Archives for category: General Stuff
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Avatar. Man, Nature, Nightelves and Innovation. Why you MUST watch.

December 31, 09 //
0

It takes a hell of a lot of nerve for a man to stand up at the Oscarcast and proclaim himself King of the World. James Cameron just got re-elected – Roger Egbert, Movie Critic.

There are times when you come out of the cinema hall wondering at what just happened in your life in the last 3 hours. Sometimes it’s a powerful riveting story, sometimes its a great laugh fest, and sometimes it’s just magic.
This movie, Avatar, is the last of the category. Magic. As entertainment it is brilliant. For riveting depth of script, it could have done better.
The quick review – I’ll keep spoilers to the minimum. Unless you watched it in 2d….

This is a movie about the US Army forces entering a new land to plunder the precious mineral resources needed back on earth to survive. But every planet doesn’t spread its legs freely. There is resistance. In the form of a race 10 feet tall with blue skin on the planet Pandora called Na’vi. The story then follows the battle of one conquering army and the others refusing to be whores, to their murderous plunder. Sound familiar? Exiled British conquering the Native Indians perhaps?
What this movie made me think was about the extent to which we have plundered nature. To make everything our own. To seek to control resources that don’t belong to us. Instead of a diplomatic solution we exhibit that which requires no brains, Brawns.
In Management, there is the stick and carrot tactic- employed with children too. You show a carrot lead the people away or you drive them out by using force with the stick. It does leave you with a sick feeling in the mouth to see how the latter is shown in the movie.
Man can co exist with nature. Man can live peacefully without showing his aggression. This doesn’t fly into the US corps philosophy who seek to bend the will. Seek, Crush and Destroy.
The Scientists of the bunch want to discover, learn and form an alliance. The soldiers (theres no “misunderestimated” me here) want to conquer the resources by brute force, as the Westerners have often proven adapt at doing. There are many battles subtly placed that keep ones attention.
And at the center of this is Jake Sully, paralysed below the waist, retired Marine of the U.S Army. His brother had taken part in a training where he was given a very expensive “Avatar”. This is akin to the matrix where you plug yourself “into the system” and you take on the smell, feel and emotions of a 10 foot blue Na’vi body. The “Avatar”. These are how the Night Elves would be like in Warcraft 3. There is a host of creatures that seek to still territorial ownership as well on the planet.
The story of Avatar is not entirely new. And to a large extent falls into the Hindi Movie formula of love, family, running around trees and good vs evil. This isn’t something you haven’t seen before.
What you haven’t seen before
What James Cameron excels himself at is innovation. This is what excites me. He has a fertile imagination. And has combined brilliant cinematics into a good storyline. The last time I felt the same rush of visual awe take over where during the Matrix Series. And the Lord of the Rings. I watched too much of Star Trek so Star Wars wasn’t appealing enough. I know.
This is why you MUST watch it in 3d. The flora and fauna, the trees, the chase scenes on the dragon-like birds and pandorian panthers. Here’s a shot.
This is 2d. Imagine that racing at you in 3D. Cameron in this movie has invented a new camera, said to revolutionise cinema going. Invented a new language, called Na’vi. Written a book on the biology of Pandora. So much so that the Pandorapedia, said to be released, is in itself a full compilation of authentic research translated. That is dedication to your movie. He wanted to make this in 1994. We weren’t ready then.
Unlike a lot of bullshit directors today who make up shit, James Cameron spent over 5 years researching this.  An astrophysicist reviewed Avatar and gave it a thumbs up. Think about that someone who is deep in physics approves of the elements put together. And it is this reason James Cameron is a visionary.
I’ll do a detailed why James Cameron’s life inspires me post tomorrow, but I had to get this out of the way. This was a perfect way to spend New Years eve. Spend time being fascinated by riveting visuals and going back wondering what you’d give to be Jake’s Avatar.  Flexibility, strength of spirit and more importantly, Neytiri.
Here’s wishing each and every one of you a Very happy new year.
May you get everything you seek, as long as it’s not unobtainable mineral on a planet in the year 2154, because I would then side with the Na’vi.

Posted via email from Kage’s Pages.

Welcome to Karthick Gopal.com! To stay in touch with all the posts, subscribe to myRSS feed or follow me on Twitter for more interesting stuff.

Thus began Kartivity.

December 28, 09 //
0

I just got myself into photography. I took my dad's DSLR the Nikon D40x, quite shamelessly I might add, to teach myself a skill I see valuable down the line. I love looking at pictures. It doesn't matter who you are, as long as I know you and you have some memory shared, I'd love to see it. So it's in this effect that I started this blog specifically to showcase my explorations and discoveries into the world of Creativity. 

