Thursday, October 15, 2009
Windows 7 - A Review
Microsoft is launching its new Operating System (OS) – Windows 7 world wide on Oct 22, 2009 and MS fans all over the world have been excited about it ever since the release date was announced. Here’s a rundown on Windows 7.
Before diving into the uber-cool features of Win 7, a little about how I managed to get a copy of Win 7 Ultimate Signature Edition much before the World Wide release! It goes like this. Sept 2009 - Microsoft announced that they would be giving away free copies of Windows 7 to a lucky few people called as party hosts on one condition that these party hosts, host a “House Party” by calling their friends and families over to their place to have a first hand look at the features of Windows 7. It would be like a demo of Windows 7, the informal way. Not that the House Party concept is new, but this was surely an amazingly smart move by Microsoft. So when I read about it, I signed up. And here I am - the proud owner of Windows 7 Ultimate Signature Edition! :D
Ok, time now for me to stop bragging and get to the much important review of Windows 7.
Windows 7 is available in three versions – Home Premium, Professional and Ultimate. This is a review of the Ultimate version.
Set-up: Windows 7 Set up is a breeze unlike previous versions. The set up process requires minimal human intervention and it was so simple that I felt I was installing a video game off a CD!
My upgrade from Vista Home Premium took just about 3 hours. Mind you, my machine was loaded with a “lot” of software and so 3 hours is very much acceptable. Normally a clean Windows 7 install would be around 25-30 min.
Libraries: An excellent new addition to Windows 7. With libraries it is easier to locate all kinds of files on your machine. Libraries don’t actually store files but the ‘locations’ of files on your machines as well as on external hard drives!
So for instance, if you want to play that latest favorite song but don’t remember the folder where you had saved it…No worries. Just click Music Libraries and all the music on your computer will be shown with the location!
There are 4 libraries by default – Music, Pictures, Documents and Videos. The only thing that you have to do is the next time you save a file of any of the above types is to just include that location to the respective library and it is done.
With libraries, you no longer have to have to keep moving songs and pictures folders all the time in separate locations.
Windows 7 Libraries
Win7 Search Capabilities: If I had to say one word…no, a couple of words for the search capabilities, it would be – Monstrous and Awesome! You can pretty much search “any and everything” on your machine with Win7 search. And your search results are neatly grouped into categories too!
Win 7 Search
Win7 Desktop: Gone are the days of messy and cluttered desktop. Win 7 gives you the ability to hide all your desktop icons and gadgets with a couple of clicks! You’ll always have a clean desktop now. Nice. innit?
Windows 7 Desktop
Taskbar: You can ‘pin’ (that is add in Win7 terminology) any of your fave programs to your taskbar. And when you hover your mouse over the taskbar icons, thumbnail previews of the open programs are shown. Take your mouse over any of the previews and a full screen preview will open up. Programs can also be closed from Thumbnail previews.
Win 7 Taskbar and Thumbnail Previews.
Review of Microsoft’s Windows 7
Jump lists: These lists basically contain all your commonly used documents, pictures, and websites. To access them, right click any program on the task bar.
Jump Lists
Snap: Another amazing new addition and in fact this is my favorite one. Snap lets you work on any two documents simultaneously. The documents remain open your desktop side by side allowing you to compare and edit them without having to Alt+Tab. Handy…very Handy!
Windows 7 Snap
Snipping Tool: Love this one too. It lets you capture any part of your screen and save it as a picture. This is like a screen capture available in IBM Sametime.
Aero Peek and Aero Shake: These are cool new additions. Aero Peek allows you to ‘peek’ at the desktop by making all the open windows transparent. The effect looks cool and is time saver too!
Aero Shake – Click the title bar of any open window and shake it - all the other windows magically disappear and you are left with only one window to work on. Shake again and the desktop returns to previous state and you don’t need to say Abra-ca-Dabra at all!
Aero Peek in Win7
MS Paint, WordPad and Calculator: These apps are nearly as old as Windows itself. However in Win7, all these classic apps have a brand new UI called Ribbon UI which makes these applications even more user-friendly. Good on ya Win7!
New look MS Paint
Win7 Calculator: The calculator has got a total revamp in Win7.
You now have two new modes - Statistician and Programmer apart from Standard and Scientific. Ability to do Unit Conversions, Date Calculations and Templates for calculating Mortgages, Lease, Fuel economy, etc are awesome additions!
Another important feature added is ‘History’. Calculation History can be viewed, edited and copied. Very useful I’d say for long calculations.
All these enhancements make this calc a truly rad app!
Win 7 Calculator
Homegroups: Sharing files and printers over your network becomes super easy with this new feature. And creating Homegroups is even easier! No more looking up tech manuals for this one. Click Create Homegroup, follow instructions and you are done. Takes whooping 30 long secs to create a Homegroup.
Windows Media Center: WMC was awesome. Guess what?! It got even better in Win7. Lots of audio video formats (Divx, Xvid, 3GP, MOV, etc) added.
With new slideshow maker you can create slideshows of your pics as well as add background music. Nice! However, I would have loved a Search function when adding music files.
The Audio Library is more colorful too.
Best of ‘em all is Turbo Scroll feature. As you hold down your remote button, the song names are blurred and slide by in the background showing only the alphabets of the currently scrolling songs. This is very handy as it makes the search quicker. It works for TV Channel Listings too.
Windows Media Center Turbo Scroll in action.
Virtualization and XP Mode: Virtualization Technology allows you to run some features of another Operating System on the current OS without installing that OS.
But for you to take advantage of Virtualization in Win7, your machine’s processor should support Virtualization.
Win7 has a XP Mode. This allows you to run software in Win 7 as if it was running on XP with the help of Virtualization Technology.
