2012

With a heavy heart, life after @Posterous

I’ve been a Posterous advocate for some time now and my loyalty to the platform only grew the more I used it. It wasn’t without its problems (themes, for a start), but when it came to posting & sharing, Posterous stood out on platform and features. I ran four different blogs on Posterous — what-was-this-blog, food, corporate and more recently, a collection of pictures — and converted a few people to it as well.

Good read: Are We Back On Track? by @alexandermcnabb

Alexander McNabb: Dubai was founded on trade, not real estate booms. It was founded on entrepeneurialism and what ‘the authorities’ always liked to call a ‘laissez faire’ attitude to free market economics. It was opportunistic. And it will continue to succeed on trade, not selling implausible dreams. Its most successful and enduring assets, Jebel Ali, Emirates, Port Rashid and others, are built on trade. … The million dollar question is whether we, collectively, have learned our lesson.

You just have to do something

jonathanmoore: Over the course of my career and journey as an entrepreneur, I have learned that success and fulfillment is found when we push ourselves beyond our comfort zone. There is tremendous value in having knowledge ahead of time — I am now CPR certified — but simply taking action is often what it takes. You don’t have to do it right. You just have to do something. You just have to do something

BBM now with voice over Wi-Fi

..RIM today announced BBM version 7, a free update for the globally popular mobile social network, which will allow customers to make free voice calls to other BBM customers around the world over a Wi-Fi® connection. BBM is still one of the top two reasons why people still want a BlackBerry, and RIM has just taken that to a new level with native voice support. Ofcourse, it remains to be seen how carriers respond to this.

More Twitter API restrictions, now for Win8

The news continues with Twitter’s new API policies continuing to cut down on Twitter clients. We’ve seen incidents already with LinkedIn and other clients, and while I do get where Twitter might be coming from, there’s something to be said about the approach they are taking. In this case, without an existing Win8 client already (and no immediate release date either, even if one is in the works), users will suffer.

Kalakand

Paneer in a cup? Sweetened to perfection? Absolutely!

Review: Samsung NX1000

Quick Facts Brand: Samsung Model: NX1000 20.3MP APS-C Sensor, 8fps, 1/4000 shutter speed, 1080p fullHD video recording Standard lens: 20–50mm Weight: 0.22kg (without battery+SD card) Other lens options: 60mm f/2.8 Macro, 16mm f/2.4 Ultra Wide Pancake, 85mm f/1.4 Full spec sheet Note: I received the Samsung NX1000 camera as a review unit. “I nearly fell out of my chair when I saw the pics in your gallery. I don’t want to even begin to believe that a compact camera can do those shots.

Intriguing: WWII carrier pigeon crypto-message discovered

Government code-breakers are working on deciphering a message that has remained a secret for 70 years. It was found on the remains of a carrier pigeon that was discovered in a chimney, in Surrey, having been there for decades. It is thought the contents of the note, once decoded, could provide fresh information from World War II. Interesting indeed. Schneier’s blog (linked below) also lists additional articles covering the discovery.

The ride

He looked out the window staring at the half lit moon, a little dazed, a little amazed. He turned to see if their fingers were still interlocked. They weren’t. The sound of music muttered softly from the car speakers behind him. The calm engulfed him. He messaged her.

Mohanthal v2

With my photography skills receiving an update over the last year, and Navratri just wrapping up, I thought it might be a good chance to give the awesome Mohanthal another papparazzi session (here’s last year’s take). Mohanthal continues to be one of the few indian sweets I’m extremely partial to, although I only tend to like the version you see pictured and one that is distributed at Ambaji when we visit their for prayers.

From @the_webhamster.

The 6 Stages of Debugging: That can’t happen. That shouldn’t happen. Hmmm, weird. Why does that happen? Oh, I see. How did that ever work? From @the_webhamster. Oh how I can identify.

The little things

Silence, broken only by the click of her red heels against the pavement. She reached out to find his arm, feeling like she would stumble if she didn’t. He felt a light touch and turned to her, the surprise evident on his face. Look calm, she thought to herself, flashing a smile. He slowed down a little so they wouldn’t lose the new connection. She withdrew the arm 15 seconds later, just as people walked by.

Hey, LinkedIn, why would I believe you this time?

Hey, LinkedIn, why would I believe you this time? I get a new invite every month, then a reminder that it’s the last day…then that I have it for another month. Plus after my experience with them overcharging me (severely) over an ads offer, I’m just not interested at this point.

