HP, Shame on you!

I called in for a potential hardware failure/manufacturing problem (while in use, a bright green line appeared across the LCD screen. This usually happens with a faulty LCD controller/Graphics chipset). the customer service agent was trying her level best to bill me for a charge almost equal to the price of a new laptop, saying that that particular problem is not listed in their system and she cant do the in-service repair because of that. Still, I am not sure why the same issue that I was experiencing was listed as a common problem in the service sheet that came with the return box, under the problem section if it was never recorded in the system. Her L2 support even accused me of breaking the LCD screen and they simply stated that it is my problem and not theirs. After an hour long frustrating discussion (read 'flame throwing'), I demanded to speak to her manager. She put me on hold for a while and came back to offer to do it for free. They even waived the service charge you know? How exciting!!

After this, I have completely lost my faith in HP support. I made a photographic record of my laptop and its problems and sent it for service. Who knows, once they get this in their hand, if they will not damage the product and accuse me for that?

Kudos! HP, So long for customer service! Anyways, I switched to a Macbook Pro after that enlightening experience and I have decided to think twice before buying an HP again. I should say that repair and return was prompt and I got the problem fixed. I have warned all my friends who use HP and I realize that I am not the first and I wont be the last. They are trying to fool their customers and is this what we really expect from them?

Too bad HP! Shame on you!!

Random Recession Thoughts

The world economy as everyone knows is running thru a really bad patch. Whilst everyone is looking up to the governments to solve the problems, one question arises : "What, as a common man can we do in our day to day life to help the survival?". Here are a few things I could think off. If we can do these, it will help us to keep more money in pocket and help the companies around you to keep their employees and continue to serve you.

Day to day life:

• Nothing is free in life (except breathing air as of now). If we are getting something free, some one else is paying for it. Use it, lets not misuse it.


• Use what we really need. Others might use the rest of it


• Use and throw is easy. How about fixing it and reusing it?


• That new stuff is good. But is that really required to have that?


• Can we use public transit to get there instead of driving there?


• Recycle, Recycle, Recycle


• Switch to VOIP phones. They cost cheaper.


• Use energy efficient devices. Switch them off and disconnect, if not in use.


• Buy a device because that has features that you can use, not because it is the latest and has hundred features that you dream about.


• Switch that unused lights and fans off.


• Review your subscriptions. Discontinue that extra channels or packages that you dont watch at all in your cable. Do not renew magazines that you don't read.


• Shop smart. Look for bargains and clearances. Clearance items may be neither the best nor the worst. Spend time ensuring the quality while you shop.


• Do it yourself. Even that cutting edge Computer can be built at a lower cost.


• Buy them bulk, if we consume them often.


• Close water faucets if not in use. Use cloth towels instead of paper. It is jsut a piece of cloth tha we can wash along with laundry


• Use your spare time to learn new skills and sharpen your existing ones.


• While vacations and outings are great to have, choose the prices with care.


• If you drink or smoke, reduce the frequency. It will improve your helth and savings


• If you live close to work, try to walk or use a bike (bicycle).
  

@ Work

• Reduce the printing. Email that presentation or that 10 page report across and show it in the monitor. We can save environment and reduce cost to the company. Hey, that presentation looks better with the effects too!


• Use emails more often than phone. Walk across the floor and talk face to face.


• Meet in a conference room, if parties are in the same location. Encourage Presentations and taking notes on the laptop or other mobile devices.


• Know that every minute you spend at work is attributed to the Occupational expenses to the company. Don't misuse the resources. every url you hit, every emails you send, every phone call you make, every paper clip you bend costs money to your employer


• Set a 9 hour time frame where you really do your job and leave soon after that. Explain to your boss what you are trying to achieve. when we do the cost-benefit analysis, it is even more expensive to maintain an employee who sticks around for more than 11 hours, unless he has a 150% productivity over an 8 hour professional day.


• Don't ask for a new device because the one you have is out of style. if the current one satisfy the needs, dont push to get a new one unless that increases your overall productivity over 30%.


