Author: manuscrypts

  • The New Microsoft

    Its like the typical bollywood underworld story which is told from the anti hero’s perspective… The hero makes his entrance to save society from the evil villain’s menace, then takes the villain’s place, and pretty soon the line between good and evil becomes a big blur…
    In the internet story, MS played the big villain, thanks to its monopolistic leanings and bundling tactics, almost forcing users to choose it.. and that set the scene for the entry of the perfect hero – google… and as the story goes, slowly but surely google trumped the villain at every possible juncture in a matter of few years… and users stuck to it, inspite of blips like Gmail being a snoopy service that peeps into their mailbox…
    And Google went on with its contextual relatonship with its customers… after all how can google serve its users best until it knows all that is to know about the user… so that it can serve up ads well in context and give the user the correct info exactly when he needs it… and the behemoth continues into radio ads, moves into the television ad space and local billboard space.. all in the guise of the hero serving the society, slowly converting homo sapiens into homo searchians…
    after all even if the slogan is “don’t be evil”, all it takes is changing the definition of evil…

    until next time, should the users feel lucky ?

  • World Wide Web

    And the lure of the web continues…. worldwide… as the third edition of the friendly neighbourhood super hero’s screen antics released on May 4th… i think i underestimated the fanbase a little bit as i was caught napping while the tickets at PVR and INOX were sold out for the weekend… but thankfully, there was a friendly neighbourhood theatre down Brigade Road, which we had never had to visit in our four year stay in Bangalore… Rex, the non multiplex in the centre of Bangalore…
    And after these last few years of multiplex movies, i had forgotten the non DTS sounds and the non cinemascope views that could be experienced in a theatre.. and so just about managed to salvage the movie from between the sightly silhouettes and massive denim coated butts,crying children and adults exercising their freedom of speech…But all that was okay, for it wasn’t just another movie, it was spiderman…
    and since it was spiderman, it brought back a lot of memories – of sunday evenings spent watching 15 minutes of cartoon on Doordarshan.. of singing along with the title song..of gulping down hated flavours of Rasna just to get the Spiderman masks that came free with it.. of wearing the masks and pretending to be the friendly neighbourhood superhero.. of gazing longingly at the full costume hung inside the classy showroom….
    they say every kid needs a superhero, but it was nice to realise that some adults choose not to grow out of their childhood fancies…. as peter parker says in the end – we are nothing but the choices we make…

    until next time, happy swinging 😉
    P.S: As far as reviews go, lets just say there’s only about 20 minutes of web, the rest is offline 😉

  • Some secondary thoughts

    A few days back, i was reading a discussion online on the evolution of what is popularly called Web 2.0, in an Indian context… No, dont go away, this is not becoming a business blog , not yet 😀
    Anyway, the discussion was about what kind of web 2.0 models would succeed in India.. And Orkut being one of the top ten sites accessed by Indians (according to Alexa), it, alongwith the others in the ‘me too’ category like yaari, minglebox, desimartini etc became one of the topics of discussion…
    And that set me wondering..the succcess of orkut in an american context is not surprising… the absence of a ‘real’ social network with relatives and family, at least as compared to India, makes it a very interesting concept… but even with the increasing nmbr of da txt drvn generation which is born with a technological silver spoon, and the omnipresent guys who want to do friendships,it seems way too popular to be just a passing fad..
    so, if i have to put the too and too together, are we seeing the start of a new generation whose dependency on real life relatives will be much lesser than their dependence on the virtual life.. with second life becoming primary and real life beoming secondary..
    until next time, does second life give second chances?

  • Fourplay

    She removed her clothes, one by one; all the while aware he was watching her. Slowly, for she was waiting for him to join her. He didn’t. He thought girls hated being disturbed while washing their dolls; he didn’t like playing with dolls anyway.

    The bridegroom had been engaged once before the marriage. The bride had had two affairs before the marriage. At 33, she realised there had been just about enough of foreplay in her life, and hoped that her fairytale wedding would have a wonderful climax.

    They were all here, by invitation, and they all wanted to know what this was all about. But they would have to wait a little longer, for there was one more episode to go before all became clear. He was hoping they would wait.

    What was that about? It was nothing much, it was just that his blog was celebrating its fourth anniversary, and he thought writing four episodes of forty four words would be a good way to celebrate it. Until next time, how was the fourplay?

  • Identification Parade

    A few moons ago, Prero had a neat post on the five songs she most identified with, and asked us to make our own. And so i did, (though she says i have to make a new list 🙁 )and these were my top 5, and irrespective of what the lyricists had in mind, this is what they mean to me..
    High Hopes- Pink Floyd My anthem for perhaps two of the most wonderful years.. everything fits – the grass was greener, the nights of wonder, with friends surrounded… the causeway and the endless river..
    Time-Pink Floyd The template of a possible life, and the home town life and the plans could have fitted so well, but perhaps (andthankfully) not.
    Telegraph Road-Dire Straits Life, change, and the effects it has, the lyrics somehow capture very well our actions and their consequences.
    Cats in the Cradle (Ugly Kid Joe) Almost the same as the one above, except that this one gets more personal and human.
    Just before it gets dark – Emmy Lou Harris Perhaps there is a common theme in all the songs – of nostalgia, dreams etc. This one has the added characteristic that it was also featured in one of my favourite shows-Taken.

    And so, that was the identification parade. My favourite songs, these and other, also have a lot to do about the time i first heard them, be it during my school, engg college, post grad, first job…and so on. Somehow, they also get associated to my life and times at that point in time, and so every time i hear these songs, its not just the music that gets me, its also those bittersweet bouts of nostalgia..

    until next time, maybe life is just a song 🙂