Idle/Random/whatever Thoughts of a Demented/Idle/Whatever Mind

Bangalore Auto Complaint

2010-10-21T22:41:00.001+05:30

I am sure that there are a lot of people in Bangalore who are truly frustrated by Autos in Bangalore. They violate all rules of the RTO by charging extra or refusing to ply to certain destinations or tampered/faulty meter. RTO Bangalore has come up with two email addresses to report these violations.

But I found it really difficult to complain. I think the only way we would complain is in the heat of moment. With smartphones you can send a complain anywhere. But then again there are these lazy people like me who find typing the details very difficult. This is besides keeping the emailIDs handy. So I decided to create this Android app which makes creating and sending the email a breeze.

You just need to enter the errant Auto's Number and details like to and from location. Next select the checkbox which is applicable in your case for the offense of the auto driver. You can optionally take a picture of the auto. Since you have a good camera on you Android handsets, you can take the pic of the number plate as well. Click on email button now fires up your favorite email client on your phone the mail composed for you. Just add your name and click on send to file a complaint.

I am sure your next question is going to be, “Who will take action on it?”. Well this is the first step towards disciplining the Auto drivers in Bangalore. Lets see what happens next. RTO guys have taken one step, let us take one more. May be we will reach the goal of disciplining the Bangalore auto drivers.

You can download the app from Android Marketplace by searching for Auto Complaint Bangalore. Or use the QR Code below.

The most brilliant of Phishing mail

2010-04-08T23:40:00.001+05:30

The follwing mail just landed on my inbox spam folder(thanks to Google). I could not resist but laugh at the infinite stupidity hidden in the phishing mail. I wonder how much more stupid the person who falls into that trap has to be.

Subject: Confirm your ip address

Dear Value Customer,

True our promise to keep your HDFC netbanking account safe and secure from fraudsters,
our online security team has discovered some foreign ip Log Ons to your account from the
following IPs : 812.164.72.212 ,195.93.21.10, 195.93.21.34
Due to this,your netbanking has been blocked for your safety until you confirm your IP address .

Click here to confirm your Ip.
Please understand that this is a new security measure brought into
HDFC Netbanking for the security of your internet banking activities.

Best Regards.
The HDFC Netbanking Security Department Team.
© 2008 HDFC Bank Ltd. All rights reserved.

Ok Now that you have read it let me give you some amazing insights

1. Confirm my IP Address. D00d since when did I have a static IP Address.

2. Have a look at the examples of IP Addresses. 812.164.72.212. Awesome, I never knew we have IPV6 already implemented. I was thinking all this while that I was stuck with 255.255.255.255 being the highest IP Address possible(though not really). This IP has to be some foreign or alien origin. :-P

3.netbanking has been blocked until I confirm the IP Address. I dont get it, my IP Address changes at each logon anyways :-)

5. More importantly, I dont have an HDFC Bank account :-P

Nokia WeMeet App is interesting

2009-11-16T22:48:00.001+05:30

Nokia R&D invited some of us to preview their pilot project of WeMeet application. Its an interesting application. Its a simple application which allows you to have threaded sms conversation with friends as group chat generally does. Its a simple application though still in its testing phase or the pilot as the Nokia guys call it.

It has a simple interface (screenshots nicely compiled by Prashanth at TechBangalore). You can create groups in simple steps. Send message to friends is a breeze as well. Just like other group SMS services like SMS Gup Shup, it allows you to send SMS to all your friends in that group in a single SMS. It sends a message to a local number in Bangalore(not a premium number), which in turn broadcasts this to all the people in the group. As this is currently only in pilot phase, its free and available only in Bangalore. To join create, modify and send message to groups an SMS is sent for your cellphone. When you receive an SMS from a group message, thats delivered directly to WeMeet application. If your application is closed, it will start up automatically and show you the message.

I think the beauty of this application is not the fact that it can send group SMS, but the fact that it can display the messages in a threaded manner is a killer feature. Another killer feature its that it runs also on S40 devices like my 5130 and others like 5310, 3600 etc besides the S60 based phones like the N and E series phones from Nokia. That kind of assures connectivity with most of my friends and family. Yeah we all trust Nokia with the low end phones.

The major difference between this and other services is the location information which is encoded in the message so you can know an approximate location of the users. For phones which are devoid of GPS, the CellID & CBS messages are used to identify the location. This information seems to be optimally encoded in the SMS. It sure is really an innovative use of existing technology.

All said but this app is not without flaws. But then it being a Pilot project of sorts, it makes sense. Some limitations are like, max number of users in a group can only be 5 and only the creator can add new members. It crashed a few times on my 5130. One consistent failure I found was when trying to add a contact to a group from phonebook. It showed low memory error on my cell phone.