To start off with I read some previews on dpreview.com about the camera i own called Nikon D40x. While searching for reviews, I came across this great site by Ken Rockwell on Photography. 

How have I made all my best shots? By noticing something cool and taking a picture. The important part is noticing something cool. Taking the picture is easy. Photography is like golf. They are both fun, popular and require some equipment. Very few people can get others to pay them to do either one for the same reason. Each takes a lifetime of constant practice, getting better and better little by little. Most golfers play for decades and never hit a hole-in-one. Photography is more complex than golf. Why does anyone expect ever to make a perfect photograph? 
Brilliance doesn't work on a schedule.

You see more if you're looking. The more you look, the more you see worth photographing. If you're not thinking and not looking you'll walk right past some of the most extraordinary opportunities. If you don't care about the subject then the results won't get beyond the basics. Care deeply and incredible things happen. Don't care and you are quickly forgotten.

A photograph is not about technique. A photograph is communicating something, be it an idea, concept, feeling, thought or whatever, to a total stranger. For a photograph to be effective you have to be clear with what you're communicating.

One cannot just keep doing the same thing. One needs constantly to innovate and discover new ways of doing what you've been doing. See and feel things from different angles and in different ways.

Not last nor least, you need to keep doing it with the same subject. The better you know your subject the better your results will be.

This great post detailed here.

Posted via email from KARTIVITY

The greatest advice ever given.

December 26, 09 //
1

Wear sunscreen.

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they’ve faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.

Don’t worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 p.m. on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Sing.

Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts. Don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don’t waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind. The race is long and, in the end, it’s only with yourself.

Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch.

Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don’t.

Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees. You’ll miss them when they’re gone.

Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t. Maybe you’ll have children, maybe you won’t. Maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else’s.

Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don’t be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own.

Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.

Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them.

Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents. You never know when they’ll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings. They’re your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft. Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you’ll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don’t expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you’ll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.

Don’t mess too much with your hair or by the time you’re 40 it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen.

Originally written by Mary Schmich and later converted to an audio by Baz Luhrmann (if someone has the mp3 please mail it to me!).

Posted via email from Kage’s Pages.

The greatest advice ever given.

December 26, 09 //
0

Wear sunscreen.

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine. 

Don't worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 p.m. on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Sing.

Don't be reckless with other people's hearts. Don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself.

Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch.

Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don't.

Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees. You'll miss them when they're gone.

Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else's.

Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own.

Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.

Read the directions, even if you don't follow them.

Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents. You never know when they'll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings. They're your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft. Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.

Don't mess too much with your hair or by the time you're 40 it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen.

Originally written by Mary Schmich and later converted to an audio by Baz Luhrmann (if someone has the mp3 please mail it to me!).

Posted via email from Kage’s Pages.

Artists rendition of what MJ would look like at 50 if Black.

December 26, 09 //
0

Watched This is It last night (for the fourth time). Such a crying shame we lost the most talented music artist that ever lived.

Posted via email from Kage’s Pages.

It’s entirely your responsibility to make your dreams come through.

December 25, 09 //
0

Here's some great inspirational text to read first thing in the morning while waiting for your flight. I feel this years going to be totally awesome (for all of us). I'm going to sit down, reshape the blog up, get some focus. Focus on a dream.

There's a saying, "Life isn't about discovering yourself, it's about creating yourself". I read that off a friends twitter message and it struck a great chord. Then this morning I read the following from Jason at 37Signals.

There's always time to launch your dream.

“I’d love to start a company / become a great programmer / write an awesome blog, but there’s just not enough time in the day!” Bullshit. There’s always enough time, you’re just not spending it right.

Now that’s some tough love, but I’m sick and tired of hearing “no time” as an excuse for why you can’t be great. It really doesn’t take that much time to get started, but it does take wanting it really bad. Most people just doesn’t want it bad enough and protect their ego with the excuse of time.

Being willing to sacrifice at the edges is one of the most important skills you’ll ever learn.

During my undergrad, I created Instiki, Rails, Basecamp, and got on the path to being a partner at 37signals. Do you think I could fit all that and still get straight As and have lots of time left over for playing World of Warcraft? No.

If you want it bad enough, you’ll make the time, regardless of your other obligations. Don’t let yourself off the hook with excuses. It’s too easy and, to be honest, nobody cares on the other side.

Read the gold post here.

Posted via email from Kage’s Pages.

