Four Fingers

Its a long time I had scribbled something. I really wanted to write a post in Tamil and also have started  the ground work, but the post didn't turn out well, even in the draft stage. Getting the correct tamil word and using the right tone is not that easy. May be I can try Tamil post for a cinema review, not for any general post.

Next thing I thought was to write a post on my life itself. A kind of biography. Some interesting incidents that happened till a point in my life. About my  family, study, teachers, love (infact, infactuation) and other general things. But that require some amount of confession and not sure whether anyone will be interested to read that at all. Anyhow, that will be useful for me in my old age. I can myself read that and smile :)

So, what to write? Yeah, today there happened an interesting incident to write. Today I took the T-Nagar route to reach my office instead of my regular Guindy route. Got down at T-Nagar bus stand and crossed the road to reach the opposite terminus. As usual, watched the right, left and started crossing the road. I missed the third point "to the right again".. In a flash, I heard a kreeeech  sound and damn, I was hit by a speeding pulsar. I was infact crossing the road when vehicles at the other end are on the red-signal. But my time, I dont know where the hell that pulsar came from. Good that it had disk brakes, but both of us had a skid. He stood up and asked "Dont you look up when crossing the road?". I was just looking at him and beside him, for he was the only vehicle on the road while other two-wheelers are still waiting for the green signal. He understood therez a fault on his side as well. He was just rushing through the signal before it went green, and I was walking without seeing "to the right again". It was now my turn to fire him, but somehow I didnt think of even speaking to him. Happened has happened and there is no Cntrl+Z in life. So, I just went with my "What Next?" mind-set. Meantime, I sensed a burning irritation in my right hand fingers. Before I crossed the other part of the road, I could see the red-liquid oozing through my right palm and dripping down. My palm has completely turned red-wet and I couldnt guess where is the source of injury. Wrapping around the kerchief in the palm as temporary measure (remembering Man Vs Wild), I purchased a water bottle from the bus stand, cleaned up the hand to see what really happened. Except thumb finger, that luckily escaped, all other 4 fingers got a good bruise and dripping red. One guy who was patiently watching me so far, finally asked "enna sir aachu? blood varuthu?." Good fellow. I asked him to check if there is any blood indication around my neck. Thats really dangerous getting hit on head. Sometime, we cannot feel pain immediately if hit in head (my own experience when i broke my head some 15yrs back). Only when the thakkali chutney comes out, we will realize that we are out :).. That guy checked and said "NO".. Thank god.

I thought i will manage, but my kerchief has fully gone red-wet, and the conditions were demanding to pay a visit to some local hospital immediately. I started searching for clinic near the bus stand, but it was around 9.30am and no clinic was open by that time. I couldnt spot any big hospitals around. One medical shop guy then said Go to right, left and "again right", there will be a clinic.Luckily one lady doctor was available by that time, and I was the Patient Number-2. While waiting for my turn, I took a very good snap of my injured bloody fingers.. (bright sun light and red tone, the picture came real cool. but not to publish anyway). Needless to say I was waiting with anticipation of how the doctor will look like. I could hear Patient-1 (lady patient) speaking and laughing loud with the doctor. Good voice you know. Mambalam area, good voice, I was just waiting for my turn (no bad thoughts, okay). The moment came and with my pulse shooting, I entered in the small clinic. Oops, that was quite a disappointment. Don't ask me anything more. Its just a disappointment. I thought it was worth shedding some extra red-liquid and find other clinic. I dont understand why lady doctors dont look like Iniya in Mounaguru or Sneha in VasoolRaja. Anyhow, shez not really that bad, but definitely not upto my expectation. But no other clinic was open that time. Also, a doctor is a doctor is a doctor. You should really respect doctors.!!.

She then asked some boring questions like "how did this happen", "was the road too rough.." etc. and then some ok-ok questions like "did the wheel run over your finger", "any injury to head" and some interesting questions like "what is your name", "how old are you", "what are u doing?" etc.. Finally she took that hot-n-spicy liquid (tincture?.. may be I didnt answer few questions correctly) and coolly wiped off the blood. dressing'aam.!!.. (sema erichala irundhudhu theriyumaa...! but, naan endha reaction'um kaatalaye..!) She then asked her maid (she was the one who allotted me token-2. she was also one reason to raise my expectation about the doctor. labour'ey ippadi irukkanganna!!!) to purchase a TT from nearby medical shop and injected me a dose. (Me-> Doctor, pant'aaa?;;   Doctor -> No, T-shirt). The she gave tablets and said the me below thing..

