Rebooting blogging

It has been a while since I updated the blog. I would blame it on Twitter and Facebook, which encourage a quick blast of words at the cost of a longer post that needs to be thought through. I've resolved to be a little more regular from now on.

To start off, a few snippets from the last couple of weeks. Of course, it was a huge moment in our lives with the arrival of a baby boy on August 13th. It happened on Gokulashtami day, so we have decided to name him Mukund, one of the names of Lord Krishna. I believe it also means One who bestows/gives Moksha/Nirvana.

Nisha was hugely excited by the event. Though she had been wanting a baby sister, it all changed once she saw her brother. Her happiness has been tinged by disappointment, she had made grand plans to call all her friends and show off her baby brother, but we have tried to avoid too much of contact in light of the swine flu scare. She'll get over it, kids have a way of dealing with these disappointments and focussing on positives.

We were a little disappointed with Divakar hospital. Firstly, we got a room facing the main road that had traffic through the day and night. Our bad luck, the hospital was full, so we could not even get a change of room. They also had no catering facilities. Typically, hospitals provide nutritious, dietician approved meals for the patient, but here, we were forced to bring everything from home. There was also the issue of differing charges, we got a bill for 40K, but my friend Krishna got a bill for 85K for similar treatment. The main thing was the medical staff and attention was good.

We came home on 17th Aug and since then it has been an endless cycle of nappy changing and disturbed sleep. But it is all worthwhile when you see Mukund reacting to his environment.

What real estate slump?

I have been calling various real estate developers and private sellers over the past few days to get an idea of the real estate market. Here are some of the quotations that I got

Mantri Espana : A super-duper-ultra-luxurious-out-of-this-world-exclusive apartment complex off the ORR with 5 swimming pools, 9 hole mini golf and flats ranging from 2600 to 100000 sq ft. The prices start at 1.2 crores. I said thank you very much and left.

Mantri Flora: At the junction of ORR and Sarjapur Road, 3 bhk apartments for second sale at around 75 lakhs for 1700 sq ft. This works out to over 4000 per sq ft

Sobha : They had an ad for a 3 bhk @ 50 lakhs. This is for their project on Kanakpura Road. For their projects in this part of town, they have a super luxury project starting at over 1.2 cr. Their luxury projects are “only” 77 lakhs for a 3 BHK

Ozone Evergreens@Haralur Road: Touted as the first “affordable” housing complex in Bangalore, this has a 900 sq ft 2 BHK for 28 lakhs all inclusive. This works out to around 3000 per sq ft. Unbelievably, as the sales woman told me, these don’t feature a balcony as they are “affordable housing”.

SJR Eastwood@Haralur Road: A person was selling a 40x80 plot @2800 per sq feet.

Ferns Habitat@ORR: A 2800 sqft plot quoting at 3300 per sq feet

Lakedew Residency@Haralur Road: A 1500 sqft plot quoting at 2600 per sq ft

I didn't pursue any of these opportunities. If these are the prices post the real estate slump, I am stunned.

Is Indian IT too insecure

Every time we hear Obama's political rhetoric, there is an outcry against the so-called "protectionism" by Nasscom. Frankly, this is making them seem like crybaby's. 

Obama is a politician. Whether in India or US, a politician's primary focus is his constituents and his comments are geared towards them. Right now, the US is hurting with massive job losses, and as their elected leader, it is his duty to address that.

Indian companies too have their own set of favourable circumstances vis a vis American firms, they pay almost no tax on their profits due to the STPI scheme. They have a huge wage advantage, as most of their employees are in India. If these are not sufficicient for them to compete and thrive, then they deserve to fail. after all this is the Capitalism that they so praise in action.

As for Nasscom, what happens to their grand pronouncements on the strength of Indian IT (1 million + employees, 60 Billion revenues)? Surely, an industry of this size should be able to innovate to handle any bouncers of this nature? Or deep within their hearts, do they know that Indian IT is nothing but a bunch of low skilled code coolies whose only advantage is the cost and the minute you take that away, the entire thing will unravel?

Taking Internet video to the TV

Internet video has really hit the mainstream in the last couple of years. Whether it is the regular “legal” avenues like Youtube (www.youtube.com) or P2P networks like bittorrent, there is a vast plethora of content to be found. The challenge has always been on how to bring it into the living room, as most people are not that comfortable watching long form video on their computers. They would much rather sit on their sofas or lie on their beds to watch the latest blockbuster.

Over the years, a lot of effort has gone in to solve this “last-metre” problem. A few notable attempts at solving this are

Apple TV : is a small book sized device that connects to your TV. It can also connect to your network and download movies from your Itunes library on your computer. It provides the ability to purchase movies and TV shows from the Itunes store. As with all Apple products, the process works flawlessly. The catch as always is in the lack of flexibility. It can only play the type of content that Apple allows, which limits its utility. The vast majority of Internet video is encoded in the AVI/XVID format which the Apple TV cannot play. In addition, since the Apple TV lacks a DVD drive, you will need a separate DVD player. The Apple TV is also expensive at over 200 dollars, and is not available in India.

Game Consoles (PS3/XBOX 360) : In addition to being awesome game consoles, both the PS3 and XBOX 360 can also serve as media players. They can play quite a range of video files including most of the common formats found on the Internet. In addition, they have their own video stores where you can pay and download movies and TV shows. If you’re a gamer and already have these consoles, this is the way to go, especially as you get the ability to play games and watch DVD’s on the same device (in the case of PS3, you also get a Blueray drive). However, they are limited in their ability to browse sites like youtube.

