The gist:

• Test driven on Sunday October 4th.

• Driven home from the dealer’s on Saturday October 17th.

Bought a new silver Honda Civic 1.8 S MT!

And like the marketing slogan claims “It drives you”, yes, it does drive me.

I also test drove the Toyota Corolla Altis a week before the Civic and even though the Altis is Rs. 1 lakh cheaper and has more stuff (better value-for-money) I got the Civic because it was more spacious inside, the ride was more comfortable (parents liked it) and, of course, it handled better and was way more fun to drive – especially the free/high revving engine.

With some post-test rumination I think the latent Honda fanboy in me started to awaken as I recalled Honda’s rich tech heritage such as ASIMO, their green initiatives and their “Big Bang” racing tech during the old days of Moto GP’s Michael Doohan on his NSR500.

It’s got an alphabet soup of technologies/features like the iVTEC engine, EPS (electrically assisted hydraulic power steering), SRS airbags, ABS/EBD/BA (electronic brake-force distribution with brake-assist), CD/MP3/AAC/WMA/USB/iPod audio input, power mirrors/windows and the fantastic instrument cluster with a digital speedometer looks not like a jet fighter cockpit as many have said but more like that of a spacecraft!

It handles well on Indian roads with low roll during moderate speed sweeping turns and the suspension soaks up rough patches for a comfortable ride while still being stiff enough to enjoy brisk driving.

The iVTEC engine gives excellent mileage (12.2 kmpl during Pune office rush hour traffic if you keep it at low RPMs (2000 plus/minus 500) on higher gears, about 14 kmpl during weekend brisk driving with less traffic) but I’ve yet to measure during the peak summer months when the AC will be on full time and will wait to take it on the highways until the engine break-in period of 1000 km is completed. Of course, jab the throttle a little more urgently and the variable valve timing kicks in for added thrust – enough to put a smile on your face. And I haven’t even started to approach the 6750 rpm redline just upto 3000 or so until the running-in is over and done with.

To get an idea of the performance during my weekend drive around the city: 3rd gear @ 2000 rpm = 45 kmph, 4th gear @ 2000 rpm = 60 kmph, 5th gear @ 2000 rpm = 80 kmph and 5th gear @ 2500 rpm = 100 kmph! Top speed must be over 200 kmph I’m guessing.

The standard music system is apparently an Alpine and has 4 speakers plus 2 tweeters and has very good clarity. I’m not an audiophile and others have said the tweeter is harsh high treble and dull bass due to the panels being plastic rather than fabric/board. But good enough for me.

It’s got a few other nifty little features like auto-lock when you cross 15 kmph, a security system with internal ultra-sonic sensors and some trippy blue ambient lighting.

Didn’t have a digital camera so rushed out and bought a Sony CyberShot DSC-WX1 to take these pics:

http://picasaweb.google.com/vishalrao/NewHondaCivic18SMT

Also check out a couple of HD videos – make sure you turn up the volume and click the HD button!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fldpFM6qXKs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpEz6DFHPxE

Here’s some notes I’d penned down about the test drive:

So, the Honda guy showed up at 10am with a silver Civic V-MT. As the car rolled up to our gate and idled I immediately noted the car had a deeper/smoother exhaust note/rumble making it *sound* more powerful than the Altis.

Getting in and out (ingress/egress) was surprisingly effortless for the driver’s and rear passengers’ seats even though I’ve heard the Civic is relatively lower slung. Confirmed with my mom n dad who complain about many cars but not about this one (phew).

First things first, adjusted the steering and driver’s seat for max space and there was way more legroom/comfort for driver and rear passenger.

Then I just sat there for a while looking around at the interiors. I’m sorry but the quality “trim level” looks and feels a significant notch above the Altis especially the steering wheel wrapping (claimed to be leather) which was a little softer (but not too soft) and had better grip although it might just be synthetic/polyeurethane/whatever.

Not to mention the instrument cluster, which, as it’s been repeated before by others, is futuristic with the digital readouts except for the tachometer which is just the way I like it! It’s been called a “cockpit” before and yes you do get that feeling and no, its not like the cockpit of a jet fighter as most of them say, its more like that of a spacecraft with that trippy blue glow!

I started to play with the electronically retractable mirrors (opening and closing them) with images of ASIMO and Kraftwerk’s “The Robots” playing in my head when the Honda guy asked whether I was going to start the test drive this year or what. Yes, I need to grow up.

