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April 2009 - Posts
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Few weeks back I decided to repave my Laptop (Macbook
Air) and go with Windows 7 Build 7000 (yes I know in few weeks we will have RC
:-) ). After fixing few issues with drivers and boot camp, I am overall happy. Occasionally
Windows doesn't shut-down gracefully, when it happens you got to force switch-off
(which in MBA means holding the power off button for few seconds till you hear a POP
sound).
The basic installation of the OS (Windows 7) is similar to doing it for Vista using
Boot Camp. You start with Apple Boot Camp CD 1 and proceed from there. My installation
was dual-boot configuration - having both Mac OS and Windows 7. Once Windows is installed
, you continue with the devices installation which can be a little tricky. Below are
few issues I faced before I could get everything working fine.
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In Mac OS, you can select one of the OS to boot into after a restart. Unfortunately
Mac OS didn't show the Windows 7 installation. Nothing to sweat. When you switch ON
your machine you need to keep holding Alt (option) key till you the
see the boot options. Here you can select Windows 7.
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In Windows 7, initially for some reasons Boot Camp icon didn't show
up in System tray. I had to run it from C:\Program Files\Boot Camp\kbdmgr.exe.
I found it useful to update all Apple software then it seems to have got fixed.
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Audio (Sound card) didn't get its driver installed correctly. MBA
has a Realtek HD Audio, so I went to Realtek site and downloaded the latest Vista
driver (R 2.22) from
here or here.
The site is designed a little counter-intuitive so be patient.
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If some devices like in-built Camera didn't get installed correctly, go to device
manager, update driver and point to the BootCamp CD.
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I have a HP Photosmart C6288 Printer (part of HP Photosmart C6100
series). The default setup from HP will fail to install as it couldn't find either
Windows XP or Vista. To fix this, right-click on the setup program (AIO_CDA_Full_Network_enu.exe).
Then use the "Troubleshoot Compatibility" option or select properties and the compatibility tab:
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Set the compatibility mode to Windows Vista
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Set the privilege level to "Run this program as an administrator"
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I have a Tata
Indicom Plug2Surf USB data card. To install this, first time when you run the
setup, Run it as Administrator. Even then when you run the application it
will not detect the modem. You will need to ignore the application and create yourself
(manually) a dial-up network connection. Customize and follow the instructions from this
blog post (which talks for Huawei card though), skip the portions specific to
Huawei, but it gives the correct username/password phone number to dial, etc.
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For PDF creation, I was using CutePDF which
doesn't work with Windows 7, so I went with PrimoPDF (free).
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For Antivirus, I went with my good
friend Kesavan's - K7
Computing Antivirus which works fine in Windows 7.
>
You should be all set by now, as for me (as seen below) all the devices are working
fine. Eagerly waiting for Windows 7 RC.
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One of the strengths of iPhone is
the now famous iTunes store, which helps you buy
applications/music/movies/TV shows seamlessly. Lot of companies have tried the
concept (which is not new) as old as 10-15 years back, for example Microsoft has tried
it multiple times (Zune, Windows Player) in the past. The winning difference has been
the flawless execution and the simplicity that Apple has delivered. Apple has managed
to satisfy both ends - with their clout they got the big media companies to
sign uniform pricing's and they also made it easy to get the casual developer on-board.
The formula from Apple was simple - you make the application, we manage the hosting,
delivery, installation, payment gateways, legal/taxation, etc. The developer gets
70%, Apple gets 30% - a neat deal for both parties. And Apple's new iPhone OS3 is
pushing the envelope much further - check out this cool
preview of iPhone OS 3 or here
in YouTube.
Few months after my purchase of my iPhone, I searched for some applications. I found
thousands of applications in their store, but I was looking for something that will
be useful for me and not clutter my phone. A phone for me primarily is for Voice,
SMS, Camera, email & web browsing (in that order of priority). I was not sure
on the number of applications that will be available for India - as so far many of
the American companies have avoided dealing with copyright/licensing/taxation trouble
for India market. They feel the trouble is not worth for the size of the Indian market
for these (how wrong they are). Traditionally Indian mobile users have not
followed the global trend (and other advanced Asian markets like Korea and Japan)
in purchase of applications, games, music & movies, but that I think is due to
content for their taste not being available. Since iPhone store is one of the biggest
USPs of iPhone, is probably a reason iPhone
has sold only 20,000 units in India since its launch.
In iPhone store I found a plethora of apps to be bought for India, there was no shortage
- I have tried few iPhone apps and the shopping experience from the phone was great.
