Free Mobile Calls/Chat from your mobile - My First Step to Unplug myself !

Ever since I got hold of my new Nokia E61, I have been busy figuring out all the wonderful features it possess. The sole feature that helps this phone stands out against so many other phones, is Wi-fi. After trying out a bunch of third party softwares for chatting / internet (VOIP) calls, I freezed upon one really cool software - Fring.

Fring is a simple, effective and free to use software. Using Fring, you can go mobile with Skype, MSN Messenger, ICQ, Google Talk, SIP & Twitter! And if you have a free office Wifi network as luxury, then its absolutely free!! Alternatively you can even use your mobile phone service provider's internet data plan and connect via GPRS.

Here are the 10 steps to freedom (Click on pictures to magnify) :

Get a Wifi-enabled handset and an active Wifi vicinity. I use a Nokia E61 (there's a newer Nokia E61i with a camera available as well) and a Reliance Broadnet Wi-max connection on a Netgear Wireless router. Other good Wifi handsets are the Blackberry Phones and the all new Apple iPhone.

Go to your mobile phone's browser and open www.Fring.com Once you select your handset from the given list and download the software, it will ask you to install it. Follow the steps and make sure you allow this application to use your pre-configured internet connections (GPRS or Wifi).

Once installed, it will show up in your installed applications folder as shown here. Select the application from the menu and let it start. (Yeah if you are wondering, I do have 2 GB of space on my Nokia E61 and hence I can afford to load my cell with so many apps!!)


Fring once started, might take some time initially to download updates or configure itself. Please be patient for the first time. Afterwards, it runs just fine. I have configured my Fring to start every time the phone is rebooted. You can do it too.

The software looks up for the available Access Points. You can favorite them from the list (like your home and office networks) so that they can be used automatically once you come in their vicinity. (So you noticed, huh? Yeah its Hackerz Den; you dare not come Wi-fi phishing!!!)

Once you enter your GTalk/ICQ/Skype/etc usernames and passwords in the form provided, it will connect you to all these chatting/voice-call services using Wifi/GPRS (as opted by you). Once connected, you are done! Voila !! You are unplugged !! (Remember Matrix - The Trilogy??)


All your contacts from your cellphone as well as the logged-in services will be displayed. You can choose to hide your phonebook contacts from here. The colored icons on the left define the status of your friend (Active, Busy, Idle or Away)


Just tapping on a contact, lets you call him/her. The volume can be easily controlled by the joy-stick, just as you were making any other normal phone call using your cell. So now you can call your friend in US by just relaxing in your office bean-bag using the free Wi-fi.


You can even chat with your friend by selecting the 'Options' menu for a contact. The chat is very user-friendly and intuitive just like the voice-call feature. You get alerted by a buzz or a FringTone based upon your phone's activated profile.


Other than GTalk and Skype, there are some more services like MSN Messenger, ICQ, Twitter and SIP. I hope they are able to include Yahoo! Chat as well in the near future. Another useful feature would be to add emoticons for the chat.

One more thing, if somebody finds out how can I enable speaker phone for this application please let me know! (Yeah! I am the laziest person alive!!!)

Cameras worth buying

Here's a slide-show of all the cameras I feel are the hot deals of the season.

White Water Rafting @ Bheemeshwari

30th Sep, 2007. Bheemeshwari.

This was the day that me, my room-mate (Akhauri) and a bunch of other friends dared ourselves and went on to experience White Water Rafting at Bheemeshwari (a hundred odd kilometers from Bangalore). Have a look at the slide-show below. I'll let them do the majority of the talking!

Favorite Tom Hanks Movies

This is the collection of my favorite Tom Hanks' movies. While creating this slide-show I realized there are several others which I have not yet seen. Will keep updating this list once I get my hands on the remaining ones. Till then enjoy these...

Recursion explained using Orkut [PIC]

This master-piece of mine, can not just help me get nominated for the "Most Jobless Guy on Earth" but might eventually win me the credit! But what else to do, when you have forgotten your work laptop at your friend's place and are eagerly waiting for him to get it for you?

