Hurray!. New Broadband Operator

Sri Lanka Electroteks to start broadband, voice in May
Electroteks chief B A C Abeywardene says the service will use CDMA
(code division multiple access) based technology to provide up to 1Mbps
speeds and voice calls priced around 1.50 rupees a minute, which is
about half the current tariffs.

ADSL (asymmetrical digital subscriber line) services are now priced at
just under 20 dollars a month, but Electroteks says it will give higher
download speeds.

- LBO

According to the above LBO news item Electroteks will launch its Broadband network in this may. They promised to provide better service using CDMA technology for the same price.

Following are some of my thoughts which need be considered by the new operator when packaging and costing their products.

Better QOS
Most of the European operators publish their sharing ratio of the bandwidth with their packages(e.g 1:50 or 1:10). This way the customer knows what they are paying for. But in Sri Lanka operators promised to give the sun and the moon but in reality the connections are very slow and you don't know the sharing ratio of the service you are getting.

Opportunity to select packages based on the needs
Currently SLT and Dialog only offers DSL connections. In SLT ADSL you don't know your sharing ratio and you don't have the option to go for a better package if you want a good service by paying more(Specially for corporate customers). End of the day you are in the same bandwidth pools(512Mbpspool or 2Mbps pool) what ever your need is.
Same time Dailog broadband offers the maximum of 4Mbps links advertising no quotas. But they shamelessly limit your bandwidth using a Fair Usage Policy. Quota for a 4Mbps packages is 16GB. They even offer you an IP even to run your own Mail or Web servers. If you divide the quota by 20days, you will get roughly 800MB per day. Whats the purpose of having a 4Mbps link with 800MB quota per day?
The above operator are very unreasonable as they don't offer alternative packages to customers who wants more. Therefore everybody needs to stick to the same package what ever their need is.

Lower broadband equipment and setup cost
Dialog setup cost is Rs. 5000 which is very unreasonable.

eBooster - boost your XP, Sinhala interface

eBoostr brings the benefits of Windows Vista's ReadyBoost to XP. eBoostr could be perfect for XP users who want a little extra memory but don't want to install RAM, or for laptop users who have no way to increase memory. Following is a comment from the lifehacker post which proves its performance

Ok guys, I just tested my Lenovo T61 laptop with the eBoostr

w/Cruzer SanDisk U3 2m memory stick.

For my full system specs, see this:
[screencast.com]

Here's the benchmark WITHOUT eBoostr:
[screencast.com]

Here's the benchmark WITH eBoostr:
[screencast.com]

I ran both right after system reboot with no major apps open other than my usual (light) startup list (anti-virus, and a very short list of must-load startups).

As you can see, there is some improvement but it doesn't seem to be major...

what do you think, should I keep it?

author : avniassa

Special thing I noticed was Sinhala was available in the language selection box. This is the first software from a international vendor, which I have seen Sinhala in the language selection. This is how it looked when I changed the language to Sinhala ( I was so excited and even took this screenshot even before I restart the PC :-) )



Sinhala interface


English Interface

You can also grab a copy from Filenetworks

Introduction to WiMAX

Here is a very good presentation on WiMAX technology.

Please check the the entry @ my new blog .

Here is a way to look professional

Never thought glasses make that much of difference. Here is a smart advertisement of some glasses manufacturer showing the difference with and without the glasses.

Is it really required to show the User Name and Password in ASP.NET Error Page?

I got the following ASP.NET error when I was browsing a local web site. The error is due to ASP.NET cannot authenticate using the User Name and password in the impersonate tag. Ther real issue is not the windows authentication problem. Because the reason for the error could be the domain server is down or the administrator has used an incorrect user name and password in the web.config.

But is it sill good to show the User Name and Password in the error message? You can argue that the developer has switched on CUSTOM ERROR MESSAGES and he has forgotten to switch it off at the time of deployment. But still is it really required to show the whole user name and password in the error? If the necessary ports are not secured, someone can easily login to the server and mess up the server very easily. (In this case only the port 80 and 21 is open and this user won't have permission for FTP.)

Sri Lanka - Broadband QOS (Quality of Service)

I have ADSL connection and Dialog WiMax connection at our work place. ADSL should have speed of 2Mbps, but it has around 800Kbps of real speed at off peak hours and on peak hours it goes down to speeds closer to dialup connection (around 100Kpbs). Dialog WiMax still maintains a good QOS. But still at peak hours it is 800Kbps for a 4Mbps connection and on off-peak hours it is around 1500Kbps. So I had the question whether the regulator of ISPs in Sri Lanka has rules on QOS for Broadband when they issue the operator license to the ISPs. But I couldn't find any on the Service or Bandwidth QOC for internet or Broadband in the TRC web site. They only have some QOC Indicators to monitor Telephony services.

I found the following line below the tariffs when I was referring to Airtel India web site.
"* Speed indicated are only speed upto our ISP Node and are given on best effort bases as per TRAI guideline on Quality of Service for Broadband Service"
TARI is the Indian regulator. I checked their website on the guidelines they practice in India for Broadband services. I found "TRAI issues Regulations on Quality of Service Standards for Broadband Service" document which explained various indicators of QOS to protect broadband consumers.

I couldn't figure out why the DSL and other broadband services license and tariffs are defined unconditionally in Sri Lanka. As I can understand from the TRC web site, any ISP can market a product indicating a huge bandwidth offering. But the QOS of the Network bandwidth they should offer is not enforced by the regulator. Basically they can share the network bandwidth with any number of customer since there is no minimum bandwidth QOS enforced by the regulator.

So that's how it goes… we will hope someday TRC - Sri Lanka will take necessary actions to protect Broadband consumers.

Heroes

I watched the tv series Heroes by downloading all episodes from the web. There are set of cool drawings which are used in the episodes to show the future. I found a collection of these drawings while I was browsing the web. So if you are also a fan, here there are.

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Prevent RSI

Are you using computer for a long time? You can be a victim of Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI). Here is a free open source program which will help you to prevent RSI. Its called Workrave and it works on Windows and Linux.

Popularity of programming languages

According to the following blog post Java still is the most popular programming language. Its hard to believe that C# only has 3.9% popularity among other languages.

For some time now, Tiber has published on a monthly basis its so-called Programming Community index, measuring the popularity of programming languages. It uses search engines such as Google, MSN and Yahoo to calculate the ratings based on the number of available skilled professionals, courses and third party vendors.

The methodology is not without flaws, but the general results are widely acceptable.

The dominance of the C family of programming languages and Java is apparent, and this has not changed at all.

Java is first with 21.8%, but if C (15.7%) and C++ (10.1%) are combined, they would overtake Java.

C is notable, because many other languages including Java are actually derived from it, and other languages including Ruby, Luna, Python, etc are implemented in C.

If a young aspiring programmer wants to seriously do programming, I would recommend C.
However if the person wants to develop business applications, then Java or .Net would be the choice.

VB (VB, VBA, Vibe.Net) has 10.6% about the same share as C++. Then comes PHP (9.7%) and Perl (5.3%), followed by C# (3.9%).

The three P's PHP, Perl and Python (2.7%) have not changed much over the years.

Read the full post @ 10outof10.blogspot.com and don't forget to check the Programming Community index

Want to find out who is hosting your favorite web site ?

I always wanted to know the details of the web site if I find it interesting. I used to type www.whois.sc/<doman name> to find the domain information and SEO details. But whois.sc didn’t provide enough information about the Hosting Company. I found this new site which displays the Hosting Providers name for the given web site.

Try it and see, whoishostingthis.com

I'm Puzzled with Rediffmail

You must have seen the advertisements of Rediffmail. Specially during the Cricket Worldcup season they were advertising about Unlimited Storage on cable TV. They were advertising this even before the Yahoo mail announce of their Unlimited Storage offer. So I registered there for use it as my mail backup. But today I got "Your Rediffmail is full" message when I check my other pop accounts in Rediffmail.

So I checked the help section on the account size. There is no indication of any limitations for other POP accounts. But it says..

 

1. What's special About Rediffmail New?

New! Rediffmail is a free, fast & easy-to-use email. Offering you a storage space of 1 GB. It enables you to send 20 attachments at a time, with a total mail size upto 10 MB. The New Rediffmail has several features that make managing your email simpler, like drag and drop mails, instant preview, quick attach, mail search, easier to access address book, etc. It has powerful spam control and a much richer and more efficient interface.

 So then what's the meaning of the Advertisements ? Either the help section is not updated and the message I got is a bug Or they are big liars who can even lie on TV :-)

Dialog BroadNet - WiMAX Installation

Yestday we got the WiMAX connection to our office from Dialog Broadband. Here are some pics which was taken when its installed.

WiMax Antenna.

Configuration was simple. They connect the laptop to the antenna / control unit using a web browser and Ethernet connection, like how you configure a DSL router. After that they configured the frequency for the cell.

Even though, WiMAX doesn't need line-ofsight to work, they have to turn it around to get the maximum signal strength. They said even the reflection of the single would also work.

Initial speed tests

The purchased package was Ultra which should have speeds of 4000kb/s for download and 1000kb/s for upload (theoretically). These tests were done by connecting a single PC.

It doesn't have the promised 4Mbps speeds, but currently it has fairly decent speeds. Hope they will maintain the same quality in the future. ( At least half of the promised bandwidth as its shared bandwidth :-( )

Anyway I got 450Kbps on FlashGet for downloads from download.com using 10 threads

Here is a presentation from dialog which has the details of the available packages.

Flash presentation would take some time load. Pls wait or check it @ http://www.slideshare.net/koolb/dialog-broadnet-brief/1

Most waited Dialog WiMax is now available.

Dialog has launched the WiMAX solutions under “BroardNet” brand name. You can now get WiMAX installed by contacting Dialog Broadband. I don’t know why they are not advertising it as their other products. The products are currently under testing, but following packages are available.

Available Packages
Name	Speed	Pro	Pro +	Ultra
Speed	1 MB	2 MB	2 MB	4 MB
IP Address	Dynamic	Dynamic	Static	Static
Mail Box	2	5	10	10
Common Firewall	X	X	X	X
Virus Protection	X	X	X	X
Authentication	X	X	-	-
Web Space	X	X	X	X
Option 1
Connection Charges	15,000.00
Monthly Rental	3,450.00	4,900.00	10,000.00	13,000.00
Option 2
Monthly Rental	4,000.00	5,500.00	11,000.00	14,000.00

Write once – Run in any OS……

Seems likes a dream. But California-based startup plans to release an application that will allow Windows, Mac, and Linux users run Linux binaries without any modifications. Check out this intro video.

You can find out more @ http://www.openlina.com/

 

Technorati tags: OpenSource, Linux, Windows, Mac, Software, Development, CrossPlatform