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)

Open Source Initiative approves few Licences of Microsoft

The Open Source Initiative (OSI) has approved the Microsoft Public Licence and Microsoft Reciprocal Licence, officially branding them as open source licences.

The OSI approves licences by validating compliance to 10 rules set in the Open Source Definition.

The decision was reached with an "overwhelming majority" of the votes, but not unanimously, OSI president Michael Tiemann said in a posting on the group's website.

Few weeks back news had flown out that Microsoft has planned to give out .Net Framework code under the Microsoft Reference License (MS-RL). Hope these things are great initiatives from the Software Big B.

Windows Server 2008 Beta 3

Got my Windows Server 2008 Beta 3 DVD, but due to RAM and other issues, I didnt install it, for more than a month. And last week, I got time to explore Windows Server 2008. Windows Server 2008 is having all the cosmetics which is present in Windows Vista. I tried using AERO which was really great for my laptop with Intel 945 Graphics card, with 2GB of RAM. Though my laptop display is 12", I could really feel the nice AERO interface. Then comes our great IIS 7.0, which is why I got interested more towards the Longhorn Server.

Scott Hanselman's 2007 Ultimate Developer and Power Users Tool List for Windows

Computer ZEN presents the updated list of tools. Many tools, from the List is what Im using, and also the list is only making me to learn those-which are mostly new to me!! Thanks to Scott.

  Link to Scott Hanselman's 2007 Ultimate Developer and Power Users Tool List for Windows

RAM / Memory Module for hp TC4400

RAM. I was planning to buy that for a long time here in India. But 200 Pin 667 MHz - 2 x 1GB RAM costed something like 10K bucks and that too without warranty/bill. So atlast I ordered in Crucial US, which was only $107 and it came through UPS but the Indian government levied import duty of around Rs. 1057.

I ordered 2 X 1GB RAM for my hp TC4400 laptop in Crucial on 30-Jul-2007. And made the payment on 31-Jul. On August 3rd, it was here in India, just in 4 days!! My Laptop carried 3 years Onsite - International Warranty and so I checked hp whether the warranty will go void, if I upgrade the RAM by myself. One guy in hp support said it will go void, and the other said NO. When asked about the fee, they said as its my request and my personal upgradation the service would attract some charge ( which was around Rs 1200 + Tax  ) So I registered a service request the