The RadioHead

End of Chapter - Goodbye

2006-02-11T01:30:00.000-08:00

4 months is quite a long time. And a lot has changed since that last post at The RadioHead. I've switched jobs, moved cities, attended weddings of 2 people really close to me and other sundry things. But somehow inspite of all this, I never really missed spending time here. I've sort of grown over this, even though an occasional check on the stats show that people still visit this place. That really means a lot!

Quite a few people had asked me why this blog was called The RadioHead and funnily, I've never mentioned that here. No, its got nothing to do with the band. Well, my first job in Bangalore was on RFID, which, to put in short, was something to do with radio frequencies. I've been working with RFID right from college, so the whole RadioHead thing could be the result of too much RFID!

But it was fun. I got to meet lots of good people, travelled and I've even had some celebrity moments with it. However, its never gonna be the same again. Things change and that is what makes life all the more interesting. Change is good.

I've compiled a list of posts that has been driving traffic to this blog. Not plenty, but still. Presenting,

The RadioHead - Zeitgeist

The Good Food Guide.
The ATM Experience.
The GMail Secret.
The Rising : Contest.
The Pop-Fan Theory. - not this one though, but I found it funny to share it.

So where to from here? Well, I will now be posting on adelanwar.com which has been on the works for quite sometime. There are lots of things planned, so do check it out.

Thanks for all your support. Good Bye.

Misplaced Love

2005-09-01T00:15:00.000-07:00

Just came across this site - http://www.podloveonline.com

The firm - Pod Love
What they do - iPod audio uploading service.

Say that you've got a huge cd collection (anything > 30 cds). And you want to transfer all the audio from that into your iPod. For us (the regular guys), that would mean a few hours during a weekend. Heck, we would even do it during weekdays after workhours. These chaps are targeting the oh-i'm-so-busy-I-dont-have-the-time-to-upload-all-that-audio people ( I seriously wonder how many people actually go and pay for such kind of service ). All you got to do is give them a call and they'll come and collect your iPod along with all your cd collection, rip, upload and give it back to you within 3 days. What sorta business idea is this?

Hmm, I had thought about something similar (although it is a different league altogether) a few months back - a dial-in Laundry service targeting people new to Bangalore!
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Google Talk

2005-08-24T02:00:00.000-07:00

I'm now talking.
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Google IM ?

2005-08-22T08:00:00.000-07:00

Google executives say they plan to unveil on Wednesday a "communications tool" that is potentially a clear step beyond the company's search-related business focus.

After reading this article at NY Times , you do get the feeling that Google could possibly be launching the much speculated about Instant Messaging client. Somehow I think that this "communication tool" would be some sort of a cross between IM and mobile phones - this cosidering the fact that Google recently acquired Android. It will be interesting to find out, nevertheless!

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The Rising: Nithin's review

2005-08-13T06:45:00.000-07:00

Film: Mangal Pandey – The Rising
Review by: Nithin Nadagouda

Cast: Aamir Khan, Rani Mukherji, Toby Stephens, Ameesha Patel, Some key players from the Lagaan Cricket team.

Director: Ketan Mehta

Rating: Good

After 4 years of wait, the fans of Aamir Khan will "Rise" from the movie hall with mixed feelings. The feeling of elation as Aamir Khan etches the role of Mangal Pandey convincingly and the dejected feeling of having lost a magnanimous story compromising for the commercial aspects.

This is the story of the man who laid his life for the cause of the Indian Independence.

Ketan has succeded in portraying the dilemma of Mangal’s loyalty to the British Raj and loyalty to his religious faith. On one side he is trapped in the persona of a soldier and on the other hand, that of a Brahmin.

The story begins with the roots of the unusual friendship between the British Captain and the rustic soldier in the Afghan War. The captain has a pro Indian Stance which makes him defend a servant who fumbles a drink on a Gori Mem. Gordon’s superior officer (a batsman from Lagaan) who is seeing the young lady gets infuriated and manhandles the servant(calling him a Black Dog-Now how may times have we heard this!). Mangal Pandey intervenes to protect the servant there by setting the scene to unveil the rebel in him. The rebel thus roused moves onto to take up a fight with the superior officer for the cause of a prostitute (portrayed by Rani Mukherji).

Things turn sharply against the British when the cartridges, which are greased by the fat of cow and pig, introduced in the Enfield Rifles. However Capt William Gordon, not knowing the truth, convinces the Indian Soldiers that it has no such substance. Convinced by a friend’s word Mangal becomes the first person to use the greased cartridges, thus setting an example to his fellow soldiers.

Mean while the Captain’s Indian leanings get strengthened by the rescue of Jwala, a widow, (Amisha Patel) from Sati. The Captain also exposes the illegal Opium trade of the East India Company inviting an enquiry from the headquarters. The Enquiry pounces upon a certain trader named Sorabjee, who is nothing but a puppet in the hands of the Resident Officer.

Piqued,the trader reveals the truth behind the greased cartridges to Mangal and his fellow soldiers. Infuriated, Mangal severs his ties with the captain for making him an untouchable. The whole regiment disobeys their commissioner’s orders of using the Enfield Rifles and Mangal bravely stands up to a cannon. The commissioner backtracks upon which the soldiers get carried away and ransack the Arms. The Company calls upon the English troops in the Rangoon Regiment. The Sepoys Unify under the Ageing Mughal emperor along with Tatya Tope of the peshwas to prepare for a mutiny.The British get wind of this and expedite the arrival of the Rangoon Regiment. Mangal pandey pins his hope on the arrival of another Rebel regiment which is quashed by the British again.

When the Rangoon Regiment arrives Mangal Pandey has no other choice than to start the revolt which could have otherwise died a silent death. He chose to face death rather than show his back to the British. The Commanding officer has Mangal surrounded by his troops but orders not to make a martyr of a soldier. Mangal manages to get some soldiers killed but finally decides to die in his own hands rather than that of the English. However he survives and gets court martialled. Capt Gordon tries to get him acquitted but in vain. Mangal convinces Gordon that the rebellion is not just a matter of religion but a matter of self pride. Aamir shines in this conversation with Toby. It reminds of the scenes from his earlier films like the clash with inspector Salim in Sarfarosh, talk with his dad on phone in DCH. That scene is definitely the highlight of the film.

The rebel gets martyred in front of his countrymen ushering in the first war of Indian independence.

The screenplay and the editing department could have been a lot more tighter.

The story also shows glaring gaps in the development of character of Amisha Patel and the romantic developments between Aamir and Rani. Cinematic license did allow them to have a symbolic marriage in the cell. (thank God they did not break into a song!)

The songs were however a letdown barring Mangal Mangal and Main Vari Vari. The film did lack a solid background score.

Rani turns in a good performance though. Her introductory scene surely gives her fans a heartbreak where she looks like a proper prostitute.

Kiron Kher making an appearance as the Khotewali competes with Rani for an ample amount of cleavage.(Anupam kher would wonder why he is no longer the Censor Chief)

Tom Alter after a long time plays a role of an Englishman in the sidelights.

Remember the surrogate milking mother in the beginning of the movie? She is Mona Ambegaonkar. Fair & lovely and some "soap model" of yester-years (some one in the audience screamed “Iske Itne Bure din aagaye kya”)

A batsman and a bowler from the movie Lagaan’s British team make a comeback along with Aamir. (Heck 4 years is a very long time)

The James Bond villain, Toby Stephens, is completely at home as a sympathizing British officer. His painstaking delivery of the Hindi adds to the authenticity of the character.

Amisha Patel just does not match up to him. (I recall that Aishwarya was supposed to do this role. That would have been much much better).

Hats Off to Aamir Khan for delivering another power-packed performance as Mangal Pandey. Aamir again plays true to character bringing out the simplicity of Mangal’s thinking, the rustic qualities and the rebellious nature.

All said and done I still can’t see where the thirty crore went into. Surely 40% of it would have gone into the stars compensation package. They could have well spent it on the war scenes which were briskly edited.

The movie is a must watch solely for the historic element and the comeback of Aamir Khan.

The Rising: winner!

2005-08-12T21:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's experiment with The Rising took an unexpected turn! I got mixed responses from lots of people including a couple of hate mails saying that it was a shrewd money-making excercise from my part. I had to delete those comments, including other appreciative ones as I had made it very clear that I will not entertain anonymous comments as well as those that were out of topic.

And so for a good part of the day, I was kept busy moderating comments and responding to emails. It was late evening that I get a call from TCS saying that there were interested in purchasing the ticket as a prize for one of their internal competitions. I was flabbergasted and agreed.

So, ladies and gentleman, the winner - Mr. Nithin Nadagouda.

To put things in perspective, TCS Bangalore had run a small contest internally for their upcoming e-newsletter. The person coming up with the best name for the newsletter gets a free ticket to the first day's show of The Rising. And thats how they contacted me!

I've kept my promise. Although not a Gold Class ticket, Nithin did get gold class treatment.

Thank you TCS and congratulations Nithin! We look forward to hearing your review of the movie.
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The Rising

2005-08-11T05:30:00.000-07:00

Okay, so its been a rather long sabbatical. I tried to keep away from blogging which has been more of an addiction and do everyday things like normal people. Trust me, it did feel nice that way and I really didnt miss being glued to the screen. I did, however, set up my phone to receive RSS feeds and was constantly updated with things happening elsewhere. I got to spend a lot of time analysing what I was doing, where I was heading and what I wanted to do with my life. Heck, if Aamir Khan can keep away from films for four years, then so can I (even if its for a mere month and a half).

