city02

In case the defendant / accused wins the case filed, can we collect damages? e.g., costs of going to delhi & engaging lawyers etc. Is a legal notice the same as a case being filed?

What's strange is how desperate Mukesh seems for me to call Oberoi, instead of calling me 4 times he could just have oberoi call me directly instead. Are there any special/premium numbers where we get charged more than the normal rates for calling? Just like premium SMS numbers... I hope its not an actual notice. Can you get picked up in Mumbai for a warrant from Delhi? How does the jurisdiction of the local courts work?

We sat in a Nano a week ago but not for a test drive - just in the showroom while we waited. I was amazed at the headroom and good height / visibility ... It has more rear headroom than my Corolla [since I rarely drive]! While the top end versio is almost Rs. 2 L on road in mumbai, I wish they would launch the Europa [export only] which has the automatic since that comes with ABS & airbags also. It would become the cheapest auto in the country also and a great 2nd car for congested roads. Time to stop treating indians as 2nd class customers compared to europeans... It looks OK from behind but a bit hideous from the front, maybe some DC facelift is required to make it a little more modern looking for better street prescence.

if i have IMEI & ESN of a coolpad handset, how can i find out the RSN? i have the original box...

speaking of CC, does anyone know how much SBI charges for a CC swiper? my CHS is debating if we should accept monthly dues via CC and need to find out the cheapest terminal

I prefer LG or BB interface to Nokia but my wife refuses to use any other manufacturer! So her replacement handset will ALWAYS be Nokia till they go bust... End of Nokia vs. other debate for us. It would have been nice if other handsets were compatible with Nokia chargers.

My yahoo email has been hacked and the password changed! virgokimaakabhosra@yahoo.com has been added to my alternate emails. so it sounds like an Indian I wrote to yahoo but it was useless:

i had the OPPOSITE problem: my NC+ BB was NOT disconnected when it crossed my credit limit! the limit is 1,700/= and my bill was for over rs. 5 k! that's almost 3x my limit i was furious since they are supposed to freeze/suspend the connection until interim payment is made what's the point of a limit if no notification is given via SMS/email when its exceeded? the CSR/CC rep sheepishly said that i was a 'good customer'! WTF?! you are screwed if you are a good or 'bad' customer!! i wanted to be a BAD customer instead... There is also NO prepaid option when i asked at RCO/WW for BB+ yet does anyone have HSD in prepaid in mumbai? not to be confused with 1x prepaid...

my postpaid netconnect+ was also 'suspended' since i exceeded my credit limit of rs. 1,700/= apparently i used 3 gb while on a 1 gb plan! my fight has been that the connection should have been blocked when my limit was exceeded. instead they let it go till rs. 5 k before stopping. i have now upgraded to the 3 gb plan but am still fighting for the prev bill since i don't want my liability to be above my credit limit! i have also requested 'CDR' details [call data records] to see why the usage shot up. anyone else having a similar problem with postpaid? of course they have now also reduce the rates from Rs. 2/mb to Rs. 0.50/mb which is good but does not resolve my prev billing problem.

the nokia service centre is asking for a bill for my handset bought 8 years ago does this mean i can't get a valid IMEI even though it was bought from a nokia store? i have found out that my imei has expired and nokia just needs to renew it is anyone else having this problem with a nokia?

I also got an SMS on my GSM nokia bought in 2001! from a nokia store in delhi... invalid IMEI # but its displays the imei when you press *#06# does this mean they will have to change the imei? nokia handsets should not have an imei problem or have to pay rs. 200 to get a new one

what about GSM to CDMA or vice versa?

For best servicing go for Maruti. Hyundai's tend to depreciate faster than Maruti also. But you should test drive each model to see which feels most comfortable for you personally. Don't go on what we recommend!

LED will have longest life and lowest power consumption followed by: - LCD, then - Plasma, then - Projectors [overhead type] Bulbs are very expensive to replace and usually almost 2/3rd - 3/4th [65-75%] the cost of the entire projector on avg. The same is true for LED, LCD, Plasma - if some pixels go bad, there is no practical way to 'repair' them and replacing the 'tube'/screen is over 3/4th the total cost of the TV. There is an interesting but purely academic case when Plasmas take less energy than LCD when the scenes/video is mostly black. Black is the lowest power consumption state [i.e., OFF] for both Plasma & CRT. But its full ON for LCD [maximum twist of the crystals] hence contrast ratios are much more important in LCD than in Plasma or CRT [true black].

