The Jungle of Borneo

This week's update : Zune Delivers Connected Music and Entertainment Experience

2006-09-17T22:12:00.000+08:00

“The digital music entertainment revolution is just beginning,” said J Allard, vice president, design and development, at Microsoft, who is leading the charge for building the family of Zune products. “With Zune, we are not simply delivering a portable device, we are introducing a new platform that helps bring artists closer to their audiences and helps people find new music and develop new social connections.”

The Zune software which is more like iTunes, is capable of importing unprotected WMA, MP3 and AAC audio files. Images would be stored in a JPEG format and for the device to handle videos these would need to be in one of three formats: WMV, MPEG-4 or MPEG-4 AVC (H.264). The software presupposed the presence of Windows XP SP2 and the availability of a broadband Internet connection, Microsoft stated. The company has announced three accessory packs: a "Zune Car Pack," which allows signals from the player to be transmitted to the car radio, a "Home A/V Pack" that will make it possible for the user to integrate his or her Zune with the TV set and music speakers at home and a "Travel Pack," for an on-the-road Zune experience.

Available this holiday season in the United States, Zune includes a 30GB digital media player, the Zune Marketplace music service and a foundation for an online community that will enable music fans to discover new music. The Zune device features wireless technology, a built-in FM tuner and a bright, 3-inch screen that allows users to not only show off music, pictures and video, but also to customize the experience with personal pictures or themes to truly make the device their own. Zune comes in three colors: black, brown and white.

Every Zune device creates an opportunity for connection. Wireless Zune-to-Zune sharing lets consumers spontaneously share full-length sample tracks of select songs, homemade recordings, playlists or pictures with friends between Zune devices. Listen to the full track of any song you receive up to three times over three days. If you like a song you hear and want to buy it, you can flag it right on your device and easily purchase it from the Zune Marketplace.
Zune makes it easy to find music you love — whether it’s songs in your existing library or new music from the Zune Marketplace. Easily import your existing music, pictures and videos in many popular formats and browse millions of songs on Zune Marketplace, where you can choose to purchase tracks individually or to buy a Zune Pass subscription to download as many songs as you want for a flat fee.

To get started with great music and videos out of the box, every Zune device is preloaded with content from record labels such as DTS, EMI Music’s Astralwerks Records and Virgin Records, Ninja Tune, Playlouderecordings, Quango Music Group, Sub Pop Records, and V2/Artemis Records.
Zune Accessories
To enhance the Zune experience, three accessory packs help Zune users enjoy their music where they want to, at home or on the road. The packs and the individual accessories, all designed exclusively for Zune, will be available at launch:
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The Zune Car Pack includes everything needed to hit the road with a Zune device, such as the built-in FM tuner with AutoSeek and the Zune Car Charger.
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The Zune Home A/V Pack enhances your experience in the home through five products that integrate Zune with the TV and music speakers: Zune AV Output Cable, Zune Dock, Zune Sync Cable, Zune AC Adapter and the Zune Wireless Remote for Zune Dock.
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Zune Travel Pack is a set of five products designed to keep friends and family entertained on the road: Zune Premium Earphones, Zune Dual Connect Remote, Zune Gear Bag, Zune Sync Cable and the Zune AC Adapter.

Providing consumers with additional options to customize and personalize their Zune experience, Microsoft is also working with leading accessory manufacturers Altec Lansing, Belkin Corp., Digital Lifestyle Outfitters (DLO), Dual Electronics, Griffin Technology, Harman Kardon and JBL, Integrated Mobile Electronics, Jamo International, Klipsch Audio Technologies, Logitech, Monster Cable Products Inc., Speck, Targus Group International Inc. and VAF Research.

More details

Look at this beauty...

2006-09-15T12:49:00.000+08:00

Zune Update!

2006-09-13T11:29:00.000+08:00

Here is the link to the Toshiba's submission to FCC for the proposed Zune audio player. Click Here

Bryan Lee, Corporate Vice President Entertainment and Devices Division, Microsoft, during Citigroup's Global Technology Conference in New York said "... We see this space as having the potential scale not of today's market, which sells 30, 40 million devices, but of something closer to the cell phone market, where you sell hundreds of millions of devices....As we've gone out and talked to consumers about Zune, we've asked them, 'Do you feel you have choice in the space?' and we get a resounding, 'Yes, we have a lot of choice -- you can get a Shuffle, a Nano, a video iPod.' ... Which just amplifies the challenge that we face."

