Airtel reduces Fair usage policy limit to 8GB for 512kbps unlimited users on its wired broadband segment.This limit is too low and can be exceeded by downloading large files for 24hours.
The reason people go for unlimited plans is to get more data from the internet.
Whats the use of unlimited plans if they come with such abysimally low fair usage limits?

 

New plan details from Airtel,as recieved in email. (click to enlarge)

Airtel fair usage policy is unfair.

Petrol prices in different counties of the world.
(click on images to enlarge)

(selected countries)

Venezeula has the lowest price per litre for petrol since it is a petroleum producing country.
Eritrea,a country on the horn of africa is has the highest price for petroleum.
India is in the middle,with the world average.

Country Name	Price in rupees
Venezuela, RB	0.93
Saudi Arabia	7.47
United Arab Emirates	17.28
Myanmar	20.08
Egypt, Arab Rep.	22.88
Iran, Islamic Rep.	24.75
Malaysia	24.75
United States	26.15
Australia	34.55
Mexico	34.55
Canada	35.49
Korea, Dem. Rep.	35.49
Argentina	36.42
Pakistan	39.22
South Africa	40.62
Russian Federation	41.56
Bhutan	42.49
Chile	44.36
China	46.23
Afghanistan	49.03
Singapore	49.96
India	50.90
World Average	51.83
Nepal	52.76
Iceland	53.70
Bangladesh	54.63
Kenya	56.03
Spain	57.43
Costa Rica	57.90
Brazil	58.83
Switzerland	60.70
Zimbabwe	60.70
Austria	63.97
Sweden	64.44
Poland	66.77
Sri Lanka	66.77
United Kingdom	67.24
Belgium	70.04
France	70.97
Denmark	71.91
Germany	72.84
Italy	73.31
Norway	76.11
Cuba	77.98
Japan	81.25
Eritrea	118.14

(above figure in tabulation form)

(Complete list of countries)

*Source data from World bank statistics as of 2008.
Assuming that the price increase would be uniform throughout the world,price positions would be same for 2010.(World bank statistics haven't yet updated 2009 statistics)
Older post about the same topic in 2007 available here.

It is possible to take screenshots of  the mobile screen of s60 devices and save them as a image.
The screenshots come handy in several situations.One example is that when we want to post the screenshots on the web as part of a tutorial or a review.
There is one open source software available for this.
It can be downloaded here: Screenshot for S60v3 (N73)

Developers can access the source code for this screenshot application here.

Sometimes while installing symbian applications, "Expired Certificate" error may occur.

This is because the certicates are issued for certain time periods,and wont work if many years have expired after the application was created.
For solving this error, change the mobile date to some date in 2007.
This solves the "certificate expired" error and the application will install smoothly.
After finishing installation,change the date back to the current date.

Nokia N73 phone sometimes gives  the error "Not enough memory to perform operations","close some applications and try again".
This error may occur even if the user doesn't store any data on the phone memory.
This is caused by one application called  "LifeBlog".
LifeBlog is an application that tracks everything that goes on inside the N73 mobile.
The reason is one file called "Lifeblog.db".This file's size occupies most of the phone memory and causes this error.
Deleting this file will free up the phone memory and causes the error to disappear and also improve the performance of the mobile.

For deleting this file,special file manager applications are necessary.System files and folders will not be listed within the default file manager.
Install Y-Browser,its a free application.
(Y-Browser may give "Expired Certificate" while installing,follow this simple step to stop that error)
Open the application,Browse  into C:\Data\lifeblog\Database and delete Lifeblog.db

Then restart the phone,the database will be created again,but with very less space and the error will go away.

First of all, this works only with laptops using Windows 7.

The procedure listed here provides a method to establish wireless  LAN connectivity between two laptops running Windows 7. This LAN can be used for file sharing /multiplayer games/internet sharing if internet connection is available in one of the systems.
Connectivity between two systems without using access points such as a switch/router is called as "adhoc" connection.
In this setup,one system acts as the access point and the other system connects to the access point.
One thing to be noted is that one laptop can act as an access point,in the mean time be connected to another access point.The advantage is that this laptop can act as a bridge between two networks.

