My Mobiles - Nokia Vs Sony Ericsson

My first highly used mobile phone was a silver colored Nokia 6030 which I bought in October 2006. This phone was good basic model. It was a color phone and it had FM. I have talked for a long time on this phone approximately 1000 hrs. After these many hours, I could see that the battery was discharging fast and I decided to change the battery. As the silver color of the mobile looked worn out, I decided to replace it with a new case. So I scouted for original Nokia batteries in Koti and it costed about 550 rs for a new one. But I thought it was a little too much for a phone I bought for 2600 two years back. So I went to another authorized Nokia dealer and asked him to get me an original Nokia charger. He said it costed about 400 and that he would remove an original from a brand new phone and give it to me. I was stunned, because if they are removing an original from a new piece, that means they will put a duplicate one in that and sell to unsuspecting customers. Hmm, anyhow I bought it and also a new black case for my mobile. It stayed with me till the middle of May 2009 till it was stolen. I wrote about the ensuing drama after that here. But speaking of the phone, it was a very very good phone. I never had any problems with its software or battery. It worked very well. And I dropped it many many times.

I am reminded of two particular incidents which show the durability of Nokia mobile.

Once, when I was running behind an RTC bus to catch it, my mobile literally jumped from my shirt pocket and fell on the ground from a running bus. I got down, collected the pieces fallen on the ground, the battery came off, the case came out. I just assembled it again and switched the mobile on and nothing happened. It was working as before.

I put my clothes in the bucket for washing without removing the mobile in it. I realized it just a minute after I put in the water. I removed it but by that time, some water might have crept in. The center button was not working. I switched it off as presence of water will short circuit the internal circuits, and I put it under (not above ;)) a burning gas stove for few mins, again switched it on and after half an hour everything started working fine again. Except for that half an hour, my experience with Nokia phone was very very positive.

After I lost that mobile, I bought a Sony Ericsson C510 phone. It had all the wanted features like mp3 player, a 3.2 MP camera and bluetooth with 1 GB free memory card. It costed about 11,800 with insurance. I wanted to buy a Nokia mobile only but I saw the photo quality of Nokia mobile and didnt quite match the Sony experience. So for only that I bought a Sony ericsson.

Used to a Nokia, the battery was a let down. I had to charge it daily but I will accept it because of high usage. The photos are very good.

When i was getting used, I observed that the phone would hang sometimes and i have to restart it (In my two months of usage i did it only twice, so we could consider it an exception). But I was disappointed very much when the phone did not start when I tried restarting after changing the sim card.

And dont ask me about the customer service experience. It was very bad. There is no reception. When I went to the person taking the complaints, he asked me to wait and after that he didnt call me. After some time, when he didnt call, I went and asked then he noted it down. He told it was a software problem and it will take one hour to reload it. After one hour, he told it is not working and asked me to come and take on Monday. I had to beg him to repair it that day only. After lot of prodding, he agreed to do it that day only. On the whole, the sony ericsson customer service centre was run very unprofessionally, though it was not unbearable. A lot can be improved in the customer handling and experience. Already in two months, it gave me a scare. Im just hoping I never need to visit the customer service again.

One thing is clear, I can never take the sony phone for granted no where near how I would treat my Nokia phone.

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How to be an Innovator for life - Ideas from Tom Kelly

As I said in a previous post, I was listening to the podcasts there.

I have read a book called Ten faces of innovation written by Tom Kelly, CEO of IDEO a firm which does design. They designed many products and services, like the improving the in-patient experiences at a hospital etc. They have got more than 1000 patents from 1987. In that book he discusses the methods they use in IDEO for innovation. They are something like six thinking hats and make an interesting read as well as can be applied in our life.

He gave a talk in Stanford. In that, Tom Kelly proposes five ways to be an innovator for life..

1. Think like a traveller

2. Treat life as an experiment

3. Cultivate an attitude of wisdom

4. Use your whole brain

5. Do what you love..

Listen to the complete podcast at stanford ecorner

Thanks to the NET

This is a post where I want to thank the creators of the internet for it has changed my life in ways i cannot imagine.

How could I hang out with the likes of Seth Godin, Fred Vilson or Steve Pavlina if not for the internet?

