Google Phone - What's in it for me?

On December 12th, Google blogged about the 'Android dogfood' that its employees are getting for the holidays. A blog good enough to stir the pot. Incidentally, I was at Google's Mountain View campus on that day and attended their Christmas party later that evening. Though I have been to the campus before, this was the first time I actually got to see the interiors, meet some employees and have a feel of the actual company. The campus was lively and you could feel the aura getting to you. If a visit could generate such a feeling, how does it feel to work work for the company and take part in its innovations?

Anyways, coming back to the main point, it is time that a smart-phone came out from Google's stable. It is almost out. The fanatic pace of innovations from Google are really mind-boggling. Also, dogfooding gives Google access to vital information - feedback about features, shortcomings and positives. It is vital information that is hard to buy, even for Google. And it makes perfect sense to have this information before releasing a product. Tested waters you see! Then there is another possible masterstroke. The company may sell these unlocked phones online. It hardly appears to be a big deal. But, make no mistake, a big deal it is. Again, it is user-information. By purchasing the phones online (obviously through Google accounts), the company can get access to users' preferences and search habits which translate to dollars in advertising. Keyword-targeted advertisements can be better optimized and revenue can shoot up. Makes sense, doesn't it?

So, what can this mean to users and cellular providers? More obviously than not, it is good for the users. Competition coerces innovative products. And users flock to innovation. On the contrary, it can be devastating to cellular providers. I don't think it will be that bad, but it can hurt them significantly. It all depends on what the Gphone offers. I'd look for a phone that is fast, convenient and loaded. In short, a one-stop-shop. Also, an unlocked GSM phone lets you get rid of the existing 2-year contracts, which look ridiculous at times. An unlocked phone also lets you use pre-paid cards internationally. And more importantly, I'd like the phone to be way better than iPhone. If it is merely 'as good as', I may as well stay with my current phone. On the other hand, if the Gphone has an obtrusive feature like 'Watch a short TV commercial before you make this phone call', I am not going anywhere near! So, I am just waiting too see what Google has in store. I'm eager to see how their strategy unfolds.

Gphone, NexusOne, Passion or whatever! What's in a name?

Computerized CAT 2009 - What went wrong?

Any serious B-School aspirant in India will know how revered CAT (Common Admission Test administered by IIMs) is. It is rather aptly considered to be the mother of all competitive exams in India. Not that all competitive tests originated from CAT but that it is by far the most rigorous, time intensive and an outlandishly competitive examination. To me, only IIT's JEE is as competitive, if not more. That said, both these examinations are poles apart. JEE is far too technical whereas CAT is all about precise Math and mind boggling English in a single package.

And now, IIMs have gone a step ahead and wanted to have CAT administered in an online format. And ironically, what transpired makes a very good case study. The CAT committee has stressed that its role in administering the examination at the 105 centres in 32 cities was restricted to preparing questions. That was the objective. IIMs may have wanted to get rid of the test administration part and focus on their institutes and respective programs, which by the way is a great idea. These institutes can focus more on their programs and worry less about the test delivery. And then they chose Prometric as the test delivery partner.

To start with, it is a bold and forward step to plan administer CAT online. I see nothing wrong in this intention. What should take centerstage is to determine if this idea is feasible taking into consideration the limitations of our infrastructure, number of aspirants planning to take the test and above all, the nuances involved with implementing the plans. Do we have the infrastructure to successfully hold an online examination of this magnitude. The answer is evident from this week's fiasco. Not yet!

BITS Pilani administers its admission test online. It has been successful so far. There are a couple of institutes that either conduct their admission test online or outsource the testing process. All this while, an online test is not a test administered on the internet. Computers in a test center are pre-loaded with the examination software and students log on to take the examination. It is pretty much similar to GRE/GMAT with a significant exception that the CAT (pun intended) is not computer adaptive at this point. It is a computer based test as opposed to GRE/GMAT which are computer adaptive. So, what worked for BITS and not for IIMs? Foremost reason would be the number of applicants. About 250,000 (2.5 lakhs) students took CAT in 2008. This year 240,000 students were scheduled to take CAT over a period of 10 days in 105 centers. That is a huge number and it appears bigger when seen in the perspective of our current infrastructure. To pull of a test of this magnitude, Prometric should have had some fool-proof practices in place. It could have organized some mock-CATs (atleast for a price) to see if the computer centers can handle the load. Students would have flocked to avail this offer. In a nation taunted to be a computing superpower, we shouldn't have dearth of anti-virus experts or software. Yet we blame virus attack as a reason for this debacle. A brainstorming session amongst IIMs would have yielded couple of other good fool-proof measures.

Now that CAT is mid-way and the problems are still rampant it is a tricky situation for IIMs. It is an opportunity for IIMs to implement their management practices and clear this mess. But in this debacle, spare a thought for the applicants. Many of them may have been preparing for months and all this stress in the last minute is completely unwanted and unnecessary. I have been going through lot of user comments online and it is a mix of frustration and helplessness. A user complained that his restless neighbor at the test was trying to peep into his computer screen as the neighbor's test hasn't yet begun. Some of them had frozen screens. Some of them were made to run from one center to the other through SMSes. The biggest doubt in the minds of students will be integrity of the test. If the test delivery is vulnerable to viruses, as is claimed, is the scoring vulnerable too? Bringing 'virus' into the discussion opens up a bag of worms (pun again!). Viruses can let outsiders handle a system. If these examination centers have incompetent anti-virus, can outsiders control the software and get to know the questions? I know, it is all a mess!

It will be interesting to see what the future course of action on part of IIMs is. It may be a better idea to start from a clean slate and administer a paper-based test probably 2-3 months down the lane and work on reducing post-processing timelines. One expert suggested administering CAT via the cloud. It could be a good idea for next year. Atleast the crashing part can be taken care of. That said, the main objective for this years CAT should be to ensure that no test taker receives any unfair advantage whatsoever. Only then will this CAT prevail.

Dim Dim - a free open-source web conferencing app

Easy, Open & Affordable! That's Dim Dim. I was searching for a free web conferencing application and then Dim Dim happened. There is a WebEx trial and I have tried Adobe Connect in the past but Dim Dim appears to be a better solution. Dim Dim free supports web conferencing with upto 20 people (audio and video). For anyone who intends to use web conferencing (even sporadically) this defintely looks to be a great tool. I tried Dim Dim out today and was pretty impressed with this freeware. All it took was 2-3 minutes to get started. Video turns on by default and sending out invites and organizing the meeting couldn't get more easier. There were three options - Share Desktop, White board and Share a Presentation. I only tried 'Share Desktop' and it was seamless. Overall, it looks very promising and I was mighty impressed.

Chrome OS - A True Paradigm Shift!

I haven't yet had a peek of Google's OS - Chrome OS but have been following it closely over the last few days. Yesterday (11/19) Google held an event to update prospective users and prospective competitors about the status and some of the features of Chrome OS (Project: Chromium OS). I took instant liking to many features and am also skeptical about a couple of them. I will address my concerns below.

Many of Google's products have been runaway successes. Many useful applications come to mind, including their flagship 'search engine'. GMail, Calendar, App Engine, Maps, Transit stand out. A few haven't taken off that well but are surely promising. But all these products have a commonality. All these apps focus on our day to day activities and are very efficient. I cannot fathom using an email other than GMail because I haven't come across another service that offers more features than GMail. They aren't even close. Google has attainted its stature from the quality of its products. And that is what makes it so imposing to its competitors. Google's open-sourced operating system, Chrome OS, is the next big thing from their stable.

