Notes from a Desi Geek

The other day I saw a deal on external hard drive, FreeAgent from Seagate, on SlickDeals.net. As I was looking for an external hard drive for quite some time, I quickly grabbed this deal. My drive arrived yesterday and trying to unpack it and use it was a  ‘Wow’ experience. Here’s my photo story:

1. The product box. Product tag line: ‘Now your digital content has room to breathe.’

Those one liners in different colors read ‘is this obsessive’, ‘nice rug’, ‘found my tax returns’, ‘this song rocks’, ‘i took these with my new camera’.

2. Here’s back of the product box. No stupid technical specifications, no ‘Works with Windows XP/Vista logos’, simple answer to questions I might have.

3. When you flip open the box, you are greeted with this text. ‘If only this box held as much content as your FreeAgent desktop drive’. Nice.

4. When you open the box, first thing you notice is the ‘quick start guide’. It actually doesn’t say that it is a quick start guide…it reads..

5. Below are the photos of the quick start guide. The guide was not black-n-white OR printed on some cheap paper, it was colorful and printed on high quality paper. Looks like folks at Seagate listened to Kathy Sierra when she suggested that ‘Marketing should create the user manuals.’

6. The drive was wrapped in anti-static bag. And the sticker on the bag reads ‘Hello’.

7. Design touches:

• It has no on/off switch. It auto suspends itself with your computer.
• The power plug doesn’t have a transformer. Instead, transformer is at the bottom of the product, giving it a solid base to stand on.
• Other than Seagate logo in bottom corner, product is clean and smooth. Beautiful.
• The drive comes pre-formatted. So when you plug it in and Windows creates the drive letter, it’s ready for you to use! The only thing present on the drive is the PDF containing Warranty and Customer Support manual. Very clever.

I immediately started copying my photos and other stuff to this drive and so far it has worked great.

My only gripe? The wierd product name - FreeAgent. After reading all the beautiful copywriting on product box and quick start guide, I think Seagate could have come up with a better name.

Overall, full marks to Seagate for not only creating a product but for creating the ‘experience’. If you are looking for external hard drive, go buy one now.

First, a little background.

Yesterday I was reading the latest issue of Business 2.0 magazine and read an article about ZipCar, an alternative to renting car from Hertz or Avis. After I finished reading the article, I went to ZipCar website, to learn more about them. And I saw this picture.

[You might have to refresh page couple of times to see the photo. Direct link]

That face seemed very familiar. I had a strong feeling that I had seen this guy’s photo somewhere. And then suddenly it struck me, I saw it on some matrimony site. A quick check found this guy’s tesimonial on Shaadi.com.

Hm… now that’s interesting. Either this Kartik dude submitted testimonial at Shaadi.com and ZipCar.com with a smiling photo OR he is a model whose stock photo is used by both companies, the later being much more likely.

BTW, That true stories page on Shaadi.com is very interesting. If those beautiful gals and handsome guys on that page need to use an online matrimony site, I guess I would need to use some serious Google horsepower to find my life partner. I always had a doubt that the stories on that page are fake but now I am certain.

Fake testimonials on a page named ‘True Stories’. How ironic.

What say you?

Wow, that was a longgggggggg hiatus on my blog.

My last post was made on November, 2005 and it’s May 2007 right now. Almost one and a half year. A lot has happened in that time frame and more importantly, I have learned a lot on technical/business front. My current plan is to revive this blog and capture that knowledge. Wish me luck.

This is page content.

BoS (Business of Software) forum has a thread about Google Analytics launch.

Andy Brice of Perfect Table Plan made following comment:

I feel sorry for anyone who is just about to release a web analytics product.

I think that’s missing the point. Do you really think Google is releasing this service so that they can have paid subscribers? C’mon, they don’t need 5$/month subscribers when they have billions in cash. The reason they are offering this service is to move one step closers towards world, I mean, internet dominance. What’s the biggest problem being faced by Google today? The biggest problem is those spam sites, splogs and other link farms which pollutes the search results because these pages are only setup for Google PR purposes and nothing else. Now by offering this service, Google can find out how many hits your site is getting. Combine this with PageRank (which is easy to manipulate) and boom, you get a better search index and better results! I am guessing that in near future, sites those use Google Analytics will do better in search results than those who don’t.

Does the word ‘monopoly’ come to your mind?

This is HUGE! Google has released an official API to include Google Maps on your site. Wow, I must say!
I am currently working on a personal project and I think I will definitely use Google Maps to make it super friendly. Though API does not yet include routing, I am sure Google will include it soon on popular demand.
JD

Anil book-tagged me, this is the first time ever that someone passed a meme to me! Thanks, Anil!

Here’s my relationship details with books:

Total number of books I own: As of now, my bookshelf holds around 20 books. Lately I have stopped buying computer books because there is Safari. Also, I had around 20 or so books on my bookshelf when I was in India. So in total, I own around 40 books.

Last book I read: I think I read ‘Purple Cow’ by Seth Godin last, after seeing Ian recommending it so highly. I respect Seth and his writings but I found that the book ‘Purple Cow’ didn’t have lot of ideas. I found that Bootstrapper’s Bible by Seth Godin has lot more interesting stuff.

My unfinished Book: Rapid Development by Steve McConnell.

Books that mean a lot to me:

Getting Things Done by David Allen. He is the productivity guru. This bestseller has great material on how you can be more productive and achieve your goals. It’s a must for all professionals.

Peopleware by Tom Demarco and Timothy R. Lister. A great book about productive projects and teams. This book explains why everyone at Microsoft gets office with door that closes.

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini. This book would explain why you are not able say ‘No’ to salesman who employs tactics identified in this book.

Actually, I will save myself typing trouble and link you to Joel’s Book Reviews. I have read almost all the books on that list and I think you should too. [Madman recommends these books as well! :)]

I am passing book-tag to

Christopherer Baus [Chris, helping you to become number one 'baus'.]
UPDATE: Gautam Gaurav Bhatnagar
Ian
Kevin
Swaroop
Sonal

Btw, I think this meme is great compared to other pointless memes. I am already finding new interesting books and my wishlist is getting larger and larger.
JD

Ever wondered how would you look if you were from different race? Say, Caucasian?

OR say you didn’t evolve and still had Chimpanzee characteristics?

OR if Modigliani, the Italian Painter, drew your potrait?

Wonder no more. Check out The St Andrew’s Face Morpher!

Just one caveat. The page uses Java Applet for face morphing but it’s worth installing Java to see the effect!
The Java applet can morph your face to show how you would look if you were child, teenager, east-asian, west-asian etc.

It’s fun, check it out!

Today, I found myself using Way Back Machine, to browse my old site and found very funny stuff I had put up there.

I found one quote which is my favourite. It goes like:

The only place where success comes before work, is in the dictionary.

Another favourite quote of mine is:

There are no shortcuts in life, unless you right click and find one.

What’s your favourite quote?

JD