Airtel selling customer Email address
Recently i signed up for airtel broadband service. While registering they asked to give my personal email address. I thought, AIRTEL being an responsible company will keep customer information confidential. So i gave them my personal mobile number and Email address (Which i have never used for any other internet signups).
But airtel doesn't see it that way, they find it another source of revenue. They make money by selling customer information.
After i registered for there service, i have started recieving lot of advertisement calls in my mobile. An SPAM Emails in my inbox all relating to the particular locality i live in.
All my complaints to customer care to remove my mobile number from their marketing rolls falls into dead mans ears.
I am not sure what should i do now.Should take them to the consumer forum for making money by selling confidential information.
Google Aps memory guzzler
Honestly I am a very big fan of Google Online suite of application. Be it the Notebook or the new redesigned Google Docs. I had been using them for quite some time.
But lately i notice that , in an attempt to give a shiny and glossy GUI google is using more memory. More and more my IE in 256MB machine become inoperable, if i have either Notes or Docs running.
Are they expecting everyone to have more RAM to run there aps?
Online Privacy - Google & Double Click
Recently google is trying to acquire the internet banner ad maket leader Double click for about $3.1 billion dollars. But the senators feel is that , how would this merger would affect the data privacy of users who have clikced through the ads. How would google treat this data that it is going to acquire from doubleclick.
For an hypothetical example google can use that data from double click and the corresponding IP, the banner ad context that you clicked on and correlate this information with the region and search queries to give you more personalized search results.
Looking for a hike? Think Again
This one is especially for those who are looking for a hike at the end of another financial year.
Who said zeros doesn't make any sense? Think again!
Most common SPAM Item
Here is a strange compilation of the most common items that spammer's use. Not the one i made, compiled by symanatec
- laptops,
- replica watches,
- business cards,
- male enhancement drugs ("always a popular sale during the holidays," says Symantec),
- digital music players, software,
- cell phones,
- video games,
- weight loss drugs,
- and gift cards.
How many of these you got in your mailbox?
Me,XP,Vista - What Next? Windows 7
Here is the glimpse into future. What the next version of windows is going to be like. I found this interesting article on the same topic.
In a Nutshell, we can expect a lighter version of windows in future
Reliance FootPrint - Wear em down
While everyone around is tryinig to get through the bureaucratic troubles, Reliance quietly has entered the foot wear shop. Reliance had also opened a jewellery shop , read more about that here
Reliance Jewles - Another jewel in the crown
Mukesh Ambani owned Reliance Retail Limited or RRL is now venturing in the gems and jewellery trade with the aim of opening 300 'Reliance Jewels' outlets across the country during the next three years. Taking its first step towards the jewellery sector, the company has launched its first Reliance Jewels speciality store in Bangalore and then going to Hyderabad before it establishes a pan India presence. The store will offer gold, diamond, platinum and silver jewelry.
There is a huge potential for growth as the market size of jewelry market is estimated to be around Rs 18,000 crore. We are targeting about 10 per cent of that going forward. As of now Tata's Tanishq is the largest organised player in this market.
Reliance is betting big on the jewelry retail business as the company plans to open over 300 stores across metros and mini metros.
Customers have already started making a beeline towards jewellery stores what with the upcoming wedding season.
New year resoulition - Not me, Buy why
For those who intend to ask me why i dont make any new year resolutions, he is an plausible expanation for you guys.
Text Messaging from Yahoo
For those who are looking to text message from the internet , Yahoo has made it simple. Just goto the link given below and start texting to your favorites right away. If you dont remember their names , you can just sign-in and get them from the contact list. If you are already signed it, AJAX kicks in and lists all the mobile numbers in your contact list. Easy pickings there after.
The max text message size had been limited to 120 characters.
http://sites.mobile.yahoo.com/sms/sendsms
Have fun Texting.To know the mobile carriers supported by yahoo, visit here
Marketing Calls & Me
Wellcome to the age of Tele-marketing. Almost everyone of us get one to two marketing calls per day. I have heard many people tell me that they find it very hard to end the call. But strangely it is the converse of it. Most of the time it is callers who cut my call (funny), sometimes even before they start saying what is call is all about. Here i share with you all some of my experience with tele-callers.
