Well, I hope that this would turn out to be short and sweet(useful) post.
Since my college(2003-2007) days I have tried many flavors of linux. And my experience, well, has not been that encouraging. IMHO Linux falls short in 2 main areas 1 - hardware support for different types of hardwares 2 - out of the box working softwares. That seem to have changed in recent years. Internet is still essential resource if you want your Linux running smoothly.
At that time, I tried ubuntu, Suse, fedora, red hat, centos, mandriva and what not. They all used to work to some extent but configuring my combination of hardware was overwhelming task for all those distros. Display, sound, mouse, modem anything used to go wrong. Fixing it used to take painful patience and diligence. Worst of all, whatever tricks, tips you tried 6 months back wont work on other hardware/distribution/version/etc/etc. In short, your hard earned knowledge wouldnt stand a chance against the wave of time.
This changed and when I got my laptop(2010) first thing I tried was fedora. This was mostly a good experience, however, I would still not suggest Linux for starters. Windows is an extremely safe and stable bet, and of course its much more productive.
Almost everything worked at that time except wi-fi card. With some googling, I was able to fix that. Still, there was persistent issue of laptop overheating. I did try to resolve it, but it did not work. Using powertop, lm_sensors, lspci, HD SMART utilities did not have much impact. Laptop becomes blazing hot in summer and unbearable in other seasons. It wont shut down because of overheating or anything but I feared that it would melt the plastic parts eventually.
Come to 2013, and I tried fedora 17. This was even better experience as I got everything working out of the box including wi-fi card. Also, having running and stable internet means that I can install/uninstall easily. Otherwise, I would say that its still extremely difficult to make your Linux work properly without internet connection. There are a few thing which needed tweaks. So here is my take on fedora 17 -
You will need to add few more things to default fedora 17 post installation.
- get yourself acquainted with yum
- install non-free repositories
- install vlc and other utilities which would make mp3/video playback possible (yum install gstreamer gstreamer-plugins-good gstreamer-plugins-bad gstreamer-plugins-ugly gstreamer-ffmpeg vlc)
Also I did -
- Enable gnome advance options[which are not so advance] (yum install gnome-tweak-tool)
- Enable power-off option under username menu (yum install gnome-shell-extensions-alternative-status-menu)
- install gnome extensions, easiest way is it open extension in firefox and switch on, this installs it automatically.
- install better install manger (yum install yumex)
I again had problem with overheating of laptop. I tried many suggestions mentioned on internet forums but thread like view provided by forums does not help much. In many cases solution works partially and reading entire thread becomes very confusing. So here is gist of what I gathered-
If you have ATI graphics card and newer laptop, chances are that you might face the problem of laptop overheating. This is mainly because of mismanaged power profile of the graphics card. Since GPU is always forced to run under high profile mode, it consumes lot of battery and overheats. To avoid this you can try -
echo profile > /sys/class/drm/card0/device/power_method
echo low > /sys/class/drm/card0/device/power_profile
What this would essentially do is, it would set power profile for your graphics card to 'low'. Now, this worked in my case to an extent but it was not complete solution.
Default ATI drivers that come with fedora 17 are good from behavior perspective. There is no flicker, videos work and all, only there is problem with power consumption. Now, installing other drivers might solve this power problem(as suggested on forums). But this installation is not straight forward. ATI dropped support for older graphics card and hence latest drivers may not work. This happened in my case. Also, drivers available on ATI site are not available for fedora. I have Dell Inspiron laptop with ATI 550v card and latest ATI catalyst driver 12.10 does not work in my case. 12.6 should work for legacy cards, as per forums. So after numerous yum install and yum history rollback, I decided to try something on my own. Copy-pasting exact commands on forums did not help in my case. Finally, what I tried was -
yum install xorg-x11-drv-catalyst-legacy.x86_64
This fixed my problem! Now, I have cooler laptop and fully supported driver too!
Now that its working properly, here are some serious advantages of Linux which I would like to mention.
- start within minute, so its very useful when you need quick start
- its a great learning tool
- many free softwares could be easily found and used(like libre office suite, vlc), which may or may not be present on windows(shell scripting, cron, grep etc is not easily available on windows)
- its virus and bloat free. even when you use linux for years, it wont get bloated and would start withing minutes
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Sunday, January 6, 2013
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Spending Model
The other day I was thinking about my spendings. Once in a while I get puzzled when I look into by bank account. When I introspect, almost always I feel like I have been victim of some online security intrusion and my money has been transferred into some hackers account.
But when I look more carefully, though, I realize that its not the case. All my money was and is still there with me. But somehow my spending has been more than what I thought.
Also I am kind of thrifty(my friends might say that this is good use of euphemism). But its true that I and many of us are not able to judge if any perticuler good or commodity is worth its values or not. When buying something, there are many criterias that one can apply. Quality and brand name are some of the very important ones. However, in some cases, its difficult to choose the way as all options have similar weight. Also there are cases when you can't really comment whether its ok to spend given amount of money for something.
I was thinking about this and it was difficult to objectively judge spending decisions. Then I came up with this very simple spending model which can explain if something is worth spending the money on. This helped me a lot to determine few over spendings and in some cases justify/oppose certain spending decisions.
This simple model goes like this -
spending worthiness index(index) = (your monthly salary/100[gc]*expected utility duration[ud] of the product in months)*(importance multiplier[im])/product value
gc - goods count(no of things you wish to buy in a month time), standard value is 100
sf - salary fraction = your monthly salary/gc
ud - utility duration in months(time for which good will last/good would be retired, whichever is earlier)
im - importance multiplier(how much the good is important, alternate way to calculate is - 100/no of such goods you need in your lifetime(applicable for non moveable assets mainly))
if product value < (your monthly salary/100*expected utility duration of the product in months)*(importance multiplier)
For normal people with normal salary/income, this 100 coefficient is good enough. You can alter it to some extent according to your position.
Importance multiplier is usually a whole number and equal to 1 for all normal scenarios. You can decide this number yourself, but general observation is for certain luxury goods, this is higher.
Now if product value is more(or index is lesser than 1), then obviously you are over spending. If its less(or index is higer than 1) then that prodct is worth. Now, it should be noted that for certain product catagories this importance multiplier is not equal to one. In such cases all other products in the same catagory should be evaluated with that multiplier and conclusion should be reached.
Now some real world example,
Lets say I have monthly salary of 25000, and I have bought Nokia 5800 for 18000rs 3yrs back. Now, I am thinking about buying a new phone. When should I buy a new phone?
According to spending model that was mentioned, I have used the phone for 12*3=36 months. 250rs is monthly allocation. Which means, in 3 yrs I have used 36*250=9000rs out of initial spending of 18000. This means that after 3 more years I should start thinking about new phone.
