Scroogled? Not cool Microsoft, you have let your fans down

Guest Raman — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 05:21:59 +0000

Summers are here again. The advent of summers also means a sharp increase in consumption of water in every household. Let us assume seeing this increase of water consumption at home, you wish to purchase a new water purifier. After doing your primary research, you zeroed in to two brands- Kent and Aquaguargd. Both Kent and Aquaguard are respected names in the business in India and also have good brand image apart from very good products. So you go to authorized dealers of both the brands so that you can decide on which product to buy and make the purchase. You first go to the store of one of the two brands; they show their product, tell you the features and give all other details. Now you go to the competitor brand store showroom and they start off saying- “the other company’s purifier is a pathetic product. It doesn’t purify your water completely which gives you a stomach ache….” What if such a thing happened? Something very similar is happening between Microsoft and Google- two market giants and it is getting ugly- the website scroogled.com is a running testimony of this. Go to Scroogled.com and amuse yourself. You will get tabs saying “Home” “Get the facts” “how they do it” and “our position”. Then there is one big notice with a warning sign, saying “Google shares your personal information with app makers”. Then you get “watch video to see how you get scroogled”. But the worst of it all comes just below this on the page- you have two buttons for “Set Bing as homepage” and “explore windows phone”!! This? Appalling. I don’t know why, but I have a very strong suspicion that the word “scroogled” has been made by combining the words- screw and googled. As bizarre and pathetic as it sounds, I have this suspicion. To start with, though I am not sure, I believe that there could well be some truth in the facts. Google does have a lot of my private information and I do click on a lot of “I agree” buttons without paying much of an attention to its contents. You can’t get a single cool stuff in your cell phone without having to agree once. And that probably is the source of the stunt that Microsoft has pulled. A good or at least ethical sales man sales man tries to sell his product by telling the features and benefits of his product and hence putting his product in a light brighter than the competitors- not by pulling the competitors down. Some might say what if there was actually some fault in the product that the customer deserves to know? Fair enough. In such a case, the salesman needs to be subtle and responsible. He is in possession of information that can affect another person if not divulged- he should politely reveal the information in a dignified manner- maybe he could also ask the customer to check on his own because he is not too sure. What he should certainly not do is, making that information a sales tool- because it makes a rather cheap sales tool. It reeks of desperation. With this website, Microsoft is behaving like a kid- a kid who had an ice cream cone and was very happy with it till the time she saw another kid with a larger ice cream cone and she started crying. It will not be surprising if this strategy of Microsoft boomeranged into them. This may well send a message that Microsoft is so much frustrated with a decline in their sales that they have resorted to a cat fight in Public Domain. Whatever may be the consequences, such an act is not expected from any respected firm- least from a market leader and industry giant. Not cool Microsoft, you have let your fans down. About the Author: Pranjal Srivatsava is a mechanical engineer from NIT Jamshedpur, who loves books and likes to see life through his own applied laws. Regular writer and contributor at GingerChai Networks, his other articles can be read at GingerChai.com His love for good food, books and writing keep him balance the rigorous demands of the corporate world. ]]>

Diablo 3 – review: A sequel worth the long wait!

Guest Raman — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 21:48:57 +0000

Guest post by Joseph Eapen, an avid gamer since 1991 and a professional CG artist. Diablo III, the game that fans have been waiting for since the release of Diablo II about 12 years ago finally hits market. It’s one of the trump cards in a list of epic franchises owned by Blizzard Entertainment. Personally I had never played Diablo 2 until I heard about Diablo 3 and the sheer number of my friends who ordered it. As I work in the CG industry and travel a bit around, I have friends from around the world. At least 80% of these people pre-ordered the game before its release and 5% bought it out of the sheer peer pressure of all t he friends who were playing it. I would be part of the 5% and I am happy that I was. So to say the least the review is going to be quite unbiased. One thing that you have to keep in mind is that even though Diablo can be played a single player game to start the game internet connectivity is a must. So if you are living in a cave and do not have access to the internet please don’t get this one. But I am sure if you were living in a cave you wouldn’t be reading this review either. I bought the game the day it was released. And the first message I saw was that servers were full. It took me 2 hours of waiting to get in. most of my friends and colleagues took a 2 days off on the day it was released to get through the game once which I guess must have brought the productivity of the world down by a tiny fraction .

