To Biz or not to Biz!

Vidit Bhargava

"When you know a thing, to hold that you know it; and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it - This is knowledge"

The book opens with this beautiful quote by Confucius. The book being written by my friends Ravi Handa and Avinash Maurya.

To start with Biz World would easily have been mistaken to be another question set for those trying to enter the world of quizzing. But Fortunately they don't market their book as a quiz book, they call it a business awareness guide. (And the book is selling nicely!)

Biz World is a completely different take on the classical quiz books, which usually come from the pen of the BQC legend, Derek O'Brien. It doesn't open with a question bank straight away. In fact They don't even have questions for the major part of the book. Which i feel is very good. The book has information virtually about every brand in the market. But you will find this information a little vague sometimes, you may even ask, "what do i do with this sort of stuff". However this series of vague information is just what is required to make good questions in a quiz. No-one asks a direct question these days. Having said that, however large the circle of information may be, it seems to be less.

My real concern, however, is with the type of questions this book has, the quality is just quite basic to say the least. There are some good questions though but this book doesn't even take you as far as qualifying the prelims of quiz. However, the fact file in the beginning of the book helps a lot.

The Authors have taken the responsibility of rolling out Question of the Day placards on the internet. They are also very helpful.

The good thing about the book is that you don't have to read all at once. You may take reference from it, from time to time, it is just like a brand encyclopedia at your hands.

After all is said and done we reach to the debatable part. Are Quiz Books even necessary? If you read these books for preparing a quiz, then I shall call them a piece of junk. Who doesn't have access to books? Everyone has. If you prepare for a quiz from these books, you will end up having out-dated and common knowledge most of the time.

However on the other side of the coin, if we take these books as a fact file or a box of knowledge. They may be very beneficial for us. This implies even if you are not a quizzer. For there is nothing better than a well-informed man.

Summing it up: The Biz World trumps all other business awareness/quiz books. For Biz World is written by two quizzers who are "currently" quizzing and know today's trends. The Books by O'Briens and Basus are only helpful when it comes to their quizzing and not when it comes to a total awareness of our environment.

However, Biz World has a long way to go. Even with this much in the bag, readers will have to read a lot more. All I can say is, it is not the perfect but the only rational choice in the market for aspiring business quizzers and knowledge enthusiasts.

Rating: ***

I have attached some fundas and questions below, hope you like them, you can even answer them in the comments box.

You can find more questions and fundas, on this link: Click Here

Music Locker

Vidit Bhargava

How many of you own a cloud? Well, as far as I know, many of you own a cloud or two, without even knowing about it! Cloud Computing is the buzz-word these days. Everyone wants to jump into the cloud business. The People are also willing to put their documents on the cloud, rather than carrying them in a pen-drive or a CD. Well Naturally People also want their Music Collection to go everywhere with them and not with an extra-burden of carrying a CD Case or an external hard-disk everywhere. Music Lockers they are called. And Currently two large companies are giving them this facility for free.:

1. Amazon CloudPlayer

Launched in March 2011, Amazon CloudPlayer is one of the few online music lockers, which one can 'use' outside USA. The Amazon Cloud Player, to its U.S. users offers a service to download the tracks from their online store to their cloud Drive and an option to use their Cloud Drive to upload their own songs. So you can listen to the tracks you've already downloaded. You can use your Amazon CloudPlayer ID to play the tracks anywhere in the world.

The Option to Buy the tracks and store directly to the cloud drive, eliminates the computer hard-disk in the process of listening the music. This is a really good thing because it saves the user from the hassle of downloading a song and uploading it back again.

Connectivity: The cloudplayer can be opened from any Web Enabled Device. You just need a good browser and a decent screen size to peacefully play tracks. However you'll find a dedicated application for Android Mobiles (Only in US) also.

2. Google Music Beta

Google Music Beta was announced at the Google I/O held this month. While Google's Music is very much 'similar' to Amazon's cloudPlayer it is not exactly the same. Google Music provides the users with an online storage for their songs, A Dedicated application for the management and uploading of music, An Android App and a Website that allows you to listen music anywhere. Also Google Music has a feature to work offline on all devices, so if you are out of internet coverage it can play the recently played tracks.

While Amazon does provide users with an option to download the music straight from an online MP3 store. Google has no such option. So basically what you'll have to do is this: Download a song from the internet and then put it back up. And that is a tiresome job.

Connectivity: Google Music is currently in Beta Stages and available by invitation only and the service is only for the US Residents while it is still in the beta stages. As far as Mobile Devices are concerned, Android users are getting an app and others can use the website to play music, which innocently touts a flash interface, blocking the iOS Users from using it.

We just saw two different cloud music lockers. Both of them work on your input. You need to download a song first, and then you need to upload it to the cloud again, just for the sake of using it everywhere. And you are doing this for every song you download, and if this service at all gets popular, the same process will be done by millions of people making millions of duplicates of a single song on the internet, contributing to a lot of Digital Garbage. This is different when you use your iDisks and Dropboxes to put files on the internet, those are unique files you won't find elsewhere. And it is wise to store it on a single location rather than making multiple-copies of the same file on every computer.

Let the Music be on one Single Cloud And let users take the music from there. This way, more and more people can listen to music through one source. Also The Music Locker should directly be connected to the Music Application we currently have on our computers, and Mobile Devices. And if possible we can make it available to everyone in the world and not just the United States (Where every cloudplayer seems confined today).

Wrap Up: Currently Cloud Music is Very Amateurishly implemented. Companies want a lot of input from their users, who are unwilling to take the pains. Cloud-Services need to be tackled differently for every different utility. While the current approach may be good for Text and Picture content, it is naive to think it will be the same for Music and Movies. However, if you are too despirate to use Cloud Music Players, I'd suggest the Amazon Cloud Player, which requires the least effort from your side.

