Pragith's orbit

this is my life

[pragithnet]

My iPhone - AT&T unlock story

I bought my iPhone 4 from BestBuy for $549.99 locked to AT&T in Feb 2011. It was on 04.10.01 baseband and I've been maintaining that till iOS 5.0.1.

This story applies to all those people who have NEVER been a customer of AT&T. The only relation between them & AT&T is that their device has been locked to AT&T.

Story:

Called [phone] & logged an unlock request on 8th April

In 2 days, got an email asking me to send them a fax with proof of purchase, my IMEI, case number

Used http://faxzero.com and sent them the requested details on the 3rd day. Please note that if you don't have a receipt, it's absolutely fine. Don't freak out for heaven's sake!!!

On 5th day (i.e. today), I got an email saying that they've unlocked my device

I used redsn0w to deactivate my iPhone. Put my SIM in, and it is working fine now :) (Personal Hotspot works too) 

Facts:

Apple or AT&T does NOT push any unlock code via email (like some blog posts have been wrongly informing)

There is nothing called UNLOCK CODE when it comes to unlocking your  iPhone. AT&T Customer Reps ARE WRONG if they use such terms

Apple has a list. If your iPhone is legal/eligible they put your IMEI in that list. Generally termed as Whitelist. If you have a stolen device or such, they'll put your IMEI in their Blacklist

AT&T is just a mediator. They forward your request to Apple after verifying your details. Like a firewall. Apple is only putting your IMEI in their whitelist

AT&T doesn't really need any proof of purchase. If you are confident that your device is legal, then just tell them the real story. If you don't have any receipt, then tell them that you don't have one. As simple as that

(For some reason, I'm unable to insert images) Mail asking me to send them fax:  http://dl.pragith.net/fax_mail.jpg

Mail confirming that my device has been unlocked:  http://dl.pragith.net/unlock_mail.jpg 

My Advice: 

Please note that AT&T doesn't email you much unless they need something or have taken any action. So you won't know if they are actually working on. Of course you can keep bugging them on phone. They are really sweet :)

Wait till your case end date. My case got resolved 3 days before itself. But it might take time for you. Rest assured it'll be done within your case end date

Don't be excited. I was. No point in being excited. Don't get disappointed because as I said, they really don't keep in touch with you unless something is done

Don't post your IMEI numbers ANYWHERE on the Internet

Your story may not match anybody else's story. If someone got it unlocked within few seconds/minutes, then they're probably a celeb (kidding). Once again, wait till your case end date

 Tips:

Call center number : [phone] (7AM to 10PM Eastern Time)

After hours : [phone] (they are same as regular call center)

Use Google Voice or Skype

[pragithnet]

Quick Thought

  Let's assume that "everything" in this world is destroyed including all the living beings but the planet remains the same. We are left only with George Lucas' sketches of his Star Wars movie franchise. (You can think of any other sketches too, like Tom & Jerry, etc.) Yes, only that and rest everything is destroyed. Humans start taking birth (of course from nowhere), and find these sketches. Let's also assume that they are matured enough to interpret and communicate with each other, etc. Make all the ideal assumptions and don't question mine. So do you think they will come to a conclusion that "this" is how their ancestors were? I feel there would be 2 opposing sects. 1) One which will research on natural surroundings, try to get clues on whether the sketches are real or not. They'll try to see how old the sketches are. 2) The other one will blindly take the artwork into consideration, make George Lucas (director of the movie) as "God" - the Creator of "the characters" on sketches, Darth Vader (villian in the movie) as the devil/satan, and Obi-Wan Kenobi (sort of father figure/hero in the movie) as their saviour. Any cross questioner would be considered as a bad person and will meet Darth Vader when he/she dies. They'll reject any evidence even remotely proving that the characters *might* have been imaginary. Are you smiling? It's because YOU know that they were a creation of simple minds. A fiction. Made with a simple purpose of entertaining people and earning money. But THEY (the new born humans) don't know that :) Would love to know your views on this. Do leave your comment (I generally never ask readers to do that).  

Please note that I'm not trying to mock anyone or anyone's beliefs.

[pragithnet]

You are NOTHING!

Off late I've been thinking about this a lot. Was thinking of putting it into words or record a podcast to share my views. A coin toss (with either side assigned to "blog post") decided that it'll be a blog post, and here it is. This might be just another Science vs Religion debate for you, but if you are not into this, then close this window RIGHT NOW! I'm not an atheist who supports Science and stuff like that. People close to me can vouch for that.

