Hooray for boiled peanuts

Growing up in India, we kids (Arjun and I) loved eating boiled peanuts! It is still a snack that brings back memories of childhood. The warm, wet, salty snack that mother used to make for us and had to keep us from eating too much of.



Some years back, we found out that the Chinese also eat boiled peanuts thanks to our friend Darrell. Today, I came across this article on the web, that proclaims the health benefits of boiled peanuts as opposed to the roasted kind or peanut butter. From the article, I learnt that boiled peanuts are also a staple in the southern United States. In fact, it appears to be South Carolina's offical snack food!

It's all good to know. I'm looking forward to introducing this favourite food of mine to Anjali when she gets a bit older :)

Amazon Unbox has TinTin

I do like reading TinTin! I suppose TinTin is a character similar to Rajnikanth in that he defied real-world logic and escaped attempts on his life rather regularly. Something about the series keeps me entertained though - was it Snowy, Captain Haddock, Professor Calculus or the Thompson twins? Anyway, I've read TinTin throughout my childhood and do hope that Anjali takes a liking to the series too! I've downloaded eBook versions of the TinTin comics to prepare for the expected onslaught of eInk devices by the time Anjali reads regularly!

Anyway, I came across some TinTin videos on the Amazon Unbox website the other night and was pleasantly surprised. I didn't even know there were video versions. The first episode (or rather half the first episode) is available for free, be sure to check it out if that sort of thing interests you.

Cool Vonage & Mac Trick!!

If, like me, you're a Vonage and Mac user at home, here's a cool tip I found this week. By setting up some simple AppleScript as an plugin for your Address Book, you can basically "click-to-call" anyone in your address book from your Vonage line.

All the instructions are at the MacOSX Hints website and it took me all of 10 mins to set it up.

So now I can do this (right click on any number in my address book)!



And my home Vonage line rings automatically and I pick it up to hear the other side ringing!

Now, if I could only get it to work with a calling card service... basically dial a really long number with the ability to program a pause. One can always keep wishing :)

Vonage lets you use "Click2Call" anyway you want. More details here.

Update of sorts

I have been off work for the last week and a half although you wouldn't know it from looking at me or the blog! I've had my hands full with Anjali.

My parents are visiting now and will be taking over daily Anjali duties for a while, and I am looking forward to it! There'll be plenty for me to do after their visit!

I got a new iMac. Well sort of new, it is a discontinued model - a white 24" iMac Core 2 Duo. Loving it so far, and of course I am running Mac OS Leopard. The migration from the older machine running Tiger has been smooth so far. Everything just works. Also migrated to iLife 08 and that is looking good as well.

I didn't wait long to install Vista Ultimate on it, runs wonderfully! So there should be lesser jostling for the PC monitor at home! :)

Have a bunch of pics to upload, will try to do that over the next weekend.

Adios for now.

Happy Halloween

Anjali The Watermelon
Originally uploaded by Jillako

Halloween has been here and gone, a lot quieter this year. Seems like we had fewer kids come by compared to last year. We have a bunch of candy left for those that might want to visit us :)

Anjali looked really cute in her Watermelon costume, don't you think? :)

Thanks to Mike Dubray for the dress from China!

Flashback: 4 years ago

The blog is now 4 years old! Feels like forever :) It is fun to look back at what I was doing then though.
Anyway, on October 23rd 2003 I wrote in this blog post that I thought AAPL was a good investment. Unfortunately, I did not have *any* money to invest back then.

It turns out that approx. $11.5 invested in Apple stock then would be worth approx. $186 today!
I wish I had found some money to put my opinion to the test; oh well, at least I get to say - I TOLD YOU SO! :)

Whoa, there's a SingStar Bollywood?

SingStar is a series of Karaoke games for the Sony PlayStation 2. I've been curious about some of the SingStar releases before, but this new title just hit me from nowhere - apparently Sony has released a "SingStar Bollywood" and in Europe too.

