Lately, I became utmost desperate to go online on Xbox Live and play games over the internet with other people around the world, plus watching online movies in HD Quality on my LCD TV using the Netflix service which now comes as standard on Xbox NXE(Next Experience). The problem on Xbox 360 is that it doesn't have inbuilt wireless adapter like Nintendo Wii and Playstation 3 which means one has to spend like $100 to buy the wireless adapter from Microsoft. Honestly, I never wanted to spend 100 bucks on an add on accesory and therefore was stucked at playing Single player games till now, it's been like 9 months on this mode.
Yesterday night at 3:30 AM, something got into my mind, I started thinking if my laptop has internet can't I connect it to my Xbox and make my Xbox internet enabled(Yeah you are right, I have got no Life).
This is what I did to connect to Xbox Live using my Laptop-:
1) Laptop running on Windows Vista Home Premium with Broadcom 802.11 G Wireless Adapter in it.
2) Got an Ethernet wire, with both end same just like we have ethernet wires in LAN.
3) Connected Ethernet Wire from one side to my Laptop and to other side to Xbox 360 Ethernet port.
4) Then went to Start>Settings>Network Connections.
5) Then in Network Connections. Choose Wireless Network, Right Click on it to go to it's Properties.
6) In Properties window, Click "Sharing Tab", Check "Allow other network users to connect through this computer's internet connection". Once you do it, it will ask you to select the network, choose "Local Area Network" since you connected your Xbox to your Laptop using Ethernet Port.
7) You are done, your Xbox 360 is now internet enabled and your are ready to dive into the Xbox Live world without spending 100 bucks on wireless adapter which has no other use than on Xbox.
I have tested this mechanism on Windows Vista laptop with G-Wireless adapter using Trendnet 802.11G 108Mbps Firewall router. I am not sure, will it be able to connect using Mac computer or what if your laptop has 802.11 n wireless card. But one thing is sure my 100 bucks got saved :-). Desperate times, desperate measures; mother of unholy inventions ;-).
Note: Try to reset the Wireless Properties to Non-Sharing if you gonna use Ethernet port(LAN) for internet at workplace or somewhere else, otherwise Ethernet port won't work and will be dependent on Wireless Network.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Thursday, November 13, 2008
PC vs Console Gaming
I am a fanatic when it comes to video gaming, I am playing since I was just 5 years old thanks to my father's job which requires traveling and with it brings a lot of stuff he bought for me which were not available during late 80's and 90's in India. To name a few my first console Atari(1988) and Nintendo Entertainment System(1991).
Then, we got a computer and started playing games on it. The problem I always faced while playing on computer was that games which were good such as Need for Speed(NFS) or Unreal Tournament(UT) always had glitches reason being computer was not ready to handle requirement because of less RAM and weak Graphics card. I subsequently upgraded my computer's RAM from 32 MB to 64 MB, this is the story of year 1999 this upgrade set me back by Rs 4000(~$100). Then even after upgrade I was able to play NFS in low graphics mode and UT was still unplayable. Then again I spent like Rs 1000 to upgrade my 4MB SiS Video Card to 8MB Intel 740. It was good enough to play the two games but then UT needed more RAM, then again upgraded my system to 128 MB RAM, which again set me back by Rs 4000.
Then, after giving 12th class exams, bought Need for Speed-Porsche Unleashed(NFS-5). This game didn't run for whole six months simply because it needed latest Intel drivers which Intel released after six months of release of this game. In the mean time, I asked my dad to buy a solid top of the line Graphics Card. He did buy an Asus Geforce 2 GTS, which was pretty expensive at that time(~$299). I was happy for like 3-4 months before John Carmack unvieled Doom-3 along with Geforce 3 and he told that even Geforce 3 struggles to cope with the game's graphics. Even with Geforce 2 GPU I saw games were not as good as the card should produce then I realized with this GPU needs Pentium 4 CPU, Rambus Ram(1666Mhz), same 1666Mhz Front Bus to perform at it's peak. Then I finally gave up and thought of not investing money into this PC hardware thing. Though I admit I bought Geforce 4 for my new computer but till then I wasn't a PC gamer anymore.
Now, I play games on my consoles namely Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii. I am very much satisfied with my purchase and console's performace. Since developers are making games knowing the hardware configurations/limitations and games have pretty awesome graphics wise and one don't see glitches while playing them since they are tightly coupled with the hardware and the best part of console gaming is hardware is not gonna get outdated in next six months and will be there for atleast next 5 years which means the money you invest in Console hardware is secure.
Plus, these days there is trend of releasing new games on consoles first and then on PC which means 6 months lagging period also some developers don't even release PC version since PC games they know are mostly pirated. One can attach console to any size LCD or Plasma screen and experience true HD(1080p).