Honestly, I am not 'living on the cloud'. Infact, I am nowhere near to living on the cloud. This is because I am dependent on my local machine for many quotidian activities. Chrome OS is a browser-based operating system that makes you live on the cloud. No hard disks, No viruses, No native apps. Just the internet, web apps and solid performance. That is what Chrome OS aims at. It is a new paradigm which started evolving a couple of years back and we are near to embrace it. Another very encouraging feature of this OS is the boot-time and patches. 7 seconds to boot-up. I wouldn't ask for anything less. And Google has mentioned that security and software updates will automatically be applied to the OS from the cloud. So, no more system downtime. The fact that you can access your data on the move is cool. Speed, Simplicity and Security mark the crux of Chrome OS.

That said, Chrome OS is targetted at netbooks (or secondary computers). A Chrome OS device may be the primary device in terms of the amount of time you spend on the internet but there will be things that this won't do (yet!!!). If you code a lot and that requires an IDE or a standalone software like SAS or Oracle, Chrome OS is not ready for that. Likewise, unless Apple comes up with an online iTunes concept you still cannot efficiently use your hard disk-less Chrome OS for syncing your iPhone/iPods. As always, workarounds will find their ways through but, a workaround is a work around. It is not the best way to do things. Second thing concerning Chrome OS is security. Agreed, Chrome OS will be virus-free and security and update patches will be applied automatically but one need not steal your computer to steal your identity. All a thief has to do is steal your online login and they will probably have access to all your Google accounts and everything on your Chrome OS PCs. This coupled with the fact that all your stuff is on the 'cloud' can give you salvo for privacy. The last thing you want is Google or a market research company monitor your online behavior to 'enhance' your online experience. I wouldn't be comfortable with that.

But, it is what it is. I think we can trust a Google product based on the company's track record. I am thinking out loud, but biometric logging can reduce the risk of login-based security threats. I think it is not a bad idea that these Chrome OS based netbooks have fingerprint readers and Google makes it mandatory to login through this or a similar biometric logging feature to access one's online content. It would surely be a good identity management norm.

To sum it up, Chrome OS is a revolutionary move from Google. All that remains to be seen is how they will go about implementing it. And we all know how good Google is at implementing stuff!!!

Ubuntu 9.10 - more of an evolution than a revelation!

I am leaning more towards Ubuntu these days - have been using it regularly over the last 3-4 months. I was prompted for an upgrade to 9.10 yesterday night (it was officially released in the last week of Oct). And I gladly took it. Here is a link to 9.10 release notes.

Success of an operating system is majorly dependent on its usability, features and the interface. And Ubuntu is fast catching up on features and interface. 'Usability' is a tricky though. Device support or an applications' compatibility is proportional to the popularity of an operating system. Software companies are generally unwilling to spend time and money for R&D on their software's compatibility on less popular operating systems. And as long as this happens, these companies' software or related apps remain incompatible on that less popular operating system. This is like a circular reference and a major hurdle for Ubuntu. Workarounds exist for sure, but they reduce the usability. Case in point is Apple's iTunes. It is only supported on Mac and Windows OS. One can get iTunes to work in Ubuntu through WINE (WINdows Emulator), but those extra steps hit the usability of Ubuntu real hard.

But I am confident that more and more companies will continue to confide in Ubuntu or Linux in general as this OS is less cumbersome, robust and user-friendly. And 9.10 is a step in the right direction. It scores high on the user-interface part. It is not instantly distinguishable from Mac OS. Menu bar on the top of the screen and look and feel of the OS is almost the same. But Mac is more shiny and visually attractive. Polished is an apt word for the Mac OS. The log-off/shut-down button has changed significantly in both appearance and functionality. It now has many advanced options (including hibernate). You can also directly control your IM status from this function/button. Appearance of other logos like wireless signal strength, battery power have changed and make the overall appearance of the desktop look very slick.

There were around 200 packages that were disabled from 9.04 and around 400 odd new packages. Most of the apps I had continued into 9.10. A comprehensive list of apps is in the release notes. I still reiterate that usability remains to be the only hurdle for Ubuntu (or for that matter any variant of Linux). Once software corporations start opening up to Linux (obviously Microsoft and Apple will be stay away from producing Linux-friendly products - atleast till Linux becomes super-popular), the real evolution will begin.

Andre Agassi's OPEN: An Autobiography

Andre Agassi has always been one of my favorite tennis players and will remain so. More so, after the controversial autobiography that hit stands today. Contrary to some, I see no reason why Andre should not come up with his autobiography at this point. I feel he had got the time to look back and make sense of his life. He knew he made some mistakes and put an effort to come out clean. It is easy to comment on a book or a person but spare a thought for that individual. Agreed, it is absolutely wrong to hide the 'meth' episode and lie to ATP. Lesser individuals may not have survived that scare. As the book claims, Andre was reborn then. Till then he hated tennis. He hated tennis as a kid, hated tennis as a teen and in 1997 after he hit an all-time low rank of #141, that's when he had to choose. Choose between a professional career in tennis or mundane enjoyments of life. And to the delight of millions of tennis fans, he chose tennis. Else, we wouldn't have witnessed some of the best tennis matches and his magical returns.

In the hindsight, it all makes sense. I recall watching Agassi with his mane (which was infact a postiche!!!). He was more of a showman than a tennis player. I haven't seen the much talked about Australian Open 1996 semi-finals which Agassi claimed to have tanked, but I have seen couple of other matches during the same time. 1992 Wimbledon comes to mind first. That five set final again Goran Ivanisevic was just talent at its best. And en route the final he blasted Boris Becker and John McEnroe. But I never noticed his 'lack of intensity' or his 'dislike for tennis'. But as a tennis fan, you can definitely feel Agassi's pain in the 1995 US Open loss to Pete Sampras. Agassi termed it as an uber-loss. And post 1998 when he rose from ashes to #1, his game was there for all to see. His passion was evident. I fondly remember 1999 in which he won all three grand slams sans Wimbledon. (And then there was Pete! 6-3 6-4 7-5)

Though I haven't yet read the book, it looks like one more thing (in addition to not confessing drugs) that I will not like about 'OPEN' is that it is overtly straightforward in expressing Agassi's views on his rivals. Especially Pete Sampras, whom I equally admire. Agassi's satirical comment on Sampras' dullness is in poor taste. So are his comments on Chang, Muster, Nastase. But I guess the quotes can be put into perspective by viewing them as feelings of the immature Agassi (pre-1997). Post 1998, a different Agassi evolved and I doubt he would have thought of his rivals as described in the book.

As a final word, I feel OPEN is, as the name suggests, an outpour of Agassi's emotions that have accumulated over the last 39 years. No wonder he said living this book was cathartic. I came across some articles where some curious readers had questions if Agassi took drugs during Grand Slams and if meth or other drugs contributed to his victories. Those are ludicrous questions. I don't think you can question the talent of Agassi. It was always a question of mental strength and he gained control of himself post meth-episode. Also, 'meth' as described in websites and in the book, is an performance depressant and would have adversely affected him during matches, if at all he took them. So, current players need not necessarily crucify him. Instead, I think the book serves as a good lesson to all budding tennis professionals what to do and what not to do.

A trip to Hawaiian paradise (Big Island)

For nearly an year I was longing to visit Hawaii. We almost planned a trip in last December but it never really worked out. A punctilious weekend plan helped me nail it this time. We went to the Big Island (Island name: Hawaii). For starters, there are 8 main islands (out of hundreds) in the state of Hawaii. The biggest one is Hawaii and is often called 'Big Island' to avoid any confusion with the state as a whole. Out of these 8 main islands, four are very famous for their uniqueness and outstanding natural values. Those four are Big Island (volcanoes, lush rainforests), Maui (outstanding beaches), Oahu (Outstanding beaches, Pearl harbor), Kauai (Lush rainforests). Check out this wikipedia link for more details.

It is extremely difficult to explore each of these islands completely (let alone all the islands). So, this weekend we focussed only on the Big Island. A map of the island is included in this link.

