Raju Alluri’s Personal Blog

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 .

Surya headed to Gudivada on Thursday night for a chess tourney. He will be out there during this extended weekend and will be back by Monday. This is his second trip in as many months.

తెలంగాణ ప్రాంతం లో జరిగిన ఎన్నికల్లో ఓటర్లు ఎవర్ని గెలిపించి ఉండాలి? తెలంగాణ ఓటర్లు తెలివైన వాళ్ళని నా గట్టి నమ్మకం. వార్తాపత్రికలు వ్రాసింది నిజమయితే గనక ఈ ఎన్నికల్లో ఓటర్లకి బాగా కిట్టుబాటు అయింది. మళ్ళీ అలాంటి కిట్టుబాటు అయే అవకాశం రావాలంటే సాధారణంగా 2014 కే సాధ్యం. కానీ ఓటర్లు గనక టీ. ఆర్. ఎస్. ను గెలిపిస్తే మళ్ళీ ఎప్పుడో వాళ్ళ నాయకులకి కాలక్షేపం కావలిసినప్పుడు మూకుమ్మడి రాజీనామాలు చేస్తారు.  మళ్ళీ ఎలక్షన్లు వస్తాయి. మళ్ళీ కిట్టుబాటు అవుతుంది. కాబట్టి విజ్ఞులయిన ఓటర్లు మాత్రం టీ. ఆర్. ఎస్. ను గెలిపించి ఉంటారని నా ప్రగాఢ విశ్వాసం. మరో రెండు రోజుల్లో తెలుస్తుంది కదా చూద్దాం.

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…

New audio albums that are added to the commute time listening are

• Komaram Puli
• Don Seenu

and music of Maryada Ramanna continues to be the hummable companion.

The new symbol for Indian Rupee is here.

Looks good, but takes time to get used to.

Slowly, the cashless mediclaim facility seems to be heading for an exit from the market. Late last week, the insurers started backing out from cashless facility in major metros. Now, there is a further blow on insured -  a 10.3% service tax. This tax is going to have a chain effect. First, the newly introduced tax will make the insurers exit out of the cashless mediclaim sooner than later (or they may considerably increase the premiums for cashless claims). It will eventually reduce the patronage of corporate and high quality hospitals. Reason: even if one may get eventual reimbursement, the person might not have cash flow to pay upfront. Also, people will be burdened with the cash balance requirements even with predictable hospitalizations: say, child birth and elective surgery.

This whole change will be an additional burden on employees and senior citizens.

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Bought audio CD of Jhummandi Naadam last week. This album occupied the commute listening spot (actually, shared the space with Subhapradam) for the last many days. Almost every song in this album brings a smile on my face - smile resulting from the thought of popular local dish, Khichdi. Not really the dictionary meaning of Khichdi, but the pop culture variant of it - a mishmash. This album is a hodge-podge of earlier albums of K. Raghavendra Rao, Keeravani and Mohanbabu. Gets a grain or lentil from albums like Major Chandrakanth, Allari Mogudu, Allari Premikudu, Alludugaru, Pelli Sandadi, etc.

Naturally, the album bloats to 9 songs and offers a wide range: patriotic to mass; folk to rap; decent to masala. As with any Keeravani album, almost all songs are rewindable and hummable. This album is definitely worth buying. After a long time, S. P. Balu feasts the ears. However, his songs in the other album Subhapradam are of higher grade. More on that album later.

Took a new BSNL pre-paid cell ohone connection. It took me 10 minutes to get the SIM card from our local BSNL office. Most of that time is spent on the number selection - amongst the not so good choices. The phone became active within one hour or so. That is really fast…

Once the phone is active, I got it topped up with VennelaPlus connection and additional money top up. The basic connection cost turned out to be very cheap: Rs 20 for the phone activation and Rs 80 for VennelaPlus service plan. That is cheap!

This phone is used as a floating device for rest of the members of the family.