Sanjay Varanasi

About 2 weeks back, I was exploring for ways to save on my ATT bills and wireless minutes and came across these Skype phones. The $130+ price tags scared me initially, but I continued my exploration of Skype phones, its Unlimited plans and other features while comparing it to the regular Landline+Wireless combo.
ATT Local land phone cost me $17 per month and I could only call up Kingsville telephones. What a waste. My wireless burned my pocket with a hefty $40 tag for just 450minutes. Skype, on the other hand, had this Unlimited US and Canada calling thing for $2.95 a month. Unlimited actually meant 10,000 minutes according to its Fair-Usage policy. That was still a lot! Also, a SkypeIn number cost me about $3 per month when bought for a whole year. This means, you could use Skype to call and receive calls to and from all over the US for about $6 per month. I was impressed.

But, I live in a apartment with 3 other guys. So, I thought it would be really wonderful if our room had a unlimited calling facility like Skype, but detached from the computer. Thats when I went back to the heavily priced Skype phones. The first one to impress me was the Philips VOIP841. I have always liked products from Philips. The best price I could get was on Buy.com for $112, but it was on backorder. I waited and waited and waited for nearly 2 weeks after which I simply canceled the order. I simply went to Ebay and ordered a NetGear SPH200D Skype phone for $130. Why not the philips? Coz all of the philips phones were priced at a huge profit margin. Nowhere near the $112 that I saw on Buy.com

This Netgear phone arrived by DHL today and I was quite excited to get it after all the wait since I ordered the Philips phone. I tore open the package and quickly had a look at the contents. What I had were a Base Station, one docking station, the handset, two adapters - one for the base station, and one for the docking station, one ethernet cable and one telephone cable, and two AAA rechargeable batteries.

The first thing I did was to plug in the Base station to the outlet near my desktop computer and then connect it to my ADSL Router’s Ethernet port. My Router has 4 ports. Next, I put in the two AAA batteries into the handset which triggered it to turn itself on. I was welcomed with a colorful screen. The setup started by itself. It first asked for my Country code, then for my Area code. Then the screen where I was either supposed to Login using my existing Skype ID or Create a new Skype ID.

As soon as I ordered the phone, I had signed up for the Unlimited US calling feature with SkypeIn number.

So, I entered this information into the tiny little screen. It was quite easy doing so. The password reveals each letter while typing and then becomes an asterisk. Nice feature.

After that, the handset tell me that its signing-in and within seconds, I see my userID on the screen. All my Skype contacts were automatically imported into my phone.

I tried my first call to my own mobile. I was asked if I wanted to use SkypeOut or the Landline. Since I didn’t have a landline, I chose SkypeOut. The handset had no problem connecting to the base station and then to my mobile phone number and within a few seconds I see my SkypeIn number on my mobile phone. I cannot comment on the call quality as such, coz I’m yet to talk to anybody using the phone.

Later, I explored the Menu items. It was pretty easy navigating all the various menu items and configuration.
The handset also allowed me to set the default calling setting to SkypeOut to the phone didn’t keep asking me for the same each time I tried calling someone.

Well, these were my first impressions. I’d give it a 4.5/5 just for the lack of a stable feeling when you hold the handset. It doesn’t feel as sturdy and strong as a regular mobile phone or a cordless handset. I’ll let you know more about the Netgear SPH200D phone in a few more days once I start using it widely, in a hope to reduce my minutes usage.

If you’ve been reading through my last few posts, you might have noticed my anti-google ideas and efforts to stay away from it. I’ve been hoping to find an alternative to Google all along, and am happy to atleast see a prospective replacement for the same.

It seems like an team of ex-google employees have decided to take on the web giant - Google itself. Cuil - pronounced as ‘cool’ is what they have managed to come up with.

Already, I could find people on the web moaning about the way Cuil handles search results. The layout, the search quality etc.

I’m not sure about the quality, as I’m yet to really put Cuil to use, but the searches I’ve done so far have left me quite unhappy. That aside, as far as the format of the search results go, I must say I’m really happy. For the first time, some web company has taken the effort to do something that differs from the usual Googlish looking results page(though I still hate the routine usage of blue for titles and green for the links). Search results have been scattered ( in a good way) all about the page, with some description of websites to go along with it. This, I think is a useful feature.

Anyways, I just added Cuil to Firefox using a link on their website’s footer. A few days of proper usage and testing will decide the fate of this hopefull challenge to Google.

Its been literally months since someone has heard this from my mouth. Ever since I started living alone in a room in the US, I stopped getting bored, coz I literally had no time in between all chores, and I had made quiet a few friends by the end of the semester.

Now, I’m in India. Initially, I explored many known and unknown places in Hyderabad, and also had lots and lots of fun. Now, I feel I’ve nothing better to do than to laze around all day with the computer, watch TV, go to the Gym, eat, and sleep. Once in a while I do watch a freaking movie. And thats all. In all these days in Hyderabad, I’ve not made a single new friend, neither have I done something new.There is nothing I do here that I cannot do in the US.

Today, for the first time in mo-o-o-nths I’d say I’m bored. If you have any suggestions to get me out of this boredom, please feel free to comment.

Yep. I had started the countdown at 56 days to go back home. Now I have exactly 28 days to go back to the US. I had thought of doing a lot more than what I actually have. I explored tons of unexplored place at Hyderabad, and have watched so many movies I just lost count. (Btw, I’m watching one tomorrow and one the day after). I made a trip to Warangal to refresh old memories. I’m also planning to make a trip to Ramagundam - the place I spent most of my childhood and teenage years. Sometimes I feel like I’d never been to the US, and was in India all the while. But, when I think of the Aug11th deadline, my heart skips a beat or two. I feel sad, and nervous whenever I’m reminded of the fact that this is only a trip. Then I realise that the trip to the US has done me a lot of good, and has gained me a lot of experience and there is more to come when I go back. I hope to come back to India as a polished, well-experienced, and confident man.

If possible, I’d like to sneak a trip or two to places (anywhere in India) I’ve never been to. Alone. It’d be a nice adventure.

Meanwhile, I still have a few things pending, the first of which is to search for a nice topic for my Graduate project, so I can start working on it as quickly as possible. Then come shoes, ties, clothes, non-perishable food items and more.

Each day spent is one more day lost in this trip to India, and I want to make the most of it. I wish to back to the US with pleasant memories of this age-old country.

Cya!

If you have noticed the tag line, then you might be wondering what its all about. RedWeb is my brand name for the services I’m soon going to launch.

In another three days, I’m going to launch “Red” Webhosting. The confirmed launch date is the 20th of June. The website is currently under construction, and lots of minute details are being paid attention to. As a sneak peek, we let you know that the website is going to be very ‘red’. There are gonna be all shades of Red , dark red, blood red, etc.  Nothing that’ll blow your mind off, but something that’ll definitely catch your eye.

More services and ideas are in the pipeline, but right now, I’m looking forward to consolidating myself in the webhosting industry before spreading my wings to other territories.

Check the website out : RedWeb