How about a watch? How much you should spend on it? Usually we use watch for more than 5yrs. 12*5=60months. Considering 25k/pm salary, it comes to 250[sf]*60[ud]=15000. Which means you can easily go for swatch/rado watch! Its really worth. it!
For your own house -
You would use it for 30yrs, which means 30*12=360months. 360(ud)*250(sf)=90000. Now this is completely wrong. For such assets, importance coefficient of 10 or more could be applied.
For a car,
utility duration = 10yrs = 120[ud]*250[sf]*10[im]=300000rs.
There is another perspective to the importance coefficient. This should be chosen as -
importance multiplier=100/number of similar things that you wish to have
For example, you might want to own 3 houses. Which means im of 100/3=33 should be applied. If you recalculate again then this is now this is closer to what we usually spend to own a house in bigger cities like Pune.
Similarly for car, if you start at the age of 25, you might own 4 cars in you life time. 100/4=25. If you apply im of 25 then you can spend 120[ud]*250[sf]*25[im]=7.5lakh for car.
How about some commodities? Is pizza worth? Is pavbhaji worth?
pizza : utility duration - 1/30month but probably you eat pizza once in a week, so its 7/30. now 7/30*250=53rs. But pizza is much more costly than 53rs. Which means we are definitely over spending! This also means that you should eat pizza once in 5 months to make it worth. However, pavbhaji is a worthy spending as it costs closer to 53rs and hence you can eat pavbhaji once a week :)
If you calculate most of the good's cost you will realize that this model fits well in most of the scenarios. But there are some definite outliers.
Now some reasoning behind this model -
gc of 100 is chosen because with this value, meaning is, you can buy 100 such things in a month. If you count all things that you buy in a month(even commodities like bread, biscuit, subji, wheat, rice, CDs etc) 100 is a good and large enough number.
Utility duration is important as the amount of time perticular thing lasts varies. Short utility value things cannot be costly as one cannot afford it
Similarly, there is importance attached to some things like car, house or your hobbies, so in such cases higher coefficient could be applied.
Its kind of tricky to find out utility duration and importance multiplier, but in most cases you can find some aggreeable and correct number or you can deduce that number from other thing in that catagory(like pizza vs pavbhaji comparison). Also you can apply usual notions of something being more useful or more costly to alter [im], but 1 is a good default. Like non veg food is more costly than veg food is acceptable and hence non veg food has higher [im]. Or education might be costly, but its very important so its ok to use unusually high importance multiplier for it.
So try using this simple but useful model which can explain your spending decisions to some extent at least. This should give you a good baseline...
But when I look more carefully, though, I realize that its not the case. All my money was and is still there with me. But somehow my spending has been more than what I thought.
Also I am kind of thrifty(my friends might say that this is good use of euphemism). But its true that I and many of us are not able to judge if any perticuler good or commodity is worth its values or not. When buying something, there are many criterias that one can apply. Quality and brand name are some of the very important ones. However, in some cases, its difficult to choose the way as all options have similar weight. Also there are cases when you can't really comment whether its ok to spend given amount of money for something.
I was thinking about this and it was difficult to objectively judge spending decisions. Then I came up with this very simple spending model which can explain if something is worth spending the money on. This helped me a lot to determine few over spendings and in some cases justify/oppose certain spending decisions.
This simple model goes like this -
spending worthiness index(index) = (your monthly salary/100[gc]*expected utility duration[ud] of the product in months)*(importance multiplier[im])/product value
gc - goods count(no of things you wish to buy in a month time), standard value is 100
sf - salary fraction = your monthly salary/gc
ud - utility duration in months(time for which good will last/good would be retired, whichever is earlier)
im - importance multiplier(how much the good is important, alternate way to calculate is - 100/no of such goods you need in your lifetime(applicable for non moveable assets mainly))
if product value < (your monthly salary/100*expected utility duration of the product in months)*(importance multiplier)
For normal people with normal salary/income, this 100 coefficient is good enough. You can alter it to some extent according to your position.
Importance multiplier is usually a whole number and equal to 1 for all normal scenarios. You can decide this number yourself, but general observation is for certain luxury goods, this is higher.
Now if product value is more(or index is lesser than 1), then obviously you are over spending. If its less(or index is higer than 1) then that prodct is worth. Now, it should be noted that for certain product catagories this importance multiplier is not equal to one. In such cases all other products in the same catagory should be evaluated with that multiplier and conclusion should be reached.
Now some real world example,
Lets say I have monthly salary of 25000, and I have bought Nokia 5800 for 18000rs 3yrs back. Now, I am thinking about buying a new phone. When should I buy a new phone?
According to spending model that was mentioned, I have used the phone for 12*3=36 months. 250rs is monthly allocation. Which means, in 3 yrs I have used 36*250=9000rs out of initial spending of 18000. This means that after 3 more years I should start thinking about new phone.
How about a watch? How much you should spend on it? Usually we use watch for more than 5yrs. 12*5=60months. Considering 25k/pm salary, it comes to 250[sf]*60[ud]=15000. Which means you can easily go for swatch/rado watch! Its really worth. it!
For your own house -
You would use it for 30yrs, which means 30*12=360months. 360(ud)*250(sf)=90000. Now this is completely wrong. For such assets, importance coefficient of 10 or more could be applied.
For a car,
utility duration = 10yrs = 120[ud]*250[sf]*10[im]=300000rs.
There is another perspective to the importance coefficient. This should be chosen as -
importance multiplier=100/number of similar things that you wish to have
For example, you might want to own 3 houses. Which means im of 100/3=33 should be applied. If you recalculate again then this is now this is closer to what we usually spend to own a house in bigger cities like Pune.
Similarly for car, if you start at the age of 25, you might own 4 cars in you life time. 100/4=25. If you apply im of 25 then you can spend 120[ud]*250[sf]*25[im]=7.5lakh for car.
How about some commodities? Is pizza worth? Is pavbhaji worth?
pizza : utility duration - 1/30month but probably you eat pizza once in a week, so its 7/30. now 7/30*250=53rs. But pizza is much more costly than 53rs. Which means we are definitely over spending! This also means that you should eat pizza once in 5 months to make it worth. However, pavbhaji is a worthy spending as it costs closer to 53rs and hence you can eat pavbhaji once a week :)
If you calculate most of the good's cost you will realize that this model fits well in most of the scenarios. But there are some definite outliers.
Now some reasoning behind this model -
gc of 100 is chosen because with this value, meaning is, you can buy 100 such things in a month. If you count all things that you buy in a month(even commodities like bread, biscuit, subji, wheat, rice, CDs etc) 100 is a good and large enough number.
