First of all, you need to download a registry editor for Windows Smartphone. There are a couple of registry editors such as PHM registry Editor, Resco Explorer and Total Commander. I used PHM Registry Editor which is a free tool. Download the CAB file, transfer it to the Q9h using ActiveSync or a memory card and install it using the file manager application on the Q9h. Once installed, run the PHM Editor and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE –>System–>Pictures–>Camera–>OEM. Click on “Values” which is the left soft key. This will bring up another screen with 3 list items:

• ForceShutterSound
• ShutterSoundVolume
• SoundFile

Select SoundFile (center select) and change the Value Data field value to \windows\*none*\. Click on the Done (the right soft key).  Thats it ! You’re done - no more shutter sound ! You can quit the PHM Registry editor. Now, you can set a ringtone of any size !

Well - this post is not about iphone apps - that you can get directly from the phone and read about it all over the place !! This post is about what Windows mobile apps are out there and where you can get them. I have a Motorola Q9 and I installed some of these apps and they make me feel better - at least for the time being until I get my iphone 3G !

NOTE: I would recommend that you get an unlimited data plan before using any of these apps. These are usually data heavy apps

Skyfire
http://www.skyfire.com/

Skyfire is a full fledged mobile browser designed for Windows Mobile platform. It is a very nice browser  that displays web pages as you would see it on your desktop. Its no Safari on the iphone but it is much better than a lot of other solutions. I like Opera mobile a lot and used it a lot before I came across Skyfire. I use this all the time. I can visit sites like Facebook, digg etc. and do all that I want to do as I would from the desktop.  It plays video and does Flash too ( 1 up on Safari ) !! Sadly enough Skyfire is not openly available and you need to be on the Beta program to be able to use it. Sign up at their website - its a good chance that you will get into the program (if you have a windows mobile device). I have been on the program for a while now.

Google Maps
http://www.google.com/mobile/default/maps/index.html

This is one of the best apps that I have had on my phone for the longest time. It has evolved well and has a lot of features. One thing I like about this is that when you search for a business it gives you the phone number and you can click on it and it calls the number - very nice integration considering this is a third party app ! I have a 3G phone and that makes a BIG difference and I would recommend you getting a 3G phone if you want to optimize the performance of these apps ! This app also shows you satellite view and traffic conditions !

All in all - a very crisp and useful application

Microsoft Live Search Mobile
http://www.livesearchmobile.com/

MS Live is a lot like Google Maps with a little bit more like the ability to search for a lot more things than just the business locations and phone numbers and maps. I have used it in the past but I am not a very big fan of it. That being said, it is still a good app amongst the few good ones that exist for Windows Mobile

Shozu
http://www.shozu.com/

One of the really good apps. with continued improvement ! This app allows you to upload photos and videos directly from your phone to various websites such as Facebook, Flickr and YouTube. You can set up various websites where you can post to and also set up one-click websites (default ones) to upload to. I like this app a lot - it doesnt do contact backing up as well as they claim. I still like this app a lot - very smart idea ! Posting to some websites doesnt always work to well, however it has improved ten-fold since the initial versions !

Dashwire
http://dashwire.com/

This is one of the newer apps that I found recently. It backs up your SMS, Call registry and even your contacts. It claims that if you have a new phone you can download your backed up contacts too - I haven’t tried that yet ! You can post (share) your backed up contect to various websites using the website and not the phone (unlike Shozu) but it has its own usefulness. It can also backup your ringtones !

zaTelnet Professional
http://www.zatelnet.com/

I just found this most awesome application that allows you to telnet, ssh, ssh2 and ping from your Windows Smart Phone. Since the Q9 has a keyboard this is the most awesome app ever !! I downloaded the trial and it works right out of the box and it supports proxies ! There is one catch though - it is not a free app and in the trial mode, the app. disconnects from the server in about a minute I thought I would buy the app (its for $19.99 for 1 license) however I saw that the payment goes to a company in Russia or Germany and that dissuaded me from buying the app. I will keep this blog updated if I buy it in the future … I still want to but I am a little apprehensive !

