Balachandar

Best of FlickR with ‘Better FlickR’ Firefox Addon

// June 3rd, 2007 // No Comments » // simply

No wonder why FlickR still stays top in the Photo sharing domain, they just work like they are born new each day. I was surprised to know about the following statistics from their blog.

» FlickR serve 12,000 photos a second at peak times — that’s 2,654,208,000 bits each and every second
» FlickR set an all-time upload record on May 29, 2007: 2,070,075 photos in 24 hours
» The Flickrverse has over 8.5 million registered members
» Over 10 million unique tags have been added to photos on Flickr

Hundreds of add-ons are there in the cyberspace which adds more spice to FlickR. Recently I tried Better FlickR Firefox extension, my 2 cents – it’s worth it for frequent flickR’ers. A lot of productivity tweaks in almost all UI elements. Though it will just take a few hours for the FlickR team to update these things in their native website, but the credit for ideating it first goes the Better FlickR team. There’s a Lifehacker post about the same with a couple of screenshots. FlickR is a time eater. Even though I contribute a lil, I consume a lot in FlickR. Just explore and pass time unconsciously. Hope I will use my FlickR account much better once I receive my DSLR. Danny, come soon!

Image credits : Poolie / FlickR

Configuring Gmail with Sony Ericsson M600i

// May 13th, 2007 // 10 Comments » // simply

This has been a big issue from the day i picked my Sony Ericsson M600i. What’s a Smartphone if you don’t have a successfully configured push mail? The default settings in the Sony Ericsson site list OTA configuration for all unknown emails, but no support for Gmail. And there are no good detailed tutorials about the same in the SE developer forum too. One exception is Niklas blog. His entry on ‘How to connect your Sony Ericsson M600i with your Gmail account (POP)’ helped me to sort out the minor issues in configuring the phone. But i just felt a screen capture of the settings might help things better.

These settings must be common for other UIQ 3.0 models from SE like P990i and W950i. Im not sure though. Anyways, for M600i – go to Messaging. Click: More > Settings > Email Accounts > More New Account

Now look for More > Advanced

Schedule your download timings at your convenience and there you go.

SE M600i + ZYBsync & Widsets

// May 12th, 2007 // 4 Comments » // simply

A recent survey in Sony Ericsson site asked me the statement that best describes my relation to mobile phones, i said ‘I think that a mobile phone is more a functional tool than an inspiring product and I therefore want to have a mobile phone with useful functions that can help me to improve my everyday life’. I strongly say that a mobile has to be more usable and functional rather than being a status or a style element. I currently use a Sony Ericsson M600i smart phone. It’s smart and it’s sexy too cos I own a crystal white colored one. It’s a 3G phone having a UIQ3 interface running on a Symbian v9.0 OS. Smart features include a QWERTY keyboard, Push email, A2DP stereo audio, MP4 player, RSS Reader, Opera Browser, customizable UI and ease of use. Since all the basic features come in default, I don’t need to crack a Smart Movie or a PowerMP3 player or a Profimail Reader. But still a few free applications for smart phones in the internet makes your life easy and more productive.

ZYB Sync. An easy way to backup your mobile’s Contacts and Calendar while allowing you to share and manage the same online. No wires, No software’s, no hassles. Just a GPRS or a WAP or a EDGE enables wireless synchronization of the data. So once in a week I sync my phone’s data with ZYB servers and I can sync it back to any other phone anytime, or just look for a contact detail in my Phonebook from anywhere even if I lost my mobile. We still have these services available in many other ways like service providers (HUTCH) allowing us to backup the same, or the basic Backup service that come with the mobile suite. But nothing is truly accessible over internet.

Widsets. Its Widgets for handsets, named as ‘Widsets’. It’s a Java MIDP2.0 application for Smartphone. It’s a platform with which you and I can create Widsets using RSS feeds of our own choice. If you don’t have the patience to design your Widsets, just pick the popular ones from the library and keep it going. The killer thing here is its slick UI and I’m highly impressed with that. It’s very light and uses a panning navigation to accommodate any number of widsets within the available real estate. It has audio alerts for new entries, supports sharing and lots more. Since RSS is my world for technical updates and surfing, I glued to this in my loo, in the lift, in the Cab… almost everywhere.

