I would try to share what I have learnt
Archive for June, 2008
Indian Broadband revolution via Indian Railways
Jun 27th
BSNL revolutionized the Indian approached to Internet by introducing DataOne service via ADSL technology. It is seen to many as revolution because of the area covered by BSNL. BSNL happened to be the largest PSTN service provider of India by virtually having RJ-11 telephone wire every where in the county. Hence they were able to make broadband available to every one, even for the person leaving at remotest corners of the country.
Now it seems the Indian Railway is coming to the party. Indian Railway happen to have one of the largest OCF network of the country. Up till recently, Indian Railway decided that as because, much of their bandwidth is not been utilized hence to generate more revenue they shall offer end user Internet solutions.
They have successfully tested end user domestic and corporate services at Bangalore and presently operating 250 large state of the art Cyber Cafes in 250 major stations of 83 cities nation wide. They are presently under process to deploy Wifi at 500 major railway stations nation wide and to provide wireless Internet at all important trains (Rajdhani / Shatabdi / Jan Shatabdi express).
What makes this news interesting that while replying to ChotoCheeta.com, Indian Railway end user service support (Railwire.in) have said that they would be now moving to second phase in which Kolkata as one of the city would have end user ISP solution from Railtel.in under their PAN-India roll out plan.
Kolkata will come under our pan-India rollout plans. From the customer support team we at present do not have good visibility into the exact dates and timelines. However, you could expect us to reach Kolkata by end of this year or early next year.
Indian Railways have a total of 50,000 KM (as of Feb, 2007) of optic fiber network. Virtually where ever they have broadgage lines, they have their OFC running beside it. Hence this allows them to provide some really attractive rates. Bandwidth ranging from 256kbps to 155 mbps. Certainly this can be a really good alternate to any of the present running ISP, major players like BSNL (DataOne Broadband) / MTNL / Reliance / Sify / TATAIndicom).
Railwire.in end user ISP tariff for unlimited data uses,
256 Kbps Rs. 320
512 Kbps Rs. 620
1 Mbps Rs. 920
2 Mbps Rs. 1220
4 Mbps Rs. 2120
8 Mbps Rs. 3620
16 Mbps Rs. 6920
32 Mbps Rs. 13520
Therefore the wait begins for the RailTel service !!!
Windows Vista problem – SATA HDD running under PATA mode via BIOS emulation
Jun 9th
Many of computer users who are early adapters of Windows Vista likes to have both their previous version and newer version of OS under dual boot mode.
One common problem with newer hardware and older Microsoft OS such as Windows XP is the incompatibility of SATA controllers.
Most of the newer desktop and notebooks are now days coming with SATA HDD instead of older and slower PATA versions, however the major problem with Windows XP is one must install the SATA controller drivers while booting via their floppy drive but here catch is, how many of us now days have a floppy drive ?
To avoid this problem of no hard disk at the time of installation of Windows XP / 2000 / Server 2003 which needs floppy disk to load the SATA controller driver, all modern computer BIOS offers option to emulate the Hard disk operation mode.
All though this would solve the problem of legacy pre Windows Vista OS installation problem, however often windows vista crashes while running under a PC which has SATA HDD operation mode emulated to IDE.
Microsoft has a patch for all version of Windows Vista to solve this problem.
Please note, if you have a single boot system running with SATA HDD, its always recommended not to emulate the SATA HDD operation mode to IDE. This is only for those who are willing to run under dual boot with pre Windows Vista OSes.
Microsoft to spend USD 20 million in India on computer literacy
Jun 4th
A report at PC-World suggests that Microsoft corporation is planing to spend USD 20 million on computer literacy programs in India.
Incidentally, company has already spend USD 20 million since 2003 under project Shiksha, providing basic computer knowledge and training to over 2,40,000 Indian government / NGO employees / teachers / educators.
Over next 3 to 5 years Microsoft plans to invest another USD 20 millions to continue the success of project Shiksha.
Although to many of us, its a welcome news where as open source supporters are criticizing the move. According to some this is an attempt to build an user group trained on Microsoft technology, thus effecting the decision of the involving organizations to procure a software with which their employees are familiar with.
ATi XGP – External graphics card for NoteBooks / Laptop
Jun 4th
A couple of years back, ASUS announced the XG station. Which was meant as an external heavy duty graphics card solution for NoteBooks / Laptops via express card connectors. However it never made it to the mainstream retail market.
Where as now its AMD which is carrying the dream forward with their latest ATi XGP platform. It would be only usable on specially developed notebooks equipped with external PCIe 2.0 connector.
