Had to share this. Say NO to racism....

Amazing Video with a song message. Say NO to racism 

I am back

Well after a break of 4 years I am back. A lot has changed over the last five years, but I would try to be much more regular with these posts going forward. So till next post, see you.

Use your old router as a Switch or use your router as a Switch to increase your wifi range

Was faced with a perplexed problem. In order to increase the wifi range at my home had been working with a couple of Wifi Routers with quite some time now.

The first router was ADSL Wifi Router which was provided by my ISP (Airtel) in this case. The second one was a Netgear router which I had bought from Flipkart for 1.5 K.

The initial setup was that I had setup 2 NAT subnets at my place. The first one was setup by the ADSL Wifi router in the series 192.168.1.X and the second one was setup via my Netgear router with 192.168.2.X

But two different subnets did mean, connectivity issues between PC's on the network. So what i really did was to convert the second router as a Switch by simply plugging in the cable from the first router in one of the output ports of the second router (instead of the input port) and voila.. it worked :-)

Make Big Bubbles at Home

A great site for making big bubbles at home

http://happyhooligans.ca/homemade-giant-bubbles/

Worked for me. Will post some pics soon.

Sugar Sync going Pricy. BitTorrent Sync to the rescue

Sugar Sync dropped a bomb last week, when they announced  that they would no longer be offering free 5 GB accounts to customer, and for existing customers either they migrate by Feb 2014 (to a paid account), or wish goodbye to their data.

For a home user like me, who has 3 PC's to deal with and ensuring that the desktop and My Documents is in sync, Sugar Sync 5 GB plan was a blessing, ensuring online backup as well as keeping the 3 PC's in sync. But i was in no appetite for shelling out ~ 75 $ a year (that's the cheapest plan they offer) for my data backup.

Bit Torrent Sync to the rescue here. Its uses a P2P protocol to ensure folders across PC could be kept in sync. What's more for devices on the LAN it uses the local network (rather than going through the Internet which Sugar Sync used to do) and save me in bandwidth, since out here in India data speeds are still capped. Android version of the application is pretty sleek and ensures that music and photo transfer happen in a jiffy over the network.

Have been using it over the past couple of days and have been more than happy with what's on offer. For now have bought an year's contract with Sugar Sync (for a discounted rate of 17$ ), but if things go fine with Bit Torrent Sync, wouldn't be renewing the contract any further.

What are some new features in the latest version of Java

Believe me, this is got to be one of the most common questions across various interviews. Being honest as always pays the dividends here. No fun in saying that you have worked in Java 7, when you haven't.

For the purpose of this post listing below some of the key features (amongst the hundreds released along with )introduced with Java 7

1. Diamond Operator <> - Gives you the ability to use Generics without declaring the data types both sides of the = operator. E.g. Map> trades = new TreeMap <> ();  instead of Map> trades = new TreeMap> ();
2. Ability to use String statements with SWITCH - Restricted to just being used with enums and primitives, Java 7 gives us an ability to use switch statements with Strings which is a life saver and helps us to get rid of those long if then else statements.
3. Numerals with underscore - Again more from a readability perspective you now have an option of declaring 1 million as int temp = 1_000_000 for better readability perspective
4. Support for extensions in JVM to support dynamic languages

References

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/jdk7-relnotes-418459.html

http://radar.oreilly.com/2011/09/java7-features.html

http://donaldojdk.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/55j7.pdf

Satyamev Jayate - Does aamir khan have another hit on the cards ? Maybe not ....

Satyamev Jayate - Good Intent and nice execution, not sure about the outcome though (Cases pending in courts for years. Would Aamir's letter really make a difference ?, I hope it does but not sure if it will )

Also Aamir did a great job as the host - Considering a huge fee of around Rs 3 crore per episode he sure had to deliver :-) 

http://www.livemint.com/2012/04/21000711/Aamir-Khan8217s-Satyamev-Ja.html

Google Drive is Here

Finally after what seemed like ages Google Drive is finally here.

https://drive.google.com

Apparently not all the user accounts are not ready (at least mine isn't while working here from India) but from the look of it sounds interesting and definitely a good challenger to Dropbox and Skydrive.

