Monday, May 30, 2011
What's in a name, says Ashwinwins
(Note: 2nd August, 2011: This tale has a happy ending! From Ashwinwins.blogspot to AshwinFTW.blogspot)!
So, to set the ball rolling, What would you call an adhesive-laden piece of yellow paper on which you can write secrets and pass along, especially in office?
Coming to think of it, say one starts writing something; not typing, mind you, I mean putting ball-point -pen to paper kind of affair. Then the first sentence would always set the ball rolling, right? You know, the tip of the pen, rolling and tumbling along on the paper? So there, it took me a whole paragraph, but the ball is coasting along now at a merry pace. So, let's roll.
Returning to the vexing question posed above, there's a clue waiting for you at the end of the next para. Yes, this is a cheap, old trick to increase the likelihood of your reading the next bunch of sentences, but you have been conned, my friend, so read on. (I say old because, as regular readers of my blog might remember, I have pulled this same one a few posts ago)
So I want to share with you the fact that I have spent hours on trying to come up with a sensible name for my blog. I mean the hyperlink. If you hit Alt D right now, you will certainly agree with me when I say it has been an effort in vain. In vanity, you might even say. "AshwinWins? Loser!", you might say. However, as I said, it's not that I haven't tried. In fact, right now while I am meant to be studying for my CFA exam which is 5 days away and for which I have taken a whole week off and for which 6 months are recommended while I had 2.5 weeks when I began...ok I stop. That pollutes the air of genteel levity which I am trying hard to create here, and I will not stand for that.
So, my work on the blog name can be categorised into two buckets:
1. Generic word play (for which I didn't need to be Ashwin).
2. Specific word play (capitalizing on the singular fact that I am Ashwin).
Under 1,
Oh wait. Here's the clue you have been waiting for anxiously: It's made by this company called 3M.
So, under 1, the prime sensible contenders are MindBlogging. And Blogic. Self explanatory and lame, both of these. Also, this one's a deal-breaker- they are already taken. At this point, I put on one of the more vivid of my thinking hats. A spectacular red straw sombrero, say. So there's Pogsblot.blogspot.com. Pogsblot being an anagram of blogspot. I envision this hobbit-sized, wise, green-colored, wrinkled character with big ears like a hare called Pog, who's Blot (or Blog) this is. The description was such because I was thinking Pog could be like Jedi Master Yoda. I mean to say, Like Jedi Master Yoda he could be. However,what business does Yoda have to talk about Tablet computers and the market caps of Apple and Microsoft and Google? Pog, door that is, out you may go. So, now that we have hit upon "blot", let's further explore the potential there. Topblot.blogspot.com. Alliterative, but not enough. Splotblot.blogspot. An ink drop falling splot on paper and creating a blot, which stunningly spreads and takes the shape of letters, forming a cogent argument on, say, why Dravid should be back in the ODI squad (3 posts ago). But wait, I thought we were out of kindergarten? Spilling ink on paper and using words like Spotblot which sounds like baby-talk?
2) As you saw, that line of thinking was unsatisfactory and unsavory. Left a bad taste in the mouth. So, we come to the second category. The first major stream under this line of thinking would be ARK for Ashwin Ravikumar. Let's drift for a while down this stream on Ark. So, Blogger's Ark. A home for the best posts of all kinds- news, satire, sports, art, books, fashion. Only room for one of each kind, though. Naa, there's too much sports in here. A funny blog-
Hoha's 's Ark. Sounds like Noah's ark. No, the posts- many aren't funny, numerous aren't humorous. Or Gleaming Ark, Incisive Ark, but those are all Arcs. We are going around in circles here! So let's turn away from this (Arc reminds me of ARCH. The coolest term I have learned as yet in my CFA studies- Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity. Hah. Say that 10 times when you are angry, it helps. ARCH the concept is also interesting. When the error term in a time series regression is..umm..er..correlated with the error term of of the past time period. I cheated: I opened the book. I really should get back to studying! It's interesting, though. Look it up on wiki, like right now. No? This is better? Reaally? Awww...Thanks!) Then there's the standalone Ashwinner- which sounds like Ashwin R. No good. And of course, there's always the old faithful, which has already been in the public eye, tried and tested, pucca material. It has taken the stage at various online forums- Rediff, Yahoo, Google. It has its critics, though. Yes, I am talking about the old faithful, Ashwinwins. Ok, but is there absolutely nothing else? How about Ashwin_Ravikumar_1986.blogspot? Prudent and simple? No? Ashwin.rk3...nice and easy?
Finally, there's a deadly combination of 1) and 2). It's RorschAshblot.blogspot.com. Inspired by the Rorschach ink blot test. You only see what your eyes want to see. You're frozen. Mad, no? Na...no good.
