There is a major concern over storing our valuable data in cloud when compared to storing it in our disks. Yes, its the privacy and security issue. When it comes to critical data like bank details, confidential documents, personal images, proofs.. we need a place where data can be secure, private as well as invulnerable to any means of risks and vandalism. My quest for a service online which overcomes my concern landed me in a different discussion. I seeked my cousin’s advice who is a product manager at Trend Micro. He told me about this trend called Underground Data centers. Its like Old wartime bunkers, caves, mountains turned down into a secure place for establishing Data centers.

When i was exploring about companies that have underground datacenters i came forward with this service called Mount10 (former name Swiss fort Knox) which stores all your date inside the Swiss Alps Mountain. Yeah i am not kidding..!! Mount 10 consists of two independent underground data centers inside the Swiss Alps which are being operated for storing, archiving and securing physical as well as electronic assets. The facilities are equipped with the latest technologies, physically separated by 10km and connected internally as well as with the Internet by a high performance network.

Why we should you go for Underground Data Centers ?

These type of Underground Datacenters are resistant against any known civil, terroristic and military threat including electro magnetic pulse and also offers protection against environmental disasters such as earth quakes, floods, landslides and large-scale fires. They are usually addressed as Zero Risk Infrastructure.

Click the image for full preview

Mount10,  an automated Backup Service (Underground Datacenter ):

The folks at Mount10 had given me a 4GB Free Account for Lifetime Period for testing their servers. With the help of Mount10 Client i can automatically backup and sync in realtime. Mount10 allows you to select an account name, with password and encryption key. This encryption key is the most important part, without which u cannot access your account and it is highly impossible to recover the key. Also you dont have to worry about your confidential and critical data being stored at their servers and being intercepted by someone since Mount10 uses 448-bit encryption technology the highest internet banking standards.

Some highlighted features of Mount10 Includes

• Underground “zero-risk” infrastructure and protection against nuclear, biological or chemical attacks including Full EMP (electro magnetic pulse) protection.
• 24h surveillance, ensured by a civil and military concept
• 448-bit encryption for storage
• Fully automatic backup via the Internet
• Data history with search functionality
• Dual Internet Providers
• Independent supervision
• Nominal Rates for Storage
• Data vaulting to SWISS FORT KNOX
• Manageable Client for All versions of Operating Systems

To know more about their features and service plans, i recommend visiting their site here.

A Very touching one from News 9. Thanks. Is the monkey trained to do so or is that it’s nature ? Who cares ? Until it is used for a good initiative. Congrats News 9. 

I am very concerned about maintaining the records and managing the finance. I always stick to use and get addicted using my online bank accounts but then i am still not able to get an idea of why HDFC would charge me INR827.25 even though i take care to maintain my minimum balance always. But then some consumer and complaint forums had the answer. HDFC has changed their AQB from INR5000 to INR10,000. So by this way a bank customer gets to know about the change in Banking Policy and that too very critical important information like change in AQB.

HDFC Bank does a the following:

• Calls a Customer every occasion to inform about new offers, car loans, free credit card, insurance
• Sends ATM pin no via First class Indian Courier Company
• Asks to Fill a form for Third Party Fund Transfer
• Even sends a Representative to customers house for opening a new current account

But things like change in the AQB is not a critical matter of information right ? Why should we inform our customers, let us post a small snippet of information in the very corner of website in between promotional offers so customers might not be aware of it and we can charge them because they are weak in math.

Finally i had to call HDFC Phone banking service. It is a big puzzle game to play, you have to find the right option to connect a phone banker, if you click any other option then you end up with a single choice PRESS ZERO to QUIT.  Seriously i do not know how i won this game, the phone banker is on line and i told him the whole situation. The kind hearted person at the other end tells me that my AQB is INR10,000 not INR5000. So i asked him all the questions you would ask if you were in my shoes, She told me that “they had mentioned about the change in the footer of the January Bank Statement” and even sent a private letter informing it. I don’t get statements becoz i opted for E-Statements nor did i got one private letter.

As you very well know E-Statements are attached PDFs with password protection. I used to check my E-Statements but there is no mention of it except the covering letter of some two months Email statement which has a four line information of change in AQB without any highlighting. The Email they send you is a big one with a lot of commercial offers listed in the first place and important information in the middle. Would someone care to read an email with 1500 words or just check the attached statement ?

