Universal id and password

Think of how stupid and different are each websites password requirements. Think of how many times you have pressed the forgot password link. Think of how many times you created new logins for the same damn site. Think of how many times your online account has been blocked since you have tried too many passwords.

For most of the sites( that can be as high as 95%) you don't care if someone logs into your account you just want to get into it ! (Take job sites, do you care if some one else applies for you? I will pay for someone who does that for me)

Is the time reap for having an universal-id and password? A place like paypal which just accepts money based on an email address. This should be some non-profit standard body whose sole functionality is maintaining identities. Sites should basically give an option if you have that id, the more the sites start supporting it the more popular the body becomes. Some sites already give this for google, yahoo accounts like buxfer.

But this should be independent body that expects nothing than comfort of online users. Much like XML documents and W3c. And as the trust in the body grows users can give their more secure passwords and sensitive information.

Advantages:
1. Best of all it saves a lot of time for online users. Even if I just want to download code I had to create damn logins many times.
2. We can have one universal password, which will then avoid those forgot password, secret question hassles.
3. Small companies and start ups that do not need to collect information will be shielded from legal issues and can focus on their business better.

Disadvantages:
1. Identity theft will become a prominent issue, but I think users should just their non-important logins and passwords
2. Companies like google, which collect a lot of information about users may not like it.

Implementation

In my opinion this is almost a trivial task to implement. A web service which says yes or no given two parameters is the external interface. Internally it will check database to get the answer and whatever the technology. Any one can request the web service (including robots).
This is already being done daily when we validate websites using W3c validater.

I have browsed net a bit but could not find anything related to this. Except that norton wants to give this service for a fee.. huh I dont want it.

Funny quotes

You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.
- Jack London

Patriotism is often an arbitrary veneration of real estate above principles.
- George Jean Nathan

Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious.
- Peter Ustinov

To do just the opposite is also a form of imitation.
- Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun.
- Pablo Picasso

One word answers

Best thing I like about

Google- Space
Yahoo- Smileys
Microsoft- OneNote
Adobe- Dreamweaver
Apple- Design
Dell- Service
Hutch- Cheap
OpenSource- Free
NCSU- Resources
India- family
USA- productivity
AynRand- Howard Roark
Shruti- Joyousness
Raleigh- Cheap
Linux- Flexibility
CSC546- Fun
Orkut- people
Mozy- reliable
Easygestures- easy
laptop- availability
blogger- reachabilty

Worst thing about

Google- google desktop
Yahoo- Ads
Microsoft- inefficiency
Adobe- cost
Apple- cost
Dell- gaudy
Hutch- time-killer
OpenSource- unreliable
NCSU- funding
India- infrastrucutre
USA- culture
AynRand- umimplementability
Shruti- distance
Raleigh- transport
Linux- unreliability
CSC546- 3 classes a week
Easygestures- intrusiveness
laptop- inefficient
blogger- silence ( no comments :( )

Jonathan Ive – the man behind the Apple

Jonathan Ive – the man behind the Apple

While Steve Jobs can be said as the man in front of the Apple, steering its marketing and operational strategies, Jonathan Ive can be said as the man behind the Apple. All the successes reaped by Apple starting from the last decade- iMac, iNote, iPod, iTV and now the iPhone, which are now creating a cult of the Mac, were designed by his team. Heading the position of VP of Industrial Design, he has pioneered the breakthrough products and is an ardent designer.

 

If you ask Ive why he chose a career in industrial design, he will say simply that he likes drawing and making things. This passion has made him choose a career in Art and Design, and his talent was exemplified by awards as a student. His career is full of awards and recently he received the Commander of the British Empire, 2006 and many more like the D&AD, President's Award 2005.

His rule book reads something like this

• "The form should follow the function"
  
• " The product should be true to itself"
  
• "A successful design results only after many iterations"
  
• "The product should address the context".
  
• "All the effort must be hidden from the user"
  

 

He is passionate about design and worships and respects his work. He is actually very sad to see that there are very few good designers.

Philosophy

Mr.Ive is very passionate about design and have a meticulous attention to detail. Ive – says that he gets his inspiration from the everyday stuff that surrounds him - believes that design and ease of use are as important as function. Part of that ease of use comes from obsessive attention to detail. Mr. Ive has said that he "loves the obviousness of everything". But if he makes his work sound deceptively simple

Its not the appearance- it's the utility

People simply love apple products, if none other reason than for their looks. They raise feelings like cute, pretty, sexy, lovable just on their first looks. But Ive says" Somehow the appearance is consequent to so much more. It's not a predefined appearance that we force on to a product" . He believes that "From a designer's point of view, it's not an appearance game we're playing. It is very utilitarian. It's the use of material in a very minimalist way."

