a common man ಸಂಜಯ

Author: msanjay

  • BSNL DataOne ADSL Connection – follow up

    See also:
    BSNL DataOne Connection Configuration Summary

    after many attempts last Saturday I finally managed to get an answer on the support help line (25555555/25555554).

    One lady asked what the problem was, and I started explaining about the modem settings, IP address and so on. Then she kept saying “uh-huh” every now and then very attentively – so she mustve taken some communication training or something I guessed. But after 2 minutes of explanation I got a
    doubt. Esp when I asked a question and she still said “uh-huh”. Then I had to repeat the question and say that I’m asking a question and would like an answer. Then it dawned on her, and she said “ok let me check” I wondered what technology they were using that she was able to check something, just
    based on the information I had given her.

    But she came back after a few minutes with a very polite “thanks for staying on the line” to ask for a clarification – “are you able to access the internet?”.
    “NO”.
    She said “ok fine”.
    I had to say “No, its not fine, thats the whole problem” (and thats why I called in the $^&^* first place )
    Then the award winning question – “are you unable to access the internet, or the web pages”

    Anyway to cut a very long story long, much later I got hold of the Malleswaram number and finally managed to beg and plead and somehow convince one of the staff to come home (though they said some staff are on leave, others are still busy installing new connections and would take a seperate week to troubleshoot existing ones).

    Finally they came in the evening, and they tried all kinds of things for over an hour with no success.

    They seemed to be doing almost exactly the same things I had tried myself for the past 2 or 3 late nights, but one extra thing they did was set a DNS address which didnt help either.

    I empathised with them that this could be quite frustrating to debug such elusive problems, and we too sometimes face similar situations in the software profession. They were really glad that atleast someone understood them, they had said they have faced ire from people earlier. (Such a casual comment, it was really amazing to see how happy it made them! It reinforced my feeling that one should be more liberal in voicing one’s positive thoughts)

    They told me that it should work with no settings at all, and told me to either reinstall Windows 2000 or install XP.

    They finally had to leave, saying they’d try out a new modem on Monday. Even while they were leaving they were talking about some possibilities and I kept saying “oh I’ve tried that too”. Then he suddenly said “either we should go with the ready made settings without any configuration at all, or we should configure it exactly the way its supposed to be done, but not a mixture of the two, please undo whatever you have tried so far”.

    Well obviously the first option hadnt worked for me – I had never been able to access the net so far even without trying out any configuration at all. But while departing, he almost kind of magically procured a BSNL User Manual. (like the way that guy hands out the Messiah’s Handbook in the book Illusions by
    Richard Bach!)

    I was quite surprised to see this. Then when they had departed, I went and tried one more time… I compared the manual’s settings to the one I had made. There was one radio button called “Default Route” Enable/Disable. I hadnt changed it, and the default had been Disable. I selected Enable, and
    then selected Save and Restart Modem.

    After that, I’ve been able to access the net – and so far havent had any problems – high speed access (several bandwidth tests reported close to 250 Kbps). The best part is it works on the existing BSNL phone line (unlike other private ISPs, theres no need to take a seperate phone line or cable unless of course you already have one). I’ve esp been delighted to be able to speak on the phone while browsing!

    (I called them up this morning to let them know the problem was finally solved).

  • BSNL DataOne ADSL Connection – initial configuration wrangling

    The BSNL chaps just connected my modem and pushed off, and when I went home I found that nothing much had been configured.

    Thanks to the information here I was able to make some sense of the PDF manual (the only thing on the CD they had provided) and atleast connect to the modem through the web interface.

    I got to the point where I configured PPPoe with my username/pwd and the modem connected and got an IP address.

    But unfortunately I still wasnt able to access the internet!

    (Of course their helpline has been helpless so far – I spoke to support this morning and she asked me “have you downloaded the two CDs?” and after some time I figured out she meant “installed”. Later she took my number and….)

    I have Win2K, and I see 2 LAN connections. One’s properties shows the Ethernet adapter, and the other has the PPPoe Adapter.

    I tried all kinds of permutations and combinations, but the only one where I was able to atleast connect to the modem was the one I started with – assigning a static IP of 192.168.1.100.