I have a saving account and a current account with HDFC. Now my final decision would be to close it, never mind if they waive me of the fine. Your comments and critics are really appreciated !

You can even pre-order audio cds, tickets, other stuffs like badges, autographed posters too. You can either call 42244000 or log on to enthiran online for orders. Check more Enthiran pics at Director Shankar’s Blog.

As one of the Select bloggers to represent Volkswagen India in the web i am happy to write this first post.  When it comes to Germany engineering, solidity, innovation, safety, state-of-the-art technology the only thing that comes to our mind is Volkswagen. Let me give a quick heads-up on where they are coming from and what they are heading.

Being Europe’s most successful car brand Volkswagen has made successful inroads into the Indian market by presenting itself in a variety of segments as a high volume manufacturer. They launched the globally successful Passat in 2007. By expanding their portfolio and catering to the mid segment, Volkswagen launched one of the brand’s bestselling models, the Jetta, in India in July 2008. Both the sedans are being assembled locally. The iconic New Beetle and the high-end SUV Touareg were introduced in December 2009. Also available is the high-end Phaeton.

From December 12, 2009 the new Pune plant has started rolling-out the hatchback version of the Volkswagen Polo. Recognizing the importance of an extensive dealer network towards scripting a long-term success story, the Volkswagen Group is setting up dealerships spanning the entire country, having in total around 120 dealerships across the country today. They are not only laying the foundation for a substantial increase in sales but also doing the groundwork for offering a first-class all-round service, taking customer satisfaction to the highest level.  The launch of Polo, the hatchback, is a visible testimony to Volkswagen’s vision of “Mobility – Made in India”.

Volkswagen India is working incessantly towards bringing in the right products for the new-age Indian motorist who loves to drive and wants his/her set of wheels to be his companion in all that life throws at him/her. They also endeavor to back this up with an always-with-you approach towards online media. Because at Volkswagen, your expectation is our greatest inspiration!

P.S: The New Vento sedan will be officially unveiled in India on the 6th of July, 2010

They are active on these social media platforms-

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Volkswagenindia

Twitter: http://twitter.com/volkswagenindia

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/volkswagenvwin

You don’t really have to be a professional photographer to bring that effect into your images because the folks at Rollip.com have developed a new site that gives any digital photo a new look and feel by offering filters ranging from 70′s vintage to more modern ones.

They offer 40 various filters as far now and will be adding more filters in the future.. Rollip.com is free for smaller images but they do offer additional high-quality processing which some photographers can use for their professional work.

I’ve tried a couple of filters and really satisfied with the output results. Just check my image below where i opted for a movie effect and how the orginal image transformed into a frame from a movie.

And the Good news is Rollip.com offering 15 pro accounts to readers of this blog on a first come first serve basis. This pro account contains 30 credits which you can use for processing high quality images of yours. If you are interested to try Rollip then
signup using the link below.
Signup | Rollip.com

Follow the Steps below to apply the workaround:

• Hold Shift and Right click the Windows Explorer Icon in Taskbar
• Select properties in it and under the Target Field, replace the existing code with the following code below

%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /n,/e,::{20d04fe0-3aea-1069-a2d8-08002b30309d}

or if you wanted to open a specific drive  you can use the following code

%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /e,d:\Documents

Where d: is the drive letter and Documents is any of the folder u wanted.

• Click Ok and Close the Task bar
• To make this changes to All the occurances of Windows Explorer, Simply Open the Start menu
• All Programs > Accessories and Right Click the Windows Explorer.
• Then Invoke the properties and apply the same code above.

Feel free to comment if you wanted any help over it.

A  project known as AIDA (Affective, Intelligent Driving Agent), a collaborative initiative between MIT and AUDI is a personal driving assistant and an intelligent navigation system.   AIDA is not a traditional navigation system that just predicts the best route between two points, its an intelligent system which sets goals for the driver and helps to achieve it.

I would appreciate if you could watch the above video for understanding the system clearly. An another innovation in Technology…

The best part of AIDA is the personalization which includes analyzing driver behavior, frequently used routes, predicting real time events in the city that would interfere the route, collecting city traffic data as well has maps with incorporated information like business area, shopping area, workplace, night club etc.

