Tag: Interwubbing

all the freshest links

Recently I switched from Bloglines to Google’s Feed Reader. While Bloglines was nice, the (still in testing) Google version is just so much better for me. I can finally open up feeds with hundreds of unread items and not have my old computer lock up for ten minutes as all the pictures load, because I can call up entires one at a time. I can go on holiday and not have to worry about the 200 entry limit. I can flag items for later viewing in a single click, and best of all, sharing any items quickly is dead easy. You can see the results of that on the sidebar of this blog’s front page if you scroll  down past “Archives” — ten of the latest links I feel are worth sharing.

Granted, I can’t editorialise on them like I do in interwubbing posts, but it’s nice to just be able to dump a few links directly from my Feed Reader onto the blog, rather than have to do the round-a-bout  way of collecting all the links and either posting them through Bloglines’s two/three steps (involving popup windows and a seperate link “blog” address), or collecting the links and posting them through my CMS’s unused ‘linkdump’ option.

There will still be interwubbing posts, but those will be more editorial. It’s nice to have the flexibility to just link to things when I have nothing to say about them.

What do you guys think of the placement? Is it too low? Should I move it up, and if so, where?

the glamorous life

Look, it’s my life in pictures (only difference is I wouldn’t be caught dead at a barber).

the ten thumbs of interwubbing

I was at IKEA yesterday looking for a knife sharpener and some clothes hangers (nearly typed ‘hangars’ there, which I’m sure IKEA will be stocking flat-pack versions of someday), and, as usual, spent two hours walking through the store, sitting on every couch, imagining myself inhabiting every show apartment (I quite liked this little two-bedroom number that was 55 sq. metres — unfortunately I can’t afford an apartment of that or any size for the forseeable future). I ended up with not only the (red) hangars and the sharpener, but a cute little milk foamer (it was less than a dollar, how could I resist?) — and I spent far too much time sniffing the chocolate-scented candles. I love going to IKEA even if I have nothing to buy. It’s a great, relaxed way to kill an hour and take in a steady, unrelenting stream of good, and often great design.

IKEA, however, has nothing like this.

Somewhat along the same lines is this concept, although its applications are much more noteworthy than a (non-functional) motorcycle-styled armchair could ever be (a functional motorcycle chair, on the other hand…). However, the concept still doesn’t make a place like Dubai any more wheelchair friendly, but that’s a whole ‘nother story.

Completing a trifecta of strange and new things with two wheels on them, this scooter ‘mod’ is apparently from the same person who made the rocket powered VW Beetle from a while back. I must say, this one seems a tad more exciting. Put some wings on it and I’m sold.

Why do I get the feeling I’ll be seeing one of these pelting down Sheikh Zayed Road sometime soon? (Also, does it need rustproofing?)

There’s a rumour going around that Richard Curtis (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, and my favourite, Love, Actually) may be writing Bond 22, i.e. the one after Casino Royale. It’s a bit of a straneg choice, but who knows, it might work. Curtis’s writing talents — albeit in the romantic comedy genre — are phenomenal. His dialogue and characters are always memorable, so who’s to say he won’t be able to inject something brand new into the franchise that others who have been hired with a back catalog of similar action/thriller work have not been able to. One thing’s for sure, though, with Curtis writing, the lead Bond girl has to be American, and Bond has to have five supporting friends. Also, at some point during the climax the mute supervillain will turn to Bond and sign, “Your fly is open.”

Here’s the superbly designed poster for The Prestige. Is that really Scarlett Johansson? Can’t really tell. The very modern poster is an interesting design direction to take for a film set in the Victorian Era (by contrast, the Batman Begins posters were more classical looking.

Dominic Purcell is maybe/probably/hmmm/dunno going to play Bruce Banner in the Incredible Hulk project. Cool. I haven’t seen Prison Break, but I loved Purcell’s previous TV series, the criminally overlooked (and then cancelled!) John Doe. There’s no doubt in my mind that even though he may not physically look like the meek geek steerotype of Banner, he can sure bring that kind of crazed nerd mentality to the role, and also do a good job as a template for the Hulk. Here’s hoping this is true, and they don’t end up giving it to Colin Farrell or something*.

