The new SetuGarg.com
Welcome to the new setugarg.com !
This time, I have ported my complete website to WordPress. WordPress is an awesome CMS and arguably the best self hosted blogging platform available. And I love it :).
I hope you like the new design.
App Store cheats?
I like the iPhone App Store. I mean I really love all the different kinds of cool apps available 24×7 on my iPhone which I can install over edge or wi-fi anytime I want.
It takes real hard courage to go ahead and buy any app from the app store. Mainly because we (Indians) are so much used to free software that we take it for granted. The thought of buying software just brings LOL to our minds.
The app store changed all this. I saw people in India actually buying these apps! Forget everyone else, even I went ahead and bought a couple of .99$ and 1.99$ apps. Due to the sucky conversion rate to INR, they do cost us little more than they should. But still, I buy them.
After reading a lot of positive reviews, I gathered a lot of courage to buy the Moto Chaser game @ 5.99$. The game lived up to my expectations. You can read my review here .
But today after reading the news that the game’s price was reduced to .99$, I feel cheated. I mean lowering the app’s price for a few days might be a good marketing gimmick, but it fucks up the courage to buy new apps. I mean after seeing this, I am not gonna buy any app right away. I will probably wait for the developer’s birthday or any other stupid reason for the price to go down and then buy it.
Apple should do something about this, else people will stop buying the apps.
Flickr and Orkut launch iPhone versions
Posted by admin in First Look, Tech on October 4, 2008
Two of my favourite social sites – Flickr and orkut launched their new versions of mobile sites for the iPhone.
Although the iPhone version of safari renders both these websites properly in their normal desktopy version, an iPhone optimized site adds that extra wow to the overall experience. You don’t have to zoom in or pinch to look at a section.
Instead of developing a stand alone app for the App Store, these sites focussed on developing web based app. This has its own advantages. For example, if they want to update the site, they just need to do it in their servers. All the users will start seeing the updated version instantaneously. Whereas if it was an app, people have to upgrade it manually.
However, a web based app has it’s disadvantages a well. First, it cannot be as rich as a stand alone app. Secondly, if any of these services want to use the apple’s push notification service (likely for orkut), they can’t.
Anyways, it’s great news for users.
Access Flickr’s iPhone version at http://m.flickr.com
Access orkut’s iPhone version at http://m.orkut.com/Home
Some screenshots:
Movie Review: Welcome to Sajjanpur [Sucks]
I do not know why stereotype directors go out of their way and produce crappy movies which are completly out of their league. And I do not understand how great actors consent to such roles.
I was too excited to watch this movie partly because the music is really nice and because it’s a Shyam Benegal’s movie. However, it turned out to be complete torture. It had absolutely no storyline till the interval after which it was a little watchable.
For the first half, random characters were coming on screen and doing random stuff. To make matters worse, they threw in some songs which really weren’t necessary. Furthermore, no one probably watched the movie after the production was over, otherwise, they would have noticed that KK’s voice does not suit on the bhojpuri actor Ravi Kishan.
The fact that an excruciating street play about the Singur problem was deliberately inserted in the movie proves that directors take their movies as their playground and do not even think about viewers’ reaction.
Benegal wanted to make a comedy movie. Then why on earth did he try to insert public service messages in favor of eunuchs (like he hasn’t already) and against stupid superstitions (Marrying a girl with a dog to remove some kind of astrology issue)? They were really irritating and the message got out all wrong. Also, it was a movie for villagers and illitrate people with really good songs (thanks to Shantanu Moitra). Maybe he should have made a documentary.
Stay away from this movie.
A Wednesday Movie Review
There is nothing much to say here about the movie as most reviewers and critics have already spoken very high of the movie. The movie is simply superb. The best Bollywood movie I have seen till date. I wasn’t expecting this movie to be this good. To be frank, I wasn’t even planning on going to watch it. However, as I liked the trailer and the fact that there was no other movie worth watching the day it was released, compelled me to go for this one. And it was one of those best decisions I usually make ;).
