I was using my IPhone with Spice. Recently I switched my service provider to Docomo. When I switched to Docomo I noticed a message displayed on my IPhone “Call Forwarding Active” on every outgoing calls. It was not a problem functionally and the message used to go away as soon as the call got connected or by pressing "Dismiss". My phone was working fine otherwise.

However when the message was displayed on the phone one could not perform any operation on the phone without clicking on the “Dismiss” button.
This was really annoying. It was not a bug as I tried with Spice, Airtel sim cards and there was no such message not only that this message was getting displayed on Nokia phone as well when I used Docomo sim. This was certainly not a problem with the unlocked IPhone as I thought initially.

This made me think that this might be a configuration issue. Googled and found the following solution.
Use Cydia to install OpenSSH. Use WinSCP or any other utility to connect to your IPhone.
Browse to the following directory
/System/Library/Carrier Bundles/Unknown.bundle
Look for the file carrier.plist. Before doing any other operation make sure that you take a back up of the same.
Copy the file to the local computer.
You can use “Plist editor” to edit the file. You can get one for windows here.
Change the key for “ShowCallForwarding” to false.
Put the edited carrier.plist file back to the IPhone.
Restart you IPhone and annoying message is gone. All your call forwarding setting will be retained just the message is gone.

The above process worked for my IPhone which was unlocked using blackra1n and running Firmware 3.1.2.

Enjoy!!!

 

 

I got a Apple IPhone from US to India. All IPhones brought in US is locked and can be used only with AT&T. I unlocked it with redsn0w to use it in India. Bingo my phone got unlocked. I was using Spice (now Idea). I was using it without any issues. It was when 1 sec pulse came to India, introduced by Docomo that I thought of changing my SIM.

Unfortunately I realized that my Unlocked IPhone worked only with my Spice SIM.

What was worse is that it did not work while on roaming. I tried updating the firm ware, restoring the phone to original setting etc but of no use.  I knew others who have unlocked the phone using the same method as mine but having no issues with their phones. It was not a hardware problem either as my phone was working fine with Spice SIM.

When Apple released the firmware 3.1.2 I tried again. I restored the Phone with firmware 3.1.2 using iTunes (restoring the phone to factory settings locks the phone again) and this time unlocked it with blackra1n. I think this is the easiest way to unlock the IPhone. It comes with a single button on it. Just plug the IPhone to the computer and press this button and under a minute the phone is unlocked. Can unlocking become easier than that? Below is the screen shot of the tool.

 

 

However this did not solve my issue with outgoing calls. Googling it I came to this link, which worked for me

All I had to do was
1)    Go to Settings > General > Date and Time. Switch off “Set Automatically” and manually select your hometown (the default is Cupertino).
2)    Next, go to Settings > Phone > Show My Caller ID > Switch this to “ON”.
3)    Turn off turn off Settings > Phone > Call Forwarding and Settings > Phone > Call Waiting.
My IPhone now can make calls with any SIM and has no issues with Roaming.

However I noticed one another issue. I was getting an annoying message "Call Forwarding Active" for all outgoing calls. 

  
 

I along with my family had been for a holiday in Andaman. Not to mention one of the best holidays we have had. We took a lot of pictures, it took me a while to realize that I had accidently taken a picture which was the same as the picture on the back of Rs 20 note.

The picture on the Rs 20 note is of the Port Blair light house. This photo below was taken from the ship Ramanujam during our journey from Port Blair to Havelock (another beautiful Island in Andaman).

 

So are they 12 or 13?

Once upon a time in a village, a man appeared and announced to the
villagers that he would buy monkeys for  Rs10.

The villagers seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the
forest and started catching them.

The man bought thousands at  Rs10 and as supply started to diminish, the
villagers stopped their effort.  He further announced that he would now
buy at Rs20. This renewed the efforts  of the villagers and they started
catching monkeys again.

Soon the  supply diminished even further and people started going back to
their farms.  The offer rate increased to Rs25 and the supply of monkeys
became so little  that it was an effort to even see a monkey, let alone
catch it!

The  man now announced that he would buy monkeys at Rs50! However, since
he had to  go to the city on some business, his  assistant would now buy on
behalf of him.

In the absence of the man,  the assistant told the villagers. Look at all
these monkeys in the big cage  that the man has collected. I will sell
them to you at Rs35 and when the man  returns from the city, you can sell
it to him for Rs50."

The villagers  squeezed up with all their savings and bought all the
monkeys.

Then  they never saw the man nor his assistant, only monkeys  everywhere!!!

