The Four Friends, Turkish Style

You cannot walk in Istanbul these days without running into these window ads at all branches of a large bank.

Choosing a Mobile Internet Package (K2 #42)

Question of the Week 
I saw a notification from B-Mobile about their new mobile Internet packages.
Which package do you recommend?
-- “Surfer”, P/ling

Answer
Dear Phuentsholing “Surfer”,

Thanks for your question! With more and more subscribers in Bhutan using data cards to access the Internet, this is an issue that affects many. Starting August 2012, B-Mobile will avail three mobile data packages: “Pay-as-you-go”, “99”, and “999”. Take a look at the comparison table. In addition to the package name and monthly fee, the table shows the monthly data quota, and the charge per extra MB once you exceed the quota.

Upcoming Workshop: "Create Effective and Secure Websites"

Why pay someone Nu 25,000 for a website, when you can build a super website for free? If you can surf the Internet and use Facebook, you can also build websites.

Following the success of the first "Build a Website" workshop, we are pleased to offer another opportunity to learn how to easily build free, media-rich websites. No computer degree necessary.

In this 3-day, hands-on workshop you will create your own free website using Google Sites. Instructed by Mr. Boaz Shmueli of the Rigsum Institute, the workshop will take place in Thimphu on August 1-3, 2012.

The workshop is intended for:

• Tiny, small and medium-sized businesses and organizations
• Educational institutions
• Entrepreneurs
• Tour operators
• Webmasters
• Anyone wishing to expand his or her knowledge

For full details, including online registration, click here.

"Effective Data Presentation" workshop offered again: July 26-27, 2012

More and more data and statistics are being collected in Bhutan. They are communicated to the public through reports, presentations, newspaper articles and other media. Yet, current presentation practices are lacking in effectiveness.

Effective Data Presentation is a 2-day workshop (Jul 26-27, 2012) by Professor Galit Shmueli. Participants will gain knowledge and experience with best practices for communicating data. We will use data from Bhutan and software that is accessible to many (Microsoft Excel and the Tableau Public).

The workshop is a must for those who collect, analyze or present data or statistics.

For full details and registration click here.

Finally, Bhutan Telecom updates mobile broadband plans

Bhutan Telecom announced four changes to the post-paid mobile broadband plans. Here is a summary of the changes:

A Bcc Mail (K2 #41)

Question of the Week When I send an email, when do I use the Bcc field?
-- Dhendup, Paro

Answer
Dear Dhendup,

When you compose an email, you can send it to three groups of recipients: “To”, “Cc” and “Bcc”. I’m sure you are familiar with “To” field, which is used to enter the email addresses of the main, or primary, recipients of the message. Often this is the only field used.

Now let’s move on to “Cc”, which stands for “Carbon copy” - a sentimental reminder of the old times when copies of letters were made using carbon paper! In the “Cc” area, the sender enters email addresses of recipients who do not need to act upon the email. The Cc’d people are not the primary recipients of the email; they receive a copy for informational purpose only. Employees often add their managers to the “Cc” list, to let them know about an email that they sent and keep them “in the loop”. By the way, as a courtesy to the recipients, it is good practice to mention in the email itself that people were Cc’d (“I am also Cc’ing my manager and the department head”). Note that in Gmail, you must click on the “Add Cc” link (just below the To field) to avail this field.

The list of “To” and “Cc” recipients becomes part of the email message, so everyone who receives the message can see the list of all “To” and “Cc” recipients.

Now to your original question, the “Bcc”, which stands for “Blind carbon copy”. This is a little tricky! People in the Bcc list also receive a copy of the email. However, the list of Bcc recipients is NOT part of the email message and is concealed from the recipients of the email. People who receive the email cannot see the list of recipients in the Bcc list.

There are two main uses for Bcc. The most popular use is sending mass emails (for example, newsletters) without revealing the list of recipients. By putting the list of email addresses in the Bcc field, recipients will not know who else got the mass email. Very handy! For example, Kuensel places all recipients of the PDF newspaper edition in the Bcc field, so that recipients cannot see each others’ email addresses.


Secondly, say you want to copy a friend on an email you’re sending, but you don’t want the “To” and “Cc” recipients to know that you copied your friend. You add your friend to the Bcc list. He will get a copy, but none of the recipients will know. This is a bit sneaky, but also risky: If your friend decides to “Reply All” to this message, his reply will be sent to you as well as to all “To” and “Cc” recipients. Suddenly, the original recipients of the message might realize that you sent the message to extra people “behind their back”. Embarrassing!

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Readers are encouraged to submit technology-related questions to boaz@thimphutech.com

Watching Videos Online (K2 #40)

Question of the Week
I am trying to watch a video on YouTube but it keeps starting and stopping. What am I doing wrong?
-- Ms. S. T., Samste

Answer
Dear Ms. S. T.,

You’re not doing anything wrong! For videos to play smoothly, an effective download speed of at least 500 Kbps (kilo-bits-per-second) is usually required. Most Internet users in Bhutan do not have access to an Internet connection that can sustain that speed, whether at the office, at home, or when using their Internet-enabled mobile phone. Even with the most expensive “Enterprise” broadband package, which claims a theoretical maximum download speed of 1.5 Mbps (mega-bits-per-second) -- three times the recommended minimum for YouTube -- the playback of videos is often choppy.

There are a few things you can do to improve the playback experience. Once the video starts playing, pause it by clicking on the play/pause button. You will see that the gray bar keeps progressing, which means that your computer keeps loading - or buffering - the video. Once the gray bar reaches the end, the video is completely loaded. Depending on your Internet speed and the video size, that can take anywhere from a few seconds to several grueling hours. After the video is loaded, just click the play button again for a smooth playback.


To speed up the buffering, you can often choose a lower video quality. Here’s how you do that: Click on the gear icon at the bottom right area of the video (it will display “Change quality” when you move the little cursor over the gear), and select the lowest quality available (usually “240p”). You can do that before (or immediately after) pausing the video.

Another option is to save the video to your computer, which you can later play offline at your own leisure. YouTube does not allow downloading videos, but smart people created a program that does just that! It’s called YouTube Downloader (also known as “YTD”). You can download the free version of YTD from www.youtubedownloadersite.com. Be careful! When you install the program, first click Next to accept the license agreement, but then click Decline to avoid the installation of an annoying “YTD toolbar” that comes with the program. (If you happened to install the toolbar, you can always remove it later using Windows’ Control Panel).

Once YTD is running, copy the web address (URL) of the desired YouTube video from your browser’s address bar, paste it into YTD, select your preferred download quality, click DOWNLOAD, and the program will start downloading the video to your hard disk, which you can then play later. Problem solved!

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Readers are encouraged to submit technology-related questions to boaz@thimphutech.com