External TV Tuner Box = PC Remote Volume Control

While watching your favourite movie or Music on your PC have you ever felt if you could sit back, relax & remotely control the volume of your PC speakers. This can easily be done if you have an External TV Tuner Box attached to your PC.

When the TV Tuner is switched on, your PC's volume gets muted. Whereas if you turn off the TV Tuner & work on your PC, try using the MUTE, Volume Up (+) & Volume Down (-) buttons on your TV Tuners' remote. It really works!!! & controls your PC speakers' volume, even though your TV is turned off.

Haven't yet thought of this. Thats why this blog is there to make your mind innovative. Do try this at home & let me know if this has worked with you or not.

Consumermate.com - The One Stop Shop for the Latest Mobile Phones

A few months back I had announced the launch of the Consumermate.com portal for Laptop. With Christmass arriving there is some more good news from Consumermate.com with the launch of the section dedicated to Mobile Phones. Similar to the section for Laptops, this section helps a consumer to a great extent in making a buying decision. The section has the latest of Mobile Launches & Street Prices of more than 20 well known brands like Nokia, HTC, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, etc.

The Mobile Phones section has various tools like "Know your Basics", "Mobile Buying Guide" & "Mobile Guru" which clarifies all your doubts regarding Mobile Phones. In a world which is getting smaller everyday through Mobile connectivity it is high time that we get the best piece available in the market. In addition to clarifying FAQ's it also helps you in getting Hot Deals so that the deal does not turn out to be heavy for your pockets. All said, if you still feel that the section did not answer all your questions, you can use the ASK US section to ask your questions. A panel of Mobile Gurus would be more than happy to help you out in solving your query.

Tring Tring!!! - Consumermate.com Mobiles is waiting for you.

Recording Online Audio Streams using Audacity

There are plenty of sites which stream online audio on the Net. You might sometime feel that some need to be recorded (Not Copyrighted Audio). But many sites don't offer to download the Audio stream. In such a case what to do???

Very simple - use an open source Audio editing tool like "Audacity" & choose the input channel (from the Combo Box in main stream) as "Mono Mix" (if Mono recording) or "Stereo Mix" (if Stereo recording). Now press the Record button & start recording. Once recording is completed, you can export the recorded audio in MP3 or other well known Audio formats. Isn't this simple!!!

(Note: Recording Copyrighted Audio is strictly discouraged.)

Tech Review: Hitachi 3 Door Refrigerator (Model#RS31SVND)

After 1 years research I finally have another object of desire. I am talking about the new gadget which my dad gifted to our family this Diwali - a 3 Door Refrigerator from Hitachi.

As usual, this Review would be less technical (with less of Technical Specifications) so that a layman can make a buying decision. This is one of the products which I am thoroughly satisfied with though the price is on the higher side. Its MRP is currently Rs.42,000 & you can get it from selected Retails Stores anything from Rs.39,000 to Rs.42,000. I bought it on the day of Dhanteras at Rs.38,999 with an Electric Toast & Grill free from Hypercity (Malad) & they just increased the price to Rs,40,999 on the day of Diwali.

Some of its salient features -

1. 366 litres refrigerator & has 3 sections - the top most one is the Fresh Food Compartment (like a regular refrigerator), the middle one is a large Vegetable Compartment (drawer) & the lowermost one is a large Deep-Freezer Compartment (drawer) for storing non-vegetarian items.
2. The Vegetable Compartment being at the middle position reduces the strain on your back, as it is the most frequently used & is placed at a comfortable position.
3. Its tall as almost I am :-) - standing tall at approximately 6 feet.
4. It weighs almost I am :-) - 72 Kgs.
5. Rather than being broader, this Refrigerator is longer & thus allows more space for items to be stored.
6. Has facility of auto-ice making - you just need to fill in water to the water tank in the topmost section & ice cubes gets automatically dispensed to the ice tray when it runs low on ice. The water tank also has inbuilt water filter to purify the water before making ice.(No need of separately filling in water to ice tray & twisting the tray to obtain ice. Ice cubes are directly dispensed)
7. Nano-titanium filter keeps the refrigerator odour-free by cleaning out all bacteria.
8. Vegetable compartment is set to high humidity to keep vegetables & fruits fresher for longer period of time.
9. Has provision to turn off auto-ice maker when you feel there is no necessity of ice.
10. Has Quick freezing option to quickly freeze items like ice cream which have been just inserted into the deep freezer.
11. Fresh Room section (drawer) in the Fresh Food Compartment to store items of regular use.

Suggestions -

1. Permanently Turn Off auto-ice maker from the controls when sufficient ice has been dispensed & you do not feel the need of ice on a frequent basis.
2. Turn On Quick Freezing when you have start the Refrigerator after keeping it Switched Off for a long period of time. This would enable faster formation of ice & also quickly freeze items like Ice Cream, if you have recently kept them in the Deep Freezing Compartment.

