arnab's diary

India to have it's first proper Digital Music Store in Flyte

2012-02-21T05:39:00.001-08:00

India has been a silent bystander in the digital era.

Apple, which neglected India for a very long time, finally launched the iPhone at ridiculous prices, clearly sending out a message that Indian customers didn't matter to them and that the launch was a mere act of paying lip service to the cries of potential users across the country. Such was the sloppiness of the iPhone launch, that the much hyped iTunes Music Store, considered to be an important part of the Apple experience was completely blacked out for Indian users. Why users in this country continue to patronise a company so brutally careless and callous about the user experience (there being no official Apple Stores in this country, being another example of the indifference of Apple towards Indian customers) is beyond me.

Apple however is not the only offender when it comes to neglecting users. Amazon, one of the largest online retailers, is definitely not the holy cow. However since none of Amazon's services are officially available in India and there being no local Amazon India store (Junglee.com is a laughable attempt at creating an online marketplace, my own experience with Junglee.com has been an absolute nightmare), one can forgive them for not caring about Indian customers.

What this means is that Indians, are currently having no all inclusive online music store in the country. Not one, zero, zilch, naught!

Of course, one might argue about the presence of one hungama.com, about which I have my own reservations (humgama.com sells 128kbps MP3 files for Re. 1/song. Which year is this? 2001?). In short, after desperately trying to buy digital music, my experience has been horrendous. No wonder then, that Indians, even the ones who can afford to pay for music and more importantly who want to pay for music, are forced to resort to blatant piracy.

Flipkart which has obviously done quite a lot (well, if there is a online market revolution in India happening at present, Flipkart can take the entire credit for it) in terms of making online purchases extremely smooth, is all set to launch Flyte, it's own digital music store. One can only hope that Flipkart addresses the issues Indian users have complained about regarding the current batch of (laughable) music stores such as hungama.com.

Thoughts on 1984

2012-02-14T11:07:00.001-08:00

It's difficult to summarise one's thoughts about a book like 1984. It has influenced generations and has been interpreted by each differently. There have been scores of novels and movies (and even video games, remember Half Life?) which have drawn inspiration directly or indirectly from it.

At the outset, it must be said that this dystopian novel is a fantastic read. Even when you ignore the philosophy of it all, simply as a novel this is pretty amazing. Of course, once one delves deeper, there is a thoroughly intriguing and might I add, highly thought provoking, take on modern societies and power regimes and where they're headed. One may not agree with every conclusion the author comes up with but few can dispute the relevance of the book even to this day (the picture of the North Korean defector with a copy of 1984 in the streets of South Korea, "Nothing to Envy" by Barbara Demick, immediately comes to mind). Rulers, regimes and governments have since time immemorial been ruthless against the proletariat. And what's extremely uncomfortable and perplexing is the fact that even to this day, around the world, the exploitation of the poorest of the poor is continuing. Somehow we are still stuck with the medieval notions of the higher, middle and lower classes, in one form or the other. And therefore, much to my personal dismay, Orwell's books, especially Animal Farm and 1984 continue to be relevant rather than simply being important works of literature.

The passing of the torch

2011-12-28T10:15:00.001-08:00

To be honest, I've always been fascinated by North Korea. It's a country most of the world knows little about and it's powered by a ruthless hardline communist regime, unmatched in its control over its people. The death of Kim Jong-il was the ultimate wake up call for me. Here is a country, from my own continent of which I know absolutely nothing about.

The next thing I did was pick up one of those 'highly recommended' books on the country by Barbara Demick. The book is called Nothing to Envy and is pretty much regarded as the beginner's guide to North Korea. Never being a fan of non fiction, I was a bit sceptical initially. After all being fed on a steady diet of GRRM, Stephen King and their likes has its flaws. But Nothing to Envy turned out to be a page turner. It fails to fall in trap of being preachy and impersonal and comes up with something interesting.
Barbara Demick is a correspondent for the Los Angeles Times and her work over the years has led her to exotic places across the planet, most significantly, to North Korea. A country so secluded, even its population is a matter of guessing by the outside world. It's millions of citizens being constantly fed a steady diet of idealistic hard line communist propaganda, and the philosophy of 'Jucche' (loosely translated it means self-reliance) is quite astonishingly divided into a privileged class (read people who have sworn allegiance to the Worker's Party) and the impoverished. A class discrimination, as Demick says, only second to the one which was prevailing in India back in the day. Quite surprising, if course, since economic discrimination is the last thing you'd expect from a communist regime in full control of a country's political and economic landscape.

Unlike a commonly held perception, not everything Kim is associated with is evil. Kim Il-sung, the late Dear Marshall and the Eternal President, has a definite group of loyal 'authentic' followers. After the Japanese invasion of North Korea, it was he who instilled a sense of self pride and of course the philosophy of Jucche in the minds and hearts of North Koreans. Revered he was and probably still is by many North Koreans for taking socialism to whole new levels. In fact, so successful was the regime under him that in 1970, it was the North which was the prosperous of the two Koreas. Of course, after that, things went downhill. His death was followed by the rise of his son Kim Jong-il to the corridors of power and control. He assumed titles which registered him as quite frankly, the last word in North Korea. And then state sponsored propaganda was taken to a whole new level by that man they call 'Dear Leader'. So severe was the suppression of and crackdown on dissenters that even during the devastating famine of the late 90s (of which very little is known) no protesting voice was heard.
His passing away led to speculations all over the world regarding the stability and viability of the regime. Ending all those speculations, Kim jong-il's youngest son, Kim jong-un has assumed the role of the supreme leader of the country. Backed by the military and opportunistic party workers, his future seems pretty secure, at least for the time being.

Whether the onslaught of propaganda will finally force the people of North Korea into revolting against the state machinery may be a matter of speculation but we're heading into turbulent times as the last dictator of a nuclear weapons armed communist regime tries to re-emphasize its grip on its hunger stricken, grief ridden and frustrated populace.

Hello World!

2011-12-15T07:54:00.001-08:00

Nope. I can't write a single line of programing code to save my life! Okay maybe to save my life I would but the end result would be completely bug ridden. Much like Android. Oops!

The year's coming to an end isn't it? I guess that means it's time to look back and contemplate. That's something we Bengalis do very well by the way, contemplate. Compared to actually getting things done.

So what we're the highs for me this year? Hmm...okay so I didn't get high, so maybe that's a high. Other than that, I experimented a lot with photography only to realise that I knew shit about it. Another realisation? You don't need a f*ckin DSLR to take decent photos. By the way, I am indeed in the lookout for a cheap DLSR (don't smirk, I saw you) but when I indeed find one to fit my tiny fingers, I promise to stay away from the gravest error. Shooting in auto mode. Here's a tip; when done with shooting always revert to the auto mode, that way you're ready to take photos in difficult situations. See, I have picked up a few things over the years!

Random change of topic. I have seen fatal attraction towards Serious Sam. Okay fine not fatal. I doubt if I'll ever find Sam trying to stab me in the bathroom.

That was weird...

Books. Novels rather. I'm well in my way to end up reading fifty novels this year. Yeah that's an achievement. For a casual reader. And no I haven't yet read Pride and Prejudice. Neither have I read any of the Twilight books.

Random change of topic. I actually thought Kristen Stewart was the daughter of Jon Stewart! Yes, the comedy central guy. He's awesome by the way. Anyway, to my utter surprise I found out yesterday that Kristen's dad is John Stewart! Arggh the crucial H.

As for the contemplating scheme of things, I'm contemplating writing about it the next time around.

There, the Bengali in me has spoken.

Busy busy...erm Not

2011-11-20T02:11:00.001-08:00

Of late I've developed a strange fascination for PC games. Primarily because I now have a more capable computer than ever before. Also because I've got a few days to spare before things at the studies spectrum get going.

I frankly admit, I was never the gamer. Playing games on a PC was looked down upon in my family back in the day. Mum always used to say that playing games, which she equated with wasting time, on a PC was misusing the device. One should better utilise time by doing what good boys do, searching Wikipedia all day (yeah as if that ever worked).

Anyway, since I was never the gamer (deja vu?) I never really experienced what half life 2 or crysis meant to a gamer. Trying to make up for lost time I've of late taken it upon myself the task of experiencing or if I'm lucky, completing a few contemporary critically acclaimed games. I started off by playing Crysis. The most specs heavy game probably ever created. My Nvidia GT 525M handled the game pretty well and I quite comfortably completed all the levels on a high (graphically speaking).

Then of course I realised that the holy grail for every PC gamer was the orange box. The "best game deal ever", consisting of, well an orange box having two DVDs full of five fantastic games. Half life 2, half life 2 episode 1, episode 2, team fortress 2 and the quite brilliant, portal.

Half life 2 has of course been hailed as one of the best games ever created, a title I firmly believe should go to Crysis. Anyway, overrated though it may be, its vastly entertaining and brilliant. It combines the element of puzzles with the thrill of a first person shooter. And the result is a gorgeous game, and as many say, the best game ever created.

Many more games to look forward to. Not a lot of time to spare.

The Guru of Ghazals

2011-10-10T14:36:00.000-07:00

I've had my 'phases'. These ranged from the extreme depression to the exact opposite. And in one of these phases, Jagjit Singh figured prominently.

I think I was in the 10th standard back then. A sudden bout of gloom had overtaken my life. I was on the verge of literally switching career choices. I had been a 'Brilliant Tutorials' target IITJEE correspondence course student till then because well, I wanted to become an engineer. But of course things were changing drastically for me primarily due to the awesomeness of one Biology Sir (whose name I can't recall right now, and yea shame on me for that), we students of his affectionately called him that, and the ridiculously boring regimen of ICSE mathematics. I wasn't sure if that was the right thing to do, taking drastic steps with regards to career choices. My parents being neither doctors nor engineers didnt help matters. So, confused I was back then, and bored too. It was then that I found solace in someone's voice.

My dad has always been a huge music listener. Even in my childhood I had seen cartons full of audio cassettes and photographs of musicians at every corner of the house. And dad's obsession only grew with time albeit he switched from cassettes to CDs. Jagjit Singh was someone my dad listened to back then almost daily. The Akai home theater at our place buzzed with the thick baritone of Gulzar and the melancholic voice of Singh everyday. I wasn't a fan of this 'Ghazal stuff' initially or maybe I didn't want to be. I mean lets face it, my friends were listening to Linkin Park back then, it was the cool thing, the 'in-thing'!

Yet the man grew on me, his voice did. Ghazal, which I had once thought of as 'lame' and 'slow' and 'dull' was suddenly starting to make sense. I felt as if a giant jigsaw puzzle was falling into place. The world started making sense. Soon i found myself spending hours listening to Jagjit Singh's beautiful rendition of ghazals. Linkin Park and Limp Bizkit suddenly seemed way too fake and goofy for my tastes, which of course were changing quite drastically.

It was during this 'phase' that I discovered ghazals. The entire genre became a favourite of mine. I got hold of literally every single Jagjit Singh album released till date, and my dad was only too happy to buy me all those. Now that I look back, I think he felt glad that he had finally bridged the generation gap. I was so obsessed with ghazals, especially the ones sung by Jagjit Singh, that I had almost memorised every single one! Even to this day, I can recall the lyrics of quite a few.

My interest in ghazals has since then faded. But Jagjit Singh's voice and his songs, (along with Gulzar's impeccable elocution), helped me through one of the toughest phases of my life and I can only be grateful to the man for that.

Rest in Peace, Jagjit Singh. The heavens are apparently in greater need of your songs.

The O.C. - Revisited

2011-09-23T02:13:00.000-07:00

I remember watching The O.C. on TV back in my schooldays. In India, back then, TV series from foreign shores were rare. One either had to buy DVDs of entire shows from the stores, which was bloody expensive. Not to mention the hilarious ‘collections‘ at those stores. Simply put, TV shows from the US were plain inaccessible. Now in 2011, I find it very hard to imagine myself living in that India. Yet, as the cliche goes, those were the best days of my life.

Image via Wikipedia

The O.C. was a show which was actually telecast here, on some obscure English soap channel, again something which was rare during that time. I had watched a few episodes of The O.C. and found it interesting. At the time, having the television in the ‘dining room’ was in vogue. The guests come in and BAM, there’s the big screen TV, that was the logic I presume, both flaunting the ‘treasure’ and guarding it from the prying eyes of a fourteen year old searching desperately for easy access to porn. To be honest, considering the amount of ‘resources’ we kids could get our hands on, shows like The O.C., with its occasional ‘hot scenes’ almost substituted the need for the real thing (admit it, season one of the show was pretty hot and intense and Marissa Cooper, she was HOT!). I know, people will find it hilarious now, but yea, that’s what life was like back then. No internet, no porn.

Many years later, after ‘maturing’ (both porn-wise and emotionally, emotionally as in not interpreting shows like these as mini-porn), I got down to the task of finally watching that goddamn show. The O.C., which deals with the lives of the uber-rich, is all that it’s made out or blamed to be. It’s awfully fake, its surreal and its way, way over the top. Bottomline, it should have sucked. Only it didn’t.

Some terrific acting performances were put on display throughout the four seasons of the show and I had some pretty amazing revelations too.

1. Marissa Cooper is still HOT, albeit she seems a bit fake now.

2. Marissa Cooper may be hot but Mischa Barton cant act to save her life!

3. Summer Roberts is a darling (Realisation - I’m totally not a lovey-dovey-comfy-cosy person, but hey, sometimes being all that is okay)

4. Sandy Cohen and Kirsten Cohen are one of the most adorable mom-dad characters ever seen on TV.

5. Seth Cohen is my hero (in a completely non-gay way). Yes, he is. And Adam Brody is awesome. I’m surprised how underused he has been since the show ended. I have barely seen him in a couple of decent movies but that’s pretty much it. The guy deserves better.

6. Say what you may, but the title track "California" by Phantom Planet, defined an entire generation.

Final words? Well I’m glad the show ended the way it did. I’m also glad that the it finally ended and didn’t keep going on with the increasingly sloppy plotline (yea, I agree season three was pretty lame). This show was a part of me growing up (in whatever weird way that may be) and I am so glad to have finally watched it in its entirety. I do like my share of Dexter, House, True Blood and Breaking Bad, but a dash of nostalgia surely can’t hurt.

The O.C. wasn’t even close to being a great show, hell I doubt if that was even the most popular show on TV back then, it was fake and unreal, but god it was good!

Q&A: Not really that bad

2011-08-24T13:27:00.000-07:00

Ask anyone who has read it and you'll most likely, get the same reply. It's either "isn't that the Slumdog Millionaire book?" or "yeah, read it, sucked man". Enough of a reason for me to give the book a try.

Q&A by Vikas Swarup isn't your conventional run of the mills 'coincidental' fiction novel. It's pretty well crafted and elegantly put together novel with a thrilling plot which comes alive with every single chapter. The protagonist Ram Mohammad Thomas, (weird name you would say, well even that has a pretty humourous explanation) lands up in a KBC-esque (Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, for people not familiar with KBC) quiz show to win a billion rupees.

Of course, being a boy from the slums, he is left to fend for himself at the show, with the help of his extensive experiences. To the horror of the producers of the show and the surprise of everyone, he manages to answer all the questions correctly and win the prize money. The producers, who weren't prepared to pay a billion rupees to the winner in the first place, bribe the police and have him arrested on charges of cheating, only to be saved later by a lawyer.

This is where the story takes off. Q&A is essentially Ram's explanation to the lawyer (whose identity is revealed later in the plot) as to how a boy from the slums managed to scrape through the maze of all the questions on the quiz (and life) without having any formal education.

The reason why most readers hate this novel is because of its literary character (rather the lack of). Granted its not literature. But then again, popular fiction isn't all about literature only is it? It's about entertaining the reader and making sure the reader has enough interest to not throw the book away after reading the first few pages. To that extent, Vikas Swarup definitely succeeds. And we must give him credit for that.

Its quite a departure from the movie Slumdog Millionaire, (the other way round it should be, but since this was a post-movie read I'll keep it that way) and frankly I like this one better!

Neglect the reviews for once and go read this book, you wont regret it.

The Shiva Trilogy

2011-08-21T00:30:00.000-07:00

It's not very often that we Indians come across books from our compatriots which turn out to be page turners. Sure we have the Amitav Ghosh-s and the Kiran Desai-s, but the mass market popular paperbacks are what is lacking here. Chetan Bhagat broke that seemingly insurmountable barrier with Five Points Someone.

Amish Tripathi has taken it one step further. His books, The Immortals of Meluha and The Secret of the Nagas, which is a sequel to the former, have found admirers among many Indian readers who would have otherwise been loath to the idea of reading formulaic books. The Shiva Trilogy (the final book in the series yet to be released) is an epic retelling of the tale of Shiva, a subject rarely dealt with in popular culture. Amish has clearly done his research and starts off with the premise that claims Shiva as a human being who was elevated to the stature of god for his virtues and his deeds. Thus identifying with Shiva, all of sudden, for the reader is not really as difficult as it would have been had he been a god.

Writing a book on a topic yet to be 'discovered' has its advantages. But thankfully, Amish doesnt seem to take his readers for granted. Action packed to the point of being a thriller, both the novels are absolute page turners. 'Unputdownable', I'd say (as a certain newspaper in Kolkata promises to its readers).

It's not literature though and the amateurish (or populist?) writing can at times get to you, but the sheer magnanimity of the main plot, the well thought out subplots and the adequately if not well developed characters lend a certain charm to these novels, not found in most tales by Indian authors these days.

I will go as far as this, Amish is definitely the GRRM of Indian literature as of now. The scale of the plot is as grandiose as A Song of Ice and Fire. A must read.

The Garden of Solitude - Review

2011-08-05T11:20:00.000-07:00

I'll be honest here. I rarely read books from 'debut authors'. However Siddhartha Gigoo's novel had to be an exception. It just had to be.

The Garden of Solitude deals with the plight of the Kashmiri pandits, the pain and the suffering the migration caused and the emotional turmoil the pandits had to go through. There aren't very many books on the subject. The ones which exist are either out of reach, in all senses of the word, or written in a documentary format, which to be honest, doesnt really make for an interesting reading experience.

So there I was, the book in my hand, eagerly awaiting to delve into the pages. The novel starts off lazily, describing the lives of the residents, the near utopic state which prevailed before the turmoil. Although the descriptions are vivid and eloquent, it gets pretty boring eventually. Hence, even before the real story kicks off, I felt tired and bored.

The story in itself is quite shocking and the events dealt with an amazing amount of sensitivity. However at the end of the day, it just feels like way too impersonal an account. The author does come up with a few glimpses of his literary brilliance, but those are few and far between. It almost feels like an overstretched poetry gone wrong due to the poet's over-eagerness to impress.

This is a must-read though. The plight of the Kashmiri pandits has been a neglected topic for many years now. The author should get all the kudos just for bringing the subject to light.

Why Hungama.com is an Epic #fail

2011-07-11T16:11:00.001-07:00

Indian music is synonymous with piracy. People from all walks of life however law abiding they may be in reality, find this urge to download songs for free from shady unverified sites irresistible.
But can the music labels blame these people? Till a few years back, there was no option to download legal music. Then came Hungama.com offering music downloads at great prices. And so started the era of the Indian version of iTunes music store...or so we thought.
Hungama.com has the worst customer service on the planet. I have done business with innumerable online portals and Hungama.com is clearly the worst of the lot. Its shocking how a company in the 21st century can survive with such callous attitude towards its customers. Repeated mails, no matter what the complaint or no matter how harsh the language yields no replies. This obviously comes from my personal experience.
Tracks/songs at Hungama.com are offered at such low bitrates, you are left to wonder if its really worth the money you are spending. 128kbps is so low a bitrate, it transforms music tracks from music to noise. Its a shame that when obscure music portals across the planet are able to offer downloads at 256/320kbps, the biggest music portal in the country, which apparently aims to curb piracy is offering extreme low quality downloads. Its a national shame that such a company is in charge of music content's online distribution in India.
After such harassments can the music industry really blame people for not buying music? In an era when lossless music is available across the web (FLAC), isn't it a shame that paid portals are offering music downloads at a measly 128kbps?
Can then these Hungama folks and the people from the music industry really blame people who head over to torrent portals to download music?

My Samsung Story

2011-06-28T11:23:00.000-07:00

If you're a regular reader of the blog, you'd know that I had got myself a Galaxy SL i9003 a few months back. I was pretty happy with the phone initially, primarily because on paper its a great device.

A couple of weeks back, however I noticed something. The top right corner of the touchscreen was coming off. It was pretty clear that the pasting/glueing was to blame for it. Simultaneously a few marks were starting to appear on the undersurface of the touschreen, as a result no amount of wiping the panel would remove the marks. It was very clear to me that I was using a defective handset and feared that more problems may be lurking around the corner. I wanted the phone replaced.

