Moved my writing

I'm actively writing at another blog - Click Here to Visit

I would love to have you there. My personal domain will be redirected in due course.

Thanks for the visit.

Technorati get me

Claim Token - TSUMZ23P479U

Tim Ferriss - The Twitter experiment

To follow Tim ferriss at twitter click http://bit.ly/3Bp3Oe

To read about his twitter  experiment, click http://bit.ly/11WX10

I love this Guy! He's the author of 4 Hour Work Week, a very interesting read. So he's started off this twitter experiment, every follower for Tim will help donate $3 for american schools.

The fascinating thing is to watch out how this social media exercise will bring in people with mostly word of the mouth and internet social media marketing.

In turn, I plan to get completly involved in this experiment. Web 2.0 - the potential is unlimited.

I started off promoting this experiment in 

1)Twitter

2)My Blog

3)Orkut

4)Facebook

5)Yahoo messenger status (imkeshav)

6)Google talk status (keshavram)

I'll try more stuff later.

You can also help by promoting from your own sources, friends, mass mailers, shouting around etc.

Copy the link http://bit.ly/3Bp3Oe or http://bit.ly/11WX10

 You can also create your own link at bit.ly. It will track all the clicks and maybe  you can win a prize from Tim for bringing in followers.

Netgear installation wizard - not suitable for india?

I just finished posting about the cool netgear USB network adapter. Then found out the installation wizard was buggy and stupid.

The USB device was installed and my network works through wireless. In fact this post is the second one after my desktop went WiFi. But after closing all the windows, there was this small screen hiding.

Now this is irritating. The installation was done and everything is working, where the hell does this window come from!!?

But the next screen was even more annoying.I can't select my country, India is not available. But this was legally purchased from a dealer. The label on the box shows that some xyz company has imported this.

But there is more. Trying to click escape thows a stupid message, trying to scare off a customer. Cancelling the installation? But ITS DONE!!

Time to shoot off a complaint to someone.

Wireless internet for Desktop

Woohoo!! Right now my desktop has a USB dongle which connects through wireless to my D-Link wireless router. Don't we love it when you can spend Rs1100 ($22)  and get rid of a single cable. 

Some would say that is very expensive, but hey! my mom and sis dont have to jump over a cable everyday (The router was setup in the hall and the desktop was in my bedroom. The network cable was dragged across to my bedroom. Now don't ask why? It was installed while I was away)

We have used

USB Network Adapter : Netgear USB adapter Wireless-G WG111 802.11g - choose 802.11g over 802.11b for better speeds. This is almost an plug and play network device. Review

Update: Installation is done, but still buggy. Here

This comes with an installation CD. Installation is a 2 minute job - 

1)Insert CD.

2)Run wizard

3)Insert dongle into USB port

4)Windows will detect the device and wireless networks. select your wireless network. 

(Please note that wireless network should be available before this can be used,setup with  a wireless router like D-Link )

For those not sure about this deal. Check out the below image.

 

Now to buy a multi USB port device. My outdated desktop has only 2 usb slots..oh well!!

Moved on from ThoughtWorks

Well..that's it! I finally moved on from ThoughtWorks. It was a brilliant year at TWI, the kind of things that we did was simply amazing, the best fun times ever......the blog will also move on. A new life starts here .. http://keshavnarla.wordpress.com/

This went as part of one of my 2 EXIT mails (That's right, there were two exit mails)


This image can be edited at http://www.jjchandler.com/tombstone/

p.s - W.I.P means Work In Peace

Geeks shall inherit the earth

Can you imagine this happening? But I guess we are OK with that :-)

ClearTrip - 4k and an explanation

Update July 8th: ClearTrip.com has updated their cancellation procedure with the help of my feedback. I was pleasantly surprised that they were quick to update their website. These guys appear to be on the right path in creating an excellent business.

In fact, just last week (June 26th), I needed to make a air booking really fast and was able to achieve that at ClearTrip.com


I'm Back from Leh!!

First I'm very pleased that my feedback and sidu's post was well received at cleartrip.com and as a result half of the cancellation charges of 4000/- was returned by cleartrip.

