Rss

Jobless…

Lost my job as System Administrator at a call center. The reason for this purely personal for my ex-boss and her family. So I’m not going to touch those details. This blog post will be about the things I did and learnt there.

The maintenance job
When I was hired, the network and Windows domain was already setup by the previous SA. I had to do the maintenance: checking if all PCs were operational and were able to make calls through them.

Setting up an Apache server
I had setup an Apache server so that foreign clients could access the local files. Of course, the directory had to be password protected.

The proper port had to be configured in the router so as requests on port 80 would be redirected to the Apache server.

Setting up DynDNS
The company was using Emtel wimax 2 mbps connection. The IP address was dynamic. Negotiating with Emtel to get a fixed IP was taking a long time. So I resorted to DynDNS. It did the job kinda well.

Adding more PCs to the existing domain.
As the company grew, i has to add new PCs to the domain.
Had to create users on the Windows 2003 server. Then configure the Windows 7 clients to have a static IP with the DNS pointing to the server.

Shared planning spreadsheet
The agents were sharing a piece of paper to record their meetings. So i made a shared excel document which everyone could open at the same time to write in their datas.

Moving recordings to new Hard-Drive
Space was not enough on the Hard-Drive to store recordings of call. I had to migrate the recording to a new drive while keeping the network path the same. I did the transition during the night using RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) so as the operation would run as smoothly as possible.

Plans i had in mind for the future
I was planning to write a VoIP program which would be using a database rather than the caller agents have to manually copy/paste the numbers to be dialed from an Excel sheet to a VoIP app. The recordings audio files would have been stored in the database. The operation manager could “validate” calls and hence the recordings would have been available on the internet automatically. But unfortunately i lost the job.

Anyways, i might have done tiny jobs but i learnt lots of things. Learning is what’s important in life. ;)

UoM WiFi worked fine with my Android

All i had to do was to connect to the uomstudent network and i fill it with my WiFi username and password. And it connected just like iPhones and iPods do :-)

image

image
I will therefore NOT get Orange’s sucky internet plan nor switch to Emtel or Chili.

Long live WiFi at UoM :-D

Results: How much data Android eats on standby

I had made an experiment to estimate how much data Android consumes on idle. The results are now out!

I lent my sister the phone today as she needed it for school. So i took the reading earlier at 07:30.

So, for 8hrs and 30 mins, my money went from Rs 22.20 to Rs 20.84 i.e. Rs 1.36 (453KB)

Here’s the extrapolated costs:-
1 hr: Rs 0.16 (53KB)
1 day: Rs 3.84 (1MB)
1 week: Rs 26.88 (9MB)
1 month: Rs 107.52 (35MB)

Assumptions:-
- You will be out all the time.
When you are at home, you would be connected to WiFi therefore it won’t be reflected on your bill
- No browsing or other manual Internet tasks were carried out.
In real life, you’ll be browsing the net occasionally, checking Facebook, reading emails etc.

Conclusion:-
It is a very bad idea to let your Android Internet on while you are out. It is recommended to deactivate data network whenever you don’t need it.

Experiment: How much data Android eats on standby

It is 23:00 now. I switched off WiFi on my Android Gingerbread phone till 09:00 tomorrow. The phone will be on idle mode the whole time.

I currently have Rs 22.20 for Web on my Emtel SIM. We’ll see how much money remains tomorrow after 10 hrs from now. :D

 

MTML’s Chili alongside Emtel and Orange???

According to their subscriber’s Terms and Conditions, it seems like they do not allow you to place your Chili SIM in a dual SIM mobile phone which is connected to another operator such as Emtel and Orange.

I don’t have a dual-SIM mobile phone for now but i’m wondering just in case.

Is it worth to get mobile internet in Mauritius?

I’m really enjoying my Android phone at home using internet from the Orange livebox.

A mobile phone is supposed to be used outdoors. I know Emtel is the best when coming to mobile internet due to both their technologies and tariffs (haven’t inquired about MTML services yet). Anyways, when you buy a new phone, you are gifted with either Emtel or Orange sims.

Now, i have to see if the move to Emtel is really profitable. I don’t know how much data Androids eat normally. Emtel might be cheaper but to what extent will it be cheap?

I’ve enabled:-

Google: Contacts, gmail, Calendar
Facebook: Contacts, Status updates of my contacts, Calender
Twitter: Contacts , Tweets of my contacts.
Wordpress: Comments notifications.

I wonder what would happen if i would be on a paid data plan.

Maybe i can just forget about getting mobile internet and hope WiFi will be made available around the country. The University of Mauritius has already implemented WiFi on it’s campus and I’ve heard that municipalities also provide it to the public.

image

For now, i’m putting my phone on 2G mode to save energy :)

DTC: The New SMS

Since last week in Mauritus, SMS prices of Orange and Emtel has risen up to 70cents/- and for MTML 10cents/- i’ve heard. So, instead pf using SMS, why not make calls of 0.5-1 mins known as Do Tiny Calls :P . Call rate is 1.20/min.

Pros:-
  • Information can travell in both directions
  • Costs almost the same or even less.
  • Only the person needing you pays

 Cons:-

  • It is cheaper for people on the same network only
  • Girls might have a *little* difficulty to have conversation of less than 1 minute :D