Too Much Is Too Bad

Sometimes it rings so true, what our grandmothers used to tell us and we never used to listen. Too much is too bad, isn't this what they used to tell us?

Once upon a time, there was social network utility named Facebook which was known for its simpicity, ease of use and uncluttered look. And then the big young man announced the FaceBook Developer Programme, which let developers create different applications for Facebook's users. They said Facebook would be a social OS, some said it could even be the next Microsoft. Wait, some even called it what? A data black hole. Then came applications which let users let their friends know of their moods to applications which let throw sheep at their friends. Great, they said. Initially, driven by the hype and interest, they lapped it up. And then, they started removing these application one by one.



What happened after this? We'll know soon.

PS. How many of you are on Facebook? More importantly, do you visit it regularly? If yes, what is it that makes you visit it regularly?

PPS. Too much isn't too bad when it comes to blogging. Here's announcing the launch of CircusMouse, a blog which I'm not able to come up with a description for. Promises to be lot of chaos, fun and entertainment. Check it out and let us know!

PPPS. Have you checked eye5 lately? Regular posting has resumed there as well. Planning to revive 10+3i. Hopefully, some good news on that front soon.

What's This Stupid Internet Thing? Shut It Down

Sir Elton John wants the internet to be shut down. And pray, why is he singing this tune? In his own words -

"The internet has stopped people from going out and being with each other, creating stuff.

Instead they sit at home and make their own records, which is sometimes OK but it doesn’t bode well for long-term artistic vision."

The next gem is truly humbling. Because I was under the under the impression that my blogging was to change the world and according to Sir John, it isn't quite so. Thank You Sir for enlightening us.

“We’re talking about things that are going to change the world and change the way people listen to music and that’s not going to happen with people blogging on the internet."

"Let’s get out in the streets and march and protest instead of sitting at home and blogging."

I say dump your key-boards and get on the street, we're going to protest against the internet now. Imagine everyone using the internet out on the street shouting Internet Hai Hai. Or, Mera broadband connection waapis le lo. . Blogging, Wogging nahin chalegi, nahin chalegi.

More gems from Sir John in this Sun article. That's not music to our ears, Sir. The Sun reporter is better at puns. Joining the chorus with Sir John to give us more gems, she ends the article with - I guess that’s what Sir Elt would call a net loss . .

Net loss, indeed it is. A Rolling Stone article on the decline of the record industry has some real eye-openers. Some interesting points from the article -

• Overall CD sales have plummeted sixteen percent for the year so far -- and that's after seven years of near-constant erosion.
• In 2000, the ten top-selling albums in the U.S. sold a combined 60 million copies; in 2006, the top ten sold just 25 million.
• More than 5,000 record-company employees have been laid off since 2000.
• About 2,700 record stores have closed across the country since 2003

And wonder when will the industry executives start looking at technology as an ally and use it effectively, like EMI offering its entire music collection DRM-free on iTunes. While physical album sales have declined, digital sales are growing as the numbers from the article indicate.

• Digital sales are growing -- fans bought 582 million digital singles last year, up sixty-five percent from 2005, and purchased $600 million worth of ringtones -- but the new revenue sources aren't making up for the shortfall.

More such DRM-free offerings, more labels entering into license agreements with YouTube, innovative models like Amiestreet is the way ahead. And people talk about shutting down the internet.

The record labels just seem to be in a hurry to squeeze as much as possible from all possible revenue sources. No wonder then that all internet radio stations in the US went silent on June 26 to observe the National Day of Silence protesting against new royalty rates.

While music on the internet in India is still in its early stages, the situation isn't very different with the odds highly stacked against those who use branded content and wanting to do it legally. Hefty license fees, very hazy regulatory body structure, use of every possible opportunity to extract that little more money, rampant piracy and the inability of the powers that be to effectively control it. is threatening to kill internet radio in its infancy in India. Remember that story in which the greedy owner kills the goose laying golden eggs? Looks like another case of the same. Hoping to come up with a more detailed piece on the scene here in India. In the meanwhile, Naa Bajega Baans, Naa Bajegi Baansuri! Isn't this what they say?

For Shrimati Sonia Gandhi and her co(terie)

Related post - All The Presidents Were Men

Related not as in brother-in-law or someone's husband. Well, not really.

The Long Tail in radio

I'm no rocket scientist(I've never wanted to be one), or an economist(which I've sometimes wanted to be) or a social scientist(which I want to be), but one doesn't need to be any of the above to figure this out.

