Jalaj P. Jha

Why GPRS? Most of you might think that! considering that Broadband connections with higher speeds are available everywhere. Well I can count two reasons supporting ‘Why GPRS?’ may be you can come up with more

1. You frequently need to relocate sometimes within the city and sometimes even outside. While the conventional broadband internet connection incurs transfer charges or initial costs on each such incidence, GPRS connections don’t.
2. If you need to travel frequently, and may be carry a laptop/notebook with you, your broadband connection at home is of no use to you here. GPRS allows you to keep yourself connected to the net always.

WHY NOT CDMA BASED SOLUTIONS?

You agree that a mobile internet is a good option but wonder why GPRS? Why not CDMA based  solution?? After all it is much faster than GPRS! Yes, true but that’s the half truth that the CDMA mobile operators spread for marketing. When they say that its faster than GPRS they are correct but then they don’t point out that it is slower than EDGE (or EGPRS) which is present at most important cities… (while I say most important cities, it’s just that I don’t know how many cities are there without EDGE. My own hometown that don’t count in big cities have all GSM operators providing EDGE)…

I have checked many a times for speed and have always found that GPRS(although all GSM operators in Mumbai have EDGE they still prefer to call this service GPRS) is indeed very fast. Just check the two screenshots below, for my last two downloads, showing the highest speeds I encounter while downloading using GetRight. This is a very good speed indeed considering that mode of connection between my laptop and the handset is Bluetooth and not a USB cable. Anyone got this speed using CDMA?

WHICH OPERATOR?

If you are an existing mobile user, you may want to go for services from the same mobile operator using the existing connection. In case you are a new user or making a switch, you can consult others using the GPRS services in your city to decide on to which operator to go for. In case you fail to contact an existing user, you should check out directly with customer helpdesks to know about their offerings. The points you should get clear on are

• How big the operator’s reach outside your home network. If you roam in areas outside home network will you be required to pay?
• What would be billing method. Would you require to make interim payments or advance deposits to properly use their services? This point is of utmost importance as many operators hide facts or present them in unclear way in fine prints and you end up in trouble.

HOW TO CONNECT? BLUETOOTH, DATA CABLE OR USB MODEM

You should use a Bluetooth or data cable if

• you are planning to use same phone connection for voice calls as well as the internet.
• you already have a mobile handset that supports GPRS/EDGE.

Most brands except Nokia provide data cable with phones while most models from all brands have in-built Bluetooth. To connect using Bluetooth your PC/laptop should too have Bluetooth. Depending on how you plan to connect you may be required to purchase a data cable or a Bluetooth dongle for PC/laptop. Data cables provide faster connection compared to Bluetooth.

You should go for a USB Modem/stick if you fail in any of above two criteria. These have advantages as

• At less than Rs.3000/- they are cheaper than a new handset supporting fast EDGE/GPRS
• They directly plug into USB so no other purchase as Bluetooth dongle / data cable is required.
• Most operators offer plans that are similar to or better than GPRS plans for existing mobile connections.

USB Modem / Stick do have a drawback that they are not available in open market (at least not in India). Sticks offered by Operators are network locked, so in case you start getting poor services you have no choice other than to continue using poor services, or to get ready to loose your investment made on modem/stick.

WHICH DATA PLAN TO USE?

All operators offer a variety of data plans. For a given monthly rental you get a fixed Free usage and any usage above the free limit is charged at a given rate. Whatever plan you go for just remember to stick to the free usage limit and if you cross the limit the result payment could be larger than your imagination. I would recommend that

• Don’t ever go for a plan that allows NIL free usage. They will cost you higher than any other plan.
• Go for a plan providing less that 500MB of free usage only if you plan to use the handset for surfing or if you use PC very sparingly like once a week. Your usage when surfing from PC can be much higher than you expected for reasons that will be discussed later.
• I would recommend that a plan with at least 1GB free usage be used if you plan to use PC for surfing daily. Keep an eye on daily usage and remember not to go for frequent heavy downloads or view too many videos on Youtube.
• Go for a plan that allows you unlimited free usage if you want peace of mind and freedom. Any amount of downloads you go for, or watching videos etc will not create a hole in your pocket. Do check if your unlimited plan have a hidden limit (like fair usage policy of 2GB etc.)

IF I DON’T DOWNLOAD ANYTHING DO I NEED TO WORRY ABOUT CROSSING LIMITS?
Many operators or their agents present the prospective customer with wrong statement as “Surfing is FREE, you only need to pay for download”. Beware of such people/operator. Get yourself clear with facts. When you request a particular site on your browser, the page that is shown and images contained in it all count for download, even if you have not saved anything. You are watching the page because it was downloaded by your browser. So be aware that if you have limits, each page you view is taking you closer to it.