I would have loved to write much about Virtualization but unfortunately my notebook processor does not support Virtualization and hence could not explore this feature.
*** Update – Check out XP Mode on Windows 7 on Dave Thorp’s blog here.
Security in Win7: With improved Windows Defender, Firewall and the awesome Bit Locker you’d be best protected against viruses/spyware/malware. That does not mean you shouldn’t use any Anti Virus Products. It simply implies that Win7 offers you the best protection of all the OSes out there.
Other noticeable improvements were Boot up and Shutdown times, which were a lot lesser than in Vista.
Conclusion: Windows 7 is all kinds of awesomeness! It delivers on all fronts – Performance, Functionality and Security. Win 7 is robust, more user-friendly, much more secure and a lot less power hungry than Vista. If nothing, it will make your life easier with a lot of user friendly features.
So may I suggest that all the Apple fan boys and Linux Penguins go fly a kite….or better still dump the Mac and get back to the real thing – PC.
Windows 7 is a must have!! Go for it folks and if you wanna see the cosmic features first hand, you are welcome to my Win 7 Launch Houseparty.
© Rohan Sawant
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Arrogant Pune Real Estate agents - Bhansali Mutha Associates
Saturday Morning - Ajay, Hemant and I drive to a place behind Katraj Kondhwa Road to check a few Projects/sites. We start with this one -
Project - Sri Shannti Nagar (http://www.bhansaliassociates.com/ongoing.html)
Location - Behind Katraj - Kondhwa Road
Builder - Bhansali Mutha Associates
The project was nearing completion as we could see and so we decide to enquire a few things about it. We walk into the Sales office. Outside, there is this tall guy talking on phone. We stand there waiting - What does he do? Continue talking on phone! Well we decide to step into the office and wait for him.
When he finally finishes talking on the phone, he walks in and asks our names and what we were looking for.
We tell him our names and ask about 1 and 2 BHK flats...Then, as if, he didn't want any 1BHK buyers in his office, he says arrogantly that this project does not have 1BHK flats.The tone of his voice is enough to convey the arrogant bastard that he is. He does not even care to show us any layout plans.
We ask him if we could look at a sample flat and the idiot says that there is no sample flat!....Are you freaking kidding me?! The whole project is nearly ready and there's not even a single sample flat! All of us are furious at this point. Hemant questions how come there is not even a single sample flat? The agent goes - Yeah there is one on the 10th floor but there is no elevator now!! We have had it - Hemant blasts him directly in his typical style by asking- So do you freaking expect people to climb 10 floors themselves when they come looking for flats??! I couldn't control laughing.The agent is speechless...then he mumbles something stupid like that the elevators will be ready in a few days. We storm out of the office.
Chapter closed. Lesson Learnt - Don't buy a flat in 'Sri Shannti Nagar', Pune.
Saturday, November 3, 2007
...and we finally appeared for the ISTQB!
It was a late Wednesday morning. I was sitting in my cubicle trying to read some functional specification. There was a murmur on our level consisting of people blabbering away software jargons, discussing timesheets, WSRs, etc etc. Suddenly in all this murmur, I heard a calm clear voice asking me – Mate, are you gonna appear for the ISTQB this month? I turned around to see the face of the voice. It was Hrishikesh. I replied ‘Yep’ and asked him the last date of enrollment. Again, very calmly he said – The last date is …Tomorrow!!…. I thought if we missed this time, the next exam was in Dec and then we would miss that too coz we all are very good at procrastinating. And hence I wasted no time in enrolling both of us online. As I was about to pump my fist in the air for taking the first step, a gentle tap on my shoulder made me turn back. It was Salil looking at both of us. He said he’d been listening to our discussion and he too wanted to have a go at the ISTQB. Well, me, the ‘form-filling expert’ did the needful. And then there was a smile on our faces – a smile that indicated we had done something extraordinary. Yes! We had at last, finally, after so many months, managed to enroll for this exam. This was a proud moment. We all stood up in our cubicles praising each other. Then suddenly a thought crept across our mind - We needed to shell out 4000 bucks each – Exam fees! The smile vanished quickly.
Post lunch, Salil, Pranav and me went to the bank for making the drafts. The pretty lady at the counter handed the drafts in the name of the Indian Testing Board. We felt successful already. Pranav, who had submitted his exam fees was THE guy for “dropping the draft” at the SQTL. Hrishi was gonna submit his exam fees later in the day.
Next day, we learnt that our excitement was so contagious that a fifty guy in our project team, Om, had succumbed...I mean applied for the exam too. Om is reputed for waiting to the last minute of everything and he again stood true to his reputation by submitting his exam fees on the last day. He too had entrusted the draft submission duties with Pranav who did his job brilliantly.
There was no turning back now. We had to study and pass or flunk and lose 4000. If we pass, our benign company would reimburse the exam fees. Akash told us that the Foundation level exam is child’s play. It relaxed us a lot but only for a while coz soon Salil scared the hell out of us…He opened the Pandora’s box. It was a Word document containing a mock ISTQB question paper. He asked me five questions. I got them all wrong. I was perspiring profusely. Salil calmed me by saying no one could answer any of the questions. Immediately an emergency meeting was called. We discussed various options – nah not of studying but of ways to withdraw from the exam.
Akash, the guy, who had told us that Foundation Level exam is easy peasy lemon squeezy, again came to appease our jangled nerves. He said – Don’t worry; the exam has 100 % pass record. We were silent for a minute. Then he added a very important part – “ Guys, you know that you have to mark your answers in pencils. Right?”. He continued to explain his infallible out of the world logic of why they ask us to use pencils only? He said that in order that the results are 100 %, the examiners rub off the wrong answers to pass the candidates! All 7 of us in the cubicle burst out in laughter so big that the whole floor was looking at us. I guess we had woken the floor up out of a deep slumber on a drowsy afternoon!
