Oscars 2005

I don’t know what how I feel after this year’s Oscars. I thought Chris Rock was funny but he wasn’t as funny as he normally is. Maybe the criticism in the weeks leading up to the show and the time delayed telecast did affect him.

But, I was thrilled that Morgan Freeman won for Million Dollar Baby. I’ve not seen the movie yet but Freeman’s a terrific actor and I am really happy that he won. So too with Kate Blanchett who was simply superb as Katherine Hepburn in The Aviator. I felt good that my prediction (okay it wasn’t really a prediction) that Jamie Foxx would win also came true. You can’t be nominated in two categories and not win an Oscar!

I felt bad for Martin Scorcese though. The Aviator is a stunning movie, a difficult story to tell, and he pulled it off with such panache that it left me marvelling at his genius. Plus, he seems like a genuinely good guy and everybody seems to like “Marty”. You had to feel bad for Di Caprio too; he poured his heart and soul into The Aviator.

Maybe the next time around. The Academy has a way of making up for its past mistakes (see Renee Zelleweger and Nicole Kidman).

Food colouring additives

I don’t know if you followed the recent story of the recall of the chilli powder in the UK. You can read about it here and here.

Have you noticed colouring agents used in the restaurants in India? I’ve eaten paneer butter masala in restaurants and most times my fingers end up looking like I was playing with oil paints (now that sounds like fun). It even happens with tandoori chicken, or gobi manchurian (a popular “side” dish). Really RED. Take notice when pass by the numerous “kabab” shops on sale.

I think it’s cool to use whatever additives you want–as long as they are SAFE. Think about this the next time you lick your fingers after that kabab or gobi manchurian, and find your fingers RED. Hey, maybe you can even write to the Indian Spices Board about it.

The price of progress

You can’t miss the trees in Bangalore. Lately though, you’ve probably started to notice some missing. Here are the remains of three such trees (if can we call them that) on the Viveknagar main road.

Yes, I know Bangalore’s progressing. Really, I know.

Foxx or Di Caprio?

I saw Ray on Friday and The Aviator on Saturday. I liked both the movies. Jamie Foxx (as Ray Charles) was outstanding in Ray and Leonardo Di Caprio (as Howard Hughes) was superb in The Aviator.

I’ve not seen any of the other nominated actors but from all the press and the hype, you’ve got to believe that it comes down to these two. If I had to pick (and I’d have a hard time picking) I’d pick Foxx, just because he sometimes made me forget that I was watching Foxx and not Ray Charles. But Di Caprio was phenomenal as well. It’s a tough one to call.

PS: Is there a more uncomfortable theatre in Bangalore than Plaza? The seats are just terrible and the place looks even worse. But, they do play some good Hollywood movies. Still, get a makeover or something.

Why do I need to press * to continue?

I wonder which company (or companies) makes the software for the IVR (Interactive Voice Response) Systems, those automated voice thingies that you hear when you call your bank, or credit card company, or Internet Service Provider.

I don’t mind using an IVR–honest, I don’t. If I just want easy access to information, it’s a good deal. It’s a whole other thing that I need to wait for a day to get to talk to a rep, but we’ll let that go for another day.

My problem is that with some IVR systems, you get a Welcome to …. and then a Please press * to continue. Now that last part, it bugs the hell out of me. If I didn’t want to continue, why do you think I’d call? Just for kicks? (Justforkix is a great name for an Asterix character, I’m not sure if it’s been used in one of the Asterix comics.)

If the “feature” was in place because “they” wanted to trap calls to the wrong number, anyone can disconnect a wrong call by hanging up. No big deal.

So, what Please press * to continue does is to make me wait longer, type an extra character on my keypad, and annoy the crap out of me (and probably other users). Why, oh why, do you want to annoy someone who’s probably never met you in your entire life and never will?

Please make interacting with a machine easy and fun. Maybe someday we’ll even begin to like it.

—Updated on 20 March 2005—

My friend Eddy (who’s a technical writing genius) wrote to me about why you need to press * to continue. It’s because of the “old” system, where you had to press * if you had a touch-tone phone. I’d completely forgotten about that! I guess now it makes sense, but you’d think that they’d have a better message or figure out a way to press * themselves. Oh well, it’s not as bad as I’d made it out to be.

Hype and Valentine

There hasn’t been much noise from the “moral police” this Valentine’s day. I guess they’re used to the show now. Hey, maybe they’re celebrating–in the privacy of their own homes of course.

All that aside, are you not sick of the Valentine’s day hype? Newspapers are filled with articles about what to do, what not to do, what to buy, where to buy it, where to go, what to eat, what toilet paper to use, and so on. There are “sales” and “deals” for Valentine’s day. It wouldn’t surprise me if three-year olds in schools are also caught up in the hype. Maybe even pre-school kids. Get ’em early baby.

For the record, I’ve no problem with Valentine’s day, no problem with people celebrating it, doing whatever they want. Just stop this saccharine sweetness and the over-hype. It’s just too sweet.

Happy Valentine’s day anyway. May you and your loved ones be safe and happy.

Naxalites with AK-47s

One question came to mind when I saw the newspaper on Saturday. Where did the Naxalites get the AK-47s from?

In case you were on vacation, Karnataka now has a Naxalite problem. Naxalites gunned down a few policemen in Tumkur and got away. Apparently, they used AK-47s.

Are these guns available so easily? Maybe Tehelka can try to buy one and figure it out for us.

As an aside, more buses were burned–this time in Koramangala. That’s a mature response for sure. Whatever happened to that predominantly non-violent way in which we won our independence from the British?

Using shapes to make life easier

While drinking tea at a “bakery” near my office I noticed something interesting. The “curry-puffs” (or “patties” as they’re sometimes called) all have different shapes. To the uninitiated, puffs (no relation to Sean Combs) are baked delicacies that are quite popular, to my knowledge in Hyderabad, and Bangalore.

The “egg-puff” is shaped like a quadrilateral with four “wings” folded over the egg. The vegetable puff is a triangle. The chicken puff is a rectangle and so on. Each type of puff has a unique shape. There’s also another bakery near-by that has slightly different “shape coding” for its puffs, but they’re all made in different shapes. For someone who’s selling these things, once you learn the “shape code” there’s pretty much no confusion.

Now, the people who make these puffs, I am pretty sure that they’ve not had any usability training. Some salesperson probably got confused trying to figure out whether a certain puff was vegetarian or non-vegetarian and it forced someone to come up with a “shape code”.

If the bakers can do it, what’s stopping the highly “technical” people (with fancy degrees)? Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?