Yes atlast after missing the first tweet-up which was held sometime back, I was able to attend this one. Let me list the people who attended the tweet-up. They are:

SathyaBhat

narayananh

ashishmohta

palam

gbot

labsji

karthiksn

I was in a fix there whether to write everyone’s real names or not but then I thought twitter handles are way better. I was thinking of putting everyone’s display pictures but decided against that too since I didn’t want to put people’s picture without their permission. So anyways back to the tweetup, sadly I was the last to arrive. I felt kind of dumb about the fact that I didn’t know where Mocha was even though it was near my college and the fact that I am a college dude. The only one I could even remotely recognize was Sathya because of all the pictures that I have seen of his in twitter. As soon as I reached the first thing everyone started commenting was how different I look from my display picture. Narayanan said that I don’t look like a rowdy type guy and neither am I tall (:P cant help that) at least that is what he and others thought after looking at my picture and the real me. When everyone started talking about themselves I didn’t even tell what course I was doing. LOL didn’t find it interesting enough. Balaji really gave us some cool information on what he was working on. I really felt good that labsji was there as Sathya had put it, “ we was honoured he was there with us”. Then Palani talked about himself and actually kept it a bit short. When Ashish’s turn came everyone’s ears were up since everyone wanted to know what happened to his blog and he gave a quite big explaination on what went wrong. We only came to know later how much he earned by blogging and that had all of us in a shock. Perhaps the most interesting introduction was of Narayanan, sounded more or less like some cool CEOs climbing the ranks story where he started out working with MBA guys even before finishing his college. His life story was quite fun to listen to. Then it was Sathya’s chance and we came to know how he ended up at 3i. Then Gayathri talked about what she worked on and where she worked. She works with coding and stuff and Narayanan who was on phone just came to make sure he heard that right (Don’t know why :P).

Narayanan ordered Pasta with white sauce and Pasta with red sauce also something called Vertigo which was a huge piece of chocolate cake or something. Balaji ordered a tropical smoothie, Gayathri ordered hot chocolate and I ordered black forest shake which tasted funny but was still good. We all dug into pasta and Vertigo except Balaji who refrained from eating solid food(I forgot to ask why, my bad). As Narayanan had said the Vertigo was simply brilliant. We then talked about music, musical instruments, @cruisemaniac and @daaku, India TV, Aaj Tak, Bomb Blasts,my ICICI probs and some more stuff. Meanwhile Sathya installed Twittai on Gayathri’s phone and we advised Narayanan to opt for Xperia X1 rather than HTC G1(Android Phone). One funny thing was after ordering her hot chocolate half an hour before me she got it at least 10 minutes after I got mine, which was bad. Palani was the first to leave since he had to go somewhere else for dinner. The second to leave was Balaji. Funny thing was all of us stood up when he was going, guess respect comes from within for some people without knowing. Guess when we heard how much Ashish earned from his blog sent us in a shocked state, everyone was keen to know what he did for it. He was talking something cool that I didn’t listen to properly. As Gayathri had to leave by 11:00 pm train to Bangalore, we finished the tweetup at around 10:00 pm. We walked out Narayanan helped Gayathri get a auto-rickshaw. That reminds me we even discussed about the auto-rickshaw fares and how they charge people here. Then Ashish left in a auto-rickshaw. After that Sathya and Narayanan went together on Narayanan’s bike. Then I walked to Sterling road to catch a auto-rickshaw.

Well that definitely wrapped the whole tweetup. Sorry for the bad image just doodled it in 1 minute.

Yes after a long wait the pricing for iPhone 3G in India has been out. Its officially going to Rs. 31,000 for 8GB version and Rs36,000 or Rs. 37,000 for 16GB. So I guess all those people waiting for iPhone for Rs. 8,000 should start saving a hell lot of money now because its not going to be enough. I was thinking that it might be around Rs. 24,000 or something but I am not shocked by this figure at all. If I am correct Deep had said this might be the price some days back on twitter which had made me ready for the impact. So iPhone is competing with Nokia E90,HTC P 3650 (Cruise), HTC TYTN II, O2 XDA Atom Exec, BlackBerry 8820 and Nokia N93. All of these phones are high end phones and nearly all are business phones except Nokia N93 which means iPhone has been placed as a luxury item and nothing else. That means its only for those people whose bank balance is bigger than their bank itself, thats how normally Apple products are priced anyways. Not that I am bashing iPhone or anything but the price is exorbitantly high for a phone like iPhone. Lets hope they will reduce the price sometime in far away future.

