As soon as you go to the home page of the website, the first few things you notice are -

• How professionally and neatly designed the website is.
• The prices and details of the plans offered are clearly mentioned on the home page.
• There is no fluff, no boasting/bragging about being the leader in the industry, no technical jargon, or confusing/ambiguous language.
• Loads of payment options targeted towards Indian users who still are conservative when it comes to online payments and their security (Net-banking, Credit/Debit cards, Cash, Cheque, even PayPal!).
• In short, almost everything that you will need to know about a host is clearly mentioned on the homepage.

What’s different about SpeedHost.in?

For starters, they provide a link to a fully working demo of cPanel on every plan page. This effectively means that you can try out the service before you purchase it.

With all plans, they offer Fantastico scripts, which take away all the hassle of installing a CMS such as Wordpress or Drupal on your host.

They also offer SSH access in even the starter plan, which means you can easily manage your account remotely via a terminal that supports SSH.

Plans

SpeedHost.in offers 3 different packages, for 3 different set of consumers.

• Starter Hosting – For customers who are either starting their online project or have a relatively small website/blog (there is a 1 GB monthly bandwidth limit on this plan) and don’t expect it grow anytime soon, this is an amazing cheap web hosting solution. Costs Rs 600 an year, which is 50 rupees per month! That is almost half the price of an average movie ticket in India. The number of features that they offer in this plan, and the dirt cheap price makes it a killer.
• Basic Hosting – For another Rs 400, this plan doubles the limits of the Starter plan. For mid-level and established website getting approximately 30,000 hits a month, this is a good plan, also very cheap.
• Silver Hosting – This is the premium plan of SpeedHost.in and allows you to host upto 4 domains on the same account, and has a bandwidth limit of 10 GB. So if you want to host several websites and don’t want to go through the hassle of separate accounts, this plan is for you. For Rs 2000 an year, this is pretty fairly priced plan.

Newbie-friendly

If you are new, and have no clue how to go about building your website/blog, then SpeedHost.in offers an amazing service for you, which is Wordpress Blog Hosting. For just a one-time charge of Rs 500, SpeedHost.in will install Wordpress on your choice of plan and give you a totally ready Wordpress blog so that you can immediately start blogging, minus all the backend hassle!

Also, if you don’t have a domain name yet, you can register one right with SpeedHost.in, and get it automatically linked to your hosting account. An all-in-one solution!

All of these features, backed by a solid and loyal consumer base, makes SpeedHost.in a good choice for all your hosting needs. For any more queries, visit the official website, or you can send an email at info@speedhost.in or call them at 09811415181.

I placed an order with them for these 3 DVDs on December 9, 2009 (I paid via netbanking which is supported by the CCAvenue payment gateway that Movie Mart uses). Their homepage says, “Fastest shipping within 24 hours to allover the world by fastest courier.” while the confirmation email I received said my order was to be shipped within 3 days.

5 days had passed since the day I ordered the DVDs. I got no communication from MovieMart about the status of my order. I decided to call them. They told me that they only had 2 DVDs in stock, Black Friday and Gulaal, and they were going to send those 2 the next day, while No Smoking would take 1 more day.

I got the 2 DVDs on the 15th. Here is where the problem started. Black Friday was supposed to contain 2 discs – 1 for the movie, 1 for the making. The one that was delivered to me had only 1 disc, for the movie. I called them up immediately and told them about this. At first, they made excuses, “Sir, ye DVDs to sealed/packed aati hain!“. They were blaming me. This guy transfered the call to some other guy in another department. The other guy said he would send somebody the next day to pick up this DVD and replace it with another pack that contained both DVDs.

2 days passed. No guy showed up, no communication. I called up again. This time the guys says that all the DVDs from the company had only 1 disc now, and they’ve forgot to change the label on the box. I said in that case I’d like to return this DVD for a refund. I asked about No Smoking. He said yes we will send that tomorrow with the guy who’ll come to collect the Black Friday DVD.

Next day. No guy, no call. I called again, in the evening. I asked why the guy didn’t show up. The guy on the call said that he had told delivery guy to collect the DVD from me. He said, “Sir aap dekhiye pahunchta hi hoga aapke paas“.

2 more days pass. Nobody shows up, I don’t get any call. I call up again. This time, I’m transferred to some senior executive called Pradeep. He says that they don’t have No Smoking in stock, and they only have it in a combo pack, which has 2 other movies, all in 1 DVD. I refused that, told him that I wanted the DVD for a collection. I asked for a refund for that too. I also asked him why I wasn’t given any information on this update and why I have to be the one who calls repeatedly for information. He started giving me excuses about some internal miscommunication. I lost my cool here and told him that I wanted a refund ASAP and that somebody should be sent immediately to pick up this DVD. I also told him that I wouldn’t be home at some particular times and that the guy should call before coming. He agreed and said he would process my refund soon.

A day later I got a call from Mr. Pradeep. Note that this was the first time that I had received a call from somebody from Movie Mart. This was after I had made almost 10-12 calls, mentioning in each call that I should be given a status update if any problem arises or any deviation is made from the promised schedule. Mr. Pradeep said that he had processed my refund and asked if he could send somebody to collect the DVD next morning. I said ok and told him that I’d be home till 2 pm and I need to leave after that.

No surprise, the guy didn’t show up. Also, I got no email confirmation for my refund, neither could I see the balance being reflected in my account. The next day, I called up Mr. Pradeep again. I had his direct mobile number. I raged at him again for not keeping an appointment that was fixed and after that not calling to explain the reason for delay. He apologized but gave no reason in particular why the guy didn’t show up. He said, “Sir ab aapka refund process kar diya hai ab aap tension free ho jao!“. I told him that I hadn’t received the refund either, and not confirmation email of the refund. He said, “Sir abhi aapko 5 minute mein check karke batata hoon“.

Of course he didn’t call. These guys are hardcore and toughened, anything you say falls on deaf ears. I got busy with something else meanwhile, but I received the confirmation email from CCAvenue a few hours later. So this was when he actually processed the refund, what he said earlier was just to make me happy.

I also had a lot of problem receiving this refund, but that problem wasn’t from Movie Mart’s side, it was something between CCAvenue and the bank.

Also, I made 2 more calls asking them to send a guy to pick up the Black Friday DVD that was with me. The guy came some 6 days later, without calling, with no prior information. At the time he took away the DVD, I hadn’t received the refund.

The whole experience was bitter because of the attitude of the employees. They will talk sweet and respectful, but only give you stock replies and whatever you say, they don’t care. They will not call you back unless it is in their interest. Also, the communication amongst the employees is really poor. The guy who picks up the phone almost always has no idea whats going on, and so you have to tell the whole story all over again to the new guy he transfers you to.

Also, the website management is faulty. Why are DVDs that aren’t available listed on the website? At the time of writing this post, No Smoking DVD is still listed as available and you can buy it, when clearly they don’t have it in stock.

The learning license. Went to the transport department office before 8:30 in the morning. There was already a crowd outside the gate. The gates open at 8:30. As soon as they open it, the people rush inside like rabid dogs. I too, ran to the counter which deals with checking documents for learning licenses and also registers the fee. The fee was 60 INR. They asked for an ID proof and an address proof, both of which, for me, was my passport. A form, called Form 1 had to be filled out and attached with the other documents. Also, they ask you to bring the original documents for verification. The line in which I had to stand was reasonably long, and I would guess that there were around 20 people ahead of me. So at 8:35 I’m standing in a line in front of a counter.

