OK

We've been hearing a lot about Swine Flu. But it seems as though the true scale of the 'pandemic' has missed us. To know what I'm talking about, check this map here. It gives the number of cases by country. Just to give you an idea:

- The number of confirmed cases globally stands at 46664
- 20522 of those are in the United States alone
- There are 34 confirmed cases in India. 10 of those are in Hyderabad. The highest in the country.

Please go through these prevention steps as I believe those of us working in offices, where international visitors are common, should know this. Be careful of those touristy places where lots of foreigners are present.

Keep safe!

Saturday was an eventful day indeed. We were heading over to our cousins place for a game of monopoly. We're really avid fans and we have an orkut community, with a full 12 members! Anyhow that's besides the point.

Also, today, me and good buddy MMA will be heading off to Machlipatnam. The planning (or execution) of this trip hasn't been smooth so far. We were gonna leave last weekend but had to change plans due to an emergency.

Yesterday, I sat down to book our tickets and went to the shitty railways website. I'm told I should be thankful there even is a website. Duh in the 21st century. Anyhow, I managed to book our tickets from Hyderabad to Machlipatnam. And I had to keep logging in and keep searching repeatedly to do this.

Then, while trying to book our return tickets the website acted up. And conveniently so for the stupid railways dept I might add. Because they took the money out of my bank account but never issued a ticket. A few panic filled moments and phone calls later, I was informed that the tickets never got booked and I should expect an automatic refund, which seems oxy'moronic' when it comes to the railways where everything is achieved with copious amounts of drudgery.

So we've decided we'll just take a bus to return. Here's to hoping the trip is worth it and I get the refund.

Last, I wanted to talk about the Turkey-Germany game. It was a fun match to watch with 5 goals scored in total. However, Turkey lost. Though I like a lot of things about Turkey, never really was a fan of their team until I saw their game against Croatia. Just that I always like to support the underdog. It makes the match more fun to watch. Never the less, Turkey lost, though they were the first one's to score. I would have dozed off, but the Red Bull seemed to have done its magic.

So that's that. I hope to write about my Machlipatnam trip next.

Tata Indicom Broadband recently slashed the rates for their postpaid plans. I've been using their connection for a while and its very good. Their customer service is responsive. The connection speeds are terrific.

I used to pay 600 rupees for a 128KBPs connection. Now I'm paying 1,100 for 384 KBPS. That's 4 times the speed for about 2 times the cost. Now I can enjoy sites like Youtube. If you can't stream and view Youtube videos, you're missing out!

I say scrap your old connection and get this new one from Tata. Go for it!

I finally got one of these beauties! I'm loving every moment of it. I gotta say this phone is WAAAY ahead of its time. Some of the features are just mind blowing. The browser is top class. I'm seriously considering buying a wireless router so I can use this thing anywhere in my house. It's simply awesome!

You've probably read a lot about the features, so I'll just talk about the pricing. Buying an unlocked piece locally would've cost me 20,000 rupees. And I found out that a piece in the US costs 399 USD add to that federal taxes and this thing costs 432 dollars (That's about 18,200 rupees) A good enough difference for you to ask someone to bring it for you.

I unlocked it myself (with some help from a friend) it was a simple one-click step. No sweat! If you're thinking of spending something in the range of 15,000 rupees for a cell phone, then I definitely recommend that you put in a little extra and get this phone. You won't regret it.