Good guy T-Mobile

I bought a Sony XPeria Z phone while I was in the US, and was using it for few months, just 15 days before my international travel, I bought a new Nexus 4 and was using the phone to test it. Before traveling to India on or around Sep 13th (Note: I was using the phone till aug-31st), I called T-Mobile and requested a sim unlock code for my phone, CSR told it would be ready in 48 hrs, To my surprise, they rejected my request saying the phone has not been active on the network in last 7 days. Then I called up the support from India on or about Sept 20th and explained my situation again and submitted another request, at that time the CSR told me that he is raising a supervisor escalation and will be done. Again, it got rejected for the same reason. I called up the customer support again on or about September 29th, and requested to talk to supervisor, who assured me that this request is escalated to a different level and I will get the unlock code for sure. Attaching the "Wonderful" reply I got again , they rejected the request of course. As per your our support document, the requirement is to be active in the phone in last 40 days, it is sufficient. Then, why I am getting a run around ?

There are few questions I have about this:

1. When you are no longer selling the phones at discounted price, why are the devices still being sold as locked?
2. Why isn't a contact info on these "rejections", so that I can speak with the team responsible, directly.
3. Why isn't there requirement waiver for these nonsense rules, for international travelers ?
4. When a CSR Supervisor assures something and it doesn't happen, what should the customer do ?

Thank you for taking the time to contact T-Mobile. We have received your SIM Unlock Request. Unfortunately, this subscriber is not eligible to receive the unlock code at this time. In order to be eligible, the subscriber must have used the device within the last 7 days of the request being filed. Please submit a new request once this requirement is met.

I used a third party provider to get the unlock code and I had to spend $50 for that. 

General piece of advice : Don't buy phones from T-Mobile, directly buy from manufacturer. T-Mobile sucks this way.

If Rajini were a programmer :)

1. When Rajini Kanth throws exceptions, it’s across the room.
2. All arrays Rajini Kanth declares are of infinite size, because Rajini Kanth knows no bounds.
3. Rajini Kanth doesn’t have disk latency because the hard drive knows to hurry the hell up.
4. Rajini Kanth writes code that optimizes itself.
5. Rajini Kanth can’t test for equality because he has no equal.
6. Rajini Kanth doesn’t need garbage collection because he doesn’t call .Dispose(), he calls .DropKick().
7. Rajini Kanth’s first program was kill -9.
8. Rajini Kanth burst the dot com bubble.
9. All browsers support the hex definitions #Rajini and #Kanth for the colors black and blue.
10. MySpace actually isn’t your space, it’s Rajini’s (he just lets you use it).
11. Rajini Kanth can write infinite recursion functions…and have them return.
12. Rajini Kanth can solve the Towers of Hanoi in one move.
13. The only pattern Rajini Kanth knows is God Object.
14. Rajini Kanth finished World of Warcraft.
15. Project managers never ask Rajini Kanth for estimations…ever.
16. Rajini Kanth doesn’t use web standards as the web will conform to him.
17. “It works on my machine” always holds true for Rajini Kanth.
18. Whiteboards are white because Rajini Kanth scared them that way.
19. Rajini Kanth doesn’t do Burn Down charts, he does Smack Down charts.
20. Rajini Kanth can delete the Recycling Bin.
21. Rajini Kanth’s beard can type 140 wpm.
22. Rajini Kanth can unit test entire applications with a single assert.
23. Rajini Kanth doesn’t bug hunt as that signifies a probability of failure, he goes bug killing.
24. Rajini Kanth’s keyboard doesn’t have a Ctrl key because nothing controls Rajini Kanth.
25. When Rajini Kanth is web surfing websites get the message “Warning: Internet Explorer has deemed this user to be malicious or dangerous. Proceed?”. 


Note: This is a copied joke (Originally from Chuck Norris jokes).. Anyway, I found it applicable to our super star as well. All in good humor. Not meant to insult anyone.. Cheers!

Does anyone know how to unsubscribe from Information week emails?

Does anyone know how to unsubscribe from Information week emails? Before you suggest the obvious, like clicking the "Unsubscribe" link in their emails, I had tried that several times and I even went to their web page, where you can opt-out, http://www.informationweek.com/newsletters/unsubscribe , but still no avail.

I have clicked the unsubscribe links at least 10 times and submitted opt-out request via website at least twice. I guess their CRM system doesn't allow you to opt-out.. 

I just Google'd it, and found others having the same problem as well. This blogger has the exact same issue : http://lindapopky.typepad.com/lindas_marketing_leverage/2010/05/spam-from-informationweek-what-part-of-no-dont-you-get.html

Well, if anyone knows other ways to unsubscribe from Information week emails, please do let me know.

Edit: I got at least 3 more emails from these guys after I originally made this post. Relentless marketing technique I guess.

Our trip to Madeline Island,WI

For the Labor day weekend, we went an awesome trip to Madeline Island.  We thought we will share our experience with all.

