After a long long time…

Here I am!!. Back again to my old blog with an aroma of Nostalgia. Lots of changes in my life. College to Aricent, Aricent to Cisco.. Madurai to Gurgaon, Gurgaon to chennai and Chennai to Bangalore. And again back here, thinking about (missing) my precious evergreen college days and doing some boring stuffs here in Cisco. Into another part of my life, Work, Responsibility, promotion, incentive, Hike, blah.. blah… blah… White hairs started lurking from my head, people around me getting older and friends are either going abroad or getting married. Money gives me comfort, Work is not so hectic but still longing for those good old days where I can learn things by myself and do whatever I want. No Goals, no future plans, nothing.. Sitting simply and enjoying a boring life. 🙂

Airtel GPRS and me

From the time I bought my new mobile (Samsung gt C3212i) I’m using Airtel GPRS. Airtel GPRS provides good internet connectivity that I can access net anytime and anywhere. Recharging with Rs.98 gave me 2gb internet for 1 month. Though it is a dialup connection, it is good. I get the full utilization of bandwidth. My network speed never fluctuates.  The data rate is at constant 15 to 20kbps . My previous post on Reliance NetConnect, Airtel allowing PPP protocol,the ability of my mobile to act as modem and little googling helped me in tweaking ubuntu to connect internet. This huge development in wireless technologies fascinates me, when I identified it full use. I over exploited these resources that I have downloaded 4 full length movies,softwares, updates and so on with this 15kbps speed :). My mobile phone, unable to take on my huge request is at its melting point . Yet, I get the best service that can be given through this topology. My previous ISP gave me  1gb download+upload limit, only for Rs.250 with a lot of problems in it. The ease of use in this wireless service is no match for the wired service. I just  I can see the usage of Java as a the most powerful language for mobile applications only by using it. So this keep on telling me that “good experience kindles you to learn more and bad experience makes u to avoid more”.  🙂

Connecting to Internet using Reliance NetConnect in ubuntu > 8.10

Connecting to Internet  in ubuntu karmic (the version I’m using) is not so easy and some digging lead me to make it successful. Reliance do provides it support for ubuntu but only upto version 8.10 or upto kernel 2.6.30.

The Idea behind the setup is to make the system to detect the usb and switch its mode of operation according to its purpose. Then serialize the usb port. So there are a list of packages needed to be downloaded. They are:

1. usb_modeswitch.deb (available at http://packages.ubuntu.com)

2.wvdial.deb (any version supports ur distro).

The step by step connection can be made as follows:

1. connect your modem. after a while it shows up as a cd rom drive and you’ll see the desktop icon.
now open terminal and give the command “lsusb”. a list will come up showing all the connected devices.
find something like this “Bus 004 Device 003: ID 19d2:fff5”. here fff5 is the device id. all we have to do is to change it from fff5 to fff1. for this we need a package called “usb_modeswitch”.
2. now a file will be created naming “usb_modeswitch.conf” in the directory “/etc”. now you have to edit this file with root privilage.

3. to do this give the command in terminal “sudo gedit /etc/usb_modeswitch.conf”
4.this file will be opened in gedit text editor. now scroll below and find your device. it will be displayed like this:

# ZTE MF622 (aka “Onda MDC502HS”)
#
# Contributor: andylog

;DefaultVendor= 0x19d2
;DefaultProduct= 0xfff5

;TargetVendor= 0x19d2
;TargetProduct= 0xfff1

# only for reference and 0.x versions
# MessageEndpoint=0x04

;MessageContent=”55534243f8f993882000000080000a850 10101180101010101000000000000″

11.find your device and delete the semicolon signs of lines starting with “;”(simply unquote). it should look like this:

# ZTE MF622 (aka “Onda MDC502HS”)
#
# Contributor: andylog

DefaultVendor= 0x19d2
DefaultProduct= 0xfff5

TargetVendor= 0x19d2
TargetProduct= 0xfff1

# only for reference and 0.x versions
# MessageEndpoint=0x04

MessageContent=”55534243f8f993882000000080000a8501 0101180101010101000000000000″
5.save the file.
6.give the command “usb_modeswitch” with root privilage.
7.after the execution give command “lsusb”. you will see that the device id has been changed from “fff5”
to “fff1”.
8.the 1st stage is complete. now Give parameters to kernel for identification of the modem. to do this
give the command “modprobe usbserial vendor=<vendor id> product=<product id>” (just type the target vendor id and target product id from usb_modeswitch)

