Chennai Express (2013): Watch with your mind off but heart on...

Chennai Express is the perfect movie, if you are still having that last glance at the almirah top before sleeping or waking up on every thump noise you hear (sure after-effects of The Conjuring).

Soumitra and myself went for the Paid Preview Show. The movie actually started late because of some technical issues but from the first scene it was a hilarious journey. Giving a hand to Meena Lochni (Deepika Padukone) board the train and when thanked humorously commenting "Meri toh aadat hai, pehle bhi ki hai" hint sparks the humor fire which is in store. Shahrukh's overacting cant be seen as a negative, perhaps his character demanded the same. You would see a lot of SRK-posture templates throughout the movie. The other character's portrayal, body language is commendable. Everything seemed very much in place. Lot of Tamil dialogues (with no visual subtitles though) but not to worry the characters on screen would help you in translating. Songs sound nice and electric, well thats expected from a south impression-ed movie. 

Action sequels wise there are car-blasting, men-flying scenes again expected from Rohit Shetty. Pleasant surprise was a song dedicated to Mr. Rajnikant also mentioned in the opening credits. 

Storywise there's nothing different, but that would not set you back, because the humor and light hearted feeling which the movie provides is soothing. Though this story would have been real hit if it was released around 2005 or so.

Businesswise, well when you have an actor-cum-entertainer-cum-serious-businessman like SRK, you are in real treat of how he knows the tricks to magnet a movie to huge bucks. Great publicity, an android game, dedication to Mr. Rajnikanth and Tamil dialogues (ssshh... I just disclosed this movie's secret trade).

Overall surely a onetime watch for everyone, and for Deepika and SRK fans well number is not a constraint for you guys.
Dont watch this movie hoping of a jaw dropping story but watch it just to enjoy the moments of life and togetherness with that special one...
Lastly Eid Mubarak to everyone... Good Day aur duwaon me yaad rakhna.

The Worst Case Scenario: Credit Card Blocked due to fraudulent transactions.

The Worst Case Scenario: Credit Card Blocked due to fraudulent transactions.

First bike, first credit card, first of everything else are always exciting. The anxious wait related to the same and then on the day the innervoice which proudly loops within "Yes, this is finally mine..."

For some its a happy moment and for some the happiest one.

I had the same feeling too on a couple of occasions including the currently discussed topic: Credit Card.

I got myself a CC a year back and since then I had been swiping it often. I would definitely like to assert that a CC indeed helps you understand the value of money and regularize your spending habits. (Well there would be people who will not agree to me on this).

I use the credit card for swiping at physical POS (point-of-sale machines, the ones at the malls/petrol pumps etc) as well as for online purchases.

For online purchases, you need to enter the CC number, Expiry date, CVV number and a password (often referred as Verified-By-Visa code or MasterCard-SecureCode) For more details you can visit: https://www.3dsecure.icicibank.com . This Verified-By-Visa code or MasterCard-SecureCode is an additional protection only for Indian transactions and for not transactions on international sites.

This is where the problem happened. I recently registered a domain name for a friend, but used this international service provider and as the rulebook says, I was not asked the above VBV code (my CC being a VISA card). Post this successful transaction, I noticed my card to be blocked and neither swiping nor online transactions were successful and was shown a "Transaction Declined" error.

Within a couple of hours, the bank customer care called me informing that the CC has been blocked due to repeated fraudulent international transaction attempts of USD3000, USD300 and USD300 respectively.

Hopefully the transactions didnot go through as the bank's security algorithm's were swift enough to deactivate my card right away. The bank issued a new credit card within 10 days and have been swiping it since then.

This has been learning for me and I will be even more careful while transacting on international portals.

I would like to share some cautious  tips hoping such a situation not to happen with you:

1. An InternetSecuritySuite is highly recommended, if not atleast an Antivirus. Do remember that security suites are not "fill-it-forget-it" applications, you need to ensure from time to time that the program license and virus database is updated. (An expired license will deactivate the antivirus and will make your system vulnerable to the WWW). You can download Avast Antivirus (www.avast.com) etc or buy a copy of the same.

2. Do not transact on multiple PC's until its something very urgent. The reason is pretty much like driving someone else's car. You dont know what the existing problems are in it and you might end up paying for any resultant damages because of you. Always try transacting only on your system or mobile phone.

3. If you use a mobile phone for monetary transactions, be sure to install a mobile antivirus. There are a couple of free mobile antiviruses as well as paid ones (Try Kaspersky mobile).

