Not so distant future : TV and Internet are going to be the same.

I was reading this article "Commercial Success" on FastCompany :
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/99/getting-ahead.html?partner=rss

When by reading a short comment made me realize something :

They want a visionary--someone who can see not only what's happening now but what's possible in the next 15 to 20 years. Someone who understands participative media and that TV and the Internet are going to be the same thing.

This made me realise that I havent had this notion yet. Sure I knew about Internet based television and interactive tv, but I didnt realise how soon these two independant peices of technologies are due for a... a... merger; for lack of a better word;

Almost every channel worth its salt has its presence on the internet and we have score of tv programs which whose content is based solely on the internet.

Basic problem with video on dialup and the 128 kb lines is that the video play rate is faster than the download rate and you have so many jerks and stoppages in the playback. With internet access geting cheaper and cheaper by the day and a T1 or a T3 line being not so rare, It is not long before we have TV channels being delivered via the Internet.

A typical situation would be when a user could simple change the language of the tv program to suit his needs or even better just record the program on to his harddisk. You could also access content from any corner of the globe and have at your disposal hundreds of channels.

Podcasting will take care of the limited content the tv channels seem to have these days which could mean the death of reruns.

I am starting to like this scenario...

What motivates Me

There is a lot that can be said here, I will try to keep it short. As a software developer, the prime motivator about my job are those occasions where I get to take a complex set of ideas and "translate" them into a simple designs realizing that I can fulfill those requirements with a few simple concepts and interfaces.

To get a brand new idea off the ground and then show that not only can you reduce it to practice but that people will actually take it up and use it and that their lives are made that much simpler.

Here at my office, I can sum up my motivational factors in : Altruism, Intellectual Challenge (in patches, though I am still waiting for the first genuine challenge from a developer perspective), Variety, Autonomy, the fact that Vertex allows ample time to pursue other important aspects of my lifestyle -- family, leisure activities, further education, etc, and access to people and opportunities that will position me well for my next career move.

I'm constantly amazed to find that there are people who do not share this motivation. I can't imagine how horrible life would be if the only thing I wanted for my efforts was a paycheck. I regard financial reward as a measurement of success, essential, even crucial, but not an end in itself.

Chandigarh : The Chicken Saga

During the Chandigarh trip I was quite eager on dining Authentic Punjabi food. In any city or place when you visit, the place has to offer something for each of your 5 senses. Food that tickles your taste buds and leaves a lasting impression on your memory is what you are looking for.

I specially wanted to taste the Chicken Tikka, Butter Chicken, Tandoori Chicken... basically NON veg. And I hoped to get lots of it in Chandigarh. Dhaba style.

So at lunch time, we all got in the car and drove out to the markets... At first There was no restaurant in sight. Sector after sector after sector, we drove and asked people and drove some more. Yet no respite.. In the meanwhile the rumbling in our tummies grew larger than the Shamur and Sona Family audio cassetes that we were playing..

One thing that I really liked about Chandigarh is how well the city has been planned. The streets are really wide and ample space for gardens and separate lanes for cycles and rickshaws.. tough the city needs maintenance. I could see dead leaves everywhere and piled up mud and it looked like the streets haven't been cleaned for ages. Though If I compare it with some of the prime locations in Delhi or even Gurgaon, I think Chandigarh is lagging behind. But it scores way ahead with its planning. No doubt.

Back to the Chicken Saga, finally we encountered a restaurant but it was "Vegetarian Only". Then another restaurant came up and It was labeled "Pure Veg". Then suddenly there was a sprout in the availability of restaurants and all of them were Vegetarian.

Have the Chandigarh folks turned grass eaters ? I know that vegetarian lifestyle has its benefits but... guys... come on... we have to do what we can to combat the Bird Flu menace.

So anyways I noticed a Sher - e - Punjab restaurant and we all heaved a sigh of relief and jumped with joy at the same time. This restaurant will have what we need. After all it is a Sher (Tiger) - e - Punjab. As we cam closer, under the big bold "Sher - e - Punjab", was written "Pure Vaishno Vegetarian". Arrrrggggghhhhh.. @#$##$%#%$#@@.

We then reached Sector 17 Market which is one of the the posh markets of Chandigarh and found Subways and McDonalds and saw a Hot Millions at which we out of desparation. Food was ok and the chicken wasnt too good.

At night we tried our luck once more and found Tihal Singh's Chicken corner and food there was at best mediocre.

Next day on the way back dad and mom suggested that we Puran Singh's dhaba at Ambala bus stand. They said that whoever passes by there makes it a point to eat there. Be adviced though there are atleast 8-10 dhabas there in a single line by the names of :
Puran singh ka Asli Dhaba
Puran singh ka Mashoor Dhaba
Puran singh da Dhaba
Puran singh ka Asli Mashoor Dhaba

There were more but I think you get the point.

Anyways we asked arround and people told us that the one adjoining the bus stand is the original. The guy prepares big containers of chicken and mutton at a time and replaces them as they get empty. We had our fill of Chicken and Mutton Curry.

And oh dont forget to take a sip of the heavenly Keenu Juice they serve at the roadside.

The Chandigarh trip

Past whole week has been "eventful" to say the least.

I have been trying to buy a flat for investment for the past whole year. I got myself a loan approval last year from ICICI bank and since then all my efforts have been futile. There are options available in Vaishali and even further but I dont wish to buy any thing there... Gurgaon as you all know is way overpriced with the cheapest options available for nothing less than 30 Lakhs. And that is about 10 more than my budget.

My uncle once commented that for investment purposes, you can buy property in the outskirts of any new/developing city and within few years you will get benefits

So that drove me towards Chandigarh. I already knew that property prices in Chandigarh are quite high, but I thought that at least in the outskirts there will be lesser prices options and there were reports that some new IT and ITES companies are planning to setup base in Chandigarh and nearby Zirakpur and Panchkula...

HUDA has launched some new sectors in panchkula and other haryana cities. So some 200 small to large sized plots were up for the draw. Me and my mom were very interested in the same... I figured that I will apply for the highest priced plot and so I will have a good chance of getting that as lesser people will be applying for that. As it turns out 2 Lakh applications had been filed by the time we had gone there and the authority extended the date as well. So CRAP.

Then we decided to checkout the other places of interest like Omaxe and Silver city.. Pretty good but again high priced. We have better facilities here in Gurgaon.

So we did some shopping and went to Church at the Cathedral for the Ash Wednesday Mass. I think I like to visit new Churches. There is something about them, peace and tranquility, its like you can leave everything else aside and forget about them and just sit there...

The next day we did some more sight seeing and shopping Mom go into this shop which had punjabi style ladies suits and in about 10-15 minutes she bought 5 of them totalling 1800 bucks. so thats shopping at about Rs 120 per minute. Amazing !!!

Then we basically ate which has an entire story around it but I will tell about it later. We drove back... I forced papa to part with the keys to the car and drove back home... He was pretty concerned initially and kept commenting about driving slow which I was already doing I mean who in his sane mind drives slower than 100 kph on a national highway ? I did about 115 kph only as the car didn't go much faster than that... next time I home to get my hands on something faster.

We reached home at 6:30 in the evening and that was the end of the Chandigarh trip

PS. Bhiwadi's Kajaria Greens looks like the only option available for me right now.