Just after two months of its release, Apple has cut th price of the most hyped cellphone in the history of technology, the iPhone, by 33% from $599 US (~24,500 INR) to $399 US (~16,300 INR). We all know that technology gets cheaper with time, but this is ridiculous!
Those who were having second thoughts due to the high price tag of the iPhone will surely be much more willing to get one, but people who waited outside Apple stores for days on end to be the first in line to get one could be feeling ripped off.
Indians won't get to have one at least until a couple of years (unless they can get from the gray market). However, Rs. 16k for a touch-screen cellphone with an in-built iPod, not to mention dozens of high-profile websites having custom versions for just this phone, is as much bang-for-the-buck as it gets!
Source: Engadget
Update: After receiving 'hundreds of' emails from upset customers, Apple has decided to offer every iPhone customer who purchased an iPhone from either Apple or AT&T, and who is not receiving a rebate or any other consideration, a $100 store credit towards the purchase of any product at an Apple Retail Store or the Apple Online Store. In an open letter to all iPhone customers, Steve Jobs justifies the price drop, saying that Apple is using the price drop to 'really go for' a wider customer base this holiday season.
06 September, 2007
25 August, 2007
New Domain, update your bookmarks!
I'm starting a new website at www.liveash.com, and am moving this blog to the new address, blog.liveash.com. Haven't thought of what to put on the main site yet, but will figure out eventually.
Please update your bookmarks and/or feed URLs to point to the new domain.
Please update your bookmarks and/or feed URLs to point to the new domain.
08 August, 2007
Aug. 7, 1991: Ladies and Gentlemen, the World Wide Web
The World Wide Web turned 16 yesterday.
No, not the 'Internet', which is an interconnected worldwide network of networks through which users connect to (and via) ftp servers, smtp servers, http servers etc. WWW comprises of the interconnected web pages we visit every day; just one of the services of the Internet, provided by http servers (a.k.a. Web Servers). The basis of the WWW (or 'Web') is the Hyper-Text Markup Language, HTML.
The Wired News Article is being copied here:
1991: The world wide web becomes publicly available on the internet for the first time.
The web has changed a lot since Tim Berners-Lee posted, on this day, the first web pages summarizing his World Wide Web project, a method of storing knowledge using hypertext documents. In the months leading up to his post, Berners-Lee had developed everything necessary to make the web a reality, including the first browser and server.
His historic post appeared on the alt.hypertext newsgroup, ending a journey that began back in 1980, when Berners-Lee was at CERN, an international particle physics lab located near Geneva, Switzerland. There, working with collaborator Robert Cailliau, Berners-Lee began the Enquire project, the forerunner to what would become the web.
The project, which made hypertext a chief communications component for the first time, was intended to facilitate the sharing of information among researchers across the broader internet.
Today's web is far more powerful and sophisticated than the research tool developed by Berners-Lee and Cailliau but continues operating on basically the same principles they established a quarter of a century ago.
17 July, 2007
My Favourite Web Services, and why I prefer them (Part 1/2)
Everyday, we use many online services for keeping our data accessible from anywhere, anytime. And each time a new service finds success, others are sure to follow. I have my own reasons for choosing some over others, and even though its mostly a personal preference, the reasons might help you choose a better service. As you'll see, I'm a fan of Google's offerings :)
The good thing about using personalized online services from a single provider is that you only need to sign-in once to access all the services, and there aren't many (if any) companies which can match Google at the number of services provided.
# Webmail ( Online Email )
I don't think many will object to my choice of Gmail in this space. Google started it out as an invite-only email service with a previously unimaginable, humongous storage of 1GB. Later, the quota was increased to 2GB and it keeps on rising as we speak. Many competitors followed suit with GB-sized inboxes, but there are certain features that kept users glued to Gmail :
# RSS (Feed) Reader
Google Reader is what I use, being a simple and easy-to-use service. It wasn't the first service I used, but it is the only one I've used more than once. Even though it is a beta product (as with most of Google's services), it has been quite stable. The recent addition of Google Gears brought offline functionality to GReader.
# Word Processor / Spreadsheet App.
Simply because I don't have to sign-in to one more service, I use Google Docs & Spreadsheets. Features include collaboration with simultaneous edits, ability to publish documents, inbuilt chat with people currently editing the document, tagging etc. Competitors in the field include the Zoho Suite of products, which was recently in the news for bringing offline functionality to the browser using Google's own 'Gears' technology to its range of products, before Google could implement it in its own Online Office suite. Zoho does have a much wider variety of offerings, all of which are listed at www.zoho.com
If you have better suggestions, lets hear it in the comments.
