CyberNet - A leader of ____?

Remember the days of Fill in the Blank type questions? Ah just to take a stroll down memory lane, here's one for you - CyberNet - a leader of ____? Surely the answer is right there when you dial one of their 111 numbers, but truly speaking, would a leader in (Something something) truly admit that it has run out of excuses?

Ah yes - thats what a long running saga came down to 48 hours back. But, let me get to that by introducing a conversation I'm sure many of you have had with ample remorse.

About a fortnight back, a situational analysis suggested that decency was getting me nowhere, and verbal banter was the need of the hour. Hence, being as frank as one can, I let the rep know exactly what I think of their organization, and the fallacies based on which they recently received a CSR award (one of the questions that comes to mind is - have they become so big that they've forgotten the private sector, and are now solely focused on the bigger fish. i.e. the corporate sector?)

And voila! less than 24 hours later a field rep was knocking at my front door - it was an Xmas miracle - anything less than a 72 hour response time was considered the equivalent of snowflakes artistically decorating the city, but, less than 24 hours - that indeed is one for the record books!

So the lineman went on to his scanning routine, and determined that there were a few too many joints in the line in question (yes - 2 are too many.) So being the nice guy that I am, I allowed him to disbar that cable, and replace it with on of his own, as per his liking, regardless of the fact that it screwed up the aesthetic value of my residential abode.

Having done that, his analysis was "yai behtreen line hai - bilkul problems nahi hongai." (loosely translated to "this line is crystal clear - there will be no issues as such.") Kudos! Now I can finally browse.

12 hours later I received a call from their "monitoring cell" if you like - "has the issue been resolved?" "No - I still can't host a conversation longer than 5 minutes on MSN." "OK - our man is on his way." And again - there's the same distraught individual knocking on my door. "Let me trace the lineman - we'll have the external wire changed." "Go ahead mate."

And so the wire was changed - to NO effect. Surprising isn't it? Then came a day when I wasn't home, for a supposed 12 noon appointment with one of their "engineers" - great title eh? Of course, this "engineer" was yet to learn to read the time, and assumed that 1pm is the equivalent of 12noon. But, what was rather amusing was when he still accessed my desktop without any authorization, and simply reported back at the office that "the desktop has an issue - the contact person isn't answering his phone." How conveniently did he fail to realize that the reason the desktop wasn't "functioning" was because the "crystal clear" line had unsynchronized.

More verbal banter, with their pain in the ____ (yet another fill in the blank for you), followed by another "engineer" 12 hours later (a continuous string of miracles - must have done something right!) And when I asked him for his next excuse, the punchline - "we don't have anymore excuses."

Just what I needed to hear - he mentioned that he'll give me a "test modem" which should solve the problem - however, 48 hours on, that's yet to be resolved. Moments ago another tech rep called in asking if the problem has been resolved - hah - reckon I should just have an automated response service associated with calls coming from that number. Final response was "reckon there is an issue with Cyber(void left to suit the readers imagination.") And there it was on the other end of the line - deadening silence.

Returned - Or Have I?

With the domestic electricity corporation providing 160V on a circuit that technically is supposed to handle 240, and my favored DSL service provider running out of excuses as to why more than a year on its been unable to fix my compounding issues (no this isn't the epitome of patience - its just that there are no blasted viable alternatives), I find myself biking my way through this blog, hence the two days of absence.

As per the biking, no - not really - but interesting isn't it? Following the 'going green' stigma presented a few days back, SiCortex CEO, Dr. Mucci was able to demonstrate a supercomputer running on customized bikes - each churning out a massive 260W (with a majority of the electric supply corp staff doing nothing but sitting on their backsides spending hours on end determining was Deedee always questions ("Ooo - what does this button do?"), reckon we could get them all these bikes eh? But then again, how much are you willing to wager that these guys will break down the sturdiest of utilities within a few hours?)

Continuing with the ever-so-interesting Apple theme, word on the streets is that the iPhone firmware is about to be updated to include international support. Conversely, some blokes over at iFixit have cracked open the much fancied iPod Touch, only to find that contrary to street talk, there really is no bluetooth support.

