Vivek live and kickin'

This is a personal post and has little or nothing to do with technology. Its my 3rd week in Oslo and I still don't have any answers to questions I had in mind. I wanted a break and time to think and plan for what I wanted out of life. Have been really busy in the last 3 weeks and hardly had time to think or analyze anything. ... Will probably complete is some other time.... not sure when.. hopefully once I get some answers to things in my head.

I hate calling up the Airtel customer care and I try to find a solution online if I can. I've found two solutions to my problem but none of them seem to be working so I will have to call and spend the next half hour to get this information from a customer care executive. Anyhow these are the solutions I've found online. 1) Rs. 20 per day send GPRS to 56789 2) Rs. 75 per week send GPRS7 to 56789 3) Rs. 15 per day send GPRSACT to 511 to deactivate this service send GPRSDEACT to 511 4) Write MO and send to 52696 to activate n DMO @ same no. for de-activation I've tried all the solutions but without results. Let me know if you have a better way. Anyhow I better start calling, its going to take a while to get through. UPDATE : Anyhow I called them up and this is what I got. 1) SMS NOP to 52696 to activate the service. 2) SMS NOP to 52567 to get the settings 3) SMS DNOP to 52696 to deactivate the service. 4) Call 121443 and you will directly talk to the customer care ex...

Just checking with AutoRuns for Windows and Google Update almost feels like a spyware in every possible place. It acts as a service so when you turn on your computer it will make sure that its always on. If you somehow remove it as a service, it also acts like a BHO . The next time you start IE it will start. If for some weird reason these two failed its also in the scheduled tasks. Just waiting till it installs itself as a driver as well.

Mygazines is like the youtube of magazines. It allows you to read and store your magazines online. But they are in a little bit of trouble with the copyright infringement notices flying across it right left and center. Its a really neat concept, as you can read magazines that you would not get in your local store. They post the complete magazine with all the adverts intact so that should in a way be good for the publishing house. In the long run if they survive they should only be like a repository of old magazines. In any case most magazines have a shelf life of no more than a month. If they start storing older magazines with all the adverts intact it should work in the favor of the publishers. Also people would be able to sample magazines which they would not otherwise. Its almost like online music. If someone likes the music they will pay for it. Same goes for a magazine. I loved reading the magazines online but for most other times I would like a physical copy, and I won't mi...

I was using Shozu to upload pictures and videos to flickr and youtube using my Nokia E61i. It is a really cool application and I had talked about it earlier when I had installed it on my earlier phone. When I finally bought the new phone I was missing this application as currently the Samsung i780 is unsupported and I was unable to find a version that I could run on it. After trying out a few versions I stumbled upon the HTC Touch version and it works quite well on this phone. So if you have a Samsung i780 download the shozu application for HTC Touch and use it. Atleast till they provide support for this phone.

I recently bought a Samsung i780 which has Windows Mobile 6. There is a tiny bit of a problem specially with the GPRS connection. Everytime the mobile checked my email it would keep the connection alive and would not disconnect. Since it remains connected it drains out the battery. You will need a registry editor to make these changes. You can download a free registry editor from http://www.phm.lu/products/PocketPC/RegEdit/ . Download the Pocket PC 2002/2003 (ARM/PXA) version and install it on your mobile phone. To change the settings follow the detailed steps listed on this page . I have listed the steps in brief. You will need to use the registry editor to make the changes. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Comm\ConnMgr\Planner\Settings\ The 1st key is DWORD CacheTime the number denotes the number of seconds to wait before the auto disconnect, by default it is 600 seconds. the 2nd key is Multiline value / String SuspendResume which can have 2 values ~GPRS! :- 3G always On GPRS_bye_if_device_off...

You need javascript turned on for this to work. Just something really random that I came across just now. Not sure how anyone can exploit it but it can sure spook a few people out.

This has been a quite month not blogged much but have been twitting quite a lot lately. My pet project is still not complete have a few good ideas that I want to put in before I launch an alpha release. There is still quite a bit of work that needs to be put in to make it a little more functional. Have started a new blog with the site but still nothing written there. Surprisingly this month has been hectic and I've not been able to work on any of the weekends. The project seems stupid at most times but then again its taken me a little more than 2 years to get to where it is. Have worked with 10-15 concepts before deciding on it finally. Am still not sure if this is what I will release but till next time when I blog. Hopefully that post will be about the launch of an alpha that a few people might get to see. Tomorrow I leave for Thailand and will be there for a week and lets hope I relax my mind and body and hopefully complete the project. Regarding the project its got a lot to d...

I still use the classic version of the Yahoo! Mail interface. Today I wanted to try out the new interface and I could not find the link that would allow me to switch. So just as a reminder in case I plan to switch again. Try it now!

There is an account on twitter http://twitter.com/jpmogan . He is following no one and has 8,358 followers as of now. Either its someone inside twitter or someone has been able to hack and find a way into getting people to follow him. I searched on summize http://summize.com/search?q=jpmogan and so far I only see a single comment about the user. Technorati Tags: jpmogan , twitter

Here are a few links to get you to install the latest and greatest version of Adobe PDF Reader . Incase you are still not using Foxit PDF Reader you need to read these reviews of the Adobe PDF Reader 9 . http://gusmueller.com/blog/archives/2008/07/adobe_reader_9_is_out!.html http://diveintomark.org/archives/2008/07/04/adobe-9 http://blog.micropledge.com/2008/07/adobe-reader-9/

I was trying out Microsoft silverlight a few days back and compared to flash it actually rocks. Its light years ahead of flash with a choice of programming languages and the basic design. Also if Microsoft sends it out as an update it will be in at least 70%-80% of all machines in a few days time. Thats just one side of the story. Since most designers/developers who have mostly worked with flash would not want to change since there seems no valid reason to change. So probably Microsoft needs to make a killer application in silverlight that can really challenge flash. But given the kind of platform that silverlight is its not very difficult to build one. There is more to come on this topic as developers begin to see the technology and power of silverlight.

