Photos - Sony Walkman Phone W705

I got the soon to be released Sony Walkman W705 Phone from Sony the other day to test it out. After living with it for 2 Weeks, I have the review ready that will be printed in the Indian Express on the Coming Sunday. Till then some pictures of Unboxing the Product and Also Pictures Taken with the Camera

The Box it ships in, the box is very attractive and the shiny Pink color just pulls you near it.


Open the Box and you see the phone in front in a tray. The Motif Design with the blobbed white dots looks very attractive.

The sad thing Sony calls a Headphone. This is a really bad quality Headphone. Though it comes with in-ear rubbers, but the sound quality was pretty bad, the cable length too short as it is designed to be used in addition to the Proprietary port to 3.5 mm converter


Properitory connector to 3.5 mm Earphone Jack Converter, why can't they just give the 3.5 mm jack on the phone ? The microphone and the Call end button is on the converter only.

Image of the USB Cable. On one end is the Sony Proprietary Connector, on one end the USB Port to connect to your PC

Sony's Proprietary Connector for Charging, Headphone, USB Cable Interface

The Phone from the Front, very attractive.

Charging connector already connected to the Phone. You can see that there is a connector on the backside of the charger connector also, helps you connect your at the same time.

3.5 mm jack converter riding on the charger converter. One of the neatest ideas I have seen, charge your phone while listening to music.

Passing Sunday: Scramble on iPhone

I love words, I love word games, but it usually takes two to play, crosswords in the news paper seem too tough for a guy like me to go through on a lazy Sunday, and everyone is busy relaxing or doing their own thing, that asking someone to play a game of scrabble, may just get you ignorant stares. So this sunday, I chose to download and install Scramble, a free game for the iPhone and the iPod Touch, on my iPhone.

5 minutes down, and I was addicted to it, addicted, that I thought to start a weekly blog post on an apple application for the iPhone, after all with so many free and paid applications available, it will have some nice combos, at-least some great word games.

Scramble, installed in about a minute on my broadband connection and I was breezing through it, and got the hang of the game in about 5 odd minutes. The game offers a 4x4 or a 5x5 Board of balls with letters on it, and I loved the fact that it offers a Qu and not just a Q in the balls when it comes up. You are shown how many possible words you can make and you go on and make the words. Though it did not like all the funny words I had up my sleeve, and the minimum word length is 3 letters (so no, you can't make AT / AX / IS / WE / ME).

It allows you to play either a 2 minute or a 3 minute game, though this is annoying at first, that you were only able to make a few words, but hey, if there is no deadline, how do you actually have fun.

The use of accelerometer allows you to tilt the phone in any direction (90degrees) and change the way the balls are laid out, so maybe you see some other words.

The game also allows you to play 2 player, passing the phone between people, or play with people online.

So if you are a word game fan, and want an interesting game to fall in love with, check out Scramble at the iPhone App Store

Game Cost: Free / Version: 1 / Size 3.1MB / Current Average Rating: 4+

Review: Blackberry 8220 Pearl Flip / A Blackberry for the Ladies

MANY women use BlackBerrys, but most of them just can’t come to terms with what is a very male looking phone. I am not suggesting that Research in Motion (RIM) should start making pink phones, but why not try making them a bit curvy. Even the BlackBerry Pearl, Bold and Storm lack what women want. Finally, RiM seems to have got the idea, and last month came out with the Pearl Flip 8220.

I don’t like flip phones and at first was not really happy with this one either. But the Pearl Flip is attractive and more of a phone — if you, like me, have been carrying a phone along with your BlackBerry, this gives the option of opting for a single device. But I still felt it is more suited for women.

The Flip, like the Motorola Razr, has an outer screen which shows the emails and text messages and also has a nice looking analog clock. It does not let you reply to emails without opening the phone, but you can still preview calendar reminders, emails and text messages.

The phone is a bit beefy compared to RIM’s latest designs and I think BlackBerry should have spent more time working on its curves. I did not like the design of the Pearl, but there are a few welcome changes on the Pearl Flip. The recessed trackball, which allows the flip to close, is very thoughtful. The keys, too, are nicely laid out with small curves. By the end of two weeks I was able to master the Suretype and work almost as fast as I can on a QWERTY keyboard.
The Flip also has a newer version of the BlackBerry Operating System, and the interface is similar to that of the Bold. This is a big step ahead of the previous OS, but I wish the text display in emails were sharper.
The phone, however, lacks horsepower and is slow. But compared to other BlackBerrys its start-up time is much faster. The browser is much better than older models and the company claims it a full HTML browser. But the slow phone makes browsing a pain, even if you have high-speed Internet access available through Wi-Fi.

Overall, I liked the phone. But I believe it is better for people who are looking at buying their first BlackBerry, or their first smart phone. Compared to other smart phones in the market, this gives you BlackBerry emails (the best part), multimedia capabilities, an okay camera, and a good browser in a tight form factor. But buy it only if you want to switch over to BlackBerry services, not because you want a phone that looks good.

Price Rs 21,990

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The article appeared in The Indian Express, on Sunday 29th March 2009

The Sixth Sense - Wearable Computing

Indian news papers for the last 2 - 3 days have been full of the news on how Pranav Mistry is making waves with Sixth Sense. In case you have also read the news, or are interested in reading more, read on

Computers are a great asset, but they were not designed for out of the box interactivity. Over the last few years computers have become friendlier, even for a child, but you still need to learn how to use it, the interactivity is limited through the use of a keyboard and a mouse, and you need to know what these are. You just can't put a computer in the hand of a person who has never used it, and expected them to use it. This is the biggest challenge that all of us tech geeks must solve, there is a huge movement already there to solve this.

A few days back, in a post What if computers were as simple as blocks, I shared with you the work David Merill is doing, going forward Pranav Mistry's work is another break through.

Keeping in mind that these kids managed to what is very simple, but yet no one did it before, and all by spending just 350$ on the hardware, the cost of software and implementation is separate.

It has it's wow factor, so even if you are not interested in technology, and landed here, just while browsing this massive Internet, click on the video below and spend the next 5 minutes, seeing what is possible.



For those of you wondering, how this works.

Pranav has used a Web Camera to capture what he is seein'g, a Mirror Based Projector to project the images that you see, and 4 colored finger tips (also he is seen using nail paint) to identify where his fingers move. Think about it, Simple, yet wonderful. WOW

Time to Switch off the Lights - Earth Hour

Global warming is a pain in the *** and needs to be addressed. WWF is having an Earth Hour, at 8:30 PM on 28th March 2009, i.e Today, the date of the posting. Though it is not possible to do this globally, it's being done per country. A question that comes to my mind, with India where electricity supply is irregular, more than half of our population not having access to Electricity, will something like the Earth Hour really make a difference. I propose to shut off my car, lights, and other electronic items (No not my data center equipment) tonight at 8:30, will you .. What do you think, taking an hour off of our Electronic devices (Plugging them off), our Carbon Devices (Cars, Generators etc) will help ?

If God had a name, what would it be ?

I watched Dear God today morning and found it to be very interesting, a few questions that the movie leaves me thinking, and I like that. The Joan Osbourne Song, If God was one of us, in the movie made me think, can you call this Song a Sufi Song ?

Recently an interview of A.R. Rahman after his winning of the Golden Globe, I was a little surprised (not any more) when the Radio Jockey announced that we have a Sufi in between us, more readings on Rahman and his way of working revealed, how he looks at each song, as the song of God, though you can interpret a song, book, talk in any manner, but if you can interpret God in it, I think you can be called a Sufi.

I am left with lyrics, in my mind from an Indian Ocean Song

Hei tamasha yeh kya
Kyoon tu gum mein zara
kar muhabbat fakiri
Ho bharam se judaa
Hei tamasha yeh kya
kaun bura ya bhala
sab mein aks uska basa
Mei ko chod de ruh se jod le kar jayega paar...

