Peekaboo ! I See You !!

Ever since the dawn of mankind, information has won and lost wars. Information is power. The need to know is hard-coded in human psyche. Remember Sanjay using his divine vision “technology” to view and narrate the Mahabharata events to King Dhritarashtra ? Or James Stewart peeking into apartments of his opposite building using binoculars in “Rear Window”? The itch to know where others are and what they are doing is nothing new.

I was recently reading an article on Times Online (The online edition of the Times in the United Kingdom) recently that triggered a chain of thoughts that led to this blog post. Shopping Centers in the UK are installing clever devices placed on walls around the centers. These devices use technology to track when people enter a mall, which stores they visit, how long they remain there and what route they take as they walk around. How is this enabled ? Via the mobile phones that the customers carry with them !! Even when you are not using your mobile phone, it “pings” or contacts the network every few seconds. This signal is what the devices (receiver dishes) mounted on the walls catch and record. The benefits to the Mall owners ? Footfall analysis – retail chains would pay a king’s ransom to be able to better understand and predict the behaviour of their customers. If, for example, I walk into my nearby mall and first visit the hypermart, spend half an hour there, go to the Crossword store and finally visit the Café Coffee Day outlet before exiting the mall, my movements would be recorded via the mobile handset I carry. If I visit the mall a number of times in a quarter and they have a history of my footfalls, they can predict my behaviour and targeted advertising can take place. When the owners of a mall implemented this system and found that a large number of the people visiting carried Mobile numbers registered in Germany, they immediately realized that a good section of their customer base was German and adding German-language signs in the mall would make them feel more welcome !!

Sam Altman, a student at Stanford, was leaving his Class one day when he suddenly wondered where his friends were. When he left Stanford, Altman started his own company which created Loopt, a service that uses Global Positioning Satellite technology on cell phones to track location of friends. The Loopt service is being touted as the Cell phone enablement of Social Networking. Some network service providers in the US enable Loopt to work, wherein friends agree to be “visible” to other friends on the same network. This means that if I am on my way to watch the latest “Indiana Jones” movie, I can see which of my friends is nearby and check whether they would like to join me. The Loopt technology tracks people to an accuracy of 30 feet !!

Mobile virtual-network operators Helio and Boost have developed services to automatically track and alert people about their friends' location.

Other services, such as Groundspeak's Geocaching, let cell phone users participate in a mobile scavenger hunt.

Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel have offerings that help parents track their children's cell phones. Child locating services in the US and UK have proven successful. Parents with computers can go to a portal where, after entering their password, they can tap in the phone number of their child's phone and view a map showing the child's location within 25 seconds. Those preferring to use their mobile phones can send a text message via SMS with the name of their child and password and receive a response per SMS.

The flip side to all this great all-knowing technology is the concerns over privacy and security. Citizens in countries where these technologies are being deployed are questioning the sanctity and the extent to which their personal data is being collected by private companies or even government. No one wants to be under the constant scrutiny of “Big Brother”. What if all this data were to fall in the hands of the wrong kind of people? Spammers, Anti-social elements etc. – would one want them to know exactly where you and your family go?

It’s creepy to think that when I hide behind a curtain and call out “Peek-a-boo ! I see you” to my almost-one-year old son….someone out there might be pulling a Peek-a-boo on me too !!!

"Argos" it..

I came across the ad of Argos (http://www.argos.co.uk/) in the Times of India a few weeks ago. Its originally a UK based chain, and it sells everything from electronics, household items, gym equipment, cell-phones, you name it.

Its a very novel concept and is very different from the usual chain of departmental stores. A typical Argos store doesn't have any of the products on display. What it does have is lots of copies of thick catalogues. All the products are listed catagory-wise, with a detailed description of each one of them, including the cost. One just has to select a product and can either pay directly for it, or even get to view the product before paying. You can even discuss your queries regarding the products with someone from the staff who is specially assigned for the job before zeroing on the final choice. Once you have made the purchase, you are given a token number which enables you to know the exact time after which your product would be available at the delivery counter. There is a digital display which shows the time. Now comes the most interesting part, and I speak this from personal experience. If the display shows that you'll be getting your purchase in 3 minutes, it doesn't take a second more! A very meticulous and well-designed system.

