Then as you introduce push email (or just interval checking), you can even be notified the same way if you like.

Like the iPhone the Symbian phones from Nokia all supported applications, or apps as the current calling trend is. They didn’t have a fancy store back then, but the publishers could sell apps, just like Windows/Mac software. May be that’s where they didn’t do it right, but I doubt it. The problem was the app experience varied depending on how powerful your Symbian phone was.

What Apple did with the focus on a lone model (and at the time of writing 3) is that the app developers didn’t have to worry about if it will work on this model and not that. Instead they focused on the application itself. Added to that you have all the new tech that the iPhone had compared to other flagship phones, made for some very very interesting apps.

I believe Apple had finally created what for a lack of a better term an ecosystem in the mobile world. Just like how because you use Windows everywhere you really have to think hard about switch your system to Linux or Mac, Apple has successfully made people stick to this ecosystem. Just consider the number of upgraders from iPhone 2G to iPhone 3GS. In fact, it is so strong, that when I think about switching to an Android – and trust me I do from time to time – I reconsider because of the applications that I would leave behind.

Hopefully Andriod, Symbian, RIM, Windows Mobile and Bada will all catch up, and you can chose your ecosystem and then stick to it.

In my opinion doubleTwist is a diamond in the rough. It already offers syncing between tons of devices, and if I was Palm I’d put some money and cut a deal with these guys and go with a iTunes competitor. Specially since the new release has the Amazon Music Store and it’s own music library.

Even though, doubleTwist has a bit more to go before they can really compete against iTunes head to head, I think it has a pretty good chance if things go right for it. Having its own library and a music store was a good step forward. If Palm, Amazon and doubleTwist got together and brushed up on the user interface, it would be great!

Hell just imagine a SongBird and iTunes like experience with a software that can sync your Android, Palm and Apple devices.

Ever since I was born, I have experienced power outages that the locals call load shedding. Which makes sense only when you realize that the term was not coined as that was the actual reason why the outage occurs. You see, the requirement of electrical power in Bangladesh outshines it supply by some crazy amount and over the years instead of supply catching up with the demand, the demand has managed to start running away.

The government has recently been trying to control this issue before it goes completely out of hand. They’ve cut down the hours of commercial zones at night to reduce the power drained by all the flashy lights. They are currently even trailing Daylight Savings. While these changes seems to positively affect the situation, they are merely just band-aids. We need better solutions.

I’ve heard that the power stations are only working at roughly 30% efficiency. I don’t even know what the usual efficiency average is of a power station. In fact, I don’t even know what types of power station we have in Bangladesh. I know what at least one is from a waterfall. How many do we have anyway? Surely if we can increase the efficiency of these stations, we are going to see some great changes. What about costs of such repairs?

Some people suggested that the government can increase the cost of power in the commercial zones. Indeed, that would cause them to manage power better to not take away from their profits. Would jacking up the price of power really work? It always reminds of the “Save Energy” stickers we had at the Georgia Tech dorms asking you to turn off the lights when you left; but then as you walked around the campus you realized that some of the non-residential buildings are lit nearly 24/7. Hell, it will probably be even worse in Bangladesh, considering the corrupted approaches that a corporation can take to utilize more power but just pay the same bill.

No, that didn’t seem like a viable solution to me either. We need something else. Something that would inherently interest the corporations due to the potential savings. Some of you probably know what I am talking about already. Yes, I’m talking about going green.

It had occurred to me this year when I analyzed how people (including myself) was dealing with the problem of higher gasoline (petrol) prices. I personally drive at least 400 miles a week; that’s a little over one tank of gas. With the prices going up, I just had to start budgeting more money towards fuel per month, but that was just the start. Soon, I started to keep track of my mileage; playing with different variables to see what would affect it positively. Later, I noticed that my driving behavior has changed giving me roughly 4 extra miles per gallon. I even started thinking about changes to the car that would help. Even thinking about greener cars as a replacement.

While the decision to switch to a greener driving habit, or a greener car will eventually help the environment, my need to go there had nothing to do with either. It didn’t even have to do with a gasoline shortage in the area either. It was all monetary. I didn’t have the resources to keep up with my lifestyle, so I had to change to balance it out.

How about making the same changes to the power grid in Bangladesh? Think about it. People loves their hard earned cash; even when it is not so hard earned. Hell I have heard stories of people sending bribes that would reduce their bills, just because that was the cheaper alternative. Surely when they realize that they would have to pay less and less in power bills with more and more greener changes they make, they would be tempted?

And once they switch to alternative power sources, not only will it give them (hopefully) 0% power outage, but it will also reduce the demand on the government power grid. See going green, doesn’t have to mean a better world for our future generations only, it also can mean a better world in the present.

Personally, I am very interested in trying out wind turbines on tall building and near the coast lines. Even if it is done as an experiment, I feel confident that the results can impress various corporations and tempt them to reconsider the higher setup cost that can drive the operation cost lower.

Just think about it.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJsZhiOhUVg

I know what you are thinking. What the hell is Simlish. Now I realize that in when playing Sims you are not supposed to understand what they are saying, but this? Wow. What a marketting ploy.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucYv1zX13zU

It has been a while since my last confession post. As most of you know, I have been back to the USA for the last 2 months or so. Catching up with work and the life I left behind for the 3 preceeding months kinda kept me out of everything. There has, however, been tons of updates on twitter which in turn shows up on Facebook. I’m sorry but I no longer reside in MySpace or hi5. They just were not working for me.

All that aside, I didn’t have much to say either. Occasionally a few ideas came up but I never got to actually write it down. There has been flickr updates with things around the house, but so far that has been it. Hopefully soon I will have tons of ramblings to fill your mind with.

Until then, with lots of love
bid

What was really interesting was to see the easy avaibility of ASUS, BenQ and LiteON products. Since these are all Asian brands the ease of importing them and their price points makes them a very promising supplier. I even noticed an ASUS EeePC amoung the variety of laptops that are readily available. Also it is much fun to see all the Chinese knock-offs that you can find

One particular thing that has affected be a lot is the fact that in Bangladesh the weekend days are Friday and Saturday. Which would lead people think that I spend 3 days completely out of touch with my office in US. However, adding up the 10 hour time difference gives me an interesting disadvantage. Notably, by the time I wrap up my week on a Thursday here, people in Atlanta are just preparing to go to work on a fine Thursday morning. Which means that they still have 2 days to finish this week.

Similarly by the time they start working on Monday morning, I have already wrapped up two business days in the week. So it boils down to the fact that instead of being out of touch with the office for 3 days, I am infact only in contact with the office for 3 days. The rest 4 days are lost in weekends.

Interesting no?

It has been a while since I have written anything. I have not mentioned about the crazy time that I had to spend for the last few days. The wedding preparations, shopping everything had kept us all crazy busy. At the moment the house is almost empty. After tomorrow, all the guests will be gone.

I haven’t even had a chance to really enjoy my vacation yet and I have already started working from here while I await my visa. Gotta tell ya, this visa business is very annoying.

That’s it for today. Ttyl

LOL

This week it already snowed on Wednesday here in Atlanta. And then it snowed again today! It’s been a while when it snowed more than a day, so we decided to honor it with a snowman