This Blog Has Moved

I have shifted this blog to Wordpress hosted on my own domain. Please check http://palewar.com/blog/sachin/ for new posts.

This is my last post here and its purpose is to inform that all the new posts as well as all the old posts from here will be available on my new blog.

See you there :-)

Yet Another Take on 3 Idiots story credit

I read the book Five Point Someone by Chetan Bhagat long time back and I liked it a lot. I have also watched the movie 3 Idiots and have to accept the movie was way better than my expectations. Even with some very filmy scenes, I think Raju Hirani has come up with a wonderful script and a movie in the same league as MunnaBhai series.

Movie is indeed different from the book although theme remains the same and is really a must watch, controversy or no controversy.

I was expecting to see Chetan Bhagat's name in the opening credit, but it wasn't there. I couldn't spot his name even in the closing/rolling credits. I will be lying if I say I didn't find it strange. I was surprised why Bhagat doesn't have anything to say about it. Finally he spoke after a few days and controversy erupted.

Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Hirani and Aamir slammed Bhagat in various press conferances terming him as publicity hungry etc. etc. Bhagat himself on his part did various TV interviews and wrote blog posts, 4 to be precise. Vinod Chopra decided to make the contract with Bhagat public at his site and also listed 30 reasons why movie is not same as the book. Media went ga-ga with the controversy, everybody wrote about it. Vir Sanghvi's take on the whole issue is available on his website and I really like what he has written and agree with all of it.

Latest is a video from Raju Hirani himself which many say proves all the allegations by Bhagat wrong. Well I don't agree and really don't understand why they don't see, what I see.

Here are my 2 cents on all the 3 allegations which Hirani seems to have successfully proved wrong:

1. Video shows what Chetan wrote on the blog about story being copied and then Raju interprets it in the video as the allegation of story being stolen. Chetan wrote what he wrote because he was not given credit for the story. People should understand that this is a different issue than the 'Based on Novel' credit issue and two should not be confused with each other.

This issue occurred because Hirani and VVC simply gave no credit to Chetan for the story. Instead they went on to prove that movie is different from the book and thus implying that Bhagat deserves no credit for the story.

I fully agree that movie is different from the book and 3i teams has done a fab job with the plot modification and screenplay, however it still has FPS connection and hence Bhagat's name should be there as Story Writer. Bhagat is not asking for exclusive story writing credit. He clearly mentions on the blog that he is happy to share the credit with other 2 story writers viz Hirani and Abhijat Joshi.

Chetan accepts selling rights to VVC and co so I think Hirani's comment are totally out of context.

2. Video then shows Chetan writing that he was denied due credit and Hirani shows the contract where it's clearly written that he will be given credit in the rolling credits. I can't agree or disagree with that statement but when Hirani goes on to say that they honored the contract to the T, I have strong objection to that statement.

I will first request you to check out the page 4 of 9 page long agreement between Bhagat and VVC films and then compare it with the actual 'Based on Novel' credit in the movie.

I have them both side by side here for you:


3. Finally Hirani says that Chetan alleges that he was not shown the script and he says that he narrated the script to himself personally and got an NDA signed. Now Chetan himself has already clarified on the blog that he was not shown the script, he never denied hearing narration. He himself says that hearing a narration is different from having a script in your hand and reading it fully so again I think Hirani is just confusing it.

So here is my final take on this whole issue:

I think VVC and Hirani just thought that Bhagat is a small writer and they can just ignore him and also probably they believed that since they have modified the story, no credit should be given to original author. I am not saying that such things don't happen ever and VVC and Hirani committed a big crime or something, but ya they probably in the excitement and enthusiasm of creating a great movie, which 3I really is, forgot to be ethical and as Vir Sanghvi says graceful.

Having said that this does not change my admiration and liking of anybody involved in the controversy. I love movies from Hirani and Aamir, they sure have a strong message and I will look forward to more such movies from them in future and I love Chetan Bhagat's writing so will keep looking forward to more books from him as well :-)

Mobile Software Development Spectrum

Mobile Software Development Spectrum from Sachin Palewar on Vimeo.

