pavyedav | boredom and inherent curiosity, in one

It seems that time-lapse videos are all the rage these days. Literally every tech blog or even normal news blog seems to showoff one or two time-lapse videos every week that some reader or photographer posted. Though I’m not in the photography scene, I would imagine that the prevalence of all these videos has now angered the photography faithful. What was once an artistic representation showing development over time has now been muddled by people with iPhones and some Final Cut experimentation. For those in the scene, is that true at all? I could be completely wrong, but I feel like that time-lapses were the “cool” thing before, and now they’ve moved on to other forms that I have no idea about (but will probably find on some blogs in a few months.)

Having said that, some time-lapse videos are great (though, again, I’m not particularly photography savvy.) I enjoy photos and I love cities, so below are ones of my favorite American cities: New York, San Francisco, and Chicago. Seeing a city operate and people interact over time is fascinating, so these videos give a cool glimpse of that. It would be awesome to see time-lapses of some Asian cities too, such as Hong Kong or Mumbai, since they are densely packed and the juxtaposition of rich and poor is so distinct. Sadly, I’m still not a big photo taker, since I find carrying a camera in addition to a phone too unwieldy. I take a few every now and then with the phone though. What do others do?

Anyway, check out a few of my favorite time-lapses below.

Despite my being an Apple fanboy, I can’t deny that Microsoft had numerous products and services that changed the world, specifically Windows XP. Ten years after its launch, XP is still the most used operating system in the world. That is absolutely incredible to think about. The only other product or service that I can think of that has had XP’s longevity is the Sony Playstation 2, which is quite possibly the greatest video game console ever.

Windows XP was the simplest and most user-friendly operating system. Windows 95 and Windows 2000 were great, and then once Microsoft upgraded and made XP, the functionality of those OSes was tied in with more beauty and power. XP was stable, clean, and functional. Once Service Pack 2 came out, it had become the world’s operating system, apparently fixing bugs and reliability issues that existed in the first generation version of the OS. It gained even more traction over the last few years when Vista failed, so thousands of people moved back to XP. Microsoft didn’t even anticipate that XP would have the shelf life that it did. Now that Windows 7 has been well-received, XP will likely fade into retirement over the next few years. It was an incredible run for one of the greatest products in the history of computing.

Despite that, the one problem that I had with XP - later on, of course - was how there seemed to be little development over its time. I don’t think I could notice a particular difference between Service Pack 2 and Service Pack 3 (hell, I couldn’t really tell a difference between SP1 and SP2.) I’ll admit that Apple makes very negligible changes to OS X too, but sadly so many rave over each cycle because Apple renames it something entirely new (Tiger to Leopard to Snow Leopard, etc.), and they add some more aesthetic or fun features (Expose, etc.) as opposed to those that can alter the computing experience. If Microsoft actually renamed XP Service Pack 2 to something entirely new and added even the slightest new feature, I’m almost positive people would have believed that that it was worth upgrading to the new version (I’ll admit that whenever I saw a newly-named upgrade, I wanted to justify to myself that there were a lot of new, helpful features. Damn you Apple). Regardless, the reason I switched from a Windows to a Mac was that there didn’t seem to be much growth or change with XP over the years, despite it being perfectly functional and useful still. Vista had not come out yet in 2006, so XP was still the only viable Windows alternative, but at that point, it had already been five years, and I wanted change, either functionally or aesthetically. So, I decided to jump ship. No regrets since. However, I will fondly remember my years with Windows XP too. 

Congratulations, XP, for still plugging along in your old age. You’re a role model to all OSes!

It was reported a few days ago that Google Buzz is going to be discontinued, and frankly I couldn’t be happier. I barely ever used Buzz, and I am one of those people who finds messages in an unread inbox (you know, the boldface and the number in parens) extremely irritating, so I literally used to click on Buzz and click back just so that the left side of my Gmail would be clear and free.

So, Buzz, good riddance. It was one of the worst services Google introduced, and it had very little traction from its inception. It wasn’t as disastrous as Wave, but it still did not have the momentum that Google was hoping for.

However, to be fair, the concept of Buzz actually had promise. What’s surprising is that Google, usually a pinnacle of timely execution, did not envision correctly how Buzz could be used or what consumers found easy and user-friendly. The idea to use Gmail’s large and loyal userbase was unquestionably a good way to go, and the desire to take advantage of the buzz (pun very much intended) of Twitter and Facebook status updates also had extreme potential. 

But when Buzz was born, it was pretty clear it wasn’t done correctly. In retrospect, if those who worked on Buzz had imagined some of the things that Google+ currently has, such as having a status update immediately accessible on the Gmail inbox page, then I could have seen it used more. Entering and looking at status updates just seemed very clunky and disorganized. Also, if Google really wanted to mimic Facebook and Twitter’s core ideas, then I feel like they should have made the entire Gmail inbox home page chock full of items (just like Facebook: a platform), where we could see our own inbox, others’ statuses, and an easy bar to update your own status. Buzz had none of these, so it didn’t gain a good footing. Pretty expected.

Anyway, those are some of the inconveniences I saw with Buzz, some of which actually still seem to be inconveniences in Google+. That Google employee who ranted about Google+ and its company’s inability to make “platforms out of its products” is absolutely true. Will Google start renovating G+?

I’m obviously writing about this a little late, but better late than never, since there’s no way I couldn’t talk about Steve Jobs. As a techie and admitted Apple fanboy, I idolized Jobs because of what he stood for, how he did things, and what he accomplished. The man was a legend in the tech industry. It was a sad day for the world when Steve Jobs passed from pancreatic cancer last week.