So at the end of it all, I told myself: to hell with it. Stop wasting precious time. Just stick with Ashwinwins. And get on with the Fluid Mechanics assignment. The Placement Preparation. The B-Tech Project. The Quarterly Earnings Report. The CFA studies....
If you can think of any name nice and witty, please do contact me at, you guessed it right, ashwinwins@gmail.com. Or dial ASHWINWINS on your phone. That's 27494-69467: my google phone account. 10 characters, and I created the id some 7 years ago. What farsightedness. Despite being my optic being myopic.
Finally, ashwinwins may draw flak but I draw inspiration from the wonderful lyrics of a fab Johhny Cash number "A Boy named Sue", (from an equally wonderful movie, "Walk the Line").
And he said "Son, this world is rough
And if a man's gonna make it, he's gotta be tough
And I knew I wouldn't be there to help ya along.
So I give ya that name and I said goodbye
I knew you'd have to get tough or die
And it's the name that helped to make you strong."
So Ashwinwins it is!
Answer to the vexing question: Psst it.
P.S. I was kidding about the google phone number. I ain't got no google phone account. However, ladies and laddies, I am dead serious about requesting for suggestions on the name. Send in your entries, and the not only will the winner's creation be preserved for prosperity on the servers of google (see previous post for more), but he/she will also be treated by me at Sammy Sosa, which is a fantastic bar in Andheri. Near Infinity mall. Haven't seen a place in the whole nation which serves more varieties of beer than Sammy Sosa (I call it Samosa for short). Sorry laddies, but reg. winning, the conditions are slightly relaxed for pretty ladies. If you are a pretty lady, you really need not send in a name. On the subject, just put in the date and time for when you want to be treated at Samosa. Don't bother about the body of the male, i mean mail, in question. Just the subject: "DD/MM ; HH:MM". That's all, nothing more. I'll be there, pronto. I mean yeah, only if you win. Of course. Don't worry though girlie, you have a great chance, I'm tellin' ya. Just the subject, don't bother with more, hit send, and hope for the best. Yeah, we're all good, ladies?
Note: Technically the ball slides on paper and does not really roll, but poetic license, yeah?
So, to set the ball rolling, What would you call an adhesive-laden piece of yellow paper on which you can write secrets and pass along, especially in office?
Coming to think of it, say one starts writing something; not typing, mind you, I mean putting ball-point -pen to paper kind of affair. Then the first sentence would always set the ball rolling, right? You know, the tip of the pen, rolling and tumbling along on the paper? So there, it took me a whole paragraph, but the ball is coasting along now at a merry pace. So, let's roll.
Returning to the vexing question posed above, there's a clue waiting for you at the end of the next para. Yes, this is a cheap, old trick to increase the likelihood of your reading the next bunch of sentences, but you have been conned, my friend, so read on. (I say old because, as regular readers of my blog might remember, I have pulled this same one a few posts ago)
So I want to share with you the fact that I have spent hours on trying to come up with a sensible name for my blog. I mean the hyperlink. If you hit Alt D right now, you will certainly agree with me when I say it has been an effort in vain. In vanity, you might even say. "AshwinWins? Loser!", you might say. However, as I said, it's not that I haven't tried. In fact, right now while I am meant to be studying for my CFA exam which is 5 days away and for which I have taken a whole week off and for which 6 months are recommended while I had 2.5 weeks when I began...ok I stop. That pollutes the air of genteel levity which I am trying hard to create here, and I will not stand for that.
So, my work on the blog name can be categorised into two buckets:
1. Generic word play (for which I didn't need to be Ashwin).
2. Specific word play (capitalizing on the singular fact that I am Ashwin).
Under 1,
Oh wait. Here's the clue you have been waiting for anxiously: It's made by this company called 3M.
So, under 1, the prime sensible contenders are MindBlogging. And Blogic. Self explanatory and lame, both of these. Also, this one's a deal-breaker- they are already taken. At this point, I put on one of the more vivid of my thinking hats. A spectacular red straw sombrero, say. So there's Pogsblot.blogspot.com. Pogsblot being an anagram of blogspot. I envision this hobbit-sized, wise, green-colored, wrinkled character with big ears like a hare called Pog, who's Blot (or Blog) this is. The description was such because I was thinking Pog could be like Jedi Master Yoda. I mean to say, Like Jedi Master Yoda he could be. However,what business does Yoda have to talk about Tablet computers and the market caps of Apple and Microsoft and Google? Pog, door that is, out you may go. So, now that we have hit upon "blot", let's further explore the potential there. Topblot.blogspot.com. Alliterative, but not enough. Splotblot.blogspot. An ink drop falling splot on paper and creating a blot, which stunningly spreads and takes the shape of letters, forming a cogent argument on, say, why Dravid should be back in the ODI squad (3 posts ago). But wait, I thought we were out of kindergarten? Spilling ink on paper and using words like Spotblot which sounds like baby-talk?
