I suddenly realised that even in an organization like this, people are working in silos. The concept of synergy is lost.
I read this line in an IMD Article - "if your customer knows more about what they buy from you than you do, the true cost of unintegrated IT gets very large"
and its almost the same thing thats happening around me. the customer talks to me and gets something underway. at the same time, he talks to another person who probably sits in another location for the same thing. since there is not one effective communication channel established between the decision makers, sometimes we end up doing the same thing over and again. the customer is extremely smart. he knows that we work in such a model. so all he needs to do is get both of us working and choose the best solution. and what do we get - business at twice the acquisition cost.
very basic concepts that i remember reading from the management of organizations course keep coming into my mind. most of it just happens because it happened before. if you question the fundamental behind whats happening, then there is hardly anyone to answer. but if they need something, then they are constantly behind your back. i remember filling some workbook during work. i was new to it and all i was given is the last month's workbook to see and replicate. there were more than two sheets on that workbook and i was sure that the numbers in the sheets had to match. that was the logical step. so i went on and checked all the sheets a number of times and nothing matched. i was surprised. and we follow this every month like clockwork. do we really have an objective?
and in the next category are team members. in fact, i dont even know the kind of work these people are doing and yet i can figure out that some of them are happily free riding. but some of them are so shameless. they know that they are wasting time and still expect that they have to be promoted after a performance review. i know of one who is quite an experienced fellow - more than me, just in the number of years. but now i know for sure that even years of relevant work experience is definitely a bad criteria to judge a person's abilities. for this guy's work is just instruction based. if you tell him to think on the fly and do it, he will panic and break down or wash his hands and shout back at you.
and on top of all this is the bureaucratic nature of doing work. there is a restricted car park - where only people from certain levels in the organization can use. and then the people in support services keep opening the doors and saluting senior staff. if you are at a certain level and above, work gets done faster. if you are at the lower end of the ladder, then you are at the mercy of whoever that guy he is. he would think that he is doing you a great favor by just doing his job and nothing else. in fact, he is there to do that, but he thinks that he can keep you waiting as long as no one complains. QUASI GOVERNMENT - as one rightly put it.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Monday, July 30, 2007
Trip to Gingee
So yesterday, we managed to do that trip to Gingee Fort.
Gingee Fort
You can see the photos on this slideshow. All credit goes to Manu for having taken wonderful pics.
Gingee is about 3 hrs drive from Chennai. Take the NH45 to Tindivanam or Dindivanam and then from there take the NH66 that goes to Thiruvannamalai. You will reach Gingee when you drive about 30 kms on that road. You can learn more about Gingee Fort through Google. My post is just to showcase the pictures.
Gingee Fort
You can see the photos on this slideshow. All credit goes to Manu for having taken wonderful pics.
Gingee is about 3 hrs drive from Chennai. Take the NH45 to Tindivanam or Dindivanam and then from there take the NH66 that goes to Thiruvannamalai. You will reach Gingee when you drive about 30 kms on that road. You can learn more about Gingee Fort through Google. My post is just to showcase the pictures.
Friday, July 27, 2007
Bhavan's Nite
This post is dedicated to all my Pilani Friends (year 1997-1998) and its part of my initiative to record certain events in my life - the concept of blogging wasnt even anywhere close to India when this happened.
Bhavan's are like hostels in other colleges. Just that in pilani they were called Bhavans with different prefixes as well - mine was called Budh. One of the oldest I would say.
So at the end of each academic year, the junior batch in the bhavan gave a farewell party to the senior batch. Typically, you get to stay in a bhavan for 2 years. Again, mine was an exception. People in my degree stayed in Budh for a year and then moved to Shankar. There are 6 junior hostels (that house first yearites and second yearites), excluding the girls hostel and 5 other senior hostels.
The farewell that the juniors conduct is called Bhavan's Nite. Its a spectacular event. Its like a war between the bhavans. Each hostel has a theme and its kept a big secret from the others. In fact, I have seen people getting into fights for leaking information. There is also the first mover advantage. Bhavans that open with a bang and conduct the first nite set the benchmark for that year - good or bad. The cultural secretary of the hostel has a fund for the Bhavan's nite which was around 6K during my time. Over and above that each hostel can gather more funds from the juniors based on the level of flamboyance they set.
