New Lamborghini

I am in peak holiday mood now and have given away all my eyeballs to it(2 2b presize, isn't this how kids write these days! Acronyms are a part and parcel of life now, not limited to software any longer :). They are used so much that simple spellings have become difficult to remember).

Coming back to the case in point, there is a new Lamborghini in town...How about calling it a LG? Ugghh, that removes all class from it! This new Lamborghini is affordable and it can actually be driven without a license. Believe that? I am sure you don't..but if I tell you that this new Lamborghini is actually a laptop and not a car, you will and you will be disappointed too. Lamborghini and laptops? What a combination! Ferrari did something like that sometime back, don't know if it was widely accepted..but to think that the world's sportiest car(almost the costliest?) is getting into computers is just not acceptable to me..and their ads on Buy.tv are even more preposterous..


The ad says that this new Lamb embraces all the qualities of a Lamborghini that include speed (dual core processor), power (2 GB RAM) and looks (same colors, sleek finish including the Lamborghini signature at the back of the laptop) and reliability (good warranty). Every laptop worth it's salt offers this today, nothing special in this Lamb. Maybe some racy design with sleek features like a touch panel screen, outstanding audio, video quality (how about bose integrating some speakers into a laptop..speakers from it's stable seem to be getting smaller and smaller every day) can possibly give it "that" distinction..

Oops, in my excitement to share this with you, I forgot to mention some important details to you. This Lamb is called a ASUS Yellow Lamborghini VX1 and it is currently priced at around $2500. Take a look at ad here.
Lamb computer ad

Playstation3, just a game console?

Playstation3, just a game console?

Doesn't look like that to many as is apparent from the long queues at various BestBuy stores across USA, kind of reminiscent of the queues lined up for a new Chiru movie in India or the queues for StarWars here or maybe the line at the US consulate in Chennai! Demand for the Playstation this time has been exaggerated because of short supply. Sony has had several production issues and has only supplied 300,000 consoles for the holiday season and has restricted all imports from Japan! After the battery recall, these new production issues for the Playstation add to it's long list of woes..Nothing seems to be going right for the company. It is also facing litigation charges against it's video website Grouper.com. Blame it on stars! Sony's loss here is Microsoft's gain. XBox 360 is rocking now. They are actually making a profit on the console now! Sony is going to make a 200-300 dollar loss on each console they sell which they "hope" to recover by selling games on these consoles...200 bucks more for Blu-Ray and all..tccchh..My eyes cannot discern any difference now. The next thing in digital entertainment..People will walk out of television screens aka "The Ring", or maybe Holograms?

Coming back to the Sony Playstation fervor, gamers just seem to be bunch of passionate nerds. How else can you explain long serpentine queues built up over a couple of days with people camping out near stores! Heights of stupidity, a pregnant woman trying to ignore her contractions to just stay in line! Madness, what else? Riots, a drive-by shooting and several vulturous glares have been reported. Sounds like a crazy place to be in. People are hiring 10-20 'temps' to just stand in line to get a console. Don't they have anything better to do in life? How about donating that money to charity?

Look at how much they are selling for on eBay. Unbelievable! 2-3 times the normal price. Maybe, Sony should silently sell some here and make up some of it's losses :).

Sony Playstation III on eBay

Pre-emptive military strategies

Bush just lost half of his personality! After suffering a drubbing defeat in both houses of the parliament, he had to appoint a new defense secretary. Donald Rumsfeld, who had a stranglehold on the flawed American military strategies (all based on a bed of lies and assumptions) had to step down and give way to a more moderate Robert Gates. Even while stepping down, Mr.Rumsfeld was his belligerent self advising the government not to relax on it's pre-emptive military strategy against Iraq because of "moral and intellectual confusion". Come on Mr.Rumsfeld..we all know the facts.

