4th November 2019, 18:10 | #1 |
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| Rant! 2019-20, the year of waiting! Hi fellow BHP-ians, After a lot of silent reading over the forum and watching over topics with new posts, I have spotted a weird trend. The year 2019-20 is remarkably dull in more ways than one for a person who's looking to take up a new hobby or advance in the pursuit of his existing interests! Quickly summarizing my observations:
Other non-auto related hobbies I tried to take up, only to face a yellow flag amid my research:
In such a scenario, I'm hard pressed to call 2019-20 a year(s) of waiting (in several spheres of life) with little promise to show up for it in return. Look forward to hear from the forum on its views/ strategies of going about this transitional phase. Please feel free to add to the list of areas where they are 'waiting it out' or mention any bright spots/ positive notes to this rather grim-looking saga . Prelude: I have currently moved to a job in my home-town (Delhi-NCR) that provides me with ample work-life balance. Aiming to utilize my time better, I have been trying to take up a new hobby/ project (whilst being frugal as I try to save some bucks during the initial years of my career) |
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5th November 2019, 08:41 | #2 | |||
Senior - BHPian | Re: Rant! 2019-20, the year of waiting! Quote:
Secondly, the mass market car manufacturers never even consider the enthusiast as a customer. They might make a car that doubles up as an enthusiast's choice but not one solely catering to us. Yes, there are a few exceptions, but then they are either too costly or end up with poor sales and eventual discontinuation. Quote:
In terms of phones, 5G is expected, but considering the prices of phones these days, I'm put off buying them for one reason or the other. They are too big and cost a bomb without giving much benefits over the previous gen (or my current 3 year old phone). But as a technology, yes its better to wait for 5G roll out before plonking big cash for a phone. Quote:
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5th November 2019, 11:23 | #3 | |
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| Re: Rant! 2019-20, the year of waiting! Quote:
au contraire! This was/ is such a fun year! Let's begin a topic wise comparison: On cars: BS6: Well, for a buyer anytime is right! You have the BS6 conundrum right now, next year it'll be Electric/ Hybrid and then in 2021 there will be something else. Because there is always something else. Enthusiast car? Well, there is always a car for one who wants to buy, esp. in the pre-loved car market. For that matter, there is confusion at every price point! Want a C-SUV? Each model misses out on something! Want a premium hatch? None is perfect! Want a 25-30lakh car? No clear winner there too. But then there were MG Hector, Kia Seltos and Hyundai Venue setting the charts on fire in a year when everyone was down and out! 3 cars exceeding everyone's expectations. For gaming: This has been such a fun year! COD mobile is here! And if you detest mobile gaming, OneX with 4K gaming is a charm! Play Gears 5 or Halo! Master Chief is always there for you! iPhones this year finally caught up with the rest to win the photography crown in one frikkin' year! From having no night mode, there have the best one now! I have a Xs and won't upgrade anytime soon, but dang they should have ported the night mode on X/Xs. 90Hz is prevalent in Android world. For 5G, rest assured it is not coming extensively to India before 2021/22 as it requires line of sight which basically means you need to have the routers EVERYWHERE. Buy an iPhone now if you want or even an android phone. For hobbies: Read! Such a fun year for books! Get "LikeWar: The Weaponization of Social Media by P.W. Singer, Emerson T. Brooking" to understand how social media manipulates us all or "Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World by Anand Giridharadas" to understand the story behind the charities by the elite rich. Want an inspiring tale: Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man’s First Journey to the Moon by Robert Kurson Want to understand the origin of the word computer: Broad Band: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet by Claire L. Evans. If you like to learn new stuff, "Automate Boring Stuff with Python" Udemy course is free to sign up today with the code "NOV2019FREE". Learn Python. You can automate a LOT of stuff. New TV series/Movies: Watch HBO series Chernobyl to understand the nuclear aftermath of a reactor near melt down. GoT finally ended its 9 year run! Closure! Stranger Things S3 finally picked up after a snooze-y S2. Mind Hunter S2 is back and more riveting. Apple TV+ is here; Disney+ is here! Netflix is producing some really good content. Avengers Endgame! Closure after 20 years of movies! Keanu in John Wick 3! Dark Phoenix was released this year which means that turd level X-Men movies will finally stop and the property transferred to Marvel for better ones! The Irishmen is here! As Astra is awaited! Cricket WC 2019! Yes we didn't win but that final was a treat! And beating Pakistan. LoL. Can you forget the biryani yawning captain? F1: Lewis Hamilton the 6 time World Champion touching on the heels of the all time great Schumi! PV Sindhu's Gold at 2019 Badminton WC! Mr. Baghdadi was laid to rest with no casualties! J&K is finally an integral part of India. We also have a stable govt for the next 5 years irrespective of the party. Trade war between China and US led to Apple manufacturing phones in India. Hobbies: Bangalore has some amazing gym/ workout places at really nominal prices which have come of age this year. Else play badminton/ sports with friends. Nothing like an hour of badminton/ tennis. Photography: DSLRs and mirrorless cams are at an all time low price! Plus wedding photography/ baby shower photography, pre-wedding photo-shoots, baby bump photo-shoots, exotic getaway photo-shoots, etcetera is all a rage! This year we even had the first ever picture of a black hole captured by Horizon! I mean 2019 has been a fab year (yeah there were a few downers) and I firmly believe 2020 will be even better! Live my dear friend PS: I can go on and on, but didn't want this to be an essay for 2019 | |
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5th November 2019, 13:04 | #4 | |
Distinguished - BHPian | Re: Rant! 2019-20, the year of waiting! Quote:
You have the best games available, and all of them at discounts, you have consoles available at discounts, hell you can buy them for dirt cheap off second hand markets. The Game library is huge with AAA titles lined up to play one after the another. When new console launch they would hardly have any games, the library will take time to build, get a second hand PS4 pro now and you are set for next couple of years. Last edited by Gannu_1 : 5th November 2019 at 13:14. Reason: Trimming quoted post. Please avoid quoting a large post as it inconveniences small screen users. Thanks. | |