 I have three visions for India. In 3000 years of our history people from all over the world have come and invaded us, captured our lands, conquered our minds. From Alexander onwards. The Greeks, the Turks, the Moguls, the Portuguese, the British, the French, the Dutch, all of them came and looted us, took over what was ours. Yet we have not done this to any other nation. We have not conquered anyone. We have not grabbed their land, their culture, their history and tried to enforce our way of life on them. Why? Because we respect the freedom of others. That is why my first vision is that of FREEDOM. I believe that India got its first vision of this in 1857, when we started the war of independence. It is this freedom that we must protect and nurture and build on. If we are not free, no one will respect us.

My second vision for India is DEVELOPMENT. For fifty years we have been a developing nation. It is time we see ourselves as a developed nation. We are among top 5 nations of the world in terms of GDP. We have 10 percent growth rate in most areas. Our poverty levels are falling. Our achievements are being globally recognized today. Yet we lack the self-confidence to see ourselves as a developed nation, self-reliant and self-assured. Isn't this incorrect?

I have a THIRD vision. India must stand up to the world. Because I believe that unless India stands up to the world, no one will respect us. Only strength respects strength. We must be strong not only as a military power but also as an economic power. Both must go hand-in-hand. My good fortune was to have worked with three great minds. Dr. Vikram Sarabhai of the Dept. of space, Professor Satish Dhawan, who succeeded him and Dr. Brahm Prakash, father of nuclear material. I was lucky to have worked with all three of them closely and consider this the great opportunity of my life.

I see four milestones in my career: ONE: Twenty years I spent in ISRO. I was given the opportunity to be the project director for India's first satellite launch vehicle, SLV3. The one that launched Rohini. These years played a very important role in my life of Scientist.

TWO: After my ISRO years, I joined DRDO and got a chance to be the part of India's missile program. It was my second bliss when Agni met its mission requirements in 1994.

THREE: The Dept. of Atomic Energy and DRDO had this tremendous partnership in the recent nuclear tests, on May 11 and 13. This was the third bliss. The joy of participating with my team in these nuclear tests and proving to the world that India can make it, that we are no longer a developing nation but one of them. It made me feel very proud as an Indian. The fact that we have now developed for Agni a re-entry structure, for which we have developed this new material. A Very light material called carbon-carbon.

FOUR: One day an orthopedic surgeon from Nizam Institute of Medical Sciences visited my laboratory. He lifted the material and found it so light that he took me to his hospital and showed me his patients. There were these little girls and boys with heavy metallic calipers weighing over three kg. each, dragging their feet around. He said to me: Please remove the pain of my patients. In three weeks, we made these Floor reaction Orthosis 300 gram calipers and took them to the orthopedic centre. The children didn't believe their eyes. From dragging around a three kg. load on their legs, they could now move around! Their parents had tears in their eyes. That was my fourth bliss!

 

Why is the media here so negative? Why are we in India so embarrassed to recognize our own strengths, our achievements? We are such a great nation. We have so many amazing success stories but we refuse to acknowledge them. Why? We are the first in milk production. We are number one in Remote sensing satellites. We are the second largest producer of wheat. We are the second largest producer of rice. Look at Dr. Sudarshan, he has transferred the tribal village into a self-sustaining, self-driving unit. There are millions of such achievements but our media is only obsessed in the bad news and failures and disasters.

I was in Tel Aviv once and I was reading the Israeli newspaper. It was the day after a lot of attacks and bombardments and deaths had taken place. The Hamas had struck. But the front page of the newspaper had the picture of a Jewish gentleman who in five years had transformed his desert land into an orchid and a granary. It was this inspiring picture that everyone woke up to. The gory details of killings, bombardments, deaths, were inside in the newspaper, buried among other news. In India we only read about death, sickness, terrorism, crime. Why are we so NEGATIVE? Another question: Why are we, as a nation so obsessed with foreign things? We want foreign TVs, we want foreign shirts. We want foreign technology. Why this obsession with everything imported. Do we not realize that self-respect comes with self-reliance?

I was in Hyderabad giving this lecture, when a 14 year old girl asked me for my autograph. I asked her what her goal in life is: She replied: I want to live in a developed India. For her, you and I will have to build this developed India. You must proclaim. India is not an under-developed nation; it is a highly developed nation.

Allow me to come back with vengeance. Got 10 minutes for your country?

YOU say that our government is inefficient. YOU say that our laws are too old. YOU say that the municipality does not pick up the garbage. YOU say that the phones don't work, the railways are a joke, the airline is the worst in the world, mails never reach their destination. YOU say that our country has been fed to the dogs and is the absolute pits. YOU say, say and say.

What do YOU do about it? Take a person on his way to Singapore. Give him a name - YOURS. Give him a face - YOURS. YOU walk out of the airport and you are at your International best. In Singapore you don't throw cigarette butts on the roads or eat in the stores. YOU are as proud of their Underground Links as they are. You pay $5 (approx. Rs. 60) to drive through Orchard Road (equivalent of Mahim Causeway or Pedder Road) between 5 PM and 8 PM.