I have attached the snaps so that you can have a better idea. Do write to me if you need to know any further about this Refrigerator before making a buying decision. For more technical details & specifications you can google around or check at http://www.hitachi-hli.com/3doorRefrigerator.html

Tech Review: Lenovo S10-2 Ideapad Netbook

Its been just over a day that I bought a new Lenovo S10-2 Ideapad, a sleek ultra-portable Laptop, known as "Netbook" these days. Its an upgrade to the earlier Lenovo S-10 launched last year. Rather being too descriptive & technical I would keep the review rather short to make it easy for a layman to take a decision.

I got this from Hypercity, Malad, Mumbai for Rs.20,999 which also includes an excellent Headphone (with Mic). The Netbook has 6 cell Battery Pack, 3 USB Ports (2 at the right & 1 at the left), an Ethernet (LAN) Port, a VGA Port (to connect to external displays) & a Memory Card Reader (in the front). It has the typical Netbook config - 160GB HDD, 1GB RAM, Intel Atom N280 Processor & Wi-Fi - Bluetooth inbuilt. It comes pre-installed with Windows XP Home Edition. The company has provided a Glossy topping to the Netbook (which I personally liked) along with the Lenovo emblem.

(+)Likes -

1. Even after installing many applications, the Netbook still runs pretty fast.
2. The Keyboard is nicely layed out.
3. The Battery Pack is built with such an angle that it gives an inclination to the Netbook. You feel as if the Netbook is placed on a traditional Laptop Stand. This inclination makes it easy for typing & also keeps the Netbook cooler when placed on a table, as there is empty space created due to the angle.
4. The 1.3 Mega Pixel webcam is of excellent quality. I tested it with Skype & it works very well.
5. Since the speakers are placed at the side, the sound is much clearer. The output is Dolby Digital enabled.
6. Has a dedicated button for System Recovery. You can create images of your System Partition whenever you want & recover your System with the saved image as & when required.
7. The Touchpad is very sensitive & also supports scrolling.
8. The Windows comes pre-installed with Lenovo's Veriface Face Recognition application. It hardly takes 30 secs to train the application for each user configured on the System. A user can then logon by displaying his face in front of the webcam on the logon screen.
9. The webcam can be turned on/off directly using shortcut keys on the keyboard.
10. The Bluetooth is easy to configure & allows your Mobile Phone's Bluetooth Headset to be easily configured with Skype, without making much changes to your System. So as soon as you Turn On your Bluetooth Headset, Skype automatically switches from the Netbooks Mic & Speaker to the Bluetooth Headset.
11. The Wi-Fi is of good quality & has a large coverage.11. The Battery Backup is good. It almost gave me 4+ hours without connecting it to the Power Outlet even with Wi-Fi turned on.12. Comes with a nice carry case.

(-)Dislikes -

1. Touchpad is too small.
2. The Function Key (Fn) & Control Key (Ctrl) are wrongly placed. Most of the times I would press "Fn" instead of "Ctrl" for Copying & Pasting.
3. It comes pre-installed with an EISA utility partition which is used for System Recovery. This utility partition utilizes quite a lot of space & hence the entire 160GB of Hard drive space is not realized.
4. The pricing should be around Rs.20,000 to make it competetive.
5. The Netbook's body easily catches stains.
6. Does not come with a Micro-Filter cloth to clean the display.
   

I feel the inclining Battery Pack should be this Netbook's USP, along with the Face Recognition application. I am currently not in a position to set my expectations from a Netbook, as this market is quite new & yet to be matured.

Overall I found this Netbook to be very stable & user friendly & would definitely recommend others to go for it. Please comeback to me if you want to know more about this Netbook.

Successful receipt of E-Returns acknowledgement

I guess this year the Indian Income Tax Department has done an excellent job of managing the E-Returns. For those who still don't have trust on E-Returns, this year would set a benchmark for them. After successfully submitting the E-Returns, I was little bit worried whether I would truly receive an acknowledgment as the ITR-V form was sent through ordinary post to CPC Bangalore. Surprisingly I have received the acknowledgments of both the E-Returns (mine & my Dad's) that I had filed this year within a month of posting the ITR-V form to CPC Banagalore. Please find a copy of it shown below.

3 cheers to IT dept. - Hip, Hip, Hurray !!!

Recovering from HERSS.EXE / PH.EXE Trojan attack

I visited my friends place yesterday to copy some movies onto my Portable HDD. I found that he had McAfee Antivirus installed & so went ahead & plugged in my Portable HDD. Suddenly I realised that I did not check whether his Antivirus definitions were up to date & also found out that they were outdated.

I thus installed Avast's Free Antivirus for Home Users. Within minutes it detected a suspicious file ph.exe in the Operating Systems memory & suggested to do a Boot Scan for the OS. Surprisingly the Boot Scan did not trace any sort of infection. It still felt there was something suspicious as the PC would not allow me to update my Avast's Virus definitions.

