So 3G is finally in India provided by none other than BSNL and MTNL. Recently I got a connection too for my Samsung Star 3G and here’s how I connected my PC to the Internet using it.

Requirements:

• BSNL 3G connection with a data recharge or a data top-up (in case of a data top-up your main balance should be more than Rs 50). See BSNL 3G tariff plans for more info
• Samsung Star 3G phone (any other 3G compatible handset may be used but for this tutorial I have used a Samsung Star 3G)
• Samsung PC Studio

Procedure:

1. Activate EDGE on your 3G USIM. Normally this is activated by default. If this is not the case, call BSNL customer care at 9400024365 and ask them to activate it.

2. Create a new connection profile with the following parameters:
Connection name: BSNL 3G
APN: bsnlnet
Keep the other parameters at default.

3. Make this profile your default one.

4. Fire up your mobile browser and see if you can surf the NET on your mobile phone.

5. If you can surf the NET on your mobile phone, you are all set to go.

6. Install Samsung PC Studio on your PC.

7. Connect your Samsung Star 3G to your PC and open PC Studio.

8. Your phone will be detected automatically.

9. Goto Widgets > Internet Connector.

10. Create a new connection there with the following settings:
Connection name: BSNL 3G
Country: Other
APN: bsnlnet
Leave the other parameters as it is.

11. Hit connect and Voila you are connected to the Internet!!!

Here’s the speed test results of BSNL 3G in Barrackpore, Kolkata, West Bengal:

compared to BSNL DataOne connection (500 Plus plan, speed upto 2MBPS):

BSNL advertises to provide speed upto 3.6MBPS but that varies depending upon distance from tower, network congestion and other factors. However, I got a satisfactory speed of above 2MBPS throughout the day.

Well that’s it, enjoy mobile broadband. And if you have any questions do feel free to ask!!!

GiveIndia is participating in a competition on Facebook for a grant of US$1M. Vote for it and help 40000 underprivileged children in India to get educated.

Google wave is in the groove when it comes to new and cool stuff on the Internet. Everyone out there wants an invite and the hype is as huge as it was with Gmail. So without further ado, let me present you with a ton of ways to get a Google Wave Invite:

• UrbanSemiotic has 8 invites to give away.
• Subscribe to #GoogleWave and #GoogleWaveInvite on Twitter to see who has a few invites left.
• By playing on 6rounds.
• Lifehacker has started a share and care forum for handing out Wave invites.
• Upstart blogger is giving away a few invitations to Wave.
• Amit has 25 wave invites to share.
• And you can tweet to get a wave invite also.
• DebiPrasad has some wave invites to share with you as well.

And last but not the least, I have some Google Wave Invites to give away as well. So drop in a comment with your Gmail email address now before it all expires.

Google, the search engine giant is now going to include tweets in its search results according to a post on the Google blog. According to the report Google will be working out a way to include tweets in its search results in the next few months. Personally this is a rather welcoming move since now ‘Googlers’ can also get live data. While totally excited to see how it really shapes out, here’s my thoughts (and queries) on how the feature should be.

1. Tweets are like blog posts minus the length. Thus like blog posts, every tweet has a certain level of relevance attached to it. For instance, I wouldnt want to see a bunch of tweets by a heart broken girl while searching for love quotes. Thus, relevance is a matter of concern here.
2. Some amount of stress must be given on re-tweets and Tweetbacks. After all, the best and the brightest get that.
3. Is tweet based advertising next on the horizon?
4. Images (and possible others forms of media) should also be included in the search.
5. Since tweets are updated every microsecond, indexing can be a major headache. So Google should look into that as well.
6. A re-tweet button on the search results page?
7. A search API for third party apps like TweetDeck would be nice.
8. Are tweets going to be SEO friendly from now on?

What else do you think should be included in the new Google mash-up of web and tweet search? Drop in your thoughts here.

Hi folks,

We are happy to announce the launch of Indiblogger Free and Premium blogging services. So what’s so different in this service? We have often seen in other free blogging services that they offer limited options to users like no FTP access or no option to install themes other than the ones provided. At Indiblogger we understand the situation and to overcome it we have decided to offer the following features with our free service.

• FTP Access
• 1 MySQL Database
• Unlimited Space
• Unlimited Bandwidth
• A subdomain example.indiblogger.net
• Free Support

So what are you waiting for, become a part of the Indiblogger family today. Signup NOW!!!

