Mailbox App for iOS

Got the @Mailbox App finally! Awesome would be an understatement to describe it's user experience. Probably one of the few apps that leverages the capabilities of touch gestures of a touchscreen phone.

A big minus is, the way Mailbox handles labels. It doesn't support the existing GMail labels. Mailbox creates its own lists in GMail. If you use GMail labels extensively like me, it may be a strong reason for you to stay away from this app for a while.

As a workaround, you can move your existing labels under Mailbox label as nested labels to use your existing labels in GMail. GMail will automatically update all the filters associated with that label. But, I will wait for Mailbox to fix this.

Vishwaroopam

Vishwaroopam - I can watch it again for the first 45 minutes. Kamal's acting and expressions as effeminate Vishwanath is brilliant. Only Kamal can pull this off. Once the flashback starts and Wasim comes in to picture, movie falls flat and starts dragging. Flashback in Afghanistan is too long and starts boring a bit. May be the cuts suggested by these fringe groups can make this movie short and crispy. Audio does strongly connects terrorism and religion at some places. But, that happens in most movies with terrorism & Al Qaeda in plot. Otherwise, I did not find anything offensive.

Felt like shouting "Et Tu Kamal?" for conference call with Prime Minister scene. Sigh! There is no fizz in climax. Thank god, they saved finding Jihadi Omar for "Viswaroopam 2" and not made the movie even longer. Action scenes in Afghanistan and New York are technically Hollywood style. Kamal fans will definitely celebrate this movie. Others can watch it once.

A trip to my native village!

I went on a very short trip to my native village near Tiruvannamalai this weekend. So, what's great about it? I went there after 2 years, even though the place is just around 180 KM's from Chennai! Came back with mixed feelings

1. Lost an uncle to a freak accident. He fell down while picking guava and got hit in skull a few days ago and succumbed to it yesterday. At 74, he was too energetic and an inspiration for us to stay fit
2. Happy to see the saplings I planted in my school days grown in to tall trees. Like a kid, I was telling people that I planted these
3. Saw my new born niece & Got to meet whole family after ages
4. Had a good darshan at Tiruvannamalai temple

Moved to a new home!

Its been more than a year since I updated this blog. It was in death bed. This blog opened up a new world to me and showed me a lot of things. I never wanted to let this die down like that. Probably, Twitter made things worse. Its simple, chaotic, conversational and stupid. But, thats what drives people to become crazy about it. And I did become one among them.

However, I think blog is still the best medium to express your views in a structured manner. Hence, I have given it a new life with a newer identity to this blog. Yes, this blog has moved to a new home @ http://blog.jagadish.net. Update your blogrolls!

The Hindu's Readers Editor responds to my mail

The Hindu's Reader Editor K. Narayanan has responded to my mail regarding the missing attribution for the photograph taken by me published on 13th December, 2008 Chennai edition.

Mr. From: readerseditor@thehindu.co.in [mailto:readerseditor@thehindu.co.in]

Sent: Monday, December 15, 2008 4:06 PM

To: Jagadishkumar Gandhimurthy

Subject: Re: Missing Attribution for the photograph used

Dear Mr. Jagadishkumar Gandhimurthy,

The News Bureau says the event was only for bloggers and the picture was provided by Krupa Shankar, the organiser of the event.

There was no indication of any credit to be given.

K. Narayanan

The Readers' Editor,

The Hindu,

Kasturi Buildings,

859 -- 860 Anna Salai,

Chennai 600 002

India

Ph: +91-44-28418297 (11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday)

Fax: +91-44-28552963
Email: readerseditor@thehindu.co.in

I'm not happy with the tone of this response. It sounds a little insincere and exposes the unwillingness to acknowledge the source. I understand that there was a communication gap and I do not want to blame “The Hindu” entirely for this. However, as the source of the picture is established now, it would be nice if "The Hindu" could add credits to the picture atleast in the online version. I uploaded all the event photographs for the use of others and I did not expect any monetary benefits from this. It’s all about acknowledging the effort put in by someone.