The devil’s in the details

Just came across this post. Fascinates me, this. Makes me feel almost below-normal. It speaks volumes on Jobs’ eye for detail. How many people would catch that at his level? “I’ve been looking at the Google logo on the iPhone and I’m not happy with the icon. The second O in Google doesn’t have the right yellow gradient. It’s just wrong and I’m going to have Greg fix it tomorrow. Is that okay with you?

Lessons to learn from Mat Honan’s epic hacking

If you haven’t read about this hack already, take 20 minutes out of your day and read through the article attached below. While the importance of complex passwords, separating your accounts and more can’t be over-stated, there some simple things you should do right away, for example: Enable two-factor authentication in Gmail so that accessing it requires two items — your password and a one-time code — to make it tougher to get in.

Mountain Lion

Much like I did with Lion, I picked up the Mountain Lion upgrade to Apple’s OS X the day it was available on the Mac App store. I’ve already discussed it before, but this whole download new version of OS while sitting in your room is pretty brilliant. But I’m more amazed when I think of the 3 million downloads at $20. That’s $60 million in sales without a dime in shipping.

Travel o food chaat of Delhi

For me the fun of traveling is getting to sample the local fast food and other cuisines. To those unfamiliar with the term chaat is I northern India’s street fast food. Spicy, a mix of cold and hot, sweet and salty, crispy and chewable the famed street food of Delhi is one not to be missed. Popular joints such as Nathu’s, Haldiram’s, Bikanerwala all provide a range of delectable chaat that you can make a full meal out of!

Review: Galaxy Nexus Day 1

Note: I was given the Samsung Galaxy Nexus as a review unit. ‘You are so not getting this phone back’. As far as first impressions go, I doubt it could get much better than that. More so since it comes from someone who doesn’t use a smartphone at all (no, don’t ask). Simply put, the Galaxy Nexus makes for a good looking phone. Like the impression someone at a party in a snazzy black outfit makes, before you speak to him/her, as the case applies.

‘Death didn’t happen to Steve, he achieved it.’

This write-up (by Jobs’ sister) still moves me, just as it did when I first read it, and each time I go back to it. Intubated, when he couldn’t talk, he asked for a notepad. He sketched devices to hold an iPad in a hospital bed. He designed new fluid monitors and x-ray equipment. He redrew that not-quite-special-enough hospital unit. And every time his wife walked into the room, I watched his smile remake itself on his face.

Video: Really cool guitar cover to MJ’s ‘Beat it’

Video: Really cool guitar cover to MJ’s ‘Beat it’ [embed]www.youtube.com/watch Very, very talented. If you like it, I also recommend you check out his Pirates of the Carribean rendition, from when he was even younger. Credit to someone who has no online presence. (Yes I know, beats me too). Update: Loving his rendition of the Super Mario theme too!

Microsoft and Ballmer

I have my reservations (I believe I tend to be vocal about them) about Microsoft, but there’s no denying that they were revolutionary for the PC industry in terms of reaching it out to the masses. There’s also no denying that Ballmer just annoys me. I’m not really sure why. Maybe because his portrayal in Pirates of Silicon Valley made him sound like an unimaginitive frat boy riding a wave (no offense to frat boys.

How we ran product at Posterous (by @agarwal)

A little context. My deciding factor to use Posterous for blogging was actually a video of its founders talking about their drive and process behind putting it together (sorry don’t seem to have a link for it anymore). There are some key feature differentiators why I have continued to use Posterous — and expanded my use to a food blog, alongwith using it on a corporate level — but it started with that talk, about their motivation.

Presentations at Google I/O 2012

There are enough posts this morning doing the rounds about Google’s I/O 2012 keynote that I don’t really need to add to that. But I did want to put some thoughts down on the presentation itself. Because it bothers me on some level. It bothers me that despite Chrome OS being out there for a while (and looks decent too), and official Chromebooks shipping for over a year, Google couldn’t use one to do the presentation.

Getting past the jargon

Some thoughts on giving back to the community and how we’re doing it, ahead of UAE Social Media Day, June 30. I’ve visited a lot of web sites that talk about social responsibility and the community. It’s always well-written you know, perfectly worded with ‘responsible’s and ‘ethical’s sprinkled in between as if prepared using a recipe. And I’ve always thought to myself, what does that really mean? Getting past the jargon

I can finally rave about pizza in Dubai again.

