Steve Jobs

He showed us a way to do things better.

He defined the term ‘perfection’.

He changed the world of music.

He reinvented the business of being mobile.

He pluralized the term 'I'.

He helped ‘connect the dots’.

He gave the world a ‘world’ no one knew existed.

He thanked his ‘extended family’ for making his vision come true.

‘He died peacefully surrounded by his family’.

He Came – Consolidated – Conquered

And thus Changed the world.

Steve Jobs – 1955-2011

May his soul rest in peace.

image taken from the apple website.

An Offline Experience

A typical day that begins with checking the weather forecast on iphone to friends' mood swings on facebook to updated news on twitter and those multiple inboxes and then to repeat the series every hour or so – this digital age does keep me informed no matter how mindless these unfettered browsing might sound at times. I do love the internet – feels like I am connected to the world at large and while I may be a miniscule part of it, I love being a part of it; love that it keeps me informed, in touch and love the fact that everyday I do learn something new. Yet, I wonder if this orgy of digital routine is turning into a growing addiction and that I am actually idling away my time in trivial pursuits. So yesterday, I took the day-off off the internet and leapt into the offline world. This meant no online applications on the phone, no gmail, no twitter, no facebook, no blogs, no TV. The computer was only limited to work-related emails (aka outlook) which could not be forsaken in this economy and to make it easier on A, I did owe him two calls – one when I reached work and the other when I was leaving from work as an assurance that my water had not broken yet.

Considering this offline experience was for but a few hours only (one day ain’t much of cleansing the digital delight), in all honesty, the hour clock seemed to be stuck for long. I mean, I wondered what exactly I would do at work – like the times when you switch between videos windows or those few minutes when I check on tweets while some hideous sized files simply take their own time to open. Instead, not being able to do so gave me a bit of an opportunity to be proactive and also be able to delegate work hours without dawdling.

The day, after all did go by in some mindful activities, a positive feeling towards the end that it did belong to things I wanted to do rather than being slipped into the mundane mechanics of the digital world I so love to be a part of. I also realized that more often than not, with this monotonous browsing I got a lot of information on a variety of things, people, places and still, its meaning was lost in the midst of precision. While I missed out on reading some of the daily blogs, checking my daily posting of C&H and the fact that my iphone kept showing 100 odd unread mails was enticing, I was glad that I felt like leaving them alone.

In this day and age, we do have numerable tools to communicate, to stay informed and they are only multiplying by the day. It somehow breeds in us a sense that we ‘ought’ to be in constant ‘refresh’ mode that there is some urgency to it and we better get to it. But it also means taking the time out to filter the information absorbed into our brain and stocking them in its various compartments in a manner that can eventually be translated to true knowledge. Yesterday was a realization that I do need to take such recesses and that such ‘urgencies’ can wait indeed!

Will I do it again? I do not know that but what I do know is I now have the power to switch on and switch off this digital world when I want to.

Twitter Effect

First there were the newspapers, then came emails, google, facebook and just when you are settling into the zone of quick-reads, is the next big thing on the block – the Twitter Effect. There is no denying that this has become the most popular social media tool – the so-called high muckamucks who use it to describe their up-to-the-minute endeavors in 140 characters. Students, Professors, Politicians, Corporate honchos - they all have a (fan) following to the extent that ‘I twittered’ has become a popular jargon among many a few ‘twitterers’. Not too long ago, my organization had a brown bag lunch on twitting as a low-cost media tool – sure thing! While we may have already been late entrants into this arena, it did not take too long to figure out how the functionality gets executed minute by minute. I am not a twitterer and while I do have a presence there (curiosity after all, DID kill the cat), my dear A is the only follower in there. So what is the point of all this?

I haven’t yet gotten myself to recognize the power (is there?) that rests in there and especially after having heard this to be the next contagious disease, I feel it best to get immunized. But is it really something to care for? A friend’s recent facebook status was ‘I have 250 followers on my Twitter’ – now what does that mean to a layperson like me? Does that make him celebrity personified? Its great to see what people/places are upto but updates-on-the-go can be quite intimidating.