(In my case it is modprobe usbserial vendor=0x19d2 product=0xfff1)
9.you must have “libusb” installed. Now we use wvdialconf to configure internet.to do this you have to install the package named “wvdial”. a file named “wvdial.conf” will be created in “/etc”.
10. [optionally] to activate give command “wvdialconf /etc/wvdial.conf”.
11.now you have to edit the file “wvdial.conf”. to do this give command “sudo gedit /etc/wvdial.conf”
12.when the file opens in gedit Enter the following Details.
13.Phone=#777
username=<enter your phone number>
password=<enter your phone number>

(some extralines will be added by default when opened first . Don’t edit those)

and don’t forget to delete the semicolons of the above lines.
14.now you are done. run the command “wvdial” in terminal with root privilage. your internet connection will be established.

My Experience in getting license in madurai

The good news is I got two wheeler and four wheeler license today. I’m licensed to drive throughout india in M/CYCL. WG and LMV. So let us go through the brief yet long history of the entire process of getting the license. Being a timid guy staying at tirunagar I don’t know what driving is and what license is for. I roamed through the roads of madurai without license. I’d been going to college for 1 year without license. But suddenly I got a strong urge in my mind to get license at any cost. It was in the starting of february when all of my friends were vigorously trying to get a passport. That is a seperate story and it is worth for a seperate post. So now coming to our track, mmm… what I was saying?? yeah.. license. So I approached a friend of mine who has already got license, to enquire about which driving school is best in our area. He said that “A” driving school (name changed for secrecy) is best. Taking his word as a mantra or a gateway to license, I approached the so called “A” driving school. The mantra I was spelling worked very lately, coz I would have got my driving license two weeks before this post and all this lateness is due to the so called “A” driving school. You will come to know about it in the flow. So carry on. I asked a worker in the school for applying for driving license. I was asked to apply for LLR the next week. Being absentminded and stupid, I doubted what this LLR is for? but I had some basic brain to assume that it might be some application form. Hmmm. My guess was right. I was asked to bring 7 photos and proof of address and date of birth. The driving school ppl helped me in filling the LLR form but they asked me to go to the place along with two others who applied with me to go to the RTO, madurai and complete the entire process by ourselves. At that time, I had hardly heard about RTO and where it is. So not knowing what to do, I just got the phone number of the worker and made my short journey towards the RTO along with two others who also don’t know what to do. I just followed the instructions and somehow managed to get LLR on that day. I was given a short but useful introductory class on the day of LLR application itself in the driving school. I got to know how the car works internally, why are the batteries for, why a radiator is needed, how to service your car when you are a owner of the car. Those things I cannot forget. I was asked to pay a fee of 2500 for four wheeler and 300 for two wheeler. Being a gud boy( in not knowing things) and not knowing the options in the payment I simply paid the full amount instantly. The total training period in the driving school is 25 days and once an LLR is applied, a person can apply for license at the end of 35th day from the date of application. The LLR has a validity of 6 months. These informations along with driving I learnt in the driving school. Slowly I became a fairly good driver of jeep and sumo. Sumo is my favorite, coz it is easy to drive, smooth and has good features than the rattling,old,mangled jeep. Going by this way I was given a date for license and exactly on the day before license, the problem erupted. Actually there are two partners jointly running the driving school. So there came a partnership misunderstandings and Mr. X who was the chief teacher and one of the partner took away the RC book of the vehicles that are meant to be going for license test. So to counter attack Mr.X, the other partner, Mr. Y, who will accompany for license took away the vehicles with him. So licensing was indefinitely postponed. We were asked to come week after week with the situation getting worse. Finally people contacted Mr. Y, who promised to go for license today at any cost. Regarding license… So before giving license, the break inspector from RTO tests the ability of the driver. He makes the driver to pass or fail the test based on his presence of mind, control over the car and traffic rules. For example, if a driver makes the vehicle to go halt during driving or applies a wrong gear then he’ll be failed. Those failed drivers can reappear for the test the forthcoming week only. For retest, they should pay an amount of Rs.300. A person failed in the first test will definitely be passed in the next regardless of whatever error he has made…. Now coming to our story, Mr. Y has made some “negotiations” with one of the break inspectors in the RTO to conduct the tests at some other place. So now,

Place: Somewhere near mku,

time:8:30am.

