How to Check Your Smartphone is NavIC-supported?

I have a brand new Mi 11x Pro and yes it supports dual band GPS - that means it comes with NavIC or Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) support. 

For the uninitiated, GPS - the American satnav (satellite navigation) system was de facto in many devices, and initially it connects over L1 band (single band SatNav) - as a result most Satnav support L1 Band only. Later L2 band was also introduced. L1 band means signals are transmitted over 1575.42 MHz band, while L2 band uses 1227.60 MHz. L2 band was exclusively for the Army. 

Later L5 band (1176.45 MHz) came into consideration to use it as a Satnav carrier. The L5 band has a high bandwidth and transmission capability, which results in greatly improved anti-interference capabilities and noise management. GPS can take you within 20 meters of your target, while NaVIC is more precise — it will take you within five meters of the target.

Indian Telecom - End of 2021 Update

T​​hough Indian telecom sector is having a lackluster show for last few years, but some zeal hopefully returning to the tel-tech sector in next 12-18 months. More excitement comes with government's new plans with telecom including 100% FDI in telecom and relief packages for telecom service providers. 

Broadband Scene to be Changed: Wired vs Wireless (4G/5G) vs Satellite Internet, Airtel's OneWeb vs Jio 5G, OneWeb vs Starlink

Though India's broadband scenario is not comparable with global counterpart, the scene can see lots of improvement. Wired vs Wireless debate is going to over soon, as satnet is coming to India at affordable (not cheap) price.

Grofers Bug - Money Deducted but Order Not Placed

I am a regular buyer from Grofers. I heard about a bug on Grofers system - that users complete the order by payment but payment failed or not authorized on Grofers' server, resulting in order is not placed. 

I had a similar experience recently. I first talked with @GrofersCare on Twitter. They sent me a screenshot which clearly shows payment against my order was not authorized. Then I talked with my third party UPI app (these are for eg: GPay, AmazonPay, WhatsappPay etc. ) - they are just the middle man, hence their reply was payment was successful from their side and you have to talk with your bank. In short my money was in limbo. 

List of Camera Sensors Used in Different Smartphones

For future reference purpose post it is. You can also track the evolution of the camera sensors. However I doubt how long I would be updating this post. 

This list is made for my future works for easy find. 

   === 

As mobile photography is improving, smartphone makers are partnering with lens makers. For eg, Huawei-Leica, OnePlus-Hasselblad, Vivo-Zeiss. But before Android or iPhone hits the market, Nokia did some excellent job during the beginning of mobile photography - Nokia had used Zeiss lens in some of its Symbian phones. 

These days most camera sensors are either from Sony (IMX series) or Samsung (Isocell).

OnePlus-Oppo Merger: Impacts

I bought OnePlus 6 way back in 2018, and still using it as my primary phone. I didn't buy another second smartphone til 2020, or didn't upgrade OnePlus 6 as my mobile photography goes pretty fine with OP6. Yes I bought few lens as add-on and they just enlarge the vision of two cameras of OP6. 

As days go by, I must say OnePlus has been able promote themselves as a global company with a market in US - thanks to their Android fork, OxygenOS. 

In the  of June '21 we got the news of merger between OnePlus & Oppo. This is a kind of shock to many OnePlus fanboys - kind of insecurity feeling was propelled among them. Soon after the merger, it's been announced that OnePlus will be a subsidiary of Oppo but will act independently. And we also came to know that the source codes of the OxygenOS and ColorOS will be merged. 

Jio vs Airtel vs Vi - LTE/4G Speed Comparison !

After the amalgamation of Vodafone India and Idea Telecom, a new brand identity emerged in the Indian telecom scenario - Vi (pronounced as we). However analysts believe the new company, though incumbent in terms of operation is way far behind the top two - Jio and Airtel. 

But that does not mean Vi is not offering good services, they are changing their core strategy as per the market needs. Well the change is inevitable, and in the COVID situation it demands more innovation. Moreover globally big telecom players are repositioning them as a digital platform along with good digital services as backbone. 

