Cross blog promotion :-)

Back with a bang at my Foodie For Life blog. Two posts (a) Tavaa (Bandra, Mumbai) and (b) Monsoon Malabaar @ Mocha

It's strange to be reviving my foodie blog while desperately trying to lose weight. Any guesses on the number?

Rename Trip: Hidden goodie

Personal & business related travel is booming and the number of trips a person has to make (or book on behalf of someone else) is increasing every day. Being the "internet whiz kid" on the block, I'm sure you would've been asked by a host of uncles & aunties to book them some cheap tickets through the internet :-)

The Cleartrip account pages are packed with lots of goodies to help you manage your travel easily and more efficiently. One of the personalization features I love is the ability to rename your trips to something immediately recognizable. So, instead of identifying a trip by the travel date or from/to airports you can rename it to "Mom's trip to Mumbai". Or "Going home for vacations". Or "For pinky aunty -- still to pay". Whatever.

Here's how you do it:

Log into you Cleartrip account. You will be redirected to your trips listing page. Click on a trip to get to the trip details page. Right below the "Trips", "Profile", and "Email Preferences" link you'll see the trip name and the "Rename trip" link.

Click on the "Rename trip" link to open the trip name editor.

Change the trip name to something more recognizable and hit save. Voila! You've successfully renamed your trip.
The new name of the trip will now appear everywhere (trip listing, trip details, mail trip details, etc.)

HP

How many of us realize we have two HP's in India? Heh. This could be a good question for a geekiness index :-)

Cybersquatting in India

Spicy IP informs us that the domain gmail.co.in was squatted over by a fellow named "Chen Zhaoyang". Google ultimately got it back after filing a complaint with the "National Internet Exchange of India" (NIXI)
I never knew something like that even existed. Apparently the NIXI has a Wikipedia page as well.

Google seems to have won the arbitration but it doesn't look like they've got control of the domain yet.


Surprisingly, a WHOIS query on gmail.co.in thre up the name of "Sukumaran Pillai" based in Alabama!

Domain ID:D2507759-AFIN
Domain Name:GMAIL.CO.IN
Created On:03-May-2007 20:02:52 UTC
Last Updated On:08-May-2007 15:10:14 UTC
Expiration Date:03-May-2008 20:02:52 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:Direct Information Pvt. Ltd. dba PublicDomainRegistry.com (R5-AFIN)
Status:CLIENT TRANSFER PROHIBITED
Status:TRANSFER PROHIBITED
Registrant ID:DI_6367931
Registrant Name:Sukumaran Pillai
Registrant Organization:N/A
Registrant Street1:978 Henderson Rd NW
Registrant City:Auburn
Registrant State/Province:Alabama
Registrant Postal Code:36832
Registrant Country:US
Registrant Phone:+1.3170939374
Registrant Email:skumaranp@yahoo.com
Admin ID:DI_6367931
Admin Name:Sukumaran Pillai
Admin Organization:N/A
Admin Street1:978 Henderson Rd NW
Admin City:Auburn
Admin State/Province:Alabama
Admin Postal Code:36832
Admin Country:US
Admin Phone:+1.3170939374
Admin Email:skumaranp@yahoo.com
Tech ID:DI_6367931
Tech Name:Sukumaran Pillai
Tech Organization:N/A
Tech Street1:978 Henderson Rd NW
Tech City:Auburn
Tech State/Province:Alabama
Tech Postal Code:36832
Tech Country:US
Tech Phone:+1.3170939374
Tech Email:skumaranp@yahoo.com
Name Server:NS1.SEDOPARKING.COM
Name Server:NS2.SEDOPARKING.COM

Incidentally microsoft.co.in has also been squatted! Let's see what happens here.

Domain ID:D490943-AFIN
Domain Name:MICROSOFT.CO.IN
Created On:16-Feb-2005 06:40:20 UTC
Last Updated On:02-Aug-2006 09:31:44 UTC
Expiration Date:16-Feb-2008 06:40:20 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:Direct Information Pvt. Ltd. dba PublicDomainRegistry.com (R5-AFIN)
Status:CLIENT DELETE PROHIBITED
Status:CLIENT RENEW PROHIBITED
Status:CLIENT TRANSFER PROHIBITED
Status:CLIENT UPDATE PROHIBITED
Registrant ID:DI_1138221
Registrant Name:Piyush Somani
Registrant Organization:eTechSupport.net
Registrant Street1:303, Rohan Heights, Model Colony
Registrant City:Nashik
Registrant State/Province:Maharashtra
Registrant Postal Code:IN
Registrant Country:IN
Registrant Phone:+91.9850552225
Registrant Phone Ext.:91
Registrant Email:piyush@etechsupport.net
Admin ID:DI_1138221
Admin Name:Piyush Somani
Admin Organization:eTechSupport.net
Admin Street1:303, Rohan Heights, Model Colony
Admin City:Nashik
Admin State/Province:Maharashtra
Admin Postal Code:IN
Admin Country:IN
Admin Phone:+91.9850552225
Admin Phone Ext.:91
Admin Email:piyush@etechsupport.net
Tech ID:DI_1138221
Tech Name:Piyush Somani
Tech Organization:eTechSupport.net
Tech Street1:303, Rohan Heights, Model Colony
Tech City:Nashik
Tech State/Province:Maharashtra
Tech Postal Code:IN
Tech Country:IN
Tech Phone:+91.9850552225
Tech Phone Ext.:91
Tech Email:piyush@etechsupport.net
Name Server:NS1.NETTOOLZ.NET
Name Server:NS2.NETTOOLZ.NET

Mumbai Blogger Meet at Seijo

[...]
Male 1: Never seen yours. Will surely check it out tonight.
Male 2: Yeah me too!
[...]

It was fun! Met some interesting people (Moksh Juneja, Kapil B, Gaurav Mishra, Mohit, Shiju Thomas, Amit Varma, and an M$ editor dude -- sorry I couldn't get your name over the loud music and heavy accent!) And of course, our lovely hostesses Melody and Sakshi.

Some pics at Sakshi's blog and at Melody's. The only publicly available pic of mine (waving in the background towards the right):