Dell India is Hell

A month back I ordered a Dell Laptop for my friend SasiKumar. It was my sole decision to go for a Dell Laptop here in India. I ordered for Dell Inspiron E1505/6400. It was more than a month, and I didnt get any reply from Dell Sales Team in Bangalore, India. At one point, I  started asking for the status, and not the Laptop. But they didnt even reply to my email for more than two weeks.

I was given a link longtime back to check the status. Excellent updation on the status. For nearly 3 weeks, there was no status update. Even I bounced these things back to them and to few other email Ids I got from their website and Google. But nothing invain. I really felt bad talking to my friend, though he didnt tell anything.

Even I sent two mails insulting them for this. Its here.. Even for that they didnt respond, thats different story!!

Actully, a friend of mine nearly a year back had the same problem. But, I thought it was Past(a yr old story). But it again happened!! Really I think no retail buyer will go and buy in the Dell India or their Website.

Atlast yesterday someone from Bangalore Dell called me and asked whether the Laptop has been despatched.
I shouted "No".
Then she said "It might be on the way to your place".
I replied "Place in the sense where ? Even Chennai is the place where Im staying and even India is the place where Im residing".
She said "Its in Madras and will come today itself ". And it really got delivered in the same day!!!

 

Unattractive Ads

Even though Indian Consumers are being attracted towards great advertisements, still there are some ads which are really unattractive/bad. Companies like Hutch(Vodafone), Airtel(Google Search Ad), etc are posting damn good Ads daily. But today I saw an Ad for HDFC Bank NRI account.  "Open a HDFC Bank NRI Account and get a pack of 2 Amitab Movie DVD"

I saw this 'Unattractive Ad' in the NDTVProfit site. The Advertisement is targeting NRE/NRI people. But do they open a Bank A/c for those 2 DVDs ??? I dont think so.

Exclusive Disclaimer : Im not attracted to Amitab. And I wont tell HDFC Bank is doing a better service than other banks(im writing a small review about Banks in India)

Long time back I got a call from a girl called Priya, a tele-caller based in Madras, for HSBC Personal Loan. I was not interested so I told her that. But she called me again, and I shouted that Im busy and Do not call me. She called me again, fourth or fifth time.

But I have registered in the Do Not call Registry of HSBC bank, in their website a long time back.

I asked for her age & education. she was in her early 20s' and some BSc degree. Then I replied, "Priya, Im really interested in talking to you, I dont mind talking to you regulary, but dont call me for this Loan. Just talk, tell me about yourself etc.," She didnt reply, thats all. She didnt call me from that moment. 

Like this a guy called me for deutsche bank credit card. I told him that I already have many cards ...

Wi-Fi Hotspots in Chennai Airport

Last week I went to Madras(Chennai) Airport to pick my brother. As I haven't accessed any Wi-Fi connection in Madras Airport, I took my new Laptop, to check out the Wi-Fi Hotspots.  BSNL, KingFisher & TATA-Indicom are the three networks available inside the Airport. Though I expected Sifys' Sify Wi-zone, but it was not there.

I tried connecting

Private Banks Vs Nationalised Banks

In India, Retail banking is very much successful than any other developing countries. Take some private banks for example : ICICI, IDBI, HDFC, Kotak Mahindra etc are not just a Retail banking institutions started. They were started for some different purpose or to render financial services for Home Loan, Consumer finance, Corporate Lending etc.,and in years they have started Retail banking. Not only Private Banks, Multi-National banks like HSBC, CITI Bank, Standard Chartered, ABN Amro etc., are also there in the list, and they are doing a very good business over here. Then we have the Nationalised Banks like State Bank of India, Indian Bank, Punjab National Bank, etc are there in the list, and these Nationalised Banks only have a large customer base.

All the Nationalised banks are operating in the rural areas and the Cities. Whereas very few private banks like Karur Vysha Bank (KVB), Karnataka Bank, Lakshmi Vilas Bank (LVB), operate in the rural areas.

Many other private banks like IndusInd, ICICI, HDFC have started to show their presence in the rural areas. We know that in rural areas its tough to do business since those people won't be looking for all these hi-fi services like ATM, internet

Quota issue to the MAX

 

Mobile Number Portability (MNP) in INDIA

Just last week ony I have changed my mobile number (ie., I have moved from BSNL to Airtel) I have used BSNL for a long time. Since I don't want to continue with BSNL, I shifted to AIRTEL, so my mobile number have changed from 94433 76694 to 99940 49398. Not to miss few important calls, Im holding the old number for a month. But this issue will be over very soon, since Telephone Regularity Authority of India (TRAI) have come up with the idea of implementing Mobile Number Portability(MNP), moving to any Operator, but retaining the same number. Also, they have ordered that this must be implemented within one year down the line, and from April 1st 2007 eveyone mobile user must be able to port the number.

