Thoughts of Joel

Thoughts on Moving On

2009-10-20T20:36:00.008+05:30

Time moves and people move with it. Be it from one crush to another, one city to another, one job to another, one hair style to another or for that matter from one waist size to another...... We are moving on....

I was born in Kuwait and spent most of my life there. I had great friends in school back then....... Is it me or does everyone else remember those days as the best of our lives? The times when we used to day dream in a group, irritate teachers in a group, go to tuitions in a group, study in a group, go to church in a group and do what not in a group?

When Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, my Parents were forced to leave everything they had. Everything they owned suddenly became worthless. I was 6 yrs old then. I lost touch with my classmates and it had happened so early in my life that I don't remember who were my classmates back then. Chances are that I might have met them sometime later without realizing that he/she was my classmate in Kinder garden or 1st Standard. Who knows?

Do you remember how it felt on the day you saw your school friends for one last time..... The day you had to move on and start studying elsewhere??? Wasn't that the most weird feeling? We all promised to stay in touch, but Alas!!!!!! Things don't work out the way we want them to. At best we lose touch........ and at worst........ the friendship loses its significance exponentially. It has happened to me and Im sure it has happened to many of you. Wasn't there a friend you thought you'd be friends with forever and now although u know his/her whereabouts... U just cant be bothered?

Same goes for work colleagues..... I had great ones in London..... We laughed, danced, partied, drank, ate together....... at times when we were too drunk to go home.... we slept in the office together!!!!! And then one day came when I had to decide if I wanted to do more in my life. The decision I took came at a price. I would be far away from some of the best friends I ever made. I could no longer hang around with them anymore, could no longer talk to them as often and could not see them as often. On the last day of work, I nearly had tears in my eyes. It was too much to digest, but hey...... we all have to make those tough decisions.... for me it was a matter of survival in my field of choice..... I had to move on.....

Now, I could be in touch with any one of them. But something has changed. I'm not attached to them as much as I used to be..... I feel bad..... but then.... now i know what has happened... any guesses???

When I left London for Bangalore.... I was lucky to have 2 of my very close friends in Bangalore who could accommodate me. Us along with few of their college mates had some of the greatest times in Bangalore. We lived together, visited places together, head-banged to 'Freebird' together, sang rock songs in pubs together, had lots of 'daaru parties' together and did so many other things together. Now again the time has come for us all to move on. Soon we will be at different places and God alone knows if we will ever be as close as we are now again.

I wrote this blog cause I wanted all my friends whom I have lost touch with and who were once close to me to know..... I haven't forgotten you guys... your friendship is still highly valued..... As the world is round, We will meet again.... until then..... Keep moving :)

Thoughts on Oz Racial attacks

2009-06-02T03:12:00.004+05:30

So there is a huge cry about Indians being targeted and mindlessly attacked in some of the biggest cities in Australia.... These attacks apparently are 'Racially' motivated...

Racially!! Really? India is crying about Racially motivated attacks???

Sounds bit weird to me because this comes from a country where fairness creams are probably the highest selling cosmetic. If you are too lazy to use those, we even have bath soaps to make your skin 'fair'. If you think this has nothing to do with racism, never mind.... just ignore I mentioned it...

After the black-white division, we have the caste division. God alone knows how many of these we have. Needless to say, many! Why are they even there I will never know... maybe the people belonging to these caste's want to be called lower/backward classes because apparently they have a 27% quota in IIM's. We even had this female leader of some party who tried to take advantage of her caste and claimed the new PM of India should be an untouchable... But for the sake of an argument, lets just say this is not the case. Maybe all of them don't like to be called untouchables or SC's anymore... but then who is still discriminating them because of their caste?

I don't really want to bring the topic of Religion here, but I feel that it fits in well here. Indians follow a variety of Religion's and you can still find a lot of conflicts between them. People belonging to the majority attacking the minority just to show their supremacy (because one of the names of our country is a derived from the religions name) and the minority attacking/trying to convert few people belonging to the majority just to show their ego.

One way or another, we discriminate against each other in India. Racism is a subset of Discrimination. Unless we solve our problems first, we can't point fingers at others.

Indian government was fast to react and say ...'Hey they are Indian's, you should protect them from these attack's'. WTF??????????

Did this shameless government protect us when terrorists blew up bombs and shot dead scores of people in INDIA??? After they caught these people, did the government do anything noteworthy about it???? Did they teach anyone a lesson???

As critical as the guys in Oz may be, they didn't die. Its horrible of me to say that, I know. I don't mean to say that they didn't die, so its okay. An attack on another human is not forgivable and I hope they get well soon without any long term disability. But when so many Indians were killed in India and the government didn't do anything about it, its not very fair to ask some other government to take care of our citizens in their country.

Thoughts on Jenson Button

2009-05-11T00:58:00.002+05:30

Good things will happen... its just a matter of time..

It was just a few years ago when Jenson Button, a young english driver constantly stood in the podium after races. Alas, he was always second or third, never the first.

At this time many Formula 1 guru's admired his clean driving style and compared it with the rougher driving style of Fernando Alonso. Many people thought Jenson was better. But his admirers/fans had to keep shut when Alonso won 2 championships in a row and Button struggled to be on points in many races.

I don't know what kept Jenson going. He had started races after races without a single win. His first win came after more than a 100 race starts. And that win was soon forgotten because the following year, in came the young and fast Lewis Hamilton. In his first 10 race starts, Lewis recorded 2 wins and a number of podiums. He was in points after all the 10 race completions.

I would imagine Jenson had it very hard then. Being shadowed by a younger driver who already had managed to achieve 4 race wins his first year in Formula 1. To make matters worse for him, his team kept changing hands, continued to make un-reliable cars and God knows what.

But things changed this year. Jenson is now the leader of the pack and is way ahead in points than the past few World Champs. Yes, he has a superior car now, but he has earned this reward.

Many people would have just quit the sport, but Jenson didn't. After years of hardwork and determination, he has finally made it there.

Work hard now, Things will be better one day.

Thoughts on My Grand Father

2009-04-07T07:56:00.006+05:30

I have never lived with my grand parents, maybe a little during my vacations during school days. Because of this I never knew them well. All I knew about them came from my parents.

I remember when I was small and came to India, don't know when, but at that time the only language I could speak was English. Talking to people was a tough as most of the people in the villages could not speak English

My Grandfather was not one of them. My grandfather could read, write and speak good English. Hell, his vocabulary at one time was better than mine. All thanks to the British rule. My mom used to tell me stories about my grandfather. He had worked for Brits in Bombay, then he bought a taxi and then another. Having two taxis in Bombay at that time was a big thing apparently. Probably still is.

He used to travel once a year, every year to Mangalore which probably explains the one year gap between most of my mom's siblings. My mom used to tell me they used to wait for their father to come because he used to get lot of gifts for them and for other children in the village. In short, My mom and her siblings had a good and comfortable upbringing. All because of my Grand Father.

Sometime back in January, I decided to go to Mangalore. My uncle was

turning 50 on Feb 1 and there was a big celebration planned. I did not want to miss this. Normally I would have travelled back to Bangalore on 1st Feb as it was a Sunday, but something made me take 2 days leave from work and extend my stay. During one of those days I visited my Grandfather in his village.

He looked the same, Healthier infact. He could walk, talk, laugh and still could tell stories about him and his brother. He told me to be careful when taking reverse in my new car as that is always tricky. The following day I went back to Mangalore. When saying good bye, I could see the reason I felt like taking leave in my Grandfathers eyes. I knew it and so did he. We both would never meet again. It was the same picture drawn on my other grandfathers eyes when I met him 12 yrs ago. He died a year later.