I was left with no other option but to call the customer care of Samsung. There I met with a rude shock. "We give you a warranty and not a guarantee" blared the customer care executive. Well I pretty much knew what the terms and conditions said and the last thing I needed was the company guy telling me that I had no legal ground for my claim. All of a sudden, I went from being a Samsung customer to almost a legal opponent fighting against the company in a court of law.

Frustrated, angry and furious at the response, I started posting status updates and tweets regarding this treatment of the company to a customer. Finally they sort of gave in, after incessant calls to the customer care service. Samsung cared enough to give me a standby phone for use while they took my i9003 for replacement. A nice touch indeed.

I now have received a fresh i9003 from Samsung.

An effort from the company I thoroughly appreciate but also wish I didn't have to go through such a huge process of trying to explain my situation to various people at Samsung.

Self Discovery

2011-06-26T14:26:00.000-07:00

Allow me dear reader, to be a little emotional today. I have been writing blogs for a very long time. Yes, a long time indeed. Quite a few of them are still online and “live”. A lot more, I have removed. Partly out of sheer embarrassment at my inability to write a proper sentence. Or partly out of a lack of commitment.

There are however a lot of blogs out there, which are worth reading. Worth your time. And definitely worth that “subscription”. These blogs tend to put mine to shame. Its as if I have been writing complete nonsensical gibberish for all these years. I had started this blog when I moved all my existing ones from wordpress to blogger. Since then, I have been writing posts on Explore Ubuntu (www.explore-ubuntu.blogspot.com) and here, mostly about my experiences with gadgets and gizmos and stuff like that. I feel, this isn’t really the place to write emotional pieces.

So, I have created another blog. Its called Scribbled Thoughts. Yes, the name gives it away. It wont be about any particular theme, idea or topic. It will be an attempt to maybe figure out if I really have that talent to write a proper article without making a fool out of myself. A tough task, yes, but one I’m willing to undertake.

Do head over to www.scrib-bled.blogspot.com and subscribe. I will try and make sure that my attempts are worth your time. If however, you feel that I’m failing, do not, dear reader, hesitate to hit the unsubscribe option.

Android Strengths and Ailments

2011-06-20T13:19:00.000-07:00

I posted these on my twitter timeline. So, if you haven't already, follow me @arnab_das

Android Strengths:

Android Strengths #1 : Extremely user friendly interface. Widgets, home screens, etc. make this one of the most user friendly OSes.

Android Strengths #2 : Notifications. Even the iOS users admit that the notification system is THE feature of Android.

Android Strengths #3 : 15 minutes payment return policy on apps. Okay maybe 15 minutes isnt enough, but for most apps, it is actually.

Android Strengths #4 : OS compatibility. Most android phones work perfectly with Windows, Mac and Linux, at least in the Mass Storage mode.

Android Strengths #5 : Root Access. This can be done with the "other" OS as well, but being open source it can give unprecedented control

Android Ailments:

Android Ailments #1 : Extremely Poor Support. Getting support from Google is tougher than seeing God Himself. No form of official support.

Android Ailments #2 : No policy to control apps. Malicious, unstable apps are flooding the market. Google is taking action way too late.

Android Ailments #3 : Compatibility. There is absolutely no guarantee that an app which runs on one android device will work on another. This is actually worst when the apps one is talking about turn out to be "paid" apps. Thats when it hurts.

Android Ailments #4 : No control over updates. One has absolutely no idea when one's phone will go out of date. Could be a year or a month!

Android Ailments #5 : Overall app interface, stability and usability still needs a lot of work. Force-close/hangs still very common issues.

It's official, Gingerbread by second week of July

2011-06-01T06:54:00.000-07:00

Samsung has made it clear that the Gingerbread update for Galaxy SL (i9003) will be available to users by the second week of July.

Here's the link: http://twitter.com/#!/Samsung_India/status/75890096288702464

Then again, this is Samsung, so I guess one will have to wait till August for sure. :)

So, now we wait.

My favourite paid apps on Android 2.2

2011-05-30T04:09:00.001-07:00

I recently got myself an i9003, a Galaxy S variant. This is my first android device and so it took me some time to figure out what apps to download and what to avoid.

So here's a list of my favourite apps.

1. Poweramp - Without a doubt the most functional and versatile music player on the android market. Plays any audio file you throw at it and has exceptional library/organizational abilities. A must have app for around $4.

2. Read It Later - This is a special app. What this does is that it gives you a reformatted version of web pages so that's it's easier for you to read articles. This is much like the article view on Kindle 3. Although not free, this is very much worth what the guys are charging for the app. Also future developments and browser integration only justifies that price tag.

3. Doggcatcher - One of the more expensive softwares out there. This $6 app is a podcast manager like no other. With integrated Google listen/reader syncing ability, the ability to auto download content, this one app is a must have for any podcast enthusiast. There are of course other free and paid podcast apps in the market, but none are nearly as efficient and customizable.

4. CacheMate - This thing is only available for users who have rooted their phones. Outstandingly simple to use this extremely cheap app lets you clean cache memory from each and every app saving you precious disk space.

5. Juice Defender (Ultimate) - Juice Defender is actually quite a popular app. It lets you save up on and reduce data usage on your mobile device thereby substantially increasing battery life. Although it is difficult to say the extent to which this battery saving ability works, its pretty evident that it does take visible measures to reduce data loss. I would recommended the ultimate version as its more useful and cheaper in the long run.

No online music stores? Really?

2011-05-28T10:07:00.001-07:00

I was at a complete loss for words the other day when I found out that India does not have any online music stores. Sure there are the ones like flipkart and infibeam which will ask you to buy entire albums, CDs to be more specific. But nothing in the lines of iTunes or Amazon mp3 store. Hence we are left with no other option but to physically go out and buy music CDs of entire albums even if just one track in the entire album is worth listening to.

This is quite a shame to be honest. India is regarded throughout the world as a music loving nation. To stifle the average music lover with lack of digital downloads is a sin. Fortunately for the native music industry there are places like raaga and saregama which will offers digital downloads but those online stores are strictly without anything remotely western music.

I have stopped blaming iTunes for this though, as Apple is a company which likes to believe that the world has just one country and the rest don't exist. Well that's why Apple doesn't matter to me. But I really can't understand why companies like Amazon and Google are shutting their doors to international users.

No wonder then that music piracy at least of international albums is rampant throughout the country. People willing to pay are being forced to take the illegal route as its way simpler. For heaven's sake downloading torrents is the easiest thing ever. Why would anyone stop doing that and spend money on fuel to drive to the music store? Its not that I support piracy, I totally don't. But I do understand why people would want to pirate music.

Message to the music labels? Make internationally recognisable stores available in this country. Give users the option to buy individual tracks instead of forcing them to pay big bucks for entire CDs. Make music accessible to users, the users will be accessible to you.

Aww That Was Sweet!

2011-05-22T01:43:00.001-07:00

This is one of those "I know what you did when you were a kid" videos. Innocent. Pure. Beautiful.

Watch "High five for first kiss (original)" on YouTube

Kolkata needs to get rid of Sourav-mania

2011-04-30T22:45:00.001-07:00

Sourav Ganguly has been one f the most successful cricket captains of our time. He has lead India to the 2003 world cup finals and has done so in many test matches over the years. He is one if the highest run fetters of the country and was and still is an immensely respected individual. Then all of a sudden he was dropped from the team for reasons which would qualify as "politics". A word we Bengalis are obsessed with. This force the man to retire prematurely from the game, something which broke a lot of fan's hearts. But it goes without saying that Sourav has had his fair share at everything Indian Cricket has on offer.

Many years after his official retirement, Kolkatans still feel an emotional connect with Sourav. Maybe that has got to do with the bong socio-political scenario in the state. This is totally understandable. What is not though, is the fact that some people still feel detected when Sourav isn't included in "private" tournaments like the IPL. For heaven's sake its a businessman's tournament! One has to be accommodating when it acmes to the whims and fancies of the team owner to survive in a league Luke this. Sourav unfortunately brings his set of ego baggage with him. It's almost as if he is trying to prove something to someone every time he pads up and lands on the crease. A great player and captain like him need not feel this way. And journos cash on on this. They talk of the rejection, dejection and humiliation that he had to face during his cricketing days. This without a doubt is a sure shot way to getting some major TRPs and other stupid ratings these people care about. Its therefore not surprising that every single day we have some or the other written about him, the way he gets treated etc. After a point it gets really irritating, this. We bongs need to get of this Sourav mania. The best way to pay a tribute to Sourav's achievements would be to create the infrastructure and opportunities so many Sourav's can come out in the forefront and represent the national in its unofficial national game.

Paid apps on android market

2011-04-30T09:38:00.001-07:00

The biggest difference I have felt since I switched from Symbian to Android was the availability of good apps. Not crap ones. Not ones which are useless, but good apps. Apps which can be used on a day to day basis and for which I wouldn't mind paying.

In about a month's use, I have already bought 2 really good apps. One if them I'm using currently as I type. And the other is a really good media player. Poweramp is without a doubt THE music player for android. Not only because of its innumerable options ranging from a seriously addictive graphic equalizer to awesomely useful tweaks, but also because of the UI.

The other app I bought today is the android gingerbread modded keyboard. It is available in the market for around $0.99. Something which I'd say is a steal for the features it has on offer. This is without a doubt the best android custom keyboard out there. I'd rate it higher than swype or the default Samsung keyboard it even the other keyboards available in the market. I've used quite a few of them and found this to be the very very best. Kudos must go out to the app developer.

Compare this to the experience I've had with symbian. Nokia had actually sent me an email long back stating reasons of helplessness when I had complained about the inability to download paid apps from the Indian version of the ovi store.

I'm enjoying the android experience more than I'd imagined. I hope my opinion of android doesn't change anytime soon.

And then it finally happened

2011-04-13T13:33:00.000-07:00

Yup, it did. The inevitable.

I am now an official Android fanboy. Okay, maybe not the trolling, FUD spreading anti Apple one I used to be, but a fan of the Linux based OS I am.

Fact is, I was getting a pretty good deal on my N97 Mini, something which I thought was a decent amount considering that it was running a pretty much dead (now officially dead) OS. I exchanged that phone and spared a few bucks for a blazingly fast Galaxy S.

First impressions? WOW!

Still reading? I usually stop watching videos the moment the unboxing happens and the reviewer goes WOW! Thats a turn off. But now that I'm about to write a review (albeit a very boringly crappy one), I realise that its only a natural reaction.

What was I talking about again? Oh yeah. So basically this thing has some pretty nifty features with a sleek UI. The processor is decent and so is the RAM. TouchWiz never really looked like a Sense UI competitor to me, but after using it for a few days now, I think its pretty good, although Sense still gets my vote.

Audio quality on the phone is a bit on the suckier side. And so are the earphones. Apart from that its a pretty nifty phone. If you're in the market for a new phone. Get an android and let the OS take over your life.

How the DTH can be made better

2011-04-08T09:49:00.001-07:00

There is no denying the fact that DTH is pretty much the pinnacle of the tv experience here in India. With a host of mega corporations investing big bucks, this business of keeping people entertained is only likely to get bigger with each passing year. With increasing competition though, companies, be it Tata Sky, Dish TV, Airtel, Reliance had come up with something extra, something more than just television. They called it the interactive services. Although most of these are available to the customers for free, some like Tata Sky, do charge the consumers for availing these features.

And this is where this post of mine comes in. There are a lot of interactive features available on DTH platforms, but most of them are literally spam attempts to get money out of you. To be fair, none of these are of real help to the consumers. I feel there is a lot of scope in these services and if implemented well, some new truly interactive features could be revolutionary.

Like what you say? Okay, lets start with something basic. How about a weather application? An app which will help you get the latest information of the weather in your city. Considering the fact that almost all mobile platforms have a weather app, I assume it should be pretty easy to implement.
How about a facebook/twitter app? An app which will help you post links to facebook, post status updates based on what programmes you are watching, etc. (I do recall seeing something like this on Gadget Guru the other day, the country where this is already a reality being Japan)
How about a news app? Something which will aggregate news content from various news sources and present it to you in a reader friendly format.

Of course, these features wont be commercially viable unless some in-app ads were introduced and that is perfectly alright. I dont think many would mind paying a premium (albeit not an outrageous one) for these apps. Even then, implementing them wont be easy, a massive overhaul of the insanely ugly interface of most set top boxes is the need of the hour. User friendliness is definitely on the top of the agenda right now for most companies, but frankly, one must not lose sight of aesthtics. It seems to me that in an attempt to pack in maximum advertising and other money making options, the pure quality of the interface has taken a backseat. With the increased competition I hop some of this will change, otherwise, watching television in India (both content-wise and otherwise) is an absolute pain in the ass.

28 Years In The Making

2011-04-06T09:19:00.000-07:00

It has been a long wait. Almost three decades. A generation of cricketers and cricket fans have come and gone in this huge gap. And then it happens!

They say its the biggest prize a cricketer can get, the greatest privilege of them all, the moment where a simple cricketer becomes a legend. Its a World Cup victory. Not many Indians remember the time when India last won the world cup. Eg. I wasnt even born when Kapil Dev had lifted that coveted trophy in 1983 at Lord's. So for us, Indians, to have our own cricketing heroes is something special, very very special. Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the man who lead the Indian team to world cup victory has now entered the history books as the most successful captain in the nation's cricket history. So has Sachin Tendulkar, the only Indian cricketer to have played in six world cup tournaments.

It was an emotionally charged final against neighbours Sri Lanka. After a controversial toss and an amazing innings by Mahela Jayawardena, it was left to the class of Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli and of course, captain courageous, Mahendra Singh Dhoni to rescue the Indian team from the clutches of sure defeat. The icing on the cake was the way Dhoni finished off the proceedings, with an enormous six, which will be clearly etched in the memory of the 100 billion Indians watching the match with bated breath.

As the celebrations continue, I make it a point to savour every single moment of this amazing moment in not only India's cricketing history but in world cricket history as well.

iPad 2...thoughts

2011-03-03T04:23:00.000-08:00

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

As the fanboys say, "its finally here"!

The ever eloquent Steve Jobs revealed to us all the new iPad 2 today. The specifications are pretty much what most tech sites had predicted. If you have missed those, here's a summary of the specs (at least what little Apple has revealed officially):

Screen Size - 9.7 inch LED backlit (same as the iPad)

Resolution - 1027 x 768 pixels (same as the iPad)

Processor - 1GHz Dual Core Apple A5 processor (no other details revealed)

RAM - not revealed (some sources are claiming it to be 512MB)

Camera - Rear camera (720p, 30fps) and Front camera (VGA)

HDMI out - via a $39 Apple accessory (NOT supplied with the iPad 2)

Others - 16, 32, 64 GB storage; gyroscope, same 10 hour battery life

Disappointments:

1. No storage expansion slots

2. Front camera resolution too low for a high resolution iPad

3. HDMI out only via the accessory, not available straight out of the box

4. Price points remain the same, hence okayish. Nothing to be overly crazy about

5. No path-breaking hardware or OS features

6. Will face tough competition from Android tablets, hence maybe outdated earlier than expected.

Nokia: Looking Ahead

2011-02-12T01:32:00.000-08:00

In what appears to be one of the most dramatic moves in its history, Nokia, the mobile phone Finnish giant, has made a deal with Microsoft regarding extensive use of Windows Phone 7 on its mobile devices. While this may come as no surprise to many, for fans of the company though this development is quite a shock.

Nokia has been a bleeding company for quite sometime now, recording diminishing marketshare especially in the high end of the smartphone spectrum. A few days back Stephen Elop in a memo to his company employees openly admitted as having no device till date which could match the iPhone experience. That very frankly set the tone for things to come. It became quite apparent that the once largest mobile company was really in decline and needed some strong partnership to help bolster sales and reputation.

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR SYMBIAN AND DEVELOPERS:

For one, Nokia has announced that it will concentrate on Windows Mobile as its primary mobile OS. Now that clearly spells out the doom for Symbian, the ageing OS which has been the cornerstone for Nokia's success in the pre-touchscreen age. Nokia had till recently advocated the use of Qt among its developers to bridge the platform divide that affects it. However this recent shift in strategy will surely come as a shock to the hundreds of independent developers working on that platform. And the repercussions have already started showing. Thousands of Nokia employees staged a walkout yesterday at Helsinki. Expect more episodes like this to hog the headlines in the next few weeks.

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR MICROSOFT:

First and foremost this means gaining legitimacy as a viable and robust mobile platform. Windows Mobile 7 hasn't really seen much of developer adoption and hasn't really attracted much consumer attention either. Now that the largest manufacturer of mobile phones on the planet has chosen their platform as their primary one will please everyone in the Microsoft campus. Microsoft wont feel alienated anymore when it comes to mobiles.

Secondly, Microsoft will now have access to a huge market base across the world. Nokia is massively popular in Asia and quite formidable still in Europe even though it has a non existent presence in the US. This means a lot of market share for Windows Mobile, currently one of the least used platforms.

No one can deny the fact that Nokia has forever produced brilliantly engineered hardware. Its the software part that has often bothered the company. Now with Nokia lending its support to Microsoft, it will have a better chance of attracting consumers, especially since none of the Windows Mobile Phones have exceptionally outstanding technical specs.

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR NOKIA:

This without a doubt is a huge loss of face for Nokia. It has now practically admitted that its incapable of competing with the current market leaders Apple and Android and that billions of dollars it spent on creating a platform which would become a viable third alternative was a huge mistake. To be frank, it has basically admitted that its developers are incapable of producing world class softwares. Now if that isn't the biggest embarrassment for a company, I don't know what is!

Apart from this massive setback though, there are a few positives for the company. First, it now has almost stopped itself from going into oblivion. Nokia has assured itself a future in the mobile arena. It may not be as bright as its past but it surely exists.

Nokia will now have access to the US market thanks to Microsoft's presence and the relative 'popularity' of Windows Mobiles in the US compared to Symbian. Nokia could also benefit from Microsoft's other brand names like Xbox etc.

Now you might wonder why I havent talked about Windows Mobile platform as being an advantage in the first place. Well thats mainly because once you browse through the Windows Phone 7 (WP7) interface, you might actually end up regretting the loss of Symbian. Multitasking on WP7 is nearly not as elegant as in Symbian or the iPhone or Android. The menu system is immensely user-unfriendly to say the least. And the home screen in short, is disastrous (I would anyday prefer the widgetised interface of Symbian). However not everything in WP7 is a failure. The browser is beautiful. Much better than the web browser on Symbian and much more organised. The applications look and feel much better on WP7 than on Symbian (well most apps on Symbian do get the job done, but interface wise are very very basic). There are a few other advantages as well, but not really something which would make someone fall in love with WP7.

In conclusion, this has been a huge week for Nokia. It now has to rebuild its brand from scratch. All over again. Although this may seem like an uphill (read next to impossible) task, there may just be light at the end of the tunnel.

Amazon Kindle: My Review

2011-02-10T09:11:00.000-08:00

Cover via Amazon

After tinkering with my new Amazon Kindle 3 for a few days, I felt an urge to write a review. You know, there are millions of reviews all over the web regarding the Kindle, why not join the herd? And to add to that feeble excuse, I needed to blog again after a long-ish interval. So yeah here I am bragging about my new Kindle and trying to present an unbiased (yeah, as if thats possible) review of this truly amazing device from the jungles of Amazon basin. Oh wait, its Amazon.com! (Applause please at this insanely juvenile attempt of eliciting a laugh out of the reader)

Okay let me get serious now (frankly if you're still reading this, I'd better present to you a decent unbiased review of the product, you deserve it).

So it will the standard Pros and Cons format. Makes things simpler to read that way.

PROS:

1. Its the Kindle! Okay apart from that, this really is a device which has been built well. Every single inch of the device (there arent too many inches of it though, incase you're indeed counting) shows signs of a well thought out, well constructed device. Its ultra thin, ultra lightweight and more importantly, portable. The read aloud feature is quite handy too.

2. E-ink is great. Yeah it really is, reading books on this device is an absolute pleasure. It really is. The contrast (which has been substantially increased since the last Kindle) does make a significant contribution to the reading experience.

3. Buying books was never easier. If you sign up for Amazon's one click buying, you will be able to do just that from the Kindle or from the Amazon.com Kindle Store. Its as simple as a one click "Buy", and bam, the next thing you know, the book/magazine/other stuff is neatly waiting in the home screem of your device.

4. 3 GB of memory is massive. Lets face it, no one's gonna read 3 GB of stuff at one go. Considering the fact that this is a reading device, 3 GB is more than sufficient for e-books.

