Lockerz is down !

 Lockerz is down, as I found on Oct 1st, 2009 at 9:30 AM IST. 

It says : 

"Site off-line

The site is currently not available due to technical problems. Please try again later. Thank you for your understanding."

I attached a screenshot of the page as shown. Probably the site is getting ready for its out-of-beta real launch, and more stocking ! :)

In the mean time, just be informed I sent them a mail regarding some confusions. they replied very soon :

" Thank you for contacting us. Please understand that Lockerz is still in the beta/testing phase of the site. The reason that we cannot yet ship internationally is because we did not expect to have such a large amount of international members before our official launch in October. There are many rules and regulations that a company must follow when dealing with the shipment of free prizes outside of the US. Lockerz has to make sure that we comply with these regulations before we can ship legally.

We still need to determine an official list of countries that we can legally ship to. We also aren't sure yet if any members will have to pay taxes on their deliveries. All of these details will be figured out in the next couple weeks and Lockerz will post notifications on the site for our members! The announcement will be made within the next week.

We welcome international members and encourage them to begin earning PTZ and saving up for the time when we can ship internationally, which will be mid-October. Lockerz thanks you for your patience in this matter.

Thanks for being so passionate about Lockerz! "

Hope this copy-n-paste job will help you to understand and believe on Lockerz ! 

!DEA coming to Kolkata on 12th October ....

Red dominated Mobile sector of Kolkata is going to get a new color - yellow from IDEA CELLULAR ! News published on Bengali daily, ABP confirms that ! 

no plan details has been unfolded till. Call their customer care 9088012345 which is live. 

check out if your area is out of IDEA's yellow coverage - search in your GSM mobile for networks 405 848 is IDEA Kolkata and 405 853 is IDEA WestBengal. 

so on 12/10/09 get a new IDEA connection to enjoy diwali , as you can wish to make calls cheaper !! 

Lockerz ?

I knew about Lockerz from Orkut's 'BSNL Broaband And EVDO/3G' community. They tagged it as 'Internet's new obsession'.  So I managed to get a invitation for Lockerz . ! 

What is lockerz ? I am writing the things which I understand.

• here you can earn points (PTZ) and then redeem goodies.
• here you can earn PTZ for doing anything - watching/downloading/uploading stuffs - well that was told to me, as the site is still in its beta, most of the sections are not working out. The whole site will be live on October, 2009
• sign up - get PTZ, everyday log in get PTZ, invite your friends, they join in - get PTZ, answer daily questions - get PTZ - its simple ! 
• Shipment of goodies - still its to US only, from October 15,2009 they will start international shipments . I guess and hope shipments will be free ! 
• At present, as on 30.09.2009 I can not redeem anything as most items are 'fresh out'. ok they are telling that they will restock soon ! 

From Lockerz.com : (on about Lockerz)

"Lockerz is the place to go to buy the coolest stuff at the lowest prices, watch exclusive video, discover new music, play the hottest games, hang out with your friends - and get rewarded for just about EVERYTHING you do on the site.

Our mission is to be your daily habit, not a site for your parents or grandparents looking for their long-lost friends from Kindergarten.

One other thing you'll love about Lockerz are PTZ (or "Pointz"). PTZ are Lockerz' proprietary loyalty "currency" that you earn whenever you buy, watch, play, share, invite friends, or even just show up on Lockerz. Redeem PTZ at the PTZ Place for incredible prizes, great products and dream experiences.

Too Good to Be True? Why are we doing this? To thank you for joining early. To build a Lockerz community of cool, stylish, cutting-edge people who love to buy great brands. To give you a taste of how PTZ will work when we go live this fall. And to test out different prizes and PTZ levels. That’s key. This version of PTZ Place is a test. PTZ levels will change when the full Lockerz site launches.

Lockerz is set to launch sometime in the Fall 09. Members who sign up now will get to explore and help shape the site before the launch. We hope you'll join us."

