test

codebase="http://www.freejavachat.com/java/" name=cr code="ConferenceRoom.class" width=500 height=300> This application requires Java suport. This server also available via IRC at: irc://irc.ircstorm.net:6667/

Blog moved to http://clorange.com

I no longer post on blogspot. new blog @ http://clorange.com

The Cosmetic Brainwash

Someone named Venki posted the link to an article at Sulekha Newshopper, and I am impressed with it's details. What we have is an article which successfully manages to provide a panoramic snapshot of the mindsets of young upper and middle class Indian Women. This write-up is supposedly an extract from a PhD thesis.

My short stint in Mumbai as an employee was an education in itself. It offered me a contrast between the attitudes and lifestyles which differ vastly from Thane to Chruchgate. This write-up investigates this exact difference through a microscope. Unfortunately, this article limits it to to women and beauty. I wanted to know more about the entire spectrum of social groups in general. Afterall, back in 1998, the demographic discussed in the article was a tiny fragment of what it is now.

It is an interesting read, provides a good update on whats happening back home. Especially, if you feel like a certain discontinuity in the Indian experience due to life abroad.

Interactive Yellow Pages

Amazon's version of Yellow Pages allows you to navigate a street via photographs to find the business location or find landmarks around a place of interest. Very interesting indeed. However, I don't understand the true value add due to such a service. At a fundamental level, the person conducting the search has acquired all the information necessary to navigate from A to B. If the franchises look cookie-cutter style and can be easily identified, what additional benefits does such a image based Yellow Page listing offer? How hard is it to locate McDonald's golden arches?

It appears that Amazon got a fleet of SUVs retrofitted with video cameras and GPSes to roam around business localities. The video was correlated with GPS data and this information is injected into the results based on a business/location search criteria on Mapquest.

I guess this is a precursor to the next version of Mapquest (or Google Maps?). Probably, one day we will see Google's engine actually allowing us to double click a particular location on the route from A to B and bring up saved pictures or 5 minute delayed images corresponding to coordinates along the path.

Downtown Chicago

Cannot wait for a web based Notepad from Google

Google should add a notepad feature to it's services, it would be very helpful to jot down things you want to refer to irrespective of where you are located. It's smart use of DHTML has already won accolades. Notepads should be pretty easy. Yahoo's notepad serves the purpose but it needs speed.

20 years later, SAARC delivers zilch

I still don't get it, 20 years have passed since SAARC's inception the goal of SAARC appears to farther away now than it was 20 years ago. The whole SAARC business is a huge waste of time, money and resources. I cannot recall a single outcome benefitting its member countries consisting of India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, and Pakistan since its inception in 1985.

The objective of SAARC is to "provide a platform for the peoples of South Asia to work together in a spirit of friendship, trust and understanding. It aims to accelerate the process of economic and social development in Member States."

Friendship, trust and understanding:
As long as Pakistan continues with Cross Border Terrorism and Bangladesh drops on all socio-economic scales not to mention the rise of militant Islam via figures such as Bangla Bhai, there is no point of SAARC. Every SAARC meeting ends up being a squabble with the other nations trying to push their agendas or gang-up against India. It also becomes a stage for the likes of Musharraf to portray melodrama.

If you really look at the members, who are we dealing with? we are dealing with a couple of nations who aren't exactly living up to the spirit of SAARC. The rest of the nations more or less go along with the flow. We should shut down SAARC immediately and scrap everything. Let us not pretend that we can get 3 different countries with totally different ideologies and strengths to work with each other to create a level playing field. It is not going to happen in the nearest future. As long as the mindset of the populace in Pakistan and Bangladesh is driven by militant Islam, there will be no progress. I wish we were next to Iran instead of Pakistan. Iran is an interesting place at the moment. It is an interesting laboratory for subversive thought.

SAARC nations should instead set aside funds and resources to forge relationships with Singapore, China, Taiwan and Japan. Singapore should be a model which states in each of these SAARC countries should aspire to replicate as much as possible within their frameworks.

Economic and social development:

I do not see any acceleration of socio-economic development either. Pakistan seems to latch on to India's momentum due to geography but can barely sustain it due to the conflicting ideas driven by capitalism. Infact, I see the reverse, disparity will grow at a socio-economic level as Pakistan and Bangladesh cannot keep up with India's momentum. The best option for these countries is to dump SAARC and forge relationships with other countries east and west of them.

SAARC consists of a bunch of people in the "nodding-head" business who eat biriyani, stay in AC hotels and come back home empty handed having done nothing. zilch, nada.

Latest Developments:

1. India not to attend SAARC summit
   
2. Security Concerns
   

Podcasting + Skype = Skypecasting

What on earth is happening out there, this is amazing. This will probably be the technology that will complement the current slew of messaging tools. Kids will love it. Its akin to Launchcast on steroids, personalization at it's highest and purest form.

Today, personalization is mostly avatars, environments, and emoticons at best. Along came podcasting and then it was Skype.Now it is a combination of Skype and podcasting termed Skypecasting.

I will go home and leisurely dig into Henshall's Blog but for now, it seems insanely cool.

Creating an iPod radio on skype (pdf).

However, considering that messaging tools have failed to make their mark in a corporate environment, we will have to wait and see how far tools such as Skype go.

More fragmentation, more support systems, more individualism where are we headed? You know, if all of us on CH skypecasted, it would be one hell of a party. Skype+iPod adds so much room to add one's personality.