Elysium - Movie Review

Hi,

Saw Elysium today, Matt Damon plays the protagonist in this one. I am a sci-fi fan, and Matt Damon is a good enough actor to sit up and notice when his movies come out.

What I didn't know was that the movie is written and directed by Neil Blomkamp, who also happens to be the director of District 9, one of my favourite sic-fi. Needless to say I had big expectations from Elysium. And I was not disappointed. This movie has heart, you can see the city of LA transform into a wasteland, which due to overpopulation and increasing pollution can be a possibility.

The tech shown is a bit too advanced, but today's imaginations are tomorrow's inventions.
Movie starts slow, stressing the human factor in a sic-fi setting, same as the director's previous movie.
You can relate to the characters, feel the desolation and restlessness. There is the resistive faction too but the resistance movement is not too stressed upon.

The theme of the movie can be related to the recent Occupy movement, which stressed on the fact that majority of the wealth is concentrated with the 1% of the population.

To keep it short and not providing any more spoilers, If you liked District 9, go ahead and watch Elysium, though not as promising as District 9, this one is worth watching.

Regards,
Ishan

Security Over The Internet : How Secure Are You?

Hi,

From the past few months the world has been in a frenzy over the revelations made by Edward Snowden. Though it just reaffirmed what most of the people were already expecting. But the enormity of the surveillance has blown the roof out.

The American electronic surveillance agency, the NSA, once ironically referred to as "No Such Agency", not only spies on the American citizen, they also have their tentacles deep into other nations communications, even covering the state heads of the so called American allies.

One of the most commonly given argument is that , "If you have nothing to hide, you should not be afraid of somebody listening on to you". This is complete non sense. Every body has their own private life and have full right to decide what they want to share and what not. The information being generated by you is owned by you. Nobody has the right to take that information without your consent.

Through some of the off the shelf software, which many of the governments, including our own Indian government, has purchased, Anybody can listen in to your communication, have access to your data, even Remotely activate your web cam. This is a serious breach of your rights.

Through a series of articles, as I keep learning myself, I will try to bring to light some of the most basic day to day things that you can do to keep your self safe and keep the intruders out.

Stay tuned.

Regards,
Ishan 

Book review: Counting from zero

Hi Folks,

I am an avid reader, and reading is a very good hobby to have.

So I have decided to start sharing the books I have recently read and what I think about them.

So on this note, Today I am going to talk about a book called "Counting from zero".

Author of this book is Alan B. Johnston, he is the author of ZRTP, VOIP security protocol. So, I had big hopes from this book. Throughout this book, there are numerous technical references, lots of security details. needless to say, I loved it.

The plot in Counting from Zero was gripping. The protagonist travelled all over the world and Mr. Johnston did an exceptional job of painting a detailed portrait of each location in which a convention was held, especially Las Vegas. The nuts and bolts of the story are propelled along by entries into Mick's security blog that fill in the technical details of the plot.

Any body interested in security, encryption and tech in general will like it.

So, go ahead, if the details I shared interested you, go ahead and enjoy the text.

Regards,

Ishan Malviya

iOS Core Animation - Advanced Reading

Hi All,

iOS has a very fluid and structured animation stack, the frameworks involved are clear and approachable. But most of the contents you will come across shows you the basics of animation, like moving a block from location to another, or hiding/unhiding some container. 

Beyond that the only option you have is to dig deep into the Core Animation Guide from apple or scrape the internet for some tutorial.

Recently I was just going through the Amazon's Kindle books and found a promising prospect, iOS Core Animation: Advanced Techniques, This book seems to have raised the game. I am going through the book right now and it seems promising.

For now, If you want, create an account on amazon and you can read the sample chapters for free, decide for yourself.

Will provide more detailed thoughts on the book once I am done with it.

Till then, Happy learning.

Regards,

Ishan Malviya

Gravity - Movie Review

Hi All,

Just saw the movie Gravity, and I must say, the visuals are stunning. Better to watch this one in 3D.
This movie comes in the category of Apollo 13, Which was another master piece.

Don't expect it to be a thriller like Alien series. This one is not a fast paced thriller. The movie takes its own sweet time to unfold, but in the end enthrals you with its enormity.

This movie is about overcoming the fear and adversity (There is a lot of it), and triumphing.

So, what are you waiting for, go watch this one.

Regards,
Ishan Malviya

Restarting the blog!

Hi All,

Its been over a year that I have posted on this blog, and shared the tech goodness with you all.
Many things have happened so far in the tech universe, Blackberry is going down, Nokia went down, Microsoft is getting ready for another push into the mobile industry, with the purchase of Nokia.

Keep an eye out for this space, will keep on sharing tech news and geeky goodness.

Regards,
Ishan Malviya