More information on it and downloadable apps are available at http://wemeet.nokiapaloalto.com/

So finally I get a phishing mail from Income Tax Dept :-)

2009-10-21T23:17:00.001+05:30

This particular phishing mail was very interesting. It claimed that I got a refund from Income Tax Department. That too of Rs 820.50. Here is the complete mail for you.

Dear Income Tax Department of India customer,

After the last annual calculation of your fiscal activity we have determined that you are going to receive a tax refund of $820.50 Rupees.
Please submit the tax refund form and allow 3-5 days in order to approve it.
A refund can be delayed for a variety of reasons.For example submitting invalid records or sending the form after the deadline.
To complete the form , please Click Here.

NOTE!
For security reasons your ip may be recorded..
Thank you,
Income Tax Department of India Online Department.

I love the fact that they are ignorant about me being a customer of Income tax department. I think I am more appropriately a victim of IT Dept.

But I was more in shock for the whether I am going to get $820.50 or Rs 820.50. I would have had been so very happy to get $820.50, But then I thought may be its a simple typo of some government babu. But alas, it was some stupid crook who is not smart enough to know English all that well or the ways of Babus.

Another reason was the ingenious use of http://tr.im . These smarties have used tr.im service to give the phishing URL. I guess its the best use of tr.im before it dies its natural death.

The forth thing that caught my eye was the Note. Not the note as in money but note as in notice. “For security reasons your IP may be recorded”. Dude, you could also tell that for security reasons you are taking over all my money, or wait does IP mean, Indian paise ??

I noticed this because Gmail filters did not detect it. Anyways it was interesting to read. Any please friends, dont believe in any of these unsolicited mails. 99% of the time, they are from crooks.

The 8 series fiasco for Indian Telecom Operators

2009-09-21T00:58:00.001+05:30

Well its was well known that mobile numbers with 8 are going to start soon. But it so happened that my dear friend Daaku took a new Tata Docomo connection. Now the amazing thing was that it starts with 805xx-xxxxx. So now if I try to call this friend of mine, my Vodafone network tells me that its an invalid number. I was confused and so I asked my friend daaku to call me. I got his number in caller ID but calling it was again not possible. Obviously its not mistake in dialing the number, rather its a stupid things that Vodafone and possibly other networks too have done.

So here is my guess what has happened. Vodafone, takes the number +91805xx-xxxxx as 91 for country(that India), 80(Code for Bangalore) and 5 would be Tata Indicom as they provide landline with that series. Interestingly Vodafone seems to have not configured its network to this change which happened for mobile numbers starting with 8.

I tried contacting Vodafone customer care, they seemed to be unaware of the issue and they said they would get back to me soon(24hours it seems).

But the point here is, whats TRAI and DoT doing. Have they not informed the operators of this change or are the operators at lax. Who ever it might be, the fault must be found and it must be ensured that in future such stupid things do not happen.

Times of India #MEGA #FAIL on efiling

2009-07-21T01:38:00.001+05:30

Times of India has again done the unthinkable. Its misguiding its readers completely by its flawed headline which says

Opt for e-fling tax, get discounts

But whats there actually is an advertisement straight out of a leaflet from some company called Taxsmile. It says, pay Taxsmile for e-filing of your tax and you will get a lot of discounts and prizes. Thats outright stupid to have as a story. If I have to e-file my taxes should not I head over to https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/portal/index.do. Why should I bother to pay someone else for it. And as I have for previous two years, I have found it really simple. So Times of India instead of simply explaining how to do an e-filing, has advertised for a company. Smart people.

I guess Times of India is getting itself into a reputation of being an untrustworthy news source, the latest being http://wearethebest.wordpress.com/2009/07/18/25-years-moved-so-quickly-it-seems-like-just-12/. Probably its good enough for the Page3 and the rest can be handled by other newspapers.

Mobile and Internet in India

2009-06-23T00:24:00.001+05:30

Mobiles are something which we now take for granted to call anyone. I remember the days when I thought who the heck will pay Rs300+ rental and then Rs16 /min for receiving or making calls as airtime charges. Obviously the call charges were separate. Who thought that things will reach this far that at Rs175 rentals, you would get 300 mins calling free. Its truly amazing.

Another thought that I had not very long back actually was that I had written on how my mobile should look like here. There were a few people who thought that its entirely impossible to achieve what I was wanting. But then today there was this story on CNET that talked about Toshiba coming out with an amazingly fast 1GHz smartphone. Well, I am not surprised by it. But what I am surprised at is that it runs the crappy Windows Mobile. It sure could have done better with Android or Symbian. Windows Mobile, duh. Dude I would need multi-touch, just to make sure I can give the three finger salute of Ctrl+Alt+Del.

