Ubuntu on Dell : Yipeeeeeeeee!

You don’t have to speculate, you don’t need to rely on sources because we have heard it from the horse’s mouth. This image is placed on the Dell website and a post on their blog says that select desktops and notebooks will come with Ubuntu 7.04. So stay tuned. Its a matter of few weeks now.

Live Hotmail for new ‘Hotmail’ers

The first time I logged on to Hotmail was in my seventh standard. I registered for the e-mail service, but I never used that ID and I never came back to check if Hotmail was dead or still up and running.. [;)]

But the AJAX version of the new hotmail is much better than the previous classic version. But still, I would still opt for GMail. But if you have an inactive hotmail id, or you are in need of an email id, it is worth the try. I got a new LH id, cipherthat@hotmail.com. Pretty cool na.. good, not many hotmailers are interested in crypto ids.. lol!

Microsoft is now giving all its users, the new and improved Live Hotmail after its trial period expired recently. Live Hotmail was under user-tests since mid 2005.

Later this month, Microsoft will release a free software for linking Windows Live Hotmail with Outlook, a capability the company previously charged for. With Microsoft Office Outlook Connector for MSN, users of the Web mail service will be able to access their account from Outlook, along with e-mail, contacts and folder synchronization for free. In the future, Microsoft will release a desktop client for Windows Live Hotmail called Windows Live Mail. Windows Live Mail will be the successor to Outlook Express and Windows Mail on Windows Vista.

Yes, you can access Live Hotmail from your cellphones very soon.

Inquilab Zindabad!

Yes.. that is precisely the slogan shouted by several brave matryrs one and half century ago. It all began in Meerut (coincindentally the place where I was born). That too, about 500 meters from my ancestral home.

It was not just a sepoy mutiny. It was the beginning of a long and arduous freedom struggle.

It has been a hundred and fifty years now. May be we tend to get a bit casual about the freedom we have today.

Why the PS3 is doomed?

The PS3 launch in India seemed to be a very small event. It was supposed to be THE launch of the year, but it turned out to be quite the opposite. It has sent the wrong signals in the right places. First of all, it is super-exorbitantly priced at 39,000 bucks. Each new game title would make you spend around 2500 bucks. So it is a tad bit expensive for most of the gamers.

Basically, one can upgrade their gaming PCs to match the best configuration in half the amount they have to shed for PS3. Moreover, we have the much more cheaply priced XBox 360 at INR 21k.

Another aspect which is wrong with PS3 is marketing. While Microsoft had roped in Akshay Kumar and Yuvraj Singh to do the adverts, PS3 hasn’t announced in its brand-ambassodors uptil now. Moreover Xbox 360 consoles have flooded Malls, Planet Ms, Shopper Stops.. you can find a demo console with a Plasma TV everywhere. This is where you can get the look and feel of the console. Even if the PS3 is worth the money, one would definitely like to feel the gadget once, before shelling out that kind of money..

ZapakMail Reviewed

Adverts of ZapakMail are doing the rounds on FM stations for quite some time now. What they essentially promised was speedy mailing. So I decided to review this mailing service for you.

The first thing about ZapakMail (ZM) I liked was, I got the mail id of my choice, i.e. crypt@zapak.com . The registration process was a breeze. Then I got to see the interface. The interface is as minimalistic as possible. This was quite a treat to the eyes. Everything is divided into just two sections, Compose Mail and More Options.

But then, there is not much substance to ZM. There is no Vacation Mail, no POP3, no mail forwarding, nor any facility to collect mails from your different accounts. But the basic Spam Filters, Address Book, message search and folder management options do exist. But that’s the basic minimum these days. The biggest pro is that it promises unlimited mail storage, joining the leagues of Yahoo! (Upgrading soon), Rediff and others.

ZM also has a beta interface, PowerMail. It is similar to the current AJAX interface that Yahoo! and Rediff offer. But then, be careful if you have somebody by your side when you are logging into PowerMail. The first mail is from the accounts and as soon as you open PowerMail, the first mail is opened and it displays your password on the screen..