(* Were such a choice to come up, I would gladly go with ‘Something’.)

I guess that, being the cinephile and video game junkie I am, eventually I’d have to replace the 12-year-old 21 inch TV with a widescreen HDTV (waiting for CRTs, no plasma or LCD for me) and set up a proper home cinema. When that occurs, I’d much rather plonk down for one of these Open Source-powered media PCs than any of those Windows-based machines out there. Sure, I may not be able to play some PC games, but that’s what the PlayStation 3 will be for.

Do you want to teach your kids to dance? Can’t get a decent instructor for less than the cost of a small island? Very soon, your robot vaccuum cleaner may be able to do the job.

Further to last time’s mousepads with, um, ample cushioning, here’s a pad [NSFW] that may not keep your wrist comfy, but it is for a good cause. One case of a flat chest actually being more attention-grabbing than a more rounded one.

And finally, the gift for that Resident Evil fan in your life (sorry, no trendy, up-to-the-minute Dead Rising reference here).

the nine empires of interwubbing

Some more info on the now confirmed Wes Anderson/Owen Wilson India project. It has the kickass name of Darjeeling Limited, and will be co-written by Anderson, Jason Schwartzman and Roman Coppola.

Dear God, multiple geekgasms.

Simon Pegg is going to star in the film version of How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, which, following The Devil Wears Prada, seems to be setting up a whole new genre: the Thinly Disguised Exposé by a High-Level Secretary of Life in a Major Company Under Crazy Boss chick-lit bookflick (T.D.E.H.L.S.L.M.C.U.C.B… Toodeholslemcucob? Sounds like some sort of gyroscopic Swedish sexual dysfuntion correction device). Don’t get me wrong, I’d see any movie with Pegg in it (and regarding DWP, I may have already mentioned that Anne Hathaway = drool, therefore I’m sold), but can The Dalai Lama Wears Ecko and Condi’s first bestselling ‘fiction’ book be far behind (and will it also be called How to Lose Friends and Alienate People)??

I live in a hot country. I know this fact, it doesn’t escape me, even locked up in my constantly air-conditioned home one needs only walk into the bathroom when the exhaust is off to be met by a cloud of warm, humid air. Still, for some inexplicable reason, I’d really like one of these radiators.

Here’s an old trick made new. The upshot of this is that it’s a service, which means that doing a bulk order for say, a promotional direct-mail campaign might be economical. Hmmmm (gears turn…)

This watch looks a bit impractical, and the paint job on the fascia is ugly, but hot damn do I want one. Granted, ideally it would play Pong and Space Invaders and be able to hook up with a wireless bluetooth headphone, but if you don’t mind running the wire up your sleeve it shouldn’t be a problem. I have to admit, though, that what I like most about the entire watch is the design of the time readout because it reminds me of some ’80s animated show like Pole Position. I’m so lame.

Finally, someone mates a hand-crank radio set to a cellphone charger and makes one of these things properly useful. The problem with hand-crank radios, to me, has always been their lack of a killer app for urban customers. Fine, it may be subsidised and designed to be used by poor people in the African bush and whatnot, but any device such as this should have a sustainable commercial presence to offset its more charitable arms. Also, the addition of a cellphone charger will not only help us more wired folk, it will be quite useful for some of those remote areas the older ones were intended for. Wouldn’t you like to be able to charge a satellite handset if you were stuck in the middle of nowhwere?

I remember these when they had anime characters on them, but it seems that like in videogames, every year brings about new innovations in realism.

And finally, something to go with those Levi iPod jeans you bought.

book thing

I’ve been tagged!

How could this happen, I just run a blog which three people visit — in blogosphere terms, I’m the equivalent of a hermit! Perhaps because of this, Dan tagged me. Also, he knows I’ve only ever read four books in my life, the spoony bard.

Just you wait, Dan, soon this will turn into one of those real blogs, the ones with the multiple chatboards and weather widgets for Botswana and pictures of random furry animals to indicate moods such as ‘obfuscated’ and ‘shiny purple’.

On to the tag meme, which, if you haven’t put two and two together by now, involves books (I’m going to try and stay away from comics as much as I can — that deserves a separate tag meme, methinks).

