Chance discovery

There are phases when I get immersed by a television show for months and hunt down all episodes and watch them.First it was Curb Your Enthusiasm,then Seinfeld and then The Office and currently Prison Break . Curb has just finished season  6 so I decided to try searching for it on torrents. Before I continue with the next sentence, let me state that I cannot wait to get my hands on a DVD.I am a true fan of Larry David and would support his comedy by buying original stuff whenever I can. I bought first 3 seasons and now am looking for season 6. But until then long live torrents. So while looking for reviews and fan mails I found this site

http://larrydavidfan.com/ 

Finally someone decided to put all things related to the comic genius in one place. The thing I like about his comedy (both Seinfeld and Curb) is the twists he lends to everyday events which make it really funny. The Christ nail or the dropping a Junior mint into the patient in the operating theatre.. His mind is still fertile for 3 more seasons of Curb I hear. Bring it on!!

Race or mother

Sometimes I have to admit that Indians are more liberal when it comes to dealing with race and caste , the latter which is sometimes passionately held and protected by its members. With so many castes/sub-castes and sub sects in India, its a miracle that we live as one country.A certain Australian cricketer  raises a hue and cry about being called a 'monkey'  which he claims is a racist abuse. Aren't we all descendants of that mammal family irrespective of colour?  The irony is that the Australians are pacified when they come to learn that he actually heard it wrong and the actual abuse was a common Hindi expletive  referring to his mother's ---- No, I am not putting blanks because I do not want to offend the readers of the blog by mentioning something profane.It is actually a literal translation. Fill the blanks yourself  Mr   'Abusee'. On of the creative expletives which gives a choice to the receiver of the abuse. Strangely the Australians were relieved that its only a reference to the cricketer's mother and not the entire race. So let there be peace. 

I hear on FM radio that the two protagonists in the incident will soon be  seen together in a television commercial  . Is it going to be an ad for Tata Indicom? Kajol would probably step in and ask Bhajji ,who is getting frustrated yelling the Hindi expletive at the Australian, to throw the existing connection  and get a Tata Indicom connection so that the person at the other can can clearly hear the abuse and be convinced its not racist.   

The right byte

I used to love this nutritious and tasty chocolate bar. Unfortunately it is no longer available in my office cafe..Looks like I need to hunt for it outside. I wonder why I never saw any ads for this one. Its exactly the kind of snack for those people  who warm the seats of many a cubicle and sit in front of a monitor all day

9.99 % and unlimited liability

Anyone who travels by a shuttle to office is audience to the morning shows on FM radio channels. A recent campaign by GE finance is doing rounds and every 10 minutes you get to hear an ad about home loans at 9.99%. Even before I could think this was too good to believe there was something at the end of the ad that made me think.Usually there is guy who says disclaimers like "Mutual funds are subject to market risks..please read offer document carefully" with such speed which makes me think they made him drink litres of water,tied him to a chair and got him to repeat the disclaimer till his bladder burst out. In a similar tone there is guy who tells "A company with unlimited liability" Will someone tell me what the hell unlimited liability is? As far as I know a company especially a financial one doesn't get limited liability if its credentials are shaky so that customers can personally hold the directors responsible if something goes awry..

I need to find out more..The deal of 9.99% looks shady.

Godel and Bollywood

If the mathematician Kurt Godel were to be alive and by some miracle was watching the recent bollywood releases,he would be pleased. Kurt Godel was the first to disprove the whole premise of the rigorous axiomatic systems proposed by the Principia Mathematica. He did this by constructing self referential structures and proved that in any axiomatic system there are theorems which are true but cant be proven.The concept of self reference appears quite frequently in theoretical computer science. Another place where it finds mention , quite strangely is television and media.Both OSO and Khoya Khoya Chand have references to themselves or strictly speaking references to movies with the same name as themselves in the script. The idea can be used effectively to generate some good intelligent humor.The concept has been used before in subtle ways, for example in Seinfeld when Jerry and George try to pitch their show "Jerry" to NBC which is actually a reference to the real show and tells the story of how the show Seinfeld actually came into being. The co creator of the series Larry David , used the same concept to even more comedic effect in the series Curb your enthusiasm where he makes references to a character Larry David loosely based on himself.

The idea blurs reality and fiction and when used in comedy results in some humorous situations. Its good to see Hindi movies using this technique. How about a movie which actually tells the story of how it got made.

Rivals or dinosaurs?

