I never knew good had buried so many products already. It doesn’t matter anyways, I haven’t heard about most of them, so thank god i don’t need to find alternatives like for Google reader.The Google graveyard is really very big and I can say, it will only grow. 
via Marco
Its been over 6 months since I bought the Sennheiser Adidas CX 680i Sports Headset
Some background
If you are a regurlar here at my site you would know that I’m a cyclist and and my primary phone is an iPhone. Since the apple ear phones were almost onto their end of life last July, I started looking for ear phones. My requirements were very specific as follows.
With these criteria in mind and kind of products available in the market in India, I finally narrowed on the Sennheiser Adidas sports series. Luckily there was a CX 680i which was the model I liked. It suited my needs.I think it has been discontinued and the newer ones are called 685 series.
The HeadSet
I chose the in ear headphones not that I am big fan of those but because they suit the cyclist with a helmet .
The Headset is really very light and you dont feel a thing when they are in your palm. It is about 15gms i beleive. Not that i wanted something heavier, I just mentioned it coz, you dont feel a thing on a ride and thats great.
The audio quality is simply brilliant. These ear phones have redefined the way I prefer to listen music these days. May be its just me, probably these were the first time I heard such high quality audio on a good headset. Nevertheless its totally worth the price. The headphones are quite balanced I must say, Over the past 6 months I’ve heard all types of music and it delivers on all kinds of music consitently, unlike dr dre beats which prefer a lot of bass in the music.
The Ear adapters are pretty flush and come in three sizes, Small, medium and Large. I use a medium. It just needs a bit of getting used to, then they just disappear. If you are already used to in ear headphones, it wont take really long. Now i literally feel nothing in my ears even after i plug the headphones in the earphones. The Music just flows.
I must say there is a more noise cancelation especially at high volumes than you would have thought there will be. I really wasnt concerned of noise cancelation at all given that I would prefer hear the horn sounds of vehicles behind me on the road than get ridden over by the vehicles. The noise cancelation is pretty good when you are in bus/ train on your commutes. On the bike I just keep the volume a bit low so that I can hear vehicles behind.
The cables are really long and helps me when i am riding with my iphone on the jersey pockets.
The headset survived a crash I had like a week after I bought them, though there are cosmetic damages, the functionality is still perfect. The crash was so bad that i had to stay off the bike for almost 25 days. you can see the plastic scraped off near the mic(small hole) while I went flying at around 30 odd kmph due to a pinch cut. 
. May be i got lucky it survived, but i must say these will last a year or more with normal use. Have used it in all sorts of sweaty environments and have never had any issues with the ear phones what so ever.
The only thing I hate about them is that they came in a flurescent yellow colour which is not my choice at all.Its a compromise I made considering the value of the ear phones. I looked at the newer models from the series and i must say the Sennheiser CX 685 Adidas Sports In-Ear Headphones
As much as I would love to hear feedback on the posts here, i am sad to say comments will be turned off starting today. Given the time I spend moderating and clearing spam, i thought it was worthwhile to turn it off and use the time to do more for the site. This does not mean you cant share your feedback. Only the ways and means are different.
I would be very thankful if you could share your feed backs in ways which Matt uses on his site. In his words below
I want to make it clear that this isn’t a means to discourage conversation; indeed, I hope the opposite is true. If you read something here, and want to reply, please do one of the following, in order of preference:
Write a response on your own blog. Considered, long-form follow-ups by an identifiable, accountable person are the ultimate form of feedback and discussion. I’d love to read what you have to say. Let me know about it via email or a tweet.
Reply on Twitter. If your thoughts are brief, send a public tweet to my Twitter account (@mattgemmell). This is what most people do already anyway, and it tends to automatically invite others into the conversation too. There’s a little blue ‘Tweet’ button at the bottom of every article on this blog.
Email. I discourage this (I get a lot of email, and I think that the vast majority of replies to published articles should themselves be public), but it’s available as an option; my contact info is on my About page.
I look forward to continuing the conversation with you.
So please feel free to share your thoughts and feedbacks by any of the above mentioned ways. I am @simplysaru on twitter (app.net too) or email me at saru-at-simplysaru.com. BTW please read his entire post, especially if you are considering to turn off comments on your site.
Its about the tiny connections we make and how fearless, open and truthful you are makes the relation between us and unknown people work. Ive always been surprised by how much unknown people help each other especially in my cycling fraternity. As much as they are strangers to one another, the sheer passion and common interest(my case cycling) gets them to help each other and may be, be friends for life.
Interesting study and the findings are really surprising. His vision of school in cloud is interesting and very challenging. Cloud is surely the way to go, but its not going to happen in just a day. Its going to take a while to get there, but i am sure we are headed there and we will get there soon.
Most of us treat our money this way. The more we make, the more we spend. It’s not that we suddenly need to buy more just because we make more, only that we can, so we do. In fact, it’s quite difficult for us to avoid increasing our standard of living (or at least our rate of spending) every time we get a raise.
I don’t think it’s necessary to shun the whole ugly system and go live in the woods, pretending to be a deaf-mute, as Holden Caulfield often fantasized. But we could certainly do well to understand what big commerce really wants us to be. They’ve been working for decades to create millions of ideal consumers, and they have succeeded. Unless you’re a real anomaly, your lifestyle has already been designed.
The entire article is a good read, please read the complete story here. The article is one such peice which makes you stop and think about consumerism. Probably take a step back and realize what the whole point of life is, where we are headed, to take a look at the bigger picture of life, to realize where the limits are, to understand where fruitful life is and to get the essence of life. Hope the article inspires you to ponder and realize where you are headed, how deep in the consumerism soup you are and what you actually seek.
Some brilliant Pics of India from a kite by Nicolas. Fabulous captures.
A Nice talk by Marco about scaling your career.
30 Minutes of my day well spent watching this. The video emphasizes the importance of saving and managing your money. Am sure its worth your 30 minutes as well.
False Economy
The web is a very interesting place where multi talented people across geographies cross each other ever so often. While these interactions take place each day we get to know and learn each day. Thats what amuses me everyday to get back here each day and learn new things. Todays facebook feed pointed me to this intriguing piece here.
I have never looked at the world from that perspective. A very interesting perspective indeed.
A few points got me thinking like the ones below.
Money Has No Value: Money is the biggest illusion of all. Our money is loaned into existence with arbitrary interest rates by a private monopoly.
Very true that.
What is the Value of Anything? The price discovery mechanism, or the process to determine the value of an asset in the marketplace, has become so convoluted that determining the genuine value of anything has become nearly impossible.
Since when did time and idea become money? Industrial Revolution? Werent people happier and content before that? I am sure people didnt die of poverty before industrial revolution at such large scales like today.
Corporate entities have the same rights as humans, but not the same punishments
Hardly do corporates pay up penalties for ruining the ecosystem. Even if they do its merely an eyewash
People buy things they don’t need with money they don’t have.
Tell me about it.
The last point kinda striked a chime within me.You should read the article in its entirity to get the entire picture. After reading it, I am left to agree with the authors view point, that we are in a fake world, a false economy. I’ve since been thinking of a fix for these, the more i think of it, the more certain it becomes that we wont be able to. We just have to live with it. All we can try to do is minimize our participation in the false economy and spread the word about.
What do u think? Do you agree that we are in a false economy? Can we do something about it?