Sony DSC H1

In 2000 I'd bought an Olympus Digital Camera. The impressively named Camedia D 360L, with all of 1.3 Megapixels and an 8 MB SSFDC card, cost me a good 350 bucks.



Image transfer was via RS 232 serial cable, and I remember starting the transfer before sitting down to lunch and still having to wait for it to complete. Come to think of it, it was not that bad. I had extensively used it and some of the pictures are a pleasureable reminder of the bachelor days... Ahem, around 2004 the camera decided to go to Davy Jones Locker.

I started badly missing it around end of 2005 and started looking at what I should buy.
Based on a friends input (thanks Raju!), who'd also bought the same, I bought the then freshly launched Sony DSC H1 for around 400 bucks. This was such a pleasure. It was highly capable and was also very easy to use. We could just hand it to anyone and they'd click away in Auto Focus mode. We used it well for the first 2 years. And then in 2007, when our son was born, we just went overboard clicking away. I noticed that we'd clicked over 5000 pictures in the last 2 years. Well, all good things come to an end (I guess). The other day it stopped working. Boots to review mode, but when I put it into any of the shoot modes, it shuts down with a small noise near the lens.



I am plannning to take it to the Sony Service Center. Let me see how it goes. Meanwhile, I've already started looking for probable replacements if this doesn't get fixed. So far the Sony DSC H50 and the Canon EOS 1000D have looked good.

Tatasky retail through Indiaplaza - Review

LATEST UPDATE:
A person from Tatasky called me up on Monday (5-Mar) and understood what the problem was. Then on Wednesday (7-Mar) Indiaplaza folks called me up and explained that they have corrected the problem and it should work fine now. Specifically, they updated to the correct digital certificate. Apparently these problems crept in when they moved their domain from fabmall to Indiaplaza. I did try an online purchase later and it worked. So at their level Indiaplaza could fix their problem and at Tatasky's level, they clearly have good leverage with Indiaplaza. Good for them!


ORIGINAL POST:
I would recommend against making online purchases on Indiaplaza.in because of massive security hazards. I would also wish that Tatasky take their online sales partnership to a better site, because Tatasky is a good product and deserves quality partners. Here are the details:


I bought a Tatasky digital television connection for my parents, for use at their ancestral town, by transacting through Indiaplaza.in. Indiaplaza is the new avatar of fabmall.com, of which I had been an initerant user for few years now. My parents are reasonably satisfied with Tatasky and I am too as I feel good that my parents get digital quality at their small town home thanks to Satellite technology. This week, I needed to buy recharge coupons to pay for the next few months charge (this is how Tatasky gets payment - somewhat like prepaid mobiles in India). This needed to be a quick transaction on the Indiaplaza portal which would send the recharge code to my email address. I would call the Tatasky IVRS (Interactive Voice Response System) and convey this code. Viola, the Tatasky connection gets charged automatically. Alas, this was not to be. When I logged into Indiaplaza, it was plan http, not secure http. Then I added the recharge coupon to my shopping card and went ahead. I got a warning that the certificate used by Indiaplaza is expired.



This is really a very hazardous situation and shouldn't be allowed to happen by the techies maintaining Indiaplaza. I hope this is really a rare slip up. Taking the risk, I clicked Yes and proceeded further. As it was moving to the payment gateway, https kicked in, with the warning however: That the following screen is a combination of secure and unsecure items (not exact wording). I continued and reached the payment gateway. This had the following error:

Apparently, the payment gateway is better managed and rejected a transaction which has questionable credentials. In my urgency to get the recharge, I tried repeatedly and always failed. Then I thought that there should be other online retailers selling Tatasky stuff. And realized that, unfortunately Tatasky sells only through Indiaplaza. Indiaplaza being the mess it is now, I am surely not going to buy anymore there. And I am sure most buyers of my generation would stop buying because: (1) They are smart at identifying such security hazards (2) Word spreads really fast about such issues.

Now, I do get badly impacted as I now have to find a shop that sells the physical card and buy that. This is something my generation hates - sloppy usage of internet technology. It would have been so much smoother to buy from ebay, amazon or even indiatimes. Remember, that a lot of people aren't even physically in India to buy the physical recharge voucher. Tatasky would do well to stop partnership with Indiaplaza and identify a better online retailer. Better still, why doesn't it sell on all online retailers? I hope it cares about my business and that of people like me - there's lots of them. Else, my Tatasky goes for an auction on ebay - soon.

Don't buy furniture at Big Bazaar

Don't buy furniture at Big Bazaar, originally uploaded by stacktop.

On Sunday afternoon, the 11th of Feb, ill fate led me to the four storeyed Big Bazaar complex on Old Madras Road, Bangalore. Primarily I wanted to buy some cheap kitchen accessories, which I did. I also saw a chest of drawers that I liked. It was not cheap compared to other furniture shops. But I thought Big Bazaar is a big outlet and therefore reliable.

I bought it, paid the amount and was told that it would be delivered only the following Sunday, 18th Feb. I agreed (a bit reluctantly, but I agreed) and was given a receipt to record that.

On 18th Feb, no delivery was made and when I called the number on the receipt, the number wasn't active. I had to drive all the way to Big Bazaar to find out what happened (Big Bazaar didn't have a phone number searchable on the internet). There, a purposeful man by the name of Girish (who introduced himself as the incharge of furniture section in Karnataka, and that he sits in the offices near Ashoka Pillar, Jayanagar) went about finding out what happened to my furniture. He let me know that, as a process, shipments were centrally done from their warehouse and fitters were sent from the Old Madras Road branch. This supply chain mechanism was not working out and he assured me that he would intervene. Promise was made to me that the furniture would reach on Monday noon.