Lessons of Success: Alec Baldwin.

December 23, 09 //
2

Not many might remember the smart alec (oh I kill it with puns) no bullshit salesman deliver a fiery speech in 1992. The performance was short, but noteworthy. The brief appearance and the fast talking
speech brought many to notice the brilliant performance this, then 32 years old, actor from New York, Alec Baldwin delivered. The movie, that had this talk, was Glengary Glen Ross. Here's the performance. Coffee is for closers only.

Since then in a variety of roles, Alec had failed and succeeded often. Now at 51, in his interview with Wired Magazine, he teaches a lot of crucial things that one can learn from and instill. Ever since 
his divorce with the sultry Kim Basinger, Alec has reinvented himself many times and in his latest incarnation drops in as a funny guy with a funny series, called 30 rock. I have seen it and highly recommend it.

On Reinventing: Don't give up, enjoy the ride.

30 Rock doesn’t have the biggest audience, but we have an audience. And my God, what a difference it makes. I walk down the street all day long and people tell me how much they love the show. 
Not that I need to wake up every day and have every bird in the trees and every horse riding along the bridle path wink at me and say, “Oh, Alec, I loved 30 Rock last night!” But it’s nice.

On Acting: Do things that you have to do.

I needed to make a living. People don’t realize actors are like plumbers. When you invite a plumber to your house and say, “I want you to put this sink in my bathroom,” the plumber
doesn’t say, “I’m not going to install that sink, it’s hideous. You have the worst taste in sinks!” No, he just says, “OK,” and he puts it in. 

One life son, do what you want to.

I had the realization: God, I’m 51 years old and I spent 30 years of my life doing things I didn’t want to do. The things you do to please other people! I said to myself, Well now I’m just going to have a 
good time. That was the most freeing thing. For the first time, I wanted to do whatever I felt like that day. I wrote a book, A Promise to Ourselves, this critique of the family law system. I want to write more books. I want to go back to school. I might even run for public office.

(via: Wired)

Posted via email from Kage’s Pages.

Don’t wait to be handheld, Say no to social validation

December 22, 09 //
0

Social Validation:
Doing things because people around you have done something generally agreed upon as the thing to do.

Most people find the need for social validation. That's fine. If everyone is doing it. You should be doing it too right? Because it's safe. Well stop waiting for it to be safe, and let it become scary. Really scary. Because it's only then you will discover who you really are.

I call this not-safe mentality being part of the Herd. It's not wrong really, it's safe. It's boring. 

It's what people without the will to do something different or even the drive to do something different end up doing. 

Case example: Marriage.

I come from India. This is a land that is plagued with social validation. That's not because most people are not risk takers, it's that most people need to be told it's ok. The muslim invasion fucked us. The british fucked us some more. While those bastards might be laughing now, it has left a deep resolve in India to be really safe and sure of what next step you take. This is thankfully not the case in the future. A lot of bright indians are changing the world we see around us. Taking bigger risks now and starting companies. But it doesn't change a lot of the enviroment and way of working in India. 

But I digress.

Marriage is a social validation ceremony, that the guy is now fit to be responsible. That this lad of 25+ is now ready to take care and bring on the worries of a woman. To now seed a generation to follow up.

All for what? Where is the glory in this? Because his dad did it, he does it too (no puns intended). He doesn't have higher dreams beyond the proven method of life.

In India the proven life - 

1. Become a 
a) Doctor
b) an Engineer.

2. Marry at the age of 20

3. Get Kids soon.

4. Care for them, try to save up some.

5. Die.

What sort of life is this? How many have paused to ask really what is this for. I'm not going anti marriage here. I'm saying marrying for security or purpose is possibly the two stupidest reasons you can marry for.

Is there any good that comes out of this?

Yes. Generations have married and have lessons to teach us. This is what works, this is what doesn't in marriage. I beg to differ again. The people and their values have changed. Women wear short skirts now, brandish womens liberation is my birth right, get confused into the G.I.Jane approach to things in life (esp men) and then end up being the anti-mom. The girl of this generation is NOTHING compared to her mom. That's good in a way, she's more educated, open, liberal and all that. She is also confused. She is suddenly
open to this world where anything goes. But she's not sure where to go.

Men have it better, they have been traditionally grounded in the way their life should lead. Which sorta follows after the proven life principle.

I'm sure you are happy and married. Tell me why.
More important.

It's time to be scared. It's time to know thyself.
It's time to say no to social validation. 

(Note:- I'm not staying say single, I'm just saying find a better reason to get married beyond the herds.)

