Aseem's Blog
Leap over the bounds…
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My new Nokia N73 Music Edition |
Damn! This was the toughest decision of my life… parting with my Nokia N3315 and buying the N73. Hehe yea, N3315… because it was class apart. Its popped out of my pocket once while I was speeding over 80kmph on my bike, its fallen off a 100 times… yet worked so perfectly all the last four years I have been using it. Not let me down anytime!
I have always been a Nokia fan. Even if their Symbian OS phones hang more number of times than the rupees in their price, the features and the brand value offered by Nokia is quite unmatchable (Ok maybe the Apple iPhone can beat this by 2008 when it is released in
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How to fix the RAM – Explaining to a girl over phone! |
“Women and Americans are kinda dumb at PCs”. I really don’t know why people say it so! I don’t! Even if you may conclude part of it from the conversation transcript below. ;)
Well, I would be dead tomorrow if I had to disclose the real name of the girl in this conversation over my blog. So lets call her simply “Girl”. Please do not make any generalised statements over the example cited below. I am just sharing my experience. I do not want a Women’s commission to sit in front of my house with a dharna or any of those Geeky Tech Girls (anytime smarter than me) hack into my blog!
Just to be safe let me put this disclaimer: :P
The events and characters mentioned in this blog post are fictitious. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Ok here we go… A friend of mine called me up and…
Girl: My PC is not working. Someone told me that its because of the RAM, as my PC is making a “Peeng…Peeng…” sound.
Me: Hmm. Yea looks like a RAM problem. There must be some dust or moisture on the RAM.
Girl: Can you come over to my place and get it right? This Tuesday?
Me: Yup sure. Just keep a screw driver handy.
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Google April Fools fools |
If you think that in this new IT age Google is God (or vice versa) and can do anything, you better believe for it. But yet not all that Google tells you to :P. Today I logged on to Gmail and noticed some new FREE service offered by Google.
They call it the Gmail Paper. According to Google:
You can request a physical copy of any email for FREE in your Gmail inbox with the click of a button
Google will print all messages instantly and prepare them for delivery. Allow 2-4 business days for a parcel to arrive via post.
Photo attachments are printed on high-quality, glossy photo paper, and secured to your Gmail Paper with a paper clip. MP3 and WAV files will not be printed. We recommend maintaining copies of your non-paper Gmail in these cases.
You can make us print one, one thousand, or one hundred thousand of your emails. It’s whatever seems reasonable to you.
Gmail Paper is made out of 96% post-consumer organic soybean sputum, and thus, actually helps the environment.
After being exposed to bizarre April Fool Pranks all day, like one local daily claiming that Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai had married secretly overnight and published a photoshop edited pic of the marriage, I guess I quite very much knew on how to react to this prank by Google… I just burst out laughing. It was soon that many of my friends thought it was all true and instantly posted it on their blogs appreciating this effort by Google.
Had they known about Google’s new FREE 8Mbps Broadband Service TiSP that will require your Toilet to access, they did really know what a fool Google was trying to make out of them.
Hey have a look at the system specs for acquiring TiSP access:
Windows XP/Vista (Mac and Linux support coming soon)
Internet Explorer 6.0+ or Firefox 1.5+ with the Google Toolbar
Round-front or elongated toilet providing at least 1.0 gallons per flush
Use of automatic toilet bowl cleaners is not recommended
Haha… And you couldnt let yourself leave without having a look at these amazing installation pics that Google has on their site.
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Welcome changes on Orkut.com |
Its been a long journey for Orkut and orkuters. Orkut has grown to be a popular networking service worldwide with about 12.95% of its users in India in the last 3 years of its net presence.
Google has constantly strived to maintain and augment the quality and value of Orkut, often integrating it with some other services in its pack.
Google has already integrated Google Talk into Orkut. Often when you login, a list of friends online on GTalk appears in the sidebar. It wont take time for Google Talk to be the most popular chat client with this addon. The only glitch in it is, you cannot integrate your Google Talk id into it until you have configured it with orkut.com. You have to register a new one. :(
Also while visiting profiles, showing mutual friends list was a welcome change. Replying back instantly to any scrap without visiting the scrapbook of the person who scrapped you saves so much time. Earlier while scrapping back one would tend to follow scraps to newer profiles. Ok now saves a lot of time! :lol:
While the above features have been around for quite some time now, Google is integrating new and interesting features into Orkut.