I've have never really liked any JavaScript library and i normally believe in writing my own code so that I know whats going on and where it is. But for a change with an open mind I began looking at the different JavaScript libraries that are available. I tried out the following. dojo ExtJS YUI JQuery prototype dojo This one is really extensive and tries to achieve anything and everything. It seems easy to grasp and I was able to get going in less than a few minutes. But given the fact that it is really extensive it also adds to the weight. I don't think I would be using the complete library in any of my projects but if used as a learning resource it can be really great. ExtJS This is one library I have seen from the very beginning I have always liked it. The toolkit is really professional looking and seems to fit the bill but the only hitch is the license, its under GPL3 . If you don't mind paying then you can get it with a commercial license. This is one of the best lib...

This is one interesting spam that landed in my inbox. United Nations Foundation, Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Suite 400 Washington, D.C. 20036 Dear Sir/Madam, UN Foundation Grant. This is to notify you that you have been chosen By the Board of trustees of the above International (Charity & Human Developmental) Organization, as one of the final recipients of a Cash Grant/Donation for your personal development. The UN Foundation was created in 1998 with entrepreneur and philanthropist Ted Turners' historic $1 billion gift to support UN Causes and activities. The UN Foundation builds and implements public-private partnerships to address the world?s most pressing problems, and broadens support for the UN through advocacy and public outreach. The UN Foundation is a public charity. The Secretary-General established the United Nations Fund for International Partnerships (UNFIP) in March 1998 to coordinate, channel and monitor contributions from the UN Foundation. UNFIP is the central adm...

With the launch of more than a dozen news channels in India there is a war for getting news on these 24 hour news channels. Since there is nothing better to put on air the channels have come up with these unique news items in the garb of breaking news. Here is a sample of screen caps I got in an email. Just shows what these channels have to come up with in the name of BREAKING NEWS . BREAKING NEWS :Kitty got stuck on the roof. BREAKING NEWS :Amitabh Bacchan (Bollywood actor) felt cold . BREAKING NEWS :Rahul Gandhi (an indian politician) had dal, poorie and subzi (menu of items he had for lunch). BREAKING NEWS :Commissioner found his lost his dog BREAKING NEWS :Commissioner found his lost his dog

I have got 5 invitations for dreamhost . If you use any of the invites you get will get the following benefits. * You will get four (4) times the normal disk and bandwidth! * If you choose the five-year plan, you will get $150 off! * If you choose the ten-year plan, you will get $200 off! You need to use the 12-digit code and use it in the "Promo Code" field when you sign up at dreamhost . Use one of the following codes when you sign up. 044477421482 , 168640837302 , 076190151113 , 744781327000 and 503827675414 .

I am really surprised at my resolve to get back into shape. In the last 6 months I have been able to shed 17 Pounds. I purposely wrote pounds and not kgs, just love the huge number. Anyhow even in kgs its still 8 Kgs. But now there seems to have been a little bit of hiccup in my fitness plans. The gym I was going to has planned to close down for renovation and am not sure if I will be able to wake up and still be motivated enough to continue with it. Thought I have lost weight I am still not in shape at least the shape I would want . So here is hoping that I continue with my walks. And now I also plan to run and jog instead of just walking. Here is hoping I can continue with my resolve to get back into shape.

Yesterday I had written about the project that I have been working on weekends. Its not a new search engine but think of it more like sliced bread. Its still bread but just sliced. A really simple idea that makes a lot of sense for me since I seem to use multiple search engines at a time. Actually more than what it is, I am trying out caching techniques and the site acts as the part of an article I am working on. Still not sure if I will ever be able to complete the article and release the project. Had written part 1 of the article two years back Speed up your AJAX based webapps but was never able to complete part 2. And the only valid reason for not completing it is that I am plain lazy . And since this project is just a personal project it does not get a very high priority. The project is trying to solve a problem that I seem to have everyday. The reason why it took me two freaking year was partly as I wrote my being lazy but also 'cause I was looking for a UI that really made...

A project I was working for the last 2 years is finally turning out to be something. The idea has gone through half a dozen different versions and variations but I think I finally like what its turned out to be. Still need a bit of work to make it beta. Even if no one else uses it I think it does have the features I have been missing on most search engines. I started out with solving my own problem with searching and in the process have been able to work on tackling the search problem in a somewhat different manner. Given the fact that I don't have the resources or the skill to design a search engine I have tried to solve the problem with the existing search engines. I will hopefully release it in the next few weeks. Still not sure how the reception of this product will be.

Its been a while since I blogged, I was out of town last week and have been a little busy lately. Its just one of those spur of moment topics that comes up in my head. I think one of the reason why Vista is failing is 'cause of piracy. Not 'cause its being pirated but due to the lack of piracy :) All of the older Microsoft products earlier were easy to pirate so not only legit users, but also users who did not pay could use them. But as Microsoft started adding more and more weird ways of copy protection the users who could easily pirate are unable to do so. Since there is low penetration in the legit world no one even bothers to pirate it. If nothing else Microsoft should remove the strict copy protection from Windows 7 and they will see a good enough reception, not only from the pirates but also legit users who in any case would pay for it. Just read somewhere that they might be soon demoing windows 7, here is hoping that they remove the copy protection and also reduce the mi...