Dish Network is the winner - Finally !!

Hello all,

I went through a lot of pain of doing my research of finding the best option to get cable TV with HD. By the way if you really don't feel like reading just go right at the bottom of the posting for the main deal. One of the most criterias for me are as following :

1) Cheapest Option

2) Optimum Number of Channel

3) I Should get it at my Apartment

4) HD and DVR

Analyzing all of the above, I picked Dish Network. The blue underlined option is what I picked. I picked free HBO and Showtime, which I am going to discontinue after 3 months (hopefully I will remember).

America’s Top 120 Reg. $39.99 Promo for year: $24.99

Options:

---DVR service: $6/mo. One fee now covers all DVRs on the account (instead of one fee per DVR).

---HD & Platinum programming package: $10/mo. This option is for America’s Top packages. PlatinumHD channels are included at no extra charge permanently.

So for me the total came out to be 40.99 for the first 12 month.

Caution : Do not go through a third party, go directly through Dishnetwork. I was hoping to do it through VMC Satellite and it seems like reading through various forums that they most of the times do not have local channels and once you add that it always comes out to what is on dish network website directly.

The other problem is that if you are living in an apartment, you need special installation and usually third party will charge you for that.

Now here is the fun part. I used the following link, which I found after a lot of researching.

1. 75 $ Gift Card (It said its gonna take 6 weeks to get it, Finger crossed) https://customersupport.dishnetwork.com/DishCart/prepPartnersEntrance.do?sales_id=DISHCSR
2. 50$ Credit First Month Using following Dishclub certificate number. (Copy and paste the number in the final order )ClubDISH CERTIFICATE NUMBER: [ VCD0004679191]

See the attached image for more detail.

So thats a total of 125 dollars. So the per month goes down to $ 30.57 per month for 12 months. Another thing for some reason I am actually getting Aap ka Colors for free (Indian Channel)

Please leave comment or two if this helped you.

Brave Kid

This is an article, I read on Rediff. It really amazed me. I just wanted to share it with people out there. Here is the link. You should read the comments section, if you wanted to get wowwed on what people can discuss on a topic like this.

He saved 7 kids from fire, but couldn't save self
February 12, 2010 17:14 IST

Forty-eight children survived Wednesday night's fire at the hostel of Holy Angel Don Bosco school at Palin, Arunachal Pradesh, which left 14 students dead, with some suffering burn injuries.

According to an eyewitness, the 62 inmates, who were fast asleep in the hostel, were mostly studying in kindergarten and standard one.

The villagers said the toll could have been higher but for the brave rescue efforts of a senior student of the school.

The student jumped into the leaping flames bringing out the victims one after another and thus saved seven lives. But after his eighth bid, he was not seen coming out and was presumed dead.

The residents of this remote village said 10 charred bodies have been identified and buried in the compound of the school. Four missing students are presumed dead while four of the seriously injured have been shifted to Itanagar hospitals.

Meanwhile, the Arunachal Pradesh government will constitute a high level committee to probe the incident.

Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu [ Images ], who along with Education Minister Bosiram Siram and other officials flew into Palin in Kurung Kumey district on Friday morning, announced the decision after meeting the grief-striken parents and the school authorities.

Khandu also visited the spot where the hostel, made entirely of bamboo with tin roof, once stood.

The education minister said the government is drafting an education policy requiring authorities of hostels, including those run by private individuals, to give special emphasis on safety and hygiene so that recurrence of the tragedy does not take place.

The chief minister handed over Rs 20 lakh to the assistant deputy commissioner for immediate relief. Khandu expressed anguish over absence of the deputy commissioner even 36 hours after the incident.

Referring to the demand of the grieving parents to associate names of the victims with the school to keep their memories alive, the chief minister assured them that the education minister will chair a committee comprising the MP and MLAs among others to look into the demand.

!! Funny !!

Being a Engineer myself, I could really relate this. Have a Laugh !!

Up in the Air - George Clooney

We watched Up in the Air yesterday, by director Jason Reitman (of Thank You for Smoking and Juno fame) with George Clooney. Of course if you have seen Thank You for Smoking and Juno, You would not be surprised how easy and understandably realistic this movie is.