I’ve continued to stay heartbroken since my favorite pizza place in Dubai shut down almost two years ago, back when my photo skills were absolute bullshevic (thanks, Madagascar 3!). The photos are only marginally better now, granted, but I shudder at those woeful pictures, ew. As I was about to say, throw me a lightly charred pie from a wood-fired brick oven, that cooks in 3 minutes and I’ll be your fan for life.

No Price, No Date, No Apps, No Problem. No Wait, Problem- MG Siegler

A rather good post by MG with some spot-on points about the Surface. I think it’s a good attempt, but it hinges on a lot of variables, and continues to amuse me that MS is now in the hardware business. Guess who won after all. On the surface — see what I did there? — the thing seems compelling. It’s a tablet that runs Windows, and Office, and has a keyboard.

Review: Samsung Slate PC Series 7

My initial thoughts with the Samsung Slate PC Series 7 are available here. What a difference a couple of weeks can make I suppose. As promised during my initial thoughts, I pushed myself to break routine and use the SlatePC as my primary device over two weeks. Despite the fact that I’m not a traditional Windows fan as such (without getting into it here, the OS just bothers me over time, as any regular Linux or OS X user will tell you), the SlatePC is a good bet, particularly as a work device, with some caveats.

Who sold my email address?

I received this email finally on the personal email I rarely give out, after receiving a couple on my more spam-collector email, so someone definitely sold my email address somewhere. I obviously removed the company’s name..but I mean…what the hey? We all know the importance of a Will and why we need one. But, sometimes it always seems to get pushed to the back of the queue. There’s always something that appears more important.

And… @picplz shuts down

Just saw the note from Picplz saying they intend on shutting down in one month. I’m guessing they’ve figured it just makes sense to get out of the business with an inconvenience to a subset of users than fight the growing monopoly that is Facebook+Instagram. While I’ve been a user for some time, I’m not an avid user as I tend to just post pictures here instead. However, I thought the least they could have done was to provide a link allowing users to download multiple pics or say 30–50 at a time, which I’m sure wouldn’t have killed their time.

First Impressions: Samsung Slate PC, Series 7

Note: I was given a Samsung Slate PC Series 7 review unit this week to play with. Okay, maybe those weren’t their exact words, but how else would I describe it? Note 2: I intend to write this as a series of two posts — First Impressions — covering Day 1 with the Slate and an overall review. I’m a little confused, actually. I’m not entirely sure where Samsung intended to place the Slate PC Series 7 in a consumer’s lifecycle and I think if they figure that bit out, they’ll have done well.

Travel-o-food Delhi

The best thing about traveling is getting a chance to savor the local cuisine. The foodie in me plays a big role in deciding where to go on a holiday. And yes I do travel with a list of restaurants ready! On a recent trip to India’s capital Delhi, I was of course blown away by the amount of good food available. So much so that I did manage to put on a few kilos, but it was much to my delight!

Tried a Falafel Man’ousheh yet?

All Photos: Arva Ahmed, I live in a Frying Pan. You can read her post here. Note: Having known Arva couple years now, our manakish discussions have always been interesting. So when I mentioned the falafel manakish a while ago, it just had to be tested. Who cares if it took 8 months to actually make the trip happen. I’m excited then, to bring you a joint foodie post — the first of its kind.

Amerigos has something for everyone

For me, mexican food comes with a truckload of childhood memories (ok, some adult ones too) associated with it — from the weird experimentations that eventually lead to a decent home-made burrito to trying a variety of taco and quesedilla makers in the market (none of them worked, incidentally), to eating them in all forms — the traditional Maria Bonita style, the fast food Taco Bell style (okay, not anymore) and a few others in between.

What-a-hummus

How often does it happen that the guy sitting at the table next to you asks ‘Where are you from?’ for the sole reason that, and I quote: ‘Well it looked like you’d never seen a falafel before in your life.’ The first (and only, thankfully) time that happened was when I visited Foul W Hummus a couple of weeks ago to sample and photograph their delicious hummus. Now that I think about it, I’m surprised it hasn’t more often considering my (borderline crazy) fascination with taking multiple shots of food at restaurants and eateries.

What a Watalappan!

As we all know, Sri Lankan food is super delicious and super spicy. On my recent trip to Sri Lanka,a certain devilled dish sent my palate up in roars and of course I needed rescuing and well water, juice, bread etc. don’t help at all — at least in my case. So the waiting staff brought me a simply but beautifully plated dish of ‘spiced coconut custard’ or Watalappan. At first sight, it was a light, spongy textured piece of cake with a caramelized top, garnished with strawberries.