Is Galaxy S2 worth buying?

A friend asked me "How is samsung galaxy S2? Worth buying?"

In one word I can say Yes, but I being me would go on and on and on.....

SII got a 1.2 GHz dual core processor and 1 gb ram, iPhone 4 has 1 GHz single core processor. I found SII is much faster than the SI and iPhone 4. But watch out for iPhone 5.

Samsung got a 4.3 inch screen bigger than 3.5 inch apple screen. But iPhone has super high resolution retina display compared to Read somewhere that iPhone screen is less power intensive and reproduces colors better but that does not mean a lot as of now.

The Body is plasticky, SII back cover is flimsy, made of slim plastic, seems will break down at any moment. iPhone 4 has a industrial design, it is the sturdiest you can get ever.

The OS in Android 2.3 (ginger bread) is far more stable compared to 2.2 and 2.1, but iOS is most stable any day. Personally like using a Android OS compared to iOS, because of the Home screen and Apps screen separately. Expect iOS 5 to add more features to the stable and then I might have to change my opinion.

Overall i feel iOS gets better apps than Android. Don't like the Android App market experience, most of them look lot less polished than the iOS apps. Most of the apps I use however are available on both platforms so it does not matter.

I like the integration to Gmail/Google Apps/Social Networking in Android. iOS will have integration with twitter in iOS 5, but it is far less integrated.

Battery... I used to run out of the iPhone 3GS in half of the working day with SI somehow get to the end of the day (because I play with SI far less compared to iPhone), with a Blackberry Bold I would use 2 whole days. Displays consume most battery apart from the calls, bigger and touch screens even more.

If mail is the primary use of the phone Blackberry is better (Bold Series (avoid Torch) but look out for the new ones coming. For high apps and games use I would recommend iPhone. SII gives a more balanced user experiences.

Finally; when I bough the SI I though to myself that it is a poor mans iPhone. I still stick to it. SII gives far more value for money spent than iPhone.

Bangalore loses IPL matches to bombs

In today's India, a bomb can go off anywhere. What makes IPL think Mumbai is safer than Bangalore. Were the Mumbai not the target of more attacks than any other city in India? Whole of India is a dangerous place to be - case in point Dantewada attacks. Will they move the matches out of India? Will it remain IPL then? This is a bad precedent and a step in the wrong direction. It is shows that we are scared of miscreants.

Perils of Thoughts

What is the link in Google Pages, Blogger, Orkut & Buzz? Apart from they all being Google owned sites; they fight for mindshare of individuals through web presence. They show the evolution of mediums to express one’s thoughts.

In good old days if you needed a web presence you needed a pursuing degree in computer science, to host a webpage on the university server and actually be able to create a webpage itself. Web space was costly and needed efficiency in HTML to create any web site at all. But that changed when free webhosting sites came into existence, e.g. http://www.angelfire.com/. This is where I made my first web site. The web hosting provider would give you certain amount of web space (5-10 MB) to create your web page(s), and you had to bear with the ads they put on your site to compensate for the free web-space. They also allowed direct upload from HTML editors like Microsoft FrontPage. That meant creating a webpage was comparatively easy for people who did not know HTML etc. But then, the whole concept of web hosting meant that the thoughts or ideas are organized, just like a book to make a meaningful website. http://www.googlepages.com/ caters to this market.

Then came blog. In the world of web two point owe – it is a contraction of the term ‘We-bLog’ – an online diary of (mostly) an individual. Later commercial organizations also picked-up the idea. This new concept meant that you do not have to arrange thoughts in any specific manner and let them flow as they came. Somehow they still meant that you mostly blog about a specific subject, and would consist at least a paragraph of text. http://www.blogger.com/ was the first site I think. Google later acquired blogger.

Come ‘on man you don’t expect to paragraphs from text frenzy people, who are in a hurry to go to hell so came http://www.twitter.com/. These days it creates trouble for Indian politicians and cricket administrators alike. While not creating havoc in the Indian Parliament, twitter allows for shorter messages to be published from anywhere you can access the web or by sending a SMS. I think Google is trying to cater to this market with their latest Google Buzz, but it is bit different anyway. For one – it intrudes into your mail box.

While blogs graduated to dumber tweets, social networking space was becoming a rage. There were many others but www.myspace.com was a pioneer in this field, and www.facebook.com bulldozed everything else in the developed countries. www.orkut.com is Google’s answer which was developed as an internal project and became hugely successful in Brazil and India. Now these social networking sites wanted a share of the users mind so they started ‘what’s in your mind?’ and ‘what are you up to?’

