I heard few days back in RadioOne FM station, RJ Suchi say about a Mythology play "Maya Bazaar" to be performed by a 124-year old group "Surabhi". And it contains excellent special effects on stage. My son loves the story of Ghatotkatcha (after watching the film), so I decided to take him to play "Maya Bazaar" today at 3:30PM. Booked the tickets online. The group Surabhi is an entire performing family (everyone on stage and back stage are related and from the same family) and are experts at rope & pyro techniques and other special effects. You can read more about them and the synopsis of the play in the brochure they gave from here (PDF) .

The play was in Telugu language (I don't speak Telugu), still it was very enjoyable. They had over 50 artists  (as young 2 or 3 years to very elderly) perform brilliantly on stage. The special effects were awesome, especially considering today's viewers are used to 3D Graphics, Movies, XBOX and more. The notable scenes with special effects were a garden (with real water fountain), fireworks from Arrows, Rain to quash the fire, Bed floating on air, Narada coming down from sky,  the famous eating scene with laddos flying, birds flying, an eagle hunting a fish, dual-screen - hide and show Hero/Heroine at the same time and many more.

The play shows only today (two shows) in Chennai. If you get a chance to see this play next time (may be in Hyderabad) don't miss it.

Few weeks back I decided to repave my Laptop (Macbook Air) and go with Windows 7 Build 7000 (yes I know in few weeks we will have RC ). After fixing few issues with drivers and boot camp, I am overall happy. Occasionally Windows doesn't shut-down gracefully, when it happens you got to force switch-off (which in MBA means holding the power off button for few seconds till you hear a POP sound).

The basic installation of the OS (Windows 7) is similar to doing it for Vista using Boot Camp. You start with Apple Boot Camp CD 1 and proceed from there. My installation was dual-boot configuration - having both Mac OS and Windows 7. Once Windows is installed , you continue with the devices installation which can be a little tricky. Below are few issues I faced before I could get everything working fine.

1. In Mac OS, you can select one of the OS to boot into after a restart. Unfortunately Mac OS didn't show the Windows 7 installation. Nothing to sweat. When you switch ON your machine you need to keep holding Alt (option) key till you the see the boot options. Here you can select Windows 7.
2. In Windows 7, initially for some reasons Boot Camp icon didn't show up in System tray. I had to run it from C:\Program Files\Boot Camp\kbdmgr.exe. I found it useful to update all Apple software then it seems to have got fixed.
3. Audio (Sound card) didn't get its driver installed correctly. MBA has a Realtek HD Audio, so I went to Realtek site and downloaded the latest Vista driver (R 2.22) from here or here. The site is designed a little counter-intuitive so be patient.
4. If some devices like in-built Camera didn't get installed correctly, go to device manager, update driver and point to the BootCamp CD.
5. For Apple Ethernet USB Dongle there is no official driver either from Microsoft or Apple, I found one at this blog (Your mileage may vary)
6. I have a HP Photosmart C6288 Printer (part of HP Photosmart C6100 series). The default setup from HP will fail to install as it couldn't find either Windows XP or Vista. To fix this, right-click on the setup program (AIO_CDA_Full_Network_enu.exe). Then use the "Troubleshoot Compatibility" option or select properties and the compatibility tab:
   1. Set the compatibility mode to Windows Vista
   2. Set the privilege level to "Run this program as an administrator"
7. I have a Tata Indicom Plug2Surf USB data card. To install this, first time when you run the setup, Run it as Administrator. Even then when you run the application it will not detect the modem. You will need to ignore the application and create yourself (manually) a dial-up network connection. Customize and follow the instructions from this blog post (which talks for Huawei card though), skip the portions specific to Huawei, but it gives the correct username/password phone number to dial, etc.
8. For PDF creation, I was using CutePDF which doesn't work with Windows 7, so I went with PrimoPDF (free).
9. For Antivirus, I went with my good friend Kesavan's - K7 Computing Antivirus which works fine in Windows 7.

You should be all set by now, as for me (as seen below) all the devices are working fine. Eagerly waiting for Windows 7 RC.