YOU comeback to the parking lot to punch your parking ticket if you have over stayed in a restaurant or a shopping mall irrespective of your status identity. In Singapore you don't say anything, DO YOU? YOU wouldn't dare to eat in public during Ramadan, in Dubai. YOU would not dare to go out without your head covered in Jeddah. YOU would not dare to buy an employee of the telephone exchange in London at 10 pounds (Rs. 650) a month to, "see to it that my STD and ISD calls are billed to someone else." YOU would not dare to speed beyond 55 mph (88 kph) in Washington and then tell the traffic cop, "Jaanta hai sala main kaun hoon (Do you know who I am?). I am so and so's son. Take your two bucks and get lost." YOU wouldn't chuck an empty coconut shell anywhere other than the garbage pail on the beaches in Australia and New Zealand. Why don't YOU spit Paan on the streets of Tokyo? Why don't YOU use examination jockeys or buy fake certificates in Boston? We are still talking of the same YOU. YOU who can respect and conform to a foreign system in other countries but cannot in your own. You who will throw papers and cigarettes on the road the moment you touch Indian ground. If you can be an involved and appreciative citizen in an alien country why cannot you be the same here in India. Once in an interview, the famous Ex-municipal commissioner of Bombay Mr.Tinaikar had a point to make. "Rich people's dogs are walked on the streets to leave their affluent droppings all over the place," he said. "And then the same people turn around to criticize and blame the authorities for inefficiency and dirty pavements. What do they expect the officers to do? Go down with a broom every time their dog feels the pressure in his bowels? In America every dog owner has to clean up after his pet has done the job. Same in Japan. Will the Indian citizen do that here?" He's right. We go to the polls to choose a government and after that forfeit all responsibility. We sit back wanting to be pampered and expect the government to do everything for us whilst our contribution is totally negative. We expect the government to clean up but we are not going to stop chucking garbage all over the place nor are we going to stop to pick a up a stray piece of paper and throw it in the bin. We expect the railways to provide clean bathrooms but we are not going to learn the proper use of bathrooms. We want Indian Airlines and Air India to provide the best of food and toiletries but we are not going to stop pilfering at the least opportunity. This applies even to the staff who is known not to pass on the service to the public. When it comes to burning social issues like those related to women, dowry, girl child and others, we make loud drawing room protestations and continue to do the reverse at home. Our excuse? "It's the whole system which has to change, how will it matter if I alone forego my sons' rights to a dowry." So who's going to change the system? What does a system consist of? Very conveniently for us it consists of our neighbors, other households, other cities, other communities and the government. But definitely not me and YOU. When it comes to us actually making a positive contribution to the system we lock ourselves along with our families into a safe cocoon and look into the distance at countries far away and wait for a Mr. Clean to come along & work miracles for us with a majestic sweep of his hand. Or we leave the country and run away. Like lazy cowards hounded by our fears we run to America to bask in their glory and praise their system. When New York becomes insecure we run to England. When England experiences unemployment, we take the next flight out to the Gulf. When the Gulf is war struck, we demand to be rescued and brought home by the Indian government. Everybody is out to abuse and rape the country. Nobody thinks of feeding the system. Our conscience is mortgaged to money.

Dear Indians, The article is highly thought inductive, calls for a great deal of introspection and pricks one's conscience too....I am echoing J.F. Kennedy's words to his fellow Americans to relate to Indians.....

"ASK WHAT WE CAN DO FOR INDIA AND DO WHAT HAS TO BE DONE TO MAKE INDIA WHAT AMERICA AND OTHER WESTERN COUNTRIES ARE TODAY"

Lets do what India needs from us.

-- Dr APJ Abdul Kalam

A young boy enters a barber shop and the barber whispers to his Customer, "This is the dumbest kid in the world. Watch while I prove it to you." The barber puts a five rupee coin in one hand and two one rupee coins(1+1=2) in the other, then calls the boy over and asks,"Which do you want, son?" The boy takes the two one rupee coins and leaves. "What did I tell you?" said the barber. "That kid never learns!" Later, when the customer leaves, he sees the same young boy coming out of the ice cream store. "Hey, son! May I ask you a question? Why did you take two one rupee coins instead of five rupee coin?" The boy licked his cone and replied, "Because THE DAY I TAKE THE FIVE RUPEE COIN, THE GAME IS OVER

 

Moral: When you think the other person is dumb, you are making a fool of yourself.

Sucess does not come over night.

From Independance to Chandrayaan, India's first mission to the Moon.

This was how the Rocket Cone  was transported to the Launch Pad at Thumba

 

 

The following picture depicts what you can archive even without infrastructure but with sheer determination.

 

November 21, 1963: The Nike Apache rocket being readied for launch

 

Dr APJ Adul Kalam at work

 

Early days at the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station. Readying equipment to be carried by a sounding rocket into the atmosphere are Kalam and R. Aravamudan.