The next week was spent in studying and reading whenever possible - In the bus, at home (rarely), during work. Everyone was asking random questions to each other at any possible time - lunchtime, coffee breaks and would you believe – washrooms too!! There was exam like atmosphere in our project. Even SameTime – online chat messenger was not spared…Questions were bombarded on it too. Oh how can I forget Orkut…. I was scrapping questions to all (written with a wide grin on my face).
I also learnt that one of me mates, Geeta, was appearing for the exam on the same date! That meant six of us now! Hrishikesh called the exam center 2 days before the exam for our time slots. As luck would have it…all five of us were scheduled for the same time slot at 1:30 pm.
Fast-forward – Sunday Exam Day: When Salil and I reach the venue at 12 pm, the 11:45 pm batch is writing their exam. So we settle comfortably in a room at the venue. Soon Pranav, Om and Hrishi join us. We study for a while but couldn’t concentrate as everyone is asking questions and no one seems to recall anything. Typical exam time blues! Geeta calls me after her exam. We all head down to meet her. She says that the exam was for 90 minutes! That means an increase of 30 minutes but the 40 questions only. She says the exam is very confusing.
As I stand in the line to get in to our exam room, I am reading some chapter and I ask a question to the people standing the line. Me mates stop me saying – “Enough now, no one remembers a thing. We don’t know why we are here!”. Everyone is laughing. Well atleast, I did my part to lighten the atmosphere.
We enter the basement room and manage to find seats such that all five of us are next to each other. The exam begins and I soon realize why Geeta meant the exam was confusing. There were 4 options and we had to tick one. Out of those four, two options seemed so correct that I had to reach for my wallet to toss the coin for deciding the answers! I finish the exam in 45 mins and decide not to hand in my answer sheet so early. So I sit there in my chair observing other people. I see many candidates scratching their heads and looking perplexed. I believe they were thinking of tossing the coin too! After that I start watching the revolving fan in the room. After all, what could I do? I couldn’t look sideways all the time at other people. Someone behind me hands the answer sheet. That gives me courage. I get up and hand mine too. Hrishikesh and Salil look at me as if I am committing a crime. I feel guilty. But heck, I can’t sit there for 30 more minutes. I come out. Salil and Pranav follow me after a while. We discuss answers. Some of them same and some way apart. Hrishikesh and Om come at the end. We congratulate each other for nothing. Still laughing about the exam we make our way to a nearby restaurant. We think of the day when we had filled the exam forms and now! Then we realize that overall it had been a very good experience – a memorable one at least!
Next day, Salil, sends us a message “ The exam fee for reappearing is 2500 bucks”. We decide to bash him. The exam results will be declared after a fortnight by emails. We decide, we won’t tell anyone of the exam until we pass!.....The waiting game is still going on...
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Dive Agar - A weekend getaway from Pune.
7 guys + 2 cars + 1 weekend = A totally outrageous weekend getaway. I am talking about last weekend, when some blokes (Salil, Hemant and me) decided that it was time to head to the beach. In no time, we found four more blokes thinking alike. The destination was Dive Agar – 150 kms south west of Pune.
Hemant, Abhijit and me reached Salil’s place on a cold Saturday morning. Time - about 6:30 am. Pranav, Salil, Amit and Abhishek joined us. Of them, Abhishek and Pranav- two crazy ppl were in my car along with ‘Truck Driver’ Salil. ‘Truck Driver’ is an honorary title, ‘encomium’ would be a better word, for Salil and Hemant, in appreciation of their superior driving skills.
We decided to take the usual and most popular path to Dive Agar – Chandni Chowk -> Mulshi Lake-> Tamhini Ghat-> Mangaon->Mhasle->Dive Agar. Weather was …well perfect for driving. It didn’t turn one bit inclement any time. We stopped just before Tamhinis for quick breakfast and soon continued our way through the long enchanting Tamhini Ghat. Whilst on the way, I was getting invaluable driving tips from, 'Truck Driver' Salil. Mind you, they were helpful!
Break Point, Tamhinis – Dunno what this spot/point is called, but all of ‘em stop here. It’s like you automatically press the brake pedal once you get here. The view is one of a kind. The mighty mountains are folded to form deep gorges in between them. The last time I was here was in Summer of 2006. Now it was just past the monsoons and I could clearly make out the difference. See pics below…
Oct 2007 - After monsoon
After a few clicks, we were on our way. I expected the drive to be bumpy. But surprisingly enough, most of the Tamhini Ghat was good to drive except for a few rough patches in between. We were averaging 60 kmph all the way. After 5 hours including some stops in between, we saw the familiar arched Dive Agar entrance welcoming every visitor to the beach town of Dive Agar.
Salil had booked a cottage with the Joshi’s. It was a clean room lined up with neat beds. No TV. No Fridge. No Phone. Why would anyone need it when you’ve come to enjoy the beach? And I would recommend everyone visiting Dive Agar to stay in such cottages offered by local people, as they are cheap, clean and comfortable.
Okay, so after a rest/refresh time of about 15 mins, we went to have lunch at the Bapat’s. Again, this was organized by Salil. He knows his stuff well, this guy Salil. Coz we had one awesome Vegetarian lunch. No one talked a lot during lunch. It was a sign that everyone was hungry! We hogged so much that some of us were unable to get up from the chairs after the lunch!
