#BeingMallu and the Pheno-menon called Trends

A playful hashtag, #beingmallu was trending on twitter for a full day, starting 1 PM on 09-Jan-2012.  Thanks to all the mallus worldwide, #beingmallu was trending globally. Yes, globally. I too chipped in. There are a few good posts on the trend.


This tag had me thinking. If a few earnest Malayalis could influence the global twitter trends atleast when the Americans are sleeping, is it a reliable indication of the trends worldwide? I guess a rudimentary analysis is in order. Let's examine.

One might think that the tag was trending due to the large number of educated mallus worldwide, what with the 100% literacy and all. Oh yes, among these is a huge percentage with access to the internet - for example the large number of practically jobless Software Engineers Kerala has exported (Exhibit A - me). Could be. Or, it could be also be due to the fact that a few hyperactive handles did most of the tweeting. There is nothing wrong with this, of course. From my basic analysis of various twitter handles, one thing that I have understood is that unless the person behind the handle is a celebrity (or fast becoming one), regularity of tweets and piggybacking to popular issues are the only ways to gain more retweets and followers. This really is a chicken and egg situation, a non-celebrity has no choice but to keep tweeting about the issue of the day to gain further audience. Yes, kinda like politics. Of course the tweets have to be either useful, funny or ideological. Once the hashtag reached the top spot in India, it truly reached the tipping point. It woke several sleeping handles up. For instance, I could see several #beingmallu tweets per second by 5 PM. This should have resulted in the hashtag staying at the top globally, despite the peak activity time of the Brits (assuming they are the lot who tweet in English the most, after the Americans). 


Still... Does it mean that twitter trends mean people are genuinely interested? What could be a better indicator? Who else has better idea of what's happening around us? Of course, it's Google. I firmly believe that the Google trends is a better indicator of the national interest than the twitter trends. Google trends clearly provide us a better picture of all and sundry things that people search in Google. Twitter adoption in India is still low. Hence, the twitter trends can be influenced by a few hyperactive tweeps. Google is far more popular and the base is huge. As a result, Google trends cannot be influenced that easily. On any day, I would rely on Google trends to know the mood of the nation.


PS1 : There is copycat #beingKannadiga trending now. What? #beingMallu is a plagiarised version of #beingGujju ? Imbossible! 


PS2: All the above statements are based on just observations and here say. So all of them could be absolute rubbish. 

PS3: Shameless plug of my tweet.

#BeingMallu is when you can correctly spell Thiruvananthapuram, correctly name Kochi and correctly say Kozhikode.
— Aravind Naick (@aravindgn) January 9, 2012

Dear Assistant

For quite some time over the last one year, I have been thinking about going online 24 * 7. My thought was that having internet on the move is going to help me immensely with the GMail access and Google Maps and the Wolfram Alpha and what not. This meant that I ditch my perfectly fine simple mobile phone and buying a new smart phone. Finally I caved and after due deliberation, I bought a top of the line android phone last month. The fact that I am not a huge fan of either Apple or Microsoft made the selection process quiet simple. 


Needless to say, I was super excited at the prospect of being a full time netizen.  With in hours, I got the 3G activated. Also, I WiFi enabled the home. I went to the android market place and installed all the apps that I ever wanted, heard and some I have never even imagined that I will ever use (ToI app in my mobile? sacrilegious!). I was also considering about the purchase of 32GB data card so that I can 'carry my entire music collection' with me. But I didn't. Thankfully, my senses (a combination of laziness, stinginess and the fact that I don't have a music collection) prevailed and now I am richer by 1.5K. 


When I started this post, I was trying to say how the device has failed to improve my productivity, in any way. Then I started thinking, and now I realize how dependent I am on this tiny cuboid. Sure, the device has been very good at killing my time - I have spent hours playing Asphalt 6. But, I have used it extensively. I read while I'm travelling, eating and some times even in the loo. So, there is hardly a dull moment. Also, the combination of GPS and Google Maps is deadly. I freak people out by showing up at locations in remote gullys, with out asking directions from them and by booking movie tickets as we talk. 

I am impressed with you, my dear assistant. You are my HAL 9000. You bode well for my lifestyle of instant gratification. Please don't become a villain.

