Babu-dom is on the decline August 15, 2009
Posted by lotusknots in Uncategorized.Tags: Bangalore, Civic, Traffic
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Yes for sure. How do you realise it? When a police constable can stand up against a car with the government board when it tries to break the traffic rule, thats progress.
At the busy intersection of Koramangala and Inner Ring Road, a car with the sign of superiority – An Ambassador with the green board indicating a Karnataka Govt Official was trying to take a right where there was a no right turn allowed board in peak traffic. I guess it took the constable on duty a bit of courage to ask him to follow the traffic and take a U-turn at the next light. Whilst the babu (official) was insisting on turning, I did my bit by honking behind him so that the pressure was on. Of course what was he expecting, it was rush hour!
Of recent the Bangalore Traffic Police has been tremendous. Redlight jumps are fined and thanks to Praveen Sood the commissioner, chances for corruption are less as well. The adoption of Blackberry’s and insta fines lessen the chances of corruption and also gives better accessible records for the cop. Yes of course he can still take an offline fine, but with major intersections coming up with cameras it will be more difficult for them.
YTRIA – EZ Tools November 30, 2008
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Not sure how many of us use YTRIA EZ Suite of tools. Most Lotus Notes folks would swear by TeamStudio for sure, but YTRIA was a real pleasant discovery for me.
I was once faced with the dilema of “critical” information being lost. Read that as the highest security classification they had for it. We searched high and low in the application database and no trace could be found.
A quick search on this revealed YTRIA and the promise to unlock documents that you did not have READER rights to. Whoa..how is this possible thought I. But then decided to give it a shot. Much to my surprise with Manager access to the application, I could easily locate the missing document in YTRIA! The READERS field had gone corrupted due to improper coding. The developer had the field appending values every time the save was done and redundant values were being stored over and over until it reached the tipping point.
While my free copy did not allow recovery, I was quite amazed by the fact and even recommended this to the client. However, we failed short of recovering the document because it was not available on the standard tool list.
This tool is well worth the money spent and I would say should be in the armory for any Lotus Notes developer. YTRIA is the magic wand that can help you throw some pleasant surprises for your consumers!
Usability: An accelerator for alzheimers? November 28, 2008
Posted by lotusknots in Uncategorized.Tags: Alzheimers, Usability Engineering
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I was trying to use the restroom at my clients office the other day and it always confuses me. They have two buildings and the orientation of the men’s / women’s are exactly the opposite in them. This leaves many folks confused and tickles the brain before you enter the rest room. Everyone especially like me, who has to be mobile between the two buildings; has to pause a moment and think “Am I going to the right one?”.
I am a big fan of usability and I drive my team to create applications that are “user friendly”, trying to provide consistent interfaces, actions etc. But in this pursuit have we gone a bit too far? So far that while doing many things we do not have to use the brain but rather our trained muscles that go at the flick? Of course some part of the brain is being used but not something that would cause a significant activity.
Imagine you entering a Toyota or a Honda or a Ford. Consistent placements of controls leave nothing for you to get accustomed to. Or applications/websites that are consistent in their UI and placement of actions or even icons associated with them. These were all refined with much research into human behavior, but have we gone a bit too far? The human brain needs to be constantly tickled or else it degenerates and results in unfortunate situations like Alzheimers.
Should we take a step back and ensure that we take this step away from consistency and devise systems/products that are bound to make people think?
I even heard of a situation where some guy in India got his lips and tongue burnt by taking water from the filter tap that was colored red and equipped with a step switch. Subsequently the faciilities team had to ensure that all machines were then marked as HOT/COLD inspite of the color combination and deterrent step switch.
Would it help us in the battle against diseases like Alzheimers and develop a calculated mayhem in applications, so that our fellow beings have their cognitive skills going for a longer period?
iPhone-Stop cribbing start experiencing November 2, 2008
Posted by lotusknots in Uncategorized.1 comment so far
Finally after many months of deliberation and evaluation of reviews, I finally decided to take the jump. Now I am also into the iPhone club. Many a sites and reviews exist on the iPhone but let me try to address some issues why people think it is not a so cool device.
