Android Strengths and Ailments

I posted these on my twitter timeline. So, if you haven't already, follow me @arnab_das

Android Strengths:

Android Strengths #1 : Extremely user friendly interface. Widgets, home screens, etc. make this one of the most user friendly OSes.

Android Strengths #2 : Notifications. Even the iOS users admit that the notification system is THE feature of Android.

Android Strengths #3 : 15 minutes payment return policy on apps. Okay maybe 15 minutes isnt enough, but for most apps, it is actually.

Android Strengths #4 : OS compatibility. Most android phones work perfectly with Windows, Mac and Linux, at least in the Mass Storage mode.

Android Strengths #5 : Root Access. This can be done with the "other" OS as well, but being open source it can give unprecedented control

Android Ailments:

Android Ailments #1 : Extremely Poor Support. Getting support from Google is tougher than seeing God Himself. No form of official support.

Android Ailments #2 : No policy to control apps. Malicious, unstable apps are flooding the market. Google is taking action way too late.

Android Ailments #3 : Compatibility. There is absolutely no guarantee that an app which runs on one android device will work on another. This is actually worst when the apps one is talking about turn out to be "paid" apps. Thats when it hurts.

Android Ailments #4 : No control over updates. One has absolutely no idea when one's phone will go out of date. Could be a year or a month!

Android Ailments #5 : Overall app interface, stability and usability still needs a lot of work. Force-close/hangs still very common issues.

Things beyond my comprehension

Why am I so angry? The official sites of the Government of India regarding new PAN applications are so complicated, especially when it comes to that hallowed AO Code explanation, that its virtually impossible for a non Chartered Accountant to fill up those columns. I honestly cannot fathom the thought process behind this. If the govt wants us citizens to file our income tax returns, why cant it make the process of filing it a bit simpler?

I understand that this is a period of recession and that CAs are as much in need of moolah as us non-CA folks. But harassing new potential tax payers by complicating the process in a bid to make them pay up for the CA's fee is an absolutely unrealistic idea (thats the only possible reason they could have made the application procedure so complicated).

The rest of the form is so simple, a nursery student can fill it up. However the AO code is where things mess up. And from the looks of it, perhaps this has been done intentionally.

I want to frakin get a PAN, let me get it. NO, says the govt. I'll screw up your life and make you look like a moron and force you pay that CA. Fine so be it. In the land of whatever, you have to be a whatever.

Nothing much

I havent posted on this blog of mine in a long time. If you consider a week to be a long enough interval between blog posts that is. I am spending aimless days at home watching unreal reality shows on TV, sleeping for days on end,
and gulping gallons of booze
and enjoying the occasional adrenaline rush everytime I hear my mobile phone shout (sing rather, or lets say play) 'Its too late to apologize' (yes, I'm still not over that song. Heck, it was the most downloaded song of 2008!).

Anyway, I was wondering what to do with my ample spare time. Its really a shame that when one is neck deep in shit (aka work/studies), one craves for free time and when one finally gets it, its difficult to figure out what to do in that spare time. (Life is so fraking complicated!)

In the absence of any constructive thought cropping up in my brain, I did some pretty old school stuff. Browsed the internet. (Remember those days when the phrase 'browsing the internet' was in vogue? Back then, browsing the internet was a perfectly feasible feat. One could actually browse most of the sites on the web. Fast forward to 2010 and the internet is as endless as the universe we live in. How endless is the universe? How do I know? Ask that guy in the wheelchair)

So, I signed up for sites/forums/web pages I'd never even dream of opening. Of course, only to be frustrated and pissed off at my terrible decision. For example, I signed up for a 'geek' site (lol okay dont start laughing already) only to find out that I was among thousands of Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift fans (who by the way, called themselves 'geeks') and who had absolutely no idea what they were doing in those forums and who somehow considered themselves geeks coz they used Windows (???). Yeah yeah I know what you're thinking.
I was pretty drunk, evidently.


What else did I do? Erm...I signed up for Google Buzz which turned out to be pretty crap (read the post exactly before the current one), expectedly. And...oh yes! I have been discovering! No, not paleolithic artifacts. But, music! Bands, rather. From Europe. I have found that my true genre of choice to be symphonic metal (yes that is a genre and its not pop, so stop thinking in those lines!) thanks to Last.fm which has kindly allowed me to listen to 30 tracks (yeah, thats what you get for a FREE account after which the website dedicates itself to endlessly reminding you of its excellent paid services every time you want to do something useful or interesting). There are quite a few bands from Europe, like Sirenia, Nightwish, Therion, etc., quite unheard of in the international rock arena, coz their records dont become platinum or diamond or ruby or uranium or whatever! But trust me these bands rock, they are awesome!

I also happened to discover YouTube's new service at www.youtube.com/disco where they let you listen to tunes from some new artists/bands. Still in experimental stage (as with everything Google, hell Google is an experiment!), but very useful...theoretically.