“Some faces were tagged. Click to name them !”  Funny Through ! Finally i can Tag Lord Shiva’s photo but does he have an Orkut Profile ?

There are cases and situation that u live in a remote area where your bank doesn’t have an ATM branch but there’s only one ATM over there. Chances are that you either have to spend an extra fee for withdrawing cash with your debit card in another bank’s ATM or u travel far to find your bank ATM. Now u don’t! Effect from April 1 2009, RBI passed a new rule that prevent banks from charging extra fee for withdrawing cash from any Inter Bank ATMs.

Reserve bank of India sought public comments and placed an Approach paper on its website. Based on the analysis of the feedback, they implemented a new framework of service charges. It includes that “For use of other bank ATMs for cash withdrawals its Free – with effect from April 1, 2009.” 

Hurray, now u don’t have to sweat yourself standing in a long queue of ATM when u can simply withdraw FROM ANY ATM NEARBY!

Circular from RBI | link

Thanks: ADI.

Cartoons by Andertoons

This is how we live with google ! don’t we ?

Checkout what happens when some guys used the blackberry strom to control the real F1 car. Yeah, it’s True.. By using the phone’s built-in accelerometer for turning the phone like a steering wheel control of car’s direction. They tested it with a toy car and after uploading their video, a msg pinged from McLaren Mercedes Team to adopted the same system for controlling  Lewis Hamilton’s actual F1 car. .

                                                                (photo by visualpanic). Used under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic.

While opening my inbox, i found this mail called “joy of living a simple life” and thought it was just the usual forwards, but i felt it not..Yeah, this superb info makes everyone realize and feel the importance of living a simple life.. I cannot find the real source of who wrote this but if you are one of them, kindly mail me.. i wanted to meet you!  Guys, please read his info below and get to know why he is so special. A very interesting mail that will surely ping u r mind…

What is wrong in Living a Simple and Happy Life?

 The recent changes have brought in fear and worry in most of the people on how to manage the coming years.

Last 5 to 6 years, the importance of using money properly has lost its relevance. Just blindly copying unwanted culture has brought in high expectations, expenditure beyond proportion and artificial inflation across society.  

The recent incident in December has made everyone to talk about the greediness of few individuals and also about the methods used to grow the company. Though I am not justifying the same, I honestly want to ask the question, what moral standards do all of us have to talk about it?

Most of the people (IT and other high earning Employees)  have borrowed loans, 100% loan amount, for houses and Cars varying between 60 Lakhs to 1 Crore, paying EMI in the range of Rs 30K to 60K. Everyone assumed that the external world will go on like that. For those who got stocks, the expectation was that the stock value would grow in multiples within 1 or 2 years. Last few years the expectation of stock market is also the same. Everyone knows it is like gambling (simple mathematics knows it is not possible for it to grow) but still wanted to play around and make easy money.

Fundamentally the greediness in everyone has brought in the current state of affairs across the world and hence STOP blaming anyone for the same except our own selves.

What is the best all of us can do at this point of time? Let us all go back and look at our parents & ancestors and see how they lived life. Most of them lived a very simple and contended materialistic life and they were very happy with it.

Look at Abdul Kalam and other few great leaders. They are living a very simple life in spite of being popular and can afford a luxurious life. My father a lawyer by profession at the age of 81 still goes to the court by auto. Even in Wipro few of us, who are working for more than a decade live in rented houses and use only compact cars. The excess money is being donated for social benefit.   

People like them are all passionate about the Job that they are doing and that passion alone is making them to grow stronger and stronger. Instead of choosing a career that will pay more money or focusing on external materialistic things alone, be passionate about the career or the Job that you are doing and that will give immense satisfaction. 

The world is not going to be same again, it will still go through a lot of changes but let’s us not worry and fear. If you look at the history, crossing several thousands of years, right from Satya yuga, Thretha yuga, Dwapra yuga and the current Kali yuga, even great people and leaders went through difficult times.  Everyone has to go through a difficult time however great he or she is because Nature wants to cut the ego of every Human being and make them humbler and simpler. There are no exceptions and hence be ready to learn from the experience of difficult times.

