Boost your Old PC Performance at a very low cost
If your computer is over 5 years old, it likely has a Hard Disk Drive (HDD) housing the operating system, applications, and data. Despite having a top-notch processor and ample RAM at purchase, it may now lag behind newer models. With PC costs rising, a cost-effective upgrade could rejuvenate your old machine for several more years.
To the esteemed Railways and IRCTC authorities
Following is the text sent to IRCTC care and refundcoachinger@gmail.com along with some appropriate attachments but no concrete help could be received. The mail was not even acknowledged. Till date I have sent thrice. Mail sent to cco_okb@claims.indianrail.gov.in (belonging to chief claims officer of Easter Zone bounces back after 2 days of sending.
Any help and even a clue where to escalate it would be highly appreciated.
Dear Sir/Madam
On 30 Dec 2023, we (myself,
wife and son) was to travel from New Delhi to Kanpur Central by Sealdah
Rajdhani on my reverse trip of my LTC to Ahmedabad. In the morning while I was
in the flight from Ahmedabad to Delhi, I received an SMS saying that the train
would be late by 3 hours and 15 minutes. Looking at the weather, it was quite
probable that there would have been further delay. Hence, I booked another
ticket for us on IRCTC Tejas. Meanwhile I asked @RailwaySeva twitter
handle on Twitter (X) regarding what to do for my Sealdah Rajdhani ticket. I
was advised to file a TDR before the actual departure of the train. Hence, I
filed a TDR successfully around 4:30 PM when I was in the IRCTC Tejas train. So
far so good. We reached Kanpur Central by IRCTC Tejas which was also late by
around an hour or so. Sealdah Rajdhani was actually late by much more than the
announced 3 hours 15 minutes from Delhi on than day. So far so good.
However, after 94 days of waiting for my refund from TDR, I got a mail from IRCTC customer care that my case of TDR was REPUDIATED stating the reason that passenger had travelled. The fact is that we travelled by IRCTC Tejas (ticket attached). We did NOT travel by Sealdah Rajdhani. I have no comments regarding how come as per chart it is showing us to have travelled.
IRCTC customer care helped to reopen the case. there was a hope upon seeing some progress on it online but finally it was again repudiated giving the same reason that as per chart passenger had travelled.
My sincere request to you is
to do a full review of my case. There is something severely wrong somewhere.
You can convince yourself that it would have been impossible for us to travel
both by Tejas as well as Sealdah Rajdhani on 30/12/2023. Kindly help me get
back my refund for the ticket of Sealdah Rajdhani by which we did NOT travel
and for which I filed TDR following all rules meticulously. If this is beyond
your power, then please let me know where to escalate this case. I have no
problem in approaching the highest level since my case is fully genuine.
Also, it is my earnest request
with folded hands, before making a final unilateral decision, please let me
know if there is any more details which you require, and which may change the
course of your thinking that we travelled by Sealdah Rajdhani on the date. You
can check the charts of IRCTC Tejas on 30/12/2023 to verify that we travelled
on that train.
Last, but not the least,
please acknowledge the receipt of this mail and also a timeline in which I may
expect your favourable response.
Turnitin Repository – What you need to know and care
These days students are submitting their theses. Before submitting, they want to check it for similarity. Many instructors do so for their students. While others have created a class for their students to directly check. Nothing wrong so far. But the problem is that the instructors forget to check their assignment inbox settings. There is a setting "submit to:" which is by default set to "Standard Repository"
Now, once the students work is checked under this setting, it is submitted to Turnitin repository. After this, when the PPD cell checks the thesis, it compares against the student's own work and produces high similarity (like 90%).
Steps to take if you have inadvertently run the similarity check without proper assignment settings:
Do NOT delete the submission. It only adds an extra step in resolution.
Instead, in the Assignment Inbox, select the submission, click the “Delete” drop-down, and select “Request for permanent deletion.”
After step 2, change the assignment settings to “submit to: NO REPOSITORY”.
In case when you try to request for permanent deletion, the system flashes that the document is not in the repository, please do the following:
This is because earlier your assignment setting was set to “submit to: standard repository” and you checked the submission in that condition. Later you realized the problem and changed the setting to “submit to: no repository.” Turnitin does not allow to send a request for permanent deletion if the setting is to “submit to: no repository.”
1. Change the assignment settings to submit to the standard repository
2. Send request for permanent deletion (it should allow now)
3. Change the assignment setting back to submit to NO REPOSITORY
What is the use of the setting “submit to: standard repository”?
Published research papers, and other such material which have reached final stage are submitted to standard repository so that it is added to the database against which future checks are made. Thus, any person copying from your original work will be flagged in his similarity report.
This is a compilation of urgent and helpful information regarding (your) Microsoft Account based on questions I am frequently asked.
Q. What is (my) Microsoft
Account? Why do I care?