To sum it up, I agree with newer hardware such as new CPU and GPU one will have an edge but this thing comes at a very steep price. If one uses right things such as right motherboard, latest GPU, 8-core CPU, high performace gaming RAM's, the cost easily can touch upto $3000 and the worst part is after 6 months the same system could be made/purchased for less than $1000. Plus, even with this superb hardware, one has to install buggy,crapy Windows Vista which has 1000's of it's own problems and crashes whenever it wants and thus ruining the overall experience of the new computer. Console such as Xbox Arcade edition just cost $199 and $249 for Wii are much more fun to play since I have always liked Controllers with rambling than Keyboard and a mice. Carpel tunnel not anymore :D.
Then, we got a computer and started playing games on it. The problem I always faced while playing on computer was that games which were good such as Need for Speed(NFS) or Unreal Tournament(UT) always had glitches reason being computer was not ready to handle requirement because of less RAM and weak Graphics card. I subsequently upgraded my computer's RAM from 32 MB to 64 MB, this is the story of year 1999 this upgrade set me back by Rs 4000(~$100). Then even after upgrade I was able to play NFS in low graphics mode and UT was still unplayable. Then again I spent like Rs 1000 to upgrade my 4MB SiS Video Card to 8MB Intel 740. It was good enough to play the two games but then UT needed more RAM, then again upgraded my system to 128 MB RAM, which again set me back by Rs 4000.
Then, after giving 12th class exams, bought Need for Speed-Porsche Unleashed(NFS-5). This game didn't run for whole six months simply because it needed latest Intel drivers which Intel released after six months of release of this game. In the mean time, I asked my dad to buy a solid top of the line Graphics Card. He did buy an Asus Geforce 2 GTS, which was pretty expensive at that time(~$299). I was happy for like 3-4 months before John Carmack unvieled Doom-3 along with Geforce 3 and he told that even Geforce 3 struggles to cope with the game's graphics. Even with Geforce 2 GPU I saw games were not as good as the card should produce then I realized with this GPU needs Pentium 4 CPU, Rambus Ram(1666Mhz), same 1666Mhz Front Bus to perform at it's peak. Then I finally gave up and thought of not investing money into this PC hardware thing. Though I admit I bought Geforce 4 for my new computer but till then I wasn't a PC gamer anymore.
Now, I play games on my consoles namely Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii. I am very much satisfied with my purchase and console's performace. Since developers are making games knowing the hardware configurations/limitations and games have pretty awesome graphics wise and one don't see glitches while playing them since they are tightly coupled with the hardware and the best part of console gaming is hardware is not gonna get outdated in next six months and will be there for atleast next 5 years which means the money you invest in Console hardware is secure.
Plus, these days there is trend of releasing new games on consoles first and then on PC which means 6 months lagging period also some developers don't even release PC version since PC games they know are mostly pirated. One can attach console to any size LCD or Plasma screen and experience true HD(1080p).
To sum it up, I agree with newer hardware such as new CPU and GPU one will have an edge but this thing comes at a very steep price. If one uses right things such as right motherboard, latest GPU, 8-core CPU, high performace gaming RAM's, the cost easily can touch upto $3000 and the worst part is after 6 months the same system could be made/purchased for less than $1000. Plus, even with this superb hardware, one has to install buggy,crapy Windows Vista which has 1000's of it's own problems and crashes whenever it wants and thus ruining the overall experience of the new computer. Console such as Xbox Arcade edition just cost $199 and $249 for Wii are much more fun to play since I have always liked Controllers with rambling than Keyboard and a mice. Carpel tunnel not anymore :D.
Monday, November 3, 2008
When aspirations don't meet reality!
For last one year, I am applying and giving interviews at various companies mostly based in Northeast. I have probably given on-site interviews at the best technology companies such as NetApp, Mathworks, Microsoft(twice), MediaTek, Altair but result has been the same, which is reject from everywhere. In the past, whenever I made a mistake I very quickly rectified the problem since I knew where I was making mistake but when it comes to these interviews I am still not able to figure out exactly where the problem lies.
I have improved tremendously over an year, the problem I initially faced was that the programming knowledge that an undergrad should know very well was fractured, which means fundamentally unsound but don't judge me that I am totally zero since I cleared every screen interviews which companies generally test your fundamentals which in itself is intimidating and hardly 10% of people are able to clear it.
Some things that I see as problems apart from blaming myself are-:
1) Too broad job description, which means a company such as Intel or semi-conductor based needs a Software Engineer who is not only proficient in writing C++ code but also possesses knowledge of embedded systems, VLSI etc., now how can a Computer Science student who has not interned in Semi-conductor company can get fit into above job description. One on-site interview I gave at Altair, they wanted me to know Finite State Analysis(FSA) which is a mechnical thing, how can I know I have no idea?
