How To Solve "No Gateway Reply" Problem Connecting Your Nokia Phone To Linksys WRTG54 Router

Well to be honest i can't be sure if it's only related to Linksys or more specifically to WRTG54 series, i was constantly running into dreadful "No gateway reply" errors and the following few tips solved the problem for me.

DNS Blues


Nokia phones some how don't like the idea of having three DNS, now days its common for ISP's to have yet another backup DNS besides primary and secondary. Nokia phones tend to get problems with that.

Solution? Chances are that you are on a DHCP setup in which ip is set automatically by your ISP, what you can do is go to

Settings -> Connectivity -> Destinations -> Internet -> Your WLAN Connection (e.g. you might have it called HOME) -> Advance Settings -> IPv4 Settings

Keep that in mind that the above is based off my 5800XM and it might differ on your device, but the idea is that you need to edit the settings of your access point (which in this case would be your connectivity to your router to go on internet).

By going in IPv4 settings you are going to manually enter IP address to your phone and chances are you are going to sort out most of the problems just by doing this simple step.Here you will asked to enter

Phone IP Address (e.g. 192.168.1.5)

Subnet Mask (e.g. 255.255.255.0)
Gateway (e.g. 192.168.1.1)
DNS (for primary DNS i enter the router's ip and for secondary i enter the third DNS from my ISP)


WAP-omatic
 

If you enable WPA or any other security in your router other than WEP it gives me problems like constant connection drop outs and what not. I tried going with WEP and it was steady connection for me, Although it means you will have to enter the hard to remember passcodes every time you want a wireless device to be on the network.

My Complain Letter To PTCL

To

Divisional Engineer,

Missri Shah Exchange,

PTCL,

Subject: Extremely disgusted and horrified customer experience for the SECOND time.

CC: PTA, Higher Management PTCL, Ministry Of Information Technology, Higher Management Etisalat

Dear Sir,

               Like the subject suggests, I have been “honored” to be on the receiving end of extremely disappointing and unprofessional behavior of your team. Previously I have had the “pleasure” to getting your much publicized “Broadband Experience” just to had it disconnected in a week’s time because it just did not worked for me.

               Being attracted towards your marketed lower rates and change of corporate image I thought about giving PTCL another shot and applied for a phone line and 2mbps DSL connection (11^th November 2009, Order number 2021ju9) back in November 2009 and that started my horror story which have better chances of winning a Emmy than Paranormal Activity and Sir I kid you NOT by stating that.

               Despite of making complaints to PTA (Complaint # 93344), Exchange, 1218, 1236 (most recent complaint number 244) I did not got the line installed at my house till January 2010 which by the way still not fixed since it has so much noise that It sounds like distress code from bloody titanic. On a bright sunny day a dsl installation personal came to my house to install the modem which he did but he never activated by connection saying some user name password problem. It’s been good week or so despite of going to exchange on regular basis and meeting the DSL Officer, talking to your delightful helpline people (which honestly try to be helpful, no pun intended) and hoping it would start working.

               Three strikes and you are out, but in your case I will make an exception, two strikes and for love of GOD forgive me for making the mistake of choosing your broadband. Kindly take BACK the modem your team so graciously offered me, disconnect the DSL so that I can go to some of your competition who can actually provide what they advertise.

Thank You,

Muhammed Saquib Baqai

20-1-2010

Photoshop Effects Black&White over Color and Vice Versa

Here is another not so short tutorial on photoshop, this time we will see how to use the B&W effect (like in the previous post) and mix & match it with simple cut and paste to make a cool picture

As usual you will require a copy of photoshop and a picture to play around with, for purpose of this small tutorial i have decided to use this picture of a cute little kitten so lets get started shall we



1. Open the image in photoshop and press CTRL+A (to select all) than press CTRL+C (Copy) once you have copied the image press CTRL+N (To open new image) here what you will do is set the color mode to gray scale, see the following image for illustaration.



Once you have a new blank window open press CTRL+V to paste the image into place, Notice it would be black and white now.

2. Now you have two images, one in color and one in black and white, go to black and white image select all by CTRL+A and than copy it to clip board by CTRL+C now go to the color image and paste the image there by pressing CTRL+V. You will notice in the layers dialogue box (towards your right as in the image below) two layers one in b&w (on top) and the original image in color below it. Refer to the image below



3. Now select magic wand (either by pressing W on your keyboard or by clicking on the icon in the toolbar as shown in the image above) What magic wand does is select pixels by color matching and it selects an area with matching color. There are other methods of selecting and editing image but we shall use magic wand in this tutorial.

Once you click magic wand and click on the image it will result in a abrupt selection such as shown in the image above, It may look complicated but don't freak out.

5. You will notice that a lot of places outside and even inside the kitten are selected, Our aim in this excersise is to roughly select the outline of the kitten, For that purpose we will now edit our selection. For this purpose at least my favorite way of achieving it is to use Marquee tool (Press M on the keyboard). Once you have the tool selected you can Add further area to your selection or you can Remove area from the selection, This can be achieved by press ALT (You will see a small - sign) to remove selection or you can use CTRL (You will see a small + sign) to add to your selection. Play around by adding and subtracting the selection till you approximately have the outline of the kitten selected. It may sound hard but it is not give it a shot. Refer to the image below.

6. Now the hardest part is over so congratulate yourself, You can pull off two effects here,

    1. You can make kitten black and white and background colored
    2. You can make kitten colored and background black and white.

We shall see both of the effects

6.1 With the selection which you made back in step 5 simply press the DEL key and you will get a nice black and white kitty cat with colored background like the image below

6.2 Now lets revert back and try another effect, For that purpose locate the "History" box on your right, History keeps track of all the changes you have to your image, You can set how much do you want to keep in history by changing the photoshop preferences. For this excersise you need to go one step back so simply click on the previous item in the history box to go back to previous state. Refer to the image below

 

 

6.3 Now we have to try the other effect, Go to SELECT menu and than select INVERSE, Now simply press the DEL key and presto you will see the kitten in black and white while having the kitten in color like in the image below.

It's not rocket science, What we did was simply delete something from the black and white layer so that we can see what is underneath that layer (which would be identical color copy) so it gives you the effect of having black and white over color and vice versa. This is a very popular effecct widely used by many studios and they charge you an ample amount of money to do something simple as this.

This was a very vague overview how to pull this effect off, If you have any questions or querries than do let me know will be happy to answer! :)

In Honor Of George Carlin

Around a decade back on one fine day on #mp3tunes (Undernet) I was introduced to a name which i had never heard by a lovely lady who used to go by the nick ^Tali. This name was George Carlin and ^Tali literally forced me to download it and hear it, I can't recall laughing so hard ever in my life and that was the time when i got hooked into this gentlemen named George Carlin. Although he is not anymore with us but his legacy remains. I will share with you the piece which got me hooked, It's called "Airline Announcements"

Mind you it is PG and NSF (Not Suitable For Work) unless you are wearing headphones, If you consider yourself a person who gets offended quiet easily than hear it at your own risk, However if you are a "normal" person than clicky clicky on the links below! :)

Part-1




Part-2

Few Things Just Don't Get Old

I remember when i was growing up we used to be all hyped up about Airwolf, Knight Rider, The Master, A-Team, Flash and God knows how many other programs but now when i look back at MOST of those programs i laugh at myself and think "Damn how stupid we were to believe in that" but than there are few memoriable programs from the past which you still would love to see and enjoy. My son loves one such franchies and it's one of those very rare programs which me, my wife and son all love to sit and watch together without any fights for the remote lol

I am talking about none other than good ol Tom & Jerry here, the fun filled cartoon roaming around Tom the poor kitty and Jerry the ever witty mouse, I doubt you will find a living soul on this planet who have not seen this in his life either on TV or on some T-Shirt or bag or what not.

In case you don't know Tom & Jerry was created by William Hanna and Joesph Barbera in early 1940's and since than there have been many versions and stories including Tom & Jerry Kids but the fact remains that nothing comes near to the original episodes when it comes to originality and humor.

But wait a second there are few more programs still on my hard drive which i watch again and again (and again!) and they keep making me laugh the same way they did a decade or so back.
The series i am going to talk about now is a comedy serial which without a doubt is my ever favourite TV show EVER, you can imagine that i have all it's seasons ripped on hard drive, have boxset DVD's and saving to buy them on BlueRay. Before i proceed further i must give credit to Saima Uzair (She is married now so her last name would be something else, She was sister of a buddy of mine Danish Uzair) for introducing me to this out of world program.

Let me give you a hint, If you have ever watched the show or have followed it than this line would ring a bell .... "How Ya Doin!" No? were you living under a rock? or were in hibernation? or were chased by aliens around in circles? Damn! okay one more hint for you ... Chandler, Joey, Ross, Monica, Pheobe, Racheal? 

Yes i am talking about none other than F.R.I.E.N.D.S a show about friends which ran for around 10 seasons and still have a huge fan base, Infact there are still petetions running to have more seasons of the show. If you have none watched it ever than do yourself a favour, Watch It, Chances are you WILL like it.

Ross and Monica are brothers and sisters, Chandler is Ross's best friend and he also happens to live across Monica's apartment. Joey is Chandler's room mate and have slightly better IQ than George.W.Bush, Pheobe is Monica's friend and so is Racheal, Racheal is introduced in the first episode as a run away bride. The series have its share amount of love interests and hilarious situations.


There are few other shows I would like to mention here

1. Perfect Strangers.
2. Fresh Prince Of Bel Air.
3. ALF

And few from current / new generation i love to watch are

1. Prison Break (First season was where this show shined and than it kept going down the drain)
2. Boston Legal (William Shatner at his BEST in my opinion)
3. CSI: Vegas / Newyork (CSI Miami is for Baywatch fans if you ask me)
4. The Unit (Sad that it only lasted four seasons)

Subway anyone?

Today i was in a BIG argument with my friends which eventually i lost due to "majority wins" factor (GOD i HATE democracy) the whole fight (if you choose to call it, although it was not sizzling as Kashmala vs Dr Firdaus .... slightly offtopic but Kashmala vs Marvi Memon cat fight would be a freaking pay per view event lol) was on where to go and eat and unfortunately i was the ONLY person in favor of Subway *sigh* and others wanted to go and crappy ROLLS from Hot N Spicy.

Let me admit it, few years back i used to hate Subway myself but that's because i went there once and let THEM made the sandwhich for me (which sucked) i used to avoid the place like plague until my boss took me by force (Work Harrasement i tell!) and that was the time i got the sandwhich made on my own and it tasted good!

Now i am hooked to the place and go there couple of times in a month and enjoy Italian BMT (Yummy) and although i have had Chicken Garlic Mayo Rolls i think i still have craving for Subway ... i think i am going to sneak out while my wife is sleeping and grab a quick bite ;)

Are you a subway fan? Drop in a comment and let me know :)

Simple Photoshop Tricks For You

Have you ever thought how these big names such as Jimmy, Dossani, Studio-9 etc manage to come up with such kick ass pictures? Ever wonder how come you managed to look so good in that picture? well welcome to the amazing powers of Photoshop. I am a hobbyist and i use Photoshop from time to time. Today i am going to introduce you to few tips and tricks to give that UMPH! to your images.

I am in no means an expert and I will try to explain things in simple language (no techie lingo) etc in this tutorial (if you decide to call it that)

Black And White Effect

A simple color photograph can have beautiful impact by simply making it black and white, for that purpose what you need is a color photograph and photoshop (i am using version CS2)

1. Open photoshop and open any image in it, for the purpose of this tutorial i have choose this picture of a very cute baby.



2. Once the image is open go to Image -> Mode -> Gray Scale



3. Photoshop will ask you "Discard Color Information" select Yes and you are done and will be presented with the image looking like this


There you go it was so simple to convert a color picture into black and white



We will further explore and see how we can exploit this effect to create even more further effects such as sepia and all

Stuck in Rain Oh Well

It was a horrible today ... at around 4 my sister in law called she was stuck at her office and i decided to go and pick her up, the office is right opposite RBS / Marriot

I took Girzri and was comfortable (relatively) till Submarine Chawk there it was hell break loose, water crossing the footpath from one side to other, I took a left towards Pizza Next that road was much better, than i took a right on main road towards Clifton Bridge it was BAD but honestly it wasn't as bad as Submarine Chawk

Submarine Chawk while going towards Gulf the only picture of the trip i was able to snap

Picked my sister in law and came back Clifton Bridge was very clean and so was the underpass (much to our surprise) i decided to take the underpass after watching the submarine chawk condition and looking at the condition of it, Perhaps it was the worst decission of the day, right after i came out of Underpass it was hell break loose, from underpass till Du Talwar it was water above the bonet of my cultus, By some miracle the car didn't stopped and i decided to take a "pit stop" right outside worldcall office.

We waited for around 20 minutes with fanatic calls from house :/ took the road going towards Mohatta palace, took left from license office than went in front of zamzama park and mosque there, there was water there but not that bad, reached Saudi Consulate and back home about 2 minutes before Aftari

25 Amazing pictures of lightning

These pictures are BREATH TAKING and wow o wow i am attaching few juicy samples for the real deal head over to the page i got these pictures from



25 Electrifying Pictures of Lightning Photography � Digital Picture Zone

More of E3 Madness Spliter Cell Convication and Assassain's Creed 2 Videos Leaked

LOL like PSP Go wasn't enough to stirr the cyber world here we go with leaked video footage of Conviction and Assassain's Creed 2's videos, they are very short but hey something is better than nothing, Courtesy of Kotaku

Kotaku - Sieve-Like Ubi Site Leaking Splinter Cell, Assassin's Creed Vids - Assassin's Creed

PSP Go leaked before E3

Would Sony be able to keep SOMETHING as a surprise for us? we have been hearing the rumors of a new PSP and today there were pictures leaked of it (PSP Go) on different forums and yes the news spreads like fire


Edit: More details, its 16GB internal storage and also has bluetooth plus it has slot for memory cards and is going to be UMD less



Edit 2: One more picture added

Edit 3: Video added



Fore More Screens: http://www.eurogamer.net/gallery.php?article_id=587698
Thread On Playstation Forums: http://boardsus.playstation.com/playstation/board/message?board.id=e3expo09&thread.id=1906

The VGC Top 100 Best Games of All Time, #10-1 - VGChartz - Video Game Charts News Reviews Cheats Tips FAQs Walkthroughs Forums

The VGC Top 100 Best Games of All Time, #10-1 - VGChartz - Video Game Charts News Reviews Cheats Tips FAQs Walkthroughs Forums

Debatable list many would say, OMG i am so much hyper about E3 can't stop reading, writing and talking (much to annoyance of my wife) about games! :)

Crispy Gamer - Feature: STFU 2009: The 10 People We Hope Will Shut the F*** Up at This Year's E3

Crispy Gamer - Feature: STFU 2009: The 10 People We Hope Will Shut the F*** Up at This Year's E3

NFS Shift I Hope It Doesn't Turns Out To Be NFS Shit

It's been ages i have played a decent NFS game, No honestly NFS Porsche unleashed was one awesome game, Hotpursuit was great fun but than it all went down the drain with the franchies and now EA comes out with a dazzling trailer for NFS:Shift which is supposed to take NFS to a whole new level by being realistic simulator much in line with Forza and Grand Trissmo franchise than being arcade game.



The trailer looks awesome but this is one game i won't jump to buy when its released i'd rather wait to go through few reviews before jumping onto this one, Sorry but NFS franchise have totally lost its credibility with me and its going to take some convincing to get that confidence back.

Kojima Mystery What's Going To Happen On 1st June 09

Kojima apart from excelling in making games knows the art of marketing and he certainly knows how to play around with his fans. Past week has been crazy with speculations, theories, my brother's friend's uncle who works in Konami told me, Fanboy fights and what not. I am sure all through this Kojima is sitting comfortably laughing his ass on us trying to guess what's coming our way.

Things To Keep In Mind
Few things about MGS

1. We already know that Kojima have previously claimed not to make any further MGS game and yet we saw him bringing a new chapter in the franchise to fans.

2. MGS as a series has not beeen TOTALLY exclusive, it has been ported to PC and on XBOX (Correct me if i am wrong but MGS 2: Substance was on XBOX too, right?)

3. The main character of the game has not alwaays been Snake, We have played as Big Boss and also as Raiden, so If we end up playing as Sunny, Big Boss, Gray Fox or anyone else for that matter I won't be surprised

4. Kojima have also taken us back in time during the franchise and we have played through different era's as different characters to tell the story from different aspects, So if the stage is set back in time it won't be something which should come as a surprise to gamers.

5. Kojima have said that MGS 4 will not be ported to XBOX 360 but he certainly never said anything about MGS 5 or for any other product.

