Nut Rant

Time for a kill

2009-03-17T06:20:00.000-04:00

The world is topsy-turvey these days and it often feels that our lives are out of our control governed by unknown forces beyond our reach. A "Joseph K" feeling if you will. Then you hear of the latest hullabaloo over bonus payments from A.I.G. to the very group within the company that basically destroyed it and cost shareholders about $200 billion. At times like this I really miss some feral, third-world justice. People in the streets, being violant, being human, angry and expressing it. They say it is illegal to NOT give them the bonuses now because it was in the contract. Oh, the stifling respect for law and even more so to order. We don't need no order. We have too much of it. We need good, old street-style beatings to discourage the execs from claiming bonuses. The answer to 'your money or your life' is such a welcome certainty in these times.

Oh well, we will all just watch The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and feel superior and move on with our stolid, inert lives.

Only 2 apps can run simultaneously

2009-02-09T17:59:00.012-05:00

Windows 7 started edition will allow only two apps to be running on your machine simultaneously. Wow! Microsoft as finally reached a level of insanity that was hitherto reserved for...well, Microsoft!

Yes, the worlds leading favorite company has done it again. While the rest of the world is moving toward running many apps -- maybe in the 10s at times -- Microsoft Windows 7 started edition will allow only 2 apps to be running simultaneously. I cannot even believe this that is why I guess I got to write it twice. Where are we headed? Hopefully to a world without Microsoft.

Pay your taxes already!

2009-02-05T06:12:00.021-05:00

So, that makes three people in the Obama administration who've had tax problems so far. Tom Daschle and Nancy Killefer withdrew their nominations and Timothy Giethner went on ahead to become our treasury secretary anyway.

Politicians and tax avoidance seems to be go hand-in-hand with Wall St. execs and incompetence (with benefits) and homosexual Republican guy-bashers.

Democrats have had a particularly tough time lately. What with Rangel, Blagovich and now the tax-cheating trio.

From my perspective -- everyone cheats on their taxes. However, if you are going to try to become the treasury secretary or nation's health czar, does it not behoove you to have your minions run a check and confirm that everything is a-ok?

In other words -- it is not the corruption but the incompetence that these people should be punished for.

Oscar Wilde to close

2009-02-04T06:13:00.018-05:00

Another casualty of the financial crises they say. No, I am not speaking of the venerable author but the bookstore in New York.

I distinctly remember year ago when I was new to this country I was wandering the steets aimlessly with Puja and we happened to see this tiny bookstore. Those were the days when I was really high on his writings, his aphorisms and mannerisms. I was blown away to see a bookstore in his name. I promptly entered and started looking at the books. It didn't take long before I realized that it wasn't exactly the kind of bookstore I was expecting. No, no clear homage to Oscar Wilde in celebration of his plays or his writings or hosting of other authors in the smililar vein. No. This was a bookstore specializing in guy and lesbian books. Now, I have precious little interest in those topics specially in those days and even now my interest remains spotty, not that there is anything inherently wrong with that genre. I sped out promptly from the store almost feeling cheated. I had gone to see one side of Wilde's personality and was reminded that it was the other side that was really of interest to folks in my new adopted country.

Every day and every trip is a lesson.

Well, just read this in the Times this morning that the bookstore is closing. It cannot survive in the current climate of economic collapse. People have stopped spending money and specially on exotic topics and even more so at exotic bookshops.

The 'closing time' continues...

"...Like riding a tiger..."

2009-01-08T16:52:00.000-05:00

It is quite reassuring to note that on a complete collapse of business ethics the United States does not hold a monopoly. Satyam, India's "premium" outsourcing company has shown the world and specially the United States how spectacular corruption can be done that would make the world take notice (made a big-fat headline on WSJ -- I don't remember seeing one on Indian business before). The petty corruption that has plagued India for years and earned it a bad reputation among the industrial ("civilized" world) can finally take a back-seat. Mr. Ramalinga Raju has finally created some sort of competition for Bernard Madoff, who, probably couldn't have come up with a gem like...

It was like riding a tiger, not knowing how to get off without being eaten.

Very impressive indeed.

"I want to make money..."