I then returned home & plugged the Portable HDD to my Laptop. It immediately showed me options to "Run program", "Open Files", etc. Though I skipped this screen, I accidentally double clicked the HDD Drive Letter which triggered the Trojan (which I realized later). I did not know what Trojan or Virus I had been infected with, but definitely I knew that there was a suspicious file PH.EXE which was behind this entire problem. I searched through the net & ran the FixAprop.exe from Symantec's site which was supposed to fix the PH.EXE infection. I also found out that I could not enable the option of "Show hidden Files and Folders" in Windows Explorer. I thus started accessing the C Drive of my Laptop through the administrative share of C$ through my Home PC. Through my Home PC I could find out that every time I deleted ph.exe from my Laptop, the file would get recreated within seconds. After lots of research & tweaking I found out the following -

1. The entire Trojan kit consisted of 3 files - autorun.inf, ph.exe & herss.exe.
2. The infection spreads through USB drives. As soon as somebody inserts a USB drive to an infected PC the Trojan copies ph.exe & autorun.inf (pointing to ph.exe) onto the root directory USB drive.
3. The infection spreads from the USB drive to another PC when the user plugs in the USB drive & selects "Run program from disk" or double clicks the USB drive letter thus triggering the ph.exe through autorun.inf.
4. If you feel your USB drive is infected with this Trojan don't panic. Plug it peacefully onto another PC, go to Windows Explorer, right click (not double click) on the USB drive letter & click "Explore". Now enable "Show Hidden Files and Folders" & delete the files ph.exe & autorun.inf from the root directory of the USB drive.
5. If you feel that your PC has been infected, execute msconfig from Start -> Run, go to Startup tab & look for a startup entry pointing to "C:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Temp\herss.exe". Once the entry is found, uncheck it, save changes & reboot the PC. The Trojan is now unloaded from your OS memory.
6. Now remove the final traces of the Trojan by manually deleting ph.exe, autorun.inf & herss.exe from the mentioned directories.
7. If you are unable to enable "Show Hidden Files and Folders", enable it by following one of the methods listed at Technize website. I used Method 3 & it worked fine for me.
   
8. Check that your Antivirus software is up to date.

It is my earnest request to all readers to be little bit careful with Virus & Trojans in today's world of Piracy, Information theft, etc. Please don't be ignorant & have a casual approach towards keeping your data safe & secure. Keep a constant vigil on any suspicious activities on your PC. If you are not knowledgeable enough, ask someone rather than ignoring things. Have FREE Antivirus & Firewall applications like Avast & ZoneAlarm installed on your home PC's. Remember, in today's connected world Internet is the main medium through which infections are spread. Keep your computer safe from prying eyes. Even if you are associted with IT, enroll yourself for a basic Computer course & learn some important things.

I hope this post would be of some help to infected users. Do write to me on any Data Security or Data Protection questions that might arise in your mind.

Remember - Prevention is better than cure

Happy Computing!!!

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Convincing MTNL staff - Next to impossible !!!

A company with whose services I was very satisfied till date, has started disappointing me with regards to ADSL Broadband services. This is wrt the recent interaction with their staff for change in my ADSL Broadband plan. Till the month of Aug'09 I was using the DSL-256 Unlimited Broadband Plan (MTNL Mumbai), which offered unlimited downloads but with a lesser speed. Due to the slow speed I planned to change it to DSL-749 Plan which offered downloads upto 5 GB but at the speed of 2 Mbps. For plan change I followed the regular procedure of calling up the Call Centre on 1500 before 31st Aug.

On 1st Sep I called the Call Centre again & confirmed that my plan had been changed. But I still found out from the ADSL Modem Web console that my speed remained at 512 Kbps (256 Kbps which was upgraded to 512 Kbps post 15th Aug to to upgradation of DSL unlimited Plan). I remained quite for a couple of days, as I knew that MTNL sometimes upgrades the speed after 2-3 days. On 3rd Sep I still found that I was running Internet at 512 Kbps. Now started the real drama. Everytime I would call up the Call Centre I would get the same reply that all ADSL plans give you speed ranging from 256 Kbps upto a maximum of 2 Mbps & that means there is no guarantee that every time you receive 2 Mbps speed. I failed to convince them that the 2 Mbps plans give a guarantee of 2 Mbps speed at least up to the ISP node & that the ADSL connection speed can be found out from the speed at which the ADSL Modem syncs, which is shown in the ADSL status in the ADSL Modem Web console.

Out of sheer frustration I visited the QCS at MTNL Charkop exchange & explained the situation to a concerned officer Mr.Pal. He then redirected me to another officer Mr.Tripathi (famous at Charkop exchange), but both failed to understand my real problem & kept reiterating the same thing which the Call Centre executives were saying. I then had to literally draw a diagram for a local lineman sitting next to Mr.Tripathi explaining how the speed settings are supposed to be changed through jumpers from their Mux room. I also explained to them how Internet works & lot other technical stuff. Atlast I was given the contact details of Mr.Ramnath from the Exchange. Mr.Ramnath was supposedly the concerned person handling Mux for ADSL connections. He was not bothered about the speed at which my Modem synced & kept telling me to check the speed of my connection through MTNL Speed Test Website . Something suddenly struck him & then he spoke with a lady over the phone regarding my problem. Though he had covered the mouthpiece, I could feebly hear the conversation & understood that it was a mistake from their side. He then said within 10 mins your problem would be resolved. When I asked him that wasn't it the problem at your end which caused unnecessary harassment for me, he categorically denied & said that don't talk about all these things & that your problem shall be resolved.