We drove up to Bayfield,WI and from there we took a ferry to Madeline Island. This island was so big and beautiful. You have to take a Ferry to the island. There are no bridges or tunnels. Ferry transports passengers, bicycles and cars for every 30min (Depends on the season and day of the week). For round trip (2 passengers + 1car) they charged $50, for bicycle they charge extra $7 and for motorcycle $15.

OK, lets begin with Madeline Island Ferry. Even travelling in that ferry was an excellent experience. We enjoyed a beautiful scenery, crystal clear water, fresh air, beautiful sunset, friendly people. After ferry landed in La Pointe, we first drove around the island and it was mostly forest and there were some pretty good viewing points of Lake Superior but we couldn't stop on most of the properties there, because most of them were private properties.

On the way we stopped at a public beach and spent sometime there. Then we went back to the bicycle and moped rentals, it was next to ferry landing. In this area we could have rented canoes and kayaks too..But we didn't do that because of lack of time. They were also renting kids bikes,bikes,tandem bikes,mopeds,buggies and tag-a-longs. Kid bikes were $6 an hour or $22 a day. Bikes were $8 an hour or $30 for the whole day. Tandem Bikes were $15 an hour or $55 for the day. Buggies and Tag-a-longs were $4 an hour or $16 for the day. Mopeds were $25/hour or $95/day.

The rental shop guy told us that they close by 7pm, so we planned our activities such that we will be able to return the bike before that. Even If you don't know about the island, don't worry, rental place gives a map and instructions about the state park as well as the activities. 

We rented a tandem bike, rode up 6 miles to the Big Bay State Park entrance. On the way to the state park we saw a lot of deer as well. Cars will have to pay an entrance fee, but for bikes and moped, it was free. Big Bay State Park has campgrounds, hiking trails, picnic areas with tables, grills, beach etc,. The park was very clean and beach was beautiful. We spent few hours in that beach, water was clean and shallow. Day got over, since we had to return our bike on time, we couldn't spend more time there.

We started from there at 7:30 pm because we had a long drive back home, but ferry was there until midnight on weekends. While waiting for ferry we were waiting in the deck, had a beautiful view of sunset. Evenings are bit cold there.

This became our favorite place, if we are in the twin cities area for next summer we, will definitely go there again!!!

If you have never been there for summer, try to go there. We are pretty sure that you will love it!!! 

One week with new Google Nexus 7 Tablet

Hi Everyone!

Just wanted to share my thoughts on the new Google Nexus 7 Tablet. I recently bought Nexus 7 for my brother. I already own a Acer A500 tablet, which I am very satisfied with :). I had purchased several games ( for about 30-40 USD, may be), and I am pretty much impressed with its performance. First things first, here are my takes on the new Google tablet.

1. Form factor / Design :

For those who already had hands on the Amazon tablet, this table is much thinner than the Amazon's tablet. If I compare this tablet to my Iconia, it is fits in one hand, and it is much lighter. Overall, this tablet is very well designed, comes with a nice rubber grip on it's back, so you don't have to worry about the device getting scratched. But one downside of the small screen size is apparent when watching movies. Clearly I am spoiled by my Iconia tablet, but if you have never used a tablet, you wouldn’t have issues with the 7 inch screen.

Nexus 7 in my hand

Nexus 7 in my wife’s hand


2. Screen Resolution :

The IPS screen of this tablet looks amazing.. Below is a sample screenshot from the Netflix app, you have to look at the screen to actually believe it. The screen is amazing, no complaints.
Nexus 7 running Netflix app

3. App Compatibility:

One big question that’s on everyone’s mind is, will my favourite app work properly on this tablet. So far, the answer is mixed. While some of the app developers had done a really good job porting the apps to JB 4.1, but some of the famous apps are force closing all the time . For example, GLU’s Mutant road kill and my favourite app, Fruit Ninja works perfectly on this tablet..

Nexus 7 running Fruit Ninja

Nexus 7 running Mutant road kill

Nexus 7 running Airport Mania 2


However, some of the famous apps like Angry birds Space, CNN App for tablet etc., are force closing some times. Over all most of the famous apps that I use on my Nexus S seems to work fine on JB 4.1. But it might take a while for all the devs to update their apps.

4. Battery Life

The User’s manual says that the tablet has 8 hrs of continuous use. But from my use for having used it for playing heave CPU crunching games like Towers N Trolls, Mutant Road Kill, the actual life is about 6-7 hrs. I think this is standard for the tablets of 7” size, so nothing new here.

5. Storage Space

The actual formatted capacity you get with a 16 GB version is about 13 GB. So, I would definitely recommend getting the 16 GB version, even though it is $50 more (here in U.S).


6.Performance:
Now, this is the tricky part,  Even though a tablet might have quad core processor, but without the right software to utilize the quad code, the computing power is practically useless. But not in this tablet. This is one of the first tablet I have seen SMP kernel in OEM installed ROM. (see the screenshot). The performance is amazing on this tablet. You can feel the speed especially when you install several apps at once, on WIFI.


