Tweetups in Bangalore have been getting not only better, but more common. This edition of Bangalore Tweetup, hash tagged #paintballtweetup, was organized in less than a couple of days, but it was loads of fun. The venue – Indian Paintball League (ironically called IPL), located off Sarjapura Road.

Getting there was a challenge in the first place. A two and a half hour drive through the interior parts of the city finally took us to the Paintball Arena, about an hour and a half late. But that didn’t stop us from shooting the crap outta each other — Counter-Strike style — once we arrived there. Take a look at some of the photos below.

The last photo features HN Prashanth, Arun and Jerry Mannel showing off their (*ahem*) battle scars.

The Paintball Tweetup was something out of the ordinary when it came to tweetups, and it was absolutely awesome. If the Paintball Tweetup and the Bowling Tweetup are anything to go by, the next unique Bangalore Tweetup we have in mind should be even better. Anybody can attend it, so subscribe to the blog and follow me on Twitter so I can let you know when the next one is up.

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Lately I’ve been finding myself manually converting PNG files to JPEGs. It can get quite tedious and frankly, boring. I downloaded a couple of apps that could automate the process, but each of them had their quirks. They would either watermark the finished image or limit me to trying them out for a finite number of days. I had to resort to manually editing them using MS Paint, and then saving them as JPEG files. The quality was bad, all thanks to the disastrous MS Paint. So I set out to find a way to convert them using Photoshop. What I ended up was writing my own Action for Photoshop CS2.

I’m just illustrating how you can use Photoshop to convert PNG to JPEG in this how-to, but you could use it to convert any image format (including PSD) to JPEG. I’m going to save them using the “Save for Web” attribute because that’s what my purpose was to begin with.

1. Open the PNG file in Photoshop.
2. Go to Window -> Actions.
3. Click on the ‘Create New Action’ icon (found next to the trashcan icon). Give it any name and function key you want. It’s now recording your actions.
4. Go to File -> Save for Web. Choose whatever preset you want. Save the file.

The above action can be used in the future by activating the function key you defined. The image you were working on will be saved as a JPEG with the preset you chose, into the folder you chose. Saves a few clicks. But we’re not done with the batch conversion yet.

1. Go to File -> Automate -> Batch.
2. Choose your Action, the one that you saved previously.
3. Choose the source folder and the destination folder. Optionally set a naming scheme for all your batch files.
4. Wokay. You are now done.

All this could have been avoided if Apple had a bloody option to save the screenshots you take on an iPod Touch as JPEG instead of ridiculously sized PNG.

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• The progressive tense in stative verbs: I am understanding it. She is knowing the answer. Also, “I am working at XYZ Company” instead of “I work at XYZ Company”. This is an influence of traditional Hindi grammar; it is more common in northern states.
• The pluperfect tense used in verbs where International English speakers would use the simple past. I had gone for I went.
• Use of would instead of will as in “I would be going to New York this weekend”.
• Use of do the needful as in “do whatever needs to be done”
• Anglicisation of Indian words especially in Chennai by adding “ify” to a local Tamil word, usually humorously and not used in general speak.
• Idiomatic English for quantification in use of preposition “of”, as in “There is so much of happiness in being honest.”
• Use of “open” and “close” instead of switch/turn on/off, as in “Open the air conditioner” instead of “Turn on the air conditioner”, and “Open your shirt” for “Take off your shirt.” This construction is also found in Quebec English and also among Arab speakers of English etc.
• Use of “off” and “on” as verbs rather than adjectives, as in “On the light” instead of “Turn on the light” or “Off the fan” instead of “Switch off the fan.”
• Use of “y’all” for “you all” or “all of you”, as used in Southern American English, especially by Anglo-Indians. However, unlike Southern American usage, it is only used as a subject or object in a sentence, never to address a group of people.
• Swapping around the meanings of “slow” and “soft” as in “I shall speak slower for you” meaning “I will speak softly” and “Make the fan softer” to mean “Make the fan go slower.” This is because of influence from Indian languages. In Telugu, for example, the word ‘melliga’ can refer to either slow or quiet, and in Hindi “Deerai” can mean slowly or softly.
• Creation of rhyming double-words (rhyming reduplication) to denote generality of idea or act, a ‘totality’ of the word’s denotation, as in “No more ice-cream-fice-cream for you!”, “Let’s go have some chai-vai (tea, “tea and stuff”).” or “There’s a lot of this fighting-witing going on in the neighborhood.” (Prevalent mainly in Hindi- and Punjabi-speaking states.)
• Use of the word “since” instead of “for” in conjunction with periods of time, as in “I have been working since four years” instead of “I have been working for four years” or “I have been working since four years ago“. This usage is more common among speakers of North Indian languages such as Hindi where the words for both “since” and “for” are the same.
• Use of “Can you drop me?” and “We will drop her first” instead of “Can you drop me off?” and “We will drop her off first”
• Omission of the definite article: e.g. “Let’s go to city” instead of “Let’s go to the city”
• Use of “the same” instead of “it”, as in “I heard that you have written a document on …. Could you send me the same?”
• Use of “told” instead of “said”. An example would be “Ravi told he is going home” instead of “Ravi said he is going home” or “Ravi told me he is going home”. This feature is more prevalent in South India.