He added, on the choice of Toshiba as manufacturer "...we knew that we needed some contract manufacturing, someone to help us. Much like with the Xbox business, we don't literally run the factories. ... We do a lot of the design. So we picked Toshiba. They brought experience in the space that we didn't have. They brought some of the foundational technology, but the device that you see will not look or feel or smell very much like the product that they've taken to market thus far." Courtesy : Source

Download everything from Microsoft without WGA Check!

2006-09-08T22:32:00.001+08:00

Another useful stuff to get rid of the Windows Genuine Check. If you want to download anything from Microsoft's site, it will do annoying Genuine check right? You can get rid of this now. Just follow the instructions in the following web page. I give this for learning purpose and not for commercial use!

Click here for the link!

Freeware Recommendations from ghacks.net

2006-09-08T22:32:00.000+08:00

I found this url list a very interesting one. All of these are freeware utilities you can download and use.

Click here for the link!

Tragic end to Steve Irwin's adventurous life...

2006-09-05T11:04:00.000+08:00

Shocked to see the news of Steve's death caused by Stingrays. Everytime we see these Stingrays, we thought they are one of less harmful creatures. But as a professional Steve would have known about this much and should have taken enough precautionery measures.

He sounds and looks too much of adventurous in the screen, people complains. But we should admit that that is the differentiator of his episodes with others. When we see him in the television, our mind thinks more about his safety and risk than the program's content. That is his success I believe.

There were few black spots in his career as well, when his pictures created a lot of furore in which he was feeding a crocodile while holding his one month old baby in the other hand. Although it looked really stupid for everyone almost, he tried convincing that he was in total control of the situation.

Our whole family used to sit and watch all his Croc Hunter episodes. We really loved his accent and famous phrases like "Crikey" etc. We are going to miss him a lot and for sure we would remember his quote...

"I have no fear of losing my life if I have to save a koala or a crocodile or a kangaroo or a snake, mate, I will save it..."

...for a moment when we switch to one of those TV channels he used to show up.

I also remember his another quote about MGM, the US based moviemakers :

"Crikey, mate. You're far safer dealing with crocodiles and western diamondback rattlesnakes than the executives and the producers and all those sharks in the big MGM building." Comparing dealing with deadly animals with show business..."

Our prayers to his wife Terrie and the kids Bob and Bindi.

Read More : Tail as 'deadly as a bayonet'

Video of the day...helicopter crash!

2006-09-03T21:53:00.001+08:00

Mobile phone/MP3 Player Lithium based battery explosions...How to avoid them?

2006-09-03T21:53:00.000+08:00

Thought good one to share with you all...courtesy hardwaresecrets.com

"To avoid explosions and to prolong Li-ion batteries usage, we’ve listed some warnings:
You can recharge a lithium-based battery frequently, but you shouldn’t recharge it more than it’s necessary. You use to recharge your cell phone for hours? Forget it!

If the device needs to be kept stored for a lengthy period of time, keep the battery in a cool place at 40% state-of-charge. The website http://www.batteryuniversity.com stated that a Li-ion battery stored for a year at 40% charge lose 4% of its permanent capacity, and one stored at 100% charge lose 20% of its capacity.
Keep your cell phone away from water, sand, dust and humidity. Short-circuiting can also explode your device.

If your handheld gets wet, remove the battery and let your cell phone dries before put it back.

Do not freeze the battery. When the battery gets warm again, it can be humid and cause damage to the battery’s circuit.

Do not place your cell phone in a hot car.

Do not carry your cell phone in your pocket.

Do not use plastic cases to protect your cell phone. They can overheat it.

Do not open the battery. Do not even try it!

Prefer original and authorized accessories and batteries.

Keep the battery away from metallic objects. It can short-circuit.