One of the strengths of iPhone is the now famous iTunes store, which helps you buy applications/music/movies/TV shows seamlessly. Lot of companies have tried the concept (which is not new) as old as 10-15 years back, for example Microsoft has tried it multiple times (Zune, Windows Player) in the past. The winning difference has been the flawless execution and the simplicity that Apple has delivered. Apple has managed to satisfy both ends  - with their clout they got the big media companies to sign uniform pricing's and they also made it easy to get the casual developer on-board. The formula from Apple was simple - you make the application, we manage the hosting, delivery, installation, payment gateways, legal/taxation, etc. The developer gets 70%, Apple gets 30% - a neat deal for both parties. And Apple's new iPhone OS3 is pushing the envelope much further - check out this cool preview of iPhone OS 3 or here in YouTube.

Few months after my purchase of my iPhone, I searched for some applications. I found thousands of applications in their store, but I was looking for something that will be useful for me and not clutter my phone. A phone for me primarily is for Voice, SMS, Camera, email & web browsing (in that order of priority). I was not sure on the number of applications that will be available for India - as so far many of the American companies have avoided dealing with copyright/licensing/taxation trouble for India market. They feel the trouble is not worth for the size of the Indian market for these (how wrong they are). Traditionally Indian mobile users have not followed the global trend (and other advanced Asian markets like Korea and Japan) in purchase of applications, games, music & movies, but that I think is due to content for their taste not being available. Since iPhone store is one of the biggest USP's of iPhone and buying apps is not popular in India is probably a reason for iPhone being sold only 20,000 units in India since its launch. 

In iPhone store I found a plethora of apps to be bought for India, there was no shortage - I have tried few iPhone apps and the shopping experience from the phone was seamless. No punching of credit cards (you do that when you create your iTunes account in the web) and no multiple confirmations/redirections/instructions. You click on buy, then install and you are done.

The apps I use regularly are two (both free)- TwitterFon and Skype (recently released). I also bought a Tetris game for $4.99. Regarding the apps, I found TwitterFon to be very convenient to use, I am finding myself twittering more when I am outside the office - waiting for something in a queue or participating like y'day in a boring session for CIOs by IBM India. About Skype for iPhone it is great to note that in India it works over both Wi-Fi and 2G connections. The quality of Skype calls using iPhone is great and the convenience of speaking with a mobile phone anyday for me is better than a headset or holding a USB Skype phone.

I came across this article by Krishna Kumar of DARE India magazine on “19 mistakes online businesses make”. A well written article with good compilations of points that every business going online should note. It talks on most common assumptions that are wrong about doing business online. It demystifies some of the common myths that traffic is infinite, Google Adsense will make you a millionaire, Technology is everything and so on. I especially liked the points where it talked about server sizing and need to plan for adequate man power – which are something we tell our customers all the time.

I always enjoy watching Pink Panther cartoons, but didn't knew they made a movie inspired by it. The other day my friend Dr.Satheesh mentioned about this movie "The Pink Panther (2006)" and how hilarious it was. Since I had iTunes installed on my machine (as I have a iPhone) I thought I should check out the famous iStore experience and buy the movie through it. Unfortunately my Apple account (since I have an India SIM for iPhone) didn't show me any movies. It seems there are very little items to buy in terms of music, movies, TV shows for rest of USA. So I used my US Credit Card and created a new account. Unlike Hulu.com and Amazon VOD services which restrict any activity for outside USA IP addresses, Apple allows you to purchase from iStore if you have a USA credit card and billing address. iStore presented two options - either to purchase the movie at $9.99 (too expensive considering I can buy the legal VCD/DVD in India for nearly half of that price) or rent it for $2.99. I selected to rent it. And I should say the whole experience was fabulous, any novice computer user can do it easily. After the purchase movie downloaded (nearly 1GB in high quality) seamlessly. The quality of the movie playback was great.

iStore rental has a limitation, the movie is available for 30 days from purchase and from the time you start playing it first you only have 24 hours (this could have been improved by increasing to 2 or 3 days). About the movie itself it was hilarious, a great comedy and a must watch. Steve Martin has done a fine job - his body language, dialogue delivery especially where he learns to pronounce "hamburger" was brilliant.

