Here is How To Catch Formula1 Live On Your Phone Without GPRS

Come Sunday, the big guns of Formula 1 - Lewis Hamilton, Michael Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello and Felipe Massa part take in the first ever Indian Grand Prix. Thousands of fans and adrenalin junkies are all revved up, tracking every detail including practice sessions today, and the qualifying race that will take place tomorrow. In case you aren’t one of the lucky few to score a seat at the Buddh International Circuit this Sunday, and won’t be around a TV, there’s still a way to catch every single update Live!
You can catch all the F1 action live on your mobile phone, even if you haven’t subscribed EDGE or GPRS services. Formula 1 is a simple SMS base app brought to you by txtWeb, that lets you keep track of:

• Live status of the race
• Results of the previous race
• The race schedule
• F1 Rankings, News, and more…

Launched at txtWeb appstore, these are keywords that will help you watch the Formula 1 live (SMS these keywords to 9243342000 to get live updates).

• Keyword: @f1: Live status of the race
• Keyword: @f1.previous : result of the previous race
• Keyword: @f1.schedule: Race schedule
• Keyword: @f1.news: F1 News
• Keyword: @f1.ranking: F1 Rankings
• Keyword: @f1.trivia: F1 Trivia

Did you know some funny things about patents?? Do you know that your DVD player would cost half as much without patents' royalties?!!

For people who haven't heard of Open standards and why they are useful.

Did you know the price of your DVD player would be almost have if DVD wasn't a patented format?? This is just the tip of the iceberg. Listen about it from the expert, Venkatesh Hariharan of Google. He previously worked with Red Hat & is the best person to explain it.

Watch the 2 videos, then more info coming up. Enjoy :)

Heard of EL wires?

Have you ever heard of EL(ElectroLuminiscent) wires?

It  is a thin copper wire coated in a phosphor which glows when an alternating current is applied to it. It can be used in a wide variety of applications—vehicle and/or structure decoration, safety and emergency lighting, toys, clothing etc.—much as rope light or Christmas lights are often used. Unlike these types of strand lights, EL wire is not a series of points, but produces a 360 degree unbroken line of visible light. Its thin diameter makes it flexible and ideal for use in a variety of applications such as clothing or costumes.                                                                          (via http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroluminescent_wire)

It was used in expensive Corvette engines' top cover decoration.

They can be used on clothing or decoration by you as well. Want to know how??

See the tutorial  here : http://www.ladyada.net/learn/el-wire/

EL displays have been used in expensive car dahboards  since 1960s:
Chrysler model of 1960s

Using EL wire sequencers they can also be used to generate moving patterns:
Here we have the fixed matrix

And now the same in dark with the sequncer switched on:

EL diplays have been used in dynamic billboards, the first of which came up at Canada in 2005.

Also the effigy at the Burning Man festival at Black Rock Desert in Nevada is being made using EL wires for some time.

Thanks to Wikipedia :)
To know more read:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EL_wire_sequencer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroluminescence

After India Bangladesh Announces National Laptop Line

Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina launched Doel, the country first indegeneously built laptop.

The state-owned telecommunication company Telephone Shilpa Sangstha (TSS) is producing four models of the laptop. The most basic one is priced at 10,000 taka ($130) & runs the android operating system.

It seems after the Indian venture into Akash and China's foray into indigenous chips, now more of South East Asia wants to be technically independent. Probably this is the beauty of open source software and open hardware :)

Configuration details: (source- http://dotnews.dyngen.org/technology/bangladesh-doel-laptop-12000-taka-bangladeshi-brand-laptop.html)

Model 2102
10.0″ LCD Panel
(1024*600)
VIA 8650 800MHz
512 MB RAM
Integrated 0.3 MP
Webcam
WiFi 802.11b/g
2 USB 2.0
SD Slot for Max 32 GB
Google Android
Integrated
Price- 10000/=

Model 0703
10.1″ (1024*600)
WXGA LED Backlit
Intel® ATOM
Processor N455
1.66GHz
1GB DDR3
Samsung SATA 250 GB
HDD
Integrated 1.3 MP
Webcam
802.11 bg/n
3 USB 2.0
Linux Based OS
Price- 12000/=

Model 2603
13.3″ (1360*768)
WXGA LED Backlit
Intel® ATOM
Processor D525
1.8GHz
2GB DDR3
Samsung SATA 320GB
HDD
Integrated 1.3 MP
Webcam
802.11 bg/n
3 USB 2.0
Linux Based OS
Price- 21000/=

Model 1612
14.0″ (1920*1020)
LED Backlit
Intel® Celeron Dual
Core T3500 2.1 GHz
2GB DDR3
Samsung SATA 320GB
HDD
DVD Writer
( Samsung )
Integrated 1.3 MP
Webcam
802.11 bg/n
4 USB 2.0
Linux Based OS
Price- 25000/=

Additionally you can also see BBC's coverage on it http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-15261076

Techcrunch also ran a piece on it: http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/11/bangladesh-announces-national-laptop-line-starting-at-130/ 

Cool geeky tshirts

Have you seen the flashing wifi tshirts on college humor videos? Or in the Bollywood movie crook?? Or Ankit Fadia in MTV's what the hack??

