The Branded and Gilded Life

The theory, for sure. Not the practice. Time and again, we've seen people take outsize risks without a second thought. And others who wait for the perfect opportunity to come along and it never does. There are those who take on physical risks - speeding, climbing mountains, dropping off bridges in a bungee jump. Or the affluent ones by skydiving. Mental risk-taking is another thing altogether. Ent...

At  Ivy league universities and global company workplaces, they're the golden wall. And access means crossing over to a higher level of existence. At least, that's the myth. The Atlantic magazine feature describes how the meritocracy we have built leads to an endless competitive cycle. The day a child is born, the hunt for a school starts in India. It's probably several times the pressure that par...

There has been more flooding in several parts of the world this year. Shots of cars being stranded or carried away in terrifying surges have been shared across social media. When a driver comes across a patch of flooded road, the natural inclination is to turn back. There's no saying what will happen if the car stalls. Even a thin film of water can reduce the grip and make navigation through water...

That's the premise Magic is working on. It's not a password or a passphrase generator. But aims to make life easy for both developers and users. If remembering passwords is difficult for users, imagine the overload for developers who may have to login to hundreds of sites, over time. There's no way to memorise this, so the fallback is to go in for authentication through a trusted source. Either lo...

Quills made from bird feathers were some of the earliest writing instruments. We graduated to fountain pens, which then gave way to disposable ball points. A project on Kickstarter has raised way more money that requested. And the strange thing is that it replicates the ancient way of writing with modern day machining techniques. The instruments of inspiration go beyond the simple act of transferr...

There's a point at which a game becomes a golden goose. Then, the transformation happens because there's just too much at stake. Everything from keeping audiences involved and TV rights that seem to touch stratospheres in every cycle. The sheer passion with which cricket is still played in street corners and hot dusty grounds seems a whole world away from the global spectacle. But money has a way...

When UX is done well, we barely notice. When it is horrible, we not only notice - but we also get angry, frustrated and rant about it on social media. What if you could experiment with bad UX? Think of the worst ways to design an interface, so people have trouble getting anything done. That's the experiment some programmers in Reddit tried out. They asked for people to think of terrible ways in wh...

What if you could combine your current self with one from your childhood? Or teen years. Would it look like a father-son or a mother daughter picture? Ard Gelinck does interesting things with celebrity portraits. He merges their current look with a time difference of decades. The effect is mesmerising. While we see ourselves in the mirror each and every day, the gradual aging is never perceived - ...

It's as if they're made for each other. Driving and music. I find it monotonous to gaze out of windows in complete silence. The music needs to be there. Its presence adding seasoning to the waxing and waning conversations within. Back in college, we used to drive to a friend's estate which was over a couple of hours away. The lush greenery on the route was dramatic with variations of green and pat...

We've heard the tales about simple scams About millions to be routed through banks with minimal effort. But scamming has evolved  And here's one that shows you how deeply scammers think through their craft. There's a fair amount of technical detail involved. And I'm simplifying it as I understand - you're welcome to read the blog post link below to enjoy it at a programming level. Because turning...

Camouflage has moved to the next level. Israel has developed material that looks like the rest of the landscape - a collection of unevenly distributed rocks, for example. In the photograph, they had to indicate there were soldiers below those 'rocks' waiting in complete readiness. Camouflage patterns have taken over as fashion statements - with the mottled and distinctive designs that signify 'mil...

Here's a sense of how beauty defines every aspect of our lives. Nature is not out to win any contests. But our notion of beauty, even with respect to vegetables, creates unnecessary waste in food chains. Blemish-free extends to vegetables as well in the US. So potatoes, tomatoes, onions and all types of vegetables are picked out of wholesale piles and only the ones that meet display standards are...

Life's come full circle. Henson's, a Canadian brand, is advertising a set of razors with the smoothest shave ever. And they look exactly like the ones that went out of style generations ago. They work with old-fashioned double-sided blades. But how do you sell them in a world where Gillette lines up four and six blades in a row for smoother shaves? You go back to the basics. Open up the top layer....

