18 lbs and growing

So they sent him in a box with no-return policy and no a-z guarantee and now he is 18 lbs and growing .. all we do is order diapers .. great business model!

The Morons of McD's

I don't lose my temper easily, though my wife thinks otherwise ;) .. So, a couple of days ago, when I came across a totally moron-ish McDonald's employee in Auburn, WA, I was forced to give her some advice. I was on my way back from Mt. Rainier (ohh, so magnificent!) with my dad-mom and stopped at this neat-looking McD's to grab a quick bite.

I ordered a veggie sandwich - which is not on their menu and trust me, as simplistic as it may sound, is not easy to order. "Plain cheeseburger, take out the meat, add lettuce, tomato, onions, cheese, pickles, and ketchup". Hah! Wish it had been that simple .. I had to reiterate the order twice through the drive-thru mic and since I realized the waitress (are they waitresses technically? they don't wait on your table, do they? anyway .. ) did not get it, I parked and went in with my party in tow. And ordered again at the counter. "Plain cheeseburger, blah blah" and two Grilled Chicken sandwiches. Smile, swipe, receipt, and I go sit at my table. 2 min, and my order is ready, I'm impressed. My mom opens her sandwich and there is just two halves of the bun and a slice of yellow American cheese in it. I smile, this is not the first time this has happened, there are a lot of such employees around the country's McDs - the same exact thing has happened to us in Scottsdale AZ, San Diego CA, Iselin NJ, Gaithersburg MD and Pittsburgh PA. Next, my dad opens his sandwich and there are two strips of bacon in his chicken sandwich. I ask him to stop (Bacon? Taboo!) and look up at the menu chart on the wall. There are two grilled chicken sandwiches - Club and Classic. I take it back to the counter and ask her what the bacon is doing in my sandwich.
She: "It is a grilled chicken sandwich"
I: "I know, but there is bacon"
She: "We have 2 varieties of grilled chicken - Club and Classic. You asked for ... " ... and immediately realizing her error ... "I should have asked you first which one you want when you asked for a grilled chicken. Okay, sorry, I'll fix it"
Smile, and I get back.
A minute later, she's back with 2 "grilled chicken" sandwiches to our table. I'm impressed - one minute service!
I open mine, dad opens his .. and there, the same two old sandwiches, which are quite cold by now, are sitting smugly - sans the bacon strips. Now I'm pissed, really.

I go back to the counter and ask to speak with her manager. The manager, hearing the commotion has already arrived at the scene and asks what the matter is. I explain the situation and she says I should have specified which variety of grilled chicken I wanted in the first place.
I: "So, if I don't specify, you're going to make the decision for me, huh?"
She: "That's not what I meant"
I (really angry by now): "I know that's not what you meant. But when I asked your people to fix the situation, they instead fixed the sandwich. They pulled out the bacon strips and gave it back to me. Do you think I couldn't have done that myself. I don't eat bacon, it is religious thing. And you know how religious things are. If the bacon touches the chicken, then I don't eat the chicken either. Get it?"
I see that she doesn't get it.
I: "So will I get another sandwich, without the bacon?"
She grumbles something and goes away, and a minute later comes with two hot grilled chicken sandwiches - the "Classic" variety - and thrusts it at me.
I: "Thank you. And what about the veggie sandwich? Will you please fix that?"
She: "See our systems are not set up to handle what's not on the menu ... "

And immediately, I realize the pitfalls of standardization that have plagued this country. In the name of uniformity and standardized customer experience, Walmarts and Targets are laid out the same across the country and Taco Bells are furnished exactly the same everywhere (I understand the branding part of it, but let's pretend to forget that for a moment). There are numerous benefits to this standardization - including scalability, cost effectiveness and ease of training and management. However, I greatly miss the personal touch that is so evident in a customer's shopping experience back home in India. Just the other day, my MIL was telling that Tanishq (a high end jewelry chain in India) in Mumbai has launched a program where they invite customers (women only, please!) to come play bingo at their store once a month. The program is structured in a way that the ladies contribute a sum of money every month for 10 months, and at the end of that period, the store allows them to purchase gold for 11 months' worth of contribution at the price as of the first day of the first contribution. In addition, there are attractive prizes every month for the bingo winners. The math behind it reveals a decent rate of interest, the risk being that the price of gold falls, but it is a decent hedge against rising gold prices and inflation. But what I find most interesting about the program is the personal touch in the shopping experience (the personal attention to each shopper, the coffee/tea/drink offered and so on) which is so lacking in western countries, even in a jewelry store. In the name of cost-cutting, everything is self-service. Expensive labor takes away a variety of privileges that are a given in countries like India. "Customer is King" comes alive, literally, only in Mumbai, never in Manhattan. They say it all comes full-circle. Once customers are bored of this plain vanilla shopping experience and start demanding these services and attention, companies will be forced to cater to their demands, and of course, contain costs in the process. I'm waiting for that day.