Apple iPod Touch - The new generation of iPods

iPod Touch = iPhone - phone

Yeah, thats the first impression you get if you have a look at it for the first time! Its an all new gadget thats released by Apple. It is not just a music player but comes very close to be called a PDA. The main features of iPod Touch with a Video Tour can can be seen at Apple's site.

• Multi-touch interface - The revolutionary technology that made iPhone a hit is now on one amazing iPod.
• Gorgeous 3.5-inch widescreen display - Touch your music in Cover Flow and watch video on a stunning, widescreen display
• Wi-Fi web browsing - Browse the web with Safari and watch YouTube videos on the first-ever Wi-Fi iPod.
• Music downloads from iTunes - Search, preview, and buy songs from the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store on iPod

Multi-touch

iPod touch features the same revolutionary interface as iPhone. Built to take full advantage of the large 3.5-inch display, the multi-touch interface lets you control everything using only your fingers. So you can glide through albums with Cover Flow, flick through photos and enlarge them with a pinch, or zoom in and out on a section of a web page. And iPod touch features a touchscreen QWERTY keyboard perfect for browsing the web in Safari, searching for videos on YouTube, finding music on the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store, entering calendar events, or adding new contacts.


Ambient Light Sensor

The iPod touch display has an ambient light sensor that automatically adjusts brightness to suit the ambient light in your surroundings. The result? A better experience for you and battery-saving efficiency for iPod touch.


Accelerometer

An accelerometer detects when you rotate iPod touch from portrait to landscape, then automatically changes the contents of the display, so you immediately see the entire width of a web page, your music in Cover Flow, or a photo in its proper aspect ratio.



Starbucks Music

You walk into a Starbucks. Order your latté. While you wait, you hear a song wafting from the loudspeakers. You love it. So you get out your iPod touch and buy it over Wi-Fi. Just like that. The iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store on iPod touch tells you what’s playing in select Starbucks and lets you buy it along with other featured Starbucks content. So you can sip, shop, and listen.

Specs

It comes in two versions 8GB($299) or 16GB($399) flash drive. With its rechargeable Lithium ion battery it gives up to 22 hours of music playback and up to 5 hours of video playback! It has a 3.5-inch (diagonal) widescreen multi-touch display with very good resolution (480-by-320-pixel resolution at 163 pixels per inch). All in all it weighs 4.2 ounces (120 grams). For a complete list of specs click here.

New Orkut Interface - See my homepage

Orkut.com - the social networking site has come up with its new skin. See the above screen-shot of my homepage. It surely looks cool !!!

The good old days of Super Mario Bros. and Contra

Memories are like gases, they try to occupy all the empty spaces they find, esp. in your head. Until yesterday, my head was filled with lots of stuff; work, house-hunting, committments, deadlines, etc. So much occupied that you can compare it to Eden Garden on the eve of India-Pakistan World Cup Final (pun intended) !!

But yesterday, I got some time to relax. (Some time to release the gas you'd say!) Stayed at home on a Saturday and planned my long-overdue trip to home. My hometown is in Rourkela (Orissa) although I spent eight golden childhood years of mine in Bhilai (Chhattisgarh). One of my nappy-buddies (actually we were a little older than that) Pratyush, is back from US for a month and I hope to meet him when I go back home. Whenever I think of that golden time it reminds me of all the fun we (me, Pratyush, Chinu and a whole bunch of friends) used to have when we were kids.

Summer vacation meant non-stop masti which included comics, cycling, cricket and most-importantly Video Games. It was the early 90s and Quake or Need For Speed inventors were probably still graduating. It was the time of sweet old Cartridge Games played on Samurai Consoles (even Nintendos were luxury at those days). I can bet I have played almost all the games of that era. Just to name a special few, Super Mario Bros., Contra, The Jungle Book, Islander, Spartan, Double Dragon and a xillion others.

