Ayn Rand vs Dagny Taggart

There is this discussion I had in Orkut communities sometime back that turned out pretty interesting. The community discusses Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, and this was reason enough for me to be interested. Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged are among my all time favorites, and I have recommended the book to a lot of friends.

This particular discussion was about something everybody who reads Atlas Shrugged would identify with. Many people understand and accept Ayn Rand's reasoning, while many others find it as some sort of a scar in an otherwise terrific piece of work.

Is Dagny Taggart right in leaving Francisco De Anconia and Hank Rearden for John Galt?

(If you didn't understand the last sentence, stop here. You have a lot of work to do. Go read Fountainhead, then Atlas Shrugged, then come back here. I will wait. Promise.)

There are a lot of ways to look at this issue, and the explanation that Ayn gives in the book is perfectly valid. Here is my point of view, better formatted than from Orkut.

Does anyone know what Ayn's views on marriage were? The fact is she approved marriage very much. She even thought it was very important in one's life. I think that is commitment.

She actually did something very close to Dagny in her life. Not three men, but two.

She was married to Frank O Connor. Ayn was in love with him, but he was not in love with her (he married her because Ayn persuaded him to marry her for her immigration purposes).

And ayn had a student of her philosophy, Nathaniel Branden. She persuaded another student of hers, Barbara to marry Nathaniel. They were living happily. Until Ayn at an age around 60 started loving Nathaniel, and Nathaniel out of respect confided he loved her as well (he was not in love actually, as Ayn came to know later).

She caused extreme pain to Frank, Nathaniel and Barbara, the 3 people she supposedly loved most in the whole world, and she caused the divorce between Nathaniel and Barbara.

She might have persuaded the readers about this in her novel, but causing unimaginable pain to the very people you love is ugly in any philosophy. I love her philosophy and I respect her and her books. But because she says a lot of good things, doesn't mean everything she says is right.

What happened in her life is just an extension of what she wrote in Atlas Shrugged about Dagny. Infact, she quoted Atlas Shrugged to her husband and Nathaniel's wife, and persuaded them that what she did was right.

I have been thinking about this ever since I first read Atlas Shrugged and then Ayn's biography. I have concluded that what Dagny did is right and what Ayn did is wrong. The only difference is that what happened to their earlier lovers (Hank and Fransisco - Dagny and Frank - Ayn). Hank and Fransisco don't seem to be concerned about Dagny leaving them, at least they don't seem distressed and hurt. But, Frank was hurt to the point that he started drinking very heavily and ruined his life. The fact that Ayn caused such agony and misery to the person she loved most in life (she dedicated Fountainhead to Frank earlier), is unforgivable.

Although what Dagny does doesn't seem to affect the earlier lovers, it should be remembered that it is fiction, an extremely well written one, but still fiction. May be Ayn wanted Frank to react like how Fransisco and Hank did in Atlas Shrugged, and because of this wishful thinking, the whole situation was created in the novel. Anyway, I think the only way a lover will react to an act like that of Dagny's is how Frank reacted.

If a women or a man is already in love, and he/she finds a great person, may be even greater than his/her lover, why can't he/she have a relationship without a romantic connotation, especially when you know that you are hurting your earlier lover? For example, if the man/woman finds his/her sister/brother, or any person from the same sex as a great person, the relationship is great, as between two sensible people interacting, enjoying each other's company, and obviously without any romatic connotations. Why can't there be a relationship like that just because they are not related by birth, or of the same sex? Why should there be sex involved in all relationships? (I am not saying sex is wrong by any means. But I definitely think to have sex with every great man you see is foolish, impractical and most important of all, uncivilized). And it is the same when somebody says I give my soul to one person, but I would give my body to different people, at least until I find the person who I can give my soul to.

It certainly doesn't sound fair to me. It might when you are in the position of Ayn or Dagny, but what to do, we are talking about objectivity here!

(Facts about Ayn's life are from her biography, Passion of Ayn Rand by Barbara Branden.)

Michael Crichton

Michael Crichton, one of my favorite authors, has passed away at 66. To me, nobody has made contemporary science, be it nano-technology, genetic engineering or paleontology, more interesting and popular than Michael Crichton.

