#100: iPod iMac iPhone iRaq iRan

Should anyone who pronounces "Iraq" and "Iran" as though they are product extensions of the Apple brand be even allowed to share their 2-cents on NPR (or in any public forum)? Regrettably, their opinion and "expertise" counts.

#98: obiwan on photography

It's been exactly a year since my religious conversion .... from film photography to digital. It's more a repertoire expansion than a conversion or an upgrade. My film camera will stay with me (although it felt odd in my hands after a year in exile).

Now a few words of advice to my readers (the 2 of them) who may be thinking of going digital.

1. There are tons of good cameras out there .... from the slick aim-and-shoot, to the fixed zoom, to the now-affordable digital SLRs. I have trusted the advice of a few professional reviews before baring my wallet. And they have delivered good wisdom. If you are in the same boat, I personally recommend Digital Camera Resource, Digital Photography Review, and Digital Picture (for Canon products).


2. It's not in the mega-pixels. Contrary to sales pitches, ramping up pixels do not give you better or sharper images. They may just do the reverse. Don't take my word for it. Read this, "The myth about megapixels" in the NY Times.


3. The magic is in the lens. The range from less than a $100 to a couple of thousand for just that glass should tell you that there is a serious difference. Lenses bundled with SLR kits are the bottom of the line; let's just say they take pictures. Investing in a good lens is worth it, and definitely a lot more than ramping up the pixels.


4. Packing in a large zoom range has trade-offs. The images suffer from distortions and softness, and they forgo lens speed. Some have image stabilisers built in. But there's only that much they can compensate for. And they cannot help if your objects are in motion – think of people or wild-life. So don't get greedy on the range.


5. Third party lenses (Sigma or Tamron) are a hit-and-miss. You could get a terrific match with your camera and at a fraction of the cost of camera brands. How good is your luck? My advice: accessorise gradually.

So there you have it: my recently acquired wisdom distilled into one posting. Happy clicking. This is no guarantee for terrific photos (look at me). But you'll have a fighting chance!

#96: courting the devil again

Computers. Cannot live with them; can't live without them either. My laptop of 3 years died out on me, taking with it some recent photos and data (that true to natural human habits were not backed up), and my piece of mind. I've been scouting the market for a new one.

I surprised myself by checking out the whole spectrum on offer .... from the known devils (Dell, Sony Viao), the work-horses (Thinkpads aka Lenovo) to the benchmark of chic hipness (MacBooks). It boiled down to the Dell and MacBook Pro. But the price (and lack of meaningful academic discounting for the latter) means I will settle for yet another Dell. As much as I was prepared to take the leap to the Mac "promised land", my meagre budget just could not justify the premium for coolness. Sorry, all of you in Mac-Nation; maybe you ought to drop a hint to Mr. Jobs or a certain Nicholas Claus at the North Pole.

Just 10 years ago, a friend called me up just to gloat that his new desktop had 2 GIGABYTES of hard-drive memory. "Smart toothbrushes" have more now. In another 5 years, we won't be calibrating in GBs at all.

#89: pixels, millions of 'em

Everyone and their mother now has a digital camera. If not a camera, then mobile phones that are almost just as capable. And everyone, including this perpendicular pronoun, has turned into a born-again photo enthusiast overnight.

There is an overload of digital images everywhere ..... Facebook, blogger, flickr, zoomr, myspace, you name it. It is absolute chaos. But all is not so dismal: there are clear benefits too. I learned long ago that the good photographers take bad pictures too .... and perhaps in proportions similar to us amateurs. They just take more exposures and end up getting more number of decent photos from them.

Digital photography has just made that happen for everyone. The "marginal cost" of a bad photo is now zero. If I don't like it, I just delete it. There's no suspense of waiting to find out how it will turn out, and no remorse of paying to print bad exposures. Tinkering with photos is so much easier; sharing them online is a breeze.

In that spirit, I posted my personal favourite photograph last week.

#86: caving in

Some people are born great, some become great, and some have greatness thrust upon them. I joined the ranks of the last, thanks to a doting aunt who broke down my resistance to owning an iPod. Technically I maintain that I stayed true to my resolve: I did not line the pockets of Steve Jobs. It was a gift.