So I have a significantly fast processor on the mobile, an 800 x 480 resistive touch screen is also there for u to have fun with. I am sure this is just the beginning and I have great faith in Android and probably that would be the choice of platform which will achieve what I dreamt of some years back

Some tips and learning from cycling to work

2009-06-20T02:17:00.001+05:30

For the past some days I have been cycling to work and overall its been a pleasant experience as yet. I thought I would share some of the learnings with this post. So here it goes in no particular order

1. Make sure your tyres have enough pressure in them. If it gets low, it will become difficult to ride it.

2. Make the seat position such that you can peddle on the full. It gives you more power and also prevents what’s called Biker’s Knee. By instinct we would like it such that our feet reach the ground easily. Never go by that.

3. Cycle fearlessly. Be on the left side of the road as much and possible, but never go to the extreme left. It might land you in trouble. You can surely take minor panga from the faster automobile users.

4. If in places like Bangalore, where you have too much ups and downs, keep trying different alternate routes so that you can take maximum advantage of the slope.

5. Dont wear headphone. You might not find out whats happening on the road. Sometimes I feel like the low sound making cars are better than ultra silent cars. You atleast realise if there one coming from behind.

6. In normal cycle brakes, sudden braking does not work well. It makes sense to gradually slow downhill by applying pulses of brakes rather than a constant one.

7. Cycle only if you are having fun doing it else it may become a burden on you.

Enjoy and happy cycling.

Nothing special out in this post

2009-06-08T23:25:00.001+05:30

Well as the title says, nothing special to talk about here. I wanted you to know that I have decided to make my tumblog as the place where I will put pics from my cell cam and quotes that I find really interesting. My tumblr blog is at http://the100rabh.tumblr.com .

Enjoy :-)

Damn Small Media Player – My tiny Mp3 player for all platforms

2009-04-15T01:05:00.001+05:30

Well building on my knowledge of WxWidgets and frustration with ever growing size of music players like Winamp or Windows Media Player, I decided that did not need those many features most of the time.

So what was that I was looking for
1. Play Mp3s
2. Have a playlists, retain it and ability to add all files to the player at once.
3. Mp3 tags are mostly useless, filenames make more sense
4. Shortcuts should be simple and also alternative global keys
5. Small size, preferably below 2MB.
6. Multi-platform code.
7. Playlist Queue

This was my priority, in no particular order, while I was designing this Mp3 player. But then I got some feedback from friends who wanted search feature as well. So there it was. All done and over. But then again most my friends and me felt that the UI sucked. Well it continues to. I am not good as styling so still looking for help from friends to make a better looking UI

So now its a 716Kb file which you need to download and there you go. No installation, no setup. Its all in that 716Kb. Just download, Add mp3 files and run. You are all set to hear music.

If you are trying(development) it on Windows you will need WxWidgets library. For development you can also use wxDev-Cpp IDE . To reduce size further I have used UPX which is pretty cool and is also available for Linux too.

So how can you help ? Well I have no clue on how to write a makefile on linux. So any help in that direction is also appreciated. The code is hosted at http://code.google.com/p/dsmp/ for you to take a good look at it. The code is very simple. Well obviously I am still looking for someone to help me design a better UI with some styling.

Bill for Prevention of Moral Policing

2009-03-28T01:57:00.001+05:30

I now try to introduce this Bill for Prevention of Moral Policing. Now the most obvious question is that why? Well moral policing is becoming a menacing problem in India now. We need to create some sort of a law for prevention of this menace. But then isnt it that nothing is going to change if I put this Bill in here. Well that anyways happens, look at Women Reservation Bill for starters, its pending since eternity now.

So here I present the Bill for you.

By this Act, every citizen of India is given the right to dress, act and speak as he/she wishes to unless he violates any of the laws of the Indian Constitution. Any act by a person/group/organisation to forecfully stop or intimidate any person or group from acting according to his/her will be punishable under this act. Any such action would lead to the group/person/organisation being declared guilty and would be punishable with minimum 6years to maximum of 14 years of rigorous imprisonment and/or fine upto Rs 50lakhs or actual damages. Incase its a group/organisation the person leading it would be held directly responsible for the act of would be punishable under this law.

PS: I am no lawyer/politician but I hope someone actually made this law so that people the Muthalik and the Mullas who have no job but to issue fatwas for how one dresses, would be brought into reigns. They equally damaging as were the 26/11 terrorists.