The best thing I liked about the Big Island is the natural diversity it has. There are 13 climate zones on Planet Earth and Big Island has 11 of them. The eleven climate zones in Hawaii are - Tropical continuously wet, Tropical winter dry, Tropical summer dry, Tropical monsoon, Hot semi-desert, Hot desert, Continuously wet warm temperate, Summer dry warm temperate, Summer dry cool temperate, Cold continental climates, Periglacial climate. The only climate zones it does not have are Arctic and Saharan. It has the world's largest volcano, Mauna Loa, which by the way is much taller than Mount. Everest when measured from the ocean floor. Big Island is known for - volcanoes, beaches, snow-covered mountaintops and rainforests. And all within 150-200 mile drive :)

The island has lot of Vog (Volcanic Smog), which is formed by chemical reactions between sulfur dioxide emissions from the volcano and oxygen, water or sunlight. Also, sulfur dioxide emission during rain leads to the formation of Sulphuric Acid (H20 + SO2) and results in Acid rains. That is the reason for the arid parts south west of Mauna Loa.

We travelled to Kona (Airport: KOA) and stayed at Waikoloa Beach Marriott. The hotel was excellent. It was on the oceanfront and had excellent amenities. Except for the night, we were on the beach throughout - sunset, sunrise, breakfast. I was in the water, neckdeep, for over two hours and was just enjoying the view. That evening was more like a breezy night on the terrace top or under a tree in India. There were many coconut trees and we sat for an hour or so under one of them and were glazing at the clear skies. Nostalgic. The next morning we set out on our longest road trip. Here is the map of our drive.


View Larger Map


We drove along the west coast and then a cross-island drive through forests to the east coast. It was a very scenic drive interspersed with clouds. We had to drive through clouds :). Hilo is another major town on the west coast. Some 15 miles before Hilo, we visited Akaka waterfalls. The scene was reminiscent of screensavers and desktop wallpapers we normally see. Just fantastic. Then we headed to the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park which was some 40 miles southwest of Hilo.

And about the Volcanoes National Park, I am sure no words can match the sight it offered. It had fossils of nature's fury - Solidified Lava. We visited the Lava tube, Chain of craters and Steam vents. We got to see the actual site of 1974 volcanic eruption and the havoc it created. Many trees that were uprooted lie in the Lava, lifeless. It was one hell of a sight. And then we headed to the Steam vents and the Kilauea caldera. Kilauea is an active volcano. It was emitting harmful sulfur dioxide fumes. We couldn't go any further as the park authorities blocked certain trails owing to safety concerns. Nonetheless, it was a GREAT sight. We were lost for words and kept staring at the crater. Check out the Halemaumau Crater which is in the Kilauea caldera.

Overwhelmed with what we saw in the day, we headed back to Kona in the same route. We decided not to encircle the island because that meant we had to pass through some arid parts which we did not prefer. We had enough of arid climate back home.

Kona to Hawaii National Volcanoes Park was around 125 miles and including the ride to the airport, I drove some 270 miles on that eventful day - by far the longest I ever drove in a day.

Here are some useful links if you plan to visit the Big Island -

County eruption update
http://lavainfo.us/
http://www.hawaiimagazine.com/blogs/hawaii_today/2009/1/30/hours_change_for_Kilauea_volcano_viewing_are
http://www.starbulletin.com/news/20091026_kilauea_sends_flow_over_road_but_stalls.html

Website about visiting Mauna Kea Observatories:
http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/mko/visiting.htm
Website about the Mauna Kea visitors station:
http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/info/vis/

Akaka Falls map:
http://www.bigisland.org/parks/223/akaka-falls-state-park
Rainbow Falls (in Hilo):
http://www.downtownhilo.com/Places/RainbowFallsBoilingPots/tabid/418/Default.aspx

Black Sand Beach:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punaluu_Beach


I tend to use the word 'paradise' very sparingly and I feel this Big Island deserves the word with absolutely no questions. I look forward to visiting other islands in the state of Hawaii. This visit had only made me more curious and bedazed.

Great app for travel enthusiasts!

Last week my boss shared an interesting app with me - Trip Case. If you are a travel enthusiast like me, you'd love it. In March 2009, I blogged about a similar app, Pocket Express, but Trip Case beats it downright. I've not come across a better travel app to date.

There are some inimitable features that make this app very useful. Push technology for flight status, dynamic flight information, alternate schedules and itinerary logs helps one to stay organized in travel. It also helps track car rental and hotel information, something which I haven't used at all. You can share your travel plans with friends or someone who'd be waiting at the airport to pick you up :). This will help when you have last minute delays as friends waiting at the airport will get push notifications about your flight status or can view the info online.

I tried it out last weekend and it was great. Once I entered my flight number and origin airport, all other fields such as arrival time, terminals, gates, weather etc were populated. It also displayed the carousel number for baggage claim. I loved this app and it is very useful for me. Strongly recommend.

"PERSONAS" - How does the internet see you?

MIT is at it yet again! Heights of innovation!!

Last week I came across MIT's PERSONAS, an innovative tool that creates a data portrait of one's 'aggregated online identity'. Once you enter your first and last names, PERSONAS algorithms scurry through the internet and characterize you based on your presence on the internet. It shows you how the Internet sees you.

I liked the explanation on PERSONAS' MIT homepage. The computer is corroborated to be far from an infallible assistant. PERSONAS' algorithms merely check for a name's presence on the internet and attempts to characterize him to a predetermined set of categories. However, it is absolutely fascinating to be able to see your digital imprint on the internet.

Here is a snapshot of my PERSONAS. Click the image to enlarge.

Flashcards in iPhone!!!

I stumbled across a rather useful app for iPhone - gFlash+. It is very handy for someone preparing for SAT, GRE or GMAT to keep track of word lists/math formula. And it doesn't stop at that. The best part is, this app can be linked to your Google Docs (Spreadsheets with two columns) and you can use the material in this spreadsheet for your flash cards. Furthermore, you can populate columns C-F and use data in these fields as multiple choices. gFlash+ also has its own template to create flashcards, but I'd strongly prefer syncing stuff with Google Docs. There are already some flashcards in gFlash's library (known as catalog), though it is not that helpful. I think gFlash+ can be used in an optimal way if you upload personalized spreadsheets through Google Docs and in that way you can refer to them on the go.

There is a limitation on the size of the file that you can upload to your iPhone via Google Docs. gFlash's documentation has the cap at 400 cells (200 rows with two columns). I already uploaded a couple of 400 cell datasets to my iPhone and it works great.

You can get gFlash+ from iTunes or alternatively through Appshopper.

Above all, this app is for free!!

Brainteaser!!

I was flummoxed by a certain word in English, a very tricky one. Here it is...

Question: There is a common English word that is nine letters long. Each time you remove a letter from it, it still remains an English word - from nine letters right down to a single letter. What is the original word, and what are the words that it becomes after removing one letter at a time?

Try to figure it out. Check the solution here.

Day out in Boston.

Boston has always been one of my favorite cities in the US and with my trip yesterday, my appreciation and bonding with this city grew further. I cannot pinpoint to what really makes me love this city. Some impressions have no reasons. The presence of Harvard and MIT contribute a lot to my impression. And yesterday, I had an opportunity to visit the revered Harvard University and have a glance at the marvellous MIT.

Firstly, the public transit was extraordinary. I did not have to rent a car. There was absolutely no necessity. Moreover, I read online that the parking rates are exorbitant and almost match the cost of taking a cab to your destination. Anyways, I did my research and carried the route map of MBTA's (Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority) subway routes. It was very helpful and of course, the fares were very cheap. I used MBTA subway to go to Harvard, downtown Boston and to City Point (Pleasure Bay).

Secondly, the climate was exhilarating. For someone coming from Phoenix, 65 F odd temperature is really cool. And the best part is, it was drizzling throughout. It has been ages since I spent nearly 5-6 hours in rain sporting an umbrella. It was a refreshing experience.

Thirdly, I loved the culture of the city. People with whom I've interacted were warm, friendly and courteous without any exceptions. Especially at Harvard University, I was very comfortable in navigating my way.

