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
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.
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 $9.99 investment at Think Geek can get you some peace of mind, the best part, it can become a part of your keychain.
G
I was a little kid when I first attended a seminar by the RAW (India's Intelligence Division in the Millitary) on how to destroy sensitive corporate documents. They showed us bleached, burnt, cut all kinds of documents, and they could retrieve information from it, the only thing I remember from it is, bleach the document, shred it, burn the ashes, and crumple them.. .and you have the perfect destruction, but in our daily lives, we come across papers that need to be destroyed, just tearing them is not sufficient, getting them to shreded pieces is important, now for a person like me, who writes down some stuff and wants to get rid of it later (dont' go hunting my dustbins now).. Shredders are the ultimate in immediate docuemnt distruction, but for small pieces of paper, buying a shredder did not seem to be very intelligent.
This post on Gizmodo about the Shredding Scissors caught my attention immediately. Japanese people.. now they are intelligent.. go check it out.
G
It's out, and It's confirmed, right from the horse's mouth, the Microsoft XBOX 360 is finally coming legally to India, microsoft is going to work on a launch schedule in the next few days, keep watching this space for an exclusive look at the box, and most probably a first hand review report.
G
Back in October 2005, I wrote about the 100$ 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.
G
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
:)
G
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
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.
G
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..
G
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
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 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.
G
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.
G
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
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
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
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
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
G
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
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..
G
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
G
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.
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
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
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.
G
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
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..
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.
:)
G
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.
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
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
Well.. have you been visiting here, and realised this site has not been updated.... hmmm...since january.. Well where has G disappeared. My columns have been regularly appearing in Indian express and sadly I have personally not had any time to update this blog, and I take a vow on updating this atleast once a week now, If not personally then maybe Taruneet (yes.. he is a contributor.. though only one contribution) can help me out. He has also been busy with his 12th boards..
So where was I ?
Well Since January of this year, my company tried to restructure a solutions department and work on Thin clients and Linux roll outs. Yes I have been a big believer in Linux but I am not a Microsoft hater. I just find Linux to be a bit more stable and secure when it comes to servers, but Personally speaking I will not deploy Linux servers at a customer end till I am dead sure of their IT manpower, windows is easier.. slick.. faster to deploy, easier to maintain, though they need a lot more heavy hardware. (The point of discussion of this post is not to do a Linux v/s Windows comparitive).
Due to this, change and me changing my Desktop to a Linux Workstation (Yes, I swapped out the Hard Disk out of My IBM Box, and put in an 80 GB Hard Disk, and am installing Various flavours of Linux both Paid / OSS and choosing the one I want to stick to... all this has kept me on my shoes reading, and testing, and sadly all my passwords that were saved in the browser were all on the Windows Disk.... so I went underground).
So now you know where I was.. Well wait for a day or so, and you will get an update of what I tried, and what I finally am, I have to take my decision by 1st May, and get back into production mode.. else.. Windows here I come..
Where have I been.. where am I going.. the life .. is a journey.. a slow.. tedious one... here i come my world..
watch this spot.. this g-spot.
G
Has the MP3 Bug caught on with you, did you want to put MP3 everywere, just like I did. Well in your car, these are your options. Read my article Symphony in your car in Express Money by clicking here. Or catch the Indian Express on Monday 9th January 2006, India Wide.
G
It's the day after christmas, and gifts have been given, and a lot of affections changed. I like Christmas, I am not a christian, but I like Christmas.
The New year is still around and gifts for your loved ones, can still be given, here are 5 Gadgets, i think that make a lot of sense this year, and in the year to come, check out my article Tech 2.0 in Express money, this week with 5 new gadgets. To view it online, click here, or Alternatively grab a copy of the Indian Express on Monday 26th of December 2005, India Wide.