GREY - 2 times a day for 3 days, WHITE - three times a day for 2 days, YELLOW - 1/2 for 2 times a day for 2 days. It was really funny to hear this colorful prescription (Remembering, BBROY of Great Britain...!), but that's how the tables looked like, and it was really easy for me to remember as well. Finally the grey one turned out to be Amox, White nothing but Calpol and the Yellow one, just a pain killer.

Now the important part. I asked her whether she is going to put bandage on my fingers. (remember the "yaaradi nee mohini" scene, that fight-blood-nayanthaara-dhanush-bandage-bondage scene?) You know, a bandage will be equally good to create a scene in office (indha cinema kaaranga dhaan ippadeena). I can also buy some additional time for submitting the test plan document. (sir, kaila adi patturukku sir.. homework ezhudha mudiyala, kind of). But she looked at me without any expression (damn!) and said,  "No bandage. Leave the wound open and apply this ointment. Two days.. it will dry" (ennadi, karuvaada sollara maadhiri sollara.. rendu naalla kanjidumnu!!). I had a lot of time to reach office and hence no idea of leaving her. I asked "Then, are you going to apply the ointment to me now?". She again gave a useless look as said "ippo venam. office'kku illa veetu'kku poi neeyey apply pannikko.".. I really felt the pain is getting better than the doctor. She then charged 2 green notes, but she is really a good doctor. I now need to leave, as patient number-3 was waiting to put kadalai ("indha podavai enga doctor edutheenga", "ungalukku indha color eduppa irukku", "ayyo, indha jacket indha podavaikku nalla suit aayirukku" kind of local kadala) . Anyhow, Pat-3 was one other not-pakkable lady.

After reaching office, I swallowed three color tablets sincerely, and then opened the ointment. It was exactly like grease. The Fourth color. (Remembered the joke.. "sari da naye.. poradhu pora.. andha grease dabbava eduthu kudthuttu po.".). An Iodine based ointment it seems. Soon as I applied the ointment on the wound, I spelled that "one word".. attributing it to that doctor.. But again, it was a good ointment. I can type this blog right now even with 80% of my fingers (4 out of 5!) hurt.. The salt in it really dries up the wound like anything.

Now the toughest part is how to inform this injury to my family. If its a small cut/wound, I can play hide and seek, till it heals. But, bruises on 4 right hand fingers is not very easy to hide, and soon I ask for a spoon, I need to face the "why?". Better to confess it myself. Again, if I say the bike-hit story, I need to hear atleast two hours of advice from my family and that will continue for atleast one week. Its really torturing you know. No one wantedly steps in the way of a running metal, except suicide. So I made up a story myself. "Its a small injury while doing work in my office" (sorry extreme!). Though the reason lacks logic, they wont query too much when I use the keyword "work place", "office" kind-of. You see, its a technical accident now. If they ask more, then I will further use "router", "switch", "chassis" kind of systematically-technically-complex and brutal keywords. I know, they definitely will not like to hear these words. My father was in a good mood today. He just said "Take care, and if you want to get healed soon, dip your finger in the kaara-kuzhambu bowl".. Nice advice, but I said "paravalla, I have a similar ointment.. That will do". Later he searched his First Aid Kit and came back with some other color ointment he had, but I had to override that with my lady prescribed one. No more colors invited.

So, thats close to the end of story folks. Now, why the hell am i writing this blog. Few simple reasons.