Awaiting to take Google Drive for a test drive :-) 

My new Android App - Never Miss The Call

Finally I have my first Android App, up and running in the Android Market

https://market.android.com/details?id=org.vikramkumar.nevermissthecall

Check it out. Basically it creates a whitelist of numbers which would ring even if your phone is on silent/vibrate mode.

Try it out.

Airtel MobileTV Sucks Big Time.... You would not be unable to unsubscribe to it once you subscribe

You read it right. Airtel has finally managed to touch the zenith of ripping off money from their customers with this Mobile TV Service. I subscribed to this service for IPL matches @40 Rs weekly in addition to Rs 10/day for IPL matches. Subscription was done immediately.

The major challenge came in when I tried to unsubscribe to the service, sending the text UNSUBTV to 54321 did not generate any response, and as I write it's been over 10 days since I have been trying to unsubscribe to this service, called up multiple times to the customer care (I don't know why they still use the word "care", "scare" seems more appropriate) and nodal officer.

Looks like in a hurry Airtel actually forgot a way to build an un-subscription option in this service.

Any of you out there facing similar issues ?

Update - 24th May 2011

Finally Airtel Mobile TV was unsubscribed. Teaches me a lesson not to subscribe to any more Value Based Services from Airtel again. :-)

Web Based Version of Angry Birds Out....

Another unique way of killing time in office. Web version of the killer iphone/android and Symbian (yes it's still there) is now available for your desktop browser. Click here and start shooting...

Works flawlessly on chrome. Try it out

http://chrome.angrybirds.com

Unofficial upgrade guide to Android 2.2(Froyo) for Samsung Galaxy 5 (I5003) in India

Disclaimer:-

This is my experience of upgrading Samsung Galaxy 5 I5003 to Android 2.2 (Froyo) release. Before attempting the below steps, kindly understand the risk associated with this. This voids your warranty and may even brick your phone, so kindly do it at your own risk. I have no affiliation to Samsung, Android, XDA or samfirmware.com

Do take a backup of all your stuff before performing the update as all data, applications would be wiped off. (The application which you bought on the Android Market, may be downloaded again but again a backup would not harm).

Credits:-

• XDA Dev Forum especially the link http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=781149 based on which this article has been written.
• www.SamFirmware.com – Site which contains the link for the firmware.

So you bought a shiny new Samsung Galaxy 5 I5003 in India, but are pretty frustrated by the fact that it still ships with Android 2.1 whereas Android 2.2 has been around for around 8 months. In addition to giving a shiny new fast UI Android 2.2 offers 2 new features which all of us are looking forward to

• Wi-Fi Tethering
• Ability to install apps on the SD card instead of Phone Memory (which is just around 150 MB for Samsung Galaxy 5 handset).

Not sure about the future of official firmware upgrade from Samsung (as they have a similar priced phone in Samsung Mini launched with Android 2.2), I decided to take the plunge and install a custom Firmware for Android 2.2 on Samsung Galaxy 5. Following is the step by step instructions which I followed

1. Download and unzipped Odin and Ops file as linked on the forum http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=781149
2. Next question was a tricky one, that which firmware should be used for my phone. I started with the Asia version of the firmware (I5508ZNJP3 Android 2.2 - Froyo (Asia)) , but the touch screen would not work on Samsung 5 (I5003) phone in India as it is built for resistive touch screen and not a capacitive touch screen.
3. Finally I zeroed down on the USA firmware (I5500LUYJP2 Android 2.2 - Froyo (USA)) for which the installation process went pretty smoothly.
4. Rest of the steps have to be followed as mentioned http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=781149 except Step #2 where we have been told to select multiple files. This is not the case while updating to this firmware as we would just extract a single tar file from this rar file. As a result we need to select “One Package Option” and then select the tar file as the last option (Screenshot to be attached)
5. Do not forget to do a factory reset after installation is successful by pressing the keys *2767*3855#
6. After this your language would be set to Spanish, to set it back to English go to “Settings” menu from the home screen and select the 11th option from the top which contains the icon “A” and select the language English. Kindly note that this firmware version does not contain any Indian languages.

Voila you have a shining new Android 2.2(Froyo) running on your Samsung Galaxy 5.