The problem is that there was nobody at the counter. The guy is probably sleeping at his home. So I’m standing in line for like half an hour. Waiting endlessly. Finally the guy appears, sleepy. Thankfully he had this helper who went to each person in the line and checked if their documents were in order so that nobody had to stand in line only to know that something was missing when they got their turn. My documents were good, he gave me a green light. I get my ‘turn’ half an hour later, pay him the fee, take the receipt he gave me and moved to another room for a test.

Now here’s the thing about the test for a Learner’s license in India – its fucking hilarious and at the same time insanely ambiguous. I remember GeneralMaximus who went to give this test, and god was he baffled by it. My experience was pretty much the same. They had 20 different sets of papers, which were laminated; these papers were really old, being used since months, and people had scraped in the answers to all the questions with pens. Finished the test and left. Collected my learner’s license from the same department the next day.

A learner’s license in India is valid for 6 months, but you can apply for a driver’s license 1 month after the issue of a learner’s license. That gives you a 5 month time frame in which you have to get your driver’s license, otherwise, you have to start the process all over again, and get a learner’s license again, and wait for 1 month. (You can also get your learner’s license renewed, if you want to, before it expires).

The lazy bum I am, I went to the transport department on the last day of the 6th month That too when my dad kicked my lazy ass outta bed.

Now here’s the funny part about getting a driver’s license (and it ain’t funny) – you have to submit copies of the Registration Certificate (RC) and Pollution Under Control (PUC) certificate of the vehicle you want a license to drive. Since I applied for a license for a Light Motor Vehicle (LMV) and Motorcycle with Gear, I had to submit their respective RCs and PUCs. Now what if somebody doesn’t actually own these vehicles but wants a license anyway so that they can be ready drive a vehicle when needed? Or maybe they plan to buy one in the near future? (Another interesting point here, I’ve heard you need a driving license to buy a vehicle in India).

Other documents required were Form 4, duly filled, a photograph (attached to this, though there is no placeholder for the photo), photocopy of an ID proof. I used my passport as an ID proof. Also, you need to attach your learner’s license.

Also, take along ALL the original documents of which you have included copies. You may or may not be asked to produce them while they check your application. I was asked for the originals, and I didn’t have them. I had to ask my dad to get them for me. When he arrived with them, I got in line again, and this time the fucker didn’t ask me for the originals :/ .

The process for getting a driving license was fairly easier than the learning license. There was a line (small this time, 11-12 people). When I got my turn, a guy checked my documents, took the fee from me (300 INR), gave me a receipt. I then went to another guy who was registering the driving license applicants ( I have no idea for what). He took my application, wrote a number on it, gave it back to me, and noted down my details on a list.

Then I had to go to a nearby ground with my application for the driving test. The guy asked me to take a round of the track on a scooty. Came back. Was a piece of cake. He asked me to go home. Never asked me to drive the car.

I got my license 3 days later. A guy came to deliver it. He asked me for the counterfoil slip that I got when I paid the fee for the license. I had kept it safely, cause I knew I’d need it. After he gave the license to me, and asked me to sign the receipt for the license, the fucker asks me for 20 bucks. I asked him why, and he mumbles, “Chai paani bauji“. I said, “Bhaag ja yahan se, koi chai paani nahi tere liye.” You should’ve seen the poor fucker run. (This is another scam I had heard of previously, delivery guys asking for money from people who’d lost their counterfoil slips, and in general a ‘bakshish’ for delivery from even those who had their counterfoils).

The whole process was painful because the information relating to the procedure of obtaining a license is either unavailable to the people or is not the same everywhere. I read the rules and regulations on the Delhi Transport Website. The page that mentions the rules for getting a permanent driving license mentions nowhere that you have to attach the RCs and PUCs of the vehicles you want a license for. Either those fuckers made this rule up by themselves, or the information on the website is wrong. Also, the guys at the transport department are typical sarkari babus. Coming late. Leaving in the middle of their work, saying, “Chai ka time ho gaya”. Have no idea what the fuck is going. No sympathy for the poor bastards who woke up at 8 in the morning and are standing in line for hours.

My sister says that I’m lucky that I got my license only after 2 visits. She had to go at least 5 times and stand in long lines before she got one.

I got the new connection for 150 bucks and got 135 rupees worth talktime. All local and STD calls are 1 paisa per second (pps). Lifetime validity. Where lifetime means till 2019. Feels nice to have an expiry date on your life.

The clever thing with the marketing of these 1 pps connections is that nobody thinks beforehand that for long calls, this rate would come out to be effectively 60 paise per minute. Which is in no way cheap. So if you’re not the kind of guy who calls up his friend, asks straight up, “CP chalna hai ghoomne, haan ya na?” and hangs up, chances are that this connection is going to be heavy on your pocket. Hell, I hate having to start with small talk, and I avoid it as much as possible, but you don’t want to startle the guy on the other end by getting straight to the point. An average call therefore is greater than 60 seconds.

AND FUCK YOU AIRCEL FOR PUSHING EVERY SECOND UPDATES. USED GPRS FOR 10 SECONDS? HERE’S A FUCKING UPDATE. If I use my GPRS connection for like 5 minutes, I’ll get like a 100 updates in between telling me the cost of the session.

Too many fucking spam calls/spam messages. I registered for the DND service over a month ago now. The spam calls/messages have reduced in number, but not stopped completely. They also push ads for caller tunes etc. as notifications. Fucking hardcore spambots.

The cost of a local SMS is 60 paise. And the cheapest SMS package costs 50 bucks. I don’t send a lot of text messages, so I don’t care that much, but fucking 60 paise is a straight rip-off. When it doesn’t even cost them 1 paisa for an SMS.

Network coverage is pretty decent for voice calls. At least way better compared to Dolphin. I can hear out each word the person on the other end is saying, loud and clear, no hiccups/disturbance/noise/loss in signal. Provided, obviously, that the other guy has a good connection too. Still, not flawless. I sometimes get a total outage of network, at places like underground parking lots, or in relatively closed areas (this means the signal strength is weak). I haven’t been outside Delhi/NCR in a while, so can’t comment about coverage while roaming.

GPRS (PocketInternet) network is crappy at best. 1) IRC is blocked. 2) It rarely ever works if I’m moving, like in the Metro, or any moving vehicle. Even if it does, it takes fucking ages. When I’m stationary, and that too not anywhere, at select locations, sometimes GPRS works like it should. At peak performance, I’ve got speeds of upto 14 KB/s. Which is pretty decent for mobile browsing and checking updates on Twitter. 98 rupees a month, unlimited internet, would be totally worth if it worked everywhere in Delhi/NCR like it does when stationary at some places.

Overall, the connection is a great improvement for me, over Dolphin, but Aircel has loads of stuff to work upon.

Another place where you can get Sennheiser in Delhi is Multilink Technologies at Nehru Place. Phone numbers are – 011-41617562, 011-41617563

According to the post, its been almost 11 months since I bought the Altec Lansing AHP524 Studio Headphones, and they are still capable of producing as crisp sound as when I first bought them. I’ve mentioned earlier that I got these headphones dirt cheap, at about 1000 INR. The compromise was build quality, it was all plastic, and not very sturdy. The left ear cup broke off a few months ago. This was, however, not a problem, I was able to fix them and put them back in a workable condition.

Recent developments have led me to appreciate and realise the intricacies in music, and the desire to experience a better sound experience has forced me to move on. I now need new headphones.

Sadly, I’m still on a tight budget, so I am limited to Sennheiser’s low end range. From the vast collection they have, I’ve managed to short list 3 of them, based on sound quality, durability, comfort and of course, cost.

