RutSum

Archive for the ‘I am my Technology’ Category

Its a known fact that Palika Bazaar and Nehru Place are the places in Delhi to be for purchase of software/games/hardware. So besides Gaffar Market, these are the only other two places where reliable Chinese phones would land. Apoorv Khatreja and I recently paid both the markets a visit to explore the options for an avid Chinese mobile phone consumer. Although almost all shops stock good quality Chinese mobile phones, here are two specific ones where we came across certain good models-

Purple Computers
#92, Deepali Building
Shop #107
Nehru Place
Kalkaji
Delhi - 110019
Landmark: Opposite HSBC ATM
Phone: 011-26451352, 41617789
Mobile: 09810089548

Purple Computers is a considerably large shop in the same lane as Computer Empire. Besides Chinese Mobile Phones, they also stack a good range of webcams and other computer/mobile accessories. One of the good phones we found at Purple Computers was ZT 6191. The body was firm and stainless. There were multiple speakers with high clarity audio. There was a two megapixel camera. The phone supported Dual-Sim features. The best part - Purple Computers allows you to test the mobile phone -its features, battery and everything else- there and then. So you can be completely sure of the usability before purchase. ZT was priced at Rs.5000 and the price was bargainable.

Electronic Avenue
#28
Palika Bazar, Connaught Place
New Delhi H.O.
Delhi - 110001
Landmark: Near Delhi School of Music
Phone: 011-23320826

Electronic Avenue is right at the edge of the central circle of the underground Palika Bazaar. You can easily reach there by taking the Metro to Rajiv Chowk, from where its at walking distance. Electronic Avenue stocked a huge collection of Chines mobile phones, perhaps even the biggest in the whole Palika Bazaar. Infact, they had a whole different section of the shop alloted to Chinese mobile phones. And all (yes all) the phones in their collection supported two SIM cards. One of the best phones we came across in their collection was the ZTC T58 Dual SIM Phone. Here are some of its features-

6 Speakers for the Phone.
Dual Sim Phone .
Two Sim Work Together GSM Network.
Bluetooth.
1.3 MegaPixel Camera .
Voice Recorder.
Network 900 1800 GSM.
Mp3 Player.
Video Player.
Games.
PDA Organizer.
Touchscreen.
GPRS.

The best part - All phones supported the “Two SIMs at once” feature. This eliminated the irritating problem of switching between the SIMs everytime. The display showed the network coverage for both SIMs distinctly and separately. Besides the ZTC T58, there were a lot of other good phones in the same price range, which was around 6500 bucks. We were able to bargain the price to Rs.6000 and I’m sure they would have sold it at even lower had we been buying.

Ever wanted to convert one file format into another without having to download irritating limited/licensed softwares? Here’s your solution. Media Convert is, by far, the largest, the most efficient, and the most useful online conversion/splitting tool I have ever come across. The website allows you to convert between different formats of sound files, videos, presentations, text documents, spreadsheets, images, archives and more. The best part - this service is absolutely free and I’m yet to face a downtime. File extensions from a pool of softwares are supported, included Open Office and Microsoft Office. Moreover, there’s no need of downloading any potentially infected software. There is no requirement of registration. The only minus is the presence of large number of ads on the website, which is accepted, given the service is free-of-charge.

Media Convert not only supports conversions of files located on your PC, but also those located at a URL. There are no hassles/conflicts with any of the four most used internet browsers, namely Opera, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari and (the woderfully genius creation) Microsoft Internet Explorer. The service also provides file hosting and website screenshot facilities.

Here’s a list of file formats supported for different types of documents-

Text/Spreadsheets/Presentation-

Raw text, HTML, XHTML, Microsoft Word, RTF, PDF, PS, Open Office, Star Writer, Pocket Word, Word Perfect
CSV, dBase, Microsoft Excel, Pocket Excel, Lotus 123, Quattro Pro, Star Calc, Open Office spreadsheet
MathML, Star Math, Open Office math
Microsoft Powerpoint, Star Impress, Open Office presentation

Video Files-

3G2 3GP AMV ASF AVI DPG DV FLI FLV GIF GVI MKV MOV MP4 MPG NSV OGG OGM RM RPL
SWF VOB WMV

+ video presets for Windows, Linux, Mac, SVCD, DVD, Pocket PC, Mobile phone, Nokia 770, Nokia N800, iPOD, iPHONE, Sony PSP, Nintendo DS, Wii, Zune, S1MP3 MP4 player.