A seminar by Sachin Palewar (www.palewar.com) on various mobile software platforms and development choices for them. This seminar was held in Raisoni Engineering College Nagpur in Sept 2009.

Wi-Fi enabled, Mobile Ready, Solar Tent

I really struggled to think of a suitable title for this post. There are so many things about this innovative tent concept that you just can't describe it with a few words.

Anyway let's get started:

1. Do you notice that the tent is glowing in night as shown in the image to left? Now isn't that cool. Here is how exactly it works. You send a SMS to your tent and it starts glowing to tell you its location, so that you don't loose it :-)

2. This tent uses a special fabric to capture solar energy which can then further be used in many ways in your tent.

3. Wi-Fi and Mobile Charging - Yes true you have wi-fi inside this tent to use internet and you have a charging facility to charge mobiles or any portable device. Charging is done by using magnetic induction so no wires are required.

4. Internal Heating - Now the energy generated by the tent can also be used to automatically heat tent's groundsheet once the interior temperature falls below a set level.

This tent concept is a vision by Orange and has been designed in association with Kaleidoscope. For official Press Release click here.

Now I don't know how many people will actually like to use wi-fi or charge their mobiles while camping but I think automatic heating, night glow will definitely be handy and charging can be used to charge cameras as well. So let me know what do you think about this tent concept? Thanks for reading :-)

Here comes Google OS for your computer

Google has just announced Google Chrome OS on its official blog. It promises to be simple, fast and secure like all the other Google products like search, mail and Gtalk.

Chrome OS will actually be Chrome browser running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. Also since this will be an Open-Source OS, anybody will be able to download and play with the sourcecode of the OS.

Initially Google OS will only be available for netbooks but I guess later it will be made available for PCs as well. Netbooks running Google OS are expected to hit the market in second half of 2010.

Google also promises that its OS will boot faster, will be free from viruses, won't require you to spend time configuring hardwares or downloading updates. Your data will always be backed up automatically so you don't loose your data ever.

All the web-based applications will automatically work on Google OS, so you just need to write a web application in your favourite web-technology and it will run on Google OS.

Clarification: Image used in this post is not official release from Google, its sourced from maximumpc.com.

World's Toughest Phone from Land Rover

@angsuman just tweeted this. I followed the link and googled about it, what I found was VERY VERY IMPRESSIVE.

Ok so this phone is called S1 and is a result of collaboration between Land Rover and Sonim. During testing they ran over it with a Land Rover, submerged it in mud and had an elephant stand on it to test its durability. S1 also survived being roasted in an oven at 150 degrees centigrade, soaked in a pint of lager and tossed from the second floor of a building. No wonder they call it the ‘indestructible’ mobile device, which may sound very appealing to builders, workmen, adventure/outdoors enthusiasts and other people working in tough conditions.

Sonim manufactures ruggedized phones and have also launched a phone in collaboration with JCB earlier, its called JCB Tough Phone.

Some of the features of S1 are:
1. 1,500 hours of battery life.
2. 2.0 megapixel camera.
3. An extra loud ringtone to be heard overy sound of heavy machinery.
4. IP-67 International Protection certificate
5. GPS, Bluetooth, WAP, Opera Mini Browser
6. Torch
7. Extra-wide buttons, can be used wearing gloves.

Telegraph reports that - Tesco, who launch the phone today at a retail price of £249.99, are so confident it can't be broken that it comes with an unconditional 3 years guarantee. The S1 is available for £25 a month on a contract with Orange and is being sold exclusively by Tesco.

If you are a mobile developer like me, then you can take heart from the fact that Sonim has a Developer Portal as well, which enables you to register with them and download Java SDK complete with emulations tool to develop J2ME applications for their ruggedized phones.

Included below is a video featuring Land Rover S1 from TimesOnline.

