Friday, September 05, 2008

Picasa Photo Viewer

PicasaImage via Wikipedia
The Picasa 3 has a nifty new feature called the Photo Viewer. Click on any image and this is what it will look like.


Its got a very cool effect to it and looks rather snazzy. I feel its got a very 'mac' look to it.

You can zoom in and out of the picture by using your mouse or the up and down cursor keys.

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Thursday, September 04, 2008

Chrome Bugs and the opera connection

That Chrome incorporates a lot from Opera is not very good news. So google themselves did a Microsoft dint they? (for MS having taken a lot of Apple Mac features). Well the bad news certainly stems from the fact that are we running out of ideas and features for browsers? Even if they had launched 6 months later but with features that were really unique and enhancing user experience, it would have well been the effort. Well the fact also is not many use Opera and hence using chrome would definitely provide a enhanced and newer experience for the user.

Well news is also that there are bugs in chrome (of course) and they are coming out fast. People are going to tear chrome apart especially for the fact that its a BIG product launch from google.
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Monday, September 01, 2008

Google Chrome Vs Firefox

Mozilla Firefox IconImage via Wikipedia Googles official announcement about the impending launch of Chrome, their own scratch up browser. Well what does this do to Firefox? The second ranked browser in terms of market share has never had it going so good. A recent record number of downloads for Firefox 3 and the new features have only added to Firefox'es popularity. Well now with chrome coming out, what does this do with google's association with FireFox? Google being inherently more popular than the Firefox brand, a download chrome link on their main page may get a whole lot of users trying out their new browser. This will of course impact Firefox and even IE, but then users will really decide that. 5 years down the line, will Firefox and chrome compete? will they merge into one? will Firefox fade like how Netscape did? or will users simply reject chrome? Not every Google product is successful and well that might simply be the answer.

OTOH, if chrome is a really good design and can fit into embedded devices as much as it can into PC's them well it may well still be a really successful browser.
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Tuesday, July 22, 2008

My Maruti Swift Breaks down

The old logo of Maruti Suzuki India Limited. L...Image via WikipediaThis happened a couple of weeks back. I was planning to drive down to the Kamat's Restaurant on mysore road (About 65KM from Bangalore on the Mysore Highway). Diya had lost her shoes and we decided that we better get a new one before we started on the drive. So we drove up to the IBP petrol pump in Koramangala, filled up the tank and then bought her a pair of shoes from the Kids n Gifts Shop. As we were returning home to pick up my parents, my car (Maruti Suzuki Swift VXi) suddenly stopped...i mean it just lost acceleration and power and the engine just switched off. I luckily managed to park the car on the roadside. I just dint understand. I tried switching on the engine but it dint budge. I was bewildered. I just couldnt grasp what happened. The car was having power, i could use the power windows, the viper but the engine just wouldnt start. I'd filled the tank up so there wasnt any question of low fuel. For a second i thought, maybe i filled diesel by mistake. But then i had paid the price of petrol, so there wasnt a question of filling the wrong fuel. I asked Megz to go back home as there was no point spending time in the car and not knowing what to do. I then walked to the petrol pump near Raheja Arcade and asked if anyone could help. It was a sunday and of course there wasnt anyone to help. As i walked back, i called Kunaal. He asked me to try calling Just Dial. I called Just Dial and they were of immense help. They provided me numbers of 24 hour breakdown services in koramangala. In the next couple of minutes i got a call from one of them and they offered to send one of their mechanics to check the car. I immediately told OK and got the mechanics mobile number. He was on Airport road and told it would take about 45m to reach my car. I decided to wait. As i rummaged through my documents, i realised i had all the phone numbers of Mandovi Motors from where i bought the car. They also had a 24 hour breakdown service number. I called the guy and he said it would take him quite a while to come to Koramangala and that it would be better if i called the call centre and informed them. They would send the nearest mechanic. I was anyways waiting for the first person and thought i'd try this option later or if things dint work out too well. As promised , the mechanic and his partner turned up in a van about 40m later and then started checking the car. After about 10m, they told that something was probably wrong with the Fuel Pump of the car and that petrol wasn't being pumped to the engine. I was completely shocked. They said they would have to tow the vehicle to their service centre. i wasn't too happy to hear that and thought i'd use the second option of getting mandovi motors to check the car. I asked these guys if they could tow the car back to my home but they weren't very willing and ultimately said no because i wasn't sending the car to their workshop. i then called the mandovi emergency number and he again asked me to call the call centre. Finally i called the call centre and they registered the complaint and told a mechanic would reach withing half an hour. Half an hour passed and apparently i gave them my phone number while i was using Megz's phone. So calls to my phone went unanswered. Meanwhile Megz got the managers number at Mandovi whom we had met during our decision making on which car to buy. I called him and Mr Samrat was very helpful. He advised me to give the car only to Mandovi (Also because its registered in my company's name) and told he would talk to the Mandovi emergency guy (by the name John) . I called John again and asked him for a rough time when he could attend to my car. He said it would take about 1.5 hours, so i went back home, had lunch. Called John again and he said he would reach in 15m. I took an auto to get to my car and J arrived as expected. John and his partners rechecked the car and confirmed the suspicion . T fuel pump did seem to be the problem and they had to tow the car. They said they would tow it to Wilson Garden where Mandovi Motors has a workshop. They provided me the service document and then i came back home heavy hearted not knowing what had gone wrong. It less then 2 years since i bought this car and it never had given me any problem whatsoever. I just couldnt belive for the fact that something had gone so wrong.
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Friday, July 11, 2008