Starting the engine was quicker and less “jarring” than the Altis. I revved the engine up to 4000 rpm but really could not see/judge what people mean by “Civic has a more free-revving engine”. The Altis’ engine revved just as freely (responsiveness) but then I’d tested it a week ago so no chance of a back-to-back as is usually recommended one should do. I should note that just as the car arrived it started to rain a little and by the time I started the engine and drove on it was pouring so the noise of the rain might have spoilt it for me.

I drove along the Pune-Sholapur road (near KROME mall) and also took it over the B. T. Kawade road flyover. The Honda guy was friendly and “bindaas” when I asked if I may drive it “a little fast” he smiled and said “go right ahead”. With the rains and traffic I wasn’t able to go past 60 kmph but it was more about the “ripping” (acceleration) than the top speed. That too I hesitated to take it past 4000 rpm even though I was tempted to redline it but stopped myself partially out of courtesy and partially because I was chicken. Yes, the engine note is more satisfying than the Altis but both sound like pretty much standard inline-4s, if you want smooth you need a V6. Unfortunately, try as I might I was not able to recognise the “free revving sporty engine noise” again maybe due to the rain noise. Low-end pull was “good enough for me” – again I was unable to judge what people say that the Toyota has better low-end bhp/torque – I think they’re just saying that because the printed tech specs show it to be about 300 rpm lower. I was stoked by the description of the VTEC “dual mode” blah operation I’d read on a forum/wikipedia.

Now here’s something I know the Honda guy never before in his life saw a test driver do – “pick up speed then downshift the gears to slow down” – he gave me a worried stare like I going to seize up his beloved VTEC so I told him what “engine braking” was about. Surprisingly this was more fun than trying to rev it up, at least during the test drive, especially down the flyover. I don’t plan to do this on a regular basis coz I dont know how modern engines will react over the long term.

Suspension seemed as “stiff” as the Altis, yet it seemed to soak up the bumps and vibrations much better. I don’t have too much hope that this car will be a good handler but I don’t usually drive it that way – no fast/sharp turns – for me its the grunt/overtaking that matters more – at least in a car meant to be used for daily commutes.

In comparison the Altis felt like a smaller/lighter car, almost toyish, and the engine revved more noisily and sounded plainer (like a Maruti haha) too. The Civic’s throttle is a little firmer – just enough “tension” to not make me nervous like the Altis’ feather-light pedal and I had no problem modulating the RPMs during the test drive, especially when starting off from a standstill. The Civic’s gear lever is like a stub with no grip/handle you have to pretty much use your fingers rather than grab the whole thing – it could have been more meaty. The notches were also finer/closer like a Maruti 1000 and the first few times I shifted from 2nd to 5th missing 3rd but adjusted and got a hang of it quickly during the TD itself. I was so trying to focus on the engine (and enjoying the test drive) that I forgot a few things like checking steering feedback – it’s a little heavier than the Altis’ ultra-light-and-easy steering – and the way I’d like it.

Music system is (speakers are) of a “good quality” – now let me qualify that by saying I’m no audiophile – but before listening to it I’d thought I would need to add a subwoofer but now it looks like even that’s not needed for me.

This time I didn’t allow my folks to accompany me during the main TD because they wouldn’t stop chattering the last time and let me concentrate. This time I asked the Honda guy to drive (after I’d done my TD) while my mom and I sat in the back and he took my dad for a third outing while he sat in the back. This time got the thumbs-up from them that the back was plenty spacious and the ride was comfortable.

The Honda guy was quite knowledgeable, cooperative and enthusiastic the entire time so that was another thing that impressed me and my folks and we noted that when he went on his way.

So in the end, I only took a test drive of the Altis last week because it’s “cheaper and better equipped” than the Civic and also many user reviews claim it’s as good (if not better) a car. I have to say its just plain incorrect, the Civic is well worth the extra cost, and not just from a “driving enthusiast” point of view but also from other aspects like the feel of luxury and build quality (its like a segment above) and the roomy interiors. I just remembered I didn’t open the Civic’s boot – the Altis’ was like a cargo truck – but it’s not important to me and I’m guessing it will be smaller given the longer wheelbase and roomy rear legroom. If Honda’s range and cost of vehicles were closer to Toyota’s (like if they added an Innova competitor) then they (Toyota) would have to pack up their bags and shut their India operations.

