Yesterday I was reading an article on The New York Times.It discusses about how technological evolutions are changing the habits of reading books.The author was in a flight.When the flight was going to land an announcement was heard requesting the the passengers to put down their books.Few years ago everyone would have been confused by this announcement.But not today.Everybody obediently switched off their kindles and ipads.This shows how widespread is the use of ebook reading devices nowadays.Gradually these are becoming part of our day to day life.May be in few years from now everybody will own a 6" library at his disposal!In recent past widespread use of mobile electronic gadgets are promoting this new trends of reading.There are different categories of devices.Some are dedicated ebook reader like Amazon kindle,Sony ebook reader.These devices are for reading books only in black letters on white background like conventional books.they dont support coloured text .Amazon and Sony argues that the book reader are not concerned about colour.Dedicated ebook reader have e-ink technology which makes the text as good as text in a conventional book.Reading book on an Amazon kindle will not strain your eyes unlike reading book on a palmtop or on a laptop or smartphone.Some people argues that as habit of reading colour text with photos and videos is growing via internet,there are people who would like to read color text with photos on their mobile devices.The next two types of devices I will discuss are this type. Nook color by Burns and Noble is having color text with some auxiliary features.These additional features let you do things beyond reading.The third type of devices are the iconic ipad and its "cheap" imitations like samsung Galaxy.Ipad is more than an ebook reader.It is a full fledged computer.So if you have ipad with you you dont need to carry ur ebook reader additionally.Though it does not have the advantages of e-ink technology as mentioned above.Competition is fierce among these three type of devices but ultimately people will decide in which form they will read book in future.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Sunday, September 12, 2010
The question I asked Thomas L Friedman
Today it seems that Obama administration will go ahead with this anti outsourcing stance.I was quite eager to know what Friedman himself was thinking about this.So I asked him this question
through twitter.Will his "Flat World" cease to exist in near future?He has not replied as yet....
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Is "green way of living" a luxury?
It is often articulated in developing countries like India that "going green" is a luxury.As the green measures will put a break on industrialization and building infrastructure.
The phycology of the people in developing countries can be understood by using Maslow's hierarchy of needs.Maslow's hierarchy says humans will fulfill basic needs before moving on to higher level ones. If you're unemployed and dont have a house to live global warming will not be your biggest concern.When a person is stuck at safety needs, they cannot rise to social needs.In the developing
countries we have most of the people pushed into fear/survival level.At that level, anything beyond personal selfish survival is disregarded, or seen as hurting survival.These people dont have time to
think about an environmental issue like global warming.They are quite busy earning their livelihood.
A similarity can be seen between today's developing states and southern states in USA during civil war.When president Lincoln proposed to abolish "slavery" the southern states violently opposed that move.These states were dependent primarily on slaves for agriculture which the
main occupation in the south.They opposed a noble idea like abolition of slavery only because it would affect their livelihood.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Lima syndrome=1/Stockholm syndrome !!!!
Dear friends yesterday I wrote about Stockholm syndrome.Now let me talk about "Lima syndrome" which is said to be the inverse of "Stockholm Syndrome".Unlike ""Stockholm syndrome", where hostages develop sympathy for their abductor, "Lima syndrome"is the result of the abductor / kidnapper sympathizing with his hostages. It was named after an abduction at the Japanese Embassy in Lima, Peru in 1996, when members of a militant movement took hostage hundreds of people attending a party in the official residence of Japan's ambassador. Within a few hours, the abductors had set free most of the hostages, including the most valuable ones, due to sympathy.
Goals:NOT to be revealed!!!
Do you have a goal?Do you announce it in public to motivate yourself or to get inspiration
from the people who are close to you?But in the opinion of music entrepreneur Derek Sivers
(as qouted in the NY times) if you announce your goal you have less chances of accomplishing
it.“Any time you have a goal, there are some steps that need to be done, some work that needs to be done in order to achieve it,” says Sivers. “Ideally, you would not be satisfied until you had actually done the work, but when you tell someone your goal, and they acknowledge it, psychologists have found that it’s called a social reality. The mind is kind of tricked into feeling that it’s already done. And then, because you’ve felt that satisfaction, you’re less motivated to do the actual hard work necessary.”