1) HD 202 – These ones are the cheapest of the lot. Most reviews I read online are favorable, and say that these headphones are 100% value for money. Problem is, these headphones are almost the same as the one as I currently have, just better build quality. High frequencies tend to cut off, and surround sound experience is not satisfactory. My AHP 524s have precisely the same limitations, and therefore buying these doesn’t make much sense, except for a slight improvement in bass and better build quality. Should cost around 1300 INR.

2) eH 150 – At first look, these headphones are a pleasure to the eye. Sleek and elegant. Crisp and thumpy bass; clear, loud treble, and excellent reproduction of high and mid range frequencies are some of the commonly mentioned pros in the reviews I found. Sadly, this model doesn’t seem to be quite popular, I could find just 1 listing for these ones on eBay and reviews are also scarce. This makes me scared, because the thing that scares me most is getting stuck with a problem/defect in a product which is a one-off case and the company has no idea how to deal with it. Other than that, I can see no downsides to these headphones. In fact, some reviews go ahead and mention that these headphones sound better than any of its competitors within twice the price range. Sounds nice to me. Cost would be somewhere near 1950 INR.

3) HD 415 – The most expensive of the three I shortlisted, are also the only supra-aural headphones of the three. They are low impedance headphones, and will therefore work great with any portable music device (phone, iPod, PMP) that I buy in the future (right now, all I have is my phone). Orgasmic bass, excellent reproduction of highs, mids and lows! Comfortable for long duration use, portable, have a cable winder attached. The design too, is awesome. If these didn’t come with a price tag of 2500 INR, I would’ve bought them immediately. The price tag is about 20% more than I can currently afford to spend. I can wait for a while, collect some more cash, and then buy these, but then you always get the feeling, are they worth it?

More difficult than deciding between these headphones is finding a place in Delhi/NCR that sells them cheap enough. eBay seems to have decent rates, but I have my doubts about eBay. I like to pay cash and get my products in my hand instantly. There are always cases when people get scammed on eBay or have a bad experience with a dealer because of misunderstandings.

There are a few shops at Nehru Place, but those too, are scattered and only a handful. Anybody know any specific place where I can get Sennheisers for a reasonable rate?

Blame the sarkari babus at DTU for the horrible quality and alignment of this scan. Which makes me wonder once again, why the hell do they make a document, print it, and then scan it and then upload it the website? Isn’t that just retarded?

Official Link

Another thing to notice here is that they haven’t mentioned anything specifically for any category. So my guess is the general category people will get screwed up again in 2010, while the OBC guys force their way into the general admission.

If I would compare AIEEE and CEE as exams, then I would say that they were more or less the same game. Limited time, more questions to do. To complement this theory, most kids who give both AIEEE and CEE (from Delhi) get similar ranks in both, if you compare the CEE overall rank with the AIEEE state rank. I got rank 644 in CEE, and 613 or something as state rank in AIEEE. So the quality, academically would be more or less the same.

However, the attitude of these kids, damn. They treat us seniors like pieces of shit. I seriously am scared of a lot of freshers. They know that the university made us sign an anti-ragging affidavit on a stamp paper. And they are treating us like shit because of that.

I don’t want you to respect me. Hell, I don’t respect any senior just because he came into the college an year before me. But don’t give me attitude for no reason. Try to be a little friendly? Not all of us have ego issues or are here for fights. Keep an open mind, perhaps?

Before I could dump MTNL, I had to choose another ISP. Airtel was a quite obvious choice, they recently lowered their plan rates, and have been known for their amazing customer care (A review of Airtel BB that I wrote a couple of years ago).

The problem was here – Airtel launched a plan called ‘Explorer 1099′ for a very short period of time. They offered speeds of 384 Kbps (daytime, 6 am – 10 pm) and 1 Mbps (nights, 10 pm – 6 am), unlimited data usage, for a monthly rental of Rs 1099. It also had a Fair Usage Policy of 75 GB, after which the daytime speeds of 384 Kbps are reduced to 256 Kbps, while the night time speeds remain unchanged. Amongst all the new plans launched, this was the one that suited me the most. However, it was discontinued very soon after its launch, and was replaced by a plan called ‘Swift 1099′ which was basically 512 Kbps Unlimited, for the same monthly rental, Rs. 1099.

Airtel is after all a private company, and after reading responses from other customers on this thread at India Broadband Forum, I was convinced that Airtel’s policies on what they can and can’t allow are pretty flexible and can be bent, if the right tools are used.

I called and applied for a broadband connection. The customer care chic told me she would send somebody over to my place to discuss the plans and stuff and get the formalities done. The guy came to my place. I told him outright which plan I wanted. He said no, its discontinued, tried to show me better plans and convince me. I was stubborn. Didn’t budge. He talked to his senior on the phone. Couldn’t be done. He left.

I called up the CC again, this time told them on the phone about my plan requirement. The whole drill again. Trying to convince me to get me some other plan. Not acceptable. She said no.

2 days later, I get a call from another Airtel executive. The same story again. Long discussion, ended in a no again.

The next day, a guy from Airtel called and told me my ‘case’ had been forwarded to him. I told him there is no case, I just want a stupid plan. He said he had talked to appropriate authorities and had taken special permission for me and that I could now get this plan. I asked him to come over and collect the paper work from me the next day.

In the meantime, another guy from Airtel called me up, who also claimed to have the ’special approval’, and said he could give me the plan. I assumed this was just a lack of communication between employees and so I told him ok, you can come over tomorrow to collect the paperwork. I gave him the same time as the earlier guy, 6 pm.

The next day, 6 pm. The first guy shows up at my place. He seems to be out of breath as if he had been running. I called him in and seated him. The doorbell rang again. It was the second Airtel guy who had called me. I called him in too. What followed, guys, is totally crazy.

At first, both if them would not talk to each other. They tried to pretend as if the other didn’t exist, and talked to each other through me. I told them to sort out their issues with each other outside my place and come back wehn they were done. The second guy, called up his boss quickly, and handed over the phone to me. He explained to me that he was the one who had received my ‘case’ and not the first guy. He said that the second guy was from another rival team, and that his interference in the case was unauthorised. I asked him to tell me what he would do. I said, “I have 2 guys from Airtel in front of me, both are offering me what I need, nobody is giving me anything extra, so making a choice is really absurd. Why don’t you guys sort out internal matters on your own and come to me when you’re done?”.

The guys then started arguing. The second guy told me he had ‘written approval’ while the first guy had nothing. The first guy asked him to show him the written thing, to which the second guy replied that his boss had it.

I said, “Enough. This whole thing looks really shady to me. I want a guarantee that I will get the plan that I am being promised, and until the connection is installed at my place and I test that I indeed have the Explorer 1099 plan, I will not pay a penny to Airtel.”

This was enough to scare the first guy off, he said that a connection is registered only when the installation charges are paid in advance. The second guy, on the other hand, saw this as a chance to grab the opportunity, and told me he would pay for me out of his own pocket right now, and would take the payment from me in cash after the connection is installed and the plan is confirmed. I said OK, filled out the form, and collected the counterfoils.

2 days later, my connection was installed, up and running. But sadly, my plan wasn’t Explorer 1099. It was Swift 1099, the 512 Kbps plan. I got a welcome call from the Airtel CC, and they confirmed my plan was Swift 1099. I told him about the situation. He registered a complaint and told me the problem would be solved soon.

3 days later, I get a call from an Airtel guy. He asks me the whole story again. In the end he says I cannot get the plan and the guy who came to my place had given me a wrong promise. I told him to disconnect my connection immediately.

Now this is important – The change in tone of the Airtel executive, was amazing. As soon as I started going on about disconnection, he became all polite and said that he would review the case, and gave me a complaint number.