My mothers father passed away on 1st April 11PM IST.

You will always be missed grandpa. Bailoor will never be the same :)

Thoughts on iPhone OS 3.0

2009-03-13T14:03:00.003+05:30

Push Notifications?
Copy Paste?
Over the air Contact, calendar sync?
Multi-tasked environment? Blue tooth file sharing?
Mobile finder?
Offline Maps?
Support for frameworks?

Scott, please check all 8 of these will ya?

------------------

May 23 Update:

We'll we know that Copy/Paste, push notifications, calendar sync will be available on iPhone 3.0.

But I wonder what the phone will actually look like?

I (and many other ppl) actually like the metal casing of the original iPhone. iPhone 3G came with few new features, but the casing was not that all good.

For iPhone 3.0, how about a Uni-body metal casing? Lets see...

Thoughts on Baby P

2008-11-18T13:34:00.005+05:30

Words could probably never be created to describe the amount of evil in this world.

I came across this story a few days back of a boy who was killed. This boy was 17 months in age. I chose to ignore the report and continued surfing the net.

Today I came across another report, about Baby P. Now I wish I ignored the report again. A quick glance through it will tell you what I mean. This boy was killed by his own mother, and so brutally. Why? I guess we will never know.

Even more surprising is the fact that the baby was monitored by Child Protection agencies because they were aware of his mothers abusive nature. Abusive as in, the mother has literally treated the baby as a punching bag in the past.

We live in a world were a mother is capable of killing her child, Social Workers are just so plain stupid to notice what's going on and Governments are proud of the fact that they don't give the capital punishment because of 'humanitarian' reasons. Oh how beautiful is this world we live in.

For the sake of Baby P, I really do hope there is a Heaven and a Hell. Rest in Peace Baby P.

Thoughts on iPhone iNDIA

2008-08-07T00:15:00.012+05:30

Update 2 (18-Aug-08):

I got some time now.. so let me get it out of my system....

There are a million articles/blogs about the iPhone launching soon in India... Here are my Thoughts on..

The Features

A lot has been said about how India does not have a 3G network and so the iPhone isn't worth it. For one, iPhone 3G isn't only about the 3G. 3G coverage in America is very limited yet it has managed to sell remarkably well.... Just to make things a bit more clear... Have you seen the traffic in Bangalore? The average speed of a car is (being very very optimistic) about 50Km/hr here. But I still find Mercs and BMW's and Porche's and what not around. Are those ppl nuts??? If they are, they have done pretty well for themselves..

iPhone is about the User Experience, the Apps, the build in iPod and to an extend... the Web Browser (Safari). Apple has managed to cram in a state of the art web browser which is not only easy use, but also renders actual webpages. There is no other Mobile manufacturer who can claim their mobile browser is better... or just as good for that matter. No ONE! And are we forgetting about WiFi? And speak about the other Apps, take the Mail App for example. Gmail provides FREE IMAP access to your mail. If you have another email with POP access, you can retrieve those mails to your Gmail account and then get it delivered to your mobile via IMAP. Why IMAP? Check out the advantages of it over POP3 here.

The Price

For the 8GB model, this has been reported from RS 15 - 31 thousand. If its anything like 15K then its a bargain! But if it is infact 31K, the ~~gods~~ carriers must really be crazy! It is pretty naive of anyone to expect the iPhone to be available in india for around RS 8,000 (thats more or less $199). According to analysts, Apple actually sells the iPhone to AT&T at around $575. AT&T sells the iPhone for $200 and then collects the remaining from the customers via the contracts that they are tied to. At a minimum of $60 per month for a minimum of 2 years, these contracts are pretty expensive.

Airtel and Vodafone could never sell that kind of contract in India, but I'm sure they can run their algorithms and come up with a better solution than 31K for the phone + a 2 year contract.

Here's my novice take on the ideal pricing.

Phone to be around RS 20,000 (thats around $460 dollars).
Monthly contract around RS 1000 per month (~$23) for a period of 18 - 24 months. To break it down, I would say RS 500 allocated to rental/talk time/sms and RS 300 -350 for unlimited data usage. The data usage is a major selling point here because owning an iPhone and not using any Data service is like owning a 52 Inch Plasma and not having a cable subscription. On top of this, carriers can charge around RS100 for insurance (remember the glass screen of iPhone). That brings up the total to RS 900 - 950. Didn't forget the taxes did you? Add another 12.5% for that and we end up at ~ RS 1015 - 1070.

If either of the carriers came up with this structure, I would buy the iPhone without thinking twice. I can only dream, looks like I'll have to wait till 22nd Aug to find out. Its 18th today and the folks at Airtel/Vodafone are still in no mood to discuss the pricing.

Update 1 (12-Aug-08):
Some rumor goin around saying the iPhone is going to be RS 31K..... yep... thats the Daily WTF for today!

Original Post (7-Aug-08):
Plz God... let it be affordable by us poor indians!

Thoughts on Child Labour...

2007-11-11T21:07:00.001+05:30

Ok.... so i was in KFC the other day.... just hanging out with few friends....and waiting for my 'chicken'. across few tables there was a woman sitting.... and for some reason... maybe instinct... i didnt like something about her........ maybe it was just the fact that this woman had the biceps bigger than a watermelon... well... thats not a reason to dislike anybody.. i know! but something in this woman was not right.

She was sitting there munching her chicken away with her 2 children...... then out of no where i see this girl.... dressed in something i can only say is a little better than what the beggars on the roads do..... comes to this woman and starts talking to her... She is carrying a kid of maybe 3yrs with her...

My first impression was that this girl is actually a beggar and somehow has managed to slip her way in... and is begging for some money... or food probably......

And then the next thing i see is.... she is handing over the kid she was holding to the woman..... its only at that point did i realize that... this girl isnt any beggar... she is actually domestic help!!! or should i say servant!

Then it all made sense..... Maybe thats why i didnt like this woman.... she has actually got a girl in her early teens as her servant!

Im no activist or anything... but seeing such things really dissapoints me. Living in a city like bangalore... i would have guessed that ppl are educated and know better!

What came up next shocked me even more..... now this woman is there.. sitting with her baby.. and continuing to hog her chicken.... and she dosent even offer a piece of it to this girl.....

Ok... i'll give the woman the benefit of the doubt.... maybe the girl was vegetarian for religious reasons.... but the woman didnt offer a drink to this girl... or not even a single french fry.... when she was done with her dinner... she just got up... gave the kid back to the girl.... and they all left.... the poor girl did not get a bite of anything....

I cant imagine how she must have felt.... but back in the day.... when i was a kid.... when our car drove past KFC or McD or Burger King or Pizza hut.... my mouth always watered.... what would have this kid felt, when she was standing there right in the middle of KFC and watching other ppl eat?

Its stuff like this that really upsets me and spoils my mood..... Maybe that was the reason i couldnt finish even 2 pieces of chicken that day... naah... it must be the awful tasting KFC.......... Anyway....I hope one day things will change and ppl will stop hiring children for domestic help.... and i also hope that the little girl gets a better future.....

Thoughts on $100 Laptop

2007-11-03T11:29:00.001+05:30

I was in bombay the other day, and i wanted to do one thing that i havent for over 5 yrs..... eat a wada paav....