Which brings me to the topic of this post - The Rising. I have one ticket for tomorrow's show of "The Rising - Ballad of Mangal Pandey" which I intend to sell. This is a movie everyone (myself included) have been eagerly waiting for and its now time to watch Aamir back on screen after his immensely successful 'Lagaan' and uber popular 'Dil Chahta Hain'.

So here's the deal. The show is at 10pm at PVR cinemas - The Forum. I've made sure that the seating is strategically located in the middle of the hall. The ticket price is Rs.300. Yes, thats 100% more than the MRP. Have I lost my mind? Maybe. But considering it is one of the most eagerly awaited films of the year and the fact that all shows till next Wednesday are at full house, I'm sure that there are lots of equally crazy fans who'd like to see the film on the very first day. Add to that, you will also get -

Your photograph (along with the ticket) posted on this site.
An opportunity to write your review of the movie and get it published on The RadioHead - lets others know what you felt about the movie!
A free delicious soft twirl ice-cream from KFC! - you can't afford to miss this!

To avail this offer, leave a comment below. Remember, only one comment per person and anonymous comments will not be entertained. If there are lots of people, I'll draw a lucky one by randomly generating a number from the comment pool. Offer closes at 6pm IST on Friday 12th August 2005.

Update: Folks, we've got a winner! Details to be announced soon!
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King Khan blogs

2005-08-11T03:20:00.000-07:00

Aamir Khan blogs on Mangal Pandey

Will this set the trend for celebrities to blog about forth-coming films? It will be interesting to watch. Way to go Aamir!

June BLogout

2005-06-22T09:00:00.000-07:00

Bangalore Bloggers BLogged out last weekend and headed to Honnemardu. This was a "no-computer, no-phone" weekend. Yes, not even phones due to lack of network in the area.

We had loads of fun. The semi-periodic spells of rain coupled with the all-day water sports made sure that we were wet throughout.

View the Flickr photo essay

For writeup, check -
Suman's travelogue, Anita's take on the trip, Arnab's tales from the blogout, Vasu's Honnemardu blogout, Sathish's water story and Kavitha's poem.

More pictures available here.

My take on the trip to follow soon.

2005-06-15T20:30:00.000-07:00

Updating iPod. Do not disconnect.

Apple + Intel

2005-06-07T06:10:00.000-07:00

Apple drop's PowerPC in favor of Intel. Official press realease here

Well, that means I'll have to wait till mid next year before I switch to Mac.

Heights of tracking!

2005-05-31T06:30:00.000-07:00

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

2005-05-24T05:30:00.000-07:00

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

2005-05-18T04:30:00.000-07:00

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

2005-05-16T07:30:00.000-07:00

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 -

Get your Backpack now.

2005-05-03T06:30:00.000-07:00

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.

Riyadh Travelogue - episode 1

2005-04-29T03:00:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday, I completed 3 weeks of my stay in Riyadh. A lots of things happened which kept me from updating this blog. Here is my long overdue take on the trip.

I landed in Riyadh on the 7th of April at about 13:00 hrs local time. The immigration and baggage clearance took less time than I anticipated and I was out of the airport within 45 minutes. My colleagues came to pick me up after about 10mins of waiting and finally we were on our way home.

Riyadh has changed quite a bit since the last time I was here, which was nearly a decade ago. A lot of western departmental stores like Debenhams, Harvey Nichols, Saks Fifth Ave (the store where Liz Hurley recently introduced her beachwear collection), etc have set up shop. Mall culture is evident and booming. Kingdom Towers which caters primarily to the affluent is a must see. It boasts a 56m long observatory SkyBridge at the top giving a breathtaking view of the city. I haven't been to the SkyBridge yet, but will definitely make a trip before I return.

There is also another part to Riyadh which one can observe here. This is the more mellowed version where Islam is so central to all aspects of daily life. Shops and businesses remain closed during the prayer timings (which lasts between 10 - 15 minutes) allowing Muslims to perform their prayers. Women wear abaya and gender segregation in public is common. Some of the malls have specific timings for women and families.

For the expatriate population, entertainment is something that is unheard of here unless ofcourse you have the privilege of spending time with family and friends. Thats what I thought..

The weekend before last, my colleagues and I decided to visit Faisaliya Mall, which is walking distance from office. When we got there, we were surprised to see hoardes of cops and security personnel outside the mall, running about chattering on their radio. The scene was tense. We got into the mall and it was crowded; mostly women in their teens or something (its difficult to tell anyway!). Our first thought was that we got in at the wrong time, but then decided to stay as we spotted a few men around.

We headed to the top floor to check out a few gadget stores, the kind I'm interested in. We were greeted with no space to walk. People, mostly women folk were thronging at the center of the mall. We found out that a local celebrity named 'Hisham Abdul Rahman' was visiting the mall to sign some copies of his new album. Apparently, Hisham was the winner of a recent talent search called Star Academy in the Middle East (a la 'American Idol' in the US and copies of the same in India). There were security people (the men-in-black kinds) talkin into their suits and trying to control the crowd. Members from the 'The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice' (called 'mutawwa') were present too, doing their round of checks. Women were blatantly screaming, waiting to catch a glimpse of their celebrity son.

Due to lack of space and also because some of us were scared, we decided to go to the nearby coffee shop and stay away from the crowd, lest we get into trouble with the cops. I had my camera with me and I knew that this was the only chance that I'd ever get to take a snap of a spectacle of this kind and that too, in Saudi Arabia. Now public photography is sort of banned here. But when you have hundreds of people using their camera phones to take pictures, you tend to think twice. So, I took a colleague (the more daring one) and we headed to the centre where people were thronging. We waited.. for Hisham to arrive and, more importantly, for the cops standing right behind us to leave. After waiting for sometime and realising that the cops were busy, we waded ourselves through the crowd inching towards the center where the action was slated to happen.

We stopped when it became impossible to go any further. I took out my camera and started to break sweat. I asked my partner in crime to check if the coast was clear. Meanwhile, a young arab standing right next to me noticed my camera and told me it was okay and showed me pictures that he took on his phone. I changed setting on the camera to night mode, switched of the flash and got ready. After confirmation from my colleague, I took a few snaps.

We headed back to the coffee shop soon after, to join those who hadn't come. On our way back, we noticed the cops ordering all the shops to pull down their shutters. We decided to leave and headed home, discussing what happened, all the way. It was one evening that we will remember for a long time.

One of the things I like about Saudi's, is their taste for cars. That, I'll save for my next post. So, stay tuned..

Nokia launches NSeries

2005-04-28T07:30:00.000-07:00

The iPod finally has some competition with Nokia launching the new Nseries.

The N90 features a two-megapixel camera with autofocus, 20x digital zoom, integrated flash, a special mode for sharp close-ups, and on-phone video editing capabilities.

The N91 comes with a 4-gigabyte internal hard drive that Nokia says can hold up to 3,000 songs, depending on the music format.

Damn! Just when I was thinking of getting an iPod!

Today is

2005-04-15T05:30:00.000-07:00

Today is my birthday. I turn 23.

Currently Reading

2005-04-14T03:15:00.000-07:00

Five point someone - Chetan Bhagat

WIRED - no more!

2005-04-10T02:30:00.000-07:00

Fortunately for me, the laptop I've been assigned is a Centrino. The office here in Riyadh has an excellent wireless infrastructure in place and I had a fun time scanning and switching access points. There were a couple of available networks from nearby offices that were visible but obviously, didn't have access to.

Arabs here have definitely caught up with the wifi age. Most of the organizations here are wifi-enabled and it makes it easier for both the administrator and the user to setup and get things started quickly. Now all it takes for me to connect to the network is to switch on the radio link on my taskbar. I do make it a point to switch it off when I dont need it to keep away from prying eyes, but the experience till now has been good. Really good.

Quote of the day

2005-04-07T05:15:00.000-07:00

"IKEA is the web-standards of the furniture world" - Dan Cederholm

Off to Riyadh

2005-04-06T20:30:00.000-07:00

I have at aleast half hour before boarding my flight, so thought I'd check email and catchup with a couple of blogs. Fortunately, Sify has an outlet in the waiting area. I can see my flight right behind me and the view is fantastic. Surprisingly, there is no wifi zone in the airport. There are quite a few passengers trotting laptop bags and I'm sure setting up a hotspot in here would be profitable and I dont see a reason otherwise. Chennai Central, on the other hand, has a hotspot with relatively fewer people carry laptops there.

By the way, I'm off to Riyadh on official visit and should be there for about 2 weeks or so. Its quite exciting to go back after almost 11 years. I did 2 years of schooling there shortly after the Gulf war and I remember that to be the best part of my growing years. So visiting my school there is included in the 'things to do' list apart from cramming as many sights and sounds of Riyadh as I can.

Updates to The RadioHead will be infrequent while I'm there, but hopefully I'll be able to post something occasionally. Saudi Arabia has strict internet laws so I'd be happy if I'm able to check my emails!!

Adios!

Live Performances - KK vs. Shibani Kashyap

2005-04-02T23:30:00.001-08:00

It was nice for a change. The crowd was small and there was a lot of enthusiasm. Last night's Royal Stag Mega Music Corporate Carnival at Palace Grounds had an eclectic mix of funk, fusion and rock. I reached the venue at about 7pm after recieving a VIP pass from a friend. A few rounds of the choreography competition had gotten over by then. It was good that I got there late - music choices for choreography hasn't changed much over the last 5 years.

