The days are passing by really smoothly. Returned from 10 day holiday around 15 odd days back. Enjoyed in Darjeeling, Pelling & Gangtok. (I had gone there in 2008 too). Parents and relatives are dancing on the head with great hope of Megha having a baby but this is not the right time. I keep telling them the same thing and they keep asking me the same thing. So, I guess, this is never gonna end.. or atleast it’s going to be a constant affair for next 2-3 years.

The work is keeping me really busy, the mind has become more like warehouse of ideas, the sad part is, the lock of this warehouse hardly opens. But I am not losing hope, I am definitely going to implement some of the ideas soon.

Technology wise, I think, I am in the best period where I have enough people now, who can work the way I want and implement the stuff exactly I want. Toying with few new ideas for BiteBank. The next few months are going to be really exciting in terms of technology. Working under “corporate” environment is slightly different. Few good and few bad experiences but great amount of learning.

Actually, I am game for the criticism and learning. That’s how we improve right?

Nothing much to talk apart from work. Just changed blog’s theme. This one looks really neat. Responsive design. HTML5 / CSS3 stuff. Also, got rid of crappy old About page and rewrote it with updated information.

That’s it for now. Will post more later.

Completed 30 years yesterday and my company Web1 completed 7. Not bad I guess.

This one is going to be a real quick post as I am leaving for Matheran in next few minutes and just realized that I totally forgot to post about my birthday on the blog. Really bad of me, I have started giving high importance to Twitter these days.

Gifts? haha yeah, I love to collect gifts (who hates though).. got truck load of clothes from Sister and Wife. I gifted myself iPhone 4S. Wife gifted me (again) a bottle of really nice perfume, loved it. Sister in law gifted me a cool Swatch watch.

I wanted to gift myself a Apple’s 27″ Thunderbolt Display but the new ones have not arrived in India yet, so I kind of saved money there. But that’s fine. I am gonna buy it soon. Frankly speaking, I have zillions of things in mind, when it comes to spending money on myself but sadly, I don’t have zillions of rupees in my account. I wish I had though haha

So Web1′s birthday.. 7 years.. feels good.. again.. like always, bumpy ride but I am quite happy with it. I can never be satisfied though but happy for sure.

I guess, time to move now.. people waiting for me outside..

Cheers,
Deep

Rest in Peace

Apple Vs Android has become more like Linux vs Windows of old days where half of the people bash the other product just for the heck of it.

I have been watching this Apple vs Android arguments since quite sometime.. and today was the day when I actually got pissed off and decided to note down few things.. I am really not sure what runs into the mind of Apple or Android Fanboys but let me tell you what runs in my mind and this might openup the minds of many fanboys or Apple haters with half knowledge about the product.

Apple vs Android – Sales: Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android are just operating systems. Apple’s iOS is a closed system which caters just to Apple owned devices. And Android is an open OS which can be ported into any device by the manufacturers. So, logically, sales of Android devices are always going to be higher than Apple ones. So there is no point in comparison here.

Now, if you ask why Apple does not allow to port iOS to other devices then the simple answer will be, it’s their choice afterall, it’s their own OS, they have every right to decide what they want to do with it. Google decided to keep Android open and it was their choice, that’s about it.

I have xx feature and you don’t have it: This started with Copy / Paste. All windows fanboys started saying, Apple did not have basic Copy / Paste options and what not but even first version of Windows Phone 7 did not have it. Android had it but there is no point in discussing this. Yeah, Apple did not have it. It was pretty basic thing but there has to be some reason behind it. (I am not the right person to answer)

One more funny thing is, whenever Apple announces some new features.. all Anti-Apple guys add the tag of “Innovation” and bash Apple about it. This happened with FaceTime to start off with. People laughed over it saying, we already had video chat in our old smart phones so what’s so new in it? The point is here is not about new, the point is about how to make people use that feature and how easy it is to use.

Even my old Sony Ericsson phone has video chat but it’s pathetic. It’s a hidden feature. There is Skype for desktop and phones but frankly speaking having a native video calling app integrated with the phone book is damn simple and anyone can use it. So the key here is, ease of use not the innovation.

The recent example in this is, Siri. People started assuming lot of things and started cooking up funny stories. I was going through some tweets. One guy was even arguing on baseless stuff like “If Apple bought Siri then why it killed it from the App Store” haha this was really funny to ask. If Apple bought it then don’t you think it’s their right to do whatever they want with the Application? Do you see Tweetie anymore after Twitter bought it? haha

Siri is innovation. Yes it is but not by Apple but by the guys who built it. The role of Apple comes in terms of making the application much better than earlier and integrating with the core of the system.

Now, why Apple does not allow in iPhone 4 or older version is their business decision and it does not make any sense to argue about it at all.

