Techie Thoughts

I had been using Airtel GPRS service to connect internet for a while, in Chennai, and when I traveled to other parts of Tamilnadu.

While I would post the instructions to activate, settings, and connection details later, here is a summary of my experience.

Speed
I get a decent browsing speed when in Chennai. Way better than a dial-up.
However, in other parts of Tamilnadu, the speed is quite low. I guess the reason is EDGE support in Chennai, which is only available in select cities.

Download speed is typically 50 kbps to 100 kbps (Kilobits per second) – transfer 6 to 14 KBps ( KiloBytes per second )

Downloading this document took 18 seconds. It’s hosted on a server in India.

Plans
Airtel postpaid plans ARE costly for GPRS. Like GPRS plans of most
providers, they are data usage based.
There are three plans with postpaid.

1. Rs. 399 /month – 100 MB free – Rs. 5 for every MB beyond free usage
   • This plan is completely suitable only if you’re going to do occasional mail checking.
2. Rs. 599 /month – 1 GB free – Rs. 3 for every MB beyond free usage
   • Costly. But worth using for most business purposes
3. Rs. 799 /month – 1.5 GB free – Rs. 3 for every MB beyond free usage
   • Just a number play. I think Rs. 599 is more worthy, compared to this plan.

I used Mobile Office – Rs. 599 plan

Usage
I got it working with Linux. Here is what I used as of this writing.

• the excellent HP dv6000 series laptop.
• Kubuntu 7.10 (beta)
• kdebluetooth ( and pppd )
• Sony
  Ericsson W300i
• Airtel mobile office Rs. 599 plan ( post paid )

When you’re connected to the internet, you would seem “Unreachable” to other people trying to call you. However, if your internet connection is idle, or you’re not transmitting lot of data, you might receive a call.
If you receive a call your internet connection stops. It resumes internet connection once you hang-up.

Summary
If you need internet connectivity when mobile – traveling , to use in the car (assuming someone else is driving) you could very well consider Airtel GPRS. You would need a EDGE compatible cell phone. If you can’t get EDGE support in your city, I don’t think it’s worth using this plan.

ELectronics COrporation of Tamilnadu (ELCOT ) is running a Student Laptop offer. As per ELCOT’s website the offer is providing the laptops at a discounted price for students.

The laptops come preloaded with SUSE Linux. Apart from the default software applications that come with most standard linux distrubutions today, they also have

• NetBeans IDE
• Nero Linux ( though KDE native K3b is also bundled )
• Postgres database
• JasperReports ( an excellent report rendering software based on Java )

Based on the list of bundled softwares I guess it might have KDE graphical desktop environment.

On the hardware side, they ship two brands. Though the brand name is not mentioned, From the specifications and sample picture, one model seems to be HP dvNNNN series. These laptops are quite featureful. I use dv6000 series and most features work out of the box with Kubuntu 7.04.

It is to be noted that ELCOT is pro-open source, and is pushing Linux across the government offices in Tamilnadu. If I remember right, It is also the “purchase” department of IT hardware / software for most government functions in Tamilnadu.

Tags: linux, laptop, kubuntu

Flying in economy class will give a new experience.

To make flying more enjoyable for its passengers, Singapore Airlines Ltd. is adding bigger screens, more in-flight movies and a PC, running Red Hat Inc.’s distribution of the Linux operating system, in every seat on its newest planes.

KrisWorld, Singapore Airlines’ in-flight entertainment system, is a main focus of these efforts and rolling out a new version of KrisWorld that improves significantly on existing systems and hints at what passengers can expect to see on the Airbus S.A.S. A380 and The Boeing Co. 787 Dreamliner, when these aircraft enter service.

The latest version of KrisWorld is based on Panasonic Avionics Corp.’s eX2 in-flight entertainment system. The system consists of a central Linux server that connects to a network of PCs installed in every seat on the aircraft. The KrisWorld software offers an improved user interface and each economy-class seat is fitted with a 10.6-inch LCD screen that offers resolution of 1,280 pixels by 768 pixels. They are larger in business and first class, where each seat comes with a 15.4-inch and 23-inch screen, respectively.

The heart of the KrisWorld system is the main server, which is equipped with “terabytes” of storage capacity to hold the content that’s made available to passengers. When passengers choose to watch a movie or listen to a CD, the content is streamed from the KrisWorld server to the seat’s computer, which has 40G bytes of local hard-disk space and is based on a Via Technologies Inc. processor.

KrisWorld can also be used as a PC and includes Sun Microsystems Inc.’s StarOffice application suite. Every seat is fitted with a USB (Universal Serial Bus) port that lets passengers access documents carried on a thumb drive or portable hard disk. The port can also be used to connect a USB keyboard or mouse, making it easier for business travellers to create and edit documents without having to dig out their laptops and power cords.

Don’t want to carry a keyboard with you? No problem. You can buy one on board the aircraft. Alternatively, the handsets installed in each seat that offered controls for the in-flight entertainment system.

Unfortunately, the internet connection has not been available in the aircraft. However, Its a gift for the people who don’t want to spend their time in watching the movies and listening to the songs.

I came across an audio called Virtual Barbershop couple of days back in David’s blog. It is by far the best Audio Effect I heard. You might be thinking you need 5.1 ( or 7.1 ) channel audio system to get the best audio effect. Wrong!!! All you need is a pair of simple earphones.

Listen to this with your earphones, preferably open ear type. http://david-heron.me.uk/blog/2007/04/08/virtual-barbershop/

You could also play it from your favorite MP3 player, from http://www.david-heron.me.uk/blog/wp-content/VB1.mp3

If you’re interested in the technology behind this, refer to Binaural Recording. The excellent shareware software BrainWave Generator also uses binaural audio.

I would be happy to receive your feedback.

Fedora team announced release of Fedora 7 on 31-May-2007.

This release’s key highlights include

• It’s not Fedora Core anymore. Starting this release, it will just be called Fedora.
• KVM integration with Fedora’s graphical virtualization manager virt-manager.
• Experimental nouveau driver for nVidia video cards. This might be good news for people who are required to compile the nVidia drivers with each kernel release. The driver is disabled by default.

Fedora team has already posted a Schedule for Fedora 8 , which is planned to be released in about 5 months.