2) Very limited open positions, most companies are trying to fill in some cases just one position in their department, and for that I thing they are interviewing 50 candidates, even if you are good but someone else who applied has relevant work experience will surely get the job.
3) Too much of a competition, these days market is bad, too many people applying for the same job, when in January I went for Microsoft on-site interviews, the HR told me they are interviewing 80+ candidates daily for last 6 weeks.
4) Local/ Small companies which are located in cities such as Chicago, NYC, Bay Area or NJ don't want to consider anyone else than local candiates to keep their expenses down and sacrificing on the quality of employee they need.
5) This thing pisses me off the most, only US citizens. Why on earth jobs only for US Citizens. Isn't that a kind of discrimination. People with US Citizenship not only get restricted jobs very easily but also when two candidates competing for same position with same credentials, US citizen guy will get the job since company won't have to pay for the H1B filling and all. Sometimes I wonder why Americans cry a lot about International people taking up their job since companies, US government are doing their best to give them the job, now they are so weak than what others can do.
6) This is the last thing, sometimes interviewers who are taking interviews over the phone have no idea about what kind of position they are interviewing for, they never interact with HR and start asking very complex things such as intricate questions on Stack unwinding, thread control-block issues.
7) Too long interview session like 9 interviews a day, the probability of one not knowing everything is quite high and if any one interviewer says no to hiring, the probability of you being hired reaches to zero.
Anyway, these things are part of life and keep on trying is the best thing than doing nothing or getting depressed. I am good enough that's why I am giving interviews even during worst great depression. At the same time, I should start looking for some maim or abcd so that I can become US Citizen asap ;), see I have already found a way to rectify a part of bigger problem while writing this blog :P. Also, if companies are so stringent about hiring, then one should be sincere towards his/her job but should never be loyal to the company and kick them on their back when a new opportunity strikes since you were hired because you were second best to none than why work for a company which is second best to the someone(new opportunity).
I have improved tremendously over an year, the problem I initially faced was that the programming knowledge that an undergrad should know very well was fractured, which means fundamentally unsound but don't judge me that I am totally zero since I cleared every screen interviews which companies generally test your fundamentals which in itself is intimidating and hardly 10% of people are able to clear it.
Some things that I see as problems apart from blaming myself are-:
1) Too broad job description, which means a company such as Intel or semi-conductor based needs a Software Engineer who is not only proficient in writing C++ code but also possesses knowledge of embedded systems, VLSI etc., now how can a Computer Science student who has not interned in Semi-conductor company can get fit into above job description. One on-site interview I gave at Altair, they wanted me to know Finite State Analysis(FSA) which is a mechnical thing, how can I know I have no idea?
2) Very limited open positions, most companies are trying to fill in some cases just one position in their department, and for that I thing they are interviewing 50 candidates, even if you are good but someone else who applied has relevant work experience will surely get the job.
3) Too much of a competition, these days market is bad, too many people applying for the same job, when in January I went for Microsoft on-site interviews, the HR told me they are interviewing 80+ candidates daily for last 6 weeks.
4) Local/ Small companies which are located in cities such as Chicago, NYC, Bay Area or NJ don't want to consider anyone else than local candiates to keep their expenses down and sacrificing on the quality of employee they need.
5) This thing pisses me off the most, only US citizens. Why on earth jobs only for US Citizens. Isn't that a kind of discrimination. People with US Citizenship not only get restricted jobs very easily but also when two candidates competing for same position with same credentials, US citizen guy will get the job since company won't have to pay for the H1B filling and all. Sometimes I wonder why Americans cry a lot about International people taking up their job since companies, US government are doing their best to give them the job, now they are so weak than what others can do.
6) This is the last thing, sometimes interviewers who are taking interviews over the phone have no idea about what kind of position they are interviewing for, they never interact with HR and start asking very complex things such as intricate questions on Stack unwinding, thread control-block issues.
7) Too long interview session like 9 interviews a day, the probability of one not knowing everything is quite high and if any one interviewer says no to hiring, the probability of you being hired reaches to zero.
Anyway, these things are part of life and keep on trying is the best thing than doing nothing or getting depressed. I am good enough that's why I am giving interviews even during worst great depression. At the same time, I should start looking for some maim or abcd so that I can become US Citizen asap ;), see I have already found a way to rectify a part of bigger problem while writing this blog :P. Also, if companies are so stringent about hiring, then one should be sincere towards his/her job but should never be loyal to the company and kick them on their back when a new opportunity strikes since you were hired because you were second best to none than why work for a company which is second best to the someone(new opportunity).