It was scorching hot in Dive Agar. So we decided to rest for a while and then go to the beach in the evening. With all of us full after a good feed, it was time for some PJ’s and pulling of legs (literally and figuratively). But soon the tiredness and sumptuous lunch had its effect. Slowly everyone drifted off to sleep only to be awakened twice by a power outage. The fans stopped spinning then and it got humid which evoked a few cries of desperation. But the stoppages were only 5-10 mins, which didn’t disturb the sleep pattern of many.
Evening, refreshed by a cup of tea, we headed to the beach. Parked our cars by the beach and then as we saw the clean beach of Dive Agar, everyone was ecstatic. I had come here about year and half back, but to notice that it hadn’t changed a bit – it was still so clean as it was last time, was so satisfying. Alrite now we were 7 of us and there was a bat and a ball. That would mean only one thing - Beach Cricket!! No teams- we were all playing numbers – a cricket game in which all the players bat and bowl in sequence. Three varying length sticks made for three stumps. Bowlers bowled, fielders fielded on imaginary boundaries and batters enjoyed hitting it to all parts of the beach. It was a unique game of cricket where fielders were sledging bowlers and likewise. It was fun. Everyone was laughing all along the way. Beamers and long hops were the order of the day. The third game was played under bad light, but no one was willing to stop. Eventually after the last batsmen got out in the third game, it was so dark, that we would have to turn bats to be able play cricket in those conditions!
We had planned for beach dinner. It meant we had to organize stuff and so we decided to implement ‘divided we do better’ strategy. Hemant, Abhijit and I bought dinner and other things mandatory while Salil, Pranav, Abhishek and Amit gathered paraphernalia necessary for beach dinner.
We drove to the beach. The time was about 9:45 pm and it was pitch black. I could just see the white foam of waves hitting the shores. Our lantern was the only source of light for miles, I guess. And the only sound was of the waves. It was pleasant and calm out there. We arranged the dinner and the 'mandatory things'. The lantern was kept by the side. The ambience coupled with balmy breeze and cold sand multiplied the relaxing effect on our tired nerves. Soon after an hour, everyone opened up (figuratively) and started revealing their dear secrets. This was the time for venting out suppressed emotions. And one by one all the frustrations in everyone’s life were out in open. Amit, Abhijit and I took countless midnight strolls on beach. The cold seawater was soothing. Others slept on the beach gazing at the stars and may be contemplating life – lives of software engineers!
We finished our dinner by 1 am. Headed back to our parked cars. Somebody thought of playing some music. It turned out to be a good idea. All of us sat down on the unpaved road by the cars and listened to music in the light of the lantern. Nice setting that one. When we reached our rooms, it was 1:45 am. Dead tired, we slept like logs.
Day 2 and we were up by 830 am. A good home made breakfast at Joshi’s and we walked to the beach. It was 930 am and very sunny. This time, we played Frisbee for about 40 odd minutes. After that everyone jumped into the waters. With all the time in the world, everyone just enjoyed being in the cold salty water.
We were back to the rooms by 11 am and then after a visit to the famous Suvarna Ganpati Temple, we started our journey back to Pune.
By the time, I reached my place, it was 8 pm. Needless to say that I slept as soon as I hit the bed. It was a trip unforgettable. Some pics from the trip at this link…
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
India - Twenty 20 World Champions!
I will make a modest attempt at describing the scenes in my Pune. All the events that began yesterday morning promised a day unforgettable for years to come. Let me start of from the time I walked into the office yesterday morning…
Monday Morning: I plod into my office thinking about leaving early today. And as luck would have it, there was not much work for the offshore team (that is us) to be done today. I meet my friend in a corridor and when I ask him about the time he’s gonna leave today, he answers firmly, very confidently – “5’ o clock bud. No chances at all!” I smile at the thoughts that I am not the only person going home early today. As our project team gets together for a breakfast in the cafeteria everyone is discussing nothing but – of course cricket. There is buzz everywhere – everyone wants to talk, everyone wants to share his/her excitement about today. One this for sure – it is gonna be absolute chaos if India pull off a win today!
Monday Afternoon: – No change in the atmosphere…Everyone is still talking about cricket - In the elevators, on the steps, during lunch, in the washrooms, on phones! ….It is cricket everywhere. Just then, I receive a mail. It’s from Dad…. His company has asked the its employees to ‘officially’ to leave an hour early just for the match!!!…. A note for outsiders – This is how serious cricket is in India. For Indians – This is expected. Cricket comes above everything else… I forward that mail to everyone in our team. Just then I get a mail – rather everyone in our office gets a mail. It’s about today evening. They (our company) are gonna show the cricket on big screens in two buildings! Me mate, Hemant sitting in a building a mile away from mine, pings me saying we would watch the match on the big screen rather than going home. After a bit of hesitancy, I say Yes! After all, it’s best to watch with a group of people and what could get better than watching it in the big comfy auditorium of ours!
Monday Evening: – I glance at the bottom right corner of my computer. Time now is 5pm. Only 30 minutes left for a hell of a cricket match. I call my friend - Rama, in the other building and tell him to check out the auditorium and hold a couple of places. I call him again after 10 mins and hez gone crazy. In a while I would too, after hearing what he said. He says – India has won the toss and India’s gonna bat first! I can't wait a minute now in my cubicle. Tushar and me literally run out like schoolboys after the end of the schoolday. The Englishman in my adjacent cubicle is not at all surprised. He knows it's all about Indians and cricket.
