Tim Ferriss - The Twitter experiment

To follow Tim ferriss at twitter click http://bit.ly/3Bp3Oe

To read about his twitter  experiment, click http://bit.ly/11WX10

I love this Guy! He's the author of 4 Hour Work Week, a very interesting read. So he's started off this twitter experiment, every follower for Tim will help donate $3 for american schools.

The fascinating thing is to watch out how this social media exercise will bring in people with mostly word of the mouth and internet social media marketing.

In turn, I plan to get completly involved in this experiment. Web 2.0 - the potential is unlimited.

I started off promoting this experiment in 

1)Twitter

2)My Blog

3)Orkut

4)Facebook

5)Yahoo messenger status (imkeshav)

6)Google talk status (keshavram)

I'll try more stuff later.

You can also help by promoting from your own sources, friends, mass mailers, shouting around etc.

Copy the link http://bit.ly/3Bp3Oe or http://bit.ly/11WX10

 You can also create your own link at bit.ly. It will track all the clicks and maybe  you can win a prize from Tim for bringing in followers.

Netgear installation wizard - not suitable for india?

I just finished posting about the cool netgear USB network adapter. Then found out the installation wizard was buggy and stupid.

The USB device was installed and my network works through wireless. In fact this post is the second one after my desktop went WiFi. But after closing all the windows, there was this small screen hiding.

Now this is irritating. The installation was done and everything is working, where the hell does this window come from!!?

But the next screen was even more annoying.I can't select my country, India is not available. But this was legally purchased from a dealer. The label on the box shows that some xyz company has imported this.

But there is more. Trying to click escape thows a stupid message, trying to scare off a customer. Cancelling the installation? But ITS DONE!!

Time to shoot off a complaint to someone.

Wireless internet for Desktop

Woohoo!! Right now my desktop has a USB dongle which connects through wireless to my D-Link wireless router. Don't we love it when you can spend Rs1100 ($22)  and get rid of a single cable. 

Some would say that is very expensive, but hey! my mom and sis dont have to jump over a cable everyday (The router was setup in the hall and the desktop was in my bedroom. The network cable was dragged across to my bedroom. Now don't ask why? It was installed while I was away)

We have used

USB Network Adapter : Netgear USB adapter Wireless-G WG111 802.11g - choose 802.11g over 802.11b for better speeds. This is almost an plug and play network device. Review

Update: Installation is done, but still buggy. Here

This comes with an installation CD. Installation is a 2 minute job - 

1)Insert CD.

2)Run wizard

3)Insert dongle into USB port

4)Windows will detect the device and wireless networks. select your wireless network. 

(Please note that wireless network should be available before this can be used,setup with  a wireless router like D-Link )

For those not sure about this deal. Check out the below image.

 

Now to buy a multi USB port device. My outdated desktop has only 2 usb slots..oh well!!

Moved on from ThoughtWorks

Well..that's it! I finally moved on from ThoughtWorks. It was a brilliant year at TWI, the kind of things that we did was simply amazing, the best fun times ever......the blog will also move on. A new life starts here .. http://keshavnarla.wordpress.com/

This went as part of one of my 2 EXIT mails (That's right, there were two exit mails)


This image can be edited at http://www.jjchandler.com/tombstone/

p.s - W.I.P means Work In Peace

Geeks shall inherit the earth

Can you imagine this happening? But I guess we are OK with that :-)

ClearTrip - 4k and an explanation

Update July 8th: ClearTrip.com has updated their cancellation procedure with the help of my feedback. I was pleasantly surprised that they were quick to update their website. These guys appear to be on the right path in creating an excellent business.

In fact, just last week (June 26th), I needed to make a air booking really fast and was able to achieve that at ClearTrip.com


I'm Back from Leh!!

First I'm very pleased that my feedback and sidu's post was well received at cleartrip.com and as a result half of the cancellation charges of 4000/- was returned by cleartrip.

As mentioned in my previous post, this is a detailed account of how my flight tickets got canceled. The sudden shock of accidentally canceling the tickets , made me realize the procedure had severe usability issues.


ClearTrip's account
They were quite adamant in saying that it was NOT a single-step cancellation process. Technically, they were correct. It is a two step process and I will attach images to show more details.


What I Say...
Although my original post was misleading about a single step cancellation policy, I still think the current 2 step process is very misleading.

My reasons
1. Customer's are confused about "Make Cancellations". Clicking this from the screen in image2 cancels the booking. I'm a shining example of this mishap.
2. Cancellation charges are not displayed anywhere through the process. ClearTrip will argue that cancellation "rules" are available, but I could not care less. As a customer I need to know the exact cancellation amount.

Closure!
I'm quite happy to get the 4k from cleartrip, instead of shouting and giving up, I worked closely with cleartrip to identify the issues. The guys at cleartrip were very patient while listening to my problems. I would take half the blame for being hasty in browsing around my itinerary and cleartrip has agreed to bear half my costs for any misunderstanding on their website. This is a good closure.

Hopefully this post clears the ambiguity on this episode.

Good News from cleartrip.com

Looks like my feedback had been taken into consideration after posts from me and Sidu. A cleartrip.com representative has told me that cleartrip.com is willing to bear half the cancellation charges. This saves me 4000/-. I will post more details about this after my vacation.

Tomorrow I'm leaving for my vacation to Ladakh. Unfortunately I had to cut short my vacation because my plans went haywire after this "cancellation episode".

I'm biking between Leh - Kargil

My Itinerary

Bangalore - Delhi Flight
Delhi - Leh Flight
Leh - Kargil Thunderbird
Leh - Delhi Flight
Delhi - Hyd Flight

More details and pics when I survive :-)