Chirag

Yeps, its out of our general RIM chat... But i felt it necessary to post it here(its the General Chat after all!) Simply coz, we see this all around us all the time... Read it to find more... Pass it on to others or best, send this RIMWEB page as a link to others !! Comments on this awaited... Inzy's Story: A Cautionary Tale - R Swaminathan Rediff.com February 05, 2004 http://in.rediff.com/news/2004/feb/05swami.htm Inzy is how we know him. A typically up north name is etched in his dog-eared birth certificate, no doubt issued by a disinterested municipal babu. Chubby cheeks, flabby waistline and ponderous gait were his defining traits. That is till he held a cricket bat in his hand. Then his pleasant disposition and ready laugh would be replaced by a fierce determination. No matter how fast one threw a ball at him he would have Father Time on his side. Quicksilver reflexes and dexterous foot movement ensured fielders had a good cardiovascular workout. Just like the real McCoy across the border. His width and his strokes bestowed him the name Inzy. Visibly proud to be called Inzy he would have a broad smile on his face when addressed that way. That was three years ago. Last week during a visit to Delhi when I bumped into him he was unrecognisable. His flabby waist had been chiselled down to a rock hard iron board tummy, his chubby cheeks had melted to reveal a square jaw and his ready laugh was replaced, quite surprisingly, by a self-conscious diffidence about his looks. His engineer-turned bakery shop owner father, and cash laden, had asked him after a successful first year in college what he wanted. Inzy did not want to be Inzy anymore. Cricket wasn't cool too. Basketball, girls and discotheques were, and not necessarily in that order. And all three required far less clothing than cricket. Less clothing, said Inzy, meant more flesh. Soon a butt of jokes, Inzy's self-esteem took a dent and his nickname became his bane. Now he preferred being called Rocky and when I called him Inzy he just about kept his displeasure under wraps. For all his sleek, mean look he appeared dissatisfied with life. His father too was a worried man. Inzy, now Rocky, wasn't eating well, at times not eating at all. His role models were the Baywatch stars peeping out from the walls, cupboard, closet and, of course, the television in his room. Each one having exactly six abdominal biscuits, identical waists and ditto chests. So similar were each they seemed out of a factory, except for the faces. Just like Lifebuoy plus differs from Lifebuoy. Inzy, of course, was still not a 'Baywatch star.' And that bothered him big time. The friendly neighbourhood doc had issued an ultimatum. If Inzy's head did not clear out soon enough he would be heading into the treacherous territory of anorexia nervosa. A disorder in which the afflicted person becomes obsessively sensitive about the intake of food, often resulting in self-destructive behaviour. Inzy's story by itself may be quite unremarkable and parents of growing children may identify with it in degrees. Anyone who has gone through the adrenaline charged years of adolescence would understand the almost obsessive need to look good. Part of sexual awakening, it is programmed in our biological memory chips to preen up to attract the opposite sex. After all, the very survival of mankind depends on these love games. Teenage years are also the time to develop definite like and dislikes. What is desirable and what is not takes the form of 'cool stuff' and 'uncool stuff'. Places to hang out in, friends to be seen with, clothes to be worn; everything is weighed within the 'cool-uncool' matrix. But what happens when the concept of desirability acquires a global form? What happens when the concept is wedded to selling, buying, markets and TRPs and becomes a commercial proposition? What happens when heroes are no longer flesh and blood human beings, but 'hot bods' beaming out of the tube? It is true that a shrunk world has meant blurred boundaries, shared soaps and tears and a never before seen closeness and cooperation. No doubt choices -- from washing machines to condoms -- and opportunities -- from outsourcing to e-commerce -- have increased too. But it is also equally true that such integration has also narrowed down the 'desirable' choices available. For instance gone are the days when mothers and fathers dragged their kids to the neighbourhood tailor for a makeover. I, for one, remember being carted thrice a year to the tailor. For a pair of school uniform, Diwali clothes and something special for the odd marriage that cropped up in the extended family. They were functional, not 'cool'. Best of all size just did not matter. The only tailors in demand now are those who call themselves fashion designers. Branded clothes have their own logic. Humanity for Levis, or for any other brand, can simply be divided into five sets of alphabets: 'S, M, L, XL, XXL.' And God forbid if you are 'XXL' with short legs. You will end up with a pair of jeans fit for a sack race. The pressure to conform to these sizes, of course, is on the consumer. And reinforcing the adage 'size does matter' is our daily 24x7 companion whose flickering images exercise a near hypnotic control. If perceptions were to be formed only on serials, movies and music videos beamed across countries one would think the world is made up of bulging biceps, washboard tummies and firm derrieres. So difficult it is even for the adult mind to resist the seductive boob tube that is it any wonder that for the impressionable Inzy 'L, XL and XXL' are the undesirables, the 'uncools'? Reinforcing Inzy's impressions are the numerous gyms that have sprouted in every locality. Ostensibly fitness centres, these body factories feed the frenzy to acquire those much-lusted after biceps, triceps and biscuits. Add to that the late night teleshopping network shows hawking miracle teas and capsules that magically melt away fat in days and you truly have an industry that wants to make Barbie dolls of all -- united in one shape. In an election year why should Inzy matter? He does because in Brazil and Argentina, where body sculpting has acquired the status of an art form and plastic surgeons are next only to gods, one out of three persons is dissatisfied with the way he or she looks. Anorexia nervosa is rampant, self-esteem of teenagers and young people is a prisoner of vanity and psychologists are in huge demand. India is well on the path to emulate its Latin American friends. Not one bit a comforting thought. And how do I plan to tackle it? For one I will never have a tattoo or colour my hair. For another I will keep my paunch till it does something to my cholesterol levels. When I wake up in the morning and peer into the mirror I see a crooked nose, puffy eyes and pockmarked face. But most importantly I see a happy, smiling face. A bucktoothed smile at that, mind you.

