After a long long time...

It's been over an year since I have done my last post here at blog-spot. A lot of things happened and changed over this year. To me a lot of things changed within a quick period, seems like time have just flipped past in front of my eyes.

Well, I have finished my graduation degree in Computer Engineering, spend some time at home like a long vacation, and mean while I was searching and applied for some jobs at several companies. In between, I don't know when, but I started tweeting even though I stopped blogging. May be I was too lazy to type in long blog notes and got interested in micro blogging (You can follow my tweets at http://twitter/jinmatt). By this time I joined CCS Technologies as a trainee. This was truly a turn over in my life. The CCS life style molded me into a professional. I learned not just act like a professional, but to be like a professional.

At present I have became an integral part of my department at CCS. I am a .NET programmer / PHP Trainer. Also does User Interface designing and system designing for most of the projects that my team gets involved in.

I hope that I can keep posting more noted here at blogspot, even though I have a very busy schedule these days. I'll be posting some technical contents and code snippets that I have found useful to everyone. I have felt a strong need to share some workouts and some problems solutions that I have either worked out myself or found out after doing some R & D with my colleagues. People both at work and others are asking me "how this is done??!" and I think here this is the right place to share.

So lets see again after sometime.

Internet for Linux(Ubuntu) users using BSNL WLL modem

This is a tutorial which illustrates how to connect to internet from Linux for those who are using Bsnl WLL modems to connect to the internet from Windows. At present Bsnl WLL modems have no driver support for Linux. Many users like me struggle a lot to connect to internet using WLL setup in Linux and many are left behind from using Linux as they don't find a way to connect to internet using WLL.

I have found a way sometime back to configure the WLL modem in order to connect to internet from Linux. I will be illustrating this with the help of Ubuntu 8.04LTS(Heron Hardy) as my Linux OS and the Bsnl WLL modem I have used is LG CDMA Fixed Wireless Terminal model : LST - 260B. I'm writing in the perspective that my readers have the basic knowledge in using Linux distros and are comfortable with the commands and technical terms I'm using here. This will not be much helpful to complete inexperienced Linux user.

So here goes :

1. Install wvdial packages if not installed. It will be already installed by Heron Hardy or later editions of Ubuntu by default installation.

2. Plug-in the USB of your modem to any of the USB port, the port number doesn't matter in my configuration method, as found in most of the other earlier methods written by many other users. Your USB modem will be detected as /dev/ttyACM0

3. Now in the Terminal run the command sudo wvdialconf
This will configure details about the modem connected and will store in the config file /etc/wvdial.conf

4. But we have to edit this wvdial.conf file to suite our needs. That is, the wvdialconf command will collect as much details about your modem and will list it in the wcdial.conf file. We have to provide some additional information as to configure the modem so as the work with Bsnl WLL settings. So edit this file with sudo :

sudo gedit /etc/wvdial.conf

5. The file content should be edited and should be made to look almost like this :

[Dialer Defaults]
Init1 = ATZ
Init2 = ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
Init3 = at+crm=1;at$lgpkt=3
Password = 9400
Phone = #777
Idle Seconds = 90
Modem Type = USB Modem
Baud = 460800
New PPPD = yes
Modem = /dev/ttyACM0
ISDN = 0
Username = 4812469400
Auto Reconnect = off

• Password and User name must be like this : for example, if your phone number is 0481-2469400. Then your Password will be the last four digits, that is 9400 in my example and User name will be 4812469400, thats your full phone number.
• The initialization command for LG CDMA LST-260B is at+crm=1;at$lgpkt=3, which is specified as Init3 in my example. The Init1 and Init2 are automatically acquired by the wvdialconf command. For newer WLL modems the Init3 are also automatically generated. If it is not happening, either they are capable of working without Init3 command or you have to manually find this command from your Windows modem settings. You can find this from Windows in Control Panel > Phone and Modem and in the Modem tab select your modem from the list and click Properties to view the modem properties. In the Properties window under the Advanced tab you can find the Extra Initialization commands where the Initialization command for your modem is specified. For modems like LG CDMA LST-260B even in Windows you have to enter this initialization command manually, in that case you have to get this code sequence from you ISP.
• Set Idle Seconds to the time that you wish to disconnect net if web activity is idle for the specified time period. For instance, set the value to 1800 for 30mins.

Now save the file and close it.

