R.I.P. Michael Crichton

Michael Crichton, one my all-time favourite authors, passed away a few days ago.

I loved his books and the way he wrote them: they were exciting, inspiring, and a whole lot of fun. Indeed, I've read all his fictional works though I've only read one of his non-fiction ones (must remedy that). I've also watched almost all of his films and remember being blown away by 'West World', 'Jurassic Park', and 'Twister'. Heck, I even remember the ending scene from 'The Andromeda Strain' which I watched on TV back in the mid-80s! I must now watch the three films that I've missed.

You can read more about Crichton here:

Rest in Peace, Michael.

Tetris!

I love Microsoft: The original Windows 3.x version of Tetris (the one made in 1990) runs just fine in Windows Vista :)  I've actually been carrying that version of Tetris -- all 76kB of it -- around with me since the mid 90s. Of course it requires quite a bit of window resizing to get it just right on a 22" wide screen!

Why do I and so many other people care so much about this game? The good folk at Graph Jam said it best:

Reasons to Play Tetris

A friend and I even organized regular Tetris tournaments at our undergraduate college during the late 90s which were hugely popular. Also, Tetris is the only game I've ever bought for my mobile phone. Yes, I am addicted.

Though, really, Tetris is less like a drug and more like a good cup of tea: it's perfect for any occasion. Whether you want to wake yourself up, relax before going to bed, keep your hands busy while talking on the phone or listening to a podcast, or do something when you have nothing else to do, Tetris is always the answer.

So thank you Microsoft and, more importantly, than you Alexey Pajitnov for creating such an awesome game.

New Desktop PC!

Back in April 2007 (in my third post on this blog, in fact) I wrote that my laptop had died and that I was stuck using my mother's ancient, somewhat-battered laptop. My plan was (and still is) to get a job and then buy myself a nice, high-end tablet PC.

However, over the last couple of months, my mother's laptop started acting up so I had no choice but to find a replacement for it. I didn't want to buy a tablet PC because I don't yet have a job so I'd rather not dip into our savings too much (and I'm not willing to buy anything but a high-end tablet PC). Instead, I bought a cheap desktop PC that I could work on in the interim and upgrade in the future. I was always going to buy a desktop for home use, I just hadn't planned on doing that right now. But as plans tend to do, this one changed so now I am the proud owner of an HP Pavilion desktop PC:

New Desktop PC

It's reasonably low-end as desktop PCs go: with a 2.4GHz Dual Core Intel Pentium Processor instead of a Core 2 Duo and, importantly, integrated graphics instead of a separate graphics card. Fortunately, this isn't much of a problem because I don't plan on getting into computer games, high-end graphics editing, or power intensive computing just yet. I do plan on recording and editing videos and doing some basic graphics editing but all that will work fine on this system. In fact, this setup runs the Windows Vista Aero interface without a hitch so it's not like I'm suffering here!

In other areas, it's a pretty kick-ass system: with 2GB of DDR2 RAM, a 360GB 7,200RPM hard drive, a CD/DVD reader and writer, and the usual set of ports, card readers, and networking options. The best part: it came with a 22" wide screen LCD with a 1680x1050 native resolution :)  After using a 15" screen for a couple of years and then a 12.1" screen over the last year this big screen is fricking awesome!

In fact, the whole system is pretty awesome and I'm having a great time using it. Woo hoo! :)

Tablet PC Update: Good & Bad News

If you've been reading this blog for a while then you'll know that I'm dying to get myself a high-performance tablet PC. I can't afford one right now but, as soon as I can (which I'm hoping is very soon), I plan on getting myself a Toshiba Portege M700. Regarding that, I have some good news and some bad news.

Exchange Rates

First, the bad news. I was planning on buying the M700 from the US (by ordering it online from Portable One) because the configuration available in Australia is both underpowered and overpriced. You can get a significantly more powerful configuration for an overall lower price (i.e. even after you add customs fees and international courier charges) if you order one from the US and have it shipped to Australia.

However, after the recent financial market "issues" and the US-Australian dollar exchange rate changing, ordering the M700 from the US will now cost me a few hundred dollars extra. Bummer. Here's hoping the exchange rate swings back the other way when I do actually getting around to ordering one of these :)

An Upgrade!

On the other hand, there's some really good news. Toshiba recently launched a follow-up to the M700: the M750! The new model is physically similar to the old one but, under the hood, the M750 kicks just a little more ass:

  • The processor (still an Intel Core 2 Duo) has been upgraded from the T8xxx line to the P8xxx line so instead of, say, a 2.4GHz T8300 processor you would now get a 2.4GHz P8600 processor. What's the big deal about that? The P8600 will let you use Windows Vista 64-bit and will give you access to all 4GB of RAM instead of the 3.2GB you had access to with the T8300.