NEW FEATURES:
Google Video/Youtube: You can now add your favourite videos from Youtube or Google Video (both services owned by Google) into your orkut profile. As India is becoming broadband ready, this add-on will certainly pick up fast amongst the Indian Orkut users.
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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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Directorycontest-May the best Directory Win! |
Mike Dammann has started a directory contest! It is simple contest, one where you will have to rank first with Google for the keyword directorycontest.com. May the best directory win!
Onsite optimization is not allowed with this contest.
First prize is $2000.
Please visit directorycontest.com for more info!
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BSNL Broadband now 2Mbps!!! |
I could bet this one was a joke anytime, but with the year 2007 already been declared as the ‘Year of Broadband’, there is surely some juice in this news. First got to know from a friend about BSNL’s broadband upgrade to 2Mbps. At first go I didnt believe and thought it was just another rumour. But when I googled, I found a hell lotta news on it (though as usual, no announcement on BSNL’s website). Its been about 10 days that media has covered this news. I gotta accept I am just not into reading news for the past couple of weeks. Also Technorati shows a number of bloggers blogging about it. M late!
Ok so let me not take you for a ride and lets come to the point. So whats there in for us? I called up BSNL and this is the kinda info that their customer service gave me:
- BSNL will offer on all Home and Business Plans data rates up to 2 Mbps, subject to technical feasibility.
- The customer wont have to pay any extra charge to BSNL towards the plans or the already existing hardware setup that is capable of providing such speeds.
- The following offered by BSNL are the new upgraded plans with higher bandwidths also:
Home 250 – 1GB limit, 90 paisa per MB over the limit.
Home 500 – 2.5GB limit, 80 paisa per MB over the limit.
Home 1000 – 5GB limit, 80 paisa per MB over the limit.
Home 1800 – 10GB limit, 70 paisa per MB over the limit.
Home 3300 – 20GB limit, 70 paisa per MB over the limit.
There is no mention of the Home 900 UL plan.
Business 700 – 4GB limit, 80 paisa per MB over the limit.
Business 1200 – 8GB limit, 80 paisa per MB over the limit.
Business 3000 – 20GB limit, 50 paisa per MB over the limit.
Business 5000 – 35GB limit, 50 paisa per MB over the limit.
Business 9000 – 75GB limit, 50 paisa per MB over the limit. - This change is with effect from Jan 1, 2007.
Hmm… you must be wondering that BSNL Customer Service guys are good opposed to their poor image. That guy surely had a lot of patience to gimme all this info on phone without getting bugged with my foray of questions at 12:45 AM. Yea I appreciate that. But hello… they are still the very same “We have not been notified yet” guys if you ask them anything even a little out of the way. I still have a number of questions gone unanswered.
The present upload speed limit is 64kbps. Will it be the same or increased? Why there hasnt been any change in the unlimited plan? (Hehe… I know even I could answer that… With unlimited bandwidth @ 2Mbps coming @ just 900Rs a month… people will suck them out dry…!) This is not just it! There a a couple of hiccups more. BSNL says that the 2Mbps speed available is subject to technical feasibility. Hmm.. I asked them what they meant by that. Thank God this BSNL Customer Service guy could tell me something about it. Says: It will totally depend on the telephone exchange of your area. Smaller exchanges which are not capable of handling this speed boost to 2Mbps, wont be able to offer this support. You need to call up the BSNL internet section to know more about your exchange’s speed limits. Speeds could vary from 256kbps to 2Mbps… :( Not fair! I reside in Porvorim. Which is just 4km from Panjim where 2Mbps will be possible. Porvorim it still may not be :(. Also there has not been any change in the free night surfing feature. I think they should have relaxed the timings… 2:00 AM to 8:00 AM sux bigtime for normal working people. Though not nocturnals like me :lol:
But in the bigger picture, this is certainly a welcome change and I see India soon reaching their Vision 2010 with this. Provided they upgrade their infrastructure for such changes. Its certainly not upbeat. BSNL even keeps new connection applications pending because their exchanges run out of ports. Uh! I wonder if all this will turn out to be a gimmick with the infrastructure not capable of hosting such big promises. I just hope not!