Rush to the Auditorium: Tushar and me are still huffing and puffing as we reach the elevator lobby on the ground floor of GLT 2.0. A lift comes down. About 20 odd people get in. The auditorium is on the 6th floor. Only one button is lit up on the inside. No prizes for guessing where everyone is heading. The lift stops on the third floor. There is boo in the lift. No one wants the lift to stop until it reaches the 6th floor!! And as the lift doors open on the 6th floor, Tushar and me start running – it’s a sprint I guess, to the Auditorium on the left. We thought we are the only ones running. Looking back we see a bunch of others following us – running of course! As we enter the dark auditorium, we realize, its full! The big screen is a beaming live pictures straight from Wanderers, Jo’burg, RSA! I am so excited that I trip over something in the dark. I realize it’s a chair. Just then Rama shouts from the very back of the auditorium. Hez got some spaces for us! I thank him profusely.
Indian Innings: The auditorium is full. But still people are coming in. Now, they start sitting on the steps in the aisles. The match starts. Everyone is clapping and the first ball arouses a scare in everyone. Yousuf Pathan is nearly run out. The decision is referred to the third umpire. As the replay is being shown here on the screen everyone realizes that Yousuf Pathan is safe. There is very big roar... so big that people outside come in running. It’s like as if we have won the match! Well, I think, I made the right decision of watching the finals here with everyone on the big screen. Yousuf Pathan hits a big six and there are screams everywhere. People are still streaming into the auditorium. The steps on the aisles are full. They now start sitting on the space in front of the big screen before the first row of chairs. That space is filled in a minute. The auditorium is jam packed – would be an understatement coz if some more people would have come in, they would have to use the walls and ceilings! There is absolutely no space. The atmosphere is wonderful. Soon a wicket goes down and everyone is quiet…. Every four and six is cheered like a victory. As the sixes and fours dry up, everyone cheers the twos and threes!! In between the Indian innings, everyone is excited about Yuvraj and Dhoni. But they fail to perform. No frigging issues with that. There was Gautam Gambhir at the other end who batted brilliantly. What an effort that was….75 off 54 balls! This southpaw is a star! …In the end, Rohit Sharma’s clever stroke play helps India post a respectable 157 on board. I am thinking – Will India be able to pull of another win? My thoughts go into a negative territory for some reason. The lights are switched on in the auditorium. The mood now is bit down. Everyone fears that this total might not be enough. I hurriedly make my way to the coffee machine. There is queue there. People are pondering on the match waiting in the line. Some are busily analyzing the match over cappuccino and lattes. I am just thinking how hard we have to bowl. Tushar is on phone. Rama thinks we are going to lose.
Pakistan Innings: I head back in the lit auditorium, again amazed to see the number of people. I hadn’t seen so many people in this auditorium for any seminar or presentation. I sit back calmly waiting for the innings to start. It does…. First over – Fifth ball, the auditorium goes up screaming as Mohammad Hafeez tries to steer the ball to third man, but straight into the hands of Robin Uthappa! Now, my thoughts go back into a positive mode. The next over is mess from Sreesanth. Imran Nazir butchers him. It’s 21 from that second over. Third over – RP Singh sends Kamran Akmal’s off stump cartwheeling. Pakistan 26/2! India’s gotta chance. With every wicket, the crowd is going berserk. We are shouting, chanting – Ganapati Bappa Moraya every time a wicket falls! The previous time, I had experienced such an explosive atmosphere was in Crown Casino, Melbourne watching World Cup 2003 (India vs. Pakistan, March 1, 2003).
I thanked myself again for staying back and watching the cricket in the auditorium. The biggest celebration was for Shahid Afridi's wicket. Shahid Afridi spooned the ball in the air and was comfortably caught by Sreesanth running from Long off… or was that mid off. Whatever, I can’t remember. It was a good catch. With Pakistan 77/6 and Shahid Afridi gone for a duck, everyone knew that it was India in the driver’s seat (as the commentators love calling it). But then there was this guy – Misbah-Ul-Haq. He proved why he is dangerous. With some brilliant batting helped by Sohail Tanvir, he brought the target down to 13 off last 6 balls. I couldn’t take it anymore. I thought of crawling and sitting down between the chairs. Misbah hit a big six and there was a silence in the whole auditorium. How could India give the cup away like this I thought? Joginder Sharma comes in running and Misbah tries to scoop it behind the wicket. The ball goes up. I think it is running off to the boundary. But Sreesanth takes a comfortable catch! There is an eruption in the Auditorium. Pakistan all down. India has won the match! India has won the Twenty 20 World Cup! Yes, We are World Champions! I couldn’t believe it. I was absolutely ecstatic. I hugged someone– dunno his name. It didn’t matter. Everyone was celebrating. Screaming. I almost fell on the floor! All of them were celebrating - The security guards too!! It was the best moment. Everyone congratulating each other and Team India!
Victory Lap on the roads: Hemant, Kshitija and I were heading home from office. We took the North Main road. Suddenly we saw flags everywhere. People were celebrating the victory. I yelled out loudly – “Go India”. The guy in the car across the road responded back! There it started. I started shouting and screaming at every group of revellers on the roads. They were doing the same. There were bikes everywhere with boys and girls shouting and chanting “Chak de India, Cheers India, Go India”. Some were carrying Indian flags. It was a beautiful sight. Seemed like the match was in Pune and the crowd was just coming out of the stadium!! We decided to take MG Road today, as it would be crowded! And it was! There was a group of people celebrating. We parked our car and then went there. What scenes! There were Indian flags and the familiar Dhol Tasha music. Soon it began to get crowded and everyone was enjoying. Others who didn’t want to dance lined up on the sides of the roads and watched the fun. The revelers stopped all the vehicles and soon MG road was jam-packed!!! A car driver got so excited that he stopped the car in the middle of the road, turned off the engine, opened the boot of his car and turned up the music. The crowd went wild. All of ‘em started dancing and screaming like madmen. A two-wheeler stopped in the middle too. The guy stood up on the vehicle and started waving the Indian flag. It was absolutely amazing. Soon there were more flags and more people. I could see the young and the old, the rich and the poor celebrating together. How wonderful it was to be in India at time like this. Cricket, or for that matter any sport, UNITES! And there is no better example than today!!! I cannot describe how energetic and amazing the scenes were. In the end – I was tired and bruised and my body started to ache. But then, who cares. Days like these don’t come every day. Congratulations Team India!! You beauty!!!
