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  • December 3, 2005

    Kalinga in CompUSA

    Been stuck at office like a car after heavy snow. Loads of work before the million dollar baby goes live in two weeks from now. Curious last moments is what makes a software engineer’s life, a bliss. And I’m enjoying every moment of it trying to keep myself cool without getting panicked.

    Talking about getting panicky, Seattlites just got freaky over the last few days owing to the weathermen going over-board about the expected snow. When snow came down, people left the office thinking that the snow would take over the city. What happened was an anti-climax. Snow came down, life went on as normal. Nothing much was distruppted except me being late for the evening coffee by just a few minutes.

    By the time me and friends reached the COMPUSA store on the thanksgiving night, it was 11:30 pm. Around 500 Indians(yes, 98% indians and 2 % asians not indians were the only people around) were already in the line with monkey caps and their wives, who showed no interest in accompanying their husbands to an electronics store. Stroke of midnight, people started walking inside the shop and as usual a bunch of desi dudes ran inside the shop without coming through the line. By the time I was inside the store, it seemed like a kalinga war was just fought. The hard disk section was ransacked and I just got hold of some box which I didn’t know what it contained. Following the old quote – follow the stream, as everyone was picking up couple of boxes, me too picked up two of them. Later when I saw that they were 250 GB hard disks costing $180, i left them back.

    Did you just think, Technology has improved so muchaaa. Wait. Around 200 of the desi crowd was just climbing one upon other like the first day first show of a Rajini movie to get a 512 MB USB pen drive for $9.99. Phew !! I came back home without buying anything.

    The Thanks ‘buying’ stuff finally arrived. Like I planned, I bought the 160 GB external accomdata hardisk but for $70, instead of $50. I bought them online at Fry’s Outpost. Also went to CompUSA next day of Thanks giving to find hundreds of wireless routers lying around, which were missing on the previous night. I am a mobile blogger now. Yep, the home network is all set, thanks to CompUSA’s wireless router. So I can browse and even blog while eating idli molagaapodi on the dining table.

    As it gets colder in Seattle, it gets exciting too. The snow this morning while driving to work, lifted my spirits. The tall evergreen trees with snow cap on them makes the whole place look so beautiful. Accompanied with Rahman’s Tanha Tanha on the CD player, it was a sight that I would remember for a long time to come. Meanwhile the city is getting it’s holiday dressing. Street trees are decorated with serial lights, Santa socks and caps being sold even in medical stores(!!), the work place is getting decorated with holiday trees and the shops are open even longer than the original working hours to meet the holiday sales. The year end seems to be the most exciting part of the year, be it in India or in US. Oh yeah !! I’m missing the marghazhi kutcheri.

  • December 1, 2005

    Rogue Blogging !!

    I was reacting to Chenthil’s non-commital blogpost on the recent plagiarism accusations on The Hindu. Few arguments touched upon rogue blogging. I have some strong comments on rogue blogging and how blogs can be mis-used as anti-fame machines. Here is the extract from the comments that me and Chenthil had on his blog.

    —
    From Chenthil’s blogpost –

    This incident set me thinking about this sharp tool called blogging. Take Mr. Bhaskaran. He has been writing for about 20 years. Assuming 20 reviews a year, that makes it 400 reviews. Even if say, 20 of his reviews were inspired, he will be painted as a plagiarist for all 400 of them. It is a little harsh on him. Again I stress, I am not batting for anybody, just thinking out loud how this tool called blogging can be used.

    lazygeek said…

    //Even if say, 20 of his reviews were inspired, he will be painted as a plagiarist for all 400 of them. It is a little harsh on him. //

    Chenthil, I don’t get this logic. How do you say its a little harsh on him. its a matter of integrity when it comes to fourth estate.

    Chenthil said…

    Guru, the issue I was concerned more here was how blogging can be used to bring down somebody.//

    lazygeek said…

    Yep !! There are rogue bloggers every where and the idea of rogue bloggings sucks. I agree. Now lets take this analogy to the IIPM case which is very recent. Do you also think that IIPM literally raped by bloggers. Imagine IIPM has been around for a while and they might have given great education even for atleast 200 people, they were ragged by the bloggers for screwing up with one AD on newspapers. Do you think so ?

    Also, imagine the tamil nadu police captures so many criminals on a daily basis. do you think they were ragged by bloggers when they were condemened for moral policing with just one hotel.

    Are we being balanced here ? If you are saying yes, i’ll have a bigger reply.

