Decade of Change - World through my lens

In my previous post, I had recollected the changes in my life over the past decade. Along the same lines, I also started thinking about the important events of the past decade that have affected our lives. The ones that I have mentioned here are those that popped into my mind as soon as I thought about the past decade. These are the events that caught my attention - Events that brought joy and also those brought great sorrow. They made us happy, elated, proud, shocked, sad, angry and sometimes even frustrated. Some of these literally transformed the world that we live in, while others had a more personal effect. I hope that a similar list drawn in 2020, will contain more of the joyful events and less of the tragic ones.

Decade of change: 2000 - 2009

During the last week of 2009, the newspapers were full of count downs, ‘Top ten‘, ’50 Best…’, ’50 worst…’ and other such recollections of the past decade. Along the same lines, I started thinking of the major events and changes in my own life over the past decade. It has been a decade of changes, especially in the external world. These have produced a big change in my life style.  It is amazing how life has changed with the fast changing pace of the external world !

2000 was a landmark year in my school life. I wrote my 12^th std board exams that year and joined an engineering college. I took computer science as my major because of the recent Y2K boom, because I hated electronics and also because my closest friend chose that stream in a college.

Avatar - parallels to our dark side

Most of my friends who saw the movie ‘Avatar’ were just blown away by the graphics, picturization and the creativity. To put in the words of my ever optimistic friend, the movie was just ‘beyond brilliant’ :) I too liked the movie for all the above reasons. But all through the time that I was sitting in the theatre, I was reminded of a few other things.

To me, the story is a reminder of the dark side of humans. All through the history, till today, we’ve been doing the exact same thing as depicted in the movie. Human’s greed for resources, power and control have repeatedly resulted in and still resulting in wars and destruction. 

Avatar - a technological masterpiece

After a long time, we went to a movie today – ‘Avatar’, the James Cameron blockbuster in 3D format.

Spoiler Warning: I have explained some parts of the story here. So, do not proceed if you do not want to know the story

The day was quite hectic. We had 4 classes today and had quite a few cases today. I was quite hesitant to go to the movie. But based on the very strong recommendations of those who had already watched it, I decided to go.

It is a 3D movie. This is James Cameron first movie after he released Titanic ten years ago. He has invested enormous time and effort into making this movie. And I’m sure this will be a great landmark in his career. 

Don't break the law... Don't sing 'Happy Birthday to you'

Did you know that you are commiting an 'offence' by singing the traditional 'Happy Birthday' song to your loved ones? I certainly didn't know this until our professor mentioned this while talking about coyrights and Intellectual property rights in class.  I dutifully surfed the net for details and here's what I found.

This tune of this song that is the most widely used and recognized across the world, comes from the song 'Good Morning to all' which was written and composed by American sisters Patty Hill and Mildred J. Hill in 1893. They were kindergarden teachers and composed this song for their students.

The song was copyrighted by the Summy company in 1935. The copywright was sold to Time Warner in 1990. Apparently, this copyright is valid till 2030. Currently Time Warner is charging USD 5000, every time this song is sung in public places, movies and performances. In 2008 alone, they have collected USD 2 million as royalties for using this song.

Source: The Absurdity of Copyright: "Happy Birthday to You"

So, the next time you are wishing your friend, you are voilating the law unless you pay royalty to Time Warner !!!

Ridiculous world of copyrights !!! - I'm thinking of getting a copyright for the word 'Hello'. So, everytime someone picks up the telephone and starts with this word, they have to pay royalty to me. I'm going to be a rich man !!!!

Apple Vs Blackberry

Ad wars have been around for ages. Some of the classic ads are the result of such wars among major competitors. Today our professor showed two such ads in class. These are ads by Blackberry and Apple, attacking each other. I really liked these ads very much. So, here they are...

Blackberry's AD attacking Apple

Apple's ad retaliating Blackberry

27th July, 2048

A really nice video of a speech by Hans Rosling given during the TED conference in India. The speech is about the re-emergence of Asia. He uses historical data and predicts the future for the continent. A really nice speech.

And what happens on 27th July, 2048? Watch the video to find out. :)