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Rage Baiting Campaigns are here to stay
Rage-baiting is technically defined as a deliberate “the manipulative tactic of eliciting outrage with the goal of increasing internet traffic, online engagement, revenue and support.” This behaviour is on steroids these days, thanks, but no thanks to Elon Musk’s tactic of shoring up engagement on twitter, presently marked with X, by sharing meagre revenues with… Continue reading
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JioHotstar and the Zen of Domain Name Management
TLDR: Full version Ever since l’affaire jiohotstar.com broke out, there has been a lot of discussion on domain names, squatting, gen Z chutzpah and the dozen ways Reliance could have used the issue for PR and made themselves look like saints. If you missed the whole story, this is what happened: An unknown young man… Continue reading
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Happy Birthday Babu Bhai!
This is a rant that I posted recently on LinkedIn. Nothing great about it; I’ve ranted often but what I like about this one is that I typed this entirely with my right thumb in stalled traffic at Chheda Nagar Junction while staring at these ‘chamcha’ banners, of mostly unknown faces wishing random politicians on… Continue reading
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Who’s Afraid of GenAI?
With OpenAI’s announcement of Sora, it seems as if the conquest is complete: text is done and dusted, images too, and now video. Generative video has been in the works for some time, but with Sora, OpenAI has taken a leap and shown us the possibilities. There is no looking back from here, is there?… Continue reading
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The Billionaires
It’s been fascinating to see the public performances of two uber-rich Indian families in the past few days. A study in contrasts despite the similarities: both families are extremely wealthy in a country that’s lower middle income, both have sold the story of their humble beginnings, both have “self-made” men playing (or have played) a… Continue reading
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Que Sora Sora
There will be lots of commentary on how Sora will change everything. Everything. The movies we watch, the videos we consume, the advertisements we avoid and much more. This is the ChatGPT moment for video. Artificially generated video has been here for some time. You can even call animation artificially generated. Start from Disney’s Steamboat… Continue reading
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Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it Superman? No…
Like the good prof who goes by the name Peeleraja once said on twitter (now they call it X or whatever), the best Indian apps are those that efficiently organize the serving classes for the benefit of the monied upper classes (aka “us”). Think of a time before these apps – for ride hailing, food… Continue reading
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Namibia’s Response to Germany’s Hypocrisy at the International Court of Justice #Gaza
Like millions of others, I spent a few hours watching the proceedings of South Africa’s suit against Israel at the International Court of Justice, The Hague. The two initial public hearings took place last week. It was instructive, to say the very least. South Africa was represented by a fine set of lawyers who seemed… Continue reading
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South Africa’s deposition against Israel at the International Court of Justice
Yesterday, 11 January 2024 was a remarkable day. If you were following Israel’s genocide in Gaza, you would have known that South Africa took Israel to court, literally. This video is the entirety of its deposition before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), The Hague, Netherlands. It is a little over three hours long, but… Continue reading
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What That MakeMyTrip Ad Means
Our Overton Window has shifted; if politics, society and culture lead, marketing is bound to follow. There has been much commentary on the MakeMyTrip print ad that graced several newspapers on the day of the India vs Pakistan world cup cricket ODI fixture on 14 October. As you may have observed, the commentariat is divided.… Continue reading