Disruptive Technologies, Education and Some Social Issues » SMS

Lucifer Speaking – My Love Life – Part 1

JMJ — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 18:30:17 +0000

My Love Life – Part I

Today I want to talk about my close friend’s love life. He is actually 3 months older than me but I am 1 year elder to him (Please don’t ask me to explain that – you need to know advanced quantum physics to understand it – and if there is anyone who has done PHD is quantum physics – they also need to know molecular biology) Both of us are 24 years old and pretty much followed the same path when it came to studies (computer science stream – and yes he did score better marks than me most of the time)

Well all in all he a very nice guy. A little afraid of girls, Loves spending time watching movies and doing anything on the computer. And by the way is working too…Any way all this started when he was doing his UG. The management was very strict at his college. Though it was a co-ed, they were not supposed to talk to the opposite sex, each sex had their own staircase, and basically there was no freedom.

We were all brought up with a lot of freedom, though we had boundaries. Our parents never put pressure on us to do this or do that not even on our studies. And we were thought to do our stuff on our own – even studies, we never really went for tuition’s (may be once or twice for a month or two)
Anyway – going back to his college day – he used to be always very upset about the way his teachers and the authorities acted at college. One day he and his mates were having fun chatting outside the college (the usual tea shop outside the college). Any way there was an incident where someone tried to tease a girl and it was brought to the attention of the college authorities. The college authorities decided to suspend all the students who were standing by the tea shop for one week as punishment.

My friend – though pissed off with the authorities, was happy to get the one week off. He sat at home watching movies, went to his friends place…he was enjoying himself. By the way at that time my friend had managed to convince his dad to buy him a Mobile phone (a Sony Erickson model) and he had this Airtel connection where he had to pay Rs30/- every month and he could send any number of SMS free for that month. And believe me – he used to abuse that service. Now he can type out an SMS Message without even looking at the screen or keypad – though I have not measured his word per minute speed, I can tell you he is pretty fast and accurate.

Since he was not doing anything – one day he decided to do a small experiment. He started to send out SMS’s to numbers that preceded his number. His msg was introducing himself and asking the opposite number if they were interested in chatting. Just like what you do on yahoo chat rooms. So he was sending this msg to random numbers. Most of the numbers he never got a reply. Other numbers he got negative reply. But there was this number – a girl who called herself Sanitha; SMS’ed back. That was the first positive SMS he had got. Any way he got busy chatting with the girl on SMS and she also used to regularly send back messages.

This went along for a long time. They exchanged personal details. She was from West Bengal, and was studying at a premier intuition. She was the only child in her family. Finally my friend and she decided to meet each other. So the date and time were fixed. They were supposed to meet at a very famous mall in the city in the afternoon on the 15th of AUG. My friend was very excited. At last he was going to meet an SMS Pal. He decided that he was going alone.

In the evening he came back beaming. I asked him “What happen?” He replied “You know what? She lied to me.” I said “What?”

“Yea! Her name is not Sanitha; her name is Moumitha” and he went on to tell me about her, her friends, the fun they had at the restaurant. Though I was a bit apprehensive, I was happy for him. He had at last decided to move into the bigger world and make friends. Any way he started, visiting her and her friends regularly, to restaurants, to the beach…He was enjoying the new found friendship. All his friends used to try and woo him, to try and get him to introduce them to some of her friends. He used to always say “no, she is just my friend and I will not take advantage”

I think this friendship went along for a few months before she decided to propose to him. She had started to love him – she confessed. He told her that frankly he was not in it for the “Love”. Any way she convinced him about it and he also agreed – though he never said the words “I LOVE YOU”, he later told me. I also did not take it seriously, and left it alone. He started spending more time with her. He used to spend the weekend going for shopping with her, or going to the beach, going for movies. He even started talking to her for the whole night on the cell phone….

