iOS7 Beta–Anxious moments, Fix

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The readers of this blog know that I moved to Nokia Lumia 920 few months back from iPhone. Listening to this week announcement of iOS7 by Apple in their WWDC 2013 event, I got intrigued and wanted to try it out. Since I have an Apple Developer account, I could get access to the Developer Beta of iOS. That’s what I did after I dusted my iPhone4 from storage.

Over the years as I started sporting grey hairs, I have learned that it is always a bad idea to upgrade to Beta (unsupported) software especially Operating Systems in your “Work” devices – whether it is your Desktop PC, Laptop or Mobile Phones. It never results in anything useful other than wasting your time and increasing your blood pressure.

Despite the above, I downloaded iOS7 Beta from Developer.Apple.Com, added my iPhone’s UDID into Devices list in that account, followed the instructions in one of the blogs on how to upgrade. It was to extract the iOS7 Beta DMG file, connect the phone to iTunes, press Alt (Option key in Mac) while pressing on Restore iPhone button (next to Check for Upgrade button), select the extracted IPSW file and follow the process. Everything went well, after the phone got restarted and came back to life, I configured my WI-FI hotspot and it prompted for activation. After trying to activate, if failed with an Activation Error with no message on why it failed. The iTunes screen was equally baffling other than standard text to contact Apple Support, other than that no reason why it failed.

Then I contacted Apple support through Chat, they responded quickly and stated that I have to use Developer Forums for this as there is no official support for Beta/Developer releases. I was shocked, it looked like I have bricked a working iPhone4 for no worthy reason. Further searches (here in Apple discussions, OSXDaily) showed an idea on how to get the phone to DFU Mode (kind of a factory default mode), where the phone will respond to iTunes but can’t do anything else. Having nothing else to lose, I was about to follow the steps to DFU. Then I suddenly remembered there is no SIM card in the phone. I inserted a valid SIM card from my Lumia phone, force restarted iPhone and bingo!!!

iPhone4 with iOS7 Beta got activated just fine and I was greeted with the Home Screen (which followed the Location Services toggle screen). As I am writing this blog, iTunes is working hard in restoring my content backup and syncing my library. Hope everything will go well from here. Since iOS7 Beta is under Apple NDA, I won’t be posting individual screenshots or comment on features that Apple haven’t disclosed publicly as on date.

(Above screenshot from Apple.com public website)

To be ahead of my woes, I have already searched and bookmarked this page on how to downgrade to iOS6 from iOS7 beta if I ever needed to.

Regarding my feeling of iOS7, since I am using a Windows Phone and Windows 8 the flat non–skeuomorphic UI looks familiar & comfortable. I am not interested in indulging in an argument of whether Apple has innovated with iOS7 or not, whether it has lost its mojo, is Jonathan Ive copying from Microsoft and more. I just want to use it for few days and see how this interface works for the world’s most loved Mobile OS. One thing I will state is that I agree with the observation that Skeuomorphic UI and leather stitches/tape-reel images where needed when iPhone brought to mass market Touch UI for the first time; it has outlived its necessity and its time to retired it in search of something new. Whether this will help Apple to slow down Android/Samsung’s gains in marketplace is something we will know in the months to come. As for me I will be enjoying something new to play with over this weekend.

Outlook 2013 Action Items

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At Vishwak Solutions we moved about a year back to Office 365 for hosting our email/calendar/contacts for Vishwak.com domain. Recently we got the service upgrade on our Office365 account, as a result I suppose we received new features that were brought out with Exchange Server 2013 and additional items specific to Office 365.

Last few days I began noticing a new button appearing on top of the reading pane for some of the emails. It was titled “Action Items”. Clicking it, revealed it to be an intelligent system that extracts from mail text & shows only the “Action Items” which you can then flag for future attention – cool indeed. It seemed to be activated after the recent Office365 upgrade.

This feature is a actually an app and one of the long list of helpful apps that got introduced in Outlook 2013.

If you are in Office365/Exchange Server 2013 & running Outlook 2013, check this feature, very handy indeed.

My new car–Maruti SX4

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It was six years back in April 2007 I purchased my current car – a Honda City GXi. I love this car, it is easy to maneuver in the city roads and you feel comfortable in any of the seats. After much thought I decided I will make this one as our family car for “Driver” driving to school & household trips. The last family car we had was a Mahindra Renault Logan, which I sold immediately after deciding to get myself a new car.

It was time to shop for a new car.