For Jaane Do Na from Cheeni Kum, Illayaraja uses one of his earlier compositions, Jothe Jotheyali from the Kannada film, Geetha. An earlier version of the same is Vizhiyile Undan vizhiyile from Tamil film, Nooravadu Naal. Been listening to lot of FM radio and happened to make this observation. The observation being - while Jaane Do Na was played across different radio stations, the Kannada original was played more frequently. Much like this from Chris Anderson's The Long Tail. Here's an excerpt which talks about a similar phenomenon -

In 1988, a British mountain climber named Joe Simpson wrote a book called Touching the Void, a harrowing account of near death in the Peruvian Andes. It got good reviews but, only a modest success, it was soon forgotten. Then, a decade later, a strange thing happened. Jon Krakauer wrote Into Thin Air, another book about a mountain-climbing tragedy, which became a publishing sensation. Suddenly Touching the Void started to sell again.

Random House rushed out a new edition to keep up with demand. Booksellers began to promote it next to their Into Thin Air displays, and sales rose further. A revised paperback edition, which came out in January, spent 14 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. That same month, IFC Films released a docudrama of the story to critical acclaim. Now Touching the Void outsells Into Thin Air more than two to one.

What happened? In short, Amazon.com recommendations. The online bookseller's software noted patterns in buying behavior and suggested that readers who liked Into Thin Air would also like Touching the Void. People took the suggestion, agreed wholeheartedly, wrote rhapsodic reviews. More sales, more algorithm-fueled recommendations, and the positive feedback loop kicked in.

Particularly notable is that when Krakauer's book hit shelves, Simpson's was nearly out of print. A few years ago, readers of Krakauer would never even have learned about Simpson's book - and if they had, they wouldn't have been able to find it. Amazon changed that. It created the Touching the Void phenomenon by combining infinite shelf space with real-time information about buying trends and public opinion. The result: rising demand for an obscure book.

While Jothe Jotheyali is by no means an obscure song, Jaane Do Na definitely helped to bring it in the popular public realm. And how did The Long Tail work here? The radio stations can store all the content they want and with smart methods of organizing such content and information, it helps them serve their audience better. All this and more without having to spend extra resources and still being able to find that one song which a caller might ask for during a request show.

Here's the Kannada song from perhaps the best example of The Long Tail -

All The Presidents Were Men

Ah yes, tried playing on this. As I cleared my Deep Throat, I felt the definite need for it.

With our Presidential election having come down to the streets, we, the villagers of Domlur couldn't be far away from it. Now that there looks to be a distinct possibility of Shrimati Pratibha Patil Shekhawat becoming our President, the grandmother in our neighbourhood remarked - 'Nodi, Ee kaaladalli hennu makkalu yaariginthanoo kadime illa. Namma Mahila Mandalada Presidentoo hennu magale, eega deshada Rasthrapatinpoo hennu magale'. Meaning - See, women are second to none. The President of our Women's Club is also a woman and now, the President of our country will also be a woman. Just that, the President of the Domlur Women's Club(if such a thing exists) has to be a women. Oh yeah, the grandmother part is definitely made up. Do not take anyone in our Domlur for granted. And do not take Domlur itself for granted. Nothing less, it has a Wikipedia entry.

What makes me feel sad is that a lot of people enjoy such nonsense, they're missing out on much better fun - our Presidential election. Reading about this in the newspapers, hearing about it and watching about it in these news channels, with these pretty dumb things on air, is immense fun. For example, let's start taking everything they say literally. Pratibha lashes at critics. Imagine our future President with a whip and lashing her critcs, and they squealing on every lash. Or even if you take the phrases that these guys and pretty dumb girls generally use, mud slinging, for example. Imagine Shri Advani and co. on one side and Mrs. Gandhi and co. with Comrade Karat and co. to her Left (and no one to their left, because they are the Left) throwing mud at each other and the winning party candidate becoming the President. Wake up and realise, it is for nothing that they call this dirty politics. Huh, the Dhobis in Delhi will have a nice time.


It was not long back that the Left propped up Capt. Laskhmi Sehgal against the joint Congress-BJP candidate Dr. Kalam. Things have changed and how. And again, it is not without reason that they say politics makes strange bed-fellows. Now, taking that literally would be taking it a little too far, no? No wait, this piece in Outlook will make that clear as well -

Shalini Sharma, close to Shekhawat when he was Rajasthan CM, was accused of supplying women to powerful BJP ministers. Shalini was made VP of the state social welfare board by the Shekhawat regime.

The Congress and the Left would think they've effectively checkmated Shri. Shekhawat's chances by fielding Shrimati Patil Shekhawat. Fielding of course, in the cricketing sense, can add lot of fun too. Imagine Ahmed Patel running to 10, Janpath, panting heavily and breaking the news to Soniaji - 'Madam, we've caught Shrimati Patil'. Mrs. Gandhi will say - 'Good fielding Mr. Patel'.