He is more a craftsmen than a stylist who are devoted for using materials truthfully and intense analysis. Commenting on those who tried to copy the colors of iMac he says "it wasn't just colour, it wasn't just translucency. We were developing a very specific nature of translucency in some of the early products we developed. We also looked at monochromatic products that were much more about materials and depth"

Simplicity of design and effort

 

"There's an applied style of being minimal and simple, and then there's real simplicity," he said. "This looks simple, because it really is."

Commenting on the power mac's design "It seems so simple to (add an extra drive) because we care a lot about making it easy to get to, and upgrade, and to do that in a good way," he said. "But none of that effort is apparent."

The holy grail of the interface design is designing an interface such that a user forgets about it and focuses solely on the task. Ive seems to embrace this tenet deeply, "In a way, the interface became the icon of the product, so much of what we're trying to do is to get design out of the way. Listening to music is a pretty loaded thing - it's not trivial. I think so many of the objects we're surrounded by seem trivial. And I think that's because they're either trying to make a statement or trying to be overtly different. What we were trying to do was have a very honest approach and an exploration of materials and surface treatment. So much of what we try to do is get to a point where the solution seems inevitable: you know, you think 'of course it's that way, why would it be any other way?' It looks so obvious, but that sense of inevitability in the solution is really hard to achieve."

Method

Ive describes the design process as intense, with his team first sketching furiously, later working up designs in various CAD applications which are then tested through physical models: "We make a lot of models and prototypes, and we go back and iterate. We strongly believe in prototyping and making things so you can pick them up and touch them."

He is also very considerate for go wrong and he even encourage it "One of the hallmarks of the team I think is this sense of looking to be wrong," said Ive at Radical Craft. "It's the inquisitiveness, the sense of exploration. It's about being excited to be wrong because then you've discovered something new."

 

 

Commenting on the industrial trends for design Ive says "So many companies are competing against each other with similar agendas. Being superficially different is the goal of so many of the products we see. A preoccupation with differentiation is the concern of many corporations rather than trying to innovate and genuinely taking the time, investing the resources and caring enough to try and make something better." Finally, for him support from the company to this is enormous "This lack of corporate agenda allows Mr Ive to create more than a machine, but a creative statement."

Interesting quotes

 

1. "Even if it was terrible, and in our minds didn't deserve any clearing of space, there was something about respecting the work; the idea that actually it was important – and if you didn't take the time to do it, why should anybody else"
   
2. 'Early on, we talked about designing a computer for the Jetsons - an almost nostalgic view of tomorrow, an optimistic view of the future. Every detail is there for a reason. The handle on the iMac helps you carry it, for instance, but subconsciously it also tells the technophobe that this machine isn't fragile, that it's made to be handled.'
   
3. "I want to see a problem solved, and in a way that acknowledges its context,"ⁱⁱ
   

 

Interesting parallels between Alexander's design and Jonathan's design

 

1. Alexander believes that beauty from within, the design should be such that each layer of it should be true to itself and add more meaning the whole, similarly Ive says "I hope - there's an inherent beauty in the internal architecture of the product and the way we're fabricating the product"
   
2. In all the Alexander's analysis we find that details play the central role for bringing beauty to an object, similarly in Ive's words "Very often people assume that it's only if it's a smaller volume production - batch production - that people will really be caring about all of the details. I think one thing that is typical about our work at Apple is caring about the smallest details. I think sometimes that's seen as more of a craft activity than a mass-production one. But I think that's very important."^x
   
3. "The outward appearance of the products is, Ive maintains, the organic result of an approach that devotes equal attention to every single component."^x
   

References

Jonathan Ive ~ Howard Roark

I got an interesting comparision, though most people wont approve it, I find some parallels between the two people

1. Both are passionate about design, they are students of design, they have a kind of religious feeling about their work
2. Both are immensely knowledgeable about the materials and have theortical depth
3. Both have created a cult, Ive - in reality, Roark- in Novel
4. Both are true believers of form follows function principle, not even a single brick should not be laid, if it does not serve a purpose
5. Truely innovative and creative.