Win a Windows Phone on Twitter

If you are already on Twitter, then its gr8. If you aren't then now there is one more reason to start tweeting. Now you can win a Windows Phone by using Twitter.

The contest is called Windows Phone Treasure Hunt and runs between 22nd June and 10th July. All you need to do is:

1. Start following @WPC09.

2. Keep an eye on updates. Questions aka missions will be posted as updates. Contains hint as well :-)

3. Respond via Tweet with your correct answer.

Remember you need to tweet in the exact format - @WPC09: Mission # , answer = . #windowsphone

This page contains full Rules and Regulations.

I am @palewar on Twitter and you are welcome to follow me as well, although I am not yet giving away any prizes on Twitter. Happy Tweeting :-)

PhoneBook 3G

I have been toying with idea of developing a phonebook application for sometime now. Here is what I think:

Location/Time-Zone Aware PhoneBook: Whenever I travel, I try to connect with people I know from that city. Contacts/PhoneBook app on my phone has address field as well, but there is no way to search contacts by city, country etc. I think if we can search our contacts by city, it will make things a lot easier.

Sometime before calling somebody I need to figure out their time because they are in different time-zone. If somehow I can see the time for a contact based on his time time-zone, then it will be easier to decide when to call him.

If we integrate PhoneBook with GPS/Maps, we can see our contacts on map and may even see contacts near your current location. There are apps which show your nearby friends on map, but haven't found any app which is integrated with your phonebook. Similarly city name stored with the contacts can be used to automatically derive time-zone and show user's time.  I just wonder why our inbuilt phonebook/contacts on mobiles don't support this already?

Other Possibilities:

I think this new PhoneBook can have enormous scope. It can be integrated with SocialNetworking sites like LinkedIn, FaceBook, Orkut etc so that your PhoneBook shows profile photos, updates from these sites as well. Some companies have already started doing this. PhoneBook 2.0 and INQ1 come to my mind immediately, though there are others as well.

I miss one more thing in the current PhoneBook, which is search contacts by their profession/company. I may know many lawyers, doctors but when I need one, I can't think of somebody immediately, so if phonebook contains company/profession info about my contacts and allow me to look-up all doctors or lawyers when needed, it will be cool.

PhoneBook is most basic but very helpful application on any mobile phone, but its probably being overlooked by most mobile handset/software companies. I think complete overhauling of existing PhoneBook application is required and RIM, Apple, Microsoft and Google can do a huge favour to all the mobile users by replacing existing PhoneBook apps in their respective mobile OS by what I would like to call PhoneBook 3G.

Best Mobile Handset

Mobile World Congress 09 is over and as expected there were lot of product and technology launches, you can read Marin Perez's post for a quick round up of the event. 

So I am not going to talk about MWC here, but I am going to talk about something which is equally exciting and that is a new mobile phone called INQ1. INQ1 won the award for Best Mobile Handset beating likes of Nokia E71 and T-Mobile G1.

INQ1 is first phone launched by a company called INQ. INQ likes to call its phone a Social Mobile as it has Skype, Facebook, Windows Messenger and Last FM built right in. For a test drive of this wonderful phone head right here. 

I think these phones will have a mass appeal not just because they are really great, I hear the pricing is equally great as well. You should be able to lay hands on these phones by shelling out just little over $100. Now that will really help in this recession  :-)

Before ending my post I would like to mention about very interesting approach to packaging of this phone.  In their own words they chose to turn its packaging into an object to cherish, not chuck, so an artistic illustration is what you find on the box cover. For more details about their ART connection click here.

To sum up they have got the concept right, have got the pricing right and have even got the packaging right. Oh my god - I really love this company.

Google for Windows Mobile

Google Mobile App started supporting Windows Mobile last week. It allows you to perform a google search right from your Today screen without need for opening a browser first. It also gives you quick access to other google applications like maps, reader, blogger, orkut, documents, calendar etc.

