Re: [silk] OpenMoko - Thoughts? (was Re: IPhone - Thoughts?)
OpenMoko and H.323 or SIP - now that's something. Cheeni On 7/10/07, Aditya Chadha [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Has anyone seen/used one of the FIC 1973 / OpenMoko phones? It sounds like a very viable alternative to the closed apple/att hell. Cheers, Aditya On 7/9/07, VaibhaV Sharma [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Jul 7, 2007, at 1:36 AM, Srini Ramakrishnan wrote: Unlocking an iphone doesn't get you the whole package iirc. There are features such as visual voice mail that require special iphone support on the telco side. Have your friends in India thought that one out? Yes I know the details. People don't care as long as they can show off the iPhone and can make / receive calls on it. Also, are they willing to pay the contract early termination fee that must be at least another 200 bucks? What contract? You walk into any apple / ATT store and buy an iPhone. Bring it home, unlock it and do whatever you want with it. The contract / termination fee comes in the picture if you activate it with an ATT plan. As of now, people have figured out how to use the media player (ala iPod) part of the phone without activating the phone part of it. There was a slashdot story on that today? BTW, there seems to be some problem with ATT for the past two days. People leave voicemails for me and I never get a notification. Also, through the weekend, it took me atleast 5 tries to make each phone call. There is definitely something going on with ATT's network. Maybe its just a NW US thing. -- VaibhaV Sharma http://vsharma.net -- Aditya (http://aditya.sublucid.com/)
[silk] firework physics
Japanese fireworks are still the best in the world http://www.economist.com/daily/columns/techview/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9459056
Re: [silk] OpenMoko - Thoughts? (was Re: IPhone - Thoughts?)
On 7/10/07, Srini Ramakrishnan [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: OpenMoko and H.323 or SIP - now that's something. Cheeni No WiFi in v1 of the FIC1973 (GTA01), which limits VoIP capabilities... Still a nice phone to hack on. Apparently, the touchscreen is super-high rez - and you 'need to see it to believe it'. Wondering whether to get one, now. Cheers, Aditya
Re: [silk] OpenMoko - Thoughts? (was Re: IPhone - Thoughts?)
On 7/10/07, Aditya Chadha [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: No WiFi in v1 of the FIC1973 (GTA01), which limits VoIP capabilities And no camera either. Like the iPhone, I'll wait for version 2. -Gautam
Re: [silk] firework physics
On 7/10/07, Rishab Aiyer Ghosh [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Japanese fireworks are still the best in the world Given the sheer quantum [and regularity] of fireworks we use in India, I've always wondered why they look so rudimentary when compared to the stuff I see on TV. -Gautam
Re: [silk] firework physics
On Tue, Jul 10, 2007 at 01:54:44PM +0530, Gautam John wrote: Given the sheer quantum [and regularity] of fireworks we use in India, I've always wondered why they look so rudimentary when compared to the stuff I see on TV. because we like the loud bangs more than the bright sparks. (so do the chinese, probably) -r
[silk] Ex-World Bank president buys Fabindia stake
FabIndia, the kurta outfit, is worth $183 million? http://www.ft.com/cms/s/ c0ac20e4-2e40-11dc-821c-779fd2ac,dwp_uuid=a6dfcf08-9c79-11da-8762-00 00779e2340,_i_rssPage=a6dfcf08-9c79-11da-8762-779e2340.html Ex-World Bank president buys Fabindia stake By Joe Leahy in Mumbai Published: July 9 2007 19:39 | Last updated: July 9 2007 19:39 James Wolfensohn, the former World Bank president, has joined the rush by private equity firms to invest in India by buying a stake in a chic domestic garment retailer that specialises in ethnic Indian designs and fabrics. Mr Wolfensohn’s company, WCP Mauritius Holdings, will pay $11m for a 6 per cent stake in Fabindia, one of the first Indian companies with foreign investment to sell modern consumer goods sourced from India’s village-level artisans. “The money will be used for expansion and for our growth plans,” Fabindia said yesterday. The investment by Mr Wolfensohn comes as a growing number of private equity firms have been scouring India for deals. In the first half of the year, for the Asia-Pacific region excluding Japan, India for the first time was ranked second in terms of the value of announced private equity transactions, with a record $2.33bn of deals, up 55 per cent on a year earlier, according to figures from Thomson Financial. Since leaving the World Bank in 2005, Mr Wolfensohn has established Wolfensohn Company, a private investment firm, and is setting up an investment banking group with his children and associates. This year, he went to the Gulf to court Arab investors for a $500m private equity fund with a focus on alternative energy. Fabindia was set up in 1960 by John Bissell, a former buyer for Macy’s New York, initially to export Indian handloom textiles adapted to western tastes. Today it has 61 stores selling men’s and women’s garments, as well as household furnishings, pottery, organic food and handicrafts. It plans to use the Wolfensohn investment to expand the number of its stores to 200 in four years and it says it will hand over the supply chain to companies set up in co-operation with the communities that make its goods. Private equity firms have been active in India for some time but until recently transactions were small. In the past year, however, there have been signs of increased interest, with Carlyle recently clinching a $650m deal for a 5.6 per cent stake in the country’s second-largest private lender, HDFC.
