Ipod Touch

So I finally bit the bullet and got the iPod Touch. Since most people who follow the forum know that my experiences have been less than stellar. However I, like millions of folks out there am absolutely fascinated by the iPhone interface and wanted to try one without being tethered to ATT’s sub-standard network. And hence, decided to get the Touch after Apple recently released a refresh.

And it’s blown me away. I consider myself something of a music afficianado and have always owned an iPod. I never really envisioned needing a device to do anything more than just to listen to music. However, I just find it transformational in the way I have been using the Touch ever since I got it.

The 32 gigs capacity will obviously entail that I only store my most listened to music here – but I predict that I will spend a lot more time on tht Touch doing things like what I am doing now – blogging!

Blackberry and the Blogging Resurgence

I haven’t blogged on this forum for a while – for a long while actually. Primarily due to the lack of time. Partly because somehow the flow was broken. And the ideas dried up somewhere along the way.

In the interim, the world changed. The financial crisis happened, terrorist attacks and everything else that the author felt so compelled to opine about at an earlier time.

So, after I got the new Blackberry Tour on Sprint – I decided to download the WordPress client so I could jot my thoughts at times like these (lounging on the bed at the hotel room after a long day’s work) – when I am too tired to switch on my laptop.

So here’s my first post from my Blackberry. Still marveling at this little device, the Sprint 3G network and the many ways that it increases my productivity everyday.

Love it. Technology. Especially the combination I finally discovered – Sprint and Blackberry.

Blackberry and the Blogging Resurgence

I haven’t blogged on this forum for a while – for a long while actually. Primarily due to the lack of time. Partly because somehow the flow was broken. And the ideas dried up somewhere along the way.

In the interim, the world changed. The financial crisis happened, terrorist attacks and everything else that the author felt so compelled to opine about at an earlier time.

So, after I got the new Blackberry Tour on Sprint – I decided to download the WordPress client so I could jot my thoughts at times like these (lounging on the bed at the hotel room after a long day’s work) – when I am too tired to switch on my laptop.

So here’s my first post from my Blackberry. Still marveling at this little device, the Sprint 3G network and the many ways that it increases my productivity everyday.

Love it. Technology. Especially the combination I finally discovered – Sprint and Blackberry.

Indian Election and some other news

The Indian elections are over. The 400 million voters who turned out to vote have spoken.

And as I often opine, in a country that is over 80% hindu, after a major and very visible terrorist attack, the mostly “rural” Indian voter has done what no other “first world/developed” nation has emulated. It rejected caste based politics, it rejected religion based politics, it rejected overtly nationalistic politics, it rejected all the other stripes of interest based politics that us “urban” Indians think afflict the “rural” Indian voter.

For those of us educated in the Keyesian or “Milton Friedman” field of economics, or whatever refuse to accept any simplistic explanations for anything that happens in the Indian political landscape. Which is why they probably consistently get all the predictions incorrect everytime.

I maintain, as I have always said in this forum, that the Indian voter, preoccupied with daily survival does not care much about politics that tends to divide between caste, religion, region, language, color, culture and the hundred other things that our netas come up with. And us, educated modern Indians, never get it – because of our inherently colored judgement about anyone who doesn’t look or talk like us.

Anyways, the results made me proud of my nation. Once again. Not for nationalistic reasons. But for the multi-culturalism, the acceptance of diversity, the acceptance of multiple ways of getting to religious nirvana – to the extent that it is not even a debate on TV and the wisdom to vote with that earthy knowledge. India, I am proud. For all its TV pundits, for all its knowledgeable expostulations, you have again proved – why we are who we are.

On another note, I would be really ashamed if I was an Aussie. They refused to come to India to play in their scheduled Davis Cup tie – because of “security concerns”. Expecting nothing better from the Aussies probably is better. They have shown themselves as ignorant, bordering on racist and generally the morons that is the stereotypes. Keep to your beaches and your beer. Enlightenment and informed decision making is not exactly your intellectual forte. And you forfieted your Davis Cup tie. Your freaking morons:)

 

Indian MBAs and a recessionary job market

According to Business Week,  Indian MBA grads are facing a tough job market in the current worldwide economic slump. According to the report, in a sharp reversal from last year (where peak international placements got offers up to $360,000), this year the highest salary is just a paltry $86K.