I have bought a 1 year old LG 32" plasma, 2 yr old Panasonic VEIRA 32" LCD, and 1 month old Panasonic VEIRA 32" LCD. 1. For a given size plasma is CHEAPER than LCD. 2. Burn in / ghost images is a real issue with plasma and not LCD. 3. Motion blur happens on older LCDs specially when watching night scenes on DVD [on cable TV its not as aggravating] - using component video reduces it by almost half but you can still clearly see the blurring - HDMI reduces it further so its subtle [only sudden movements against dark background produce streaking]. 4. TVs are getting thinner and lighter each year [not just cheaper] - my plasma is 5 kg lighter and 1 inch thinner than our oldest LCD. - the new LCD is 1 kg lighter than the plasma and as thin. 5. The plasma has a reflective screen and produces glare during daytime viewing unless all curtains are drawn. LCD has 'matte' screen and are best for daytime viewing. 6. Plasma will consume more power than LCD at the same screen size 7. Plasma is 'HD ready' but LCD is 'full HD' - this issue is irrelevent for me since we don't have any HD players [blu-ray] or discs 8. Plasma is not available below 32" [due to technical/manufacturing constraints] but LCD is - in fact you would be hard pressed to find a 32" plasma these days. My benchmark is Rs. 1000/inch and branded 32" dropped below this level over a quarter ago. Chinese 37" [benQ] have touched this level [without exchange] at Vijay Sales. My next buy will be a branded 42" for 42 k at 0% emi with 0 fees on a card... I can wait till the prices/offers drop to this level. Don't go by any claimed response times since there are no standards or verification of the times. EU has just released standards for measuring these times which include: 1. full cycle [black to white to black] instead of half cycle the cycle times are not 'symmetric' so the full cycle can be 2.5 - 3 times the half cycle! so a claimed response time of 4ms could have a full cycle time of 9-10ms. 2. G2G [grey to grey] measurements since full black to full white takes much less time with hardware assists [cheats] and is not considered 'real world'

China can take over Sikkim in a few days and Arunachal in a few weeks by demolishing any Indian resistance. Their armed forces can completely neutralise ours as they out-man, out-gun, and out-spend our military. Literally the only thing holding them back is the international outrage/condemnation and uniting of countries against their aggression. They face virtually NO tactical barriers to defeat us like they did before. Their soldiers are better trained, better equipped, and better paid than ours. I wish it were not so one sided but its unfortunately true.

read the FAQ on eBay: 1. you can't give the seller any feedback 2. you can't return any items [even at your own expense] the insurance is ONLY for non-delivery

does anyone know of any email filter limits in BB? i can't seem to add any more based on sender or subject after a dozen or so. i don't want spam email sent to my handset so i need lots of filters...

The short answer is DEPENDS! I was faced with an interesting choice on my floating rate loan: Option 1: reduce interest by 1.25% by paying Rs. 18.6 k in fees Option 2: reduce rates by 1.75% and pay Rs. 56 k in fees I was instinctively going for the lower rate but that turned out NOT to be the correct decision. It depends on your tenure remaining and using the MS Excel PV [present value] function! First you need to get some data from your current bank, [since different banks use different methods for computing EMI at the same interest rates!] Most banks will offer a reduced tenure at lower rates but that's a very misleading way to calculate your potential benefits. In the last year of your loan there will be very little of your EMI going to interest and mostly towards principal. So any interest savings are tiny. Best to ask them to fix the current tenure and show the different EMI at different rates. Now the difference in EMI is your savings in cash flow for the remaining months. It still needs to be discounted to the present by the new rates. That would give you the MAX GROSS benefits you would get by switching to the lower rates. Then you subtract the total fees to get the NET benefit. If your tenure is < 5-6 years, your NET might be NEGATIVE implying its mostly a bad idea to switch to lower rates for short durations. i.e., you will end up losing money by going to a lower rate! This has a couple of major assumptions: 1. Your bank will not further hike the interest rates for the remainder of the tenure [highly unlikely for floating loans] 2. You will not prepay and further reduce your tenure and thus the benefit of lower rates In my case the breakeven durations were 9 months for #1 above and 19 months for #2. I already know that floating rates will probably go up next year so the odds of remaining at the current levels [or below] are slim. Now most of us don't carry around excel or business calculators when faced with this choice to switch. So I tried to come up with various rules of thumb to help guide us on the spot... Let's [for the sake of argument] classify the remaining tenures of the loans as: 1. Long term [> 10 years or 120 emi left] 2. Medium [5 - 10 years or 60 - 120 emi] 3. Short [< 5 years or 60 emi] Now, we should only bother with the PV function if the offer meets the following criteria: 1. For long term loans, if the reduction is > 1-2% or 100-200 basis points 2. For medium terms, the reduction > 2-3% or 200-300 bps 3. For short terms, the reduction > 3-4% or 300-400 bps Since I fell into the first category, it made sense to further examine the deals based on costs of switching. Let me know if you come up with a better/simpler heuristic so we can all benefit when deciding.

