An artwork can stay frozen in time, but I stumble through the years like everyone else.

Bill Watterson, creator of Calvin and Hobbes, in the most humble and down to earth interview I have ever read. Tears. *Sniff* (via goobimama)

John Gruber mentioned it a while back on his blog as well but I skipped it at the time. As a Calvin and Hobbes fan though, I had to click through and read the interview now. And it was such a joy too. I only wish it wasn’t spread across four pages. Update: Sorry, it’s not; the pagination is only for the comments.

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I made this letter very long, because I did not have the leisure to make it shorter.

-Blaise Pascal

(You only realise how right he was when you’re given a word limit for a software review. Rambling on for several thousand words is much easier than limiting yourself to five hundred.)

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This is how Urban Dictionary defines “Aayush”

Milind looked his name up on the Urban Dictionary and it turns out that it’s used to describe a “diligent brown driver”. Of course, I had to look up mine as well. You’ll never guess how it describes “Aayush”.

Legend has it that this guy is a human blessed with unearthly powers. The sexiest man on earth according to Indian mythology, he is the Indian counterpart of modern superheroes like Spiderman, Hulk and Batman.

Anybody who confesses to have come in contact with this unique character mentions him to have an extremely sharp intellect, which is why he is known to be the heart throb among the females.

His opulent lifestyle, his undiplomatic talk and his vitriolic wit has alienated him from mortal human beings, to a large extent however his entourage among humanity remains unchallenged.

Ravi: Dad, I want to grow up and be like Ramesh.

Dad: Well, who doesn’t. After all, he is the Aayush of his time.

I kid you not, that is the actual description of my name on the Urban Dictionary! If this had been Wikipedia, I would have dismissed it as the opinion of some random joe named Aayush somewhere, but if the Urban Dictionary says I am a “human blessed with unearthly powers”, all I can do is humbly bow my head and say, “now, now, you don’t have to be so dramatic about it!”

Update: And, just for kicks, do check out the descriptions for the people who unfortunately ended up with the shorter, wrongly spelt version of my name. Yes, I have way too much free time today.

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Fraser Speirs - Blog - Future Shock

Another opinion column about the reaction to the iPad that I highly recommend.

(via Instapaper)

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“The new iPad. Now with over 300 cameras.”
Let’s see if that gets a chuckle out of you.
[via Daring Fireball]

“The new iPad. Now with over 300 cameras.”

Let’s see if that gets a chuckle out of you.

[via Daring Fireball]

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Understanding Multi-tasking on the iPad: What is it really?

Milind’s take on the iPad’s lack of multitasking. It got Fireballed so it must be good.

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iPad Snivelers: Put Up or Shut Up

Joel Johnson:

Apple is selling a product. They’ve chosen to keep it closed for demonstrably reasonable benefits. And—yes, okay!—several collateral benefits that come from controlling the marketplace that services their products.

But Apple is not the government. There’s no mandate to buy an Apple product except the call of excellence. And if you think the average persona on the street doesn’t recognize both the ups and downs of buying into an Apple ecosystem, you’re eyeing them with the typical nerd myopia, looking down your nose with the same autistic disdain you cultivated in high school. Turns out the internet you helped build as a sanctuary ended up a great place for normal folk, too.

Bravo! Recommended reading.

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Charlie Brooker | iPad therefore iWant? Probably. Why? iDunno

Ever since the iPad came out, I’ve been thinking aloud about it on Twitter and going into furious debates with Apple apologists and haters alike but I haven’t been able to express my exact sentiments about this device as accurately and humourously as Mr. Brooker has. So go and give his essay a read. Needless to say, I absolutely agree with him.

In fact, a week before its launch, I wrote an article about it that never got published. Now that the Apple tablet has been released, it’s only fitting that I present that article to you, especially because I still stand by my opinion of the iPad as it was before I had ever laid eyes on the device. Here goes:

Ah, Apple rumors! You can never have enough of them. The most prominently accepted rumor currently is that Apple is going to unveil a tablet at its 27th January special event. You know, one of those notebook-without-a-keyboard things that no one has ever been able to figure out a practical use for? Yes, that’s the one.

