~ Amazon's retail revolution ~

This BBC documentary covers how Jeff Bezos built Amazon retailing business, how it works, disrupted the local businesses and how it is investing it's profits into new businesses. It might be making our lives lot more easier at the same time ruining someone's life.

So next time you decide on what you wanna do, support the local business or buy from an online retailing company. Homegrown e-retailing Flipkart is following Amazon's footsteps.

~ The drones are coming ~

Forget Robots, the Drones are coming. They are gonna take up a lot of different roles, just not delivery goods or disaster management or dropping bombs. They can also take your dog for a walk :)

Yesterday a Mumbai based eatery delivered pizza using a drone.

Via TOI

If thats not good then you should check out what the New York based videographer do with the drone

Via Mashable

Do share if you have come across more interesting use-cases of drones.

~ What is the maximum length of a valid email address? ~

Recently, a client reported an issue related to the length of an email address. This prompted me to Google for the same. 

To be frank, I had never bothered much about the length and always thought it be the local part to be about 30 characters. Practically it doesn't make sense for someone to have an email address with 60 characters. 

But then we have RFC and revision. The post by Dominic Sayers shows how much discussion happens over what we consider to be trivial J

http://stackoverflow.com/a/574698

You can validate an email address over here. http://isemail.info/abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz%40gmail.com

~ Progressive world ~

Problems/challenges are plenty. You just gotta pick your battles & get better at them. 

Collaborative thinking across the globe is bringing people together to solve problems that just doesn't limit to one's surrounding. Tomorrow's world is about how we think & act, to achieve a greater good than innovating to make couple of companies grow rich & dictate. 

A very interesting episode by BBC Horizon. Do watch it. Thanks Naveen for the recommendation.

~ Talking Shoes ~

If you thought only Nike could connect with Apple iPod. Adidas & Google have come with a Talking Shoe. Am not sure if there is a market for talking shoes. 

Looks like everyone is thinking about integrating some kind of  computing with clothing these days. Sounds a bit extreme for me. While Google has advertising on its minds! Wasn't that obvious :P

Via FastCompany

You might also be interested in Next Gen Devices

~ Tesla ~

Tesla Motors, Inc. is a electric company based out of Silicon Valley. The *youngest* car company in the USA, which raises the whole game. Elon Musk, the man behind Tesla Motors, has a very fascinating vision towards the integration of technology towards a greener, economical and cleaner planet {or may be Interplanetary travel & life expansion}. 

I admire his vision and how it is being made into a reality by his group of innovators. They are bringing a massive change towards how the future of Urban Transportation would be in the next 5 years. 

Despite all the coverage Model S has been getting from the mainstream media over the last 3 months - John Broder on NYT, The Verge, Car & Driver, Auto Blog. Elon Musk says that he is not worried about critique or negative feedback, but has a problem with false reviews.

Keeping all that aside, I was amazed at the whole new approach which Telsa Motors undertook to build an electric car. The infrastructure is massive & totally different from the other combustible car manufacturers. While some of the luxury sports cars are hand crafted in European countries, Telsa brings in life-sized Robotic automation to get a car running. The way these Robots are trained by their handlers to achieve the precision output in their operations, across various floors, left me spellbound. 

I will stop talking and let you watch the NGC documentary on Tesla Motors & Model S

Feel harnessing the Solar energy to produce electricity would hold the key in many of the developing countries to make Electric Vehicles a more viable option. In a country like India where scheduled power outages are common  even in the cities, the adoption of EVs can happen only if there is holistic planning & execution by both Government & EV companies.

As of now I cannot afford a car from Telsa Motors, however have been patiently waiting for the latest version of Reva well over an year since it was announced in Delhi Motor Show Jan 2012. From what I read, Mahindra has been waiting for Govt of India's National Electric Mobility Mission Plan 2020 which plans to provision subsidy or benefit for the consumer buying electric vehicles. Googled about it & see that Reva are set to announce something on 18th of March 2013.

I know there would be a lot of opposition & skepticism towards electrical car manufacturer, be it Tesla or Reva. Eventually people will realize the benefits  of an electric vehicle which is more economical & environmental friendly in an urban setup. A Better, Cleaner & Greener is the way to go in the future. 

Reading: Elon Musk - Wired | Youtube Interview | On Reva - Reva | Launch of E20 on Mar 18th | NEMMP Vision | A moment in Sun

Updates 

"I don't know--the whole 'winner of SXSW' thing is really weird this year," says GroupMe cofounder Jared Hecht. "You know what I think is really cool this year? More people are here to listen to Elon Musk talk about sending ships into space, and I think that's just awesome and fundamentally different than coming here to hear about the next big social media app." †

Elon Musk @ SXSW | Why Tesla Motors is betting on Model S

~ Next Gen Devices ~

The future of technology is heading towards integrating computing with regular consumer oriented devices, to make the daily chores easy. 

We have been hearing a lot about Smarter Homes & Cities. Smarter Home, is more or a networked world of Refrigerator, Washing machine, Climate control, Lighting control, et al, being controlled the way one wants through a pre-configured settings or via a Smartphone application.

There are many companies who already offer these lifestyle solutions. However, these solutions are still not affordable for most of us. There are companies who are making affordable Next Generation products, some of them have been adopted many people. While some of the products, like Google Glass, is still trying to find the middle ground of how to remain unobtrusive.

Following are some of the products which are interesting, by their own. We could build interesting mashups via integration.

