Poor reporting by WSJ

Dear WSJ, look beyond US. We have different circles (service areas) across the country for the porpose of mobile telephony. 

In an earlier post I had written about how our people have blind faith on all that is "phaarein". 

Here comes WSJ:

India Says 3G Roaming Services Illegal

The author Romit Guha is not even aware what the fuss is all about. The fact is that Indian govt has said that intra-circle roaming is illegal where the operators don't have license. 

Try finding the word "intra" in the article; 0 count. 

The person who doesn't even know there is a difference between intra circle and inter circle 3G roaming and he simply enforces his sweeping opinion on the readers. 

This IE sucks too

This was the major development in 2G scam earlier in the day today. 
But at 6.30 pm, I can hardly see any news items in the media. 


Let's take the Indian Express screenshot for the top stories today. 
Did anyone recall what the indian express logo says?

Same is the case with TOI. The news is not there in the top headlines as of 6.30 pm today. 

Do you think that our media has censored it? Let me know your views. 

Telangana on 26th January?

Whenever a state is created, the people in the new state find an opportunity to have an additional holiday in the form of --State Day. 
e.g. Maharashtra day: 1st May
Uttar Pradesh Day: 14th November (not sure whether it's public holiday)


Additional holiday means no banking, no work in govt offices, no work at municipality etc. 
Moreover, people tend to take additional leaves from work if this particular state day is close to weekend. 
In all, a huge loss and inconvenience to the nation. 


I urge the govt at the center to consider forming the state of Telangana ONLY on a national holiday especially 26th Jan is around the corner. 


We should make a policy that whenever a new state is created, it MUST be created on national holidays viz. 26th Jan, 15th Aug, and 2nd Oct. 


This move will take care of preventing an additional holiday!

BBC Says

Under the new rules, no-one will be able to send more than 100 texts in a day, officials say.

I usually hear from most of the people that how great the likes of BBC/CNN are; how the editorials in IE are the best; or the language in IE is easier to understand than the TOI; or how TOI is sold just for pictures; or the Hindu is best when one is preparing for civil services exams; and blah and blah. 


The above claims might well be true or otherwise, but almost all the people who support these claims do so as loose talks and without any study or experience; and it's all just loose talk and hearsay. 


Go through the bbc link above to understand what i mean. 
The article claims that no-one will be able to send more than 100 sms in a day. 
Does bbc know that there are two categories for mobile subscribers viz. postpaid and prepaid? 


How could they miss the important point about postpaid users? 

In the case of post-paid telephone numbers, the access provider shall not permit more than 3,000 SMSes per SIM per month, the Trai recommendations had said.

Read the entire article from an Indian newspaper here. 


If you want to praise the BBC or likes, do it on your own experience or other trusted sources and talk substance, not hearsay. 

TRAI is genius!

http://www.nccptrai.gov.in/nccpregistry/

Useless exercise by TRAI.
There is no distinction between telemarketers and the parties you do business with.
e.g. if i would like to receive transaction alerts from the website where i have transacted online; then i must enable the entire category i.e. Consumer goods and automobiles.
To receive alerts from banks, i must enable category 1 i.e banking/insurance/cards etc.

It clearly exposes TRAI's bankrupt mind.

I recalled a joke where a doctor asks a patient to remove all her clothes just to be able to show her ailing knee!

Why I ditched Airtel (mobile)

1. "Unbilled amount" misused too much for GPRS; i.e. if you were to comsume all the allotted quota of 2GB, they would show Rs. 30000 as unbilled amount. Not to say that your credit limit is damned. This would also cause problems while porting out, converting from postpaid to prepaid, and closure of account.
2. Buggy MCA (Missed Call Alert): Try calling your own airtel number and you'll know what i'm saying.
3. Very expensive 3G plans; so again there is scope for exploiting the customers under the name of unbilled amount. Recently they reduced post-quota usage charges for postpaid to 3p/10kB but it's still costly i.e. Rs. 3/MB
4. No visibility on 3G data packs: There is no way we could know the remaining data balance either for GPRS or 3G.
5. Incompetent CSAs (Customer Service Agents): One such CSA told me that Missed Call Alerts have nothing to do with Call Divert functionality. I asked her several times to give it in writing but she didn't. Funny.
Most of the times the CSAs try as much as possible to avoid providing a complaint number; it's not professional.
6. Website: Not able to activate/deactivate services online.
7. Airtel Live fraud: Yes it's a fraud. By default, it's not mobile office, but airtel live which is active as an access point on your sim. You have to explicitly change the access point to airtelgprs.com in order to get the benefit of Rs. 98/2GB pack. If you don't do it, you are pissed. Moreover, you will get to know this ONLY after the bill is generated as the unbilled amount will grow insanely both for airtel live as well as airtelgprs.com.
8. Sim services: Sim services like all the services under Airtel Live are like landmines. Click this and lose Rs. 50; click that and you lose Rs. 99. My mother-in-law got a bill in excess of Rs. 2000 (as against her average bill of 300-400) just because of these "landmines". When i checked the itemized bill i saw numerous game downloads. Airtel refused to refund. 
9. I had bought an additionl (prepaid) sim just to try their 3G services. It took 10 long days and numerous calls to activate simple GPRS. (Actually GPRS is always active by default on all numbers but in this case they had some problem in their backend. ). I also faced several balance deductions for no reason. This added to the woes.