Re: [silk] OpenMoko - Thoughts? (was Re: IPhone - Thoughts?)
On Tue, Jul 10, 2007 at 01:48:38PM +0530, Gautam John wrote: On 7/10/07, Aditya Chadha [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: No WiFi in v1 of the FIC1973 (GTA01), which limits VoIP capabilities And no camera either. Like the iPhone, I'll wait for version 2. I'm also waiting for October. I'm also waiting for actual numbers for runtime on the battery. GPS + navi application running better last for 8+ hours, and phone standby should do a week, or so. -- Eugen* Leitl a href=http://leitl.org;leitl/a http://leitl.org __ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE
Re: [silk] Ex-World Bank president buys Fabindia stake
Kiran Jonnalagadda wrote: FabIndia, the kurta outfit, is worth $183 million? Solid business plan, making and selling decent stuff, at a markup, with a good retail network - all recipes for a good valuation. And they have been cautious so far - venturing from clothes to footwear, personal care, and home decoration stuff.
Re: [silk] firework physics
On 7/10/07, Gautam John [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On 7/10/07, Rishab Aiyer Ghosh [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Japanese fireworks are still the best in the world Given the sheer quantum [and regularity] of fireworks we use in India, I've always wondered why they look so rudimentary when compared to the stuff I see on TV. -Gautam Not soHaving watched fireworks at several places, incl the famous ones at Dubai and New York, I can say that the Pooram Festival fireworks matches all these. I think it's a question of the cost...but who knows, perhaps the Kerala fireworks are bought in Japan? But somehow I don't think so... Deepa On 7/10/07, Gautam John [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On 7/10/07, Rishab Aiyer Ghosh [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Japanese fireworks are still the best in the world Given the sheer quantum [and regularity] of fireworks we use in India, I've always wondered why they look so rudimentary when compared to the stuff I see on TV. -Gautam
Re: [silk] firework physics
I'd always thought that fireworks (and rockets) were invented in China. But apparenty they were developed much earlier in Magna Graecia i.e. by Greeks in southern Italy. http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blrockethistory.htm (Fireworks - and all sorts of noisy explosive gimmicks - are still very popular in Naples, especially at midnight on new year's eve.) Cheers Giancarlo
Re: [silk] OpenMoko - Thoughts? (was Re: IPhone - Thoughts?)
[BTW, hello all, been lurking for a while] It's not clear whether to hack on the phone you need to get the debug board and also not clear what kind of computer/OS combination you can plug that board into. So I sent OpenMoko a question a couple days ago. No answer yet. Agreed that this is a *very* interesting device. -Tim On 7/10/07, Eugen Leitl [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Tue, Jul 10, 2007 at 01:48:38PM +0530, Gautam John wrote: On 7/10/07, Aditya Chadha [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: No WiFi in v1 of the FIC1973 (GTA01), which limits VoIP capabilities And no camera either. Like the iPhone, I'll wait for version 2. I'm also waiting for October. I'm also waiting for actual numbers for runtime on the battery. GPS + navi application running better last for 8+ hours, and phone standby should do a week, or so. -- Eugen* Leitl a href=http://leitl.org;leitl/a http://leitl.org __ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE
Re: [silk] OpenMoko - Thoughts? (was Re: IPhone - Thoughts?)