UPDATE : I took my chances and ordered it and I got my activation code immediately ! I was pleasantly surprised ! I did use PayPal to pay the amount and that made me feel a little safe ! My trustworthy Firefox also showed me that the PayPal site I was visiting was actually verified by Verisign.  The activation code worked well and now I can stay logged in using SSH as long as I want ! The payment did go to Germany but the company selling the software does have some customer support etc. in the US. The person who wrote this software is from Russia - makes me a little nervous but I think it should be fine. Reputed sites like softpedia (that are in the US) actually point to zatelnet.com so that makes me feel more and more confident. I think this company is actually a trustworthy company !

Others that I tried and did not care too much for…

• Zumobi : http://www.zumobi.com/
• Point UI : http://www.pointui.com/
• AvantGo : http://www.avantgo.com/

Check out more Windows Mobile Freeware at : http://www.freewarepocketpc.net/

So I went ahead and started to disassemble on my own with a lot of uncertainty. I have broken electronic gadgets (while opening it) in the past that I meant to repair. When I started doing this I realised how nice it would be to actually know what I was doing and refer to some guide with pictures like I did when my RAZR died on me ! I thought to myself at that moment - “Why don’t I do one guide which will benefit others !”. o here it is - in the least possible words:

Step 1 : You will need a hex / star shaped screw driver and a blade or something thin (preferably not sharp)

Step 2: The star shaped screwdriver bit

Step 3: Take off the battery cover, the battery, the SIM card and the memory card

Step 4: Unscrew the 4 screws shown by the 4 purple circles in the image below

Step 5: Put the balde underneath the camera and take off the thin sheet of plastic covering the camera

Step 6: Remove the cover that covers the upper part of the back of the phone in the same way (by using the blade)

Step 7: Remove the 2 screws shown by the purple screws in the image below

Step 8: Remove this cover carefully as there are a lot of wires etc. below. There are some hinges here that you need to take care of. Once those hinges come off you can easily take the cover off.

Step 9 : The cover taken off. You can see the hinges in this image. There is one at the base, one at the top, one on the left hand corner

Step 10: Carefully remove the circuit board from the front casing. You will see the circuit board connected to the keyboard via a small flat cable.

Step 11 : Remove the connector between the circuit board and the keyboard

Step 12: Remove the screws shown by the purple circles in the image below ( I did not bother to do this )

Step 13: The final result

…And after all this if your device still doesn’t work (like mine didn’t) then please do not hesitate to send it to Motorola - they will repair it for you They repaired my display and sent it back to me. The repair shop is in McAllen, TX. My phone was within the 1-year warranty though, but I bet you can get away with some more

I took a trip to Alaska in July 2007 and it was an awesome experience ! I liked that place a lot ! It is very different than the other places that I have been to. I loved the 20+ hours of daylight - no wonder it is called the “Land of the Midnight Sun”. I felt the place was very raw - It is left untouched for the most part, and that made me feel a little uncomfortable in the beginning because I was not used to it, but I quite started to like the place after the while - the rustic feeling is something that everyone should experience !

This post is how I went about doing my trip - it wasn’t perfect and I will give you tips on how to plan and do things better. Once again (like from my Maui post) - this is all based on what I did, what I feel I should have done and what majority of the people do !

WHEN TO GO

I went there in the beginning of July, and I liked the weather there. Temperatures ranged from 55 to 70F. There was always a lot of cloud cover, but there were also days when the sun was shining out of those clouds ! It did rain one day out of the 5 that I was there - but then like an Alaskan told me - whenever he has flown back to Alaska in July (summer) he has always had a bumpy flight !! I believe that the weather of the Earth is actually influenced by the winds, clouds etc. at the Poles - so it all starts here !

I do believe though that July-August is probably the best time of the year to visit Alaska, though I would love to go there later in the year just for the Aurora Borealis !

HOW MANY DAYS TO GO FOR

This is a tough question. There is a LOT to do in Alaska, the places are far away and they require a lot of driving most of the times. Depending on how many places you want to visit and how many activities you want to do, you might want to plan a trip of about 5-10 days. The more days you can spend, the better. I personally felt that the 5 days I had weren’t enough to do the things I wanted to do.