Negotiation skills started right from undergrad for people like me. When Bhavan's announce their date for the event, it might clash with another. Its like ISB. Most events are held when everyone has time. No Bhavan wants its nite to be attended only by its own people. They want the whole campus to come there and talk about the event the next day. So, when there is a clash, negotiations happen. And yes, the nite is the ONLY EVENT in which you can invite the girls to your hostel premises. So, if you need to get the hot girls from your batch, then you need to negotiate and conclude because then the girls might start choosing. You dont want that - do you?
Preparations - there is a Co-Ord for the event. Rumors run around that whoever stands for Bhavan's Nite Co-Ord runs for the Hostel Rep post the next year, which is part of the Students Union. That is some kind of power. So, right from preparing for the Nite, you are kind of split into groups. Politics begins right there. An events schedule is drawn up. Skill sets are identified. A fund is allocated for people who work - their night time tea and biscuits is sponsored. So, there is scope for a treasurer. Usually there is a back-drop - a huge chart 20 feet by 10 or whatever. And people make a painting on that based on the theme they choose. I still remember that we painted an old greek temple - depicting the state of our hostel and also some relation to revival. Teams for everything - events, back-drop, decoration, lights, sounds, dinner, and yes invites.
Innovation was next on our mind for the invites. Every bhavan worked hard on getting the right invite. Brainstorming sessions happen day and nite to work on the design. People come up with prototypes. Our's was like an old manuscript with burnt edges. I still remember another one - it was like a pot. You open it and fumes come out like the Aladdin Lamp and then you can pull out the invite. Some invites were based on heavy origami work. We had one guy in our batch who was an origami champ. So his hostel leveraged his core competency.
Budget also has an impact on the food. The larger - we get more items in terms of starters, better ice-cream (although cassatta used to be the standard) etc.
Next thing was decoration - from the entrance, the way it is designed. I remember Gandhi Bhavan had an entrance which was like a maze. Size of the stage and height from ground level. We made our own stage - built using wooden cots borrowed from everyone's rooms. Planning the whole stage - length, width, whether we needed a side stage or a ramp, makeing it as flat as possible - everything was done in-house.
Events - as usual there is music performance, couple of dances, a funny skit and then games for the seniors. Of course, we have Mr. Whatever Bhavan and Miss. Whatever Bhavan - for the fun part you see. Ours was called BOY'97 - Budhite of the Year 97. Kinda kool - aint it?
I still remember the Nite we did when we were in our final year. This was one Nite for ourselves. We did just for the enthu factor. And we performed a skit mocking some our friends, seniors and juniors. That night, some of them paraded into our wing and caught the collars of few of my friends who were involved in the drama. It was good fun - yes, at the cost of someone.
Bhavan's are like hostels in other colleges. Just that in pilani they were called Bhavans with different prefixes as well - mine was called Budh. One of the oldest I would say.
So at the end of each academic year, the junior batch in the bhavan gave a farewell party to the senior batch. Typically, you get to stay in a bhavan for 2 years. Again, mine was an exception. People in my degree stayed in Budh for a year and then moved to Shankar. There are 6 junior hostels (that house first yearites and second yearites), excluding the girls hostel and 5 other senior hostels.
The farewell that the juniors conduct is called Bhavan's Nite. Its a spectacular event. Its like a war between the bhavans. Each hostel has a theme and its kept a big secret from the others. In fact, I have seen people getting into fights for leaking information. There is also the first mover advantage. Bhavans that open with a bang and conduct the first nite set the benchmark for that year - good or bad. The cultural secretary of the hostel has a fund for the Bhavan's nite which was around 6K during my time. Over and above that each hostel can gather more funds from the juniors based on the level of flamboyance they set.
Negotiation skills started right from undergrad for people like me. When Bhavan's announce their date for the event, it might clash with another. Its like ISB. Most events are held when everyone has time. No Bhavan wants its nite to be attended only by its own people. They want the whole campus to come there and talk about the event the next day. So, when there is a clash, negotiations happen. And yes, the nite is the ONLY EVENT in which you can invite the girls to your hostel premises. So, if you need to get the hot girls from your batch, then you need to negotiate and conclude because then the girls might start choosing. You dont want that - do you?
