January 2009

Why SouthWest gets it..

Another reason to fly SouthWest.. Look at the picture of the chairs they are providing their customers at the Midway airport in Chicago.

This is good marketing and customer care. Not only did Southwest take the time to put in comfortable seating at their gates, but also took the extra step to provide power outlets and listen to this.. USB charging outlets. How many of you have had to run around airports looking for a power socket to charge your dying battery? :-).. I am going to fly SouthWest moving forward.. whenever I can.

Yes.. that is my laptop getting charged :-).

January 9, 2009 by Rantings Travel Uncategorized 2

HOW TO : Configure AT&T 3G on Windows Vista without Communication Manager

This is a howto for the geek in you :-). You can easily configure a AT&T 3G Wireless card on your workstation using the Communication Manager software provided by AT&T.. But then I have always been against using bloated software for something you can configure on your own.

I recently got a 3G card at work and needed to install it on my laptop. I figured that the AT&T  provided software was just setting up a dial-up connection with specific settings. Guessing that some Linux geek might have already figured out what the settings where, I used the following search term in Google “Linux Ubuntu Configure AT&T 3G card”.. Lo and behold, the following link showed up http://redmonk.com/sogrady/2008/12/07/how-to-use-an-att-ericsson-f3507g-card-on-ubuntu-intrepid/.

Here are the steps, I follwed to configure the card in Microsoft Vista

  • Insert card into the laptop and use the “search online” feature for installing the required drivers.
  • Open “Network and Sharing Center”.
  • Click on “Setup up a connection or network”.
  • Choose “Connect to the Internet” option and click on Next.
  • If you are already connected to the Internet, you will get a message stating the same, but choose the “Setup a new connection anyway”.
  • If you already have existing dial-up or DSL connections, choose “No, create a new connection” and click on Next
  • Choose “Dial-up”
  • Choose the modem related to your 3G card.. For example, mine was “Sierra Wireless AirCard 875 HSDPA Modem”
  • Enter the following information in the ISP Information
    • Dial-up phone number : *99#
    • User name : *
    • Password : *
    • Connection Name : Whatever you want to name it

  • Click on Connect and enjoy the broadband speed without bloatware :-).
January 8, 2009 by HOWTO Uncategorized Windows 8

OverHeard : Comment about Software development

Comment by an esteemed colleague when discussing the need to purchase hardware to fix performance issues..

Software is like a gas.. it expands to fill all the space (capacity) available to it”

This is derived from Myhrvold’s law which states “As the software becomes more complex, the likelihood of problems tend to increase”. The original article is on Wired.com at http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/3.09/myhrvold.html.

January 7, 2009 by Fun OverHeard Uncategorized 0

Happy New Year – 2009

Wishing everyone a happy new year.. While 2008 treated me well professionally, it was a tough one on the personal end. If anything, it made me realize the importance of our near and dear ones. How much we take them for granted..

So let’s tip our glasses to the year of Ox. Hoping that this year will bring us peace, love and health..

Take a moment to say “hello” to those near and dear ones you haven’t called in the last few years :-)..

January 2, 2009 by Festivals Fun Uncategorized 2