, is the root cause behind M$’s latest fitfall. The firm succeeded in winning an injunction against M$, concerning gross violations of its XML patents. To quote from the ruling, the judgement “prohibits Microsoft from selling or importing to the United States any Microsoft Word products that have the capability of opening .XML, .DOCX or DOCM files (XML files) containing custom XML”. The incident is reminiscent of the old IE frazzle has kicked Microsoft out cold! The breather for this monopolistic giant is the mere 60 day time window to implement the injunction.

So, does this mean M$ is goanna be the next dead duck?

Not really.

M$ has the money and muscle power, not to mention access to all the movers and shakers. The doyens of the company are taking the news in the stride and have decided to fight back against the small-time company i4i with all might. It’s going to be tough time for i4i, which might, in all probability, go the Netscape way – to dysfunction, considering the might of the corporate conglomerate pitted against it. However, it must be said that i4i has some brave dudes out there who’ve achieved great success against M$ – a victory none else has been able to secure. If things go the way they are actually supposed to be (provided i4i gets a super-awesome lawyer and/or protection from M$’s corporate espionage – if any), we might see the first days of M$ doom. I’m goanna celebrate that with crackers!

Image Courtesy: XKCD

All this brings out the main reason why I all of us GNU/Linux enthusiasts hate M$ Windows – Their highly monopolistic, derogatory and user-hampering principles!! It’s a fact that M$ pays the highest paychecks to its employees and harbours the world’s most brilliant Computer Scientists/Engineers. Yet, just see the countless bugs in Windows Vista!! If a group of ‘hackers’ could collaborate and create a very user friendly operating system that has all the goodies of Vista and consumes a tenth as much memory (Kubuntu 9.04), why can’t M$ do the same? The glaring answer is there in the question itself! The bugs are deliberate. Had M$ been as stable an O/S as GNU/Linux, a major chunk of the antivirus/’protection’ software companies would go bankrupt! Unless M$ finds a solution to the countless bugs in its software and do some serious rethinking about its policies, it’s a downward lane for the company. The indicators have already started pointing to that fact.

As far as I’m concerned, I’m content with my OpenOffice 3.0 and Kubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope!

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Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) at Windows 98 Demo by Bill Gates

hari — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:57:36 +0000

William H Gates III – He shares a birthday with me, (and I hope I’ll someday share his company too – and make Windows fully FOSS! ) The man is known for being a geek and has his share of blunders, very public gaffes.
Here’s once such gem. It’s not Gates’ fault actually! At least, not directly so. But the product he was presenting on international Television (CNN), got a deadly Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) and that too, LIVE, before millions of eyeballs competing for attention.

No points for guessing the product: Windows 98! Yeah, this happened some eleven years ago. Stumbled upon this video in YouTube and I had the laugh of my life! Check it out:

This happened at COMDEX, Las Vegas on April 20, 1998. The guy operating the PC in this video is Chris Capossella, (now Corporate VP in the information working business unit).

And, that would be Reason #234 to switch over to GNU/Linux – a very stable O/S that makes Blue Screens a thing of the past!

Living breathing proof of the above statement: My PC, which runs sturdily on Kubuntu 8.10 with Vista like display and blazing speed in just 768 MB RAM, and that too with blown-up on board-graphics!

Update:

If that wasn’t enough check out this blue screen from the Windows Vista launch! This one’s a spoof though, but it’s nice, even beats the shits out of Bill’s gaffe!

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Apple iPhone 3G-S releases today!

hari — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 06:35:13 +0000

Yeah, finally, answering all the harried queries of millions of tech-lovers like myself, The Apple iPhone 3.0 (or Apple iPhone 3G S ) is releasing today (17th June 2009) at WWDC (Worldwide Developers’ Conference)!

