GolbloG

Confrimed: Nokia Exits Phone Manufacturing Business, Now Makes Videos Of Concepts

2011-11-13T15:15:00.002-05:00

Gone are those days where you could expect phones like Nokia 3310 with which you could play foot ball, and still expect it to work.

Nokia has been pummeled by the iPhones and the Androids in the smart phone market quite some time back. And after losing the remaining market share in the developing countries to Micromax/Karbonn (in India) and to other low end cell phone makers, Nokia fired its engineers and has got down to the business of making some really awesome videos of concepts (and forget about manufacturing good phones).

Here are two of the latest Nokia concepts:

360 TeliportME - Worlds best Panorama app for Android!

2011-07-28T10:01:00.004-04:00

If you an Android user, wanted to make/share some awesome panoramic images like this view of a mountain range, or like this awesome pano of the Grand Canyon, you can do it (for FREE), with the awesome Android app 360 TeliportME that runs on most devices running Android 2.2 or later!

All you have to do is launch the app, go to the 360/Pano tab, and press start. Slowly pan from left to right, and the stitching happens in the background. After panning (or once you hit the stop button), the phone/app takes some time (depends a lot on the device type) to stitch it up.

The best part of the app is that it is coupled with an awesome web portal that shows the latest panos uploaded. It has some of the best panos from the awesomest parts of the world, real nice ones! The app and the website also also have the usual twitter, facebook, likes and comments stuff. It feels really nice to see people from around the world liking/commenting on your panos!

The panos are geo-tagged, which also helps you to have a loot at Panos around your location!

Of all the Pano apps I have tried on Android, the 360 TeliportME by VTCreator has been the best capture and share experience I have had! I must say that this is one of the best photo sharing options for Android (yes you can capture and share regular photos too!).

PS: I am an iOS fanatic, and I love Panorama360 (paid) by Occipital and Photosynth (Free) by Microsoft. Even then, the TeliportME (Free) experience has been much much better in terms of sharing and discovering new panos because of a nice social element attached to it

EDIT: I just had to add this awesome panorama from Germany. Its a fine example of having the right phone + app at the right time at the right place!

This Fall, the iPod Touch will die

2011-07-22T19:56:00.000-04:00

This is the boldest prediction I am making.

This fall, when the next generation iPhone (5 or 4S whatever) is announced, the iPod touch will die.

Why?

I am basing my prediction purely based on the "cheaper version of the iPhone" rumors and a change in the back to school offer for Apple products.

The usual back to school offer would include a free $199 worth of iPod touch with any mac purchase. With rumors of a cheaper iPhone to be announced this fall, it'd probably make sense to give away that $199 iPhone instead of iPod touch. This would ensure that the students get sucked into the walled garden (I love the garden even though its walled =) of Apple early on, cutting the growth of any iPhone competitor!

As with most of my iPredictions (which didn't come true), this is purely based on the iRumors I have heard!

Update (September 21, 2011)
Fast Company is thinking on the lines of this post! http://www.fastcompany.com/1781750/apple-should-kill-the-ipod

Are We Wired For Mobile Learning? [Infographic]

2011-07-08T00:21:00.000-04:00

Via: Voxy Blog

iPhone user Vs Android user

2011-06-15T09:36:00.001-04:00

Source: JoyOfTech

Features I want in iOS5 (hopefully these are announced @ this WWDC)

2011-06-06T01:43:00.001-04:00

From an end user's perspective, these are the features I want:

1) Fixed notifications. This probably has been pending for a long long time

2) An easy way to shut all the background apps instead of the same old press+hold+delete routine

3) App organisation: I am not sure about other iOS users. But I have noticed that any app I place in a folder, I start using it lesser and I believe this is true for many other iOS users too.

Ideally, Apple should let the springboard of apps scroll up/down for each section (like games, news, utilities etc) and scroll sideways for switch between the sections/groups/folders.

4) Its been quite monotonous seeing the same springboard. Guess they should make the icons hexagonal instead of squares? (Alright, I just had to add that frivolous one just for the heck of it ;) )

Lets see what "magic" Steve Baba will talk about (in about 11 hrs from the time of posting this wishlist)

Thanks to the search engines from Ukraine and Russia

2011-05-31T11:24:00.000-04:00

Thats the screenshot from my blog hits over time.