Utility duration is important as the amount of time perticular thing lasts varies. Short utility value things cannot be costly as one cannot afford it
Similarly, there is importance attached to some things like car, house or your hobbies, so in such cases higher coefficient could be applied.
Its kind of tricky to find out utility duration and importance multiplier, but in most cases you can find some aggreeable and correct number or you can deduce that number from other thing in that catagory(like pizza vs pavbhaji comparison). Also you can apply usual notions of something being more useful or more costly to alter [im], but 1 is a good default. Like non veg food is more costly than veg food is acceptable and hence non veg food has higher [im]. Or education might be costly, but its very important so its ok to use unusually high importance multiplier for it.
So try using this simple but useful model which can explain your spending decisions to some extent at least. This should give you a good baseline...
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Petrol Car vs Diesel Car
I was searching on this topic when I wanted to buy new car. There is plenty of information available but I did not find anything targeted specifically at what I was looking for. Here is kind of consolidated list of all the arguments, my own thoughts and my conclusion. For other things, interested people can have a look at Team BHP site, http://www.team-bhp.com/
You will find most of your car queries answered there.
Coming back to the topic, When going for new car, apart from the company and model, you have the choice about the fuel. So which fuel you should use?
There is significant cost difference between initial price of petrol and diesel vehicle. Price wise diesel car would become preferable only if you are able save enough money (because of cheaper fuel and better mileage of diesel) to compensate for this initial price difference.
Petrol prices are lower in India than diesel. Reason for this is not very technical. Its mostly because diesel is subsidized. Diesel is used in heavy vehicles for Good's transport and hence the subsidization. This keeps the commodity prices low as transportation cost is reduced. Many car manufacturers manipulate this basic price difference and come up with car engines that can consume Diesel. Diesel engine cars are not very popular in western countries and also all premium vehicles almost exclusively run on Petrol.
Technically speaking, Diesel should be cheaper than petrol because Diesel is less refined than Petrol in distillation process and hence Diesel production is cheaper than Petrol production. But this production cost wise difference is smaller and difference that we see in India is larger and out of proportion because of the subsidization.
Petrol engines have better performance characteristics and lesser maintenance. Diesel produces more soot and is more sensitive to fuel and oil contamination, hence maintenance cost is higher. Also diesel engines produce more vibrations. Higher maintenance cost is also aggravated because of higher compression of the diesel engines. As there are no spark plugs in diesel engines, more compression is required to keep the engine running.
Diesel engines are mostly used in high power, slow acceleration vehicles and compared to Petrol, diesel have more resale value. All above arguments about diesel engines are getting more and more weaker with newer diesel engines which incorporate advanced technology like Common Rail Direct Injection (CRDI) and hence buying a diesel car is making more and more sense.
One interesting thing to note is, though, that diesel cars are costlier than petrol cars. Typically price difference is 80000rs to 100000rs in India. And also rate of growth of Petrol prices is much higher than that of diesel. As diesel price change has more impact on economy, government cannot change diesel prices very frequently and with same rate as that of petrol. Having petrol car affects you psychologically more. Because you pay higher per km, you think more before using a petrol car. In case of diesel you hardly need to worry about the fuel consumption as price you pay per km is much lesser than Petrol. Even when you compare public transport rates per km with that of diesel car, diesel is on par. This has huge positive impact on your mind and you tend to use your diesel car more frequently than equivalent petrol car.
After all above arguments I still feel that petrol car is more value for money than diesel cars. Hence couple of years back, I chose to go with petrol car. Diesel car purchase would become good deal only after certain period of time. To achieve this break even(because you pay higher for diesel engine) it might take 2yrs to 5yrs depending on usage. My recommendation is, only if you have 15000km running per year, you should go for a diesel car.
Here is some interesting maths, which can prove my point -
Following is the total cost to travel 500km by both fuels, with current fuel rates in Pune :
2737.69rs : with petrol, distance - 500 km, price - 71.18rs/litre, 13kmpl avg
1271.47 : with diesel, distance - 500km, price - 43.23rs/litre, 17kmpl avg
hence difference : 1466 for 500km i.e. 2.932rs/km difference
Initial price diff between petrol and diesel car - 80000rs
hence, you need 27285.12 km running before diesel car is more profitable.
Some of you might not agree with average of diesel and petrol engine. Hence following is revised calculation which is more in favour of diesel cars because these averages are not realistic -
cost to travel 500km by both fuels, with current fuel rates in Pune :
3235.45 : with petrol, distance - 500 km, price - 71.18rs/litre, 11kmpl avg
1080.75 : with diesel, distance - 500km, price - 43.23rs/litre, 20kmpl avg
hence difference - 2155 for 500km i.e. 4.312rs/km difference
Initial price diff between petrol and diesel car - 80000rs
hence, you need 18561.48 km running before diesel car is more profitable.
I have not considered higher maintenance cost associated with diesel(like diesel engine oil is costlier). Obviously if you own car for more than 5 yrs, eventually diesel car would turn out to be more profitable. But you should also consider that if you can invest 80000(difference between petrol and diesel car) in fixed deposit, it would generate enough interest. This interest you can again put in buying more petrol. This would mean that you would achieve the break even at even later stage. If you are buying car on loan then obviously this break even could take even longer.
Overall I favour Petrol car over Diesel, as of now at least.
P.S. : Before I conclude, some account of total spending I have done on my car(i10 magna, kappa engine oct 2007 purchase) in last two years - Insurance, 9000(second year), 7500(third year)
Paid servicing - once, 3000
Oil change - 900*3=2700
other expenses - some painting 2000, some stupid mouse ate by windshield fluid pipe which costed me around 300rs
Total expenses - 25000 in two years
You will find most of your car queries answered there.
Coming back to the topic, When going for new car, apart from the company and model, you have the choice about the fuel. So which fuel you should use?
There is significant cost difference between initial price of petrol and diesel vehicle. Price wise diesel car would become preferable only if you are able save enough money (because of cheaper fuel and better mileage of diesel) to compensate for this initial price difference.
Petrol prices are lower in India than diesel. Reason for this is not very technical. Its mostly because diesel is subsidized. Diesel is used in heavy vehicles for Good's transport and hence the subsidization. This keeps the commodity prices low as transportation cost is reduced. Many car manufacturers manipulate this basic price difference and come up with car engines that can consume Diesel. Diesel engine cars are not very popular in western countries and also all premium vehicles almost exclusively run on Petrol.
Technically speaking, Diesel should be cheaper than petrol because Diesel is less refined than Petrol in distillation process and hence Diesel production is cheaper than Petrol production. But this production cost wise difference is smaller and difference that we see in India is larger and out of proportion because of the subsidization.
