I needed an Apple Ipod to test some Iphone ready site i had done for someone one, Since Ipod touch and Iphone are almost same other than phone functionality. I went yesterday (12th July 2010) and bought an Apple Ipod Touch 3g (32GB) for about Rs 17340 in the morning (I had to deliver the site so could not have it shipped and wait 3 – 4 days). In the evening after returning home, the unit purchased did not work out once it was removed from the packing. I had better opinion of apple products … but how can they sell me a brick. Called up Apple Support and after the usual talk they also realized that i have been sold a dead Ipod Touch. So they assured me that next day it will be changed from where i bought it and gave me a reference number to use for the same. Going by the brand name that apple has, i relied and was somewhat optimistic, even if it went going back almost 17 kms on a working day.
So today when I went to the Same Place i bought it from the chaps there directed me to the apple Service Center at another location ( 9 kms from Nehru place) and on reaching there i was informed that the Apple Support Guys were telling Lies. There is no such concept of instant hand to hand replacement and I was asked to leave my ipod and wait for upto 15 Days. Now i m waiting to have my brand new Ipod back …
Some things i think u should know –
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Not one Apple representative Apologized for the Faulty product i was sold
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Even for a brand new product ( Not even a day old ) one is required to go through service
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Apple India is not Apple ( its ‘desi’ Indian Version which works like ‘desi’ companies )
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Not the experience i expected,I wasted a lot of time and effort just to buy one Ipod which i still do not have
I had high hopes and was kind of excited about owning my first Apple product . But I was utterly disappointed, frustrated and saddened by state of things. Also as i mentioned , it was an urgent requirement for some software that i am delivering and my work has suffered coz of bad product , apparently new?? and pathetic service.
Their competitor on the other hand atleast Microsoft gives me Free Onsite Wonder full support and service.
UPDATE : I had got a replacement after 5 days.
Though it would seem pretty simple, but as soon as you try to add a JavaScript to your Wordpress post which is more than few lines of code. Wordpress somehow messes up the code and the script will not work due to wordpress formatting it. You can disable formatting but then other old posts also loose formatting. The other solution provided is to add them to template / make JS files and include them. Both require more work.
Here is my little solution , Basically pack the script and make it as a one line of code which can be added to the html editor –
Go to the following link paste your JavaScript code and embed the Wordpress embed in your wordpress …
Wordpress JavaScript Packer
Buying a AC is no easy task, With so many brands to choose from and varied reviews of each if you ask the Dealers or check online.
But more than the Initial Cost the Electricity Bill(running cost) associated with the AC is what actually hurts. So recently I had to make the same decision in buying a second AC. I already own a Hitachi Window AC. Here are some points that I found out and a little JavaScript calculator which I wrote which helped make up my mind -
Try to go for Split AC , they are much quieter and more efficient though come at a higher Initial Cost. The Hitachi window I have makes me feel like sleeping next to a running vehicle !!!
The Total ownership cost difference over 5 Star rated and 3 Star Rated AC over a course of 5 years is almost same usually. But 5 star rated AC’s are about 20 % more expensive than 3 Star ones when buying the AC ( but this 20 % is paid back over 5 years in most cases). You can check using the calculator below.
More expensive does not mean itll recover its cost in Electricity Bill as some companies state. Do the calculations yourself and you will see.
Avoid the Cheapest ones out there, there is a reason they are cheap !
Most big terms like AntiBacterial filters, Night mode,Ion Purifiers etc are nothing but terms to attract you. You should just look at appropriate cooling capacity and running costs. As most of us just Switch them on and forget about them.
Here is a small calculator I wrote based on a Thread from TechEnclave which will help you check running cost of an AC and the total ownerships cost over a period, use the calculator below to decide if the AC is worth the extra money or which one is better -
AC Total Ownership calculator
Published on
March 25, 2010 in
General.
Youtube has now started to have ip locking for its videos around March 18 2010. This is on the same lines as being done by some other sites like MegaVideo for Example. Now to allow user download from such sites there are two ways –
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Your Server streams the files to users – This method uses 2x bandwidth and can make most shared hosting servers crawl. Though is more transparent. But as soon as your site becomes popular , high probability your server IP address facing a ban.
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Use supplies supplies source code of vieweing page – Simple and effective , User has to paste source code of page he is viewing. Approach being followed by other grabbers. But unlike other sites i have also attached a bookmarklet which streamlines the whole process to one click.
