Sidha Sada

Review or advertisement?

Wed, 13 Jun 2012 19:53:06 +0530

I remember reading Overdrive, an automobile magazine, 10 years ago with such zeal that i would go from start to end without putting it down. Now as i see the magazine and many such other auto magazine, i wonder where is that quality gone?

I remember Adil Jal’s, editor of overdrive, editorial and columns which were a pleasure to read and brought each and every automobile details in a very crisp and cliche free manner.

Niw a days the write-up are full of clichés and repeatative phrases; what is surprising that these magazines sound more of a PR piece than actual review.

There are trade compulsions for these magazines, they heavily depend on ad sales for their commercials. But that doesn’t make them free of their obligation to readers who is not only going to pay Rs 100 or more but also may depend on the magazine for their automobile buying decision.

I beleive that in this scenario, readers should be cautious in taking these magazines as main source of their buying decisions. Here independent forums like teambhp.com are doing a terrific job. These forums are a collaboration of real users, they are independent of any commercial influence. Moreover the quality i see at teamBHP is awesome, with rigorous membership selection process and strict moderation.

With commercial magazines and review sites are becoming more of a PR tool for comoanies, we need ourselves to collaborate and come up with more such forums for all sorts of products, till then we need to exercise caution.

AirDroid - an awesome android app

Wed, 09 May 2012 21:57:00 +0530

Would not you like to browse your android phone from your desk, when not on move, type sms by a full fledged computer key board, see your entire call logs, read-write-delete your sms, transfer files wirelessly by drag and drop. And every other function you can think off? Yes, that is what exactly this Android App - AirDroid does.

How it works:- Just install the app on android phone, follow the instruction, open a web browser on computer, type web.airdroid.com and inter the PIN, and there you are with all the goodies of phone inside your browser. No signup or extra instillation on PC is needed.

It is really a breeze, no cumbersome PC suits etc, and the UI is just wonderful.

Rating - top ten app for me as of now, 9 star out of 10.

(Note - and yes i wish i could be paid by the developer for this review :)

This is the home screen of my iPhone, just having 8 apps on home...

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 21:17:53 +0530

This is the home screen of my iPhone, just having 8 apps on home screen, those are frequently used. Second screen consists of next frequently used apps and so on.

So what is Path? Path app was in a storm over privacy issue, as...

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 19:13:12 +0530

So what is Path?

Path app was in a storm over privacy issue, as it used to backup entire contact data of a user’s iPhone, to it’s own server.

I kind of explored it today, taking various stages of sign up and capturing screen shots (I have made a collage of the same above). Storing the contacts is something which we accept or not but every other app on our smart phone is doing it. What was alarming about the Path that it intends to chronicle my daily life in minutes - when I ate, where I went, when I slept, which place I am in right now. That is alarming fir it could be a safety hazard. And on other note it could be a hazard for subordinates having snooping boss, and for those as well who have a suspicious spouse or partner.

So beware before you open your life to Path, nothing remains hidden.

Best wireless internet in Mumbai

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 17:40:56 +0530

Best wireless internet in Mumbai:

So which wireless internet connection works best in Mumbai ? Considering the fact that it should be fast and reliable both. The main contenders are Reliance 3G, Reliance Netconnect, Vodafone 3G & Netcruise, Tata Photon and Airtel 3G. The best option based on my personal usage seems to be Reliance 3G. Read on here to find more:-

Vodafone Netcruise– Vodafone has recently launched this service, which is powered by MTS and is CDMA EVDO service.

………………………..

Reliance 3G– It offers wide coverage and awesome speed, one of its hardware available with 21Mbps capability has been giving me a speed upto 10 Mbps. Simply the fastest……. …….. ……

Final verdict :- you can choose either Reliance 3G or Vodafone netcruise, depending upon coverage in you area and your need for speed……………..

Read Full Post here

A Biker is zooming on Palm Beach road of navi mumbai, almost...

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 12:35:38 +0530

A Biker is zooming on Palm Beach road of navi mumbai, almost twilight time and sun is on his right hand, rays are kissing his helmet.

Shot by iPhone4, edited in camera+.

flowers are colourful and their impact on our senses are...

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 11:56:00 +0530

flowers are colourful and their impact on our senses are amazing. Their colour gives us peace, calmness and energy. Flowers are god’s finest creations

Evernote has a competitor

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 20:28:43 +0530

Evernote is good and people swear by it, recently i came through a new app - Springpad . It is a visual treat, clutter-free and i have completely abandoned evernote. Best thing is that Springpad has no bandwidth limitation for free account and it also allows me to add a reminder.

