American Food Story... →

This is a spectacular review of an even spectacular food show. Padma Lakshmi continues in the big shoes of Anthony Bourdain and surfaces hard truths that lie behind the international cuisine being adopted in mainstream America often at the cost of the immigrants that brought it in.

But the episode has already exposed the conflict at the heart of American cooking, the inequity of a culture that gets to selectively take and absorb whatever it wants without having to offer anything significant in return.

original.jpg

Remote Learning - It didn't work... →

The continuing exercise in remote learning seems to have hit a wall. As a father of two teenagers, the first few months of this year have been abysmal in the area of remote learning. Their schools valiantly did everything they could to make it an engaging experience. But as this article discusses in detail, I very much doubt how much actual “learning” the kids imbibed.

This article outlines the problems that surfaced when this whole exercise started in earnest in the middle of March, 2020.

“I think we have this assumption that since they spend all their time on their devices, it’s no big deal for them to learn remotely,” said Janella Hinds, a social-studies teacher at the 500-student High School for Public Service in Brooklyn’s Flatbush neighborhood. “But being a digital consumer and a digital learner are two different things.”

Quantum Country - a new kind of book that you will actually understand →

How much of a book do we really absorb and understand? The plethora of reading riches that surrounds us has made it very difficult to take the time to absorb and understand books. And if the topic is complex or requires attention then it is even harder to answer questions after reading the book or even have meaningful discussions about the conclusions in the book.

But here comes a new format for a book, that authors Andy Matuschak and Michale Nielsen hope will make it easier for the reader to understand and absorb the key ideas in it. It’s presented in a new mnemonic medium, which makes it a pleasure to read.

And as a challenge, their topic of choice is “Quantum Computing”. Which really makes it all the more interesting to see if average readers will understand this complex topic.

The pandemic creates opportunities for organized crime.. →

Even though the pandemic has caused disruption in crime, criminals are finding new opportunities. As law enforcement is distracted by pandemic rules and now the #BLM protests, organized crime is having a field day figuring out how to take advantage of this inattention.

“Criminals are humans too,” said Graeme Biggar, economic crimes lead at the NCA, “and they are abiding by the rules.”

How yogurt reflects food trends in America... →

When you think of yogurt, depending on where you grew up, it conjures up diverse images, tastes, and smells. For me, growing up in India, yogurt, or as we called it ‘dahi’ (दही) or ‘curd’ - was set to be made everyday in a brown ceramic bowl. My dad filled it with fresh milk and added a spoonful of the previous lot of curd, mixed it well, and left it in a warm place in the kitchen to set.

We then used curds/dahi in many different dishes - chutneys, relishes, curries/kadhi, and of course, dahi-wada. A delicious snack of fried lentil balls in curd sauce. But the most important use was for wishing us good-luck before our exams. My mom would ladle out a spoonful of dahi on my palm and sprinkle a bit of sugar. I slurped that off my palm and went off to school to battle the day’s exams, reassured of my anxieties that this sweet little delight would be an auspicious shield to ward off failure.

But coming to America, you realize that yogurt here is just meant to be eaten by itself, often sweet and sprinkled with granola and fruit.

The astonishing varieties of yogurt now available in any grocery store in America, reflects the current and future food trends as this article informs in detail..

You might want to rethink your resume.. →

Automation and AI is now filtering our resumes and deciding how you proceed through a job interview process. It’s time to rethink how you build your resume. Interactive bots are now filtering initial interview questions and candidates are creating video replies to stock answers…

In the age of TikTok will you be judged by your 7 second video clip ?

Remarkable — a tablet that lives up to its name

You would think that naming a product "Remarkable" is almost setting it up for ridicule. But it's not very often that a gadget so perfectly fits the job it's meant to do that it lives up to its name.  Indeed, having used the Remarkable writing and reading tablet for over three years now, I can assure you that it is one of those gadgets.