In April, I had the most hits on the blog, without any effort from me (in spamming other tech blogs with comments leading to my blogposts). I must say, thats mainly because of Yandex, the upcoming search engine (that stands for Yet ANother inDEX).

In May, the blog posts got a lot of hits from Ukraine, so I am guessing there are some Ukrainians who are coming up with another search engine of their own!

Eitherway, for the sake of bragging, I must say, May has been the month with the most hits on my blog :P

Is there anyone out there caring for the environment?

2011-05-03T14:43:00.001-04:00

This is actually my comment for this TechCrunch post (I hate posting big comments :)

Not surprised to see why no one wants to talk about population reduction as a greener option! Everyone wants to use the least damaging source of electricity (nothing is green. Every energy generation unit leads to some carbon emissions).

Ideal green solution: Reduce world population. This directly affects every source of consumption, which leads to reduced carbon emissions at multiple sources.

If an extra baggage policy works wonders for the airline industry, a similar policy should work wonders in eradicating poverty, reducing emissions etc. It should at least be implemented in the top 3 populous countries (China, India and USA). Have first baby free. for the second baby pay $1000. third baby $5000.

Why this solution will never be implemented:
Every single company/organization, for or non profit, needs to make money to survive and thrive. Its a direct loss to consumerism dependent companies if the number of consumers reduce every year. Imagine one day every human on the planet has a Facebook account. Now, its only in Facebook's interests to grow the number of accounts, which can happen only if the population grows. if the population reduces, even with 100% market share, number of facebookers reduce which means less revenue to facebook! (No one wants to suggest a way to lose profits)

Corporations ride on the stupidity of the consumers by saying a less damaging option as a green option. No one says consume less. Because that means lower revenues/profits!

To be green, recycle as much as possible, and before recycling, reuse as much as possible, and before reusing think a hundred times if you really need to buy it and use it (think of bottled water to understand this)

Awesome Extragram

2011-04-26T16:27:00.003-04:00

Heard of Instagram? If you have an iPhone, there's a good chance that you have heard about it and also used it to post your awesome photos made even awesomer by the filters on the Instagram app on Instagram.

The only catch (until now) was that, Instagram has been, since day one, iPhone only. There was no web interface or apps on other platforms for you to enjoy your instagrams, or the instagrams shared by your contacts, or just view the popular photos.

A bunch of dudes from Chennai have come up with an awesome way to let the user browse popular/contact's/self's Instagrams, and its Extragram. You can view popular photos, sign in and see your feed, your photos, contacts' photos.

Probably these guys saved all the effort Instgram would require setting up a (nice and usable) web interface for all the Instagram stuff.

I am loving the extragram experience from day 1. Had to wait for a few days to post this article, because the (extragram) service was down for sometime, but its up and running now.

Now anyone irrespective having an iDevice, Android, WinMo7 or Blackberry can enjoy the Extragram experience!

PS: If you are looking for the Extragram twitter name, it is @extragr_am (apparently, @extragram was taken, and they had to settle for this one)

Template for creating an Apple centric TechBlog

2011-04-21T23:35:00.002-04:00

Ever wanted to come up with a tech blog of your own? When you read posts on TechCrunch, did you ever think that its extremely easy to churn out similar content? If yes, the following 14 points in the template will help you create your own TechCrunch type of a blog :)

(If you are like me and the answer is no, enjoy the humor =)

Start from the day when an iDevice is released/launched:

1) Next Post: It's iDevice X Launch Day! ✔
2) Next Post: Pictures of the iDevice X Launch Day Lines! ✔
3) Next Post: How was Your iDevice X Launch Day? ✔
4) Next Post: Poll: What Apps are You Buying for Your New iDevice X?
5) Next Post: iDevice X Gets It's Tear Down, Slim and Sexy Things Follow ✔
6) Next Post: What Would you Change to make iDevice X better?7) Next Post: Some iDevice X's Supposedly Affected by [ENTER MINIMAL DEFECT HERE] ✔
8) Next Post: Anyone Else Having the [ENTER MINIMAL DEFECT HERE] Problem with Their iDevice X? ✔
9) Next Post: Someone Uses Their iDevice X to [ENTER SEMI AMUSING THING]✔
10) Next Post: Apple Responds About the iDevice X [ENTER MINIMAL DEFECT HERE]✔
11) Next Post: Poll: What Would You Like to See from the iDevice X+1?"✔

