John’s phone is for idiots!

To all you fellow noobs out there have you ever wondered why there are so many features in a simple mobile phone? My sweet dad still lugs around his 15 year old Motorola. I have coaxed him into changing the phone and his staple reply has always been, “I can still make calls right?”

Well one such non-believer in advancements in technology and gone ahead and created the John’s phone. It is stripped of all the value-added attachments like music player, video, camera and even text-messaging!

Touted as the ‘world’s simplest cellphone’, this contraption just jumps in the backward direction by two decades and tries to act smart. It is like the manufacturer’s are making fun of us, this goddamn phone can’t even save contacts and it provides us with pen and paper to write down our contacts. It doesn’t even have a screen and you know what it is priced at unbelievable Rs 5000 to Rs 7600 (depending on the kind of model we choose)!

Complete thumbs down to this idiotic product. If you really want to buy a similar phone go and check the new mobile offering by i-ball similar to the John’s phone called “Aasan”. Noobcentral thinks that it makes more sense to buy the i-ball one which is priced at Rs 3600 and offers some features like emergency calling for elderly people.

Check a full review on the John Doe one here:

http://www.engadget.com/2010/12/06/johns-phone-review-the-worlds-simplest-cellphone/

Check the i-ball one here:

http://www.iballmobiles.co.in/product_senior.php

BITE INTO THIS BEAT

I stumbled upon John Clellon Holmes’ 1952 article that appeared in the New York Times Magazine titled ‘This is the Beat Generation’ (http://www.litkicks.com/Texts/ThisIsBeatGen.html ). It could be because I was fishing for ideas that are driving our generation and where else would a noob fish, but Google. To my surprise, the “Beat” culture answered some of the most intriguing questions of all times: it fills the gap of understanding between society which was conformist and conservative and which later became increasingly promiscuous. Let’s begin…

‘I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness’ open Allen Ginsberg’s eulogy to an era in his poem, Howl (1955). A whole new ‘madness’ had swept a generation after T.S. Eliot had established that the early twentieth century suffered from a ‘loss of faith’. This generation was born from the lap of a moral sludge into what was called The Beat Generation. It was the Beat Generation that paved the way to the Hippie Culture that was so effervescent in the 60s and 70s.

The 1950’s saw an uprising in literature- a literary trend that was soon to become a cultural movement. Writers like Jack Karouac were central to the phenomenon. The Beat Generation capitalized on the ‘experience’ factor. A whole new raw sense of incorporating sex, drugs and alcohol- not in order to rebel- but in order to ‘experience’ something is what drove a generation amidst Capitalism. Karouac writes of America in his novel ‘On the Road’; deconstructing youth as people who wish to move out and travel, who feel a sense of independence and empowerment in questioning what is considered the norm and in effect, establishing their own brand of individuality.

Although these turn of events can be attributed to post-war (world war II) reactions which saw madness as a sane alternative to violence, and which stopped questioning human existence after a while, but rather fixated on how to enrich it- there was something more important that the generation achieved that was previously denied after the war: freedom. And so, though ‘beat’ can be read as weary and mowed down, it could also, as Karouac puts it, mean beatific.

 There was a no-holds bar approach to sexuality. Experience was accompanied by experiment- and the sexual experimentation of the age is written about in elaboration- there was an attempt to shake the order of things and as seen by all revolutions, this one met with a constant call for censorship too. Being bold, sometimes even gruesome, was part of the deal.  William S. Borroughs wrote ‘Naked Lunch’ in the 50s which is heavy-duty in obscene language. Writers deliberately inserted this to reinforce the crudity of the age.

Bob Dylan wrote ‘the order is rapidly fadin’/ and the first now will be later last’ in Times they are a-changing. Artists belonging to this crucial post-war, pre-Woodstock era help understanding the roots of liberated thought, where experiences define individuals; free thinking and the non-conformism being our most treasured inheritance. It helps contextualizing what you’re consuming, doesn’t it?