Friday, October 31, 2008
Microsoft SDE interview
Yesterday, I returned from Ithaca, NY(Cornell University). I went there to give Microsoft On-site interview for SDE(Software Design Engineer) position. This was by far the best interview process that I experienced.
Everything happened so fast just within 2 weeks, I cleared preliminary interview over phone which roughly went for 45 minutes.They asked some puzzles, one testing question and one algorithm related question and my projects and previous work experiences.
On Sunday, got an email from Microsoft people stating they have a slot opened on Thursday and I said yes since I don't want to wait a month or two to again visit Redmond headquarters. I was preparing for this interview for last 2 weeks after giving preliminary interview since I knew it went very well and I would be called for on-site interview.
Interview day went like a breeze, only three interviews which consist of one testing and two programming/ algorithm puzzles. In Testing interview, I struggled a lot since I could not assimilate points under sections and I was just giving answers in a very haphazard manner but they were quite right and pertinent to the problem given to me.
Then, 2nd and 3rd interviews were programming, to be specific algorithms related, I impressed interviewers a lot by not only giving more than one solution to the problem but also telling them the algorithm complexities of each one of them in terms of Big-Oh, they were pretty impressed with my conceptual knowledge, I was satisfied since I am convincing people who are Design Engineer Leads at Microsoft for past 12-20 years and graduates of Cornell University(Top 10 Computer Science University in United States). I little bit struggled in writing code, like simulating Hashtable in Java/C# in C++ by constructing a look-up array but somehow managed to make it. After giving these two programming interviews I realized I haven't done any testing on my code and then I realized that I am going to go home empty handed. Testing like empty string and empty array conditions and all.
I was very much satisfied with how my interviews went and was hoping positive outcome. As day passed morning turned to afternoon roughly at 1 PM, one of the managers came to me and he took me to the lobby and told me right now, they won't be selecting me and he was generous enough to give me the feedback, he told the conceptual knowledge of mine was pretty impressive but I suck at testing and in some part I struggled while writing code, they were so right and they are so great they assessed what was in my mind and told me.
Anyway, I am very happy since after this interview I feel so good since I prepared very hard, got many things/concepts cleared and did a lot of problem solving stuff, feels like brain has started working in a very right way :). This was the last time I appeared for Microsoft Interview as a Campus candidate but feeling very gratified with my own personal performance when compared to last on-site interview of Microsoft I gave at Redmond.
Everything happened so fast just within 2 weeks, I cleared preliminary interview over phone which roughly went for 45 minutes.They asked some puzzles, one testing question and one algorithm related question and my projects and previous work experiences.
On Sunday, got an email from Microsoft people stating they have a slot opened on Thursday and I said yes since I don't want to wait a month or two to again visit Redmond headquarters. I was preparing for this interview for last 2 weeks after giving preliminary interview since I knew it went very well and I would be called for on-site interview.
Interview day went like a breeze, only three interviews which consist of one testing and two programming/ algorithm puzzles. In Testing interview, I struggled a lot since I could not assimilate points under sections and I was just giving answers in a very haphazard manner but they were quite right and pertinent to the problem given to me.
Then, 2nd and 3rd interviews were programming, to be specific algorithms related, I impressed interviewers a lot by not only giving more than one solution to the problem but also telling them the algorithm complexities of each one of them in terms of Big-Oh, they were pretty impressed with my conceptual knowledge, I was satisfied since I am convincing people who are Design Engineer Leads at Microsoft for past 12-20 years and graduates of Cornell University(Top 10 Computer Science University in United States). I little bit struggled in writing code, like simulating Hashtable in Java/C# in C++ by constructing a look-up array but somehow managed to make it. After giving these two programming interviews I realized I haven't done any testing on my code and then I realized that I am going to go home empty handed. Testing like empty string and empty array conditions and all.
I was very much satisfied with how my interviews went and was hoping positive outcome. As day passed morning turned to afternoon roughly at 1 PM, one of the managers came to me and he took me to the lobby and told me right now, they won't be selecting me and he was generous enough to give me the feedback, he told the conceptual knowledge of mine was pretty impressive but I suck at testing and in some part I struggled while writing code, they were so right and they are so great they assessed what was in my mind and told me.
Anyway, I am very happy since after this interview I feel so good since I prepared very hard, got many things/concepts cleared and did a lot of problem solving stuff, feels like brain has started working in a very right way :). This was the last time I appeared for Microsoft Interview as a Campus candidate but feeling very gratified with my own personal performance when compared to last on-site interview of Microsoft I gave at Redmond.
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Tough times ahead.....
