iBlog: Nishit Shah

The world is much, much, much more weirder than normal these days. The latest proof comes from the Kiwi haven of New Zealand. Oh, you might want to turn down the volume on your computer as you read this. Okay, here are the facts: The Royal New Zealand Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSNZSPCA) has recorded a CD with one song it, titled “A Very Silent Night”. People can buy the CD and the money goes to a worthy non-profit cause. So far so good. “A Very Silent Night” turns out to be just that. The RNZSPCA, you see, says it recorded the entire CD at a frequency heard only by dogs. That’s right, dude, humans can’t hear it. The needle on my Weird-o-Meter just jumped to life, and is bobbing between 20 and 24. If you’re like me — and (trust me on this) pray that you aren’t — you’re probably thinking “WTF?? Why would anyone want to spend good money on CD they can’t hear?” But nooooooooo, the CD “has rocketed to the top of the charts”, according to the Daily Telegraph (presumably the New Zealand edition). Oh, yeah. my Weird-o-Meter just hit the 100 mark, that’s as high a weirdo rating an event can have … well, except a couple of higher ratings for the truly extreme weird (and those, of course, would be the opposite of the falsely extreme weird). Not only has a CD with no sound it that humans can hear become a chart-buster in Kiwi land — you might want to sit down for this — it’s so popular it is going global! As you read this, distributors in Australia and the U.S. are in heated competition for the regional or global distribution rights to “A Very Silent Night”. An accompanying video is a hit on YouTube — I am not sure if this is just New Zealand YouTube or global YouTube, but it has helped boost sales of the CD. And following all this popularity, like a chihuahua nipping at one’s heels, comes controversy. Some dog owners rave about it, and say their dogs wag their tails and even dance to it. “That’s amazing!” said one CD owner. “I cranked my speakers up full volume and played this, and the dog across the road went ballistic!” Others say that not only are there no sounds on the CD a human could hear, there are no sounds on the CD at all. “This is a have (as in “have you on”). I checked it with an oscilloscope and there is nothing there, it’s just muted video.”

PS. I donno wots stopping me from cutting an album by distributing blank CDs !

RED HERRING 100 ASIA

Red Herring Magazine have announced their list of 200 finalists for the “Red Herring 100 Asia” Awards 2007. The Red Herring’s editorial team comes up with Red Herring 100 lists which recognize promising startups that will lead the next wave of innovation. I was surprised to see around 40 odd Indian companies in the list of finalist. Which I believe is quite impressive, only next to China which had around 80. Thanks to the broadband connectivity at home and some spare time, I had the liberty to browse through all of the Indian companies websites. I couldn’t do the same for companies based in China, as most of them were in Chinese and heck I can’t read it !
I found one very interesting thing while browsing through the About Us section of these sites. Most of the Indian companies were founded by IIT / IIM alumni. It was a pretty common trend that atleast one of the Board Member / Founder / Director had something to do with the elite clan of India. I am pretty impressed with many web 2.0 Indian companies.

I am excited by the fact that a business unit of the place where I work is among the 200 finalists. The Top 100 award winners will be announced at the Red Herring 100 Asia Award Ceremony on August 29th.

Just heard some more awesome news. Iron Maiden will be playing in Bangalore on 17th March at Palace Grounds. Check here and here

Sepultura will also be coming down here and gonna be playing in Bombay and Bangalore in April (1st and 2nd). Boi! seems 2007 is gonna be one awesome year for all Rock fans.

Iron Maiden tickets are available here

Boi ! I am sooooo excited. Had heard from my friend that Roger Waters was comin to India this year, but was not away of exact dates. So, just googled it and came to know its TRUE. Roger Waters is actually gonna be playing here on 18 February @ MMRDA-BKC Grounds. Tickets up for grabs from tomorrow 15th Jan. No points for guessing who would be the first one to swipe his credit card for tickets mood=happy

Update: Check this. Tickets are priced at 3k, 2k and 1k and are available online at http://www.movietell.co.in

Check out the Time magazine’s Top 10 List for 2006. The topics range from top movies, TV Shows, Albums, to Podcasts, Web Sites, Web Videos, to Fashion Trends, Buzzwords, Scandals and more. Pretty interesting.