Join the 3G Revolution! Data Card Magic!!

Internet was introduced in India during the end of 1990's. By then we had Windows 95 / 98 with Pentium II / III  / Celeron processor and 16/32 MB RAM and 1/2 GB Hard Drive. Dishnet and Sify Provided Internet Dial-Up Services. It took even hours to get connected to the internet. There was separate charges for telephone and ISP. Since the cost is huge only few afford to have internet connection at home. Browsing centers were charge about 40 rupees per hour.
Now the situation has changed. Revolution in telecom industry changed everything. There are so many players like BSNL, Reliance, TATA, Aircel, Airtel, Idea, Uninor etc.
Personal Computer price has dropped dramatically. Now you can own Intel Atom processor Powered PC with 2 GB RAM, 500 GM Hard Drive, 15.5" TFT Monitor for as low as Rs. 13000.

Now come to the internet connection. For those living in cities have many options. BSNL, Airtel, Reliance and other players have infrastructure for landline based broadband internet. For example 2 MBPS unlimited connection is available at Rs. 2000 per month in Tirupur. For those living in rural and village areas options are limited. BSNL network is the only option for rural areas. With the advent of Wireless broadband the situation has changed. Wireless broadband was first offered on CDMA networks like Reliance. Reliance offers netconnect broadband. TATA Indicom offers Photon. MTS entered the market lately and acquired market in Tamilnadu and other states. For these connections you have to buy USB Data Cards which are network locked. That means you can use these device on their particular networks only. The situation changed with the  emergence of 3G data cards. Theoretically they offer upto 7.2 MBPS download speeds. My home is located in a remote area and i don't have many options for internet. So i wanted to try 3G cards. I use Aircel (Coimbatore). and have quiet good coverage in my area. I bought 3G card through ebay. Huawei E173 cost Rs. 1600 inclusive of shipping. After inserting the card autorun will install modem drivers and also Mobile partner software. You have to activate 3G plan. For example in Aircel send messsage 'START 3G' to 121. It will be activated in 1 or 2 hours. For me it was activated in 10 minutes. You can also use the card only with GPRS/EDGE connected. But this is very slow. Put your SIM card in the slot of 3G card. Insert it in the USB port and open the mobile partner software. If 3G is activated on the SIM it will show WCDMA AIRCEL on the lower left corner with signal strength. In profile name select Aircel (If you use Aircel SIM) and click connect. Now you are connected to the superfast 3G network. Now on the lower left you can see HSPA Aircel. Open your browser and start browsing. You can watch streaming videos, read mails, use social networks like facebook and download files, pictures, videos with the 3G speed. In my case i recharged only for 3 days Aircel Pocket internet for Rs. 14. Before activating 3G it worked in EDGE mode. I did not recharge for 3G. After activating 3G it worked at about 1.5 MBPS. At speedtest.net i get around 1.6 MBPS speed. You can take this data card in your pocket and use it anywhere in laptop / pc wherever 3G network is available!. So try this amazing piece of technological marvel.

Gmail will no longer work in Internet Explorer 6 (IE 6)

Google's Gmail will not work in IE6 browser

GMail is the popular free email service by Google Inc. Millions of people are using gmail for email communications. Internet Explorer 6 is the popular web browser software developed by Microsoft Corporation. It was bundled with Windows XP and older operating systerms. Due to the security vulnerabilities in IE 6 Google has discontinued support for IE 6 browsers. This means you will not be able to open and read your emails using IE 6. So you need to upgrade to latest versions of Internet Explorer or you can use other brands like Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome to access you Gmail account.

Google announced this a few months back and today i was not able to read my mails using IE 6. I was able to login to my Gmail account and can view the inbox, but i could not open the mails. The link was not clickable. I always use firefox and seldom use IE for browsing.