If God had a name, what would it be ?

MUCH MORE THAN A PRINTER

A guide to help find the multi-function printer best suited to your needs

THIS week has been full of calls from friends and family on advice to buy a multi-function printer. It seems the falling prices and end of fiscal discounts are making people queue up to buy gadgets.

A year back I would have suggested home users to stay away from multi-function printers (MFP). The price per print was too high, and the units too expensive — a printer scanner combo came much cheaper. But restricted spaces and the need for privacy have prompted many to look for MFPs, though the huge variety of options leaves most of them flummoxed.

Earlier, the choice used to be easy; it was either Canon, Epson or HP. Now, with Brother, Lexmark and many other brands available in the market, things have become more complex. So, what should you look for in an MFP?

PRINTER
It is no longer about a black and white or a colour printer, as most home printers can print colour. The real choice is the cartridge: whether to buy a two cartridge (CMY + BLACK) or four cartridge (C, M, Y, Black) system. All vendors offer a four-cartridge system, though your dealer may not tell you so. If you would be taking a lot of color prints, it is best to choose the four-cartridge model which gives you the option to replace just the cartridge that runs out. (Printers use four colour inks — Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black. A two-cartridge system has one cartridge for CMY and another for black. If you take more prints of a redder tone, the chances are Magenta and Yellow inks will finish first, while the cartridge will still have decent amounts of Cyan left. However, you will need to change the whole cartridge anyway.) While two-colour cartridge printers are cheaper at the outset, the cartridge cost will offset the benefit in the longrun. However, it is better to choose these printers if a majority of your prints will be black and white.

STARTUP TIME
I have seen printers that take up to five minutes to power on, and get ready. So if you needed a print in a hurry, you will have to wait for the printer to warm up and initialise.

INK AVAILABILITY
Check ink pricing and availability when you buy a printer; and make sure you understand the costs involved. There is a problem of ink availability with some brands, so ensure the inks are easily available and that the company has a telephone order system.

PHOTO PRINTER
Most brands sell printers as regular small office/home printers and photo printers. Though a regular printer can print photos, they will not be as vivid as the photo printer. But photo printers will be expensive and with costlier inks. So if you plan to do a lot of photos, stick to a regular printer.

SPEED AND RESOLUTION
A resolution of 600x600 is great for documents, and a 1200x1200 resolution ideal for pictures. If you still want to buy a printer with a 3000 resolution, let me tell you that it will take longer to print, eat up a lot more ink and be expensive. So make sure you choose the resolution ideal for your nature of work — for basic photo copy and printouts a 600x600 resolution is great, a 1200x1200 should do for photo work. And don’t be bothered by the pages per minute speed if you are not going to spew out hundreds of prints every day.

SCANNER
If you are buying a multi-function printer, make sure you check the scanner. The scanning speed is of utmost importance. I have found Canon to be the fastest, scanning a colour page in less than four seconds and HP the slowest with eight seconds.

If you are going to store for online usage you only need a 150 or 300 x 300 dpi resolution. A 72 dpi scan is enough for emails. So anything above 600x600 will be a waste, unless you want to scan photos.

FLATBED OR DOCUMENT-FED
This is a complicated one. There are models that will only take documents fed as single sheets to do a photocopy or a scan. Though very fast, I would advise you to stay away from these models as they have limited use. The choice between document-fed and flatbed depends on the usage. If you run a small business from home, or are buying a printer for your office desk, the document feeder is a helpful option. But if you need to scan a stack of sheets at one go you need a flat bed.

Flatbeds come with two lid options—check if the lid is removable or expands with the book. If you are going to be scanning from fat reference books, you will need the lid to rise higher. Though there is literally no cost difference between the two options, this is an important feature buyers often overlook. Canon, Epson and Brother have expandable/removable lids on most of their MFPs. Some HP models don’t come with this option.

CONNECTIVITY
Some printers now offer either USB or wireless connectivity. Others will even offer you wired Ethernet connectivity, in the office series. The wireless option works great if a substantial chunk of your work is printing and not scanning, as most MFPs won’t support the scanner on wireless. To scan you will need to connect your MFP to a USB port. In case you have a desktop at home, buy the USB version, so that you can share the printer among your PCs and print from any laptop on the network. Remember, you will still need to pick up the print so the WiFi option may not be all that great.

MEMORY CARDS
Manufacturers still don’t allow direct prints from thumbdrives, or the option to save scans to one. But some models do come with slots for SD / MMC / MS cards. If buying such a printer, go for one which has a small LCD screen, like in cameras, to view what you are printing. Some MFPs offer PICTBridge connectivity to take prints from digital cameras.

PHOTOCOPIER
Though we buy MFPs for prints, the maximum usage will be to do photocopies. Most printers have a separate button that allows you to do a black or a colour photocopy, make sure the printer you choose has two (Color Copy /Black Copy) buttons instead of a complex menu.

WARRANTY
Most manufacturers offer at-home service — in case of a failure they will come, diagnose and repair the printer, if possible at home. Check the warranty if the service is on site or return to bench.

Since printers are used for years, check if there are options for an ex tended warranty.

TIP:Though you may be tempted to buy a photo printer, there are some online printing companies like itasveer.com, snapfish.com and zoomin.com which send home prints at cheap rates. So don’t buy a printer just for the photo prints.

Feature guide

• Will you print more in colour? Buy a model that has four cartridges


• Will you need a fax? Choose an MFP with a built-in fax


• Do you have a PC at home? Buy a USB-based device


• Will you get images to print on memory cards? Choose a printer with a card reader slot and preview screen


• Will you be printing photos? Choose a printer that can do 4”x6” borderless printing


• Will you be scanning books? Make sure the MFP has a lid that can raise itself to fit a book


• Will you be scanning a lot of single-sheet documents? An automatic document feeder will be ideal

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The above article was printed in The Indian Express, on Sunday 22nd March 2009

Not Just 2+2 / Review Casio FX82ES

IN THE old days, a scientific calculator meant a log book and a slide rule. By the time I got into college there were a number of brands selling scientific calculators. But the choice was easy, given the number of brands actually available in India.

Two decades later, with global and domestic brands vying for space on retailers’ shelves, Casio has somehow become the brand of choice due to its large range—from the simple calculator to hand-held PDAs that can do graphs. Recently, my inability to use a regular calculator compounded by the loss of my favorite Casio fx100 led me to a stationery shop to buy myself a new calculator.



Casio fx-82ES natural display appealed to me for a number of factors. The first was my love of fractions, the ability to enter an equation in the manner its written on paper was very important. The second reason was its ability to replay or go back and re-edit a calculation and see its impact on the result. The third was, of course, the cost.

After looking at a few models, the decision was clearly not to spend more than Rs 500; and the fx82ES was priced just right at a cool Rs 475. In fact, I was happy buying a Casio, rather than a Flair or Orpat, because my trusted old friend had worked wonderfully well for 20 odd years.

I have been called a show-off for preferring to use a scientific calculator, but, as I said, I am incapable of using a calculator without parenthesis. That’s not the only plus of the fx-82ES. It also lets you see results in the format of a fraction and switch to decimal view at the press of a button.

Another great feature, especially useful for students, is the capability of the fx-82ES to accept and calculate on basis of an array.

The fx82ES has a multi-line 96x31 pixel screen, comes with a hard case, three-year warranty and is very very light. The plastic and the built quality is amazing, and the manual simple to understand. Overall, the Casio fx82ES is all value for money. Go ahead, calculate your benefits.

