The Curious Incident of the Dog at the Night-time Review

This long curiously constructed title adorning a curiously made cover leads one past the smattering of praise and laurels into what is a curious read.

Enter Christopher, a strange fifteen year old with special needs and an aversion to the colours yellow and brown. The murder of his neighbour's dog leads our protagonist on a whodunit that reveals more than is intended for both the protagonist and the reader. The story is narrated by Christopher himself who is convinced and persuades readers of his intelligence despite his lack of social ability,, maturity, and arbitrary attempts to make sense of his world. It is his flawed nature that allows us to relate to him be it our need for solitude, what we aspire to be, or predicting how our day will. I find myself now classifying my days as A Super Good Day, Quite A Good Day, A Good Day, or A Black Day. Though it is not on the basis of the colour combination of cars parked on the street.

The story is really a drama that emotionally challenges the emotionally-challenged Christopher well past his limits and challenges his self-assured knowledge of himself and others around him. I certainly wish the ending was fleshed out - this interesting read ends abruptly. Perhaps, this is a good thing that spares us from what could have been a mundane epilogue.

Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon Review

Everything about this game is an 80's gag, specifically Terminator, and maybe some Escape from New York. The music plays a key part in this feeling. The cutscenes are the antithesis of FMVs - they are 16-bit sprites that are prolonged, cliched antics that can be skipped. This game shows that Ubisoft doesn't take itself too seriously. Blood Dragon feels more like a mod rather than a standalone game and if you're not familiar with 80's pop culture then the game's purpose is lost on you. It is an FPS that claims an unabashed sense of explosed action, but strangely, stealth takedowns, are far easier to perform than aiming a weapon, not to mention it gives you more experience points to gain new abilities.

It would have been nice to have a multiplayer option to round this title off but that would make it more than a gag.

First Impressions of Destiny (PS4 Version)

How is a $500 mil game?

It plays like most FPS', but being from Bungie it does have an uncanny resemblance to Halo, the first one from over a decade ago. That's a good thing, because there's nostalgia that let's you make yourself right at home withDestiny.

The great teaser videos released prior to launch promised a riveting storyline and social gameplay mechanics. Bungie did a great job with Halo's gameplay and brought it to Destiny much improved. It's understandable that the emphasis on story brings RPG elements, like leveling up and customizing your character and character classes. The RPG elements feel balanced and the characters have Masterchief-like durability, strength, and firepower. The game is always online, so you can always interact with other players. So you have a promising MMO-RPG-FPS.

The multiplayer aspect is evident at the start. The game requires you to be online even for single-player missions. You immediately go to the Tower, basically a hub, after your first mission. Even while playing solo, you respawn rather than restart at checkpoints, although that will happen in “restricted spawning” areas – the game will warn you when you enter one of these.

It's easy to add people to your fireteam and talk to them. You can also alter the privacy settings to friends only or public. Unfortunately, Destiny players are limited by their console, i.e., there is no cross-play. That would have truly made the multiplayer experience massive, but that limitation is probably out of Bungie's hands.

Being a revived chosen Guardian you wield the power of the Light against the forces of Darkness – a Good vs. Evil thing going here. The controls for your Guardian are easy and responsive. Moving, firing and using abilities are a button tap away. Some weapons have different fire settings that come in handy for enemies vulnerable to a particular type of weapon fire. The ammunition dropped by enemies can be primary, special, or heavy weapon type and is universal – no need to scour for specific weapon ammo. Unfortunately, the enemies don't drop their weapons, but they do drop armor and other guns. You get experience killing enemies, which levels you and your weapons up. After level 20, however, level enchancement will depend on the light factor of your armor.

The elements of controlling a vehicle (just the one-seater Sparrow for now), the zooming out to third-person view, and flipping vehicles upright are Halo-esque. You can't run over enemies with the Sparrow – I miss having a dangerously-driven Warthog. You will be doing a bit of inventory management in the game and you can change your weapons and armor loadout on the fly.

Your benefactor, the Traveler, a large alien orb in the sky, is the source of your abilities and, well, is dead. Humankind is having a hard time with its expansion across the galaxy reduced to just a single city on Earth by rival alien races coming to get a piece of the Traveler. While they do fight among each other, they all train their guns on you when you appear before them. This is reminiscent of the last stages of the first Halo game, where the Convenant and the Flood fight each other.

The enemies don't seem to be very different in behavior from the Halo 1's enemies. Vandals behave like Elites; Dregs like Jackals; Thralls like infected Elites; Knights/Captains like Hunters. Enemy races don't seem to attack and defend cohesively like an organized unit and they don't apply tactics to defeat you. They also respawn, sometimes when you move away or with a dropship. Well, this is a video game, so you are a one-man army (or a three/six-member Fireteam depending on mission requirements). An upgrade in AI would have been preferable to pitting hordes against you. 