Problems Solved

1. You can finally install applications on the Memory Card (SD)
2. Wi-Fi Tethering is built out of the box.
3. The nasty alarm problem seems to have been solved since the past few days http://vikram-kumar.blogspot.com/2011/02/alarm-problem-in-android-21-samsung.html

Bugs in this firmware

1. The icons for the applications installed on the SD card go away after restart. This can be circumvented by installing an application like “Launcher Pro” from the Android Market http://market.android.com/details?id=com.fede.launcher. Alternatively you could also stop TWLauncher (Samsung Touch Wiz) service from Settings  Manage Applications. Once you go back to the home menu, it restarts on it’s own and brings back the lost icons.

2. Some people have reported the compass to be broken on this firmware, though I haven’t use compass nor do I plan to use it hence can’t confirm this.

Am planning to upload videos, pictures for the same soon.

Android - No Google Navigation in India ? No Problems WAZE is here to stay

Undoubtedly for my Android 2.1 powered (which has been hacked now to uninstall the unofficial Froyo 2.2 firmware) new Samsung Galaxy 5 had been a welcome change for me, after almost 10 years of Nokia use. Overall it was a good move, except the fact that Google Maps still does not provide Voice navigation for India on its Android platform. This seems pretty strange since India is definitely one of the emerging markets.

Being addicted to voice based Navigation, I stumbled across Waze (http://world.waze.com) for Android. I had used Waze on my Symbian device before, but was not impressed primarily due to it's sluggish behaviour on the underpowered handset.

But once I installed Waze on my Samsung Galaxy 5 device, I was in bit of a pleasant surprise. The voice based navigation works as a charm, and POI (Points Of Interest) search also fetches results from Google.  Additionally at the time of writing I guess Waze is the only navigation software providing real time traffic updates (Based on Social collaboration).

Waze also provides other regular features like your speed, ETA, time remaining for travel etc. Also it is supposed to use most frequently used routes and propose new routes accordingly.

On the flipside the maps are not stored locally(This is one luxury which was only available with Nokia OVI Maps, even Google Maps currently does not support this), though the data transfer is not humongous.

Two thumbs up for WAZE and definitely a must try, if you would love using GPS on your Android Handset in India.

Alarm Problem in Android 2.1 | Samsung Galaxy 5 driving me crazy

Though a good phone to own, Samsung Galaxy 5 currently running on Android 2.1 is actually driving me crazy. Except the first day the alarm never rings, even when it rings the volume is set to 0 which possibly does not make much sense of the alarm. 

For today have tried the solution #47 in the attached link http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=1109 . Hoping it does solve the problem for you. Anybody else facing the same problem?

Android 2.2 update coming to Samsung Galaxy 5

Finally some good news for Samsung Galaxy 5 owners. Apparently the Samsung team is already working on the Android 2.2 update (Froyo) for Samsung Galaxy 5 and the same may be out sometime soon. Though the below post mentions about i5500, the name by which Samsung Galaxy 5 is known in Europe, pretty confident (or optimistic :-) ) that the update would also be available to the Indian version Samsung  Galaxy 5 (i5503)

http://www.samfirmware.com/apps/blog/show/5995922-froyo-for-i5500-will-come-soon-

My new Toy | Samsung Galaxy 5 i5503, Powered by Android 2.1

First things first, I have been a huge fan of Nokia mobile since I bought my first mobile in 2001. Strong build quality (definitely needed for India) clubbed with ease of use and a good service network always meant that Nokia was a good choice.

Got hold of my Samsung Galaxy 5 device last Thursday (http://in.samsungmobile.com/mobile-phones/samsung-galaxy-5-i5503) , 20th January 2011 and have a good chance to play around with it for the the past few days. So did this move from Nokia really pay off ( I was using the fully loaded Nokia N79 for the past 1.5 years i bought for 14k and disposed off for 4k)? Read ahead to find out more.

The Initial Feel

The phone is really compact and light (esp coming out my Nokia N79 experience), has a good 2.8 " capacitive touch screen which makes it really easy to use with your fingers (In fact the touch screen was the only differentiating factor, which made me chose this over Micromax A 60 which i was getting for around 6k. The only downside of Micromax was the resistive touch screen it was offering). The package contains of the regular pair of earphones, data cable, the handset, battery, leather pouch, 2 GB micro SD card and a travel charger along with the customary set of user manuals with a couple of s/w DVD's.