1. One book that changed your life: Somewhere around the turn of the century I was very depressed indeed, and utterly bored. If I wasn’t much of a reader to begin with, then at that point in time the circumstances had worked themselves in such a way that it had been years since I’d read any book, even if there were stacks of them laying around the house.

I’m not sure why I picked up Alex Garland’s The Beach when my brother brought it home from his college library, but from that moment I was suddenly pulled head first into it, and only put it down a day and a half-later when I finished it. There was a certain immediacy to the language, an immersiveness that unfortunately is still elusive to most writers. There are scores of books that paint pretty pictures and which I consider great books, but very few inject themselves into your body and soul for the duration of their pages so that you aren’t sitting in your bedroom, you’re running through a marijuana crop on some long-lost island in Asia, tanned and sweating with a ghost for a guide.

The Beach may not be a particularly great plot (straight out of an eighties B/TV movie), it may have already antiquated mid-1990s cultural references (is anyone but my generation going to understand — truly understand — the Tekken 2 Devil Kazuya passage?), but that little pile of pressed dead trees is nothing short of a teleportation device.

2. One book you have read more than once: The Magic Faraway Tree series by Enid Blyton (prounced by most Indians as, of course, “Nnid BlITton”). Growing up, I never warmed to the other big Enid Blyton series like The Famous Five (who always seemed a bit, well, irritating). I barely read any books at all, and so all of my strange cultural input was relegated to late eighties DC comic books, blurry B-movies on video, Hardy Boys (Not only was Nancy Drew always on vacation thereby killing the verisimilitude, but there was also no hot teen sex. oh well.), and of course the unusual abundance of tween-targeted SF cartoons like Transformers, Centurions, Thundercats and Dungeons and Dragons that we had growing up in the 1980s (today’s cartoons are… blech, except maybe Megas XLR which has a quirky charm).

I had already devoured much of this stuff several times, I knew each and every way the mythic formulas worked and for some reason no library or shop I can recall had a copy of The Lord of the Rings around.

So, The Magic Faraway Tree was my introduction to fantasy in literature, and I think its influence is readily evident in my writing today. Ask me to come up with a movie and I’m sure to reach for the nearest plot involving an epic adventure quest along the lines of Star Wars (i.e. a tale that follows the typical mythic hero story such as Lord of The Rings or most of its High Fantasy bretheren that youngsters read), but if you ask me to write a novel, then I am going to write a strange tale featuring not-quite heroic, not-so serious protagonist in an ever-changing setting with no clearly defined villain or end to a quest. Pretty much every Savant story follows this template, and the journey from the Faraway Tree’s endless variety of realms at its summit, to Savant’s infinite dimensions, is not a far trip at all.

I probably read each of the books separately at least once, and then have read the omnibus version I picked up many, many times. Even so, it has been a while, close to eight years, in fact, since I last read it, so I probably should do that again.

3. One book you would want on a desert island: How to Survive on a Desert Island for Less Than a Coconut a Day. No, seriously, I’m a real sucker for those 50s and 60s pocket handbooks that try to teach you everything and anything accompanied by helpful line drawings. Today’s “Dummies” books seem a bit tame compared to those bizarre tomes. I have in my possession pocket books on both (Operation) Theatre Techniques and (Stage) Theatre Techniques, for instance. I love the stuff, and one of my secret ambitions is to have a small book brand that does crazy help books like that. So, yes, How to Survive on a Desert Island for Less Than a Coconut a Day.

4. One book that made you laugh: The entire Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams didn’t just make me laugh, it forged new veins of humour in my soul. If Faraway Tree was my introduction to fantasy literature, then ‘The Guide’ was my introduction to all-out humour writing. That it somehow managed to inject a perfectly good science fiction plot into the proceedings only made me love it more.

Of the entire five part trilogy, I love the fourth book, So Long and Thanks for All the Fish, because it retained the humour and strangeness of the series while being mostly set on Earth (the ‘inverted house’ still makes my spine tingle). You know that bit in the second Pirates of the Caribbean movie when  Elizabeth Swann says, “There will come a time when you’ll have the chance to do the right thing.”, and Jack Sparrow replies, “I love those moments. I love to wave at them as they pass by.” — Can’t confirm this, but it’s probably inspired by a Douglas Adams quote that goes, “I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.”, which he apparently said around the time he was locked up in a hotel room with an editor and forced to finish that book.

