2G configuration settings for Idea Network

Hi folks,
              After struggling to get my 2G internet working on my HTC-G2 handset I thought it would be apt to write a small blog entry to fellow sufferers. After moving to a different state and choosing 2G (I didn't need 3G) I had to struggle to get my phone connect to Idea's 2G network. It took almost 24 hours and 6-7 calls to customer care for them to activate my service. After the so called activation, I was supposed to get an SMS which had the APN settings which would help the device latch onto the network for 2G. Instead I kept getting, "You will receive an SMS with settings after this sms. Please save the settings. Happy browsing". But I kept waiting and waiting and pestering the poor customer care guys. Finally I found out that Idea doesn't have automatic settings for HTC-G2 handsets so I wouldn't be getting any sms. I had to personally go to Idea store and get it configured. I tried to check internet meanwhile and found couple of helpful posts but those settings didn't work for me.
           Finally visiting Idea store I realized the store employees were as clueless as the customer care people regarding HTC-G2 settings. A kind soul in the Hadapsar Idea store gave me his phone for me to copy his settings and see if it worked. It didn't but then he told me , that I would get the settings at the main Idea store in Pune. The whole drama ended when I visited this Idea store and the employee there just made a simple entry into APN and voila internet started working.
         For the select few who don't want to read my struggles here is the setting that is configured on my phone. Hope it works for you.

1. Delete previous APNs if any
2. Go to Settings--> Wireless & Networks --> Mobile Networks --> Access Point Names
3. Create new APN with following settings
      Name : idea
     APN: internet
     rest all : Not set or default
4. Save the APN
5. Check the Data enabled and use 2g networks (for battery life)

Happy browsing!

P.S : Before you do this, Please try  sending sms (text)  SET to 54671. Once you do this, you are supposed to get the settings sent to your phone. It didn't work for me but should work for most phones.

FTPS to a mainframe system

Hi folks,
              Coming back with an interesting technical tidbit. As you all know FTPS is FTP over SSL(or TLS)  which is a key security requirement these days.  If you are using Apache commons FTP api, you would have an excellent support for such a requirement. You can download the Client example from apache website.
             Connecting and storing a file on a remote windows/unix system is pretty straightforward. But there are a couple of settings required for a mainframe system. While initializing the client, make sure the proper underlying protocol(TLS/SSL) and if the connection is implicit or explicit.The client has to know the site commands to execute. This is a very important requirement in mainframe systems. The site command usually will tell the system to the record size, the block size to allocate etc. Also, if you face issues while storing the file, you might have to wrap the target file name with single quotes(''). The other settings on the client might be issuing the PASSV command, setting the protection buffer and setting the data channel protection level.
            The other important thing to note is importing certificates into your keystore. Once you download the certificate, you can follow this link. Once you have imported the certificate to your keystore, you have to ensure that you use valid trust manager with your ftps client. The apache 3.1 commons has this setting. If you don't see it, you might have to upgrade the apache commons jar. You can test all this with your sample client  program. There are couple of tweakings you might have to make depending on the target mainframe Operating system but you should be able to get it working once you figure them out. I would suggest taking the help of mainframe experts to know these particular settings.
            I found writing the client challenging and intriguing. I hope you all do to. I hope this article helps somebody trudging similar waters.

Stars are human

Hi folks,
               Been a long time since I tried to develop an advertising concept. I have been watching a lot of ESPN and NFL network over the past couple of months and still trying to get over the loss in the Superbowl. Anyhow, when I was in Indy, I spoke to a sports reporter who in casual conversation told me a fact that surprised me. I know all sports stars are human, just like you and me. But that day , he said that the biggest star on that team , of the league was a "real deal". He is as real as it comes. Behind all that glamour and star appeal was a genuine football player and normal human being. That struck with me.
              So this idea stuck around with me for a while and I thought it could be developed as a premise for advertising a product. I do not have any product in my mind but the basic outline would be to show the sports star with human emotions, normal and simple ones. Like superstitious with their shoes, shirts. forgetting their wallet/cellphone, unable to figure out their phone. Just a couple of things that would make the audience smile or chuckle.
         
             The advertisement ends with "All of us are human and there is a star in all of us". I know cheesy but I am sure someone can come up with better words.

