Mes Secrets Inconnus

trying to blog from iPhone using the iblogger app. just hoping , I will get more regular with this.

Since I happen to have used all these devices, I kind of felt that this pic relates to reality.. BTB, don’t ask me what I am using now

My office library – Kwench seems not to have books of my taste. iBooks came to my rescue. iBooks is an amazing way to download and read books. iBooks includes the iBookstore, where you can download the latest best selling books or your favorite classics. You can browse your library on a beautiful bookshelf, tap a book to open it , flip through pages with a swipe or a tap. You can also bookmark or add notes to your favorite passages…

Isn’t that neat?

Oh I could never quite understand this Twitter thing, must admit it took a while lol ... well, that has all changed. Followed some great folks, got a peek at their life and modified some of mine. Indeed it helped me a lot especially during the iphone Jailbreak/unlock news, Ayodhya issue and now the Mobile number portability. Some of them I follow include – Sachin tendulkar, Jim Carrey, Robin Sharma , Harry Mccracken, Padmashree to name a few.  Find me in twitter @vinukj

Happy tweeting – share and discover what’s happening now…

When Wifey’s mobile crashed, it was time for me to buy her a new one. Hours of review led me to narrow down on Samsung Champ. Later on I realized that my lil one loved watching her rhyme videos on my iPhone, whenever i had business calls to attend. So the onus was on me to find a cell that could play videos. Add to that some random requirements from wifey like – touch screen, a good camera, ability to check email etc all became P1 requirements. So after market researching, i found this android based cell – Spice MI 300. Now don’t go by the name. This VFM cell will blow your mind. I have managed to put some highlights of this cell for you.

* 3.2” HVGA Capacitive touch screen
* Android 2.1 upgradeable
* WiFi
* Bluetooth
* GPS & A- GPS
* HSDPA 3.5G
* 170 Mb onboard memory + free 2gb card – upgradable to 32GB
* 5 MP Camera with autofocus and LED flash
* Video at 30 FPS
* 600 mhz Qualcomm processor ( the same in HTC's)
* 3.2” 480 x 320 HVGA Capacitive touch screen
* Android and Spice Marketplace
* 1250Mah Battery
* Office Support
* Push Email
* G-Sensor, E- Compass , Proximity sensor

I think that the biggest mistake people make is latching onto the first idea that comes to them and trying to do that. It really comes to a thing that my folks taught me about money. Don't buy something unless you've wanted it three times. Similarly, don't throw in a feature when you first think of it. Think if there's a way to generalize it, think if it should be generalized. Sometimes you can generalize things too much. I think like the things in Scheme were generalized too much. There is a level of abstraction beyond which people don't want to go. Take a good look at what you want to do, and try to come up with the long-term lazy way, not the short-term lazy way.

It rocks!!!! For a very long time , i have been researching this. I know for sure that it was possible, but the smart guys at the Magic jack always release an update which masks the SIP info. And when i do sucessfully get the the SIP info, Fring or Siphone gives way and limits the password to 18 chars or less. Finally, thanks tweeter ( it’s good when you follow the Siphone releases). After spending close to 6 hrs on this, i finally managed to configure my Siphone on Iphone after unmasking the SIP info from the Magic jack. It was worth. All i need is Wifi or 3G to make calls for free all over US & Canada.  What’s more interesting is – people in US can call me at my US number. Sounds cool right???. For those who were looking for this – try the below. If you need more assistance pm me. I’ll do what it takes to get that connection started.

This works like a charm, I just got a BSNL 3G prepaid sim for 59 INR. I had to charge it with 120 INR to get the promotional part and what this gives me is a 6 months validity as well.

The BSNL customer care centers have improved by leaps and bounds, the whole process took me only 15 mins and the activation was done in a couple of hours.

Now, i am waiting for the 3G spectrum auction and the number portability by the DoT. Hope this is round the corner.

Finally, BSNL woke up and decided to give the Tech savy population of Bengaluru the 3G gift. The promotional 3G plan is very nice. You can see here. For starters , i had my Dad’s BSNL connection migrated to 3G plan( i was shocked, they charge only 25 INR for this to happen). After which i configured it on his E51 and boy it was rock solid. Browsing was pretty breezy. I would say 3G is here to stay.

I am off to the customer care to get myself a promotional 3G prepaid sim card for 59 INR. Will update you later.

Read and see all about it here

microsoft could not go for another photo shoot for a different market campaign? cost cutting?

Replacing a white man’s head with a black man :-) Somebody lost their job

I picked this one from US. I had a hard time recording my videos from Digi cam onto a disk. The ones that i enquired in India was way too costly foe me to invest. So i had this item on my mind.

I saw a good deal on the net and ordered this for $ 80. As far i was concerned this was a steal because it had – i.Link for connecting my Digi cam, played DivX, recorded directly on disc and most importantly it was philips. I had an earlier philips dvd player and it still rocks.

So finally, today i got it plugged and after a bit of circus ( trying to isolate my lil one from the electronic stuff), i got it working. I can now record anything that comes on TV directly and also anything recorded on my Digi cam can be burned as well. Sweet.. and all this with just one press of button.

The greatest fear i had was – will this play indian discs( or was it region locked)? But fortunately, any disc i threw in it plays. So i guess i just got lucky. Else i would have to spend sleepless nights for a unlock code or run around local electric repair shops to have the chip modded.

