Wish

Honestly, it’s more painful than pleasant to have one. I have a one wish for my smartwatch: There should be a one tap snooze for all sorts of notifications: social media has the worst timings for conversations. And the time usually coincides with your work that needs all your concentration. Apart from that, it is quite nice. There is a huge cry around why Apple watch battery sucks. Some of the most priced watches from my grandpa’s age required to be ‘key-ed’ every 24 hours for it to show the right time. In fact, it is worse than that. You had to give an exact number of turns for it to keep the correct pace. And those were very priced. Things improved quite fast from there. So we could expect the same for this piece of technology as well. ...

Apple announced it watch last year. And it decided to ship it from next month, this year. Of course, as a fan boy, it is a fab gadget to own. As an electronics engineer, it is a piece of marvelous engineering and worthy of owning. What follows is not a review, not a rant and definitely not a promotion. This is just an observation. Apple watch is a first in many things for Apple. For the first time, Apple announced a non-shipping product in its annual meet. For the first time, Apple could not predict the exact date their watch would ship. After a long time, Apple dropped the proverbial ‘i’ from its naming. For the first time, Apple is venturing mention-ably into the fashion industry. For the first time, Apple is releasing a multi-variant product line. For the first time, I am scared of what Apple is doing to itself. But why does that last line matter at all? ...

It’s almost a tradition now that I am writing a birthday post every year. This year, I am a little late for the post. I wanted to think through and reflect on the year that just went by and set goals for the year that is looking at me now. Staring at me, for I haven’t started anything yet! 2014: Last year was good. I had two targets for 2014. I achieved one. I missed out on the other. But I pulled off a third that came unannounced! This is actually a proud moment for me and the wife. We came to Singapore with multiple major agendas: finance, family, business and life. I guess we took care of the finance to some extent. Of course, these are sliding targets. They keep moving along with you and perhaps never quite complete unless you hit the jackpot or sell your company to Facebook/Google. We did neither, so we expect the sliding window to continue with us. I had consciously avoided setting any targets for myself last year. As a result, it looks like I did achieve my targets 😉 ...

Last friday was the first time I ever wore a jacket. Not that the situation demanded one, but I knew it wouldn’t look too odd if I did. I always loved to wear a jacket, but given that I spent most of my time in Chennai, just wearing a formal attire with leather shoe would make you like you are over-dressed for more occasions. Mostly the folks higher up in the value chain got away with the jackets and us engineer folks generally looked best in our dirty jeans and some stupid tee. ...

The counting is starting in a while and the internet connection at office is flaky!! Not today, I say! I should have sent money y’day. Tomorrow there is at least a 50% chance, I stand to lose on exchange rate. Unfortunately that is also what I wish for my country – for the rupee to gain in value because of good governance and economic policies. All the best India. You gave your exams well ( fairly good turnout compared to earlier, right?). There is little you can do about the results. By EoD, at least the short term future of the country will become clear. But I hope we didn’t burden ourselves with another electoral spend. I hope and wish we gave a clear mandate. ...

I usually take a bus to work around 930 in the morning. Late, yes, but I usually start my work day at 8. Anyway, that’s not the point. I usually manage to catch the same bus – by time, route and the driver! And for two reasons. One is, duh, that’s the first bus around this time. Second is the driver! This guy gives you a “good morning!” as you board the bus. And I usually wish him back. And this simple exchange brightens up my mood for a very long time into the day. ...