Digital Bangladesh... Dreaming

Few days back i needed to find information about a couple of things mostly on government side in Bangladesh; mostly how to's. I needed information on Banks and how to apply for the trade license/start limited company. Saddest part is in our so called digitalization, information is scarce to come by online. The Government has taken steps to create websites for most of the Ministries but they are ill maintained. The links are broken, downloadable forms are missing and hell of other issues. I came by some citizen charter and form related info on the Dhaka City Corporation website (apparently they have two sites now- Dhaka South and Dhaka North) and National Web Portal (http://www.bangladesh.gov.bd) but the information are randomly placed.

However, on my search i came up with another site which looks well maintained but its not an government one. Its rightly named as BDGovt Info (short for Bangladesh Government Information). You can access it from here: http://bdgovtinfo.com/. Its pretty small right now and looks like in starting phase but they have the information organized neatly in a pleasing website. It contains govt services related information like passport, national id, trade license, on how to apply for GD online, how to apply for police clearance, apply for educational certificates and other documents and VAT/Tax related issues.

Out of curiosity i checked some other Government Websites of Bangladesh and sadly it looks like there were built as more of an eyewash than actual online service or information portal. Not updated and not maintained. I sent a mail from contact page in one of them and the mail bounced off. Until and unless they truly maintain them we will not be a digital country anytime soon.

LA Noire: The Annoyance

I think its me. I have become old or have played too many games over the years. The new and upcoming games are failing to create a solid impression on me. The last game i loved was Mass Effect 2. I hope it makes a point that i am not entirely insane and not very difficult person when it comes to liking games. I have my opinions and i criticize about most games but i am sorry.. most of the recent games have failed to create an impression on me. I started playing LA Noire with high hopes, mind it. The way Rockstar promoted it and as much as i followed it, may be i went over the bend with expectations. So lets just talk about the game.

The graphics is very nice.. shiny! but wait it was ported from consoles so it mostly gets stuck. Alright i will skip that fact. Now initially the game was pretty cool. Find evidence and book guys. But when the missions gets tough and no quick save and quick load option (is there?) i found it hard to load it from the menu every time i made a mistake or failed to get all questions correct or all evidences found. The PC version took time to load the frame rate was not at all impressive.

I will not say much about the game. Only just the fact that the game gets kinda monotonous when it s the same routine. Go here .. go there.. ask questions and charge. The story is the only thing that kept me going. Good job on that boys.

Skyrim: I was an adventurer like you then i took an arrow to the knee...

TES: Skyrim is definitely a great game. I have loved this game for the wonderful world the developers have created. You can stroll around aimlessly for hours and see all the beautiful elements in it. Whats more interesting is it is very friendly to modders. The game already has thousands of mods and you can enhance the game any way you like it. That being said, i have to say i found the story line very lame. There, i said it. Take it any way you want it. But the other independent missions and superb world makes up for it.

Thuum! Please.. its all a bit gibberish. But your ultimate goal is to kill one black dragon learning thuums from another dragon. Its a bit silly. Its only my opinion but the dragon born concept isn't really as strong as one would expect. When i first heard it i thought may be its the power to control the dragon but as it turns out, dragons borns are dragon erasers. LAME! You can call dragon because they are afraid you will absorb them. Fuhh! Seriously, with such strong gods and side missions why would they have to make the main story sooo freaking lame?

If you are an avid gamer, take my word.. you will love the game. It has many interesting side missions and powers to make your head spin and jump with joy. But if you are a 'have-time-kill-time gamer' you might start crying when you will find out that it takes about 20/30 mins to walk to the Throat of the World (the highest mountain) from Whiterun.

Whats more interesting is the bugs in the game. even though few but rather funny. I have came across few incidents when an attack from the giants (yeah .. look closely at the image above - GIANTS) makes you very bouncy. :D My horse went sky high while i just fell down. But on the serious note, if you want to enjoy the game ... play without cheats but if you want to just have fun cheat away. At times the GOD MODE (TGM) really makes the game enjoyable.