So morale of the story is that "Got a plan?Best keep it Quiet....."!!
from the people who are close to you?But in the opinion of music entrepreneur Derek Sivers
(as qouted in the NY times) if you announce your goal you have less chances of accomplishing
it.“Any time you have a goal, there are some steps that need to be done, some work that needs to be done in order to achieve it,” says Sivers. “Ideally, you would not be satisfied until you had actually done the work, but when you tell someone your goal, and they acknowledge it, psychologists have found that it’s called a social reality. The mind is kind of tricked into feeling that it’s already done. And then, because you’ve felt that satisfaction, you’re less motivated to do the actual hard work necessary.”
So morale of the story is that "Got a plan?Best keep it Quiet....."!!
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Stockholm Syndrome:a paradoxical psychological phenomenon
Recently in a book entitled " 3096 days" Natascha Kampusch , an Austrian woman has described her 3096 days of captivity.Her captor Wolfgang Priklopil locked her inside a basement for eight years.Some psychologists have described the relationship Natasha shared with her captor as Stockholm Syndrome, a psychological condition when the victim of an abduction identifies with the kidnapper and becomes attached to him or her.This prompted me to know more about this "Stockholm Syndrome".I would like share with you the interesting facts I encountered in the process.
What is stockholm syndrome?
In psychology, Stockholm syndrome is a term used to describe a paradoxical psychological phenomenon wherein hostages express adulation and have positive feelings towards their captors that appear irrational in light of the danger or risk endured by the victims, essentially mistaking a lack of abuse from their captors as an act of kindness. The FBI’s Hostage Barricade Database System shows that roughly 27% of victims show evidence of Stockholm syndrome. The syndrome is named after the Norrmalmstorg robbery of Kreditbanken at Norrmalmstorg in Stockholm, in which the bank robbers held bank employees hostage from August 23 to August 28, 1973. In this case, the victims became emotionally attached to their captors, and even defended them after they were freed from their six-day ordeal. The term "Stockholm Syndrome" was coined by the criminologist and psychiatrist Nils Bejerot, who assisted the police during the robbery, and referred to the syndrome in a news broadcast.It was originally defined by psychiatrist Frank Ochberg to aid the management of hostage situations.
The following are viewed as the conditions necessary for Stockholm syndrome to occur
1)Hostages who develop Stockholm syndrome often view the perpetrator as giving life by simply not taking it. In this sense, the captor becomes the person in control of the captive’s basic needs for survival and the victim’s life itself.
2)The hostage endures isolation from other people and has only the captor’s perspective available. Perpetrators routinely keep information about the outside world’s response to their actions from captives to keep them totally dependent.
3)The hostage taker threatens to kill the victim and gives the perception of having the capability to do so. The captive judges it safer to align with the perpetrator, endure the hardship of captivity, and comply with the captor than to resist and face murder
4)The captive sees the perpetrator as showing some degree of kindness. Kindness serves as the cornerstone of Stockholm syndrome; the condition will not develop unless the captor exhibits it in some form toward the hostage.
Instances of stockholm syndrome in films
What is stockholm syndrome?
In psychology, Stockholm syndrome is a term used to describe a paradoxical psychological phenomenon wherein hostages express adulation and have positive feelings towards their captors that appear irrational in light of the danger or risk endured by the victims, essentially mistaking a lack of abuse from their captors as an act of kindness. The FBI’s Hostage Barricade Database System shows that roughly 27% of victims show evidence of Stockholm syndrome. The syndrome is named after the Norrmalmstorg robbery of Kreditbanken at Norrmalmstorg in Stockholm, in which the bank robbers held bank employees hostage from August 23 to August 28, 1973. In this case, the victims became emotionally attached to their captors, and even defended them after they were freed from their six-day ordeal. The term "Stockholm Syndrome" was coined by the criminologist and psychiatrist Nils Bejerot, who assisted the police during the robbery, and referred to the syndrome in a news broadcast.It was originally defined by psychiatrist Frank Ochberg to aid the management of hostage situations.