1. If I keep my fingers straight, wide and still, it feels like swelling, and I feel like ghost waiting to kill someone. Fingers on keyboard is definitely an exercise.
2. Injection is now showing effect. It pains somewhere deep inside the shoulder when moving the arm. (if she had listened to my other option, this arm pain could have been avoided... fine.. women never listen to men!). Scrolling this page back and forth for spelling correction, masala addition etc. gives some "feels-good" movement around the arm..
3. If at all there comes a chance to write a post, grab it.. dont miss it :)
4. Reddy has recently posted a masala blog. I dont go well with commercial competitors :)

Few weeks back, I was really (real really!) thinking "how will it be if my fingers are hurt". Since fingers are the main investment to an IT engineer (of course for everyone, but computers need fingers a lot), I was thinking of this negative case. Today, I got a demo of how it really feels. Thanking him for limiting it with a demo, and I have to say it "Engineers.. take care of your fingers..". Ending with a nice quote that I read long back "No one realizes that we have five fingers in a hand, until we lose one..". Today, I realized "Four Fingers".

MELSS

Finally had some time to scribble a new post. This is all about my experience with MELSS.Why MELSS after a long time? Read further.

It was in 1998 timeframe, when my first placement was at MELSS - a company known for punctuality and discipline; apart from manufacturing Board-Wizards. It all went fine for the first few days - just looking around, amazing what an "industry" would look like. More feel-good was the thought about the Rs.810/- stipend that's going to be in my hands at the end of the month. First professional salary, isnt it?

Not even a week passed, I was called-in by my mentor for a discussion. Okay; its really not a discussion, but a informal call (thambi inga vaapa) to inform me the work that I need to do for the next 6 months. MELSS as a product company had different sections - Production, R&D, Testing, Inspection, Documentation and other supporting functions. As an Electronics student, I was expecting me to be placed in Production - where soldering is the primary work. That could give me some chance to improve my soldering skills, learn some ICs and their numbers, and of course, interact with Kanaga madam.

Well, it didnt happen the way I thought. I was placed in Documentation section and my work was to draw professional diagrams for the components/accessories used in Board-Wizard like Cable assemblies, guiding rails, chassey, connectors etc etc in trace papers. To be exact, its like the work of a civil engineer. One other Civil engineering student from MPT who was placed along with me was put in library to take care of book Inventory. I was in a better ship compared to him, but still civil is not my work. But first job and no courage to say a NO.

I was allotted a biiig table, biig board, sliding scale attached to the board, variety of stencils, marker pens,   trace paper roll, erasers and hell a lot of other tools for which I don't know the names still. A good civil guy might know their names atleast.

I was then given a crimped FRC (Flat Ribbon Cable) cable and asked to replicate that on a trace paper with exact dimensions. I really even don't know how to use the pen (its a special drawing pen), ruler and stencil, but no way out. Even after wasting few trace sheets, the cable remained cable still. It did turn up as drawing.  Even the little guidance from my civil colleague didn't help. He just smiled and went away. I gladly understood the meaning of that smile.

I couldn't do anything much till that evening, the productivity was zero, wastage was high; but the heavy concentration on staring at the cable, trying to draw with absolutely no interest gave me an immense head-ache. Luckily my drawing took-kit has an dragon liquid balm already, but that was no match for my pain.

It was at that moment, I really broke-down, felt like my future got dark and had no hope to live. Will the so called "industry" be like this? Giving tool-kit along with dragon liquid balm? Which company will recruit me in campus, if i say that I'm experienced in drawing? Will my complete life go in drawing, since I'm getting trained in that? Am I not fit to do soldering? Is my career starting with a bad luck? How many CLs are allowed per month? Lot of such thoughts - and they all said the same thing "you are screwed". Adding fuel to the fire was that my other three classmates were placed in soldering section.

I was close to tears, and when the pain finally went beyond control, it turned out as courage. I walked directly to my mentor and said "I want to be in soldering and I don't want to do a Civil work". I thought he would understand my situation, but he didnt even show a simple reaction on his face. He coolly said "Do this for one or two days and then lets see how it goes". Though I didn't win, his words gave me some hope at that moment. If i report him a NO for the next 2 days, I can surely get into soldering. Bell rang and day was over.

Next day, I again started staring at the cable, but this time my head-ache was not that intense. After learning the tips and tricks of using the pen, stencil and the ruler - the cable began to take shape on the paper. I also need to mark the component name, company name, "drawn-by", date and other proprietary information as part of every artifact. After the final touch-up is done and the finished drawing was in my hand, I really felt the first taste of success. After a real hard-work, whatever the result it makes - its a pride to enjoy. And if the result is encouraging, joy knew no bounds. My mentor and even the civil guy appreciated my work, since it was out of my domain.