So there i am, at this roadside wada paav stall. i almost asked this guy to make me a wada paav, and then the mobile goes off....not mine.... the wada paav guy's..... he removes a nice flashy mobile phone (which supports mp3 ringtones) from his pocket, and speaks for a good five minutes......

There i am completely irritated by this guy, wondering why mobile phones have become cheap. After five minutes, i get my wada paav... and while im eating it.... my mind cooled off... and i figured.... its a good thing that mobiles are cheap now.... everyone can afford one... and stay in touch.... thats the whole point of these nokia's isnt it..... Connecting PPL!

Then another 15 seconds passed by, and i realised something which is probably there somewhere future.... all because of the $100 Laptop.

Imagine this.... 10yrs from now.... owning a laptop will be like owning a tubelight.... infact... it shouldnt be shocking if a person has more than one laptop...... even the wada paav guy....

If you are able to picture that... then its not hard to see, free wifi all over india... an operating system thats got hindi as an option etc etc....

with all this commin up....maybe after 10 yrs... i'll have to wait a little longer for my wada paav... because the wada paav guy is having a video/voice chat with his family in some remote village in maharashtra....

Thoughts on Chess...

2007-10-25T23:22:00.002+05:30

Chess.... aah... thats one game i probably will never be able to play..... for the only reason that i have a very very short attention span... and i cannot have 10 next moves planned in my head.... my memory is too weak for that.... and ofcourse i find the wooden queen very unattractive....

What made me write about chess today is that i came across this article about Viswanathan anand becoming the world champion... yet again....

There is a small line in that article which says...

........"There is the odd country where there's some lingering doubt whether chess is art or sport," he says. "Quite clearly it is a sport."....

Hang on a minute! when did chess become a sport? ppl claim its a mind sport.... No disrespect to Mr. Anand, but that is soo lame! i dont think something like this should exist in the first place! Chess is a Game... lets leave it at that, shall we? lets call a person who sweats and works hard in the track, gym, court, ground a sportsman/woman.... If you dont do any kind of physical activity before/during the 'sport' then ur not a sports person and what u call 'sport' is not a sport!

While I'm on the topic, and if there is a term called mind sport, why don't i term some new sports!

Deception Sports - Poker and many card games come under this category.

Luck Sports - Snakes & Ladders, Ludo etc.

Geometry Sports - Snooker, Billiards, Pool, Carrom (because its all about the angles!)

Virtual Sports - all the football, cricket etc etc... u playon ur comp, ps2, xbox, etc.

Picnic Sports - Dog & the Bone, Lemon and Spoon....

Know more?? please feel free to add on....

Thoughts on iPhone SDK

2007-10-20T01:22:00.001+05:30

Wheheey!!!!

Thats it... cant wait for feb! thank you stevey!

================================

UPDATE 25/10/2007:

Well... come to think of it.... and what will be a much much more bigger dissapointment than then the 'great' web 2.0 SDK for iPhone which stevey announced on June 28th will be..... Wait for it!!! a Java SDK for iPhone....

I hear the java guys going wheehey!!!! Java Rocks!!!! but Actually... Java Sucks! I just cant stand it anymore.....

Heres why i think Stevey has got Java in mind for his iPhone/iTouch SDK..

1. Cocoa already had a java bridge till Leopard... Most of the Cocoa api could be access via Java...He is simply buying time till feb to update that bridge...

2. Java runs on a VM! The whole sandboxing-security thing comes in..... With Java, you will be able to develop fairly sofisticated apps, and dont worry about viruses accessing the memory illegaly!

3. iPhone/iTouch actually needs Java! Actually, i dont think so.... but many other ppl do! ppl who dont know shit think that if a phone does not support java, it must be pretty crap..... and they already have something to back that claim.... the shitty 2 MegaPixel (flashless) camera that comes with the iPhone..

4. Millions of ppl know Java, compared to a handfull of cocoa coders... So a Java SDK will be more appealing to a larger audience...

5. I just have this gut feeling, that its java..... PLS STEVEY!!!! TELL ME IM WRONG!!!!

Thoughts on iPhone Unlocked!

2007-09-25T22:40:00.000+05:30

Man!!!!!! Is the iPhone the most talked about gadget ever or what?????? Ever since the first iPhone was sold on July 29th, it gave Shawn Michaels the 'Show Stopper' a run for his money. I mean seriously... Ever since iPhone was released, there have been atleast 5 stories about it on digg...... everyday!!!!! Beat that M$! There still are probably few millions in the US who havent heard of 'The Zune'.... and why would they???

On the more heavier side, Apple today announced that the next firmware upgrade will most likely make unlocked iPhones useless..... unlocked here means you are a rich F**K in Yemen and reading all about the iPhone on well... your iPhone via EDGE..... well i donno if Yemen has edge yet... but u get the picture!

They didn't explicitly say anything about broken phones that run 3rd party apps.... And Im pretty glad they didnt. I can live with Apple locking themselves with one carrier... (well thats like living in a country without strip clubs...)... to be fair to Apple, a lot of carriers do that. But then they dont release 'firmware' updates that make the broken iPhone's unusable.

2BContinued... when i have more time...

Thoughts on iPhone UK...

2007-09-18T14:48:00.001+05:30

Has stevey lost the plot???

Today Apple announced the release of iPhone in the UK. I was eagerly waiting for this... because I had told a lot of ppl that the European iPhone will be different and 3G.

I hate this...not the proven wrong bit... but i feel this just adds to the disaster that is the iPhone UK.

When iPhone was released in the US couple of months ago tied together with the AT&T contract... i couldnt comment much.... I just assumed thats just how things are over there... u pay for the phone and the contract....

When it comes to iPhone in the UK, I know that this is a fatal mistake. Okay, im no expert, but ive lived in the UK, for couple of years... and out of the man?y things i learnt, i can tell you that the brits are always looking for a bargain.... but paying freakin £269 for the phone and then getting tied to a £35/month contract for 18 months..... well... whichever way u cut it mate.... its not a bargain.... on the contrary.... its a rip off.... There are many mobile contracts in the UK starting at £35/month which come with a free phone worth upwards of £250. and those contracts last for only 12 months.... not freakin 18!

Do the math yourself... £269 + (18 * £35) = £899 .... on the other hand, you can get a vodafone 3G 12 month contract for £30/month and get the Nokia N95 free!

Now back to the topic of why on earth this isnt a 3G phone... I have no clue..... in the US, 3G networks are not as developed as they are in Europe...... so 2.5G phone over there is decent. But in Europe, 3G is the future.... now if Apple still want to claim that the iPhone is 5 yrs ahead of its time... they should have made it a 3G phone. without the 3G, iPhone is only a couple of months ahead of its time... thats when Nokia, Motorolla, Samsung, Sony etc send in their touch screen phones... Bad move Stevey!

And if they are planning to carry on with this phone in the far east.... God Save them! I might need to go back to church again just to pray for Apple. Im a hardcore fan of Apple... And todays events have indeed disappointed me a lot...

Thoughts on iPhone...

2007-09-11T22:55:00.001+05:30

Apple has sold over 1 million iPhones...read here for confirmation...

So what does this mean???

does it mean its the best ever phone made???
is it because of all the 'hype'????
or do ppl have to much money available to spend???

To be completely honest.....I donno... but its definitely one or two of the above... well.. you can decide on that later... but for now.. have a look at the inital 'iPhone' design... pretty 'lame' hugh? ;)

Another reason why you should be using GMail

2007-02-28T03:32:00.001+05:30

I came across this today... really cool...