Wht is a WI - FI Network...

Trai planning software to help consumers select best tariff plan Business Standard : March 26, 2004 The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) will be introducing a novel software to help consumer select the tariff plan best suited to their needs, in two months’ time. The software is developed by Tata Energy Research Institute (TERI). “TERI is already working as a consultant for TRAI. Since they have the skills to develop and run this product, we thought they were the most befitting institution to handle this project,” Pradip Baijal, chairman, TRAI told an open house held here today. Briefing the media on new software, said, “The new software will collect details on the types of calls the user is likely to make and throw up the tariff plan or plans that is best suited for them.” He further said the operators for their part will be asked to submit their tariff plans in a particular format to be accepted by the software. TRAI already has in place, format regulations for announcing new tariff plans. Baijal said while some operators follow these regulations, others don’t. “We had two choices in dealing with these errant operators. We could have either prosecuted them or dealt with them in a market friendly way.” Baijal said, he did not want people to see TRAI treat the operators harshly for not announcing the tariff plans in a particular format. Moving to more consumer-friendly regime, TRAI has also submitted a draft consultation paper seeking the reduction of tariff plans per operator to five from the present limit of 25. With a multitude of service providers in India, there are at any given point of time 3000 active tariff plans in India, making choosing the right plan a tough proposition for the end user. “We are also talking about reducing the number of plans for each service provider to five,” he said. Further the telecom regulator has come up with a draft citizens’ charter to enable telecom operators to provide uniform levels of services at a very basic level. “The consultation group on this charter is meeting on April 2, to discuss the contentious issues in the draft,” he informed. Additionally TRAI is also discussing with stakeholders including users and service providers to consider the possibility of appointing an ombudsman for the telecom sector. Baijal was in Chennai today to meet with the consumer protection groups, telecom players and the media to participate in a workshop on this subject. The discussion also covered the issues related to mobile phone thefts and regulations need to contain it. While leading players like Reliance Infocomm and BSNL were supporting the appointment of a telecom ombudsman, the modalities are yet to be finalised. “The existing district level consumer courts will not be dispensed with. Neither will the telephone adalat of BSNL be removed. The dilemma we are faced with is, whether we need an ombudsman to protect the consumer when we already have a strong judicial system to serve this purpose.

well i guess.. sukhi is the eldest amongst us... so lets acknowledge tht! Anways, hope ur b'day was quite memorable! Best of luck for the year ahead!

so tht means, the games are promptly downloaded on our phones.. and the next time we access them... we load them from the phone and not from the network... coz else, suyalasit wouldn't have been able to use that game then... !

Flag, VSNL agree on bandwidth International long-distance tariffs to fall Business Standard Published : March 25, 2004 With Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL) and undersea cable network Flag Telecom resolving their long-standing dispute over landing rights, international long-distance tariffs are set to fall. The two sides signed an agreement, in the presence of the telecom regulator, which envisages VSNL releasing 1,000 megabits of bandwidth capacity to Reliance-owned Flag. The deal -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VSNL will release 17 STM1s to Flag VSNL will also allow Flag access to its landing stations in India VSNL will get 5 STM1s on Flag’s network The agreement was reached after a six-hour-long meeting between the two sides, which was mediated by Trai VSNL will lose its monopoly over the international bandwidth market VSNL will also allow access to its landing stations in India. VSNL will release the bandwidth by the middle of April. This means that Flag Telecom will be able to offer bandwidth to its subscribers even as the Tata-controlled VSNL loses its monopoly over the international bandwidth market. Availability of bandwidth from sources other than VSNL, in turn, will result in a steep cut in international long-distance tariffs in the next few weeks. Reliance had earlier said it might slash prices by up to 70 per cent once capacity was made available. The agreement came after a six-hour-long meeting between the two sides mediated by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai). “The dispute between VSNL and Flag has been settled, with VSNL agreeing to release 17 STM1s to the latter. This will allow Flag to freely offer bandwidth to its subscribers. In turn, VSNL will get 5 STM1s on Flag’s network,” DP Seth, member, Trai, said after the meeting. Seth said the commercial terms would be decided by the two operators. The Tata-managed company had earlier refused to grant Flag access to its landing stations on the grounds that enough capacity was not available. The controversy had picked up steam after Reliance Infocomm acquired Flag recently. VSNL’s refusal to release capacity was putting a roadblock in Reliance’s international long-distance telephony plans. A large number of infotech-enabled service companies and the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) had earlier written to the telecom regulator complaining that VSNL was creating an artificial shortage of international bandwidth in order to keep prices inflated. VSNL, on the other hand, had maintained that it was under no obligation to release more capacity as it was not part of an earlier agreement it had signed with Flag.