And so the story of gross excesses during boom time and the inevitable contraction during not-so-good times that follow go on all over the world. According to the report, the elite Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, only 57% of the students have managed to get a job offer.

To this blogger, both extremes described in the article seems excessively reactionary, a little over the top.

In good times, for 23 year old kids (most, without a single day of relevant work experience) to land offers that paid hundreds of thousands of dollars always seemed an egregiously expensive way of hiring talent. I admit that most students coming out of Tier 1 business schools in India are exceedingly bright and very motivated. However, real life experience does not replace sheer intellect and I firmly believe that most offers from leading business schools in India have been over-valued by companies. So it is natural, given the traditional costs for companies to recruit talent from these schools, to pull back when the economic indicators are as weak as they are.

This too shall pass. But the trick is to wisen up and not be unrealistic about one’s market worth and value.  One can be bright – but like in ISB’s case, 12 months of academic experience does not replace years’ of experience in the trenches. And when expectations are about instant gratification and insane incomes straight out of school, something’s got to give. Sometime.

And unfortunately, it always does.

And another attempt to come back

Making another attempt to get back to blogging. Ever since starting with Business School, I haven’t really had the time to get back to blogging. Most importantly, I think it was the lack of time to do any meaningful thinking between school and the constant traveling and schedules that my work entails.

However, feel like getting back. Once again.

So, the world changed in the interim. We had the mother of all financial crises which is still playing itself out. The Taliban is on the verge of taking over Pakistan (well, maybe that’s a slight over-exaggeration of the facts), but it controls significant territory within that country, the Mumbai attack on hotels , train stations and Jewish centers happened, Apple sold a billion applications on the App Store, the year turned to 2009 and finally, on a phenomenally good note, Barack Obama got elected.

And that is just what is on the top of my head.

Regardless, I think, there is a general consensus that we are going through times that are going to be regarded by historians in the future as pretty defining. Global Warming is accelerating (so is the mobilization of the world community in general to tackle the problem, thankfully), the world-terrorism-extremist-Islamic-hegemony idea is making dangerous inroads in parts of the world uncomfortably close to home, the financial crisis has spawned numerous debates on the role of governance and the efficacy of unregulated free market capitalism, the Middle East crisis rages on, as does the un-ending conflict between the Tamils and Sinhalese.

Its easy to paint the world in a brush of gloom and doom now a days. But this is probably as good a time as any to be a mediocre commentator of world affairs on the unregulated blogosphere.

And also provide some colored commentary on my B-school experience, while I am at it. Problem is of course, I am already done with two terms and have been entirely unproductive in the past 8 months. But the intent is there.

So watch this space! Intend to light it up some!

NSG approval comes through

The Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) has approved removing restrictions on India from importing nuclear fuel. Under intense US pressure “at the highest levels”,  the NSG (including some like New Zealand and Austria) finally were coaxed into signing off the waiver.

This blogger, with his very well known views on this very controversial deal congratulates India and the United States for getting the deal through. 

And now for the final step – ratification by the US senate. It might be a little bit of an issue though, now that the Senate is dominated by the Democrats.  But we shall see.

But its a new chapter for potential Indo-US collaboration.

Wireless Service and Idiocy

Something that I have been writing about is now all over the news now. The mainstream press has finally gotten over its fawning about the iPhone and actually started writing about the actual experience of real iPhone users on the ATT network.

As previously mentioned on this forum, it echoes something that I have always known as a user in New York City ( of all places, this should be one place where there is NO excuse) – that the ATT network – both its voice network (and its spectrum management) and its data networks absolutely is below par and suck!

Of course, the iPhone attacts people like Paris Hilton attracts men (and some women:)) – without any rational and intellectual explanation. (which, to me proves what Oscar Wilde said a while ago – 99% of humanity os composed of fools)

So you pay through your nose for a voice and data plan that is probably the worst of Tier 1 carriers in the US ( Verizon, Sprint, ATT, *T-Mobile*), for a piece of hardware which, while being undeniably the coolest in the market, does little more than offer a sense of conformity to the world.

I am neither an Apple hater (typing on a Macbook) or some kind of evangalist with some motive. I am just talking about common sense – if you stumble upon this post by chance – let me tell you something that most knowlegeable people about the industry would tell you – Verizon Wireless has the best wireless network in the US and Sprint has the best high speed wireless data coverage in the US.