2008-12-10T07:42:00.000-05:00

I don't think there is any political, commercial or moral corruption that would surprise me. However, I am still quite surprised (even shocked) by the amazing stupidity that once in a while surrounds corruption. Take the case of the Illinois governor. I mean how stupid do you have to be to sell, of all the seats in the world, the president-elect's seat? And that no -- no ordinary president-elect but the chosen one! Did not occur to him once that the media and the people will be over this replacement anyway? And then you take a hammer and swing it full-force right on to your tiny toe. Very sad -- not the corruption -- but the incompetence. If Mr. Blagojevich expects rewards for his gross incompetence then maybe he should've been heading a Wall St. bank and not a state.

“I’ve got this thing,” Mr. Blagojevich said on one recording, according to the affidavit, “and it’s [expletive] golden. And I’m just not giving it up for [expletive] nothing. I’m not going to do it. And I can always use it. I can parachute me there.”

Mumbai massacre

2008-12-03T09:56:00.000-05:00

There isn't anything that I have to say that probably hasn't been said before. I just want to make a note of an op-ed by Thomas Friedman in The New York Times today. While I am not a great fan of Friedman's often superficial hysteria, I think he gets it this time. He indicates what I think (It is hard to say for sure on these subjects) that fundamentalism is inherently a problem that will have to be solved from inside. No amount of surveillance, counter-violance or wars by outsiders are going to resolve it. People in whose midst terrorists grow -- whether they be the people from Karachi or Columbine -- will have to deal with their own devils.

Why I love corporate America

2008-11-20T07:46:00.000-05:00

Auto CEO's took private jets to ask for a bailout. I can understand why. If you've ever taken a private jet you would understand why you never ever want to fly commercial again. It costs, of course, but if you get used to it -- it is like cocaine.

Bet begging in a Bentley is unbecoming and going to a begging in a private jet is unseemly. However, this is one of those 'only in America' moments that one cannot help but enjoy. This is just brilliant. Thank you, America, for giving the world this wonderful gift. The world is forever indebted.

Microsoft does it again

2008-09-19T18:08:00.000-04:00

No, they didn't steal people's music or create the single-most inefficient human experiment in history this time. Just that their new dig ads at Apple are created using a Mac!

It is as if the retarded ads featuring Seinfeld (who I generally love and who on the show used a Mac!) were not enough.

Ban Google Save India??

2008-09-18T09:37:00.000-04:00

If this is what it would take to 'Save' India then it certainly must be done.

Is Yahoo already sold?

2008-07-25T22:23:00.001-04:00

So Yahoo shuts dooors of its DRM-based music store and guess what happens to any music anyone bought from their DRM stores. It is not going to be playable beyond September anymore when they shut their DRM servers down. Wow! Maybe Yahoo has already been sold to Microsoft. Maybe not in the way you think but in ideology. Microsoft just did the very same thing a few months ago. Amazing. Apparently companies will continue to sodomize their customers and then wonder why the customers ran away? I don't get it.

Tim Russert Dies

2008-06-13T16:37:00.001-04:00

Can you believe it? I am shocked in a way I rarely am. I mean he was 58 and seemed just about the healthiest guy you would ever see. I am almost standing face-to-face to my mortality right now. Just this morning I was thinking about how he was going to take out his slate and chalk during the election reporting. I just cannot believe this.

I was shocked when Peter Jennings died but he was older and was fighting cancer. This is just strange.

Another one bits the dust

2008-06-04T16:28:00.002-04:00

The giant Barnes & Noble store on 6th Ave and 23rd street closed a few weeks ago. This is just another one of those things that I like that has ended unceremoniously. Most restaurants either stop serving dishes we like if they've not shut doors already. Most stores we like close doors. Most things we like deteriorate. Very strange how that works.

Anyway, this closing of B&N is particularly troubling. This was one of those places where I could go to after work once in a while and be just between books. No one but me and books. I could browse through, buy and just feel elevated in some snobbish but very real sense.

But of course, all good things (and even some bad ones) must come to an end. The big bookstore closed without much fanfare. I fear that it will be replaced by an Old Navy. It is strange how we want to put less and less inside our heads and more and more on our bodies.

I wonder kids will ever even know a bookstore other than Amazon ?(which I have nothing against but doesn't make up for B&N for ambiance)

Jaipur this time

2008-05-14T11:25:00.003-04:00

The horror continues. Mumbai, New Delhi, Hyderabad and now Jaipur. A very careful, systematic, city-by-city attack. More splattered body parts and more questions about how India is going to fight this disease that exists within it. This horrible venom that boils up every few days and destroys our clinical belief in a country that we assuredly consider united.