Instant Disposable Gmail Address

Gmail user Kevin Gunn creates web site specific addresses and sets up filters for them to catch companies who spam or sell email addresses of its customers:

Let's say you need to sign up for a mailing list that interests you, but you're afraid spammers might get your address. We'll call the list "exoticflowers". Sign up with the list using the address "johndoe+exoticflowers@gmail.com". Email to that address will still come to your "johndoe@gmail.com" address even though the "To:" will include that "+exoticflowers" in it.

Then set up Gmail filters to shuttle that +exoticflowers email past the inbox to a specific label. Neat. Thanks, Steve!

One of the reasons Salman is my Idol.....

2007-02-14T19:02:00.000+05:30

Salman’s pyaar ki ‘Saugat’
By: Vickey Lalwani February 14, 2007

Salman Khan has donated Rs 4.5 lakh for the treatment of a seven-year-old child stricken with cancer, called Saugat Kunwar.

The actor made the donation two months back without making a media spectacle out of the event.

On Saturday, Khan left shooting midway and attended the Annual Day celebrations of Children Welfare Centre High School and Clara’s College of Commerce.

The principal, Ajay Kaul, had personally invited him. Salman sat with the child for about 20 minutes, and then made a quick exit before the media arrived at the event.

Not for publicity
A source says, “Before Salman reached the school, he learnt that the media had been invited to cover the event. He did not want his charitable gesture to be highlighted, so he came to the school about 90 minutes earlier than the scheduled time and left before the press could arrive.”

This is not the first time that Salman has gone out of his way to help people in need, especially those stricken with cancer.

Kaul confirms Salman’s good deed and says, “We had invited Salman because we wanted to thank him. It was my first meeting with him and he is a nice person.

Without seeing or knowing the child, he shelled out such a big amount. He genuinely cares for the less fortunate.”

Costly treatment
Although Saugat does not study in Children Welfare Centre High school and Claras College of Commerce, his parents had approached Kaul for financial assistance for their son’s treatment.

Says Kaul, “Saugat is from Nepal. His treatment is going to cost anywhere between Rs 10-15 lakh. His parents have been running from pillar to post to collect the huge amount.

At our level too we have done our best to help Saugat. We have collected nearly Rs 4 lakh from the school and from other sources.”

Explaining how they approached Salman, Kaul says, “Two parents Samad Khan and Tahir Sheikh approached him. They knew Salim Khan personally.”

Sallu’s bada dil
Salman Khan, along with his entire family, had attended a programme organised by the Cancer Patients Aid Association (CPAA) for 250 terminally ill patients.

The actor donated Rs 13 lakh for the cause. Khan had been in touch with the association to donate his bone marrow. He had read that bone marrow could save cancer patients, and so he wanted to donate his marrow, not realising that the operation was extremely painful.

The association had to explain him that he couldn’t donate bone marrow like blood; there is a complicated process involved, which involves matching of tissues of both the patient and the donor.

Sallu’s always available
Make-A-Wish Foundation of India inform that every time they have called Salman with a wish from a terminally ill child, the actor has gone out of his way to co-operate.

A tenth standard student Apurva Agarwal was seriously ill and expressed a desire to speak to Salman.

Since the actor was not in the city, the organisation left a message for him. In a short while, the patient got a call from Salman from Hyderabad. They chatted for 40 minutes.

An old Speech by Steve Jobs

2007-02-12T23:13:00.000+05:30

[This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Inc, delivered on June 12,2005 ]

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation.

Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5=A2 deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great.

It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating. None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac.

It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky - I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation - the Macintosh - a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley.

But something slowly began to dawn on me - I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, "Toy Story", and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I retuned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick.Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it.

And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions
drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called "The Whole Earth Catalog", which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of "The Whole Earth Catalog", and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

Thoughts on Music

2007-02-09T23:08:00.001+05:30

Steve Jobs
February 6, 2007

With the stunning global success of Apple's iPod music player and iTunes online music store, some have called for Apple to "open" the digital rights management (DRM) system that Apple uses to protect its music against theft, so that music purchased from iTunes can be played on digital devices purchased from other companies, and protected music purchased from other online music stores can play on iPods. Let's examine the current situation and how we got here, then look at three possible alternatives for the future.

To begin, it is useful to remember that all iPods play music that is free of any DRM and encoded in "open" licensable formats such as MP3 and AAC. iPod users can and do acquire their music from many sources, including CDs they own. Music on CDs can be easily imported into the freely-downloadable iTunes jukebox software which runs on both Macs and Windows PCs, and is automatically encoded into the open AAC or MP3 formats without any DRM. This music can be played on iPods or any other music players that play these open formats.

The rub comes from the music Apple sells on its online iTunes Store. Since Apple does not own or control any music itself, it must license the rights to distribute music from others, primarily the "big four" music companies: Universal, Sony BMG, Warner and EMI. These four companies control the distribution of over 70% of the world's music. When Apple approached these companies to license their music to distribute legally over the Internet, they were extremely cautious and required Apple to protect their music from being illegally copied. The solution was to create a DRM system, which envelopes each song purchased from the iTunes store in special and secret software so that it cannot be played on unauthorized devices.

Apple was able to negotiate landmark usage rights at the time, which include allowing users to play their DRM protected music on up to 5 computers and on an unlimited number of iPods. Obtaining such rights from the music companies was unprecedented at the time, and even today is unmatched by most other digital music services. However, a key provision of our agreements with the music companies is that if our DRM system is compromised and their music becomes playable on unauthorized devices, we have only a small number of weeks to fix the problem or they can withdraw their entire music catalog from our iTunes store.

To prevent illegal copies, DRM systems must allow only authorized devices to play the protected music. If a copy of a DRM protected song is posted on the Internet, it should not be able to play on a downloader's computer or portable music device. To achieve this, a DRM system employs secrets. There is no theory of protecting content other than keeping secrets. In other words, even if one uses the most sophisticated cryptographic locks to protect the actual music, one must still "hide" the keys which unlock the music on the user's computer or portable music player. No one has ever implemented a DRM system that does not depend on such secrets for its operation.

The problem, of course, is that there are many smart people in the world, some with a lot of time on their hands, who love to discover such secrets and publish a way for everyone to get free (and stolen) music. They are often successful in doing just that, so any company trying to protect content using a DRM must frequently update it with new and harder to discover secrets. It is a cat-and-mouse game. Apple's DRM system is called FairPlay. While we have had a few breaches in FairPlay, we have been able to successfully repair them through updating the iTunes store software, the iTunes jukebox software and software in the iPods themselves. So far we have met our commitments to the music companies to protect their music, and we have given users the most liberal usage rights available in the industry for legally downloaded music.

With this background, let's now explore three different alternatives for the future.

The first alternative is to continue on the current course, with each manufacturer competing freely with their own "top to bottom" proprietary systems for selling, playing and protecting music. It is a very competitive market, with major global companies making large investments to develop new music players and online music stores. Apple, Microsoft and Sony all compete with proprietary systems. Music purchased from Microsoft's Zune store will only play on Zune players; music purchased from Sony's Connect store will only play on Sony's players; and music purchased from Apple's iTunes store will only play on iPods. This is the current state of affairs in the industry, and customers are being well served with a continuing stream of innovative products and a wide variety of choices.