I bought the Remarkable tablet when it launched back in Oct 2017. I have been using it daily since then. It has completely transformed my note-taking and book-reading — to the point that I have donated all my beautiful paper notebooks, Field Notes, Bullet Journals, and assorted swag conference diaries to my kid's school. I am paper-free.

A tablet that reads and writes

The Remarkable tablet is a simple computer with an A4 paper sized e-Ink display. With just this description, it sounds like a large Kindle. Yes, you can also read books on it. But what makes it stand apart from the Kindle is that you can write on it. 

And when I mean write, it feels like writing on paper. This fantastic experience is due to the rough paper-like texture of the display cover and the passive stylus with a plastic nib that wears down like a pencil. The tablet thoughtfully comes with five spare stylus nibs.

The paper-like experience is so real that it makes a scratching sound when you write on it, just like paper. The feel is very textured and rough, akin to a graphite pencil on sketch paper.

This feature alone would have sold me on the benefits of the tablet. But there's more.

The tablet runs a custom version of Linux called Codex on an ARM chip. It has 8GB of internal storage that's equivalent to about storing 100,000 pages of text. Trust me, if you can write 100,000 pages of notes, plans, stories, etc., you are in the wrong career. You should be a full-time writer.

The Codex OS on the tablet is a beautiful example of a user interface done right. It is intuitive, fast, and reliable. The tablet has never crashed or misbehaved in my three years of use.

Due to the low power e-Ink display, the battery easily lasts a week or more. Charging is quick through a micro-USB connector so you can use the same one that charges your multiple devices at home.

Notebooks and eBooks

The tablet supports three core formats: Notebooks, PDFs and eBooks in the DRM free ePub format.

Notebooks are for things you create yourself. Sketches, bullet journals, daily diaries, ToDo lists, lecture notes — you can create all these in one notebook or have individual ones for each writing type.

The Notebook feature comes with over 50 templates of different types of page formats: pages with small, large dots for bullet journals, Day Planner format, Week plan format, ruled lines of various widths and sizes, squared pages for sketching or Math – the Remarkable team has pretty much thought of everything.

You can have a different page format for every page in your single notebook. Or you can create notebooks with different formats. And you can easily move pages within a notebook or to different notebooks. This feature is useful when you start taking notes quickly and later on want to categorize them.

You can transfer your eBooks and PDFs to the tablet using the companion app. Reading books on this tablet is a joy as you have a larger size than the Kindle, and you can annotate any page of any ebook or PDF with your stylus. These annotations will persist and sync across your devices through the app. Friendly page-turning swipe gestures on the screen, and hard buttons to advance or go back pages make it easy to navigate a book.

Writing done right

The writing features also has a few neat functions. The most basic one is UNDO. You have infinite Undo capability, so if you want to fix any squiggle, you can undo one stroke at a time. If you're going to erase many strokes or a large portion of the page or the entire page itself, you are better off using the Erase feature. The Erase feature allows you to erase like a pencil eraser, or draw a shape around the strokes/writing you want to delete, and it will erase everything within that closed shape.

You can duplicate anything you write or sketch - which is handy for quickly creating patterns or bullet points or templates. Again, circle the writing or drawing you want to duplicate, tap on the '+' icon on the selection rectangle, and drag the duplicated material to another spot on the page.

If you are like me and can't sometimes recognize your handwriting due to a lack of practice since we all type on our devices now, Remarkable also has handwriting-recognition built into the tablet. You can choose a page or entire notebook and convert the text and symbols into digital text and symbols. The accuracy is over 95% and very reliable across a range of handwriting. You get the converted notes as a text file sent to your email. Very convenient and easy to use.

Sketchy stuff...

Besides these basic writing features, if you are an artist, this tablet will replace your daily sketchbook. It has Pencils, Pens, Brushes with varying thicknesses of nibs & strokes. You can create layers (like PhotoShop) and have a rich canvas that allows you to create some spectacular art, like these from the @remarkable Instagram account.