Playing any mission reuses the same maps with some slight variations depending on your storyline progression. The maps are limited to a specific area on each planet/celestial body. So, there is not much open-world roaming here. Some choices are odd - like sure, we're down to the last city on Earth, but can't we go beyond a patch on Old Russia? I even tried going into the water and my character died. It's not a dealbreaker, but a game of this magnitude should offer expansive worlds.

The storyline follows the regular theme of Good vs. Evil, but it is scarce for a big budget game. Shadow of Mordor is chalk-full of lore in comparison. Granted, it's got Tolkien's literature backing it, but Destiny is a half-billion dollar production that could appeal to more gamers with the lure of an epic story. My attempt at Destiny raised questions like:

Why were you chosen and why have you been dead for a long time? What is the enigmatic Traveler? What makes it tick? Why did the Traveler choose mankind? What is the past of the enemies? The Fallen are intriguing, because the game tells us they had a glorious past. How about a little insight into the other Guardian races?

It is probably the multiplayer/social aspect of Destiny that makes it alluring. I have not played the whole game, but I hope the DLCs address these issues. Nevertheless, I intend to play moreDestiny.

Terrible Day

Being in a responsible post, if you unable to discharge your duties due to personal problems, it's better to take leave than to commit a mistake. 

All the office can do is cut your salary or extend your probation. 

There is nothing to fear on that front. 

Why call this a "front"? Is the situation or it's consequences an affront to you? Pardon the word play here, but this perception of a conflict, of an everyday battle to live through the day is an emotional drain. Remember that we are talking of perception here. The actual situation may be different. Our memories and current experiences are a combination of our mental recording of what transpired and the feelings experienced during that time. Both are not experienced in isolation. These feelings are an integral part of memory. 

Unfortunately, in depression, this internal running dialogue of memory and self focuses on and reinforces the negative feelings that were felt at that time and this circle continues with the subject's negativity growing without his realising it. 

Little can be done about the past as the event already occurred and passed. Be it a perceived slight or outrage, the Past cannot be changed. Yet, when suffering from depression in the Present we focus on the static Past and cede control, the control needed to bring focus to the Present to effect the changes to improve the victim's quality of life. 

The physical body is always part of the Present. Hence it is an effective anchor to the Present. If the mind could attempt to objectively view what passed and process why something failed, assess it's impact and process this to effect a positive change in the individual. 

The will to change and leave the Past behind is left to the subject. What happens for those who can't muster the strength to collect and confront their problems? By problems we mean actual problems and their magnitude. The subject will need to differentiate between the actual and the perceived. Then, the problems need to be ranked. This is not easy as the subject personal harmony is already disturbed and he has an overwhelming sense of his own mortality. This disturbance makes it difficult for him to dismiss false or minor threats to the subject's well being and interests.

This is a strange case of an individual who emotionally strained is conflict prone yet conflict averse. This may lead to feelings of :

• anger at perceived injustice 
• frustration at the perceived inability to surmount the situation
• hopelessness when the perceived conflict is prolonged 
• despair when these negative feelings degenerate

Note:

Anger is not necessarily bad when such anger has a moral backing due to a desire to improve oneself, others, or the environment. 

Sometimes this swirl of feelings culminate with thoughts of suicide to escape the life the person feels condemned to live. This individual loses interest in the things and people he cherishes or treasures. This further strengthens his isolation from his world like loneliness in the sea of millions.

It is ironic that human beings to cope with their lack of quality of life will further degenerate and purposely fade into obscurity through receding from all social life and inflicting further on oneself mentally and physically. Suicide is the most drastic step one can take to give up. 

It is absurd that the recourse that these subjects who were initially harmed externally will continue the harm albeit by their own hand. Ultimately to go somewhere where nothing is proven to exist or improve for that matter. 

Perhaps the subjects may be encouraged to give thought to what their centre is, i.e., what makes them who they are. They should be enrolled into programmes to strengthen their core. A holistic system of repairing the individual by encouraging him to draw strength from himself - his happy memories, his values, his qualities, his interests. These individuals by the completion of such training should be reintroduced into society where they will not only endure but thrive. 

Byte-Corseca Stereo Bluetooth Headset (DM5710BT )

The Byte Corseca Stereo bluetooth headset is a China-based Damson Group product. The model number is mentioned as DM5710BT whereas the website lists it as the SBT05. It retails for Rs. 1,500 (on Flipkart.com), but it is not widely available. Dell customers usually get this headset free with their laptops.

The cheap plastic construction and small, inferior audio driver units makes the headset quite lightweight. The neck band isn't smooth so it will pinch your neck when you let it hang. It can be folded into a smaller size.

Cheap plastic buttons adorn the right earpiece - 5 in total. There is the centre multifunction key and the surrounding volume up, volume done, next track, and previous track keys. When pressed while the headset is worn, the keys emit a loud mechanical click sound that hurts the ears. The multifunction key acts as the power key, the call key, and the play/stop key. 