5. One book that made you cry: Hmm. Can’t recall any book that made me actually, physically cry, but I suppose that in a weird way reading the end of Mostly Harmless made me go, “Why, Douglas? What’s wrong?” and feel very sad.

6. One book you wish had been written: One more Hitchhikers’ Guide book.

7. One book you wish had never had been written: Don’t really have strong enough feelings about any book that I don’t like, but if I had to wipe one, I’d do the whole series of Ashok Banker’s Ramayana novelisation. I’ve picked these books up many times at the bookstore, looked through them and read a random passage or two and they’re… bad. Bad. If you ever spot one of these, I suggest you do the same and tell me your reaction, because if you somehow think that the prose of these books can be considered anything close to coherent language, then please tell me how, and how many narcotic substances were involved. Needless to say, I’m not looking forward to his nine part Mahabharata.

8. One book you are currently reading: The Conspiracy, by John Hersey. It’s about the so called ‘Pisonian Conspiracy’ to assassinate Emperor Nero, but told entirely through pilfered letters and secret notes between Nero’s head of security/royal household administrator and the secret police. Once in a while he fires off a letter or three to various other arms of the royal machine to request, for instance, a hundred swans to be tehered to an ornate raft for a party, and other elaborate schemes. If you liked HBO’s ROME, then this should be right up your alley. I don’t care much for Roman politics, but this is just so well written (like ROME) that I’m enjoying it thoroughly.

9. One book you have been meaning to read: Always wanted to read one of the big two Indian epics (the Ramayana and the Mahabharata) but in Sanskrit or whatever oldest language they survive in. Ramanand Sagar television serials with their campy, over-the-top style just don’t do it for me, and as stated above, neither does Ashok Banker. I have a lot to read, all the biggies, so add things like Lord of the Rings, Foundation etc. to the list. Also, Alan Moore has written a novel, I think.

10. Now tag five people: Considering that the three or so people who visit this blog have already been tagged, and that everyone else who I’d like to see answer these questions do not have blogs, I’m just going to leave this open. If you read this and have a blog, you’re tagged. Leave a link in the comments if you do your own, I’d love to read it, whoever you are.

the eight wonder of interwubbing

The Sin City team of Frank Miller and Robert Rodrigues are set to bring Will Eisner’s The Spirit to the screen. Miller categorically states that the film ‘won’t be nostalgic’. Great! Both directors have a penchant for highly stylised, graphic moviemaking. If they approach it like Sin City then you’re sure that Eisner’s ridiculously good panel composition will be brought over to the screen, and that the pulpy, hard-nosed style of the comic will be kept intact. If it was any other director, they’d look at all the suits and the fedoras and immediately it would be tinged with nostaliga and caricature to evoke what someone from our time would make of the period.

Who would play the Spirit, though?

Mike Mignola’s poster for Guillermo Del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth. Can we get these two to work together on everything? Please?

I’ve noticed that regular action figures in store are getting much, much worse than when I was a boy. Now I know why: they’re making all the good stuff in a separate line aimed at geek adults, and charging like crazy. Look at that Jack Sparrow — does Tussauds have a better one?

Also check out the Shaun of the Dead toys (and some spiffy steampunk ray guns). I want.

Speaking of Team Shaun (Wright, Pegg, et al), here’s a poster of their new film, Hot Fuzz.

Heath Ledger’s been confirmed as the Joker in Chris Nolan’s Batman Continues, now officially titled The Dark Knight (I wonder if they’ll chicken out and re-title it Batman: The Dark Knight later). Heath Ledger has been one of my favourite actors ever since the days of Roar. You just took one look at this guy and went, “Yeah, this is a star. More, please.” Seeing his interpretation of the Clown Prince of Crime — perhaps the first actor to come to the role with no manic/crazy/funny roles in his career so far — is going to make the ride doubly interesting. So far, barring Catwoman, DC and the Warners have been treating their core franchises well (come on, they have Joss Whedon doing Wonder Woman!). Always been a DC fan myself. Also, they have the Vertigo line, and I’d give a million spandex Marvel movies for one Fables or Swamp Thing or Transmetropolitan.

