Vista Tips n Tricks

Now that Microsoft has officially launched Windows Vista, how about learning some handful Tips & Tricks about Microsoft's new offeriing. I was just browsing across Microsoft home page & found an interesting link which I thought worth sharing with all. Just visit http://www.windowsvistatnt.com . Its got all the interesting docs & videos which shall make the Vista experience an interesting one. So what are you waiting for ???..... just click on the link & be the first to know about Vista.

When will Indian govt. stop Moral Policing ????

AXN - BLOCKED, Star Movies - BLOCKED..... How many more such blockings are we going to see in the days to come. Come on..... its our life & its not the government who should decide what we see & what we do not see on TV. For kids & teenagers their parents/guardians should be responsible enough to protect their kids from watching objectionable content. Morever, almost all TV's & Set-Top Boxes now have the option of configuring Parental Lock which password protects certain channels. If the government is so keen on filtering content thats being viewed on the TV, they should better arrest those guys selling pirated 'C' Grade movies near Railway stations. I believe no channels air adult content in the peak hours. Whats shown is way late night.... say 1 am or 2 am. If the parents cannot regulate their children, it should not become the governments responsibility to do moral policing. As far as I know, all movie channels now blurr out all the nude scenes. Then whats the governments problem. Due to all these blockings we end up missing good series & some nice movies which might hardly contain any adult scenes.

The return of KBC

So atlast KBC is back !!!!! And that too with a new host SRK. So all of us got to see both the Don's on the same sets. After watching both the episodes what I feel is that though SRK is doing a good job in hosting the show, but still the Shehanshah proves to be mightier than the Baadshah. Though SRK tries to be more close to the participants & the audience, he still lacks a lot of charm which Big B drew. Thats why Big B is rightly called the SHOWMAN OF THE MILLENIUM. Big B needed no other extra acts like Shoulder massage or gifting away his watch to impress the viewers. Morever Big B's voice is awesome & I believe no one can ever replicate the Shehanshah. Anyways my best wishes to SRK once again for the small screen adventure; with which he had began his career as a Fauji. Remember a Fauji never retires while fighting & the same will also apply with SRK.

(Photo Courtsey: My TV Tuner Card)

Tech Review: TATA Sky - Isko Laga Dala to Life Jingala

I being a member of the TATA group finally gifted my sister a TATA Sky DTH connection on 10-Jan. Within 2-3 days the TATA Sky customer care people did something due to which multiple dealers started approaching my sister for the connection. Finally my sister fixed the deal with one of the dealers who delivered the Digicomp on 13-Jan & the installation finally happened today.

Since there was Line of Sight problem from my sisters balcony we settled to install it on the terrace, quite aware of the fact that cable guys keep fidling with it due to loss in their business. It took them around 1.5 years to align the dish & do the wiring stuff upto the TV. Finally everythign was plugged in to the right place & the POWER ON button pressed. BINGO....everything starts fine & the first thing to watch was Raageshwari....ya that ex-MTV-VJ. You might be thinking why the hell did I first talk about Raageshwari. Thats because there is a dedicated demo channel on how to use TATA Sky connection & the Digicomp & Remote features, & this channel is hosted by Raageshwari. So any problem with your settings....don't worry....press 999 from your Remote & Raags is there to help you out. The interesting fact is that both HINDI & ENGLISH audio tracks are available for this channel. Then comes a small green button which is used to change the audio track. And anytime you want to come to the main menu, just press the HOME button. Not to worry.....the usage was pretty simple. The picture & sound quality was obviously excellent. I guess to experience the excellent picture quality you need to get yourself a Plasma rather than sticking with your old 21' TV. Otherwise you will not realise the realistic images. Rest all the features worked fine as told by Raags. One nice thing was that even without using your Recharge vouchers you get free viewing time of 10 days.

Do you think everything is heading towards a positive & profitable direction. Just hang on. There is a small CATCH when it comes to the installation. Though you pay Rs.2999 for the Digicomp & Rs.1000 for installation..... you STILL DON'T OWN THE DISH.....you ONLY OWN THE DIGICOMP. So next time to plan to shift your house ensure to return your Dish to your current dealer & shell out Rs.1000 as installation charges in your new place from another dealer.

Thats why the tag line goes like ISKO LAGA DALA TO...........

Grab Handle Advertising

Trousers, T-Shirts, Bill Boards, Print Media, TV......where else to post your Ads?......how about the handles in the public transport systems. Don't worry, I am not any enterpreneur or any Ad guru like Prahlad Kakkad. I am just referring to the new method of Advertising started in the Mumbai BEST buses.

I happened to catch a BEST bus yesterday from Lower Parel & got a comfortable window seat, as the bus was quiet empty. While I looked here & there I found something really interesting. All the Black Nylon handles for the standing queue had been replaced with transparent fibre handles. Also these handles had a Ad attached with each one of them. You could see not only Ads but also public awareness messages being inserted. This is really a very nice way to educate people.

