January 2011

I closed off my Gurgaon stint with a homely get together at Abhishek & Praneeta’s place. I returned back to Bangalore from my Corporate job in time for Pongal (which I spent in Salem). I did steal a couple of trips to the Sultanpur Bird Sanctuary in Jan before I headed back. I signed up for a Nilgiris birding trip in end Jan with Toehold. We visited Bandipur on our way up to the Nilgiris, spent a few days birding there and stayed in Masinagudi on our way back. I managed some decent images of the Grey Headed Canary Flycatcher and the Nilgiri Flycatcher.

This Gray Headed Canary Flycatcher kept flying on and off this branch & I made that fleeting eye contact on one occasion

February 2011

This month was all about Kartik & Keerthu’s wedding. All I can say is that it was one big affair. I managed to steal a day to Valparai after the reception. A day filled with amazing sightings. I did not manage a trip back until the end of the year (Dec 27).

Keerthu & Karthik after the reception. The wedding photographer took some lovely portraits. We managed one of the family too.

The highly endangered Lion Tailed Macaque are only found in the Western Ghats.

March 2011

I visited Kodi to see Thambu for a couple of days. Managed a few decent landscape shots and sighted the Gray breasted Laughing Thrush among others – a Western Ghats endemic. I managed a Kabini Trip towards the end of March with Jayanth & Giri of Toehold. As Jungle Lodges is almost always sold out, Toehold is a great option. Toehold is a travel & photography company with a difference – they have also been offering some exotic locations over time and these folks are going to do extremely well. I managed some great closeups of the leopard finally!

Mornings in Kodi offers such exemplary views.

Kabini is THE destination in India for sighting leopards.

 April 2011

We spent a few days at BR Hills on our way to Coimbatore to drop off the kids. We stayed at Gorukana, a lovely resort run by the Soligas. While the sightings were slim, we had a great time at the resort. Towards the end of the month, we packed the kids to Hong Kong to see Disneyland. We spent a couple of days at the Disneyland resort hotel and spent the rest of the week at the Hyatt at Kowloon. Needless to say, the kids had a blast!

The kids at Disneyland

Hong Kong from Victoria Peak is breathtaking!

May 2011

We spent Kirin’s birthday in Coimbatore along with a lot of his cousins. I managed some decent portraits of the kids.

Cousins get together for Kirin's 12th birthday

Kirin & Kavya got exposed to their first CSK match. Seen here with Vidya athai having a gala time at the stadium.

June 2011

June was a quiet month. We had a Motoparty in Bangalore. I met Ranga briefly in Yercaud. Jayanth & I started planning our new venture.

July 2011

July was the time Jayanth & I got serious about starting off and there were more intense discussions on what we should be doing. This was the month Convergence Catalyst was born after multiple walks in neighborhood lakes.

Our logo. After many iterations, arrived at both the name & logo.

August 2011

We did paperwork for registering Convergence Catalyst. It was my school reunion – met some of my classmates after 25+ years! It was also amma’s birthday and we spent it with her in Salem.

SRSHSS. We called our old staff met them in our school. An emotional day for our teachers. I spent my 9th - 12th grade here. There were all so proud of us. Why not? My class produced 12 doctors & 22 engineers! And I paid less than a US dollar/year as fees.

Sitting L-R: Me, Rukku athai, Radha chitti, amma, Siva. Vidya & Steve are standing.

September 2011

Jayanth landed our first project with a PE firm and most of September went towards delivery of that project. Soon after, I boarded a flight in Mumbai to Nairobi to head to the Masai Mara with Kalyan Varma. What a dream trip it was! Exotic species sightings at leisure to our heart’s content. We saw everything – hunting, grazing, eating, mating, sleeping, feeding ..  but missed the Great Migration unfortunately. No regrets as I know that I will be back at Mara. Came back with a ton of pics – put these up in various places selectively. Family and some friends got my personal journal!