To supplement my argument I give direct quotes

Ive in an interview said "By the age of thirteen or fourteen I was pretty certain that I wanted to draw and make stuff. I knew that I wanted to design but I had no idea what I’d design as I was interested in everything:"
Roark in the opening scene answers to his dean for the question, when did you decide to be an Architech? "I have decided to be Architech at the age of 11..."( may be incorrect words)

Ive ""I was terrible at running a design business, and I really wanted to just focus on the craft of design," he told Pearlman.
Roark " I can never convince a board of people.....", " those who wants me come to me..."




Things that are completely opposite
1. Team player- roark always work alone and he hates teams
2. Humbleness- that's not a characteristic of Roark, he is proud of his works and he shatters the building if some one else pokes hands in to the design
3. “The design we practice isn’t about self expression. I don’t want to see a designer wagging his tail in my face. I want to see a problem solved, and in a way that acknowledges its context,” said Ive but for Roark, his buildings are a form of self- expression, he wants to express his undulating spirit through his buildings.

easyGestures

Of many of the new applications I am trying out I find easyGestures, most customizable, most intuitive and useful. I rank it at the top along with OneNote 2007.

Easy gestures is a add-on for firefox, which is characterized by its pie menu. It is created with the theme of navigation more a gesture like a lift of a finger or jerk of the hand rather than the traditional clicking mechanism also, one striking features is It is created by Ons Besbes and have a selection of languages including espsanol, netherlands, french etc among others. The welcome screen gives a basic selection for options and customization.


Some of which are actions, behaviour, language selection area etc. One cool thing on this page is the profiles view, in which basically the software gives the record of number of clicks we have done using the pie menu. It automatically gives the familiarity of the user, novice, expert like that.

The highly useful feature is the pie menu, which is based on the fitt's law that it takes less amount of time

A definitve guide to graduate school of NCSU(for indians)

I am writing this blog to answer all the questions of graduate students who are thinking to come to NCSU at one go. I think this should be a better solution, than trying to answer each one of them or being blunt with them. Most of the information on this page should be valuable and lack of this have

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1. Will I get financial aid at NCSU ?

2. Will I get a part time job on campus?

3. Is there any other kind of financial aid possibility?

4. Huh, then why should I come to NCSU(why did you people go there)

5. Any other encouraging news?

6. Any other bad news?

7. How is GPA calculated?

8. How about weather?

9. How about entertainment?

10. What all are the things that are to be brought from India?

11. What would be a typical expense for a month?

12. How would you spend a typical weekday

13. How will one go to college

14. Tell me about Raleigh

15. What you like most about NCSU

1. Will I get financial aid at NCSU ?
You have a 'chance' to get aid only if you are in a Phd program or if you are in a department other than CSC and ECE. If you are a master's student in the CS department forget about funding.

2. Will I get a part time job on campus?
Only a lucky few after days of scrouging the campus painfully get that. I tried 4-5 times roaming around the entire campus with no use.

3. Is there any other kind of financial aid possibility?
No, nothing. Its just all your plain old rupees converting to dollars

4. Huh, then why should I come to NCSU(why did you people go there)
Being in NCSU gives you more chances to get an internship and a fulltime job rightaway from the college. In fact half of the students who came along with me for the fall are now employed as interns. Also cost of living here is less compared to california and other places. You can live decently with $300 per month. Also since RTP is nearer to NCSU chances are that, companies wil try to take students from here.

5. Any other encouraging news?
No, nothing other than that it is a silent, academic enviroment and great resources. Lot of research will be going on the university but you can get only inspiration (no bucks)

6. Any other bad news?
Ya, loads of it. I think most of the students will find the courses tough here and getting a decent GPA is not at an easy thing. And once you dont have a minimum GPA of 3 you will be on fire, no one employs you, you cant attend the co-op fair(not the careeer fair) and you will be under academic warning. Also, one big mistake most indians do is, plagiarism, we are never thought that it is a serious crime but in this university its a very big crime. Student have failed entire subject(got an F) because they did not give reference to a paper from which they copied from.
7. How is GPA calculated?(this is very important, most of the Indians don’t know about this)
Your GPA is calculated based on your grades in each course.

Each grade has a GPA attached to it

A+=4.33

A = 4.00

A-=3.66

B+ =3.33

B = 3.00

….