Some of my sad jokes on IPL

2009-03-25T23:19:00.001+05:30

Well IPL is being moved out of India for all the reasons in the world. Now IPL stands for Indian Premier League. But who lifted the cup last time around ? Well it was Shane Warne. Interesting isn’t it. An Australian lifting the Indian Premier Legaue. Well if u consider that there are a large number of Indians in Australia, well its not all that bad to think.

Anyways from now on I would refer the event as IPL. I now seriously believe that IPL is a direct challenge to ICC. How? well, ICC can only organize the World Cup every three or four years. But BCCI would do this every year. The best part is that ICC cant do a thing about it. Since last year IPL was held in India, this year it is being moved to South Africa. And its not without a great deal of pitching by South Africa. So if you look at it, BCCI has clearly sidelined ICC by moving IPL to another country.

There is one more thing which comes to my notice when I look at the entire IPL saga. Well its Mahatma Gandhi. Interestingly, Mahatma’s journey started from India. Next he moved to England (So did IPL) and then he went to South Africa. So here is something I predict, like Mahatma, IPL would be kicked out in SA and it will trigger a movement.

IPL being moved out of India or outsourced to South Africa. Well India is sure turning out to be one of the costlier locations to outsource. It would be interesting to see how we Indian react to this. This would surely create history in the world of sports. English Premier League might be held in Afghanistan. NBA would probably be moved to Chile. Wow possibilities are endless. How about moving Olympics to Mars ?

Do let me know what you feel

They came, they saw, they shot and what do we do now???

2008-12-17T21:42:00.001+05:30

Well they came by sea and this has been confirmed by Govt. of India. They killed 100s and I strongly believe that the number given by Govt of Indiais highly deflated one. Great bloggers like Nitin Pai and GreatBong have written at lengths about this carnage(I am sorry for those who call it tragedy). It was nothing more that cold blooded massacre of people in India. The suggestion and thoughts by both these bloggers have been bang on target. But then, this stupid Congress government is not expected to be able to achieve anything.

So here are my suggestions(well when everyone has one, why should I not chip in)

There are three ways to deal with the situation.

1. Pseudo-Gandhian way -- Take out rally and protest creating havoc for the people who are already suffering at the hands of the government. The candle lights protest as well as going at lengths of giving memorandum to the political brasses all fall in this category. I hail from the city known of late more for protests than anything else and I strongly believe that this hardly rings bells for anything good. Its the tool of the political opportunists. This is definitely going to be the favored mode of protest for most people. A fine example is of a person who was searching for media contact after a gruesome rape of his/her friend's maid.

2. Gandhigiri way -- These guys will follow something like this, send a bouquet and a condolence card to Mr Rahul Gandhi, regretting the death of her mother Mrs Sonia Gandhi during the terror attack. Probably if sent in millions it will open the eyes of the Congress loyalists who only care about money and Gandhi family.

3. Gandhi way -- What Mahatma Gandhi would have had done probably is that he would have had marched with all his followers to the terror camps and the LeT offices. Next thing to be done would be to ask them to kill them right away, if he had guts.

I dont know what to do frankly. But if I am sure of anything, its that the Pseudo Gandhi way is not the way forward. There has to be another way to wake up this sleeping government. I am not sure which of the Indian would be able to rise up to the challenge and come up with the perfect answer.

BTW I am still pondering over any kind of fatwa being issued in this regard.

End of all rants about 26/11

Happy Diwali all

2008-10-28T18:50:00.001+05:30

Wish all a very Happy Diwali.

This is my desperate attempt to find time to write a post this Oct

Defeat of truth in a Democracy

2008-09-30T23:24:00.001+05:30

Well Nanavati Commision Report is out and there it goes, as expected proving innocence of Narendra Modi and validating the BJP stand. And as expected, all the hue and cry from Congress. Well it was a similar scene, with only the roles changed when Banerjee Report came. Similar hue and cry. I wonder if they talk sense and prove things instead of making empty noises. No I am not trying to support any one, but fact is that truth has died thanks to all the politics around the death of so many. I find it even more weird that most journalists never fail to mention that more than a thousand people died and most minority(it seems like only minority in India are the muslims. I wonder where do Jains, Sikhs, Buddhists and Christians go. I dont know where the fault lies. I dont know if these reports actually did any kind of study. I dont know if any of these reports did some scientific research and tests. I dont know if all these reports were written as any Sci-Fi writer does with all the research in his mind and loop holes in the hindsight brushed out as impossible scenarios. All I know is that we would never be able to know the truth. Probably this is one of the perils of power in anyone's hand, be it democracy, communists or autocratic regimes. Truth as in most cases is the victim and its dead.

