Bing it

Sometimes back Microsoft launched 'Bing', the new search engine and the media was full of reports about how cool the new search engine was and finally days of google domination were over. Reports started flowing in that bing was gaining over yahoo and the sorts, and google was looking into emulating some of the features of Bing.

Today I came with an interesting query. I searched for 'Photosynth' on Bing.
Now Photosynth is a cool tool from Microsoft (MS) which lets you stitch images together. But none of the results listed the link to http://livelabs.com/photosynth/ (which is the official Microsoft's website for the product) but rather to news items and 3rd party link to download photosynth. Even searcing for 'Microsoft Photosynth' and 'Microsoft Live labs' doesn't yield the official MS link.

Search 'Photosynth' on google and the first link is the offical website. Should I says google wins hands down. Nothing much to celebrate as it was expected but its sad that Bing cannot even list Microsoft's official website.

A long way to catch up.

Taj Mahal

The secret whispered in the hush of night to the ear of your love
is wrought in the perpetual silence of stone.
Though empires crumble to dust, and centuries are lost in shadows,
the marble still sighs to the stars, ‘ I remember.’
‘I remember.’ – But life forgets, for she has her call to the Endless:
and she goes on her voyage unburdened, leaving her memories to the
forlorn forms of beauty.

-Rabindranath Tagore

Dis/connect

Sometimes I wonder does ICT connects us more or disconnects us to the reality. We live in a haze, surrounded by screens all day long. We are the internet generations, always connected, always on, always ready to scrap or twit the latest thought that popped in our head. I love internet, no doubt today, imagining life without it impossible. So much so the weather widget shows me the the days meteo before my window opens to the outside world. Internet addiction has become a psychological disease in South Korea.
I love the democratizing effect of the internet, how it lets us express ourself but to a certain extent, lately I have started feeling how the information overload has started homogenizing our thought process. Do you remember the last time you visit a library searching for a book to understand a problem in detail, I don't. I can just google it and surely someone would have provided a solution.
Try a simple exercise, just observe your online activity for an hour. You search for one subject and then you find something else interesting and you follow it. In the end you are looking at something totally different. To a certain extent we are turning into attention deficits, we need something to continuously tantalize and entertain us.
We have become adherent consumers of information and I am noticing a trend of people building on information already provided. No doubt it speeds up the development cycles, enables faster delivery but it also restricts deeper understanding and fundamentally different and innovative solutions. I feel we have mastered ctrl-c,v and we are merely replicating and transforming the given.

The french are tranquile (peace loving)

("The tram at the Victor Hugo")

The other night I and my friend were waiting at Alsace Lorraine for the tram back home. My friend was playing an unmentionable song (of the sutta genre) on his mobile, when we were interrupted by a guy holding beer in his hand who said he really like the song. Really? I secretly wished he would not ask me to translate the lyrics. And then the conversation followed as we entered the tram. They were part of a group from Valence visiting Grenoble for cultural exchange.
They were really curious about why Indians who don't speak French find it interesting to choose France for higher studies. I humored the guy and said my choice was made when France opposed USA on the Iraq vote.
Yeah they agreed, Jacques Chirac was a strong man not the p*t8in of guy Nicolas Sarkozy who is ruining their country. Now the french love three things, fromage, merde (shit) and talking about Nicolas Sarkozy.
To a certain extent the French are obsessed about their President. Personally I don't know any other celebrity, no cine stars who interest French more than Sarkozy. The rest of the world prefers the long legs of Carla Bruni but the French prefer loving and bashing Sarkozy. Sarkozy is reason for all their troubles and any course of action he takes is bound to be followed by protests.
Anyways we discussed a bit about the French politics and I mentioned the number of peaceful protests which keep going on here. Come September and everyone (students, teachers, lawyers, just anyone) goes on a protest. I remarked unlike India where the protests involve, effigy burning, shoe hurling, maybe a donkey, bus burning, etc. here they were so peaceful followed by rounds of espresso and croissant for all. Yes, he agreed, gulping beer, actually the french by nature are very tranquile (peace loving). Thats the reason they opposed war in Iraq.
When all a sudden hell broke loose. Fists started flying and beer cans hurled over each other. The group seemed to enter into a fight when someone in the further section of the tram car. My friend forgetting the tranquility joined them. And we had 20 some guys beating the hell out of each other. Boom boom, they crashed while we watched safely from a distance. The tram continued peacefully before stopping at the next stop. The local group exited leaving the beaten and sad looking group come in terms with their blackened eyes. The driver locked the doors and continued to the next stop. Here the Valence group woke up from their stupor and few guys ran to meet the local group at the last stop.
Meanwhile the driver tranquilly announced that the police has been informed will take care of them and continued driving.
Point taken, the French are very tranquile.

Canon 50D

That's the beauty Ashutosh bought.
shoot with a nikon.

Out on a shooting spree

("Sudarshan with his chota pistolet")

So off we set towards the park at St. Egreve and indeed it is a piece of beauty. A photographer dream come true; mountain, lake, clouds, fishermen, ducks, kids, swings, grass. Take a look below. Need I say more?


Usually one associates such places with calm and quiet. But it was even better, it reminded me when it was the last time I heard birds sing. And here they sung together in a chorus and it filled the air from all directions. Sweet harmony. Sweet enough for to practise some yoga.