4. Gone are the days when we used only one web browser, currently we are spoilt by options. We have IE, Firefox, Opera, Chrome, Safari etc. and almost all of them come with custom addons/extensions to make your online life easier. Though all addons/extensions have disclaimers like they wouldn't peep into your browsing data and behavior, but to stay on a safer side why believe them? Always do digital transactions on only one browser and ensure that you are using the most updated version of the browser with no addons/extensions installed.

5. If you intend to make an international transaction prior to it call the bank's customer care and ensure the protection the bank has implemented so that the transaction is fraud free.

I will update the list as and when I come across any future changes to my secure surfing habits.

Your comments/feedback are welcomed. This post is from my tech blog The Indian TechDatabase www.techdatabase.co.nr . Do visit the same for tech scoops and updates.

Deb

The new beast in house: HeroMoto Hunk 2012

Around 9 months back, here in this blog I posted my anger and desperation of the unability of purchasing a vehicle in Mumbai/Pune or broadly in Maharashtra. Situation was grim, even after producing all the possible identity proofs to the showroom I was not successful. Well I thanked Mr Ajmal Kasab for all these. Finally here I am maintaining my promise I made at the end of that post, The beast is finally mine. You can view the post I am referring to by clicking here.

The beast has a name.

Past September 2012 I relocated back to Bangalore and two months later I debuted my vehicular journey by purchasing the most underrated Hero MotoCorp's Hunk 2012 single disc variant (http://www.heromotocorp.com/en-in/hunk). As the organization rightly refers, this is not a bike but a beast. You can feel the roaring vibration. I am not going into reviews now as there would be an extensive shootout of the bike in near future. This beast in his first month has been successful in stealing stares at traffic jams, hearing praise at petrol stations and needless to say answered a couple of "kitna deta hai? (whats the mileage?)" queries too. :)

To the rest in simple words, Hero Hunk is a 150CC bike, not a racing one, very good for city as well as highway rides, shares a slightly differently tuned Honda Unicorn engine with fluctuating mileage figures.

Below are a couple of snaps of the beast with a brief specification details.

Hero MotoCorp Hunk 2012 with Kickstart.

Type: Air cooled, 4 - stroke single cylinder

Displacement : 149.2 c.c

Max. Power: 10.6 kW (14.4 Ps) @ 8500rpm

Max. Torque: 12.80 N - m @ 6500 rpm

Gear box: 5 Speed constant mesh

Front: Telescopic hydraulic shock absorbers

Rear: Swing arm with nitrox GRS (Gas reservoir suspension)

Front Brake: Dia 240 mm Disc

Rear Brake: Dia 130 mm

Ground Clearance : 145 mm

Fuel Tank Capacity: 12.4 litres

Kerb Weight: 146 kgs

The beast and me.

The beast waiting outside my office, for darkness to fall.

Night is the time for the beast to prowl.

For more snaps do visit my Facebook album.

For a brief video review of the Beast you can also visit my Youtube channel.

Thanks for reading this post and for being a part of my happiness. Ting!

Bricks or flowers all welcome!

Debaroon Gupta

August 15 2012 - 66th year of corruption, bribery, atrocities, exploitation...

Year after Year, are we celebrating this??

Procrastination is good at times.. technically.

Procrastination is an evil... they say. We delay tasks which needs to be done now, thinking "aahh.. will do later, i am having lots of time", where from one aspect this habit can cause serious implications but again this habit can be a boon too... how? Read on...


Most of us use Skype for daily communications mostly in office scenario and my organization is no different. But of late, theres these mass virus on skype pretending to be sent from your skype contact with text like:
Your Funny pic.. Hohoho
check out... bitly.com/12345
And once you click this malware, it silently installs nasty programs like keyloggers which records your keystrokes etc.


During the initial days of the virus even I received alerts like this but I procrastinated thinking that "aahhh... interesting pic, will check later, anyway it will be in my chat history", but eventually forgot to check the link and voila!! I was not affected by the virus!! Yeah!


So  dear all... Technically procrastination is good.. :P
but this doesnot include the emails... you still need to respond to emails and urgent chats on time...


To all who are affected by this virus... CHANGE your skype password first... then search google for a solution., (sorry even I am not having a solution right now, but will provide as soon I come across one...)


Guys, another thing.. we have viruses related to almost everything Microsoft... Windows OS, Win Mobile OS and now Skype??? weird..


Have a great weekend! Happy skype'ing.


_Debaroon Jee (G.)