Google is regularly releasing applications for Windows Mobile platform. In the recent past it has released Google Latitude and Google Sync as well. Latitude allows you to see where your friends are on Google Map and Sync allows you to sync your phone contacts and calendar with Google. 

To check out all these cool Google applications for Windows Mobile click here. And to all the readers of this blog once again, you can contact me at- sachin AT palewar DOT com for any Windows Mobile software development requirement.

Pragati's brave fight with Cancer

I met Pragati in late 2003. Life really sucked back then. Though I was doing some freelancing software jobs, I didn't have a stable revenue source. I was not sure what will I do in my life. I didn't have many friends to talk to and used to feel lonely and depressed at times. Life was dull and boring. But then Pragati changed all that and very quickly as well.

All of a sudden my life started looking up, everything started looking rosy and bright. I was still not sure about what will I pursue as a profession, but I had a very strong support in Pragati. She became my close friend and soul-mate. After sometime professional life started looking up as well and we together founded our company. We got married in Feb 2006 and everything seemed to be perfect for us. We were blessed with a lovely baby girl in Nov. 2007 and everybody was happy. But my life was soon going to change forever again.

In early 2008, we found out that Pragati's cancer came back and in her lungs this time. She had a long history with this very rare form of cancer called Epithelioid Sarcoma, which started from her left toe. She was successfully operated for it in 2005 and we decided to forget about it and bury it in our past. Ofcourse we now realise that we were too childish and too optimistic about ourselves. Cancer does not leave you that easily. In hindsight I think it was good that we didn't think too much about it as it allowed us to get on with our lives and live happily with each other.

Year 2008 was spent in fighting with cancer and what a fight Pragati gave to that bloody cancer. It couldn't diminish her spirit in any way and that's why she so courageously planned secret B'day party for me with a chest drain hanging onto her and first chemo just over. She played and laughed a lot with our baby girl. When she had nothing else to do at home, she started reading and painting. 3 of her beautiful paintings hung on walls of our house will always remind of her. That was probably her way of giving a parting gift.

She was her usual charming and smiling self till her last day. Greeted everybody with her sweet smile whenever somebody visited her. She was unbelievably brave, positive and incredibly sweet and fun-loving even when cancer became really harsh for her. I can't probably sum-up in words her true spirit. I will always remain proud of her. She passed away on 1st of Jan 09 and I became a widower and a single father at the age of 30.

It was only due to Pragati, I understood what Love, Happiness, Success and birth really meant. Ironically now I have understood true meaning of sorrow, grief, failure and death due to her as well.

There is a tradition in my family where when you meet somebody for the first time after getting married or whenever there is an important function, you introduce your spouse using a couplet, which should contain his/her name in it. There are many popular and overused types, so when I got married I created an original myself. I thought it summed up what I really felt for Pragati. I will be not using that couplet anymore, so I am penning it down here on my blog for one last time. "सिसक रही थी जिन्दगी, उसको गति मिल गई, किस्मत मुस्कुराई और प्रगति मिल गई."

PS: You can add your name to my dedication to Pragati at Lanse Armstrong Foundation website.

Mobile RFID in India

Today Microsoft announced the general availability of its BizTalk RFID Mobile integration software, which it released in beta form in April. The software enables mobile computers and other devices that run either the Windows Mobile 5.0 or Windows CE 5.0 operating systems to integrate data directly into Microsoft's BizTalk server environment.

BizTalk RFID Mobile empowers businesses by giving their workers tools to make them more efficient and more productive," Microsoft senior product manager for application platform Paul Sanford told RFID Update. "We are seeing very diverse adoption, both by industry and size of company."

As an example, Sanford described how RiteCare, a pharmacy chain in India, used the beta version of BizTalk RFID Mobile to support its growing operations. The 10-store chain uses RFID to identify incoming shipments at its warehouse, cross dock shipments to stores when goods are needed quickly, and to manage warehouse inventory. Working with S3Edge, a Microsoft partner in India, RiteCare created an RFID system that went from pilot to production in just four weeks.

