Sidin Vadukut - Livemint.com
ABOUT RECENT POSTS
Member since 03-18-2008
Last visited 08-21-2009
Timezone 5.00 GMT
About Me
Sidin Sunny Vadukut writes for the weekend Lounge magazine. He also manages the Play page which deals with fun stuff to do online and offline. You can mail him on sidin.v@livemint.com.
Total Posts 121
Post Rank 0
  • Friday, August 21, 2009
    Posted at 8:05:00 AM
    Around 1:00 PM last Friday I was standing in the lobby of The River View Retreat somewhere inside Corbett National Park in Uttaranchal. There are glasses of welcome drink arranged on a table outside the resort's lobby, along with biscuits, but I rush past it in my eagerness to check in. The idea of course was to spend a longish weekend in the resort in the middle of the national park doing absolutely nothing besides a little reading and some DVD watching. The booking had been made absolutely at the last moment on the previous evening via a MakeMyTrip.
  • Friday, August 14, 2009
    Posted at 2:49:00 PM
    For all the fancy hardware that goes into modern computers sometimes the simplest tasks can stump you. For instance suppose you’ve made a blog for the entire family and want to tell your uncle in Vancouver how to embed a video in his post. One option could be to send him a long, patiently written email with every step put out in excruciating detail. Or you could invest emotionally and financially in the activity by trying to explain it to him over the phone. All the while you’re pulling your hair wondering why you can’t just demo it on his computer.
  • Thursday, August 06, 2009
    Posted at 10:14:00 PM
    My esteemed colleague Melissa Ann Bell tried and failed to post this from the USA. So we interceded. Melissa says: In the U.S. a week ago, ads started springing up for "Bollywood Hero". Neha Dhupia and Pooja Kumar flank a tuxedo-ed Chris Kattan (best known for being the head-bobbing partner of Will Ferrell in Night at the Roxburry). It's supposed to be about a failed U.S. comic who decides to move to Mumbai to find stardom abroad. At first glance I thought to myself, "Oh great, here we go, an even worse version of Mike Myer's.
  • Tuesday, August 04, 2009
    Posted at 6:23:00 PM
    (Received last night via email forward) When we all have the UID card this could be one such conversation?. Operator : "Thank you for calling Pizza Hut . May I have your..." Customer: "Heloo, can I order.." Operator : "Can I have your multi purpose ID card number first, Sir?" Customer: "It's he..., hold..........on......889861356102049998-45-54610" Operator : "OK... You're... Mr Singh and you're calling from 17 Jal Vayu. Your home number is 22678893, your office 25076666 and your mobile is.
  • Monday, July 27, 2009
    Posted at 6:48:00 AM
    A recent update from the blog of that new-fangled search-computation-engine Wolfram Alpha: Does today’s crossword have you puzzled? You could continue to fret, and fight the urge to check the full solution, or you could consult Wolfram|Alpha , which has the tools you need to solve the sneakiest constructions. Wolfram|Alpha can find words matching a pattern, words with specific beginnings and endings, and provide word definitions. The blog then goes on to illustrate its ability to help stuck cryptic, or any type of, crossword solvers: The engine.
  • Saturday, July 25, 2009
    Posted at 2:41:00 AM
    How many times have you seen that perfect gift on Ebay or Amazaon but decided to skip the purchase just because of credit card safety concerns? Or ached to subscribe to the New Yorker or the wonderful BBC History Magazine only to cower with fear when the online payment portal pops open? Well maybe my little secret will perk you up and help you take just the right amount of risk. For years I was armed with a pack of credit cards that as swiped online and off with gay abandon. I bought books, gadgets, movie tickets and a plethora of cables and convertors.
