Tata docomo internet in ubuntu

Tata docomo offers basically 3 kinds of gprs based internet plans for use in Kerala. They are providing reasonable browsing speeds but still Idea is faster among other counter parts.

Connect your mobile phone using the data cable or bluetooth to the Ubuntu box. If you are using datacable then opt for the 'phone mode' ('Nokia mode' in Nokia phones) from the popup menu shown in the phone when connected to the pc. The network manager will launch the new broadband wizard in the pc automatically. You can manually access this by clicking on the 'Add' button under the 'Mobile Broadband' tag in the NetworkManger.

During the wizard you can find TATA DOCOMO listed under Mobile Service providers belonging to India. This case is true for versions of Ubuntu released after Ubuntu 9.10. For older versions of Ubuntu TATA DOCOMO might not be listed. In this case you can select any of the service provider (idea, airtel...) and editing it after completing the wizard. For editing the connection, select the 'edit' button under the 'Mobile Broadband' tag in the NetworkManager. You have to change the feilds such as Access Point, Number, DNS servers etc... with new values as follows.

Connection name    :     tata docomo
APN                         :     TATA.DOCOMO.INTERNET
Number                   :     *99#
DNS server             :     8.8.8.8

To change the DNS server, first click on the 'IPv4 Settings' tab and select the 'Method' as 'Automatic (PPP) addresses only'. Then fill the 'DNS servers' feild with the above given value. Check in the box corresponding to 'Connect automatically' and click on the apply button to finish the configurations.

Connection using the Bluetooth:

If you are using past versions of ubuntu till maverick Meerkat (10.04 LTS) then you may have to install an application called blueman for using mobile internet without any hazzles and terminal based configurations. Blueman provides a simple interface for accessing the mobile internet via bluetooth. Installation procedures have been discussed in another post in  crack bytezz. Click on the 'setup' button and then select 'Dialup Networking' in the 'connect to' window popped up and forward to finish the procedure. The connection can be setted up as specified above

 

Dialling the connection

Now dial the connection from the Network Manager applet in the taskbar as shown in the figure.

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Barcamp kerala 2011 : this time for Cochin

"BarCamp Kerala is an ad-hoc gathering rooted in the desire to share and learn in an open & friendly environment. It is an intense yet cool, event with discussions, demos, and strong interactions."

The date and venue for the 10th edition of the barcamp kerala  (BCK 10) has announced. BCK10 will be held at SCMS B-School at Kalamassery, Ernakulam  on 15th May 2011.

The registration for the participants is open at http://www.barcampkerala.org/blog/register/ . The sessions registered for the discussion at BCK10 are 

• Why do people compare Apples and Oranges ?

  by Praseed Pai

• Making your First Dollar with your PC

  by Arun Basil Lal

• Sound of Music

  by Ashwin K  

• Intelligence And Some Questions

  by Kenney Jacob

• Public Relations - Let the world know about you

  by Richy D Alexander 

• Ethical Hacking & Cyber Security

  by Amarnath Sankar

• Social Intelligence

  by Nelvin Joseph 

• E-Governance and Digital Divide

  by Jayakrishnan Unnithan     

• Technology of Spirituality

  by Aswin Nandakumar

• Cyber Warfare – In a different perspective

  by Gokul C Gopinath  

• Development: What they don't teach you anywhere

  by Binny V A 

Most interesting thing about the barcamp kerala is  the  rules that are to be followed by the participants. I just pins the rules that are given in their website.

Location Map


View Larger Map

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How to change dns address in Windows

 The domain name servers plays a big role in the case of world wide web. It converts the human understandable URLs or host names such as google.com or yahoo.com into machine understandable IP addresses. It is very important to select the best DNS server from a list of available ones since the right selection will reflect in the browsing speeds. Actually when an internet user types some url and hit the enter key, the  role of dns server (usually provided by the correspponding internet service provider for example bsnl or vodafone ) comes into effect. 

The dns server converts the hostname to the corresponding IP address and returns the IP back to the browser.Usually the dns server uses tables to store the hostname and ip, also a domain naming system is also implemented as a distributed system. 

Leave the theories ... lets findout the best dns server that suits you and change the your default dns value to the best one that is more fast and reliable using the following steps...

Before that, the public and free dns address available are 

google public dns
8.8.8.8
8.8.4.4

opendns
208.67.220.220
208.67.222.222

dns advantage
156.154.70.1
156.154.71.1

others
209.244.0.3
209.244.0.4

1. Use the ping command to find the dns server with less average RTT (round trip time).

Take the command prompt and use the average value of round trip time in the ping command to spot the best dns address. Check the figure.

