I've been driving on Pune roads for the past 2 years and, I think I need this thing I'm talking about.

I need a setup which involves a decent and cheap web/video camera rigged up to a storage device which can be charged via the car USB. Ideally I am looking to record at least an hour worth of footage with the previous hour being over-written by the new one. Alternatively, a set up that can continue recording but store in segments of 8 minutes might also be nice.

I would like to see how I drive and, react to situations on the road. So, any suggestions ?

I have the funniest ISP. Instead of looking at mtr details provided via screenshots, they desire results from speedtest.net. Can anyone explain why they would want it that way ?

You must remember this 
A kiss is just a kiss, a sigh is just a sigh. 
The fundamental things apply 
As time goes by.

And when two lovers woo 
They still say, "I love you." 
On that you can rely 
No matter what the future brings 
As time goes by.

Most of us have a favorite project. Some have a set of favorites :) 

Nearly all the Free and Open Source (Software) Projects have a link on their site which describes how they would like to receive donations. This year, do remember to donate whatever you can or, feel appropriate, to your favorite FOS(S) Project. It isn't always about how much you donate - mostly it is about how it makes you a part of their continued development and, a part of the team. It always feels awesome !

And, encourage your friends to donate too.

I am watching the Inspector Morse TV Series again. And, I think I'll follow it up with the 1984 series of Sherlock Holmes (played by Jeremy Brett) and Agatha Christie's Poirot (played by David Suchet). These three perhaps represent a set of TV series which I actually waited eagerly for each week and was mighty upset if I did manage to miss one of the episodes. An interesting trait shared between the dramatization in all three are that they are narrative and dialogue driven. As opposed to the blow-them-up action oriented series which used to be telecast during the nascent days of Star Plus and so forth. And, since they did not come with sub-titles, it was an interesting exercise to focus very keenly on each scene lest some vital clue went unnoticed.

The portrayal of Sherlock Holmes by Jeremy Brett is of course one my favorites because at that point he probably represented a completely different way of acting it out - short, snappy and completely authentic in manners. It doesn't actually amaze me now that he maintained a meticulous file (check the Wikipedia page).

Come to think of it, I need to complete my viewing of Taken and, Space:Above and Beyond. I wonder how many folks remember that last one ;)

There are times when I feel that all I do is write about my sad and sometimes depressing experiences with various online retailers, service providers and so forth. But then these days I read so much around these themes on twitter and other blogs that I guess I've been fairly lucky in not having that amount of pain.

The recent situation with Airtel DTH is of course in that "too hilarious to pass up" domain.

Sometime around 19Nov2010 the reception at the house ended up being borked. I had a blank/black screen but could navigate through the Set Top Box options using the menu. The signal did return after half an hour but then again it went off for a while. I duly called in the customer care to ask for the reason and since they told that they'd look into it, I dropped a mail to the appropriate address. In a while I received a call from the Field/Service Engineer stating that the disruption was "due to a software upgrade required for the new Airtel logo and this would take around 4 days to get fixed" and, he "doesn't feel that it is required to visit the premises". The fun started from there.

The next day I received a call from the customer care stating that the engineer was unable to contact me. Since I had the number of the engineer stored, I called back and asked about this funny statement given that we did talk on the previous day. The gentleman was kind enough to listen to me and quickly disconnect. As this line of reasoning appeared funny to me, I wrote to the customer care again. This time I asked them to confirm the statement of the engineer and whether indeed it did not require a site visit. The response was via phone and was assured that they will get the engineer to visit.

As will be seen later, this resulted in a pattern - the engineer called up to say that such issues were being faced by random end-users and doesn't require a site visit to diagnose. In turn I receive a mail and phone saying the engineer wasn't unable to reach me. This strange thread of conversation continued for a couple of days till 22Nov2010. Thereafter the customer service mails stated that the engineer did visit the premises and found it locked. I am not surprised at that. With both of us having offices to attend, anyone planning to drop in on weekdays without a prior appointment might find the house locked. The fun was that this time a different engineer called up to suggest that if the problem continued I should feel free to demand a visit.

Guess what ? The customer care responds with the fact that the engineer was unable to contact me !