Petrol engines have better performance characteristics and lesser maintenance. Diesel produces more soot and is more sensitive to fuel and oil contamination, hence maintenance cost is higher. Also diesel engines produce more vibrations. Higher maintenance cost is also aggravated because of higher compression of the diesel engines. As there are no spark plugs in diesel engines, more compression is required to keep the engine running.
Diesel engines are mostly used in high power, slow acceleration vehicles and compared to Petrol, diesel have more resale value. All above arguments about diesel engines are getting more and more weaker with newer diesel engines which incorporate advanced technology like Common Rail Direct Injection (CRDI) and hence buying a diesel car is making more and more sense.
One interesting thing to note is, though, that diesel cars are costlier than petrol cars. Typically price difference is 80000rs to 100000rs in India. And also rate of growth of Petrol prices is much higher than that of diesel. As diesel price change has more impact on economy, government cannot change diesel prices very frequently and with same rate as that of petrol. Having petrol car affects you psychologically more. Because you pay higher per km, you think more before using a petrol car. In case of diesel you hardly need to worry about the fuel consumption as price you pay per km is much lesser than Petrol. Even when you compare public transport rates per km with that of diesel car, diesel is on par. This has huge positive impact on your mind and you tend to use your diesel car more frequently than equivalent petrol car.
After all above arguments I still feel that petrol car is more value for money than diesel cars. Hence couple of years back, I chose to go with petrol car. Diesel car purchase would become good deal only after certain period of time. To achieve this break even(because you pay higher for diesel engine) it might take 2yrs to 5yrs depending on usage. My recommendation is, only if you have 15000km running per year, you should go for a diesel car.
Here is some interesting maths, which can prove my point -
Following is the total cost to travel 500km by both fuels, with current fuel rates in Pune :
2737.69rs : with petrol, distance - 500 km, price - 71.18rs/litre, 13kmpl avg
1271.47 : with diesel, distance - 500km, price - 43.23rs/litre, 17kmpl avg
hence difference : 1466 for 500km i.e. 2.932rs/km difference
Initial price diff between petrol and diesel car - 80000rs
hence, you need 27285.12 km running before diesel car is more profitable.
Some of you might not agree with average of diesel and petrol engine. Hence following is revised calculation which is more in favour of diesel cars because these averages are not realistic -
cost to travel 500km by both fuels, with current fuel rates in Pune :
3235.45 : with petrol, distance - 500 km, price - 71.18rs/litre, 11kmpl avg
1080.75 : with diesel, distance - 500km, price - 43.23rs/litre, 20kmpl avg
hence difference - 2155 for 500km i.e. 4.312rs/km difference
Initial price diff between petrol and diesel car - 80000rs
hence, you need 18561.48 km running before diesel car is more profitable.
I have not considered higher maintenance cost associated with diesel(like diesel engine oil is costlier). Obviously if you own car for more than 5 yrs, eventually diesel car would turn out to be more profitable. But you should also consider that if you can invest 80000(difference between petrol and diesel car) in fixed deposit, it would generate enough interest. This interest you can again put in buying more petrol. This would mean that you would achieve the break even at even later stage. If you are buying car on loan then obviously this break even could take even longer.
Overall I favour Petrol car over Diesel, as of now at least.
P.S. : Before I conclude, some account of total spending I have done on my car(i10 magna, kappa engine oct 2007 purchase) in last two years - Insurance, 9000(second year), 7500(third year)
Paid servicing - once, 3000
Oil change - 900*3=2700
other expenses - some painting 2000, some stupid mouse ate by windshield fluid pipe which costed me around 300rs
Total expenses - 25000 in two years
Saturday, May 9, 2009
To touch or not, that is the question...
Its been long since I wrote anything... But that does not mean that I was not thinking, or I did not had any topics in my mind. More than anything else my main concern was, if at all anybody is reading my blog or not? and if at all it is useful for anybody... But nevertheless, I will still continue the my work...
I bought a touch screen phone a few days back. Its 5800 xpressMusic phone. I am not going to write phone review here. Its a nice phone, nicely balanced around price and functionality. Before deciding about this phone, I always wondered if touchscreen can replace/compete/outperform physical button based interface or not. Well, here is my answer to that.
Buttons are good to perform really fast actions like gaming and texting. And believe me there is no match to buttons. They are simply great, when looked from shear speed perspective. However touchscreen has its own advantages. Some of them are workarounds and not really answers.
On touchscreen usually you get the luxury of typing in full QUERTY mode or half QUERTY mode. Though speed might be slower than typical T9 button speed, its still comparable. Especially so in India because, while texting we many times use hindi/native language/abbriviations. These are really hard to type with multitap. So here touchscreen comes to the rescue. My take is, touchscreen is not a that bad option either.
Gaming, well here physical keypad wins. But having touchscreen exposes some totally new perspective for gaming, and makes playing a few games much more enjoyable. For example, playing sudoku or battleship on touchscreen is amazing. No irritating key presses in succession. In case of games, which require fast user input, though are difficult to enjoy. For example, tetris or snake at higher levels becomes boring. It might be challenging, as still you might struggle to keep the pace, but overall things are slower.
Another thing to note here is, on TS your finger/stylus touches the screen and blocks the view. Especially for gaming this is irritating. However sometimes you get the privilege of random access(as you can directly jump from one place to another) and hence you can do things faster than normal keypad.
Browsing, GPS, calculator like 'jumpy' applications, typing URLs, choosing from n options is very straightforward on touchscreen.
Finally, I would say that touchscreen is slightly more productive in general. Also touchscreens are really big, but there is limitation on size of screen for normal keypad based phone. Phone cannot grow beyond 8in x 5in and some place is always need to be reserved for keypad. Hence total screen area is ALWAYS smaller on keypad based phone. And having more screen area is much more advantageous.
I cannot comment about durability, but here I think physical keypad would win. For all practicle purposes though touchscreen might not fail either...
Closing comments, I would also like to comment about capacitive verses resistive touchscreens. 5800 uses resistive and omnipresent iPhone uses capacitive. Here too, in the long run I feel that resistive screen is better option. And always stylus should be bundled with any touchscreen based phone.
Capacitive touchscreens are more responsive, make no mistake about that. But resistive are not that bad either. After getting used to it, its not a that big deal. Just while tapping you need to use your fingernails, its more about getting used to it. Arguably resistive are more durable. Stylus is a must as viewing web pages, or playing games like sudoku is very easy with stylus. I wonder how it could be done efficiently without stylus. Even if screen is capacitive, when precise touching point is needed, there is no alternative for resistive screen.
So here too, I would say resistive touchscreens with stylus are preferable.
I bought a touch screen phone a few days back. Its 5800 xpressMusic phone. I am not going to write phone review here. Its a nice phone, nicely balanced around price and functionality. Before deciding about this phone, I always wondered if touchscreen can replace/compete/outperform physical button based interface or not. Well, here is my answer to that.
