Baltimore vs Bangalore vs Beijing

Obama called the kids in the US to raise the bar to compete against those from Bangalore and Beijing, if they care about a better future. As usual with his talks, this got some applause from the domestic folks. But the truth is, it is not just difficult, it is impossible.

Because, foundation of education is built on social culture. And it is known that America is a low context culture while India, or China are high context culture (read more here). In the latter, a lot is unsaid, and need to be derived from the context of usage which makes its people very good at analytics. A low context culture calls for everything to be explicit and said. There are no hidden meanings. This reduces the need for analytical thinking to figure out day to day life. But that gives people room for out of the box or creative thinking, and question stated facts openly. Over a period, low context cultures become less analytical and more creative. (At the same time, high context culture excels in areas that thrive on hidden or layered communication, films for example)

Given these, asking an education system to move from creative to analytical planes, ie., to a new direction is a huge task, and if attempted will take at least 4-5 generations to reach anywhere near. And then the culture itself will prevent that from happening since they will openly question the need itself. So it is safe to assume that Baltimore and Bangalore will stay as is for sometime to come. If Obama is hoping otherwise, it's habitual. That is all what he has been giving the Americans all along - hope!

Bad Lieutenant, Good for Cage

I have been terribly disappointed with the choice of movies a talented actor like Nicolas Cage was making in the past few years; Giving us a bunch of silly, boring (but blockbuster) movies about seeing futures or hunting treasures.

He is back. Though Bad Lieutenant is a bit over the top, I am happy to see glimpses of vintage Cage here. Story is about a cop who is a little on the edge, does drugs/gambling, sort-of corrupt, as title says, bad, investigating murder of a family related to drug pedaling. As one critic called it, unhinged performance from Cage.

Though it might fetch him a nomination or two, since the movie didnt do well at the BO, there are good chances that Cage will go back to the money hunt again. That, I feel, is the real bad part of the movie.

Advice

I am not trying to tell you what you didnt/ must do. I am just pointing out a perspective that you *may* have missed. It may not be the proven fact but a possibility.

Up and away!

Watched Pixar's UP last night. Brilliant, conceptual, evenly paced adventure with loads of fun. What surprised me was the imaginative script and emotion filled scenes. The timeline of the movie is a little iffy, but the first 15-20 mins, especially the 5 minutes of boy-meets-girl story telling was undoubtedly the best animation sequence I have ever watched. Pixar rules! Must watch

Walk and Talk

Amarendra, a friend, was talking about an email signature - obviously, from a new father - that he saw: "First twelve months you ask your child to walk and talk. The next twelve, it's sit down and shut up".

Ever since I noticed that my conversations with Joshua during his first year revolved around the words No, Slowly and Carefully, I wanted to blog about it. And just the other day I was asking my wife about the most common words that she uses when with him. Not too different, I must say.

Leading the Mainstream

Many of us often customize a product to suite our special needs. There are always people who keep pushing the envelope, to extract more juice from what's available. Such people are called lead users. (Eric Hippel from MIT coined the term in 1986. Read more about it here and here) 

People, or companies watch lead users. Many a times, observing lead users is a way to improve your product, or even come up with new products. It may appear to be a rare usage by small group, but the potential of an unexplored market is huge. All one needs to do is convert such use cases to accommodate normal users. Usually, mainstream users do not know how to demand something that is not there.

Some of the lead usage can directly translate to mainstream, while some may require core changes. Take for example ABS, anti-lock braking system. Guess who was the lead user for ABS? Airplanes! Of course, what else one needs to stop without skidding, than the 200' long, 200' wide, 400 tonne flying giant? ABS quickly made its way into other fast moving objects like race cars, and eventually became a standard safety feature in any automobile.

In the above case, adaptation into mainstream happened without any change. Which may not be the case with some other products, like say, energy bar - a high protein food devised by top athletes to infuse max energy in the shortest/fastest way. If companies had introduced it as is into mainstream, it would have flopped badly because protein bars tasted like shit. Athletes didn't bother about the taste and probably swallowed it! It served a different purpose. So, companies reworked the formula to add cocoa and sugar into energy bars to make them best sellers in literally no time!

Every lead usage need not translate into a successful product. Some of the brilliant ideas may not even see the common light. But communities like open source software take a very Freudian approach to the concept of lead users - allow anyone to lead the changes, and let the best survive. IMO, best of both worlds.

So, the next time you are customizing anything because it doesn't serve your need as is, do a bit more - think how useful it would be if everyone knew about it.

