New Launch - Kiosk Checkin for Jet Airways

One of the biggest pains in India at an Airport, other than the whole Airport experience was a sad old check in queue. Though for regular fliers holding miles and cards from airlines, this was not really a big problem, but still checkin over all is a sad sad way.

Begining next month, Jet Airways, one of the leading Indian Private airlines, is offering a check in using a Kiosk. Starting from Mumbai, Bangalore, and Delhi. Wolfgang Prock-schauer, CEO of Jet Airways says that

This device can help reduce the check in time to as low as 1 min

So, want more details, check out Jet Airways, by the way for some reason the first page link on their site takes you to an error 404 ;)

G

New Avtaar of the Boring old Flash Drive

Ever since I have been a kid or as a matter of fact, any Geek, lego sets have always impressed us. Though lego was never available in India at that time, but cheap Chinese and Indian copies kept us company and enough entertainment to try build models.

Thumbdrives have started to look good, but not as good as the one above, Joe at Lego Flash Drive has put up a DYI on how he managed to create the above one. Dont' wnat to read it, but just see pictures, click here

Now I need to get me one of these.

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New Launch - Mobilblue Availalbe in India

Remember this cute little mp3 player we had reviewed about an year back, well it was still a concept that looked far fetched at this time, but all for Rs. 4800 for a 512 MB going upto Rs. 10,500 for an 8 GB Model, these have hit the underground market in India. I am not sure of the legality of exports, but an old acquaintaince, Kartik Mehta of www.jjmehta.com, has these avialable for sale from his website.

The guy is known to backup his products, so even if it is a legal import by him, he will get it serviced, so what are you waiting for..

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HCL Notebooks (Toshiba's Home page in india) is OFFLINE

My company is a partner for Toshiba laptops and yesterday we had to submit some quotes, for which we needed a clarification from Toshiba's website. www.hclnotebooks.com the site which is dedicated to toshiba laptops in india is offline. This brings me to a great part, where everyone asks why should you host with System3 (which is an expensive host) and not with other cheaper hosting providers, well the following Whois - Domain registration details for the domain will show you the whole story

Domain Name: HCLNOTEBOOKS.COM
Registrar: TUCOWS INC.
Whois Server: whois.opensrs.net
Referral URL: http://domainhelp.tucows.com
Name Server: NS2.CYBERSPACEWEBHOST.COM
Name Server: NS1.CYBERSPACEWEBHOST.COM
Status: REGISTRAR-LOCK
Status: REGISTRAR-HOLD
EPP Status: clientDeleteProhibited
EPP Status: clientUpdateProhibited
EPP Status: clientHold
EPP Status: clientTransferProhibited
Updated Date: 18-May-2006
Creation Date: 17-May-2005
Expiration Date: 17-May-2007

The part to note here is, the domain actually was never registered in the rightful owners name, a practice followed by most of the hosting companies in India,

Registrant:
Netprophets Cyberworks Pvt Ltd.
Z-17, Haus Khas
New Delhi, Delhi 110016
IN

Domain name: HCLNOTEBOOKS.COM

Administrative Contact:
Rajpal, Saurabh saurabh@netprophetsglobal.com
Z-17, Haus Khas
New Delhi, Delhi 110016
IN
+91-11-52654781

Sadly, HCL being one of the larger IT companies in India may have not even realised what they were walking into, or maybe the person who took this decision, did find System 3 to be stupid when it asks for a higher cost, to host the same site. Anyway, for the time being, you can enjoy the screenshot above, if you are thinking of buying the Toshiba laptop. :)

So.. hosting is not all about money, it is about how it is done, and how it is handled.

Take care.. and enjoy your weekend.

G

New Launch - Sony Ericsson W810i

Sadly I am no big fan of either Ericsson or Sony, and especially not Sony Ericsson, but this phone made me sit up and see, it looks cool and is one of the coolest MP3 Phones around in the market. Recently Sony Ericsson launched this cutie in India t a cool price of Rs. 23,495. Though for an MP3 and A Phone this is a bit expensive, with iPods touching rock bottom prices, but well you can also blog from this phone. Just saw a photo of it at Infosyncworld.

Anyway, if you need more information about the Sony Ericsson 810i, click here for a list of links.