And I also found out that I cant be half as funny as Richard Hammond, even when I write. (Okay I stretched it too far, but you dont have to rub it in!) And so, with a heavy heart (not just because I cant be funny, which I cant, but also because I'm really tensed about things outside the cyberscape), I end this stupid post of mine. If you have read this till the end without wanting to destroy your monitor, honestly, you deserve a Nobel Peace Prize more than the current US President.

Peace... (okay now I'm desperate to make this post funny, so this is how they spell forceful laugh ... llooll)

Google Buzz

Another Google product! Grrr....

Wait, only this time, its about...hold your breath Social Networking! Erm...do we need any more social networking sites? Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Digg, Stumble Upon, MySpace, the list goes on and on. Hasnt the networking bubble already burst? I mean, havent we 'networked' enough already?

Apparently Google thinks we havent. And so it endeavours to set foot on the only territory on the web which it hasnt been able to conquer so far. If you are from India, or from Brazil, you probably have used something called Orkut. For millions of others, Orkut is a social networking site created many years ago by Google. It became quite a huge hit in India and at some point, almost every net surfer had an Orkut account. It all changed when we discovered Facebook. Facebook, the most popular social networking site on the planet had so far remained completely oblivious to us, Indians (Or is it the other way round?).

Until recently, when all of a sudden Facebook and Twitter seemed to be the latest buzz word around. Everyone started shifting to facebook, partly because it offered more security, better features etc. and even more because it was a matter of keeping up with the Jones, although in India its more like keeping up with the Rams and the Shyams.

Okay, I'm getting completely lost here. Back to the point. So you see, Google really had to come up with something very unique in order to hold on to its subscriber base. Renovating Orkut didnt work, actually it backfired; for most Orkut users dont like the new Orkut (or lets say the facebook-wannabe-Orkut).

So now, Google reinvents Orkut in a way (which I'm sure many of you might've noticed) very intelligent indeed. Google integrates Google Buzz to their most popular offering, Gmail. Smart thinking, Google! Now every Gmail user logging in, will be asked the question, 'do you want to try out Google Buzz?'. 9/10 times a user will think, why not? And hence one gets to explore the 'buzz'.

So what is it? Its basically a 'sharing' web app (if I may categorise it as such) which allows you to share your favourite links, photos and videos, and share it with the world. I'm quite surprised as to how much it resembles Google Wave. Google Buzz in my opinion is Google Wave with more options.

It has no separate interface since it integrates with your Gmail account, which makes it quite boring to be honest. As of now its not exactly lightning fast, which really doesnt contribute to the wow-factor anyway. It allows you to comment on anything and everything posted and even 'Like' a post (No 'Un-like' option here, unfortunately, as Google has vowed to copy facebook feature by feature and not add anything else)!

However Buzz automatically adds all your Gmail contacts (who have signed up for Buzz) to your Buzz followers (have I heard that word somewhere else?). Hence you are not exactly alone (like most of us who have used Google Wave when it launched were).

Its neither facebook, its not twitter and its not anything relevant. To me, its just another failed attempt at replicating the magic of facebook.

Google Wave...boring but brilliant!

Image by marketingfacts via FlickrIf you're one of the lucky ones to have gotten an invite to google wave, you probably know that what you're using is something revolutionary. Okay, I admit I had my doubts over Wave. For starters it came from Google (a company I HATE with a passion). Second its in beta (oh well cant complain about that really. Orkut, Google's social networking cum Facebook copying wing has been in beta since I was a kid! :P). And third, I had the same old privacy concerns Google apps are renowned for gifting its users.

Anyway, all concerns aside, I had to have a go at it! (After all everyone's talking about Wave these days!) And for once, I was pleasantly surprised. Google wave is really a novel concept. You communicate with your 'friends' (who also must have received a Google Wave invite) via 'waves' which are sort of notes/ideas. The best part of it is, you can chat here in 'real-time' and I mean 'real-time'! You can see the other person type the words as the chat goes on! Should suffice to say that this is bloody brilliant! I dont think there's anything like this anywhere on the web, and I firmly believe this is what net chats in the future will look like.

However, apart from the brilliance comes the reality of it all. At the moment Google Wave isnt for everyone. You can only log in if you are invited by Google or if you've been sent an invite (which are pretty hard to come by! These invites were selling for 70 bucks each on ebay the last time I checked! And thats $$$!). As a result you wont find many users to 'wave' with. Now that could basically spoil your experience. Fortunately I have found some buddies to chat with on wave! But still it isnt as exciting as facebook or twitter simply coz I cant see any of my friends here! :( Also it can be pretty buggy at times, I was repeatedly asked to refresh my Google Wave page for apparently no reason whatsoever. In other words its more of concept right now than a real web application.

But I firmly believe Google Wave is here to stay. The concept is likely to be replicated by many other social networking sites.

If you have received an invite, dont waste it, give Wave a try! As they say...RIDE THE WAVE!