 

 

Here is a  very interesting multi part video featuring Steve Jobs and Bill Gates discussing their vision of the future of computing, Internet and mobility in the All Things Digital conference. Sure these guys were rivals but a question brings up a discussion on whether PCs(both windows and Mac) are bound to go extinct in the next 5 years in favor of pocket devices,cloud computing and other gizmos that allow you communicate,entertain yourself (ok not that you pervert) and be productive. I am glad to see both agreeing on the fact that thick clients are not going to go away.Its a combination of client and cloud computing that are going to deliver compelling services. There is discussion on search,mobile and tablet computing, natural language processing ,education etc. Go see it!

The tug of war between the Congress and Left may have caused political analysts to predict polls and the markets to sway like a yo-yo but there may be one winner.That is the Indian democracy.

 

If this were Pakistan ,the Congress would have arrested the Left leaders and exiled them for a decade

If this were the US, the Congress would have convinced the Left and the public that we are in the brink of a national security crisis.A terrorist attack may anytime cripple the country's power existing supply grid and an alternative nuclear source needs to be developed

If this were the China, ... actually this can never happen in China.

If it was Mexico, a covert deal would be signed with a rich industrialist to start nuclear power generation.The top rulers would get a decent cut and holiday home in Florida

 

Whatever happens in the tussle,I am happy that we have different opinions and views. It may slow down the process but is no excuse for having a unilateral decision making ruling party.

gPhone?

Many sources point to a phone made by Google in partnership with Samsung and speculate its release in mid September. The world is just recovering from the mega launch of iPhone and is yet to unearth many of its amazing capabilities, such as using it as a bomb detonator,a device for stimulating certain body parts,and a treadmill among many others

What could gPhone possibly do to upstage the iPhone.

It is known to have built in maps and GPS support-it could possibly help burglars escape from the crime scene as fast as possible with its GPS-Maps supported gEscape.

Obviously it would come in with gtalk built in. Now people who have used gtalk for its voice chat know of its annoying habit of un-muting the windows speaker and blaring away loudly much to the users embarrassment. I am probably guessing this feature will be carried over to the phone.Understanding silent mode is probably not one of its features.

Oh,and how can I forget its search features. Using a new and improved Google reverse search ,the gPhone will allow others to search for you on the internet,so that your boss can find out where you are instead of being at work and your wife can track with who you are.


On a serious note, I don't know how speculations of a September release gained ground.FCC approvals take at least a couple of months. Apple didn't announce iPhone in January for no reason. It took them 3 months from then to get FCC approval.

Until the gPhone arrives, let us keep our feet on the ground.

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For all those denouncing the Left as conservative and regressive,here is an interesting article by the man himself,Prakash Karat- CPI(M) general secretary on why the Left opposes the deal. Many valid points made,and some food for thought.

Judgement days..

The judiciary and crime enforcement departments in India seem to be working full time or at least it appears so. For the typical news reading Indian, three landmark criminal cases have seen some judgements. The Coimbatore blast acquitted Madina , CBI finally charged Dera Sacha Sauda chief Baba Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in two murder cases and one rape case, and the biggest of them all,Munnabhai goes to jail .

I was glued to the TV on Tuesday when the Dutt verdict came out. On reaching home I tried to catch up and switching channels I came across this pre recorded telekon with Trishala,his teenage daughter in USA. May be she was nervous or something but she sounded very stupid when she prayed that she hoped the "Judge is a good man". Coming from a law student that sounds dumb.If only verdicts were decided on the Judge's mood. The interview continued and the reporter would not let her off regarding one part of a letter she wrote to her dad "Dad..I am with you always,I am the only woman in your life and you don't need another". In a series of logical and incisive volley of questions that would have put a CBI interrogator to shame ,the reporter managed to change her stance from being against her fathers remarriage to supporting it if a 'suitable' ""girl"" was found!! .
A waste of airtime and my time for having watched that interview.

Which brings me to the unfortunate timing of the new SBI Educational loans' billboard campaign "Now Munnabhai can get an MBBS too" :-) Munnabhai isnt going to any school ,he'll probably be in jail for a long time to come.



In other news,check out this show called "News on the loose" on CNBC TV18 at 11 am on Sundays. Its been a long time since Indian TV had an original Indian comedy show based on Indian events,business and personalities which is actually funny . The anchor comes up with funny one liners. A particularly funny line whose context I don't remember but I am sure made it even funnier when I listened to it first - "When god minimizes one window,he maximises another"

Until next time..