The famed, all-touch mobile phone from Apple’s stable has literally taken the world by storm. It’s incredible features make the product so irresistable that people just won’t be able to resist the product! Within a few hours, Apple iPhone 3.0 will hit the markets. So, brace yourself, guys!! (Read, get your credit cards ready! )

[adsense]

Check out the features of the cool new iPhone if you haven’t:

In the 3G-S, S stands for SPEED. That means, high speed gaming, and everything you’d ever want in relation to that!
The on-board voice control rocks! The superb voice feature allows you not just to talk to your friends, but literally control your phone. The phone will even respond to all your queries and commands, helping you even to play music and control calls with your voice.
Thanks to the 3-megapixel camera with autofocus, the imaging experience is near professional. White balance, autofocus, low-light sensitivity and even a macro mode for big images. There’s even a unique, tap-focussing system!
With the built-in compass that works in tandem with maps to give you street positioning (the maps turn automatically as you twist the phone),you’ll never lose your way again.
With the in-built camcorder, there’s the provision to record VGA quality video in 30 FPS. It’s even possible to cut the ends of the video just by tweaking the end point and the start point. The lack of MMS in the previous iPhone is compensated this time. Plus, you could even YouTube the video!
There’s Voice-over – which reads the screen based on your gestures, essentially an accessiblity feature.
Get to know the calories you lost and the kilometers you’ve run with the Nike+iPod which works with the sensors on your Nike shoe. Yes, that extra $200 no a Nike air won’t be an extra-spend, trust me!

9 hours in Wi-Fi, 10 hours of video playback, 30 hours listening to audio, 12 and 5 hour talktimes on 2G and 3G networks respectively – now you can stop worrying about those low batteries!

And all this comes at $199 for 16 GB and $299 for the 32 gig model, only if you’re in the US though. But no worries, check out your nearest grey market in a couple of days for (a bootlegged, unlocked version of) the latest iPhone. If you’re too poor to afford that, you can even choose the $99 model.

Yep, everybody gets his/her iPhone!

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An Interview with Richard Stallman

hari — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 07:21:01 +0000

Richard Mathew Stallman is the rightful father of the Free Software movement and an international celebrity by his own right. The man behind the GNU Project and the Free Software Foundation, it was he who propounded the General Public License (GPL), also dubbed ‘copyleft’ – a license that quite literally sets software free. Stallman is fully dedicated to his cause of liberating the world from the shackles of proprietary software. Anoop and I caught up with him at the International Free Software Convention held at the Mascot Hotel, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala on December 11. The otherwise-irascible Mr Stallman gracefully opened his mind, even revealing tidbits of his famed sense of humor in between.

How did you get yourself acquainted with computers?

Richard M. Stallman: When I was nine years old, I got access to computer manuals at a summer camp. I tried learning them by myself. The manuals were similar to general-life puzzles and I found them fascinating. It was only later, at around 1969 when I first saw and used a real computer. Then on, there was no looking back

Could you differentiate between Free Software and Open Source? We’ve heard a lot of versions, but it’s always delightful to listen from the horse’s mouth!

RMS: (Smiles) This is the question I answer the most! Both movements are based on entirely different philosophies. In the free software movement, we try to share and collaborate. The free software movement is a social faction. Non-free, paid software literally binds hapless users with chains. We help people break free. Open source is just a technically superior model which gives technically enhanced results by freeing the source code. Its values are narrowly practical, though. Still, both Free Software and Open source converge at the technical level.

How has the Free Software Foundation evolved, since its inception?

RMS: It all started with a small coterie of programmers along with me, devoted to the creation of the GNU operating system, in 1984. With time, we moved on. Now, the organization has shifted its perspective to one synonymous with a social movement rather than a technical lobby.

It’s commonly seen that most Free Software tends to imitate existing software. What’s your take on this?

RMS: Are you suggesting that free software is plagiaristic? Not really. But it’s true that Free software does imitate, quite often. The prime reason behind this is that the main goal is freedom. Originality and innovation are secondary.

It’s a fact that Non-free software dollars actually drive a major chunk of today’s economy. Consider a hypothetical scenario where the entire world was to embrace Free Software one fine morning. What would happen to software companies in such a case? Wouldn’t this result in pinks slips delivered en-masse?