WiFi without the distraction

The tablet connects to WiFi. But don't think you will be able to browse the internet on this. The WiFi is strictly for syncing the content from the tablet to your mobile or desktop devices through an extremely functional companion app available on macOS/Windows and iOS/Android. The app allows you to sync content across your tablet and your mobile & desktop devices. You transfer PDFs and eBooks to the tablet by loading them first in the app and then automatically sync to the tablet.

The ability to not get distracted by notifications, browsing, email, or other apps makes this tablet spectacular to focus on the task at hand — be it writing, taking notes, sketching or reading books. This non-feature alone is worth the price of admission.

Scandinavian beauty

I want to highlight the beautiful visual experiences that the Remarkable team has created on every customer-facing aspect of the tablet, the user interface, their website, and their app. The design is typically Scandinavian, as the Remarkable team is in Oslo, Norway. You can very clearly see the Scandinavian design influence of pure, clean, functional design that delights. It's what I would expect the evolution of the current Apple design aesthetic. This product straight up seems like an Apple product from the future.

Every time I take my tablet out for reading or taking notes in a company meeting or with friends, the first thing people exclaim is "What's that ?". Then, I give them a run-through of all the features and then invite them to pick up the stylus and write on it themselves. Within the first few seconds of writing or drawing on it, their face cracks open into a wide smile as they realize how close it is to writing on paper. It's something you have to experience for yourself. Many of my friends and colleagues have subsequently purchased one for themselves and are enjoying the benefits of going paper-free.

Going green... remarkably easy...

This tablet could revolutionize the school and college experience for students. They won't have to spend on expensive paper notebooks and textbooks. If the schools and colleges invest in these tablets and provide all the textbooks in eBook form on the tablet, the productivity and cost benefits will surpass the cost of the tablet in no time. Remember, no internet distractions on this device so it can be safely used inside a classroom.

Many industries and markets could benefit from this: healthcare professionals, law enforcement, lawyers, government officials, and workplaces with a lot of paperwork required for reading, writing, and sharing. This tablet is as green as it gets.

Remarkable 2.0

And now, after three years, Remarkable has announced version 2 of their beautiful tablet. This new version looks fantastic and has an elegant polished look and feel. With an aluminum casing, it is thinner than the first version, with longer battery life and a stylus with an eraser at the opposite end - just like a regular pencil. And they also upgraded the connector to a USB-C, so it works universally with all your latest devices.

Remarkable 2.0 - Photo by remarkable.com

Remarkable 2.0 - Photo by remarkable.com

The benefit of introducing the new version of the tablet extends to the old version. You can now buy version 1 for 20% off for a new one and 27% off for a refurbished one. These are some great deals for a device that will pay itself over many times.

I have already ordered the version 2, being delivered sometime in July this year. Expect a followup to this review focused on version 2 of the tablet in August.

They weren't kidding when they named their device Remarkable. It truly is...

The first global city... 350 years ago... →

This is an amazing story of Potosí - the first global city populated by the most diverse collection of humans from around the world, almost 350-400 years ago in Bolivia.

I love reading these long articles of history. They provide a lot of perspective and knowledge that you can apply to your everyday life, particularly studying the decline of Potosí…

The end came not as spectacular implosion but as irreversible decline. Lower taxes and the imposition of a harsher labour regimen lifted silver production in the later 18th century, but the mines were deep and mercury expensive. Technological fixes failed.

Capsule Endeavor docks with the ISS - Doug and Bob climb aboard...

What a fantastic display of absolute perfection. From NASA and SpaceX we get the first commercial human spaceflight aboard the Falcon 9 workhorse. Crew Dragon capsule, renamed to Endeavor by Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken smoothly docked with the ISS Saturday morning. Within an hour they opened up the vestibule and clambered aboard the ISS welcomed by the current Commander, Chris Cassidy.

Doug & Bob join Cmd. Chris Cassidy, Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner aboard the ISS.

Doug & Bob join Cmd. Chris Cassidy, Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner aboard the ISS.

And to give you a perspective of how busy the ISS is today, here’s a shot of 5 spaceships docked at the ISS today.. how’s that for an episode of Deep Space Nine ? 😀

Stop your family from complaining about poor WiFi coverage

It's 4 pm and you hear that dreaded cry from your kid's bedroom. "Daaaaaad... the WiFi is not working...".

