I know ... its 2010 and too late to post a movie review on Dark Knight. But this is an old review I wrote long ago in a newsletter. I didn't want to lose it so I am posting it here.
Feel free to 'review' the review and post comments.
So hopefully you have already seen the movie Dark Knight. If not, it is highly recommended. So what this movie is all about? Well, the Joker announced it on the PA system ‘tonight you are going to be a part of a social experiment’. If not already, you now start realizing that you are seeing a vulgar display of an anarchist at his best (or worst!).
Last movie I saw with such a social experiment was a German movie ‘Das Experiment’ which intended to bring out the “prisoner’s dilemma” by simulating prison condition on perfectly normal people. As a matter of fact, I personally have a problem with choosing a comic character to develop a line of script which flirts with human mind, because kids will tend to watch this movie and the theme is quite adult. Which also raises a question why did the movie get a rating of PG-13?
The movie starts with a superb introduction of the Joker and very quickly establishes the magnitude of his personality and control over the underworld of the city of Gotham. He proposes the final solution to the Batman problem and initiates a series of bloody and violent events to prove his seriousness and so the story goes..
What he really is doing is trying to prove that secretly everyone is as evil as he is. That is why he subjects people to situations where they must reveal their core character, wants to rip off Batman’s mask, executes events that change ‘White Knights’ like Harvey Dent into villains of highest order.
In other words, he believes that everyone is same as he is. Just that everyone is either pretentious or still getting there. He claims ‘‘See.. I am not a monster; I am just ahead of the curve’.
The movie can be disturbing to some, especially if you knowingly or unknowingly identified that the Joker is trying to prove the fickleness of human nature in the back drop of anarchy. The screenplay is excellent. Each and every dialogue of Joker is spine chilling and in some weird way you start getting impressed with the twisted logic he throws in for everything evil he stands for.
The movie is quite dark (literally). The overall canvas is gloomy and has a nerve chilling coldness. Thanks to the outstanding background score by James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer, which clubbed with superb performances by the lead actors leaves nothing to pin point in terms of technical flaw.
Performance wise, Heath Ledger clearly steals the show. His dark, villainous and poetic style supercedes standards set by Jack Nickolson as Joker. Trivia- Heath Ledger shared screen time Gyllenhaal siblings (Maggie and Jake). Christian Bale is just OK. Doesn’t come any close to the caliber he has demonstrated in movies like ‘The Prestige’. Aaron Eckhart gave an excellent performance as Harvey Dent aka ‘Two Face’. Special mention to Gary Oldman as Jim Gordon! I am sure quite a few Oscar nominations are on the cards for this movie. Definitely worth your money!
Rating: 4.5/5
Directed by: Christopher Nolan
Cast: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Morgan Freeman
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Saturday, February 6, 2010
TCS website hacked
Today I logged on to tcs.com only to find that the website is hacked. I can't believe my eyes ..so here is the screen shot. As I write this blog, the website is still hacked and up for sale.
Google Wave- Anyone impressed .. yet?
I was one of the most excited people when I received the much coveted invitation to open an account on Google Wave. This was one of the most hyped product google ever launched. I was very impressed with the product rollout
See the youtube video of the product roll out and you would be really impressed.
I have been using (or rather trying to use) google wave for more than a few months now. I kept on convincing myself that it is a great product and with time it will become better since this is just a Beta version. But, seems like Google Wave might not create the kind of impact Gmail created.
Google Wave claimed that it will change the way we think about communication. Electronic communication is just an extension of the traditional form of communication. In other words, instead of writing a letter on a piece of paper and mailing it to someone else's address, email allows us to open a browser (read page) and mail it to a unique address. So if we had to start over, how would the communication behavior look like?
I don't think that if we have to start the style of communication all over again, then it is going to look anything like Google Wave. For one reason, that understanding how to work Google Wave is so complicated (and I am an IT professional) that it seems that you would require a really strong determination and reasonably good technology savviness just to have a normal communication. How can that be anything to look forward to?
It seems that google is missing the point. People generally don't like technology. Thats why Microsoft was successful. Remember those days before microsoft? Just booting the computer using a bootable disk on a command prompt on DOS operating system? And then it all changed when you didn't have to remember those syntaxes anymore and you could do almost anything with click of a mouse and operating system was UI based.
So, if using Google Wave is going to be complex and difficult to manage, very likely people won't like it.
Anyway, lets see what happens. I love google and its products. I want them to be successful, but Google Wave so far is not impressing me.
See the youtube video of the product roll out and you would be really impressed.
I have been using (or rather trying to use) google wave for more than a few months now. I kept on convincing myself that it is a great product and with time it will become better since this is just a Beta version. But, seems like Google Wave might not create the kind of impact Gmail created.
Google Wave claimed that it will change the way we think about communication. Electronic communication is just an extension of the traditional form of communication. In other words, instead of writing a letter on a piece of paper and mailing it to someone else's address, email allows us to open a browser (read page) and mail it to a unique address. So if we had to start over, how would the communication behavior look like?
I don't think that if we have to start the style of communication all over again, then it is going to look anything like Google Wave. For one reason, that understanding how to work Google Wave is so complicated (and I am an IT professional) that it seems that you would require a really strong determination and reasonably good technology savviness just to have a normal communication. How can that be anything to look forward to?
It seems that google is missing the point. People generally don't like technology. Thats why Microsoft was successful. Remember those days before microsoft? Just booting the computer using a bootable disk on a command prompt on DOS operating system? And then it all changed when you didn't have to remember those syntaxes anymore and you could do almost anything with click of a mouse and operating system was UI based.
So, if using Google Wave is going to be complex and difficult to manage, very likely people won't like it.