Mafia II A BIG Incomplete Flop

Mafia II a big disappointment. I expected it to be a little more different from the first part and may be more. Don't get me wrong, the story is good, very captivating, the 3d world is highly detailed, superb graphics and neat cars but what spoiled the game for me is the short game hours, close ended game design, no option to buy properties, less interaction with the environment, no free time between missions and the worst of all, incomplete and sudden stop to the story. It may be a good strategy for the developers, leaving the gamers in cliff hanging situation but at times it creates bitterness.

A game after all these years, you would expect it to be able to compete with GTA series but in major portion it failed. True the GTA characters were kinda weak compared to the characters of Mafia II but that had more option and flexibility. A disappointing feature of Mafia II is that the protagonist CAN'T swim!! Come on!!! A few missions on the beautifully created waters, boat or ship would have been wonderful. There were few pretty cars but hardly any time to drive them around. And trust me after you once complete the game you will not want to have a go another time.

Mafia II is a neat game, no doubt, but would have been a game of the year if it had overcome those flaws. We had high expectation from the maker after they had delivered such a wonderful first part, but i guess the expectations were misplaced. If you come across it, do play it, you will love the game and the story, but i will not be responsible for aaaany outrage after you finish the game.

Happy gaming!!

Adios

Lerauxe

City Cell Zoom Ultra... Yet Again..

Have I have started free promotion for Citycell Zoom Ultra? Heck no, I have started a blog to provide important informations to the Net users out there who are suffering gravely due to the indifference of few entities. Lets get back to the topic. Since Citycell will not help out its clients, its us the clients who have to help each other out till we have to use their services for our sake.

Just thought of letting the users know that even though the citycell zoom ultra service is more or less consistent sometimes you will or may need to configure the username and pass or dial number to access the citycell ultra for the creating a new profile or just setting up a dial up in windows. The dial number is '#777' with both username and password 'waps'.

Generally I use BTCL ADSL 1 MB connection but in emergencies when your phone line goes dead and remains dead for the weekend and days length at times in such emergencies nothing could be better than the prepaid packages like these. I would have thanked the citycell again but their lame site and lack of information cancelled that out. So no thanks.

Adios

Lerauxe

City Cell Zoom Ultra

Hey there,

I know there are many unhappy citycell zoom users and mostly the new annoyed users who have just bought the citycell zoom ultra package. I myself faced the citycell ultra pain few days back when i had decided to  buy it as a backup since my other backup, GP net's performance was on the decline.

Anyway, after buying the citycell ultra package the first dillema i faced was how to activate the zoom since the zoom point guy forgot to inform me. So i had decided to google it and surprisingly i could not find any information regarding the citycell zoom service. the Citycell's site itself was the biggest disappointment of all. There was a Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) section which had absolutely no important information posted.

After about half an hour of searching i called a support number at around 12.45am and thankfully a customer manager was able to help me out. Just posting the number in case someone out there needs it - +8801199121121.

Here is the info i actually meant to post in this blog (its for Zoom Prepaid by the way):

To activate Zoom (not the ultra):

• Type ZOOM and send the text to 9666 (Spells Zoom on keypad)
• To deactivate it (ZOOM) type ZOOM OFF and send it to 9666

To activate Zoom Ultra just type in the service or the package

For example i am using the ULTRA 2 which is 1.5 GB for 920 BDT  (including VAT) at 300 kbps (37 KBps), i had to send a text to 9666 with ULTRA2 as the content of the message.

After you have activated the Zoom Ultra and connected to internet, you will notice the citycell cuts the balance without any notification. Its kinda unnerving. Anyway, thats all for today. If you have any other question just dial the help line (mentioned somewhere above).

Signing off for the day,

Adios

Lerauxe

P.S. So far, the citycell Zoom Ultra Net Service has been really satisfactory, worth the investment. Best of luck.