Posts in Category: Thoughts
Flying and Photography
- Image via Wikipedia
(This was meant for posting on the 10th of July. Somehow I never got around to posting it till today)
Sitting at the windows seat of an aeroplane after years has been a fun experience since I normally choose the aisle seat or fly in the dark when not much is visible outside.
But flying in daytime, sitting at the window has been a gorgeous treat. A literal visual feast for the eyes.
White clouds all around me, patches of blue sky above and the sun making occasional appearances through the cloud had me constantly wishing for my camera. Not that it would make any difference since it is literally impossible to take half a decent pic from a commercial aeroplane.
Anyway, that got me thinking – perhaps go in an open aircraft/glider (do they even exist? Is it even possible?) and get some photography done. But it would probably be shit expensive. Ah well one can dream can he not.
Anyway, I digress. So watching the clouds fly by made me want to see how they behave when they get near the plane’s turbines and when the exit (probably the geek in me thinking) and I thought it would be so cool to have two aircrafts flying at slightly different altitudes and photograph the effect of the turbines of the lower craft (you know, you can’t really make out the effect from inside the aeroplane because there is no point of reference) and of course photograph the scenery as is, flying on a floor of clouds, walled by clouds under a cloudy roof.. BEAutiful.. :)
All these musings made my childhood dream of flying planes resurface making me feel so terribly underachieving in life. Ah, I digress again so I’ll stop here.
(written on my phone a few thousand feet above the ground while blasting through empty space (thank god for that. Wouldn’t want the space to be non-empty ;) ) in a pressurised metal tube)
Don’t you wish…
That some songs were longer than they are? That they would not end and keep going on and on?
And no, looped repeat is not what I am talking about!
Quick Trip
- Image via Wikipedia
Just returned from a quick trip to Hong Kong and China (Visited Xi’An, Guangzhou and Shenzhen). Very hectic and busy trip. Did not get too much time for sightseeing or shopping but for half a day in HK.
China is a very nice country with pretty good infrastructure but very clean cities but food is a HUGE problem for people like me. There is barely any vegetarian food available at all and that also is quite rare and usually fixed (like a cheese pizza or white rice etc..)
The people in China are exceptionally polite and nice to talk to. Almost every is very courteous and more than ready to help. It really was a different experience from the Europeans (experienced during my visit to Paris). In a way the culture is similar to India since the people are very friendly and homely. Overall a very nice experience and an enjoyable trip.
id Software Sold
id Software, the legendary makers of Doom, Wolfestein 3D (Wolf 3D), Quake has been sold to Zenimax Media, owners of Bethesda Softworks, creators of games like Oblivion, Elder Scrolls IV.
- Image via Wikipedia
id Software holds a special place in my heart for the countless hours of entertainment they gave me through Wolf, Doom and Quake. Wolf was the first FPS I ever player and absolutely loved it. I played it to death, in all modes, without and with cheat codes.
- Image via Wikipedia
Then came Doom and Doom 2, absolute classics, amazing games. And then came the kings, Quake and Quake 3. Somehow I missed playing Quake II but the others more than filled up my time to allow me to miss it.
And of course, John Carmack was my childhood hero, always seeing his name whenever I started Doom up.
I’m glad that with this deal, id will live on and produce new games. Hopefully I will be able to make more time and play those new games as well ;)
Bonus: A nice interview with John Carmack after the sale of id Software
Success = Monopoly = Antitrust? Why the MS antitrust case is just wrong
I came across an interesting article which articulates much of my own thoughts on the entire Microsoft Internet Explorer antitrust saga. The article on a blog JCXP which I came across for the first time. The blog seems to be by MS fanboys supporters is calling for a boycott of Opera Soft, makers of the amazing Opera browser. The article, Opera Boycott: Clearing up a few things is actually a follow up article to the initial call for boycott.
I have some thoughts on the points presented in the second article but before that the disclaimer: I’m not a MS supporter or an Opera hater. In fact the two primary browsers on my laptop was Mozilla Firefox and Opera. I dislike IE (at least 6 and 7) primarily because of the headaches they have given me and the PITA they have been to the whole design and web-development industry. This article is not an evangelizing of IE or MS but broader thoughts on the anti trust calls when an organization starts to succeed and gains significant market share.