Someone did their homework too, check the song list -

* Aashiqui - Nazar Ke Samne
* Askar - Jhalak Dikhla Ja
* Chalte Chalte - Chalte Chalte
* Chalte Chalte - Suno Na Suno Na
* Chameli - Sajna Ve Sajna
* Dil Chahta Hai - Koi Kahe Kehta Rahe
* Dil Hai Ki Manta Nahin - Dil Hai Ki Manta Nahin
* Don - The Chase Begins - Ye Mera Dil
* Dus - Dus Bahane Karlke Le
* Guru - Barso Re
* Guru - Tere Bina
* Ishq Hai Tumse - O Soniya
* Kaal - Tauba Tauba
* Kaal - Kaal Dhamaal
* Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna - Where's the Party Tonite
* Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna - Mitwa
* kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham - Bole Chudiyan
* kabhi Khushi Kabhie Ghamv - Suraj Hua Maddham
* kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham - Say Shava Shava
* Kal ho na ho - Maahi Ve
* Kal ho na ho - It's the time to disco
* Kal ho na ho - Pretty Woman
* Khakee - Dil Dooba
* Kuch Kuch Hota hai - Kuch Kuch Hota Hai
* Kuch Kuch Hota hai - Koi Mil Gaya
* Kya Love Story Hai - It's Rocking
* Main Hoon Na - Main Hoon Na
* Rang De Basanti - Rang De Basanti
* Salaam-E-Ishq - Salaam-E-Ishq

I wonder how I can play this title on my PS3, I'm sure App would dig it :)

10 days to Leopard

Apple confirmed today that the next Mac OS X, Leopard will be released in just 10 days! October 26th, to be precise. In fact, all Macs sold October 1st onwards are eligible for a free upgrade.

I for one am really looking forward to this release. Looking forward to the advances in iChat, installing BootCamp, Quick Look and Time Machine.

There are plenty of new features and although Apple touts 300 new features, you'll have to take that with a grain of salt. It's really more like 100, which is pretty impressive in its own right, I don't know why Apple has to exaggerate at all!

Here's a link to the full list.

Update: AppleInsider says there may be more than 300+ new "features". Maybe Apple should separate the features and the enhancements? To be sure, Leopard appears to be a killer upgrade - a definite must have!

XBox 360 is back, Media Center is awesome!

Alright, finally got my XBox 360 back from the "Repair Center". I've been looking forward to trying a few things.

First, I had some WMV video (Twenty20 cricket) burned to a CD. I tried playing it, works great!

Second, I'd installed Windows XP Media Center 2005 onto my PC and wanted to try it out. It took a little bit of effort to set this up for the XBox. I had to download the Media Center Extender software from Xbox.com. When I tried that, it prompted me to install Media Center Rollup 2 from Microsoft.com. When I downloaded that, it prompted me to install .NET 1.1 and .NET 1.1 SP1!! What's up with this crap MS? Can't make all-in-one updates? I don't mind downloading all those updates in one package to skip the steps!

Anways, the final result after all the installs - stunning! I have a boatload of WMAs on my PC that the Media Center picked up and added Album art to. I also had a compatible TV Tuner card, that let me watch and record Live TV through the 360. The experience was quite compelling - the audio playback even used all the surround speakers, something that music playback from the 360 Dashboard just can't seem to. The Media Center experience on the XBox 360 is one of the standout features and I am amazed it hasn't been pushed more. With Vista, the Home Premium and Ultimate versions have Media Center built-in and with the addition of a compatible TV Tuner, every 360 user with those versions of Windows Vista can partake in the fun. I'm going to spend more time trying the Media Center functionality, watch out for that.

Third, I accumulated a few games when the 360 was gone - Halo 2, Halo 3 and Viva Pinata (for App). We'll have to try those games out. I don't think I'd really play Halo 2 after playing Halo 3 so I've decided to play Halo 2 before opening the Halo 3 game.

For all the trouble I had to go through, Microsoft sent me an anemic 1 month free of XBox Live Gold. It's worth $5 at most - well better than nothing I guess.