I became a fan of his gripping and fast-paced narrative style when I first read Disclosure. I remember reading the book, through the night, while working on a quite night shift, telling myself I will do some work at the end of next page everytime I finished a page!

Everytime I finished one of his books, I have realized I have gained much more knowledge about a field that not only did I have any idea about, but also had no interest in, and wouldn't have read it unless it was in such a format.

It is hard to imagine the kind of research that must have gone into each of his books, considering they were usually of completely different fields, ranging from issues relating to abortion, dinosaurs (of course), Japanese domination in corporate America, sexual harrasment, issues relating to flight accidents and media, nano technology, global warming to genetic engineering, to name just a few.

His contributions would be gravely missed. I will leave you with my favorite lines from one of his books.

On your planet you have an animal called a bear. It is a large animal, sometimes larger than you, and it is clever and has ingenuity, and it has a brain as large as yours. But the bear differs from you in one important way.

It cannot perform the activity you call imagining. It cannot make mental images of how reality might be. It cannot envision what you call the past and what you call the future. This special ability of imagination is what has made your—species as great as it is. Nothing else. It is not your ape—nature, not your tool-using nature, not language or your violence or your caring for young or your social groupings. It is none of these things, which are all found in other animals. Your greatness lies in imagination.

The ability to imagine is the largest part of what you call intelligence. You think the ability to imagine is merely a useful step on the way to solving a problem or making something happen. But imagining it is what makes it happen. This is the gift of your species and this is the danger, because you do not choose to control your imaginings. You imagine wonderful things and you imagine terrible things, and you take no responsibility for the choice. You say you have inside you both the power of good and the power of evil, the angel and the devil, but in truth you have just one thing inside you—the ability to imagine.

- Sphere, Michael Crichton - 1987.

Plug your Blog on ProBlogger

Blogosphere is filled with tons of very interesting blogs and downright extraordinary people. One of my favorite blogs around is Darren Rowse's ProBlogger. When I wanted to start my own blog and started looking for stuff I should be aware of, tips on the best blogging platform etc, ProBlogger was one of the first I found, and there is some solid help provided in this area in the site. The passion with which he writes is very infectious!

He is probably the last person needing a plug on a startup casual blog like this, but he posted a really nice post over the weekend. Being a top guy in a very competitive niche, he gets bombarded with requests for links in his blog, and obviously to keep the quality of his blog, he needs to turn the requests down. What he has done in this post is to let any readers comment on the post, giving a short write up about their own blog, for 48 hours.

It's a great opportunity for anybody who wants to let their blog be known to everybody interested, also that's some great marketing right there. Right now, there are 1153 comments and counting. Do write up a small intro of your blog if the time has not run out. If not, just have a look at the blog. Some great tips on blogging there.

Cinema Cinema

RV has sent a tag our way! And to be done in Tamil. Apologies to the readers (plural - I am optimistic), who don't speak or just don't read Tamil.

இந்த தொடர் பதிவை அனுப்பியதற்காக RV அவர்களுக்கும், இதை எழுத உதவியதற்காக Google Transliteration-உக்கும் நன்றி. இதை அனுப்பும் அளவுக்கு ப்ளாக் எழுதுபவர்கள், இந்த தொடர் பதிவை முன்பே செய்யாதவர்கள் யாரும் எனக்கு தெரியாது. செய்ய வேண்டும் என்று தோன்றினால் நீங்களும் தாராளமாக எடுத்து கொள்ளலாம். கமெண்ட் பகுதியில் லிங்க் கொடுத்தால், இங்கு வருபவர்களும் படிக்கலாம்.

1. எந்த வயதில் சினிமா பார்க்க ஆரம்பித்தீர்கள்? நினைவுதெரிந்து கண்ட முதல் சினிமா? என்ன உணர்ந்தீர்கள்?

ஒரு ஐந்து இல்லை ஆறு வயசு இருக்கும்னு நினைக்கிறேன்.

பூவிழி வாசலிலே.