Scenario 1:
Caller:Can i talk to Mr.x?
Me:May i know who is on the line?
Caller:I am from Barclays Bank. Can i talk to Mr.x?
Me: Oh
Barlcays!!. I know that bank. Do you know this person (Ms Y) there. I have
already spoken to them. Can you give the call to them.
Caller:Oh you
have spoken to them?
Me:Yes
Caller:Thank you,very much
blah..blah.. call ends
Scenario 2:
Caller:I am calling from ICICI Personal Loan Dept(all nonsense talk continues ).
Me:(i interupt them as usual, remember customer is the king :) )I am
very much interested in Home loan can you transfer me to that Department, But
not Personal Loans
Caller:Sorry sir, we dont deal them.
Me:Its
okay, Thanks for calling. call ends
Scenario 3:
Caller:I am calling from ICICI Credit Card Department.
Me:I already have
a ICICI Credit Card (even though i dont have one).
Caller:Okay sir.
Thank you. (call ends)
Scenario 4: [Most funniest of all]
Phone rings, i look at the number and find it is something that i dont recognise
with.
Me:(Picks up the phone and barks)Is this an Advertisement call?
Caller:(thinks of a second)Drop the phone without a word.
some more fun for you all.
Make Money by selling money pictures
The title is little funny, but the fact is not so. Some people are making real money by just selling high resolution images of monies.
If you don't believe me take a look at this site, along with other pictures they have images of monies up for sale.
Now isn't that a cool way to make money?
NASDAQ,India & Diwali
Every Indian knows what Diwali is. But what is the connection between NASDAQ and Diwali. It is simple as this, Everybody is watching India's growth and want to be part of it.
What other proof you want...?
Custom Error Pages
When i was browsing Income Tax Departments website, i accidently mis-typed a wrong URL. Then popped up this ungraceful default "404 Page cannot be found" of IIS.
Even this page has a "How-To" to customise the error page. I dont know why the site designers havnen't done this yet.
Recently after the introduction of online tax payment methods, this site is getting lot of traffic. I would like the site developers to take some time to put some meaning error page instead of the default one.
When the whole web is going to web 2.0, It is sad to see such an important site stuck at stone age.
5 Balloons for $5
Have you ever had to buy balloons online. I know that is little absurd. Considering that i am a little lazy to goto the nearest shop and buy my balloons, i decided to shop for them online.
I stumbled upon this website bangaloreonlineflorists.com, they offered me 5 balloons for a little more than $5 dollars.
I just wonder what is so special with those balloons that they cost around $1.25 (approx) each. Or they some kind of industrial balloons (funny to think of) that wont burst.
I do understand that providing this much comfort (buying balloons online) comes at a cost. But these people aren't selling just the balloons, they will be delivered only if they are ordered with flowers and cake(which ofcourse isn't charged reasonable).
I assume they just forgot, how to rate things while going online.
Vista - Is it a mistake
Vs 
For some reason a wide variety of P2P programs are non-functional in vista, must be all those DRM laws at work.
After almost a month trying to make vista work along with my applications, i have given up. I am going to downgrade my notebook to the trustworthy XP. XP gets one more hands up
Apreciating Rupee forces Companies to act
The rupee had been appreciating against the rupee dollar relentlessly. This has forced all major Indian IT companies [Infosys, Wipro, TCS ] to act to minimise their loses.
In my previous post , i was discussing about how these companies are going to adapt themselves to the compulsion of the changing times. In the same lines, Infosys to increase its revenue share from the europe regions has bid for European Software Developers.
It is also being claimed that Wipro has bid for 60 euros per share for Cap Gemini SA, Europe's largest computer-services provider 60 euros-a-share bid for Cap Gemini SA, Europe's largest computer-services provider.
Watchout this space for more action in future.
ISP - Public Vs Private
Public Vs Private
Once again i am back to narrate my experience with two ISP providers one owned by the government and the other run by a private company.
The plans offered by the Governement company is really very good and the best available in the market. But the attitude of the customer care personnel and the installation staff is not really the best of experiences one can have.
