Bits and Pieces

Saturday, September 30, 2006

Tesla Roadster - electric car that goes 0-60 in 4 seconds!
Price tag: $100,000!

[Yahoo Video]

posted by pradeep | Permalink | (3)

Friday, September 22, 2006

A first generation PG student from rural Tirunelveli, who had earlier developed his own product on Vista's Developer platform called "BETA2 iBRO.net" has been offered a position in IBM India Research Lab. [The Hindu]

For example, why a computer hangs remains a mystery to most. But Mahesh's product can display the reasons. It can also optimise the download speed of a broadband connection when needed. Unlike other OS, it can also display properties of all the drives in the computer simultaneously. "Such a product would take a team of at least 10 people in a top IT company months to develop. But for a student from a rural background to do all this in just 5 months on his own is amazing," observed N Chokkan, a columnist on computer.

posted by pradeep | Permalink | (1)

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Video: Microsoft's Voice Recognition system thinks different. At a demo. [1:32]

[thanks Vish]

posted by pradeep | Permalink | (0)

Friday, September 15, 2006

Zune videos
Part 1 - play music, view pictures, play movie.
Part 2 - wifi transfer.

posted by pradeep | Permalink | (1)

Thursday, September 07, 2006

The Hindu launches ePaper version: http://epaper.thehindu.com/
Update: ePaper works fine with Firefox on a Mac. On Safari, individual articles dont show up when you enlarge them.

posted by pradeep | Permalink | (0)

Monday, August 21, 2006

August 22 - Madras Day.
Live webcam view of Marina and Mylapore temple, starting from 630am IST, Aug 22nd.
For other events and more info, visit http://www.themadrasday.in/

posted by pradeep | Permalink | (0)

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Video: Sony Mylo [2:02]
Wifi-capable.
YM, GTalk, Skype, OperaBrowser, StreamMusic, Photos, Videos.
[more]

posted by pradeep | Permalink | (1)

Monday, July 24, 2006

AMD buys ATI for $5.4 Billion. [forbes]

Related: "AMD also reduced prices on selected CPUs up to 60%". [source]

posted by pradeep | Permalink | (1)

Friday, July 21, 2006

"Microsoft confirms Zune project", reports Engadget. Also provided are links to blogs by Zune insiders (1 | 2).

ThinkSecret explaining iPod rumours, this week, mentioned that the MS device could have a 400MHz DSP processor ("far more powerful than what audio and video playback would demand"), Wi-Fi and Satellite Radio receiver option. Since the development team has XBox ties, rumours have it that the device could handle gaming as well. Thats some convergence there!

posted by pradeep | Permalink | (0)

The image is from "Ramayana Reborn", one of the several comics based on Indian Mythology. Virgin Comics (of Richard Branson's Virgin group) has roped in Shekar Kapur, Deepak Chopra, Guy Ritchie, John Woo amongst others for its projects. The Ramayana image is by Alex Ross. Jeevan Kang, of DesiSpiderman fame, is also involved in one of the projects, "The Sadhu". I liked his work in Spiderman.

[thanks Rediff Abroad]

posted by pradeep | Permalink | (1)

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Trailer: Stormbreaker ('Stor' - medium size trailer). Surprisingly good for a teen-spy flick.

Based on Alex Rider series of books by Anthony Horowitz. Stormbreaker is based on book one.

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Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Google WiFi: Map of "Access Points and Coverage Holes" near Mountain View.

posted by pradeep | Permalink | (0)

The Government-induced ban on domains such as blogspot, typepad by some ISPs in India was, apparently, due to misunderstanding! And that the "blog blockade will be lifted in 48 hours".

Wiki: "Bloggers against Censorship".

posted by pradeep | Permalink | (0)

The only Customer-Support related problem that I experienced was when I tried setting up my QWest router to include a Mac in the network. Forgot some password and the dude at the other end gave me a 101 on computers over multiple calls. It's not that other Support teams have been good, just that I dont call them at all. I feel the whole process is designed to discourage customers from using the system.

Ranga, fellow blogger and a friend of mine, has had a terrible experience with the folks at HP. Do read.

posted by pradeep | Permalink | (1)

Tuesday, July 18, 2006