To make it a little less Apple Centric add the posts based on the following template every now and then
12) Next Post: iDevice X Killer from Blackberry ✔
13) Next Post: iDevice X Killer from Motorola ✔
14) Next Post: iDevice X Killer from Samsung ✔

And to get some trolls to showcase their skills, occasionally mouth a few bad words to each of the brands listed every now and then. Fanboys and haters alike will boost the CPMs for the page

Since iDevice = {iPad, iPhone, iPod touch}, you get to have 42 posts just for the idevices. Now add iMacs and Macbooks to that set, it increases to 60 posts. (alright, you dont have lines for devices other than iPhone and iPad, so you can reduce the number to 50). For more posts, you can add as many rumors about the next iDevice, release dates, possible iDevice plans etc.

So you can have 50 non repetitive posts in a year without stressing your brain too much. those articles can be recycled often, with a few Android/WinMo7/Blackberry/Nokia articles here and there (with Apple only content, you'd alienate the Apple-haters and the Apple fanboys would get bored if the haters dont troll).

That is it. You have a money minting Tech Blog =)

How To Browse Facebook on a secure connection (https) whenever possible

2011-02-17T22:30:00.001-05:00

Gmail gave this option long back,and then made it the default option for all gmail users after the Google Vs China incident.

Facebook is giving its users options to make their Facebook browsing more secure, but its not the default setting.

Here are the steps:

1) If your account is not using the secured connection, the URL field of your browser will look like this

unsecure connection

2) Go to the Account section on the top right corner and select "Account Settings"

3) Expand the Account Security options by clicking on Change

4) Now, check the box under this section, which will keep all your sessions secure

5) Click save. You should see the url like this:

You are done! Now, no one using Firesheep (check this link if you dont know about it) or any "not so sophisticated" hacker can hack into your Facebook account and vandalize your account!

PS: If you don't see the https url, try logging out and login again. This should fix it. Also, secured browsing is still being rolled out, and isn't available yet for all the pages of Facebook.

An Interesting Infographic about Cell Phone usage and market

2011-02-08T10:45:00.003-05:00

Here's some interesting stats about the cell phone usage statistics.

Some Eye Popping Numbers:

200 Trillion SMSs are received every single day in US alone!

42% of teens can text blindfolded!

5 Billion app downloads a year!

Via: Online IT Degree

2011: Year of Android/WinMo7/BlackberryOS6? How about making it an year of iOS?

2011-01-08T11:07:00.018-05:00

The new set of rumors doing rounds in the tech journals/blogs yesterday got me to write this post (which I wanted to write before Jan1, so that I could title it as my predictions for 2011 :)

A lot has been written and spoken about The Rise of The Android OS, and to some extent about the Windows Mobile 7. The growth of all non-iOS platforms/devices had the luxury of being shielded by iPhone-AT&T exclusivity, which was good enough for people to forgo the iPhone for a better network (most often claimed to be Verizon).

Now, with the impending launch of the iPhone on the "best" American wireless carrier, I predict the tsunami of iOS devices, since there are millions of wireless consumers who have been satisfying their urge to have a smartphone by going in for the only options available on Verizon, which happened to be Androids!

A colleague of mine, who is an iPhone developer who hates ATT more than loving iPhone, has been waiting for an iPhone on Verizon, ever since the days of iPhone 3G! And most other people who didn't make the switch to AT&T for the phone, are also stuck with their respective carriers just because of their contracts and family plans.

I'd love to wait and watch if there'll be a mass exodus (in spite of the contracts?), or if I'll be a part of it or if it'll be a slow and steady trickle of ATT subscribers moving to VZN!

