iPod Touch first-gen WiFi speed

For a long time the WiFi speed on my (first generation) iPod Touch was abysmally slow. Downloads from the App Store or over-the-air podcast downloads were at about 5 kbps. The wireless router I was using was 802.11g with WEP encryption.

Yesterday I changed my router to a wireless-N router (with WPA-PSK encryption) and the speed has suddenly shot up to the full capacity of my broadband connection. I'm not sure if this is because of the wireless-N connection or the way the iPod Touch handles WEP encryption which was slowing things down.

Has anyone else experienced this issue?

About social networks, social capital, social change and other socially things

It's early Sunday morning. I'm supposed to deliver a speech about something tomorrow but I can't remember the topic. And then I remembered that someone had written the topic for me on a piece of paper. I fish out the paper and look at it - but I can't make out what the topic is. I see something like "soc cha". I desperately try to make out what the topic is but the paper starts to shimmer and the letters fade away...

And then I woke up.

OK so it was an early morning dream. But as I lay awake in bed thinking about my dream I realized that my subconscious was impregnating me with subliminal messages (yes I know I make it sound a bit like an alien invasion of privacy) about something that is happening all around us - social change.

define:social change

Social change is a general term which refers to:

• change in social structure: the nature, the social institutions, the social behaviour or the social relations of a society, community of people, and so on.
  
• When behaviour pattern changes, in large numbers and is visible and sustained it results in a social change. Once there is a deviance from culturally inherited values, it may result in a rebellion against the established system, causing a change in the social order.
  
• any event or action that affects a group of individuals that have shared values or characteristics.
  
• acts of advocacy for the cause of changing society in a normative way (subjective).
  

(courtesy: Google search and Wikipedia)

This got me thinking and to this blog post.

Let me give a few examples before I tell you what exactly I was thinking about.

LeVar Burton asks Brent Spinner (they both acted in the "Star Trek - The Next Generation" series among other things) after Spinner signs up for Twitter: "@BrentSpinner Feel the Love? Over 5K follows in less than 24 hours!"

A lot of Facebook groups emerged after the recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai. These groups organized people from different parts of India (and the world) to come together for peace. So many of the users in these groups had never met each but came together (in the online world and later offline) to offer support and help.

Barack Obama created history becoming the first African American President of the USA and he used Twitter, Facebook and blogs (among other things) to spread his message and gather support.

So what am I driving at? Well, here's what.

I believe we are seeing a trend where more and more individuals (and institutions) moving closer to their constituency.

Gone are the days when celebrities had a "you can't come near me I have a bodyguard who can deliver a big punch" aura about them. They (like LeVar Burton, Brent Spinner and Shahrukh Khan) can now be followed on Twitter and they'll even reply to your silly direct messages.

Gone are the days when an attack would usually mean the victims suffer alone. They now have people from across the world (most of whom they have never met) coming together on Facebook, organizing candle light marches in their local cities and lobbying for change.

And gone are the days when the President of the USA thought a Blackberry was something you could eat.

So what's causing this trend of moving closer to the constituency?

I believe what is causing this trend is that a lot of people are rediscovering the benefits of one thing - social capital.

define: social capital

Social capital is a concept developed in sociology and also used in business, economics, organizational behaviour, political science, public health and natural resources management that refers to connections within and between social networks as well as connections among individuals. Though there are a variety of related definitions, which have been described as "something of a cure-all" for the problems of modern society, they tend to share the core idea "that social networks have value. Just as a screwdriver (physical capital) or a college education (human capital) can increase productivity (both individual and collective), so too social contacts affect the productivity of individuals and groups".

(courtesy: Google search and Wikipedia)

Social capital is not something new. Man is a "social animal" and social capital has been around ever since the first cavemen banded together to go after that elusive mammoth. However since then society has been moving farther apart.

In a world where financial capital has already run out I believe the next coming will be with social capital. The more people you know, the more successful your venture will be. The more people you help, the more people will help you. The real value is in the connections you make with other people and not in the large amounts of money you can throw at something.

And driving this trend towards gathering more social capital are the various social networking tools like Twitter and Facebook which make it really easy to connect with people from around the world (you are probably reading this blog post because I posted a link to it from my Twitter and Facebook accounts).

