Is this Technology Abuse ?

Ever had the weather play spoilt sport with you, or been to a wedding that was delayed, because of incessant rains that decided to pour at the n'th hour. Well this news article on CNN IBN, is really cool.

Somnath Chattopadhyay, A priest in Kolkatta, recently solemnised the wedding of Debasree Roy of Kolkata with Dhritiman Dutta of Silchar in Asaam over the mobile phone after the weather gods decided to play spoilsport.

The other day though there was news, that no one can get a divorce over the phone by saying Talak Talak Talak, but getting married on the phone, seems to be still acceptable.

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Toshiba Does it Again - L30-C330 Launched in India

We got our first consignment from Toshiba today, and Toshiba's done it again, Last year their Celeron Laptops broke the price barrier of Rs. 40,000 and this year, they have broken the price barrier of Rs. 35,000. All for Rs. 32,990, this cool model with a Celeron 1.6Ghz / 256 MB DDR 2 RAM / 40 GB (5400 RPM) Hard Disk Drive / 14.1" WXGA display, DVD Combo, Wireless and yes, Windows XP Starter Edition. This machine priced so cool should really break the markets for Toshiba in India.

Toshiba has never been portrayed as the cheaper brand, and with this price point, Acer and Compaq Presario need to watch out.

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BPO's and Data Secrecy

System3, My company has been toying with the idea, of opening a Training Institute, a Technology / Skills finishing school, and while the Internal discussions were going on, we were thinking of making sure that about 15 - 20 hours of training time is spent on Ethics / Values / Morality training.

Since Customer Support Executives at companines like mine, and larger corporates at times have access to critical information related to the customer, well anytime you call your cell phone company, they take all your details this includes, your Date of Birth, your Wife's name, your land line number, your home address, and they already know your credit card numbers, so what stops them from defrauding you, ethics / morality.

A big story on CNN-IBN today about the fraud at HSBC Back Office in Bangalore, where the kid managed to cheat HSBC customers to the tuen of 2,33,000 pounds.

Interested, well CNN IBN raised a question, how safe are our bank accounts. Well how safe.. keep strong passwords, make sure you know what information you need to disclose.. be careful, there is someone watching you.

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Review - JVC D-350 (Indian Express)

India is a big market for White goods, Digital Cameras have become a rage, but sadly Video Cameras were not able to make the simliar dent in the Market. A few weeks back I got a call from JVC to review their D350 First Digital Cam Corder in India, for Under Rs. 20,000. I could not believe it, and I called up the JVC guy to bring the camera over. I ran through tests, and lived with it for about 15 days, till I came up with the review. Is it worth a buy or not, read it here, or buy the Print Copy of Express Money, with the Indian Express this Monday, June 19th 2006, Nationwide

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The First Case of Gadget Misuse for Tax Evasion in India

It's out, It's public, It's no news, INDIA IS ALL ABOUT JUGAAD. Times of India, Page 13, June 13,2006 Reads

New Delhi: If you thought iPod was just a device to store music, get a second opinion from revenue intelligence officials. The department has unearthed a slew of cases where taxevaders had stored records of their illegal transactions in iPods and pen-drives — devices that can be easily concealed or destroyed.
During a raid on an industrialist in Haryana’s Yamunanagar town last year, the Directorate General of Central Excise Intelligence (DGCEI) found excise evasion of over Rs 55 lakh. However, no incriminating documents were found on computers or files. The sleuths then scanned a pendrive and an iPod to find details of undeclared dealings stored there. The pen-drive was hidden in the industrialist’s bathroom.
This is hardly an isolated case. At another raid in Ludhiana, DGCEI officials seized a pen-drive allegedly belonging to the owners of plywood company, Perfect Agro. After deciphering its contents, officials found evidence of largescale evasion of excise duty.
Concealing secret transactions in pen-drives and iPods is fast catching up as a trend, say income tax and directorate of revenue intelligence officials, who now take special care to seize these devices before laying hands on account books and computers during a raid. The internet too is a favoured hideaway for taxevaders, who post details of illegal accounts on the web before deleting these files from their records.
Though these gizmos are small enough to fit into a shirt pocket, they have immense memory — ranging from 1 to 30 giga bytes. They are also very easy to discard. Officials believe that during many raids, pen-drives have been put into burning furnaces, crushed under car wheels or thrown into dustbins. In one case, a pen-drive was recovered from the driver of an accused.
Three rolling mills were raided in Shahdara area of east Delhi last September, where transactions worth Rs 40 crore was unearthed from data tucked away in iPods and pen-drives. Clearly, as gizmos get smaller the headache for enforcement agencies gets bigger.

