Part 1: Technology Comments

Recently my Son won an Apple iPod Classic 30GB in a competition “Transition 2009” conducted by Cognizant Technologies Limited. The topic he and his friend presented was “SOA (Services Oriented Architecture)”. They stood second in the competition. Please visit "http://gautam-m.blogspot.com/" for more details on the presentation.

My Son gave me the Apple iPod which he won as gift to me.

Thank you my Son!!!!!

I started tinkering with the Apple iPod and here are some of my observations:

You need a computer to use iPod.

The power is from USB port – So you need to have USB power plug or a computer to charge the device.

There is no Drag Drop facility from Windows Explorer (atleast I could not see). We need to install iTunes Software for moving files and managing content on iPod.

Except for Music and Videos, other type of data is not easy to manage.

You cannot manage content from the device like in mobiles and mp3 players.

I have standardized my audio to mp3 (48kbps). Whatever format of music I collect or buy, I convert to this format. My video standard is mobile mp4 and avi formats. These formats allow me to play my audio and video files on variety of devices – Mobile, Mp3 players, DVD Players. I was happy that Apple iPod Classic supported both my audio and mp4 formats. Hence it could sit easily in my choice of devices. My current devices are N72 Mobile, N5110 Mobile, Desktop Computer, Laptop Computer, DVD Player and Mp3 players.

If you are a person who is oriented to listening audio on headphones, the iPod is an excellent device. Both sound and video quality is superb and the screen for video is nice to the eye. However I am averse to headphones. So I tried to connect external speakers. I failed with few but finally Creative Amplification Speakers could be connected and audio was great.

I have decided this device to use for mp4 video viewing on the move with headphones and at home with external Creative Speakers.

Part 2: Management Areas

Today success of any person can be measured only by Quantitative Measurement. Anything that cannot be presented in tangible format is very difficult to perceive and appreciated. So it is important that every deliverable we make, the result should be quantifiable. I will try to cover this quantification more in upcoming blogs. But today I will focus on one measure that is common in every project or task. Yes it is “Schedule”. Schedule is nothing but elapsed time that is required to perform a job. We all have learnt about this right from our school days when we learnt Time and Work principles. So if you are performing a task, the first thing you should write down is the Start Date and End Date for completion of the task. You need to keep a constant watch on tasks being executed to ensure that the timeline is maintained. Actual Excess or less elapsed time than planned elapsed time results in Schedule Overrun or Underrun. In every project, this is the first and foremost metric that is assessed. This sound simple but management of schedule adherence is a difficult task.

Part 3: General

Yesterday I saw a Telugu movie “Sasirekha Parinayam” starring Tarun and Genelia. Very loud on sound and a poor attempt to redo hindi movie “Jab We Met”. This movie can be ignored and one can watch this on TV whenever it is telecasted. Only one song is melodious in the movie.

See you in next blog....