Shor In the City Review

Vidit Bhargava

I've almost forgotten how to write movie reviews, the last one was month's back! So I watched Shor In the City sometime back, and here is my take on the movie

The Movie Starts with Noise, A lot Of Noise, Too-Much Noise, and an aptly fitted music track for the high-decibels produced in the first seconds of the film. The Movie is set amidst the Ganpati Festival and revolves around the lives, of a few people. (Every movie does that? Ain't It?). Among these few people you can find an amateurish cricketer, who aspires to be selected in the State team. An NRI who is starting a small-business and A bunch of small-time crooks, doing nothing, yet being the most interesting of the lot. All three of them have ample of reasons to be bad enough to make a dark comedy.

Let's start with the NRI lad, Abhay, played by Sendhil Ramamurthy (whom you most famously have seen in the NBC Science Fiction Series, Heroes, and most non-famously seen in The Wonderful Afterlife, by Gurinder Chadda). Abhay wants to set a "Small Business" and Mysteriously enough we never come to know what that "Small Business" was about. So, the NRI Guy, has a lovely [just being sarcastic] encounter with the city Ransomers. What they want is the regular hafta, which the NRI cannot possibly understand, he approaches the police and things get wild, The Ransomers, show their true colors. Now, Abhay must do-something to save the day.

Sendhil Ramamurthy does a good job here, he plays the perfect NRI, and is well fit in the character of Abhay. Preeti Desai has a small-role too. But that is mainly to be his girlfriend. She has practically no influence in the story.

--

Jumping to another one, The Cricketer chap. Young Cricketer Sawan (played by Sundeep Kishan) who is quite disastrous at his work. Doesn't bat well at all! (Or is it just the pressure?). What can he do? He can bribe the selectors. But for that he needs money. Here comes the interesting part, this boy tries practically everything to get money, all equally funny! Education Loan, Getting into the Dharna Business, and other Ideas for which watching the movie is a must.

Sundeep Kishan as Sawan does a fair job in his first Hindi Movie. Good Acting, but Sundeep's story is loosely written and does not probably share an equal screen-space, for which the director tries to fix things in the climax.

Coming to the Shor's Shor. The Three Crooks, Tilak, played by Tushar Kapoor, is a Pirated Book Publisher, Ramesh (Nikhil Dwivedi) and Mandook (The Legendary Pitobash Tripathy) are his friends. Now these people, are fun. They steal a prominent writer's script to publish it first and sell on streets! They pick-up a bag from the local-train, full of Arms and Ammunation and a bomb! (AK-47 hai ya 56? The point is they don't know themselves!), and try to blast it, on the outskirts of the city! And they keep on doing such amazingly fun work that you are chained to your seats as you are force-fed with a perfect dose of Laughter and a Black Plot.

The Best Actor of the three is Pitobash. He is witty, fun to watch on the screen, and has a screen-presence like no other. Tushar Kapoor's acting is good for a change, his obsession with the Alchemist, or Pitobash's witty humor and love for his AK-47 (or 56?), or Ramesh's instrumental role without which the trio-wouldn't have had the effect. Everything is well placed and witty. Its neither too little nor too much. Just in the right proportions.

Amongst the others, Amit Mistry and Zakir Hussain have acted really well, and the actresses have done their job too. One is not left with any complaints on the acting front.

The question that lurks in everyone's mind is,"Is this a good "Black" Comedy? Is it Black Enough? Most Black Comedies fail to be good movies, just because they have too much of slapstick humor and fail to have a shade dark enough. Krishna DK showed his skills with a Black Comedy in 2009, it was called 99. He strikes again with Shor In the City. The movie knows when to be serious and thrilling and when to push the audience into unstoppable laughter. Shor in The City couldn't be a better example for Indian Black Comedies. (of course Pushpak is still rated the best, but Shor is really very good stuff).

The New Trend in Films these days is trying to connect, utterly unconnected life-forms in to one plot. This is just like solving a quiz connect. You've got to make a connection out of nothing. and you either get it right, or are completely lost. We have seen many attempts at these interconnected stories, some of the notable ones being Dobhi Ghat, Valentine's Day, Life in a Metro, New York, I love you and many more which were probably failed attempts. It is really hard to make these type of movies. You need to focus clearly on all the sub-scripts and balance between n-different scripts, and some how make it look like it is one movie you are watching, by the end. This gets although more difficult with Hindi Films, given the reputation they have with handling a single story let alone three or four stories together. Well! Shor In the City is certainly one the better attempts at this. It does everything almost perfectly. And is quite successful at the Herculean Task these kind of movies need to perform.

Summing it up, : Watch Shor in the City if you haven't already. This should not be left at any cost!

Rating: ****

What Has Changed...

Vidit Bhargava

What has actually changed in my Personal Computer in the past 4 years, of its Existence. Detailed Table View:

Item	January 23rd 2007	April 20th 2011
Display	HP 15" TFT Display (Grey Color)
Sound	Creative 2:1 Sub-Woofer System
Cabinet	iBall Black Colored Cabinet (Long)
Mouse and Keyboard	Microsoft Wired Mouse-Keyboard Combo	Microsoft Wireless Mouse-Keyboard Combo
Printer	Canon All-in-One Photo-Printer	HP Officejet J4580 All-In-One
Inside The CPU
Motherboard	Intel D946GZ
Processor	Intel Core2Duo 1.83Ghz
RAM	1GB Transcend 553Mhz DDR2	4GB Kingston 800Mhz DDR3
Disk-Space	160GB	160GB + 40GB + External HDD
Graphics	Intel GMA 3000	NVIDIA 9500GT - Galaxy -1GB DDR3

Introducing MVDITTECHBOOK.COM

Vidit Bhargava

This is the one big i have been waiting to announce:

MVDIT TECH BOOK - Upgrade

In July 2007, I was struck by an idea. The idea was fairly simple. Creating a “Magazine” that would give information about all the latest Tech-Happenings, free of cost. The Digit magazine came with a price tag of Rs. 150, at a time where Information was available free to all through the internet. Why then, should we pay that much to seek Information from one place. Why not, just have a free-to-read e-zine(Electronic - Magazine), for all tech happenings. I wrote about Technology every-month, and posted the same on my blog. Later, This would not continue. MVDIT TECH BOOK, Needed a Website from where the visitors would download the PDF. Fairly Simple to task to make a website, but a mammoth task to have visitors. But that will be talked about later. Over the years, my e-zine has grown from a hobby, to a large project, and most recently I expanded it to the waters of tech-Blogging. Today, I am going to announce, an upgrade to my website and e-zine project.