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The above article appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday 15th March 2009

Microsoft + Ingram Micro Go Agressive This March, with Home + Student Edition of Office 2007

I hate piracy, yes, I do, I know it looks like a loud statement, but I have always been an advocate of non piracy. Though I will state, that I have always given free options to my customers, and colleagues, by using either linux, use Open Office, and or now, IBM Lotus Symphony to do your work, but not pirate. But some how, there is this comfort that people have built around the Microsoft Office usage pattern. Though Office 2007 is pretty different from the usual office editions that were there till now, but hey, don't we all want the latesht.

Just recieved this mailer from Ingram Micro for partners. They have come out with an agressive scheme (I am sorry, I can't mention the partner transfer price, due to partnership agreements) to sell the Office 2007 Home and Student Edition, Version 2007 till the end of March.

So what does Home and Student Edition Not Have
1. It does not have Outlook
2. It does not have access

What it has is, Word, Powerpoint, Excel and One Note

For more details, contact your Microsoft Partner.

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Beetel Launches DB7401 - Desktop Phone with Temperature Measurement

Beetel, pne of India’s leading telephone brands, announced the launch of the DB 7401 desktop phone, with a unique in-built temperature measurement and record feature. This innovative feature records the temperature and displays it right on the phone providing an opportunity to get room temperature details on the phone itself. The large 16 Digit LCD display also features an Analog Clock with five different alarm sets and a calculator, besides displaying details like Incoming Numbers, Missed Calls, Total Calls, Repeat Calls, etc. The Beetel DB 4701 is priced at an attractive price point of Rs. 1095/- only

DB 7401 includes a unique Talking Caller Line Identification (CLI) facility, which announces the number from which a call originates every time a call is received on the phone. The phone is also equipped with a Talking Outgoing Message (OGM) facility and safety features like rejection of calls from 5 numbers, anti line tapping and software controlled outgoing lock. The DB 7401 also features an inbuilt phone book that stores up to 100 phone numbers and a 100 numbers incoming calls and 50 numbers outgoing calls memory. The phone can be operated in multiple languages and offers 10 Melody and 8 Normal ring tones in addition to the Music on Hold function.

Warranty 1 Year, Available in a Store near You.

TRAI Amends Quality Of Service Rules For DTH

At the time of issue of these regulations, only two DTH operators apart from Doordarshan were providing DTH services in the country. Since then, three new DTH operators have started commercial operations and the number of DTH subscribers has also risen to about 11 million,” Trai said in a statement laying out the need for the amendments.

1) DTH firms cannot charge the subscriber for visits or repairs for equipment under guarentee.
2) The channel composition of a subscription package can’t be changed for six months (if the validity of a prepaid plan is longer, that will apply).
3) During this period, the the DTH operator must pull a channel, subscription charges should proportionately be reduced, or another channel in the same genre and language must replace it.
4) While the DTH operator can choose the channel that will replace the unavailable channel, the subscriber can choose whether to accept the new package or to pay the lower price.
5) DTH operators must entertain requests to suspend subscriber accounts for a period of 1-3 months.

Source: Content Sutra

TRAI Release | Full Amendment

How The **** Does Apple Do It - The New iPod Shuffle

It's the worlds first talking MP3 Player



Just got a press release from Apple about the release of the new iPod Shuffle. Though I am yet to get a confirmation if this is available in India immediately or not, but will fill you up on that soon.

The iPod Shuffle was something that I always liked for it's simplicity, but the missing screen was hmmm a bit of a downer for me, I was not sure how I would find the right music, how I would manage a play list, I was just not sure. Then the iPod Shuffle got copied, people across China started making copies of it, and it hit a low price of Rs. 450 (No Memory) + 2 GB Memory Card (Rs. 600) ~ Rs. 1050 in the market. The sound Quality on the copies was bad, now Apple's upped the Ante

To know more about the Apple Shuffle iPod, newly released, check out Apple's Website

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Pricing & Availability
The third generation 4GB iPod shuffle will be available within 4 weeks and comes in silver or black for a maximum retail price of Rs. 4,900 through Apple Authorised Resellers. iPod shuffle comes with the Apple Earphones with Remote and the iPod shuffle USB cable. iPod shuffle requires a Mac with a USB 2.0 port, Mac OS X v10.4.11 or later and iTunes 8.1 or later; or a Windows PC with a USB 2.0 port and Windows Vista, Windows XP Home or Professional (Service Pack 3) or later and iTunes 8.1.
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Another Step Closer to Number Portability

We all are tired of our cell phone service provider. Whether it is a Customer for Provider A, or Provider B, all of us don't like the level of services our providers give, and we are all waiting for number portability, after all, why would I want to change my number after all these years.

Though theoretically speaking Number portability should not be rocket science, but is being made rocket science to protect a lot of interests. After all if the number portability does come in, how many of us will switch providers, even if it comes at a cost of Rs. 50 a month, I think most of us. The problem will be who will be the winner at the end of it all.

But leaving this, the reason I am doing this blog post is, because of a news in the Economic Times yesterday about Number Portability now a Step closer

The 95 Dialing is now out (Thanks to our Friends being always confused), how many times will they have to renumber India, first they added a 2 as a prefix to 6 digit numbers, then they moved us to 8, from 7, then they gave 5 as the start prefix to both Tata Indicom and Airtel Land Line (called Touchtel at that time), then realised the blunder, eventually moving

All MTNL Lines Start with 2
All Hand Phones Start with 9
All Airtel Land Lines Start with 4
All Tata Land Lines Start with 6
All Reliance Land Lines Start with 3

I dont' think 5,7 and 8 are still granted. To dial out a neighbour city we were using 95, and the city code, say if we called Delhi to Gurgaon, you would dial 95-124-phone number, now you will need to dial 0124-phone number

So what will be the fun of 95 going out, confusion again, but hey, what the hell, we are evolving. I just hope the Babus pay more attention this time and don't get us to change numbers again in a few months.

To read the article, click here

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My New Tech Toy: Casio FX 82ES Scientific Calculator

I suffer from what may be called Stationery Fetish. I can't resist walking in and buying something from a a Stationery store if I ever cross one. Staples opening in India was something that I always looked forward to, I agree that there maybe stores that have a better variety (Considering Staples is just about starting up here, and since lost on it's direction), but hey, the variety of staplers, pins, pens, and accessories can drive you crazy to spend money.

Another friend of mine, who is in the Textile and Garment Business, who claims to suffer from the same Disease of sorts, has banned himself to go near staples or any other stationery shop, though his collection of pens is enviable, and the post it's he has wow.

Anyway, back to my tech toy. Ever since I went to Engineering School (to do my electronics and datacom), I got hanged on to a scientific calculator. My days of yore involved using a slide rule, but where can you buy one today ?

Casio has made wonderful calculators all through my life of using them from 1990 till now (18 odd years). My biggest problem with standard desk calculators is, they can't do parentheses, and they just can't handle fractions / exponential figures the way I would want to see my result. Though my brother and I can endlessly argue about the reason I would need this format of numbers in business today, but as they say, it's just a comfort zone, and you tend to stay in one.

Anyway, Casio's latest FX82ES available in India now for a list price of Rs. 475, handles a few things marvelously well

1. It has mathematical formula input
2. Handles Fractions as Fractions, results are also in Fractions and in case you want decimal numbers, click of a button can get you these
3. Full editor functionality of editing your formula and or going back in history / replaying the calculation
4. 7 Memories
5. A Large Screen 31 dots x 96 dots (WOW)

For those of you who would want to check out functionality before buying it, you can download the user manuals by clicking here. To know more about the Calculator, visit Casio's website on FX82ES

Non Tech: Why God Made Moms

A few days ago, I was a part of a Mail Trail about the subject, Why God Made Moms. I chose to reply back to the sender alone, due to the sensitive nature of the email, but Harpreet sent out a mail, which touched all of us. Her mail is replicated at the end of this posting.