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New Launch - Idea's Woman Card

A Friend of mine used to joke, that there are only 3 saleable things that will survive every kind of economy crash, Education for your children, Eating out or Fast Food, and Things for women. Well Idea and other technology / service companies seem to be all running after Women now. So much for pink power. Anyway, Idea recently launched a Womans' Card, it is nothing more than a specific cell phone calling plan (so many plans so many confusions), but there are a few things I liked about it, namely, the part where it has group messaging built in, that means you can send message to about 3 people automatically when you are in trouble, or calling an emergency number weven when you are at zero balance (calls worth Rs. 25). Now this seems to be a great idea. Want more details, click here, and yes. the best part.. if you take it now, there is an Introductory offer of Free Pearl Earings for every woman card subscriber.. now.. only if I knew someone who wanted another bill plan.

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New Launch - Samsung D820

Everytime I look at a slim phone, it makes me feel that I am much fatter than I really am. Now you would be wondering what kind of new complex is that. The Motorla Razr Gave me the shivers, and the recent announcements by Samsung on their slim phones has given me sleepless nights, that is why so many updates on g-spot all of a sudden. Well jokes apart, other than being busy in the office at night, I thought I must start specific blog posts about new product launches in India, since most of my readers are from India, this seemed to be great choice. Anyway.. back to the phone.

Well It slides, and is only 16.2 mm thick. And No the photo was not made that way by me, it is from the Samsung Ad. The phone looks cool, but is not too big on the features, so what you are majorly paying for is the slim part of it. At a price of Rs. 20,999 it comes loaded with a 1.3 Megapixel camera, Direct TV Output, a 5.3 cm screen, Mp3 player, expandable memory and bluetooth.

I am not sure this is for me, as sliders are not really my cup of tea, but if you are looking at that party stopper, and think the Moto Razr is passe, give this one a look.

G

New Launch - Olympus µ [mju:] 700

Olympus has launched the µ [mju:] 700 in India. Though sadly if you goto the Olyumpus website, and select Asia, there is no country India in it. Olympus cameras have been sold for quite sometime in India, and ever since the age of Digital Cameras, these guys have managed to slim and shrink their digital cameras beyond belief. The µ [mju:] 700 does the same by giving you a slim camera with a 7.1 megapixel resolution and a great all weather design, i.e it is waterproof, but not that you could take it inside the pool. It has a 3x Optical zoom and has a 2.5" LCD monitor, and all for a cool package price of Rs. 16,995. This seems to be a great deal. I will wait till I can get one to test to give you the real review. I like the fact that this comes in Black, Orange and Blue other than the usual boring silver that all digital cameras come in these days.

If you want to read more, there is a cool review of µ [mju:] 700 at Let's go digital, or alternatively the link for the camera at Olympus webiste is here.

G

Windows Media Player 11 is Here

Back in the hey days of listening to music on the computer, we had the simple media player from Microsoft, with a very simple layout, and the only good looking players around were either Winamp or Jetaudio. Both of them had their own advantages, and the fight began with Real player announcing free versions. The fight got complicated, and over all the Windows Media Player came out with features that were not only great, but long required. Lately WMP (Windows Media Player) added the feature of synchronising your music with an external MP3 Player, but the looks in WM10 were becoming passe, obviouslly with more and more graphic power available, and people running after the Vista look, well finally the WMP 11 (BETA) is out, and you can download it from here. I can't really review it, as I am now on a Linux desktop personally, but another few days, I will try to do this for you on My Windows PC.

But from the looks of it, I think I like it.. :)

G

Are you Vista Ready

Everytime Microsoft announces a New Operating System, people seem to spread rumours, on how they got Beta Test copies, or how they modified their existing OS's to look like the upcoming OS. The biggest release as Per Microsoft, in the Desktop Environment is Vista. Some of the tech journals, look at Jan 2007 (The now estimated date of launch for Vista), to be the dooms day for MS, where people will sit up and realise, that their PC's are not ready, and we dont' want another OS that just looks better. Well there is more than meets the eye, but quite a bit of it is Eye Candy. For some of us, the Eye Candy part is so important that we decide to upgrade, and also keeping in mind, software vendors stop to provide support for older versions.