Simplified HTML5 + CSS3.0 Code:
MVDIT TECH BOOK, has always believed in keeping up with Standards. Its no-use having a web-site that doesn’t run on Multiple Device Platforms. Most of them, today are Mobile Phones and iPads. Since, We Believe, IE6 is getting quite non-existent, and Firefox and Chrome and Safari have taken a place in the World of Tech-Savvy Audience (Our Readers), We have made our website fully equipped and running with HTML5 and enhanced CSS in its blood. The Code has also been “Simplified” reducing the hard-work of updating a website every-time an article is written, or a magazine is published, by more than 80%. A Central File in each directory, now Controls the navigations of the Website. So all of the work of updating a Navigation Panel in each page of the website after an article is written, has been cut-down to 1 in each directory. This also increases the efficiency of our Website.

A New Completely Revamped Design:
We also thought, that along with this major HTML update, we should pep-up the Website UI. We did this by adding a cool-new background to our website, and making the home-page more information friendly than before. Now you don’t need to Look Anywhere for the Latest from our Website. It is there, in front of your eyes, all the time.

The News (Earlier known as Announcements), Reviews, and Games Section has also had a UI shift. We’ve Shifted to a completely new UI, that has never been seen before, on any website. The New UI Provides the User an Interactive Experience while reading the articles. It is as many say, Better Looked at, than talked about!

New Navigation Panel
A Simple Tweek, Suggested by Mudit. The Navigation panel is now slicker and much more proportional. We’ve changed the Announcements to News and Added a new Tab for Archives.

MVDIT ROBO CLUB:
A word about the Robo-Club, You will notice that the MVDIT ROBO-CLUB has gone from the navigation pane. The Robo-Club had been non-functional since the past few months. We had already announced an indefinite suspension of the MVDIT ROBO-CLUB from our e-zine. We haven’t Scrapped the Idea completely and we hope to bring it back with better more efficient ways to operate it.

More Efficient Disqus Comment System
The Disqus Comments System, the one which is used for the “News, Reviews and Games” Section has now been upgraded with Mobile Device Compatibility and Image based comments. Also, Now You can login through any email-account or even anonymously post a comment.

YouTube Channel
YouTube has been one of the most Dormant Section of this E-zine. We have done a little work to improve on it. Initially We Will Be Uploading and Displaying the Company Released Videos of the Latest Announcements, and in the near future we plan to upload our own videos and views on the Latest in Technology.

Wallaby Testing
Wallaby is one of the most interesting pieces of project ever introduced by Adobe AIR. While Adobe maintains its love for the Web-Based Flash Content, at the same time it is providing a choice to the developers to change their Flash Files to an HTML5 and CSS equipped HTML page. Although, in its early development stages, we got a chance to test Wallaby, and We are pleased to know that in the later, more stable editions of Adobe Wallaby, the page-curl “will” most certainly be convertible to HTML5 content and hence be allowed to be played on all platforms.

And One More Thing
We Will Soon Be Upgrading our Domain. More Information will be Provided in the Next Post.

Mudit & Vidit Bhargava
MVDIT TECH BOOK

An Evening With JoliCloud

Vidit Bhargava

JoliOS or Jolicloud is one of the rare fascinating Linux Based Operating Systems, that have appealed me. All others, Fedora, Open Suse, and What Not are on the Same Lines as Ubuntu. The Father of those operating system and by far the most widely used, and accepted Linux based operating Systems. All others seem to have gone to the Gallows. JoliCloud is however different. You can see that, in the above Screenshot.

The New Brilliantly and Uniquely Designed UI of the JoliCloud strikes a Chord, amongst the youth. It is funky, it is intuitive and it is the sort of thing you would love to use.

Coming to the important part now, What is essentially different from all other Operating Systems. Just the UI? No of course not. It is the Cloud in the JoliCloud Which makes it so JoliGood To use. Everything is on the cloud. From your Microsoft Office (You heard it right) to Your Music Player (I am currently listening to music over the cloud). Even your desktop loads through the internet. It is a cloud based operating system through and through. It takes "only" 4GB of Disk Space and liv es and works on Web Apps and a Nicely designed Chromium based Webkit Browser.

WebApps: The WebApps are good as well as bad. While WebApps like Office Live, SoundCloud Player and Dropbox make the operating system top-notch. The WebApp Market hasn't evolved much yet. Unlike the Mobile App Market or the Software Industry. The WebApp market hasn't actually had a launch-pad yet. It has potential, yes. In the age of 3G Internet and Broadband Access, The WebApp market 'can' make an impact. However it is growing, and yet to reach a stage where a main-frame operating system can lead. Having said that, JoliCloud has a few notable WebApps:

1. NewsMap: Simple RSS App. Gives an Attractive Metro UI sort of feel to the whole NewsFeed thing. And Makes News Reading an Slightly Easier Experience

2. CloudPlayer by SoundCloud: This one is fun. I have always liked the idea of a web-based music player. And with a sort of library that soundcloud possesses is ideal for CloudMusic. CloudPlayer gets a thumbs up from me!

3. Mougg: It is the Same Music over Cloud idea as SoundCloud, but this time, you have a private cloud to share music. So, You can listen to only your favorite songs.

4. OfficeLive and Google Docs: These aren't actually web-apps, I won't call on them so. While Microsoft Provides the familiar Microsoft Office to all "Computer" Platforms, Google Docs lacks that popularity but extends help to everyone who needs it. So both Mobile devices and Computers are in-sync. Also Google is more simple and hence better if you ask me.

5. Simplenote: One of the most elegant web-apps of the JoliCloud Platform. Simple Note is just Simple. You get a two-column layout. One displaying your list of notes (Synced through web and covering all mobile devices) and the other displaying your current note. By Far my favorite.