GETTING THERE

I took a flight from San Jose. There are direct flights from San Jose and San Francisco. Most of the flights have a stop at Seattle, though you may find some direct flight but that is very rare. I flew Alaskan Air and they were ok. There are flights mostly to major cities like Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau etc. I flew in to Anchorage as that is one of the central places. The city to fly to will decide where you can go and what you want to do.

Juneau is the southern part of Alaska - this is one of the famous places where a cruise ship will stop for some activities. There are lots of places here to see, however, this is not the part of Alaska that I went to and hence I will not be talking much about this part of Alaska.

Fairbanks is in the Northern part of Alaska. You can fly in here and do a lot of things. If you are going in winter (you have to be crazy enough to do so) then fly in to Fairbanks and watch the Aurora Borealis - It is an awesome experience and I would love to see it someday ! You can drive down to Denali National Park from here and also Yukon Charley Rivers National Park.

Anchorage is in the central part of Alaska and I feel that it is the best place to land and start going to places from. This is where I flew in to and was the hub of my entire trip.

WHERE TO GO AND WHAT TO DO

Anchorage:

Anchorage is the largest city of Alaska and has 2/5th of the population of Alaska ! Anchorage is located in south-central Alaska. What I like about this place is that it is central to a lot of good places. Anchorage itself isn’t as big as other cities and there isn’t much to do here. I landed here, stayed the night and took off to Denali National Park the next day.

There are a lot of good hotels in Anchorage. I stayed at 2 different hotels while I was there - The hotel Captain Cook and The Sheraton. I liked both the hotels, though I preferred the Captain Cook Hotel just a little bit more as the rooms are better.

When I did get back from Denali - I spent a day here just walking around 4th, 5th, 6th Avenue and some of the cross streets, visiting the numerous gift shops. I went to many gift shops that were run by the locals there and spent time talking to them - asking them how life was in Winter and got some really nice insights. Apparently the sun rises at around 10:00 a.m. or later and sets by 4:00 p.m. Pretty tough ha? Not many people live in Anchorage in winter. The gift shops have amazing things and I would recommend you go there and talk to the shopkeepers about the artifacts - some of them love to do that The shops contain stuff from local artist that are amazing - not within our reach but amazing ! This one shopkeeper showed us amazing carved mammoth tusks done by an artist in Juneau and that was unbelievable ! The same artist had also done some carvings on Doll Sheep horns and whale teeth !! - That blew my mind !

There are a few museums that you can go to in Anchorage. One of the recommended museums is the Alaska Museum of Natural History. I did not have enough time to go there but if you are interested in museums then look this one up.

One thing I would recommend to do is to get one of the “Anchorage Activities map” from the concierge at your hotel. That will be very helpful.

Denali National Park:

One of the most amazing national parks that I have been to and definitely worth the long drive from Anchorage ! Denali National Park is located 235 miles north of Anchorage. The drive up to Denali is amazing - it is a small 2 highway called Parks Highway and goes through a lot of wilderness. All around you can see the amazing landscape of Alaska. I really enjoyed the drive. This drive can take up to 4 hours since it is not a very big highway and has only 2 lanes for the most part. The speed limit is also not that high. Along the way make sure to stop at the Vista point that will give you this view of the Alaskan Range:

There are some good lodges to stay at in Denali. I stayed at the Denali Bluffs Hotel and it was an average hotel. I did not feel as bad since I didn’t spend so much time in the hotel anyways. If you are booking way in advance - 3 months or so, then try to get a room at McKinley Chalet Resort - this is a much better hotel but reservations are difficult to get. I have heard a lot about the Grand Denali Lodge as well, but have only seen it from far - its atop a hill and looked pretty good. The good thing about these hotels are that they are all very close to the park.

You cannot drive your own car into the main park, so you need to take a bus tour of the park. There are shuttles from these various hotels that take you to the main entrance of the park. When you check in to the hotels - tell the concierge that you need such a service. If you want you can also book the tickets for the bus tour through the hotel - that way you don’t need to pick up your tickets from another place.

If you are going to Denali - I would recommend spending at least 2 nights there. There are a lot of things you can do around here and you should do them.

