W3hobbyist

Its been 2 months that I am using wireless keyboard and mouse – Cordless couple from iBall. Here is my detailed review.

Installation:

The installation on XP was very smooth. You just have to insert the micro-receiver into the USB port and the you can get started immediately without any hassles.

On Vista(Home Basic), the driver created some issues because of which my system would crash moments after the micro-receiver was plugged into the USB port. The issue was resolved by updating the drivers. On the mini CD provided with the package, there are driver installation setups for ‘Combo’, ‘Keyboard’ and ‘Mouse’. For some reason, ‘Combo’ did not work for me. Hence I had to install the latest drivers individually for Keyboard and mouse from their website. It worked smoothly thereafter.

Keyboard user experience:

Since this is a wirelss keyboard, let us first speak about dropouts. Dropouts have been rare in the past 2 months, but they do exist. At times, the keyboard just stops working suddenly. You then have to remove the batteries and insert them again.

Apart from the standard keys and numpad, there are 8 multimedia keys mounted over the top border of the keyboard for common functions like ‘Sleep’, ‘My computer’, ‘Calculator’, ‘Search’, ‘Refresh’, ‘Favorites’, ‘Email’, and ‘Home’.

There are 4 “multimedia player” keys arranged vertically over the left border. These keys are quite annoying because it is easy to press them when you are picking up the keyboard or resting your hand over the left border. Does not serve any worthy purpose to have these keys on the left border. Could have been comfortably put on the top border along with the other 8 multimedia keys.

On the right border, there are 3 multi media keys – ‘Mute/Unmute’, ‘Volume +’, ‘Volume -’. The apparent purpose of these keys is to provide quick access to volume functions.  However, being located on the right border, the keys are far-away from the alphabet keys. If one is typing a document and wants to suddenly mute the volume, his hand to travel a lot of distance to the right. Instead, it would have been much easier to have these keys along the upper border. The upper border is not only closer to the alphabet keyboard, but also within the ’scope of vision’ or eyesight. This would provide much quicker access to the volume functions.

The multimedia keys on the left and right border are nothing more than an desperate attempt or over-indulgence to provide ’something different’ from the common keyboards available in the markets. Rather than providing better utility, these keys only make matters annoying. Also, the “Open favorite multimedia player application” key(top most key on left border) does not work with Windows Vista, though it works on Windows XP.

One of the most irritating aspects of the design on this keyboard is that there are no indicator lights(LEDs) for ‘Caps lock’ and ‘Num lock’. The only way to find out whether caps lock or num lock is ON/OFF is to type an alphabet/number and see whether it comes out in CAPITAL/small. How could such a basic function be ignored by the designers. The designers must have been smoking weed when designing this model. The indicator space has instead been occupied by a small strip of receiver. It also contains a indicator light for battery power.

The imprints on the keys look of cheap quality. The imprint of “I” on the red-colored “I” key of the alphabet keys has already vanished. Others keys have retained their imprints.

The keyboard is not a durable and sturdy one I would say. I had once dropped this keyboard on the floor(from a height of 1.5 ft or 40 cms), and some of the keys have started behaving in a weird manner, especially the broader ones like ‘Shift’, ‘Enter’. These keys remain in the ‘pressed’ state sometimes.

Mouse user experience:

There were no dropouts unlike the keyboard.

The mouse is decent unlike the keyboard which is over-the-board. The middle-button-cum-wheel can scroll vertically as well as horizontally. There is a toggle button on the top of the mouse which allows you to switch between two pre-determined sensitivity levels. Over the left upper edge of the body, there are Back-Forward buttons which can be used while using internet browser or windows explorer.

The location of these two buttons in highly uncomfortable. They are located quite behind the pad of your thumb. The ‘Back’ button is more difficult to access than the ‘Forward’ one. It almost strains and pains while using that button. If you want to use these buttons, you will have to adjust your hand a lot so that you can press the buttons comfortably. Instead of adjusting your hand to use these buttons, it is much easier to hover the mouse and click the ‘Back/Forward’ buttons on your browser. This feature is also annoying like the ones in keyboards.

The left surface of the mouse is depressed to allow a better grip with your thumb. However, this makes it impossible for left-handed people to use this mouse. Only people who use mouse with right hand will be able to use it.

The mouse has a small secure compartment at its bottom to store the tiny micro-receiver when not in use or unplugged from the USB port.

Overall:

The only apparent advantage is that it relieves you from the clutter of wires. Remember that it will also occupy an USB port full-time. The keyboard is below average because of the annoyances caused by its design. A plain keyboard without any of those multimedia keys and essential features like caps/num lock indicator would have left me much more happy. The mouse is slightly better than the average decent ones available in the market.