இதுக்கு முன்னாடி கண்டிப்பா ஏதோ படம் போயிருக்கேன். ஆனா நினைவு இல்லை. அப்பா அம்மா இல்லாம பெரியப்பா பெரியம்மா குடும்பத்தோட அடம் புடிச்சி படத்துக்கு போயாச்சு. படம் ஆரம்பிச்சு அந்த சின்ன பையனோட அம்மா அப்பாவ கொல்ற சீன் வந்ததும், 'அம்மா கிட்ட போகணும்'னு ஓன்னு அழுது ஆர்பாட்டம் பண்ணி... ஆரம்பமே அமர்க்களம் தான்!

இப்போ கூட இந்த படம் பார்த்தா கொஞ்சம் பயமா தான் இருக்கும்.

2. கடைசியாக அரங்கில் அமர்ந்து பார்த்த தமிழ் சினிமா?
சத்யம். தலை எழுத்து!

3. கடைசியாக அரங்கிலன்றிப் பார்த்த தமிழ் சினிமா எது, எங்கே, என்ன உணர்ந்தீர்கள்?
திமிரு. இருக்கற DVD எல்லாம் பல தடவ பார்த்தாச்சுன்னு நண்பர் புதுசா இதை வாங்கி வந்தார். இன்னும் முழுவதும் பார்க்கவில்லை. இது வரைக்கும் விருவிருப்பாதான் போகிறது. திரும்பவும் அப்பாவி ஒருத்தர் ஏதாவது ரவுடியின் அட்டகாசத்தால் அவதிப்பட்டு அதை எப்படி சமாளிக்கிறார் என்கிற கதை. கொஞ்சம் தான் வித்தியாசம். ஷ்ரேயா-வின் பாத்திரம் கொஞ்சம் புதுசு.

4. உங்களை மிகவும் தாக்கிய தமிழ்ச்சினிமா?
மகாநதி. முதல் பாதி பார்க்க ரொம்பவும் கஷ்டமா இருக்கும். ரெண்டாவது பாதி, முக்கியமா climax பார்க்கும்போது அதெல்லாம் மறந்துடும். படத்தின் கதையில் இருந்து தவறி ஒரு சீன், ஒரு பாடல் இருக்காது. இது போன்ற படங்கள் தமிழில் ரொம்ப குறைவு. ஸ்ட்ராங்கான திரைக்கதை. கமல், பூர்ணம் விஸ்வநாதன் அருமையான நடிப்பு.

அன்பே சிவம், மௌன ராகம், தளபதி, நாயகன் போன்ற படங்கள் மறக்க முடியாதவை.

பார்த்ததும் ரொம்ப கோபம் வந்த படம் பருத்தி வீரன்.

5-அ. உங்களை மிகவும் தாக்கிய தமிழ்ச்சினிமா-அரசியல் சம்பவம்?
அப்படி எதுவும் இல்லை.

5-ஆ. உங்களை மிகவும் தாக்கிய தமிழ்ச்சினிமா-தொழில்நுட்ப சம்பவம்?
எனக்கு தொழில்நுட்பம் பிடித்தாலும், சினிமா பொருத்தவரையில் அவ்வளவு கவனம் செலுத்துவதில்லை. உடனே ஞாபகம் வருவது விருமாண்டி படத்தின் திரைக்கதை யுக்தி. புதுமையான ஒன்று. ரொம்பவும் கஷ்டம் கூட. இது ஏதாவது வேறு மொழி படத்தில் இருந்து பெறப்பட்டதா என்று தெரியாது. ஆனால், இந்த படத்திருக்கு ரொம்பவும் பொருந்தி இருந்தது.

கிட்டத்தட்ட இதே யுக்தியை மணிரத்தினம் 'ஆயுத எழுத்து' படத்தில் உபயோகித்தது அவ்வளவாக எடுபடவில்லை என்பது என் கருத்து.

6. தமிழ்ச்சினிமா பற்றி வாசிப்பதுண்டா?
அவ்வளவாக இல்லை. நண்பர்கள் சொல்லும் விஷயங்கள் தான்.