5. The Amazon Kindle Store. With its ever increasing collection of books, newspapers, magazines and singles, the Kindle Store is quite literally the ultimate place to go on a shopping spree.

6. Its more than an e-book reader. Kindle 3 has a web browser and a music player to boast of. So thats a welcome addition. It also has an integrated PDF reader, so that will come in handy for reading personal documents.

7. Extraordinary battery life. Although I'm yet to put Amazon's claim of 30 days of charge-less backup to test, its pretty evident from my heavy use that the Kindle might live up to that expectation.

CONS:

1. The 3 GB limit isnt really enough, especially since one's expected to have MP3s as well as PDFs on the device. The fact that you cant expand this memory is a bit of a letdown.

2. The browser is very, very basic. Its pretty much unusable to be honest. Although the "Article Mode" which sort of lets Kindle do its own processing, is quite handy.

3. The page turning buttons are very smartly constructed but badly placed. You will very easily end up turning the page while picking up the device.

4. The audio output is very basic. Dont expect Kindle to replace your iPod.

5. Page turning is a bit slow. Although its fast by e-ink standards, oh well, it still is far from satisfactory.

6. Not many accessories available right now. (Thats mainly because its a new device. Expect loads of additions in the coming months though)

My E-book Reader Dilemma

2011-01-10T03:35:00.001-08:00

With the multitude of tablets being released almost everyday, one would have been excused for thinking that the days of e-book readers were numbered. And I was among the many who thought so. But as one delves deeper into the tablet-world, one is bound to realise something, that tablets arent really a replacement of the good old Kindle-esque devices.

The very fact that most tablets become virtually useless out in the sun, is a huge minus in the tablet category. None of the tablets, expect the Notion Ink Adam has the capacity to make itself readable under the sun.

So what do I go for, a tablet or an E-book reader? Check out the flowchart below:

Okay so now I hope you have decided what you need. If its a tablet, there are a million of them, and basically it depends so much on individual tastes and needs, that its impossible to recommend something for everyone. But generally speaking, iPad and the Galaxy tab are safe bets. Notion Ink Adam is a great choice but it will not have access to the Android Market. Or if you want a more customised tablet friendly OS, then I think its better to wait for the release of Motorola Xoom.

If however your choice is an e-book reader, read on...

There are primarily 2 major e-book readers in the market right now. The Amazon Kindle and The Nook (the Nook Color being the latest). Amazon Kindle has released a newer version a few months back and quite confusingly its called...the Amazon Kindle, again. It has a better contrast and a better battery life (almost a month of usage after charging once) than older Kindles, not to mention the faster speeds.

The Nook Color though is a different product altogether, its more of a tablet than an e-book reader. It has the capability to display "coloured images", has a touchscreen interface and the glare-free screen. (The Nook has been quite famously the target of various developers, aka hackers, who have hacked the device to run Ubuntu on it!) However these features does take its toll on the battery life of the device and its battery life is substantially shorter than the Kindle (many users report the battery life to be around a day at the most, which is quite unsatisfactory for an e-book reader).

Hence, Nook is more of a wannabe tablet and less of an e-book reader. But then again, if you want a really cheap tablet, maybe the Nook is your bet. Beware though, there arent many apps around, so forget about playing Angry Birds on this device (although I hear someone has infact rooted the Nook to run Angry Birds! But its not officially supported, so basically if you manage to brick your device, be ready to pay some hefty bills to get it back in running condition).

And finally, the Indian market has a few e-book readers as well. Most famously, the Infibeam Pi and the Wink. (Pi being the one immediately below this text)

But these e-book readers have their faults and that is pretty evident with a little bit of googling. The Pi lacks 3G and Wifi. Wink has the Wifi but I believe their 3G version will be releasing later this year. However one of the biggest positives of these devices is their ability to read Indian fonts/languages. Infibeam and Wink both have amassed a vast collection and wide range of e-books.

Finally I guess after going through everything, it all boils down to personal preference. If one is more into reading Indian texts, it makes little sense to go for the Kindles and Nooks. Again, if one is in pursuit of a quality product which will be your "gadget of the year", Kindle and Nook are irreplaceable.

(As for me, I have decided to go for the Kindle)

The tragedy of Indian comedy

2011-01-02T04:03:00.000-08:00

Indian television never really usghered in terms of quality comedy. Sure there were great comedians who did movies, but none of them were interested in television or make a mark on the small screen. The early 2000s was the era od forced mindless laughter, pioneered by the great Navjot Singh Siddhu and his partner in crime Shekhar Suman. These silly comedy shows gave rise to some quality comedians after a long time, Raju Shrivastav being one of them. However to be fair, he never really made it big on television. Maybe the Indian tv producers were stuck in the reality tv cliche. Or maybe they didnt like laughing.

And so Indians had to satisfy their comic thirst by tuning in to 'phoren' tv personalities, Jay Leno, Jimmy Kimmel and others in that league. And even then we remained largely ignorant of some of the greatest comedians of our time. Ricky Gervais, the famous group Monty Python, among the many. It was only when the phenomenon of youtube came into effect that we got a taste of what we were missing.

Why am I saying all this? Well the other day I say Vir Das on star world (Ripping the decade). I cant thank those guys at star enough for having the courage to telecast something like that. Stand up comedy has been very boring, out of context and...very boring in this country. I dont know if Vir can change that but he sure has talent. Watching his show made me realise what stupid entertainment we are being forced to watch. Dolly Bindra's madness and Rakhi Sawant's imbelice stupidity. What sin have we committed that producers and directors of these shows think that the audience doesnt have any amount of grey matter?

I would love to believe that the appearance of people like Vir Das in a stand up comedy format has stirred up some lazy dumbass tv channel arses.

Yahoo to shut down Delicious

2010-12-17T00:38:00.000-08:00

It has now emerged that Yahoo will be shutting down some of the services that it deems unproductive. Surprisingly among those services to be axed is Delicious, the very popular social bookmarking service.

To be quite frank, this decision of Yahoo isnt surprising since they had revealed a need to cut down on employees. However that having an effect on its services, especially popular ones like Delicious is quite unexpected. There are only a handful of services from Yahoo which I find useful. Among them would be Flickr (the image sharing site cum community, which happens to have an incredible numer of professional photographers), Yahoo mail (yeah some of us still ue it) and Delicious. Yahoo search engine is nothing even remotely close to relevant, even the new Bing seems to have become more popular than Yahoo search (although Yahoo does contribute to Bing in a very complicated and weird way). So frankly Yahoo would be closing down one of its three most relevant services. Now thats really shocking.

Anyway the only thing one can hope is that Yahoo does get its act together and maybe integrates Delicious into one of its other social portals.

India's new climate policy - a layman's view

2010-12-10T09:11:00.001-08:00

Image via Wikipedia

Cancun has turned out to be something of a surprise as far as climate change is concerned. The world seemed deadlocked in the 'no change in the stance of developing countries' debate, especially so after the Copenhagen fiasco.

And then came Jairam Ramesh. India's charismatic environment minister with a hairdo, even David Beckham might find hard to pull off. When the Cancun conference on climate change was heading the Copenhagen way, he announced that India was after all willing to change its rigid anti-emission reduction stance and enter into a legally binding agreement for the same.

India has for a long time held a view that the developed countries contributed more to global warming than the developing ones. Something which is factually true. However the US and the other developed countries were of the view that India shouldnt take the same path to development that others have taken in the past. Hence, a complete U-turn of India's stand does come as a surprise.

India is an emerging superpower, or in the words of the current US President, India has already emerged! Now a legally binding stand on reducing emissions will take a hit on India's economy and growth. In a country which still has a large number of people living below the specified poverty limit, can we as a country afford to think about saving the greens? Arent we being burdened by a problem which has been created by the West? Why should India suffer because of their mismanagement and failed planning of the West?

Well, we could go on arguing about these. But frankly this will lead us nowhere. Decades of such discussions, confrontations and negotiations have yielded absolutely no results. Unfortunately these have left us with little option but to act, with immediate effect. It is the responsibility of everyone regardless of their contribution to the present climate scenario to chip in with whatever they can. However balancing growth and reducing emissions will be a tough act which will have to be addressed by the governments.

Notion Ink Adam - Doubts and Confusion Abound

2010-12-10T03:07:00.000-08:00

Image by darkpollo via Flickr

It has been a long time since Notion Ink started on their journey to create that tablet of dreams. A tablet to rival even the mighty Apple iPad and the now immensely successful Samsung Galaxy tab.

Slowly the technical specifications started rolling in. And astounding they were! Dual core Nvidia Tegra 2 processor, Pixel Qi display, HDMI ports, inbuilt Adobe AIR/Flash compatibility, Android 2.2 and beyond compatibility, etc.

The company was however very careful in what it released. I never found a single video of the tablet in action. Everything from the boot screen demo to app functions were 'custom made' videos. Even pictures of the tablet being posted were either immensely photoshopped or had serious typographical/grammatical errors (check out this screenshot posted yesterday). Although this was indeed making me suspicious, it didnt really dampen my spirits especially since its an Indian made tablet which hopefully would be much better and cheaper than its Apple and Android counterparts.

Yesterday, after long and long and extra long delays, Notion Ink finally opened their 'store' to pre orders. However thats when things started to go wrong, horribly wrong. Notion Ink had promised the Notion Ink "family" that it would open its doors first to them and then to the world, 6 hours later. Many many 'members' then commented on the blog that they hadnt received the notification mail even when they were part of the Notion Ink 'family'. Later when the store opened up for everyone, there were payment faults, error messages, payments getting failed etc. Notion Ink has admitted now that there was indeed a problem with the servers.

To add to the slew of problems was Notion Ink posted their terms and conditions and warranty policies which not just shocked many but also made Notion Ink Adam a contender for 'scamware of the year'. To be short and precise, Notion Ink will charge you for every single manufacturing fault of theirs even if its within the warranty period and will deduct the shipping charges from your pocket too! I cant remember the last time I came across such insane warranty policies. Oh wait, there's more. Notion Ink Adam will apparently ship from China! (Yea even I was WTFed when I first learnt about it) And so, you will have to shell out $50 for shipping plus import duties regardless of where you are located.

Compare this to the support system of Samsung which gives you Samsung warranty without any such weird preconditions and shipping issues. I really dont mind shelling out the extra $$$ to get the largest selling Android tablet. Notion Ink's business just seems way too fishy right now. What a shame!

Nexus S - A Gamechanger?

2010-12-05T00:40:00.001-08:00

Its quite known now that Samsung will be coming out with the next version of Google's beloved Nexus 2, now of course universally known as the Nexus S. Although the technical specs arent very clear right now, it is expected to be very impressive, in the league of the Galaxy S and HTC Desire.

Android is clearly the smartphone of the future and is bound to overtake the iPhone in due time (provided of course Apple doesnt come up with an outstanding phone by next year or so). And since the Nexus one has been such a legendary phone, its expected that the Nexus S will take that bandwagon forward and build a whole new N class (not to be confused with the N series of Nokia, which has become pretty pointless by now). Something very interesting therefore awaits us in the coming months.

Why I Hate Winters

2010-12-03T01:21:00.000-08:00

Image via Wikipedia

1. Winters are cold.

2. Winters are cold (pun intended).

3. Winters are for vegetables (no pun intended!)

4. Innocent animals get killed in winters (for the pleasure of the fashionistas).

5. Winters are for people who like "dressing up". (not that I'm a nudist. But wearing layers and layers of woollen clothes SUCK!)

6. Winters have shorter days. (I mean seriously, arent the above points torturing enough?)

7. Winters have long nights. (oh that was kinda the continuation of the last point)

8. Winter is a bad time for birdwatching. (pun intended? Well I'll leave that to you)

9. It impossible to wake up early in winters.

10. Did I say winters were cold?

Should the online world have complete freedom of speech?

2010-12-02T08:50:00.000-08:00

Image via Wikipedia

Blogs, websites, online diaries or any other form of online publishing enjoys quite frankly the complete absence of censorship. To be fair though, there is 'some' amount of filtering which is done but its mostly regarding absolutely outrageous content.

Then again, if one has a self hosted blog that censorship doesnt happen. So frankly everone can have a field day on the internet expressing our beliefs, opinions, concerns and fears without having to worry about any part of it getting blocked.

Then something like the wiki leaks episode happens and politicians go crazy and the moral police all over the world start talking about excessive liberalisation happening all over the internet. This in my opinion is a valid debate and should be discussed. Even though something like wiki leaks is about exposing the deeds of various governments by leaking various documents obtained by shady and unethical means, it still is a glowing example of the freedom of 'speech' in the online world.

The question is though, is this freedom being misused? Is this freedom an example of all rights and no duties? Does this freedom need some curbing? Do we need some sort of censorship of sensitive content?

Time and again, the internet (rather some people using it) has been used for outrageous hate speeches. Be it against religious icons, celebrated leaders or regarding sensitive classified content. Some of these actions have led to public outrage and chaos in some parts of the world which could have otherwise been avoided. Some of the web is registered for unethical and illegal activities.

Total and complete freedom may be essential for a flourishing democracy, the online world being one but its upto the users to ensure some sort of filtering mechanism. Now that sort of a thing cannot and should not be imposed upon us by governments but by independent people around the world of considerable repute. Only then will the web be a safe, smart and civilised domain.

High end compact or a DSLR?

2010-11-29T08:53:00.000-08:00

Image via WikipediaIf you happen to be a professional photographer then its not really an issue. DSLR will always be the safer and the better option. However for an amateur/wannabe pro/advanced amateur its a life or death situation. The first camera is always the easiest to buy. Its generally a point and shoot with decent features and more importantly available at an attractive price point. Thereafter though things get a little difficult and more complicated. The second camera is something you will stick with for a certain amount of time. So getting the right thing is important.
A high end compact point and shoot camera these days offer just as many features as a DSLR. You can change aperture, shutter speed, ISO etc. Some of the really high end compacts (like say Canon SX30 IS) even have the shooting in RAW mode, something which is a defining factor for a DSLR these days. So frankly, to someone who is a wannabe pro, the difference between the two types of cameras isnt really that distinct.
The DSLR has the advantage of changeable lenses which basically allow you to explore the world from various perspectives. The ability to add filters and other accessories to the camera is an added bonus for many. However all these add to the bulk one has to carry while travelling. Imagine carrying three or four or more types of lenses in your bag, changing them at the right time while making sure that the sensor doesnt get damaged. To a pro this may seem pretty simple, or lets say something which comes as part of the package. To a not-so-pro guy (someone like me) this is a dealbreaker. I want a camera which can do some pretty extreme photography without having to worry about having a coolie (not meant in a derogatory sense) carrying the accessories.
This is a situation I'm currently being faced with. Still to decide which team I want to be on. But team compact is as of now my favourite.

Shall We Dance

2010-11-24T00:08:00.000-08:00

The problem with democracy is that everyone has a voice. Doesnt matter if that voice is stupid, doesnt matter if that voice is senseless and idiotic but it has to heard nonetheless.

Hence what we have in this country's Parliament now is pure "khichdi" (google that!). The opposition keeps demanding for a perfectly sensible joint Parliamentary committee probe into the 2G scam and the government simply refuses to oblige. And now even the party in power has started playing blame games (perfectly right they are) over this by accusing the opposition of sheletering a corrupt chief minister.

Days of parliamentary sessions are being lost to settle this squabble which usually ends up with an adjournment. If only we had more civilised methods of solving such a crisis without fighting it out in public on national television. Then again, from the looks of it Lok Sabha tv does have its share of decent TRP. So I'm not quite sure if they'd want the squabbles to end.

Its almost as if the government and the opposition have taken over the role to show the world how emocracy works, Indian style. Sadly naach gaana (google that too!) isnt the sol domain of Bollywood but of the Indian democracy as well.

The Obama Visit

2010-10-26T12:45:00.000-07:00

So finally its Obama time, India! The US President who is projected as a saviour by almost everyone has desired to land in the largest democracy in the world.

For what? Erm...not sure. He sure wont be strengthening India's bid to join the United Nations Security Council as a permanent member. He sure wont be liberal when it comes to visas. So basically he would be touching upon all non controversial topics, discussing them with our Prime Minister and claim to have had a successful series of talks.

I used to be a big fan of Obama and I still believe that he is, in the current situation, the best person for the job. But he is so conventional! So predictable. He chooses to please all in his speeches and time and again portrays, or at least tries to portray himself as a do-gooder.

The United States has its share of issues, as a recent beautiful piece of article in the Hindustan Times by the ever so articulate Vir Sanghvi shows (India is fighting a lone war against terror). I think it should sort out its own issues and agendas first before choosing sides and literally deciding the fate of nations.

I, as an Indian, welcome the US President to my country. But I would also request him to look into the matters which are troubling South Asia. It is perhaps time for him to be clear and concise for the sake of innocent people in the region. It is time for some action, Mr. President.

Photography

2010-10-22T09:49:00.000-07:00

Of late I've become increasingly passionate about photgraphy. The once greek terms like shutter speed, aperture, ISO have suddenly started to make sense. And I've also realised that maybe, just maybe, with enough practice, I might get good at this.

Photography I've come to realise is a brilliant way of seeing the unkown world and reinventing the known. Also, most photographers are really friendly people willing to share their knowledge among others. Of course, I might be mistaken because I've met very few professional ones.

However the field of photography isnt all that hunky dory as I've come to realise. It requires extreme patience, quite literally, an incessant will to know more about stuff, and more importantly it requires money. Lots of it. Infact, more the merrier.

I'm a strong believer of the fact that a good photographer can take an awesome shot regardless of the technical specs of the camera he has at hand. But its true only to a small extent. When it comes to macro, true wide angle photography etc. one needs good hardware materials. Simple point and shoots, regardless of their price points just dont cut it when it comes to semi pro or lets say above amateurish photography. And SLRs cost a bomb. Most good ones do. There's no point going for a cheap SLR because one can attach good quality lenses later.

And the expenses dont end there. For shots which need slow shutter speed running into seconds, one needs a tripod. Then one needs a shutter release device. Then there are filters. And of course there are the hugely expensive lenses. When one considers all these, suddenly photography is all about money, okay maybe not all, but certainly quite a lot. Maybe I should stick to being an amateur and trying to do my best with a simple point and shoot. My lovely Canon PowerShot SX130 IS is perfect for that.

*Sigh*

There go my dreams of becoming a good photographer. The end. Thanks for tuning in to my rant channel. Till next time...keep ranting...

An Epic Festival

2010-10-17T00:07:00.000-07:00

Like every other Bong all across the world, the month of October is of special significance. If India is a land of festivals, Durga Puja for Bengalis is the mother of all Indian festivals. But this year has been special. I have, this year, made it a point to visit at least most of all important puja mandaps across the length and breadth of Kolkata, something which I had so far never ever attempted.

The roads were crowded, the walks long, the rains irritating and disturbing, but the indomitable Bengali spirit, so vivid and exuberant during the pujas, conquered all that and more... In the end, on Dashami, as I write this post, recharging my batteries, quite literally, for one last go at Ahiritola Launch Ghat, this heart is feeling heavy, the eyes wet and the unmistakable sense of parting very much overwhelmingly palpable. I have come out of this Puja realising that no matter where one is, no matter how old one is, the Bong spirit is genetically tied to Goddess Durga.

With a heavy heart, I'll leave you with an image of Maa Durga which I took at Maddox Square.

What's Next For India?

2010-10-04T06:39:00.000-07:00

Now that the Commonwealth Games Delhi have gone on to a great start, thanks to the stunning opening ceremony, there is talk among various sections about India bidding for hosting the Olympics.

Its a natural progression one would say from the 'not-so-widespread' Commonwealth Games to the Olympics. But one needs to realise that the people in power have been very shoddy in their work. Deadlines have been missed consistently (in the works of Mike Hooper), bridges have collapsed and animals from dogs to reptiles have been found in the Games Village.

Even if the games do manage to happen flawlessly it will only be a matter to sheer luck and nothing else. After all it was only after the Prime Minister intervened that things started moving on ground zero. Imagine therefore, the fiasco that would befall upon us if we were to bid for the Olympics. Sure it would enhance our country's image as a growing superpower but frankly that was supposed to happen with the CWG too. Instead our nation's image has taken a beating. Can we risk that all over again? Do we really have the guts to rise above all difficulties? Do we? That is for the people at power to answer. For me, India has a long way o go before it starts getting professional about these things. Till then, we should stick to providing our poor with basic needs.

No More Potter, Please!

2010-10-03T03:57:00.000-07:00

J. K. Rowling has recently hinted that she might come up with the eighth, ninth or even a tenth Harry Potter novel if she felt like it. Harry Potter has been an epic success for not just the author and the publishers but also the film industry (well WB specifically). Now all that success depended on two factors. One, Rowling's command as a breathtakingly wonderful writer and two, the readers' desire to read more about Potter's adventures.