Masai Giraffes necking

More Mara pics can be found here (Facebook link) & here (500px)

October 2011

We started doing trips on behalf of work! Kavya got a bicycle for her birthday and we spent her birthday in Salem with grandparents. A bunch of 30 something crazed guys went to a Metallica show at 11 AM for a 8pm concert. Moral – older guys like me should never tag along. The energy was truly unbelievable though

Kavya with malathi, Rukku & Raji patti

A sea of people - present for one thing only - the Music! What energy!

November 2011

Convergence Catalyst released the first and most comprehensive report on the Tablet Ecosystem in India. Available for download here. I spent most of this month in Salem with amma.

December 2011

We closed this year by spending Xmas week in Salem. I stole a day trip to Valparai and we spent a night in Yercaud with Jayanth/Mona & Bala/Srimoyee. New Year’s was at home – away from the madness.

Rounding off the year at the Skywalk in Yercaud

Here is wishing everyone a fantastic 2012! I sincerely mean it. Hoping that one and all see & experience wonderful things.

Dedication: My heartfelt condolences to my friend Tamilvanan who lost his wife Lucy on Jan 1, 2012. Lucy was diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer in Feb 2011 and went through most of 2011 with chemo treament. Unfortunately her strong will to survive could not outlast the disease. I pray for Tamil & kids to be strong through these really hard times. May Lucy’s soul rest in peace.

My contribution to Apple's market value - all in the name of Convergence - gadgets in various screen sizes - all geared for multimedia of all kinds - Audio, Video, Ebooks, digital magazines, pictures. Pictured L to R - 20" iMac, Magic Mouse, 16Gb iPhone 3G, 32Gb 3G iPad1, 13" Macbook Pro, iPhone4. 500Gb Lacie & 1TB WD hard drives behind iMac. Another 1TB WD drive behind the Macbook.

After cleaning my audio collection and digitizing my home DVD concert collection (in 2009), I have to deal with other  mediums now –  primarily photographs taken from every other week.  The rest are still manageable –  eBooks, digital Magazines, the latest applications.  Movies and  gripping TV serials from across the pond.

Will be quite the feat when I get through with this. Will this be the year I get on a cloud (Mobile Me)? or invest in a RAID backup setup? Will I organize all my photos with Aperture? How far back will I need to go for geotagging? The task of simplifying seems that much more daunting as it requires clarity with respect to organization!

While I have managed digital Convergence in the last few years – most of the clean audio and video content stored in a few hard drives, streamed over Wifi, controlled via the “Remote” app on iphones and the iPAD and played on the home theater through the Apple TV.  How far can I extend this to other mediums? I hope to write about more Use Cases soon on my digital Convergence at home. Stay tuned.

Am reproducing my first travel post – on Pangong Tso (in Kunzum, a Travel Blog) as I have recently been reliving those memories. We were privileged to have been to heaven and to earth. This place changed everything for me. The below post feels like I wrote this yesterday. Hope you can experience some of what we felt on that day.

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Key facts about Pangong Tso

• ~ 14,000 Feet above sea level
• 134 km long
• Around 5km at the widest point
• Roughly 6o% of it is in China and the rest in India
• An Endorheic Lake – meaning it is a closed drainage basin that retains water without any outflows to rivers or oceans
• The lake freezes completely in the winter in spite of being salt water!

A Dramatic Drive

The Journey

The 150km distance takes around 5-1/2 hours. Getting out of Leh (11,500 feet), the scenery unfolds. Within a short drive, one passes through the summer residence of the Dalai Lama, the beautiful Sindhu Ghat next to the Indus River, the centuries old monasteries of Shey Palace and the  Thiksey Gompa. These monasteries are perched on hilltops offering a place for monks to embark on a life of learning in the most serene environments. Then comes the climb into Zingral, ChangLa; the descent into Dubruk, TangTse, Lukung & finally Pangong Tso.