JoliCloud also comes pre-installed with a VLC Player which provides the best software for Watching Video. And then you have Youtube to look videos, which play without a problem.

These apps need no-reviewing. They are good, as I mentioned before. But They are less. And Indeed very less. Hence, building an Operating System on it works only to some extent.

The Lack of a Graphics Software, poses serious threat to the usability of the Operating System, all Linux based OS have a GIMP but this doesn't have it.

Games are a big problem, with this cloud-based OS. Unless, you aren't a big fan of web-games you will find, No reason to use this OS for Gaming. It is Horrible at it. Believe me!

Performance wise, there is not much problem, SoundCard Drivers are pre-installed, Multimedia controllers o fmy keyboard work well, There is a little problem with NVIDIA's Graphic Driver, and some sort of glitchy-wild-image with binary digits appears every time the computer goes to sleep, but overall it is at par. Also JoliCloud loads faster than ubuntu. There is also a lack in the number of fonts that come installed with the OS, not many.

I would conclude here, by saying, You can chuck your windows operating system for JoliCloud if you are using a netbook or windows based tablet. But JoliCloud Has A Long Way to Go to Actually Pose a Threat to Windows, or other Linux Platforms. Oh well, on a brighter side it does provide a new option to use linux.

JoliCloud is not for Tech-Savvy it is for the Web-Savvy audience.

-- JoliCloud OS also comes as a Web-app for Chrome.

Wonders With Sprite

Vidit Bhargava

Key Ingredients

• Sprite
• A Good Cheery Mood
• And Some thing to add to it

Lets begin with a bottle full of Sprite. Tasty Um!! but its just colorless carbonated water. You could throw that bottle in a trash-can and buy Pepsi, Coke or Fanta. But thats not my idea of fun. I like a personal touch to things. And I did a few experiments with that dull and boring Sprite.

1. Masala Sprite - My brother was demanding "something good" to drink. What could I do. I had just failed at getting Coke from a nearby vendor, and had reluctantly bought Sprite, instead. (that guy had nothing else). I got an interesting idea. Here's What I did

• Put some masala (Mixture of black-pepper and some other light spices) in a glass container.
• And Put Some Sprite In it.
• Stir the mixture well with a Spoon

That is it. Masala Sprite, Interesting Spicy-drink that just tastes likes Fresh Lime Soda, and it is completely easy. Ready in less than a minute. And Pure Happiness!

*Caution : The Masala should not be added after Sprite is poured into the glass. It creates a lot of effervescence.

2. Juicy Splash

That's what I like to call it. Simple Drink. Just add a little Sprite To some suitably tasty Juice. What it takes from your side is this:

• Buy Some Packaged Juice. (To Appease me you can buy Orange)
• Add that Juice to a glass.
• Put Some Sprite in it. But be careful don't put too much.
• Stir the mixture with a spoon.

Extra Step of Buying a Juice over hear. But if you already have one at home, that shouldn't be a problem. What comes out is some extremely tasty stuff. Sufficing your thirst for some great fun. It's Splashy, It's Cool and It's Impressive. My Personal Favorite!

3. Ice-Cream Soda

Typical Ice-Cream Soda, but its just as Simple as other drinks listed above. Just do as follows. It takes just about two minutes to prepare but impresses your friends in the party for months. They'll gap at you and say, "Where did you get that from?" while you can grin and say Top Secret! :) . Here's what to do

• Put Some Sprite in a glass.
• Take Some Ice-Cream of your Choice and put it in a container. Put the Sprite also in that container
• Now use a Hand-Grinder to blend the combo. Pour the blended mixture back in the glass.
• Take some more Ice-Cream and put it in the glass.

Voila! Your Ice-Cream Soda is ready!

Three Delicious Things you could do with your Sprite and have a great Party. That's all for now. I am trying other combinations too. For now you can try one of those three, or serve all three.

Since, Sprite was made to compete with 7UP. These wonders will also happen if you use 7UP.

P.S. I forgot to click pictures of any of these drinks.

I'll put Indian! - Dilbert

Transition of Interactive Web-Content - Flash to HTML5

Vidit Bhargava

As I type this article on my iPod Touch which is attached wirelessly to my Apple Keyboard, I wonder, how many of you are actually going to read it on a "big-giant Personal Computer", Which is probably acquiring as much as a Table of your room? It is not Hidden, the fact that today, people either use their mobile phones, their iPads, or other sources of On-the Go Internet. Nobody, wants to start that large machine sitting innocently on the table, taking all the time in the world, just to show up a petty desktop screen, which by the way seems much far from an Interactive User Interface (Touted as being so, in the late 90s). They'd rather wake up their phones from the sleep to browse the internet, check their mails, visit content intensive websites or just take a tour to the App Store.

One of the things these mobile devices generally don't have is Genuine Adobe Flash compatibility. Yes, Android provides it to the users, but it is currently half baked and people generally hate it. The reason, is simple, They don't want it on a touch-screen. Flash just doesn't work, when it comes to touch-screen based content.

On the tablets, its a completely different story, iPad amounts to about 90% of Tablet Sales. It doesn't provide the users with Flash Compatibility, this means that out of millions who are using a tablet, most of them using an iPad, browse the internet without accessing millions of websites with flash content.

All this in-short makes the flash technology, which was at the pinnacle of its power before the arrival of the Post- PC devices, look slump. It is now, widely seen as Stale, premature and of a different world.

The new cool is something else. Something that is tightly integrated with the web, it doesn't require a plug-in to enter your phones, computers, laptops or tablets. HTML5!

Now, Let me make it clear, HTML5 is a programming language version of HTML, certified by W3C. And Flash is a proprietary Software for creating Interactive Web-Content. The main debate is over as to which option is better for displaying media content. Flash or HTML5? However, HTML5 implementation with CSS and Java Scripting has made it more powerful than flash over time, in displaying interactive content. And since, flash is not available for many mobile devices, developers are moving towards the HTML5 implementation of Interactive content.

