I had taken backup of my nokia e71 through the Nokia PC Suite and it had stored files in the .nbu [nokia back up] format. I tried searching for some application which would convert .nbu files to the one Samsung supported. The closest application is Noki soft but the free version allows you to export just 50 contacts! The full version is available for $49.5.

I hit bullseye with Nokia NbuExplorer which is available for free! It reads .nbu files and picks up all contacts as well as SMS’s! You can store either one or the entire contact list in .vcf format which you can later easily export it to Samsung phone.

In a couple of minutes i was able to convert all my contacts to .vcf file format and import it to my Samsung phone. It took me a couple of hours hunting for the right software and a couple of minutes to transfer the contacts…

Hope this helps whoever has bought a samsung phone and wants to import his contacts from .nbu file.

Cheers.

<br />

Finally i settled for Samsung C5212. The phone looks smart and has better built quality compared to others… It was easy to set it up… put the 2 sims and it asks you which is going to be the default one. Its easy to change the order whenever you want at the touch of a key… thing i liked was it rebooted itself whenever that was done…

You can have different ringtones for both your numbers… and its easy to browse through the call log or messages and know for which number the call/message was for…

It comes with Samsung PC Studio which is like any other desktop phone app. Some of the things you can do are

• Importing contacts from other phone
• Managing SMS/MMS
• Transferring music/files
• Organiser (Scheduler, Todo, Memos)

I had a tough time importing contacts from my Nokia backup files (.nbu). The scheduler was excellent. was able to fill in some 70 odd entries in a couple of minutes…

The tool box is like a bookmark for all the functionality of the app… Found 3 interesting apps

• Video Convertor (supported formats *.3GP, *.MP4, *.SKM, *.K3G, *.MPEG, *.MPG, *.ASF, *.AVI, *.WMV, *.DIVX)
• Disk Ripper
• Disk Burner

I found the keys a lil hard to type. Getting used to the nuances of the phone was not difficult.

It comes with 2 free games [Canon ball and Freekick], Has an image editor which i thought was a good feature. Voice recorder which can record upto 60minutes or as much as your memory card can support!

Another interesting feature is the Mobile Prayer. You can set what day/time you want the prayer to play… Currently it supports

• Hindu Prarthna
• Christian Prayer
• Islamic Salat
• Sikh Gurbani

The phone comes with a Charger/Data cable/Headset. Hate the fact that it doesnt have the usb charger. Will have to carry this charger everywhere i go.

I havnt bothered with checking the music player. The bluetooth worked fine. The 1.3 mp camera has tons of option to play araound with…

I paid Rs 6990. Too early to give a verdict. If you are using one and have something to add do leave a comment…

Cheers!

Surprisingly on an avg i did 4 posts a month. My fav post would be “Design your own Personalised Tshirt!“. I had to spend a lot of time to get this post done but it was worth it! Also this opened up a new category “Contest” which i am sure readers of this blog found interesting.

My best comment would be by Czaie. It makes me smile everytime i read it…

I have a couple of ideas which i want to blog about but they are time consuming… lets hope i can get some of them live this year…

What to look forward this year? A couple of contests shall come up soon… and hopefully some posts too

Thank you everyone who has been visiting this blog and leaving your comments…

Cheers!

The time has finally come for me to say good bye to my home in Santacruz. We have to vacate the place today… I went there to have my last dinner knowing that i wont be walking in those streets ever…

Most of the things have been moved into a garage… Our home is almost empty… In the next couple of days they gonna demolish the building to build a new one… [sadly we wont be moving in back unless i can raise a couple of Crores in the next 1 year]

The Sheth family have been staying in this house for more then 65 years. My grandfather when he moved to bombay took up this place which was close to the railway station and also to Podar school where he was a teacher…

My brother and I were raised here… The place was small but never felt so… Our doors were always open inspite of me telling my mom to be careful and not let it be open all the time… It was a perfect place to grow up… lots of trees around, a big playground and lots of kids… add to it school friends namely Hitesh staying just a building away and my cousin Mihir in the next lane…

Some things i will always remember like all the kids learning to cycle, watching movies at neighbours place, bursting crackers in divali, flying kites, friends coming over, buying our first refrigerator and tv, going out every new year to juhu beach, bullying my brother to go out with me, all of us playing carrom or cards at nite after dinner, going for juice… going to beach in the morning for walk…

Everything was close by… the beach, bandra, airport and the railway station!

