Tensai Sensei

It's been almost 5 years since I started blogging. This is the 30th post being published. That means over the course of 5 years, I've written 6 posts per year. Although 30 is much less than I would have liked, this is one of those pet projects I have continued even after the honeymoon phase. Today I want take some time and discuss why I started this blog in the first place. I was in my 3rd year of engineering studies when I started out. I had already developed a keen interest towards programming and tech in general by then. Having a blog seemed liked a cool idea. There were couple of more reasons to go ahead with this idea. That's what we are here to discuss today. Setting up a blog seemed like a technically challenging task. I wanted to know how to setup a blog with comments, advertisements and with a custom domain. It sounded like a great way to acquire new skills and learn new things along the way. Back then I didn't know anyone who shared my enthusiasm for tech...

Okay, that was a clickbait. But this isn't much different than what we see on social networks these days. This post is not about JavaScript's elusive this keyword. This is about a pattern I see now-a-days; almost everyday. Social networks have had a big impact on our daily lives. It's how we keep in touch with our friends and family. It's how we follow the people we admire. And now more than ever, it's how we get our daily of dose news. The authenticity of that news is another topic. Today I'll focus on how that news is presented to us. But first check out these screenshots. Example 1 Example 2 Example 3 Example 4 Example 5 See anything in common? Sadly, this is how we see the headlines. More often than not the links are clickbaits or suffer from information withholding. This pattern is prevalent; be it Facebook or Twitter or Google News. In each instance, the publisher could have written the actual subject/topic in the headlines inst...

It's been a year since I published my post about the state of video streaming services in India (which can be found  here ). I wrote how media companies were trying to get a piece of that market. A lot has changed in a year. For starters, Hotstar has received a revamp and it works on my Kubuntu system now. Prime Video remains the best option for most people. Many more services have launched. Ozee has rebranded itself as Zee5. But a few things have stood the test of time. Netflix's pricing is as expensive as it was a year ago. Yes, that was sarcastic. Now there are lot of streaming services to choose from. Here's a list of some of the popular ones. Amazon Prime Video Hotstar Netflix YouTube Zee5 Eros Now Spuul Voot Hoichoi ALTBalaji Hooq JioCinema / JioTV Sony LIV YuppTV BIGFlix The list goes on and on. It is said that competition is good for the consumer. More the competition, more the aggressive pricing, more the benefit for the consumer. Just lo...

I have been a tech enthusiast for as long as I can remember. I love fiddling with the latest and greatest. So when the Amazon Echo line-up launched in India, I had to get my hands on one. I went for the smaller Echo Dot as I was not convinced of its usefulness. As It turned out, I was right. Another reason for buying the smallest of the bunch had to do with the sound quality. Time and time again reviewer kept saying that the Echo speakers sound average. So there wasn't any reason pay extra for a bigger speaker. I bought the Echo Dot for discounted price of ₹3,149.00. It came with 1 year Prime membership. Amazon Echo Dot The setup process was a big hassle. You need to install the Alexa app to set up your Echo device. The app is as bad as any other app from Amazon. It just wouldn't detect my Echo Dot. It took me about an hour to finish the setup. Once the setup was done, I started off with simple question like, how's th...

I had been using the OnePlus One since June 2015. My smartphone game was due for an update for some time now. For my next smartphone I wanted one with no compromises. This time I wanted a flagship, not a Flagship Killer. Here a list of features I wanted the OnePlus 5/5T to have. Processor: Don't care Memory: Don't care Storage: Atleast 128GB Front camera: Don't care Rear camera: Just match the Google Pixel (looking forward to that collaboration with DxO Labs) Headphone jack: Don't care (on the bottom if it's there) Speakers: Front facing stereo ones of course OS: Android O Durability: IP68 Charging capabilities: Dash Charging (V2 maybe?) and wireless charging Color: Midnight Black 😍 Screen: No higher than QHD Battery: At least 3500 mAh SIM slot: Don't care (although having 2 slot would be great) ...

Notifications on our smartphones are pretty common these days. Notifications are designed to provide the user with helpful information and alerts. For example, a reminder notification, an email notification, a download-in-progress notification. According to Google, Notifications provide short, timely, and relevant information about your app when it’s not in use. Source: Material Design | Notifications It's a useful feature offered by modern mobile operating systems. An average smartphone user gets many, many notifications each day. Some of 'em are useful, some of 'em are less so. Many are intruding in nature. The issue is that developers have started to abuse the notification framework. They are using notifications to serve ads and promotions which gets pretty annoying pretty quickly. These notifications are neither timely nor helpful. And almost none of apps allow you to opt out from this crap. The only thing you can do is block all notificat...

It's been about 2 years since online video streaming caught on in India. There were some services here and there that tried their hands on this format of content delivery. But nobody really nailed it. Nobody really pushed hard; they were just experiments. Not until Hotstar came into the scene. With the launch of Hotstar in 2015, thing started rolling. And now everybody wants a piece of these huge market. Here are my top 3 picks from the bevy of streaming services in India. Yes, my posts are biased! ( Video link ) As you go through the rest of the post, you will realize that this review isn't from a neutral standpoint. So in that sense this post is biased. Well, of course it is! The review is based on my experiences with the services. The devices I use had a lot to do with it. I use an OnePlus One running Cyanogen OS 13.1 and a Lenovo G50-80 running Ubuntu 16.04.3. With that out of the way, let's dive in! Amazon Prime Video Amazon Prime Video is the most affordabl...