The Portable Wonder

I remember receiving my first GameBoy. The light green colored screen and the power-on lock button are some of the finer things about the unit that stick out in my mind. Nevermind the maroon colored button schema that has now become a household name with any person owning a gaming console worldwide. It was then that I was first introduced to the power of portability. Fast forward a few years and come to about 10 years ago when I was once again introduced to something a little more wonderous, a PocketPC. Most people think that this device never really reached its peak because of the user-base and its rather clunky size with a very opulent PalmOS on it, but I thought that it held great promise. A stylus navigated you through the operating system and let you perform operations that back then seemed like rocket science. I owned a Palm at the time and happily totted my prized possession around taking notes and keeping a strict contacts folder. It was around that time that people even started adapting to the fact that laptops were going to be the mode of operation for most college students as well. Now, lets come to the present day. I find it hard to fathom a world in which we don't have a mobile device as part of our daily lives. Our cellphones, sorry smartphones, have become such an integral part of our work and personal lives that we probably couldn't do away with them even if we wanted to. Most technical feats are now finding their way to mobile phones and whether it be an Android-based phone or something that the boys at Apple churn out, we all have one.

Today, for the umpteenth time, i have loaded my most favorite operating system of the moment on a laptop with no operating system. The catch? It all resides on my USB stick and never actually touches my hard-drive. The joke? I don't even need a hard drive to use it. If you haven't already checked it out, Google is releasing a new operating system called Chromium OS that allows users to connect to a Cloud-Like service offering the user the ability to worry about absolutely nothing except turning on the machine and then getting to work. When I look back on it all, I wonder whether somewhere along the way, we decided that the complexities weren't wowing us anymore so we shifted our focus on ease of use. Is this a good move? I don't know really. Some people like to claim that everyone should be able to use anything while some others believe that the magic of using a complicated device lies in the ability to manipulate every last level offered by the device.

It also leads me to believe that we spent all these years making things better when all we really needed was something simple ... enter the first GameBoy and reset the cycle.

Music listened to while writing this post - Nothing

The Best Moments Aren't Made To Last

The frequency of my posts have started bothering me of late. I suppose I attribute it to the fact that I have other things going on in my life these days with the marriage and all. I don't know when it happened but I think I quietly lost 20 years of my life in the last five years due to my own stupidity and callousness. As a result, I am dedicating this weeks top thirteen to the concept of living "The Moment" and not letting anyone get in your way no matter what it is you think you are doing. Here are thirteen things I feel I should get done before I decide to leave to the next world and yes these are "real" wants.

1. Light the person I hate the most on fire and push them off a building
2. Eat a nice big juicy steak that is cooked just right in India
3. Live long enough to see the world eradicate the concept of money
4. Watch the human race prolong life-expectancy by 300 years
5. Abolish passports for travelling between countries
6. Abolish countries
7. See the world agree on one unified language. Doesn't necessarily have to be English but I'd like it to be substantially easy to adopt [ No South-Indian languages ]
8. Get a self-powering house that leaves me independent of any government requirements for power or utilities
9. Learn the fine art of Tae-Kwon-Do or Jiujitsu/Ninjutsu [I am on my way to this]
10. Get into a band that plays Classic Rock and only Classic Rock
11. Fix my broken knee once and for all
12. Go back to 151 Lbs once again
13. Get everyone off my back for 364 days starting with the day post X'mas till the following X'mas and have absolutely no contact with them for those 364 days to see who will come back after a year and who won't.

Mood while writing this post - Fanfuckingtastic

Music listened to while writing this post - Hit The Lights - Metallica [Album: Kill 'Em All]

The Chronicles of Jacques Belmonte - Lost in my birth

Servitude is my master,
Faith is my loss,
Mechanical is my existence,
I know nothing but my goals,
The night is my solitude,
In the ineptness of humanity lies my one true strength,
I am a creature that preys on the frailty of humanity,
My master knows not of my existence,
My goals are selfish but with meaning,
Before my death many shall find their way,
To the grave I shall send them with friends or foes,
My name is Jacques and my existence has just found purpose.