2 more days, nothing. I called up 121 multiple times in between to confirm the status of my complaint and if my plan had been changed. No luck there.

Finally, I decided it was time to take out the ultimate Indian weapon – blackmail. I called up Airtel CC, and started ranting on the phone, about their failure to solve problems. I also kept repeating that I wanted this connection disconnected IMMEDIATELY, right this instant. My call was transfered to various departments, until I knew I was speaking to a high ranking officer or something. He assured me that my plan would be changed within 24 hours, or it would be automatically disconnected, he would personally make sure of that. He also said that Airtel would not charge anything from me if the connection was disconnected.

And voila, it did the trick. 24 hours later, my plan was changed. I was getting blazing fast 1 Mbps speeds at night. The moral of the story is that Airtel, like all private companies, is really scared of losing customers. And what do we Indians do? We exploit other’s fears.

Was it worth all the trouble? Hell yeah, the speeds are amazing. But more than the speeds, this was another amazing encounter with yet another company’s customer care. And I whole heartedly agree, Airtel has one of the best customer care services, and can be placed amongst the elite league of Apple Customer Care and others.

I was a Firefox user at that time on Windows XP, probably because it was the only browser I knew that existed, besides IE. Irfan, a friend at my shitty school, was one of the 1337 guys at school with some neato skills to show off. I got to know him through GeneralMaximus, who was a close friend. We used to talk mostly about technology, even during classes, on the back benches. Irfan had this nagging habbit (he still does), whatever you say you like about a system, an application, he would find out a way to prove why that system/application sucks and suggested an alternative which I had usually never heard of.

You can only imagine what happened when we started with the browser talk. I claimed to be a Firefox user, and started boasting about how infinitely cooler it is when compared to IE. GeneralMaximus would make a comment or two here and there, but Irfan, he’s a real life troll. He started speaking, and lets just say that, at the end of his speech, Opera was all that was on my mind.

I went home that day, and downloaded Opera. I hate myself for using this fucking stupid cliché over here, but Opera, for me, was love at first sight. Now listen carefully, because this is important, Opera was something, something different, something that Firefox was not – Opera was beautiful, elegant, slick. But I guess that is in the eye of the beholder.

The first feature from Opera (which till date is absent from Firefox, and no, an add-on does not count as a browser feature) that swept me away, was mouse gestures. Mouse gestures just make your whole browsing experience so much easier, smooth, effortless. You can glide between tabs like a feather. Want to close a tab? No need to scroll all the way to the tiny little close button on the tab bar, just hold down the right mouse button, drag mouse down then right, NO MATTER where the cursor is on the tab body. I know it sounds ridiculously long when you write it down, but when this becomes muscle memory, you won’t even notice. It is a hell lot easier than moving the mouse pointer to a pin point location on the screen to close a tab. Other awesome mouse gestures that I use commonly are for new tab, back (to the previous page), next, and to refresh the page. You can read all about mouse gestures here.

The next awesome feature was custom search. (Opera did this first, Mozilla went ahead and ripped it off later on.) Any search box on the whole fucking internet could be reduced to a simple single letter or a small sequence of letters in your own browser. This might seems trivial and common now, but it was a big revelation to me back then. Searching Google through the embedded search in the browser was one thing. But this was totally different, totally infinite. Watch a lot of YouTube videos? No need to open the home page everytime to search for a video, just right click on the search box at YouTube and create a custom search term, like I created ‘yt’ for YouTube. The next time you want to search a YouTube video, just type in ‘yt{space}{search term}’ in your address bar, just like a normal URL, and you go directly to the search results page. And this works for any goddamned search box on the whole FUCKING INTERNET! Trust me, this is not as trivial as it may seem, this saves a LOT of time, a LOT.

Then there was the awesomely configurable interface, the personal bar, the status bar, custom buttons, view options, one click to disable images, amazing skinnability (Shadowguard is my favorite skin). I could also block all those irritating flashy ads with a single right click, and permanently ban any ads from that domain. Greasemonkey scripts working out of the box. Individual preferences for every site, the option to turn off scripting, specific content, cookies for a PARTICULAR site, again available, just a right click away.

While viewing the source of a webpage, you can edit it inside the browser, in a separate tab, and to see changes in the webpage, you don’t need to save the source and refresh the page, just click ‘Apply Changes’ to see them instantly.

Later on came the cache search from the address bar. This meant that you could easily find a page that you visited earlier, but you don’t remember how you reached there or the URL of the page. While I still reckon that Opera was first here too, I dove into deep IRC channels and talked to devs from both Mozilla and Opera and reached a conclusion that “both the creative teams stumbled upon this revolutionary idea somewhere along the same time” (why doesn’t that sound so likely?). In any case, Opera’s implementation of the cache search (which is far better than Firefox’s version) included visited pages history, custom search history, typed history, all using awesome priority algorithms similar to ones used in music biasing. The basic underlying concept is that more frequently typed in combinations of characters and more visited pages get higher priority is the listing that is displayed below the address bar.

Opera Link. AWESOME. Just get a My Opera account, and you can sync bookmarks, typed history, custom search, speed dial, notes and searches. Opera Link was a boon to me at the time when I used to shuffle on 3 operating systems everyday – Mac OS X, PCLinuxOS and Windows XP. Having different sets of bookmarks and custom searches everywhere made my head explode. Opera Link made sure that any change that I made in any one of the systems was immediately reflected in the other systems, automatically.

Opera also has an inbuilt email, IRC and chat client, none of which I’ve ever used much, but having the option at a click’s distance is nice just in case you don’t have one at hand. What is more surprising is that Opera is still so fast and lightweight with all the extra features crammed into it.

Widgets and bookmarks are something that seem to diminish my love for Opera, these are things that are not done right. I’ll leave them for the next post.

Do you also love Opera like I do? I want to hear why. Leave a comment.

The highlights of this event are the various prominent speakers that would be present. They include -

• Karan Makhija, Film Actor, Jaane Tu Jaane Na and 9.9 SoC alumni
• Ranabir Majumdar, Editor-Cricketnext.com, ESPN Star and 9.9SoC alumni
• Dr. Pramath Raj Sinha, Dean, 9.9 SoC , CEO 9.9 Mediaworx, Founding Dean ISB

The growth of the internet and technology has changed the face of the media and entertainment industry forever. Because the industry is dependent on technology today, it is changing rapidly. To keep up with these changes, people aspiring to join the media and entertainment industry must keep themselves abreast with the new Media & Entertainment Jobs and opportunities that have been created as a direct result of technology. This is a step in that direction, a first-of-its-kind workshop by experts on different career opportunities in Media; with special focus on how you can pursue them. This event will bring together leaders in the media industry together to discuss the evolution in the industry and the job opportunities created.

There are limited seats for the workshop, and you can reserve one for yourself by sending an email to events@schoolofconvergence.com with the subject as “Registration for workshop” with your name and contact number.

For more details (detailed schedule of the event), please refer to the official listing of the event at 9.9 School of Convergence website.

The thing with physical theft is that the thief has physical access to your hard drive, and so if their intention is to steal data, they can pop out the hard disk from the machine, and then use a variety of software/hardware/machine based methods to scrape off your personal data from it. This leaves you with only 2 options – either make the hard disk inaccessible to the thief (can be achieved by rigging it with C4, and a remote detonation device), or a much easier way – encrypt the data.

For this, the most suggested tool to use was TrueCrypt, which is a free and open source on-the-fly encryption tool for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. It encrypts your partitions transparently, and has a very amazing feature of plausible deniability where you can create a hidden volume to show to someone who is forcing you to let out the password at gunpoint. Check out the link for more juicy details.

