RutSum

Blogging & New Media Workshop - New Delhi (28th-30th 2008)

The Indian Blog & New Media Society is organizing another event for enthusiastic bloggers in the capital, at the India Habitat Centre, after the much successful BlogCamp hosted last month.

Venue: Gulmohar Hall, India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road, New Delhi

Date: 28th-30th June 2008

Time: 6:30-8:30 pm

Registration: There is no attendance or registration fee. You can register on the spot, or in advance by sending a mail to ibnms.in@gmail.com. You may attend one or more sessions.

Scheduled Sessions (Quoted from the official website)-

Session I, Saturday, June 28
Blogging Technology: How To Set Up And Manage A Blog

What is a blog? How to set it up on platforms like Blogger, Wordpress etc? How do you get your own domain like www.myname.com? Hosting on your own servers. Custom options. Adding photos and videos. Adding subscriber sign up boxes. Using tools like LiveWriter. And more…

Session II, Sunday, June 29
Marketing Your Blog

How do you make your blog more visible? How do you generate greater traffic? How do you get comments on your blog? What is SEO? How do you generate advertising for your blog?

Session III, Monday, June 30
Benefits Of Blogging For Executives, Businesses And Professionals; How To Make Money As A Blogger

Using blogs for personal and corporate branding. Engaging with stakeholders through blogs. Using blogs as a PR and communication tool.

For more information, the organizers can be contacted through the official page.

Media Convert : Online Conversion/Splitting Tool

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..

Watch Wimbledon Online - LIVE

Tennis fans out there would agree that there is nothing like watching your favorite player in action in a while sitting in the stadium, but watching a match on TV can be pretty boring, especially with the advertisements and lack of control. Don’t you wish you could rewind and watch that swing again? Or maybe pause it at that moment so that you could run to your kitchen and grab some popcorn?

Well, I know it sounds dramatic, but MediaZone has done us all a favor by making your favorite Wimble matches available for you to watch online! The service is called Wimbledon LIVE, and they give you good reasons to pay them $24.99 (for an all access pass). They have video on demand services, which include full matches and extras such as interviews. They also have a section for old matches from last year, or all time classic matches, if you want to relive the glory of old times.

Apart from the paid services, they also provide a few free-of-cost services such as reviews and radio commentary. For more details, or to watch Wimbledon episodes LIVE online, visit their website.

Come Along To The First Ever ‘Delhi Geeks and Quizzers Meet’

Ankur Banerjee of Needlessly Messianic has come forward and decided that all the geeks, bloggers, techies and quizzers, who are spread all over Delhi should move their lazy asses from in front of their computers and come down to Connaught Place on 29th June, 2008, and have some fun. To eligible for the meet, you must be a geek, that is, in simple terms, you must have absolutely NO life. The meet is open for women too, but I highly doubt anybody other than Uma Damle would qualify for the event.

The point to be noted that there is no age limit for this meet, but the current crowd is from our batch, that is, geeks who have passed out from their schools in 2008, and are looking forward to join a college for further studies (or maybe not). So even though people of all age groups are invited, you may feel somewhat left-out if you are a 65 year old FORTRAN programmer sitting amongst ten 17 year olds who are playing with hacked Chinese phones with their custom Linux distros installed on them.

To register for the event, you need to have a Yahoo! account, so that you can add yourself to the ‘I’m Coming’ list over here.

Though Ankur hasn’t mentioned any official agenda for the meet, but I guess we’ll be talking about random stuff, discussing what we have in common (the tech side of our lives) and our future in college. Maybe we can plan and form some kind of a group which will organise such meets regularly to break the monotony of our very ‘geeky’ lives. If you want to come forward and suggest an idea or have an activity in mind (apart from watching a movie - has already been discussed) that you think we can take part in and have fun, you are most welcome to join us.

For any suggestions/queries, leave a comment on the official Yahoo! page for the meet, or contact Ankur.

My LG 700E Is Killing Me

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.