While on one hand I am quite excited about using this tool – I see its usefulness in the kind of work I do, or simply introducing this technology to my professional role – however, on a personal note, I am yet to determine. There are some really ‘cool’ applications in here that I recently learnt at work – something called a vision thing that provides updates on what is happening in the twit region from across the world or that an application that keeps you informed about your friends on-the-go and not-on-the-go. But somehow, I do not get it. I mean, what would happen to it next? Is it just another fad that will die down or would it evolve into a revolution of sorts? The cacophony created is enough for one to expect some great things for the future rather than knowing who is eating what and where and with whom. Would there be more beyond this mundane-ness or would it lead to the dullest blog feature?

A couple of months ago, there was an eruption of hacking and phishing among twitter accounts so if you really think you are following tweets by me, think again; and dear A, if you wonder why I am not following your tweet, think again :-))



Image from http://www.seattlepi.com/fun/bizarro.asp

My (Un)necessary Evil

This post is the result of a fascinating question that I overheard (ahem!), someone discussing in the metro, on my way home yesterday. Not typically the kind to eavesdrop (trust me!), this one surely got me interested!

If I had to give up on one technology, what would I choose?

I pondered on this for a while and wondered what I could do away with. So I came out with a list of techie products that sustain my daily existence and see if there was anything I could do without:

1. TV and Remote: IMPOSSIBLE!!!

2. Radio/Mp3/DVD: Life without music and movies is no life at all. So totally ruled out!

3. Refrigerator/Microwave/Toaster/Oven: If I choose to live in the kitchen my entire life then I'd be fine without these....oh but what about my crispy toast??

4. Washing Machine/Dryer: Well, now not having these could possibly cure the disease of 'shrinking clothes' but then again, I do not have a good Laundromat out here....wait a minute, before you get there, realize that just the thought of 'me-washing-and-drying-clothes' without these two can be extremely threatening so yes, I need them because no Ramdas would come here do it for me!

5. Garbage Disposal: I learnt about this only when I came to the US and realized, in layman's terms, its significance in sanitation, hygiene and overall waste management treatment. Infact, there was a time I wondered if the BMC would be able to set this up in my Ghatkopar, so I would keep this right there!

6. Dishwasher: Now, this has multi-purpose functionality - to wash dishes (sure!), to drain out the washed dishes, to hide uncleaned dishes from the sink, to uhhhhh.....of course, ease my job when I just cannot be bothered to DO the dishes. So am glad, I have this facility!

7. Computers/Internet: No mails? No Bheja Fry?? No google??? No Mac???? No music piracy????? No way!!

8. Phone: Having the IPhone has made my life less complicated (ok that is a bit dramatic and not entirely true but really, not having a phone is out of question here!)

OH WAIT A MINUTE!!!!!! I know what I can DO AWAY WITH!!

It is the entire ordeal (that I go through) in leaving voice messages on the cell phones of people I want to talk to but cannot.

Why have voicemail? What is its purpose? Apart from the fact that you LET a person KNOW that you called (which probably is evident because of the missed number that flashes on the phone), what could be the objective of a voice message? Since I am part of this so-called Matrix (I am actually outside it but pretending to be in it!), I too have a voicemail set up on my phone IN CASE someone cannot get through to me and hence leaves a message. The point is not in leaving or retrieving messages but the long-drawn (mental) process that I get annoyed with. For instance, when I call someone and instead get that person's voicemail, it may typically go as:

"Hi this is ______, please leave me a message".

Now in a fraction of that second, my brain has to derive a plan as to:
(a) first remind myself why I called this person?
(b) what do I want the person to know?
(c) what message should I leave?
(d) when should the person call me back in case I am busy thereafter (am I busy then)?
(e) should I even leave any message?
And this only gets worse if the person is someone I am trying to impress upon. Wish I had a transcription on this!

I am sure I can spare myself of this 'intellectual' agony and simply hang up and (a) wait for the person to revert based on my 'missed phone number' or (b) try again if it is that urgent.