One of the smarter commenters suggested that no matter how smart the thief may be, if its data they’re going after, they use basic easier methods first to try and hack into the system used by machine’s owner. This being the case, one can create 2 accounts – here’s the interesting part – 1 for normal usage, and another fake account. Password protect your normal account, and keep the other account open for all. Then rig the fake account with a script to automatically wipe out everything on your normal account (doing this is much easier than it sounds) or if you’re even more paranoid, then completely shred your hard disk. Clever idea, but flawed.

Other things that I got to know was the existence of things such as AbsoluteSoftware’s Lojack for Laptops. Its sits in the BIOS and allows you to remotely monitor the usage of your laptop, delete data on your hard drive, and may even help you recover a stolen laptop. It has the advantage of being impervious to hard drive formats or replacement.

Another interesting suggestion was made, which was flawed as it was dependent on the thief using the machine along with an internet connection, but was very interesting anyway. I’m quoting the comment here as it is -

1. Set up multi-boot config.
2. Create a bootable partition that has enough OS on it to run the drive and network, name it something interesting like ‘Confidential’.
3. Get the BIOS flash utils for your netbook, create a corrupt bios image that will still pass muster enough to install.
4. Set up a boot time process on the netbook that does a ‘wget’ from a web site that you control. If it gets a file, quietly flash the BIOS with what it downloads.

If you ever get ripped off, move the nasty BIOS image to the file location on your web site and bask in the glow of pure wickedness…

You can test this with a valid BIOS image, but don’t look at me if something terrible happens, you’re playing with fire here.

All these should be more than enough to keep your data safe from a possible data mining thief.

What does this mean, or, what impact would it have on current/prospective students?

Before I go ahead and answer that question, I have to mention here that none of these are solid facts backed by proof, but only speculation or stuff I’ve heard from people around me, current DCEites, seniors, or read online.

• DCE will be getting 240 new seats in the bachelors program this year, and possibly even a few new branches to choose from (software, aerospace, automotive, electronics and electrical, engineering physics, medical engineering and nuclear science and engineering are the ones I have heard about).
• DCE will finally be able to upgrade syllabus for various branches on its own without having to beg DU/the Delhi Government to look into it. I doubt this one seriously. How will the management committee of DTU be any different from the people at DU/Delhi government? They will also be the same sarkari babus. If the syllabus had to be upgraded, it would’ve been done by now by DU. I have a feeling that people seriously believe that conventional syllabus is good for preparing students to face challenges in the industry. Either that, or the syllabus hasn’t been upgraded till now because people used the government’s involvement in the process as an excuse to be lazy.
• New, and more qualified permanent faculty will be recruited. Earlier, all the faculty recruitment was done by the UPSC (Union Public Service Commission), going through which was usually a lengthy and tiring process. So if we need Computer/IT faculty right now, we’ll get it 10 years later. By eliminating UPSC as the middleman, we will now have our own faculty recruitment department, and therefore will get new, qualified faculty faster. That is if there is any available.
• The fee will now be increased, and will be regulated by DTU. This one seems most likely, because if new and competent faculty has to be recruited, and the infrastructure be improved, the money has to come from the students. Delhi govt. is removing its hands from DCE, that also means financial independence, I guess.
• The degree that new students will receive will be from DTU, and not from DU, as previously. People going abroad for masters will probably be affected by this, because DU is a reputed and recognised university even outside India, while DTU will now take a little time in achieving a similar ‘name’ for itself. This is also the reason why the teachers/staff of DCE are planning to organise a strike. Current students will receive a degree from DU.
• Now the DTU is a state university, new colleges will be opened under it and admission to those colleges would be through the CEE conducted by DTU. Also, some existing colleges may ask for affiliation from DTU, and get a decent crowd through CEE too.
• Someone out there also said that we’ll now have regular classes, and attendance rules would be followed strictly. The reason stated is reduction of the number of people who can influence these things, and therefore a decrease in corruption. I have no idea if this is good news or bad .

Some FAQs have been put up recently at dce.edu, which you can check out here. If you’re unable to access that URL, don’t blame me, blame the DWD at DCE. They have been a big FAIL with the new website. It does look better than dce.ac.in, but the promises they made to make it a social hub for the college have so far shown no fruit. And the site remains down, a lot, and is already full of broken links.

Apple provides something called an AppleCare Protection Plan (APP), which extends your 1 year warranty and makes it a 3 year warranty, 3 years from the date of purchase. Effectively, you pay for 2 extra years. It also gives you complementary phone support for 3 years. The price of an APP for my 13″ MacBook in India is above Rs 13,000 inclusive of taxes. Now I don’t know about you, but that seems to me a hell of a premium to pay for warranty. I bought my MacBook for Rs 54,392. That means that the cost of warranty is over 23% of the price of the product, which sounds absurd. This put me in a tough position, I knew I would need this warranty in the future, because I have experienced problems earlier. If this machine goes down when I have no warranty, the individual parts are too expensive for me to afford. And neither would I be able to afford a new machine. In short, I was royally screwed.

Then I talked to xAbhishek. He owns a MacBook Pro, and I asked him how he gathered up the courage to pay up a hefty sum for his APP. He told me that I could get an APP agreement for my MacBook much cheaper than the prices at the Apple Store, on eBay. He himself bought his APP from a similar source.

How this works is that these sellers on eBay do not ship out the actual boxes for the APPs. Once they receive the payment, they send you an email which contains the agreement code. You can then register this code online on Apple’s official website along with the serial number of your MacBook. Even if you actually purchase the APP box, you would have to take out a card inside it which contains an agreement number, which you have to register online. The box also contains a DVD for TechTool Deluxe, but once you have registered your code online, you can download TechTool Deluxe from here. So far it seems easy.

The problem here of course is of trust. I am sitting here in India, the seller is probably somewhere in Nigeria, I don’t know who he is, if he will ever send me that email, if he does, what if the code is already used, or is fake. Your money is gone, its a blind shot. Well the good news is that you’re not throwing arrows in the dark. eBay has a feedback program, only users who buy from a particular seller can leave feedback. This makes it difficult to fake reputation. The seller I bought from, macman812, has sold thousands of Apple products on eBay, is an old member (since 2003), has 100% positive feedback from buyers. The only method of payment that this user accepted was PayPal, which is another thing to look for because PayPal has something called buyer protection. Also, the description of the product was convincing enough. In the end, it is a risk that you have to take, no matter how many safeguards are in place.

I bought the APP for $118, which on conversion to INR, cost me Rs 5892. I saved over Rs 7000, and though I faced a few issues initially, everything worked out well in the end. Now I have a 3 year warranty for my MacBook, and it only cost me 10.8% of the price of my MacBook, which seems to be extremely reasonable.

In years of my experience with computer hardware companies, this is the first time that I had a pleasant experience when approaching for after-sales service. The office of Rashi Peripherals is located at 314, Mansarovar Building, Nehru Place, which is on the 3rd floor, but the warranty section is at 207, on the second floor. Usually this place is known to be crowded, but this time, there were only 3-4 people at the door. I took a token for the queue, and registered my details in a register near the door. I went inside, and handed over the mouse to a guy at the counter. He examined it for a while, checked the serial number, put a sticker on it, and handed it over to me. He asked me to give it to another guy sitting across the counter. I gave the mouse to him, and he handed over a new, unopened box of the same mouse. No questions asked.

It kinda feels nice, receiving a new product in exchange for an old one that you have already used for 8 months. +1 to Rashi Peripherals for being nice, for once at least.