There is more, try to grab a copy. You had never thought of this, ahem, you had.. and you thought you could get away with it, well not really, the Tax Man is smartening up.. Be ware.. But hey.. JUGAAD is big..

I don't think anyone in the world, thought about this.

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The Second Contendor (Hunt for the Perfect Candy Bar - Non Smart)

The Second Contendor, Nokia 6230i, well the i Makes it a bit disinteresting for me, I dont' want a camera, but Nokia dealers tell me, the Nokia 6230 the original model is discontinued, so for my Rs 11,000 I will get the 1.3 MP camera built in. The phone matches all my criteria, and also the fact, that I can use the same old Car Charger that I have for the Nokia 6021, so it makes it interesting.

What are the things I dont' like in this model, well, the first, I dont' like the Music Player interface, If I press another key on the keypad, the music player brings me back to the main screen, and the music keeps playing in the background. Also the interface, aah.. Nokia needs to learn from Samsung.

I like the Black body, with the front face as Silver, but think the Samsung looks better, more professional.

I also like the fact that the phones supports PTT (Push To Talk), sadly it is not here in India as yet, mobile operators, listen to me, introduce PTT, you will get more and more revenue.

Best of all, the phone book in the phone can store 2000 entries.. ah I remember the days of a Casio Diary or a Casio smart data watch :)

One up for the phone.. Next contendor Wait for tommorow.

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The First Contendor (Hunt for the Perfect Candy Bar - Non Smart)

The First Contendor, Samsung X700. Well the phone looks nice, as a business phone too. The black with silver accents really looks cool. The plastic has a bit cheaper feel to it, but something you can get used to. First thing I notice is Samsung has gotten rid of the ep pin connector for the headphones, and switched to mini USB (I wonder why), the good part, you have a slider to cover this slot, unlike earlier samsung phones which had a rubber / plastic cover that you could place back on the connector.

The image quality looks nice, but our friendly shop keeper will not let me try the mp3 player and or the camera, I wonder why. I ask him about the features and get the full low down, But hey.. I notice, he does not know, and neither does Samsung talk about, whether the phone is business card sms compatible. I check with a few friends, no it is not. Good phone, but misses out a crucial feature in today's date. Anyway, I investigate further, the phone really looks cool and nice

I like the fact that this phone has an external card slot, that means you can take the card out without switching off the phone. The shop keeper tells me, that this is a hotswap slot, i.e like server hard disks, you can take the card out while the phone is on, now that is cool.

The phone is 95 Grams, but feels light. Curvy body and very attractive. The phone supports GPRS Class 10 data service, and no EDGE. so for me, this is a No No.. Dropped..

Next Contendor, wait for tommorow.

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The Hunt for the Perfect Candy Bar (Non Smart) Phone Begins

Around this time last year, my Nokia 6600 smart phone started acting up on me, it had got one of those newbie Bluetooth viruses, and Nokia India was not able to do much about it, that I vouched not to use a smart phone any more. I personally also prefer the Candy bar format than anything else.

My Basic requirements in a phone are, Color Screen - To see incoming MMS Messages, The Cability to put multiple reminders, Long Talk time (atleast 3 hours), EDGE/GPRS for Data on the Road, Bluetooth for My Bluetooth Handsfree, Send and Recieve Business Cards, Speakerphone and Simple straight forward interface.

If it has a voice recorder, voice dialing, they are good features, but not something that I have to have. The Phone that met this criteria last year, was the Nokia 6021, and it has been a great phone till now, till it's speakerphone started acting up. I have realised, with a total talk time of 393:44 Hours, it is nearing it's end of life with me. So now the search for a Perfect Candy Bar phone, begins. The Current Contendors, Nokia 6320i (The Camera is now a bundle I can't get rid of), Samsung X700, and more and more that come my way. So watch this space carefully, and let us unfold, if NON SMART, CANDY BAR, phones are the way to be, and which one to buy.