Iraq was attacked on the basis of a few satellite reports that "showed" fixed/mobile centers for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. I still remember that report in TIME that talked about why Iraq was a potential target and how cliched the usage of WMD had become then..and after so many years of digging, searching, excavating :), what do they find? Zilch!! and what happened next? Tune changed citing that the war was to oust Saddam, the terrorist mentioning that he was the worst thing to happen to this world, caused genocide etc etc ...and they do find him..Where? In a hole. I actually expected to see him on the top of a nuclear warhead from the din that was going on..and did anything change? Yes Yes, it did..New "heroes" like Al-Sadr emerged and Iraqis started coming across as a united bunch, well actually two bunches and what happened to Saddam's genocide? Well, it continued .. only change is that the numbers are bigger now!!.. Attacks between Shias and Sunnis have increased and hundreds are dying every day..much worser than what happened during Saddam's reign. I don't have much respect for Saddam, but he atleast had the country in control! WMD's are gone, Saddam will soon be history and the latest tune is that the administration is striving to bring in democracy to an oppressed, anarchy-driven nation and of course this is being forced upon them...Huh, you are targetting oppression, but trying to suppress common sentiment at the same time?

Democracy with force/pressure. Can't get worse..

I am very happy to see Rumsfeld step down. I wish Cheney does that soon too. That leaves Rice and Bush. I had the impression that Rice counted for policies here, but now feel that she is just a puppet with an attitude, a very bad one..That leaves us with George W.Bush Jr. Well, he will just be a kid with no personality. Let's him play. Let him compose his silly poems and let him make a fool of himself as always...We chose him, so we bear the consequences!!

Break the complexity

Analogies demystify life. They help us to simplify the complex, and/or make the abstract concrete. Human minds can accept arguments much more easily when comparisons are drawn with things they already know about. You can use analogies to disseminate information to an audience that hardly knows about what you are talking or to an audience that knows/but doesn't agree with your viewpoint or use them to explain some abstract principles to yourself. Life becomes very difficult when we cannot explain why facts are facts and why some popular theories are accepted as facts. Some of our greatest theories in science came into light because scientists drew analogies with what they saw(Newton's laws of gravity, Archimedes principles ..).

I don't have the sharpest brain, take time to understand new ideas and concepts, but make a great attempt to typecast a new idea/concept to something that I already know of. I like drawing parallelisms between life and what I see. I explain life through work and work through life. One such thought struck me today on my way back home. I am usually a "left-lane" guy (although I don't drive that fast), but today on my way back home, I was stuck in the "right lane". On a 60mph speed limit road, I was driving at 40 mph. Try as hard as I might, I couldn't get to the faster lanes. Cars were whizzing past me and I was just looking at them. This reminded me of something that I was always told when I was going to kickstart my career. People advised me to join a company that was in a growth mode, a company where I could learn a lot and move forward. I took the advice and went and joined a startup where I gained some very valuable knowledge apart from a direction for my career. The company I was in when I moved was a "big" company and I was just an employee lost in the crowd out there. If I had carried on with that job, I would have been in the "right lane" forever. It would have become increasingly difficult for me to go forward or move to a faster lane as I would have been restricted by the growth of the company. Faster lanes are always good if you are 'within the limits' (read 10%/10mph higher than displayed :)). Easier to shift to a slower lane if you ever wanted to..You can go(grow) fast, reach your destination faster. Ofcourse, it is fraught with the risk of an accident/burn-out, if you go just too fast! Slow lanes are good if you want to play it safe and enjoy your journey without much concern for going fast/rising to the top. I would strictly advise people starting their careers against it...

I am in the middle lane now and am trying hard to get onto the left..The going is tough, but I am tough too. I know I will be there soon, but had I been in the left lane, things would have been so much easier. Life and it's spectrum of choices. We have to be careful about what we choose and what we don't!

A perfect escape

Life's happiness lies in some of it's most silent moments. Far from our deafening world, there is a sea of tranquility where every ray of light, every drop of water, every whiff of air and every smile on a face is fresh and pure. Every single moment spent gets you closer to yourself. The only noises you hear are the chirping of the birds, noises from leaves rustling and water moving. Life in a city distances us from all this and obscures us from enjoying nature in it's naked beauty. Cacaphony and Monotony have silenced our lives and have taken us away from our roots.

I had a tryst with nature over the weekend and realised that this new world was not really that far away! Just 200 miles from here, a wooden cabin in Broken Bow, Oklahoma was the perfect retreat for our tired souls. Every moment I spent there seemed very ideal. The trip was even more endearing because the fall colors had just set in making the atmosphere tranquil, beautiful and colorful. We even crossed a village that had just 300 occupants, 20 of whom we met in a gas station. Even our apartment complex here has more than 300 residents!

Am just waiting for our next trip now :).