    Chenthil said…

    Guru, of course I am not being balanced. I myself have participated vigorously in IIPM issue and Moral Policing. But of late I am getting this doubt, whether we are using blogging as a tool to bring down things. When I was participating in those issues, I could feel the mob mentality engulfing me, making me feel the potency of power without accountability.

    In such mobs, some of those who are shouting along with you won’t be agreeable to you on normal days. But since all of us are shouting for an issue, we tend to forget this fact. To put it in Engineering College slang, whenever there is a fight in collge, there will be a group who will be standing invisible but creating a big noise. We call that “Sound vidarathu”. I am wondering whether blogging is going down that road.

    lazygeek said…

    Obviously its going in that road. Remember those days when you had asked why I was keeping off senstive issues. This was the reason. Its because we have bandwith and a keyboard that listens to your whims and fancies, by means of senstive topics and sticky posts, we are just becoming rogue bloggers, to the core.

    Ofcourse there are people who react because they feel dejected or upset of some issue. i have to say i felt very dejected when i saw the plagiarism. two reasons. one the lazygeek blog is a victim of plagiarism. donno if you know but the reviews and posts are intelligently stolen and some interesting thoughts are added to it make seems like a original post. second, i am a long term reader of hindu. infact right from the start. so i felt dejected and hence that post about hindu.

    There are bloggers whom even you can spot so easily who are just waiting for to kick someone and waiting for a prey. those dudes are pretty new and have no clue of the immense satisfaction blogging gives. if its all about eyeballs and page hits and comments gallore, blogging ceases to exist. but thats what we have today and it really sucks. really sucks.
    —

    And before you start to comment here is a quick note. These were comments and they were written with an urgency. Hence they may not really bring out the essence of what i mean. I was trying to compare Chenthils’ logic of argument in Bhaskaran’s case with the IIPM and moral policing issue. My take on moral policing and IIPM remain intact despite these conversations for the sake of an argument. While this argument continues so does the concept of rogue blogging.

  • November 30, 2005

    Guitar Prasanna is back !!

    December approaches and Guitar Prasanna is already in Chennai. Usually he comes over with an agenda. Last time he played in the IIT Saarang and what a pleasure it was to listen to his performance. I did missed writing about his show last last year and this year if he performs again in IIT Saarang, I will be missing it.

    This Take Two feature in Hindu, alongwith another guitar artist Pandit Bhatt, announces his arrival. This time he has a special news for his fans. Two of his albums are releasing in span of two months. Raa Rama, a carnatic album is releasing by December 2005. Electric Ganesha Land, a tribute to Jimi Hendrix is releasing by Jan 2006.

    I am hoping these albums would be as classy as his previous albums. And yeah, I am expecting to listen to them as before. If you miss to read the Hindu feature, he is in Chennai to record for an ‘untitled’ film of Shankar. Are you guessing it is Rajini’s Sivaji ? Me too.

    P.S – Don’t miss listening to the samples especially the number Snake in Electric Ganesha Land. Was surprised to hear Aadu Paambe tune in the end of it. Super Cool.

  • November 29, 2005

    Shame on you, Hindu !!

    It’s a biggest shame on the newspaper which people from Chennai, like to read. Its not shame on the man who wrote it. It’s shame on Hindu to publish it without validating it’s writer’s abilities.

    The review of the hollywood movie Alexander appeared on The Hindu dt Friday, Feb 11, 2005. This was written by Gautaman Bhaskaran. The ending note aka last passage of the review reads this –

    Stone has always made stories about men for whom ordinary life is impossible by accident or by choice. As a storyteller he has long made a habit out of extreme personalities, a preoccupation that during the 1990s was matched by one of the most playfully expressive styles in American mainstream pictures.

    Read this movie review written by Manohla Dargis for The New York Times dated November 24, 2004. Try to locate the passage given above. It’s there. In Verbatim. I’m planning to send this note to The Hindu and I hope they invalidate this review. We have seen plagiarism of movie reviews between blogs or even just plagiarism in the Mainstream Media during the recent times. Though it’s little late find, I think this is a question on the newspaper’s credibility.

    This was intially exposed by Nina and here is the URL to that post. She has also written about other plagiarisms of the same author. Brilliant find, Nina. Ofcourse, I caught this via Desi Pundit.

  • November 28, 2005

    You and me We used

    You and me
    We used to be together
    Everyday together always
    I really feel
    That I’m losing my best friend
    I can’t believe
    This could be the end
    It looks as though you’re letting go
    And if it’s real
    Well I don’t want to know

    No Doubt I like her. Just that I don’t speak much.

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