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  • Web2.0 and Manifestos

    Check out the Devil’s Dictionary and it’s definition of Web2.0. Pretty hilarious stuff out there. Particularly liked the definition of e-mail.

    A method of electronic communication, primarily used to inform you that your penis is too small.

    Also came across this collection of manifestos and other writings on entrepreneurship on the web at ChangeThis. This is what they say about themselves.

    ChangeThis is creating a new kind of media. A form of media that uses existing tools (like PDFs, blogs and the web) to challenge the way ideas are created and spread.

    Stuff by people like Hugh MacLeod, of Gaping Void fame, marketing guru Seth Godin, and Guy Kawasaki, a former Apple evangelist and entrepreneur par excellence. Damn nice stuff to read up there. I suggest you sure pay a visit.

  • Blood Diamond: A review

    Almost a month back I had written about 5 movies I wanted to watch over the next few months. I have so far watched both the movies out of the five that have been released in India so far. Babel last week and Blood Diamond today. Babel was brilliant with one very memorable scene in a pub, but that is an old story now.

    Blood Diamond, however, is a different sort of a movie. A movie that shakes you to your core and at parts you definitely feel depressed. However, as the movie progresses a sense of something good coming out of the whole thing starts building up in you. The movie is based on illegal African diamond trade that was used to finance Civil Wars in Angola and Sierra Leone. The diamond trade caused so much killings and blood shed that these were actually called blood diamonds.

    The movie has so much blood shed that it is easy for everyone to digest it. You realise that such things did happen in the past and despite several UN resolutions things might not have totally stopped. There is a scene where Solomon (Djimon Honsou) says that he understands the greed of white men, but what he does not understand is how his own people can do all that to themselves. I think that he is bang on. The other scene is where Danny (Leonardo DiCaprio) tries to explain why he is what he is to Maddy (Jennifer Connelly).

    DiCaprio is absolutely brilliant and I think he has improved with leaps and bounds with each movie as an actor. If he was good in Departed, he is awesome here. Djimon also plays the part of Solomon Vandy to perfection. However, Jennifer is under utilised in the movie and her part under developed.

    All said and done Blood Diamond is a fabulous movie and highly recommended by me. The quote of the movie, and the only scene where you can manage a smile:

    I hope they do not find oil here. Things can get really bad then.

  • Nature abhors purity

    From Waiter Rant, a blog I love reading:

    Outside my window it’s raining a hard cold rain. I feel sorry for the garbage men. I remember reading somewhere that rain droplets condense around particles of dust high in the atmosphere. No dust, no rain. No rain, no nothing.

    I smile to myself. Sometimes you need a little dirt in order to live.

    Two lines I like here. First, “…you need a little dirt in order to live” and second about the rain, “Outside my window it’s raining a hard cold rain“. I have always wondered how rain is soothing at times and at times harsh. Wierd, how words modify the same thing to represent two totally opposite emotions.

  • Cisco blogs about iPhone!!

    Cisco has gone public with details of the iPhone deal with Apple Inc and seems to have made a good point for itself. This information comes directly from Mark Chandler, Cisco’s SVP and General Counsel. Also this comes on a coporate blog of Cisco which goes a long way to show the power blogging has in today’s world and how companies use it to manage its public relations. The post has excited a lot of bloggers and has won Cisco brownie points with them. Also if you read the post, it does blame Apple, but very subtly and in a corporate fashion, not a big deal coming from a senior counsel.

    Also during negotiations with a certain vendor a few days ago the sales personnel there directed me to their corporate website for more information on their product. Way to go!! How I wish some people would listen.

    I did some searching on this tussel myself this morning and summarised below are my findings.

    The interesting thing here is that whereas Cisco (through acquisition of InfoGear) holds the trademark for “computer hardware and software for providing integrated telephone communication with computerized global information networks” (S.No. 75076573), Apple (through Ocean Telecom Services) holds the trademark for “handheld and mobile digital electronic devices…” and “hand-held unit for playing electronic games” (S.No. 77007808).

    If you actually check out the description the Apple trademark is more specific to hand held mobile devices and it is not difficult to see why Apple is not too concerned about trademark infringement.

  • APPLE vs RIM vs Palm

    The graph below from Google Finance actually does say it all about the impact (just the announcement of) iPhone has had on the traditional players in the domain!! I can’t want to see how these players bounce back and how hard Apple comes after them.

    graph.JPG

    Also interesting to see will be how Apple will name the product iPhone, which has been trademarked by CISCO.

    One thing is for sure, the customer is gonna be the king in the end with prices tumbling and improved services.