May 2010 Archives

If you knew Chennai like the back of your head.. you would love this.

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A friend of mine who was working with Infosys, mumbai .. quit and joined IFMR as a student.. and moved to Chennai.

This is what he has to say for what has changed in his life.. very funny..

From Software Developer to Student
From Infosys to IFMR
From Salary to Pocket Money
From Selaiyur to Nungambakkam
From Bunking Office to Bunking College
From Tech/Domain tests to end term exams
From Allen Solly to Peter England
From Killer to Trigger
From Lifestyle to Sarvana stores
From Spending Power to Cost CuttingPower
From Woodland to Bata
From Reebok to Action
From Apsa Kitchen to Bakya Fast Food
From Residency buffet to Dhaba Express buffet
From Bikes & Barrels to Apna Terrace
From Aila Plane to Bhartiya Rail
From Personal Loan to Educational Loan
From Inox to Ega

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He is at: http://reciprocle.blogspot.com/ if you want some help with finding some of the places above :)

Not me, and may be not some of you who read this.. but some people are really crazy about Social networking .. I always had a friction towards doing that thing that everybody seems to be doing... and so landed up experiencing orkut or facebook quite late .. actually quite forcefully because of my wife's insistence that as husband and wife we spoke to each other on orkut or facebook.. (what!!) (blink) (blink)

I always had this "why are people crazy about social networking sites" question..
and why do they enjoy logging -in to some site, typing / posting something for friends to read about, and friends doing the same to comment on it.. and then you login back sometime later and read.. and uh.. making a short conversation long..

and most often atleast two of the bunch doing this conversation would be working in the same office sitting next to each other and still prefer replying to each other on the site.

.. worse some people add a mobile phone, or,
get a notification when somebody replies, or,
a suite of more instruments and blocks
to keep track of what everybody is saying.

Why are people so crazy about social networking sites ??

The answer:

I think the web or internet was simply only invented ... for Social Networking sites.

Every bit and piece of how internet works and what it allows people to do.. seem to fill in gaps that were there in a group of people wanting to communicate but not being able to for various reasons..

All technologies of the web or internet, together, allow people to setup a system to do one thing good.. social networking.

Lets get some story here:
You had 4 friends at class 3, and 20 friends at high school, many at college, random numbers of collegues at work as you went around different companies.. and you would want to keep in touch with all those contacts.

If you took the phone, or the email, or a chat, or any conference system.. there are gaps.. which social networking sites fix.

you write a note / scrap on your page .. sometime someday.
you are not in a hurry.. and it is not some very important stuff.
your contacts read it some other time / some other day and reply to it or respond to it.. you have a conversation.. or to be more specific you have a time-insensitive, spread-out conversation.

and the interesting thing is.. you can have it with nothing.. no phones, no neccessity to be sitting in your house to receive the letter.. and somewhat importantly you dont need to pay a bill for doing this conversation.
you just do it on the internet through a browser.. which is almost available anywhere these days.

As a person in software, with good amount of specialization in internet technologies, I have known one thing: All the technology that is invented or improved around the Internet, have only one design goal.. to be able to collaborate with different other technologies in an open manner.. that in english is 'to communicate'

Facebook, MySpace, Orkut.. by design .. should only be more and more improved or get filled with advancements to make us all have..better time insensitive, spread-out conversations, but still conversations which well recorded and organized.

Web/internet technology geek, just drool for developing such sites where people collaborate.. there are thousands of such internet sites though only facebook, orkut and myspace are popular.. some others that are popular with the formal conversation club are 'scribd', 'wiki and its many flavors like pbwiki tkwiki', blogs, ...
... writing that list reminds me of bb's or bulletin boards which was one of the first web-based networking system alongwith email-based mailing lists and forums.

First: I think the idea that atleast 100 times more people have Mobile phones than having access to computers, is really selling. For the kind of growth in mobile applications or software in recent years... and probably especially the biggest growth in India.

Second: I am sure there are not going to be Blackberry's or the marketing hype of the blackberry.. in the future.. because ordinary low cost phones already are able to do what was once conceived as "only on a blackberry" thing.

And this
"I send this mail from my Blackberry" like marketing gimmicks are viewed more funny than smart today.

If your phone is Java capable (Almost all of today's phones are), has a good color screen, and you have signed up for GPRS from your mobile service provider, then you can do everything that anybody does with blackberry or any mobile unit..

not "almost", but you definitely can.

If you are in India, one of the well-known mobile java applications that you can download through GPRS and run is:

mcheck - I orignially started using this for Airtel bill payment. This is not from Airtel itself though they advertise heavily on it making it look like its an Airtel mobile feature.
mcheck Will run on any java enabled phone (some of the functions even don't require GPRS but only SMS).
It now includes the common use stuff like movie ticket booking on theatres like PVR / INOX, travel ticket booking on IRCTC / others, to recharge phone talktime, to pay bills (limited set of billers), etc., things that have been understood as common internet money-spends that Indians do.

Other Interesting apps:

1. google maps - http://m.google.com/maps
Install this.. and your mobile becomes almost an Advanced GPS system.. the google maps java app will detect your nearest cell phone tower and position your current location on the map. You can do most stuff that you can do on the web site for google maps.. like finding directions, looking at a typical google map with roads, hospitals, places, etc.,

2. google search - http://m.google.com/search
This you browse on your mobile's browser.. not an installed application. You do stuff you would do on google search.. the results, text length are fine-tuned for viewing in the small screen on the mobile phone.

3. Email:
Actually you could see what all apps / sites of google you want to use through http://m.google.com the mobile website of google.

Yes, You can also gmail.

If you use some other email which is non-gmail, then chances are that your email provider doesn't have a javamobile-based or mobile-browser-based email screen.. if so, you can probably configure your email to be handled by gmail and then read gmail on your mobile browser (yes, gmail can handle any email provided the email provider allows you to do some configuration/settings).