Patent wars: Apple sued Samsung for using their patented stuff without  taking permission from Apple. And many Samsung fanboys started bashing Apple. (Without even knowing what were the reasons for Apple suing Samsung) From what I understand, the patent wars are mostly (obviously not all) related to the business than the technology. It’s an open fact that Samsung openly copied many things from Apple. Their app screen looked exactly like iPhone’s, the icons, the box and even the power adapter haha

The simple fact behind these patent wars is, increasing sales of Samsung’s Galaxy phones is hurting Apple. It should hurt why not. Let’s assume that, if your competitor copies part of your product and sells it without your permission then wouldn’t it hurt you? Won’t you try to stop them from doing it? I will definitely do it. Anyone will do it.

So let’s not take these patent wars personally.

Processor Wars: This one is another funny war. My phone has Dual 1.5 GHz and it’s 6 months old. Your phone has just launched and has only 1 GHz processor. Yea Okay, it’s possible but do you actually need that much of processing power on a phone? I am okay with whatever processor iPhone 4 has even processor in 3G worked without any issues with the older version of iOS.

The list is just never ending.

But the point here is: Is it even worth criticizing Apple for every other statement they make? Yeah, they must have made few wrong decisions, they too must have killed some products but everyone in the business does that. The simple fact is, everyone loves to copy Apple. They started with iPhone and everyone started copying iPhone and introduced touch screen phones. Same features and what not.

How many phones in the market are usable? Android has reached a good level just now. Samsung Galaxy 2 is something really good from Samsung but that surely does not make Apple products bad. Apple’s sales is increasing. Be it iPhone or Macs. Obviously it won’t reach the level of Android devices or Windows based machines (Unless these 2 giants make some huge mistakes) but it’s growing really well and I don’t think it’s growing so much just because of the hype, there is definitely something good about the product which is helping the company to generate the sales.

So, finally, ending the long article. Let’s not crib about Apple or Android all the time. Let these 2 giants fight and compete. We will eventually get a better product in the end haha

And yeah, I love Apple products. I use iPhone, iPod Touch, Macbook Pro and Mac Mini and Apple’s 27″ Cinema Display is in the wish list already. The next recent purchase is going to be iPhone 4S so I can gift iPhone 4 to my wife haha But that surely does not make me Android or Windows hater or doesn’t even make these 2 products bad. They both are good at their own places but I love Apple products and that’s about it.

Cheers,
Deep

Image Credit: The raging battle between Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android by Tsahi Levent-Levi

So, here is the story..

I was on my way back home, driving the car.. suddenly, I see some municipality (government) vehicle driving very rash, honking continuously.

This pissed me off as government vehicles (any vehicles for that matter) are not supposed to drive so rash and honk so much. I was lucky to find a RTO, I tried to wave hand and ask him to stop the vehicle behind me but he did not understand what I was saying. So I ended up stopping my vehicle in the middle of the road, blocked the municipality vehicle, called the RTO and told him to get his license for rash driving or atleast ask him to park his vehicle aside so we can talk.

To my surprise, RTO guy talked very rudely and behaved as if I have committed some crime. I openly asked him why he was talking rudely.. he simply replied saying, this is the way we talk as there is too much noise around so we speak loudly. This was something really hard to digest but I did not argue with him much.

Now, I told him about the rash driving issue, so this guy, instead of listening to me, started blaming me of blocking the traffic.. (2-3 vehicles hardly). Though he did not have any answers when I asked, “how am I supposed to tell you that vehicle behind me is driving very rash and it needs to be stopped?”

So, after that point, I basically folded my hand and told him, “I am really sorry for wasting your precious time and informing you about the rash driver, I should let him drive rashly and wait for the consequences.”

I walked away right after that, he tried to call me again as if he is going to listen to what I say but I did not bother to respond as there was no point in arguing with someone who is not even ready to understand what is rash driving and what problems it could cause.

The point of this short story or experience is: I have seen so many policemen in India (atleast in Mumbai), they do not work for citizens, they talk to you as if you have done something wrong, they make you feel like you are the one who is at fault. I have seen this kind of behavior at many places. Not sure why they have such negative mindset or they are afraid to lodge any complaint.

But at the same time, I have seen many polite RTOs too. I think something needs to be done to change their mindset. It’s not helping anyone, they are getting the salaries from tax payers’ money and tax payers are the ones who gets treated badly.

Mera Bharat Mahaan..
Jai Hind

Image Source: Greasing the wheels by Satish Krishnamurthy

Well, to start off with.. we moved to a new office on 13th June. This one is a bigger one.. spacious.. I am not fan of hopping around different places in short span of time but again who hates growing.. so I am not complaining haha

Spent 3 months in the renovation, last few days were really hectic but now things are getting settled.

