Photographer David Freidman, shot some pics of a denim factory in Kentucky that distresses jeans for high-end designers. I’ve always maintained that you got to find a pair of denim with the right fade. Most of the jeans you see these days have very poor or highly ‘manufactured’ fade in them. I’ve recently spent a small fortune on getting a couple of pairs of jeans and I’m thoroughly satisfied with the fade and colors. Like David says, “They can’t just be faded. They have to be the right color.”

The Boston Globe’s Big Picture featured ‘Observing Ramadan‘ , offering rich visuals of Ramadan being observed in different parts of the world. Ramadan is now slowly coming to a close with less than 5 days to go. Eid-ul-Fitr (Eid, in short), which marks the end of Ramadan, is expected to be on Wednesday (1st Oct) or Thursday (2nd Oct) depending on the sighting of the new moon.

.. a lot has happened. So here’s a quick life update, in reverse chronological order -

1. Attempting to grow a beard. I’ve sorta wanted to see how facial hair looks on me, but I’ve never managed to keep it for long. Everyday looking in the mirror involves a constant battle within me - whether to shave or not. Its been 2 weeks and there’s considerable change in appearance. The goal is to get somewhere close to the ‘Leonidas’ look in 300.

2. Experienced a drug-overdose. I did something really stupid the other day. I had started developing some sort of rash on my skin. I knew that Cetzine was a drug that had some anti-allergic properties but it was also used incase you had cold. The other drug everyone recommended was Avil. Now, I generally don’t take any medication without prescription, but for a small allergy I thought it would be best to go with the ‘wisdom of the crowd’. Avil came in 25mg tablets. I took a tablet in the evening and nothing happened for a couple of hours. My skin was still itchy and before going to bed, I took a Cetzine tablet too. The next morning, shortly after Suhoor (early morning meal during Ramadan) I popped in two more Avils. And I went to sleep. When I tried waking up after a couple of hours, I couldn’t. My body and my mind were behaving like two different entities. While I was telling myself to get up, I couldn’t. After another hour of twitching and turning on the bed, I managed to get up. My head was feeling hollow and I could hear sounds reverberating within it while my whole body became pale and extremely exhausted. I could barely move and every step seemed impossible for me. I quickly managed to consult a doc and got the necessary prescription for my rashes. I’m okay now. Thank God.

3. Bitten by the travel bug - The past year has been one hell of a roller-coaster year in terms of travel. I’ve travelled quite a bit primarily in the north and western parts of India visiting places with rich history and culture. There’s still a lot to see and experience and I hope to do more of that in the coming months. I’m also working on a plan to consolidate all of those experiences and publish them on this site.

4. Experimenting with a business idea - I enjoy taking photographs and have been doing so more than a couple of years now. I thoroughly enjoy shooting with DSLRs and also experiment with different lenses, apertures and lighting conditions. Photography can be quite an expensive hobby (or profession, depending on your priority) with equipment cost being the most forbidding one. The problem is that the cost of these equipments in India is way higher than what you would probably pay in, say the United States. Because of this significant difference, I always get mine from the States even if that means having to wait for a couple of months. I see an opportunity here. If I could get these equipments on a on-demand basis from the States and sell them here in India covering the cost of purchase and shipping, the price would still be way lower than what you’d pay for here. Obviously these are genuine equipments and come with warranty, so there’s no question of counterfeiting. The response so far has been quite encouraging and I did manage to sell a few cameras over the last few months. In case you or your friends are interested in purchasing DSLR’s, here’s what we have in store.

To all those critics who said I couldn’t dance, here’s the proof. I, therefore, rest my case.

Over two three years ago, I had written a post sharing my experiences on using Automated Teller Machines (ATM) and the inherent need for a fresh user interaction model for ATMs. Roughly around the same time, Well’s Fargo, a diversified financial services company headquartered at San Fransisco with worldwide operations, commissioned Pentagram to work on new User Interfaces for their 7000 ATMs.

Holger Struppek, an ex-Pentagrammer, shares some of their experiences on working on the interfaces. One of the features that I had envisioned back then was a single click cash dispensing option that suggests an amount based on the user’s transaction history. Its good to learn that this feature has been adopted in Pentagram’s work -

A great feature of the Wells Fargo ATM UI has always been the Quick Cash button. It allows you to quickly withdraw $40 from your checking account with the press of one button. There is no need to go through the steps of selecting an account, selecting an amount, and confirming the transaction. However, few people knew that this feature could be customized with a different amount and account.

The article talks about the research, decision on using grid-based visual design, color palette, user testing and other stuff that went in to redefining the ATM interface design paradigm.