The 'EQ' story: entirely questionable!

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After covering Science and Technology for five years, I recently moved to CNN-IBN's show Citizen Journalist. It is a show about citizens actively taking up causes with the help of the channel. It is a show for fighters not gripers. What interests me the most about this work is that it helps me meet interesting people and help them, some that I will never forget. The other day there was a story in the papers. A 55-year-old disabled lady in Delhi was manhandled by MCD workers when they came to destroy the ramp outside her house in Delhi locality, Vikas Puri to construct new sewage drains. She used to use this ramp to maneuver her wheelchair in and out of the house. Apparently she had a response from the Chief Minister's office asking the MCD to maintain status quo on the ramp. And the demolition in the colony had....

The dark side of social networking

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Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter have enabled people to not just reconnect with friends and family, but have provided a platform for sharing information and staying in touch. You upload pictures, share information, tell the world where you are and what you're doing. Fact: once you put anything online, it is shared around the world in seconds and stays there for decades. Here is the bad news - even if you delete what you wrote, chances are, it is sitting pretty on one of the servers halfway across the world. So much for privacy. It would be rhetorical to ask if you've seen The Social Network. For the uninitiated, this movie chronicles the creation of Facebook, arguably one of the most popular websites the World Wide Web has to offer. What led to 500 million smiling faces was a shaky, unstable start. Instead, what the movie....

It's raining Tablet PCs

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It is no news that whatever Apple does - other companies follow suit. No wonder then that after Apple released its much-awaited iPad in April, numerous companies launched tablet PCs. Even those companies that have never made a computer now want to make a tablet PC. BlackBerry's manufacturer RIM is the latest one to join this tablet-making bandwagon. The Wall Street Journal reported that the new tablet called BlackPad is scheduled for release soon. It will have a 7-inch screen and will have Bluetooth and broadband connections but will only be able to connect to cellular networks through a BlackBerry Smartphone. Most of this might be pure speculation but we will get the facts soon once RIM launches the tablet in developer conference in San Francisco, which starts on Sept 27. Till then let's look at some noteworthy launched/ about to be launched tablets in the market. ....

Printing from the cloud

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On Hewlett Packard's invitation I was sent to Hong Kong earlier this week. Inside the walls of the historic Shaw Studios, HP launched their new range of printers; they call them 'web-aware' printers. So what does that mean? It means each of the HP's new printers above Rs 7,000 will come with an email id. If you need the printer to print, you can just send an email to it remotely from your phone or an iPad. No complicated cables or drivers needed, not even a computer is required... Just go to HP's cloud-based ePrintCenter. and register your printer, it will give an id to your printer which can even be changed later. You could be holidaying in Hawaii and yet be able to give a print to your CA in India by sending an email to his printer from your smart phone. I thought of testing....

iNQ Chat 3G is socially relevant!

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On Tuesday, I received a phone in my office that came for Satyashree Gandham, our senior producer in Mumbai. Satya told me to hold on to it for her and that I can play with it. Oh well, if you insist! So after two days of using the iNQ chat 3G, here is what I think about it. But before you read any further I must tell you that this phone is launched in partnership with Aircel -- so if you have no plans to change your phone operator don't read on. Firstly, this phone looks a lot like the BlackBerry Curve but it is not as expensive as a BlackBerry. It has 3G, a QWERTY keypad, push e-mail, integration of Facebook and Twitter - all this for only Rs 7,500! The handset is thin but not flimsy and the QWERTY....

iLove this name

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What's in a name? This is what Steve Jobs and his marketing team seems to have thought before they came up with the name for their latest tablet PC-iPad. I mean Apple should admit, iPad does sound like a High-tech Sanitary Pad. Within minutes of the name being announced it started drawing sneers and jeers from the blogosphere and social networking sites- mostly from female pundits. Here are my favourites from Twitter: Tagline for iPad-Internet. Period. Does the iPad come with wings? Marketing Promotion of 2010 - 1 year's free iPill with every purchase of iPad. I-pad sounds like a confession to me... I-pad A LOT... "About the iPad. Is it just for my light flow days?" A Los Angeles Times' tech blog asked: Yes, the iPad is small, lightweight and slim. But can you swim with it? Another cynic....

Millennium's longest annular solar eclipse

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It was our third day on the Eclipse cruise in Maldives. The day began early for us eclipsoholics on-board country's first eclipse cruise as we figured best viewing positions, got our hands on the solar goggles and attended how-to-see-the- eclipse workshops organised by astronomers from SPACE. We all waited patiently on the top deck of aquamarine in the middle of the Indian ocean, as the moon slowly covered the mammoth sun to finally reveal the breathtaking `ring of fire'. But instead of 11 minutes it lasted for only about 30 seconds -just before the clouds covered the marvel and it started pouring only to give few glimpses of the annularity. Though the clouds played hide and seek with us yet people were far from disappointed. As our cruise headed back to Cochin....

First day on eclipse cruise

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At 3 PM on Wednesday we boarded luxurious Aquamarine for India's first eclipse cruise. About a thousand people on board had a great opportunity to watch century's longest annular solar eclipse from a point where it is best viewed from- in the world! For a whopping 10 minutes and 46 seconds. There are still 310 nautical miles to be covered and about a day and a half left before we view the celestial marvel in Maldives, but the excitement is already building up. Let me tell you something about Aquamarine- it is a luxurious ship! I will not be exaggerating if I say it looks like the Titanic ship we saw in the movie. There are numerous restaurants, a swimming pool, a casino and a gymnasium. It is like a moving five star hotel. I spoke to Mr Swaminathan Iyer, who took this cruise specially to....

India's first eclipse cruise

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Call me lucky and I, in all modesty ,will agree. I have seen a solar eclipse from the land, last year I saw the eclipse from the air and in two days I will see it from the middle of the Indian Ocean. Infact, I have become an official eclipse chaser for CNN IBN. Last year in July a Delhi based organisation called S.P.A.C.E (www.space-india.org), working for development of science and astronomy in India, organised a special flight to see a total solar eclipse. I too was on board that special flight that flew over Taregana in Bihar to watch a celestial marvel that lasted for just about four minutes but made an impression in my mind that I will never forget. Before that whenever I heard about eclipse chasers, I wondered what motivates them to go around the world chasing these eclipses. In those four minutes I had....

Kindling my literary taste

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If you already don't know through my facebook, twitter, orkut and gtalk status update then FYI- I have got THE kindle. For those who were not paying attention-Kindle is a gadget developed by Amazon for reading e-books and other digital media like newspapers and magazines. First thing that impressed me about Kindle is that it so sleek and simple to use. Make an account on Amazon and configure your credit card details with it. Once you get Kindle just plug it in, charge it, order a book and it gets downloaded in under a minute. Since Amazon is operating Kindle from America you have to pay in dollars. Its 6-inch screen and e-ink format makes the reading experience almost like a real book. You can even bookmark pages and highlight key messages. Once charged Kindle's battery life lasts for weeks. Its 2 GB memory can hold up to....