Frets On Fire

It's been a week of gaming! I haven't been really busy at home. In fact, I'm home alone all week. That finally gave me time to start playing "Frets On Fire", an awesome free Guitar Hero clone for the PC/Mac. If you've wanted to try Guitar Hero, you've gotta start with Frets! It's addictive. If you know to search on the right forums, you can get some awesome song packs for it as well. Check it out. I'm off to play GNR's "Welcome to the Jungle". :)

Did I mention that Frets is open-source and free? :)

India now world champs in Twenty20!

Congratulations to the Indian team on winning the Twenty20 World Cup! What a great final - the match was up in the air until the final moment. This element of unpredictability is what makes the Twenty20 game so interesting. This is certainly a key element in most american games - the ability to turn a game on its head until the last moment, and at this the 20 over game excelled. It was a fun tournament and I'm glad the next one is just 2 years away.

The ICC seems to have plans to restrict the Twenty20 game to just a few games a year but I don't see how it can be contained. After all, money rules the world of sport and surely the buzz generated by this world cup was noticed by everyone. It will be interesting to see how this develops. Not everyone is impressed, obviously.

I watched the full game thanks to the internet and my friendly local source, Rajesh. Thanks for the feed, Guruji! :)

The Big Lebowski

If you know me, you know that I have a zillion movies lying around the house waiting to be watched. Someday, when I find the time, I actually plan to watch these movies. Today I am happy to report that the list of movies that are "to be watched before the end of eternity" is actually shorter by one.

Last night I watched "The Big Lebowski". And enjoyed it at that. "The dude" kind of resonated with me, and the movie was quite watchable. There were a lot of different characters in the simple plot. Make that a lot of characters who were far from normal. In a manner, you got a taste of all these characters but the movie was pretty focused on "the dude". I'd recommend the movie if you haven't already watched it, but its not for those who can tolerate foul language - you've been warned.

Btw, this is the third movie made by the Coen brothers that I've liked, the other ones being "Intolerable Cruelty" that I really liked (App, not so much) and "O Brother Where Art Thou" which App and I both liked.

Now Playing @ Home : PS3

With the XBox 360 in transit to the "Repair Center", there's never been a better time to start taking about its new rival at home - The Sony PlayStation 3. I've been meaning to introduce the PS3 to the blog for a few weeks. The PS3 is approaching the price point where I believe it really takes on mass appeal; I bit the bug earlier this month.

How do I like it so far? I like it a lot. The only real misgivings - weak online experience, no rumble. Sony has already addressed rumble so I'll skip over that one. I would give them about a year to catch up with XBox Live , so I'll continue to monitor that.

The best part? Media. The PS3 is probably the best Media player in the "set-top" form factor for the money. In fact, if they added support for DivX, XVid and WMV video, it would be the best box, period.

Let's do a quick check of media functionality starting with the really basic.

1. CD Player - Check.
2. MP3 CD Player - Check. While you are at it - make that AAC, WMA and ATRAC too. And oh, your files can be on a DVD too.
3. SACD Player - Check.
4. DVD Player - Check. Upconvert? Yes!
5. Blu-Ray - Obviously! And cheaper than stand alone BD players at that.
6. Photo Player - Check. Again, from CD, DVD, or Memory Card (CF, SD or Memory Stick)!
7. Video Player - In addition to DVD, BD discs, you can play back MPEG4 Video. I was able to download music videos off the internet and play them fine. No support for DivX though :(
8. Networked Media Player - Check. Can play all above media (digital audio, photos, video) over the network from your PC. WiFi is included, I use ethernet though. Picked up shared media from my Windows XP box (shared through Windows Media Connect) automatically. No stupid "configuration" dialogs.

There's more.

9. You can browse pictures from your digital camera. Easiest way to do this is to take the memory card and plug it into the PS3.
10. PSP Remote Play - Configure your PSP for remote play and access all media available to the PS3 on your PSP, whereever you may be connected from. This includes the internet - so yes, you can be at your friend's house connected to his WiFi playing back the content on your PS3 back at your house. Way cool.
11. Playback from devices - I was able to connect my Walkman devices and play music back through the PS3. Displays Album Art too! This worked for my NW-S205F, NW-S705F and App's NW-E005F. You can also copy music from the PS3 hard drive to the Walkman directly. So you could potentially use your Sony Walkman device without ever connecting to a PC.
12. PSP memory stick playback - I took the memory stick from my PSP and plugged it into the PS3. The PS3 let me play music, photos, video. Also let me copy content back and forth between the PS3 Hard Drive and PSP Memory Stick.