Inspired by a book I will never completely write
The Chronicles of Jacques Belmonte

First android post

Android post with version 1.6

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.2

Curbing The Addiction

Today is quite a special day, I finally figured out why I like cigarettes so much and its not the smoke or the pleasant high I actually get when I smoke them. If you've ever taken a stab at understanding why you smoke you'll know the kind of feeling I am actually having right now. Although, I made ground during a fight with my wife, its the comfort of knowing that I can put one in my mouth and I don't have to worry about opening my mouth for anything except to place it on the ashtray or put it out. Sadly, after countless hours of pondering this happens to be the sole reason. In my moment of triumph however, I figured out that while quitting is a good option, I now have to find other ways to satiate my lack of a cigarette so here is my list for the week.

1. Weddings are a pain in the ass and usually end up leaving one person sour for the rest of their life about how things went on that blessed day (I know a lot of you rainbow and pony people are going shame on you right now)
2. Sharks and Remora have found successful ways to co-exist which have taken them years of evolution and understanding. Couples and their in-laws are light years away.
3. It's better to say your wrong even when you aren't. Chances are you can sit down years later and smile about the fact that you were and it cost you absolutely nothing to do so.
4. It's good to let your hair down now and then but remember that when you do let it down ensure that no one else knows your doing so. Why? Because everyone has an opinion and that's not the point of the exercise is it?
5. Liverpool will spend another season without a single trophy unless they get the Europa Cup. Then, they will go on to win the Champions League thereby leaving them with no domestic trophies yet again.
6. When I am 40, I'd like to climb a mountain just to say I did it at the age of 40.
7. God is a spiritual entity who most people think behaves like Oprah Winfrey but in reality he's closer to Adolf Hitler
8. Life in Goa is more peaceful than anywhere else on the planet. No one bothers you and for the most part you don't know that they even exist
9. Speech is the most advanced form of communication on the planet. Even if Google finds a way to provide us with a smarter communication medium it would fail because it requires someone talking about it to promote it to the masses
10. I will not be with my present company in under 500 days. I think that one is probably more true than the nine other points before this.
11. Ever wonder why they created a brand of condoms called Trojan? Durex has it right.
12. TV Shows are someone's sadistic way of laughing at your pathetic life while showing you a way in which no one else on the planet lives - Oh dear the Irony.
13. Music can soothe the savage beast - Try playing a Concerto to a Lion just before it pounces chances are he thinks its dinner music and will eat you with a fork and knife

Mood while writing this blog - Uncomfortable

Music listened to while writing this blog - I think I am giving up music for a bit

The Drive

This week is going to be special for me. Why you might ask? Because this week I will either end Friday with something so wicked and evil that the people that are involved might wonder what just hit them and how it hit them. It's been a fight that I have struggled with for over four years now and its finally made me reach to a stage where my brain is telling my body that its time to stop being pushed around and fight for your right to be at peace. Some of it is financial but most of it is just lack of respect for skills and that makes me want to break something even more than trying to fix the problem. Unfortunately I cannot divulge the nature of my act because I have taken almost 29 years to sort this out in my mind but today I finally reached the full extent of my patience and I am about to start planning the execution.

All I am going to do for now is breathe because the alternative will probably end my career but the results will make me extremely happy.

Cheers to slavery because without it we would have nothing to quantify the things that happen to us when we are driven to do things that fall way beyond the accolades we receive.

Mood at this point - Focused
Music - Sabotage

Year One - My close friend Mr. Death

As it has become customary these days, I have my list of 13 that signal my entry into the month of September. I've been thinking about death lately and how it affects certain people in ways that sometimes baffle me. I don't understand, nor will I ever, why some people completely break-down at funerals. Personally, I find it a bit self-serving as its a release mechanism that allows you to let go of the person that is gone. Sometimes, I also wonder why everyone else around the person crying don't try and bring them back to reality with a word of comfort or some stern advice about the beauty of life. Of course, I will be called heartless and a total emotionless fuck because of the same but that really doesn't matter to me because I still find it very illogical and pretty selfish at the end of the day.