Some have argued that once a consumer purchases a body of music from one of the proprietary music stores, they are forever locked into only using music players from that one company. Or, if they buy a specific player, they are locked into buying music only from that company's music store. Is this true? Let's look at the data for iPods and the iTunes store – they are the industry's most popular products and we have accurate data for them. Through the end of 2006, customers purchased a total of 90 million iPods and 2 billion songs from the iTunes store. On average, that's 22 songs purchased from the iTunes store for each iPod ever sold.

Today's most popular iPod holds 1000 songs, and research tells us that the average iPod is nearly full. This means that only 22 out of 1000 songs, or under 3% of the music on the average iPod, is purchased from the iTunes store and protected with a DRM. The remaining 97% of the music is unprotected and playable on any player that can play the open formats. It's hard to believe that just 3% of the music on the average iPod is enough to lock users into buying only iPods in the future. And since 97% of the music on the average iPod was not purchased from the iTunes store, iPod users are clearly not locked into the iTunes store to acquire their music.

The second alternative is for Apple to license its FairPlay DRM technology to current and future competitors with the goal of achieving interoperability between different company's players and music stores. On the surface, this seems like a good idea since it might offer customers increased choice now and in the future. And Apple might benefit by charging a small licensing fee for its FairPlay DRM. However, when we look a bit deeper, problems begin to emerge. The most serious problem is that licensing a DRM involves disclosing some of its secrets to many people in many companies, and history tells us that inevitably these secrets will leak. The Internet has made such leaks far more damaging, since a single leak can be spread worldwide in less than a minute. Such leaks can rapidly result in software programs available as free downloads on the Internet which will disable the DRM protection so that formerly protected songs can be played on unauthorized players.

An equally serious problem is how to quickly repair the damage caused by such a leak. A successful repair will likely involve enhancing the music store software, the music jukebox software, and the software in the players with new secrets, then transferring this updated software into the tens (or hundreds) of millions of Macs, Windows PCs and players already in use. This must all be done quickly and in a very coordinated way. Such an undertaking is very difficult when just one company controls all of the pieces. It is near impossible if multiple companies control separate pieces of the puzzle, and all of them must quickly act in concert to repair the damage from a leak.

Apple has concluded that if it licenses FairPlay to others, it can no longer guarantee to protect the music it licenses from the big four music companies. Perhaps this same conclusion contributed to Microsoft's recent decision to switch their emphasis from an "open" model of licensing their DRM to others to a "closed" model of offering a proprietary music store, proprietary jukebox software and proprietary players.

The third alternative is to abolish DRMs entirely. Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats. In such a world, any player can play music purchased from any store, and any store can sell music which is playable on all players. This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat. If the big four music companies would license Apple their music without the requirement that it be protected with a DRM, we would switch to selling only DRM-free music on our iTunes store. Every iPod ever made will play this DRM-free music.

Why would the big four music companies agree to let Apple and others distribute their music without using DRM systems to protect it? The simplest answer is because DRMs haven't worked, and may never work, to halt music piracy. Though the big four music companies require that all their music sold online be protected with DRMs, these same music companies continue to sell billions of CDs a year which contain completely unprotected music. That's right! No DRM system was ever developed for the CD, so all the music distributed on CDs can be easily uploaded to the Internet, then (illegally) downloaded and played on any computer or player.

In 2006, under 2 billion DRM-protected songs were sold worldwide by online stores, while over 20 billion songs were sold completely DRM-free and unprotected on CDs by the music companies themselves. The music companies sell the vast majority of their music DRM-free, and show no signs of changing this behavior, since the overwhelming majority of their revenues depend on selling CDs which must play in CD players that support no DRM system.

So if the music companies are selling over 90 percent of their music DRM-free, what benefits do they get from selling the remaining small percentage of their music encumbered with a DRM system? There appear to be none. If anything, the technical expertise and overhead required to create, operate and update a DRM system has limited the number of participants selling DRM protected music. If such requirements were removed, the music industry might experience an influx of new companies willing to invest in innovative new stores and players. This can only be seen as a positive by the music companies.

Much of the concern over DRM systems has arisen in European countries. Perhaps those unhappy with the current situation should redirect their energies towards persuading the music companies to sell their music DRM-free. For Europeans, two and a half of the big four music companies are located right in their backyard. The largest, Universal, is 100% owned by Vivendi, a French company. EMI is a British company, and Sony BMG is 50% owned by Bertelsmann, a German company. Convincing them to license their music to Apple and others DRM-free will create a truly interoperable music marketplace. Apple will embrace this wholeheartedly.

Windows Vista Video Review....(In Norwegian)

2007-01-26T22:32:00.001+05:30

This Norwegian doode is reviewing Windows VISTA.... and he is doing it on an Intel iMac...... lol.....

Well... atleast we know VISTA works fine on bootcamp as well.... and iMac is able to take advantage of the 'new' AERO feature as well....

Some ppl argue that MS is a software company and Apple is mostly hardware.... true... so it shouldnt matter if MS is using apple hardware for demos..... I think MS knows its going to be overtaken by Apple soon.... HAHA... lauf all you want.... wait for 5 more years and lets see who is laufing....

The link is ofcourse courtessy of Digg.com

Will iPhone be an iPhone?

2007-01-26T20:32:00.000+05:30

Have look here and see if you notice something wierd.

No where is the backside of the phone shown.... not only in the above website..... any website! looks like no one is able to click the back of the phone... and Apple havent given a 3D view of the phone either....

Why do i need this? look at these pictures....

u see... the apple logo is missing on the iPhone....

This logo is probably at the back of the phone... but what will also be interesting to see is what is actually written on the phone....

I dont they will call it the iPhone because of all the headache that comes with it.... it quite possible its going to be called... Apple phone.....

Who knows... lets wait till June to find out...

Technical problems....

2007-01-26T18:23:00.001+05:30

JLogic is almost here.... the start of an era.... to solve problems like this...

http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/Disjoint_Twins.aspx

What do u expect from a 'Software' Company who implemented it using .NET (cos of the .aspx extention). .NET should only be used for RAD and nothing else!

Graduated..... Finally!

2007-01-26T01:27:00.000+05:30

After 6 Months of waiting (I got my results back in July 2006!) .... I have graduated.... FINALLY!!!!

Problem is.... I don't feel like I've graduated....If you attended the ceremony... you'd know what i mean...

I was told the ceremony would start at 10:30 in the morning, and i should register and get my gown by 9:55 am and be seated. So at 10am there i am, sitting with my batch-mates... all 4 of them!

Funny thing... when i started my course.. there where 30 or so of us in software engineering.... out of which only 12 of us survived the 4 yrs.... and 5 of us actually bothered to attend the ceremony.... now i know why.......

The ceremony started off at 10:30... with the vice-chancellor and other 'important' ppl entered in the same fashion as how the priest and his alter boys enter at the start of a mass. It really looks funny.... it made me feel as if this ceremony is some sacred religious event... ooh and, the chancellor pulled a sickie and didn't come to the ceremony....

Once the Vice-chancellor started boasting about how great the university is, and how we are one of the top universities in the UK with above 90% and above empolyability rate and our Informatics(computing) courses graded 9/10 by the guardian (i didn't know that! and i don't think its true either..), the process of awarding the certificates started.... I didn't count but i would guess there where around 200 of us from different courses... 170 or so from informatics...

I was not given the certificate by the vice-chancellor, we undergrads have to just shake his hand.... and we get the certificate after we get off the stage (altar)...we are asked to go to this doode sitting behind a desk at the back of the cathedral (the venue was southwark cathedral)... and it looked as if though he was giving away flyer's....