 

 

The present day Launch Station at SriHarikota

 

And Now Chandrayaan

 

This is the legend of Dhruva, the child who became a symbol of justice, equality and rights.

From Brahma's body was created Manu. Manu is the source of all human creation. Hence the terms Manav or Manuj for man which literally mean the products of Manu. Manu had two righteous and brave sons known as Priyavarta and Uttanapad.

The king Uttanapad had two wives, Suneeti, the daughter of a nature loving tribal lord and Suruchi, the daughter of a rich neighboring king. Suruchi, the second wife, was a willful and selfish woman. But she also possessed a great beauty.

The king had a son by each of his queens. Dhruva was the son of Suneeti, the elder queen, and was destined to inherit the throne; Suruchi’s son was Uttamma.

Following the selfish wishes of Suruchi, he sent his first wife and little Dhruva out of the palace to stay in a cottage near the palace. Dhruva lost his right to the throne as the king promised Suruchi that her son would be king. Dhruva grew up in his mother’s care.

One day, Dhruva went near the palace and strayed into the main palace where the king and the queen were holding court. When Dhruva saw the king, he recognized him as his father. He also saw a little boy sitting on the king’s lap. This boy was Uttamma, the son of Suruchi. Overwhelmed with joy and love, Dhruva ran up to the throne because he too wanted to share his father’s lap. Even as Dhruva reached the king and tried to climb onto his father’s lap, Queen Suruchi was enraged. Screaming abuse at the little boy, Suruchi dragged him away from the king. “How dare you! You cannot sit on the king’s lap. You have no right to that; only my son has that right”.

Dhruva feeling hurt went straight to his mother Sunithi and narrated her the whole incident. Hearing it Sunithi tried to console her son: "Dear son! One gets in this life in accordance with what one had done in previous lives. Suruchi and Uttamma must have done better deeds in previous lives than we did to deserve the position they enjoy. Instead of craving for Uttamma's position you should try to do better deeds so that in coming life you may get honorable position. If you do good deeds, act righteously and religiously there is no reason why you shouldn't get better position  than what Uttama enjoys in the life."

Dhruva felt quite consoled by his mother's words. He said: "Mother! your words have given me peace. I will try to achieve the highest position of all. True, the king loves Uttamma's mother more and true that I am not her son. But I am your son and I will show you what I can achieve. I don't carve for throne. Let Uttamma have it. I will achieve a place by my hard work and devotion which may even be unachievable been for high sages and seers."

The determination in the boy’s words was apparent. Although Suniti tried to dissuade him from going to the forest to perform a severe penance, Dhruva would not listen to her. The forest was not away from the palace. When Dhruva reached the denser part of the forest he met the seven sages (Saptha rishi's). He bowed before them and said: "I am Dhruva, the son of Raja Uttanapad and Suniti. I am unhappy so I have come before you." The sages were surprised and they asked: "Prince you are hardly five years old. What could be the reason for you feeling unhappy at this age? Moreover, your father is the king and much on the throne. Nor you seem to suffer from any illness. Then what could have caused as much unhappiness to you as to drive you out of the luxury of the palace off to these jungles?"

Then Dhruva elaborately told them the reason of unhappiness. He said that he desired neither wealth nor kingdom. He simply wanted to attain a position that no one has attained before. Seeing the determination writ large on the his face, the sages were amazed. They instead of discouraging or dissuading him from performing rigorous penance in the dense jungle, they advised him to worship Vishnu for only Vishnu could assure Dhruva the position he desired. While departing they taught him the twelve syllabled mantra:

"Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya"

 

As they departed Dhruva continued his journey onwards to reach Maduvan (now known as Mathura). Selecting a neat spot near the bank of river Yamuna under a huge tree he started his worship of lord Vishnu. This started panic on Gods abode that this penance might be to steal their position. They started to send many obstacles but Dhruva continued his worship. Lord Vishnu knew what was in young Dhruva's mind. Vishnu allowed the gods to device all obstructions with two intensions. First, to ascertain the firmness in Dhruva's worship and secondly, to make the gods realize that there are other positions much respectable than their own positions.

One fine day Lord Vishnu appeared before Dhruva and offered him a boon. Dhruva opened his eyes and saw Lord Vishnu before him. Dhruva sought the boon that be should always feel like praying to Vishnu. As a matter of fact, Dhruva did not want a boon at all. When he saw Lord Vishnu before him, he desired for nothing more. Nevertheless, Vishnu was so pleased with Dhruva's devotion and selfless dedication that he persisted on granting some boon. Dhruva then said that he wanted a position as might place him on the top of the world. Vishnu assured him that he will occupy such a eternal position in the sky as would make all the start revolve around it.

Dhruva tara (Pole star) can now be easily identified near the Saptarishi mandal (Ursa Major).