Ideas Maverick Blog by Preetham Venkky

According to Robin Dunbar, a British anthropologist, 150 is the maximum number of personal relationships an individual can maintain at any given time.

“cognitive limit to the number of individuals with whom any one person can maintain stable relationships”.

While this could explain Facebook’s generous 5,000 friends limit (though a tad on the upper side), what it doesn’t explain is the 2,000 odd contacts I maintain on my phone list. Though the number is a theoretical extrapolation based on the relative size of the noecortex in non-human primates, Dunbar might be onto something. While the number might vary based on your psychographic, it is clear that trying to maintain stable ‘meaningful’ relationships with more than 150 people is both time-consuming and impractical (unless you are a Member of Parliament under the Indian democracy).

My Dunbar is 172

I conducted a simple analysis and tracked back my E-Mail, Facebook and Twitter conversations as well as phone calls made over the past year. I highlighted interactions with a regularity of atleast once every 3 months. Based on this, my Dunbar’s number was a conservative 172. Do let me know about your Dunbar Number in comments below, approximations are welcome.

Interesting Reads

Anil Dash – Life on the List
Clive Thompson – In Praise of Online Obscurity

Photo Credit - Ol.v!er [H2vPk]

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It’s not uncommon to find spectacular panoramas and make them interactive using either of the following three technologies:

a. Quick Time VR Plugin
b. Java Applet
c. Flash Script

Panoramas are usually shot either using a 360 lens or by shooting at intervals of 45 degrees and then stitching the photographs. This, might I add, is last generation technology. I found something far more interactive and interesting over at the CNN blog – Video Panorama.

Video Panorama

The next generation in panoramas is the technology which enables panoramic views within a video. While it’s a little difficult to explain it in words, you can experience it by clicking on the following image.

The video was shot using a Yellow Bird Camera. The camera captures all the possible directions using six lenses. The video stream is captured at 1200 Mbps in an uncompressed format. Interestingly, the website has the longest URL ever.

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Ideally I would’ve liked to embellish the headline better, but realised it looked perfect as it was. I’m sure the producers of the movie concurred with that thought. Everything about this movie was a ten-on-ten. Everything. From the simplistic title card to the performances by Sean Penn (for which he won his second Oscar) and James Franco.

What I loved most about the movie was the way it ended. It closed like every American Classic should, with a quote; a quote so powerful yet simplistic that you wish you had it pasted on your wall.

I know you cannot live on hope alone, but without it, life is not worth living. So you, and you, and you… You gotta give em’ hope… you gotta give em’ hope.

So call up your DVD library and ask him to deliver, Milk (no pun intended). What will bring that ah! moment will be the parting frames where they reveal to you how ‘in character’ Sean Penn is as they show frames of the real Harvey Milk. This actor is a sheer work of genius, and if you think he was fantastic in Milk, then you must order up 21 Grams and I Am Sam. Let me know what you thought of the movie.

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