Regulation

"I'm not a big fan of regulation and bureaucracy. But as normal, greedy human beings, we don't seem to learn from our mistakes and those of others and their fathers. It's not the markets that need to be regulated. It is human greed that needs to be contained. And the notion of easy money. Now, since people make the markets, let's start by regulating the markets."

Balls!

Sen. Jim Bunning, R-KY., scoffed at Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's plan to seek congressional approval to aid Freddie & Fannie. "Where will the money come from if we need to use it?" Bunning asked. "Some of us don't like the idea of an unlimited amount of money. Come January, you will be gone and most of us will be seated here. We have to be responsible to taxpayers for what will be done." !!

Source: The Daily Deal, Wednesday July 16 2008

Little Italy

Little Italy at 8 pm
A 2001 Chardonnay
Smoked Salmon with Champagne sauce and Strawberries
Mousse
Capuccino
Entertaining conversation with the couple at the next table

Wish she were here ...

I opened the Times Of India website after a long time. I rarely read news from there (well, where else??) and needless to say, I was disappointed, which is more often the case these days when I read news. All 5 headlines had to do with death in one form of the other. And there was a 'More' button at the end ... !

Foreclosures

Read this funny quote somewhere ..

"Foreclosures are ruling the headlines. If Britney changed her last name to Foreclosure she may be the single most popular figure on the planet past, present and future."

Shareholder Value

I'm tired of this phrase "create shareholder value". Every TDH from the CEO of BHP Billiton to my friend who runs a 20 employee startup keeps talking about creating value for shareholders, whether by offering to buy Rio Tinto, or in my friend's case, by taking a piss on the sidewalks of San Mateo. I'm not against creating shareholder value. It is the holy grail of our times, which if not followed or at least uttered a dozen times a day, may put your ass in the firing line the next time your board catches a cold. But trust me, you and I have equally grown tired of this bs. What we need is a new phrase, not a new concept. Something novel, striking, easy-to-say, beautiful and fresh! But it has to create shareholder value, got it?!

The Blue Screen

I like Windows. In fact, I love it. Under normal circumstances. But today, as I was going through something really urgent - I can't begin to describe how urgent it was - I got the dreaded blue screen. I've seen the monster at times during the last ten years that I've been using computers, and it is an eerie coincidence that every time it appears, you seem to be doing something important or urgent or both. What was most frustrating was that after I restarted computer - a must in these situations - I got this message on a browser window:

Problem report summary
----------------------

Problem type: Windows stop error

Solution available?: No

What does this problem mean: Windows has encountered a problem it cannot recover from and it needs to be restarted

Cause: Unknown

Additional steps for you to take: Please continue to send problem reports so analysts at Microsoft can study and try to correct the problem as quickly as possible

~~~~~~~~~~~

I mean, what kind of error analysis is that? Solution Available - NO; Cause - Unknown! Additional Steps - please keep telling us and we will fix it asap. I HAVE BEEN TELLING YOU GUYS FOR THE LAST 10 YEARS! WHERE IS THE SOLUTION GUYS?!

A few friends were talking the other day when the topic turned to everybody's favorite - Microsoft Bashing! I have and probably will defend the company for all it has done to help humanity - I really mean it - the last couple of decades. Most of my friends honestly feel that MS is losing out in the market because it is such a slow giant that it is losing out on opportunities that other nimble-footed companies are jumping on. This is definitely true to some extent. While the cash cows of MS - Office and Windows - rake in money, it is very important for MS to reinvent itself and bring in products that will change rtomorrow, not yesterday. Innovation and Change are probably the two words that everybody at MS can learn. And personally I think it is not enough if they learn, the need to live Innovation and Change at MS!

More Scrutiny on Wall St?

About a month ago, when the US Government and the Treasury Secretary, Mr. Henry Paulson, started insisting on greater transparency in Middle and Far Eastern Sovereign Funds, which had lent and in the process averted some part of Wall Street’s collapse, I was ticked off. I understand the motive behind this insistence – to prevent the governments backing these funds to use this as a political weapon or a bargaining tool – but I felt that we were not in a position to dictate terms, not exactly because we were beggars trying to choose, but let’s face it, we were almost there. With nobody at home trusting Wall Street with their money, banks had no other option but to look outside. And look, and lick, they did.

It normally annoys me, and a horde of others who swear by capitalism and the markets’ innate ability to take care of themselves, when the government asks Wall Street to bend over because it deserves a spanking or worse yet … you get the picture. Well, that’s what we are taught day in and day out, or was I dozing in those classes? But then, don’t we also study that kids and minors are not capable of making intelligent decisions and that in the eyes of the law, they aren’t capable of entering into enforceable contracts? Now what do you call a bunch of supposedly well-educated, smart, A+ personalities, who squander away a few hundred billion dollars of investor money? Is it just hard luck or would you call them juvenile idiots? Perhaps for the first time, I am inclined to support Mr. Paulson’s endorsement of more scrutiny of Wall Street’s investment practices. If the government can urge foreign funds to disclose their motives, what prevents them from doing so at home? Especially now, since you and I, US taxpayers, have unwittingly written an insurance policy to these kids playing in their sandboxes?

Senator Obama was right this morning when, speaking on the US economy, he said that instead of encouraging sensible reform that rewarded success and long term sustainable growth, we have too often excused and embraced an ethic of greed and cutting corners. The result is the peril we are seeing today. The government indeed has a role and an obligation to ensure transparency and fair competition, and in times such as these, if that means more scrutiny on Wall St, so be it. The challenge however will be to ensure that the over-enthusiastic lawmakers in Washington don’t take this opportunity to send us back in time to an era of regulation.

One True Love

A picture of the "boy with the beautiful brown eyes" which Anne Frank calls her "one true love" in the diary she wrote while hiding in Nazi-occupied Netherlands is scheduled to go on display in Amsterdam.

Click Here for the story

Some more Pgh Photos

Pgh Left!

A funny quirk about the city I learnt from the locals - Pgh Left. What this means is this: In most cities in the US, when you're standing at a traffic light waiting to turn left, you normally yield to oncoming traffic in the opposite direction. Once the oncoming traffic has eased, you make a left. But in old-style Pittsburgh tradition, when you're trying to take a left and the signal turns green, more often than not, the driver of the car on the opposite side will wave for you to take the left turn first before he starts going straight. In fact this tradition is so common that people take it for granted that you'll let them take a left and just rush in when the signal turns green. The first couple of days I was here, I was pissed that the guy taking a left didn't yield to me, and I had honked my horn in disgust. But now I do understand it :)

Here is a Wiki Entry for this phenomenon: PGH Left.

Pittsburgh!!

I've fallen in love, yet again! This time it is with this beautiful city. There might be people in the US who beleive that Pittsburgh is dead and is in the middle of nowhere, but I've fallen in love with it, dead or alive! And in particular, with the bridges of Allegheny County. Pittsburgh, as you might know, is in the crossroads of western Pennsylvania's hilly terrain, and naturally, there are a number of bridges and tunnels to ease commute. But, the beauty of these bridges lie in two things: First, the fact that many of these were built over a century ago. And second, you don't realize in most cases that you've gotten onto a bridge and off it! The bridge network is so seamlessly built, especially with the smaller bridges in the interior.

Pgh also has a decent sized downtown, not comparable to the skylines of NYC or LA, but good nevertheless. On the left and below are some pictures I took from across the Allegheny river last weekend.

Memories

This brought some very old memories ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8i_YPfenqc&mode=related&search

So did this ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seB1XFRjluo&mode=related&search

iPhone mania

It's amazing how much hype a new gadget on the market can generate. For the last six months, if there has been one thing on every tech-savvy person's lips, it's the iPhone. And finally, today at 6 pm, the wait will be over. From the last 24 hrs, there have been hordes of hungry geeks camped around the flagship Apple store in New York City (image inset). If that's not enough, there are people capitalizing on the iPhone mania that has struck the nation from Silicon Valley to The Village through innovative means. A domain name called www.iphone-usa.com is up for auction on eBay for fifty grand. Real and fake iPhone ad videos are making the rounds on YouTube.

The tons of reviews that have come in this week have all been unanimous on one aspect - that the iPhone, while not the utopia of cellphonedom, has lived up to the hype and expectations quite well. From it's intuitive user interface and rich features to the sleek and ergonomic design, it has Apple's trademark penchant for creativity written all over it. One of the earliest reviews came in Jan 2007. PC Magazine has reserved its comments for now, saying they have to test this 'important phone' further - my feeling is that they're afraid to give a review in the wrong direction ;-) .. It's true that there have been mixed reactions to the iPhone from some corners - some skeptical and some lashing out blanket statements like Apple is Evil! - but the overall response to the phone has been one of a huge welcome.

Amidst all this confusion, I'm just planning to go to the At&T store across the street this evening and check out the phone myself!

The 'i' factor

I've often wondered why there's no phone in the market without all those teeny-weeny butons. Why wouldn't phone manufacturers just put a touch-screen with only soft buttons? Like my GPS Mio Digiwalker 310

I asked her about this the other day, and she replied that it would probably be difficult to use it because you would inadvertently press the wrong places on the screen which could potentially dial the wrong number and so on. Also, on my current phone, I easily text away under the table in meetings without looking at my phone, which I would probably not be able to do with a touch screen!

All said, here is a phone with no buttons, finally. Here's to the iPhone! Looks like it needed an 'i' to figure out that buttonless phones would really work.

The iPhone!

 

Painting an Airbus A320!

I found this video on, where else, YouTube. It is a time lapse imagery of how a humongous Virgin America Airbus A320 is painted. It's a sight to watch!

Painting an Airbus A320!

Monumental Monument

A view of the Washington Memorial from the Jefferson Memorial across the Tidal Basin. This shot was taken on a sunny afternoon during Spring, 2007.