When i think practically this move is right and about time… But when i think from my heart i just dont want to let go… but i know it will be difficult to hang on to this place… some point of time i will have to move away…

Akhand Jyoti #1,
8th Road,
Santacruz East,
Bombay 400055

I shall miss you…

Update: Spent an hour at home…  mom/dad left at 430pm… there was nothing to do for them… the house was empty…  I sat for a while and visited our neighbours…Spent some time with my bro in the house…

At 5:45pm I locked the house and handed the keys over…

Emotionally Drained.

I will just type a few lines

Wake Up India.

It’s Time To

Not Go To Work.

It’s Time To Get People

To Work For You.

Don’t Be An Engineer

Just Because You Have

A Degree In Engineering. Do What You

Think You’re Good At. And You’ll Be Good

At What You Think. Start Something

That’s Your Own. Where You Cant Be

Sacked. And You Certainly Can’t Quit.

-Narayan Murthy, Founder and Chief Mentor Infosys

The Economic Times Award for Corporate Excellence

The winners are

• Annkur
• Divya Chakravarthy
• Sharon Dev

You can click on their names to see the sites they recommended…

Some of the entries which came close to win were

• Kenroy Rodricks
• vikranth
• paresh
• Narayan
• Satish

Congratulations! I will be sending you emails shortly. You can also contact me incase you dont get my mail in a day [kunals75@gmail.com] or leave a comment.

For all the other people who did comment can use this code “ink20” and get Rs 100 off!

Cheers!

Manan writes the first Guest Post on my blog.  Manan is an engineering student who enjoys blogging. Spends majority of his time on the internet following tech blogs & tweeting. A fan of Microsoft & someone who hates Linux. He blogs at http://beingmanan.com

Many blogs, many feeds. It becomes difficult to filter & follow. So was the idea behind me setting up website dedicated to Microsoft, the idea was simple – an aggregator & self posted content. Searched on the net for plugins for Wordpress failing to find anything that would suit me I came across Drupal which had the “module” for feed aggregation. Having heard about Drupal in the past I decided to set it up & the rest is a painful history.

The pinch was felt quick, the admin mode is a maze. It requires a good amount of time to be spent in order to remember what is where. The jargon doesn’t make sense. For example tags, the world knows what they mean & their function but in Drupal they have “taxonomy” that’s used for categorization & tags. Upon realizing what “taxonomy” actually is begins the next challenge, that being of setting it up. Good luck with that. Make sure to do it right ‘coz you will have to push the limits of ease-of-use to edit them.

In between of setting up my site, figuring my way through taxonomy & pulling my hair off, Drupal released an update. Now being a Wordpress user I thought there would be an easy way to do it considering this is a CMS where the amount of information can be enormous. But, to my surprise updating Drupal is something that will make you take the risk on not updating it at all! There is no easy way of upgrading Drupal it’s the highway or the highway. Yes, you got that right.

Let’s talk about the community around Drupal. One word, unhelpful. The plugin community of Drupal does not respond to queries, they don’t release updates to plugins. The plugins will be alpha for months with the final release no where in sight. Updating plugins too is again like updating Drupal. Avoid as long as possible.

Let’s talk about adding content. Initially when I saw that Drupal has classifications like Book, Page, Blog etc. I liked it only to realize that when I go into actually writing an article there is no Rich Text Editor! It’s all HTML. How friggin’ stupid is that?! Insult to injury none of the plugins to add RTE work properly. None. Zero. Nil.

The amazing Windows Live Writer also can’t be used post to Drupal. A module that exists only allows you to create blog posts & not any other type of content that Drupa supports.