The good thing about using personalized online services from a single provider is that you only need to sign-in once to access all the services, and there aren't many (if any) companies which can match Google at the number of services provided.
# Webmail ( Online Email )
I don't think many will object to my choice of Gmail in this space. Google started it out as an invite-only email service with a previously unimaginable, humongous storage of 1GB. Later, the quota was increased to 2GB and it keeps on rising as we speak. Many competitors followed suit with GB-sized inboxes, but there are certain features that kept users glued to Gmail :
- (Nearly) 100% spam protection - Web users used to be afraid of posting their email ids on any forums or giving to websites for subscribing to services, due to fear of spam. The amount of spam has tripled in the last two years, but Gmail inboxes remain clean. From the days of using 'honeypot' email addresses for possible spam, Gmail has taken users to the state where they can post their primary email address anywhere, and still feel confident that spam will never reach the Gmail inbox ( I did see one get past Gmail's spam protection yesterday, but that was in more than three months! )
- Conversation View - Google's novel idea of grouping related messages together was a boon to frequent email users. Before it, we would quote the original message thread in every message, increasing the size of mails being shuttled back and forth, thus increasing latency. Now, we can just type-in our response and send the email on its way without having to worry about losing track - as long as the subject line remains the same (even if 'fwd:', 'fw:' or 'Re:' are prefixed), Gmail will organize our mails for us.
# RSS (Feed) Reader
Google Reader is what I use, being a simple and easy-to-use service. It wasn't the first service I used, but it is the only one I've used more than once. Even though it is a beta product (as with most of Google's services), it has been quite stable. The recent addition of Google Gears brought offline functionality to GReader.
# Word Processor / Spreadsheet App.
Simply because I don't have to sign-in to one more service, I use Google Docs & Spreadsheets. Features include collaboration with simultaneous edits, ability to publish documents, inbuilt chat with people currently editing the document, tagging etc. Competitors in the field include the Zoho Suite of products, which was recently in the news for bringing offline functionality to the browser using Google's own 'Gears' technology to its range of products, before Google could implement it in its own Online Office suite. Zoho does have a much wider variety of offerings, all of which are listed at www.zoho.com
If you have better suggestions, lets hear it in the comments.
07 June, 2007
27 May, 2007
Geni - Make Your Family Tree, as easy as 1-2-3!
I have been putting this off for a long time; been using Geni more than a month now - So here it is: A review for Geni : The flash-based, easy to use family tree service.
Geni is not the first team to venture into genealogy, the study of pedigree (ancestry); which deals with the bloodlines which connect you and me. Others, like Ancestry.com, FamilySearch.org, Genealogy.com, Genealogy.org etc. have been in the field for many years (See for yourself if you want; the basic services are free for all.), but Geni steals the prize by being simple.
Just seven weeks after going public in January this year, Geni caught the attention of hundreds of thousands of people through a simple, intuitive interface which far surpassed the interfaces of the competitors. Another major reason behind its popularity is its viral nature : you invite, say, 10 relatives, they invite 5 each, and so on - soon, your tree will contain hundreds of members you've never even heard of!
The service caught my sight when it was mentioned in Digit Magazine as a free service for building family trees. I was actually looking for a way to re-connect with my family members; its quite hard for me to remember the exact relationships when meetings are quite rare with distant relatives - sometimes, even close ones. So I didn't waste a minute and jumped online to www.geni.com...
Needless to say, I was instantly Hooked! Hectic days of compiling relations ensued, and within just 3 days I had added 500+ relatives to my tree (Yeah, I'm impulsive like that :) ), thanks to my parents who helped a lot by making dozens of phone calls to get names & long-forgotten bloodlines. (You don't have to do all the work yourself; inviting relatives to join is the recommended way to compile the tree.)
Here is a screen shot of the tree view:
You can add more members to your tree yourself, or can invite relatives to join the tree. Only those you invite to your tree will be able to see it, so there is no privacy threat. If a member joins Geni through your invite and chooses a password, their profile will become un-editable by others; otherwise you can edit any profile in your tree.
Every member gets a photo album by default. Uploaded family photos can be tagged with the names of those who are in the photo, which will automatically add the photo to their profiles. For example, if I upload a photo of my cousins, and tag it with their names, all the cousins' profiles will have the picture in their album. Nice!
Recently they added the option to invite your family friends to Geni, which will enable those who join via the invitation to see your profile and your immediate relatives (but not their profiles).