Believe me or not, in the next 6 months, I did drawing for close to 80 accessories for board-wizard. I somehow developed a love towards that job. Complex cable assemblies to simple electromagnetic pen traces - all had my signature. Even now, I believe they will have those originals. They later took a real blueprint of all my drawings and showed me a copy. I till now couldn't believe I did that. Later I was also involved in soldering for few complex FRC assemblies, testing board wizard and helping out QA, but all that became a side-work. I didn't give up the drawing till my last day in MELSS.

Overall, MELSS taught me a very valuable lesson - "You can master any skill in the world - just that you need to love it"..

So, why am I writing this now?.. Simple. Few days back, the situation presented me an opportunity to recall this incident. The first week of my Extreme Networks experience was nothing different than MELSS. Though I could now proudly claim "Iam 11 years experienced in industry", butterflies still fly in stomach when changing to a new role. Adapting to the current environment is always a challenge; as we cannot expect anything around us to change, except us.

Two weeks passed with a mix of boring, interesting, disappointing and many times lonely feeling. Felt like thrown out of a comfortable to uncomfortable zone. Strangely, I even thought once "Did I make a wrong move?". But then I realized, "I haven't started loving my job yet". It might take some more time to for me to adapt to the new environment, people and the culture there, but once that happens, its going to be a smooth ride. That's when I say "MELSS experience is yielding its results"...

MSKs Censored Blog

Not sure how many noted that MSK posted a blog on Sep/8 and removed by Sep/9. Though he is the owner of his site, me and Mahesh clearly said him during our Sep/9 meet that even the owner doesn't have any rights to remove the blog once published publicly. [As long as there is no public request to do so].. But MSK's stand was that he is planning to tweak his blog and repost it. Though that sound well, Iam publishing his original blog here for your information, and obviously without his permission...

Reason - enakku publicity venumnu mudivu panniten...:).. Sorry MSK..

Original Post

Something missing

by MSK

There is something pricking me for all over my life. To be said particularly, am feeling it more after completing my diploma. So, What is it? Is it the feeling of something not fulfilling my life? or I have not fulfilled anything? When I was thinking about it again and again couple of things striking my mind. Would like to share with you people in brief. 

Small story :-)

I have done my primary schooling in Srinivasa Vidyalaya, Hasthinapuram. I rarely remember that I would get 3th / 4th rank in my 3/4/5th standards. It was a bit competetion between 4 of us and yes, it was a healthy one. I had participated in annual day dance programs. I was a good dancer (you should beleive me) at that time, like i will be dancing in the first row always. 

Once I completed the primary schoolings my father admitted me in Government Boys Higher Secondary school, Chromepet for my secondary education. I studied from 6th std to 8th std there. Our class strengths were about minimum 80+ This time I remember well that I am the student of 3/4 th rank out of 3 or 4 ranks. Just imagine about the students educational potential at that time in my class, 4 ranks out of 80 students. I was an very average student where my total would be around 300 out of 500. Since we have shifted our house from Hastinapuram to Kolathur, I studied my 9th and 10th std in ICF Hr Sec School. The same average ranks continued, even I have failed in Maths subject while conducting 10th std half yearly exams. Since it is a public exam my parents asked me to go tution classes to score well. Well, I managed to score 82% in my public exams which is beyond my standard.

Accidentally I got a seat in Murugappa Polytechnic to join and study about Elaectronics and Communication. A good 3.5 years passed with some learnings (subject / personal), with some arrears, with lots of fun. I am still an average student there too, not bothered about to bring up my full potential. Still I doubt on my interest level on subjects while studying.

Matterku varuvom

1st matteru

But whatever the stages I crossed I know I have not made my full efforts to bring up my entire potentials. Being work with 10+ years of industry experience I frankly admit myself that I never put my 100% efforts. But I have a self belief that if I put 100% efforts, i would have been in a very good position designation wise as well as salary wise. When I was working as an IFR coordinator in Airtel, my boss was commented on my ability skills like, "nee nenacha puliya kooda pudippa, aana sethaalum nenaika maata" which i thought it was true. This is the major part which i missed / missing in my life.