Step 1: First we setup one laptop as access point
Open Control panel->Network and sharing center
Click on "Setup a new connection or network"

Step 2:  Scroll down on the dialog box and Select "Setup a  wireless ad hoc (computer-to-computer) network.Then click "Next".

Step 3: In the next window,provide a name for the network and a security key for the network

Then click "Next",if required click on "enable Internet connection sharing" in the next window.
Click "Close" to finish the setup.

Step 4: Now,for laptop-laptop or system-system connections, the IP address of the systems need to be setup accordingly. For normal LAN settings,we use 192.168.1.x addressing, but for adhoc connections,we have to use 192.168.0.x addressing as shown below.

For setting up the IP address,again goto Control panel->Network and sharing center.
Click on the "Change Adapter Settings" link on the left panel.

Step 5: Right click on your wireless network connection and select "Properties".Default name for the wireless adapter will be "Wireless Network Connection".
Select "Internet Protocol Version 4" and click on the "Configure" button.

Step 6:  Fill the "IP address"and "Subnet mask" fields as below and then click "OK" to save the settings.

Now the access point is setup successfully.

Step 7: Connect the other laptop to the newly setup access point by using the usual procedure.(searching for wifi and connecting).
Then setup the IP address of this laptop to the 192.168.0.x format.

Now both laptops are in LAN.To play multiplayer games, add exceptions in firewall for the game executables or turn of the windows firewall temporarily.
For file sharing,the laptops can be accessed by their IP addresses or through the Network sharing center.
Internet connection sharing works by default.

Remove "You may be a victim of software counterfeiting" error message
Microsoft installs "Windows Genuine Advantage" on user's computers and displays annoying error messages to activate the copy.Its a sort of sneaky behavior to install that update without explicit user approval.

There are many removal tools for removing the WGA error message,but most of them are deemed illegal by microsoft.Here is one tool that does it legally.It just removes the update.Make sure not to download the WGA update again.If accidentally downloaded again, use the tool again.

The tool is available at Softpedia.
Here is a backup link,incase Softpedia link gets changed.

Whenever we are searching with google for something, lots of irrelevant stuff also comes up.
For example,if i am searching for something related to vb.net, all things related to asp.net will also show up.
We can avoid the asp.net related pages by telling google not to return pages containing the word asp.
For that ,frame the query and put -asp at the end.It will block everything related to asp.
Happy googling.

Most of the laptops do not have an option to turn off the LCD display screen manually.Mostly the screen automatically switches off after a certain time interval.
Its better to conserve power by switching off manually.
Here is a simple application for that.

Monitor OFF (zipped)


The application makes use of the c++ commands to access the display device and puts it into sleep mode,ie,turns off the display.Display can be brought back by simply pressing any key or by using the touchpad/mouse.

As of Feb 2010,
Top websites browsed via mobile web

1. google.com
2. orkut.com
3. yahoo.com
4. facebook.com
5. youtube.com
6. wikipedia.org
7. songs.pk
8. wap.in
9. zedge.net
10. getjar.com

Top mobile phones used for web browsing,

1. Nokia 5130 XpressMusic
2. Nokia 2700c
3. Nokia N70
4. Nokia 3110c
5. Nokia 6300
6. Nokia N73
7. Nokia 7210
8. Nokia N72
9. Nokia 5310 XpressMusic
10. Nokia 3500c

This data is extracted from the Opera Mini browser statistics for India.The statistics are published monthly by Opera and can be found here (http://www.opera.com/smw).

The error that unable to register a control/component comes when the command window is not running using administrator credentials.

To solve this, create a link to c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe and right click on the link and select "Run as Administrator".

Then register from that command window.Its a working solution which is personally tested by this author.

Airtel offers mchek service which can be used to pay mobile phone bills for postpaid customers and to make recharges for prepaid customers.
The service can be accessed through interactive voice response system by dialing 543219.
mChek asks for a credit card number and a pin number while signing up.The pin number serves as the authentication code for accessing and using the mChek facility.
Recharges can be done for a mimimum of 50rs, the amount credited will be the usual for prepaid subscribers. The best part is that mChek not only works for the regsitering number,it can also be used to recharge/pay bills for any airtel numbers,be it prepaid mobile or postpaid mobile or landline.