Though there are lots of commercial apps available for smart phones, the above said free ones are must haves. I haven’t tried Yahoo! Go yet as my mobile as of now is not supported by Yahoo! Go. M600i users might find this useful post by Niklas on configuring Gmail account in M600i. This is the most usable phone that I’ve ever used till date. UIQ3.0 is great. But I miss the camera in this phone. I’m waiting for the Indian release of the next upgraded model of M600i, the Sony Ericsson P1i.

Certainty! Rocks

// May 2nd, 2007 // No Comments » // simply

My company is doing a high funda branding campaign with a new tag line ‘Experience Certainty’ and a new competency line >IT Services >Business Solutions >Outsourcing. The earlier tagline was ‘Beyond the Obvious’. As a part of the campaign, a video contest was announced a month back. My colleague Fawaz asked me if we can do something for the video context. I said yes, but for us to materialize the plan it took nearly a month with 3 postponed shooting dates. Luckily the deadline for the video also got extended for some reasons. Finally we are done with the video now.

One fine day morning we spent some 2 hours in finding a proper location for the shoot. We finalized it near the Rajaji Bhavan building in Bezant Nagar. Another weekend we spent some 4 hours for the shooting with the kid. Her name is Poornima. She’s totally resistive in obeying the camera for the first 30 mins. Once we found the secret of kid’s language, it’s a cakewalk thereafter. She’s very expressive. After the shoot, we spent some 5 hrs for the basic edit, another 8 hrs for the sound, titling and text effects. It’s a good learning. We did lot of mistakes, but still managed with what we had in stock. Fawaz is much more interested in these things rather than programming. Looking forward to work more of these kinda stuff with him in future. My thanks to Jaisy for the support, Ranjani for helping us with the kid, Dinesh for the help with the text.

[youtube _fHGPnQ8jvs]

Update: We just got to know from the Jury that this video is one among the prize winning videos. So we are getting a 30GB Video ipod soon.

When the end comes, not everyone is ready to go.

// February 9th, 2007 // No Comments » // Entertainment, simply

a·poc·a·lypse : prophetic revelation, esp. concerning a cataclysm in which the forces of good permanently triumph over the forces of evil. – Dictionary.com

Apocalypto is the actor turned director/producer Mel Gibson’s recent movie. It made me almost breathless while watching. This guy has something very special with him to bring the characters alive, delivering powerful films like Brave heart, Patriot and now Apocalypto. I haven’t seen such ancient times thriller movies. It’s supposed to be a story about a hunter Jaguar Paw during the decline of ancient Mayan Civilization (CE 800). The huge monumental architectures, artistic wall paintings and the costumes give us a clear feel about the civilization.

This is one of the most violent movies I have ever seen. The mayans were the evil; it’s almost blood in every frame and cruel killings. But I would rather say it’s a visual retreat, so better be prepared. Certainly not recommended for kids and blood sensitive adults. Key Starring by Rudy Youngblood (Jaguar Paw) and Dalia Hernandez (Seven), the cast deserves a huge amount of credit. The lady is awesome in her expressions while carrying.

Some of the scenes that should go in the ‘Don’t Miss’ category

• The tapir hunt (in the starting of the movie)
• The Mayan monumental with heads hanging around
• The cutout hearts while human sacrifices
• The headless dead bodies that he crosses while chasing
• The Jaguar Hunt
• The underwater delivery
• And all those throat cuts, vein cuts, arrows, alive gutting, rock crushing.
  

For those who hate watching English movies in theater cos of accent issues, don’t miss this in cinema halls. Actors speak Mayan language and you have default English subtitles. An action packed ancient times thriller with ever seen ultra violence.