There is an 8-hour and a 12-hour bus tour that takes you into the heart of Denali National Park. We went for the 8-hour bus tour. The 8-hour bus tour is called the “Tundra Wilderness Tour”. You can make reservations here. This tour is really nice - it takes you into Denali and shows you a lot of wildnerness, animals and are well equipped with good video cameras to show you the action that might be happening in the distance. The drivers are very good and they keep talking about the park in general - its animal life, what is tundra etc. etc. They also talk about how life is in Alaska, giving you tid-bits of here and there and the various stories that happened in Denali. We saw a lot of animals - Dall Sheep are the most common. We also saw Grizzly Bears and Moose - which was very exciting !

TIP from my wife: Take a pair of good binoculars to this place - you will enjoy seeing the animals through them !

There are a lot more activities you can do in Denali - which we didnt do. Like I said - this trip was not planned perfect to the ‘t’. You can take a flight around Mt. McKinley which is really pretty. You can also land on a glacier called McKinley Glacier, though this is an expensive affair. There is Denali Dinner Theatre that is supposed to be good, however we missed this because we did the afternoon trip into the park and came back very late - at 11:00 at night, though night is relative there. There was plenty of light there and a Subway that is open till midnight

There are ATV trips, Jeep trips and even some rafting on the Nenana river.

Seward and Kenai Fjords National Park:

After I came back from Denali, I spent an afternoon in Anchorage and then took off for Seward. The drive to Seward is Amazing. The Road is along the coast for a long time and even though there are only 2 lanes for the most part, I enjoyed the drive. There is a rail road also from Anchorage to Seward and if you want, you can take that too but if pressed for time (like we were) then you can drive. The other thing is that the train goes to Seward in the morning and comes back in the evening so check for availability, make bookings in advance if you plan to take the train.

Do stop along the way and enjoy the scenic view if you are driving. Here is a picture of that drive

Seward is a small town by the sea where fishing is the major occupation. Many cruises choose Seward as the end point of their cruise. There are a few hotels in Seward, though I would recommend the Holiday Inn at Seward, as it is close to all the shops and everything else that is interesting there. This hotel sits right on the harbor and has a decent view of the place.

Walk around the downtown area (walkable distance from Holiday Inn) and do visit the shops there. They have some interesting stuff, like this stuffed Dall Sheep. There is a stuffed Grizzly Bear as well in one of the stores. There are some Totem Poles around here too - not the real ones but the “touristy” - yes thats a new word I am introducing - ones ! Its interesting to see how each totem pole really has its own story to tell and all are related in some way or other to the balance of nature in Alaska.

You can cover the entire downtown in about 2 hours or so - even if you visit each and every shop !

N ow - why would you want to go to a small town like Seward that likes at the base of a mountain and the sea? Well, Seward is a harbour in the Kenai Peninsula giving you access to the Kenai Fjords National Park. This park is very nice and worth visiting. You will see Glaciers, whales, dolphins various birds and mammals. We even saw an amazing Bald eagle nesting there !

The Kenai Fjords National Park tour is a 6-hour cruise that leaves Seward and takes you around and shows you the various glaciers and animal life. The best part of this tour is when it takes you close to the North-Western Glacier where you are close to the glacier and see parts of the glacier melting away. I would suggest that you take the morning tour for this. It is amazing !! The person who commandeers the boat is an old-timer and has been doing this tour since the 1970s !! He knows his ways around and tells you a lot - talk to him and you will enjoy. I personally like him a lot ’cause he did one thing that made me really happy !! He rotated the boat 360 degrees so that people would get a panorama - I don’t know about others but I surely did !! I’ll leave the - “why he does that” question to be answered by him when you go there !!

Here is a panorama of the North Western Glacier that I took while on the tour :

There is another very good place to go to in Seward - Exit Glacier. Exit Glacier is a glacier that you can reach by taking an exit (3.7 miles before Seward) just off the highway on the way to Seward. You need to walk a little (half a mile or so) to reach the Glacier but you can actually walk up to the Glacier !! Its a shame that I did not have enough time to go there, but keep time and do go there - it is really a site to see ! If you are into hiking and want to do a day hike then there is a trail called the “The Harding Icefield Trail”. It is a 7 mile trail that winds up the north edge of Exit Glacier, offering spectacular views of the glacier and surrounding mountains along the way.