Fast forward to post competition - the first performance was by Shibani Kashyap (of 'Hogayi Hain Mohabbat' fame. Frankly I dont remember her in anything else after that). The track 'Sajna' was quite good actually. "Track". Yes, it was a case of pure lip-syncing. The song had too much computer generated vocal (voice processing) and instrumental assistance put into it, that its not possible to do a live version unless, ofcourse, she renders it differently. But thats the whole point of a live performance. Music is meant to be played by artists who have the talent to replay what they've played before. It isn't realistic to expect an artist to sound exactly as in the studios where they have all sorts of equipment and can massage the sound into anything desired. If that was what I wanted, I would have been better off buying the CD. The remaining 3 songs saw her crooning with the aid of backing tracks.

The final and much awaited performance was by KK. This guy is fantastic. Unlike Shibani, KK had a band and they sounded real tight. My favourite was when he fused the tamil and hindi version of A.R. Rahman's 'Strawberry kanne/ankhein' and did the Dappaankuthu. The crowd went ballistic and everyone started doing the same. The instrumental rendition of 'Tadap Tadap', the song that got him noticed for his navigation of complex emotions with relative ease, was simply superb. Ballads like 'Yaaron' and the uber popular 'Pal' was well recieved and had the crowd singing in chorus. All in all, it was a good show and Nitin Arora (the MC) did a good job of keeping the mood high.

Rich Text in GMail

2005-04-01T05:30:00.000-08:00

GMail now allows rich text formatting! It is about time.

Flickr SOLD!

2005-03-20T19:30:00.000-08:00

Yes, after all that we've been hearing for the past couple of weeks. Yahoo! has finally acquired Flickr and its parent company Ludicorp. It was just yesterday that w e were discussing about Flickr's probable acquistion by Yahoo! and today this happens! Wow!

So, what next? My speculating half tells me that Yahoo might integrate Flickr with 360º. Oh boy, that would be really interesting to see.

2005-03-20T01:40:00.000-08:00

Toyota launches record label.

2005-03-16T19:20:00.000-08:00

Coming Soon : Yahoo! 360º

Firefox tip : Changing homepages quickly.

2005-03-16T04:30:00.000-08:00

Here's a nice little tip that I discovered by accident. To change your homepage quickly, select the favicon (of the webpage you want to set as homepage) and drag it to the homepage button on the toolbar.

Once thats done, you get the following pop-up

Select 'Yes' and voila - you have your homepage changed! *That was too easy, wasn't it?*

Note : In case you don't see the homepage button - Right click on the toolbar, select the homepage button and drag it onto the toolbar.

2005-03-15T19:15:00.000-08:00

Firefox apparel - Pimpzilla

2005-03-14T03:15:00.000-08:00

Mittal and his wealth.

Has Mr. Hegde got nothing else to do? Perhaps, you'd be better off reading Dilips' take on this.

Customize Google News

2005-03-11T11:30:00.000-08:00

Google News now allows you to customize news and make it appear the way you want to. It even allows you to create your own topic for inclusion as standard news module on the front page. I've always felt the need to have news reported to me in a manner that I liked and Google seemed to have answered just that - appreciating the individuality of its users.

A few months back, when Yahoo! revamped their personal pages, I found it to be uber cool to have content and layout changed to one's liking. Google can perhaps take a cue from Yahoo and as a step forward, give a few options (like colors and fonts) on Google News.

Web Apps - Its happening!

2005-03-04T07:00:00.000-08:00

Seated on the verandah last weekend, a couple of friends and I were discussing about how the internet has changed the way we work. It was interesting to trace out how much the web has evolved from its primitive stages where it was used primarily in academic circles, to a tool which is now driving many aspects of todays economy. It has, without doubt, changed the way we work, play, learn and communicate amongst other things.

The talk that we had revolved around web applications. I'm sure most of you are aware that some of the coolest things that we use these days [email, photo sharing, podcasting, personal publishing, contacts etc.] are all web based. Which made me wonder - what would be the next big thing to hit the web?

We played around with a few ideas, some of which seem to have good potential. However, I'd like to hear from you. How many times have you felt crippled about some desktop application that you wish you had online? Now its pretty obvious that web applications do not provide the same level of user experience as real "desktop" applications such as Photoshop, Maya, etc do. But the point here is, people actually dont care about how the interface is as long as it works and is easy to use. For example - Gmail (oh yes, I had to mention it!) is an increadibly easy to use tool. However, its overall look and feel is nowhere close to the polished interfaces of a desktop app. The point is, web applications needn't (it cant, infact) replace desktop ones. However, what it should do is - liberate the user from being tied down.

Now, what is one application or tool that you wish you had online?

2005-03-03T22:30:00.000-08:00

Designing under the influence

"Is it possible for someone to "own" a graphic style? Legally, the answer is (mostly) no."

Interesting point. Every design that is created has some influence from a previous work [either graphic or non-graphic]. Designers should instead treat design as a language and use its power to communicate an idea effectively!

2005-03-02T19:30:00.000-08:00

Yahoo Netrospective - Yahoo turns 10!

Currently Reading

2005-03-01T05:00:00.000-08:00

The Last Song of Dusk - Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi

Tennis highs!

2005-02-25T03:30:00.000-08:00

Wimbledon? Heck - Dubai is where its at. *I miss being there*

Secure Gmail Access

2005-02-24T06:00:00.000-08:00

If you're a frequent Gmail user like me, you would've noticed that Gmail provides secure [encrypted] login while the rest of the pages are blatantly unsecure. Using it in public wireless networks allows anyone on that network to access all the emails that you send and recieve. A simple way to secure your Gmail data transfers from prying eyes is to use https which is nothing but http layered over SSL (secure sockets layer).

The default login will take you to your inbox and the session remains unsecure. It looks as follows -

Using https directs the message to a secure port address rather than the default Web port number of 80. Your Firefox browser will show the address bar turn pale yellow indicating a secure site.

So the next time you decide to browse at your local wifi-enabled Barista or Starbucks, make sure you have your Gmail session secured.
[via stopdesign]

The Pop Fan Theory!

2005-02-17T06:00:00.000-08:00

Disclaimer - The following post is about a theory that has been giving the author sleepless nights for the past few days. The research and statistics are purely hypothetical and are not attributed to anything on the web or elsewhere. Cynics and people who cant understand good humor are forewarned.

We all use so many products in our lifetime that it becomes too difficult to keep count. Not that it really matters, but it does gives you an idea of the kind of evolution that we tend to take for granted. Take for example - cars. I remember way back when I was little, the kind of cars that kissed the road were very different from those that we see today. They were rather boxy in shape and "beauty" was a word that only a rare breed had the privilege of being called. If you look at cars today, they are trendier, a whole lot more attractive and technologically more advanced. So, the whole "product evolution" thingie makes for an interesting study. The same can be applied to shoes, watches and almost everything that you can think of.

But have you ever wondered about one product thats so ubiquitous and almost spans a lifetime. Yes, the fan!

I've always wondered how fan manufacturers make their money. Its interesting because you almost never replace a fan. Majority of the people buy fans (the ceiling variety in particular) while constructing or renovating buildings. Some of these are also passed on to future generations. So that actually gives very little scope for these manufacturers to make any money. Lets do a little hypothesis to understand the situation better - say of the 1.02 billion people in India, about 30% of these stay in cities and the rest 70% in villages. Out of that 70%, say 50% of them have pucca houses and have access to electricity. Putting down the relevant numbers and doing the arithmetic , you'll find thats its a very small percentage. And for a product that usually lasts a lifetime, it can be a cause of worry for the manufacturers. So, how do these manufacturers survive? Well, it really simple - apply "The Pop Fan Theory", which is as follows..

The Pop Fan Theory [beta 0.1] states that the construction of buildings is proportional to the rise in population which inturn creates the need for more fans.

In other words...

Rise in population = more homes = need for fans = more sales

Inference : If you want to sell more fans, increase the population!

Well, I'm not going to delve into how these faceless manufacturers are conspiring the "increasing population" bit, lest I get into any political turmoil. However, feel free to add to the TPFT and refine it.

Googlee

2005-02-15T04:10:00.000-08:00

The RadioHead now provides tiffin services. Atleast, thats what Google 'thinks'..

Update: They seem to have realised their folly!

The ATM Experience

2005-02-10T06:00:00.000-08:00

Tea time is when we at work relax, kick off our shoes and talk about stuff which are usually non-work related. The general conversation revolves around things currently in news or about some experience that one of us had over the weekend. Interestingly enough, our topic today was ATM - no, not the one thats got to do with mathematics, but the Automated Teller Machine.

Visiting the ATM these days has become quite an ordeal. More often than not, you would end up waiting in a long queue. I've been using the ATM for the past couple of years and have had my share of experiences. This particular bank that I'm talking about (and I'm sure others would follow suit), has two teller machines close to my office and is usually crowded during business hours. A typical scene at the ATM is as follows -

You go to the ATM with an urgent need for cash only to find a queue that snakes a mile long.
You decide to wait in the queue after learning that the nearest ATM of the same bank is about 4 blocks away.
While waiting at the queue you notice people cutting in - joining their friend/colleague/spouse who is standing ahead of you. You control your anger by biting your jaw.
Almost half way through, you realize that one of the teller machines is not working. The two line queue reorganizes into one at the blink of an eye. You look at your watch and calculate how much longer you'd have to wait. You force yourself to be calm and chew another polo.
After waiting for what seems like ages, you have finally one person in front of you when you see the other teller machine up and running. Your brain starts computing enormous differential algorithms and you finally decide to stick to the same queue.
The person in front completes his transaction and you proceed to the teller. You gently push the ATM card into the slot and and enter your transaction details. The teller processes it and displays the following message -
Sorry! Your transaction cannot be completed. Please try again later.
You gather your wits, cancel the transaction, eject your card and try again. People behind start giving you all sorts of looks. You also notice the speed at which the other line starts moving. You are reminded of Murphy's Laws. You enter the PIN code slowly this time, making sure you've entered them right and wait. You get the same message.
You turn around and ask the person behind you to try his card. You step aside so that he can enter his PIN code. He gets the same message. We conclude that the teller has no money in it and make an announcement for the others.
You turn to the second line and request the person whose turn is next to let you in after having explained your situation. He agrees and you thank him profusely.
You proceed to the teller machine, complete your transaction, thank the person once again and leave.