These three factors helped make my trip more comfortable. The reason I loved this trip though is because I got to visit Harvard. Harvard, Wharton, MIT and Stanford (in no particular order) are revered schools to me. I've been to Stanford last year as it is near to my place. But, I always wanted to visit Harvard Law and Harvard Business Schools. I made it yesterday. And I was mightily impressed with the ambience at HBS. It was serene, pristine and exquisite. It is a class act and truly represented its rank among B-Schools.

By the end of day, we were totally exhausted as we walked over 10 miles :). We mellowed down by evening and caught the flight back to hot hot Phoenix. I am guessing my next trip will be to Philadelphia. I'm eager to see how Wharton looks like.

One year of 'iPhone'ing

I've been using iPhone since Aug 29, 2008 last week marked its first anniversary. Overall, I am extremely satisfied with this device. There is nothing inchoate with it and that is what pleases me the most. I can get almost every task in my day-to-day life done using it. It is my favorite gadget to date and one that troubled me the least. My day begins with iPhone and ends with it :). I start my day by checking my emails and the phone alerts me about any tasks/events scheduled for that day. I also check that day's weather to be prepared for 100F+ temperatures that are normally dished out in Phoenix. And of course, I cannot help mentioning iPhone apps.

Many apps come and go and I have tried a handful of them. But some have been in my phone ever since I bought it. And these apps have been the most useful ones. I use them for day-to-day tasks. Apart from Apple's apps - Youtube, Weather, Maps, Calendar, Stocks and the flagship iPod, third-party apps that I frequently use are Dictionary, TapMeDo, Units, Word Warp, AroundMe, Mobicast, Bloomberg, BikePRO, The Weather Channel, Discovery, Midomi, Cheap Gas, and Google Earth. The list is endless and I haven't added any games to this list.

Some of these apps are very handy. Some of them worth describing are -
AroundMe: Helps you search for supermarkets, stores, gas stations, malls, parks what not that are nearby you. It searches these based on your current location and that makes this app all the more worthy.
Units: Another very useful app that helps you convert units between different systems and believe me, that really helps.
Mobicast: If you are a cricket crazy guy and want to track cricket scores on the go, then this is for you. Mobicast is from Cricinfo.
BikePRO: If you are keen on bicycling then this is a must app. This free version lets you track the distance you rode by day and time taken, max speed etc.
Bloomberg: Lets you track your portfolio.

I am yet to try some interesting apps like Evernote, Toodledo etc, but honestly, I am happy with the ones I got. They keep me busy for now. I have always been unequivocal in my appreciation of Apple products and am sure to stick with iPhone 'X'G when I renew my contract next year :)

Happy iPhoning!

One year of 'Civic'ing!

Yesterday marked the first anniversary of my first car, Honda Civic. It has been a fun ride all the while (pun intended). I bought this car on Aug 15, 2008. I was slightly nervous on road for the first couple of months. I got honked twice in these two months. First, when I tried to change the lane in the last second near a signal. The second instance was kind of scary. It was near a Circuit City store near our house. The entrance to this store was on a curvy road and I did not notice an oncoming car. I turned on my turn indicator and was entering the store's parking when I noticed a speeding car some 20 feet away. I sped my way through but man, it was close! Barring these two, I did not face any other untoward incidents. (Touch Wood!)

The price of fuel was highest in the month I purchase the car and was lowest in Jan 2009. I started off with a decent Miles Per Gallon (MPG) and am now at a good rate. Power blended with performance is a commendable feature in Civic. This impresses me the most. Check the charts below for the fuel price variations and my Civic's MPGs over the past year. Data point for June 2009 is missing as I was in India and did not refuel my car. (Click on the charts to enlarge them).

I am not a heavy-duty user; My office is nearby and I don't hit the freeways often. Average distance travelled per day over the last year is around 16 miles. This has contributed towards the good condition of my vehicle. Overall, the pros and cons are:

Pros:

(1) Economical mileage.

(2) Exceptional handling.

(3) Stylish exteriors and interiors.

(4) Very good features - good stereo and digital dashboard.

Cons:

(1) Quality of materials in interior isn't great. Hard plastic finishes for seats, dashboard.

Looking forward to more of 'Civic'ing.

My tryst with computers!

Anyone who knows me well will concur that I am a gadget freak. I am particularly fond of laptop computers and love their company. While driving back from work today, my thoughts wandered down the memory lane. It was a good flash back that I wanted to document.

I first operated a computer in 1992. I was in the VIII grade at Loyola Public School. We were taught to program in GW-BASIC. I vaguely remember trying to build an image of a ship, programming a student mark list and couple of other programs. It was fun. We had around 10 computers in the lab. All of them had monochrome screens. There was one computer that had a green screen with black font and that was my favourite. Rest of them had black screens with white font. Coding in GW-BASIC was very interesting. It was programming in its simplest form. Click here for a sample program in BASIC.

After my Class X, I did not get a chance to work with any computer for two years. And then, I joined Loyola College for my undergrad. This was in 1997. Computer Science was not a predominant subject in our curriculum then. I had a natural flair for programming but noticed that I was only interested in the mathematical component of programming. I wasn't too keen on mundane coding. I was more interested in algorithms. It was around this time that the internet fever gripped us. My first email account was with Hotmail. I remember going to an internet cafe and typing an email for 45 min. It costed us 60 rupees an hour to browse the internet. My first email was to my cousin who came to the US in 1997. My second email account was with Rediffmail. I used to have pen friends, prior to the advent of email. When email entered my life, pen friends went out.

By 1999-2000, I became very attracted towards computers/internet. I used to go to an internet cafe twice a week (two hours), which was 'high frequency' then. In 2000, after my graduation, I coerced my mom to buy me a personal computer. I opted for a HP Brio. This was my first 'own' computer. Specs read something like this: Intel Celeron 500-700Mhz, 32 MB RAM, 10GB HDD with Windows 98 (Second Edition). It had a floppy drive, a CD drive and came with a huge CRT monitor. It costed us ~45,000 rupees to get this PC along with a computer table and chair.

I had many PC games installed. I remember Wargasm and NFS. I was fond of another game whose name I cannot recall. I had MS Office and Borland C installed. I primarily used my computer to play games. I was at IIIT for a brief period. I had an Acer computer there with which I did not have whole lot of an attachment. I wasn't motivated enough to translate my interest in algos into programming. Honestly, I had other distractions.

In 2004, I sold off my HP Brio and bought a build-to-order 'assembled' computer. This was a Pentium-4 with 256MB RAM and 40GB HDD. I loved the increased speed. I decided to never purchase a Celeron machine again. By 2004, I became a regular user of the internet (not an addict yet!). We had internet in our house too and browsing became my favorite past-time. Also, it was around this period that I involuntarily gave up reading newspapers. I used to follow news on the web. I was slowly becoming an internet addict.

In 2005, after I came to Cincinnati to pursue my masters, I bought my first laptop. Dell Inspiron. I had to compromise on the price of a new laptop and ended up purchasing a Celeron machine again. But as I was a student with no source of income, I don't think I had much of a choice. Its specs - Intel Celeron 1.4GHz, 512 MB RAM, 40GB HDD. I got it for $450. I used this laptop primarily for school but right from the day I got it, I wanted to get rid of it. Ironically, I had this laptop for the next two years. I joined US Airways before I graduated. For my master's thesis, I needed a powerful laptop as I needed to process huge search logs (~10GB data). It was processor-intensive and my Dell surely could not handle it.

On May 5, 2007 I bought one of my favorite devices to date - IBM Thinkpad. It was a T60. Specs: Intel Core 2 Duo 1.83GHz, 2 GB RAM, 120GB HDD and Windows Vista Ultimate. It costed me a bomb though - $1600. It was a huge upgrade from my handicapped Dell. My thesis went through like a breeze. As days went by, I developed a passion for programming in Python. It was partly fueled by my work and partly by the language itself. I still use this ThinkPad and have all the software and apps I need installed on this machine. I also have Ubuntu installed on it.