I am not talking about ailing US economy or 125,000 job losses in last 2 months in United States but about the on-site interview I have next week for which I would be flying to Boston, MA. This company has already taken 4 telephonic interviews, totaling 210 minutes and now they would be taking 9 interviews at their office on the very same day. I have no idea how I would be surviving 9 interviews, in January I went for Network Appliances onsite interview to Pittsburgh, PA and they took 8 interviews there (on the same day) and trust me, I literally passed out.
The position I applied for is Software Development Engineer, the job description states one should be proficient in C++, COM, MFC, ATL, Win32 programming. I am very unsure and surprised at the same time how I cleared telephonic interviews since I didn’t knew MFC at all and this COM stuff which includes COM, ATL and Win32 I didn’t remember much after I finished my CSE 775 Distributed Objects course in spring 2007, may be being proficient in C++, OOD and Design Patterns saved my butts but now the question is for how long?
Talking about this company, I haven’t met with anyone till now but the HR lady with whom I spoke to on telephone seemed very hostile and straightforward. She told me that if next year I am not able to get H1 visa they won’t be doing anything, I said isn’t your company enrolled in E-verify program and she bluntly said ‘NO’. Plus she also said we will review your performance before sponsoring your visa, which means there is no security in terms of job and visa sponsorship. Though this company is offering good amount of money but I will talk once again with them if they extend an offer to join and if things remain the same then I will not be joining such a company which doesn’t keep good care of their employees and leave them on their own fate. There are always other options to overcome this visa problem, one is, this company has offices in India also, therefore they can always bring me back to States on L-1 Visa if my H1 is rejected next year and they are still not enrolled in E-verify next year. But I admit one should be worth it, if company is willing to do so much.
Right now, I am not thinking much except preparing for the interview, getting excited to fly 4th time this year, did I mention I love planes and free flights!, someone standing at airport with my name on ply card( it's very gratifying indeed) and a limousine waiting outside to pick you up though you are not a celebrity or a beautiful blond girl.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Differentiating an Apple from Oranges.
To start off this topic I want to make one thing very clear , I am not a Fanboy. By term Fanboy, I mean I don't preach or bind myself to some group, faith or consumer level product. I am writing something that I have experienced myself and my conclusion of it.
I usually buy stuff which I feel is good, useful and of-course awesome, During last one year two of the stuff that I bought which are worth mentioning are Refurbished Microsoft's Xbox 360(March' 08) and Apple iPhone( Sept'07). Both of them are pretty good in their area, for gaming Xbox 360 is way better than technologically advance Sony's Playstation 3 for which not many games were there when I bought though Sony is gaining ground but I did not want a gaming console which is approximately 20 times faster than normal home computers but difficult to program and hence not many games for it, plus being a poor graduate student I did not want to spend ~$424 on this super computer and hence settled down on refurbished Xbox 360 from ecost.com which set me back to $199 but I found it to be pretty good deal.
Everything with Xbox 360 was well and good for 3 weeks but after that nightmare started, I got acquainted to what 33% of the Xbox 360 suffer from which most people call "RRoD" which stands for Red Ring of Death, 3 red lights started blinking and console became inoperable. I called Microsoft and they sent me an empty box to send them back Xbox for repair, the box they sent me took approximately 3 days to come which is fine but the box could not be picked up by UPS from my door and the nearest UPS is like 2 miles away from my place so I had to walk there carrying my xbox. I was happy at-least they would be repairing it and I would be playing it again. After a long 3 weeks, I received back my Xbox, I was so happy thinking of playing next generation games such as Halo 3, Call of Duty 4, Bio Shock again. But guess what, when I opened the box there was a letter saying that "Dear Xbox customer, your xbox has been opened before(seal broken) and therefore we are not repairing it". Those dumb a**holes did'nt knew even after registering with them that I bought a refurbished Xbox and it might be possible ecost.com might have opened it for repair and when I called Microsoft's customer care they were totally unhelpful when I told they sent me back console without repairing it and they said they could not do anything with this console, which means I have to throw this thing into bin and buy the same thing again. I searched internet and I found a way to temporarily make Xbox 360 work for like 2 weeks every-time I do Towel trick with it, since then I am playing happily with my xbox without paying Microsoft anything from my pocket again.
