Life is fragile.

Hang in there RN. We’re rooting for you.

Jobs, the movie

The trailer for Jobs just debuted ahead of its August 16 release. I’m intrigued, it looks decent, and I don’t mind Ashton Kutcher at all but I don’t think he generates the screen presence you’d expect of someone playing Steve Jobs.

His dialogue delivery — particularly Apple announcements and the iconic Think Different ad — just don’t sound strong enough. I’ll watch it, but my expectations are low.

Update: I couldn’t get through more than half of it.

Ellen DeGeneres commen-cement speech

2009. Hilariously well done.

I think that quote (courtesy Phil Schiller at last night’s WWDC) represents a growing annoyance within Apple towards the continuing (and often nonsensical) writeups that have been circling the online world for some time. Frankly, it was a little surprising — Apple is known to take digs at competition, much like anyone else — but we don’t often see a statement of annoyance within their presentations, which is what this sounded like.

Image: Techcrunch

I get it too. Apple is a cash cow that sits on top of the smartphone and tablet market today and it seems almost ‘in’ to write negatively about the company. Fair enough, everyone’s always entitled to their opinion, but last night showed that it had severely scaled up, that even Apple is getting tired and annoyed by it.

But there was also a distinct Apple way in which they decided to respond. Apple iterated a focus on design principles, with a lot of context around the “Designed by Apple in California” tagline, and a rather lovely video (which is available on the same page). They took that a step further with the naming of the next version of OS X, Mavericks.

I think the star of the show — even if the most popular item was iOS 7 — was the Mac Pro. My first impression its first look was that the Mac Pro looked like a little nuke silo for your desk (perhaps that’s what they were going for), but to cram all of that in something that is 1/8th the volume of the current edition, that is some incredible work.

Image: Apple

This year, the rumor mill, while existant was far from explosive, with the only news coming out with any guarantee being that iOS was porting a flat design, the Mac Pro line would be updated and possible SDKs to Apple TV (which didn’t actually happen). Suffice to say TIm Cook’s insistance on doubling down on secrecy seems to have worked, for the most part.

There were also a few (indirect) digs at Scott Forstall and his reign — almost like the engineers were finally able to breathe again — with the changes to the design elements in both OS X Mavericks and iOS 7, and the overall loss of skeuomorphism.

Oh, and how cool was that anki demo?

For those of you who have a couple hours to kill, the full keynote is here.

It goes something like this*:

W: ‘I’m not one of those people’.
M: ‘One of what people?’

You know, the kind of people who wouldn’t drink coffee at a petrol station at all, let alone on a first date. Ok, so there are principles involved.

M: ‘But it’s not just any coffee, it’s…’ coffee of a very specific brand.
W: Hmmm, but is it organic?
M: Yes, my princess, they have organic options
W: Oooh, you’re a classy guy.

Not that I was dying to try it or anything, but now I’m totally off this brand of coffee. I mean, what. Just, what. How. WHY?!

Folks, please chime in. Is petrol station coffee a turn on for a first date as long as it has an organic option?

The Coco Nails ad is starting to sound pretty good.

*Quoted from memory, not transcribed.

It hasn’t been all that long since Posterous was acquired (well, acuihired) by Twitter and I dealt with the closing of one of my favorite publishing platforms.* So my surprise — and subsequent introspection at my choices — at Yahoo’s acquisition of Tumblr was not surprising.

Acquisitions are tricky little things. Yahoo themselves, have a huge list of them, and the track record isn’t something to write home about just yet. But over the last few months, I do feel that Marissa Meyer’s moves have been largely positive towards Yahoo’s own spirit. The Tumblr announcement itself came in parallel with the long, long, long awaited major redesign to emancipated child Flickr.

And I will admit the initial signs are good. Unlike Posterous’ announcement which carried the rather dangerous ‘We’ll give you a way to export all your sites’, Yahoo’s announcement contained a very encouraging:

We promise not to screw it up.

Also worth reading is employee #2 Marco Arment’s thoughts on the acquisition and Tumblr as a product.

I realize the title of this post is a little condescending of the term Yahoo, and probably is not the Yahoo under Meyer. But I also really hope they don’t Yahoo Tumblr.

Funny take on the marriage question. My favorite bit:

You are putting so much drama and telling, ‘Father is getting old and his health problems are also there. What if “something happens to him” without seeing your marriage?’. Like this and all you will say means what to do?

This is like saying ‘If you don’t kill yourself now, I will die. Now you choose what you want to do’

Thanks @bhuminasta for the share!

You should get married soon. Or else..

Cricinfo reports:

“Three Rajasthan Royals players — Sreesanth, Ankeet Chavan and Ajit Chandila, who were arrested for their alleged involvement in corruption in the IPL, have been suspended by the BCCI.”

Apparently it doesn’t matter if you’re already earning bucket loads of money.

BlackBerry plans to make BBM, our wildly popular mobile messaging service, available for the first time to iOS® and Android™ users this summer…

Well, well. This was rumored years ago incidentally, but since then, WhatsApp has pretty much eaten up the multi-platform market and Apple launched iMessage.