What a coincidence. I was just thinking of shopping around for a render farm. Of course, with my budget, I’d be happy to afford an Intel graphics card.

Forget goatse and tubgirl (warning: do not google the previously mentioned terms), this is the creepiest thing ever. (Safe For Work, not really disgusting, just creepy.)

This device brings up an interesting philosophical point. Is delaying the reward of the candy by placing a claw game between you and it negated by the enjoyment of the claw game? Ponder this as you waste precious pr0n time trying to grab the elusive bar of Snickers.

I have a strange feeling that these models are based on the actual 3D meshes from Ocarina of Time. Not that it would in any way take away from the sheer awesomaliciousness of the work (there, I was stuck for a word. Solved it. Welcome to the world of the speculative fiction writer, kids).

Yeah, well, you’re all still just going to end up playing Scorpion anyway.

Hyper Scan! <sarcasm> Isn’t it just the coolest thing ever! </sarcasm> When I was 8-12, we left the collectible card games to the sweaty Magic: The Gathering geeks (because anything with unnecessary usage of colons must be treated so), and kept our game consoles safe and sound so that they could process Street Fighter 2 and Shining Force in peace. Nowadays everything has some kind of collectible crap and a bad anime show attached to it.

Yet another example of why Terry Pratchett is a shining example of humanity (I’m referring here to his answer, not simply the duck on his head)

On that note, I have to announce that I have a sudden, uncontrollable urge for an overcooked, salty omelet with green chillies and bits of onion just like they make it in India. It’s 3 am. There aren’t even any eggs in the house. What’s a boy to do?

the seven spigots of interwubbing

I was somewhat skeptical when the alarmists started crowing about India banning major blog sites, and I was right — turns out it wasn’t a case of boneheadedness on the government’s part (this time), but on the ISPs’. Isn’t it fantastic that supposedly world-class companies like Tata and Reliance can’t block individual blogs, so have to get the whole domain?

If you, like me, can’t wait to see Casino Royale, then then this might tide you over until then (via Cinematical). Since I wasn’t interested to begin with, I had no problem looking at the trailer, and have come away generally impressed. Maybe worth a rental or even a visit to the cinema if the buzz is good. I’ve never read the books they’re based on, but it looks more like Bond and less like Banks, which is always a good thing. Alicia Silverstone’s squeaky sidekickiness notwithstanding (what happened to this girl?), it plays out well and doesn’t seem dumbed down despite the 14-year-old protagonist. The trailer is cut like most Amercian hold-your-hand affairs (complete with condescending movie-voice introductions), but with a cast full of cool people (Ewan McGregor, Robbie Coltrane, Bill Nighy) and scene-chewing Mickey Rourke as the villain, it’s probably not going to suck.
(note: trailer’s in English, but the site’s in German. Click on the “Stor” button)

OH. MY. FREAKING. THIRTY-THREE. MILLION. GODS. I’ve probably never mentioned this before, but Wes Anderson is one of my absolute favourite filmmakers, and the thought of him and Wilson teaming up again (Noah Baumbach and Anderson did The Life Aquatic), and then going to India — well, that’s it. This is officially the movie I’m most looking forward to in the entire world.

On a related note, have you seen this awesome Wes Anderson American Express ad?

Retro Gaming Symbology is finally coming of age. I wonder what kind of stuff will we be seeing twenty years from now, coming from kids who have grown up on Pokemon and Halo?

More retro-gaming inspired art.

Upon viewing this item I was reminded of the fact that motorcycles and cars are descendents of horses and carriages respectively, and that this, um, vehicle wouldn’t be a bad off-road, deep-jungle ride, if given the proper styling (make it more like a 599 GTB Fiorano, less like a Chinese Take-out box), a roll-cage (which is my main problem with quad-bikes — just because they’re descended from horses doesn’t mean you can’t change something — it’s called progress, you know) and some wheels for highway motion.