2nd matteru

If I just turn and see my past 30 years, hardly I dont feel that I have lived 30 years, its just like an 30 days. Majorpart of my life I have covered in just 3 paragraphs. To say it clearly 50% of my life. Nothing is more to tell you about it.

I have some thought(you may call it as an ambition) of starting a school and give some free education to the people who is living under poverty. This thought i have, since i completed my polytechnic. I really believe that it would be the purpose of my life to live.  But i realise that already 11 years gone since i completed the polytechnic and it passed for nothing. Now, slowly i afraid that another 10 - 20 years also will go like that for nothing. I feel earning and living (survival) itself has become tedious for me nowadays. So what will happen to my ambitions is still an unanswered question. So, Whats missing?

Having good thoughts are fine. But did I learn how to implement those? Its not only the question of learning to implement, Am I ready to compromise my comfort zone what am I in now? Is that fire is always on without getting dim? or do I need fuel consistently to burn it high? What should I do to burn it high to become what in my thoughts? Am I still an average man that I cannot perform any task with my own? Is it the trend that it continues from my schools? Is it not the right time to think about those things?

I dont get answers for some of these questions, some answers to some extent Iam not ready to change myself or compromise my comfort zone. These are the problems that Iam the only person to face? or most of us sailing in the same boat? I dont know. If the answer is yes, then come we will think together to fulfill our life.

MSK

MPT Autograph - Guest lecture

One fine day, Mr.MSK FYI'ed me that he has "committed" APS sir about presenting a session on "Networking basics" to our MPT juniors. There is no big surprise element in this news, since everyone in our batch know that Mr.MSK is a MPT-Alumni member, and he always gets insight into whats happening there. No wonder one day he becomes a Board member of the very same polytechnic where he studied :)..

After being tired of his multi-dimensional service to MPT, MSK passed on this opportunity of guest lecturing to me. Since I had no pressing [or even normal] commitments for the week-end, I thought of giving it a try, atleast in the name of "giving back to the society" or more technically a "knowledge transfer" session to current students of where we came in from. One thing I really wasn't sure of what to present, and I kept asking Mr.MSK to send me the syllabus till 11th hour, so that I could prepare something on those lines before going in for the session. [Finally Mr.MSK passed me the syllabus when standing before the students, the 12th hr]

So, it was decided that the session will be conducted on Saturday, 20th August between 10am to 1pm - a 3hour schedule to let students know [not understand] the basics of what networking means. A surprise news from APS came in Friday stating that there will 90 students attending the session and drawing hall is blocked for the event. I wasn't really thinking about that big audience, since we had only 26 members in our batch. I was expecting some 30-35 students at max for the session in PCB lab. Somehow, making up my mind, I  refreshed myself on the OSI layers, Hub, Switch concepts and other basic fundas of networking. A nice reading for me indeed. 

The next-day, myself and MSK were there in MPT by 9.50am - a 10min ahead schedule. A call from APS to MSK said that "APS was on his way still and he will be here in next 15mins.. actually he forgot to bring the drawing room key and he is going back to fetch that".. So, now that we had a extended 15 minute window, we just went through roaming around the campus. The first sight itself was astonishing - a group of 20-25 girls under the tree near the electronics lab all clad in blue. Few boys roaming here and there in small groups. We could see a very good difference between what we were those days and what these guys are now... Boys wearing Reebok shoes with cell phones in hand.. I ain't sure how many of us really know atleast the "Reebok" brand when studying, and cell-phones, not even existing at that time. Only those small pagers and very rich guys having that "brick" model phone.

Now back to story - It was all nostalgic walking through the campus, a trip from the principal room - auditorium - canteen [double decker now] - new building besides canteen - international standard cricket ground [when it was just a ground, it really served its purpose. Now its a cricket ground, but no students to play] - PCB lab - Sheet metal [mallet] lab, mechanical lab and back underneath the tree.. We sat there for few minutes awaiting APS arrival, and finally he came.