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
How to increase office productivity and efficiently use office space – Shift to GLT 1.0
Super Advantage No 1: Looking from outside of the cubicle, it seems that the employees are sitting on the top of one another. That is just an illusion created by this fantastic arrangement of people. In reality, every person in these cubicles has his/her own computer and everyone has got a chair to sit! Isn’t that an efficient utilization of office space?
Super Advantage No 2: The arrangement of people is so very ergonomically brilliant. Employees can lean and place their elbows on their colleague’s chair, which is at a distance of about 2-3 inches or sometimes touching their chair. And employees are really loving this.
Super Advantage No 3: Two people share one phone. That means one person can’t keep talking for hours on the phone! How well thought of!!
Super Advantage No 4: This one is really good.These cubicles should be called Green Cubicles. Why? Coz they save energy and in turn reduce greenhouse emissions. Let me explain…. You see, the three squeezed… err…efficiently arranged people in between the normally comfortable four have got wonder monitors. Their monitors immediately turn OFF whenever there is a power outage. The monitors turn ON when the generator kicks in. Normally the time period is 3-4 secs. But as you know monitor consumes almost 80% of the energy. Multiply that with some 100 odd monitors like this in this building and imagine the energy saving! I think this ingenious idea should be incorporated in offices worldwide! This would really take care of Global Warming.
Super Advantage No 5: Apart from saving energy, the guys on the green machines can enjoy a break for 3-4 seconds. This way the guys can quickly take break from work and relax. I call it a quick refresh method. Much better than having a smoko/coffee break. No wonder the guys in these cubicles don’t get out much! Hmm that adds one more advantage – Productivity!!
Super Advantage No 6: Teams in such cubicles don’t face a problem of communication and their interpersonal skills are automatically improved. Employees are so close to each other that it naturally harbingers a feeling of unity and warmth (pun intended). Brilliant innit?
I never thought that so many advantages were hidden in these cubicles. Someday next week we will be shifted again to a different level in this building and I will be a part of such cubicles. Or I might be sitting in some passageway where I can meet lots of people on their way to the rest room or pantry. How exciting! I am feeling wonderful now at this opportunity of social networking!
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Sinhgad – A trek on the weekend.
The girls come and we decide to go in one car. We reach the base of Sinhgad in about 35 mins.
We start our uphill climb. I notice that the weather is perfect - drizzle and gentle breeze. We walk through a dense canopy of trees – lush green. The view is refreshing. We click a half a dozen snaps on our mobile handsets. Just then we realize that we had taken a wrong turn! We head back and see the familiar stony path leading up the way to historic fort.As we climb to a higher point, we stop for a breather and look around. What a view! The mountains are all green. At a distance, we can see the Khadakwasla Lake. It is still drizzling. The fort is hardly visible with the clouds covering it. We resume and suddenly, Rahul and Kshitija notice a short but steep climb. They decide to go that way. Others, including me proceed by the normal way. After about 10 mins, we get to a point where we think, Rahul and Kshitija would emerge. We wait for 5 mins but no sign of them. We continue our climb. The only sounds we hear are of rain, waterfalls and the wind. On Sunday, this would have been impossible with hoards of people going up. Glad, we are trekking today.
On the next turn, I look up and see Rahul waving at us from the top. They had reached their some 10 mins earlier. There is makeshift shop selling snacks. We stop by under it. Kshitija meanwhile is busy in taking pictures on her mobile for the ‘Pattern’ theme photography contest. I am again amazed at the view…. it seems that view gets better the higher we get. I had never enjoyed Sinhgad trek so much!
There are rocky climbs all along the way now and though I would say the difficulty level is low on any other day, today it was a medium coz of the rain factor, which had made it more slippery.
As we near the top, I am thirsty, but others advise me against drinking water until we reach the top. We begin the last phase of the climb. Sinhgad is visible from here. This last part is steepest and there is another way to go past it…but we decide to take this one just for the fun of it. The path is so narrow and slippery that even if one of them slips, he/she would cascade the effect downstream. Not that we would end up in a gorge or something, but nevertheless, we would be hurt badly. Arite so we proceed to the top. Rahul then Hemant and then me followed by Kirti, Kshitija and Neha…As we climb through the narrow path surrounded with vegetation, I realize, it is time to close the umbrella and climb with two hands otherwise it would near impossible to get through it.
We stop once on the way to negotiate a slippery climb and that’s it, we reach the top! It is foggy up there but the view is so beautiful. It is almost mystical. There is another group at the top…about the same age as us. They are clicking pictures of a snail. Others get busy clicking it too. The snail is famous now. Some others are enjoying “Butta” which is baked corn.
We see a fort map by the side. It shows all the major points on the forts. As we enter the fort through the old and dilapidated remains of Kalyan gate, it gets even foggier. The visibility reduces to almost 5 feet. It is awesome.
There is sudden rush of people heading down. Some are regular trekkers and some are like us.
We get to first point and decide to go over the edge. It starts raining and gets windier…We get to the edge and see only clouds! The rain gets heavier and we disappear inside a small shack cum eating point. We are freezing cold now and decide for a cuppa hot tea and what else but hot Bhajis! Coming to Sinhgad and not eating Bhajis is a sin! It is so windy that we are worried that the roof of the shack might get blown off! But it doesn’t. As the steaming hot tea arrives with a plate of Bhajis, everyone digs in! Ummmm…delicious! You hafta come here to taste em! …We give our lunch orders Zunka Bhakar (Jowar Bread) and Pithala (thick paste of gram flour).
