Here is how I _____ it:

Famous Pub Crawling: Gollem, Amsterdam

2009-09-24T17:45:00.011-04:00

Have you seen the Heineken ad where the wife is showing her friends the shoe closet and they hear the husband and his friends screaming & yelling - turns out the husband has a Heineken beer closet?

Well I felt the same joy when I stepped into Gollem in Amsterdam which I was visiting ago earlier this month for IBC... a very small pub by any standards BUT what a selection. Went their twice and second time took the trouble of taking my 20D with me.

Across the street from Gollem was a shop selling those beers to take home .... the thought did cross my mind to bring some across the pond but ...

More images on Flickr!

Outlook on Steroids - Xobni & ClearContext

2009-06-09T11:45:00.000-04:00

The first part in this series I reflected upon on well I leverage Outlook and that I have just started using Xobni & ClearContext to make life easier handling email. Outlook supports "Profiles" - and I use that feature to keep my personal email inbox and mail separate from my work email. On startup I have setup Outlook to prompt me for profiles.

I have been successful to run both Xobni & ClearContext plug-ins simultaneously and so far they are behaving well. Although now Outlook is slower when starting up...

ClearContext is a big help in order to control the size of mailbox with the "Topic" and filing feature. As mail comes in I can assign topics, and once a Topic is assigned any future email on that thread is very easy to file. I can click on File Message or File Thread and the messages are moved to the appropriate folders that you had set up. What is really special is that I can setup the folders to be my PST files - and hence allowing me to archive emails based on the threads that I want to preserve.

The major downside I have with ClearContext is that it does not support multiple profiles. I avoid using the ClearContext features when I am running it in Personal profile and I have to undo the auto-topic assign feature that I use extensively on the work profile.

Overall the free version of ClearContext, which is free, adds tremendous value to manage my emails.

The Xobni plug-in supports multiple profiles. Xobni has a really cool feature not available in ClearContext - in its sidebar shows how is the sender of the email connected to you on social networks such as LinkedIn and Facebook. I am not on Facebook (so far), but I have connected with several of colleagues and professional contacts on LinkedIn because of Xobni. When I receive an email it will show if the sender is on LinkedIn or not, and if on LinkedIn how is she connected to me. Within the sidebar they have a "Add" button which when clicked will launch to open LinkedIn in your web browser and allow you send an invite to connect with the sender.

Net-net it has made my Outlook experience richer and I would recommend the free versions of the plug-ins to achieve the following:

1. Keep the Inbox uncluttered and organized using "Topic" functionality in ClearContext
2. Keep track of two of the most popular Social Networks - LinkedIn & Facebook using the functionality in Xobni.

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PS: One annoying thing that I have discovered about Xobni is that it keeps "modifying" the Contacts in my address book - not the content but it appears that it is 'touching' the contacts so if you sort them in using the "Modified" field you will see that the last email from any contact appears to be modified ...

Product Design: GPS & Car Mounts

2009-06-04T10:30:00.000-04:00

Designing good products goes beyond simply introducing products in a hot category. Last couple of years GPS were high growth category initially made popular by the likes of Garmin, TomTom, and Magellan. The lure of high growth led the likes of HarmonKardon (HK) to introduce their own GPS devices.

One of our family friends traded their HK GPS for our Garmin Nuvi 270 before they headed out to Europe (the 270 has European maps built-in). I had a chance to use it - the unit is a lot fancier then the 270 but fancy does not equate to functional :-)

Here are my observations:

1. GPS add on units for cars typically comprise of a mounting device, the adaptor that is used to power the GPS unit and the GPS device itself. Add On GPS Units need to have very effective car mounts - most of them are "suction type" with a lock down lever. The lock down lever is a must because it helps create suction and hence the ability to adhere to the mount point. The picture below shows three components:

2. Once the suction mount is in place on the car windshield - a ball & socket joint is used to attach the GPS unit to the mount. A good joint that can withstand bumps and standard wear & tear is necessary. GPS units has a mechanical adapter with the "socket" - this adapter to the GPS Unit. Now you can plug in the GPS on the suction mount. Here is a how it mounts to the windshield of the car:

Having weak suction could lead to the GPS unit to fall as the mount falls off and I have seen several examples of that. The suction on the HK GPS car mount was pretty good, but take a look at the next shot:

As you may observe the GPS is drooping and I could never get it to prop up. And even though the HK GPS is loaded with features, I could not really use them. In fact the unit dropped while I was driving! It was obvious that the ball & socket joint was not solid enough to hold the unit well.

