Eye of Siva » nostalgia

Which Sherlock?

siva — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 16:46:28 +0000

So the second season of BBC’s Sherlock has started. I have not yet had the chance to see any episode from this season of the series. But last year’s episodes were fantastic. A modern recreation of a classic. The stories and settings thankfully are fully contemporary unlike the Sherlock Holmes movies that we have been seeing.

So the question is: which Sherlock? The big-screen Robert Downey Jr. version or the Moffat interpretation.

Both are retakes / adaptations, which have little in common with the books. RD Jr’s Holmes is more of an action hero than we can ever conceive of after reading the books. Benedict Cumberbatch is further away in time, but feels truer to what Conan Doyle would have identified with. Though Stephen Fry as Mycroft does have a little something.

Overall I would go with the BBC version. It somehow feels right.

On a related note, is Stephen Moffat the only writer left in Britain? He seems to be everywhere. I have long enjoyed his works like Coupling and Jekyll, and he seems to have contributed to the recent Tintin movie. Plus his Doctor Who work. When does he get time to do all this?

A question of time

siva — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 16:09:29 +0000

There is a fascinating article in the Economic Times today on the battle for setting what would eventually become Indian Standard Time. It is written in the context of two stock exchanges opening earlier starting today. And even though it is a sadly paginated article, I would encourage you to read it.

Well, I won’t be stealing any punchlines if I reveal that there was a tussle between cities in whose local time would be Indian Mean Time. The choice of Greenwich Mean Time + 5 h 30 has always seemed arbitrary and bizarre to me. I guess that was before people realized the difficulties of working with half-hour differences. In India, we have the BBC news on the half-hour, every hour. An interesting effect of this time zone is that if you hold your watch (analog please, not for those with dinky Japanese digital) upside down, it reads GMT. Go on, try it. I’ll wait for you…

Synchronizing time became important as trade developed, people travelled by train and telegraphs were being sent. Soon time was being broadcast – initially by telegraph and then by radio – remnants of which can still be heard today as Short Wave Listeners are bound to know.

I am filing this under gadgets because I mentioned watches, okay?

A 13-year old tries the Walkman for a week

siva — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 05:29:51 +0000

When the Sony Walkman was launched, 30 years ago this week, it started a revolution in portable music. But how does it compare with its digital successors? The Magazine invited 13-year-old Scott Campbell to swap his iPod for a Walkman for a week.

BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | Giving up my iPod for a Walkman

I owned a few “other” brand Walkmen during the 90′s and it really is so easy to forget what life was like without MP3s. Now, the real portable music player award goes to my dad’s “portable” record player. That could play 16 to 78 RPM records through its in-built speaker. And it would fold up into a suitcase for portability!!