Meme's used in Sri Lankan protests against UNHRC

It's amazing to see how online world influences the physical world since it is expected the other way around. Recently Sri Lankan protestors against UN human rights commission has used  meme's as slogan boards. See below

It says USA - Y U NO TABLE RESOLUTION ON YOURSELF?

I predict pretty soon we see them in Lipton square, In Cricket matches and in every other demonstration in Sri Lanka held for different reasons. 

Meme culture hits Sri Lanka

With the likes of 9GAG meme's had been the talk of the day in other online markets. Usually all trends come to Sri Lanka late but meme's have really been faster - probably because of faster internet growth these days. I would also blame the Sri Lankan expats for accelerating meme arrival in Sri Lanka ( @Binku xD)

An internet meme is an idea that is virally propogated through the internet. It can be a hyperlink, picture, video or even a small word or phrase. The spread is through social networking sites, blogs, email.etc,.Most popular being photo memes since they are easily shareable. Currently there are many meme generators with commonly used memes to which you can put a caption. One is http://memegenerator.net/.

One of the most popular memes this days are "LOTR Boromirs - One does not simply", "Success baby meme", "Obama - Not bad meme", "Facebook girl meme", "Barney Stinson - True story meme" .etc. Some of them are directly taken from famous movie,TV shows. For .e.g. Boromir saying "One does not simply walk in to Morodor" in Council of Elrond in Lord of the Rings.

Internationally meme sites of likes of 9GAG are very popular. Locally we have only the "Sri Lankan memes" FB page but its growing quite fast. 6000 fans in mere 3 weeks is quite astonishing without any kind of commercial advertising. A barrier i see for Sri Lankan memes to reach mass internet population in Sri Lanka is that certain movie & TV show memes' are better enjoyed when one has actually seen the feature. For e.g. If you assume 20% of internet users in Sri Lanka have seen Lord of the Rings, its less than 1% who have seen How i met your mother - so memes of that origin might not be enjoyed by many.

Despite all that, Sri Lankan meme FB page is really happening these days, specially on Cricket match days. Admins are doing a great job with all the filtering & coordination. Hats-off to anyone doing the page.

So - start memeing if you haven't already! Feel free to share your thoughts on meme culture in Sri Lanka by commenting below....

CB Series : Lessons for Business & Life

Kohli screamed "Im the future of India", Chandimal whispered the same about Sri Lanka (via Cricinfo), Dilshan,Mahela & Australia prevailed - After a long time Sri Lankan cricket fans have something to be happy about even though we screwed the 3rd final. Well - even losing is ok if you learn lessons from it. below are some of the things i take back from Cricket -

Mahela : Leadership is key
See what a drastic change captaincy did to the side. In business it's the same - You need to take out bad leaders and find the best person who can drive results. Good teams can perform under bad leaders is a misconception.


Dilshan : Right man doing the right job
ESPN Cricinfo ‏ @ESPNcricinfo 

Dilshan last ODI series before becoming captain: 500 runs. First series after stepping down: 503 runs. In between: 440 runs in 21 matches

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5:35 PM - 8 Mar 12 via TweetDeck · Details

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Numbers above says it all - If you give wrong responsibilities in business to the wrong, he not only screw new work, But also what he was doing best. Dilshan used to be one of the most lethal openers & see what wrong responsibilities did to him. Glad he's back.


Kohli & Team India : Performing under pressure 

Amitabh Bachchan ‏ @SrBachchan 

T 668 - Virat Kohli, you have played the innings of your life .. back against the wall, pressure of loss and elimination, and you win !!

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7:02 PM - 28 Feb 12 via web · Details

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Some might argue it's productive but i think if India played in the same aggression through out the series they would have even won the cup. In business also - there are guys who perform really well with deadlines but are very unproductive otherwise. I think someone has to be consistent in performance whether there is pressure or not.

Sri Lankan team losing easy matches : Perfectionism
As @amisampath pointed out in a conversation - We lost the first final because we were bowling very lethargically when Australia was batting in the first innings. Same with the 3rd final in which we could have "all out" Australia for 180-190 & scored even 230 easily. The team wasn't just perfecting performance. Same way you need to be perfect when closing jobs assigned in business very importantly sales.

Feel free to share your thoughts... 

Nokia regaining low end smartphone market share in Sri Lanka

2-3 weeks back Nokia started advertising this low end smart phone range in Sri Lanka targeted at lower middle class youth segments which are currently dominated by small players like Do Mobile, Karbonn & unknown Chinese brands.

The need
There is a segment of mobile phone users who want smart features like web, social networks access at the same time maintaining two sims to reduce the bill.etc. Like few people argued with me - dual sim is seen as a cheap feature - But you need ot understand that customers will not pay higher to buy a cheap feature. Chinese phones and small players were catering to this need all this time. Other need was the use of apps, with Nokia app-store (Forgetting about all the complaints) this range will be more appealing than other competing smartphones.

Nokia response
For sure - Its quite a late response. Low end smart phones were with Samsung,Motorola,LG and Sony Erricsson for like ages. For e.g Samsung had its dual sim smart phones many years back and now they are talking about OS dual sim phones like Samsung Y Duos. What Nokia launched as Asha 200 is a prototype of Micromax Q5fb which was launched about 2 years back in Sri Lanka.