I also know that all these things are done by almost all the operators all the time. This was just an attempt to highlight my concerns that might benefit others.


But there is a good thing about airtel too:
While going through different forums and complaint websites, i came to know that the rejection ratio for MNP requests is very high. Especially i had read about airtel rejecting the requests on any reason they liked or for no reason at all. Some reasons: Legal issue, Contractual obligation (i.e CUG (i don't understand where is the contract), Bundled offer etc), non-payment of unbilled amount (WTF), wrong UPC code etc.
Aware of all these tricks, i directly called airtel's apellate desk and asked them from refraining from rejecting my request on any stupid reason and warned them that i'd to much bad publicity to them if they dare do it. The lady on phone told me that she'd make special note against my number and there would be no problem while porting out.
I am still not sure whether the same trick worked, but my port out request was cleared by Airtel within less than 4 days. Thanks Airtel!


For those who want to shift their postpaid connections:
1. It doesn't matter whether you are in a CUG or corporate plan. If the number is in your name then you can always port out no matter what.
2. It doesn't matter if you have unbilled amount. You are eligible for porting out as long as you have cleared all previous dues. But make sure that you pay the next bill which is usually generated AFTER you port out.
3. Except handset bundled offer, there is no contractual obligation if the number is in your name and not in the company's name.
4. Request for the UPC code ONLY while filling up the MNP form with the receiver operator, so that you still have 15 days to go before your UPC code expires.
5. IMP: If your operator clears your request before the expiry date of UPC code, then it is OK even if the actual activation from new operator goes beyond the UPC expiry date. (Not understood? Read again. )


P.S. I have moved to tata docomo. The bible (not in religious terms) of Tata Docomo seems to be very good, but the interpretation is lack of faith. (;-O)

First run first served basis!

"Dhoot flashed the ID card of Rajkumar Dhoot who is his brother and member of parliament and also member of some telecom committee in parliament," Balwa's counsel Majid Memon said in the special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court.

"Because of this he was given preference and entered the Department of Telecom (DoT) first and hence got the license," he told the special court presided over by Judge O.P. Saini.

So the point was to somehow make sure that you enter into the Department of Telecom first!

Simple javascript explanation of Monty Hall's game show problem

I have created a simple javascript program that will demonstrate how you can increase your probability of winning in the "Monty Hall's Let's Make A Deal game show"

 <script type="text/javascript">  
      var samplesize = 1000;  // Sample size
      var shuffle = function(v){  
           for(var j, x, i = v.length; i; j = parseInt(Math.random() * i), x = v[--i], v[i] = v[j], v[j] = x);  
           return v;  
      };  
      var a=[0,0,1]  

      var randomIndex;  
      var randomIndex1,randomIndex2,randomIndex3;  
      var randomDraw;  
      var result="";  
      var switched=0;  
      var won=0;  
      var switchedAndWon = 0;  
      var switchedAndLost=0;  
      var keptAndWon=0;  
      var keptAndLost=0;  
      var hasswitched;  
      var haswon;  
      for(var i=0; i<samplesize; i++){  
           // Step 1: Shuffle it first  
           a = shuffle(a);  
           // Step 2: Your first draw:   
           randomIndex1 = Math.floor(Math.random()*3);  
           randomDraw = a[randomIndex1];  
           // Step 3: Monty's draw:   
           randomIndex2 = -1;  
           while(randomIndex2 == randomIndex1 || randomIndex2 == -1 || a[randomIndex2] == 1){  
                randomIndex2 = Math.floor(Math.random()*3);  
           }  
           randomDraw = a[randomIndex2];  
           // Step 4: Your second draw:   
           randomIndex3 = -1;  
           while(randomIndex3 == randomIndex2 || randomIndex3 == -1){  
                randomIndex3 = Math.floor(Math.random()*3);  
           }  
           randomDraw = a[randomIndex3];  
           // Step 5: Now calculate  
           hasswitched = (randomIndex1 != randomIndex3);  
           haswon = randomDraw;  
           if(hasswitched){  
                switched++;  
           }  
           if(haswon){  
                won++;  
           }  
           if(hasswitched && haswon){  
                switchedAndWon++;  
           }else if(hasswitched && !haswon){  
                switchedAndLost++;  
           }else if(!hasswitched && haswon){  
                keptAndWon++;  
           }else if(!hasswitched && !haswon){  
                keptAndLost++;  
           }  
           //Push the results:  
           result += "["+String(a)+"] You: "+randomIndex1+", Monty: "+randomIndex2+", You: "+randomIndex3+"(switched: "+(randomIndex1 != randomIndex3)+")<br/>";  
      }  
      //document.write("<br/>switchedAndWon = "+switchedAndWon+" of total "+samplesize+" results");  
      document.write("<br/>switchedAndWon = "+switchedAndWon+" (There! Almost twice of keptAndWon)");  
      document.write("<br/>switchedAndLost = "+switchedAndLost);  
      document.write("<br/>keptAndWon = "+keptAndWon);  
      document.write("<br/>keptAndLost = "+keptAndLost);  
      document.write("<br/><br/>");  
      document.write(result);  
 </script>  

I hope you enjoy it.