Preparations - there is a Co-Ord for the event. Rumors run around that whoever stands for Bhavan's Nite Co-Ord runs for the Hostel Rep post the next year, which is part of the Students Union. That is some kind of power. So, right from preparing for the Nite, you are kind of split into groups. Politics begins right there. An events schedule is drawn up. Skill sets are identified. A fund is allocated for people who work - their night time tea and biscuits is sponsored. So, there is scope for a treasurer. Usually there is a back-drop - a huge chart 20 feet by 10 or whatever. And people make a painting on that based on the theme they choose. I still remember that we painted an old greek temple - depicting the state of our hostel and also some relation to revival. Teams for everything - events, back-drop, decoration, lights, sounds, dinner, and yes invites.
Innovation was next on our mind for the invites. Every bhavan worked hard on getting the right invite. Brainstorming sessions happen day and nite to work on the design. People come up with prototypes. Our's was like an old manuscript with burnt edges. I still remember another one - it was like a pot. You open it and fumes come out like the Aladdin Lamp and then you can pull out the invite. Some invites were based on heavy origami work. We had one guy in our batch who was an origami champ. So his hostel leveraged his core competency.
Budget also has an impact on the food. The larger - we get more items in terms of starters, better ice-cream (although cassatta used to be the standard) etc.
Next thing was decoration - from the entrance, the way it is designed. I remember Gandhi Bhavan had an entrance which was like a maze. Size of the stage and height from ground level. We made our own stage - built using wooden cots borrowed from everyone's rooms. Planning the whole stage - length, width, whether we needed a side stage or a ramp, makeing it as flat as possible - everything was done in-house.
Events - as usual there is music performance, couple of dances, a funny skit and then games for the seniors. Of course, we have Mr. Whatever Bhavan and Miss. Whatever Bhavan - for the fun part you see. Ours was called BOY'97 - Budhite of the Year 97. Kinda kool - aint it?
I still remember the Nite we did when we were in our final year. This was one Nite for ourselves. We did just for the enthu factor. And we performed a skit mocking some our friends, seniors and juniors. That night, some of them paraded into our wing and caught the collars of few of my friends who were involved in the drama. It was good fun - yes, at the cost of someone.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Super Busy Weekend
Ultimate Frisbee was totally ultimate this weekend. We had a good game. Played for more than an hour. The next step by default was to go to Murugan Idli Shop at the end of the road for a sumptuous breakfast.
Then Saturday was suddenly slow. My car was longing for a good wash and wax polish. So I decided not to deny him a good wash (in Spanish, car is masculine and bikes are feminine - did you know that?). Anyway, I decided to go and watch July 4 - the latest Dilip movie from Mallu Land. Nice songs but hopeless storyline. During the movie, I could figure out that the music director had actually borrowed a few notes from other popular music that I know of.
Five Point Someone was the next attraction for the day. I didnt imagine that it would attract so much attention from the chennai theater enthusiasts. well, my friends were telling me that they never got to see the Yo Girls in chennai and they were all there. Pretty teens to Beautiful ladies - all of them. Any spec you came up with, there was atleast one match. Back to the play - it was amazing. All the characters were given equal importance. In fact, there were a few IITians in the play. Neha and Hari pulled it off big time on stage. The way the Prof's daughter looks at the student is just the way it happens in most schools I guess. Vidyuth who was the narrator - i think he is also part of the chennai runners group - was just right in doing his task. Even though the whole play was totally the book, the adaptation was extremely good. The play took a decent dig at commerce students.
On Saturday, we also managed to squeeze in an alumni-current batch meeting. the current batch was back for term 2 break after a rough and tough fight with markstrat. there is another meeting - the official one that ISB is organizing in Chennai. That will be during the first weekend of August.
"1001 ways to find out if she is the right one" - thats the title of the book i am trying to search for in my latest quest for knowledge. and it is a mad mad world. sometimes i feel like a peeled orange in a juicer ready to be crushed or squeezed. do i really want all that i want - that's something i got to discover. i think i have opened a huge pandora box. life's like that.
Then Saturday was suddenly slow. My car was longing for a good wash and wax polish. So I decided not to deny him a good wash (in Spanish, car is masculine and bikes are feminine - did you know that?). Anyway, I decided to go and watch July 4 - the latest Dilip movie from Mallu Land. Nice songs but hopeless storyline. During the movie, I could figure out that the music director had actually borrowed a few notes from other popular music that I know of.