May be since the photographs were a pictorial coverage of an "event", it looks like no one takes this as an individuals effort. I'm not going to lose anything in this. It is the credibility of an establishment like "The Hindu" which would take a beating, if they don't correct a mistake even if the fault is not theirs completely.

I have responded to the Readers Editor clarifying my stance on this. Lets see how they respond.

The Hindu publishes a photograph taken by me, without attribution

The Hindu in 5th Page of its Chennai Edition today has published a photograph taken by me, without any attribution to the source. I'm sure they would be equally concerned about plagiarism and this might have happened accidently. It's most likely that they might have recieved the photograph without any details of the source. And since the news article which carried the photograph was about Wikipedia Academy launch by Jimmy Wales, one of the events organized by our "The Knowledge Foundation", I'm not going to cry foul. I'm happy that they found a amatuer photographer's photo good enough to publish in a national daily!

Crackers and Fireworks

Lights & Colors of Diwali fireworks look great!!! But, should we pollute our environment like this? Why do we forget civic sense when the festival comes?

Vodafone Woes

Well, The curse still continues for me. I'm just fed up fighting with these service providers. I wonder whether have the their brains in their asses. I took all the precautions to avoid the shit I went through in the past. But, they have not improved even a bit, they still F**k up the same way.

The scenario is this. My employer tied up with Airtel and Vodafone and got couple of exclusive plans for the employees, which was more than tempting to switch my prepaid to postpaid. Well, the good things ended right there.

I took all possible precaution and gave them maximum documentation I could provide while applying for the migration, since I have had first hand experience of how these guys screw up and how they are pesky about their f**ked up processes and their fit for nothing customer care. I wonder what else I need to provide them to prove that I'm genuine.

1. I have provided all proofs for my existing prepaid connection, which was verified by Vodafone already
2. Latest Vodafone bill of another mobile connection I hold and which has the same address in the records
3. Photocopy of Driving License, PAN Card and Employee ID Card

In spite of providing all the above documents, Vodafone disconnected my number because there was negative address verification note from the address verification agency it has hired. The reason is that I didn't answer their call when they called up for welcome visit. It has triggered a negative address verification note, though they have verified the address with my neighbours and apartment security. These guys never bothered to contact me again.

My Questions to Vodafone (and other service providers):

1. Can't you inform / warn the customer about impending deactivation in a scenario like this through a call or SMS and ask them to act on it?
2. I have provided all the documents while buying prepaid connection and the same was verified by you, isn't that enough?
3. I have provided a Vodafone bill of another connection I hold which has the same address. Isn't that enough? You did verify my credentials for that connection as well. Why do you have to do it again?
4. The verification process is outsourced and these vendors are paid based on numbers. Naturally they don't follow up on a customer, if they aren't able to reach them the first time. Do you have a process in place to check this?
5. If you are so serious about your processes and TRAI rules, why don't you provide the connection after making all the mandatory verification and documentation work?

The bitter truth is "The customer is King, but only till customer acquisition in a growing market"

iPhone in India - Not a worthy birthday gift

When Airtel and Vodafone announced the impending launch of iPhone in India on August 22 (which happens to be my birthday as well), I though I could gift myself a new iPhone 3G. But, I cannot afford its exorbitant pricing. Even if I could afford it, I don't think it is worth it at this pricing.

Anyways, others who want to send me a Birthday gift can still consider iPhone!.

88888 Lights Out

I'm going to chip in to arrest the Global warming by participating in "88888 Lights Out" Campaign. Do join us and show that you care for nature and you want to leave a healthy environment for the next generations. Turn off your lights on 8th of August (08-08-2008), from 08:00:08 PM to 08:08:08 PM.

BTW, Did you shut down your office PC today? I did, its my simple contribution towards energy conservation and stop global warming.

Heading to Parvadhamalai

I will be starting to Parvadhamalai in a hour with Chennai Trekkers Club. Its a long pending wish, which is going to come true. I will post about the trek next week.

