BlackBerry, The Need of the Moment

I bought a used blackberry from E-bay the other day, and was I surprised by what I got. The description said

"Sparingly Used" which means(on marketplace sites) "I beat the crap out of this phone, its slow and ugly now" and the features "sparingly" work.

Anyways, Like I said, I'm very happy with the buy, saving money is good.

So, now that I have this device in my hand, I don't really know what to do with it. Do I really get important emails ?
No !! Not at work atleast.

For the record its a BlackBerry 8800, and my sole reason for buying it was the way it looks, so I don't mind not getting emails on it. But then, what about the universal question to any Blackberry owner...

What is your BB Pin ???

Damn, No Data Plan, No BB pin.

Quick comes my answer "Dude, its a business phone(looking at my phone, pretending to check emails and messages, in short act busy), I use the BBM only for my clients,I'm getting another one for personal use I'm working on it ;-)

So, The question remains, Emails on phone, really ? I am purposely not mentioning the "surfing internet" part,
because there is no way i'm gonna surf the net on this tiny screen.

Emails, well ,I have better options around, I have a netbook, an iPad and a Laptop.

Although, I confess, checking emails on the BlackBerry makes "emails" look important, and replying to them makes it "High Priority Work", not to forget the rudeness of constantly checking things on the BlackBerry when you have people talking to you. Great Seinfeld bit on this !!

All in all, I would need the emails on my Blackberry for that one moment when I don't have access to the internet and have an important email to check. I have had moments in the past where emails have driven me crazy and I have driven miles to take care of my business. So, I guess it all comes down to "that" moment. If you can handle it, stick to your generic qwerty phone. Oh, I almost forgot, I also bought it beause of the qwerty keypad.
My last phone an HP iPaq was good, not good enough(was expecting an OS upgrade from Microsoft,,I love upgrades !!! didn't get any)

All in all, I have the Blackberry, might as well enjoy the "High Priority Work"

021

Forever Young

Apple Software Update Icon

I'm not sure if I have shared my liking for "updating softwares" on my operating system. Be it  Mac/Windows/iPad/iPhone/Blackberry, there is something about the "New Updates are available" popup that makes my
world rock.

The softwares manage to keep themselves young, forever young. Got the iPad ?? Here you go, an update to keep your iTunes look good on the big screen, turn the full screen on, and now you can view the lyrics, the album art, all at the touch of your finger.

I am updating my office Windows 7 operating system as we speak, and am really excited about using the new IE 9, heard its got the look and feel of Google Chrome(I wouldn't be as excited, if Chrome didn't crash everytime I run a debugging application, and RockMelt.. bah..let's just leave it there).

Windows 7 is alright, I mean Windows has bought new clothes(funky ones) but is rapping the same lyrics, not a surprise to the Windows users. They all know, Windows Xp works the best.

I am a little disappointed with iTunes, I expected them to get better(bigger they have, huge download file with
every update) and change the interface, I haven't liked it since day 1. Its too intuitive(read complex) for a first
time user, same with Windows Media Player.

Mozilla and Real Player are two of my favorite updates, something new to offer everytime. Real Player, especially when it provides update option to the user.

Talking about updates, it is not everytime that I like updates, Winamp is one software where I would prefer the updates to happen on the backend and not on the UI. Even with the swanky(desperate looking, Gawky) skins, I prefer winamp classic.

RIP no more !!
PS : Forever Young Sound Track JayZ Ft Mr. Hudson....Peaceful
021

Home Grown Tweets

Interesting Icon

A chilly winter morning at New Delhi. I arrive at office and say "Good Morning" to slick run. Up comes me email and the tweetdeck comes up with 40 tweet updates. I follow couple of Marketing gurus on twitter expecting some good gyaan from them, or maybe a tip for the keen stock trader in me. A new Product launch, or a slight hush hush discussion about it makes the stock for that company go up higher.

Anyways, This morning I found myself in the midde of soup, a couple of these gurus had replied to random business magazine that they follow on twitter, so all that see now is a series of abnoxious RT and replies, of things that I have no idea about.

Nevertheless, to keep the spirit Retweets and Replies alive, I skimmed through the tweets, yet again failing to
understand everything that they were talking about "RT @___ Yes, It is possible @___ @___ @____" A series of snails is all I could make out.