Currently, i am recording a Tom and Jerry to test it out and you won’t believe it’s stunning. So all in all – My sony bravia + Philips DVD player + set top box completes my home theatre system.

Glad i spoke about this in my previous post. So the evangelists also think the same. Read it to believe it  - Nokia Trumps Iphone with smarter E 51

Here is my comparison chart

Manufacture	Nokia E 51	iPhone 3G	My remarks
HSCSD	No	No	Who uses this anyway. I really don’t care
GPRS	Yes	Yes
Edge	Yes	Yes
UMTS	No	Yes	Wow!! What’s that? I don’t use that
HSDPA	Yes	Yes
Weight	100 g	135 g	35g heavier
Battery	1070 mAh	1400 mAh	You must be kidding, the battery drains like tap water
Standby Time	312 h	300 h	kind off proved here right?
Talktime	264 m	600 m	I completely disagree these stats
SMS	Yes	yes
MMS	Yes	No	What crap!!!
Email	Yes	Yes	But E51 can support multiple Exchanges
Irda	Yes	No
Bluetooth	Yes	Yes	Guess what!!!, Iphone can establish BT with only audio device not any other phone. BS!!!
USB	Yes	Yes	Iphone - Itunes to transfer
GPS	No	Yes	Like I care
Java	Yes	No	3rd party apps ???
FM Radio	Yes	No	I don’t use it anyways
Camera	Yes	Yes	But no zoom in iphone. E51 provides 4X
Video Recording	Yes	No	hahah, premature cam in Iphone
LCD	2 inch	3.5 inch	This is the winning part
Touchscreen	No	Yes	Hell, I can still touch my screen on E51
Internal Mem	130 MB		Even though Iphone comes in 8GB/16 GB, the internal memory alloted for apps is more or less equal to 50 MB
OS	Symbian	Iphone OS
Jailbreaking	Yes	Yes
Unlock	Yes	Yes	But sadly if your boot loader is above 5.09 you are doomed

I am running out of disk space again. I don't really know if its data or metadata that's causing this issue. The real issue lies with me, i don't feel like deleting any data and add the phobia of losing my data coupled with laziness of not figuring out if i already backed up the stuff, I have been mounting data now. To come to think of it - every time my computer becomes obsolete , i retain the HDD. So in fact now i have - one 8GB, one 40 GB, two 80 GB, one 350 GB and one 500 GB.  I am not including the innumerable pen drives   & SD cards i have on purpose.  The result ? It was time to invest on a Terabyte Hard disk. Enough of GB disks :-). So i looked around and found a neat little Westren Digital with 7200 rpm and 8 mb buffer cache, i simply picked it up. So far , I am impressed by its performance. It does not have a fan or so, but its pretty quite in its work and i like the way the blue light lights up when in action. I ran a quick stress test - over night and so far the response has been good :-)

(I finally tracked this down to the glossary of the Camel book, but I'd swear I've seen it in slightly different form elsewhere.) The Camel book mentions these three qualities:

Laziness
The quality that makes you go to great effort to reduce overall energy expenditure. It makes you write labor-saving programs that other people will find useful, and document what you wrote so you don't have to answer so many questions about it. Hence, the first great virtue of a programmer.
Impatience
The anger you feel when the computer is being lazy. This makes you write programs that don't just react to your needs, but actually anticipate them. Or at least that pretend to. Hence, the second great virtue of a programmer.
Hubris
Excessive pride, the sort of thing Zeus zaps you for. Also the quality that makes you write (and maintain) programs that other people won't want to say bad things about. [Also, the thing that makes you write programs to do something that's already been done, because you believe you can do it better --- Wim.] Hence, the third great virtue of a programmer.

Seriously, what is the point of the Insert key? Has anyone ever really used it beyond accidently hitting it and only realizing it after half their text has been typed over? I haven’t though….

The more i use my E51, the more i am discovering its unlimited potential. Here i am listing a few apps which i am using and looks like they have slowly made into my life

I use mail for exchange from Nokia and Road sync from datawiz to have my mails pushed from server to my cell. I can view, read, download attachments.

Best profile is good application, to switch my preferences while i am at office or at home. It helps me maintain the home-office balance

I am always short of words and this dictionary helps me be in constant touch with the english language to learn new words

Gravity is a wonderful application that lets me tweet directly from my mobile. So you expect the twitter to be in full swing :-)

IM plus - A good IM to stay in touch with friends on yahoo, gmail, msn and ICQ all at the same time.

Free call sprite:  This is a good application for managing the way calls are being made. With this i no longer have to wait with phone near my ear till they pick up the call

Explorer - This is more like an file management explorer tool for all file management activities

Flash SMS: I use to send some important sms to friends and colleagues. The sms shows up directly on the screen of your cell. So there is no way you can miss

FolderPlay: I use this to play music after dumping all my fav songs onto a folder.

Phone pilot : This is a good call management tool . I can selective accept calls and also direct blacklisted people to voice mails

Phone wallet: Helps keep me secure my personal info. This is password protected

Quick office : Helps me view - word, excel, presentations and pdf docs right on my cell

S60 Ticker : Displays incomming sms, mails and any other text that i would want

Snaptu : Comprises of a lot of widgets - cricket, twitter are some of them

Youtube : No need to explain this. The streaming is pretty good.

In addition to these apps, the active standby screen is where some of these house so that i can access them from my finger tip.