Google Buzz is what i was looking for

I had a strange problem, i am guessing others also had.

No matter what i do i can’t get my friends to join, twitter or face-book etc. But all of them have GMail.

I want to share information about what i am doing or what i find online with them.

This could be very useful for all your family members and friends, who don’t know how to see you on twitter or face-book.

One less thing they have to sign in to keep track of me now.

Get my buzzes here

Ustad Zakir Hussains full concerts online

You can find full concerts of renowned Indian musicians on you tube. Its really nice that they are putting the old concerts online.

Ustad Zakir Hussains full concerts online.

Even some of the old movies are online in full, legally. It would have been nice if it was just one file rather than divided into 14 videos.

Watch the classic movie Sankarabharanam etc.

iPad and my view about it

I am a gadget afficinado, so like everyone else i too was watching the apple ipad event at 12:00 am eagerly. Trying to get all the details about it etc.

After reading few hundred blog posts about it. Here are my view about the device and if i will buy one or not?

First the price, its really hard to justify its pricing in India. It will cost as much as normal laptops in India.

iPad wifi only version will cost
16 GB will be 32135 Rs,
32 GB will be 38575 Rs,
64 GB will be 45015 Rs.

Apple add 40% extra on things they sell india. 499$*46Rs+40%

iPad wifi & 3G version will cost
16 GB will be 40507 Rs,
32 GB will be 46947 Rs,
64 GB will be 53387 Rs.

Apple add 40% extra on things they sell india.

This would have been fine if it had multi tasking. On my macbook i always multi task, like downloading something while reading a web site.

All we do on our computers is multitask. So going back to older times is hard for me.

Not all indian sites work on safari and these sites have no plans to change the situation soon.

This was the main reason for me to switch from iphone to HTC hero. There are some sites that don’t load well on safari. i need other browsers, for example stock trading sites don’t load in safari. But they load in chrome and firefox. On a laptop i can switch to those browsers, but on iPad i have no such option. Apple will never allow other browsers on iPad. Even with banking sites this is an issue.

You could say this is a computer for other members in your family. That’s a good point but not at this price. I could buy them a good laptop at this price. Even a good netbook would be cheaper than this.

The iPad is a half inch thick device, with multi-touch, forever connected to the internet, simplified, focussed, affordable, and most importantly, can be superbly productive.

This above point is the only reason i might think of buying one. But it will largely depend on the price i will have to pay for it. If i can pay 20000 Rs for the device and 1000 Rs per month for unlimited 3G. i might get it, but that will never happen. Current unlimited 3G prices on BSNL are 3000 Rs per month.

So lets see how it will be priced and that is what will decide if i buy it or not.

Indian stock trading should be easier

I have been trying out my hand in stock trading for the past few months. So far i have not made any profits.

But its so intimidating to use, even simple things are made so complicated.

Here is some of the problems i faced and how i solved them using google docs.

I want to know how many stocks can i buy for a particular amount money?

All the stock trading platforms i used ask me to provide both these details. How easier would it be if i could say buy RCOM for 10000 Rs. Instead i have calculate 10000*RCOM stock price. Then put the resulting number into the trading system to buy the stock.

So in order to make it easier, i have made a google spreadsheet. Which will give you these details. Enter the amount of money and stock price, and the spreadsheet will tell you how many stocks to buy. Also by putting the selling price, it will tell you how much profit you made.

If i can come up with something so simple in a spreadsheet. These trading platforms can definitely make it easier on their sites.

There is no easy way to find how much profit you are making etc.

More on that later…

With my spreadsheet you can figure that out easily

Nature still keeps surprising us

After all these millions of years, nature still can surprise us. Even after so many years of development, we still can’t achieve something like this.

All our research has told us that, the tip of a flying object should be thin in front and should be aerodynamical, to fly well.

Then how come a bird like owl, can fly so well with this kind of shape when flying. Hope someone gets inspired with this and designs something that can fly as well.

Photo Frames are such useless devices

I bought one in the early days of these device, it had a small 6 inch screen. I just bought it because it was something new and i thought i would use it. But once i bought it, i realized how useless and they were.

First of all mine resets itself once the power goes off. So i had to manullay set the date and time every time, which it was capable to display. They could have put a small battery in it, that could have helped remember these details even when power went out or they could have saved it to the system. Even then its a useless device, why would you want a device keep churning photos when no one is looking at it. Just not eco friendly and waste of power.

Photo frame would only make sense if they could be used for other things. Like a tablet, when i don’t use it and dock it or while charging. It could become a photo frame or weather or news reader. Ipad is a good example of my concept.

That is the only way i think some thing like a digital photo frame could be justified.

If some one can come up with an epaper that could show a photo without any power. And generate enough power from light everyday to show one photos everyday, then i would buy one. All the technologies are available at the moment, some one needs to put it all together.

If you still was to buy one, this digital photo frame is now available in black and white colours for Rs. 8,000 with a one-year panel warranty and two-year product warranty.

Transcend Launches 8-inch Digital Photo Frame

Zero rupess note against corruption

Very interesting solution against corruption in india. I am not that daring that i can use this note.

But really interesting idea. This could also be used to catch corrupt officials. Slip one of these notes in a bundle of money and pay them, once they accept it bring a TV channel and show it.

One such story was our earlier case about the old lady and her troubles with the Revenue Department official over a land title. Fed up with requests for bribes and equipped with a zero rupee note, the old lady handed the note to the official. He was stunned. Remarkably, the official stood up from his seat, offered her a chair, offered her tea and gave her the title she had been seeking for the last year and a half to obtain without success. Had the zero rupee note reached the old lady sooner, her granddaughter could have started college on schedule and avoided the consequence of delaying her education for two years. In another experience, a corrupt official in a district in Tamil Nadu was so frightened on seeing the zero rupee note that he returned all the bribe money he had collected for establishing a new electricity connection back to the no longer compliant citizen.

Paying Zero Rupee note agains corruption in India

Being slim kills you!

Who knew being slim was also a bad thing.

I think its because when you are old, you get sick quite often and if you are slim you body doesn’t have the energy to resist it. It could also be because if you are slim you will go place and do things which can only increase you chance of death. So the right mantra is be slim now get over weight as you get older. Until some one else comes up with a study saying even that is a bad idea.

But being very overweight or being underweight shortened lives.

Overweight elderly live longer

Mobile operator codes

If you get call from unknown numbers or if you just want to know where that last missed call was from or which network.

Check out this page, it has all mobile networks and their numbering formats in each region.

Could be helpful to know which network some of your friends are using etc.

Mobile operator codes

BSNL Crashes GPRS Prices

I don’t understand what the fuzz was about. i was using bsnl unlimited for 299 at least two years back on a iphone.

The only problem was it was only for post paid user and with the mobile minutes the bill came to 450 per month minimum bill.

Now i switched to aircel gprs which cost 98 Rs per month unlimited.

One thing i love about aircel is that i can use the unlimited gprs even when roaming. Only thing i have to be careful is to see that its on aircel network. Then no charges if its other networks its will be charged.

Unlimited: BSNL’s monthly Plan Unlimited charges Rs. 299 (Rs. 274 for prepaid users) and looks quite attractive to those who are addicted to staying connected.

BSNL Crashes GPRS Price Barriers With 5 New Packs