Isn’t that I was using twitter for, and before that blogger and before that angel-fire? Now when I come up with an idea that can change the world during my ‘power-nap-in-the-loo’ session, I ought to be confused where to express that. I don’t use websites now since they are passé. But luckily others are linked. When I put a message on my blogger it shows on face-book, orkut and buzz. If I press ‘Like’ on http://www.youtube.com/ while logged-in they show on twitter and face-book. When I comment something on twitter, it shows on www.linkedin.com. Gradually everything is getting linked, and more confusing.

PS: I could not think of a better title for the blog post.

PPS: my twitter handle is Sharma.Goutam, I blog at http://www.gomzyonline.com/ and it has a mirror on http://www.gomzyonline.blogspot.com/

A Trip to AMS

I visited AMS on the Good Friday. It warm when we began in Dordrecht but became very cold in the way. Once again in AMS it was quite good.

This picture is caused by my shivering hands due to the cold.

EY office in AMS. EY has a special place for me as I was associated for the longest period in any institution apart from primary school and college.

AMS royal palace. Not in use, apparently.

AMS central staion.

Finding Nemo any one?

Some of the houses can be very narrow. It seems in the heydays of AMS, land was very prime, and thus such narrow houses. I have seen some houses as narrow as one door.

This is a very famous bridge. It used to be lifted by hands in old days. Now motors do the work.


You can see some of the houses are not properly aligned and they are leaning on others.

At the Chez

I went to Chez on a warm (NL standards) Friday afternoon for lunch. Enjoyed the food, enjoyed the location and enjoyed the weather. This restaurant is located at a very picturesque location of Wieldrechtseweg, near the port.

In the lobby of Postillion Hotel Dordrecht

I stayed in Postillion Hotel, Dordrecht in a couple of visits to that place. I took some pictures and they are the cause of this post. The hotel is a nice place to stay, but the same can not be said about the food. The menu was short and did not change in 3 months. Luckily there is a Mc Donald’s adjacent to the hotel. Though virtually out of the town of Dordrecht, it is not really very far from the city center, and is barely 5 kilometers away.In the name of the facilities there is one pool table. You have televisions in every room and they give complementary water bottles in the room fridge, they also give coffee, tea and chocolate mix in the room to drink. Earlier they used to put a couple of soup packets as well but they did not during my 2nd visit. There is a pool table in the bar. Breakfast is complementary on the weekends, but the room charges make it up for them.

The above pictures were taken in April during my 2nd visit. Follwoing were taken in Jan'10 during my first visit. Also above pics were taken on a broken SE K790i while the follwoing pictures were taken on a new Nokia E 75. I missed the SE phones then.

A View from my Desk

February 2010 was one of the coldest during the history and due to that I was virtually imprisoned in my hotel room.



These pictures were taken ten days apart on Feb 1st and 11th.

Leeds City Museum

Went to see the York Museum today since I was finished with my work today early. The cab driver was a Pakistani fellow and we spoke in Hindi/Urdu. He advised me to go to York and said it has old type buildings. I decided so be it for the coming Saturday.

The tiger represents India, Indian Sepoys to be precise, the woman with the sword is Britania, and the dead female and child are the innocent English who were murdered by brutal Sepoys. Reality check anyone, One Two Three…

That is a rock that looks like a bread and a cutting knife, symbolizing hard times

Maa Kali, could recognize instantly, depicting the modern woman.

Union Jack made of rubbish.

Slogging Blog

Recently the entries into the blog have been few and far between. The reason has been diagnosed and as it turns out the factors are a few. Primarily the blog was a photo blog, which took shape during my days at Chennai, where I had a good camera phone (SE K750i) and ample time to update. At various times I had equally good phones that were capable of giving great results. Now a day however I am sporting Nokia E61i, which though is a very capable business phone, lacks punch in the camera department.

The other reason has to do with my company policy – which was updated recently – not to allow access to blogs and personal networking sites. I while totally agree with the policy, nevertheless not able to find any opportunity to update my blog.

The third reason is to do with saving on my power bills at home. Earlier my home computer would be switched on for almost all the time. But this has caused me to received four digit power bills, more than double what others receive. To curtail on the expenses I have reduced the time my system stay on and in the process not having enough time to do any productive work on my blog. I hope that the situation improves and I spend more time updating my blog.

A to Z anonymous

Source: See Comments

A is for Awpheesh (as in Office). This is where the average Kolkakatan goes and spends a day hard at work. And if he works for the 'Vest Bengal Gawrment' he will arrive at 10, wipe his forehead till 11, have a tea break at 12, throw around a few files at 12.30, break for lunch at 1, smoke the 7th unfiltered cigarette at 2, break for 5th cup of tea at 3, sleep sitting down at 4 and go home at 4:30. It's a hard life!

