Aseem’s Blog
Leap over the bounds…
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BlogCamp Mumbai Style at the BarCamp Mumbai 3 - Did you make it? |
Having registered for the BlogCamp Mumbai Style organized at the SJMSOM IIT Powai Campus, I was very much looking forward to being there as it was the first of its kind for me. This time I had one more reason than otherwise to be there – ofcourse it was just a drive away! Now settled with my job life in a happening place like Mumbai, I guess there are atleast a dozen more such events I can simply drive to. Oh yes
So how was the “Blog Camp Mumbai Style”, for me? I and Amit were amongst the early birds to flock there. The Blog Camp being a part of BarCamp Mumbai 3rd Edition, there were a lot of participants trying to get their way around. Many like me who just hired a rick from home (yea and there were sexy sportscar owners too) while also with quite a few who had come over with all their luggage there (:p) right from many other places like Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, etc. All in all it was great to see the enthusiasm in everybody. I wondered why I had missed it all this while!
I was looking forward to meet a few online friends here… Deep, Ashwin, Mani and many more. While also few more bloggers like Sakshi, Meetu and some net freaks I only knew by their name or even pseudo names. I am really glad that I got to interact with most of them. And now certainly it’s gonna be more fun following their blogs. Well getting back to how the blogcamp was…
The organizers gave all due respect to the Indian Standard Time for the start with the event ;). Ok I know it happens everywhere. No offence please :). So those who joined in late were probably lucky not to miss anything. After a round of introductions(which we could barely hear) by the speakers for the camp, the sessions wiki was put up on the whiteboard only NOT to be followed :(. Because of which there was a lot of confusion as to where what was going on. As a result we missed Rashmi Bansal’s light talk on blogging. Luckily all the blogging related stuff was put up in one auditorium and we found our way there. We decided to stick there all day as we didn’t get great feedback from others who attended the sessions going on in the other audis. But am sure we missed some good ones there.
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Review: Aapkavideo.com – A desi video sharing service |
This is a paid review of the product: www.aapkavideo.com
Now does that mean I have been paid to write nice and sweet lines about Aapka Video??? Certainly Not! This is completely an unbiased review and only reflects my evaluation of this free online video sharing service. Keep reading to know of how I rate this service.
Aapkavideo.com is in its beta stage right now and been the talk of the Indian cyber space for about 2 months now. Log on to their website and the first thing that will please your eyes is the clean and simple interface. Simplicity does not pause here. Right from creating an account to uploading videos you don’t have too many things to bother about. However when I tried to view the videos in Firefox, they just refused to play. So I had to use IE. Guess, this should be fixed once the site is out of its beta period.
So isn’t this just a desi version of Youtube? Hmm… YouTube has been insanely successful, and I don’t see a reason why something as remarkable as Aapka Video should not. Infact this is one of the best Indian Video Sharing Services I have seen around. A prominent feature on the site is their “Specials” - a series of videos related to a hot topic in news, sports or bollywood, is certainly a unique idea. Infact, the very next moment when Sachin Tendulkar scored an unbeaten 100 against West Indies, his 41st century in ODIs, Aapka Video was quickly up with a special on his most prized hundreds.
However their USP is a quality collection of the latest desi videos. All videos that matter to India and Indians. Be it bollywood videos, hot stories that have hit the news, cricket, videos from the Indian television screen, and every content that is true to being Indian. In fact I could not resist myself clicking on every next video that popped up in their similar videos section.Users can not only share multiple videos with their near and dear ones but also upload their own videos in all types of video formats like .wmv, .mpeg, .mpg, .avi, .mpe, .mov, .movie, .mpe, .mpeg, .mpg, .qt, .mpv2, .mp2v, .mpe, .asf, .asx, .avi ,.wm, .wmx , .3gp , .mp4, .rm etc with filesize of upto 100MB. That’s what their tagline says “Director Ban Jao”.
One thing that impressed me was that the video streaming was really neat and fast. You can also view the videos in a larger size at the click of a button. While tags, category listings and search can be used to discover new interesting videos.