In todays tech-savvy world if this is the technical competence of MTNL stuff, the days are not far away when customers would start opting out of Government owned Service Providers out of sheer frustration. I am attaching the screenshots of the ADSL Modem Web console which shows the speed change after necessary changes were done on the Exchange.

Old Speed -



New Speed -



I hope this post would help few people in justifying their cases in case of speed issues :-)

Cleaning your Desktop PC's Cabinet Fan

After almost 6 years of continuous PC usage I found that my PC cabinet fan had become very noisy. A PC technician told me to do little bit of oiling. I tried cleaning the fan blades superficially & applied some oil near its spindle. Unfortunately that did not work & the fan continued to be very noisy & would sometimes stop rotating. Though it was not a critical component for the PC to run, I still thought that I had a role to play for the fan to function properly (:-)

I then started looking out for options to dismantle the entire unit. Though it seemed difficult at first sight, but very soon I discovered how easy it was to dismantle the fan. I first disconnected the Power Supply running to the fan from the SMPS & brought the chasis outside. The first image on the top shows you the fan blades (one blade broken due to my experiment) & the outer chasis. On one side of the chasis you would find the fan manufacturers advertisement sticker stuck on it, along with the fan rating & other specifications. On carefully removing the sticker, you would find a small Black plastic disc (shown using a red arrow) at the centre. On removing the disc you can now see the fans' spindle held to the inner core & the chasis using a small white stopper (shown using red arrow). On carefully removing the stopper, the fan blades along with the outer core would easily come out from the other side of the chasis (shown in the next diagram).

You can now remove all the dust stuck in the joints & the spindle, clean the fan blades carefully & reinsert the spindly back to the chasis. Now fix the white stopper & apply some oil near the spindle area on both the sides. After the oiling is done cover the spindle area with the black disc & seal it once again using the manufactures sticker or any kind of adhesive tape.

You can now fix the fan back to the PC cabinet & enjoy noise free operation for the next couple of years. Isn't that very simple? Why don't you tryout & share your experience with me.

Configuring your large External USB HDD for your USB-enabled TV/Home Theatre

2 months back I bought a new LG LCD TV (model 32LG80FR also called Jazz Series) to enjoy Movies at home. But the Movies were not limited to the movies broadcast on the Cable Network but few DivX videos which I already had it on my PC. This model was selected as it had USB support, a feature which was also present in my 3 year old LG Music System. The only difference was that my LCD TV USB support included DivX support in addition to MP3 & JPEG ( already supported by my Music System).

Unfortunately my existing External USB Hard Disk (HDD) was running out of space, which I generally use to have my PC backup. My PC's HDD was also running out of space (20 + 40 = 60 GB). Rather than upgrading my PC's Internal HDD I planned to buy a large enough External USB HDD which would handle my Storage requirements for at least the next 6-7 years. I thus went for a 1 TB (1024 GB) Seagate FreeAgent Drive. This drive provided good aesthetics along with good technology. It went on good along with my TV, Set-Top Box & my Music System. It needs to be powered externally & the Power Adaptor has Universal Plugs provided.

I then plugged the FreeAgent Drive to my PC & copied few DivX's & MP3's. When I then plugged the FreeAgent Drive, my LCD TV popped up the message "DEVICE NOT SUPPORTED". I later realized that the FreeAgent Drive was formatted with NTFS File System by default & I was aware that all USB-enabled Systems currently only support FAT16 or FAT32 File Systems.

I thus partitioned the FreeAgent Drive into two partitions - 100 GB for my Music & Movies & 900 GB for my Data Backup. I now had a new problem - Windows Explorer did not allow the 100 GB to be formatted with FAT32 File System. I then googled & found that Windows Explorer would provide option to format a drive in FAT32 File System only upto a maximum of 32 GB else you need to use the Command Prompt & type "FORMAT " /FS=FAT32". I now partitioned the FreeAgent Drive to 32 GB & 968 GB partitions.

And then I copied all my DivX Movies & MP3's to my FreeAgent Drive. When I plugged it to my LCD TV, there was some more surprise waiting in store for me. Out of about 24 GB of DivX & MP3's, the LCD TV showed the entire directory structure but was unable to show all DivX & MP3 files. I then called an LG Technician who said that the LCD TV had USB support upto 8 GB. Since I needed a workaround I began my extensive R&D (which I always do :-). I tried all possible options - right from defragmenting to reducing Folder hierarchy.

After Copying/Deleting/Plugging/Unplugging my FreeAgent Drive numerous times to my PC, I came to the conclusion that the LCD TV worked best with smaller Folder Names & least Folder hierarchy. Though my conclusion might be wrong, I would suggest people using large External USB HDD's with their Systems to use only one level of Folder hierarchy. So just create Folders with the name of the Albums or Movie names under the root drive & copy your DivX & MP3's directly onto them.

