Raju Alluri’s Personal Blog

I traveled to Godavari Districts over the weekend. The main purpose is to attend wedding of a cousin. Narasapur express is late by an hour and half on that day, disturbing the logistics a bit. Disembarked the train at Bhimavaram on Saturday to visit relatives and then drove to Poolapalli. From there, visited Sakhinetipalli in East Godavari district. Once back in Poolapalli, took a few hours of rest and went to Amalapuram to attend the late night wedding.

Sunday is a relatively slow day. Bought some sea food for kids, met GVPR (HoD of CS Department at SRKR engineering college) and came back to Poolapalli. Boarded Narasapur express in the evening and headed back to Hyderabad.

That is a couple of hundred kilometers of nice and pleasant drive during this weekend. Nice views of green paddy fields and full canals, reflecting the good monsoon during this season.

Wedensday evening is another traffic nightmare in the city. It took me more than an hour to reach home from work. In fact, I parked my car in an empty parking lot a couple of blocks away from home and walked home. By doing so, I might have saved at least another 30 minutes.

On Sunday, I took my Xylo out for a highway drive. I wanted to get a feel of the vehicle after its 2nd service a couple of days ago. Took it over different types of roads: smooth, rugged, water clogged, etc. I felt that the driving experience improved. The stick shift (gear shift) is a bit smoother now. The vehicle handled the potholes on the roads well: I guess the key is to maintain the 35psi air pressure. If it is higher, then the ride is a bit bumpy. 35+psi was okay during summer, because the roads are relatively smooth. But on roads damaged with rain water, I think the inflation of wheels should be a bit on the softer side.

Still having a few questions about the ABS. The ABS got engaged even when I applied sudden breaks at 40kmph speed. May be it is due to the traction (or lack of) on rain hit roads. Felt that ABS to be a bit noisy when it gets engaged. Need to check it again one of these weekends.

I need to top up the fuel tank later this month and recheck the fuel efficiency. I don’t think it is going to change drastically from its 10kmpl levels (with AC, semi highway, semi city.)

Overall, I think the vehicle is running very good.

We got the 2nd service (due at 8months or 8K km, whichever is earlier) done for our Xylo. It roamed around 3500km only. The vehicle is bought about 8 months ago and hence I got the 2nd servicing done, irrespective of the odometer reading. One problem that is not fixed for a few months is the external temperature sensor. Looks like the add-on chrome package is occluding the external temperature sensor on the right side mirror. The service consultant flagged this issue with the company and he says he will get back to me.

The other major issue is delay in service. The vehicle is held up at the service center for two full days. Any issue with the digital drive assist seems to take long time (just like the last service.) That process blocked one of my weekend days.

The total cost (only for parts; the service is free) is about 1000 rupees. They changed the gear oil, differential oil and topped up fluids like coolant and windshield wash fluid.

The vehicle made only about 1000km in the last 4 months (since the last service.) That is a very low usage.

Today I have seen that the IRCTC web portal (the portal where Indian Railways tickets can be booked online) introduced human readable verification codes as part of the ticket booking process. This is a new change in their portal, which already allows only signed in users to book tickets. Unlike many other sites, the readability of the verification code is better here…

My OpenSolaris Desktop gave trouble for about a week. It wouldn’t get to the BIOS prompt and sends a series of beeps when switched on. Didn’t get a chance to work on it for about a week, but finally managed some time to open the box over this weekend. All I did is to yank out the memory banks and insert them again. The system started working again. Not sure how and why. But the system is functional now and the memory is seen by the OS:

spurthi@agent007:~$ prtconf | head -2
System Configuration:  Sun Microsystems  i86pc
Memory size: 2015 Megabytes
spurthi@agent007:~$

Now my OpenSolaris desktop is back into operation.Phew!

BTW, this is the first time I opened the system after it is built in September 2007. Lot of dust to clean up .

The last date for filing taxes (for individuals who need not be audited) is fast approaching. Less than a week left for tax filing. This year, I am awfully late and still gathering all the papers from all over the place. Hope I will do this by Friday…

The new symbol for Indian Rupee is here.

Looks good, but takes time to get used to.

Today I spent some time on my commute car, the Maruti-800. Its wheels are out of balance and out of alignment. Due to that, one of the tire has odd wear-out. Got a few parts fixed and then got the wheel balancing and wheel alignment done. It took a lot of time to get these done…

Spurthi asked for a new cell phone as her college-going gift. She did some research and finally zeroed in on Samsung Corby Mate. She didn’t want to go for a touch screen one and rather wanted something that is more texting/SMS friendly. Samsung Mate seems to be a good choice for her requirements.

Spurthi’s shopping process made an interesting side effect. Latha took Spurthi around for shopping during the weekend and in that process, she decided to change her phone too. Being married for about 18 years, I know when not to question certain decisions . Latha liked Corby Pop first, but later shifted to Samsung Corby Colors.

So we bought these two phones on Wednesday night and Spurthi and Latha are busy with setting up their new phones. Obviously, the first tasks are to import the contacts and music!