Now comes my after sales experience with Apple, I was going to library and it started raining heavily and in my pocket was my iPhone and it got wet and when I reached library I tried calling to one my friends, the screen started showing vertical and horizontal lines and after a while it switched off automatically, I knew my iPhone is now useless, I was very much disappointed and got little depressed since being a student and spending ~$324 on this thing and it died within 9 months but I knew it was all my fault and nobody else's. Then I called Apple Customer Care and told them that my iPhone is not working and lines are coming on the screen. They sent me an empty box which reached at my place the next day and they picked up( FedEx) from my door and it reached their service center the next day. On the 5th day after sending my useless iPhone, I received a box from Apple, when I opened it, it had a letter saying "Dear Mr. Singh, we could not repair your iPhone that's why we are sending you a new iPhone". I was so happy and delighted since I had left hopes of reusing an iPhone again and with my prior sore and apathetic experience received from Microsoft customer service but I always knew Apple is not Microsoft and they take good care of their customers. Such kind and gentle care instills good amount of faith and loyalty of a customer towards the company( in this case Apple).
To sum it all, most of you will agree Microsoft products sucks a big time to name a few Windows Vista ( damn 2 GB RAM to run a personal computer and not a server :O), Microsoft Zune( ever heard of it, it was(is) an MP3 player), Xbox 360 (check out the virginity seal before buying this dumb machine otherwise your towels would be used for more than one thing). If Microsoft had ever designed a car then most probably it's engine or breaks would have failed leading to an accident and in their defense they would have said the car owner once opened it's bonnet or why the owner ever started and driving a car at first place (was'nt a car meant to be driven :P). They will never improve and will keep on dereferencing the "NULL POINTER", leading to blue screen of death( BSoD).
I usually buy stuff which I feel is good, useful and of-course awesome, During last one year two of the stuff that I bought which are worth mentioning are Refurbished Microsoft's Xbox 360(March' 08) and Apple iPhone( Sept'07). Both of them are pretty good in their area, for gaming Xbox 360 is way better than technologically advance Sony's Playstation 3 for which not many games were there when I bought though Sony is gaining ground but I did not want a gaming console which is approximately 20 times faster than normal home computers but difficult to program and hence not many games for it, plus being a poor graduate student I did not want to spend ~$424 on this super computer and hence settled down on refurbished Xbox 360 from ecost.com which set me back to $199 but I found it to be pretty good deal.
Everything with Xbox 360 was well and good for 3 weeks but after that nightmare started, I got acquainted to what 33% of the Xbox 360 suffer from which most people call "RRoD" which stands for Red Ring of Death, 3 red lights started blinking and console became inoperable. I called Microsoft and they sent me an empty box to send them back Xbox for repair, the box they sent me took approximately 3 days to come which is fine but the box could not be picked up by UPS from my door and the nearest UPS is like 2 miles away from my place so I had to walk there carrying my xbox. I was happy at-least they would be repairing it and I would be playing it again. After a long 3 weeks, I received back my Xbox, I was so happy thinking of playing next generation games such as Halo 3, Call of Duty 4, Bio Shock again. But guess what, when I opened the box there was a letter saying that "Dear Xbox customer, your xbox has been opened before(seal broken) and therefore we are not repairing it". Those dumb a**holes did'nt knew even after registering with them that I bought a refurbished Xbox and it might be possible ecost.com might have opened it for repair and when I called Microsoft's customer care they were totally unhelpful when I told they sent me back console without repairing it and they said they could not do anything with this console, which means I have to throw this thing into bin and buy the same thing again. I searched internet and I found a way to temporarily make Xbox 360 work for like 2 weeks every-time I do Towel trick with it, since then I am playing happily with my xbox without paying Microsoft anything from my pocket again.
Now comes my after sales experience with Apple, I was going to library and it started raining heavily and in my pocket was my iPhone and it got wet and when I reached library I tried calling to one my friends, the screen started showing vertical and horizontal lines and after a while it switched off automatically, I knew my iPhone is now useless, I was very much disappointed and got little depressed since being a student and spending ~$324 on this thing and it died within 9 months but I knew it was all my fault and nobody else's. Then I called Apple Customer Care and told them that my iPhone is not working and lines are coming on the screen. They sent me an empty box which reached at my place the next day and they picked up( FedEx) from my door and it reached their service center the next day. On the 5th day after sending my useless iPhone, I received a box from Apple, when I opened it, it had a letter saying "Dear Mr. Singh, we could not repair your iPhone that's why we are sending you a new iPhone". I was so happy and delighted since I had left hopes of reusing an iPhone again and with my prior sore and apathetic experience received from Microsoft customer service but I always knew Apple is not Microsoft and they take good care of their customers. Such kind and gentle care instills good amount of faith and loyalty of a customer towards the company( in this case Apple).
To sum it all, most of you will agree Microsoft products sucks a big time to name a few Windows Vista ( damn 2 GB RAM to run a personal computer and not a server :O), Microsoft Zune( ever heard of it, it was(is) an MP3 player), Xbox 360 (check out the virginity seal before buying this dumb machine otherwise your towels would be used for more than one thing). If Microsoft had ever designed a car then most probably it's engine or breaks would have failed leading to an accident and in their defense they would have said the car owner once opened it's bonnet or why the owner ever started and driving a car at first place (was'nt a car meant to be driven :P). They will never improve and will keep on dereferencing the "NULL POINTER", leading to blue screen of death( BSoD).