Or who knows, there's just so much demand for iPhone on Verizon, that there is no need of an exodus, it may just be a "rinse and repeat" cycle of the ATT growth story. This will be bad for ATT and VZN subscribers, with both the networks competing for the most screwed up performance. But more iOS devices = better for iOS developer and Apple :)

Exodus will be bad for ATT, good for the 'ATT consumers' because of reduced strain on the network.

Exodus or not, Verizon, which has been basking under the glory of "awesome" wireless performance (due to the data sipping androids), will be tested for real this time, with the data gobbling iPhones. And the sales of iPhones will definitely slow down the growth of good Android smartphones which have been selling for $199.

It'd be amazing to see iPhone available on every single carrier in US (at which point, AT&T will stop bullshitting its subscribers that the iPhone cannot be unlocked), which is when the real growth rates between iPhone and Android can be compared.

But for now, the pie chart for the mobile devices in US for 2011 is clear, a huge chunk will go to iOS (because of the Verizon option), Android will survive only on the heroics of the awesome Nexus S unless the current $200 Androids show up with some steep discounts (or on the dumb consumers buying anything that has the Android label on it) or if/when there are more awesome Android phones coming out in the future. WinMo7, will need to up the ante, just having a high contrast Super AMOLED screen in some devices will not help (but there UI seems to be much better than Android)

The market share may further tilt in favor of iOS Devices once there is no kind of exclusivity with any carrier, and its available on all the big4 carriers (ATT, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint)

(RIM? It should get ready to be eaten/devoured by Android and WinMo7, "most" developers hate to develop apps for Blackberrys)

Android is open (only to OEMs)

2011-01-07T23:43:00.002-05:00

Could it be any worse for Android devices not manufactured (designed or OEMd) by Google?

Sony Ericcson says here "We believe the features included in the Android 2.1 phone are on par with, and in many cases better than, a vanilla installation of 2.2 #X10"

Which means, an Xperia owner is in Sony Ericcson's walled garden now!
SE decides which updates are good, not just which apps (which may run only on 2.2 or later).

So the customer having an OS that Google claims to be "open" is not actually as open as Google wants everyone to think (unless Google and Fandroids are thinking of two completely separate openings!)

I dont like the iOS walled garden for certain restrictions it has on it, but love it for its simplicity, security, and the ease with which an iOS device can be updated to the latest firmware (alright, excepting the -3 generation devices, which have got there fair share of updates). Wish Android audience wasnt so fragmented! :/

Where are my creative blabbering juices!?!?!?

2010-12-12T21:53:00.003-05:00

Its been a long time since I blogged, and each time I think of blogging about something, I'll have no access to the browser and when I have the access, I dont blog!

Other than my "Look at the awesome article online" types of blogs (dont mind me testing the new bit.ly bundles, the description looks the same, but the articles are different), which are mostly taken care of by twitter, and facebook (using selective tweets), I wrote a few satisfying blogs like the Racist Indians that digs in to the racist attitudes of most Indians, my armchair investigative blogging ;) about the Dalit Freedom Network which is all about my apprehensions about a certain NGO's activities in India, and my had to blog blog about the Great Nostalgic Weekend I had in the village I grew up in. I call them satisfactory, because after blabbering my mind out on the to the blogosphere, it gives me some sort of a "good feeling", which makes me call the act of blogging as bloga (blog + yoga) =)

But of late, I have hardly blogged, which obviously means its time to do some bloga! :) Hoping to practice "bloga" regularly.

About Me

2010-09-20T00:34:00.002-04:00

This post is nothing about me. its about about.me

If that sounds weird, then the effort I put in to come up with this post didn't go waste ;)

Well, I have been trying this new service called http://about.me which is so awesome, I had to blog it!

Its simple: you have a bunch of online identities/presence, and about.me helps you bring all this in one place, with an awesome splash page style profile, that lets user access/view all your online content from one point.

So all you need to know about my online profiles on different services, blogs, you can find it at http://about.me/nitinalabur

And you'll get to see the latest updates on these profiles/blogs when you click on the respective buttons.

Its still in its beta, and they are handing out the invites, and I am sure you guys will get one within a week (thats how long it took me to start and create http://about.me/nitinalabur) after you sign up to get the invite.

Hope about.me has its share of success in the web world!

PS: At the time of posting, the flickr and twitter stuff still dont work, not sure why! Hope things get ironed out soon!