At Vishwak, we believe on the potential of the Internet and the innovative advertising that's possible in Web to keep the Online industry growing. Yes, the slow-down is affecting this industry too, much worse than expected. Still countries like India, Indonesia and China are showing reasonable growth even in this recession climate. And the online Ad industry is very different that it was in the Dot-com days. Today we have seen for many of our customers in Vishwak, their online revenues constitute 10-15% (the variation depends on how successful is their sales and new products team) of their overall revenue. For many of them their primary media (Newspaper or TV) currently yields majority of their revenues but that's been affected by this slow-down. If you take by medium, globally advertising expenditure in Internet is around 11% today.

In a recent forecast released by Zenith Optimedia, a unit of the Publicis Groupe S.A., the global ad spending is likely to slow by 6.9% to $453.2 billion. Ad expenditure in India is likely to grow at 6.4% growth (down from 18.9%). The internet is the only medium we expect to actually attract higher ad expenditure in 2009, thanks to its accountability and innovation in ad formats. We forecast 8.6% growth in internet expenditure in 2009, down from 20.9% in 2008. New formats are enjoying greater growth (29.8% from Internet video and rich media, 29.7% from internet radio and 11.9% from podcasts), but these represent only 12% of US internet expenditure between them. Once a modicum of confidence returns to the market we expect the growth of internet advertising to pick up again, to 11.3% in 2010 and 15.3% in 2011. We expect its share of the ad market to rise to 14.6% in 2011, up from 10.4% in 2008. However, in recent years the number of sites on the web has increased about twice as rapidly as internet ad expenditure, most of which goes to a handful of big players. A number of internet companies that have based their business model on advertising may find their model unsustainable now that credit is drying up.

Another report, this one from eMarketer reinforces this by predicting that online ad dollars will jump about 5% by 2013 (see the above chart). "The spending shifts predate the recession," says David Hallerman, eMarketer senior analyst. "But the current economy is reinforcing the new advertising models—and making them more permanent". "Digital marketing offers compelling benefits, especially for cash-conscious companies," he continues. "Marketers can more readily measure the results of Internet advertising than with most traditional media. This produces more-efficient advertising and higher ROI, which in turn pushes traditional media to compete with lower pricing."

There are lot of performance improving tips out there in the Internet on how to speed up web pages. Recently I came across these references and tools that will be useful.

1. Steve Souders from Google presents "Even Faster Web sites"
2. YSlow from Yahoo!. A firefox add-on that analyzes web pages and tells you why they're slow based on the rules for high performance web sites
3. More website optimization tips here
4. Webpage performance analyzer here

Last Sunday I went with my son to Vandalur zoo (Arignar Anna Zoological park) near Chennai. It is about 25Kms from Chennai city on the NH45 national highway (the same road as Chennai Airport, Tambaram railway station) and driving there is easy once you cross Tambaram. There is ample car parking available inside the zoo premises. The Chennai suburban electric train service is another way to reach there with the station at walking distance from the zoo.

The zoo charges for entry are Adults: Rs.20, Children: Rs.10 and for Photo camera: Rs.25. You can see many varieties of animals, birds, fishes in the zoo. The zoo is situated on a large forest land with lot of space for each animals, so the area you need to cover is quite huge. There seems to be lot of vacant areas with no animals and the overall animal count seems to be low compared to the area of the zoo. You can cover the entire zoo in multiple ways:

1. by walk
2. by renting a cycle (just after the entrance in front of Hotel Tamilnadu)
3. buy a ride in the electric golf-carts (you need to wait for this in a queue)
4. buy a ticket in the zoo tours (in motor van or trams, these are to be booked in advance for the same day)

We went there in the afternoon (in the scorching sun, which was not a good idea) around 1:30PM. By the time we went options 2,3,4 were not available for us - so we took the trip by walk. We saw the animals near the entrance (Monkeys, etc.), then the birds and so on.