Iam really shocked to see APS after a very long time... Though identifiable, he became very lean to what I remember him last. Time shows no mercy to anyone. He really couldn't recollect me, and confirmed with MSK whether I studied in his batch only. Then, he opened the drawing-hall, which is nothing but our old Auto-CAD room where all PCs are removed and benches are now placed. Needless to say, how can one forget this room, the place where we really saw how a computer looks like, a place where we took days to learn how to draw a line from point-A to point-B, a place that VT madam and Philomina was sitting with lot of books and record notes in the center-table, giving the room a hifi computer room look... Its all gone now folks; except the memories..

Within next few minutes all students gathered up in the drawing hall - a close to 70:30 girls:boys ratio. Not sure why there are less boys. When myself and MSK entered in the drawing hall - all students stood up and said "good morning sir". [nammalayum periya manishana madichi....] A quick chat with students, we came to know that there were two batches attending the days session - ECE regular and ECE sandwich making up the ~80-90 headcount. APS sir was sitting in front row with a notepad for taking notes. He is still learning.

Around 10.30am, MSK after his quick into, started the session in his own style, throwing up the first question on "what is networking" and  then going a bit into some postal-address to IP-address mapping,  then handed over the session to me. Just before getting into the session, APS  sir gave us the Networking syllabus with a surprise message that these students will undergo that syllabus only in their next semester, which means the audience in front of me dont know anything about networking. An additional responsibility on us to make sure we don't incept any wrong impression on networking into these fresh minds. 

After making sure everyone knows Tamil, and requesting everyone to close their note-books [as usual everyone has opened up their notebooks to take reference] and only listen to what the concepts are being told, I just started up explaining the same old "lets make two PCs speak through OSI layers". To my surprise, students are really brilliant catching up the concepts to speed. Atleast they looked like they understood. They even throwed back questions like 'what protocol means', 'what is MAC', 'what is Transport and Networking layer doing' and stuff like that.. I really have to dilute the OSI layers to its very simple, just for the students to understand that a packet traverses through some virtual layers before being spit.

After a 5 minute break by 12, we again gathered up for an introduction on Hubs, Switches and Routers. By 12.30, we closed the session with a Q/A part. You will be surprised if i say that all questions that we asked on the OSI layers, Products, Products-OSI layer mapping are answered good. Not sure whether they will remember these concepts for days to come, but I was really satisfied that I have done my job to my best.

Finally, APS sir stepped up on the dias and requested few students to come-up and share their feedback. To be honest, it was the real funny stuff guys. A guy came up and said that "I did not know anything on networking, OSI layers, but now i learnt things.. Thanks to these people".. Next APS called in for a  girl to come up and speak. After a brief silence, the first row girl stood up the repeated what the guy said - just with some is/was changes. Now, APS requested one student from ECE-Sandwich to represent her department. Same old story. One girl came up and repeated the same story - as if she is enlightened on every networking aspects; though we didnt cover even the basics to its fullest. But good, from being "knowing nothing" to "knowing something" makes a difference. For them what we taught is the whole of networking now.

After a successful wrap-up, APS sir collected my details with a note that, an engineer with 10yrs can come as external during examination - which MSK is already doing. I really dont want to step in there, but just gave my contact details for courtesy. 

Overall, it was a very nice experience for me taking a session for such fresh minds, and i need to thank Mr.MSK for presenting the chance and special thanks to APS for organizing it. Later we were informed that these students need [are compelled] to go in for a upcoming 2 day self-paid session by DOT. Without knowing anything on the basic fundamentals, APS is not much comfortable in making these students shell money out of their pocket, which obviously the students are resisting to attend now, and hence this pre-requisite session as a teaser-trailer. 

I really appreciate his care towards the students, taking such a responsibility of catching MSK to organize such session, requesting students to attend, coming-in over a week-end [which is not a compulsion for him], and he himself sitting in the front row taking notes. Its really hard to see such dedicated personnel these times. 

But it was a bit painful for me to hear some comments passed by the current students on him. They right now dont understand what people like APS is doing to shape-up their career. Its all fun for them now, as we had 10 years back. 