How much would I have missed the experienced words of Joel or the head first way of Kathy Sierra?

How much the hacker and painter in me would have lost if not for the essays of Paul Graham?

How would I have missed the satirical takes of Atanu Dey on India or the touching posts of Rajesh for his kid, or the passionate posts of Rashmi and the well researched posts on Sastwingees ?

I am not even touching the increase in my productivity due to the various web applications which we use day in and day out.

Internet like never before makes it easy to hang out(blogs, twitter) with any person of our choice so easy and I am so happy for that.

Apart from being grateful for allowing us to learn from the experiences of the very best in their fields, I want you to point you to two great resources on the net which I am currently using.

I know youtube has lot of videos and channels for various things, but videos in these two places have inspired me very much.

1. TED talks: Ideas worth spreading.

TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design.

Some of the interesting talks there are why are or aren't we happy? or why we do what we do?

Head over to Ted.com and browse the various videos out there, you will not be disappointed.

2. Stanford University Enterpreneurship corner:

The Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP) Entrepreneurship Corner is a free online archive of entrepreneurship resources for teaching and learning. The mission of the project is to support and encourage faculty around the world who teach entrepreneurship to future scientists and engineers, as well as those in management and other disciplines. The site has been developed by a dynamic team of educators, entrepreneurs, engineers, and designers at the Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP)

Some of the popular videos here are The black swans of Energy Innovation by Vinod Khosla, Dont Kill projects morph them by Merissa Mayer

The whole lists of talks is here.

Dont you think internet deserves kudos for this. How on earth it could have been possible for you to attend those conferences in Stanford University if not for the net.

Thanks to the creators of the internet, you have changed the world definitely for the better.

What do you think the best thing about the internet for you?

Poems to Ponder

Image by kevindooley via Flickr

I would like to share with you two poems which I encountered during this week which impacted me...

One is about giving rather than taking.. About not being moochers of the world but being the value adders and value creators...

There are two kinds of people on earth today

Just two kinds of people, no more I say,

Not the good and the bad, for 'tis is well understood

that the good are half-bad and the bad are half-good.

No! the two kinds of people on earth I mean

Are the people who lift and the people who lean.

- Ella Wheeler Wilcox.

I found the above poem in '21 Irrefutable laws of leadership' which I was reading.

Another poem is about how a good leader is like... I found that here

‘A good soldier does not inspire fear;

A good fighter does not display aggression;

A good conqueror does not engage in battle;

A good leader does not exercise authority.

This is the value of unimportance;

This is how to win the cooperation of others;

This to how to build the same harmony that is in nature.’

Don't know who wrote that but it is how a leader should be.

One interesting point which John Maxwell, author of 21 irrefutable laws of leadership makes about leadership is about the real test of leaders... It is 'influence'. How many can you influence for the better?

Welcoming a new day

All mornings are like a painting,
you need a little inspiration to get you going,
a little smile to brighten it and
a message from someone who cares to color your day.

Today I got up pretty early in the morning and got a chance to see the sun rising... There is no better way to start the day than listening to the chirping sounds, breathing the cool air and watching the colors around us change..

This is the first pic... Day is about to break... Sun is trying to sneak from the mountains ;)

The blues give away to the golden glaze as sun comes out blazing..

Night has ended for another day,

morning has come in a special way.

May you smile like the sunny rays

and leaves your worries at the blue blue bay.

If ... Roger Federer & Rafal Nadal Come together

'If' by Rudyard Kipling is one poem which never fails to stir me and motivate me. You might have read the poem many times . Here is a new take on it as read by the tennis legends Roger Federer and Rafal nadal.

Here is the poem

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

Shared from IndiaUncut

Have you 'Bing'ed?

Microsoft has been trying from a lot of time to beat Google in the search game. Its latest attempt Bing has bridged the gap between google mostly. The results are as good as google. But is it is sufficient for me to switch from google to bing?

For normal web search I still prefer google search. But I found one thing for which I will use Bing instead of google. It is image search. It is not that it is spectacurly developed compared to google, but the presentation is very very useful. In google you have to click next after each page but in Bing it has infinte scroll down from which we can see useful images without having to click next. I like this feature so much that I have started making image searches mostly only Bing only. Will be happy if google can replicate this.