At last! The Training is Complete.

Three exhausting days! THREE exhausting days! And the training is complete now.

The matter was mainly on detecting illegal drug business and taking precautions against them. The training course contained various modules on types of drugs, their manufacturing process, how they are consumed etc. The course material was provided by United Nations Office of Drug Control. I must say it was extremely effective. Now to implement the various techniques is up to us.

The vast course covered almost every aspect needed to prevent illegal drug business. From different type of drugs, their origin, how they are cultivated or synthesized to their intended customers. From the way drugs are transported to the various methods to detect those concealed in various materials. It was a complete picture of the whole system and our approach to it. Sadly, I could not say much about the material. The course material is so secret that it is even not allowed to install on personal computers, let alone discuss it in the public.

Here I have to make a confession. I am not drug controlling kind of guy, or I don't have any urge to work in such circumstances. But the learning had certainly provided some knowledge which may in some other time would come handy. Anything learnt is never wasted. I hope this would help me to perform my duty better.

I am lucky that I am still alive.

December is becoming the month of nightmare to me. When every one enjoying this year-ending festive season I am suffering from various misfortunes.
First, there was blood clots in my left eye, then sudden accident of my mother, then my sister broke her ankle and now throughout this whole week, several railway related problems.
On Monday, on my way to office, I along with several other co-passengers had to walk a couple of kilometers to reach our destination. Because, a train engine got malfunctioned on the same track our train was running. And for that disturbance, the returning train was also running late for at least 45 minutes. I reached home very late.
On Tuesday too, I had to catch an another train instead of the usual one that I am accustomed with, cause it was late that night too. Again, I reached home late.
Wednesday had been better comparatively. Though the train started late by ten minutes, it made up the time by running extremely well.
Now, today I had to attend the training, so set out early and caught a train. But to my utter misfortune, the train stopped in between two stations, later to be found out that the Railway Track was broken at the joint. The driver had rightly detected it and stopped the train just before the broken joint and prevented a possible derailment. Again, I reached the Training Centre late. But, today I had no regret. I am lucky that I am still alive and is able to write down my experience.
Now looking for a better weekend ahead.

The Training is On.

The training on Drug Law Enforcement is going on. The training is actually sponsored by United Nations. The study material and related computer based training course is provided by them. It is an interactive computer programme in which I came to know a lot about Narcotic Drugs and similar Psychotropic substances. As for the natural substances, how they are harvested, in what climate they are grown, and how they are converted to their final form. I also learned how to differentiate those various drugs from each other, what are their effects on addicts and what are symptoms that are seen on the people who are taking those illegal drugs for a considerable time. Overall, the training is extremely useful for Government Officers like us who can take effective initiatives in preventing the underground drug business.

Waiting for tomorrow to know more.

I have to attend a Computer Based Training on Drug Law Enforcement at NACEN, Kolkata.

Today had been an easy day at office, very little work pressure and a lot of time to spend at some other matters. Untill, a letter addressed to me came. I had to attend a training on a matter of which I had nothing to deal with, atleast now. This type of training is mainly required by them who work at some preventive unit. Me, working at Law Branch, had no use of them. But, who cares? And more disgusting part of the training is that I have none known to me.
OK! Nothing learnt in this life is wasted. If, ever I got posted in a PU again, this training could be of my use. But, I have no wish for that posting. It had been a bitter experience for me. So, waiting for a boring time ahead.

My New Xperia Neo V Review

After a long time, I bought a brand new mobile phone for none other than myself. It had been a very long wait. A wait for atleast 6 months. The last time I bought a phone for myself was in early 2009. Then I bought five different phones for my family members, but not for me.

There were plenty of devices to consider, from the beautiful Nokia Lumia 800 to the mighty Samsung Galaxy Note. But the price factor was there to consider and the functionality I needed. I wanted my phone to be like me, not a very big or extremely power hungry. It just needed to fulfill the tasks I let it to do. And it should be future proof for atleast 1 and half year, till I need to buy my next phone. Regarding the facts, there remains very few choices. Sammy Galaxy S, HTC Wildfire, Motorola Defy and SE Ray and Neo V. And there were Nokia symbian series, which were not desirable at all. And I personally prefer SE for their looks and user interface.