My fascination with laptops compelled me to sell my Dell and purchase a Sony Vaio for my wife. In Jan 2008, I purchased Sony Vaio VGN-NR110E. It came with an Intel Dual Core processor, 1GB RAM and 160GB HDD. I bought this for $550. I upgraded the RAM to 2GB. This laptop served us good. Sony Vaio was aesthetically beautiful and keyboard layout was very good. Very user-friendly. By Jan 2009, I was kind of bored with Vaio. While I still have my ThinkPad (I foresee hanging on to it for the next 2-3 years), I sold the Vaio and bought a HP Pavilion laptop. This was a significant upgrade again. It had a Intel Core 2 Duo, 3 GB RAM and 250 GB HDD, integrated webcam/microphone and with many other multimedia features. I bought this for $550. In May 2009, I bought another laptop - Lenovo G530 - for my Mom. It is again a Dual Core/2GB/160GB machine.

So, long story short, my tryst with computers will go on. I feel happy when I look at the prices of laptops these days. I am happy because, I can try different laptops whenever I want to. It gives me lot of pleasure doing so. To me, my laptop is more a personal organizer and an internet communicator. I don't have any work-related material in it, but do have all the latest software (including Python 3.1.1 that released yesterday) for my non-work related stuff. I am looking to move further on, to Mac perhaps. In all certainty, my next laptop will be an Apple MacBook. Do you want to continue to MacBook (Y/N)? Y

iPhone 3.0 SMTP Issue. (Fix Included)

I ran into a rather annoying problem yesterday. I was in San Jose, CA and wanted to forward an email when I encountered this issue. The mail that I just forwarded resided in my Outbox forever and I got this error:

"The user name or password for SMTP: @SMTP.gmail.com is incorrect."

Funny part is my incoming mail continued to work perfect and obviously, the user name and password were correct. We thought it was temporary issue. But the error persisted and my annoyance grew in sync with my curiosity. I tried several combinations - composed an email, forwarded an email, deleted my secondary emails (GMail) on iPhone. Nothing worked and my Outbox kept growing. The only significant change to my GMail settings is that I changed my password last week. I updated the password in Calendar (Google Sync) and GMail on iPhone and was able to recieve emails flawlessly. But I did not send/forward any emails after I changed my password.

After playing with most of the settings I tried the 'default' option. Delete the existing account and create a new one. That did not fix the problem either. With some googling, and by digging into the settings I was able to figure out the issue. Not sure if this issue happened in iPhone 2.0. But, here is the fix for 3.0.

Once you change GMail password, we need to update the password in Settings-> Mail. But there is a hidden SMTP field that needs to be updated too. Else sending mails will not work.

Go to Settings -> Mail, Contacts, Calendars -> Accounts (Choose the GMail account that has this error).

Under 'Outgoing Mail Server' tap SMTP.

Under SMTP, you get to see Primary Server and Other SMTP Servers.

Tap on 'smtp.gmail.com' under Primary Server.

You will see your old password in the settings here (the password will be encoded though). Update this field with your new password and you are all set.

Again, there could be many reasons why this error happened and could depend on the way you configured your GMail account on iPhone or could be a 3.0 specific issue. But this solution fixes the SMTP issue.

Ubuntu - Exciting Stuff!

I have been using Ubuntu for the past three days and it is working like a dream. It definitely doesn't feel like Linux of the past where one had to open a terminal to access a CD. Add/Remove programs, Update manager etc, make Ubuntu feel like Windows. I loved the numerous apps available under 'Add/Remove'. I selected many apps, most of them under Education and Games. My personal favorites are -
1. KBruch: An educational game that works in either freestyle or learning modes and tests your grip on fractions, percentages etc.
2. Kanagram: KDE Anagrams
3. KGeography: Lets you play with world geography
4. Four-in-a-row: Name says it all.
5. FontForge: Typeface editor program.

It is kind of an aberration from what we regularly do and hence the excitement to try them. I had a weird, although not unsual, problem when I first started off with Ubuntu. Ubuntu, like all other versions in linux, prompts for Username and Password before we actually get to use the session. We can choose to bypass this and enable Auto Login by going to:
System->Administration->Login Window.
Under Security Tab, select 'Enable Automatic Login'

All is fine till here, but when we restart, there is an annoying message waiting for you.
"Enter password for default keyring to unlock"

A blunt and inefficient way would be to type in your wireless network key in each time you login. This defeats the whole purpose of having an Automatic login. A second (also inefficient) way would be to have a 'blank' wireless password which would get rid of this prompt and in the process will deprive you of security a wireless network password gives you. I'd bet you'd find some complex workarounds if you google this. But a straightforward way to solve this is:

1. Right click on the 'Wireless Network Connection' icon/applet in the system tray (which is on the top right of your screen).
2. Click 'Edit Connections'
3. In the 'Network Connections' window that pops up, go to 'Wireless' tab.
4. Select the wireless network, and hit on 'Edit' which is on the right.
5. On the 'Edit Network' window that pops up, 'Connect Automatically' box will be checked, as you already chose to enable Auto-Login. If this box is not selected, select it.
6. In the same dialog box, at the bottom left corner, there is a check box stating 'Available to all users'. Check that box.

That is it. You will not get this annoying keyring message again. The only catch in this method is, anyone who logs on the machine can access your wireless internet connection. So, you are totally risk free if you are the only user.

Anyways, am looking forward to an exciting ride on Ubuntu.

iUbuntu - My experiments with Ubuntu

In what could be a major first step in me drifting away from Windows, I got Ubuntu up and running on my secondary laptop. About two years ago, I started using Novell's Suse linux but had to discontinue it due to Dell/Suse compatibility issues and the fact that most of the software I needed at school was pro-windows.

Honestly, installing Suse on Dell was a pain. The drivers weren't readily available and I had to get my hands dirty. And I remember trying out Ubuntu. It gave up on me - my screen went blank and it was tough to figure out what drivers were missing and how to fix it. That was 2-3 years back. I somehow hate the concept of dual boot, don't know why. Though I had it occasionally in the past, I was not keen on having it this time round. So, had Ubuntu installed on an independent machine. I got a used Toshiba U205-S5034 from craigslist. It was a steal for $200. It had Windows XP Media Center with Office 2007 installed on it and the first thing I did was download Ubuntu 9.04 Desktop. Burning the downloaded image couldn't be easier. Got the instructions from Ubuntu's website. And then, did a clean install. The installation process took 15 minutes. That is it. Total time to get Ubuntu up and running was 85 min (download) + 10 min (burning) + 15 min (installing).

I also liked the option of first running Ubuntu from the CD to check for compatibility issues and then proceed with the installation. One thing that I instantly noticed with this version of linux compared to my previous experiences is that the operating system itself has become very user friendly. It gives users the flexibility to either run commands/apps from kernel or through menus. I just started playing with it. Connecting to the internet was as easy as it can be. Just the WEP key and I am hooked. I remember having to struggle to connect to the internet in Suse. But that was three years ago and lot should have definitely changed since then.

I am eager to see what Ubuntu has in store for me. Next steps would be to have Ubuntu on my other laptops too. As of now, I don't see a reason why I shouldn't. I just tried out the default messenger - Pidgin. Need to find a workaround for iTunes. At the outset, the major pros I see using Linux over Windows are
- a different look and feel from the age-old MS Windows
- no annoying 'Live Updates', esp for someone migrating from Windows Vista
- more secure
- lot to navigate and learn
- comes with all basic features, connectivity and open office
Only cons I can think of are the compatibility issues of some apps/software and devices, most predominantly the iPhone. I should be fine though.

Go Ubuntu!

Chrome OS - Google's answer to Microsoft Windows?