I would eagerly wait for comments from people who have tried something different.

IT Return E-Filing Return Preparation Utility bug fixes & ITR-V Password

Its that time of the year where you keep looking for your Form 16, Investment details & what not. Thats because 31-Jul-09 is the last date for submitting your IT returns.

For those who would like to submit IT returns on their own (like me :-) without consulting a CA & use e-Filing, this post would be of some help.

I have written this post specifically dedicated to ITR-2 returns. There are some minor bugs in the ITR-2 Return Preparation Utility which are worth mentioning.

1. There are many cells with embedded formular which do not auto-populate. Take the example of Cell#J88 in sheet "PARTB - TI - TTI". Though it it supposed to automatically display the total Salary which you enter in "Schedule S", it sometimes shows "0" if all details like "Name of Employer", "PAN of employer (optional)", etc. are left blank. The workaround is to enter any non-blank value & then delete it. Though the fields are not expected to be left blank, but its a general human tendency that during rough work one doesn't fill in all details. Similarly there is the same problem at Cell#J44 in the sheet "HOUSE_PROPERTY", which shows "0" even after you have entered all relevant values.
2. Sometimes many formulas don't work & the workaround for this is to use last years Return Preparation Utility & use the "Import Previous Version" option in the sheet "PART A GENERAL". I would always suggest to use the import option if there has been no change in your residential address. Because the address line doesn't accept few special characters, which you might have correctly entered last year.
3. This years ITR-V (acknowledgment after you submit the return) PDF file comes in a zipped format. The PDF is also password protected. The PASSWORD is your PAN Number followed by your Date of Birth in the format mmddyyy, all in lower case (eg, aaser2131g31121970). After you generate the XML file & upload your return, the success screen has practically no information on the password. I downloaded the file & could not open the file as it was password protected. I then traced out the same by visiting the section My Account -> My Return on the Income Tax E-Filing Portal .
4. This year there has been a significant change in E-Filing for people who don't have a Digital Certificate. Rather than carrying the ITR-V printout to the Income Tax Office to receive a stamped acknowledgment, you need to just sign on the ITR-V printout & send it via ORDINARY POST (COURIER & REGISTERED POST NOT ACCEPTED) to -
INCOME TAX DEPARTMENT - CPC
POST BAG NO. - 1
ELECTRONIC CITY POST OFFICE
BANGALORE - 560 100
KARNATAKA

I hope this information would be of some help to the E-Filers :-)

Its really pathetic to find that in India most Call Centre employees of big Service Providers are still not trained to help Customers in the best possible way. Or to be more specific, they still can't handle tech-savvy customers like me.

Take the example of BPL Mobile, Mumbai, a few years back. The Call Centre staff were literally clueless on what was the feature CALL BARRING all about.

Today was another frustrating day for me talking to the Customer Service Executive at Vodafone Care, Mumbai. I called up Vodafone Care at 11:15 PM & insisted that my Vodafone Mobile Connect plan be deactivated from next billing cycle as 27th is my last day of my billing cycle. To my surprise the executive said that it was impossible for me to deactivate this plan from next billing cycle as it takes 2 hrs to deactivate the service after the deactivation SMS had been sent. And since the 2 hrs would mean that I cross-over to 28th, I would still be billed for the service. I requested him several times & he repeatedly kept saying that this was a defined process & he was helpless about it. I even said that nowhere in Vodafone site was it mentioned that to deactivate a service on the last day of billing cycle, the customer has to send the deactivation SMS by 10 PM (2 hrs prior to 12 AM). Out of frustration I just disconnected the call & start thinking.

The solution is very simple - just use My Vodafone from http://www.vodafone.in/myvodafone & deactivate your service from the My Services section. I did the same thing for my Vodafone Mobile Connect plan & believe me, the Service got deactivated within 5 mins.

Moral of the Story - Don't call up the customer care for any workarounds, use your own Brains... Happy Brainstorming :-)

Tech Review: Samsung R470 Notebook

There is at last a lovely Notebook that stands tall amongst the various others available in the market. I am talking about Samsung’s latest Notebook offering – Samsung R470.

Before I proceed with describing about its lovely features, I would first like you to know about the unique one’s its got to offer –

• Chargeable USB Port – You can charge all USB devices supporting USB charging through this Notebook’s USB Port, even when the Notebook is turned off. Wow this is to cool !!! I now don’t have to lookout for a Plug Point while travelling
• Spill Resistant – The Notebook is coated with a water resistant coating. Hence carrying your cup of Coffee to your table wouldn’t pose much of a problem
• Anti-bacterial Keyboard – It uses the latest medical technology to keep the Keyboard free from any kind of Bacteria. Hence the Notebook remains clean, thus maintaining hygiene.
  