7. தமிழ்ச்சினிமா இசை?
மலிவு விலை sale இல் கிடைக்கும் டீ-ஷர்ட் மாதிரி ரொம்ப அருமையான இசை முதல் கேட்கவே முடியாதது வரை எல்லாம் கிடைக்கும். நல்லதாய் பார்த்து எடுப்பது கேட்பவர் சாமர்த்தியம்.

8. தமிழ் தவிர வேறு இந்திய, உலக மொழி சினிமா பார்ப்பதுண்டா? அதிகம் தாக்கிய படங்கள்?
ஆங்கில, ஹிந்தி படங்கள் நிறைய பார்பதுண்டு.

ஆங்கிலத்தில் Aviator, blood diamond, cast away போன்ற படங்கள் ரொம்பவும் பிடித்தவை. சமீபத்தில் dark knight, Taken பார்த்தேன்- இரண்டுமே அருமையான படங்கள். அது தவிர அனிமேஷன் படங்களும் பார்பதுண்டு. Incredibles, Cars, Wall-E எல்லாமே தொழில் நுட்பம் மட்டும் இன்றி மிகவும் கற்பனை வளமுள்ள, ரசிக்கக்கூடிய கதைகளுடன் வருகின்றன.

ஹிந்தியில் ஷாருக் கானின் தீவிர ரசிகன். DDLJ, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai போன்ற படங்கள் பல முறை பார்த்திருக்கிறேன். மற்றபடி பிடித்த படங்கள் Taare Zameen Par, Chak De India, Dil Chahta Hai என்று பல சொல்லி கொண்டே போகலாம்.

என் கூட வசிக்கும் ஹாங் காங்கை சேர்ந்த நண்பன் சொல்லி பார்த்த சீன படம் Infernal Affairs. ஆங்கிலத்தில் Departed என்ற பெயரில் ரீமேக் செய்ய பட்டது. என்னை ரொம்பவே வியக்க வைத்த படம். ஆங்கிலத்தில் இருந்ததை விட மொழி புரியாவிட்டாலும் இந்த படம் அருமையாக இருந்தது.

9. தமிழ்ச்சினிமா உலகுடன் நேரடித்தொடர்பு உண்டா? என்ன செய்தீர்கள்? பிடித்ததா? அதை மீண்டும் செய்வீர்களா? தமிழ்ச்சினிமா மேம்பட அது உதவுமா?
நேரடித்தொடர்பு எல்லாம் எதுவும் இல்லை. சத்யம் மாதிரி படத்தை எல்லாம் $15 கொடுத்து அரங்கில் சென்று பார்ப்பதே தமிழ் சினிமாவுக்கு நான் செய்யும் பெரிய உதவி இல்லையா??

10. தமிழ்ச்சினிமாவின் எதிர்காலம் பற்றி என்ன நினைக்கிறீர்கள்?
காதல், இரண்டு சண்டைகள், ஐந்து பாடல்கள் என்ற வட்டத்தை தாண்டி கதைக்கு ஏற்ற படங்கள் எடுத்தால், பல தரமான படங்கள் வரலாம்.

11. அடுத்த ஓராண்டு தமிழில் சினிமா கிடையாது, மற்றும் சினிமா பற்றிய சமாச்சாரங்கள், செய்திகள் எதுவுமே பத்திரிகைகள், தொலைக்காட்சி, இணையம் உள்ளிட்ட ஊடகங்களில் கிடையாது என்று வைத்துக்கொள்வோம்? உங்களுக்கு எப்படியிருக்கும்? தமிழர்களுக்கு என்ன ஆகும் என்று நினைக்கிறீர்கள்?
தமிழ் நாடு தாண்டி இருந்து பழகியதாலோ என்னவோ, அவ்வளவா பிரச்சனை இருக்காதுன்னு தான் தோணுது.

தமிழர்கள் கொஞ்சம் பித்து பிடித்த மாதிரி தான் அலைவார்கள் - கொஞ்ச நாளைக்கு. Blessing in disguise என்று சொல்வது போல இது ஒரு நல்ல விஷயமாக இருக்கலாம்.

ஓராண்டுக்கு மேல் என்றால் வருத்த படுவேன். எப்போதாவது வரும் அருமையான படங்களுக்காக எப்போதும் வரும் மட்டமான படங்களை பொருத்து கொள்ளலாம்!