  • The RAM has also been given a speed boost from 667MHz to 800MHz and the standard hard drive speed has also been bumped up from 5,400RPM to 7,200RPM (though I would've ordered the higher-speed hard drive with the M700 anyway).

  • The graphics engine also gets an upgrade so, instead of the Mobile Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100, you now get the 4500MHD which is not only twice as fast it also supports full HD video (1080p) natively.

  • You also get a gigabit LAN connection, a newer Bluetooth version (which faster transfer speeds), and a combined USB/eSATA port (eSATA is great for external hard drives as its data transfer speed is much faster that USB transfer speeds) which is also a sleep-and-charge port (this lets you charge accessories plugged into this port even if your laptop is off).


All in all, the M7xx series -- which was already one of the most powerful tablet PC lines in the market -- now packs an even greater punch with the M750. And the best part? This new, upgraded M750 costs the same as the old M700! Awesome.

[Quick caveat: The M750 isn't selling in custom configurations right now and is, so far, available only in the US and Canada. Also, it doesn't yet have a multi-touch screen -- i.e. with both pen and touch input -- but I'm hoping they'll add that to this model very soon.]

UPDATE: According to Craig Pringle, the M750 has a dual digitizer that has both active and resistive touch. This means you can use both a stylus and your finger on the screen. Excellent.

Full Episodes of 'Heroes' on Yahoo!7

The third season of the excellent NBC TV series Heroes started last week in Australia. And, in an incredibly awesome move on their part, you can now watch full episodes of the show on Yahoo!7 :)  Woo hoo!

Now if only Channel Nine would let you watch full episodes of The Mentalist on nineMSN and Channel Ten would let you watch full episodes of House on ten.com.au. Oh well. Some day...(hopefully soon).

James Nachtwey's story

In 2007, photographer James Nachtwey won the TED Prize which awarded him $100,000 and "one wish to change the world". His wish was:

I'm working on a story that the world needs to know about. I wish for you to help me break it in a way that provides spectacular proof of the power of news photography in the digital age.

On 3 October, Nachtwey's story will break -- both online and around the world. Melburnians can view his story at Federation Square while the rest of you should check the TED Prize Event Location page to see if it's being shown at your location (it's on in 16 countries). If not, you can always view it online:

For more:

I Really Like 'Rush'

I am "seriously" impressed with Channel Ten's new police action/drama Rush. The premise is fun (and makes for lots of good action), the writing is good, the storylines are interesting (yes, I know, we're only two shows in but it looks good nonetheless), the characters are interesting, the cast is excellent (plus Claire van der Boom is gorgeous), and the production is fantastic (I love the immersion that handheld camera work gives viewers).

The best part: all of the show's episodes are online along with a bunch of other behind-the-scene videos -- that too for free! Channel Ten really kicks ass for doing this for so many of its biggest shows.

And speaking of good cop shows, I also like Channel 7's City Homicide but its broadcast timing is such that I haven't watch more than a few episodes of it. I guess I'll have to wait till it comes out on DVD.

A Trip Down the Great Ocean Road

For my 32nd birthday, Nadia and I took a day tour down the Great Ocean Road, which is a "273km stretch of road along the South Eastern coast of Australia between the Victorian cities of Torquay and Warrnambool".

From Great Ocean Road


After some research, and a visit to the Melbourne Visitor Centre at Federation Square, we decided to go with AAT Kings's 'Great Ocean Road with Helicopter Ride' tour. This 12-hour tour leaves from Melbourne at 8am; stops at Bells Beach, Torquay, Apollo Bay, Port Campbell, The Twelve Apostles, and a few other places in between; and gets back to Melbourne a little before 8pm. It includes a lunch stop at Apollo Bay and a Helicopter Ride around the Twelve Apostles.

From Great Ocean Road


The day started out slightly overcast and, by the time we got to Apollo Bay, it was windy and it had started to rain. That wasn't a major problem -- though it made taking pictures a little more complicated! -- and we had a great time nonetheless.

The scenery were brilliant -- though we're told it's better in summer -- and the helicopter ride was spectacular. I took a video of the chopper ride and will post it up here once I've edited it.

From Great Ocean Road


What made the trip particularly enjoyable was our driver, Les, who gave an excellent tour commentary and joked and chatted with us at our rest and photo stops. Overall, I was most impressed with AAT Kings and would recommend them to anyone else who wants to go on a tour around Australia.

I've uploaded some photos from this trip to my Picasa Web Albums page. Take a look and let us know what you think.