Earth is 1 of the 8 or 9 planets in the Solar System (count Pluto or not, it's up to you). Solar System consists of SUN as its star. Sun is 1 of the stars in the Milky Way galaxy. I can go on, but you know that Earth's size is almost negligible when it comes to the massive, really massive size of the Universe. Some say it's infinite, and let's assume that it's true. There comes HUMAN, one of the 1,740,330 estimated species of planet Earth. I'm going to make this quick and jump to my question. Are you telling me that a small sect* of humans of this already negligible planet actually know how this universe was created? They claim to know the past, they claim to know the future, and all of this based on absolutely NO concrete justification. It's like an Amoeba, preaching its fellow amoebas on how the International Space Station was created and how it works. All these stupid and dumb humans can't even give credit of their so claimed "knowledge" to ONE source. No, it's not GOD. Because all the sects have a different definition of God. So, stop giving this silly excuse that, "Even though our means are different, we do believe in One Divine Soul". It's BULL SHIT! Because you are not showing that in practice. We see people of different sects act differently. Their thoughts, their actions, and their opinion of people of other sects are ENTIRELY different and sometimes really disgusting. How can all the humans, giving credit to different source, know what this universe consists of and have different justification? Are you freakin' kidding me? Tell me which ONE is right Here's another way of viewing at this. Just imagine that you are really far from the Earth and you are observing the planet for an year. Like a satellite but really far. Close your eyes for a minute and think about this. What do you see? I saw Nothing! Of course, except for a blue sphere moving around. Go closer, probably like a weather satellite. Try doing the same simulation. What do you see? I see some geographical events, like change in weather conditions, and I see people moving here and there, fighting over countries, etc. A wide grin appeared on my face. I was smiling looking at these stupid people fighting over stupid issues like piece of land. Try repeating this experiment and keep going closer and closer and you'll see that all the actions of human being have been because of need of power and greed. *By sect I mean all the religious institutions. Side note:

I was really quick in putting my thoughts into words, and was really eager to share with the world, hence I haven't framed my questions properly. And this article lacks a conclusion too. I'm still thinking and will be appending words to this article. If you are really interested in this theory, then contact me. This article isn't an action of an adrenaline rush or youth horomones kicking up. I've written few more articles on similar topics, but they are too controversial to appear on my blog J One main reason that triggered me to put my thoughts in words was the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). Another thing was the Tsunami.

[pragithnet]

Publicity Stunt - 3I & FPS

Dear readers, After coming to know about the controversy relating to plagiarism, that 3 Idiots is almost entirely based on Five Point Someone (FPS),  I'm forming an opinion that this is a mili-bhagat (rhymes with his last name, doesn't it?). Here are few points I observed from this controversy : 1) The readers of the book, after knowing about this, will go and WATCH the movie just for confirming whether it's been copied or not. 2) The viewers of the movie, after knowing about this, will go and BUY the book to confirm whether the storyline has been copied or not. Either way, it's a benefit for the makers of the movie, and Chetan. If you are thinking about the black-mark on the makers of the movie, and the pity face of Chetan, well, you must know that public won't remember this incident for a long time. That's how it works. Public's memory is indeed weak, and is often replaced by the controversy of the upcoming movie. I wonder how much Chetan was paid by the makers of the movie for writing this article on his personal blog : http://www.chetanbhagat.com/blog/general/a-book-a-film-and-the-truth Remember readers, he's a great writer, and don't get carried away by reading his blog article. A couple of  quotes from the above article : Quote #1 : Still, don’t take my word for it – go read the book, watch the film. Quote #2 : I urge you to not believe me at face value. Read the book, see the movie – and like the movie says – think for yourself and decide. So my friends, did you get the point? If you were to read these lines while reading the article, your blood would have boiled(supporting Chetan) and you would have gone this instant to the cinema hall to watch the movie. But after reading my article, what do you say? What an Idea Sirji!

