User-centric design

When I started using Office 2007 a year ago, I found the transition not difficult, but frustrating. In fact, even frustrating is a stronger word.
From a design perspective, it was difficult to fathom why the UI designers would not just tinker with, but significantly alter the menus. Considering that the core audience for Office is, […]

Microsoft Excel

… is the greatest software application ever. Period.

Copying filtered data in Excel 2007

When you apply filters in Excel 2007, and then copy the filtered data from one sheet to another, you will find (to your frustration) that what has been copied to the new sheet is not just the filtered data, but also the invisible data that was filtered out. Oh, the ways of Microsoft! If I […]

Lenovo Ideapad

Saw this on Engadget. In a word, awesome!
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Google Calendar now syncs with Outlook

This is another piece of great news from Google. Their calendar app, which I have found very useful, can now sync with Outlook. I had sent this in as a feature request some time ago (I guess many others would have done so too), and am glad to see it has been implemented.
The most recent […]

Gmail chat goes ‘invisible’

A feature addition that has been pending for long is now finally underway. Gmail Chat now has added the Invisible mode, so users can now be logged into chat, but remain stealthy.
As a GTalk-aficionado, I was expecting to find the feature on my Google Talk client, but not yet. The announcement on the Google Blog […]

1-800-GOOG-411

Check this out. Awesome!

The future of public transportation

I had the good fortune of attending Temple University’s conference on Digital Transformation of Urban Experiences today.
The keynote address was by Dr. William Mitchell of MIT. The idea presented was that of the City Car - a futuristic car that MIT is working on. This car is designed for shared use, and can be used […]

Suggestions, please

Do you have anything to say to someone who is very seriously considering uninstalling Windows Vista, possibly the worst ever operating system, and switching to Windows XP? Like a few words to wean me away from doing this…

This is Microsoft

The “Wow” starts here… except for some pretty stupid math.

Question

What do we do when the adoption barrier to a system is the selfsame people for whose benefit the system is being implemented?
Let’s say that a CIO wants to implement a Web 2.0 system in his organization to help employees collaborate better among themselves. The technology to be used, the physical infrastructure etc are all […]

SUNW is now JAVA!

In what is, in my opinion, a silly move, SUN Microsystems is changing it’s NASDAQ ticker symbol from SUNW to JAVA. The reason?
The company said it’s making the change to capitalize on the brand-awareness of its Java software and to better reflect the company’s current strategy.
What happens, one wonders, to the company that had such […]

GrandCentral invites

I have a few GrandCentral invites with me. If you’re looking for an invite, do let me know. If you don’t know what GrandCentral is, do check out this page. I think you’ll love it.
P.S.: The service is available only in the USA (and Canada, probably). So, if you live elsewhere, the invite won’t be […]

Pownce invites

I have a few Pownce invites with me. If you need an invite, do let me know. If you want to know more about Pownce, this link should be useful.

Apple’s big gamble

Question: Which product has spawned fan groups, blogs, forums, design reviews, product reviews, specs, development roadmaps etc, even before anyone knows if it is in development at all?
Answer: The Apple iPhone.
There have been rumours and rumours, to the extent that all of us believe that the marriage between the iPod and the phone is underway. […]

Firefox 2: a preview

Firefox is coming out with release 2.0 in the next few months. Beta 1, codenamed Bonecho, has recently been made available for download. At first sight, the new version looks like it has only cosmetic changes from the current version. Here are a few features I could spot:

The Close-Tab button. This is a feature I […]

Google Earth and Katrina

When Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast almost a year ago, people across the country and around the world wondered how to help. Many donated money; others lent their homes to dislocated survivors. A group of Googlers lent their expertise by leveraging the power of Google technology.

John Hanke, Director of Google Earth and Maps, on […]

Zune in

With its recent announcement about entering the portable MP3 player business with Zune, Microsoft is entering a dangerous territory, one which in which Apple, with its iPods, has a clear lead. So what is the Seattle giant thinking? Peter Burrows explains the risks and the payoffs in the battle for your ears…

The partnering strategy hasn’t […]

Check out the new Google Talk

Google Talk is my favourite IM. Despite being not as feature-rich as its counterparts from Yahoo! and MSN are, Google Talk trumps because it exploits fully its USP — it is simple. It has the look-and-feel of an app that you and I would have developed to practise basic networking in Java.
But Google has constantly […]

Where to draw the line?

Yesterday, Slashdot linked to an interesting article about a teenager and her mother suing MySpace.com, a social networking site for $30 million.The complaint: that the website had failed to protect her (the teenager) from a sexual predator who molested her on their first date.
More than the article itself, the comments which follow it provide an […]