Current Tune: Chaaliya - Tashan

Change is good…especially when that change involves technology. Before that, welcome my dear blog to our new theme. I hope that you like your new look because I love it Neeraj finally helped me get the stupid widgets to start working - so now I have a new thing to add to your sidebar.

So in the weekend I called DirecTV because I wanted to find out if we were in any type of contract. Ever since the announcement that Star Plus and Star One is now being shown on Dish Network, there has been really no motivation for Neeraj and me to keep DirecTV.

This song is on the top of my playlist and on the repeat list. I love the music of this song and the lyrics. Go ahead and listen as you read this post. If it doesn’t want to make you get up and dance…. then I guess our taste of music isn’t the same.

Two posts in one day. Sometimes you get lucky.

Sorry Friends, but I must share with you the FRUSTRATION I have just felt dealing with a company that a few of us ADORE - and frankly I shall NEVER do business with again. Yes, the company is Apple. So my mother told me that Roop Mama and Lalit Mama both asked to bring an iPod each with them as she was going to India this upcoming Friday.

So I did as any normal user would do - went to apple.com and put in an order. It worked out nicely because I got a company discount so I was going to save some money. I checked to make sure that I was going to get it before my parents leave on Friday. The shipment date was for today. So I put in the order and asked for it to be shipped to my parents house in Morton. Sounds simple right? For Microsoft/Dell yes, for Apple - NO!

So we reached Morton today in the early evening, and my mother says that the iPods didn’t come today in the mail. So I began to wonder why and proceeded to check the order status on apple.com . It listed as “not yet shipped” with no further details. So I found out the support number and gave them a call.

So the support person took a very long time to check on what was happening with my order. Then he came back and said that he needed me to call them back from my home phone number in Missouri. I told him that I was in Illinois now and that he had me on phone, why doesn’t he ask whatever security question he wanted to ask. He said that no, the policy is that it needs to be made from that phone. NOW I was upset.

I told him why I wasn’t notified about this earlier by email or anything. He said that they tried to call my home phone number in Missouri (which btw isn’t even hooked up yet!!!!) and they left a voice message. I proceeded to tell him that the phone isn’t hooked up yet because we have recently moved and also there is no answering machine, so how did they leave a voice message. He said he didn’t know.

So I asked him my options now. He said that either I call Apple back using that phone number or cancel the order. Now I am getting more mad. I told him that this was a Thanksgiving present and this is not the service that I was expecting from such a company like Apple (that of course is so not true - because you can only expect such treatment from such a company :-) ).

I asked to talk to his supervisor, which btw wasn’t much help either. Obviously they didn’t care for my business so I ended up cancelling the order. While I was waiting for his supervisor to come on the line, I began to wonder where the heck did they get our house phone number because we don’t list that anywhere. So I asked the supervisor that and he said that we got it from your bank. Aargh! He said that I could call the bank to get that changed today, and they will ship it immediately. Well guess what buddy - I don’t know where you are located, but where I am its the day before Thanksgiving and after 6 pm - the bank isn’t open!

I don’t care how many interesting and neat gadgets you come out with, but if you can’t handle customer service - you are not going to get far with your business! Especially not with me!!

So guess what Apple - you lost my business… forever.

Apple SUCKS!

Alvida. Jai Mata Di.

Its been long since I posted….I know I know. The last week at work was really busy with me tryiing oust multiple fires at one time. Then the weekend comes, and Neeraj and I try to catch up on all the things we had said we would do during the week.

So finally I have put up our house photos, but you will have to ask me for the link. So if I have already not sent you the link to where they are stored (they are somewhere else other than this site), then send me a quick email or IM, and it will soon be in your inbox.

We had our house inspection today, and there were only two minor things noticed by the inspector. So we will talk to our agent tomorrow, and get that back to the sellers’ to fix.

As you may have known, I had gotten a new phone when I was in India in March. At that time I had asked Neeraj if he also wanted to get one in India, but he said no. He wanted to get a PDA phone, like Palm Treo or Blackberry in the US. So I said okay, we will wait until our contract is up in August/September of this year to get you a new phone, and until then, you should research what you want to get.

Neeraj did some research, and then two weeks back we had gone to this mall that has a store that we don’t visit often. I had some work that I needed to do so I told Neeraj that we will meet back in about 10 minutes. I called him to find out where he was, and I found out that he was at that store (the one that we don’t visit that often).

So I went in, found him, and asked what he was looking at — and he says to me, “I think I found it.” I asked him, “What did you find?”, and he says, “My new phone. ”

So we both played around that phone for a while, and I kept asking if it had all the features we both wanted (ability to use calendar quickly, have a stylus or way to write down stuff in the phone, email and web capabilities, etc..). He showed me all the different things it could do; you could even store music. Being me, I wanted to be convinced totally. So we went down to the AT&T store on the first floor and took a hard try on all of the other phones that Neeraj said that he wanted (Blackberry and all its versions, and Palm Treo and its versions).

