iPad frenzy 2

Even my blog posts have version numbers now!!

The 'new' iPad is out. Every tech journalist worth his/her salt has something to say on the new device. The Apple fanboys are understandably elated; they eagerly await their delivery of the new gadget.

I strongly think it's just a consumer device. Just like you own smartphones, you own a tablet. People stretch their imagination to invent their usefulness in various environments.

I hardly ever seen iPad in our company. No CEO demanded its inclusion in our trusted network. They do use their smartphones to access their mail and sms texts. Nobody wants to see a spreadsheet in their phones. Nobody edits documents in them.

Lame excuses have been given to add a keyboard to the tablet. I think it defeats the very purpose of having a tablet in the first place. Please remember we have both ipad classic and ASUS transformer with keyboard in our household. They are good for surfing web pages, seeing youtube videos and of course reading ebooks in ePub and PDF formats.

Every gadget has its place and usefulness. Don't stretch them to be everything for everybody. This is age of specialization, isn't it?

iPad frenzy

I own an iPad, an Acer netbook, a desktop. My son has an Asus notebook, Asus transformer running ice cream sandwich (I love such names; they are very interesting). We have Linux running in some partitions and virtual machines.

I am watching with amusement the media frenzy on the impending announcement of iPad3. I simply don't understand this. There are interesting battle between Apple fanboys, Linux fanboys and windows fanboys.

As a person who have been using all such platforms, I'm terribly amused.

I have been following magazine stories and blog posts regarding the use of tablets in business contexts. I still think their use is slightly far off in Indian context.

Can tablets replace laptops and desktops? I don't think so. The devices are mostly for different use. Their use for whipping up a presentation, doing a complicated budget projection with input from many sources, creating a document for the board meeting, accessing the age-old applications the companies had already invested in are quite limited.

They are fancy gadgets to show off, making heads turn when you open it up and an instigator in social conversation.

Only time will tell.

Back of the Napkin

When I was browsing for something, I saw an entry for the best presentation for a year in slideshare. Just out of curiosity, I followed it. I was lucky to land on one of the most entertaining presentations I'd ever seen.

The author was Dan Roam and the presentation was about US health care scene.

I had never seen such a lucid presentation before on that subject. It was refreshing and very amusing to see so many simple pictures. This led to more research on the author. It's exhilerating stuff. I would urge everyone to go through his website www.thebackofthenapkin.com.

His contention is that we can solve any problem by using simple pictures. His talk at google is mesmerising. You tend to believe that you can also do it. I think that's his point.

Everything he says is based on visual thinking. We've heard the cliche many times over: "a picture is worth 1000 words". It's true to a large extent. The bosses want to see charts and diagrams rather than a densely populated excel sheet. Comics rule the roost; it captures the imagination of young and old alike.

By the way, have you seen the comic Google created when they were planning their Chrome browser? It's available in the net and it's nice stuff.

Try Dan's method for yourself when you face a problem next time. I'm sure to do it.

IPL Chennai match

I saw yesterdy's match where Murli Vijay scored a hurricane century. Such massacre!

I remebered days when Vijay Manjrekar used to bat days together to craft a century. Geoff Boycott wasn't far behind. Matches used to end in draw evern after five days of play.

What a transformation now! Hitting a century within the allotted overs is no mean task. I don't remeber to have seen even a single 'agricultural' shot throughout his innings. Perhaps the pitches are prepared for this style of cricket.

There were days when the piches were to be prepared to suit our famous spin quartet where they can weave their magic, mesmerising the batsmen. Who can forget 'Bapu' Nadkarni's series of maiden overs!

Who will win this edition of IPL? My bet is on Mumbai Indians.

I'm back - for the umpteenth time!

Blogging is dying? I don't know.
There seems to be hundreds of blogs written and published every day. But there are other attractive media available now. Everybody seems to be in Facebook. If you haven't heard about it, you are a strange specimen. Orkut seemed the 'in' thing sometime back. But LinkedIn seemed to have taken over all the professionals whou would like to get and stay connected. Twitter is another raging phenomenon.
Personally, I haven't touched either of them. At least, till now.
Blogging is an expanded version of twitter? I don't think so. Twitter is what SMS had done to fully formed sentences written in blog posts. You are compelled to shorten everything to fit into limited number of words. Words are irrecognizable. I cringe every time I see a mangled word in SMS and twitter feeds. I still remember my stern English teacher who will rap in the knuckles if I drag the centre line in small letter 'f'' while writing in handwriting script.
Of course, we've moved far ahead from that time. I've learnt to write using contractions which was again frowned upon in formal writing. 'Plain English' or 'plain language' is my current manthra. I am amused at some of the writings in website. Perhaps, I'll write about it in another blog post.