After I came back home I took a look at what was causing the problem, here is a pictures of the adaptor that connects the GPS unit to the mount, observe the cracks around the socket:

Now, in all fairness, the HK unit may have been dropped or bumped causing the damage. But the possibility remains that the design of the ball & socket joint especially on the adaptor would have not be done well - in this case may the material was not picked well (the right chemical composition?) or it was not designed to take the weight of the unit (this HK GPS is certainly heavier then the Nuvi 270). I don't know the reason but it does highlight that designing products well requires more than adding features!

Is Food Packaging Important?

2009-05-08T13:06:00.009-04:00

I have discovered the joy of shopping for groceries and wine @ Trader's Joe - after hearing about it for so many years we finally made the trip. The first trip resulted in lot of food shopping as a discovery process. And the second trip a few weeks back to the store on Peachtree Parkway resulted in tons of wine shopping for the upcoming party we had :-)

The interesting thing about shopping at a place like Trader's Joe is that it turns the mundane, boring task of grocery shopping into an experience. Like this Chopped Basil:

I loved the packaging - each serving to be used for cooking packaged in their individual cubes!

Famous Pub Crawling: The Dove - Hammersmith

2009-04-27T12:19:00.006-04:00

I am back from the trip to London last week and almost fully recovered from the jet lag. Over the weekend had a chance to download the pictures from my Canon 20D.

Had a chance to have drinks at a pub called as the The Dove in Hammersmith. The two primary "claim to fame" for this pub:

Ernest Hemingway is to frequent the pub
Smallest Bar in Britain

The rest of the pictures of Hammersmith can be found here.

Globetrotting : London

2009-04-22T09:08:00.004-04:00

This week I am in London on a business trip and this has been a great trip on the personal front simply because I have made time for the hectic schedule of meeting customers to actually meet with friends and see London!

Last night I met with a very good friend of mine - Vishal Rajani and he drove down from Cambridge. And as usual Vishal did not disappoint ...

In summary we started with drinking Belgian beers and Irish Ciders in Hammersmith, dinner at a great Iranian restaurant called Mahdi and followed by midnight picture taking of the London Eye and Big Ben.

Pictures to be posted when I return home from the trip (I have not downloaded them and keeping fingers crossed - I did not have a tripod, was resting the 20D wherever I could!)....

A Simple Twist to the Pav Bhaji

2009-04-05T18:18:00.006-04:00

I am sort of a foodie, actually all of us in my family are! My wife

pulled a new simple but elegant twist on the Pav Bhaji. We have not

been able to find the right "Pav" - bread that goes with Bhaji. Recently we discovered breads at Walmart and ended up starting to have what I would say is the Desi Sub - BhajiSub. I will call it the JiSub!

Do I word for Cisco OR Holder?

2009-03-27T10:46:00.007-04:00

We have a new building almost finished @ the Cisco SPVTG (what was called Scientific Atlanta, Inc.) campus in Lawrenceville - Building #6. Holder, I think, is the construction company. There is a huge sign posted by Holder in a few places.

The new Cisco sign is also up replacing the Scientific Atlanta signposts - as you can see drivers passing by must be wondering if this Holder Construction or Cisco?

BTW This is a very beautiful campus and I am one of the people who has moved to this building and guess what my cubicle/office has a enviable view compared to others... (company policy forbids camera's and I will respect that else I would have posted how it looks from my office)

Tech Tools That I Use Part 1: Email, Calendar & Contacts

2009-03-25T22:35:00.002-04:00

While I am relatively new to the whole world of blogging and social-networking I consider that I am pretty good at using technology to increase my effectiveness. Here are a few things that I do:

1. I simply love Microsoft Outlook - it is one of the reasons of marital bliss. I ensure that all Birthdates, Anniversaries (not mine but the in-Laws) are setup, and reminders for a day before the events. The Calendaring & Contact function is phenomenal - yes I would want more features but I haven't seen anything that works so well and does not need an internet connection.