PPS: Wish I could work on an iOS app for about.me (or using one of their APIs, if they ever become available)! it'd be so awesome!

The Nostalgic Weekend (July 10, 11 - 2010)

2010-07-11T17:15:00.001-04:00

Last 48 Hrs: Awesome drive on the NH-4 from Bangalore (a part of the Golden Quadrilateral), then on to the slightly potholed NH-13 from Chitradurga towards Sholapur, followed by an hour's drive on a well potholed road. Reached the village - Kottur, where I spent 5 awesome years of my childhood. Visiting the place almost after 8 years.

Visited the Guru Kottureshwara Temple (quite famous among the devout), sought blessings. Bought quite a lot of souvenirs.

Met (primary/secondary) school friends, ate the super awesome mirchi bhajji (7 green chillies, wondering if I was getting a little masochistic), had dinner at two of my school friends' places, and again at home. Slept overnight at the grandparents' 60+ year old house.

Started the morning with some before-after pics with brother (same locations, trying our best to give the same poses as given in the 20+ yr old photos).

Should I mention the nostalgia of playing on the swingboard (a swing, with a big flat board, capable of seating two people, sitting next to each other) which is also 50+ yrs old? Did the customary touching the ceiling with my toes while swinging =). [I must admit I was a little scared knowing the age of that metal chain and the hooks that made up the swing]

Had breakfast at uncle's house, with fresh off the tava chapathis, eating a little more than stomach full, only to realize that mistake when visiting another family friend immediately after the breakfast. Had the second meal of the day at FF's place, half hour after the stomach full breakfast I had.

then visited a cousin, had Nth cup of tea and left for a neighbouring village - Ujjini, the temple of our house-god (MaruluSiddeshvara) is located. Today (Sunday, 11th July) being amavasya (new moon), the temple was choc a bloc with devotees, and yet, my grandparents braved the crowd, stood in the line, and all of us went in, with the temperature + humidity inside of the temple reaching quite close to that of the sauna, sought the blessings. After Ujjini, we were on our way back to B'Luru.

Once in B'luru, dropped grandparents' back home, went to brother's in-laws place and had an awesome Andrha style dinner, cooked to perfection, with me hogging without thinking once about my poor stomach that took in everything I shoved in my mouth.

Came back home 30 mins past midnight, had to stay up to watch the world cup finals, to see Spain win the world cup.

And finishing up this blog about this nostalgic weekend at 2:45 am! Had to blog it!

IMF loan to Greece: unwarranted favour

2010-05-02T13:28:00.000-04:00

Few Indians are interested in Greece’s fiscal crisis, or the proposed IMF loan of 15-25 billion as part of a European rescue package. But Indians should worry. IMF resources raised for low and middle income countries are being diverted to bestow a special favour on a rich European country.

    Greece’s problem is European, and should be tackled by its rich European brethren. It should not dip into limited IMF funds raised for poorer countries.

    The global financial system was paralyzed in September 2008. All trade credit to India vanished. So did foreign loans to Indian corporates. Foreign institutional investors, who earlier poured billions into India, pulled out $9 billion in 2008. The situation was worse in other developing countries. The IMF’s lending capacity of $250 billion proved pathetic when trillions in global finance vanished.

    So, in 2009 the G-20 agreed to triple the lending resources of IMF. Many developing countries contributed, including India, knowing they might need this in the next crisis. None dreamed that the expanded facility would be used to bail out rich members of the eurozone like Greece, Portugal or Spain.

    Yet it is now clear that in a worstcase scenario, these countries will require the mother of all bail-outs. A JP Morgan economist has calculated that $750 billion might be needed by Greece, Portugal and Spain. Greece alone might require $150 billion, and might go bust even after that. Bond markets fear that Greek bondholders may lose 30% of their money.

    Next in the firing line is Portugal. Its fiscal deficit is much smaller than Greece’s but it has a very large private sector debt. Also in the firing line is Spain, a big country of 47 million people. More distant but nevertheless in the line of fire is Italy, one of the biggest economies in the world.