Buttons are good to perform really fast actions like gaming and texting. And believe me there is no match to buttons. They are simply great, when looked from shear speed perspective. However touchscreen has its own advantages. Some of them are workarounds and not really answers.
On touchscreen usually you get the luxury of typing in full QUERTY mode or half QUERTY mode. Though speed might be slower than typical T9 button speed, its still comparable. Especially so in India because, while texting we many times use hindi/native language/abbriviations. These are really hard to type with multitap. So here touchscreen comes to the rescue. My take is, touchscreen is not a that bad option either.
Gaming, well here physical keypad wins. But having touchscreen exposes some totally new perspective for gaming, and makes playing a few games much more enjoyable. For example, playing sudoku or battleship on touchscreen is amazing. No irritating key presses in succession. In case of games, which require fast user input, though are difficult to enjoy. For example, tetris or snake at higher levels becomes boring. It might be challenging, as still you might struggle to keep the pace, but overall things are slower.
Another thing to note here is, on TS your finger/stylus touches the screen and blocks the view. Especially for gaming this is irritating. However sometimes you get the privilege of random access(as you can directly jump from one place to another) and hence you can do things faster than normal keypad.
Browsing, GPS, calculator like 'jumpy' applications, typing URLs, choosing from n options is very straightforward on touchscreen.
Finally, I would say that touchscreen is slightly more productive in general. Also touchscreens are really big, but there is limitation on size of screen for normal keypad based phone. Phone cannot grow beyond 8in x 5in and some place is always need to be reserved for keypad. Hence total screen area is ALWAYS smaller on keypad based phone. And having more screen area is much more advantageous.
I cannot comment about durability, but here I think physical keypad would win. For all practicle purposes though touchscreen might not fail either...
Closing comments, I would also like to comment about capacitive verses resistive touchscreens. 5800 uses resistive and omnipresent iPhone uses capacitive. Here too, in the long run I feel that resistive screen is better option. And always stylus should be bundled with any touchscreen based phone.
Capacitive touchscreens are more responsive, make no mistake about that. But resistive are not that bad either. After getting used to it, its not a that big deal. Just while tapping you need to use your fingernails, its more about getting used to it. Arguably resistive are more durable. Stylus is a must as viewing web pages, or playing games like sudoku is very easy with stylus. I wonder how it could be done efficiently without stylus. Even if screen is capacitive, when precise touching point is needed, there is no alternative for resistive screen.
So here too, I would say resistive touchscreens with stylus are preferable.
Monday, December 8, 2008
We... The 'Responsible' Citizens of India
I don't understand this... Last 2 weeks, everybody is blaming politicians, military, intelligence, national security agencies etc. This blame game is going on and on... People blame media, police, some people blame themselves... The only visible and prominently striking thing out of this is that we lack integrity... All of us! Nobody would accept this. Civilians feel that they understand everything, they protest, they head rallies against politicians, police... This is never ending...
What I was most frustrated by, was the manner in which this so called responsible middle and upper middle class is protesting. It leaves me nothing but frustration...
This class always thinks that they are the most ideal clan, they do nothing wrong and they know and understand everything! I don't know why they think so...
This particular class is literally misusing its hard earned reputation. Reputation that many of its members are well educated, at high position in society and that they are docile and hence sensible and mature and so forth... They use SMS, email, internet to show their anger and everybody gives them publicity; which they don't deserve!
They know nothing about politicians, police... still they keep on blaming them. They don't understand the cultural, religious fabric of India, they don't know anything about social engineering, they don't understand caste politics, they don't understand geographical and even historical complications. They don't understand that this huge functioning anarchy would crumble down under its own weight if any extremity is followed! And surprisingly feel that they know what politics is, and blame all democratic institutions, politicians! Without understanding what goes underneath... They simply overlook ability of politicians to handle people, their ability to keep people interested and hopeful about them, that they do what is required. That they are the most able managers! They don't understand that this is the essence of democracy, not to follow any extremities, neither good nor bad! That capitalism and USA are the bigger culprits than anything else!
Lets look at police. These so called responsible citizens don't understand their problems, they don't know that they work for 12hrs a day. When there is need, these citizens are always ahead to exploit police with their 'contacts'. They don't understand their work pressure, that they don't seat in AC rooms, that they can't maintain their cool when they people flock to them with their comparatively small problems, that they handle bad elements with their crude but effective manner!
This becomes even more surprising, when one sees how insensitive these responsible citizens are about things which belong outside of their circle! They never travel by state transport, they need not wait for water which comes for only half an hour each day, they don't know that there are villages where people are totally dependent upon monsoon, they don't know that their is no connectivity in any form is there for them, road, electricity, phone are luxuries for them...
They don't care about African nations who suffer from cholera, diarrhea , malnutrition; or even about people from their country...
Nor about pollution, plastic, environment etc. They have never seen countryside; never seen 'aamachi maati aamachi manasa'; never went for off beat cinema; don't know folk music; haven't read even a single book in their mother tongue!
Is having no electricity for 10hrs a less important issue? But these responsible citizens never protest, never show their anger in such cases! They feel the heat only when they want to! They see and feel the sorrow and suffering around them only when it starts hurting them !
and still somehow they feel that they understand everything! And they are absolutely sure that they would do things better if they get opportunity...
I am not saying that all this protest, anger against politicians, police, intelligence is wrong. We need to improve and we need to improve a lot. And there are real responsible peopl in this class. But I can't support this sudden anger in these so called responsible citizens, when I can see that they themselves lack integrity, that they never show responsibility, that they always whine and blame system, that they are not mature...
And I feel even more frustrated when I see that these people are absolutely confidant that they can change the system without understanding it! To the hell with these responsible citizens!
What I was most frustrated by, was the manner in which this so called responsible middle and upper middle class is protesting. It leaves me nothing but frustration...
This class always thinks that they are the most ideal clan, they do nothing wrong and they know and understand everything! I don't know why they think so...
This particular class is literally misusing its hard earned reputation. Reputation that many of its members are well educated, at high position in society and that they are docile and hence sensible and mature and so forth... They use SMS, email, internet to show their anger and everybody gives them publicity; which they don't deserve!
They know nothing about politicians, police... still they keep on blaming them. They don't understand the cultural, religious fabric of India, they don't know anything about social engineering, they don't understand caste politics, they don't understand geographical and even historical complications. They don't understand that this huge functioning anarchy would crumble down under its own weight if any extremity is followed! And surprisingly feel that they know what politics is, and blame all democratic institutions, politicians! Without understanding what goes underneath... They simply overlook ability of politicians to handle people, their ability to keep people interested and hopeful about them, that they do what is required. That they are the most able managers! They don't understand that this is the essence of democracy, not to follow any extremities, neither good nor bad! That capitalism and USA are the bigger culprits than anything else!