So far, so good. I'm a demanding media user though, so I have a few gripes. Here we go -

1. The PS3 did not recognize my Hi-MD units (MZ-RH1).
2. The PS3 did not recognize my SonyEricsson Walkman Phone (W600i)
3. SACD audio cannot be played back over optical audio output but only through HDMI. Whatsup with that Sony, think I want to spring for a new receiver? It's not going to be Sony ;)
4. Did not recognize my iPod when I plugged it in. You have to support the market leading device!
5. Cannot play MPEG-2 video. This is the video format of files dumped from a DVD Rip. This would be nice but would be secondary to DivX.
6. No DivX, WMV playback.
7. Would be great if it worked with iTunes sharing.

Kudos to Sony for -

1. The best allround media functionality I have seen so far.
2. Bringing the price down so quickly after initial release. $400 would make a few competitors squirm - XBox, AppleTV, etc.
3. Letting users run Linux if they choose.
4. Keyboard, Mouse support.
5. Making the power supply relatively silent and internal.

Let's bring the games on now!

To be sure, I'm happy with my PS3 even without any games. However the high-definition games on Blu-Ray make it that much more attractive!

Must. Watch. Video.

If you watch cricket, that is.



Bravo, Yuvraj Singh.

Anjali in her new BOB Revolution

Anjali in her new BOB Revolution
Originally uploaded by Jillako

We discovered a new regional park - the Dry Creek Regional Park. It's not far from home and has some nice trails. We tried one out on Monday with Anjali in her new BOB Revolution. I suspect that the trail we attempted was a bit too steep for any stroller but the BOB did handle it decently. Anjali even managed to fall asleep on the bumpy way back!

Go to Flickr for a bonus photo! :)

Yesterday's Dilbert

This one cracked me up!

RROD again!

Okay, I think Microsoft did a good job on the XBox 360 software; none of the other consoles can match the elegance of the "blade" interface they have going and the integrated Live (online) functionality. They also have the best controller. The 360 controller has just the right heft, includes rumble, easily swappable batteries and can be made to work with a Windows PC.

However, the XBox 360 has one big weakness - the crappy console hardware! I just had my console go RROD on me again. For the uninitiated, RROD = Red Ring Of Death, which is what you see in the picture. It is the XBox 360 equivalent of the Windows BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death and if you haven't seen that before - you must be a Mac/Linux user or a really lucky human!).

I bought my XBox 360 in May '06. I had my first RROD in March '07, after an estimated 240 hours of usage. The second RROD happened this week after just another 120 hours of usage. Plain unacceptable and may really be the reason I jump off the XBox 360 bandwagon.

My biggest gripe with the RROD is the timing, I was really looking forward to Halo 3 in a few weeks! And now I'll have to wait about 4 weeks to get my console back.. oh well.

Steve Jobs' Apology

LOL, check out Joy Of Tech's totally hilarious take on Steve Jobs and the $100 Apple rebate to iPhone early adopters! :)

Woohoo! Thrilling win for India at the Twenty20 game vs. Pakistan!

UPDATE: Videos now available! Worth watching :)

Highlights:


The Bowlout:


and the original post -

So, admittedly India could have wrapped this one up with much less tension! With Pakistan chasing and 29 runs required from 12 balls at the end of over 18 (39 required from 14 at 17.4), they just needed to stop the boundaries and sixes. However, after a disastrous over from Agarkar, which resulted in 17 runs in just one over, Pakistan looked to come up on top. With the game tied and 2 balls to go, Pakistan looked a sure winner before India came back to hold them to a tie.