Other than these unique features the Notebook also feels awesome due to its ultra-stylish design & its features. Its comes with an LED screen, the latest in the market these days. To add to that the LED screen looks more vibrant due to the new-generation nVIDIA GeForce G105M graphics card, thus enhancing your movie & 3D-gaming experience. All these hardware are supported on a processor base of Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T6400 (2.00 GHz, 800 Mhz, 2 MB).

I guess there is lots more to speak about this Notebook. But I only described what I found really different in this Notebook from the others in the market. For more details you could also check out the Samsung's site for the review of R470 or check out this link for Review. If you like to see more images & videos of this Notebook, please click here.

Would be eagerly waiting to hear from you something interesting you discovered in this Notebook, which I'm yet to trace ;-)

msconfig - A useful tool to speed up your PC

If you have been a Windows XP user & have been recently finding your PC to run slowly, then you should definitely know about msconfig - System Configuration Utlility. The shortest way to access is by typing msconfig at Start->Run.

If you are a techie you might already know about it & this post is not relevant for you. For the not-so or semi-techies there are lot of documents available on the Internet to know about msconfig, but the basic thing which you need to know about this utility is accessing the Startup tab. This tab lists all the services (the CHECKED ones) that are scheduled to start after a user logs on. These services are inaddition to the one already set in Start->Programs->Startup. So if you are clever enough & have discovered a specific service through the Task Manager eating up your memory, you could possibly locate it here & uncheck it from auto-startup. You could also turn it on once again by checking it. This is just a brief description on the msconfig utility. There are loads of stuff on the net to explore. One nice link is http://netsquirrel.com/msconfig/index.html . Do check this out.

(Trick - In this post I would also like to share a small trick with you - if you are not sure about the outcome of deleting a specific program from Start->Programs->Startup, you could possible browse the Startup folder in Windows Explorer, go to the program shortcuts properties & check on HIDDEN. Windows XP is built in such a way that program shortcuts which are hidden in Start->Programs->Startup do not start automatically. Try this trick, it works!!!).

Best Laptop deals in India @ consumermate.com

With Technology becoming cheaper, it becomes even more necessary to get the best out of the latest available Technology. Here is where consumermate.com pitches in. A product of 9.9 Media group.

It’s a complete Web Portal which guides you with A-Z information to have the best Technology deals in India. Currently it lists only Laptops & very soon other products would also get listed. Currently the Home Page is primarily divided into 6 sections – Find a Laptop you need, Digit Test Centre Reviews, Hot Deals, New Launches, Ask Us & Consumer Support. The best feature about the Portal is that most of the Laptops listed here have been thoroughly tested & rated by Digit Test Center – a premier Technology Testing Centre of the Digit Magazine, India’s No.1 Technology Magazine published by 9.9 Media group itself.

Through the Find a Laptop you need section you can search for the Laptop you have been looking for by short-listing through Price, Weight, Screen Size & the Brand. The search has been designed in a very user-friendly manner & even a layman could search. The Hot Deals lists all prevailing schemes with few Brands. Here you would find Combo packages like a Phone / Printer FREE along with a Laptop, etc. And if you are among those who would like to have the latest stuff, then you should definitely look out for the New Launches section. You could also send in your personal query on a specific Laptop Model based on Street Price or Dealer’s Info, & the consumermate.com team would be more than happy to answer your queries.

But before you finalize on any specific Laptop model don’t forget to check out the Digit Test Centre Reviews. I guess words are not enough to describe this interesting Technology Web Portal. You should definitely explore to find out more.

Is your handy Glucometer showing incorrect results?

Its almost been 2 months with my new Accu-chek Active Glucometer, which I have gifted my mom. Hearing all good about this meter I finally decided to go for this as it is said that it gives quite accurate results.

Two days back I went for the standard Blood Glucose tests (Fasting Sugar & Post-Prandial - 2 hours after heavy meal) for my mom. Simultaneously I also got the tests done in a Pathology lab to confirm that the readings that I achieved using both were quite close. When the lab reports were out in the evening, I was very disappointed as there was a huge difference between the Accu-chek Active & the Lab Blood Sugar values. Fasting Sugar - 88 mg/dL (Lab), 152 mg/dL (Accu-chek) & Post-prandial Sugar - 108 mg/dL (Lab), 176 mg/dL. Both the readings varied by almost 70 mg/dL.

To clear my dilemma I then called up the Customer Care at Accu-chek & scheduled an appointment with their executive. After the executive arrived at my place today, I explained to him that both the tests were taken under exact similar conditions & within 15-20 mins time gap. The executive then verified the instrument with the 2 Standard Control Solutions that he was carrying & confirmed that the instrument was perfectly alright. Some of the important things that he told to keep a note is listed below -

1. The Blood Glucose level of Diabetic patients vary quite fast & might change within a matter of few minutes.
2. While puncturing the skin do ensure that Blood comes out easily without applying much pressure. You might attain incorrect readings if you press the skin too much to apply the drop of Blood on the Accu-chek system. To be on the safer side he suggested me to keep the penitration depth to 4 on the Accu-chek Sofclix Lancing device (device used for pricking).
   