Source: http://www.rfidupdate.com/news/12082008.html

Free Group SMS and Google SMS Search

I am going to talk about 2 interesting but India specific Google offerings here. Although Indians don't SMS/text as much as they used to in good old days, there are reasons to chear courtesy Google. These 2 SMS services are called:

1. Google SMS Channels - Here you can create a Channel or SMS Group and all the subscribers will be getting the channel content by SMS for free. Now this Channel can pull content from Google News and Google groups so once you point your channel to any group or news, you will be getting new content automatically by SMS. Cool isn't it? But it does not end there - You can even pull content from your or any blogger powered blog or any RSS source, but the best part is that you can use the channel to send same SMS message to all your friends and contacts. You can just create a personal channel and invite all your contacts to it and when you post message to channel via web or by SMS it will reach everybody. So practically you can now send multiple SMSes at the cost of one sms or even for free if you use web option. Try now

2. Google SMS Search - Google SMS search is plain, simple and straight-forward like all things Google. You just need to send you search query as sms to Google India No.  9-77-33-00000 and they send you search results by sms immediately. I have tried it and it really works and here is one more Google advantage for you - since this is a normal 10 digit no and not a special no, probably you will be charged for sending only a normal sms, which is as low as 10 paise with some SMS plans. So probably Google is not looking to rip you off by having a special 4 or 5 digit no. 

BTW you can use Google search for many useful things beside search like - cricket scores, Indian Railways train schedules & ticket status, PNR, horoscopes, movie showtimes, restaurant information and more. For more info you can go here.

Oh I forgot to tell you, you can subscribe to my blog by SMS from here :-)

Chibu is 1 yr. old

I am so happy to see my little baby girl grow. She turned 1 this 24th.

Since my wife - Pragati is still bravely fighting a very rare form of cancer called Epithelioid Sarcoma, we didn't have a big party.

But our family and few close friends joined us at our home in celebrating her birthday. It was a really special day and we embraced this little happiness thrown our way after a long - long time with open arms.

She is really a blessing in our life, something which keeps both of us going in these tough times. We wish her all the happiness in life to come. 

In the picture on left you can see her opening gifts with a curoisity which only a child can posses. For more pics click here.

Mithun on TV

My younger brother, Mithun was on national TV for a small time recently. Included below is video from NDTV, top news channel of India. It basically reports how recent pirate attacks are not deterring new marine engineers from joining their duties on ships. My brother Mithun is one of them. For those who don't know him, his is the last interview by the correspondent in the video. 

Thumb Impression goes mobile

Just came across very interesting article in The Hindu Business Line which is a classic case of technology working at grassroot level.

This articles mentions how Micro Finance Institutions operating in rural areas of India are a using mobile application to authorise financial transactions for villagers.

This unique mobile application actually uses mobile camera for fingerprint recognition, really helpful for rural people who sometime lack basic ability to sign any kind of document and even if they can a finger print is always better then a signature as it can't be forged.

Nagpur among Best cities for IT-BPO growth

Rediff today carries a story about India's 15 best cities for IT-BPO growth. It mentions major cities like Mumbai, Pune, Chennai beside emerging cities like Nagpur, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Bhuvneshwar etc.

Rediff has this to say about Nagpur:

"Strategically located, Nagpur is the largest city in central India with excellent educational institutions that churn out a fine talent pool. The city's impressive infrastructure, new supporting governmental policies, an enabling and peaceful business environment, availability of a huge knowledge pool, etc have seen a number of IT firms setting up base here.

A proposed special economic zone that will house a major international cargo hub and also information technology companies will further boost the city's allure for IT firms.

At Rs 298,000, Nagpur is the 10th most prosperous city in terms of average annual household income in India."

I love my Nagpur.

Google Chrome: Not just another browser

Google released beta version of its open source web-browser last week. The browser is called Chrome and those interested in contributing to it or having a look at its code can head here.