    PS: It was good fun actually… but if only it had worked…! 🙂

  • The Emperors New Clothes – Hans Christian Anderson

    This is a well known old classic meant for kids, and of course we’re all mature sensible adults now who appreciate the finer things in life like wine women and wiolence 😉

    But I happened to bump into it recently, and found it to be stunningly relevant even to our era!

    The Emperors New Clothes

    (Its pretty short and might take only around 10 minutes. Comments invited if any)

  • For Paulo Coelho fans…

    http://www.paulocoelho.com.br/engl/dow.shtml

  • lessons from nature| ಪ್ರಕೃತಿಯ ಪಾಠ

    The leading story in this morning’s newspaper is quite strange. (more…)

  • some articles and quotes

    A different perspective of ethics versus profits…

    Shows that compassion and ethics versus bottom lines and profits for a succesful business need not be mutually exclusive!
    (more…)

  • dream career

    what would the ideal career be like?

    One day Conan was thinking that if a person is really passionate about something, say photography or writing or something, he shouldnt take it as a career because he would then get obliged to it, tied to it as part of his liveliihood. Whereas if he does something else, then he can be free to do photography exactly whenever he feels like it or not if he dosent.

    It sounded quite reasonable actually, but recently, I was wondering maybe if he *does* take up something else as a livelihood, then life becomes so hectic, that he finds he never finds the time to do ever do this particular thing at all! except if he speculates that “some day” he’ll earn “enough” money to be able to resign and pursue his hobby seriously. And we know that this “some day” and “enough” are usually very dynamic parameters 😉

    Incidentally I was reminded of this because of a friend’s daughter who wanted to take music as her profession but her parents were concerned that she had not yet had even a degree for her education.

    (As for me, I was pretty happy with software and programming when I started with it, now I’m just wondering whether its reduced but havent decided anything yet.)

  • typical shopping list for visitors to Germany

    – soaps, scents, etc (from Schleker)
    – some small shops maybe in railway stations have these beautiful statues – very artistic and colorful for 2 or 3 euro
    – chocolates of all colors from the shop Real
    – small cheap electronic gizmos on sale (like USB MP3 players having upto 1 GB storage, hi-tech headphones, DVD players, video recorders, cameras) from MediaMarkt, some other famous electronic shops I dont remember
    – nice looking wrist watches for 10 Euro from many places but typically Kaufhof where you would get even Casio or Swatch watches dirt cheap as well.

  • Survival of mankind 🙂

    [source: a forwarded email]

    This classic Dave Barry column was originally published on Sept. 26, 1999.

    Survival of mankind rides on the successful pickup line BY DAVE BARRY

    So I was at this party, and I wound up at a table where three attractive single women were complaining about – Surprise! – men. Specifically, they were complaining about the pickup lines that had been used on them in a bar a few nights earlier.

    One woman said: ”This guy comes up to me and says, ‘Are you a teacher?’ I mean, is that supposed to be romantic?”

    All three women rolled all six of their eyes.

    Another one of them said: ”This guy says to me, ‘I’ve been looking at you all night!’ So I go, ‘Hel-LO, we just GOT here.”’

    At this point all three women – and I want to stress that these are intelligent, nice women – were laughing. Not me. I was feeling bad for the guys.

    I realize that there are certain hardships that only females must endure, such as childbirth, waiting in lines for public-restroom stalls, and a crippling, psychotic obsession with shoe color. Also, females tend to reach emotional maturity very quickly, so that by age 7 they are no longer capable of seeing the humor in loud inadvertent public blasts of flatulence, whereas males can continue to derive vast enjoyment from this well into their 80s.

    So I grant that it is not easy being a female. But I contend that nature has given males the heaviest burden of all: the burden of always having to Make the First Move, and thereby risk getting Shot Down. I don’t know WHY males get stuck with this burden, but it’s true throughout the animal kingdom. If you watch the nature shows on the Discovery Channel, you’ll note that whatever species they are talking about – birds, crabs, spiders, clams – it is ALWAYS the male who has to take the initiative. It’s always the male bird who does the courting dance, making a total moron of himself, while the female bird just stands there, looking aloof, thinking about what she’s going to tell her girlfriends. (”And then he hopped around on one foot!
    Like I’m supposed to be impressed by THAT!”).