If u can see the name in SMS and calls by storing the nos in ISD format, then y store it in different formats ?? In RD2030 it doesn't work like tht... i have to manually save it in different formats in the same NAME entry to see the name at different places... Wht abt 2130?

nice idea to have a forum for a college.. and tht too mgmcet... enjoyed being there... But khandu, the thing is tht u have a welcome page describing tht "forum" for maybe every forum. But in our case, we have every "topic" tht talks different things in every "forum". So cant really manage to put up a welcome page kinda thing for every topic right ? Maybe a pinned topic which gives a 1-line intro to every thread in that forum can be put up which can also have clickable links to tht topic... But thinking abt it i am getting jitters... coz we have like 40-60 topics in some forums! Ok, jus let me check.. did i understand completely wht u meant... or is there something more tht u'd like me to check out... Shud i go ahead and register in ur forum to explore a bit more? Let me know for sure... i am also trying to keep all my bulbs switched on!

can someone figure it out from their service center? am sure those ppl know more.!

Quote me a sentence that means tht the operators are now paying each other at per second now!

can u give me a link to one such example such tht i can understand wht u mean?

you can read my reply here

u cud if anyone cud try to access its file system. But the tragedy is tht there is no single port in the phone to insert even a data cable.. so its obviously not possible. It shall be possible if we could exchange ringtones via SMS. But thts a long way to go..

Wht sunil meant was the description and not the post size... But i personally feel that it is perfectly fine... u can only not understand wht tht thread is if u try to be very quick and not read thru the thread urself... so if u can do tht, u can avoid urself from goin off topic

chill and just go there... they hardly rem ppl's faces there! BEST OF LUCK

Some of u might have read this in another thread... but guess wht? i was greeted on my phone by none other than Mr. Vajpayee today!! .. sure enuf their new innovative way quite encourages me to go and vote atleast.. to whom is a different question, but i shall thts for sure.. u'll be definitely amazed at the huge electoral rolls that are published on the Election Commission's website ( http://www.eci.gov.in ) and that too in ur own regional language! Yeps it was difficult to locate my name in Marathi there, but i was so glad to see tht its finally up there.. And this time(I missed out the last time for a small technical glitch) for the FIRST TIME i shall be in that queue to vote! I am sure u might have seen those huge campaign hoardings by INDIAN EXPRESS which say SHOW THEM THE FINGER... Yeps.. its important enuf! Dont let scruplous elements take advantage of ur empty vote... Dont take the election day as ur usual holiday and go out and party.. Hope u guys will spare a few mins from ur busy schedules and cast ur votes!

hey RAJAN !!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY to ya!! hope u have a gr8 yr ahead! Best of Luck!

who told u tht IUC are per second billed?? they are billed for every 60 secs!