1. When a pet dies, crying doesn't help because you paid for your pet or got it for free so what your really crying for is loss of investment if you think about it
2. Gas chambers are silly. If you wanted to know the effects of gas on people why not just lock yourself in a room and gas it with a button to let the gas out when your done choking yourself.
3. Tiger Woods can put a golf ball in a hole but he can't use a cellphone discreetly
4. Smoking isn't bad but the effects have made society think otherwise
5. An apple a day keeps the doctor away. So why are so many doctors eating apples?
6. During wedding preparations the bride isn't the only one that goes through hell
7. Bruce Wayne would never have become Batman if he had gone to a good shrink
8. Having a special day for teachers also implies that there should be one for every other profession on the planet
9. Religion is nothing but sales-pitching these days. Don't like one move to another.
10. Heinz is the one company I respect the most in the food manufacturing industry. How can something so cheap as a unit product generate so much money
11. If IQ tests were a gauge for people being allowed to live or die, we'd never have the concept of genius. Corruption might have bit the dust too
12. Top Gun should be retired from Television permanently. Make people pay for the DVD or BR
13. The next time someone tells me that TV Shows are a brain-rotting experience I would like to ask them what politics is. I mean you've got drama, suspense and humour along with all the other makings of a good TV Show

Mood while writing this post - Tired and confused

The infinite eventualities

This week has been a trying one of sorts. What I have learned in the process is that there are so many outcomes that a person sees from their own perspective and a true master of prediction probably sees all the outcomes from so many angles that they themselves have no opinion of their own but to pick one of the possibilities and just fly with what comes next because they have a gift no one else has ... the ability to see infinite eventualities no matter what the situation is. This is governed by altruism and the ability to put one's self outside the situation at hand leaving nothing to chance but to sheer prediction of the way in which all the elements in a situation will behave or react. I am slowly striving for this kind of mental freedom and one day I will have it. However, for the moment, I am back with my list of thirteen inspired by my week so far.

1. Expecting people to fall into your realm of understanding is an impossibility that is only riddled with despair and lack of hope for evolution
2. We didn't evolve from monkeys they evolved from us
3. God is good as long as things are going your way leading me to believe that religion is a convenience and not the dogmatic fodder everyone thinks it is
4. Marriage's were easier when my parents were my age
5. Blue whales are the most envied mammals on the planet
6. Greek tragedies are nothing but ancient porn gone wrong
7. Mathematics only works in a room with people who come there with no opinion of their own
8. Gold is a metal nothing more nothing less
9. Blood is thicker than water but grease is thicker than blood
10. We all need one rebel in a system to question our approach to anything good or bad
11. When a fool speaks we must appreciate his/her efforts because we could all use a helping hand to push our cause
12. Shouting never fixed anything. Elimination of existence usually does
13. The internet makes the cure for AIDS seem like a joke

Inspired by the music of the late George Harrison - Here Comes The Sun

Hello Web Browser - Good Bye Operating System

It's been over a decade now since we've seen web browsers and for the most part, they have gotten faster, more secure and even offer user-interfacing that sometimes makes us wish our Operating Systems did the same. With the advent of NetBooks and other mobile devices, users are now getting geared to being on the move, keeping in touch with friends and relatives with messaging, taking pics, creating videos and even doing other complex web-oriented tasks through either their snazzy phones or their browsers. I have even stopped watching movies on my home PC and have simply switched to my Playstation 3 to get the most out of my movie experience. I would even go so far to say that if you are an end-user with absolutely no need to develop any software or perform tasks related to file editing, etc. your primal needs as a PC user are all met by your neighbourhood-friendly web browser. With the utilization of Cloud Computing and SaaS now entering everyone's lives in a small way through the internet, is this really the slow but timely demise of a full-blown operating system? I of course, cannot partake in the testing because I need to develop portals for a living and sadly, this is just not possible with just a web-browser but I did think of a few things that might make sense in the years to come.

