Things I KNOW

UP (2009), the PIXAR movie

November 1, 2009

Movies teach us precious things. I doubt if it was the fine weather in Lahore on 1st November or the fullness of a lavish breakfast brought by my father from Capri (the restaurant) in the shape of Halwa Puri with Meethi (sweet) Puri and Mutton Katchuri that made this marvelous piece of animation made by PIXAR come into life.

Human life is full of wondrous possibilities and momentous but hard to transpire priceless joys. Try to live every moment of it and make most out of the challenges thrown out to test your vigor. Mankind has been bestowed upon by a unique force called emotional drive which if steered in the right direction can lead to a happy, joyful life for everyone. Learn to live life for others too.

Anyhow, PIXAR has very effectively created a life like movie out of the inert animated characters in this instance. The cinematic emotional strength of this movie stands almost at par with another movie titled “BICENTENNIAL MAN” for me. I strongly recommend watching these two movies and reading a famous novel “The Alchemist” for people trying to learn the true meaning a.ka. soul of this world.

Is Baitullah Mehsud dead? Is it official yet?

August 7, 2009

I am afraid we won't be able to confirm this very soon as not very surprisingly the govt. of Pakistan has no established writ in that very area of Baitullah's stronghold. I wonder if the credit of his death will be taken by Mr. Rehman Malik or not. I am afraid that with this aerial attack our govt. has reached on the threshold of declaring the responsibility of not this but all drone attacks.

I doubt if this will bring an end to the long strain of seemingly desperate unending suicidal attacks in my homeland Pakistan.

What is taking so long to confirm his death?

(i heard it on TV) TTP (Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan) and the Government of Pakistan (unofficial) have confirmed his death already.

Anyhow, another mysterious chapter in Pakistan's history has come to an end. I wonder what would now happen to the Benazir Bhutto's Murder Case which is being probed by the United Nations nowadays, as Gen. (Retd.) Pervez Musharaf's regime nominated rather accused him (Baitullah) of masterminding the suicide attack of 27^th December which claimed the life of one of the best spokeswoman of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto.

I am afraid the new so-called Taliban leader would also be faceless.

This footage symbolizes a lot for the Muslims of Pakistan. Apparently suicide bombings in Pakistan have not come to an end yet.

word AMBULANCE in reverse, why?

May 23, 2009

One must have questioned to oneself at least why the word AMBULANCE is written in reverse / backwards on medic automobiles?

The answer to this is fairly plain.

It is made to appear in this way so that the drivers see and recognize the word (AMBULANCE) right way around in their rear view mirrors and give way to it preferably to save valuable moments for someone not feeling very well.

Note: mspaint.exe of Windows XP can generate HORIZONTAL FLIPPING of any text but the results can be saved and used in image formats only.

NIMBUZZ, FRING, Skype and TiVi woo Internet Telephony on Nokia E63; VoIP

April 22, 2009

NIMBUZZ, FRING, SKYPE have surfaced no brainer solutions of VoIP targeting the emerging mass market of symbian operated business phone users in the recent times.

Each of the above mentioned software packages are bundled with solutions aiming the rather simpler demands of a cellular phone user who requires casual voice chats with buddies online in any part of this world to create an escape from the bitter realities being delivered right on the office desk.

I was introduced to this extravagance with the recent up gradation of my cellular device in shape of a Nokia E63 during an informal examination of conveniences offered with this device. In fact the idea of installing a voice chat client in E63 came to my mind while I was googling for text chat clients on the bundled internet browser. A quick search on the default search application of E63 revealed FRING on the Nokia website. The name of this colossal cellular phone maker nearly constrained me to install this application hastily. This installation was followed by the ones of SKYPE, TIVI and NIMBUZZ.

The best thing about all the above mentioned softwares is the clear advantage of easier registration procedure requiring a username, password and occasionally the cell number in operation on the device. Moreover, this can all be accomplished right through any WAP enabled GPRS / EDGE / 3G / WiFi cellular device like a Nokia E63.

Anyhow, a comprehensive list containing the names of IM Services compatible with these clients is being tabulated as under.

Chat Clients for Nokia E63

NIMBUZZ

Skype®, MSN Messenger®, Google Talk™, ICQ, SIP, Twitter 2.0, Yahoo!™, AIM®, Orkut, Facebook, Gmail Notifier, Yandex.mail, WeFi, Last.fm, MySpace, studiVZ / meinVZ, schulerVZ, Gadu-Gadu, Giovani, Hyves

FRING

Skype®, MSN Messenger®, Google Talk™, ICQ [No Voice Chat], SIP, Twitter 2.0, Yahoo!™ [No Voice Chat], AIM® [No Voice Chat], Orkut, Facebook, Gmail Notifier, Yandex.mail, WeFi, Last.fm

Skype

Free calls, video calls and instant messaging over the internet. Plus great value calls to phones anywhere in the world.

TiVi

TiVi Phone's mobile version is a VoIP application that works on 3G, Wi-Fi, UMTS and GPRS-enabled wireless networks. It delivers voice conversations and real-time video streaming for users of the newest mobile devices on the market

Summary

I have not touched pure VoIP aka SIP services in this article.

NIMBUZZ, FRING and Skype are good for kick starting Voice Chat from any WiFi or preferably EDGE enabled cellular device by interacting with the existing list of users on MSN Live Messenger and Google Talk chat client etc.