Forgot to the mention about the extremely long delay in getting things done. To get a broadband connection you will have to first apply for the Landline wait for a minimum of atleast 30 to 45 days to get the line installed .."greasing lot of hands"(especially if you aren't native of that state) all the way. After that you apply for a broadband connection. Which again will be delayed by a variety of reasons including shortage of equipment, manpower. By the time you get your broadband it would have been 2 to 3 months.
Dont forget, any change of plans or any queries will be properly entertained when you go there in person, that kind of shows how good the telephonic customer care service works.
The only highlight among all the mess is that, they have the best speed available for your money at a cheaper cost.
Now lets look at my experience at the private provider.
When i enquired about their plans , they made a note of my address to make a feasibility study and took my contact number too. Next day someone did the feasibility study and updated me that i can get a connection.
The entire application filing and get the ground work down took around 1 hour. The asked me if i want the installation tomorow itself, but i told them i wanted it to be done after a week. They obliged. Installation took around 30 minutes. I suppose my line was already tuned to that speed. so right from the first day i was getting the speed i was supposed to get. Voila there it goes.
Within 3 days i got my connection (provided i had all the necessary papers ready, like address and ID proof) . Change of plans can be done over phone.
The most diasappointing aspect of this service is that, the plans are way too high.
Shall i say good service comes at a good cost.
My suggestion here would be to apply for the private connection and public one as well at the same time. use your private connection till you get your other connection. As cancelling the private service provider is real easy and mostly rentals are charged on a pro-rated basis(pay for the days that you use). Experience both of them, and let me know how was yours.
Sun SPOT & Minority Report
Sun SPOT & Minority Report
Recently SUN Microsystems released their latest gadget running on JAVA.Angela Caicedo, technology evangelist at Sun Microsystems, shows off the Sun Small Programmable Object Technology (Sun SPOT). In the Sun SPOT is an ARM processor, accelerometer, wireless communication capabilities and 8 LEDS.
In this demonstration, Angela takes us under the hood and shows us how the Sun SPOTs are able communicate with one another.
In this demonstration, Angela takes us under the hood and shows us how the Sun SPOTs are able communicate with one another.
Taking a Sun SPOT, a virtual reality glove and some home-style soldering -- Angela Caicedo, technology evangelist at Sun Microsystems has created an input device capable of replacing the mouse.
Math Fun
1 x 8 + 1 = 9
12 x 8 + 2 = 98
123 x 8 + 3 = 987
1234 x 8 + 4 = 9876
12345 x 8 + 5 = 98765
123456 x 8 + 6 = 987654
1234567 x 8 + 7 = 9876543
12345678 x 8 + 8 = 98765432
123456789 x 8 + 9 = 987654321
1 x 9 + 2 = 11
12 x 9 + 3 = 111
123 x 9 + 4 = 1111
1234 x 9 + 5 = 11111
12345 x 9 + 6 = 111111
123456 x 9 + 7 = 1111111
1234567 x 9 + 8 = 11111111
12345678 x 9 + 9 = 111111111
123456789 x 9 +10= 1111111111
1 x 1 = 1
11 x 11 = 121
111 x 111 = 12321
1111 x 1111 = 1234321
11111 x 11111 = 123454321
111111 x 111111 = 12345654321
1111111 x 1111111 = 1234567654321
11111111 x 11111111 = 123456787654321
111111111 x 111111111=12345678987654321
Isn't that interesting.
Vijay Mallya on a Roll
Vijay Mallya seems to be on a roll. The king of good times have bought 50% stake in the US Aircraft maker EPIC for about 50million US dollars. It is to be noted that recently he has bid for an Forumula 1 team. He is taking India places. Kudos!
First Hedging, Now Rupee Invoicing
For quite some time we all know that the Indian Rupee had been appreciating against the US Dollar. Most of the IT companies are billing their clients in US Dollars.
Because of this sudden appreciation of the Rupee against the US Dollar their profit margins are affected. No need to say investors aren't quite happy to see their EPS (Earnings per share) go down.
So companies first decided to hedge their earnings to avoid further losses due to an appreciating rupee. Since the Rupee would just stop appreciating, now these IT companies are now thinking of invoicing their long term client and business partners in INR (Indian Rupees). It is also noted that big companies will have the teeth and muscle with clients to push throught this, though small and medium companies will still find it hard to make this change.