But I lost my virginity (of playing video-games) to the ultimate game called Super Mario Bros. The player takes the role of Mario, or in the case of a second player, Mario's brother Luigi. The objective is to race through the Mushroom Kingdom, evade or eliminate Bowser's forces, and save Princess Peach. The Mario Brothers' primary attack is simply jumping on top of ("Stomping") their enemies, which kills the mushroom traitors and sends the turtle soldiers into their shells. Mario and Luigi can then kick these shells into other enemies, which will conveniently dispatch them; but conversely, kicked shells can bounce back off walls or other vertical obstructions and hit them. Some enemies can be killed only by shell impact; stomping them will hurt the Mario Bros. Jumping on enough enemies in succession or kicking a shell into enough enemies in succession (combos) results in double points earned with each enemy killed, eventually (after eight successive times) earning Mario or Luigi a 1-up - an extra life - another chance to pass the level. Mario and Luigi can also obtain 1-ups through finding 1-up mushrooms or even by collecting 100 coins.

If you know this sequence "Up-Up-Down-Down-Left-Right-Left-Right-B-A", you know what game I'm talking about. Yeah, its Contra!! The most deadly and enchanting games of all times. The trick (Konami Code) I mentioned above helps you get 30 lives for you and your partner (there's a different trick for Super Contra though). The Contra series essentially defined the run and gun computer and video game genre. The games, which are a combination of platform and shoot 'em up, consist of a player-controlled human protagonist who employs rapid-fire rifles to destroy enemies. While there is more emphasis put on shooting than jumping, the player must be able to use jump to gain the right angle to destroy certain enemies and avoid getting shot. Avoidance is essential, as it only takes one hit to kill the player.

The majority of the games in the series are presented strictly in a side-view perspective, with some of the levels scrolling vertically; however, different titles have experimented with different replication of the same basic gameplay. Super Contra, however, had overhead levels, similar to titles like Commando; the player could not jump in this perspective but could strafe instead. The Contra series has a reputation for being exceptionally fast-paced and difficult. It is thought to take an extremely skilled player to progress through the game using only the three lives and continues provided.

The other games I thoroughly enjoyed playing were The Jungle Book (extremely adventurous), Spartan (Kung-fu action), Double Dragon (adventure and action), Super Mario Bros. 3 (love it) and many others.
Sometimes I just wish that I could fly back to those old times where I used to have so much of fun! But as they say 'Time Spent on Video Games is not wasted' (I hope my mom is not listening !!). So until next time... :-)

Organizing your Music for iPod

I used to consider myself a cleanliness freak (like Monica Geller of F.R.I.E.N.D.S fame) ; atleast when it comes to keeping MP3s and JPGs in my laptop. But after I bought an Apple iPod, I realized how messed up my music collection was. Songs were poorly named as SUMME~69.mp3 or even worse Track1.mp3. Nirvana's song All Apologies was tagged under the genre Blues while a gazillion others had no artist whatsoever.

All these attributes (meta-data) that is stored in these MP3 songs are called ID3 tags. There's a whole Wiki page explaining what it is. To a lay-man, these are the attributes that your iPod uses to arrange music, based upon the Genre, Artist or Album. Even if you are a music buff, it'd be a herculean task to update all your music manually. I gave up after Googling attributes for just 2 or 3 songs and manually editing its tags. It was such a pain !!

So instead of googling the attributes for the songs, I decided to search tools on the net that'd make my life easier. Here in this post, I'll explain how you can organize as well as enhance your giga-bytes of assorted MP3s.

I found tools such as MusicBrainz Picard and TagRunner which when used in combination, makes a lot of work easier for you. Picard is a free-ware while TagRunner is a share-ware and needs to be bought after a brief period. However this useful social-service site helped me 'crack' a way out. Search for 'TagRunner v2.0.0.16' and download what they have to offer. Replace the exe file with the one already installed in TagRunner directory, and you are done!

Firstly, I suggest you to keep a separate place-holder for your 'tagged' music, so that you don't end up having duplicate MP3s. For this change the settings in Picard (File -> Options -> Directories) by selecting the shown check-box and entering the new place-holder path.

There are various other options that you can set like the naming conventions, ID3 Tag versions, etc. Select your entire assorted music collection and leave it upto Picard to take care of it. This can be done by selecting the directory (File -> Add Directory). Leave it to run for as long time as it needs (probably overnight). It will look up various sources in the internet and arrange your songs based upon the Artist and the Album. Some of the MP3s may remain untagged, so don't worry about them. Once everything is done, select all the Albums and click 'Save track/album' as shown below. You will also get to know the missing songs of the albums by clicking on the expandable 'Albums' button here.

