Nanotech for dummies

Filed Under (Technology) by Rajesh Kumar on 10-02-2007

I have been looking for some starter level material to satisfy my curiosity around Nanotechnology, and this morning I cam across a great 42 minute video on this subject at Google Video by Stanford professor of Chinese origin. Prof Yi Cui is Assistant Professor of Material Science at Stanford. He gives this talk in his visit to Google. Not that I undetstood everything, but certainly felt happier having watched the entire video!
Do see the video below.



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Microsoft sending out Office 2007 trial invites, not honoring them

Filed Under (Technology) by Rajesh Kumar on 28-01-2007

As a registrant to a Microsoft programme coming February, I have been receiving mails inviting me to for a 60 day trial of MS Office 2007. MS has been generously sending me such invitations since Jan 20, the day I probably registered for the conference. These mails are sent on behalf of Romi Mahajan, Microsoft IT Pro Marketing.

So far so good, except that the download does not work! I have been trying it to do a download since the day I received Microsoft’s so generous mail to few moments back only to receive the following message.
Incidentally, Microsoft was mailing out trial CDs of MS Office 2007 through its website and I did receive one recently. So what stopped me from installing? Well, the limitation of 25 trials(or 60 days max) was too much of a risk to be taken on a machine that is used predominantly by my wife. So why I am trying now? To see if the mail trial offer is more generous.

But here’s the best part. If you wish to notify Microsoft, this is what you notice in the mail.

This essentially means that if you reply to the mail, it would not reach Romi Mahajan, but that you would simply be unsubscribe from Microsoft’s mailing list. Have fun!!

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Proto: Eight minutes to glory

Filed Under (Business, Technology) by Rajesh Kumar on 17-01-2007

India’s first of its kind event, where tech wannabes and VCs come face to face, is happening, where else but Chennai. The green environs of IIT Madras is the very aptly chosen venue. Whether something earthshaking emerges is immaterial, but clearly a pathbreaking event in which tech innovators have exactly eight minutes to sell their idea to the audience(and the hard nosed VCs) from the stage.While at this moment there is no hint of the kind of innovations that will be on display here, it is important that events such as Proto are encouraged.It is indeed not an event, but the introduction of a new cultural seed of tech entrepreneurship, which should be welcomed.
The presence of VCs such as Srini Raju’s iLabs & Clearstone indicates that this event is not taken lightly either. I will be there on 21st, and would definitely post here. Afterall, who can miss the lobby chat, which is always the most attractive part of any such event.What’s your take?
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TALE OF TWO LAPTOPS

Filed Under (Technology) by Rajesh Kumar on 03-01-2007

CNN reports that Nicholas Negroponte of MIT has steered the One Laptop Per Child project one more step towards reality as its heads for production in 2007. The OLPC project website states that this laptop would be ‘a potent learning tool created expressly for the world’s poorest children living in its most remote environments’. These laptops are being called XO Machine and they are being made for world’s poorest children. These machines are extremely unconventional. They have a handcrank in case the battery wears down, and work on Linux OS and AMD 366 Mhz processor. Sorry, no harddisk, but instead 512 MB flash memory. XO machines would come with an inbuilt camera, and have a browser, and can quickly form a wireless network with similar machines in the neighborhood. What’s more, the OLPC project seeks to eventually produce such machines under $ 100 and seeks to distribute these cute machines to the poorest kids across the world though collaboration with the governments. However, these machines are not likely to be on sale in the markets, atleast not in immediate future. But trust me, no kid stuff this.
Before I come to the second laptop, I want to talk about another project called Simputer which is again from the open source movement, which has moved to production stage. The Amida Simputer is being designed and marketed by Bangalore based PicoPeta and is billed as low cost handheld computing alternative for Indian environment where affordability is a major factor (heck, it is a factor everywhere). It operates on Intel StrongArm 206MHz SA-1110 Processor, 64 MB memory, weight 206 gm and has an inbuilt smartcard reader, USB and IR ports and work on Linux. Amida promises to read your handwriting as well and has an onboard mp3 player. It promises to run 8 hours on full charge. Pretty smart and promising indeed.


Coming back to the laptop, here’s one that’s going to jolt you in your seat. Welcome the Tulip Ego made by a Dutch company is more of jewelry than a computing device (read Rediff story ) the lower end model of which can set you back by $ 5.1 K. Now brace up for the real opulence, the Otazu Ego Diamond which can have 470 diamonds in 18 crt white gold setting.
Ego laptops come with their changeable skins, which can cost upwards of $ 300 apiece.


When not flaunting for the jewelry value, you can also use it for mundane stuff like sending emails, getting onto the web, and playing music. Well, three great projects, three unique value propositions and three very different user profile. And all projects very admirable indeed.