Real dogs vs. Nintendogs :
Real Dogs – 1, Nintendogs – 0

Finally, a USB hub that goes along with the rest of my crap!

the six shrines of interwubbing

The pilot episode of the animated version of The Amazing Screw-On Head is here. Watch. Now. NOW!

The poster for The Fountain looks good. In this day and age, we really should be getting more medium budget science fiction and fantasy films like we did in the 70s and 80s. Confession: I have never seen a Darren Aronofsky film. Anyone?

And here’s the impressive poster to Crank, which I’m surprised to say I’m looking forward to a lot (well, mostly because Jason Statham has so far never failed to deliver in an action movie).

Some of you may know that the Standard Operating Procedure for me regarding movies I actually want to see is that I try to stay as far away from all trailers as I can. American movie trailers suck. They give away everything. Most aren’t crafted with any verve or style, and they have a knack for making brilliant films look like crap, and vice-versa. I may watch 30 second teasers, I may drool over posters, but unless it’s going on in the theatre right before the movie starts, I stay away from all trailers. However, if you want to see the trailer for Magic Batman Vs. Magic Wolverine, go here. Apparently it’s very good.

Mazda is using some mighty special stuff to make their cars these days.

Yet another example of the urban Indian’s need to have all their shit noticed and hence validated by the White Guys.

Coming Soon: the Atkins DVD-R. 50TB? Is there anything but porn in that quantity?

Remember Boring Boeing? Sort of still there, but now with totally pimpin’ wings.

The Bodyflik. Because for every thing you can otherwise just do with your own hand, there must be a plastic tool.

In these days of tilting, twisting, vibrating analog motion-sensing wands, nothing elicits more lust than a well-crafted digital pad.

Of course, this thing elicits lust of a different kind (no, not that kind!!)

Brolly lights. I think I preferred the ones in Blade Runner.

Somehow the fact that right now there are fifty-three memory card formats out there and a reader for them doesn’t even faze me as much as it should.

This reminds me a lot of that Monty Python sketch from Michael Ellis.

In order to cut down on electricity consumption, the UK is outlawing standby modes. Hmm, I wonder how this ruling will affect those new ‘instant on’ computers that essentially use standby modes?

Not quite Sharks With Frikkin Lazers, Man! — but it’ll do for now. Anybody else somewhat nostaligic about the 80s G.I. Joe/M.A.S.K. style design and painted implementation of the graphic (compared to today’s 3D and photoshop monstrosities)?

I never really got into playing videogames so much as to require this place, but recalling how generally obsessed I was with the industry and game design in general back in my teens, I can understand why it exists. Also, I’m thankful that my motor senses aren’t so finely honed that I would consider playing and beating Halo on Legendary difficulty in one sitting, and that I now relegate myself to playing an hour of Final Fantasy X every other day. Of course, even if I did have the necessary motor skills, I wouldn’t really want to torture msyelf by playing through the design travesty that is Halo. Once — with cheats and trainers — was bad enough, thank you.

Team Fortress 2. Other than the fact that this game has been in development forever, finally, Finally, FINALLY someone breaks out of the gunmetal grey, uncanny valley to bring us an FPS with some really interesting graphics. The No One Lives Forever series is one of my favourites but still tries to have realistic character models, and while TimeSplitters was halfway there, and Painkiller was good but still not crazy enough, this is more of what I’d like to see in the uber-serious world of First Person Shooters. Good stuff.

And finally:
Speaking of the FPS genre, it is already rife with sexual symbology what with the constant representation of large disembodied guns waving around the screen, but this just takes it to a whole new level. (somewhat NSFW)

five fabulous flavours of interwubbing

It seems that Mumbai, as usual, just keeps on ticking. Trains services are back. Schools and Offices are open. People who don’t want to use the train are apparently being offered lifts by just about anyone on the street with a car or bike. The city was last on a list of ‘Politest Cities’ just a couple of weeks ago.*

* – This was based on three tests, apparently. Seeing if someone kept a door open for you, if someone picked up a paper you dropped and returned it to you, and if a store clerk thanked you for your patronage.

…Sigh…

Look, it’s a culture thing. In Mumbai — especially Mumbai — we consider that if you are able enough, you can and should be allowed to take care of yourself and your stuff, whether it’s a door or a piece of paper. Personally, I have seen both the first two events occur so many times in the city that I don’t even notice any more. It’s not special if someone leaves it up to you to open you own door, it’s not special if someone does it for you.

