Amitabh Jotwani

After a few dozen invitations and daily dozes of “come on already” by the beloved early adopters, I have finally boarded the Facebook wagon. As much as I would like to debate that I have been pushed in to it by forces beyond my control, the experience actually hasn’t been too bad. Took me a little while to understand it’s intricacies, but I think I am now up to speed with it. It’s been fun really.

I had read some time back that Facebook is fast turning out primarily to be a photo sharing website rather than just another social site. And if you look at the thousands and thousands of pictures being uploaded and shared everyday, it’s not hard to believe.

Now as much as the internet community would like us to think that keeping photos online is the way to go and that it has replaced the local storage of your precious photos, I am still one of those who likes to keep a copy of a few good ones in iPhoto as well (the satisfaction of having local copies of your photos has been proven to give you a better sleep, even better than the sleep number mattresses). Hence the argument, that if I would be using Facebook to view shared pictures, I must find an easy way to be able to download them as well.

So when my cousin Kareena sent me the New Year pics on FaceBook, the quest to find an easy way to download them became stronger and eager and it led me to the discovery or rediscovery of this really slick piece of software called the PhotoBook (Mac Only) which does something really cool. It lets you browse all your friends’ albums and with one-click lets you import them into iPhoto on your Mac. And the best part – it’s free! I am pretty sure that there is a PC equivalent available, but am not motivated enough currently to go dig for it. Maybe sometime later this year

On that note, here’s wishing everybody a very Happy New Year 2009!

Bit.ly seems to be the the favored URL shortening service these days on the blogging and micro blogging arena (aka twitter). Here’s what makes Bit.ly stand out -

Ever since I switched to Mac last year, I have been going back and forth among the browsers – Safari, Firefox, Camino. I even tried Fluid which actually turned out to be something very different.

Anyways long story short, I had settled down to using Safari in the last few months. It worked for the most part except for a few dumb websites like airtelcallhome.com for which I used Firefox (more on these bozos in my next post) and that it would stop responding if I have one too many tabs open. It could just not take the load of the gazillion open tabs and I would find myself recovering the open tabs from the history quite often. It would get slower and slower with every new tab and get on my nerves big time..aghhh it was really frustrating and annoying.

But I still loved and used Safari for more or less the eye candy (call it the iAppeal)

Cut to last weekend. Kunal introduced reintroduced me to my old love (from the dark windows era) Firefox. They recently released v3.0…Gotta say, I love Firefox 3. Why? I will keep it simple -

1. It looks really good – the iAppeal that is. It now has the Mac look to it.
2. It does not seem to crash unlike Safari (I currently have 17 tabs open and it’s responding to each one of them) no delay = no frustration = love firefox)

Moral of the story – Try Firefox 3.0. It’s really awesome!

Get it here -

I wish I had found this earlier. Can’t even count how many “living in the moment” purchases I have made!

Found this Flickr set on TUAW. Simply couldn’t resist posting it here. The iPhone being unboxed by tiny little men. Amazing. Refreshing. Creativity at it’s super duper best!

PS: I reserve the creative rights to assume these men may be from Mars and not belong to a toy village called Lego!

TUAW reported on Friday that the iPhone may be on it’s way to India this september. Gotta love the picture that they put up on their blog. The Mahatma himself endorsing Apple. I bet he would have loved to make the Macbook Air a part of his dandi march gear … yeah yeah and iPhone too!

All right so this morning I set my IM status to “Just found Nirvana today” and it caused a stir. I am not kidding, it really did. There’s something about people. They are really nice, mostly at least. They seem to notice all the weird things you do, but they don’t say a thing. They give you a benefit of doubt. They keep doing that over and over until that one day where you over stretch your luck and do something really uncanny. And then they question. What? Why? Where? How?

That is what I think happened to me today. I keep doing weird things but today I got all the permutations right. All the stars in the sky were just perfectly aligned and I hit the nail on it’s head with that IM status.