Posted via email from Kage’s Pages.

Wordpress 2.9 is out/ Amazing features here!

December 19, 09 //
0

Stuff that is being introduced here:

  1. Global undo/”trash” feature, which means that if you accidentally delete a post or comment you can bring it back from the grave (i.e., the Trash). This also eliminates those annoying “are you sure” messages we used to have on every delete.
  2. Built-in image editor allows you to crop, edit, rotate, flip, and scale your images to show them who’s boss. This is the first wave of our many planned media-handling improvements.
  3. Batch plugin update and compatibility checking, which means you can update 10 plugins at once, versus having to do multiple clicks for each one, and we’re using the new compatibility data from the plugins directory to give you a better idea of whether your plugins are compatible with new releases of WordPress. This should take the fear and hassle out of upgrading.
  4. Easier video embeds that allow you to just paste a URL on its own line and have it magically turn it into the proper embed code, with Oembed support for YouTube, Daily Motion, Blip.tv, Flickr, Hulu, Viddler, Qik, Revision3, Scribd, Google Video, Photobucket, PollDaddy, and WordPress.tv (and more in the next release).

Read more of the goodies offered here.

Posted via email from Kage’s Pages.

Chrome Extensions introduction and Twitter real time search.

December 12, 09 //
1

I was a huge proponent for Internet Explorer when Firefox was just released. I defended it and made sure that my friends used it and stressed on the aesthetic design of IE as opposed to then very ugly Firefox.That was then when Firefox was nascent and IE was established. But Firefox came in and steadily (and slowly) changed the way browsing was to be experienced. The first opening up to the "addons" was a brilliant insight. And quickly I switched to the point where I haven't used IE in over 5 years now (except 4 times in a net cafe because they didn't let me install Firefox).

However there came a new ninja in town. His name was Google Chrome and he was going to upset the Yin and Yang balance in browsers. He was super fast, super friendly but didn't quite have the tool arsenal that the old sensei Firefox had. But as we speak, from his Dojo (labs) he has conjured up a grand weapon and he is 
destroy Firefox.

I always had a penchant for drama, so you'll have to put up with such elaborate prologues.

I'm really excited about the changes Google brought about in the last week. Extensions and Twitter search.

Extensions

In firefox language that translates to addons. My primary gripe with Google Chrome had been 2 things.

a) It didn't have developer extensions for web devs to check out the CSS/HTML layouts of webpages which was done superbly through Firebug and WebDev tools in Firefox.

b) They didn't have Twitter (Echofon) integration to check tweets within the browser.

That was laid to rest yesterday. With firefoxs memory management pretty much sucky on my machine – 8 tabs used over 125,000 Kb of memory as opposed to 60,000 kb by Chrome on heavy testing, I quickly applauded the 2 new things Chrome brought up. The first 
through Chrome. Note that you can only use this in the "Beta" version of Chrome. You will have to download the beta version of Chrome and I think it's well worth it because it lets you see the latest changes and plus get to try out all the cool new stuff they develop. I have started using it and I really like 3 extensions in them.

a) Google Calendar Tasks – You can use these to sync the calendar tasks.
b) Chromed Bird – Think echofon/twitter for Chrome.
c) Aviary Screen Capture – Take screenshots, edit with an in browser photoshop style tool
d) PDF/DOC viewer in Google chrome – self explanatory I think.

I am still testing out the other extensions that should be up soon and are regularly featured and I'll let you know what I think about it. But my advice is to switch now for a faster web and the installations don't even need a restart of the browser (which takes forever on my machine with firefox). They are super nifty to access and show up on the right bar. 

In fact the screenshot you see right now was made by Aviary's extension with Chrome.

The other important change that is now active is 
Real Time Twitter Search.

think the Google ads are pretty much useless. I have clicked like maybe 10 in my whole life. But the twitter results are very important because it tells me a few important things.

a) How "new" is the thing I searched about? Have people stopped talking about it? Or are they still in conversation?
b) Who are the influencers talking about this, who does this search have the attention of?
c) Who are the like minded people engaged in this conversation

Like minded people btw, aren't those that are searching for like "Twilight", "Justin Timberlake", I am talking about the people interested in useful things.In this way I think I got to hand it out to Google in a salute.

I have enabled them and am currently testing if it's relevant enough to be used. But I can tell you this, Microblogging (Twitter) and Posterous are the tools I plan to spend a lot of my future time with. I think you should try them out too. All worked on Chrome ofcourse.

Posted via email from Kage’s Pages.

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »