India Internet Outage - Update 3 (1200 IST)

The following is the excerpt from a mail from Reliance.

You may be aware that our Flag international submarine cable is cut near Egypt. Flag has confirmed cable cut at 8.3 kms, from the Alexandria beach manhole, in a similar location to a reported SMW4 cut earlier on 30th morning. This outage has caused a major interruption in the international internet services and the IPLC services towards London & Newyork. We have an arrangement to protect our BW on SMW4 but unfortunately at this time even SMW4 is also cut and hence the protection is not operational.

We are talking to various carriers, for alternate BW and will keep you posted on the development. We will provide next update at 6 PM today.

We sincerely regret this inconvenience due to this force majeure.

Currently the network is still congested, and traffic is moving with difficulty. all ISP's are working on getting some other routes, and hopefully we should have restored connectivity by tomorrow.

GS

India Internet Disruption - Update 2 (8AM IST / 31 JAN 2008)

India's internet connectivity is still not fully restored, though all ISP's have restored to alternate routes, but the routes are still taking about 500 - 600 miliseconds that usually take about 270 - 300. This is causing major delays in International VoIP Traffic, Email movement between India and other countries and also Website access. There are reports that the cable that has been damaged is a part of the Flag Telecom, Reliance Owned organisation. Attached is the map of the cable at Egypt.



Though there are no updates on the Flag Website about the outage, but a report on Computer World confirms a similar thought.

I have been in continous touch with the Reliance IDC network and their Service Managers and the confirmation is that this is going to be a long outage, and we will not have full speeds for another few days.

Reliance, FLAG, Yipes and all these companies make the major part of the Internet economy worldwide, and most of the network is self healing, but I am not sure how much insight is given into monitoring the network, this is not the first instance where reliance is affected, but then, it just proves, we are now dependent on the Internet and the Global players need to build in larger redundancies, and not route everything towards and from the US.

Indian News papers are now reporting the outage, but sadly there has been no comment from either Bharti, VSNL, or Reliance, or FLAG for that matter about this anywhere, all the papers are printing are the same comments from ISAPI in India.

GS

Internet Services To & From India Affected

India has become the service provider of the world, and today most of the BPO's, Telecom Companies, IDC Operators (Like my company) and other Companies that process data for the world are disconnected. The reason is a cut in an Undersea Cable somewhere around Alexandria, Egypt. The downtime started at about 2PM IST (Jan 30, 2008), when we started noticing huge packet losses and high trip times between the US and India, and there was an estimated time to revive given for 8PM IST (Jan 30, 2008). Right now, News channels and News Papers, Online News Sites are screaming India is disconnected, to explain the situation below are some Graphs from Internet Traffic Report

First Up: Traffic Index Measurement to India (VSNL)


Second: Response Time to India (VSNL)


Third: Packet Loss to India (VSNL)


Some News References:
CBC Cananda
NDTV India
Reuters
Bloomberg
BBC

The first to report this was Headlines Today, in an article here

A few interesting traceroute's, that I can't share here for purposes of Privacy, show that this is a FLAG cable owned by Reliance, and Reliance is worst affected. ISP's which peer with Reliance, and service Providers (such as my company) are also affected. ISP's like Bharti and VSNL are partially affected, but affected non the less. It is estimated that the whole process will take anywhere between a week to 10 days to restore to normalcy.

Last time this happened was when an undersea cable around Hong Kong was cut in December 2006, to read the story from that time click here.

G

The Apple Mac iThin - Ahem, the Apple Mac Air

The Apple Mac book Air is here, it is touted as the thinnest and the lightest notebook around, and yes it runs Windows too, but why would you want to run Windows on such a sexy machine.. To read my review, take on the Apple Mac Book Air, buy the Indian Express, this Sunday Jan 27th, 2008, or click here to read it online.

GS

Going in the Right Direction - AutoExpo 2008 Notes

Every one went to the AutoExpo to see the Nano, News stories of the nature, that the TVSE Supremo was pushed aside by the rushes, because all they wanted was the Nano, and companies feeling sad, that so many foot falls, but no attention to their Stall, I was safe, way safe, at the tech vendors who had brought their Goodies to the Expo. What was noticeable was the change in the GPS market. This week in my Indian Express article, on Sunday Jan 20, 2007, I look at what GPS options you have, and which one to buy, to read the story, either pick up the paper India wide, or click here to read it online.