I am not an Automobile enthusiast, I enjoy a good car, but its only a bit more than an utility for me. This is a feeling I inherited from my Dad who let me learn driving on my own in his Ambassador. I just thought I will go to Sundaram Honda in Chennai and buy the new Honda City iVTEC. When I went to the showroom I saw the newly launched Honda Amaze. At about Rs.7.5 Lakhs on Road for Petrol fully loaded and Rs.8.5 Lakhs on road for Petrol/Automatic, Amaze looked impressive. But I felt I needed something bigger. Next was Honda City (what I wanted to see in the first place) which was priced at about Rs.11.2 Lakhs for Petrol and about Rs.12.2 Lakhs for Petrol/Automatic on Road. Car looked great on specification and from outside. But I was disappointed on the interiors, especially comparing over what I was upgrading from. The interiors felt very “Plasticky” and small car’ish, certainly not something you will associate in a mid segment saloon. I was told that the model (AVN) which has a touch screen, navigation and factory fitted Bluetooth is not in offering anymore. I don’t like fixing 3rd party accessories after spending for a new car, so no Bluetooth OOB was a big bummer for me. In my current car I listen to few podcasts regularly, I was doing this with my iPhone and Pioneer FH P6050UB Car Stereo using an USB cable. But for a new car, Bluetooth is a must so I can be free from hassles of cables and also no car in the market that I am aware of that supports connecting my new phone (Nokia Lumia 920) through USB.

Now I had no choice but to shop around.

Few things I was clear on the type of car I wanted. My budget was about Rs.10 Lakhs (no stretching), only a saloon (so no SUVs), only Petrol (I dislike the slightest engine noise even if its heard only on the outside which almost all Diesel engines do), no GM cars (after my bad resale experience with Opel Corsa which I liked a lot), not much concerned on mileage as my usage per day is less, and finally hassle free after sales service (who said I can’t dream in India). Given a choice, I prefer Steering Wheels to have controls designed for a Right-Hand Driver (as its in India). One example of this is that the Turn Indicator controls should be on the Right side of the steering wheel and on the left as it will be in all European and American designed cars.

I went around test-driving/looking around on what was in the market and my comments are listed below:

Ford Fiesta – Not impressive, didn’t have a refresh for last few years
Renault Scala – Somehow it didn’t feel right to go for another car from Renault (after my not so great experience with Logan with Interiors). I have nothing against Renault, they are making great cars in India but it didn’t feel right for me
Nissan Sunny – This was quite impressive. I liked the Push Button start Rear seat AC blowers, Nice legroom in both rows. But the reason I skipped this one was the price at Rs.10 Lakhs (XV SPL Edn which had the touchscreen, Bluetooth and more), which I felt was higher
Tata Indigo Manza – I was impressed at just seeing the features of this car in their website and I like their original TV advertisements of subtly comparing to Airline seats. And many years back when we had a Tata Indigo (the first model) the experience was pretty nice. The price of Rs.7.5 Lakhs fully loaded was attractive with possibilities of good discount as well. But few friends I consulted scared the hell out of me on the after service, so I dropped this one on doubt without even test driving it
Hyundai Verna – Hyundai Motor Plaza in Chennai is next door to my office at Ekaduthangal in Chennai. So one afternoon after lunch I test drove the car. Its interiors were the best I saw in any brand for this price point. It had a glove-box cooling, fantastic interiors (wooden panels just like in my 2007 Honda City), Push Button Start, Hands Free Bluetooth, Plush leather upholstery and Automatic transmission was very responsive while driving. All this at Rs.10.3 Lakhs On Road (1.6 Petrol VTVT A/T) was good too. The show stopper was the low ground clearance which I was not comfortable – I tend to not stop fully on speed breakers (which are all poorly designed in Chennai)
Maruti Suzuki Swift Dzire Regal – Dzire is in the same league as Honda Amaze so I wasn’t looking at it due to the size. But the recently launched Limited Edition “Regal” with retro/classic front grills made me consider this car. The fact I could buy even an automatic transmission and still spend only around Rs.7 Lakhs (on road) was indeed appealing
Maruti Suzuki SX4 – I was not sure on this one as I hardly saw any SX4 in the streets of Chennai. Every Maruti saloon I saw on the roads was a Swift Dzire, so I wasn’t sure on this. Getting to test drive this was tough, as in the last weeks of April when I tried to do that, none of the dealers in Chennai had the car in display/ test drive due to the recent model refresh. SX4 was not even listed in any Maruti Dealer Showrooms’ waiting list chart. But one of my relative who is a car enthusiast highly recommended this car due to its great specifications. He added that the the poor sales of this car was due to its higher price than DZire and he assured me the new model which got released this April, made this car even better and likely to change its fortune. In any case I am not buying Maruti stocks, so all that mattered was how good the car was made and after service (as it is a Maruti car there was no doubts on this, you had service centres everywhere there is a tar-road in India).

