RSS woes

When I had a Mac (ah, the good old days!), I used NetNewsWire. Brilliant. Intuitive. Simple. (While on the subject, Mac users can refer this list for some great tools). Since I moved to Windows 7 (stop laughing), I have intermittently used Google Reader, NewsGator and assorted other services. Continue reading »

Angry birds hit the streets!

Addicted to Angry Birds? How would you like to see them come to life and punish the living daylights out of them pigs? Well, they did! [Wikipedia]

Via Trak.in

For all those who came in late, here’s what the game is all about:

Fact of the matter…

Is that IE sucks.

Yes, we live with this every day. Please move on to Firefox or Chrome or Safari or heck, even Opera.

Sincere appeal. Now I’ll get back to sulking over IE.

Time for a change?

What factors can trigger the need for a change? I’ve been using a Blackberry 8900 for a year now. Lovely phone. Totally swear by it. Unfortunately, there have been issues syncing it. Earlier, with a Mac I used. And now again, with a Windows 7 computer I have.

To elaborate, the BB Sync doesn’t play well with Outlook in Win7. Some dll and fixmapi stuff I don’t care to learn about. So the question: what next?

Android is appealing. Just need to confirm if it works with Push mail. Can’t live without that now… or maybe (gasp!) Windows mobile? Hm. It’s possible.

HTC HD2… any thoughts?

Oh, woe.

As mentioned previously, I have recently moved home and office. And it wasn’t a pleasant experience. What took the cake, however, is the misinformation from Tikona Digital Networks and the subsequent lack of customer service.

Without getting into details (believe me, I can!), let me just say that stay away from these guys. I was committed a “Wi-Bro” connection for the 20 computers at office. So a tech guy came over on Saturday and installed it. On Monday, when we installed their dialler on all the machines, they wouldn’t log on.

Inquiries with the rather helpless customer care revealed that the router can only connect to 5 machines at a time. Well.

Then the usual routine of me calling up all and sundry I had been in touch with happened. A total of 4 hours was spent talking on the phone. As the situation stands right now, there is still no resolution. Only 5 computers are connected and the others are mere spectators. Computers and people.

At the time of installation, the engineer connected my computer and promptly proceeded to show off the speed of the connection. He launched the built-in speed test from the dialler. An astonishing speed of 818kbps was delivered. So I decided to crosscheck. And logged on (with him bearing witness) to speedtest.net. And an astonishing speed of 315kbps was delivered. Well, well.

He immediately proceeded to disrepute the service claiming it was unverified and that he didn’t know where their servers were. And insisted that the speed was 818kbps! Hm.

As it stands right now (about 6.45pm on Monday), I am on the verge of disconnection. Awaiting revert from Airtel, Tata and others. Soon. I shall have broadband. Again.

Makes me want to shout, really.

w00t!

And that’s why one feels like upgrading.

The Dell

I’ve recently upgraded (?) to a Dell Studio 15. And the Windows Live Writer is perhaps the first piece of software that I have always wanted to use.

So I am using it.

And I have to say the 15” screen is quite a positive change. Not to say I’m not missing my Mac already, but I am kicked about the 4GB RAM and 500GB HDD…

Unboxing pics to follow (yes, I know that’s seriously geeky, but so it is!)

Electronics shopping in Pune

1. Some of the comments in this article may well apply to stores of the chains mentioned in other cities as well, but my experiences are limited to the specific outlets I visited. I don’t aim to generalize my opinions for the entire chain.

2. The disclaimer above is to ensure that none of those big stores sue my a** off!

Now that we’re done with disclaimers (and their disclaimers!), it’s time to tell you the dirty truth about electronics store chains in Pune.

Recently, I have been around looking for an iPod docking station, a laptop, an LCD/Plasma TV and cell phones. I have bought all these items from different stores. That itself begs the question: what are these massive one-stop stores good for?

Yes, the hint is at Croma. As someone who takes his electronics quite seriously, I do expect store salesmen to be well informed. I don’t expect them to know all the minute details, but their suggestions should mean something. And at no store in Pune have I found this. The obvious incentive for them to push a brand/product is the commission they or the store stands to earn. In this regard, Vijay Sales (Sadhu Vaswani Chowk) is perhaps the best of the lot. Continue reading »

The iPhone Ad You’ll never see

Dang. Someone’s done a terrific job of screwing over the iPhone. And iPhone fans, don’t get all upset. Have a sense of humor. After all, it is true!

Mac versus Windows

To many, there is no winner in this contest. Mac wins hands down. And I belong to this group. I am an Apple Fanboy! But ever since Windows 7 Beta (W7B) hit the scene, I’ve been wavering in my loyalty. And it’s not only about the looks that W7B has brought. Which, for the record, are quite slick.

One of biggest problems with Windows was that BSOD. And so far, I’ve seen only one instance of it come up since the Beta was announced about a couple of weeks ago. Not bad!

Continue reading »