And before I realized it “Holly Shit” this guy was serious about this relationship. He even called up her parents and introduced himself and told them about his intention of marrying her. This went on for I think 3 years or so. By that time I was out of the country with a good job, and he had signed up for his PG in a better college. Whenever I used to call him, he used to talk about her also, and tell me all the fun they had.

By the way I forgot to tell you about this other girl at his new college. They used to call her “Vath” (Duck). She was studying for and UG engineering course. My friend’s class mate’s told him that this girl was watching him and following him everywhere. That was cool eh? Any way, he was deep into his other relationship, and as I had mentioned earlier, he was afraid of girls – so he never had the courage to go and directly speak to the girl. Any way he had fun with the girl following him around. But he made it a point to let her know through “orkut” that he was already in a relationship and was unavailable.

Read Part II of My Love Life to understand the whole story. I know “Falling in Love” is a common thing in India. Though I have liked some of the girls who studied with me; I never had the privilege of “Falling in Love”. Please leave your comments – and let me know what you think of this little story and your own experiences.Similar Posts:

Lucifer Speaking

JMJ — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 18:30:52 +0000

Part III: You Would not believe this…

For those who have not read part 1 & 2; here are the Links:
Part1
Part2

We finally changed out subject and started talking about Botswana. Botswana is the only African country that has a very strong currency (That is after 2 devaluations of the currency by a total of 25% in 2 years) and has been politically stable for the last 40 years or so…and probably the only country on this planet that has lend money to the World Bank. Botswana is a very small country with 1.6Million people. Their main source of income is export of Diamonds and Export of Beef. Apparently the government of Botswana can continue to feed their people for the next 20 years without even another cent as income.

People in Botswana have been traditionally Nomadic Cattle farmers. They have a very relaxed attitude – there is no hurry in Botswana. (You can have a child by the time they process something… )Last 10 to 20 years have seen Botswana grow at a very fast phase. This fast development has been fueled by the money coming in through diamonds. Botswana has a higher percentage of SUV’s that South Africa. All looks so rosy…

Any way my customer started talking about his neighbor. This guy applied for a loan to CIEDA (Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency) to start a business. CEDA is an arm of the Ministry of Trade. Their job is to review proposals from Citizen Entrepreneurs for different ideas, and if the Idea is good – finance the proposal. Very convenient ah? That to at very low interest rates, or even no interest rates and in some cases it is converted into a grant. Any way this guy got approval for finance for setting up a plastic molding factory. They brought in the machinery from somewhere in Europe and set up the operations.

They had only 2 molds – one for plastic spoons and the other for forks. Any way this gentleman starts production and piling it up in his warehouse. My customer happens to visit him at that time. He asked him why he was piling up the stock. The gentleman responded “have not yet received any orders”. Oops! And he was still manufacturing more…

In the international calendar December holidays are considered to be the most important holiday of the year. In Botswana also these holidays start from the mid of December and end by the 3rd of January. By the way, in Botswana they have this custom of having an extra day holiday after a public holiday. And if the public holiday happens to be on a Saturday or Sunday, the following Monday will also be a holiday. Though the holidays are finished by the 3rd of Jan, people start returning only by the mid of Jan.

My customer’s neighbor also went for a holiday. But he left his 4 big air conditions working. Being a good neighbor, my customer tried to call him on his cell phone. He would not pick up the call – he would just cut it off. My customer tried sending him SMS’s. No reply. So as usual he returned by the mid of Jan and came straight to my customers office – and asked him why he was fanatically trying to call him. My customer in turn asked him why he was not picking up the call – to which the gentleman replied “I was on Holiday” and my customer replied “well your aircons were running, I wanted to inform you about it…”

The gentleman’s business did not last very long. He closed down after 6 months of operations. He even gave his 4 air conditioners to the landlord as payment towards 3 month’s airier in rentals. And CEDA took all the machinery and was trying to auction it all to try to recover its money.
There was another similar incident. This guy received a loan for almost BWP 800,000=00 (that is around USD 130,000) from CEDA for setting up some business. He walked straight into the Nisan Showroom, looked at the car’s, choose the car that had the maximum speed printed on the speedometer and gave them the cheque from CEDA. The manager there explained to him that they could not take the cheque, as it was in his name, and that he should go to the bank, deposit it in his account, then withdraw the money required for the car. The gentleman was very upset, He told them that was a very long process and he could not wait.