The "experience" is not the same as what it used to be. The present ATM's could do with a fair amount of re-engineering in design and usability so as to reduce time spent using it. The design of an ATM should not only include its inherent usability but also its perceived usability. For example, Tracktinsky found that subjects based their overall experience of the usability of the ATM on the look of the machine.

The current process can be listed as follows -

Insert card.
Select language.
Enter pin.
Choose transaction option.
Enter details (amount).
Receipt? (yes / no).
Withdraw cash
Another transaction? (yes / no)
Collect receipt.
Collect card (beeps)

Essentially, you would have to go through that many steps to withdraw money from the teller machine. This can be reduced to a certain extent by introducing AI into the system, thereby speeding things up. Here's how -

If the user selects English as language, it should set that as default and quit asking the next time. (one key stroke less).
I've got the habit of withdrawing the same amount over 90% of the time, so it should allow for dispensing that amount (checking from transaction history) at the click of a single button rather than having me (the user) to enter the amount again. (3 or more key strokes less)
I've noticed slightly taller (6 feet and above) people having to bend down to look at the screen. This can be avoided by having configurable screen settings for individual users. So, certain users can have the screen tilt or the display height adjusted automatically when they insert their card into the machine. This returns to default state when the transaction is completed. Needless to say, the same goes for people of shorter height.

The display is also difficult to look at under certain lighting conditions especially outdoors. They could have sensors installed that automatically adjust display settings according to the ambience.
The ATM display could also do with better graphics. Motion graphics (flash) that fade-in and fade-out quickly can be quite pleasing to the eyes.
The teller could also display the available (or unavailable) currency denominations in the machine on user authentication. This will also alert the user before hand as to the available denominations in which he can withdraw.
A contact-less smart {proximity} card that stores vital information and configuration settings in encrypted format. This would result in longer card life and also allow the user to activate the teller without having to take the card out of the wallet.

These are some of things I came across over time. Have you felt the same? What are other features that you can think of that can help reduce time spent at the ATM?

2005-02-09T06:30:00.000-08:00

I've been busy the last few days shifting to a new place after having looked around for almost 2 weeks (thats also a reason for the lack of posts). A good friend and I have taken this small crib on top of a fairly new building and we've got the terrace all by ourselves. Its always a great feeling to move to a new place and set things up the way you want to. More updates soon.

Sting Rocks Bangalore!

2005-02-04T09:30:00.000-08:00

Wondering what tomorrows newspapers might read!

MSN Relaunched!

2005-02-02T04:10:00.000-08:00

Microsoft has finally given the MSN homepage a cosmetic enhancement, this time complying with web standards. A lot of XHTML validation done here. Whats significant is that they have adopted CSS based table-less layouts and thats definitely a major improvement. However, the overall layout is still disappointing. One, the whole page looks a little cluttered (in Firefox atleast) giving a sense of unprofessionalism for a high profile site like MSN. And two, there is way too much similarity with Yahoo's search bar (pointy tabs).

However, this is not to say that MSN cant compete with the others in this domain. With a little more time spent on improving the interface and optimizing search algorithms, MSN can give Google (or Yahoo for that matter) a run for their money!

Update [Feb 8th, 2005] - MSN Arabia looks a lot better!

Bloggers Meet

2005-01-31T22:30:00.001-08:00

What happens when a few bloggers decide to get together on a weekday?

Well, apart from sharing ideas, views and opinions over a cuppa, the cameras rolled and they had their pictures taken. For a brief on what transpired, check 'Coffee and Conversation' over at Anitas.

Phones

2005-01-27T06:00:00.000-08:00

My phone took a beating this morning when it fell off my hand and crashed on the floor. I had a bad feeling that it would be the last time I'll ever see it. Fortunately, besides the panel coming off a bit (requiring me to clip it back), nothing really happened. Not even a scratch.

Its been my loyal companion for almost a year and a half. It keeps me well connected and I've never been in a situation where I wasn't able to contact anyone. Earlier, I had it set to notify me of any new email that I got. But I had that removed when my inbox started to flood. It still does help me wakeup on time everyday.

That made me think - What do people really use their phones for? I asked a few and the most common replies were - phone, sms and alarm. Well if thats the case, what about all those camera phones available in the market.

Well, for start, its still too early to invest in one. Camera phones are now in an evolutionary phase. You have newer and more advanced feature models springing up every so often. It will take a little more time before you can actually replace your digital camera with one integrated with a phone. Maybe I'd wait for the time when Nokia and Nikon decide to collaborate (Nikkia?) and engineer a product leveraging on their individual expertise.

What other mobile applications can you think of that could make life simpler? I've always found the location information showing up on the screen really cool - especially when you're travelling and want to know where you are at any given point. Why not take it a step further and display a location map showing the surrounding areas of the current base station to which the user is locked and one that changes as a user switches from one base station to another. Well, its something I've always wished on a phone. Whats on your wishlist?

Video on Demand

2005-01-27T05:30:00.000-08:00

Yahoo's response to Google's video search is pretty impressive. Unlike Google, Yahoo indexes video clippings that are already available online. Try running a search on Tsunami and you'll see.

With players like Yahoo and Microsoft leveraging on their existing content and constantly pressurising Google, it can only be good news for the rest of us.

These initiatives by the Big-3 are a step towards a video-on-demand future, where the viewers will decide as to what they want to watch and when.

Google video

2005-01-25T20:30:00.000-08:00

Some time end of last year, there were talks about Google, Yahoo and Microsoft developing new search tools for video. Google, as expected released its beta version today.

"Our mission is to give viewers complete access to public affairs programming and we are committed to use new technologies to enhance the value of our services."
-Brian Lamb, C-SPAN Chairman and CEO

I ran a search on 'Friends' and clicked on 'The One Where Eddie Wont Go' link. It threw up still images from the show along with short snippets of text. It also tells you when the next show is likely to go on air (date and time). The search is now limited to a few American Channels like FOX and NBC, so it will take a while before an Indian version is out. Catching up with your favourite tele-serials will be a breeze then!

Read-Your-Head

2005-01-21T06:30:00.000-08:00

As if writing about blogs isn’t ridiculous enough, I’ve recently discovered something very disturbing about the words I put here - people are reading them.

It’s not just a few friends and family either. People at work read it. Some are people I hardly know. Others are people I know well. It gets really scary when my boss and people who work with me start reading what I write. I really should demand that my posts are not read, as they’re wasting time that should be more usefully spent on our long list of projects to do.

The reason I know this is not because people have told me they read this or they’ve been posting comments. By default at my workplace, the desktop is named the same as your email id. Worse, when you visit any web site on the internet, there are no protections to disable that name from appearing in the site’s logs there. Exploiting this fact, I went through the website logs for The RadioHead and ran a report on who was reading my blog.

It’s really strange when you meet a person you hardly know and he already knows you from your blog. “Yeah, you’re that radiohead guy!” Oh boy, I hope not.

Again I realize the irony of saying this, but it’s wierd having people I know in one sphere of life being so aware of what’s going on in other parts of my life.

There's probably one of the things I agree with Scott McNealy, CEO of Sun, and it’s this quote: “You have zero privacy anyway. Get over it.”

Two little mice

2005-01-19T07:15:00.000-08:00

"Two little mice fell in a bucket of cream. The first mouse quickly gave up and drowned. The second mouse wouldn't quit. He struggled so hard that he eventually churned the cream into butter and crawled out. Gentlemen, as of this moment, I'm that second mouse."

Chris Walken, Catch Me If You Can

Sunday

2005-01-17T07:30:00.000-08:00

If everyday were like Sunday, I would be highly reclusive, well rested, perpetually clean, lethargic, have no social skills, and have a freakishly organized house. I passed up a day in the world and two attractive get-togethers to hang up my freshly washed clothes, read books, and arrange my newest CD in front of Swades, Strings, and Sting. A gloomy cloud passed over at some time that I didn't note, I ate one meal and a string of haphazard snacks, and I let that Fuzon CD play on repeat at least twice. I'd like another Sunday tomorrow, but more than that would probably be a bad idea.

Besides, I've got to pay the rent today as I'm two days overdue. Shucks!

Currently Reading

2005-01-14T21:30:00.000-08:00

The A.B.C. Murders by Agatha Christie

Double Delight

2005-01-14T03:30:00.000-08:00

Blogstreet has featured The RadioHead as its 'Blog Of The Day'. Thanks to all for making this possible.

The RadioHead has also been nominated for the 2004 IndiBloggies Award in the Best Science/Technology IndiBlog category. Do visit the site and cast your vote.

Yahoo Desktop Search beta

2005-01-11T23:00:00.000-08:00

Yahoo has launched its Desktop Search tool. The array of supported file formats is pretty impressive. Go ahead - try it and share your experiences.

Its certainly not my cup of tea, as I pretty much know where my files are located on the computer and wouldn't want another nifty app to use my resources.

