Sure it will cost $505.99.
No, why it only costs $200 in US.
Sure if you are willing to steal it!

My brown Indian bros.. here is how it works -

You walk in the funky looking iStore, pick the cool looking iPhone (8GB) after talking to the people dressed in blue iT-shirts (the geniuses as they like to call themselves, so much for being modest) at an ultra cheap price of $199.00 + $15 (7.5% taxes).

The iGenius now asks you to activate the phone with a 2 year contract, they have these orange iT-shirt dudes (don’t know what they are called) to stop you from taking the phone outside the store without activating.  You activate it at $35 and pay the first month due of $69.99/month + some million type of taxes = $81.99.  Your total so far = $330.99

aha .. freedom - or so you think.

Now either you keep paying $69.99 per month or since you are buying the phone for someone in India you decide to deactivate your contract by paying $175.  Your total my friend comes out to be = $505.99 + unlocking the phone.

Cost of owning an iPhone from US (@$1 = Rs.43) = Rs. 21,757.57  + unlocking + no-warranties + customs chori + read the confidentiality agreement that At&t makes you sign, I am sure there is something illegal about unlocking the phone.

Cost of owning an iPhone from India = Rs. 31,000 + mental peace for me

Google launched ‘Chrome’ - the google browser - and like everything else that is Google, I had to test drive the shinny new chrome the very first day it was available.

First impressions :

Its fast, its clean - its everybit Google!

Neat Features :

• No wastage of expensive browser space with a bar on top
• Tabs are just clean and works like magic (unlike IE7).
• Dragging a tab outside opens a new window
• Each tab is a process in itself so you can kill something that hangs up without affecting other tabs (i.e. if you can figure out the bad one from the list of chrome.exe)

Things that I didn’t like so much :
• Bookmarks disappear when you open a website on a tab, to access them you have to open a new tab (an extra click)
• No adons
• CPU usage (see below)
• Different processes for each tab is a neat feature, but no id for the right tab to kill, its all “chrome.exe”.

So the big question is - DO I SWITCH FROM FIREFOX or OPERA or FLOCK or MAXTHON, or SAFARI, or even IE7?

Firefox had issues with memory usage, so lets compare that. I ran Chrome, Firefox and IE7 with 4 active websites and an empty tab - here is what we see

While the memory usage isn’t bad, its not too good either. Alarming thing is the CPU usage. I don’t know if I would sacrifice 50% of my cpu usage towards a better browsing experience - when Firefox isn’t really doing a bad job at that and besides I will miss stumbling.

Surely Chrome is my default browser at the moment, lets see how long it retains the position.

Not that I mind the $600 check without having to work for it… but seriously another stimulus package to give a boast to the economy is that the best idea economists could come up with!!

 

Considering that not everyone like me deposited this check in their savings account - what do the average consumer buy?  Shoes -  “made in China”, Electronics - “made in China”, toys - “made in China” ….. Another stimulus package - for CHINA.

 

This stimulus package is like giving 5 dollars to a homeless, you feed him for a day and not enable him to feed himself for lifetime.

 

CREATE  MORE  JOBS DUMBOS!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Remember the days when your mom would be all upset because the maid didn’t show up! Well, my fellow desis those days are over, we have babajob.com for reliable maids, chauffeurs, cooks!

Alright, this is still in the future for anywhere except Bangalore and even Bengaluru (this is the last time I am using this spelling) has limited listings and no referral comments from other users, but its a start!

You may ask, ‘Ramesh, using internet? He can’t even write his own name’. This is where you and me come in; baba’s of the house and yes the baby’s too! We create the profiles for them, and we get Rs. 200 for doing that if they are employed through babajob.com. As if we needed an incentive to help Ramesh or Vinod or Lalji whom we have seen growing up! For posting a job or to get the contact information of the person seeking job you pay Rs. 500, small one time cost if you can find a reliable cook, who speaks the language you do and cooks delicious vegetarian food in desi ghee.

Babajob.com is not only about finding maids, its essentially a job website for anyone who might need help finding a job but has no means or knowledge to be connected to the modern world of internet. What surprises me is it took an American to see the need of such a website. I really hope this startup survives the test of time as we are getting connected more and more!

Podcast of the interview with the co-founder Sean Blagsvedt..

As peaceful as Ithaca is, we don’t even expect someone shouting loudly on the streets. I was walking towards the parking garage with a friend when we heard some noises as if someone was fighting, it was late in the night and the streets were deserted. As we approached the stairs two black girls came running down, to our relief they were kids, just running around, playing. We took the stairs to the second floor, as we walked towards the car we saw a black kid looking inside the car.’yeh car ke paas kya kar raha hai?’ (What is he doing next to the car?) my friend said as she gave me a concerned look. I gave her the same concerned look back ‘pata nahi’ (don’t know). He saw us ‘we were playing hide and seek’ as he ran down to join his friends. Car was alright, he didn’t scratch the paint, neither was he trying to steal anything - he was just playing hide and seek. I felt guilty - guilty of acting a racist, guilty of stereotyping a black kid, he was harmless.

He knew we were worried, we spoke a language that he didn’t understand yet he knew what we were talking, he had faced such questioning eyes before.

Had it been a white kid, would I have the same questioning eyes? Was it wrong of me to think that way? Is my guilt justified?