P.S: reviewing the concept and proof reading this idea, I realized that we can alter this concept to show the extra step that it takes to become a star. I guess the concept can be developed in a way that appeals the audience.

Problem with opening new Tab in Internet Explorer 8

Hello folks,
                    This was a very strange issue I faced on my Windows XP desktop. I upgraded by browser from IE-6 to IE-8. After the upgrade, the browser did not allow me to open a new tab. I also had trouble opening hyperlinks from my mail client. After checking out  and trying all online resources including MSDN, I was unable to fix this issue.
                    After a couple of weeks I found out that, the issue was caused by IE developer BHO add on. So folks, if you are facing a similar issue, just go to to tools-->Internet options--> Manage Add ons and disable this developer add on. It worked for me and I hope it works for you. If this doesn't fix your issue, you can still try the other options listed online.

Thanks

JVM Timezone offset issue

Hey folks,
                  Its been a long long time since I have put an entry. A recent intriguing turn of events got me back here.  Recently, while handling a regular production issue, I noticed that some of dates being logged as part of statistics were off by 5 hours (in GMT timezone).  The occurrence was very random and no particular pattern that we could. The same code and database configuration settings worked on another box.
Now we tried couple of options. We are using Java Timestamp to set the Date column with current System time. The underlying layer was Hibernate/JPA and database Oracle. The operating system is Unix variant.  Couple of the observations after enabling logging were as below
1. The log4j logger always had the correct time in the logs
2.  The correct date with EST timezone was logged at the start and switched to GMT after few job processing
3. The behavior was observed even in other processes which was unusual. Oddy within a transaction, one date was GMT and rest were EST

We tried some of the below options
1. Moving the processes to the box which didn't have the issue. The issue replicated
2. Updating the Java on the box
3. Updating the latest jdbc driver
4. Using Java util Date instead of Timestamp

None of the above changes helped correct  the issue. So our primary guess was, that this was a threading issue. We noticed we had a couple of Date Utility classes which we used for Julian date conversions.  The methods had Calendar being set with a SimpleTimezone which was configured for GMT. We took out this , and used default constructor for Gregorian Calendar and voila!!! the issue was fixed.

We are still investigating as to how the same code worked before and still works on other boxes. This is still a mystery but with a solution in sight it will take us tracing our steps back to find the root cause.

I hope this helps people who have come across such a issue. Adios

The scent of a Woman

Good morning,
                         It has been a rather sparkly start to my tuesday. I was talking to a friend and suddenly the idea for a perfume advertisement struck my head. Now, I am not going to say that this is a good one but I laughed it out when it played in my head and I thought I might share it.  This one is dedicated to all those who see the funny side of things.
                         The scene is set in a stable with a gorgeous female horse rider stepping down from a horse after an equestrian, taking off her helmet and letting her long wavy hair blow out in the wind. She walks her horse back into the stable. All the men around the stable, freeze for a second and acknowledge her presence and her scent. As she  steps into the barn and walks by the numerous box stalls, the silently grazing horses get a whiff of her perfume and look up. The look in their eyes is one of jealously for her horse. The horse she is riding has a grin on his face and walks proudly past his buddies.
                         This is followed by the name of the perfume and catchy line. Again this is a barebones concept and I have many ideas to improve upon it.  For now I will leave it at this and I want to thank my friend for inspiring the idea. Have a lovely day all.

Concept for a hair saloon ad

Hello World,
                      This idea occurred to me a couple of nights ago when I was thinking about having a haircut. Because my hair are already at size 2, I sort of postponed this monthly activity. But it got me thinking about  a concept to advertise for a Hair Saloon chain like Great clips or Sports clip.
                      The basic idea shows an young man/woman 's shots in the elevator each day with different kind of clothing style trying to impress the opposite sex. The end result is not so pleasing. So one day on his/her way home, he/she comes across this saloon and decides to go in and get a new hairstyle. That day as soon as he/she gets into the elevator , the difference is instantaneous. Even with his/her regular jammies he/she gets the deserved attention from everyone in the elevator and walks off with few phone numbers and big smile on his/her face.
                      The slogan for this advertisement could be "Clothes don't always make fashion, you do". This is the gist of the concept which can be edited/enhanced to make it better. Let me know your thoughts.