2) As you saw, that line of thinking was unsatisfactory and unsavory. Left a bad taste in the mouth. So, we come to the second category. The first major stream under this line of thinking would be ARK for Ashwin Ravikumar. Let's drift for a while down this stream on Ark. So, Blogger's Ark. A home for the best posts of all kinds- news, satire, sports, art, books, fashion. Only room for one of each kind, though. Naa, there's too much sports in here. A funny blog-
Hoha's 's Ark. Sounds like Noah's ark. No, the posts- many aren't funny, numerous aren't humorous. Or Gleaming Ark, Incisive Ark, but those are all Arcs. We are going around in circles here! So let's turn away from this (Arc reminds me of ARCH. The coolest term I have learned as yet in my CFA studies- Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity. Hah. Say that 10 times when you are angry, it helps. ARCH the concept is also interesting. When the error term in a time series regression is..umm..er..correlated with the error term of of the past time period. I cheated: I opened the book. I really should get back to studying! It's interesting, though. Look it up on wiki, like right now. No? This is better? Reaally? Awww...Thanks!) Then there's the standalone Ashwinner- which sounds like Ashwin R. No good. And of course, there's always the old faithful, which has already been in the public eye, tried and tested, pucca material. It has taken the stage at various online forums- Rediff, Yahoo, Google. It has its critics, though. Yes, I am talking about the old faithful, Ashwinwins. Ok, but is there absolutely nothing else? How about Ashwin_Ravikumar_1986.blogspot? Prudent and simple? No? Ashwin.rk3...nice and easy?
Finally, there's a deadly combination of 1) and 2). It's RorschAshblot.blogspot.com. Inspired by the Rorschach ink blot test. You only see what your eyes want to see. You're frozen. Mad, no? Na...no good.
So at the end of it all, I told myself: to hell with it. Stop wasting precious time. Just stick with Ashwinwins. And get on with the Fluid Mechanics assignment. The Placement Preparation. The B-Tech Project. The Quarterly Earnings Report. The CFA studies....
If you can think of any name nice and witty, please do contact me at, you guessed it right, ashwinwins@gmail.com. Or dial ASHWINWINS on your phone. That's 27494-69467: my google phone account. 10 characters, and I created the id some 7 years ago. What farsightedness. Despite being my optic being myopic.
Finally, ashwinwins may draw flak but I draw inspiration from the wonderful lyrics of a fab Johhny Cash number "A Boy named Sue", (from an equally wonderful movie, "Walk the Line").
And he said "Son, this world is rough
And if a man's gonna make it, he's gotta be tough
And I knew I wouldn't be there to help ya along.
So I give ya that name and I said goodbye
I knew you'd have to get tough or die
And it's the name that helped to make you strong."
So Ashwinwins it is!
Answer to the vexing question: Psst it.
P.S. I was kidding about the google phone number. I ain't got no google phone account. However, ladies and laddies, I am dead serious about requesting for suggestions on the name. Send in your entries, and the not only will the winner's creation be preserved for prosperity on the servers of google (see previous post for more), but he/she will also be treated by me at Sammy Sosa, which is a fantastic bar in Andheri. Near Infinity mall. Haven't seen a place in the whole nation which serves more varieties of beer than Sammy Sosa (I call it Samosa for short). Sorry laddies, but reg. winning, the conditions are slightly relaxed for pretty ladies. If you are a pretty lady, you really need not send in a name. On the subject, just put in the date and time for when you want to be treated at Samosa. Don't bother about the body of the male, i mean mail, in question. Just the subject: "DD/MM ; HH:MM". That's all, nothing more. I'll be there, pronto. I mean yeah, only if you win. Of course. Don't worry though girlie, you have a great chance, I'm tellin' ya. Just the subject, don't bother with more, hit send, and hope for the best. Yeah, we're all good, ladies?
Note: Technically the ball slides on paper and does not really roll, but poetic license, yeah?
Labels: Random Ramblings
Saturday, May 28, 2011
The tablet cure
My Dell Inspiron has gone kaput, some one month ago. So for the past three weeks, my personal computer has been my HTC Desire Z. And have discovered some wonderful apps in the process: Tune in Radio- just turn on the app and then I would say tune in to BBC World Service, and let it run in the background. Given how bad all the news channels on TV are today, this is a wonderful change. Then, I don't really take to carefully-aim, wait, shoot and watch -the-result -with-tense-anticipation kind of games. Like Pool and Carrom. And Angry Birds. Tank Hero is the shizz! Good 3D graphics, challenging action-packed game with great drum-beat war music. All 80 levels conquered. Since then, my pals call me General Sherman. You can, too.