I’m now totally smitten with the Civic’s looks and performance and this is the car to get. Only if it doesn’t work out will I bother to move on to testing others like the Cedia, City and Fiesta. This would be a very nice upgrade from the dull (and sometimes painfully annoying) daily Palio ride that I’ve had to endure for a few years now.

I voted for the first time a few months ago to elect an MP. On Tuesday October 13th voting was for MLAs and I voted again. The first time I cast my vote for an independent which I now feel was a waste. This time around I voted for Congress. Not because I wanted to vote for the party or for the local candidate. I voted for Rahul Gandhi, son of late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

Indelibly Inked.

I’ve decided to start voting now so that my vote contributes to the party’s strength and popularity which in turn should serve as a foundation for young Rahul if and when he chooses to run for PM. I am hoping in about ten years’ time this will become a reality. Obama’s victory in the US with his “Yes We Can” battle cry has inspired me where just a few years ago I would avoid politics like the plague. I believe since Rahul has lived and studied abroad from a very young age and has the backing of the Gandhi dynasty he has the best chance to infuse a global mindset into the current sorry political landscape, not to mention his youth icon status which could inspire more of us out there. Sure there are criticisms – there is deep corruption at all levels of public and private enterprise – but one can hope. So, ten years is what I’m going to be looking along to see how things turn out for the world’s largest (and very peaceful) democracy. Wherever you are, I hope you too will consider exercising your right to be heard via your vote, if you think like I did just a little while ago. Your vote counts and can make a difference – so please do cast your vote whenever you can.

I’d been using this multi-protocol chat program called Miranda which is for Windows and is open source. It has a nice plugin called “Webaware” which allows you to store your current chat status on your website so you can display it on your webpages.

Recently another piece of open source software which is also cross platform called GAIM was renamed to Pidgin and got a lot of publicity so I thought to try it out. It’s a fun/cute program and I decided to move to it especially since the same program works on Windows as well as Linux. The only problem was that there wasn’t (or I couldn’t find) a similar plugin as Miranda’s Webaware which was a bummer for me.

So I tried to write a Pidgin plugin myself which would do the same work as the Miranda Webaware plugin. I thought why not just make it open source, and thus came about my first bit of GPL code! I’d previously never really done programming at home, just at work, and as Larry Augustin (VA Linux Systems founder) said in the movie Revolution OS I felt that tremendous sense of empowerment working with open source :-)

It feels good being able to easily download powerful software to which you have access to the source code. I started off by reading the C plugin HOWTO and using the helloworld.c plugin as a guide to write my own plugin called webaware.c. I later needed an easy way to do FTP uploads of my chat status data and someone suggested I use cURL library which I indeed found to be useful. The compilation was failing for me and I quickly realised I needed to provide double-quotes to the echo calls in the lib’s MinGW32 makefile and off it went.

I had earlier compiled the plugin on openSUSE Linux which came with all the tools already. This week I thought to try compiling on Windows to test that it worked on both platforms. This involved downloading software such as Cygwin, MinGW and a bunch of others which is really a pleasure to not be restricted by “free” versions or the prohibitive costs of commercial tools.

I get to do fun stuff at work but it’s been a blast actually working with open source at home. The plugin resides at http://lahsiv.net/code/ , and as they say, “it works for me” ™ !

Well, Happy Diwali!

On the slashfilm blog we have a list of the twenty most anticipated movies of next year.

They are:

1. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
2. The Dark Knight (Batman Begins 2)
3. National Treasure: Book of Secrets
4. American Gangster
5. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
6. Iron Man
7. I Am Legend
8. Get Smart
9. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
10. Charlie Wilson’s War
11. Hancock
12. Beowulf
13. His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass
14. Mamma Mia!
15. The Incredible Hulk
16. Speed Racer
17. Step Brothers
18. Bee Movie
19. Mr. Magnorium’s Wonder Emporium
20. Starship Dave

For me it’s Narnia 2 and Beowulf :-)

There was an e-mail posted to a mailing list I’m subscribed to which asked for server co-location options in India. The poster mentioned a Reliance executive claimed that TRAI (India’s telecom regulatory authority) was controlling the minimum sale price of bandwidth!

I haven’t been able to locate any sources (TRAI website, PDFs etc.) to confirm whether or not this is true, but if it is then it’s a shame, and a shock to me, that TRAI is the cause of India’s currently poor broadband situation.

The poster mentioned the Reliance executive also stated that they would have done for the broadband market what they and other telecom companies have done for the mobile telephony market, which is vibrant competition and dirt cheap prices.