But all doubts I had about this car or even what car to buy was over the minute I test drove Maruti SX4. The car was fluid, manly, ground clearance of 180mm (I was told was the highest in this segment in India) felt good for Indian roads, Audio System clarity was superb especially the low notes. The top model which I was planning to buy (ZXi with Navigation) included a touch screen, fully functional navigation system & Bluetooth. The price felt right too Rs.10.5 Lakhs on road which included a Rs.25000 Discount and an additional of Rs.6000 for bumper to bumper insurance (a must for Indian Traffic conditions). The only worry I had before I made the “advance” payment was the delivery time. Maruti Dealers are notorious to be bad on their commitment to deliver on the time they promised. Swift DZire has a stated waiting period of 6 weeks, this looked stupid to me at a time when the whole Indian Automobile industry is having a tough time. Kapico in Chennai convinced me that they will deliver in 3 weeks, which I am happy to say today they did (give and take few days). I made the booking on 4th of this month.

That’s how I got delivery of my new car today – a Maruti SX4 ZXi Navigation. I went with Serene Blue as my previous cars were Green, Grey, White and Beige/Golden; in SX4 Maruti didn’t have Dark Blue which I liked.

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The car feels great to drive. Audio is superb. The navigation system from Garmin seems to work in Chennai, it gave me near-correct directions to a place I wanted to go. The touch screen navigation/music system seems to be powered by Android OS & other open source frameworks (as per the About screen).

Bluetooth pairing with my Windows Phone (Nokia Lumia 920) went smoothly – Music starts and stops playing from phone correctly on Engine ON/OFF, Voice calls reception was good (I was told by my callers). Windows Phone rocks with its SMS Read Out facility and Voice command recognition for controlling the SMS.

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Hmm, that was a long post. Bye for now and I am off to a short drive on my new car.

My Facial hair (what else to call this post)

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I don’t sport a beard, the 3 day stubble is the maximum I like my facial hair to grow. I will keep them shaved off every 3-4 days, except for my moustache. Been using the manual Gillette Razors (currently Fusion with 5 blades) all these years, quite comfortable with them and haven’t tried any of the motorized shavers.

I have been sporting a “natural” moustache for last two decades, which is around the time I joined my college. You see a photo of yours truly below with Moustache during a college vacation to Ooty:

SVCE ECE1996 Batch College Trips Ooty

Maintaining the moustache to the correct length (I like it to be trimmed medium length, say 2 or 3 mm) is always tricky. I am no good at doing this with scissors, using which I invariably trim it too much at one side. Which will leave me no choice but to shave it off fully and wait for few days for it to grow again. Hence, I leave the job to professionals at the beauty saloon to do it monthly once where I go just for a shave even if I don’t need a hair-cut so that I can get my moustache trimmed to right size. Of course, this has the disadvantage of making me carry a moustache that’s grown unwieldy at the fag-end of the month or during long travels.

Recently when shopping in Spencer Plaza Lifestyle, I noticed they carried a variety of motorized beard trimmers from Philips. And there was a salesman handy who explained various models. He helped me choose this basic model costing about Rs.1200 which will solve my problem of Moustache maintenance. It was a Philips QT4019 3 Day Beard Trimmer, works cordless and charges worldwide. I have been using it for last few weeks and pleased with the results. Try it out, if you too have a moustache problem.

My House renovation

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The independent house I live in Mambalam area of Chennai is over 28 years old. The last time we did painting & repair was before my marriage and that was a decade ago. In the last few years the interiors have started to show its wrinkles and age. The most scary part when we thought of getting the house painted or repaired was the packing. Since we have lived in the same house for over two decades, we have accumulated lot of useful/useless stuff – definitely lot more than what we would have if we were in an apartment.

After many months of thinking about doing something, we decided we will repaint the full house & do all repairs. We called a known Civil Engineer who studied the house and recommended we change the complete plumbing, electrical wiring and the flooring due to termites. In discussions that followed he suggested we renovate the house too, create an open kitchen, modify an open space into a big bedroom and so on – basically remodel the whole house. All this without a full demolition, keeping the super structure intact & work on the internal walls/interiors.And that’s why last two weeks became hectic for me & family with packing & moving. We shifted to my Uncle’s guest house (which is a 3BHK apartment near-by), leaving almost all furniture(s), big fridge wrapped in the same place at our house. Packed in about 50 carton boxes, 3/4th of our daily items, books & clothes and locked them in a room. We moved only bare essentials and planned this like we are travelling for next 3 months.