RMS: There are thousands of jobs people can have instead of writing non-free software. In fact, in a macro-perspective, only a minor fraction of the coders work for the development of non-free software. Most paid programmers work towards building custom software based on specific user demand. That leaves only a minor section of programmers writing non-free software: a job they can easily avoid. When a society decides to break free from proprietary software, not a single job gets pruned in the process. Flawed economic policies are the root cause behind the increasing unemployment rate. Needless to say, embracing Free Software clearly involves negligible revenue loss and gargantuan benefits.

Has Free Software caught up with Non-free software?

RMS: To a great extent, yes. But, there’s still ground for progress.

Having taken the Free Software movement to a social perspective, you must be having strong political views. Where do you stand, politically?

RMS: I stand for freedom and democracy. I believe in the role of a welfare state which takes care of all its citizens and promotes general well-being.

How do you fund yourself?

RMS: My speeches constitute my prime revenue source. People pay for my food and travel if I’m going over to some place. They also pay me a small fee. Now I’ve started a new model of revenue generation. I auction Linux collectibles for a living. Yesterday, I made some money for myself, selling a few cute Tux penguins.

What is the future of Richard Stallman?

RMS: The Stallman of the future will be a liberator of the cyberspace.

It’s a previlege to eat with you, Richard!

Thank you for your time, Sir!

RMS: Happy Hacking!

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How to find a great web host for all your needs

hari — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 07:19:57 +0000

Why would you need a good web host? A self-hosted website/blog always adds on to your credos! Having a domain gives you an edge, trust me. And it won’t even cost the skies! Thanks to competitive companies and democratization of the web, you can get a great domain and a web host, at a very cheap price!

There are trillions of web hosting companies in the WWW. But it’s an extremely hard task to find a great one! Which is where rateyourwebhosting.com solves your problems!

I found this site: Web Site Hosting Reviews (rateyourwebhosting.com) on a Google Search. It has a rather cool listing of web hosting services available in the World Wide Web. The front page shows a list of top 11 hosting companies, featuring the creme de la creme among the hosting companies out there. There’s a detailed review of all the best hosting companies, with all their price plans, packages and services compared and contrasted down to the last detail. In addition to this, the website also has a lot of helpful articles that would help you choose the web hosting plan/company as per your requirement. It also has a good repository of articles related to web hsoting which will help you with all your queries.

Wanna get a cool hosting package? Check out rateyourwebhosting.com now!

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Idea Star Singer ads in Google Adsense!

hari — Sun, 17 May 2009 13:15:39 +0000

Idea Star Singer is a very popular reality show in Malayalam television. The show is on its fourth season now and is the quintessential ‘best singer’ show, with all the masala and moolah. This very great reality show is the sole reason why yours truly has abandoned television!

I almost died laughing when I saw these ads in my blog a couple of days back!

Asianet Idea Star Singer:

Watch ISS Season 4 an Musical Entertainer!

LOL, I thought Ranjini Haridas knew enough crap about articles in English!! At least they could’ve made the ad grammatically correct!

This means just one thing – people have realized that the show’s downright crap! Or is this ad the ‘brilliant’ idea of someone behind the scenes trying to cash in on the free $50 Google AdWords campaign.

Looks more like it!

Well, turns out that the website’s actually a fan site! Nevertheless, the ad-placement and the ‘grammar’ would only leave a far negative impact about the show rather than a positive one. Maybe there must be some regulation on fan sites and stuff….

And yeah, Season 4 sucks harder than ever!!

P.S.

Yep, this IS an arbit post. But I do have university exams coming up, and I seriously can’t afford to flunk!

HOT Post alert:

Brace yourself!

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How I became Mr Dhwani (Well, almost!)

hari — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 19:40:57 +0000

Statutory Warning: Looooooooooooooooong post! Read at your own risk!