There are adequate number of resting area (shades) provided for sitting and relaxing, Toilet facilities are okay. The zoo severely lacks in food courts and cafeterias. Inside the zoo area there are a Aavin ice-cream booth, a small snack shop and in the entrance a restaurant Hotel Tamilnadu owned by Tamilnadu Government. After spending nearly two hours walking, we were tired and hungry - we wanted to get some snacks and my son wanted to eat a 'dosa'. At that time we were half-way inside the zoo, we walked all the way back to the entrance and went to Hotel Tamilnadu hoping for some eatables. To our utter dismay the restaurant was in bad condition (water stagnating on the floor), people having arguments with the billing counter staff (only one for a crowded zoo) and non-availability of any food. They don't seem to be serving Dosa/Idly or any other light snack - only rice items, veg and non-veg biryani's which too had ran out very soon. This re-enforced my general view that Governments (that too in India) have no business running a service industry, Hotel industry is a great example of that and you can add Resorts, Airlines to that list. We decided to cut-short our trip and came out of the zoo. The parking lot attendant helped us by suggesting a "Hotel Sangeetha" which was on the other side of the national highway, just opposite to the zoo. We drove down there, had some good Dosas and Fruit-Juice, came back re-energized.

We came back on time (had to buy the entrance ticket again) for our Lion Safari tour. We managed to book this ticket (advance booking for the 4:30PM tour) for the Lion Safari tour. The whole tour lasts for about 20 minutes and runs every hour twice. You are taken in a special caged van to a special enclosed area inside the zoo where lions are free to roam. The vehicle you are in goes very near to the Lions who are oblivious to our presence inside the van. If you are visiting Vandalur zoo don't miss this tour.

If you wish to see the entire zoo, you will need a full day (nearly from dawn to dusk) to cover it. Keep a good pair of walking shoes, sun cap, drinking water, food & eatables.

In last month TED conference, Pattie Maes' from MIT & Pranav Mistry demonstrated a wearable device.  It's a wearable device with a projector paves the way for interaction with our environment. The device which they call "Sixth Sense" enables new interactions between the real world and the world of data. A very exciting idea which opens up boundless possibilities if lives up to its claim.

One of the uses of this device they show is a live video (latest on the relevant headlines) being projected in the newspaper in your hands. When I saw this, I was reminded of a old Tamil movie - Pattanathil Bhootham (released in 1967). In the movie there is a scene where the "Genie" shows (then) latest movie songs on top of the movie's advertisements that is in the newspaper.

What was a dream and thought super-natural 40 years ago is now a reality. Exciting to look forward to the reality of the coming decades.

Video links:

1.The clip from Pattanathil Bhootham (பட்டணத்தில் பூதம்) Tamil Movie released in 1967, showing the idea of videos being projected on a newspaper

2.Full movie Pattanathil Bhootham (பட்டணத்தில் பூதம்), free and legal from Rajshri.com

3.Sixth Sense demo by Pranav Mistry (forward to the minute 6:30 for the newspaper demo)

Recently I purchased some old Tamil Movie VCDs, I wanted to copy them to my PC so that I can carry it in my Zune player or to my Digital Media Centre in my house. When I tried to play one of them, it played very well on my DVD player but not in my PC (Windows Media Player or VLC Player). In PC they played only with Nero Showtime software. After some digging, I learned these are VCDs which have been written with 800MB of data - more data than normal 700MB CDs and many applications may have difficulty in reading them. I tried copying them using XCopy/Windows Explorer/Robocopy and all of them failed. I found a free software IMGBurn from the authors of DVD Decrypter that allows copying & recording of many types of CD/DVD images to Hard Disk & recordable media.

I used Imgburn's "Read" option to read the contents from the VCD and copy it to my hard-disk. By default it copies the file as *.bin, but you can rename it to *.mpg, after which Nero Showtime can play it. You can also create image of the disc into ISO files for backup purposes. Once copied I imported the files to Adobe Premiere Elements to convert them into WMV format which created the entire 1.6GB Movie to a 1.2GB WMV file (if you want to use the movie with iPod/iTunes use the export to MPEG4 option.

Disclaimer: I have given the above suggestion only for legal usage of content that you have purchased and have a right in your country for making backups.