Poll: Mobile Number Portability

Its a few days late but I’m sure y’all must’ve read about the news that Mobile Number Porting would be introduced to the telecom subscribers in India from December 31st onwards (In some circles)

India will introduce mobile number portability (MNP) on Dec 31, a move that could further intensify the stiff competition in the world’s fastest-growing wireless market and push call charges lower. Mobile Number Portability (MNP), which allows users to retain their number even if they switch operators, will be introduced in two phases, the telecoms regulator said, first in the metro cities and the so-called Category A telecom zones and in other areas by March 20. [Full Reuters article]

It has been a long time coming and will surely give a boost to the already bursting-at-the-seams telecom market but I’m not too sure about its usefulness…especially to users who’re happy with their current provider/network/tariffs/plans etc. Users who’re a tad paranoid about having to let all of their contacts know about a number change or those who always look out for a best deal – irrsepective of the number-changing brouhaha – will be the ones snapping up this facility when it’s launched.

So, will you be willing to go for a different operator for either a lucrative plan or a low tariff or some other quirk or value-addition? Please vote in the poll below…

Movie Review – Kurbaan

The first that springs to mind after watching Kurbaan is that how similar it is to the Mani Rathnam movie Dil Se! Of course, both have terrorism as its background but one would assume  the similarity ends there…but as I found out, some love stories have inspirations in them!

Cutting to the chase, Kurbaan is the story of Avantika Sharma (Kareena Kapoor) who’s too young to be one but still is a professor of psychology teaching at Delhi University but actually from New York. She runs into brash co-professor Ehsaan Khan (Saif Ali Khan) who charms his way into coffee dates. Before you’ve finished your cuppa coffee, love blossoms and with alma mater beckoning, they have no choice but to return back to NY where Avantika gets Ehsaan a professorial post at her institute. I’ll digress a bit here in pointing out that the college shown – Webb Institute – has only Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering courses…probably they had psychology lectures on the side and also agreed to Ehsaan taking up a lecture on Islam just for KJo’s sake!

Anyways, the professorial couple move into an ‘Indian neighbourhood’ and meet some nice people, including Bhaijaan (Om Puri), Aapa (Kirron Kher) & others and hope to start a blissful life amidst the woods. But bliss is too far away as Avantika finds out one night, courtesy her neighbour Salma (Nauheed Cyrusi) who pleads for help and warns her of a fair amount  of danger lurking around them, with people not apparently being what they seem to be. What follows is a web of deceit, mistrust, treachery and cold blooded planning and plotting which forebodes a cataclysmic event. Entwined with all of this is an investigative journalist Riaz (Vivek Oberoi) who must play a deadly game of his own to prevent these events from unfolding.

Now you would say its not even remotely close to Dil Se but I can’t convince you that it does unless I give away crucial story information! Let’s just say that where in Dil Se there were SRK, Manisha Koirala and Preity Zinta, in Kurbaan there are Kareena Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan and Vivek Oberoi. Then there’s also love amidst deceit, taking unfair advantage of someone’s position, passion fuelled by revenge, holy war, assorted bunch of cohorts,  the works. Replace Kashmir with Afghanistan/Iraq and New Delhi with New York and you have the nouveau riche Kurbaan! The story’s credited to Karan Johar, BTW.

HP Pavilion Notebook Webcam Woes

Do you own a HP Pavilion Notebook with an Integrated Webcam? The one that’s built into the top of the lid? If you own one such notebook, has its webcam ever stopped working allovasudden? You probably did some wee bit of Windows Update or Microsoft Update only to realize later that your webcam is no longer responding…its blue light is no longer glowing and you are unable to use it from within any applications such as Quick Play or Instant Messengers.

If yes, you’re in the same boat as me. At least I was in the same boat until today. The Webcam had gone kaput and no longer was recognized from within the messengers I used. A wee bit of troubleshooting (and some insightful advise from Mr. MK of HP Support) later, I nailed down the culprit.

What happened was that during a routine update, the driver was replaced by a newer one which somehow caused the device to get slotted as an USB Serial Bus device rather than a webcam. Uninstalling the driver and re-installing the correct one resolved the problem and voila! my friends can now see me as I chat with them (not that its any added incentive!). The detailed troubleshooting procedure’s outlined after the jump…

Chautha

How time flies!

It just feels like yesterday when I started penning some mundane thoughts on some free blog site that I happened to get hold of as I downloaded some free browser. That was exactly four years ago, to the day. Today, My Wierd Wired World completes its fourth year of existence on the blogosphere.

I know that I’ve not been as regular as I’d like to be and more often than not, there’re more F1 posts than any really creative or emotional stuff (is that due to the fact that I’m losing moi creativity and have voluntarily get rid of my emotions?). As usual, a big thanks to all the regular and irregular visitors and commenters who’ve been visiting this blog and keeping the counters ticking (they’re more crawling now as compared to having been fairly galloping some months ago!)

Happy Birthday to MWWW

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Latesht F1 Gossip

Now that the F1 season is over, we’ll have nothing to do but twiddle our thumbs till the 2010 cars are unveiled and the new season vrooms off in March. But fret not…the media is not surely gonna lie down till then. They’re leaving no stone unturned to bring us the latesht hot gossip from the paddock…er…not exactly the paddock but from the boardrooms, negotiation tables, factory aisles, agents’ offices, luxury yachts and the like.

BBC Sport has now started their F1 Gossip Column, having long devoted such space only to Football. In their own words: “With the Formula 1 season finished, BBC Sport will bring you a regular round-up of the gossip in newspapers and on specialist websites around the world”. I guess that’s one way to keep the journalists occupied till the action starts! And with less than half of the driving seats for next year being decided, I’m sure the gossip mills will be in overdrive for the next few months. So if you’re curious about the off-season happenings around the F1 World, head over to the gossip zone and have your fill of the latesht news.

‘09 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – Sunday Race – Vettel wins as Red Bull make it a 1-2 finish

Red Bull ended the 2009 F1 season in style as Sebastian Vettel won the inaugural Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at the Yas Marina circuit and teammate Mark Webber finished second to cap a fine 1-2 for the team. Jenson Button finished third for Brawn GP as he too ended his Championship-winning season with a hard-earned podium finish.

Pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton made a good start but Vettel stuck with him throughout and when the first round of pit stops came, he managed to jump ahead of the McLaren. The race unravelled and ended in disappointment for Lewis as he retired just after with what looked like brake problems. Vettel then was able to cruise through to the win but it wasn’t all that easy for Webber as during the last few laps, Jenson managed to close upto him and hound him all the way to the chequered flag.

Rubens Barrichello finished fourth for Brawn after suffering a front-wing damage in the opening lap with BMW’s Nick Heidfeld in fifth. Kamui Kobayashi capped a fine performance for Toyota as he finished 6th ahead of his more illustrious teammate Jarno Trulli. Toro Rosso’s Sebastian Buemi took the final point for his 8th place finish.

Vettel’s win means he finishes 2nd in the Drivers’ Championship ahead of Barrichello & Webber. With both Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen finishing outside the points, McLaren clinched 3rd place in the Constructor’ Championship and Lewis took 5th place in the Drivers’ Championship – both by a single point.

The curtain thus falls on what was a thrilling 2009 F1 season which saw many a fairytale finishes. I’d run out of space if I start reminiscing about all of them

Hope the 2010 Season would turn out to be as exciting…if not better.