Two weeks later he was at my customers place. He wanted 100 bucks for petrol in his new merc. My customer was surprised and asked him how he managed to get that car. The gentleman told him the story at Nisan Motors. After that he went to the Merc showroom and the guy’s there took the cheque, and delivered the car within 2 days. (they did all the bank work for him also and since it was a government cheque, there is no way the bank will dishonor it) My customer borrowed him the money, and the guy was gone.

After a few weeks my customer happen to meet him again. This time, he was not driving his merc. So my customer asked him “what happen to your new car?” He told him that he was coming back from this other town with his two girlfriends, and they had an accident and the car was a write off. Also he had forgotten to take any insurance. My customer was shocked and asked him, what he did with the rest of the money, he said he had paid off his girl friend’s home loan. I don’t know what CEDA sold to recover their money…

My customer was telling me – “we are here and making money, cause there are so many of these people here, who don’t know what to do and how to do….”

Am I happy to be in Botswana? Maybe yes…

More on the way. Meanwhile please leave your comments…Similar Posts:

Airtel, Vodafone and the 3G Iphone

Kenney Jacob — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 04:58:02 +0000

Airtel and Vodafone are all set for the final kill with both of them announcing prices and dates for Iphone launch. When the most awaited Iphone comes to India tomorrow, most of us are disappointed. The pricing matches business class phones.

The 8GB version is priced at Rs 31000 and the 16 GB version is priced at Rs 36100. Both prices are a disapponitment considering the fact that my friend owns an Iphone which he unlocked and it only cost him 20000.

In the US AT&T is selling Iphone with a 2 year contract for 199$ (~ Rs 9000). Even the unlocked phones there costs only some close to Rs 25000. Then why should I buy from Airtel of Vodafone ?

Both the operators have started sending out SMS and emails to those who have booked the phones. Vodafone is asking for a deposit of Rs 10000 to get the phone before other do. Looks like they are squeezing it out.

Now whats left to see is that, how many will spend that much money on a phone, which is already having a negative review in the Indian market.Similar Posts:

USSD is Going to Change the Short Code Business

Kenney Jacob — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 19:03:43 +0000

We all are familiar with the short code business because its been all over the media. We saw the TV 2.0 revolution with short codes. Even though an SMS would cost 3 Rs, millions of premium SMSs flowed through carried carrier networks when reality shows became popular.

But still, majority kept themselves away from this, just because of cost of sending a message. 3Rs for GSM networks, 2 RS for CDMA networks and 1Rs for BSNL. But now USSD promises to change all of that. Read my earlier post on USSD here.

Soon voting will be in this format.

Type *XXXX*YYY# and press call to vote.

Eg :- To vote for Kenney press *8888*kenney# and press call button.

(kenney is 536639 on the keypad)

Its much easier than sending and SMS and its faster and most probably free also. Many applications are being developed for the end user using USSD, ranging from fun apps to money transfer.Similar Posts:

Happy BirthDay to Me and My Blog

Kenney Jacob — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 04:35:33 +0000

I turned 25 today and my blog turned 1. Happy BirthDay to me and my blog. Some information about the blog and its performance follows.

Unique Visitors – 93,000

Page Impressions – 140,000

62% of traffic is from referring sites. 30% from search engines and the rest from direct and other unknown sources.