This Bluetooth headset supports the bare minimum of HFP, HSP, and A2DP Bluetooth profiles as it is Bluetooth version 2.1+EDR compliant. That means it can be used as a handsfree device with your phone, a headset with your Bluetooth-enabled computer, and as a pair of headphones for audio.

Conclusion:

Rs. 1,500/- for Damson Group's Byte-Corseca DM5710BT Bluetooth headset is too much. The poor sound quality is akin to the sound produced by Rs. 200 earphones. There is no bass and the volume is low. The microphone transmits background noise the other person will not be able to hear you properly. The headset uses, perhaps without paying royalties, the outdated miniUSB and Bluetooth 2.1 standards as opposed to the more common microUSB port and the power-efficient Bluetooth 4.0. Product support is vague and no service centre addresses are given. That said, there is better quality and more features to be had from product offerings in the same price range from popular brands such as Samsung and Nokia. The Byte Corseca BT Headset can be given a miss. It is better suited as a freebie with new Dell laptop purchases.

The Big Chill Cafe

Have you ever had sausages in your chicken soup?
Boiled potatoes instead of french fries?
A bone sticking out of your grilled chicken?
Or a $4 dollar mini-brownie?

Have you ever been served by overly casual, inattentive staff?

No?

Then get your Big Bill at the Big Chill Cafe, New Delhi!

You could try the ravioli, "Angry Chicken Pasta", or the "Portuguese Piri Piri" grilled chicken - complete with an unsightly bone. The "Squidgy Chocolate Mousse" is decent. However, they don't serve lasagne - hold on, no lasagne? Which cuisine is this restaurant serving?

The prices are quite high and contrary to the relatively young crowd's budget at Rs. 500 a dish and Rs. 220 for pastries (without taxes). So don't be surprised to see people sharing a dish.

The ambience is a mismatch of posters of movie classics and randomized pulse-pounding background music. Unfortunately, they use only split ACs and not centralized ones so don't sit at table in front of a chilly draft. Don't go too early to the restaurant (noon) or you might be eating while staff are mopping underneath your table.


Or, you could wait (maybe forever) for Candies, Mumbai to come to Delhi.


Meal for two with drinks : Rs. 2,000

The Airtel 3G Conundrum

I tried Airtel 3G and I have to say this is one ISP I can do without. Mid-January I decide to to go for their 1 GB - 28 day plan. I don't know why they don't make it for a standard monthly payment but I won't bother emailing them because of their ineffective and indifferent customer service which I'll get to later. 

I started testing speeds with SpeedTest.net. The speeds at first were decent with 2+ Mbps but the upload speeds raised eyebrows at only 200 kbps - an issue that still persists. For 3 days I get similar speeds and an occasional loss of connectivity. It was still relatively more reliable than the existing 2G plans they offer. It worked with YouTube videos and app downloads but I couldn't help feeling that the connection was being denied or capped for bigger data downloads. Three days later, the speeds disappear and I'm left with a rather unusable connection that refuses to send/receive data. That the connection is established is clearly shown by a "3G" sign on the iPhone 5. I initially thought this was a problem with the device but varying speeds over the week ruled this out. I figured this would be an ISP problem.

I'm no stranger to capped speeds. I can recall having to call Airtel and have them send a technician to look into why I was getting only 512 kbps when I paid for a 2 Mbps fixed line connection. The technician made a phone call to the "node" and did a confirmatory test on SpeedTest.net (this is why I quote SpeedTest.net results) and lo! The speed was restored. 

This happened thrice in one year.

Back to Airtel 3G.
I had not altered any setting on my phone but the speeds dropped to sub-40 kbps speeds and 50+ kbps upload speeds. The download and upload speeds were mismatched. The lowest point came with a ping of 1770 ms which made the connection unusable.

I emailed and talked to Airtel customer support but their responses were perfunctory. Even with prodding their responses were along the lines of "there are no problems with the backend server". Of course, traffic shaping and speed capping are deliberate functions, not problems for Airtel. If it's a policy to give suspiciously 2G-like speeds on a 3G plan, then that's not a problem for Airtel. After numerous complaints and a lot of shouting, I got a call (despite explicitly telling them not to call me) that the problem had been "resolved". What was resolved? I'll paraphrase. "No idea", they say ("Get Idea", I say [:P]). A resolution was provided for problem they said never existed.

I told them it was too late for I had already deactivated 3G.


In fact, I don't bother with their 2G services either. I use Wi-Fi. Yes it's limited but hey, it works.

Note: Speed is only part of the story. Reliability is important. A connection which only works in bursts of speed is not reliable especially for downloads, streaming, and transactions. Also, when checking a connection, don't just load a site, go deeper within the site - at least three links deep. Even if you can, you'll still need to check if you're able to access an app store and download an app from there.

Food for thought: Why does Airtel insist on voice correspondence instead of email correspondence?