{balki Blog}
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Greatly inspired by the mostly lukewarm success of my attempts to keep up with friends and family in the United States, (see my previous article Calling friends and family is fun again!) I ventured on to haunt my numerous international family members and friends. And by the way, when I say “international”, I mean my home-country India and by “numerous family members and friends”, I mean my mom.

Firstly, I needed to find an easy way to dial the numbers (especially with super long international numbers). However, since Cingular’s international rates are a little too steep (click on the image to the left to see calling rates to India), I also had to find a clean way to include Sargam Direct’s (a reliable and cheap calling card provider) toll-free number as part of each international phone number. I call India mostly during the weekend, so wasting air-time on my cell phone was not a big concern.

Anyways, after a few minutes of research, I came out with an easy way of calling any international number using a calling card, with only two clicks! The key is to add appropriate number of “p”s after the calling card number (to signify the pauses while the phone waits for the automated instructions to complete) before entering the actual international phone number and/or the secret PIN for the calling card. In Sargam Direct’s case I had to use two “p”s.

PS: This technique will most likely work on many cell phones, not just smartphones. However, the process might be slightly different. For example, on my wife’s Motorola Razr, I had to “insert a pause” instead of adding the letter “p” in between.

Technorati : Calling cards, Cell phone, smartphone
Del.icio.us : Calling cards, Cell phone, smartphone

I have a recurring weekly reminder on my Outlook Tasks to call friends and family (along with their names and phone numbers for convenience). But I also have to admit that I always mark that reminder complete even though I don’t call a single person on that list. I feel like it is too much hassle to open the reminder on my computer, find my phone, and dial the number (or find that contact’s details on the phone). Not anymore!! Not after I started leveraging my new Cingular 2125.

Over the last 2 weeks, I reviewed various Task management software and settled on the 3rd party Oxios ToDo List (because the native Task List that comes with Windows Mobile 5.0 OS sucks big time). Oxios ToDo list does a fantastic job of simulating the Task list on my Outlook, and beyond. One of the best features is the “links view”. In the above case, when the reminder (to call) pops up on my phone, I simply open the reminder and switch to Links View and voila! All the phone numbers and email addresses turn into hyperlinks. I can call any of the numbers (or send an email) by merely selecting that number. How convenient and smart is that?

So, friends and family, if you start getting calls from me more often than usual it does not necessarily mean I am liking you more. It only means that “calling people is super easy and fun again“!!

Technorati : Cingular 2125, smartphone

Yesterday we were on a Delta plane from Jacksonville, FL to Atlanta which was completely full. Maanasa and I did not get our seats together. I was in the middle seat in the center row so I requested my two neighbors if one of them could switch seats with Maanasa who was sitting in the row behind me in the middle seat. But neither of them was willing to give up the comfort of their aisle seat to go sit in a middle seat. I thought it was not a big deal since it was only a 45-minute flight, and I needed some private time anyways. I dozed off before the plane took off and did not wake up until after the flight landed in Atlanta. Apparently many flights were delayed, including our own flight while I was happily sleeping and the flight crew had no updated information on the various connecting flights and the passengers were getting quite anxious to find out their connecting flight status. We also had to take a connecting flight from Atlanta to Portland an hour later, so as the plane slowly taxied to the gate, I wanted to check the status. I pulled out my shiny new Cingular 2125 powered with unlimited MediaNet service, navigated to the five-alive site optimized for viewing on PDAs and smartphones, and keyed in the flight number to find out to my delight, that our flight was still on schedule. Both my neighbors watched me do this, but only one of them dared to be shameless enough to ask me to check her flight status. It so happened that even though her connecting flight was supposed to have left already, it was behind schedule and she still had 20 minutes to make it. So, she quickly gathered her stuff and zoomed out of the plane to try her luck (and check her running speed!). The other guy probably had too much ego to ask me for help, so he called up his wife and asked her to turn on the computer and yelled instructions on his cell phone on how to check the flight status on www.delta.com. I could clearly see him thinking he should have offered Maanasa his seat when I requested. The payback was swift, powerful and painful!

Anyways, I felt it was a nice sweet (geeky) sort of my own brand of revenge.

If I were to turn this incident into a MasterCard commercial, I would end it with the following quote:
A month’s subscription to MediaNet Unlimited: 19.99
The desperate, helpless, contrite look on your enemy’s face: Priceless!

PS: All fun aside, I am not the kind of a person who would take pride in a geeky revenge. I would have gladly offered to look up this guy’s connecting flight status, if I knew for sure he actually needed it.

Technorati : Medianet, cingular, five-alive
Flickr : Medianet, cingular, five-alive