Lithium-based batteries are used not just in cell phones, but also in many kinds of electronic devices, such as MP3 players, digital cams and laptops.

If despite all these warnings your device gets overheated, contact technical assistance."

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/326

Functional Specification...What the heck is it?

2006-09-03T19:39:00.000+08:00

As usual, When I was looking for some information about writing Functional Specifications, I stumbled upon this nice article by http://www.joelonsoftware.com.

The part I liked most is the comparison between a project which is started without a FS and another project which is started with complete FS. Also, the author elaborated nicely about the advantages and benefits of writing FS from not just developer/project manager point of views, but as well from QA team, Documentation team, Marketing team, Managers and even Biz Dev people who are going to market that product!

The keyword is communication. If there is a cleanly written FS, it helps in many ways to communicate the information/details about the product well throughout the organisation!

some excerpts from the article...(Courtesy http://www.joelonsoftware.com )

....So that's giant reason number one to write a spec. Giant reason number two is to save time communicating. When you write a spec, you only have to communicate how the program is supposed to work once. Everybody on the team can just read the spec. The QA people read it so that they know how the program is supposed to work and they know what to test for. The marketing people use it to write their vague vaporware white papers to throw up on the web site about products that haven't been created yet. The business development people misread it to spin weird fantasies about how the product will cure baldness and warts and stuff, but it gets investors, so that's OK. The developers read it so that they know what code to write. The customers read it to make sure the developers are building a product that they would want to pay for. The technical writers read it and write a nice manual (that gets lost or thrown away, but that's a different story). The managers read it so that they can look like they know what's going on in management meetings. And so on....

When you don't have a spec, all this communication still happens, because it has to, but it happens ad hoc. The QA people fool around with the program willy-nilly, and when something looks odd, they go and interrupt the programmers yet again to ask them another stupid question about how the thing is supposed to work. Besides the fact that this ruins the programmers' productivity, the programmers tend to give the answer that corresponds to what they wrote in the code, rather than the "right answer." So the QA people are really testing the program against the program rather than the program against the design, which would be, um, a little bit more useful.

When you don't have a spec, what happens with the poor technical writers is the funniest (in a sad kind of way). Tech writers often don't have the political clout to interrupt programmers. In many companies, if tech writers get in the habit of interrupting programmers to ask how something is supposed to work, the programmers go to their managers and cry about how they can't get any work done because of these [expletive deleted] writers, and could they please keep them away, and the managers, trying to improve productivity, forbid the tech writers to waste any more of their precious programmers' time. You can always tell these companies, because the help files and the manuals don't give you any more information than you can figure out from the screen. When you see a message on a screen which says

Get your download from : http://www.inleadmedia.com/files/PainlessFunctionalSpecifications_34.doc

Happy Reading...

Flickr : Cool photos sharing site and more...

2006-08-28T18:51:00.000+08:00

Recently stumbled upon this site flickr. It is one of the coolest photos sharing site I have ever seen. You will feel like you are using a desktop application when you go into their website. They are heavily using the latest web technology, which was pioneered by Google, called Ajax (Asynchronous Javascript XML). Typing description or title for the photos are a breeze.

The layout is neat and simple. They also a desktop based downloader which does not just uploading but resizing, title and description addition etc. Really intelligent stuff.

You can create sets of photos. You can make them private - only for people you know or public - for everyone.

You can share these photos with your own website, if you have as a normal photos or Flash. The photo management section is really the best part of all. You can do batch edit of titles, descriptions, permission, rotation and few effects etc.

Sharing with your people is easy as well as you can maintain list of contacts or groups of contacts.

lastly, a third party website offers paid services to make the photos as DVD presentation etc...
and so many other features...just check out...and you will explore more... than I did...

Microsoft's Zune music player to be made by Toshiba!

2006-08-27T22:38:00.000+08:00

According to latest reports in FCC website, there is an indication that Microsoft's supposed-to-be Ipod killer Zune may be manufactured by Toshiba!

Thats a kind of mixed news! Toshiba is not doing well in its electronics and household products nowadays. I had a very bad experience with my Toshiba laptop and my home vaccum cleaner!!! Certain basic product quality standard was well below industry average when comparing with cheaper Korean brands. So, I am a bit worried now about the future of the player.