There is nothing wrong in leading a Simple life – loan free and minimum expectation – makes one to enjoy every moment of life. Even if you have to take a loan, at the time of need, follow the 80:20 rule, 20% is loan and 80% your own investment. Even if you have taken a big loan, at worst situation, without bothering about the family circle etc, be ready to walk away without being possessed or sentimental about the item. 

Success is not in materialism, Success is not what position or status you have in your Company or Society.

Real Success is if you can be at peace within yourself in every moment of your life. 

Every Day Practice Silence for 10 minutes. It will slowly change you from an animalistic nature to being a Good Human being, caring & sharing for others. Finally it will take you to the Divine nature, Truth / Ultimate Silence, where you are aware that you are everything.

As Guruji Viswanath always says “Life is to be lived, respected and celebrated”

May God Bless you all to get the knowledge of True Wisdom and to lead a really Happy and Peaceful Life… 

(The Information above is a full extract from a forward mail, if you hold copyright or if you feel this informatin should not be listed here, kindly mail me or comment over here..)

I tried Song Catcher, Hello tune search etc and the only result is i wasted my money calling them and allast i found the hello tunes code in the Album cover of Yuvvraaj maybe this the reason why they insist us to buy orginal cds ? .. lol and i like to share it.

My current hello tune is Tu Meri Dost Hain…and next tune would be Shano Shano.. if u want Vodafone or any other service provider’s caller tune codes do leave a comment, i will try to search and update the post again..

Yuvvraaj is a forthcoming movie produced and directed by Subhash Ghai and music composed by the music legend A.R Rahman… according to the director the film is about the arrogance and overconfidence of contemporary youth. “Everyone wants to be a rock star, regardless of whether they have the morals to go with the appellation.” (Wikipedia).

Lets come to music, this film has 9 tracks with one remix. The tracks are as follows

1. Main Hoon Yuvvraaj – Salman Khan
2. Tu Meri Dost Hai – Benny Dayal, Shreya Ghoshal & A R Rahman
3. Shano Shano – Sonu Nigam, Srinivas, Karthik, Timmy, Sunaina, Vivienne Pocha & Tina
4. Tu Muskura – Alka Yagnik & Javed Ali
5. Mastam Mastam – Sonu Nigam, Alka Yagnik, Naresh & Benny
6. Zindagi – Srinivas
7. Dil Ka Rishta – Sonu Nigam, Roop Kumar Rathod, A R Rahman, Clinton Cerejo, Suzanne D’Mello, Vivinenne Pocha
8. Manmohini Morey – Vijay Prakash
9. Shano – Remix – Krishna Cheta

The most highlighting and my favourite song is Tu meri dost hai which starts with Rahmanjhi’s humm and the next favourite are mastam mastam which has a good background scores.. Zindagi song is melodious and sweet with srinivas’s magic voice making the song good to hear always.. while Manmohini Morey’s Vijay prakash’s voice is awesome which is similiar to Shankar Mahadevan.

Shano shano is a kind of hip hop song which is very good to hear with beats and english verses in middle. All other songs are not upto expectations..

I managed to get pass by a friend wearing INFORMAL dress (incase of not wearing dhothi and pagdi or kurta pyjama) but just a newly brought Pepe tees. It was 10 pm and the drum roll already started and people warming up for the bash. For first half an hour, i was chatting with my friends and known passer bys later they started distributing dandiya sticks and it was a complete mess that everyone is rushing out to fetch one, it was like i used to get tickets for Rajinkanth film…lol Although this is not a big deal for me as i am well experienced(first day first show movie freak) to get pairs of sticks.

The event started by we (the boys) forming the outer circle and the girls (inner circle). This time i was completely disappointed as there was no-coperation between girls. i should teach them some time…yeah really some even started hitting my hands instead of my sticks. We got fed up completely and quit ourself out of circle by forming a group among ourselves. its kind of swapping places while dancing and tried to attract public.. he he lol.. don’t look at me it was not my idea.