Blogs - We, The Media

2005-01-11T05:45:00.000-08:00

After the Tsunami came smashing into coastal Asia and East Africa, much of the initial information about what had happened came from the internet, especially from personal journals or blogs.

Blog - "noun (short for Weblog) (1999) : a website that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments and often hyperlinks provided by the writer."
[*Blog* was recently declared as the no1. word of 2004]

I spend a good chunk of the day in front of the screen, so blogs [using aggregators to scan RSS feeds] do feature on the things I read online. With the exception of books, I head online for practically everything else - email, news, blogs, academics, research and ofcourse IM.

A colleague of mine asked me this morning - how do you know which blogs to read and which ones to not? Well, you don't.

Its the same with newspapers, you skim and scan pages at first and then select those that you want to read. Blogs are more interactive than newspapers with people from across the globe pitching in their thoughts on the same topic. Also called as participatory journalism, blogs are more of a consumer-centric media where the consumers control when and how they obtain news as well as what they define as news. This media is always on, real-time and 24x7.

So then, the inevitable question - will blogs replace traditional journalism? I think not.

Journalists are accountable to the general public through their credibility. Bloggers on the other hand aren't accountable for what they report. If someone reports on a subject regularly via a blog, then they are just using an electronic delivery mechanism that is fundamentally no different from any other electronic publishing mechanism. At the end of the day, in any media (traditional or non-traditional), the responsibility has always been on the reader to cast a critical eye on what is being reported. The newspapers offer a dangerous illusion that you can relax in this regard.

Apart from this, what hits you hard is the sheer volume of information that are available in these blogs. I'd rather call that information overload. Sometimes you feel so exasperated by the amount of information that it makes you want to slow down, think deeply and respond to it in some meaningful way. Now, that I think about it, I feel stressed by my own inability to think deeply about every piece of information that I came across.

A good way to tackle information overload (from my experience atleast) is to sample whats already there, but to be more selective of what gets there in the first place. I'm not advocating completely closed filters, because we need serendipity to discover new concepts and ideas. A judicious selection of sources, is far better, than a more-or-less random sampling of unselected content.

Currently Reading

2005-01-09T02:15:00.000-08:00

Are you afraid of the dark? by Sidney Sheldon

Putting back the pieces

2005-01-08T02:45:00.000-08:00

The Tsunami came and went taking so many innocent lives with it. Although I was in Chennai when the quake occured, it wasn't until that evening {when the screens on my TV started relaying images}, did I realize how devastating that quake turned out to be. Tens of thousands lost their homes and many more lost their lives. Its difficult to tell how I feel - lucky to be alive or otherwise. Maybe I can leave that to the abstract word we all love to hate - fate.

But after this incident, the one thing I keep thinking about is how insignificant our life is on this planet. We come and we go. Its very natural. But the fact that none of us know when and how we are going to die is quite scary.

Its pretty amusing to see how we react when we are stuck with disasters of great magnitude - like the war on Iraq or natural disasters like the Tsunami. It shows you the fragility of existence. You tend to be grateful for what you have. It makes you want to be a better person and to lead a more upright life. How long will these lessons that we learnt from such calamities stay with us? Or will it be a matter of days before we become tired of the same news and block out all those images returning back to our own greedy ways? And even if it does, can a miniscule of goodness remain and accumulate over time and make us *better* people.

Its nice to see so many people helping out with the relief activities. The private organizations and NGOs are doing tremendous amount of work, as compared to the government, to bring back normalcy to the lives of the survivors who once had that privilege. Although hoardes of people are contributing, it makes more sense in finding out what people need and getting those things rather than contributing whatever you can imagine of. As Amit Verma writes ..

We all have old clothes in our cupboards which pile up, and emergencies like this give us a chance to both get rid of them and to assuage our conscience. Giving old clothes is counter-productive, and they now constitute a particularly irritating form of garbage, lying in dirty heaps along most roads in coastal Tamil Nadu.

Its a sad state of affairs here. We have a government that isn't doing much. To top that we are still facing issues that we thought we were through with. However, inspite of all this, there is still hope. Hope for a better tomorrow and a better nation. From all what I've been following, I feel that the tsunami has created an enduring panorama of human spirit in a inhuman state.

Six Apart acquires LiveJournal

2005-01-06T01:30:00.000-08:00

Six Apart, the company that gave Movable Type to the world has acquired LiveJournal (built on open source platform) . That makes Six Apart one the largest weblog companies in the world (with nearly 6.5 million users) giving them a fighting chance with Google's Blogger and Microsoft's MSN Spaces.

Just when..

2005-01-04T07:30:00.000-08:00

Just when I imagined life feels more manageable.
Just when I felt I could handle everyday responsibilities without feeling overwhelmed.
Just when I thought I could enjoy today and look forward to tomorrow.

The *tide* came and washed it all away.

2004-12-24T05:40:00.000-08:00

Thats the last time we'll be seeing the moon this year. This photo was shot by my colleague with his brand new Nikon Coolpix 4800, so all due credits to him. Looking forward to 2005. Lots of things to do and lots of hopes and wishes to be fulfilled.

For now, I'm off to Chennai - to my home. Got to do some last minute packing, so have to rush.

Take care and enjoy your holidays. Cheers!

*Gosh* It seems like I'm gonna be away for a long time.

mobile phones and usability

2004-12-24T04:00:00.000-08:00

Everyone seems to be in a holiday mood today. There isn't much work being done and we seem to be forming the 'huddle' every second hour discussing things from politics to pepsi(?) to noise cancellation(??). Amongst all these, the topic that garnered the most interest was mobile phones.

Yes, you're right. After the recent MMS scandals (no, this is not an attempt to generate traffic), the mobile phone market is said to be booming. According to the Times Of India, there has been a lot of enquiry on MMS enabled phones and people who had the option are now activating it and learning more (I'm sure!). This has also enlightened a few souls at my workplace as some of them are contemplating on upgrading their existing phones to the 'all-wonder-camera' phones.

With multitude of phones with 'oh-so-many' features available, deciding on which one to buy can be a difficult process. If ease of use is what you're looking at primarily, Nokia used to be the only company that could get this right. This has changed a bit- partly because other companies have realized that user testing is important and partly because Nokia has been drawn towards including more and more features on underpowered processors.

Don't buy a phone that you can't personally play with if the UI matters to you. Even if the documentation (imagine that) were to show the complete UI, it wouldn't give a sense of responsiveness, etc. Sometimes I wish consumer electronics companies could realize the value of a web-based simulation of their product's interface.

"If we are all special then none of us is"

2004-12-24T00:30:00.000-08:00

Movie : The Incredibles

I watched The Incredibles last night. In one word (and I know its cliche), it was simply, incredible. Heck, its fantastic! The best Pixar film to date, and possibly the best animated film in the past few years. It's one of those movies that is of such a high quality all around, I could probably watch it over and over.

At times, I must admit, I forgot I was watching an animated film. With the brilliant graphics, stupendous animation, great plot, believable (yes!) characters, and a captivating story, it was easy to forget that the entire movie is a digital world. The ultra-quick Dash provided the best laugh of the movie for me.

The Incredibles outdoes most big-budget live-action Hollywood action movies in the effects and action department, and what amazed me the most was the sheer quality of the sound effects that went into the film. Because of the action, the movie is geared to an older crowd than Pixar's typical audience, and the jokes are all that much funnier when you're old enough to get them.

Already a huge fan of original animated features and Pixar in general, this movie was a must see. I love the way Pixar makes movies from beginning to end, and they never cease to be creative at every step.

Brain Frame

2004-12-22T07:14:00.000-08:00

Its interesting how the brain works. Let me explain. I got myself a new pair of spectacles today after around 4 years or so. Yes four years, or maybe more!! I never felt the need actually. Till a couple of days back. Today I went to collect it from Lawrence & Mayo at M.G. Road after having given the order the day before.

I got the frame and tried it on. It looked nice, but everything appeared different- crystal clear. The visual feedback was so sharp and clear that it gave me a headache. My right eye power had increased a bit. So after putting on the new glasses, it took sometime for me to focus on what I wanted to see. I wasn't quite happy with that. I told the salesman. He told that it would take a while for me to get used to it and that it would be fine in a weeks time. I wasn't satisfied. I told him I was happy with the one I had earlier. He got the optometrist and she explained to me why my power increased - my right eye was more dependent on the left and that its become 'lazy'. She made me read text of varied sizes and I realized that it had indeed become 'lazy'. I thanked her, took my new frame and left the place.

On the way back, I started noticing people - the kind of spectacles they wore. It was something that happened sub-conciously, I started looking at the eyewear and how it suited the person than looking at the person itself. Its like some kinda file you registered in your brain. The brain being a complex supercomputer has about 100 billion neurons in it. Amongst all those neurons, one of them registers a 'new glasses' file and that appears in your 'Recent Documents' list in your brain. So everytime you look at a person, the 'Recent Documents' folder tells the brain about the neuron that registered a 'new glasses' file. So automatically (without you even knowing it) you look at the glasses and all the associated properties before you actually look at the person. Its interesting how the brain works.

Currently Reading

2004-12-21T04:30:00.000-08:00

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry

We, The People

2004-12-18T04:35:00.000-08:00

Movie - Swades

Just got back after watching Swades, this time at PVR Classic Cinema. It was nice - but I had a tough time trying to avoid comparing it with Lagaan, Gowariker's first film. Both films had earthy tones set in villages, a pinch of team-spirit and issues within villages. However, Swades was different in a way that it had more of a documentary feel to it.