When I tasted 512kbps on their promotional game plan, it was awesome. 2Mbps should be God like Speed! And it comes for just Rs 250 a month! Anyways, as BSNL’s 900 UL plan subscriber, I have a reason to grumble.. but I know I will anytime prefer even a 128kbps unlimited connection to any plan that has data transfer limits :lol:. I just hate them….
More resources to read about BSNL’s future plans and on the 2Mbps upgrade:
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Rediffmail down! |
Heck! Right from yesterday evening I have been trying to login to my rediff email account… :( Looks like those guys are working on some update. But its seriously too long a period for an email service to go offline like this… Its already shooting up to reach 24 hours now.
I was expecting some important business mail and another urgent email. Its really frustrating to see the ‘Service temporarily unavailable :(‘ page right there on logon…
Only God and Rediff knows wats the problem. I dont think it is a service update or upgrade thats causing the delay to restore things back to normal. Its a common practice to pilot test such updates and the service should have been back online in an hour or so. May be its some network or hardware failure/upgrade thats taking this much time.
I think such email services should have their official blogs to keep their subscribers updated of the latest with them. Whatever.. I am still sulking… I wish I had given my regular business email for the urgent commuinication. :(
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Google Apps for Your Domain |
Smiles, smiles, smiles! Google Apps for Your Domain is a free service that offers private labeled email, Instant Messenger, Event Calender, a WYSIWYG based web page creator and stuff. I guess its been online for over two months now. What I was looking out into it was the Gmail offered for the email service. :)
Who wouldn’t want your domain email to have all the features of and power packed into Gmail. So I signed up there and within a matter of an hour I was running my email on Google servers. 2GB of space and a hulluva features over SquirrelMail(the default mail webmail client on my server), its brought a smile.
The configuration doesn’t take much time at all. Just a MX entry change from your Domain/Hosting CP, and if you would like to have a custom page from your domain then a little CNAME settings that you will have to ask your host to do it for you. Or you can just redirect any subdomain. Once done you can use Google’s Gmail to send and receive your emails and also chat on Google Talk with that id.
Currently this service is free. This is what I just read on Google’s Official Blog:
If you’re from a larger business or university with more advanced needs for communications and sharing, please get in touch regarding premium versions of the service, due out later this year.
Also here is what their site says:
Organizations accepted by Google during the Google Apps for Your Domain beta period are eligible for free service for their approved beta users even beyond the end of the beta period, as described in the Terms of Service.
Hmm… that means there is always going to be an ad supported free version on the roll. May be they will offer their advanced services like Writely (their word processor) and Google Spreadsheets into more plans to be rolled out in future.
You can offer this service free to as many people, as you would like to use your domain email. While Google’s competitor Yahoo, offers a service for a single email at some 34.95 USD/Year and 10 email IDs for 9.95 USD/Month. Though all this is interesting, I don’t see big organizations resorting to a Google or a Yahoo to manage their email. Inhouse mail servers not only give companies a server-level defense against spam and virus attacks, but also provide the ability to back up e-mail at will.
But for all my needs for this blog’s email, this free service is way too impressive. And the word does count FREE :).
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YouTube is now a part of Google |
This deal has been in the rumour domain for long. But finally its a deal today! Google acquired YouTube for a whooping $1.65 billion, winning over Yahoo in a close bid. For today it looks like google is on a rampage to be the WWW leader.
The Press Release:
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., October 9, 2006 – Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) announced today that it has agreed to acquire YouTube, the consumer media company for people to watch and share original videos through a Web experience, for $1.65 billion in a stock-for-stock transaction. Following the acquisition, YouTube will operate independently to preserve its successful brand and passionate community.
The acquisition combines one of the largest and fastest growing online video entertainment communities with Google’s expertise in organizing information and creating new models for advertising on the Internet. The combined companies will focus on providing a better, more comprehensive experience for users interested in uploading, watching and sharing videos, and will offer new opportunities for professional content owners to distribute their work to reach a vast new audience.
Here is the Webcast.
Recently Microsoft released a Beta version of Soapbox to compete YouTube. Now it will surely be a tougher task to beat the net giant!
POST SPONSORED BY: YouTube.com videos