Anyway, if you are wondering, your PC is Vista Ready or not, check out Windows Vista: Get Ready site at Microsoft.

There are two clasifications that are out, at this time.

Vista Capable : Min 800 MHz Processor, 512 MB RAM, 15 GB Hard Disk
Premium Ready: 1 GHz 32/64 bit Processor, 1 GB RAM, 40 GB Hard Disk, and atleast 128 MB on your Graphic Card, to run Aero.

More you can test using the link above, sadly for me, no more upgrades, no more eye candy, no more windows.. I am on linux :)

G

Swiss Knife for the Woman in your Life !!

People who know me personally, know that I have a fetish for Swiss knive's. Especially from Victorinox, I can go into the Victorinox store and have an awe on my face, everytime they come out with a new model. I dont' really like the cheap Victorinox rip off's, but sometimes there are things you stumble by and fell, they are worth a dekko.

My swiss knife these days is a pride of my wives' hand bag, and a great tool we use when travelling and camping. But this pink one I stumbled by, is sure going to be a chick magnet for all those who have their women eyeing, their swiss knifes. Not available in India though, but you can always order from Firebox in the UK, all for UK £14.95 or US$ 28.00. So what are you waiting for.. See the picture, go order it.. I promise, it's worth more than what you will spend on it.

By the way, some of the key features are

* Mirror
* Flashlight
* Scissors
* Nail File
* Tweezers
* Pen
* Pill Box
* Perfume Bottle
* Knife
* Ruler
* Bottle Opener
* Screwdriver
* Corkscrew
* Safety Pin
* Needle and Thread
* Key Chain

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I Love Dogs !!!

No Not the one's with wiggly tales, that wiggle more when you meet them, or the ones that bark at you, I am talking about the roasted ones that you put inside a bread and call em a hot dog. India is not too big on hot dogs, though there have been some people who have recently started making them in the big malls, but naaah.. that's not what street food is all about. Sometimes on Sunday's we try to make them on our own, but making the sausages in a pan, does not give you the even cooking or the texture in taste that you are looking for. Running through my usual Gadget websites, I came across the Home Pride Ballpark Hot Dog Rotisserie Griller/Bun at BoomerGadgets, all for US$ 49.95, and available as White, Blue, Red or Silver as per your choice.. now this is what I call, ADD to Wishlist

Happy Sunday's

G

Want to be inside the Matrix.. Watch Carefully !!!

The Matrix, Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon, showed powers of thought, you could think you can fly and you could, besides the computer animation, maybe it is true maybe it is not, but do you want to be inside the matrix, well press the play button on the video above for this Nintendo commercial, currently airing in Japan, and watch carefully..

Well so what, no Matrix, it's Mario... He can jump, he can fly, is he a bird, is he a plane, no it's Mario..


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.xxx no more

From CNN, ICANN the body that allows the domain names and numbers on the Internet has delayed the proposal for approving .xxx domain name. The .xxx domain name would have led to a seperate so called red-light district on the internet, and would have made filtering much easier. Read more about it at CNN

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It's Blue, Black, Silver, Pink and now Red !!!

The Motorola Razr, when it came out, was voted as one of the best phones available in the market, every celebrity was seen carrying one, the moment the Pink came about, you could see every womany vying for one, well Moto's done it again, this time around a RED for the Moto SLVR (not Razr though), for helping eliminate AIDS in Africa.

RED is a 21st century idea. It’s an amazing thing that these companies are doing — lending their creativity and financial firepower to the Global Fund’s fight against AIDS in Africa, the greatest health crisis in 600 years. I think doing the RED thing, doing good, will turn out to be good business for them,” said Bono, co-creator of RED.

DNA For your Gadgets

Do you watch the discovery channel glued to it, when they talk about crime, investigation, technology, well we share something in common. Have you seen the crime series, where they are investigating old crimes again, using DNA, well interesting right, now we can find who actually did it, because we could look at the DNA and short list the people. Ever thought with so many electronic gadget thefts happening around us, your cellphone get's stolen from a coffee shop, your laptop from your car, and so much, there could be DNA for your gadgets, well your dream's come true, Data Dots can do this for you. Interested, click here to watch the video, or click on the play button above.

Now where can I get a can of these for my devices.