Here is a post i wrote a “compare post - Evernote Vs Springpad”

Where Springpad scores for me is following:-

1. Beautiful graphic interface, with graphical notebook representation.

(Springpad) (Evernote)

2. Visual simplicity to add the notes quickly as well as notebooks.

3. And what wins me over is to add REMINDERS to do notes in Springpad.

4. Variety of Note types in Springpad is amazing, from Books collection to invoices to.

Via SidhaSada.Wordpress.com

Subramaniam Swamy’s need and source of survival.

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 17:28:06 +0530

Subramaniam Swamy’s need and source of survival.

I must say that this Ashoka Hindi keyboard available on galaxy...

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 17:20:02 +0530

I must say that this Ashoka Hindi keyboard available on galaxy note is much better than iOS Hindi keyboard.

The layout is much better, it follows the actual pattern of the Hindi alphabet sequence. That way it makes typing easier.

Second great feature is the easy toggle option between Hindi and English.

Above all the next word prediction is awesome so that our typing effort is optimized.

A moon from a iPhone camera. Looks like one of the white dot...

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 19:40:50 +0530

A moon from a iPhone camera. Looks like one of the white dot amongst colourful dots of vehicle tail lights and street lamps. But it is easily identifiable however bad the snap may be. A moon in any avatar is soothing and calming.

Rahul Gandhi has been the target whole day for twitter janta...

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 22:57:37 +0530

Rahul Gandhi has been the target whole day for twitter janta jokes, for BJP for sections of media. But what people tend to ignore is his easy and straightforward way to take things in his stride.

He has been gracious in defeat and has got the mettle to come forth and admit candidly in front of media that what went wrong.

This video shows him addressing the media and accepting his responsibility. Such politicians are rare in this hypocrite political sphere.

http://minimalmoviepostersindia.tumblr.com/

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 23:06:58 +0530

http://minimalmoviepostersindia.tumblr.com/:

This Tumblr has got awesome collection of minimalistic poster designs of Indian Movies (predominantly Hindi films).

Mind blowing concept and creativity.

Paan Singh Tomar (the film) - A mile stone already

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 14:58:09 +0530

It has been 4 day since I watched Paan Singh Tomar, and am still living the movie. The way people have taken it and word of mouth has propagated the rise of cinema at box office, is itself a strong display of movie’s potential.

Acting by Irrfan Khan is out of this world, he is such an easy going yet intense actor. And twitter has adopted the film, general average cinema goers, they are promoting the film; with some help from people like @ankash1009 and others.

I also wrote a post about it :

“हासिल” से ले के, “वार्रिओर” और मकबूल या फिर “यह साली ज़िन्दगी”, ये कहना अतिश्योक्ति नहीं होगी की इर्र्फान एक असाधारण और सरल अभिनेता हैं| असाधारण और सरल होना एक साथ, ये आसन नहीं होता पर फिर इर्र्फान वैसे ही है, जैसे की “George Nicholsan” और “Leonardo DiCaprio”.

And some tweets about it

@ankash1009 What a powerful film, powerful character, go watch the film.. turn it into what no-one believed it could be..#paansinghtomar

And I say if you have not seen the movie yet, go ahead and watch at the earliest opportunity; and to compensate the loss done to yourself you should watch it twice or thrice !!

In the praise of Samsung Galaxy Note

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 19:22:17 +0530

Android phones have been a matter of ridicule for iOS users; specially the Galaxy series produced by Samsung and galaxy note has been at the front of this ridicule, specially by people vouching for finesse of iPad.

Let me also state that I am also a long time fan of iOS, have 3 iOS devices - iPhone 4S, iPad 2, iPod touch. iPhone has been my primary mobile phone and I love it.

There was some void which I always felt is not being filled by my iPhone or iPad. That void was having a device not too big to not fit in my pocket and not to small that I can’t read a book comfortably. Besides it would have been great if this fusion kind of device could provide me some really needed feature which my i-devices lacked. These features are having a file system to directly attach to emails, a straight forward sync and access to google docs, an expandable memory, and I’d there was a possibility to attach external memory that would be a huge bonus. When I looked around Note was fitting the bill. Then I am also an apple fanboy, and thought looking at my twitter gods that using Android device diminishes the snob and posh value of one’s tech character. I was for long occupied by these feelings, while I kept looking at both positive and negative feedbacks on galaxy note. Finally I tore off my pseudo poshness and bought a galaxy note and i am hooked to it.