Steve Jobs was basically a nerd’s Michael Jordan. He was someone all tech geeks could look up to. He made engineering and technology sexy, just as MJ made a dunk graceful. MJ made a fadeaway jumper look easy, and Jobs made churning out beautiful and functional products look easy. He was known to be a prick, as was MJ. He demanded excellence from those around him, and rarely exhibited patience for those who did not have the same drive or competence as he did, just like MJ. 

Nerds (and I am a proud one) are able to look up to Jobs because he showed that you can do work with a computer and still be relevant. Jobs proved you can be successful without needing athletic ability, killer good looks, or even legitimate social skills. He had drive, vision, and intelligence, which can lead you to, as he put it, “the B-club” (billionaires). Jobs gave hope that being a nerd can be cool, programming can be rewarding, going through roadblocks can be instructional, and having passion for an idea can be extremely lucrative.

Jobs, in fact, is more relatable than MJ ever will be because Jobs started off as an average Joe like everyone else in the world, while MJ was born with god-given athleticism (obviously not to say that MJ didn’t work extremely hard to become what he did, but you know what I mean). Steve Jobs is an inspiration for all of us. He will be missed but never forgotten.

Aside: My grandmother passed away a few months ago from cancer, so this disease hits far too close to home. Cancer is unbelievably merciless. I urge everyone to contribute and support all research looking to help treat various forms of cancer. Please support any way you can.

A friend (shoutout Ankit Desai) and I, in our quest to find good new hip-hop music (leaked tracks, new releases, etc.), ran into a wall when it came to quality websites and blogs. A lot of them had poor designs, too much fluff just to listen to the song, slow response times, and popups.

In order to rectify this, we decided to start our own hip-hop blog, ThatNewJoint, that has a simple interface with no nonsense. We update several times everyday, giving you the latest in new hip-hop music. A simple click will allow you to play the song or download it, and we give small blurbs for background on the artist and song. We also have some other features in the works that will differentiate us from other music blogs, which will hopefully help us develop a large readership. Please stay tuned for that!

You can follow our Facebook page, and please Like it if you can! Also, please follow us on Twitter at @thatnewjoint.

In the meantime, check out our site and tell us what you think. There is a Contact Us page, if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Consider today our public launch! Wish us luck!

A cool little application on Android called Smozzy has taken the mobile app. space by storm in the past few weeks (or maybe it hasn’t, what the hell do I know?) I’m a little late to the party, but I think this app is really cool. In a nutshell, it allows you to surf the web without ever using data. Yes, that’s right. You will not have to use a data plan in order to get content you want from the web. How? Users send SMS messages to Smozzy of the link they want to open, then Smozzy opens up the link on their servers, and then sends back the opened web page in an MMS message (they compress the web page and then package these zip files as PNGs.) All of this uses the forward control channel, and never touches the channel used for data. It’s pretty ingenious, and it’s free! Yay, Berkeley guy.

Of course, there’s never a free lunch. The most conspicuous caveats: (1) Its speeds are egregiously slow, as they don’t even rival 2G GPRS. This is expected given that it’s running only via text. No one was actually thinking we’d get 4G speeds, right? (2) There are countless security issues because they do not have any encryption methods, so it is advised not to access any sites that require personal information. (3) It’s only available on Android. Apparently they had a very difficult time actually developing the software and system on Android, so it looks like the iPhone app may be a while down the road. (4) It’s only available on T-Mobile. As of right now, it has very limited carrier reach.

Having said that, it seems like Smozzy could be extremely useful when all you want is very basic data service or a simple ability to access something from the web with no time constraints. I would definitely like to see it in action. However, many are commenting that once cellular service providers become aware of Smozzy’s scope, they will immediately block the application or squash users who have it as some sort of breach of contract. I don’t know whether it will be big enough of an issue where users will want to get rid of their data plans altogether. In the end, it’s a cool workaround and a novel idea, but it is by no means a permanent solution to accessing the web without having to pay for a data plan (or so I think.)

I came across this article a few weeks ago, and was quite befuddled by the concept. Researchers at Cornell are saying there’ll be machines in the future that will be able to “print” food, so to speak. This is literally the lazy man’s dream come true. Imagine pressing a button and getting a full-fledged meal in just a few minutes. I know what everyone is thinking. Why would anyone eat this processed gunk with none of nature’s nutritious goodness? What about the people who actually love to cook? Are we really so inconvenienced already that we can’t even make food for ourselves?

Now, hear me out. I’m not an advocate of this product, but I do see some value in it. First off, I’m lazy and incompetent in the kitchen; as I said above, this could be very useful for college students and family members who have no idea what to do when they’re hungry and don’t want to/can’t go out. Secondly, the food printer can simply be used as another appliance in the kitchen, like an oven or microwave. Ultimately, it will still matter what type of ingredients you’re putting into the machine. Just because it’s in a machine does not mean that it’s low quality. If the ingredients are high quality, then I’m guessing that you will probably get a high quality meal too (assuming you know what you’re doing.) Finally, it’s just kind of cool. I am definitely curious to see how it could produce real food. It looks fascinating and almost unreal.

Having said that, recently I’ve discovered that cooking/making food isn’t that difficult, and the biggest thing that everyone has to develop in the kitchen is more patience. In the end, making fresh food will always be the tastiest and healthiest option, but in the event that people don’t have the the time or desire to make food, this could be a cool thing to have. And yes, you’re right, this probably will not help our nation’s obesity problem.