Technology & features
Its on par with low players but behind the dual sim phones of Samsung & LG. Samsung advertising dual sim - android phone (Will post separately) was a big deal but it just diluted the hype since it's not launched yet - creating an opportunity for Nokia to capture the market even with less no.of features because pricing matters more than technology.  I'm predicting Nokia Asha 200 to be a hit outside Colombo for it's price vs features appeal - But it's a question of time.

Bottom line 
This is a very good attempt by Nokia to recapture the market, specially the youth segment in Sri Lanka. Will be a huge challenge for brands like Micromax,Karbonn&Do Mobile. Will be highly beneficial for the development in Sri Lanka in the long run by increasing internet penetration & social media usage giving a boost to internet related industries in Sri Lanka.

We had many fruitful arguments, specially in twitter-sphere about these phone range, So feel free to share your thoughts on Nokia's come back...

Facebook new photo viewer : When did FB start copying Google+?

So everyone has noticed the change by now - Its a clear copy of Google+. For those who haven't seen what Google+ photo viewer looked like - See below

Here's what the new Facebook photo viewer looks like

When you click on a photo on Facebook now, it will fill your screen and the background becomes a light grey. The photo information and comments are displayed on the right, eliminating the need to scroll down to see comments. When you hover over a photo, two large buttons to like and tag a picture are also shown. Ads appear in the lower right corner as well on certain photos.

So what's good and whats bad about it?

Pros

• You can comment while looking at the photo
• Easier navigation than the previous on-click navigation
• Photo window is auto-adjusted to the photo dimensions

Cons

• If there are lots of comments, have to scroll down to see comments, Addition of another scroll bar inside the browser scroll bar can be annoying
• (For owner of image) Photo edit button is hidden on top

Any other advantages and disadvantages? Feel free to share what you think about the new Facebook photo viewer by commenting below.

What is RETWEET in Twitter? Best use of RT explained

Thought of writing this after seeing the pathetic situations in Twitter-sphere where newbies disgrace themselves by doing whats not right.

Here is the explanation...

There are two groups of people for you on Twitter

1. Following
People who you follow

2. Followers
People who follow you

What you see in your timeline are from "following" - The people you follow on Twitter. In Retweeting what you are going to do is to post a tweet from your 1. Following to 2. Followers.

In Facebook language (You cannot compare- But since you are more familiar with Facebook)
It is same like copying one of your friends Facebook status (Some call it stealing) and putting it as your status.

What to Retweet?
You should retweet what you want to tell your friends. Its usually interesting tweets, quotes and announcements.

What not to Retweet?
You shouldnt retweet what you find interesting but will not be suitable for your followers.
For e.g. Your friend says she is sick (Its like LIKING a facebook status of a friend getting sick) - You dont RT that. But if Lady Gaga says she is sick - its ok to RT and tell your followers that Gaga is sick. (its like telling people that you know about your celebrities.)

Common mistakes in RTing
When RTing sometimes space becomes a constraint since RT @originalTweep takes extra space. When trying to clear out space sometimes you remove the space between RT & @Twitterhandle. For e.g.

Wrong - RT@ciminfo: How do you identify who your high performers are in sales and marketing? http://goo.gl/7U33r [PDF] #CIMtoolkit 

Correct - RT @ciminfo: How do you identify who your high performers are in sales and marketing? http://goo.gl/7U33r [PDF] #CIMtoolkit

How to make your content RTed more, and the magic RT number is coming up - Follow the blog to find out!

Please feel free to comment with what you feel about how your followers use RT good and in bad ways....

Girls Facebook Status - I'm going to live in X for Y months

Today morning another lame attempt by girls was decoded by a set of intelligent men (Thanks DimSam) and asked me to post in my blog so the guys will not fall for it and rush to comment (And maybe inbox to say what they wanted to say for a long time - "Good bye" - WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?)

Basically it is

"I'm going to live in (month you were born in [see below]) for (day you were born on) months"

January - Mexico
February - London
March - Miami
April - Dominican Republic
May - France
June - St. Petersburg
July - Austria
August - Germany
September - New York
October - Amsterdam
November - Las Vegas
December - Columbia

This is lame for several reasons
1. It is decoded
This is another lame girl attempt after the "I like it in X" status which was also decoded like in - what? 5 mins? Also implies the girls incapability of keeping a secret for more than an hour ( ♬ ♭♫ Click Five - Just The Girl ♫ ♩ ♬ ♮)

2. It is possible but improbable for a girl like you
Knowing that you haven't been to the shop outside home without your mom - Are we to believe you are actually going to Mexico? Laughing out loud - even at the thought of it.

3. We have already witnessed girls' general knowledge 
You say you are going to St.Petersburg? We know girls common sense and general knowledge is so good that you don't know that some of the above are not countries and you wont have a clue where they are located. So when you say you are going to Austria - We LOL - By the meaning of LOL.

Guys, comment below with more reasons and girls - TRY,i say again "TRY" to defend..try... :-P