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Want to Move to Linux - Think UBUNTU

As a Corporate have you been contemplating moving your desktops to Linux, well what has stopped you, If I may, I can lay down a few things

• It is free
• No Long term Support
• Versions Change very fast
• No Corporate Support

Well, all of this is changing except part 1, where It is Free is still the essence (except in case of Red Hat Enterprise Linux). If you are a small corporate (say 20 to 40 desktops), and are looking at Linux as a great viable next step, think Ubuntu. The company that produced the best Desktop OS that was available till date, and now offers Long Term Support.

Ubuntu 6.06 LTS introduces functionality that simplifies common Linux server deployment processes. For system administrators setting up large numbers of web, mail and related servers, Ubuntu 6.06 LTS offers the fastest and most consistent path to deployment, combined with the availability of global commercial support where needed. "Ubuntu has a reputation for working well out of the box on desktops, and we have worked to bring that same ease of deployment and configuration to the server marketplace" said Mark Shuttleworth, founder of the Ubuntu project. "Based on our analysis of the ways people were already deploying Ubuntu on servers, we have aimed to streamline their experience while expanding the range of software available to people deploying Ubuntu in the data centre."

The Latest version of their Desktop and Server OS is o ut, and may I say, I am thinking of another format of my laptop to get Ubuntu back in Place ... Download it from Ubuntu.com.

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Repair or Replace - Express Money (Smart Spending)

After 3 weeks of a sabatical from the Indian Express, I am back with a Cover story, this time around on a very old question, to Repair or to Replace. Every now and then one of our gadgets fails, and starts to get on our nerves, till we dont' get it working, how do you take a decision wether to repair or replace the gadget, white good.....

Read my views on it, in the Indian Express this week on Monday June 12, 2006 or catch it online at expressmoney.in

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Move Over Wave Radio - Your Turn is Over

Bose, undeniably makes the best sound. Ever since I heard one of their demos 10 ~ 15 years back, I am a big fan of theirs.. but sadly, everytime I went to buy one for myself, I came out thinking.. hmm... that is expensive.

My last such trip was to buy the Bose Wave Radio, I did not want to shell out Rs. 39,000 for a CD Player.. Though however good it may sound, no.. this was not the budget. I ended up buying something lousy.. but well it not only plays CD's, but can do more.

While browsing the internet, I came across the iSonic from Polk Audio, which to me looks like, will move the Bose Wave Radio out of it's realm.

Polk may not have the same speaker design technology as the Bose guys, but what Polk has done is something we used to do when we were in college, Want Surround sound, and have a basic amplifier, put the left and right speakers in the front, and put another left and right speakers at the back of the room, so you had four speakers, and Great surround sound. No processor, no DSP, nothing, just a bare basic rig to give you high quality Surround Sound.

Polk has taken this to the next level, and the iSonic seems interesting. It plays CD's, VCD's, DVD's (Yes you can connect it to your TV too), AM/FM Radio, XM Radio Ready - Though not an interesting option for us in India, and a Dual Alarm Clock, yes 2 Alarms, one to wake you up to the radio and the other to wake you up to a CD.. for a lazy guy like me...this is the Auto Snooze Reinvented.

Now.. the price tag of 599$ is something that i think i will need to relook at.. Waiting to get this to test.. Go check out the site.

And NO I dont' know when we will get this in India.

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Nokia India Website - NOT LINUX FRIENDLY

There is nothing wrong with using linux, there is nothing wrong with using an OLD PC. For some of us, it is a mandate, for some of us a liberation, for some of us, why upgrade technology.

For someone at Nokia, we are stupid, that we are not on the latest browser, with the latest plugins.

Nokia India's website Requires Flash 8 < Every programmer knows, that Flash 8 is only supported on Windows at the moment, and no other OS.. Why build websites with Flash 8 ? <

Screenshot Above

If anyone at Nokia is reading... Please make sure when you outsource work, you dont' fall to the whims and fancies of the programmer rather than do it the way technology needs to be done. .

