Monday, August 24, 2009

The world is small and flat

Today early morning I reached back in Bangalore. I took an auto to reach my home. On the way I saw two three autos passed me by and they were heading in my direction. Once I reached my place, I saw the same auto in my street. I was really wondered these people were on the same compartment and we never knew that we are neighbours.

Suddenly I remembered the line "The world is small and flat". Yes! the world is small and flat. The technology brought us so near that we do never feel the distance.

Friday, August 07, 2009

Laziness: mother of all innovation

I found a way to cheat my colleagues to show that I am always busy. When I was not assigned any work, then also I used to open my Eclipse. But the price is too much, it eats up all my memory. So I started thinking of another way. Bravo, I found. I opened my eclipse, open a few Java programs in it and took the screen shot of active window.

I made the screen shot my desktop wallpaper and hide all the desktop icons. See my eclipse is always open right before everybody's eyes. But no one notices that it always contains the same java programs :-)

Cons :
You get fooled your self. I tried minimize the window a few times, thinking actual eclipse is running. Apart from this, everything goes fine.

Tuesday, August 04, 2009

Holler of a nomophobic

At last I was able to make it to the phone service centre. Once I entered, I saw lot of people waiting. I was so curious, why this many people? I waited at the counter for my chance. Service person was running like his a** is on fire. Finally he came and checked my mobile. I told him what is the problem.

He was checking my handset to find a loop hole to reject the service as I was on warranty. Finally he asked me "Are you using your touch screen with hands?" I said "Of course, that is why its called touch screen. Isn't it?". To my shock, the reply was "No Sir. You are not supposed to use hands. Only stylus. So we can not do it under warranty. You have to replace the panel and it costs 3500" I was taken aback for a while. Then I asked "Are you sure? How are you telling it is because of the usage with hands? So what is the resale value?". "Yes, I am sure. Daily I am seeing 6-7 handsets" He said. "If you sell you may get 6 - 7 K". And I was thinking daily 6-7 handsets with same problem? very good brand I bought and at that moment there were nearly 9 to 10 people waiting.

Finally I decided not to service. I have to repair it paying 3.5K and after all my mobile now costs around 6K. Then I met many people, all facing similar kind of problem. Some had issues within a month they bought. I could not find any satisfied customer. Finally I decided, I will NEVER EVER GO FOR HTC.

Monday, August 03, 2009

Too much dependency on technology fools you...

My HTC touch is not working for the past few days. Its touch screen sometimes recognizes the gestures and sometimes it is dead freeze. So I wanted give it for repairing as it is still under warranty period. I went to the shop where I bought my mobile and they said they wont undertake any service. So I have to give to the respective service centre and they suggested me that service centre address will be on the bill.

I came back to home and got the address. The service centre location was unknown to me and I decided to check with my travel assistants Mr. Google Maps and Mr. Wikimapia. With their help, I could locate the place, actually Mr. Google Maps was less helpful to me as he have less number of legends. Anyway I got the place. Last Saturday, I asked my friend to come with me to the service centre.

But somehow I lost the way as the traffic rules here in Bangalore frequently changes. So my friend asked me "Did you call them to get the address?" I said "No. I referred Google Maps". "Whaaat??" my friend screamed. "You referred some online map and trying to spot the place?" He asked me. "Do you know how many crosses and streets are here". I said "Don't worry. They wont misguide us" as I was fully confident on my travel assistants. Finally we had to ask the local people to get to the right place.

So finally we reached the place. We went in. Security asked "How can I help you Sir?". I said "I came for repairing my mobile". "Which model Sir?" Security asked. I said "HTC". The response was "We are sorry. We do not undertake the servicing of HTC any more. It is shifted to another place" and he gave me the new address and I was so afraid to look at my friends face.

When we got out, he told me "If you had called them before coming here, it would have helpful for us in some way. It was too bad". I said "I never imagined this would happen and the mobile shop person also gave me the old address". Again we started to the new address. It was some 10 KM away from our place. After a struggle, we found the place and I was totally taken aback when I read the board "Sundays and First Saturday holiday". I rode all the 30 KM just to read this board. I wish if I had called to the number, this would not have happened... I rode 60 KM to and fro, wasted nearly 4 hours of time of mine and my friend, all because of too much dependency on technology.