SMS Advertising

I noticed quite a few auto rickshaws carrying an ad for mginger. I dint know mginger until one of my friends (Kunaal) told me about it. mginger does sms advertising. Basically they send ads to your mobile phone and you get paid to read those ads. Ive just registered to receive their ads and and well i dont think id be a member for long. I'm just trying to get a feel of how things work. :)
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Tuesday, July 08, 2008

New blog - Stock Market Investments

The Bombay Stock Exchange in India.Image via WikipediaI have a new blog about my experiences with the stock markets. Blog will detail my ideas about stocks, futures and options and trading in the Indian stock markets in general.
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Saturday, July 05, 2008

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Firefox has been my mainstay browser for quite some now. There are five Firefox add-ons or plugins that i usually use

1) DownThemAll
2) Sage
3) Zemanta
4) IE Tab
5) Gmail Manager
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Thursday, June 19, 2008

HP Cartridge cost , Pricing and ink levels

I have an HP All-in-one C3188. Its proved to be a worthy buy and i have used it quite a bit. My cartridge's ink seems to be very low now. First thing, i wasn't able to make out the current ink level on the cartridge. On right clicking the HP Printer icon, on the "Printing Preferences" menu, on the features tab, i can see a "Printer Services" button. This button doesn't work when i click on it. Well anyways, i decided to buy a new cartridge. There were 2 options, buy a new one or refill the older oner. I guess the latter is the unofficial way of doing it. I enquired at the BDA complex in Koramangala. There are 4-5 stationary shops there and one of them refilled Black cartridges at Rs125/- and coloured ones at Rs 300/-. As i walked way after the enquiry, he called out for me and said, he would refill both at Rs 350/-. The enquiry for a new cartridge numbers 851 (Apparently i was enquiring for the wrong number, i should have been asking for the number 850 which is compatible with the C3188) was surprising. I got 5 different prices from 5 different shops within the same BDA complex building. Prices varied from Rs 740 to Rs 825. I of course ended up buying the Rs 740 one and then later realized that it was not the correct cartridge. I ended up buying the correct one for 675/- only to later realize that the HP website was offering one for about 8-10 rupees lesser. I'm sure if i'd gone through the entire procedure of finding prices again, i would have got a better deal. This reminded me of the lecture by Dr Preston of Yahoo which i attended at the Leela Palace, Bangalore some months back. A very insightful talk about pricing.
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Monday, June 09, 2008