On the other hand, I have the impression (not from personal experience, but from others’) that you simply cannot rely on Reliance, so the executive’s claim may not be true.

Another person on the mailing list, in reply to my follow-up questions, suggested that even though TRAI may not be explicitly controlling minimum pricing, their narrow-minded licensing policies, which has entry fees and a percentage of revenues as license fees among other things, serve as a barrier for providers reducing bandwidth prices and spurring the growth and adoption of broadband in India to be on par with international levels.

A bunch of new GNU/Linux distributions’ releases are coming up and will coincide with my plans to buy a new desktop and a new tablet PC for home use.

OpenSuse 10.3 is coming October 4th, Ubuntu 7.10 (codename: Gutsy Gibbon) is coming October 18th and Fedora 8 is coming November 8th. I plan to install and play with each one and decide on which distro to settle. My current preference is Ubuntu even though I like KDE better than GNOME. I’m currently running Ubuntu “Gutsy” Beta on my home desktop and “Feisty Fawn” (Ubuntu 7.04) on my work desktop and am very impressed with things.

Each of these three “distros” will offer the option of a single Live-CD based installation with either GNOME or KDE, so you’re spoiled for choice here.

On top of that, soon I’ll be buying an HP Pavilion “ultra portable” tablet PC (model tx1201au or tx1218au) which comes with Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit. With Vista SP1 coming soon, with all it’s performance and reliability fixes, it should be fine for my mom and aunt to work with.

The tablet PC’s specs are AMD Turion 64 X2 dual-core 1.8 GHz CPU, 2 GB RAM, 160 GB Hard Disk, Lightscribe DVD writer, 12.1 inch touchscreen LCD at 1280 x 800 resolution, onboard nVidia GeForce Go 6150 video (runs AERO Glass), Fingerprint reader, Webcam and Altec Lansing speakers.

Sometime early next year, in the January to April timeframe, I’ll be buying a new desktop PC for home. The specs I’m thinking about are a quad-core CPU: Intel’s Core 2 Quad Q6600 or AMD’s new Phenom X4 if it’s price/performance is comparable to the 2.4 GHz Q6600, 2 GB RAM, 200-300 GB Hard Disk, DVD writer, 19 inch LCD at 1280 x 1024 and maybe an NVidia GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB video card. I really want to get Dell’s 24 inch widescreen LCD at 1920 x 1200 “full HD” resolution but I can’t justify the expense, even to myself :-) I plan to purchase Windows Vista Ultimate Edition, which should hopefully be cheaper than it is now and come with SP1 by then, and dual-boot it with Linux; probably Ubuntu 8.04 codenamed: Hardy Heron!

Then there’s my five year old Sony VAIO laptop which I plan to flatten (reformat the hard disk) and will try to triple-boot with the Fedora, OpenSuse and Kubuntu betas and use it as a test machine. It’s a P4 1.6 GHz, 512 MB RAM, 30 GB Hard Disk, discrete ATI Radeon Mobilty M7 with 32 MB video RAM, DVD-reader/CD-writer combo drive and a beautiful 16.1 inch LCD at 1600 x 1200. I just have to get it repaired because the RAM slots are loose (doesn’t detect one of the 256 MB RAM chips sometimes) and the battery needs to be replaced.

After all this, if I’m not totally broke and penniless, I might get a Pocket PC mobile phone (O2, HTC or i-mate) after Microsoft releases the next version of Windows Mobile which is codenamed Photon I believe.

So, yes, it’s a computer hardware and software bonanza for me in the coming months and I drool just thinking about these plans!

edit:

There was a Slashdork post today about the best mobile platform for the hobbyist developer, which points to this blog post which concludes that Windows Mobile SDK is good.

edit:

Added webpages of my Linux tests on my desktop and HP Pavilion tx1302au tablet PC.

I’ve just got a couple of things to mention here:

MS is campaigning for it’s OOXML (Office Open XML) file format to become an ISO standard. I believe India recently voted (or plans to vote) against it. I too think it (the format not the vote) sucks, I hope OpenOffice’s ODF (OpenDocument Format) becomes popular and MS is eventually forced to support it and, who knows, maybe even drop OOXML . See http://ooxmlisdefectivebydesign.blogspot.com/

I’ve been a fan of Windows since Windows 95 (can’t say the same for their other software) and I also think Windows Vista was released before it was ready. There are so many issues cropping up such as this network-slowdown-with-audio-playback problem. I’m just waiting for Service Pack 1 to be released which I hope will improve quality. I’m encouraged by things such as this awesome blog post by Mark Russinovich who’s the guy that brought us the SysInternals tools and is now working for MS. People like Mark keep me believing that not all MS employees are retards that just like to spread anti-Linux and anti-FOSS FUD.

