Archive for August, 2008

Backpacker’s Destination

August 21st, 2008

Finding a cheap temporary place to stay at Melbourne could be a bit troublesome. The Rates of hotel’s are zooming on. A backpacker would be an ideal place to stay, If you are on a world tour in a group then it is the best place to stay. I wouldn’t advice it for exclusive couple or family tour but for everything else it’s great. There are several backpackers around the city. I did stay in a couple of those before shifting to a permanent place.

I found Ritz Backpacker the best of the ones I stayed in. It has quite a cheap rate of about 140$ a week, wherein you get a lot out of it. The breakfast for instance is free every morning you get fresh pancakes in the kitchen, thats one thing that’s worth waking up in the morning. There something happening every night like face painting, movies, some trips around the city etc., Also its a little off the city and very close to the beach that makes it an ideal summer choice. One downside is that there is a bar down, on Friday and Saturday nights the music goes on till about 3a.m and getting sleep would be pretty tough, but if you are a party animal thats a plus.

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Tags: backpackers, tourism
Posted in Life in Oz, Travel, Uncategorized | Comments (399)

Skype “The whole world can talk for 29$”

August 14th, 2008

I got the new Skype mobile that Rolled out few months back. I was planning to change my connection from Vodaphone to 3 since most of the students in Melbourne have it and you get that 3 to 3 bonus call time. It was my friend that Takanobu Nakamuru( not a relative of Hiro! ) who got me into the idea of getting one.Now i could talk to my parents and friends at low cost and most importantly they can disturb me anytime. It is a good buy for the 29$ pack wherein i don’t have to pay extra for 4000min of skype credit. I could also hold on to the same number that i had with Vodaphone connection. I don’t quite find this mobile flexible tried a few java apps and it did not work. Also at random times I’d lose the skype connection and it never comes back on for hours. Other than that the voice clarity is pretty ok which is expected considering it to be on the 3G network.

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Skype voice chat usually consumes about 10-15 KB/s for a clear conversation and the 3G n/w provides about 2Mbit/s thats like about 256 KB/s(decreases on the roll). So the connection should be fine but Its not all the time during the night the conversation breaks possibly because of the low through-output. Guess every one in the city chats at night. Hope they integrate a low resolution video feature into it then it would become feature rich. If you have a java mobile then download the jar file from here. It would also work on most of the other platforms, but you should have a 3G network-browsing enabled (Might work on 2.5G but voice clarity would be poor).  A cheaper option would be to get the 19$ pack and subscribe to Skype + 5$ for the 4000min. Hopefully Skype rolls out more varients of Skype-exclusive mobile with more features.

Tags: 3, mobile, Skype
Posted in Life in Oz, Uncategorized | Comments (102)

How To Pick-lock

August 7th, 2008

I am a bit of an absent-minded guy, I tend to forgot some basic resources at crucial times. Like today, I locked my self out of my room. I had a packed schedule – 2 lectures, one lab and a career fair that i wanted to attend. All the required resources for those tasks were locked in the room with the key. It was turning into ‘one of those days’. I had two options call my land lord and ask for a spare key for which he charges 30$(OMG!! for a key) or Pick-lock for which i had no expertise. My next door house-mate had been in a similar situation wherein he kicked open the door and it cost him more than he expected 50$. So i decided to pick-lock and eureka!, to my surprise i did it in about 10 min. This is what you’ll need to do if you end up in the same situation.

• You’ll need two paper clips or some flexible metal for the job.

• Open the two clips make them kind of flat, so the edges don’t pop out too much.

• Fold one of the clip(1) in two and bend the edge so it’s “L” shaped. the point is it should work like a tong so you can insert it and rotate it easily.

• Let the second clip(2) be flat for now.

• Now inset the clip(1) into the lock’s hole(towards the place where the flat end of the key goes in). Make sure you touch the end with the clip and you get a bit of a leverage to rotate it. It would bend a bit if you try to turn but try giving a bit pressure and rotate if it opens then you door is not locked and you can stop reading this article, if not then go on.

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Tags: key, lock, pick lock
Posted in Life in Oz, Tips n Tricks, Uncategorized | Comments (81)

Cost – Variance in Different Countries

August 3rd, 2008

The prices of every product varies in every country. I decided to do a small analysis on this. It’s based on the pay an average graduate gets to the percentage of salary he spends on regular merchandise like daily or monthly supplies. I also included the price of a sedan vehicle just give a picture of how the variance is between countries. I decided to go with three countries India, U.S and Australia.

The Pay an average graduate gets in India per month – 20,000 Rs.
The Pay an average graduate gets in U.S per month – 3750 USD.
The Pay an average graduate gets in Australia per month – 3826 AUD.

I call this the Earn-n-Spend table

ESP(Earn Spend Percentile) = (Cost/Salary)*10000

The ESP will give the percentage of earnings an average per month graduate will have to spend on the listed commodities below. One can multiply the rate with quantity required in a month to find the total amount he will be spending on that item for the month. The lower the ESP the better. The rates might differ from what i have mentioned but not much(If there is a large variance let me know). All are approximate values and may change.

	Australia		America		India		Winner
Commodity	AUD	ESP	USD	ESP	RS	ESP
loaf of bread	3	7.84	1	2.67	10	5	America
Rice 1kg	1.6	4.18	4	10.67	20	10	Australia
Pasta 500g	2	5.23	2	5.33	40	20	Australia
Sausages	5	13.07	4.55	12.13	200	100	America
apple	5	13.07	2.5	6.67	50	25	America
Instant noodles	0.7	1.83	0.5	1.33	7	3.5	America
Potato 1kg	2	5.23	2	5.33	15	7.5	America
500g minced beef	8	20.91	3	8	40	20	America
tin of tuna	1	2.61	1	2.67	150	75	Australia
12 eggs	3	7.84	2	5.33	24	12	America
1 kg bananas	2	5.23	1.5	4	25	12.5	America
1 litre of milk	1.75	4.57	1.49	3.97	7	3.5	India
1 packet biscuits	2	5.23	1	2.67	10	5	America
1 litre orange juice	1.3	3.4	1	2.67	40	20	America
Coffee	4	10.45	3	8	8	4	India
cinema ticket	12	31.36	10	26.67	50	25	India
bowling	12	31.36	8	21.33	120	60	America
nightclub entrance	10	26.14	10	26.67	500	250	Australia
pint of beer (570 ml)	7	18.3	3	8	75	37.5	America
A decent hamburger	6	15.68	2	5.33	75	37.5	America
can of Coke	2	5.23	1	2.67	20	10	America
haircut (men)	17	44.43	14	37.33	50	25	India
haircut (women)	40	104.55	40	106.67	200	100	India
shoes	50	130.68	40	106.67	500	250	America
tights	20	52.27	15	40	100	50	America
jeans	60	156.82	50	133.33	700	350	America
sweater	50	130.68	40	106.67	400	200	America
T shirt	12	31.36	10	26.67	100	50	America
Chicken(whole)	3.75	9.8	1.75	4.67	100	50	America
transport/month	100	261.37	110	293.33	200	100	India
Car	30000	78410.87	30000	80000	100,0000	500000	Australia

Seems like U.S is a cheaper place for a graduate to live. And people say U.S is expensive. I think Australia is more expensive. Ofcourse there is a money conversion between them but I only did the table for graduates living in those specific countries and earning there.

Tags: america, Australia, cost comparison, Groceries price, india, usa
Posted in Life in Oz | Comments (150)

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