Hello all,

I'm using a site to make free calls currently, U too can also try and enjoy :) Yeah, FREE Local, STD, ISD (Long Distance) calls as well! You can make calls from India to USA, Canada, UK, France, etc. Actually,  the site claims that you can make calls from anywhere to anywhere in the world. Infact, you can even make calls within a country.. all this for FREE!! Can you believe this?

The site is www.parrot-media.com.They say they get revinue from advertisements. The call duration is limited to 5 minutes in case of land line and it is 2 minutes in case of domestic calls. I used it to make calls to USA and the service is good. Not sure about the service to other locations, if you happen to try this service, please post your experiences in the comments section.

You would have fixed lot of bugs till today..

If so, there is a challenge for you..  Can you fix this one??

  for (i=0; i<=LAST ; i++)
  {
      sum = sum + i;
  }

  printf("Sum = %d",sum);
}
##########################################################

I know its a tough one.. It could be fixed like this..
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##########################################################
#include stdio.h;
#define LAST 10

int main()
{
int i, sum = 0;
/*

*/
  for ( i = 1; i < = LAST; i++ )
  {
    sum += i;
  } 

  printf("sum = %d\n", sum); 
  return 0;
}  
##########################################################

-Madhav 

The other day, I had to convert a microsoft word (.doc) format file to adobe acrobat reader (.pdf) file. In ideal world, we should be able to do it easily.. but I had terrible experience. Neither Microsoft nor Adobe provide easy ways to acheive this. I had to download number of software applications (inculding some viruses), also downloaded some driver-plugins for word to print it to pdf. Tried so manythings but nothing seems to work. Some converted the file, but had their ads on it.. I got frustrated and tired with this.. just then I landed on www.zamzar.com.. which was a life saver for me.

As you could guess by now, this website offers a tool to convert files from nearly any format to nearly any format. For example, you could convert a .rm (real media) file to 3gp, 3g3, ac3, aac, avi, flac, flv, gif, iphone, mov, mp3, mp4, mpg, wmv, ogg and wav formats. As you explore their service, it gets more exciting, you could even convert a You Tube video to wmv and store it on your PC! Amazing Idea!!

The best thing is you don't need to install any softwrare. You just upload your file.. zamzar does its job and e-mails you when the conversion is done with a link to the converted file. With this free service, you could conert files upto 100MB size and zamzar holds your converted file for 24 hours. If you need to convert a file over 100 MB or looking for perminant online storage, they provide those services for a fee. By signing up, you could convert files as big as 1 GB and have upto 100GB online storage.

And if you are thinking what all things you can convert.. You could convert documents (html - Hypertext Markup Language, odt - OpenDocument Text Document, pcx - Paintbrush Bitmap Image, pdf - Portable Document Format, png - Portable Network Graphic, ps - Postscript document, txt - Text document mdb - Microsoft Access Database, ods - OpenDocument spreadsheet, rtf - Rich text format, ppt,pptx - Power Point, doc, docx - Word Document, xls,xlsx - Excel Spread Sheet, swf, flv - Macromedia Flash files, etc.), you could convert images (gif - Compuserve graphics interchange, ico - Windows Icon, jpg - JPEG compliant image, pcx - PC Paintbrush Bitmap Graphic, ps - Postscript document, png - Portable Network Graphic, tga - Truevision Targa Graphic, thumbnail - Thumbnail image, tiff - Tagged image file format, wbmp - Wireless Bitmap File Format, etc. ), you can convert  music formats (as mentioned above), video formats (3g2 - 3GPP2 Multimedia File, 3gp - 3GPP Multimedia File, aac - Advanced Audio Coding File, ac3 - AC3 Audio File, avi - Windows video file, flac - Free Lossless Audio Codec, flv - Flash Video, ipod - MPEG-4 Video File, mov - Apple QuickTime Movie, mp3 - Compressed audio file, mp4 - MPEG-4 Video File, mpg - Moving Picture Experts Group File, ogg - Ogg Vorbis Compressed Audio File, wav - Windows audio file, wmv - Windows Media File, etc.), and even the compressed formats (7z - 7-Zip Compressed File, tar.bz2 - Bzip 2 UNIX, Compressed File, cab - Cabinet File, lzh - Compressed Archive File, tar - Tape Archive File, tar.gzh - Gzip Compressed Archive, yz1 - DeepFreezer Compressed Archive, zip - Compressed Archive File).

