Capstones

Just checking in to say that nothing can be more hectic than this week. There is a whole lot of stuff happening. What I am most interested though is in the capstones of my seniors.. it would be interesting to see what we can accomplish in a year's time.

Capstones are kindof sacred for us. It gives us the freedom to work on our dream project, combining our hobbies and interests, and also this is pure individual work. It would be so much relief to work on my own on what I love.

I would be attending Matt, Apurva and Josh's capstone presentations, and would try to figure out if what I have in mind is a realistic target to set.

Elective for Fall 2006

I have been scouting around for an elective that fits in my interests.. business school, SLIS, Telecom, Fine-Arts.. there is none that really attracts my attention for now. So, I prepared this rough idea of what I want to cover next semester. It would be good if I could get an independent-study with a professor who is well-informed about these things.

WEB SERVICE DESIGN 2.0

Scope:
Study of technologies and services enabled by Web 2.0's extraordinary capabilities for information storage, creation, and dissemination. What are its implications for businesses, consumers and producers, non-broadband world?

Syllabus:
1. Blogs, Wikis, Tags, Podcasts, Web-Syndication, RSS Feeds, Web APIs, Rich Internet Applications
2. Web(say, Google) Hacks and AJAX
3. Paper/Project

Material:
Decide on two text-books
Decide on the schedule week-by-week as if it were a regular class
Read seminal papers and research that influenced these developments

Finally Intuit...

 
 

I have finally accepted the offer at Intuit. Not because they are giving me these wonderful gifts.. Folks at PWC are as cool as these guys, and want to have me over as much as these guys, but I believe at this stage of my education, I had rather spend my summer with as many HCI practitioners as possible, where the UCD processes are in place. With Intuit's extraordinary focus on users, I believe that is the way to go...

I feel really lucky and humbled by these offers. I got them without much effort, and I must make sure that I live upto the expectations... 

Google Calendar

Google comes up with another app - Google Calendar, which was expected anyways. AJAX to the MAX, as usual. After Google showed us what can be done with AJAX, none of this is ground-breaking...

With publishing and sharing of calendars having become so easy with Google Calendar, one can expect that this will fuel yet another web-based interaction and collaboration... The feature list is quite comprehensive, but it still has quite a lot of bugs. I especially liked the quick add event based on natural language, coloring schemes for different calendar types, dragging events across the calendar visual, and support for iCal.

Congrats to Google for yet another classy product. I only hope that this would spawn a lot of calendaring activity over the web. As noted by Kesava, building successful communities and eco-systems on the web is the key to success, and Google is doing a very good job at creating such social capital with its apps.

Will Google Calendar be another Google Maps. It remains to be seen.

A 20something with a 80something

 
 

I met this person at the Indy airport (I wish I could remember his name). He is a Tibetian from Dharamsala, India on a world-tour giving various talks on Tibetian cause and philosophy. He was visiting the current Dalai Lama's elder brother (who is a professor at IU< Bloomington), and we had a nice conversation. I hadn't even answered the questions raised by Shekar Kammula in my mind, when he started asking me the same questions - "So, when are you going back..? How would you contribute to your country..?" etc.

Its a nice feeling to see these 80-somethings having such a contagious energy that we the 20-somethings can only dream of having.

 

Dollar Dreams

Its been an overwhelming week.. Bay Area and then, Pittsburgh. It was a really good trip. But, I am travelling a bit too much for a regular Masters student.

I am travelling back to Bloomington, and just saw Shekar Kammula's "Dollar Dreams". Basically, the same old question - Is it really worth going out of India? If so, is coming back a practical and feasible thing? What about missing Pani-puri? What about family? What about country? Right now, I am feeling just terrible... just when I was feeling great on getting three good internships (and soon earning big dollar bucks), this movie reminds me of myself and my priorities in life.

Life has changed so much today in the last few months. US has given me so much confidence in myself when I needed it the most. I feel accepted, important, happy and cool most of the time.. being around systems that work and friends that matter. What else do I want in life? Oh well, just a wife, and everything else follows? I certainly dont want to fall into this regular life routine thing, but I have to do this for my parents. But, at the same time, I always keep debating myself for that one STRONG reason why I need to get back. I have found that telling myself, "I will go back when I am ready to make the movies I want to make" makes me happy. But, am I being a hypocrist by being abstract?

A little internship made me thinking about what to with the money.. an Intel Mac or video-equipment or save money for parents' tickets for my convocation.. I hope that I dont get lost in these dollar dreams. Kudos to Shekar Kammula. I want to be you, I want to come back and make movies. Let me save the dollars!

The movie has this character called Srinu - who is dangerously similar to what I was before I got here. He is sensistive, confused and impulsive. He hates the idea of doing things for the heck of it. He challenges tradition, values simplicity. He wants to do something that is useful and sensible to his country.. but doesnt know how. Only an Indian MBA looks like an okay option. But, he fails continuously to get even an admission. However, he has a strong force in his life in the form of a journalist friend (possibly future wife too) who keeps him on the track he wants to be. I hope I get such a reckoning strength in the form of my wife.