Applied Art vs Design

How different is applied art from design? Art fundamentally is a form of expression while a design has to communicate. But applied art has many characteristics that are similar to design - one of them is the context of application. Medium where the art is applied holds the same amount of constraints and makes it contextual, just like in design. How does one explain this?

Let's take a cell phone. The concept of a cell phone, simplified, is a device for communication. Now try mapping the levels of cell phone concepts to that of art.

How a cell phone works and what it contains - its fundamentals, is equivalent to fine art. The core concepts of art, such as materials, usage, medium, is applicable to cell phone as well.

Similarly, the different models and features of a cell phone, that abstracts the fundamentals can be mapped to abstract art?

And, when a cell phone is applied to a context - usage by elderly, say - it becomes equivalent to applied art. Some call it design for context, or emotion. I just call it user centered design.

I have not studied art to really stand by these definitions, I am just looking at this from an eye of a designer. But this surely does explain why designers often can sustain a conversation in applied arts, and to certain extent on abstract art, they fail to stay on board when it comes to fine arts. I do not want to say that designers lack fundamentals, but the most important aspect of design and usability is the context and usage, which matches quite well with applied arts.

Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds

Tarantino claims this movie as his best masterpiece yet; Also cleverly stamping it with the last words in the movie. Given that it took so many rewrites and 7 years for RTM, it better be. But having watched the movie, I must say that the on-the-edge feeling one gets watching PF (or, even Jackie Brown) was missing. Storyline had history stacked up against it, so it was bound to be "tense". I read that this version is about 1/3rd the size of the original script. That probably explains why some of the gaps are too evident, which surprisingly included many of the character developments.

May be it's just me, but I detest film makers using narration to develop the story. Instead of building the character/ story line, this I feel is a short cut way to set premises. Setting a period say, 1941, France, is alright, but I expect more from QT. On the other hand, short interludes works fine. Say, the blip shot of sex with translator was very QT.

Soundtrack is pretty good. Audio/Visual has nothing to complain about. In fact, the DP did a great job. And the German actor who did SS Colonel Landa was brilliant. One actually felt uneasy when the character came on scene. Rest of the casting was alright, just about. Brad was pits. Why Brad? Why not say, William Macy?

Anyways, I feel this movie was hastened up for release. In terms of craft, I would say that this is typical Tarantino. And given the kind of engagements he had after the Kill Bills, I can understand why critics are calling it, the return of the king. Still an 8/10 for me.

District 9

Write down all the regular features in a Hollywood alien movie.

1. Aliens are attacking the world
2. It's the end of the world soon
   
3. Everyone looks up to USA
4. Americans have the best ideas and put a task force together
5. Big ticket actors for the BO
6. Overdose of patriotism, heroism and sacrifice
   
7. Billion bucks mind boggling CGI
   
8. Finally all aliens are destroyed, America saves the Earth once again
9. The End.
   

Let's work on a story that is exactly opposite to the standard fair above. Aliens aren't attacking, but they live amongst humans, for a change this is *not* happening in the USA. The actors are fairly unknown, no Michael Bay budget for graphics, the filming is raw and like surveillance footage. Thankfully the hero is forced to fight for it, hence heroism is non existent. The simple (though racist) human nature and politics looks very natural.

The ending, emotionally wrenching, leaves some loose ends untied, involving the audience to stitch the story back. An often used trick to either let the story linger in their minds, or for the, oh, sequel. It works well on both counts.

Easily the most original alien story in 30 years, after Ridley Scott's brilliant Alien. And certainly a must watch!

9/10

Sweet One

Caramel is made by first time film maker, Nadine, who is also the lead actress/ co-writer. Given the premise -- beauty parlour run by female friends -- this film is a serious stunner. Can perhaps be called the best women movie of the last year. It is a light comedy set in Lebanon. Craft of the film is very European but have very touchy cultural sub plots/ character studies. The neo-noir frames and the light story line gives a nice contrast to the viewing experience. Highly recommended.

If you have $12m to spare...

... why dont you buy some stereo speakers? Transmission Audio calls it "Ne plus ultra", means no more beyond in Latin, often used to describe anything that is truly ultimate. True atleast in terms of cost.

For Sale, or Shut Down

20 brands died in 2009, so far. Some big names like Hummer, Pontiac, Kodachrome, Circuit City in there!

Ashes to Ashes

I admit, I like to see Australians' - especially Ricky Ponting's - long drawn faces when they get beaten. Does a lot of good for their inflated egos. It may not be as exciting as the 2005 win, but England winning 2009 ashes *is* something to cheer about. And my quota of cricket for this year is done with. The rest of the mela can continue. Thank you very much :-)

Style by John Mayer

John Mayer got his new $3m 2500 sqft NYC pad decorated by none other than Giorgio Armani! Gives him the right to define style? Sure does. "After I finally figured out how to behave, and how to dress, I wanted to get the next thing—my apartment—right. It’s the last piece of the style puzzle.”