  • Sunday, July 19, 2009
    Posted at 11:24:00 PM
    A curious thing happened a few days ago when Cheryl Smith's husband was browsing through Facebook. He suddenly saw one of those dating ads they show you on the website. You know the type. "This hottie wants you right now! And we are not thinking platonic! Wink! Nudge! Ok click now." You know how it is. But the only catch was the hottie in the picture in the advertisement was... Cheryl Smith. Thankfully Cheryl's husband laughed it off. (No doubt wondering to himself what would have transpired if the vice versa had happened. Shudder.
  • Friday, July 17, 2009
    Posted at 8:15:00 PM
    Two days ago one of our very resourceful admin staff emailed out a mammoth excel sheet with contact details of everyone in the national Mint network. It had names, extensions and mobile numbers. And I don’t have to tell you how, in a newsroom environment, this sort of thing is pretty helpful. When you MUST have a quote from that someone in Kolkatta it helps to have the city bureau chief on speed-dial no? So a lot of people have nice print-outs tacked up to their soft-padded cubicle walls for ready reference. But if you have a Blackberry this is.
  • Wednesday, July 15, 2009
    Posted at 5:25:00 PM
    On 2 July Bangalore Mirror reported that an impostor had been operating Nandan Nilekani's Twitter account: Talk about IDs! Well, the Unique ID Authority of India chairman Nandan Nilekani’s ID on Twitter is not his ID. Those updates on the Twitter site are from someone who is pretending to be Nandan Nilekani. When asked about updates on the social networking site, Nandan Nilekani clarified that he does not have a personal Twitter account. So if you are on Twitter and you get an invite to “be followed” by Nandan Nilekani, hang on before getting.
  • Monday, July 13, 2009
    Posted at 11:36:00 PM
    I fire up Youtube.com and what do I see but a clip from that new India's Got Talent show with a bunch of students aged 18-28 (PhD I assume) doing a cool, clever spoof of a Super Mario game using good old dark stage special effects, easily recognizable music from the iconic game series and plenty of enthusiasm. The performance was pretty special. I have no idea how many people 'got it' but the judges seemed to appreciate it somewhat by the looks on their faces. Going by the comments on the website a lot of people seem to like the video.
  • Sunday, July 12, 2009
    Posted at 12:40:00 PM
    Ever since Google announce the Chrome OS via blogpost a few days ago the web has been agog with speculation, projection and assumption about how Chrome OS could change the OS game. Some say that the OS will be a serious contender to Microsoft's WIndows hegemony while others think that the Chrome OS, like the Chrome browser, will be all noise and no adoption. (The browser, if you're wondering, launched to tremendous fanfare including a comic book expressly made for the launch, only to now languish in 4th place when it comes to browser popularity.
  • Friday, June 26, 2009
    Posted at 10:23:00 AM
    Michael Jackson passed away today after a career known as much for its hugely influential music as the turmoil and allegations in Jackson's private life. Jackson's music and unique persona made him one of the most successful American exports ever. For someone with such longevity in his repertoire there will be few people who have had a chance to see the entire gamut of his music. This is a brief listing of YouTube videos, mostly of his music and then some, that briefly chronicles the King's life: 1. The Jackson 5: http://www.youtube.
  • Monday, June 15, 2009
    Posted at 6:26:00 PM
    With Apple having announced the new iPhone 3Gs and that this model will be available in India in August, the first thought on my mind was: "Why did I not study software and get a green card and go to the US and settle down and buy the iPhone for a reasonable price and feel content in life?". My second thought was: "Then what could happen to the price of the old iPhone 3G?" My good friend Abhimanyu has already theorized that all price-cuts in all other markets notwithstanding, the iPhone 3G will not see large price cut in India.
  • Friday, June 05, 2009
    Posted at 3:49:00 PM
    Earlier today @rashmid sent me an image via Twitter. About Twitter: This is a grab from a simple Google Search page. Type in a term into the box and Google automatically tries to guess what you are looking for. Mostly based on content online and previous search histories. It throws up a list with a corresponding estimate of how many results are available for each suggested search term. As you can there are a fair number of people who look upon Twitter less than favourably. This suddenly sparked a thought in my head. Isn't Google's suggestions.
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