My Visitors in the year 2010

I am using sitemeter on my websites to keep track of my visitors. Most people use statcounter on their websites. But i never used statcounter and sitemeter is good for me.
It offers a lot of visitor information. For example in the summary option it gives Total visits and page views. Average daily vists and page views. Average visit length, Last hour vists and page views, today's vists and page views, weekly vists and page views. It also give Who's On? which can be used to find who is currently viewing your website. It gives Domain Name, Location, last page view, total page views and visit length. In traffic prediction menu it gives prediction of future traffic by hour, day, week and month based on past traffic.

In recent visitors option it gives recent visitors by Deatails, By referrals, By World Map, By Location, By Out Clicks, By Entry Pages, By Exit Pages.

Visits and page views can be viewed by Previous 7 Days, Previous 30 Days and Previous 12 Months.

It also gives page ranking by Entry Pages and Exit Pages.

Sitemeter is free with all these features. There is paid version as well with more in-depth details. So, use sitemeter on your website to know the details of the visitors.

Here are the visitor details for some of my sites in the year 2010. Snapshot taken on 26.January.2011
. Site: freehoroscopesonline

Petrol Price hike

Price hike of Rs. 2.50 - Pongal Gift?

The Government of India announced a hike of Rs. 2.50 for the price of Petrol effective from January 15, 2011. The price was hiked not so long ago and the price hike received stiff resistance from the opposition parties and general public. In Tamilnadu it is pongal holidays and the price hike is a unwelcome Gift.

Petroleum is vital not only for the economy but also for the individuals. Everyone depend on this non-renewable resource. In a single month the price was hiked for two times. A five rupee increase per liter will affect people dramatically. A middle class family that lives on a monthly budget suffers heavily from the price hike. And this hike is not going to stop. If this pattern goes on in a year or two the price per litre of petrol would be more than 120-130 rupees.

Beacuse petroleum prices are determined by the international market the government of India has very low control over the price hike. What should we do now? Should we completely stop using the petroleum? Right now there is no perfect alternative to Petroleum. Electrical powered vehicles are costlier and not powerful as their petroleum counterparts. Solar power also is still experimental and not practical. The government can fund reasearch at university levels for students pursuing research in alternative energy. But this will not happen in a country where IT and computers and considered supreme than traditional science subject. The politicians and policy makers are content once their pockets are filled. Spectrum and other scams fill their pockets once in a while.

Ok see u. I am going for a movie right now? My wife is urging me that the time is up. The movie is siruthai by Paruthi veeran Karthi. :)

Alert! Scam Phishing emails in the name of Gmail

I received supposedly scam emails

Today i received a suspicious email. The from address was secureemailservice@gmail.com. The following is the exact copy of the email.

Gmail science & technology team has recently launched Google web software to protect and secure all Gmail Accounts. This system also enhanced efficient networking and fully supported browser. You need to upgrade to a fully supported browser by filling out the details below for validation purpose and to confirm your details on the new webmaster Central system.

 

Username:     

Date of birth:

User Password:

Country:  

Note: Your account will be disabled permanently if you failed to provide the details required above within 72hours. Gmail will not be held responsible for your negligence.

The Google web Service.

 

Immediately after reading the mail i doubt the authenticity of the mail. There are so many phishing attempts in the recent time. What is phishing? It is an attempt to gain the confidential and sensitive data of individuals like internet banking account name, password in an attempt to gain access to their accounts. What would happen if you give away your internet banking account details or credit card details to somebody untrusted. They will simply take away your money and run!

No banks or reputed organizations ask for user id and password. Why should they ask for them? They will have the details stored in their database.

What are the implications of responding to this mail. If you reply with your Gmail user name and password it will land in the wrong hands. The person will login to your Gmail account and look for useful information like credit card / internet banking account details.

I just posted a  messaged in Google Help forum and waiting for response. The mail i received also threatened that my Gmail account would be disabled if i did not respond within 72 hours. Google will never threaten its users in this way. In the mail i also found some terminologies that are connected in no way. Such terms as 'Web master Central' has nothing to do with Gmail accounts. It is for web site developers and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) persons.

So please ignore this email if you received one. I will update once i get further details on this scam.