G
I think the biggest benefit of technology today is to work out methods to save fossil fuels, the Hybrid car, the electric car and the others have all been a great example of it. I was watching a TV program the other day and saw a brief on the Whisper, and found it worthwhile to share. It uses four wheels, yes all bussess do, but here the wheel is active, it has an engine (electric on it's own), and the bus is one of the most energy efficient busses around.
The debut of this bus was done on March 30th 2005 and it has been in tests. I think India shoudl get a couple of these, as it makes an attractive option to reduce polution in india. Just to share some figures, it can do 6.3 Kilometers per liter of diesel, that means it is 2.5 times more efficient than other energy efficient busses, and and compare this to an average 1 to 2 kilometers per liter of diesel that regular busses do, this is going to be a boon.
For those of you who want to read more about it, click here.
G
MFP's yes, the same old devices which came out at the dawn of convergence, everyone, had written them off, well why would you need a device that was 3 in one, and still costed the same, why not have 3 devices.. Anyway, times have changed and so has technology, and MFP's have evolved. To read my take on it, make sure you grab a copy of the Indian Express on Monday 12th of December 2005, or click here to read the online Edition.
G
You must be wondering what is a Tape dispenser doing on a site dedicated to technology and gadgets, well this is something that the fairer sex may like, and since we cant' live without em, well we have to cover something for them. But anyway, it's cute.
This is called Mr. P and is available at Wrapables an online gift store. It's 3"x6" in size and is made of Stainless Stell and Plastic.
Though it makes me feel like someone is pulling out Mr. P's tounge, but well It's kind a cute.
G
About 2 or 3 years back Jeremy Clarkson of the famous Top Gear show on BBC did a special episode on India, and I remember his words clearly, "You can't find a car in India, that is not scratched or bumped or nicked", well the Jeremy Clarkson, here is something that will hopefully prove that Indian's will finally have a car that is scratch proof.
Nissan has come out with a paint that can remove the scratches and heal itself, so your car is shiny new. As per nissan's press release
The coating, which Tokyo-based Nissan Motor Co. says is the first of its kind in the world, contains elastic resin, similar to a rubbery surface, and can repair itself of slight scratches caused by car-washing, off-road driving and fingernails.
Now.. you buy an X-Trail, that is approximately Rs. 20 Lacs that supposedly has unbreakable bumpers and you Pay about Rs. 5000 (I am guessing they will charge approximately US$ 100 additional for it), and you can go out and prove it to Mr. Clarkson, that India does have cars, that are not scratched and bumpers are not broken.
G
GPS's have been around for a long time, and everyone who sees me using one, comes up with a question on whether they should buy one or not. From a few select friends who are very similar to me in nature, in not stopping to ask someone for directions, to geek friends who love technology. This week in the Indian Express, I cover the basics of GPS and what to buy.
To read "A Pathfinder in your pocket", my article in Express Money on 5th December 2005, with Indian Express, Click Here.
G
The world over there was a trend of getting the PC to come under a 1000$ and then to a PC under 500$, today MIT Labs is talking of a 100$ Laptop, India is still fighting with a pricing that is not consumer sensitive. The primary reason you think maybe the exchange rates, but the duty on the import of these devices adds up to another bulk (Since there are no indian manufacturers at small scale that maybe hampered, duty on imports of Laptops / Notebook computers etc should be abolished or brought to minimum), anyway.
This week in my Indian Express / Express Money article, I look at the sub Rs. 40,000 laptops available in India, from IBM, Compaq, Toshiba and Acer, and choose the winner out of them.
Want to read my verdict, catch it in Print with Indian Express on Monday, 28th November 2005, or click here to read it online.
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Breaking News !!! STEVE JOBS, my fav guy for today (well I wrote about him in my Indian Express column also today), anyway he just came out with a New iPod, the iPod Micro, the iPod Pequeno, and the iPod Invisa. Don't believe me, check out the movie from the TV Release. To download the movie, right click this link and select save target as, and watch it.. enjoy.
I think by the time you watch this, Steve Jobs will be out announcing another version.. anyway..
