My Nokia 5800

The Nokia 5800 has been my primary phone for the last three months or so. My earlier phone, the Sony Ericsson T610, was getting old and was in need of a massive update (retirement). Being a Sony Ericsson user, the idea of switching to Nokia seemed pretty unimaginable to me at the time. But try as I might, there wasn't a SE phone that seemed to fit the bill. Having delayed my purchase of a smartphone, my list of requirements seemed to be growing all the time.

When I started looking for a phone in late 2007, my list of requirements was driven by the phones at the time, particularly, the iPhone. On a number of levels, the iPhone was almost a no-no from the beginning. I never saw myself buying an Apple product - I adore them, just don't agree with the approach and philosophy of the company. Anyways, driven partly by the iPhone and the other phones at the time, this was a list of parameters I had come up with for my first smartphone.

• Touch screen: This was a must have for me. The way I saw it, the touch interface was going to be the standard interface philosophy soon, especially in mobile interfaces. Not to say the keyboard would be redundant, but the ability to interact with on-screen elements (for certain activities), without need for surrogates like cursors and element focus seemed to be the natural progression. And I wanted in on that. And for me, the physical keyboard was completely optional. Also, I was not sold on either the capacitive or the resistive touch screens. And so did not have particular loyalties to either camp.


• Other sensors:Proximity, light and orientation sensors was definitely high on the list. I figured, I will have to carry a second device, that was more focused on communication and email - so why not focus on the fun factor with my personal phone. Lack of an orientation sensor was almost a definite deal-breaker. For a fun phone, that definitely had a big cool factor.


• WLAN(WiFi): Was another must have. My plan was to have that as the primary means of getting data in and out of the phone. That would also save me a data-plan with my mobile carrier, which were not cheap to come by.


• 3G: Was optional for me. The way I saw it, the 3G network wasn't ubiquitous enough to base my purchase on being able to use it. Especially given that I would be traveling and therefore not necessarily have 3G coverage all the time. The other side effect of this decision was that I did not have to worry about the NAM and Rest of the world 3G variants before I got my paws on my phone of choice.


• Quad band: That said about 3G, it definitely had to be Quad band phone. Given, the same traveling nature - I did not want to get stuck with a phone that would not work in all my locations. My SE T610 did not do 850 MHz, and I had done my share of blaming the network (ATT) in public, secretly knowing that my phone was really to blame.


• Flexibility and Freedom: This was one of the most important requirements. In two ways - firstly I did not want a branded and locked phone. I wanted the flexibility to be able to change SIM cards across different locations. (See need for traveling above). And secondly, I wanted to be able to install and uninstall applications the any way possible. I did not want either my carrier or my phone manufacturer to determine what I did with my phone. The other piece of freedom - access to the file system of the phone, without the need to install a clunky proprietary program.


• Screen: QVGA (320 x 240) or better. Why? Coz the iPhone did QVGA.


• Battery: At least 1200 mAh. Again, that did not really mean anything without a strong support from the device itself. I hoped for a regular usage of 2 to 3 days, and heavy use of a day before having to recharge.


• Application ecosystem: Given that Apple was the only viable option dictated that this was not a necessity. But, as long as I was able to get a system that was open enough - It was a matter of time before people started trying to replicate the App Store.


• Camera: This surprisingly was not really high on my list. Primarily because, I was yet to see a phone that did a tenth as good a job as my SLR. And there were physical reasons to it - a camera phone had the sensor the size of my pinky toenail. I did not expect to do any serious photography on my phone. On the off chance that I was to witness a UFO landing, I just hoped to have a video mode to create a grainy, shaky, unrecognizable account of the event.


• Other connectivity (Physical & Bluetooth): Bluetooth was an expected minimum. Physical connectivity was not that important, as long as I had my WLAN access.


• Browser with Flash: The browser had to be a full fledged web browser, running javascript and hopefully some form of Flash lite. Again, I was sick of my piddly little text-ey browser on my T610.