Permits & Checkpoints

As travelers begin the climb up the mountains, the first of the few checkposts await the traveler (both ways) to ensure the BRO know who travel in this remote terrain in the event of breakdowns or other unforeseen events. The permits are issued by the Leh Tourism department for a nominal fee.

The Terrain gets interesting

Climbing further towards the Chang La pass, the terrain starts unravelling itself. Before one realizes, travelers quickly gain altitude. The views offered parallel those looking out of a plane window. Mountainous terrain – rough, smooth, carved – all worn with time, offer innumerable visual combinations along with ever-changing skies. Extremely beautiful moments, too fleeting in time to remember all.

Remoteness Personified

Chang La – 3rd highest motorable road in the planet! An army outpost, requiring one to climb 17,500 feet before  descending to 14,000 feet to reach Pangong. (According to a prior Kunzum post, Chang La is technically the 2nd highest motorable road.)

Valleys – Winding down below Chang La, travelers drive through valleys – surrounded by mountains everywhere. The scenery changes every kilometer of the journey!

Streams – 108 kms from Leh, one reaches the town of TangTse. A checkpost awaits along a stream and army barracks. Noodles and tea warm travelers – the  last stop before eternity.

Vastness – In this vastness and beyond, one feels like the speck that they are in this Universe. Sceneries to behold forever.

Almost There

Poetic License to the BRO – Saftey signs line up the entire route into Pangong Tso. Some are downright cheeky (Darling I love you, but not so fast), others have bad grammar, even spelling mistakes. The Border Roads Organization (BRO) must be commended not only for maintaining motorable roads, but, for also sharing their wisdom through safety signs with a quirky sense of humor. On descending Chang La, the latter part comprises incredible valley drives with Yaks, wild Horses, Marmots, Birdlife, Pashmina Sheep dotting the scenery. One almost wishes that this would never end. As these thoughts emerge, the below signboard heightens the anticipation for travelers.

Pangong Tso – Surreal!

The pictures speak for themselves. This is what one will see on arriving..

Eternal Memories

Epilogue: Can this be for Real?

I cannot get over the lingering memories of Pangong Tso – even though it has been 2 months since we returned from Ladakh. The lucky ones who have made the long and arduous trek to this “Heaven on Earth” will truly understand what I mean. One had to have been there to relate to what I am saying, as a life changing moment transcends one into another world. Words simply cannot do justice to this incredible creation that we were privileged enough to have seen. And thankful to have the good fortune to tell everyone about the splendidness that is Pangong Tso. An expanse of water spanning 134 km long and 5 km wide at it’s widest point, surrounded by the most rugged terrain. Imagine this – a visual extravagance as far as the eye can see, pin drop silence, the clouds sifting continuously – one can see the same view differently based on the skies and cloud formations every few minutes! A sense of calm seeps in all the way to the soul. For someone not believing in religion as it is preached in it’s current form, but having the modesty to realize that there is some force behind all this, I ask of this creator – if there was one, “What were you thinking when you made this?” Am I glad of the outcome!

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The above post was originally published in Kunzum on Oct 30, 2009. Even though it has been a year and a half since our Ladakh trip, it still triggers fond memories on many occasions as it is unlike any other place we have encountered. It was painstaking to see Ladakh ravaged in 2010 by floods. Restoration status and facts about the cloudburst can be read on this link. Hope we would have the privilege of visiting Ladakh once again in the near future.

Apparently, wireless photo sharing is quite the rage in the US but it has not quite caught on in India. Thanks to a number of cousins in the US, the latest gadgetry always seems to find it’s way home when it is not easily available in India:) The advent of WiFi on SD memory cards gave rise to a world of new use cases. Wireless photo sharing and backup has got to be one of the most popular use cases for WiFi enabled memory cards.

How does Eye-Fi help end users ?