4. Social networking, Communication apps:
Facebook, Orkut, Skype have mobile versions.. you should check their website or search google like "facebook mobile" and find a 'java app download link' or 'web page for mobiles' link to use on your mobile browser.

5. 1000's:
There are thousands of handy java-based applications, most good, proffesional ones require license purchases, some are free.. which allow you to do a lot of stuff from expenses management to emailing to call recording to auto-responding to calls, and a lot.
Some good shopping/listing sites/applications for java mobile are:
1. getjar.com
2. A mobile office suite: http://mobile-office.en.softonic.com/java/download
3. sharejar.com

Firstly, this is for those who don't know the wayanad local language "Malayalam".

If you happened to tour Wayanad without planning.. then you might end up having a bit of a friction towards trusting the help you could get in wayanad from tourist cabs or your hotel front desk. But,

Thats how tours are supposed to kickoff.. isn't it.. without full planning.. after all this is not again a business project where we want to start only after analysis and stuff.

As far as I have tried to understand wayanad with my brief tour there:

1. Trusting Tour operators and Services: You can trust help you get in Wayanad from tourist cabs or your hotel front desk.. there is of course a small possibility that a small set of people could try to dry your pocket.. but I guess if you chose to find information from different people and initially signup for only a one day tour package, then you should be happy with choices you have.

I recommend: http://parambathtravels.com/
Parambath Travels have a small office in Kalpetta.. close to kalpetta bus stand you could enquire for "car/taxi stand" and you would find their office. I tried here, and later used the same cab with driver for 3 days.. everyday evening we used to decide or callup the driver and confirm our interest in using the cab for the next day... and paying only at the end of a day's tour. He charged me 1500 per day for a 'tour anywhere for 100 km' like package.. and he didn't ask for more though one of the days we travelled close to 180 kms. If you think nice of it and would like to use him on your trip to kalpetta (wayanad), the cab driver's name is Shrafull : 944713115 (knows only malayalam, little tamil i guess.. definitely not enough english)

2. Food: Because its an often place for tourists from within India, during the seasons you mostly get all the basic kinds of Indian food in most places.

I suggest though that Outside your hotel, you should feel comfortable to try the fare based on the people who run the hotel/eatery rather than looking at the paint or newness of the eatery.

Try: Eating at a typical hut like, kerala-rice(fat-boiled-rice) serving, local eatery in atleast one of the places you tour where there might not be a proper restaurant. Yes, don't try too many times though.

3. Touring: If you are one of the 'I can try small adventures' kind, importantly, with the kind of acceptable fitness(not too fat/heavy to carry yourself) to trek on rocky terrain, like the ones usually near water falls, then I suggest you should not miss these in wayanad:

Kuruvila Islands (trek inside, dont look at it from outside like many of those worried tourists.. its not break bone stuff, only a sweaty adventurous trek)

Edakkal Caves (again the same, trek inside.. if scared tail people.. thats how we didnt even have the slightest of the fears of trekking into the cave area through slopy steps)
This is only worth it if you have never trekked.. because the portion of caves allowed for public viewing is only one area midway on a hill climb and not even deep inside the caves, the caves are deep i believe atop the hill but you will need special permissions and off-season visit period to try that i guess.

One of those Dams (only good to go if you havent seen one in years.. and you go there after a days trek .. around the 5pm climate)

One thing about wayanad, when we toured was, all days it seems clouds over wayanad pour almost sharp at 6pm for a few mins (must be seasonal though). We had a nice, power rain drenching walk, back from the Dam.. the rain was so heavy, it started our like around 5:55 a huge dark cloud started looming above us, all scary, and the rain poured at 6:01 for only about 20 mins but with heavy winds almost scaring like it we are into a twister like climate environment.

Why I don't recommend: Tholpetta wildlife sanctuary..
First they fleeced us of money, then Our Jeep safari for 1 hr didnt turn up any views of wildlife except for a ride on a typical broken road inside forest terrain. Whatever we saw, we could as well have seen outside the sanctuary itself, some occassional elephants, a handful of deers, forest greens.., that was it.

My mom has memories of visiting this sanctuary in the 1970's and it had happened to be lustrous with a lot of animals around and importantly, they allowed only one jeep to be inside the sanctuary at a time it seems.

On my trip, there were so many people, badly wanting to go into the wild in jeeps and see tigers and lions fighting on their prey.. just like us.. unfortunately, the forester took the opportunity with his team and some agents, fleeced everyone and believe me, there were close to 25 jeeps moving into and out of the sanctuary at a time as if it was a military camp.. obviously animals don't stay close to human habitat and none were there... whatever deer/elephant you could see also weren't doing wild things.. they behave like they are domesticated.

Probably a lesson that.. Its high time we understand and respect animal spaces and don't "tour" them but only trek/safari them in small groups.

It has been a while since I updated my thoughts here.. can't say "Very" busy.. but was kind of busy..
@work,
@wayanad (vacationing a few weeks back),
@home (with eating, sleeping and ending up a bit fat.. missing life that should have lived better.. like the guy in the movie 'Click' feels like)

Overall the usual stuff...

I couldn't update the blog also because there was a bug in the way I had setup the blog (did anyone say .'as always').. and rather than fixing it, i seem to have successfully found time to upgrade my blog's base technology a bit. If you are a techy, I now use the latest version of MT ver 5+.. and it already looks cool with the blog editing environment though you people are still cursed to looking at my blog's design as it was earlier (I will try to work on this part .. by probably putting up some wayanad photos)..

and make it up for the missing updates on this blog.

And yes.. thanks if you are reading here.. without thinking this blog was abandoned without updates. You Rock! for still looking up on me here.