Agreed, but when I mentioned 'total fees' above I meant to include ALL the costs of switching over not just the fees for the new loan. This would also include all penalties for pre-payment or otherwise. In my example I'm giving the total costs since my penalty happened to be zero. Here's another way to narrow down between multiple offers/options: Look at the cost per basis point of reduction. In my example above, it was 125 bps for Rs. 18.6 k = Rs. 149/bp and 175 bps for Rs 56 k = Rs. 320/bp So at first glance its implying that the higher rate would save me more money. This might be a more reliable guide since it takes into account the costs & fees also. This division most of us can do on our mobiles also without messing with the PV function. FYI: PV [ rate, nPer, payment ] PV = present value = max gross savings possible assuming no rate increase [best case] rate = NEW interest rate [NOT annual but monthly compounded = 12th root of 1 + annual rate] nPer = number of periods = remaining emi of loan tenure payment = reduction in emi at the SAME tenure NET savings = PV - total costs/fees/penalties Is there any excel function to convert an annual rate into a monthly compounded?

its still great marketing: 1 p / sec for voice and 1 p / char for sms is memorable & innovative i wish reliance would just copy these ideas it would actually boost the bottom line if the 15p cap is removed you would be surprised how many customers who sign up for these plans/tariffs end up paying more! pay per use is the way to go since customers perceive it as value for money [regardless of the reality]. perception is ALWAYS more important than reality for a majority of subscribers globally. sales is about getting volumes by discounting but marketing's job is to boost the bottom line by offering innovative services/features. as an example: TRAI should encourage off network call fwd as has been the case abroad for over a decade. then if your phone is off / out of network, the calls can be fwd to any other number. airtel can fwd calls to MTNL landlines as an example and charges per min for that feature. in the US, you don't get charged per min for call fwd but a fixed fee per call.

Just a follow up to my earlier post: Glycemic INDEX is different from glycemic LOAD. The index measures the total amount of soluble sugars contained by a particular food. But the load measures the rate or how quickly its released into your blood stream. Some fruits have LOW glycemic index but high load and so can't be consumed by diabetics or those maintaining their blood sugar levels. The index was the older unit and load is a more accurate newer unit to track foods with. My wife loves the GM diet but like I mentioned, this is not a 1 week or 1 month sprint - its a long term approach to keeping your weight down for years if not decades.