    This is a European problem, not an IMF problem. Why not? Because the IMF was created to deal only with balance of payments problems. The eurozone countries have fiscal problems (high government deficits), but no balance of payments problems. Eurozone countries have given up their individual central banks and currencies, and instead created the European Central Bank, which issues euros in place of old domestic currencies. Banks of eurozone countries get euros without any hurdle from the European Central Bank. So, these countries have no balance of payments problems.

    But many have fiscal problems. During the 2007-09 recession, all governments greatly expanded fiscal deficits as an anti-recession stimulus. But some European economies did not respond to the stimulus, and they now have huge fiscal deficits but no rapid growth that rebuilds government revenues. Once, government bonds of all eurozone countries were rated triple A. But Greece’s bonds have been downgraded to junk. Portuguese and Spanish bonds are under pressure, and even Italian bonds are exhibiting discomfort.

    Now, the eurozone cannot afford to let Greece, Portugal or Spain go bust. The political and economic damage would be immense. European banks are the main holders of Greek, Portuguese and Spanish bonds, and a bond default by these countries would wreck the entire European financial system. So, European governments have agreed, reluctantly, to rescue Greece.

    Why have they dragged the IMF into this European issue? First, rather than be tough on Greece themselves, rich Europeans find it convenient to leave the disciplining to the IMF. Second, they want the IMF to take up part of their financial burden. The IMF will lend at 3.5%, whereas the Europeans will lend to Greece at 5%, and this will provide the Europeans with an interest subsidy.

    No such privilege would ever be extended to a developing country. Greece is getting a special deal because its fellow-Europeans dominate the IMF.

    Poorer countries dare not stand up to Europe. But India can. It can raise a serious technical objection. The articles of association of IMF say it can lend only for balance of payment problems. And Greece has a fiscal problem, not a balance of payments one. Some economists say fiscal and balance of payments are related. True, but the distinction was nevertheless made when creating the IMF.

    Absent the IMF, other eurozone countries will pick up the full rescue tab, out of sheer self-interest. They have more than enough financial muscle, and should not raid the limited coffers of the IMF.

    If they need the IMF as a tough cop, let them use it as a technical consultant, not a lender. Tough cops have their uses the world over, but do not usually lend to those they are disciplining.

This article appeared on Times Of India - Bangalore edition dated 02-May-10, under the section Swaminomics, by SWAMINATHAN S ANKLESARIA AIYAR

A 'WTF' moment

2010-04-21T23:17:00.004-04:00

I must say (and thus I blog), this particular news article made "WTF" echo in my mind for some time.

Having learn't a few nuts and bolts about the semiconductor/hardware design industry, I have always appreciated the success of ARM, a behind the scenes company that exists in more devices that most people can imagine. ARM was or probably 'is still' one of the companies I'd like to work with, not because I love the company culture or anything (i dont even know what it is like to work at ARM), but for the reason that they have microprocessor IP (intellectual property) that, probably exists in 90% of the mobile phones people have used (The number is a wild guess)!

Now, away from my first love of hardware design and computer architecture, my latest affair with developing apps for iPhone has kind of "Apple'd" me. I love Apple, I love Apple products, and if Apple was a religion, I'd gracefully accept Steve Jobs as my god (OK, I am exaggerating a little too much now =).

Un-exaggerated: After developing a few apps, getting to know the iPhone OS and the way Apple has developed an eco-system for the developers and the consumers, I truly appreciate the Apple way of running the business. Having created a solid foundation since starting with the 1st generation iPods, the iTunes store, iPhones and then the iPads, Apple is one company that has a clear focus on its source of bread (or should I say, caviar?)

So whats the great WTF moment that I am blogging about? Just read this article "City aflame with takeover talk of ARM" that mentions about this rumor in the London business circles that Apple is interested in ARM.

I am not sure if acquiring PA-Semi wasn't enough (probably just enough to come out with A4 for iPad), but, taking over ARM would do wonders for Apple, while it may end up being really scary for the rest of the mobile (chip) manufacturers!

The latest chip by Qualcomm - SnapDragon is used in most of the latest high end smartphones, like the Google NexusOne, HTC Desire, Sony XPERIA and the HTC Incredible. SnapDragon, like many other processors (used in Droid etc) make up for the majority of all the high end microprocessors with ARM cores.