Yesterday, Google has come out with two new announcements on its blog. Firstly, Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, Google Talk along with Google Apps are out of beta. Though it may not mean much for the company itself, it is definitely an eye-turner for corporates who may, to date, have restrictions in purchasing a beta product. As Google made it very clear, there would be no dearth in innovation in these services though they remove the beta tag. But, the second announcement, shook the tech world. Chrome OS. How you look at the word 'shook' depends on whether you like Google or not. An OS from Google's stable was due for quite some time but the timing of this announcement is slightly suspect.

I am a pro-Google guy with keen interest in all of their apps. But I find it so unlike-Google that they made an announcement about a product that they plan to release in late 2010. Stealth has always been Google's strength. You never know what to expect. But, somehow I feel Google kind of reacted to Microsoft's BING. In case you did not know what BING stands for, it is But It's Not Google. There have been some media reports and news articles how BING actually started eating into Google's search territory. It could be true. It could be false. I personally feel that the initial reports describing BING's share are biased. Users definitely have an urge to try out BING and that could have impacted the search shares. We will know the real picture in some time.

Coming back to the timing in which the announcement is made, it may be because Google wanted the spotlight back. It is more like an announcement to Microsoft. If Microsoft can challenge its territory, so can Google. That is the message. For now, we can ignore the fact that Chrome OS will initially be targeted at netbooks. The next logical step would be personal computers and enterprises. Odds are in favor of Google, given its brand image and innovative products. But, Microsoft is not underprepared. It already has plans for Gazelle - a web browser as a multi principal OS. Check this link. That Chrome OS announcement followed Microsoft Gazelle doesn't auger very well for Google.

I am pretty sure Chrome OS is not a vaporware. But how Google tackles Microsoft in the coming days will be pretty interesting. To date, Google doesn't have a quality rival in its flagship product - search. Microsoft could break that. Could.

Roger Federer - An Alpine Craftsman.

Roger has done it. He eclipsed Pete Sampras' 14 grand slams record in style. And one statement which was sort of a question till today became a grand statement - Roger Federer is indeed the greatest tennis player ever. I have been following tennis for quite sometime now and have watched almost all of Pete and Andre. I watched matches from the past - Bjorn Borg, McEnroe, Edberg and others. Two characteristics that set Federer apart are the ease in which he plays either from baseline or serve-and-volley and his ability to improvise at big points. His all-court expertise is what has transformed him into such a threat. And all these coupled with excellent agility and control.

It is difficult to compare players across different eras but I think it is definitely alright to assess their games in relative context. And it would be blasphemous not to mention Rafael Nadal when you speak of Federer. Nadal made Federer clamber in his quest for tennis immortality. Twice Nadal stopped Federer from reaching the golden slam (four grand slams in a year). And stopped is an understatement. Nadal was ruthless against Federer at Roland Garros in 2007, 08 against a motivated Federer. If Federer has retained his World Number One after today's one, a lot has to be attributed to Nadal's injury too. Nothing to undermine Federer's greatness. Again, being fully fit and agile is part of being a tennis pro and hence Federer has to be congratulated. Kudos to him.

It is nice to see Federer to see at the top of the pack. But I'd rather see Federer compete and work to win rather than have walk-overs. I'd rather see him battle out with Nadal or others from the crowd than see him decimate them. And that is why we need Nadal back. My gut says Nadal will come back stronger than before. He plays tennis of the highest intensity and quality and is more a slogger as opposed to Federer who is an architect. Nevertheless, a slogger versus an architect is more enthralling to watch than an architect versus an architect or a slogger versus a slogger. My thoughts go out to Andy Roddick who has played the best match in his career. 14-16 in the final set is too close. Andy was just points away from a well deserved Wimbeldon crown. He was awesome and never gave up. The fact that he dropped his serve only in the last set indicates fatigue.

Anyways, today is Federer's day. Other have to wait.

Windows Se7en

In case you haven't noticed, Windows 7 Release Candidate is up for grabs starting today (5/5). Click here to go to Microsoft's Windows 7 website. At the outset, Windows 7 looks promising and may stand up to insider's talk - has all the eye candy of Vista without its bugs. Windows 7 will be a great product if it is anywhere near this aforementioned description. I think so because I have been using Vista since May 2007 and I should admit I haven't had much of headaches with it. Some of the User Account Control prompts are indeed very annoying. Though one can disable this feature through Control Panel, I'd hate to see the red 'X' shield in my system tray staring at me, as if my computer is prone to attacks. And there were some compatibility issues when I had to use my old HP all-in-one printer. My biggest complaint is the number and frequency of updates available. Almost every other day you will have a bunch of updates waiting to forcibly install on your machine. After 3 years of existence, one wouldn't expect these many 'Automatic Updates'. These installations (Remember Step 1 of 4 50% complete) extend the boot up time which gradually annoys users. But I think that is how it should be. I was surprised with Mozilla Firefox's updates. I have the automatic updates turned ON in my browser and I have noticed frequent security updates being installed. If a Mozilla browser would need so many patches, it is easy to understand that an operating system from Microsoft's stable will need infinitely more.

Anyways, there may be lots of other issues with Vista which I haven't experienced because I use Vista only at home for leisure. And the possibility that Windows 7 may address most of issues Vista has is encouraging news. Coming to the Windows 7 RC download, make sure you read all 'need to know' facts. Personally, I do not have the patience to toy with my existing OS, back up my data and in a way be a laboratory rat for Microsoft. On the other hand, the free version is valid through June 2010 and this is tempting. It feels good to have a peek at Windows 7 as is with any pre-release software. Still, I'd rather wait for the fully baked cake.

Home Network - Home FTP Server and/or Windows Network

It all started with me wanting to have a backup for my podcasts. My iTunes folder in ThinkPad was growing in excess of 20GB and I was in no mood to get rid of my podcasts and photo albums. I treasure them. I contemplated on getting an external hard disk but then toyed with a different option. There was lot of space (~250 GB) sitting around on my second laptop and obviously I'd want to use that. But I wanted that space to be a live drive accessible on my ThinkPad. And that's when my networking instincts took over me. And I should admit I almost made big weather out of it.

I was rather lazy to go with the least effective yet the most direct method of transferring files using an USB drive. It is a pain to transfer files (podcasts and pictures in my case) on a regular basis to the archive on the other computer. It was then I tried out the networking features in the 'highly acclaimed' Vista. It was not bad after all. The only catch is to turn the Network Discovery and File Sharing ON (Link opens in a new page). My other laptop was completely accessible and I could transfer all I wanted. There was still something missing. Speed.

Transferring multiple files in the background isn't a big deal especially with these dual cores but, choosing the folders and locations all the time is again a pain. That's when FTP came handy. I shortlisted some FTP servers from Sourceforge. FileZilla, Serv-U, WinFTP and CrossFTP were among the best I found. FileZilla is easily the best in the pack (and free) but for some reason, I was not able to get it working with a FileZilla client. The server was working fine but due to router and firewall issues, FileZilla client wasn't able to connect to the server. Serv-U and CrossFTP are free as well. CrossFTP is web-based application and is pretty good. For some reason I wasn't convinced entirely to have my files transferred through a web application. I used WinFTP for sometime. It is not free and that's the only bad part. The features are extremely good. I used it for 30 days and then was locked out of the interface. I have since used Serv-U. It is a pretty decent application with no features comprised. It is free in the sense after the trial period, only single user connection can be enabled which works for me. So, this home FTP setup worked best for me. And I chose to go with FileZilla client. Among its positives, simplicity stands out. I use SmartFTP and WinSCP at work and so, wasn't tempted to use those.

In the end, having a home FTP server setup made things really easy for me. Easy to keep my files organized and made my archiving process lot more efficient. I found these two links at Lifehacker very useful. Link 1: Serv-U. Link 2: FileZilla. 

Blog from Polska

This one straight from Poland.