This xperia neo V fulfills almost every criteria that I set. It had a decent screen size, not very big but extremely useful for watching movies and to type little everyday notes. A bigger screen would have helped more but it would require more space. Bigger screens need bigger pockets and for a person like me with not so big hands they would look odd. There screen size is perfect for me. It's easy to navigate by one hand in emergency, cause the thumb can reach the whole screen. So in terms of usability the size is as perfect as it could be.

The phone ships with Android 2.3.4 on board and that's the primary reason why I chose this over Galaxy S. And it has a 1 GHz processor which is better than the 600 MHz one of the HTC Wildfire. It is though not the front runner in the game of improving processors, it can handle everyday tasks smoothly and effectively.

It's a known fact that htc has the best UI in the Android family. But in my point of view SE comes a close second. Here I had to make some adjustments, but I do not regret for that. SE provides a decent interface and the timescape as an app is great. I found myself using it very often for my social networking. By default, it has facebook, twitter, call and sms listed. There are plenty of apps for timescape available in the android market. I myself loaded the gmail app and it's working like a charm. Also the menu system and the five home screen looks dazzling specially when live wallpapers are set, though they sucks the battery more. The app menu can be arranged by different order, like own order, or the installed last are shown first etc. Editing the menu is also very easy as well as finding the desired menu. The settings app comes handy when dealing with the running apps. The media player is good looking, though I haven't use the video player very much till now. The gallery has different menu styles too with 3D style or plain grid style. Overall using the device is very easy and requires little effort to learn the new things when migrating from a different operating system.

There is a office suite preloaded in this phone which can be used as a document viewer, sadly to edit or creat new documents the preloaded app needed to get upgraded. But android market comes handy by providing free office suit through downloads. A built in adobe reader comes handy in viewing PDF documents. I.viewed pretty large documents and there was no lag. Apps like Facebook, twitter are built in and they can be used from deep within. Sharing via facebook from anywhere on the mobile is a breeze thanks to the facebook in xperia feature. Overall in terms of built in features the phone is not very good as a full fledged office suit was a necessity for me. But that point was solved.

The phone comes with a 5 megapixel camera and a VGA camera at the front for video calls or self imaging. Both the cameras did their job decently and I have no regret. The SE Ray has a 8 megapixel camera but it had a smaller screen which is not very easy for typing. And as a regular user I don't usually shoot videos a lot, and when I needed I have a handycam for those tasks. Actually, I wonder how many people would use their mobile phones for capturing serious video? This phone packs a good 720p video capturing camera which is more than sufficient.

I often need to type some as I write blogs, and this mobile being an android one, is compatible to WordPress or blogger apps. The QWERTY keypad in portrait mode is ok, but in landscape mode the full QWERTY keypad is awesome. SE also has a very good supportive software to make typing easy. It is called predictive text input. A separate toolbar appears above the four row keypad showing the most appropriate words and can be chosen from them. Though sometimes it gets annoying but I found it extremely useful. Blogging is as easy as it was on any desktop.

Overall, in my point of view, this phone is the best for me right now. Sony Ericsson has made a great phone and I am very happy with this piece of mine.

What is Love

We all live for love. We all search for love. We all want to love and be loved. But what is love?

Love is like air! it always surround us, soothes us with its gentle touch. It gives us the reason of our life. We can feel it but cant see it directly.

Love is a feeling that enrich our inner-selves. We tend to love something which is closer to our heart. And by loving something we tend to make ourselves suitable for that lovable, which in turn makes ourselves a better person, a lovable person. There is a difference between love and lust. Lust desires from us, makes us vulnerable. But someone who loves is free from such vulnerabilities. Love never demands anything, all it knows is love.

Love is in the heart of a mother, Love is in the touch of a brother, Love is in the eyes of a person who love. True love never seeks any reason for its being, it's just there. We are all being loved by someone and for that love we are still alive. We don't need to find it. All we need is to realize that it is there and forever will be.