1) Opera Web Browser With Unite
2) An Opera account

Setting up Unite is amazingly easy. In Opera, just go to ‘Tools’ >> ‘Opera Unite Server’ >> ‘Enable Opera Unite’. You can enable or disable services like File Sharing, Media Player, Photo Sharing, Fridge, The Lounge, or Web Server from the Unite Side Panel.

When you do enable Opera Unite, you get yourself a URL, which points to your Unite page, a hub from where you or anyone else can access your files remotely. You can check out what my Opera Unite page looks like.

Note that this page will only be available if I am running Opera on my system and have Opera Unite enabled. Once I close Opera or shutdown my system, you’ll get a not available error. However, for you, this event should be highly unlikely because I rarely shutdown my machine, and Opera is almost always running on it.

I am not here to explain what Opera Unite can do, or how you can configure it, or enlist its features. If you want to know that you can check out the official Opera Unite website. I want to tell you why I think that Unite is an awesome idea and how it is better than other conventional methods of sharing files such as e-mail, hosting websites, dropbox like websites, setting up an Apache server on your machine, using DyDNS, SSH etc.

1) TOO FUCKING EASY – All you have to do to set it up is download and install Opera, and enable Unite. There you go. Now you can share practically your whole hard disk, your pictures, your music collection, even host your own website on your computer. All you have to do is keep your machine and the Opera browser running.

2) SOLVES THE DYNAMIC IP PROBLEM – One problem with other methods of accessing files on your hard disk (such as SSH) is that it requires you to know your IP address to access your machine over the Internet. With most ISPs out there giving out dynamic IPs to their customers, its impossible for you to remember your IP. Unite gives you a domain, a URL, which is easy to remember, and stays connected to your machine no matter how many times your IP changes. This is because Unite is linked to a My Opera account, therefore it always knows your current IP. You only need to remember your own URL. My URL is mac.apoorvkhatreja.operaunite.com

3) CROSS PLATFORM – Opera is available for Windows, Mac OS X, and *NIX systems. So practically anyone out there can get a web server up and running in minutes. Moreover, once you set up Unite, all you need to access your files remotely is a web browser, any browser that can render web pages. That is available on almost all systems by default. With SSH or other methods, you need to download some other tool before you can start downloading files.

4) ALL GUI, SO GOOD FOR n00bs – Fight it, but people are repelled by terminal windows and usually don’t like typing anything other than sensible English sentences with their keyboard. A really dumbed down, simple GUI interface for Unite makes it easy for n00bs to use who are looking to host their own website on their system or just share files with friends without any size limits.

UPDATE:
5) You can’t DDOS a person via Opera Unite! (Unless you can sustain exactly 13 connections per second, no more, no less, but even then it’s just takes 1 core and connection piling doesn’t happen. (No overload) [via Opera Unite benchmark]

Ok, your name may be very sexy, having a score of >100 on the so called ’sexy’ scale, maybe your brain feels nice on being rated by an automated algorithm, but please forgive us and don’t ’share’ such a useless statistic with us. OMG, what? You scored a 15 trillion at online pool! Great going douche! That just shows me that you have all the time in the world. And you’ve got to be kidding me, you actually need to create a QUIZ to tell how well your friends know you? You must have some great friends, I say.

Just when Facebook had introduced a new cleaner layout to help people follow their news feed more conveniently, we had a flow in of tons of apps which pulled data (friends list) from your profile to help you spam their notifications with invites to use that app. This is taking the whole viral media fad too far, and has crossed over the line of privacy which any Facebook user deserves. Thank you Ankur Banerjee for introducing me to Facebook Purity, an awesome little Greasemonkey script that removes all the stupid quiz and app notifications from your news feed on the home page.

Another thing is the email notifications. One of your friends tags you in a photo. You haven’t even seen that photo. Now a 100 people go and comment on that photo. You get a flurry of mails which clog your inbox, a separate one for each comment on a photo that you have never seen and was tagged by a friend (so it may not be actually yours at all).

Same with when you chose to ‘Like’ something on Facebook. You liked somebody’s status, and dared to click on the ‘Like’ link? OMG how could you? Now you’ll have to pay the price. You will be irritated to no end by being forced to receive emails on every subsequent comment on that status, irrespective of the fact if its from a person who isn’t your friend.

So the point here is that I’ve always felt vulnerable when I went to water parks with friends or places like Kempty Falls or any other place with a water body suitable for a dip with family. I wanted that to change.

The first day was all about floating and learning how to kick. I must mention here that the pool I enrolled myself in has mostly kids over there, so the trainers give more attention to them and aren’t particularly good when it comes to explaining to me where I’m going wrong. So I decided to practice and perfect the basic kick on the first day.

Its been 3 more days now. I’m still practicing what I learned on the first day. I did try to learn how to dive, but I couldn’t get that right either. I usually end up splashing a lot of water on the kids nearby and hurting my chest. SO I kept on practicing the same freestyle stroke. The arm and leg movement coordination has improved definitely, but not significantly. I just don’t want this to turn out to be another big FAIL.

Also, I am still nowhere when it comes to breathing during the freestyle stroke.

I used this video to learn how, but I am still gasping for air midway. I guess its just too many things to focus at once – kicking, the hand movement, the rhythm and coordination between the two, then blowing out the bubbles, and rotating the head and not taking it out, and then taking in a breath. Guess its just practice I need.

What do you think? Am I missing something vital here?

The beauty of this plugin is that it allows you to put in your own customised HTML or PHP code, and allows you to selectively display it on various categories of your Wordpress blog such as site-wide, archives, category page, home page, a particular post page, a search page or a tag page. It can also copy from an existing widget and display it selectively.

I use this widget to display links to other websites in my right sidebar. I used the automatic upgrade feature in WP 2.7 to upgrade to the latest version when an upgrade was available for the plugin.

Sadly, after the upgrade, the custom widget I created was gone. It took me a lot of pain – restoring from backups, removing the plugin from the server, manually reinstalling and recreating the widget, to finally solve the problem.

Note to self from this experience : Always take a backup before making any changes to the WP backend, even if its as small as upgrading a plugin. The plugin now works fine.

One of those features is TrackID™ music recognition service. It basically records a small clip of music from a source (could be external or internal such as radio) and sends the clip to their online servers. The clip is then compared against a large database of music. If a match is found, the name, artist and album of the track is returned.

So far, I’ve got a 100% success from radio as well as external sources. I even played an old Hindi song from the 90s, and it got recognised instantly. The flash intro on the official website shows a guy using it to identify a sing that is played by a DJ at a discothèque or a club, but I doubt it would be able to do so with so much noise. But it, however, did pick up a track (and correctly identified it) from my speakers while I was sitting at a distance of 8 feet from them.

Some screens -

It returns the data in plaintext so you can send it to somebody via SMS or save it as a draft.

And if you’re wondering how I managed to grab screens from my Sony Ericsson K530i, I used a neato tool called DisplayReader which I found out via Life Rocks 2.0.

I checked out MTNL Delhi’s website and found out that the GPRS activation charges for prepaid connections was Rs. 0 (unlike for postpaid, the charges are Rs. 50 for that). The data charges are Rs. 0.02 per KB, which is, well, reasonable. I decided to give it a shot. The minimum balance required for GPRS activation is Rs. 50.

For activation, you have to send ‘ACTGPRS’ as a text message from your phone to 444. I did that. Finding out how to activate GPRS was in itself a big pain in the ass. While the link to the tariff and features are listed on the Dolphin home page, the activation protocol is listed hidden as a question in the long list of FAQs.

After I sent the message, I got a message back from 444, saying that my request for GPRS activation had been received and I would get a confirmation SMS when it would be done. I got the confirmation message around 20 minutes later.