I would be happy if the company replaces my keyboard with a one thats more like a ‘normal’ and has basic functions rather than this outlandish one that does serves neither basic, nor advanced ones properly.

Will never recommend anyone to buy iBall cordless couple for the horrible keyboard that comes with it.

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I just purchased a Nokia E 63 yesterday. Its an impressive phone given its smart features and price tag(11.6 K in Thane). As I was exploring it, I noticed that the headphones won’t work with the music player, though the headphones work with FM radio. The music player would play only through the loudspeaker and the volume too was quite low.

Here is the solution:

Menu > Tools > Settings > General > Enhancement > Scroll down to ‘Text phone‘ and set it as default.

Now plugin in your headphones into the 3.5 mm jack and enjoy the music on headphones.

Let me know if it solves or not your problem.

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In the last three-five years, I have seen corporate houses jumping into the local guy’s business-esp internet services and cable TV services. While some of the players were present longer since 5 yrs, some have recently jumped. In this post, I am just comparing my experiences of dealing with these corporates and local guys.

Most of the people reading this post come from a decent and humble(read middle-class) social and educational background, including me. Since me and you have been availing these services from our local cable operator, we know how frustrating it can be. Also, these local guys are very naive most of the times. Taking advantage of this, multi-crore corporate organizations wooed us with their promises of professional services and standards, better features, utility and technology. Right now, I am using some of these ‘professional’ services as well as ‘local’ services. Overall, I find that the local guy wins in the long-term.

With professional services, they give you a ‘Customer care’ no. Whenever you run into a problem, dial that no., spend 30 seconds dialing 1 for English, 2 for support-related calls, 3 for pre-paid customers, etc. Then they force upon some grade-less instrumental music created by an anonymous local artist as ‘hold-on’ music. During this ‘hold-on’ music, a computerized voice message keeps on telling you that you are very important customer for their business and they appreciate your patience for holding the call. If you are lucky, within the next 2 minutes you may get some so-called ‘customer-care executive’ to receive your call. He will VERY nicely ask for your details and complains, do some basic troubleshooting and finally end the call saying ‘I am forwarding your complaint to the concerned department, please rest assured’. He will hang up with a greeting line such as ‘Have a nice day’ or something else. You wait for two days to see if any ‘concerned department’ calls up and talks with you. So you again call their ‘customer care’ and repeat the whole process of ‘forwarding your complaint’. Even if you be rude on the call and abuse the ‘executive’, it hardly matters because to that executive, every call for him is like a story. Once  the call ends, the story is permanently over for him. After much trying, you get lucky one day and a over-worked ‘field engineer’ calls you and finally the problem is solved after much trying.

When availing services from corporates, I was always felt cheated. They promise ‘Excellent customer support‘ but their meaning of ‘excellent’ is not what you think. They dress so neat and sharp, they speak good English(We good so many ‘English Speaking classes), call themselves as ‘executive’—and are in the occupation of looting people, especially educated and straight-forward people like us who think that these ‘marketing guys’ are really working for our good and that they will honor their words in time of problems. Actually, in the time of problems, most of them will not be working with that same company(in cities, people change jobs so fast) or will forward you the customer care no.

The local guy, on the other hands, tells me exactly what to expect from him. I can call his mobile almost any time- even late evening and he will usually solve the problems under one hour. His phone line is never busy and he never lies to me that I am some very important customer. He exactly knows the most common problems people face in that local area and its solutions. If something is not working as promised, or I am being ripped-off–I can loudly say ‘Customer ko chootya banata hai. Paise leta hai aur kaam nahi karta‘ and be sure that it will have an impact. If things don’t improve, I know where his ‘wires’ are. I can cut them any time and return the agony caused by him due to his failing services. Infact somebody actually did this with Pacenet Broadband and Sify Broadband in my area and the service improved thereafter.

From today, I have pledged not be brand-carzy and find ‘local’ alternatives of these ‘brands’. My local TV guy gives me over 300 channels for Rs. 280/- per mo whereas CAS would cost me Rs. 1500 + taxes. Also, DTH providers don’t allow me to create customized channel packages. They want to buy those packages which ‘they’ think are good for me. Actually the strategy behind these inflexible packages is to sell a package that has 50% good channels and 50% crap. This is how the DTH providers actually sell the crap channels by forcibly bundling them with good channels. Also, they make you sign a ‘Terms and conditions’ while subscribing which effectively allows them to add or remove any channel without considering you. It may happen that one fine day they may remove all good channels from your package and replace them with crap.