Swades - a story about an NRI who comes to India in search of his childhood nanny and ultimately rediscovers and returns to where he belongs. A simple quest that everyone of us goes through in search of that metaphysical and elusive place called "home". Having been an NRI for a good chunk of my life, I can relate to it. There are some moments that I share with Mohan Bhargav (the protagonist, played by Shah Rukh Khan).

The film is quite long. At 3.5 hours, there were times when I felt that some of the scenes could have been done away with. For example - the Ramleela song (which appears somewhat out of context) and a few others. I also felt that they could have reduced the scenes taken at NASA and instead, shown a little more on the kind of lifestyle that Mohan had in the United States. They do show him driving around in a Jaguar and living in a swanky apartment but could have elaborated a little more on that.

Swades does not come across as a commercial film. It is not as gripping and 'edge-of-the-seat' entertainer as Lagaan (sorry, but I just can't help comparing it with Lagaan). This film is meant for a thinking audience - a message to the Indian diaspora across the globe.

SRK does a good job although there were some of his trademark acts (as expected) thrown about in the film. Geeta, played by Gayatri Joshi is actually quite impressive. Some of her emotions came across really well on screen. Good work by a first timer. A.R. Rahman's score is nothing short of brilliant. The track 'Yeh jo des hain tera' with the shehnai backing infuses a kind of modern patriotism not heard since 'Maa tujhe salaam'.

Mitti ki jo khushboo, Tu kaise bhoolayegaa
Tu chaahe kahin jaaye, Tu Laut ke Aayegaa

All in all, a feel good film.

What do you want to do with your life?

2004-12-16T00:27:00.000-08:00

43 Things, Twinkler

Very, very cool.

Ocean's Twelve

2004-12-11T01:20:00.000-08:00

TWELVE IS THE NEW ELEVEN

Watched Oceans' Twelve last night at PVR - Cinema Europa. I was quite excited to see what O12 would be like after the brilliant heist of the Bellagio in O11.

In Oceans' Eleven or most heist films for that matter, watching the heist itself unfold is the big payoff. Watching it switchback, double-over, reverse, tie a knot, is a pure joy and the heist in this film (although convuluated and outrageous) is quite entertaining. There are moments when you guess and it comes out right and then there are moments where you are left waiting for the solution. In the end, the crooks get away with the money and the con is played out successfully like we all hope it is.

O12 didn't appeal to me as much as O11 did. In 011, every member had his role to play in the heist. They were people with special skills and their skills were tastefully used at some point in the movie. O12 lacks that.

There are a great deal of things to like about this movie. My favorite bit has Tess joining the gang in the eleventh hour by impersonating a famous actress (can you guess who?). Along with that comes a pretty fun Bruce Willis extended cameo.

I laughed a few times, mostly at Brad Pitt. I really like his Rusty character (even if he is eating in every scene again this time). I enjoyed some of the clever camera work, and the cheesy throwback title overlays. Zeta-Jones was fine as Rusty’s love interest. Not great, but not bad, either. I just didn’t get a sense of fun like I did in the first one. If the gang decides to make an Ocean’s Thirteen, I will definitely see it because I love the characters. I just didn’t like where they went or what they did in this film.

Too often sequels are made to capitalize off the initial and perpetual success of a film. Too often said sequels are painful to endure.

Google Suggest beta

2004-12-10T23:38:00.000-08:00

Ok, I've just changed my homepage to this. Google Suggest guesses what you are typing and offers suggestions in real time. Its like instant access to any piece of human knowledge; it now can guess what you are looking for as you type.

Most of the work happens in a condensed Javascript library (not easy reading though). It disables the autocomplete feature on the textfield and defines a hidden div for the auto-complete dropdown (variations of this for different browsers). Each time you type a character, it populates that div body with the results of a quick, tiny query back to Google. It's NOT running the search for you; it's hitting (I assume) a simple, probably totally in-memory list of the most popular searches and number of results. That's how it can be so quick a response -- the lookup on their end is super-minimal, and the data to be transferred is probably less than 1k each time.

Neat concept.

Hyderabad Blues

2004-12-08T07:08:00.000-08:00

I got back from Hyderabad early Saturday morning. The trip was good, although I didnt get to see Hyderabad much, not even the charminar. I stayed at Banjara Hills, close to Taj Residency which was the venue of the RFID summit. Its a beautiful city with wide roads, lanes and gardens - a la Bangalore. There is also another part to it - the old Hyderabad, which is chaotic, has narrow lanes and crowded junctions. I just caught a glimpse of it while passing through that way. Its like two different worlds that co-exist in perfect harmony. From what little I got to see, I must say that I was pretty impressed with the city.

Some of things that I really wanted to do but couldn't due to time constraints - visit the IMAX theater, take photos of the Charminar, eat Haleem, etc.

And some of the things I did - tried Hyderabadi Biryani at Tabla - a fine dining restaurant at Banjara Hills. Somehow it didn't feel all that great. Hyderabadi biryani should be tried at old Hyderabad with the crowd, where they prepare it in large quantities and serve in plenty. The whole fine dining experience spoiled the very essence of it. But Tabla is quite a nice restaurant. Got to see Est - Azharuddin's state-of-the-art gym. It was pretty impressive. With a membership of Rs.25K per annum inclusive of a spa and a beauty salon, it had to be!

I dont clearly remember how those 2 days zipped by so fast. But as with everything else, theres always a next time. Looking forward to that!

A few good snaps from our trip

Thunderbird 1.0 released

2004-12-08T00:30:00.000-08:00

Just over a month after the release of the highly successful Firefox browser, the Mozilla foundation has announced the release of Thunderbird 1.0 email client. Thunderbird, similar to Firefox, was developed with the support of hundreds of volunteers and developers across the world.

I've been using Thunderbird right from version 0.8 when it was still quite buggy for general use. There were some features that I found really interesting - like labels and spam protection. It had this whole GMail feel to it. I'm sure the guys at Mozilla must have souped up the client in more ways after that. Thunderbird will surely prove to be the perfect companion for Firefox.

The startling fact about Firefox and Thunderbird is that both have been really well designed. I think the design skill here takes us well beyond the simple observation that the Mozilla team isn't working for Microsoft, or that they are consulting the users (which they clearly are). Good interfaces are very sticky.

Now that GMail supports POP3, using Thunderbird for GMail could be a really good option incase your the type who'd want to download emails onto your desktop.

Try it and let me know what you think.

Microsoft Launches Blogging Site

2004-12-02T07:00:00.000-08:00

In yet another attempt to take over all of the Internet, MSN has launched a blog service called MSN Spaces with the new version of MSN Messenger ( public beta of MSN Messenger 7 available for download ) due out shortly. Features include comments, stats and trackbacks just like every other blog out there. Another built-in feature is also available where you can send pictures from your camera-phone directly to your Space.

Hotmail ups storage!

2004-12-02T06:35:00.000-08:00

Hotmail has increased its storage to 250MB!

Off to Hyderabad

2004-12-01T01:09:00.000-08:00

I'm off to Hyderabad for a few days to speak at the 'Exploiting RFID for ROI' summit, meet a couple of potential clients and enjoy the state's wonders. Hyderabad is one of the few states in India that I have not yet visited, so I'm excited to see what's it's like. I've got the RadioHead-UB (Updating Bot) switched on, so there should be some new posts for you to read while I'm gone.

Pain

2004-11-30T07:22:00.000-08:00

Sorry, for the lack of posts - haven't been feeling well lately. My head feels like as if its gonna blow any moment. Couple that with a terrible shoulder pain. I ask my colleague for a remedy and he tells me that the place where I feel the pain is the pectoral girdle. For the uninitiated, thats the set of bones which connect the upper limb to the axial skeleton on each side. So much for the remedy!

Really not upto it, so I'm gonna go home.

By the way, I saw a five rupee coin on the sidewalk today!

G'nite.

Video search soon!

2004-11-30T01:43:00.000-08:00

Google, Microsoft and Yahoo are quietly developing new search tools for digital video, foreshadowing a high-stakes technology arms race in the battle for control of consumers' living rooms.

"Google's trying to bring TV to the Web the same way they're bringing books to the Web"

Microsoft is working on the interactive TV market for cable providers. It is building technology that will let people with a Media Center PC or Internet-connected TV sift through and find specific video files available over the Internet, broadcast and video-on-demand networks.

Google is working on a multimedia search for internet only video. Google has apparently demonstrated the new technology to a few major TV broadcasters in an attempt to forge alliances and develop a TV-searchable database on the web.

Yahoo is starting off small working with news aggregators to index video clips that are already online.

It will be interesting to see how the three come out with their respective versions of the same.

Confess your sins and come clean

2004-11-24T06:03:00.000-08:00

Come Clean is a fun flash advertisement for Method. The idea is to confess your sins and come clean about it. Come clean also allows you to view the recent confessions that people made. A few, are shown below

"I stole toilet paper from school because I did not want to buy it or my apartment."
"I lied on my resume."
"I used a used paper towel."
"I voted twice."
"I hate my husband's mom."

Check it out. Its funny!

Code search

2004-11-23T19:58:00.000-08:00

Koders is a search engine for source code that enables developers to easily search and browse source code in thousands of projects in hundreds of open source repositories.

GMail bugs

2004-11-22T23:51:00.000-08:00

Something caught my attention while using GMail today. A friend of mine had emailed me about his plans to come to Bangalore. I had replied almost instantly. GMail has this great feature of automatically grouping an email and its replies as a sort of conversation to keep things in context. Well, what caught my eye was the following-

Apparently my friend had emailed me at about 11:59 am. My reply to that mail would have been atleast 2 minutes later. But thats not what GMail tells me. If you look at the image above, you will see that I had replied to his email even before I got it! Wow! GMail must have thought that I have sort of extra sensory perception.