In the true spirit of Web 2.0, Geni carries a 'beta' tag; they are still working on many of the features frequently requested by users, such as ability to import trees from other genealogy programs, an option to merge trees, exporting the entire tree as a GEDCOM file (industry standard for genealogy information) etc. Expect much more, soon.
So why wait? Go to Geni.com and start your tree - maybe one day you'll beat the old-school members of ancestry.com, with over 30,000 relatives(!!) in their trees...
Geni is not the first team to venture into genealogy, the study of pedigree (ancestry); which deals with the bloodlines which connect you and me. Others, like Ancestry.com, FamilySearch.org, Genealogy.com, Genealogy.org etc. have been in the field for many years (See for yourself if you want; the basic services are free for all.), but Geni steals the prize by being simple.
Just seven weeks after going public in January this year, Geni caught the attention of hundreds of thousands of people through a simple, intuitive interface which far surpassed the interfaces of the competitors. Another major reason behind its popularity is its viral nature : you invite, say, 10 relatives, they invite 5 each, and so on - soon, your tree will contain hundreds of members you've never even heard of!
The service caught my sight when it was mentioned in Digit Magazine as a free service for building family trees. I was actually looking for a way to re-connect with my family members; its quite hard for me to remember the exact relationships when meetings are quite rare with distant relatives - sometimes, even close ones. So I didn't waste a minute and jumped online to www.geni.com...
Needless to say, I was instantly Hooked! Hectic days of compiling relations ensued, and within just 3 days I had added 500+ relatives to my tree (Yeah, I'm impulsive like that :) ), thanks to my parents who helped a lot by making dozens of phone calls to get names & long-forgotten bloodlines. (You don't have to do all the work yourself; inviting relatives to join is the recommended way to compile the tree.)
Here is a screen shot of the tree view:
You can add more members to your tree yourself, or can invite relatives to join the tree. Only those you invite to your tree will be able to see it, so there is no privacy threat. If a member joins Geni through your invite and chooses a password, their profile will become un-editable by others; otherwise you can edit any profile in your tree.
Every member gets a photo album by default. Uploaded family photos can be tagged with the names of those who are in the photo, which will automatically add the photo to their profiles. For example, if I upload a photo of my cousins, and tag it with their names, all the cousins' profiles will have the picture in their album. Nice!
Recently they added the option to invite your family friends to Geni, which will enable those who join via the invitation to see your profile and your immediate relatives (but not their profiles).
In the true spirit of Web 2.0, Geni carries a 'beta' tag; they are still working on many of the features frequently requested by users, such as ability to import trees from other genealogy programs, an option to merge trees, exporting the entire tree as a GEDCOM file (industry standard for genealogy information) etc. Expect much more, soon.
So why wait? Go to Geni.com and start your tree - maybe one day you'll beat the old-school members of ancestry.com, with over 30,000 relatives(!!) in their trees...
13 May, 2007
One kilobyte is just 1000 bytes?
| Quantities of bytes | ||||
| SI prefixes | Alter- Usenative | Binary prefixes | ||
| Name (Symbol) | Standard SI | Name (Symbol) | Value | |
| kilobyte (kB) | 103 = 10001 | 210 | kibibyte (KiB) | 210 |
| megabyte (MB) | 106 = 10002 | 220 | mebibyte (MiB) | 220 |
| gigabyte (GB) | 109 = 10003 | 230 | gibibyte (GiB) | 230 |
| terabyte (TB) | 1012 = 10004 | 240 | tebibyte (TiB) | 240 |
| petabyte (PB) | 1015 = 10005 | 250 | pebibyte (PiB) | 250 |
| exabyte (EB) | 1018 = 10006 | 260 | exbibyte (EiB) | 260 |
| zettabyte (ZB) | 1021 = 10007 | 270 | zebibyte (ZiB) | 270 |
| yottabyte (YB) | 1024 = 10008 | 280 | yobibyte (YiB) | 280 |
The above table is taken from the Wikipedia page for Byte - took me by quite a surprise.. I mean, have you ever heard of the word 'kibibyte'? I know I haven't...
Apparently, the hard disk manufacturers were right all along! I thought they were ripping us off by selling 80 billion bytes of storage, saying that its 80 x 230 - which I thought, was 80 Gigabytes (80 GB). Well, lets just say I'm so sorry for spreading that story among my friends, many of whom look up to me as the computer genius (a.k.a geek)...
On a side-note, Hitachi just announced a 1TeraByte Blue-Ray Writer; they had released a similar sized Hard Disk about a month back.
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