This is the movie review for SiCKO, Michael Moore’s new “documentary” about the U.S health care system and its relative spot against the rest of the world.
The first half of the movie is powerful stuff – primarily because Moore stays behind camera (unlike his other films) and lets the treatment denial horror stories of insured Americans and their tears do all the talking. Read the rest of this entry »
iPhone Launch Day and BitBubble – The Aftermath
June 30, 2007
So – following the iPhone launch through the Palo Alto store and the late night visits two nights in a row were a HUGE pain in the ass. But it seems to have paid off in terms of traffic to the blog. I made it to the top 10 blogs of the day on WordPress.com – w00t!
My stats line graph is way out of whack – so basically I have little to look forward to but a traffic downturn. They don’t call me Miss Congeniality for nothing!
Screenshots here:
Blog Rank
Traffic Line Graph
Search Engine Terms
See previous posts and photos of the Apple store here and here
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So here are the photos!!!
First, the store on the outside…
Surprise…they are open all frigging night. Oh, the bastards!
Next up…Father Time, one of the first few in line…
Okay, this is just crazy talk right now. Satellite uplink???
A mesmerized yours truly, salivating outside…
And a pissed off sibling…not happy about being dragged to the circus.
Leaving…
Final shot!
Off to bed. I can’t believe I just spent all this time on a darn phone 
It is about 11:08pm PST on June 28. I just drove by the Palo Alto Apple store and this thing is starting to get outta control. Here is all the craziness I witnessed, in bullet form:
- A line that is already a block long
- An overabundance of lawn chairs, more than you’d see at a damn concert arena
- A dude who looks like Father Time is fourth in line. Now this guy represents the true Apple faithful, making a recent Mac convert like me look like a HUGE poseur. Oh well, it’s worth it, dammnit!
- Several Stanford undergraduates. But of course!
- A few hot girls standing around on the side. But the line is overwhelmed with dudes, as expected
- A goddamn camera crew with a TV van outfitted with a mondo satellite dish!!!
- Dorky reading lights mounted on a hat. Hilarious!
Pictures coming soon – stand by, all ye geeks! Previous post/pictures are here.
On Sales Inboxes and Prompt Responses
June 29, 2007
As part of the cushy gig of product manager for a web company, I end up making plenty of calls to vendors in the health space (won’t give out details for two obvious reasons: I’m not fully stupid yet and I don’t like getting fired).
This is my first experience with leaving messages for salespeople who are supposed to be on the ball, what with their ass being on the line every quarter’s end. That being said, I started with lofty expectations of prompt turnaround time, pleasant conversations followed with slightly testy but businesslike contractual discussions.
Uhh, not so much. Sales inboxes have consistently proven to be a joke. You would think they’d at least have the good sense to call you back a few days after you leave an email address and phone number. Nope. Sure, I don’t work at a big shop so they have a right to screen me with wary skepticism – but shouldn’t they at least call back to see if I’m legit?
I’m not mad – just baffled. I thought engineers were bad at office organization. Yeah right.
Palo Alto Apple Store – A Day Before iPhone Launch
June 28, 2007
Update: Check out newer posts on the Apple store here and here
In an act of extreme tech geekery, I ran up to the Palo Alto Apple store at 12:30am on Thursday morning – to see if any fool would care to show up two nights before.
Sadly, I was disappointed. But I do have goodies – photos of the Palo Alto store, with the giant iPhone prototype. Also check out kick-ass iPhone buzz index (thanks to Digital Daily)
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TwitterVision is Way Cool
June 27, 2007
I’ll be the first to admit – I don’t think I’ll ever be a Twitter user. Nobody wants to hear about my adventures at the dentist’s office or how I answer a couple of hundred emails a day while playing death match style ping pong games in between.
But when I came across TwitterVision, I was stunned. Now here’s a totally trivial but totally sweet app, a waste of bandwidth, time and effort but sure as hell worth it all.
TwitterVision simply shows geotagged tweets with people’s photos overlaid on Google Earth in a real-time fashion. You have the option of classic Maps view as well as Google Earth globe view.
I guarantee you’ll waste ten minutes if you check it out.
Notes on a Scandal – Movie Review
June 24, 2007
If you want a creepy movie that generates its chills without bloody corpses, moonlit nights, howling wolves or a pack of roving zombies out to get Grandma – watch “Notes on a Scandal“.
This is a British film with Judi Dench playing her usual Ill-chew-your-nuts-out-like-an-irascible-grandmother self as a high school history teacher. Cate Blanchett plays a colleague, a 37 year old teacher who may have a thing for men not quite in her age bracket. Barbara’s (Dench) attraction towards Sheba (Blanchett) is fairly bone-chilling, accompanied in no small part by great background music.
When Sheba (unaware of Barbara’s feelings) commits adultery with another, uh, man (watch for yourself), Barbara sets down a course of manipulation that is bound to end badly for all involved.
Once again, this is a small movie with no surprises, explosions or blood; but the fabulous cast, the taut storytelling, crisp dialogue and a frigid background score make for a good ninety minutes. I highly recommend it.
No need to use Vuze
June 23, 2007
Recently, I sat in a presentation recently where the good folks over at Vuze pitched their product to a bunch of fresh-faced Norwegian interns (don’t ask). Like most elitist me-too Valley geeks, I had waited frantically for a Joost invite. If you haven’t heard of it yet, Joost is the latest effort by the notorious Estonian masterminds behind killer P2P apps like Kazaa and Skype. It allows you to watch full-broadcast TV shows over your desktop using a slick P2P system.
Anyhoo – Vuze is a bittorrent client that allows you to watch HD content using a similar desktop client paradigm. All the content is legit – the company has struck deals with BBC and other content providers.
Here’s the sucker punch though – the default viewing mode is to download content for later viewing. Now, I know HD content is probably hard to stream, but I don’t care. I’d rather stream online TV and not deal with downloaded files that only play with the Vuze client. To me, this is a deal breaker.
A Mighty Heart Indeed
June 23, 2007
It is hard to make a movie when the ending is not only well known but also shatteringly gruesome. But that is exactly what Brangelina and co. have pulled off with “A Mighty Heart”, which I managed to catch this evening.
For those of you who haven’t heard, the movie is a chronicle of the tense few weeks between Danny Pearl’s kidnapping and his eventual demise at the hands of crazed fundamentalists. The story is set in Karachi and feels like a documentary (supposedly the director’s signature style).
Since I am Indian, the movie was a voyeuristic journey into Pakistan, an oft-hated “enemy” that (unsurprisingly) looks and feels so much like India. The city streets, the people, the coarsely uttered Urdu/Hindi look and felt strangely familiar and foreign at the same time. Hell, I even noticed the electrical outlets and chipping paint in a horrifyingly realistic torture scene. Kudos to the filmmakers for doing a kick-ass job of the visual elements of the movie.
Love her or hate her, Angelina does a great job of playing Mariane Pearl and portraying her quiet dignity and resolve in the face of egregious odds. For my money’s worth, she carries the show. You have to see it to believe me.
While the movie is sad enough, the worst part was that on opening night, most of the movie theater was empty. Should we consider that a sad commentary on our society? I’ll leave that up to you.