Ankita Kanwar

Know Your Metal: Metallica

-by Nishtha Kanal

The first thing that ANYONE who starts listening to a new genre wants to know is- (I asked peop..err, one person)  

a)      Who are the best guys to listen to in it? and

b)      What are the best songs to hear in the genre?

So after considerable thought (actually not even a teeny tiny bit) I decided to profile *drum-roll* my favouritest heavy metal/ thrash metal band Metallica and some of their songs I consider awesome.

‘Tallica was born 30 years ago after Lars Ulrich, the drummer posted an ad for people to jam with, and James Hetfield, lead man and guitarist answered it. Cutting a long story short, by 1982 the lineup included Cliff Burton, the epic bassist and Dave Mustaine on lead guitars.

During the production of ‘Kill ‘em All’, Mustaine was kicked out for God knows how many reasons. Spitting revenge he formed.  Megadeth (I think that was a ploy, because ‘Meg’ comes before ‘Met’ on the iPod.) Kirk Hammett took over the lead duties from Mustaine.

The foursome of Hetfield, Ulrich, Burton and Hammett went on to make some cult albums such as ‘Ride The Lightning’ and ‘Master of Puppets’ till one fateful night, the band’s bus skid over a patch of black ice and while everyone else escaped unscathed, Burton was killed when the vehicle fell over him.

So, Jason Newsted became the new bassist for the band, and the relationship lasted through albums like ‘... And Justice for All’, ‘Metallica’ (better known as The Black Album,) ‘Load’, ‘ReLoad’, ’Garage Inc.’ and ‘S&M’ (live with the San Francisco Symphony)

And just before getting into the studios to record St. Anger, Newsted quit because of differences with the band. While the band recorded the album in spurts owing to Hetfield’s stint in a rehab, producer Bob Rock filled in for the missing bassist. Robert Trujillo was selected to play bass after a long audition with several bassists. The band even filmed a documentary called ‘Some Kind of Monster’ around the recording of St. Anger.

This lineup went on to make Death Magnetic, the latest Metallica album that released in 2008.

Some of the must-hear tracks of Metallica

Disclaimer: This being in my opinion. You are free to add your favourite tracks in the comments section. Also, for convenience’s sake I’m listing the albums according to their release dates. Since the overall sound of the band goes from speed/ thrash in the 80’s to the heavy sound in the early 90’s, slightly bluesy in the late 90’s and back to heavy in the 2000’s. Therefore listen to a track off each album before judging)  

From Kill ‘Em All:

-          Whiplash

-          Seek and Destroy

-          The Four Horsemen

-          Anesthesia (Pulling Teeth) *for the sheer awesomeness of Cliff Burton on bass*

Ride the Lightning:

-         For Whom the Bell Tolls

-          Fade to Black (super epic)

-          Creeping Death

-          The Call of Ktulu

Master of Puppets:

-          Master of Puppets (duh! If  you haven’t heard this, you haven’t heard Metallica)

-          Battery

-          Orion

-          Leper Messiah

-          Basically the WHOLE album

…And Justice for All:

-          Blackened

-          To Live is to Die (a fitting tribute to Burton)

-          One

-          Harvester of Sorrow

The Black Album:

-          The whole album, pliss

Load:

-          Mama Said

-          Ronnie

-          King Nothing

-          Outlaw Torn (Attn. Boy/ Girl bands, Beiber lovers, et al: THIS is how a romantic number is to be written)

ReLoad:

-          Fuel

-          The Memory Remains

-          Fixxxer

-          Low Man’s Lyric

-          The Unforgiven II

Garage Inc:

-          It’s a cover album of older cult classics. Pick any one and yenjoi!

S&M:

-          The originals: - Human and No Leaf Clover

St. Anger:

-          Frantic

-          St. Anger

-          Some Kind of Monster

Death Magnetic:

-          The Day That Never Comes

-          Suicide and Redemption

-          All Nightmare Long

Phew, all this listing is exhausting work. Do let us know what you think about these tracks and the band in general. Drop us a comment otherwise too. 