SUGGESTIONS:
- Videos on Aapkavideo.com can be marked as offensive if the content is inappropriate. Presently, this feature can be accessed even if you are not logged in. Just a suggestion to them, that this feature be available to only registered users.
- Also they should incorporate some rating system for the videos.
With broadband penetration in India pacing up, this service seems to be just bang on to be launched and grow bigtime. I have already got addicted to viewing videos on AapkaVideo.com. And now its your turn…
Rating: 4/5
Please visit Funny Commercials for many more interesting funny commercials, funny ads and funny videos.
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Movie Freaking…!!! |
I just love weekends… Get to do what I want… Had a stocked up movie collection… just gave it a beat! I am not very good at reviewing movies, so will just give my rating.
6th Oct (Friday)
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3:00 pm - Wedding Crashers [Rating - 3.5/5]
6:00 pm - Shopgirl [Rating - 2.5/5]
9:00 pm - Mean Girls [Rating - 3.5/5]
7th Oct(Saturday)
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12:00 am - Ella Enchanted [Rating - 4/5]
2:30 am - Roadtrip [Rating - 3.5/5]
5:00 am - Hotel Rwanda [Rating - 4.5/5]
Well its all morning now… time for me to catch some sleep… might write a few lines on these later. Right now my eyelids too heavy to hold up!
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Review: Scrapboy – The Orkut Messenger |
Scrapboy has been around for quite sometime now… Well for those who have not heard of it and been scrapping friends through orkut, this is the new and supposed to be popular instant messenger for orkut.
Yahoo, MSN, AOL, Skype have been great tools to be in touch with friends. But suddenly with the advent of orkut.com ‘scrap’ has changed meaning from being useless or a refuse to something much more worthy and awaited! Though scrapping, scrapbooks and other new related terminology have got popular, the feel of real-time chatting is somehow lost. That is where the instant messenger, scrapboy makes you feel home.
Scrapboy has suddenly caught all the attention and popularity in a small time span. Certainly because of orkut, than for itself. When I reviewed this software, I found that it was more of a hype, and it still has a long way to go…
After receiving an email from a friend to download scrapboy, I logged on to their website: www.scrapboy.com.
The download file size was just below 25MB. The size didn’t bother me much as I have an unlimited 256kbps connection. But for dial-up users, am sure this fact will suck big-time. They rather did wait for it to show up on their favorite tech magazine CD/DVD. And even if they do, I am sure its not worth the wait or download.
In a few minutes I had the setup on my PC which announced itself as beta version 1.0. I installed the software, after a few installation hiccups due to security warning by Norton. But no big issues. Soon, I logged in with my orkut id, it loaded my friends list, I played around with the interface, tried to search for some tweaking options (didn’t find any)… And soon I realised that I was looking at some dumb piece of software. But mind you… I do believe it has great potential.
The following is the review of the software with all the Pros and Cons listed and justified for.
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Review: Rediffmail Beta |
Rating: 2.5/5 (Thumbs down)
Having a dynamic page that loads most of your needed content all in the same page is definitely the new hot thing in website development. Ever since AJAX has hit the box, most web services are trying to reface their websites and services with this new technology. With Yahoo India in the Ajax pipeline, how could Rediffmail stay behind? One of India’s premiere mail services, Rediff a few days back launched its beta version based on AJAX and XML.
I am sure this might just be a long old story for the tech geeks, as it’s been in news for quite some time now with all the laurels to its name. But I have not seen any review on net over this change. It’s been accepted happily by Rediff Users, may be with a few complains that have gone unheard and users who are trying to adjust themselves to this change. This post gives an insight to some of the features that rediff left behind in framing its new AJAX based version.
‘Lightning fast web mail service’ is how they identify themselves. The very reason why rediff has always been my favourite mail service. And being a truthful user of its services it hits hard if I am asked to change to any other service. That’s why even with Yahoo, Gmail and many other feature rich free email services in, I still prefer to use Rediffmail. The good thing is that, they keep making small changes here and there. This time, a much welcomed package.