Sound Files-

WAV to MP3, OGG, AAC, AMR, FLAC, MPC, MMF, AU, AIFF, QCP.
MP3 to WAV, OGG, AAC, AMR, FLAC, MPC, MMF, AU, AIFF, QCP.
WMA to WAV, OGG, AAC, AMR, FLAC, MP3, MPC, MMF, AU, AIFF, QCP.
OGG to WAV, MP3, AAC, AMR, FLAC, MPC, MMF, AU, AIFF, QCP.
AAC to WAV, MP3, OGG, AMR, FLAC, MPC, MMF, AU, AIFF, QCP.
MP4 (AAC) to WAV, MP3, OGG, AMR, FLAC, MPC, MMF, AU, AIFF, QCP.
FLAC to WAV, MP3, OGG, AMR, AAC, MPC, MMF, AU, AIFF, QCP.
VQF (Yamaha TwinVQ) to WAV, MP3, OGG, AMR, AAC, FLAC, MMF, AU, AIFF, QCP.
MPC (Musepack) to WAV, MP3, OGG, AMR, AAC, FLAC, MMF, AU, AIFF, QCP.
REAL AUDIO to WAV, MP3, OGG, AMR, AAC, FLAC, MPC, MMF, AU, AIFF, QCP.
AMR to WAV, MP3, OGG, AAC, FLAC, MPC, MMF, AU, AIFF, QCP.
MMF (pcm) to WAV, MP3, OGG, AAC, FLAC, MPC, AMR, AU, AIFF, QCP.
AU to WAV, MP3, OGG, AAC, FLAC, MPC, AMR, MMF, AIFF, QCP.
AIFF to WAV, MP3, OGG, AAC, FLAC, MPC, AMR, AU, MMF, QCP.
QCP to WAV, MP3, OGG, AAC, FLAC, MPC, AMR, AU, AIFF, MMF.
3GP to WAV, MP3, OGG, AAC, FLAC, MPC, AMR, AU, AIFF, MMF.
+ Amiga files (8SVF, MAUD), Psion files (PRC, WVE), SNDT, SF, SoundBlaster VOC, AVR, TXW, Soundtracker files (MOD, XM FastTracker, IT ImpulseTracker, S3M ScreamTracker), …

ID3 (v1 and v2) Tag preservation for MP3, OGG, AAC, WMA and MPC files.

Archives

7Z BZ2 BZA CAB GZ LHA LZH RAR TAR TGZ YZ1 ZIP

Image Files

AVS BMP CIN DCX DIB DPX FITS GIF ICO JFIF JIF JPE JPEG JPG MIFF OTB P7 PALM PAM PBM
PCD PCDS PCL PCX PGM PICT PNG PNM PPM PSD RAS SGI SUN TGA TIF TIFF WMF XBM XPM YUV

CGM DXF EMF EPS MET MVG ODG OTG STD SVG SXD WMF

Ringtone Files

MIDI, MIDI-0, SP-MIDI, CMX, MMF, MOTOROLA, SAGEM, EMELODY, IMELODY, EMS, RTTTL/RTX, NOKIA, NOKIA-TXT.

And there’s more (quoted from the website)-

1) File Hosting allows conversion into zip archives (even split archives and passwords are supported)
2) Insert a PDF into your web page by converting it into an SWF Flash file.
3) Export easily Microsoft Access database to an Excel table.
4) Capture a website as an image.
5) Encode a text with UTF-8 codes or with one of 900 other charsets.
6) Learn morse code with the text to morse converter.

I personally applaud the creators for the wonderful online application. In a nutshell, Media Convert is the place to be should any file conversion related problem befall you. Go play..

It’s been over two and a half years since I bought my current system, without any major hardware problems. A little hiccups with the Sony DVD Writer, that’s all. But now is the time that I start regretting buying an LG monitor over a Viewsonic one.