Today, when you log on to your GMAIL ID, you see a cool new feature, that allows you to drag and drop files to attach them to the email. You don't know the technicalities, of course. For you its something that's coming for free, without the hassles of installing a plugin on your device. What you don't know is that the web is now, shifting its base to HTML5. Adopting the new standard.

However, in a completely opposite scenario, you go to a gaming website, start a game, only to find that flash is not supported on your device. You do not know much about the technicalities, but what you know from then onwards is, that gaming website is awful, It didn't work on your expensive gadget. The user won't wait for flash compatibility on his gadget but he'll look elsewhere, for a better experience, for a better website.

Those two instances, teach us as developers, something. The developer, must keep pace with the new standards, the new tech. So that the user has no problem using his website. It's not the gadget that is going to mould into the website, its the website that has to mould into the gadget.

Developers learnt this lesson very early last year. The result was the staggering boycott of flash content, flash video and flash games.

Major Newsgroups like CNN, BBC, NYTimes shifted their flash-based videos, and picture content to HTML5. An outright boycott of Flash Video, resulted in sites like Vimeo and Youtube adopting standards like the H.264, both the websites increased their compatibility for Mobile Devices. Slowly but eventually they made sure that HTML5 reached the PCs too. Young developers, adopted HTML5 even faster, within months, new games like the Galactic Inbox and Letter Wars came up. They were not flash, yet they were a huge success. Web-Development firms, started providing HTML5 templates. Eventually HTML5 over-shadowed flash, as the new Interactive-Web Standard. And all this was quick, within months.

The bigger challenge was web-browser compatibility. About 70% of users still used the old haggard and ragged Internet Explorer. While, Safari, Crome, Firefox and Opera provided HTML5 compatibility, these browsers have not yet reached to every computer-using soul. But this March, the world marched on to complete HTML5 compatibility, that is IE9 was launched. And Sources reveal that it reached 2.9 Million Downloads within hours.

More, evidence of the Flash demise can be seen from Adobe. Adobe Labs, announced earlier this month, the beta version of Adobe Wallaby. An AIR tool, that allows the developers to convert their Flash Content into usable HTML5 Code. Adobe has accepted defeat. They know, now that if there is any thing left for Flash, it is to be friends with HTML5.

Summary : Flash ain't the Web-Developer's most Pampered kid anymore, They've ever so happily embraced HTML5. For the user, unaware of this standard's war, is quickly getting glued to this new technology in many ways. And the most interesting part, he might not know what HTML5 is but he'll surely know that there is something different on Youtube for his iPad or that some websites just got more interactive.

But who knows in the un-foreseen future, HTML5 might be beaten red and blue with a new Web-Standard which may take over the HTML5 legacy, much faster than HTML5 took over Flash.

Sent from my iPod

Stick Cricket iOS App - Review

Ah! You see, I've been better than my word! Here's a new blog-post, in just no time!

Game : Stick Cricket

Rating : 8.6/10

Price: Free

Vidit Bhargava

You've got a paper toss game to pass your time throwing paper. You've got a game to shoot birds at pigs, you've got a game for everything but you don't have one decent game for Cricket. Well, now you've got one. Its the same one, you play while on the internet. Yes, you heard it Stick Cricket is now on iOS.

Eh Bien! For those of you who have already played it, you'd know, the game is addictive. It is super addictive. You've got no tension of bowling full length 50 overs or getting hit for runs, you just need to sit and hit sixes (with some good timing), that's it. And score as much as you can. Its Cricket, but its far more fun playing on the iPod (the iPad app hasn't arrived yet).

Gameplay: Its snappy. You've got 5 Overs to score as many runs as you can. Or you can chase down a hefty total and dominate the world world with a bunch of oldies (the likes of Jayasurya and Gavaskar).

What hampers the experience is a block! You don't get a full experience for free. After dominating three teams in the domination, you cannot dominate more "Without paying $2.99". More so, the two-player mode is disappointingly also in that $2.99 package. Then there is a whole world cup in front of you which cannot be played before upgrading. All This is free on the internet version of the game by the way.

Graphics: You don't expect great graphics from this game. Its the classic, stick-figure game. So you won't be seeing a next-generation graphic render of the Sachin Tendulkar while playing India in the all-star slog. So you see, graphics is not a forte of the Stick Cricket App.

GameCenter integration : Ok, now you've scored the runs, you paid some money, you've mastered your skills on the App, and won the world cup. Can you have competition? Oh... Yes, its the natural GameCenter integration you've got here. You can challenge your friends on the All-Star Slog to hit the maximum number of runs. You can get some wild achievements too like "Scoring a Century by one batsmen in 5 overs" or "Scoring 36 in an over" . Also, on the world stage you can compete, with the highest run-scorers. (I've not risen above the 725th Rank so far! )

Addictivity Meter: Angry Birds is addictive. Yes. Paper Toss is Addictive. Yes. But can a cricket game have so much power, to be addictive enough? The answer depends on the fact that how-much of a cricket fan "you" are. Well, I am a giant fan, in that matter. So My answer is Yes! It is as addictive than any other app in the app store.

Wrap-Up: Cricket fans will love it. The gamers will crib over the graphics. While the guys, who play for fun, will be playing it for hours until the batteries die.

iPod Touch Review

I know its coming rather late in the day, but yea, it is here:

Vidit Bhargava

Now starting with it, first of all this is my second iPod. Same memory. Bigger size and a touch-screen. The Primary question when you buy a gadget is Where does it stand in my Gadget wishlist. How do I view it? The iPod Nano is a simplistic yet eligant solution to portable music. I already have one. iPod Touch must come in Somewhere! This review of the new fourth generation iPod Touch reviews some areas where it helps and others where it doesn’t. So let me begin with the most marketed factors.