Update(19th August 2008): So, atlast it has been confirmed that iPhone is after all priced at Rs. 31,000 for 8GB and Rs 36,100 for 16GB by Vodafone. Here is a snippet from their official press release which can be read here.

The iPhone 3G is available in 8GB and 16GB at Rs 31,000 and Rs 36,100 respectively. And as you have already pre-registered with us, you can get it before others do. All you need to do is drop in at a select Vodafone Store between August 14 and 19 and confirm your booking by paying Rs 10000 through cash or credit card. Don’t forget to show the iPhone booking SMS, which you would have received from us, when you visit the Vodafone Store to make the deposit.

There is even some information about the different plans that can be chosen for the postpaid connection with iPhone. Here is the link

Source

        I was just going through some movies when I stumbled upon a movie called, “Big Dreams Little Tokyo”. It’s a movie released in 2006 which is directed and written by David Boyle. When I saw the title and read the synopsis a bit, I thought why not just get it and watch it since I am a fan of Japanese culture and language it would be fun to watch Japanese culture through an outsiders perspective. I never realised that the movie would be so good.

     I will first put the synopsis of the movie here before trying to review it.

The film tells the story of Boyd (played by Boyle), an American with an uncanny ability to speak Japanese. Boyd aspires to succeed in the world of Japanese business but finds himself mostly on the outside looking in. Meanwhile, his roommate Jerome (Jayson Watabe), is a Japanese American who has always felt too American to be Japanese but too Japanese to be American. He aspires to be a sumo wrestler but finds his weight and blood pressure are thwarting his dreams. Together they struggle to find their place in a world where cultural identity is seldom what it seems.

     The movie starts of a bit slow and confusing but its actually making a statement. We see Boyd(the protagonist played by Boyle himself)trying hard to sell his book “The power of Words”. The book is supposedly for Japanese people to learn English. He tries to sell the book to many people but is unsuccessful, with only being able to sell one copy to a very big company’s CEO. We also see a Japanese guy who resembles a Sumo Wrestler and he is eating his hearts out. As the story progresses we see people from many different culture who come into contact with Boyd and his desperation to prove himself. His ability to speak Japanese makes him quite unique. The movie also has Mia(Rachel Morihiro) who is the first student of Boyd’s. She meets him in a hospital and goes to him to learn proper English. It’s very much implied that they both like each other but I really loved that they showed no signs of affection other than trying to be close to each other which was kind of romantic.The characters of the Mexican Japanese Chef Andy, CEO Ozu, Book Shop owner Murakami and Jerome/Sakebano actually add lot of different flavours to the movie.On the acting front everyone did a excellent job especially Boyd and Mia. Boyd actually behaved and looked like a white Japanese guy.

     When it comes to the technical aspects of the movie, we have to talk about the fact that it was a low budget movie and they were very much dependent on the camera work to make the movie click. The mid close-up shots were used in major part of the movie since it showed a connection between characters and as most of the scenes were in a controlled environment with limited amount of people. When Jerome and Boyd talk outside the house in English the director has made a very good use of the over-the-shoulder shots, giving us the perspective of each of the character. There were some instances where I thought the movie is going to make a mistake but they were totally avoided. One such case was when Boyd carried Jerome to the op-ed, he had left his bag in the car and later when he is going to give the book to Mia, he says that he had left the bag in the car which shows director had taken note of every fine detail in the movie. Even the cycle Boyd uses very much reminds me of cycles you see in Japan. The film avoided wide shots which was understandable considering the tone of the movie. The humour is more or less implied rather than usual slapstick.

    Maybe my only problem with the movie was Rachel Morihiro(Mia) looked older than Dave Boyle though it doesn’t matter since they look cute together but still it was always there in back of my mind. Anyways my verdict is that the simplicity of this movie is what makes this movie so amazing. Its definitely worth watch and would have been given a 5/5 if I ever start rating movies.

I will have to search for the DVD of the movie here. Hope I can find it because I hate ordering DVDs online.

       Advertorials are not exactly a latest trend they have been there for a really long time now. Advertorial portmanteau of the words advertisement and editorial. But there is nothing editorial about these advertorials. These advertorials are biased and are not objective based which is what a newspaper or a magazine should contain. These are normally a review of some product or some new place or shop which is given in the newspaper in form of a article, but they are totally biased and make sure that it gives you a good impression and make you buy the product or avail the service. I find this cheating the code of honour of journalism. I thought journalism meant being truthful and not giving biased opinion on any topic. Aren’t journalists supposed to be the watchdogs of a democratic country. I know these ideals are old and outdated but the utter lack of these peinciples is evident from these advertorials.I find it quite appalling that no one actually bothers to tell people that these are paid advertisements and not genuine reviews. I have seen many paid reviews online on many blogs and nearly 90% of them had it clearly stated below that they were paid reviews which made it clear that if it was biased, it was because of being paid. But in newspapers these paid reviews are written with so much realism that you believe them to be true and not just some paid advertisement. I find it morally wrong on part of the journalists who have indulged in such practice but unfortunately all the newspapers and magazines nowadays follow this kind of paid advertisement schemes. I am not sure if this is a question of morality or integrity or of anything but I do believe that it is wrong.