On 7/10/07, Aditya Chadha [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: No WiFi in v1 of the FIC1973 (GTA01), which limits VoIP capabilities And no camera either. Like the iPhone, I'll wait for version 2. And 2.5G cell radio, so it will be as slow as the iPhone access that people complain about. (And the apps will almost certainly not be as beautiful :-)
Re: [silk] OpenMoko - Thoughts? (was Re: IPhone - Thoughts?)
On Tue, Jul 10, 2007 at 07:08:23AM -0700, Chris Kantarjiev wrote: And no camera either. Like the iPhone, I'll wait for version 2. I hope for a camera in v2. 2 MPixels would be nice. And 2.5G cell radio, so it will be as slow as the iPhone access that GSM is okay. EDGE would have been nice. UMTS (3G) would have been too nice, but then they'd ship a free pony, too. people complain about. (And the apps will almost certainly not be as beautiful :-) Oh, freedom is about the most beautiful thing there is. Optics is completely orthogonal to that, and can be fixed at a future release, eventually.
Re: [silk] firework physics
On Tuesday 10 Jul 2007 1:54 pm, Gautam John wrote: Given the sheer quantum [and regularity] of fireworks we use in India, I've always wondered why they look so rudimentary when compared to the stuff I see on TV. Cottage industry + child labor/illiterate labor versus solid science. Khadi gramodyog vs teflon. Apples and Oranges. shiv
Re: [silk] Ex-World Bank president buys Fabindia stake
Ex-world bank? What is the world bank called now? Or has it been shut down? Or is there a bank outside the world now whose president is buying things in India? shiv Humour is a matter of being shown something in an unexpectedly new way... Shiv, thanks, that was a wonderful way to close my day. And since L I T B M, you can send me your bill,doc, though you should have been an orthopaedic surgeon, dealing in the humerus... Deepa. On 7/10/07, shiv sastry [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Tuesday 10 Jul 2007 12:20 pm, Kiran Jonnalagadda wrote: Ex-World Bank president buys Fabindia stake Ex-world bank? What is the world bank called now? Or has it been shut down? Or is there a bank outside the world now whose president is buying things in India? shiv
Re: [silk] OpenMoko - Thoughts?
On 10 Jul 2007, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: No WiFi in v1 of the FIC1973 (GTA01), which limits VoIP capabilities And no camera either. Like the iPhone, I'll wait for version 2. The camera is not going to be present in GTA02 either. Wi-Fi will, though. Harald Welte said that it was a concious decision to omit the camera, and I sort of agree. -- Alok Turnaucka's Law: The attention span of a computer is only as long as its electrical cord.
[silk] Outlook feature on S. India
Outlook magazine has a special this week on the socio-economic progress the southern states of India (KA/AP/TN/KL; couldn't find much of PY or GA there) have made vis-a-vis the rest of the country. http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20070716fname=JSouthern+Comfort+%28F%29sid=1 http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20070716fname=IHuman+Developement+%28F%29sid=1 http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20070716fname=KSadanand+Menon+%28F%29sid=1 [probably more] Most of it is anecdotal; but parts did amuse, like this quote: Consider this case. A popular actor/chief minister dies. His wife and his concubine contest his legacy and fight the election. The people vote the concubine as his heir. By what yardstick do you call this cultural conservatism? My thinking is that the situation isn't much different from elsewhere in the country: - Religious riots/terrorist attacks in Hyderabad, Coimbatore, Calicut, Bangalore and elsewhere. - Suicides by farmers in AP KL - Constant bickering between these states among themselves (mostly between TN and the other states :) which translates into xenophobia. Binand
Re: [silk] OpenMoko - Thoughts?
On 10-Jul-07, at 11:11 PM, Alok G. Singh wrote: The camera is not going to be present in GTA02 either. Wi-Fi will, though. Harald Welte said that it was a concious decision to omit the camera, and I sort of agree. Could you elaborate? The camera is a significant deciding factor in any phone I consider. J.