3. The Lab tests are conducted almost 2-3 hrs after the patient gives the Blood sample. Since Blood Glucose tests are generally done using Photo-metric meters, the results thus obtained might vary significantly.
4. To cross-check that your Glucometer is giving correct readings, do the tests at the same time while you give your Blood sample to the Lab.
5. Cross-check your Lab reports with other Labs also.
   

Among all the things he discussed, I found the above 4 points logically correct. Among them I found that I was using 1.5 penetration depth setting for my mom using the Softclix Lancing device. I was also pressing hard to get a drop of Blood & this might have caused more concentrated Blood to have oozed out, thus showing higher Blood Glucose values.

I have found many people saying that these Glucometers are a shere waste of money. I just shared this incident with other people using similar self-testing Blood Glucometers facing similar problems, so that they don't arrive at a conclusion that these meters are a waste, without making proper investigation about the measurement procedure. Please use the correct method for taking the reading, else contact the Customer Care to know more before drawing any conclusion.

Fully utilising your new Bluetooth Headset

After carrying Bluetooth enabled Cell Phone Handset from past 5 years, I am atlast a proud owner of a Bluetooth Headset - Nokia BH-320. Not sure whether its a genuine Nokia piece (as it shows "Made in China"), I could atlast buy one due to the excellent deal I got it for. I picked up the piece from grey market for as less as INR 700 after lots of bargaining & showing competative deals from other shops. It comes in an original Nokia Packaging Box, although without any Manual ;-)

Rest assured, the piece is Brand New & comes with a Charger too. It also comes with a Detachable Ear Loop which could be detached (by pulling lightly) & fixed back, to suit your Headset for Left Ear or Right Ear. Before I start describing its full features, I would first help you out with Pairing this device with your Phone. Since it did not come with a Manual, it was an R&D exercise pairing it with my Handset, since the usual method of pairing using Discovery Mode doesn't always work with this.

Pairing - To turn on the Headset you need to keep the CALL BUTTON pressed for around 3-4 secs. Once its turned on you can find that a small Blue Light keeps blinking above the Call Button, indicating that the Headset is in Discoverable mode. Now you can Turn On Bluetooth on your Handset & start with the option of New Paired Device. If the Phone shows you BH-320 on the screen, then its great, you can Pair your Phone with the Headset using the Passkey "0000". If not, you first need to TURN OFF your Headset by pressing the CALL BUTTON for 3-4 secs. Now initiate Pairing from your Cell Phone using New Paired Device & keep the CALL BUTTON pressed on your Headset until it shows BH-320 on the screen. Once paired, you can connect to the Headset (Audio Device) & explore its features (works with Nokia Phones) listed below -

1. Call Pickup - On Phone ring, just press the CALL BUTTON on the Headset once & you get connected.
2. Call Reject - On Phone ring, just keep the CALL BUTTON pressed for 2 secs & the call gets rejected.
3. Volume Control (for Music Player & Call) - Use the + & - buttons provided on the top of the Headset to Control the Volume.
4. Voice Dialing & Voice Commands - When the Phone is in Stanby Mode you can use this excellent feature of Voice Dialing & Voice Commands by pressing the CALL BUTTON once. Within 2-3 secs after the CALL BUTTON is pressed you would hear a very short Musical Tone after which you can Speak & initiate the Voice Dialing / Commands. P.S: The screen at this time shows Speak Now. This feature is really helpful at places where you cannot remove the Phone from your pocket to search the Contact List.
5. Auto Switch-Off - If the Headset looses pairing with your Phone either due to range or due to Bluetooth being turned off from the Phone, the Headset automatically switches off after 5 mins of idle time.
6. Range - The Headset has a range of 10 meters & this could significantly reduce due to EMI (Electro-Magnetic Interference) of other Radio devices in the vicinity.
   
7. Battery Life - The Box talks about 150 hours of Standby Time (Time during which the Headset is paired but not being used for Calls / Music) & 6 hours of Call Time. Currently I am getting a Call Time of 3.5 - 4 hrs approximately, probably because its new. While on Call if the Headset runs low on Battery, it starts emitting short beeps & the LED colour turns from Blue to Green. It charges to its peak within 1.5 to 2 hrs with a 5.7 V, 800 mA Charger.
   

Its been almost 10 days with this Headset & I am quite happy with it. There are other similar models available like N95 which also boast of similar functionalities. I have also paired the Headset with my Windows Mobile Phone. Unfortunately with Windows Mobile, I found the Volume to be less during Calls & that this Headset cannot be used with the Windows Media Player. With Windows Mobile, it can only work as a Hands-free. You can also pair this Headset with a Desktop or Laptop, if they have an built-in Bluetooth Support or you have a Bluetooth Dongle which supports Audio Gateway profile in Windows.

I am anyways very impressed with the Headset looking into the Price & the quality its offering. Why don't you hunt for one in the grey market, probably you could pick-up a cheaper deal!!!