1. Web-based email. Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, etc. are all prime examples of having your email access no matter where you go. They are OS independent and even work on your phone.
2. Picture Storage/Editing Functionality. There are services available on the web that take care of more than just providing albums of your trip to your grandmother's house or even the basic editing and publishing. Furthermore, some sites even offer you the ability to send your pictures to a print lab for actual physical copies.
3. File Storage. With options like Microsoft's Skydrive, users only pay for storage space and simply access their data anywhere. DLNA even allows devices to share data among them so why ever bother lugging around an expensive portable hard-drive?
4. Web-Site Editing/Creation. If you've got a need to make a website and you need it to have basic information, most hosting sites now provide you with easy to edit templates and even blogs have inherited this feature as part of their service plans. The only downside is that there is no real testing functionality and if you need such services you are demoted back to your OS to meet these requirements.
   
5. Media Players. Enter the era that has been captured by YouTube. What can you really not find on Google? Tack this onto a store functionality for music and you'll never have to store your music on your hard drive anymore.
6. Television. Even the guys who started Hulu must be looking back at their days of infancy and going. We never thought it would be this big!
7. Office Productivity. If your not strapped for complexities, Google Docs does this pretty well.

I could list more, but what's the point unless you sell the general population on the idea that the Operating System is really no longer a solid requirement if not to only power your web-browser up and get you on the internet. With options like Chromium OS, Linux Netbook Remix and some other black-market Linux based solutions now making their way into the mainstream market, more end-users are slowly getting educated on the ease of installation and use of these OSes. The PC market is certainly not dying anytime soon but if your an end-user with no real need to play on your OS, I'd say give a Netbook a try. Chances are you'll never go back to your regular bulky Operating System ever again.

Coping

Lately, I have been dealing with a wide assortment of stupidity and for the most part, its being dealt with my simply neglecting the issue at hand and deflecting the topic using the old-school technique of noise-making. Simply start a fight, steer it in another direction, get them worked up and the problem that originally started the debate slowly disappears. Sadly, this works on an untrained individual who will never ever remember the original topic of argument and fails generally on a person who is so head-strong that their original convictions have become part of their psyche.

What's even more discouraging is that the more head-strong you are, the less inclined you are are to try and see point-of-views of any other individuals involved in the issue. This has become a daily routine for me now ranging from my marriage all the way to making a simple decision regarding what to eat for dinner. As with most things in my life, I tend to take a few steps back when the 'action' has subsided to reflect on things learned as part of the experience. I have made my list of thirteen once again to shed some light on the misfortune that is human stupidity and the arguments that arise as such. Perhaps you too may find something to laugh about or reflect on in the process of reading this blog.

1. No one is really stupid your just smarter when you point it out
2. Most silly arguments are based on non-factual data. This in itself probably outlines the need to step away quick
3. Age ain't nothing but a number (Sorry Aliyah just had to steal that line). Using this as a deterrent only brings me back to point 1
4. Saying "I give up" or "You win" doesn't necessarily mean the other person wins
5. The more a person shouts or raises their voice, the more you realize that you are making more sense than they are
6. Societal norms are generally poor debate winners
7. Talking about politics and religion or family generally ends up in a fight
8. When in Rome, eat a pizza and enjoy the sights. Don't do as the Romans do (I'll let you decipher this one)
9. Breaking a belief is harder than building one. Systematic conditioning removes the thought and then the break-down can begin
10. Proving something to the untrained mind usually involves visuals to aid the process to move along
11. Negating someone's existence is the best form of winning an argument and perhaps avoiding more unnecessary mental strain for the rest of your life. This takes a highly skilled mind and projection thinking that most people choose not to develop.
12. There are six billion plus people on the planet. Why should anyone have the last say on anything?
13. Mathematics and Science might be flawed but our brains have yet to figure out something else that can bend and twist logic so neatly. Furthermore, religion is a human construct and using it in an argument or as advice totally fails because the primary base for any good argument is that the unit object spread over multiple instances should hold true. Religion sadly does nothing but pacify an active mind. Treat it well for it may save you in times when you discover that Science isn't all its cracked up to be.