The readers have since then "grown up", quite literally as well. To expect the same kind of frenzy around Potter books now would be nothing short of foolishness. I am a huge Potter fan and have read and reread every single page of every single Potter novel numerous times. I believe the Harry Potter series has reached a logical conclusion and no one should tamper with it any more. It has been a magical journey and a near perfect one. Lets us not spoil the magic. Releasing another Potter novel after such a conclusive Deathly Hallows would be disastrous, especially for us fans. I hope the J. K. Rowling realises that.

Nokia Needs To Do More, Much More

2010-09-30T14:01:00.001-07:00

Finally the N8 is out in the wild. After months of delay, numerous false announcements, Nokia's latest flagship device is available to customers (to be frank there is some doubt if this is actually a release date. Especially since the preordered phones are the ones being despatched).

A lot is riding on the N8. In short, Nokia future will be defined by this device. If it turns out to be an epic failure like the N97, then lets say, its all over for the Finnish giant. If however this turns out to be a success, it will give Nokia another opportunity to prove to the world that they are capable of producing quality phons even now.

Although individual bloggers had already come up with pretty good positive reviews of the N8 (thanks to Nokia's "trial a phone" for free sweetness), Techradar's (a much more reliable source for reviews than individual blogs, and more recently even CNET's) detailed review of the phone has bared it all. From what I understood from the review here are the conclusions regarding the N8 -

Pros: good camera, good build quality, good battery life.

Cons: oh well, the same old ones to be honest. Okay you start checking if I miss anything. Symbian^3 is primitive, not nearly as good as android or ios interfaces, severe shortage of apps, sloppy internet experience, okayish touchscreen and physically "heavy". Apparently its much heavier than the likes of iPhone 4.

And from the look of things, the reviews arent going to get any better for Nokia. As someone said on a personal blog, had this phone been released a couple of years back, it would have blown everything else, but in 2010, there are simply way too many better phones out there for the N8 to even remotely create an impact.

Why I Hate Windows & Why I Still Love It

2010-09-19T09:56:00.000-07:00

There will be very few, if at all any, who havent used Windows. Windows has been a pioneering OS for many years now, bridging the geek-noob gap when it comes to personal computing. It has in its own way, rewritten history by making computers something personal, something usable and something pleasant. What it has also done though, is make the personal computing territory their own domain. Fighting tooth and nail to register patents and copyright stuff and making life more and more difficult for people who arent using their OS. Well that has meant that Windows now, in 2010, is an expensive operating system, well beyond the reach of many. Linux on the other hand is staging a comeback. Its free, open source, has no copyright/proprietary issues and is extremely stable. When I speak of Linux, I speak of Ubuntu. Why, you might ask. Arent the other distros worth anything? My answer would be simple. You see, as I have already mentioned, the reason why Windows became popular was because it successfully bridged the geek-noob divide. None of the other distros, apart of Ubuntu is doing that when it comes to open source OSes.

Recently I had given Windows 7 a try. I had been hearing a lot about it and really wanted to use it. So after the fairly simple installation, what greeted me was a sleek looking OS with pretty nifty options which definitely takes Windows to another level. The transparent menus and the themes look really elegant and the effective firewall is definitely a welcome change. Video and audio playback was pretty smooth and hassle free. But frankly as soon as that wow-factor faded, the glaring faults of the OS became clearer and clearer. I will try and summarise them.

Windows 7 has a "veil" of security. Its firewall is definitely effective but irritatingly obtrusive and hampers the user experience. Installing softwares and games greets the user with numerous confusing firewall setting options which can get on one's nerves. Next, there are no multiple workspaces! So basically its clutter and more clutter that you have to deal with when it comes to multitasking. Windows effects are cool but absolutely nothing compared to the animations Compiz has on Linux. (I have to secretly admit here that 'rotating the compiz cube' is one of my favourite hobbies on Ubuntu) I was always a fan of Windows fonts as a kid. After all who has passed an entry level computer exam without knowing about "Times New Roman". But after having used Ubuntu for a while now, all of a sudden, the Windows fonts have started looking wobbly and weak. Its a feeling which is difficult to put down into words but something which I feel strongly about. And finally, one still needs an antivirus and an antispyware on Windows. Now thats completely okay had it not been consuming memory (RAM). But since thats not the case, I would much prefer to use a system which utilises every single byte of my 4GB RAM to the fullest without having to dedicate it for security purposes. Ubuntu offers me security and not at the cost of excessive RAM usage.

So there I was, switching back to Ubuntu after having used Windows 7...for a day.

Assassins, Heroes of the 21st Century?

2010-09-11T01:16:00.000-07:00

Image via Wikipedia

Assassins were a notorious group of trained killers who under the leadership of Hassan-i Sabbah were responsible for murders of numerous kings during the Middle Ages in Persia. There are colourful stories about them and their extraordinary lives, replete with "a secret garden of paradise" where damsels, fairest among all, roamed and pleasured the young men who were deceived into becoming trained killers. These have been well documented by Marco Polo. Their most famous assassination was that of Nizam al-Mulk by a killer dressed as a Sufi. Of course, there are exaggerated accounts of their sex lives and drugs and strange beliefs. Nothing of which can be verified. What is however known to be true is the fact that the Assassins were a hated group of trained killers.

It is therefore very surprising that in this day and age, someone would want to glorify them and turn their acts of barbarism into noble deeds. Assassin's Creed is an immensely popular game released a few years back. It revolves around the quest for a machine Animus, "which allows viewing of the protagonist's genetic memories of his ancestors". Now this is where I protest. The protagonist here is/are the Assassin(s). Painting a barbaric killer as a protagonist, is plain obnoxious. I seriously dont know why in our quest for eternal happiness and unimaginable wealth (much like the Assassins, thats what all of us are looking for) we tend to sacrifice our basic conscience! Gamers unaware of these killers of yore, will now think of them as heroes, as people with a mission. A one man army whose courage and killing skills are to be worshiped. Is this what we want? The next time we will have a game with Hitler as a protagonist! Where is this leading us? Just because the gaming industry is profitable, does that mean they can impose on us whatever junk they decide to come up with?

I leave the rest to your good conscience.

Rare Indo-Pak Collaboration

2010-09-10T00:09:00.000-07:00

Image by Rahul and Gayatri via Flickr

How many times have you seen India and Pakistan collaborate, for anything? You'll have to google that one coz no instances come to mind immediately. Well, this US Open is quite legendary in that aspect. Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi, from India and Pakistan respectively, have achieved the unimaginable. This duo has managed to reach the finals of the US Open in men's doubles as partners, at a time when tensions between the two countries are at an all time high.

With Pakistan reeling with the flood disaster and the cricket world blaming its board, PCB, for bot doing enough in the match fixing fiasco, the nation has been under considerable amount of pressure recently. The news of Qureshi reaching the finals in the US Open men's doubles with Bopanna and becoming the runners up at the mixed doubles, should come as a welcome relief. For India this heralds another chapter in Indo-Pak politics with sportsmen leading the way in creating an incredible goodwill gestures infront of the entire world.

Buying via ebay in West Bengal

2010-09-08T02:45:00.000-07:00

Its practially impossible for electronics goods to enter West Bengal without having paid millions of taxes and furnished thousands of documents. Why do I say this?

The other day after signing up on ebay.in and almost placing an order for an item, I found out that the seller wasnt shipping to West Bengal, specifically. Why? Coz apprently one has to supply the customs officer with a certain form 50, a mythical piece of document which is applicable to professional buyers and sellers in the state. This is done to stop people from evading taxes like VAT etc. Fine? Oh yeah, fine indeed. I'm totally okay with that. But here's the thing, even non professional buyers and sellers (I mean a normal individual simply wanting to buy something for personal use) has to furnish that document! Now how irritating is that?

I want to pay my taxes and all other duties that the government levies, but please, cant they make the whole process simpler? At present most sellers on ebay wont ship you any item if you hail from West Bengal. Let me rephrase that; if you 'live' in West Bengal.

Now this buying via third or even fourth party dealers not only increases the price of the product manifold, it also makes it impossible for the dealers to provide an appropriate discount. Fortunately though, these weird tax rules dont apply to books bought from online stores. Dunno who created these strange laws but I honestly hope someone realises the utter stupidity of the situation and comes up with a solution. Till then, no ebay for me.

5 Reasons Why You Should Buy A Mac

2010-09-07T14:34:00.000-07:00

Image by [kilodelta] via Flickr

1. They look good - Yes, Macs are the ultimate toys for someone into computers. They dont look geeky but they do look classy. The minimalistic design has won it fans all over the world and is a winning fecture of all Macs.

2. They have no driver issues - Since Macs are custom made by Apple to run OSX, it doesnt have any driver issues at all. All the hardware components are Apple certified for top notch performance.

3. Synchronisation - if you own and iPhone or any other Apple device, owning a Mac is going to improve the whole "Apple" experience by a thousand times! It is this synchronisation with its other devices which has convinced many users of the need for a Mac.

4. Support System - Let's face it, Apple's support system is superb. If you ever face any sort of problem with your Mac, support and help is only a phone call or an email away.

5. A class of its own - Apple users are a hallowed species. Only around 2-3% people of the entire planet own Macs and hence the moment you buy one, you are immediately elevated to this supreme class of ultra rich users. This is in contrast to the "everyone is equal" philosophy of Linux and open source softwares.

5 Reasons Why You Shouldn't Buy A Mac

2010-09-07T13:57:00.000-07:00

Image by chrismear via Flickr

1. Macs are expensive - Its no secret that Macs are expensive toys, well out of reach of many, infact most of PC users. In an age where "value-for-money" has acquired a whole new meaning, expensive Macs do tend to go against the consumer friendly trend.

2. Hardware Issues - Yes the Macs do come with pretty decent (decent as in okayish) configuration. But frankly its standard models are nowhere near as powerful as today's PCs. Most games (the few ones which run on a Mac) have more demanding system requirements specifications for the OSX versions than their Windows counterparts. Also, ports (or lack of it) have forever plagued the Macs. Apple somehow enjoys sticking to dated ports and trying to dodge recent trends.

3. Upgrading Issues - I think most of us are aware of this drawback, because the Mac is such a compact piece of work, it does not give the user much upgrading options. Upgrading a hard drive in many models is impossible and changing the motherboard could kill the device altogether.

4. Its closed source - Its a fact that Mac laves you with no other option but to run Apple's OSX. Now that is a really good OS, but since its closed source, development wise its prospects are limited and security feature solidifications completely dependent on the whims and fancies of the developers employed by Apple.

5. Lack of softwares - Like it or not this is a big issue. Windows has a plethora of softwares for various purposes but OSX has few. Even Linux has more softwares than OSX. The reason is of course the closed source nature of the OS and the lack of users.

So these were my top 5 reasons why I think you shouldnt buy a Mac. To keep the argument fair, I will blog next about why you should buy a Mac.

Purchase Apps from Ubuntu Software Center?

2010-09-05T14:45:00.001-07:00

Image via Wikipedia

I have been pretty open in the past about my love of open source softwares. The best thing about open source is that development doesnt get stagnated if the developer gets bored of the project. Also, since most open source softwares are free (as in free for downloding) their popularity is guaranteed.

What is not guaranteed though is the popularity of the OS 'for' open source. Most Linux based distributions these days suffer from the acute problem of sheer obscurity! Even Ubuntu which is (quite wrongly) said to be almost synonymous with Linux suffers from this problem. After all more that 90% of the world's PCs run on Windows. This sheer lack of popularity is one of the reasons why big developers and companies have stayed away from Linux. Most think that since Linux is all about free and open source, there's no money to be made here. Thats partly true. But shattering that myth Canonical has now introduced an option to purchase apps right from the Ubuntu Software Center.

I know many will be up in arms about this and a few might stop using Ubuntu altogether crying foul. But the fact is (and rude as it might sound), we need to grow up, desperately. Most Linux based distros suffer from acute shortage of funds and to sustain development of a distribution, funds are a necessity. There's another theory. Linux is a hotbed of open source apps, and there are many. However sad as it might sound, there are very few professional grade apps with support system out there. GIMP is a great application, but only a fool would compare it with Adobe Photoshop (I used to be one such fool). Similarly I think there is a severe shortage of games on the Linux platform. If developers and companies are encouraged to come up with more decent quality applications and those are featured on the Ubuntu Software Center, I think it can only be good. After all, even the Canonical online store has options to buy closed softwares from them.

Tipsarevic!

2010-09-02T04:41:00.000-07:00

Image via Wikipedia

Janko Tipsarevic is perhaps better known for his sense of style than his tennis. But he changed all that today when he ousted one of the top players in men's tennis of our time, Andy Roddick. The class, the power and the entire persona of Tipsarevic looked magnificent at the Flushing Meadows.

What was impressive was how Tipsarevic never really let go and constantly troubled Roddick by returning even his most potent serves. The US Open 2010 is now truly open. With this sort of form, I wouldnt doubt Tipsarevic's ability to tame another giant. As I always say, we are living in privileged times. Anyone who rises to the occasion to beat a champion without any support from the crowd whatsoever deserves a pat on the back.

Nothing New From Apple

2010-09-01T13:31:00.001-07:00

Image via CrunchBase

Apple has nothing drastically new on offer this time around, surprisingly. In its press conference at San Francisco, Steve Jobs mentioned about the new reinvented Apple TV, the elusive product which has so far never really 'clicked'. They have a new lineup of contracts with television channels with high definition content.

The other major announcement was about the new iPod Touch range which has the same features as the new iPhone 4 (including the retina display, touch screen, face time capabilities etc) without having the 'phony' features of the phone. As the Jobs jokingly put it, the new iPod Touch is the iPhone 4 without the contract. He also announced the lauch of Ping, a new music social networking site.e

Other than that, there werent any other announcements. I wonder if Apple really has something on offer to surprise us any more. After all, havent we already seen the enough of the iPods and the odd set top boxes?

Why Does Federer Need A Coach?

2010-08-31T08:31:00.000-07:00

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

I'm not a tennis player but am surely a sports lover and tennis is surely one of my favourites. Over the years, I've realised that this is perhaps the best time to witness tennis. The fact is we have some of the best players on the planet of recent times if not the best players ever playing the game. Without a doubt, Roger Federer's name would be right at the top if a greatest players of all time list is released.

However I wonder why such a great player who is hailed as the best in the world, needs a coach. Paul Annacone has recently been 'coaching' the great man, after a certain drop in form which resulted in Federer not even making it to the semifinals at his favourite tournament, Wimbledon. But one wonders what would a coach tell a man who has already won 16 grand slam titles, has made a record 10 consecutive grand slam finals appearances and is believed widely to be the greatest man to have hit the tennis ball. Well I dont know, maybe because I'm not a tennis player. But anyway, there must be some utility in hiring the coach who coached the great Pete Sampras. Being a Federer fan, I honestly hope Federer overcomes this slump and emerges as a stronger player, with the help of his coach.

The Linux Usageshare

2010-08-28T23:10:00.000-07:00

Linux is everywhere now. In the servers where it originally belonged and perhaps still belongs, in the desktop and now more recently even in mobile devices and tablets. But what has remained a mystery for a long time is exactly what the Linux market share is. Windows is touted as the most popular OS with over 90% market share. Mac OSX is said to have around 4-5 percent and Linux a measly 1-2% according to Wikipedia.

(Shown below are the relative market share of various OSes according to Wikipedia)

So Windows is the most popular OS. I think there's no controversy regarding that. What creates a controversy though is the market share of Linux. Now keeping a tab on Windows market share is relatively easy, since there is a definite sales figure (and perhaps tracking). But when it comes to Linux, because its free and no "buying issue" is involved, tracking the total number of users is extremely difficult. What complicates the problem further is the presence of literally hundreds of distros. Yes, Ubuntu is without doubt the most popular Linux distro (Distrowatch reports an overwhelming hits per day statistic in favour of Ubuntu), but its not the only one. Fedora is very popular among Linux users, and there is a dedicated fan following for OpenSUSE, Free BSD, CentOS.

(Shown below is a screenshot from Distrowatch showing average hits per day)

Tracking the growth of each of these distros requires an immense amount of coordination effort among companies and developers which unfortunately the Linux sphere has not seen in the past. Distro bashing these days is a favourite pastime for many and the importance of a collective effort to create a platform for collaboration and the bigger picture is missed altogether.

Canonical has recently brought a new tracking application to its distro Ubuntu which helps it to collect info about how long the OS is installed on the PC etc. As of now there is no detailed info about exactly what information Canonical is collecting and what it intends to do with it and as expected there this concern has been reciprocated by a few users. (See Slashdot and Phoronix more info on this)

So why is tracking all that important? Why is the marketshare such a hallowed statistic? Why does a normal user need to even bother about what percentage of users are using the same OS he's using? The answer has been eloquently given by Slashdot blogger Gerhard Mack who says:

"There are hundreds of conflicting estimates of how many Linux machines are out there. Knowing how many people are using Linux is important because larger numbers provide leverage when we go asking for drivers from hardware manufacturers, apps from software makers or try and convince OEMs to bundle Linux."

(Source: TechNewsWorld)

Linux needs more support from hardware manufacturers and drivers support to improve the "Linux experience", if I may say so. The only way to convince manufacturers and developers to do that is to give them hard data. Thats a fair argument I think, as long as the user is aware of the info that the company is collecting.

After all for most (if not all) Linux is much more than just an OS.

The Alchemy of the Phirang Desire

2010-08-26T12:17:00.000-07:00

Image via Wikipedia

This is quite hilarious, but frankly every single person has a 'little Britain' hidden inside us. Somehow when people venture outside the (ill demarcated) boundaries of this country to literally land in the West, their accents change! All of a sudden. The 'r' gets rolled and rolled and rolled to the point where its no longer the Indian 'aar' but the phirang 'Rrr'. The 'l' gets a certain thing done to it which is too complicated for me to put in words. Its almost as if its shameful and humiliating to have an Indian accent.

This has happened time and again to people and two of the brightest examples I can cite right now are Aishwarya Rai and her hubby. When Ash 'hit' the west, she almost immediately lost her accent. Maybe she got a voice coach or something. Or accent coach actually. I think these are the ones who get paid big bucks in the BPOs for raining newbies, right? Anyway, so I guess when these accent coaches get tired of their job they become coaches for celebs! And of course the pay scale is better. Greener pastures you see.

Anyway, back to the point. If you havent already, take a look at Ash on David Letterman video. Its on youtube and its already gotten quite a few thousand hits from some sane and many perverts. Ash almost behaves like a true phirang woman! At least accent wise.

The other day I saw Rajeev Masand of CNN IBN doing the same thing while interviewing James Cameron. He almost seemed like the perfect NRI! Cant we just be proud of the way we are? Is it all that necessary to American-ize our accent?

The EVM - fallible and insecure

2010-08-24T12:40:00.000-07:00

We have been hearing about the 'un-hackability' of the Indian EVMs (Electronic Voting Machine) for a very long time. And frankly this has been reiterated so many times by the Election Commission of this country, that now even questioning the vulnerability of it is held as a crime.

Hari Prasad, a security expert from Hyderabad, demonstrated on Live television the severe security vulnerabilities the Indian EVMs suffer from, shattering the very basis of the boastful claims by the Election Commission. The video has since then become almost viral and the debate has risen to a different level altogether.

There is also a debate about how Mr. Prasad aquired the EVM, supposed to be under strict security vigil. However instead of addressing the basic issues, the Government has committed a blunder by arresting Mr. Hari Prasad for theft. That Prasad exposed a serious issue is of no value to the government or the commission. Both have found an easier way out by trying to bury the incident. Both would have won over the hearts of the countrymen had it made an announcement about patching the security loopholes and going public with the source code. Pity this isnt the election season and hence, winning hearts is the last thing on the government's agenda right now.

Bad Time to Buy an E-book Reader

2010-08-20T14:15:00.000-07:00

Image via Wikipedia

This really is a bad time to buy an e-book reader, especially if you happen to live in India. I'll tell you why. The two of the most popular conventional (read eInk) e-book readers are the Amazon Kindle and the Infibeam Pi. They are slow, colourless and lacked intense multimedia capabilities. But then, after iPad release a host of companies came up with their tablet offerings. The netbook, once a hot product, seemed to dying a painful rather sooner than expected.

The problem with the tablets is that since they have an LCD display, there is a considerable amount of strain on the eyes on prolonged usage. The eInk on the other hand doesnt do colour, so thats a potential let down.