Now since your music collection is getting sorted out, its time to add correct tags like Artist, Genre, Year of Release as well as Lyrics and the Album Art. To do this you need to use the other software I mentioned - TagRunner. Open it and add the newly sorted directory in it (Add -> Add Folder (Recursive)) and click 'Next'.

This will search for various necessary Tags, Lyrics and Album Arts. Once all the songs are done, save it and exit.

Now you can import all these songs into iTunes and put it in your iPod. You will see a clean and organized music world now !! Enjoy !!

Its all about food...

The one thing that I have tried exceptionally wild here in Seattle, is food. It's not just because of my adventurous attitude or cos I am a food junkie. Its just that it makes more sense to me to try Tacos or Chowder for five bucks than wasting it on one silly Aloo Parantha or Biryani which I anyways will be having in a few days time. Its not about home-food too. Had it been the case I'd have stuffed Ready-to-Eat food packets from India for me while coming. Its the fact that, I won't get all these once I am back home. So why not try them out while I'm here?

I have tried a lot of varieties of food here already. Greek(Pitas) , Mexican(Tacos), Thai(All the funny sounding names), Chinese(Funny again), Russian(Try the drinks, not the salads, specifically no to the Russian White Salad), American(McD, KFC, Fish and Chips, Salmon, blah blah) and Vietnamese(Chicken Bowl was yum)! All have their own style and taste, clearly depicting the culture of their respective lands. But after 3 weeks of experimentation, my taste buds revolted against me and I had to succumb to their pressure.

Moreover, today I went with my team to an "authentic" Chinese Restaurant called Tamarind Tree. Since it was lunch , we had our tables reserved and orders pre-placed, before we left from office. I made my taste-buds go through the ultimate torture test; which in cricketing terms can be compared to facing Brett Lee on a green WACA (Perth) pitch in a cold murky Australian morning. I ordered a Bún tôm nướng (it took me five minutes to Google this dish I ate) and they tasted horrible and I blame it to my choice rather than the chef. They served me rice noodles with grilled prawns and herbs. They also served me a bowl of boiling water and a plate of rice-paper (I swear had somebody not told me that they were edible, I'd have used them as table mats). They were thin transparent rice flakes with beautiful pattern made on it. I was supposed to dip them in the boiling water and put the rice noodles and the prawns along with herbs in it, roll it over, dip in the soya sauce and put straight into my hapless mouth. Believe me, once they are wrapped ,they looked more like garbage stuffed in miniature polythene bags. Tasted like that too!! Eeeks!!

Here's me with my team. Don't misjudge my smile; its more of a relief-smile than the one of satisfaction.

After this trauma, I decided to break-free. I told myself, no matter what happens, I am gonna eat something mouth-sloppering delicious for dinner! So I headed towards the First Avenue where Google Maps pointed me an Indian Restaurant, called 'The Taste of India'. There were mainly Phirangs who were eating there and I feared whether I have come to a wrong place again! However, the guy on the counter was a Punjabi and that gave me a real sense of hope. I ordered a Lamb Biryani and asked him to wrap it up for me, as it was still early for dinner. I had my dinner in the room and believe me, that guy was really generous when he packed that Biryani for me. I can bet a whole American family can eat that amount of stuff (Of course, after eating that spicy Mutton Biryani, they'd be a thing of the past). I truly enjoyed it a lot. In fact I still am, whenever I get to burp now :-P !!

More later...

Alki Beach Park of Seattle

When one thinks of a beach, one thinks of sea, sand, shore, shells and skin!! Well this was the first beach I saw where there was scarcity of all of them. Ya!! Including the ultra-essential part of any beach - the sea. They call it Puget Sound. And remarkably, its very silent. No sound except the wind or the sea. But its beautiful. Really amazing!! Have a look at these and judge yourself...

Trip to Mt. Rainier

Sight Seeing @ Seattle

Seattle, in short, is a Visual Treat. The scenic beauty especially under the Summer Sun is simply breathtaking. The clean blue sky and the pure air makes it the most liveable city in the US.