A video was then returned to the whole mail trail, which is brilliant, worth a standing ovation, so here goes, WHY GOD MADE Moms



BTW, are you still grounded ?

Everybody thinks that their moms boss over them too much, nag too much,
fight too much.. but they are the best things that ever happened to a
person. only a mom can give total unconditional love even if you are the

worse possible daughter. LOVE U MOM..hope u know that :-)

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Living with iLife

If you are a Mac user, you would want to know about Apple’s utility tool iLife which got upgraded to iLife 09, along with their office suite, iWork, which is now iWork 09.

iLife is a Mac suite of utilities that has four essential multimedia tools that most of us need. A photo management utility called iPhoto, a website builder called iWeb, a music making and rearranging utility called Garage Band and iMovie for moving editing. Now that most of us use digital cameras to take pictures and make movies, iMovie and iPhoto can be handy. So we’ll look at these two tools this week and keep Garage Band and iWeb for another column.

iPhoto 09
When Picasa came out, it made life simpler and Facebook and Flickr made photo tagging fun. But sadly, a Mac had no such tool till iLife 09 came out. iLife 09’s iPhoto allows you to tag faces in the pictures and then it uses a complicated algorithm to recognise faces and sort pictures by faces. It has an accuracy of roughly 90 per cent. And when it gets stuck, it checks with you to see if this is the person you are looking for. The other feature in iPhoto 09 is the ‘geo tag’ for images. That is, you can tag the place where they were taken and then search for photos on the map. The map lets you drop pins for locations and you can mark favourite locations. Other new features allow you to create thematic slide shows and export slide shows as movies and share them on Flickr and Facebook.

iMovie 09
Every time I do an installation for a customer, I use my standard digicam to record a video of the customer talking to me and I keep them for records, hoping that one day I will have enough case studies to make a training file. I could take them to a professional movie editing studio and get them to add titles and other fancy things, but as someone said, if you have a Mac, you could do it all by yourself.

The new version of iMovie 09 lets you add fancy titles. iMovie 09 also features eight new transitions, such as fade-in and fade-out, and 19 video effects, including Aged Film, Sci-Fi, and Cartoon.

If all this is a bother, iMovie 09 has something called Dynamic Themes. Apply the theme and IMovie does the rest for you—adding animated titles and transitions to a movie. My favourite feature here is ‘video stabilisation’. Video cameras now have up to a 400x zoom and it becomes impossible to shoot a stable video at high zoom rates without a tripod. iMovie analyses how much your camera was moving and reduces the camera shake for you. This feature helps to add a professional touch to your home video.

If you want to burn the movie to a DVD, iLife 09 has a tool called iDVD that lets you author DVDs. For a sound track for your home movie, use the Garage Band, or if you simply want to upload it to a web server, use iWeb. For more information on iLife, check out Apple’s website at http://www.apple.com/ilife. In case you already own an Apple, the list price on the new version is $79. Apple India’s suggested retail price is Rs 4,320 plus taxes. You can’t really run iLife on a PC, so if you don’t have a Mac, you must upgrade to one.

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The above article was printed in the Indian Express, on Sunday 8th March 2009

What is EBS 2008

Microsoft, released Essential Business Server 2008, in November 2008. I have been playing with it since the time it had released and finally have now implemented it in a production environment.

Over the next few days, I will mention about the trouble I had in deployment, errors recieved and how I fixed those to finally get to a production environment. But a lot of people recently asked me, what really is EBS 2008, and how different it is from SBS 2003.

SBS was one of my favourite programs when it came to small companies looking at a Microsoft based deployment. A single server edition worked as your Active Directory server, your Exchange server, and in case you wanted a Database, also your Database Server (If you had premium edition).

The limitation with SBS 2003, was that you could not have more than 75 client machines. Now the limitation is gone. EBS ships in two variants, EBS Standard (Limited to 75 Clients) and EBS Premium (Limited to 300 Clients)



To know the differences between editions, click here

For Microsoft website on Essential Business Server, click here

A great resource on EBS FAQ's, EBSFAQ.COM

THE BIG IDEA: Another One Bites the Dust

Just got a Press Release from Shonal the PR of Blackberry / RIM in India. She mentions that Idea just started Blackberry services, so as they say, Another One bites the Dust.

Now blackberry Services are available on

Airtel
Vodafone
Reliance
Tata
Idea

Announcing the launch, Mr. Pradeep Shrivastava, Chief Marketing Officer, IDEA Cellular Ltd. said, “IDEA has continuously endeavoured to enrich the lives of our customers through cutting-edge technology on our network. Our partnership with RIM to offer the BlackBerry solution with a rich portfolio of smartphones reinforces this commitment to our customers. With the BlackBerry solution, IDEA customers can now stay connected and access information in a timely manner, thus increasing productivity and contributing to a better work-life balance.”

Ms. Frenny Bawa, Vice President, India at RIM said, “The innovative BlackBerry solution has proven successful in enabling businesses to mobilise their workforce and it has also proven popular among consumers for its industry-leading messaging capabilities and rich multimedia features. We are pleased to partner with IDEA Cellular to expand the availability of the BlackBerry solution in India.”

Wonder, Now that Every one has the blackberry services available, will they start a price war on the handsets ?

For More info, on the Idea Launch, click here

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An Ode to KK

No, I am not talking about the singer or the actor—the story is about a visually challenged programmer from Bangalore, named Krishna Kant Mane, whom I met at the Freed.in conference, where I was speaking this year. He codes programs, builds software—he is writing an accounting software called GNUKhata—and is an active speaker, teacher and activist. KK’s talk at the conference led to a huge discussion on which screen reader software works best for visually impaired users.

There have been thousands of white papers on how accessibility is important in a PC. If you have ever noticed those two small notches on the keyboard under F and J and wondered there are for, well they may not have been put there for visually challenged people, but they do help them.

There are no computers with a Braille interface, but with advances in Speech Synthesiser technology, screen reading software and other features, it is becoming easier for visually impaired people to use a computer.

A software called Orca, which is included in the Linux distribution, is what makes all this possible. Orca is a free, open-source screen reader. Though it works on a Gnome Linux box, people are trying to get it to work on other platforms. To know more about Orca, go to: http://live.gnome.org/Orca.

To know if his computer has shut down, KK has to place his finger next to the air vent of his laptop to see if the fan has stopped spinning. He wishes the machine could say goodbye.

I know this is not one of my usual tech stories, but we all have to contribute in some way to help brighten up the lives of other individuals. Hope this article inspires some of us to think and build solutions for other challenged people, and to help someone use a computer better.

--
The above story was published in the Indian Express, on Sunday, March 1, 2009
--
Photo Courtsey: Jace - Flickr

How did this Credit Crisis Happen ?

As a Business Owner, I ask myself this question a number of times the whole day, what happened, how did it happen, why is it that every one is affected. I read the paper, talk to people, but when I hear terms like CDS / CDO's / Sub Prime Mortgages, it some how flies over my head.. I just can't understand how it affects every one and what does a CDS or a CDO Means.

There are two brilliant videos on Presentation Zen a blog on the art of making presentations, one by Johnathan Jarvis, which is brilliant and explains everything you wanted to know, and one by Paddy Hirsch.

Here are the two of them for you to watch.


The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

How Long Does it Take to Transfer

Whenever you have to download a large file, this becomes a persistent question, how long will it take to transfer. Last Night I wanted to download EBS 2008 Trial CD/DVD From Microsoft. It consists of 3 DVD's and 1 CD Image, Approximately a Total of about 12 GB. So the question again arises, how long will it take to transfer.