Movie courtsey Saturday Night Live. Full Article on Mac Mischief.
Just Kidding
G
My Ed at Indian Express always says, talk in terms that people understand and not in acronyms that only you geeks know, so to fill you in DAP = Digital Audio Player, more commonly known as MP3 Players.
Was the iTrip the primary reason for you to buy an iPod over others. What is an iTrip, it is a device that let's you transmit your music collection from your iPod to your car stereo wirelessly, so that you can enjoy your music while driving, I know of a lot of people who bought the iPod cos iTrip was available.
Well for those of you mortal souls, Logitec of Japan has taken out car ciggarette lighter charged FM Transmitters, that can work with any Digital Audio Player, Ahem, MP3 Players, that have an earphone plug.
Please note, this is not Logitech the popular company, but Logitec in Japan.
Enjoy.. PS: I hope Gizmodo does not run after me, the last three articles, are all reference Gizmodo.
G
For those of you who know me personally and know how scared I am of water and swimming, well you know why I said this is for me. Back in 2001 for our annual office picnic, we had all gone downhill at Sona (near Gurgaon) in an inflatable ball at someone's farm. The ride was 50 bucks at that time per person, and was thoroughly enjoyed by all the staff including me, I ever since have had my eye on one of these.
Today I saw this on Gizmodo and found it worth a mention, this ball currently only available in Australia, can make you walk on water, or roll on water, so you could wear your business suit, and cross the river, without even getting wet.. now what do we do about claustrophobic people.
G
Ever since the first USB connected appliance came out and people realised that they could draw power from the USB port without damaging the internals of the PC, there was a spate of things you could do, from charging your cellphone, to a USB light for your laptop, to USB nail dryers and what not. But what I just saw on Gizmodo, I think this is one of the finest gadgets to hit USB for a very long time.
A USB powered Christmas tree, which lights up, blows styrofoam snow around and plays 4 popular Christmas songs, amazing right.
Out in US Stores this christmas. (Santa, send me one)
G
The iPod video has caught up like wild fire with every gadget freak and the social circle on page 3, wherever you go, everyone is talking about it. Especially the world has made finally accepted Steve Jobs as the best man in town.
So what makes the iPod video a great deal, when you have things like Creative Zen Vision and the Archos PVR available, why and how the Apple story continues.
Read my article in print with the Indian Express this monday on 21st November 2005 in Express money, or click here to read the online version.
G
First it was the spate of Miss Worlds and then the campaign by BJP about India Shining, well India is finally shining. If you have seen the recent ads' on television by British Airways about "The world is waiting for India", to last nights interview of Virgin boss, Richard Branson on CNBC about his upcoming investments in India, well you are missing out on what is the India factor at this time.
Good news for the average Indian is the fact that technology companies are now looking at India, and Indianization. From Open Office coming out in Hindi and Punjabi, the Microsoft Bhasha project and then Opera in Punjabi, and now the Nokia 1110, and 1600 series of phones with talking alarm clocks in Hindi, Tamil, Gujrati, Marathi and Bengali, it is time to wake up.. Jago India Jago.
Two great phones, good features and good prices, something I think I shall buy for the cute alarm clock that says, "samay hai, chey bajkar paanch minute".. Jago.
G
No I did not mis-spell the word chicks, and I am no where talking of women, though that is one of my fav topics, but hey.. this is serious stuff.
Chics (the Bamboo blinds) have caught on the rage in the upper middle class homes as the in thing for window blinds, in place of curtains. With the new variants of block printed, color coordinated these do make your home look good, for a long time I had these hanging in my office as well, but then I went overboard, and got mauve colored curtains in place.
My last browsing session to inhabitat (for those of you reading my blog for the nth time, know that I like this site quite a bit), I saw a very functional and practical design, called the Re:Form Energy Curtain.
What is interesting about this is that the Energy Curtain is a window shade woven with solar-collecting and light-emitting materials that store sunlight during the day and emit it at night.