Mood when writing this blog - Tired

Music listened to - Motley Crue - Wildside

The Antithalia

"Dedicated to the Peter Pan that never really dies but goes on a vacation in all of us"

No one knows where it began,

But everyone knows where it ends,

Three-sixty-five is a big number they say,

That's the risky game I've played.

Twenty-Nine times over till my insides are no more,

I have gone from a man to a whore,

And when I finally find my peace,

A place to put my mind at ease,

All that will accompany to my place of rest,

Is the dust I have gathered beneath my bed.

Chromium vs Ubuntu Netbook - Let the war begin

My latest craze has been Netbook oriented as I want to find out why a lot of people have started adopting this approach to their daily needs. I started out by trying Google's famed Chromium OS and subsequently visited the Ubuntu solution from Canonical as well. Here's what I found and maybe it can be useful to people that are trying the same.

The setup

Both Chromium and U-Netbook can be installed on a USB stick and just booted up by changing the BIOS options to load the OS from the desired location on boot. I found that Chromium offered the faster experience on load and this might be attributed to the fact that the entire OS is built on the Chrome Browser. The Ubuntu release didn't really take much longer but it did take a whole extra three seconds on my laptop and then finally did load.

The quirks on load

Chromium offered no wireless support for the version I tested and hence I was forced to run my entire experience via a cable connected to my laptop which lead to a rather unpleasant first start. The Ubuntu client however, loaded up and then offered me a list of Wireless networks to choose from. A click of my choice and a WEP PWD enter later I was browsing the internet with no cables at all. The only place where the Chromium OS just put U-NetBook to shame was related to the delay in response from the client when U-NB loaded. My entire notebook froze and I was only able to move the mouse till it loaded something that never really stopped loading through my entire experience.

The User Management and Login

Chromium gave me the universal Google way of handling things which let me into the OS via a simple username and password screen that took my Google account and then offered me all the rest of my Google services at a simple click away as I was logged into the service(s). Ubuntu on the other hand just loaded up and froze for a bit before it offered me all the standard Ubuntu functionality that I have come to expect from my Ubuntu box that I run with a Desktop version of Ubuntu.

Managing the Experience

This is where Chromium dropped the ball and for the most part you can understand why Google have done this. The Chromium browser is your one stop shop into how the entire OS runs and everything is done in a browser window offering applications that are web-based ranging from a calculator all the way to Google Docs and the integrated Google Talk component inside Gmail. Ubuntu offers users the ability to change preferences, install hardware/software and gives any hardened Linux user the standard options they are used to.

First Impressions and Verdict

I am a fan of speed and Chromium OS is the faster of the two. It handled the load quickly, got me into my mail, provided me some standard links to utilities I might need and actually got me running as a standard web-user. Ubuntu Netbook is something a power user who just wants a quick loader for themselves will stick to. It offers enough to leave your slow Windows-based machine and migrate to it without even blinking an eyelid. The speed of the applications was very good and it all just fit on a USB stick offering me a chance to install it locally.

Google Chromium vs Ubuntu Netbook

1. Chromium is a great out-of-the-box experience - it offered me browsing (with Flash), widgets for my daily work and the ease of sign-in with my Google ID/PWD
2. Ubuntu is great until you get to the home screen and then it just hangs. It didn't come Flash ready and it wasn't until I installed Google Chrome on it that I managed to get my Flash experience back on track. Hardly, something that a person requiring web-access should have to do but some will argue that its a one-time installation and that it shouldn't hamper the experience.
3. Chromium is still in Beta and will probably remain that way for a while until Google feels its public ready. The system did hang in certain instances where I wanted it to load specific information that was very heavy but it didn't really hamper my ability to browse pages.

If your a hard-core web fan then Chromium is probably something you'd use to get an average joe introduced to the whole netbook experience. It turns on quick, gets you on even faster and if they can sort out the whole WiFi issue then they will have a winner.

