Constant Beta

Visual DNA networking

Imagini, has to be the next coolest thing after Flickr. Based wholly on the premise of ' A picture paints a thousand words," Imagini uses brilliant images and photographs to decode personalities.

For example, in the screenshot above, one of the first questions you will be asked is, ART IS and instead of four to five choices that usually read like 1) monalisa 2) pantheon 3)something i don't understand, etc Imagini gives you a selection of 15 different images. You pick an image that resonates most with you. A dozen such questions later, you are presented with a cool book called your Visual DNA. Check out this book below!

But the smart folks at Imagini are not limiting the use of this technology to decodifying personalities. They provide this tool to measure behaviors of web-users. By tracking their motivational and aspirational responses, Imagini claims to better decode the web-shopper to potential clients like Mircosoft, Vodafone and Nectar.

In the last one hour alone, I've forwarded this link to about six friends and family. It's such a novel idea! I'd definitely be more likely to fill out a visually enticing survey opposed to those dodgy 'multiple choices' and 'on a scale of 1 to 10, rate this..' Although I can't be too sure about the quality and authenticity of the results of such a survey. I'm sure the Imagini folks are hard at work on it.

Another super cool feature Imagini offers is it's Gift-Finder. Based on a similar pattern, you answer about a dozen questions visually (either about yourself or your friend, depending who you are buying a gift for) Once you are done answering, it decodes your personality and offers you a page full of gift choices!

It's such a remarkable technology that I wonder how no one thought of this before.

I'm not sure what else is on their agenda, but whatever is next, I can gaurantee it won't be disapppointing. (to say the least) Oh and btw, Imagini is not a Silicon Valley wunderkid, for a change, this groundbreaking idea comes from across the shore...London :D

PS- The results you see on the screen-shots are not mine.

Relics of our decade

Who wants to take a plastic L'LO home? My Scene Goes Hollywood: Lindsay Lohan and Limo (I'm not joking) Available at Amazon and Sears. Barbie's retirement isn't far off. The new generation of dolls and playtoys are begining to derive inspiration and income from creating 3-d lives of celebrities.

Any takers?

but it can be made easier...

The future if left to me, will have 1) apartments that are already hooked up with internet and cable TV and phone lines (if I want one) they day I move in. 2) ability to do everything online, even deposit checks online. 3) a one-stop shop for all my banking, utiltiies and such. I can't remember all my passwords (some banks/ credit cards requier various combinations for passwords) I just want one window to deal with everything.

Any takers?

Life doesn't get any easier

I apologize for my errant behaviour on this website. I've been MIA for weeks and I have a good reason. I recently moved apartments (again) and transferred my life from one apartment to another. In this day and age, I would have imagined this process to be simple and doable at my fingertips and keypad. Unfortunately, not so. Changing addresses at the post office, changing addresses with banks and credit card companies, choosing internet service provider, choosing cable TV provider, dealing with their inconsistencies and the added stress of new furniture and dealing with little necessary items like garbage bags and cleaning supplies!

In midst of this, Commerce Bank decided to generously drop $1100 into my account. Perplexed, I called to find out when and what the money was for. I wondered if my father had made a wire transfer from India that he forgot to mention. So the customer service rep. tells me, the $1100 is a check for $500 and a money order for $600. I was stunned. I didn't remember depositing a money order or a check in my account, so I asked him to read the names on the checks. KINAL SHAH- he spells them out for me. Realization and disbelief struck me at once.

Commerce had deposited my SISTER's money in my account!! Granted, we have similar sounding names. Does that mean Mary Watkins of Brooklyn has to worry about having her money deposited into Mary Watkins of Manhattan's account?!  And the funny thing is, my sister made these deposits at a teller! Unlike me, she actually goes to a bank, deals with teh teller, and writes a deposit ticket. She wrote her social security number and her bank account number on her deposit ticket and yet, her teller chose to put my sister's money in my account.

My sister didn't even know about this until I called her and asked her to stop payment on all her checks. Especially her rent check. While the matter was sorted out in the next few hours, I wonder what would've happened if neither of us had noticed it. Honestly, I have never heard a more bizarre story, leave alone, experience one.

