Few wonderful blog posts..

Today I read few wonderful blog posts by Steven Sinfosky of Microsoft.

1. MBA Opportunities at Microsoft
Wonderful blog about what types of roles do MBA recruits do in Microsoft.

2. The 100 hour work week: believe it or not?
Awesome wonderfule article about work-life balance. Why didn't I read this article when I started my professional life; this blog originated somewhere near that time.

3. The path to GM -- some thoughts on becoming a general manager
Very good post..

4. Learning as an engineer -- rising from the ashes of failed projects

He had produced great books. But he could not produce great life for himself. He lived in utter misery.

“He had produced great books. But he could not produce great life for himself. He lived in utter misery.”

- Osho on Soren Kierkegaard

Wonder how many "great" thinkers, writers & scientist this applies to. One name which comes immediately to mind is Leo Tolstoy. Man who inspired Gandhi with his writing was so miserable.

Osho about these great misers

"He is a great mind but he had no concept of awareness. He can think and think very deeply, but he cannot just be silent and watch. That poor fellow had never heard about watching, witnessing, awareness. Thinking was all that he had heard about and he had put his whole genius into thinking."

Was India really a Economic Powerhouse before British ruled it?

I remember hearing it few times that British rule ruined Indian economy, but always thought it to be biased talk. But surprisingly this article by one of the economist says it was so. India was indeed a better economy till British rule ruined it (and in turn bettered there own economy).

http://www.economist.com/node/16834943

Politically motivated Nobel Peace awards

Decisions of nobel-committe have always been politically motivated.

1. Award was given to Obama; despite his continuation of US Imperialist policies,his support of Israel's (brutal & one sided) War against Gaza. Committe has done same while giving peace prize to Ex-presidents of US.

2. In cold war era Nobel committe used to be more intent on giving prizes to Russian Scientist. Russian government had banned scientist from receiving these awards. Thus most of the winners of Nobel prize eventually used to leave Russia.

3. Noam Chomsky, the person who is political activist from 1966's. Has worked extensively on bringing US Imperialist policies under light. He has great track record in linguistic. He should have got multiple Nobel prizes in both these areas. But it has not happened yet.

References

1. http://www.chomsky.info/articles/20090124.htm

2. http://www.chomsky.info/articles/20091105.htm

3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWd-pgiU4Co

How would you like to get paid from an international client?

If you are an 'Resident' Indian then you have two options here:
1. Paypal
2. Wire Transfer

Third option is Automated Clearing House (ACH) but sadly it is not available in India.

Paypal is good for smaller payments or if payments are online donations (or something similar) ,where payee can change his decision if it is not convinient for him to pay.

For payments greater than 250 USDs, Wire transfer is better than Paypal. This is because Wire transfer will take fixed 10 USD charge wheras Paypal will take 4 % of amount. (Note that on Wire transfer as well as Paypal there are extra charges for Currency conversion).

Also Paypal has many other charges like Withdrawal etc. etc. Also They feel they are doing mercy on Indians by operating here in India. So they switch off some services sometimes.

Refer to this link for additional details
http://www.topcoder.com/wiki/display/tc/Payment+Methods

RSS feeds make Google Page My Dashboard

I usually track topcoder site for current & upcoming competitions, This involves clicking on various competition categories. Few days back I tried RSS feed of these upcoming competitions, by this way all upcoming competitions are shown on my Google Page. Similarlly I have used this feature to show all Review Opportunities on Google Page.

Apart from this, I can see my mails on GMail from Google Home Page.

Tata Photon - Evaporating Account Balance

Last few days I was harrassed by Tata Photon and My Account balance was evaporating. I had recharged my account twice, called customer care more than 10 times spent more than 3 hours on these calls but still had to be without Internet connection for four days.


Column descriptions for above table

• Total Consumed(MB) : Values in this column are total MBs consumed on that day. This I have taken from Transaction Logs provided on Tata Photon website.
• Balance(MB) : Values in this column are taken from End of Day SMS's sent to me by Tata Photon .
  
• Recharge : MBs I have recharge on that day.
• Expected Balance : This is = ( Yesterday's End of Day Balance + Recharge - Total MBs Consumed).
• Difference : Difference between Column Balance & Expected Balance.

Values in Column Balance & Expected Balance should be same but the difference is staggering and that's my complaint.

Also there seems to be problem in Data consumed been shown in transaction logs. I have been recharging for 200/- Rs and using it for 10 to 15 days. But in last few days it has started showing more data consumption though my usage pattern has not changed.

Few more irritating points

• I called Nodal officer number few times on Friday 9th July. But there was no response. At one time I had my call waiting (you connect to number, but there is no representative) for 15 mins. Same was the case on Monday 12 July. Here also one call I was kept waiting for 15 mins. And this is not a toll free number .. so I was paying money to be kept waiting. Despite all this I couldn't get through to Nodal officer number.
• Since my connection was not working from 8th evening I recharged on 9th again on 11th and again on 13th.
• If your connection stops working because of insufficient account balance there is no immediate ways to know it. Connection software shows error message "Remote computer did not respond." . Customer Service people can see previous day balance so they will register complaint. You will expect call from them but no call comes. (At least I didn't had a call in those 4 days.)