Applications to calculate new auto rickshaw fare in Bangalore

From August 1st, auto rickshaw fare in Bangalore has increased. And rickshaw drivers haven’t yet updated their meters with new fare system. Government has given them three months of time to update the meter with new fare. Until then we have to rely on whatever driver says or look into the chart which most of the drivers carry.

I wrote a simple web application which calculates new fare based on old. Since it is based on math, application returns accurate fare like Rs.27.29, use your brains to round it up

www.techbangalore.com/auto

I haven’t added any style or images to the pages to make it load quickly on mobile devices. But, if you like to have it in a form of application which can work offline, Sriki has built them. He had created one for Android and one for Java, get them here.

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It is so hard to find and sell used products online. I know there are tons of websites which allow listing of such things. But, they ask you too many questions, you have to go through complex registration process & most importantly your phone number is exposed to public and spam bots. Roopit is different from those. I loved the way they put it on their FAQ:

How do I Login/Register?

You don’t. There is no Username or password. Nope. And, We don’t need your e-mail, your mother’s maiden name or your childhood favorite hero. But, we do need your mobile number. Roopit identifies you with your mobile. If you are selling, You post with your mobile number. If you are buying, You receive the contact details of the seller as an SMS on your mobile.

You can track a product via SMS which you are looking to buy. Simple! Just send what you are looking for to 9916766748. For ex: “Maruti 800″.

Visit Roopit and start buying/selling!!

David SR on Barcamp Bangalore mailing list sent out this very useful information which was collected by Srikanth. Thanks to his efforts on finding this valuable information. So next time if you face one of the following situations, just note down the vehicle number!

• Refusal to come to destination (Any destination!!!).
• Demanding excess fare.
• Using rough language.
• Cheat the public, for e.g. taking longer routes.
• Faulty Meter.

Once you have the vehicle number noted, you can either register a complaint by sending an email or by calling appropriate RTO (numbers given later in this post)

Note the vehicle number (KA-XX-YY-ZZZZ) and email the details to
transcom@kar.nic.in , Based on the prefix XX (for example KA-01), complaint
will be sent to one of the ten RTO offices in Bangalore and adjacent taluk
areas.

Based on the vehicle number, you can also call appropriate RTO & register complaint, Following are the phone numbers:

* KA-01 Koramangala 080-25533525
* KA-02 Rajajinagar 080-23324104
* KA-03 Indiranagar 080-25254310
* KA-04 Yeshwantpur 080-23376039
* KA-05 Jayanagar 080-26630989
* KA-41 Gyanabharthi 080-28602833
* KA-50 Yelahanka 080-28561366
* KA-51 Electronic City 080-25735522
* KA-52 NeelaMangala 08234-285598
* KA-53 KR Puram 080-25617951

Once the complaint is received at the corresponding office, a notice is
issued to the address of the vehicle’s registered owner, requiring him/her
to turn up at the RTO office within 7 working days. Every RTO has about 10
IMV’s (Inspector of Motor Vehicles) who seize the vehicles which don’t
report to the RTO.

The penalty levied from the auto-waalas is Rs.100 under section 200.

There is also a helpline number – 080-22353785 available Monday – Saturday from 10:00 am – 5:30 pm on which one can call to lodge complaints.

As Srikanth found out, the Koramangala RTO office received only 5 complaints a month!! I guess that’s purely because lack of awareness about this system. Let’s spread the word!

Airtel has recently rolled out a new GPRS pack which is very competitive with GPRS packs offered by new providers like Docomo. With new plan user gets unlimited browsing all through the month for just Rs.98. Though Airtel calls it “unlimited”, it comes with fair usage policy limit of 2Gb. If you are using GPRS only on mobile device, 2Gb is more than enough for a month. If you are connecting your laptop or PC to browse internet, then you should be counting on those bits!

To get this plan, just “Easy Recharge” with Rs.98. But, before that activate Mobile Office on your number. To do that dial *567*11# & you will get a confirmation message. Dialing this activates basic plan of Mobile Office, which is 30paise/50kb, pay as you browse. After you ERecharge with Rs.98, it overrides the basic plan & you will get 2Gb of free browsing. It’s instant

If you don’t have settings send ALL to 543210

Update:

To check your usage details & expiry date of the pack dial *123*10#

BSNL Bangalore is offering a scheme for celebrating Christmas & New year called ‘Gift a Broadband…’. You can just walk in to any BSNL customer service center & purchase a Greeting Card enclosed with gift voucher to avail a new broadband connection. This greeting card costs you just Rs.100.  Following are the benefits user who applies for new broadband gets using this scheme:

• Free Broadband Starter Plan (Rs.250) for a month
• No rental on modem for a month (Rs.80)
• No installation charges (Rs.250)

So total value is Rs.580 & you are paying only Rs.100. This scheme is valid only till 31st Jan 2010 & user has to apply for broadband within that date.

