I'm travelling to Raa atoll Ungoofaaru tomorrow and will be staying in the island for about 3 days. Sadly, it's not on holiday though - it's for some work. I am taking my computer gear ofcourse and wanted to be able to get on the internet while I'm there. Thankfully this is now possible, owing to the availability of GPRS service via Dhiraagu. The connection is awefully slooowwwww ofcourse, but it's quite usable and I'd take it happily when I'm bored and desperate.

I had tested using internet on my laptop via GPRS when Dhiraagu had the "free GPRS" week at the time of its introduction in July, but didn't have the settings anymore due to a hard disk change. So again today, I set out to setup my laptop for internet via Dhiraagu GPRS using my bluetooth enabled phone. Here is how I did it...

Installing bluetooth on the laptop
This is normally quite an easy task however it turned out to be quite a challenge as the bluetooth dongle I had now was unbranded and the drivers supplied with it refused to run on Windows 2003 Server running on my laptop. To make a long story short, I downloaded the latest Widcomm bluetooth driver (with Win 2k3 support) and installed it. Then applied the patches floating on the net to remove the vendor hardware dependant licensing. And viola! It works! Head over to http://forum.gsmhosting.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=127539 if you've been having the same problem.

Setting up GPRS
I already have GPRS setup on my phone since I use WAP and MMS occasionally. Details of how to do this for Dhiraagu customers are at http://mms.dhiraagu.com.mv.

Setting up the Bluetooth connection
In the final stage of this process, I created a Bluetooth dialup networking connection to my phone from the laptop. Right clicking the bluetooth system tray icon and selecting "Bluetooth Setup Wizard" will finish the process in a breeze.

Then, the networking settings for the Bluetooth dialup connection was set as follows. Open the connection properties, click the "Networking" tab, click the "Settings" button. Untick "Enable LCP .." and "Negotiate multi-link ...".



Setting up browser
Dhiraagu requires the use of a proxy to browse and use internet. Setup your favourite browser with the proxy address as "172.24.97.4" and port as "8080".

In Internet Explorer, go to "Tools" menu, select "Options" and in the window that opens select the "Connections" tab. You should see the name of the Bluetooth connection you created. Select it and click the "Settings" button". Now, fill the various options as shown below.



Establishing the link
Finally, time to dial! Double click the Bluetooth connection created in the above stages. Enter the dialup number and user/pass. The dial number is of the format "*99***2#" where 2 is the CID shown on the phone for the GPRS account you want to use. The user/pass is blank.



Once the dial button is hit, a connection is attempted and shows as "Connected" if it was successful. There isn't need to worry about how long you keep it connected as you are only charged for the data that is sent and recieved.

Now I am all set to leave to the island and I can hopefully sit and use the internet where the waves crash humbly onto the beach not far from my bare feet while cooling under the shade of a tall colorful palm tree.

I hacked up my mobile phone camera a few months ago to make it sensitive to Infrared as well as the Visible wavelengths of light. I have been meaning to share the hack with others, so finally here it is!

Introduction
My phone, a Sony Ericsson T610, had been giving me trouble. There was static when I am in a call and sometimes my voice cuts out altogether. I had guessed it was the mic giving me trouble. I got out my hex screwdriver set and disassembled the phone and repositioned the mic after cleaning the contacts. Sure enough, that fixed the problem.

Curiosity got the better of me after fixing the mic. I wanted to check out the camera in the phone! I had modified a webcam before to make it senstitive to Infrared (IR). The CCDs (Charge Coupled Devices: the part of a camera that actually converts what it sees into electrical signals) are usually sensitive to IR as much as it is to visible light and camera manufacturers place an IR filter in the lens assembly to remove the IR spectrum. Anyway, I wanted to see if I could do the same to my phone camera.

I then had the camera carefully disassembled soon as it turned out to be quite easy. I proceeded to identify the IR filter in the lens assembly, removed it and reassembled the phone. I turn on the phone and viola! It works! Of course it works!

How to do it?!
Do this under a table light and use a magnifying glass to make things easier.

1. Take apart your phone. You'll need a hex screw driver of the right size.
2. Get to the camera and just remove the clips holding the camera onto the phone case, then remove the wires from the socket.
3. When you have the camera assembly separate from the phone, remove the back of the camera by prying apart the plastic clips that hold it together. Be careful when doing this!


4. You should see inside the lens assembly now. Look at the outer most lens, pasted using globs of glue at the sides. The lens would have a red tint to it. Use a sharp object, possibly a tiny screw driver to pry the lens out. Store it in a safe place. WARNING: You will most likely damage the lens if you are not ultra careful!


5. Reassemble everything once you get that lens out.

Switch on your phone. Bring the front of a TV remote control near your camera and see the IR being emitted by the remote!!

Exploring the IR World
What could this possibly be useful for? Since the camera is now sensitive to IR, it can see things that our eyes can’t see. This was mind boggling at first, well to me at least. I could darken my room and “illuminate” it with IR light which is invisible to the human eye. Turn my camera on and the room is clear as daylight!

First things first, you'd want to just snap pictures and see how they look. Amusing aint it? Well, you can do quite cool things in addition to taking weird images. You could even “see” the light from a TV remote. TV remotes rely on IR signals to communicate with the TV.

Your hacked up camera will now be able to spot security cameras in the night that use IR to illuminate the area. Such areas will be lit up and clear as day. I've had much fun at night with security cameras.

Got another SE T610? Try looking at the "opague" top black bit with the hacked camera. It would be see thru! Or try with a glass of coke. You'll see right through the coke and the coke will appear colorless!