  > ping <dns address here>

  

2. Replace the default dns address with the new one

Take 'Network and Sharing Center' from the control panel. Select the 'Manage Network Connections' from the left side panel. Select the connection and right click to select the 'Properties' from the menu.

Select the TCP/IPv4 under the Networking tab and click the 'properties' button to change its properties. 

Inside the TCP/IPv4 properties click on the 'Use following DNS server' and add the DNS server address there as shown in the image below.

If the connection is already active you may have to restart the connection to make the changes take into effect. 

That's all about the configuration. From my personal experience google's public dns addresses are fast and reliable than the others. Almost a lion's share of time i spend on internet is usually with google related sites such as google search engine, analytics, blogger... The method for changing the dns address in Ubuntu linux is explained in the post linked here

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Kerala Entrance exam 2011 answer keys - the official link

The answer key for the kerala entrance examination has published (KEAM 2011). You can download the answer key from the official site of cee-kerala. The answer keys for both the engineering and medical entrance exams are available in the pdf format for download in this site. Please note that the answer key published in many sites are wrong and not official. Please confirm that the key is same as the one published in cee-kerala website...

[Engineering Answer Key] 

[Medical Answer Key]

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python code for taking images with webcam in Linux

Hey friends lets checkout a small, simple and cute python program for taking photos with with your webcam without the help of any third party application programs. Most probably the Ubuntu like linux distributions comes without a pre-installed application for imaging with webcam. I suggest this small piece of code because most of the linux distributions includes python  as pre-installed.

I have simplified the code to the extend that any newbie to python can understand it. Also you should install the following python library for this program to work. 

 # python-opencv

        You can install this library using synaptic package manager or apt. The package name is 'python-opencv'

Code

                                                                                                                                                                                       

   import os

   import datetime

   import opencv.adaptors

   from opencv import highgui 

   import Image

   def get_image(camera):

im = highgui.cvQueryFrame(camera)

      # Add the line below if you need it (Ubuntu 8.04+)

     im = opencv.cvGetMat(im)

     #convert Ipl image to PIL image

dir(im)

print "image taken"

     return opencv.adaptors.Ipl2PIL(im) 

   #_______________find usernae___________

   a=os.popen('whoami')

   l=a.read() 

   s=l.split('\n')

   uname=s[0]

   #______________find date n time  _________

   now = datetime.datetime.now()

   now = str(now)

  

   im=None

   camera= highgui.cvCreateCameraCapture(0)

   im = get_image(camera)

   os.chdir('/home/%s/Pictures' %(uname) )

   fname='image_'+now+'.png'

   im.save(fname, "PNG")

   ####  code ends here

                                                                                                                                                                                     

You can run this program using the terminal as follows

                                                           python camera.py                                                                                         

The images will be automatically stored inside the Pictures folder inside the home directory.

till the next post...

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Social networking on mobile phone without internet connection

Hai friends, in this post we will discuss two ways for accessing the most common social networking websites anywhere within india through mobile phones without an internet connection. Usually these applications updates your status or brings your recent wall posts on social networking websites by sending and receiving Short Messaging Service (SMS dude !!!). These applications discussed below offers access to twitter, facebook, google mobile services etc...

smstweet   ::  for tweeting on the go via sms

shorthand browser  ::  its a j2me application that can run on your phones that support java  

# smstweet 

Smstweet is a web based application for posting twitter feeds only. You have to register your mobile phone number with the website. After successful registration it will connect your twitter account with the smstweet server. That's you need to do on the website. You can start posting your tweets and mentions by sending the message as formatted below to the number : 

09243000111 (Bangalore)

TWT <space > content of the tweet

# shorthand browser

Shorthand browser is an all-in-one mobile application  for accessing many social networking sites and it  is described as  "the internet on your  phone without a data plan".  Shorthand’s apps use SMS text-messages to send and receive information but look so good you’ll think they use data (they don’t!). “SMS Apps” for all your favorite web sites are bundled within one super simple mobile application, Shorthand. Using shorthand you can access the following websites. 

• Orkut
• Facebook
• Google - maps, cricket, horoscope, news ...
• Twitter
• Wikipedia
• Naukri
• SMS GupShup
• And more!

 

You can download the shorthand browser from the following links 

getjar 

shorthand home

That's all about the social networking mechanism that does not requires a data plan on your mobile phone...

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