sgiitk

Sorry for the delayed response. Just could not resist it. Looks and sounds like Pyrexia of Unknown Origin (if the doc has no explanation for a fever this is what he writes).

Proved dead right if you saw Renuka Chowdhry and Sibbal on the box yesterday, trying to glorify an abject surrender. Even the Gazette Notification has come today. Showed all sceptics what was the effect of Gandhiji's satyagraha was. Saw some joker arguing that this was 'coersion' on CNN-IBN right now (Karan Thapar).

@raccoon; One more point, if you go BSNL then pray every day since in case of a problem only God may be able to help.

Also,mailed the link to all academic staff at IIT Kanpur. Looking at the statements emanating from the government it just reminds me of two lines said by a poet; Sahitya mein thook kar chatne ko vibhatsa ras mana gaya hai. Hamare rajneetigya ise veer ras ke sangya dete hain. To liick your own spit is considered to be obnoxious (if someone has a better translation please tell me) stream of poetry, however, our politicians call it a bravery stream.

signed. We are all just fed up with the system which is collapsing. God must be an Indian for we are still working.

@Greatest; They are nuts! Also, for good performance indoors (esp.in multi-storey building) a strong case can be made in favour of 900MHz in preference to 1800/1900 MHz. I was talking to a dealer and he is much happier with CDMA than with any GSM. with this herd like rush to GSM from CDMA performance will only get better. You can get the best of the CDMA phones here from the guru's at a very good price. These are MEID registered, so are official Reliance as far as the user is concerned.

Got it yesterday from the local chap. Rs.11,400 was the price I paid. Expect to recover some of the Rs.400 in the better price I should be getting for my old N5230. First impressions: Looks like to result of a one night stand between the Galaxy 3 and Epic 4G. Gettin familiar with Apdroid - my $G developed a problem after all of three days. Ear speaker is great - beats the N6275 or N5230 hollow. Connected to the iitk network - got 11.5+ Mbps yesterday, but getting only 30 or so kbps today. Watch this space.

Incidentally, the QWERTY was designed to slow down the typist, and also to reduce the risk of keys getting jammed. Germans have QWERTZ and the French AZERT! Dvorak seems to have fallen out of grace.

I hope this is more bugfree than the Windows version, which has the annoying habit of occasionally hanging up.

Price is down to Rs.10,990 on FlipKart though I saw nothing below 11,599 on eBay. Very tempting for those like me who like to have a real physical keypad.

dhiraj: It was your post about getting the box from delhi into Meerut which gave me ideas. Agree that cricket is good but for me paisa vasool is from the Discovery & NatGeo HD channels. fantastic is all I can say. Of course the boss may disagree - After All Star Plus HD is also there. One annoyance in cricket - when you go to active sports it seems to want to drop you into the Non HD version! I was also hoping that Formula 1 will be on HD but then bhagwan ganje ko nakhoon nahin deta.

Update: Working at last The Hyderabad office Srikanth finally got them to come and install the box around 5:00pm on Friday. The install went smoothly, and once configured both reception and recording started working. He called later and checked. At night I again had some minor glitches - requiring all 4 digits for channel selection, reminder setting up and not working, the banner (and volume display) not going off, some additional display related to the PVR part, and not responding to alerts - just a blue screen. I realised all these could be software (esp timing) related. On Saturday morning unplugged power for 10 seconds, reconnected and everything is now fine. Really enjoying the HD versions of NatGeo and Discovery. Maybe all is well that ends well.

What will you lose - global acceptability of your cards. I do not think the Forex argument holds that much nowadays. If I recall correctly at one time France tried a France Only card Carte Bleu (or Blanche). I do not think it survived for long.

Update. Yesterday I was able to register a complaint on the web using Firefox through Ubuntu (i.e Linux). The earlier complaint (the previous day) though a search portal was acknowledged by help@tatasky.com but no action. Within three hours I got a call from a Mr Shrikanth from Hyderabad who seemed to be higher up than just a call centre operator. He wanted to know the exact scenario, since my mail was brief (not knowing whether it will go through. Appeared to know his stuff. He apologised and also said that such things shouls not happen. He was also appraised by me of the blues of IE9 and Firefox from Windows, and that I had been able to get through only through Linux. He then traced the box and said that it should be installed yesterday. I told him that you route through Lucknow so takes an extra day. Then he called again after setting up a conference call with the local chaps. The fellow confirmed that the box had reached Lucknow and on its way to Kanpur. Was willing to install yesterday itself, if he got it in time. However, with the Holi mela the old Kanpur city was tough to get out of. So I suggested and we agreed he will try and install it this morning. let us see.

have sent Electronic stuff out to Germany by Bluedart/DHL twice. DHL is owned by Deutsch Post.

When will we grow out of the Not Invented Here syndrome. We have been doing it for ages. I still remember the 'cheapernet' story. So now you will need two sets - one for Mera Bharat Mahan and one for the rest of the World.

