Preventing Virus Infections via Pen Drives

Pen-drives - these ubiquitous and innocent-looking devices carried in pocketbooks and gho pockets around the capital, are a major vector of computer virus infections in Bhutan. Here's how these pen-drive viruses are spread:

You insert your new (and clean) pen-drive into your friend's infected computer. The computer malicously copies the virus to your pen drive (also known as a USB drive or USB stick), thus contaminating it. Then you take your pen drive home and insert it into your own computer. The virus - now on the pen-drive - copies itself to your computer. You're doomed!

Even if you make an effort to keep your computer - and pen drives - clean, friends or family might insert their contaminated pen drives into your computer, thus infecting your computer. To avoid these unintentional infections, here's a Windows XP/Vista utility that disables the pen drives on your computer. First, download the utility to your computer by clicking here. Once you run it, select "Disable USB Drives" and then reboot. Pen drives will no longer be accessible. If you are 100% sure that a pen drive is clean, you can re-enable access by running the utility again, selecting "Enable USB Drives", and then re-booting. Don't forget to disable the pen-drives once you are done.

If you have smart friends, they might find the utility on your hard drive and re-enable access to the pen drives. To prevent that, first add a password to your account: In Windows XP, go to Start->Control Panel->User Accounts. Then pick your account (usually Administrator), and choose Create a Password. The next step is to enable the Guest account, which your friends can use: In Windows XP, go to Start->Control Panel->User Accounts. Then pick the Guest account, and enable it. You now have two accounts on your computer: one for yourself, and another for guests. Don't forget to always log out from your Administrator account after you are finished with the computer.

India Buys 250,000 School Laptops

After the promised "$10 laptop" failed to materialize, the Government of India decided to buy 250,000 XO laptops from One-Laptop-Per-Child. The laptops will be distributed to 1,500 schools. More information about the recent purchase here.
   
Bureaucrats tend to look for easy solutions to education problems. Throwing money at educational technology is very tempting as it is often seen as a quick fix to the failings of an education system (it also attracts good PR, "we're on the leading edge" etc), but it often fails to deliver the promised results. After all, getting good teachers is a much harder challenge.

Beware of BNB Debit Card Charging Errors

BNB's debit card is a convenient way to withdraw cash at ATM machines. But I recently found out that there is a slight problem in BNB's banking software, which may cause your account to be erroneously charged.
Here's what happened: On Friday I tried to withdraw cash from the ATM machine. After entering the PIN, amount, etc, I waited for some time until finally, the screen displayed a message that the transaction was canceled. No money was spat out. Still, I discovered to my surprise that the whole amount was taken from my account. Apparently, these kind of mistakes may happen when there are network problems between Bhutan and India.

While BNB will make all efforts to reverse the charges in such cases of discrepancy, it is recommended that if you use your ATM, carefully check the account statements. This applies both to cash withdrawals and merchant transactions.

Using the BNB ATM card

The ATM card issued by BNBL is a real upgrade to using checks or cash.

First, it allows withdrawing cash from the ATM machine instead of waiting in line at the bank (up to Nu. 15,000/transaction and maximum of Nu. 30,000/day), as well as when the bank is closed. The two ATM machines in the bank itself are sometimes accessible after hours, and another machine is located in the JOJO building (BNBL claim that there are a total of 10 machines, but I have only located 3).

Second, I use it to pay at various shops, restaurants, and even for paying bills at Bhutan Telecom (main branch). The full list of merchants that accept payment with the BNB ATM card is available on the BNB main page. However, I've encountered at least two places where they claimed that "the machine is not working".

Businesses that want to offer this service can find details here. Another note: although the transaction using the ATM seems immediate, I heard that the money is not automatically transferred into the merchant's account.

For further details on issuing a card see the BNBL webpage.

Druk Air's "Flight Schedule via SMS"

The Druk Air website claims that you can "know flight timing" by sending an SMS message to 2121, with text depending on the day of week:

Monday type INFOMON and send it to 2121,
Tuesday type INFOTUE and send it to 2121,
Wednesday type INFOWED and send it to 2121,
Thrusday type INFOTHU and send it to 2121,
Friday type INFOFRI and send it to 2121,
Saturday type INFOSAT and send it to 2121
Sunday type INFOSUN and send it to 2121.

I tried it from my TashiCell, but received the error message: "Your message sent to 2121 could not be completed. Please try again later." I tried again later and received the same error message.

Has anyone used this service successfully? Any tips appreciated.

DSL Modems are Out of Stock

If you're thinking of getting a Bhutan Telecom broadband connection, save yourself a trip. BT is out of DSL modems (the modem is the piece of equipment that you install at home - one end connects to the phone line, the other to your computer). In theory, you can bring your own modem, but as far as I know, no shop in Thimphu, P/ling or Jaigaon sells them. When they are available, BT sells them at Nu 1,150, which includes a 1-year warranty. A good deal, especially considering that BT charges Nu 250 if you bring your own modem. So if you're not in a hurry, wait for re-stocking. Expected arrival date of the next shipment of modems: May 10.

Choosing an email provider

(Posted by Galit)

Many people opt for a free webmail account with Yahoo!, Gmail, Hotmail, etc. A webmail account allows you to access your email from any computer that is connected to the Internet. Although Hotmail was the first to offer free webmail accounts, these days the real competition is between Gmail and Yahoo!. Before making your choice, and aside from the look-and-feel which you should check out yourself, here are a few features to consider:

• Mailbox size (storage): Gmail currently gives a huge space (7GB), and this increases over time. Yahoo! responded by offering "unlimited storage". Hence, you will most likely never reach the limit in either.
  
• Ability to forward to another address: Yahoo! requires a paid subscription in order to forward your email to a new address. This means that once you have an email account with them you are "trapped". In contrast, Gmail does allow free forwarding.
  
• Mobile phone interface: Gmail has a neat interface for mobile phones. Similarly, Yahoo! has Yahoo! Mobile Services.
  
• Attachment type and size limit: If you plan to attach large files, this is something to consider. In Yahoo! the limit is 10MB. In Gmail it is 20MB. Also, Gmail does not allow attaching executable files (such as .exe), to avoid viruses. Both providers scan attachments for viruses.
  
• Searching your mailbox: Both providers have search functions to search your email. I've found the Google search to be quite powerful. Yahoo! had a glitch in 2008 where searches were not retrieving any email or only a small subset (this can be fixed by emailing their support -- see this thread)
  
• Dormant account: If you will not have any activity in your account for long periods, you should consider the duration before the account will be deleted. In Gmail the duration is around 9 months. Yahoo! (and Hotmail) delete dormant accounts after 4 months.
  
• Building up your address book: Gmail automaticlly adds the email addresses of those who you reply to. Yahoo! requires you to enter them yourself.
  
• Organizing your emails: Yahoo! uses folders, where you can file an email to a folder. Gmail uses a different system called "labels". You can give an email one or more labels, thereby "filing" it into one or more "folders". These are not really folders although the operation is similar but more flexible.