• Use instant messengers (Office communicator, AOL, Reuters etc) instead of phones.


• Ask your building staff to reduce the air conditioning and lights, if not required.


• Dont just go to work on holidays because you dont have anything to do outside. you are causing your companies expense to go up.


• Offer to share work and responsibility with your boss and colleagues. They must be under budget pressures to cut costs and they may be wondering how can they get an extra hand to finish the work, without hiring one more at crunch time. This may cost you an hour extra, but will help your company go farther without drastic actions.


• Maintain good contacts. Be honest with them. if you cant, say so.


• Use opensource softwares if you cant buy that expensive tool.
  

@ Eat outs and Eat ins

• Don't waste napkins, water, ketchup, food and time. Try to take as little as possible to fill your needs. While the restaurants offer them free for you to use, they still pay for it. Less wastage, more chances that they will make a better margin to keep their employees and keep their shutter open to serve you thru the hard times. Don't just pocket stuff to take home because it is free. Their are billions of people less fortunate. Leave as soon as you can, as someone else can use that spot to sit down.


• Order medium instead of large, and small instead of medium if that fills your stomach just right. While most of the restaurants charge only a little more than what you pay for medium, Large items contains more than 30 - 40% in quantity than a medium. while this will save some money to you, the shop can sell the excess stuff over to another customer on a higher price. If you eat a lot of junk food, this will help your stomach and health as well.


• Cut down on that Soda and chocolates. This will be good for your health too.


• Support your shop around the corner than larger chains. Local shops pay taxes to your local authorities and helps to keep the money you spend to be used for your community better. They may have a sentimental value too, if you think about it. Loosing local businesses will not do any good to our economy. Moreover, they have lesser capital buffer that most of the big chains.


• You can cook that same stuff at a lesser cost, if you can cook it yourself.


• Regulate your diet to the three meal a day, if you have a habit of eating in between.


• Order one dish less, and start sharing the items. Variety adds spice and improves interpersonal relationship. order combos that are usually at a better price.


• Dont cut down the tip to your waiter. He or she counts on you for their daily bread.


• Be nice, smile at them. Know that they have the same level of problems, if not more, as you do.

(I will add more as I spot more)

So, what do you think?

കൈപ്പള്ളിക്ക്....

St. കൈപ്പള്ളി ഡിലീറ്റടിച്ച എന്റെ കമന്റ്. അദ്ദേഹത്തിന്റ "Invisible to All. Invisible to Law" എന്ന സാഹിത്യ സൃഷ്ടിക്ക് ചാര്‍ത്തിയത്.

Dear Kaippally, et al,

I wish to make a few points on this. Just like in the real world, privacy is your right in the cyber world. Every individual has every right to remain ‘invisible’ from every tom, dick and harries. Anonymity of a person online does not hinder them from seeking the help of law enforcement should their online identity be threatened or defamed. Please be aware that there are online organizations like wiredsafety (www.wiredsafety.com) where the ‘invisible’ can seek help from. In fact, they do make a far better option sometimes, as the online organizations will shield their privacy, even when you go with law enforcement agencies across the world. They do help ‘invisibles’ to make legal cases, and get information from the various agencies.

The invisibles can still remain ‘invisible’ from the cyberworld and they will only need to reveal themselves to the local authorities. People feel a false sense of safety, while sitting in the comfort of their own place. Plaintiff can of course be anonymous from the cyberworld, but not from the law enforcement agencies. The plaintiff just has to prove their access to the virtual identity. Cyber world is also governed under the law and order of the respective country and Interpol helps the interlinking wherever deemed right. Most of the worlds intelligence agencies has a specialized cell that deals with the saints and satans of the digital world.

However, I suspect the intentions of the post, as it is from kaippally, whom I consider as knowledgeable enough on the subject. Dear friend, why pick Inji? Why not someone else? Just because the screen name has been active pretty well? Or, did the name irritate you? Or is it because she writes well? ;-) The way things are running in Malayalam blog world, I think this article was not as straightforward as the nerd says it is.