Gaming: The iPod Touch 4G with its powerful A4 chip allows for a powerful set of games. Mainly created by Gameloft (they develop the Assasins Creed for iPod) and Electronic Arts.Games like the NBA elite, NFS Hot Pursuit and FIFA 11 by Electronic Arts; Assasin’s Creed, Pro Evolution Soccer, Real Football and others by Gameloft Games and Infinity Blade (the earliest next gen game for the iPod) are some of the cool games that make the iPod a perfect NextGen Portable Gaming Console and make the iPod pose a serious threat to the likes of Nintendo DSi and Playstation Portable + You don’t have to cope with the hastle of having a CD or UMD. But My gaming has more often been concentrated with the less graphic intense but much more insanely addictive games like the Stick Cricket, Angry Birds, Star Dunk, Fruit Ninja and Tic Tac Toe. They are my favorites.

Game Center: The iPod Also has a game center. Though, not all games support it currently but iPod has a fare amount of games to challenge your friends and a have a great competition together + Games are increasingly adopting to the game center platform.

To some it all up, iPod Touch for portable gaming is a treat. It is one of the best portable gaming consoles with the best operating system and a wonderful graphics engine. Chuck your PSPs and Nintendos for the iPod Touch 4G, its a faster, snappier and cooler experience than those gaming consoles.

Music: The iPod as a music player is certainly great and that doesn’t change for the iPod Touch. It just gets better. With the powerful music UI and more imporantly the good quality of headphone listening the iPod Touch surely wins the Music Race among other touch-screen players.

iBooks: This is a place where the 3.5” touch-screen loses its touch. Reading a 3.5” Book is something that you won't want to read. At that small a screen, reading an eBook just becomes a painfull experience. You surely never want to read a book again on the iPod Touch. (iPad does that better)

Hardware: iPod Touch is paper thin, You tend to feel it will slip anytime. The screen is fine enough with a VGA camera in front for facetime. But the Real Hardware problem comes at the back. The iPod Touch still poses that abominable stainless Steel back which gets scratches on it ever so easily. It is something that no-one except Apple has a liking for. The plastic buttons are fine but still could have been better, as a matter of fact I liked the previous buttons. The Retina Display is good, but it lacks an IPS Panel. Sad.

Cameras: VGA in Front and HD recorder at back. Brilliant, but there is more to it, than what meets the eye, The Back Camera for still images is not worth it. It is not so good even for indoor or low light HD recording. VGA camera in front is surprisingly good and is suitable for FaceTime calls.

FaceTime: Facetime is something of an achievement. Users complain about the unavailability of 3G Video Calling feature for the iPhone 4 but Since the iPod’s life is based on WiFi, WiFi video calling doesn’t hurt at all. Moreover the ability to make Video Calls to a MAC, iPhone 4 and iPad 2 is just awesome. Having a facetime call with my cousins in Australia was a complete delight for both my grandma and me. FaceTime seems to go deep enough to create an emotional bond with the iPod.

Battery Life: Battery Life, frankly speaking, didn't impress me much. The iPod Touch looses battery too fast when doing some next gen gaming or watching movies.

Everything else: The iOS 4.3 is good, but still has a few rough-edges (the screen flickers sometimes). The Web-Experience is wonderful, and with Nitro-Engine thing, it is even better. The A4 as I've said before is very powerful.

Wrapping it up, the iPod Touch 4th Generation is a powerful gadget which proves to beat many serious competitors hands down. Add to that the not so exorbitant price of 15K. It is a delight to have a Portable Gaming Console, HD Recorder and iOS device at that low a price.

Rating: 8.4/10

New Rating Scale out of 10:

1 - Pathetic! I Survived it

2 - Very Bad. I want my money back!

3 - Bad, but with a few good things.

4 - Okeyish

5 - Not Bad, But Needs a lot of Improvement

6 - Good but there are many things that could have been better

7 - Nice. Value for Money

8 - Very Good. But Not Perfect

9 - Perfect but Still I'll save 1 for something better next time

10 - The best thing I've ever seen, I need nothing more! (This is virtually impossible)

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P.S. You'll be reading more from me, once my exams are over i.e. 28th March

Best Of 2010 - Movies

Vidit Bhargava

Ah yes, it has been a long time that I have written something abou anything on this blog (I had been busy with a lot of other work) . So here comes a post that is delayed by at least 24 days but just in time for the tweeple awards (about which I will write in a short time).

This list, I will caution you is just a list of the best movies I have seen throughout 2010 (roughly 30). So you may or may not think that it is a complete list + There is no top 5 here. All the good movies have made it to the list:

Hindi Movies

1. Peepli [Live]

The movie didn't make it to the Oscar's final list of nominees but ignoring it is something to say. Peepli Live was one of the more unconventional movies of 2010 which beat the glamorous sets and flashy clothes type of movies. Peepli Live was funny, enlightening and gripping through out.

2. Udaan

One of the best written movies of 2010. The tale of Rohan's escape from his authoritative father is just so promising. Udaan does get the 2nd spot for its sheer brilliance of writing, direction and acting. Amit Trivedi's Music is the icing on the cake.

3. Phas Gaye Re Obama

An innovative dark comedy about a bankrupt NRI who joins hands with recession stricken gangsters to have a 50-50 share in whatever they earn from selling the NRI to a higher gangster. The movie is short, simple and comic. Starring Rajat Kapoor, Manu Rishi, Sanjay Mishra and Amol Gupte in lead roles all of them have done a wonderful acting. At a running time of approximately 90 minutes the movie is one of the most exciting watch of 2010.

4. Robot

Breathtaking Sci-Fi effects, Rajnikanth Style action and a well researched plot are enough to make this Tamil Movie a must watch at all costs. Seeing 1000s of Rajnikanth turning into a giant snake to gulp in a car was just one of the sci-fi effect we had seen throughout this visual wonder.

5. Rajneeti

The movie showcased one of the not so frequently raised topics in movies and did it in a thrilling way. Rajneeti was one of those movies in 2010 that was awesomely grippy in the first half as well as the second half. Ranbir Kapoor's acting was also a plus point.

6. Dabanng

Dabanng can surely be called the entertainer of the year. A hairline plot which doesn't matter is not of much importance when you've got some really catchy and cool dialogues with some good action. The movie is completely entertaining to say the least.

7. Tere Bin Laden

Waking up a new kind of comedy in Indian movies. Ali Zafar's Tere Bin Laden was entertaining, funny, low budget and wonderful. Even when competing with some seriously good scripted drama of Udaan. The movie did well and was just good enough to be called slapstick or badly scripted.