Vi is not an exception. They are promoting their 4G services as GIGAnet, and many circles they are promoting their 4G services as 'India's fastest 4G'. Well that's not a completely wrong, as Vi 4G network is quite underutilized compared to Jio and Airtel, as Vi lost huge number of subscribers. 

WiFi Adapters for Older Laptops - Whom to Choose?

I am using an old lappy since 2011, and frankly speaking I am quite happy with it. However some stuffs just got faulty - like the speakers and the WiFi-Bluetooth module shits often. So I use an external WiFi USB adapter for some time. TP-Link TL-WN725N is quite great and serves my purpose til date. But as my routers got 5GHz signals I felt the need of 5GHz supported WiFi adapters. But I am tight on my budget - Rs 1200-1300 would be maximum I would spent on it. 

TP-LINK adapter does not support 5GHz WiFi

So after a good time spent over Google searches, I found these 3 WiFi adapter could be my choice. 

Bengali eBook Mega Link List

আমি এই পোস্টটি পাই ফেসবুকে, ২০২০ সালের জুলাই মাসে, দেশ জুড়ে তখন ভরা কোভিড - লোকাল ট্রেন কিনতে চাই বলে একটি গ্রুপে। কিন্তু ফেসবুকের ইন্ডেক্সিং মোটের উপর খারাপই বলা যায়। তাই নিজেই সেভ করে রেখেছিলাম পরে যদি খুঁজে না পাই এই ভেবে। এই সংকলনটি যিনি পোস্ট করেছিলেন তার নাম মনে না রাখার জন্য অসম্ভব ক্ষমাপ্রার্থী।

তবে পোস্টটির শেষে উনি উল্লেখ করেছিলেন, 'PDF link collected by Shamin Rahman. এই পোস্টের সব লিংকগুলো কালেক্ট করা৷ আমি জাস্ট কপি করে লিংকগুলো পেইজে পোস্ট দিয়েছি। অনেক লিংকে epub, ebook লেখা থাকলেও সেগুলো মূলত পিডিএফ এরই লিংক। অনেকের ফোনে সাপোর্ট নাও করতে পারে সেজন্য দুঃখিত৷ অব্যক্ত অনুভূতির এর সাথে থাকার জন্য ধন্যবাদ।' তাই সেই শামিন রহমান ভাইকে অনেক অনেক ধন্যবাদ।

হয়তো ২০২১ সালে এসে এখানকার অনেক লিংক-ই কাজ করবে না। তাও এই লিস্ট যে রকম লম্বা তাতে মানুষজন আবার বাংলা পড়ায় উৎসাহ পাবেন এই আশা রাখি|

Heritage Walk - Serampore - Part 4: In the roads of Seoraphuli

This is the extended heritage trip of Serampore. Adding Seoraphuli to Serampore trip makes sense, because Srirampur/Serampore was part of Seoraphuli Raj Estate. Even the name of Srirampur came from the temple of Ram-Sita, which was founded by Raja Rajchandra Roy in 1753. 

This Raj family was famous for their donation and benevolent works. Goswami family shifted to Srirampore because of them. 

Nistarini Kalibari

193 years old

The temple was established by Raja Harishchandra of Dutta family in 1827 (Bengali year of 1234, in the month of Jaisthya(জ্যৈষ্ঠ), in Shukla Panchami Tithi). Here the deity is goddess Nistarini Kali, a form of Dakshina Kali, wife of god Shiva. It is said the temple is on a Panchamundir Aasan (পঞ্চমুণ্ডির আসন). So there is a temple for Sadashiv also. There is another smaller temple for Devi Annapura aka Mahisarusamarhini Dashabhuja Durga along with devadidev Mahadev, Lakhsmi and Ganesh. There is a temple for Srikrishna also.

COVID-19 Database - List of Websites

COVID-19 (COrona VIrus Disease-2019) is caused by SARS-CoV2, which was earlier known as by nCoV-19 (novel corona virus 2019), first outbreak seen in Wuhan city of China in December 2019. World Health Organization declared COVID-19 as pandemic in March 2020. 

