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Wondering what are these SMS Codes?

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Last Updated (Sunday, 13 September 2009 22:07) Written by Johnlee Sunday, 13 September 2009 21:39

You will be receiving SMS and alerts from Banks, companies, service providers etc. These SMS are coming some particular sender code like:

TA-ICICI, VX-Vodafone, AX-Airtel, AD-HDFCBANK, TM-ICICIBNK, TM-HDFC-Sec, TA-ICICILom and so on…

Have you ever wondered what are these SMS codes and from where these SMS gets originated? Then below information will help you to understand this.

Generally these SMSs are originated from a Bulk SMS Provider who uses 11 digit alpha-numeric characters as Sender Code.

There was a potential security risk in this method because it was possible to give a phone number as Sender Code. It appears to the recipient that this SMS was originated from that particular phone number. This method can be used to send SMS from a fake phone number.

TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) has identified this security risk and introduced the regulation which restricts the Bulk SMS Providers to use 8 character Sender Code. The remaining 3 characters are used to specify the service provider identity and the location of SMS origination. This prevents SMS Providers from sending unsolicited commercial communication.

So the Sender Code has the following format.

XY-CompanyName

Here first character (X) is the service provider code.

Second character (Y) is the location of SMS origination.

And remaining 8 characters (followed by an hyphen) is used to specify company name.

Following table lists the Codes assigned to the service providers.

Following table lists the Codes assigned to the location (area).

So now let us dissect the sender code AD-HDFCBANK

Here first character A tells that the service provider is Airtel (Bharti)

Second character D tells the location Delhi

And the remaining characters tells the company name HDFC Bank.

So, I am sure next time you get an SMS with a code like this, you’ll know what it is.

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AAJ TAK news channel is pathetic

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Last Updated (Monday, 03 August 2009 20:06) Written by Johnlee Tuesday, 17 June 2008 09:25

This is to check that whether the popular news channel 'AAJ TAK' is going to get renamed as 'Ad Tak'. Because it seems that they have limited themselves to ads.

Like everyone else I am also interested in being updated with the latest news. I prefer reading the news online. I watch news occasionally when I am at home. Most of the time I see news on NDTV, Aaj Tak and CNBC.

Recently I was watching news on the so called award winning (three years continuously for best News Channel) news channel Aaj Tak. I felt that those guys are gone far the way on just making money. It is no more a news channel. Whenever I tune to the channel it is showing the Ads. These people are misusing their popularity and fooling the viewers.

The recent example is of the news of the Noida double murder case (Aarushi-Hemraj murder). The channel has highlighted the news so much that the entire nation is watching the news daily to see any big breakthrough for more than a month now. And I am feeling very bad to express that the channel is badly exploiting the interest of the viewers. I observed that the channel was coming up with lots of breaking news segments on this story. In this news segments they pretended that they are going to do a big news flash in this case. Their correspondents were spying the entire seen. But all to just display ads and making money. I was shocked when I accidentally saw one of the segments. The news presenter says

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Introducing QR Codes

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Last Updated (Wednesday, 03 December 2008 20:24) Written by Johnlee Monday, 16 June 2008 20:30

Introducing QR Codes

Mobile Phones are the most revolutionary device which has changed our lives in the present world. Camera phones have become the part of our daily life like our clothing accessories.

The latest Mobile technology today which we can play with much ease is QR Codes (Quick Response Code). This technology requires just one thing - a camera phone along with a QR Code Reader.

A QR Code is a matrix code (or two-dimensional bar code) created by Japanese corporation Denso-Wave in 1994. The "QR" is derived from "Quick Response", as the creator intended the code to allow its contents to be decoded at high speed. QR Codes are common in Japan where they are currently the most popular type of two dimensional code.

Although initially used for tracking parts in vehicle manufacturing, QR Codes are now used in a much broader context spanning both commercial tracking applications as well as convenience-oriented applications aimed at mobile phone users. You can see QR Codes storing addresses and URLs which appear in magazines, on signs, buses, business cards or just about any object that a user might need information about. A user equipped with a camera phone and the correct reader software can scan the image of the QR Code causing the phone's browser to launch and redirect to the programmed URL. This act of linking from physical world objects is known as a hardlink or physical world hyperlinks. A user can also generate and print one's own QR Code for others to scan and use by visiting one of several free QR Code generating sites.