I remember the good old days on twitter where tweets were all about, @____ attended "Emerging Trends Seminar" . I really enjoyed these, they were precise, had enough information, and kept me on the top of emerging trends or any other happenings in the IT or Marketing world.

Don't get me wrong, I am not against the RTs or the "@". Infact, I myself have a series of them going on but to fill  your tweet page with these rather frequently is not going to take you anywhere.

Another trend that is catching up on twitter is the "participate in discussion" where twitter users hashtag and
tweet at a particular user for example "@marketing today" .
I tried following these too, until it ended up with some "yes/No" and edited tweets.

Let get back on the wagon of Home Grown Tweets.

Your Thoughts
Your Blogs
Your Advice

PS : @marketing gurus, Thanks for sharing all the information, have learnt a lot. But am loosing interest, please make us(me) a part of your "open" discussions off twitter.



021

Location Based Services : My Tryst with FourSquare

I must have checked in every single day at the Starbucks in Hackensack, just to get the feeling of being the Mayor of a rather popular coffee place, ah well, also for the free coffee they have for His Highness THE MAYOR.

To rewind it a little, Location based services is not nothing that just started out of nowhere, Like any other popular "Network" on the internet, this one too is based on general things we do in life; err Facebook = Remember those building meeting ? You see a nice girl you ask around, and you get to know her "relationship status", "Her Profile", "likes/dislikes" . Umm its pretty much the same, just online now.

Location based services; When I was a freshman, I remember asking people for the best Pizza joint around, the unanimous answer was "Varsity Pizza's and Subs", the answer stays the same except that now I find it on FourSquare with a million reviews which not only tell me where to go, but what to order and how to carry extra paper towels for the "Grease Truck" Pie.

2010 was a big year for location based services, with 4square adding more features to its current portal, and the ability to share(impart) knowledge to your followers on other social networks. But, is this all we can do ?

The answer is NO, what happened to knowing about the new sale in town, how good would it be to be informed about ongoing sales in the mall not by the weird announcements and definitely not by the fliers, but by getting them on your mobile devices. Like every other techie out there, I have some plans for location based services too and by god's grace would be putting them to action very soon.

Location based services are no longer about where you are, but about how your location can help make your life simpler today. I need a haircut, and Prime Cuts at Essex street is PRIME !! I added a tip on 4square. Whoa !! I think I just made life simpler for all the newbies at Hack n Sack ;-)
021

The expert novice

I have a Dell Inspiron 1200 laptop which was gifted to me by my sister in 2003. It has a cracked screen, some water damage on the screen, referred to as "dhabba" by the common people.

It was until sometime back my "work" computer. My older posts can make you understand why I am never able to quit on my computers. Nevertheless, day 1 at work, I was told to bring a laptop till I was assigned one by the company. I sat at my desk, opened the laptop bag, and there it was, the old, but shiny Dell(logo) Inspiron.

"Is that older than you ? " hah sarcasm.

After giving the regular tilt head(you'll run out of those comments soon buddy) and smile I turned it on, almost forgetting the fact that Dell doesn't be as not really believe in making long lasting batteries (not that I have a problem with that, I lou Dell). Plugged in, all good to go, the grey button is pressed, and we wait... then it's pressed again. By this time, Mr sarcasm had lost interest in the device "bahut time ke baad on kiye ho, charge nahi hoga, battery bhi kharaab ho sakta hai " ... Tilt and Smile .

I turned it on last week, it was all good, damn now I won't be able to access "those" sites at work, this is unacceptable, work on it now !!

Aha, its just the power cord not plugged in well to the laptop, that was easy. The grey button is pressed, no wait this time. The blue dell splash screen appears, ah beauty !

Starts loading Windows XP, and here comes the desktop, black wallpaper, everything is hunky dory, but then.. it happened.

AVG opens its giant full screen Console, and sarcasm guy goes "dude this thing can make heads turn".

My self respect had taken enough, and now was armed to fire back at a guy using an iPhone to play games and would type on the computer one-finger-at-a-time. How can you use all yur fingers, whoz gonna look at the keys to be pressed Dumbo !! .

So, I turned around and asked him if he was in the mood for some technical gyaan, No I did not wait for him to answer.

