Jul 25 2012

Recursion of Problems

Category: Mobiles,Random,Technology — Kamlesh @ 9:54 pm

It looks like something really went wrong today.

Problem #1:  Without my knowledge, Tata Docomo sent me this SMS – “Hi! You have subscribed to AAMIR KHAN at Rs. 10.00 till 31-Jul-2012. To stop, Dial 155223 or sms UNSUB WAAMIR” to 155223(Free).”

Tata Docomo balance deduction without my knowledge

Problem #2: Tata Docomo replied to my tweet and asked me to raise this issue using Live Help.  After filling the Live Chat help form, when I clicked Submit button,it gave a very annoying error (I guess no Web Developer would like to see such error message).  By the way, I am using Firefox 14.0.1 on Windows 7.

Tata Docomo Live Help Error

Problem #3: I took screenshot of the above error and tried to share it using TwitPic with TataDocomo team on twitter. And the recursion problem triggered again for me.  This time TwitPic site gave error!!!

Twitpic image upload failed

Problem#4: I am testing this new problem, which can only happen after I click the Publish Post button now……  Here I go…

UPDATE: Hurray! no more recursion…

Jul 25 2012

Running SysInternal Tools from remote location

Category: Microsoft,Utilities and Tools,Windows — Kamlesh @ 8:36 am

If you are a IT Pro/Dev with Microsoft Technologies, I am sure that you must be aware of SysInternal tools.  Formerly these tools were part of NTInternals, which was renamed to WInternals and finally Microsoft aquired this company and released them as part of Microsoft Technet website as “Windows Sysinternals“.  These amazing tools were developed by Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell.

You can download the entire tool suite from this website (direct link – zip file ~ 12.5MB). The complete list of tools can be found here. These tools are also categorized as:

  • File and Disk Utilities
  • Networking Utilities
  • Process Utilities
  • Security Utilities
  • System Information Utilities
  • Miscellaneous Utilities

One interesting thing about these tools are that they are also available in a Shared Folder on Internet.  If you always want to use the latest version of these tools, then you can map a network drive as shown below:

Using the NET USE command one can map easily to the Shared Folder.  Please remember that you must have a Internet Connection to do this. The same can be done using the Map Network Drive option from Windows Explorer.  Once you do this, you will get a Drive Letter (specified by you; in my case it is L: drive) in your Windows Explorer as shown below:

Sysinternals Shared Drive as seen from Windows Explorer

Did you notice the total size and free space of C: Drive and L:  Drive above? Its just a coincidence :-)

All my PC’s usually have latest version of Sysinternal tools in either C:\Utils or D:\Utils folder.  With Sysinternal Live, I can even run these utilities directly from Internet.  Thanks to Mark Russinovich for providing these amazing utilities.

Jul 23 2012

BSNL increases speed on 750 UL plan (July 2012)

Category: Bangalore,Broadband,BSNL — Kamlesh @ 10:56 pm

Not sure if this is a technical glitch, but I am noticing that the Fair Usage Policy (FUP) is not active on 750 UL Plan in Bangalore.  Since last few days, even after crossing my 6GB Limit, I am getting more than 1Mbps speed on my BSNL dataone Home UL 750 broadband plan.  I have monitored my speed for last 3 days. Even after powering off my Modem, I am getting the speed of 1.5Mbps to 1.7Mbps.  To double confirm, I have even tried the Speed Test with two separate websites:

BSNL Dataone Speed 750UL plan in July 2012

BSNL Dataone Speed 750UL plan in July 2012

Earlier this year, in February 2012, BSNL revised its plans to offer double speed on certain plans, after adding the FUP.  My 750 UL Plan bandwidth became 1Mbps up to 6GB and 512Kbps beyond 6GB. Below were the revised Tariff which came into effect from 1st February 2012:

BSNL revised Broadband Plans w.e.f 01-Feb-2012

BSNL revised Broadband Plans w.e.f 01-Feb-2012

Are there any such differences noticed with other BSNL broadband users in Bangalore or other cities?

 UPDATE: 28th July 2012

Thanks for some of the comments. I noticed that the speed came back to normal 512kbps.  Since yesterday, the speed has got reduced.  Today when I tried SpeedTest, it gave me below result (which is even below 512kbps).

BSNL SpeedTest Result on 28th July 2012

Now, I feel that the sudden speed increase was really a technical glitch from BSNL end.  Whats your comments?  Is anyone else still getting 1.5mbps speed now?

Update: 12-Sep-2012
I am getting 1.5 to 1.7Mbps even after crossing 6GB limit.  I have checked this with some of my friends who are using BSNL.  They have also confirmed the same.

Jul 17 2012

Monsoon is here!

Category: Nature — Kamlesh @ 9:55 am

Rain started in Bangalore

Monsoon has arrived.  The 2 day old wheat sprouts in my balcony looks amazing.