The only advantage is Toshiba is a kinda pioneer in its micro-hard drives. So, they will have the price advantage over others for sure. This is going to really impact the pricing of the players.

Fyi, Zune will be HDD based music/video player with wi-fi enabled.

Lets see what happens when the players will be available in the market which is around Christmas season this year!

Gudnite!
to

One more hacking incident!

2006-08-27T10:45:00.000+08:00

As I am an enthusiast about Chess and follows events locally and internationally, I wanted to find out the Chess competition being held in Indian capital New Delhi. Actually my nephew is also playing there and that is another important reason why I wanted to visit the website, www.delhichess.com. Shocked to see it is hacked by some disgusting people.

I'm not sure what they really want to gain by doing this! I was laughing myself and not sure who to blame...Technology is simple to learn nowadays especially doing things like hacking. Actually the fact is that you do not need to learn hacking. You just need to learn how to form some intelligent keywords and try searching for it in google kind of search engines. In few clicks you can start hacking! I'm not teaching hacking here but just sharing the thoughts!

Lets come back to the game. My nephew is just 13 years old and traveled to more places than me in a year or so. A month back went to Iran, then to Calcutta won the championship, then in a week went to Turkey for Chess Olympiad. Now he is in New Delhi. All those overseas trips are for representing India!!! Astonishing these kids...BTW I forgot to mention his name...B.Adhiban...

Thimiru My Review...!

2006-08-24T12:34:00.000+08:00

After the success of Run by Lingusamy/Madhavan combo, Thimiru is another movie in the same theme but with few strong surprises!

Vishal is lucky to get this and does his job with ease. But he has to do some homework on his facial expressions.

The story is simple: Heroin is in a trouble and as usual the hero makes his presence and saves her from the villain. The villain then targets the hero for the whole of the film and the climax is how the hero finally triumphs! Very often heard storyline right? But the director Darun Gopi's intelligence in narration and characterization does the trick! The villain is none other than Shreya Reddy, the tamil music channel VJ! Her dialogues are sometime disgusting but she has proved her skills and the director's as well! The dialogues in certain scenes are not so good to hear with the family around for sure, I warn you! Especially when she asks the father of Vishal that would not you like a "naattukattai" like me if you were young. Darun...you can try many other things to give her that kind cruel image...not this cheap...!

Reema has nothing to do except dancing for few songs...not even few scenes given to her where she can be romantic!

Music is another disappointment! Yuvan did not do well as he did in recent his continuous musical hits like Sandakozhi, Pattiyal and Azhakai Irukkirai...etc. None of the songs are really sounds good somehow...is it just for me? Yuvan, we expect a lot from you...We know you can do it!

There are so many good artists wastes, like Manoj K Jeyan, Banuchander etc. There are few characters like the handicapped assistant of Shreya who has done good work...

Camera is good as well as the action in the film. Overall the movie will be a hit for sure. The reason may be mainly because of the impact made by Shreya and her not before seen acting as Villain! But after the movie you can not avoid the feeling of finding some similarity with Sandakozhi...

I will give 40/100. Just managed to pass!

music and food...

2006-08-24T12:21:00.000+08:00

Its 12.17pm Singapore std time. Feeling hungry...nobody in the office...Obviously it is the lunch hour, so you do not see many people working still in a company (an oil & gas company) like this...as day by day the crude oil price goes up for various reasons!!!

Thought of publishing this before i go for lunch...

Listening to some good music thru my headphone...its serene experience...should be felt rather than heard or listened...The song is a Tamil movie soundtrack composed Ilaiyaraja (IR), my favorite music director from a Tamil movie Dhalapathy called "Sundari Kannaal Oru Sethi". I feel that I am really blessed of being able to live in the same time as that of IR so that I can appreciate the music feast he has been presenting to us people.

There is one more song, almost similar style of melodious and slow duet in Hey Raam which is kind of sounding to me more matured than this. Certain pieces are really mind blowing in that song especially the piano piece that repeats once in a while. Listen to it again to appreciate it...

See you Later with some more stuff soon!