Get Buzz feed into Facebook via feedburner

Many people simultaneously use multiple social networking sites like twitter, facebook, google buzz, orkut etc.  I too use most of such sites. 

But gradually it becomes really painful of keep track of each and every site and you end up concentrating more on one particular site while ignoring others. 

While Buzz allows you to import your feeds from twitter, blogs etc; it doesn't have any option to import facebook wall posts. 

On the other hand, though facebook does allow you to import feeds of your own blog, it doesn't allow you to import Buzz feeds which is quite irksome for a user like me who uses Buzz heavily and want all my buzzes to be reflected on Facebook wall. 

Thankfully, feedburner and facebook's notes come to your rescue. 

Follow these steps to import your google buzz posts into facebook notes (and in turn, facebook wall)

1. Generate google buzz feeds using the following url

http://buzz.googleapis.com/feeds/{user}/public/posted

2. Login to feedburner.com using your google login and burn (the way they call it) the above feed. Feedburner will create a public feed url something like

http://feeds.feedburner.com/googleapis/WXYZ

3. Login to facebook and click on notes in the left manu. 

4. In facebook notes, click on "Edit import settings". 

5. On the next page, enter the feedburner url and click on Start Importing. 

Note that for some reason, facebook doesn't allow direct import of Buzz feeds from buzz.googleapis.com. That is why we have to "burn" the feeds using feedburner. 

6. Click on Confirm Importing after you successfully preview the imported posts. 

Now click on either notes or your facebook wall and you'll see that all your buzz posts imported there. 

Nostalgia 1997

As India is going to play its first ODI (I'm least interested in the series as there is neither Tendulkar nor Sehwag) with WI today, i quickly recalled that the tour was broadcast live by ESPN and the lyrics went like this:

"Pepsi presents India on tour, Calypso series; 

in association with

Hero Honda, leading the way!

Thomson, the bigger picture, the better picture!

and Anubhav group, the people care for the environment!"

Anyone recalling this? 

TOI Goof up

TOI still believes that Karunanidhi is the CM of Tamil Nadu.

Beware of ICICI QAB Charges

ICICI charged me Rs. 827 last week for not maintaining Rs. 10k as QAB (Quarterly Average Balance). 
I am republishing the email i received from icici bank for all of you so that you don't commit the mistakes that i did. There are many hidden aspects to it as seen in the below email.

Dear Mr. Deshpande,

I appreciate you getting in touch with us for clarification on the debit of Rs. 827.00 in your account.

This is to confirm you that the amount of Rs. 827.00 debited from your account on January 19, 2010 towards the charges for non-maintenance of Quarterly Average Balance (QAB) in your account for the quarter ended October 01, 2010 to December 31, 2010

The account that you hold is a ‘General Savings Account’ for which the Average Quarterly Balance to be maintained is Rs. 10000. However the Average Quarterly Balance maintained during that period in your account was Rs. 9945.33

For your reference, please find below the calculation of average quarterly balance

The closing balance in your account on each day for that quarter is added.

The added balance is divided by the number of days in that quarter.

 If the resulting amount is less than Rs. 10000, then charges are levied in your account.

The charge for non-maintenance of QAB is Rs. 750.

In addition to the above charges, the below transaction charges are also applicable for General Savings Account: 

For every new cheque book you request, Rs.5 per leaf will be charged.

The first three cash transactions (withdrawals or deposits) at the branch in a quarter will be free of charge and thereafter Rs.60 per transaction will be charged.

Please also note that Service Tax of 10.30% on the service charges is also applicable on all the above charges.

Should you require further clarification on this, please feel free to get in touch with me, I will be glad to assist you.

Sincerely,

Md Sirajuddin

Account Manager

ICICI Bank Limited

"If you receive an SMS from ICICI Bank with a Unique Reference Number or URN without you having added a new payee in your account through internet banking, report to us immediately. Do not disclose the URN to any stranger, even if the person claims to be our employee"

"Please do not reply to any e-mail that asks you for your bank-account-related information / details. These are called phishing e-mails and are designed with intent to fraudulently capture your bank account and personal details for misuse etc."

Negative time

Science community often wonders:
"why time seems to flow in one direction but not in the other, even though the laws of physics are time symmetric?"


I wonder: 
"why i can eat only positive amount of food, even though the laws of physics are food symmetric (i.e. if you plot food amount on an axis)?"