    Male insects have it the worst. The Discovery Channel announcer is always saying things like: ”After the mating, the female mantis bites off the male mantis’ head, and then she and her girlfriend mantises use it to play a game that looks a lot like Skee Ball.”

    Because I live in Florida, my patio is basically a giant singles bar for lizards. On any given day during mating season, I’ll see dozens of male lizards out there making their most suave lizard move, which consists of inflating and deflating a red pouch under their chins. They seem to think that female lizards really go for a guy with a big chin pouch, but I have never once, in 14 years of close observation, seen a female respond. They just squat there looking bored, while all around them males are blinking on and off like defective warning lights.

    Every now and then you’ll see an offbeat TV news story about some animal, usually a moose, that has for some reason fallen in love with, and decided to relentlessly court, something totally inappropriate, such as a lawn tractor. This animal is ALWAYS a male. On the TV, they show it hanging around the lawn tractor with a big, sad, moony look, totally smitten, while the lawn tractor cruelly ignores it.

    My point here is that, in matters of the heart, males have the brains of a walnut. No, wait! That is not my point. My point is that perhaps you women could cut us males a little bit of slack in the move-making process, because we are under a lot of stress. I vividly remember when I was in 10th grade, and I wanted to call a girl named Patty and ask her to a dance, and before I picked up the phone, I spent maybe 28 hours rehearsing exactly what I was going to say. So when I actually made the call, I was pretty smooth.

    ”Hello, Dance?” I said. ”This is Patty. Do you want to go to the Dave with me?”

    Fortunately Patty grasped the basic thrust of my gist and agreed to go to the dance. This was a good thing, because if she had shot me down, I would have been so humiliated that I would have never have been able to go back to school. I would have dropped out of 10th grade and lied about my age and joined the U.S. armed forces, and as a direct result the Russians would have won the Cold War.

    That is the awesome power that you women have over us men. I hope you understand this, and the next time a guy walks up and uses some incredibly lame, boneheaded line on you, I hope that, instead of laughing at him, you will remember that he is under the intense pressure of wanting to impress you enough so that you might want to get to know him better and maybe eventually, perhaps within the next 15 minutes, mate with him, thereby enabling the survival of the human race, which believe me is the only thing that we males are truly concerned about.

    In conclusion, let me just say to all females everywhere, on behalf of all males everywhere, that you are very beautiful and your eyes are like two shining stars, unless you’re a female fly, in which case your eyes are more like 2,038 shining stars. So please give us a chance. And if you’re not interested, could you introduce us to your lawn tractor?

  • healthy habits

    I have seen people suffer from heart problems when they least expected it. I would say I was ‘lucky’ that I I’ve had a lot of health problems like tendonitis, knee pain, etc at a relatively young age! I did some research at sites likes health.yahoo.com and realised that being overweight is one of the primary causes of most diseases.You may not necessarily *look* overweight, but consult a height/weight scale to be sure. Also, these habits would be preventive too.

    This is a compilation of information from various sources, its quite likely that you already know many of the things that are here, but there’s a good chance that you might pick up atleast one new habit thats useful.

    There are countless ways to reduce one’s weight… including exercise/aerobics/yoga/diet, etc. I am neither a doctor nor a physiotherapist… and definitely not any “icon of good health” ! I am writing this article solely on the basis of what my health is now *compared* to what it was around a year ago.

    Many of us lack the time or discipline to consistently follow any of the conventional ways of maintaining health. No doubt we should nevertheless give it our best shot.However, I am not writing about those methods… I am listing three simple value-adding *habits* which can easily be incorporated into one’s routine.

    • drink atleast a litre of water as soon as you wake up in the morning
    • avoid eating any fattening/oily food after around 6 PM (not being superstitious 🙂 …just defining “evening” 😉 )
    • walk whenever you get the opportunity

    Water helps burn fat

    Water is necessary for your body to burnfat. Without water, your kidneys can’t dotheir job properly and your liver has topitch in to help them. While it’s helpingthe kidneys, your liver can’t burn as muchfat, so some of the fat that would normallybe used as fuel gets stored in your body instead. Drinking more water lets the liver get back to its own job, turning fat into fuel. Dieting people need more water because they want to burn more fat, and because they have to get rid of more waste, like all the fat that has been used up. Water also helps keep muscles toned and skin soft.

