Pondicherry is not a big city. It is more of a tourist spot, and a place wehre politicians fight for their superiority within their 1 KM zones in which they would be elected. I have never cared to learn what it is called in English, but in Tamil, they call it Toguthi. Well, so, the only standard ISP in Pondicherry just like in most parts of India is BSNL, and both at my home and at my office I am stuck with BSNL broadband, since the only other good one available is Airtel and it has a very very limited coverage here in Pondicherry.

Untill a few months ago, the connection at my home used to give problems every once in a while, and I used to get heavy bills for the usage though I doubt that I have used it much in those days, but right now, with the unlimited connections both at home and office, there is hardly any downtime.

Untill recently. At the office, for the past few days in the afternoon hours a strange phenomenon is occuring when the internet goes off every 150 seconds and comes back after every 150 seconds. This simply acts an an on off cycle with a frequency of 150 seconds. I got fed up with this today and went directl to the exchange, and they asked me to bring the modem stating that it si a modem problem. Bloody hell, a modem will not act like this, it is the problem of the bloody port to which our line is connected.

They are just refusing to check it, and when I came back to the office I found that net is working without the breaks, but with latency of upto 5 seconds per ping. I wonder how that works, there is a delay of 5 seconds or over 5000 ms for every request that is sent every second. Maybe the people programmed ubuntu know what they have been doing, and its correct.

Well, what is the best way to get connected to the internet? People these days do say that there will be satellite downlinks all over India in the next 2 years, and India would be the next server farm, and that you will find one in every home. If BSNL doesnt improve its service, people will start hosting their servers on BSNL, and that would come down as another black mark for India. The Land of Bad Servers.

For anyone who wants to begin creating a podcast,

podcast hosting is the most important part. Before

anyone can begin distributing a podcast, they need a

place to store the files and keep the feed file that will

tell their subscribers about the new episodes available.

The first thing required is a domain name where the site

will be located. Many domain registrars are available

who will help one register a domain name for a small

fee. Once the domain is registered, hosting is required,

and again there are many different companies willing to

do the hosting for a small fee. One of those is

bluehost.com, but many others are available. When

looking for a host, the most important thing is to make

sure that a lot bandwidth and storage space is available

and cheap. Since podcasting deals with large media

files, a lot of Fentraphen disk space will be taken up storing the

files and bandwidth will be eaten quickly when they are

downloaded by the subscribers.

After podcast hosting has been acquired, it needs to be

used and the site needs to be set up. The DNS addresses

of the site need to be set to the addresses that the host

provides you so that the servers that underlie the

internet will know where your site is. DNS addresses

can be set by going to the domain registrar that was

used to acquire the domain and inputting the addresses

provided by the host. After that is done, it will take a

few days before the master list the domain registar

updates will be shared throughout the internet and all

name servers know where to find your specific domain.

You can then go about setting up your own podcast.

Using the podcast hosting you now have, you will need

to look at the disk space allocated to the site using

something called and FTP browser. The host may

provide one as part of their hosting plan, but if not there

are many available free to choose from. Using the FTP

browser, log on to the host and upload a file called

dircaster.php after editing it to fit the specifics of the

site. Dircaster.php is an easy to find piece of coding that

generates a feed file by looking at the contents of its

directory or folder. The individual episodes to be

podcasted can then be uploaded to the same folder as

dircaster.php for cataloging. Make sure that all the meta

data, or information about the mp3 file is correct before

doing so.

The podcast hosting you now have will allow you to

distribute a podcast. It would be best to upload more to

the site, such as an index page that tells visitors about

the podcast and provides the address of the file

dircaster.php on your site. When they subscribe to that

file, the podcast client thy use will access it and recieve

information about the latest podcasts available.

I have been using the same modem for about a year now, and for the past few days since I got my unlimited data transfer internet connection, I am surprised at the work that it is doing. Im downloading all sorts of stuff, and my computer is plugged to a 2 hour backup power supply as well, and Pondicherry not being a very bad place wehre power goes down for over 2 hours at a streatch, the computer and the modem have literally been running for over 2 months at a streatch now since july 1st when my plan changed to unlimited 512 kbps from 2 Mbps limited.

If you are outside India, you might laugh at this cos probably you might be on a 10 Mbps connection while reading this, but in India owning a 512 Kbps connection is like owning a Rolls Royce. I sit before this computer for about 6 hours a day, and therefore the AC runs here for 6 hours a day, and for the remaining 18 hours, the door is locked, and so are all windows, and the heat is almost unbearable when I enter the room in the evening after office. No AC, no ventilation, and all the heat that is released by the cpu and the modem have no means of getting out of the room.

Well, anyways, I am quite happy with the performance of the modem, as I know that the computer has to perform, after all it is a server quality cpu that I have got, and the monitor is always turned off, as I use it only when I am working on the PC. The modem is working in its full effecienty round the clock for the past 2 months, during which time it has not been turned off even once, and BSNL too has been able to supply data all this while (i think i am sure that there has been no downtime or anything), though at the office it is a different story.

People somehow manage to make money by fooling people in one way or another. The latest trend is to start a fake credit report site.

Some one starts a site, advertises it, makes visitors visit it and apply for a report. They say they take a few days to process the report and get it ready, and they never get back. Then what do they do with all the details that they have collected from you? Well, they sell it.

It is the best way to collect the biggest bunch of personal finance details from any person. These details are sold to other credit card providers and agents who would pay quite well for information of this sort.

And, once they get hold of your information, you start getting spam mails and phone calls, and ultimately you will end up changing your phone number and your email address.