So between making calls to Commerce to set my account straight and dealing with customer service for Verizon to just get me my internet, I've no motivation for anything else. I just want my life in order  and apparently, that's too much to ask for!

Oh and I can't change my address on Commerce Bank's website. I have to call someone and verify it to have them change my address. Times like tehse, I think my other bank accounts and credit card companies for atleast making this process easier!

This morning, I've been on the phone with Verizon for 2 hours. And close to 6 hours if I take into account all the calls I've been making them in the last 2 weeks. I signed up for their dry loop internet service and recieved my modem and stuff last week. But had no internet. I called and called and they kept asking me to troubleshoot and then a supervisor told me something was blocking my connection so he would send someone to my apartment to fix it. Nothing happens, no one arrives and no one calls. I called again this morning, and literally begged the customer service rep. to allow me to speak to the same supervisor who I spoke with last night. Any longer, and I would have cried on the phone. I just wanted my internet to work!

You know, sometimes I wonder. My blog and the blogs I follow and the news I read and teh work I do is all about the fantastic future, the technology, the new trends and an easier, faster life. But I wonder if we will ever get to it. Not at this rate, not if we are bogged down with picking and waiting for cable and internet and not if banks keep requring me to call them so they can wax eloquent about their customer service.

Nope. Definitely not at this rate.

Cute Inc.

I adore Calvin and Hobbes, I think Hello Kitty is an icon and I splurge on grotesque to cute-looking toys from Kidrobot. I thought I was unique in my pursuit of all things iconic and cute -- but I'm not alone. The youth in Japan are busy enrolling in Cute,Inc, trying to grab a piece of the cuteness before the trend turns into a fad, cheaply translated by street hawkers. The article suggests that the notion of beauty and beautiful in Japan has become "cute" as opposted to the western, "sexy."
Perhaps this sentence sums up the essence of the quest for cute in Japan:

"Cute is that exclamation from the soul of Japan's younger generation," much like "soul" or "La Raza," Onishi said.

Food for thought? Hello Kitty inspired credit cards to lure younger kids into becoming financially-savvy (or just spending more money?) Cell-phone charms, toys, and other gadgets now offer a touch of cute, instead of cool.

Are we in-the-know ---locally?

I've got a quick question ?
- How well do we really know our supermarkets, malls and local stores?

Granted, we tech-savvy highly intelligent and insanely busy people are well-versed to shopping online, but you've gotta agree with me that online shopping can beat an in-store experience. Even if its just window shopping.

Over the long weekend, I took a short trip to DC. Partly because I wanted to get away and partly because I wanted an excuse to shop. I spent an entire day shopping and when I showed my loot to friends, one of them exclaimed, 'You bought that from Urban Outfitters and Club Monaco?!" We have those in New York. Why would you go to DC all the way to shop there?"

Fair enough. I was stumped. Now that I look back, I remembered browsing through the staple stores in the shopping district of Georgetown. Arden B, Anthropologie, Urban Outfitters, Benetton, Intermix, Gap, FCUK, Adidas, Sisley, Club Monaco, Armani Exchange.... Patagonia,
I couldn't remember a single DC-centric boutique. I am sure DC has it's share of proud boutique-owners but sadly, the truth is -- these major chain stores have snapped up some very expensive real estate in the prime location of most cities. And despite my best intentions (and any other tourists's best intentions..) I think it is very natural to shop and visit places that are most accessible.

Also the lure of being able to buy a piece of clothing or home acessory or even a book for that matter for one of tehse chain stores is made easier by the fact that I could purchase an H&M shirt in DC and return it in San Fransisco if I wanted to.

Also, lets face it. Half the time we have no clue what stores around our area carry. Not all retailers websites carry listings of every single item available in their store. Sometimes-- you simply gotta browse through the actual store.

It helps that these major retailers can afford to slash prices majorly during sales. Boutiques and independent stores cannot always afford this luxury.

Just thoughts ruminating in my head- thought I'd put them out there for your inputs.

