Vijay Padiyar's Website

The New iPad Review

Vijay Padiyar — Wed, 16 May 2012 19:37:41 +0000

On April 27th 2012, the day the new iPad was released in India, I went to the nearest Reliance Digital store and got one for my mother. Now this is a woman who's been fearful of using a computer all her life, never having gotten a grip on operating the mouse. But even she is at ease with the iPad, finding it relatable to her mobile phone which she is proficient with. This is my review of the new iPad.

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How to File Your Income Tax Returns Online (AY 2012)

Vijay Padiyar — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 16:22:14 +0000

I have been filing my Income Tax returns online ever since the IT Department launched their online tax return filing facility. Not only is it very convenient to file your tax returns online, compared to the rather tiresome, frustrating and time-consuming process of physically filing your returns, it is also actually very easy to do so and the satisfaction is well worth the effort! This article explains the procedure to file IT returns online for AY 2011-12.

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How to Get a Ration Card Online in Bangalore

Vijay Padiyar — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 15:41:22 +0000

After a period of several months where the the issual of Ration Cards was suspended in order to identify and eliminate bogus cards, the Govt. of Karnataka has restarted the process of issuing new Ration Cards. Additionally, for those living in Bangalore (Urban) areas, it is now possible to apply for a Ration Card online via the Karnataka Food & Civil Supplies (FCS) Department's website.

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Agent Vinod Posters Ripped Off From James Bond Movies?

Vijay Padiyar — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 22:17:32 +0000

Although Agent Vinod director Sriram Raghavan has denied any link between his film and James Bond movies, the official posters of Agent Vinod bear striking similarities to those of past Bond movies.

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Nokia Belle OS Review

Vijay Padiyar — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 22:47:08 +0000

On February 7, 2011, Nokia released Belle, the latest version of its Symbian operating system. I upgraded my Nokia N8 to Belle on the same day, and this is my review of Nokia Belle after two weeks of using it.

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All-In-One SEO Pack Breaks Canonical URLs of Multi-Page Posts & Pages

Vijay Padiyar — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 19:50:20 +0000

There is a bug in All In One SEO Pack that affects Canonical URLs of multi-page posts and pages which causes all sub pages of multi-part posts or pages to have the Canonical URL of the base page itself. This bug severely affects SEO of a website by preventing indexing of the sub pages.

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Rediff Shopping Cheating Customers With Fake Product Photos!

Vijay Padiyar — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 20:17:59 +0000

Recently I got an email from Rediff Shopping offering a new Nokia E7 business phone for a measly Rs. 3444! Now, this is a phone that, at the time the advertisement was sent, cost upwards of Rs. 26,000. Was this a dream come true or a scam?

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Problems Adding Blogger Sitemaps to Bing Webmaster Tools

Vijay Padiyar — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 19:29:42 +0000

Ever since the new Bing Webmaster Tools was launched a couple of months ago, I have been facing persistent problems adding my Blogger blog's sitemap to my account on Bing Webmaster Tools. There is also another issue with Bing crawling sitemaps very infrequently - about once a month or even less.

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Fixing Alignment of ReCaptcha and Submit Button in WP-reCAPTCHA Plugin

Vijay Padiyar — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 19:46:31 +0000

There is an ongoing bug in the popular Wordpresss reCAPTCHA plugin WP-reCAPTCHA which causes the reCAPTCHA box to sit right on top of the Submit button, with no space between them at all. There is also another issue where the reCAPTCHA box is shown below the Submit button.

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Tata Sky+ HD DVR Review

Vijay Padiyar — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 23:27:56 +0000

It's been a month since I upgraded from my old Tata Sky Set Top Box (STB) to a new Tata Sky+ HD DVR STB. I thought I should write a review of this new STB, the extra features it provides, and whether it makes sense to upgrade.

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Better GMail and Picasa Integration With Google+

Vijay Padiyar — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 20:58:05 +0000

A big problem with Google's products, even the successful ones, is that they are very loosely integrated with each other. Here are my suggestions for tighter integration between Google's suite of "social" applications such as GMail, Picasa/Google Photos and Google+, with the probable future addition of Blogger.

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Eureka Forbes’ Pathetic After-Sales Service Continues…

Vijay Padiyar — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 11:16:01 +0000

We have a Forbes Aquaflo UV water purifier. Right from the start, getting decent periodic service has been sheer harassment. We got an AMC signed in the hope that at least that would ensure decent service. But that was not to be!

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Corruption, Not The Economy!

Vijay Padiyar — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 14:27:48 +0000

This is my reply to Tavleen Singh's article in the Indian Express titled "The economy, not Anna", one of her innumerable rants against Anna Hazare and his team. Clearly, if ever you needed proof of the saying that "people see the world through the color of their glasses", one only needs to observe Ms. Tavleen Singh.

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Lame Criticism of Jan Lokpal Agitation, but no Alternatives

Vijay Padiyar — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 18:54:00 +0000

This post is my response to some common comments in the print and electronic media against Anna Hazare's Jan Lokpal Bill.

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Apple iPod Service Centres Can’t Replace Batteries in India!

Vijay Padiyar — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 21:13:00 +0000

When I went to the local Apple authorized service center to replace my dead iPod Nano battery, I was told that the only way out for me is to go in for the Out-of-warranty Battery Replacement Program, which basically means that Apple will replace my defunct iPod with a fully working one for Rs. 3500. Apparently, Apple service centres in India are not authorized to replace iPod batteries!

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