As the food is getting ready, we explore the fort and come to one point where we couldn’t help stopping. It is not specific point. But today, there was something about this particular place that we all decide to stop and enjoy. The wind is so strong that we can literally lean against the wind and not fall!!All of us become kids and jump around trying to click that one perfect snap where all of us would be in air. We managed to capture one after a dozen attempts but one of them is still on the ground.
As we proceed further, a small path would lead us to wind point. This path is foggy but beautiful all along the way. We come to the wind Point. There, apart from the wind, the view to be enjoyed is that of the deep valley. But today, we can see only clouds!We come back to the shack cum restaurant and have a delicious Zunka Bhakar meal.
It is almost 1:30pm and we decide to head down. We take a decision to go down via jeep The downhill ride by the jeep is dangerous due to bad roads and our driver made it even more dangerous. All the way, he drove like he was playing a video game. As we reached the base, we had to walk back almost 3 kms to reach our car!!
Finally, all in the car and we reach Pune by 315pm. Never before had I thought that Sinhgad would be so beautiful. I had always imagined it being a sweaty climb sans fun. But today was just perfect thanks to the weather!
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Review - MyN73 Music Edition!
I love gadgets and so I wanted a mobile which could do more than just make and receive calls. Of course smart phone would be my choice. So when I started looking, it got confusing even though I am pro-Nokia. There were some super phones in Nokia N-series and E-series. Apple iPhone and iMate were appealing too…Specially iPhone was really tempting with its looks and features. But $ 565 USD was a bit too much now…Hence after a lot of thought, I finally zeroed in on Nokia N73 Music Edition. And after reading innumerable N73 reviews for 2 weeks, I decided to buy it…And I am so in love with it…Here is my review
Cost: 16450 INR
I will start off with the most impressive feature of N73.
The camera of course…3.2 Mega pixel Camera with Carl Zeiss Optics, Tessar lens!! Do I have to say anything about the picture quality now? Photos come out just superb. With 20 x Digital zoom for pics and 4x for Videos, the zoom does work well. Videos are good too at 15fps.There is Review button at the side of mobile. Quite handy that one. It gives a quick access to the images and videos in the Gallery.
N73 has to be the best camera smartphone of the N Series at least as of now.
Plus you have got options like -Adjusting the White Balance, Exposure Compensation, Color Tone, Light Sensitivity and the Scene modes like what you get in your digicam.
Although there is no difference in hardware in N73 and N73 Music edition, the latter comes with enhanced features for music. It ships in with 2GB Mini SD Card filled with some 100 songs out of which 95 are crap. Try deleting them on your phone and it won’t work! The way out is to connect the phone to the computer and simply CUT the 90+ rubbish songs and paste them on you computer. It frees up a lot memory on the card. N73 does support a lot of music formats (mp3, WMA, AAC, eAAC, eAAC+). I haven’t tried listening to all the formats on the phone but MP3, WMA and AAC sound very good indeed. The phone has got Integrated Stereo speakers and the Stereo does sound very well. The Music Edition comes in all black looks and it does look very sinister.
Smart phone that it is, it comes in loaded with all the applications like Office stuff – Word, Power Point, Spreadsheets, Viewing PDF files, Visual Radio, 3-D Tones, Movie Director, Real Player, Life Blog et al.
The 3-D Tones is nifty little utility to enhance your tones by adding effects like Circular, Fly By, Zig Zag, Meander, Doppler Effect etc.
Next thing to like about N73 is the large 2.4-inch QVGA screen of N73. It makes pictures and videos look clearer on them than other smart phones. The screen resolution as given by Nokia is 352X416 pixels makes the pics look excellent on the screen.
I have heard some people saying the saying the keypad is smaller and it makes texting harder. Yes, the keypad is smaller but for a person like me who texts a lot I got used to the keypad after just couple of days and I don’t find it a problem at all.
There is a dedicated music key on the right side of N73 ME for quick access to all the music on your phone. Music is neatly organized by Song Name, Playlists, Artists, Albums, Genres, Composers just like your iPod.
The light sensor at the top of the phone near the secondary camera adjusts the brightness of the screen with respect to the ambient lighting. And this light sensor also blinks (flashing blue light) when the Phone is in ‘Sleep’ mode. This flashing blue light is irritating at times and can be turned Off by going to Settings->Phone->Display->Sleep Mode-> On/Off. Mind you, switching this Off will eat into your phone battery.
Let’s now come to the GPRS part of it. Holding down the 0 key will get you connected to the World Wide Web. When I activated my GPRS connection from my service provider, I was unable to connect to the net for the first few days. I thought it was a problem with N73. But then after repeated calls to my service provider, I realized that that they had goofed up. They reset my connection and now GPRS works fine on N73. There is nothing to be done other than just saving the Configuration Settings sent by your service provider.
Net Applications: I have downloaded Google Maps and S60 Internet Radio. They work like charm. Especially Google Maps with its powerful Satellite imagery looks very good on the large screen of N73. Internet Radio is bit slow at times. But that is all dependent on data transmission rates. With a faster EDGE connection, it should work good.
There is an option to upload Images directly from your phone to the Web Album of your choice.
Games: My N73 came pre-installed with Sudoku and Snakes. The Snakes on my N73 is in 3D. I was amazed to see it. Nokia has come a long way from the Snakes that it had on one of the older phones. This 3D Snakes is not only good to watch but surely will help you kill time.