Since India is still in the age, where 256 kbps and 512 kbps is called broadband (and lucikly I have more Internet speed than you can think of), I thought of doing this article.

Assuming that there is no packet loss, i.e there is no loss of packets, by default the calculation works like this

1 Megabyte File = 1 * 8 Megabits File = 8 Megabits File
So If you had a 1 Megabits / second connection, it will take you 8 Seconds to download it.

Some Pictures to Demystify the story








Now this is not really true, you have to bear in mind, that the speed your ISP says, say 256 kbps is the speed from your home to his office, the speed to the Internet will be governed by a number of other factors.

Also the fact that when a File is transferred, using TCP/IP, the Data is bloated by 40% (L3 Headers and L2 Packet Framing).

Hence a 1 MB File becomes 1.4 MB

Assuming 256 kbps is the Internet connection speed, and you averagely only get 80% of the speed, with a 140% file size, the graphs take a different twist






So Next Time a Friend calls you to ask you to download him that big file he is unable, don't just say 10 minutes, do your math.

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Me @ Freed.In 2009

I was a speaker at Freed.In 2009 This year. Though a bit out of place in a developers conference, but met some wonderful people. Following are some pictures from Freed. Will upload my presentation by end of day today.

Freed In 2009 Managing Datacenter

View more presentations from gagandeepsapra. (tags: managing data)

For More pictures from the event Freed.In @ Flickr

Image Courtsey: Niyam Bushan

Kudos Rahman & Company - 8 Oscars for Slumdog

He has done it.. yet again.. AR Rahman spins magic.. ever since he has been on the music scene, he has been the envy of every other music directory, achieving some brilliant milestones, like the beautiful rendition of "Jana Gana Man", the National Anthem of India and the music he has done for movies, yesterday All India Radio called him, a Sufi, Rock, Pop, Star who has done some brilliant music.

Slumdog (Haven't seen the movie as yet), has been the topic of discussion ever since it came out.. and now 8 oscars, including the first one for India.

AeyRahman, Mera Tujhe Salam

TOI: 8 Oscars for SlumDog

Storm Clouds over the iPhone - Review, Blackberry Storm

When I was supposed to upgrade my phone late last year, my wife suggested that I buy a new BlackBerry. But I decided to wait for the BlackBerry Storm to come to India. Though, in the meantime, I changed my mind on getting a new BlackBerry, I still wanted to review the Storm to help you decide whether it was better than the iPhone. I am not covering the other competitors, because I think only these two have got it all right — music, phone and email.

The Storm clearly looks like it was inspired by the iPhone. Research in Motion (RIM) has replaced its popular QWERTY keyboard with a 3” touchscreen, but not at the cost of the BlackBerry mission.

RIM has always been building serious business phones and the Storm does not change anything. If you are looking for email and messaging as your first use on the phone, the Storm wins hands down. I know some of you will say the iPhone has a better text input, but I think it is a matter of getting used to the phones.

But if you are looking for a phone that will be good with music, games and browsing the Internet then it is the iPhone that you should go for. The Storm does not live up to expectations on this front.

Like the iPhone, the Storm’s screen flips from vertical to horizontal as you rotate the phone. This is a brilliant feature, and the Storm’s new browser makes Internet browsing a good experience, but it does not match up to the brilliance of the iPhone. But I liked the click on the Storm. It uses a touchscreen, as well as a pressure switch matrix at the back of the screen to give a good tactile feedback.

I have been using a BlackBerry for years now, and the biggest plus for me has always been the QWERTY keyboard. So the touchscreen is a no-no for me. However, it works fine and has a keyboard layout similar to that of BlackBerry Pearl and Bold.

The Storm’s best feature has to be the battery, which lasted more than a day. The iPhone on the other hand had to be charged by mid-afternoon.

I am confused how ultimately BlackBerry turned out to be the iPhone killer. Apple should be making plans to make a BlackBerry killer.

While the Storm is available only on Vodafone now, most service providers have the iPhone in their stables. But what wins it for the Storm is its price of Rs 27,990. However, the BlackBerry services will cost you about Rs 1,000 a month, while the iPhone package costs just Rs 500. But, I will still stick to the BlackBerry.

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The above article appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday 22nd February 2009

What If - Computers Were as Simple as Blocks

The value of unlearning is very big. A concept introduced to me by a great friend of mine, and it has helped me progress, as my friend said, the importance is not to learn, but to unlearn. Our lives have become complicated with things around us, technology, cultures, television, media, all trying to teach us something, making it more and more complex. Any technology that makes life simpler, and easier, is something that I welcome with open Arms. This year at TED, David Merrill presented a Talk on Siftables (tiny blocks of computers, that interact with each other). Though in very early stages of development, but this talk will show you endless possibilities that you can think about.

David's presentation is just 7 minutes 9 seconds, and uses both videos, stills and talk to deliver a message, that makes you think. A Must Watch



Want More details, check out www.siftables.com.

PS: You can't buy them right now, I know, I also want them.

The rogue quartet

Last week, I told you how to save your computer from viruses. This week we will take a look at the top four viruses and malwares infecting computers in India.

Autorun malware
The most common infection is the autorun malware. Autorun is a brilliant utility built into all Windows systems, but sadly it has been causing more harm than gain in the last few years. Autorun enables designated files to run when an enabled drive (a CD or USB thumbdrive) is inserted into the computer. If your thumbdrive is infected, it will automatically run an installer infecting the PC. The autorun malware will usually download more malware, additional backdoors and password stealers, most of which also have the capability to disable your anti-virus, leaving your system vulnerable. The best way to tackle the malware is by disabling autorun.

IE start page changes
Spyware and adware often change your browser’s start and search pages. Even if you remove the malware using your anti-virus software, you will still need to reset the settings of Internet Explorer, so as to get your default pages back. For Internet Explorer 6, right-click the IE icon on the desktop, choose ‘Properties’, click the ‘Programs’ tab, then the ‘Reset Web Settings’ button and click ‘Apply’ and ‘OK’ to reset settings. In IE 7, click Tools/Internet Options in the Internet Explorer menu, click the Advanced tab and click Reset.

Downadup/Conficker
If you are on a network, or have a PC that often links to one, there are chances you may get infected by Downadup, a malicious worm that uses your computer resources to replicate, and make copies of itself. It can also include other malwares that damage both the computer as well as the network. Once executed, it disables a number of important Windows services, including automatic updates, security centre, Windows defender and Windows error reporting. After infecting and shutting down services it uses your Internet connection to download more malware. However, removal tools are available.

W32/Netsky-P
Ever wondered why there is spam being generated using your email address? Most probably, you are using Peer-to-Peer Networks to share files, or to download pirated music or movies and may have infected your PC with W32/NetSky-P. The worm copies itself to your P2P shared folders and adds files such as ‘britney spears song text archive.exe’, ‘harry potter all e.book.doc.exe’, ‘microsoft office 2003 crack best.exe’ which steal data from your local files and spreads by emailling a copy to your colleagues, with subjects such as Re: Thank you for delivery, Re: Status, Re: Notify. The worm is also known to delete registry entries. Tools to remove the worm are available on the Net.

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The above story was printed in the Indian Express on Sunday 15th Feb 2009.

Goodbye TV, hello streaming - The Telegraph Calcutta (Kolkatta)

Another story done by Rahul Jayram of the Telegraph, about the trend of people watching Television shows online. I as most others, am a great fan of you tube, but with itunes having so much digital content available and high speed bandwidth availability (atleast for some of the lucky few), I have also moved quite a bit to watching digital media, than regular Television. Though a meeting with Niyam Bushan, had us discuss the penetration of Television being much higher than Print or Online, and how the next destination for all of us should be the Idiot Box, this is an interesting story.

