Chanakya Niti is a book written by Chanakya, who was the advisor of Great Indian King, Chandragupta Maurya and lived in India during 350–283BC.

While most books from that era talk about the spiritual side of things, Chanakya Niti (Niti-Sastra i.e. science of common sense) is all about the practical side; from advising a king on how to run his country to advising commoners on what their conduct should be and in turn, what sort of conduct should they expect from their kings!

I first read Chanakya Niti, when I was quite young and unable to understand and comprehend most of the things in it, but was left impressed nonetheless. However as time progressed, I forgot most of the things which I had read and somewhat understood and thus I started thinking of reading it once again and today, thanks to this free eBook on Chanakya Niti, I managed to realize my goal and I am now thinking of digging up the old Hindi copy of Chanakya Niti, which we still have in our home and re-reading it again, just for fun.

Coming back to Chanakya Niti, it mainly consists of sayings which hold practical value and are extremely insightful to say the least, at times some of them seem to contradict each other, till you realize that this is exactly what the author wanted to do, since practicality isn’t about sticking to a few defined rules, written in stone; it is about choosing the appropriate one, based on the situation!

And this is where you have to marvel at the author’s knowledge and insightfulness, which for the most part, is still relevant in today’s world! Even though at times it might appear as rather cruel and at times, even crude!

However, this is to be expected, from a book written by a shrewd yet extremely intelligent man, who managed to give India, one of its most powerful Kings and a dynasty, in which King Ashoka was born, a king still revered by Indians, thousands of years down the line!

While the above free eBook might not be the most accurate translation of the sayings of Chanakya and is indeed missing a few of them, it is still a worthy read, more so in this day and age, where most of us seem lost and directionless.

It’s been almost 6 months, since I first started using dedicated server with Wiredtree and I guess a review is long overdue.

One of the reasons why I hadn’t posted a review earlier was due to the fact that since there was minimal effort required from my side in managing the server and barring a few minor hiccups, there weren’t any issues and their service for all practical reasons, remained invisible to me. Which is a good thing, especially considering the fact that all this while, they have been continuously taking care of the server, services and updates!

Initially when I needed to get the server setup and working in the way that I wanted, Wiredtree techs responded in a timely and as usual courteous manner (I earlier had their VPS service) and managed to resolve the issues at hand, to my satisfaction.

Also, whenever there was to be scheduled maintenance work for the network, I was informed well in advance.

Just about the only thing I do not like about Wiredtree is the fact that they do not have customer forum, something which was present at all my earlier hosts and provided their customers not only a platform to interact with each other, but also with the upper management. Apart from this shortcoming and the fact that they do not sell Litespeed webserver’s single core license (not that I plan to buy it right now), there isn’t anything that I can think of, at the moment.

Which is a major problem with reviews like these, there isn’t much you can write in them and thus end up with a sweet yet short review.

Over the weekend, I changed my UPS’s battery, since the old one had stopped working and UPS would completely shut down in case of power failure or even major fluctuation.

Here is a How-To Guide on changing UPS battery, compiled from my experience:

Step 1: Buy a new UPS battery; normally UPS come with 12V 7Ah VRLA battery (refer to your UPS manual or manufacturers site for more info), also commonly known as UPS battery. You can easily buy them from any inverter/battery shop. Since many of these shops offer exchange facility, you might want to take it out the old battery first (refer to step 4 – 6) and take it with you to the shop.

Step 2: Make sure the UPS is off.

Step 3: Disconnect the UPS from wall socket and also remove your computer, monitor and other peripheral cables from the back of the UPS.

Step 4: Look for screws to open the UPS(usually present at the bottom of UPS), many good companies mention the location of these on the UPS itself or in user manual. Remove these screws and carefully put them in a secure place, to ensure that you do not lose them.

Step 5: Take out the outer shell, exposing the battery.

Step 6: There should be two connectors attached to battery’s terminals (usually clips), pull them gently in the opposite direction and after removing them, take out the old battery (make sure that you remember which wire connects to which terminal, though wires are usually color coded, with red signifying positive and black signifying negative terminal/connector).

Step 7: Remove dust present in the UPS, gently with the help of a brush or compressed air can.

Step 8: Place the new battery in the place of the old one and reattach the wires to the appropriate terminals.

Step 9: Attach the outer shell and fasten it securely in place with the help of screws, you had taken out in step 4.

Step 10: Connect the UPS to wall socket (without connecting computer or peripherals) and switch on to check, whether or not, everything is working properly. If not, then reopen the shell and check whether or not the connectors have been properly connected and everything is working.

Step 11: Switch off the UPS and reconnect the power cord of your computer and peripherals and then switch on the UPS.

Step 12: Hide any parts/bits which might have come out of the UPS and you forgot to put back in and pat yourself on the back for a job well done .

Disclaimer These are just instructional tips, which may or may not be applicable for your UPS. I take no guarantees whatsoever, that the above written steps will work as intended or wouldn’t cause any harm to those involved or even the equipment.

Ps. Step 12 is intended as a joke; please put any misplaced/misattached parts, back into the UPS!