ZM is packaged as a part of the Zapak network and it is promoted in the same fashion. It also offers some free games for download from the Zapak gaming network. But then, most of us won’t be lured by that.

Here is my Rating :

Pros : Clean Interface, Somewhat speedy, Unlimited Space
Cons : No message f/w, pop3, message retrieval, vac mail
Overall Score : 6/10

Dining at the dhaba

Most of you know that i live as a paying guest, here in Khar (Mumbai). There is this tiffin service in Santacruz off which I survived throughout the first semester. But then I got bored of eating the same stuff day in and day out. So, I called them up to cancel the tiffins in the daytime, so that I can explore some new places.

It has been quite an adventure in the past few days. I discovered some cool as well as some horrible places to dine out. Then I found this uber-cool joint and I have been a regular to their place for the past few weeks.

I must have generated quite a lot of revenue for them, as they gave me a complimentary Frappe the last time I visited them. That was the least that they could have done.. after all they made so much money out of me.. (such a big mean that I am )

Frankly speaking, you should always come out of your routine to explore new vistas. You end up gaining something only..

Save Power!

It was a rude shock to be woken up in the middle of the night to realize that there was no power. It seemed awkward that there was a power cut in one of the most affluent areas in Mumbai. So, please save power. Switch off lights, fans, air-conditioners, monitors when not in use. Try to minimize the overall consumption.

I might not be able to post as often due to the impending exams and lack of prepration

Getting my grip back..

As a part of the minimum-work requirements for my term to be granted in Communication Skills, I was supposed to give a presentation on any technical topic. The biggest relief was that I had the freedom to chose my topic. Quite obviously, I went for cryptography. Initially I was a bit wary of the presentation, as I had not been close to the dais in the past three years. Though I was a good elocutionist in my middle school, I had not got the chance to speak in the past 3-4 years. So, my public speaking skills were a bit rusty.

But with my choice of the topic, it became an easy opportunity to reclaim my forté. The D-day approached, I was cool and the presentation went quite well. Altough I thought I was just decent, my classmates appreciated my public speaking skills. Then there was this daily meeting of our own Mutual Admiration Society.

Throughout the whole seminar, one thing became very clear. People who were presenting just for the sake of it, were fumbling and getting stuck. But those, who were really interested in the topic, were genuinely associated with the topic, were presenting it quite well. May be that’s the secret of public speaking. Your minf and your heart have to be in sync. May be that’s what happened with me. Crypto is my all-time fav. There was no way I could have screwed it all up…

My Presentation : Very, Very elementary stuff.

Now Yahoo! goes unlimited

Recently rediff.com had upgraded its email service capacity to unlimited. Now, Yahoo! is planning to upgrade its 1 GB email capacity to unlimited for its quarter of a billion users. Hotmail is providing a capacity of 2 GB on its email service, while GMail caps its capacity at 2.8 GB.

“We are giving them no reason to ever have to delete old e-mails,” Yahoo co-founder David Filo said in a phone interview. “You can keep stuff forever.”

Gmail Paper

Not many of us love email. Won’t it be great if we had a physical copy of the email? Google brings you, the revolutionary service, Gmail Paper!

A New Button

Now in Gmail, you can request a physical copy of any message with the click of a button, and we’ll send it to you in the mail.

Simplicity Squared

Google will print all messages instantly and prepare them for delivery. Allow 2-4 business days for a parcel to arrive via post.

Total Control

A stack of Gmail Paper arrives in a box at your doorstep, and it’s yours to keep forever. You can read it, sort it, search it, touch it. Or even move it to the trash—the real trash. (Recycling is encouraged.)

Keep it Secret

Keep it SafeGoogle takes privacy very seriously. But once your email is physically in your hands, it’s as secure as you want to make it.

Happy Belated April Fool’s Day