Super Time at Barcamp Bangalore 7

2008-09-19T01:38:00.001+05:30

Barcamp Bangalore is one of those events which I just wait for. Its a time when I rejuvenate my thought process which is drained thanks to the often hectic work at office. Also this is one place where geeks can feel at home and talk about anything under the sun. Its pretty cool that its not just Tech thats discussed but also other topics close to us, like politics and life.

Like most times, the paper wiki was filled completely as soon as it was put up. I actually saw a few people going disappointed with not being able to put up their talk. And like most other times, it started with the intro session for the first timers. This time it was Pradeep BV taking charge and explaining it to the first timers, what barcamp is all about. After that it was realized that one of the four rooms were actually not available for Barcampers.

Anyways another great thing that happened was that an Impromptu Sessions paper wiki was put up. Amazingly it too was filled in a matter of minutes, it was put up. It was really amazing to see that we had too many people all set to give sessions.

For me it started with the session on Concept Search by two people from Core Objects. It was pretty interesting to see it. If I get the link to it I would definitely post it. But then they actually nearly ripped apart the Google's search strategy.

Next it was Jayanth and Ashim from Stoke. Ashim talked about 4G technologies and how they are growing and what to expect from the future. Jayanth told about some device they had made at Stoke. Amazing, this thing is happening right here in Bangalore.

At the same time it was session by the Beagle Board guys who were demoing the board to the junta at BCB7. Something interesting but could not help it, it happens all the time at BCB.

Next session was by Mr Dorai Thodla on Tracking Technology Trends. It was nifty little presentation. Some very interesting sites and stats mentioned to track trends in technology. more over here http://dorai.wordpress.com/2008/09/15/bcb7-presentation-on-technology-trends/

It was lunch and we headed for the cafeteria. Decent lunch with a random conversation with a bunch of friends I had found at BCB. Vinayak reminded me of BCB6 when during lunch we had an interesting conversation over why Google is cool with all the data it has of mine. It was around that time that Biking guys demoed their gears with some real costly cycles(bikes for some).

The next session that I attended was by Ujj. This was a cool session(better known as discussion in BCB Circles) where we talked about how to manage your personal project with the hectic day jobs. Interesting thoughts there.

I took a session(read discussion) on ELearning. I got Pradeep BV to share his thoughts on how Elearning is shaping up in India. He talked from his experience with VTU's EduSat program and other initiatives in Karnataka. Then we had the entire junta just wanting to talk about their experience. The basic idea of this session was to come up with whats happening currently in the ELearning scene and what it lacks. What lacks is something which will shape up the future for sure. Some interesting point which came up were

1. It should be interactive

2. It should be fun

3. Collaboration on content and between users is the key

4. Ease of creation of content is important

5. Synchronous feedback is important but then it limits. Some alternative solution is required.

I had to leave the session in there as a few others were all ready to give their session on Economies of Internet. It was taken by two guys(I am sorry I dont remember the names , help me please). It was a rather interesting take on how the big telecom companies are crushing the internet by not investing enough in the middle mile. They just sit there and make loads of money just by the virtue of being big monoliths. I wonder if technology of the GenNext would be able to break it.

That was pretty much it, when BCB7 day1 closed for me. I had a nice time there attending all these sessions. What happened on Day2, calls for another post, hopefully tomorrow of by the end of this week

Barcamp Bangalore 7 is here again

2008-09-12T01:34:00.001+05:30

Barcamp Bangalore 7 is here again. Because of the crazy times at work, I have not updated by blog for a long time. I dont know if I will be able to do it in the next few weeks also. But I wish I could. One thing is for sure that I am going to Barcamp and it will be a good time. Startup Saturday is happening at the same place and the same time. Its the very same ppl who were organising Barcamp Bangalore who are behind it. I am still wondering what made them move to a conference like event rather than an unconference. Anyways its for me to find out in the next few days.

I am looking forward to a session by @mataal on Process vs Thread. Another one if by Ujjwal on how to chase your dream project while keeping your day job. I am sure a few more interesting things will pop up, as always. Anyways I am also leading a discussion on ELearning and what it hold for us in the future. I hope that I will have some interesting people to talk over it.