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9th November 2019, 10:41 | #5 |
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| Re: Rant! 2019-20, the year of waiting! Well strictly speaking, no particular year is drastically different from its preceding year and this year was no exception. When seeing in retrospect we tend to look at many years of the past as a single unit of time and think that we suddenly changed from that to this. For me the increasing buzz around electric vehicles is definitely the highlight of the automotive industry this year. But were electric vehicles invented this year? Definitely not. In the world of technology the increasing adoption of AI stands out. But AI wasn't invented this year either. Drones are being used increasingly in diverse applications. Vloggers are having the time of their lives shooting HD drone videos and travelling to exotic destinations to capture them. Cycling has gotten a leg up with fitness, environment and traffic woes. Again, people suddenly didn't wake up to this in 2019. The 'gig economy' is starting to get bigger. There was never a better time to be a freelancer. On the gaming front, it is easier said than done. Hordes of people wait for the new console to be launched, but once it is launched the first thing one hears is how overpriced it is. Then people wait endlessly for the price of console and games to come down. By that time the new console is on the horizon. On phones, let's be realistic. How much do we expect phones to change year on year? Breakthrough features such as touch screen come once in a while. All along phones have been only improving incrementally with regards to their processing power, display resolution etc. Even if something drastic were to happen in 2020 in terms of technology, it will only be a culmination of many years of effort. Since you mentioned hobbies specifically, there has been no better time for Indians to indulge in their pursuits. I see younger people following their passion more than any generation of Indians has done. |
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9th November 2019, 20:14 | #6 | |
BHPian | Re: Rant! 2019-20, the year of waiting! Quote:
When I got Xbox One in late 2015, it was really new in India and the title support was almost nill. I was cursing myself for not getting 360 which I was getting at almost 1/3rd price of one and it had all the games really cheap. However I stuck with it and now have caught up with games in last 2-3 years. Now is the best time to get OneX/S because the prices are at all time low and the title library is huge. Similar case with PS4. Pretty sure if you pickup the new gen consoles, you will have to wait a while till the games are settled or shell out huge money to buy games as not all the current games will be compatible for newer consoles. Pickup a console dirt cheap now and put the money to buy latest games or take a look at Google Stadia. | |
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11th November 2019, 10:19 | #7 | |
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| Re: Rant! 2019-20, the year of waiting! Quote:
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11th November 2019, 14:31 | #8 | |
Distinguished - BHPian | Re: Rant! 2019-20, the year of waiting! Quote:
That said you do have a point, but what about console exclusive games like God of War, spiderman, uncharted, how do you play those masterpiece. | |
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11th November 2019, 17:01 | #9 | |
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| Re: Rant! 2019-20, the year of waiting! Quote:
I'm not against consoles, its that point in time where it's better to wait and see what Stadia does rather than buying a console outright. Coming to exclusives, it is just a matter of time i would say. Low entry barrier potentially allows anyone to tryout Stadia, this has made each and every game developer, from Indie to AAA on this planet glued to the Stadia scene with starry eyes Last edited by RYP : 11th November 2019 at 17:05. | |
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11th November 2019, 22:02 | #10 |
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| Re: Rant! 2019-20, the year of waiting! I purchased PS4 but hardly play any games now. I only like two or three franchises like Fallout, GTA and Soulsborne and there are no signs of them coming in next two to three years. Innovations in Phones have also stagnated and I will probably stick to my Op5T until it's battery dies and there is no option to replace it. I got Creta Automatic this year on company lease and it will serve me good until lease ends. I was pretty much excited during purchase but surprisingly I am not driving as much I had hoped, I find myself wanting to go for bicycle ride more. Only thing I am enthusiastic about is Artificial Intelligence and specially Deep Learning which I have been learning for two years now. I have a computer vision project in my mind which will make good use of my Creta, a dashcam and a workstation for training Neural Networks. I would probably build a computer with Ryzen CPU and Nvidia RTX Graphics card required for training deep neural networks. This will also serve as occasional gaming computer so no PS5 for me. Three years ago I went into depth of fundamentals analysis of stocks and had developed a decent modeling tool to evaluate and analyze stock. Then I watched a video from Ashwath Damodaran who in his talk to google employees made a suggestion that people like us who are in tech should rather invest in mutual funds and spend more time in improving our job skills as it would bring more money in long term. There was some truth in his advice and I stopped my short lived stock market chase. Last edited by born_free : 11th November 2019 at 22:28. |
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13th November 2019, 09:13 | #11 |
BHPian | Re: Rant! 2019-20, the year of waiting!
To be more specific about the infra requirements for Stadia, it requires min bandwidth of 25 mbps for 4k30fps and latency below 30ms. More than bandwidth issue in India will be latency as the nearest stadia servers are going to be in EU with 100 ms or more latency. There is no plan announced as of yet from Google on launching any servers in Asia until 2021 so we will have to wait a while in India to try out Stadia. All depends on how successfull the launch is in the first 14 countries. |
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