Five Point Someone was the next attraction for the day. I didnt imagine that it would attract so much attention from the chennai theater enthusiasts. well, my friends were telling me that they never got to see the Yo Girls in chennai and they were all there. Pretty teens to Beautiful ladies - all of them. Any spec you came up with, there was atleast one match. Back to the play - it was amazing. All the characters were given equal importance. In fact, there were a few IITians in the play. Neha and Hari pulled it off big time on stage. The way the Prof's daughter looks at the student is just the way it happens in most schools I guess. Vidyuth who was the narrator - i think he is also part of the chennai runners group - was just right in doing his task. Even though the whole play was totally the book, the adaptation was extremely good. The play took a decent dig at commerce students.
On Saturday, we also managed to squeeze in an alumni-current batch meeting. the current batch was back for term 2 break after a rough and tough fight with markstrat. there is another meeting - the official one that ISB is organizing in Chennai. That will be during the first weekend of August.
"1001 ways to find out if she is the right one" - thats the title of the book i am trying to search for in my latest quest for knowledge. and it is a mad mad world. sometimes i feel like a peeled orange in a juicer ready to be crushed or squeezed. do i really want all that i want - that's something i got to discover. i think i have opened a huge pandora box. life's like that.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
More theater and Myself
I continue my review about the play I saw on Sunday. I realized that I had forgotten a few things. Though the play was highly practical and has a strong yet silent message, there were umpteen number of breaks in the play that disturbed the flow. There was a scene change almost every 2-3 minutes and after a point it was rather annoying. I can understand that whatever was done is perhaps justified but maybe the director could have worked out a better way.
Some Chennai Theater goers, especially the ones that land up to watch Tamil Theater - SUCK. They have no etiquette. Rather, they'd think that etiquette is a new ticket that they could buy. Even after announcements to switch off mobile phones, people were busy answering calls. Some entered the hall after 20 mins and then also walked out in the middle. Then there were few who gave laudatory comments after certain dialogs. WTF is wrong with these people. They just couldn't shut their mouth. I hope more people in chennai read this and a general opinion spreads. People really need to be well mannered and respect the efforts put in by the production team.
Yesterday, I was speaking to my cousin who lives in the UK. Somehow she had heard that something other than the usual was happening with my life. After a while she asked me the million dollar question, rather questions I would say - Are you ready? Do you know that the person is THE right one? I was like Hmmm - It depends (like the typical MBA answer), maybe or maybe not. The situation was really like Shah Rukh Khan in Dil To Pagal Hai, when he asks Dixit - "How will I know? Will she hold a placard and tell me Hi, its me and I am the one". And then Dixit says - "He will tell you" and points to the Sky (what she meant is God or the Spirit of whatever). That time it sounded absolutely funny and it even now does. I think this feedback mechanism works for love at first sight. For people who have been through that first sight thing many times, its does not give a steady state answer. And generally, a question like this is mostly a complex polynomial equation with too many variables and dependencies. There is definitely an objective function, followed by certain assumptions and criteria. Ask me and I will never have a perfect answer. Because thats me.
Some Chennai Theater goers, especially the ones that land up to watch Tamil Theater - SUCK. They have no etiquette. Rather, they'd think that etiquette is a new ticket that they could buy. Even after announcements to switch off mobile phones, people were busy answering calls. Some entered the hall after 20 mins and then also walked out in the middle. Then there were few who gave laudatory comments after certain dialogs. WTF is wrong with these people. They just couldn't shut their mouth. I hope more people in chennai read this and a general opinion spreads. People really need to be well mannered and respect the efforts put in by the production team.
Yesterday, I was speaking to my cousin who lives in the UK. Somehow she had heard that something other than the usual was happening with my life. After a while she asked me the million dollar question, rather questions I would say - Are you ready? Do you know that the person is THE right one? I was like Hmmm - It depends (like the typical MBA answer), maybe or maybe not. The situation was really like Shah Rukh Khan in Dil To Pagal Hai, when he asks Dixit - "How will I know? Will she hold a placard and tell me Hi, its me and I am the one". And then Dixit says - "He will tell you" and points to the Sky (what she meant is God or the Spirit of whatever). That time it sounded absolutely funny and it even now does. I think this feedback mechanism works for love at first sight. For people who have been through that first sight thing many times, its does not give a steady state answer. And generally, a question like this is mostly a complex polynomial equation with too many variables and dependencies. There is definitely an objective function, followed by certain assumptions and criteria. Ask me and I will never have a perfect answer. Because thats me.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
The happy mind
It was time again to watch a play enacted by Dummies Drama. This group has been doing extremely well in the chennai theater circle. After a long time, the city's theater enthusiasts get to see serious tamil drama - apart from the usual SV Sekhar, Crazy and YG comedies that have now become quite a boring affair, mainly because of being repetitive and sarcastic.