1. The buying process
About six months ago I was about to take the plunge to an iPhone but my friend said wait for 3G launch in July 08. Not wanting to end up with an obsolete technology, I wait patiently and by then many an imitator also launches to the market.
And while deliberating the serious contender was the BlackBerry Storm. To me, it was not important to have business features. I needed an internet communication device with entertaintment features and phone capabilities. The Storm was bulkier and the browser in Storm was not commented to be as good as Safari. And I had a chance to use my colleagues LG Touchphone which was a far cry from the iPhone. They did have a touch phone but there ended the similarity. That tilted it and I shot the note to my ATT account manager.
2. The email from a relative
My relative got an email from a friend (whom I seriously think is a friend of a friend or a forwarded note) stating umpteen reasons why the iPhone is crap and Apple is evil. I could not help but respond to such a note about a company that is all about innovation and revolutionary products (otherwise I feign a deaf ear to such notes). As my friend in Apple Valley said..the only thing he now regrets is not buying Apple shares when Steve Jobs took the reigns.
Ok here were some of the items on the list
No AD2P…..Blak…Thats A2DP (Advanced Audio Distribution Profile) that allows stereo transmission on Bluetooth. From the posts I read, it is definitely supported by the hardware, just that the software is not yet in place. Or you can do after market dongles to help you “stereo” your bluetooth world.
Can’t share files via bluetooth.
Well this device is way ahead of the conventional phones. How many times do you use Bluetooth on your laptop to share files other than to your mobile. This devices opens up the internet and possibilities are endless. Why restrict yourself? Sorry..maybe other phones are not there in this space yet and they need the bluetooth. To me the future seems to be mobile devices connected to the internet and exchanging stuff much like P2P connections or like your chat software.
No copy paste
Again something that can be easily done by software and demonstrated by applications that were killed by Apple. anyways its coming to you soon <http://www.intomobile.com/2008/07/25/iphone-copy-paste-hiding-right-under-our-noses.html> Just a software upgrade aware (Not an expensive hardware upgrade)
The icing was the resistance to iTunes. In a market where piracy is rampant, Apple had found an excellent way to do Digital Rights Management and I am not complaining. Would you like someone to steal your music or copyrighted software?
And so on goes many items which I do not want to elaborate. The key here is that most of them are all a software upgrade away and not an expensive hardware upgrade.
This device is way ahead of its time and in this googlized world as long as you have a device to connect to the internet and a browser that can serve its content well; everything is just an upgrade away as we apply more and more open standards to the web.
Viva la iPhone! (Err…I am having a hard time deciding on the type of case I would like for it)
Alvin and the Chipmunks April 20, 2008
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Part of my TGIF routine, is to stop by the local RedBox and pick up a couple of movies. Yeah, two movies over a night, its kind of a pressure. But anyone who raised a 5 year old should be able to correlate. The challenge is not find what we can watch but what my Lil Brat needs to see. And choosing a good one from the Disney/Pixar/Dreamworks kinda pack is a challenge as we have to sit through it too.
This weekend I was lucky as I found Alvin and the Chipmunks to be available easily. Normally I book it on their website before pickup. Its a good family watch and entertains you all around. Do not expect a Cars or Nemo, but I guess such kids movies are like kids themselves. Each “movie” is special.
But the best part I of it that made me write this is a part that I have experienced in real life. In one of the scenes Jason Lee a.k.a Dave Seville is woken up to the tunes of Sponge Bob Square Pants ….Whooooo lives in a pineapple, under the sea! while the chipmunks entertain themselves. My wife and I could not help laughing at each other as any lazy Saturday and Sunday morning (when we try to sleep into 9AM) are broken by the same tunes.
And today, since she woke me up a tad bit late for our hike onto Camelback; we slumbered again only to be woken up to…
Well, if you were looking for a review, I would say its nice, cute and neat. Kids should love it. But as adults we might beg to differ. It definitely is not the best but is a good watch as family time.
Next big thing that I look to is WALL.E, Pixar has a reputation to exceed!
Allo Monde September 29, 2007
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Leapfroggin into here.
Its been a while that I have been toying with this idea. But frankly between serving my client, employer and tending to my family I never could find time.
Guess a man’s gotta make some time when he has to make it. I hope I will be able to serve justly in the blogging arena.
