celestri.org

Saw this near Pedder Road.

Saw this beauty at the Mahalaxmi Racecourse in Bombay.

I started talking to someone about using the internet to download TV shows and they at first were excited as I continued talking their eyes were glazed over as I rattled off things like – feed reader, RSS feeds, BitTorrent, dot torrent files, DivX, Xvid, etc… Then I realized maybe I should put together a short tutorial on it.

The basic concept is to download TV shows with a single click, however to get to that point there is some behind the scenes tweaks that take place. Although this tutorial is based around a Mac, it’s very similiar on a Windoze platform.

The programs I use on my Mac to accomplish this are:
Firefox – web browser
Vienna – RSS reader
Transmission – BitTorrent client

1. Go to tvrss.net and find the shows you would like to watch, let’s stay you select Entourage
2. Once the page loads for Entourage, right click on “Search-based RSS Feed” and select “Copy Link Location”
3. Launch Vienna and select “New Subscription”, the link should be already pasted in the dialog box, then just select Subscribe
4. Within Firefox go to “Preferences – content – files types” then select Manage. Make sure the action for “Torrent” files are to open with the program Transmission
5. Now you are all set to try it. Refresh your feeds with Vienna, select the latest show from Entourage and it should automatically start downloading via Transmission. If it doesn’t start, then it might take you to Firefox, where you will have to click once more to start the downloading.

We are less than a week away from the iPhone being released into the wild and the suspense is building. However, since I’m in India there is no chance of getting the phone from my local Apple dealer. But, that just shows how big this launch is. I downloaded a 175mb file from Apple which guides you through the iPhone features and interface and to say the least it’s amazing. Other cell phone makes such as Nokia, Sony-Ericsson and Motorola should be ashamed as their user interfaces have been pathetic for years and we’ve lived with it.

The iPhone shows what Steve and Company are good it…disruptive interfaces. The first Mac’s introduced the concept of windows and a graphical user interface. Then the iPod/iTunes combo changed the music industry and made the process of buying songs over the internet as easy as a click. Finally, the iPhone will change the user’s expectation of what a phone interface should be when it is released on June 29th. The next thing they should work on would be a better TV interface…oh wait it’s called Apple TV.

Back in April, I commented about Indian telcom chief Dayanidhi Maran’s plan for 2007 to be the year of broadband.  Here we are at the middle of the year and nothing positive yet, just negative news:

- Maran is out as telecom chief, some sort of power play within the DMK governement
- no new ISP’s licenses being issued
- Last couple of days there have been stories in the paper about TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) wanting to regulate Google, MSN and VoIP for security reasons – bull$hit, the only security they are worried about is their financial security

When I hear the world “regulate” in India, the next sound I hear is the sound of a cash register. Because what the government wants todo is monetize some service or product via a tax.  In today’s Times of India (June 20th), they mentioned that ISP would be able to offer international long distance calls as cheap as 50 paisa a minute (which is 1.25 cents a minute).

My question is, why are Indian ISP’s trying to build content and services.  Why not let the ISP’s stick to building out the infrastructure and letting people like Skype and Jajah provide cheap voice calls.

Michael Moore’s newest movie is called Sicko and will be released on June 29th. However, the movie is already on the BitTorrent network and I was able to download and watch it over the weekend. The movie is an expose into the American health care system and focuses it’s attention on people that HAVE health insurance and how broken the system is.

It talks about how the current system was created by the Nixon administration. On the secret audio tapes of Nixon that were released years ago you can hear Nixon talking to Edgar Kaiser (namesake of Kaiser Permanente) on what the role of managed care should be – make money for the providers.

The movie goes on to show how free universal health care works in other countries. They show a doctor in England’s NHS, that lives in a million dollar home, drives an Audi and makes around USD 200,000 – not bad for a government worker.

Sicko, as other movies from Michael Moore depicts how the government will say anything to get its ways, from lies about weapons of mass destruction to how bad free universal health care is.

BitTorrent link

For the past several weeks I’ve noticed some work being done to a building near Kemps Corner. I figured it would be another lame clothing store but today I drove by and saw them putting up the signage for Porsche. The last letter “e” was put up first, I’ll take some pics next week and post them to the blog. The picture at the top is an artists rendering of what it’s supposed to look like. If you are familiar with the area the showroom is on the same street as the Crossword bookstore and right next to the Maruti showroom. Ironic that one of the best looking sports car brands in the world is being sold alongside some of the crappiest cars in the world.

This week is the highly anticipated Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco. All eyes will be on getting juicy bits of information on 10.5 (aka Leopard) from Steve. I’m also betting there will be an update on the iPhone launch which is all systems go for June 29. The new MacBook Pro’s are already out, there is talk about new brushed metal iMac’s. I’m looking for a revision of the Mac mini to contain the Intel Core 2 Duo chip, which would make my home theater complete. But, I guess the only think I know for sure is that Steve will be wearing jeans and a black turtleneck shirt.

What do those three things have in common…Cisco Systems. It’s been a pretty busy two weeks with a lot of news involving ex-Cisco people. First up is Mike Volpi who is now the CEO of Joost, which is a way to watch TV over the internet. At Cisco, Volpi ran the multi-billion Routing and Service Provider Technology Group, which sells switches and routers sold to the world’s largest telcos and cable companies.

Next up is Carl Russo of Calix. Calix is another company benefiting from IPTV, by providing the head end gear for homes. Rumor is that Calix is going to IPO very soon according to Fortune.com. Carl Russo was the CEO of Cerent when it got acquired by Cisco in 1999 for an obscene USD 6.9 billion. I still don’t get why Carl insists on having a mustache…so 70′s.

Lastly and most interesting is the Country Manager for Cisco India, Jangoo Dalal is gone, he was at Cisco for over 10 years. Prior to him was Rangu Salgame, who was also in the position for a short while. For a market that is supposed to be one of the biggest, there is a lot of turmoil at the top. I’m guessing with Cisco announcing that Bangalore will be it’s 2nd headquarters, that might be putting a lot of undue stress on the sales team as everyone is watching them much closer.

Equities markets around the world seem to be quite volatile as of late. The buzz this past week on Dalal Street is the monster IPO from construction kingpen – DLF (Delhi Land and Finance). I’ve heard some people say it will be the biggest IPO ever in India and then others saying it will be number 2 right behind Cairn. Whatever it is, i’m guessing it will be a bust. They are banking (no pun intended) on their land bank for justifying such a high valuation. This coming week June 11-16, will be the book building process where everyone will see how under or oversubscribe the issue is. I’m sure the lead bankers will be telling everyone how oversubscribed it is just like during the Cairn IPO. It was later revealed the lead bankers ate about Rs. 300 CR worth of Cairn stock – hope it was yummy.