Enter Notion Ink. A revolutionary product in the making which seems to have solved the problems of netbooks and tablets all at the same time. Its powered by android and has a pixel qi display. Pixel qi is something quite revolutionary which inspite of having a brightness comparable to LCDs, has the ability to reflect direct sunlight and also reduces strain on the eyes. Seems too good to be true doesnt it? Even I didnt believe it until my friend Abhirup convinced me about this truly amazing development going on in this country. A lot is being promised and lot of interest has been generated thanks to this cutting edge device and thanks to its really attractive price tag of $498 for the 3G with wifi version. However, no release date for this device has been announced as yet although its expected that it might release by the end of this year or early next.

Incidentally even Infibeam is ready with its tablet offering. They call it the Infibeam Phi (the eInk edition is the 'Pi'). The Phi has Android as well as Windows versions and is decently powered. However since it has an LCD display, its difficult to call it as an ebook reader. The dual screen technology of pixel qi is far superior than the traditional eInk and almost as good if not at par with LCD brightness, this is where I think the Notion Ink tablet scores over the Phi. But even the Phi hasnt been released yet, although Infibeam is taking preorders.

Hence my conclusion that this is indeed the worst time to buy an ebook reader. The suggestion would be to stay put and abstain from investing in any such devices until both the Infibeam Phi and Notion Ink hit the mainstream market.

The Stupidity of Indo-Pak Relations

2010-08-19T11:26:00.000-07:00

The recent floods in Pakistan has wrecked havoc over large stretches of the country. Pakistan is finding it hard to cope with the scale of the disaster and the ramifications of this could unfold in the near future when there is a rise in water borne diseases. Aid is of the prime essence and it is trickling in but frankly a lot more needs to be done to address the situation. Add to this the complicated relationship India has had with Pakistan and what you have is the recipe for disaster.

Pakistan is yet to take a decision on the Indian aid, $5 millions which has been offered by the Indian government. Although to be fair to Pakistan, they have thanked the Indian government for the offer. It is a shame that bilateral relations between two of the most important nations in the subcontinent have reached such a low that even accepting aid for flood victims has to be thought through by taking diplomatic relations into consideration.

However, if one does think deep, there are valid reasons for not accepting Indian aid. India has forever been regarded as the biggest enemy by Pakistan, accepting Indian aid could potentially weaken its anti-India stand, and maybe it would invite the ire of fundamentalists in a country already reeling under immense international pressure for not ating tough on terror.

But frankly, a disaster of this scale requires politicians and leaders in both countries to rise to the occasion and act as good politicians and good leaders for their own respective countries.

What happens to Kalmadi now?

2010-08-19T03:08:00.001-07:00

It has been proved beyond considerable doubt that Mr. Suresh Kalmadi, the chairman of the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee has had a huge involvement in the scam which has shamed the entire nation. Even the Congress has distanced itself from the man reassuring everyone that action would be taken against those responsible. However from the look of things, its unlikely that the government will take actions against the man in the question just now, raising fears amongst all that he might utilise the clout and hide his tracks. That however is probably unlikely since a new committee exclusively selected by the Prime Minister is in place to oversee the Kalmadi and his mates.

The doubt however remains as to why no one is willing to order a probe into the whole scam now, when the games havent started. Kalmadi leading the organising committee is a bad example being set infront of the nation. Someone who is accused of corruption running into hundreds of crores of rupees. Isnt that a shame? Isnt it a shame that the best person India could come up with to head the committee for organising the games is a corrupt politician who is so invaluable that he is not removed from his chair even after prima facie evidence clearly points towards his involvement in perhaps the biggest scandal this nation has seen.

If Kalmadi is allowed to head the panel, even after all these allegations, it will set a bad example for not just India but also about perceptions about the country. Can we as a developing nation poised for exponential growth and hailed as the superpower of the future afford to do that?

Is it time to take a step backwards?

2010-08-16T13:32:00.000-07:00

Image via Wikipedia

Perhaps in this rat race of features and more features and powerful processors, the importance of good battery life for a mobile phone has been lost. Battery life used to be a serious buying criteria back in the 90s and the first half of this decade. But today, its no longer a leading criteria, perhaps lost in the jungle of featues and apps and processors and GPUs.

However the neglect and perhaps the lack of innovation in this regard is quite astonishing. Nokia's once flagship device, the N95 had a fierce reputation of having the worst battery life among mobile phones of the age. The same reputation is being carried forward by the new generation touchscreen devices of the company. The N97 Mini has a hilariously short battery life for a smartphone. Its not just Nokia which is facing problems. Even the hallowed iPhone 4 has battery issues, as in the battery life isnt as impressive as the 3GS. The same problem can be found with the Samsung Galaxy S. Reason? Well for starters, its the super heavy duty processor and battery life-unfriendly OSes. Now tell me somerhing, whats a smartphone which cannot be used for extended hours? Whats the use of a device which requires you to carry chargers or cables as daughter packages wherever you go?

Now would you go back to a simple good old blackberry, or a N70? These truly had awesome battery lives. I guess most would say no. Hence whats required is a better battery management system where every single app will be able to utilise the battery power only as per the minimum requirement. I am hoping that the manufacturers already have this in mind and are working towards a solution. This also goes with the 'green' theme everyone's suddenly obsessed about, hence makes good marketing sense. Else we consumers would be forced to used dated devices with poor functionality.

The $35 Tablet

2010-08-12T06:42:00.000-07:00

Image via Wikipedia

Yes, its no longer a rumour. There is infact a $35 tablet, waiting to be released to the masses. The minister for human resource and development (HRD), Kapil Sibal, was on Gadget Guru this week where he unveiled the cheapest tablet on the planet.

The tablet is apparently decently powered with 2GB of RAM and running Android. The touchscreen is (perhaps as expected) a resistive one. The OS isnt sluggish and thats mainly because of the hardware that has been put in.

And yeah, it gets better. In time, the minister hopes, due to rising competition and demand, the price of this tablet would come down to $10! Now when did one get last hold of $10 tablet?

All is not hunky dory though. First of all, the tablet, because of its no frills design, does look ugly and dated. Finesse is something which you cannot expect from this device. The device lacks a hard drive and although this is primarily the reason why its prices have been kept low, I doubt if this is something which will be appreciated. The presence of resistive touch also does complicate matters and spoils the fun of the touchscreen experience. Also the tablet in its current form and price is meant for educational institutions and its students. The mass market version might be priced higher.

Finally, its a mixed bag to be honest. Mediocre functionality/quality of hardware vs extremely low price. The choice as always lies with the consumer.

What is wrong with Linkin Park?

2010-08-11T12:47:00.000-07:00

Image via Wikipedia

Remember those tracks which made you headbang even if you werent in the mood? Remember the rise of nu-metal? Remember those days when In the End was a top hit? Remember Papercut? Remember Numb?

Oh those were the days! A bunch of boys who experimented with rap and hip hop and metal and came up with an absolutely breathtaking combination of the three, which was unlike anything we had ever heard! It was clear to us all that we were going through something new. An uncharted territory where no one else had previously ventured. The realm of Nu Metal. A new genre in its own right.

Although one might argue about its origins, there absolutely no doubt that it was Linkin Park (and Limp Bizkit) who made the genre popular and acceptable. The lyrics were potent, the music strong and the effect was a heady dose of rap and metal.

In its formative years leading to release of their first album, Hybrid Theory, Linkin Park could be classified as a bunch of superb musicians who knew exactly what people wanted to listen to. When Hybrid Theory was released, it became an instant hit. It was certified platinum in 2003, quite an achievement conidering that it was the debut album. Their next album, Metero, took them to astronomical heights of popularity. MTV named Linkin Park as one of the greatest bands of the music video era. Things only got better for them. Tours were a success, concerts sold out and popularity rivalling any of the then popular acts.

What happened a few years later, 2006 onwards, is quite a mystery. Their sound changed, the lyrics stripped down, mellowed, the rapping reduced, overall it was clear that Linkin Park was no longer the same. Many say this led to their music becoming more mainstream. But frankly, thats a lame argument. Mainstream doesnt necessarily denote good music. Infact it does denote quite the opposite. Hardly anyone would call Justin Bieber or Kesha's music revolutionary.

The death knell, in my opinion, came after the release of their song Catalyst on yotube. It sounded so horribly wrong, so un-Linkin Park, so like every other album out there. The comments on the page reflected my concern perfectly well. Many (if not most) felt that Linkin Park was no longer THE group, THE band, THE musicians. Perhaps its not their fault at all. We all know about record companies and their business attitudes. Its no secret that all they care about is maximum number of hits (read mainstream success). Athough I will still remain a fan of the band, I will perhaps cherish what Linkin Park was rather than what it is.

My review of Bombay Rains Bombay Girls

2010-08-09T13:34:00.000-07:00

Anirban Bose, a doctor by profession has broken no records, nor traversed uncharted territories with his debut novel, Bombay Rains, Bombay Girls. But perhaps he is part of a very important phenomenon in this country. The rise of new generation Indian writers. No longer bound by the whims and fancies of publishers, no longer bound by the fear of poor sales and no longer bound by the need to script a pathbreaking work of literature, these new writers are proof of the fact that when it comes to writing, what matters is the thought, the ability to touch people's hearts and the ability to stand out as a bold and unhindered.

Describing the life of a med student from a small town (Ranchi), the book follows the travails of Adi, a student of Grant Medical College. The plot wavers and deviates from its roots making it distracting at times, but never boring. The incredible humour element simply adds a strange charm to the book and an accurate depiction of the lives of med students makes it a must read. i wont discuss the novel any further because I dont want to give the plot away and spoil the surprise element.

Its a perfect little novel to have with you when you're lonely or feeling bored. Recommended.

A Good Phone

2010-07-29T15:27:00.001-07:00

People around the web and everywhere for that matter talk about their phones being 'good' or in most cases not being all that good. So what exactly is the GQ? (Goodness Quotient, if you havent guessed it yet) For starters, GQ as you would expect has a different meaning for almost all individuals. But if we concentrate on the smartphone sphere, the goodness of a phone is defined by the following factors:

1. The form factor - like it or not, the form factor is undoubtedly the most important criteria for people buying a new phone. No one likes an ugly device. This partially explains the success of the iPhone, the amazing form factor.

2. User Interface - abbreviated as UI, this is more or less what makes or breaks a phone. Symbian most say (except for fanboys of course) has the least attractive UI, and android (with sense UI from HTC) and the iOS are generally considered among the best. The others like Maemo and Meego, although not exactly new platforms, but havent been mainstream OSes so far. Nonetheless, UI isnt really their forte.

3. Whats 'inside' - the processor, the RAM, the memory capabilities, etc. This is where android wins hands down more or less. Why? Well, the high end phones have a processing speed of 1GHz and RAM of 512MB. With a GPU (graphics processing unit), thats a killer deal. Sure the iPhone 4 has almost the same specs, but its sort of rendered redundant thanks to its severly restricted multitasking abilities.

4. Apps - applications are what smartphones are made for. And unless there's a plethora of apps to choose from, using a smartphone doesnt make much sense. The android market and the apple app store and legendary in this regard, with Nokia's Ovi Store coming a very distant third.

There you go, the next time you buy a smartphone make sure its a 'good' one and scores high on your GQ levels.

Claimer: these are my opinions so dont expect them to be universally accepted truth.

The Idiocy of Indian Television Programmes

2010-07-28T06:16:00.000-07:00

Image by parul2999 via Flickr

Indian Television. Not really a global phenomenon is it? After all in India, prime time programmes are primarily meant for aunties and grannies. The youth of this country has almost forever been starved of good, quality youth oriented programmes. Unless of course you consider 'programmes' like Roadies (MTV) to be proper programmes for the youth. As the clock strikes 7 (pm of course) thousands of women (my mum included) dedicate all their attention to the television sets, for 'saas-bahu' (mother-in-law vs wife) rivalry, family dramas (epitomised family dramas with joint families the size of elephant packs), evil aunties and well, more evil aunties. And what do we guys watch? Well, there's always THE NEWS, although listening to the same crap being repeated 24x7 does not really make for a pleasant experience. Then there's always the talent hunt shows where every female singer, prodded by her over zealous parents, wants to become a Lata Mangeshkar and where every male singer prodded again by over zealous parents and dreamy eyed girlfriend(s?) to become the next Mohammad Rafi. And then there are the business news channels, but from what I gather and from my personal experience as well, this is not everyone's cup of tea. So what else can we watch? Oh yeah, the 'tech' shows which is about as techy as a supermodel showing off her iPhone, where real techy things like open source, source code, etc. are forbidden words, and where the review of the latest mobile phone depends largely on how good its looks are compared to the other device they 'reviewed' the other day. Thats tech for you on tele. Okay so what the hell do we watch or can we watch? Nothing to be honest. No Indianised versions of western tv series (just copy a few shows if you cant come up with original ideas! Please!), no true Indian world class programmes, not even a proper comedy show!

Of course you might think that expecting a Top Gear or a Lost here in India would be a tall order but frankly, considering the amount of money spent on those zoom-in zoom-out types all 365 days, I think its very much possible. Why cant we have a Lost here? Why not a House? Why not? Honestly why not? Why does the youth of this country have to turn to the US/UK series to satisfy their hunger for top class watchable programmes? Like a lot of things I dont understand (fail to fathom), the reason of this lack of proper good, quality stuff on Indian stuff is beyond my comprehension.

Top apps for N97 (Mini)

2010-07-27T13:55:00.001-07:00

Image by Michele Ficara Manganelli via Flickr

Lets face it, the Ovi Store isnt really a huge repository of apps and most of the apps are well, unusable (read intolerable).

However fortunately there are a few apps which are worth downloading and trying out. I will list them according to my preference (why? Well coz its MY blog and I get to write whatever I want thats why!):

1. Gravity - Well you knew this was going to be the first one didnt you? Frankly Gravity is kind of THE app at the Ovi Store. The twitter cum facebook cum Rss reader cum much more is well and truly the one app which is a must buy if you're on the N97/Mini. The interface is unlike any other and fortunately isnt a memory hog. Hence its perfectly possible to listen to soothing music whil you're tweeting away! To cut the long story short, this is a must download.

2. SPB Mobile Shell - This software transforms the look of your boring N97 into something quite classy and sleek. The look does resemble Android and is not reallty that difficult to use. Okay yeah, it does take some time to get used to but overall this is quite an awesome piece of software totally worthy of its steep price tag. Symbian was never renowned for its looks and this software makes it easier for you to tolerate the boring UI of Symbian by forming a completely different layer. Highly recommended.

3. Raging Thunder - Asphalt 4 for Symbian's touchscreen devices isnt really a good experience. However this game more than makes up for it. Raging Thunder is a car racing game and it uses the built in accelerometer of the devices. That way, this game is quite unique. Also, the price tag is what makes this even more attractive. Completely and whole heartedly recommended.

Nokia - The Way Out

2010-07-27T03:58:00.000-07:00

In the past I have criticised Nokia for being utterly nonsensical when it came to coming up with great phones especially of late. But I have nowhere pointed out what it should do to recover its image as a premier mobile manufacturer and a technology leader. Hence today's gonna be an exception.

To be quite honest, Nokia probably knows the way out. But here's what I think should be done:

1. Get a new group of designers on board - Lets face it Nokia phones are now synonymous with the word 'ugly'. Their devices are nothing short of ghastly compared to the finesse and design of the iPhone(s). Getting a new group of designers on board will be the first thing the company needs to do. Nokia needs to realise something basic here: people need functionality as well as a sexy design in their smartphones. Unless Nokia offers them that, its doomed. The smartphone market is no longer the same as it used to be half a decade back. Nokia needs to keep up with the times, desperately.

2. Focus on one OS - Symbian S60 v3, Symbian^1, Symbian^3, Maemo and now Meego. The last thing Nokia one can say about Nokia is its platform uniformity. Almost each of its high end device keeps coming up with a new OS. Thats not just impractical for the consumers but a terrible thing for the developers. What should the developers work on? Meego, maemo, symbian? Thank god I'm not an official developer, else I would have gone crazy by now! Anyway, what needs to be done is to go for ONE particular OS for all its smartphones. Also, Nokia's Android allergy is something beyond my comprehension. Judging from the astronomic growth predictions of android, the world is now divided into two groups: the android and the non-android. Nokia prefers the latter somehow, completely ignoring the fact that android is infact the only OS which has been built for touchscreen devices from the word go.

3. Giving customers value for money products - Lets face it, Nokia phones, especially the recent ones are insanely ugly, insanely slow, insanely dysfunctional and last but not the least insanely under-powered. If Nokia respects and loves its customers it needs to come up with products which have a good balace of feature and price. Android devices and the iPhone(s) are this popular only because the manufacturers are giving consumers a great product which is worth every single penny they are spending. Can't say that for Nokia unfortunately. The N97 Mini is one of the most dysfunctional phones of the planet (I'm currently using one, unfortunately) and still Nokia dares to release this crap and wiat it gets better, price it at around $400-$500. An HTC Legend around the same price is a much better product than that. And well, Nokia phones are reputed for their crap processing capabilities which Nokia fanboys explain as the lack of need of good processors for something as lightweight as Symbian. The statement although partially true, has no practical significance. Symbian OS do need less system resource but for its multitasking capabilities to work (eg. Playing a game and listening to music and downloading content simultaneously) one does need a pretty hardcore powerful processor and RAM. But the great men at Nokia refuse to come to terms with this concept. They are which intent on praising the simplistic UI of Symbian (the ugliest on the planet by the way, if you didnt know) and the fact that its open source (wait, isnt android open source as well? Bloody hell yes! Why the hell then these Nokia folks staunchly supporting Symbian, still?). Nokia needs to do away with this stupidity and be more practical. And for heaven's sake show some respect to your valued customers. What sin did people commit when they bought the 'craptastic' (the word now made famous by Symbianguru) N97? The least Nokia could have done was to ask unhappy customers to return their phones. But NO, Nokia once again proved that it was living in a utopic world where everyone would still be a Nokia fan even if it kept churning out idiotic dysfunctional devices. 'I'm just a dreamer', the famous Ozzy Osbourne track doesnt work in the corporate arena. Nokia would do itself justice by realising that.

4. Create a proper app store - What? Nokia already has an app store, its called the Ovi Store!

Ah yes, of course, the Ovi Store! How many usable apps does it have by the way? Erm...five? Nah that would be lying. How about 3? Yeah thats more like it. How many good usable top quality (not the stupid ones) apps does the Apple App Store and the Android Market have? I can at least mention 150 without stopping and still go on. Need I say more? The Ovi store is the biggest joke from Nokia ever! With absolutely stupid apps being listed in the Recommended section and the lack of proper good apps for even basic tasks such as reading pdf files (thanks largely to Nokia's obsession with ultra low quality harware), the Ovi store is as dead as a dinosaur skeleton. What needs to be done is introducing a new regulatory process for apps and for heaven's sake developing utterly essential ones first, eg. a pdf reader for starters, once where the user wont have to wait for a minute to move from one page to another. Not really too much to ask for. If Apple and Android developers can do it, so can the Nokia developers.

Anyway, those were my suggestions. Sure one can agree or disagree with a few points mentioned here but without a doubt Nokia needs to do something and take drastic measures if it wants to sty at the pinnacle of the smartphone market.

May I Hebb Your Attention Pliss - my review

2010-07-26T22:16:00.000-07:00

Arnab Roy (aka Greatbong) is a well known face in the blogsphere. His blog has won numerous awards and has been hailed 'blog of the year' twice. Now I'll be frank with you here, I was never really a fan of his blog. Never cared to subscribe.

But when the guy came up with a full fledged book, one just could not ignore him any further. Also for around 200 bucks, one couldnt really call it an expensive buy. Hence I got hold of it and gave it a read.

What did I make of it? Well honestly, the book is definitely worth a read. Definitely. Arnab has humour in his kitty and he uses that to his advantage. His writing style is casual and even though it may not be a literary work of the highest standard, it surely is something which one will treasure. While going through the first few chapters, I did feel that this was written primarily with the NRI readers in mind. But as I delved deeper I realised that it could be just as true for any Indian in any part of India. Flair is something Arnab has been gifted with and that confidence and flair shows in every page of every chapter of the book. Its not a novel as the author clearly explains. Its more of a 3rd person's view of the 80s and the 90s.

Although I found it quite readable, all the chapters werent of the same standard and my interest fluctuated wildly till I read half the pages (at which point I realised that I couldnt just throw the book away). But inspite of all that I would like to congratulate Arnab for a truly great debut. May we see much more of him in the future.