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The experience of living in an apartment (even though temporary) after many decades in an Independent House has been a mixed bag. I enjoy the simplicity of managing the house, but miss the independence and the space we had.

Kalakalappu

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சென்ற வருடம் கோடையில் வெளிவந்த நகைச்சுவைத் திரைப்படம் - கலகலப்பு (Masala Cafe). விமல் மற்றும் சிவா கதாநாயகர்களாக நடித்திருக்கும் இந்தப் படத்தை இன்று பார்க்கும் வாய்ப்பு கிடைத்தது. உள்ளத்தை அள்ளித்தா போன்ற மறக்க முடியாத காமெடி படங்களைத் தந்த சுந்தர் சி தான் இந்தப் படத்தின் இயக்குனராம்!

நிறைய இடங்களில் யதார்தாம் இடிக்கிறது, ஆனால் காமெடி படத்திற்கு அதெல்லாம் எதற்கு என்று ஒதுக்கிவிட்டு பார்த்தால், படத்தைப் பார்க்கலாம், சிரிக்கலாம் – நான் சிரித்தேன். அதுவும் பாதிக்கு மேல் வரும் சந்தானம் தோன்றும் காட்சிகளில் நிஜமாகவே சிரிப்பு வருகிறது.

பாஸ் என்கிற பாஸ்கிரனுக்கு பிறகு இந்த காமெடி படத்தின் கதையும் கோயில்களுக்கும்/டிகிரி காப்பிக்கும் பெயர் போன கும்பகோணத்தில் நடப்பதாக வருகிறது, அது என்ன காதல் என்றால் தமிழ் சினிமா ஊட்டிக்கும், காமெடிக்கு கும்பகோணத்திற்கும் போகிறது?

NASSCOM Emerge Forum–HR Panel

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Today NASSCOM Emerge Forum in Chennai conducted a Panel discussion on “Proven Strategies by Emerging Companies to become Employers of Choice”. I was invited to be one of the panellist by Senthil Kumar of NASSCOM Chennai and Emerge Forum Chairperson George Vettah (CEO of Kallos Solutions). I shared the dais with Venkatesh Krishnamoorthy (CEO of Maarga Information Systems).

George started off the session with a positive message that Small & Medium companies in Emerge should approach and develop their HR strategies with an upbeat attitude, rather than as under-dogs to IT biggies in India. There is lot that SMEs can offer that the Biggies can’t deliver due to their weight.

I talked about 5-6 things that worked for us well at Vishwak Solutions. First is the Pay Package, it is important that Emerge companies are at least at the 80-85 Percentile for that role in your city, everything else you do comes next. Second will be to have the minimum hierarchy (though sounds cliché) between the Engineers & Management – this helps by saving cost got by reducing on the number of Senior Level Management talent, which can be passed on to Mid Level talent. Third, have a no-nonsense work atmosphere. Fourth will be to increase your communication during tough-times, mainly to quell rumours which hurt you more. Fifth will be for senior management/founder to get involved while recruiting, mainly to sell your company as a brand where they will want to work. Lastly highlight and provide people with as much Onsite/aboard opportunities; it makes them feel good and as a validation to their talent/performance.

There were about 40 people from various companies. The Q & A session was lively, with many interesting and thought provoking questions, that we enjoyed answering. Overall I was happy to have got a chance to share the panel with two experienced entrepreneurs of this city.

Applause & The First Assignment

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Continuing on the 18th European Film Festival, today it was Applause & The First Assignment.

Applause (2009)

Applause is a Denmark movie starting Paprika Steen. The film is about a famous stage actress “Thea” who is recovering from her Alcohol addiction, resulting divorce & loss of custody of her two young boys.

She is trying to get her life back. Show her forgotten love to the children. But its not turning out easy, the kids were easy to get along, but rest of her life is difficult. Thea character is portrayed convincingly by Paprika Steen, especially her oscillating mood swings. It goes from being Impatient to her fans (where she grabs a camera from the fan, takes few photos of herself, then giving back the camera, have you got enough), to being apologetic and playing with kids, giving up drinking for Mineral water and Lime. From shouting at the person in a bar who makes a move at her to reaching to him and asking sorry, then getting him to her apartment but not able to go beyond that. In the last few minutes when she takes the kids out of school without their father’s consent, we expect it to turn out nastier/deadlier but it ends with Thea just playing with them for a whole day, having a good time and returning safely the kids to their father. We understand that she has decided to stay away from them for a long time till she gets her life together.