Look at the tshirt Emraan Haashmi is wearing.

It can be bought very cheap at some Chinese vendors. In India, there is one seller http://waveban.net/ but i don't know how reliable they are. In addition, many shops and online vendors of Gujarat do sell it.

If you want to custom design your own shirt, you ca buy an EL display and fasten it to your shirt using velcro. I have seen such displays being sold at http://www.adafruit.com/products/414 but they are particularly expensive.

Exclusive: Aakash-- the tablet by MHRD

By now you must have seen on Tv about the Aakash tablet this weekend. In case you missed out check out the videos:

But the excitement doesn't end there :)  Its been 2 weeks since students from government colleges all over the country were invited by the MHRD to IIT Rajasthan to review the product and we have it there in solid form. Check out some pics.

Also coming up soon is  a review by one of the users who used it hands on!! So stay glued to this place

Till then, Ciao

NISSAN SMART HOMES

MAKUHARI, Japan--Following the March 11 quake and tsunamis in Japan that caused widespread power shortages, the Ceatec 2011 electronics trade show outside Tokyo is taking up electricity savings as a major theme.
Nissan's NSH-2012 Smart House of the Future concept is part of a Smart Community Zero zone showcasing technologies that operate off the power grid.
The house stands on stilts to maximize space, with a parking area underneath it. Aside from solar and fuel cells that help make the home independent of the power grid, the polyhedral structure can draw electricity from the battery of an electriccar such as the Nissan Leaf.
This Vehicle to Home, or V2H, system would provide power to the home in cloudy skies or the event of a natural disaster. Nissan said the Leaf's battery pack would be able to power the house for two days.
Other residence concepts on display at the trade show included plans for Panasonic's Fujisawa Sustainable Smart Town, a low-CO2 community that won the Ceatec Grand Prix in the "prosperous and ideal lifestyle and society" category.

THE TABLET FINALLY ARRIVES :)

Finally the dream project is reality... The tablet  is launches...Kapil Sibal kept his word and I cant believe it!!!  Its the cheapest tablet in the whole world with its features...

Mr.Sibal said"There are milestones in life when we feel we have really achieved something great. This is one of those milestones."
These tablets will be subsidised by the government and given to Indian university students at just over Rs 1000. It's a five year old project that over the years has drawn scorn from international experts.
Additional Secretary HRD Ministry NK Sinha said, "They called us lunatics. They called it impossible. And I had to take the flak."
Unfortunately I too was one amoung lots who thought it was impossible...He proved us wrong and my sincere apologies :) ...
The new tablet is a touch screen machine. It has 256 MB RAM and 2 GB of internal storage. External drives add another 32 GB of storage space.
The tablet accepts two pen drives and offers about three hours of battery life. It runs on Google's Android Froyo operating system. But connects to the internet only through a wi-fi connection.
Datawind CEO Suneet Singh Tuli said, "We've used a patented technolgy which moves the burden of processing from the device to our servers in the cloud. That helps us cut costs because we can use a cheaper, lower power processor."

STEVE JOBS ( 1955-2011)

Steve Jobs... A name that could just inspire a lot of people with its mere sound...
A visionary, probably the smartest person of our era, former ceo and co founder of apple, is no more...
He took his last breath surrounded by his family in california.
The mastermind who gave the world iPad,iPhone, iMac and iTunes left the world forever at the age of 56.
I still cant believe it actually happened... He is the reason for many people to join the industry. He was the living legend. The biggest loss of the decade....
Apple paid homage to their visionary leader by changing their website to a big black-and-white photograph of him with the caption "Steve Jobs: 1955-2011." The flags outside the company's headquarters at 1 Infinite Loop flew at half mast...
Jobs' health had been a controversial topic for years and his battle with a rare form of pancreatic cancer a deep concern to Apple fans and investors.
In past years, even board members have confided to friends their concern that Jobs, in his quest for privacy, was not being forthcoming enough with directors about the true condition of his health.
Now, despite much investor confidence in Cook, who has stood in for his boss during three leaves of absence, there remain concerns about whether Apple would stay a creative force to be reckoned with in the longer term without its visionary.
Jobs died one day after the consumer electronics powerhouse unveiled its latest iPhone, the gadget that transformed mobile communications and catapulted Apple to the highest echelons of the tech world.
His death triggered an immediate outpouring of sympathy.
"The world rarely sees someone who has had the profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which will be felt for many generations to come," Gates said. "For those of us lucky enough to get to work with him, it's been an insanely great honor. I will miss Steve immensely."
Outside an Apple store in New York, mourners laid candles, bouquets of flowers, an apple and an iPod Touch in a makeshift memorial.
"I think half the world found out about his death on an Apple device," said Robbie Sokolowsky, 32, an employee for an online marketing company, who lit a candle outside the store.
Cook said in a statement that Apple planned to hold a celebration of Jobs' life for employees "soon".
Neverthless a lot of people around the world are shattered.... RIP SteveJobs...We miss you...