As far as the last test goes, that is something I find quite annoying, because over here in the ‘civilised world’ I get it at every single PoS, and it is always fake, Fake, FAKE. It was in the training manual for the poor minimum wage guy. It was drilled into his/her head. If anything, I feel sad that people are reduced to a set of rote instructions and actions that are supposed to denote politeness.

Give me the quick eye contact, the half nods, the silent, non-codified,non-standard, unique-to-every-transaction and person and place methods we use in Mumbai. Because that, for us, is genuine. No nakhra. We’re from Mumbai, we despise nakhra.

I think yesterday’s incidents prove beyond a doubt that when the shit hits the fan — really hits the fan — the people there would do things for each other that probably everybody should, but sadly nobody would. Forget that, even during very day life without the backdrop of tragedy, people you have never even said two words to will just do stuff for you that takes your breath away.

So, to conclude, Life Goes On. And so should we. Links:

Up Periscope! Is there a hybrid version with flexible solar-panel skin and regenerative braking systems?

The self-stirring mug. Does it come in an anti-clockwise version for the southern hemisphere? My main problem with this one (other than the obvious point that spoons give you so much more flexibility), is that it takes 2 AAs to power, and still only stirs. Fo that energy cost, why can’t it keep the beverage warm too? How about a frother attachment? My 5 dhiram drink shaker from Daiso has more features, and it doesn’t even require a battery!

When the travel tripod met common sense. Granted, a good solid tripod is an essential, but methinks kit like this will become essential for photographers who like to click stuff off the beaten path, or are just in a hurry (as most photographers usually are).

M$ nixes Win98 support. I still use it. It works okay. The trick is to use it as your OS and then only use Open Source software on it to avoid viruses and stuff. Loaded Xp on my work comp a month ago and it’s a really problematic system at the best of times, but some new software just only works with it right now. When I actually don’t have any projects pending that necessitates having productivity software on hand at all time, I’m going to have to comprehensively switch to Linux. Already use a liveCD of Mepis when I take my netcomp’s disk over to the other one to transfer files and clean it up, since XP won’t let me load new hardware easily.

This is cool in the dangerous-enough-that-no-helmet-can-save-you kind of way. Forget the snow, I want a road version!

Like the Irishman said, “I thought you were after the 100 pounds in my shoe!”

This billboard is quite nice. Of course, in this part of the world McDonalds isn’t considered a place to eat before lunch time (and their menu reflects that), so I still find the concept of breakfast there — especially the “breakfast burger” — disturbing.

And finally…
The Most Memorable moment from the Biggest Event in the Entire World.

…Now in playable form!

the four wives of interwubbing

Natalie Portman may be playing Indiana Jones’s daughter in Indy IV (no, no, not Fate of Atlantis, this is a movie). As if Ms. Portman wasn’t a Geek Queen enough with three Star Wars movies, V for Vendetta and the infamous SNL rap sketch.

I’m fine with it, as long as we get a follow-up trilogy of the young Ms.Jones’s adventures in the 50s and 60s. Seriously, can you imagine what the Indiana Jones movies would be like set in the swinging sixties?

Vince Vaughn playing Racer X in a big screen version he pitched to the Wachowski Brothers. Wrap your head around that for a moment. I never really warmed to the Speed Racer cartoon, but that was probably because I watched it after more sophisticated animé. However, if Vaughn keeps the somehwat campy, colourful look to the series and the Wachowskis try to make the race sequences like The Matrix: Reloaded‘s highway chase, then I’m sold.

I think there was a live action Gatchaman (Battle of the Planets) project around too. I remember that as an okay cartoon. Just get Alex Ross to do the production design like he did the DVD covers.

Wolfgang Petersen’s Batman Vs Superman didn’t happen. Roumors of the project keeps surfacing, but until then we’ll just have to be content with Magic Batman Vs Magic Wolverine.

Begin relentless salivation.

When you’re a designer with a kickass name like Duck Young Kong, you don’t waste your time designing sissy barbecues or gauche chaise-lounges. You design the most useful piece of injection-moulded plastic, like, ever.