On another note, the Pantech C180 seems to have caught many an eye. 3G HSDPA, Win Mobile 6, 1.3MP cam, all supported by Giz reporting that Stateside, AT&T will be offering it for round about 250 with a 2 year contract. Continuing with the ray of hope, Wateen seems to have upped the anti as far as marketing in Pakistan is concerned - taking maximum advantage of the T20 world cup, and the incongruous advertising campaign that the domestic media can't seem to avoid even if its existence depended on it, they've launched a pre-registration campaign. DSL (so they say its FO based - no not the FO that we think CyberNet is based on!), Cable TV, and much much more - Worldcall junior? Or the fact that in most senses its a non-Pakistani venture in Pakistan make it a concept for the books? Too soon to tell - but at least its good to see that someone's standing up against those monopolistic (adjective left to the readers' imagination) individuals at Worldcrap.

Going Green

Remember Captain Planet? You know - the one which went along the lines of "he's a blunder - going to screw things up as and when needed?" Well apparently thats the iPhone theme. However, lets not get into that - news for those in regions where electricity is a commodity of greater value than a pirates treasure (Karachi, Pakistan being a prime example), Lenovo is attempting to be a potential lifesaver. The "Blue Sky" can, and will be solar powered. Psyched aren't you? Now lets come back down to Earth shall we? The thing just allows 45W...huh? wah? Surely there's a typo - reckon I've skipped a 0 there, or maybe even a 'k'? Nope - sorry to pull the trampoline out from under you, but yea - 45W it is - so lets all rejoice at the fact that we have laptop batteries that can last a few hours, which, sadly speaking, the same cannot be said about our delightful DSL providers!

Seeing that I did mention the iPhone earlier, further to the hardware crack that according to Giz was rather restricted, there are now confirmed reports of a software based crack that works. And you know what? Its free...F-R-E-E! Sigh, given the commotion that preceded the iPhone, one has to wonder why its attracting negative publicity since its introduction. Sadly, on a more tepid note, Krispy Kreme is still struggling in the red...dangit - somebody save it!

Dante's Inferno

One man eons ago wrote the Inferno, which went down in history books as one of the better novels to date. On the 31st of August, 2007, Dante was raising hell all over again. Only this time, it was Alan Dante's souped up Volvo that saw a subwoofer generate 180.5dB...yes...A SUBWOOFER! If you're looking for details on this gizmo, then trot along to http://www.audiojunkies.com/blog/551

On a security front, Team M33 has cracked the PSP Lite, while the PRS-505 ebook reader has, like everything else, been leaked out. And of course, how would any entry be complete without reference to my favourite topic - the iPhone. Remember the crack, the rights to which the kid traded in for a "sweet ride"? Yea apparently Gizmodo has this exclusive which finds that the "software unlock may not work with all SIM configurations." To add to that, what are the kids at Apple doing? A feature found in the iPhone, the iPod touch won't allow you to add calendar dates on the run. Why???

The World is Flawed

One can't help but continue with the iPhone theme - recent, though unconfirmed reports suggest that Germany will be seeing the 3G 16gig unit early November for round about 500Euros. 500Euros equals how many Big Macs now?

More good news...the hooha over RFID chips? You know, the thing that was dubbed the next best thing back in '05? Of course, back then we ignored the fact that Orwell's imaginary world was slowly transforming into reality, but now that's not the only concern - "leading cancer specialists" fear that these chips can / may cause tumors. So what shall we utilize these convenient units for?

But alas, alls not wrong with this world. AMD has finally launched the quad-core Opteron - about damn time eh? Agreed that they've been beaten by Intel as far as speed is concerned, but the global demand to go green, correlated with the power saving characteristics of Barcelona, surely its game on. With HP / Sun and co. looking to launch 50 plus products over the course of the next fortnight, this 512k of L2 cache with 2MB shared has just heated things up - sadly though, the top 2GHz unit is so hot, it may just burn a whole in your wallet.

An edit to this post - more good news! Firefox has hit 400million downloads! Hats off to the establishment, and kudos to the plethora of users who have tried, and found themselves addicted to this beauty of a browser. At the other end of the spectrum, Krispy Kreme has slumped further in the red...

10 Reasons Not to Buy an iPhone

The iPhone - have to buy it - who cares that its so ridiculously priced that, ah reckon I'll just leave the analogies to your imagination. Debra over at TechRepublic has quite a decent blog on the above subject, so if you find yourself interested in buying one of the more hyped up things of the present era, then hop over to http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/10things/?p=220; and if you don't know what to do w/ that money, I'm a nice guy - I'll help you out with that!

So - did you find yourself queued up for an iPhone? If so, hows it treating you?