NIMBUZZ demands ample time to load the contacts of compatible services for each start up but it has a slightly well formed interface when compared to FRING.

FRING starts up speedily but lacks fully optimized graphic intensive interface.

TiVi has not yet worked on my E63 for some unfamiliar reasons and that's why I have not yet experienced the much hyped Video Chat aspect of this service which it boasts to stream through WiFi / EDGE or some other network facility turning an ordinary chat into a Live Video Chat.

I am planning to uninstall FRING and TiVi.

E63 vs K500i; comparing apples to oranges

April 12, 2009

It is entirely unreasonable to compare these two cellular devices of technological eras that are poles apart and targeting an altogether different user base but let's do it for the betterment of minority who are still not there.

E63 happens to be a phenomenal upgrade over an ageing K500i for me. It boasts a full QWERTY keypad, Office Applications, PDF reader, Push Email support, microSD card slot supporting up to 8GB, a decent music player with 3.5mm audio jack, a movie player that scopes 16 million colors on its 2.36 inch landscaped TFT screen, EDGE and most interestingly WIFI on a Symbian platform that also supports free proprietary applications like Opera Mini, Windows Live Messenger, Youtube and Facebook available online. It also features a 2 megapixel fixed focus camera for taking occasional snaps.

It lacks a standalone GPS chip but who cares. This deficit has not compelled me at least to spend an extra Rs. 10k to go for its elder brother tagged E71.

		Nokia E63	Sony Ericsson K500i
General	2G Network	GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900	GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
	3G Network	UMTS 900 / 2100	X
	Announced	2008, November	2004, 3Q
Size	Dimensions	113 x 59 x 13 mm	102 x 46 x 14 mm
Size	Weight	126 g	80 g
Display	Type	TFT, 16M colors	TFT, 65K colors
	Size	320 x 240 pixels, 2.36 inches	128 x 160 pixels, 1.9 inches
		- Full QWERTY keyboard -	X
	Speakerphone	Yes	X
Memory	Phonebook	Practically unlimited entries and fields, Photo call	8 fields, 510 items, Photo call
	Call records	Detailed, max 30 days	30 received, dialed and missed calls
	Internal	120 MB	12 MB
	Card slot	microSD (TransFlash), up to 8GB, hot swap, buy memory	X
Data	GPRS	Class 32, 100 kbps	Class 10, 32 - 48 kbps
	HSCSD	Yes	X
	EDGE	Class 32, 296 kbps	X
	3G	Yes, 384 kbps	X
	WLAN	Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g	X
	Bluetooth	Yes, v2.0 with A2DP	X
	Infrared port	No	Yes
	USB	Yes, v2.0 microUSB	X
Camera	Primary	1600x1200 pixels, LED flash	VGA, 640x480 pixels
	Features	Video calling	X
	Video	Yes, QVGA@15fps	Yes
Features	OS	Symbian OS 9.2, Series 60 v3.1 UI	X
	CPU	ARM 11 369 MHz processor	X
	Radio	FM radio; Visual radio	X
Battery		Standard battery, Li-Po 1500 mAh (BP-4L)	Standard battery, Li-Ion
	Stand-by	Up to 432 h (2G) / 480 h (3G)	Up to 300 h
	Talk time	Up to 11 h (2G) / 4 h 40 min (3G)	Up to 7 h
	Music play	Up to 18 h	X

Syncing contacts between Sony Ericsson K500i and Nokia E63

April 5, 2009

At last I decided to retire the antiquating K500i and picked a novel trend in the field of mobile phone technology a.k.a. a Smartphone in the shape of a Nokia E63 for my entire cellular needs.

The changeover of was swift as it only required relocation of the SIM card from K500i to E63.

Synchronizing Contacts amid K500i and E63 felt tricky in the first place, the reason being lack of through communication link between the said mobile phones.

K500i has only infrared port whereas E63 boasts WiFi and Bluetooth.

Google has established it's convenience in similar state of affairs earlier that's why I resorted to it yet again. Search results brought out free synchronizing services like mobyko.com and zyb.com which offer retention of IMEI, Contacts, Text and Image data on online servers for reclamation in case of theft of the cellular device, a common phenomenon in Pakistan at least.

Anyhow I opted for mobyko.com which forwarded a text message containing synchronization server settings to my K500i after going through a fairly quick registration procedure for the said phone. I was rather surprised to see Pakistan in the list of countries along with local operators like Mobilink, Ufone, Telenor, Warid, Zong etc on mobyko.com. Installation methodology for the settings received was very much similar to the one we have witnessed at the beginning of WAP era in Pakistan for installation of WAP, MMS and INTERNET settings.

For the rest I used the 3-step guide provided by mobyko.com and copied all my contacts from K500i to the online servers of the said free service by using synchronization utility now available on my cellular device. Keep in mind that this cannot be accomplished without using WAP services of Ufone.

Now in order to copy the online contacts to my E63 I changed my Mobile Phone in the settings section of mobyko.com and shifted the Ufone SIM to my E63. Certain settings were again pushed towards my E63 which were then installed using the previously mentioned 3-step guide of the said website. After getting the installation work done I headed towards the synchronization section and completed the process through employing the WiFi service of my E63.

That's it.