iBlog: Nishit Shah

The cycling bug had bit me for a while and I had made up my mind to buy one soon. I had a couple of Firefox bikes in my mind but in the end I ended up buying a Raleigh. I bought a new Raleigh M200X grey and silver 26″ cycle with 18 speed gears from Hyercity Argos(the one in the pic above is a blue one). Its absolutely light in weight and the braking system is pretty good too. I had checked out loadsa bikes but one thing was sure that I wanted an imported one and with gears. I didn’t like any of the Indian one available in the market, be it Atlas, BSA, Hero, et al. Raleigh cycles are available in India only through Hypercity and they home deliver it (in Bombay) through their HyercityArgos channel.

The bike is super cool and very smooth. I enjoy riding every bit of it. Need to learn the art of changing gears in a cycle properly. It seems that I need to build up a lot on stamina I get completed exhausted in just a couple of kms. Wanna start a triathlon soon , where I will be running, cycling and then go off to swim. Its even more fun cycling when its drizzling. The roads are uneven and the jerks are sometimes really bad. I wanna buy a good cyclocomputer which calculates the distance covered and the speed. The only thing I hate is that I have to carry my cycle back to my room everyday coz if I keep it in my parking lot, some dumbf*&%(*s keep playing with the gears and change it.

The guys at Firefox are always upto something new and innovative. And now since Firefox 3’s release is round the corner they have come up with something really amazing that will assure them a place in Guinness World Record for the most software downloaded in 24 hours! Its called as the Firefox download day. Download Day is their attempt to set a world record for the most software downloads in 24 hours and will occur on Firefox 3 launch day.Download Day will coincide with the general availability of Firefox 3. The clock will start ticking when Firefox 3 goes out the door! They don’t have a definitive date for Firefox 3 yet, but it should be in June. Want to be a part of this record breaking event? Just pledge to download Firefox 3 on the Download day.

There are many ways to get involved in spreading the word. Also, we are planning to host a Firefox party, so watch this place for more info!

Now that IPL is over, I can spend some time to blog something. I was too carried away by it and didn’t miss even a minute of it during the final stages. It was one hell of a tournament. Amazing stuff. Kudos to Mr. Lalit Modi for creating a Blue Ocean.( Read the Blue Ocean Strategy for more info.)

concept:

The metaphor of red and blue oceans describes the market universe. Red oceans are all the industries in existence today—the known market space. In the red oceans, industry boundaries are defined and accepted, and the competitive rules of the game are known. Here companies try to outperform their rivals to grab a greater share of product or service demand. As the market space gets crowded, prospects for profits and growth are reduced. Products become commodities or niche, and cutthroat competition turns the red ocean bloody. Hence, the term red oceans.

Blue oceans, in contrast, denote all the industries not in existence today—the unknown market space, untainted by competition. In blue oceans, demand is created rather than fought over. There is ample opportunity for growth that is both profitable and rapid. In blue oceans, competition is irrelevant because the rules of the game are waiting to be set. Blue ocean is an analogy to describe the wider, deeper potential of market space that is not yet explored.

• Indian Premier League is super hit. I enjoy watching every bit of it. My favorites are Mumbai Indians and Kings XI Punjab.
• Just watched Notting Hill for the second time. I still fancy Julia Roberts.
• Angelina Jolie still has best lips in the world.
• Def Leppard’s India tour has been postponed from May to October.
• Kenny G will be playing in Bombay on 11th May @ Taj Lands End.
• Still can’t make up my mind between Fusion and Cosmic at Firefox Super Bikes.
• Completed reading I bought The Monk’s Ferrari in one sitting. Among the best books I have read by an Indian author.
• Cannibal Holocaust is one of the most controversial movies I have ever seen. Worth a watch !
• Have been humming Oxygen from Bryan Adam’s new album 11 whole week.
• The new news channel News X from INX Network is pretty good.
• IdeaCampPune has been postponed and it will now be held on 17th May instead of 10th May. I’ll be attending this.
• Proto.in Online meet was super successful. Was logged in for a while.. then got disconnected. But couldn’t login back. Now after reading Vijay’s post at Proto’s Blog, I came to know that the chat application had limit of 60 users. BTW I am definitely going to Delhi for Proto 2008 July Edition.
• According to Mr. Bush the food shortage in US is because Indian middle class is growing. Does he mean that there won’t be any shortage if people here are undernourished ?

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Got this from Amit Ranjan’s Blog

Its been more than 2 years since I have been shopping regularly online, it was around 2-4 times a month earlier and now its almost 5-7 times. I do most of my regular transactions online, like paying monthly mobile/ electricity bills at Visa Bill Pay, incase I am going out of station, I buy airline tickets at IXIGO,  or train tickets at IRCTC, concert tickets for Iron Maiden show at TicketPro, Tata Sky recharge vouchers, etc and recently purchased Indian Premier League tickets for the match between Mumbai Indians and Deccan Chargers at Kyazoonga using the credit card. I don’t mind spending the extra 25-40 bucks they charge for courier. It is more convenient and saves a lot of time. And when it comes to paying credit card bills, its simple to transfer money through netbanking. Damn, I relay too much on the net and feel really handicapped in case its not accessible even for a couple of days.

I read a lot of books and boast of decent enough collection that can be called as a small library. At the last count I have around 187 odd books including the technical reference material. For the past year and half or so, I have bought almost all of my books at Indiaplaza. If I come across any good book I just add it to my wish list at Indiaplaza and once the wish list is big enough or if I have finished reading all the books from my library, I add them to my cart and order them. Not only there is 22% off on most of the books, the books get delivered in just a couple of days at my place. Also, the collection of books that they have is much better than the one at my neighborhood book store. I am very much impressed with their customer service though there have been only a couple of instances where I need to bother them, else, everything has been smooth so far. I bet its one of the best shopping portals in India.

I am a big fan of animated movies and usually don’t miss out on any of them and the ones from the Pixar stable are given special treatment by watching them first day first show. Watching Horton was on top of my list because this was the first time that my friends had watched an animated movie before me and telling me good reviews about it, usually its the other way round. Though watching this movie was on top of my list, I was a bit tied up to actually make time for it. Somehow managed to get hold of tickets for the afternoon show and there I was surrounded by kids everywhere in the theatre !

One day, Horton the elephant hears a cry from help coming from a speck of dust. Even though he can’t see anyone on the speck, he decides to help it. As it turns out, the speck of dust is home to the Whos ( the tiny ppl living on the spec), who live in their city of Whoville. Horton agrees to help protect the Whos and their home, but this gives him nothing but torment from his neighbors, who refuse to believe that anything could survive on the speck. Still, Horton stands by the motto that, “After all, a person is a person, no matter how small.”

The movie was too good and enjoyed watching every bit of it. Hats off to the guys at Blue sky studios which infact is a subsidiary 20th Century Fox and had come up with other animated movies like Ice Age, Robots, Ice Age 2 for coming up with such a brilliant movie. One thing what I like about animated movies and which always draws me towards it is that while making a movie one can just make our imaginations run wild and think of something absolutely absurd and make a movie around it which can be cherished by everyone of us. And at the end of the movie there is always a lesson to learn from it, as mentioned earlier in case of Horton it was a person is a person no matter how small. BTW I am desperately looking forward for Pixar’s Wall-E which is gonna be released on 27th June this year. Watch its trailer here. Damn, the Pixar guys make only one movie a year !