    You will also get rid of extra salt.

    (I came to know recently that drinking warm water with honey and lemon in the mornings is highly recommended though I havent tried it out)

    Heavy Dinners

    Avoid eating anything within three hours of bedtime. Your metabolism slows down at night, so if you go to bed with a full stomach, your body won’t deal with the calories as efficiently as it would during the day. If you’re used to munching on chips or sweets during prime time, you’re putting weight on yourself. Ideal habit is to have a good breakfast and a very light dinner, and eat nothing else after dinner. Hence always give preference to arranging any lavish get-togethers with family/friends over lunch instead of dinner.

    Walking

    This is an idea I picked up from a speed reading book: for a few days, walk much faster than you normally do… not just by rapid paces, also by taking long strides and breathing deeply. It may be tiring at first. After a few days, relax and walk casually from then on. Your new casual speed will be much faster than your original casual speed. Take care of your posture: keep your back erect, allow your arms to swing freely, and regulate your breathing by taking deep breaths, and try to keep your mind in the present instead of letting it wander around… esp important while crossing busy roads in Bangalore!! Advantages of walking fast: its good exercise, and it saves time since you get wherever you want to go faster.

    Walking is ideally done in the morning, but if you’re like me… you’re never awake to see the light of dawn… so it’s a good idea to always create opportunities for walking at any time – for eg choosing the staircase instead of the elevator, alighting at the third bus stop instead of the first one next to home, etc.

    Brushing teeth at night

    I find many of my friends lack this habit – it seems to be more a part of western culture. Believe me… I know its importance because I got so many silver fillings in my teeth (plus a root canal… ouch) that a customs official might suspect I carry some kind of weapon in my mouth every time I pass through a metal detector! I used to hate brushing teeth at night since it would spoil my lovely drowsiness and I wouldn’t get sleep till late in the night. However once it became a habit, I can’t sleep very easily if I havent brushed my teeth!!

    Its also important to mouthwash after eating anything, atleast with plain water… its just a simple 10 second activity!

    4 Rules of Eating
    Here are the four rules of eating:

    1. Be relaxed and happy while you eat. If you have tension in any part of your body including the inside of the abdomen, relax.
    2. Always sit down while you eat, don’t stand, lie down, or move around. (its an excellent idea though may not be an easy one, to squat on the floor instead of sitting at a table. – my Yoga instructor)
    3. When you eat, do only that. Do not engage in any second activity, no matter how simple it may seem.
    4. When you eat, “put your mind where your mouth is.” Concentrate on the process of eating itself, chew every bite 20 times, especially the first bite. Chewing your food 20 Times Satisfies your body psychologically.Do not take another morsel or piece of food in your mouth unless you have swallowed the one you are already chewing. Keep that spoon, fork, or straw down at the table until you have actually swallowed the morsel in your mouth. Bringing your unPided attention to the process of eating. Follow the entire sequence of tasting, chewing, swallowing, and mentally follow it all the way as food descends into the stomach.

    Breathing

    Breathing correctly helps regulate your entire psychophysical structure. Calm breath calms the mind, and heavy, rapid breathing accelerates the tempo of your thoughts and leads to tension of the body. The function of the breath is to supply oxygen to the body and to cleanse and purify the dark impure blood into vitalizing red blood. The breath indirectly supplies energy to the body by the explosion of oxygen into atoms of life force. Through habit, our bodies have become accustomed to food and air, but if we de-condition ourselves and train ourselves to life more by the life force, the less will we need to depend on secondary sources of sustenance, such as, food, oxygen, water, and sunshine.