Every time this happens I question if there is ever an end to this. I don't really see an end in site. The economic growth should have helped but it doesn't seem to be widespread enough to eliminate all discontent.

This is clearly an economic problem more than a religious or political one. If there weren't enough poor people, there would be less animosity, less vitriol and less incentive to blow other people up.

Microsoft: Can a company be more useless?

2008-05-08T15:12:00.003-04:00

Just read the following on the PVRBlog on Microsoft. Sometimes I think they are unduly targetted by a hateful public and critics. However, when I read stuff like this I really think that the world should sue the hell out of them and put them out of business.

"The first story is the shuttering of their MSN Music service. It was an attempt to take on the iTunes Music Store and offer paid music downloads. After a couple years of service, they've decided to close down the service but in doing so, they'll turn off the servers that authorize your music tracks so if you ever update your operating system or buy a new computer, your old purchased music files will not play. You would have to buy the songs again using the newer Zune store."

Just one word: Wow!

But that is not enough, PVRBlog goes on to describe another little nugget where the proverbial Big Brother really raises its ugly head.

The second story is about NBC shows coming to the Microsoft Zune media player, but with one feature NBC wanted added to the device: the copyright cop. If you buy a NBC show and transfer it to your Zune, a small application will check your Zune for "pirated" shows and movies that weren't purchased from the Zune store, and delete them. It's rumored that this is why the NBC/Apple partnership ended at the iTMS and they removed shows -- because Apple refused to build in this kind of capability.

I just don't know where companies get these kind of ideas from. I just don't know why businesses treat their own customers like jerks. Again, this is the reason that every knowledgeable Yahoo user shuddered at the thought of being acquired by Microsoft.

Yahoo! to No Microhoo!

2008-05-05T21:28:00.002-04:00

Well, at least for now. This is one of those things that makes a lot of people (including me) very happy but also makes a lot of people (the shareholders of Yahoo) very unhappy. Better me than them, I say.

Sour

2008-04-29T15:32:00.002-04:00

Mars buying Wrigley's is leaving a sour taste in my mouth. All mergers and acquisitions generally leave a bad taste in my mouth. Not sure why exactly. Not sure why I care. I seem to have a fundamental problem with mergers because I fundamentally believe that they erode choice for me.

Anyway, I keep feel sour while I wait for my Microsoft Milk Home Premium Organic Lowfat Edition 2008 SP3.

Misery sure loves company

2008-04-23T14:59:00.003-04:00

What should two pathetic companies mired in loss do when both have no real chance of ever making a profit or ever making their customers or their employees happy? Merge, of course so that they can not only be the biggest company in their sector but the biggest loser at that. Delta and Northwest are reporting a combined loss of 10 billion dollars in just the first quarter! Good that they are becoming one. I am sure they will do much better now -- I mean somehow manage to lose even more money in the future. One wonders how does a company even manage to lose that kind of money?

Food Blues

2008-04-10T13:34:00.003-04:00

Getting lunch is becoming harder and harder in Manhattan these days. No, not because there aren't enough places to eat or not enough variety. Far from it. A new deli, restaurant or take-out place opens practically every other week. It is far more insidious, far more real. It has to do with the ever-increasing inefficiency of your everyday deli, coffee place, eatery, you name it. Less than half the time I am getting my order wrong. If I ask for cheese on my veggie-burger I usually discover later, back at my desk in the office, that I did not get any. If I ask for butter I end up with cream cheese on my bagel. I ask for toasted bagel and half the time I get toast. And this is when you actually can get your order. Every place is so crowded that if you get there during popular times (8.45-9.15 for breakfast, 12.30-1.30 for lunch) you stand in huge lines, you scream your order over a bunch of heads and you have to repeat it multiple times and you generally fail to communicate what is it you exactly want. That is if you can order at all. Half the time you will be cut off by folks who don't understand how a line works, don't care or don't see. Then you get charged wrong, or too much (or even too little at times.) Overall, it is a mess; an unpleasant experience at best. Don't even get me started about the quality or the cost of the food. A funky soy-chai nonsense for $5, give me a break!

There was a time when there was joy in the idea of discovering new foods everyday. Now, it is simply a chore. It probably has to do with aging but my guess is that it also has to do with just a general sense of collapse that I am beginning to observe. A slow, but sure decline in quality of life as the pressure of population starts to weigh a society down.