The following are viewed as the conditions necessary for Stockholm syndrome to occur
1)Hostages who develop Stockholm syndrome often view the perpetrator as giving life by simply not taking it. In this sense, the captor becomes the person in control of the captive’s basic needs for survival and the victim’s life itself.
2)The hostage endures isolation from other people and has only the captor’s perspective available. Perpetrators routinely keep information about the outside world’s response to their actions from captives to keep them totally dependent.
3)The hostage taker threatens to kill the victim and gives the perception of having the capability to do so. The captive judges it safer to align with the perpetrator, endure the hardship of captivity, and comply with the captor than to resist and face murder
4)The captive sees the perpetrator as showing some degree of kindness. Kindness serves as the cornerstone of Stockholm syndrome; the condition will not develop unless the captor exhibits it in some form toward the hostage.
Instances of stockholm syndrome in films
- In the "Bond movie" The World Is Not Enough, James Bond deduces that Elektra King, the female antagonist in the movie is affected by Stockholm Syndrome.
- The term Helsinki syndrome has been used erroneously to describe Stockholm syndrome, popularized by the movie Die Hard
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
History repeats itself at katyn
Last week polish presidential flight an aging Tu-154 crashed near smolensk airport.The aircraft was trying to land after three failed attempts.As a professional air traffic management executive I am tempted to comment on this unfortunate event.Lets start with the aircraft.These Russian made Tu-154 are withdrawn from operation all over the world.There have been 54 accidents involving Tu-154 in last four decades.There were dense fog over the air field.The air traffic control advised the pilot to divert to some other airport like Moscow.But the pilot disobeyed that instruction and after three failed attempts in the fourth attempt it met with the accident.Nowadays in modern airports there is a system called Instrument landing system(ILS).This system provides vertical and horizontal guidance to an approaching aircraft.Landing phase is the most crucial of all phases of a flight.Most of the accident takes place either at the time of landing or take off.In heavy fog also with the help of ILS aircraft can land even in zero visibility.But this system was not available in smolensk airport.As ILS was not available the aircraft had to see the terrain on its approach for landing.Due to heavy fog on that day the pilot could not see the terrain and it reportedly hit treetops and crashed into pieces.Only after through investigation the cause of accident will be clear.But this could be a reasonable guess.Now the question is why the pilot wanted to land so desperately when visibility was so poor.Some speculations are there that the pilot acted as per instruction given by polish top bosses including the president.The president Kaczynski desperately wanted to attend the commemoration of Katyn killings.Thousands of poles were slaughtered by soviet secret police in katyn forest back in 1940.The president was going to attend a ceremony commemorating that event.It is an irony that the plane crashed just a short drive from katyn forest.Katyn takes more polish toll.Destiny!!!
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
I am swaping my books.are you?
All of us love books.Recently we had a two week long books carnival in kolkata named "book fair".While roaming around book shops I was wondering about what would be the future of this fair after say ten years.Whether the crowd will be so patient and tolerant then also to overlook dusts, claustrophobic stalls ,near stampede situation for the sake of books.Given the alternative that ebook and ebook reader will provide to the reader its least likely that people will rush to book fair in the same number they do today.Electronic books or ebooks are also called digital books are e-texts which forms the digital media equivalent of conventional printed books.E-books are read on dedicated hardware devices.computers and mobile phones can also be used to read e-books.E-books can be in different formats html,pdf,doc.Dedicated e-book readers use e-ink technology.This e-ink can imitate the look of a printed work.Many of you must have felt irritated while going through a long text on a computer screen.But due to this e-ink technology in an e-book reader our eyes will not be strained.At present many e-book readers are available.Among then amazon kindle and sony e-book reader are most popular.Last but not the least I am planning to buy an amazon kindle sooner than later!!
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