The tied games are resolved shootout style in Twenty20 cricket and each team picks 5 bowlers to have a go at the stumps (no batsman). I'm copying the bowlout commentary from CricInfo here so you can see how it all went down!! :)

Bowl out

Shoaib Malik has won the toss and he has asked India to have the first go. Both teams are out there practising hitting the stumps.

How hard can it be to hit three stumps without a batsman in front of them? We'll soon find out.

India have nominated Sehwag, Uthappa, Sreesanth, Pathan and Harbhajan. It will be Gul, Tanvir, Arafat, Afridi and Asif for Pakistan.

Round 1
Sehwag is up first for India. Dhoni waits behind the stumps. Sehwag has a big grin on his face. Sehwag runs in, bowls flat and fast and hits the stumps.

Arafat gets ready for his turn. He bowls a full toss that misses off stump.

India lead 1-0 after the first round.

Round 2

Harbhajan bowls quick and straight and hits. He's delighted and celebrates like he's taken a wicket, or scored a penalty.

Gul runs in off a short run up and also misses the stumps. The Indians love it.

India lead 2-0 after the second round. Massive pressure on Pakistan.

Round 3

Robin Uthappa runs in, bowls seam up and knocks the stumps over. He takes off his cap and bows to the crowd.

Pakistan have to hit the stumps with all their three remaining chances to stay in the bowl-out. If India hit one more time, they will win.

Here comes Afridi and he fires it down leg side! India have won the bowl-out 3-0.

Amazing scenes at Kingsmead. It was like a football shootout and the Indians are celebrating fittingly. They won the match 3-0 through a bowl-out after the proper match ended in a thrilling tie!

Go India!! Very impressive!

I wish ESPN2 or some secondary sports channel would pick up and telecast these shorter Cricket games, they sound fun!

On a somewhat related note, did you know Google shows you Cricket scores now? Go to www.google.com and try typing in "India Cricket" as your search term!

Baby Gear: Bob Revolution stroller

After much deliberation, here is the stroller we ended up getting for Anjali - BOB Revolution Jogger! This was App's pick and really it was her department, as I am a backpack-prefering, baby-wearing kind of guy myself. We're not joggers by any means, the reason we went for a jogger was because we do go on local trails, lots of which are unpaved and the Revolution looks like it will handle them well. It has a small turning radius as well, which should be useful in stores/malls. It seems well reviewed all around and we took at look at a similar model in the local REI before ordering this one online.

We should have pictures with Anjali in it soon enough. Before I forget, thanks to new uncle Arjun for sponsoring the stroller! :)

The iPhone - Ouch!

This may be a week late but I'm sure you've had your share of iPhone news already. So Wow! - the 4GB iPhone is selling for $299.

The "ouch!" in the title is not about the early adopters getting screwed, forget them for a while here. I'm talking about the huge "ouch!" that went up from Apple's newest competitors - that would be Samsung, SonyEricsson, Nokia, Motorola. Apple is putting the squeeze on these guys with their pricing!

Apple is muscling its way into the cellphone market building on its strengths that have been on display with the iPod rollercoaster. Apple is on course to buy up 25% of the world's flash memory pretty soon. Let that sink in for a few seconds. A quarter of the world's flash memory is bought up by Apple. Apple has a great manufacturing model - design in California, use their manufacturing partners in China/Taiwan to get equipment manufactured at low costs (they're experts at this), reuse components across product lines to get economies of scale - all of this while maintaining a ridiculously high profit margin (compared to its competitors) anyway. They can do this because they're selling millions of these things while still making just a handful of products (talking hardware here).

Back to the iPhone, how is this going to affect the big players? Let's look at Nokia - they sells more cell phones than anyone. They have a lot of models - the lower end ones will sell the most, but Nokia has a lower margin on those. They sell a lot of their N series phones which I'm betting are far more lucrative than the $100 phones. This is the market the iPhone is going to eat into. They don't sell enough N-Series phones to be able to price compete with the iPhone. To do this they would have to reduce the number of models they have, work on cutting the manufacturing costs and bring the price to consumers down drastically. Few companies are ruthlessly efficient at this as Steve Jobs' Apple.

