My Open Letter

Here is my open letter !! 

 

 

 

 

Ok let’s go back to study

College was fun for most of us. (Taken into account my recent sting of b-school applications and the art of approaching the guess estimate question I would consider an outlier of 15%) Bunk classes, go to the hangout at nearby tea stall down the hostel road, conveniently located to puff a smoke, where none of the profs you meet in classes visit. Planned trips and unplanned midnight trips were the frequently visited pages. And it’s been ages you have travelled to a  new place now. The last one was almost 9-10 months ago.

So you are fucking 26 now, your girlfriend has either left for a more settle guy (apparently a guy who earns more than you) or convincingly you never had one (better to have loved and lost, than not loved at all?). You have been working on the same shit project for some time, its almost 3 years now. Nothing in this world excites you now. You don’t have anything to look forward to. You had some recent interest. But they are all locked down deep inside you. The DSLR you bought, after paying a 6 month EMI at 3.5% of Interest is safely put in your cupboard; turns out that you realized you are not that great an artist or may be you just had that realization which uttered “Every other fucker thinks he is some photographer and can start a photography club” Subconsciously you don’t want to remind of your normal life. Nothing is diverse and different if a whole bunch of people start to doing it. Why the hell in the world did so many of your friends turned to photography. Damn the fuckers .

Well than what ? Time for something new ? Different ? Interesting ? You are as clueless as the fucking politicians.

How about a Masters in US (fuck yeah) That feels so comforting all of a sudden.

The monotony of life is just unbearable. You dream of dating white chicks, clubbing in Los Angeles, California. Oh wait you can have a cool summer trip in Germany. Basically you drift away from yourself. You want something new in life. The current scheme of things doesn’t works at all.

Of course Masters or popularly abbreviated as MS is the perfect choice. It not only offers a degree but also a chance to settle in foreign land, should you want to chose later. That fantasy is so cool.

So the next logical step is start studying for GRE, learn by heart the every damn word in the English dictionary. Solve all the filthy sentence correction question. Master the art of doing Reading comprehension if you don’t understand a shit.

Or wait option 2. you threaten quitting if your project doesn’t initiates H1B. “Onsite, here I come!”

6 months later you start missing home-made coffee, the midnight walk to nearby tea stalls, your friends talking shit after getting piss drunk in the local bar.  The list eventually starts getting as long as you stay in foreign land.

Everything has changed.

The story of a DSLR

For a lot of people who are stuck in a quarter life crisis the DSLR comes in as a temporary rescue. Mid-20’s , the feeling of purposelessness, big bucks, easy EMI options (all thanks to the credit model of economy), and a sudden urge to quench the thirst of art and creativity makes us to fantasize about owning a killer camera. A digital camera ? No wait digital camera were in mid 2000’s. The DSLR is the latest talk of town. You have unexplored creative energy bubbling within you and the boring humdrum of office life seems colorless; and Eureka! You have an idea.

For weeks and month you trying accessing to the content online searching for pages and websites that gives you tons of information about cams and photography. You consult photographers and meet almost everyone wherever you go and then you finally settle for one.

Well it has a lens, abc mm it’s black and takes great images; ranging from a bird’s eye to floating cloud. And then what is the next big logical step ? You log on to facebook and post all the images under a newly created album ‘My first photo with my brand new xyz DSLR’. Initially you abuse facebook but eventually you spam almost everyone’s feed in your friend list. And far as your friends are considered they tend to ignore after a while.

Humans are interesting beings. What begins as a quest to get rid of quarter life crisis eventually tapers out. Truly said we are our desires.

My BBM Pin – ######

So I slept last night and presumably woke up in 2009. People were sharing their BBM Pins. I found it interesting. Apparently I installed BBM. I had been exposed to this instant messenger. No I did not or do not own blackberry. But the firm for which I was working last evidently had given me a corporate blackberry, that made my life miserable and sad. (All thanks to the minutely emails).

A well-received advertisement campaign never defines the success of a product. Similarly, the arrival of BBM on Android and iPhone may have pulled in a large number of users, but the humongous 10 million downloads in 24 hours is not necessarily an indicator that users are happy, satisfied and would continue using the app, that was once a BlackBerry device exclusive. While there are fundamental differences between downloading an application and using a application; we often tend to overlook that. I have been quite a satisfied customer/consumer of widely used instant messaging (IM) tool WhatsApp and never looked for other IM apps flocking the iTunes App Store; but I eagerly waited for BBM to come to App store. The app in spite of BlackBerry's sagging fortunes, retained much of its iconic appeal.

The problem with BBM is that it has been 2 years behind the schedule application in the word of cross-platform IM services. While many believe that BBM might be able to compete with other cross platform IMs like hangout or WhatsApp, I seriously doubt it. Why do I doubt ? Yes here are my some of the reasons.