ATT sucks in both the voice and data quarters. What they do have, are cool phones. Way cooler than Verizon and Sprint. But that doesn’t change the fact that their network absolutely is below par by all counts.

So go for it. Buy the same dresses that Paris Hilton wears. And the iPhone she talks on. Only realize that it sort of sucks to identify with single digit IQs. Even if that happens to be a hot celebrity:)

Maybe…

Its time we cast the kind of Geelani and his ilk out of India into Pakistan.  Or take the Israeli route. Let them wallow in their fundamentalist Islamic shit. Let them live with suicide bombings and the crap that pervades Pakistan today.

Thought, from someone who professes rather liberal views stems from unending video footage of crazed Kashmiris waving the Pakistani flag and burning the Indian tri-colour on India’s Independence Day.

Sprint Customer Care Feedback

So, the quest of the perfect wireless company continues. Readers of this forum know that I maintain a pretty strong interest in the wireless space, technology evolution, market trends and competitive news. The interest goes more than the mere cosmetic. I work as a management consultant focused on Telecom and Media clients – so whatever I opine here is not just layman facts – its based on some pretty long years spent at every major Telco in the United States. But I digress.

Today, I want to take some time to write my experience with Sprint Customer Service – one of the much-maligned aspects of Sprint. And frankly, Sprint’s customer service has left a lot to be desired post-merger with Nextel. Almost to a point, where I was ready to break a contract so I didn’t have to speak to the ill-informed and rude Customer Service Reps anytime.

Over the past few weeks, I have had a slew of issues – with the network where I live, with my corporate PDA and finally, today, with my personal line’s billing – for which I have had to call Sprint on more than one occasion. I know I briefly alluded to the topic here, but that was before I had issues with returning my old PDA and issues with the bill.

For a lot of people, Sprint is a favorite whipping boy. But having used every provider in the US (apart from T-Mobile), I can say pretty emphatically that their reputation, though well deserved in some quarters, is definitely worth a re-look.

This post is about Sprint’s customer service improvements. My experience and views on their network can be read here.

So first, the scope of my problems:

a) My corporate PDA stops sending emails: I call Sprint customer service and the very helpful person on the other side makes me go through the motion of the script – take out battery, hit reset button etc. Nothing works. Within 3 minutes, he logs onto his Fulfillment system to see if he can ship me a replacement device. Now, I throw in a curve-ball. While my HTC Mogul was great, I hated the slide-out keyboard that didn’t let me type with one hand. So I request him if he can ship me a Treo instead. He goes through the system and luckily for me there are no HTCs available. 2 minutes later, he puts a shipment order for the Treo 800w – the latest iteration of the Treo. And I receive it the next day.

Then, due to the return equipment and everything, I had a charge on my account that I needed taken out. I call Sprint Customer Care. The CSR on the other side – looks into my issue and realizes he needs to get into the warehouse system to ensure the phone has been returned. After confirming, he actually tells me that it would take him some time to sort through this and promises to call me back the next day. At 8.34 am the next day, to tell me that all the authorizations required to refund the amount had been done and I was good to go. Unbelievable. Especially based on my earlier experience with Sprint.

b) One Time Excess Charge: This month, owing to some family situation, I used around 1000 text messages. Problem is I have a monthly limit of 500. So I get charged extra per additional text message that blows up my bill pretty significantly. So I call Sprint – and it takes them exactly 30 seconds to clear the charge as a courtesy. I am even more amazed.

c) And finally, today – I call Sprint because I see a handset upgrade fee on my personal account (because I decided to change my aging phone for my birthday). I call them and the Customer Service Rep actually apologizes for Sprint charging me as such a longtime customer. He takes it out along with another little charge I saw that I thought was irregular. No questions asked. Courteous. And fast.

The reason I am writing this rather long post is simply this. Sprint has received a lot of flak recently for a number of things that they understandably didn’t do right. But bad as they are doing right now, they are beginning to turn things around and it is showing. In their voice network – which I think rivals the best in the country (Verizon Wireless), their data network (which is THE best in the country) and now their customer service (which, in my experience is getting there).

Turning around a company as large as Sprint will take time. But I think, fundamentally, they are in the right path and will get there sooner than most analysts think. At least operationally.