What do I think about India...?

Kocu, sorry if I imitate your way of comparing things... :)

Here is what I've found in my stay in India (Noida city):

Hospitality (ID: 1, IN: 0):
Most indonesian are friendly towards stranger, and if there's miscommunication, indonesian people are only smiling in confusion, but indian people (men) sometimes raise their tone.

Streets (ID: 1, IN: 0):
You think streets in Indonesia are messy? Think twice! In India, cars horn very often; they're keep going even the traffic lights is red; it's so hard to cross the street here :) and, you will sometimes find a car parked almost in the middle of the street. Oh, btw, have you ever crossed by cow?

Foods (ID: 0, IN: 1):
I think this is unjust, because I'm a vegetarian, and in India you can find vegetarian foods everywhere. And, there are so tasty. Try their masala spice, samosa potato, and their paneer, very very tasty.

TV Channels (ID: 0, IN: 1):
I'm not into TV too much, but here it is: You can find about 15 channels in Indonesia TV. Here, you get 99 channels! BUT...I found only some English channels: Star Movie, Star Plus, HBO, ESPN, CNN, but most of them are Indian channels, and sometimes they play English movie but dubbed in Hindi.

Transportation Price (ID: 1, IN: 0):
India transportation price is very high! There is no taxi here (you have to phone first). The available ones are buses, oto (small car in three wheels), and rickshaw. I travel everywhere with oto, and to reach sector 40 from sector 56 (about 5 kilos) will cost me around Rs. 60 ($1.43, Rp. 13000), in Indonesia, you have to pay only Rp. 3000.

Staying Cost (ID: 1, IN: 0):
If you stay in a hotel in Indonesia, it's similar by staying in the guest house here. The cost for a night is Rs. 1700 ($40, Rp. 385000), steep huh? But what you get here? Wifi, double-size bed, balchony, tv, two closets, bathroom, ac and fan, mmm...that's all.

House Price (ID: 1, IN: 0):
You know, I was thinking of moving to India with my family. So I asked around how much a small house would cost me. They say, for 10x10 house with one bathroom, no kitchen, will cost me Rs. 7 Lakhs (Rs. 700000, $16726, Rp. 158900836!) in Indonesia. In Indonesia (Bekasi), you may get a 116m square with one bathroom, two rooms, one kitchen, and a small backyard.

Ok, score for today:
ID (Indonesia): 5
IN (India): 2

To India and Back Again

Click here for pictures taken: http://corinth2489.christian.net/india

I am in India right now, writing this at the Guest House...The company I'm working with, sent me here a week ago, 24th May 2008, to exact location: NOIDA, India.

Take Off!
You know, it was my first flight, and my first time off my country! So, mention the anxiety! I packed my stuffs: camera, lots of deodorants (as I've been told that India is hot), lots of handkerchiefs, some snacks, clothes, everything I have in the closet :)

Designation: Singapore
I sat on the plane. Yea, I was afraid, you know. But as the plane took off, I found that it was fun! Beside, they gave me salmon and potatoes for lunch. Well, Singapore Airlines service is very good. I reached Singapore after 1.5 hours, and I had to wait for next flight to India in next 4 hours. But I liked it there, Changi airport is a wonderful airport.

Next Flight
There I was, inside the plane to India. The flight took about 5 hours. And again I took Singapore Airlines. I spent the whole 5 hours by watching videos and GPS (yea, I was afraid that the plane will go somewhere else :))

INDIA!!!
Finally arrived at Indira Gandhi International airport. It was 11.30 pm. India airport is messy, but I heard that it's under construction. I took a cab, Easy Cab, paid for Rs.785,- ($18.7) to Noida.

India First Impression
On the way to Nodia, I saw that the taxi driver was so reckless! And he doesn't know English! There were motorcycles in the highway, and cow crossed the street!

Go to Bed
After half an hour ride with the taxi, I finally arrived at the Dharam Villa Guest House, but, when we left the taxi, the driver ask us Rs. 100,- for tip (night charge?), but it's ok, Rs. 100,- is still in my budget.
The room is ok, for Rs. 1700,- per night, I get fan, AC, double sized bed, freezer, TV with 99 channels (most are Indian channels), water heater, and a balcony.

Sunday
Done nothing :) just sleeping and watching TV. I went out to find the way to the office. But, I couldn't find it...so, I was hoping that someone would pick me up tomorrow.

to be continue...

Ubuntu on Zyrex Cruiser NFL650

Got this new laptop from my new office. It's an Indonesian PC called Zyrex, which to my opinion, is a good one. Compared to my old Asus A2500H notebook, this one is superior. So, I unpacked it, and I grabbed my Ubuntu 7.10 CD and installed it, and....there was no sound, wifi's, card reader, compiz-fusion, all weren't functioning.

So here's my step of how to make them all working again:

Sound
Realtek ID 268 Codec (8086:248b) ICH8

I do apt-get on linux-backports-module
and then I add this line options snd-hda-intel index=0 model=toshiba inside the file
/etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base
and then reboot


Card Reader
Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832

I downloaded this file ricoh-r5c832-fix_1_i386.deb from here,
and installed it.


Compiz Fusion
Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 0c)

Open this file /usr/bin/compiz and then remark the line that contains your hardware numeric ID. Numeric ID can be seen by typing lspci -n on terminal.


Wifi
Broadcom BCM94311MCG Mini PCI

1. Uninstall bcm43xx-fwcutter and ndiswrapper
sudo apt-get remove ndiswrapper-common ndiswrapper-utils-1.9
sudo apt-get remove bcm43xx-fwcutter

2. Blacklist bcm43xx module so that it won't load at boot
type sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist
add line blacklist bcm43xx

3. Download windows driver here
extract it in e.g. /home/yourname/WLANBroadcom

4. Download ndiswrapper source here
put it in e.g. /home/yourname/ndiswrapper

5. Update and install some things
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install build-essential
sudo apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r`
sudo ln -s /usr/src/linux-`uname -r` /lib/modules/`uname -r`/build

6. Go to ndiswrapper directory & extract it
cd /home/yourname/ndiswrapper
tar xvzf ndiswrapper*
cd ndiswrapper*
make distclean
make
sudo make install

7. Install windows driver through ndiswrapper
cd /home/yourname/WLANBroadcom
sudo ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf
ndiswrapper -l
sudo gedit /etc/modules (add the line ndiswrapper)
sudo modprobe ndiswrapper
sudo ndiswrapper -m

8. reboot

That's all, you have a working Zyrex Cruiser NFL650.

Resources:
http://invaleed.wordpress.com/2007/11/20/install-bcm94311mcg-wlan-mini-pci-ubuntu-710/