Nokia has launched it’s new touch phone 5230 in Bangalore. This phone is mainly targeted at youth who love to listen to music. Nokia 5230 features 3.2 inch touch screen with dedicated music control buttons, 2MP camera, 70MB internal memory, microSD slot expandable upto 16GB. Nokia 5230 runs on Symbian S60 5th edition & that opens up doors to huge number of apps for the device. MRP of the phone is Rs.8,499, yeah I was shocked too! It’s pretty affordable & value for money I should say.

Check out the launch event video happened at Garuda mall, Bangalore:

Embedded Systems Conference (ESC) 2009 is happening in Bangalore from 22nd to 24th of this month. ESC 2009 is India’s largest conference & expo on embedded systems. Following is the excerpt from the event official website:

This year with – New Sessions, New Tracks, New Opportunities, you have a choice between full and half-day tutorials, as well as 75-minute sessions in Programmable logic, Datacom/Telecom, Real-Time Kernels, Developing for ARM, Linux and Open-Source Software, Multi-core and Multi-threaded Processing and more.

Attendees will hear and get theirs queries answered from embedded engineering Veterans such as R.C. Cofer, Ben Harding, Rob O’Shana, Niall Cooling, Serge Plangol, Praveen Goyal, Jagdish Bisawa, and many more at technical classes.

There are different packages available for registration, you can choose one. Or you can also go for an All Access package if you are more serious about the event. ESC is also giving away 250 Engineers Survival Kit for 250 pre registered visitors who turn up at the event. With Engineers Survival Kit you can get free access to following:

• Access to Industry sponsored Technical sessions

• Access to Keynote addresses

• Platform to explore new ideas

• Peer-to-peer networking

• Opportunity to get your queries resolved by experts

• Meet the Design Team

• Access to Exhibition floor from July 22 -24   (Wednesday – Friday)

So, hurry up to register for the event & avail early bird offer for conference or get a Engineer Survival Kit to have access to expo. More details about the event on ESC Official Website

Though I started photo blogging long back, not shared it with anyone. www.bangalorepix.com is the photo blog I started long back. Photos posted at Bangalore Pix are live pictures. I posts them from phone itself once I take them. I am using Flickr’s post to blog feature which creates unique email ID to post pictures. Sending pictures to that ID will not only posts it to Flickr, but also specified blog. I am also using twitterfeed to post tweets about the new photo entry to Twitter.

The Big Idea:

The big idea behind this photo blog will come into picture in long run. There are drastic changes happening in Bangalore due to Bangalore Metro & few road widening projects. As I keep posting pictures of different streets, popular places of Bangalore, in few years you can see how the place was looking before & now. And that’s keep continuing! I have taken this as my lifetime project & keep posting till my end! It will be a great experience to look back at old pictures taken years ago.

Right now I am using Nokia E66 to post the pictures, but picture quality is not so good since it has 3.2 MP camera. It will be great if somebody sponsors a good camera phone (Nokia? Sony Erricson? Samsung?)

Proto.in, India?s popular Start Up event is coming back again with 5th edition. Proto.in 5th edition is announced to happen in Bangalore in Jan 09. Though clear dates & venue are not mentioned yet. Nomination for the even is open till December 15th, so go ahead & nominate yourself.

Links: Proto.in , Proto.in Blog

Update: Nomination seem to be still open, register yourself.

originally written by the100rabh

Barcamp Bangalore 7 is announced to be on 13-14 Sept 2008. Its an event where there are no spectators, only participants.

Barcamps turn around the notion of a formal conference by eliminating the distinction between speakers and delegates. Everyone is a participant, and is equally welcome to propose a discussion, speak up or add to on a topic they are familiar with. Barcamps are organized and evangelized largely through the web by a community driven, collective organizational process using a wiki as a tool. A Barcamp consists of sessions proposed and scheduled each day by attendees, mostly on-site and “on the fly”, typically using white boards or paper taped to the wall. While Barcamps are loosely structured, there are rules. All attendees are encouraged to present, facilitate or contribute to a session. Everyone is also asked to share information and experiences of the event, both live and after the event, via blogging, photo sharing, social bookmarking, wiki-ing, and IRC.

You can register a.k.a. participate using the following options

1. Take a session or discussion – http://barcampbangalore.org/wiki/BCB7_Sessions
2. Suggest a talk you would like to hear. – http://barcampbangalore.org/wiki/BCB7_Talk_Ideas
3. Give a Demo of your product – http://barcampbangalore.org/wiki/BCB7_Demos
4. Volunteer – http://barcampbangalore.org/wiki/BCB7_Volunteers

More on Barcamps at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BarCamp