The initial experience of setting up the phone was great, as I already had my contacts synched up with Google, so it was just a matter of entering my Google credential before the phone had all my contacts, email and Picasa web pics on the phone.

The apps performed pretty well with the 600 MHz processor and 256 MB of RAM. Even after installing multiple applications never noticed any sluggish behavior with the phone.

Overall pretty impressed by the touch screen though it does not support multi touch (so lets forget the pinch to zoom feature on photos, maps etc. with which Apple has spoilt us off late).

The Good

• Shipped with Android 2.1 which offers a hosts of additional features on the prior version of Android.
• The voice quality is actually superb, much better than the Nokia handset I was using for the past 1.5 years.
• Good Network reception, GPS receiver and built in speaker (though not stereo)
• Integration with Google works like a charm.
• Lastly but not the least, Android means option of millions of apps unleashing the true potential of your phone.

The Bad

• Battery life is a big bummer (mine hasn't lasted for more than a day with high usage and and synchronization on).
• Camera is another let down (an just 2 MP, no flash and no autofocus), If you would like decent photos (other than just sharing online or regular 4X6 prints) I would recommend you look out for some other phone.
• Google still does not support Voice Navigation in India, so if you want voice Navigation you would need to shell out some extra amount (I opted for mapmyindia and it works great for me).
• Not sure about it's upgrade to Android 2.2. Though rumoour has it that it might get an upgrade in Q1 this year http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_i5500 , but no official announcement from Samsung on this. Unless this happens it means you wouldn't be able to install applications on the SD card (Until you install a custom firmware, which looks possible search XDA forums) and no wifi tethering unless you root the phone (again possible, search XDA forums)

Final Words

At a price tag of around 8.8 k is a definite buy for the budget/entry level Android user. Scores over Micromax just because of capacitive touch screen and a better brand. Battery problems could be overcome by some great Android Apps (Talk about that in my next post, the Top 10 Android Apps)

Back After a Small Break

Hi All. Know I have been missing in action for almost an year now. Lot of things have been keeping me busy. Became a father in March  2009, switched to a new job next month had a couple of business travels followed by a couple of vacations.

But now I am back. So keep watching this space for more...

Check out www.mynetainfo.com if you are a true Indian

With any elections round the corner i was always under a dillema to choose the best posisble candidate for which i should vote. Well this election round, this problem seems to have been solved by a website http://www.myneta.info . This site contains the details of almost all the candidates in the upcoming lok sabha election (including age, qualification any criminal cases etc) and as per the website the source of this information are the affidavits submitted by the candidates.

So this time exercise your right and check out the site http://www.myneta.info before casting your vote. Jai Hind

My new phone - Nokia Navigator 6210 - Never get lost again

What are the top two foolish things for a person do do during these time of recession?

• Changing a job
  
• Unnecessary spending money on gadgets
  

Having done both of them the past month, lets throw some more light on my the second one(the first is going to a boring talk anyways) i.e. shelling out around 14k for a GPS enabled phone in India where roads are re routed daily, house numbers are more randomly defined than a Java random number generator :-).
Nokia Navigator 6210 is my latest phone. Being a loyal Nokia fan for almost the last ten years, my first task was cut shot when i decided to go for a GPS phone was that I would be looking out only for Nokia. Call me biased, but i personally feel Nokia platform (Symbian) has got some great support and usability of Nokia phones is definitely an USP.
Quite a few phones are now available in the Nokia stable offering GPS facilities. But the cheapest one at this time was Nokia 6210 with 6 months on Navigation license (though being a Navigator series phone an unimited Navigation license was expected).
To clear your doubts first what is Navigation and is it the same as GPS. Though Nokia's site does have a good explanation of the same, for the impatient ones Nokia Phones now come bundled with an application called Nokia Maps (2.0). GPS Feature is free for life and you don't pay anybody anything for them (except minimal data transfer charges if you use AGPS which quickens up the initial GPS process). Using GPS you can find your current location on the map which is updated as you walk or drive. This feature is free for life across all Nokia GPS phones i know of.
But navigation takes this a step further by providing various value added services like routing of directions, voice based navigation, POI (point of interests) etc. In Nokia 6210 this comes free for the first 6 months and 8 Indian cities and later on you can buy a license of your liking.
Besides the default Nokia 6210 Navigation, you can also installed third party apps like Google Maps (+ves reliable, free, -ves no voice based navigation, data transfer charges as maps are downloaded over the internet), mapmyindia.com(one time license fee) etc. Personally i am a big fan of Google Maps.