For any parent these are now the most feared words, as we hunker down together through this period of being grounded by an infinitesimally small virus.

In happier times (any date before March 13, 2020 😂) we would have ignored the cry or asked our kids to "Come out here in the study where the router has a better signal..".

Saying that now, will only cause you parental shame.

But there is a better solution. It's called "mesh networking" and has been around for a few years now. Mesh networking allows you to blanket your house with strong wifi signals using wifi transceivers at targeted areas around the house. 

wifi-coverage.png

These are not "WiFi Extenders" or "WiFi Access Points". The new mesh network devices are a sophisticated version of these extenders where they offer various key benefits like transparently handing over connection to the nearest mesh network device and beam-forming to individual devices as well.

This results in a strong WiFi connection between your phone, tablet or laptop to the mesh device nearest you as you move from room to room in your house.

The pioneer in this field has been a company called "Eero". They  were founded in 2015 and launched the first user friendly mesh network router set. The entire product experience was like an Apple product, including the pristine white color of the devices.

Being an exceptionally early adopter (to my wife’s eternal chagrin), I immediately bought them and have been using them for almost 4 years now. Never again have we had any wifi coverage issues in our house or even in our backyard/frontyard.

My first generation Eero next to my AirPods Pro and Magic Mouse for comparison.

My first generation Eero next to my AirPods Pro and Magic Mouse for comparison.

Eero were very successful and soon were scooped up by Amazon in 2019.

They are now in their third version of their hardware and now offer consumer and small business configurations.

I would highly recommend their beautiful 3 piece consumer set.

You plug one into your cable or DSL modem and then set it up with their really cool mobile app. You can then setup the other two devices at strategic locations throughout your house. The app will guide you to where the signal strength is best. If you have a large area to cover you can buy more of these devices.

Once these are setup they provide strong wifi coverage through out your house. But wait, there's more.

katie-eero.png

The Eero app also provides simple features to monitor and restrict access to the internet for all devices that connect to the wifi. That means you can target your kid's devices, set them up in a profile and then collectively turn them on or off with a single tap from anywhere in the world.

So for instance if your kid, Katie, has a phone and tablet, you can link those two devices to a profile, say "Katie". Then you can set access times for Katie. So she gets to user the internet from 8 am - 10 pm every weekday and 7 am - 11 am on weekends. Or if she is not doing their chores then you can "ground" them from the internet with a single tap.

In addition, Eero also has a monthly subscription called "Eero Secure" to monitor and block ads and harmful sites from your entire network ! 

So everyone in the house connected to the WiFi running on Eero with Eero Secure turned on will not see most ads on websites or apps. This alone is worth the price of admission..

So what are you waiting for ? Get a Eero mesh network and stop those dreaded cries bemoaning the poor wifi signal and be the cool parent who forever solved the wifi problem…

Power when you need it, where you need it...

Sometimes I am on my patio working on a simple enough project, say fixing the InstaPot lid that my wife inadvertently left too close near the stovetop burner and it melted part of the plastic lining. So now the lid won't close. My expert analysis lead me to believe that all it required was a bit of sanding and buffing with my trusty Dremel.

So I setup the InstaPot lid and Dremel kit on my patio table and then looked around for a power socket. The nearest one was too far for the Dremel wire and I didn't want to lug out an extension cord.

Luckily I have this amazing portable power source powered by a humungous lithium-ion battery. My friends, meet Jackery - the 240Wh battery pack that provides 110V/200W of pure since wave AC power. You can plug in one 110v appliance and it has 2 USB ports along with a 12v car port.

It's too good to be true. You can use it for all sorts of low power appliances (less than 200W) around the house and it's a fantastic power source for going camping and hiking. No messy gasoline generators to worry about.

This power pack can also be charged by a solar panel sold separately. Now you are truly free and off the grid.

