Archive for the 'Technology' Category

Rainwear for your cell phones

charukesi June 23rd, 2005

Priceless tips on how to protect your phone during the monsoon - and textually says this is the third article in a week on waterproofing mobiles…

The article in cybernoon which textually has linked to begins with, A mobile phone is a cherished possession of most people these days. For many, they are second only to oxygen.

Now relax your muscles, take a deep breath and fill your lungs with pure cellphone…

Many prefer these covers as they can be thrown off, once the monsoon retreats.

Oh, and here I was, all set to carefully wrap up the plastic covers in er, more plastic and store them in the bottom drawer of my cupboard - with mothballs - for use next monsoon…

(On a related - not really related but what the heck - note, why does a name like cybernoon remind me of Chewing Gum Digest that Calvin subscribes to?)

I have seen doggie raincoats and thought that was the absurdest limit - will we now see cute shiny vinyl cellphone raincoats?

ugh, she is so not cool - her mobile is still wearing last season’s colours…

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I have filed this post under technology - apologies, I simply do not have a category called ‘fashion’ on this blog.

Business networking through IM

charukesi June 14th, 2005

The social software weblog has an interesting piece on IM as a business networking tool

I work from home as a consultant and this line from the post describes my feeling for IM best - I fall squarely into the IM at work category, and I love the efficiency, the searchability, and the ease with which I can multitask 10 or more conversations simultaneously. I’m also a big fan of the way IM mediates presence — my “presence” there doesn’t require my full, undivided attention the way a phone call does, yet I can be instantly available for real-time discussion as needed (a clear advantage over e-mail).

Real-time, convenient and moderately personal - perfect…

And on a personal front, I find friends from all over the world updating me on the latest in their lives - from a new job to a recent break-up - and all without exchanging a word - sanam bewafa as IM status is enough, don’t you think - for me to reach out and say - split again? And I write this, I see ‘Crashed lap-top’ from Korea and ‘Beer is hard work’ from a friend working in a liquor company in Dubai…

Another thought I have been having for a while - I find most bloggers using a gmail account for their blog correspondence - maybe because of the huge storage space - it would be interesting for google to launch an IM service - how would that connect bloggers - would it add a different dimension to blogging interactions?

Er, my msn handle says - Say NO to deadlines - excuse me, I need to go change that now - or restrict clients to yahoo…

Learning to surf the net before learning to read

charukesi June 7th, 2005

More Nursery School Children Going Online .

Before they can even read, almost one in four children in nursery school is learning a skill that even some adults have yet to master: using the Internet. Some 23 percent of children in nursery school — kids age 3, 4 or 5 — have gone online, according to the Education Department. By kindergarten, 32 percent have used the Internet, typically under adult supervision.

On the one hand, children are curious - about the world, about everything… and on the other, surfing the internet is largely intuitive… especially for this generation of children born into technology… A world moving towards a constructivist approach to learning - where the learner constructs knowledge according to his or her own understanding of the concept - construction moves the focus of learning from the teacher to the taught.

In India, infothelas and NIIT’s hole in the wall experiment…

More for less from Xenitis?

charukesi June 7th, 2005

This report from The Week says Xenitis Computers’ PC (AAmar PC in the east, AApna PC in the north, AAmchi PC in the west and NaMMa PC in the south) sells for Rs.10,000 - while the high end model is priced at Rs.25,000.

Apart from the current pricing, two more things are striking : the company’s aim to be the first Indian MNC in computer hardware manufacturing - the chairman, Mr. Ghosh is confident that Xenitis’s low-cost computer will help it emerge as the first Indian MNC in computer hardware manufacturing. “The Indian computer market is growing at an annual rate of 35 per cent,” he said. “Every third year, the market doubles in size. I am sure that, by 2010, Xenitis’s turnover will cross Rs 5,000 crore. Already, we have captured a sizeable chunk of the market in Bangladesh. In June, we will start shipping our products to Dubai and in September, we will sell AApna PC in Russia.”

And price control in the market - He said MNCs, which monopolised the Indian hardware market for long, were feeling the pinch. “Our brand has compelled most of them to reduce the price of their products by at least 25 per cent,” said Ghosh. “When our products from the new factory hit the market, the artificial price structure maintained by them for so long will collapse. My aim is to sell a PC at a price which is at least 10 per cent less than our existing cheapest set. In this regard, my idols are Henry Ford and Ratan Tata.”

From Business Line - Xenitis Group launches sub-10k PC, to set up manufacturing unit

Then what is all the fuss about the Mobilis please? (I now sit back and wait for Dheepak / Abi to answer this one - am genuinely puzzled - and I have always said I was tech-handicapped - am fascinated more by the economics aspects of this)

Also The Rs 10,000 solution? Low-cost PCs are the rage. While the price barrier has been broken, what about functionality? My understanding of this is that while such low priced computers may not provide the most sophisticated programs, they are adequate for basic computer functions like word processing and internet browsing - these computers are targeted at low end users in any case…

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And as I was surfing, I came across this - If the automobile had followed the same development cycle as the computer, a Rolls-Royce would today cost $100, get a million miles per gallon, and explode once a year, killing everyone inside - Robert X. Cringely, InfoWorld magazine

Mobile saas-bahus

charukesi June 4th, 2005

Imagine seeing your favourite serial even as you drive home from office - now not only can you be involved in accidents talking on your mobile as you drive, you can actually plead guilty of being distracted by the sound of slap number two.

How would you like to get your favourite TV channels streaming on your mobile handsets real time? - Business Line reports TV content set to FLO(w) on to mobile handsets

There is a saying in Tamil - kasikku ponalum karmam vidadu (roughly meaning, even if you go to Kasi, you cannot shake off your sins) - now you can take your karmams, I mean kyonkis with you wherever you travel…. Enjaaayyy.

