~ 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

~ H+ ~

Don't worry it ain't another Social Network competing with Facebook or Google+. Rather it is a new Digital Series from Warner Brothers. The series is available on Youtube & new episodes released every Wednesday.

The theme revolves around the following subjects - nano tech + networked world + social media + augmented reality + life + evolution. Looks interesting after watching couple of episodes. Take a look at the trailer & if you have the bandwidth then stream it.



You can subscribe to the series here. Wish in the future all of them move away from popular channels and put their content on Youtube / Vimeo.

Via: G+ post. Another reason why I choose to be on G+, where I come across diverse content.

~ Little Bangalore ~

Everyone has their own place which they feel comfortable living & call home. Bangalore, is the city which I call home.

People of Bangalore have been warm to people from many different states of India & other nationalities. The recent incidents on North Eastern people is more political driven (or manipulated) than an act by the citizen of the city. I hope those who have known the locals would very much know the difference.

It's probably in the air & culture of those who are born here with a motto of - live and let live. Otherwise how else would you find Kannadigas (people from the native state) being minority in the state capital. Not really sure where have all the locals disappeared, but here is a beautiful Tilt-Shift styled video of Chikka Bengaluru / Little Bangalore.

~ Illegal Aliens ~

If I have to visit any country on this planet, either for work or pleasure I need a passport and an appropriate visa.

But that rule isn't applicable to the country on the far east - Bangladesh. The very country which was liberated by us as East Pakistan is causing a near civil war in India. People from Bangladesh have been entering and leaving the country at will. Since, we cannot easily differentiate the race, they can easily pass off as Indians. They have settled in various parts of the country; pre-dominantly in the Assam, West Bengal, North Eastern States & most recently Kerala.

Instead of asking fellow Indians (i.e. people from north east) to move from various cities across India back to North East. Why can't the Government of India or State Governments take any action against the illegal immigrants (Bangladeshis) & deport them back to their country?

Why can't Indian government deal with such large scale illegal settlers in our country rather than witness their own citizens fight amongst themselves?

We become laughing stock for all such governance issues. Congress has been the main culprit over the years in using these illegal settlers for vote bank politics. They are equally communal as the BJP. Being pseudo-secular is a bigger threat to the country. Both of these political parties have been using Religion for their own agenda of gaining power.

I hope the citizens of India - irrespective of which religion you follow or not follow. COUNTRY comes before RELIGION. If an Muslim is killed in Myanmar (Burma) then you don't attack Buddhists in India. If an Hindu is killed or abducted in Pakistan then you don't attack Muslims in India.

Killing anyone for that matter is a crime and should not be tolerated. That's just isn't correct; whether you belong to any religion or not.

I hope some common sense prevails in these mind-less attacks in the name of RELIGION. Illegal immigrants are illegal no matter which religion or country you represent. FYI, Tibetans who have been given Asylum aren't illegal.

Thought process started from this post.

Some more fodder:
Bangladeshis in India - aliens or muslims?
Illegal immigration in India
Illegal Bangladeshi Immigration: People Take the Mantle When the Government Gives Up
I don't care if you are a Muslim
The-illegal-bangladeshi-immigrant-do-the-bogeyman-numbers-add-up-
India's 'Mexican' Problem: Illegal Immigration from Bangladesh
Illegal Bangladeshi Migration to India: Impact on Internal Security
Illegal Bangladeshi immigrants threat to India: court
Illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, a big problem: Government
Manufacturing Muslim rage, generating vile hate
How Pakistani site incited Muslims in India against northeasterners
‘Pak Muslims destroy our temples and abduct our women’

~ Guitar ~

Not really sure of what attracts me to this instrument. I have been fascinated with this instrument from a very young age. My maternal uncle used to play it & was used to see it at my grandparents home every time I visited them.

Been lucky to witness some great performances in Bangalore over the years. Now here is a 3 part documentary title Story of the Guitar from BBC. Enjoyed watching Part 1. Now, waiting to watch the remaining 2 parts.

Via Open Culture.
Image Credit: PRLog

~ Hello Mars, once again! ~

Curiosity just landed on the RED planet a.k.a Mars 9 hours ago, with a perfect landing.

I'm safely on the surface of Mars. GALE CRATER I AM IN YOU!!! 

Just spell bound by the success of the mission. There is so much of complexity involved in every stage of the project till the Curiosity is safely landed and does it's job for what it has been sent to. I can only imagine the effort put by various teams which were involved in this epic journey.

The work is Magnificent. I am into software development. My work isn't as complex as these guys; rather some simple social web applications which helps businesses and customers. The nature of such work just eclipses mine.

To achieve a near perfect landing, it would require a lot of testing. Testing on various levels - electrical, mechanical, pressure, EDL (Entry, Descent & Landing), software, environment, etc. If testing fails to uncover any faults, then project would just burn Billion Dollars of tax payers' money. Therefore for such kind of projects - test plans, coverage, benchmarking, regression - is very vital for the final outcome. I feel testing is more valuable than development at certain phases of the project. The statistics from the endless testing would finally pay the dividend for the over-all success of the project.

Bugs / Faults are essentially part of the software development system. The journey of the product is to evolve every passing. If it isn't, then it's better to quit! In a mission critical project like MSL (Mars Science Laboratory ) my guess is that the fault tolerance level would be a near 0.

Following are some of the interesting references:
Science Goals
The challenge of complexity
Technology
Planetary protection
Robotic arm
Instruments on Curiosity
Mars Missions 

Here is a video which covers the various teams who are involved in developing the rover over many years. Gives us an insight into various domains and the kind of rigorous testing it undergoes before lift-off.



Curiosity is also Social Media friendly. It has a tweet handle - Curiosity Rover - in case you want to follow it's life on Mars on a daily basis.

Updates:
Oscars for Geeks
Next Gen, Nuke powered Rover
The Creative and Business Lessons from MSL

~ Switcher to Adopter ~

I became a SWITCHER five years ago, while I was consulting in the UK. Thanks to Rory & Martin, who sold me on OSX & MBP. However, my house-mates thought I was blowing my money on piece of hardware that was nearly 40% more than the Windows equivalent option.


Since then I have had no qualms about moving to OSX. Have enjoyed the stability n features of the operating system, design of hardware & the simplicity n UX of the applications. 


I have been waiting for Apple to refresh their MBP line and eventually they did couple of months ago. I would have upgraded to MBP, but then they introduced MBP RD. Was contemplating whether to upgrade to RD or not. After reading iFixt tear-down of RD, was bit held back.


After speaking to Navneet & Rory, there was no looking back from RD. I have taken a 3 year warranty, in case of any contingency. Thanks to Deepak R, who helped minimize the financial effect on my wallet :)


I eventually got to lay my hands on the MBP RD on Sunday. TBH, I was pleasantly surprised with the form factor. Simply beautiful. My old MBP was twice the size of this and heavy. Of-course Retina Display :) Boy, this one beats all the ultrabooks which are in the market.


After 3 days of usage, there are couple things which I miss as of now:

• The keys on my earlier MBP were much softer than the latest iteration.
• Chrome for RD is surely missed. Safari does it's job better for rendering websites. 

Here are some pictures of 2007 MBP against 2012 MBP RD.

If you are looking for more detailed review. Anandtech has a detailed one.