The apps I use regularly are two (both free)- TwitterFon and Skype (recently
released). I also bought a Tetris game for $4.99. Regarding the apps, I found TwitterFon
to be very convenient to use, I am finding myself twittering more when I am outside
the office - waiting for something in a queue or participating like y'day in a boring
session for CIOs by IBM India. About Skype for iPhone it is great to note that in
India it works over both Wi-Fi and 2G connections. The quality of Skype calls using
iPhone is great and the convenience of speaking with a mobile phone anyday for me
is better than a headset or holding a USB Skype phone.
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I came across this article by Krishna Kumar of DARE India magazine on “19
mistakes online businesses make”. A well written article with good compilations
of points that every business going online should note. It talks on most common assumptions
that are wrong about doing business online. It demystifies some of the common myths
that traffic is infinite, Google Adsense will make you a millionaire, Technology is
everything and so on. I especially liked the points where it talked about server
sizing and need to plan for adequate man power – which are something
we tell our customers all the time.
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At Vishwak, we believe on the potential of the Internet and the innovative advertising
that's possible in Web to keep the Online industry growing. Yes, the slow-down is
affecting this industry too, much worse than expected. Still countries like India,
Indonesia and China are showing reasonable growth even in this recession climate.
And the online Ad industry is very different that it was in the Dot-com days. Today
we have seen for many of our customers in Vishwak, their online revenues constitute
10-15% (the variation depends on how successful is their sales and new products team)
of their overall revenue. For many of them their primary media (Newspaper or TV) currently
yields majority of their revenues but that's been affected by this slow-down. If you
take by medium, globally advertising expenditure in Internet is around 11%
today.
In a recent
forecast released by Zenith Optimedia, a unit of the Publicis Groupe S.A., the
global ad spending is likely to slow by 6.9% to $453.2 billion. Ad expenditure in
India is likely to grow at 6.4% growth (down from 18.9%). The internet
is the only medium we expect to actually attract higher ad expenditure in 2009,
thanks to its accountability and innovation in ad formats. We forecast 8.6% growth
in internet expenditure in 2009, down from 20.9% in 2008. New formats are enjoying
greater growth (29.8% from Internet video and rich media, 29.7% from
internet radio and 11.9% from podcasts), but these represent only 12% of US internet
expenditure between them. Once a modicum of confidence returns to the market we expect
the growth of internet advertising to pick up again, to 11.3% in 2010 and
15.3% in 2011. We expect its share of the ad market to rise to 14.6% in 2011,
up from 10.4% in 2008. However, in recent years the number of sites on the web has
increased about twice as rapidly as internet ad expenditure, most of which goes to
a handful of big players. A number of internet companies that have based their business
model on advertising may find their model unsustainable now that credit is drying
up.
Another report, this one from eMarketer reinforces this by predicting that online
ad dollars will jump about 5% by 2013 (see the above chart). "The spending
shifts predate the recession," says David Hallerman, eMarketer senior
analyst. "But the current economy is reinforcing the new advertising models—and
making them more permanent". "Digital marketing offers compelling
benefits, especially for cash-conscious companies," he continues. "Marketers
can more readily measure the results of Internet advertising than with most traditional
media. This produces more-efficient advertising and higher ROI, which in turn pushes
traditional media to compete with lower pricing."
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In last month TED conference, Pattie Maes' from MIT & Pranav Mistry demonstrated
a wearable device. It's a wearable device with a projector paves the way for
interaction with our environment. The device which they call "Sixth
Sense" enables new interactions between the real world and the world of data.
A very exciting idea which opens up boundless possibilities if lives up to its claim.
One of the uses of this device they show is a live video (latest on the relevant headlines)
being projected in the newspaper in your hands. When I saw this, I was reminded of
a old Tamil movie - Pattanathil
Bhootham (released in 1967). In the movie there is a scene where the "Genie"
shows (then) latest movie songs on top of the movie's advertisements that is in
the newspaper.
What was a dream and thought super-natural 40 years ago is now a reality. Exciting
to look forward to the reality of the coming decades.
Video links:
1.The clip from Pattanathil Bhootham (பட்டணத்தில் பூதம்) Tamil Movie released in 1967, showing
the idea of videos being projected on a newspaper
2.Full movie Pattanathil
Bhootham (பட்டணத்தில் பூதம்), free and legal from Rajshri.com
3.Sixth Sense demo by
Pranav Mistry (forward to the minute 6:30 for the newspaper demo)
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