Anyway, Vinodaya Chitham was the latest effort by Sreevathson and team. A story about how much contentment you need in your life and whether there is an end to whats happening to any person in this world. The play started off very well - ample opportunity to create comedy strips, very natural and simple, like the ones between the humorous husbands, witty wives, bantering friends and joshing daughters. Comedy that simply blended into the story line without giving the audience a chance to regret.
The protagonist is on the other side of 50 when familial responsibilities are at peak (son's and daughter's wedding planned). Office work is good as well. Suddenly death comes. He cannot take it. He fights the character called death and wants to come back to earth to fulfill his duties. An interesting piece of dialog that I remember. "If I die after a few years, after I finish all that I had thought about, the others will be mature and they will understand it" and then Death says "When will you be mature". This was a turning point in the story and it struck my heart like the sound we hear when a slave who bangs the distress bell in the castle.
He seeks time to do everything and death says OK. All this while no one knows that a strong message is being poked through their minds, because almost every minute there is an exchange of dialogs that evokes a laughter. After seeking time, the protagonist sees that all the events that happen around him are not happening to his satisfaction or favor. He is not happy but he has to take things the way they are. Also, these events would have happened anyway and his presence was unimportant. This gets explained in the latter part of the play during a serious conversation between him and Death.
When things happen on the positive side, then its LUCK. But when things go belly up and totally wrong, its FATE. Its always up to us to decide whether is Luck or Fate. Its the mind. We are so happy some time and then we pray to God that we should just leave this world as we are and when he actually comes to get you, you are afraid and you need more time.
The play ends when the protagonist is upset with what happened with him and he feels that he could have left this world and that's where Death picks him up again. One way, no return. And Bhaja Govindam plays in the background.
The translation of the Sanskrit verses goes like this - " Oh fool! Give up now the thirst to amass wealth; Getting rid of vain desires, fill the mind with good and holy thoughts; Entertain it with the wealth you acquire by fair means. "
Anyway, Vinodaya Chitham was the latest effort by Sreevathson and team. A story about how much contentment you need in your life and whether there is an end to whats happening to any person in this world. The play started off very well - ample opportunity to create comedy strips, very natural and simple, like the ones between the humorous husbands, witty wives, bantering friends and joshing daughters. Comedy that simply blended into the story line without giving the audience a chance to regret.
The protagonist is on the other side of 50 when familial responsibilities are at peak (son's and daughter's wedding planned). Office work is good as well. Suddenly death comes. He cannot take it. He fights the character called death and wants to come back to earth to fulfill his duties. An interesting piece of dialog that I remember. "If I die after a few years, after I finish all that I had thought about, the others will be mature and they will understand it" and then Death says "When will you be mature". This was a turning point in the story and it struck my heart like the sound we hear when a slave who bangs the distress bell in the castle.
He seeks time to do everything and death says OK. All this while no one knows that a strong message is being poked through their minds, because almost every minute there is an exchange of dialogs that evokes a laughter. After seeking time, the protagonist sees that all the events that happen around him are not happening to his satisfaction or favor. He is not happy but he has to take things the way they are. Also, these events would have happened anyway and his presence was unimportant. This gets explained in the latter part of the play during a serious conversation between him and Death.
When things happen on the positive side, then its LUCK. But when things go belly up and totally wrong, its FATE. Its always up to us to decide whether is Luck or Fate. Its the mind. We are so happy some time and then we pray to God that we should just leave this world as we are and when he actually comes to get you, you are afraid and you need more time.
The play ends when the protagonist is upset with what happened with him and he feels that he could have left this world and that's where Death picks him up again. One way, no return. And Bhaja Govindam plays in the background.
