Converting an expired US License To Victorian License

     I was holding an expired license from Florida when I arrived in Melbourne-Victoria last year.I was thinking of going through all the tests to get a Victorian license when I found in one of the internet forums that we can get a US license converted even if it is expired. The only thing is it should not be expired for more than 5 years. Mine had few more days left to reach the 5-year mark.

      I immediately went to one of the VicRoads customer service centers. You will have an officer waiting at the entrance to help you with tokens for each service. Please let the officer know that you are for license conversion. He/she will give you a token number. Please reach out to the counter based on your token number. They will give you an application for license conversion and an appointment. My appointment was 10 days after. You need to pay a fee of AUD 18.20.

       On the appointment date, please make sure that you are there at VicRoads customer care center 10 minutes before your appointment.Also please have your US license, completed application for license conversion, and identity documents as listed. I had my bank statement which clearly showed the Victorian address and my passport.Just let the customer care officer at the entrance know that you are there for license conversion appointment. This time you don't need a token.They will ask you to take seat in front of the officers. One of the officer will call your name and purpose.You can head to the officer. They will inspect your US license, verify it online and then request you to pay the victorian license fee.You can find the fee details here. I paid the fee for a 10-year license to avoid the renewals frequently.Afterwards, I had a quick eye test, they just asked me to read a couple of lines from a board and then they took my photo and gave me a temporary document to drive until I receive my full license at my home address.It took maybe around 20 minutes to complete the process. Later my full card license reached my home in a week. That's it !. You are fully licensed to drive on Victorian roads.

        But I would better suggest you go through VicRoads youtube videos and VicRoads drivers manual which is called Road to Solo Driving Handbook before you drive in Victoria. You can download a pdf copy of this book here Here is a link that you can follow to get details on overseas license conversion process https://billing.vicroads.vic.gov.au/bookings/overseas

Tech Notes:-Using US Number In India Mobile And Making Free Calls To US

Recently I had a requirement. Need to call US whenever I require from India. I found the solution.Here is what you require.

Requirements

1. Wifi enabled phone or 3G enabled connection-->I use BSNL 3g on HTC Touch t333
2. A free account from Voxalot.
3. Registration with IPKall for a free US phone number.They will provide you a number from Washington.
4. SIP client for your mobile. I use Portego.

Steps

1. Register for Voxalot account Registration is fairly straight forward.

2.Register for a free IPKall Washington State number. Use the following on the sign up page: Choose your account type – SIP, Choose Area Code for your IPKall Number – ANY, SIP Phone number – , SIP Proxy – “us.voxalot.com” (no quotes), Email Address – , Password – , # of Seconds to ring before hanging up – “120″ (no quotes).You will receive a mail from IPKall with your configuration

           SIP Phone Number: 6 digit number 
         SIP Proxy: us.voxalot.com
         Email: your email address
         Password: password that you configured

3. Download and install Portego SIP client for your mobile phone from portsip

4.Configure Portego
UserName: Username that you received in IPKall mail . 6 digit number
Password: Password that your received in IPKall mail
SIP Server: us.voxalot.com
SIP Port: 5060
Domain Auth Name: Username that you received in IPKall mail . 6 digit number
You need to select codecs G711U,G771A,GSM if not already selected

Once you are done with the configuration, click login. You are all set to use your US number on your mobile in India either over wifi or 3G.

One more enhancement that you can do is to use your Google Voice number to forward calls to your IPKall number.Its important that you use PortGo here because other SIP clients like Fring may not allow you to accept Google voice calls due to its limitations with keypad(You may not get option to press 1 once you receive a google voice call).

How it works

Google voice will connect any two USA numbers or a USA and a Canada number. IPKall will give us a free USA number so we can receive (and make web activated) calls from Google Voice. IPKall then takes that incoming Washington State number and turns it into the SIP protocol and delivers it to a Voxalot SIP address. Voxalot Maintains contact with your hardware or softphone to be able to deliver incoming calls to it as required.

Calling Phones From Gmail

Rumors have been buzzing about since June, but Google just made it official -- the company's baking Google Voice calls right into Gmail today. Like the Google Chat text, voice and video chat integrated into the web-based email client in prior years, full phone calls will also be an option using VoIP technology from the Gizmo5 aquisition.The new facility makes it possible to call phones from the mail interface itself.Call to US and Canada is free at least for the time being. For other countries they are following the google voice rates.

Incoming calls pop up as a chat window in Gmail (and ring your Google Voice-equipped phones simultaneously) and you press a "Call phone" button that appears near the top of the Chat window to send an outbound call, at which point a dialer appears where you can copy and paste numbers or tap them in manually. Users can screen incoming calls or send them to voicemail with a single tap.

I just tested calls from Google,Skype and Yahoo messenger. Felt like google is better...

US Highway Naming Convention

Atleast 10 might have asked this question to me.How do you find out whether a highway is running east-west or north-south?. Well the answers are here.

The procedure for naming the highways is US is systematic and followed some rules Major routes are designated by single or two digit numbers. If a route runs north-south, it is given an odd number, and if a route runs east-west, an even number. For north-south routes, numbering conventions begin in the west. Thus I-5 runs north and south along the West Coast, while I-95 runs north and south along the East Coast. For east-west routes, numbers begin in the south.Major routes usually traverse cities and are the shortest and most direct line of travel. Connecting interstate routes that travel around a city carry three-digit numbers.The interstate system totals 46,300 miles. All interstate highways are marked by blue signs with red tops.

U.S routes also follow a systematic naming.The north-south routes have odd numbers, with 1 to 3 digits. These numbers increase from east to west (just the opposite of the interstate system). For example, U.S. 1 runs along the East Coast (starts at Key West) and U.S. 101 runs along the West Coast.The east-west routes have even numbers, with 1 to 3 digits. The lowest numbers are in the North and increase moving south (just the opposite of the interstates). For example, U.S. 2 runs along the Canadian border; U.S. 90 runs through Texas.U.S. routes are posted in black letters on white signs.

Three highways run from coast to coast: I-10, I-80, and I-90.Seven highways run from border to border: I-5, I-15, I-35, I-55, I-65, I-75, and I-95.