Why would a consumer such as myself pick an iPhone when there are so many choices in the marketplace? One overwhelming reason that is usually never associated with Apple - cost!!
The iPhone certainly doesn't have all the features I want from my phone. I have been shopping for a SonyEricsson Walkman phone in the $350 range. If I buy that phone, I probably would plan to spend $70 on a 4GB memory stick so I can load songs and videos. The total cost runs near $420 for a Walkman phone with memory.
At $299, however, with the 4GB of memory - I just might be ready to forget some of the features I wanted and give in to the iPhone's lure - the wonderful screen, wifi, Google maps, browser etc. along with the low price would make it worth it for me. The only catch right now is that I am T-Mobile customer. Oh wait, isn't iUnlock out already? :)

Fun times in the world of consumer electronics, I tell you :) Apple is fast becoming a giant here!

Sony Rolly

I've been following the stories about Sony's Rolly in the media for a while now. While I applaud Sony for creating a product that is out of the ordinary, it is unclear how popular this robot/player will be..

Check out these videos.

Indian Thriller

Another YouTube link with another unbelievable video. This one is unbelievable because it is soo baaaadddd!

Without further ado,

The battle at Kruger

Well, half the online world has seen this video already. However, if you haven't, here it is. The amazing video shot by a tourist at a South African National Park.

Story on BBC here.

Back with a new iMac!

Well, I'm just playing with words. I don't have a new iMac. However, Apple introduced a new iMac yesterday and that was enough fodder to push me to blog.
Apologies for the long silence, it has been busy at work and home since Anjali's arrival.
Anyways, back to Apple and the new iMac.



I like the new design. I see it more as an evolution than a radical new design. The G3, G4 and G5 iMacs were all radical. This one is not. What will we call it? I don't think anyone calls it an iMac G6. Probably the iMac Intel 2nd Gen?

Along with included iSight, Front Row w/ remote, 802.11n, Bluetooth 2.0, Microphone, Speakers, Optical Audio in & out, Mac OS X and iLife '08, I think the 20" iMac at $1200 is one of the best bargains out there. Don't believe me? Look up a similarly configured Sony VAIO. It even compares favourably with Dell although that would be like comparing a BMW with a Toyota (A Toyota equipped with all available options, but still a Toyota).

So, welcome to the new iMac. We'll be getting ours after Leopard is out.

Anjali

1st Family pic!
Originally uploaded by Jillako

Here is my long overdue post introducing our daughter Anjali! She was born June 12th and has changed our life in countless ways already. Mother and daughter are doing great and I've started back at work already. Lots more pictures at flickr. You can expect a bunch of parenting related posts in addition to the usual apple, gadgets, wine, family posts :) Maybe when Anjali gets started with the mac, we'll see her join in too!

Hola, everyone!

Things are good in our world. Just been a bit busy taking care of things and preparing for the little one's arrival. It has been a while since I posted any pictures, watch out for some new ones soon.

Had a bit of a false alarm this morning but it was not yet the birthday for our baby, but we managed to get a little more familiar with the Labor & Delivery section of Kaiser Hayward. :) So, wait we shall.

I don't want to say that there has not been anything exciting happening in our world, lots of small but wonderful moments that I may never experience again. It is all wonderful. Just not too many moments I feel like blogging about.

I managed to attend Google's Developer Day last week (thanks, baby!) and made it into their photo album too, check out these pictures -

Picture 1
Picture 2
Picture 3 (3rd row, near center)

It was a day well spent. Not much else to add just now - I've got work to catch up on, also listening to the new Linkin Park album, I already like a few songs!

Ciao.

Paragliding with Stephen @ Pacifica

Paragliding with Stephen @ Pacifica
Originally uploaded by Jillako.

Thanks to Darrell for taking this great photo when I went tandem paragliding with Stephen. Thanks to Stephen for taking us along on the great ride!
Paragliding is definitely a fun sport and I loved being up and flying around (for about 30 mins, after which I started to get airsick) but I doubt that I have as much dedication as Stephen! Check out his website, he can take you on a ride too :)
More pics from that weekend on flickr, as always.