The translation of the Sanskrit verses goes like this - " Oh fool! Give up now the thirst to amass wealth; Getting rid of vain desires, fill the mind with good and holy thoughts; Entertain it with the wealth you acquire by fair means. "
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Born two months later??
| Your True Birth Month Is December |
 Logical Patriotic Ambitious Not egoistic Loves praise Loves to joke Fun to be with Not pretending Loves attention Short tempered Hates restrictions Loves to socialize Loves to be loved Loyal and generous Impatient and hasty Changing personality Good sense of humor Honest and trustworthy Influential in organizations Takes high pride in oneself Active in games and interactions |
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Travel Photography awards
Two photographs taken in India made it to the list. Here they are. Can you guess the locations? Beer Treat Assured!!!
This one above should be easy to guess. There arent too many around in the country like this.
This might be a tuffie. This photograph was taken by Mani Puthuran.
This one above should be easy to guess. There arent too many around in the country like this.
This might be a tuffie. This photograph was taken by Mani Puthuran.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Seven Eleven Remembered
Year 2006 same date - Britain came under a big shock. There was an attack. In train stations and bus stations. I still remember that day. I was on the train in south east london, much farther from where the events had happened. A typical early morning where I walked into the crowded Docklands Light Rail, popularly known as the DLR for Londoners. Unaware of anything that happened, people were busy browsing through newspapers and some fiddling with their ipod, rest with a novel. Within 15 minutes of travel, I reached my station Canary Wharf, where I work and we were informed that the train wouldnt travel past till the Bank Station which was probably another 15 mins away. Surprising that on a busy morning, the train suddenly stopped mid-way. When I get into the office, I learn that there has been a power failure in the station. Still the news isnt out. My parents were visiting me and they were supposed to take a train or a bus to see Tower Bridge. For their luck, the news had trickled down through a few local ears and they walked back to the apartment. Within a few hours the BBC made the official announcement and the country was in SHOCK.
It was just the previous day that London won the bid for the Olympics. The whole country was overjoyed. There was celebration all around Trafalgar Square. And that day was the G8 Summit in Gleneagles, Scotland. For which, there were enough protests.
This event happened and everything came to a standstill. Mobile networks were completely jammed. Transport systems went belly up. Chaos everywhere and while sitting at office with the radio I could sense the agony and pain that family and friends of the injured and dead would go through. I think this was the closest I have gotten to being part of a serious situation and it was very disturbing.
And these events are still happening - people from the same community. Ruthless lunatics they are. Now they are giving another threat for Rushdie's knighthood. They quote the permission of Allah. Did they ever read the Quran in their lifetime? Because it never said anything close to what they are claiming. And they go around killing their own people. I guess, God gave these people too much oil, a new religion but no brains to be protective and productive.
It was just the previous day that London won the bid for the Olympics. The whole country was overjoyed. There was celebration all around Trafalgar Square. And that day was the G8 Summit in Gleneagles, Scotland. For which, there were enough protests.
This event happened and everything came to a standstill. Mobile networks were completely jammed. Transport systems went belly up. Chaos everywhere and while sitting at office with the radio I could sense the agony and pain that family and friends of the injured and dead would go through. I think this was the closest I have gotten to being part of a serious situation and it was very disturbing.
And these events are still happening - people from the same community. Ruthless lunatics they are. Now they are giving another threat for Rushdie's knighthood. They quote the permission of Allah. Did they ever read the Quran in their lifetime? Because it never said anything close to what they are claiming. And they go around killing their own people. I guess, God gave these people too much oil, a new religion but no brains to be protective and productive.
Thursday, July 05, 2007
The death of the cassette tape
I am running out of time to write a post. Hence, I decided to post this stuff I read a few months back. Very interesting - reminds me about product life cycle and markets. For readers from the ISB, might be a very good example for a CP during your elective courses.
THE eject button has been pressed on the audio cassette for the very last time.
Currys, the UK’s biggest electronics retailer, yesterday announced it is to stop selling the tapes.
Woolworths and HMV have already removed them from their shelves.
Currys also predicts this Christmas will be the last time it sells hi-fi systems with tape decks included.
Compact cassettes could be frustrating at times — hissing, stretching or getting chewed up in tape decks — but while MP3s and downloads are all the rage now, tapes played an important role in musical culture for more than 40 years.
