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

Winter time parking in Chicago

If you ever see a open spot on the streets of Chicago, during winter time, and it looks like this.

Don’t think you got lucky and park there.. You might end up with a broken windshield or worse yet, be beaten up with a baseball bat :-). And the cops won’t even sympathize with you, if you file a complaint. There is an unspoken rule in Chicago.. If a (wo)man spends time to shovel snow on the street and put their chair/basket/table/crap to mark their spot, they are entitled to it, until the snow melts! :-).

As Chris Tucker say’s in the movie Friday “Never come around here again..never, never,ever,ever,ever come around here again…can you do that?” :-).

December 22, 2008 by Fun Uncategorized 0

Support WikiPedia

It is the season of giving.. And who else can be more eligible than the WikiPedia Foundation. For those that use the Internet regularly, you know that WikiPedia has become an indispensable resource. This is collaboration and sharing in it’s purest sense. How many of your arguments end now with.. “I checked WikiPedia and I am correct” :).

I know that times are tough for many people, but if you do have the opportunity..take a minute to donate to the WikiPedia foundation. Click on the this link to go to the donation page .. http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate/Now/en

They are aiming to raise $6MM and are up to $3.8MM now.

December 20, 2008 by Technology Uncategorized Web 0

Loose the shackles..

If you need to edit documents, create spreadsheets and presentations… and don’t want to spend $$$ for Microsoft Office, download the latest version of OpenOffice for free and give it a try. You might be pleasantly surprised.

I wrote a post earlier about using OpenOffice as a free PDF Editor.. And that is just the tip of the iceberg of what you can do with OpenOffice.

Most of the people that use Microsoft Office, only use the basic functionality. As my old boss used to say, “95% of the people use 5% of the functionality in Office”. And switching to OpenOffice would be a breeze for then. OpenOffice is available for Microsoft Windows, Linux and Apple Mac OS X.

Since OpenOffice 3.0 was released back in October, the software has been downloaded more than 10 million times. And we are close to hitting 20 million downloads..Here’s a live counter from the OpenOffice website

December 20, 2008 by Linux Mac Technology Uncategorized Windows 0

Makhna ve makhna

Last weekend, I attended my first concert by a fusion band named Funkadesi. They play a fusion of  Bhangra and Reggae. The band definitely knew how to keep the crowd entertained..  They also introduced another band “The Afromotive” as their opening act. I thought that this band had great talent. I rarely buy music.. but was so impressed by the talent of both the bands that I bought their CDs on the spot. I forgot to take my camera with me.. but this video kinds shows how fun the band was

And the best part of it? The percussionists did an improve of Boney M‘s “Rivers of Babylon” to close the concert. To say the least… I was stoked!! :-).

If you get a chance.. definitely check them out.

December 13, 2008 by Music Uncategorized 1