The Eye-Fi card does the following for an end user -

• Transfer files automatically to a specified location in the hard drive of a computer/laptop
• Transfer files automatically to a photosharing website such as Flickr or Picasa
• Users can choose to backup all files taken in their camera or do selective transfers

However, I got gifted the base 2GB card meant for Home use and this card has limitations as it can transfer JPEG images alone. For someone who shoots primarily in the RAW format, this is a big disappointment.Despite the shortcomings, I am excited with the product and have started shooting RAW+JPG!

To really get all the capabilities of Eye-Fi cards, one needs to go up the memory curve. Here are all the other things the range of Eye-Fi cards can do -

• Upload Videos of the most popularly used formats (4GB, and 8GB Pro X2)
• Upload RAW image files (8GB Pro X2)
• Geotagging the location of pictures using a triangulation of WiFi signals in the area (4G Explore and 8GB Pro X2)
• AdHoc Transfers enables user to upload to their computer without a WiFi router using a camera to laptop wireless connection (8GB Pro X2)
• Endless Memory mode will automatically free up space after backing up photos (8GB Pro X2)

There is even an iPhone app (available free for Eye-Fi users) to backup and share pictures taken on the iPhone!

This truly is a comprehensive list of features to simplify wireless sharing & backup of media between gadgets, computers and the Internet. A true convergence of hardware, software, transport and application! If you are someone who appreciates innovative products that help simplify things in your life, go get one for yourself and see what I mean.

One such successful individual is Steve Jobs, founder of Apple. College dropout to one of the most successful CEOs in recent times. The guy who has created products time and again that have stood out from the rest in such a unique manner. Recently, on Steve’s 55th birthday on Feb 24, 2010, “Cult of Mac” – a website dedicated to all things Apple, congratulated Steve & ran the YouTube video of Steve’s 2005 Stanford University Commencement address. I saw the speech for the nth time and was totally inspired all over again. Hoping to share that great feeling with everyone else here..

Here’s Steve’s speech:

Key takeaways:

Steve’s speech serves as a reminder to graduating students on approaching key things in life – find what you love, follow your heart, live everyday as it were your last. Steve talks about three stories in his life to make his points.

1. Connecting the dots – he talks that how various points in life converge. He sums it up -

2. Love & Loss – he talks about finding what he loved early on, building something around it, losing it all and then regaining it. He sums it up

3. Death – his survival from the jaws of death, his realizations from it and he contends that this is the only eventuality. This quote inspired him when he was 17 -

On finding out he has cancer -

Sums it up as -

Final message to the graduating students -

The hype reached such a crescendo that nothing, I repeat NOTHING Steve Jobs could have done would have satisfied gadget freaks the world over expecting a new way of life which was so rudely dismissed by a simple 9.7″ display, 0.5″ thick offering. All the castles in the air vanished. If only Apple would allow collaboration, it would have the world’s largest bee-hive of Product Managers – all tasked with one unsaid goal – build a superior product that can change the world.

Unfortunately, even Apple employees are not privy to the Roadmap most of the time, leave alone the whole world. Is it possible that Jobs did not tell the world what they wanted to hear? Dissing Netbooks has not won him any favors as the iPad in it’s current iteration is a somewhat lesser than a lot of Netbooks in the market as it can’t do video chat, multitasking etc… Had Jobs positioned this as a E-book reader that happens to do other things – would all the disappointed fans in the world be more placated?

Could it have been positioned differently?

The iPad marks the start of the 3rd store – Music, Apps and now Books. Assuming that Books as a store would be made available universally (Music is still not), it gives rise to a whole new category. This for me is THE iPad.

Dreamers the world over wanted a solid reason to make them run and buy one and the reasons given were not enough apparently. For me the iPad is an eBook reader that can also handle magazines, be a fancy remote, a multimedia player & Internet surfer. Had I had more expectations, I would have been sorely disappointed also.

Scarred critics who have written off Apple products in the past are more cautious – rightfully so! The pricing and books alone will end up doing the trick. However, will I buy one now? Will try one in the store. But it looks more likely that I may wait for an iteration or two.