Another interesting thing to note here is that, some companies having clients in the EURO region are billing them in stable European currencies (say the swiss franc). It should be interesting fact to see how far the Indian Rupee is accepted in the international market.
The rumour in bangalore is that some IT companies are planning for an 6day work week to increase productivity to offset the loss because of Rupee appreciation.
Meanwhile, Rupee Invoicing seems to be the norm now!!!
Vodafone's Tax Troubles
Vodafone recently acquired India's third largest telecom player Hutch. The income tax department of india states that, Vodafone has to pay tax around 2 billion dollars. But vodafone maintains that, it is Hutch who have to pay the tax. Lets wait and see who will have the last laugh in this matter.
BKC - new acronym for Bangaloreans to remember
BKC - Bidadi Knowledge City
Karnataka Government has approved DLF's proposed 9100 acre Bidadi Knowledge City(BKC). This is three times bigger than the DLF city near delhi. The another interesting aspect of this project is that it is closed to both the current and propsed new airports. This integrated city should be an attractive one for all IT Techies planning to setting in and around Bangalore.
Service Industry in India - Thru' my eyes - Part 1
This article is going to be about the first hand experience of an customer or subscriber to the various services that a common man will avail in his day-to-day life. Some of them are my very own experience and some others are going to my friends.
First off, i am going to start of this topic with one of my horrible experience in pizza hut (click here to locate Google maps).
I guess this gives my readers an glimpse into the industry etiquette's and brand building what many of these organizations boast off. I completely give an hands down to this one. What impression are we making about India in that foreigner's mind? I leave it to your people to decide on what needs to be done. Leave me your comments! Part 2 is coming soon with my other horrendous experiences with Government Organizations.
Me and my friend went there and found ourselves an table(No one was at the door nor was there anyone to find us a table). After say 2 or 3 minutes one guy came to us gave the menu card and left.The table didn't even have a glass of water to quench our thirsts and there wasn't anyone available to contact too. Occasionally one guy was zipping through the tables and before you could blink he will go into the kitchen. After an horrible wait of say 10 to 15 minutes we managed to stop that guy to get us some water!!!
Another horrible thing was, it was the same guy who was opening the door, greeting customers, cleaning the table, filling water glasses, delivering orders and finally the bill too. Too much for one guy we thought so we patiently decided to wait for our turn to give out our orders.
It took another 20 to 30 minutes to get our orders delivered to our table. But the bad experience didn't stop here. The guy who took our order had actually forgot what pizzas we had ordered and came back to us to get it clarified, so we had to remind him of that. After being given our pizzas we were surprised to find that we had not been given sauce or spices to add flavor to our delicacies. we managed to find the spices from the nearest empty table but sauce was were no-where to be found. Almost all the bottles were empty, On enquiring about it we came to know there wasn't any available and we were instead give those small sample sauce sachet's.
Around this time most of the tables were full and some of them were uncleaned so some people had to turn back for the lack of tables and there wasn't anyone to find a table for them or to make them wait.
After finishing our we waited for the guy so that we could tell him to get us the bill, another 10 minutes passed by. He returned with the bill, we enquired to him about the shortage of people. He informed us that it is not that they are short of people but they all had gone for a birthday bash and taking a break. But as we were in a hurry we just paid in cash and left some tips for him and left the place immediately. Couldn't wait any longer at that place!!!!
Another Foot Note in this story :: While we were there, an foreigner came in and he was lucky to meet the only guy available as soon as he entered. He told the pizza hut guy that he wanted bottled water. But the pizza hut guy couldn't understand what he said so asked again. The foreigner (had a little thick accent) pointed to a water bottle on the table and said he wanted to two of them and also said he wanted them quick, He waited for two or three minutes no response. Another pizza hut guy came out to deliver some pizza's while he was returning back to the kitchen the foreigner went up to him and threw a Rs 100 note on his plate and said "If you are waiting for money, here is it.Bring it quick, Real quick!!!" Few more minutes passed by no reply. He almost walked into the kitchen and got his bottles and gave some tips to guy who delivered him and left the place in a hurry.
