Earlier, I mentioned and explained about using VirtuaWin, a free Virtual Desktop Functionality software. Now, guys at SysInternals, now a part of Microsoft, have come up with Desktops, a tiny 62KB, to quadrapule your desktop.

Desktops allows you to organize your applications on up to four virtual desktops. Read email on one, browse the web on the second, and do work in your productivity software on the third, without the clutter of the windows you’re not using. After you configure hotkeys for switching desktops, you can create and switch desktops either by clicking on the tray icon to open a desktop preview and switching window, or by using the hotkeys. 

Ok. I will be honest. In order to save time or not to waste time or let me put me this way, in order to multitask, I seldom seen / known people who use the "loo" time to read newspapers or magazines. In critical examination time, even I take my notes to study. But my good friend Hannah is doing some serious multitasking with respect to save time in the loo as you can see from the picture. All you hackers - beware - the time hacker is here. Way to go Hannah! Couldn’t resist sharing it !

ciao,

Deepak.

Here go some reasons why iPhone might fail in India:

1. Overpriced in India.
2. No 3G video calls over 3G network.
3. You cannot forward a SMS message, you have to retype it or use an external application to do it.
4. NO autofocus, NO flash in camera.
5. NO camera settings what so ever.
6. NO copy paste function
7. Mediocre camera with only 2MP.
8. Plastic casing (Earlier it was metallic casing)
9. No FM Radio. Indians love FM stations. Don’t they?
10. Bluteooth is only limited to headset use (no file transfer) 
11. No AD2P on the Bluetooth
12. You can’t pair it with stereo bluetooth headset, yes its true iPhone inspite of being a music phone does not support A2DP
13. There is no sync between Notes & the TODO’s
14. There is no inbuilt office document editor.
15  No Voice Dialing!
16  Battery life is bad according to CNET tests. No removable battery. (You cannot change battery. Have to send it to Apple outlet to change it)
17  Cannot send MMS - Can’t receive MMS messages!
18. Cannot use as external storage device
19. Cant share ANY (mp3, images or videos) files via Bluetooth.
20. Can’t use as a wireless modem
21. It lacks proper support for Flash websites.
22. No songs as ring tones!!!
23. It only allows for a maximum of 1 picture to be attached to each e-mail you send!
24. You cannot save documents on it; documents can only be viewed as attachments when they’re sent to your e-mail address
25. Smudgy - It’s not finger print resistant - as iPhone is a touch screen phone so it is bound to get your finger print everytime you touch so it will get dirty very easily.
Edit:
26. You can’t send your contacts as business card or search for contacts. You have to use an external hack to search.
27. Apple doesn’t have a service network in place in India. Just like their other products, which are overpriced and lack proper service support in India, I still wonder what happens if I have a problem midway.

Just don’t fall for the hype. Its slick. But not all that. You can wait for the price to come down or await other models like the Sony Ericsson’s XPeria or HTC Touch with its TouchFLO interface  - which are saturating the iPhone hype.

Getting an A+ grade in a paper you thought you did pretty bad. Luck.

Meeting and standing beside an icon you always dreamt of. Priceless.

Meeting N R Narayana Murthy, the chief mentor and founder of Infosys, has just been such an experience. At the inaugural function of ISiM, my colleges’ new building, I just experienced that. Modest to the ground, in attire, speech or manner, he does not seek to stand out. His short but intuitive speech was to the point and the whole focus was to have a Open Mind and set to achieve your goals. I would cherish that moment with the rest of my life.

chao,

Deepak.

Songbird is a new Mozilla based Open source highly customizable media player with a web browser. The best feature is if you visit a page that has links to mp3s then it pops up a window at the bottom and lists all the files available for download or play. Just like Firefox Addon’s, hundreds of useful free  add-ons enhance Songbird.

At first sight, it looks like a itunes clone with a license free code. Features are abound like

• Support for iTunes-like smart playlists
• Optional concert calendar displays upcoming shows in your area based on the artists in your music library
• Last.fm support allows you to scrobble tracks
• Now uses GStreamer as the media core
• Manually transfer or sync media to a variety of iPods and MTP Devices.
• Multiple tab and support to Windows, Mac, and Linux. Yup, I am thinking of replacing iTunes on my Macbook with a RC release.
• Faster metadata scanning and writing which makes it easy to manage your media and writes your changes back to the file.

Like they say, the best things in life are free. Grab it here.

What Dell hopes will be particularly appealing to travelers is the 12.1-inch Latitude E4200, which starts at 2.2 pounds; and the 13.3-inch E4300, which starts at 3.3 pounds (Pics released first by Engadget) . For companies looking for a basic business notebook to reduce costs, Dell unveiled the 14.1-inch E5400, which starts at $839, and the 15.4-inch E5500, which starts at $869. For mainstream desktop replacements, often found in docking stations in corporate cubicles, Dell introduced the 14.1-inch E6400 and the 15.4-inch E6500, which start at $1,139 and $1,169, respectively. Both were also available as of Tuesday. The computers have just under 10 hours of battery life which can be extended with a so called “battery slice” to total 19 hours. The machines also have a fingerprint reader and a “control vault” processor that stores an owner’s identity and credentials on protected hardware.

I have been working on a student centric site for my college and I guess it’s ready. Its here if you want to have a look. Still need to move the servers and have SEF URL’s though. We made it on schedule!

I have been listening to Staind’s new album and its quite kicking. The Single "Believe" is a good one, not the very best of Staind though.

Its 7.00 am in Mysore and its quite chilling. Should I get back to bed or hit the swimming pool? Let me decide..

Inky Pinky Ponkey.. lol

If you have been closely following his blog, you can notice the postive vibes of his posts even in his last days. His ever confident smile pushes me to an extent I could never measure. RIP Randy.

I have been reading Randy Pausch’s "The Last Lecture" and I just can’t say how much I am loving that book - its phenomenal. Its about Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon who was invited to give a "Last Lecture" and the only "engineering" problem he got is - he has recently been diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer and just got a few more healthy months to live. I am commuting by the local Metro Train Service in Hyderabad to the place where I intern and the best way to utilize/kill time is books. I highly recommend this book to everyone.

The Last Lecture can also be watched online here.

You might also like to visit Randy Pausch’s blog  and website here

To download Windows Updates, Software Patch is a wonderful website with all the patches, upgrades, service packs and hardware drivers for your Windows needs. The site is regularly updated. So, you can download and burn them to a CD or slipstream to your windows installation disk.

Another must have program is AutoPatcher by Antonio Kaladis. I have been using it since my limited bandwidth days. I used to get free updates on CD/DVD every month with the Digit magazine I used to subscribe. So, I used to update my Windows OS via the program and save my bandwidth. Released every month, this program though bulky contains updated patches in a nifty, easy to install package. Must have.

I advise Paul Thurott’s guide to slipstreaming which is written with a clean set of instructions on how to slipstream. You can download the patches you need from the Software Patch website.

You can also try  the free nLite to develop a Unattended Wndows installation disk with all the updates.

PS: I have been busy with my intern and hence the low frequency of posts.  My drafts are piling up too. Please excuse