Argos also claims that its products are cheaper than elsewhere as it does not spend money in maintaining huge showrooms and the staff that goes with it. Its tag-line reads "Don't just shop for it, Argos it"....

Read all about it at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argos_(retailer)

Filmfare goes fortnightly

Filmfare, the famous monthly magazine, has gone fortnightly. Earlier I used to eagerly search the racks at Shoprite after doing my monthly shopping for the latest issue, now I find myself doing that every two weeks. But in this process, I feel they have horribly compromised on the quality of articles that are being published. I seriously feel that sections like "makeover" belong to some cheap fashion rag, and not to Filmfare. Just giving it a glossy and flambouyant look doesnt help guys, after all people spend their precious money to "read" whats written, more than just looking through the pages. Don't compromise quality over quantity is what I'd say. Your fans will readily wait for four weeks rather than make do with hastily packed articles, most of which are just meant to increase the page numbers to match the mandatory count.

Better Book Next Time, Mr. Bhagat

I found the book to be hastily written..probably the publishers' deadline was fast approaching...it doesn't do justice to the city of Ahmedabad, neither to the well known entrepreneurship of the Gujaratis. I expected a good story, but was disappointed. The author just rushes past through the infamous earthquake, without generating any significant impact on the story.Or maybe he was already visualising a film being made on this one as well, as the riot act in the end just appears to be a crass action sequence straight out of some bollywood flick..Way to go Mr. Bhagat, I read in the Mint that you've already earned enough to last you a lifetime, but that doesn't mean you can get away with such substandard stuff.. after all writing about Gujarati culture doesn't mean just mentioning words like "khakras", "khandvi", "Patel"and "pol". And while mentioning "pol", how can the author mention the word without explaining what it means to all the non-Gujarati readers? Also, you just cannot mention pol and not go on to write even a little bit about the pol dynamics that go on..as it is my firm belief that every pol has its own uniquely structured setup, the study of which should be included as a subject in the B-schools along with Organisation Behaviour!! You'll find that all the aspiring management students can cope with different type of social scenarios at work better with this one.. try it and if it works, you know whom to praise...but thats just wandering away from the main topic a bit.

It seems things just happen to the main protagonist of the story, Govind Patel,whose mathematical ability is highlighted frequently, but I can't say the same about his business acumen. He just seems to rely on buying at a lesser cost and selling at a higher one, which is nothing new in any business. I expected to read about some tough decisions, business strategies, maybe some diversification, as Mr. Bhagat himself claims that his book is about how difficult it is to start a new venture for someone who is young but has vision in "small cities"..only I could not find any vision except for earning thousands, then lakhs, and then crores in Govind. No game plan, no strategy, nothing. I was also anticipating to read something interesting about how they pulled themselves together post earthqake and re-elevated their business, but all that passes through in a blur. Though I did like the way the author has built the part that led to the Godhra riots..but all in all a very mediocre book, not something one would expect from the author of great ones like "One night at the call center" and "Five point someone"..BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME MR. BHAGAT..or should i say "BETTER BOOK NEXT TIME"?!!

Baby Steps in the Blogosphere

Life on earth needs air, water and sunlight to survive, I need books apart from all these to live on. I am very much a self-proclaimed nerd, and am fortunate enough to find a soulmate who also happens to be one!!
Uptill the 90's, I could have easily said that Agatha Christie was my favourite author, but then I happened to read the first of the Harry Potter series and then J.K. Rowling has shared the spot with the Dame from then on..I especially like the character of Hermione Granger, as she is blessed with sharp brains, is brave, stands by her loved ones no matter what, is very determined and gutsy, and above all a bookworm(hence deserves my blog to be named after her).
I thought of setting up this blog in order to be able to share my thoughts with a larger number of people, and have my opinions analyzed, criticised, torn apart or appreciated...afterall, any kind of response is always better than no response at all, so feel free to write on...