[Also see: Official Great Ocean Road website]

Impressed With Shehzad Roy

I've never been a big fan of Shehzad Roy's music but I've always appreciated what he's done: the music he's made has generally been good, his collaboration with Sukhbir was fun, he was instrumental in getting Bryan Adams to perform in Pakistan, and his Zindagi Trust non-profit is making a real difference. [Official website]

I am, however, seriously impressed with his latest album, Qismat Apnay Haat Mein, which he launched in Karachi's Juvenile Jail last month. Roy is still fun, funny, and interesting but boy has he matured. And some of his new stuff is good, hard-hitting, and brilliantly political.

Take, for example, the first single from that album, 'Laga Reh'. Rarely do you get such a enjoyable, sarcastic, in-your-face, and yet immensely motivating song all in one. Here's the video:

And the album's title track -- which has also been uploaded to YouTube -- actually has the phrase "I'm allergic to bullshit" in it! :)

Of course, the entire album isn't political -- only four of the songs are -- but it's awesome that he's doing something like this and I highly recommend you go buy the album. (Though I have to admit I only like about half of the album myself!)

Digital Camera: More Research & Then a Purchase!

After conducting a second round of research and deciding that I really wanted an ultracompact (so some of the cheaper, chunkier, but feature-equivalent compacts dropped out of the running) I narrowed my list of digital cameras choices down to these three:

1. Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS3

Priced at $270, this camera has an 8.1MP 3x zoom lens, records 30fps VGA video (and also 848x480 widescreen video) in QuickTime, and has optical image stabilization, face detection, audio photo tagging, and an AV-out port. [CNET review]

I liked everything about this camera except that it records video in QuickTime, which is not a native Windows video format. This is an issue because my resource-strapped Windows XP laptop doesn't handle QuickTime very well. So, in order to edit videos recorded from this camera, I would first have to convert them to AVI (the native Windows video format) and all that would do is add is an extra step to the process.

2. Pentax Optio M50

Priced at $270, this has an 8MP 5x zoom lens, records 30fps VGA video in AVI, and has digital image stabilization, face detection, smile detection, and an AV-out port.

Though this camera lacks optical image stabilization, I almost liked it more than the Panasonic because it records video in AVI and the 5x optical zoom and smile detection feature are nice bonuses. However I wasn't able to find a good review of it online so I was a little unsure about getting it.

3. Canon IXUS 80IS

Priced at $320, this has an 8MP 3x zoom lens, records 30fps VGA video in AVI, and has optical image stabilization, face detection, face tracking, automatic red-eye correction, audio photo tagging, a speaker, and an AV-out port. [CNET review (with video), CNET Australia review, detailed Photography Blog review, technical Photo Review Australia review]

This was the most feature-rich camera of the lot and was also my favourite. However, it cost an extra $50 and that was an issue.

The Decision: Go for the Best

Fortunately, Nadia convinced me to go for the best -- this camera is her birthday present to me, after all (thanks a billion!) -- and convincing me turned out to be pretty easy so, as of yesterday evening, I own a Canon IXUS 80IS camera!

It looks like this and is about the size of a pack of playing cards:

Canon IXUS 80IS Brown (Front)
[Source: Canon website]

I've been playing around with it since I got it and it's really quite fantastic.

Also, the extra $50 cost turned out to be a non-issue because Canon is running a promotion that gives your four free movie tickets (priced at about $15 each) if you get the IXUS 80IS. Yaay!

Accessories & Warranty

Naturally, the first thing I did after buying the camera was to get some accessories for it.

I got three freebies from Ted's Camera Store (which is a great store, by the way):

  • a 2GB Lexar SDHC memory card
  • a Transcend USB memory card reader (for the computer)
  • a Ted's-branded memory card storage hard case

I then bought three more:

Finally, I bought a 3-year extended warranty from Ted's.

What Next?

Like I said, I've been playing with the camera since I got it (well, since its battery got fully charged) and it's a lot of fun. Its features are awesome and easy to use and I am now preparing for my first video blog post :) I'll post some photos and at least one video from it over the next few days.

Thanks, once again, to Nadia for this moste awesomest birthday present. 'Tis wonderful, indeed :)

Umar Saif & Distributed Web Caching in Pakistan

One of my seniors from undergrad alma mater, the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), is working on a project that implements a distributed web caching system in order to increase download speeds in developing countries.

Mason Inman explains in an article in the MIT Technology Review:
Internet access is growing steadily in developing nations, but limited infrastructure means that at times connections can still be painfully slow. A major bottleneck for these countries is the need to force a lot of traffic through international links, which typically have relatively low bandwidth.