Special note: In case an user is registered with mChek,but not having outgoing facility due to low balance or unpaid postpaid bill, mChek cannot be accessed directly since 543219 cannot be dialled.There is a solution to access mChek even in such situations, goto airtel.in and go into "Easy Pay".In that page,select bill processing through mChek and give the amount and number.mChek will automatically ask for your pin number in your mobile through interactive reply mechanism.Just enter the pin and the bill will be paid.

After testing several pdf readers with ipod touch, the best pdf reader is found to be "good reader" by goodiware.
Goodreader has several innovative features for ebook viewing.It supports zooming and panning, and panning can be locked within up-down directions alone.There are also two modes for reading documents,one for low light and one for bright light conditions. It can also be rotated.Rotate is not controlled by the accelerometer,its a necessary feature because accidental turning may cause the document to turn.
The features of this product is endless.

The greatest feature is that it has a simple desktop application (GoodReaderUSB.exe) that can be used to drag/drop files directly to the ipod touch.

Many external hard disks fail to get detected on some systems, whether they run Windows xp, windows vista or even linux.
The reason for this problem is the USB ports. Many USB ports are not directly connected to the motherboard, they use some internal hubs to connect to the cabinet of the PC.
The solution to this problem is to connect the external hard disk to a different USB port,preferably USB ports in the back of the CPU.
The drives fail to detect because they are not getting enough power from certain USB ports, connecting the external hard disk to the rear end of the CPU will solve the problem.
The fix mentioned was tested several times, and it works with all external hard disks.

OpenID Basics

Most websites require a user to login before they can start using their website. So,users are forced to signup at every single website they intend to use.The signup process is usually a time consuming process since email verification is mostly necessary in order to verify the validity of the user.

Yahoo's id can be used across its network (email,groups,answers etc),and Google's id can be used on its network (gmail,gtalk,blogger etc) and Microsoft has Passport (mail,Spaces,and all MS services including Windows itself).

But what about the other majority of internet not owned by Y!,Google or MS? Its where OpenID comes to the rescue.

Started in 2005, OpenID eliminates the need for multiple usernames across different websites.Its designed by the OpenId foundation which provides it as a open source implementation. OpenID can be signed up using one of the OpenID providers. Once signed up,it can be used across the network of websites that support OpenID.OpenID foundation claims that OpenID is supported by more than 50,000 websites.

Some major websites include blogger,wordpress,livejournal,scribd,digg,dailymotion,facebook etc.,and more and more websites are starting to support OpenID gradually.

Advantages

OpenID offers users ease of use and there is no need to sign up in websites supporting OpenID.

For website owners,the advantage is that more users will be signed up for their website since users dont need to signup separately, and users only need to sign in into OpenID and join the website.

So,users can easily join an OpenId supporting website.Thats a plus for both users as well as website owners.

Moreover, OpenID can be easily implemented by website owners.

And regarding security,the OpenId password will not be submitted to the website, it will be submitted only to the OpenID provider who acts as the middleman in the sign-in process.

Yahoo supports OpenID

Yahoo started to support OpenID in 2008 as a OpenID provider.The implication is that existing Y! ids can be used as OpenID logins (username/password).However, it needs to be enabled separately.

Just go to openid.yahoo.com and login with Y! username/password and enable OpenID.

After that, Y! id can be used to login into any OpenId website.

An important thing to be noted is that the Y! username/password should not be entered directly into any website's login boxes.Enter yahoo.com in the OpenID field.The browser will redirect to Y! authentication servers.Y! username/password should only be entered in Yahoo's login page.

Of course,the user has the option to sign up with any OpenID provider.

Even Google and Microsoft are OpenID providers.

Note:

OpenID providers: websites that allow to create OpenIDs (trivially, Y!,G and MS allow creation,but they can't be used for login in their own networks,but usable on all websites implemeting OpenID)

OpenID websites: websites that allow OpenID to be used as a login method (websites that allow users to login)