So - enough said. My aim is not to preach but to impregnate your mind with sublimal messages that will make you think about social networks, building social capital, building social solidarity through social networks and bringing about social change. Just like I did one early Sunday morning.

Checking out Windows Live Writer

Testing out Windows Live Writer beta. Let’s see if this works… It does!

The economic crisis is a dress rehearsal to a much bigger one

Yes, I know. Everyone is talking about it - the global R. So why am I harping on the same topic and rubbing it in some more?

I'm not going to write about the economic crisis. We know how it is shattering the fortunes of companies and individuals worldwide. Iconic brands that we assumed were indestructible are filing for bankruptcy. The nightmares are becoming a reality.

However I believe this economic crisis is a test to see how effectively we can handle a much bigger crisis that is looming around the corner - the environmental one.

Greed - the urge to "make hay while the sun shines" without a thought for long term sustainability - has resulted in this economic crisis. And the urge to exploit the environment and our natural resources with no thought for sustainability is soon going to result in an environmental crisis of unprecedented scale.

We have already seen this happen - global warming, polar ice caps melting, Asian brown clouds, mega-hurricanes lashing coastlines and even oil shortage (which seems to have got a reprieve due to the economic crisis taking center-stage).

As we continue to exploit our natural resources we will reach a point in time when there's an acute shortage of things we take for granted today - like oil, power, water, food...

We have seen "unprecedented action" from governments across the world bailing out companies and banks out of the economic crisis.

What I fear is that it is easier to print money (and bail out of an economic crisis) than it is to replenish precious natural resources that have been exploited for several hundred years.

So is it finally time we started preparing for the next crisis or perhaps even prevent it from happening?

Your thoughts (and action) are welcome.

Vandalur zoo's "night safari"?

I read this news item today and it set me thinking.

A senior officer said 124 mammals, 124 birds and 42 reptiles, totalling 290, would be exhibited. As per the plan, the authorities would source an adequate number of birds, mammals and reptiles from the zoo, and the rest would be acquired from other zoos in the country under an exchange programme.

The safari area required 20 lakh litres of water every day. For this, the officials proposed to draw seven lakh litres from the ground, and 6.5 lakh litres from the Palar and Veeranam. The rest would be treated water that would be obtained from Perungudi.

The facility needed 5,000 MW of power. The cables for power supply would be laid underground. For viewing the animals, special lightings would be provided, but they would not disturb the animals. To overcome disruption of power supply, a back-up facility would be created with silent generators.

[full news item here]

First we, as a race, set about destroying forests, killing wildlife and generally making a mess of the planet. This results in a situation where mankind cannot see wildlife in any place on this planet except in zoos that are built in the name of wildlife preservation. Then, we go about building night safaris that use over 20 lakh litres of water every day and 5000MW of power - further destroying nature. I'm not an expert on such issues but I'm guessing that 20 lakh litres and 5000MW of power could be put to better use.

Dell and the Art of Computer Maintenance

First off let me state this -

1. This is not another one of those Dell bashing posts that you see around the Internet. Also most of the situation I describe is probably relevant only to Dell's Indian operations.

2. I am a self-professed gadget junkie who cannot live without the many dozens of gadgets that surround me at all times. So if you're like me you'll understand the pain.

OK with that out of the way let's start at the beginning. About 6 months back I bought a Dell XPS M1330 laptop. The laptop is fairly light, 13" LCD, 2.4ghz processor, 2GB RAM, 6 hours backup (9 cell battery) etc. I was very happy with this laptop and started using it as my primary laptop (office and home).

The trouble started during the last week of April when the display started flickering and showing strange patterns on the screen. Being the adventurous soul that I am I tried fiddling around with the laptop by reinstalling drivers and connecting it to an external display. That worked for a few days after which the display died completely.

OK so the laptop was just 6 months old and well within warranty so I went online to Dell's award winning customer support website and registered an online complaint (or "trouble ticket" as they like to call it - I was wondering if customer support departments worldwide are actually referring to customers as the real trouble tickets?).

I promptly got an automated email from Dell stating that my request had been logged and that someone will get back to me within one business day (and it devoted an entire paragraph to explain in great detail that an issue reported on Sunday night must be assumed to have been reported on Monday morning or something to that effect).

A couple of days went by and no one contacted me. So I went back to the award winning Dell customer service site and submitted a reminder using the tiny "Unresolved issues" link at the bottom of their support home page. I again got back an automated email stating that my unresolved issue will be looked at within one business day.