I GOT GPRS CONNECTION! NOW WHAT?
If you got genuine unlimited plan (no hidden limits), you have no worries go ahead and enjoy the net. But if you have a limited data plan check for the following

• Ensure that you have a good antivirus software installed that updates itself whenever you are online. Perform a full scan to ensure that you don’t have any virus on your system. If you have viruses on your system there are high chances that it will try to spread itself using substantial amount of your data usage limit. Some viruses often called Trojans are meant for performing tasks as stealing your data and consume a large amount of data usage limit. The net will appear to be slow at such times. Ensure that you don’t have any such virus problems by keeping updated antivirus software.
• Updation of antivirus software will involve downloading of virus definitions of new virus identified since last update as well as any modifications done to the software. Thus all updation activities will consume some part of your data usage limit, but since they are necessary don’t try to avoid it.
• If you have Windows XP SP2 or above, your operating system will try to find necessary updates and try to install them. Unfortunately this would mean a very heavy download sometimes with file sizes so high that it would be nearly impossible to get it downloaded over GPRS. In such a case Windows will try everytime you go online, failing each time, but consuming a large part of your data usage limit. Even if you have an unlimited plan this could annoy you as surfing would slow down. To avoid this unwanted scenario, turn off the automatic windows update.
• Many softwares as Firefox and softwares from Google auto-update then each time a new version is available. Either keep yourself aware of data limit used by these or disable the updation.
• If you find that you have crossed the usage limit and you still have a few days to go before the billing cycle resets. Either keep yourself away from using the net, or use cybercafes for some time. If you are sure that you need to use your GPRS connection only even if that costs high, get confirmed about the charges applicable for usage above limit from the customer support. If you freqently cross the limits, you may need to upgrade your plan to remain cost effective.

Any other question? Feel free to post a comment!!

A woman showed her husband the Shirt that she bought for him in today’s shopping.

The man exclaimed “How much you care for me!”, “I loved it”, “How much did it cost?”

“FREE!!”, the woman replied, “it came FREE with three sarees!”

Women have long been central character for most Shopping Jokes. Though official history of Shopping does not go far in Ancient civilization, I bet it goes as far as time when Adam and Eve lived. You see when Adam felt lonely God created Eve and when Eve felt lonely he created Shops and thus started Shopping!

Yesterday when I was shopping at Big Bazaar Malad…, now don’t be surprised, my wife was with me (or rather I was with her)… an offer caught my attention “Ladies Corduroy – Buy 1@499 – Buy 2@999”

Offers where you save more when purchase 2 pieces instead of 1 are normal at Big Bazaar but this offer looked different, indeed it was different. Any shopaholic woman could straightaway go for the purchase of 2 pieces even if she wanted none. An alert woman will however find that there is no savings here 500 (rounded) for 1 and 1000 (rounded again) for 2, where is the saving?

Only a ‘mathematician-at-heart’ woman will find that in fact you are paying 1 rupee more when you go for two pieces. Now was this by mistake or a marketing strategy? will Big Bazaar people care to tell us?

Here is an interesting piece of story I came across recently.

The Pontiac Division of General Motors received a complaint:

‘This is the second time I have written to you, and I don’t blame you for not answering me, because I sounded crazy, but it is a fact that we have a tradition in our family of Ice-Cream for dessert after dinner each night, but the kind of ice cream varies so, every night, after we’ve eaten, the whole family votes on which kind of ice cream we should have and I drive down to the store to get it. It’s also a fact that I recently purchased a new Pontiac and since then my trips to the store have created a problem.

You see, every time I buy a vanilla ice cream, when I start back from the store my car won’t start. If I get any other kind of ice cream, the car starts just fine. I want you to know I’m serious about this question, no matter how silly it sounds “What is there about a Pontiac that makes it not start when I get vanilla ice cream, and easy to start whenever I get any other kind?”

The Pontiac President was understandably skeptical about the letter, but sent an Engineer to check it out anyway.

The latter was surprised to be greeted by a successful, obviously well educated man in a fine neighborhood. He had arranged to meet the man just after dinner time, so the two hopped into the car and drove to the ice cream store. It was vanilla ice cream that night and, sure enough, after they came back to the car, it wouldn’t start.

The Engineer returned for three more nights. The first night, they got chocolate. The car started. The second night, he got strawberry. The car started. The third night he ordered vanilla. The car failed to start.

Now the engineer, being a logical man, refused to believe that this man’s car was allergic to vanilla ice cream. He arranged, therefore, to continue his visits for as long as it took to solve the problem. And toward this end he began to take notes: He jotted down all sorts of data: time of day, type of gas uses, time to drive back and forth etc.