[pragithnet]

Enter - The iPod Touch

<This Blog Post is under construction> Since my introduction to Computers, I've used Windows & Linux. The thought of using a Mac product was always present in the corner of my mind, until recently, when I got iPod Touch 3G 32GB [gallery link="file"]

[pragithnet]

TFCHCNIM

Highlights about this post : - Twitter - Facebook - College - Hairstyle - CCNA - Naruto - IBM's The Great Mind Challenge (TGMC) - Mozilla Campus Representative I'm back on Twitter, thanks to TweetDeck! It's an Adobe AIR application, which helps you to post on multiple Twitter accounts, and Facebook account. Catch me on Twitter :- And that brings us to Facebook. I must confess that I was very much intimidated with it's interface long back, and hence had de-activated my account. But, TweetDeck helped me overcome this, and now, I'm even more "social" (though I still loathe the stupid quizzes). Few of my school & college friends have also joined Facebook, and are using their "REAL" names (unlike Orkut). And that brings us to College. I'm currently in the middle of 5th semester, and expecting the main exams to get over by 24th December 2009. Also hoping for Campus Placements this semester or the next one. I might carry on with my current hairstyle for the interviews too. And that brings us to Hairstyle. I've not trimmed my hair since mid of July, and I prefer to keep the reasons for the same with myself. Update : Got a haircut No, that doesn't lead us to CCNA, but I'm going to talk about it anyway. I started studying for CCNA a couple of weeks ago. I've finished ICND 1, and half-way through ICND 2. It's really really interesting and I created my own lab with 2 Routers and 1 Cloud. I've configured "Akatsuki" router properly, and it can connect/ping/traceroute to Internet. I used Microsoft's LoopBack adapter and shared the Internet connection from the Wireless LAN. Here is the layout : You might have noticed weird names for the routers, and that brings us to the next topic, Naruto. I'm currently hooked onto an Anime ("cartoon" for those people who don't understand and don't want to understand different forms of cartoons) named "Naruto". I started with Anime, and I liked it so much that I even started reading it's Manga ("comic" in Japanese). I'm also engaged in a project making competition organized by IBM known as The Great Mind Challenge (TGMC). It's mainly a Java based project, which involves Project Planning, Modeling, Coding and Documenting the software. Me, along with 3 of my classmates, are doing Online Library Management System under the team name - BlueShadow (cool haan?) And the last topic for this post. My friend Vikram introduced me to "Mozilla Campus Representative" program from Mozilla (duh!). It's about promoting and bringing awareness about "The Open Web" and "Firefox" in your college. How do we do that? Well, Mozilla gives us something known as a "Swag Pack", which is better explained here -> http://www.thechetan.com/2009/09/now-i-am-mozilla-campus-representative/ So, that's the end of my 1st ever, fully linked, highly educative update. See ya after an year or so. I'm so damn tired! (Psst...Try to decrypt the title of this blog post ;)

[pragithnet]

Google Voice & Me

Thanks to Google Voice, now I own a US based phone number. [phone]

You can use this widget only if you own a US number. Once you put in your phone number, Google will call you and me at the same time, and will connect us.

You can call me, and if I am online on Gtalk, then I'll pick up your call and talk with you, otherwise you can record a sweet voicemail, which I would be checking on Google Voice's homepage. You can also leave texts. If you stay in the US, then I won't be charged for outgoing calls from my side. Please spam my number :)

[pragithnet]

"About Me" is up

Hello my dear readers. I hope you would be dying to know me (no, this time I ain't sarcastic), and hence I took some time to update my "About Me" section, and you now can drool all over your keyboard by reading how awesome I am (yeah, this time I leave it to you whether I am sarcastic or not). Link to About Me -> http://pragith.net/blog/about Another quick reminder to my dear friends; These days, I have been talking in Third Person, so please please DON'T think that I am going wrong on this part (yeah, I do mess up with grammar sometimes). For e.g. I solves Rubik's Cube, I is hungry.

[pragithnet]

With love, From Flock

Here's a quickie, Web 2.0 is growing so fast, and I feel I am very much not updated to the latest inventions in this field. If anyone feels that they are also lagging behind and are suffering like me by not subscribing to Tech Magz, then do the following things : 1) Install Flock -Get used to the interface 2) Subscribe to the following feeds : -Crave Gadget News -Webware 3) (Optional) Start using Twitter Both the websites are from CNET, and the articles published over there are completely authentic. With love, From Flock ;)

[pragithnet]

How to PWN your friend?