How to get the best out of your iPhone

Mobile gadgets are my favorite type of gadgets. You can be in contact with all your friends from anywhere you want, take all the music and movies you need with you, and more importantly if the gadget is cool enough you can show off quite a bit with it too!



So, when my old windows mobile had been used to its maximum capacity, after a couple of battery swaps, I decided to look for a new phone. I have an idea that if you want to find the best product around in any field, all you need to do look around for the product that is being copied frantically by all the competitors. That, obviously would be an iPhone. From Nokia to Google's android everybody seems to want a piece of the iPhone pie right now!

So, when Apple's iPhone was released in Australia this June, I was among the first to pick it up. After nearly 4 months of heavy usage, I must say I am a very pleased user. I can confidently say that this is easily the best phone I have ever used. The ease of use and the internet capabilities are unparalleled. But, I think there are some things that a user can do to get the best use of the phone. With these tips, I hope some of you will have an even better experience with the phone. I will try not to get into the specifics of any particular application here. This applies generally to the phone and its usage itself. So, here goes..

• This is the most basic of all tips, but probably the most useful. Even though you can hold it in your hand, the iPhone is still a small computer. Like in any computer, the first thing you want to know is what to do when something goes wrong. As stable as it is, it can sometimes stop on its tracks. The first thing to try if an application freezes and would not respond to the press of home button, is to force quit the application. Anybody who has used Mac OS X will immediately recognize this command. This is the equivalent of End Task in windows, but one that will work everytime. iPhone has a simple of calling this command. Press and hold the home button for about 6 seconds. If the problem is something simple and specific to the application, the application will quit completely and you should go back to the home screen and when you open the application again, it should start afresh.

• Sometimes the problem is not as simple as that. If the previous tip doesn't work, try restarting the iPhone. To do this, press and hold the on/off button on top for about 6 seconds. You will see a slider bar named Slide to Power off. Slide and the device would be turned off. Just press the on/off button a couple of seconds to turn it back on.
  

• If you think the phone is really messed up and it doesn't respond to either techniques, you might have to reset the phone. This one, always works! Press and hold the home button and the on/off button on top together for about 6 seconds. The phone turn itself off and then on again. You should be ready to put the phone to spin again.
  

• Alright, with the crisis management out of the way, we can work on getting some productivity on the phone. This one relates to the 3G network that makes the iPhone such a fast internet browsing machine. As great it is when it works, 3G is still a very new technology in many parts of the world. In Australia, I have seen users have dropped calls, because of this, and when I contacted Optus, my phone service provider, they actually confirmed there were indeed 3G issues. So, the tip is, turn 3G off when not needed. There are a couple of advantages to this. First, my dropped call rate dropped from more than 5% to 0% overnight, after I turned 3G off. Thats a lot of difference. Also, the 3G chip is very battery intensive and turning it off will make your iPhone run for much longer. To turn 3G off go to Settings>General>Network>Enable 3G, and slide to turn it off. If you need high speed internet you can turn it on quickly of course (Internet still works, just that it is slower).
  

• While many apps that are available for the iPhone are great and adds to the experience of the phone, it must be realized that a very large percentage of them are developed by third party developers. It means that they are not all stable, and some of them might be more battery consuming than others, simply because of bad coding sometimes. So, when you install a new app, try it out and if it freezes your phone, you would want to wait until a bugfix is released. Bugfixes are rather quick if the developers are keen, and shouldn't take too long.

• If you do not need mails pushed to your phone, and you can open the mail app to read them, turn off push notifications, this might have a major impact on the battery life as well.
  

I am sure there are many more, but these tips I hope will make it using the iPhone a better experience for you!

Do share any tips you can think of in the comments section, or about anything in the world for that matter. Thanks for coming!

Experiments With Food

Ask any Indian who has migrated out of India and has been living elsewhere for over 6 months what they miss most about being away from India, and about 99% of them would give the same answer without a second's thought - their mother... and they would be lying. Not that they don't miss their moms much; just that they miss their moms' food more.