Oh Yes, my first baby, tybcom.com completed 9 years on the same date too. And with the same layout too. This reminds me that I need to change the site’s design with something really fresh.

And that also reminds me that, the design is already ready but I got stuck with other projects so I am not able to give time to the baby.

Apart from the work, the personal life is going on pretty smoothly, all the elderly people around me have started bugging Megha and Me for the baby.. this cycle never ends, Singles are bugged to get married, married are bugged for the baby, and once the child is born, if it’s girl, then everyone starts bugging for the boy (as if we are baby making machines), once that it over, it’s time to bug for a new house and this cycle never ends.

Thankfully, I am not surrounded by too many buggers.

And no baby planning at this point, may be 2-3 years still.. not yet ready for it.

I think that’s it.. I really do not know what else to say.

Work makes everyone go mad, No, I am not complaining, in fact, I love to keep myself busy. This birthday was nothing great frankly speaking but then, not all days are great, so this was one of those “not so great” days.

My company, Web1 completed 6 years on 13th October too. Happy with the way it’s shaping up, almost the way I wanted it to grow, still lot more to achieve. Experience of 6 years has taught me a lot. Went through some best and worst times. Learnt from various people and experiences. The learning goes on, it should never end. Once you stop yourself from learning new things, it simply means that you are killing your path to success.

The personal life is going on pretty smoothly too. Wife is not around for the past one week and she is going to be away for another week. For the past couple of days, not in that great shape, minor cold, cough and slight fever.

Lot of things planned up for the future, very less time in hand and yea, need some good flow of Vitamin M too. Just a matter of time I guess.

And yea, this was one of those random posts where I feel like talking to someone and the blog ends up becoming a best friend to talk to.

That’s about it..

Cheers,
Deep

Image by Darin Dickison

Okay, that’s one part, but they still managed to make a good compilation. I did not bother about the copyright issues much. (As it’s their headache)

Today, while checking some lounge music at Crossword, I found 2 albums pretty cool. First thing I do before buying the album is, I check the packaging date. Since most of the music labels sell old albums so I simply ignore those CDs.

So, their Lounge Session One and Session Two had June 2010 as manufacturing date. I picked up both the albums, paid Rs. 798 (Rs. 399 each), was kind of excited to listen to the music as I am a big fan of Lounge music. (Specially the Asian ones)

The shocking part was after opening the CDs. The 2 CD set of Session One had 2 different CDs with labels Lounge Bar II and Vale’s Nirvana Lounge 2. Okay, this was a shocker, the 2nd shock was when I heard the songs, the recording of the song was of sub-standard. I felt like I was listening to 128kbps quality songs. Very badly recorded.

I decided to Google around a bit to find the release dates of the actual albums. Lounge Bar II was released in 2006 and Vale’s Nirvana Lounge Vol 2 was released in 2003. This is case of open cheating, where music label sells you their old albums with just new packaging. Can you believe, they were selling 4-7 year old albums in 2010 combined with a new packaging and new album name.

So, this was about the Session One. I opened Session Two expecting some recent albums in it. But these buggers packaged older albums in it. The 2 CDs were Lounge Bar (2004) and Lounge Cafe (2006). Again same problem with the sound quality.

So, moral of the story is, they packed their old stock in new box and sold it to me. In other word, it’s clear case of cheating. Yeah,  I know, legally I cannot do anything (and I don’t wish to also) but ethically, it surely is a cheating. How can a person sell old stuff claiming it’s new?

But after this incident, I have decided one thing, I am never going to go near this music label and will try to stay away from other Indian labels (who are into Lounge music). Disgusting experience.

FYI, here are the images of the CDs

So, what’s up Deep? Well, it’s surely a new theme. Got bored of the previous theme, bought this one, customized it a bit and we are online In 2009 I had got a new custom design done for the blog but due to my laziness, I ended up staring at those PSDs all the time and now when I look at it, I felt like, “hell with it”, I need something sober.. I think this one fairly does the job.

So apart from the theme, what else is going on? I am not sure if I have shared this with everyone here or not, we (me and 2 other friends) bought a hosting company called Expertrio a year back, setup few servers, managed to get everything in shape and things are going on very smoothly out there. Few years back, I had almost stopped Web1′s hosting services because I was not able to dedicate full time to it but now, since we are team of 3 and few staff members, the rail is very much back on the track without putting any load on me.

Apart from this, the most exciting thing happening around me is, BiteBank Websites – I am Technology Director there. It is basically as SaaS based CMS (targeted to Dentists in Canada and US for now) with very user friendly and advanced features. Yea, I am not good at boasting the stuff so I will stop there itself. But I am proud of what I have been doing for the past 1 year. We have started showing the app to various biggies and so far the response has been more than what we had expected. Just love it when your designed architecture is loved by people, it’s a different feeling.