From the Wiki Entry for Indian English.

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Picture of last year's Airtel iPhone 3G registration page

At WWDC 2009, Apple announced that the new iPhone 3G[S] would be available for purchase starting June 19th. What Apple did not clearly specify was a launch date for the 3G[S] in India. However, Apple did say that the new iPhone would be launched in July in some countries, and as far away as August in other countries (like India).

Remember when the iPhone 3G was released? It was June. And later, I wrote about the iPhone 3G releasing in India in August. Airtel came out first with the iPhone in India, Vodafone later officially announced the same, and BSNL came in a distant last with an announcement in September.  So by all probability, the expected date for the new iPhone 3G[S] release in India will most probably be in August.

There weren’t any long queues, neither were a lot of iPhone pre-bookings made because of the Rs.36,000 price tag. You can be sure that this time too, for the iPhone 3G[S], the initial price will still be around the Rs.30,000+ range. As for the iPhone 3G, the expected market trend is that when something new comes out, the old must either get a price drop, or be discontinued. Most of us are expecting a price drop, to something at the range of Rs.25,000 – Rs.30,000.

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[via here]

P.S. – for all my non-Kannada speaking friends, the translation of the title is in the permalink (URL). Simply (photo na) Yenjaay Maadi!

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Yes, I’ve been enjoying a lot all these days. Weddings, parties, movie outings, and most importantly – tweetups!

I’m pretty sure all of you already know what a tweetup is. If not, JFGI. We Bangalore folks love our tweetups, ’cause we sure do know how to have a kick ass time (oops, does that qualify as a pun?).

The last tweetup (on Saturday, 30th May) was at Amoeba Bowling, Church Street. This was our first #bowlingtweetup (useless Twitter hash tag). The Bangalore tweeps, consisiting of @fagunbhavasar, @hnprashanth, @dkris, @tsuvik, @viralsachde, @santoshp and myself played two games, enjoying each one thoroughly. Of course, it would have been a lot more fun it only @fagunbhavasar had not won both by a landslide (128+ and 100+, WTF? ). Besides the bowling, we had a lot of fun looking everywhere else (rather, at everybody else), which for us guys, proved completely distracting, but enjoyable at the same time. (Err.. *hint*: birds, bird watching, you get the point?)

We visited Indian Coffee House (ICH) too. The new location on Church Street is small, but they still have the same coffee and brilliant ‘cutlets’. I’d recommend it to anybody coming to visit Bangalore.

Ah.. Good ol’ Bangalore. Awesome fun. Follow me on Twitter, and I’ll tweet when you can join us next time. Open invite.

Oh, by the way, there’s a fun photo scheduled for blog post tomorrow. You might want to subscribe by feed or by email.

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Had just been to the BSNL office to enquire about the EVDO service. Here are the tariffs:

On Rent:

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Yesterday, while using Airtel Live GPRS, I received a message saying “Fusion Lounge” service had been activated and that’ I would be charged Rs.15 every month. Being outside and quite busy, I decided not to call Airtel Customer Care up immediately. In fact, I had doubts whether the service was of Airtel since it looked quite spammy and had a link that did not seem to be an Airtel website.