Storage

QR Code data capacity

Numeric only Max. 7,089 characters

Alphanumeric Max. 4,296 characters

How to Scan QR Codes

Scanning a QR code is as easy as taking pictures with the camera phone. The latest mobile phones like (Nokia N93, N93i, N95 or E90) come with a pre-installed QR code reader. Various reader software are available which can be installed on your camera phone. Point your mobile phone camera to code image and get the encoded information encoded within few seconds. The code can encode a text, a business card, Message or website URL.

QR code readers can be installed directly by pointing your mobile phone browsers or by downloading it to your computer and then transferring it to the mobile phone from the following URLs

I-nigma Reader
Point phone browser to: http://www.i-nigma.mobi
Download to computer and then transfer to mobile from: http://www.i-nigma.com/personal/GetReader.asp

Kaywa Reader
Point phone browser to: http://reader.kaywa.com/
Download to computer and then transfer to mobile from: http://reader.kaywa.com/

Semacode Reader
Point phone browser to: http://semacode.org/ota
Download to computer and then transfer to mobile from: http://semacode.org/software/

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IPL Match - Sachin the worst

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Last Updated (Monday, 03 August 2009 20:10) Written by Johnlee Tuesday, 03 June 2008 00:00

I am not a cricket crazy. But I don’t hate cricket. I watch a match whenever I have a good mood or the match is interesting.

I watched some of the innings of the IPL 2008. Last night I watched the IPL final and that was an exciting match. I don’t think we could have a better finale to this tournament. Rajasthan after beginning as the least likely to win at the start of the tournament went on to win the cup. My congratulations to the Rajasthan team and supporters. Chennai, hard luck but very well fought.

Mumbai Indians is team which I dont liked. I dont like the players like sachin in the match. I know many of you take him as GOD. But don’t mind I personally have a bad opinion about him. I agree he was a good player. But I think he never does anything for the team nowadays. All he does is for benefiting himself. Getting endorsements and publicity. He is totally out of form. I think he should retire now.

Anyways the new boys are doing well.
My best wishes to:
MS Dhoni
RP Singh
Yousuf and Irfan Pathan

Keep it up guys.

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Why calculator and telephone have a opposite key layout to a computer numeric keypad?

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Last Updated (Monday, 03 August 2009 20:12) Written by Johnlee Monday, 02 June 2008 00:00

Have you ever thought that why a calculator and a touch-tone telephone have a opposite key layout to a computer numeric keypad?

I tried to investigate the reason behind this. I don’t have the correct theory but a few theories exist.

The first theory is that When the touch-tone telephone was being designed in the late 1950s, the calculator and adding-machine designers had already established a layout that had 7, 8 and 9 across the top row. Data-entry professionals, and others who used calculators were quite habitual at navigating these keypads. They use to hit the numbers extremely quickly, which was great for data entry, but not so great for dialing a touch-tone phone. The tone-recognition technology could not operate effectively at the speeds at which these specialists could dial the numbers. The telephone designers figured that if they reversed the layout, the dialing speeds would decrease and the tone-recognition would be able to do its job more reliably. This theory has little proof to make it reliable, but it does make sense.

A second theory refers to a study done by Bell Labs in 1960. This study involved testing several different telephone-keypad layouts to find out which was easiest to master. After testing several layouts, including one that used two rows with five numbers each and another that used a circular positioning, it was determined that the three-by-three matrix that had 1, 2 and 3 across the top was the easiest for people to use.

Another theory is based on the layout of a rotary telephone. On a rotary dial, 1 is at the top right and zero is on the bottom. When designed the new touch-tone keypad, putting the 1 on the top-right didn’t make much sense, because Western writing is read from left to right. But putting 1 on the top-left, and the subsequent numbers to the right, did make sense. Using that formula, the resulting rows fell into place, with zero getting its own row at the bottom.

All of these theories are there to explain why telephone and calculator keypads are exact opposites, but none of them can be pinpointed as the actual reason. It is common practice today to use the telephone-keypad layout when designing new products that utilize a keypad, such as ATMs.

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