So make your decision only after being weel-informed. Don’t belive the marketing guyz if they say that shit does not smell.

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Mosquitoes are an integral part of your day-to-day life. Its never a day that you don’t find them. Mosquitoes can spread diseases like malaria, dengue, etc. Though not all mosquitoes spread these diseases, every mosquito bite is disturbing. It itches so badly .Since I watch a lot of TV, I know that some anti-mosquito products do exist. The municipality guy also comes with a big machine-gun like, horrible sound producing equipment that emits clouds of thick white smoke–but only twice a year.

I consciously tested(rave) the following 5 popular mosquito-repellants:

1. All-out liquid vapouriser
2. Tortoise mosquito yes
3. Mortien mosquito coil
4. Odomos cream
5. The UV light electrical killer

The bottom line is that the combination of Tortoise mosquito coil and Odomos cream works best.

All-out vapourizer:

This small electrical thing looks ‘cute’. It has been shown as a voracious mosquito-eater in the TV advertisement. But the one I bought seemed to have lost all hunger for mosquitoes. When it was ‘new’ in the market–it did live up to its hype. It was really a worthy product. But as competition increased, prices started falling, its effectiveness also started declining. If you compare the costs of the refills now with that cost when they were newly launched, you may realize that the refills are now ‘cheap’.

Anyways, it takes time to heat up. So don’t use unless  you are patient. In times of power-cut, it absolutely hopeless. Also, if you place it in near a window, there is considerable risk that the vapours may diffuse out through the windows without providing any real benefit to you. Mosquitoes will be rejoicing at your foolishness if you place that thing near a open window.

On a fateful day, I was shocked to see a mosquito sitting right over the chimney-hole of the all-out. I mean–what kind of a mosquito-repellent is it allows mosquitoes to comfortably sit over it? That was the retiring time for my cute all-out. Though we occasionally use it because my mother still thinks that it does work.

Tortoise mosquito coil:

You might be wondering why a educated, affording (and sexy) person like me is using the old-fashioned tortoise coil. Well, since all-out was thrown out, I desperately needed an alternative—an EFFECTIVE one. On a fateful day, I walked up to my regular chemist for some medicines and suddenly recollected that I needed Tortoise too. So I bought one. 10 coils cost me Rs. 18/- in co-operative discount stores instead of retail price Rs. 20/- (10 % discount or 1 coil free)

I opened the pack and found that the Tortoise coils are now reddish-brown color instead of older green one. The tortoise on its carton(packaging box) has also become more cute, childish and is still green in colour. Now comes the time of actually using the coil. You may recollect, that the 10 coils are arranged in 5 pairs. The way the coils in a single pair are mingled–there is good chance that rough handing may break the coils! So please be gentle while resolving the coils (I will soon post a YouTube video about this). The coil has to mounted on a simple metal stand(provided with the box) and ignited just like an incense stick(aggarbatti). Blow out the flame so that the coil can fumigate without wasting the actual chemical(Allethrin, or its compound). You will soon see ’smoke’ filling the whole room and mosquitoes leaving.

Tortoise mosquito coils actually work. They are still very effective at driving out mosquitoes–almost instantly. The only thing I dislike about it–the fumes may produce irritation in eyes, nose, etc. You some may have watery eyes. My mother does complain about this if the coils is placed too near to her. One coil lasts for about 5 -6 hrs approximately-but is completely effective–and some residual effect also lasts. It produces ash, which is easy to clean in case it is littered.

Mortien mosquito coil

Well, this product is a complete rif-off. In one sentence: ‘Mortien mosquito coil does not work at all ‘.

After I finished up my first pack of Tortoise coils-I decided to this one. I was so excited that I asked that chemist shop guy to bring me a pack of Tortoise as well as Mosquito coils. I placed the two boxes side by side. I found that the chemical contents of Mortein are higher than that of Tortoise(I don’t remember exact figures). Also, mortein coils are hexagonal in shape, and have a considerably greater diameter. This means that 1 coil of Mortein is much longer than 1 coil of Tortoise–and will burn for longer time. Over the pack, it reads that the product has ‘pleasant smell’. Thats absolutely false until are comparing with non-deodorized sweaty armpits(yuck!).