Also by the same designer, this alarm clock.

Finally:
God. Yes.
More, please. And don’t just put ‘Islamic Art’ in it.

the third coming of interwubbing

Apparently Vin Diesel is not going to be Silver Surfer. That’s a relief. I have nothing against Diesel — I’m one of the few who actually liked The Chronicles of Riddick — but he was just the wrong choice. Look, just because someone is bald and has muscles doesn’t mean they’re a shoo-in for Silver Surfer. I imagine that a hyper-intelligent intergalactic herald of a planet-swallowing dude should be played more like Sonny from I, Robot (that was done by our beloved Alan Tudyk, y’know, and was the highlight of an overall enjoyable film).

In the same article they mention that Eric Bana won’t be coming back for the new sequel/remake of The (INCREDIBLE) Hulk (Sometimes referred to by the cool name Hulk Smash!). Bana is a good actor, but is not the best firt for the Hulk character, either in the first Ang Lee movie, or any more comic-like re-imagining (Eric Bana was the only thing worth watching in Troy, and I was quite interested to see him as James Bond, even though of all the hopefuls Daniel Craig was and is my favourite — have you seen Layer Cake?).

Perhaps it is time to go the Routh/Jackman route and get an unknown? Or, better yet, get Bryan Singer to cast any and all superhero movie characters. He has only made one bad decision (Halle Berry as Storm, but then, Halle Berry as Catwoman or Halle Berry as Bond–um–Person didn’t work out well either), and the rest of his choices have seemed daft to begin with but worked out fantastic in the end (McKellan as Magneto instead of, say, someone like Rutger Hauer).

Remember what I said about Betley SUVs? I was right.

While this mockup is very pretty indeed (and in a decade or so when self-lighting plastic displays will come in, it will be feasable for the mass market), it looks far too good to be a Mac. Sorry folks, they may be generally well designed, but they’re always completely boring to look at.

On the PC end of the spectrum, there is this. Hang on, wasn’t this what Plug & Play was supposed to be? I like the form factor, and as long as the thing runs alright I wouldn’t have a problem with such modular designs, but seeing that early GeForce FX cards required two AGP slots (and Dual Card SLI interfaces are the current hot thing) how long would it be before such a rigid system would be outdated purely because the volume and cooling requirements of the chips would not be met by the form-factor?

And finally…
Erm. Right. There’s so much Freudian stuff one can read into that one.

interwubbing the second

Make with the clicky.

Paper-thin Shape Memory Cellophane. I can’t wait for the day when I can make origami birds and horses that can actually move of their own accord. (this is similar, but not quite what I’m thinking of)

It baffles me that products like this exist, but most in-built computer file manager programs do not have data “shredding” actions. Your stuff doesn’t go away forever when you hit the Delete key, folks. Be careful if you ever sell your old hard drive.

My Windows Explorer was acting up for a few days, crashing, locking up the system for no reason, and since in XP pretty-much every fatal crash problem has no proper solution (the symptoms are so endemic that actually finding your particular problem is nigh-on impossible). So, instead of reloading the whole system I just switched to a third party file manager, FreeCommander. It’s very geeky, which I like, and does feature a “wipe” command forgetting rid of those unwanted files forever (well, nothing is permanent– I’m sure there are high-level data recovery companies that canunscramble deleted data, although if you’re doing something you wantkept that secret, you really shouldn’t be doing it on a computer).

On a related note, my condolences to Aarti, who lost her Outlook Mailbox data yesterday (I’ve suffered a similar fate once, and it was completely out of my control. Nothing quite like losing mail). Samir’s been trying to help her recover it, but data once deleted on these newer systems is not the easiest thing to recover with basic software. My advice:

backup
Backup
BACKUP

(Seriously, I have at least 3-5 copies of all my data on different batches of CD-Rs, DVD Rs and hard-drives somewhere, but that still means there’s a couple of gigs of unwritten, vulnerable data on disk that’s my current stuff. Shudder.)

These are pretty. “for the life with nudie sound.” mmmm…

My only question about this is, where is the mouse?

And finally:
Holywowwowowow