You would probably argue that its because both our system times dont match! That his email was sent to me with a time stamp of his system. Correct. But I simply could not have sent a reply 7 minutes ago to an email which I got only 5 minutes back!!! You see the point?

Is GMail becoming creepy?

The Good Food Guide - a compilation

2004-11-19T21:41:00.000-08:00

When it comes to food, there is no place like India. Just like its people, there is diversity in tastebuds too. From north indian favourites like chaats, sarson ka saag to dosas and idlis of the south, we have it all. One of the advantages of living alone, is the sheer pleasure of trying out new cuisines, restaurants and the many eat-outs that Bangalore has to offer. Quite recently a friend and I had made a sort of a pact; to try new places to tingle our taste buds.

I managed to compile and put up a list of all the places that one can try in Bangalore. Hope it is as useful to you as it is to me. Incase, I've missed out on anything, do let me know.

Indian cuisine

Golconda Chimney - Airport-Whitefield Road Tel : 91 80 2487 5532

Grills-N-Oodles - 8th main, Malleswaram Tel : 91 80 2346 4517

Herbs & Spices - Whitefield Main Road Tel : 91 80 2845 2803

Jamavar - The Leela Palace, Airport Road Tel : 91 80 2521 1234

La Casa - 4th Block Jayanagar Tel : 2691 0732

Lotus - Grand Ashok, Kumara Krupa Road Tel : 2226 9462

Maharaja Multi Cuisine Restaurant - 80 Feet Road, Kormangala Tel : 91 80 2552 6408

Monsoon - The Park, M.G. Road Tel : 91 80 2559 4666

Raaga - CMH Road, Indira Nagar Tel : 91 80 2525 2189

Ramana's - Cunningham Road Tel : 91 80 2226 3200

Samudra - Gangamma Circle, Jalahalli East Tel : 91 80 2372 1042

Shezan - Cunningham Road Tel : 91 80 2228 7895

Shiv Sagar - Narayan Pillai Street, Off Commercial Street Tel : 91 80 2509 8892

The Monarch Hotel - 54 Brigade Road, Tel : 91 80 2552 1915

Samarkand - Gem Plaza, Infantry Road Tel : 91 80 2552 3901

Wanley Restaurant - 17th F Cross, Indira Nagar 2nd Stage Tel : 91 80 2525 3463

Andhra

Amaravathi Restaurant - 45/3 Residency Road Cross Tel : 91 80 2591 3718

Bheema's - Church street Tel: 91 80 2558 7389

Gongura's - 100 Feet Road, Koramangala Tel: 91 80 2552 5944

Maurya Andhra Style Restaurant - JC Road Tel : 91 80 2670 9222

Nagarjuna Residency - Residency Road Tel : 91 80 2591 3717

Nakshathra - 27 Lady Curzon Road Tel : 91 80 2559 0777
Nandhini Palace - Rajaji Nagar Tel : 91 80 2335 0055
Gandhi Nagar Tel : 91 80 2220 3842
Sankey Road Tel : 91 80 2344 8985
Indira Nagar, 100 Feet Road Tel : 91 80 2528 8881
Jaya Nagar, 4th Block Tel : 91 80 2699 1199
Koramangala Tel : 91 80 2563 0202

Plantain Leaf - New Thippasandra Main Road Tel : 91 80 2529 7407

North Indian

Aangan - Lady Curzon Road Tel : 91 80 2558 2528

Dhanush - Airport Road Tel : 91 80 2527 6770

Magnum - Jayanagar 3rd Block Tel : 2653 0052

Nizaams' - BDA Complex, Indira Nagar Tel : 91 80 2525 1097

Northern Gate - Gateway Hotel, Residency Road Tel : 91 80 2558 4545

Palki - Residency Road Tel : 91 80 2558 0440

Ramana's - Cunningham Road Tel : 91 80 2226 3200

Samarkand - Gem Plaza, Infantry Road Tel : 91 80 2552 3901

Sigri - 42, Castle Street Tel : 91 80 2509 8308

The Basil Hotel -8, Sampige Road, Malleswaram Tel : 91 80 2331 5123

The Royal Afghan - The Windsor Manor, Sankey Road Tel : 91 80 2226 9898

Tiger Trail - Harsha Park Inn, Park Road Tel : 91 80 2286 5555

Tijori - The Atria, Palace Road Tel : 91 80 2220 5205

Treat Restaurant - 80 Feet Road, Indira Nagar Tel : 91 80 2528 2137

South Indian

Dakshin - Windsor Sheraton, Opp Golf Course, 25 Sankey Road Tel : 91 80 2226 9898

Konkan (Manglorean, Goan style) - 6th cross, 6th Block, Koramangala Tel : 91 80 2552 1530

Mavalli Tiffin Room (MTR) - 11 Lal Bagh Road Tel : 91 80 2222 0022

The Palms - Highgates Hotel, 33 Church Street Tel : 91 80 2559 7172

Hyderabadi

Hyderabadi House - Raheja Arcade, 18th Main Road, 7th Block, Koramangala

International Cuisine

Civet - ITPL, Whitefield Road Tel : 91 80 2841 1678

Dahlia (Japanese) - Church Street Tel : 91 80 2558 0958

French Bread Pizza - Residency Road Tel : 91 80 5114 4111

Grasshopper - Bannerghatta Road Tel : 91 80 2659 3999

Sue's Food Palace (West Indian) - Indira Nagar Tel : 91 80 2525 2494

Zaks (Arabian) - Coles Road Tel : 91 80 2530 1307

Chinese

Aromas of China - Richmond Circle. Tel : 91 80 2212 4275

Bamboo Shoots - Museum Inn, Museum Road. Tel : 91 80 2559 4001

Beijing Bites - Richmond Road. Tel : 91 80 2207 5060

Chinese Hut - 4105/4106, High Point, 45 Palace Road. Tel : 91 80 2226 7364

Chung's Culinary Art, Varthur Main Road. Tel : 91 80 2854 0049

Chung's Pavilion - 3047, 80ft Road, HAL 2nd Stage Indiranagar. Tel : 91 80 2525 4142

Chung Wah - 45/1 Residency Road Tel : 91 80 2558 2662, 2555 0053, 2558 0708

Continental Restaurant - Centre Point, 56 Residency Road. Tel : 91 80 2559 7756

De Noble House - Infantry Road. Tel : 91 80 2558 0208

Jade Garden Mahjong Room - Windsor Sheraton, 25 Sankey Road.Tel : 91 80 2226 9898

Mainland China - 15/16 St. Mark's Road.Tel : 91 80 2227 7722

Mandarin Room - Grand Ashok Hotel, Opp Golf Course. Tel : 91 80 2225 0202

Memories Of China - Taj Residency, 41/3 M.G. Road Tel : 91 80 2558 4444

Opium - No 1, Carlton Towers, Airport Road.Tel : 91 80 2527 6770

Outhouse China - 26 Wood Street, Off Richmond Road ,Ashok Nagar.Tel : 91 80 2530 6555

Schezwan Court - The Oberoi, 37-39 M.G. Road. Tel : 91 80 2558 5858

Shangrila - Brigade Road. Tel : 91 80 2558 8994

Shangrila Bar & Restaurant - 182 Brigade Road. Tel : 91 80 2558 8994

Silk Winds - The Atria, Palace Road Tel : 91 80 2220 5205

Silver Wok - Sheriff House, No 85 Richmond Road. Tel : 91 80 2224 2288,

Taipan - Krishna Manere, 14/1 Wood Street, Richmond Road. Tel : 91 80 2554 5637

The Oriental Haveli - 100 ft Road, Koramangla. Tel : 91 80 2553 6239

Three Quarter Chinese - 2 Church Stree. Tel : 91 80 2532 7982

Italian

I-Talia - The Park, M.G. Road Tel : 91 80 2559 4666

Little Italy - 100 Feet Road, Indira Nagar Tel : 91 80 2529 7482

Ragoo's - 16 K.R. Road Tel : 91 80 2676 2940

Sunny's - Kasturba Cross Road Tel : 2224 3642

Mexican

Latino's - 9/11 Lady Curzzon Road Tel : 91 80 2509 8873

Little Italy - 100 Feet Road, Indira Nagar Tel : 91 80 2529 7482

Sea Food

Chillies - Opp Bangalore Club, Residency Road Tel : 91 80 2207 5050

Kabini - Infantry Road Tel : 91 80 2286 8673

Konkan - Coles Road, Frazer Town Tel : 91 80 2506 6613

Kubay - Koramangala Club Road - Tel : 91 80 2552 1530

Oasis Restaurant - 1 Church Street, Off Brigade Road Tel : 91 80 2558 6081

Thai

Lemon Grass - 32, Castle Street Tel : 91 80 2536 1167

Shiok Far-eastern cuisine - 12 CMH Road, Indiranagar Tel : 91 80 5116 1800

Firefox 1.0 features

2004-11-18T05:59:00.000-08:00

Its slightly over a week since I've been using Firefox and I couldn't resist the temptation to write about some of the features that I liked in it.

Here are some features that I like, in no particular order -

Secure site - Firefox makes it very clear when you're visiting a secure website. The address bar glows yellow and a lock appears on the rightside.

The integrated search is a very good feature in firefox. It allows you to select your favourite search-engine from a drop-down list and even allows you to add one if its not listed.

As a part-time web developer, I find myself fishing through the output of the View Source… menu looking for some little snippet of code like a needle in a haystack. The Mozilla and Mozilla Firefox browsers have a great and little-known feature that makes this job much easier.