Same time last week, I was at one of the most hip and happening places on this planet - Beverly Hills, Los Angeles. Now, I am at the other extreme. A serene, beautiful and historically prominent one. Krakow, Poland.

It was a blessing in disguise that I had this aviation conference at Poland. The timing couldn't get any better. I was very busy at work and was waiting for a good vacation or just a break. And then came along Krakow. And almost instantly, I was in love with Krakow. Amazing weather in this time of the year. Great crowds and legacy. We went to a salt mine yesterday. That was the oldest mine in the world. And it was nothing short of extraordinary.

You can never express how much a break like this means to you. Away from work and pressure. Nothing can reconcile it. Not money, Not work. The conference I went too also turned out to be very informative. So, overall it has been a pleasant trip and at a special time.

Puzzle 2: Who shouts first?

4 criminals are caught and are to be punished. The Judge allows them to be freed if they can solve a puzzle. If they do not, they will be hanged. They agreed.


Click here if this image is not visible. It opens in a new window.

The 4 criminals are lined up on some steps (shown in picture). They are all facing in the same direction. A wall separates the fourth man from the other three.

So to summarize:-
Man 1 can see men 2 and 3.
Man 2 can see man 3.
Man 3 can see none of the others.
Man 4 can see none of the others.

The criminals are wearing hats. They are told that there are two white hats and two black hats. The men initially don't know what color hat they are wearing. They are told to shout out the color of the hat that they are wearing as soon as they know for certain what color it is.

They are not allowed to turn round or move.
They are not allowed to talk to each other.
They are not allowed to take their hats off.

Who is the first person to shout out and why?

Check out the solution here.

Free Online Storage.

No aspect in technology has gone down so badly in monetary value as storage has. Storage space, which was once premium, is now mundane. 250GB hard disks have become the norm in laptops. External hard disks have become commonplace. Zip drives tread a similar path. But, as I keep referring to often, cloud computing is the next big thing and is fast catching up. There are many websites that offer free online storage; the maximum storage I have come across is 50 GB in A Drive. And all of them are ad-supported.

I found online storage immensely helpful, especially at work or when I am on a vacation. I seldom use Hotmail (and Live) services but found SkyDrive to be the second most useful application from Microsoft's stable (after, ofcourse, Windows). It offers 25 GB of free online storage space. This is pretty handy. Some good online storage sites include:

A Drive: It offers 50 GB of free space for Basic users. It also offers paid services that have more storage and more sharing capabilities but if you plan to use online storage for personal purposes, Basic plan will suffice. Ofcoure, you would have to bear the advertisements along the margins of the application. Who cares? There are no 'sharing' features in A Drive. Max file upload is 2 GB, which is the best I've come across. Check out the screenshot here.

SkyDrive: Microsoft's SkyDrive is very handy and is cosmetically superior to A Drive or for that matter, any other online storage interface. It builds on the already existing 'Live' brand. It offers a good 'sharing' feature on top of an excellent interface. Downside is that the max upload limit is 50 MB, which sucks. Screenshot.

4Shared: I like 4Shared the best because of its strong online presence. There is a lot of interaction going on and one can easily find good study material, songs, research papers that are available for download. You can also create an account and get 5 GB free online storage. And this private online storage interface is similar to that of A Drive. Max upload limit is 100 MB. And like with Google Docs, lets you share URLs of the files you upload. Screenshot.

Dropbox: Dropbox goes a step ahead and lets you sync your files across multiple computers. Downside is that you get only 2 GB of free space and syncing of big files (> 500MB) does take significant time. But, you can access this storage as an extended drive on your hard disk.

Zumodrive: I personally did not feel it is worth the effort I put in to install it. Installation was very easy. So, imagine how worthy it should have been to me. It is similar to Dropbox, with an added functionality; iPhone access. But for 1 GB additional space, I would not really go the stretch.

So, the next time you plan to go on a vacation or if you need to have a backup you know where to head to.

Puzzle 1: What's the sum?

I stumbled across this puzzle and felt it is worth sharing. 

The sums of the shapes are at the end of each row and column, except for one column. What is the missing sum?

Solving this in 2-3 minutes should mean you are quite sharp :)

Check the solution here.

Will IBM gobble up the 'Sun'?

Looks like the next big things in the tech industry is the 'IBM-Sun Microsystems' merger. IBM is in talks with Sun and has offered ~6.5 billion. And at the outset, Sun is worth every penny of it. But what does this mean to IBM? How will IBM benefit? 

Sun Microsystems offers an array of services. Its Java programming language for internet computing and Solaris for servers are market leaders. It has an excellent presence in hardware industry too. IBM, on the other hand, is a market leader in software services delivery and data-center technologies. There is an overlap, for sure, but is it complementary? I think so. 

A lot has got to do with Cloud computing. Cloud computing enables corporates purchase processing power as a service, over the internet instead of purchasing and maintaining own servers and services. Cloud computing has vast potential - lower operating expenses, efficiency - processing is left to organizations that specialize managing vast data centers. In spite of these advantages, increase in corporates using cloud computing isn't drastic or even significant. It could be due to security reasons - companies unwilling to share information over the net or to an outside company, and the fact that cloud computing isn't yet scalable to large organizations. 

And here is where Sun fits into IBM's scheme of things. Sun can help IBM in the transition to cloud computing. Sun has announced its cloud computing strategy, Sun Cloud, that has Solaris, low cost servers powered by AMD and open source MySQL. This platform will bolster IBM's standing in data center technology. HP and Dell already compete with IBM in this space. And Cisco is the latest entrant (March 16, 2009). Given Cisco's reputation to reshape the market it enters, IBM has to be cautious. But Sun's innovation coupled with IBM's solid technology packaging abilities and on-demand services definitely sound complementary. IBM can market Sun's innovations more effectively. 

As with any merger, there is certainly an aspect of risk involved in the IBM-Sun merger. Sun Cloud is untested water. But I feel IBM has lot to gain with little to risk going forward with the merger. I don't think any other company is as poised as IBM is to merge with Sun. May be Cisco. Let's embrace for a seismic shift in the tech industry.

Pocket Express

I came across an app and if you are a travel freak like I am, you will find it useful. It is not a finished product yet, but it isn't a half-baked cake either. At best, I will describe it as an app intending to be a one-stop-shop for Travel.

It has 9 mini-apps furled into the main app; News, Sports, Weather, Finance, Entertainment, Movies, Travel, Horoscopes and Assist. Of these, Entertainment, Horoscope and Assist are rudimentary. I don't use it for finance; there is Bloomberg. 

It is a good app for travel - native services for iPhone aren't ready yet and one gets directed to its web app, which I would say is pretty good. It has flight status, flight schedules, currency convertors under one tab. I haven't come across any app in the appstore that is this travel friendly. And the good part is, this app comes for free. In the end, this is a good app for travel, not perfect by any means but is useful. And has some bonus functionalities in the same window. Worth giving a try!

Renaming multiple files

Sometimes, I can't help the feeling that we (our generation) get so lost in this high-tech world that we lose track of small yet basics of technology. I came across an interesting situation today. 

I downloaded loads of podcasts (dated back to mid-2006) and archived them in my personal folders. I found it very difficult to go through each of those podcasts on my iPhone and so, I decided to burn these podcasts into CDs and listen to them on the road. Some of the podcasts were in mp3 format and made my job easy. But some of them, like Harvard Ideacasts, were in 'm4a' format. I renamed the file to have a '.mp3' extension and the file played seamlessly. And now, I wanted to change the extensions of hundreds of files. And this is when I, for a moment, was confused.

Like all other iPhone users, I am so used to iTunes. Editing the filenames, extensions or genres is a piece of cake in iTunes. And it is a piece of cake outside of iTunes too, but it doesn't seem to be so. Manually changing the file extensions of hundreds of files is monstrous and disastrous as well. That's when 'ren' (rename) in DOS comes into picture.

1. Open command prompt.

2. Navigate to the directory where the files reside.

3. ren *.m4a *.mp3

'Ren' saved my day!