What's Gonna Happen?

So once we have refereshed our memory with these "facts" here are my predictions for 1st June 2009

1. MGS 5 would be announced

2. Player will play as Big Boss and as Sunny doing different chapters from different point of view.

3. The game will be exclusive (if not than alteast timed exclusive) for PS3. The reason why i say this is becasue of the timer, It's ending on the exact same date as the Microsoft's E3 conference, i personally believe this is done delibrately to take the thunder away from Microsoft's Press Conference by announcing an exclusive to PS3, that would definately be a big announcement and boards and internet traffic would be full of OMFG OMFG OMFG OMFG XBOX SUXX0R kinda messages.

What I Wish

What i wish though is to see MGS 5 on both Ps3 and XBOX 360, i never did liked the idea of exclusives, It would be nice to have a game offered on different platform so everyone can enjoy it.

Awesome kickass scenes which are not in the movie

Came across this awesome post :)

http://io9.com/5272895/kick+ass-scenes-that-are-in-trailers-but-arent-in-the-movies

Is Zune HD a step towards iPhone Killer?

Oh i know i might get blasted by Apple fan bois but lets face the fact this move from Microsoft to bring a very (let me repeat myself VERY) slick looking device which directly goes to compete against iPod Touch is something to think about.

From the specs it offers everything the Touch does PLUS the HD Radio and HD Video Out, talk about having a portable HD Player with you all the time, I don't know about others but hey it would make life much simple for me (Carrying the Zune HD to other room plugging it to HDTV and watching the movie is much easier the messing with Windows Media Connect and banging your head if its not working or you get jerks in the playback.

What's next? This is a question mark if you ask me, Can Microsoft's ultimate goal be to enter the celluar market and go against Andriod? Although Google is not there with hardware only software but still that's a market segement which in my opinion Microsoft must be keeping an eye out for.

Saving the keyboard after a spill

Directly from Lifehacker.com a awesome tip

If you've used a computer for any significant amount of time, you've also probably facepalmed after spilling some potentially sticky substance into the recesses of your keyboard. (If you haven't, your day will come.) Here's how to save your keyboard after that spill.

As I was finishing up work last night, I accidentally knocked a half-full glass of Diet Coke over and got some in my keyboard. Argh! I shook it out and went on my way, but then this morning 7's and 8's were mysteriously inserting themselves into words, and the spacebar was only working intermittently.

A spill doesn't necessarily mean keyboard death, but resuscitation can take some elbow grease. Unplug the keyboard (or for wireless models, remove the batteries), break out the screwdriver, and take that baby apart. It can take some time; my Logitech has at least two dozen screws holding it together. Lay out the pieces one by one and wipe them down with a slightly-damp cloth to get off any sticky residue. Use a dry paper towel to mop up drops. If you've got compressed air handy, this is a great time to blow out any dust, too.

When all the parts are dry as a bone, carefully reassemble them. All's well for me now; I'm typing this very post on the keyboard. Here are some photos of my keyboard's innards from this morning's clean-up.

Read the full article along with pictures

http://tinyurl.com/n6425c

Search is going to get lot smarter - Google Co Founder

Sergey Brin: 'Search is going to get smarter'

Expect to be surprised says Google co-founder

The size of the web isn't the problem for search, Google co-founder Sergey Brin claimed at the Google IO conference this week. Instead, the problem is the kind of questions search users want answered.

Brin says adding intelligence to search is the way to solve the problem. "We are starting to see more inherent smarts in the search engine. Google Squared [a new service similar to Wolfram Alpha] combines information from hundreds of pages and put it in a table for you. You're going to see an increasing amount of that kind of smarts going on - you'll feel the search engine is smart."

http://tinyurl.com/n3o5r2

Google Wave Video

A preview of the Google Wave check out the video, It looks and sounds impressive but will it be easy for us as consumers to change our computing habbits for wave? I mean c'mon facebook, twitter, msn and what not we are used to those things, hmmmm keeping my fingers crossed here