As mentioned in my previous post, this is a detailed account of how my flight tickets got canceled. The sudden shock of accidentally canceling the tickets , made me realize the procedure had severe usability issues.


ClearTrip's account
They were quite adamant in saying that it was NOT a single-step cancellation process. Technically, they were correct. It is a two step process and I will attach images to show more details.


What I Say...
Although my original post was misleading about a single step cancellation policy, I still think the current 2 step process is very misleading.

My reasons
1. Customer's are confused about "Make Cancellations". Clicking this from the screen in image2 cancels the booking. I'm a shining example of this mishap.
2. Cancellation charges are not displayed anywhere through the process. ClearTrip will argue that cancellation "rules" are available, but I could not care less. As a customer I need to know the exact cancellation amount.

Closure!
I'm quite happy to get the 4k from cleartrip, instead of shouting and giving up, I worked closely with cleartrip to identify the issues. The guys at cleartrip were very patient while listening to my problems. I would take half the blame for being hasty in browsing around my itinerary and cleartrip has agreed to bear half my costs for any misunderstanding on their website. This is a good closure.

Hopefully this post clears the ambiguity on this episode.

Good News from cleartrip.com

Looks like my feedback had been taken into consideration after posts from me and Sidu. A cleartrip.com representative has told me that cleartrip.com is willing to bear half the cancellation charges. This saves me 4000/-. I will post more details about this after my vacation.

Tomorrow I'm leaving for my vacation to Ladakh. Unfortunately I had to cut short my vacation because my plans went haywire after this "cancellation episode".

I'm biking between Leh - Kargil

My Itinerary

Bangalore - Delhi Flight
Delhi - Leh Flight
Leh - Kargil Thunderbird
Leh - Delhi Flight
Delhi - Hyd Flight

More details and pics when I survive :-)

ClearTrip.com: Good communication channel

My feedback has been accepted and I'm now in communication with one of the founders of the website. He seems serious about solving this bug or oversight in their website. I'm satisfied with their feedback mechanism.

There is a feedback link called "Tell us what you think", the top right corner in the image. Unlike other e-commerce websites this works very well.

Now I don't know if this email exchanges will help me save the 8000/- cancellation charges. At the least future customers won't have to face the same problem. Lets see what happens.

Before I planned my vacation, I needed a good website for Airline bookings. Most of my colleagues suggested cleartrip.com. It was initially easy to use and relatively faster. ClearTrip.com also appears to have the best deals.

However, this cancellation incident has changed my entire perception. Anything less of an actual compensation or re-booking will not bring me back to cleartrip.com. In fact, I'm using their website as a search engine to find the lowest fares and then going to the airline websites to book my ticket.

For example:- I require a booking for Delhi-Leh for next week and cleartrip.com shows that Air Deccan flight is the cheapest. So i'm going to book my ticket on AirDeccan website and the cost actually is 50/- more compared to cleartrip. But I would not want to take a risk.

On a side note, Jet airways has a shitty cancellation policy. The customer loses the entire basic fare in case of JetLite and 50% of basic fare for Jet Airways. AirDeccan cancellation policy is much better. Deccan also has an insurance option which could be very useful when you need your dates of travel to be flexible.

Lesson learnt : Read the cancellation details properly before you choose an airlines in India.

ClearTrip.com: Clearly You are Taken for a Trip

Here's what happened. I was looking at my itinerary and accidentally clicked cancel at the top of the page.

And guess what: the ticket actually got canceled without a confirmation, that was being really quick, not to mention helpful, I just lost 8K. I planned this booking with a friend from the US and he has almost fainted when the news was told to him.

I have done many bookings and in fact spent 60k in 2007 on flight travel alone. So I have booked on many websites. But this takes the cake.


Interestingly here's a quick email response (just like the quick cancellation), not to mention polite from one of the tech support guys. Lets see if the feedback was useful.

Hi,

I noticed you recently left us some feedback:

"Here is what my colleague thinks http://blog.sidu.in/2008/05/cleartripcom-so-usable-you-lose-all.html Please understand that "simplicity" does not mean "stupidity""

Thanks for bringing this to our attention. I had already left a comment on your colleague's blog requesting his help for the details of what happened. There is no link on our site that is capable of immediately canceling a booking.