I have highlighted my comments with in the story for my readers

Goodbye TV, hello streaming
Indians overseas can catch their favourite television shows online, reports Rahul Jayaram

It’s 10 pm on a Tuesday in Singapore. Chennai-raised company executive Laxmi Sivakumaran is itching for her favourite Tamil soap. A key moment in Selvi, the current Tamil mega serial, is set to unfold. A house is about to be divided. It’s Indian television entertainment at its melodramatic peak. What happens next?

“I log on to the Net,” chuckles a chatty Sivakumaran. “I get online and don’t even need to download the episode.”

Welcome to watching your pick of the soaps on the Internet. Sivakumaran is one among many users abroad who go online to view soaps they’re addicted to. Portals such as www.idesitv.com, www.muft.tv, www.yupptv.com, www.biggboss2.in.com and Network18’s www.in.com have become the go-to zones for Indians abroad who’ve been longing for a slice of desi masala. “I don’t have a TV, so the Web is a boon,” says Sivakumaran.

In faraway Glasgow, Scotland, Mumbai-born Rajesh Pathak, a catering professional, kept up with all the juice in episodes of Bigg Boss 2 on the show’s website www.biggboss2.in.com. “Indian TV channels are quite expensive here, so I prefer to view Indian shows online,” Pathak says. Sneha Mathur, a Mumbai-born medical student in Austin, Texas, stresses that the web is how she catches up with Indian shows. She left India in the middle of last year but caught Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi’s final episodes on www.muft.tv while in the US.

The USP of most of these sites is that viewers can watch their favourite shows without having to download a video clip, courtesy video streaming — a technology that enables you to watch an audiovisual clip online. To view such a clip, you just go to a website and get registered (in most cases for free, though some have charges), click on the language of your choice, move to the TV serial link and get a list of the most recent episodes of your chosen show. Depending on the website, the quality of the clip and the strength of your Internet connection, the streaming begins. It’s also an option for those who live in India but have missed an episode of their favourite show.

However, the bulk of these sites resides in a shadowy zone as far as the legality of their uploaded content goes. While there are no figures to establish how many users actually avail of these services, technology and cyber legal experts admit that it is as well-established a phenomenon as downloading films and music from the web.

“These websites are culpable under the Information Technology Act of 2000,” says cyber affairs lawyer Pavan Duggal. “But this law basically takes into consideration e-commerce-related electronic data and information issues. When this law was framed in 2000, few were concerned about matters pertaining to uploading videos of TV channel shows,” he says. “People can be charged with hacking, or with streaming illegal content or violating copyright. But cases are few and far between as it’s very difficult to catch portal hosts.”

Gagandeep S. Sapra, technology columnist and CEO of System 3 Group, Delhi, adds that users can’t be identified unless they are using a credit card for payment. “Second, who will share this information with the authorities? The biggest problem is that users don’t know whether this is fair play or piracy and hence litigating the user becomes very difficult.” The Telegraph technology columnist Tushar Kanwar points out that most of these websites have been put up outside India and under fictitious identities.

Clearly, it’s not easy for television channels to take action. “We routinely put out legal notices to websites to take down content which infringes on our copyright. However, many such websites are very difficult to trace and may be registered in jurisdictions where copyright enforcement is extremely difficult,” admits Sameer Rao, senior vice president (strategic planning and commercial) of STAR India.

Giving a fillip to the phenomenon is the fact that video streaming is as easy as uploading a video on a Facebook profile. For the former, the connection is between the user’s computer and television set, instead of a digital camera and a computer.

To upload TV show episodes, the TV and the computer need to have compatible TV tuner cards. Once the connection is set, and as a serial begins live on TV, it starts getting converted into a video file on the user’s computer. When the video file is complete and transferred to the PC, the user logs in to any of the websites mentioned where he or she is a registered member and uploads the video. Most users, it appears, upload just for the fun of it — though some websites may hope to make money from advertising if they can capture enough eyeballs.

In the case of websites such as www.biggboss2.in.com, there are daily uploads of the current day’s episodes. Other websites, including www.yupptv.com and www.idesitv.com, upload serials more irregularly.

To combat unlicensed streaming, STAR hopes to put up its own shows on approved websites. Rao says the channel has entered into licensing deals for their content with several established websites such as www.rajshri.com, www.mypopkorn.com, Bigflix and Eros to show both full length episodes and clips.

Some TV channels, in fact, believe online video streaming can lead to an increased global reach. “We’re going to see a growing merger between multiple media platforms such as Internet and TV. In a bid to expand our reach abroad, we have tied up with outlets like BigFlix.com to stream some of our programmes so that legally registered viewers can view them,” says Gaurav Gandhi, executive vice-president, business operations and content sales, NDTV Imagine.

Sapra stresses that video streaming is on a high. “India will soon see this come up in a big way. We’re soon going to be in a situation where two years from now you’re riding on the Delhi Metro, have high speed Internet available on the train, and then watch TV on your hand held PDA, laptop or cell phone, without having to download — that’s the potential of streaming. TV sets are going to have a hard time selling,” he says.

“The distance between the TV and the PC appears to be collapsing,” says Kanwar. Sapra adds there are “very exciting days ahead.” Laxmi Sivakumaran would raise a toast to that. Selvi is just a click away.

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The above article appeared in the Telegraph Calcutta Edition, on January 11, 2009, and the rights for this story lie with The Telegraph. I am not an author of this story, it is replicated here, only for the purpose of reference to G-Spot readers.

Laptop Nanos - Telegraph Calcutta (Kolkatta)

The Tata Nano brought in the revolution to mini / small / sub notebooks. The Atom Revolution. Rahul Jayram, with the Telegraph had done a wonderful story in August 2008, that I forgot to publish here on the blog. The Story had my interview / comments in it, and I have highlighted those in the middle of the blog post for my readers, who don't get the Telegraph

Vikas Kumar, 32, a middle-level executive at an information technology (IT) company, all too often hits the road. Little surprise then that the Delhi-based Kumar has long had a love affair with computers and has saved up money to buy a laptop, perhaps a Dell Inspiron. But now that he has heard of low-cost laptops and computers that are soon to hit the stores, he’s prepared to wait. “There’s every chance of computer prices crashing, so I'll bide my time” he says.

Kumar is being prudent. In a bid to reach out to the mass market, computer makers have embarked upon a quest for lower priced personal computers and laptops.

In January, Chennai-based Novatium Solutions launched a Rs 4,999 desktop called netPC and has now inked a distribution deal with state-owned Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. On June 23, software giant Intel launched what was perhaps the world’s smallest processor, the Intel Atom processor, which will power low-cost desktops (called Nettops) and super-light laptops (called Netbooks).

To begin with, the Nettops and Netbooks will be produced by three Indian companies. While Zenith is already out with its Nettop PC, Wipro and HCL are readying to storm the market with Nettops and Netbooks. A Netbook will carry price tags of Rs 20,000 to Rs 25,000 while the bill for a Nettop will range from Rs 11,000 to Rs 15,000. The prices will be considerably lower than the current prices of a desktop, which now costs about Rs 35,000, and a laptop, which comes for about Rs 45,000, both depending on the configuration.

“The point about low cost computers is about entering the Indian household. There are only around 8 million home PC users in India, while around 30 million people still go to cyber cafes,” says the Mumbai-based entrepreneur and co-founder and chairman of Novatium, Rajesh Jain. “Low-cost computers like the netPC will make cyber cafe users buy these computers. The way to make that happen is by entering the market with a dramatic entry price point.”

The company has already sold around 7,000 netPCs. “We are looking at penetrating 100,000 households in the current financial year,” exults Jaideep Kohli, chief operating officer of Novatium in Chennai. Kohli is also clear that the Rs 4,999 product is aimed at the mass market. “The netPC is a simple, hassle-free machine to be used by children, youngsters and home makers.” So it doesn’t have a central processing unit (CPU), software, hard disc and random access memory (RAM). “All these reside in the central server at the administrator’s end,” Kohli explains.