I guess this gives my readers an glimpse into the industry etiquette's and brand building what many of these organizations boast off. I completely give an hands down to this one. What impression are we making about India in that foreigner's mind? I leave it to your people to decide on what needs to be done. Leave me your comments! Part 2 is coming soon with my other horrendous experiences with Government Organizations.
Corporal Punishment
Corporal Punishment is still prevalent in many parts of India, this is the hard truth.
I can even call out some parents names who are ardent fans of corporal punishment. Their only way of seeing things is , when kids misbehave take the stick instead of finding out what the problem is and to try and solve it once for all.
Today i read an article about educating kids between 11 to 14 about the morality
of buying pirated CD's/DVD's . They wanted to make the kids realise that owning
pirated copies of CD's or DVD's are NOT a thing to brag about., they also want
to make sure that the student understand that, by buying pirated material
they are literally closing out the future of people who are looking
for an career in media and music industry.
I don't think such a think is possible by corporal punishment. We need to make an more holistic approach. Hope the teachers and parent who believe in corporal punishments understand this at the earliest for the benefit of our students.
More Telco's Coming IN - Part 2
October 1 being the last date for applying for UASL (Unified Access Services Licensing) for pan-India operations, DOT (Department of Telecommunications) have got 400 applications in all.
Almost all major Real Estate players(DLF,Omaxe etc.,) are in the fray.Probably to fight out for the virtual real estate. AT & T have lined with Mahindras for their second stint after leaving Indian Telecom market & IDEA cellular in 2004. Each of these players would require to pay 1500 crores as licensing fees once they got approval.
DOT is also in discussions with Defence Department for spectrum vacation, and they are also mulling for an seperate entity for spectrum allocation among the various players.
Why is there sudden rush? The mobile subscriber market is about to grow to 500million individual users. The potential market these many subscribers pose is humongous. Everybody wants to have a share of this huge pie.
I certainly love competition leading into so much of variety of plans and features.
With all this good information, we have another one too. Bharti Airtel have become the 10 largest Telecom operator in the world with around 50million customers. They are having big plans for future expansion,
- covering 96% of the Indian population.
- Launching IPTV in the near future.
- Mobile Gaming
- Voice Website (Under development.. R & D)
- Rolling out operations in Sri Lanka.
Finally branching out to Retail too, Time to rejoice for Bharti Investors.
IPhones in India
IPhones in India
Recently there was a lot of buzz about being able to hack iphones and use them in India. I was pretty much happy about it :-p, being able to use the latest phone. But after readying yesterdays news article that, Apples latest software update disables hacked iphone i am bit worried. Given the fact that Apple doens't have plans to release iPhones in india until mid of 2008.Steve has done what he warned about,
likely result in the modified iPhone becoming permanently inoperable when a
future Apple-supplied iPhone software update is installed
Airtel,Google - Bingo!!!
Airtel,Google - Bingo!!!
Today accidentally i happened to see airtel's latest advertisement about its new search feature [no prices for guessing, powered by 
] . It had been shot like an Indiana jones movie.
The ads goes like this, the Hero sets out in search of a old world mythical box, he faces all kinds of ods that we would see in a Indian Jones or Tome Raider movie, Add to that another villain and the heroes girl. You feel as if you are watching a movie, the climax is where the ad scores.
The hero reaches the final destination, only to find a Five year old something have already found the treasure. But HOW???
The camera zooms to the boys hands, where he holds a mobile, with airtel connection and search powered by google.
Find Anything, Anywhere!!!
I just love this AD. Adding to the list of my favorites
So Much for - Handle With Care
Being a frequent travellor between the sillicon valley of india(Bangalore) and Chennai, i happened to notice this last friday.
Few of these guys from the courier company called DTDC were loading the train with all the packages the need to be sent to chennai. Few of those packages were labelled "Handle with Care!" & "This side UP".
The people who were packing them up, didn't have any regards for these labelling standards. they were just dumping these boxes into the guards room(no idea why they were dumping the parcel in the guard room when there is seperate space for in the train for parcels.) . This was one of those times, when i really felt the need for an video recording phone. A simple video of the whole things could have emphasized my point more!!!