1. The flaw in the invitation model – The PIN based model is highly flawed, for the simple reason, that while it maintains the privacy aspect it does adds an additional layer of complexity. Means look at the iMessage.  A common belief is that a BBM PIN, at times, is shared when you don't want to give your number but want to stay in touch and maintain communication with a set of people. In such cases I would recommend Google Hangouts (Google Talk) instead, which I believe Android users would be quite used to. You can take their email address and add them to your Hangouts. Here you also have an authority to choose and reject. Another purported BBM advantage washed away. Anyone of us may come across situations where we want to establish a communication with a person, but may feel a little shy in approaching and asking for a BBM PIN - he may share, may be not. A relation may gets spoiled before it is made. WhatsApp is a much better choice here. I mean c’mon we leave in 2013 and not in 2008
   
   
   
2. In an IM application what matters the most is the appearance of previous messages in a chat window. Before you make a reply, you often want to read the recent messages exchanged between the two or more than two in case of a group chat. There are more messages in a WhatsApp chat window than in a BBM chat window. Moreover in BBM there is cluttered display picture next to every message, which takes most of space unnecessarily. BlackBerry appears to want us to write without reading, while it is more important to first read and then write.
   
   
   
3. Emoji is a new language of communication. It has been widely adopted by Android devices and well as iOS devices. Instant messaging apps have almost dozens of emoji icons to reflect much of your moods and behavior. On the other hand BBM has a limited stock of emoji icons
   
   
   
4. Of all the nonsense stuff existent in the world which are deemed to be non-existential is the PING! button on BBM. It reminds me of Yahoo Messenger and it almost looks a redundant feature to me.
   
   
   
5. Today, when most of the people own more than one device (phone, tablets etc) and prefer the convenience of using an app on multiple devices, BlackBerry released the BBM app in a way that confines users to use one BBM ID on one device at a time. The same issue is with WhatsApp. A WhatsApp account can only be verified with one number, on one device. Being a late participant in the race, BlackBerry could have got an edge over WhatsApp by making the BBM app work across devices. Though it never happened. Google hangouts is the one which has real advantages on this.

Despite writing it does not mean that I dislike BBM, it has been a great app on BlackBerry and brings much of it to Android and iOS, but then the Smartphone world has evolved much faster than BlackBerry could and BBM for Android and iOS is an indicator. Many new BBM users I know have already uninstalled the app, disappointed by BBM. If and when BlackBerry brings voice and video calling to BBM for Android (and iPhone), the scales could tilt a little. Till then it might lie idle in the social folder of my iPhone.

 

Like | Smile

What does it means when a girl like or smiles at you. Possibly things can go topsy-turvy or does it leads to some kind of pleasurable phenomenon. But then what next ? How do you take the next step. I was reading over this and came across one analytically bent solution to it. Being an analyst and closer  to number, this seems so good.

It's simple. Probably if you guys have a had a time with probability this will be easy  to be deciphered. Just use Bayes' theorem. The probability she likes you is

is what you want to know - the probability she likes you given the fact that she smiles at you. is the probability that she will smile given that she sees someone she likes.

is the probability that she likes a random person.

is the probability that she will smile at a random person.

For example, suppose she just smiles at everyone. Then intuition says that fact that she smiles at you doesn't mean anything one way or another.

Indeed, and , and we have

meaning that knowing that she smiles at you doesn't change anything. At the other extreme, suppose she smiles at everyone she likes, and only those she likes. Then

  and . 

Then we have

and she is certain to like you. In the intermediate case, what you need to do is find the ratio of odds of smiling at people she likes to smiles in general, multiply by the percentage of people she likes, and there is your answer. The more she smiles in general, the lower the chance she likes you. The more she smiles at people she likes, the better the chance. And of course the more people she likes, the better your chances are.

Of course, how to actually determine these values is still a mystery.

Manager vs Leader

I have been thinking for sometime what distinguishes a leader and a manager. Both seem to be doing equally well. I read a couple of articles and here is what I have pen down which I think are some of the key striking differences.

a. Managers have subordinates while leaders have followers

b. Manager often create circle of power while leaders have circle of influence

c. Manager often count values while leaders creates value

d. Manager does things right while leader does right thing

e. Manager has a short term vision while leader has a longer vision

f. The manager relies on control; the leader inspires trust.

The list can grow big but yes for now this seems reasonable to me.

iOS 7 – Preview on iPhone 4

The preview of iOS 7 on my iPhone 4

First thing first. Once I powered up my iPhone 4 the first thing I saw was the complete re-designed home screen. It had gone a considerable change. Especially the button which said slide to unlock comes with a layer to slide. The notification center sees a major re-haul. The control centre gives some quick option to switch on or off the airplane, wifi, sleep; the torch light comes to a rescue in control centre

           

 

The home screen has major icons re designed. With a variant shade of color and luminosity the icons looks more rich and more sharp. The major change brought by iOS7 is the way it has provided the option to group the apps. The group now opens as a window in the same frame and the visibility and accessibility is much better. Also the size limit of 12 is no longer valid.