The N97 Mini - Exposed (Part 2)

2010-07-10T15:55:00.000-07:00

(If you havent read the first part of this post, kindly go through it for a more detailed analysis)

That the N97 Mini is having a low quality battery is well known. However the thing is, the battery does get heated up pretty soon and due to the heat generated the phone body (especially the back) becomes insanely hot. A 30 min call from my friend resultedin the phone getting so hot that I had to disconnect to prevent my ears from getting burnt. Thats simply unacceptable on a 21st century device. Although heating is not an issue when one is using 2G or GPRS connections, during wifi usage the phone becomes a pressure cooker. Again, not acceptable on a device which costs around/more than $400.

I am an avid ebook-reader and I am appalled at the lack of ebook readers at the ovi store. Adobe pdf is an extrememly slow ebook reader and so is a bunch of other softwares.

All platforms have proper ebook reading softwares, Well thats what you are supposed to do if a phone with a large screen size. Now anyone please make Nokia understand this. Starving new phones of hardware resources can only erode fan bases. And thats what it needs to learn.

Thanks for reading, I'll be back with more.

The N97 Mini - Exposed (Part 1)

2010-07-10T06:32:00.000-07:00

Starting today, I will give a detailed account of what I think of the N97 Mini, a phone which is being incredibly vigorously promoted as the next big thing by Nokia. Is the N97 Mini a good phone? Is it worth buying? I will try and put forth arguments both for and against the functionality of this device and let you decide.

1. What makes the N97 Mini special - Its probably now well known that even though Nokia manged to sell loads of N97s (the original N97), it really didnt fare well among users. Be it the less than sufficient processing capabilities, the 128MB RAM on a high end device, or the camera lens cover which actually ended up scratching the lens instead of protecting it. There was widespread outrage among users, many of whom had expressed it publicly on the web. It goes without saying that the N97 was terrible PR for Nokia, till then considered an innovative company at the helm of introducing ultra modern technologies to smart phones. The Symbian^1 which was then touted as the next big thing didnt help matter either. It reminded most people of their old S60 v2 and v3 phones and the UI was boring to say the least. Nokia had to do something to spice things up and restore 'order', releasing innumerable patches and updates for the N97 didnt work, and so it did the next best thing, reduced the memory and the size of the phone, packed in a weaker battery (1200mAh compared to N97's 1500mAh) and termed it the new N97 Mini. However it did something positive as well, it improved the build quality of the phone and made it look classier. Or so I thought.

2. Okay, but why does it suck then - Hey wait, I didnt tell you it sucks, not yet. Anyway, lets look at the context of the mobile phone arena and then compare N97 Mini's specs. The iPhone 3GS had been released and another iPhone was on its way which was supposed to have a huge amount of RAM and improved processing speeds. Google had released Nexus One armed with 1Ghz processor and an equally powerful RAM. And there was Nokia who was content with giving customers what they thought was the best deal possible, a 434Mhz processor and 128MB RAM in an attempt to compete. Spare me a second while I enjoy a hearty laugh. It had the same dated unusable insanely unprofessional looking (everything is being compared to iOS and Android here) and unevolving Symbian^1. And the price? Quoted price on most Nokia ads in India was/is Rs. 21000 (more than $400). I was one of the few who got mesmeried by the Nokia story (mainly because I had been a satisfied Nokia user till then). I decided to buy the Nokia argument of it being a better device. A decision which would come back and haunt me every single day henceforth.

When I first got my N97 Mini, I was really happy! The white phone looked beautiful and so did the keypad. I loved typing using the QWERTY and the phone soon became my treasured possession. I then started to put the device to the test and see if I could really be 'at one' with it. Shocks after shocks after shocks followed. It was soon clear to me that something was wrong, very wrong.

The phone wasnt lasting long enough, even on normal regular use which included listening to songs, browsing, using wifi to stream music and of course making calls it was hard to make the phone last more than 8 hours. In a bid to improve battery life and performance I changed from a snazzy looking theme to a toned down almost mellow inbuilt theme for my phone. Widgets, something of a huge USP for Nokia, had to be turned off, at least the online ones or else they would consume power and diminish battery life further. I had to reduce calls, reduce internet access and wifi usage to a minimum especially when I ventured outdoors without a charging cable in my bag. Yeah I know what you might be thinking, how was I supposed to use the phone without those features, well it seems Nokia cares little for its 'valued' customers and the sole reason for this uber crap battery life was nothing other than the underpowered 1200mAh battery. And that was just the start. Symbian^1 sucks just as much today as it did when the N97 Mini came out. The UI is outstandingly boring. You would need pure talent to create a boring UI like that. Well, at least they could have copied Apple or Android! That would have resulted in a better looking OS! Anyway. Next came the hardware which was so insanely dated that I could imagine my father getting this phone on his first mararige anniversary! Nokia has a strange fascination with dated hardware, it perhaps stems from a monopolistic attitude it has developed over the years being the no 1 smartphone manufacturer. Its like the company is telling its customers "haha you moron, this is what you deserve, cry as much as you want to, I wont give you a better device." Of course Nokia didnt say this, but frankly as a customer who had bought a new N97 Mini this is what I felt. The application manager constantly keeps crashing and notifying me to close running apps when no apps are running. Multitasking is a pain thanks to the incapable processor and RAM.

And then came the ovi store. What the **** is that? Well its an app store. You mean like an Apple App Store? Yeah, kind of. Are you sh*tting me? Ovi and Apple? That is like the biggest baddest saddest and poorest joke ever! The ovi store is so starved of apps that in a bid to create proper ones, Nokia introduced an App wizard for non programmers! Yeah you heard me right. Well that did help increase the number of apps but what that made the ovi store was an absolute piece of junk. Whenever I see apps mentioned on sites on the web, I'm pretty certain that its either for the iPhone or for Android. I mean there is no proper pdf file reader for symbian platforms! Adobe reader is almost unusable and so are many others. Its a pain to read pdf documents on the N97 unless you have hundreds of hours to spare waiting for pages to load.

I will be posting more such reality checks soon. I have been CHEATED, DUPED AND MISGUIDED by the company I once was a fan of. I know I have been rude at places in this post, but hey, I have spent my money (and a huuge amount of it) on the phone and I have not been delivered what I was promised. I have the right to complain and let others know what they are signing up for when they buy a N97 Mini. Stay away from fanboys, do your research well, especially before you buy a Nokia.

Take care folks, and thank you so much for reading. I'll be back with more soon.

Make the N97 Mini battery last longer

2010-07-09T12:57:00.000-07:00

Its an open secret that the N97 Mini battery sucks ass. Its terrible to say the least, completely unworthy of the 'N' series tag. A 1200mAh battery is completely insufficient to run a Symbian^1 OS. Anyway, all curses and slangs aside, here are a few ways you can make your N97 Mini battery last longer:

1. Remove all online widgets: Yes I know that sucks and that Nokia has always proudly advertised widgets one of the strong points of the newer N-series devices, but fact is given the less than standard battery quality of the N97 Mini, you'll have to live without these online widgets. In short make your phone look naked, like this:

2. Make changes to the Display settings: This might inconvenience a lot of people but this has to be done. Change your display settings to as minimalistic as it can get. Something like this is less than tolerable but will make your phone last about 6-8 hours (thats a long time for the N97 Mini actually as you'll discover later in the post).

3. Switch off all connectivity options when not in use: This applies to Bluetooth, WAP services, 3G as well as WiFi. All of these draw insane amount of power from the battery. Remember this, if you switch on the WiFi on your phone manually, you'll have to switch it off manually as well, it wont disconnect automatically. In short, remember to disconnect WiFi on your device as soon as you're done. I had unknowingly used an online music streaming client for around 2 hrs and the battery drained to level zero in 2 hrs flat.

(Just for your info, WiFi connectivity is indicated by a small symbol on the top right corner of your N97 Mini display:

WAP/3G connectivity is indicated by another small symbol on the top left corner:

So make sure you aren't leaving these in their "on" state when you're done. I wont talk about GPS here since the N97 Mini does not come with a free GPS package, no sir, not even for a month. And since GPS rates in India are almost worth a new iPhone, I havent tried it out. But I believe the same rule of switch it off when not in use applies to it as well.

Oh wait, I almost forgot, using the WiFi for a long time, well 2 hours is all it can run anyway, makes the device suffer from SERIOUS heating issues. So make sure you have ice cold water near you just in case when you switch WiFi on)

3. Dont leave any games open: I know the N97 Mini does multitasking but its useless coz of the battery that has been packed in it. The N97 Mini seems to be screaming for more power and Nokia seems to have turned a deaf ear to all its cries. Anyway, if you're into multitasking, make sure you're multitasking with simple stuff like say, a music app and a calendar. Dont try multitasking with a game and a web browser or youtube app. The you're gonna be pretty much in for a rough ride. So, if you leave any games running in the background, you can be sure that the next time you look at your phone, it will have run out of power and switched itself off.

4. Dont run constantly updating online apps for more than 5-10 mins at a time: This applies to Twitter clients like Gravity and Snaptu. If you're using these apps, dont leave them running for hours. That way, you can be pretty sure of immense power wastage. I fell asleep the other day for around an hour or so and had left gravity running, to my utter shock when I woke up, the battery was nearly dead by then.

So, in conclusion what can I say?

Well lets say the N97 Mini looks better and performs better when its switched off.

Make sure you take utmost care of the device when its on, or else....bleeeeeeeeeeeep.

Macro Photography on N97 Mini

2010-07-09T06:50:00.000-07:00

Surely everything about the N97 Mini cant be bad. Hence, I wanted to give a shot at perhaps the only positive thing on that phone, its camera. The phone has a 5 Megapixel camera and Carl Zeiss Lens with dual LED flash. Although the flash is less than satisfactory in case of night photography, the lens however is indeed a revelation, especially when it comes to macro shots (aka close up shots).

First up, the settings. I changed them to Close up and turned the Flash Off.

Here are a few macro images I shot with the N97 Mini (the pic following each of them, indicates detailed info about the shot and the lens used):

IMAGE 1:

IMAGE 2:

IMAGE 3:

IMAGE 4:

Tell me what you think of it.

N97 Mini Battery Life Woes

2010-07-08T10:36:00.000-07:00

I am currently being forced to write this post as I have recently been affected by the unimaginably poor battery life of Nokia N97 Mini. Yesterday some of my friends came over and I had to put the N97 Mini for the first time to the test. The Mini has a 1200mAh battery (substantially reduced from the original N97 which had a 1500mAh one). And yes, expectedly the battery life or the extreme lack of it, is giving me serious problems. I will in detail list my points below.

1. Widgets: Nokia has somehow been fascinated by widgets and is proudly hailing it as a USP in current devices. However what is missed especially in case of the N97 Mini is that these widgets, the ones which require internet connectivity eg. facebook, email widgets etc. draw a huge amount of power from the battery.

2. WiFi - Cool technology eh? Yeah I guess and Nokia thinks so as well, only if it had been serious enough to give it a proper thought before implementing it in devices. (Read on for more details on this)

3. Screen Display Brightness - Oh well, the one time I tested the device using full brightness, it didnt even last me 6 hours! So, forget about using your device outside an air conditioned chamber (read indoors).

Okay, so here's what I tested. I enabled the facebook and email widgets and waited for it to see how long it lasted. To my utter shock and surprise, on normal use which included occasional phone calls and using offline games (oh well I do have Quake 2 installed on my N97 Mini, coz thats the only decent game available for the device. If you're getting an N97 Mini make sure you're NOT a gamer, it has NO GPU, so forget about gaming, just for the info, all recent devices including lower end Android ones and of course the iPhone have dedicated GPUs), the battery hardly lasted me 5-6 hours. Hence, if you're using the N97 Mini, dont use online widgets, or else make sure you carry the charging cables (USB or charger) with you all the time and stay close to a PC or a socket, always.

Next came the acid test. WiFi. I was using Mobbler, a highly popular LastFM client and Tune Wiki. It took me simply 2-3 hours to reduce a fully charged N97 Mini to a completely battery life famished device. Which is like saying, dont use this device to use if you're a heavy WiFi user.

And for the sake of decency I am not comparing this with recent Android and the iPhone, but you get the point.

So, not only is this device underpowered (memory and processing capability wise), its also under-powered (quite literally) as well.

I was completely unaware of this aspect of the N97 Mini till I put it to the test yesterday and today in the morning. Bottomline, I am hating it. I am looking at options to sell this device and get an Android powered one. The severe lack of processing capabilities, softwares, proper usable OS and now a less than usable battery is too much for me to bear. This is my last Nokia. I really dont care if the company comes up with a better device in the future. I am currently ruing my decision, and feeling really crap coz of having spent a substantial amount of moolah on this. May Nokia be a better company and may it produce better devices in the future, but I honestly dont give a damn.

Are there any Ubuntu haters today?

2010-07-07T00:26:00.000-07:00

I was watching a video on youtube the other day of ThisWeekInLinux where the topic of discussion was Ubuntu haters.

Now even till a few years back I had my reservations about Ubuntu. It was a new distro, with a huge focus on making life easy for he average user. However, it was (and still is) being run by a South African billionaire, Mark Shuttleworth who made his fortune by providing security solutions for online transactions. I wasnt sure of his intentions and frankly I wasnt convinced if a new company with only a few employees would be able to revolutionise the Linux market by making it more user-friendly. Open SUSE had always been a very efficient OS and beating it to become the most popular distro was bound to difficult.

Fast forward to 2010. Ubuntu as of today is by far the most popular Linux distro on the planet with millions of users worldwide and gaining market share at a spectacular rate. Was this expected? I'd say no. But it only happened because the guys at Canonical (the company in charge of Ubuntu) knew what they were doing. They have in the past 2-3 years improved the usability of Ubuntu so much that now, its almost synonymous with Linux. Infact google insight predicts that soon, ubuntu will overtake linux as the more used search term! Thats quite an extraordinary achievement for a relatively new distribution.

Now there's a new group of people who think that Ubuntu's spoiling the Linux environment by making it a more n00b friendly. I really dont understand how something user friendly can be bad. Even experienced programmers I talk to tell me that after a hard day of coding, the last thing they need is to make another bash script when they get home, hence their liking for the distro.

Linux has forever been a geek's platform, and thats exactly the reason why it has almost been neglected by software companies for many years. Thanks to Ubuntu's success, Linux is making all the right noises. Ubuntu has such a huge market share with such a diverse community that its progress is the progress of Linux. Now that cant be a bad thing now can it?

Is Nokia really losing?

2010-07-05T10:50:00.000-07:00

I recently got myself a brand new N97 Mini. I have forever been a Nokia fan, and wanted to try out this new device which has certain improvements over the disastrous N97. When I got hold of the N97 Mini, I was pretty happy with it, the touch sensitivity is decent inspite of it having a resistive touch screen. The build quality is really good and so is the form factor. The main advantage of this device is the presence of a QWERTY keyboard. This comes in really really handy when one is typing long posts like this one or say, an email.

I find it a pain to type on a virtual keyboard. That may also be because the N97 Mini doesnt have a true landscape keyboard and one has to use the default phone layout.

Anyway, once the amazement factor faded away, I slowly discovered the true picture of the device. The thing is, this phone uses exactly the same processor and RAM as the new X6, N97 original. This has 128MB of RAM, runs Symbian^1 and has 8GB of internal memory. Symbian unlike the iOS is built for multitasking. In fact having used Nokia for many years now, I cant think of using a phone which doesnt offer multitasking, I have sort of taken it for granted on my phones. Unfortunately however, as you might have figured out, the RAM and the processor (ARM 11 434 MHz processor) are totally insufficient for this device. This is not to say that it hampers day to day use of the device, but it definitely doesnt give you the "edge" which something like a Nexus one or an iPhone gives you. Although the blame of producing an insufficiently powered device can only be blamed on the Finnish manufacturer, Symbian^1 doesnt help things either. Although decent, Symbian^1 is not specifically suitable for touchscreen devices, although ironically it has been built for it. Vertical browsing of apps is quite difficult simply because a) it takes quite some time to "load" the menu and b) its perfectly possible that you end up opening the wrong apps while browsing through the list. I felt disappointed, even though I knew that I was using one of the "high-end" devices of Nokia.

And finally came the death knell. The iPhone 4. Armed with a magnanimous 512MB of RAM and a blazing fast 1Ghz processor, this soon became the device of the year thus far. The iOS was revamped to support multitasking, subfolders and some extra jingles. It now has a gyroscope, obviously a superb touch screen and now a retina display. Its hard to miss the irony here. When Apple is trying to outdo everyone else by revamping their phone, Nokia seems quite content to come up with refurbished (sorry but thats the most appropriate term) devices for example N97 mini, N95 (phew cant even remember how many versions of it we had!), 5800 etc. These are dated devices in today's scenario. Unfortunately Nokia simply ignores the current situation where all other manufacturers are simply coming up with better devices. And from the looks of it, the N8 wont be much of a game changer either. Its simply lacks the punch to compete with most of the flagship devices of other companies and I'm not even considering Apple.

Finally, the biggest failure of Nokia in my opinion is the failure to create a proper software market. Its obsession with Symbian, now MeeGo makes it really difficult for developers to come up with proper apps. Hence the Ovi Store even after a year of its launch is simply a complete and utter disaster. Compare that to the Android market or the Apple App Store.

Is Nokia losing? Hell yes, and fast. The departure of many noted blogs from the web including the famed SymbianGuru is proof enough of that. Unless they get their act straight, which in my opinion is going to be very very difficult, Nokia will soon become a phenomenon of the past which once had a majority market share in smartphone devices.

But lets end on a positive note, and hope this legendary company does get its act together (I alongwith millions of others are pinning my hopes on this man, Anssi Vanjoki, the new head of mobile solutions, Nokia. His recent statement can be found here on his blog: http://conversations.nokia.com/2010/07/02/the-fightback-starts-now/ )

Roger Federer, end of an era?

2010-07-01T00:49:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's match was brutally a proof of the fact that Roger Federer, arguably the most popular and successful tennis player that has ever walked the earth, might be nearing the end of his professional career. Ranked consistently as the world no. 1 for a long time, his exit from the Wimbledon quarter finals this year to a relatively low ranked player was unexpected. To be honest, I doubt if Birdych fans had expected such a result.

Some say this augurs well for tennis as it opens the door for new talents, the younger generation of ultra fit sportsmen. Roger Federer was never really in the group of power servers or power players. His amazing agility on court, his breathtaking strokeplay coupled with his graceful movement and humility won him fans all over the world. I bet the English spectators in the court were as big a fan of his as any Swiss, and were as devastated by his loss.

Most people have started asking 'the' question now. Is it the end of the Federer era? Are we ever going to see a display of top class tennis from the man?

It would be unfair if not wrong to strike off Federer from the current best players list. Even though he's all set to be ranked no. 3 in the world now, a new low for him, its still a very very good rank. Fans and non-fans alike always expect him to reach such a high standard of gameplay that it becomes noted as a failure if he does not manage to qualify for the semi finals. However none can deny that Federer's current form is definitely not his best. We all know how he can come back after losing a set or two. I'm pretty confident that this great player will pave his back to the top, where he belongs.

My tryst with programming

2010-06-30T01:30:00.000-07:00

Strangely enough the programming bug in me has received a stimulus, yet again. Somehow I've gotten really interested in java. Am I somehow missing programming? Not that I was an avid programmer at any given time, infact my feeble and insufficient knowledge of programming is only limited to some BASIC which I learnt years ago in high school. But even though BASIC is sort of a noob's language I loved it. I played around with it so much that after a few months of learning the language I was creating programmes which were unconventional at least syllabus wise, I was drawing pictures, creating quiz apps with elaborate certificate print outs once you qualified till the final round (lol) etc. In short I was in love with BASIC and was more or less convinced that programming would be or had to be my profession.

Unfortunately life had other plans for me. I soon became interested in something as unrelated to engineering as ice cream is to onion. Biology. A subject which till then I had considered to be a mindless mugging up regimen, suddenly captured my imagination. I was sceptical of myself quite frankly when this sudden transformation in me took place, and wished and hoped that it was a passing phase. But it was not. Soon I was convinced that I had to pursue this awesome subject and do something meaningful with my life. Medicine was my true calling. And fortunately I was insanely lucky to clear one of the toughest entrance exams of this country and got accepted in a reputed med school.

But frankly, my passion for programming never left me. I soon discovered Linux and fell in love with it. Ubuntu has been my only OS for a long time now and I would highly recommend it. But frankly whats the fun of using open source softwares if you dont 'give back'? Hence my urge to learn programming more seriously. But since I dont have the time to go through books and all, I have stuck to online tutorials. Of course, my friend Vivek (@milcom_) has helped me out immensely, I would be stranded in deep sh*t without his help. Hope I can start making simple apps real soon.

Anyway thats all there is to it. Thanks for reading. Take care folks.