Update [2010-4-19]
Fixed again 3gp , mp4 , HD support added.
Update [2010-3-31]
Both methods are supported now , use config.php to choose whatever you want.
Download New version here –
FreeDown
PS: This is not a public forum to sell your scripts , you can offer fixes but sale is not allowed.
Ive updated the FreeDown script , mainly added exception handling when something went wrong while fetching download Link.
Download New version here –
FreeDown
Site has been restored back to original owners
I had built VideoSwiper long time back for Jason . You can read about it here http://www.ngcoders.com/php/videoswiper-mass-video-embedding-application, you can also check it out in my portfolio site.
But i have to come to learn that the hackers taking advantage of the holidays hacked the main server and have stolen the domain also. So basically now they are running a site which is a less featured clone on videoswiper.com . They reset all the accounts by redirecting the email which was admin[AT]videoswiper.com. Also they have the balls to say that the original owner is doing phishing 
. They also have stolen downloadMod.php code from my site Videoswiperplus and saying that they have written it.
I hope jason gets his sites back soon.
You can read more about it here – http://www.jasontaylor.me.uk/2010/01/04/videoswiper-hacked-dont-be-fooled/
Hackers should be dealt swiftly , i did have a soft side for these guys when i was a kid. But now i think they should be treated like common criminals , and maybe some should be made an example out of to stop the damage they cause.
Lesson learned – Avoid having emails for hosting and other important accounts like email@yoursite.com , if yoursite.com DNS record gets hacked all emails are redirected by hackers to reset everything and you will never come to know what happened. I believe sites like gmail , yahoo are much safer in this case. Also keep diffrent password for every single account , atleast the important ones.
My old paypal script which is being used a quite a lot will be getting an upgrade soon. It will now be a full fledged digital store yet simple to use. For not i can say it will be somewhat like Shopify and Bigcartel mixed up and digital file handling added and some other cool neat features. Will also be capable of handling normal goods.
It will be called BaseApp Digisell and will be dual licensed ( Like MySql ).
If you guys have any ideas which you wuold like to see in a simple flexible shopping cart please let me know.
Published on
February 21, 2009 in
General.
I had been thinking of updating my site theme for a long time to support new features provided by Wordpress. But since i could not get much time i asked one of my friend to do it. Here are some of the new features , according to him -
- Ajax Comments
- Threaded Comments
- Gravatar
- Comment Paging
- Comment Cookies
It is bascically the k2 modified to look this way.There might be more features , but the above one would i think allow me to get back to people better.
I have a XBOX 360 for some time now, last week after a month out of 1 yr warranty it showed the feared Red Ring of Death (RROD). I had heard many horror stories about it . As I had never had actually dealt with Microsoft India before I was pretty pessimistic as my experience with after sales services with companies in India is pathetic ( actually its really bad ).
So I called up Microsoft and after a few verifications i was assigned a replacement. The replacement arrived within 3 days and to my surprise it supported 1080p unlike my old one which just did 720p. So am pretty happy about my free upgrade and great after sales service provided my Microsoft.
So if you are planning to buy a XBOX 360 in India do go ahead and do get yourself a XBOX live connection , thats what makes 360 shine above the other consoles which collect dust in my house.
Recently one of my sites was hacked , It was a closed source web application. I came to know next day when i saw changes made to some settings for my web – application. Anyhow here is how i tracked down what was wrong , might help some one in the same mess i was in.
The first thing i noticed was that Administrator account passwords were changed, So i instantly knew something was wrong.
Since i usually store main settings in a file for faster access , i just opened FTP to look at the time stamp associated with the file. This showed me the last modifed date of the file and an approximate idea when the hacker changed the details.
Next step was to dig up the raw access logs from CPanel , After downloading the access logs for that specific file i opened them in PSPad ( My fav editor ) . Logs are not small of busy sites so you will be looking at a very large amount of data.
But i knew specific url which can be used to change the settings so i just did a Ctrl-F and put in the url with a POST prefix , as a form has to be submitted to change settings . This gave me a few instances of that URL with POST request.
Now looking at the time stamp i was able to find out when the hacker did the settings change. Means I had the IP.Doing another another CTRL-F on the IP and pressing list put all the hacker logs in another window , which makes its easy for us to go step by step at his efforts to crack the system.
After going from the start i noticed after certain URL he suddenly had got access to the admin section , And once i put in the url myself, i knew what the problem was.
And so it was fixed.