Recently many bloggers have been writing about the stuff that they were planning to buy. So I thought why not I also write about stuff that I want to buy, planning to buy or wish to buy soon. I came up with some stuff that I would like to have in these 2 years. But beware my choices are a bit weird and it’s just that I cant help the fact that I like weird stuff. So here goes my list:

1. A Mobile - I guess you might have read how I have been looking for a mobile without camera but failed in all of my attempts. My choice was Nokia E51 camera free variant but apparently Nokia thinks Indians are not worth it so didnt introduce it here. But after seeing Nokia E71 I feel like getting myself one but only if it comes without camera. So thinking of getting a Nokia E51 without camera if nokia introduces it in Indian market or Nokia E71 without camera if they ever actually make it. I guess I dont mind getting even by the end of these 2 years. This should set me back by around Rs. 17,000($400).
   
2. A Playstation 2 - I guess you must be wondering why a Playstation 2 when the PS3 is already in the market. My reasoning is quite simple. I dont think I will be getting a HDTV anytime soon and wont be buying a Blu-Ray movie anytime soon either. And the support for PS2 aint going to die out that soon. I am getting it by this month end if my dad doesnt create a fuss about it. It would cost me around Rs. 7,000($166).
   
3. An Internal Hard Disk - I have around 120 GB at present in my computer but this space isn’t enough for me. It has deterred me from installing Vista and Ubuntu. Not that I miss Vista, just wanted it to be there. And also my music collection has suddenly started growing making it difficult for me to keep all of them. So, I will buy a 1TB Internal Western Digital HDD by the end of this year or by mid 2009. As far as I know it will cost me around Rs. 9,300($221).
   
4. A Pen Tablet - Ever since I learned that I can draw I have thought of combining it with my love for computers and after I saw Goobimama’s new pen tablet I just had to have that. But maybe it was the price that had been putting me off. And I had made sure I will buy the Medium size Wacom Bamboo Fun. I have no idea when I will buy this but it has to be under these two years so I listed it here. It should cost me around Rs. 9,200($219).
   
5. A Prosumer Camera - I have a Canon PowerShot A450 as of now. My main problem with it is that most of the pictures come out saturated and also the macro feature isnt that great. Then the sad fact of low optical zoom. It was then I came to know about cameras similar to DSLRs but like point and shoot cameras. They have High optical zoom(sometimes 15x) and many manual features. It was something I had been looking for in a camera. So with the help of Aalaap, I have come down to two options. Sony DSC-H50 and Sony DSCH-10 and I would be buying one of these by end of next year or so. The maximum I will have to pay for it will be around Rs. 17,000($400).
   
6. Dumbbells - This is one of those weird things I was talking about. I have recently became a bit of more careful about my health and physique so thought why not get dumbbell for myself. After using my cousins 5 Kg  dumbbell made me realise its too light for me, so decided to get myself a 8Kg. I will be getting this by this month end too. It will drain Rs. 1300($30).
   

I hope to buy all this stuff in these two years time. Just for the heck of it the total cost of all these products comes to Rs. 60800($1436). I guess I will have to really work hard to get that much of money.

Well it’s no big news that oil prices are on the rise. I guess it might even reach $200 per barrel soon if the price band suggestion is not implemented. This all is the technical gibberish which holds importance for us but is just not what we care about.

To tell the truth what I care about is how much I have to pay for any kind of public transport which includes buses, taxis and autorickshaws(according to Indian context). Main problem anyone would face would be with autorickshaws in India.  Take my case for example, I used to pay around Rs. 30 to go to the Bus Depot(CMBT) from my house in an auto. That was about a month or so ago. Suddenly some days ago  when I wanted to go there, I was being charged Rs. 50. I actually thought it was just this one guy trying to get more money but I realised that every single auto driver was charging the same price. The truth is that, the place is barely 3-4 kms from my house and I really don’t think 1 litre  of petrol would be wasted for 3-4 kms even if its an auto. This shows how these people are having fun with the increase in petrol price.