Love can never be described, love can never be given a definition, love is what it is and the best way to describe love is: to Love.

"Love is like a violin. The music may stop now and then, but the strings remain forever."

Lunar Eclipse, as photographed by me from Burdwan

Lunar Eclipse, as photographed by me from Burdwan on 10/12/2011 at about 07:30pm. I must say they are very bad in quality, but I lack the necessary instruments to photograph such events too. The pictures are a bit shaky, sorry!

A Horrible Experience

Have you ever experienced what it feels when you came to know that the train is going to be late for about an hour or two after a long day with exhausting workload at office, and that on Friday?
I have! Today!
I work at a Government office which deals with various court and law matters. Generally, Friday is the day when most numbers of litigation come. There are many reason behind it, I am not going into them. The fact is I have to work harder on Fridays. And today was an EXTREME Friday. However, when the official work was completed, the only thing that came to mind is the comfort of ‘home sweet home’. Also there was a plan to go to the inauguration ceremony of a Book-fair at my native town. I reached the railway station just in time and went directly to the usual platform, only to find the train was not there! After waiting several minutes, an announcement was made that, that particular train would be delayed due to some problems in other railway division!
The mind devastated, the heart broke and the hopes were sunk. All the plans for Friday night were cancelled.
Then I caught a local train, which has numerous stoppages before my destination. It was a journey of about two and half hours. But that was not the end of suffering- it was the beginning of a new kind! The local train was a overly crowded one, because it was office closing time. Somehow I got a place to stand and after some stations to sit. Then came the second problem.
Probably the brakes of the train were not working properly- jerking unexpectedly, shaking during acceleration and deceleration and sounding horrible noise. So the driver might have decided to drive it slower than the usual speed. What hurt more was the express train in which I generally travel got past the local train I was travelling- making my journey more intolerable. I reached my destination after almost two hours late than the scheduled time.
But the icing on the cake was not done yet. When I came out of the station premises, no public transport was available. No bus, no auto! Only some Rickshaws- refusing to go and Cabs- who were asking for a price, if I had that much money to spend everyday, I would have bought an iPhone 4S in every second month. Having no other options I started walking- it was nearly two and half kilometres from the station and took around 30 minutes and finally, finally and FINALLY I reached the home.

The horrible experience was over!

Ban on Facebook, Google: Is It Justified?

The Central Govt of India has threatened to take steps to censor the 'objectionable' online contents shared via google or facebook or sites like that. But they did not define the term 'objectionable'. It may turn out to be any content which some person in the Govt or some leader finding not according to their consent and hence declared as objectionable! It could be any writing criticizing the Govt policy, and they proceed to block it cause it was objectionable. In India we talk about freedom of speech, then what is the reason for such censorship? Are they going to make India a second China?

For people like us the online world carries a highly significant role in expressing our views on different issues and sharing the same. Here we can express our feelings, our thoughts, to the fullest extent which may not be possible in real life due to several reasons which vary from person to person. For so many people the online world has created a separate space which they can monitor and live according to their own will hiding from the ever fault-catching eye of the so-called society.

The main reason for the Govt in taking  the steps is the abuse of their leaders through nasty pictures or other media. And the other is use of abusive languages towards a certain religion. But this also be taken into account that not all people are sharing or encouraging such mindless and very badly humoured jokes. General people do not appreciate such low-class activities. It's only a fraction of internet users who get some fun out of those abusiveness. They are the rotten part of the online society which is needed to take care of. By monitoring the tracking facilities it is always possible to locate the origin of such abusive contents and the creator could be prosecuted in a court of law. But that could not lead to taking steps against social networks by some unjust means. People of that kind would always found some other form of medium to spread their contents. So mere blocking or censoring would not prevent them.

In this ever increasing stressful world the social networks provide us some place to breathe . Please do not take any step that could take our free world away. And to the social networks, please do not fall back from your firm stand. Do not let the state snatch our right to freedom of speech.

Hands on with Nokia Lumia 800.

