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May 19, 2005

Web 3.0/2.0 – Version Conflicts

The big change in the read-write sphere came about because of applications such as weblogs, the personal journals that put newer material at the top, and wikis, sites on which anyone can edit any page. Not only could people make their own sites, but they could update them easily and rapidly.

Blogs have been especially important in the world of the read-write web.

They are far more than the what I ate for breakfast diaries of cliche; they have become a key part of a growing, complex global conversation.

We are moving quickly beyond text and pictures in this version of the web, to audio and video.

The cost of the gear we need to make high-quality content is plummeting while the power and ease of use continue to grow.

And then comes the latest web. This is where it gets really interesting.

The emerging web is one in which the machines talk as much to each other as humans talk to machines or other humans. As the net is the rough equivalent of a computer operating system, were learning how to program the web itself.

Dan Gilmor‘s column on the paradigm shift of the web, Web 2.0? Try 3.0 was an interesting read. Link via Emergic. Offlate the talks about Web 2.0 is on the rise. As some try to call it as – It’s a Whole New Internet, Bloggers like Kottke and Andre Torrez have their last laugh.

Whatever name it’s been called and however it’s been debated out, this is getting to be one of exciting times for the WEB.
May 18, 2005

The E.T – Infinite Ingenuity

It was probably 19 years since I watched E.T on screen. Obviously, I was a kid then. My orientation towards ET had different dimensions. My eyes were filled with tears when the lonely alien lies there in the middle of a hall in Planet Earth and weepingly utters,”Mom Mom!!”. Since then I believe(!!) I’ve grown up. I have discovered my liking towards movies. I’ve watched hundreds of films since then. Have watched the T-Rex walking mightly in Jurassic Park. Have enjoyed the gigantic space ship on the skies on an Independence Day. Have seen Titanic go down, Apollo 13 getting stuck in the space, Robots getting away with Artificial Intelligence and Darth Vader fighting Star Wars. Having this huge line-up of graphical wonders lined up, ET still seems to a wonder of movies. As I watched it yesterday, I still had tears running on the same shot. I don’t call it empathy for an alien. I prefer to call it as the magic of E.T.

Steven Spielberg‘s ET The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) brings out the child in you. As Spielberg says, ET is like a good quality wine. The more the age the better it gets. What a genuine storyteller we have in Steven Spielberg. After E.T, he has a share of heaven reserved for him. He has soothened so many souls with ET just like what Illayaraja and SPB did to millions of tamilians.

When I finished watching the movie, this is what I felt – If only…If only I get to make a movie and If I can weave a story as profoundly imaginative and strikingly humane as ET, I would feel accomplished.
May 18, 2005

Namma Chennai

And you know how I would feel for this title on an Hindu article, Namma Chennai.

The green buses, occasional smell of filter coffee, the cursing in Tamil on the roads, and the roads themselves impart to Chennai a rare flavour. The youth are relatively uncorrupted. Branded clothes and video cameras are still not too visible. But Mylapore and Mandaveli – they are too ancient, dude!

While I parltly agree to the line of youth being relatively uncorrupt, this paragraph roughly sums up Chennai. Man I miss this city badly. Thanks Andy for the link.

Hugh Hewitt‘s book, Blog : Understanding the Information Reformation That’s Changing Your World wasn’t a very inspiring read. I probably read it with a perspective of a blogger while Hewitt summarizes the advent and growth of Blogs as history. You would love to read it especially if you wanted to know how Blogs revolutionized the information spread and how the popular acronym MSM[Mainstream Media] was used and sometimes abused in the blogosphere. It also talks on how CNN’s popularity was came tumbling while FOX News was starting to be accepted by the American people. Hewitt’s earlier writing on Blogs given in the Appendix are lucid with a strong passion for blogs.

If you are looking for a good book to understand the mechanics and practical ways of maintaining a blog, I would recommend Rebecca Blood‘s The Weblog Handbook. Above all if you are looking for some suggestions on blogs, do it the classical way. There are no suggestions, Just Blog.

I have no clue why Rediff is so bold over by Aishwarya’s presence in Cannes festival. Someone’s is fetish.