So what about Web1? Well, Web1 is doing pretty good too, but have minimized taking projects, I just take selected projects these days. I do not want to be in a situation where I take more projects than and deliver the bad quality stuff, so the quality is on very high importance right now. Happy with the way it’s shaping up. Not too fast, not too slow. Steady and the good part is, I am getting time to explore some ideas of mine.

About the personal life, well, it’s going on pretty smoothly too, have started playing badminton on regular basis but for the past 15 days, I am trying to get back in shape. Managed to mess up my back while playing, now almost on the verge of recovering. And I think I should be able to get back in action in a week max.

I guess that’s about it, I should go to sleep now..

Later..

Image Source: High in the Clouds by aLiTaBlondeGoth

As mentioned in my Day 1 post, Day 2 started with visit to Coral Island.. actually, we went for the parasailing first followed by underwater walking. Paid 350 baht per person for the parasailing.. it was worth trying out.. I personally loved it.. and enjoyed it fully.

Underwater walking sounded pretty interesting in the first, paid 1200 bath per person for it and 600 baht for the underwater photos and video shoot.. frankly speaking, this one was a big let down for me.. I had high expectations for this underwater walk.. but it turned out to be pretty dull.. they just made us walk around a small area.. we posed for some photos.. checked out some different types of fishes etc.. I would never pay for it again.. so moral of the story here, try it just once.. and also I would suggest, don’t bother paying 600 bath extra for the photo shoot… not worth the amount..

After that point, we moved to Coral Island.. amazing place I must say.. but sadly, we got only 1 hour to spend there.. this place had water sports like, speed water bike & banana boat. I couldn’t go for it as we were already tired.. but I would strongly recommend trying out these 2. The beach was very very clean.. the water was blue and clear.. I would suggest, plan accordingly so that you can spend more time here..

We left the place at around 12.30 – 12.45 PM, had lunch (Indian food) at some funny place.. (Lunch was included in the package), we then moved to this placed called Gems Gallery, this one was a marketing attempt by some jewelry company, but it was informative but more than that, their showroom had awesome jewelry.. so, for all those husbands, if you wife loves jewelry, don’t go to this place.. she will fall in love with it and it will leave a big hole in your pocket.. haha But seriously, if you have some cash in hand and don’t mind spending.. buy the stuff from there.. your wife will be the happiest person on the earth..

Apart from jewelry, they had some more items like, show pieces, painting and other Thailand based products for sale.. we bought some show pieces from there.. but while leaving, we found out that, the group we had come with had already left.. (I have no idea how they managed to leave without us..) but the showroom staff was very very friendly and cooperating, they did not let us go and arranged the vehicle for us to drop at the hotel.. (heads up for that…)

And we finally landed at the hotel.. dead tired with no mood to get out of the room.. we ended up ordering some funny pizza.. managed to eat half of it.. we went for a short walk after that.. got back to the room at around 7.30 – 8 PM and went to sleep.. woke up directly in the morning..

It was a nice much needed sleep..

So.. the Day 3..

Had lovely breakfast at the hotel.. followed by a super quick nap and the lunch.. we left for this place called Noong Nooch Village at 1.30 PM (We had paid USD 36 for this to the tour operator – I will list out all the expenses at the end of the trip, so it helps others in planning – ),  the place had very beautiful garden, where we did not get much time to explore.. we then rushed to the shows… 2 shows back to back.. 1st was traditional Thailand culture show – which I did not like much and felt was kind of boring – 2nd one was elephant show, it was far more entertaining.. fantastic show by elephants.. they dance on the songs, they play football, volleyball, ride cycle, give massage to people, paint and what not.. crazy stuff and a must watch.. actually, kids might like the thai traditional show too.. and yeah, make sure you reach before time and get the seats in the front.. if you fail to do that, you might have to run around to get the seats.. (it’s very difficult to get the seats there)

Also, there, you can get yourself clicked by sitting on the elephant or getting wrapped around in his trunk and all.. they charge around 50 – 100 baht for the same.. (this depends upon what you chose). Both the shows are of around 1 hour total..

So, after the show, we returned to the hotel and relaxed.. had dinner at another Indian restaurant called Shahi.. pathetic food.. very oily.. we will try another restaurant tomorrow to see if it’s good or not..

I guess that’s it for the day.. tomorrow will be mostly relaxing day with Alcazar show in the evening..

Oh yes, keep in mind that, when you travel here… the tour operator will definitely push you for the striptease shows or sex shows like Coconut shows etc.. so, go only if you want to.. don’t get into their talks and pay just for the sake of it..

And lastly… if you happen to visit Pattaya with your kids.. make sure you don’t roam around much with them on the streets in the night.. you will find lot of prostitutes around.. and I don’t think you would want your kids to see them..