Thoughts for Independence Day

2008-08-15T00:50:00.001+05:30

I talked about independence Day last year and what freedom meant for me here

http://the100rabh.blogspot.com/2007/08/independence-day-special-what-freedom.html.
http://the100rabh.blogspot.com/2007/08/happy-independence-day.html

Obviously my thoughts haven't changed much. So for independence day I have made a collection of quotes on freedom and independence by

Freedom is not given - it is taken.
- Netaji Subash Chandra Bose

It is our duty to pay for our liberty with our own blood. The freedom that we shall win through our sacrifice and exertions, we shall be able to preserve with our own strength.
- Netaji Subash Chandra Bose

"No one would die of starvation in independent India. Its grain would not be exported. Cloth would not be imported by it. Its leaders would neither use a foreign language nor rule from a remote place 7,000 feet above sea level. Its military expenditure would not be heavy. Its army would not subjugate its own people or other lands. Its best-paid officials would not earn a great deal more than its lowest-paid servants. And finding justice in it would be neither costly nor difficult."
- Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel

We have achieved political freedom but our revolution is not yet complete and is still in progress, for political freedom without the assurance of the right to live and to pursue happiness, which economic progress alone can bring, can never satisfy a people
- Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru

The whole world yearns after freedom, yet each creature is in love with his chains; this is the first paradox and inextricable knot of our nature.
- Sri Aurobindo

Political and social justice requires, not the disintegration of a country and destruction or humiliation of a class which shows initiative, intelligence and drive, but equality of opportunity for all, genuine freedom for self-fulfilment, in which all men irrespective of caste or creed may share.
- Syama Prasad Mookerjee

Freedom is Power, and with great power comes greater responsibility
- Saurabh Minni

DCamp Bangalore rocked again(part 2)

2008-08-12T01:31:00.001+05:30

Contd from here

(I am sorry but I am really drowning in work right now )

Ok after lunch it was time for another round of sessions. This time there were supposed to be some parallel session. This meant you win some, you loose some. But its fine with barcamps.

To make sure people are awake, alive and kicking, Anil, COO, Aditi Technologies, dumped his usual upper level management fundas and let loose a volley of Shayaris, with a twist. I sorry I dont recall any(Ya its been a long time too )

Next in line was Aashish Solanki a.k.a. Net Bramha with an interesting topic, Art and Science of Web Design. It was more of discussion. Some interesting points were

Differentiate between structure and skin.
Something which is good for you might not be good for others. Getting their requirements is important.

An interesting comment from Aashish was "IE is the Labour Pain of Web Development". Why well, most of you time goes in checking if the page is rendered properly on IE 5.5, IE6 and IE7.

At the same time there was another talk of Google Applications on iPhone going on, which I did not attend. One reason being, I am no big fan of iPhone .

Next one was on Paper2.0 by Deepak Srinivasan(Beware its an IE only link). He had some interesting thoughts on what the next generation of paper should be like. I guess you can hit the link to read more. He has given it in a very interesting manner.

Murli next gave a talk on Memetic Engineering. I did not understand much of it and decided to move to the other talk which was going on, "Agile Designing" by Gilberto. It was interesting to see how Agile principles can be applied to Designing as well. I now believe that Agile processes can be used for almost every kind of development.

Next we had presentations from the DCamp Challenge finalists. It was interesting to see so many innovative ideas to save electricity being floated around. Most of them were restrictive but there was one team(I am sorry I dont remember the names) who had some amazing ideas to save energy without restrictions. I loved their idea of using speed breakers on the road to generate electricity. I am not sure if its feasible idea but none the less an interesting one.

Next Umesh Gopinath, talked about Mobile Web Experience. It was an interesting talk for me. He was very clear that Mobile web just cannot be the stripped down version of the classic web. Very true. Also most devices have limited memory and power so rendering can be an issue. Also since phone is such a personal object, we can give a lot more personalised service than on a desktop. Which can be used innovatively. An example that he gave was that you could ask user to share link via SMS. This is something to be explored yet. I am yet get to know if he has uploaded his presentations somewhere. If I do get to know, I will surely update the links here.

Then we had the Sunny from Aditi Technologies giving a talk on how User Experience can be made better for anyone. He showed several examples like search results which have screenshots of the websites rather than some lines containing your keywords. He talked about how Citibank et.al. dont worry about customers experience or giving a better Web2.0 feel for the website. So showed some sites that they at Aditi had done. But then he made a mistake. He said that companies SAP and Oracle dont care about UX. They get UX guys near the end of the development cycle and at that moment, obviously the poor UX guy can do nothing much other than putting some paint. He actually said an interesting line, "You cannot put lipstick on a gorilla". Obviously any kind of painting is not going to ease of use of any application. A gentleman reacted sharply to it. He tried to justify the hopeless interfaces with 40+ entry boxes. Anyways things were cooled down and he continues to talk about how Aditi Technologies was making a difference.