Its true that Indian Advertising Industry will be the best one globally, very soon. 3 cheers to the person who conceptualised this unique Advertisement strategy.

Whats this "Solutionz Unlimited"?

My friends & colleagues keep asking me that I frequently use the term "Solutionz Unlimited" everywhere on the net. I thought this would be a nice place to share my dreams with you all. "Solutionz Unlimited" in short is my dream company. No...no...I'm not a big time enterpreneur like Bill Gates, Anupam Mittal & many more successful ones in the industry. I have some nice & useful ideas which I think of building upon & starting a firm named "Solutionz Unlimited" in future. I don't know whether I'll ever be successful in doing so cause I don't have that much of financial stability in taking a risk of leaving a handsome paying job & venturing out in the wilderness. So atleast for the next 10 years or so I guess this dream will still remain a dream, until & unless there is someone who can fund this dream.

Now...the big question..."What will Solutionz Unlimited provide ?". It will truely be a IT Consultancy company & will not get involved in any kind of implementations. The consultancy will not be restricted to my current field, which is Computer Networking. It will provide end-to-end IT consultancy even for Applications, Remote IT Support, Graphics & Animation, Audio / Video editing, Infrastructure Services & much much more...which I'm still keeping a note. The main target will be SOHO users who can't afford to invest a lot in Infrastructure. I'm actually a person who is very good in suggesting workarounds for any technical problems. For eg, You buy 'X' & 'Y' application which provides you 'A' & 'B' services respectively. You now want a service 'C' which is not available totally in 'X' & 'Y' applications & thus you need to buy an application 'Z'. What I can do is extract some functionalities from 'X' & 'Y' & corelate them & provide the service 'C'. This will result in a lower TCO & higher ROI.

Nowadays most of the big companies invest a lot in new applications (from big time application vendors) to get a small functionality. I will save the investment on new applications in the way suggested above, else I'll have a team who can give you a customised solution. I have practically seen the above scenario in the IT industry from the projects I've been involved in.

Above all I also plan to provide a Test Lab for all IT related activites like Application Testing, Testing of Routers / Firewall & other Network devices. This is just a small list of things for which I plan to provide a test environment. I have ideas for other things also which will keep on striking me working with this industry.

Thats it...about my dreams. If you think I dream something which is sensible enough, do get in touch with me.

Thanks for the time you spent reading this post.

Always remember..."An IDEA can change your life"

BEST buses, WORST attitude

I have lived my life at various parts of this sub-continent. I must admit that the Mumbai BEST bus service is probably the Best bus service in the country. Best not only in terms of frequency (excluding few buses), but also in terms of cleanliness & maintenance of these buses.

But when it comes to Conductors & Drivers, they are one of the worst people I have ever interacted with. Why???? Have you ever tried to give a note of higher denomination when you run out of change or have you ever waived your hand to request the bus driver to slow down in a turning to board the bus. Try doing this & you will come to know how customer unfriendly BEST conductors & drivers are. I have lately heard that BEST runs in huge profits (obviously, the ticket rates are one of the most expensive in the country). But does that mean you behave arrogantly & rudely with people who are giving you the business. Not done at all !!!!!

I just happened to travel to Borivali Station area a few days ago, for shopping. My mom also accompanied me. After we wound up our shopping, we found a BEST bus destined towards where I stay, waiting in the stop with people unboarding. When everyone got down me & my mom boarded the bus unaware of the fact that the stop was not supposed to be a boarding point. Just when the bus started the conductor rudely told us to unboard, for which we obliged. Now we requested him to stop the bus, as my mom was aged. Even before my mom could fully get down from the bus, the bus again took its speed. My mom was almost going to fall. When I asked the conductor that was waiting for extra few seconds going to disturb the buses' schedule, he started behaving more rudely & started using abusive language for which I retaliated back.

This is just one of the few thousand incidents which daily BEST commuters face & ignore in their busy lifestyle. I hope BEST depot Managers read this article & train their staff to be polite with commuters.

Lage Raho Mum-bhai

What you see in the pic beside is nothing unusual. Its a daily routine which every Mumbaikar travelling through Mumbai's lifeline, the Suburban trains, follow. With the population increasing in leaps & bounds & finding no other means of Rapid Transport, travelling on Roof-tops is what is left behind for the people out here. As days progress we see more & more people travelling the way depicted in the pic. Metros are scheduled to roll-out only by 2009. What to do till then? MMRDA, BMC & the Government please do something.

Kudos to the people who stay in this city & adjust their daily lifestyle with whatever is offered to them.

LAGE RAHO MUMBAI.....



(Photo Courtsey: Times of India, http://www.timesofindia.com/)

The Year that was - 2006

The Year
  • Sad demise of Pramod Mahajan
  • 7/11 Blast
  • Soaring SENSEX
  • I shifted to my Dream House
  • End of Saddam's era
  • Remakes, Remixes & Sequels
  • HIMESH's dream year
  • ASH-ABHI wedding news
  • I completed 300 Orkut scraps
  • I published my first Blog