Most of you would know who Adnan is, if you have been watching TV around this days.

Here is his profile, incase you wish to put in your condolences: http://www.orkut.com/Profile.aspx?uid=14160249575654797975

A community dedicated to him

http://www.orkut.com/CommMembers.aspx?cmm=38032969&tab=0&na=3&nst=16&nid=0

But I am not going to talk about Adnan here. I was instigated to write this when I was watching this show Face the Nation hosted by Sagarika Ghose on CNN-IBN (one of the better news channels in India). The discussion of course started of with the host quoting some random blog post titled that “Orkut killed Adnan”. Duh!!! When I heard things spoken by the host during the discussion like “Should Orkut be banned?”, I felt outrageous, annoyed and eventually laughed out at shallow insight that some of our well groomed journos have about the Internet. They also listed down some other crimes like a Dope Party in Pune being organised on Orkut. The “Hate India” community on Orkut got much more popularity in newspapers then it ever had on Orkut users.

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Approximately a month back on 13th July, I attended the first ever National Conference on Open Source Software held in Ahmedabad organised by CII. Its a rage these days for techies to defy everything Microsoft. (Only till Gates looked after Windows, the world was a good place for MS). So, naturally the conference was jam-packed. India’s top advocates of OSS were there along with some “goras” from IBM and Mozilla. AMD, IBM and Red Hat being the organisers got a fair chance to promote themselves and pitch their products against the WINTEL dominated Personal Computing World. Prof Krishnan of MIT-Chennai, who runs NRCFOSS and Sivakumar of IIT Mumbai were humorous and made lighter presentations, but the most inspirational stuff came from Prof G. Nagarjuna of HBCSE and C. Umashankar of ELCOT both being radical believers of FOSS way of life. A video report showcasing Linux Usage Implementation at ELCOT has got me into thinking whether I too can help replicate that in my organisation (Ofcoure, I need to begin with my laptop first). Entrepreneurs like Atul Chitnis of Geodesic and Hardik Sanghavi of Vmukti were a delight for their ideas and products. Mozilla guys Seth and Chris rewarded the audience by mozilla goodies to some quick quizzes (I failed to get one), but their need for understanding us Indians as a Mozilla community is well-noted.

Ofcourse I feel more comfortable attending barcamps when it concerns technology, but then this was in Ahmedabad itself, so I could not miss this one. Hopefully, we will soon have a barcamp in Ahmedabad.

The training sessions arranged in next 2 days were a total flop(atleast for me). I hardly learnt nething hands-on about Drupal or Redhat, but did some networking with guys from OSS Resource Centre based out of IIT Mumbai and fellow geekies.

This is getting cooler. Now right here in India, we have silicon valley styled unconferences for networking, demonstrating new technologies and now showcasing startups. After barcamps that started last year, its proto.in. Looks like a lot of action is happening out there.

Budding entrepreneurs, take a look at this:

http://www.proto.in/

The second version of this event is happening this weekend:
Dates: 21st and 22nd July.
Location: Chennai

I did come across this site sometime back, but only realised the power of it, when I heard about it from Atul Chitnis of Geodesic at the National Open Source Conference in Ahmedabad last weekend. Well am sad that I am unable to attend, as the bookings are over and the event is packed to full. I just wish some last minute capacity increments happen and I get a chance to receive a tank full of inspiration.

Best of Luck Startup Participants!!

Finally, a phone launch that makes me POST on my blog. It’s been a little more than 3 days and 5,00,000 iPhones have been sold. In the meantime, I have spent 8-10 hours reading pre-release reviews, watching user-help videos and pondering about what all things I can do with such a gadget.

No one will agree less, it’s a revolutionary product, especially because Steve Jobs did a brave job launching the world’s first no-keypad, 1-button touchscreen phone. (I know LG is there with Prada)

Suddenly, it seems all the Mobile Handset Majors (Read Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Motorola) were fools, in not taking this practical next step early on. I am sure they will launch their own models of touchscreen cellphones in next 6 months. A person like me, who is not a major Apple fan, would certainly go for a Nokia release of such a phone. So Apple really needs to speed up its entry. I thought they made a mistake showcasing the product 6 months before its availability, but looking at how things have gone, well I salute their marketing strategy.

Though, Apple will not be in a position to serve the Mass Market of Emerging Countries with the iPhone, but then does it really want that mass market? The MAC is certainly a fabulous product, but is ultimately is a niche product, when you compare it with the wholesome market. Even with its large popularity in the west and excellent functionality, iPod still remains an unaffordable luxury for vast majority of people on the planet. In a CNBC interview, Steve Jobs did wish that he could make it available at $100, but I dont trust his intentions to serve the mass market by compromising on the brand or styling or Profits. Apple products are for the classes and not the masses, globally speaking. I assume it will remain so for sometime to come.

Eventually, if Apple becomes a company for the masses, it will not happen because of companies efforts to create products for the BOP. It is more likely that the masses have reached Apple, which means the world will be a much richer and stylish place!!!!!

Active bloggers of Ahmedabad, let us get together at this fresh Orkut Community ‘Ahmedabad Bloggers’ http://www.orkut.com/Community.aspx?cmm=23901743.
Please spread the word

I have finally given a new look to the blog. The Green Marinee Wordpress theme was no more appealing to me. I luckily found the InBusiness Wordpress Theme made by a fellow gujju Kaushal Sheth based somewhere in the PotelLand(America).