I’d like to time my purchase of a new desktop and/or laptop/tablet PC with Vista being stable enough.

A number of posts on blogs and tech sites today;

Microsoft has mentioned that Linux and other FOSS infringes upon over 200 of their patents. CEO Steve Ballmer has broached the subject earlier as well.

Are they preparing to sue Linux/FOSS users for royalties/licensing fees to earn additional revenue?

I wonder what will be the response of various governments and OSS friendly companies should Microsoft go on the offensive.

I hope any evil plans Microsoft has end up like SCO’s :)

See Scobleizer and Engadget

PS: Microsoft’s “Live” branding, especially when spelled backwards, is “Evil” !

PPS: Here’s a post that says Microsoft is not going to sue…

News of the impending ban of hand-pulled rickshaws (on humanitarian grounds) in the city of Kolkata (Calcutta) in India appeared on local cable news channels. It’s a bill in the West Bengal state assembly.

Can you imagine? We’re in the twenty first century and we still have this around.

The online article is here.

Why do I keep breaking my promise to myself to avoid watching Bollywood (Hindi) movies? When will I learn that pretty much every one of these movies I’ve seen has plagiarised content? And the ones I’ve watched and/or don’t know about… well, I don’t know yet whether or not they’re rip-offs.

Take a look at BollyCat heheh. I used to watch Hindi movies as a kid but promised myself to stop after I started realising most of these were flimflam poppycock. Nowadays I’m starting to think that just because nobody has claimed a movie is a cheap imitation, it doesn’t mean it isn’t! It probably is, and might be discovered a while later. Tip: BollyCat has a pending cases section with more names of the guilty. Or should I say presumed innocent until proven guilty?

(I’ll try to omit any spoilers from here on….)

I met some old college buddies at a movie theatre where we watched Taxi Number 9 2 11 and this movie turned out to be a “420“. (420 isn’t that cannabis thing here). I’d seen some clips and music videos from the movie on TV before and thought this looked like a rip-off of Collateral because of the protagonists; one wearing a white suit and the other being a taxi cab driver. I asked if the guy in the white suit was a hitman and/or was being driven around town by the taxi cab driver and was told no. So I thought I would watch the movie to see if I could catch anything.

While watching the movie I didn’t “recognise” the plot/storyline. The guy in the white suit isn’t a hitman, is involved with the taxi cab driver because they have an accident, he loses his key to a bank vault which has his deceased father’s will and testament leaving him a fortune, and the driver won’t give it back to him. After watching the movie I could easily make out a scene taken off Changing Lanes, where the two are alongside each other in different cars on the road, one shows the other a tyre nut spanner, a wheel falls off the other guy’s car and he crashes. I only recalled the scene was from a Ben Affleck and Samuel L. Jackson movie and couldn’t remember the name, so looked it up on IMDB and lo-and-behold, the entire plot/storyline was an inspiration here :-)

This is when I had a “Q.E.D” (a-ha!) moment and renewed my vow to myself: avoid watching Bollywood like it’s a solar eclipse.

I think the modus operandi these days is to lift the “look and feel” from some movies and swipe scenes from some other movies, and they should be flops and/or oldies so that gullible moviegoers realise later they got swindled out of their money. Another recent hit which friends and family were recommending and thankfully I didn’t watch was Bluffmaster, just the gist of the movie made me suspect it was taken off Matchstick Men, and the online/newspaper movie reviews thought so too. I liked the “right here right now” video from the movie though.

Don’t get this wrong, I do think most Hollywood (like 95%, if you want a number) movies also are bunk. I classify the remaining 5% as “worth paying for watching in a cinema when released” and “only worth watching when it eventually shows up on cable TV”.

I keep an eye on Apple’s movie trailers site and Yahoo! Movies’ coming soon site. 2006 is looking like a good year for Hollywood with some interesting movies coming up, not necessarily blockbusters but they fall into the two categories of those 5% I’d like to watch:

The Da Vinci Code, Firewall, The Good Shepherd, The Omen, A Scanner Darkly, Mission Impossible 3, Cars, Superman Returns, X-Men 3, Miami Vice, Bean 2 to name a few.