The entire movie is squarely around Thea, making us feel her emotions intensively and sympathize with her even for her failures.

The First Assignment (2010)

The First Assignment (Il primo incarico) is an Italian film set in the 1950s in a small town in south of Italy (Provincial Puglian town). The story is about a young woman “Nina” (played by charming Isabella Ragonese) graduate who is living with her mother and younger sister. She is in love with a wealthy boyfriend who is living in the town with his aunt away from his parents in north. Due to pressure from her mother, she takes up a teacher job at a small village 150Kms away from her town. Living in a village alone, unmarried she is of intense scrutiny by the villagers. Her “remote” love life through letters falls apart and due to sudden events she ends up marrying the village handyman. Director Giorgia Cecere, has crafted well the scenes showing the tiny classroom. We are literally transported to that small village and classroom benches.

Oh My God!

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One of my friends’ recommended I see this movie. Oh My God, a Hindi Movie that released in Sep’ 12. The movie is loose adaptation of Australian movie “The Man Who Sued God” which I haven’t seen yet.

The movie is about a Gujarati shopkeeper “Kanji Lalji Mehta” (Played by Paresh Rawal) selling fake antiques in Mumbai, whose shop is destroyed by a Earthquake. Insurance company dismisses the claim as Act of God. Kanjilal being an atheist sues all the Godmen in the country for the Act of God, calling them Sales Agents of God. The resulting lawsuit and how he wins his case is the story.

Akshay Kumar (who is the producer of the movie) does a guest role as The God. The Motorbike scenes where he saves Kanjilal from a mob is a cheap imitation of the Nicholas Cage’s Ghost Rider.

The heartthrob of yesteryears Mithun Chakraborthy plays the role of the leading spiritual leader “Leeladhar Swamy”. While watching the movie I was trying to identify the actor who played the role, his face was so familiar but I couldn’t place him.

Fast Girls, Altiplano, Installation of Love

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This Friday was start of 18th European Film Festival organized in Tamil Nadu by ICAF in collaboration with European cultural organizations. The ten day festival is screened for first five days in Alliance Française of Madras (College Road) and then at Max Mueller Bhavan (Rutland Gate).

The building of Alliance Française of Madras is one of those old English style bungalows surrounded by a big lawn, all feeling a big relief from the busy traffic of College Road traffic just outside the compound.

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Fast Girls

Yesterday the Festival begun with the first movie, a UK film – Fast Girls. The film was about how a orphaned young female runner from a black neighbourhood in London, competes with the rich white girl. How they are forced to work together as a team to win Gold in the 4 x 100M Relay race in the London 2011 World Championship (a synonym for London 2012 Olympics). The story is familiar and the characters were more of a cliché, even then the film was enjoyable. The focus on the odds against today’s poor kids who aspire to do big in athletes was well portrayed. I liked the scenes were the old shopkeeper is helping the young runner as her coach and they both run in abundant race track.

Altiplano

Today evening the first movie was Altiplano, a Belgium film about the struggles of people living in Peru in a region known as Altiplano. The story is about two women and their losses. One who is living in a remote Andean village with her mother and brother, she is working as a caretaker of Virgin mother in a local church, waiting for her fiancée to return with blessed water from the mountains. The other, a Belgium War Photographer who lost her husband who worked in the Andean Village as a Cataract Surgeon as part of a NGO.

Through the movie you could see the strong Spanish (European) influence in the lives and beliefs of these natives in remote Peru even after nearly two century of independence from their Spanish rulers. The landscape is breath taking and the camera (the 360 panoramic technique employed in few scenes) has captured it brilliantly. The director employs a technique of having few “Ghost” characters and masked men around the people in scenes to amplify the emotions and the story telling, initially I found it confusing to follow the story but began to appreciate it as the movie progressed. The story tells you about the ills of mindless mineral extraction (in this case it was Mercury) and resulting exploitation by a country of its own people who have no power to voice against it.

Installation of Love

Installation of Love is a Slovenian film. The movie is about a middle aged women married to a rich businessman, having two grown up children she suddenly finds her life empty and looks to filling it with some excitement. Her daughter, an art student gets her mother trapped into reality-show like video film (Art Installation). The film ends with a nice climax where the distinction between the crew, the casts, the lady, story line and reality all getting blurred.

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