Lets look at police. These so called responsible citizens don't understand their problems, they don't know that they work for 12hrs a day. When there is need, these citizens are always ahead to exploit police with their 'contacts'. They don't understand their work pressure, that they don't seat in AC rooms, that they can't maintain their cool when they people flock to them with their comparatively small problems, that they handle bad elements with their crude but effective manner!
This becomes even more surprising, when one sees how insensitive these responsible citizens are about things which belong outside of their circle! They never travel by state transport, they need not wait for water which comes for only half an hour each day, they don't know that there are villages where people are totally dependent upon monsoon, they don't know that their is no connectivity in any form is there for them, road, electricity, phone are luxuries for them...
They don't care about African nations who suffer from cholera, diarrhea , malnutrition; or even about people from their country...
Nor about pollution, plastic, environment etc. They have never seen countryside; never seen 'aamachi maati aamachi manasa'; never went for off beat cinema; don't know folk music; haven't read even a single book in their mother tongue!
Is having no electricity for 10hrs a less important issue? But these responsible citizens never protest, never show their anger in such cases! They feel the heat only when they want to! They see and feel the sorrow and suffering around them only when it starts hurting them !
and still somehow they feel that they understand everything! And they are absolutely sure that they would do things better if they get opportunity...
I am not saying that all this protest, anger against politicians, police, intelligence is wrong. We need to improve and we need to improve a lot. And there are real responsible peopl in this class. But I can't support this sudden anger in these so called responsible citizens, when I can see that they themselves lack integrity, that they never show responsibility, that they always whine and blame system, that they are not mature...
And I feel even more frustrated when I see that these people are absolutely confidant that they can change the system without understanding it! To the hell with these responsible citizens!
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Has Marathi found new wings?
I was thinking about this for quite some time now.
I seriously feel that Marathi has found new wings to rise from wherever it was... Well I am not saying that it rose from ashes, not at all; Situation was not really that bad, however I should admit that there was a time when I could see Marathi nowhere... It was not used in public and most importantly we did not had it in our hearts! The most important place where it should be!
However I see a huge change happening... As its well clear from one of my previous posts(one of the best ways to force reader to spend more time, add self references ;) ), I am from Marathi medium school. I am not saying that my English was good(and not at all saying that I am good at English now), but at least as I realized afterwards, that very few people actually know English as a language... To really know that language one should feel it in their your heart, whatever one think and do should be in that language. I certainly feel that many English medium school people lack that. Just reading a few pulp fiction novels, watching a few popular Hollywood movies, and using English and some desi language is definition of knowing English for them.
So I was and am very happy that I don't belong to this hybrid(or dhedgujari, oh! is it casteism?) category. Which don't understand their mother tongue, and hence fail miserably to understand their own culture(culture includes, understanding music, books etc). There are exceptions of course.
Same is true for Hindi speaking population, they don't even read Hindi!
I was sometimes doubtful regarding my love about my mother tongue. Sometimes I felt like I am going nowhere. I mean there were no fellow followers, I felt deserted.
Nevertheless I was very much self confidant and happy about my stand, and never regretted it.
For some time, even I was convinced that Marathi is dying slow death. Everywhere I could see senior Marathi veterans asking to rejuvenate Marathi language, asking Marathi youth to learn and respect Marathi, expressing grief that there is no fresh crop of Marathi writers, poets etc. Marathi certainly had lost its golden era when there were likes of PL Deshpande, Babuji, Shrinivas Khale, Gadima etc and I could see no ray of hope...
But now I feel that situation has changed for good. May be because of the efforts those eminent people made to promote Marathi or whatever. And hope that this change would remain with us.
Marathi is finding new identity all over India. There was no dearth of Marathi people in any area except politics anyway. Marathi speaking people contributed and sometimes dominated all fields, be it history, cricket, cinema, freedom fighters, photographers, movie artists, music, scientists etc.
But sometime in between, Marathi lost its charm, Marathi was ignored...
I believed that Marathi is going to go away, for one there was not enough people contributing to Marathi, and for second, Marathi youth ignored(or was ashamed of) it.
As for example Punjabi might not be that great as a language(I don't mean insult, looking from no of creations in Punjabi like books, quality music, novels etc) but because Punjabi is so celebrated; Punjabi youth is not afraid of talking in Panjabi. I wish same should happen to Marathi but the reason should be the first one that I mentioned.
Now I can see and feel the change.
Salil and Sandeep changed marathi music scenario completely, they were the pioneers. And afterwards Ajay-Atul contributed to it. Marathi cinema and music is now recognized as music with content and not just extravagance, not just show off.
Marathi actors, directors, writers, choreographers, cinematographers are contributing significantly to Bollywood too. However I should mention that Marathi actresses and models made their way and established themselves into Bollywood much earlier. Marathi girls are beautiful and smart is very well established. Also Marathi girls are modern, charming and intelligent and I am very proud of them! I must admit that Marathi boys fall way far behind when it comes to smartness, modernness and charm... Now people like Shreyas, Ritesh and Atul Kulkarni are establishing themselves.
In previous couple of years Marathi is getting recognized everywhere... Marathi channels have blossomed like mushrooms in monsoon. Now there are 10 Marathi channels, Sahyadri, Z Marahi, E tv Marathi, Saam Marathi, Mi Marathi, Star Maza, Z chovis taas, IBM Lokmat, Z cinema and now Star Pravah! Marathi has totally changed its face. Very few Marathi households now watch Hindi channels, almost all has switched to Marathi.
Add to this great reality shows like Sa re ga ma pa, Ekapeksha ek which highlighted their uniqueness by avoiding cheap publicity stunts and maintaining very high quality. Marathi has got new assurance now. This is pretty clear if one looks at quality equipments used, huge, flashy stages and expensive stage shows (like Mata Sanman, Z puraskar). And at the same time I must mention good quality that is evident everywhere, even news reporting is very mature...
After seeing all this I have started feeling that Marathi is re-establishing itself and that too with bang! I would have followed my Marathi love anyway, but it feels really good that what I believed in(as having great quality, and hence should not be lost) is proving its mettle. And I have many like minded fellows now!
I seriously feel that Marathi has found new wings to rise from wherever it was... Well I am not saying that it rose from ashes, not at all; Situation was not really that bad, however I should admit that there was a time when I could see Marathi nowhere... It was not used in public and most importantly we did not had it in our hearts! The most important place where it should be!