It’s a human tendency to resist change, probably this is what I did like to sketch up here. When I logged into my mailbox, I was happy to see a new look. :) Definitely, a nice tailored look. More of the grey shades than the blues… With all the folders listed on the left, I realized things are definitely going to be quicker to use and load. With a clean and neat look everything looked so fast and smooth to work on.
But soon I could point over a few drawbacks to finally impede my happiness. The mail preview window was too small. If I had to view the whole message I had to open it in a new window. So it was almost the same. The area assigned for loading the message was too less… 25% of my previous rediff mail window, which can be resized upto 50%. :| So it forced me to open a new window to browse my long forwards or emails that contained digicam pics. Also in the bargain of faster loading the graphic attachments were resized to too small in size, though having an interesting slide show option. After opening the email in a new window, I thought it now looked good. After reading the email, I wanted to reply to the sender. I clicked on the button… and spank… one more browser window opens. (6) Suck… how many more windows I thought. Sulked over it for a couple of seconds and moved forward to reply to the sender. Things were a little better with other mailing features incorporated into the write mail window. Like the address book that nicely fitted in, not to leave out the templates and drafts options. Also an upload file as attachment option in the same window. Thank God that I didn’t have to open another window for it! ;) Soon the window showed me that the mail was sent, I closed both of the opened windows and returned to my main rediff inbox window.
I saw a couple of new mails sent by a friend. Sent on the same day I was inquisitive to know of the time they were sent. Bah! The email interface just tells me the date. Dumb! I want to know when he sent each one… morning, evening or night… heck! So then I clicked on show email headers to try and interpret the time from the header information. Ok it was there, but not many would know what to do in such a case. Also whenever I logged into my mailbox or would select a folder to view, the first message in the folder automatically showed up. Now I wouldn’t want that. Anybody would want to be safe enough to check around and see for other people peeking into your monitor screen, before opening any private mail. Ahh, rediff how could u miss out on this one! :(
The select page option was a nice include. Helps a lot when u want to reach to older messages. On realising that I have to move a few emails to another folder, I tried to select them. Now this was a high precision job. As to select them, I had to click exactly on the checkbox. If by any chance I did miss out on a checkbox and clicked at the side of it (even by a pixel!) I would lose all my selections and it would instead load the message in the message preview window. Aah.. that’s real bad. Once done with the selections, it was real easy thought to make the move.Their search mail feature also sucks a lot. I never found the mail I wanted, though it was very much there! Many times it just showed ‘Loading Please Wait’…
I am sure if I decide to play around a little more, I will find a lot more flaws and fallbacks that I really wouldn’t like my RediffMail to have. So I looked up to the top left of my screen and clicked on ‘Take me to the regular Rediffmail’ option. :) Am sure I won’t log in back to this new beta version until Rediff doesn’t announce to release a full fledged one. This version is no beta… to me it looks like an alpha version. I know it’s a lot easy and fast to work in this new beta version of rediff, but its all AJAX that I admire in it, not Rediff. I feel that one loses the comfort level that one shared with its GUI in this new version. I hope they come up with something better soon. As many might have, I too have informed them about all these issues I found, through their feedback option. I wonder if they would ever see and forward it to the concerned persons.
Interestingly, if you sign up now for a rediffmail mail service, you wont see the option to switch to the new rediffmail, contrary to the GUI for the already registered users. I wonder why! 8O
As the end, I feel Rediff has launched this version in too much of a hurry and haste with an aim to beat its counterparts. They should sit back and analyse all the flaws and come up with a more comfortable to use package.
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Review: Whistling Woods International |
Earlier this week, I got a chance to visit the just begun, Asia’s biggest Film Institute, the Whistling Woods International, located in the heart of the Film City, at Mumbai. It was only for my sister who got admission for the course of Direction that we were allowed an entry into the institution campus. :mrgreen:
A dream project of the showman Mr. Subhash Ghai, WWI has brought the whole bollywood under one roof. Designed with the expert guidance of the Australian Film, Television and Radio School, the courses at WWI offers students a modern, thorough and balanced course and an educated entryway to the entertainment industry. With a well-rounded Foundation Program and concentrated Specialisation Programs in various disciplines, the Whistling Woods International Institute for Film, Television & Media Arts provides unparalleled training in all aspects of filmmaking and television production - the aesthetic, the technical and the professional.
