IN HINDSIGHT   by an Indo-German newspaper columnist

When the club officials and spectators are wearing extra thick winter garments, how are the English footballers playing in this sub-zero European winter wearing only a thin jersey and shorts? Also, how come not a single flake of snow could be found on the ground?
–Amitabha Sarkar

Football and other ball games in freezing weather are possible not because the brave players first froze their balls on the playing fields of Eton. Actually many English Premier League matches were postponed because of cold weather, snow and frozen pitches this winter. Some were put off when the field was fine but approach roads were icy. However, most Premiership stadiums have undersoil heating systems, with hot-water pipes to prevent snow and ice from building up. In future these systems may be replaced by electric heating, as recently selected by the Dutch club Ajax Amsterdam.

Is there any web site or helpline or source from which the subscriber of a telephone number in Kolkata (not mobile), other than BSNL, can be found out, please?
–Dipjyoti Majumdar, Kolkata

Private fixed-line providers like Airtel, Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices don’t allow access to their records except in special cases such as a request from a security agency. The best helpline, if you’re being harassed by an unidentified caller, is the police line. But if it’s a cute girl whom YOU want to locate (or harass), then you’ll have to risk complaining against her and try to make up after catching her. Of course, there are illegal ways to find out, but unfortunately this column does not offer such help (unless you make me a generous offer). Yet, you can find the caller’s location and service provider, at sites like hacktrix.com/trace-mobile-phone-location-and-service-provider-details. The BSNL reverse phone directory, in case you didn’t know already, is at calcutta.bsnl.co.in/telno.shtml.

Does the Nokia N900 support a CD/DVD-ROM (by using extra devices)? Can I sit for the Aakash All India Test Series for IIT-JEE with it? Does the already mentioned Internet tablet support any printer? If yes, please mention a good but cheap one. Can you please tell me its price (in INR) in Malda?
–K.T. Hankslet, Malda

You’re only supposed to ask ONE question–but I’m feeling generous today (cf. Dipjyoti’s answer). Well, you can convert your CDs or DVDs by downloading a ripper. You can sit or stand for the Aakash tests online with the N900, although they have a time limit and might take longer with this mini-computer. It doesn’t support printers, so you’d have to improvise by using a Bluetooth application to send data to a printer, etc. I’d recommend an HP printer costing about Rs. 2,500 in Malda (more than in Kolkata because of the transport cost).

I have downloaded some images from the Internet onto the hard disk of my computer. How can I copy those images into my mobile phone?
–Ronak Shrivastava, Kolkata

Why must you make life so complicated? Well, it depends on the phone. For a Nokia, load Nokia PC Suite software onto your computer. Next, connect the phone and computer through a USB cable, or use a Bluetooth dongle. Double-click the Nokia PC Suite icon on the computer. Get the Nokia Phone Browser. Select desired images. Right-click image and send file fast and furiously to phone.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, March 7th, 2010 at 1:31 am and is filed under Questions 2009-10. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.