With that out of the way, I quote a part of the article:
"But it’s against antitrust laws!". Good to know. I’ll gladly admit I know very little about European antitrust laws (ie. barely anything). All I know, and this has been my stance since the very beginning, is that Microsoft has (or should have) every right to include their own Internet Explorer web browser as the only and default option in Windows. This applies to any and all companies on any matter, not just Microsoft. If Microsoft were to file an antitrust complaint agaisnt[sic] Apple for including Safari as the default browser in OS X, I would be just as peeved. Many have been saying that Microsoft has been taking advantage of its dominance of the market by bundling IE with Windows and that they are forcing it on customers. I do not see how that is true in any way. Nothing has changed in the last 15 years. Internet Explorer has been an integral and key feature of Windows ever since Windows 95, before Microsoft "dominated" the market. It’s not like Microsoft only recently started bundling IE with Windows, it has been there all along.
This is a view point I agree with whole heartedly. Why should an organization which has succeeded so wholly and entirely on their own suddenly be branded as cheaters? If this is the case, than is it not applicable for _all_ utilities being bundled with an OS, any OS (calculator, graphics program, image viewer etc). Isn’t Apple being anti-competitive by bundling Safari (and only Safari) with OSX? Or consider this – If Intel manufactured CPU cooling fans and they were bundled with the CPU, would they be behaving anti-competitively? Even though there are a zillion other brands and types of CPU cooling fans available for the buyer to choose
Let’s take another example: IPods are the most popular portable media players. They work primarily with ITunes which is what is bundled with those devices. Additionally, installing iTunes also forces a user to install QuickTime (a very bad media player and bloat ware IMO). Is that not forcing the consumer out of a choice?
Yes, there is Winamp, GTKPod and hundreds of other apps which can be used to manage the iPod and view the media files. But they are NOT bundled with the iPod. Why should they? Apple should and is free to bundle what they want with THEIR product. If you don’t like it, don’t buy it. And if you still buy it, don’t install it (ITunes that is. QuickTime unfortunately is SHOVED down everyone’s throats by ITunes. Ugh)In the same vein, there are lots of other browsers available on the Internet, most of them definitely better than IE. But that does not mean that MS should start bundling everyone of those with it’s OS. You don’t like the components, then either don’t buy Windows (there is always Linux) or don’t use the browser.
I am not saying that MS is all holy. If they use their influence to force computer makers to install their software or to pressurizing them against installing competitors software then they should be taken to task. That would be an abuse of monopoly, NOT including their own software in their own product.
My Thoughts on Opera Unite
Coming a bit late but I wanted to jot down my thoughts on Opera Unite. My first thought, it is an awesome concept with the potential to change the way the Internet is used and also a huge boon for the us users, but in a different manner than envisaged by the Unite team. But I also feel it is a bit lacking as I will explain below.
This and That – Relatively speaking
So I’ve been busy. Old news what!
Past few weeks have run away like seconds.
Two trips – Jaipur for a wedding and Pondicherry for a holiday. More trips likely this year with one definite. Want to try and go to Goa at least once this year. Could not go last year which sort of broke my promise to myself to go there at least once a year.
Work has been hectic and killing. But is sort of fun because I am in charge. BM coding has slowed down too slightly since folks at home so am always with them. This sucks because I have a lot of stuff I want to do but do not have the time to
No time for photography. Reading has slowed down too. Sleep seems to always hover around me but not for enough time.
Time seems to be flying away. Apparently relativity is hot around me but without the pretty girl.
Found this lovely video of a addictive song and an beautiful voice. Have listened to it at least 15-20 times in the past 2 days. I think it was a very good discovery. Nice songs on the singer’s (Emily Wells) myspace page too. I think I really like her voice and her unique style of singing. Will keep track of her.
(Direct link to the video if the above embed does not work correctly)
Birthday was celebrated in the trip to Jaipur. Turned out to be a fabulous day capped off by an awesome party; not due to my birthday but the bachelor’s party of the groom whose wedding I was attending there. His wife is lovely. They are staying with us for this month so yay..
Thus speaketh