5. Now at Terminal, type wvdial to connect to internet.
Wait until all the following text appears in the terminal window:

jinmatt@jinmachine:~$ wvdial
--> WvDial: Internet dialer version 1.60
--> Cannot get information for serial port.
--> Initializing modem.
--> Sending: ATZ
ATZ
OK
--> Sending: ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
OK
--> Sending: at+crm=1;at$lgpkt=3
at+crm=1;at$lgpkt=3
OK
--> Modem initialized.
--> Sending: ATDT#777
--> Waiting for carrier.
ATDT#777
CONNECT
--> Carrier detected. Waiting for prompt.
--> Don't know what to do! Starting pppd and hoping for the best.
--> Starting pppd at Sun Aug 2 09:25:30 2009
--> Warning: Could not modify /etc/ppp/pap-secrets: Permission denied
--> --> PAP (Password Authentication Protocol) may be flaky.
--> Warning: Could not modify /etc/ppp/chap-secrets: Permission denied
--> --> CHAP (Challenge Handshake) may be flaky.
--> Pid of pppd: 7442
--> Using interface ppp0
--> local IP address 10.1.0.37
--> remote IP address 10.64.64.64
--> primary DNS address 218.248.240.79
--> secondary DNS address 218.248.240.24

Now minimize the terminal window, and your are connect to internet!! So browse through your WLL!!

In the Termnial used for connecting internet, press Ctrl+C to disconnect later on if needed.

Note: This is an example I have shown how to connect a Ubuntu distro to the internet using a LG CDMA LST-260B WLL phone modem. You can modify this illustration to suite your needs. This method can be applied to any Linux distro with wvdial packages. All you have to do is, change the commands and settings according to the linux distro, modem, and the ISP you are using. And must be configuring the modem as a root user in other distros unlike in Ubuntu where the sudo command is used to attain the power of root user.

I must now start all over again...

Yeah, I have to start blogging again. It's been a long time since I have posted anything here after my last post about the release of Firefox 3 and its world record setting event. After that the time have passed a lot and here I'm posting something after a longtime...now it is FF 3.5 era!! I missed so much and technology went 2x faster ahead!!

So I guess this time, I think I'm really back at blogging. My B.Tech final year exams are now over and I have free time to improve myself a lot, until I can find a job at the right time. The final year was a nice time in my lifeline, but there wasn't much time for blogging and techy stuffs in between the fun we were having in the last year of the college life. So now for the time being I hope I can put aside my laziness and do and learn something useful.

As an ending note to this post I must say this is after all a good day to start again...the 2009 Friendship day. It was in deed a nice day for me and was happy to see all my friends' greetings, and so Happy Friendship day my blog readers!!...

Today is the Great Day; FireFox3 Download Day 2008

Its your chance, yeah to be a part of Guinness World Record along with Mozilla on its 10th Anniversary. That's today, on their 10th anniversary celebration they have set the release date of their much awaited FireFox 3. Mozilla community is ready to celebrate this whole year with a world record mission of "Most downloaded software in 24 hours".

People all over the globe have pledged to download FireFox 3 on the Download Day 2008. Its now an amazing population on the pledge map. Total people that have pledged till now whole over the world is 1,384,489 . We can say at least in the web browser segment Open Source rules. From India we have 27,536 pledges so far.

So to become the part of this Guinness World Record, all you have to do is pledge that you will download FireFox 3 today at the Mozilla community Spread FireFox, and download it at the release time today itself. The time and download details will be published at Spread FireFox site: www.spreadfirefox.com

Click below the Spread FireFox banner and pledge that you will be a part of Guinness World Record with FireFox 3 here itself, and don't forget to download......


Enjoy FireFox 3 D'day 2008!!!

Update:

Proposed release time :- 10:00AM PDT, thats about 10:30 PM IST. So we Indians have to wait a little bit, but its worth the waiting.

Update at 11:39PM :

Release time again changed, damn I can't wait any longer!! New release time is 17:00 UTC June 18, or roughly 24 hours from now.

Update at 12:13AM June 18 :

hey, Mozillla guys solved the cause of the delay in release time of FF3. Now its released on their web site. I'm right now downloading it, being a part of the Guinness World Record myself!!! Click here to download your FireFox3........

Update at 1:01AM June 18 :

At last, downloaded and installed FireFox3!!!! a long awaited release from Mozilla community. I'm now updating the blog from FF3.....Cheers!! to all FireFox3 users and community members......