Now computer scientists in Pakistan are building a system to boost download speeds in the developing world by letting people effectively share their bandwidth. Software chops up popular pages and media files, allowing users to grab them from each other, building a grassroots Internet cache.

Sounds like a good system (the article goes into detail about how it works) and here's hoping it's a great success.

Dolly Parton's Cover of 'Shine'

While surfing the 'net for stuff for Collective Soul stuff I found something really interesting: Dolly Parton covered 'Shine' in 2002 and won a Grammy Award for it!

Here's what Rolling Stone had to say about what happened:
Nobody was more surprised to find out that Dolly Parton had covered Collective Soul 's anthemic breakout 1994 single "Shine" than the Atlanta band's frontman Ed Roland. "My phone rang early one morning and one of my friends said, 'Dolly Parton just sang your song on TV!'" he recalls fondly. "Apparently she told the TV host that she was doing it as a gift for her husband Carl Dean, who really loved the song."

She's done a pretty good job, too. Here's the original 'Shine':





And here's Parton's cover version:





Not bad, eh? :)

Bands That Have Influenced Me

After writing my previous post I got to thinking about what it means to have a bunch of "all-time favourite bands" and my conclusion was: bands that helped develop and define my taste in music (both listening and performing).

According to a research study that we discussed in my MBA Consumer Behaviour class, people's overall musical taste correlates most to the music that was at the top of the charts when they were around 21 years old. I turned 21 in 1997 but, given that bands often take a few years to get really big, my favourite bands should be the ones that were big during the mid- to late-'90s. As you'll see below, that's actually pretty accurate.

Here is my (updated) list of all-time favourite bands/musicians (let's just call them "artists", shall we?):

  • U2

  • Dire Straits

  • Peter Gabriel

  • REM

  • Sting

  • The Police

  • Collective Soul

  • Toad the Wet Sprocket

  • Linkin Park

  • Garbage

  • Pearl Jam

  • Def Leppard

  • Goo Goo Dolls

  • Better Than Ezra

  • Matchbox Twenty

  • Sheryl Crow

  • Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

  • Melissa Etheridge

  • The Cranberries

  • Vital Signs

  • A-Ha

  • The Corrs

  • Bryan Adams

  • Madonna

  • Deep Forest

  • Enigma

  • Moby


That's a pretty long and reasonably diverse list, isn't it? And I've probably missed a couple as well.

As you'll notice from the list, most of these artists were really popular in the mid- to late-'90s -- though some were on their first album while others were on their fifth. The only two new artists in there are Moby and Linking Park and the two that disbanded before the 90's -- i.e. The Police and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers -- both released best-of albums during that time.

Did I gain any new insight about myself while compiling this list? Not really. Still, it was a fun list to put together and it might tell you a thing or two about me (though I'm not entire sure what!).

Collective Soul - Afterwords

One of my all-time favourite bands, Collective Soul, released a new album a few months ago (called 'Afterwords') and I only just found out.

This is what happens when you are overly absorbed in something (like, say, an MBA) and, when you get some free time, only listen to mainstream music. Terrible, isn't it? I am such a bad fan.

Fortunately, now that I am up to speed, some album buying shall ensue. Meanwhile, there's always Collective Soul's MySpace page to keep me happy.

Photos in the Cloud: Picasa Web Albums

So, after trying out both Flickr and Picasa, I decided to go with Picasa Web Albums for my photos-in-the-cloud solution. Yes, that is yet another bit of my life that I am entrusting to Google. And, yes, I'm fine with that.

Why did I go with Picasa? Because Flickr, though really awesome, only lets me make three albums (or 'Sets') in its free version while Picasa lets me make as many as I want.

I do have a 1GB web space limit with Picasa but that's more than enough for my purposes. Heck, I'm using only 22MB at this time! And once I get a digital camera, take lots more photos, and find that I need more space -- though that won't be for a while because I don't take that many photos -- I can always buy some from Google. Quite cheaply, too. And it'll be shared with my Gmail space, which is awesome. My videos, meanwhile, will go on YouTube so I'm good there as well. And my audio is on SkyDrive so that's not an issue either.

Of course, I could have gone with something like SmugMug, which has no limits on web space or number of albums, and I could have installed an open source photo gallery on insanityWORKS.org, which can then be fully customized, but I didn't. That's because I quite like Picasa's web implementation (it's easy to use and I love it's geo-tagging capabilities) and I really like the Picasa 2 software that you install locally (both its photo organization abilities and its easy-to-use image editing features).

So, behold: my Public Gallery on Picasa Web Albums.