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PS: Maybe it is because Nokia in India is distributed by HCL, remember, HCL's own site was offline (As of 11th June 2006, The Domain has still not been renewed)..... Luckily I dont' invest in Shares, else HCL shares.. I think personally needed a dump :)

Nokia Get's Handwriting Recognition

Think it, Write it

The AD from Nokia reads. Yesterday after ages, I visited the Ghaffar Market at Karol Bagh in Delhi, the Mecca of Parallel Import, and the Mecca for all Electronic wannabe's, and found that the latest rage to hit the market is the Nokia 6708, a Sleek candy bar phone, with a Stylus to input and touch screen wala phone.

If you remember, this is not the first Stylus input phone from Nokia, in the past there was the Nokia 7710, the much touted wide screen experience, but the stylus was only for point and click.

Wht the 6708, Nokia claims cutting edge handwriting recognition, now let's see, when can I land my hands on one to test it out.

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Want to Design your Own Robot ?

Year 2035, Matrix is becoming a reality, why not try to do it today...

Try designing your own robot, and write 50 words or less, your hopes and fears when the robots do come to life, and you could win a Digital Video Camera or an MP3 Player.

Interested, click CNN FUTURE SUMMIT CHALLENGE.

I am already in, how about you ?

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What do you think of the Future ?

Matrix.. Will it be true, will there be a time, that humans and robots co-exist, and look so much alike, that it becomes difficult to know who is who.

CNN Future Summit, brings together some of the brightest minds of our time to see how science and technology are shaping our future.

To know more about the details, goto CNN

The Future of Cellphone

While researching a topic on how the Future of the Cellphone will be, will we head towards a converged cellphone or a standalone cellphone like the olden days, what all will it be able to do, I came across this video, and I think it's worthy of a watch.

A Swiss Key you want !!

They say the Sweedish have a solution to everything, and this new product seems to make it sound so true. Every now and then I have been left hunting for a Philips screw driver or a small saw, I can cut out something with, I have been carrying a Swiss knife, but that is bulky, after all I dont' need 30 tools at any one go, but I do need a saw, a flat screw driver and maybe a philips screw driver more often than I need any other tool. If this is the case with you, a $9.99 investment at Think Geek can get you some peace of mind, the best part, it can become a part of your keychain.

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Shredding Scissors

I was a little kid when I first attended a seminar by the RAW (India's Intelligence Division in the Millitary) on how to destroy sensitive corporate documents. They showed us bleached, burnt, cut all kinds of documents, and they could retrieve information from it, the only thing I remember from it is, bleach the document, shred it, burn the ashes, and crumple them.. .and you have the perfect destruction, but in our daily lives, we come across papers that need to be destroyed, just tearing them is not sufficient, getting them to shreded pieces is important, now for a person like me, who writes down some stuff and wants to get rid of it later (dont' go hunting my dustbins now).. Shredders are the ultimate in immediate docuemnt distruction, but for small pieces of paper, buying a shredder did not seem to be very intelligent.

This post on Gizmodo about the Shredding Scissors caught my attention immediately. Japanese people.. now they are intelligent.. go check it out.

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Xbox 360 Coming to India

It's out, and It's confirmed, right from the horse's mouth, the Microsoft XBOX 360 is finally coming legally to India, microsoft is going to work on a launch schedule in the next few days, keep watching this space for an exclusive look at the box, and most probably a first hand review report.

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One Laptop Per Child is True !!

Back in October 2005, I wrote about the 100$ laptop project sponsored by MIT, the project now called OLPC or One Laptop per Child, has made it a reality, yes, the first working prototype(s) was unvieled on 27 May 2006 (pictures), to the working committee. More Details available here.

Now I am out waiting for this to come out.. if nothing else.. it will help create more computer savvy children, and more employees for IT companies like mine.

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LG Launches it's new website !

Ever since LG Launched it's products in India, I have always respected them as a company. My first exposure with them was a 14" Digital Color Monitor back in 1997 with the name Goldstar and the same LG Logo, to a time where every Air conditioner / DVD Player / gadget I was buying, I was hunting down LG for an option.

For my articles, and for General Info, I have used their website again and again, and I have seen it change and evolve, but What I saw today is something I never thought was their focus.

1. Their website now works properly with Firefox on Linux
2. The site has a much friendlier e-commerce look unlike before
3. The New E-Shoppe now offers 0% loans, EMIs Automatically and good prices.. One great step taken by a manufacturer in India to get people to buy from their website.. now only if the website had great prices, check it out at http://www.lgezbuy.com

:)

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