Friday, March 08, 2013

Snapchat's Year

Image representing Bill Gates as depicted in C...
Image via CrunchBase
Last year it was Highlight's year to shine at SXSW. This year I think that honor goes to Snapchat.

Twitter had its year. It was Twitter that put SXSW on the tech map. One year FourSquare stole the show.

Next year I think we will see a new paradigm emerge. That new paradigm is the NUI, the Natural User Interface. It will be like moving from 2D to 3D. All apps will need to be overhauled. New possibilities will emerge.

The Snapchat Lawsuit, Or How To Lose Your Best Friend Over $70 Million
Bill Gates at SXSWedu: The future of education is data
Enhanced by Zemanta

Sunday, March 03, 2013

Chhath, Scarsdale And Albert Wenger


I was just kikking around with Albert Wenger (Breakfast With Albert (Wenger), VC Albert Wenger, Al Wenger Wants To Learn Scala, What Are You Doing Monday? Come Meet Al Wenger).

And I really wanted to share this picture with him. Then I figured I did not know how to do a search at my blog for that particular post on my phone. I fired up my laptop. The screen shots of our Kik chat, for one split second I thought it would be good to ask him if it was okay to blog them away. Would that be an invasion of his privacy? Then I made the judgment call. I will just be intruding, costing him time if I ask. Either I should not post it, or I should make a judgment call and post it.

English: Devotees of the Festival Chhath Parva...
English: Devotees of the Festival Chhath Parva in Janakpur, Nepal (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The significance of the picture is, this is Chhath being celebrated in Scarsdale. Chhath is the biggest festival in the culture that I was born into: Mithila is the land, Maithili in the language. It is not exactly a Hindu festival since also Muslims in Mithila are known to celebrate it. I became a Buddhist but never stopped celebrating, but then I like festivals of all kinds. Below are pictures of me celebrating Christmas, Holi and Social Media Week. The other person in the Christmas picture is a Muslim.

The Chhath festival revolves around the sun. You say goodbye in the evening, and welcome it back in the morning. Ideally you are all night by the water. The water here is a swimming pool in Scarsdale, Albert's hometown. The most famous body of water related to Chhath of course is the river Ganges. There is a huge pond in my hometown called Ganga Sagar. Sagar means sea. It is not a sea, it is a pond. That is where my family celebrates Chhath.

Nexus 4: The Top Phone In The Market