DOD developing portable hacking device for soldiers

It's not exactly news that the Department of Defense is looking at ways to make hacking a more practical weapon, but it looks to really be stepping up its game with its latest project, which promises to make complicated attacks as simple as a few button presses. That would apparently be possible thanks to a slightly mysterious device that'd be small enough to carry around in a backpack, but powerful enough to do everything from breaking into a wireless network to hacking into SCADA (or Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) systems (used at power plants, nuclear facilities, and the like). While complete details are obviously a bit light, the system would apparently be able to, for instance, map out the nodes in a wireless network, cause them to disconnect, and watch them come back online to identify weak spots. It would then present the "hacker" with various attack attributes that could simply be adjusted using sliders on a touchscreen. No word if the soldiers will also be rewarded with Achievements.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/26/defense-department-developing-portable-hacking-device-for-soldie/

What's gonna happen on June 1st, 2009

For those people who don't understand what's on June 1st, well E3 2009 is gonna kick off with Microsoft's press conference and if that was not enough its the same date on which Kojima and his website's (http://www.konami.jp/kojima_pro/next/index.html) counter will end. Here is what i think is the relevance between them and is going to happen.

I personally believe Kojima is cleverly being used by Sony to under mine the Microsoft's press conference, The counter is going to end on June 1st the very same day Microsoft's press conference and they are going to announce another Metal Gear Solid game exclusive to PS3 thus creating a lot of vibe and taking the share of the publicity away from Microsoft.

I maybe wrong and like many fanbois out there hope that Kojima will announce MGS-5 and it would be on XBOX 360 so lets see :-)

Pacman The Real Deal

Who haven't heard about Pacman perhaps one of the most popular video game character ever, Remi (A guy who goes around doing insanely stupid and funny videos) and his pals decided to do real life Pacman and the result is hilarious

Reality TV

Introduction

Although the invention of television and related technology can be dated as back as late 1800’s commercial television was not around till mid 1900’s, the original debut of commercial TV was shadowed by World War II and got fame after the war ended.

Reality TV - Introduction

What exactly is reality TV? It is a genre / category of television programming in which there is no concept of pre scripted events or dialogues and is more focused on real time events not to be mistaken with documentaries and news / sports shows.

Reality TV - History

Reality TV can be dated back to as far as 1940’s with early shows as Candid Camera which was instant hit to early 1950’s Miss America Beauty Pageant laid strong foundations for Reality TV.

Reality TV - Reason for Popularity

Many factors can be accounted for outstanding popularity of Reality TV, few of them are listed below,

• Ordinary people coming on national television.
• Ability of turning ordinary people into celebrities.
• Unscripted events can lead to humorous situations.
• Provides chance to earn huge amount of money by participating in shows.
• People like to enjoy pain, agony, happiness and other emotional situation of another person.


Reality TV – Critical View

Although Reality TV is perhaps one of the most genres of television programming, It has its own lion’s share of criticism, We shall discuss the criticism based on morals, ethics and social point of views.

Morals / Social / Ethics

Different people from different parts of world and belonging to different casts, religion, and moral values cannot agree or be happy with the idea a director or producer had for the show, popular example would be dating shows which encourage girls and boys to come ahead and explore dating and unmarried sex which is prohibited in Islam and Christianity.

A certain type of show may not be popular in a certain area of the world (Temptation Island was a big failure in India) and popularity and success of the show depends on the social and ethnic background of the people.

Humiliation

Often reality TV shows are subject to criticism based on a phenomenon known as schadenfreude (German word meaning enjoyment taken from the misfortune of someone else.) Often in shows such as Candit Camera, America’s Funniest Home Videos etc, We end up laughing at someone’s account without taking into context how the other person is feeling about the issue.

Are They Real?

One skeptic view of reality TV is that the events portrayed and viewers see on their TV screen are not real but are pre scripted events and are molded according to surveys conducted to see what end viewer wants


Reality TV – Are WE Responsible

We as a viewer are 100% responsible for encouraging TV channels to come up with more and more ridiculous excuse for programs all in name of “reality tv”, programs ranging from “Khuwaja Ki Idalat” to “Living On The Edge” are just few examples of what our media is working on now days.

The concept of quality programming and shows is dying day by day because of viewers and their craving for reality TV. We won’t blame TV channels because they would not be launching a TV and spending xyz amount of money on it without conducting proper surveys and studies so they before hand know that its going to pay them back.


Reality TV – Media Point of View

We shall not be biased in bashing Reality TV and therefore we shall explore the point of view of a TV channel which is busily producing such reality TV shows.