So while those supporting her will think they've checkmated the NDA and allies by choosing Shrimati Shekhawat Patil to be their candidate, imagine what will she say to Shri Shekhawat(not her husband Mr. Shekhawat, of course) if they were to come face to face. 'Shekhawatji, check my mate - he's a Shekhawat too!' Huh, killing two birds with one stone. Take it literally? Not quite, we're non-violent people.

So while there can be birds, can horses be far behind? No wonder we hear about horse-trading around such events.

To me, the first memories of President of our country will always be Dr. Shankar Dayal Sharma in his penguin-like walking style taking rounds of the different ghats laying wreaths to pay respects to our departed leaders. Such fun, those days were. Geetanjali Iyer, Usha Albuquerque, Minu, Avinash Kaur Sareen, Neeti Ravindran and I can go on listing those wonderful DD news readers. And man, the Sukanya Balakrishnan. And now you have these pretty dumb things. And yes, not to forget those commentaries during the Republic Day and Independence Day parades. And now you have these pretty dumb things.

And as far as the Prez election goes(hate the use of the Prez term as much as the pretty dumb things), I'll be happy if Mughal Gardens gets a good care-taker. Hoping Mr. Shekhawat(either of the two) will take good care of the wonderful flora there. The President's post was for someone scholarly, someone erudite, someone who is a true ambassador of India and someone who brought a lot of dignity to the post. Was, is the word now. For all the talk of a woman President or a masses man becoming our President, as a nation and as a political system I was quite proud of, we've lost something along the way. Sad.

What sex is Bangalore?

Indian definitely promises more than it can deliver. Also that it underwent something close to a sex change operation recently, new logo and all.



And after the wonderful flight, here's what the air hostess(if she still remains she) will announce -



And yes, in honour of Shri Balaji, who reminded me of the existence of my photoblog eye5, I'm resuming posting on eye5.

External ultrasound-assisted liposuction (XUAL or EUAL)

One way or the other, you just have to get it out. While the rich can afford External ultrasound-assisted liposuction (XUAL or EUAL)or some such fancy sounding method, the poor blogger in me could only think as far as making up his mind to sit down and blog on this day, come what may. While May came and went, the only excuse I can think of was that I was waiting for it to rain again in Bangalore!

While I hope to post regularly from now on, with more organized and ordered posts, here's all that was added to that Word Document named May 8 Blog Post. Mein yeh hope karta hoon ki May there be no more such May 8 Blog Post drafts. Have I missed adding a May/mein/main somewhere?

Yes, I have been in hibernation for some time. Not that I’ve been living in a house named hibernation, a considerable time has passed since my last post. This of course, is without taking into account, the time I lost when I misplaced my watch for a few days. I was afraid I’d lose all the time in the world as I lost my watch. One of my confusions is now solved. I used to wonder what people meant when they said – ‘You can take your own sweet time’. Now I know. They meant - look at your watch and work accordingly. And probably keep licking it if they find it sweet. Ironic isn’t it? I did not have a watch and still took my sweet own time in writing this post. And by the way, I live in a house named Infant Cottage, which makes me feel more of a child under Jesus’s care. And why not? When there is Jesus Loves You written over the walls. Not all over, at three places to be precise. Thank You Jesus.

Bangalore has been fun. It’s been a little more than four months since I came here and I’m beginning to like Bangalore all the more as time passes by. Yes, you’ll have the young cool, hip, lip and such junta talking about pollution, the traffic and what was that – yes, the crumbling infrastructure! Where did you hear that? Some dumb newsreader would have said that or a screaming RJ maybe. For all the problems that it has, and which I completely accept there are, Bangalore is a nice place. One may not absolutely love the place, you can definitely not not like it. It doesn’t bring out extreme emotions like Mumbai does. For example – I absolutely love Mumbai, but I like Bangalore or I hate Mumbai, but Bangalore’s OK or some such thing. In my case, the former is true.

Why I like Bangalore is because there are places like Domlur, where Jesus protects me every night. It’s close to all the hustle and bustle of the city, yet far removed from the noise and related pains of a city. Vegetable sellers sell door to door in their carts, hearing their pitch is such a pleasure; the temples have their fairs, taking me back by many years; kids play cricket on the street during the day and badminton under the halogen lamps by the night. Not sure how many saw these knife-sharpeners in your natives, they come here in Domlur!