Evolution

i visited the Hershey Park sometime last year and watched the 3D Screening about the history of Hershey. I don't remember the film but I remember wearing funky glasses that made the objects appear closer than they wear. I remember the seats spurting water and I remember a swish-swash sensation near my foot that emulated how you'd feel if a mouse just skimmed by your leg.

The film was perhaps the least memorable, but the added experiences made the entire experience fun. I wondered when tradtional movies and movie theaters would offer a more sensory experience.

Lo behold- Japanese theaters are on the forefront of the future, extracting the consumer's invisible wants and converting them into multi-sensory experiences. The New World, a Pochahontos story will be screened in Japanese theaters with scene-synchronized scents.

Theater owners will download different scent sequences for different films. Home entertainment junkies and aromatherapy fans can sniff for themselves with the tech’s at-home edition. (Via Iconoculture)

Will this increase the price of watching a movie at the theater? Maybe. But I believe  we will always have the option to watch movies without the added experential bonuses. Infact, we will be able to watch movies, the way we want to: in any language, with any number of added experiences. Any commerical experience that does not satisfy us emotionally will die on its own or will be replaced by a modified and highly specialized version. So when we balk at our parents tallking about growing up with black and white TV sets, our children will incredelously realize that we grew up watching movies in theaters with subtitles and without scents and other special effects.

Cool Findings

Apologies for the long silence. In other news, I've tons of new coolspots to share with you and get your creative juices flowing. 

Stumbled on this cool site while on a recent web-crawl and am very pleased with the service. PicoStation allows you to directly post photographs, vidoes and audio files from your cell phones on the internet. It's still a growing community but I like the concept. There will always be concerns: mobile porn? privacy? spam? But for now, let's wait and watch where this goes.

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Babies are a multi-million dollar business.A recent WSJ article suggested-  Very soon- your inbox is going to contain video files of your friend's fetus and her ultra-sound. So instead of looking at photos of the new borns in the family/ friend circle - you'll witness all the stages of the baby's development  on your screen. Companies like Womb's Window offer pregnant ladies ultra-sound  photo-packages of her fetus that includes videos in different formats and still shots of the baby-in-progress. I really don't know how I'd feel about recieving the video to a friends fetus, but it's no more a possiblity- it is an eventuality.

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Now this isn't a really *new* finding. I was watching Will Smith's Hitch a few days ago and noticed the scene where Eva Mendes and her friend are snacking on amazing rice delicacies at a hip bar in NY. I remember passing the place once --- Rice to Riches is a cutesy rice pudding store located in Nolita, New York. It offers inventive rice pudding conctions : rice pudding with oven roasted fresh fruits, with jelly... with nuts.. with toasted coconut.. are only a handful of the sampling. Rice pudding on a wholly wholesome level- can't beat that now, can you?

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Donate not destroy

The summer of my freshman year, I worked as a camp counsellor for a tricky group of 4-5 year olds. I lasted there two weeks. The Boston sun became to harsh and the kids, a wee bit annoying. (There's a limit to how many WHY questions I could take in 8 hours)
So I found work at a lovely air-conditioned bookstore. My first foray into retail America. I figured since I loved reading, I would use the employee discount to its fullest and the bookstore I worked for had a great book-lending scheme that allowed its employees to borrow a book a week. Within a week though, I was disgusted. Selling books is noble, but what happens behind the doors is far from it.
Books and magazines that don't make it past the cashier's desk -- are torn apart and trashed. YES. Not donated to orphanages, not given away to libraries, but torn apart and shredded in the back-rooms of these bookstores.
Even the employee's aren't allowed to take the books home. I wrote a letter to the headquarters suggesting instead of destroying these books, maybe they should be donated. I never got a reply. I continuted to work there throughout the summer and once school started, I forgot all about it.

Then last year, after graduating I took up a job at a national beauty chain and noticed the same procedure here as well. Stuff that was damaged, even slightly (torn label, mismatched covers) was discarded. Thrown away. Even the employees werent allowed to take the stuff home. I don't know what they did with their unsold inventories-- probably put it in sales, but I do know there are several retailer's that destroy unsold goods. Some do it infront of their customers.