Low Budget Upgrade of your Desktop Hardware

My PC had bore the brunt of the 26/7 deluge that had happened in Mumbai wayback in 2005. It was still continuing to work fine until last month, when it finally succumed to its injuries :-)

I had an excellent original Intel 865 GBF Desktop Motherboard since 2003. It had 5 PCI slots & also 8 USB Ports. But last month when my PC conked off I had no other option but to replace my Motherboard with a new one. Unfortunately the new family of Intel Processors are Pinless & so I had to look out for a Motherboard with Legacy Processaor support, since I had a P4 Processor which was with Pins.

I then found an Asus Motherboard with Intel 865 Chipset. Although the Motherboard was quite smaller in size & had support for PCI Express Graphics Card as well as DDR2 support, I was still not happy with it since it lacked some of my basic needs - less PCI slots (only 3), less USB Ports (2 - Front, 2 - Back) & only 1 IDE Slot. Among them the one that bothered me most was only 1 IDE slot, because I had 2 IDE Hard Disks, 1 IDE DVD ROM & 1 IDE CD-Writer. 1 IDE slot meant that I could connect only 2 IDE devices & for me the priority would be my 2 IDE Hard Disks.

Inspite of the IDE issue I settled for this Motherboard by selling off my CD-Writer (for Rs.250) in exchange of a SATA DVD-Writer for Rs.1200. I also upgraded my DDR1 RAM of 512 MB with DDR2 RAM of 1 GB which just cost me Rs.400 (800 - 400[old RAM] = Rs.400). I now had a working configuration with 1 GB RAM, 2 IDE HDD's, 1 SATA DVD-Writer. I thus had 1 SATA Port still unused out of the 2. I still didn't sell off my old DVD-ROM thinking that I would somehow upgrade my HDD's from IDE to SATA later on. My PC was now working fine & I started looking out for options to fix my old DVD-ROM so that I could easily perform DVD to DVD (copy on the Fly) copies. Finally I found the stuff that I was looking for - an IDE to SATA (& vice-versa) convertor. Image shown below -
This convertor is available for just Rs.350 & the 40 Pin IDE Port connects to your legacy IDE CD/DVD-ROM drive & the SATA cable needs to be connected to the SATA Port labelled IDE Host with the other end connected to the SATA Port on the Motherboard. One thing which most people forget to do is to plugin the Power Cable to this convertor. Instead of using a separate Power Cable you can use the one used in your Floppy Drives too. Another important thing is that you need to set your legacy IDE CD/DVD-ROM drive in MASTER mode using the jumper. Without these 2 important things your legacy IDE CD/DVD-ROM drive would not get detected by your BIOS.

With the above mentioned investments on new Hardware I now have a very good upgraded System with 1GB RAM & a DVD-Writer, by just shelling out Rs.4500 approx. from my pocket.

Isn't this a low budget upgrade of your Desktop Hardware in times of recession?

Beware of fake PUC certificate providers

Last week my old PUC (Pollution Under Control) certificate was expiring & my 4 wheeler was due for a new PUC check-up. While on my way back from Dadar I thought of getting the PUC done from the PUC provider who sits in a Maruti Omni opposite the Lotus Petrol Pump, Lokhandwala Complex, Mumbai.

The person started with inserting the sensor into the Silencer of my Vehicle. Within hardly 1-2 mins he started issuing my PUC certificate writing the reading as 0.73% for Carbon Monoxide (I feel so). The permissible limit is 0.5%. I recollected that my old PUC certificate showed 0.76%. Since mine was a new vehicle, hardly an year old, I became conscious this time & approached the person to show me the reading. To my surprise I found that his instruments were in a pathetic condition & his Battery which powered the instruments wasn't even working. He was thus issuing me a fake reading to keep himself safe. Since it was a Sunday & very early hours of the morning I couldn't approach a local Police on the way to address the issue. I then had my PUC done from another provider & found that my reading was 0.43% within the prescribed limit.

I thus alert all my readers to beware of such fake PUC certificate providers & report the matter to concerned authorities if you find someone.

Address Proof Card by India Post (Post Office)

I received a mail from one of my friends & thought of sharing the same info through this platform. Its a very useful info.

India Post has recently started issuing ADDRESS PROOF CARDS which are similar to Indian Government ID Cards like Driving License & Voter's ID. These can be used to open Bank Accounts, procure Phone / Internet connections, etc. The user has to apply for the same at the nearest Post Office by paying Rs.250 (Rs.10 - Application & Rs.240 - Processing Fee). The application would be processed within 10 days & the Address verification would be done in co-ordination with the local Beat Inspector. Since India Post is a Government entity, I would suggest people to constantly follow-up so that the Address Proof Card gets issued within the stipulated 10 days. The Validity of the ID Card would be for 3 years after which the applicant has to re-apply. In the meantime if the applicant changes his address, his Card would be rendered invalid. The Card would come laminated with an Indian Post Hologram embossed within it. For more info do contact your nearest Post Office.

I sincerely pray that this initiative from India Post turns out to be a grand success & helps the citizens in acquiring an Address Proof without much difficulty.