Billing problems for Reliance are tremendous, but we have other operators too having the same... Keep reading... Customer No Longer The King For Cellular Operators Financial Express : SHABANA HUSSAIN CHENNAI: Case 1: “I was a customer of AirTel, later I moved to Hutch and now I have a BSNL connection. Time and again, I have put up with the inept, ignorant and antagonistic customer service representatives across the mobile service providers. For instance, when I was a Hutch customer I had opted for the roaming facility. Safe in the knowledge that I had roaming, I went on a business tour, when to my dismay I discovered that Hutch had failed to activate the service. This is just one instance of what indifferent customer representatives can do,” says Ambarish, a 27-year-old executive with a public relation firm. Case 2: “I am disgusted at the way the customer care division of RPG (now AirCell) functions. I have not received my mobile phone bill for the past eight months and each time I lodged my complaint, the representatives repeated like robots that the matter will be taken care of. However, that has not happened. In fact, I am tired of receiving insincere assurances from customer service people who have an overall ‘we don’t care attitude’,” says Madhumita, a 35-year-old teacher. The case studies do not end here. In fact, this and many more such complaints indicate that the customer service of cellular operators leaves a lot to be desired. Ms Shoba Iyer, Consumer Action Group (CAG), believes that the customer service of operators is pathetic. “We get complaints related to poor network availability, delay in billing, etc., against all mobile operators. What’s important here is that CAG is often the last resort of the subscribers who have been at the receiving end of poor customer service. The problem is either you can’t get through to the customer care in-charge since the telephone line is constantly engaged, or when you do get through you have to put up with customer service staff who are ill-informed, inefficient and discourteous,” she adds. According to Ms Iyer, CAG has received maximum number of complaints against Reliance Infocomm. “We have received close to six complaints against Reliance, most of which is related to billing problems. Reliance subscribers complained that they had not received their bills for more than three months and in some case subscribers received bills even when they had stopped using the service. However, we have not had any luck with Reliance. The Reliance Webworld people have a nonchalant and callous attitude which is quite irritating. What’s worse is that each time I contact the customer care a different person speaks to me forcing me to repeat my complaint at least a dozen times. I have given up hope,” she adds. The Telecom Regulatory Authority Of India (Trai) report on the Quality of Service (QoS) of mobile operators for the quarter Oct-Dec, 2003 says that the “percentage of billing complaints resolved within four weeks by mobile operators has shown deterioration”. This might be because under the current system, the customer care operator only records written complaints related to billing. What do the providers in question have to say about this? Mr Somashekar, head, Reliance, (TN & Kerala circle) said: “This is completely incorrect. We have customer care executives actively available in our WebWorlds. Besides this, our contact centre is adequately staffed and equipped to handle any customer grievances”. He adds, “Reliance is India’s largest mobile service provider, so naturally we receive the maximum complaints. I agree that initially there were some incidents of bills not reaching the customer due to wrong addresses, etc. But these have been rectified to a great extent now. We have since tightened all our back-end processes to ensure zero error at data collection and entry level as well as at front desk levels to ensure proper address verification before a subscriber is added to the network. We have also since taken and continue to take several measures that will enhance customer satisfaction”. Mr Brahmadathan, chief general manager, BSNL, accepts that BSNL’s customer service did have some shortcomings. “Earlier, information on BSNL’s service was not reaching our customers which is why we commissioned the 24X7 call centre, Sangamam, to give information on new connections, shifts, faults, billing problems etc,” he said. When contacted, RPG declined to comment saying that AirCell which has bought out RPG is yet to appoint a company spokesperson. Ms Sumathi Gurumurthy, head, customer care, AirTel, (TN and Kerala) denies there is any problem with AirTel’s customer service. “Our customer care centre is quite responsive. In fact, our abandoned call rate is less than two per cent. We try to close complaints on the phone or resolve them within 24 hours,” she says. This may be so but the mobile service providers who spend millions on their ad campaigns, don’t seem to invest in training their customer care staff.

1200 for tht sick desktop charger ! Gosh!

That is only the case if u choose the MB plans... Gold And Silver ones... but if u r using the regular R-Connect... there is no count of the data transfer.. the count is only for the time u r connected using the dialer.

oh its something like the Samsung charger?... Pretty much alrite... still i cant understand y is it called Travel Charger!! seems as if they had no new name.. so tht one!

SMS alone cant really help... but wht TATA's and Birla's propose to do seems good... But rem, Dhirubhai's reliance has given this damn mobile in each one's hand.. and has got penetration into the lower income group (LIG) as well... so atleast awareness via SMS can help somewhere.. lil but still it might..!

Dormant.... I'll try and explain it in the way i can! (am no geek... so pls excuse me for tht) Say u've got no. browsers running.. all windows closed and u have just MSN or Yahoo IM running. Now when u r already connected to Y! IM but u r not chatting with any of ur frnd etc... the small Internet Icon in the status bar will not show any activity(ie. it wont blink). So if Reliance chooses to disconnect at tht time, u wont be connected on ur Y! IM !!! So tht situation is called being "Dormant".. Where u are still connected but there is no data transfer, such that as soon as ur new frnd signs in or u r getting a new msg... tht icon will start blinking and the transfer will happen and u'll get the msg on ur screen Am i right ppl? And as far i know.. whenever u buy packages from ISPs for certain hours, u r still kept connected whenever there is no data transfer! In case u choose to get dc.. if tht is wht u actually want.. This is what can happen... say u open a new website and the page takes 35 secs to load. once the page is loaded and the phone dc u'll be charged for 1 min! and say if i click again i'll be charged again! I'd rather keep my phone connected such that the several pages i click in the same minute will be charged as 1 minute only.... I dont know how far i was successful in explaining this...

y would someone buy it from u? either the buyer would have to get it for a cheaper price than tht avl in the market... and secondly, y would u sell? Wont u require it urself? Otherwise, later u'd have to go buying them urself!