All the actors in the movie are superb. This is a no frills movie sans any nonsense and stupid comedy. The director was so keen on keeping the movie confined to the context that he didn’t even allow any songs in the movie. And that’s probably a good approach for such movies as there is usually no requirement of songs in thriller movies.
Speaking of the director, this is Neeraj Pandey’s first try at direction. And I must say, a superb one. Hats off to the new guy who blew the old players away.
The screenplay is awesome. You might guess the ending halfway through the movie, but still, the movie will keep you gripped to the screenplay. The thrill will pump your adrenaline to the levels of Speed 1 and the likes.
This is a must watch for everyone. Watch it in a theater.
Wall – E in India
Wall – E was released in India yesterday on 29 August 2008. Owing to the high IMDB rating and a lot of mention in my favorite tech blogs, I went to watch the first show. Here is some bit of my experience.
Since this proved to be one hell of a movie in the US, I was expecting a lot of people to come and watch it. But I was surprised to see 90% of the hall to be empty! Then I guessed the reason behind the same as lack of hype and publicity and release of the much awaited Farhan Akhtar’s movie "Rock On!".
None the less, the movie is superb. It truly deserves its rank in IMDB top 250. The graphics are mind blowing. And the story is also good. Combining a romantic story with environmental issues proved out to be a great idea :). I loved the way they portrayed the human life outside earth. No wonder the movie broke so many records.
All in all, it’s a must watch for everyone here in India. Children, adults and senior citizens. We all need to be aware of the consequences of our carelessness towards the environment and we all need to watch movie masterpieces like these :).
However, the movie needs to be publicized better in India. What I see is that people don’t even know that such a movie has been released. They also need to create some hype. Although no point now that the movie has already been released. Another way is to release this movie in IMAX theaters in India. Currently, it’s being shown only in one IMAX theater in Mumbai. That too only 2 shows. I recommend this movie to everyone out there.
I was also able to get a photo clicked with the wall e model in Spice cinemas, Noida :). Check it out:
woikr – Because we can
Excerpt from "The Cooper-Hofstadter Polarization " – The Big Bang Theory, Episode 9 :
Leonard (to Penny): Hang on, hang on. Do you not realize what we just did?
Penny : Yeah, you turned your stereo down with your laptop.
Leonard : No, we turned our stereo down, by sending a signal around the world via the Internet.
Penny : Oh. You know you can get one of those universal remotes from Radioshack? They’re really cheap.
Leonard : No, you don’t get it. Howard, Enable public access.
Howard : Public access enabled.
Penny (after a few seconds of nothing happens) : Boy, that’s terrific. I’ll see ya.
Leonard : No hang on, hang on… (The lights in the apartment star blinking) See?
Penny : No.
Leonard : Someone in Sichuan province, China, is using his computer to turn our lights on and off.
Penny (kinda frustrated) : Oh, that’s handy. Here’s a question… Why?
Leonard, Sheldon, Howard and Koothrappali (all together ) : Because we can .
With a plethora of technology blogs around, does anybody actually need another one? Maybe not.
So why woikr ?
Well, because we can 
woikr team:
Anshuman Johri – A photography enthusiast, who aspires to be a world-traveler from Pune, Maharashtra, India.
Chirag Gupta – a geek, suffers from “never-ending-gadget-lust” disease and loves movies from Bangalore, Karnataka, India.
Setu Garg – another geek, an audiophile to be precise from Noida, UP, India.
Swaroop T G – an avid gamer, reads too much about technology than he needs to from Hyderabad, AP, India.
We launched woikr.com at 00:00 hrs on 15th Aug 2008 – The Indian Independence Day.
Happy Reading !
Review: Fusion Encounter EN-AT110 10” (inch) bass tube [Car Audio]
Most of us in India might not have heard about the Fusion car audio products. Fusion is a leading car and marine audio equipment manufacturer from New Zealand.
The popular car audio brands in India are Sony xplod, JBL, Alpine, Kenwood and of course Pioneer. However, Fusion is gaining popularity in India with its advanced and integrated car audio solutions.
