My blog has moved

please update your bookmarks …
http://www.manojganesan.com

paranoid android ?

Well, with the Chrome already coming close to the expectations if not meeting it, Google (T-Mobile) is going to unveil the next trick up its sleeve in the form of its Android Platform. The phone is called ‘Dream’ manufactured by HTC (a Taiwanese manufacturer), and is expected to come out next week according to here. To keep up with the competition, and frankly, even to be seriously considered, T-Mobile has increased its (previously non-existent) 3G coverage to 27 markets now.

It’s interesting that the Android phone is coming at a juncture when the IPhone seems to have captured such a huge section of the consumer market, and with most of the business market being held by Research in Motion. Also, it seems to be a pain to switch to T-Mobile with the maximum market share belonging to AT&T (27.1%) and Verizon (26.3%).

Peronally, I wish the phone is a complete knockout as I still haven’t brought the IPhone. However, with the rumor on the street telling that it is a developers phone, I don’t know how slick it’ll be. Not my biggest concern though …

geekdom – culture or cult

Since the hippie revolution combined with the emergence of the nerds happened to America, being different is no longer something you ought to be ridiculed for. I like this trend, in fact it is quite emboldening for aspiring teenagers, who would otherwise be bottled up in in the norms of the main culture of the era. However, the American nerd/geek sub-culture has a certain notoriety of being quite ridiculous at times, provided you drop your nerd cap and sprinkle some sensibility into thinking. Remember, a counter-culture should be powerful because of the possibilities it offers to individuals, a certain sort of validation to their orthogonality, if I may. In contrast to that, the nerd culture, at times seems to have caught up in a fashion of its own, to the point of me feeling that it creates more wannabes than inspiring a population to believe in themselves.   

 

Abbreviations, for instance are the order of the day. Omfg, are they or what! Abbreviations, in sentences violating grammar are the best. Lmfao, epic fail! Interpolating numbers in sentences. Stfu n00b! Examples that would send the founding fathers of English grammar in a whirlpool of misery are aplenty. Pretty interesting, and amusing that these constructs are supposed to be indispensable in your lingua franca to be considered as a serious geek. Another minor detail that becomes an eyesore in no time, is how a depreciation in lingual quality is considered fashionable, especially when mixed with technical terms. All in all, Wtf I say!

Monty Python and the Holy Grail, often considered to be the “movie-you-have-to-love-if-you-want-to-be-a-nerd”, is nothing but a dichotomy between confusion and stupidity. To think that this movie is considered one of the best movies of all time, in the midst of genuinely great cinema is a fitting testimony to what the nerd culture aspires and has achieved. I don’t really remember at what different levels I despised the movie when I first saw it, to the point of thinking that the only way I could like it was if I was a stupid 15 year old British kid who adores nonsense in the name of satire and dark comedy. There are many such examples, but this makes my point well enough for me to move on and lament further … 

I often get a feeling that a significant percentage of the aforementioned nerd population are more than happy in the many marvels they experienced as a child and as a programmer, to move on to anything significantly enlightening, say art, or classical music. How many times have you heard, “Tchaikovsky ftw!” or “That’s how Dali rolls, n00b”? I wonder if one could extrapolate the nerd culture to a cult, one that is limiting in its logic, but gregarious in influencing the minds of many for purposes of validating their beliefs.  Another typical characteristic is that they worship their nerd-gods and are very harsh on newbies (ahem, n00bs). 

Anyways, detractors would obviously pose the question of “what is enlightening”, “is there an absolute right”, “aren’t you a dimwit to not understand our profound theories” and so on. Well, in my defense, I am not against the coolness in being a geek, in fact, if you can make an authoritative statement about your passions in the midst of a chaotic population with an inclination towards herd mentality and the rest being ordinary, that’s great. My problem is with glorifying the stupid and unmistakably retarded and with people being so desperate to fit in … 

<rotten tomatoes and eggs ensue…>

those four years

In the midst of animated discussions belittling the travesty that engineering was, I am often caught in a turmoil of emotions ranging from the lack of memories from that period in my life to the often repeated feeling of how gargantuan a waste that period of education was. Tonight I was witness to another such discussion, and I usually get a lot of breathing space because I am surrounded by EE grads most of whose concerns from that lost era fall into my deaf ears. So, as it is usually welcome, I don’t end up speaking faster than I think. Somewhere before I have written albeit briefly about the useless force-feeding of information I (and most others) received during engineering. The unfortunate thing is, my memory seems to hopelessly fail me when I try to color my points using specific incidents, usually leading me to be a silent spectator. So, even here, even though my attempt would be to be specific, you would notice a significant abstraction about whatever I’m trying to convey. 

Ambitions were quickly reminded of their back bencher status from the first year itself. In a system where the worthiness of the syllabus was decided by which text books were recommended, and how many chapters were covered, what else could you expect? In engineering colleges where the job of a lecturer is apparently the last backup of the worst student, what dreams would you cultivate? Where an ‘ATKT’ basically decides your fate as the scum of the universe, what support do you provide to the fallen? Where a student’s attachment to his college is based on the great time he has had with his friends and not because of the education he has received, what nostalgia should the brain be subjected to? So, am I so wrong in forgetting most of the four years? 
 

If engineering meant anything to me, it is the simple fight one can wage against all of the above; about how an individual can stick to his guns and in spite of what people do around you, you could do things your own way … and make it reasonably well enough to survive. If that’s an utter glorification, then maybe that’s what I need to convince myself that four years of my life haven’t just simply been washed away in the murky waters of mediocrity. 

Corporate America …

The US is apparently losing it’s fundamental values because of large corporations. According to many, these enterprises cater only to their interests, and most Americans are selfish enough to yield. One such example, in the book America Unchained (also a film, selected for Austin Film Festival in October 2007), the author wishes to say these exact things, and how he misses the America of yore. He says – It was the be-your-own-boss, do-your-own-thing, get-up-and-go America I’d grown up admiring and not the safe, faceless, corporate America I was staying in.

What self-indulgent bullshit! … judging an entire nations pattern based on your predilections! Well, it seems to be that US is where it is because of this ostensibly faceless nature of capitalism. And frankly, why should these corporations be done away with … they offer services, products to people from all financial silos. For the ones that cannot afford to spend too much, what’s wrong is it if these so-called evil empires offer products at a budget, albeit sometimes at an inferior quality.

And c’mon … the examples he quotes are ridiculous! Starbucks? … well, if there are coffee roasters better than them, then they must have all been extinct ’cause I haven’t had better coffee than from here. And frankly, its not just about their location, it’s just that their coffee is just plain-damn better than any other!

Many such degradation of America examples exist in posts/books/videos all over the web, what an utter waste of time!