wrap up of 12' - NW Karnatak & east Goa

Our babies grew fast. they are real kids now. demanding even more attention and causing more raucous at home and school. Last month we got them admitted to the Millennium school which has fees which only the uber rich can pay. which means one of the two: either I am uber rich or I am downright crazy. Anyway whats done is done.
In nov me and the wife had some nice days off in Karnatak/Goa area. we went to a place called the Hermitage resort. and then to a hotel Dudhsagar resort. both beautiful places. but Trupti had some of her clothes stolen in dughsagar resort (?!). She's been whining about some lost skirt ever since.

In both places we found a lot of time to relax and take a moment away from the heavy lifting of twins at home.

Travel in general was restricted to either Panchgani to our favourite Prospect Hotel owned by the very nice and professional Iranis or the corporate resort style "the meadows" resort in Aurangabad. That trip was back in August or July or something like that. again 4 days of sheer laid back beer, swim, sun and s. Not a bad year for someone with twins below 2.
Bye bye 12'. Hope that 13' too rings a lot of travel and new interest. what's up on 13'? It has to the rann of kutchh of course. for too long and too lengthy I have only talked about it. time for action.

importance of HTML5

In today's world its become hard to bet on any one technology on the client devices. The world loves iOS and Android on mobiles and tablets, loves Windows 7, Mac on desktops today. In the next year there will be a untested new Windows 8 and windows 8 RT with a different chipset. Who knows but Chrome OS might catch on in some places. Developing dedicated client programs or apps that are too far tied into any of these proprietary APIs is a risk I believe. Having a OS friendly native skin on top a core HTML5 app seems to be like the best bet for a new entrant as of today. Companies like my current employer bet the farm on Windows specific .Net client applications might just find themselves locked out of future innovative devices. Like for example if suddenly a potential customer wants a big support for iPads and Android tablets along with the future Windows RT "tablets". Then many of our current gen solutions are rendered not usable. Having said that, at least from now onwards when large investments are made, this should be kept in mind and a safe and generic approach of HTML5 should be adopted.
Time will tell if my stance is vindicated.

Policing employees

Employment to me is a healthy exchange of value. I will offer to the company as much value as is possible from me. The company
offers in return a value in a different form namely money. I now work in a company which polices its employees. When to do what, see what, hear what and so on. I hate that. I work on the pure principle of exchange of value at the point of sale. How I procure that value is to be left to me, just as I don't ask the company to divulge how it gets the money.
In a classic IT services company, its a bad precedent to allow unlimited internet access and later police it. Its silly either ways. Because abuse is going to be a headache at certain point anyways. The question is not what others should do but what I would like to do. I cannot be policed like a big brother. I do not do illegal activities, do not waste my employers resources, give my best value back and yet get herded along with other riff-raff. That is what pisses me off completely. The loss of freedom for no good reason.
All over the world today, as always, people are busy making other people see it their way. Dictators in Syria, Zimbabwe, North korea, internet censorship in India, ban on pirates bay.org, green, saffron etc etc... same obsession in new bottle century after century.

Angst against Microsoft

Somehow over the years I have developed a certain angst and disgust towards Microsoft as a company. Perhaps it was their monopolistic killing of competitors or their vastly overpriced and unimaginative products or their arm twisting of the PC manufacturers. Somehow Apple, itself being fully proprietary company itself does not invoke such a disgust from me. Perhaps because at least they innovate and earn their position as leaders and braggarts. MS has only being strangling others to stay ahead. And that is what draws me to Open source. Just the sheer feeling of mutual helping and no barriers. (so long as you have read the GPL-2). I dont think I will ever purchase a MS product ever by choice or with my own money. For years I have bought laptops with no OS, but they come as few and rare.

कधी कधी वाटतं की अमेरिका मध्ये राहिलो असतो तर latest gadgets पटकन विकत घेतली असती मी. इथे भारतात खूप वेळ लागतो आणि येतात ते dollar च्या रेट मुळे फारच महाग असतात. गूगल मध्ये मराठी ट्यपिंग आता खूप सोप्प झालं आहे. 

Got to travel this year

Its been more than 3 years now that me and Trupti have had no meaningful travel and ambling along the roads of India. I dont know how we are going to do that with 2 kids in tow but so far my gut feel tells me that they love to travel and would enjoy it the most. fingers are crossed

Parivartan

मागचा काही दिवसांमध्ये माझ्या मध्ये काहीतरी परिवर्तन घडले आहे. मी विवेक यात्नालकर यांना तीन महिन्यान पूर्वी भेटलो होतो. त्या वेळेला वाटल न्हवता की इतका फरक होईल. मी त्यांनी दिलेल पुस्तक वाचल आणि त्यांचे तीन वर्ग घेतले. He was very straight forward and simple in his way of delivering his message. He himself seemed very convinced of what he was talking about and that was great. आता चीड किव्वा राग आला तरी मी पटकन भडकत नाही आणि काही tricks वापरतो. आयुष्यात थोडी थोडी परत आशा जागरूक झाल्यासारखी वाटते आहे.

Nokia.... ah, dear old Nokia

My genuine thoughts about the mobile phones I so dearly loved once upon a time.

Nokia should not have forgotten that making phones with beautiful designs is what it was always good at, in addition to producing them cheap and good after sales support. I hoped the Lumia 800 would have come out with a Android skin, I would definitely have considered it. Because I still trust their hardware more than Samsung or chinese knock-offs like Micromax (I use micromax now). But forcing me to learn and adapt a new OS and that too not open source is simply asking for too much. In the case of Windows mobile, everything updates from Zune and syncs only if you have a windows OS or Mac. No support for linux(ubuntu(mint :-) )) which i use for the past 4 years and am very happy with. So its no different than the iTunes madness that I initially ran away from. So I want the hardware and dont want the software on it. Android isnt all that great, but its very easy for me to understand and connect and customize. Also it does not force me into silly jails like iTunes or Zune.

I really wish Nokia would start making android phones with their legendary quality and userfriendly menus. they could keep WP as an option as well for better hedging.

[update June 18]: Nokia is in a spiral like no other. People are doubting where it will be sold by next year. I still maintain Nokia was best off with Android and a class-apart hardware designs of their own. damn.

you know you are a father of twins when....

1. Weekdays in office seem more attractive than weekends
2. You step on random sharp objects lying on the floor and hardly seem to notice
3. Having children seems extremely over-hyped.
4. You wake up in the middle of the night, feed some baby, go back to sleep and have no recollection of this in the morning.
5. Sleep beats sex.
6. Sex is a vague recollection from the past anyways.
7. Random people telling you how lucky you are, seems to get silent murderous thoughts in your mind.
8. Things lying all over the house are best left there.
9. Occasionally you meet some domestic help whom you have never seen before or heard of.
10. You wish you wouldn't have fought with your parents.
11. You are willing pay anyone for taking the kids away for a few minutes.
12. Only a persistent strong cry from a baby gets you up from bed. Minor ones are ignored altogether.
13. Your social engagements are limited to various weekly pediatrician visits.
14. You newly discover what kind of stuff is on TV at 2:30 am.
15. All those smiling photos with the twins are a mere smokescreen for friends and family