This conference will be streaming in real-time. And you can attend it virtually from anywhere, online.   You can ask questions to the speakers live by tweeting your questions with the #beatthegmat hashtag.

I’m not sure whether they’d broadcast it and live-stream it online (via webcam?) but I think they should.

Shout out to all those living in San Francisco/bay area especially near San Mateo, you can attend the conference in person, it’s free seminars, free consulting/advice, free opportunity to network & make new friends & of course free lunch. So dont miss this event. Click here to RSVP and attend the conference in person.

The event is arranged in progressive order, first you’ve GMAT prep tip and tricks, GMAT strategies, then applying to b-schools strategy covering most important aspect ie. ‘admission essays’. Then in afternoon, a story of a successful applicant and finally a glimpse of how it feels to be an MBA alum. All in one day free of cost! it’s a complete package that only a foolish can miss.

Here’s the detailed all day agenda for the conference:

Announcing the launch, Mr. Sagar Bedmutha, Founder and CEO, Optinno Mobitech  Pvt. Ltd. said, “smsBlocker effectively empowers you and gives you full control on what SMS  you receive. There are sincere efforts taken by the telecom regulators. However, mobile  spammers always find ways to bypass the regulations. That is the reason why you receive  scores of unsolicited SMS.  This is where smsBlocker comes into play. We are certain that  now the mobile users need not get annoyed and disturbed by spam. We take pride in  presenting this ‘first-of- its-kind’, full-proof, innovative mobile application to our valued  customers today.”

In terms of features and at a one time price of just Rs. 99 (USD 2.00), smsBlocker  scores much above than other spam blocking options like operator’s filter services, other  paid applications.  The application is currently developed targeting Nokia phones and can be used on all  Symbian S60 devices.

More information, online purchase options and a FREE Trial version  are available on www.smsBlocker.in

NB: As a launch offer, this application is available absolutely FREE till 28-06-2010.

If you want further updates, follow the @officialGMAT on twitter or the look for buzz-word #nextgengmat

The news was expected since GMAC made announcement in the conference last year about probable changes in GMAT by 2012. More analysis about the changes later… or maybe I’ll leave it for other bloggers/ GMAT companies.

Few additions/changes in blog: You must have noticed Knewton GMAT’s link in the middle column, yes if you’re interested in joining GMAT   prep course Knewton is the one I recommend. They’re cheapest yet the best in the town. Go get it.

I seriously want to write resources pages, I hope this time around I get more time for this site to add some content.

I also have GMAT FAQ queued up they’re somewhere around 75 frequently asked questions I would featured in this blog & try to answer clear, short & simple way. I might post them twice a week, maybe. Although I’m not sure when would I start posting it but as I would, I know I may end up writing infinite no. of FAQ posts … so I should stop myself at 75. All in all, expect this blog to be regularly updated with fresh content.

Pranav juggles many roles at a time. He is engineer by profession and has setup a bootstrap startup engineering firm with his friends. While staying at village, believing in decentralisation philosophy, he looks after his retiring father’s fabrication workshop and agricultural farm.
He’s webmaster by hobby and blogs about GMAT and general stuff occasionally. His interest lies in social enterprises, government schemes/initiatives for social change, ^going green^, magazines and internet (& yes! web 2.0). In past time he designs/makes useful articles by re-using useless trash. follow him on twitter @johnycage

Man! am I getting self-obsessed? or have already become one?

You’ve two essay questions as usual
1.> why do you deserve this scholarship (500 words)
2.> Why do you want to go to the Business school (300 words)
and an optional essay
3.> Are there any special circumstances you want us to consider?

Everything is same like earlier scholarships, except prizes, sponsors & the juries. This time around there’ll be NO first or second rank winner but general six winners. As all prizes are more or less has equal value. Prizes include full GMAT registration fees ($250) & a full fledged coaching from one of six sponsors, based on the choice of the applicant.
Sponsors are: Grockit, Kaplan, Knewton, Manhattan GMAT, Princeton Review & Veritas Prep.
Winners will get GMAT registration voucher worth $250. Yes, so all you guys wondering how to avail GMAT coupons or GMAT vouchers, here’s your chance- apply for GMAT scholarship and get it free from BeatTheGMAT!

