For IITM junta…
I am referring to the following picture.
Author: Aditya
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2013 in review
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog. Nothing spectacular, but archiving for future reference.
Here’s an excerpt:
The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 9,500 times in 2013. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
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How to change your airtel corporate mobile plan
I have a corporate airtel postpaid mobile connection and the plan was not very cost effective for my usage pattern. However, trying to change the plan by giving a call to their 121 call centre was of no use as the support staff seemed to lack the access to change corporate plans (in fact they didn’t even seem to have proper visibility to my eligible corporate plans). In fact, the phone support told me to visit an airtel relationship centre for a plan change. The website wasn’t of much help either as corporate plans can’t be switched online, and the airtel website is seriously lacking in any kind of details on postpaid corporate plans.
Email was a different story, and their response time is pretty phenomenal with replies coming in within 4-5 hours even on weekends and nights. And this was the route that ultimately got me success. So here go the steps:
- Log on to the airtel account management site (if you know your registered email ID, jump to step 3).
- Check your email address under the personal information section and update if not active (you can also sign up for an ebill under the bills section).
- Send a mail to 121@in.airtel.com from your registered email address with the name of the plan you want to switch to, and your mobile number as the subject. In case you are not sure of the plans you can switch to, drop them an email first asking for the available plans. Word of advice: keep your message short, simple and to the point.
- You should receive a confirmation mail and voila, you’re done!
If you are curious on the plan I got, it was the Alive Net CUG 375 Combo Plan with 600 minutes of local & STD talktime and 1 GB of 3G data as part of the package. There are similar combo plans available that are tuned for local usage if you are interested, and they are quite economical when compared to your usual subscription of a call plan with a separate data plan.
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Chander Pahar: Molehill of a mountain
I came away pretty disappointed with the ambitious project of a film that had worked up a lot of curiosity following its promos. The inexperience of the film crew for such a project was evident from the movie length (2 ½ hours!), editing (particularly action sequences) and cinematography (too many close-ups). As for the Bunyip (incidentally an Australian myth rather than African), it turned out to be more of a ROUS (Rodent Of Unusual Size).
Better luck next time.
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Dhoom 3: Road Rash the movie
For a movie that’s made up holes held together by what passes for slivers of a story, I won’t bother digging deeper. However, the opening chase sequence (and most subsequent bike chases) did make me nostalgic for the video game Road Rash. If you have played it, you know what I mean, and if you haven’t here’re a few screenshots to illustrate the point.
With that out of the way, it was quite fun to see the Indian incarnation of Aquafina bottles on the meeting room tables in Chicago (US versions here). Then of course there was the climax which turned out to be a jazzed up Mountain Dew ad. Not really surprising given the starring role it played in the bonding scenes in the amusement park.
Last but not the least – “Et tu Aamir?” Then again, he has done this to help out his brother. So, if you are planning to watch or have watched Dhoom 3, recall Aamir Khan’s advice from 3 Idiots and put a hand on your heart and remind yourself “All is well”…
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Words of wisdom from Asterix and the Normans
True courage
What’s in a name?
Getting your priorities right
Everyone takes advantage of my weakness
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The earliest Cadbury ad in Hindi?
Those were real big bars of chocolates back in the 1960s (the movie is Dev Anand starrer Gambler). Also, this was before the Dairy Milk branding and the all purple look.
Full song video below:
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Krrish vs ScrapIronman and more
I managed to catch 5 movies over the last 3 weeks, and here are my usual views for the lot.
Krrish 3
Not much to say about Krrish 3 other than the fact that if you missed any of the Hollywood superhero movies over the last few years, then you can hope to catch quite a bit from each in the movie. And as a bonus, you get to watch the Indian ScrapIronman in the end. There’s also the fact that Bollywood has caught up with the West in terms of special effects and production values, though some of that money going into the story would have helped. Of course, this isn’t to say that I didn’t enjoy the movie, but just not in the way the film makers may have intended.
