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Showing posts from January, 2007

Microsoft sending out Office 2007 trial invites, not honoring them

As a registrant to a Microsoft programme coming February, I have been receiving mails inviting me to for a 60 day trial of MS Office 2007. MS has been generously sending me such invitations since Jan 20, the day I probably registered for the conference. These mails are sent on behalf of Romi Mahajan, Microsoft IT Pro Marketing. So far so good, except that the download does not work! I have been trying it to do a download since the day I received Microsoft's so generous mail to few moments back only to receive the following message. Incidentally, Microsoft was mailing out trial CDs of MS Office 2007 through its website and I did receive one recently. So what stopped me from installing? Well, the limitation of 25 trials(or 60 days max) was too much of a risk to be taken on a machine that is used predominantly by my wife. So why I am trying now? To see if the mail trial offer is more generous. But here's the best part. If you wish to notify Microsoft, this is what you notice i

Sorry, no Proto.in for me

I was a little work tied up in sending my registration cheque for Proto.in and sent some frantic mails on Friday asking the organisers if I could make the payment on the venue(Had filled the online registration form in time). Sadly, no response, and though I stay on IIT campus, decided that this event is not for me.Hence, no first hand event update from my side.Other bloggers have written on this though.

Proto: Eight minutes to glory

India's first of its kind event, where tech wannabes and VCs come face to face, is happening, where else but Chennai. The green environs of IIT Madras is the very aptly chosen venue. Whether something earthshaking emerges is immaterial, but clearly a pathbreaking event in which tech innovators have exactly eight minutes to sell their idea to the audience(and the hard nosed VCs) from the stage.While at this moment there is no hint of the kind of innovations that will be on display here, it is important that events such as Proto are encouraged.It is indeed not an event, but the introduction of a new cultural seed of tech entrepreneurship, which should be welcomed. The presence of VCs such as Srini Raju's iLabs & Clearstone indicates that this event is not taken lightly either. I will be there on 21st, and would definitely post here. Afterall, who can miss the lobby chat, which is always the most attractive part of any such event.What's your take? Technorati: proto ,

Aishwarya & Abhishek, it is official!

It is official , Aish and Abhishek are engaged. Though media was agog with stories on the actor duo almost daily, CNN IBN reports that it was only on the Premiere of Guru that Abhi popped the Q and Aish said yes. The engagement happened evening of Sankranti day.So, that settles it for now. While videos of the engagement are not (yet) available on the net, CNN IBN was extremely excited to report on this.It also guarantees that the newly released Guru would be a superhit movie like none because audiences are known to like when real and reel tend to merge.All the more so because of Manirathanam's tight direction and A R Rehman's superb music. To play the songs, click here or else manually select here. The next round of media frenzy begins now with the actual marriage, with media speculation suggesting Feb and March for it. Technorati: Aishwarya , Bachchan

TALE OF TWO LAPTOPS

CNN reports that Nicholas Negroponte of MIT has steered the One Laptop Per Child project one more step towards reality as its heads for production in 2007. The OLPC project website states that this laptop would be ‘a potent learning tool created expressly for the world's poorest children living in its most remote environments’. These laptops are being called XO Machine and they are being made for world’s poorest children. These machines are extremely unconventional. They have a handcrank in case the battery wears down, and work on Linux OS and AMD 366 Mhz processor. Sorry, no harddisk, but instead 512 MB flash memory. XO machines would come with an inbuilt camera, and have a browser, and can quickly form a wireless network with similar machines in the neighborhood. What’s more, the OLPC project seeks to eventually produce such machines under $ 100 and seeks to distribute these cute machines to the poorest kids across the world though collaboration with the governments. However,