Now comes the hard part. Getting the settings correct. I first tried manually entering the settings listed on the Dolphin GPRS page. I have a Sony Ericsson K530i, and the different settings for ‘Data Accounts’ and ‘Internet Profiles’ was something that confused me. I tried a lot of permutations with the manual settings, none of which seemed to work. I always got a ‘connection failure’ error.

Next I tried fetching the settings automatically from MTNL’s OTA server by sending them an SMS which contained my handset make and model number to 58354. I received an SMS shortly after that which told me that my provisional PIN number was 1111. Soon after, I started receiving settings for loads of services such as HSDPA, WAP, 3G, MMS, and yes eventually GPRS. I decided to save all of these settings, cause I had no idea what was needed and what was useless.

But I still continued getting the ‘connection failure’ error.

I opened up the settings received from MTNL to edit them manually. I discovered some discrepancies in the settings that I had received and those that are listed on the Dolphin GPRS page. For example, the page says that the port to be used is 9201 while the settings I received had the port listed as 9401. Moreover the username and password fields had been left blank in the settings I received, while the page clearly mentions what username/password to use. I edited those settings accordingly, but no luck.

I got frustrated and deleted all the internet profiles and data accounts.

Then I suddenly realised what the problem could be. I resent the SMS to receive the settings from MTNL’s OTA server. This time around, I rejected all other settings, and accepted only those of TRUMP GPRS. I tried opening up my browser and accessing a webpage again, and voila, it worked. The only explanation I could think of was that one or more of the other settings were causing a conflict with the GPRS settings and therefore prevented it from working. I however still do not know one thing – how can the same GPRS network work correctly with two different set of settings, at two different ports, and without a username/password for authentication.

My last two years at school were a living hell. I dreaded that place so much, it killed me inside a little for each day I had to go back there. Some of the main reasons for such hatred are listed here. The teaching was absolute nonsense, I gained an absolute zero when it comes to knowledge, all that I gained from there was amazing rant blog, Hash, which I used to retain my sanity and get me through those horrible, torturous times.

On the contrary, the 2 years before the last 2 horrible years were one of the best times I ever had, and ironically they were in the same school. I joined BBPS (Bal Bharati Public School), Pitampura in the 9th standard, and I was happy to get out of a filthy school in my own locality (I’d rather not name it, because going to that school is one of the few things about my life that I am ashamed of). I got a great set of teachers, a really high level of competition, a nice customised (non-CBSE) syllabus, and a sorta tight disciplined environment (which made breaking rules all the more fun, it gives you the adrenaline rush ).

I remember having the experience of studying under three different English teachers in 2 years, all 3 good at their subject, and just enough open minded. There was Ms. Aarti Madaan (sorry if I got the spelling wrong) and I remember doing Ode to the West Wind and Julius Caesar with her. Those were my best experiences with literature. We had fierce debates in class, I almost always disagreed with my teacher’s viewpoint on the interpretations of poetry. But there were no ego issues, the teacher had no problem until my contribution to the discussion was significant and helped out others to understand the ongoing subject. Because of the amazing influence that environment had on me, I was really into fiction and used to spend a lot of time with books from our school library (I used to read books on the way to school on a DTC/Blueline bus, and also on the way back).

Our chemistry teacher, Ms. Ruby Chadha, was the most perfect teacher one could find for chemistry, far better than the teachers that taught us in the 11th or 12th grade. Though she was really strict when it came to classes, and she rarely ever cracked a joke in class, but her method of teaching was thorough, simple, and interesting. I never remember her making a mistake while speaking or while writing on the blackboard. She knew her subject well and was extremely good at transferring her own knowledge to her students. This is the problem with most other teachers who fail, they have boastful degrees and qualifications, vast amounts of knowledge, but they simply don’t have that spark to share, or the ability to pass on the message. I really wish she would teach us chemistry in 11th and 12th standard, (I am 100% sure she knew the subject backwards) but I guess she didn’t have a piece of paper that the other lame teachers at the senior secondary level had.

Ms. Richa Khanna taught us biology. I now have no idea why, but back then, biology was my favorite subject. I would read biology textbooks, references, magazines, journals, online articles, all just for fun, as a hobby. The problem with most other biology teachers back then was that they got stuck in the vast terminology that we encounter while studying different forms of life, and because of the complexity of those terms and the difficulty in remembering the terms, most students dreaded biology. My teacher, Ms. Khanna was different. She focused on the understanding of the working of those complex systems, by breaking them down into smaller, more digestible parts and then comparing them to other simpler real life systems that we already understood. Because of this, I never felt the need to actually sit down and cram something up in my biology syllabus. Hats off to you too, Ms. Khanna.

Because I got to experience some really skilled teachers in these two years, I became intellect hungry and started craving for someone who was even better and would keep satisfying my need for knowledge. Sadly, BBPS had nothing to offer. I cannot take the name of even one of my teachers in either 11th or 12th standard who did justice to their subject.

Most of the teachers (especially my english teacher in 11th) were focused on how to score in the board exams, rather than giving importance to holistic learning and knowledge development. We were taught shortcuts and techniques to exploit the loopholes the existing examination system and therefore gain maximum benefit by serving to the examiners on a platter, all that they needed. Nobody gave a damn if we actually understood the underlying concept behind a topic or not, all that they were concerned with was if they had prepared us well to regurgitate in the exam paper what we had been brainwashed with in the class. The attitude of teachers was, “I don’t give a damn about this dumb job, its just that it pays so well. All I need to do is spoon feed these kids with the syllabus. They’ll vomit it out in the paper as it is, and I will get a good result in the CBSE examinations. Thus, nobody will question my ability and my job is secure”.

I do not miss going to school, I do not miss the class, the corridors, the play fields, the teachers, the school uniform. I do not dream about being a school kid again. I hate every part of it.

The only good that came out of those two years was some of the amazing people I met at school, which changed my life as I know it.

Two of my favorite tracks are Fake Messiah and Broken Hands. I feel that vocals have been done amazingly by Randy Blythe, and is the defining feature which strikes you in the first hearing. Guitarists Mark Morton and Willie Adler are also awesome. I now need to check out some of their older albums, especially Ashes of the Wake.

Check out – Broken Hands, Fake Messiah

Video playback would be a nice additional feature to the device I’m looking for, but as Brian correctly pointed out, watching anything on a 2 or 2.5 inch screen would be torture to the eyes. On the other hand, Vishal already owns an iPod Touch and watches 24 on it, and I agree, the 3.5 inch screen, though not sufficient, but is acceptable.

With the iPod Touch, you get much more than music, the iPod Touch is more or less the iPhone without the phone. It has Wi-Fi support, applications, upcoming support for all other kinds of things. But you still feel the pinch with a guy like me, who can never imagine spending 13k on something with purely entertainment value and zero educational purpose.

The iPod Classic boasts of an amazing battery life, and also of a 120 GB hard drive, but the restrictive nature of the iPod will not allow me to use the free space for other file storage purposes. And I, for one thing, know that my music collection will not reach anywhere near to 120 GB even in the near future. So the extra space goes waste. 16 GB is more than enough for me, if I am to store only music. If you start adding video, then of course, 120 GB is also a small number. Price for the iPod Classic would be around 14k, which would be justified if it were a little less bulky.

The iPod Shuffle is a pretty much useless device, even with the new improvements (voice and iTunes playlists), because a music player ought to have a screen so you can easily navigate to the track you want to listen to without having to wait for it to turn up like silly douche bag. You also need an equalizer, which is only possible when you have a screen. This crosses out the Shuffle completely from my list. Also, 4 GB is really a small space to fit all your music into. I’m the kinda guy who likes to keep the whole album if I like one track in it.