….l

F=0.00

Your total grade would be an average of all the grades. A sample is like this
If you take 3 courses
and get 3 A+ GPA is 4.33
and get 3 A's GPA is 4.00
and get 3 B's GPA is 3.00
and get 3 C's GPA is 2.00
ang get 3 D's GPA is 1.00(also it will not count in your credit hours)

Each professor has freedom to assign how his course is graded. Some professors do it relative while most give them in their syllabus sheets. The following is from a course csc 522.
A+ = 97 - 100
A = 93 - 96.9
A- = 90 - 92.9
B+ = 87 - 89.9
B = 83 - 86.9
B- = 80 - 82.9
C+ = 77 - 79.9
C = 73 - 76.9
C- = 70 - 72.9
D+ = 67 - 69.9
D = 63 - 66.9
D- = 60 - 62.9
F = 59 and below

Some professors attach more weigh to HW, some to projects, some for exams and for the above course weightage is like this
First test 15%
Midterm 15%
Final 30%
Project proposal 5%
Project presentation 5%
Project report 30%

8. How about weather?

Compared to other US cities Raleigh has a good climate. Though its painfully shivering in the winter, we all have to live that if we decide to come to the US(unless you can go to texas). Summers are pretty hot and it starts from May and continues till mid November. Then the sun will not set even till 8 pm. Winter starts from December and its still continuing (now its mid march). It snowed here two times J, some pictures are here.

9. How about entertainment?

That’s not a question you can ask me, because I am a loner even in India and my only fun is riding a motorbike, which we cannot even dream of until we get something like 90k/pa. But its my understanding that Raleigh is a very dull place, with no good bars or parties, But Maitri tries to organize some events and for telugu people there is Toranam. Movie theatres are far and expensive

11. What would be a typical expense for a month.

Typically it would be around $300 since you share the rent, electricity bill, grocery bill with room mates. Of all the apartments Avery close is the cheapest, I guess 60% stay there, the rest are scattered around Champion court, Kensington park(my place) and western manor

12. How would you spend a typical weekday

Ok, I will write about yesterday. I woke around 9, ate cornflakes(yes, that’s the easiest break fast). One other roommate cooked rice, ate it around 12 with night’s curries and rushed to college. Had two classes, then went to library for printouts, came back to home, ate something, idled for sometime. Read for sometime, saw youtube for 1 hour and slept.

Most of the days are like this, except when you have an assignment or exams, even the weekends does not have much difference.

13. How will one go to college

We travel by the beloved Wolfline, though its crazy to wait in busstops for 10 mins for a 20 mins walk most of the people do it. Some guys living even closer to the campus just walk daily. To save time I found a wonderful idea, its called the Bike(cycle in India!). Ya, from bikes, cars in India we are now on the basic vehicle. We can see the position of bus here and run…

14. Tell me about Raleigh

Raleigh is not big city, though it’s the state capital. It has some populated areas in downtown but for the most part of it , it looks barren. Our concept of state capital does not match here’s. It has many big stores but we can manage everything from the nearest foodline or ebay. If we get travel in Raleigh, best way is the CAT(its bus system) or sometimes TTA. For these two and wolfline we not pay anything.

15. What you like most about NCSU

The library, it simply rocks, even for entertainment library is a big resource. Imagine they give ipods on a renewal basis. Take time to browse the library site and the recent addition, the Learning commons is a paradise.

16. Any more advice?

In the first semester take only 3 subjects and that too all scoring, never take a course under Anton. She screwed the lives of 6 Indians for plagiarism , just gave an F that's it. Also though Algos is interesting, refrain from taking it because scoring in that is not easy. Also scoring depends very much on the instructor , rather than on the subject material. See this for grade distribution reports, its very useful to know who gives, how many grades and how is his average grading scheme is. I will give my analysis of takable courses later, keep looking but a safe bet is DBMS.

17. Will NCSU accept deferring of Admissions?

Yeah, it is very considerate in this regard(it seems they dont want to loose your tuition :p) , you can defer for two semesters. i.e if you get admit in this fall, you can come easily for the next fall too.

18. After getting admission what more should I do?

First thing, is the CFR form, take my advice don't spend any money on that with consultancies, its not that thoroughly checked, so any sloppy work goes. But take very good care about visa documents, one can be very strict there.

Well, if you have any more questions or clarifications, please use the comments section(below), as this will enable access to many people. I can pretty much answer any question regarding NCSU its lifestyle, campus, job oppurtunuties, etc. But no funding questions please, its simply not there.