In a short time, he had a clue: the man took less time to buy vanilla than any other flavor. Why? The answer was in the layout of the store. Vanilla, being the most popular flavor, was in a separate case at the front of the store for quick pickup. All the other flavors were kept in the back of the store at a different counter where it took considerably longer to checkout.

Now, the question for the Engineer was why the car wouldn’t start when it took less time. Time was now the problem – not the vanilla ice cream!!!! The engineer quickly came up with the answer: “vapor lock”.

It was happening every night; but the extra time taken to get the other flavors allowed the engine to cool down sufficiently to start. When the man got vanilla, the engine was still too hot for the vapor lock to dissipate.

Even crazy looking problems are sometimes real

So, the problem that seemed to be attached to the ice cream flavor was a problem actually in the car, Just ignoring the reported problem could have meant inability to trace the actual problem. This is just a funny example that many might not even consider to be real. But reading this reminded me of a non-fiction book ‘The Cuckoo’s Egg’ by Cliff Stoll which I had started reading in 2006 but could not complete it due to job switching. I looked for it and and started reading again from scratch and am already finished reading more than half of the book that too in just a single day.

Cliff Stoll, an astronomer, employed as a Systems Administrator is asked to look into a $0.75 difference in accounting. 75  cents! an amount that could well be ignored!! At the end of day it comes out that someone had actually used computing power but successfully skipped paying the due amount $0.75. Now the amount was small but problem worth noting was that the guy was logged in as an administrator, an administrator no one knew, using an account no one created. Page by page new facts come up. What looked like searching for a high school student messing with networks end up grabbing cross-country spy looking for confidential military documents. Note that this is a real story. Here is the link to the first chapter of the book.

How do I celebrate New Year Eve? Well nothing special about it! I am always with my family at home watching television when the calendar rolls into new year, or alternatively, having a sound sleep as with any other day. But the celebrations were a little different on a particular instance a few years back.

We had heard that our office was organizing a New Year Party in a Hotel and all staff and their family members were to attend. Such a gathering was never organized before, so it was natural that we were all excited about it and eagerly waiting for the day.

And then one fine day we came to know that the party was pre-poned to 30^th Dec. Reason? Most said that hotel booking was not available for 31^st! but booking was already done beforehand? Isn’t it right?? Well then someone whispered… this party was the brainchild of our Boss’ wife and now that she was expected to be out of station on the New Year Eve, the party had to be pre-poned to ensure her presence.

So on 30^th at around 8:30-9:00 pm the party started we all enjoyed the dance and song items. In between we all had the dinner. One song item was ended abruptly and was replaced by a countdown 10… 9… First we were confused but then realized that clock was going to strike 12. And then one voice called out “Happy New Year” and many hesitant voices followed “Happy New Year”. Many people were smiling when they greeted, after all the New Year was still 24 hours away. But hey it seems that those people never heard that “Boss’ wife is always right!”

Wishing you all a Happy New Year!

The New Year also marks the beginning of the 4^th year for this blog, though however the actual anniversary date is 12th Dec.

Though the counts of new posts have reduced in last couple of years, old posts on this blog still draws thousands of unique visitors each month. As always, my new year resolution is to be active again on this blog and post frequently and regularly, and I believe, I will be more serious in sticking to the resolution.

That’s all for now. Keep reading in coming months.

Fevicol has been coming up with funniest ads which would even beat Manmohan Desai’s movies when it comes to reality and logic. Here is the latest ad for it’s own 50th Anniversary.

A small girl is preparing for a play she is acting in. She is portraying a male character for which she needs to wear a mustache. Unable to find anything else, she uses Fevicol to stick the mustache and as the tagline say ‘Fevicol ka jod hai tutega nahin’ she fails to get it removed even after the play is over. Now the girl is shown growing still with the mustache, gets married, ages and at last dies in an hospital. The moment she collapses cries of a newborn baby is heard from a nearby room. The nurse comes out with a baby with mustache depicting that even rebirth could not separate the mustache.

The ad shows different timelines in different screen sizes and color to give a sense of time passing by. But if you are going to check logical accuracy, I suggest don’t. Fevicol just completed 50 years of existence, the girl lived a long long life of 70-90 years, and still could use Fevicol in her childhood. This type of liberty has been freely taken by Fevicol in its ads.

On way back home from work, I noticed a three wheeler auto-rickshaw carry a notice on its back that says

“Capacity : 3 idiots”

Now this notice and the fact that the auto-rickshaw allows only 3 passengers can make any passenger feel offended, of course if he is not aware of upcoming bollywood movies. I moved closer and found that it indeed was the teaser for the upcoming movie “3 idiots” starring Aamir Khan.

So get ready to watch “3 idiots” on an auto-rickshaw (in a theatre?) near you!