For a complete list of supported formats, you could visit this link. I used it few times to convert simple files and it worked well for me. If you use this tool, do post your experience here for people to understand zamzar service.

-Rakesh

IT Slowdown.. Inflation... Cost cutting... US Subprime crisis... These are some of the fancy words media likes to play and inject in to our lives. I am not a financial expert or a global watcher to talk about these, but this kind of propoganda is sure effecting all of us. I work for TCS, I sure liked my job and organization till now. But things are looking different now. In the name of cost cutting, I see so many new initiatives and policies that create difficult situtation for each employee. The recent one in the list is ban on cabs! Anyone working in IT industry knows how tough our lives are. The project milestones and deadlines push us to work late often. And reaching home at midnight is not a cake walk.. we used to have cabs to drop us home if we get delayed with work. But now, they have put some senseless rules around the cab usage. Now, you cannot book a cab before 11 p.m.

I am a girl, and often have to spend few extra hours in a day. I end up completing my job at around 8 p.m. If I opt for public transport, I would end-up going home at around 10 - 11 p.m. and it is absolutely unsafe. Previously I used to have cab facility which is considerably safe and takes me home by 10 p.m. With this new policy, every day I need to wait till 11 p.m. and book a cab.. by the time it starts, it would be 11:30 - 12:00... I reach home at around 1-2 a.m. Already I am struggling to manage my personal life with so many demands at work. This is also effecting my health and adding mental stress. One policy is making me suffer more. I just hate the people behind such useless and unethical rules. For the first time, the charm of TATA brand and all the love I had for this company is fading away.. Looks like I am starting to hate TCS!

-VS

Hi friends! My name is Ravi, I am working for an investment bank as an analyst. I had a bad experience in Hyderabad and I want to share it with you all. I got relocated from Bangalore to Hyderabad two months ago. When I came here, I was looking for a decent house. I found that it is very difficult to get a house for rent here if I am not working for an IT company. The first question asked by the owners is “Are you working for IT Company?” It was crazy! I worked for an IT concern in Bangalore. In my opinion, talent is what matters and not the industry. I am not able to understand why the people are not considering other industries and also not respecting people with talent in other industries. It is vey embarrassing. The worst thing in Andhra Pradesh is, it is very difficult to 'get married' if one is 'non IT'. People are fascinated by IT. They don't give value to persons working for other industries even though one has outstanding talent. And all the youngsters here are fascinated by the IT even though there are plenty of opportunities in other industries.

I have a friend who was working for a construction company as a civil engineer. Even he had the same problem. He is a person with good potential in his field. But he had the problem with his own friend who is working for an IT company. That friend of his always used to discourage and never considered him up to his status. My friend expected support from his parents to make a great career in infrastructure industry.  His dreams remained dreams as his parents asked him to learn a computer course. He got frustrated with his friends and parents. But you know what...  'Now he is in IT'.

Before I end this, I want to request IT guys one thing... "Please don’t feel that you are in a great place and you are greater than others who is working for the different industries". Sure, it is impacting others.

There is this flash news circulating in the cyber world... Sathyan Jithesh an employee of Infosys has invented the holographic mobile handset! Infy is tight lipped about the whole episode, but the news seems to be true as I could find the details in US govt. website. You can check the US patent 7209269 for details. Infy has a plan to develop special chipsets for Mobile devices that will transform it to able to capture and project 3D holographic images. The company will release the attached chipsets mobile devices by year 2010.

It is learnt that the patented onboard processor of Infosys would build a series of 2D shots taken, for example, from a digital camera, into 3D holograms using algorithms called Fourier transformations to calculate that extra third dimension. This latest technology from Indian giant will provide ultimate support to few critical real world situation such as analyzing car crash, educational aids, medical case studies by transforming objects into 3D capured from camera, scanners. There could be many more practical uses of this invention.

For a services company like Infosys, to have this type of invention is really a surprise. Well done Infy, All the best!!

By,
Ram

Wanna see a magic with 'C' program? Here is the one.
It's a very interesting program that creates the shape of India Map using "!" symbol.
Try it out yourself to know the logic... hmm... frankly speaking, even i am also looking for the logic.... Let me know if u found it....!