The recordable tape was introduced to Europe in 1963 by Philips.
Originally designed for dictation, tapes soon became used for home recording and even data storage for computers.
For younger readers, the compact cassette consisted of two miniature spools between which a magnetic tape was passed and wound. This mechanism was housed in a protective plastic shell.
Cassettes took off in the Seventies, offering a recordable alternative to LPs. Pre-recorded cassettes went on sale in Europe in 1965, and from the Seventies to the Nineties became one of the most common formats on which to buy music.
The appeal of the cassette was boosted by the launch of portable music players such as the Sony Walkman in 1979.
A massive 83million tapes were sold in the UK in 1989. Yet by last year the figure had fallen to a mere 100,000.
In the Nineties sales of pre-recorded tapes were overtaken by CDs and record companies started phasing them out.
And in recent years the digital music revolution has pressed pause on the old-fashioned practice of “home dubbing”.
Even Currys managing director Peter Keenan said he will look back with “fondness” at cassettes.
Indeed, the tapes and the players had their good points.
They were more resistent to dust, heat and shocks than most digital media and fixing cassettes didn’t need hi-tech equipment — any tape which spooled out could be wound back in using a Biro.
Their durability saw them act as catalysts for social change, taking rock and punk music behind the Iron Curtain and creating a foothold for Western culture.
But cassettes were not popular with everyone — especially record companies.
In the Eighties the British Phonographic Institute launched an anti-copyright infringement campaign under the slogan “Home Taping Is Killing Music”.
In 1988 the House of Lords ruled in favour of Sir Alan Sugar’s Amstrad that producing a high-speed twin cassette deck did not infringe copyright laws.
Despite the digital music revolution, it is thought around 500million tapes are still in circulation.
And beware, here are other devices we reckon could be on the way out next:
Answering machines; Fax machines; Portable CD players; Watches
You have been warned . . .
THE eject button has been pressed on the audio cassette for the very last time.
Currys, the UK’s biggest electronics retailer, yesterday announced it is to stop selling the tapes.
Woolworths and HMV have already removed them from their shelves.
Currys also predicts this Christmas will be the last time it sells hi-fi systems with tape decks included.
Compact cassettes could be frustrating at times — hissing, stretching or getting chewed up in tape decks — but while MP3s and downloads are all the rage now, tapes played an important role in musical culture for more than 40 years.
The recordable tape was introduced to Europe in 1963 by Philips.
Originally designed for dictation, tapes soon became used for home recording and even data storage for computers.
For younger readers, the compact cassette consisted of two miniature spools between which a magnetic tape was passed and wound. This mechanism was housed in a protective plastic shell.
Cassettes took off in the Seventies, offering a recordable alternative to LPs. Pre-recorded cassettes went on sale in Europe in 1965, and from the Seventies to the Nineties became one of the most common formats on which to buy music.
The appeal of the cassette was boosted by the launch of portable music players such as the Sony Walkman in 1979.
A massive 83million tapes were sold in the UK in 1989. Yet by last year the figure had fallen to a mere 100,000.
In the Nineties sales of pre-recorded tapes were overtaken by CDs and record companies started phasing them out.
And in recent years the digital music revolution has pressed pause on the old-fashioned practice of “home dubbing”.
Even Currys managing director Peter Keenan said he will look back with “fondness” at cassettes.
Indeed, the tapes and the players had their good points.
They were more resistent to dust, heat and shocks than most digital media and fixing cassettes didn’t need hi-tech equipment — any tape which spooled out could be wound back in using a Biro.
Their durability saw them act as catalysts for social change, taking rock and punk music behind the Iron Curtain and creating a foothold for Western culture.
But cassettes were not popular with everyone — especially record companies.
In the Eighties the British Phonographic Institute launched an anti-copyright infringement campaign under the slogan “Home Taping Is Killing Music”.
In 1988 the House of Lords ruled in favour of Sir Alan Sugar’s Amstrad that producing a high-speed twin cassette deck did not infringe copyright laws.
Despite the digital music revolution, it is thought around 500million tapes are still in circulation.
And beware, here are other devices we reckon could be on the way out next:
Answering machines; Fax machines; Portable CD players; Watches
You have been warned . . .