And of course, with Ankush around, there’s never a dull moment . Be it the sessions at Alibi, or the trip to Hyderabad that never happened, or the trip to Nandi Hills that happened, he’ll make sure it’s always happening, or make it indeed happening by not making things happen. And yes, it’s such fun when you have to ask him to keep looking at his feet while walking on Brigade Road and Picasso Street. There’s nothing like Picasso Street in Bangalore though, it’s the street on which Pecos is located. Pandit coined the name in one of his amazing moments of realization. Harsha, while all this was happening, was, well, quiet. Harsha did speak once, while we were at the air show during Aero India when he said Squadron Leader Mohit Shishodia deserves a hats-off.


Pandit and Harsha know why Squadron Leader Mohit Shishodia deserves a hats-off. The Aero Show was indeed a thrilling experience, especially the Akash Ganga formations and maneuvers and of course, Squadron Leader Mohit Shishodia brilliant dives and take-offs. One just had to be there along with Harsha, Pandit and me to know why Squadron Leader Mohit Shishodia indeed deserves a hats-off.

Hang-outs at M G Road and Brigade Road happened with Seth, Venki, Ram and Baka dropping into the city at different points of time. I’m really scared of Brigade Road though, having hallucinations that everyone on that might suddenly start beating me up. There are too many people on that road for my comfort. Church Street on the other hand is far safer. With Premier Bookstore, Blossoms Bookstore, Alibi, Ganesh Juice Center on it, and Koshy’s located at the end of it, which makes it more the kind of place I’d like to hang out. Movie watching with Pandit has definitely been fun, Apocalypto, with character names like Turtles Run, Smoke Frog, Jaguar Paw, Flint Sky and funniest of all – Ball Breath was a wonderful beginning. It continued weekly with 300, The Last King of Scotland, Shakalaka Boom Boom, Namastey London, The Namesake. Watched Anwar and Loose Change on DVD. And yes, Bharath is in Bangalore too, reminding me of this by turning up at Airport Road one fine evening. The dinner at Bombay Post was followed by a movie session at IISc - under the stars, under the watchful eyes of J N Tata, when we watched The Pursuit of Happyness.

The Iron Maiden concert was more funny than fun. With people having arrived from far and wide, from as far as Noida and Nepal, to as wide as Surat, the concert was really disappointing even for a true Maiden fan. With Chinsi and Vinzu around, we sure had our share of fun, ducking when Eddie came on stage with a gun in his hand, fearing that he may actually fire or cracking stupid jokes that the show wrapped up early because the Pandalwallah had an important marriage to set up his pandal the next day. We were also wondering if 666 was mre pronounced while The Number of the Beast was being performed because Sehwag perhaps was hitting them against Bangladesh that day. The truth as we all know now was something else. Less said the better about that. No, I will say something about it soon. But Cricket perhaps deserves more justice than just a passing mention in this post.


Between many near-life experiences,
Movies
300
Apocalypto
Namsatey London
The Namesake
Shakalaka Boom Boom
The Last King of Scotland
Anwar
Loose Change
Pursuit of Happyness – Bharath and Radhika in IISc.

A Movie A Day week

Dor – Imaan ki Chhalaang
Life in a Metro
Lage Raho Munnabhai
Parzania
Black Friday
Shootout At Lokhandwala


Books

Once Upon a Time Zone - Neelesh Mishra – husband of Nidhi Razdan.
Black Friday
My Friend Leonard
a million little pieces
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Transmission
The Red Carpet
Ludmila’s Broken English

Currently reading

Alchemy of Desire


Travel

Home, Mangalore, Bommanahalli, Home, Home, Home.


Other things – writing long letters!

Quizzing –Bangalore quizzing is funny. Thank God for Tom Swifities, buying The Undercover Economist with the prize money!

Bangalore – enough of Dr. Raj, M G Road and Brigade Road. Hate those RJs whose tribute is mocking actually. And yuppies who make fun of him – If you come today. No chai in Bangalore.

Church Street and Picasso Street are fun.

Meeting Venki, Hitesh, Baka and Ram.

Embarrassing Ankush during the swimming session! Mohit Shishodia – Air Trip
Iron Maiden - Vinzu!

Domlur is an amazing place!

BMS and PES Fest – trying to shake off the cynical feeling, of them being ‘kids’ etc.

Visits to IISc campus. Feeling of wanting to get back to studies.


Less is more - City and Blinding Lights and Snow. Stipebhai.

Nandi Hills trip. Riding downhill at 60 kmph with the engine off, overtaking three cars is not an achievement.

Mahaquizzer and World Quizzing Championship

Shootout at Lokhandwala, Life in a Metro and the auto ride back.

Kitchen, cooking. Return to Maggi.

Radio characters, sensible fun place on the internet.