Hollywood Heist

2008-03-12T21:30:00.002-04:00

So apparently Hollywood just had a great year in 2007. I remember less than two years ago there was this hue-and-cry about how the Internet, file-swapping, Video games, TV, TiVo and everything they could possibly think of (someone even mentioned, gasp, books) that was destroying Hollywood movie industry. No one would watch films in theaters anymore. Articles were written in the papers (yes, those things that no one reads anymore, or so we say now) about how the industry is doing and how there was no hope. They had been left behind. There was no tomorrow (though Bond seemed to disagree) and it was all over.

So what explains the great 2007? The same thing that explains most of the economic and business discussion these days. It is all fickle and reactionary. Things are not things anymore -- they are precursors to chains of things. They are not complete within themselves -- they foretell stories. They predict doom. They tell us that an event is a trend or at least it predicts a trend.

To me it defies all logic but then emotions aren't about logic and unfortunately most of our public discussion has been taken over by emotion from reason. Hence the rise of the blog culture, the talk show culture, the youth culture and other such cultures that think from various organs all below the neck.

Of non-fiction and not quite

2008-03-07T11:33:00.004-05:00

So once again there is much hullabaloo on a fake memoir (as if there is any other kind.) To me it simply exposes the naiveté of Western media, readers and editors. Editors, for trusting the authors, readers for trusting the editors and authors and for the media for trusting anything.

More than that is this perversely stupid idea that the terms 'fiction' and 'non-fiction' have kept their meaning while everything else has been morphing around them. For some, the terms seem to have, for some reason, circumvented the last few centuries and are still stuck in the age or reason (or darkness, take your pick.)

I for one have always been skeptical of non-fiction for it seemed too fictitious and fiction for being a bit too less so.

Sriram wrote about something similar the other day though on a slightly different topic but discussing, while on it, the fundamental issue that we need to be a little more awake. These days the terms Fiction/non-fiction aren't a basic classification of a human pursuit any more than sports/gambling are or news/entertainment are. It is all the same thing.

But everyone has the right to remain stupid. It is our fundamental right. Next only to suicide.

Someone please stop Best Buy...

2008-03-05T05:21:00.003-05:00

So now a hard-disk box was found to contain dried beans! Of Course they are not going to refund the customer anytime soon. This makes such a pattern. Every few days someone buys something from Best Buy and realizes that the box contains something completely different (Tiles, older camera and now beans.)

There is no getting way. Why would anyone buy anything ever from them?

Walgreens - The Ministry of Truth

2008-02-29T09:47:00.005-05:00

Photography is becoming difficult every day. Read this thread on Flickr. Apparently, if you tried to get Walgreens to print really good shots that you took -- they wouldn't do it because they wouldn't believe they'd be yours! You MUST be stealing someone's photos, you thief!

Wow!

What next? Should we be discredited of everything good we do?

In fact, now that I think about it -- something similar happened to me a long long time ago. I wrote a poem on the Bhopal Gas Tragedy in 1984 (now that year couldn't possibly be mere co-incidence) and my Hindi teacher admonished me for stealing it from somewhere. I tried to convince her that I wrote it myself but no sir she would not have it. The poem was too good to be created by me. I was only 11 years old. How could I be 'good'? She wanted me to admit to my error of judgment in front of the class. I of course would not do it. I cried, I was young. I wrote even more poems after that. Some good, some bad but I guess most beyond my youth.

Babe-in-the-woods or...

2008-02-06T13:06:00.000-05:00

...the Whore of Babylon? That seemed to be the choice last night and surprisingly a lot of people picked the later. I guess when the going gets tough -- you want to stick to the same old. It may also be the "Will to Sloth" of general American voting population that helps those with the "Will to Power" to rise.

Microhoo!

2008-02-01T09:59:00.000-05:00

Can nothing good ever happen? Are we doomed to a lifetime of resentment and anger at thing that we cannot control but things that control our lives completely?

Microsoft buying yahoo would destroy the following for me:
- my primary email
- my photo sharing (flickr)
- my primary contact mgt app
- my primary calendaring app
- my primary home page app
- my ability to get email on blackberry
and several other things that I cannot think of right away.

oh, well. I guess it is time to move everything to Google...which actually sucks because they are not quite there in terms of products