B is for Bhision. For some reason many Bengalis don't have good bhision. In fact in Kolkata most people are wearing spectacles all the time....Bhishon Bhalo and Bibhotso.... though means opposite ...used for same situations.. .depending on the Beauty of fairer sex...are close ...almost in a tie for second spot....

C is for Chappell. Currently, this is the Bengali word for the Devil, for the worst form of evil. In the night mothers put their kids to sleep saying, 'Na ghumoley ebar Chappell eshey dhorey niye jabe.'

D is for Debashish or any other name starting with Deb. By an ancient law every fourth Bengali Child has to be named Debashish. So you have a Debashish everywhere and trying to get creative they are also called Deb, Debu, Deba with variations like Debopriyo, Deboprotim, Debojyoti, etc. thrown in at times....as creations of God himself !!

E is for Eeesh. This is a very common Bengali exclamation made famous by Aishwarya Rai in the movie Devdas. It is estimated that on an average a Bengali, especially Bengali women, use eeesh 10,089 times every year. 'Ei Morechhey' is a close second to Eeesh.

F is for Feeesh. These are creatures that swim in rivers and seas and are a favourite food of the Bengalis. Despite the fact that a fish market has such strong smells, with one sniff a Bengali knows if a fish is all right. If not, he will say 'eeesh what feeesh is theesh!'

G is for Good name. Every Bengali boy will have a good name like Debashish or Deboprotim and a pet name like Motka, Bhombol, Thobla, etc. While every Bengali girl will have pet names like Tia, Tuktuki, Mishti, Khuku, et cetera.

H is for Harmonium. This Bengali equivalent of a rock guitar. Take four Bengalis and a Harmonium and you have the successors to The Bheatles!

I is for Ileesh. This is a feeesh with 10,987 bones which would kill any ordinary person, but which the Bengalis eat with releeesh!

J is for Jhola. No selfrespecting Bengali is complete without his Jhola. It is a shapeless cloth bag where he keeps all his belongings and he fits an amazing number of things in. Even as you read this there are two million jholas bobbling around Kolkata, and they all look exactly the same! Note that 'Jhol'with mysterious condiments.. . as in Maachher Jhol is a close second. Jhaamela and Jachhetai are distant 3rd and 4th

K is for Kee Kaando! It used to be the favourite Bengali exclamation till eeesh took over because of Aishwarya Rai.Kee mushkil is a close second.

L is for Lungi, the dress for all occasions. People in Kolkata manage to play football and cricket wearing it not to mention the daily trip in the morning to the local bajaar. Now there is talk of a lungi expedition to Mt Everest.

M is for Minibaas. These are dangerous half buses whose antics would effortlessly frighten the living daylights out of all James Bond stuntmen as well as Formula 1 race car drivers.

N is for Nangto. This is the Bengali word for Naked. It is the most interesting naked word in any language!

O is for Oil. The Bengalis believe that a touch of mustard oil will cure anything from cold (oil in the nose), to earache (oil in the ear), to cough (oil on the throat) to piles (oil you know where!).

P is for Phootball. This is always a phavourite phassion of the Kolkattan. Every Bengali is born an expert in this game. The two biggest clubs there are MOHUNBAGAN and East Bengal and when they play the city comes to a stop.

Q is for Koshchen (question) as in "Mamatadi koshchens Cheap Ministaar in Writaars Buiding."

R is for Robi Thakur. Many many years ago Rabindranath got the Nobel Prize. This has given the right to all Bengalis no matter where they are to frame their acceptance speeches as if they were directly related to the great poet and walk with their head held high. This also gives Bengalis the birthright to look down at Delhi and Mumbai and of course 'all non-Bengawlees'! Note that 'Rawshogolla' comes a close second!

S is for Shourav. Now that they finally produced a genuine cricketer, that too a captain, Bengalis think that he should be allowed to play until he is 70 years old.

T is for Trams. Hundred years later there are still trams in Kolkata. Of course if you are in a hurry it's faster to walk....Trams are still existing in Paris too.......you see !

U is for Aambrela. When a Bengali baby is born he is handed one.

V is for Bhaayolence. Bengalis are the most non-violent violent people around. When an accident happens they will fold up their sleeves, shout and scream and curse and abuse, "Chherey De Bolchhi" but the last time someone actually hit someone was in 1939.

W is for Water. For three months of the year the city is underwater and every year for the last 200 years the authorities are taken by surprise by this!