1. "Pls dont pass on the session to APS sir - neengale edunga" - This is a common comment and I believe we would have done the same thing if we were in students shoes

2. "When APS is taking networking or C class, he is often jumping into explaining capacitors/optocouplers" - This was really shocking comment I heard. Why the hell an electronics expert like APS is teaching (or asked to) computer networking/C programming? Is polytechnic feeding grass to tiger? An expert should be allowed to become domain-expert, rather making him "Jack of all, Master of none" type. How immersed APS should be with electronics, if he jumps explaining capacitors from C programming that are no way related..

After coming home, I really felt that I should have taken the last couple of minutes to explain students about APS and his dedication in arranging such sessions in the interest of students future. No one was really there to explain us these things when we were studying, but now we are there, just to say them that there are  still "ladders" like APS to shape them up.

HTC Incredible S - Review

After using my HTC Incredible S for successful 10 days, I thought of scribbling a quick review. I'aint going to write anything new apart from tons of review data that is already on Net. But still, as a end-user, will share few honest pros and cons of this phone.

Before getting into the review, just need to say that mobile market has changed. Days are gone where we selected mobiles based on features like dust-proof keyboard, torch light and color display. These are no more considerations now. Differentiators are now Processor Speed, Single/Dual Core, Operating System, OS version, ROM, Camera MP, display size and make.. No more mobiles, they are smart-phones..Unless one has some knowledge about what processor means, which OS is best, its very easy that they fall spending thousands on a wrong device. Whatever we spend is just for the hardware and not for software. Its like purchasing a laptop.

Lets start with Pros -

1. If your requirement is just a mobile, a Nokia 1100 is the choice. If you are thinking of a smart-phone then the second best available phone in the market is HTC brand. Needless to say IPhone tops the chart still. Samsung Galaxy S2, the  new competitor for HTC is picking up market. But it has its own limitations. The display size is big and cannot easily be handled. Cost of Samsung is also high.

2. Android - This is the only word that keeps HTC topping the chart, even overtaking Apple and Nokia counterparts. With Apple running their iOS and Nokia running Symbian, downloading gadgets for those mobiles simply mean shelling few bucks. A monopoly market.With Android, powered by  Google and millions of developers breaking their heads to publish gadgets in Android market, its now your choice on how to mend your hardware. A simple phone or a super computer..

3. Gorilla-Glass display - Chemically hardened scratch proof glass displays. Same like iPhone. With 4" display, viewing web-pages as-it-is [non mobile-version] is easy and you really dont need to strain your eyes. 

4. Sensitive Touch - The display is damn-sensitive is what i would say. Let it be single or multi pinch, the processor recognizes and does the job easily.

5. Apps - Android market is the webspace where all android OS gadgets are available for download. With tons of free Apps, you really dont need to spend anything, except if you need some really cool apps like games. Quick list of Apps loaded in my mobile

Games/Entertainment [Angry birds, Sudoku, Unblock Me, Drag racing, Talking Tom, Trashcan]

Utilities [GMail, GTalk, Mail [Microsoft exchange], YahooMail, Opera Browser, Dolphin Browser]

Others [Youtube, Facebook]

Believe me or not, there are anti-virus [AVG] apps that are available in market for download and use. I havent seen iphone market yet, but Android market has tons of useful apps.

6. Always Connected - HTC has all possible options to connect data - WiFi, Edge, USB, Internet bypass, Bluetooth etc. GPS comes along for navigation. Just enable data connection, and you are live on net. Anytime check your personal mails, publish photos/videos to facebook, chat using Gtalk or get your office mails delivered to your mobile. You really dont need a laptop. Its all there in your hands, very compact. Connect the phone to your laptop and you get a USB disk. Enable Wifi-Hotspot and transform your phone to be a internet gateway for other devices.

7. HTC Sense - This is the HTC theme (Front-end over Android) that is incharge of all GUI capabilities, be it be the multi-home capability to drag/drop/installation/removal of Apps to complete customization of your phone. Very cool GUI. IPhone 4 has comparable features like these in it. 

8. Pricing - HTC comes with a decent price compared to Samsung Galaxy or iPhone 4. Despite paying heavy price iphone lacks adobe flash support, which in my opinion is a very big drawback. 99% internet sites in this world have flash content loaded. Even some versions of Samsung phone dont support flash. However Galaxy S2 supports flash and HTC supports flash in all their models.