Microsoft Account is a single sign-on account which connects all your Microsoft Apps and services. Just like your Google account is a single sign-on account for Google Drive, Gmail, Google Meet etc., your Microsoft Account is a single sign-on account for Exchange Online (mail), SharePoint, OneDrive, Microsoft 365 Apps and Teams etc. If you have been using the Office 365 services at IIT Kanpur since 2019 or later, your email id [username@iitk.ac.in] is (one of) your Microsoft Account(s). Note that this is your Computer Centre account too. Your Microsoft account password need not be the same as your CC password. There are practically no restrictions for your MS Account password – it can be any combination of letters, numbers and (special) characters, including spaces. So your password can be a sentence of your choice – easy to remember yet complex to crack!
You can further strengthen your MS Account security by opting for MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication). Once you opt for this, you may choose any one or multiple MFA authentication methods [Authenticator App, Phone(call/text) or alternate Email]. Recommended option is Authenticator app, and/or Phone. We recommend installing Authenticator App on your mobile, and whenever you sign in on a new device, you will have to approve it on Authenticator.
The answer to the second part of the question will be evident once you read the entire document.
Q. What is a personal Microsoft Account and a “Work or School” Microsoft Account?
If you ever created Hotmail or outlook.in or live.com email account, it is your personal Microsoft Account. But this is not all. Anyone can create his/her personal Microsoft Account, which can be any email address, for example, your Gmail or Yahoo mail address too.
The url where you can
create a Microsoft Account (personal) is: https://account.microsoft.com/account
“Work or School” Microsoft Account is administered by the institution of which the user is a member. Hence those who have their account created on the IITK subscription to Office 365 (details are provided on CC home page under Information link), have their IITK email address as their “Work or School” Microsoft Account. If you had already created a Microsoft Account with your IITK email address earlier than 2019, then that is your personal Microsoft Account. The same is also your ”School or Work” Microsoft Account. To distinguish between these two account types and to provide the subscribed services, the Microsoft service to which you login will prompt you with a dialog box asking whether you want to login to your personal account or Work or School Account. You need to choose the Work or School Account if you want to use the IITK provided office 365 facilities.
Q. What else does my Microsoft Account provide?
If you purchase a new laptop or PC, you will need to sign in with a
Microsoft Account (it can be personal or “Work or School”). The corresponding
MS account stores some vital information about the computer, including the Bit-locker
key (in case it is a Windows Professional computer) This is very important. If
your Windows crashes or the computer develops any problem, the hard disk will
not be readable on any other computer unless you provide the correct 48-digit numerical
password which would be stored in your Microsoft account (personal or “Work or
School”). Note that if your new computer came with a preinstalled Office
product, the license information would be saved in your MS account you use to
login for the first time.
In case of personal MS account, the bit-locker key is accessible to the user on the MS account page (https://account.microsoft.com/account) on the devices tab. Similarly, any Office Product purchased along with your laptop will be visible under “services and subscriptions” tab.
Q. What are the best practices for Microsoft Account for faculty, staff
and students of IITK?
It is recommended to always have a personal MS account and use this account as the first MS Account to sign in on a newly purchased computer, so that the settings specific to your personal computer and office products are always with you.
In order to use the Microsoft 365 services suite available to all faculty, students and staff at IIT Kanpur, you can sign-in to the office products using your “Work or School” Microsoft account.
Save your BitLocker key
If
you have bought a new Windows 10 computer or you have a Windows 10 computer up
to five years young, this email is for you. This does not apply to Home editions.
From quite some time manufacturers like Dell and HP by default put the BitLocker drive encryption ON. With this encryption, if your hard drive or laptop gets stolen, no one can read the data. That is the good part. However, this also means that if there is any small defect in your drive and your computer does not boot up, there is NO WAY you can get your data back unless you have saved your BitLocker recovery key.
Your
BitLocker recovery key is automatically saved in your Microsoft account for
you, if you did create yourself. Most of the times the vendors do it for the
customers and they themselves forget the credentials.
In case you do not find the BitLocker option as shown in the below screenshot, then either it is turned OFF or your computer does not have the feature. So you can ignore the rest of the write-up.
Step 3 - For saving BitLocker recovery key we have 4 options. Choose the appropriate option to save your recovery key – save to a file, USB flash drive, or printing the key are the simplest method. Please note that anyone can use the recovery key to gain access to the drive, even if they don’t know the unlock password of your encrypted drive, so please do not disclose it to others.
Save to a USB flash drive: First we have to insert a USB flash drive in our PC, after that click on “Save to a USB flash drive”.
Now select the USB device from the list and click
on “Save”.
A copy of BitLocker recovery key will be saved on your USB device as shown in below example fig.
Save to a file: For saving the recovery key as a .txt file on local drive select “Save to a file”.
Click on Save
button to save the recovery key on your local as shown
below.
Print the recovery key: To print the recovery key, select “Print the recovery key”.
Select the printer from the list and hit Print button to print the recovery key.