At the end of the day a show is considered as success if it generates viewership and advertisement revenue. In a cut throat competition like we have in our country a producer / director is living on the edge (no pun intended to the reality tv show bearing the similar name) and is often forced to come up (our polite choice of word for plagiarism) inspired by some foreign show.


Reality TV – What Can We Do? (Media Point Of View)

Its not necessary to follow western media and copy each and everything they do, We cannot deny the fact that reality TV is popular but we can use all that popularity, all that energy into something positive by making a show which encourages some social issue, award a deserving individual by promoting him/her or making life of a deserving family better.

A show can be created to start a competition for individuals to adopt a particular area of suburbs and teach certain amount of children, Or the same amount of energy which is wasted doing dares (By now you can tell how much we HATE that show) can be utilized by making the individual help someone deserving by dare (anything which can make someone do a good cause).

Consumer Rights In Pakistan

Edit: Found this URL courtesy of Abbas at WCCK, its for Customer Rights Council Pakistan

http://www.crc.org.pk/

Originally posted on PakGamers.com

http://www.pakgamers.com/forums/chit-chat-cafe/29682-pakistan-consumer-court-playstation-3-must-read.html


The is a true story. I will not give out all the details and will have to cut the story short.


The primary purpose of reporting it here on pakgamers is so that each one of you who spends his hard earned halal money on console or games has basic protection.


The secondry purpose of posting this story is to teach all the shop owners a lesson that they cannot screw a customer ever again

PG Spoiler

Btw a little bit of factual information before i tell the incident.Coz i have read on various threads that people go to kiran zone after the guy at futurezone screws with them. Kiran Zone,Future Zone,Gameshock and several others including all their branches may it be in defence or model town or where ever are owned by the SAME person.

There is only one owner. most people don't know that. I personally know the owners son and they are the biggest importer and exporters of consoles in pakistan. he told me last month they exported 20,000 ps3's only to Iran and not counting other countries .so you can imagine how huge their business is. so it doesn't matter if you purchase a console at kiran zone or futurezone the money goes to the same man

Now with what happened..... I purchased a PS3 from a shop ( not going to name them coz their business might suffer ). A week later the lens of the PS3 dies.

when I was purchasing the PS3 the shopkeeper told me that there is no warranty or guarantee on the console. I was only allowed to check it in the shop and thats it.

I told him that it was a wrong and illegal practice so why was he doing it?

He told me that they don't get any warranty from behind so they don't offer any.

I told him that under the law ( which many ppl arn't aware off until consumer courts came ) if a trader sells an item and makes profit on it and the customer has a receipt. the shopkeeper is responsible for any kind of defect in the product that may arise in a reasonable amount of time.

He just nodded his head and i bought the system a couple of games and TOLD HIM TO MAKE A RECEIPT He hesitantly started making one and on top of the receipt wrote" NO WARRANTY AND GUARANTEE" So i called the shopkeeper 'Ghattaia and cheap' and came back home with the console.

A week later while playing call of duty(which i have a platinum trophy for ) the game just got stuck and upon restarting the console it refused to read any disc.

I called the shop and informed him of the problem. He obviously tried to put the blame on me by saing that " I MUST HAVE BEEN WATCHING DVD MOVIES ON IT ".

Which I was not.( I had read reports on the internet of lens failing by inserting cheap dvd media discs in the PS3 )

After some quarrelling on the phone he offered to replace the lens for Rs: 3500. Which I refused by telling that i had paid money for a new PS3 not a repaired one.

He did not agree so i decided to contact the consumer courts.

The reason I came to know of their existence was through newspapers which reported on their daily activities on generators,UPS,Shampoos( YES Shampoo, woman paid RS 50,000 coz a shalmi made shampoo made her go bald LOL) ,mineral water, ETC.

To cut the story short within 1 hour of meeting with a lawyer at the consumer court my mobile was ringing off the hook as the shopkeeper was calling to apologize.

He said that I can get the PS3 fixed for FREE or i can have a full refund.

I went for the refund.

Moral of the story is that YOU as a customer have rights, so it does not matter weather your PS3 lens died or your 360 got RROD like in a week of purchase. If you have a receipt you can take the shop keeper to court.

I hope I delivered my message clearly and saved ppl thousand of ruppes.


1UP for Consumer rights