However I see a huge change happening... As its well clear from one of my previous posts(one of the best ways to force reader to spend more time, add self references ;) ), I am from Marathi medium school. I am not saying that my English was good(and not at all saying that I am good at English now), but at least as I realized afterwards, that very few people actually know English as a language... To really know that language one should feel it in their your heart, whatever one think and do should be in that language. I certainly feel that many English medium school people lack that. Just reading a few pulp fiction novels, watching a few popular Hollywood movies, and using English and some desi language is definition of knowing English for them.
So I was and am very happy that I don't belong to this hybrid(or dhedgujari, oh! is it casteism?) category. Which don't understand their mother tongue, and hence fail miserably to understand their own culture(culture includes, understanding music, books etc). There are exceptions of course.
Same is true for Hindi speaking population, they don't even read Hindi!
I was sometimes doubtful regarding my love about my mother tongue. Sometimes I felt like I am going nowhere. I mean there were no fellow followers, I felt deserted.
Nevertheless I was very much self confidant and happy about my stand, and never regretted it.
For some time, even I was convinced that Marathi is dying slow death. Everywhere I could see senior Marathi veterans asking to rejuvenate Marathi language, asking Marathi youth to learn and respect Marathi, expressing grief that there is no fresh crop of Marathi writers, poets etc. Marathi certainly had lost its golden era when there were likes of PL Deshpande, Babuji, Shrinivas Khale, Gadima etc and I could see no ray of hope...
But now I feel that situation has changed for good. May be because of the efforts those eminent people made to promote Marathi or whatever. And hope that this change would remain with us.
Marathi is finding new identity all over India. There was no dearth of Marathi people in any area except politics anyway. Marathi speaking people contributed and sometimes dominated all fields, be it history, cricket, cinema, freedom fighters, photographers, movie artists, music, scientists etc.
But sometime in between, Marathi lost its charm, Marathi was ignored...
I believed that Marathi is going to go away, for one there was not enough people contributing to Marathi, and for second, Marathi youth ignored(or was ashamed of) it.
As for example Punjabi might not be that great as a language(I don't mean insult, looking from no of creations in Punjabi like books, quality music, novels etc) but because Punjabi is so celebrated; Punjabi youth is not afraid of talking in Panjabi. I wish same should happen to Marathi but the reason should be the first one that I mentioned.
Now I can see and feel the change.
Salil and Sandeep changed marathi music scenario completely, they were the pioneers. And afterwards Ajay-Atul contributed to it. Marathi cinema and music is now recognized as music with content and not just extravagance, not just show off.
Marathi actors, directors, writers, choreographers, cinematographers are contributing significantly to Bollywood too. However I should mention that Marathi actresses and models made their way and established themselves into Bollywood much earlier. Marathi girls are beautiful and smart is very well established. Also Marathi girls are modern, charming and intelligent and I am very proud of them! I must admit that Marathi boys fall way far behind when it comes to smartness, modernness and charm... Now people like Shreyas, Ritesh and Atul Kulkarni are establishing themselves.
In previous couple of years Marathi is getting recognized everywhere... Marathi channels have blossomed like mushrooms in monsoon. Now there are 10 Marathi channels, Sahyadri, Z Marahi, E tv Marathi, Saam Marathi, Mi Marathi, Star Maza, Z chovis taas, IBM Lokmat, Z cinema and now Star Pravah! Marathi has totally changed its face. Very few Marathi households now watch Hindi channels, almost all has switched to Marathi.
Add to this great reality shows like Sa re ga ma pa, Ekapeksha ek which highlighted their uniqueness by avoiding cheap publicity stunts and maintaining very high quality. Marathi has got new assurance now. This is pretty clear if one looks at quality equipments used, huge, flashy stages and expensive stage shows (like Mata Sanman, Z puraskar). And at the same time I must mention good quality that is evident everywhere, even news reporting is very mature...
After seeing all this I have started feeling that Marathi is re-establishing itself and that too with bang! I would have followed my Marathi love anyway, but it feels really good that what I believed in(as having great quality, and hence should not be lost) is proving its mettle. And I have many like minded fellows now!
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Beginners guide to Camera and Photography
I have not attended any photography course, not read even a single book on photography, nor own a SLR like camera.
But still for starters(because I definitely don't belong to that category), I feel that following tips would help them to understand photography in general(at least would shorten their learning curve). These are applicable for the Point and Shoot cameras(PAS), which most of us use. PAS is the term used for cameras that offer very basic manual settings and usually have 3x-5x optical zoom(and are affordable).
Things to look for while buying a new camera -
1) Never go only for brand names. 'Models' are good or bad, not brands. Though percentage of good models that a brand produces vary. On this standard, Canon, Nikon, and Sony are good brands, in the same order(thats not my personal opinion, thats what I found on internet)
2) Mega pixel does not indicate quality! You can find more information about this fact around internet. Megapixel means you are capturing more information(ie quantity) and not quality. Any mega pixel count past 5 is fine. And you probably wont notice the difference(unless you crop it, or zoom in, on actually print it on A4 size paper!). Other parameters for the quality are - color reproduction, level of detail, compression method, algorithm used(all these are image parameters, there are camera parameters too, like anti blur mode, image stabilizer etc)
3) Color reproduction is essential. Most of the point and shoot cameras(referred as PAS hereafter) don't support hue adjustment. And neither of them produce colors perfectly. Hence before buying ensure that colors that you see in the photograph are as close to real life as possible. Bad color reproduction means bad image quality (for me at least)
4) Time between two photographs, or how fast you can click consecutive photos is another measure that you would look for. Especially in India, when we try to capture that exact moment in festive season... it becomes really irritating to ask people to repeat/ or stop that moment for more than 3-4 seconds just to click a photo.
5) Auto focus hit rate should be high. Some cameras are really slow in this task, and some fail to do so for apparently no reason (low lighting could confuse camera and this is one reason that is expected, though). This is important, because in PAS cameras, you don't have any option to adjust the focus. If camera does not get it correct, then there is nothing much you can do, except clicking multiple photos and crossing your fingers that one of them would be good. Ensure that auto focus is working reliably.
6) Size, battery life, view finder, LCD size - These are other few things you should look for. Size should be small enough so that you can slide it into your pocket occasionally. Battery life should support at least 100 photos without flash. And preferably it should have view finder so that you can save battery(for more information - LCD consumes a lot of battery power, you can switch it off, and use view finder instead), if you need to. You can review your photograph more easily and with lesser time on bigger LCD.
7) Battery life indicator - some cameras have only have two/or three level indicators, i.e. they would start complaining only when battery is empty. This is annoying as you cannot plan your photos in such a case. When there is battery low warning, you would hardly be able to click a few(around 10-20 in most cases) photographs.
Tips to click a good photograph -
Probably you can find better tips elsewhere, but here are a few tips from my side, which are not very technical and which are especially applicable for PAS cameras.
