Sunday, July 7, 2013

Reading books on an electronic medium

I love reading and I have been using computers for the last 25 odd years, so I should have taken to e-books like a duck to water, or so I thought. Though I have no problems reading technical documentation online, I never seemed to take to reading e-books on a computer or laptop. It seemed that there was really no alternative to paper books, though I am not of the “I need the tactile experience of holding paper” brigade.

So, over the years, I have been stacking up books by the gross till such time that I have run out of space for my books. When a friend providently gifted me a Sony e-book reader a couple of years ago, it seemed like a marriage made in heaven. Not! Though there are plenty of free e-books available which could be loaded onto the Sony e-reader, I somehow did not take to it. For one, it was an earlier generation reader, so though it had a touch screen it was resistive and not capacitive. The actual page on the e-reader was pretty ok, however it had two fundamental flaws, one was battery life, which meant that I needed to plug it into a laptop every so often (using an external charger seemed to take much longer, though I don’t have any data to support it) and the second was inability to seamlessly shop online (no Wi-Fi).

This year I got my hands on the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite and my reading experience has now completely changed. Firstly, the backlight does make a difference, however the best feature is the ability to connect seamlessly and send books to my Kindle from the Amazon store (now available in India for payment in Indian rupees – not a small benefit!). Secondly it has a neat feature of allowing you to email free e-books to a specific email id which is tied to my Kindle. No more messing around connecting it to my laptop. Last but not the least is the battery life. It is amazing and its now been over a week and I haven’t had to recharge it. One thing I haven’t done is to get a 3G enabled device, I can’t quite imagine myself in so desperate a position that I *have to* buy a book when I am at the airport or wherever. If I can’t rely on my e-library to re-read something then it is a sad commentary on my reading habits and taste.

I am now a full fledged convert and would recommend it highly to anyone who likes reading and doesn’t want to go through the hassle of buying physical books. I would additionally highly recommend buying a cover for it, which has the dual advantage of being a screen protector and gives a close to physical experience of reading. 

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Some 2013 Oscar movies


I was on work related travel for a couple of weeks to the Bay Area recently. The trip was great and I met a lot of old friends (while getting some work done of course!), however more on that some other time. During the trip, I was talking with someone who remarked that they enjoyed reading my blog and asked why I had not posted for some time. Well, it doesn’t take much to appeal to my vanity, so here goes.

The trip did involve long flights and I caught up on a lot of movie-watching during the time, and so what better subject to resurrect my blog with a review of movies that I have watched recently (mostly English, however a couple of Hindi movies thrown in too). The movies are not listed in any particular order, and in fact I may need more than one post to do justice to some, however let me start with some which got a lot of buzz during the Oscars.

In the last year, American movie makers seemed to have en masse decided to wear their love for America on their sleeves and thus we had Zero Dark Thirty, Argo and of course, Lincoln. Unfortunately, I have not yet watched Lincoln, so have to exclude it from this post.

Zero Dark Thirty

As you know, the movie is (loosely?) based around the hunt and eventual capture and execution of Osama Bin Laden. I had no great desire to watch the movie, however I decided to do so as an exercise in understanding the American mind-set. Though a lot has been made about Jessica Chastain’s portrayal and of Kathryn Bigelow’s direction, both left me a little cold. I just could not identify with it and I always got the sense of being outside the movie. If someone now says that this was deliberate on part of the director, I would beg to disagree (no director wants less than complete immersion of the viewer in their creation).

Much of the movie seemed forced to me and possibly the only time it came alive for me was when they were hunting through the bazaars of Abbotabad for the courier. A lot has been also said about the interrogation scenes at the beginning, but to me, they lacked credibility, not that I don’t believe that much worse was done during interrogations, but that I don’t think they were very realistic and meant more to shock. Towards the end of the movie, the scenes of the actual attack were very muted. In conclusion, I just could not relate to the movie, however I would recommend that everyone watches it, as an educational experience.

Argo
This movie also received a lot of press and in fact won best picture at the Oscars, which increased my curiousity. As I had only a vague recollection of the Iran hostage crisis, I read a little about it before I watched the movie. Unfortunately the movie failed to impress me. Argo has a much more documentary feel to it (though ZD30 has more credentials as a documentary), primarily because it seeks to recreate the 70s. Again, the only time the movie seemed to come alive was during the early scenes of the storming of the US Embassy. It all goes downhill after that.

I have some regard for Ben Affleck, primarily for his collaboration with Matt Damon on Good Will Hunting. Much of that goodwill has been eroded over the years with Affleck’s solo efforts (and I will not mention Gigli as he was clearly delusional and under external influences at the time!). Argo has a couple of good performance, primarily from Alan Arkin as the long distance producer, however there is very little drama and even the scenes during the end were very implausible to me. The kindest thing one can say is that Argo is well intentioned, however only a sense of patriotism can help cloud over the many faults in the movie.

Silver Linings Playbook
It is unfair for me to comment much on the movie as I failed to sit through the whole of it! It started promisingly enough, however very quickly it got on my nerves. If the subject matter, of an individual suffering from bipolar disorder, is expected to make us immediately sympathetic to it, then the only thing I can say is that it did not work on me. The character of Jennifer Lawrence grated on my nerves and the moment she started to get more screen time, I switched off. My loss, I hear you say ? Possibly, but then I bear my loss with a very light heart.

Django Unchained
I am a self-confessed Tarantino fan, so clearly I am a little biased when I said that I liked this movie. I don’t quite think it is his best (Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs come close to the top for me), however it is a very respectable effort. I am not going to write a detailed review as it will likely end up like a fan-page, however I highly recommend watching it. Though Jamie Foxx as Django is the focal point, Christopher Waltz as Dr. Schulz walks away with the movie. Leonardo diCaprio also has a ball playing Calvin Candie and Samuel L. Jackson’s Stephen has a screen presence all his own. The action is pretty much over-the-top Tarantino, however as a viewer, one is always expected to be in on the joke, as the movie is very much a satire.

Ted
A little late to review this movie, as it released quite a while ago, and goes away from the Oscar theme of this post, however I have to write about it. I have never seen such an objectionable movie in my life (reference point: I do not find Sacha Baron Cohen objectionable, even his mockumentary, Borat), the premise has the promise of comedy, however what transpires later is not comedy but so cringe-worthy that I could not last through it. What on earth is Mark Wahlberg doing in it ? I have heard that Family Guy is supposed to be funny, however this movie for me crossed every line of good (or bad) taste in a matter of minutes. Watch it, only if to understand how low movie making can sink.