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo - image courtesy Virgin Galactic

Five Years after SpaceShipOne and Virgin Galactic was formed as a company, Virgin Galactic rolled out SpaceShipTwo day before yesterday – billed as the world’s first commercial Spaceline! What an achievement! I applaud the vision and execution of Sir Richard Branson to propagate Consumer Travel into Space – and boy, does he do it with style! See the rendition for his Spaceport below – completely love the design and how it has been conceived.

The Virgin Spaceport under construction in Southern New Mexico

We have recently read about rich billionaires paying ridiculous sums of money to  piggyback on Russian Space programs and travel into space during the last few years. Given how expensive it is for space travel, the prospect for consumers to travel into space remained a distant dream. All of that is now shattered with the possibilities that Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo offers – affordability (on relative terms) and a consumer friendy (to the extent possible) experience that can only be offered by a brand such as Virgin.

How it Works

The concept is really simple – in an awe inspiring way. Build one space module (SpaceShipTwo) with the ability and characteristics to renter Earth’s atmosphere, attach it to a mothership (WhiteKnightTwo) to carry it to a high altitude of 50,000ft, release the Space Module (SpaceShipTwo) and fire the rocket till you are in Space! The picture below explains it in a very simple manner.

A unique Wing Feathering design inspired by a shuttle cock allows the SpaceShipTwo to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere without having computer or manual guidance. Incredible!

Wing Feathering for Re-entry was inspired by the Shuttlecock

Sure, Space Tourism will be very much doable for our grandkids or at least that’s what I thought. How naive of me. This is happening in my life time! I for one cannot contain my glee. The possibilities offered by affordable, safe Space Travel are endless and I hope I make it to Space in my lifetime. Just the prospect and “what it would be like” feeling fueled by this incredible video is enough to make my hair stand on edge! May it fire up all our dreams and serve to inspire us everyday.

Here is the link to make your booking to Space.

Here is the Press Release for Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo.

All images courtesy of Virgin Galactic.

Evening Clouds

Lately, I am geting to see rather amazing evenings from my balcony. Ever since I upgraded the lens in my old 6MP Nikon D50, I see the world literally with new eyes. I am technically not the best photographer and the pictures below will show hand shakes. While not perfect, it is the composition I am thrilled about.

As dusk settles, it gets more dramatic..

It is then I notice the Quarter Moon. The combination of the Moon with the refractions of the evening sky made for these awesome pictures below.

Happened in my backyard.. er.. Balcony

in landscape too..

In 1997, when I was a Product Manager for Base Stations in Motorola’s Cellular Infrastructure Sector, we were amazed at the rapid pace of Telecom growth in some parts of the world. Back then, Japan was adding 1M subscribers a month. We used to be amazed at the vibrancy of that market and 1M per month was an unbelievable number.

Times have changed dramatically. India today adds a whopping 10-15M subs a month! India recently crossed 500M subscribers (~470M wireless and around ~35M wireline) and is showing no signs of abating. This is significant for many reasons. In addition to all the economic benefits,  job creation and accessibility of communication infrastructure, India has benefitted tremendously in terms of the Social impacts that communication has had on common people. All of this growth has come in the last 6-7 years. What a hockeystick growth! To put things in perspective, here are some facts about life in India not very long ago (around the telecom topic):