Interested, read more at Inhabitat
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I hate it when companies use pretty, smiling models for a thing that causes hurt to people and business around. Airtel has done the cheap story again, back in 2002, when Airtel launched their private telephone service under the name of Touchtel, the numbers were 7 digits, and started with 8, then the government decided, that the number regime had to change, so we all changed our numbers to an 8 digit regime, and the numbers started with 5 for Airtel, 5 for Tata, 3 for Reliance and 2 for MTNL / BSNL. Now for what reason did the DOT or so called providers accept 5 for both Airtel and Tata I am not sure, It was bound to happen (either they assumed one of them will buy out the other, or one will run away from the service), but we were in for a shock that the numbers would run short.
Any person who know's number schemes could have told them that the maximum number of customers they could have with 51 as starting code (as 51 is delhi, 50 is haryana etc), was 99,9999 and they would run short of it.
Well a recent announcement has made me sit and really scream now they are planning to change numbers for airtel to start with 4. That means new set of stationery for the office, informing everyone that your numbers have changed, and a new set of numbers to remember.. sad... very sad.. can someone do something about it.
Atleast my friends at Airtel, please remove those smiley faces from your website, there is nothing to smile about here.
G
I drop my phone one too many a time, and with my sad ending of the Nokia 6600 (I think one of the most expensive phones I personally picked up in recent times), I dont' want to spend a lot of money on cellphones, sure the new variants look interesting and smart, but I am happy with my basic Candy bar phone that can give me speakerphone, gprs, and bluetooth capabilities.
Similar thoughts have evoked from the Geek community about the so called buy me gadgets, but priced high, much beyond a geeks' dreams :).. An Indian Friend (this is only from the name that I can tell you), called Suraj Patel is trying to make his own cellphone, how practical, I can't say.. but definately jugaad
Read more here.
Now, should you be inspired to make one for yourself, send me a mail.. let's see what comes out of it :)
G
With the prices of LCD monitors falling day by day and the manufacturers offering more and more variants, with features so many, opting for a TFT / LCD monitor with your computer is now the in thing. But are all the monitors same, do they match up, or is there a difference that you should notice.
Which one leads, and how, to read more click here, or catch my Article Screen them Right in the Indian Express on Monday November 14, 2005 in Express Money.
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Acer and it's new obsession ferari, in a new avtaar, yes an Acer LCD Monitor, so what if it's not a car, it still is a ferrari. This limited edition Acer Branded Ferrari LCD monitors, available in 19 and 20inch screen sizes, have a high contrast ratio of 500:1 (19"), 800:1 (20") and include stereo speakers.
These monitors mimic the Ferrari design, and the red and black and the yellow monogram make it an awsome sexy looking display. The limited edition makes sure your table always has everyone's attention. From what i hear these will be priced at about 800$ and Acer shall release only about a 1000 of these babies. (If they get them to India, call me)
G
I can remember from as long as I was a kid, I have always been fascinated with the LED Lights, the moment I saw one, from my first few electronics tinkering projects, to make an LED Glow, then make it blink to what not, I believe I must have spent an enormous amount of time and money to make LED based projects.
Today LED's are not what they used to be, well they actually are, but the applications are changing. About 6 years or so back, when I saw the first LED Light based cluster I was amazed to the possibilities that existed.
If I am boring you with tech, let me get back to the subject, the pictures above are again from the Philips Sense and Simplicity theme, this is a light wall with LED Lights, that can be turned around and they change colors, yes they do.
I dont' know when they come out, or when I will be able to lay my hands on a bundle of these, but this has gotten me interested.
G
Go Ahead, what are you waiting for, yes, it won't hurt.. yes go on now click the picture.. still wondering what are plants doing on a geek's website, well well..
Philips, yes the company that makes so many things (have you lately seen that they are even advertisimg MRI machines on TV, now do doctors buy machines looking at TV Ads ?), anyway.. as a part of their on going campaign of "Sense and Simplicity", have devoted quite a bit of time and money in making our lives easier. (I like that)
The "Herbarium" that makes growing herbs as easy as making a cup of coffee, even for people like me who do not have green fingers.