First thing which I noticed in Chrome is that it is simple and straight-forward like most of other Google Products/Website. So there is no menu bar, no toolbar and tabs utilise conventional title bar area. All this leaves you with more browsing space, which I think is really innovative.

Chrome uses code from other browsers like Apple's Safari and Mozilla Firefox so you find many useful features from other browsers already present in Chrome. Chrome is loaded with many interesting and useful features like:

1. Floating tabs - You can drag and rearrenge tabs, convert tab into window and move tabs between multiple Chrome windows.
2. Tab does not crash Browser - Since tabs run in separate memory process of their own, if one tab crashes, it does not take the whole browser and other tabs down with it. What a relief :-)
3. Incognito Mode - If you don't want to leave trace of your browsing in history, cookies etc, you have the Incognito window to help you out.
4. Application Shortcuts - With the increasing use of many websites as applications, you can create their Shortcuts on your desktop so when you want to open them next time, you can just double-click on their icons and they will open like an application installed on your desktop. You need to try it to really understand how useful this feature is.

For a complete understanding of all the features please visit this link and to read Google's official reason on why they chose to do a browser, click here.

Lets talk about next Windows OS Version

Microsoft folks have started a new blog specially dedicated to next version of Windows OS or Windows 7. As par the welcome post on their blog -

The Engineering Windows 7 blog, or E7 for short is hosted by the two senior engineering managers for the Windows 7 product, Jon DeVaan and Steven Sinofsky. Jon and Steven, along with members of the engineering team will post, comment, and participate in this blog.

I appreciate opening of this two-way communication channel by Microsoft. Its interesting to know that over 1000 developers are working on next Windows version. They basically have 25 different teams and each team consists of around 40 developers.

They are openly inviting everybody to share their views, suggestions, complaints and needless to say that people have already posted comments saying how slow windows is and how often it crashes.

Microsoft has not disclosed much details about Windows 7 as of now, however some supposedly leaked screenshots of it are already doing the rounds, its also expected that next Windows will support iPhone like Multi-touch as well as Touch-feedback, a feature which vibrates screen or give feedback in any other form when you touch the screen.

If you are looking for genuine information about Windows 7, then MS has two significant events planned this fall. The Professional Developers Conference (PDC) on October 27 and the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) the following week.

Anyone for a Rs. 31000 ($750) iPhone?

I use Vodafone India as my mobile service provider and I have pre-registered for iPhone on their website a while back. Airtel and Vodafone start selling iPhone in India on 22nd August which is just 2 days from now.

I today got a sms and an email from Vodafone that my wait is over and I can deposit advance to get iPhone within a few days. However I almost dropped my existing phone (Treo 680) after reading the price for the iPhone. They want to make me poorer by Rs. 31000 for 8GB model and want a whopping Rs. 36100 for 16GB model. Is this some kind of joke???

Well I think they have managed to do an unthinkable here. A lot of rumours were doing round till today about the would be price for iPhone in India. Some guessed it to be around Rs. 8000, as that's how much an iPhone with contract costs in US. Some guessed it to be around Rs. 25000, but nobody thought that they will be beating all the expectations and sell the iPhone at such high prices. Well good luck to Apple, Vodafone and Airtel, but I am not going to buy iPhone for that price.

I also doubt that Airtel and Vodafone are going to sell unlocked iPhone in India, if they are then its defeats the purpose of selling iPhones via an operator. And if its a locked model then why don't they just bundle the phone with some service contract and subcidise the phone? I think a bundled but cheaper iPhone will be a win-win situation for everybody inclusing consumers, operators and manufacturer.

May be they are just trying to cash in on the hype and once the dust settles down, they are either going to lower the prices substantially or start offering cheaper iPhone bundled with a data/service plan.

I have been on Vodafone for 6 yrs. now and intend to stay on for a few more years to come, but I guess Vodafone is not much interested in keeping its loyal customer base intact by offering them yearly service contracts bundled with a cheaper iPhone. All said and done my wait for iPhone is still not over :-(