A few business days went by and nothing happened.

Moral of the story so far - the online support request system is probably manned by one or two support staff who have to sift through thousands of such requests so it will probably take them a few years to get to my complaint.

I then decided to try the phone route.

A word of advise at this juncture. If you are planning to contact the customer support phone number of any company (not just Dell) make sure you either have a speakerphone or a good Bluetooth headset. Calls to customer support departments are full of horribly long hold times and without the said speakerphone or Bluetooth attachment, you are bound to end up being diagnosed with advanced stages of cancer (especially if you use a cell phone) well before a support representative comes on the line to find out what you are calling about.

Being the wise one I recharged my Bluetooth headset and placed the call to Dell's customer support number (it's a toll free number that routes to their Bangalore call center). I was greeted by a cheery automated voice lady who asked me to press a few buttons to indicate what I wanted to do - so I pressed 1 for reporting a problem, 1 for laptop (and then to my consternation realized that cheerful automated lady was not listing the Dell XPS laptop as a choice in the list of laptops), so I pressed 1 any way for the "Latitude series laptops" and then got Kenny G on the line. Kenny G tooted into my ears for the next 15 minutes while I waited for the eager Dell customer support representatives to answer my call. Come to think of it now, 15 minutes was not too long looking back at the times I've spent on hold on various customer support numbers.

A customer support lady finally came on the line and asked me for my laptop's service tag number. I gave her the number and she proclaimed joyously that I had a Dell XPS laptop. I said "yes ofcourse and I have a problem with it". She then asked me to wait while she transferred the call to Dell's Malaysian call center. Malaysia??? The kind lady helpfully explained that Dell XPS laptops were supported by their Malaysian call center and that the Malaysian center was far more busier than the Bangalore one so I should expect to be on hold for a lot longer.

That tip about the hold time proved to be useful because I finally ended up waiting on hold to the Malaysian call center for over 45 minutes.

After about 45 minutes of listening to some music that I no longer recollect - a friendly Chinese support representative came on the line and asked me again for the service tag number. I gave it to him and he then asked me what was wrong. Ok so finally I get someone who wants to know what is the problem.

So I explained to this guy while he patiently listened. He then asked me if I could switch on the laptop and get into Windows - to which (stifling expletives) I explained to him again that the display was kaput and I didn't know whether the laptop was showing windows or doors when I switched it on. "Ahhhh", he said.

He then asked me to be on hold while he filled in a complaint. More music and after about 15 minutes he finally came back on the line and gave me a reference number for the complaint and explained that someone will attend to the problem the next business day. I thanked him (and my stars) and hung up.

The next day morning I promptly received a call from Dell's service partner in Chennai (TVS Electronics) who said that they had received the complaint and that they didn't have the necessary parts (a motherboard) to complete the replacement. The guy explained the motherboard had to be shipped from Singapore and would arrive in about 4 to 5 days time.

4 or 5 days went by and nothing happened. By now I had setup a desktop at office and was using that as my primary PC with whatever data I could salvage from backups made at various undisclosed locations across the globe. So I just let them have a few more days of breathing time.

After about 10 days of waiting (and a total of 3 weeks from originally reporting the issue via Dell's website) I could take it no longer so I decided to check my astrological forecast in the local newspaper and determine if it was the right time to call Dell's customer support hotline again.

My stars seem to have been shining much brighter this time around (last Friday) and within a couple of seconds I got the Bangalore lady on the line who then quickly transferred me to the Malaysian call center, where the Malaysian guy picked up the line within a couple of minutes! This was my lucky day (or perhaps no one ever calls a customer support line on Fridays). The Malaysian guy took my reference number, went through his magic books and proclaimed that the part in question was on its way from Singapore and would reach Chennai by Tuesday. I told him that my laptop was in warranty and it had "next day on-site service" and it was now over ten days since I had registered the complaint - to which he replied that the next day on-site will be in effect as soon as the motherboard reaches Chennai so I should expect my issue to be resolved on Tuesday or Wednesday.

I thanked the Malaysian guy and hung up wondering if Dell was shipping parts by catamaran or other similar human powered means that it takes the motherboard two weeks to reach Chennai from Singapore.