I have to admit that when I bought this PC, I was not really tech savvy, at least not as much as I am today. But I still had spent a lot of time and had done a lot of market research before buying it. Because of budget reasons, I chose to get a cheap 17″ LG monitor, dumping the idea of getting a Viewsonic.

A few days ago, we had some voltage fluctuations at our place after which the display on my monitor started flickering (even after the voltage fluctuation was over). This was inspite of the fact that the monitor was connected to my UPS. The flickering gradually increased and eventually led to a complete blackout the day before yesterday. So the monitor is stuck in this position - with the power light on steadily, but the display flickering. By trial, I found out that I could somewhat fix this problem by banging the monitor on its sides. So I used for another 2-3 hours by banging it every 5 minutes when the display went out. To avoid my frustrations from blowing off beyond my tolerance levels, I decided to finally shut the machine down and call the LG customer care.

This was when the real problems started. Finding a working number for the LG customer care without access to the internet (my monitor isn’t working, remember?) was a nightmare. I had the warranty card for the monitor, but all the numbers given on it were useless. None of them worked - most of them gave a ‘does not exist’ tape, others ended up in people from some remote village picking up the call and saying, “Wrong numberva lagaye ho aap“. A particular number (39010909) redirected me to a tape which asked me put an STD code for Gurgaon to reach a call center for Delhi!

When I finally got hold of the new toll free number for LG, which is 1800 180 9999, I booked a complaint for my monitor and the executive told me that an engineer would contact me within 2 hours.

As expected, nothing happened after two hours, three hours. I decided to call again. Another executive picked up this time and told me that he had reforwarded my request as ‘urgent’. This time I got a call after 10 minutes, but the guy over there told me that all the engineers alloted to the area where I reside had gone for training that day! I mean how convenient an excuse! He told me that an engineer would call me tomorrow at 10 am and would visit me soon thereafter.

You guessed right, nobody called at 10 am. So at around 11, I called back at the number from which I recieved the call. The same dude picked up and said that the engineer is on-route and will contact me soon.

Another 3 hours pass away. Nothing. I call that dude again. This time he tells me to hold the line and calls the engineer, who is supposedly ‘on-route’. He speaks loudly enough so that I can hear him, and tells him to go to my place ASAP as my job was urgent. The guy said that he could be at my place earliest at 6 pm. This time, my fuse just blew off. I told him that I had been frustrated again and again by the customer care guys, whom I had clearly told that my work was urgent. He apologised for the ‘inconvenience’ caused and said that he would be there at 6 pm.

Aha. This is customer care. Things don’t have a happy ending here. Nobody showed up at 6 pm. I called the same dude again. This time he chose not to pick up the phone at all. I called twice, thrice but he did not pick up the phone. I called the toll free number, and surprisingly, they had somehow blocked my number from there too! My call got automatically disconnected once the tape on the toll free number ended.

After retrying the number without success, I called the guy from whom I had originally bought my PC. He gave me a direct number to an LG dude, who in turn gave me the number of the engineer who was ‘on-route’ to my place. I called the engineer, and boy what he said was really shocking and funny at the same time. He said that he was very ill and was just walking out of a hospital. He then said that he would reach my place by 9 pm.

So well here I am, writing this post using a flickering monitor, waiting for the clock to strike 9, and then waiting to pick the phone and start again, the chain of calls.

UPDATE : The engineer came to my place (point to note : he did look sick, and took a pill as soon as he arrived at my place. He looked like a pedophile, something else to be noted too) and fixed my monitor within 5 minutes. He just opened up the thing, and renewed a few connections using a soldering iron. He then gave me a feedback form to fill in which I put out what I have written in this post, in about 4 lines.

Since I screwed up my old and cheap Intex headphones, I decided to treat myself and get new ones, but this time, a little more durable and of a comparitively superior quality. So I went to Nehru Place with Sneezy Melon and got myself a brand new set of Altec Lansing headphones.

Altec Lansing has a very good reputation in the sound equipment industry. This, and the recommendation by a friend was the main reason I went for Altec Lansing rather than other competitors such as iBall and Creative. But sadly, I was disappointed.

* The one thing that grabs your attention at first is obviously design and ergonomics. The set is sleek and has the obvious ‘behind-the-neck’ coolness factor. Pads of three different colors - black, orange and pink are provided.