Coming back to the phone, below i briefly mention some of the pros/cons of the handset and my recommendation about the same. You can get a details of the phone features and specifications from its official website http://www.nokia.co.in/link?cid=PLAIN_TEXT_934156

Pros

1. Good navigation features (AGPS, 6 months free navigation)
2. Digital compass for pedestrian navigation
3. Great screen size and display
4. Battery life is good
5. A true smart phone with lot of support for third part apps (like voip, messengers etc.)
6. Firmware is pretty stable and hasn't crashed on me after 3 weeks of continous use.
7. Works as a pretty good music phone too.
   

Cons

1. Build quality is a real bummer has a plasticy feel written all over on it, and is very much susceptible to dust.
2. The top three keys below the sliders are not very easy to operate. So this phone is a strictly no no if you are an avid texter
3. Being a Navigation phone a lifetime navigation license was expected. But it comes bundled only with a 6 months navigation license.
4. Images taken from the camera could have been better. The LED flash sucks
   

Recommendation

Go for it if you are looking for a great GPS smartphone. If you are loooking for good build quality or a music phone there are definitely better options out there.

Rating 7/10

Internet Problems (Edge) on Nokia Navigator 6210 with Airtel Mobile Office in Delhi, India

I have a Nokia 6210 phone bought from an authorized Nokia Care Center in Delhi two weeks ago.  The software version on the phone is 3.08 dated 11-June 2008. It also mentions custom version as 03.08.c00.01

I am an Airtel Prepaid customer in New Delhi, India and had been using Mobile Office service on my prepaid number for some time. It worked perfectly fine for my Nokia 6233. On my current Nokia 6210 the Internet connection works fine for the first time through the built in browser or though any other application (like Google Maps, Gmail etc) which required internet and displays the sign  signifying that the edge connection is active.

 

The problem is that once I close the application the standby sign for Edge network is displayed as follows and no matter what I am unable to use the internet connection on the phone until I do the following

1. Restart the phone (which definitely isn’t a good option)
2. Wait for around 8-10 minutes after which the Edge on hold sign disappears and is replaced by  which means that the edge is available
3. I found this out accidentally, but if I press the keys *123# which I typically use for enquiring balance, the on hold sign goes away and is replaced by the Edge available sign.

 Not sure where the problem is. I really doubt it’s got to do something with Airtel as the same number worked perfectly fine with my previous Nokia phone in the same area. In addition my wife’s phone (again an Airtel prepaid number) is working great in the same area. So either this has got to do something with the handset or the compatibility of the handset with the Airtel, New Delhi.

 

I have tried various sets of setting from the following sources

1. The wizard in built in the handset
2. Getting the settings from the Nokia site
3. Getttng the settings from Airtel Customer Care

 

But with all of them I am facing the same set of problems.

 Anybody out there facing similar problems or have any suggestions for the same?

Update 22nd April 2009

This most likely looks like a problem with Airtel or compatibility issue between Airtel and this handset. The reason i say so is that recently Airtel has also launched daily plan for mobile office with the following tarrfis. You can view this menu by keying in the following *567# and pressing the dial button and choosing to activate internet (if you get an message that mobile office is already activated, deactivate it once and then activate it again)

1. Rs 10 per day for 3 MB
   
2. Rs 20 per day for 8 MB
   
3. Additional data for the above to be charged at 20 paise for 50 kb.
   

Already existing plan 30 paisa for 50 kb

Once I migrated to plan 1 or 2 above the problem ceased to exist. So this means once the internet connection is stopped and i get an update form Airtel regarding the balance in my prepaid account, that seems to be the root cause of this issue. As this thing does not occur with Plan 1 and Plan 2, the problems do not exist there. 

Any ideas anyone?