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That’s right..it’s that time again – when Steve will dash in with his magic wand and make the Apple lovers go crazy over the latest and the greatest toys.

Found this really cool list of predictions at Macrumors. Spot on – best list ever

Waiting for Jan 15 I am….

1. Many of the live blogs will crash
2. Steve Jobs will wear a black shirt and blue jeans
3. Apple stock will drop after the event
4. Something an i in front of its name will get updated
5. Steve will brag about how great the year has been
6. A black to gray gradient will be used in the presentation
7. Steve Jobs will use a remote device to control the presentation
8. The iPhone will be discussed
9. Men will cheer, women will faint and children will fly multicolored flags
10. I’ll be spending 2,000+
11. There will be 100+ threads about how Apple is crap, what they released is crap, and how it will never work.
12. There will be some unboxing threads in two weeks
13. We will discuss when we want to wait in line for “Project X

I had my Indian passport renewed this week at the Indian Embassy, Washington DC. I had a little trouble finding or rather ‘confirming’ the information that I wanted. After visiting the embassy twice, I decided to write down the answers I found through the process.

A Little background -
My passport was expiring after the 10 year validity period in 2 months and I was traveling to India in a month.

The Hunt for information & the confusion
So I began my research with the Indian Embassy website. While it’s a decent website with good amount of information, it’s lacking in some areas. It provides incomplete and contradictory information. Here’s an example from two different pages -

Passport can be issued within 1 to 3 working days in an emergency /tatkal scheme for which an additional emergency fee of US$ 90 will be charged apart from the normal processing fee of US$ 40 (for normal booklet of 36 pages) or US$ 50 (for Jumbo booklet of 60 pages). ” - Link

and then

“A passport can be issued on the same day, if deposited at the Consular Counter by paying additional USD $90 subject to the satisfaction of the Consular Officer only. This service is not available for passport applications/ documents sent in mail.” - Link

Actually both the statements are true, they just apply to different situations. But the website does not say that and it confused the hell out of me. Not that there’s a whole lot of difference in the processing times but I would want to know if I am getting my passport the same day or do I have to come back. Mystery ehhh

Calling the embassy does not quite help. All you would remember from the dozen times you would call them is the Shehnai music which you would listen to after being on hold relentlessly and the fact that some one called ‘Chanderpal’ works at the embassy and he has his freaking voicemail box full!!

The Embassy does not suck

Contrary to the popular belief, the Indian embassy at Washington D.C. is not all that bad. I had heard some horror stories from a lot of people about the guys at the embassy being incompetent and the embassy being in dire straits. But I had a very nice and pleasant experience. I guess I was prepared for the worst. The staff was very polite and helpful. I would like to mention the Security Guard. I forgot his name but with his mustache, we can call him Nathulal jee He was very helpful and answered a few of my questions while I was waiting for the embassy to open and so was the lady at the reception. I was in and out of the embassy in less than 10 minutes both the times. So nothing wrong with the embassy or the staff. They just don’t believe in answering the phones, I guess!!

The Questions

I had the following questions which were unanswered even after reading through the fine lines on their website a dozen times. So here are the answers now -

1.Processing Time
They say the processing time is 4 to 7 working days.

2. Will my passport be issued the same day?
The passport can be issued on the same day only if the previous passport was issued in USA. If it was issued in India, it cannot be done the same day since the application must go to India for verification.

3. Should I visit the embassy or should I just mail the application?
It really depends on your situation and how much you are willing to spend. In my sister’s case, we sent her application via USPS (with delivery notification) a few months back. We paid $40+$20 for the expedited delivery. It took 14 business days for it to come back even though the website says it takes about 4-7 working days. While that was acceptable in her case, I did not have the luxury and hence decided to drop off the application and pick it up a week later. I dropped the application on a Tuesday and picked it up the following Tuesday (My passport was originally issued in India)

You have the following options available -

Option A) Drop & Pick – If time is of essence and you cannot afford a delay, you are better off dropping the application at the embassy between 9:30 am and 12:30 pm mon-fri. You will get a receipt token which is more like a Diwali mela ticket than anything else. You will get a pickup date which it seems is usually 1 week from the day you drop off the application. You come back on or after the specified date and voila – it’s ready. If you do this, it will cost you just the basic fee which is $40.