TIP: Take warm clothes for the cruise. It gets very cold and windy when you are reaching the glacier. A down is ideal for this cruise. Take sunglasses and something to cover your ear and head.

Whittier:

Whittier is is a small hamlet nestled among the mountains. It is the smallest town I have ever seen in my whole life. It takes about 15 minutes to walk from one end to the other ! Getting to Whittier is interesting as well. To get to Whittier from Anchorage you take the same coastal highway that you take for Seward and branch off at a certain point. There is a one-way tunnel into Seward with certain timings for which way it opens up. If you miss one, don’t worry as it opens up every half an hour - not that bad. The tunnel cuts through a big mountain and it is amazing. There is a toll to go through this tunnel.

Whittier doesn’t have much to see. It is a port and mainly industrial - you will not see another place like this. It is very nice. If you do have time then I would suggest another cruise that leaves from Whittier to Prince William Sound. The cruise is called the Wilderness Explorere Cruise run by Alaska Native-owned Prince William Sound Glacier Cruises . The 110-mile Wilderness Explorer Cruise (6 hours) visits a lot of glaciers and wildlife, including bald eagles and black bears. The tour shows you Surprise glacier which is supposed to be very majestic.

TIP: Take warm clothes for the cruise. It gets very cold and windy when you are reaching the glacier. A down is ideal for this cruise. Take sunglasses and something to cover your ear and head.

Girdwood:

Girdwood is 40 miles south of Anchorage and you need to take the same coastal highway. Mt. Alyeska in Girdwood used to be a gold-mining facility but now is converted to a very nice resort called Alyeska Resort. This resort has an aeriel tramway that takes you to the top of Mt. Alyeska from where you get an excellent view. This is also a ski resort, so if you are going in winter then this is probably the closest ski resort to Anchorage. The cable cars run in summer as well. You can go up to the mountain and have a nice meal and come back. They have 1-2 restaurants there. If you are more adventurous and have the time/money then you can also do para-gliding in this resort. You and an instructor will go paragliding together from the top of Alyeska’s Areial Tramway.

Here is an HDR panorama atop Mt. Alyeska

WHERE TO EAT

Anchorage:

• Seafood is the most famous option in Anchorage, however, if you don’t like that are are a vegetarian like me then there are couple of Thai restaurants in Anchorage that are really good. One the restaurants that I really like is Thai Kitchen.

Denali:

• Salmon Bake :You get really good salmon here as you can tell
• Subway : open till midnight (when all else fails)

Seward:

• Peking : A Chinese restaurant whose owner lives in Seward 365 days a year ! Apparently the Kung-Pao Halibut is supposed to be a star of that place
• Apollo Restaurant : Greek/Italian cuisine

WHAT GIFTS TO BUY

• T-shirts with Alaskan art / print: Alaskan art is detailed and very pretty. You will see whales, polar bears, salmon and other animals in the art but with a lot of detail inside them. These look really good on a t-shirt or even on blankets, throws, scarves etc.
• Ulu: Ulu is a local carving knife which was used by the Eskimos(and other Alaskan) to carve meat. The Ulu has become a “touristy” gift. Ulus have exquisitely hand carved handles and can be very expensive. You do get some Ulus that are made in Alaska and not too expensive and you should buy these. You do get Ulus made in China but I am not too fond of them . There is an Ulu factory in Anchorage as well.
• Totem Poles: Like Ulus you will also get totem poles and they look very nice. You get the “Made in China” ones but don’t look good. Spend a little money (if you really want one) and buy a totem pole that is actually made in Alaska - It comes with the story about the totem pole and is very nice
• Small polar bears and other animals native to alaska that are carved out of Jade or marble - These look really nice and are carved well. Most of these are made in Alaska

WHERE TO BUY GIFTS FROM

• Anchorage downtown
  • Polar Bear Gifts
  • Cabin Fever
  • Grizzly’s Gifts
  • The Ulu Factory
• Girdwood
  • On the way to Girdwood there is a store where an old person makes candles. These candles are seen in gift stores all over but I would recommend going straight to the source. This person is very kind and you can talk to him also about Alaska and other things

CRUISES TO ALASKA

Every time I tell someone that I have been to Alaska, I get the same question - “Which cruise did you go on?”. Arrgh !! I did NOT go on a cruise to Alaska, however, I do know of several people who did and did enjoy their trip, and thats probably why this section is here. Well - maybe I won’t mind going on a cruise to Alaska !