It's funny how everything hindi word in english gets an extraa 'a'. Yog becomes yoga, ram becomes rama, krishna becomes krishna. No doubt the english love their dentist session.

And then comes a cherubin with her mamie (french for grandmother).

Always remember for the french the kids are always belle or beau (beautiful) and not mignon (cute). Talking of belle it reminds me of the first words in french that I learnt "la belle dame sans merci". It was a poem I read in school. Its interesting to note what are the first words in a foreign language one learns.
A chinese friend learnt "Donnez moi ton argent" (give me your money).
A polish friend learnt "Voulez vous couchez avec moi" (will you sleep with me).
add c'est soir and it becomes a line from Lady Marmalade of Moulin Rouge.

Back to the subject of the paradis for a photographer. I mentioned fishermen (pecheur), however there were more fisherboys. One who caught two fishes while I took the photo.

And the kids love the swing.


And the flowers. I was unknowingly shot by Ashutosh with his chota topp

It rained roses today

Seriously, the first day with my SLR today. Platonic is a relation between man and his camera, so said a great philosopher. Don't show me the finger, I admit I made that up. So it didn't rain roses but it actually rained here in Grenoble today which almost spoilt our first day out. Rain made us shift gear from the bountiful mountains to the centre ville. And we settled to hot cups of espresso and cappuccino which actually make good subjects for photography.

A little more perspective, we are three guys. Numero un, lets call him D300 aka big topp, numero duo, he likes to known as 50D aka he's doesn't care and numero trwa 90D aka the bada pistolet. And they are sitting in a cafe clicking themselves nuts. 50D maintains stoic silence as he obseves big topp and bada pistolet shoot around coffee cups and chairs while people stare.


And all of a sudden the waitress presents herself with the bill. Not for herself you naughty one, it's for the coffee we shoot. After the coffee is strewn down the street, afterall true photographers never drink the coffee they shoot. You don't know that, cha cha cha, you must be a nobody, that's the rule number two in the golden book of photographers. And to further ingrain the importance of rule number two, let me reiterate the rule number six (courtesy the red eye is watching) there is no rule number one.

Gotit.

After downing the coffee we walked to the riverside. Every city has a symbol, agra has its taj mahal, paris la tour eiffel and grenoble has its bulles, bubble shape cable car that leads to bastille.



A more artistic version as shot by 50D with his Fz8 is here



And we head over to 50D's favorite spot. He marks it every time with his .... I am sorry for the dots, please read between the dots (or doigts). He marks it with a photo and nothing more and nothing less.



Ok, we might appear crazy when we are shooting photos, but we just see the world differently. God blessed us all with eyes, but blessed some of us with another pair made of glass and we sometimes like to see the world through the glass. We are different, so please don't stare at us when we seem to be in a kind of trance around a simple leaf.
The journey will continue in the next post.

Bitten by the bug

The camera bug bit me again yesterday and I bought 'the Nikon D300'. Now the story is a long one, short version here. A week long quest for a perfect slr, Canon or Nikon, 50D or D90 went to gutter when I saw the D300 with a massive discount at the local Fnac. I was heavily prejudiced towards the Canon 50D but God bless those guys who decided to discount the piece. After drooling over the camera from far away in the glass enclosure it was held in on Friday and spending a long night on whether should I buy it or hold out another bout of camera owning frenzy?
On saturday morning I dutifully presented myself at Fnac, Victor Hugo and tried both the Nikon and Canon. Now Canon was definitely lighter, it has a nicer feel but my mind was made. The salesperson tried to explain the functions in French, really complicated but I was already sold. Now they wouldn't let me have the cam on credit, I need a 10 year residence permit for that. So thats the way to go, the salary credited in morning is diverted to Fnac. Ouchh. Finally, I was handed over the camera in a grand sac. Big appareil photo, big sac, rigoled the salesperson.

Now there is Ashutosh besides me, shifting and turning. Man, I can see it in his eyes the desire to buy one for himself. He frantically tried to call Virang for possible funding but he's unreachable.
So we leave for home. Camera's unpacked but there's no memory card. Damn Nikon, can't even put a basic memory card, even 16mb (the one supplied with my panasonic) would suffice. So off to Grand Place to search for the card, get one at Darty (long story). While Ashutosh checks out the D90 and 50D at the Fnac here. Now he's totally sold out, he's getting the 50D but credit limit on his card. So back at home to get the cheque book.
And he presents himself dutifully to the salesgirl. She doesn't even attempt to explain him the intricacies of operation, they have the magical sensor which lets them scan when the guy is bitten by the love bug. Sorry, I digressed, a thousand apologies, I mean by the camera bug. So after issuing the cheque, which was faithfully verified by security who wouldn't divulge the algorithm employed in the interest of national security. I swear I have not watched Star gate continuously for 24 hours. Its true, cent pour cent, the security guy disappeared with the cheque for 10 nervous minutes for Ashutosh but he magically reappeared like a gaussian blur effect in PS with a sourire. C'est bon.


("Ashutosh with his topp")

So we are now two happy guys, chirping with their equipments and glass. Glass from the factories of Faridabad, surreptitiously rebranded in names of likes of Nikon, Canon, Leica, etc. and duped to innocent camera buffs for thousands of euros.
Damn it, I miss my pin hole camera. Ok you caught me I was not born in 20s, not the pin hole but I used a convex lens for making one for my science project.