Other day while going back from office I heard an advertisement (on FM) of Airtel presenting a service - “Airtel SongCatcher’ – India’s first instant music on mobile. This innovative service completely transforms the way mobile users can download songs of their choice.

The “Airtel SongCatcher”, enables subscribers to download a song by just dialling a 393, wait 30 seconds and holding the handset in front of the instrument playing the song, whether it is a TV set, laptop, music system or a cinema theatre. dial

The search costs the user Rs 2 and download costs Rs 20. The latter is roughly the same as downloading from Airtel’s music website, but the USP is that it is instant and caters to the user’s choice.

The Music Recognition Technology that enables this access to music is based on an algorithm that is capable of identifying patterns in music by matching voice frequencies. The ‘DNA’ of the requested song is matched with the 25,000 songs available on Hello Tunes and Airtel maintains that it is accurate to the point of distinguishing between the music and the chatting of a DJ or a reporter.

This process is a three-step procedure and a download can be completed within 30 seconds. In case the song requested is unavailable or there is a disturbance when the mobile phone was capturing the request, a regret message is sent to the user.

For more information visit Airtel site.

Here is an excellent video by http://childfriendly.org.au which shows how our actions make an impression on children and how their life gets impacted by each of our small action/reaction in front of them.

Very touching indeed !!

Its been two months since I joined my new company in Noida. Just an evening before my first day, I was searching on net for a carpool and I happen to find Bharati Hari who was also travelling from North Delhi to Noida. Infact he was staying very near to my house in Delhi University flats. The carpool was decided on phone at around 9pm on that very day and next morning I was at his place to drop me to my office. This carpool was really beneficial for both of us not only in terms of saving money but also having a nice company during one hour long journey on our way to office. It was really cool to travel with him though now he has left his current company and is travelling to US soon for his new job. I wish him all the very best for his new job.

Since the beginning of this week I am travelling on my own from my residence Kamla Nagar to Nodia Sec. 62.

If you or someone whom you know also happens to be on same route (North Delhi - Noida Sec62) and would like to pool in with me, please leave a comment or contact me on 9899190407.

What’s a Carpool? (from wikipedia)

Carpooling (also known as ride-sharing, lift-sharing), is shared use of a car, in particular for commuting to work, often by people who each have a car but travel together to save costs and in the interest of other socio-environmental benefits mentioned below. There are sometimes special facilities for carpoolers, including designated pick-up points and high-occupancy vehicle lanes which are also at time opened up to designated cars with multiple riders. Carpool projects have been around in fairly structured form going back to the mid-seventies, and in recent years have begun to make much more extensive use of the internet and software support systems. With the recent advent of mobile phones and SMS, there is a push to integrate these technologies into more flexible systems on the web. Ride sharing is an alternative to get to and connect with people at other large events, such as music festivals and conferences.

Carpools may be formed through word of mouth by friends and colleagues, or through online carpooling services. There is also another system, car sharing, which is often mistaken with carpooling.

Some carpool sites to register with:
Carpool in India/
Carpool - Delhi - Noida - Gurgaon
Carpoolworld

If you know of any nice carpool site, leave a comment.

If you are/were afraid of dissections during school/college, this site offers a virtual dissection of frog, owl pellet and squid. Go to demos and select one of these and you are ready to dissect. Should be fun for bio students and graduates.

Last week or so I made 3 posts which covered the details about launch of Maruti Zen Estilo : Live Webcast of Maruti Zen Estilo launch ; Estilo (MR Wagon) to be lauched in December ; Maruti to launch New Zen - MR Wagon

Finally Maruti has launched the new avatar of the Zen Estilo on 5th December 2006. The company had withdrawn the old Zen. The new Zen Estilo has been priced at Rs. 3.19 Lakh (ex-showroom Delhi price) for the base variant. The top end variant which is priced at over Rs. 4 Lakh offers convenience features like internally controlled rear-view-mirrors, speakers in all four doors and an option of advanced safety features such as ABS and Airbags.

The Zen Estilo is roomier than the original Zen, comes with a bigger engine (1061 cc Wagon R engine) delivering 64 bhp and fuel economy of around 14-16 in the city. It is taller, offers more boot space and superior air conditioning. The Zen Estilo is available in 8 colours, some of the interesting and newer ones are Purple Fusion, Champagne Beige, Virgin Blue and Olive Green.