Thor 2
Pretty much typical Marvel stuff with the customary Stan Lee cameo, and the usual mid-credit teaser for the next instalment of the Marvel franchise.
Ram-Leela
This was actually my first Sanjay Leela Bhansali movie (no, I haven’t watched Khamoshi or Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam), and ended up enjoying it (a case of enjoyment being closely related to who you watch it with). Since the story is based on Romeo & Juliet, you know it all ends beforehand, so the entertainment is solely in the journey to the tragic conclusion (which in most cases would seem easy to avoid). Entertainment factor aside, the movie also had interesting depiction of mobile phones (feature phones mostly) in a rural context, including a twitter reference in keeping with the times.
Gori Tere Pyar Mein
I won’t bother trying to comment on the story, but this seems to be a movie made exclusively for an overseas audience. After all, they managed to accurately portray the iPhone model being used – a white 4\4S used in the 2011-12 flashback scenes vs an iPhone 5 used in the present day scenes. Where the film makers take you for a ride is when they try to pass off Mumbai as Bangalore. This is not Mission Impossible where you can still get away showing Kannada signs in Mumbai. To top it off, they first passed off the Mumbai airport as the Bangalore airport in the first half, and then as the Delhi airport in the second half (the Meru Cab did have a DL number plate, but there was also the Tab Cab standing next to it).
Frozen
I probably enjoyed this movie the most, and it was a throwback to the animated Disney musicals of the past. The Mickey Mouse cartoon before the movie was also quite entertaining. Overall, a fun experience that left me with a nice feeling as most animated movies do.
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The best Google joke ever – “Don’t be evil”
First the Google Reader shutdown earlier this year showing that Google is not averse to shutting down services that have a significant user base. Then came the shared personal endorsement that was opt out by default and would have made Facebook proud. And now we have Google experimenting with banner ads. They sure had us fooled.
With the search results already looking like below on the iPad, nothing much left to say other than the world probably ended in 2012, and we are living in an alternate version of reality.
If you are a heavy user of their services, good luck trying to get out. Money makes not only people, but also organizations do funny things.
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Apple doing to software what Microsoft did to hardware?
Now that Apple has announced that OS X updates will be free going forward, and many of its first party apps like iWork are going to be free with new devices, Microsoft seems to have its task cut out. Many people seem to think that this move by Apple will really hurt Microsoft. In some ways Apple is trying to commoditize software the way Microsoft commoditized hardware over the last 2 decades. However, there are a few key points that not many have mentioned:
- Microsoft has given away major OS updates for free. E.g. Windows XP SP2. In a way, the Apple move was preempted by the free Windows 8.1 update.
- Microsoft is a past master of bundling free software with its OS. Remember Internet Explorer vs Netscape? Or more recently, Office being given away with Windows RT.
- Apple hardware remains luxury items, and free OS upgrades are not going to make budget conscious people switch from Windows to Apple devices. That said, the real threat comes when people realize that a tablet meets their requirements and is probably cheaper than a PC (desktop\laptop) when it is time to get a new device.
- The real threat to Microsoft comes from Android, as OEMs are gradually warming up to Android as an alternative for Windows for laptops. Since the market is undergoing a major shift in the kind of personal devices being used (desktops to laptops to mobiles & tablets), there is a big scope for a free OS. Android has been successful on mobiles while Linux failed on PCs due to this very reason.
- OS development has an associated cost even if you do not pay a third party for it. Apple is just subsidizing the software costs through hardware margins. Even if OEMs decide to opt for Android or Chrome OS, they will need an in house team to customize the OS. Of course, OEMs probably already have an in house team developing software for Windows given the typical bloatware that comes pre-installed on PCs.
The bottom line is that Microsoft has to continue to woo its OEM partners who bring in the OS revenue, while at the same time transform its revenue source to hardware. The Nokia acquisition becomes even more important now.