Today I got the chance to have a live handling of Lumia 800, the flagship of Nokia family. I must say it's amazing. The live tiles look magnificent and the name live is true. the office Suit and the Nokia Drive are awesome. It's extremely touch friendly and scrolling through the tiles is as smooth as breeze. The camera is one of the very best in the business. The screen looks dazzling and one could spend the whole day looking at that beauty. Though the front side glass is very much fingerprint friendly but using a screen protector would take care of that. The only disadvantage is the lack of front facing camera. That great phone is under pre-booking of Rs. 3,000 and will be available on or about 25th December, this year.

I am waiting for mine, are you?

The Story of My Tour to Puri

It is often said, we Bengalis have only three places to go,Di-Pu-Da. Digha, Puri & Darjeeling! I myself being a Bengali, am no exception. I have visited two of them Di and Pu, yet to go to Da. The pictures are some of the snaps of my tour to Puri.

The tour is a memorable one to me. It was January, 2010, me and my wife was going there on our own. Though my cousin brother and his wife had promised to accompany us and their tickets were booked with us, they cancelled their journey citing some silly excuse. So it was left to us alone (though we were two but got the opportunity to get alone). I was a little bit nervous since this was going to be my first expedition on my own. My wife had just entered college, she too had very little experience of outing. But we decided to go forward (now looking back I feel how good that decision was) and our family, though a conservative one, approved. So we set out. From where we live, we had to come to Howrah and catch the train that carried us to our destination.

After reaching Puri at the dawn, we caught an auto-rickshaw and went for a suitable hotel and got a quite good one near a relatively less-crowded beach. It was the first time my wife came face to face with the greatest feature of the earth, the sea. 

The countless waves, roar of the sea and the white bubbles on top of the sea water made her speechless. We just completed the necessary check-in formalities of the hotel and rushed to the beach. The water was coming continuously, kissing our toes and asking us to join her in her play. We could not deny her anymore and jumped into the water. The water was caressing our body and mind with soft touches and soothes us. The fatigue due to overnight journey just washed away. When we returned to our room which was by then prepared by the room service, we were literally soaked in salt water. “It is the best morning in my life ever”, my wife had told me many times by then. That day and the next we spent embracing the sea. We took long walk along the sea beach, took part in making castle of sands, enjoying the beach-side foods and bathing in every available opportunity.

Then came the day we decided to go to the famous ‘Jagannath Temple’ to pay our tribute to the god. Though I myself is not a believer of gods (actually a hard core fan of the ‘God of War’ game series), but went there to see the magnificent artworks of the temple. Only downside is that camera is not allowed there, photography is strictly prohibited. However my wife said her prayers and offerings though through some ‘Panda’(another downside).

 

Then we started for ‘Chilka’. Chilka is a brakish water lagoon spread across Puri and its neighbouring districts. One of the USP of Chilka tourism is boating at the vast water of the lake. There are several packages consisting of different features. We bought the best one and sailed. There was a point in the options to watch the Dolphins, but they were somewhat displeased with us, I guess, cause they seldom showed up and whenever I was ready with my camera, they just disappeared! Alas no picture of the Dolphins were shot. Then after cruising here and there for some time, we came to the sea mouth. It is the place where the sea meets the lake. The outwardly beauty of that place left me mesmerising. The different colour of the water and their mixture was a must see. The deep blue of the sea and the green of the lake and it gradually becomes a little transparent towards the land in which we were standing.  I have never been in Kashmir or Switzerland, so I cant compare, but it seemed to me a piece of heaven had dropped here. We could have spent the whole day there, but the time was coming short and we had to return.

Read on to see more.

Let's make the world better

In recent times we saw the power of people through online activities, whether it's the gathering at Anna Hazare's campaign or the dethroning of the Egyptian president. We also saw its dark side at London unrest. In a word, the online world, specially facebook, had given us enormous power. A power beyond imagination. Many of us as individual had little  value to them who sit at power. Our voice did not reach to them let alone our demands.