So I plugged in my Dremel and few minutes later had sanded the melted lining of the InstaPot lid. Voila! The lid closes safely. I have used my Jackery for various tasks around the house and in my backyard.

We also take it to the beach where it can charge everyone's iPhones, iPads and keep a small drinks cooler running through the day keeping our beers cold.

It looks beautiful and is extremely well made. A solid piece of equipment that will last you for a long time.

Get one today and enjoy the freedom it provides. 


Highly recommend: 5/5

Prince of Persia: How it was made.. a daily journal of the struggle

If like me you spent your late teens and early twenties in the 1980s, playing this amazing game called “Prince of Persia” then you will really admire the effort it took for another 20 year old named Jordan Mechner, half way across the world from me in India, to build this game painstakingly frame by frame.

The first time you saw the Prince jump in one fluid motion and land with bent knees you knew this was something exceptional - because, this was on bitmapped graphics on low powered CPUs in the late 1980s. It originally was developed and ran on an Apple II running CP/M or ProDOS and was written in 6502 assembly language.

Gameplay on IBM PC - animated gif from Wikipedia.

Gameplay on IBM PC - animated gif from Wikipedia.

I was in college studying computer engineering, at the time I first saw the game. I was hooked instantly and got the game on a floppy. My classmates and I spent hours playing and replaying every level until we got to the Princess after fighting the nasty Vazir and a bunch of his hooligans along the way. Even though there were only 12 levels we felt that it took forever to get to the top of the tower and rescue the princess.

Now you can read Jordan Mechner’s journal of how he single handedly created this amazing creative work for the ages. The game has been ported onto almost all gaming and computing platforms since it launched and you can even get it on your iOS or Android device.

The book is a revelation. He actually filmed his younger brother in various poses that the Prince character would do and rotoscoped the animation so that it looked lifelike. Very honestly written, Mechner's journal shows a rawness in thought and boldness in approach on how to solve complex problems and achieve slow but steady progress daily.

It took him almost 3 years to perfect the game and when finally released in 1989, he was completely burnt out.

The journal should be an inspiration for every young person in college or starting out their career on how to overcome challenges in life and stick to your passion. It also is a lesson on how to achieve extreme focus and not give up.

But the most important lesson is about keeping a daily journal. You never know when that could become a published book ! I use the Day One app to keep a daily journal. More on that in another post soon.

The saying goes that everyone has one book, one movie, one game, one big achievement in them. This was Mechner's. And it certainly lasted the sands of time… 😀

Professional Video Conferencing Hack: Get a stand

Now that everyone is a Zoom video star, there are times when you need that professional static steady shot of your quarantine face. Too many meetings are beset by jittery video as participants try to adjust their phone, tablet or laptop cameras in unwieldy positions, often looking like the nauseating shots from the Blair Witch Project.

The easiest way to get a professional looking steady video shots is just to invest in a good stand for your mobile device. The one that I really like is this CamKix Tripod that also comes with a BlueTooth remote control. The stand can accommodate various phone sizes and fits my iPhone 11 Pro Max comfortably. That's the widest device that will fit this stand.

For your tablet such as an iPad or iPad Pro, there is the Viozon iPad Pro stand. It has two clamps for a small and a large iPad size. I am using this with my 12" iPad Pro and it almost looks like a cute little iMac.

Once you have these stands, all your video calls will be steady as a rock and you can sit comfortably anywhere. Not only that, now you can get a straight on face shot without the camera looking up your nose hairs or your double chin.

These stands also double up as viewing stands to binge watch your favorite Netflix show. My wife now prefers the iPad Pro on the stand over the large TV in our living room. She can sit outside in the yard or her favorite chair in our bedroom and binge away.

Often, the simplest solutions are the best ones.

Back to space from America: SpaceX & NASA make it real

UPDATE: Today’s DEMO-2 launch has been scrubbed due to inclement weather down range. Next launch window is May 30, Saturday at 3:22 EDT.

We are launching astronauts from Pad 39A again ! After almost 10 years, NASA and SpaceX collaborate to send astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the iSS from the Falcon 9 spacecraft.

Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon on launch pad 39A at Cape Canaveral Pic courtesy @spacex

Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon on launch pad 39A at Cape Canaveral Pic courtesy @spacex

They are all suited up in their new beautiful movie like spacesuits. I can imagine a lot of kids around the world are making their own copy-cat spacesuits for cosplay and launching their own imaginary expeditions to space.

Astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley. Pic courtesy @airandspace

Astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley. Pic courtesy @airandspace

I have not been this excited since I saw the SpaceX Falcon 9 booster land itself back onto their launch pad. That was a surreal moment. And this launch today is just giving me the chills.

It’s a go for launch at 4.33 EDT. Watch it live here. 🤞 🚀

UPDATE: Today’s DEMO-2 launch has been scrubbed due to inclement weather down range. Next launch window is May 30, Saturday at 3:22 EDT.

Quarantine Hacks: Watch TV together but at your own individual volume

Now that we are in the second decade of the 2020 Quarantine Lockdown, there have been many moments when the family has come to blows. Over things like chores, work spaces and the perennial question of what should we all watch on TV together ?

If by some miracle the family decides on a common movie to watch, then begins the struggle for the remote. Having deadened my ears in my teenage years through aggressively loud listening of heavy metal music and many rock shows that exceeded even Disaster Area levels, I tend to turn up the TV volume as high as I can. This tends to aggravate my family beyond belief. 🤷🏽‍♂️

But technology to the rescue. A few years ago I got this amazing set of over the ear headphones that connect wirelessly over RF to your TV via a receiver. You can then pair up to 4 headphones with one receiver. Voila! Instant personal volume control.

You can get the first set of headphones with the transceiver and then buy individual headphones as required. One transceiver supports up to 4 headphones. Since the connection is over Radio Frequency (RF) and not Infra-Red, these will work throughout your house. So as you get up for a snack or go to the bathroom, you can still hear the TV audio where ever you go. The range is quite exceptional.

This has solved many issues at our house. When our kids were younger and slept early, my wife and I could watch the TV without disturbing the little ones since we both had individual headphones. We also convinced our older parents to get these and now they are enjoying the benefits of individual volume control without waking up the neighborhood.

Another great benefit is that you can actually hear all the background audio, the whispers and the soundtrack of the program you are watching. This adds an immersive layer of aural experience to your TV watching. We watched the entire run of Game Of Thrones with these headphones and immensely enjoyed the aural scapes.

Highly recommend: 5/5

Hold it in one hand...

It was Macworld Jan 2008. Again in Moscone Center SFO. Steve announced the MacBook Air. The keynote was electric as Steve pulled out the Air from a yellow envelope. It was a dramatic performance.

After the keynote as the audience filed out, I ran towards the stage. I had heard a tip from a photographer that after the keynote, Steve comes back on the stage to do some photo-ops for the journalists/press photographers after the audience leaves.

Sure enough after the hall was mostly empty, Steve came out with the MacBook Air. The photographers went crazy. He was initially holding the Air in front of him with both hands. I was taking pictures from two or three rows from the stage. I was being blocked by taller photographers in front, so I decided to stand up on the chair and take some pics.

The moment I stood up on the chair, Steve looked up straight at me since now I was much taller than the photographers around and at stage level.

I signaled to him to raise the MacBook in one hand using the tips of his fingers only. He looked puzzled initially but after demonstrating to him with my hand and holding my camera up, he got the point.

He smiled and raised the MacBook Air on the tips of the fingers of his right hand. That created the perfect photo for the lighter than air MacBook. He looked back at me and smiled a thank you.. I just kept on clicking away..

The two-handed photo op...

The two-handed photo op...

And now the one handed iconic shot...

And now the one handed iconic shot...

Later, again while roaming the Macworld exhibit floor as I was coming up on the Apple booth, I turned and there was Steve standing in front of me. Just like that. This time he had no gaggle of reporters or people around him. He was walking alone and undisturbed.