Duck Tales

2010-06-26T09:53:00.000-07:00

I have been pretty brutal and ruthless in my iphone bashing posts. Maybe a bit too brutal I'm afraid. Recently I found a youtube video showing the functionality of the iphone gyroscope. Its something which has been sort of overshadowed by the iphone form factor and video calling features. Anyway from the looks of it, the gyroscope is pretty awesome. Non-iphone (or lets non-iphone4 users since even the iphone 3GS doesnt have the gyroscope) users, that includes myself, have so far only experienced the accelerometer which lets face it is pretty old school now. The gyroscope sort of revs things up. You can now change the orientation of the phone to any angle. That can come in very handy in case of gaming (yeah I know who plays games on a smartphone other than iphone users :P). I doubt if any other device is going to beat Apple to gyroscopic supremacy (lol) but it sure makes the other manufacturers think of innovations in future models.

Speaking of which, I'm pretty sad for Nokia. The once smartphone giant is now fast becoming a defunct phone manufacturer, completely out of sync with today's needs. Its inability to innovate has irritated many fanboys and sure enough, it has been reflected in the sharp drop in smartphone sales of Nokia. The Finnish manufacturer had proudly announced the ultra smart, uber sleek N8 in the recent past, even specs wise its faster than the iphone 3GS, but from the looks of it, its practically out of date now even before its launch thanks to the iphone 4. I wish Nokia hadnt announced their plans so early, its surely gonna be a big letdown now the N8, irrespective of what the symbian^3 interface looks and behaves like. I will be frank here, I wish any company other than Apple had come up with the gyroscope. Not because I passionately hate Apple or because of the prejudices surrounding the company but simply because I would love an open source mobile OS to lead from the front. Closed source, although it respects the right of the programmer, is severely detrimental to the development of the mobile arena. Apple contributes very little technology wise from its devices and OSes. And this needs to change, Apple wont be part of it, so the other have to.

Finally blogging again

2010-06-23T07:20:00.000-07:00

Its been a hellova long time since I posted anything on my blog. Bad me!

Thing is, like it or not, microblogging is far more interesting or lets say easier than 'macroblogging' (thats what wordpress blogs are called now I guess). Twitter, stupid as it might seem, is indeed a powerful medium of communication (yeah as if you're hearing that for the first time! :P) Anyway, to cut the long story short, I was too preoccupied with other stuff including twitter, hence the lack of blog posts.

In the meantime though, the world has changed. Really? Hell yeah! The iphone 4 is out now, and its changed everything, apparently. Steve Jobs was in a jovial mood that day as he launched his new pet 'i' device. It now has video calling and Jobs made it sound so awesome that it almost seemed as if he'd invented the technology. (Anyway I can video call on my N97 mini just for the info. And if you have one of these symbian devices, use a software called Fring to connect to and make video calls via wifi or 3G. If you're on the iphone 4 however make sure you ask all fellow wifi users to switch off their devices so that you can 'video call'. Not sure if they'd be elated to make that sacrifice for you, but hey you can always say that Steve Jobs said so, maybe then they'll listen to you)

Enough of Jobs bashing. Was watching a really nice movie the other day about the Israel Palestine conflict, Salt of this sea. Its a really shocking movie and I'd highly recommend watching it. I think the Israel Palestine issue has been kept alive for long time and enough lives have been lost/taken. Its high time that an amicable solution acceptable to all parties was reached.

Other than that I've been busy attending boring lectures in college (okay some interesting ones as well), visiting (or touring rather, still not qualified enough to handle/help others) rural health centres and learning a lot about the healthcare system of this country. Tell you what, its a pity that when loads and loads of schemes are being devised by the government, age old superstitions and prejudices still rule the roost, at least in the rural areas. Sad that.

(And now I cant find the zemanta toolbox in the wordpress page. Great, so that means adding tags from my collection of whims and fancies. Great.)

Anyway, thanks for reading. Stay safe, keep smiling (wait that was like sooo gay!) and have fun. Till next time, adios.

Khap Panchayat

2010-05-14T06:23:00.000-07:00

When was the first time I heard the term? A few weeks back on NDTV. It was a show hosted by Barkha Dutt. Maybe it was 'We The People'.

What was my first reaction? Khak panchayat! (?)

Anyway, I guess you must have heard reports about this Khap Panchayat in various news channels recently. These pseudo unrecognised judicial system headed by (in most cases) illiterate folks, have taken upon themselves the task of cleasing the nation of all ills. Which in other words mean, that they dont give a rats arse about the Indian judicial system and are basically trying to create a law of their own. Result? Innocent people are suffering in the hands of these morons who claim to be the know-it-all. And the worst part? The dare to come on national television and defend their stance of rendering speedy justice (whether its at all 'justice' is something I'm in serious doubt).

So why do people in villages (where these pseudo systems of justice thrive) need such panchayats? Well apparently, they think the country's judicial system is a #fail and that they can render a better verdict than the Indian courts. Dangerous waters? Horrendous waters me say. These stupid organisations are so barbarically barbaric (eww what was that?) that one would shudder at the kind of 'justice' they have rendered so far. (Read more: http://www.ndtv.com/news/india/fear-of-honour-killing-haunts-this-bride-and-groom-25387.php )

Conclusion? Well the Talibans may not be present in India but hell we have our own home grown indigenous group of Talibans! And whats more shocking is that Congress MP Navin Jindal has come out openly in support of these panchayats. (Read more: http://www.deccanherald.com/content/69354/regressive-move.html )This is where I shout WTF!!!

The IPL cleanup

2010-04-27T03:20:00.000-07:00

: Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Finally the corruption cloud lingering over the IPL is coming to the fore. Lalit Modi and his gang of looters had orchestrated a massive chain of scams each ultimately leading to filling up of Modi's coffers.

The revelations are so stunning, it sort of changes the landscape of the IPL entirely. For example, Shilpa Shetty as it turns out is merely the 'face' of the Rajasthan Royals (RR) team. She's neither the owner nor a stakeholder in the team, something she has been claiming all along. The IPL committee now is giving the excuse that proper papers havent been sorted regarding the stakeholders of RR. What the heck? You have a huge tournament like the IPL and you dont have papers in order? Is this even believable? Turns out that the real stakeholder is the RR team is Lalit Modi's brother-in-law (whatever his name is).

And of course, the television rights scandal, which is so complex that it took me a minute to understand what reports in the newspapers meant. BCCI now is trying to paint a picture where Lalit Modi is the lead offender and BCCI is the spectator. However are things really that simple? What was the BCCI doing when Lalit Modi so categorically made dodgy deals and biased auctions? To wash their hands now of the scam is really crappy clarification. Instead of Lalit Modi, its the BCCI which should come clear on the matter.

And finally, how can a tournament survive when its sole purpose is profit? There's no sense of pride (most of the domestic players are not in their home teams), no sense of humility and no sense of honour anywhere in the IPL. Its all about money, money and money. In the process of making money if the team wins, well then it can only mean one thing, more money, more money and more money!

Spare us this brazen display of might and financial prowess. We the fans of the great game deserve better. Much better.

Shashi Tharoor - bad

2010-04-19T12:04:00.000-07:00

: Image by MEDEF via Flickr

Shashi Tharoor - bad.
MPs with criminal records - good.
MPs with corruption charges - good.

Yee! Lets celebrate the Indian democracy.

So, a person with a credible past (not consisting of murder charges, corruption allegations, riot charges) had the bloody guts to enter the "system" which celebrates people who take part in the bracketed terms, and what was he met with? Allegations. Baseless charges. Mockery. And last but not the least, pure and utter quintessential trademark Indian nonsense, mastered by our hallowed "experienced" politicians.

If anyone wants to know the "revised" criteria to be popular in politics in this country, its as follows:
1. DON'T be tech-savvy.
2. DON'T speak out about what you think.
3. DON'T be open and accessible to the public.
4. DON'T speak English in a way which doesnt include Indian words.
5. DON'T have a girlfriend if you are over 50!
6. Last but not the least, DON'T "mentor" anyone.

Be a dumbass with a Nokia 3210, always have a phone diary in your pocket in case you need to call someone (coz one cant check the address book on the phone, that would be counted as tech savvy), be QUIET for heaven's sake (aka SHUT THE F*CK UP!) and dont talk to ANYONE among the public about anything that concerns the...erm...public(?), speak English the Indian way replete with erm "chakki pissing" (pissing in this case is a Hindi word) type things (or even better dont speak English!), DON'T for heaven's sake have a girlfriend when you are in your 50s (its against the Indian kulture!), get married like a good mama's boy in your early 20s and be screwed (erm...that wasnt a slang) for the rest of your life and stick to your wife (coz thats the Indian kulture).

Right, listed above is the recipe for the perfect Indian politician. Follow the above mentioned things and thou shalt be a successful politician in India.

Things beyond my comprehension

2010-04-18T02:26:00.000-07:00

Why am I so angry? The official sites of the Government of India regarding new PAN applications are so complicated, especially when it comes to that hallowed AO Code explanation, that its virtually impossible for a non Chartered Accountant to fill up those columns. I honestly cannot fathom the thought process behind this. If the govt wants us citizens to file our income tax returns, why cant it make the process of filing it a bit simpler?

I understand that this is a period of recession and that CAs are as much in need of moolah as us non-CA folks. But harassing new potential tax payers by complicating the process in a bid to make them pay up for the CA's fee is an absolutely unrealistic idea (thats the only possible reason they could have made the application procedure so complicated).

The rest of the form is so simple, a nursery student can fill it up. However the AO code is where things mess up. And from the looks of it, perhaps this has been done intentionally.

I want to frakin get a PAN, let me get it. NO, says the govt. I'll screw up your life and make you look like a moron and force you pay that CA. Fine so be it. In the land of whatever, you have to be a whatever.

Does closed source somehow contribute to open source?

2010-04-07T01:30:00.000-07:00

: Image via Wikipedia

In my earlier posts I have openly discussed my doubts about the relevance of closed source softwares and OSes in today's world. However as I delved deep into the matter, a deeper understanding has struck me.

Closed source OSes like Windows and Mac are the epitome and prototype of functionality. Eg. Windows supports practically an innumerable amount of hardware across the planet and still manages to mesmerise the user with its intuitive and friendly interface. Mac on the other hand is an icon of style and glamour. The hardware is exquisitely designed and the same goes for OSX. Linux OSes however arent as user friendly as Windows. Although a lot has changed and Ubuntu has created a benchmark for usability as far as Linux OSes are concerned, but it still has a long way to go.

Now frankly, these closed source OSes set the benchmark for usability and open source ones (harsh and unkind as it might sound) kind of follow those 'set paths'. I therefore believe that its very important that closed source apps and OSes coexist with open source ones.

Travel

2010-03-30T02:52:00.000-07:00

Seriously why cant I just post on my blog without adding a title? You want a title? Okay here a crappy one - "Travel".

I have been bitten by the travel bug! (Dont ask me where) I have somehow developed an acute sense of liking (WTF! 'acute sense of liking'? Medicine does destroy your vocabulary) for travel shows. Be it those Discovery channel-esque ones or the classier BBC ones. The best part of these travel shows is that you get to 'see' and 'experience' various cultures of the world without having to leave your favourite couch. And of course without spending a penny as well (if you dont consider the money you pay your 'cable-wallah', sorry there's no word in the English dictionary to describe a cable-wallah in eloquent terms).

Globe Trekker is one show I like. Back when I was a kid (as if I am all grown up now :P), this programme (yeah, 'programme' and not 'program', I love Queen's English, albeit I hate the Queen) was called 'Lonely Planet'. Why? Hell, it was named after its parent publishing company. Why was the company called Lonely Planet? I dont know, maybe the one who was given the responsibility of 'coining' the name was another med student. Globe Trekker shows are shown in Discovery Travel and Living (a channel which dedicates itself to showing you all the pleasures of life you cannot experience or lets say cannot 'afford' to experience. How else would you describe shows like 'Europe Richest...", etc. etc. unless of course you happen to be Vijay Mallya or his son, in which case you would watch NDTV Good Times rather than this).

You still reading this?

Even Harsha Bhogle has been trying his hand at hosting travel shows. Lets face it, after the downfall of ESPN-Star Sports (in terms of Indian cricket coverage) he really didnt have a job! Oh well, he did actually. Picking cricketers for Mumbai Indians or something aka serving as Tina Ambani's PA. (If you're from the UK, you might not understand what I'm talking about but you will understand what I wrote, but if you're from the US, you wont even understand what I wrote coz its Queen's English! :P Sorry, bad joke)

There a really cool programme on NDTV Good Times, "Highway on my Plate". Hosted by two funny and charismatic anchors Rocky and Mayur, its a real treat.

Now magazines. I heard the other day that Conde Nast Traveller magazine (the Indian edition) is now available in india. And expectedly it costs a bomb! But fortunately there is a cheaper alternative, Outlook Traveller, the annual subscription cost in India of that is around 600 bucks, which is kinda okay. Their website has loads of articles as well, so even if you dont subscribe to their magazine, you can actually read most of their articles online (for free of course).

All good things come to an end, but all bad things must come to an end. Same goes for this terrible post. If you have read this till the very last line, I owe you a treat.

Image: federico stevanin / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

A naughty little Twitter trick

2010-03-20T06:33:00.000-07:00

In the absence of anything sane going on in my head, I've been doing some insane stuff. Result? I've discovered quite a few naughty things! *evil laugh*

How many times have you found that the person you followed back on Twitter suddenly decided to unfollow you. (Yeah, thats what causes the drop in the followers count) Well, fear no more. www.friendorfollow.com is here. Enter your username (no password required, I hope that will appease those privacy freaks, err that includes me as well I guess) and they tell you who are the naughty people who have decided to unfollow you. Trust me, even if you think this is useless stuff, in time you will find this an indispensable tool!

Let me know who those naughty folks are, if I'm following any one of them, I'd be more than happy to do the honours.

IPL - Indian Paisa League

2010-03-15T23:52:00.000-07:00

That the Indian Premier League (IPL) was all about money and money and more money was never a secret. But that it put money above anything, absolutely anything, was quite a shock.

I'm a Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) supporter, and the events which have unfolded in the past few days, on this third season of the IPL, does make me a sad panda. As you might know, the Kolkata Knight Riders is 'owned' by Shah Rukh Khan and Juhi Chawla's Red Chillies Entertainment. And trust me, these people do their bit to add that spice to the game. But of late, this tournament has taken a weird turn, at least I can say so when it comes to the Kolkata Knight Riders.

There's now, to my utter astonishment, an official fan club for the KKR. And for around 500 bucks, you can 'buy' the KKR the much needed fan following. Its almost as if the people who refuse to spend their hard earned money to get a silly hamper (with 'goodies' I might add), which includes a T-Shirt (which will be rendered redundant and useless once KKR decide to change their jersey design, again), membership card, 'exclusive' access to....well, thats not exactly specified, and oh yeah here's the interesting bit, ticket discounts! (Erm, maybe they'll give you a hundred bucks off on their 32 grand ticket)

Wait! I aint done yet.
Although the first two seasons of the IPL had official sponsors and advertisers and stuff, cricket was always the main draw. Now it looks like I'll have to get accustomed to the new lingo, for a 'DLF Maximum' is the new term for a six. And each good bit of play gets tagged as the 'Citi moment of success'. And of course the entire tournament is called the DLF IPL.

Nowadays people, mostly women throng to the stadiums not to watch cricket (honestly, since when did women have a passion for the game? Of course with a few exceptions), but to catch a glimpse of Shah Rukh Khan, Juhi Chawla, Katrina Kaif, Priety Zinta, etc etc. Never mind if the home team is losing, never mind if the game is boring, never mind if the team management is doing an absolutely nonsensical job, never mind if the integrity of the team isnt in shape, you still get to catch a glimpse of the Bollywood celebs, right? Well, when people start paying 32,000 rupees to sit next to Shah Rukh Khan and Katrina Kaif, you do start questioning if cricket is still the main draw.

And yesterday was the worst day in the history of the IPL. Shah Rukh Khan had apparently refused to 'attend' the IPL match at the Eden Gardens, unless his guests were allowed to sit in a temporary structure suited for 'best viewing'. Never mind if the state government departments havent given the organisers the permission to build the structure in the first place, after all its all about appeasing the celeb crush/fever of some freaks who happen to shell out nothing less than (okay its getting repetitive) 32 freaking thousand rupees! But honestly, if someone is paying that amount of money, the structure built for them, should be all the more well built. So, Shah Rukh Khan refuses to watch a match because, hold your breath, he is not being allowed to sit on his illegal structure at the stadium! Hence, the conclusion. KKR management (who decide the price of the tickets et al) has absolutely nothing in mind but money, money and more money! And the KKR is making an issue out of it, by (almost) making it a 'look its Kolkata's image which is getting damaged' kind of a thing. And yesterday Juhi Chawla gave the killer punch (at least she tried to). She decided to meet Mamata Bannerjee and supposedly offered her tickets to the match to be held today (you guess the price of the tickets which were on offer!). Fortunately, she refused. Or else she would have generated yet another controversy by sitting in the 'illegal' block of the stadium. And of course, that would be perfect for KKR, they could then have Mamata on their side and the Mamata vs State government agenda would take centre stage and people would forget about the 'illegal' construction. Smart move, SRK camp. But not smart enough.

For heaven's sake, these people, SRK, Juhi, and everyone else related to the IPL are only hell-bent on making money and nothing else. They want the team to win because that would earn them more moolah from the advertisers. Not becasue they want to help the youngsters or anything! I never was an ardent fan of SRK (although I do like some movies of his), I always thought of him as one lucky fellow, with mediocre acting talent, hogging all the attention only because he happens to do 'formula movies', song and dance, dancing around the trees, and other stereotyped films, (now) mostly for the NRI audiences. And guess what, I dont think this naked display of 'I-want-money-and-money-only' attitude from him has made him a greater/better (or put anything you want here) human being at least in my eyes.

Oh well, gone are the days when cricket used to be a game of gentlemen. It looks like, cricket now is a game 'for' gentlemen.

Where is that charm of cricket commentary?

2010-03-12T06:05:00.000-08:00

: Image via Wikipedia

Its cricket season again. This time its the Indian Premier League (IPL). But why am I not excited anymore? Why is cricket, to me at least, just another game these days?

Part of the blame goes to the herculean schedule of cricket. Every year we have more than a hundred one day matches, and even more T20 ones. Even test cricket, which is supposedly dying, isnt really that scarce in a calendar year. Overexposure of the game such as these, has always been blamed for the drop in popularity of the game.

However I think there's something else which is responsible for, what I'd call, loss of the charm of the gentleman's game. Its commentary.

Commentary is an integral part of the viewing experience. A good commentator can make a perfectly boring match tolerable. (Although the reverse is necessarily not true, as you now have the power to simply press the mute button on the remote.) Remember those days when people switched on their tele sets in the middle of the night to catch India's West Indies or Australian or South African tours? I distinctly remember those nights. I used to set my alarm at 4-4:30 in the morning to the extreme agony of mum and dad. The moment the alarm clock (yea, back in those days I didnt have a mobile phone of my own) sounded the arrival of the hour, I was awake, and with a steaming hot cup of coffee in my hand I used to tune in to ESPN/Star Sports. The oh so awesome voices of Harsha Bhogle, Sunny Gavaskar, Richie Benaud, Ian Bishop, Michael Holding and last but not the least Geoffrey Boycott boomed from the television set. It didnt matter which team was batting or fielding, it didnt matter what ground it was, hell it didnt even matter what form of the game it was! Those voices made cricket seem well and truly the gentleman's game.

Sigh! Gone are those days. I saw Harsha Bhogle on a programme on CNN IBN today, and frankly, when I heard him speak, all these memories started pouring in. I never realised how much I had missed that voice until I heard him speak.

I wish I could go back in time to that wonderful era. But again, maybe thats why memory is such a sweet thing.

India promoting piracy

2010-03-08T06:49:00.000-08:00

*WARNING! I am in a foul mood. Dont read this post if you are looking for elegant words to add to your vocabulary. You might end up adding the wrong sort.*

Yeah, you didnt misread the title. An influential moronic imbecile organisation which calls itself "International Intellectual Property Alliance" aka "We are the biggest morons on the planet" which is an umbrella group of RIAA and MPAA has requested with the US Trade Representative to consider countries like Indonesia, Brazil and India for its "Special 301 watchlist" because they use open source software.