That's where online world comes in. It gives us power to raise our voice, to raise our demands to those who had been reluctant to us before. Before that there was none to listen us. But now we can spread our words through the wall or blog or some other means and get noticed by a number of people. If there is something important, something touching in those words it would cause a stir. That stirring could change the present. The change could be good, could be better but could be worse too.

With great power comes great responsibility. We could use it against corruption, exploitation. We can tear apart the mask hiding the corrupted by taking the advantages of modern technology and sharing them online. We have the power in our hands and the key to the future. It is in our hands to utilize the power to make a great future rather than causing it harm beyond repair. A new horizon can be seen. Let us make it a better world.

It's the month to get confused

November is going to be the month to get confused!

It's going to be hard for smartphone lovers to chose from the offerings of different manufacturers.

First of all the Nokia Lumia series. From the day they showcased their new flagship models at London, Nokia put those phones on their India site as well. And now they had launched the same here. These highly anticipated phones are sure to make an impact on potential Indian customers.

Next comes the Samsung Galaxy Note. There is many speculations whether it can be said a phone or a tablet! It's giant comparing to other phones with its massive 5.3" HD screen. Though some people wonder who are going to buy this giant, but there is always someone who fascinate such things. And the Sammy Note in your hand would certainly make you noteworthy in the crowd.

Then there is the Motorola Razr. But I doubt how many people in India are interested in Motorola. But it should also be mentioned that this one is a gem. If you are looking for something eye-candy, this is one of the very few to look for.

And there comes the King, the iPhone 4S. Although Apple didn't say anything about the launch of 4S in India, Aircel did. In their facebook page and now in their official site too, Aircel announced the arrival of iPhone 4S on November 25th. Advanced booking starts on 18th Nov.

So as the heading says, it's the month to get confused. At least I am. Are not you?

Sony Tablet S launched in India

Sony had entered into the Tablet war by launching their flagship tablet S in India. In the reign of India's own Akash tablet, priced at Rs. 29,990 how many people will be interested to buy Sony Tablet S? Although there can never be any comparison between the two regarding features or hardware specifications, but seeing the market share of cheap China made mobile phones, the doubt still remains.

You can have more information on this Tablet here.

Kevin Carter

Kevin Carter. Does the name tick anything to you? Have you ever heard of him? I, myself never had, until yesterday, when I saw a photo taken by him.

Kevin Carter was a South Africa born photographer. He grew up in a middle-class family. After early struggles in his life, in the year 1983 he decided to become a journalist-photographer. In March 1993, while on a trip to Sudan, when Sudan was suffering from feminine, he took a photograph of a vulture waiting for a little girl, who was going to some feeding center, to die. That picture alone took him to instant limelight. In 1994, that photograph won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography. But that was not the beginning of the story, it was the beginning of the end.

He suicided in the year 1994 leaving a suicide note that says....

"I am depressed... without phone.... money for child support... money for debts.... money!!!!..... I am haunted by the vivid memories of killings and corpses and anger and pain.... of starving or wounded children, of trigger-happy madmen, often police, of killer executioners... I have gone to join Ken [one of his friend] if I am that lucky."

On the Children's day (14th November) absence of that kind of people is felt very much. We will not forget him. Children are the gift of God, we must take care of them, need to take care that such situation should never take place. And no more people like Kevin Carter had to kill himself for such things.

iPhone 4S on November 25th?

Apple may not disclose it but Aircel does. Aircel on its facebook page reveals that Aircel is bringing
iPhone 4S in India on NOV 25.

Click on the link and see it yourself.

iPhone 4S yet to launch in India

Apple is yet to launch their flagship iPhone 4S in India. In a recent EMail conversation with Apple India reveals that Apple is not going to launch it in recent future. However we are having our fingers crossed, in the hope of getting it sooner.

Are you listening it Apple?

Video Downloading Add-On For Firefox

For those of us, who really wanted to download videos from youtube or youtube-like sites, it was always searching for some good video capturing software or searching the torrents. But popular web browser Firefox had an excellent add-on for this purpose. The name of the Add-On is Video DownloadHelper. The Add-On actually takes a few seconds of downloading and then restart Firefox, and you are ready to rock.