Overall a great time there and some really good talk to learn from. Thanks Amit for organizing DCamp

If you have links to any of the presentations, please share in the comments or mail me

DCamp Bangalore rocked again(part 1)

2008-07-28T00:42:00.001+05:30

It was time again DCamp or Design Camp Bangalore. Amit Pande, Sarit, Muthu, Anil Gupta among others worked hard to get this event going. I must tell you that I had an awesome time there. The presentations there were truly awesome. Let give a short summary of the things as they happened at the DCamp, though Vinodhn already has kind of everything on twitter. So heres how the event unfolded for me.

I happily landed and Mekhri Circle expecting Aditi's office to be close by. So I begin walking from there towards Cauvery Circle. Cool I was looking for directions and I see someone looking at me from an auto. Oh ok I recognize this guy, hmmm....ok he is Gilberto from Thoughworks. Fine he is going to DCamp but is lost and does not know where is it happening. Ok fine I said, let walk to towards the Aditi Office and let so we walk. A few meters down the road, there is Muthu and Sudhindra at the gate of Aditi. So next thing we do is register and head for the terrace where the event was happening. Amit Pande was really busy managing everything there. And the talks were being put on the whiteboard.

So around 10:30 Amit Pande started with his talk. It had a pretty interesting title, UX and Design Inspirations from Science Fictions. Well he did have some interesting points to make. If you think of it then, Arthur C. Clarke, did mention or rather design certain things which at that time were mere fantasy. Then he showed certain examples from movies such as XMen(The virtual 3D map of a certain location), The Matrix(The direct human interface, the phone and several others actually), Minority Report(The awesome mechanism for dealing with so much information and the amazing auto updating newspaper) and Total Recall(The robotic driver and the 3D holographic trainer). Basically he wanted to show that Design is very much like speculative fiction.

Next was Param. He had done some research into Storage Space usage by Automobile users.Some interesting things that he told were

Some women keep an extra pair of clothes
people dont use ash tray in cars
Cup holders too are not used
people try to protect their car interiors using every possible means
Boot is often used for CNG kit

It was astonishing that Italian designers with little or no knowledge of Indian conditions and attitudes design cars for India. Amazing. the bigger problem is that India has way too many Indias in it. So difficult to understand them fully or satisfy each one of them fully is impossible.

Next there was this talk on how Welingkars Institute, Mumbai is bringing design in management. I did not attend it. Rather I had a nice time talking to folks about how Second Life is destroyed by spam and pr0n. How that wonderful technology still has a lot to do with improving the UX in it.

Then there was this DCamp Challenge, where in teams were formed and we were to come up with ideas on how to optimize the electricity usage in households. We all got together and tried to come up with best of ideas. What we had come up with was the fact that many appliances consume electricity even after they are done with being used. So some sort of smart device should there to automatically cut off electricity.

And it was 1pm and lunch was ready to be served. Let me tell you that it was really awesome. I had a nice time talking to Muthu and Ashish about how Firefox addons were making life simpler. We could do so many things with it.

Well there is a lot more...and will be posting about it more in my next post. Am really tired right now so keep watching this space

Update: Continues here http://the100rabh.blogspot.com/2008/08/dcamp-bangalore-rocked-againpart-2.html

Things I would like in my next Browser upgrade

2008-07-19T00:03:00.001+05:30

Well there has been a lot hoola hoo over the recent releases of Firefox and Opera. But here are certain things that still suck and would like them to be removed.

1. Better plugins and make them such that they dont hang that tab or window.

2. Download accelerator be integrated in the download manager of the browser itself. Hardly makes sense keeping them dumb.

3. Super fast start is not possible for various technical reasons but a preloader program would definitely be kind of must have.

4. Get more screen real estate to the page and make rest of the things like toolbar, menubar and optionally even status bar visible on a need basis like the playbar in video players in full screen mode.

5. Subscribing to an RSS feed to Google Reader or iGoogle is a dumb two step process now. Google Reader or iGoogle be made two different options.

6. Tabs must have a 3D effect or something really cool. Switching like pages is so yesterday.

7. Make download dialog unobtrusive. Make it something like the "Remember Password" dialog in Firefox

8. With so much of flash everywhere, instead of having Flash as a plugin, put that into the browser render like JavaScript. Probably that will improve responsiveness.

9. A whitelist for all generally used financial sites. An unobtrusive signal to the user when he goes to a whitelisted site. Multiple sources for whitelist so that bringing one down does not work out well. Obviously an option to add new to your own is definite yes yes.

10. Finally last but not the least...can someone design better icons and theme for Firefox on WinXP. I am feeling a little too bored with whatever is there currently

Indian broadband users at risk

2008-07-10T22:29:00.001+05:30

Wow this was something I did not expect. But this surely did hit me hard the first time I got through it. It seems like I could access most Airtel Broadband users routers using simple telnet. Once I was connected, all that was required was username and password. Boy and I am in. I have access to the router now and I sure can do a lot of crazy stuff with it.