-       

Why Fly When You Can Wi-Fi

You have probably heard somebody totting, a new super-cool Smartphone, boasting about its feature, talking about Wi-Fi. For all that you know he has no clue about Wi-Fi or how it is used. Let us try to decode this technology today.

Staying connected to the internet is increasingly becoming a pre-requisite for a lot of people nowadays. With the host of connectivity options, one can only believe that the adage world has become a smaller place after the advent of internet only becomes truer. So why fly to meet the client when you can video chat with them over Wi-Fi.

Wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) is a way to connect to the internet without the hassle of wires. Similar to a broadband modem (the boxy instrument which lets you set up your internet connection), a Wi-Fi connection also requires a wireless modem for your pc to send wireless signals which let you log onto your favorite websites. However, nowadays with the advent of powerful portable technologies like the laptops, netbooks and smartphones the wireless signals is sent from a Wi-Fi modem which is built into these devices.

The basic technology involved in sending wireless is radio waves similar to the ones used in mobile phone cellular networks. The only difference is that Wi-Fi transmits at frequencies of 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz. This frequency is considerably higher than the frequencies used for cell phones, walkie-talkies and televisions. 

The wireless router-wireless adapter technology works to connect to the internet. The wireless router transmits data received from the internet and converts them into radio signals which are received by the wireless adapter. Think of it as the manufacturer-wholesaler-consumer scenario. Manufacturer is the internet, the wholesaler is the wireless network and the consumer is you.

Wi-Fi is not the technical term but it is extensively used by the trade association Wi-Fi alliance to make it easier for computer technology. What this means is that the manufacturers who need to use Wi-Fi technology can use the branding for certified products.

You also may have seen terms like IEEE 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n which may have baffled you. IEEE 802.11 is nothing but a set of standards which is required to carry wireless communication over a computer network. 802.11 is the basic standard which was introduced in 2007. 802.11b, 802.11g and the others are all just amendments to these standards.  

To explain this easily let me give you an example. If you were to start a new coffee shop, let us call it IEEE 802.11 so at this coffee shop a set of standards is followed to make the coffee. Now you have started a chain of stores and these stores have the liberty to bring about amendments to the standards but not have a new set of standards. So coffee shop IEEE 802.11a has an amendment that they can add vanilla ice cream to the regular cold coffee, which is an amendment to making regular coffee as the set standards of the original coffee shop.

Please remember that securing your Wi-Fi connection is very important or else your wireless network may be used by some unwanted elements in the society to send terror emails without your knowledge.

To know about how to secure your Wi-Fi connection and other technologies, keep reading noobcentral.

Multitasking demystified (reference: Nokia Symbian)

If you are using a Nokia phone for the past 250 years, you probably know that the operating system (OS) preferred by the company is Symbian. This operating series has seen a lot of upheavals and now many iterations later the latest Symbian OS is series^3, which is used on the new crop of Nokia’s touch screen phones like the Nokia N8 (introduced) and C7.

Symbian phones are known to be multitasking experts (if the phone has the sufficient hardware for the same). Multitasking is nothing but using different applications at the same time and your phone breezes through the similar to your computer.

For example, you can work on your document, listen to music and keep your gallery running in the background all at the same time. What the phone does is it allocates resources to the running application and keeps the idle application in the background. Let me explain this with a real-life scenario, if the mother was watching television and the 2-year-old kid suddenly cries for milk, most of the times, the mother doesn’t put off the television to feed her baby. The television plays in the background. Here only the priorities have changed. This is the most basic form of multitasking.

Always remember computers were modeled around humans and only the human brain can bring further innovation in computers to create Smartphone, tablets, netbooks, laptops etc. The only downside is that we should not become the architects of our own destruction.

Until then keep reading into Noobcentral every alternate day to get the simplified version of your day-to-day technology.