Ramblings

Okay, so I have moved to my own apartment since the last post. But, hey, the last post was more than 14 months ago. Ever since I moved in here, I have been staying here on rent (euphemistically called maintenance charges). The cost is higher than what I used to pay as rent when I was sharing the accommodation. But, the benefits are certainly there - 24 x 7 power, nice view and security (noun). The most important thing is watching the reaction of my friends when they hear that I own an apartment in Bangalore - though that implies that I am a loser. I don't let anyone know that my mother partly funded it, else it will confirm the previously mentioned implication. So, psst...


I certainly miss the company of those guys who on occasions made my life hell, but presented me with some of the most memorable moments of my life. However, there is one big advantage - that since I am staying alone, I can continue my crazy lifestyle. I sleep at 3am, wake up at 10 am and on weekends, I watch CNBC and CNN at 4 am. That's when the Americans have their best programs aired. Although in hindsight,though I despise the fact that I do so, somehow I love to live in the moment. Not only have I succeeded in earning a reputation among my friends and family about weird timings, but also succeeded in getting some of them to follow my route. I have always given satisfactory explanations (in my mind) as to why I do this. I am hoping that I can change all these soon... Ah, who am I kidding? I will change it only if I have to. I that sort of guy who keeps himself awake till 6 AM, if he has to go to some place then, rather than sleep at 12 and get up by 6. In short, Newton formulated inertia and Jim Davis modeled Garfield after me.

I do realize that with this back ground image and my profile photo up there (not the Garfield one - although if I were a cat, I am very sure I could have been him), it looks as though I am going to jump off the cliff. No... I am not even remotely considering anything like that. Life is monotonous, boring, repetitive, yet fulfilling and hopeful. Recently, I was trying to write 3 essays - 300 words each - and they took me a month to complete. Needless to say, my confidence took a heavy beating. That was when I decided that I will write a blog entry with out absolutely any prior thought. Smug with the false sense of confidence, I am off - off for another long night. 

Crikey!

It has been a while since I last put my language skills for the betterment of humanity. When I was having my dinner today, I suddenly had this sudden unexplainable urge to spread the wisdom that I have been accumulating over the past several months. There is no better way to explain that feeling. May be, it's just the boredom caused by the loneliness of staying alone. When the economy is rebound, the young and the restless gets ambitious.As a result, the content and the lazy people lose their room mates.

Over this period, I have started using the social networking sites like never before. There is hardly a day when I don't visit facebook and twitter. While performing an ego search in google, I found that my tweets are all indexed by Google and other sites there by eternalising my online presence. Only a year ago, the results of a similar google search were not relevent beyond the second page. This time, it's relevant beyond the sixth page. All thanks to twitter and FB. If you can be bothered, you can see my recent tweets to the right side of this panel.

I started this blog entry keeping one idea in mind - html5. This is the technology which is going to change the way we perceive the web application today. But, that will be covered in the next post. Just don't want to trivialize html5 by talking about it in the same post which includes the boring details of my life.

Some say that the best way to overcome an addiction is to get so high, so often that you are tired of the junk. You are no longer able to find any kick from the stuff. So you discard that and move on to some thing different. I believe that this has happened to me. The only difference here is that, instead of actual drugs, I am tired of cricket telecasts. There were so many t20 matches in the past few months that by the end of the IPL Season 3, I was watching the matches mechanically, out of habit. Interestingly, I was watching a movie at the time of the IPL final. May be, it was just because RCB lost to Mumbai in the semis. I no longer rush home to watch a cricket match. I have over come that addiction. Or..., should I say I have switched to a new drug? The BBC TV series Top Gear has amazed me so much that now it's a part of my daily routine. OK. I am wrapping this up for another episode of TG Seaon 9. Crikey?