After all this thinking, the conclusion I reached was that none of the iPods offered by Apple suit my needs. Now I turn to other portable multimedia players in the market. Sony is one that comes to your mind when you think of the Indian market. But then I want to have a hands-on experience with a device before I decide to buy it, because a lot of things are left out intentionally in the reviews.

With everything the I require from my device, do you guys have anything in mind? Suggestions would be highly appreciated.

Its not that I’ve not been to NSIT before, I was there for the counseling of IIIT Delhi, and I was also there for their tech-fest, Innovision. The campus is though big (not bigger than DCE) but the only place where you get to see activity is around the educational area which is quite limited. Anyway, I arrived at NSIT at around 5:30 p.m, and got to meet quite a few people who had migrated to NSIT (from DCE) after the first semester.

We got to know that most of the so called small fun events were already over, and the big events for the evening were left – Mudra – a choreography event, Rouge – fashion parade, and Avalanche – the rock show. My main reason for going to NSIT was to meet old friends, and watch Arcane Deception perform at Avalanche. We were told that the venue for both Mudra and Rouge were the grounds behind the main academic area at NSIT. We moved over there and grabbed some seats. A few minutes later we were informed that all the seats were for only faculty members and NSIT alumni, and we were asked to move out.

Sorry for the shaky picture, that’s the best I could do .

Well ok, this was acceptable, we weren’t in a mood to sit anyway, so we got out of the barricades. The first team to perform in Mudra was IIT Delhi. They tried to depict the Mahabharata, and yes, they were good. There was a surprisingly good level of coordination in the performance, which was really unusual coming from a bunch of people whom you would expect to be total nerds immersed in stuides. The only thing that I thought was stupid on their end was using parts from the OST’s of The Dark Knight, Requiem for a Dream, and also the Saw theme. Next was NSIT, who were doing Pygmalion. In comparison to IIT Delhi’s performance, they stood nowhere. It was really crappy performance, and the anchor there was crying out loud boasting about how their team had defeated every other team out there at some other event. Next came UCMS, which was also a decent performance, but not as gripping as IIT’s performance. They were followed by HMR, which had a group of incredibly dumb and untalented girls. It seemed as if somebody had let a flock of ducks loose on the stage. You cannot imagine the pain caused to my eyes by watching that performance. Thankfully, in the middle of the performance, it started raining heavily, and so we left the venue to look for shelter. HMR completed their performance, and then the rest of the event, along with Rouge, the fashion parade was canceled. Great.

We spent a little time roaming around, when I got to know that Avalanche was going on in the auditorium (seriously guys, I never understood the logic behind having a rock performance in an area with chairs and where there is no possibility of moshing or having a mosh pit. Its as if people want to take the whole fun out of the event, and they intentionally make sure that people don’t get to enjoy the performances). We checked out the schedule with the organizers, and we got to know that Arcane Deception had the 6th slot. It was already 9:30, and each band would take around 20 minutes for their performance. We couldn’t wait for their performance, as we had to return by the Delhi Metro, which gets closed early. Another great event missed because of lack of appreciation of time by the organizers of Moksha ‘09.

What I need to mention here is that you can easily consider me as an unbiased third party when I say that DCE’s Engifest was way way better in terms of the participation, coordination and organization as compared to Moksha. I could see that the organizers had their asses on fire because they had really no idea what to do when it started raining. They just stood and watched everything go down. The first day at Moksha, was a really big FAIL. People who are thinking about going tomorrow, think again.

The next day, I popped in another DVD for burning, and fired up Toast Titanium. While writing the Lead-in, I got a medium write error. I popped in another DVD, ignoring the earlier one as a defected piece in the lot. Tried burning the same project again, same error. Wasted 5 DVDs like this.

Next I tried inserting an already written DVD, tried to read its contents. I waited for a long time, but Mac OS X was unable to detect the DVD. Because the DVD was not detected, Mac OS X was unable to eject it. I had to use evil methods to get it out. After that one was out, I tried inserting a completely new one, scratch free, into the drive. The disc spent about 30 seconds inside the drive, and was then spit out. Tried again, same result. Same with other DVDs. All of them were being spit out.

I ignored the problem for a few days hoping that it would magically sort itself out, but it didn’t. I did some digging online and found out the error was actually quite common. But couldn’t find a one-stop solution to it. Most people had their drives changed when this error popped up and the Apple Store guys did change the drives readily.

It was only a few days ago when I thought of trying a CD lens cleaner on the drive (though I was afraid how it would work because the brush might get stuck inside a slot-load drive). I took the chance, and popped the lens cleaner in, with the cleaner liquid applied on the brush. It repeated the same behavior – was spit out after 30 seconds. I kept repeating the process to make sure the lens was cleaned thoroughly. After 3 times of repeating this, I inserting tried a data DVD.

And it worked. Guess the whole problem was related to dust getting accumulated on the lens. BTW, how does dust get inside the tightly valved slot load Super Drive? (It must’ve got in at the time I left a DVD dangling from it for days together.)

No worries, I was extra cautious and that’s why I bought a care pack from Hotspot (where I bought the phone from), which included accidental warranty. I called up Sneezy, who had given his phone for repair to the same Hotspot and he confirmed that indeed those guys would do the job for free if I had a care pack.

I took it to the Hotspot dealer a few days later. He took the handset from me, and gave me a job receipt. I looked at the receipt; he had left the “Estimated date of completion of job” blank. I asked him when I would get my phone back. He said it would take at least 10 days. I told him to write it down on the receipt. He said, “Arre bhai aapko bola na, 10 din mein ho jayega, tension kyun lete ho?”

I went back to the Hotspot 10 days later, and as expected, my phone had not been repaired yet. He said it would take 2-3 more days and that they would call me when it arrives (That is what everybody seems to be saying these days, even the Bank of Baroda guys say the same thing, but no one actually calls up). I took their visiting card.

I called them back after 3 days, and they say that my phone has still not arrived. They gave me a number, for the Hotspot service center in Lajpat Nagar, and said that I could confirm the status of my phone with them. The number was 60005566. I was unable to call the number. I tried with my cell phone, my landline, and a friend’s cell phone. I tried it with a zero, as it is, with a 011, with a 0112, no luck. I just couldn’t get through to the number. The number was also mentioned on the bottom of the job receipt. It is also mentioned on their official website.

I went to the Hotspot again the next day and asked him to call the number he had given to me, because I was unable to reach it. He called them, and it went through (weird) and they said that the display for the K530i was out of stock and that was the reason for delay of the repair. I was promised I would get the phone in another week, and I would get a call whenever my phone was ready.

Yesterday I was passing through the area where the Hotspot was located, and I decided to give it a shot. I walked in and asked the guy at the desk if my phone had arrived. He said it would arrive after Holi. I started shouting at him because I was tired of their excuses. He said they would call me when my handset arrived. Right at that moment, the manager (or whoever he was) said that my handset had arrived. He pulled out my handset from inside a drawer.

This made me even more angry. The guy who was at the desk was confident that my phone had not arrived yet, when in fact he had no idea at all. He gave me attitude and told me that he would call when it would arrive. Now that it had arrived, I had received no calls. I wanted to punch that dude in the face right there. But I refrained. As I always do.

I checked my phone over there, and the screen was fine. I gave the manager the job receipt, took my phone, and left.

Bottom line? Hotspot is added to the long list of businesses with Crappy Customer Care. Do not buy a phone from Hotspot. They torture their customers for warranty.