What i thought were flyer's, were actually certificates... don't blame me, i expected my certificate to be little more thicker than the A4 quality sheet i got, pale blue in color and my name and course mentioned using Times New Roman Font.. Size 14!

By 11:30 am all of us got our 'certificates'... at least i think it was 11:30am... I didn't see the
time when it finished... thanks to my mobile forced to be switched off during the ceremony and my chronograph watch running out of power due to lack of sunlight in London. I didn't want to ask my friends the time cos i didn't want them to know i was bored.... that said, i did pass few sarcastic remarks during the ceremony... I really couldn't help myself!

After this... the vice-chancellor announced that honorary degrees where awarded to two outstanding personalities.... one of them was a Saudi business man (Mr Maan Al-Sanea). This had to happen... looks like where ever i go there is a Middle Eastern person... not that i hate them or anything... but its always linked to me... call it coincidence or what! Eg. I was born and brought up in Kuwait... after 18 yrs in q8, i come to London, get a part time job... and what do i hear? most of our customers will be from the middle-east! mainly Kuwaiti's! I've been in this job for almost 4 yrs now... and now i am finally leaving it (and London) and this Saudi geezer gets awarded a honorary degree in the same ceremony! Next thing i expect is to go to Bangalore and work for a Dubai based company....

Anyways... here's the interesting bit.... the other woman ( Dame Pauline) was a BBC 'journalist' or something AND an ex Intelligence officer.....

I swear to GOD... she looked just like 'M' from James Bond..... I SWEAR!!!!! its the not the facial characteristics I'm talking about... but the way she dressed, the way she talked and the hair!!!! it was white and short... just like M!!!!

..........She may have sounded and looked like M, but she was not as interesting.... M always talks about the Russians..... and the terrorists...... and the Russians...... and this woman talked bout....... I DON'T KNOW!!!! her speech was sooo boring I didn't listen to even a word she said!

at about 12:30pm she finished saying whatever she had to say... the chancellor and his charlies said thank you and exited the same way they came in..... like a priest followed by alter boys....

After that came the biggest surprised...... Apparently they don't click pictures when we shake hands with the vice-chancellor. Not only did that guy didn't gimme my certificate himself, not only did they not take pics of me shaking hands with him, they did not even allow my folks click one! how weird is that!!!!

After the ceremony, there were photo sessions..... £28 for 3 of them.... i said hell with that!!! i already paid £600 in total to attend the ceremony, I'm not paying you any more... this should come free!!! My dad had already taken few pics before and after the ceremony, so i felt the extra ones are of no use....

Anyway.... after all that... i returned my gown to the guys... and then came home..... there was not much to do anyway... from what i hear... my friends did the same thing.....

Well... to make it a remembrance day... at least it snowed for the first time this winter in London!

My colleagues were far better than my university, when i was busy at work (ie. chatting to one of my friends) they turned up from nowhere with a sponge cake & a champagne bottle!.... Thank you so much guys! Ashgar,Rahul,Ronaldo,Shahid,Vicci,Vinita. and of course Denise,Imran and Rohit who were not present.

What does VISTA stand for?

2007-01-25T21:52:00.001+05:30

Ever wondered what VISTA (The latest version of Microsofts OS), stood for?????

I stumbeled across this today.... It sums up Windows alright....

VISTA = (V)irus (I)nfections (S)pyware (T)rojans (A)dware

If only the middle-east crisis could be solved like this...

2007-01-23T15:32:00.001+05:30

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070122/tc_nm/china_thief_dc

lol...

First they buy the Zune... and now they complain!

2007-01-22T23:00:00.001+05:30

http://zunecorps.com/?p=378

They probably havent heard of an iPod ...

MacBook killer.... (I disagree)

2007-01-21T20:15:00.000+05:30

This guy claims what he found a MacBook killer!!!!

LOL.....some ppl do have a wierd sense of humor..... checkout and compare the specs of MacBook and the 'MacBook Killer' yourself....

Agree that they look quite similar... but the engines are completely diffrent!

MacBook Killer

MacBook

Linux Eye-Candy anyone?

2007-01-19T19:33:00.000+05:30

Right.... just thought it would be nice of me to introduce you to Beryl....

Beryl is a window manager for Linux. Im no fan of eye-candy (well i do love/use a little bit of it)... but it annoys me when im working.... but there are few (actually many) M$ Windows Worshippers who think Windows is the most user friendly OS in existance and .....hopefully this will change your mind....

ooh another thing.... Beryl is completely free of charge... i.e. you dont have to buy it to use it..... or more clearly.... you need to pay squat to use it...... only restriction is you have to run it under linux.... which is also free.... hell Ubuntu even ships the CD to you Free Of Cost!!!!

Pinto Villa on Wikimapia

2007-01-17T22:43:00.001+05:30

My house in my village.....

http://wikimapia.org/#y=13075883&x=75092593&z=18&l=0&m=a&v=2

Yes... the road name is called Pinto Nagar!

iLove iPhone.... or should i?

2007-01-16T00:55:00.000+05:30

Alright..... the iPhone is in existance...for a week now.

After reading a lot of reviews... geeky me felt..... why not write my own? So here we go...

Whats iFantastic?

Incase you didnt notice.... its touch screen! Now i am not a very big fan of touch screen.... infact i always question their useability. Cmon, nothing can replace the feeling of actually pressing a physical button!

But i think Apple has got it right. Reason being..... a touch screen guarantees one thing. Everything is virtual... even the buttons.... so when the buttons are virtual..... you know what happens????? they can be added/deleted or moved! Why do i need moving buttons or more more buttons? you see.... apple has one good habbit.... they make one excellent hardware and provide many excellent software updates.

Take the PowerBook G4 for example.... its been around for ages!!!! Buying one is expensive, but not in the long run. G4 has been around since Mac 10.2 (or probably earlier) and was continued till 10.4 . No no... it doesnt stop there! 10.5 will also run smoothly on G4. Compare this with its competitor... ala M$ Windows.....every single time they upgrade their overated, stupid OS, they demand a huge hardware updgrade..... You probably can see where im going. The hardware of (beautifull) iPhone is 5 yrs ahead of any other smart phone in existance. What (i think) apple has planned is, to follow the tried and tested method. sell gr8 hardware... and keep updating it. Sounds good? Hell yeah! Imagine new goodies delivered straight to your phone... you dont have to change anything! Someone turns up with a revolutionary new audio codec.... you dont have to buy a new phone! you just click the update button (which i hope apple will provide). Ofcourse, if some idiot (or genius) invents a revolutionary new hardware which can transfer files across the globe for free... we will need a new iPhone.. but until that happens... i think we are safe!

iPhone has another gr8 feature! Safari!!!! an Internet browser by apple (which if rumors are true will be availble for free in Windows soon.) Have you seen it at work? this practically means a big bye bye to WAP Pages!

Using safari, you can go to actual webpages and feel like your using a proper internet browser instead of all the crap we have to go thru with WAP pages.

Ok... so we got a phone which can update its software and get new buttons.... an internet browser.... but how do i connect to the internet?????? i cant spend all that money updating and browsing via EDGE or GPRS !!!! ..... thing is... youd dont have to...... cos iPhone comes with built in WiFi !! This practically means you dont need your lappy everytime your in Starbucks and want to check your mail. you can do it with your iPhone. What do i hear??? WHAT?????? R U Crazy!!! Not postal mail.... i meant email!!!!! boy your reading the wrong blog if your still thinking of postal mail.....

Anyways.... with built in wifi, you can get fast and cheap internet on the go... as long as there is a wifi network nearby ofcourse......