These dialogues pinch me to remind myself of my past:

"Jaana hai to jaa... lekin aise haar ke mat jaa... koshish kar yaar... ek aur baar..."

and Sri is in Jamnalal Bajaj the next year. I gave myself two years too, but couldn't do it... so have I come here having failed in India? I dont think so... I think choosing HCI and IU, Bloomington was one of the nicest things to happen to me... and in retrospect suits me far better than a traditional Indian MBA... I am not yet ready for it...

And, now I am like..

"Go there... see... learn... think about where we went wrong... and come and help everyone understand the right ways"

PWC too...

Yipee, PWC also comes up with the offer. I cant believe that I already have 3 internship offers, and I am saying no the fourth one before the process starts ;)

So yeah, I am pretty happy that it worked out well. But, I am also surprised that my amateurish designerly skills actually have had a good affect on the recruiters. Nothing was really very targeted, I was just myself with whomever I interacted. And surprisingly, people seem to have liked what I had to say.

And man, SF is truly amazing . It does come under the World Cities category. Toured around SF downtown, visited Golden-Gate, Bay Bridge, Market-Street, Chinatown(Check out the untidy but excellent-food at House of Nanking), SF-MOMA etc... and this is one place I had like to settle down in life. Though I haven't explored the city too much, there sure is a lot happening. Ofcourse it is the house of Stan and Berkeley, the HQ of Google and Yahoo and so many others, but it also has amazing food.

Plus, I am really impressed with the BART and CalTrain transit systems. Everything seems to be in place, but for the threat of an earthquake. I saw stunning images of the 1906 quake at MOMA, and it was tough to even imagine something of this scale hitting SF now.

San Hose

Oops.. San Jose!

So, Silicon Valley it is. The first conversation I heard as I entered the airport was between two black guys talking about User-Experience and usability... "When will they know that they ought to feel the users... Get the users early into the proces, man" stuff. Pretty convinced that this would be good trip for me, but ultimately its upto the BEEEEEEEST GUYYYYYYYY- Santosh!

Later then.

Participatory gift-design

 
 

I am going to San Jose tomorrow for an interview with PWC.

But, Intuit relentlessly tries to impress me, and I get impressed. :) Its a nice company with a bunch of nice UCD folks, who also send me such cool gifts.. and that's a pretty cool idea.. isn't it? Customer of an organization sending a gift to a prospective employee welcoming him to the organization... Participatory design in true-spirit, huh?

Today, it also strikes me that I could actually use the other internship at 3G Upload for the next Fall, for three reasons: to learn AJAX, to get a few credits, to make a buck. How is that? But, probably that is too much to ask for! And, that's exactly how Marty responded! 

Can Bharatanatyam be called a "thingy"?

There is this ridiculous conversation doing rounds in our mailing lists.

Subject: Arvind invites people to a Bharatnatyam concert, and calls it a "thingy"

Contention: This is not very well taken by Divya. We are ambassadors of a rich culture, and should be respectful of it, not carelessly calling it a "thingy".

And, it was getting dirty. It was embarassing that the aura of a nice event was getting spoilt. Anyways...

Well, clearly Arvind is not at fault, but neither is Divya. Hence, I shoot this mail.

> Quoting Vamsi D Gadey :
>
>> Thank you Arvind for the invitation, I was already planning for the event.
>> Thank you Divya for the information, truly appreciate that.
>>
>> I personally think no one is at fault here. Bharatnatyam is almost a
>> religion for some people, and Indians being a little emotional in
>> general, cant take "thingys". But at the same time, I know Arvind had
>> the innocence of a child in the mail. Divya, hope you forgive him. :)
>>
>> Take a chill pill guys, and dance to the grace of Shiva*. Hope this
>> thread ends here, and this event is not taken in bad-spirit.
>>
>> "We bow to Him* the benevolent One
>> Whose limbs are the world,
>> Whose song and poetry are the essence of all language, Whose costume
>> is the moon and the stars..."
>>
>> -Vamsi.

Had a great time with Kalpana, Glenn and Preeti. We had a nice Indian dinner at Shanti, and headed to the event. Shobhana and Sunandana performed several great pieces like Thillana, and it was extremely fulfulling to see a hall packed with white faces enjoying Indian mythology. But, it was also extremely frustrating to see a very minimal desi crowd.

Happy Fools Day

So, Google comes up with Google Romance (Beta). Their argument is that dating/marriage is a Search problem. So true, huh? Though it's the regular masterly Google prank, such a service would probably be a reality for our kids... I am currently dating my "I-am-feeling-lucky Google Romance Search-Result", doesnt seem too weird to me (as have been previous Google April Day's pranks) because of all the folksonomy and personalization that's happening around the web now.

The first person whom I wished Happy Fools Day was Chandu. Reason: He got married a few days back at 24. Hey just kidding, buddy. :)

Today, I also received two important documents, which probably are the most important ones I have been waiting for. Intuit's offical entry-packet, and VISA to Canada.

The day I came here, I had two important short-term targets: 1) Get a good internship. 2) Go to CHI. I am happy I am doing both of them, and I am pretty excited for April.

I have another California trip(to San Jose) coming up in the coming week for an interview, and I am as excited as ever. Later, I would be visting Pittsburgh for undisclosed reasons. Its so strange, but yeah.. I am looking more and more like a mobile student.