    To breathe properly, it is important that you also maintain a proper posture. Look carefully around you and you will observe the apathy with regard to this vital statistic of life. Right now, stop and check on how you are sitting or standing. Slouched, are you?!? If you exist all-folded-up, you’ll restrict your breathing, squash your internal organ functioning, and generally limit the effectiveness of your clarity, awareness levels, and overall perspectives in life. When you breathe, remember to keep your spine straight and upright. The head should be held relaxed but looking straight ahead with the chin only slightly upraised. If the whole vertebral column is taut and rigid, moving upward from the coccyx (the tailbone at the base of the spine), seek to loosen and relax each of the many vertebrae turn by turn, all the way to the crown of your head. Simultaneously, lengthen up the front of your body from the pubic bone to the upper portion of the breastbone. Never sit with a crooked spine and squeezed lungs. As you breathe, deep and slow, remember that your diaphragm should (the area just below your ribs; the muscular partition between your chest and your stomach) expand with every inflow, and should contract with every outflow of breath. Throughout the day, cultivate the habit of doing spot checks on your breathing process. Speak with your diaphragm, and encourage it to expand a little bit more than it normally does. When you breathe in, the region of the abdomen must expand, and when we breathe out, it must contract; so many of us do just the reverse. Make a conscious and then unconscious habit of this and see the effects it quickly weaves into your life.

    (dont have the exact URL… one of the Speaking Tree articles )

    Different kinds of food

    According to the Bhagavad Gita, energy (Gunas) has three qualities that exist together in equilibrium: Sattvic (pure), Rajasic (over stimulating) and Taamasic (dull)

    Sattvic Foods: These render the mind pure and calm and generate equanimity, enabling it to function at its maximum potential. Some food products which come under this category are milk, cereals (corn, wheat, unpolished rice, oatmeal…), fruits, vegetables, etc. Eating slowly with awareness is also sattvic.

    Rajasic Foods: These feed the body at the expense of the mind. Too much rajasic food will overstimulate the body, making the mind restless and uncontrollable. Meat, fish, eggs, coffee, cocoa, chilies, prepared mustard, spices, highly spicy or salty or seasoned foods are all rajasic foods. Eating in a hurry is also considered rajasic.

    Tamasic Foods: These cause a sense of inertia and laziness to set in. The body’s resistance to disease is reduced and the mind filled with dark emotions, such as anger and greed. All intoxicants, stimulants, stale or half-cooked/overcooked food are some examples of tamasic foods. Overeating is also regarded as tamasic.

    Different people have different opinions of which food falls under which category… but you get the general idea!

    I think one observation if you’ve been to both North and South India, is that in North India people are much more rough and aggressive whereas in South India people (on an average) are relatively much more mild. I suspect this could be because of the spices used in North Indian food, compared to the relatively more bland food in South India. Also if you compare the temperament of people in North Karnataka (who eat chillies for lunch!) and those in South Karnataka… this difference is visible too.

    Overeating to avoid wastage of food

    Most of us Indians know the value of food and don’t like to waste it. I have seen many situations where people, including me, have overeaten just to avoid the food already on their plate going to waste.

    My friend gave me an excellent suggestion… before putting anything on your plate, make an estimate of exactly how much you’re going to eat. Do not be absent minded at the time of putting something on your plate, whether you are helping yourself or when somebody is serving you. Be assertive enough to say a polite no, no matter how much the host may try to persuade you.

    Eye improvement techniques

    “Fundamental rule: Listen to your eyes. Whether they are sore, tearing, itchy or tired, they are sending you a message. Listen to them. If your eyes hurt when you have been working at the computer for too long, stop and take a break. Be receptive to your eyes.”
    ~ excerpt from the below site.

    eye exercises
    eye care tips
    Bates techniques

    The technique of Palming described there (or here http://www.seeing.org ) is very relaxing. Another relaxing technique is to splash cold water on the eyes (with the eyes closed) every now and then. This was from a book Eye Care by Dr. Gala (not 100% sure of the name… its a very thin book with a yellow cover costing Rs 15) which has many useful techniques and excercises. Another tip from the same book: hot water on the head weakens eyesight and should be avoided as far as possible.

    Laughter is the best medicine

    No explanation needed for this one 😉 Don’t laugh just during comedy movies, but try to see humor in day to day situations around you, and especially dont hesitate to laugh at yourself!