Earlier today I was surfing through Airtel Live again, and I get a message saying 15 Rupees has been charged for Fusion Lounge. This time I called them up, and then hung up as soon as the rep picked up because I was needed elsewhere.

I called them up again in the evening today and I’m put through to an inexperienced young lady struggling to speak English. Fine. Most of Airtel’s CC is of this type anyway. What pissed me off was that even though she had heard about Fusion Lounge, she had NO idea how it was activated, she wouldn’t agree she about that, and rushed me up into deactivating it. Throughout the call the rep blamed ME for the activation and said that it was entirely MY fault. I mean, WTF? Here I was having absolutely no idea what Fusion (Shit) Lounge is and she’s telling me I had activated it. After I strongly objected, she told me I must have activated it without my knowledge. I object again. I ask her how the service is activated. The reply I get – “You must have pressed some button while browsing Airtel Live”. I ask which button and she replies to me saying “some button”. I proceeded to question her about HOW Fusion Lounge is activated, to which she FINALLY confessed to having no clue about. She then deactivated the service and redirected me to 12118 – the Airtel GPRS Customer Care Helpline. (They have a dedicated GPRS helpline. I suppose they get a LOT of GPRS complaints like this.)

The “I-dunno-English-saaar, how may I assist you” rep at 12118 asked me to call up 121. Just great. (Surprisingly I didn’t blow my head off at him.)

I decided that this would be the last time I call up 121 and speak to a rep. This time however, the rep asked me my problem and then my name. He immediately said that the money would be refunded within an hour. (Wait, WHAT?!) He continued to tell me that if the service was activated again and I wanted a refund, it would not happen AT ALL. He told me that I must have browsed “Handygo daat caaalm” and clicked on a subscription for, I quote, “nazara tech, f technology”. A quick Google Search took me to this horribly designed website.

Oh, this is the first time my money has been reimbursed by Airtel, and that, within a couple of minutes. I’ve been put through 45 day waiting periods only to be told that the money will not be refunded. Raises eyebrows as to why they refunded the money this time and so quickly too.

P.S. – I should probably make a separate category for Airtel, and call it “Airtel Rants” maybe?

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Google India today announced that its ‘Internet Bus’ will now be touring Karnataka on a campaign focusing on four themes – information, communication, entertainment and education.

The video driven content will showcase how even with basic knowledge of the Internet people can make their everyday lives simpler. The content will also provide familiarization on using services like search, email, social networking, online maps and mobile. All this information will be available in English and Kannada. The bus will be starting its journey from Bangalore and will travel through 15 towns in the next 50 days. This campaign is aimed at people with limited knowledge and exposure to the Internet and the experience has been designed to create awareness of the benefits of this powerful medium.

Users across India will be able to follow the bus through its journey, see pictures and videos and join online communities by visiting http://www.google.co.in/internetbus.  
"Tamil Nadu was a big learning for us and it was inspiring to see that people wanted to know about the internet and share their needs with us. This experience has reinforced our belief that awareness is the key challenge in the growth of the Internet in India and we are excited about bringing this campaign to yet another state. In this phase besides popular services like email, search and videos, we will be focusing on how mobile phones can be used to access useful local information even without data plans. Access to the Internet in local languages will continue to be a focus area,” said Dr. Prasad Ram, Head of Google R&D, India. [via PC World]

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It’s time to say buh-bye to Airtel’s once loved Airtel Online or Net Over Phone (NOP) unlimited GPRS data plan. Airtel has announced that they will be switching over from the unlimited GPRS plan to the pay as you use Airtel Live! and Mobile Office plans.

From May 5th, Airtel will switch existing NOP customers over to a 30paise/50KB plan, in what can only be described as ‘INSANE’.

New subscribers can send an SMS “VBC ACTV” to the toll free number 222. (Some report activating the service by dialing *567# or by sending an SMS “AGPRS” to 56789.)

As an Airtel Online subscriber ever since I switched to Airtel, I have to say that I am extremely disappointed at Airtel.

First, it was the ‘no more daily 100 free sms’ notice. Then the Re.1 daily rental for the College Plan (although they reacivated the free sms plan). And now cancelling the unlimited GPRS plan. Yes Airtel, you definitely know how to dig your own grave.

[via HNP @ Tech Bangalore]

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