Archive for January 2007

Old's euphoria for the new

You know it’s time to move on in search of the next new thing when the book hits the shelf.
Image from phone camera.

Apple Talk

Nostalgic network admin?
Image from phone camera.

Bulk

Rubber, blubber, what’s the difference?
Image from phone camera.

Launch

Fever FM launched in Bombay today with a full page ad in the Hindustan Times, replacing words with notes. Must have cost two bombs.

Unfortunately for the channel, as the chap in the photo is carrying a guitar, you’d expect to see guitar chords, not sheet music, which is more closely associated with piano and classical music.

I suspect this is a teenage rock channel.

Now, do the notes actually carry a tune, or are they plain gibberish? Can someone literate in sheet confirm?
Image from phone camera.
Image from phone camera.
Image from phone camera.

Kingfisher

The blessed folks at Kingfisher turned their service quality a notch higher. I had joined the queue with the least number of people in it, when this rep approached, confirmed that I was indeed carrying only hand baggage, and issued me a boarding pass right there, off a portable printer slung from her shoulder.

Total time spent in queue: half a minute. Why do I ever bother flying any other airline?
Image from phone camera.

Freemap

At the end of the second day of the Freemap Workshop, with a few remaining folks powered by pizza and the enthusiasm for a grand finale hack: plotting their path home live on the web, using GPS, GPRS, MapServer and OpenLayers.
Image from phone camera.
Image from phone camera.

Roam

The clever chaps at Airtel recently received a request to turn off international roaming on my phone. Now I’m in Bombay and national roaming is gone too. For the second time in under a year, they’ve interpreted a request to turn off international roaming (which carries a service charge) as a request to turn off national roaming too (which has no overhead).

And one only finds out when one needs the phone most. I’m making a weekend trip, and their email support (and they only have email support), won’t bother to respond until next week, when I’m back in the home network.

This is rather annoying.

Not quite away

The December crisis that I found myself in charge of quelling is taking its time to settle. On hiatus for a while, because on most days I’m too exhausted to write. The moblog is now my primary blog.

Incidentally, there is a Freemap Workshop in Mumbai this weekend, wherein we intend to indulge in much geekery.

Fonero

My Fon wireless router arrived today. I got it free, courtesy the nice folks at Plazes. Notes and review in a later post.
Image from phone camera.

George Soros

George Soros spoke in Bangalore this evening. The man has a strange accent that I assume is central european, and, despite his advanced age, is remarkably articulate.
Image from phone camera.