The dandiya got over by 1.30 pm and i almost forgot that i was standing idle for half an hour coz i was oogling at the girls over there……:-) I met many of my college mates as they were one of the organizers and not even a single girl frm my college. In the mean time, i tried to interpret frequencies of many girls, some are modulating well and responsed back while some are still using analogue wave while mine is digital.. i hope u can understand about what i am talking. The last part was a bumper lucky draw which ended with selection of some lucky members. Around 1.45 pm it was raining outside but myself and my friend sagar managed to get home by 2 pm yeah just 15 mins…

So saturday nite was over….and today is sunday…i want to kill time.. any ideas…?

Until august mid, i was a member of GOLD Gym which is well furnished and have high tech machines and accessories with fully air conditioned, but to meet their demands they increased the monthly fee to 800 rupees per month which i simply cannot afford for it. So i joined power house this september which is 300 per month. yeah that’s afforadable! But the place is very warm, no air conditioner or even fans run very slow. Good place for people who wish to reduce fat but for body building its not the best. After going one week with a two weeks interval started going now.

my today’s excerise is for chest.. well i wanted to maintain a strict diet for my body but unfortunately what smells around neighbours kitchen fails me..

Today my dad was not feeling well and mum asked me to buy a loaf of Garlic Bread from Hot Breads.. Well this is a good chance as i dont like taking bread for my dinner, i simply have a reason to fast tonight. With virtual imagination of people who have good abs running in my mind, i entered into hot breads and pulled the neatly packed garlic bread out of its case.

All of a sudden, my eyes turned over the neatly shaped up cake. its chocolaty and was in the shape of pyramid and thats why they named it as chocolate pyramid..each pyramid costs rs.38/-. i almost gave the garlic bread packet to the counter and checked it out… then suddenly something inside my mind wanted me to buy the chocolaty cake and so without thinking about my diet plan, my hand was pointing over the cake.

Since its 9.20 pm and mum would be waiting for me, i rushed up passing huge traffic and taking shortcuts.. well after reaching home, i wondered that i left the chocolate pyramid in Hot breads! Then handover the Garlic bread, took my bike again from my garage and rushed to the same spot.. Thank god the waiter for waiting with my choco neatly packed… gave him a smile, said thanks and was rushing again in the same shortcut route..

atlast opened up the fresh pack, removed the cover enlcosed over the cake, and almost i cannot handle the cake coz its more fragile than i ever thought.. that much soft…its very tasty and yum…yummyyy..hmmm

Ok enough, i can smell the gas buring from your stomach…ha ha.. and with a glass of milk my dinner is over hurray… to tense you all i posted the pic of cake… enjoy watching it..

The January Auto Expo 2008 shocked public when Yamaha unveiled their R15. This is the most talk of the nation bike of the year. Since the bike is built based on the race technology behind Yamaha’s famous R1 series it’s usually a concise ripped version of the R1 bike, some of its characteristics have been splendidly reproduced in the YZF-R15. This world class design is enhanced by Yamaha for Indian Markets which is developed by intelligent research and care. So the strategy begins to beat the Indian Automobile Competition by now.

Its time to for Indians to showcase their bike talents, to burn your roads you don’t need to be a millionaire until you own a Yamaha YZF R15. At the moment I thought Bajaj was acting as a monopoly on ruling two wheeler competitions by Pulsar but not anymore… Yamaha YZF is not a Family bike which u can ride with your wife, son, daughter, etc but it is a Racer bike. Yamaha R15 has its own style and royalty among Teens its usually a macho bike for serious racers and a college bike for students. In short this is what all the hungry youths of India have been waiting for. So probably you wait is answered when Yamaha YZF R15 is available in affordable price.

What makes R15 special?

Liquid cooling for engines for providing stable performance, reduce vibrations, and offer a high quality ride.  DiASil Cylinder delivers better heat dissipation and less weight. Fuel Injection in Yamaha R15 has two components.  One is the sensors that gather information on the engine’s operation, and other is the fuel supply system that supplies gasoline.  Deltabox Frame forms the basis for riding comfort and handling performance, this is usually seen in Yamaha R1 bikes.

Yamaha represents this bike’s design as R design showing a strong bodyline and macho look for the bike.  As for now officially there’s no announcement about the price but rumor’s and insider information hopes us that the price might be less than 90,000/- rupees in India.

This bike is available in two glamorous colors Blue and Graphite. Other Specifications of the bike can been seen in their official site.

What’s your suggestion and expectation about the bike and its price?