There are several cruises to Alaska and most of them leave from Seattle. Some of the companies that have cruises to Alaska :

• Princess Cruises : My friend and her family went on this one and they were lucky to have an Indian chef who cooked according to their requests - they were a big group. She did like the other features of the cruise though
• Royal Caribbean
• Holland America

OTHER RESOURCES

• Alaska trip photo collection by Jay Hood (hoodwinks) : The best of the 5000 photos taken on a very well planned 14 day trip to Alaska .
• My photos from the Alaska Trip
  • Photos
  • Panoramas

1. To start of with - Why do I have to kill 20 bad-ass enemies without getting hit even ONCE ???
2. The enemies just swing their swords at one place and even though I am far from them I get hit and of course I die cause the challenge is to kill all of them without getting hit even once.
3. There are 5 of these guys coming at me at one time
4. The shield I have is LAME !!
   1. It has to be activated at the exact time. A fraction too soon and a fraction too late and thats it - you’re dead !
   2. Some times the shield doesn’t even activate !!
   3. You can’t keep the shield up for a long time. It works only for a second after you activate it
5. If you press a key to use a combo to kill an enemy then you are a 100% sure to die ’cause you can’t press any other key at that time to block your self
6. It seems that when 5 guys are hitting you at one time all you are expected to do is block, ’cause the moment you try to run, jump or hit back, you’re probably dead !
7. You cannot jump to escape the enemies, so even though the enemies are swinging the swords on the ground and you are in the air - you get hit and die !
8. Sometimes you can’t even see the enemy attacking you because of the camera angle

And the worst part is - this is only the second challenge !! I barely crossed the first one after like 20 retries !!
Don’t get me wrong - I love the entire God Of War series and I have finished them all, but I really hate it when developers go super-crazy and do shit like this. I wonder if the developers ever played the Challenges themselves and finished it !!

My sincere question is - What is the point of making the game so difficult?

Update 1 : I have seen some videos of Challenge 2 on Youtube and I am impressed with the skills and patience some players have. I guess I am old now and don’t have that kind of patience anymore ! I still don’t understand why the developers are so anal about these things. Why don’t have these Challenges on different difficulty levels? I am surely sick of this and if I owned this game (I am playing a borrowed copy) I would take this shit and trade it in for peanuts !

Update 2 : I have given up on the challenges and will be returning the game back to the original owner !

This movie is awesome ! A 5 star for me no doubt - a simple story with no BIG actors dancing and trying to be cool ! This movie doesn’t try to be cool or prove that we are hip in India too ! Instead it has emotion, spirit and character written all over it and for me that is much more cool than sexy actress just prancing around in a skimpy dress swinging to a sexy tune ! Aamir - good job directing this one mate ! As usual its the small things that I like. For example, at one point everyone has enough hints to figure out that Aamir’s character is also dyslexic but there is nothing said about it. At the end of the class, the way he breaks it to “Ishaan” (the dyslexic kid around who the story revolves) is something that stuck on to my mind ! Anyways- won’t give away more spoilers ! Go see the movie !

Some other things that struck me in this movie were the sketches and the animation - It was very well incorporated into the movie, not just for the heck of it !

Oh - and by the way, the soundtrack to Taare Zameen Par is awesome. I must confess I had not heard it before I saw the movie, but I did download the entire album right after I got back from the movie (and just before this post). I am listening to it right now and I like most of the songs. My favourite song is “Kholo Kholo” - I have already heard it some 5-8 times !