Then there's the app "How to Tie your Tie", which I am sure will be invaluable some day, as I currently know naught on knots. I mean, I do not knots. What knotty word play, no?
I totally dig the QWERTY keyboard on the phone. And of course, the portability is awesome. It surely is the best android QWERTY doing the rounds.
However, the 3.7" Super-LCD screen, super though it is, is not big enough, after all. Which means I may have to purchase a new computing device. A tablet? The idea here is to purchase a tablet with a decent sized screen, then a dock so it can sit upright on my desk. Then a bluetooth keyboard. If you really want the portability, you can probably even get a foldable keyboard, but I myself don't know yet. And there, you have it- it's as good as a laptop. Once we have MS Office for Android, it is going to be just fabulous. After all, MS Office is probably the only reason why I (or you) may even want a full scale laptop. Then, now that you have the tablet, you can so easily carry it around, use it for taking notes, as an ebook reader, mobile internet, immense possibilities!
With many people thinking along these lines, I would think MS Windows is in big, big trouble. For Windows is nowhere in the Mobile OS picture- where it's all Android and iOS. So once you have an Android or iOS cellphone, you would naturally prefer to have the same OS on your tablet. It's the ecosystem. So this also means others are in big trouble- Blackberry, say. I would imagine very few would prefer a Playbook- BB cellphone pair over the innumerable Android tablet-Android cellphone pairings out there- there's one for everyone- mix and match. Or over the iPad-iPhone pairing. Not just hardware, but the App market, too, would be the clincher for Android and iOS. The key thing is, once there is a critical mass of users, the competition is totally shut-out. Just like how Windows totally killed competition because of its sheer market share. Once 50.01% had Windows, the rest had to have Windows: because their neighbor had it. Compatibility and all that- being on the ecosystem. And at that point, incrementally better quality or technology means nothing. And what could competition have that the big guy doesn't? -Incremental betterment. Unless they have a complete "game changer", they are totally shutout. Do Android and iOS have the critical mass? I would be inclined towards saying yes. In that case, I hear of the HP-Palm OS combo-why are they even trying? However good they are, wouldn't you say they are fighting a losing battle, the enemy is just too big?
Then there's the app "How to Tie your Tie", which I am sure will be invaluable some day, as I currently know naught on knots. I mean, I do not knots. What knotty word play, no?
I totally dig the QWERTY keyboard on the phone. And of course, the portability is awesome. It surely is the best android QWERTY doing the rounds.
However, the 3.7" Super-LCD screen, super though it is, is not big enough, after all. Which means I may have to purchase a new computing device. A tablet? The idea here is to purchase a tablet with a decent sized screen, then a dock so it can sit upright on my desk. Then a bluetooth keyboard. If you really want the portability, you can probably even get a foldable keyboard, but I myself don't know yet. And there, you have it- it's as good as a laptop. Once we have MS Office for Android, it is going to be just fabulous. After all, MS Office is probably the only reason why I (or you) may even want a full scale laptop. Then, now that you have the tablet, you can so easily carry it around, use it for taking notes, as an ebook reader, mobile internet, immense possibilities!
With many people thinking along these lines, I would think MS Windows is in big, big trouble. For Windows is nowhere in the Mobile OS picture- where it's all Android and iOS. So once you have an Android or iOS cellphone, you would naturally prefer to have the same OS on your tablet. It's the ecosystem. So this also means others are in big trouble- Blackberry, say. I would imagine very few would prefer a Playbook- BB cellphone pair over the innumerable Android tablet-Android cellphone pairings out there- there's one for everyone- mix and match. Or over the iPad-iPhone pairing. Not just hardware, but the App market, too, would be the clincher for Android and iOS. The key thing is, once there is a critical mass of users, the competition is totally shut-out. Just like how Windows totally killed competition because of its sheer market share. Once 50.01% had Windows, the rest had to have Windows: because their neighbor had it. Compatibility and all that- being on the ecosystem. And at that point, incrementally better quality or technology means nothing. And what could competition have that the big guy doesn't? -Incremental betterment. Unless they have a complete "game changer", they are totally shutout. Do Android and iOS have the critical mass? I would be inclined towards saying yes. In that case, I hear of the HP-Palm OS combo-why are they even trying? However good they are, wouldn't you say they are fighting a losing battle, the enemy is just too big?
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