5 Star politics

It is a well known fact in my friends circle that I am an ardent Congress supporter. I have been a fan of the party even during the lean period of the late 90's. Now, I am really proud to say that the party is moving from strength to strength. This is very evident from the fact that the party has decided to ask two of its ministers to move out of 5 star accommodation. How does it become a great thing? Its true that other parties such as BJP are facing deep organisation issues while the Congress can focus on developmental issues. But beyond that, I believe that this was a strategic move and a signal to the members of the government and the senior bureaucracy as a whole - that they need to be the role models for the entire nation. It also sends out the message that this government is damn serious about its intentions. A lot of commentators do say that this is a non-issue. But I believe that this is really good PR. This is bolstering party's image with out causing harm to any body. What's wrong in them going for good accommodation, as long as the burden is not on the exchequer? Also, please note that both the ministers who were apparently reprimanded belonged to the INC, and of the same ministry. Sorry, too much of Steven Lewitt and Malcolm Gladwell there.

I hope that this effort by the party is for real and for ever.

Just Another Blawg entry

It has been a long time... It has been 100 week days since my last blog entry. Yeah, I counted that. I double checked the same using Wolfram Alpha. Since, Google announced their OS, Microsoft intoduced Bing and my roomies are getting married.

In the mean time, I had my first ever promotion. Now I am the IBM's CEO...what? that is not true? just another senior engineer? My manager was talking to me as though he just gave me the CEO post. Hmm.. Still, I will take it. But not happy with the hike. Screw the recession.

Swine flu is rampant(?) even in Bangalore. Masked citizens every where. Yet to find a proper mask. It seems the N95 mask(mask? really?) is not effective against the virus. "Usage of these masks is like protecting against rain with an umbrella made of mosquito net."

A curious case for Biometric Security

The concept of user name and password may have been introduced to protect the personal information that belongs to an individual human being from the rest of humanity. So it is supposed to be a useful concept. Except that, these days it has become a rather irritating one. The sheer number of the user name and passwords is the problem. I guess I have a minimum of 15 user name password pairs. The pain of remembering them, and the procedures that you have to follow if you forget them... Aaargh!

Let me try listing the names of user id password pairs I have. Please note that these are the ones that I regularly use.

Official

1. The IBM intranet uid/password

2. The lotus notes uid/password

3. The uid/password of the client network that I work for from IBM

Personal

1. Google account uid/password

2. Yahoo account uid/password

3. MoneyControl.com uid/password

4. Cricinfo.com uid/password

5. facebook.com uid/password

6. linkedin.com uid/password

Banking/Finance

1. ICICI Bank account uid/password(2 accounts with different uid/pwds)

3. Citibank account uid/password

4. SBT account uid/password

5. SBI account uid/password

6. ICICI Direct account uid/password

7. ICICI credit card account uid/password

8. BSNL online bill pay uid/pwd

9. ICICI Prudential account uid/password

10. LIC account uid/password

11. MoneyCenter account uid/password

That makes it 20, at the first glance. But it gets even tougher. Remember that for each of these bank accounts, we need to remember their ATM card pins. That makes it +7. Besides, some banks have the concept of separate account and transaction passwords - ICICI is one. So, that makes it 29. This number still isn't a complete one. Because, at work, we will need uid/pwds to various systems such as databases and servers. But thankfully, we can write them down. Still, they keep changing, and we have to keep track of them.

I have mentioned this problem of mine to a lot of people. Amazingly, most of them don't find this to be that much of a problem. Some suggest me that I should use a single password, or a couple of passwords and toggle between them. Some others suggest that I keep a single string fixed and append another string which is a variable one. To me, I have tried both and failed in the long term. The problem is that, some sites ask have their own password policy - that the password should be changed once in every few weeks. This has caused a lot of trouble to me, as you won't try to change all the other passwords. Finally, it becomes a giant password chaos.

In order to solve this, I created a Yodlee MoneyCenter account. I was hoping that this will help me remember my uid/pwds. But I ended up having an extra uid/pwd. Now, I really am out of options. I have already forgotten the passwords of my yahoo, SBI, SBT and credit card accounts.

I really want all the systems to have bio-metric identification facility. I want to use my finger prints, my voice pattern and my eye pattern to be able to do the entire authentication for me. But when is that going to happen? Till then, it's hard time.

P.S. : In the last post, I had blamed the commies for all that is wrong. Mrs. CPM (or should I call her the true representative of the working class!!) told us in a TV show that "The Left has done all the good things that the UPA government did and all the bad things were done by Congress". Yeah, right. Atleast you should take the blame for the fact that you have driven industry out of Kerala, and that her jobless people are here in Bangalore trying to steal my cell phone.