A few posts back I wrote how the Bollywood industry was going down the drain, but there are still people like Aamir who will keep up my hopes and expectations ! On my way back I realised there are a select few in Bollywood whose movies I like. Some of them include Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Ashutosh Gowarikar and a couple more.

Here is the link to the Fourth Schmap online guide to attractions in and around Seattle.

First of all, you need to download a registry editor for Windows Smartphone. There are a couple of registry editors such as PHM registry Editor, Resco Explorer and Total Commander. I used PHM Registry Editor which is a free tool. Download the CAB file, transfer it to the Q9h using ActiveSync or a memory card and install it using the file manager application on the Q9h. Once installed, run the PHM Editor and navigate to HKEY_CurrentUser –> ControlPanel –> Sounds. Click on “Values” which is the left soft key. This will bring up another screen with 3 list items:

• AllSounds
• Ringtones
• FileSizeLimit

Highlight FileSizeLimit and click on “Menus” which is the right soft key. From the menu select “Delete” to delete that key. Thats it ! You’re done. You can quit the PHM Registry editor. Now, you can set a ringtone of any size !

Watching TV/Videos

• NFL : I use SOPCast to watch those games that aren’t aired in my area. As I write this blog entry, I am watching the Colts vs. Bucaneers game. Want to know where I find the appropriate channel addresses to watch the games? Here is a link to the page that has links to all the games - This is updated weekly.
• Bollywood Stuff :Want to watch Zee TV, Sony and other hindi movies? Check out muft.tv
• Joost : Ye, I do have a Joost account. A friend of mine invited me to it and I have been using it for a while. It is a great software tool and I really like it, though it does have a long way to go where content is concerned. The quality is really good. I think Joost is now open to anyone who wants to use it - they can download the software from the official site
• YouTube : YouTube of course is the tool that I use to search for all the videos that I might have missed over the week. It is awesome though not as awesome after Google bought it out - They had better content before that !! Nevertheless - they still do have some good stuff. For example they have an official page for clips from late night shows like Conan and Jay Leno.
• Online shows : ABC, Fox, CBS and all others now host their recent past shows on their websites. So if you missed the last Desperate housewives episode or Heroes or Lost episodes then check out the respective channels - though they are put up online a day later

Photography Tools

• Adobe Photoshop CS2 : A Graphic Designers best friend ! This is by far the best softwareI have ever used ! Read my blog entry about Adobe Photoshop here
• Panoramas : I take a lot of photographs and I use the best stitching tool that I have come across so far - Autostitch. I love this tool and the guys over at University of British Columbia have done an awesome job ! There is no other tool that I consider better than Autostitch
• HDR Composition : Recently I started taking a lot of HDR photos and to compose them I use Photomatix. There are a lot of other tools there including Adobe Photoshop, however I think Photomatix does a good job - it has some presets for noobs.
• Online Hosting : My brother hosts a web server at his house and we run Gallery. We have been using Gallery from a very early version and we have a lot of photos now ! I also use Flickr and Picasaweb.

Downloader/Conversion Tools

• SUPER : SUPER is an awesome tool that I found a little while ago. You can convert a lot of media from one format to another. The biggest plus - its FREE - woo hoo ! I love these guys who make awesome software and distribute it free of charge !
• flvconvert : flvconvert is another great tool based on an open source tool called ffmpeg that allows you to convert flash videos (flv videos used by nearly ALL online video sites like YouTube etc.) to mpeg or avi files. You can then transfer these to your iPod or any other PMP.
• Audacity + lame encoder : Audacity is another free tool that I use. I love ringtones and Audacity is what I use to create my own ringtones from the mp3 files that I own.  lame is the encoder that is used to export the snipped songs as mp3s. You can then transfer these to your phone. Someday soon I shall write an entry about how to create ringtones.
• AVI MPEG RM WMV Joiner/Splitter : Join or split the video files. Sad to say its a paid utility.
• SDP Downloader: Some time ago, I wanted to download some wma and wmv files and I couldn’t. I grabbed this tool and voila !
  
• Firefox +DownloadHelper add-on : Download all those flv videos from any site using the DownloadHelper add-on with Firefox 2.0

There are ton of other tools that I use. I shall update this blog entry whenever I find out about them and use them !