I must confess I don’t think it will amount to much. Tons will download (I will), a few users will switch away from RIM, and that will be that.

BBM coming to iOS, Android

Why, why do people have signatures that are 3 times the size of their emails. Imagine receiving an email with an ‘Ok’, and how if I’m not the intended recipient of that wonderful OK, I should instantly close the email lest I spontaneously combust into flames where I sit.

I think an email signature containing your name, a valid contact number suffices beautifully. Sure, your position and company with a link work, as does a Skype. Beyond that…

What does having the world’s longest disclaimer and a bunch of images/gifs achieve in an email signature? Particularly a corporate one.

I get the massive disclaimers of how messages are meant only for the recipient back in the days of snail mail and faxes but for email? The only reason why an email would be opened by someone else is if you sent it to the wrong bob, or they were hacked. But good thing you put in a disclaimer, so the hacker knows he shouldn’t read any further.

Gotta love Obama’s sense of humor

Say what you want about Obama, this is one cool video.

If I were him, I’d be mad all the time. But I’m not him, I’m Daniel Day-Lewis.

Hilariously done.

Thanks to Marc Blumberg for the share.

An interview with the man behind one of my favorite sauces of all time (and something you can’t find in Dubai..yet). Love this quote:

David Tran, founder of Huy Fong Foods Inc.:

Hot sauce must be hot. If you don’t like it hot, use less. We don’t make mayonnaise here.

Also:

Revenue grows about 20% a year even with all the competition. Huy Fong Foods has never spent a dollar on advertising.

(via parislemon)

Music share: Animals by The Cast of Cheers

But with you by my side, entwined with me,
It’s like I’m the lock and you’re the key.

Holy…Arrested Development is back!

Now how will the the non-US Netflix crowd get their hands on it?

Video: Somersby ad using the Apple playbook

Cleverly done.

Happy Holi everyone!

Rang Lo!

I still have my very first work ID for when I interned at AstraZeneca in 2004. When my mom first saw that ID (I used to put it up as part of a wall collage of things I had done at my apartment in Philadelphia), her first reaction was ‘You look exactly like Nanaji did when he was in college.’

I remember being supremely impressed by Nanaji when I stayed with my grandparents over the summer by myself in the 9th grade. As a routine, every morning at 7 a.m. you would see him fly out the door; he was a man who could not sit still. Laziness was so unknown to him that I am sure my lazy genes have all come from my paternal side. It was clockwork. Out the door at 7, back at 11.45 for lunch at noon sharp. Mind you, he needed his food piping hot, to the point where I had to sit for a bit before I could even consider eating. Back out again in the afternoon, back again for dinner punctually at 7, a habit you did not stop until last week. Nanima may have spoilt me with food and sweets throughout my stay, but Nanaji impressed me with pure action and few words.

Over the last couple years, I was sad every time I visited you, watching you go from being house-ridden to bed-ridden, unable to move around on your own, your eyes still showing the fight and energy, but your body unable to keep up with the pace. You suffered for someone so active, so determined to be out of the house whenever you could. You made random, silly excuses to leave the house; you’d tell Nanima you needed to get the mail (downstairs) and disappear for a half hour because everyone told you you shouldn’t be out as much.

You loved technology and new things. You were one of the few people who sat on a computer everyday, sending out emails and newsletters of things you read. You may not have been able to in the last couple of years, but I still remember and have the links you sent me to read.

I remember last year when you were in a little better health, and I sat with you, you asked me what I did. The answer I gave you — as I give most people alien to IT — did not satisfy you and you asked for more. The curiosity didn’t leave your face until I explained in detail how we look after servers, how we deal with customers, what I did specifically in my role and how we handled issues if they arose with customers.

You were the most active man I have ever met, in yours, my parents’ and my own generation; an example of a human being.

I miss you already. I’m glad you had your children and some of their children around you these last few weeks. And I am glad you are no longer in pain.

All I did was hold your hand. You did all the walking.

Music: I’m caught in the rain … with you

‘And I wish I could stay…with you.’

Sometimes,
Sometimes,
You just make me smile,
For no particular reason,
But just because you’re you.

Signs DSF 2013 is in full swing?

Gotta love it.

An Air India pilot faces suspension after she defied orders to switch her scheduled Mumbai-Jodhpur-Delhi flight for a later, direct flight from Mumbai to Delhi. Her reason for doing so? She wanted to fly via Jodhpur to pick up an order for the city’s famous onion kachoris that she had placed.

All about the priorities.

Credit: @dipalbhagde for the share.

Kachori-craving pilot delays flight by an hour

Still waters, softly falling on the sand
Birds chirping, softly circling the space around
Your fingers, softly touching my arm 
The moon, softly shining in the sky around.
The sound of your voice, melodiously reaching my ears
The feel of your smile, softly permeating the air around.
Incredible moments that describe the past year.
Incredible feelings that move us on.
Incredible experiences that excited us, this past year.
Incredible things to look forward the year on.

Happy 2013.

Music: If the Hudson overflows

A charity single for Hurricane Sandy Relief