Acer launching ultra portable 8.9″ Aspire One
Jun 4th
Soon after Dell shows off their plans for these 7″ ultra portable notebook (NetBook) segment, it is now Acer, who is officially launching their version of vision for NetBook segment, the Acer Aspire One.
Powered by Intel Atom processor and price at around USD 400 (for Linux version with SSD) certainly looks a good deal.
![Acer 8.9\](http://www.chotocheeta.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/acer_one_1.jpg "Acer 8.9\")
Certainly with its look and configuration it may through a good competition to current segment leader Asus EEEPC.
- 8.9-inch 1024 x 600 LED-backlit display
- 1.6GHz Atom N270 with Intel G945 (GMA 950)
- 512MB DDR2 SDRAM (expandable)
- 1.3 megapixel camera, SDHC and multi-format media readers
- 802.11b/g, Ethernet, three USB 2.0, VGA, and 3.5mm audio out
- One free mini PCI slot for WWAN
- 80GB hard drive (with XP) or 8GB solid state (with Linux)
- 2.5 or 5 hours on 3 or 6-cell batteries in XP model, 3 or 7 hours on Linux
- 1kg (2.2 pounds)
Configuration with expandable RAM is quite powerful enough to drive vista also !!!
What does it mean to Indian consumer ?
Its unfortunate but no time soon we may expect it, and even though it comes would be priced around Rs. 18k for the linux 8 GB version.
Though all companies have the target to push these ultra portable NetBooks to the emerging markets of developing countries, but infact it best suites those who already have a powerful PC at home and office.
Ask your self if you are from a developing country that if this going to be your 1st notebook or PC, would you spend USD 500 on this type of device or buy a complete desktop with multi core processor ? Where as when you have a Desktop for bulk of your job and entertainment, these NetBooks look so promising and attractive for staying online (emailing, chat, blog) while you are mobile !!!
Re-Birth for Windows XP ??
Jun 3rd
Microsoft Windows XP finds a new life via these ultra portable 7″ / 8″ / 10″ NetBook devices.
Today at Computex currently running at Taiwan, Microsoft has issued a press bulletin stating that company is in work with 20 different OEM PC manufactures, including Dell / HP / ASUS / GigaByte / Lenovo / Acer to deliver the ultra portable products with Windows XP.
These Ultra portable notebooks commonly coming with 7″ / 8″ / 10″ displays are meant to target this new emerging market of developing countries, hence the configuration is not powerful enough to drive Windows Vista in it.
This can be seen as move to not allowing Open Source OSes (Linux) to capture this segment of market.
Incidentally, 1st generation of ultra portables, such as ASUS EEEPC or HCL Mileap included Linux as their primary Operating system.
![upcoming 7\](http://www.chotocheeta.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/img_1088.jpg "upcoming 7\")
HP VooDooPC CTO cuts birthday cake with Apple MacBook Air
Jun 2nd
It seems people are simply not willing to let go the humors relating to the Sharp Edges of MacBook Air. As recently HP’s VooDooPC CTO cut his birthday cake with MacBook Air.
Voodoo CTO Rahul Sood apparently have used his birthday present MacBook Air as a knife to cut the birthday cake. Farther on he writes in his blog,
I immediately used it to cut the cake, it’s so damn sharp it did a fine job.
Save Steve Ballmer from the “Egg-Attack”
Jun 2nd
Recently on 20th May, WinVistaClub carried out a news stating,
The Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer, was speaking at Corvinus University when a protester interrupted and started throwing eggs at him.
and today the author of WinVistaClub, pointed me towards this web site allowing users to play a game based on that Egg throwing incident.
Egg-Attack.com is allowing users to play a game in which you can save Steve Ballmer from the attack and also attack Mr. Ballmer with bucket full of eggs.
Explosion knocks 9000 servers off-line at The Planet Houston H1 facility
Jun 2nd
The Planet, one of the largest operator in US lost their Houston H1 data center facility on 31st of May due to electrical fire.
As per their official forum, the primary transformer suppling power to the facility caught fire and actually exploded. The explosion caused serious damaged to the buildings electrical system. It was so powerful that it knocked 3 walls down.
Local state Fire fighters didn’t allow the company to run any back up electrical source like their heavy duty generators forcing the facility to completely go off line.
For information, the Planet primarily hosts many of the hosting service providers. Hence not only their direct customers but rather many indirect customers found their services to be effected with this incident.
The Planet as confirmed that there is no physical damage to any of the servers or networking / computing equipment, however at this point they are still working round the clock to asses and repair the damage done.
Incidentally, ChotoCheeta.com is hosted at The Planet’s Dallas facility !!!
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