I simple stated the fact, that any dumbo could use a "newer" computer, since its all about point and click especially when all you do is use MS Office to make reports. You have to be an expert to manage with what you have and come up good results if not better. If I can't the upper, the bottom left of my screen I would scroll, I would minimize and I would not open 20 windows so that I don't have to open the again in the evening or for that fact next week.

The dell is a 1.2Ghz 512mb RAM , 10GB usable machine. And by the end of my tenure there, I realized how effortlessly did I work on that laptop and how well behaved the laptop was. I'm sure a "newbie" would have lost hope and put something like that in the store, but only if you know of it, will you be able to fully use it.

My point here is quite similar to my past post on a similar topic, it's all about YOU, if you believe that the laptop can do the work, it will. If you believe the old Aiwa music system will play your cassettes after its been cleaned well by you.. it Will.

Stop quitting on technology and start believing in yourself !! Bits and Bytes make this world better every day.
021

IT Security : FrontFoot

IT security 10 years from now was just a way to prevent generic intrusion to happen.A good anti virus was sufficient for keeping your "resources" safe, I would term this phase as the Defensive Ops, where all work was done only to defend oneself from any attempts of intrusion. No daily/hourly definition updates or "Security Packs" install were to be done then.

Web 1.0, With the growing popularity and usage of Internet, the data exchange which was till yesterday only local changed to national and slowly worldwide. Users started discovering more than one ways of getting results from a program, and maybe tweak(overclock) it a little to look through the wall.

Curiosity is the mother of Invention; With a little peek of the other side, User's realized there is much more there than here. The Hell and the Golden Egg story was seen in its Y2K avatar this time, with a twist.
As newer discoveries were made, the Internet helped "interested" users informed of the developments and contribute to them in any which way. Not all attempts to cross the wall were successful, but the "fight" was getting interesting.

The attempts started becoming stronger, and finally the master key was found, that weak back door;a crack in the wall;that loosely shut cookie jar.

A new discovery in the technical work, if not protected well is like a wild fire. The "breakthrough" "inspired" many user's to come up with their own "customized" work which would probably yield the same result, but with a little more flare.

The word "Attack" changed it all for the IT industry. The goal now was not to protect ourselves but to make sure any attempts would be answered with a stronger, more lethal knock on their network.

IT security was then defensive, but is now about keeping your guard up and delivering the Jab !! 021

The Justified Tweet

Another busy day in my life, I happened to check my facebook(for the n-1th) for a "certain" forum and found a rather out-of-place update on my feed page.

"Hmm, is this what I think it is, but I'm not sure if I want it here", couple of clicks here and there and the profile from which the update came was not on my "Hide User" list. Believe me, I don't want to know what it means to have 'blue' as your favorite color (a BOT interpreting your choice of color, means you have no life).

Now as I did this, I was so frustrated of getting 10 such feeds on my facebook page, I decided to tweet it too. Spread the world, let those little people know what to and what not to put on the facebook page (you didn't get this update ? try following me on twitter.com/deepcdc). Anyhow, This was yesterday and I was groused out with that certain update ( Facebook application name has not been mention here, I can't puke and write at the same time).

I get a call from my friend today "Deep, How do you delete a certain update that has already been published on facebook, aka, I screwed up, what next.

Let me explain how "social" social networks are, you do something(shhhhh...they know). The best way of keeping it clean is to have as much control on it as possible.

"Oh, its great ! I took the test and it told me I have pretty eyes, and what more, it automatically published it on my fb profile".

Believe me, its not always going to be about your pretty eyes, A certain "pretty" update would make it embarrassing for your friends on fb, not to forget the "mass" shame it can bring, which did happen in the case I started the post with.

The Dosai in my stomach is now upset with my post, I certainly don't want it to comment on it; If you know what I mean, so I'm switching to my other blog.

Oh, I almost forgot, I had to write about the "justified tweet", so all this happened and I get another call, "Why did you tweet that dude ? Don't you think, The application did it automatically, how judgemental".

Excuse me friend, I tweet when I think I need to tweet, and at that time I thought it was grouse that you posted "that" on facebook. Twitter is not something I refer to at the end of every day, it is more about "now" and less..lesser about "3 hours ago via web". So, Please get over it and stop taking a 30 "twitter years" old update seriously. 021