Monday, June 9, 2008
MAC-inization of the world!
"They say Apple products are not for everyone, but you are not everyone".
I think above statement is going to change forever with the unveiling of iPhone 2.0 starting at $199 and introducing this phone to over 70 countries from July 11th, 2008 onwards.
"The only thing that can beat an iPhone(1.0) is a new iPhone(2.0)".
Today at World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) at San Fransisco, Steve Jobs unveiled iPhone 2.0 which looks more or less the same as last generation of iPhone but it comes with 3G, GPS and its quite cheap in price (8 GB for $199 and 16 GB for $299 with 2 yr contract).
I find pricing very competitive and with support for Microsoft Exchange, Apple is all set to enter corporate world which till now is dominated by Blackberry and with host of security features such as Cisco IPSec VPN, they are making sure that they comply with security needed in Enterprise environment.
I personally believe that iPhone had much bigger impact on masses on how they started perceiving and accepting Apple products beyond iPod and iPhone. Reading from last year statistics Apple's Macintosh line of Computers such as Macbooks and iMacs are selling 30% more than previous year. Now the question might pop up in your mind, how iPhone and Macintosh sales related. The answer is, iPhone is build on the same software that Macintosh uses which is OS X (Darwin) which is based on BSD implementation of UNIX OS. iPhone users are mesmerized by the stability, user friendliness along with the eye catching features of iPhone.
Potential Users of new iPhone would be-:
1) Big Corporations which needed Enterprise wide support which was lacking in previous generation of iPhone.
2) Corporations sick and tired of monopoly of Blackberry(s).
3) Individuals who are willing to pay extra with Contract and use phone for internet surfing( Safari), listening to music (iPod), email, GPS, photos, Youtube-ing, SMS than merely to call someone.
The only roadblock that I see is the contract for 2 years but without contract, Apple cannot sell this phone for $199 and to use 3G services one has to pay $30 extra every month( though I am not sure that getting 3G service is mandatory or not).
So with this development what should one be thinking if they are existing iPhone owners (1st generation). I feel there's no reason to feel sad or to repent if one has bought last June(when it was released, though $200 price cut in 2 months would have made experience sore) or in September'07( this was the best time to experience at lowered prices). One should remember, one has to pay substantially more being early adopter of the new technology. If one has waited a whole year for lowering of prices, then you never know next January(2009), Steve Jobs unveil a whole new iPhone at even more lowered price. What I mean to say is, if the product is awesome, then the best time to buy it, is right now.
To conclude this topic, I think iPhone is pretty awesome phone. It has changed how people conceived and used phones. With releasing of this phone to over 70 countries including developing(third world) countries such as India, it would interesting to see how it competes with well established and dominant brands such as Nokia and Sony Ericsson and watching people tapping their multi fingers on touch screen which they never ever did before.
I think above statement is going to change forever with the unveiling of iPhone 2.0 starting at $199 and introducing this phone to over 70 countries from July 11th, 2008 onwards.
"The only thing that can beat an iPhone(1.0) is a new iPhone(2.0)".
Today at World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) at San Fransisco, Steve Jobs unveiled iPhone 2.0 which looks more or less the same as last generation of iPhone but it comes with 3G, GPS and its quite cheap in price (8 GB for $199 and 16 GB for $299 with 2 yr contract).
I find pricing very competitive and with support for Microsoft Exchange, Apple is all set to enter corporate world which till now is dominated by Blackberry and with host of security features such as Cisco IPSec VPN, they are making sure that they comply with security needed in Enterprise environment.
I personally believe that iPhone had much bigger impact on masses on how they started perceiving and accepting Apple products beyond iPod and iPhone. Reading from last year statistics Apple's Macintosh line of Computers such as Macbooks and iMacs are selling 30% more than previous year. Now the question might pop up in your mind, how iPhone and Macintosh sales related. The answer is, iPhone is build on the same software that Macintosh uses which is OS X (Darwin) which is based on BSD implementation of UNIX OS. iPhone users are mesmerized by the stability, user friendliness along with the eye catching features of iPhone.
Potential Users of new iPhone would be-:
1) Big Corporations which needed Enterprise wide support which was lacking in previous generation of iPhone.
2) Corporations sick and tired of monopoly of Blackberry(s).
3) Individuals who are willing to pay extra with Contract and use phone for internet surfing( Safari), listening to music (iPod), email, GPS, photos, Youtube-ing, SMS than merely to call someone.
