MTNL Broadband in Delhi

I was using an Airtel Broadband connection in Hyderabad last year and was pretty satisfied with their service. After shifting to Delhi, I wanted to get an Airtel connection again but unfortunately they do not provide telephone/broadband services in my area. Tried Tata Indicom also, but no luck there too.

So finally I decided to go with MTNL Triband and requested a connection on 25th August 2007. Its been 4 months and after a number of calls and mails I have still not been given a connection. I went to the MTNL office last week and they told me that the 'ports' are not available in my area and I will get a connection only if someone else releases their connection. This is really funny and I suggest anyone who wants to go for an MTNL Broadband connection to first ask their Local MTNL telephone exchange whether there is a possibility of getting a connection anytime soon.

Gmail App using Airtel Live on Sony Ericsson K750i

Activating Airtel Live (skip if you already have Airtel Live)

1) Call the customer care and ask for Airtel Live activation (or send "PLIVE" to 170). It takes about 24 hours for the activation.
2) Once activated. Get the settings by sending "LIVE" to 52567.

Once you have the settings enabled you can start using your phone's browser to access your gmail account (http://mail.google.com/mail/x/). This works but you might find this slow to access your mails again and again (as I did). If your Phone is capable of running Java Applications (which most phones are these days) then using the Java Application for Gmail is a much better option.

Setting up Gmail App (On Sony Ericsson K750i)
1) Goto http://gmail.com/app/ from the phone's browser and download the java application (about 160 KB). This is required only one time.
2) Once download is successful. The phone asks for confirmations. Allow the phone to install the application.
3) Goto Menu->Settings->Connectivity->Settings for Java and select the appropriate Internet profile ("AIRTEL LIVE" in case you are using Airtel Live).
4) Goto Menu->Organizer->Applications and select "Gmail".
5) Enter the gmail username and password and sign in.

Note: Accessing mails using the Gmail App are charged as per the standard download rates.

Enable External Display on Thinkpad R60 with Linux (Ubuntu 7.10)

Followings steps got my external CRT Display working on ThinkPad R60 with Linux Ubuntu 7.10 installed:

1) cd /opt
2) sudo wget http://www16.plala.or.jp/mano-a-mano/i810switch/i810switch-0.6.5.tar.gz
3) sudo tar -xzvf i810switch-0.6.5.tar.gz
4) cd i810switch-0.6.5/
5) sudo vi i810switch.c
Insert the lines marked in BOLD below:

//#define I865STR "8086:2572"
#define I915STR "8086:2592"
#define I945STR "8086:27a2" //line 63
#define MEMSTR "Memory at"
...
...

i = (p = strstr(*buff_ptr, I830STR)) != NULL ||
(p = strstr(*buff_ptr, I945STR)) != NULL || //line 266
#if defined (I865STR)
(p = strstr(*buff_ptr, I865STR)) != NULL ||
#endif /*defined (I865STR)*/
(p = strstr(*buff_ptr, I845STR)) != NULL;
if (i)
...
...

6) sudo make
7) sudo make install
8) sudo i810switch crt on (turns on the external display)
9) sudo i810switch crt off (turns off the extrenal display)

To allow any user to perform this switch:

chmod u+s /usr/bin/i810switch

I use a simple script to toggle my external display:

STATUS=`i810switch | grep CRT | awk '{print $2}'`
if [ "$STATUS" = "off" ]
then
i810switch crt on >> /dev/null
elif [ "$STATUS" = "on" ]
then
i810switch crt off >> /dev/null
fi