* When you start using it, you notice the awesome and clear sound quality. However, there is no option for size adjustment. So the headphones are practically unwearable for my sister as they are too large for her tiny head. They keep falling off when she wears them.

* Because of the ‘behind-the-neck’ design, the whole weight of the headphones and mic is on your ears. So your ears would hurt like hell if you wear the set for 4-5 hours at a stretch.

* Though the connectors are sturdy, but their is the usual problem that develops after some time, the one of loosening of connection, and particularly breaking of wires in this area -

So you have to adjust the connector until you start getting clear sound. For me, this problem has started a bit too early. It has just been over 3 weeks since I bought it.

* The wire is quite long (2.6 metres to be precise) as compared to other headphones. This comes in handy when you want to lie back and watch a movie with popcorn.

* It has gold connectors to ensure minimal loss in transmission of audio signal. I have no idea if this actually does any good, but I’m sure it definitely adds to the price of the headset.

* In-line volume control - The inline volume control is not a new or unique feature, it is present in almost all headphones in the market, but the 3 level volume control for the microphone is something new, and can come handy during voice chats, if you want to suddenly mute or lower your sound input.

In all, I think the pros outweigh the cons, and it is a good buy. However I would recommend going for a headphone with similar features but an ‘over-the-head’ design. I got this for Rs. 550 with a 1 year warranty, from Computer Empire, Nehru Place.

Probably people will think that I am exaggerating. But I’m not. I am an Opera addict, I can’t stand Firefox, and am so hopelessly dependent on mouse gestures that I keep doing {down + right} with my mouse even when my PC is off.

Opera 9.27 had disappointed me, mainly because it was a slow, buggy release and it was horrible at handling Flash and other embedded content. But still, I have been living with gray boxes, without YouTube for the past one month.

Opera Kestrel Beta 1 was disappointing too. On my PCLinuxOS system, it kept on crashing randomly, and the average time for one session was no more than 5 minutes. Moreover, I had been silly and forgot to take up a backup of my settings, and so when I wanted to downgrade, I couldn’t because the upgrade broke all my settings files, and I had to start afresh.

This time, I was smart enough to take a backup before doing anything. I downloaded a static rpm from the official website, and installed it over my current 9.27 installation, because I wanted to retain all my settings. I did this using -

$ sudo rpm -iv opera-9.50b2-20080422.1-static-qt.i386-en.rpm

The installation took around 15 seconds, immediately after which I launched Opera. On the first launch, a dialog popped up asking me if I wanted to upgrade my mail database automatically. It was as simple as that. All my bookmarks, personal bar shortcuts, custom search keywords, passwords saved in the magic wand, everything was there, completely usable. This was very pleasing as there were a lot of compatibility issues in the first beta version of Kestrel.

The next surprise came to me when I opened RutSum in Kestrel, and yes, Flash was working, perfectly! The page scrolling was smooth, even with about 4 javascripts and 3 flash items on the page. Earlier, in 9.27, a page with flash would get stuck for 2 seconds, and then become functional, with the flash items as gray boxes. This, for me, was the biggest source of relief, because for viewing flash sites like YouTube, I had to open up Firefox.

Most people already know, but Opera Kestrel has a thing called ‘Quick Find’, which is aptly described by the devs -

Have you ever forgot the page where you found that great article or that perfect gift? Opera remembers the actual content of the Web pages you visit. In the address bar, just type one word you remember, and Opera finds the page for you immediately.

This is something that is very similar to the awesome bar in Firefox 3. I visited both the Opera and Firefox IRC channels to find out who introduced this feature first, but both the teams seem to be of the idea that they put in the feature somewhere around the end of August 2007, and they thought of it independently, and nobody ’stole’ the idea from each other.

Beta 2 is also definitely more snappy and fast in loading as compared to Beta 1. Even with the ‘Speed Dial’ on, I couldn’t feel any hiccups. It is also more compatible with AJAX sites. GMail chat works perfectly fine. And for the past 4 hours that I have been using this new beta, it hasn’t crashed a single time, even with 17 tabs opened simultaneously. Looks like they did make a release that is worthy of all the time they have spent on its development. I am looking forward to Kestrel as an ultimate browser, which would be beat Firefox 3 hands down. It’s just a matter of time now.