9. Audio Quality - HTC provides surround-system [SRS] effects when listening to audio files, and the effect is really cooool... Coupled with their branded ear phones, hearing songs is joy. But a slight disadvantage is that the audio is not loud. I have listed this in negative.

10. Multitasking - No need to exit your Internet browser, when you are addicted to angry birds. Just load the browser, type your URL, go back to phone's main window and start playing your favorite game or do any other mess while your browser still loading your data in background. The phone does effective multi-tasking. 

There are most positives to list, but no time to write.. Now, no product is complete in all aspects, atleast from a tester's view. Few negatives I observed with HTC Incredible S.

1. Pocket-Answering - This is a damn big GUI issue that many HTC users are facing [as seen on HTC blogs]. When your phone rings, you need to "drag-down" the arc-slider to answer or "drag-up" to decline the call. With sensitive touch display, when taking the phone out from your shirt/pant pocket for picking the call, the slider is either dragged up or down when it bruises inside your pocket. Most of time, I take the phone out of my pocket to see that the call is already accepted and someone at the rear saying "helllllo".. A simple solution to this issue is to go for a "slide-side-to-answer" like iphone rather "drag-to-answer". But HTC  doesnt support this swipe-slide model style. Iam planning to purchase a flap-pouch for my mobile, just to overcome this issue. "Workaround" is to purchase a new app from market supporting the slide-style costing few dollars.

2. Unicode Support - This phone doesn't directly support viewing tamil sites or checking a mail scripted in native language using Gmail, Facebook, Mail or YahooMail Apps. A very big setback I observed. Anyhow the workaround now was to use Opera browser that could transform tamil fonts as bitmaps and display it on the phone and this works for now. However, direct unicode support should have done the job. 

3. Audio volume - With our ears used to listen  "mariamma" songs in a high decibel cone tied in front of our door, this phone outputs a decent audio volume, but not enough while travelling in Indian Roads. Even with 100% volume, the traffic noise overtakes leaving no clue of the lyrics heard. But in a silent environment, even the smallest instrumentals used can be clearly noted. With audio Surround enable, you get a good theatrical effect.. Pleasant to hear. Best to use with car audio players.

4. Battery life - If used only for attending calls/SMS, the battery life is damn-good. A charge once in two days should do. But if data services are enabled [mails/gtalk/youtube/GPS/Maps], the phone turns a battery-monster eating up complete charge within a day. Though its understood, batteries needs to be more rugged.

5. Keep an Eye - If its Nokia 1100, we dont mind dropping the phone a couple of times or travelling in a crowded bus with the phone in shirt pocket. [8 years back my Nokia 1100 was pick-pocketed on the way from Teynampet-Central :( ].. But with this significant cost investment, its always pain to watch out whether the phone is still ours. Its just not the phone that gets stolen, your complete Gmail, FB , Yahoo, Outlook, Gtalk accounts are compromised. Its like losing your personal laptop where all passwords are browser-saved.

This is it for now folks. Will write sometime later if i come across any other interesting issues/updates with this phone... Till then, I  look for any comments to this blog or any other counter blogs from new blog-owners...

PS - Spl. thanks to Sarah for her wonderful pose with the Incredible HTC  in hand...

Iam connected to Internet!!!

After  a long gap, here goes my second blog... Just to update you all that, I got an internet connection at home. Whenever i think of writing blogs, the first thing comes into my mind would be "If I had an net connection at home.. I would scribble something offline... "...

Not sure whether my employer heard it somehow, they published [or brought into limelight an existing policy] where they  are ready to afford my Internet Bill... Eventhough the claim is for official purposes lets take a small % of it for personal purpose as well...

See you more with some more writings later...

- Raguraman

Hello World...

So.. here came my turn to have a blog site.. What I intend to capture in this site are my random thoughts that many times emerge out of nowhere and dissolve... Interesting, Surpising, Boring, Shocking.... As such, thoughts dont have any boundary and so do i wish to have my site.. Not limiting to any specific topic... Only thing that scares me out is my poor written skills.. But still.. I got the courage and time to find a name and start my first blog...  See you soon with interesting stuff.

-/ Ragu