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Image Courtesy:
Amida Simputer -Amida Simputer Website
Tulip Ego – Tulip Ego Website
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THIS NEW YEAR, SEND OUT TALKING EMAIL GREETINGS

Filed Under (Technology) by Rajesh Kumar on 28-12-2006

Imagine the conventional email greetings that we send out this part of the year. This new year consider replacing the text by greetings in your own voice using your computer and a standard PC mic and a free software combo of Audacity and an mp3 converter . It is pretty simple and can be done without much of a pain.Record your greetings in your own voice and export the recording to mp3 format using the software combo mentioned before. Attach and send it by email. Some mail services, such as Gmail even sense that the attachment is an audio mp3 file and directly offer to play it.

I see good potential here to surprise faraway friends whom we may not call, but still may want to wish them in our own voice. Sorry, no voice-merge here!

For Installation help on Audacity here. Fellow blogger Amit Agarwal of Digital Inspiration has written a very useful post on voice recording using such software and I recommend all readers to spend a minute on very tips provided by Amit.

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SLIDESHOWS ADD VALUE TO YOUR SITE, TRY ZOHO

Filed Under (Business, Technology) by Rajesh Kumar on 27-12-2006

Of late I have come across professionals who want to add slideshow onto their blogs or business websites.Zoho provides an interesting feature which allows you to embed slideshow onto your website or blog in just a few steps. If you use your desktop to make slides, Zoho Show works fairly well. However, it also allows you to create presentations from scratch using its own online interface, as well as embed them to your blog or website such as one shown below.



Steps to embed a ppt onto a blog like this are very simple.
A. Signup for Zoho Show.
B. Upload your slides or create your presentation online
C. Once done, click on ‘action’, you would see a menu bar like shown below

D. Once you have clicked on and see the some code, copy it completely.
E. If you want to add to a blog like this, do write your blog in the text editor and then click on the Edit Html button above. Paste the Zoho code at the place where you want your slideshow to appear.Publish and your are up.
It may appear complex, but it is easy as cheese. Zoho Show bills itself as an online tool to create, edit, publish, and show presentations.So if you are a marketing professional who wants to run a slideshow for prospects, you may like to try this out.
On the flipside, you might find that animation effects on your slides are knocked out, and watch out for the change in the slide background.

Slideshare offers eponymous services, but in my judgement Zoho wins hands down. One, Zoho allows you to keen your slides private. Two, it has its own online slide-editor with obvious advantages.Slideshare however scores in retaining the template background.If you do not have a blog and still want to share a presentation, Zoho Show allows that too.Caution: Resign to the fact that once you have uploaded your slides, you cannot have them back on your machine, so keeping a copy is immensely sensible.

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FINALLY, BLOGGER IS OUT OF BETA

Filed Under (Technology) by Rajesh Kumar on 20-12-2006

Google today announced that its popular blog platform Blogger is moved out of Beta. It is been called as New Blogger. Of late, Google has been rapidly migrating blogs on Blogger to Blogger Beta, which is now been called as ‘New Blogger’. The ‘New Blogger’ has some nice features but the migration for many users like me have not been without trouble. The timezone was reset and in case of my Hindi blog, the language was changed back to English. But nevertheless, some nice features. I suppose the feeds location changes too, though for few days Google would redirect your readers to the new feed location.Next few days would be worth the watch in blogosphere.Pour in your reactions.

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AFTER LAPTOPS, NOW DESKTOPS ON FIRE!

Filed Under (Technology) by Rajesh Kumar on 19-12-2006

A Computerworld story recounts how NEC desktops, atleast two two of them, set themselves ablaze in Japan this Oct and Nov.While this is something to be concerned about, the story does not mention the environment in which these desktops were being used, and whether any user action was responsible for this. Thankfully, NEC is not a major name in Desktop business. Look at the cheek, they have quickly mentioned that the faulty components were not made by NEC, but outsourced!
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GOOGLE NASA TIEUP:WHAT DOES IT MEAN

Filed Under (Technology) by Rajesh Kumar on 19-12-2006

Google seems heading deep in space with its tieup with Nasa.Google will be able to make previously unavailable pitcures from Nasa’s library to its consumers and Nasa would be able to leverage GOOG’s huge computing facilities and expertise in this area. Nasa will provide high quality pictures of Moon and Mars, as well as that of the international space station.Sounds like a win-win for the space enthusiasts.
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WEB 2.0: 'TIME' NAMES 'YOU' AS PERSON OF THE YEAR

Filed Under (Business, Technology) by Rajesh Kumar on 18-12-2006

In 1982 Time rated PC is the person of the year. That was the hardware bit in the computing business getting recognized. Things have indeed moved forward and the focus is now on the net and PC is on the sidelines, enabling things as they happen.The focus is on content.Web enthusiasts have been using newer platforms(are they really new indeed?) such as blogs, mashups etc self expression and have felt good about it. Now Time magazine has announced that the Person of the Year 2006 is ‘You’, crediting the users for enriching web with their content and for having great influence on vox-populi. This is mainstream recognition that Web 2.0 has arrived. This should also silence critics who have often spoken of Web 2.0 as a geeks’ hype.
BTW, here’s an interesting wiki on Time’s Person of the Year here.
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About Rajesh Kumar. Rajesh is based in Chennai, where he works for Defiance Technologies in Marketing. The views on this blog are his own. Rajesh Kumar