As far as the story goes, it picks up on the story twenty years after the events of Diablo II. Mephisto, Diablo, and Baal have been defeated, but the Worldstone (a magical stone that apparently stopped the power of some humans who are called the nefelheim as humans are a mix of angels and demons and are not restricted), which once shielded the inhabitants of the world which they call sanctuary from the forces of both Heaven and Hell, has been destroyed, and evil once again stirs in Tristram. And yes I read up on the lore… and I would recommend that you read it first if you are jumping into Diablo 3 without playing any of its prequels. You get to play from a choice of 5 distinct character classes.

Barbarian- brute strength and vitality kind of like a tank in MMOS.
Witch Doctor- kind of like a summoner, who summons different creatures to do his bidding
Demon Hunter- is like an archer thief class in MMOS. High agility low defence and fast attacks
Wizard- who has a range of attack and defensive spells that bring chaos into the battlefield
Monk- is kind of like a hybrid of an assassin and a healer and a tank.

Players get to loot powerful items and get spells and abilities on level up as they explore new and familiar areas of Sanctuary and battle shitloads of demons and monsters to save the world from the horrors that are rising. And yes the story is kind of cliché. I being one of those gamers who obsess about a good story still enjoyed the cliché good and evil story due to the occasional breath taking blizzard cinematics. Even when the story failed to grab me, the loot system kept me hooked as it was like gambling in a casino. Each time u blasted an enemy with a skill that rips the flesh from their bones the physics is just breathtaking, but the loot that spurs into the air excites you more as the items are graded and are so random. Some items are so rare that out of all the friends of mine who have been playing countless hours didn’t get it yet. No matter how many times it happens I still find it exiting every time. Some items have their stats revealed immediately, but when a yellow item (a bit rare) drops and you have to wait to identify it which gives u the thrill of a lottery. Besides you also get to sell these items in town in the game. You can sell it for gold in the gold auction house. Soon they will be also adding real money auction houses were when you get a super rare drop u can sell it for real cash. All these make it more exiting. I went through Diablo 3 with my friends and totally enjoyed the ride. But the ride is not over when you finish it once. As your characters can still run through multiple difficulties to level up before they release a PvP (Player Versus Player) patch. The more you play the more chances you have to get a rare drop and be strong enough to fight in PvP. It’s kind of like an addiction. So you better not get it if you are preparing for an exam. But that being said since there is no subscription fee for battlenet (online gaming service for Diablo), the initial 60 US$ is totally worth it. Another good thing about Diablo is the fast learning curve whether you are an expert or a beginner it’s an easy game to pick up. Me being an excessive MMO gamer have a good gaming rig with a razor naga elite mouse and a projector to play the game in 110 inch HD glory. But whether played in a big screen or small the games requirements are not that high. If you are one of the rich kids (everyone I think are kids at heart) in town I would suggest you get the collector’s edition which comes with some great loot! Though the price scared me off. All in all Diablo 3 is a fun game to play all yourselves but a totally double fun game to play with friends with a visual beauty of its own and physics like none other, the balanced character system and the nonstop action will keep u at the edge of your seat every time you play it. Altogether it’s a fun game to play and explore and I think it lives up to its name.

Diablo 3 – Rating

Learning curve- really easy. Graphics -8/10 Sound -9/10 Game play – 10/10 Story -6/10

System requirements for Diablo 3

WINDOWS MAC Windows® XP/Vis/ ta/7 (latest service packs) with DX 9.0c Mac® OS X 10.6.8, 10.7.x or newer Intel Pentium® D 2.8 GHz or AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 4400+ Intel® Core 2 Duo NVIDIA® GeForce® 7800 GT or ATI Radeon™ X1950 Pro or better NVIDIA® GeForce® 8600M GT or ATI Radeon™ HD 2600 or better 1 GB RAM (XP), 1.5 GB (Vista/7) 2 GB RAM 12 GB available HD space 12 GB available HD space DVD-ROM (required for retail disc versions only) DVD-ROM (required for retail disc versions only) Broadband** Internet connection Broadband** Internet connection 1024×768 minimum resolution 1024×768 minimum resolution Note: Be advised that some wireless connections do not meet the minimums required to be a true Broadband internet connection. Wireless results may vary. Recommended System Requirements WINDOWS MAC Windows® Vista/7 (latest service packs) Mac® OS X 10.7.x or newer Intel® Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz or AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 5600+ 2.8 GHz Intel® Core 2 Duo 2 GB RAM 2 GB RAM NVIDIA® GeForce® 260 or ATI Radeon™ HD 4870 or better NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 330M or ATI Radeon™ HD 4670 or better]]>

Guest Raman – Tech Raman

Scroogled? Not cool Microsoft, you have let your fans down

Diablo 3 – review: A sequel worth the long wait!

Diablo 3 – Rating

System requirements for Diablo 3