Pre marital Sex

The Supreme Court recently ruled that live-in relationships and pre-marital sex cannot be treated as an offence. This surprises me a bit, because this could mean that dating culture is legal in India, or going a step ahead it could also mean that prostitution is legal now. Some could argue that how prostitution is equal to premarital sex but it could give people an easy escape when someone brings  a prostitute home or hotel; he can always claim that they are in a living relationship.  Prostitution cases won't have any solid ground to stand. Well the days when lot of scandals like Tiwari’s and Nityananda came to light, this is certainly an interesting news.The judgement on premarital sex hurting Indian ethos is the least I expected.from Supreme Court. It isn`t premarital sex if you have no intention of getting married. Its nothing but adultery.

Microsoft Courier : Is it true?

Microsoft Courier existence confirmed on the company's Jobs Blog http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/23/microsoft-courier-existence-confirmed-on-the-companys-jobsblog/

But the Courier part has now been removed.http://microsoftjobsblog.com/blog/microsoft-innovation-number-one/ I definitely think that a device like Courier has a place; the notebook format would be excellent. It will never replace a computer or netbook, but as a digital notebook I think we honestly have a third device that people will really want to have. The courier uses a notebook paradigm with two screens that look like two pieces of paper in a notebook  It also has a stylus which supports handwriting. I am a bit sceptical about  handwriting, because there is always a bit of a delay whenever you write on a tablet (due to necessary smoothing and predictive filtering), which never looks as good as it does in concept videos. I am really hoping that MS would release this, which would be a killer App for IPad. Though the demo video or fake video( what ever it is) still has some unanswered things for me, I hope that real device should look exactly like the demo videos or possibly even better with much coolness added to it.. Its one of the few devices I've actually be *excited* about but Still, my excitement remains.

 

Microsoft Indic Input Tool beta

 

Microsoft Indic Language Input Tool (ILIT) (previously Akshara), is a tool that helps users enter Indian language text in an application. This is made available in BETA from last december. Currently they support 10 languages (Bengali, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil,Telugu,Punjabi, Gujarati,Marathi and Oriya), all of which are available as free standalone downloads on the site.  They also have a web version which helps you enter Indian language text easily into any application in Microsoft Windows or on any page on the Web. They are also planning to extend ILIT to few more languages Urdu. You can download it here http://specials.msn.co.in/ilit/default.aspx. The tool is excellent and is worth to give a try.

Predictably Irrational: Book Review

This book presents an interesting overview about behavioural economics and also on on how an individual's decision making process is often at odds with what is objectively beneficial to him or her. Through a series of experiments, the author confirms the idea that the assumptions of perfect rationality that standard economics texts make do not always stand. It is about how “decoys” are used by merchants to confuse you about your choices, and how you would typically react to them. The author also explains some of the factors that influence our decision making: from the influence of emotions to the sometimes agonising choice between options; the pitfalls of procrastination and the lure of free offers. While many of the concepts are profound, the subject matter is presented in a readable and entertaining way. Its applicable to all the readers, because we all make decisions in our day to day life. I especially liked the author's basic empirical approach. There isn't hardly a proposition or theory in the book that hasn't been tested via experiment. This is in many ways similar to Freakonomics, but the only difference is, Freakonomics tries so hard to blow away your mind so that readers(like me) loose interest in the middle. Whereas the author here takes small practical questions, builds experiments with limited variables and sees how people operate on a very small scale.

 

There is so much to consider in the book. You can probably refer to these experiments and findings again and again, for your fascinating conversations with your friends. I recommend this to just about anyone and especially those with an interest in economics or who work for large companies. It is a quick and fascinating read.

Microsoft Pivot

Some really cool technology displayed at this year’s TED called Pivot.  It’s a new way to explore data that runs on Seadragon technology. Pivot is a new way to browse and arrange massive amounts of images and data online. One of my friends, say pivot doesn’t work with his graphic card. May be it needs a high end graphic card like Nvidia Quadro..You can download Pivot from http://www.livelabs.com/

100th Post

Its 100th post today. 100 blogs in 7 months, not a bad milestone to achieve I guess. For a momemt it felt like I was back in August writing my first post. This blog has seen many experiences, some real, some imaginary, some learning's, some experiences, some  observations, some insights, some reminiscences, some conflicts, and a little wisdom. I don’t know who is reading this blog, and I  don’t know what they’re thinking about it. I just know that there are things that I think and believe that other people seem to want to read and hear about from time to time. My friends of course, but there may be other people too. I believe, these 100 posts have given me immense learnings. This has been a start. This is me, at least as I see myself. I am going to Ramble..

There you go! Drop me a line to let me know what you like to read from me.

What matter now!

Seth Godin, one of the wonderful thinkers and writers of our times,has compiled an 80 page book, filled with nuggets of insightful thoughts from 70 odd thinkers and technocrats. You can download the book from What Matters Now. All the ideas are a pleasure to read.

The state of the Internet

Interesting Video

No Google I did not mean that way!

Open www.google.us and type the word "removing" and look for the suggestions. Try the same with www.google.co.uk and finally with www.google.co.in You will get to know the difference. Well my idea here is not to prove that Indians are perverts, I just mean that they are more romantic. We never talk openly about sex. It is very much possible that these suggestions are from India. In India still many people go to Net cafes to see porn and that’s the fact. We are all Hypocrites when it comes to Sex. The hypocrisy is passed on by Parents to their children. 99 % of the parents in India find it really hard to talk confidently with their children about sex. Also, I think we don't have much sex education in our schools. I have a friend who used to type “that type of movies” in Google to search for porn. Considering how little our education system talks about sex and if its not porn how would a grown-up know the details? Talking openly about sex is a taboo in culturally rich countries like India and also in Countries which are governed by religious laws. Taboo and Hypocrisy, they both go in hand, at least in India. I would rather consider talking openly about sex instead of encouraging people to go and search in the Net cafes. All those search terms would not have been necessary if our education system didn’t fail us while coming to Sex.

 

The Class: Book Review

This is the third Erich Segal book I've read. I made it a point to read all his novels after I read the first book of his. This book is not just about the new freshmen arriving on campus, roommates, assignments, class work, love stories and finally, graduation. The story revolves on the life of 5 Harvard students and their life and career they pursue after they have received they degree.Five different personalities from different backgrounds and orientation who managed to be admitted at Harvard. Segal then follows five major characters throughout their lives and explores the themes of adultery, betrayal, suicide, and other interesting topics. The main character in this book Andrew Elliot, writes about his life and friends in his journal from entry Harvard University in 1954 to 25th Harvard Class '58 reunion in 1983. The author was able to establish the uniqueness of each character and illustrates how they were able to reach their success – as each of them defines what success is. It proved that a great school not always give you a good job or good life..it depends on yourself.how you appreciate your life.