So what I found good with Galaxy Note, that changed my heart ? Many things in fact, best thing being its size, I can carry it every where in my pocket and also can read comfortably for long hours. And-

1. Screen Amoled one is gorgeous and the original diary like leather cover just looks awesome in white colour.

2. It offers downlink upto 21.1 Mbps.

3. The android market is good but also lacks the standard of iOS’s apps store but with editors choice filter you can directly go to real good apps.

4. Android 2.3 is more evolved than its predecessor hence less buggy.

5. The killer is s-pen which offers real world written notes; you can directly sync it to google docs and export in many formats.

6. Access to google account and apps is seamless.

7. Battery life is great, at 2500 mah it offers 1 full day with heavy usage in real world.

And now some goodies :-

1. Buy a USB kit for Rs 650 and you can directly mount your pen drive and use all data on it.

2. Download Box from app store and sign up, you get free cloud storage of 50GB for life (offer only for android phones).

There are some downside also, which still doesn’t diminishes the usability of Note

1. Camera is terrible even though it says 8MP. Shutter speed is as slow as Ex PM Atalji’s speech.

2. App store isn’t of same standard as iOS platform.

That is it, everything else is just wonderful, having used it for last 4 days it has me hooked to it.

this is all about my Jeevan Sangeet (song of my life)

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 13:55:15 +0530

this is all about my Jeevan Sangeet (song of my life)

Behind Bangladesh’s Failed Coup Plot: A History of Violence

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 22:42:51 +0530

Behind Bangladesh’s Failed Coup Plot: A History of Violence:

Ishaan Tharoor, time.com

The Bangladeshi military announced Jan. 19 it had foiled a coup plot to unseat the democratically-elected government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. An army spokesman pinned the “heinous conspiracy” on mid-ranking officers “with extrem…

Bangladesh’s almost Pakistani act !

BASF, Philips team up to create transparent OLED car roof

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 22:39:21 +0530

BASF, Philips team up to create transparent OLED car roof:

Daniel Cooper, engadget.com

If you’re the sort who wished your car had a transparent roof when the rain falls down but want some shielding when the sun’s up (or, you know, vice versa) then BASF have good news for you. It’s showing off the transparent OLED…

Now what is next, even cars can have OLEd roof very soon

चुप रहो या बोलो

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 14:16:58 +0530

चुप रहो या बोलो, कल्याण नहीं तुम्हारा
कुछ कहेंगे छुपा रूस्तम और कुछ आवारा ।।
खुश करोगे एक को, होगा नाराज दूसरा
पेण्डुलम बन जाओगे, डालोगे दो किनारा ।।
अच्छा है कान मूँद लो, मन का लो सहारा
बस काम मे रमे रहो, होगा तभी गुज़ारा ।।

something to say

Sat, 24 Dec 2011 23:15:00 +0530

जीवन-संगीत

मन के भाव बदल के मेरे गीत बन जाते हैं,

जीवन के सारे अनुभव संगीत बन जाते हैं |

पता नहीं कब कैसे, सपने में जो देखा,

मानस-पटल से वो उतर बन शब्दों की एक रेखा |

जीवन भर गाने को, होठो पे अंकित हो जाते हैं||

मन के भाव बदल के मेरे गीत बन जाते हैं ||

बचपन की सब यादे कब मन के एक कोने से,

आ के छूती कभी कभी, हौले से और चुपके से |

दृश्य भूत के तभी सभी जीवित चलचित्र बन जाते हैं||

मन के भाव बदल के मेरे गीत बन जाते हैं ||

करवाहट सी भी घुल के सोचो को तीखा करती,

जो जीवन में खाए ठोकर उन घावों को सींचा करती |

पर घावों के टीस यही, ह्रदय मजबूत कर जाते हैं||

मन के भाव बदल के मेरे गीत बन जाते हैं ||

अक्सर जीवन के दोराहे पर, ये गीत राह दिखाते,

सब बुरा भला कह ईश कृपा, मन को संबल बंधवाते |

जब कभी अकेला होता हूँ, बन के मीत आ जाते हैं ||

मन के भाव बदल के मेरे गीत बन जाते हैं ||