Its hard to imagine the mobile world without ARM. And hence, the WTF moment, when I imagine a leader in smartphone technology creeping into the microprocessor cores business. That'd make Apple happy if they sell 100 iPhones, and happier if someone else sells 100 phones that contain ARM cores, isn't it?

[All this, provided the rumor is true =]

Bloom Energy: Green, Cheap, Efficient Energy == Farce? (I dont think so!)

2010-02-28T19:17:00.000-05:00

Watch this video to get some insights about the Bloom Energy, which manufactures tiny fuel cells to be used at homes, or big ones that can power up large commercial spaces.

With $400 million funding that it has, I find it hard to think that this will be an epic fail!

Watch CBS News Videos Online

For the original source of the article check this link
http://mashable.com/2010/02/25/bloom-box-videos/

IEEE Spectrum: Automated to Death

2010-02-25T19:16:00.001-05:00

Isn't That Awesome!

The passengers and crew of Malaysia Airlines Flight 124 were just settling into their five-hour flight from Perth to Kuala Lumpur that late on the afternoon of 1 August 2005. Approximately 18 minutes into the flight, as the Boeing 777-200 series aircraft was climbing through 36 000 feet altitude on autopilot, the aircraft—suddenly and without warning—pitched to 18 degrees, nose up, and started to climb rapidly. As the plane passed 39 000 feet, the stall and overspeed warning indicators came on simultaneously—something that’s supposed to be impossible, and a situation the crew is not trained to handle.

At 41 000 feet, the command pilot disconnected the autopilot and lowered the airplane’s nose. The auto throttle then commanded an increase in thrust, and the craft plunged 4000 feet. The pilot countered by manually moving the throttles back to the idle position. The nose pitched up again, and the aircraft climbed 2000 feet before the pilot regained control.

Read the investigation and also watch the Forensic Simulation of the key moments in that scary flight in the link below (has three other similar accidents discussed, including the Washington DC Metro Accident, the Northwest Airlines flying past the destination by 150 miles etc)

IEEE Spectrum: Automated to Death

Digital Cameras: Does Size (mega pixels) Matter??

2010-02-20T00:48:00.000-05:00

Finally an article that tries to emphasize on the "Size Does Not Matter" thing about Digital Cameras. For quite some time I wanted to explain all this in my own words, but Gizmodo makes it much simpler!

ISO (sensitivity of the sensor to light) is a feature most amateur photographers dont know about. This a good ISO performance in a camera can give better photos than a large pixel count on the sensor!

Read this article for complete understanding of ISO and Sensor size.

Giz Explains: Why ISO Is the New Megapixel - Digital Cameras - Gizmodo

Sugar May Be Bad But This Sweetener Is Far More Deadly

2010-02-20T00:40:00.000-05:00

Are 120 Calories from Glucose same for your body as 120 calories from Fructose? (NO, calories from Fructose result in more than 40 times fat than that of Glucose!!!)

After eating fructose, 100 percent of the metabolic burden rests on your liver. But with glucose, your liver has to break down only 20 percent.

To know more interesting (scary) facts about sugars and calories, read this article on Huffington Post Sugar May Be Bad But This Sweetener Is Far More Deadly

If you got no Hammer, make sure you have a Sonim XP2 around!

2010-02-18T12:02:00.003-05:00

you can watch the video on youtube here

Google Buzz Promo video by Hard Kaur!!!!!!!! ;-)

2010-02-10T20:10:00.000-05:00

Google Buzz being promoted by Hard Kaur!!!

This is how the lyrics go "I'm BUZZin, I'm BUZZin, I'm BUZZin, I'm BUZZin, I'm BUZZin, I'm BUZZin" =D

For all those who have no idea about this video, its from Hard Kaur's album Ek Glassy. Here's an interview with the Brit-Indo-Punjabi rapper Hard Kaur http://bit.ly/91QJZE and the actual YouTube - Ek Glassy video http://bit.ly/c3lnzJ.

(Though her name sounds like Hard Core, its supposed to be pronounced more like Hurdh Kawr)

Hope you all enjoyed this (fake) Google Buzz Promo!!! ;-)