Whats iOK?

No Java! Some of us may (or like me will ) say..... WTF??????? in this day and age, a no Java phone is a No No!!!! But come to think of it.... (might i dare say...) who needs Java anyway???? cmon... i only use Java for games and some apps.... All the apps i need (like currency convertor, world clock & RSS aggregator) will be given by Apple anyway..... and as far as games are concerned..... iPhone is not built for that kind of entertainment! i cannot imagine countlessly pressing a (virtual) button countless times on such a valuble possesion..... youd be insane to even think of gaming on iPhone! What else has java got??? Nothing!

Whats iMissing?

API! Its very unfortunate that Apple have left out iDevelopers not working for Apple. Steve why did you do this? Apprantly he is scared for Cingular's safety.... i dont get this.... what can the iPhone do that a MacPro cant? is there anything????

Whats iNotGood?

The name.... As i see it... Steve Jobs behaved a bit arrogantly using the name iPhone without Cisico's permission . Steve Jobs says iPhone is not a VoIP phone, like Cisco's VoIP iPhone. Well not yet!!!!! I think it is safe to say that apple where planning to use its built in wifi for VoIP sometime in the future... Cmon... we all know VoIP is the future of telephony.... Apple could have used something like ApplePhone or MacPhone like its other products (MacBook [Pro], MacPro and Apple TV). how many iProducts have they got left anyway? iPod and iMac... thats it! there was no need for another iProduct... ApplePhone could have been just fine. This decision may backfire.

Another thing... the camera.... 2 Mega pix...WHAT??????? u make an incredible phone with Mac OS X, gr8 hardware, itunes built in and you add a clumsy 2 megapixel camera? cmon... even a stupid 6230'i' phones got a 2 mp camera...i honestly expected atleast 4..... bumer!

Another thing.... The cost.... $499!!!! that also for the 4GB one..... mind you if i get another 4GB for just $100 more... i'd go for the 8GB one..... (this is probably what apple planned and expect!) The iPhone may be an intelligent phone with iPod capabilities... that is if your not speaking of the video iPod. Need i say more?

Well... finally....

What are the iPossibilities?

Believe U me..... iPhone runs on Leopard.... not Tiger as you may have expected.... i know there is no proof for this... but is very likely.... specially because i think Leopard has gonna have cubs.... ala an embedded mini-Leopard version.... but only time will prove me right!

Software updates! as i told earlier... your iPhone is iNtellingent and is capable of software updates.... major updates.... Major updates..... MAJOR updates...... get it? MAJOR updates = PAID updates...... yes... this is another thing i unfortunately have to expect...... although the pricing wont be much.... its inevitable....

A low end iPhone... again in true apple tradition.... they send in the big guys first... and then the smaller guys.... i do hope there is a lower end (or cheaper to make it more clearer) iPhone in the drawing table.....

For now i think, as Steve said..... The first 30 yrs where just the beginning... Welcome 2007!!!!

The Apple Revolution Begins....

P.S. did u notice the i and not I everywhere?

Computer Science & Software Engineering – What’s the Difference?

2007-01-09T00:34:00.001+05:30

Computer Science & Sofware Engineering – Whats the Diffrence

It was the last lecture of one of my modules during my degree and at the end of the lecture, when we had a lot of time to spare my lecturer started a weird debate. He asked us what's the difference between Computer Science & Software Engineering….

The question may be simple, but the answer is a bit tricky. In the non-computing world scientists invent, and engineers build. It's as simple as that. In computing, a Computer Scientist's work is also to invent new software and a Software Engineer's work is to build software. But building software is the same as writing software and writing software is the same as inventing software. So in short, isn't building software the same as inventing it?

Software, unlike many other things in this world is re-usable simultaneously. You can make copies of software and distribute it to many people. For example Microsoft makes Office, which is used by so many people. They 'invented' the software, and we now use it! If Office does not meet ones needs, then a new program has to be made. The reason why the new software is written is because at that time we don't have anything that will satisfy a particular need. If we had, then there wouldn't be a need to write a new one! But now the question arises if this is a job for a Computer Scientist or a Software Engineer… Turns out it's the job of a Software Engineer. Let me explain…

As thin the line may seem, creating software to address the needs of one or a group of people is the job of a Software Engineer. In other words, A Software Engineer will only build software if someone asks him/her to or if the software is really required. A Computer Scientist on the other hand, has to be much more creative than that. A Computer Scientist must first think of a problem and then try to solve it!

So why think of a problem and then solve it when there isn't a problem? Let me give an example. In the 70's and 80's software was mainly written in Procedural Languages like C or Pascal. There IS NOTHING that procedural languages CANNOT do. But in the early 80's a new kind of programming concept was born….. Object Oriented Programming (or OOP). This was a massive step forward by COMPUTER SCIENTISTS, not Software Engineers! People had no problem writing software in Procedural, but someone thought of a different approach and invented this new concept. The same goes for XML. We were doing just fine without it, but XML made things a lot easier. Now, using XML, standards can be set for exchanging information across networks and between different types of computers and programs.

But this does not mean that Computer Scientist don't do more mainstream stuff, they of course do, but according to me the difference I think between a Software Engineer & a Computer Scientist is what I mentioned above.

Computer Scientists invent stuff that is not wanted but becomes wanted once it's invented. They think of the problems, which exist but are not apparent.

Software Engineers... Well they only solve other people's problems. So a Computer Scientists may need a couple of Software Engineers to solve a problem!

Re-Starting Soon!

2007-01-08T23:38:00.001+05:30

Been ages since i posted anything... this blog aint dead yet..... and never will be.....

De ja vu anyone?

2006-07-01T23:20:00.000+05:30

would u believe it? it was like watching the euro 2004 match again..... portugal win... and good for them..... english players....overpaid useless losers!

Ever heard of this?

2006-06-24T21:24:00.000+05:30

A Dell laptop has apparently exploded out of the blue in Japan... haha... check it out..

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=32550

Linux on X-box?

2006-04-16T16:15:00.000+05:30

Apparently you can run Linux on X-Box..... COOL!!!!

Check it out.... www.xbox-linux.org

One year on a Mac

2006-04-13T19:30:00.000+05:30

It's been a year since I took the plunge and bought a Mac. At that time, given the money involved (Powerbooks are pretty expensive, you can buy 2 decent windows laptops for the same price as one Powerbook G4!) and the fact that I only used windows in my home computer, it's probably the bravest thing I ever did. Now I look back and see it as the smartest thing I ever did.

Ofcourse, I didn't wake up one morning and decide that I should shift to a Mac. Last year marked 10 years since I started using computers. Until I came to England I always thought there were only 2 major operating systems. Windows and UNIX. For 10 years I only used machines with windows running on them, right from MS-DOS version 6 to Windows XP SP2. I came to England for my Software Engineering degree and on my first day of the degree, I was introduced to Linux. At the time, I never saw anything like it before. Things looked very complicated, the normal start button was missing and the taskbar was filled with weird buttons and it just didn't look right. But it didn't take me long to notice the response time of this strange OS. It was amazingly fast, something not very common in windows machines.

Konqueror (same as windows explorer) opened files and directories so smoothly; I couldn't understand why people use windows; this was far better! After some more time and much more fiddling with this new OS, I realised it's only a work machine. There are not many media players or games or any other fun software for Linux. Even the ones that are there are not as good as the ones u get on Windows. Linux is strictly business, no hanky panky. Which is good of course…. if u are a robot. I did love the idea of a machine whose response time was excellent, but then again, I also need the machine to play my songs and videos. I can't be working all the time! So I decided not to install Linux on my home machine.