1) Never use flash, if you want 'real' photographs. Flash illuminates objects in inconsistent manner(the flash that is built in). Hence avoid flash as long as possible.(of course, there are situations where using flash would get you better photos than not using it).
2) While capturing the photo, 'half press' the capture button. This would focus your camera on the subject. Now wait for the moment that you want to capture and then at that moment press the button completely. This way you can capture the exact moment. If you do this process in one go, then camera first focuses on the subject and then captures the image. This focusing process requires time and this is the reason photo appears to have been captured after you have pressed the button. Understand the working and you can click better pictures...
3) Never have source of light in front of the camera. PAS cameras have light sensor, which adjusts the exposure time. If light is in front, then camera thinks that there is enough light, and reduces exposure time. But your subject is not exposed to light and hence subject appears black.
4) Night mode is of no use! Understand this. Night mode increases the exposure time to almost(and at least) 1/4 sec. You cannot hold your hand still for such a long period. and hence images captured would always be blurry in such cases. Use flash in such cases. Keep camera on usual setting(auto) and try to keep your hand steady. This would give you the best possible photo(auto mode automatically adjusts the necessary settings).
5) If you find your first photo unsatisfactory, click 2-3 more. Usually camera would click better photo next time. This happens as internally camera adjusts all the parameters for each photo, but this process takes some time, and not perfect always.
6) Ask your subject to be still if there is insufficient light. Camera increases exposure time in low light conditions, and hence if the subject moves, you would always see blurry/ghost images.
7) Use only optical zoom, digital zoom is marketing gimmick. Using digital zoom is like cropping the image. Also make sure that your hand is steady when you zoom in. Zooming makes camera very sensitive to hand vibrations(and it is directly proportional to zoom factor). To understand this, think about angle...
8) No digital camera can captures crystal clear images indoor. Indoor light is always insufficient for camera, and hence 70% of the times your images wont be crystal clear, unless you take enough care.
9) And last, but very important, composing, angle and lighting are the things that make a great photo. Any average camera can produce excellent photograph... it depends more on the photographer than camera! Understand and accept this!
But still for starters(because I definitely don't belong to that category), I feel that following tips would help them to understand photography in general(at least would shorten their learning curve). These are applicable for the Point and Shoot cameras(PAS), which most of us use. PAS is the term used for cameras that offer very basic manual settings and usually have 3x-5x optical zoom(and are affordable).
Things to look for while buying a new camera -
1) Never go only for brand names. 'Models' are good or bad, not brands. Though percentage of good models that a brand produces vary. On this standard, Canon, Nikon, and Sony are good brands, in the same order(thats not my personal opinion, thats what I found on internet)
2) Mega pixel does not indicate quality! You can find more information about this fact around internet. Megapixel means you are capturing more information(ie quantity) and not quality. Any mega pixel count past 5 is fine. And you probably wont notice the difference(unless you crop it, or zoom in, on actually print it on A4 size paper!). Other parameters for the quality are - color reproduction, level of detail, compression method, algorithm used(all these are image parameters, there are camera parameters too, like anti blur mode, image stabilizer etc)
3) Color reproduction is essential. Most of the point and shoot cameras(referred as PAS hereafter) don't support hue adjustment. And neither of them produce colors perfectly. Hence before buying ensure that colors that you see in the photograph are as close to real life as possible. Bad color reproduction means bad image quality (for me at least)
4) Time between two photographs, or how fast you can click consecutive photos is another measure that you would look for. Especially in India, when we try to capture that exact moment in festive season... it becomes really irritating to ask people to repeat/ or stop that moment for more than 3-4 seconds just to click a photo.
5) Auto focus hit rate should be high. Some cameras are really slow in this task, and some fail to do so for apparently no reason (low lighting could confuse camera and this is one reason that is expected, though). This is important, because in PAS cameras, you don't have any option to adjust the focus. If camera does not get it correct, then there is nothing much you can do, except clicking multiple photos and crossing your fingers that one of them would be good. Ensure that auto focus is working reliably.
6) Size, battery life, view finder, LCD size - These are other few things you should look for. Size should be small enough so that you can slide it into your pocket occasionally. Battery life should support at least 100 photos without flash. And preferably it should have view finder so that you can save battery(for more information - LCD consumes a lot of battery power, you can switch it off, and use view finder instead), if you need to. You can review your photograph more easily and with lesser time on bigger LCD.
7) Battery life indicator - some cameras have only have two/or three level indicators, i.e. they would start complaining only when battery is empty. This is annoying as you cannot plan your photos in such a case. When there is battery low warning, you would hardly be able to click a few(around 10-20 in most cases) photographs.
Tips to click a good photograph -
Probably you can find better tips elsewhere, but here are a few tips from my side, which are not very technical and which are especially applicable for PAS cameras.
1) Never use flash, if you want 'real' photographs. Flash illuminates objects in inconsistent manner(the flash that is built in). Hence avoid flash as long as possible.(of course, there are situations where using flash would get you better photos than not using it).
2) While capturing the photo, 'half press' the capture button. This would focus your camera on the subject. Now wait for the moment that you want to capture and then at that moment press the button completely. This way you can capture the exact moment. If you do this process in one go, then camera first focuses on the subject and then captures the image. This focusing process requires time and this is the reason photo appears to have been captured after you have pressed the button. Understand the working and you can click better pictures...
3) Never have source of light in front of the camera. PAS cameras have light sensor, which adjusts the exposure time. If light is in front, then camera thinks that there is enough light, and reduces exposure time. But your subject is not exposed to light and hence subject appears black.
4) Night mode is of no use! Understand this. Night mode increases the exposure time to almost(and at least) 1/4 sec. You cannot hold your hand still for such a long period. and hence images captured would always be blurry in such cases. Use flash in such cases. Keep camera on usual setting(auto) and try to keep your hand steady. This would give you the best possible photo(auto mode automatically adjusts the necessary settings).
5) If you find your first photo unsatisfactory, click 2-3 more. Usually camera would click better photo next time. This happens as internally camera adjusts all the parameters for each photo, but this process takes some time, and not perfect always.
6) Ask your subject to be still if there is insufficient light. Camera increases exposure time in low light conditions, and hence if the subject moves, you would always see blurry/ghost images.
7) Use only optical zoom, digital zoom is marketing gimmick. Using digital zoom is like cropping the image. Also make sure that your hand is steady when you zoom in. Zooming makes camera very sensitive to hand vibrations(and it is directly proportional to zoom factor). To understand this, think about angle...
8) No digital camera can captures crystal clear images indoor. Indoor light is always insufficient for camera, and hence 70% of the times your images wont be crystal clear, unless you take enough care.
9) And last, but very important, composing, angle and lighting are the things that make a great photo. Any average camera can produce excellent photograph... it depends more on the photographer than camera! Understand and accept this!
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