How to help App sleep

Check this video to see how I help a pregnant App sleep most nights :)
This technique is very effective, as App would surely attest!

A futuristic solar power station - in Spain now!

This amazing array of 600 giant mirrors focuses sunlight onto a giant tower in Spain, generating steam that powers a turbine and generates enough electricity for 6000 homes! Read more at the BBC.

Almost empty

Almost empty
Originally uploaded by Jillako.

I'm trying out our new Nikon D40. I like how it feels, hopefully I'll get to learn how to take better pictures!
Here's a start.

Boot Camp Plus!

If you know me, you know that I think Apple's Boot Camp is pretty cool. Having a single machine that can do both Windows and Mac OS X is good but there is something additional that can make it the coolest thing since sliced bread!

Ta-duh!



A virtual machine solution - VMWare Fusion. This is VMWare's Mac product that is currently in beta. The biggest advantage for a user such as me is that this product "understands" Boot Camp. No need for a separate Virtual Machine. VMWare Fusion will let you boot your Boot Camp partition from within Mac OS X! Parallels does this too, and many people have good things to say about their product. I haven't tried it though and it costs $80, whereas the VMWare one is currently free, during beta.

Arjun can try this out right now on his iMac since he already has Boot Camp configured. I'm waiting to get my hands on an Intel Mac sometime this year and install Windows Vista on it!!

How CDs are born

Here's an interesting video that shows how CDs are manufactured. Pretty cool to watch. The process is not at all like burning a CD, it is actually much more efficient and the CDs are stamped from a master. Check it out.



Found @ Paul Burd's One Digital Life

It's tax time and it's time to "keep the refund fat"

Intuit has been running a contest at YouTube for a $25000 prize. Here is one of the entries that I liked. Thanks to Mike for sharing the link with us!

Argh, Blogger - I lost some of my heritage today!

As any blogger user knows by now, you have two options when you try to publish your site - "Republish Index" or "Republish Entire Site". For the last four years, I have religiously avoided the "Republish Entire Site" option like the plague.

The reason is this - when you use said option, Blogger takes your latest template and applies it to ALL your pages, stretching back to the start of the universe. Now, in the day when you composed your blog posting, I made sure that the posting fit well within the current template of the day. However, I have no intentions of going back and making sure that my new template fits all my old pages. Further, I believe that having the old pages stay in the same old template preserves my heritage, legacy, whatever you may call it. It is nice to go back to a posting from 2003 and see the page as it looked then!

Anyway, on to today. I changed the template of the site - updated current movie and music on the sidebar. After I applied these changes to the template, I got just one option from blogger - Republish Site or something to the effect. I naively assumed that this must be the equivalent of Republish Index on the Publish page. I was devastated (and totally annoyed!) to find Blogger re-publishing the 400+ pages on my blog!! Arggghhhh!! Blogger!! Why is there no cancel on the publish page? I wish you had an undo!! And I wish I had backups of my site!!! AAAAAArrrgggghhhh!

Apple TV Accessories?

If you haven't heard already, Apple TV is here. Joy Of Tech is right on the Apple pulse, as usual :)

TIME Photo Essay | The Kumbh Mela: An Indian Odyssey

Check out The Kumbh Mela: An Indian Odyssey, a photo essay from Time.

I could not link to any of the photos in the presentation but take my word that they are pretty good, worth 5 minutes of your time to check it out!

The Trouble With India ...

BusinessWeek's The Trouble With India takes a long hard look at the infrastructure problems facing modern India. An excellent read. I think it is India's time to step up and become a modern nation, I am hopeful that we Indians will be able to transform our country!

Cool Santa Fe Ad from Australia!

Hey all, been quiet for a while and thought I would say hello!
Here's an ad I came across today -



Thru Slashdot.

Here we go again!