(include the necessary header files depending on the version of your C compiler. Default is stdio.h)

main()
{
int a,b,c;

for (c=b=10;a="SARAYU,TFy!QJu ROo TNn(ROo)SLq SLq ULo+\UHs UJq TNn*RPn/QPbEWS_JSWQAIJO^\NBELPeHBFHT}TnALVlBLOFAkHFOuFETp\HCStHAUFAgcEAelclcn^r^r\\tZvYxXyS~Pn SPm SOn TNn ULo0ULo#ULo-W\Hq!WFs XDt!" [b++];)
for(; a-- > 64 ; )
putchar ( ++c==90 ? c=10:33^b&1);
getch();
}

Regards,

Sarayu

Are you a frequent traveller like me? It is time we sit down and replan our tours. I work in mumbai while my family stays in Karnataka. I shuttle between two places almost every weekend. Now, looks like this is not possible any more. The country's largest private airline, Jet Airways, state-owned Air India and low-cost airline SpiceJet have raised fares following the recent hike in jet fuel prices. Jet Airways has increased its base fares for up to 750 km by Rs 1,000, between 750 km and 1,000 km by Rs 2,250 and beyond 1,000 km by Rs 3,000.

The base fare on Jet's Mumbai-Chennai route will go up from Rs 1,350 to Rs 3,000 while that on the Bangalore-Hyderabad route will go up from Rs 600 to Rs 1,000. The new charges are being added to the base fare and do not include taxes and fuel and congestion surcharges as levied by various airlines. Air India has also raised its base fares by Rs 1,000 for up to 750 km and by Rs 2,250 for distances between 750 km and 1000 km. These hikes in fares are to be effective from June 20.

New Delhi-based SpiceJet has increased the fuel surcharge on its routes. The fuel surcharge for up to 750 km (short-haul) has gone up by Rs 300 and beyond 750 km by Rs 550. Other airlines have already increased their fuel surcharges in the past few weeks, including private airlines Jet Airways, Kingfisher Airlines and Simplify Deccan, which hiked it by Rs 300-550. Spicejet announced last week that it would be reducing its flights from 117 per day to 100 per day to combat soaring jet fuel prices.

I read somewhere that the worst is yet to come.. It seems the leading Indian carriers said more air fare increases are possible soon because airlines have still not been able to sell tickets at a fare that meets their costs. SpiceJet says the increase in basic air fares announced would meet only half the increase in cost per seat so the airline has to look at ways to increase fares, especially if oil prices went up again.

Air ticket prices, inclusive of the basic fare, fuel surcharge and other taxes have increased by around 140 per cent for long-haul routes and more than double for short-haul routes from the beginning of 2007 till now. The most recent increase of around 5 to 20 per cent was announced on Thursday.

Now I am planning to cut down my air travel, and look for other options.. Lalu's Garib Radh might come to my rescue.. let see..

Rgds,
Veer

I guess, we all faced this some time or the other. A dailog pops up with the message "Do you want to restart your computer now?". And there are only two options - 'Restart Now' and 'Restart Later'. I am in the middle of my work and click 'Restart Later' button. After sometime, the pop up comes again asking the same thing.. I am tired of clicking 'Restart Later' button. What happens if I ignore the popup? Well, I tried it once, and lost all my work.. the computer restarts without your permission...

Microsoft boasts so much about usability in their products.. but this really, drives people mad. This annoying popup comes again and again until you restart. Even after you restart, you never know when you would get it again. The other day, I was downloading some real big files and doing some background work. I left my computer un attended for some time as those tasks don't need my presence. When I returned, to my shock, I could see the windows getting restarted.. so many hours of work just vanished.. 

I finally decided to fight the annoying dailog box, and successfully got rid of it. You could do change the reminder time interval by doing the following:

Change the Setting to 'Enabled' at Start / Run / gpedit.msc / Local Computer Policy / Computer Configuration / Administrative Templates / Windows Components / Windows Update / Re-prompt for restart with scheduled installations. And give the time interval (minimum 10 minutes and maximum 1440 minutes, i.e., 24 hours).

If you rather want to turn it off completely for that session, you could do so by Start > Run > services.msc > Automatic Updates > Click "Stop".

If you want to do some geeky stuff, try the following:
1.Run regedit
2.In [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU]
3.Edit > New > DWORD: "RebootRelaunchTimeoutEnabled" with a value of "1"
4. Edit > New > DWORD: "RebootRelaunchTimeout" with a value of the time in minutes until the next prompt. "1440" (24 hours) looks like the max. If you input "0" for this DWORD or the former, it will default to 10.

Well, this was not working on Win XP home edition, check this link if you are running on XP Home.. http://computer-vet.com/weblog/2005/05/20/windows_automatic_reboots.html

Regards,
Surya

it does work!!!