Finally something useful from Google

Image via WikipediaLooks as if Google does listen to its users! :) It has finally come up with something really useful. The Google Dashboard. Many of you may have already noticed it but for those who havent, the Google Dashboard is a collection of all the info collected by Google and contains all your user account info in various Google affiliated sites etc. So for all you privacy freaks (erm that includes me as well) this is really good news! Although I doubt if Google is releasing "every" bit of info collected from us. But hey, something's better nothing!

To check what info Google has collected about you, log in to Google Dashboard.

Chrome OS...what the hell is Google trying to achieve?

Image by niallkennedy via FlickrAnd here comes another OS...Google Chrome OS! (cant they think of any better name than that for an OS?)

Anyway, coming to the point, as of now Chrome OS is very much in development and currently the version thats "leaked out", seems to be a dampener.

First up, you require a constant internet connection to do stuff (even to log in to your OS, you need a net connection). Apparently your username and password are the same ones which you use to log in to your google account. Secondly, there are loads of google apps on this OS and all of it runs in the guise of the Chrome browser (hence the name). Although google apps are seriously cool, they still leave a lot to be desired when it comes to offline activities and privacy concerns. As of now, there's no provision for installing extra apps apart from Google ones (hope this will change by the time the final version comes out). So basically its more like icloud installed on your desktop! I seriously dont want to be in a situation where I have Chrome OS installed and find myself unable to connect to the internet!

One thing that this OS will definitely do is bring much needed attention to Linux. Hopefully we'll find better drivers, softwares and codecs for Linux if Chrome OS becomes a success. However I dont like an open source platform being used by corporate honchos like Google (oh well, thats my way of looking at it).

But, here's wishing Google Chrome OS all the luck! Hope it turns out to be something really useful.

My browser dilemma

Image via WikipediaTo be frank, I never ever thought I would face such a situation. I am totally pissed off as I write this post.

All I was asking for was a plain and simple browser with decent speed and easy functionality. Is this asking for too much? Apparently, yes.

The problem with firefox is that...its just a browser, nothing else. I mean it just browses and does nothing more. The loading time of firefox isnt really impressive compared to its google counterpart and opera.

Next I checked out Flock, a firefox based browser but with a lot of tweaks. Now thats all cool, except for the fact that its still in beta and very much so. Loads of irritating problems and bugs. Also, because its not yet a stable version provides ample opportunies for hackers to take advantage of its instabilities.

Finally had no other option but to check out the crappy google chrome. I know it has privacy issues, but the fact that browsing speeds are mind blowing is what lured me. Even here I was thoroughly disappointed, the browser not just hangs, it screws up big time even while chatting on facebook!

As you can see, I am left with no other option but to return to firefox. Lets hope we see better browsers in the future, coz the present batch is pure and utter crap.

Isn't It Time For Microsoft To Make Windows Free?

Image via CrunchBase

Let's face it, Microsoft Windows was, still is and maybe will be for the next decade or so, the most popular operating system. However, the steep prices of most of the softwares published by Microsoft, often makes it impossible for people in various spheres of life to go and buy those original packaged stuff. As a result, many people prefer to take the easier way out, i.e. resort to piracy. Personally, I don't blame people who are forced into the realms of piracy by the sometimes so obnoxious attitude of the company. What if someone wants to do something useful to the society and needs a PC with a decent operating system on it?

I know what the stereotyped arguments against what I just said would be. What about the respect a programmer deserves? What about the royalty a company and the programmer deserves? What about the copyright?

Yes, you're absolutely right in asking these questions. The programmers lend every bit of their brilliant minds into making some of the best softwares and operating systems for us and we deserve to pay them their dues. Also, the company which has worked so hard to put together these wonderful minds deserve their share of profits too to survive in this competitive economy.

But are all profit making "free-software" companies bankrupt? Are the employees working in those companies broke? I don't think so.

Let me place an example. Many of you might have guessed which company I'm thinking of. Yes, one of the biggest producers of free softwares and icon when it comes to marketing and making softwares available to the common man...Google.

Can any of us deny the fact that inspite of being a company making some of the intriguing but free softwares, Google has transformed the field of free stuff? I don't think anyone can.

And to be frank, I don't agree with people who say Google makes programs which are not essential for us.Some of the best softwares on offer these days are from Google, and its latest venture, Google Chrome, has already captured the imagination of users with its amazingly futuristic sleek design. Of course, Google is not the only company dealing with free softwares. Mozilla producing arguably the best browser available today, Firefox, offers all its softwares for free. And I'm sure its doing quite well...

So, how does then one pay the programmers if everything is up for free downloads? Well, its simple. Squeeze in some adverts and relevent additional info and if the program become popular, it'll be enough to cater to most of the expenses of the company. It may also provide some premium services as well, to garner some extra bucks.

Coming back to Microsoft, it could sell its older OS for a cheap amount, or if I may dare say so, even for free...

Maybe it could make two versions of its newer operating systems, one with ads priced lower than another version without ads. That way, the company would be able to earn a decent profit and also be of substantial help to the society and it could drastically reduce piracy as well.

The choice lies with us. We only have to recognise it...

(Image source : http://download.cnet.com/i/bto/20070529/linux_windows.jpg)