What are you waiting for?
Submit your Scholarship application before the due date.(20th May 2010)

Pune based mobile application development firm Optinno Mobitech Pvt. Ltd. today announced the launch of first-of-its-kind mobile application ‘Mobiwatchman‘. True to its name, it is an innovative mobile application that can be a savior for millions of cellphone users who are frustrated due to incessant calls and spammy SMSes. Mobiwatchman gives the options to block unwanted calls and SMS with various filter levels thereby giving the choice to set the privacy level. What surprised me is it even blocks Hin-glish spam SMS.

MobiWatchman

Announcing the launch, the founder and CEO of Optinno Mobitech Pvt. Ltd. & my closed friend, Mr Sagar Bedmutha said, “Mobiwatchman is developed considering the Indian user and ways & extent of unsolicited mass marketing in India. Mobiwatchman effectively empowers you and gives you full control on what calls and SMS you receive. It is India’s first native SMS and call blocking application. Although ‘National Do Not Call’ (NDNC) registry, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) have taken sincere efforts to reduce the amount of mobile spam, mobile spammers always find ways to bypass the restrictions of NDNC registry. That is the reason why you receive scores of unsolicited marketing calls and SMS even after registering with NDNC registry.”

In terms of features and at a one time price of just Rs. 199, Mobiwatchman scores much above than other spam blocking options like operator’s filter services, other paid applications.

The application is currently developed targeting Nokia phones and can be used on all Symbian S60 devices. More information and online purchase options are available on www.mobiwatchman.com.

Transportation Cars & Roads:

Delhi’s road infrastructure is stunning. They say if you’re city driving enthusiast, you got to be in Delhi. It looks impressive especially when you come from other parts of India. Roads are smooth, broad, and there are cars for these wide roads to fill. There are cars, plenty of cars and variety of cars. Unlike other cities, where you see one types of cars dominating roads in a city, (which define the city’s culture;) in Delhi there’re cars of all price range; and they are big in numbers. I heard that Number of cars in NCR (New Delhi & surrounding area) are more than the total sum of all cars present in other Indian metro cities (Mumbai + Chennai + Kolkata). I thought it’s unrealistic claim, but after visiting Delhi I realised that it’s not equal to sum of other 3 metros, (but a lot more!!) it’s more than sum of all top 10 cities combined!! yeah! go ahead and add Bangalore, Hydrabad, Ahemdabad, Pune in the list & NCR would still beat them all alone. (yes, go google it & check the stats!). I see Toyota Camry & Honda Accord on Delhi’s road as often as I can see Maruti Suzuki’s Swift in Mumbai.

I cannot say it’s good or bad, having your own car, or having higher ‘cars per thousand people’ ratio for city, it could be one of the measures of prosperity. But it can also indicate the lack of good public transport system. Seriously, as a visitor, you’re completely helpless in Delhi. It’s inconvient and expensive. There’re no cabs/taxi (four wheeler car, fiat or ambassador) roaming around city, no cool cabs (A/C taxis) seen too, well! at least I didnot see them. (my friend claimed that there’re few). I hope there’re enough rickshaws but they dont follow the meter and charge passengers way more than they should. It’s the case with EVERY rickshaw, I dont understand why there’s meter system if nobody follows it in first place. Either increase meter rate or control rickshaw mafia. This is at full scale, illegal, cancerous and not right for the BIG city like Delhi. Public transport is SERIOUS problem in Delhi. Let’s not talk about Delhi’s buses. Privatising the city bus service is the biggest mistake government have done. Buses also doesnt travel through inner roads and lacks ‘reach’. I’ve been hearing about metro since a decade. And dilli junta is very optimistic, always saying ‘metro ane ke baad sab thik hoga‘…. lo aa gayi metro, kuch pharak pada?

I just hope they increase the rail network and the frequecy of metro trains.

I’ve always been attracted to Delhi, maybe it’s because Hindi language, nation’s capital, great history & legacy or Punjabi pop music influence on bollywood; it doesn’t matter, the point is I always ^tried to love^ Delhi….. whenever I go there. Yes, it’s not the first time I been there, so here we go. In red bold words are the top things I noticed in Delhi

Society, Culture & People:

