The change is so gradual that it went un-noticed. Even a couple of years ago, I used to see them everyday on our window sill. I didn't change home, but they stopped coming. If not at my window, at least they used to be in our basement parking lot. Now I look carefully, they are gone from there too.
Concern is, they are very used to urbanization. If they can't keep up, we're screwing up really fast.
Where all the sparrows have gone?
Community rescues abandoned Motorola phone XT720, ports Froyo
Motorola is one of the strangest company you'd meet. The latest stunt can be a chapter in some product marketing MBA course. Create two products, one with ordinary specification (let's call it Milestone), price it along with competition, and create a similar one, throw in some better hardware (say a faster CPU, a better camera etc, let's call it XT720) and charge 30% premium for it. So far, so good. Many luxury brands charge a lot of extra without much justification, and we'll leave it to free market whether the numbers are correct. So we have 2 types of fooled people in the market, 90% of them paid INR 22k for Milestone, and 10% with lesser intelligence who paid 27k for a XT720. This smaller section has a false sense of eliteness that they are premium customer of a till reputed company, and eligible for a better treatment, much like a business class passenger would expect. The stock phones run Android 2.1 Eclair, and when they went on sale, Android 2.2 was out already, and expectation was a company will stand by its products and make the updates available to both models.
And then comes the twist. Motorola tells the people who paid them much higher in simple terms go screw yourselves. And that too, too late, after several of the XT720s have been sold, with the hope that it has much higher chance of running Froyo (Android 2.2) than its cheaper sibling, for which upgrade was announced a while ago. This devastated the hope of XT720 users, and the feeling of being cheated was widespread in Motorola support forums and their facebook pages, with petitions to release a software update on which Motorola responded with a sugar coated fuck you. They didn't even agree to unlock the bootloader, and advised users to buy a google nexus if they wanted to run a better software. So, this is where we ask an interesting question to marketing/business students: does it make business sense to cheat the expectation of your premium class of customers (Of course they are expected to be fewer in count anyways)? Running empty club class is nothing new to airlines but even a single occupant gets enough care to buy his return ticket.
After being left high and dry, the XT720 user community decided to do something better with their phone. It comes with good hardware, for which they paid a heavy price, and throwing it away is a luxury most can't afford. Froyo 2.2 is important for 2 updates among other things: the JIT compiler can run your code 4x faster, and applications can be run off SD cards. With Quadrant score of 600, very little internal space to accommodate any more apps, we needed Froyo to use the phone's full potential. The first thing happened is a fork in xda-developer community, and a dedicated section for XT720. Some effort was done to port the JIT compiler back to 2.1, which raised the Quantum benchmark to as high as 867 (for me); and a few hacks to copy the application packages to an ext2 partition of SD card and symbolic linking directories, but they had their own pains and it was understood that a complete port of 2.2 is needed. So the community decided to hire a developer themselves, buy him a phone and support his effort by raising money. We found unbelievable trust among the community, and within a week a dev was identified, money was raised by donation (most of the people paid a good sum even before anything was concrete), and Dexter was on it. Based on a 2.2 rom of Korean motoroi, in 2 weeks time, Dexter published his first Froyo port for XT720, and multiple offshoots thereafter. Another huge appreciation here was almost whole community participated in beta testing, risking their phone getting bricked (or unusable, or hardware damage), and started reporting bugs and contributing patches. Ordinary people started opening the hood of the new ROM and trying to guess what might be going wrong. A few iterations later, the rom is running pretty stable. And still fixes are going in. And it gave unbelievable performance boost to the phone, after overclocking the CPU it beats all phones in the market (see attached figure, on left it is 2.1 with backported JIT and on right 2.2).
So followup questions to business students: if the answer to previous question was in the line of unjustified return of investment ratio (too few customers, not worth spending upgrade method), would the answer change now since it is proven to be 1 person's 2-week part time effort?
Maybe Motorola with get away with it, as none will care as much about the sinking ship anyways.
Full disclosure: I'm a member of xda-developers community, I donated my share of Euros to Dexter, and later contributed patches for 2.2 ROM.