When you talk about fuel prices you really can’t miss the rising inflation in India. Its like the latest hot topic. Wherever I turn to people are talking about how that inflation in India might actually cross 20% if the fuel prices don’t go down.  Many things that are not related to fuel directly or even indirectly are increasing price giving a boost to the inflation. So my fellow Indians be ready to pay through your nose for anything and everything.

Photo of a autorickshaw

You don’t know what control is until you lose it.

Yes I am a spidey fan just like Harsh. For me it’s Spiderman in Marvel Comics and Batman in DC comics. I am a great fan of both of these characters. But the best part about Spiderman is that when you get to play him in a game he has lots and lots to do. I have played many Spiderman games including the old ones on SNES.

So when I was checking about the new Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe game on IGN which I came to know about from Aalaap, I saw something about Spiderman: Web of Shadows. Then I read it up in IGN and its the latest in the Spiderman Game Series by Activision. The graphics seems awesome and the best part is that the game will also come for PC, which has been a problem since lots of games of late have stopped making a PC port. This game promises too much since we will be able to see other heroes to in action in this game. The best part would be its power upgrade feature. It seems it will have power upgrade features similar to some MMORPGs where you can customize some powers to give the character a unique touch according to your preferences. I heard that anyone who likes fighting with webs can upgrade his webbing techniques. If all this is true I guess there would be some kind leveling involved in the game. The sotryline is quite simple:

New York City has been invaded and martial law has been declared. Heroes are gathering uptown to protect civilians, and villains are grouping downtown to repel the aggressors. It’s up to the player as Spider-Man to save the city … by any means necessary.

I guess the video should do the talking now.

Wiki on Spiderman: Web of Shadows
Pics courtesy IGN.com

              I have not posted a thing for a long time on the blog. I had saved two drafts on which I was working but a reinstall of XP and reinstall of Windows Live Writer and a little bit of dumbness from my part, lost it. So here I am with nothing to post. I may not write both of those posts again. So coming back to the main part, I have been bit by the twitter bug and I just can’t seem to ignore it. If you ask how it affects blogging, well I just simply put whatever I want to say in 140 or less characters and even get comments by many people on it. Twitter has even made me lazy and I hate to type too much now.

          If I put the full blame on twitter then that would be too wrong. I have also been on the endless quest to look for the camera free variant of Nokia E51 ever since I was told about it by Vimal George on my post about camera free mobiles. I was confirmed that it might never arrive in India but was sure I will search and get it from UAE.  And then there were many other fascinating thing around the internet which captured my imagination and many things that I rediscovered on net. These weird things have been keeping me busy. And the other minor details which includes my unwanted semester exams and some problems in college which is too common now. I can’t even say I will blog regularly again since I will leave for Kerala next month. Hope I find interesting stuff to post again.

           For all those people out there who always forget birthdays and anniversaries and even deadlines, Gmail has come for your rescue.

New! Gmail Custom Time^TM

Ever wish you could go back in time and send that crucial email that could have changed everything — if only it hadn’t slipped your mind? Gmail can now help you with those missed deadlines, missed birthdays and missed opportunities.

          This feature is going to be the talk of the town for sometime.

               Now you can be sure that all your emails will be sent in the past and you don’t have to meet any deadlines. Here is a testimonial by one of the user.

“I just got two tickets to Radiohead by being the ‘first’ to respond to a co-worker’s ‘first-come, first-serve’ email. Someone else had already won them, but I told everyone to check their inboxes again. Everyone sort of knows I used Custom Time on this one, but I’m denying it.”

Robby S., Paralegal

Then there is this clause that you can send only 10 mails per year because google thinks people will loose faith in emails. Here is what Gmail says about how many years back you can send the email to.

Is there a limit to how far back I can send email?

Yes. You’ll only be able to send email back until April 1, 2004, the day we launched Gmail. If we were to let you send an email from Gmail before Gmail existed, well, that would be like hanging out with your parents before you were born — crazy talk.

   If you couldn’t guess it till now let me make it clear. This was the april fools joke of gmail. Yes, and it seems it is quite good. Compared to the paper mail one which was done last year. I just love google’s jokes.

And yeah don’t lose your chance of being the first humans to colonize space http://www.google.com/virgle/index.html

I normally don’t write such small posts but it would be a waste to write a big post for this. The Illusionist is a 2006 movie. The
movie is just simply fantastic. It is based on Steven Millhauser’s story “Eisenheim the Illusionist”. The movie has been
shot brilliantly. The only problem with the movie was that when Sophie dies it’s quite clear that it might be Eisenheim’s
illusion. Nevertheless it was a wonderful movie.