Riddle me this—if you already have a smartphone (or an app phone, superphone, super-smart phone, freaking awesome phone, or whatever they’re calling them these days) and a notebook, why would you want another device that is neither as functional and powerful as a notebook nor as communication-savvy and portable as a phone?

The rumored tablet falls squarely in the category of products that people can only use in their toilets. I, for one, cannot even imagine any practical use for a MacBook Air, a notebook that is a little more portable than regular notebooks but much less powerful than one, besides serving as a very expensive secondary computer for people who only have a desktop.

There are two things to take into consideration though. (A) Different people have different requirements and what may not appeal to me may be a very compelling product for others; and (B) Apple has a knack for coming up with products that defy conventional wisdom and up the standards of usability to the point where they gain mass-market appeal.

In the old days, I would have unceremoniously dismissed all tablet rumors as fantastic sandcastles that only existed in the minds of their perpetrators. However, times have changed and Apple has been far more leaky in recent years than they used to be. It may either be by design or simply because it’s hard to plug all holes in the ship when you are a behemoth of a corporation. Either way, persistent Apple rumors are much more likely to be true these days than not.

Therefore, I do believe than an Apple tablet is coming, as prophesied in the holy scriptures. But I also believe that, just like the iPhone before it, the real deal will be quite a bit different from all that we’ve heard about it so far and will have unique features that we haven’t got wind of yet. And, of course, it will cost you more than the mortgage on your house!

And yet, somehow, I’m sure that I will not be purchasing it. Color me skeptical, but even in my wildest, most detailed fantasies, I’ve never been able to come up with an Apple product which would fill a significant gap between my MacBook Pro and my iPhone and would be a compelling purchase for me. I would love to be proven wrong though.

You know what would be awesome though? If, come Wednesday, all Steve Jobs does is talk about App Store download statistics for a half-hour and then hands the stage to Phil Schiller who spends another hour talking about a new version of iWork. One week later, they launch the tablet on their website with the slogan, “We just love messing with you guys!”
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Photographs from the Republic Day parade in India
Paramilitary soldiers and police set up road blocks and snipers took positions atop government buildings as hundreds of thousands of people turned out to celebrate India’s national day Tuesday. India celebrates its Republic Day on Jan. 26 every year, but this year security measures were notched up following intelligence reports of a possible terrorist attack by Islamic militants. In downtown New Delhi, hundreds of thousands of people gathered to witness the parade — a showcase of Indian military and cultural pomp — under the eyes of police. South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, who is on a four-day official visit to India, was the main guest at the parade, which included marching bands and contingents of soldiers and schoolchildren and an aeronautic display by air force planes.

Photographs from the Republic Day parade in India

Paramilitary soldiers and police set up road blocks and snipers took positions atop government buildings as hundreds of thousands of people turned out to celebrate India’s national day Tuesday. India celebrates its Republic Day on Jan. 26 every year, but this year security measures were notched up following intelligence reports of a possible terrorist attack by Islamic militants. In downtown New Delhi, hundreds of thousands of people gathered to witness the parade — a showcase of Indian military and cultural pomp — under the eyes of police. South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, who is on a four-day official visit to India, was the main guest at the parade, which included marching bands and contingents of soldiers and schoolchildren and an aeronautic display by air force planes.

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How to Suck at Facebook
Accurate. Hilarious.

How to Suck at Facebook

Accurate. Hilarious.

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Two words: I’m sold.

Two words: I’m sold.

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Here’s the segment where I (along with Ankur, Milind and Manan) appeared on the Techtree show on Bloomberg UTV to discuss the forthcoming Apple Tablet. Thanks to Aalaap (the host) for inviting me to the show. These were, quite literally, my fifteen seconds of fame.

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To all the Indians out there, wish you a happy Republic Day!

To all the Indians out there, wish you a happy Republic Day!