This is Tuesday night and no furniture yet. Meanwhile a person called Arvind has called me couple of times on Monday and Tuesday. He said he was the fitter and whether the furniture package has arrived at my house for him to fit it. At least one employee in Pantaloon Retail is earning his livelihood.

This shows problems at multiple levels:

1. The supply chain and logistics are certainly out of shape. This needs to be acknowledged and corrected.
2. The employees need to project a positive image. Mr Girish and cohort's hand wringing and cursing of the central warehouse didn't glorify them in my eyes. it only showed that they have very poor, if any, training on customer handling. Compare this with Walmart's famed approach towards staff training.
3. The customer service numbers printed wrongly on receipt, absence of searchable information on internet (which shows up on Google) reflects a lack of understanding how to position the brand for the customer. How to generate a sense of reliability and solidity.
4. The fact that the fitter called me directly multiple times instead of being able to access an IT system (if not be proactively assigned by an IT system) to figure out where deliveries have been made shows that there is no infrastructure to support the much touted growth plans. Okay, if not an IT system, what prevented the fitter to find this our from the delivery person. A total breakdown of processes.

If Big Bazaar has a thriving business now, it is because it if first on the block. But these instances will prevent it from building customer loyalty. Once Walmart and Reliance are in business, customers will just switch over.

Is Pantaloon Retail taking notice. I fear not.

Configuring a Netgear 614 router

I'd thought a wireless router bought of SP Road should work as soon as plugged in. And it had for the D-Link that I'd bought a month ago. However, the Netgear 614 was a tougher nut. After buying it last Sunday afternoon, I'd spent many a late hour trying to get it working. NADA. Finally, I called the shop, who gave me Netgear's Toll Free number 1800 425 4327. As this is not reachable from my cellphone, I called the other number 044 42087477. Deepak answered and helped me get it working. It was a conflict with the IP Airtel DSL modem uses.
1) Disconnected the DSL modem from Wireless Router.
2) Pressed the reset (small hole at back of router) for 30 seconds.
3) Unplugged router power and powered it back on.
4) Fired up cmd and ipconfig'd. The IP should be 192.168.1.1 and gateway should be 192.168.5.1
5) Fire up IE and connected to http://www.routerlogin.com/basicsetting.htm
6) In the page that comes up, just click the Apply button at the bottom.
7) This brings up a login prompt after 5 seconds. userid: admin passwd: password.
8) On the left click on Wireless setup and choose Asia, 11, b and g. Apply.
8) On the left click on LAP IP and choose change the 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.5.1, change 192.168.1.2 to 192.168.5.2. THIS IS KEY STEP. Apply.
9) The IE should disconnect. That's ok.
10) Power off the router (unplug) and connect modem cable and power on (replug power).
11) Redo ipconfig
12) Try accessing internet.
13) Go to the computer with wireless access, and try to scan for this router.
14) Connect and access internet.
15) Thank Mr Deepak (or Mr Naveen) and heave a sigh of relief.

Yes it could happen to you too - malware comes visiting

Saturday morning started on a lazy note with promise of a deliciously indolent day ahead. Late morning found me at the home computer browsing for coffee recipes. I was thirsting for a mocha and was feeling too lazy to venture outdoors. So the thought of being able to brew delectable coffees in house occured to me. Which brings me to the subject at hand --- the hazards of browsing.
I had little expectation of being struck by virus or other malware as my browsing habits are very, very kosher. However, I was left rubbing my eyes in disbelief as my screed went BSOD blue with a message about Trojan smitfraud.c. A bunch of icons appeared on screen that would be indiscreet to describe. It took awhile to realize that malware has struck.Thankfully, I had another machine that I used to Google on this and found that I had realy been done in. I was planning on buying a commercial anti virus package when I decided to check up on free stuff. Actually, there's a lot.
I also came to know that there was a site called GeeksToGo that offers gratis help to people on their PC travails. Well I finally found my way to Eston Bond's site that gave me all the necessary steps to rid myself of the dubious smitfraud. In the process I found about a set of tools that are now the proud protectors of my PC --- AVG Antivirus, ZoneAlarm personal firewall, Ad Aware and Spybot Search & Destroy form a formidable guard.
All's well that ends well and now the home PC is back at the service of my family. Only, my search for mocha recipes got delayed by a day.



http://www.hyalineskies.com/archives/00000346.html

Connected. Even here!

A lazy vacation with the solitary challenge of avoiding tons of food was getting difficult to get through. Diversions were difficult with no access to the internet. That was when I decided to try getting online using the cellphone.
First I set up the phone as an infrared modem. Then the machine had to be configured to use this modem. This turned out to be tricky and needed a visit to the BIOS. Finally all of it fell into place and I couId go online. The supporting connectivity stack was very interesting - machine to phone as a modem on infrared; phone to internet on GPRS. Some quirks do remain as it doesn't always connect after hibernates. However it surely beats strategizing how to avoid the next plate of hot pakodas.

And, did l mention the speed - 115.2 Kbps !

Blogging over Airtel...

Isn't as bad as I had feared. The proxy server does clam up once in a while. However nothing beats blogging from your cell after dinner on the wrong side of midnight - from Airport Road!
What I abhor is, how people have sold their soul to the cell. Rarely do l get an uninterrupted talk, focused meeting or spicy gossip. From shrill polyphony to subtle cacophony, the cell has lent new meaning to omnipresence here. Lately I have started an attempt to unshackle myself. I ignore any vibes I get when I am in the midst of some work. This has caused a reputatation in my minuscule world that I have gone incommunicado. As a result, I witness a sharp drop in the number of incoming call density. Not bad at all! Next, I thought whether I need a cell at all... Maybe not...
I have noticed that whenever I am with friends, invariably someone calls up one of the no-shows, as if the attendees dont count. And then yak yak... This repeats - only the actors change.