If you are the kind of person that needs all the fancy customizations and everything to look all glossy and pretty with a hand under the hood at all times then Ubuntu Netbook is the way to go. The Ubuntu One sign-in offers great synchronization across all PC's using U-NB and this is also true for Chromium. The Firefox that comes with it needs to be seriously repackaged with some better in-house support, however, with the advent of HTML-5 I don't see that being a real issue.

I hope this helps anyone out there who is looking at a Netbook OS option and I am always willing to hear back from you'll about your experiences and how its worked out for you.

Music Listened to while writing this post - Sound of Silence - Simon and Garfunkel

The List #2 - June 2010

Here's another thirteen things I have observed recently in no particular order of precedence.

1. Don't start a fight with an Apple fan-boy. The chances of you winning the fight are great. The chances of acquiring permanent mental damage are higher.
2. Not everything you read on the internet is true (Gosh I wonder why)
3. Web 2.0 is the beginning of the end of validated and correct information
4. Every politician on the planet has traded favours either with other humans or animals (aka other politicians)
5. A Vuvuzuela is not a noise-maker its a cultural cacophony in the making.
6. Software is meant to break. If you start cursing it, it will only get better (at breaking that is)
7. Your manager doesn't always know what's right so double checking never hurts
8. There is no substitute for naturally acquired talent. These people have something that a book doesn't offer - it's called skill.
9. A Dosa is a rejected Frisbee [Personal opinion of course]. Why anyone would put such a horrid thing in their mouth and lick their lips post it still baffles me. I have been trying hard for many years to understand it and in the process have subjected myself to this torture many times.
10. Tom Cruise might practice Scientology but that's because he doesn't get paid enough to follow anything else.
11. Adidas is and always will be better than Nike
12. Chaos at its peak is more entertaining than getting laid
13. Teaching is better than preaching

The List - June 2010

List of me musings for 2010 (so far) - Thirteen per day only

1. People don't know how to wear a suit properly. Sometimes you'll see people wearing the most ghastly suits with even more ghastly shoes and ask yourself why they even bother putting on a suit only to look more like a monkey when they do.
2. People just lack manners and any kind of professional etiquette in India. Yes, I am Indian and I am not particularly fond of how people say you know I want a job in XYZ and it will be better for me when you can actually start now and save yourself (perhaps the country too). Someone always comes back and tries to tell me better by trying to blow rainbows up my ass here. My only reply is George Michael might like it from you more than I will.
3. Telling someone your not capable of mentally growing is already destroying your credibility with them. Don't waste your time trying to move on in life if you've got this attitude. Chances are you've already condemned yourself to a life of meaningless existence and you haven't realized it yourself.
4. High-Definition Television is only 720P and above. Anything else is pointless and shouldn't be advertised as such. MPEG-4 isn't high-def by itself nor will it ever be.
5. People in the country which I live in thrive on "I'll do it yaar" or "Chalta Hai". I'd love a doc to tell them that when someone they care about or they themselves are on their death bed.
6. Zero is the new infinity. Think about it.
7. Companies that claim that they want new and fresh ideas really want older people with proven ideas to work for them.
8. A slut is a male definition not a societal one. Got any other explanation for it? Go ahead I am all ears.
9. Cricket is good as long as its on a channel that is far away from what I want to watch.
10. South Africa has done a good job for the World Cup and probably will do for the rest of the WC as well.
11. England will not make it past the quarter finals in the WC. When they do crash the tabloids in the United Kingdom will do what they do best ... move onto bashing the players personal lives.
12. SAAS is the future and sadly no one is seeing how big it is going to be and capitalizing on it.
13. Steve Jobs is going to die soon and when he does, Apple will still churn out hot products because he's only selling them not making them. The next time that someone says that Jobs made the iPod I will point them to Google and remind them to read first then post.

The Return

I know I have always been a finicky sort of person and I killed my old blog for reasons I still can't really share but I am back and it has been resurrected. Watch this space.