When you have such a ready source of great variety of food at home and anywhere else you go as in the case of India, you kind of start to forget that there in fact is a source! So, when I moved to Australia having decided to study here, it came as quite a shock to me that for some reason dining tables in Australia would not generate food every morning and evening like the ones in India did.

I had never learnt even the basics of cooking when in India, because well, there really was no need for it until I moved out. I guess everybody needs a little push to get started - couple of days of bread and jam, oriental noodles, and potato chips from the supermarket did it for me.

I would never forget the day, I think it was about a week in to being in Canberra and I couldn't take it anymore, when I entered the kitchen with resolve and learned everything there was to know about lighting the burner. The landlord for some reason thought it was quite amusing that I would focus so much on a seemingly trivial task, trying hard to suppress his laughter all the while teaching me the nuances of lighting. About 15 minutes of constant practice later, I could at last light the burner without calling him or one of my house mates who were no better at this than me to supervise me. Yayy!

It took many more sessions over a couple of years to learn cooking even modestly. But it is such a great hobby and I love it now. I probably can't do without it. The good thing is I can now cook something edible nearly every time I start and all the utensils I start out with come out fine at the end of it!

PS: The fact that I learned cooking enough to be a chef for a reputable restaurant for nearly an year, is simply a true testimony to the patience and skill level of the other chefs.

Stupid Web Apps

Richard Stallman has denounced cloud computing and web applications as a whole. "It's stupidity. It's worse than stupidity: it's a marketing hype campaign". He has come out rather strongly about these budding technologies that many think could be the next big thing in computing. So, why are they thought to be so good and is Stallman right in saying that they are stupid?

Apple made its foray recently in to cloud computing, and made the term famous with MobileMe. Update a contact or make a new appointment on the go with your iPhone, and the details are updated within seconds to your desktop and laptops at home and work. You accept an invitation for a meeting at work, and it is automatically updated on your phone, so you will be reminded wherever you are, not just when at the desk. Pretty powerful stuff.

Popular e-mail applications, blogging softwares, productivity programs like Google spreadsheets are all examples of web applications. There are some great advantages to web apps over its desktop counterpart.

• There is no need to install web applications on every computer you need to run it on. Its distributed over the network, and they are available out of the box.
• You create a presentation, save it on your desktop and forget to copy into a flash drive. Every body has these stories. No such problems with web apps. Point to the same URL and you have the file anywhere in the world, as long as you have an internet connection.
  
• Upgrades and bug fixes are much easier to distribute. No need to install in every computer around. Upgrade it in the server, and the next time the users open the site, they find the changes. This in turn cuts costs for the service providers and so prices for customers are much cheaper. Many web apps to this date are free.

These are just a few of the advantages. So, why is Stallman being so negative about these technologies? His argument is that, by storing our data with these companies, we are losing control over our data, and so we need to stop using them.

There is no doubt that we are giving considerable control of our data to these companies, when we store data with them. But in my opinion not using web apps is as much a solution to this problem as stop eating due to the increasing costs of food (I think I took it too far too) !

If we take some precautions, in my opinion we can save ourselves from this loss of control while also enjoying the advantages these technologies provide.

• Use a software like Mail or Outlook. Get it configured with all your mail even if you never use it, and do not forget to have it started when the computer starts. In case you lose your mail account (this happens far more often than we realize), you have all the mails on your computer. You still need to let all your friends about your new mail address, but at least the glass is half full.
• The fact that documents have been saved in Google Docs is not sufficient. Make frequent backups. The frequency depends on the importance of the documents you have stored there of course.
• Try to use blog platforms that provide the option of automatic backups, and if possible exporting in XML format, so it is easy to import the complete blog into a new platform. Wordpress does a great job of it. Have a look at this if you are looking for this plugin. I cannot find a feature that can export my blog in blogger. Can somebody please let me know how I can do this, if possible at all. Here is the second best solution.

Some people have far too sensitive data and would have to take extraordinary measures to protect them. For the rest of us, I think the web is still a relatively safe enviroment. But, I think realization that these services are provided free (in most cases), and not to be taken for granted can go a long way.

I am sure there are tons of such small techniques that can be used to ensure that our web experience is safe. Do share them in the comments section if you can think of some!