(And Yes I have tried Apple's email client, Thunderbird, Outlook Express, all kinds of web email - Gmail, Hotmail etc. - nothing in my opinion comes close to Outlook at least for what I use it for other than email!)

2. Having them on your Outlook is of course not enough - so whenever I have used any cellphone I have made sure that I can "sync" (using Cables or Bluetooth etc.) the calendars & contacts with the PC/Outlook. That, of course, allows you to be reminded when the laptop is NOT ON or at the office.

3. Another thing that I did (I say - "I did" because now I have automated the process) when using Outlook file messages. I rarely use an excuse that I have tons of email, I can dispatch and/or categorize emails very effectively. Of course it also helps that I am a BlackBerry addict since 2003!

4. I started using ClearContext a couple of months back and it has certainly helped me automate the task of keeping corporate email box limits. ClearContext allows me to setup "Topics" and any emails that are in the same thread get classified automatically. I can then file them away in separate folders as a single message or entire thread. (I must admit that the Apple MAC OS email client has this feature where it will show emails as "Threads" or "Conversations").

5. I am going to attempt to use Xobni (Inbox spelled in reverse) which boasts many features plus ability to connect to the social networks.

I will continue this post to follow up on Browsing and RSS tools to keep me updated on everything that is going on...

So far I like Blogger over WordPress!

2009-03-25T15:58:00.003-04:00

I have tried blogging on WordPress, and for various different reasons found it difficult. I will keep trying/using to understand what are the advantages of using WordPress.

My take is simple - I don't want to go for their paid service till I know for sure that I will be blogging frequently. I googled and tried to go through their settings but I was unable to figure out how to get my Twitter updates to show up - something that we very, very simple with Blogger!

SEWA Holi Celebrations Pictures

2009-03-23T11:41:00.002-04:00

Here is the link to the pictures from SEWA Holi Celebrations...

Holi Celebration

2009-03-21T18:15:00.009-04:00

Like all Indian/Desi festival celebrations in the US, Holi is celebrated on weekends. This year chose to participate in the Holi organized by Sewa USA (a charitable organization)

I always wonder why end up attending, make no mistake I love Holi, but it takes second-seat to celebrating Diwali...

This time though I ended up taking a lot of pictures, going to sift through them and post them soon.

BTW before I headed out I had to take care to protect my Canon 20D and the lens using makeshift technique from the "gulal" (color, read more about Holi here), here is the picture of how I did it...

Cisco CRS-1 & the Pure Digital Flip Video

2009-03-19T10:19:00.008-04:00

It is really interesting to note that I may have the distinction of working for a company (Cisco Systems) - the distinction of some of the most massive (size-wise), high-end technical equipment to entry level camcorders if the intent acquiring Pure Digital go through!

So I tried doing some math to show the equivalence of CRS-1 to the Flip Video has a fun exercise...

Interesting stats to note: A Fully Loaded Cisco CRS-1 is 84 x 23.6 x 39.71 inches and wieghs 1595 lbs (723 kg). And the entry level Flip Video is 4.12 x 1.25" x 2.25" and weighs 5.2 oz (0.325 lbs) !

Volume: 1 CRS-1 ~ 6793 Flip Videos (78721.104/11.5875)
Weight: 1 CRS-1 ~ 4907 Flip Videos

Twitter Changes ...

2009-03-18T10:25:00.004-04:00

Changed my Twitter name my email/net moniker/handle that I usually use - TechTsunami to AshuJoshi. I think they kind of munged together, I wanted to have both of them and have the www.twitter.com/Techtsunami point back to AshuJoshi as the new follower name...

Not to worry, I have limited followers and nothing important that may get lost in the name change!

More than an year gone by...

2009-03-17T09:59:00.001-04:00

More than an year has gone by without any blog post - not that I don't want to write or express, but it is next to impossible to post frequently. Y2009 has to be different. Between this blog and a new one that I will setup on Wordpress, I should be able to cover what I want to express. Plus I don't have to choose between WordPress and BlogSpot!