Trick to stabilise ADSL( wired broadband) modem

I have a Siemens ADSL modem provided by BSNL. I am using it from 3 years. Sometimes, due to illegal wire tampering in my area the ADSL link is unsteady. So i found a trick to get stable broadband.

I have a Beetel CLI phone, which has anti tapping alarm. It basically has a RC circuit that detects any tampering.

On connecting it and the modem, i get clean ADSL link :)

How to turn off facebook timeline??

In the last post i showed how you can use facebook timeline before it arrives: http://pyrocracker.blogspot.com/2011/10/facebook-timeline-preview.html

That was done by creating a FB app. Now if you don't like FB timeline, you can revert back to the old profile page view. :)

Here are the steps

Go to the app you created.

Delete the object and action you created.

Save it

Done :)

Mythical Sakshat Tablet Back In News

Sakshat tablet, also referred to as "The Indian Wonder Tablet" which was supposed  to be launched on June 2011, to initial testing by shipping it to IIT students,disappeared, along with Kapil Sibal, HRD Minister, possibly succumbing to Anna Hazare's protests.
Now, both of them have reappeared.
At a function in Delhi, Sibal said: "The computer will be launched next month…This is not just a dream, it is a reality," he added. Officials announced that the device will be launched on October 5, 2011. However, Sibal has not spoken about the device's specifications.










The device's prototype is likely to be a 5/7/9 inch touchscreen gadget, featuring a webb browser, PDF reader, video conferencing, open office, sci-lab, media player, remote device management capability, multimedia input-output interface option, and a content viewer.

Sibal also mentioned how "corruption…in the recent past will be dealt with through initiative of IT…"… the device.
Though it sounded promising when it was first announced, a lot of controversies still surround the launch inclding the price,quality and the availability issues...

Here are some older news clips from NDTV for the laptop

This is Sibal's interview and below is a very rough tech specs in NDTV gadget guru. To speak the truth these press releases took away all credibility.

The project also has a lot of negative press initially as well. Even OLPC, the One Laptop Per Child project, dismissed it.
http://www.bgr.in/2011/10/04/olpc-india-head-disappointed-with-govts-35-tablet/

http://blog.laptop.org/2010/07/29/welcoming-indias-tablet/

http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/10_laptop_flops_India_orders_25_lakh_OLPC_laptops_-nid-56068-cid-2.html

http://www.olpcnews.com/countries/india/india_olpc_laptop_10.html

http://www.olpcnews.com/countries/india/mhrd_india_should_stop_attacki.html

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2009/04/india-embraces-olpc-buys-250000-xo-laptops.ars

Facebook timeline preview

Facebook just announced that it will soon start a new feature called timeline- the timeline of your life, your online life, your life on FB!! Then techchrunch put up this article about using it in preview by tinkering: http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/22/how-to-enable-facebook-timeline/

I tried it out and believe me its really easy.

Go to https://developers.facebook.com/apps

Create new app
Select  a action from dropdown like read, eat etc and the object.. read book, eat apple, watch tv etc..
Confirm and move ahead
Go to FB homepage and voila you have an invite for tinmeline :)


I took screen shots of every timeline page :)

Now India has a double decker train! :) Proud

Indian railways recently flagged off a double decker AC train from Howrah to Dhanbad. Sunday to be scecific :)

Moreover its also of indigenous built, made  at Research Development and Standard Organisation and developed by Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala. .

After 2G scam, SMS scam??

After the 2G scam are we witnessing a SMS scam?? Till now SMS market had become fairly cheap due to high competition. Airtel was probably the only player in the market offering expensive SMS. TRAI whose basic purpose is to act as a regulatory body and eliminate monopoly, seems to be doing the exact opposite.

Not only have all SMS been restricted to 100/day, in addition you cannot use bulk SMS sites from 9 at night till 9 in the morning. Now it is common knowledge that students use SMS a lot during this time, especially those in a relationship. SO they would obviously get SMS packs or pay normally at the high SMS rates. SO TRAI is forcing people to spend more where it should be doing th exact opposite. Moreover all telemarketing calls & SMS generally come in the morning or early evening, when people are awake. Who will call you to buy a product when you are asleep??!! LOL