                    

 

The additional screen which was the leftmost screen to search has now been removed and you can search on any of the home screen by just sliding it down. This is one of the most intuitive feature of iOS7. 

 

 

The calendar apps get a major re design considerations and is now more engaging and helpful. Sliding down a date on a month view opens the day view.

                                      

 

Some of the native apps gets a major design changes. The collections in photos is an interesting ways to group. Notes App looks much cleaner and actually excites me to use it again and again. The clock app is more crisp and useful. The weather app now actually looks like a more professional and neater.

   

 

The Phone app has also undergone a major aesthetic changes. The looks and feel is layered. The ‘Recent’, ‘Contact’, ‘Keypad’ and ‘Contact Details’ has a lighter theme now.

 

 

Finally, the widely spoke multi tasking feature helps us to switch between applications with more ease and also helps to get rid of applications which are not being used. This is a real icing on the cake. Multitasking first appeared in iOS 4, but at the time it was limited: Only certain types of apps could run in the background, using Apple-approved frameworks for tasks such as audio, location, and uploading. In iOS 7, Apple has loosened the restrictions for multitasking and added a whole new user interface for switching between apps.That new interface is the most visible indication of the new multitasking system’s presence. Instead of relying on a bar of app icons, you double-click your device’s Home button to zoom out into a card-based interface, which shows you the app screens themselves (as they were when you last viewed them); tap any screen or the app icon below it to go to that app. You can quickly scroll over either the icons or the app screens to view your recent apps.

Not only does this make it easy to pick out which app you’re looking for, but it means you can quickly refer to a piece of information in one app without actually bringing that app to the foreground. You can also now force-quit an app by just flicking the card up and off the screen. And the multitasking interface works in both portrait and landscape orientations on all iOS devices.

All apps can also now take advantage of multitasking to keep updated in the background. Apple has worked to optimize the practice so it won’t deplete your device’s battery life—the system will look for factors like network connection strength, time of day, and push notifications to figure out when it should update apps. And it may refresh your frequently accessed apps—social networking programs, for example—more often.

Well,after the iOS 7 update my old iPhone 4 looks like a new device. Well I also got a new casemate matt screen guard just to make it look ‘physically’ new too. :)

FYI

A lot has already been said and written about Sachin on his retirement. I now feel that my childhood is over. But to all those who might start comparing any promising young cricketer with Sachin, this is my reply to them.

 

You may break all the records , you may loft well, you may flick well, you may play that leaned, laid back cover drive with lazy elegance, you may play that shot over mid-off with immense horsepower,   but it takes a lot to earn humility !! It takes a lot to be GOD . It takes a lot to be Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar.

 

स्थानांतरण

जी तीन  हफ्ते हो गए हमें हैदराबाद आये हुए !!

पुणे से हैदराबाद आने का निर्णय इतना आसान नहीं था . सत साल हो गए थे पुणे में रहते हुए . अब तो मराठी समझ भी लेते  था और ट्रैफिक पुलिस के हाथ से लाइसेंस बचाने लायक बोल भी लेते था . कॉर्पोरेट टर्म्स में मुझे आप 'fast learner' भी कह सकते हैं ! खैर पुणे में अपने कमरे की बक्कोन्य में चाय की चुस्कियों के बीच शाम व्यतीत करने का मज़ा ही कुछ और था !! ऑटो वाले थोड़े टेढ़े थे पर एक बार से प्यार से बोल दीजिये  'काय  भाऊ ' वोह भी प्यार से मान जाते थे. कम से कम मीटर से तो चलते थे !! वडा पाव मुझे कभी पसंद नहीं आया पर पोहा और चाय की आदत भी मुझे वहीँ लगी ! पश्चिमीकरण के बावजूद पेठ वाले हिस्से में आज भी पुरानी सभ्यता की झलक मिल ही जाती थी !

और हैदराबाद जी इस शहर की अपनी बात है ! लोग काफी 'lite' है. रात में अपने स्पीकर्स पे गाने सुन ने पे कोई कुछ नहीं बोलता ! शायद सब चिल्ल लोग हैं यहाँ ! ऑटो वालों का थोडा लोड है ! मीटर से चलना ये पसंद नहीं करते और कयिओं में मीटर तो है ही नहीं ! रेट सुन के तो गुडगाँव के ऑटो वाले शर्मा जाए ! पर १० - १५  मिनट की खित पिट के बाद मान जाते हैं .

फिलहाल के लिए इतना ही !! थोड़ी पढाई कर लेते हैं

to be contiued