Some of the popular posts are

Maruti Swift Dzire

The Red Dot That Means Your Mobile Warranty is Void

MACFAST Girl Student Commits Suicide – History Repeats

My Four Years of Engineering – Year 1

Computer Science Syllabus – A Post Mortem

Iphone Changes HandSet Business Model

How SMS works

Vanitha, Internet and the Mobile Phone

TataIndicom USB Internet Connection in Linux

Open-Mesh, The Meraki Killer

Top Down Management Vs Bottom Up ManagementSimilar Posts:

FastAlerts SMS Widget For Bloggers Open to Public

Kenney Jacob — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 04:57:58 +0000

The SMS widget we were testing for the last 2 weeks is now open to public for free signup and usage. Prema received more emails than she could handle in past days. Now you need not mail prema, instead you can goto

http://www.widget.fastalerts.in/

and register there.

Also you can customise the widget to match your blogs theme. Bloggers, please share this link with fellow bloggers also.Similar Posts:

Iphone Changes Handset Business Model

Kenney Jacob — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 10:54:17 +0000

The mobile market in India and outside are very different due to the inherent nature of the users and the population. Premium services are slow to pick up in India and operators are focused only on increasing their subscriber base.

Iphone is all set to change all that. Targeting a premium set of users and focusing on the data usage rather than calls or sms, and then with their cool interface and PR stunts they have taken the control from the operator.

Iphone, for the first time in the history of handsets is choosing which operator to partner with. Till now it was the other way round. Operators sqeezed money out of handset manufacturers. Reliance is the best example. There are even rumors that Reliance caused an insurance company to go bankrupt with their handset insurance schemes.

Iphone makes money not only by selling the phone. Apple gets a share of the data revenues from Iphone users. Now that explains the applications that come pre installed with the Iphone. They all are data hungry.

The Iphone phenomena caused the change of power from operator to handset manufacturer and the consumer. Iphone is coming to India soon and it will really upset the existing handset market.Similar Posts:

FastAlerts SMS Widget is Getting Popular

Kenney Jacob — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 06:36:59 +0000

The SMS widget is becoming very popular and Im getting many messages and also queries about the same. Ill make some clarifications about the same now.

The Widget is completly free to use and we do intend to keep it free forver. This is our gift to the blogging community, which has helped us a lot, sharing their knowledge and experience.

The widget is completely safe to use and your mobile number will never be revealed to the sender.

Bloggers, please promote the widget by blogging about it.

Here are some messages that I got within 24 hrs of installation of the widget.

Hi : Lucky

Is this widget free for all time or introductory offer ? Can I blog about this in crankup.net, Shoban : 9895******

Testing … is this what you want as a wordpress plugin ???? : Tony

Chummsss…..wrk chyuvoo nokuvaaa:) : Prema

Hello Its me : Jillmon

This wideget is brought to you by www.fastalerts.inSimilar Posts:

FastAlerts Widget For Bloggers and Publishers

Kenney Jacob — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 12:48:24 +0000

Fellow bloggers and readers,

Check out the widget on the right side of this post. You can SMS me directly from that widget. Type in your comments there and Ill get them on my mobile instantly.

We are now giving away free widgets to bloggers and publishers. If you need a similr widget on your blog or website send a mail to prema@mobme.in with your mobile number and bog address. She will send you a customised widget for you.

This free service is brought to you by www.fastalerts.in – Indias most popular online bulk SMS application.Similar Posts:

Zipped SMS service

Kenney Jacob — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 02:00:25 +0000

According to Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM Standard), the size of each SMS is limited to 160-characters in order to avoid overloading in the standard forward-and-response operation of the SMS server. Larger content of SMS can be sent but they will be segmented over multiple messages, which lead to extra charges among the mobile phone users.

Therefore Euzer Technologies Sdn Bhd has invented a novel and powerful SMS compression formula which we have filed patent at Intellectual Property Corporation of Malaysia (MyIPO) at 15th June 2007. With the 50% compression ratio that can be achieved by ZMS, mobile consumers can send up to 280 characters in a single SMS.Similar Posts: