Ashok'sBlog Space

What do i need in the next Gen iPhone and 4.0 OS.

2010-04-23T14:44:00.001-07:00

iPhone OS upgrade seems to on the horizon, probably this summer of 2010. Gizmodo which apparently got the un-intended iPhone.

The link here gives a list of iPhone OS 4.0 features. Sounds impressive!. As always, Apple seems to be sucking in some of the nice features from the Jail Break community.... which makes me wonder if all of this jail break, losing the secret iPhone in a bar are all orchestrated media blitz to increase the appetite for already hungry masses:-).

Nevertheless, i have to admit, i love the iPhone, and I'm an iPhone addict!, and I'm waiting for the new one when ever its released.

Features i like.

Multitasking
Application folder
Custom backgrounds
Blue-tooth keyboard

The above are derived from JB'ed features. There is a whole bunch of some unlisted features of iPhone 4.0 OS documented here.

It would be cool if Apple can inherit the soft-touch SBSettings app toggles, winter-board, features like iBlacklist, application back grounding by pressing the home button, app killing.

More JB'ed features listed here.

Couple other would be nice..

When we view SMS, the call, add to contacts could be frozen instead of being scrolled all the way to the top.
Built in iPhone locator in case the phone is lost.
More location aware controls.. so at a press of a button, we can silence the phone, maybe turn on iBlacklist..
Add new Contact was crappy.. seems like they might have already fixed that!
The camera is going to be nicer than the 3Gs i think, so i could lose my regular camera and my video camcorder and just be done with my iPhone!
Ability to put files directly.. just use the Phone as USB storage.
Front and rear facing camera!

:wq

Stay away from the SONY laptops..

2009-12-01T06:07:00.000-08:00

Oh dear...
Sony VAIO makes some really pretty laptops that are cool looking, and mostly functional. Problem is they provide hardly any upgrade path unlike other OEM's. I have a SONY VGN-SZ330P. Nice aluminum cast shell, really pretty looking.

First i was a bit irritated when i learned they dont support Intel-VT enabling in their BIOS, even though the processor is able to handle it. But that was ok.. maybe they didnt want to support issues on laptop for virtualization products and such.. other than the fact i cant use it for some of my top applications it didnt bother me much later.

Windows 7 is out, and seems pretty darn good in terms of startup, visual appearence and making a better PC than XP. Looks like we have 2 devices for which Sony doesnt offer driver udpates yet, which is a real pain. The laptop is about less than 2 years old with core2 duo, and its a bummer that you cant use it with the most recent operating system.

Mass Storage
PCI\VEN_104C&DEV_803B&SUBSYS_81E6104D&REV_00
Windows 7 compatibility scan shows there is an update, but i havent been lucky to locate one yet.

Camera:
USB\VID_05CA&PID_1830&REV_0100

Such a bummer that we cant use a nice laptop like this one with the most recent OS, given that this isnt such an old laptop.

Hope Sony would do something to make these better than paper weights.

Hoping someone would post a link to the drivers for Windows 7 64bit version...

My experience building Nehalem based system and Windows 7

2009-11-09T10:10:00.000-08:00

Hello all,

Intel EPP had a nice combo deal. A Nehalem 3.xG processor, DX58SO mother board an Intel 160G SSD for only $758. I couldn't resist but buy that baby. The SSD is still back ordered and i waited couple weeks before knowing that. So i headed to Fry's and bought myself the other missing pieces of the puzzle.

Antec 902 gamer case
Antec Earth watts 750W
Crosair CAS7 6G DDR3
Hitachi 1Ter SATA
Intel MOBO Combo
ATI Graphics x16 PCIE

Total Cost was ~ $1200.00

The installation was very simple and easy. The case looked really cool, with nice cool blue lights, clear case to see components inside. The power supply is also very efficient, and it appeared to turn off fans when system is idle. Pretty quite for having 4 fans on the case, not including the power supply fan and the fan on the Graphics card!!!



Antec, Nehalem

I tried the Windows 7 premium to start with. The installation was a breeze, didnt have to select anything and it also went pretty fast. Had 2 real issues that iam not able to resolve yet.

I had a download from MSDN going, but system apparently got suspended as if no activity was there.Not sure how that happened, with all the interrupts from network still happening but the system thought there was no activity. My download was stuck at 57% and never made progress until i moved my mouse around.
DVR/CD writing isnt possible. There was some silence, absolutely no writing happened, and then it gave me some hex error code (didnt write that down) and said a problem happened when the write happened.

Tried Imgburn and it also failed. Not sure if this is a drive issue (since same drive worked fine under Linux. Searching via google, it turned out many people have got the same failures with Win7.

I need to play with the ultimate edition next to see how the media capabilities work on Win7. Thats an exercise for next week.

The Stupidity of payment schedule from Developers in India

2009-10-03T21:01:00.000-07:00

Hello there!. I am in Chennai for the last couple weeks. I was here due to an emergency and sudden ill health of my dad. Thankfully he has recovered pretty much and about 70% back to normal. Thankful to the almighty!.

I had never invested in India up until this second. Many of my relatives said i should invest here and the property values are going up like crazy again. So we decided to look at a few properties, now that its just 2 more days to head back home.

We looked at the following properties.

DLF properties
Opaline from Olympia
Hirandhani Upscale
Land Marvel

DLF is owned by Kushal Pal Singh, apparently 3rd richest man in India. He is very known for his buildings in Delhi. Its a contruction over 50 acres or property. The main issues i saw were lack of model homes. Apparently there was some rumors about some issues with land acquisition etc. In fact i think they are a large enough builder than can easily scale out of the problems. But yet, the construction seems a bit slow compared to other properties. The other major issue is the approach to the complex is very complex. You have to drive through some communities build for people affected by the Tsunami. It just doesnt look a pretty scene heading into the area.

Opaline had some neat plans, i didnt know much about the builder, but their models were cute and nice. This is what my first choice was. Well i havent looked at the other homes.

Hirandhani Upscale, owned by Niranjan an ENT specialist. He is also now expanding to build chain hospitals. The models were really cute. The plans were very nice. Our first visit didnt go well, as we ran into a lady who didn't sound like she was interested in talking to us. But we were interested in the building compared to others. Resulted in some escalation to their Mumbai office and someone responded back who was more accommodating than the person who we dealt with earlier. (Finally we sort of decided on investing here .. sort of...)

LandMarvel at Torraipakkam seemed like it made no progress the last year or so... Unfortunate to who all paid, since they are almost paid up completely and none of the apartments are complete.

Now finally the topic of the blog. For people who have purchased their homes in USA will find this process a bit of an instant heart attach... Reason?

The payment schedule is the worst i have ever seen and doesn't absolutely any logic. Iam surprised that no banks have protested yet and that even the government has completely ignored the issue.

It starts like this.. Pay Rs. 5 Lakhs on booking. V.s just a token amount in USA typically only a few thousands.
When the foundation is done, everyone pays ~25%. This is ridiculous since if they have 27 floors even before your floor has seen the floor you pay a huge sum.
When the 1st floor is done, you pay another 25%.
Subsequent floors bring in some additional %, and by the time they have reached the 10th floor most people have paid close to 80-90% of the total cost.
If you miss a payment, you pay 18%, but if the builder skips the deadline its probably nothing.

The real bad thing is most builders take money from people who buy apartments and actually put that money as a seed for the next project. So you have to pray the next project gets sold soon, before they can get more money to put into to complete the project. This should be plain illegal, they should only start getting money as the platform/base for your particular floor is done and also have more stages.

I heard that DLF is almost constructed from money from ICICI, just that they were the preferred lender, and have funded close to 90% of the project. The Land Marvel at Torraipakkam is a similar story, and they are scores of such ill projects around town. Unfortunately there is no getting around the payment schedule in Chennai. You have to choose a better builder who is financially sound and wish he doesnt go broke before your project is done.

I have to admit.. that i have planned to become one of those people.. but have no choice.. i trust Hirandhani and hence have committed.. and i pray that they would be complete by 2011 June timeframe.

I wish this would change and the buyer experience becomes better over time in India.

Until next time...

Ciao!

Restaurant POS

2009-04-22T14:59:00.000-07:00

My wife runs a restaurant here in Hillsboro, OR. I'm the unpaid tech support for her.. (well cant complain, i do get free lunches.. so well compensated i guess :-)).

When we purchased the place from a previous establishment, they had an existing POS, so we ended up using the same, since it appeared simple enough to use and configure. Its also runs on open hardware, unlike Micros/IBM solutions where you get locked in expensive hw and support after that..

After a while it started to bite.. The software support cost is just out of hand, (~$400 per year) poor support, useless forums (moderated)...

Some of the issues are around the model of sucking more money.. and the pathetic support they have. For instance.

Each terminal has separate licence.. ~$400 each.
Each can be activated only 4 times.. i.e if your hardware fails/switch Ethernet cards, you need to activate. When we purchased it from previous owner, we needed to transfer.. so that's 1 activations, and my hardware broke so that's another... and the prior owner activated his when he purchased.. that's 3 out of 4. That's completely crap.
Database they use is MSFT... i cant even do a backup without having to quit the software connected to all stations.
Any bug is categorized as Working as designed by their top support folks.... meaning its a feature not available in that software and its intended to be not available.
The forums are available only if you pay for an entire year of support.. yes.. including the knowledge base...
The forum comments are moderated.. so if you say there is a bug, and the support team feels empowered to give you "Working as Designed (WAD)", then your post wont make it. Since its giving a wrong impression about their software.
They have a forum for suggestion/enhancement requests.. all of them get removed randomly.. and there is no feedback to customer in terms of if they are considered, or shelved by the teams..
Tip accounting, Net sales, Gift Card accounting when discounted, ability to print duplicates of CC receipts, email alerts.. among several that's missing...

And no escalation path..when you call it just goes to the same person, i called sales to escalate, ended up the same guy replying to my email... a sales guy said "send to attn: management team" even that went to the same guy who has been blocking my posts.

Now.. trust me, there is no fowl language in my blocked post.. just that the guy feels I'm trying to spread incorrect information about their SW. That's rude.

So growing around open source at the place i work for the last 15 years.. i decided to hunt for a Linux version of POS.. and stumbled upon ViewTouch POS.. and surprisingly homegrown in Eugene Oregon. Gene Mosher the founder seems to have several years of experience in POS, and its based on Linux, my favorite OpenSource OS. I have a list of capabilities that my current POS software (Aldelo) cant address. I'm going to post a list of those requirements and going to evaluate ViewTouch for those features and go from there.

Hopefully i will succeed by the end of year to get a decent path to live and breathe freely without shackles, able to fix and maintain without having to pay for support when not necessary, have a free community support, and don't need to look at their knowledge base...

Signing off.

Werid i would think these would influence Global Warming..

2009-01-24T11:17:00.000-08:00

This is a bit humorous to me... Folks i re-iterate this is only for the humor value OK!

Bicyclists and Joggers on the road.. I think there is 2 big issues here. One, that this is a serious hazard for others on the road, since we need to adjust to the jogger or bicyclist on the road. I think in addition, by slowing down every car spends more gas burning hydrocarbons... thereby increasing global warming :-)

Stop Signs. They are useful in some areas, but i have seen them in certain neighbourhoods such as Murray rd in Beaverton, where this is just simply pain. 9-10 times my stopping is just formality, i have never ever seen a pedestrians, or another car waiting to cross. Again this is certainly contributing to global warming.

Pedestrians in shopping areas. I really hate people walking right behind my vehicle when I'm trying to backup from my parking lot in Costo or such. Its strange, the guy walking behind me has immediate knowledge that i'am coming behind, but still chooses his right of way to be directly positioned in a spot that I have real hard time looking into. Why wouldn't they want to stop or take a different path so i can just backup my vehicle?

The country should make these a bit more practical, i understand people need to cross the road, but consider a place like in front of BestBuy/Winco in Sunset Mall. People would just cross in random intervals not even considering the car is idling to just move ahead. They could put some signals there so pedestrians don't get to choose to walk by always, but be a bit more fair to share the road to cars and keep the pedestrians on pavement where they belong.

Its time for change America!

History in the making....

2009-01-21T08:29:00.001-08:00

It was a moment yesterday... a unique chapter was being written that marks a change in America and truly the rest of the world. For the first time, a presidential address that talked about compassion, making forward progress. Two million people, and not a single arrest. Every word Obama spoke was powerful, meaningful and it was clear he spoke those with passion. A 20 minute address, that for the first time spoke some of the bigger religions around, Christians, Hindus.. calling for peace.

John. G Roberts lived up to his nominees expectations... as Chief Justice.. un-der prepared and unable to repeat the words correctly even after Obama gave him a chance to recover, clumsy.. just like the outgoing president.

The costumes.... awesome...Appreciate Michelle Obama for giving young and unknown designers a chance to be part of history, defining first lady by design and not following a traditional color that most would have chosen.

Hope corporate America would be less greedy, and return the country's economy back to where it belongs, hope that religions factions would find a way to live and let others live in peace.

Obama has set himself aside compared to any i have seen so far...

Now its about time, we pick ourselfs up, dust off and get back to work... so off i go..

Media should leave John Travolta alone...

2009-01-06T07:49:00.001-08:00

Its really sad to see how celebrities have to deal with personal loss like this one that John Travolta has to go through. I think the media should respect privacy and just not hunt them down even in moments like this. The couple lost their son who was medically ill, and now every one who has had contact with them those days are being looking for their moment on TV which is so sad and inhumane IMHO.

Being a celebrity is like a double edge sword. The same media that game them the popularity is also drowning you when you have a grieving moment. This is not a time to try and figure out scientology was the cause... Just leave em alone and quit peeking at personal life...

Winter Wunderland @Portland this december...

2008-12-22T13:24:00.000-08:00

Okydok... it usually only lasts a couple days.. this time its getting to be close to 2 weeks. Is this all global warming heh?

Spending time with family for the first week was all great.... lots of table tennis at basement, Many movies from Hollywood (we just signed up for the month plan), borrowed more movies from neighbors... its great...

I have no chains now, so stuck at home.. got them 2006, but never knew how to use them. So we ended up giving it back to Les Schwab. Here is a video from Les Schwab.

Here are some pictures of our deck. Now i promise i took some pictures of our family, but fate was not on my side.. i forgot to put the stinking flash card..

I was so dead yesterday :-).. especially with the snow, i cant even run away and take cover from the fire my family was venting at me :-)

2008-12-07T11:32:00.001-08:00

My first attempt to use sms blog..

3rd day home alone. 2 movies back to back with my son after bowling in Sunset lanes. Great time. He is still in bed.. i wokeup early to make sure my dog does'nt go hungry.

Alright... lots of bills to clearup before the week starts.

Chao!

Home alone for a week...

2008-12-06T09:56:00.000-08:00

My wife always finds a reason to go visit home. Well, this time 2 of her relatives are getting married and nothing could stop... so here iam taking care of my 8 year old and the only one who has the best greeting when i get back home... yep thats my dog.

Yesterday Day1: Stopped the alarm and woke up late.. somehow managed to get my son ready for school in 30 mins!

Day2 Today: Lucky its a weekend, Breakfast is done. Piano at 10:15, lunch, and then need to figure out homework and some entertainment before dinner... Phew.. dont know how my wife pulls this off everyday... just 2 days and iam exhausted to even thing what i have been through!

Waiting for next friday to return!

Time to standup for Peace... Solidarity and Support

2008-12-05T15:44:00.000-08:00

Hello All. We all witnessed the painful events that came about in Mumbai. As Indians in America it's our resposibility to standup ....to show support to all those grieving families back home who lost their closed ones ... and to send a message "we are with you !!".

Come in with Friends and family to join in a Prayer for peace and hold hands together to form a human chain for peace and dress in tri-colors to stand up in a silent protest against the Terror attacks in Mumbai.

The Date & Location are finalized, and the Peace & Prayer vigil will now be held at
3:00 PM on Sunday, December 14th at Pioneer Court House Square, Portland.

Important NOTEs :
• The event is now being held a week later than the original plan. So please make note !
• Due to fire hazard associated with lit candles, local fire department will not allow Candles at Pioneer court house square, so if you plan to bring - please use battery-powered candles ! other options to show support are - flowers, flags !
• Please be on-time and plan to arrive early than late (no IST please !)

Spread the word.. and do take a moment out of your busy schedules, and lead by example !

Blasts in Mumbai...

2008-11-29T11:04:00.000-08:00

This is real bad... i love the way India Responded... Strong. India is resilient, and iam very confident India will spring back much more stronger. We live in crisis always and know how to handle this. Its very sad and the target are unassuming peace loving civilians that are choosen to be targets..

Its really hard to live peacefully with all the distractions muslim terrorists create. I have some really good muslim friends who feel sorry and are rather ashamed that a few could completely disrespect the religion and the purpose for which it rather came to existance.

I was listening to CNN after a long time to capture a glimpse of whats happening. Larry King was on discussing with Deepak Chopra. Right after that i heard a comment from CNN reporter Christianne Ammanpoor which is rather shocking. She appeared very upset with Deepak's comments hinting pakistan's involvement and appeared to rather justify the attacks. She said that the 150 million muslims are underprevilegded. Come on Christanne.. you better read and know more before becomming emotional and acting up... It makes me sick to hear your comments.

More facts by some poster here http://story.theusnews.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/b8de8e630faf3631/id/435982/cs/1/#reply

Its clear muslims have more freedom and representation... Would christianne justify if the underpreveleged blacks in USA do something similar. Its compeltely irresponsible for someone from CNN to do just sloppy representation in a national broadcast. Its a shame that CNN even has her on payroll..

Scammers using Dish Network

2008-10-27T00:20:00.000-07:00

It was annoying to be called by guys from 1-877-656-9808. Claiming to be dish network rebate department and trying to sell monthly programming for $68 with latest equipment. Always suspected they were a fraud. Finally i asked for a number and they gave the about number. When i tried to call them back, I can easily see this guy trying to put an ugly USA accent. Total frauds. Then they called me from two other phone numbers, 203-201-2000 and 971-230-0738 asking for SSN, CC# etc...

I read here that more people have been affected. I think dish network should advertise to avoid getting a bad name.

Please be aware...

Curry for Kids

2008-10-24T12:37:00.001-07:00

Portland area non-profit is teaming up with restaurants to help end TB in India.

Thursday Oct 30th dine in any of the restaurants in the list, they would contribute a percentage of sales towards the cause.

Visit Progressive Health Worldwide for more details.

Opensolaris supporting fast-reboot

2008-10-23T11:01:00.000-07:00

For people who work with a real OS... OpenSolaris build 100 now supports fastboot.

The minute i installed b100 i found great use for it. Its typical that once i install a lab system for development, i always have to set proper network params, hostname and such to work with DHCP blah blah... and then i would need to reboot.

deciced to give it a try and reboot -f , got the prompt (including X) back in about 7-10 secs) which was fantastic...

Thank you Sherrie from sun for providing this neat feature.. now only if you extend to support panic reboots would be fantastic.

Check the manpage for reboot for additional options.

Great work Sherrie!

Allen @work

2008-09-16T13:41:00.000-07:00

Allen was here graciously covering for me & bob while on sabbatical. He is leaving back to home. Here are some pictures today after lunch at Thai Orchid.

Bob, Steve, Allen and Geetha

Allen posing in front of his Car... btw: he didnt drive like in China :-)

Steve wondering what to order for lunch

my iphone review

2008-09-06T07:17:00.000-07:00

Ok, I didn't get the first version of the iphone so I could get the 3g version. Overall I'm impressed, but seems to lack some intelligence when u get a product from apple. Here are a few cases.

- 3G sucks battery like crazy. Even with 3G off, Wifi off, and using it as a simple phone it doesn't last more than a day and half.
- with 3G on and if the signal is weak, it's not switching to edge. Insted ur phone quits working unless u switch 3g off manually
- they should really turn on 3G or WIfi on or off on demand right when an app needs it. That could save pwr significantly and save going to settings like 20 times a day.

- atleast make battery easily replaceable
- ability to make custom rtones should be free. There is one for iMac (garage band), but would love to have that on PC as well
- need some way to cut/paste. Dam, it was even on windoZ ce

But all said Iam afraid it's still a cool product..

Some apps I like

- papikump (game)
- tetris
- palringo (im that connects to everything)
- facebook, twiterrific, photobucket
- shazam ((it's really cool, finds even my Tamil songs). Beats midori to dust for being a free app.
- iphunny
- vnc

I won't return it though. Although it could be better

That's it for now

Sabbatical in India

2008-07-09T06:15:00.000-07:00

Alright... finally after 7 hard years... my employer gives me a break with a sabbatical. Paid vacation for full 8 weeks. (Iam happy they still do it when several others have pulled this nice benefit away).

I have been here for a fully day and a half already, after gurelling some 20+ hrs in flight with 2 kids...

More to come...

Through the eyes of your dogs...

2008-04-17T11:45:00.001-07:00

I got a great article from my son's school titled the same. I felt how true the statement was. Dogs have and give you that unconditional love. Yes there is a small expectation you provide food and water, but he is always happy and doesnt hide that excitement anytime he sees you.

I probably have read or heard something similar, but unless you own one and vitness it for youseself you dont really appreciate it.

The world would be a happy place if only you could have the same relationship you have with your dog, with other humans around you. (i mean me included...) it totally changes your perspective for love and affection.

The fringe benefits, keeps you trim (as you have to take him to walks), gives you good diversion from everyday stress when you play with them. My wife has reduced blood pressure in just the last 3 months after we got him. (sure the kids do their part to make sure it doesnt stay low :-)).

Iam sure the puppy habits of chewing the coffee table, some minor mistakes when he grows up can be easily forgotten, and woudnt seem anything you would even notice for all the great puppy love he showers on you.

btw: Our puppy is Troy, He is a labradoodle, we got him when he was exactly 8 weeks old a day before christmas in Dec 2007. Surprisingly his birthday is just a day after our anniversary.

Unlocking my Sunrocket PAP2 (2102-R)

2008-04-16T09:59:00.000-07:00

Finally.. i have that dead beast fully awakened. I was not paying attension for a while and seems someone has done a great job of automating via livecd. Basically the profile on the pap2 is set to get updates just from one server from sunrocket. So the guy basically created a livecd with apache web browser, whose IP is the restricted ip on the gizmo.

1. Setup a crossover cable between your computer and the gizmo.
2. keep the gizmo powered down.
3. Download and create a livecd as documented in link.
- Livecd from here
4. Power your pap2, make sure the cable is connected to the Internet jack (blue)
5. Boot livecd, you should see the internet link turn green.
6. Test if the IP is assigned
- Pickup the phone
- ****
- 110#
7. Now just follow the instructions on the screen.

Shoun'nt take more than couple minutes. If it takes too long, there is cable issues, or maybe your device didnt get ip. Sometimes its that the laptop you use is too new and the livecd cannot handle the network card.

8. Now signup with gizmo project, and you can setup the device.
9. I actually setup grandcentral to forward to gizmo device, and sort of have a free incomming local land line now.!

WooHooo..

China == the great firewall!

2008-03-27T21:10:00.000-07:00

Just after jet lag, and spending some time with kids over spring break...

getting back to my blogging... more pictures of Shanghai downtown comming next.. truly amazing..

Its simply amazing... that a country would just block certain sites, especially ones that are free expression.. like google blogger accounts, livejournal, youtube and such...

for crying out loud... even wiki...

we were in a hotel and i guess its strange, it permits to enter new blog accounts, but you can't read em.. same with livejournal.

we just found a way to work around it though... login to your vpn account in the US, and then you are on your way... :)

We also find quite strange stories in the papper, it appears just flavoured to what the people should hear rather than what you see happen.

But the people seem pasionate about what the goverment is doing though... which appeared strange.!

Newpappers had good coverage of sports similar to India, i had seen very good overall news coverage and sports in less papper than what i see here in Oregonian.

Great wall of China

2008-03-15T15:04:00.001-07:00

We reached Beijing around 6:45AM, and decided to get a quick clean and head out at 7:30AM for breakfast. We left the Kerry Center around 8:30 or so.

The taxis are like my home India. We called and he asks about 1000 RNB. Then we offered around 500RNB, and then we finally settled for 650 RNB. It was great. experience.

On the drive we saw the future communications center

Here we are at the foot hills before the climb.

There are lots of bears just before the walk. Poor guys, they lost their habitat to the tourists :-(

Me the great trying to conquer the Great wall :-)

Dave my boss, here trying to convey iam late !?

Unforgettable events @ Air China

2008-03-14T23:01:00.001-07:00

So to recap, we were supposed to take off @7:30am by United to Beijing, instead we were stuck at PDX until 7:30PM. We managed to get a flight to LAX, and the United assisted worked some magic and got us on to Air China. The tickets show confirmed, and she said we should get boarding pass at the terminal.

So I thought the worse is over!... well... hang on..

We reach LAX, manage to get a shuttle to terminal 2. When we reach the ticketing folks we had another bombshell waiting for us.

The agent claims we have seats, but they are not confirmed :), heck i don't know what that means. She claims united did not confirm, so we are actually on standby for a 1:15AM Flight. She asks to go to united counter and ask them for travel/compensation since its united fault.

We head all the way to Terminal 7, where the united counter is located. Gale checked into it and saz that we are confirmed and don't understand why the Air China folks are giving a hard time. Since it shows as ticketed and ready to go.

She promised that if we come back someone here will take care of accommodation etc. So we are like a ping pong ball back and forth between the 2 terminals.

We head back to Terminal 2, since Dave is this super flying club member, we walk to 1st class check in, A guy called peter was so kind and it was swift with no issues.He basically gave us boarding passes with seat numbers assigned. He also gave us Red Carpet club passes to use while we wait.

We just managed to go to the club level, and just about got connected. Peter was back looking for us. He said we would need to go back to ticketing and get a new boarding pass. When we asked why, he didn't say anything but just said its same seat but new boarding pass. so we follow him out of the security gates again...

Now the same jokers are waiting at the ticketing and grinning at us. She saz i told you to wait, so there is no confirmation yet, but we are on standby #4,5. Oh Crap again...

So we keep standing there venting nothing but fumes, and after that drama she decides to give us the same seats and boarding pass. I noticed on the way back that my boarding pass was missing my Mileage number. Dave suggested to get checked at the counter before boarding.

Now back to security another time, We decide to go directly to the gates before another drama unfolds. I forgot to check at the front desk for mileage so we are at the Jetway. The same joker is now standing there and looking for me. The guy says my bag is large. I showed him two other people carrying about the same sized bags in. Now he says my bag is heavy. He was desperately trying to get my bag to check in, so maybe he can lose it as well?

Dave is insisting it is not heavy, and not big, so we decide to walk in and put this overheard. We told him if it doesn't fit we will check it in. The guy kept following us and said the hostess wont let us in. We just kept waking and the flight attendant didn't worry at all. This guy retreated back!!!

Once we were in the aircraft Dave suggested i check my mileage situation. So i walked out of the aircraft and the same joker was standing there. He claims nothing can be done now for mileage and i will need to check at Beijing. I told him its unlikely i would be able to do that, and wanted the credit entered now. When he refused i asked him to give me his name and agent #.
This is the hilarious part. He closed his ID card to i wont be able to take note of his name, and said he will call his supervisor, everything is fine.

The supervisor calls out his jokers from Front desk. Now the front desk lady comes out, and said all counters are closed and they cant enter any mileage anymore. I told her i gave my numbers during ticketing and they purposefully missed it. Asked her to give me her name and the other guys name. Now she said,"OK, give me your ticket and i will get this fixed". She came back after only2 Min's or so with my new boarding pass that had the mileage credit on it.Finally we got that squared away and back in my seat.

So much for the most adventurous, ridiculous journey... Air China sucks.They have no concept of service, almost everyone in the counter seems lost and running like crazy. It looked like they were just trying to be mean and stupid. They chickened out when I asked them the names for fear that i might call and complaint. But any case, we think the worse is over and it was a good lesson on survival on a trip to china.

If Dave was not around, they would have checked my bags in and most likely lost em too..., glad i wasn't alone.

My first visit to China (day 1)

2008-03-13T13:43:00.000-07:00

This is my first visit to china. (Thanks to my company). My boss Dave asks me to get a reference guide (Lonely Planet, China) to take a look at what places to see in and around. The book seems pretty good, he give me a good show and tell of whats around places where we will stay. We plan to fly into Beijing, see how the city has transformed itself to prepare for Olympics. So I' am all excited right....

Woke up way early for my pickup from Raja tours, he drops me around 5:15am, breeze past ticketing. Excited to see scanners at ticketing, which scans passports, and also scans and checks validity of VISA to china.. phenomenal!

Now we also get boarded for a 7:30am takeoff... then the pilot calls for at tension. He says "People i get all kinds of lights which i turn the engine on.. not a good sign :-)". So we wait for maintenance crew to come assess the damage. Finally they call it a day and say the flight is not getting anywhere. So we all rush out, waiting for out turn to be called a number we were assigned on the Jetway.

Dave tries to work his magic to see if we can get some way out before the hold on the SFO airport is lifted. Apparently due to weather the runway is on hold and no flights takeoff or land. Dave was more hopeful that the situation is not that bad... Finally our #25 gets called, the agent works her magical fingers and manages to get us out tomorrow.. early 1AM flight out of LA via Air China. Not sure what the maintenance @Air China is, but we decided to trust them this time :-)

Working away with the free wireless in PDX, and typing something up my blog with some real content.. i.e more than 3 or so lines i have written in the past several months since i created an account. I don't know how others manage to do this... I' am worried i will expose my grammar to others.... Crap i don't care anymore...

so we are waiting in this wonderful Red Carpet club (thanks to Dave for extending all the compliments my way).. this is wonderful in spite of the delay.

Hopefully good luck is coming our way and China Air would not overbook or bump us...

Lots of time to chat with Dave... we discuss about Spitzer :-), religion, food abroad and spread out with some work discussions...

For people who don't know Dave... he is one who can just have a slide and talk/blog/dance (??? maybe)...for an hour, very interesting and engaging personality... (its focal time, damn.. i have to say something good er else :-)

I will keep you posted....

BTW: don't worry about any grammar mistakes...English is after all my 2' nd language :-) If anything is left... its the bad spellchecker not me!

Get Me

2007-10-27T22:33:00.001-07:00

Wamu Crap!

2007-10-07T16:23:00.000-07:00

I just saw my bank statement from Wamu. I have one with them that i pretty much have for purpose of the lockbox i have with them. I noticed that they started deducting $12 per month for service fee.

When i called back they say its because my balance is less than $1500. I asked them its been that way for last 8 years, they claim that in the master agreement i signed to pretty much any change in service fee.

What a piece of crap. I want to complain to FCC about this behaviour... WAMU is crap.

Ok... my first blog

2007-09-10T11:29:00.000-07:00

Seems interesting... still waiting on tech to reset my password i decided to spend usefully to create a blogspot.

Ok, and here it is.. not much content. will try to post on and off from now on.

Ashok