Netbooks and Nettops fall in a different bracket. Though cheaper than most existing desktops and laptops, they’re not as inexpensive as netPCs. Netbooks are also small and convenient to carry around.

“The Intel Atom will lead to the availability of a range of affordable Netbooks and Nettops. These devices, enabled with broadband connectivity, will help bring the Internet and basic computing experience to many more people in India,” says R. Sivakumar, managing director, sales and marketing group, Intel, south Asia.

Rajesh Gupta, director, sales and marketing group, Intel, south Asia, Mumbai, explains that Intel wants to expand the availability of computers and the Internet to smaller towns such as Raipur and Rajkot. So it has been working with state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL). “In the interiors of states such as Gujarat and Maharashtra, we have a tie up with BSNL service providers. They are computer sellers and also our direct sales agents. So the BSNL outlet becomes a one-stop shop to get these basic computers and a broadband connection,” says Gupta.

The Netbook is light — 1.2 kg, versus a standard mainstream notebook’s 2.5-3 kg — and small, with a 10-inch screen size (versus screen sizes of 15-17 cm in regular laptops). It has a 1 GB RAM, 80 GB HDD and XP Home with an integrated web camera. It will be Wi-Fi enabled (by next year WiMax enabled also). That means you can use it without wires. And you can make phone calls over the Internet free of cost with software that enables you to do so.

The big question, of course, is whether the new laptops and desktops will grab hordes of buyers. Bangalore-based Ashok Tripathy, head, personal computing division, Wipro, believes that Netbooks are just right for first-time buyers, or those looking for simple Internet use and portability. “These Netbooks are ideal for people who want to surf, who want a second notebook at home, for travellers who want a light machine or for people who do office applications, e-mail and not too high-end computing,” he says.

Some technology experts, however, are sceptical. “The availability of lower powered machines at great prices will expand computer usage,” says Gagandeep S. Sapra, technology columnist and CEO of System 3 Group, an IT infrastructure and consulting firm in Delhi. “But to sell it you’d have to fight the typical Indian mindset. We think if it’s expensive, it’s good; if it’s cheap, it’s bad. The bada hai toh achchha hai mentality is difficult to overcome.”

Diptarup Chakraborti, an analyst at IT research and advisory firm Gartner Research, Mumbai, is not impressed by the prices. “At Rs.20,000-25,000, Netbooks don’t come all that cheap,” he says.

But Nettops are, and Vikas Kumar can go out and buy a laptop that may just be the industry's version of the Tata Nano.

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The above story appeared in the Telegraph Calcutta, news Paper on August 3, 2008. The Story has not been written by me, and I am not claiming to be the owner of the Story. All rights for this story are reserved with The Telegraph.

How to Reset Internet Explorer Settings

Malware / Viruses at times change the settings of Internet Explorer to change your start page and your search page. At times you don't notice this, and when you do, cleaning your pc using your antivirus will remove the worm, but the settings of Internet explorer remain the same, and hence your startup / search page are the ones that the worm wanted. To reset the settings, follow step by step

IE6

1. Close IE and all other applications on your PC
2. Right-click the Internet Explorer icon on the desktop
3. Choose 'Properties'
4. Click the 'Programs' tab
5. Click the 'Reset Web Settings' button
6. Click 'Apply'
7. Click 'OK'

IE7

1. From the Internet Explorer menu, click Tools | Internet Options.
2. Click the Advanced tab.
3. Click Reset.
4. On the Reset Internet Explorer Settings window, select Reset.
5. Click OK to exit the Internet Options menu
6. Close Internet Explorer and restart it for changes to take effect.

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How To Disable Autorun in Windows

Removable USB/thumb drives use the Autorun feature to load files when the drives are plugged into the USB port. Malware exploits the Autorun feature to spread from thumb drive to PC. Disable the autorun feature to prevent malware from spreading.

# The easiest and most effective means to truly disable autorun can be done via this simple autorun registry hack:

REGEDIT4
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\IniFileMapping\Autorun.inf]
@="@SYS:DoesNotExist"

To use this method, Open Notepad and copy/paste the following into a text file:

REGEDIT4
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\IniFileMapping\Autorun.inf]
@="@SYS:DoesNotExist"

Save the file as something.reg. (You have to be sure to change the "Save File as Type" to "All Files" before saving, or Windows will try to save it as a .txt even if you typed in .reg.

Locate the file you just saved and double-click the file to run it. You will receive a prompt asking if you want to add the data to the registry. Click yes to allow the modification.

The above method nulls any request for autorun.inf and works on XP Home or Pro, as well as Windows Vista

There are many other ways of disabling autorun, but this is by far the simplest.

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I suck at Presentations (Read Power Point) Do you ?

Everytime someone told me, I need to make a presentation, I shook, it was stage fright, but as a Business owner, speaker, I have had to make my way around it.. This is something I have always done, get 3 Slides

Slide1: MY Name / Contact Info
Slide2: What am I speaking about (This is constantly on the screen when I am speaking)
Slide3: End, Thank you

Simple, very Zen, but does not work for all situations, situations when someone says, hey, can you email me a presentation.. NAAAA

I have always been a speaker, put me up there and let me speak, I will make sure you know what I mean, and what my story is.. but then.. making sure you have presentation skills is important.

I have been recently reading Garr Reynolds, Presentation Zen Blog, and the Video below, from a Talk at Google makes you really see how to make a presentation happen.

So if you, like me, suck at presentations, take out an hour, and see this video.



This event took place on March 21, 2008, as a part of the Authors@Google series.

Nightmare - Acer Aspire One (AAO) Not Booting / No POST

Shocked / Screwed / ***k, what the ****, why .. why,,,, mar gaya, oh sh~t

That was the expression for me Thursday night. I had to travel to Suryavilas, in the Hills for a meeting, and my AAO (Acer Aspire One), stopped Booting, Switching on at 3AM in the morning. The machine is still under warranty but hey, I had a Train at 7:40 AM in the morning, and knowing the way Acer Handles RMA / Repair, I knew they would take 7 days to even move from their ***. So, what was the option, take my macbook along, or go without a laptop.. after all it was just for a day.. but this tech junkie, could not sleep.. a few minutes of googling around, brought me to a lot of other users making posts on similar problem faced, and then, yahoo (sorry Google), a solution found.

Turns out, this is a Bug with the Firmware, but luckily our friends at Acer, built in a recovery method, not sure if this is legal / legit, and it will not hamper my warranty, but it was the only solution available to me at 3:15 AM

Thanks to *macles, here is the excerpt, of what I did

1. Get a seperate Windows Laptop
2. Get a Thumb Drive (Pen Drive / Memory Stick)
3. Format the Thumbdrive (Dos / FAT Partition)
4. Downloaded the Latest Bios from Acer Taiwan
5. Downloaded UnetBootIn and installed it
6. Ran UNETBootIn with my Thumbdrive connected to seperate (working) windows laptop and made it bootable using FreeDos (see Screenshot below) / remember drive letter maybe different in your case



7. Copied the .fd file extracted (version number will change) to Thumbdrive, and renamed it to ZG5IA32.FD
8. Copied Flashkit.exe (extracted from downloaded bios) to the Thumbdrive
9. Ejected and Inserted the Thumbdrive into Powered off Acer Aspire One
10. Connected Both battery and AC adapter (I had as usual, taken out the battery, tried to switch it on only with AC Adapter, then left everything disconnected for sometime)
11. Press Fn+Esc, keep it pressed and press the power button to turn the AAO on
12. When the power switch light started blinking after a few seconds, released Fn+ESC keys
13. Pressed Power Switch Again
14. Waited Patiently for 5 Minutes
15. Power Button Stopped Blinking (oh my god, yeh kya ho raha hai)
16. Machine Booted, thanked Google, my lucky stars, and Macles
17. Made Sure, I write this Blog Post on my return

AAO, you rock, but hey, if this bug hits, you.. you have the solution here.