The Hindu reports that Wearing of helmets has been made compulsory in Chennai, again. How many times do we have to toggle this law on and off? Any sane person knows that helmets enhance the rider's safety. Lets hope the law stays.
Unfortunately, in Madras helmets get very uncomfortable thanks to the heat and humidity. The solution is not to repeal the law, but enhance the design of helmets. They need to be lighter and vented. Maybe even open face, or half helmets are good. They are better than no helmets at all. Anyway, I am sure the helmet shops and makers are salivating at the new sales ops. I hope someone steps in with a better design during this cycle of the helmet law.
While I am sure that the helmets will reduce injuries related to two wheeler accidents, I am sure that riders / passengers without helmets on the roads will still be a common sight. After all, it is illegal to drive a motor vehicle in the dark without lights, but even that law is not enforced in Chennai anymore. In days past, driving without lights would be the fastest way to lose Rs. 50 from your pocket (as a bribe to the first policeman you see) but these days, maybe the policemen are after more lucrative violations or maybe it is all too cheap for people to pay these fines. I was shocked to see a large number of vehicles without lights on my last few visits to Chennai.
Oh well!

Apple - Thoughts on Music

Steve Jobs has some thoughts to share. I applaud Apple for taking this bold step in openly asking the record companies to license their music DRM-free.

Now, lets see if they bite!

I, for one, have not been very tempted to buy any tracks from the iTunes music store because of the FairPlay DRM. On the other hand, a site like AllOfMp3.com has been very appealing just because of the DRM-free files it lets you download.

Will be interesting to see how this pans out..

New Year's Eve @ Kirkwood

New Year's Eve @ Kirkwood
Originally uploaded by Jillako.

Long overdue pics from the only snow visit this season. It was fun. Check me out in all new gear, thanks to App. New pants, jacket, hydration pack that I accumulated over the year :)
More pics at flickr!

MacWorld SF 2007

MacWorld SF 2007
Originally uploaded by Jillako.

I managed to squeeze in a quick visit to MacWorld today. Saw plenty of interesting little things, also purchased EyeTV after "eye-ing" it for about 2 years :)
I saw the new Alpine headunit, new accessories from Belkin, grabbed free magazines, checked out the Nikon D40, a couple of CanoScan models I was interested in, not to forget the AppleTV and iPhone displays. Pretty useful hour that I spent in there.
Anyway, more pictures from MacWorld in Flickr. Check it out.

Today is iPhone Tuesday!

If you consider yourself an internet user / browser and haven't heard about Apple's iPhone by now, consider yourself a very disconnected internet citizen!! There are already thousands of articles floating around pouring the Apple Kool-Aid. An article from Time.com stands out -

It's not quite right to call the iPhone revolutionary. It won't create a new market, or change the entertainment industry, the way the iPod did. When you get right down to it, the device doesn't even have that many new features—it's not like Jobs invented voicemail, or text messaging, or conference calling, or mobile Web browsing. He just noticed that they were broken, and he fixed them.

Read the full article.

Lost in the muddle are Apple's iTV (now renamed to Apple TV) and the new Airport Extreme (now 802.11n). Of course, you might be forgiven for failing to notice that today is the day Apple Computer Inc. renamed itself to Apple, Inc. Yes, Jobs did announce that today, at his Mac-less MacWorld keynote. I suspect we might have a few more announcements in a month or so, to release iLife '07 and iWork '07.

A flashback to "Bad"

I just came across This article from Sep. 14, 1987 at Time.com. It was written at the time Michael Jackson was about to release "Bad", his follow up to the best-selling "Thriller". It's an interesting read if you've ever been a fan of MJ. I was a big fan, still love his songs. Anyways, the writer Jay Cocks (he's gotta be in contention for the next Meet The Parents sequel!) seemed to have had his finger on the pulse of MJ's public persona and life. Check it out.

Also, Time is running a piece about the all-time 100 music albums, which was an interesting read for me.

I think these pages are available to everyone (and not just Time subscribers). If the page does not work for you, let me know in the comments and I can probably provide some excerpts.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, folks!

May 2007 bless your life with happy moments and timeless memories. :)

Hopefully 2007 will bring more posts too, you never know!
For now, here is a glimpse of Apple.com's teaser -

I'm looking forward to MacWorld next week...