Why would the internet need zipping? Well, let’s take documents, images, music and movies. Each of them is encoded in different formats. And the higher the file resolution, the bigger the file size. To send them across the net, especially when bandwidth was nowhere near the capacities we have today, there was only one way to do it. Lossless compression. Thank Jacob Ziv. Born in 1931 in what would...

It's the stuff of legends and one man seemed to make it work. Charles Kellogg (no relation to the cereal brand) made  music of a different sort . He held public performances that riveted audiences in the early 20th century. They were largely imitations of nature and bird calls, which Kellogg had learned during his childhood, spending long stretches of time in the forest. He claimed he could even a...

To change the world, you first have to go up against it. Even today, nothing has changed. Marie Curie discovered radioactivity along with her husband. Her remains are still radioactive almost a century later, after her death in 1934. So is the lab where she worked. She may be feted by academia and industry on the unique path she blazed. But there were no crowds to cheer her on and encourage her to...

It's not part of a common skill set. But cops have to restrain unruly people as part of their job. In India, cops rely on their ability to surprise and their ingenuity. Or strength in numbers. In the US, the favored weapon is a taser to immobilise people temporarily. However, it is highly painful and a traumatic experience for the victim. Medical workers or those trying to secure violent patients...

In breathless prose, we're told what to expect at next year's fashion ramps. The device that will dominate world markets Or what the world has just discovered. That's why this video is puzzling. It appears on BBC, so you think it's gone through some standard checks. The headline says "Why a Dutch wellness trend is taking over the world' We're treated to a scenic view of cows ruminating in a idylli...

Ford said all its cars would go electric by 2035. They've already launched an all-electric version of their largest selling truck, the F-150 recently. And in weeks, it got orders of over 50,000. If all manufacturers decide to switch to electric vehicles, lithium will be the next oil. Current estimates are that supplies will last until 2080. But that doesn't mean that the price of lithium will not...

The site advertises itself as the 4 am friend. And during the pandemic that stretched on for more than two years, managing mental health has become a challenge. There are taboos around seeking professional help. And for counseling to work, a bond of trust has to be built. Wysa is an Indian startup looking to solve truly difficult problems. But loneliness and depression tackled by talking to a prog...

Conversations between people meeting for the first time rarely gets off to a smooth start. There is no formula. Sometimes, you laugh too loudly at feeble jokes. And search desperately for the next topic to bring up. The use of the word 'awkward' by either one, in some ways, heightens the tension. As if an acknowledgement makes escape harder. If we accept there will be gaps in the conversation, the...

It had to happen. From the automated Roomba that cleans floors and sold like vada pau during the pandemic, robots are chipping away at tasks one at a time. At the high end, they're assembling cars and managing warehouses. So, what's a robot doing painting nails ? It's quite a clever repurposing of the ink-jet printer. Or at least that's the way it looks. You place your fingers, one at a time and t...

The first flat screen televisions were invented as far back as 1964. Remember those huge boxy TVs that took up spaces in living rooms? They are now history. It took decades before they were available at rates that everyone could afford. But air-conditioners are another matter altogether. They've moved from window to 'split'. And stayed there for ages. Progress has been slow. The prices have stayed...

In India, you're so used to asking for directions from people, Maps seemed unnecessary. And in all the years I've driven to places, there was always the auto stand, the corner store or helpful pedestrians. It's hard to find roads without people in India. There's someone to show you the way and sometimes, they'll go out of their way to help. The directions may be confusing and imprecise but well-in...

No one has to remember phone numbers anymore. But retaining memories is a good way to build associations and ideas in the mind. Apart from purely practical uses. Passwords, for instance. Or where the important papers in the house are. It's also a good indication of mental acuity. A tendency to forget common things is a sign of both age and slowing faculties. We're also discovering that the ancient...