amitabhjotwani.com now iPhone-ized

by Amitabh on 8 Oct '07

As a proud iPhone owner, it was probably just a matter of time before amitabhjotwani.com became iPhone friendly. I am happy to announce that it now is.

The website now automatically detects the iPhone/iPod touch’s User Agent and serves up the content with the special theme only to iPhone and iPod touch visitors which is optimized for viewing on Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch.

The website is quicker to load on the iPhone and displays an optimized version of my blog, formatted perfectly to fit the iPhone/iPod touch’s screen – no zooming in to read the content is necessary. Ain’t that awesome – iPhone awesome!!

(PS: For those interested, it was the magic of a wordpress plugin called iwphone, not much rocket science actually!!)

and here’s what it looks like on the iPhone -

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Chak de India!!

by Amitabh on 24 Sep '07

So we have finally done it…Team India, the men in blue are officially the T20 World Champs..well done boys; beating England, South Africa, Australia and Pakistan (twice actually ;) )

After craving to watch the final moments of the match since this morning, I finally got hold of some…amazing scenes. Here’s a collection of some videos to relive the winning moment and enjoy the glory of being a World Champ!

The Videos

1. The Final Over - (Pakistan needing 12 to win from 6 balls – Joginder Sharma to Misbah-Ul-Haq)
2. Presentation Ceremony – Part-1
3. Presentation Ceremony – Part-2
4. The Toss
5. National Anthem – India
6. National Anthem – Pakistan

More Videos added recently

1. Pakistan – All Wickets
2. The Final over and the extended celebrations

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I will keep updating this as and when I find more awesome clips!!

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iPhone FAQ’s – Coming Soon

by Amitabh on 21 Sep '07

So I have had the iPhone for about 2 weeks now. Totally loving it. Now over this period I have had a lot of questions that I have tried to find answers of through forums, friends and general R&D. Here I list all the FAQ’s to benefit a new switcher to iPhone – COMING SOON. Available now

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And then it happened..the iPhone arrived

by Amitabh on 9 Sep '07

So I finally collected enough donation money to lay my hands on the iPhone, the best phone ever to grace planet earth. The highest contributor surprisingly in that boot money was Apple it self with the $200 price cut they announced on the 8Gb iPhone model last wednesday; that just made it irresistible if it already wasn’t :)

So how do I like it so far you ask? Well short answer – It’s amazing, it’s awesome, it’s gorgeous, it’s beautiful and it does much more than what it promises. It’s a winner for sure!!

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Now so much has been written about this piece of marvel in the last few months – the good and the bad that I don’t even wanna go there. Let me just say this – The iPhone is worth every dime..every single penny that you spend on it. One really has to see this baby at work to believe what Apple has achieved. In a lot of ways it’s similar to other Apple products. You really have to use Apple products to believe and realize what you have been missing all these years, which I realized when I switched to Macbook a few months back. That the guys at Cupertino are genius’ and world class designers has always been a fact but what they have been able to do and achieve with the iPhone is simply revolutionary and mind blowing to say the least – the multi touch touch screen is flawless, the phone quality is amazing, the internet and mail functionality is unprecedented…..

I actually can go on forever, but I will leave the intricacies of what makes the iPhone so awesome and a must have for every soul on this planet to my next post….for now I am gonna back and adore my new little toy some more.

Thank you Steve Jobs!
Thank you Apple!

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Control yourself would you!

by Amitabh on 31 Jul '07

Came across this post talking about a Firefox extension that helps people like you and me control our surfing appetite.

Excerpts -

“You sit down on the computer to complete that sales report which is extremely urgent but you are distracted by an email from a colleague asking you to check the “funniest video” ever posted on YouTube.

You open that video on YouTube, watch it for five minutes and then switch to Orkut to check the new scraps. Then you move to Facebook followed by Google Reader, then Technorati, then Wikipedia, then CNN and so on. You soon realize that you wasted an hour at work Wilfing while the task at hand (the status report) remains incomplete.”

If only there was a Firefox extension to control the urge for speeding!!

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Apple declares earnings – makes us all happy

by Amitabh on 26 Jul '07

Apple Logo

Amongst all the hoo-halla, Apple declared it’s earnings yesterday and despite iPhone sale figures concerns, Apple reported a revenue advancement of 24% to $5.41 billion from $4.37 billion. Yipeee! We love you Steve!

Now I would like to take pride and some credit in the following fact -

“Apple sold 1.76 million Macintosh computers during the quarter, a record for Mac sales in one quarter and up 33% from the year-earlier period.
Mac sales included 1.13 million MacBook and MacBook Pro notebook PCs and 634,000 desktop Macs.”

I am one of the 1.13 million!! And you are welcome Steve :)

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Good job Rohil!

by Amitabh on 22 Jul '07

Rohil, my 8 year old nephew has made it to Google search results and made it in a way that would make his parents and us all very proud! A Google search on “Rohil Kishinchandani” reveals this article on Andheri West, a subsidiary of The Times of India.