Option B) Drop & Mail – You can drop off the application at the embassy again between 9:30 am and 12:30 pm mon-fri. I am assuming you would get some kind of receipt. You can request that the passport be mailed back to you. You need to pay $20 in addition to the basic fee of $40 to exercise this option. Again this would take 3-7 business days excluding the time taken by the mail man.

Option C) Mail & Mail – You mail the application to the embassy addressed to -
Embassy of India
(Consular Wing)
2536 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W.
Washington D.C. 20008

Make sure you send it through some kinda of priority mail with delivery confirmation. They say it takes 4 to 7 working days, excluding the time taken in mail to process the application. I did this for my sister and it took 14 working days. So I decided not to do the same for myself and opted for Option A. It’s a little painful but it’s worth it especially if you are like me and are renewing your passport which is expiring in a 2 months and are traveling to India in a few weeks. They send it back via USPS and it needs signature on delivery.

4. Can someone else collect the passport on my behalf?
Yes, you just need to hand over the all powerful token to your friend and it can be picked up by them.

5. When can I collect the passport?
Between 4:30 and 5:40 pm mon-fri

6. When can I submit the application?
Between 9:30 am and 12:30 pm

7. How do I get to the Indian Embassy in Washington DC?
I am listing the directions from Vienna, Northern VA. Please modify them according to your starting location.
1. Metro – Orange line from Vienna towards New Carrolton
2. Get off at Farragut West Metro station
3. Bus – Walk up to the 17th st NW & I st, take the bus toward Friendship heights.
4. Get off at NW Masachussets Ave & NW Belmont Road, the bus drops you right next to the Embassy of Oman with a tomb and a minaret that seems like an Islamic embassy (I could not locate the name) The Indian embassy is located right opposite to it. So cross the road and walk to your left. You would see a grey building with two elephants and the Ashoka pillar . That’s us!

8. How about Parking?
There’s no parking around the embassy unless you work there and if you do, please tell me why you guys don’t answer the phone!!

The one thing I noticed on my new passport, which is actually quite interesting is – They still write the particulars with a pen, that’s right – no computers being used yet, the Indian Passports are still prone to errors and typos!! Thankfully, there weren’t any errors on mine. So make sure you verify all the information before you put that baby away in to your travel bag.

Hope this helps. Any questions, please let me know and I will try and answer them. Good Luck and Jai Hind!!

You can download the passport renewal application form here or visit this page for more information

The cat was all set to be let out on Friday the 26th October at 6 p.m..

The stage set, people anxious and I was on my way to the most happening place that evening – my closest Apple Store. I parked right outside the Apple store at Tyson’s Corner at about 5:45 p.m, aware that there would be a few people ahead of me in the que waiting to lay their hands on the all new Mac OS X – Leopard, but I was kinda hopeful that it won’t be too bad because it had been raining non stop the last 3 days. I was hopeful that would have discouraged some Apple fans to stay home that evening and come back on Saturday. I guess I was just convincing myself…Wrong I was!! Running through the parking lot, I rushed through the mall doors and the first thing I saw was people lined up…plenty of them at that… I started walking towards the store trying to find where the line ended, By the time I found the tail, I realized there were at least about 250 people ahead of me…gosh I thought “are these guys crazy or what??”, but I guess that makes me one notch crazier cos stood there at number 251

The mood was electric, everybody had a story to tell, what they would be doing later that gloomy Friday evening…not partying..but giving their babies the Leopard touch. By the time I got to the store, there were at-least 200 souls behind me waiting to get their hands dirty on Leopard. We were greeted at the door by the Apple enthusiasts with the complimentary all black Leopard T-Shirt….and let into the jungle where the Leopard roared it’s arrival…the party had just begun..

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