(Image from Arvindram's Picasa Stream)

It isn't just Indian roads..

... Chicago city too has its share of pothole problems.

Off to Chicago!

In couple of hours from now, I will be leaving to Chicago on a business trip. I will be there for a couple of weeks. During my school days I used to tell my friends that I would one day go to Chicago where my Uncle used to live then. Chicago is one in the list of cities I want to see in my life time. In that aspect it is kind of a dream come true to me.

But I'm not so excited about my trip now, because of the horrible weather there. I'm geared up to face it. You would see frequent updates here from now on, if I'm able to cope up with the weather. And for those who are in the windy city, drop me a line to jagadish[at]jagadish[dot]net. Lets catch up.

The Curse continues

Looks like I have been cursed for life to have bitter experiences with customer care people of telecommunication companies. First it was Sify for a year, then Tata Indicom (Though not a big one), then Hutch Essar (Now Vodafone Essar) and now its the turn of Bharti Airtel.

Initially I stayed away from Airtel, because I felt they are stretching themselves too thin by expanding rapidly. I opted for Airtel half heartedly when I moved to Mogappair a year back as I have already seen the worst of Cable Internet and Wireless Internet Connections from Sify and Tata Indicom.

Airtel people trenched and laid a new line and got me the connection in three days flat and impressed me. And they were prompt in fixing faults and had no issues till I shifted back to Mylapore and asked them for phone shifting.

They took a request and informed that it will take 6 working days to complete shifting. No one turned up for 4 days. I was asked to wait till 6th day, whenever I called up the customer care.

Friday 21st September, Day 5: A guy turned up without any prior intimation when I was about to start to office. As I was leaving, he said he will come the next day 11.00 AM and asked me to be at home.

Saturday 22nd September, Day 6: No one turned up and I spent my weekend at home waiting for Airtel guys.

After making repeated calls over the weekend and on Monday and Tuesday, they informed me that a faulty component needs to be changed. And bought 3 more days to fix it.

Friday 28th September, Day 11: I kept calling them for updates and a senior supervisor informed that faulty component has been fixed and assured me that my connection will be up before sunset as the rest of the work would hardly take a hours time. I got damn pissed as no one turned up the whole day and didn't even get a call from them.

Saturday 29th September, Day 12: If I don't get my connection today, I need to wait till next Wednesday as it was an extended weekend. I decided to put pressure on them and informed them that I will go on a sit in protest at Airtel office if I don't get my connection before 3.00 PM.

3.00 PM: No one turned up yet.

3.30 PM: I reached Bharti Towers in Santhome. The securities stopped me and said there is no Customer Care office and I cannot meet anyone and I need to talk to customer care over phone for any issues. Few guys came and took me inside to avoid attracting the attention of others when I called up and started shouting to customer care.

They were keen on sending me back when I told them that I won't move out till I get my connection up. They immediately sent a technician to my home and got my line fixed in about a hour. Now they started giving me updates like the technician has started the bike, reached Kutcheri road and so on.

Suddenly few security guards came and surrounded me and started questioning me. Apparently they have seen me having a camera and MP3 player in CCTV. They made a big scene that I have breached their security and a legal team has been informed. They backed off when I said there was no warnings at the entrance and its their mistake of letting me in without checking. They kinda tried to send me back by threatening me using this. Its sad that they don't know how to behave to a customer.

Things which made angry:

• Every time I had to call them to know the status. I wouldn't have cared about it had Airtel kept informed me about the delays and reasons
• The technician's didn't care to inform me before visiting my place
• The irresponsible answers of the customer care executives

Bitter Truths:

• This has once again proved that you won't get a good customer support till industry stops growing. Till then the focus will be on customer acquisition than retaining
• Fierce competition is needed to make customer care a differentiating factor
• It's the service providers who put the SLA's and customers can't demand anything

Colours of Nature - PIT September Contest II

My Second Entry for PIT September Contest



Colours of Nature, Originally uploaded by Jaggys