Bangalore Traffic Status

This website BTIS provides details on the current traffic conditions on roads in Bangalore (and some other cities as well). Alos listed are the routes to the new Airport in devanahalli. Very useful site with details on where the bus stops are.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

BSNL Broadband, Wireless Issues with Huawei and DNS address

I have had trouble this month connecting to the BSNL broadband service. On a particular weekend, i just couldnt connect to the internet. I called up the customer care at 1500 and they told me they were experiencing server problems. Again last weekend, i faced similar issues. i finally decided to check if there was something i could learn by logging on to my wireless router (Huawei).
I logged in and it showed me as connected. I then checked the system logs but dint see them too well. A little later i figured out the logs showed the complete bootup of the router and it did show 2 DNS address which i wasnt using in my network configuration. I used a static ip actually and have not enabled DHCP. The new addresses were 218.248.240.24 and 218.248.240.208. These were different from the 61.1.96.69/71 addresses i was using earlier. I used these new addresses and well i was able to browse without issues.

Another peculiar problem im facing is my laptop doesnt work with the huawei wireless router at home. Im wireless all the while at office and so it definitely is a problem with the router at home. I chan check my ralink wireless utility and it shows the wireless signal going off and on every 5-10 seconds or so. i now need to investigate this in greater detail, maybe first with google and them later again with the utilities available on the router.

Friday, April 18, 2008

Family Pictures















Some family pictures when my parents came visiting us during Jan/Feb 2008. This is at the flower show held annually at Lalbagh, Bangalore. The one above is with Megz and Mom.

Pittu and me













Dad, Diya, Me and Mom and of course courtesy the proffesional photographer Megz

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Nokia Morph Concept

The Nokia Morph concept looks so very interesting. The promise that nano technology holds is mind boggling. Have a look at the concept here http://www.nokia.com/A4852062 and the video @ http://www.nokia.com/A4879144

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Diya's favourite songs

Diya seems to like bollywood music a lot. Well she sits in front of the TV for a whole hour in the morning and watches 9XM, a new channel we are getting on cable. The filler jokes in between the songs are quite amusing actually. The "bakwaas bandh kar" bit, Diya loves to hear that. The travel and living channel music, which usually plays every hour or half hour (in between 2 programmes), well thats caught her fancy right from when she was 5-6 months old. She still loves that music and stops doing everything, however busy she is when she listens to the music. Amongst bollywood tunes, she love "Bhool bholiya" ("Hare Ram Hare Ram" song), "Yeh Ishq Kya hai" from Jab We met and "Sajnadi wari wari" from Honeymoon Travels movies.

Also my mobile has the Creed song "One LastBreath" and i have been playing this song to her from the time she was maybe 3 months old. i play this when she has a bath and she does like this song too.

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Indian Stocks Info

These are some of the websites i track on a regular basis to keep in touch with the stock market and the trends.

MoneyControl
(Easily the best available website to track the indian stock markets)
It has an extremely active discussion board. Some of the platinum rated contributors are worth tracking on a regular basis. Joetm, Kotakinvestment, Kfactor are some of the contributors who seems to have a fair idea of things really going on.

Traderji (good discussion board on technical analysis)

Sp Tulsian (market whispers and stock reccos are good and some of the articles are very well written)

Rediff

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Yahoo Maps in India

I found the Yahoo Maps feature for India very promising. Now that one of my friends is actually working in Yahoo, its easier for me giving feedback as well. For example, i wanted driving directions from Madivala (In Bangalore) to Kamat Yatri Nivas on the road to mysore (About 60 Km away from Bangalore city) and currently yahoo maps doesn't help me. It does show me the road to the Kamat YatriNivas in Gandhinagar or National Market. The send to SMS feature works and is really useful. Should explore more of this and actually try out the routes mentioned to see if they really are the logical and faster ones.