SMS for human rights

charukesi May 31st, 2005

I had blogged about how rumours spread through SMS had hampered a health survey in Bahrain.

Here is a post from smartmobs on how SMS alerts were used as human rights tactic.

Golden Misabiko, a journalist in the Democratic Republic of Congo, was arrested and imprisoned without any charge in January 2001. It was feared he would be tortured. Amnesty International sent out an Urgent Action to members all over the world. We, at the Dutch section, sent out a text message to 8,000 cell-phone users in the Netherlands who participate in our new text-message alert network. Within 48 hours we sent a protest fax with thousands of signatures to the authorities in the DRC. Golden was released in May 2001. He had not been tortured. Golden wrote to Amnesty, “When I heard in prison that Amnesty campaigned for my release I knew: Je vais sortir (I will be released).” And so it happened. Amnesty International has found a new “weapon” to use in its battle against torture: cell-phone text messages.

Read more here…

India going mobile…

charukesi May 29th, 2005

India. Election queries by SMS - quotes textually.org from an article in The Telegraph, Those hunting for their names on the electoral rolls or clueless about their polling station can get all the information by sending a message from cellphones to a designated number when the next round of revision of electoral rolls takes place in September.

My first thought is, this opens up a whole new world of rigging and booth-capturing techniques, but then pessimism never got me anywhere… The most important benefit of the SMS query system is that it will save voters a lot of time. They don’t have to go to local offices to check the electoral list. It is expected to be accepted well chiefly because of its simplicity.

In another article, agencyfaqs quotes Maran - Low-cost handset to spur new wave of mobile telephony - BPL Mobile will introduce a low-priced handset package next week. The package, at a price of Rs 1,499, aims to reduce the entry barrier for new customers.

Yesterday, Dina was talking about some villages she visited in UP recently which did not have even basic facilities like electricity or telephone lines, but they had a few mobile phones each… Will such a low cost mobile package lead to a new communication revolution in rural India - mobile phone kiosks as the STD-booth equivalent?

Read also, Villages may get Net, telephony on cable from the Business Standard. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) is planning a convergence of voice data services. It is expected to send a proposal to the government for allowing cable operators in rural areas to offer basic telephony and Internet services.

The new bush telegraph

charukesi May 24th, 2005

In a strongly worded post*, Dilip raises some uncomfortable issues here starting with What happens when bloggers post lies, whether knowingly or not? What happens when they post rumours, whether knowingly or not? What happens when they post unsubstantiated assumptions, whether knowingly or not? What happens when they call others names?

Here is a report from textually.org on how rumours spread through sms hampered a health survey in Bahrain… Word went round that the volunteers conducting the survey were forcibly injecting unsuspecting people in their homes. As a result hundreds of householders literally slammed the door on surveyors, who were just trying to find out how best to help them, volunteers said yesterday.

And of course all of us have received scores of messages on email ranging from the mildly absurd to the really scary (or potentially scary, if they did not come from unidentified people who claim to have your best interests at heart)…

Does it look like technology only makes name-calling and rumour-mongering easier - accountability be damned?

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*for Dilip, that is, I have only seen his Buddhaesque calm so far!

Monetizing RSS feeds

charukesi May 18th, 2005

Are you one of those people who uses an RSS feed not just for the convenience but also to avoid any intrusive advertising - that otherwise pops up on ther websites?

Not for long, maybe…. Here are some ideas from the napsterization blog on business models for RSS

Dave Morgan here says Analysts and pundits have predicted for years RSS use could eclipse the Web or e-mail as the primary method for receiving and viewing content by some consumers. Yet many in the industry haven’t paid those predictions much heed. Given RSS’ acceleration over the past year or so, those predictions may not be wrong. And if RSS is here to stay, can RSS advertising be far behind?

I was having this discussion with my husband (who works with an internet advertising agency) on whether RSS sites should allow advertising - although I that with suspect Google Ad Sense - even as a test - now on some RSS feed sites, this is only the beginning… There is a lot of debate in the blogworld already on this…. Ok, so RSS Advertising is Here, Whether You Like it Or Not
What do you think?

And while on RSS, here is some blasphemy coming up - I admit they are convenient and allow me to keep track of many many more blogs than I would be able to visit each day - but they are just no fun - I think they are nothing more than aggregators (ok, I know this is just what they are supposed to be but what the heck, I did say I ws old-fashioned and liked reading letters)…. I like visiting websites / blogs…. I like seeing the template - any changes the owner makes to the blog - and the comments (there we go again on comments! but how many comments feeds can you subscribe to - I don’t) - and the links on the side-bar that the blog owner sees fit to add -I like to imagine that they tell me more about the blogger - along with the posts, of course!

And as I just finished posting this, I found this - Google Opens Up Beta of AdSense for Feeds.

No books, only e-pages

charukesi May 17th, 2005

Do you enjoy reading from a monitor as much as you do from a page? Personaly, I have never been able to sit through an e-book - ok, so I am old fashioned - I still enjoy reading letters much much more than e-mails…

Read this - College Libraries Set Aside Books in a Digital Age
(Link through Blog of a bookslut)

Students attending the University of Texas at Austin will find something missing from the undergraduate library this fall.

Books.

By mid-July, the university says, almost all of the library’s 90,000 volumes will be dispersed to other university collections to clear space for a 24-hour electronic information commons, a fast-spreading phenomenon that is transforming research and study on campuses around the country.

The University maintains that the books are only being ‘moved’ (as opposed to what, destroyed?) to make way for better systems - easier and round-the-clock access to students…

Can books ever be replaced?

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(Please notice I have very reluctantly placed this post under ‘Technology’ - where else will it fit? Under ‘Society and Development’? No, I should think)

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