Read Lockerz's FAQ:  http://www.lockerz.com/faq

Lockerz's T&Cs : http://www.lockerz.com/terms

So feeling Lockerz is exciting  ~ email me : biswas.rudradeep@gmail.com to get a lockerz invitation ! 

শুভ বিজয়া

শুভ বিজয়ার প্রীতি শুভেচ্ছা ও ভালোবাসা...

Per Second Pulse hits India

So after Tata DoCoMo's Per Second Pulse hits hard to Indians, everyone is trying to follow this trend.

Aircel in Kolkata took it to new and existing customers, free of cost.  (some sources telling its pan India offer ) 

Negative Impact: you can't enjoy any other STVs.

Tata Indicom in Mumbai, Maharashtra and Goa offers same for 60 days for Rs61 STV. 

BSNL and Vodafone also introduces second pulse in some circles. BSNL is going to offer it on its all circles due to Docomo success - added maximum customers in August '09 ! 

already there Indicom offers day-night local calling @ 50p & 25p respectively. 

Well a long time before, when Indicom was a kid in Indian Mobile Industry started same thing - I can remember my dad using Tata Indicom @ 3p/second pulse. Off course that time call rate was higher w.r.t. now. Have a look to Tata Indicom's second pulse : http://www.tata.com/company/releases/inside.aspx?artid=+ebGsrpQpwQ= , which was withdrawn later. 

As Indicom withdrew it, I guessed Docomo may withdrawn it. To add to my belief, Docomo noted as Tariff could be changed as per TRAI or their wishes. Well the note is withdrawn. But fact is second pulse on its second occasion is here to stay and makes operators think about it. ! Docomo acting like a godfather, everyone is following it ! 

Virus Problem - how did I get rid of ?

Having a virus means problem ! whether it's flu virus or computer virus ! but anyway my article is on computer virus !
recently i faced two computer viruses - one is virut on my PC, and 2nd one is sality on my friend's pc.

both of them were detected by avast! AV scanner, as most of us using avast home/pro version for basic computing. but the fact is avast is not the best AV , rather it's best AV as freeware.

win32.virut or win32.sality have some common features - corrupt the .exe files. Deleting these infected files by ur antivirus means ur system gets unstable and u r forced to format ur XP. but as th contaminated most of the '.exe's on ur machine , if u store setups of various programs and run them to install programs after u format & reinstall XP . the infection comes back !! sometimes infection returns even from System Volume Information or Recycled folder - which is a hidden folder on each partition. and avast fails. even one of my fav virus cleaner combofix did nt work out !

virus does increase the size of the .exe files - just like laying eggs by houseflies ! and avast detects it as virus.
there are viruses hidden mostly in the folder of C:/Windows or C:/windows/system32 or C:/windows/system32/drivers
try to kill it via Safemode or using Window Washer(ww), run WW for 'free space washing' for deleting virus contaminated files in System Volume Information or Recycled folder. u should take a look what is running in background - use Process explorer.

the best antivirus to get rid of such infection on ur PC, is KASPERSKY ! it can heal the files ! this is the best part, which avast can't offer ! well KAV is not free, but u can try it for 30 days and to activate trial u need active internet connection or go for piracy - get new licenses as they appear on torrent sites.


*my post was made in hurry, but the conclusion is here : use kaspersky antivirus, as it works best on a moderate resourced PC ! best part is it will heal all files and make u back to work !

UPDATE One of my friends runs a cyber cafe, and as usual his WinXP-powered computers hit by a virus attack, though I am not sure that was virus or spyware. But that disabled Kaspersky Antivirus. I also checked on Task Manager some unwanted .exe files are running from C:/Documents and Settings/User/App Data/Temp [this may be wrong as I am currently on Win7]. I told him to go format way. 


But for home computers, you can check out this helpline- BleepingComputer, it offers ComboFix.exe which saves my ass many times while I was WinXP. 