The secret

Youth is happy because it has the capacity to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old - Franz Kafka

Trend Directories

I have been spending hours and hours on LivingEtc, DesignSponge, ApartmentTherapy, DesireToInspire in the past few months. All brilliant blogs on design and style, inspiring a whole bunch of folks who love modernism. But one thing that these sites largely miss is design for outdoors. I am yet to find a dedicated blog on outdoors, but Trendir has a rich section on outdoors. And some of the best bathroom pics on the net.

What I liked about the brilliant galleries at LivingEtc is that they show only a few lead photos, than a flood of pictures that leaves nothing left to imagination, like AT. Some may want to see all and see the obvious as well, but I like the 'teasing' nature of LivingEtc. Exercise your imagination!

Knowing Cage

It must be recession. Nicolas Cage is in big trouble. He needs a lot of money, and just acts in any movie that gets him his paycheck. If Leaving Las Vegas was iconic, all his recent ones - treasures, paycheck (how apt!), seeing future, and now this one, seeing future disasters, all are bordering silliness and boredom.

Actually, they are pretty good for cheap thrills. Knowing has some build up, but then the core story changes track midway and it becomes "The day earth stood still". In the end, much of the movie seems a waste of time. And it is a 2.5 hour movie. Then of course the US angle to everything, and vague explanations.

I think it started off as a nice idea, but the director couldnt get to close it well. Reco? Strictly once over, if you have nothing else to do.

Moved Back Here

I have finally moved my WordPress entries (back) into Blogger. I used wordpress2blogger tool, and had to do some tweaks to avoid overwriting. I am still fixing the "labels vs categories" issue manually, but I totally recommend this tool. Thank you, whoever-that-made-this-tool!

Revolutionary Road

Remember, American Beauty? We all took the trip down the lane with Lester, didnt we? From the same director, Sam Mendis, here comes the female version of Lester. At some level, they have the same elements and characters. And almost matching up with the former for brilliance.

Wifey Kate Winslet is superb in this dark and disturbing movie. She won the Globe best actress for this role, a bit too hysterical for me, though. What I really loved was Michael Shannon's role/ performance in this film. Actually, the movie is about his character's reading of the world.

Such brief acts -- Viola Davis's single scene in Doubt got her an Oscar nomination in supporting category -- are getting good recognition. But for a few exceptions (like Hopkins winning best actor for his 16 min role in Silence Of The Lambs), screen time always used to be a criteria for serious recognition. Things are changing for good, I hope.

WordPress to Blogger

After some Googling, I figured that one cannot import from Wordpress to Blogger. WP allows import from Blogger though. Looks like Blogger may loose some users due to this limitation. Dont they care at all?

I am keen to come back to Blogger because I like the easiness of post by email feature. WP also allows the user to do so, but it's not so easy. And my WP is getting HTML insertion attacks lately.

Anyways, Blogger doesnt have categories and that is probably the reason why WP posts cannot be imported. From a user centered design pov, well, I see two solutions:

(1) Just ignore the category markups in the XML and file all under a default category. How difficult is that? At least I get to save my posts. I am happy.

(2) Happier solution: since Blogger allows tags to posts, file the category of a post while importing as a tag. After all, category and tag are the same thing.

I am trying an experiment by removing all the categories from my posts in WP and try import it into Blogger. Not sure if that would work. But not addressing interoperability sounds like a monopoly situation especially in a social networking model. Where are the Blogger researchers? Solve this problem for me, please.

Watch Timecrimes

Imagine sci-fi in the 80's. Simple concept, no CGI, buildup of mystery, maze of possibilities, a feeling of never ending spiral, trying to put the pieces of the puzzle in your mind while watching a new scene and frowning at the crude ways of closures?

Timecrimes is for sci-fi old timers. Simple (often repeated) premise -- what if you can go back in time? what will you change? Can you change? what if there is another you from another time when you go back in time?

RocknRolla

Now that your ex-wife has given you a few big ones, we see that your creative juices have started flowing again, Mr Ritchie. A kick in the back has certainly reminded you of what you actually are. Welcome back, this certainly is in the right alley. Well, almost.

Perhaps the millions that you got were too cushy for you -- Rocknrolla isnt as tight and rocking as your older ones. Similar wine is similar bottle? But def worth a watch (or two, to catch the very "English" monologues) for those where-have-you-gone-Guy-Ritchie fans.