2007-12-28T13:24:00.000-05:00

Over the last two months many magazines, webzines, and websites tout the Top Gadgets for the season. Here are some that I followed:

http://www.wired.com/gadgets/gadgetreviews/magazine/15-12/wl_10things

http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-8900_7-1008327-1.html

http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/top10/article/0,30583,1686204_1686305_1690738,00.html

The iPhone seems to be a favorite of the lot and on a previous rant I have mentioned that I am one of the June 29ers to get the iPhone!

I have always collected gadgets and one of the earliest that I still have around (don’t use it much) is the Casio SF-8300 PDA.

The collection has never stopped; tens of thousands of dollars have been spent (or wasted…)!

In the 90’s Collection - I have had the Palm Pilot Professional, the First Windows CE PDA – the HP 620 LX, one of the very first Mega Pixel Digital Cameras – the Ricoh RDC-5000 (even before it was introduced to the open market in 1998), one of the very first portable Digital Players from Sony – the MS Walkman (in 1998), the Handspring Visor Prism, and the Palm Pilot VII (the wireless version with Web Access capabilities).

The 2000 Collection:

Started with the 2^nd Generation Apple iPod, and continued with first generation, second generation iPod Shuffles, Nintendo Gameboy, Sony PSP, Nintendo DS-Lite, 2^nd Generation 8GB iPod Nano, the much revered Apple iPhone and just recently the Nokia 810 Internet Tablet.

I am hoping that 2008 will see more added to my toys as they say: "Men Never Grow Up – The Toys Just Get More Expensive"! Next time, I will publish my (never-ending) Wish List…..

The Long Tail, Freakonomics, and MicroTrends: What do they have in common?

2007-11-25T23:12:00.001-05:00

In the past month I have been reading rather interesting books that seem to have a relationship between them, or at least similar influences. The first one that I read was “The Long Tail” by Chris Anderson.

The concept presented by Chris is rather simple (or may be he has done a very good job of explaining it): technology (digitization of audio & video content, on-line distribution channel with infinite shelf-capacity, recommendation engines, search & discovery capabilities) has opened opportunity for content that is serves the ‘niches’ rather than the mass. As Chris explains, instead of “the Billboard Top 40’ gave way to several top forties for various different genres…

Chris also talks about ‘physical’ products that may not have the same attributes (virtual) such as MP3 songs, but are the long tail. The Long Tail started out with the editorial piece put out by Chris and a very good review of it is available here (on Wikipedia).

So, the essence is to sell less of more - marketing to the niches of peoples (read: communities based on shared tastes and likes)!

The next one is, Microtrends by Mark J. Penn, which I started reading a week ago. The book is all-about niches, niches of people. The book itself can be browsed in any sequence, and that’s exactly what I am doing. Each chapter is about a group of people driven by common themes/demographics/tastes (sounds familiar?). For example, ‘Internet Marrieds’ are the people who hooked up on the Web and got married or ‘Social Geeks’. There are about 75 of such categories. Mark has talked about the impact of the rising numbers of such groups and what impact it may have on the society and of course, how to market to them. The final chapter, ‘Conclusion’ gets into all the contradictions that are faced by the society today

Moving on is the book by the economist Steven Levitt – “Freakonomics” – a book on (economics-based) motivation of day to day behavior of people. A great example provided by Steven is the example on real estate agents when they are selling your house and how contrary to normal thinking, they may not be acting on your behalf. So, the book is economics of the daily life (or should I say daily grind). It is also, in a way, Bear that thought, I am going to tie it all together….

The books are all about personalization and niches and the individual … they remind of the cover of the Time that at the Person of the Year as You! and was also mentioned in one of my earlier posts.

Microtrends is about micro-communities – or communities revolving around niches, The Long Tail is about how the market, the economy would be impacted by marketing to the niches, and Freaknomics is how to study the impact of these day-to-day happening communities and niches and what implications they may have.

Would love to hear from the reader, am I dreaming or there is some common link/pattern between the three of them?

Apple iPhone, iTunes & Sync Frustrations...