UP

 

MYO

LEAP

GLASS

NEST

Let me know if you are aware of other smart devices out there.

~ Where next? ~

The post is a trigger based on the latest Nvidia offering of Tegra 4 & CES 2013 

While we are creating devices that are getting faster, thinner, smarter. On the contrary we humans aren't evolving at the same pace in our own environment with many aspects of life.

A lot of open questions:

• As humans beings, being more civilized with fellow earthlings and habitats
• Providing drinking water
• Education to the masses
• Preserving natural resources for future sustenance
• Bringing awareness to people towards - *balance* in what you have vs what you want
• Many more to list

I very much agree with what Elon Musk had to say, "Sooner or later, we must expand life beyond this blue mud ball— or go extinct."^

~ Socially Me ~

The life of an technophile living anywhere today, is expressing those moments of emotion as a constant stream of data to various Social Networks - FB, Twitter, Instagram, Path, G+. The power of smartphones & data connectivity has exploded into data bomb. Will not be surprised, if the Governments tomorrow are not elected by tweets :) 

I personally use all of those networks for various means:

1. Instagram: For clicking moments when am travelling & without my DSLR around. 
2. Path: For places  - restaurants, movies, leisure - all for audit trail purpose. 
3. G+: For sharing information w/ co-workers on various news items - tech, political, football.
4. G+Messenger: For 3 months, have been using it mostly to connect with Gooners who are spread across the globe. We share the latest updates, rants, news or anything to do with ArsenalFC. Happened to meet few of them in Bangalore & watched the Arsenal vs Manchester United game with Bangalore Gunners. This week we were amongst the first to have Arsenal FC Fans G+ Community.
5. Twitter: Consuming or sharing instant updates about anything under the sun which I like.
6. FB:  Updates from college friends, (ex)colleagues, travel, interests, etc.
7. Last.fm: For scrobbling songs.
8. Also there are numerous tech blogs which I follow on a daily basis.
9. Using LinkedIn more often over the last 2 weeks. Most of you who are connected would have noticed the activity :P
10. Youtube subscriptions are active, but not regular.

By now you have figured out how much of information over-load I go through in a day from various apps at various point of time. This definitely isn't good when you are working or otherwise. Your attention span takes a BIG hit & distracts from your task. Off-late {for the past 2 months} have made  conscious effort about how & when I use - Twitter & FB. I check them during lunch / tea breaks & post dinner, during weekdays. On weekends, my usage of Twitter & FB is high; considering football games.

The trigger for the post was this article by Roger Cohen - Thanks for not sharing, on NYT. 

Like everything else in life, when it comes to usage, technology too has its share of pros & cons. Instead of blaming - technology, smartphone, social networks, information overload - for not having enough time for loved ones or pursuing your hobby or reading a book or going for walk or run or meeting friends, etc. It boils down to the individuals' approach on maintaing the balance in the eco-system of life. Be it virtual or real, we still have control over ourselves. The day hasn't arrived yet, where machines have taken over & we have limited options. It isn't far, surely gonna happen. But till then, we are the masters of our own lives & we can maintain a healthy balance. Be the judge the next time when you are about to share or like something w/ the rest of the world :)

Take a look at the Socially Awkward Infographic. 

Image source: DigitalQuarters

Update: 26 Jan 13

If you are a developer, then I recommend you read Christian Grobmeier post 'The 10 rules of Zen programming' This should definitely help one focus & achieve more in the age of social distraction {Twitter, FB, Whatsapp, Emails, SMS, et al}

~ Late to the '4G' party ~

As I was going through the launch of EE in the British Isles, came across this section { http://ee.co.uk/#section-4gee}and noticed that I don't see an iPhone in the advt. 

Strangely, Apple for once is late to arrive on the 4G scene. With 25 hours to go for the launch of iPhone 5 & Apple to introduce it as the yet another amazing iPhone. Let's see where the battle of smartphones will go.

I feel the hype-cycle for smartphones, tablets & mobile OS is passé, which has reached saturation level for many OEMs. Hope this launch will not trigger another round of battle. Been reading these rumors y'day - Samsung will reportedly sue Apple over LTE use on iPhone 5 

The goal of technology should be more of an enabler / catalyst to make our lives comfortable, than anything else.

On a side-note, Naveen is very happy with EE launch :{

Update: 

Viewpoint: Apple's iPhone launches no longer excite

~ Spokeo: Uncovers your life on the web ~

It has been a month since I posted something here. Have lots to share, but 24 hrs seems to be too less these days. 

Coming back to rationale behind the post, Spokeo, as we need to carry out an integration for an upcoming project. Here is their profile on Crunchbase & they sound an interesting little company.   

~ Spokeo.com ~

What do they do?

Spokeo is a friend finder/tracker that automatically brings you friends’ updates across the Web. In technical terms, they are Yet another Social Network Aggregator (YSNA). For more, read this. They do an awesome job of aggregating some of the acclaimed Social Networking sites.

~ Aggregator ~

I happened to sign up with my regular Gmail account and I was surprised @ the number of contacts it aggregated. 

~ Spoked myself ~

The downside is that, it exposes a lot of information about yourself to the others. Even though their privacy policy states,"...finds only publicly available information by default.  In other words, everything on Spokeo could have been seen by you and others all these times."

I still feel it provides an easy access to your vast social activities on the web. Is a potential gold mine, if they share the information to marketing agencies for a throw away price. The invisible guy has been uncovered by Spokeo.