WordPress is, in my personal opinion, one of the best blogging scripts on the web. But why wait there? Why not turn it into a full fledged CMS. The next version of WordPress, WordPress 2.9 is being designed just for that. WordPress has just released the pre-alpha copy of version 2.9 of its famous blogging script called WordPress 2.9 rare. Here’s a list of some really cool features added to it thought this is supposed to be a feature freeze version.

• Post thumbnails: add an image to be automatically displayed with posts, pages, archives, etc.  Now this is a really cool feature as it enables posting of category based or topic based images to go with posts or tags.
• “Trash” status: How many times have you thought that deleting that draft was the biggest mistake in your life. Well this is the path to enlightenment.
• Image editing: Its not photoshop, but its definitely the basics.
• Widgets not restricted to sidebars only: This is a welcome addition to the already vast features of WordPress. Now you get to put widgets anywhere on your blog.
• Custom post types: Another welcome addition to make WordPress a true CMS platform. With this feature you can add taxonomy based custom type of content.

Well that’s about some of the features I am really excited to see in the new version. Let’s hope that with the release of version 2.9 WordPress can truly transform into a CMS.

Diwali is a day from today and the whole web (and the world) is going ga-ga over it. Here’s how some people and websites have started celebrating diwali.

1. Orkut just got a new Diwali image

2. And so did SantaBanta

3. Want Neta Patakas? Bihar is the place to go.

Patna: The firecrackers named after the politicians are in huge demand on this Diwali in Bihar.

The demands for Neta patakas, as called by locals, have gained momentum on the eve of Diwali Festival.

RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav has been leading the sale of firecrackers named after him. The Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan was not far behind him.

Link

4. Barrack Obama lights the lamp at the White House

Barack Obama celebrated Diwali by lighting the ceremonial lamp at the White House amidst chanting of Vedic mantras seeking world peace, becoming the first US President to personally grace the occasion.

Link

5. Island Crisis has some really cool pictures of Diwali

On this occasion, here is an exclusive collection of some of the best ever Diwali pictures and photographs ever from across the world.

Link

Continue reading “Diwali 2009 – the web and the world” »

With  the launch of ‘Dont forget Bob‘, it doesn’t need a rocket scientist to deduce that Google has probably one of the most innovative email services on the planet. Since I am a regular user of Gmail and would like to see it improve even more, here’s my wishlist of features that I believe Gmail should have.

1. No ads based on mail

I know Google has a very strict privacy policy against storing personal information, especially information from my emails but still it would be great if it didn’t provide ads based on my mail. After all email is like a letter and sometimes a letter is personal and shouldn’t be read by anybody else, not even a machine. Having said that, I must insist that I am not against ads. Ads are absolutely necessary to run a free service. Its just that plain banners are good but not “smart” banners which displays ads according to my email.

2. Integrate it more with Orkut

GTalk is already there with Gmail and I, for one enjoy it thoroughly. But wouldn’t it be so much better if Orkut was integrated with Gmail as well. For instance, now we get an email alert for every new scrap left or friend request received. However, if we could view the scraps in a conversation fashion right here on Gmail and could also reply to it, it would be really awesome. Just imagine, a common platform for your email, social networking and chat purposes.

3. RSS all the way

I recently saw this feature on Rediffmail where you can add RSS feeds and even fetch scraps, stuff written on your wall, etc from social networking sites like Orkut, Facebook and hi5. If Google could add this features to Gmail, make it a RSS feed reader as well, it would be great especially since most people read blogs and news sites via RSS feeds.

4. Integrate Google Calender and Gmail

Have you ever noticed that when you receive a message with a phone number on a smart phone, it automatically tags it and produces a link in the message itself for you to call that number. Why not port that idea to Gmail! Orkut has already been integrated with Google Calender. Similarly Gmail can be done as well. Whenever a date is found in an email, Gmail can (with some really mind blowing algorithm from the guys at Google) tag it and link it to Google Calender.

5. Ability to save a mail

Now I haven’t seen this feature in any email service I have used but I really think that this could be a good addition to any great service. More often than not it becomes necessary to save an email. Now saving the whole page is well… ugly. So what I do is get the print view and save that page. However, wouldn’t it be wonderful if Gmail had a feature to save it directly in a simple HTML or PDF file.

That sums up My Gmail Wishlist. What do you think is that one singular feature which should be added to Gmail? Drop your comments here.

Choosing a good webhost is a huge task when it comes to starting your own blog. There are tons of hosts out there with one providing a more lucrative offer than the other. So how do you find out which one would suit you the most? Should you go for the one with huge amount of space for an equally large sum of money or should you settle for the cheaper variety? Or should you get the one with proportional amount of money and space?

Continue reading “How to choose a good webhost for your blog” »