Radius of Rainbow : Fun

The real smart car

Ashutosh Galande — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 01:03:28 GMT

Over the holidays, I wrote a small windows mobile app that would let me listen to one of the Bollywood radio stations on my phone. It’s very handy to use voice command to start the app and have it play desi melodies as I set out for a long drive over the weekends. Ever since I wrote it, I wondered why my car didn’t come with something similar. A unit that can talk to the net through my cell phone’s data plan and get all kinds of data such as maps, traffic, weather and even music for that matter.

Looks like somebody in Microsoft Auto group was thinking the same thing. I just saw this modest piece on Engadget about the next version of Microsoft Sync. Though it looks very plain, the coolest part is that “the service uses Bluetooth to tether to any handset, downloading content using a voice call so that you can use this completely fee-free -- even if you don't have a data plan” This is just plain awesome! Now only if they’d put that in a Honda…

beep…

Ashutosh Galande — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 02:24:05 GMT

Saw the latest Mac ad. In it Hodgman tries to buzz the Mac guy every time he tries to say Vista. These are getting more and more boring, negative and pointless. Come Mac folks, Think different!

Also on the topic of buzzing, while its competitors are busy making bricks and unfunny ads, MS went ahead and got a patent for live filtering of objectionable words.

A lot of people are hoping to see this in profanity filter to show up Xbox and other voice communications, I was wondering how come we never implemented something similar in Live messenger and Outlook for textual communication. May be they expect the authors to do the censoring using backspace and delete keys. There’s no undo key in speech, just the post-faux pas words “oops sorry” :)

Now it's PC's turn to take a shot at Mac.

Ashutosh Galande — Thu, 01 May 2008 11:24:22 GMT

I'm a new soul I can do this strange world hoping I could learn a bit about how to give and take

But since I came here felt the joy and the fear finding myself making every possible mistake :)

My search engine is better than your search engine

Ashutosh Galande — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 09:07:00 GMT

Hey you, yes, I am talking to you. I know you use that non-evil search engine. Yes the one with multicolor logo. You think that's the best search engine out there don't you? You are so addicted to it, you even made it your your homepage. Like a lost wanderer, every time you have to find directions to any place on the www, you go to that omniscient oracle of yours and blindly follow wherever it takes you assuming that the best the world has to offer.

Now listen. I've got a news for you. Your search engine is lame! Sorry to bring this disappointing news to you but my search engine is better than your's. 3 times better! Now c'mon don't feel bad. You too can use it if you like.

Here's what you do if you are using IE7/IE8

Browse to http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/searchguide/en-en/default.mspx
In the "Create your own" box on the right side, enter http://mysearchoff.com/?q=TEST
Name it something cool.
Click on install. Make sure that "Make this my default search provider" check box is clicked. That's it.

Suddenly you'll feel enlightened. At least three times smarter than what you felt with your lame old search engine. And if you love typing and prefer browsing to the search engine every time you want to look up something, you can use its address http://mysearchoff.com. While you are there, don't forget to check which of the three search engines is leading in search satisfaction. Tell me if you were surprised. I wasn't :)

WWT @ TED

Ashutosh Galande — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 11:28:00 GMT

The much blogged about WorldWideTelescope was talked about at TED. Here's a quick glimpse of it. I can't wait to see it live at the TechFest in a few days. Folks at MS research do a lot of cool things that only we had a privilege to look at. I am glad that WWT is getting its fair share of public limelight.

PS: If the video below doesn't load, here's a direct link for you: http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/224

An Ode to the Spell Checker

Ashutosh Galande — Thu, 19 Aug 2004 22:20:00 GMT

Eye have a grate come pewter,
the lay test gnu pea sea;
it will a cyst me two low Kate
Miss steaks eye can knot sea.

This peace eye rote is rite, eye no;
my trustee check err tolled me sew!

Author: Lenny Pitt (?)
http://www.cs.uiuc.edu/directory/directory.php?name=pitt