English Grammar - Incorrect Usage 2

Who versus Whom.

Who and Whom are both pronouns. And gramatically, they are often not interchangeable.

'Who' is used when you are referring to the subject of a clause. And 'Whom' is used when you are referring to the object of a clause. It is very tricky in usage. But let's get this straight.

Use 'Whom' when you are referring to the object of a sentence.

Ex. Whom did you play with?

'Who did you playwith?' with is wrong.

On the contrary, you'd use 'Who' if you are referring to the subject of a sentence.

Ex. Who played with you?

'Whom played with you' is wrong.

And to recap, Subject is the one taking action and object is the one being acted upon.

Microsoft - giant in a slumber?

I often wonder if Microsoft should have been named as 'Macro'soft. And this is not without reason. Given its tendency to release a product with multiple or macro options, Macrosoft would have been apt. Here is why.

I purchased a new laptop yesterday and had an option to choose among the various Vista versions floating around. The base configuration comes with Vista Home Basic, which by the way is as basic as it can get. If there is one entertainment feature that I really like in Vista, it is Windows Media Center. I use it all the time to watch my Netflix DVDs and I should say, the features and display options are really good. But, Vista Home Basic unfortunately doesn't have the Media Center. And I need to upgrade to Vista Home Premium to get access to media center and other entertainment options. Though I have been using Vista Ultimate, I never really took the pain to contrast it other editions of Vista. I did so yesterday and was baffled.

Microsoft has six 32-bit vista editions and five 64-bit vista editions. Phew! 11 options to choose from for an operating system. Here is the comparision of the four flagship Vista editions. It doesn't show Windows Vista starter edition and Vista Enterprise edition. What really stands out is the fact that, atleast to me, lines aren't clear between the various editions. Who would want a Vista Home Basic when it is that pale compared to Home Premium. Why list it or have this product in the first place? Is it to just boost the image of Home Premium? Given Microsoft's hold in OS market, it would have been a great idea to release two editions for Vista - Home and Professional. Or even better, have just one version for 32-bit systems. Having too many options is making things complex for users and might prove to be Microsoft's undoing.

Complex or superfluous options is not just the case in Microsoft's OS product line. It looks like Microsoft has developed a penchant for multiple options. It has become a pattern. Another random example of an Microsoft product. SQL Server 2008 Express. First there is an option to choose between SQL Server Express or SQL Server Compact. Under SQL Server Express, one can choose among

- SQL Server 2008 Express with Tools

- SQL Server 2008 Express with Advanced Services

- SQL Server 2008 Express (Runtime Only)

And different files for 32-bit and 64-bit. So leaving the SQL Server Compact aside, SQL Server 2008 Express has 6 options. Why not have your best all-in-one installation giving users the option to install advanced features or tools if they want?

Before you think I am biased against Microsoft, let me give another random example. How many ways do you want to end your session on a computer? Windows XP got it right. Logoff, Lock, Restart or Shutdown. Wonder what Vista has done to it. They have two icons in the start menu - lock and shut down. And then to the right of these icons is a cascade menu having 'text' commands - Switch User, Log Off, Lock, Restart, Sleep, Hibernate and Shutdown. 9 options to terminate a user session. Too many choices spoil the dish?

I feel Microsoft will be better off if they reduce redundancy and focus on their core competencies i.e., the operating system itself. Look and feel do help but not as much as the functionalities. Once users like functionalities they will flock to download/use the products. And it need not try and impose its software on users, speaking of which I am reminded of another incident. I had a Sony Vaio that I wanted to downgrade and get rid of. It came with Vista Home Premium and before I got rid of it, I wanted to downgrade the OS to XP PRO and check that out. But call it whatever you may - monopoly or imposing the software or whatever, there is simply no option to downgrade Vista to XP on a Sony Vaio without getting your hands dirty. I downgraded the OS on my ThinkPad to XP in a jiffy but it took me an eternity to downgrade Vaio. Ofcourse, I did not like XP on ThinkPad and upgraded back to Vista, and that's my point - What's the problem in letting users install their choice of operating systems on the laptops they own? What's the need to impose your operating system, not giving users a chance to downgrade. Doesn't that show lack of confidence in Vista?

Finally, I feel Microsoft should get rid of redundancy, become more user-friendly in the sense that it gives users the choice to control software and devices they own and be innovative (remember Virtual Earth and Zune). Else, its efforts can be counterproductive and may lead to its own undoing.

Slumdog Millionaire!

As I write this blog, the cast and crew of Slumdog Millionaire are in Kodak theater, Los Angeles for the biggest prize in cinema - the Oscars. Incidentally, I saw this movie just today. There were some scenes in the movie that embarrass Indians; atleast I felt so. What is shown in the movie isn't the true India, but scratch that; true India can never be shown on screen. It can only be felt.

Anyways, back to the movie, I think it has all the ingredients in good proportions. It is logical, has a wonderful background score, has scenes that can rivet you, an excellent script and life in the characters. The only thing I didn't like in the movie is the constant focus on slums. India is not only about slums. Maybe the director had to focus on slums to emphasize the title. Maybe.

At my workplace, at times when we have team events, my colleagues ask me what India is all about. They are honest questions for sure. What I tell them is a different story altogether but I hope they don't see this movie as it shows only a part of India and incorrectly portrays as if that is what India is all about. 

Except this, I have no issues with the movie. I think it is very well crafted and above all, like its protagonist, the movie has right things happening to it at the right time. Golden Globe happened. BAFTA happened. Now it is time for Oscars. Who knows what the destiny has in store for the millionaire? Let's try this question.

What major award(s) did the movie Slumdog Millionaire win?

A. BAFTA

B. Golden Globe

C. Oscars

D. All of the above.

I would go for D.

Netbooks - is the net good enough?

Netbooks are a class of laptop computers that are small, light, and inexpensive, with reduced specifications and processing power relative to larger laptops (Wikipedia).

I loved a comment that I came across in K @ W. "Are these devices stripped down computers or phones on steroids?" is what professor Eric Clemons wondered when he discussed about Netbooks and their impact in the current economy. I concur with the thought above and truly, netbooks are somewhere between laptops and smartphones. What is worth pondering is where in the consumer market these netbooks fit in? How can they make a significant business sense? Will the netbooks increase the popularity of cloud computing? How will the key players be impacted? And many similar questions.

Netbooks, as the name explains, are heavily dependent on the internet. I wouldn't say they will replace smartphones. Not yet. That is because smartphones like iPhone have a distinct edge compared to netbooks; smartphones don't just rely on wi-fi. The fact that these phones can access internet through their telecom providers is kind of a double delight. This factor scores high in that one doesn't need to search for wi-fi spots or be within a certain range to access the internet. And cloud computing is as rampant with  smartphones as it is with netbooks. You can vpn, webex, browse, access online storage and what not with smartphones too. Hence smartphones still have an edge compared to netbooks. Netbooks make more sense in an ubiquitous internet environment.

Technology companies are pitching online storage bundled with netbooks. General perception is that netbooks market will continue growing due to the advances in cloud computing. Keeping the comparison between the smartphones and netbooks aside, there are other hurdles that could potentially bog down netbook sales. First, the current economy. While inexpensive, netbooks are kind of luxury items to purchase in this economy. Ubiquitous internet is a major hurdle. In emerging markets, this poses an even more threat to the future of netbooks. Netbooks are not convenient for everyday computing. This makes them more close to smartphones than to laptops. And given that smartphones come with many perks like camera, apps and more importantly the phone itself, users may find it beneficial to upgrade to a smartphone (read iPhone) than to a netbook.

So, though netbooks are relatively inexpensive, they still don't make a strong case. Partly, due to today's economy. And a netbook's relative utility compared to laptops or smartphones is not in its favor. But considering the speed with which technology is evolving today, it is worth waiting for the netbooks segment to make its mark.