G

Virus ahead: stay clear

Better safe than sorry. Here’s how to avoid virus attacks
Virus, the very word evokes hate and fear. Every time I hear about one, I hate the guys who made it. It is said that the first computer virus was made by a disgruntled employee in a large software company. But that is history. The fact is that as long as there is piracy on the Net and takers for it among us, our PCs will remain vulnerable to viruses.
I have often joined debates on what virus makers get from their misdemeanours. Is it just the kick, or is there a financial benefit? Conspiracy theories are aplenty and many believe viruses are created by Anti-virus manufacturers.

Today, I will stay away from the economics of viruses and advise you on how to fight the scourge. Since I have already told you how to clean your PC, I will concentrate on how to make sure you do not get infected. Let’s start with four golden rules:
*Stop downloading pirated music / videos / software.
*Stop borrowing software/MP3s etc downloaded by your friends.
*Have a clear policy on using all portable media.
*Know how to browse safely on the Internet.

VIRUS BUSTERS: First, if you think you are not infected, you should immediately get a good antivirus. Many basic anti-virus programmes are available for free edition such as the AVG Free (free.avg.com), while others have trial editions which can be downloaded without any payment. I find that Kaspersky (kaspersky.com) and Bit Defender (bitdefender.com) work as well as McAfee or Symantec Norton Anti-virus. If your budget permits, buy a genuine CD, make sure you register it in your name, and set a reminder to renew the license.

REGULAR UPDATES: Regularly update Windows and Internet Explorer. Schedule your computer to update at least once a week or once a month. That particular night, leave it online for updates.
SCAN DEVICES: From now on, whenever you connect an external device—a cellphone, MP3 player, camera, memory card or thumb drive—scan it with your anti-virus program. I know this requires a lot of patience, but let me assure you it will only save time and money at the end of the day.

USE CDs: Though writeable CDs have become cheaper, many of us have graduated to pen drives. But the CD still has an advantage: it can’t be infected once written. So, if you want to share data take it on CDs, at least you won’t bring home an infection.

FIREWALLS: To make sure you surf the Net safely, opt for an anti-virus with Internet security, or activate the Windows firewall. Alternatively, you can download a free firewall from zonealarm.com.
BROWSE SAFE: If you are browsing sites that offer free downloads of smileys and themes, chances are they are also downloading malware. There has been a long discussion about how Internet Explorer is susceptible and Firefox is not. But, the new generation of IE is smarter and an update will save you too. Though Firefox is faster and has better security, it’s better to play safe and consider each warning seriously. Remember, like with biological viruses, you have to play it safe with digital ones too.

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The above article appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday 8th February 2009.

Why Should I pay for My Meal ? Sh. Lalu Prasad ji Aapki Rai Kya Hai ?

The meal that is served to you in a Train Journey, is either paid for, in the ticket (part of the ticket price), or you pay for it (In case you travel by 2nd Class / Sleeper AC).

This time around, I saw a few things, sorry for not bringing pictures of everything

Glass for Water, BRANDED and Sponsored by VODAFONE
After Mint, BRANDED and Sponsored by Wrigleys (They even went to include a Pamphlet of How Wrigleys is Good for you)
Tray Napkin, some Third Party
Napkin to Wipe your Hands, Wrigleys.

So if you are My Dear Mr. Prasad, Making money with the advertising, why oh why, should I pay for my MEAL ?


Other than this, Most of the restaurants, and Gyms now have those FLASH MEDIA and other company's Ads playing all the times. I pay for using those services. WHY SHOULD I PAY FOR MY MEAL, IF YOU ARE MAKING MONEY OF ADVERTISMENT, IS YOUR BUSINESS ADVERTISING, OTHER SERVICES, OR SELLING ME YOUR GOODS ? WHY OH WHY

Your Thoughts ?

Will This Help Clean the Railways Washrooms in India

While travelling by Train the other day, I had to badly use the washroom in the coach, and if you have ever travelled by Train in India, god forbid you have to use one of these, they are dirty, smelly and wet. I was wondering, how would it be, if this sticker, instead of being inside the washroom is on the door, with a button, I Agree, and you are legally required to follow these instructions.

People who choose not to agree, should not use the Washroom. Much more like the software, I agree EULA (end user license agreement)

Your Thoughts ?

PS: BTW the underlines that you see, are not something done by me.. I think another irritated passenger with the messy washrooms. Want to know the Train Name (Shatabdi Express to Kalka, starting at Delhi, Picture Took, half an hour after the train left).

Ultimate Music - Review / Bose Wave Music System

The Bose Wave Music System is expensive, but then it’s worth every penny
LAST year, I went to a Bose outlet and reviewed their Wave Music System. But the price tag did not justify writing about it. That was until last week, when I actually splurged and bought myself one, only to be proved wrong in my earlier judgement. Now, I know that if you are a music fan, and would like your music the way it is supposed to be and not reproduced the way your player wants, and don’t want to keep spending on better speakers, amplifiers and so on, then you should also walk into a Bose showroom and do what I did.

I have to accept that Mr Amar Bose has got it right, and no one, trust me, no one, can come even close. If you are a tech junkie, then you may not really be pleased with Bose’s KISS (keep it simple, stupid) principle, but spend half an hour with the system — make sure you take your favourite CDs to the Bose Showroom when you go for the demo and not MP3s — and your opinion will change. The system plays MP3s, but data is lost in encoding such files and they never sound as good as original CDs.
The Wave Music System, has a CD player, plays MP3, and can store six preset FM and 6 preset AM stations. Nothing great you might say. So, what’s the take? What do I like other than the sound reproduction quality?

I love the speed with which it reads CDs, even MP3s, and changes from one track to another. The menu is simple, there is nothing much one can really screw up here — if the music sounds good, how many times are you going to adjust the treble or bass? The FM tuner is great — it is the first one that works inside my bedroom without an external antenna.

The station memory, clock and alarm settings are saved to a crystal clock inside — if you lose power in the middle of the night, it remembers the settings, though the alarm will not play. To add to the effect, the display dims when you turn off the room lights, and brightens as you turn them on. The other fine feature is that you can choose what music or station plays when it wakes you up in the morning. It uses a function called ramp up, which gradually increases the volume of the music, so you wake up gently and not startled out of your sleep.

The system is also child-proof in many ways, as there are no buttons on the player, just an LED panel that displays, time, song title, track and other information, two speakers with Bose’s wave guide technology and a simple slot load CD drive. I also like the fact, that the FM radio supports radio data service, which means that if your channel is transmitting information like station name, song title, artiste and album, the radio will display this in place of the frequency.

It’s not that I like everything about it. At the Bose store they have a stand for the remote control, I wish I had one. The player can’t play OGG, a multimedia container format, files and this is really bad, especially when we are talking about high quality music reproduction. And, I don’t like the fact that you have to pay Rs 7,763 for the iPod dock. But that is about it.

I wanted the silver version of the Wave Music System, but they have stopped producing it — the company now sells just white model (which tends to get dirty fast) and the black one, which I opted for. At Rs 33,638, I think the player is worth every penny.

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The above article appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday 1st February 2009

My New Toy | Bose Wave Music System

Hey, I finally did it, finally fell for it, spent, and bought, a Bose Wave Music System. Watch out for my review in the Indian Express on Sunday, 1st February 2009.

G