I recently installed the Fusion EN-AT110 Encounter 10” Bass Tube in my car (Maruti Suzuki Swift ). The Fusion EN-AT110 is a 10” Bass Tube active enclosure with an amplifier integrated within. The amplifier is perfectly suited for the 10” sub woofer.
Product Features:
- 300 Watts Max
- Remote Level Controller
- Speaker Level Inputs
- RCA Line-Level Inputs
- Adjustable Low Pass Filter
- Adjustable Bass Boost
- LED Power Indicator
- LED Protection Indicator
Performance (Sound Quality):
The tube connects to the sub woofer output of your car’s audio system through the RCA Line-Level input jacks. The Fusion ET-AT110 has a frequency response of 30Hz – 250Hz which is good enough for reproducing all the thump and thud we have in our audio. I tested this beast with a selection of songs having emphasis on the lower frequencies. The output will blow you away. This tube complements the existing set of speakers in your car to give you an exceptional audio experience. There was a huge improvement in sound quality after installing this bass tube.
The standard speakers which we install either in the car’s doors or on the back tray are not able to reproduce the lower frequencies of the song the way they are meant to be played. The sound might be OK or enough for ignorant people. However, audiophiles like me will always feel the need of the something extra to enrich the audio listening experience. This tube will satisfy your audiophile lust.
The 10” sub woofer was able to reproduce the low frequencies in the songs I tested pretty well. Just like the whole track, the lower frequencies are also distributed in 3 sub levels. The lowest, medium and high. This tube was able to reproduce all the levels very well without any distortion or creak. The remote control can be used to adjust the bass level in case the sound becomes distorted which does not unless you have a bad audio source.
Rating: 4.5/5
Remote:
The wired remote can be affixed below the dashboard of your car. The remote lets you control the bass level and is pretty smooth in operation. It also has a green LED around the knob which gives it a very sporty look.
However, no matter how you install the remote on your dashboard, the text and indicators will always be upside down. They should probably print the text and the indicators upside down in the first place. Also, knobs to control other tube’s functions such as the Low Pass Filter would have added to the value.
Rating: 3/5
Looks:
Although this enclosure will stay in your cars trunk all the time, I must say that this was the best looking bass tube I saw in the market. This scores pretty well in this segment. All the other bass tubes I saw had a standard speaker grill to protect the sub woofer. This one however, had a punk looking stainless steel grill. Actually its more of a show off thing than an actual grill. Also, the color scheme of blank and florescent green looks fabulous and adds to the visual rating of your car.
Rating: 5/5
Value for Money:
This is another segment in which this tube wins well over the its competitors. Most Bass tubes from other manufacturers do not have an integrated amplifier in built. You have to purchase an amplifier separately. Finding the right amplifier for your bass tube is the most difficult task. There are many compatibility issues and the risk of even damaging the sub woofer if you get an amplifier which is not compatible with the sub woofer in the tube. With Fusion EN-AT110, you do not have to worry about that. The complementing amplifier is built into the bass tube itself. This also saves space as you do not have to install a separate amplifier. However, in case you already have an amplifier, you can still connect this tube through the speaker level inputs. Good quality wiring is also supplied in the box.
Here is what you get in the box:
- Encounter 10” Active Bass Tube
- Wiring Harnesses
- Speaker Level Input Harness
- Power Harness
- RCA Lead (5m -161/2ft)
- Remote Control Lead (6m – 113/4ft-)
- Remote Level Controller
- Manual
- FUSION Sticker
- Warranty Card
- Adhesive Rubber Feet
- Adhesive Velcro Feet
Rating: 4/5
Conclusion:
The Fusion EN-AT110 Bass Tube sells at an MRP of approx 8500 INR. You can get it for as low as 7500 INR at few good shops in local car bazaars. At this price, you get a good looking bass tube with a built in compatible amplifier, a wired remote and good quality wiring. This makes it a very good bargain.
Pros:
- Great sound
- Good value for money
- Built in amplifier
- Remote controller
- Supplied wiring
- Good looks
Cons:
- Vibrations produced due to the sound might not seem enough to some people
- Only bass level controller in the remote