Sunday, July 01, 2007
Weekly roundup
I didn't realize that its been a week since i wrote something on this space. A friend of mine who reads this space regularly had to remind me of that. He did ask me whether it was because of work. my frank answer is - is definitely because i have been trying hard to find work in the last one week.
ever since Sivaji happened, i have following up quite regularly on the movie. a whopping budget of 90 crore (international readers please excuse me for using crore) indian rupees - can you believe that. and i also heard that the superstar got 17 crore as salary, which is the fixed component and then a variable pay that would come from distribution revenues. mba stuff happening here too.
anyway, during the last week, i hardly went for work. on monday i was in bangalore attending a wedding and catching up with few friends from b-school. then on wednesday, mr.manjeri(the coimby man on my blog's main page) and i left to tirupati to attend another wedding. during this time, my manager decided to get me into a new project. all this while i was supposed to work for a chicago based bank's projects. not that i had started work on that. just that the allocation had been done and the people in that team were doing some knowledge transfer - very much like the gyaan sessions at ISB. too many PPTs and stuff like that. on friday i was introduced to the new project and i said yes. although its 90 percent confirmed that i will start work on this one from monday, anything can happen. bottomline: i still dont have work.
another funny incident happened at office on friday - a friend of mine entered the office lobby wearing sandals and the security guard stopped him. he wanted my friend to get permission from the HR because there was a slight violation of the dress code. i was furious. this is a place where people walk in like a herd of cattle especially between 9 and 10 am. nobody checks a shit you could walk in with a detonator and that silly guy wouldn't know a thing. with such a security lapse uncared for, this guy demands a dress code authorization. extraordinarily funny.
every IT consulting company in india is preparing to start a full fledged technology consulting arm. and we are also seeing whats happening with the dollar. azim premji had once said that it would take 36 yrs for the rupee to be at par with the dollar, but i kinda feel that it might happen in like 10 years. suddenly all firms are aggressively looking at revenues from europe. and i got to hear that Infosys is trying to get something from Cap Gemini. Thats actually a very good strategy. CG is headquartered in Paris and a large portion of its revenues is from Europe. They always say - quicker the better and this is also some kind of first mover advantage. companies want to pay less and thats why a lot of them are moving out of india as well. today, we are in a different game. the cost advantage is no longer with us. we need a new and radical strategy.
ever since Sivaji happened, i have following up quite regularly on the movie. a whopping budget of 90 crore (international readers please excuse me for using crore) indian rupees - can you believe that. and i also heard that the superstar got 17 crore as salary, which is the fixed component and then a variable pay that would come from distribution revenues. mba stuff happening here too.
anyway, during the last week, i hardly went for work. on monday i was in bangalore attending a wedding and catching up with few friends from b-school. then on wednesday, mr.manjeri(the coimby man on my blog's main page) and i left to tirupati to attend another wedding. during this time, my manager decided to get me into a new project. all this while i was supposed to work for a chicago based bank's projects. not that i had started work on that. just that the allocation had been done and the people in that team were doing some knowledge transfer - very much like the gyaan sessions at ISB. too many PPTs and stuff like that. on friday i was introduced to the new project and i said yes. although its 90 percent confirmed that i will start work on this one from monday, anything can happen. bottomline: i still dont have work.
another funny incident happened at office on friday - a friend of mine entered the office lobby wearing sandals and the security guard stopped him. he wanted my friend to get permission from the HR because there was a slight violation of the dress code. i was furious. this is a place where people walk in like a herd of cattle especially between 9 and 10 am. nobody checks a shit you could walk in with a detonator and that silly guy wouldn't know a thing. with such a security lapse uncared for, this guy demands a dress code authorization. extraordinarily funny.
every IT consulting company in india is preparing to start a full fledged technology consulting arm. and we are also seeing whats happening with the dollar. azim premji had once said that it would take 36 yrs for the rupee to be at par with the dollar, but i kinda feel that it might happen in like 10 years. suddenly all firms are aggressively looking at revenues from europe. and i got to hear that Infosys is trying to get something from Cap Gemini. Thats actually a very good strategy. CG is headquartered in Paris and a large portion of its revenues is from Europe. They always say - quicker the better and this is also some kind of first mover advantage. companies want to pay less and thats why a lot of them are moving out of india as well. today, we are in a different game. the cost advantage is no longer with us. we need a new and radical strategy.
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