Here is my weight loss experience: I went from 105 to 91 kg in 6 months without exercise since i don't have the motivation to use treadmills at the gym. I'm still almost 10 kg overweight but as long as I can keep losing 1-2 kg/month, I'll be on track. I would have lost a few kg more if I could exercise regularly but I just don't have the discipline. I lost 3 inches from my waist in the first 3 months but not after that [i.e., the size reduction levels off after about a quarter]. The weight reduction was almost 1 kg/week [or 1% of your weight whichever is lower] initially but slows down to 1 kg [1%] a month eventually. Disclaimer: Always consult your family doctor before any drastic changes to your diet in case of any complications. Your mileage may vary. I went on a low sugar / low carb diet which had the following guidelines: No added sugar at all [this was the hardest since I have a sweet tooth] but sugar-free type products are OK. No fruit juices & colas at all but diet drinks are OK. So some of you may have the question - if NO sugar is allowed then why is it called 'LOW sugar'? The answer is that there are naturally occurring sugars in the food we consume so the ban is on ADDED sugar. Only hyper-glycemics [diabetics] need to be on a strict NO sugar diet. Most fruit are OK except those with high 'glycemic index' [e.g., watermelons not allowed] Sweet fruits like pineapple, kiwis, apples, bananas are OK in MODERATION - binging on anything is usually bad in general. No flour products [e.g., maida] but unrefined in MODERATE quantities is OK [e.g., brown rice & brown bread] No white rice at all [so no plain dosas unless they discover a way to make them from brown rice]. No high carbohydrate food like potatoes, noodles & pasta Sugar free cookies, ice cream, & chocolates are OK but not the regular/light/low fat versions even. [it MUST say 'sugar free' on the label and NOT 'no added sugar' since its NOT the same] Wheat is OK in moderation since its has lower carbs [plain parathas, wheat pasta, wheat noodles, etc]. LOWER carbs [relative] does NOT mean LOW carbs [absolute] so you can't really binge on wheat products. Meat is OK but you need to watch your cholesterol levels as they might shoot up if you overdo fried foods. Eggs without yellow is fine. If there is a choice avoid high cholesterol foods also [but high sugar & high carbs must remain a priority] Drink lots of water [a minimum of 2-3 litres daily] - in the unlikely level that you run marathons regularly [over 5-10 km] during dieting, you need to switch to 'Gatorade like' drinks that have dissolved salts like potassium which can drop dangerously due to 'over hydrating' during a run My doctor had the following advice to add after reviewing the guidelines above: Most 'brown bread' delivered to your homes is usually fake [caramelised white bread] so avoid the cheaper brands and buy from reputable stores/supermarkets instead. Real brown bread is harder to chew or slice due to its higher fibre content. Clean slices [straight lines] is a sure sign that its NOT real brown bread in India. Real brown bread is 2-3 times more expensive than fake [e.g., if fake is usually Rs.10-15, the real one will start at Rs. 30-45 per loaf] Remember - the average person can learn to distinguish real from most fake just by taste & texture alone. If it tastes like white bread - it probably is! Cafe Coffee Day is only one example of a reputable domestic chain that routinely sells fake brown bread sandwiches due to cost reasons. Just see the edges of the sandwiches to be sure. Every diet / weight loss plan is a marathon and NOT a sprint The key to success is 95% sustaining it over time and only 5-10% rigidly following the rules Dieting is much more psychological than physical If you deprive yourself of something that you love, the cravings will keep building till you break and binge Its better to reward yourself with small amounts of 'forbidden' foods when you reach each milestone [e.g., after 1-2 kg reduction] than to deprive yourself indefinitely Extensive studies have shown that no particular diet is the 'best' - it just depends on what suits you personally As long as you reduce calories consumed [dieting] and increase calories burnt [exercise] anyone can lose weight Weight gain is simply too many calories coming IN and not enough going OUT The secret to weight loss is that there is NO secret! This LOW carb diet should not be confused with the 'Atkins diet' which is a ZERO carb diet and can cause kidney failure if you don't drink almost a gallon [3.6 - 3.7 L] of water daily. This is also different from a NO sugar diet that diabetics [hyper glycemics] may have to be on. In those cases ANY amount of sugar can be toxic so you can't really 'reward yourself' if you have a sweet tooth or sugar craving. You don't need to have diabetes to avoid sugar!

glad it took the RBI only 4 months to rationalise the free usage policy after the post:

Here is my review of the BB 8703e that I got for under Rs 12 k: Some additional issues with the interface since I wrote that opinion: 23. Add to existing contact I can't figure out how to add a number to an existing entry in the phonebook. This option should appear right below the 'add to contact' feature that creates a new entry. 24. SMS directly from call logs We can't seem to send an SMS to a number directly from the calls list. It only has 'call XYZ' in the menu options. Only when you open/view the entry does 'SMS XYZ' appear. This additional clicking is totally unnecessary and easily avoided.