In this country, the big corporations are encouraged and they become so big that the customer is forgotten. If one (or few) customers have complaints - they are just shooed away. The big companies don’t care one bit about them. They are so big that you don’t make an iota of difference to them. Your satisfaction is of least concern to them. How will one drop in an ocean make any difference in their next Quarterly result? That is the attitude of all of these companies and it makes me hate them even more !

Companies like Cingular / AT&T ; all insurance companies; Comcast; Dish Network; Dell; Starbucks; Quiznos, All Airlines etc. etc. all fall under the same category. All produce on a large scale basis and quality (of goods and/or services) goes down the drain - but of course if you call to complain, be prepared to be shoved around from one operator to another until you get frustrated, shout at some poor soul who is not at fault at all and then end the frustration by banging the phone down !! Yes - that has happened to me, and it has provoked me to write a blog entry about it !!

My insurance company has charged me an exorbitant amount of money for an emergency visit, which they claimed was not emergency. Every year the first visit to the doc costs me a bomb - cause that is the minimum I need to shell out in a year - and that pinches me a lot since I probably go to the doctor once a year !! I still haven’t seen Michael Moore’s Sicko, but I’m sure I’ll feel even more SICK after seeing it ! I hate the medical system in this place - I wonder how can such things so basic, like medicine, be so un-affordable !! This is probably my pet peeve and the big insurance companies don’t help at all when every year they bump up my co-pay or my premiums, even when my annual health report shows that nothing is critically wrong with me ! I don’t even use my health insurance as much (which is not something that I am complaining about ). I actually skip going to a doctor at times just because I worry about how much I will have to shell out to go see one !!

I had to get my Dish Antenna changed so that instead of being fixed n the railing it had to be fixed on a tripod (some apartment issue - the apartment complex is no less than a big corporation - but that is yet another story). So when I called up Dish Network and they were charging me $100 to do this - to move my dish antenna 2 feet inside !! They were charging me this despite of me paying them $5 every month towards a “protection plan”. They claimed it was an “installation” and not part of the protection plan !! I tried to explain them but my words did not reach anyone’s ear - every one was “playing by the book”. In India I would have got this done for free !! The good part of this story is that I also played it “by the book” and got the better of the company by doing so ! I removed the dish antenna myself, put it on the tripod and then called them and lodged a complaint that the dish antenna had moved and that I needed a “service call” - and stupidly enough this fell under the “protection plan” and they sent out someone to fix it - Dumb bast**** !!! (Again - pardon my frustration which is causing all the foul language). Blame it on those big corporations

I have noticed a stark difference between the business model here and in another country (say India). I see this problem there as well, but in a much much lower scale - the reason being that the competition is healthier there. There are so many companies there that compete with each other and in doing so YOU become important - as a customer. Earning your business is important, but keeping you happy so that you are loyal to them is even more important. That is the difference - the difference in attitude. The western world is trying to influence them to change their ways too - It is happening, but I hope it doesn’t go to this extent ! The service there is much better, because the people who work in those companies are paid on a commission basis at times. This is an amazing way of getting better service. The simple rule of thumb is - if you serve better, the more the chance of the customer sticking to you and/or getting you more customers which means - more business earned by you for your company, which also means more commission for you !! You win, the Company wins and the Customer wins - Its a WIN-WIN situation !! Above all though, people are much warmer there and they are more sincere where work is concerned - Our culture teaches us that “Work is God” and “Keeping the Customer happy is our primary concern” which makes the us give more to our work there than here.

Well so what went wrong here - why isn’t that the case here? Corporations here became so HUGE and powerful that they don’t think they need all of these customers ! I hate that approach and I hope that something can be done - Maybe making the market a little more open and free will help. E.g. don’t have cell phones locked to Providers - Let the providers sell what they are meant to do - sell the service !!! If they are bound to do only that, then they will be bound to provide better service !!

All this makes me feel that if I were ever to get a chance to screw the big companies over once in a while then I won’t shy away from that chance - It feels evil but at times they need a dose of their own medicine ! There are always loop-holes - you just need to figure them out !