He looked at me and looked away and then looked back again. He smiled and then said ‘It’s you again…’

He had recognized me even after the switcher campaign had been over for over 5 years. He shook my hand again and said ‘Thank you’. He kept saying ‘Thank you’ a couple of times and then walked away.

I was again dumbstruck and left spouting gibberish…

Steve was many things to many people. To me, he was something to aspire to. I hope I can make a dent in the universe...

Honey, everyone here is a switcher…

It was Jan 2005. MacWorld expo in SFO, Moscone Center. I had somehow convinced my then boss to send me to Macworld even though my job had nothing to do with Macs. I remember standing in line for the keynote and running in to catch a seat as near as possible to the stage. The lights dimmed and Steve walked out on stage. That was the first time I saw him physically. He introduced the Mac Mini and the iPod Shuffle at that keynote. After the keynote I wandered around the show floor checking out the exhibits and generally enjoying the  Apple geekfest.

As I was walking around to the Apple booth, I heard a hubhub in the distance and saw a crowd of people moving towards me. I moved to the left to swerve from their path and as the crowd surged around me, I was being gently pushed away. I turned and saw a woman shooing me away. I looked behind her and there was Steve. I said to the woman (who turned out to be Katie Cotton, Apple’s PR chief) and said ‘Hey, it’s me the switcher’.

And she said ‘Yeah honey, everyone here is the switcher’.

‘No, look at me,’ – I urged her. She finally looked at me (instead of through me) and a glint of recognition appeared in her eyes.

She turned around and said ‘Steve, look who is here’.

Steve turned and looked and me and said ‘Hey its you.. Our iPhoto switcher’ and extended his hand. I shook his hand and the media around us erupted in a frenzy of shutter clicks. They were probably wondering who the hell was Steve shaking hands with ?

I was too dumbfounded. I barely managed to stutter ‘Hi Steve.’ And he said ‘Hey thanks a lot for doing that for us. I really appreciate it.’

Now I was plain embarrassed. Why the hell was Steve Jobs thanking me ??

He spoke a few more sentences that I don’t remember.

I was too fucking stunned.

I whimpered out some gibberish and then he was gone. I didn’t even have the presence of mind to give my camera to someone to take our pictures. So then I followed him and lamely took some pictures of him admiring the iPod Shuffle and hanging out with John Mayer. He was gone in a few minutes… and I was on cloud nine all week…

Steve expounding the features of the iPod Shuffle with the lanyard...

Steve expounding the features of the iPod Shuffle with the lanyard...

Steve having fun with a kid blogger/reporter... 

Steve having fun with a kid blogger/reporter... 

I was too embarrassed to get a selfie.. This was 2005 BI (Before iPhone), so I aimed my Canon point and shoot over my shoulder and clicked...

I was too embarrassed to get a selfie.. This was 2005 BI (Before iPhone), so I aimed my Canon point and shoot over my shoulder and clicked...

Do you want to do an ad for Apple ?

It was the summer of 2002. I had just joined the San Gabriel Valley Mac User Club (SGVMUG) in Pasadena because in late 2001 I had switched to a Mac. For all my friends that know me well, this was a major shift, since until 2000 I was a firm believer and evangelist of Linux. In fact I came to the US in 2000 to setup moreLinux, Inc. making Linux desktop apps. So for me to switch to a Mac was considered by my friends and colleagues as treasonous and also foolhardy. Because this was 2001 and the Mac had a 4% market share. No one but eccentric people and graphic designers used Macs then.

But the day I saw Mac OS X running and I opened a Terminal window and dropped down to the shell and ran a few Unix commands, I saw the future and immediately went back home, sold my PC’s and bought a blue tower Mac G3. My wife thought I had gone crazy since I made her forcibly switch to the Mac as well.

I soon found the SGVMUG group online and started going for their meetings at the Pasadena Central Library. It was fun to hang out with fellow geeks and Mac-heads. Most of the group was much older and also much wiser. A few of them were genuine rocket scientists from JPL/Caltech nearby. It was a great group and to this day I am good friends with all of them and still go for their meetings when I can.