Lack of a RTE, weird Taxonomy, adding content requires me to go to the site every time & the fact that updating it is a complete PITA Drupal makes for a horrible choice. Simply put the problem with Drupal is that it’s too rigid for pro-web-devs & too un-usable for enthusiasts/casual users.

If you have a grudge against someone or want to see someone suffer hire them to manage your Drupal site. Personally, I’d say please forgive them. They are human too.

Inkfruit promised 3 tshirts free! Priyanka from Inkfruit has been after my life to get this post up and running. Priyanka 1000 apologies for the delay

So who should i give the 3 tshirts too? Give me 3 websites/blogs/forums which you think rocks!

Dont give me the cliche’d yahoo’s hotmail’s and gmail’s…
Has to be something which readers will appreciate reading/knowing about…
Do give a reason why you think the website is kewl according to you…
Brownie points if One of the three websites mentioned is an Indian website…

Example:

• Smashingmagazine.com – Good info for designers/freebies
• in.com – Good music/videos and games
• Gizmodo.com – For all gadget freaks

The contest will be open for a week roughly and for People in India only. {Inkfruit will deliver it in India only}

Cheers,

All the best!

The Sensex is Down.

Industries are Facing Turmoil.

The Job Market is in Chaos.

A Great Time to Start a New Enterprise.

You turn the page over and it says

Introducing THE POWER OF IDEAS

If you have a business idea, we will turn you into an entrepreneur.

To participate you can
SMS ETPI with your name and email to 58888
email etideas@indiatimes.com
visit www.ideas.economictimes.com to know more

I was surprised coz i didnt expect ET to come forward with something like this… I keep hearing from everyone that yes this is the time to jump in and start something… Dont know how many have the guts to do it though… For those who have taken the plunge Hats off to you and all the best!

Cheers

Just a quick brief

Date: 28th Feb 2009
Team Size: 4 (3guys+1gal)
Task: Treasure hunt spread over dozen forts
Cost: Rs 1625/person (includes Travel+Food+Stay+Pickup/Drop) + Tons of Freebies!
Place: Lonavala

Forget Treks, Marathons, Treasure Hunts.. Nature Knights invites your team to participate in the great adventure – “Trek-a-thon Treasure Hunt Challenge”.
Race into history covering almost half a dozen forts and more than a dozen riddles archeological / tasks to be completed in less than two days. A travel and trek adventure.

Constrains

• Team size 4 persons
• All four members of the team have to cover all target destination in the treasure hunt together
• At least one member of team has to be a lady candidate
• The Trek-a-thon Treasure Hunt Challenge starts on February 28, morning at Lonavala base camp at 7:30 am. (Starting Mumbai – February 27 night 9 pm ex. Andheri, Mumbai).
• All teams have to report back at the base camp before 10 pm (else there be penalty points).
• Day two activity will begin at 8:00 am onwards
• Other rules, challenges and constrains for the event will be shared on the day of the event.

Registration (Rs.6,500/- per team of four persons i.e.Rs.1625/- per head); Ex. Mumbai pickup and drop. Also includes:

• Trekking food (Packed Lunch / Bottled Water / Basic Medical Kit) for Day 1 and Day 2 of the event
• Camp Fire Dinner on Day 1, night
• Accommodation for the night in cottages
• Transport

Prizes
1st Price – Life Membership of Nature Knights for all members of this team; Plus Out Doors Survival Kit Plus …
2nd Price – Five Years Membership of Nature Knights for all members of this team; Plus Out Doors Survival Kit Plus …
3rd Price – Three Year Membership of Nature Knights for all members of this team; Plus Out Doors Survival Kit Plus …

Gifts For all participants

• Multi-utility Survival Gadget
• Nature Knights T-Shirt
• One Year Membership of Nature Knights
• Plus Discount Coupons for Nature Knights Events
• Ensured Slot in Eco-Challenge Race – November 2009

Contact info
Asif – 9821081566 / 9619182010; asif@natureknights.com
Nimesh – 9820169693; nimesh@natureknights.com
Dnyanesh – 9820834622 dnyanesh@natureknights.com
Website: www.natureknights.com
Email: info@natureknights.com