G

What Women Want - Cell Status

A lot of products especially cell phones are designed for both the sexes, but the fairer sex has been known to pick up only a few models, not everything appeals to them. This week in my Indian Express article, I look at 4 Phones, that are a great fashion accessory for women, 2 available in India right now, one not yet launched, and the other only for those with resources, to read more, grab a copy of the Indian Express, on Sunday 13th Jan 2008, across India, or click here to read it online.

G

How To: Convert Audio Cd's to Tapes

I Love How To's, lists, that can tell you how to achieve something, or do something. A question I was asked again and again, and a list of other questions, prompted me to speak to my ed, to start a How To Column. This is the first in the many to come.

As technology rushes up the evolutionary ladder, it’s leaving behind fossilised gadgets and mounts of regret. For with no option of upgrading the obsolete products, people are often forced to discard them. Such seems to be the case with audio tapes. As the music world hurtled from LPs to cassettes to CDs and MP3s, the simplest—but expensive—option seemed to be to buy the same music in a new format. But as people are beginning to realise, there is a cheaper way: converting old LPs or tapes to CDs and MP3s. But how does one go about rendering the conversion? Here’s how.

Things that you need
An LP or cassette player, depending on what you are trying to convert.
A computer with Windows/Linux or Mac operating system and a sound card with a line in input or a microphone input.

An audio cable with an earphone pin at one end that goes into the headphone output of the old cassette or LP player. You will need to buy an EP-to-EP stereo cable, which is available at all electronic stores, and should not cost you more than Rs 50.
A software called Audacity (www.audacity.sourceforge.net).

Once you have the material, it’s time to start the conversion

Set up the player and load the cassette you want to convert. Rewind it and stop the player. Link the EP cable from headphone output to microphone input of the PC. Fire up Audacity.

Set the volume of the player (cassette or LP) to midway, then open the dialog box on your computer to set up the microphone level. Set this to 50 per cent and make sure anything that looks like ‘Mic Boost’ is switched off.

The first run of the record will be a trial record to ensure that you get the correct levels (a bit difficult and not attainable the first time round. Let’s do the first cut, or what is called, scratch.

In Audacity, press the record button and then the play button on your LP/cassette player. You will see a level meter; make sure the level does not cross into the ‘red’ mark. Stop the recording in a minute and then reverse and listen. If you can hear the tones and not a lot of noise, it means the scratch is working fine. If not, then adjust the levels on either the microphone input or the volume output on your player.

Now start a new file in Audacity, rewind the casette to the original position where you want to start recording, hit the record button and then the play button on the casette player. Record the entire song. Your screen will show a wave form, so keep listening to the music and once the song is done, press the stop button on Audacity and then the stop button in the player.
Save the file as a WAV/MP3 file (WAV file is needed if you are making a regular audio CD, and the MP3 if you are going to burn these files to an iPod or make an MP3 CD).

To generate an audio CD that to play in an audio CD player, make sure you have a CD recorder in PC and the CD recorder software. Most CD recorder software (Nero in Windows) comes with an audio CD create button. Press this, select the WAV files you would like to burn to your CD, and wait for about 10 minutes. Your CD is created.
If you want to create an MP3 CD, select a data CD project in your CD recorder software, and then select the MP3 files you want to burn to the CD.

--
The above article appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday 6th January 2007, read on how to convert your Audio Tapes to CD's.

I seem to be Turning into an Astrologer for Gadgets

The last day of the year, 31/Dec/07, All India Radio, Interviewed me on their National network, on what lies ahead in terms of Gadgets in the Year 2008. Here is the full broadcast of the Program from Monday, of the Section called Science and Technology



Maybe one day, I will be called a Futurist

Happy New Year 2008 to all of you.

GS

The Best Deals of 2007

We all love deals, the SALE Sign has always invited more footfalls to stores, than anything else, a freebie, maybe even better, so what are the best year end value for money gadget deals, to check these out, buy the Indian Express, this Sunday, 30th December 07, or click here to read it online.

G

Tech Concepts that Worked in 2007

Sometimes some concepts work, some fail, the year 2007, like any other year was filled with gadget launches, some of them worked, some failed miserably, but what worked, this year was in the news most of the time. To read my take on it, buy the Indian Express, This Sunday 30th December 2007, or click here to read it online.

GS