• Memory: Expected a few gigs, but more importantly hope for one with an external card, which could be upgraded as and when I ran out of space on the phone itself. I have a tendency to run out of space - rather quickly.

The phones I was reviewing, at the time, were a wide variety. But they boiled down the the following:

• HTC Touch


• Sony Ericsson XPeria X1


• HTC Touch Diamond


• Samsung Omnia

It was neck and neck between these phones (though the Omnia went to the bottom of the pile pretty early) and it seemed just a matter of which price point I was comfortable with. As time went by, the Diamond seemed to slowly but surely rise to the top. XPeria was priced too high, and the screen of the Diamond beat that of the Touch hands down. Until the Nokia 5800 came along. If you look back at the list of requirements I had, you can see how well the 5800 stacks up. Next post - what I love about my 5800.

Phoenix

It has been almost three years since the last post. There is a reason for it, three years long. The bottom line is that for the last three years I had opted to let work take over all my time, choosing to put the rest of my life on hold. Virtually, pressing a super-pause button

That is all over now. Now it is time to move on, revive some of the old and start some more of the new. The world has changed tremendously in these last three years. I have too! Three years ago, blogging was fringe. Today it seems everyone does it. Three years ago, social networking was a fad. Today it is mainstream - threatening to make television a fad. A few years ago, doing a new post, meant an outside chance that I would get an audience. Today the audience seems stretched too thin.

Within that context, it seems I am back. To continue to make this a sort of thought-blog with ideas, rants and opinions across a wide-range of topics.

To kick it all off, we have a new blog name - blog@anarchius.org as opposed to the old quaxzarron.blogspot.com (That old name is now more or less defunct). It is now hosted on my own domain and website. And finally the website and the blog now share a new, common look and feel. The site now sports a new template, cleaner XHTML, css based design. The aim is, at some point, to achieve XHTML document compliance.

Here's to welcoming myself back!

The Office of the future

I have been just checking out some of the AJAX stuff. Needless to say, the techie junkie that I am, I am pretty much blown away.

What is more impressive is not just that ability of the browser to act really like an application container than a markup display module. The movement of the web towards righer media looks more possible from the AJAX point of view rather than the world where everyone watches all their movies online. This is the rich media of the future. Simple applications, centrally maintained and accessible from everywhere.

Of course this means that you need to have connectivity everywhere. This may not be as tough as it seems. A mixture of wired and wireless access is already providing connectivity in most places - bar natural disasters. But, bandwidth is a problem that will not disappear - not overnight, not in a while. Simply put, it is not economically viable to provide high-bandwidth connectivity to everyone. Yes, a big chunk will have access to it, but not everyone.

The software world is going through its pangs of simplification. There is still a while before the dust settles and the winner is predicted. But what struck me was the relation to the hardware world. Take for example the office desktop. Even with the laptop, the desktop today is not truly mobile.

The next step is the integration of business communication with the laptop. All the elements are here already. Laptops are shrinking - they are small enough that any more shrinking can only affect productivity. VoIP is available. And most business users are already connected through adequately thick pipes. What is to prevent an integrated phone in the laptop - a tiny bluetooth enabled headset and an VoIP phone number that goes with the laptop.

That is the next generation of the business laptop. Intergrated communications - data and voice over the same channel through the same end device. You heard it speculated here first.

damn-where-is-that-phone-when-you-need-it
-- ravi

Article on Security

I hate to make this a blog where I drop in links from around the world and feel happy at having put something on it. I definitely wouldnt want to do that. Anyways, came across this link on email today.

If you are reading it, dont read it as the six dumbest ideas in Computer Security. Rather read it as the One reason why Computer Security is all screwed up. The first one. Most of the others are a form of the same idea. Read about the description of Default Permit strategy. Think about it.

That is probably one of the biggest things that is causing havoc with having to run an ever-losing race with vulnarabilities, hacks and other evil in the networked world.