And then comes the twist. Motorola tells the people who paid them much higher in simple terms go screw yourselves. And that too, too late, after several of the XT720s have been sold, with the hope that it has much higher chance of running Froyo (Android 2.2) than its cheaper sibling, for which upgrade was announced a while ago. This devastated the hope of XT720 users, and the feeling of being cheated was widespread in Motorola support forums and their facebook pages, with petitions to release a software update on which Motorola responded with a sugar coated fuck you. They didn't even agree to unlock the bootloader, and advised users to buy a google nexus if they wanted to run a better software. So, this is where we ask an interesting question to marketing/business students: does it make business sense to cheat the expectation of your premium class of customers (Of course they are expected to be fewer in count anyways)? Running empty club class is nothing new to airlines but even a single occupant gets enough care to buy his return ticket.
After being left high and dry, the XT720 user community decided to do something better with their phone. It comes with good hardware, for which they paid a heavy price, and throwing it away is a luxury most can't afford. Froyo 2.2 is important for 2 updates among other things: the JIT compiler can run your code 4x faster, and applications can be run off SD cards. With Quadrant score of 600, very little internal space to accommodate any more apps, we needed Froyo to use the phone's full potential. The first thing happened is a fork in xda-developer community, and a dedicated section for XT720. Some effort was done to port the JIT compiler back to 2.1, which raised the Quantum benchmark to as high as 867 (for me); and a few hacks to copy the application packages to an ext2 partition of SD card and symbolic linking directories, but they had their own pains and it was understood that a complete port of 2.2 is needed. So the community decided to hire a developer themselves, buy him a phone and support his effort by raising money. We found unbelievable trust among the community, and within a week a dev was identified, money was raised by donation (most of the people paid a good sum even before anything was concrete), and Dexter was on it. Based on a 2.2 rom of Korean motoroi, in 2 weeks time, Dexter published his first Froyo port for XT720, and multiple offshoots thereafter. Another huge appreciation here was almost whole community participated in beta testing, risking their phone getting bricked (or unusable, or hardware damage), and started reporting bugs and contributing patches. Ordinary people started opening the hood of the new ROM and trying to guess what might be going wrong. A few iterations later, the rom is running pretty stable. And still fixes are going in. And it gave unbelievable performance boost to the phone, after overclocking the CPU it beats all phones in the market (see attached figure, on left it is 2.1 with backported JIT and on right 2.2).
So followup questions to business students: if the answer to previous question was in the line of unjustified return of investment ratio (too few customers, not worth spending upgrade method), would the answer change now since it is proven to be 1 person's 2-week part time effort?
Maybe Motorola with get away with it, as none will care as much about the sinking ship anyways.
Full disclosure: I'm a member of xda-developers community, I donated my share of Euros to Dexter, and later contributed patches for 2.2 ROM.
Sunil Gangopadhay style romance in 2010
When I saw him last time, it was a major disappointment. But hey, he is an icon by his writing. And one of the concept haunts us even today, to fall in love (ok, ok, infatuation) at the first sight. Cliche? The sight has to be like this: you see the girl for fraction of a second in a bus going to the opposite direction. So you immediately jump down from your own (doesn't matter if you're on your way to an interview), cross the street and get onto the other bus. Hoping for another glimpse. Maybe, if, perhaps, an eye contact. 
And you forget to get down when she did.
Switch to 2010. I saw her coming down the opposite lane, in a spanking clean white santro. The large sunglass covers most of her face. Immediately what you can do is to take a handbrake turn, and start tailgating her. And you know she won't let you down when she squeezes through two confused autos. So you chase, in a hope when she stops at red, you can probably get a spot next to her, to have a look, maybe if possible make an eye contact. Yeah I know that would have been the time to release the imprisoned larks, but maybe she wouldn't mind an appreciative nod? But alas, she is too good a driver. You have to jump signals to keep up, forget overtaking. To set mood, you frantically search for Joe Satriani in car-iPod, and `Surfing with the Alien' fills the air. You murmur apologies to all fellow road users for cutting them sharp, and know that none can appreciate your rush. After deviating from your usual route by a good 3km, the moment comes. She stops, so uncharacteristic, on an amber. Was she looking at rearview mirror? You stop next to her. The filmstar like shades are too dark to see through. There goes green, and you look for next U turn to continue with rest of your life. The day is already made.
Sunil had it easy. Catching a bus in Kolkata is far less riskier than a race in Bangalore traffic.