Illayaraja‘s tunes for Adhu Oru Kanaa Kaalam hasn’t come out with flying colors. Except for Andha Naal Nyaabagam rendered by Vijay Yesudas/Shreya Goshal and the Bhavatharini song, the rest of songs can missed without creating a sin. The moment you hear the first song you know it has Balu Mahendra + Illayaraja combo. But no classics here.
May 16, 2005

Over the weekend

[More on Flickr]

Other than polishing my monday shoes and watching three flicks in a row, I did some nice tripping around the suburbs of Seattle to glimpse the forever beauty they had in themselves. The state of Washington is called as the evergreen state and every inch of that is goddamn true. Lush green trees around you would make your ride a comfortable one. Especially if your headphones sing Illayaraja, Rahman or Dire ‘Sultans of Swing’ Straits, your drive would be certainly memorable.

Seattle is the the kind of place you would aspire to plan a honeymoon. Often, honeymoons settle down to be moneymoons. Thats a different story though. If you live in Seattle, you could enjoy that same atmosphere day in and out. I wished to take a trip to Alaska to enjoy it’s natural beauty. But after glimpsing Seattle, I’m certainly happy that I saved bigbucks on that trip. It appears exactly like the Dehraduns and Mussories as described by Ruskin Bond in his lovable stories.

Lake Washington seperates Seattle from the town of Kirkland. And that provides a great view of the Seattle landscape from Kirkland. Kirkland has the smallest of roads and cross flags planted on crossings. Yet it consists of the costliest of condos and a hugely priced real estate. Kirkland and Mercer Island are the small heavens of Seattle.

The Argosy Cruise which takes off either from Seattle downtown or Kirkland, takes you through the long strech of Lake Washington for an hour and half. There is a live running commentary about what we see on the shores, throughout the trip. Lake Washington’s shores are filled up with the homes of rich and famous. You encounter the ultra famous home of Bill Gates, the neo designed house of the Author of Excel/Word and others. So the interesting commentary sounds like a stock quote with number droppings quite often. You also travel beneath the hanging bridge of Seattle which is a freeway called IWA-520. Other than the sour cream and onion chips packets, I heard(?!) they serve good cocktails.

While the cruise was exciting and refreshing just like greenery you see around, it is also a must-go for the visitors. Some pictures of the Kirkland Cruise on the Flickr.
May 13, 2005

Iruvar; A Schindler’s List ?

Watching the Steven Spielberg‘s extended interview in The Directors DVD set me thinking wildly. While talking about Schindler’s List, Spielberg says, When my kids ask me “What did you do dad ?”, I didn’t want show them the big gothic movies which I made. I wanted to show them something that truly happened. Something that happened to our people.

When Iruvar released, this is what I remember Mani Ratnam stating for an interview. Iruvar was a film for the next generation to come. For them to look back at the history of their Tamil Nadu and have an unbiased view of it. He went on to say that when entered the movie making business, he had in mind the kind of movies he enjoyed making. Unfortunately due to commercial pressures, the lanes departed and he was soon making run-of-the-mill movies, according to himself. Iruvar was comeback to his path, style and love of movie making.

Though I am just quoting what I remember from the interviews, these are not exact statements that they had shared in the interview. If you look deep into these lines, they sound similar by idea. Both movies are the best of each of them. Schindler’s List touched millions of people with it’s moving images of holocaust. Iruvar didn’t do a similar thing but it talked about how the political history in the state shaped up in an unbiased manner.

For me they are strikingly same. If Spielberg was talking about his Jewish history, a born Tamilian like Mani Ratnam can only talk about the making of Tamil Nadu. He probably could have talked about Indian Independence you might think. But a movie maker should probably be making what he can relate to the most than what others want him to. Mani Ratnam did exactly the same. With the available resource, technology, cast and crew Iruvar was an exemplary movie of Kollywood. Something that only movies like Uthiri Pookal, Mundraam Pirai or Nayakan can come close to. Spielberg’s Schindler’s List was arguably his best movie till date. Not because it was shot in B&W and it gave a sense of a classic film. It’s because he was able to tie down 25 of us watching the movie in a lonely Sathyam theatre. Twenty days after Iruvar released, there were hardly 20 people in the ultra-cold Woodlands Theatre. And I was there watching the classic with 10 other friends who slept half the way through. Classics don’t show up as classics the first time around. A pity.

Web 3.0/2.0 – Version Conflicts

The E.T – Infinite Ingenuity

Namma Chennai

Over the weekend

Iruvar; A Schindler’s List ?