And to think all one had to do was ask

-- ravi

The Brand Name

For those of us who have been bought up on a diet of management jargon or clothing catalogues, the word 'brand' invokes images of name labels, glitzy ramps and press conferences. We believe that branding is a third party activity, which we then use to show off to our friends.

Many of us miss the universal meaning of the word brand. A brand is the sum total of images and feelings that a word or image invokes in us. The reason a brand becomes powerful is that it associates a lot more information on this one word or image, than the image could possibly hold on its own. And many a times, such association is not necessarily logical - and this lack of reason is the source for the assymetrical power of the brand.

Take, for example, the branding that each and every one of us do everyday as we profile the people around us. "He is a libran - never decides". "She stay out late, god only knows what for". "He is fun and intelligent, must be gay". Profiling is one of the fundamental effects of branding that we constantly overlook in our daily lives. Such profiling was probably built over time, with constant reinforcement, giving these words, images and ideas such a hold over our though process, that we not only let them rule our actions, but we frequently fail to see through to the profiles we carry.

Take another example - probably the biggest brand on earth - God. No one has seen him. No one has interviewed him. But everyone knows everything that is to be known about it. No, dont get me wrong. I am not against theology - just that this entire study seems to be an massive exercise in brand building.

This post is not about theology, or a delve into the idea that make up god. Rather it is about some other brands that we carry along with us. The people that we meet.

I have been carrying around a brand, that recently came to the fore again. This man, was a professor of mine at a point in time. During the period, my interactions with him brought out ideas that I live by to this day. And a by-product of this was that I have this brand image of this person, his idea and his thought process. So when I found out that he had published a book, there wasnt even the slightest hesitation in my mind as I clicked through the steps online to get it delivered home. I knew it would be a while before I would return home to read it, but there was no hesitation is ordering the book on the spot. The power of the brand image.

The book reached home and my mom read it. And she loved it like she loved no other book till now. We spent an inordinate amout of time talking about it and reflecting on the book. I realised, that I was indeed talking about the book and the ideas therein without ever having seen the book. The power of the brand - the ideas that the brand carries along.

Make you take a pause and reflect - when you form such powerful impressions about others, wonder what your brand is talking about you. Of course, everyone wants to be known for their plusses - but the brand is a whole lot different. It is not just your features, it is the entire feeling that your recollection evokes in the person. What is it? A warm fuzzy feeling? A cold dread? Silent admiration? Masked disgust? What does your brand speak about you?

warm regards and heloo if you came here via the IIMC website

-- nrk
You might also want to take a dekko here.

Google: My Search

It is about time google put together this. Everything that Google produces has me responding in one of two ways - Can they really do that? or Damn! Why did they take so long to get this out.

And this is an example of the latter. Google already does our searches for us. It already has all the strings with it. All it has to do is dump them in a database of some sort and allow us poor mortals some intertface to browse through it. And bingo - an awesome addition to the Google arsenel.

And again, as with everything that Google does, some people are saying just one thing - What about my privacy? Which is the ridiculous statement that is the reason for this blog.

What privacy are you losing when Google is just showing you a copy of what you have already done on their website? There is no additional information that Google is collating together that they dont already know. Knowing Google, it is probably already a part of their servers and you are just getting to see and delete it now! You ought to be happy that you have access to delete a history of all your searches.

And finally it is an opt-in option. You are not signed up my default for you - you need to go in, sign yourself in and remain that way for this to work.

Go ahead - take a break. Have fun. And get some work done quickly for a change.

your refrigerator knows what you are storing inside it
dont use it
-- ravi

Haiku

Have been trying to understand haiku and never really thought I would have haiku 'moments'. A couple of moments.

This came to me as I was watching my first snowfall

silent whispers
falling winter snow on me
wet cotton candy

Inspired by the modern Corporate workplace

spring winter summer
fall, carpet halls unnoticed
vacuum cleaners scream