At the end, he liked the phone that he saw first. So last Saturday we finally bought it, and I would have to say this is the first time this company has finally made a decent product We both have so far been very happy for what we have paid for - and yes, we paid a handful.

So which phone was it? Guesses? I bet you know by now. You darn smart people.
Yes, it is…………….

Found this to be very interesting, and I think you should all do it because this is really not necessary. Take a read and decide on your own:

Yahoo is now using something called “Web Beacons” to track Yahoo Group users around the net and see what you’re doing and where you are going similar to cookies. Yahoo is recording every website and every group you visit. Take a look at their updated privacy statement:

Yahoo Privacy
About half-way down the page, in the section on cookies, you will see a link that says web beacons.

Yahoo Privacy and Web Beacons
Click on the phrase web beacons. That will bring you to a paragraph entitled “Outside the Yahoo Network.” In this section you’ll see a little “click here to opt out” link that will let you “opt-out” of their new method of snooping. Once you have clicked that link, you are exempted.

Alvida. Jai Mata Di.

Current Tune - Tu Bheekh Naa Dehgi Toh Main Shor Machaa Dunga - Narendra Chanchal

So tomorrow I am off to Austin, TX. I shall be back in town on late Friday night. Its going to be interesting week for us (D-day is on Thursday ).

As I was talking about cell phone roaming the other day, I knew that with going to TX my current cell phone wasn’t going to work. We have an old regional plan that will expire in September which only works in and around our states. It would have been abt. 60 cents per minute roaming if I took my phone along tomorrow.

I have been wanting to switch over to another carrier because I wanted a GSM phone that would work in India as well. Currently I have an LG VX6000 on CDMA technology. Previously when I was traveling, I was using the Nokia 6010 through T-Mobile’s prepaid service. With Papa’s job not in town, I gave him the phone recently to use temporarily because he doesn’t have a cell phone. So now I was in a dire need for a cell phone. :???:

I had been eyeing two carriers for the past two months, Cingular and T-Mobile. After much research, I found Cingular was better in all ways (am getting a discount thru my company, GSM phones, Bluetooth capabilities, and a great deal).

So I bought the Nokia 6230 for myself on Saturday. I wanted this phone ever since I had seen it on Amazon two months ago. Its got everything that I want at this time:

Its almost Thursday. In India, its already Thursday. Another week goes by. One week from today it will be D-Day for us, the dreaded visa interview. It will be fine, and we shall pass with flying colours.

Cell phone roaming. Don’t you think this is an issue in India? The country that has more hi-tech phones than USA but still a not very good nationwide roaming system. Why is that? Don’t tell me that Indians don’t travel? I think its been just recently that the US has done something abt. their nationwide roaming issue. My current contract, that will end in September of this year, doesn’t have nationwide roaming, but I am able to use it in all the states that border my own state of Illinois. That’s cool. I have been looking at the newer cell phone deals an now all of the carriers offer nationwide roaming @ no additional cost. I definitely think that’s the way to go. Hopefully soon we will get to a day when we will have international roamin @ no additional cost.

India needs to get on the ball with their nationwide roaming as they are even a smaller country than USA. Just this week when Neeraj went to activate roaming on his cell, his carrier Airtel told him that it would two additional days to activate and it will cost him 4 rupees per minute incoming and outgoing. That’s a ripoff if I have ever seen one. Right now when I roam outside of my zone, it will cost me 60 cents per minute, still not as bad as 4 rupees per minute.

Its an issue that I hope that some carrier will take the initiative to resolve in India. US is quite behind in the cell phone industry when it comes to getting Bluetooth and utilizing cutting edge wireless technology, but they did pick up the ball with the roaming issue, now India, aap bhi aa jaao maidaan main.

Alvida. Jai Mata Di.

Before going to India, I had been asking Neeraj what I could get him from USA, and he said that if I could find the computer game, Age of Empires (AOE) the original version, then that would be great. So from a friend, I got it for him and gave it to him on his birthday.

Then that day or the next day I asked him, how was it and if he has been enjoying playing AOE. His remark was that the game is too good and very addicting. I didn’t have an idea what the game was about so I watched him play it one day. It seemed really interesting. You start off with three villagers and you have to do four main things: gather wood, gold, food, and stone. You play against another person (or if that is available then with the computer), and you start to build your civilzation as quick as possible so that you can attack your opponent (before he/she attacks you! ).

I was watching Neeraj as he was playing the hardest level and attacked his opponent in a half hour (which is amazing! ). He got me so interested in the game that when I came back to the USA, I had to install it in our new PC.

Now I am hooked on this game. My goodness. I am not as good as Neeraj (I don’t think I ever will be either! ) but the game is really interesting (only because I am horribly competitive ), and its a lot of fun. I have been playing it every day (just about) and even get tips from Neeraj on how to get better.

There you go. My confession is out, and everyone knows now what I do when I am bored.

Alvida. Jai Mata Di.