Having had enough of it, I copied the Nodal office on a mail. In turn I receive a call from a gentleman claiming to be Local Service Manager who said during the conversation that he "assumed that since I never had a problem I was not allowing the engineers to visit the premises". Since in my book this is more or less accusing the end customer of lying I wrote in a detail statement to the Nodal office. During the evening I receive a call from them saying that they would look into the matter and wanted to resolve the issue.

Sounds fair till now ?

I received an immediate follow up call from the customer care asking me to confirm that the issue was resolved since the on site engineer had updated "the internal system" with a sign-off from the customer.

As of today I am a bit puzzled:

• no one visit the premises
• the local service manager accuses me of lying
• the Nodal office promises a look
• the on site engineer updates the issue with a sign off from me citing satisfactory resolution

I find it definitely hilarious. Although I'd be grateful if anyone could point me out to an escalation path beyond the Nodal office for Airtel DTH. I'd like at least have someone tell me that they are sorry about creating this whole hierarchy of lies around an issue which might as well be something as trivial as a software upgrade.

This isn't about my credit card although I could perhaps moan and wail at the recent bills. But that's for another day. This is about the infrequent news articles I read about the GoI planning to replace the existing currency notes with a much improved 'plastic' ones. I am aghast at what they could do to my wallet.

There are wallets and, then there are wallets. Some are organized with the notes arranged in an order by the denominations, all properly smooth and helping these currency notes lead a longer life. Then there are wallets which are stuffed to the gills with all sort of papers, tickets, coupons interleaved with currency notes. And, then there is my wallet - currency notes randomly folded and kept together precisely as I received them as change. The benefit of this system is that I can see a bill fold and recall the transaction I made. The downsides are that I am always unable to figure out the exact change I am carrying and, the notes take a hit. Most notes end up having a nice split down the middle and with the current state of 10 and 20 rupee notes in circulation, more often than not I end up having to add them to my collection of 'notes in need of repair'.

The introduction of 'plastic' notes would probably get me to change my habits of keeping aside 15 minutes a week to clean the wallet of the cruft and, put the notes back in some order. Small stuff but it is going to take some getting used to.

With my phone hardware refresh cycle coming up I am looking out for an Android device.

Currently I am using an e71 and while it has been an excellent handset - rugged (it has survived falls from around three and a half feet on to concrete and emerged without a scratch, has fallen with the screen hitting the floor and didn't even blink and once it has dropped from my pocket on to gravel and bounced about a bit), good battery life (although I've read about folks talking about the battery life it hasn't caused my much grief) and, nicely balanced it is beginning to be a bit long in the tooth. That and the atrocity that is the Ovi app store convinces me to not have a Symbian device.

The predominant use of the handset has been in:

• checking email (both corp and Gmail)
• synchronizing calendars (both corp and personal)
• browsing (mainly using Opera Mobile)
• IM (Mundu IM provides me enough to get online and they responded to the issue I had - big yay ! there)
• shell login (putty works nicely)
• social networking (primarily Gravity and sometimes Snaptu)
• miscellaneous stuff (viz. Skype, Podcasts, Internet Radio, bit of photography and some bookmarking)

So, while I need to keep the above in mind, I am kind of looking forward to moving to a touch-screen based experience rather than menu based one. And, I need a better set of apps (and perhaps a better App Store).

Which brings us to the meat of this post - what are the Android devices that are coming up in the next 4 months which I should be looking forward to ? And, they should be Android 2.2 based (not the 2.1 or, lesser upgrade to 2.2 path for me). Of course once I've decided on a device the next step would be to figure whether there is an RSA soft token available for it. The lack of it could be the reason to choose another path.

Furious activity is no substitute for understanding. 

- H H Williams

Unstoppable (link has spoilers) is a reasonably well executed film. And although it is "inspired by true events" the watchable nature of the movie originates from having a well edited package that doesn't rely too heavily on sappy moments or, bet-the-farm on hugely adrenaline rush moments. Denzel Washington is, Denzel Washington - competent as always. Although I have a sneaky feeling that his mannerisms and twitches are becoming a bit more familiar (was it because I watched Taking of Pelham 123  recently ?). Rosario Dawson was a good choice as was probably Chris Pine.

And, yesterday I watched Baran. What a wonderful movie it is. I waiting to watch The Band's Visit again. It is a must watch if you have never watched it.