G

Search or Portal - Your Home page is important

Back in 1998, my partner in the US, Joe mentioned we should be getting in the portal business, I asked him what will be so hot in it, and why do it, everyone I knew eventually was building a portal by 1999-2000, and then wham bam, the Dot com bust came about, we had one too many portals, and things were settling in Again. The change led to companies like MSN (Hotmail) / Yahoo / Altavista, etc and other search engine companies to become larger portals. Today if you look at msn or yahoo there are a lot of changes happening, a recent change is the customisation that yahoo offers. I am purely a Google player and I would rather still play around with the KISS principle, so these all portal pages are not for me, but if you like a page, you can customise, to show you your news, your basic search some other stuff, head on to yahoo or better still click here and get a look at the new .. yahoo.. yes.. it's changed.. i like it.. but google .. that's my cup of tea.. for you.. maybe you can give this a shot.

:)

G

Too Many Keys !!!

Ever been bothered that you had to leave your couch to pick up the remote controller for your air conditioner because it was too hot in the room, back on your couch you realised, you also wanted to get the remote controller for your DVD, a problem I think a couch potato in all of us faces every now and then. Universal remote controllers have been available for a while, but not all models available in India. Here is my take on what I think about the available models. Read it in print in the Express Money (Free Supplement with Indian Express), this monday 15th May 2006, or click here.

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Choosing the Right Mini !!

So you are a gadget buff like me, have everything, a DVD Player, TV, a Worldspace reciever, but need a perfect stereo, not those monster systems that are available, read my take on the players availale in the market, In Express Money on Monday, May 8th 2006, Naition wide with the Indian Express, or Click here to read it online.

:)

G

Nikon 80 Megapixel Camera only Rs. 39,990 + Free Bag worth 999

Sounds like a Joke, yes it is.. it's an 8.0 Megapixel Camera, the commonly available Nikon Coolpix 8700, but sadly India Times says it's an 8 Megapixel Camera.. By the time you goto the site, the page may not be there... check out the picture above..

Ebay India, and Google AdWords

If you are a regular visitor to my blog, you may have noticed that I added Google search for my blog today. I was just playing around with the search box, to see how efficient it was, and this is my search result for the word Power.

Well on a Day that is about Power cut, and a lot of discussions about how expensive power is.. you can now "Buy It Cheap On eBay Low Prices, New and Used"

So this shows you the real power of Ad Words, and how many Ad words must have ebay bought from google.

:)

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Photos' on this Website !!

Have you been wondering how I make the photos' for this website, or how I get those borders and shadows, well Get the software that did not come with your camera, click the link on the right for Google Picasa, one of the best image editing, collection management software.. Sadly...only for windows.

Lights Out : We are Going to the Dogs !

A few days back I was sitting with a friend of mine, who was speaking about how he is being troubled by the Income Tax Department, on why his Total Tax paid has become less than half of what he was filling till now, his answer, I dont' have roads, I dont' have electricity, I dont' have water, my customers dont' want to come to India, and work with me. How Will I keep paying the same tax, when my Revenue is going down.

The Answer from the Income Tax Department, "Sir this is not our department, you need to speak to Ministry of Power, Ministry of Roads, and What not, but you need to pay your tax, or else, we need to check your books"

This person, is planning to leave the country.

5 Years back, my brother in law also left the country and migrated to Canada, why, same reasons, you pay taxes (I believe if I was to work out the total, out of each Rupee Earned, 60 to 70 Paise Go into Taxes, with FBT, TDS, VAT, Entertainment Tax, Service Tax, so your Rupee is worth 30 or 40 Paise actually, with the rising expenses, and the cost of living going up, the 30 or 40 paise you have today, will be worth 20 paise in an years time.. so where are we headed ?).... No bijli, no paani (No Electricity, No Water) No safety net for a business entreprenuer, so where is the country headed.

Today, I have the same feeling. I run a 24x7 Operation and am one of the smallest companies in Delhi doing it.. Anyone who is my size, or maybe say 20% larger than me, is not in to 24x7, so today's announcement by Delhi Government TOI, Indian Express, the Delhi Government says.. If you work.. You will be fined.. we will shut down your office.. we will shut down your factory..