First of all we were asked to ride on the motor bike. This time we were asked to go straight and come back and not in the usual 8 like pattern. I got it cleared in an old m80 vehicle. It was easy becoz the racing metre of the m80 has been raised such that the vehicle doesn’t switches off even after the gear has been applied and it will start moving automatically. The next was the serious test of four wheeler driving skill. So one by one was asked to drive the vehicle upto 4th gear and down the gear to 3rd and finally stop the vehicle at a safe place showing all the traffic signals whenever it is applicable. I was third one to ride the sumo. I switched of the vehicle when I applied the first gear. For any geared vehicle to start moving, it is mandatory to release the clutch slowly. But I released it a little fast. Quickly I neutralled the gear and started the vehicle and did all the steps in perfection except showing the signals. The RTO asked me to show the signals and I did it partially, as I have forgotten it due to not being in touch for two weeks. One comedy is,a person who was driving the car before my turn applied the vehicle so forcefully that the RTO flied towards the car glass reminding me of a vadivelu comedy. The was very much terrified and scolded the Mr. Y for giving such a beautiful training. Atlast we were asked to go towards RTO office and we have to wait for some 1 and 1/2 hrs for completing all formalities and taking photos. I was asked to come and collect the license at 5 o’clock and got the license at 5.

BSNL Bad database and very bad Customer Service

So. This is an interesting event happened today. Let us have a brief, yet long description of the whole problem. I’m using BSNL H250 plan. Though it is limited, I was happy with this plan because I spend most of the time in college. I wasn’t having much problem with it, but only till last month. When I viewed the broadband account usage in bsnl portal on first day of this month, I was shocked. There was an entry saying that I have used 678mb (3/4 of my  free usage) on 10 Jan 201o at night (12:30 to 2:00). I, being lazy, thought that it was an error (which is true) and will be rectified by the BSNL people. But the entry retained and to my horror, my account usage crossed 1600mb (out of 1024 mb free) by this day. So I went on to question the BSNL authorities about the problem. They accepted that it was some transaction error that happened during the opening of this month and it has been rectified. I said, “The problem persists with my account”.  Then, They opened the same portal where the error is found and simply replied “It has been opened by you and you have downloaded it and It was not our fault”. I asked whether can I see the websites I had visited during that time. But they refused to show it. Being an ardent Linux user and  trying to be intelligent(not much), I have already taken the system log files from my debian linux OS with me. In which, there is a log saying that the system has been shutdown at 12:40am on Jan 10. So there is no point that I had downloaded 678 mb between 12:30 to 2:00, when I have shutdown my system at 12:40.  I asked them can I show my system log files. But they also refused to see it saying “our system is stable and we are in no business of seeing your system log files and still If you are not satisfied,you can very well give a formal complaint to accounts manager stating the problem”. So now, I went to the accounts manager to give a formal complaint. He said, “I’ll handle only the complaints given on the past billing errors and even if you give me a complaint the statement will be given to the authorities you have already visited. So you will get the same reply”. Finally, I came out of BSNL office with no complaint given and no problem being solved wasting 2 hours with stupid authorities. If the billing is done, then I’ll have to pay Rs. 600 additionally for net usage that I have never used :(. Hmmm…. what to do now… :(…

As a Beginner..

I had an inner feeling of having a neat  and simple blog. This idea struck in my mind after having  a bitter experience with my previous blog and  reading many other blogs of my friends, friends of friends and so on.

Being honest, I’m neither a  good blog orator nor a word wizard, posting words with unknown meanings. Thinking of how a simple blog can be constructed, I started editing my old blog with my mind going way and ended up with a big bowl of shit (oops, too harsh :)) . After making some initial analysis, comparison with other blogs and some calculations of my own, my old blog got a score of 0.0001, on a scale of 10. Being generous , I’m rounding up the score to 0.1 . Too good for a bad blogger 😉 . I simply learnt from others’ blogs that “how a blog should be”.  So as a starter, I’m making this as my first post.