The theme has a much cleaner reading interface and more space and the best part is that the width is not fixed. Thus the theme has enough width fluidity to give a nice view to wide-screen laptops.

Testing!!

Posting from Google Docs (formerly writely.com)

It is simply amazing, how information integration is happening in web 2.0

Check the Screen below

Well i finally got it at 39,500 + 3250 for additional RAM.

Its contents:

AMD ML-34 Single Core processor 1MBL2 Cache
60 GB HDD
256 MB DDR 333 MHz RAM
8x DVD Writer
15.4 ” Screen
8 Cell Li-ion Battery
Wifi/Bluetooth
ATI Radeon Graphics Card
2.66 Kg
My Review:
Can’t really compare, coz never b4 used a laptop regularly.
However, the sleekest feature that I am now able to use is to connect to internet via my 6265 reliance cdma, which in turn is connected to the laptop via bluetooth.
The batter life is also good. Though it is just a week old.

The closest machine comparable on cost-benefit compaq v3029 which gave me more ram, hdd, amd dual-core processor and 14.1 inch display everything else almost same at 43k, but those stupid guys at hp discontinued the product and finally I decided to go for acer. But happy now as at 43 k I have got 768 mb ram, and 15.4 inch display in acer + an optical mouse.

This also happens to be my first post from my new machine !!!

Back in 2003 february, I was lucky to be one of the first in Ahmedabad to get this phone.Ofcourse, I too like many in the crowd had enrolled for Reliance’s DAE programme for budding entrepreneurs.

In rains & floods, accidents & tremors, it had been there with me always loyal and on the service. I gave it 3 new batteries and 5 new chargers over these years. In return it gave me some of the best talks of my life. My girlfriend, neighbourhood kids all played “throw the phone” with it, but it still did not say die. Friends advised me to replace it with a new-age bombshell and keep up with the changing times, but I hanged on to it for its pure simplicity and endurance
It is my LGRD2030 below:

3.5 years later………..

And here it is my new Nokia 6265 CDMA, the geeky bombshell.
I consider myself lucky to be one of the first people in Ahmedabad to get it. No reliance DAE this time, just a smart move to keep myself informed through the internet about the launch and get it the very day it comes in town without paying “ON” money for this very much in demand phone.

So what does this baby have:
1) 2MP Camera with still photography and unlimited video recording, flash and night mode
2) 262k Color Screen
3) FM Radio
4) Media Player with MP3/AAC support
5) RUIM Card (similar to GSM sim card)
6) 64MB miniSD card free (expandable to current 1GB standard)
7) All other features available on standard high-end nokia phones It is a slider phone.
Ofcourse, you cannot compare this with the N-series phone, but does one really need to pay 25-30k when you get all these in less than 17k.

I still have to detect many of its other features and its drawbacks. Keep coming back for more on this phone

I just saw a newsreport on Times Now, where I got the confirmation of my fears as reported 2 days back.

BLOGSPOT is banned. Becoz of mumbai blasts??? I am not sure!!

The key issue is that it is banned along with other Anit-India websites. Our stupid f**king govt. officials dont understand that is a blog and not a website. Even if they wanted to ban certain blogs, they could have banned it like xyz.blogspot.com. They instead banned the whole blogspot.com. Also came to know that even the ancient personal website tool geocities.com has been banned.

Why does the whole Indian blogging community suffer because of few insane anti-Indians? Blogspot.com is a google product and is the most famous blogging platform in the world. Most Indians and people everywhere who have the list amount of technical knowhow blog becoz of blogspot.com’s simplicity and ease. Infact after the mumbai blasts, http://mumbaihelp.blogspot.com was most famous and more reliable than police information sources.

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I can’t open any of the blogspots blog and I read on blogger help on google groups that many people have a similar problem since last 2 days, most of them from India.
Even though, I can login through blogger, see my dashboard and profile etc., but none of the blogspot blogs are opening

Initially I thought, there was a something wrong with the DNS cache on my machine, so I tried it from a different place and then a 3rd place. Failure every time and I logged onto blogger help.

Then I tried this: http://www.pkblogs.com/
and the blogs were opening through this crack site.
The above site was meant as a hack to open blogs censored by pakistan govt, which means if I could open my blog thru it, Indian govt. is also doing a similar thing
This is ridiculous. We are a democracy unlike China, Pakistan, Iran or other autocracies….
If this indeed is the case, I request the people at google, move the courts please…………

Save the democracy on internet

Thanks to Saumitra Sir and his offline yahoo links, I just found out that www.wikimapia.org (ofcourse, powered by google earth) has ahmedabad clean and clear with each road and each major building clearly seen..

enjoy…the flight!!!!!

Yesterday’s heavy rains reminded me of one important task. Backing up data on my mobile phonebook.

Infact, tragedy struck!! I got wet in the rains, so did my mobile. As soon as I got home, I was awestruck as to how the fear inside had come true. The phone was dead. It was not being switched on again. In 3.25 years of our relationship, this phone never turned off on me on its own.

So, today morning, I was on the prowl. LG service center was waiting for me to come. As usual got bugged by their service methods and was trying to figure out how people make policies that makes the customer feel sorry for coming there.

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