So one day in the summer of 2002, at one of our meetings, a guy showed up with a handycam. He said he wanted to talk to folks who had recently switched to Macs. So a couple of us went with him to a nearby restaurant and he interviewed us in turn and video-taped the interview. I remember being very excited about iLife and how it had changed the way I took photos and listened to music. We spoke for a couple of hours after that and went home.

I forgot about that incident but a few weeks later I got a call from the guy. He asked me point-blank, ‘Do you want to do a commercial for Apple ?’.

I thought I had died and gone to heaven…

So the next week I drove down to Hollywood Center Studios in Los Angeles. I was introduced to Errol Morris, the Oscar award winning director of documentary films and many awesome commericals. Then I was sent to make up. That was at 9.30 am. The long wait began. Lunch was awesome with craft services going overboard with too much food.  It was a long afternoon. Finally at 6.30pm I got the call to report on set.

Nervously, I went down to the set. It was this blindingly white set with everything, including the floor painted white. I remember talking to a painter hanging around the set with a bucket of white paint and brush and his job was to apply touch-ups to places that got smudged by touching or walking.

Anyways, I got in front of the camera. The setup was quite complicated. I could see the director’s face projected onto a mirror on top of the camera. The director was off-camera in a room to the side. He could see me on the monitor and I could see him in the mirror above the camera. The effect was that I was looking straight into the camera and talking to him.

Errol started asking me questions. No script. Just questions and answers. Why did I switch to Mac ? What did I like about the Mac ? Why now ? What do I do with my Mac ? Etc. It went on for at least 30 minutes. Finally he called for a break and called me to his viewing room. I went over and started chatting with him. He was happy with my answers. Then I asked him if he wanted to see a photo-book I had made using iPhoto of my recently born daughter Tanya. He asked me to get it immediately. I ran back to the makeup room and pulled out the photo-book thanking my stars that I remembered to impulsively shove it in my backpack as I left the house.

I showed the book to him and after turning a few pages, he said ‘Get back on camera with the book’. So the set was turned back on again and this time I showed the book to the camera. It had pictures of baby Tanya and Hoofrish. The set loved the unscripted enthusiasm I had about that book and I got an ovation after the camera was turned off. Even Errol said that this was the best audition they had seen so far. I later learned that there were more than 50 other switchers like me invited that day for filming.

I returned home feeling excited and anxious to find out if I made the cut.

A couple of weeks later the rep from the ad-agency (TBW/ChiatDay) called and said ‘You are in. Steve liked you a lot.’

Holy crap! Steve liked me ??

So I pressed him for details and he said Steve saw your audition and instantly decided I was going to be in the campagin. It seems he liked the story of the photo-book a lot. I had to go in again to a recording studio and record the voiceover in the end. That’s the first time I saw the full ad. It was hair-raising… To know that Steve had seen that ad and chosen me from amongst the 50 or more switchers. I couldn’t believe that was happening to me.

The ad debuted during the 2002 US Open Women’s finals. I remember being glued to the set and during every break watching and watching. Finally after the fifth or sixth ad break the screen cleared to white and there I was in that green shirt (that I still have) talking about why iPhoto is so cool.. and showing the world the photos of Tanya and Hoofrish. I was dumb-founded. That ad played again almost 5-6 times during the tennis match. Over the next week it was being played on every major network channel ABC/NBC/CBS/CNN and I started getting calls from old friends demanding what the hell was I doing shilling for Apple  on TV !!

Soon every Apple store (there were a few back then in 2002) had a giant 8 foot tall poster of mine in the window. The Apple website had my photo on the home page. Things were getting too surreal. The campaign lasted for almost six months and then new ‘switchers’ were introduced. I was enshrined forever on the Internet on Youtube. My 15 minutes of fame were up…

Apple "Switch" commercial featuring Gautam Godse (2002)

Apple Store, The Grove, Los Angeles Oct 2002

Apple Store, The Grove, Los Angeles Oct 2002