Media center extenders: A number of companies (Linksys, D-Link) have launched media center extender products. These connect to your home network (wired or wireless) and can play the video files stored on your computer. Typically this requires some software to be installed on your computer, though Vista has the media sharing feature built in. These have received mixed reviews, the most common complaint is the slow response time.

WD TV: This is a product that was launched in late 2008 and has got very positive reviews. It works like a media center extender without the network capability. You copy the video files to a USB device (pen drive or hard disk) and plug it into the device. The device will scan and play back the file. This approach removes the weakest link of the media center extenders which is the network. The other reason why this has been very successful is the support for virtually every kind of video file (except the copy-protected ones). The downside is that you need to buy an additional USB device and have to spend the effort to copy the files that you want to watch to the device. So, it is not that great for impulse viewing. The lack of any kind of network access is also a negative, as you cannot watch video from any of the online sites like youtube.

Despite all these choices, the best option still remains the Personal Computer. It provides the widest compatibility and support, playing back virtually every form of media. The challenge is to bring the personal computer to the TV and remove the parts that don’t fit in the living room space. Microsoft has done a lot of work on their Media Center software, to the point where the computer can be controlled using just the remote, but until now the hardware has lagged. The average desktop PC is too clunky and noisy to fit in the living room. However, many companies are introducing Home Theater PC’s (HTPC), which are very sleek and do not look out of place in the living room.

The human interface challenge still remains. Though the Media Centre functions can be controlled with a remote, there will still be occasions where you will need to go back to a keyboard and mouse. Having a regular keyboard + mouse in the living room is a no-no for most people. Logitech has the excellent diNovo, but it is an extremely expensive solution. A more elegant solution may be a software based, running on a smartphone that connects to the PC using Bluetooth. 

The company that can package all of this together into an integrated solution can make a lot of money. I’ve seen some movement towards this by companies like Acer (Acer Revo) and Asus (EEE Box)

This has been an area of much interest for me, mainly because my TV viewing mostly consists of downloaded TV shows (though these are available on some channels, they are aired much later and not in a widescreen ratio). I’ve hesitated in adopting any of the solutions because the area is very immature and the products are not available in India. I do employ a variant of the PC solution, sometimes connecting my laptop to the TV via HDMI. I also use a program called BlueMaemo on my N800 to control the laptop remotely. It’s not the most elegant solution but works for now.

Why I will vote for the BJP

Here are 3 reasons why I will vote for the BJP in this coming election

1. Security: It is amazing how the media has pushed the 26/11 attacks to the background. But, let that not distract you, the past 5 years have seen a huge number of terrorist attacks on the population of India. Mumbai was the grand finale, but we had Delhi, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Bangalore, the list goes on. By taking a soft stand on the security issue, the UPA government has failed in its duty to protect the common man. It is a matter of chance whether you will be a victim of the next attack. Everyone knows the root of the issue, but the BJP seems to be the only party willing to tackle it head on. Is that not reason enough?

2. Economic reforms: There is no debate required on whether reforms are good or not, the evidence of the past 20 years is clear enough. The UPA government lucked out by being in power during a period of unprecedented boom, but did very little to contribute to it. On the contrary, it did all it could to derail the momentum that had been built up during the NDA’s term, the Golden quadrilateral, PSU disinvestment, FRBM, each was chucked by the wayside in their quest to ruin the country.

3. Quality of leadership: In most parties in India, you need the right DNA to get to the top. What that essentially means is that unless you are the son of an important party leader, there is no chance you will be anything more than an ordinary party worker. The only parties where this is not the case are the Left parties and the BJP. Which other party can throw up leaders of the integrity and caliber of Vajpayee, Advani, Modi, Jaitley etc?

I have no doubt that the BJP is not everyone’s cup of tea, and a few things about them may turn off some people from the party. Even to them, I will say that the reality is that no party in India is anywhere close to perfect and we need to make compromises. I feel that for all its faults, the BJP is a lesser evil than a Congress led UPA government or a rag-tag bunch of parties calling themselves the Third Front. Look at what each of them offers and then make your decision on who is the best suited to lead India forward for the next 5 years.

World Yatra by KG-2A

Nisha's class put up a great show. Here are some clips

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Why I hated the Slumdog Oscar tamasha

I am happy for Rahman and Boyle and the other cast of Slumdog Millionaire for the glory they got at the Oscars. They understood the way the Oscar game is played and did a perfect job there. But the general euphoria about it over the past couple of days has left me angry. Very angry. Why? Here are a few reasons

- Firstly, the film. I haven’t seen the movie but have spoken to people who have and also read reviews. A common feeling is that it portrays Indian society in an extremely derogatory way. Why would I go and support a film jo mere pe thoonkta hai?

- Secondly, the media would like us to believe that this is the arrival of Indian cinema on the world stage and there is no stopping us now. That is Grade A bullshit. The fact is that the movie was a Hollywood production and that’s what got it the awards. I am willing to bet that if it was made by an Indian crew, it would not even have been nominated.

- Thirdly, why do we as a people have such low self-esteem that we need to be praised by the West to have really arrived? I’d really like to see a day where we see the Oscars for what it is, an American award that is given by an American industry association, not some great honour that has been bestowed on us.

 I'm definitely very happy for Rahman, he is one of the masters of our generation and deserves to be recognized. It's just sad that he had to get the award for a work which is nowhere near his best.