Battery: The battery is pretty powerful. With normal use (10-15 mins of calls a day, 15-20 mins of surfing, taking pictures and videos for 5-10 mins and playing music for 10 mins a day on the phone speakers) will make the phone go on for 2.5 to 3 days. But with heavy use of the screen (like seeing the images and videos on and on again) will suck your battery. My battery was out of charge in just 1.5 days when all I was doing for those 1.5 days was keeping the camera on and shooting pics and videos and playing them over and over again.
The only two things missing in this phone are – WiFi and GPS. I would have really really liked to have them on my phone. But I had to buy a phone within a certain budget and hence had to settle without these features. Although GPS was really tempting, I had to think my way out of it by asking myself – Do I really need GPS? The answer was ‘No’ coz I do not hike every other day and neither do I get lost everyday coz I know my way around the city.
For the Wi-Fi part, I had to be content with my GPRS connection. I know GPRS isn’t the solution to Wi-Fi but then again there are some compromises to be made when your budget is tight. So for me the only thing to be disappointed was no WiFi in this Phone.
Now comes the most important part – The bugs!
Ofcourse with a smartphone like this, there ought to be bugs and I had expected it. The question is how many bugs and do they really impact the way you use your phone. I do not think so. Here’s why
Bug 1: When a song is playing and I click ‘Next’ in the Track Menu, it doesn’t start playing the Next song. Instead the current song is stopped. I have to go back to the Song List and click the new song again. Maybe this is just with my handset. Does it bother me? Not at all…
Bug 2: Sometimes, when I open the Gallery to see the pic or a video or start a game, I get a message – Memory Full. Try closing some applications.
This is irritating. I have to either go back to the phone menu or switch the phone Off and start again. But this has just happened twice until now in 3 weeks. Hence, not much of a problem.
Bug 3: Sliding the backcover of the phone starts the phone camera. Once, I got a message – Hardware failed. Please restart the camera. I came back to the Phone menu and the phone just froze up. I couldn’t switch the phone off. I had to remove the battery and put it back again to restart the phone. Fortunately this has happened only once.
These are the only bugs I have come across until now in my Nokia N73 ME. Chances are these are specific to my handset only. But in no way do they lessen my pride and joy of owning N73 ME!
All in all, I am happy with my choice.
Monday, July 16, 2007
Thoughts on the wonderful last week
Relaxing - For a change, we were not as busy as we were since past 5 months. Reason: There was a processing delay as some data validations failed. It meant less work for us and a much needed breather. Yes, there was some Test Execution and rather boring statistical stuff to be done. But I welcomed it with a big smile. After all it was a refreshing change than those last few months, which were spent busily worrying in front of the black and green Z/OS world. There were no stressing deadlines and few -infact only one strenuously long to compose observation/query email. So it was “Leave office at normal time” nearly everyday! I had almost forgotten that we work 9 – 6. How good it was to leave office when it was not dark outside. Nope! I am not afraid of dark! But it reminded me of those wonderful times of last year when we were new in the project minus much responsibility. A lot has changed since then. Anyways, lets not delve into that now.
Now towards the interesting part -There was a buzz sometime back that they were gonna reshuffle the people around various office building of ours to get so called best business combination. Dunno what that means exactly and I am also not curious on finding the reason behind it. Maybe, their idea is to align Development and Testing teams together so that Testers and Developers could argue or if they want, fight with each other physically on the floor rather than in Quality Center...I am kidding....Aight…so last Monday it was confirmed in the Weekly Team Meeting that we were moving to GLT 1.0 next week i.e. Tomorrow. That really upset me. I had started liking GLT 4.0. The campus is neat and the cubicles are spacious (heard that the cubicles in 1.0 suck big time). More than the campus and cubicles, I was gonna miss my crush @ GLT 4.0. Yeah that beautiful eyed girl on some level. Hence the news of the shift was really upsetting until Friday when I learnt that their team’s moving too! That really got me excited and anxious. Oh those hypnotizing eyes of hers are killing to say the least… And, we are not moving tomorrow. The shift is delayed by 2 weeks! YAY!
Also, after much research I bought Nokia N73 Music Edition. This sexy black smart phone rocks. More on that later…
Sometimes, a thought sweeps across my mind. What if the last week was a lull before the storm? What if all hell breaks lose this week? What if tomorrow’s again a Manic Monday? Manic or Merry Monday – all the questions will be answered this week.
Plus that beautiful eyed damsel on my mind is not helping me relax as I hit the sack now. Good Night World.
Sunday, June 24, 2007
…And now cometh 'The Monsoon’
It again started at 19:30. Rains were much heavier this time. And it was very dark outside. Some were waiting to get back home. But the phone calls from home were stopping them. Every phone call was the same.... "Don’t come now – It’s flooded here and the power supply’s gone!"
I had work to do and I smiled at the thought that at least today it worked out right. It was always better to work in office that night than be outside in the rain.
We left around 2200 hrs and boy, were the roads flooded. As much as it was good to watch the rain from inside, it was worse outside. It is a typical sight in monsoon, in nearly every city in India -The streets are flooded and the footpaths are muddy, sometimes even under water.Walking is a pain and driving becomes a nightmare especially if it’s a two wheeler. Most of the city is powerless....On our way back home, I watched all of it…As I neared home, a part of road was under water and the traffic was diverted to the other lane.
Monsoons are the toughest times to be in India specially places where it rains the heaviest.
No surprise, the next day’s front-page news was about the rains. It rained a whopping 40 mm on Friday! There were losses of lives and property too. Very sad to read about it.
And the weekend was ...well... washed away in rains. That heralds the start of rainy weekends for some four months now…..And just as I say this, I hear the rains again! Monsoon has surely begun in India.