Wait a minute, did I say you need username and password. How would I get the username and password. Well actually not very difficult. Is it. No one ever changes the username and password of their router. Actually no one expects anyone to be able to access the router without their knowledge. But the sad fact is, anyone on the internet can access their router. Most people do not even realize that their internet connection can be easily compromised. How? Well simple steps to follow

1. Press Window Key + R to open the Run Command Dialog

2. Press cmd (Enter)

3. Enter 'telnet xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx'

Where 'xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx' is the IP Address of someone from Airtel Broadband. Trust me, its not difficult to get the IP of any/random airtel user.

4. Now you would have to enter Username. Thankfully its 'admin' to just enter it and now the tough part, the password. But whats the password. Well password is 'password'. Well literally.

5. One you are through with it. You can enter 'sh' at the prompt. Now to have a simple Linux shell available to you. Now you can do a hell lot of things, which I leave to your imagination.

I blame no one but Airtel for this fiasco. Its their responsibility that when they install a connection for a subscriber, they should change the password. But first of all, a WAN side access to telnet should never be allowed in the first place. I am very sure that most people have no idea about it. Time awareness spread.

Well Airtel may not be the only one, infact I believe all broadband users are equally at risk. Though I could not get through Tata Indicom or BSNL connections, I am sure they too are equally susceptible.

I am going to the Security Camp happening in Bangalore this Saturday 12 July, 2008. Hopefully I will meet some people who will carry this message forward and generate enough awareness to make people secure.

PS: Please write about it in your blog too. If you dont have a blog, the least you can do is Digg it.

Some third grade news by Hindi News channels

2008-07-04T19:24:00.001+05:30

I some time ago wrote about the amazing news stories covered by some Indian news channels. Now there is this amazing channel called IndiaTV, which will put any Indian to shame. An awesome story that it was running of late. I think a picture is worth a thousand words. So..

iPhone or Openmoko

2008-07-02T01:16:00.001+05:30

Well as I had been following mobile phones. What I have found is that actually there are just two worthy competitors. Rest are just like that. One is iPhone and other is Openmoko. Well iPhone because it has the glory. It has the backing of Apple and support of Steve Jobs behind it. But there is none of that sort for Openmoko. But it has the guts. Its has probably what it takes to make a real revolution. Just making a phone with a bigger screen and touch sensitive does not make revolutions happen Mr Jobs. The best part of the Openmoko phone is that its open. And surprising its priced at $399 and in India its around Rs 20k. Not bad for the phone which has Assisted GPS, WiFi, touch screen, bluetooth, microSD Card support and powerful 500Mhz Processor. To top it all, a user replaceable battery.

Well the only blemish that I am able to spot is the internal memory. Its a mere 256 MB. Though I can carry all the data in my SDCard but then its not the most convenient way to do things.

Anyways with its killer price(Unlock iPhone reportedly costs $599) it sure makes people think. With no restrictions, I can run apps to my hearts content. I am sure of some amazing applications coming for Openmoko, just because its so much more developer friendly. No contracts, no iTunes, just fun. I am sure if Apple could, it would have allowed software downloads only through iTunes. Infact I feel very soon it will be a reality for snobby rich Apple fanatics.

In the end it will the people power which will rule. The flexibility is what is going to make a killer app and mobiles are yet to witness them. And for geeks like me its cooler to have developer friendly phone.

The Retirement fund

2008-06-30T00:36:00.001+05:30

I saw this amazing headlines from Economic Times, 70% Indians worry about outliving retirement funds. Well my first reaction was "Oh my God". Most Indians would be unable to sustain themselves once they have retired. More likely they would kill themselves or die of hunger or may need government support. But then I read the fine print there. Well its a survey by MetLife. They sure do see a big market with 70% Indians not having retirement funds. But then another truth is that 50% Indians do not have funds for the next month too. Most of them survive on a daily basis. Mind it survive not live. Then again there is still a large majority who do not invest in retirement funds.

Well that reminds me of people like my dad. He has no retirement funds. But then he does not need it either, just like my grand father. He did not need it. My dad is there after all to support him since he has retired long time back. Obviously same applies to my dad of course.

The truth also is that you invest for your life. Infact what I believe is that one should never plan to retire. Thats the most scariest thought. I know that the cost of retiring and other fundas like that. But frankly those are for loosers and ofcourse the companies marketing these Insurance plans and likes.

Will the media please refrain from giving news with such misleading and misguiding news. These work well in scaring the people and add no value to their newspaper. A paper like Economic Times is expected to add value and not filth. Is the media listening?