As part of a creative writing effort conducted by the Times of India, Mumbai, he wrote an essay that was witty yet honest to the core on the topic “Thank God animals can’t talk!“. Here’s what he wrote to get the recognition on the Times of India website. Good going Rohil, keep it up!

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Thank God animals can’t talk!
Rohil Kishinchandani
(8 years old), Jamnabai Narsee School, Juhu

I have often wondered what it would be like if animals could talk. My imagination has often run wild on this topic with me ending up rolling with laughter.

If animals could talk, I am sure they would have a lot of nasty things to say to us humans.

The dog in my building would scowl at me, “Hey you little skinny boy, why do you scream your lungs out the moment you see me? I know dogs like bones, but they like it with a little meat on them!”

“And tell me, why do you screw up your nose in that funny way, when you see me do my poo? Don’t you too??”

Imagine if those hens could speak, the hens I watch every Sunday being cut, when I go with my dad to buy chicken. “Help, help! Save us. Don’t cut us please, don’t eat us, please. Even we have little children at home. I curse you that one day somebody will eat your parents’ up too.” I think I’ll turn vegetarian out of fear!

And, imagine if that little bird, who sits on my windowsill everyday could speak, she would laugh wickedly and say, “Twik twik, give me some grains quick-quick, or I will tell your friends what I see everyday as you change.” I’ll die of embarrassment!!

And, what about those pesky little rats? If they could talk, they would puff up their chests with pride and say, “We are tiny, but the most wanted and dreaded creatures. Even the BMC has put a reward of Rs 5/- on our head. Come on humans, come and get us!” And then laughing, they would scurry away into their holes.

Actually, if animals could talk, even I would want to ask them a thing or two. “Don’t you feel embarrassed walking the streets naked? Why do you smell each other’s butts? Why are dogs obsessed with cars – running and barking behind cars and peeing on tyres? Don’t you crows look down before you do your big ‘plop’ job on our head? How do you ants find the chocolate hidden deep into my drawer?”

Come to think of it, I am rather glad that animals can’t talk. The crow would otherwise tell my mother, how I feed him food from my tiffin box, the cockroach in the kitchen would tell her how I steal cookies, my pet dog would tell her that I don’t polish my shoes but make him lick them, the lizard in the bathroom would let on that I just wet the brush at night and put it away to fool Mom.

They sure would have made my life miserable and very difficult. Thank God animals can’t talk!

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2007 – Official year to get married??

by Amitabh on 20 Jul '07

I wonder if I would be overstepping the limits of exaggeration if I say that the year 2007 seems to be the Official year to get married for the Grads of 2001 or more importantly the guys n gals born in the auspicious year of 1980 :)

It seems like pretty much every month I learn about some friend from school/college deciding to take the plunge in 2007. It’s happening with alarming regularity now. Not sure what it is about 2007, maybe it’s the presence of the number 7 in 2007 – considered auspicious by the darn pandit industry,or maybe it’s just the age (26-27) – the time when the parents blow the final whistle – ‘Get Married, would you?’. As Kunal once pointed out to me, the question becomes “Are you married, No? Why not?”

Anyways what’s common among a lot of these friends of mine is the name of their fiances/wives. At least 5-6 of these guys have fiances/wives named Shweta or some variance of the same like Swetha, Shwetha or something similar. Just makes me wonder if Shweta was some popular actress back in 1980 or maybe late 70′s!!

Anyways, here’s to all you guys and their Shwetas /Swethas/Shwethas – Congratulations & Good luck!!

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The wait is over – ‘Ye Jo Hai Zindagi’ arrives on VCD

by Amitabh on 20 Jul '07

I have been waiting for this for a long long time, and am sure I am not the only one totally in love with the old doordarshan classic “Ye Jo Hai Zindagi” starring Shafi Inamdar, Rakesh Bedi, Satish Shah and Swaroop Sampat.

Well Ye Jo Hai Zindagi finally makes it way to VCD through Shemaroo Entertainment. I have never ordered stuff through their website, so I can’t comment on their ordering process, but it’s good to know that it’s now available. So what are you waiting for?? Youtube?? You cheap bastards ;)

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Orkut.com nominated as Youth Icon of the Year by MTV!

by Amitabh on 12 Jul '07

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All you full-time and part time scrappers who swear by Orkut, here’s something for you guys to party about – Orkut.com has been nominated as Youth Icon of the Year by MTV India for the year 2007. The nominations, as weird as they sound are -

1. Orkut.com
2. Abhishek Bachchan
3. Multimedia Cellphone
4. Rang De Basanti
5. YOU (The Indian youth between the age 15-24)

Good luck to one Mr. Orkut Buyukkokten!

That reminds me, I had an argument with some friends a few days back regarding the pronunciation of the word “Orkut”. What in the world is the correct way to say the first name of Mr. Buyukkokten. I argued it’s pronounced “Or-Cut” while my friends stuck to “Or-koot”. Thank God it’s a frequently asked question and Orkut’s help clears the confusion! Yippeee I win, it’s Or-Cut.com!!

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