These are a self contained unit, solar powered, creating a micro climate for the plant pads (yes pads), that contain everything that these herbs need to grow with. The plant growth is monitored electronically and the Herbarium ensures proper growth conditions.
Did you notice the small lights, that read sage, basil and thyme, well this is because once the plant pads are "planted", the herb name is illuminated on the rim, so you dont' mistake sage for basil :)
Now this is really really interesting
G
I am a big fan of this finnish company, I prefer using their cellphones over anybody else. Having washed my hands on a Samsung, Ericsson, Sony, Motorola and a number of Nokia's I think I was made for Nokia, or they were made for me. The announcement this week from them made me get up and take notice (once again).
Nokia announced, the first UPnP enabled (Universal Plug and Play) smartphone. Announced side by side to the N80 is the N92 (TV Smartphone), and a Multimedia Oriented N71.
What is interesting in the N80 ?
At a paltry weight of 138 gms, and a footprint the size of a credit card, this is the first smartphone from nokia, that has 3G and Quad Band support, also throwing in EDGE for high speed data transfers for non 3G networks.
The UPnP support will allow the media (images, videos, songs) stored on the phone to be accessible via a media extender connected with your TV in your living room, without the need of any addons.
The N80 (also the N71, and N92), support the new Nokia browser with mini map, providing a semi transparent zoomed out overall view of the web pages.
The N80has a 3 Megapixel camera which outperforms that of the N90 by a full Megapixel. The N80 may not have the Carl Zeiss lens and autofocus of the N90, yet is able to record stills as well as video at CIF resolution, storing content either to the 40 MB of non-volatile onboard memory or miniSD memory expansion cards which can be had in capacities of up to 2 GB at the time of writing.
Also benefiting from miniSD cards is the music player of the N80, which supports MP3 and WMA formats as well as AAC. Rounding out the feature list is a stereo FM radio with Nokia's Visual Radio client present, as well as USB 2.0 for high-speed wired data transfers and the presence of a front-mounted 0.3 MP camera to enable video calls.
And if you are wondering, yes the phone has Wifi access. It is slated for a launch in the first quarter of 2006, and may be priced around 500 Euros.
via [Infosyncworld]
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Well yes there is a browser war happening, with Internet Explorer, Opera, Mozilla all going free why not.. this will happen, but I am talking of another Web browser. For those of you who liked the concept of the Nokia Webpad, I bring you another innovation, the Pepper Pad. Well what is it ?
Right in time for the christmas, priced all of US$889 (well why could they not make it 900 or 800 ?), weighing in at just 2.3 lbs, it's a pad that can do almost all that you want, including, surf the web, email, IM, download, store and play music, also organise it, edit store and share pictures, watch videos, maybe keep a journal, edit your blog, or control your TV.
It has it's own mozilla based browser, a spyware resistant email client, and an AOL compatible IM client.
Running on the Intel XScale PXA270 (624 Mhz) processor, with 20 GB of hard Disk space, it connects wirelessly to your home network, and runs on Two rechargeable lithium batteries offering hours of use.
Now this is something that I want this christmas :)
Want more info, click here.
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Choosing a DVD Player is no more a big thing than spending how much you like. From the arcane days when DVD's were just about starting to replace LD players (Laser Disks for those of you who are new to these buzzwords), they used to cost a bomb.
Today a player is available at your chosen price, from either a Chinese OEM, or a Branded Manufacturer with Warranty and everything. And they are loaded with features, well too many compared to what the original boxes shipped with. Anyway.
Here is my take in choosing and helping you find your best player, also looking at the winner in the segment of entry level branded DVD players in India. Want more info on it,
Catch it with the Indian Express, in Supplement Express Money on Monday the 7th of November 2005, or click here to read the online version.
G