Whenever I was in University, I only used the Linux machines, even if I had to just browse websites or send emails because I could use windows all I wanted at home. Soon enough, I started getting irritated with my home computer. Windows explorer would take ages to open a folder which had just 5 files in them, most of the time the computer would command me what to do instead of the other way round, restarting and system hangs which where normal before became unbearable. The last nail on the coffin was the different 'brands' of viruses' u get for windows. There must be a million of them. Worms, Trojan horses, ad-wares, or maybe windows itself is one of them. And to top that up, you have to install anti-virus and firewall software to eliminate viruses and stop them from coming in. But not only are these just not good enough, they also take a lot precious CPU cycles and thus bring an already suffering computer to a complete halt. This happened to me February last year and I almost threw it out of the window out of frustration. But of course, being a fulltime student I couldn't afford doing so and however slow it maybe, I still had to do my work on it.

It was about that time, when I popped into the Apple store in Regent Street in London. I was just roaming around and thought to check out what Apple is selling. What I saw was incredible. There where laptops and computers all over the place. Free for anyone to use them. Browse the net, check your emails, or simply try to understand what makes Mac the worlds most advanced operating system. You could do anything. My first experience was not as weird as seeing Linux for the first time. This system had the same response time of Linux (ok… not same… but hell lot better than windows) and it looked better. Much better! It seemed to me that a candy crazy person has designed the GUI, it looked so glossy and so futuristic. Almost everything was animated. When programs start u would have a really cool high quality icon bouncing on bottom of the screen, when u minimize a window it acts like a genie and disappears to the bottom of the screen, the screen and GUI was more easy on the eyes, it was incredible.

Next thing to do was to find out how easy it is to use it. Didn't take me long. Within an hour I was using it as if I'm using a cousin of my windows machine…. Only that this cousin is like a million times faster. The computer was already loaded up with iTunes, there where a lot of freeware programs to see movies. However…. There are not as many games for Mac's as there are for Windows.…

Many people argue with me saying, "Joel, what's the point of a Mac… u don't get many games and even the ones that are there, are much better in windows!". What can anybody say to this…? Except that… well… they definitely have got a point…. But that's not the end of the story… There is something like PS2 or Xbox 360 to play games. Argue all you want, but end of the day you have to agree that games are much better on games consoles rather than on your computer. More people have a 29inch flat screen TV, compared to a few people who own a 19inch monitor; you can play with your games console right from the comforts of your sofa rather that use the dodgy chair by your computer desk which u got from Argos; and did I mention the graphics quality? Have I made my point? I think so … yes!

Back to the main topic…. How easy is it to use a Mac? Let me put it this way… Say suppose you buy a television from Sony and use it for couple of years. Then you decide you need a newer TV and you get offered a very nice offer for a Toshiba. You are used to the format of the remote control and of Sony and therefore you find the new Toshiba remote a bit irritating. Its natural! Many people think of Mac as a hard to handle OS. But it really isn't! It's just different! Remember the first day you sat on a computer? Didn't things look complicated then? Moving to Mac will be the same... The start wont be easy… but you will get used to it…

Finally… you are definitely going to say… "Joel… it took me ages to learn how to use a computer… and your suggesting start over?" To which my answer is going to be… yes. And a BIG YES. Why? For the fundamental reasons I mentioned earlier on! Speed! No Viruses! You command the computer what to do and what not to do! And there's more good news… Apple recently announced the arrival of Boot-Camp. This new program enables you to use Windows XP (Yes WINDOWS) under any Intel based Apple Computers without compromising performance. When running Windows, Windows will operate as if it's running on any other machine (like those you get from Dell or Acer) and when you run Mac … life is as usual. Although these two operating systems run on the same computer, they do not share viruses and don't interfere with one another. When starting the computer, you get the option to start either Mac or Windows. You cannot have both running at the same time. So now you can enjoy the power of Mac and the… well, options of windows…

I know I said finally earlier, but now it's the final-finally… the reason many people shy away from buying a computer from apple… a very important reason as a matter of fact…. It all comes down to money. Apple's hardware has been ridiculously expensive. As I said earlier, you will get two decent laptops for the price of one powerbook! But when saying decent, I'm talking about an Intel Celeron M machine with 128 MB memory a DVD-CDRW roughly around 40GB of hard-disk space. But top of the range laptops do cost roughly the same as a powerbook. And when you buy a powerbook, along with other necessary stuff you get a DVD writer, built-in Bluetooth, built-in wireless, a lot of free usefull software like a photo-organiser, an address book, isync a program to synchronize data between your computer and you mobile phone or PDA. And if you buy the new MacBook Pro you also get a built-in camera and a remote control, so u can use it to view your movies or play songs from the sofa! But if your wallet does not allow you to withdraw that much money, Mac Mini is a very good option. Of course it is not a laptop, but a very good 'desktop' computer. Calling Mac Mini a desktop computer is weird. Just because of the size and the amount of stuff jammed into it! The new Mac Mini's got a Dual Core Intel chip, can accommodate a hard-disk of 120GB, 2 Gig Memory and has got built in wireless and Bluetooth. Incredible… It should be called a micro- Power Desktop or something.

So… Have I convinced you why u should use a Mac?

Malaysian GP 2006

2006-03-20T00:41:00.000+05:30

Can you believe it? Kimi Raikonen thrown out of the race (AGAIN!!!!) because some blind guy dosent know how to drive..... Things like this happened last year as well because of which kimi lost the championship to alonso. Kimi is definetly the unluckiest guy in F1....

On the other hand... it does not look like Mclaren have sorted out their reliability issues.... montoya was dead slow on the track... possibly because his car was faulty (which is a reliability issue) or he has trying not to blow the engine which is right on his back (and what u know... this is also a reliabity issue).... But its good he finished in 4th, so mclaren are still 2nd on the contstructors...

Next stop... Australia....

Deception Point...

2006-03-17T00:00:00.000+05:30

Easily the worst book by Dan Brown. Its got a lot of stuff ..... I think a bit too much stuff. Me personally, I got bored (& sometimes frustrated) at the way brown has described situations. He gives soo much details at times and lengthens chapters for no apparent reason. The other 3 books do the same but they do it with much more elegance and style. I feel, the other 3 books required details in depth but its very unnecessary here.

End of the day, i think its a good read.. but its not as good as the 3 books.

Aus vs SA

2006-03-12T23:31:00.000+05:30

can anyone believe it... breaking the world record and seeing it been broken by someone else in less than 3 hrs? I thought SA might as well give up instead of chasing an impossible target, but i couldnt beleive they actully reached their target of 435 runs.... definetly the best match in the history of cricket....

Kimi does it again...

2006-03-12T19:23:00.000+05:30

Its happened to him countless times and yet hes turned it around to his favour every single time. This time as well at bahrain gp 2006, he started of at the end of the pack after a suspension failure in qualifying and finished at 3rd.

Overall, not a bad start i think. Definetly hope for him & mclaren to win the championship this year.

Blog this & Blog that...

2006-03-11T22:45:00.000+05:30

I was just browsing the net the other day and came across sabeer bhatia's (man who made hotmail) new tool.... its called BlogEverywhere.com.

Made me think.... whats so great about blogs? i want to know what the fuss is all about.... so ...i got myself my own blog. I probably will get rid of it soon... but lets see how it goes....