While on the other hand, the typical messages that I usually get range around:

My Husband: "Hi, its me, call me". That's quite sweet but considering we talk sweet-nothings almost all the time, this one I can do without (took his permission indeed when I wrote this one!).

My Friend: "Hi, what's happening, call me". We cross each other almost all the time so really, lets talk TO EACH OTHER rather than our voice mails.

My Mom: "Hi beta, called for no reason so call when you can". A shame indeed on me that I miss my Mom's phone. Sorry Ma, call you in a jiffy!

At times, my nieces and nephew have left random messages or simply sung songs but see, those are different. They are meant to be treasured recordings and can stay put!

So what I am referring to here is the justification of voice messages as opposed to, lets say, emails, emergency texting or simply bombarding the phone with unlimited call-cuts. If these do not work, then it only means not worth getting in touch.

Often, I tend to simply call the person who left a message without actually listening to the message. My bad sure but it is so much more easier to just call rather than listen to the message and then determine when to call, whether to call or not! And since I am, all the time, struggling to ensure my minutes are intact till the due date, I'd rather reserve them for my calls than listen to messages! Actually, having an IPhone is, in this respect, an advantage because its visual voicemail feature lets me unclutter the messages based on names/numbers but requires me to clear/listen to them at some point. Further, whom does this service benefit in true sense - the call who did not get through or the receiver who is yet to listen to the message? Or really the network operators who offer this service and then mint some minutes off 'both' the users? I have heard that there are service providers who offer voice message conversions into text but with this post I doubt ATnT would even both offering this to me.

Anyways, this is a technology which is my 'unnecessary' evil that I can do away with. What would be yours?

IPhone Way of Life

I hope that as you read this, you are not part of that school of thought wherein technology, according to you, has been a bane for today’s world more than it has created a world of convenience. While that can be a totally different discussion, after a decade of relying on my filofax (aka organizer), I have more than semi-shifted the organizer to my latest possession – Snitch to me and IPhone to the world! Why a Snitch? Because the moment you hold it, you do not want to let go of it! While it is only a phone that lets you do what it should and what you want it to do, this one is way off the mark. The moment I slide to unlock, it is a totally different world out there.

Seven E-mail messages…great, I scroll them and all are trash; not a problem, slide through and woof, deleted. Back to check Facebook [another planet of beings altogether!!!], and view current status of all near and dear ones…aah, there I see new pics of my nieces and nephew!! So what is the weather like in McLean? Around 80F they say and in Mumbai? Ohh its raining out there! How I miss the monsoons…Now, how about some music? Or news? Or simply, watch some videos on YouTube?

Indeed groundbreaking, it lets me do things I never thought would be possible and some things that I considered totally absurd. Things like tuning the musical instrument, browsing to get restaurant information and of course, load of other downloadable applications. Its fun to have facebook, LinkedIn and Aol Radio on the phone...and not to forget the fact that Tetris gets me totally hooked on to the phone so does SuDoku and Solitaire!

There is room for improvements too and not everything rosy, for instance, to do all of the above, the battery life gets exhausted pretty quickly. Also, being obsessed with bollywood ringtones in my previous phone, this one sadly does not let me do so! Overall, a truly cherishable gift from Ashit so that I stop nagging him when he's with his phone!

p.s. Did I mention that you can blog from IPhone? Well I just did..

p.p.s. Loads of other application available at this link: http://iphonewidgetlist.com/

Magic Jack Indeed!

Set up this device onto your computer, get a phone number and connect it to a phone line! Voila! You have an unlimited access to phone numbers across the globe*.

To a phone-buff like me, this is quite a gadget to seek. Nothing magical about it, really, just a device, like a USB, that lets you make and/or receive calls for free*. The first-time purchase is $39.99 for the device plus $ 20.00 for the service annually. Thereafter, there is no limit to making calls, locally and nationally.

Of course, the flip-side is that you need to have the computer connected while using Magic Jack so it may consume unnecessary amount of electricity. Plus, the internet connection has to be pretty good too. Nevertheless, it is a decent buy considering other VOIP instruments like Vonage charge a lot more. Only hope that this does not turn into another SunRocket.

*Conditions Apply :)