2007-09-17T23:15:00.000-04:00

Plenty of people may not like Microsoft Outlook, I on the other hand, love it! It is really very, very powerful productivity tool. It makes sure that I remember all the important dates (makes sure that my family does not get ma at me J ), helps me organize and manage my dates, PLUS all my contacts. With all the simplicity Apple promotes, I think it has taken it too, too far. It installs plug-ins for Microsoft Outlook on Windows machines to sync the Contacts/Calendar. And it does an extremely poor job! Synchronization software has been around for almost 13 to 14 years (beginning with Palm PDAs) and Apple still does not get it. I am amazed that Sony Ericsson’s Windows Software does a better job than Apple at helping me synchronize with Microsoft Outlook. I recently got another cell phone – a Nokia 6120, and syncing with Outlook is a breeze. What’s up Apple? Why don’t you acquire a software company that gets Microsoft platform?
Today I tried syncing, and it would drop content (an entire Photo Folder) without even warning me or telling L
I have setup my Outlook to run with two profiles. The default profile handles my Office Outlook/Exchange, and another profile for three of my personal email account. Guess what, it won’t sync with the “personal” profile… all other synchronization software actually lets you pick the folder you can synchronize with…
And what’s up with NOT supporting Firefox? The iTunes software will ONLY sync web bookmarks with Internet Explorer. I use a combination of Firefox and Google Firefox Sync to keep track of my bookmarks across all my machines (including the Apple Powerbook), and iTunes does NOT support Firefox!

Don’t mistake me, I still love Apple and what it has done with the iPhone! Sure it has a very, very advanced user interface… but it still has a long way to go on working as a PDA. Or, may be my expectations were very high!

PS: I am sure there many other rants and raves on the Apple iPhone, but I had to post mine.

Social Networking Explosion

2007-09-11T14:41:00.000-04:00

Last couple of years has witnessed an explosion of Social Networking starting out with Friendster, MySpace and Facebook. These three received considerable attention due to the large following, and the mega-acquisition of MySpace by Rupert Murdoch.

Is it hype or real? I don’t know, but I am skeptical about the true value of these social networks. Are we getting pulled into Virtual Worlds, blending or rather bending reality? My background is completely tech-oriented and even then (having access to the Internet, mobile or wired) mostly stayed away from Instant Messaging & Online Chats (which I would consider as major pre-cursors to the Social Networks). Point being, I really wonder what’s going on. Businesses going crazy to have real estate in Second Life (it has its own currency!), and making widgets for Facebook.

In any case, I have decided to get my feet wet or should I say virtually wet…

I have built out my profile on LinkedIn (Disclaimer: had an account for almost 2 years or so), publishing my pictures on Flickr (Had the account for year or so but started using it frequently) and sharing my passion for Books on Shelfari. LinkedIn is pure professional networking but it has helped me locate my classmate from my Middle School in India J and that was amazing, bumping into somebody after almost 20 years! Flickr is more of an outlet for my creative side and Shelfari is an expression of something I love to – read.

Last but not the least, Wikipedia is NOT a social networking site, BUT it is the “Britannica” of the Virtual World, and very powerful tool. I bring it up because I would classify Wikipedia as a Network of Communities contributing their expertise. And it has a great list of Social Network Services!

The iPhone Debacle & Power of the Consumer

2007-09-06T20:46:00.000-04:00

I am an above average gadget guy but definitely not the extreme kind. Case in point I did get my Apple iPhone™ on June 29^th but I was not standing in lines forever. I reached the Lenox Store may be 20 minutes before the 7 PM Grand Opening, stood in line with my family for about 40 minutes or so and got my 8GB iPhone.

And, I was pi**ed at the announcement made by His Jobness yesterday.

But, then there is the Power of the Consumer! The announcement angered tons of early adopters (I was fuming last night, I was willing to spend the 600 bucks, and I know some people think of that as wasting money, but I did want to be an early adopter).

The strong feedback forced Apple’s CEO to offer a rare apology to the early adopters – (He could have done better, but in this case something is better than nothing).

I was an early adopter of the 2G 30GB iPod, 1^st Gen Shuffle, 2^nd Gen Shuffle, and the 8GB Nano when it came out (I also own the Apple 15” G4 PowerBook). No more, not even with the $100 Apple Rebate. Apple has left a bitter impression, and I will think twice before buying any new Apple Product.

The net has changed, it has given a medium to express and point out to Apple and other companies to think through their future product strategies. And it has given power to the consumers (an interesting post @ GigaOm on this)!