I wanted to see for myself as to what the hoopla about the 3G services is all about. Over the past few months, I have shifted to Linux Mint Debian having given up Ubuntu all together. Hence, I was keen to know about how their product worked in Linux.

There are excellent guides available to enable your wireless networking on your Debian and then choosing Tata’s apn to access the Internet. I would not go in those details. I had used a 3G stick and after ensuring the proper network coverage, on a Windows machine, added it to my Debian based laptop. Although recognized, it failed to connect on to network and neither there was any way to install the company issued dialer.

However, it worked fine in Windows world; it was auto-recognized and I could work on that. What I noticed was the horrible lag and the ping times, clearly making it useless for any one for online gaming. It’s next to impossible. At the same time, the video buffering was relatively smooth although nothing to write home about.

With pathetic “download limits” and huge costs, I had to nix the plan of going in for Tata Docomo; although I must confess that they have a reasonably good customer care. My point of contact has been their on line chat and their email’s work, albeit very late. This, in my opinion, is better than the other companies who don’t give a shit about after sales.

Would you go in for an expensive hardware and huge recurring monthly expenses? 3G is NOT for the data but for more efficient spectrum utilization. The voice market dominates because these operators have no intention of improving on the value added services.

Thats where their bread and butter lies. If 3G data services were really to become “cheap”, to so called “market forces” would determine the outcome. I find it amusing when people crow about prices coming down eventually. There would never be an “unlimited plan” because shoring up the capacity on wireless networks is a huge sunk in investment which is not easy to recover.

For the time being, this is a worst case alternative to a proper wireline/wifi model. If you don’t have any other frigging option in this heartless world, go for it.

 

Tags: 3G, 3G, Broadband, data services, docomo, GUI, Internet, laptop, Linux, Mobile Service Providers, Opera, Personal Experiences, Spectrum, Tata, Tata, US, Value Added Services, Value Added Services (VAS), Wifi, Windows, Wireless

A lot has been made up for Google Chrome OS and it’s notebook. It transpires that Samsung and Acer would manufacture laptops for chrome OS.

Is cloud computing inherently better than the “offline model” we have come to rely on? If the recent Amazon outage is any indication, I would prefer not to stick with it. In the same vein, I prefer my data to stay with me.

However, there is a huge business opportunity lurking behind such an initiative. Manufacturers in India (for netbooks/laptops/tablets) are dependent on Microsoft for a tapered down version of it’s utterly useless operating system. They could have easily sponsored a home grown “Indian initiative” for Linux and installed it on a bare bones hardware with Wifi and 3G connectivity. I reckon that using ARM processors, a basic display unit with a keyboard would suffice the price limit of around $200-250. It can be done.

One doesn’t need dual cores to run the fancy software; in any case, I hardly use the computing power at my disposal. But there was no choice in the market. Antix (a derivative of SimplyMepis) or even Arch Linux are good enough alternatives (not to forget Fluxbox and XFCE or E17) as the alternative desktop platforms to power the applications.

The telecom companies could have easily subsidized the model, charging it in their monthly bills. A win win situation. An operating system free of any hassles and companies get to spread the hardware with bundled data plans. I had earlier explored the same option but I guess the fancy CEO’s (who are glorified assholes anyway), are not interested in the blurb.

So you’d find the Vodafone Zoozoo enticing people to try out 3G in a market where computing is still a luxury and smartphones market sorely limited.

Thats stupidity compounded by assholism (of the extreme); because crores are being spent on advertising to milk the few customers who venture to buy out the expensive data plans.

Blah blah blah.

Related articles

• Google announces Chromebooks: Chrome OS powered notebooks (venturebeat.com)
• Google floats monthly subscriptions to Chrome OS notebooks (go.theregister.com)
• Google Chrome OS Notebooks Available June 15 (fakeiitian.com)
• SlashGear 101: Google Chromebook (slashgear.com)
• First Google Chrome OS Notebooks Available June 15 (mashable.com)
• Google Chrome OS “Student package” notebook for $20 tipped imminent (slashgear.com)
• Don’t Expect Google Chrome OS on Tablets Anytime Soon (mashable.com)
• Google Announces Expensive Web-Only ‘Chromebooks’ (techland.time.com)
• More Chromebooks from Google; Chrome OS, Web Store updates too (arstechnica.com)
• Samsung, Acer to Debut Chrome OS Notebooks In June (louisgray.com)

Tags: 3G, Advertising, Amazon, Arch Linux, Assholes, Broadband, Browsers, CEO, Computing, Desktop Browsers, Digital Divide, FOSS, Google, Google Chrome, India, Internet Access Devices, laptop, Linux, Microsoft, Netbooks, Open Source and Access, Opera, operating system, Proprietary Software, Smartphones, smartphones, Tablets, tag, Value Added Services (VAS), Vodafone, Vodafone, web store, Wifi

I must admit that I haven’t focussed on writing about the access devices; they are a natural corollary to any broadband access initiative. Let’s face it. A mobile screen is useless (most of the times) because a cramped interface cannot replicate the full blown access device.

It’s heartening to note that a cheap access device has been “manufactured”; it runs Ubuntu. However, as noted by many others, a different distro would have sufficed (top of the mind recall is Antix or Arch Linux). Yet, with modest specifications, as below, it’s really worth it.

 

• 700MHz ARM11
• 128MB of SDRAM
• OpenGL ES 2.0
• 1080p30 H.264 high-profile decode
• Composite and HDMI video output
• USB 2.0
• SD/MMC/SDIO memory card slot
• General-purpose I/O

A cheap monitor and a keyboard is available off the shelf in most of the places. The final cost may not be much, even for a developing country like India.

This may be way better than having a dummy terminal and distributed computing through Broadband.

Interestingly, Apple is rumored to shift it’s line to ARM processors.

Related articles

• $25 ARM Powered Desktop presented by Raspberry Pi Foundation (armdevices.net)
• Next Post (dinmerican.wordpress.com)
• Bridging the Digital Divide Takes More than Just Access (blogs.sitepoint.com)
• This computer (yes, computer!) costs $25 (venturebeat.com)
• UK game dev creates $25 Linux computer for education (slashgear.com)
• Raspberry Pi: A $25 Bare-Bones PC That Fits On Your Keychain (crunchgear.com)
• Game developer David Braben creates a USB stick PC for $25 (geek.com)
• Digital Divide / California : public investment to increase digital literacy (skillsinfo.wordpress.com)
• Bringing Broadband to Rural America (thinkup.waldenu.edu)
• National Broadband Map Shows Digital Divide (tech.slashdot.org)

Tags: access devices, Arch Linux, Broadband, Broadband, Broadband access, Computing, Digital Divide, Digital Divide, DoT, DTH, FOSS, India, Internet Access Devices, laptop, Linux, Mobile, Netbooks, Open Source and Access, Raspberry Pi Foundation, Tablets, United Kingdom