Like this particular retailer. You tell me - what is the point of this rarefied brand image when honestly, all it iinvokes is disgust. Frankly, I would have far more respect for a brand that donated its unsold merchandise instead of destroying it or thrashing it. There's already too much clutter out there to add even more in the name of protecting the brand image.

Maybe I should embark on my old crusade again. Any supporters?

Of Bollywood stars and Compaq

We saw Shahrukh Khan doling out emails on a sexy Powerbook in Main Hoon Na. And we swooned. First over the Khan, then the MAC. Did it compel anyone into buying the computers though? I have no idea.
Yeah, so Khan wasn't blantantly promoting the brand but to have watched him use a brand I am loyal to made me smug. Ahh.. he's cool too, I thought.

Last week, Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan was signed by Hewlett Packard to endorse the Compaq Presario computers. In the history of computers, Indian advertising and Bollywood stars, no actor has ever endorsed a computer before. This might as well be the first of manys.

Computers become a household item in India
Ravi Swaminathan, Vice President, HP India was quoted saying they have been trying to position computers as a must-have durable product in India.
Of the 1 billion plus population in India, only 15 million computers are in use. But lets look at some facts before analyzing this further:

Microsoft annoucned an added investment of $1.7 Billion in India to create a total of 7000 jobs.
Cisco is throwing in another $1.1Billion in the next three years in software centers in India. Add to that the 5000 jobs Dell is creating and the additional $1 billion investment by Intel and you have basically passed computer science a mandatory subject in primary schools.

An early January BBC report mentioned that sales of personal computers in India have increased a whopping 36% since September alone. Prices for a standard computer have been slashed down to as low as $250 (10,000 rupees) and are made available on installment plans. PC sales are expected to touch 4.7 Million this year, a significant rise from the 1.7million last year.

The time is ripe. The potential is severely untapped. And HP is stepping in at the right moment to ensure atleast a prime chunk of the market.

So will star-power drive extra sales?
Shahrukh Khan, a brand by himself, already has an impressive (?!) portfolio of endorsements, each netting anywhere between $1M to $5M. Soft-drinks, cars, cell-phone service, health paste and soaps -- you know name it, the superstar has endorsed it. But does all this star-appeal really work? Especially when it comes to a computer?

Vivek Shrivastva, executive director of Triton Communications, India admits that there is no sufficient data that substantiates increase in sales because of star-endorements.
In this article, he woefully admits to having subscribed to the star-endorsement idea while planning a relaunch of Panasonic. The company signed on Bipasha Basu, current Indian heart-throb, ex-model and Bollywod actress, to promote the Panasonic brand to its targetted demographic: the youth.
The campaign managed to hold audiences attention for a while but failed to generate any sales or subsequent interest in the product.

Star-Power brings attention ...but
But brand managers and ad-directors agree that stars manage to bring consumers attention to the brand. Hemant Sachdev of Bharti-Tele ventures sums it up, "The advertising will work only if there is a perfect match between the core values of the product and the values that the star personifies."

Shahrukh Khan is already India's favorite. The classic rags-to-riches story, the perfect husband, the perfect father and the perfect friend- Khan's values reverbate with the Indian sensibilities. But he is already a super-star and has endorsed too many brands to count. Leveraging Khan's stardom to promote computers may end up diluting the brand message and is  very likely to fail to strike a chord between the products core consumers and the bollywood icon. Audiences can get confused with too many endorements from the same person, and this may also dilute the desired effect.

Compaq will benefit in one way though-- the major recognition Khan's name will give the brand more recall and generate awareness. People are likely to walk into stores asking for the "computer jo Shahrukh ke ad. me tha." (the computer that Shahrukh advertised) But by signing Khan, Compaq doesn't clearly identify its audience. Khan doesn't quite fit in any mold-  he's too old to play ambassador to the youth and too young to influence the older audiences.

So maybe signing on stars isn' t all that its hyped about. Shahrukh may act as a catalyst in helping launch the brand, but will he drive sales? We'll only know once the advertisements release.