Heights of tracking!

Being in the auto-id industry, it is part of my job to keep track of the various developments happening globally in the field. There are times when you come across really innovative ideas but nothing can match this - Forget-me-not panties. :)

Honey, are you listening?

PS - Check the testimonials for a good laugh!

Riyadh Travelogue - episode 2

From the Silver Seraphs to the Maseratis, Riyadh has it all. Some of the cars that seem to be popular with the locals are the Hummer H3's and the new 7 series. Honda Accord and Toyota Camry (the ones available in India) were also seen in plenty there.

I had the privilege of being driven in a few 4WDs during my stay there. These included a Cayenne Turbo , GMC Yukon (thanks to a local family friend) and my uncle's brand new Nissan Armada.

The Cayenne was a great experience. It was my first time ever in a Porsche and I had to constantly remind myself that this was a car meant for offroading unlike the 911s. The drive was exhilarating. You can literally feel those 450 horses pull the car during acceleration. The Cayenne can be compared to the Mercedes ML55 AMG and the BMW X5.

GMC Yukon is a monster. I didn't find anything interesting in it apart from its size which was quite intimidating.

The Nissan Armada was like a celebrity. There were lots of on-lookers when my uncle and I took the car out for a drive near the corniche. Apparently, nissan had launched only 100 of these on a test basis to see how the market responded and from what I noticed, it did appear to be quite popular. A perfect SUV for a family.

While trying to source a URL for the Armada, I tried nissan.com and was surprised to find this message. God, this is so Internet 1.0!

The Range Rover Autobiography, however, remains my favourite off-roader.

I also managed to go to a couple of showrooms to check out few toys that I would own some day! :)

Flying in a Blue Dream

Note : Some of the posts have been re-formatted to reflect the dates that correspond to actual events.

Last evening was sort of special. After having heard Joe Satriani for over 5 years now, it was exciting to watch him in the flesh, performing right in front of you! A few of us got together and watched him play continuosly for over 3 hours, belting out all the numbers that I've heard over a zillion times. There were moments during his performance when I felt goosebumps, bringing back memories from my college days, where we would listen to the likes of Satriani, Vai, Sting etc. during our trips to college and back. My close pal RK, a budding musician and an excellent guitarist, was the first to introduce Sat to the rest of us.

The show started off with the highly energetic "Raspberry Jam Delta V" and went on to include "Flying in a Blue Dream", "Moroccon Sunset", "Psycho Monkey", etc. "Love Thing" saw the crowd cheering to the max, which goes to prove that slower melodic numbers reach wider audience.

The crowd wasn't much; I'd estimate about 1300-1500 max. But, given the poor show put up by the organizers and lack of quality adverts, it was sort of expected.

Snaps and video of the concert will be posted in the coming week. So, you know what...

Bangalore Bloggers Meet : Part 2

Bangalore Bloggers decided to meet for the 2nd time this year. Lots of new folks this time and highly enthu ones at that. We had a nice time and it was good fun getting to know each and every one of them.

Writeups, pics and video can be found at the following blogs -

• Anand
  
• Anita
• Bhaskar
• Kiruba
• Krishna
• Muthu
• Prabhu
• Shub
• Suman

Get your Backpack now.

Like many others, I recieved an email this morning inviting me to try Backpack. 37signals, makers of the uber popular project management 'webility' (web based utility) - Basecamp, has just launched another niche product.

Backpack is a personal organizer, where in you put your to-do list and other related everyday information. You can set reminders (email, SMS) on tasks that you've scheduled and even share your lists with others. Another interesting thing I noticed, is the clean use of XMLHttpRequest. Its an extremely useful tool for people who spend most of their time online.

I've signed up and have been using it for a little while, and for the first time, I'm seriously considering going in for paid service. I'm sure to find a lot more things to do with it over time.

Go on, try Backpack and see for yourself.