Sourabh’s blog

This one’s special. I’ve long wanted to have a super-small laptop which I can carry around with me in college everyday. The normal laptops, though portable, are still bulky and it took me some time to realize that they just can’t be carried everyday in my backpack.

But the new Eee PC from ASUS is different. I’ve been travelling for the last couple of days and this thing has come in very handy. Ofcourse, the Reliance datacard played its role. Some may call the Eee PC under-powered, some may even crib about its miniature 7″ 800×480 display, but I found it to be just perfect for some on-the-move computing and even blogging! This blogpost is teh proof. (more…)

Okay, let me begin this by admitting that there was no real need to get this for my personal use. It wasn’t so long ago that I got a Dell Inspiron 640m as my main PC. I had absolutely no problems with it after upgrading the RAM to 3GB. But as it turns out, I was was being very opportunistic and offered dad (who btw needed a new laptop for his use) to take my Inspiron 640m. And I got a reason to buy a new laptop. Win-win deal, right? Yeah, I thought so too.

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Hey you, check out my new laptop. It definitely looks better than yours!

Nevermind the LQ pics and poor PhotoShop work. I’m really pressed for time right now. Will update this space with other details and description if I feel the need.

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I think I may have dropped the phone (accidentally) during a good nap on my commute back home from college. Apart from the pain of losing some of your old, non-regular contacts, it feels nothing. As a matter of fact, I am happy to live a few days without the annoyance of the same. Getting back the old number on a new handset would turn out to be quite a task since I am taking about Reliance CDMA here. The handset which I lost was an old one having no RUIM (SIM card), so not sure what the actual procedure is.

I guess, I will have to do a bit of research for CDMA handsets. More of them are poor in battery life with complete lack of features.

Last 30 odd days have been real busy. So many things to look forward to, so many things to do, so many ideas exploding in my brain and so many people to be in touch with. All this sometimes makes me go insane, but I live to fight another day or think it never happened.

It’s funny actually. While Intel is busy presenting _new_ stuff at IDF, AMD is mocking them on YouTube.

Watch these videos for the real thing:

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Okay, I won’t quote the entire song. I was just dying to use it once after listening to it first on a CSI episode.

Getting back to the topic of this post:

Couldn’t have asked for a better day after the exams. Bunked college, slept like crazy for 10 hrs in the day. Got up, did my rounds of browsing the internet for interesting stuff and news. A very long day in that.

The India-England 6th ODI went right down to the wire. Sachin played true to his real self. Robin Utthapa somehow managed to play some cheeky shots and won the game for India. I don’t think anyone else in the Indian team would have pulled 20-odd runs from 15 balls. Not even Dhoni. So, that was some time well spent watching cricket on TV.

Between cricket and surfing, I got linked back here on sourabh.net from engadget for tipping them on a news. For the Lenovo ThinkPad Reserve Edition. Actually, I wanted to get it linked back to LaptopLogic, but the Engadget news editors had something else in mind. So, they linked the source to some PR agency. We had recieved the news directly from Lenovo (agreed to embargo). So, well, the backlink, got a lot of hits for my blog. Feels nice! But the original aim of tipping Engadget was not achieved. So, I kinda feel bad for it. It wasn’t in my hands.. so, I guess nothing can be done about it.

The Apple Special Event was a 10/10 on the excitement scale. Honestly, the most kick-ass ever within the last couple of years that I’m tracking them. Most of the stuff which were announced are some real VFM. The new 4GB Nano or the 80GB iPod classic would be my choice of PMP at the US price. Conversion in rupees when it’s launched here will make me change my decision. I know. I don’t think this will ever change. Greed, taxes or just inflation (is that the right word?)..whatever be the reason behind it.

A few days back I expressed my love for Kubrick as my personal preferred choice of Wordpress theme. Out-of-nowhere, some coders have started expressing similar affection for it by rolling out modded themes similar to it. The good ones. There’s a three-column Kubrick and Kubrick with some good AJAX abilities. Will give them a try later this weekend.

So, that’s just about it. Couple of hectic days ahead at college and then the much needed weekend.

iPhone is the most expensive phone known to me. I’ve never been into cellphones and iPhone is something which I don’t really care about. For those interested, here is something you’d be interested in.

India to Get Unlocked iPhones via the Gray Market

If you’re poking around the city of Mumbai, you may be able to enjoy the Apple iPhone sooner than the official launch in the area next year. It seems that the gray market has completely opened up shop, providing celebrities and other well-to-do folks with unlocked Apple cell phones, but it’ll cost them a premium, of course.

I’ve seen unlocked iPhones already showing up at online stores in Canada and the United States, so I don’t see why they can’t do the exact same thing and ship the glossy musical handsets across the pond. Naturally, users in India may not get the full functionality of the iPhone, because many of the features may be AT&T specific, like visual voicemail.

Gray market dealers are offering to SIM unlock the iPhone for as little as Rs 1,000 (US$25), but that’s assuming that you can get your hands on an iPhone in the first place. Alternatively, they are also selling pre-unlocked units for Rs 30,000 (US$700). That’s for the 4-gigger.

Source

If this is indeed true, I may get lucky to see the iPhone in person very soon.

Yes, in India.

Go here

ALERT: As custom department systems are under upgrade, there might be a further delay of 7-10 days on this order which is beyond our control.

Before I’m too late to mention this here, let me do the needful. It has been exactly a month, since the Acer laptop died on me. After some frustrating weeks to find the best deal in the market, I’ve finally decided and ordered the Dell Inspiron 640m notebook. So far the Dell experience has been nice with minimum of fuss but the 15-days wait to get the laptop at your doorstep hurts. Really. The wait kills and I’m just beginning to experience it first hand.

I will try not to get into the specifics of the new laptop. I decided to go in for Dell because it offers 3 years on-site warranty. I really want this shit to last 3 years. I really do. I hope it does. It better does, otherwise 1800-425-4006 is just a call away. So, here are THE specs:

Dell Inspiron 640m

14.1-inch WXGA+ Screen (1440×900 resolution)
Intel T2350 Core Duo Processor 1.86GHz
80GB 7200rpm HDD
8x DVD Writer
512MB DDR2 667MHz RAM
… and the usual
DOS
3-year warranty

I’m really excited about the 1440×900 resolution screen in the 14-inch wide display! In other things, would get another gigabyte of RAM loaded on the notebook after a few weeks. Finding the DOS option on Dell systems was quite a task. It saves a lot of my dad’s money and gives me the convenience. The convenience of not to format the hard drive, not to be stuck to the OS they give and more importantly not to waste time. Dell is known to offer good amount of bloatware with their systems, so that is another reason.

I’m happy with it. That is what matters in the end. Just hoping that something doesn’t crop up and screw the plans. Until, I get the laptop on my desk - the laptop pic stays in X-ray vision….lol

Edit: I knew there was something missing to be mentioned. Damage - 43k INR