X is for X'mas. It's very big in Kolkata, with Park Street fully lit up and all Bengalis agreeing that they must eat cake that day.

Y is for Yesshtaarday. Which is always better than today for a Bengali (see R for Robi Thakur)?. It is also for Jubraj Shingh and Joga.

Z is for Jebra, Joo, and Jipper.

IPL 2009- First Impressions

Telecast: I watch it on TV and Set max is doing a bad job. It had at least 5-7 ad breaks between the opening ceremony, which in any other sport or say in Olympics or FIFA world cup would have got nonstop coverage. Sony rather than showing the cricket is more interested in getting the ad buck, which is unfortunate.

Uncertainty: Both of the last years finalists got drubbing. And the not so good teams from previous season did better this time. This paves way for an exciting IPL season two. Every team has a fresh chance t o do well this time and mend their position as of last season.

Pure Cricket: Dravid while receiving his man of the match trophy for his scintillating 66 for Royal Challengers against the other royals, the Rajasthan Royals from Jaipur indicated that this time the game is tough and the better players like (rightly so) Dravid will have good chance of performing. Unlike the Indian pitches which are batter friendly and give scope for innovative joker play these South African pitches are evenly balanced and the chance to the bowlers to win matches.

Old Guard takes Guard: Today we saw, Sachin, Dravid and Kumble performing. While the first one still playing the other two have retired from the short and both forms respectively. This is a welcome sign where the shortest form of game is giving opportunity to the old world players a chance to show the world who the masters are.

New world: Being in South Africa gives IPL a chance to explore the possibility of looking forward to more international venues. It’s undoubtedly a good idea to showcase the Indian might of Cricketing skill world over and promote the game in new locations. Who knows this game can be played in Brazil next season

About being a Devil

It is so much better being a devil’s advocate then being a devil later. One should express one’s opinions then and there when they feel though it hurts momentarily instead bitching about an incident later.

Shore Temple - Mahabalipuram

The shore temple at Mahabalipuram. Last time when I visited there I could not see it as we went there in the after hours.

And then the fight started...

Source - E Mail Forward

My wife sat down on the couch next to me as I was flipping channels.

She asked, 'What's on TV?'

I said, 'Dust.'

And then the fight started...

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My wife was hinting about what she wanted for our upcoming anniversary.
She said, 'I want something shiny that goes from 0 to 150 in about 3 seconds.'

I bought her a weighing scale.

And then the fight started...

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When I got home last night, my wife demanded that I take her someplace expensive...

So, I took her to a gas station..

And then the fight started...

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My wife and I were sitting at a table at her high school reunion, and my wife kept staring at a drunken man swigging his drink as he sat alone at a nearby table.

I asked my wife, 'Do you know him?'

'Yes,' She sighed, 'He's my old boyfriend.
I understand he took to drinking right after we split up those many years
ago.'

'My God!' I said to my wife, 'who would think a person could go on celebrating that long?'

And then the fight started...

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I took my wife to a restaurant. The waiter, for some reason, took my order first.

"I'll have the strip steak, medium rare, please."

He said, "Aren't you worried about the mad cow?"

"Naaah, she can order for herself."

And then the fight started...

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A woman is standing & looking in the bedroom mirror.
She is not happy with what she sees and says to her husband,
'I feel horrible; I look old, fat and ugly. I really need you to pay me a compliment.'

The husband replies, 'Your eyesight's damn near perfect.'

And then the fight started..... .

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I tried to talk my wife into buying a case of Miller Light for $14.95.

Instead, she bought a jar of cold cream for $7.95.

I told her the beer would make her look better at night than the cold cream.

And then the fight started....

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I asked my wife, "Where do you want to go for our anniversary?"

It warmed my heart to see her face melt in sweet appreciation.
"Somewhere I haven't been in a long time!" she said.

So I suggested, "How about the kitchen?"

And that's when the fight started....

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When our lawn mower broke and wouldn't run, my wife kept hinting to me that I should get it fixed..
But, somehow I always had something else to take care of first:
the truck, the car, e-mail, fishing, always something more important to me.

Finally she thought of a clever way to make her point.

When I arrived home one day, I found her seated in the tall grass,
busily snipping away with a tiny pair of sewing scissors.
I watched silently for a short time and then went into the house.
I was gone only a few minutes. When I came out again I handed her a toothbrush.
'When you finish cutting the grass,' I said, 'you might as well sweep the driveway.'

And then the fight started...

Charminar - Hyderabad

When you visit Charminar, the first thought comes to mind is – is this all? Well there nothing more to see than the Charminar, which itself is an ordinary structure. Ladies will find the shopping very enjoyable.