The movie is a very fast paced, excellently written, quite dark comedy centering around Clooney's character and his job which is firing people whose bosses "don't have the balls to sack their own employees". The actors playing the "firees" are real life people who have been terminated, adding a certain poignancy to their candid interviews. There are some excellent one-liners that come of these which George delivers perfectly "try not to take this personally", "review this packet, I am sure you will find a lot of helpful information in it" etc. These scenes make for some extremely memorable moments and George excels in the cynical but casual portrayal of his character, delivering each line with a super size heaping of charm.

Overall, this was a very enjoyable film, speaking very much to today's mood and spirit, easy to watch, with many laugh out loud moments. What could me more fun and humorous than to watch a company thriving on the misfortune of others. Things don't end so well for George's character Ryan Bingham however, as the holes and lack of performance in his own life are exposed throughout his journeys- no significant other, no children, weak ties with his family and worst of all, no place to call home.

Here is a little trailer of the movie.

India vs South Africa - 2010 Series

Here some info I found today. It seems like this time around we should be able to watch India vs South Africa test matches without those annoying websites. I am keeping my fingers crossed, I have not tried it myself but hopefully itwill work.

Free Live Streaming Link

Sat Feb 6 - Wed Feb 10

1st Test - India v South Africa
Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, Jamtha, Nagpur

Sun Feb 14 - Thu Feb 18
2nd Test - India v South Africa
Eden Gardens, Kolkata

Sun Feb 21
1st ODI - India v South Africa
Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur

Wed Feb 24
2nd ODI - India v South Africa
Green Park, Kanpur

Sat Feb 27
3rd ODI - India v South Africa
Sardar Patel Stadium, Motera, Ahmedabad

Sending Photo Prints or Gifts to India

Today almost everyone uses internet in one way or the other. The photographs exchanged are mostly digital and we don’t care much to have a print of those photographs. Recently I wanted to send photograph prints to my parents back in Jharkhand and they are not much tech savvy.

So, I had only two ways either to ask someone to download my photographs then take print of the same and send it or find a website from where I can order the prints online and then send it.

I googled a bit and I came across this very good website that allows one to upload their album and you can order the prints to be sent. It is cost affective and the time of delivery is fair enough. So this can be used if you want to send photographs to your parents or loved ones who are not much tech savvy.

Here is the website -- www.picsquare.com


There is one more site I would recommend if you want to send gifts to India. We recently sent a diamond pendant of Didmas to out sister. It was delivered well within time.

Here is the website -- http://tajonline.com/

Food Inc - A worth watching documentry

Plot

The current method of raw food production is largely a response to the growth of the fast food industry since the 1950s. The production of food overall has more drastically changed since that time than the several thousand years prior. Controlled primarily by a handful of multinational corporations, the global food production business - with an emphasis on the business - has as its unwritten goals production of large quantities of food at low direct inputs (most often subsidized) resulting in enormous profits, which in turn results in greater control of the global supply of food sources within these few companies. Health and safety (of the food itself, of the animals produced themselves, of the workers on the assembly lines, and of the consumers actually eating the food) are often overlooked by the companies, and are often overlooked by government in an effort to provide cheap food regardless of these negative consequences. Many of the changes are based on advancements in science and technology, but often have negative side effects. The answer that the companies have come up with is to throw more science at the problems to bandage the issues but not the root causes. The global food supply may be in crisis with lack of biodiversity, but can be changed on the demand side of the equation.

Review :

I believe this is one of the best documentry, I have seen in recent times. Considering I have a Indian background, I actually enjoyed the mechanization of the food industry. Ofcourse most of it is negative, but it did fill me with a feeling of awe.

With family run farms pretty much a thing of the past, institutional farming has pretty much taken over,and the dim,dark & dismal effects are omnipresent. There is an epidemic of food borne illness,due to cattle being exposed to over use of steroids to make them grow fatter, faster (and this also includes chickens,pigs,etc.),not to mention GMO corn,grains,etc. Robert Kenner's eye opening film, 'Food,Inc.' manages to shine at least some light on some pretty unethical practices that are being undertaken by corporate owned & managed farms. The likes of Eric Schlosser (author of 'Fast Food Nation',which was made into a semi fictional film a few years back)is featured in interviews,along with Michael Pollan. Many fingers are pointed at guilty parties doing the dirty deeds of the farming industry,along with some pretty unpleasant footage of unethical practices (i.e. abuse of farm animals, although this film doesn't take up any kind of vegetarian/vegan agenda of it's own---the viewer can make up their own mind just what they prefer to eat).

Let me know what you guys think about the movie. Here is a little clip.