28:I[87087,["/_next/static/immutable/chunks/2corl6wyj4669.js","/_next/static/immutable/chunks/29n5y1fco65mp.js","/_next/static/immutable/chunks/2gy5gg4_1pywi.js","/_next/static/immutable/chunks/13ggluqxs2fvs.js","/_next/static/immutable/chunks/3whfejvldou9o.js","/_next/static/immutable/chunks/3-evdrh07jxzy.js","/_next/static/immutable/chunks/2ok0fp0-qyxch.js","/_next/static/immutable/chunks/0tstzde3qoch8.js","/_next/static/immutable/chunks/3ahn2cs_uexsk.js"],"default"] 2c:I[27201,["/_next/static/immutable/chunks/2corl6wyj4669.js","/_next/static/immutable/chunks/29n5y1fco65mp.js"],"IconMark"] 29:Tae8,

We have all been there: a coworker, a family member, or a house helper is enjoying their favorite tunes, but the loudness is just a bit too much for the shared space. Recently, my friend brought me a challenge. A helper at their house loved listening to music during her downtime, but the mono Bluetooth speaker was simply too loud. My friend asked if I could add an earphone option to it. Naturally, I took the challenge.

The Volume Fix: Adding a Resistor

Because the speaker’s built-in output is designed to push enough power for a loud external speaker, plugging earphones directly into that signal would be dangerously loud. To fix this, I added a resistor to the circuit. This safely steps down the audio output to a comfortable earphone/headphone level, ensuring a safe and pleasant listening experience.

The Retro Cutoff Trick

If you grew up in the era of cassette players and Walkmans with built-in speakers, you probably remember how plugging in your headphones automatically silenced the main speaker. I wanted to recreate that exact feature. Standard 3.5mm female audio jacks come equipped with a built-in cutoff switch. By utilizing this clever mechanical feature, I wired the jack so that the main speaker automatically switches off the moment the earphones are plugged in.

Tools Used - Retro Magic Meets Modern Mod: Upgrading a Mono Bluetooth Speaker

The Final Assembly

Finding the right spot for the modification was key. Luckily, there was a small amount of empty space at the bottom part of the speaker casing. I carefully drilled a hole, placed the 3.5mm female jack inside, and secured it tightly with a screw. Making it physically secure was vital so that the jack wouldn't get displaced or pushed inside the casing during repeated plug-in and plug-out operations. After some clean soldering, the system was ready to roll.

Retro Magic Meets Modern Mod: Upgrading a Mono Bluetooth Speaker

The Result

The mod works flawlessly! Now, she can enjoy her music in private during her off hours, and the house stays nice and quiet. It is a simple, practical fix that combines modern Bluetooth convenience with old-school audio engineering.

2a:Tcb6,

November 19, 2018, was an incredible day. What started as a group of coworkers jamming turned into standing on the Grand Finale stage at Tigers' Den (Banglalink's Headquarters), performing in front of a childhood icon, and taking home the People's Choice Award at the Banglalink Employee Talent Hunt.

Our band, Haunted Talent, was formed with a unique, experimental vision: a poetic fusion that blended heavy psychedelic music with intense spoken-word poetry and powerful vocal melodies. For our signature performance, we presented a Bidrohi Fusion—a daring mix that paired the fiery, rebellious verses of the classic poem with raw, atmospheric musical textures.

Performing for an Icon

The stakes couldn't have been higher. Sitting at the judges' table was none other than Partha Barua of the legendary band Souls. Growing up in Bangladesh, the music of Souls and the golden era of Bangladeshi band music heavily influenced my teenage years and shaped my musical journey. Getting the opportunity to perform right in front of a living inspiration was surreal. For one song, I took up the guitar, and for our core poetic fusion piece, I moved over to the keyboards to layer in those psychedelic soundscapes.

Haunted Talent with Partha Barua - Banglalink Talent Hunt

The Lineup

The incredible synergy of our lineup is what truly brought the fusion to life:

Masud Parvez Bhai: Keeping our rhythms perfectly locked down on drums.
Tanvir Hossain: Main vocalist, driving the performance with an incredibly powerful vocal throw that perfectly matched the gravity of the poetry.
Shazzad Maruf: Crafting the essential guitar textures.
Abdullah Ibne Alam (Me): Handling the keyboards to layer in the psychedelic atmospheric soundscapes, while also switching to guitar for our second song.
Md. Mohidul Islam: Delivering the melodic song parts with precision.
Our Secret Weapon: While most of us hailed from the IT department, we brought in a special guest drummer Masud Parvez Bhai from another department to complete our sound!

Haunted Talent Performance - Banglalink Talent Hunt

Winning the People's Choice

While moving forward into the final round was a massive artistic victory, the real surprise came during the employee voting phase. Our network, colleagues, and connections rallied behind us with staggering enthusiasm. The support crossed departmental lines entirely; in an amazing twist, even the B2B teams voted for our IT-heavy band over their own departmental entries simply because they loved us and our performance.

Haunted Talent Award - Banglalink Talent Hunt

Winning the People's Choice Award wasn't just a trophy for our shelf—it was a testament to the incredible, collaborative community at Banglalink who championed a bold musical experiment and lifted us all the way to the top.

2b:T9d5,

May 4, 2019, was a grueling test of endurance, technical vigilance, and quick decision-making. As a fierce storm raged outside, I was cooped up at home, completely locked into a relentless 12-hour support shift.

When heavy storms hit a telecom network, active alarms spike exponentially. But on this particular day, the stakes were terrifyingly high due to a critical vulnerability in our backend infrastructure. Back during the early years of the platform's journey, we had suffered a series of devastating hardware failures, losing our database replication servers one after another—two in a single year, and another two shortly after. Because of tight budget constraints and administrative delays, those secondary backup servers were never replaced.

We were running the entire operation on a single, standalone database server—one that simply wasn't robust enough to comfortably handle catastrophic traffic spikes on its own.

The Ultimate Balancing Act: Keeping the Server Alive

Without a replication failover, there was absolutely zero room for error. If the primary database crashed under the weight of the incoming storms of alarms, the system would go dark.

For 12 straight hours, my job transformed from standard monitoring into a manual rescue operation. I stayed glued to the screen, providing constant, real-time maintenance:

Continuous Database Tuning: Constantly optimizing queries, managing connection pools, and clearing bottlenecks to prevent the DB from locking up.
Application Server Monitoring: Keeping a hawk-eye on the application layer to ensure it was processing incoming data smoothly without overwhelming the database.
Proactive Resource Management: Taking extra precautions to balance the system load as CPU and memory usage dangerously fluctuated near maximum capacity.

High-Stakes Success

It was an exhausting, high-stress marathon, but by the time the storm finally cleared and the 12 hours were up, the system and database servers were still live, stable, and completely intact. While it was a victory achieved through sheer vigilance and careful manual tuning, it was a stark reminder of the massive operational risks of running a critical network management platform without a safety net during its early scaling phases.

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