3G...where art thou?

I am waiting for a real 3G network here. I am actually hoping to see it soon. When other asian countries are implementing 4G, we are drumming with tenders here.

Day by day, the hope, to see a quick implementation, fades. With the spectrum row and all, I honestly think it would take more than a year.

We are used to such laziness and stupidity. Kind of how we are waiting for REAL broadband for years now.

Spoilt or exception?

I still can't believe I plunked few thousands for a watch. This is more of an impulse buy. I would not do that regularly. I've been wanting a watch for sometime.

I used to spend on impulse while I was in US. Well, at that time I was single and the compensation more than made up for that. Can I afford that kind of lifestyle here, with the degrading economy and all?

The man who saved Pumblesdrop :)

How politicians consider ordinary citizens

'But for slain major, not even a dog will visit his house'

This was Kerala CM V.S.Achyuthanandan's remarks after he was asked to leave the house by the Late Major Sandeep Unnikrishnanan's father.

Appalling remarks from a statesman, who is supposedly 85 years old. Not in mind. Politics has truly gone to the dogs.

Arms Control in India

I am rooting for Indian citizens to be able to carry a firearm to protect themselves. Any law abiding citizen should be able to carry a gun for his/her own safety.

This might sound crazy in Indian context but proper arms and anger management training are the need of the hour. Every citizen must be able to protect him/her from these rifle toting maniacs that harmed people of Mumbai.

Here are some quotes from the text I found here.

"Gun control? It's the best thing you can do for crooks and gangsters. I want you to have nothing. If I'm a bad guy, I'm always gonna have a gun. Safety locks? You'll pull the trigger with a lock on, and I'll pull the trigger. We'll see who wins." -- Sammy "The Bull" Gravano, Mafia hit man

"The supposed quietude of a good man allures the ruffian; while on the other hand, arms, like laws, discourage and keep the invader and the plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property. The same balance would be preserved were all the world destitute of arms, for all would be alike; but since some will not, others dare not lay them aside...Horrid mischief would ensue were one half the world deprived of the use of them..." -- Thomas Paine, Thoughts on Defensive War in 1775

And from the world's gentlest human being:

"If someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun." -- The Dalai Lama, (May 15, 2001, The Seattle Times) speaking at the "Educating Heart Summit" in Portland, Oregon, when asked by a girl how to react when a shooter takes aim at a classmate

Blogging tool - Blogo

I am posting this from Blogo, which had earlier crashed while using Wordpress but seems to be working fine in Twitter and in Blogger.

Are we waiting?

What is happening over there in Mumbai is equally shameful as it is a tragedy for our great country. It is tragic for all the lives lost and injuries and panic for unsuspecting innocents.

Shame comes coz some whackos with big bagful of assault machine guns, hand grenades, bomb materials and what not could land in the center of Mumbai and go freely and take down two of the most important hotels in the country.

Agree that terrorist attack could happen anywhere but this is not the first time or even the fifteenth time that this has happened. Fidayeen is one of the oldest forms of attacks modern India has known and handled. They why we don't pro-act and always react?

Probably, we, as a result of a false understanding of our culture, have grown to accept mistakes (rectifiable at that) as a result of fate. This attitude frees us from guilt but can sometimes bring great grievance and we would bring ourselves to be happy about it that everything is for good.

Its not just about terrorism but there are so many atrocities around us. We've been constantly advised by parents, friends, well-wishers to not indulge in any unwanted/sensational takes on politics/religion and look after our own affairs. We continue to accept whatever shit that is being thrown on us.

We don't know how to solve our problems. We have grown weak and soft. We feel that changing the world around us is best left for a messiah or a savior, who probably would come riding in a white horse wielding a sword at the end of the universe. Who is going to save us until then?

Not again

"...We will ensure this will not be repeated..."

"...We will answer in the strongest possible terms..."

"...No body will be allowed to escape..."

For how long we are going to hear the same lines again and again from the Premier?

Are we dumb? Are we lambs? Does the rulers have any backbone? Shame!!

Photo blogging

It appears that the software will not upload photo to the blog as I had hoped. It just refers to a online location and if it is available, it will be shown.

I am tempted to think this is a imitation with blogger itself but I had sent picture messages earlier and it had posted successfully. Lets see.

How is photo blogging in Qumana?

If you see this post properly, then it means it is working fine. Otherwise, one more issue to ponder.

Blog software evaluation continues...

THe test for a good blogging software is how it handles the WYSIWYG editor. So far, I am not impressed with Qumana in this front. If you see the last post of mine became right aligned even though I had typed it left aligned. Signs of bad software!! 

I must say the publishing aspect is somewhat good and easy. As you can see, it also works with Blogger. Today, I also tried blogging through TextMate and it fails on two counts, 1. it does not support blogger yet but that can be forgiven, 2. it does not deal well with Unicode Tamil. The second one is a big letdown since my tamil blog is in Wordpress and I can't use it. So, back to Qumana for a while.

The quest for good looking blog

I have been looking for a blog application that will let me be at peace with myself while I relish typing my words in beautiful fonts/typefaces more than the content. Ever since I moved over to Mac platform, I am looking for a blog software that will give me a Mac like experience.

Alas! most of the blog world seems to be quite concerned over content than display. Wordpress is good on both counts (form and function), Typepad looks delicious but its costly. Recently, I have compromised myself to look only for a blogging client that will give the Mac like experience. This will provide me the experience I want and in turn can helps me being productive.

This search is seem to be quite tricky. MacJournal is not to my liking. Ecto is good but I believe it costs too much. So is Journaler. So, as of now I am trying out Qumana. It is free and provides some decent interface. At least, I can't complain about the price.

 Don't get me wrong, I am not a stealer. I do pay for good software. I've bought loads of apps for my Mac (from big to small) based on need. Its just that I don't seem to find anything good in the blogging software side. Still looking.

Innovation

"If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses." 

A comment I found in this site from someone called Jeff adds a nice point. Thank you Jeff.

The Ford quote speaks to all of us who build things for our customers. I heard a better example of what you are trying to say at a training seminar several years ago: A product design guru was working with a design committee at Black and Decker on their new cordless drill. He asked them what their customers wanted and dutifully listed their features on the whiteboard – battery life, ergonomics, torque, variable speed… on and on. When he finished he stepped back and told them they were all wrong. "What do you mean, we have extensive market research…" No, he insisted, their customers buying drills don't want any of those things…. they want to put a hole in something. A nice, probably apocryphal story about thinking outside the box and delivering what the customer really needs. If you don't have your eye on the ball (meeting customers' needs) then you will miss the truly innovative leap – the real leap for Ford was understanding that they didn't want a faster horse, or to get more work done, what they wanted was to get themselves and their stuff from point to point faster and with less work. He solved that need with a mechanical replacement for the horse and wagon.

Ecto

Ecto is a blog publishing client for Mac OSX.