We have sent stuff out and got it back many times for warranty work. Once you have a RMA no. strictly now you need the bill of entry, but I am sure small stuff can go out without too much fuss. The problem is when the stuff comes back. Some nominal value has to be declared (say $50) otherwise customs will go to town over it.

If iPhone comes with OMH this will be a game changer. CDMA market is US dominated and so far no OMH there. Once Apple gives OMH then others will also face the pressure. My only point is that in the US (as well as Europe, but that is GSM) most phones are bought as part of a package where you are locked to the provider for two or three years. Here no SIM/RIUM is a boon the the provider. So how will the OMH approach work out there? Of course the OMH only provides the info which is not coded into the phone, i.e. the phone only picks up what it does not find within itself from the UMH-RUIM. so they may still code in some masala!

Some general comments: For registry leaning etc. I use CCleaner. The first C stands for Cr**. Have been using it for quite a few years. The LvSaft group is a very competent lot so they should be good. AvastFree is popular with a lot of software pros.

The charges scenario are also not clear on TataSky. My HD+ is sitting in a box awaiting replacement, having lasted all of 12 hours. My MegaPack Annual was expiring as per their calls. They said that there are no additional charges for the HD or the Plus. I put in some money and had Rs.7800+ in the kitty. Recharged the annual MegaPack (Rs.6000). Have one additional STB (Rs.150 pm) so why I am getting an expiry in February 2012 is beyond me. In may calculation Rs.6000 + 150x12 is 7,800 only. Also, the CC claimed on Wednesday that the replacement box was scheduled for installation at 4:00pm yesterday. No sms nothing. So called up TatSky Kanpur. They have no record of the unit having come. The chap promised to check up with Lucknow and call back in 5 minutes. Zilch.

Looks like a killer for the non power users. Let us wait and see. Will the CDMA version support EVDO?

Now the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing. They were calling asking me to renew by MegaPack. As per them it expired on March 15 and the STB was showing 1296 with expiry on 6/5. Told them it is odd sincle I only have one additional STB. The lady who called from Hyderabad day before yesterday said she will call back. She dis with the info that they are assuming a monthly rate after the expiry. More interesting, I raised the matter of a HD+ box which had packed up in <12 hours, and is still to be replaced. She checked and told me that the replacement is scheduled for 4:00 yesterday. Yesterday, I called the local TataSky chaps only to be told that they have not yet got the box and have no information. he promised to check from Lucknow and call back - never did. Only I saw a credit of Rs.500 as trade in for my old box. Also, the missing channels were fixed after my complaints. Realigned the Antenna and redid one of the connectors.

Had a lousy experience with TataSky. I have been with them since 2006 with a two box connection, and have praised their service till now. First for six months they kept on telling that HD was only in the metros. I was talking to a big TV dealer and he offered to help me out. Sure enough I was contacted by a STB vendor and a brand new sealed TataSky+ HD unit showed up with a Tata Installation chap. He installed the STB with a new dish (how is a 62cm dia dish much better than a 60 cm dish I do not know. A new 4-way LNB (two channels for the Plus and one for the old STB) was also installed. My old card was promptly commissioned and I was getting HD pics. This was about 5:00 pm. i was told that recording may take up to 72 hours to be enabled. To my surprise, at about 11:00pm that too started working. I went off to sleep. The next morning when I woke up the unit was dead as a dodo. I called up Tata helpliine, registered a complaint. The same chap who had installed it come, and found the unit was indeed dead. Stated it will take at least three days for a replacement. As it was Saturday effectively it meant five. I told him that better put in a an old type box so that I can use the T. He was reluctant, and ultimately pulled out a STB which was my old box. Got it going (again the STB and card have to be mated in the server). A couple of hours I found that the sports channels, BBC, CNN etc, were off. Then I checked up on the other unit. They were all on. I looked at the signal strength it was only about 60% on the other unit, and zero on the 'main' unit. I suspect the chap did not align the new dish properly. He had just looked at the signal quality (and not strength) on on one of the stronger channels and declared every thing Ok, without any tweaking. I had pointed out the need to check the alignment, but he did not bother. Obviously some training deficit here. Still waiting for this to be fixed.

Passport processing has been outsourced to TCS in Karnataka & Chandigarh. The same is supposed to happen across the entire country in under two years. They are to open offices in every district HQ. Karnataka has gone biometric, so you have to go to the office. However, TCS is nly the front end, and the blue book is still issued by the Govt. As for ECNR you only need a high school certificate. I find the +2 the most useless paper you have so have used it for my daughter (then LLB) and son (then MS).

I am looking for a mid-range GSM Android phone in the 10-15k range. I have three on my radar right now Optimus, Galaxy 3 and Wildfire. Please advise. Also, I am planning to move out from BSNL using MNP. What provider to go for Airtel or Vodaphone. Also, Tata Docomo is offering a deal for IITK customers. I am in UP(E) - Kanpur. I am scared of Airtel looking at the high switch outs!