And you forget to get down when she did. Switch to 2010. I saw her coming down the opposite lane, in a spanking clean white santro. The large sunglass covers most of her face. Immediately what you can do is to take a handbrake turn, and start tailgating her. And you know she won't let you down when she squeezes through two confused autos. So you chase, in a hope when she stops at red, you can probably get a spot next to her, to have a look, maybe if possible make an eye contact. Yeah I know that would have been the time to release the imprisoned larks, but maybe she wouldn't mind an appreciative nod? But alas, she is too good a driver. You have to jump signals to keep up, forget overtaking. To set mood, you frantically search for Joe Satriani in car-iPod, and `Surfing with the Alien' fills the air. You murmur apologies to all fellow road users for cutting them sharp, and know that none can appreciate your rush. After deviating from your usual route by a good 3km, the moment comes. She stops, so uncharacteristic, on an amber. Was she looking at rearview mirror? You stop next to her. The filmstar like shades are too dark to see through. There goes green, and you look for next U turn to continue with rest of your life. The day is already made.
Sunil had it easy. Catching a bus in Kolkata is far less riskier than a race in Bangalore traffic.
How to Suppress Noise In Your Car
Lets face it, just because you want to listen to the Spice Girls (and we know you do) does not mean that everyone on your block wants to hear it. That is why it's important to know how to suppress noise when in your car. There are a few different ways to do this. Many people say, “well it's my system, and if I want to blast the crap out of it, then it's my given right to.” However, it's not your right anymore. Cops are starting to give tickets in America for blasting our systems. They are calling it disturbing the peace, and I guess it's easy to see where they are getting that from.
First, we are going to start off with something that you should already know. If you want to suppress noise in your car, then do not turn it up so loud. It's that simple people. Although the whole reason why you got that car audio system may have been to scare your parents, it does not mean that you should wake them up, as well as everyone else in your block, at 2:00 in the morning. So if you do not want to get in trouble for your music, the best thing to do is to turn it down when you get around homes. Of course, even then, sometimes you forget, and that is why there are some things that can help you suppress noise in your car. First, is an automatic volume button. Whenever we are riding down the road we tend to turn the radio up loud so we can hear it over the air passing by the car. However, as we slow down, we forget to turn down the music and others can hear it. An automatic volume button turns down the music as soon as you slow down in speed.
Another way to suppress the noise in your car is to get more insulation put in your car. Most people put this in their car to help it not vibrate the car as much. However, what most people do not know is that this can help direct the sound of the speakers to the inside of the car and not the outside. This can help you not have to turn it up so loud, because it's already going to sound louder in the car, making it less noisy outside. In the end, however, it's all going to come down to if you have a sub or not. If you have a sub, then depending on how loud you have it turned up is going to make it a lot louder. In the end, if you want to suppress noise, then all you have to do is turn down your sub. You can do this on your CD player or you can do it on the sub itself.
All in all, if you want to keep the noise down in your car, then just use your common sense. There is no way that you are going to make anyone outside your car hear your loud music. When all is said and done, treat people the way that you want to be treated. However, people are going to have to know that if they leave their houses, they are going to hear loud music, and you can just tell them thanks for coming out. However, they should not have to listen to your music inside their houses. We have to meet each other halfway.
First, we are going to start off with something that you should already know. If you want to suppress noise in your car, then do not turn it up so loud. It's that simple people. Although the whole reason why you got that car audio system may have been to scare your parents, it does not mean that you should wake them up, as well as everyone else in your block, at 2:00 in the morning. So if you do not want to get in trouble for your music, the best thing to do is to turn it down when you get around homes. Of course, even then, sometimes you forget, and that is why there are some things that can help you suppress noise in your car. First, is an automatic volume button. Whenever we are riding down the road we tend to turn the radio up loud so we can hear it over the air passing by the car. However, as we slow down, we forget to turn down the music and others can hear it. An automatic volume button turns down the music as soon as you slow down in speed.
Another way to suppress the noise in your car is to get more insulation put in your car. Most people put this in their car to help it not vibrate the car as much. However, what most people do not know is that this can help direct the sound of the speakers to the inside of the car and not the outside. This can help you not have to turn it up so loud, because it's already going to sound louder in the car, making it less noisy outside. In the end, however, it's all going to come down to if you have a sub or not. If you have a sub, then depending on how loud you have it turned up is going to make it a lot louder. In the end, if you want to suppress noise, then all you have to do is turn down your sub. You can do this on your CD player or you can do it on the sub itself.
All in all, if you want to keep the noise down in your car, then just use your common sense. There is no way that you are going to make anyone outside your car hear your loud music. When all is said and done, treat people the way that you want to be treated. However, people are going to have to know that if they leave their houses, they are going to hear loud music, and you can just tell them thanks for coming out. However, they should not have to listen to your music inside their houses. We have to meet each other halfway.
Tune Your Speakers For Maximum Productivity
Purchasing car speakers may be an important decision to make but later the tuning of those speakers is also very important. If the settings of the newly installed car speakers are not up to its best then you may be missing out on all the best output of your speakers. Once you have chosen either a component system or a full-range system then make sure you tune up its setting with the help of a professional or yourself by following the guide book. As car speakers are bought for maximum sound output but setting it wrong whether it is the location of the speakers or the settings, it can lower the productivity.
You have the brand new car speakers with you and now its time to install and tune them. A smart choice of settings can maximize the output of sound from your car speakers. You can make each penny worth it by tuning your speakers by following the guidebook you get along with the brand new set or by asking the help of professional car speaker’s installers. For basic tuning that can affect your sound output are as follows:
The selection of component speakers will pay off at this stage when it comes to tuning the car speakers. As component speakers come with separate tweeters, crossovers and woofers the location to set them up is mobile which allows you to experiment different locations and to pick which is the best place for each one of them. The tweeters are the major equipment in the car speakers that can allow maximum and good quality sound output. As they are free from other components therefore test which position is the best for them before installing them. The time spent will be worth it if you find the perfect location and setting for these tweeters that will give an output of realistic productivity.
Due to the preference given to component speakers, Full-range speakers are also coming with tweeters that are movable for better result. Crossovers in car speakers have settings that can compliment the sound coming out of the tweeters. The same technique should be used for crossovers before installing them permanently. Try out with different locations with the same setting to find out where it plays best. To recheck these settings listen to your favorite CD in high volume to avoid any irritating noise or overly bright output by trusting your ears.
Once the front speakers are set up perfectly then focus on the rear ones. These act like the backstage music in car speakers which is as important as the front ones. The sound output should be at the same time without overlapping each other. Ironically many car speaker experts suggest keeping your rear speaker’s settings so that you can hardly notice that they are there. The reason is still not clear to me but I believe it is due to the fact that if the rear speakers make a lot of sound it steals the focus from the front speakers which ruin the image of the stereo sound system. Most of the sound production should be done from the front speakers while the rear speakers are just there for support.
Then your subwoofer comes which always goes in the trunk or under the back seats. To avoid vibrations made by these subwoofers or lessening the road noises, products like Dynamat are used to reduce the vibrations in a car. A foam perplex is also installed which works dually by keeping your car speakers away from dirt, dust and maximizing speaker life while improving sound and bass results.
You have the brand new car speakers with you and now its time to install and tune them. A smart choice of settings can maximize the output of sound from your car speakers. You can make each penny worth it by tuning your speakers by following the guidebook you get along with the brand new set or by asking the help of professional car speaker’s installers. For basic tuning that can affect your sound output are as follows:
The selection of component speakers will pay off at this stage when it comes to tuning the car speakers. As component speakers come with separate tweeters, crossovers and woofers the location to set them up is mobile which allows you to experiment different locations and to pick which is the best place for each one of them. The tweeters are the major equipment in the car speakers that can allow maximum and good quality sound output. As they are free from other components therefore test which position is the best for them before installing them. The time spent will be worth it if you find the perfect location and setting for these tweeters that will give an output of realistic productivity.
Due to the preference given to component speakers, Full-range speakers are also coming with tweeters that are movable for better result. Crossovers in car speakers have settings that can compliment the sound coming out of the tweeters. The same technique should be used for crossovers before installing them permanently. Try out with different locations with the same setting to find out where it plays best. To recheck these settings listen to your favorite CD in high volume to avoid any irritating noise or overly bright output by trusting your ears.
Once the front speakers are set up perfectly then focus on the rear ones. These act like the backstage music in car speakers which is as important as the front ones. The sound output should be at the same time without overlapping each other. Ironically many car speaker experts suggest keeping your rear speaker’s settings so that you can hardly notice that they are there. The reason is still not clear to me but I believe it is due to the fact that if the rear speakers make a lot of sound it steals the focus from the front speakers which ruin the image of the stereo sound system. Most of the sound production should be done from the front speakers while the rear speakers are just there for support.
Then your subwoofer comes which always goes in the trunk or under the back seats. To avoid vibrations made by these subwoofers or lessening the road noises, products like Dynamat are used to reduce the vibrations in a car. A foam perplex is also installed which works dually by keeping your car speakers away from dirt, dust and maximizing speaker life while improving sound and bass results.
Car Amplifier Installation Tips
First of all, we are going to start off by stating the facts first. If you do not know how to install a normal car speaker, or you have never done it before, then you might as well get someone else to install your amplifier. It's as simple as that. Although they are not to hard to do, it's going to be a lot harder than just installing a speaker. With that being said, we can go on and start talking about some of the tips to get your amplifiers up and running in no time. So get ready and tie your shirt up, because it's going to be a bumpy ride if you do not know what you are doing.
First things first, be sure you read the instructions that come with your amplifier. Be sure you know what is hooking up to what. Here is your first tip: know where you are going to install the AMP before you get started. Do not start mounting your AMP anywhere until you know for sure that is where you want it. You need to make sure that your cords are going to all reach and that everything is going to hook up nicely. After that, you will be able to start installing your amplifier. Also, keep in mind that your amplifier is going to have to hook up to your battery. Unless you want that cord to just run right from the battery to the amplifier, you are going to have to make sure you have extra cord so that you can tuck it away somewhere. This way you will not see the cord as it runs through the body of your car. Whenever you are installing an amplifier, remember that there is nothing good or bad, but thinking can make it so.
This means, do not over think what you are trying to do. Getting your amplifier up and running is not as hard as it sounds. It is going to run from your battery to your amplifier. Then your speakers are all going to hook up to your amplifier. Of course, if you are going to be installing your own amplifier, do not be afraid to ask questions. It's better to ask questions and be called an idiot than it would be to make a big mistake whenever you are hooking up your AMP. This is not something that you are going to want to mess up, because they do cost a lot of money.
Last, but not least, if you are going to hook it up yourself, and you do not know what you are doing and mess something up, do not be sad if someone makes fun of you. It's going to happen. You just have to remember that if you are going to do this by yourself, and not let people help you, then you have a big job on your hands. So if people do not want to help you when you need it, you can not be upset. A man who lives in a glass house should not throw stones. Of course, on the same note, if a man lives in a glass house, he should probably change in the basement. The point I am getting at is that it can be a little hard to install one of these things if you have never done it. So if it's your first time, you should not go into this alone. You are just going to end up wishing that you had asked for help in the first place.
First things first, be sure you read the instructions that come with your amplifier. Be sure you know what is hooking up to what. Here is your first tip: know where you are going to install the AMP before you get started. Do not start mounting your AMP anywhere until you know for sure that is where you want it. You need to make sure that your cords are going to all reach and that everything is going to hook up nicely. After that, you will be able to start installing your amplifier. Also, keep in mind that your amplifier is going to have to hook up to your battery. Unless you want that cord to just run right from the battery to the amplifier, you are going to have to make sure you have extra cord so that you can tuck it away somewhere. This way you will not see the cord as it runs through the body of your car. Whenever you are installing an amplifier, remember that there is nothing good or bad, but thinking can make it so.
This means, do not over think what you are trying to do. Getting your amplifier up and running is not as hard as it sounds. It is going to run from your battery to your amplifier. Then your speakers are all going to hook up to your amplifier. Of course, if you are going to be installing your own amplifier, do not be afraid to ask questions. It's better to ask questions and be called an idiot than it would be to make a big mistake whenever you are hooking up your AMP. This is not something that you are going to want to mess up, because they do cost a lot of money.
Last, but not least, if you are going to hook it up yourself, and you do not know what you are doing and mess something up, do not be sad if someone makes fun of you. It's going to happen. You just have to remember that if you are going to do this by yourself, and not let people help you, then you have a big job on your hands. So if people do not want to help you when you need it, you can not be upset. A man who lives in a glass house should not throw stones. Of course, on the same note, if a man lives in a glass house, he should probably change in the basement. The point I am getting at is that it can be a little hard to install one of these things if you have never done it. So if it's your first time, you should not go into this alone. You are just going to end up wishing that you had asked for help in the first place.
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