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The Joy of Tech comic… Bed-in for Apple-Google Peace.
Oh boy, I can identify with this comic.

The Joy of Tech comic… Bed-in for Apple-Google Peace.

Oh boy, I can identify with this comic.

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Gadget Review: Drobo FireWire Data Storage Robot

Drobo

I had a FireWire Drobo imported from the USA back in July and it was left lying in its package for four months. After having spent so much money on it, I didn’t have much of a budget to buy capacious internal hard drives and I didn’t want to make do with the smaller ones. I kept using my Western Digital My Book Studio II 2TB external hard disk during that time.

Eventually, it started nearing its maximum capacity and I realised that I would either soon have to get rid of some of the data on it or move to the Drobo. I went out and bought three 1.5TB Western Digital Caviar Green 7,200 rpm internal hard drives and fitted them to the Drobo. I then installed Drobo Dashboard, connected the Drobo to my Mac and updated both the software and the device firmware. All of this was quick and painless and the questions I posted on the support website were promptly answered by their support department.

Once it’s set up, you use it as you would any external hard disk. It appears in the Finder sidebar and on the Desktop and you can just drag-and-drop files into it. I partitioned it using the HFS+ format in Disk Utility but you can use NTFS or FAT32 or any other format if you’re using some other operating system. You cannot, however, pop in any drive already loaded with data and expect it to work out-of-the-box. Any drives you want to use with the Drobo will have to be formatted once they are inside it, so make sure you have backed up your data elsewhere before you insert your drives in it.

What makes Drobo different from any other external hard disk drive or a RAID configuration then? Data Robotics, the company behind Drobo, calls it a storage robot because it is supposed to be a very secure way to store your data. Once you put in all your drives and start using the Drobo, you can just forget that it even exists. You’ll only be reminded of that fact when one of the lights on its facade turns red one day, which means that the corresponding drive has failed.

In such an event, you are supposed to replace the failed drive with another one of the same or higher capacity and Drobo will make sure that all your data is safely restored and distributed among the new set of hard disks. How does it work its magic? By keeping one of your drives, the one with the maximum storage capacity, always reserved for the task of backing up your data.

This means that if you throw in three 2TB hard disks, you will only be able to use 4TB of that space. Of course, you’ll have to knock off another 10% of that because hard drives never actually have the total storage capacity that is advertised. Ultimately, of the 6TB you put in, you’ll only be able to use 3.6TB of it in actuality. To experiment with different capacity drives and see how much usable space you’ll end up with, go take a look at the Drobolator.

After much consideration, I decided that it was worth the lost storage space if it means that I will not have to always keep another drive of equal capacity handy and take care of backing up my data manually. Fortunately, I haven’t had any failed drives yet, so I cannot speak from experience whether the Drobo will successfully save my data or not. But I sure hope it does.

As good as the Drobo is, it also has a few drawbacks:

  • The lights: The glowing blue and green LEDs are unsightly during the day and downright annoying at night. I have taken to shielding them from my view while I sleep by putting a chair between myself and the Drobo. It’s the only part of the Drobo’s design that makes it seem like a product from the Windows world to me.
  • The noise: For all the promises from both Data Robotics and Western Digital about how little noise their products make, their combination is not particularly silent. I suspect the primary noise is of the fan inside the Drobo, which makes me fear that it will keep whining the whole day long during summertime in India.
  • Drobo Dashboard: My only problem with this otherwise decent application is that it is required at all. Unlike normal hard disk drives, the Finder cannot eject your Drobo when you want to unplug it and it cannot tell you the correct amount of space left on your Drobo. For both of these commonplace tasks, you need to use Drobo Dashboard. I understand that there was probably no way to get around that limitation for Data Robotics but that does not make me any less annoyed at the fact.

Besides those complaints, I am very satisfied with my Drobo and with Data Robotics’ customer care department so far. I only hope that when the time comes to play the hero and save my data from a hard drive failure, this robot delivers on its promise.

-Aayush

Friday, January 22, 2010 — 3 notes
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