OK so Tuesday arrived - nice and bright. And around 11am this morning I got a call back from the TVS Electronics guy who said he had the part in question and wanted to know what would be a convenient time to come and do the honours. I informed him that my doors were open to him at all times and that he should make haste to arrive in front of said door in the shortest possible time.

So the guy arrived within an hour at my house and proceeded to dissect the laptop to pieces (I am reminded of movies where the protagonist rapidly takes apart and then reassembles a long range rifle). He replaced the faulty motherboard, uttered a few magic words and then closed everything up.

He then proceeded to systematically check each and every aspect of the laptop starting with the RAM, harddisk, keyboard, webcam etc to make sure all of them were working properly. Satisfied with the results he finally proclaimed everything was in proper working order and left with a cheery wave.

So in effect it took nearly a month for the issue to be resolved. I think the XPS laptops are some of the most powerful laptops made (mine actually clocks "5" on the Windows Experience Index while a dual-core 3GHZ HP behemoth desktop I now use at office barely manages a "3") but having to wait for one month to get an issue resolved is not acceptable especially on a laptop that one uses as a primary office machine. Which means I'm probably never going to use a Dell machine as my primary PC or laptop unless their service response time become "next day" as promised in their warranty.

The main issue I had with Dell was that they never responded to my initial complaint submitted via their website and then took two weeks to ship parts from Singapore once I filed another complaint by calling their customer support number.

Dell claims that it's support website is award winning. The guy I called up the second time in Malaysia had to just punch in my reference number and he was able to read off from some sort of consignment status screen on what was happening to the spare part that they had shipped to Chennai. Why can't they put this status page up on Dell's award winning website? That would have allowed me to just enter the reference number and take comfort in the fact that the parts had left the shores of Singapore without having to wait several hours on hold. I'm sure that such an option will also free up Dell's harried customer support representatives who are, for the most part, just reading out aloud from a computer screen. I'm sure Dell's customers are smart enough to punch in a number and read for themselves.

About the two week delay for shipping parts - I am not sure if this is intentional (you reduce 2 weeks from the warranty period in the process!) or part of one of those new fangled "just in time" ideas where the company doesn't purchase any spare parts until it's just the right time for the customer to blow their top. Agreed that Dell's prices are cheaper than other brands of similar configuration - but the last thing they want to penny pinch on is after sales service. Dell would have really wow'ed me if they had shipped that motherboard by overnight courier to Chennai and the TVS Electronics guy had landed up at my doorsteps the next day morning to do his magic. I know that costs more than the catamaran transport they ended up using but an overnight solution would have really made me an advocate of Dell's laptops and I am sure I would have sold atleast a couple of laptops for them just by talking about my experience.

Here's a recap of the vital dates.

April 27th, 2008: Problem with LCD noticed and I filed an online complaint.
May 5th, 2008: Fed up waiting for response to online complaint I ring up Dell customer support and get a reference number for the replacement.
May 20th, 2008: Problem finally resolved.

So in summary here's what I learnt from all this:

1. While the Dell XPS laptops are an excellent buy, don't depend on getting a quick resolution if you run into any hardware problems.

2. After having not used a laptop for almost a month I'm beginning to like desktops again. I got myself a Microsoft cordless keyboard and mouse for my office PC and the HP behemoth desktop PC with its myriad wires and "Uninterruptible Power Supply" unit looks a bit more appealing than it was 3 weeks ago.

3. Backup! I can't stress this hard enough. Whether you use a desktop or laptop or even a typewriter - always backup! The Western Digital Passport Elite 320gb has joined my gadget entourage and using it's WD Sync facility I can sync my desktop and laptop contents into its 320gb harddisk (email, files, bookmarks etc). The WD Sync is pretty nifty - it allows me to read/reply Outlook email using any PC that I connect it to even if that PC doesn't have Outlook installed. You can also install dozens of portable applications from www.portableapps.com on to the Passport Elite and take them with you wherever you go.

4. After having lugged laptops of various dimensions for the past 5 years from office to home and back - I'm beginning to think I should just use a desktop PC at office and leave work where it belongs (at office).

MyMiniCity

This site seems to be sort of like the Sims of the online world. You create a mini-city and then whenever someone visits the mini-city page your population goes up. Once you get to a critical mass in population you can then start building industries and such. Looks interesting so I created my mini-city and started playing around with it.

You're welcome to visit my mini-city. :)