So Dear people in the ministry, If I falter on my taxes, or If anyone suffers a lower earning, will the Income Tax Department give a discount, that we did not have power, and we were not allowed to work..

2010 Games, then Olympics.. then.. this then that... ha ha ha.. dogs.. yes dogs.. we have to goto them.

:(

G

Finally a Linux Desktop that Works for Me !!!

Well.. Ubuntu is a desktop I liked at the first go, Redhat has always been my favourite for my servers, and Mandrake (now Mandriva) aaah....such good looks.. well then came along Suse.

So.. What happened, how I chose, what I chose.. and where am I with it.

I have an IBM R51, and I use this Laptop as my primary work / home PC, and I dont' want to get an operating system, that I have for the heck of it. I work with Networks as all of us know here, so getting network tools that work was imperitive, testing and deploying applications and testing websites on Linux also important..

R51 has a built in Intel Wireless card, and an Intel Gigabit Ethernet card. On Windows with proper management, my laptop could deliver as high as about 3.5 hours depending on the usage, and I wanted a Unix that can deliver same performance. Since I travel quite a bit, wireless connectivity is very important, WPA is an important aspect, but my reading shows that WPA support is still dicey, and I will need to stick to either a Wire and or get my customers to change to WEP (ah all that lecturing about how secure WPA is !!! )

Anyway, Here is what I saw and here is what I have

Why Linux ?

Well I think it is more stable, not prone to viruses and trojan horses, also low on spyware, make s it my first operating system. I will need Windows, so either I will now start carrying two lapotps or work on Virtualisation

1st Shot: Fedora Core 4, Yes I know FC5 is here, but I Tried FC4. Well ever since I deployed my first FC4 server, I have loved the OS, the stability, the performance everything, and best of all zero cost.. Problem, No wireless support out of the box, sound card had some issues, and Dispaly was not recognised automatically. Eventual Verdict: Good for server, not for my desktop

2nd Shot: Ubuntu (Both The Hoary Hedgehog and The Breezy Badger): well I fell in love with this the day I saw it, I have been following it closely and have worked on number of Ubuntu deployments on desktops within the company and think this is a fine operating system. My wireless worked right out of the box, and the sound card too.. best in breed hardware recognition, but I had problems with VMWare, and some other software that I wanted to use.. so eventually had to drop it

3rd Shot: Suse 10 OSS - AM confused, I want to move to Linux as a Desktop.. what to do, what to choose. In the older days was a company called Suse, which in turn became Netware (Did I tell you I am a Certified Novell Administrator, I did not do my CNE as I had a BTECH and someone good at Novell suggested I should just do my CNA).. anyway.. now Suse a Part of Novell seemed attractive.. I did not read the site properly and downloaded the OSS.. Landed myself in a soup, no out of the box support for wireless (not a difficult thing though to get working), But I could not get the Java working, the Acrobat or the Mozilla to upgrade, and I got really irrirated.. should I leave it...alone... hmm.. go back to windows.. well not so easily..

20th April 2006....I finally downloaded the 5 disks for suse 10 commercial version, yes I dont' pay till I dont' want support, and the OS is free.. install it, and run it.. and lo.. I have a working desktop, everything (except WPA works).. and am happy.. I now miss a few things off my windows desktop, which VM Ware can help me run Windows in a Window (ah.. )... download vmware, apply for a temp key and got it..

.......5th May 2006.. it's been 15 odd days that I am on Suse 10 Commercial, and I think this is one of the finest Operating Systems I have worked on.. beautiful. I have the 15 days of my VMWARE key wasted, and I have had no requirement of Windows. Sometimes I need a windows Pc, I just vnc to one of the servers, or use a different desktop in the office.. but for now.. I am on Linux.. next step, move my core team to Linux.. tough task ahead, but hey.. it's easy

Virtualisation, Thin clients, Linux Desktops.. all to cash in on our old investments.. Let's see where we are.. So my advice

You are a geek / and love to try out things.. move to linux.. choose ubuntu or suse.. and you will love it.. you are a data entry guy, managing a worksheet or an Internet form.. your company can save a lot of money.. but if you are an enterprise user.. well you need to really look at the benefit of Windows v/s the benefit of Linux.. which is beyond the scope of this blog..

I am a penguin now.. and happy about it.. :)

G