Select an area of a web page in one of the Mozilla browsers, and right click on the selection. Choose “View Selection Source”. This option brings up a view source window showing only the source from the area around your selection, the with exact source of your selection already selected in the View Source window.

Very nice.

Google Scholar - search Research!

2004-11-18T00:43:00.000-08:00

Google scholar is a new search service aimed at scientists and academic researchers. All major scientific and research publications indexed on the web is now accessible universally.

This is a blessing for students who want to research on certain specific topics for their projects/dissertations.

A query for "fast fourier transforms" for example, pulls up 30,800 references along the left-hand side of the page, clearly identified as articles from the Web, or pointing to offline material such as citations or books, which when clicked on are presented much in the same manner as a library card catalog.

"Google as a company has greatly benefited from academic research and this is one of the ways we can give back to the community," - Anurag Acharya, Project Lead, Google Scholar

I remember while I was student, I would spend hours at the library looking for certain specific publications of IEEE for my final year project. The only other alternative were the online search engines. How I wish Google Scholar was available then!

It makes me wonder - will the Scholar turn out to be the perfect tool for plagiarizing?

GMail, now with POP3 support

2004-11-18T00:02:00.000-08:00

Now with GMail, you can finally download your email messages from GMail servers to email applications on both PCs and wireless devices like PDA.
Along with this and the other continuous enhancements that are being made, GMail stands to be the most feature-rich Web mail service available.

Firefox 1.0 & Google

2004-11-09T08:06:00.000-08:00

In a surprise move on Tuesday, Google cut a deal to let its home page be co-branded with Firefox as the default home page for the publicly released version of Firefox.

Is this is one of the many steps towards the Google Browser? Only time will tell!

Firefox ver 1.0 - Its time to take back the web!

2004-11-09T04:01:00.000-08:00

The wait is finally over.Firefox ver 1.0 is out! It was launched at around 5pm IST. I've just installed it and by first impression its really sleak. I'm gonna test this baby now!

Make the switch today and you'll see the difference.

How George Bush won the election

2004-11-04T09:33:00.000-08:00

An excellent article giving you an insight of American ideology -

"..Half the country is not stupid. We're all stupid. We're convinced several times a day to do things that aren't in our best interests. We work too hard. We're drinking, eating, medicating, and smoking ourselves into early graves. We overextend ourselves on credit. We knowingly stay in emotionally or physically abusive relationships. We let television raise our children. We're deliberately mean and nasty to people we don't like or agree with. We learn science from the Bible. We stay silent when speaking out would help someone. We fear the future. We fear death..."

Yahoo! and the future of search

2004-11-04T06:21:00.000-08:00

Jerry Yang on the future of search over in Yahoo's Search Blog. Nothing mind blowing here, but it's sure nice to read his blog.

"Ten years ago, we were focused on a simple yet vast problem: finding better ways to aggregate and organize information so people can find it. Today, the challenge is different. On the one hand, there's a lot more information to aggregate and it's not just more in terms of quantity; there's a larger variety of content as well -- from products and images to news and business information. In addition, we're pulling content from more sources than ever before.

On the other hand, our user's expectations have also changed. It's no longer enough to simply provide a structure for users to find what they want on the Web. Today, people expect to find precisely what they're looking for exactly as it relates to them. It's the old example of the "Java" search query. Are you looking for coffee or for the programming language? People want to define what's relevant to them in their own personal way. They also want to tap into the source of their information at will and they want to manage it all to personally suit their needs.

That's what is exciting about where we are today. Search as a problem is still far from being solved. The user is in the driver's seat: they want an experience that is increasingly personal, more relevant, and ties into their task more integrally. Search is just a way to get that integrated experience, but it's all about what the users want - when they want it, how they want it, and who they want it from."

US Elections 2004

2004-11-02T09:00:00.000-08:00

It’s election day in the US and it’s possibly the most important election we’ve seen in a long time. I tried to keep politics out of this blog, but I’m sure you’ll forgive me this one time. I’m not going to stand here and tell my American readers what to do. It’s your elections and at the end of the day the buck stops with you. However as one of your allies in the world, if your friends lean over to you at a party and tell you that you’ve had too much to drink and are making a fool of yourself, it’s probably worth listening to. If you choose to carry on, when you wake up in the morning with a screaming headache and the realisation that you pissed everybody else off at the party and won’t be invited again, you’ll only have yourself to blame.

I’m sure most of you would have made up their minds weeks, if not months ago. With early voting many of you will have already had your say. As it stands the elections results will be decided by around a million undecided voters in half a dozen swing states. It will be decided by glossy commercials, staged appearances and millions upon millions of dollars, all of which will need to be paid back in one way or another.

At the end of the day, this election will determine how the worlds largest super power is perceived by the rest of the world. Do you want to be seen as the popular kid? The one everybody wants to be like, who gets invited to all the cool parties, gets admired by all the cute girls and is nominated “most likely to succeed”. Or do you want to be seen as the hard drinking tough kid. The one who pushes the smaller kids and gets away with it because he’s bigger than everybody else and has equally tough friends.

Words..

2004-11-01T02:25:00.000-08:00

Is it useful to use large, obscure words when smaller, more well-known words will do? I agree that we can all use a little vocabulary workout from time to time, but when does one cross the line between creative vocabulary and just plain showing off? If the meaning of your communication is hidden from the user (unless they have a dictionary handy), then why bother saying anything at all?

Home, smart home!

2004-10-29T02:37:00.000-07:00

Very soon, my house is going to be broadband enabled! The whole idea of creating a network at home is very exciting. I plan to somehow hook up all devices and create an intelligent network that will allow the devices to communicate with each other. Well, its still just a plan. Lets see how far it goes.

Its quite fascinating to see how much we've progressed in terms of technology. Just imagine, 20 years back, the cell phone was hardly even heard of. It was the size of a brick and costed enough to make an average man go bankrupt. The only way to send a text message was to write a letter and slap a stamp on it. No one even heard of the internet back then.

Telecom has changed the way we work, live and play. It has changed our lives in fundamental ways; in coming years, it will continue to do so, perhaps in ways we can't even imagine yet.

Fortunately, some of the next big things are well within our sight. Free Internet telephony, advanced wireless data networks and video-over-broadband are already gaining traction and proving how disruptive and powerful a telecom technology can be. Even the little discoveries--silly gadgets and gewgaws like a cell phone that can tell you if you've got bad breath--promise to affect our daily lives in interesting ways.

Use Google, and search the world!

2004-10-27T10:41:00.000-07:00

Google has recently acquired Keyhole Corp. Apparently, Keyhole is the only company to deliver a 3D digital model of the entire earth via the internet. They have pioneered the EarthStream technology that combines advanced 3D graphics and network streaming innovations to produce a high performance system that runs on standard PC’s and commodity servers.

Now imagine this.

Fire up Google. Type - "Anna Nagar, Madras" and it throws up a satellite digital image of the place and allows you to zoom to street level.

Thought this happened only in the movies (Enemy of the State) ??

Firefox looking for allies to take on IE

2004-10-27T09:55:00.000-07:00

Firefox is looking for allies in its quest to challenge Microsoft's Internet Explorer. According to popular gossip online, Google seems to be the potential partner, which is expanding into newer businesses, being plum with cash after its initital public offering.

Google's universally-recognised brand and devoted user following could boost Firefox's market share. Mozilla is targeting 10 percent market share by the end of 2005.

Read the Reuters report.

Filesystems on GMail

2004-10-27T07:08:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks back, I had sent an excited email to a few friends on GMailFS - a mountable Linux filesystem on GMail. This allows you to use your GMail account as a storage medium.

Quite recently, I stumbled upon a similar thing for Windows. The 'GMail shell drive extension'. This literally adds a new drive to your computer under the 'My Computer' folder, where you can create new folders, copy and drag n' drop files.

The Gmail Engine : How they do it!

2004-10-27T01:17:00.000-07:00

You've probably noticed that Gmail's interface is extremely fast when compared to other web-based email systems like Yahoo! Mail and Hotmail. This is a result of Gmail's placement of the UI engine on the client-side as a JavaScript module. Whenever you log in to Gmail, a copy of the UI engine is loaded into one of the HTML page frames and remains there for the duration of your session (credit has to be given to Oddpost for being the first ones who perfected this idea). Subsequent actions from the Gmail interface are then routed through the Gmail UI engine in your browser, which in turn makes HTTP requests (via the XmlHttpRequest object) to the Gmail server, interprets the DataPack, and updates the UI dynamically. In contrast, Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail follow traditional web application models and reload the entire UI after almost every action.

I know its rather old, but I just learnt it today and thought I'd share it.

Firefox ver 1.0 to release soon

2004-10-26T22:25:00.000-07:00

In less than three weeks, the unthinkable will occur: the browser wars will officially begin again. The Mozilla Foundation, a nonprofit organization spun off from Netscape, will release version 1.0 of its open-source Firefox browser on November 9. So guys get ready to dump good 'ol Internet Explorer for Firefox which is already amazingly fantabulous!

Welcome

2004-10-26T22:04:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my blog. This site is devoted to highlighting whatever catches my attention, and I'm interested in lots of things. Some recurring themes are design, technology, sustainability, web culture, and domestic life. I often post about current events. Contradictions intrigue me. In thinking about the Web and technology, I tend to be a pragmatist, not a promoter. My interest is in the intersection between technology and human behavior: how people use technologies and how technologies influence what they do. I am fascinated with unintended consequences. I post the occasional recipe.