Moreover, for you perverts like me. I encountered an interesting occurence - an IR sensitive camera seems to expose more than is visible to the naked eye when it comes to clothing. Those wearing certain types of clothes beware!

Further thoughts
I am dying to try this out with a phone with a better camera. The SE K700i/K750i would be ideal! These new generation mobile have better cameras, thus better quality pictures even for infrared. I could also replace the illuminator/flash LED in the phone with a high brightness IR LED. Now to get my hands on a willing K750i... Sigh. Have fun!

I just finished one of the most captivating, enlightening and exciting books I've read lately... no, make that ever! Seriously, this book makes you wonder and belittles you. It also makes you think about a lot of different other things in life...

Whoa. I've been raving on without even mentioning the name of the book eh!? My apologies. The book is called "Adam's Curse", written by Professor Bryan Sykes, a genetist. Mind you, this aint no Harry Potter and aint no LOTR either! It's total non-fiction science narrated in a most engaging style.

The book is about the sexes and goes on from a humble introduction to the animal genetics and the rise of the sexes, especially in humans. After quenching the questions on the need for the sexes, how it came about and why there are only two sexes to be seen, the book then goes onto introduce the X and Y chromosomes. The X and Y chromosome is then chopped into tiny bits, detailing the discoveries of the intricate details of these then elusive sex chromosomes.

This is where it starts to get interesting. The details of the Y chromosome reveal utter truths about itself - its a barren war zone! It's incapable of recombination. It has a high mutation rate. And more importantly (and amazingly), how it was discovered that the default gender of a human baby is always female! A male is produced by the flick of a genetic "switch" by a single gene named SRY, but the story of the sexes goes more deeper. The female X chromosome and the male Y chromosome is ALWAYS at battle with each other. Apparently, this fight for survival lead to many things... including making the Y chromosome resilient, tough and highly aggresive. Prof. Sykes takes the invasions by the Vikings and other conquests by rulers (all of them males of course) as an example of the Y chromosome's need to spread itself and dominate.

In the later chapters, the author explores various ways in which the X chromosome is brutally working to dominate over the Y chromosome and paints a picture of the future for men - which according to him is quite bleak. Then it tells how the X chromosome fought back. How some females seemed to produce more girls than boys. How X chromosomes makes life hard or impossible for Y chromosomes. Like how X chromosomes silently kill Y chromosomes (males) by hindering the performance of the Y chromosone containing sperm, or causing miscarriages for male babies. The diminishing rate of male fertility shown by statistics is also brought up. Gay behaviour is visited as well, discussing whether it maybe genetic or not, whether it is a direct manipulation by the X chromosomes. In effect, the author says, the female X chromosome is winning he evolutionary battle!

He then explores various interventions we could and may make and also how nature - how Gaia - would react. He goes as far as suggesting a future without men entirely and recommends the elimination of the male gender for a more harmonious world! In the finishing pages of the book, he explores how the rapidly mutating and beaten up Y chromosome maybe saved and enhanced to sustain the male sex.

The book is truly truly an eye-opener. It made me think deeper than a philosophy discourse ever made me... Far more thoughts induced in me than I can list here. We obsess about our freedom and intellect, yet genetics proves something more fundamental - some thing far more influential for our behaviour and actions. We are driven by the tiny DNA and chromosomes we carry and they have a lot more say on the choices and decisions we make - unconsciously but surely.

Last nite was a brilliantly productive night. I actually did some work instead of browsing porn or chatting on MSN Messenger. Well technically it wasnt "work" work, more like something I did to avoid doing the real work (at which i am lagging behind a couple galaxies deep in a blackhole).

Well, anyway, this "work" happened to be another addition to the line of softwares I've developed. It is based on a quite unique idea of a friend. As ever, how he came upon the idea is merely another entry to the "neccessity is the mother of all invention" list. Coming up with an idea is one thing and making it a reality is a whole lot another, and along these lines is how this fella never actually got around to implementing it and fashioning it into a working software package. It is admist extremes of boredom yesterday, that I turned my supremely powerful (yet slow, faulted and prone to inconsistencies) brain to tackle the task. An hour or so and I had the basics worked out and tinkering with the less mundane and highly artistic matter of building a user-friendly interface burned up another hour. So by dawn I was testing it by downloading (crappy, low quality but nonetheless enjoyable) porn (surprise!).

It is in mostly working condition now. I dont think I'm allowed to slip out what the so-great mind-blowing idea behind the program is, so I can't tell ya yet. I'm sure you download freaks will want to get your hands on the program though.

Keep an eye here, I'll be bringing live and uncensored information about the progress.

PS: The application has been christened "SegDown".

What do I write in my very first blog entry? I thought of flaunting my geekiness by typing out something ridiculous in binary, but that’s quite pointless aint it?. Anyway I am a pseudo-geek, at most, I think…

I been thinking about blogging lately, especially the individual/personal sorts. What really gave rise to blogging? A trip down to blogging @ wikipedia revealed a lot that I hadn't known before. Blogging has given individuals the ability to publish their thoughts and views with a potentially large audience. Blogging wouldn't have really taken off had there not been for the arrival of two-click free blogging sites. Great ideas have been lost into the oblivion just because it didnt get financial prodding to drive it mainstream. Whatever it is about blogging, the possibilities are numerous…

My mission if I choose to accept it is to blog. To delve deep into the underworld of the blogging scene and gain an understanding of how and why this world of publishers thrive. To go where all bloggers go…

And now I drift back to my time-space continuum. Toodles.