Anyway, lets see what happens. I love google and its products. I want them to be successful, but Google Wave so far is not impressing me.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Irony or what?
I was delighted to read this on theage.com.au today. At least someone gets it. Tony Abbott's call is very rightly. If Australia doesn't address this issue in a timely manner, this issue will snowball into something really big.
I particularly liked this piece.
"The Opposition Leader also challenged ethnic leaders to show greater respect for Australian values, in a speech supporting population growth, immigration, and a strong border-protection policy."
I could only hope that Indian national leaders could collectively stand for such a cause in India (except for the population growth part of it) and do away with local divisive politics.
The irony is comical because as we read about India's strong objection to racial attacks in Australia, congress party in Maharashtra tries to legally put discriminatory policies in place to discourage job procurements by non-marathis in Maharashtra. (read "Maharashtra to grant taxi permits only to domiciles" ). Not to forget that that it is the congress government at the center which is trying to protect Indians in Australia, but at the same time playing a divisive politics within the country. Don't you have the responsiblity to protect Indians within India as well??
I particularly liked this piece.
"The Opposition Leader also challenged ethnic leaders to show greater respect for Australian values, in a speech supporting population growth, immigration, and a strong border-protection policy."
I could only hope that Indian national leaders could collectively stand for such a cause in India (except for the population growth part of it) and do away with local divisive politics.
The irony is comical because as we read about India's strong objection to racial attacks in Australia, congress party in Maharashtra tries to legally put discriminatory policies in place to discourage job procurements by non-marathis in Maharashtra. (read "Maharashtra to grant taxi permits only to domiciles" ). Not to forget that that it is the congress government at the center which is trying to protect Indians in Australia, but at the same time playing a divisive politics within the country. Don't you have the responsiblity to protect Indians within India as well??
Monday, January 4, 2010
Murder of Neeraj Garg.. the racism in Australia continues
Finally Australia has started coming out from the state of denial to recognizing that there is a problem of racism in the country.
The sooner the Australian government realizes this, the bettter off they are. It takes a lot of political will to fight racism or any other kind of identity clash between civilizations. An Indian must know since we are dogged with such clashes since the birth of Christ (and it is an idiom, so don't get started on political correctness of this phrase) between Hindus vs Muslims, Upper Caste vs Lower Caste, Marathis vs North Indians, North Indians vs South Indians, Tamil vs Hindi.. you name it.
Arrival of Immigrants in Australia is not something new. However, Australia is witnessing something they are not used to. A rapid increase in immigration. Austraian government has put reforms in place which enables Australia to tap into the international talent pool and thus fast track its growth...well.. in theory.
The reaction to those reforms is that students from countries like India, China etc are attracted to come to Australia to become a part of the growth story the government is trying to create. This should be seen as a measurement of success.
However, the fast speed of immigration does change the look and feel of the country demographics. People, who are used to seeing things in a certain way, feel a little uneasy with increased number of unfamiliar faces around them. Compare this situation to the guests who come to your house in big numbers and don't leave for months.
This is the phase where government and other social outfits need to step in and talk about the culture of diversity, inclusiveness and benefits of a multi cultural society. They need to ensure that the people see the value and understand that diversity should be celebrated and feel proud of it. Lack of such political and social attempt results into racism, apartheid, rise of seggregationists. The price of neglecting this situation is really high and the society suffers from this for ages to come.
Australia is at a very sensitive stage of its reforms. If they don't sit up and take a note of this butterfly effect, they will eventually be fighting these demons forever.
The sooner the Australian government realizes this, the bettter off they are. It takes a lot of political will to fight racism or any other kind of identity clash between civilizations. An Indian must know since we are dogged with such clashes since the birth of Christ (and it is an idiom, so don't get started on political correctness of this phrase) between Hindus vs Muslims, Upper Caste vs Lower Caste, Marathis vs North Indians, North Indians vs South Indians, Tamil vs Hindi.. you name it.
Arrival of Immigrants in Australia is not something new. However, Australia is witnessing something they are not used to. A rapid increase in immigration. Austraian government has put reforms in place which enables Australia to tap into the international talent pool and thus fast track its growth...well.. in theory.
The reaction to those reforms is that students from countries like India, China etc are attracted to come to Australia to become a part of the growth story the government is trying to create. This should be seen as a measurement of success.
However, the fast speed of immigration does change the look and feel of the country demographics. People, who are used to seeing things in a certain way, feel a little uneasy with increased number of unfamiliar faces around them. Compare this situation to the guests who come to your house in big numbers and don't leave for months.
This is the phase where government and other social outfits need to step in and talk about the culture of diversity, inclusiveness and benefits of a multi cultural society. They need to ensure that the people see the value and understand that diversity should be celebrated and feel proud of it. Lack of such political and social attempt results into racism, apartheid, rise of seggregationists. The price of neglecting this situation is really high and the society suffers from this for ages to come.
Australia is at a very sensitive stage of its reforms. If they don't sit up and take a note of this butterfly effect, they will eventually be fighting these demons forever.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Microsoft One-Note
I just installed Microsoft One-note application. This is a one stop shop for managing your scraps, notes, meeting minutes and in general, helps organize your information 'on the fly' . I find it pretty darn cool, but you can't talk about Microsoft without criticizing their same ol' ways of doing things.
- The installation file is 200 MB.. which is almost as heavy as office org. Really 200 MB for a notes management software?
- It is licenced. Microsoft offers a 60 day trial, but we all know how things go from there. The full version is priced at $ 99.95 on Microsoft.com and you may get a cheaper deal on other online stores.
While I do like the software, I can't imagine competitors like google (who knew that google would become a Microsoft competitor), and other open source vendors won't come up with a free and open source product to compete with One-Note.
I think its just a matter of time.
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