• When I went to college in the 80′s in India, the entire hostel (dorms) had access to one landline telephone
• Owning a landline telephone was considered a luxury even in the 90′s
• Even in the early to mid 90′s, one had to wait for weeks on end to get a landline connection
• Calling rates to India were highest in the 80′s and 90′s from other countries. In the late 80′s, it used to cost on average $2/min between the US and India. Today it is a few cents!
• Teledensity (number of users as a percentage relative to population) in the 90′s was well in the low single digits
• A large swathe of the population had access to a telephone primarily through calling booths (ISD/STD booths) – Thanks to Rajiv Gandhi and Sam Pitroda
• When Mobile services were introduced in India, per min calls were Rs. 16/min for both incoming and outgoing calls. Today, the norm is Rs 2/min and a number of operators have moved to 1p/sec billing!
• Color phones were not the norm up until 2003-04
• Mobile handsets used to cost a fortune in those days (Rs. 20k to 30k). Today, one can get laptops (Netbooks) for that price. High end smartphone offer amazing levels of productivity through the features offered in high end prices today.
• Email on phones were a novelty even 5 years back
• This list goes on and on – one just has to go back a few years to a few decades to see how far we have come!

Click on Article for Zooming in on article.

Access to the common man

The Telecommunications revolution has gripped India to such an extent that the common man now equates it to that of a watch – a bare necessity. The core value proposition – voice communication is understood by all and the many dazzling offers in the market will only help India move ahead even further.

In spite of this growth and volumes, India does not enjoy some of the qualities of other nations:

• QoS (Quality of service) is inconsistent and abysmal in some areas for both voice calls and data. One can attribute this to spectrum availability. I think there is also an element of operators not optimizing their networks enough.
• There is absolutely no ‘telephone etiquette’ in the country amongst users – consumers talk anywhere, at any volume without any regard or common courtesy to others.
• No respect for privacy – Tele marketeers run amuck  in this country. Mobile numbers get traded freely and there is no sanctity to the process of approaching people. Even though operators offer DND (Do Not Disturb) as a paid service, reports are that they are not very effective.

The next big opportunity is the rollout of 3G services in India. Licenses have been delayed for more than a few years already due to various reasons – clearing of spectrum in the 2.1GHz band being one of them. As India continues to play in the bottom of the Pyramid, I hope at least one of the Indian operators change tactics towards potential high ARPU users. There are huge gains to be had to cater to a list of high end users by differentiating not just customer service, but also QoS – for which a band of customers are willing to pay a premium! As Metros are more than a 100% penetrated, high end differentiated services can provide a fillip to sagging ARPUs for a lot of operators.

The other opportunity lies in increasing Broadband penetration. As ‘last mile’ technologies evolve – it is expected to  harness all the Fiber criss crossing India, it is only a matter of time before India stands to gain tremendously in this area too!

The lessons learnt at that time – the user finds these devices most useful when he/she does not know where they are going. That is why automobile navigation devices go hand in glove with the rental car industry in the US. Daily commuters with the same route did not see the usefulness to dish out $5k in order to put one in their car in the mid 90′s. The industry has evolved since then with most auto manufacturers offering in-dash navigation systems today in most of their cars. Automobile manufacturers use the navigation display as a multi-display function for controlling a lot of the car’s audio features and displaying it’s engine health parameters.

2009: It is now common to see Google Maps available on Smartphones – iPhone, Blackberry, Windows Mobile, Android devices with various degrees of integration to the Map for navigation purposes.  The availability of maps in these devices allowed a slew of location based applications to crop up for these phones. For example, Movie applications will not just provide reviews for new movies, but will play trailers from YouTube, display the list of cinemas it is running in and if you the user deems,  will tell the user how to get to the movie theater closest to them from wherever they are. The ability to combine Yellow Pages information with location and navigation serves as a powerful tool for users globally.

Android 2.0 devices ups the ante with true turn by turn navigation for FREE with Voice based dialing, displaying live traffic info en-route to one’s destination, Street and Satellite views and the ability to dock in a car! While this functionality has been available on the iPhone as a fairly expensive paid application, Android clearly is driving a signal to other mobile OSs by integrating it. Thanks to miniaturization (as with all electronics) –  GPS chipsets can now be integrated on the slimmest of cellphones! True Convergence of hardware (pinpointing location) with software (digital maps) and packaged in sleek devices to allow end users to never worry about getting lost. I cannot wait to see how this is going to further evolve in the coming years..