After installing the Add-On, it creates an icon at the left side of the address bar. The icon consists of three different coloured balls (Red, Yellow and Blue). Whenever you are playing a video in Firefox, DownloadHelper detects it and the icon animates and an drop down arrow is visible between the address bar and the DownloadHelper icon. Upon clicking the arrow, options for downloading the video shows up. Selecting the desired type reveals an explorer windows to save the video on the hard drive. What’s more, before download you can convert those videos to another format too. It also extends it’s capturing abilities to photo slides and streaming audio.

Look at the photo below to locate the icon in the Firefox window.

Here are some details of the Add-On:

Name: DownloadHelper

Latest Version: 4.9.7

Developed by: mig.

For more info click here.

But there is one suggestion. If you can afford download ‘Internet Download Manager’, it’s the best for downloading streaming media and also supports bandwidth optimization. To know more keep watching this space.

Thank You.

iPhone 4S price

Apple has started selling unlocked iPhone 4s. Unlocked means without any contract with the operators. these phones are new, Contract-free, and factory unlocked. And as everyone expects the price is relatively high. Here is the list of the prices.
16GB: $649.
32GB: $749.
64GB: $849.


But when are you launching it in India, Apple?

Win a Nokia Lumia 800

There is a great chance to win a gorgeous new Nokia Lumia 800 from Nokia. Read on to know how...

Your Ad Here

Are you a facebook member?


Do you visit facebook often?


Then you shouldn't miss this opportunity.

Just click on this link and a Nokia facebook page will open. Like that page and you could win a Nokia Lumia 800.

Go and enjoy.

Free Media File Converter

Have you ever wanted your favourite video downloaded from internet to your PC to watch on your handheld devices, like Cell Phone or iPod or PSP etc. but never found out how? If yes, then the wait is over!
There are several software that convert media files from one format to another. Here I am going to tell you about a free software for this purpose, Format Factory. 

Format Factory (FF) is not only a media file converter but also a basic video editor cum DVD/CD to iso converter and so on, the list is huge! It supports a lot of codec and uses them efficiently to do the job it is assigned to. The interface is easy enough for a newbie and also exciting for the advanced. take a look at the screenshot below

It is easy to find the necessary menus and settings, the percentage completed and the ongoing task.
FF can handle any format you are known to, name it!

For example: supported video codecs are 3gp, rmvb, wmv, mkv, mpg, flv, mov, gif, vob, swf. Supported audio codecs are mp3, wma, flac, aac, mmf, amr, m4a, m4r, ogg, mp2, wav, etc. Supported picture formats are jpg, png, ico, bmp, gif, tif, pcx, tga.

You can extract your DVD videos into your favourite format as well as your music CDs to your desired audio format. Ever wanted to have a built in iso converter on your computer? FF gives you just that. It converts iso into cso and vice versa. Also converting DVD contents into iso is just a few clicks away.
Here I am showing you how to convert a video from one format to another.

First Select the video tab on the left side menu. Here you'll find various convert to options, like 'All to 3gp, All to mp4" etc. Choose your preferred one. A new window opens.









On the new window you can see buttons showing various options like 'output settings', 'add file' etc. Output settings used to set the properties of the output file. Click it and a new window emerges.

In the output settings window you can change the quality and size of the video as well as the audio. In the advanced menu you can rotate the video to your desired angle too. However change according to your preference and click ok.







 Now click the 'Add File' button. A new explorer window opens which shows all supported media files. Select the file you want to convert and click open. The left side window will show up. Click OK.








The main window shows up. Now click the start button, marked with a green arrow, which reside below the menu bar. Now the start button turns into 'Pause' button and converting starts. The bottom bar shows the elapsed time and also the option to shut down the computer after converting with a check mark. When the task is completed a pop up message on the extreme right bottom side informs the completion.



There are more to explore with this software. But here i just posted a very basic operation.
You can download Format Factory by clicking the following here. The downloaded file is a zip file which needs to be extracted. Download, Extract, Install and Enjoy.
For more information click here.