2015 Tech Writing Achievements

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas! :) Come 2016, I feel like sharing some of my best achievements in the blogging and tech recommendations world!

1) Blogger
My December 2014 post for fixing 'Thread Stuck in Device Driver' Error, encountered by a huge number of people after Windows 8.1/10 update, was very well received and worked for many people! It has more than 17K views! I was on Cloud 9 after getting that kind of appreciation for working and researching on something from the bottom of my heart.

Here is that answer: FIX 'THREAD STUCK IN DEVICE DRIVER' error for Windows 8/8.1/10

It definitely made my blog shine in 2015!

2) Quora
The following answer was a small achievement for me on Quora. I was awarded the most-viewed writer award for 'Dell' and 'Hewlett Packard' for some time. It was posted on 8th September, 2015 and I held that title for about 3 months after it became well-known.

Here is my answer on Quora: 
Answer on Quora by Nimish Gujarathi to 'Which laptop I should buy Dell or Lenovo or HP?'

The Answer:

If you are stuck between choosing company instead of specs I would say Dell, anytime Dell. Even if it may cost about 5K INR more or less depending on specifications.

My experience of comparison between these three tells me: 

1) Dell is more flexible with qualities like cross compatibility between batteries of different models, (like Latitude and Inspiron have same battery), standard charger port among all Dells so you can share charger of same electrical specifications. HP and Lenovo have their own custom shaped port. 
Analogy: Android with micro-USB which majority had and iPhone 5s with lightning connector which was rare in 2013.

2) Dell is more robust. Drop your HP and Lenovo and they will break like ceramic. I have seen both Dell and Lenovo fall. Screen connector of Lenovo broke and the person was forced to painstakingly use the crippled laptop for another year somehow due to financial issues, as service center could not help and asked for a large sum to change body. Dell however, survived without a scratch.

3) It is fairly obvious that HP is overpricing their products & accessories (HP battery costs about 6-7K INR, Dell battery costs around 2-3K INR) and with the reliability being not commensurate to the price. Dell is reasonably priced and gives most punch for the price.

4) Dell Support is simply amazing. The person sitting behind that toll free help number knows almost everything and gets you out of any situation.

5) Almost all Dell laptops can be customized. I myself could upgrade from 4GB to 8GB RAM. 

6) The performance of Dell is simply amazing. I run heavy softwares like MATLAB and Xilinx as well as high-end games like Battlefield 3 and Mafia II smoothly (Core i7 3632qm coupled with 2GB AMD Radeon HD 7730). The full HD screen is beautiful and sharp bringing out the best quality that the media has to offer. 

7) If you want to force me in telling you issues with Dell I would only speak about battery life. It has reduced from 2.5 hours to 1-1.5 hours in 4 years of use. Happens to all laptops though.

What is 'Class' in SD Memory Cards?

You always have that one friend who will boast about having got a memory card of a high capacity at a cost that is super-cheap in some deal. There is very high chance that, that memory card is of a lower 'Class' than the more expensive ones out there and it may not give him performance.

This post applies to all types of SD (Secure Digital) memory cards, be it micro-SD, mini-SD, SD, SDXC, SDHC and so on.

So to make it very simple:

Class = Speed and Performance

ALWAYS look out for 'class' logo while buying memory cards!

You will see these kind of logos on memory card which signify their class.

Here is an example of how cost differs with class.

Now, the number written in circle, signifies the write speed of the memory card. For example, 4 means minimum 4 MBps writing speed will be ensured! It can go above that, and if it is so, it will be specified on the packaging. Higher the class, higher will be the cost of the memory card.

Question: But Nimish, how is this 'class' significant and how do I choose which class I need?
Answer: Here is a Wikipedia extract.

Source: Speed Class rating of Secure Digital(SD)

Write Speed Significance:
Like many reviews will tell you, if you have a DSLR that has a very high shutter speed, that is, it can capture photos very fast, then you will require a high performance memory card on which they can be quickly stored. Otherwise, your memory will become a limitation and you may not be able to choose a higher shutter speed. In such a case, you might have to choose a minimum class 6 or better yet, class 10.

UHS Speed may be required if you want to shoot 4K video with your camcorder.

Read Speed Significance:
If you have a performance demanding game installed on your Android smart-phone's micro-SD card, no matter how powerful the phone hardware is, your micro-SD card will become a limitation on performance if it does not offer high reading speeds.

For example, if you try to use a class 2 card for installing and playing something like Asphalt on a Galaxy Note II, it will definitely lag. But it will not lag if you use a class 6 or a class 10 card. Your general phone performance will also be affected depending on the class of the memory card, if you choose to install applications on the memory card.

So in conclusion, don't be fooled if someone offers a hard-to-believe dirt cheap price on a high capacity memory card and check the class rating on it first.