From the title of this post, you could be forgiven for thinking that it is about Steve Jobs.
It isn’t. It’s about me.
Continue reading…
“Why are you so quiet?”
A number of people are pinging me, asking me why I went silent during the iPhone 4S launch, and since.
The answer is quite evident if you watch the video of the keynote – the stiff faces, the absolute out-of-character subdued atmosphere of the Apple team…
They knew. (Update: This appears to have been confirmed now.) Continue reading…
Here’s to the crazy one…
For now, I am at a loss for words. I will add more text to this when I can.
This video is different in two ways: the last image has been edited, and the voice is that of Steve Jobs (the released ad had the voice of Richard Dreyfuss).
Yesterday
Back in December 2010, I wrote that we were ending our 10 year old event – FOSS.IN – and I promised that I would write more after FOSS.IN/2010 was over. Here we go.
Corruption
The root of corruption lies not with the corrupted, who are swayed by the lure of opportunity, but with the corruptors, who provide it.
Some of my talk videos
Since people have asked, I have linked to some of my talk videos from my site. Not all of them (some are honestly not worth showcasing), but if you want to see what I am like as a speaker, feel free to hit http://atulchitnis.net/talks/talk-videos/ (also linked from the main menu of the site, under “Content > Talks”).
My TEDxBITSGoa Talk: The Next Billion Users
The TEDxBITSGoa folks finally got around to posting the video of my talk from February 2011. This was one of the two talks I did almost back to back (one in Goa, the other in Chennai), and is entitled “The Next Billion Users“. The talk is about product design, and what I discovered on the way.
This talk should also explain to some rather vision-challenged folks why I, a fanatic (and continuing) supporter of Free & Open Source Software, use Apple products as well. Hopefully, a few of you will now get a clue. 
The video and audio are a wee bit blurred, but you should be able to understand most of it. Anyway, click below to enjoy it. As always, relevant/constructive comments are welcome. Continue reading…
Change of Twitter ID to @AtulChitnis
I have changed my Twitter ID from the old “@achitnis” to “@AtulChitnis”.
People who were following the old ID now automatically follow the new ID, so there is nothing you need to do, except to remember to write “@AtulChitnis” (upper/lower case does not matter) instead of “@achitnis” when sending me a message on Twitter.
Why did I do this after being achitnis in the online world for more than two decades?
My TEDxSSN talk: Learning To Play The Piano
I recently gave a talk at TEDxSSN, entitled “Learning to play the Piano” which is NOT about learning to play the piano, as you will see once you watch it below.
TataSky: How to rip off your customers
12-May-2011 Update: The new HD DVR has now been ordered and paid for, and will be delivered in a few days. My existing account will be transferred to this box, and my existing TataSky+ SD DVR will be installed at my mother-in-law’s place, transferring her account to it. If all goes well, this story should end early next week.
08-May-2011 Update: Got a call from TataSky – they have dropped all the insanity, and I can now transfer my old DVR to my mom-in-law without change of account or extra payments, and just buy the new HD DVR and continue to use my existing plan on it. Seeing is believing, of course, will keep people posted.
Update: There has been a pretty massive response from people reading this post, both in the comments, as well as on Twitter. I am approving SOME, but not ALL of them (many of them are extremely abusive of TataSky, and I don’t want stuff like that here) but do keep them coming – I am reading them all.
Several commenters here and on Twitter have pointed me at this URL, which makes horrifying reading!
It also turns out that TataSky has changed their Terms and Conditions on December 30th, 2010, without informing their customers – a clear violation of their contract. I plan to take them to Consumer Court on this.
For the past few months, I have been waiting for TataSky to release their HD followup for the TataSky+ DVR. After vague promises ranging from October last year, they finally announced it recently.
While it wasn’t a pre-requisite for my purchase of a unit, I was interested in whether TataSky would be offering any form of buyback for the old TataSky+ DVRs. And I was also interested in knowing how they would handle the deluge of old DVRs that would hit the markets when people upgraded, and either handed down, or sold, their old DVRs.
I just found out. Continue reading…