Dhwani 09 – the prestigious intercollegiate cultural festival by College of Engineering, Trivandrum, was held on April 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th at the college premises. Regarded by many as one among the best cultural festivals of the state, the festival falls in the league of Ragam – the flagship cult-fest by NITC. The latest edition of Dhwani happened after a hiatus of three years, and was already the talk of the town. Due to some quirk of fate (or rather, on the persistance of my friend Satish), I found myself at CET that fine morn, on April 4. A coordinator of an intercollegiate festival myself, my trip to Dhwani was essentially observational with the sole intent to garner organizational tip-offs or maybe get in touch with potential fest-sponsors.

I had no idea, not even in the back of my mind, that I’d get into the finals of five events, including Mr Dhwani – the coolest personality contest in town!!

Satish wanted me as his partner in English debate. But I had my MBA Coaching class at Time that day. Considering the fact that 99% of my batchmates at Time were CETians; With all of them at Dhwani, it would be pointless to attend the forlorn class. Thus, I gingerly stepped into the sprawling 125-acre campus of CET. The day zipped by fast. I participated in the Malayalam JAM (where I couldn’t even open my mouth!), which was followed by the prelims of Block & Tangles and Adzap. The remaining part of the day was DISASTER. Block & tangles was a train-wreck of sorts! We had none other than IIM-A against us, who eventually bagged the first place! The finals made me realize for the umpteenth time that I lack spontaneity and humor sense! Dejected, I went on to write the prelimns of Persona, Mock Press and Ananthapuri Chopsuey(A ‘Potpourri’ event), all back-to-back. Having racked my brains in the true sense of the word, famished, having missed food since morning, I reached home at 7 PM and flopped down onto the bed.

I was woken up by a phone call which announced unceremoniously that I’ve been selected for the finals of Mock Press. It was followed by a series of calls which announced my entry into the finals of Adzap and *surprise-surprise* Mr & Miss Dhwani!! Aneesh (the coordinator of the persona event and a friend of mine) called me up and cooly announced: “Buddy, you’ve made it to the second round of Persona.” I couldn’t believe what I heard! Yeah, I was one step closer to being Mr. Dhwani!

I’ve always been fascinated by personality contests and it’s been my dream to get into the final stage of a Persona. As yet, my only experience has been Sargam 2008 – the arts festival at my college – where I royally sucked, despite having virtually no competition. Ever since, it’s remained a splinter in my mind. Bad luck, my constant companion, always finds some way to be with me all the time. It seems fests were jinxed for me in 2009! There would be some clash and I would not be able to write the prelims of any perosnality contest. The jinx continued till Ragam – I’d to skip Mr & Miss Ragam for What’s the Good Word’ prelims, which I didn’t clear either! I thought the jinx would persist for Dhwani too, where the finals of Block & Tangles clashed with persona prelims initially. However, the timing for Persona prelims was made flexible so as to eliminate clashes, and the jinx lifted itself! I wrote the prelims after five pm, right after the B&T finals. The questions were a tad different, and I kinda liked ‘em! I tried to be candid and put my mind to paper. I thought I’d done it in a strictly-okay way. But I never had the remotest idea that I’d clear it.

In the second round, twelve of us finalists (six guys and six girls) were divided into groups of three. Each group was given a topic and were asked to enact a drama on stage. The theme for my team was ‘horror’. My team mates were Isly (from RIT Kottayam), Gayathri (Mar Ivanios, Trivandrum) and Akhilesh Warrier (Mar Baselios College of Engineering & Technology). Now, Akhilesh is one AWESOME guy with countless (female) fans and personality to match, not to mention looks! The President of UNI-Y, he was a favourite and almost everyone expected him to be Mr Dhwani!

The next day, none of our team members could reach CET in time. Even though Isly and I made it, the others were a bit late. I was preoccupied with What’s the good word prelimns (which I didn’t clear, yet again!). By the time Akhilesh and Gayathri had reached college and all of us met up, it was twelve thirty. And we had to get on stage in an hour or so. We decided not to go slapstick and tried a serious story, after all our theme was ‘Horror’! Akhilesh came up with a theme that portrayed how suppression of ideas is the greatest horror in the world. We finalized three anecdotes from history: The practice of Sati, Galilio’s fate when he said the Earth is round, and Hitler’s ruthlessness and supression of ideas. Incidentally, I played the villain in all three anecdotes and the finals scene had all the other three pinning me down & killing me. We did a random quick-practice session and waited to get on stage.