Actually MNP is already there in countries like US, UK, Australia, Germany, Switzerland, Singapore etc., Mobile Number Portability is a very big advantage to the customers(subscribers) as well as to the operators. I have a uncle in Coimbatore, basically a tech entrepreneur, who is having a mobile number for the past 9 years. Im sure, he wants to change the operator(since that is the worst rated in Tamilnadu Circle), but he don't have the choice of retaining the number. So, he still maintains it. Likewise we can see many people we have this kind of issue. So, if this MNP is implemented, then we can freely move to any operator. Also, TRAI have said, the changing (Porting) of number must not take more than three days.

Technology behind this is maintaining a database of the numbers by the Operators, as available in other countries.

So, operators with good & cheap service & excellent customer support will be benefited more!!

For more details : [Link]

Karuthu a new tamil site to express our views

Karuthu is a Tamil word means View.  Karuthu.com, a new web forum to express our views, thoughts on any general issues or happenings. Click for latest topics on board. The forum even supports Tamil. The site was launched this sunday and holds Freedom of Speech, Expression & Views as their Caption. To know more click here.

The highlight is that, Karuthu.com was started by Karthik Chidambaram, son of Union Finance Minister P.Chidambaram along with Kanimozhi, daughter of DMK Chief Karunanidhi

Also, Mr. Karti Chidambaram, owns Myvakil.com, a legal advisory site.

Update : Its really nice to see, Karuthu.com with nearly 3800 entries (replies & posts) in just 45 day!!  Well, the truth was, there wasnt a good, reliable site before to throw peoples' karuthu. .

Now we can call this as a good initiative, rite.

Speaker s  for FOSS. IN ( Linux Bangalore / LB ) 2005

FOSS. IN announces its speaker list for the forthcoming FOSS. IN 2005 event. We have unexpected set of people... Thanks Atul for making it.

The Key speakers are :

 

He is the co-author of what could probably be called "The Bible of Linux Development", in which he uses his keen knowledge of the Linux kernel and its design to show people how to develop device drivers. No one in India would even *think* of trying this without referring to his book, now in the third edition.         He is Jonathan Corbet, co-author of "Linux Device         Drivers", and editor of LWN.NET, aka "Linux Weekly News".
His code safeguards millions of networks across the world, and can be found in virtually every consumer router these days. And when he isn't writing code, he makes the world a safer place for the GPL, by relentlessly tracking down and exposing corporations who "don't get it" when they use GPL'd code without following the rules of the game, and provided the first precedent of the GPL standing up in court - and winning. From Germany comes the chairman of the netfilter/iptables project, and the man behind GPLviolations.org - Harald Welte.
He speaks Japanese, German, English and a variety of other languages, but most importantly speaks Geek as well. He had a knoppix CD before people knew what that was, and can lie in the sun for hours without getting a tan or a sunburn. He is Mr.Wizards-of-OS - Volker Grassmuck.
Every time you go to the web to access information, you are using technology that this man has had his eager fingers in. His work is one of the first instances of a FOSS project almost completely demolishing the proprietary competition, and is used in a majority of all web servers across the Internet. The man behind the Apache project, COLLAB.NET's Brian Behlendorf.
He started off writing something to make it easier to maintain his personal home pages, and ended up changing the way the world created websites. He is Mr.PHP - Rasmus Lerdorf.
When she speaks, people sit up and listen. She was behind the open sourcing of the project that today gives FOSS a place in every office and in every home, and is also part of the organization that decides what's Open Source, and what is not - literally. The Diva of Open Source - Danese Cooper.
As one of the world's best known bloggers, he has played a vital role in getting his highly influential organization to play nice with FOSS. He loves to dabble with things ranging from Linux servers, databases, to PCs, gliders and now powered aero planes. He is Yahoo's Jeremy Zawodny.
The world of sound and music is a fascinating one, and there has always been a deep connection between code-hacking geeks and music. It is, therefore, hardly surprising that a lot of effort goes into making FOSS platforms "music compatible" - not just in the playback department, but in the music creation and recording department. The man behind Linux Sound and Audio - Dave Phillips.
He is probably one of the most recognizable faces in the FOSS world, and at the same time one of the most respected names, as well. His contributions to Linux rank with those of all the greats out there, and that includes Linus Torvalds. He has been the official kernel maintainer, and little happens in the Linux kernel today without him having some say in it. He is Alan Cox.