I usually go for a walk after lunch. The office is on a hill called Beacon Hill. The view of the Downtown from there is amazing. The row houses in the Beacon Hill also look stunning. Have a look...

There are many places in Seattle for sight-seeing. The most popular being The Space Needle. Other places of interest include the Pike Place Market, The Aquarium, The Underground Tour. Out of all these I chose to see the Space Needle today evening. I clicked some awesome shots from up there. Saw a moon-rise for the first time in my life. Have a look at each of these pics...

Longest day of my life (BLR-LHR-SEA)

0824 PDT, 28th May 2007. Seattle, WA.

You must have heard the phrase "being ahead of time". I just experienced it, when I flew from Bangalore to Seattle via London. I left Bangalore at about 0245 IST in my cab as I had my flight at about 0630 IST. It was pretty cool in the night and I was feeling damn excited about the trip.


The British Airways flight left on time. As always, I was unlucky enough to have an old fellow besides me. There was an empty seat between the two of us and I kept hoping someone 'interesting' would show up. But alas, it never happened. Anyways, I was more interested in sleeping at that time (Just to clarify, when I said 'sleeping' I meant 'dozing' and had no other malicious intentions).


The flight seemed pretty long, probably because I could hardly sleep. However I could see some really beautiful views from top. We flew over Dubai (check the snap above) and Mainland Europe before landing at Heathrow, London (LHR). The flight was delayed for about half an hour or so. That forced me to hurry to catch the connecting flight. I managed to finish the formalities just in time! I wanted to call up a few friends in UK but unfortunately I just couldn't.


After spending a few minutes in the Terminal 4 of LHR, I boarded the BA flight to Seattle. This time as well I didnt get to sleep much. Not because of any disturbance of any sort but because the view from the top was simply breath-taking.

We flew over Iceland, Greenland (see the snap above), Canada and finally landed in Seattle. Yippeeee!!! I have reached the country of dreams!!!

Gotta go now. Its Memorial Day here (an off day) so gotcha see some cool places around. Till then you can enjoy the pics I clicked on the Longest Day of my Life...

Sleepless for Seattle

0200 IST, 27th May 2007. The day has finally arrived. I leave for Seattle in a few hours and I am extremely excited about it!! I have an early morning flight from Bangalore to Seattle via London. Its gonna be the longest day of my life as I'd be traveling ahead of time and not against it.

As I sit in my room now, I have high hopes of seeing some great places there, learn a thousand new things and meet some old and new friends. In my stoppage at London, I am hoping to speak to my dear friend L£O. I wish I had a longer stay there and I could see London as well on Transit Visa; but alas, thats not gonna be the case this time.

So heres my adieu to all my friends and relatives, especially to those whom I couldn't speak over phone. I shall be back in a months time but as you will see, I will just be mouse tap away from you. Keep looking at this space for more....

Silence before the Storm

Its been really long since I had posted anything here. I heard a lot of complaints, especially from my readers (read - one guy from office and another one from college, who was rather more relieved than concerned) of me not publishing the blogs so frequently! Well, I was neither busy nor was I out of town. It was just that I thought I'd reserve my enthu(siasm) for the days ahead of me.

For those who don't know, my days of being an Indian all throughout these twenty-four years, has been finally compensated. I am traveling to the country of dreams, the US of A, this weekend (27th May 2007) for a business trip. At least my company and the team assumes that its a business trip. I have not allowed this lousy feeling to sink in me yet. I am already in a holiday frame of mind and would love to be there in that mood - throughout!

For all those people who are already wondering where am I going, then let me break the suspense (Frankly, I wonder whether there remains anyone, even in the third-degree node of my friend-tree, whom I have not bugged bragging about this trip). Well, just FYI, I am going to be in Seattle, WA for about 3-4 weeks. I have heard loads about this city; first time, when I saw the movie Sleepless In Seattle and then later from my Amriki ex-roommates.


There's a million places to visit in and around this lovely city and I am hoping to see atleast half of them! But inspite of this hectic schedule, I will be regularly blogging about my experiences with Uncle Sam. So keep looking at this space for more.

This is just the Silence before the Storm...