Entries from July 2009 ↓

The media’s portrayal of the iPhone App Store in the US has been all about the triumph of the individual developer: how your regular Joe moonlighted on an iPhone app and found himself richer by a few thousand dollars. For example, see this Wired article.

I saw a similar attempt in India by Mint recently, and here it is all about how software outsourcing companies keep a steady trickle of revenue alive amidst the downturn – thanks to the iPhone App Store. The focus is not the individual but the organization. It’s about software factories. It makes me sick.

The article is here. Don’t miss a certain Mr. Palak Biswas posing with his prized possession.

Plonked a considerable sum of money on a new camera. Was looking for one with a better sensor (less noise for higher ISO), better focussing system, better shutter performance (1/8000 and 6.3 fps burst) and overall better handling (weather proofing, better viewfinder). EOS 50D fit the bill nicely. Seriously contemplated a switch to Nikon but it had the significant disadvantage of being incompatible with my existing collection of lenses – besides it would’ve got me fewer megapixels and no weather proofing for more money.

Yes, it doesn’t do HD movies – even the entry level EOS 500D does that these days; but I am not in it for moving pictures. And then, I can make up for my camera’s inability to shoot video with html and javascript. Here are a couple of studies in waltz time – performed by anonymous cast in front of the camera shop where the camera’s burst mode performance was being tested (very grainy ISO 3200):

1. Intro to waltz
2. Promenade Waltz

The links will open in a new window. Give the page some time to load and once the pictures start moving, hover over the them to see tooltips (and to slow the action down a bit). And please use a respectable browser (i.e. not IE).

I’ve always thought of dates as a dry fruit, so when I saw this packet labelled ‘fresh dates’ on the shelf of the local grocery store, I had to pick it up.

As you’d expect, the dates of the fresh variety don’t taste at all like the dates of the shriveled, dried variety. But what was surprising was that they tasted like something familiar and yet something I couldn’t quite place. I’ve settled on a cross between India Jujube (ber, बेर, Ziziphus mauritiana) and Sugarcane for now.

Yet another visit to Coorg. A detailed travelogue will have to wait but this picture deserved a post of its own: