Monday, May 16, 2011

6oo6le

Dear Google,

Looks like it's been a year since we corresponded. How time flies!

Since I poured my heart out last year, I will keep it simple this time. Just wanted to let you know I am still as fond of you as I was 6 years back. You never fail to win me over, and the occasional gestures of gifting the Nexus 1 and Nexus S didn't go unnoticed. You pamper me spoilt and I never cease to indulge in public display of affection.

Also, always remember, whether we are physically together or not, we will always be in each other's thoughts. Will talk more about this in a few days. Anyway, let's leave such sombre thoughts for later, as of now let's recount some of the happy moments from the past!

Love,
Suhel

Google Hyderabad reception. September 2005


Lights out in Google Hyderabad. February 2006


My desk, Google Gurgaon. June 2006


Halloween, Google Gurgaon. October 2006


Team Google, San Francisco. March 2007


Google Gurgaon. April 2007


Google Mountainview. July 2007




Google India offsite, Goa. October 2007


Team Google India, a Karaoke bar in Sydney. March 2008


Google India offsite, Westin Resorts, Sohna. November 2008


Google India OSG team, Gurgaon office reception. April 2009


Google Singapore. November 2009



Google India offsite, Bentota, Sri Lanka. November 2009


Google APAC offsite, Tokyo. June 2010


Google Sales offsite, Singapore. October 2010


Veni & I, Google India Conference, Hyderabad. November 2010

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Google Music Beta Review

Last week Google announced the launch of it's online music service - Google Music Beta - at the annual Google I/O Conference. As expected, it received a lot of attention from the Tech media and also as has been the case with some of the newer Google products the beta is 'By Invite Only' to begin with. You can go to the homepage and request an invitation now. Someone from the team was kind enough to send me an invite last evening and I have been playing around with it since then.

In a nutshell Google Music helps you to upload and manage your entire music collection to/in the cloud, sync it with your Google account and then listen to it at anytime from any machine or mobile phone as long as you have access to the Internet through a browser or a mobile app. Some of the innovative features are listening to free songs available through the Music app and something called 'Instant Mix' which creates a playlist from your list of songs based on the kinds of songs you select. Also, if you don't have internet access at all times the Music app keeps some songs, the ones you listen to most often, cached so that you can hear them while offline.

I took screenshot of the steps involved in the installation process and producing it below. You can also find a video of the launch demo at the end of the post.

Though I am not the greatest music afficianado, a big, geeky thumbs up from my side to the product!

The email invite


Landing Page on music.google.com




Terms of Service
You can add free songs to your library at this stage


Prompt to download the 'Music Manager' app to be installed on the machine where you have your songs


The Android Market place which hosts the Google Music app


Unfortunately I couldn't install it on my Nexus S as the app is not available in India


Installing the Music Manager on the machine


Now you need to sign in using your Google account


You can select how you want to sync your songs


You have the option of updating the Google Music library automatically when you add new songs to your machine


Adding the songs to the Msuic Manager



And we're ready to listen to music on the browser!


That's the inside look at the Google Music player, with the songs being constantly added.


Finally, here's an official video explaining and demonstrating Google Music.

Monday, May 09, 2011

Gurgaon/Delhi Only - Furniture For Sale

If you/anyone you know, from the Delhi NCR region is looking at buying the following items, please reach out to me at suhel.banerjee@gmail.com These will be available during mid-June 2011.

Also, will really appreciate if you could pass it along to your friends/acquaintances staying in this part of the country.

In case you can't see the embedded sheet below, please Click Here for the complete list of items and prices.

Monday, May 02, 2011

From A Tuesday Evening To A Monday Morning

That September Tuesday evening I was in Durgapur, at my aunt's place, preparing for my 11th Standard 1st term Maths exam the next day. Had just come back from an 'adda' session with friends and customarily checked the TV once before starting to revise the chapter on Permutations & Combinations. And no, I am not making that up. What I saw on the television that evening has perhaps been shown more than any other footage in the history of televised media. Never got around to revising anything that evening. Don't remember how the exam went. Didn't feel like it mattered much that day. Here's what the US president had to say soon after the heinous attacks.



This morning, a Monday, I was at home in Gurgaon. Had just got up from sleep and was going through my Twitter timeline. Squinting at it, more like it. That's when I saw some tweets mentioning the death of Osama Bin Laden, the orchestrator of the crime theatre of that Tuesday, almost a decade back. Reports, mostly unconfirmed, were flying thick and fast, and there was some talk of President Obama making an official announcement very soon. Switched on the television and in 30 minutes or so got to see this.




Maybe today it is a lot more symbolic than what it would have been 9 years back, but still the circle is complete. the enemy has been hounded. It's a good feeling.