Some are visible updates

Shinny new banner - with my morning cup of chai

New design with some Ajax goodies on the sidebar thanks to Dynamic Drive

List of random posts to revive some forgotten ones

Easier access to start a new post

Movies besides books as main menu - since we all love movies :)

and for not so visible updates

you can now update your own profile picture through your profile section

Search engine optimizer, for search engines to search us better, will be visible when you are writing a new post, under the post section - please fill out the description

Adsense block in the formating menu of each post - this is to add ads within the post

Updates in the future

Profile pictures in the comment section

Easy commenting right at the front page

More visibility to older posts with some design modifications

Open to any suggestions - something you would like to be redesigned - or suggestions on new features you would like to see!

Note : this design will not work properly with IEv6 and older. So if you are wondering whats wrong with the new design its time to update or move to firefox - you know you should to be secure on the net!

Note2: Also on your way are hulu invitations (thanks to Techcrunch)  - for authors who didn’t have hulu account - don’t delete them considering spam!

While some follow football, some follow cricket and some Rachel Ray, I like to follow web startups, just because some of these applications are cool, anything creative gives me a kick like a bloody mary! These startups are created by 20 somethings, one by a 6th grader - {{{ bells }}} - another start of bubble!! No, I don’t think so, not so much volatile as last time because VCs have learnt from their mistakes but you never know… here is a video that got famous (over million views) last December before it was taken down because of a copyright infringement - it is now back online without the law breaking unsharable photograph (according to the photographer and her lawyer) used before!

Bloggers - Me, me - I am one. Immigrant - Me again, me. Yes, I am an immigrant.
Are you illegal immigrant? No, but let me hear it!

George Borjas, professor of Economics and Social Policy at Harvard University compares bloggers to illegal Immigrants

It doesn’t cost all that much to become a citizen journalist: a computer and your own time is about all it takes for you to start reporting your view of the world to whoever wants to read it.

The laws of supply and demand suggest that the rewards to being a Journalist would drop because anyone can now start reporting news and opinionating a la Paul Krugman or Maureen Dowd. It’s as if the Journalistic profession has received its own influx of illegal immigrants–increasing competition, lowering rewards, and creating havoc along the way.

It seems to me he used illegal just to be on the safe side, he actually meant immigrants, legal and illegal included!

I don’t believe blogging is a threat to journalism, its surely bringing back the quality factor and the sense of telling truth to common people. It offers a healthy competition. Famous bloggers are also good writers who would have made great journalists if they wanted to, others (like me) are only sharing opinions. Blog world has opened a platform where you can be held responsible for the facts you state, this is where I can question a Harvard professor without being intimidated by him. As Thomas Friedman suggested - the world is flat - it will be easier if you believe him!

Similar argument has been played by professional photographers and graphic artists and soon enough we will see other professionals joining the league - real estate agents, tax brokers, used car salesman. Bottom line is - better be great at what you do, good only means you are replaceable!

Here is Andrew Leonard’s take at Salon on Borjas’ post

When was the last time you picked a print subscription? Maybe this question will not be as big at the moment so let me rephrase it. When was the last time you remember there was a day when you didn’t pick anything in print, as compared to a day without internet?

If I were to answer the question, I pick a magazine every morning while going through the morning raaga - its only because I haven’t figured out a way to carry my laptop inside without creating any sort of hygienic/sanitary mental discomforts. I know friends, who prefer their blackberries and iphones to a printed version of Wired and the only reason why I have even considered buying one of the wifi enable phones is for the same reason.
Magazines like Business2.0 - ironically reporting about the companies/applications that would soon overthrow them were the first ones smart enough to shut down their print versions. Reminds me of Starwars and other scifi channel shows - remember how clean their rooms look without the clutter of paper. I wonder how long will it be before we are all wearing tight silver jump suits with V stripes in front, hairdo is our fashion statement - *shake it off* - I prefer the jeans and t-shirt wearing culture!

For me internet is the new religion, I am one of the missionaries spreading it - converting a 72year old lady to ‘Internetism’ was my first accomplishment. Social networks are our new churches/temples/mosques - a meeting place for people with like minds (or just too much time in hand), blogs are our newspapers, video sharing sites offer on-demand entertainment. wifi networks are our new roads without bumps, molesters are terrorists, hackers are the jihadis! We have everything - there are people who believe in it and then there are some Nobel laureates who think internet makes us dumb (will send us to hell) - whatever the case maybe - its definitely the fastest growing religion and if you are connected you are already a part of it.

Another wonder of web2.0 - ‘Jooce’ is a flash based online desktop for people who like to stay connected through the new religion of www. It’s very similar to ’stixy’ - but the way I look at it is, stixy is what windows is for an operating system, while jooce is more like a mac os.

Not that I am arguing if one is better than other, but jooce has its advantages - it offers msn, icq, yahoo and aim chat applications along with desktop sharing abilities that also stixy provides. And it also lets you upload youtube videos, music and media files and play them online. As for disadvantages (as compared to stixy) it does not offer a calendar/todo list and while it looks and feels like a desktop, well it really is a file sharing application at the core of all the cool graphic interface.

So get ready to load up your virtual hard-drive - I wonder how secure these applications will be in the long run!