It is a newly discovered RNA virus of Coronavirus group. The common coronavirus HKU1, NL63, OC43 and 229E do not cause much illness in humans.

Heritage Walk - Serampore (Part 3)

If you have jumped to this post, I would suggest to see Part 1 and Part 2 of Heritage Walk, Serampore. 

This is the final part of my Serampore exploration, and by the end of Serampore we extended this trip to Seorafuli/Seoraphully which will be shared in a different post. In the 3rd part of the Serampore walk, the main attraction is Serampore Rajbari or Goswami Mansion, and this final part of the walk is more about us, the Indians. 

 

Seal Mansion

Age 89 years

While moving to right, from the Ferry Ghat, on the way to the Rajbari of Serampore you can't miss the yellow-red-green colored Seal Bari (or Sil Bari or House of Seal Family). The building is still being used by the family members and the building is maintained well. 

The building itself holds the year of foundation - October, 1931. It marks the fact that the building is 89 years of old, rather a new building considering most heritage buildings are of 200+ years old. 

Proper history of the building is unknown. On my search of it on internet, I found some parted information with no strong evidence. It is been told that the Seal family member (Named ?? Motilal Seal) came here from Halisahar, and earned a fortune in the business of coal and built this beautiful mansion. 

Browser Issues: List of Solutions

What I find that my browsers are well customized to cater my needs and help me to do my work in a organized way. 

I am here sharing my top tricks/customerization with different browsers. 

And one thing, I do not use Chrome on desktop. 

Firefox

• Firefox does support 'session restore'

Tools (≣)  → General  → Startup  → Check ⊡ Restore previous session 

• There is another irritating thing happens to me while browsing on Firefox. I have one tab opened, and as I close it, the Firefox gets shut down instead of 'closing the tab & open a new tab'. Simple solution is to click on Home button instead of closing the tab. 

But the best solution is to go to about:config page to prevent closing the last tab from closing Firefox.

browser.tabs.closeWindowWithLastTab = false 

Opera 

Bring back ''Tab Menu' from 'Search Tabs'

https://drrdb.blogspot.com/2020/03/bring-back-tab-menu-on-opera.html

This solution is no more working with further update. 

Recently Closed Tab - shortcut is Ctrl+Shft + T

These days 'Search Tabs' has been revised, you can directly see the list of closed Tabs by clicking on it. 

A primer to install Opera Portable and get best of it: 

https://drrdb.blogspot.com/2018/07/official-opera-portable-how-to-get-best.html

Old post, but still relevant to me..

opera://flags/#easy-files

Drugs being used in SARS-CoV2 induced COVID-19 Diseases v2.0

As we know already COVID-19 had been turned into a pandemic, as announced by WHO. Til August 31st, 2020 there is no cure drug against Covid-19. Vaccines against SARS-CoV2 could be best to tackle this viral disease. There are several drugs which are being used as 'may-work' drugs. The most annoying part for doctors and scientists is we are yet to understand the disease fully. The pathophysiology of COVID-19 is still under microscope, and there are some hypothesis which collectively may be true for this viral infection. Though viral pneumonia is the most common manifestation of this disease, it is multi-systemic hypercoagulatory & inflammatory disease, affecting lungs, hearts, vascular system, brain mostly. 

I wrote down this post on April 13th and updated til September 1st, 2020 and then abandoned that post due to several issues with Blogger format, and  therefore this is the new post.  

Notes regarding Laptop Buying

Though the time is for the smartphones, every week a new smartphone being launched by different companies. And in India there were several desi phone makers - though a handful survived the wrath of 4G and Jio, and rise of Chinese brands had came. Laptops and desktops had seen a fall of demand before 2020. But as COVID 19 pandemic striked, people are put into lockdown, WFH (work from home) regime has begun, the demand of laptops have been skyrocketed. 

I had a laptop bought in 2011 - Lenovo Z570 and it is heavy in today's term. I am looking for a light weight laptop with another 10 year of life. But I found out that taking a decision to buy a laptop is quite tough. (Dec 2020)