I have decided to take the Open Souce high-way........

yah.....am back to the geeky mood again after a long break. Those exams were driving me nuts :( , now I feel a great relief from those boring writing sections..........I have not been blogging or active any technical forums. Now "am back", fresh :)

But these hard times usually make me think about myself. I never was interested in sharing my works with others, be it software development, or any design, or any hacks or cracks. I usually kept my source always secret as possible as I can, always made sure proper abstraction was implied to code snippets or design templates I used. But to be frank, I was interested in coping others' special works. At this stage of my life, when I pictured myself, I felt bad about this attitude of mine. So after a long hard to take decision, I have decided to go the Open Source way.

As a first step towards this move, I have decided to try GNU/Linux as my second development platform. I have to say that the ThinkDigit Forum Linux lovers have given me a great encouragement in this phase. I have to surely thank those eager to help guys for their interest shown towards helping a newbie to enter the world of Free Software Foundation(FSF).

huh, so am here guys to share my ideas and my concepts to those who are interested in listening, and those who are ready to share it to others. Enjoy the Freedom.......but if someone is not ready to share, let it be like that......am not ready to say others are bad, and not yet ready to ditch the Microsoft revolution completely.

Fonts For Designers

I have been lately busy with some works related to our Z-bit Labs where I came across the need for good fonts for both web and graphics designing purpose. So I decides to find some fonts which are helpful in designer works, on which we don't have to apply too much effects to get that catchy feeling on the fonts. I have got a feeling that apart from our graphics effects, the fonts we use always makes a difference.

Here are some of the fonts which I have selected after doing some sorting out in different font sites. Click here to download. So my blog readers, try out and post your comments.

Thanks.

Windows Media Player 12 Beta 1 (Review)

I lately got my hands on the new Windows Media Player 12 Beta 1, which now have been circulating for a while in most of the downloading sites and torrents. Is it true that Microsoft released such a version without much announcement?? or is this a fake version??....Some say Microsoft released it for beta testing, but there is no sign of such release in the MS website. The truth is, its a fake version developed by some programmer for his on reasons. There is a rumor that programming groups which shows affinity to Microsoft argues them to produce an Ultimate Media Player that can stand up to iTunes from Apple, which is currently dominating the Digital Music World. This must be the reason that MS is keeping quite even though it is getting popular in torrent sites.

Anyway I downloaded WMP 12 Beta 1 and installed it to see how much it is worth to the hype that is given to it by all torrent clients. But unfortunately I got a version provided by the h33t file sharing group which is not in English language. Since I am familiar with WMP 11 interface, I decided to go on with the testing process. And so does my confidence paid me the price. I was surprised to see the same UI provided by WMP 11!!! There is no difference in WMP 12 UI except some smoothening or polishing look given to it by its developer. But there is a change for WMP 12 desktop icon, which gives a better impression than the icon of WMP 11. Take a look at the "Now Playing" page of WMP 12 beta1.

After the first "not so good" feel given by WMP 12, I decided to play some tracks to see how good it is when it comes to the real stuff. So I put some of my best Rock music tracks to the play list and selected the Equalizer settings for Rock generic, and to my surprise it completely beats WMP 11 in playback quality. The Bass has improved a lot, the noise level when playing either the high quality or low quality tracks also has improved. I tried some soft music too.They seem like a pleasure to hear. After all, I slowly began to think WMP 12 is worth its fame given by all torrent sites.

Next I noticed that the Media Library of WMP 12 seems a little more easy to use than the one in WMP 11. It looks like a more intelligent version than the former version. It detects automatically all the media files in your system and adds it to library according to various generic. You don't have to explicitly specify each and every generic tracks. And as a cool feature it automatically finds appropriate Artist/Album informations from audio file properties or from internet, including an Album pic to represent media files in Library.

The video playback has given some improvement. The clarity has increased, all hiccups in playing high resolution videos seems to have no problem to go on with WMP 12. Even the low quality videos can be seen vivid in WMP 12 compared to poor visibility provided by WMP 11.















At the end of the day, I can't tell you whether WMP 12 is a great work done by some third party developer, but it has got some elements that makes you use this version over the genuine WMP 11. I am not telling you that this is a media player that can stand up to the "easy-of-use" and "cool to hear" iTunes, although WMP 12 has made some changes in handling External Media players and devices. Now I have a nice feeling towards WMP when using along with Gtalk for music history status, which I was earlier used to feel ashamed of when compared to Winamp. But WMP 12 is not anywhere near Winamp, the all-time favorite for audiophiles. And when I am talking about Winamp, Nullsoft has released its Winamp 5.52 version at its 10th anniversary. I will be trying to come up soon with a review on Winamp 5.52 with its new revolutionary "Bento" interface.