How to PWN your friend? A n00b friendly guide for my readers from the master of PWNGES - a.k.a. The Pragnetizer! 0) Be a man! 1) Take a nap, and come online. 2) Check your contact list, and target your victim. 3) Make sure your victim is chatting with your other friend. 4) Go and ping both of them, and ask about their recent conversations, and make sure they aren't personal. Now for the main part. Make sure your target isn't tech savvy and doesn't know much about Google, Yahoo! and MSN. 5) Give your friend few lines which only you and your target talk normally, and tell him/her to paste it in their conversation box. 6) Wait for your target to faint. 7) GOTO Step-5. 8) Then ask your dear friend to paste whatever your victim is typing, and respond accordingly. Do this until your victim gets frustrated and goes to gym. 9) Roll on the floor laughing. 10) Tell your mum about the whole incident. Optional step (To be taken only when your victim is a n00b in Short Message Service too) : --Tell your victim that whatever messages he/she is sending to your friend to delete the previous chats (which you might be reading according to the victim) are getting redirected to your email account.

Congratulations! Your friend just got Pragnetized!!!

[pragithnet]

Rider on the Storm

Wish the "storm" part was true. Scorching heat in Bangalore makes me compare it with the summer in Delhi. But atleast the "Rider" part makes me happy. I cleared my Driving License Test for 2-wheeler and 4-wheeler yesterday. I would say it was more like an Endurance Test, making us wait for our turns to come and show our NFS style driving and Dirt-Bike style riding skills. Yes, I am sarcastic on this part. They made us go few meters (without acceleration) in front, and few meters in reverse, and Bingo! I PASSED! For Bike, they told us to go straight, take a left turn, and get lost! Want more updates on my private life, whom I am dating, etc? Click Here

[pragithnet]

I solves Rubik's Cube

[pragithnet]

Some Catchy Title Here

The beginning of the end of my first half of college life started on 5th Feb. For those who can’t compile that and are approaching the small “X” mark on the top-right of their window, it’s the 4th semester. I would go on mentioning how “excellent” the staff is, but I don’t want to mess with the institution which is responsible for graduating me. Every time, I open the Control Panel of my blog, I am alerted by WordPress, “Please update”. That’s a very serious insult you know. And especially when you are someone who updates his blog once in a month. I actually got readers, and my informed sources (themselves actually) tell me that they have actually bookmarked my blog. Now that’s inspiring, and fills me with guilt for not giving them enough updates about myself. Don’t worry my faithful readers, I am not going to change. PS3 updates - Got The Orange Box and a DualShock 3 controller for my beast. So, if anyone who wants to be humiliated by me in Euro 2008 and WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2008, well, I am game for them. I have also been playing DotA, and I won’t tell you about the current status of my skills in that game, because it’s not my habit to insult myself in my blog. I have apparently been watching a couple (+ 1) of British sketches, Not the Nine’O Clock News, Jeeves & Wooster, and Yes, Minister. The duo, Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie have surpassed themselves in P.G. Woodhouse’s dramatized series Jeeves & Wooster. And what more, they have convinced me to buy books of P.G. Woodhouse too. That’s something almost impossible you see. They say that, Not the Nine’O Clock News was a competitor of A Bit of Fry & Laurie. But, I feel in no way NtNCN can beat ABoFaL. Paul Eddington and Sir Nigel Hawthorne’s “immaculate timing” in Yes, Minister is something worth the BAFTA Awards. A typical concluding statement to my yet another boring update, “That’s all for now!”

[pragithnet]

Bio Update

Winter in Bangalore, exams in college. Long hair, dry lips, fairer skin color and left hand fingers have become rough. [caption id="attachment_207" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Stainless Style"][/caption]

[pragithnet]

Xam Tam

(Exam Time) Starting from tomorrow, till 19th of Jan (extended because of elections, God! I love this Government), I have my 3rd semester exams. Locked and Loaded...

[pragithnet]

The Birth of Google Chrome

Stumbled upon this funny picture :

[pragithnet]

A new look

Change is required; in humans, webpages, actually anything which is static (like my blog). With this theme, I would like to enter the new year, simply Simple! I know that 2009 is quite far away, but for students who fall under VTU, well it seems like even days like January 1st don't feel special. My exams are starting from December 19th and extend to January 1st. Wrapped up my Playstation, now trying to shutdown my laptop. Let's see how far I am able to reach the shutdown button...