If you are living in an area like me where there is no gas supplies for stoves and heaters and there are regular load-shedding power shut downs, you must be having a tough time in winters. I usually get extreme toe freezes and I’ve finally found a way to fix that. Continue reading “Toe Freez remedy without power and gas”
Pakistan vs India cricket match is always a popular event to watch not only in these two countries but everywhere else cricket is played, understood and liked. I was also very excited about the match on Saturday but was also afraid of the possible power failures. It went great for the initial hours but when the match reached the climax at midnight, power company employees showed their dutifulness and switched the power off for an hour.
Now what?
Quickly I tried a few options. First of all, I tuned into a good old FM radio channel that was quick and convenient. At least I could get live score and updates. In addition, I had a few other options for live score updates, for example:
- Cricinfo.com on my mobile browser (http://m.cricinfo.com)
- Cricinfo.com widget on Snaptu, a mobile app that is much more cool than a website.
- Mobilink cricket companion that is a J2ME app for your phone
- Cricinfo’s own J2ME app available from Plusmo
All of the above are text based cricket score tools and eventually were much slower than that of FM radio. I was still missing the TV as I knew that the power is not going to be available. Then I recalled a service that I tried several months ago. Yes, Mobilink TV. I simply directed my browser to Mobilink TV’s wap site and launched the sports channel on my phone. Within a few seconds I could watch the match live. That was the best thing that happened to me in several days 🙂
It was an amazing experience. I watched the match for almost 45 minutes. But I must warn and inform you about a few facts here:
- The service is very expensive but at that time, it was worth it. It costs Rs. 6/megabyte plus tax. According to a careful calculation, it must have costed me around Rs. 100 or more for these 45 minutes. (I’ll post the exact amount once I get my bill)
- The TV transmission sound was crystal clear but you need external speakers for better experience.
- The quality of video for a 3 inch screen was moderate. I could hardy read the score at the bottom of the screen but could clearly understand what’s going on in the game.
- Like any other internet video solution, there were points when video got stuck for data buffering. May be a few seconds pause every couple of minutes.
- There was around 25 seconds delay as compared to normal TV or radio’s live coverage.
- And yes, there is a specific set of compatible handsets that runs this service. Not all smart phones are compatible. Even the BlackBerries are not 🙁
- Last but not least, there is a separate access-point setup needed to access these TV streams. Make sure to get the settings by calling the helpline.
In short it was fun to watch cricket without electricity. Lets see how much fun it will be to pay for it 🙂
Please share your experience if any.
Either LESCO has gone crazy or I’ve forgot my high school maths. I got my electricity bill and without calculating I could see that it was wrong. Well yes, LESCO tariff has changed and electricity cost has increased as per government announcements, but even with the higher expected costs, following case is not acceptable.
Following is a snippet of a correctly calculated bill. (This is a few months old bill).
If you cant read the calculation, it is 100 x 3.080 + 200 x 2.080 + 599 x 6.53.
That totals to 5035 and is correctly stated on the bill (second value from top left).
Now my current bill comes and the unit details are as follows:
Again the calculation goes like:
100 x 3.750 + 200 x 4.910 + 700 x 7.36 + 166 x 8.62
This is equal to 7939.
Well, the bill is actually showing 9362. Thats over-charging worth Rs. 1423. Well, this is just the electricity cost, and the actual payable is after putting taxes and surcharge on top of this.
This is insane. Can somebody solve the myth and tell me why 7939 is equal to 9362 in my bill?