Idle/Random/whatever Thoughts of a Demented/Idle/Whatever Mind

This particular phishing mail was very interesting. It claimed that I got a refund from Income Tax Department. That too of Rs 820.50. Here is the complete mail for you. Dear Income Tax Department of India customer, After the last annual calculation of your fiscal activity we have determined that you are going to receive a tax refund of $820.50 Rupees. Please submit the tax refund form and allow 3-5 days in order to approve it. A refund can be delayed for a variety of reasons.For example submitting invalid records or sending the form after the deadline. To complete the form , please Click Here . NOTE! For security reasons your ip may be recorded.. Thank you, Income Tax Department of India Online Department. I love the fact that they are ignorant about me being a customer of Income tax department. I think I am more appropriately a victim of IT Dept. But I was more in shock for the whether I am going to get $820.50 or Rs...

Well its was well known that mobile numbers with 8 are going to start soon . But it so happened that my dear friend Daaku took a new Tata Docomo connection. Now the amazing thing was that it starts with 805xx-xxxxx. So now if I try to call this friend of mine, my Vodafone network tells me that its an invalid number. I was confused and so I asked my friend daaku to call me. I got his number in caller ID but calling it was again not possible. Obviously its not mistake in dialing the number, rather its a stupid things that Vodafone and possibly other networks too have done. So here is my guess what has happened. Vodafone, takes the number +91805xx-xxxxx as 91 for country(that India), 80(Code for Bangalore) and 5 would be Tata Indicom as they provide landline with that series. Interestingly Vodafone seems to have not configured its network to this change which happened for mobile numbers starting with 8. I tried contacting Vodafone customer care, they seemed to be unaware of the issue...

Barcamp Bangalore is one of those events which I just wait for. Its a time when I rejuvenate my thought process which is drained thanks to the often hectic work at office. Also this is one place where geeks can feel at home and talk about anything under the sun. Its pretty cool that its not just Tech thats discussed but also other topics close to us, like politics and life. Like most times, the paper wiki was filled completely as soon as it was put up. I actually saw a few people going disappointed with not being able to put up their talk. And like most other times, it started with the intro session for the first timers. This time it was Pradeep BV taking charge and explaining it to the first timers, what barcamp is all about. After that it was realized that one of the four rooms were actually not available for Barcampers. Anyways another great thing that happened was that an Impromptu Sessions paper wiki was put up. Amazingly it too was filled in a matter of minutes, it was put up...

It was time again DCamp or Design Camp Bangalore.  Amit Pande, Sarit, Muthu , Anil Gupta among others worked hard to get this event going. I must tell you that I had an awesome time there. The presentations there were truly awesome. Let give a short summary of the things as they happened at the DCamp, though Vinodhn already has kind of everything on twitter . So heres how the event unfolded for me. I happily landed and Mekhri Circle expecting Aditi's office to be close by. So I begin walking from there towards Cauvery Circle. Cool I was looking for directions and I see someone looking at me from an auto. Oh ok I recognize this guy, hmmm....ok he is Gilberto from Thoughworks. Fine he is going to DCamp but is lost and does not know where is it happening. Ok fine I said, let walk to towards the Aditi Office and let so we walk. A few meters down the road, there is Muthu and Sudhindra at the gate of Aditi. So next thing we do is register and head for the terrace where the event was ha...

Well that a provoking first line, but then thats exactly what I have to say about this company. Tata Elxsi should be blacklisted, but wait a minute by whom? Well the software developers fraternity. Its a blood sucking corporation which is right documented in the documentary The Corporation . Ok why am I telling this after almost one year of leaving it. Well when the fact is that I have nothing to do with it. I have already let out my personal experience here , here and here . Well it was not just me as its obvious from the comments but then it was general feeling of my friends there. Well all I can talk about is friends because I dont know how each and every employee of Tata Elxsi felt. Anyways heres one more story about the kind of harassment and employee of Tata Elxsi might have to suffer . Though I had read it earlier but am blogging now about solely because I wanted to confirm the news being true. And sadly it is true. An employee was indeed made to resign. And indeed its legally ...

Well as I have been observing Camps happening all the time. Its like they are happening dime a dozen. We had Barcamp Bangalore. DCamp Bangalore was introduced later. Kamp was one more even to add to the list. Then suddenly some techies join forces for Devcamp . Now I see iCamp (Innovation Camp) in sight. Cool stuff happening. But then isn't it a little too much. Actually to come to think of it. Most of those are in their first inning. I wish they go into their centennial editions. Infact India need more of these camps. The camp phenomenon has hit the Kashmir Valley too. So the fever is finally catching on. I really loved the discussion at Devcamp which talked about a lot things. Most make no sense to me but some did. I am sure there were other who took home more than what I did. I heard there is this OSSCamp which also happens regularly in Delhi atleast. So its clear that Barcamp fever has gripped India big time. So what next. Well next step is converting this mo...

According to this story by Engadget , the rate of piracy of Vista is half of XP. Now should MS be happy about. After all piracy is low. But are they overlooking the fact that people hate Vista even if its free or at real dirt cheap prices. There have been several instances where people have downgraded their system to XP instead of the standard Vista. If the kind of hard selling that they are doing, I feel they are pretty much aware of the fact that people just dont trust Windows Vista. The acceptance level has reached a new low. The only way for them to outsell is to make their earlier product look bad. But then why would not they believe that the competitor (Linux and Mac) would not be dubbed as better creations. I really dont know if Vista is all that bad. I am happy with XP provided by office. I plan not to shift to Vista, unless forced. So the big question is, would you shift to Vista, even if it were to be free?

Thanks to the blogging and the bloggers community especially Prashanth from Techbangalore.com I got invite to meet IT Secretary of Govt of Karnataka, Mr M.N. Vidyashankar. Frankly I wasnt much prepared for the conversation expect the fact I work for an IT company. Along with me were Hari , Arun and Prashanth . Mr M.N. Vidyashankar received us at his office. He started with great enthusiasm explaining us what Bangalore is for IT. He stated certain facts that showed how much IT meant for Karnataka. He was clear that IT could not be ignored at all, after all 26% of Karnataka's GDP comes from in there although to India's GDP it contributes a mere 4%. With 4.9lakh plus people employed by the industry it was bigger than the state which is around 4.5 lakhs. He told us that infrastructure crunch was the reason why around 18 months back heads started rolling. 10000 acre Knowledge City at Biradi is the outcome of that. Bigger plan is get 5 such self contained townships with over 6000...