Ashwath Ram's blog

Driving the Prius Hybrid

We rented the Toyota Prius hybrid car this time while in the US. Drove around 4000 miles over 3 weeks with it so got a pretty good feel for what it was like. The vehicle is extremely high tech and has dozen of visual sensors etc, which tell you when you are in electric motor mode or in gasoline engine mode.

The computer controls when it needs to go onto electric motor and when it needs power from the engine. Its got an exciting push button start and cool features such as rear view camera for reversing.

Bottomline: Its good, drives like a real gasoline vehicle and handles well. The 45MPG is a real plus now that gas is $3.5 per gallon.

We could certainly use a car like this in India, it s the size of a Corolla, maybe a bit smaller.

Follow this link for more details:

http://www.myhybridcar.net/prius-images.html

All in all it was a good expereince.

Its prices as per US standards at $20 to $23K, but by India standards its quite economical and wiht the mileage really worth it. 

Ashwath

Tracking running using iPOD and Nike sensors

NIKE+ _ Runs

My runs tracking from Jan to July 2007.

Comparison of size of 1GB of RAM from 20 years ago

20yago.jpg (JPEG Image, 1024x768 pixels) - Scaled (90%)

Toto's Z-series toilets recalled due to fire hazard - Engadget

Toto's Z-series toilets recalled due to fire hazard - Engadget

http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/16/to...

Sure, spontaneous combustion has occurred in a bevy of consumer electronics over the past year or so, but if there was one place even we thought you could count yourself safe, it'd be on the john. Apparently, this assumption is no longer valid for Toto toilet owners, as 180,000 of the company's Z-series units are now being recalled "after wiring problems caused three to catch fire over the past year." The electric bidet accessory is being shown the blame, as the faulty wiring not only torched a trio of units, but also caused smoke to come flowing out of 26 others. As expected, the firm will "repair the potentially fiery units manufactured between May 1996 and December 2001 for free," but we've no idea if Toto will be reimbursing the outhouse rentals for those sans a backup commode.Tags: bathroom, bidet, electric bidet, ElectricBidet, exploding, explosion, fire, heat, japan, overheat, overheating, recall, toilet, toilet seat, ToiletSeat, toto, toto z, TotoZ, z series, ZSeries

The Stock Market at 16,000, how to invest?

The BSE has hit 16,000 and it looks from all indications that it will continue on this path to 17,000, so how does one invest at this level.

I believe that in such conditions its better to invest in companies that are good, rather than in the whole index.

There are many sectors that have taken quite a beating and are down inspite of the market hitting new highs, some of these are:

Pharmaceuticals:

Cipla

Pfizer

IT:

TCS

Infosys

All of these have sold off significantly and are at least 20% below their 52 week high’s, making them good stocks for the long term.

 

Visit, www.poweryourtrade.com for tips from trading experts.

2.5 months of using the Apple iPhone

Like most members of the early adopters club, I stood in the line outside the AT&T store in Columbus, IN (12th in the line). The wait was not bad about an hour the store opened up and within 10 min. I had my iPhone.

The installation and activation worked seamless for me and within 30 min. the whole phone was activated and working.

Apple recently announced a $200 price cut and is giving a $100 rebate to early adopters.
Iphone site

In all fairness the iPhone is far superior to any other phone, its just that w eexpect a lot more from apple.

I have now used it for 2.5 months and here are thing I like and dislike about it.

Dislike:
1. No task and to do application that will sync with outlook or entourage.
2. No video.
3. Doesn't support http mail for mail such as hot mail in th email client.
4. No video.
5. Can't upload images to flickr etc. directly from the phone without going through mail.
6. Small storage on 8Gb.
7. Speaker phone isn't very loud.
8. Can't search though songs with a key word.
9. Can't add any more applications easily.
10. Slow edge speed.

Like:
1. Best phone on market.
2. Touch keyboard is great.
3. Best ever iPod.
4. Video is superb.
5. Feel and interface is fantastic.
6. Safari browser is amazing.
7. Mail works well.
8. Wifi works great.
9. Battery life is superb.
10. Camera works really well for not having flash.

On a scale of 10, I would rank the iPhone ver. 1.0 a 8 and give a Nokia N95 something like a 5, so there a comparison.
 

Three Months of using Vista

Ha ving now used Vista for over 3 months here is my feedback:

1. System is stable I have had minimal crashes . 
2. Lots of eye candy but this needs more powerful equipment.
3. If you have less than 1.5 Gb of RAM don't even bother upgrading. 
4. Lots of drivers still incompatible with Vista so you need to check different devices you are using to ensure compatibility, biggest laggards on software are the mobile phone device companies.
5. Vista Ultimate is a waste, go with home premium or Business.
6. Office 2007 couple nicely with Vista.
7. Most web cam's etc. are detected by OS and work well.

Conclusion:

No need to upgrade from XP unless you are getting a new system.

Move to a Mac everything in Vista is mostly already there and the overall implementation is better.

First week of using Vista RTM

I installed Vista on 3 machines this week, my office machine, my Toshiba laptop and my home Dell machine.

Installation tips

1. The installation is really smooth. The OS asks a few questions asks for your code and then pretty much does everything else. Even on my tricky Toshiba installation everything went smoothly.
2. Make sure you disable all anti virus applications.
3. The software needs at least  8gb of free space to install.
4. Make sure you go to the web site of your manufacturer and download all the latest BIOS and other device drivers before you begin the installation. 
5. Make sure you backup all your documents before beginning the install.
6. If you can a clean install where you wipe off all old data and start from scratch wil lyield best performance.

Vista Upgrade adviser

The OS is pretty stable and I did not experience any major crashes.

The only problem I observed was that outlook 2005 B2Tr would not work as well and required a reinstall to get working (Buts that probably a problem with the beta)

Some applications such as ACDSee won't work right away but will work once reinstalled. You won't need it as Vista now has its own photo gallery which is pretty good. Most other applications seemed to work well, though I had some problems with Acrobat.

The Aqua interface is nice but a bit overdone on the transparencies.

All in all its getting to be more like a Mac.

Visit the features site for a more in depth listing.......Vista Feature Site

Happy installation, its coming by January 2007

Nakama.ca nice site for camera phone users wanting to share images and video

nakama.ca

is a cool site for those interested in sharing photos and video they take from their camera phones or other mobile devices.

The nice features of this site are that, it works great all over the world, including India.

All you need is to send an e-mail (mms) message to youraccount@nakama.ca with the content and it automatically will set it up on the site and make it available to all your friends and family.

So, imagine the scenario you are out on the beach and take a photo, you can beam it live to nakama and your friends and family. The site has some other fancy feature like calling you back on your mobile and allowing you to record voice comments, etc. even if you don't us that the base feature set is  easy to use.

Pretty cool, check it out.

Great Philosophy and Practice at Toyota

Perfection