Kolkata Mobile Arena - a view on August

[the article says my personal experience -  i did not follow any database. rather try to follow the recent trend of market . ]

1st let me straight point out who are operating mobile telephony in Kolkata, Vodafone, Airtel, BSNL, Reliance (CDMA & GSM) , Aircel , Tata Indicom (cdma), Virgin Mobile (cdma), MTS India (cdma) are here.

here, vodafone owns maximum customers, USP of Vodafone is good netwrk and moderate tariff. Second is Airtel , offers services just like Vodafone; just 5-10 rupees plus minus ! but both of them r on best mobile netwrk and at the same time costlier than other !! 

Aircel is getting good no. of customers coz of its Ratecutters, Aircel2Aircel calls@10p ! Oops netwrk often jammed up ! 

Reliance cdma & tata indicom is under risk ! Reliance cdma's jaadu pack for all loc @50p for onetime 555 and 60p all loc for Rs 444 was a big flop ! virgin is another flop story along wth indicom, here people understand what means 1st 3 calls charged and then reduced call rate - a daily rental on consumer ! 

Reliance Smart GSM service - hw bad its ntwrk u cant guess if u dnt use it !! it rolled out services in kolkata before aircel came in town, and still its too bad for customers, well Smart's 35p all local for a starter kit worth Rs 50 worked out, but people are moving out as soon as the offer goes offline after 1st 6months ! 

BSNL - another loser in landlines , airtel n tata walky worked well in PCO business ! bsnl landlines are still the best one one can have even work under powe failure. and u need bsnl broadband u need landlines, as bsnl broadband is on dsl technolgy. watever bsnl broardband is still best in kolkata & suburban as airtel/tata/reliance do not penetrate the whole kolkata pincode area. well bsnl mobile sucks in a lot of way, sms delivery, high default call rate (Rs1.40) for liftime customers, need 2 recharge a 200 recharge to maintain lifetime and withdrawal of sms pack and then reintroducing it, but retails often dnt know bsnl's offers ! and netwrk congestion is there ofcourse.

now come to latest entrant in kolkata- that's MTS India, a joint venture between Russia's Sistema & India' Shyam Gr. MTS's offers are unmatched and attractive ! they have two offers to lure kolkatans - Rs 499 & Rs 99 ! most people are attrctd to MSaver99 as it's one-time power card to offer you calls to all local mobiles(MTS, nonMTS) at just 30p/min! this is awesome offer and as days go people taking this scheme, and come to MSaver 499, this is also one-time power card to offer 100000 mins free MTS-2-MTS, as 150min/day along with 10 sms/day to all local numbers. THis 499 card is bettr than any Gang/Club offer ! if u calculate u will find upto 2027 mid u can use this talkvalue, that means MTS 2 MTS is for almost lifelong ! .... and as cdma operator they brings cheaper handsets. 
MTS network on kolkata is good enough for a new operator and its customer care is also good, as per my personal experiences ! ... however there is a problem with SMS sending & receiving, may be coz of its cdma and can send 160 characters at one throw ! negative point: no data usage scheme from MTS still !! 

**lowest tariff in kolkata from aircel, STV 47, offers 25p/min to all loc calls after 1st 2 min (1st min - Rs1, 2nd min 50p) everyday; it means u need to spend [47+{(.75+.25)x30}] =Rs 97 per month to get local calls at 25p/min ! so you see who is cheaper. MTS is clear winner here. 

a lot of people is now using MTS along with old operator, if MTS offers stay till MNP comes in, all will be burnt out ! 

Now look at the future : tata docomo,gsm venture of tatas is coming soon, probbaly in august and b4 puja season in kolkata idea cellular is planned to have a grand launch here, coming december Unitech may be here !! i feel after MTS, all r late . tata docomo's USP is per second pulse, i.e. 60p/min , MTS is better here too! 

there r certains rules for new operators 
> cheaper tariff for 1st 2/3/6/12 months
> cheaper tariff is applicable on own &other ntwrk !

MTS follws both rules ! and if sky is the limit, MTS reaches the limit ! 
soon we will find docomo & idea's business strategy to beat MTS , let MNP come, tariff will b more attractive , remember 30p = $ 0.00625. 

have nice calling.....