The Whistling Woods International has full-time intensive courses which span over two years and provide world-class training across all technical and creative aspects of filmmaking, television, animation & other media arts. All the students are given hand-on experience to all aspects of film making. The specialisations available are : Acting, Cinematography, Direction, Editing, Business of Film & Television, Sound Recording, Design And Music Production, Animation and Screenwriting.
With about 84 seats in all, at the institute, WWI does ensure that you are given personal guidance. The Institute offers state-of-the-art training facilities, an internationally developed and structured curriculum, affiliations with highly respected global media corporations and a faculty that combines the best in Indian and international professional experience.
The list of faculty and board members reads like the cast from one of Ghai’s multi-starrers. With eminent film personalities, like Subhash Ghai, Shyam Benegal, Naseeruddin Shah, Hema Malini, Shah Rukh Khan, Karan Johar, A.R. Rahman, Dilip Kumar, Javed Akhtar, Mahesh Bhatt, Om Puri, Ramesh Sippy, Shabana Azmi, Ashutosh Gowariker, Nagesh Kukunoor, Satish Kaushik and many more as the faculty and a part of the advisory board it truly sounds like the whole bollywood under one roof. 8O
Whistling Woods International promises to train students in top-of-the-line digital and analogue systems using the latest, state-of-the-art equipment. Driven by the conviction that only the best available infrastructure and environment can aptly prepare students for the ever-changing technological development sweeping the industry, WWI has a dynamic and contemporary approach to media instruction. A mastery of the newest equipment would enable students to enter the global entertainment industry as leaders with a firm grip on latest technology.
Speaking at the inaugural function, Mr. Subhash Ghai, Chairman, WWI said:
“A dream of 10 years has finally been realised. In a way, Whistling Woods International (WWI) is my way of repaying the film industry for what I have received from it over the last 27 yrs. WWI will act as a stepping stone for anyone who wants to make a career in the world of Television, Cinema or Animation. It has been designed to meet the highest international standards - be it in terms of technology, faculty or resources. We are also fortunate to have a strong academic and management team with Heads of Departments who will make this institute one of the best film schools in the world.”
Probably the only rip off is the dimension of the fees that one has to post. Good things do come at a price. Thee fees being high by Indian Standards are still a fourth of those that you would have to put up for other International Film Schools.
The Institute is also helping students from less affluent backgrounds in getting loans and scholarships. The Institute also provides students with housing facilities at the Royal Palm Resort! 8O
Summarising on the whole review of the esteemed institute, I would truly recommend it to anyone who has an interest in the field and has the zeal to lead the Film Industry!
For more information log on to their official website: www.whistlingwoods.net
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Free Blog Hosts Reviewed |
Blogs have become the just next thing to own on net after colossal sized email accounts equipped with loads of features. Blogs provide netizens a platform to present their views and opinions and hence unplug their anonymity. They make them visible. For many they are still a sort of journal or personal diary where they can post their personal day to day endeavors for their friends and family to see. But on a large, most blogs are maintained by indivisuals who present their thoughts, notions, ideas or share scientific and technical information…
There is literally no definition of how a blog should be. You can write about anything you feel like in this very world of yours. Check out more over blogs on wikipedia.
I bet, with the growing popularity of web blogs, soon the Oxford Dictionary will have to consider including ‘to blog’ as a verb as it has included ‘to google’ ;). So if the idea of having a blog has really enthrilled you… follow this article to find out on how can you have your own blog.
I googled a little bit to find out some popular blogging hosts around and reviewed them. The one’s I considered were:
1] www.blogger.com
2] www.wordpress.com
3] www.livejournal.com
4] www.blogeasy.com
Some are big names that are being popularly used for quite some time now. So let’s be sure to find our Blog host amongst these… Continue Reading »
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