The Joys of DSL

Yippee! About damn time Karachi introduced DSL eh? So much for dialup - ah hell, so much for cable...or at least, that's what my reaction was precisely a year from today. So, uh, why am I seriously contemplating reverting to dialup? Ah I know - because I'm contractually bound to an organization that calls itself "Pakistan's leading Internet, and data communications company."

When I received a call from one their reps that they were offering a 256k package (unlimited downloading) for PKR2,500 (USD41.25) I jumped with joy - didn't ask any questions, just said "dangit - why haven't you hooked me up yet?" Ah - the old wives tale along the lines of never rushing into something is so apt, a lesson so well learnt, that reckon I'll just revert to my old self of sitting back and doing things as and when time demands.

As retarded as it sounds, yes - I did not complain about the USD41.25 package - why? Because when they had initially started the same, the masses found themselves being offered a 256k deal, capped at 2GB, for round about 60$! Reckon it would suffice for joke of the millennium eh? O wait - did I mention that our monopolistic telephone service provider won't allow these DSL providers access to the fiber optic network that they've laid down? LOL - or is it? Reckon we're the only country in the world that's "enjoying" DSL on copper, so fragile that a lizard attempting to crawl along the cable would find itself on the ground along with the cable, petrified that an oncoming truck is about to run it over. Sagging so ridiculously, that if its not touching the ground, any crow interested in trying a trampoline simply has to visit Karachi.

But alas, if the DSL union isn't going to do anything about it, then who is? Ah right - I forgot - no one. Surely we all agree that its a monopoly, but that's another topic for another day. My joy over the last 72 hours - my download rate fluctuates between 213, and 2! I called up tech support, only to be told "everythings hunky-dory at our end - its your computer thats screwed up." "Yes sir - I've tried 6 systems, and each one of them is distorted eh?" Spoke to them decently, launched a verbal barrage which reckon my Comm teachers would be rather proud of, but ah here's what their incharge had to say "why are you aiming your volleys my way - its not my fault." "No sir - given that you are leading the efforts to screw your clientel, how can it be your fault. Surely those under you are to blame, who aren't serving you your cup of tea on time."

Will this ever be fixed - I doubt it - will we ever come down to affordable rates? LOL. Will Karachiites ever get to experience what DSL actually is? ROFL. Will we ever see any organization seek to provide a T1 framework to the domestic consumer? ROFLMAO

So whats your take on this? And please don't tell me to switch to Max - might be better, but surely not what we expected when we laid out the red carpet for these service providers in the Pakistani market.

Painfully Frustrating

When the nature of technology is defined by the fact that by the time I'm done typing something up, it will most probably be "so yesterday", one has to sit back and wonder why domestic media fails to keep one up to date with what is happening in this diminutive world that we lovingly call "IT." Of course, given the introductory statement, this might all sound a bit retarded - you might be thinking "he's explicitly stating that the average lifespan of information is a few minutes if lucky, yet he's cribbing about media not keeping you up to date about it - papers are distributed early morning for Pete's sake!"

I would agree with you, but then again, let me tell you how the Pakistani presence works. July 2007 saw one of the more credible newsletters explain to individuals the term "data mining." Uh correct me if I'm wrong, but hasn't data mining been creating a hoohaa over the last few years? You are introducing readers to the same - now??? But then again everything takes root somewhere, and reckon there's no better base than educational institutes. Then do help solve a conundrum that 6 years on, I still haven't solved - and I solved that dang cube in lesser time! Being a student at one of the more prestigious high schools out here, I declared my intent to pursue a bachelors in computer engineering - when it came down to schooling, I found myself explaining to institutes the difference between comp. eng., and comp. sci. As Kenan so often questioned, "whyyy???"

Ah reckon I can be as petty as one can imagine when the world isn't running as its supposed to - but ah c'mon - don't create a hooha about the iPhone particularly once its encountered issues - don't go about exclaiming that there is no laptop manufacturer other than Sony, and Toshiba (yes...ask those salesmen who have tried to sell me anything but a Toshiba, and you'll know how I feel...but...), don't tell me that its a stagnant e-environment that we find ourselves in.

Succinctly, here's the deal - we're going to blog our way through everything that we can get our hands on - if there's any topic that you want to know more about, feel free to ask, and we'll make that the topic of the week. We'll review what you want, when you want. We'll post news as and when the ridicule that is the domestic DSL infrastructure allows. We'll discuss common practices, and last but not least, we'll do it the globally accepted way - not the Pakistani way.

Reckon we can all raise our glasses to a journey where bits and bytes blog our minds, far better than the manner in which they've clogged the backends of our service providers.