And what exactly is the "Special 301 watchlist"? It's a report that examines the "adequacy and effectiveness of intellectual property rights" around the planet - effectively the list of countries that the US government considers enemies of capitalism. It often gets wheeled out as a form of trading pressure - often around pharmaceuticals and counterfeited goods - to try and force governments to change their behaviours. In other words, this International Intellectual Property Alliance wants to force users in India, Brazil and Indonesia to shell out thousands of rupees (dollars etc.) to buy the insanely priced OSes. In other words, this organisation wants computer users in these countries to stay ignorant of anything 'computer' if they cannot afford to shell out loads of money to get a paid OS, when you can get perfectly awesome legally free OSes like Ubuntu. And gimme a break "enemies of capitalism"? WTF! I honestly didnt know educated people in the 21st century were this stupid.

Now if you arent familiar with open source OSes, let me give you an intro. Open source OSes are mostly free OSes which allow you to access to the source codes of programs which allows you to change its settings/features without having to ask for permission. Most probably you are already using open source softwares like Firefox, Thunderbird, VLC Media Player. Ubuntu is the most popular and most user friendly free open source OS. And most importantly you can use these OSes legally for free. Tagging open source users as pirates is the most outrageous statement of the century, as open source softwares and OSes comply with every regulation and patent laws that have been put in place.

Anyway, I think the Indian government should come out more openly and strongly in support of open source OSes and encourage its use. Open source OSes give users the right to access a computer and the internet even if they dont have the capability or more importantly the want to purchase a paid OS like Microsoft Windows and Mac OSX. In countries like Brazil, Indonesia and India where there's a large number of people living in poverty stricken conditions, open source OSes are the only way to make people familiar with computers. And some people with their vile motives like this organisation, see this as a threat to the business of their home grown OS giants like Windows.

I have no words to describe this shocking development. I hope better sense prevails.

(If you arent using an open source OS, I strongly suggest you do so now, as a protest against these stupid organisations. The best open source OS in my opinion is Ubuntu. You can download it (for free, legally of course) from here)

The italicised portions have been quoted from the Guardian UK Technology Blog

Dumb Luck

2010-03-06T22:36:00.000-08:00

: Image via Wikipedia

In case you were wondering, I'm talking about the Indian hockey team, which has virtually crashed out of the Hockey World Cup 2010.

Remember all those stupid ads? Watch the hockey world cup or get shot, said Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore. Cheer with me, said Sehwag. And guess what that blackmailing had actually worked! At least when it came to pulling the crowds to the stadium, it did work. I was quite frankly, a bit surprised to see such huge crowds in the stadiums.

I personally never really enjoyed hockey. Men playing with their sticks never sounded encouraging to me. Sorry, bad joke. Anyway, inspite of this strong dislike for hockey I still mustered enough patience to switch on the tele and tune in to Doordarshan. The only other time I would watch that channel would be during the Republic Day Parade.

But after all the moolah had been earned from advertising and ticket sales, the onus was on the Indian hockey team to perform. And thats where the problem lied. No one gave a damn about making sure the Indian team was well prepared for the world cup. At least not the team management clearly. Its a real pity that when the Indian hockey team got all the attention it was shouting for, for so many years, the team decided to put in a lacklustre performance. I havent seen many hockey world cups but I'm sure instances of the home team crashing out even before reaching the semis is rare. I dont think the Indian hockey management or whatever crap they call themselves should ever shout about cricket hogging all the attention undeservedly. Because frankly from now on that allegation will be an imbecile and idiotic one. Indian cricket team gets all the attention coz they are f*ckin brilliant! Period.

Will I ever give hockey another chance? I dont know, maybe if these guys pull up their socks and decide to do some 'real' hard work and perform, I might. Or else, to me, the glory of our national game is a thing of the past.

ROFL

2010-03-04T21:44:00.000-08:00

I admit, I couldnt find a better title.

The newspapers here have turned into comic magazines. Literally. There's something in the Telegraph today about two boys being taken to their dad's workplace. Which is fine, only until you know that the hallowed workplace happened to be an ATC office at JFK. The kids were being directed by their dad to read out messages and stuff, some of which turned out to be really hilarious. For one, the boys bade 'adios amigo' to a Mexican flight, and was involved in a friendly chit chat with other pilots. "Awesome job" was once such remark. Sounds cool? Well apparently not. The concerned department in the US isnt amused. The employee has been suspended and further action is likely to be taken soon. Yeah yeah, a rather boring climax. But then again, they couldnt have given the kid a promotion, right?

Then comes our very own sex-guru (aka spiritual leader), Swami Nithyananda. Caught red handed in 'the act' involving a B-grade actress of the 90s, the guru is now untraceable. Some people including famous ones like Shekhar Kapur whose blog I follow argue that its because of our perception of the concept of sex, that we are finding it difficult to digest this sort of a thing. "So a Guru has had sex. Who decided that he/she must not ? The Guru or you ?" Kapur says. (His blog post can be found here)
I couldnt agree with you more Mr. Kapur. It high time that we had some sex gurus who would give us a pictorial (in this case videographic) guide to good sex, that too with an actress.
Yes, he has betrayed the trust of his followers (many of whom I hear happen to be celebs and whos who in various fields), but hey, he did do something. Guys, we now have a guru who is man enough to give us sex lessons! Pity there'll be only one episode of his tutorial class. The Telegraph reported that CDs of Nithyananda's sexcapade is now selling for 80-100 bucks. Dude! Gimme a break okay. A Swami having sex, for 80 bucks? There's far better stuff on the internet for free! In this age of recession, learn to save the moolah folks.

FAA Suspends Two After Kids Radio Pilots At JFK Airport (huffingtonpost.com)
Hindu swami caught in compromising position on TV (telegraph.co.uk)

Nothing much

2010-02-16T12:43:00.000-08:00

I havent posted on this blog of mine in a long time. If you consider a week to be a long enough interval between blog posts that is. I am spending aimless days at home watching unreal reality shows on TV, sleeping for days on end,
and gulping gallons of booze
and enjoying the occasional adrenaline rush everytime I hear my mobile phone shout (sing rather, or lets say play) 'Its too late to apologize' (yes, I'm still not over that song. Heck, it was the most downloaded song of 2008!).

Anyway, I was wondering what to do with my ample spare time. Its really a shame that when one is neck deep in shit (aka work/studies), one craves for free time and when one finally gets it, its difficult to figure out what to do in that spare time. (Life is so fraking complicated!)

In the absence of any constructive thought cropping up in my brain, I did some pretty old school stuff. Browsed the internet. (Remember those days when the phrase 'browsing the internet' was in vogue? Back then, browsing the internet was a perfectly feasible feat. One could actually browse most of the sites on the web. Fast forward to 2010 and the internet is as endless as the universe we live in. How endless is the universe? How do I know? Ask that guy in the wheelchair)

So, I signed up for sites/forums/web pages I'd never even dream of opening. Of course, only to be frustrated and pissed off at my terrible decision. For example, I signed up for a 'geek' site (lol okay dont start laughing already) only to find out that I was among thousands of Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift fans (who by the way, called themselves 'geeks') and who had absolutely no idea what they were doing in those forums and who somehow considered themselves geeks coz they used Windows (???). Yeah yeah I know what you're thinking.
I was pretty drunk, evidently.

What else did I do? Erm...I signed up for Google Buzz which turned out to be pretty crap (read the post exactly before the current one), expectedly. And...oh yes! I have been discovering! No, not paleolithic artifacts. But, music! Bands, rather. From Europe. I have found that my true genre of choice to be symphonic metal (yes that is a genre and its not pop, so stop thinking in those lines!) thanks to Last.fm which has kindly allowed me to listen to 30 tracks (yeah, thats what you get for a FREE account after which the website dedicates itself to endlessly reminding you of its excellent paid services every time you want to do something useful or interesting). There are quite a few bands from Europe, like Sirenia, Nightwish, Therion, etc., quite unheard of in the international rock arena, coz their records dont become platinum or diamond or ruby or uranium or whatever! But trust me these bands rock, they are awesome!

I also happened to discover YouTube's new service at www.youtube.com/disco where they let you listen to tunes from some new artists/bands. Still in experimental stage (as with everything Google, hell Google is an experiment!), but very useful...theoretically.

And I also found out that I cant be half as funny as Richard Hammond, even when I write. (Okay I stretched it too far, but you dont have to rub it in!) And so, with a heavy heart (not just because I cant be funny, which I cant, but also because I'm really tensed about things outside the cyberscape), I end this stupid post of mine. If you have read this till the end without wanting to destroy your monitor, honestly, you deserve a Nobel Peace Prize more than the current US President.

Peace... (okay now I'm desperate to make this post funny, so this is how they spell forceful laugh ... llooll)

Google Buzz

2010-02-10T12:27:00.000-08:00

Another Google product! Grrr....

Wait, only this time, its about...hold your breath Social Networking! Erm...do we need any more social networking sites? Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Digg, Stumble Upon, MySpace, the list goes on and on. Hasnt the networking bubble already burst? I mean, havent we 'networked' enough already?

Apparently Google thinks we havent. And so it endeavours to set foot on the only territory on the web which it hasnt been able to conquer so far. If you are from India, or from Brazil, you probably have used something called Orkut. For millions of others, Orkut is a social networking site created many years ago by Google. It became quite a huge hit in India and at some point, almost every net surfer had an Orkut account. It all changed when we discovered Facebook. Facebook, the most popular social networking site on the planet had so far remained completely oblivious to us, Indians (Or is it the other way round?).

Until recently, when all of a sudden Facebook and Twitter seemed to be the latest buzz word around. Everyone started shifting to facebook, partly because it offered more security, better features etc. and even more because it was a matter of keeping up with the Jones, although in India its more like keeping up with the Rams and the Shyams.

Okay, I'm getting completely lost here. Back to the point. So you see, Google really had to come up with something very unique in order to hold on to its subscriber base. Renovating Orkut didnt work, actually it backfired; for most Orkut users dont like the new Orkut (or lets say the facebook-wannabe-Orkut).

So now, Google reinvents Orkut in a way (which I'm sure many of you might've noticed) very intelligent indeed. Google integrates Google Buzz to their most popular offering, Gmail. Smart thinking, Google! Now every Gmail user logging in, will be asked the question, 'do you want to try out Google Buzz?'. 9/10 times a user will think, why not? And hence one gets to explore the 'buzz'.

So what is it? Its basically a 'sharing' web app (if I may categorise it as such) which allows you to share your favourite links, photos and videos, and share it with the world. I'm quite surprised as to how much it resembles Google Wave. Google Buzz in my opinion is Google Wave with more options.

It has no separate interface since it integrates with your Gmail account, which makes it quite boring to be honest. As of now its not exactly lightning fast, which really doesnt contribute to the wow-factor anyway. It allows you to comment on anything and everything posted and even 'Like' a post (No 'Un-like' option here, unfortunately, as Google has vowed to copy facebook feature by feature and not add anything else)!

However Buzz automatically adds all your Gmail contacts (who have signed up for Buzz) to your Buzz followers (have I heard that word somewhere else?). Hence you are not exactly alone (like most of us who have used Google Wave when it launched were).

Its neither facebook, its not twitter and its not anything relevant. To me, its just another failed attempt at replicating the magic of facebook.

Save Our Tigers

2010-02-06T08:55:00.000-08:00

Image via WikipediaIts inspiring to see people taking the initiative and joining a movement. Save Our Tigers is an attempt to create awareness about the critical situation of tigers in this country.

According to the monitoring exercise by Wildlife Institute of India in association with NTCA, Government of India in 2008, 1411 is average estimate of India's wild tigers.

There are various ways you can support the initiative (some of them as simple as simply joining a facebook group), check out the website for more details.

Save our tigers...its our national animal.

Apple...to bite or not to

2010-01-30T14:03:00.000-08:00

Image via WikipediaThis is a post which comes from the bottom of my heart. I havent planned it, and I'm kind of typing it out as the thoughts start coming in. But this is something which I feel should be discussed and people should take a stance either for or against it.

What I'm talking about is Apple. Not the delicious fruit which keeps the doctor away, but the equally 'delicious' multinational corporation leading the pack in creating some of the most stunning (and yes, I mean that word) products the world has ever seen. The iPod, Mac, iPhone and now the talk of the town the iPad, all created by this magic company headed by the charismatic Steve Jobs. These folks have handed us some of the coolest of products imaginable, almost as if fulfilling our childhood fantasies of playing around with some of the coolest gadgets. That is possible primarily because of the fact that they dont have to depend on other corporations/companies for their stuff. They are in control of every stage of the process of creating that stunning device, starting with the hardware, the design to the software and its nitty-gritties. These guys have the power over it all, and they do an awesome job, totally utilising this 'control' to their advantage. They also have this super tight lipped culture where nothing about anything really, gets leaked to the outside world, which of course, adds to the hype. As a result what we as consumers get are totally out of the box products never even imagined by other companies, and so revolutionary that it changes the landscape of technology overnight! As a direct consequence of that, Apple today is one of the biggest mobile companies in the world, with revenue rivalling that of giants like Nokia. And I'm quite sure that in no time, the Mac will compete with Windows for the more popular OS tag (the more stylish OS award has already been won by the Mac). Awesome corporation Apple, isnt it? Of course it is.

The thing is, however, inspite of all this glamour and glitz and hype about everything Apple, there is something the company is creating. Its making the technological world more 'closed'. There's a certain way Apple OSes/softwares are designed and the consumers are meant to use it as Apple deems fit. In other words, Apple controls the way we experience its products. I'll just give you an example. Say there's a minor glitch/absence of a particular feature in an Apple software, now what do you do then? At the most, you send a feedback to Apple and expect them to take care of it (erm...leaving the problem totally at their disposal which most of the time ends up in the company releasing a new improved version of the product leaving you with no other option but to spend your moolah all over again in getting that improved product), since no one else can because Apple doesnt wish to release the source code (in lay man's terms that means instructions about how a program performs/functions). But what if there's a really good software developer willing to do that rectification/debugging of that software and add some more features to it for free! If you could, would you hand it over to that guy? I dont know about your answer but I would. But Apple wouldnt want us to hand it over to that guy simply because it means that the company loses control over the product.

This is exactly how closed source and open source softwares (and corporations as well) function. The situation described above is not something which might bother you now, but trust me, this will become a bigger issue every time pro-closed source corporations (eg. Microsoft, Apple, etc.) keep coming up with these awesome products. These products are seriously cool devices in the guise of something else...something different, something meant to steer the technological world in a particular direction favourable for the particular company.

Dont get me wrong, I'm not anti-Apple. I honestly believe the world would be a duller place to live in without the blessings of Apple and its products (and I am a fan of the iPhone and Mac). But I certainly dont like the way Apple resists from releasing a single letter of the source code of its OSes. I wont talk about Microsoft Windows, because already there is a significant number of people who are 'tired of' that OS and want to/have already shifted to Mac and Linux. And that number certainly isnt decreasing. However Apple already has an awesome user-friendly OS which is both secure, stable and easy to use (the former two cannot be applied to Windows). In other words, Mac is a better all round OS than Windows (and is destined for greater success, perhaps of titanic proportions if they let developers across the world help them in their endeavour). Who knows, had Apple gone open-source, the Mac would have been the OS on 97% of computers across the planet today and not the other way round.

iPad...would I actually buy one?

2010-01-29T02:14:00.000-08:00

Image via CrunchBaseThe frenzy over the release of the iPad has now settled down a bit, giving rise to more logical analysis of the product. Steve Jobs has coaxed us into believing that the iPad is an almost perfect product which bridges the netbook-smartphone gap. Now I've been asking myself a question, would I actually spend my money to get an iPad?

Erm...first up, its looks awesome! Its sleek, its stylish and from the looks of it, its very user-friendly. Browsing the web seems to be quite easy, and the touch screen is well...awesome to say the least (since Apple is using the same precision touch screen as the iTouch and the iPhone). The iTunes integration, the iBook Store, iWorks all seem to be really cool stuff. And it comes with that 'Apple' tag!

On the other hand, the cons cannot be overlooked. It suffers from the same problem as the iPhone, the absence of multitasking. Now if you're into third party apps (most of us are), then the absence of multitasking can be a bit of a problem.
The screen is not exactly widescreen, neither is it 4:3. So, I really dont know how widescreen videos would look on the iPad.
The absence of Flash support is something which will bother all of us, surely. I mean, can you imagine browsing the web without Flash?
It features no HDMI port. This should not be a dealbreaker but frankly speaking, quite a few netbooks these days feature an HDMI port and that could come in pretty handy sometimes.
This is my biggest problem, the maximum flash memory the iPad supports is 64GB. Tell me something, if you plan to watch movies from your hard drive should 64GB suffice? After all, a few MP3s can occupy a few GBs.
The real deal, some say, is the AT&T data plan which comes with the iPad. But since that plan is only applicable in the US, I wouldnt give much importance to it.

In conclusion, its a mixed bag really. Stunning looks, great interface, mediocre functionality and connectivity.

Will I get one? I think I'll wait for a second version of the iPad.

iPad...finally

2010-01-27T12:55:00.000-08:00

Image by Getty Images via DaylifeAfter months, no wait, years of rumours about the elusive tablet, Apple today came out with the new iPad. (The name sucks. Doesnt it sound like a feminine hygiene device? iTampon trended on Twitter today for some unknown reason, in case you didnt know.)

It has a super awesome touch screen, uses the same precision techniques as the iphone or itouch. Has a brilliant interface which is totally customisable, has perfect integration with itunes among starters. It has a sleek, sexy, stylish 9.7 inch IPS screen, 0.5 inches thin, weighing at just 1.5 pounds, with 10 hours of battery life, has bluetooth (thank god!), WiFi, 1Ghz Apple A4 Chip, 16-64GB of flash storage, iWorks, iBook Store (which looks pretty awesome!) unprecedented reading and gaming experience...the list goes on!

And the price? Well its amazing how they have managed to price it at just $499 for the 16GB! The 3G version though costs $629. 32GB is priced at $599 and $729 for the WiFi and WiFi+3G versions respectively and the 64GB is priced at $699 and $829 for the WiFi and WiFi+3G versions respectively.

They will start shipping in 90 days time. For the time being AT&T has made a pretty pathbreaking deal with Apple but international deals will be ready by June.

That was the Apple iPad.

Erm, just before I end I think I should mention some of my concerns here. For starters, it still doesnt feature multitasking. Now that might not be a dealbreaker but its a dampener for sure. Next, I really dont think 64GB is enough of a storage really. I mean even a few mp3 files and videos these days take up quite a large amount of space. So, I'm really not sure if the iPad is really a replacement for a netbook. But if you can overlook these shortcomings, I think the sleek, stylish, uber cool iPad is one hell of a device you must own!

Back from vacation

2010-01-24T03:22:00.000-08:00

I had been to Digha to take time off for a few days and had a great time (well mostly).

I took the Tamralipta Express from Howrah at around 6:40 in the morning. It was a pleasant ride thanks to the comfy chairs and the AC.

However you cannot help but notice the view through the glass windows...a view which may seem pleasant to some but can be a bit disturbing to many.

Some might say the above pic is of the great Indian rural area. Well yes it is, and just how extensive these rural areas are, I got a sense of that day. Within an hour of leaving Howrah, the train was making its way through villages, fields and barren lands so extensive that a million Kolkatas would fit comfortably in those unending realms of emptiness. I could see kids, even adults sometimes, watching with innocent awe and waving at our train as it literally flew past them, almost as if ignoring the amusement of these 'lesser than the lesser mortals'. The villages and the villagers seemed oblivious to modernity and the industrial wave that has swept the capital city only a few hundred miles away. There are no schools, no hospitals, no roads, in most cases no electricity and no proper facilities around, yet these people continue to survive in these conditions. We dont find them in the news because well, they dont make interesting stories! After all, we 'urban' Indians living in cities want to shake off the 'third world' tag this country has been painfully carrying for so many years. Hence, the 'news' about the latest night clubs in the city or the latest McDonald's branch is far more interesting and perhaps more important to us.

What we fail to realise is that we cannot be part of the hallowed 'first world' when more than half of our country is in shambles! These 'interiors' need to be integrated into the new India, a more prosperous India. The India where everyone has access to at least all the basic amenities. I dont know why, but I feel a strange pang when I find foreigners taking pics of the less privileged. Are they for 'show' or are they 'pieces of display'? Well I dont blame them either, because it looks like our government wants to take advantage of this 'third world India' image and earn some moolah even though it causes irreparable damage to the nation's image, after all who can forget the 'Slum Tour' of Mumbai, now very famous thanks to a 'great movie' Slumdog Millionaire!

Bottom line, we are living in denial, we all are. Like it or not. We simply cannot ignore the fact that about half of our country (if not more) doesnt have access to proper sanitation, education, health and transportation. They are the ones who toil day and night to meet our voracious demands for food consumption. These are our countrymen, they are our fellow citizens, and they are being deprived. And I say this to the people who matter, our 'leaders', let us no longer turn a deaf ear to their plight, to their miseries and their cries.