If you can help us in finding out the details, it will help us in fixing the issue. Would appreciate any help from you or your colleague on the details.

thanks
<>
http://www.cleartrip.com/hotels Choose from over 3000 Hotels in India

Flickr helps you blog

back_home2
Originally uploaded by imkeshav

Aroj was showing me this cool feature with Flickr. You click on photo in your Flickr account and post a blog with this cool feature. It's very easy and intuitive.

But I have no idea, How it could pick my two blogs from Blogger. So you have to select your blog sites during the setup at Flickr and interestingly Flickr searched and picked my Google blogger accounts. Nice!

Cool Tools: Launchy and ZapGrab

Get Launchy here



With a shortcut like Alt+F2, users can launch applications, open files, open websites, google for things and even do math. I love doing the simple math using the Launchy.

Thanks to Srushti aka superman for forcing me to use this tool. He is one of the firefox enforcers, these thoughtworkers go around our bangalore office, spying for anyone using Internet Explorer and then convince(read:threaten) people to convert to firefox! After joining ThoughtWorks, I've used IE only if an app does not support firefox and thats very rare.

For me it's the best cool tool. In fact, I like it so much that for the first time ever, I'm making a donation to a free tool (It's just $5). This was done while creating this post. Thats cool!

Check out Josh's website for Tips to use the launchy.


Get zapgrab here

Grab this tool ASAP! It's very handy and easy to use. A perfect tool for a tester to take screenshots of bugs. Especially if a part of the screen has to be captured.

From their ReadMe

How to capture the screen with ZapGrab

1- Press the button "Grab" (to capture)
2- Select the part of the screen you want to capture
3- Paste (ctrl+V) the screen captured in a presentation Powerpoint, a Word file,
or whatever document.

Some of the screens on this blog were captured with this.

Screensaver as a Reminder: Brilliant

My colleague Clair came up with this idea. Basically you setup your own reminder on the 3D screensaver of Windows XP and your screensaver is visible many times in a work day. This is even more useful if it's a laptop.

I think this is a great Idea, pity we can't enter more than 3-4 words as text.

Just edited screensaver note as " Leave Early TODAY!!" (Its 12 Midnight)

I've also just installed POstIt from 3M. It is supposed to be cool with even an option to setup an alarm for your notes on the desktop.

Problem> I keep getting ideas or TODOs while driving or in the shower and by the time I reach office, I forget!

Sol1> Hi Tech and very reliable solution. Using my Nokia 6233's Calendar feature

This takes all of 15-20 seconds to create a reminder with t9 dictionary enabled. Perfect thing to do at a red light or when the traffic halts.

Sol2> Rustic and simple. Using a card/paper and a pen to write the TODO, have these things around your seat when you are driving.

Spam on my Blog!

Looks like I'm becoming famous. I finally have my own spammers posting "useless" comment ads. Ah its nice to be viewed even if it's a program.

I need to figure how to stop these guys.

This is the one . Don't click it though ;-)

A wake-up call

Working too hard and staying in the office too long!!

For the first time in my life, Last night I slept while reading a book with the light on. I always had enough energy to sleep on my own terms. This was the first time, I was never as tired...Not good!


p.s - I wanted to post this before something happens, I was just laughing at a Colleague and suddenly swallowed a chewing gum. Feels awkward!

Marketing: Good Idea

The other day I was installing java and I see this on the status window.


This is a new one. I kind of like that they thought about putting something new on the old install status bar.

Enough is Enough

I'm getting too busy for the important things. Trying to do all things at the same time is a disaster.

Reminder to self: Just do it!

Work for ThoughtWorks India videos. Unfortunately i'm not in them ;-)

MaDMac

I finally have it! I'm a dude with a Mac.


ThoughtWorks India has just rolled off the first batch of Macs and I was lucky to get one of them. So being a very serious professional, What are the first things we don on the new MacBookPro?

Fool around, of course! (The Mac comes with a built in camera)




The devs are quite jealous about me having a Mac, I wouldn't be surprised if they catch me in a dark corner and punish me for flaunting it around. But they did help me a lot in figuring out the controls and the cool features of OS X.