Wednesday, November 16, 2011

A taste of technology


There's always something new cooking in the tech world – and most of it is sweet.

AD: Hi, weren't you looking for a mobile a couple of months ago? Did you buy one?

BC: I just couldn’t decide... All of them sounded so complicated….

AD: Why don’t you get the latest – Samsung Galaxy Nexus - with an Ice Cream Sandwich?

BC: Is that an offer? Buy a mobile phone and get an ice cream sandwich free?

AD: No, Ice Cream Sandwich is the latest version of Google’s Android operating system.

BC: Why name an OS after a food item?

AD: They're just trying to find a way to get guys like you to work up an appetite for technology.

BC: You haven't answered my question though...

AD: Well, first, there was nothing…

BC: Are you starting from God creating heaven and earth?

AD: No, what I meant was that the Android OS, Version 1.1 did not have a name.

BC: So how did the saccharine connotation come about?

AD: Google’s next big release was Android Version 1.5, codenamed cupcake…

BC: And that was how it all started…

AD: Yes, ‘cupcake’ was followed up with Android Version 1.6 – Donut.

BC: What was next – Éclair?

AD: Was that a lucky guess? It was Éclair – Android 2.0.

BC: But why Éclair?

AD: Perhaps there were so many new features that they needed something bigger than a donut!

BC: So each version was named after a dessert item.

AD: They didn’t stop with that, they named them in alphabetical order too. Cupcake, Donut, Éclair… the next was Froyo, Android 2.2.

BC: Froyo?

AD: Yup, stands for ‘frozen yoghurt’.

BC: Was it meant to be a sweet and sour experience for users?

AD: It was lip-smacking! Froyo was succeeded by Gingerbread – Android 2.3.

BC: Maybe each new version had to be celebrated and hence a dessert name…

AD: Perhaps! Apparently, gingerbread is part of the year-end celebrations in the US, and this version was released in December 2010, so…

BC: That figures.

AD: The next version of Android OS – Honeycomb - was launched exclusively for tablets.

BC: After all these desserts, I’m sure you’ll need a tablet.

AD: Oh c’mon, you know what I’m referring to. And now, Version 4.0 is being launched this month…

BC: Ice Cream Sandwich!

AD: You got it!

BC: With India becoming a huge market for these devices, do you think the next version could be called Jalebi?

AD: Why don’t you write to Google? They might give you a job…

BC: …in the kitchen, where I’ll be making sweets.

AD: I don’t think they’ll want to risk their lives.

BC: I’m still curious – why desserts?

AD: The Google team prefers to be secretive about this, so all we can do is guess. There are other 'sweet-sounding' names as well. Peppermint is an open source operating system based on Ubuntu Linux. Muffin is a proxy software that filters web content...

BC: I always thought that a name should convey a category, a benefit or an innovation…

AD: That’s conventional thinking. Companies follow their own nomenclature when it comes to naming products… For instance, Apple names its Mac OS X versions after cats – Cheetah, Puma, Jaguar, Panther, Tiger, Leopard, and so on.

BC: Isn’t it funny?

AD: What is?

BC: Half of technology is named after food we love to feast on. The other half is named after cats that love to feast on us.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Remembering our i-cons


Why are we so selective in remembering the people who matter, wonders an old-timer.

BC: Hi, why the sad sack impersonation?

AD: Just reading a whole lot of touching tributes to Steve Jobs. It's almost a month since he passed away, and the messages are still pouring in...

BC: That's the impact the man has had on billions of lives. Incidentally, the world lost another genius exactly a week later.

AD: Who?

BC: Dennis Ritchie.

AD: Who was he?

BC: Isn't it ironical that we know Steve Jobs so well, but have hardly heard of Dennis Ritchie?

AD: It’s not. Steve Jobs designed devices that are so popular - from iMacs to iPods, iPads and iPhones...

BC: Dennis Ritchie was the father of C, the programming language, and he co-created the Unix operating system.

AD: So?

BC: Your browsers, servers and almost everything on the web, owe their origin to C or one of its derivatives. And most of the operating systems in existence today, including Apple's OS for all its devices are Unix-based.

AD: Really?

BC: Yes! So you see, if Steve Jobs was the guru of gizmos, Dennis Ritchie was considered the ‘man who shaped the digital era’.

AD: Interesting, but I'm surprised that you know about him.

BC: I read a brilliant piece about him on the web a fortnight ago... that was when I realised his contribution to our present world.

AD: The iPod and the Mac are so much a part of our lives... not quite the case with C.

BC: Is the ice cream scoop a part of your life?

AD: Guess so.

BC: Who invented it?

AD: I don't remember...

BC: In other words, you don't know. You wouldn't happen to know who invented the bottle opener or the dishwasher or the...

AD: Listen, spare me, I’m not into quizzing.

BC: If Steve Jobs is popular because he developed so many devices that we use on an everyday basis...

AD: But Steve Jobs gave us the latest in technology - the rest of your examples are mundane kitchen items...

BC: Technology? Let’s see... there have been so many versions of Apple computers over the decades. In less than five years, we have seen five generations of the iPhone. But do you know that the ice cream scoop has remained untouched by technology? It’s remained unchanged for over 110 years now…

AD: Really?

BC: Yes! So why should the ‘lowly’ ice cream scoop be any lesser than a modern device, especially when it is thumbing its nose at technology?

AD: Unless you're particular about a play on words, I don't see how anyone can compare an iPhone and icecream...

BC: The human mind is so fickle – on one hand, we fail to give credit where it's due, and on the other, we simply follow the mob. Today, even someone who hasn't heard of Apple computers is empowered to click a ‘like’ button on a eulogy to Steve Jobs.

AD: Look, I can use an iPhone or iPad to find out who Steve Jobs is. But I can eat all the ice cream in the world and it won’t lead me to the inventor of the ice cream scoop. Incidentally, who created it?

BC: Alfred L Cralle, an Afro-American inventor…

AD: Never heard of him…

BC: Perhaps he should have called it the i-scoop and advertised that it does not require a power source, maintenance or upgrades. Your generation would have i-dolised him for sure.