8. My Name is Khan

Last in the list but not bad at all. My Name is Khan was something different that had been done with the movies but the movie was itself a repeat of mass success. Even though, the plot, when you think now doesn't make much sense but the movie as a whole is credited with Shah Rukh Khan's wonderful acting and the message it tries to convey and conveys successfully.

English Movies

1. Inception

IMDB ranks it number 1, it is the top contender to academy awards and so do I think it is. The Best Movie of 2010. Inception wins it hands down. The dream into dream into dream action and science fiction could only have been created by Christopher Nolan. Inception is a well crafted plot with amazing action and amazing acting.

2. Toy Story 3

Usually Animated stories turn out to be boring at some point of time. They loose their charm easily and just please the kids, but it isn't so with the Toy Story 3 (Yeah! There was another jinx with the 3rd in the series thing!) Toy Story 3 is the best ever in the series. Wonderful animation with a touching plot makes for fun watch of 90 minutes. What more, with 3D Glasses!

3. The Social Network

The Social Network is undoubtedly one of the best of 2010. The Nerdy topic of Facebook's creation displayed enigmatically and interestingly in a movie by David Fincher is a success in itself + The wonderful acting and some really interesting drama makes this movie a worth watch.

4. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.. That's the max I'll say. True Harry Potter Fans do love this movie. Even though in parts, the movie has been carefully and interesting adapted from the book. Not much is left behind and the movie does complete justice to the book. (Yea, finally after the 1st part :D) .

5. Karate Kid

It may not be in the best list. But Karate Kid is one of the best according to me. The inspiring story remade into today's world is .. just inspiring. And if a movie inspires you to learn Kung Fu you can't help it but put it into the best of the year category.

6. Iron Man 2

Iron Man 2, though not as good as the Iron Man 1 is still good and interesting. They made the sequel and they did it the right way, even though the movie didn't have all that action as in the first half but Robert Downey Jr. and Scarlett Johansson were enough to pack power in the movie.

MVDIT I.T. Person of the Year 2010

Vidit Bhargava

Julian Assange. That was the "Buzz" word all over the globe. From a low profile hacker, only shown in good quizzes as a tough question to a completely household name that was his transition throught the earth. Born on 3 July 1971 The Whistleblower is primarily the owner of WikiLeaks.

Assange was born in Queensland, Australia and served much of his life living on the magnetic island. In 1987, after turning 16, Julian Assange began hacking under the name "Mendax". He and two other hackers joined to form a group which they named the International Subversives.

In response to the hacking, the Australian Federal Police raided his Melbourne home in 1991. He was reported to have accessed computers belonging to an Australian university, the Canadian telecommunications company Nortel, the USAF 7th Command Group in the Pentagon and other organisations.In 1992, he pleaded guilty to 24 charges of hacking and was released on bond for good conduct after being fined a certain 2100 Australian Dollars. Here is what the prosecutor had to say about him:

"There is just no evidence that there was anything other than sort of intelligent inquisitiveness and the pleasure of being able to—what's the expression—surf through these various computers".

So you see Assange's Magic had already begun. Later in the 20th Century Assange was involved in various activities but none was too big as What would come in the future. Assange once commented that he was actually proud of the hacking phase of his life, and wasn't in the least embarrased.

Wikileaks

WikiLeaks is easily the most important thing that has happened to Julian Assange. In 2006 Wikileaks.org was born. The site claims to have been "founded by Chinese dissidents, journalists, mathematicians and start-up company technologists, from the US, Taiwan, Europe, Australia and South Africa". So you see it is a complete misconception that wikileaks is Assange's creation. There is no formal identification of the Wikileaks but is only represented by Julian Assange and others since January 2007. Assange describes himself as the member of the advisory board.

In March 2010, WikiLeaks released a secret 32-page U.S. Department of Defense Counterintelligence Analysis Report written in March 2008 discussing the leaking of material by WikiLeaks and how it could be deterred. In April, a classified video of the 12 July 2007 Baghdad airstrike was released, showing two Reuters employees being fired at, after the pilots mistakenly thought the men were carrying weapons, which were in fact cameras. In July, WikiLeaks released 92,000 documents related to the war in Afghanistan between 2004 and the end of 2009 to The Guardian, The New York Times and Der Spiegel. The documents detail individual incidents including friendly fire and civilian casualties.

Following on from the leak of information from the Afghan War, in October 2010, around 400,000 documents relating to the Iraq War where released in October. The BBC quoted The Pentagon referring to the Iraq War Logs as "the largest leak of classified documents in its history." Media coverage of the leaked documents focused on claims that the U.S. government had ignored reports of torture by the Iraqi authorities during the period after the 2003 war.

In December 2010. The wikileaks.org domain was killed and just 4 hours later Wikileaks was up again with a completely new domain. Wikileaks.ch . Now thats what you call determination.

So er.. This is what Wikileaks has been doing throughout the year. The rapid growth in the visitor levels have been seen throughout 2010. From a mere hacker Julian Assange had turned into a public figure. Launching leaks one after the other. Ripping (or Opening, whichever you might love to call!) the US Government through the largest leaks the world has ever seen. And All this while sitting at home and sipping a coffee in front of his computer. (ER.. That's not actually true, but Hey it really does sound epic. Ain't it?).

For all that Assange did this year. The James Bond of Hacking. The Whistleblower, Julian Assange gets the MVDIT I.T. Person of the Year Award.

Hero of the Year 2010

In a sense, Zuckerberg and Assange are two sides of the same coin. Both express a desire for openness and transparency. While Assange attacks big institutions and governments through involuntary transparency with the goal of disempowering them, Zuckerberg enables individuals to voluntarily share information with the idea of empowering them. Assange sees the world as filled with real and imagined enemies; Zuckerberg sees the world as filled with potential friends. Both have a certain disdain for privacy: in Assange's case because he feels it allows malevolence to flourish; in Zuckerberg's case because he sees it as a cultural anachronism, an impediment to a more efficient and open connection between people.