It's all downhill from here; a downward spiral that creates a perpetual revenue stream out my meager earnings. First I'll need more memory on my computer to store the songs. Then I'll need to buy more songs to keep it from going stale. And then I'll start chasing a bigger iPod to store the new songs. The consumerist cycle has just begun. I better get used to this new diet.

#60: internet, our social crutch

The Internet is spreading .... in its reach, and in the span of what it enables. Communication, news, research, shopping, missed TV shows... Now it's attempting to compensate for the isolation in modern life.

Social networks such as Friendster and Facebook have blossomed. Granted it connects people otherwise separated by distance. But what about when a bunch of friends currently in the same graduate school and living within a 5 mile radius flock to such a "group" just to keep in touch? Then it's a social phenomenon. My friend and I "poked" and traded one-liners on FB and the mobile phone for two weeks before we managed to meet for lunch yesterday, take a walk, and talk to each other in person and not through a keyboard. We finally had a shared experience.

The NY Times ran an article today based on the US Census Bureau’s 2007 Statistical Abstract. The article backs some common conjectures with definitive and concrete evidence.

• Among adults online last year, 97 million sought news using it, 92 million shopped, 91 million made a travel reservation, 16 million used a networking site, and 13 million created a blog.
• Average time spent with such media per year increased to 3,543 hours last year, up by 6% in 5 years.
• Since 2000, the number of labor unions, fraternities and fan clubs has declined.

Robert Putnam, the renowned Public Policy professor at Harvard comments, "The large master trend here is that over the last hundred years, technology has privatized our leisure time. The distinctive effect of technology has been to enable us to get entertainment and information while remaining entirely alone. That is from many points of view very efficient. I also think it’s fundamentally bad because the lack of social contact, the social isolation means that we don’t share information and values and outlook that we should."

Exactly. I think I said something similar but a lot less profound 2 months ago.

#52: happy birthday

The iPod fairytale will be 5 years old tomorrow. With 68 million pieces sold, this Apple revolution has swept from New Delhi to New York and all in between.

How liberating it must be to have all our favourite music in one place and at our fingertips – wherever and whenever. No more clunky CDs to lug around; no more having to listen to commercials, unwanted music, or street cacophony. Solitude and peace of mind is just a finger-flick away. It looks chic too.

But here's a counter-point. For all its convenience, the white wires of the iPod sticking to the ears is one powerful signal screaming .... "Do not disturb" or "Leave me alone". In a modern-day life that is already isolated and isolating, do we need any more help to hide into our cocoons?

That's just my critique of this 21st century icon. I am sure my friends will take me to task for my blasphemy. Oh well ....

#30: the blogosphere

The ranks of bloggers are swelling exponentially. Two months ago I would have viewed this whole thing with a heavy dose of cynicism. Why? Are most bloggers really saying anything meaningful, or are they just adding to the cacophony of opinionated voices? Is this yet another manifestation of self-indulgent wind-bags? Do they add any value to a discussion or debate? I seriously doubt if my own blog passes that litmus test.
For now I have partly overcome (or effectively ignored) that hill of self-doubt. I say, well, if someone wants to share my thoughts, that's fine. If not, that's fine too. We are social beings and this is one way, albeit highly imperfect, of sharing and communicating ideas. At least I am not filling up inboxes with spam or unsolicited mail.

But part of that cynicism persists. Is anyone other than me reading this? Is this a delusion, or are my pseudo-thoughtful musings of any interest to anyone? And could I have used this time doing something else .... such as a dissertation (ahem)?

I am not soul-searching alone. The BBC admitted:

"Depending on your take, blogs are either a fantastic liberation, a self-indulgent waste of time, or a complete mystery .... If you believe the hype, blogs are as significant as the invention of the printing press for their ability to change the way the world will be seen. If on the other hand you believe the counter-hype, blogs are a self-indulgence which pander to dull people's misguided beliefs that they have something interesting to say".

The Washington Post added a twist to the blog phenomenon in this article.