The regular drizzling rain in bangalore gone crazy last week, making bangalore a mini-bombay. Southern- Karnataka (mainly Bangalore), have good under water level, not like Tamilnadu. Even in Madras its raining most of the time. But the speed of absorption or the amount of water sucked by the soil/earth will be very less when compared to Madras/TamilNadu. So it might take more than a week to go out. And the climate won't help also.  Here in madras, it rains, but all of a sudden the sun plays well in the same day.

Atlast, Madras is becoming a mini-Bangalore & Bangalore has become a mini-Bombay, in the climate alone.

To say the truth this blog entry is to get more clicks from search engines. Im getting many clicks from the search engines for this flood in bangalore, not for proper keywords. So I thought of doing something to get a better keyword importance.

So please bear this :: please don't read below. Just look the stills below...

/*****************Its just for s.e.a.r.c.h--- e.n.g.i.n.e --o.p.t.i.m.i.z.a.t.i.o.n, ****** don't read*******************/

Actually Bangalore is affected a lot due to this flood still (stills are below, even flood image, images), bangalore city is more surrounded with water /  flood,  full of water, bangalore flood pictures, flood stills,bangalore in water, flooded bangalore image,stills

Actually Bangalore is affected a lot due to this flood still (stills are below), bangalore city is more surrounded with water /  flood,  full of water, bangalore flood pictures images, flood stills,bangalore in water, flooded bangalore image, stills

/**********************************************************************************************/

 

   

More stills, nearly 20 are in the power point file.[Link]

ThanX to Umaka & Anandha Balaji for forwarding it. Also Narasiman, my graduation friend & a native of Trichy for explaining the situation.  

I have blogged about Bangalore's pathetic Traffic situation illustrated in Jokes before too.

One more photoblog with the similar news is here. [Link]

My cousin Durga, who is doing her Ph.D., in Strathclyde University left to Glascow this morning after a months' holiday. I accompanied her with Kanchi (another cousin of mine who is studying 11th standard in Lady Andal School) till Chennai(Madras) International Airport. Inside the Airport, in a public telephone booth, I saw a sticker, saying BSNL Wi-Fi SPOT. As usual I got wired up, since I have blogged about BSNL Wi-Fi a month back. Anyway Wi-Fi is becoming cheaper in India. Interestingly Kanchi was having a  Nokia 6230i which had a 1.3Mega Pixel camera, so I clicked and send it to me thru Bluetooth.  The original picture is here : [link]

I can't access any FTP site from my office. So Im using Geocities, to upload images

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), to provide Wi-Fi access. I have heard that the  private operators are finding it difficult to increase their Wi-Fi customer base. I hope that BSNL is the best PSU in india, having all the lastest features in by its counterparts in the world. And service offered by them are seamlessly comparable to all the private operators in the country. They didn't miss to provide any service provided by its private-competitors. Im planning to review global Telecom giants, supporting BSNL

Even BSNL is having a website (Cellone.in)to provide Value Added Services for its mobile phone customers.

For more news/rates on BSNL Wi-Fi visit :  http://bsnl.co.in/newsdetailed.php?news_id=222

"I have today amicably resolved the issues between my two sons, Mukesh and Anil, keeping in mind the proud legacy of my husband Dhirubhai Ambani"    said Kokilaben (Wife of Late. Dhirudhubai Ambani).

The Rs.100,000 crore($20 bn) empire split between the Ambani brothers, Mukesh getting RIL and IPCL & his younger sibling Anil heading Reliance Capital, Reliance Energy and Reliance Infocomm ended after a long six month issue. It is said that the settlement is based on the idea by Mr. KV Kamath, MD & CEO of ICICI Bank.

NOPworld, a leading market research organization explores global media habits like reading, searching internet, listening to radio & watching TV. Interestingly India leads in Reading with a great score of 10.7 hours per week(hr/wk), while the global average goes around 6.5 hr/Wk. In watching TV, it is 13.3 hr/wk which is 3.3hr/wk lesser than the global average.

For more information : [ Yahoo ]