Thankfully, ours was the third item on stage. The first session was about love. Gayathri (From LBS, not to be confused with my teammate), George, Teresa and another guy (I forgot his name!) showcased a cliched but tongue in cheek college-love-story about two couples who go on a double date. The story ends with a twist when the guys get ‘attracted’ to each other and ‘move on’! The judges – Pranav (IIMC) and Aravind (MDI), both alumni of CET (and Loyola School! ) had a fun time crushing all of them. Next came the second team who had a theme ‘Drama’. Madhuri (my senior at college), Saran Soman (Senior at school, Final year medical student), Neethu and Renju Rajiv were the team members. Titled ‘Slumdog Mr Dhwani’, it showcased a slumdog trying his hand over the Mr. Dhwani title against a ‘cool dude’. It ended with all characters cutting their veins and suiciding. Then came ours. We elicited the most hoots from the crowd, for our theme was serious. Still, we put up a decent show on stage, (excluding a few guffaws from yours-truly who shouted ’20 flags to galileo!!’ instead of ‘flogs’! ) The judges tried screwing us up, but we stood with heads held high, refusing even to vote out our team members.

I had a AdZap soon after the second round and we cooked up a quick ad campaign, went on stage, and managed to walk away with the third prize. Soon, all 12 of us finalists were asked to proceed to the third floor of the main building where the stress interview would commence. Many of us were stunned at the fact that the interviewee was none other than Mr Rahul Easwar himself!! Expecting major screw ups, people gingerly stepped inside. Akhilesh, among the first to go in, returned with a smile, muttering “T’was ok.”. All of us smiled.

I was the third to go in. Rahul ushered me in with a smile and asked me quirky questions based on the crap I’d written in the questionaire. It went roughly like this.

Rahul: Hi Hari!
Hari: Good day, sir!

R: Hmm… it seems that you’re the only blogger here!

H: Not really, many others have blogs, but I feel I’m the only guy who takes blogging seriously!

R: That’s nice. And btw, you’ve written here that you’re unique. Elaborate on that.

H: *Oops* That’s true, sir. Fact is that, I’ve qualities that are way different from others and in that way, I am unique.

R: What’s your take on reservations?

(I almost Duh-ed!)

H: I’m totally against it, blah blah, yada yada!

R: Don’t you think it’s good for minorities, blah blah?

H: No, reservation should be based on purely economic criteria… blah blah blah!

R: Tell me three of your passions

H: Quizzing, Blogging, Psephology.

*Didn’t mean to say the last one, which means the art of predicing election results! But that was my blah moment, yes and I had to say whatever that came to my mind! *

R: Psephology, interesting, very interesting!!

Goes on to ask me questions to test my ‘quizzing’ knowledge. I manage to answer some, if not all!

R: Btw, do you have a girlfriend?

H: Nope, I don’t.

R: Why not?

H: I believe it’s a sheer waste of time, NOT to mean that I don’t believe in love, but the *affairs* I see around me are shallow to an appalling level… yada yada

*Rahul gets bored now! *

R: Hey, what’s on your tee? It reads funk soul, right? Are you a funk person?

H: Not really, it looks good on me, so I thought I’d wear it.

R: Better wears ome decent clothes when you get on stage… anyways, nice meeting you Hari, all the best. C ya!

And, they called that a stress interview… sigh!

I got badly scrwed up in Mock Press later on, where the half of CET literally booed me out of stage as I sat there as Naradan. It was followed by an equally disastrous Ananthapuri Chopsuey where the three of us cooked up some really arbit stuff. Meanwhile, Aneesh calls me again to confirm my entry into the finals of Mr & Miss Dhwani 09!