7. Google Now:

This tablet also has a iOS like voice assistant, with limited capabilities (JB 4.1 feature). But it doesn’t recognize my South-Indian accent that much, so I couldn’t test it out much. Here are couple of screenshots :



8. Per application Notification - limit feature:

This tablet also has customizable - notification setting, to prevent the devs from pushing unwanted ads via their apps. For example, I like some of the GLU mobile’s apps like the DH Reloaded, but it sends out ads via notifications. In this tablet, you can limit by going to Settings -> apps and taping on the app that you want to block notifications from, and simply un-check the “Show Notifications” check box. That would turn off the ads from that app! (Note: You would also miss out important announcements from the Dev’s if you do that, but it is no big deal)


Overall comparison with other Andriod tablets:
Note that I am not comparing this one with iPad which is several hundred dollars more. Compared to other 7” tablets, clearly this one is a winner. But if I compare this with the 10” tablets like Acer Iconia 501 or Asus Prime, I feel that that they are better, primarily because of the following: Missing USB storage drivers on the ROM, no micro-SD Card slot, Missing rear camera etc., But for $199 or $249, this tablet is a steal. Especially now google has a promotion for $25 credit towards Play store purchases.

24 hrs with Android 4.1 (JellyBeans)

Hi All, 


I have a Sansung Nexus S phone, and it received OTA 4.1 update yesterday. I was previously satisfied with Ice Cream sandwich (4.0), but there are some cool new features in this version... Here are some of the obvious improvements:

1. Voice assisted search - Previous voice search was horrible. I have perfect south indian accent :), and my phone didn't recognize most of my words properly. Now with 4.1 the accuracy is much better. Downside is you need to have network connectivity to use this feature (bummer). On a side note, you can launch apps, write emails, set alarms etc., using your voice commands (assistant ??)
2. Disable notifications from specific apps - I have lot of games from "Glu mobile". They are not that bad, but they do send ads via notifications. In this version, there is a per-application setting, which you can use to disable the notifications.
3. Google Cards, I think they borrowed the concept from winphone, but this is a nice cool feature. It kind of automates some of the frequent tasks you do with your phone. For example, you can add a weather card, traffic card etc.,
4. Good battery life.. I don't have enough data on this, but after ICS update, my battery life took a heavy hit. That seems to have improved a lot with JD.

I will keep playing around with the new version and will post updates. Stay tuned!

Our South Dakota / Mt.Rushmore experience

Last week my wife and I went to Mt.Rushmore (since that was the only attraction that we had planned to visit when we were in Minnesota). First as I had mentioned in the previous post we had a drama with the hotel room booking because of Hotwire.com, but no thanks to them still the trip was wonderful.


This was my first country side trip in west. I didn't know the concept of "Deserted Highways", until now. I got a chance to experience it first hand. We started out on Friday, since we didn't have anything planned for the weekend, and decided to dive about 460+ miles from Minnesota. Last 120+ miles were in country road, because of the town I selected, for the hotel I had selected. I got to tell every one, that was the best experience ever!! I really loved it!! For 120 + miles, we barely saw 4 cars ! We saw a deer standing in the middle of the road like that's totally normal :) Eventhough I could see some mail boxes every few miles, I am pretty sure that the houses are atleast a mile from the high way, since I couldn't see them. Then, there was this ominous silence, I don't hear anything, (apart from the sound of my car and the insects cripping). Finally when we reached the motel at around 1:30 am, I was surprised to see that there was a town in the middle of nowhere, just like the movies. 


We started the next morning, after some rest, and we happened to see all the country roads that we had never seen before. We saw lots of hay rolled in to nice circular wheel like structure, cut nicely :). We even took some pictures. While we were taking pictures, a gentleman stopped the car and kindly asked if we were having car trouble.. Wow!! I have never seen such nice people in NY/NJ before! and finally we drove around 230+ miles and reached Mt.Rushmore. It was OK, compared to the ancient architectural marvels in Tamil Nadu and India, that was not that great, but anyway, they had done something creatively. We didn't spend much time there, we decided to start after spending an hour there.


While driving back, there were electrical trouble in the car...I was scared straight. We still had about 500+ miles to go, and the odo-meter and the speed-o-meters kept locking up. Surprisingly, when we removed the snapshot device, that problem went away magically. More on that in a later post [may be.. I am busy these days, so I might not have time :( ]. Finally we reached Minnesota at around 12 am Sunday. Even though I had been in the U.S for about 6 years, I have never seen gangsters before. While I was filling up my car in Minnesota, a car full of tatoo'd gentleman [whom I presume belong to some gang, because of tattoo's.. if you are not, sorry guys!!] pulled up in the pump next to us. That was the first time I saw gangsters, face to face. They didn't speak to me, they were minding their own business. I just got gas and went home at around 2 am.


Overall this was one of the best weekends in our lives! Me and my wife were completely satisfied and felt that we achieved something in this trip. I will try to update as we travel more guys.. See ya all in the next post..