All I have to say is that its not what you see, its what you believe.

Au revoir

I protest Against Plagiarism (shame on Yahoo and webdunia)

Fellows,

It has been a while since it has happened, and it has been a shame on the corporate world on how the whole issue was mismanaged. Is this why you have hired all those Management students from the top institutes around the globe whom your money could buy? Yahoo and webdunia has been the bullies of the school, who does not really bother to understand (or atleast pretend to) the depth of the water which they stand on.

I understand the pain my fellow bloggers who fell victim to this and I appreciate the people who decided to stand by them, despite the adverse actions and comments by their own cult. I guess we do not learn from our experiences. Somehow, we forget the saying that were taught while young. That used to be "United we stand, divided we fall". We should not fail to unite, no matter where the results may go. We should be able to do it for our own satisfaction. As the old saying goes, a brick doesnt make a fort. Lets not let the corporate make use of the weaknesses we may posses.

I feel for my friends. I stand by them.

I heare by declare the support for the protest and Join the Protest of March 5th, 2007 Against plagiarism done by Yahoo! India and webdunia. Please visit Copyright Violations for more information. To see a list of places that has joined protest Please click here

S/d.

Language Portal in 21 Days...

If you are looking for a tutorial on how to develop a language portal in 21 days, you landed in a wrong page dude! This is not about any techie portal development stuff. This is all about the recent incident where a few of our fellow bloggers got hit by a corporate giant with copyright violation. Now, you may be thinking that our fellow bloggers started stealing content off the giant’s website and post as their own. On a wrong note, it was the other way this time!

So folks, let me present a snippet each out of the corporate giant’s “Language Portal in 21 Days” book’s chapters. I'm sure that it will be the best book you will ever need in this subject and will be a great asset to any library!

Day 1: “Hmm! The other company started a Language portal. I need one too!!”
Day 2: “I’ll get people who can do it there!!”
Day 3: “Who in my team can get the job done?”
Day 4: “Nay, I don’t want to do it, as I’m so inept in it!!”
Day 5: “Okay, Let’s outsource it!! Hmm... How about an onsite off-shoring?...”
Day 6: “Hey, they did the other company’s portal! Let’s get them to do it!”
Day 7: “Wow! Beta in two weeks! They are so good at it man!!”
Day 8: “Great portal, rich in content, in my name, done by them!!
Day 9: “I own it! All right reserved… Who the hell is that content provider?”
Day 10: “Hmm? Why do people say Déjà vu? “
Day 11: “Why are they complaining off copyright? I can violate it, as I’m the King!…”
Day 12: “You are complaining to me about my son baby, go complain to mama…”
Day 13: “We aren’t thieves. Whatever we publish, we own it. “
Day 14: “Let me call up the content provider and ask them to harass the bloggers!”
Day 15: “Hmm! They don’t seem to take any punch in it. What’s plan B?”
Day 16: “What’s wrong with the content provider? Can’t they scare a fly away?”
Day 17: “These stupid bloggers won’t let go! Ok, let’s accuse the content provider…”
Day 18: “I’m telling you baby, it aint me! Its ‘em!!! “
Day 19: “Go kick their butt ye silly blogger creature!!!”
Day 20: “Ok… enough... Hey Content stupid, delete those damn articles! I need to cover up!”
Day 21: “ok, I won’t give up, I won’t give up, I won’t give up, I won’t…………..”


Guys, I believe that copyright violations are serious offense even if done by the Corporate giants. I stand against it, with my fellow bloggers. Lets fight back!

For those who has no clue yet about the story, read it here, here and here. That tells a story of Yahoo! stealing content from the language blogs to start one on their own and washing the hands off on a contractor called webdunia.

Shame on Yahoo!'s plagiarism.

I'm glad that I could write something useful in the space finally!

sd/-
Yours truely,
Dreamer, the Dream who Dreams..

Off-Topics...

Off-Topics are the journey in time....
A journey that pitches and rolls..
I'll tread thru the lines that I like,
However, wherever, whenever..

Love,
Dreamer