Reminded of Rahul’s dig at my Tee, I borrowed Akhilesh’s Kurta while he adorned himself in a stylish shirt. Akhilesh, Saran, George, Neethu, Madhuri, Gayathri (not the All Saints one – my team-mate in round two. The all saints Gayathri got selected, but had to leave on parental pressure) and Teresa were the finalists. I was the inevitable blue-eyed guy of the pack. Grossly ignored by my team-mates (except for an affable Saran chettan – who happens to be a fellow blogger and greatly adored senior at school, and Madhuri Chechi; not to mention occasional glances from Akhilesh), I walked about re-kindling a very feeble hope that I also stand a chance.

My intro sucked bigtime. I tried to shout out and connect to the audience and was moderately successful, but it was nothing compared to the *kinglike* entry of Saran and the graceful walk-in by Akhilesh. Saran was lifted onto the stage by his friends, in a very ROYAL fashion. His charm and his witty demeanour gave him immense crowd support. From the girls, Gayathri chechi too made a fantastic crowd connect with her charming but self-assured style. I couldn’t do much but sigh!

Next came the talent round. I had nothing in my kitty but to show off my singing skills, and I sand Kya Mujhe Pyaar Hai, again, to reasonable applause from the crowd. Akhilesh made up a ‘How NOT to participate in a persona’, taking digs at everyone else (especially Saran). Saran did a kick-ass, fun, dance performance. And yeah, he belly danced with good ol’ Smita – the compere. (Now, for me, she was the discovery of Dhwani ’09. I’ve heard many say that she’s *THE* most talented gal in CET, but has loads of attitude to match. Yes, she does, but trust me, she’s a gem of a person and the persons who know her closely would agree)

Next came the vote-out round. I heard George muttering that he would vote out the least eligible guy cause he needed competition. My heart churned. And well, he did vote me out. Along with Neethu and Teresa. I was Jack’s ripped-off-sense-of-ego. I thought I’d quit then and there, for it was utterly pointless to be on that stage for a second more, but well, I stayed on. The vote out was an informal round, and no one would physically get voted out, the judges announced later.

The Q&A round which followed saw a blitzkreig of *serious* questions at me. I dodged them well, but the crowd started booing! Then the judges asked me to make the clap for me. I counted till ten, and a few girls from the corner did start clapping – much to my relief. I was the quickest to be sent back. I thought I’d leave then and there, but I waited for the contest to end, just to see who the winner is. I was sure Akhilesh would be Mr Dhwani and Madhuri Chechi would be Ms. Dhwani, but unfortunately fates proved otherwise. Saran Soman became Mr Dhwani, and Gayathri secured Ms. Dhwani. Dejected, but happy for Saran Chettan, I silently left the place.

Loss, failure, depression. The feeling was unpalatable. I felt ignored and my ego took a severe beating. My heart bled and I felt my ears go pink. Gobbling up a few quick sweetmeats from a local teashop, I walked all the way home, my head bowed down in defeat, with a firm resolve in mind to come back next year… as THE WINNER!

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Google’s environment film project: Home

hari — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 14:45:36 +0000

When the whole world’s concerned about Global Warming, climate change and other perturbing issues, how could Google stay behind? No, I’m not talking about the much-talked-about green initiatives powered by Google.org. This time Google takes the power of mass media through YouTube and Google Maps to pull of this massive awareness initiative. Starting June 5, in cue with the World Environment Day, the ninety minute movie, ‘Home’ will be available to all YouTube users.

The movie, pioneered by Luc Besson and Yann-Arthus Betrand, tries to give a wholesome glimpse of the planet and depicts the very imperative need for change. In a massive online-cum-offline effort, the movie will also be telecast in movie theatres, television channels, et al, trying to create a synergistic and cascading effect in the promotion of a clean, green world.

To get a preview of what you can expect on June 5, check out some of the spectacular footage in the Home YouTube channel, to get some footage on the making of the movie. Trust me, it’s stunning! Google has now added a new feature to Google maps with more layers of images so that people can properly comprehend the movie.

Check out this stunning night view of Los Angeles from the Home channel:

For more details on the Home project, this post from the Official Google Blog.

Update:

The movie Home has been released!! Check this out:

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