The only roadblock that I see is the contract for 2 years but without contract, Apple cannot sell this phone for $199 and to use 3G services one has to pay $30 extra every month( though I am not sure that getting 3G service is mandatory or not).
So with this development what should one be thinking if they are existing iPhone owners (1st generation). I feel there's no reason to feel sad or to repent if one has bought last June(when it was released, though $200 price cut in 2 months would have made experience sore) or in September'07( this was the best time to experience at lowered prices). One should remember, one has to pay substantially more being early adopter of the new technology. If one has waited a whole year for lowering of prices, then you never know next January(2009), Steve Jobs unveil a whole new iPhone at even more lowered price. What I mean to say is, if the product is awesome, then the best time to buy it, is right now.
To conclude this topic, I think iPhone is pretty awesome phone. It has changed how people conceived and used phones. With releasing of this phone to over 70 countries including developing(third world) countries such as India, it would interesting to see how it competes with well established and dominant brands such as Nokia and Sony Ericsson and watching people tapping their multi fingers on touch screen which they never ever did before.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Every day is a Sunday for me these days!
I am done with my Masters. Now, I am actively looking for a job which fits my profile. For me a dream job would be of a Developer which means-:
1) Gathering Requirements.
2) Designing application according to specifications.
3) Using good Design techniques.
4) Coding.
5) Testing the application.
This is how I did during my internship and everything seemed perfect.
Now, for the past 4-5 months I am giving interviews(Microsoft, NetApp, Mathworks, Sun, Qualcomm..list goes on and on) and visited many places in United States. The result has been same which is rejects from everywhere.
To be really honest I never felt I lacked technical skills which interviewers were asking and after giving so many interviews, more or less they ask the same questions.
If the interviewer is an Indian/Chinese, he/she will ask directly from a technical interview book and questions range from Linked List, Binary trees to Operating System Concepts...sometimes puzzles but rarely. One thing everyone asks is polymorphism :P.
If the interviewer is American, he/she will ask more about your work experience.
-> What kind of challenges one faced during projects?
-> Have you ever worked in team?
-> What was your role?
-> Why this company and this role?
-> Which environments you prefer most?
-> Why we should hire you?
-> Which course you liked most and why?
-> What are your career aspirations and where do you see yourself after 4-5 years?
In some interviews 2nd type of interviewers hardly ever delved into technical questions.
After thorough introspection, I believe I suck big time answering to questions the second type of interviewers asked. Just mainly because for these kind of questions one can't do much preparation and with varying job profiles it becomes little bit more difficult to answer such questions, reversing and sorting a linked list is so easy compared to this.
Now, with nothing in my hand and sitting idle on my ass with perl and design patterns books beside me, I wish I had some more work experience of about 3-4 years in core development environment, things would have been very different, work experience here matters a lot and I hardly see any Entry Level job for Master's/ International Student these days( people call it recession).
Wish me luck, now thats what I need most at this point in my life.
1) Gathering Requirements.
2) Designing application according to specifications.
3) Using good Design techniques.
4) Coding.
5) Testing the application.
This is how I did during my internship and everything seemed perfect.
Now, for the past 4-5 months I am giving interviews(Microsoft, NetApp, Mathworks, Sun, Qualcomm..list goes on and on) and visited many places in United States. The result has been same which is rejects from everywhere.
To be really honest I never felt I lacked technical skills which interviewers were asking and after giving so many interviews, more or less they ask the same questions.
If the interviewer is an Indian/Chinese, he/she will ask directly from a technical interview book and questions range from Linked List, Binary trees to Operating System Concepts...sometimes puzzles but rarely. One thing everyone asks is polymorphism :P.
If the interviewer is American, he/she will ask more about your work experience.
-> What kind of challenges one faced during projects?
-> Have you ever worked in team?
-> What was your role?
-> Why this company and this role?
-> Which environments you prefer most?
-> Why we should hire you?
-> Which course you liked most and why?
-> What are your career aspirations and where do you see yourself after 4-5 years?
In some interviews 2nd type of interviewers hardly ever delved into technical questions.
After thorough introspection, I believe I suck big time answering to questions the second type of interviewers asked. Just mainly because for these kind of questions one can't do much preparation and with varying job profiles it becomes little bit more difficult to answer such questions, reversing and sorting a linked list is so easy compared to this.
Now, with nothing in my hand and sitting idle on my ass with perl and design patterns books beside me, I wish I had some more work experience of about 3-4 years in core development environment, things would have been very different, work experience here matters a lot and I hardly see any Entry Level job for Master's/ International Student these days( people call it recession).
Wish me luck, now thats what I need most at this point in my life.
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