Now comes the time to use it. I was disappointed not only on the first day, but every day until that pack lasted. There are several issues I faced. The burning end passes out after some time and I have to reignite that coil. This happened with 8 out of 10 coils–and with every coil–I had to re-ignite atleast 2 times, sometimes even 4 times. The mosquitoes don’t seem to affected at all. I even tried a small experiment with it. Since I eat a lot of Aamrakhand(mango-flavoured shrikhand)– I have many empty boxes lying around every corner of my 6-room house. I picked up one of them–and then chased a mosquito. After much chasing(10 mins), I ‘trapped’ the mosquito in a box. I created few small holes to allow ventilation. After that, I carefully introduced a piece of burning Mosquito coil into that box and allowed it to be there for the next 30 min. I regularly checked to see that the mosquito has not injured itself by accidentally coming is contact with the burning end of the coil. After 30 mins, I expected the mosquito to either die, or atleast not be able to fly. But I was shocked–As soon as I lifted the lid it started flying enthusiastically and cheerfully as if nothing drastic happened in the past 30 mins. I appreciate that ordinary mosquito’s will-power, patience, etc. etc. but wait—that was not what I was actually looking for. I immediately realized that mortein was a wrong decision. But then, being a m-i-s-e-r at spending money, I decided that I will punish myself by not buying Tortoise until I use all the 10 Mortein coils. Those 10 days were torturous to a man like me–who had earlier enjoyed the luxury of Tortoise coils.

Just today, I bought my 3rd pack of Tortoise coils.

Odomos cream

Well-this product is SUPERB–I repeat—ODOMOS is AWESOME at protecting you from mosquitoes. Just in case you are wondering how to use it–just apply to you uncovered parts of skin as you would apply some medical ointment. There is no ’sticky’ feeling after applying the cream-unless you apply in excess or due not rub the cream properly. The cream smells pleasant–really pleasant. The packaging of the tube is also neat and attractive–infact it resembles the toothpaste ‘Pepsodent’ so much that on a hasty morning, I brushed my teeth with Odomos mistaking it as Pepsodent. Well, all my teeth are intact till now.

Anyways, coming back to odomos, its disadvantage is that it is single-user based—–As in, every person must individually apply the cream to benefit from its protection, unlike Tortoise coils which can provide protection to all the people in the house or room. Since this will exponentially infalte the expenditure on cream, I guess this is the reason people have chosen mass-repellents like vaporizers and mosquito coils. But if you have been disappointed by all those things, then Odomos will be savou! It works awesome!

The UV light electrical killer

One fine day, my father came home with an supposed “UV electrical killer”–It electrocutes mosquitoes. You can even see and hear brutal sparks when a mosquito is being electrocuted! You can see the mortal remains of the mosquito as well! Anyways, I do dislike mosquitoes, but I don’t want to kill them in such an inhumane manner. If you cannot recollect this product–these are violet light emitting grids place at some hotels. It is supposed to attract the mosquitoes by its UV light. As the mosquito tries to go near that light, it must pass through a metal grid which is electrically charged and thus ‘assassinates’ the mosquito.

The danger with this thing is that if your house wiring does not have proper electrical earthing, one may get an shock if they accidentally touch the grids. This is common with curious small children who has an habit of touching EVERYTHING and *then* asking what it is! Also, the light emitted by it is so luminous that one cannot sleep. How can one sleep in a room bright with light?

Final verdict: Use the legendary Tortise Coils and if needed Odomos cream.

Mortein is scam, rif-off, loot, etc.

All-out has lost its wicket!

Note: This is not a sponsored review. I have purchased these products with my honestly earned money. I did also bear the ‘grunt’ like mosquito-bites and itching when the product(read Mortein) did not work. Moreover, my blog does not getting eneough traffic that somebody would pay me to review their product.

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In Firefox, everytime you start a new download, the “Downloads” window(which can be brought up by Ctrl+J) pops up. This could be very annoying sometimes. The downloads progress window steals the focus from the main firefox window which shows the web pages.

For instance, I needed to save about 10-15 images from a web-page. I would right-click on the image and choose “Save Image As”. Once I would define the location where the image is to be stored, the “Downloads” window would immediately popup. I would close the window everytime and navigate to the web-page again. AS you would have guessed, I needed to do this about 10-15 times. If you too have been through this, you know how annoying it is!

Solution to disable the “Downloads” window when starting a download:

1. Type about:config in the address bar of Firefox. Choose to proceed if asked for a confirmation.
2. At the top of that page, you would see a field named “filter“. Into the ‘filter’ field, type “ShowWhenStarting“.
3. It will bring up a setting. Double-click on that setting row and you will find that the value in the last column changes to “false“.

Now restart Firefox and try to download an file. You will be happy to find that the “Downloads” window does not open anymore when starting a download! If you need to see the “Downloads” window, you can use Ctrl+J combination on your keyboard.

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