I was just wondering what could be the condition of the goods inside.
Next time when you recieve a broken package you know whom to be blamed for!!! :-p
Indian, Nuclear Energy - Hy(I)de ,123 Act
caFirst of all to my dear reader, How many of you know about the Nuclear pact between India and US signed on July 18th 2005. If not read more...
That deal was about broad based co-operation between the two countries primarily supposed to be nuclear co-operation later extended to sovereign issues.
Even though the indian Govt. isn't very much open about this deal in public, we get a lot of news arcticles from the other side. From what i have read and what i know.,
Here are my concerns about the deal,
India is a leader in FBT (Fast Breeder Technology), that being the case why would we need the cooperation of US. Especially when we know that US havent done really anything considerable in the nuclear space (read FBT).
You might ask me , why am i so much concerned about FBT. well the reason is, India doesn't have huge uranium deposits like australia. So india embarked on a three stage nuclear plan, Use india's vast thorium resources in the breeder reactors, and with the resultant plutonium and uranium run heavy water reactors.
This being the case i dont see a case point for this deal when US knows nothing about breeder technology.
The worse thing is that US have enacted HYDE Act ,based on which the 123 Act was formulated. On going through these acts, we could understand that these acts intrude on india's sovereignty.
Especially the 123 act maintains that for the nuclear co-opeartion to continue, india's policies being congruent with US policies. why should that be?
Can anyone explain me that?
Do we need such an agreement when we are growing at 9+% GDP , when America is struggling to avoid recession (Sub-prime mortgage crisis)
Send SMS from internet
Do you know any sites from where yu can send SMS to mobiles for free.
Then let me know in comments
What browser do you use?
After having tested quite a variety of browsers i have settled down to these in order
- Slim Browser [tabbed browsing feature is awesome]
- IE [for things that wont open in slim]
- Mozilla [especially for that Firebug pluggin]
So what do you use?
IE 7.0 - Destined to Fail
Recently i upgraded my IE from 6.0 to 7.0. 
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/downloads/ie/getitnow.mspx
Even though i have read so many articles about it patchy poor replication of the tabbed browsing feature and frequent crashes, i braved myself to test it out.
Though the look isn't as good as the other browsers available, it takes huge time to load and eats up enough memory.
i am a fan of meebo,which i very often use to contact my friends, that quite often hangs up on me in IE 7.0 really very frustrating when it happens when you are talking to friends.
i now switched to slim browser an 2MB skin over IE, but does all that i require. good bye IE.
i hate mozilla to for that reason. it uses so much of systems memory.(i know some might disagree on this, but that is my personal opinion)
Share your experiences with me
Navigate you search with keyboard shortcuts
Google doens't stop keep amazing with new tools, Even though this one is pretty old i felt like talking about it.
Googles very own keyboard navigable searches and few more.
For example try out these,
I am sure you will enjoy these new tools as well as i did. Keep Googling :)
More Telco's Coming IN, expect another Price war
Recently there is some flurry of activity in the Telecom scene in india.
- The costly exercise of rebranding hutch to Vodafone.
- 3G Spectrum Policy discussion by the TRAI
- Filing for Telecom licences for Pan India operations by ADAG and DLF
- AT & T Looking for an Indian Partnership
Do we really need more players into the scene. we already aren't sure what each player is offering. What is the differentiating factor between each schemes.
Will this second round of new entrants will start another price war?
Will the new players be ready to roll out operations in 3G spectrum and offer VAS and IPTV?
RTE - Toned Down TLE from IBM India/South Asia
RTE - Toned Down TLE from IBM India/South Asia
IBM's two day RTE (Regional Technical Exchange) on September 13th and 14th was a big success. it was great fun to meet with all those great people from IBM's top level management as well as technical people. Lot of information/technology stuff were discussed.
The theme of the event was "Imagine the possibilities". True to the event, the possibilities they evinced by collaborating within IBM's Business Units(BU) is beyond comprehension. The kinda of leveraging they are planning is amazing.
Us, Participants role in this event is more of mentors to those who couldn't make to the event!!
The future is ours
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