If I visit new place, I love to get lost! (but fortunately/unfortunately I never got lost!) I love to explore cities, & when I went Delhi I see no beggars. There’re no beggars. At least nobody begged me! and it’s not that I wondered only in ^posh areas^ of city.  On bus station, auto rickshaw stand, railway stations, in the train, all possible public places, I never seen a beggar, it could be that everytime I went Delhi it was cold winter, but what would beggars do in cold? where do they go? & why should they come in summers anyways? it’s unbearable in New Delhi during any month of the year. I guess that is the reason why there’re no beggars, you cannot afford to be shelter-less in Delhi. Winter is freezing cold, summer is boiling hot & negligible rain during monsoon. Forget about beggars I wonder how normal people can live in that city! I observed very odd pattern and lifestyle at residential areas. In Delhi you buy a plot and build your own house. Landlord most of the cases gives on floor of the house/building for rent/lease. There’s no concept of equal people living together in a building owning flats like co-operative housing society, have common area, facilities like an apartment or sharing toilet and gallery like a chawl. Thus, every plot owner thinks selfish way. They have colonies consisting lots of grid-plots, where one plot ends and other starts sharing same compound fence. To utilise the avail land fully, they build house (?) corner to corner compromising greatly on ventilation. I would not call them houses they are actually small concrete boxes in a big city. There’re no skyscrapers for residents. I rarely seen high-rise buildings but those were corporate offices. I see it more like London than Mumbai. Still it cannot be compared with London, as it’s not a cosmopolitan city.  In Delhi, all people speak in Hindi, (including the staff at the American Library) yes true! I hear haanji (yes sir!), sirji, ji, all the time. Really, once you’re outside your home, all people from boy at tea-stall to rickhaw-wala everybody address you with “sir” or “sirji“, that’s such awkward for Mumbaikar like me, c’mon, sir? oh, & if you want to know how they address here in Mumbai, just watch Taxi No. 9211. In fact most of the bollywood movies are filmed in Mumbai, has Mumbai in its theme and demonstrate Mumbai culture and style. Very rarely, a film is produced with Delhi-theme e.g. Khosla ka Ghosla. Same is with advertising be it print or TV media, since most of the ad agencies that work in Indian advertising industry are located in Mumbai, they have Mumbai flavour in their ads. Anyways before I lose my track, the point is if you don’t live near NCR area, or Northern India in general, you’re not exposed to Delhi culture well; whereas you get glimpse of Mumbai’s lifestyle and culture by watching TV & Bollywood movies. For instance I was not aware of Delhi’s clothing sense, fashion etc. & I must tell you I’m impressed. Not just girls are good looking they dress well, I think girls from Pune should learn something Delhi and Chandigargh. Sigh!

to be continued read part-2 transportation

Bluehost

I was very cautious while selecting and finalising the web host service website where I would run my websites from. So I looked as many webhosting firms as I could & searched for bad or negative comments. I was looking for a service provider with zero negative remarks. I think that was easy to scrutinise because you find at least one bad comment from un-satisfied customer anyways. But it was not quick task as there’re plethora of webhosting service providers, plus there’re resellers and local agents. It’s a big market for website hosting, online server and data center industry.
I had few criteria already set that brought down the number by almost half.

• I wanted shared hosting server.
• I wanted a webhost account where I can park and host multiple (preferably unlimited/ 10+) domain names.
• I wanted great customer support and “online chat” feature was must.
• I didn’t want to use local service providers of any Indian resellers in general. (yes, Indian webhosting companies have long way to go before they could provide the worldclass service.
• Basically I wanted flexibility, freedom, support, so Yahoo was out of question.

However there’re general selection criteria, such as, Checking whether the webhost only host clean websites or not, else you might end up in the blacklist of Google/yahoo etc. If your website using shared IP address, your emails might be treated as spam & directly go to junkmail box if other websites on your IP are ‘spamming around’.  There’re are special webhosting companies who host pornographic, warez, file-storing websites, which involves heavy traffic and needs lots of storage space. Better stay away from them.

I’m not claiming that these are the best rules (/criteria) to select a webhosting services. You can have your own selection criteria, it can be different but the point is you should list what are your needs and what exactly you’re looking for and I’m glad that you’re reading this page now. The reason for researching before deciding your web hosting service provider is the commitment period is usually long, if you pay for long-term *say more than 1year rather than paying per month, you’d save atleast a dollar per month with most of the shared hosting.

After a lot reading on net and research I signed up with BlueHosts shared hosting.

Bluehost is safe, reliable, best in support, pre-sales queries, literally 24×7 costumer care by online chat. You get flexibility to do anything on your website, e.g. run forums, blogs, photo gallery, all scripts are automatically installs and are free of cost! So, what are you waiting for? I’ve had a dream of running my own website & I’m doing it at affordable cost with bluehost!