After reading the extract you won't be surprised at the title. You know now what Time wants to convey through that message. Assange was considered d-villain. Call him the bad guy or Call him James Bond of hacking, its up to you. But the truth is he is the deserving PERSON OF THE YEAR. Even if TIME gives it to the 'Hero', Zuckerberg, who did those supposedly 'good deeds'.

P.S. - Zucker's sure to get on the good kid list of Santa this year :P .

** The post is in no offense to Mark Zuckerberg and intends at causing no harm to the prestigious TIME. These are just the personal views of a blogger.

ARTICLES! MORE ARTICLES!

Vidit Bhargava

Have, you ever wondered if you could get your article published in that coveted tech-magazine that goes on every bodies doorstep? You might not have had such good luck at that...

Ok, You all are aware of MVDIT TECH BOOK (Our e-zine which gives the most unbiased view of the latest trends and technology). Fine even if 'you' don't know: in a gist, me and brother started creating this monthly e-zine three years back. It is meant to give only the month's first-rate news. What happened... What was the new game that came... How was that mobile anything and everything is there on this roughly 20 page long eZine.

What we need now is contribution, we have only two permanent writers (that's me and brother), while some of our friends contribute once or twice. We are in search of young bloggers, who can write constantly on technology (Like an article once per week) with a little bit of wit.

You just need to keep writing, and keep submitting, we will put the best articles in our eZine while others go straight to the website atleast (Some still wont make it, though "Since we moderate the stuff we publish").

The only requirement here is your writing skill, your text should be yours completely, it should not be plagiarized or even partially plagiarized from any other source. There is no age limit. This program is open to all the people of world with a computer and an internet connection.

The content should be in English language only.

To register yourself for the program : Send us the following details at: viditbhargava@live.in

Name:

Occupation:

Age:

Email Address:

PenName: (optional)

** Your articles will be published on the basis of how regularly you write to us.

DECRYPT Answers

Vidit Bhargava

Time For DECRYPT 2010 - Answers:

1. WELL DONE! (I used the CAESARS BOX over here!)

2. Xkcd.com (I used ROT -1 to generate a hinting, random name)

3. Not Even an Encryption Standard

(The answer refers to ROT 13, used to encrypt the text).

4. Number for is correct/right (Again, the Caesar's box)

5. Pass Key to Round Two (Encryption used, ROT 12, but it is of no relevance now, due to the lukewarm response)

Ok so you know What Rotation Text is, we just shift the alphabet a certain number of spaces to get the encrypted text. (Like Using ROT -1, we shift B to A, C to B, D to C, and so on...)

There is another more powerful method used and that is CAESARS BOX. Ok what is Caesars box? You'll observe that the letters (All added up) make a perfect square i.e. the 1st Question has 9 letters. So if you arrange each group of (3 letters) one below the other, it creates a box and gives a message. This is the way Julius Caesar used to communicate and it is believed to be one of the first encryption standard.

The answers are in reference to the following post : [LINK]

PUFFIN 2010

Vidit Bhargava

Puffin 2010 was conducted in Delhi, on 15th November 2010. Here is an archive of the prelims:

Hotpot For Hotspots

Vidit Bhargava

Google Hotpot was unveiled today. Here's a video that Explains the Google Hotpot:

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P.S. All content shown in the video was for demonstration purposes. I may not have necessarily visited the place.

The Fatal Error

Vidit Bhargava

Mark Zuckerberg -24% , ______-6%, Eduardo Saverin 5%, Microsoft 1.3%

Ans.Dustin Moskovitz...

It was a unique experience going into Exun 2010, without anyone else from my school. I had to participate alone in a junior quiz. (you see if they don't want to go, its their problem, I won't sacrifice an awesome upcoming event for that.)

"Woah! You're Brave" - That's what Yash Singh, one of my gyaan[dot]in friends, said to me after the quiz.

So what was experience like? You see, going alone doesn't affect much, as you'd probably have friends from other schools. "Which I had, Prempal, Apratim, Aman (and other NEPS participants) and Yash were the one's with whom i had a nice time!". Bien Then How was the event like? Hmm... i gotta say something about that too, Na!

There you go! The ever so awesome After Effects edited video of Exun 2010. The event began with a nice bang. From there on there was a nice group discussion with not so nice topics. "Do You think Social Networking sites should be banned for kids?", "Are these new Indian Mobile companies going to survive in the future?", "Should technology come first or should Health be the priority?". The discussion was nicely conducted by a guy in grey T-Shirt (and two others, the ferrari t-shirt guy who looked a little rude, and the curly haired one who was almost very silent.)

Next up was recess, and their came the much awaited, delicious Pizzas! I got a chance to stretch my legs and click some pics:

Just after the delightful pizza, came the surprise. I was certainly a surprise to see what the event was. So they had given us a sheet of paper, which had all those pictures and stuff. You had to find 5 keywords to win the the event. Fine There were a few obvious clues like "Android", and "Blade Runner" and there was a Nexus One also. So i got two right first. and then I tried, making four continuous errors. With 5 continuous errors, I was gone. "Ok, but the deal doesn't include making 5 consecutive errors in different attempts!" So, I went for the next four. And came the invigilator's voice..."You're disqualified!" That was the Shock quotient. "The deal doesn't included making 5 consecutive errors in different attempts!".

Some time back in the day I had even given a certain Junior Quiz, The questions were rather tough, I thought, for a junior quiz but I knew some. One of them was a question about Facebook's founders having shares, I wrote Dustin Moskovitz, I was certain it was correct. But in the last moments of the quiz, something happened:

Mark Zuckerberg -24% , ______-6%, Eduardo Saverin 5%, Microsoft 1.3%

Ans. Dustin Moskovitz Chris Hughes

ta-da! The Fatal Error!

The error cost me my position in finals (I had 5 and the cut-off was 6) and I still regret my decision to cancel out Moskovitz for Hughes, and yearn for a time-machine that could correct it.

Congratulations to my friends, Prempal, Aman and Apratim for winning that Junior Quiz.