How to pay online MTNL bill

MTNL now allows you to pay your bills online using the billdesk service. Its really quite simple, but I can explain for whatever its worth.

Go to the MTNL Selfcare page. You don't need an account or anything. Just be sure to have a copy of your bill (or know your customer account number), and either your login for your online account, or your credit card.

In the form provided, fill in your details - your landline phone number and customer account number, and hit view details.

The results should display your current outstanding amount. Fill in the fields for contact details, and opt for online payment.

Then, it is simply a matter of selecting mode of payment, logging in to your online bank account, or adding credit card details, and submitting until done.

Just be sure to follow instructions exactly as given.

ScribeFire review

I use ScribeFire to post on my blogs. Its quick and convenient and allows me to post to all my blogs from my browser. So if I find a site that is interesting, I can staay with that site as I write about it.

If you are a blogger and don't have scribefire, you are missing out. Go get it now (I'm assuming you are already using Firefox - If you aren't, get THAT first).

Anyway, I have recently experienced this problem with ScribeFire where the posts I publish are filed as pending review in my WordPress (not here, of course). Blogger works fine.

Additional whines:

• I have include a lack of a list of available tage/autocomplete, so I risk creating unnecessary and duplicate like tags for my posts.
• Shows some strange errors after closing its blogging window about the API of my platform or similar. To date, I haven't figured out any problem this has created beyonf the inconvenience of clicking away those alerts.
  

Pluses:

• Having the blogging tool at my fingertips all through my browser experience tempts me to post more often because of sheer accessibility.
• Much of the good bits work - copy pastes (including media), uploads via API or FTP, etc.
• Picks up Urls and stuff from the browser or clipboard making linking much easier.
• Posts to multiple platforms -WordPress.com LiveJournal Xanga Windows Live Spaces Performancing Tumblr MySpace b2Evolution Splinder
  
• Is extremely convenient an dsupports the objectives of a blogger.
  

RSS and other feeds for dummies

I am not going to try and change the "dummies" status, so don't expect me to talk about the usual versions, and XML and what nots. What I am going to do is tell you how it can make your life easier.

So, you clicked on some RSS link because it was attractively presented, found a whole load of code and probably thought that something was wrong with that page. You probably haven't even progressed to noticing that RSS links everywhere seem to do that. Never mind. The site is working just fine, and you see that bizarre code because you are seeing it in a browser and not in a feed reader. Or you may be wondering what the fuss is about.

Why should you bother to do that?

• Because it is there...... the world seems to know something you don't and you don't like that? - joking. Read the rest.
• You have important things to do with your time and really can't go around checking what's new and where.
• At the same time, you do enjoy the content on those sites and hate to miss it.
• You wish that you didn't have to keep running after information.
• You wish you had one place to see what's new everywhere you frequent
  

All excellent reasons, and I am going to tell you exactly how you will be able to use the feeds to bring happiness and convenience in your online life.

Basically what an feed does is lists all the latest content on a site. So go with my train of thought for a bit... I know it is unfamiliar.

You go to different places on the net all the time, and see all kinds of stuff, and can't practically go to every site you like everyday. However, with the feed, its like the site coming to you. Get all the sites you like to come to you at a rendezvous point you decide, and read everything that's new at once.

So how do you set this up? Decide on a Feed Reader first and create that rendezvous for those sites. There is enough choice to suit the pickiest of people, but if you are a sensible person, you will be even more wary whether you want to get into all this.

A quick and painless way is to use Google Reader. When ever you go to a site you would like to stay in touch with, look for the RSS button.

Right click >> copy >> Google Reader >> add subscription >> paste

Done. No mess, no fuss.

Sites that offer Feedburner Feeds will allow you to subscribe by email, so you can get latest posts right into your inbox without worrying about how to figure out RSS.

Or an even better way would be to get Firefox or Opera and add all the feeds you like to the live bookmarks - they will be able to provide the latest on the site without needing you to visit it.

Then, read the feeds. You will find yourself pleasantly surprised that it is not as esoteric as it seems. Go ahead, try it NOW. Hit that orange RSS button, and enter a whole new life of convenient reading.