I'm all alone here so when ever I go out, I have trouble taking pictures of myself. So today I went out to CircuitCity and bought this tripod - which is pretty good for its price.
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Extended stay..
I initially planed to stay in the US only till the end of November; but now I'm required to stay here till end of December. I have VISA till end 2008 and my I94 is valid till mid 2007. I just hope it wouldn't get extended that long.
I'm all alone here so when ever I go out, I have trouble taking pictures of myself. So today I went out to CircuitCity and bought this tripod - which is pretty good for its price.
I'm all alone here so when ever I go out, I have trouble taking pictures of myself. So today I went out to CircuitCity and bought this tripod - which is pretty good for its price.
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Random things...
Last Sunday I was walking towards Fred Meyers in Lynnwood when the sun slowly disappeared behind the mountains...
Sky around Seattle is always decorated by exhaust smoke lines of air planes...
A cement horse in the Alderwood shopping mall
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Dialog Telekom – denial of service and denial of support
On the 17th of October I tried to use the "DiaText" online (paid) facility provided by Dialog GSM web site and received the error "not enough credit/billing error".
By this time, my online bill showed an outstanding amount of Rs. 483.92. I had also made a direct debit of Rs. 6000/- from HSBC which was not updated in the online bill. So my actual account balance at that time should have been around Rs -5500/-. However even without that last payment I should have been allowed to use the service as my credit limit is Rs. 3000/-.
Therefore I placed a complain (Complain No. 22713797) using the online contact form regarding this issue. On the same day I received a mail from a person named "Shone Denver" claiming that I have exceeded my credit limit and it's not yet updated in the online bill, which was not buyable as the online bill showed calls made on the 16 th as well.
I replied to that mail with details of my payments and requesting them to verify that information and provide me further clarifications, as I was pretty sure that reply was sent without verifying my billing information.
On the 18th, I received a mail from the same person requesting me to verify my identification information and payment information with the receipt numbers. By this time my last payment had also been updated in the online payment history and my account balance was - 2973.37. I replied to that mail with all identification and payment details and requesting them to clarify the issue but did not receive any reply as of yet. I also sent a reminder on the 23rd as well.
If any of you have contacts at Dialog GSM, please pass this on to them. If needed, I do have all the email communications with me.
By this time, my online bill showed an outstanding amount of Rs. 483.92. I had also made a direct debit of Rs. 6000/- from HSBC which was not updated in the online bill. So my actual account balance at that time should have been around Rs -5500/-. However even without that last payment I should have been allowed to use the service as my credit limit is Rs. 3000/-.
Therefore I placed a complain (Complain No. 22713797) using the online contact form regarding this issue. On the same day I received a mail from a person named "Shone Denver" claiming that I have exceeded my credit limit and it's not yet updated in the online bill, which was not buyable as the online bill showed calls made on the 16 th as well.
I replied to that mail with details of my payments and requesting them to verify that information and provide me further clarifications, as I was pretty sure that reply was sent without verifying my billing information.
On the 18th, I received a mail from the same person requesting me to verify my identification information and payment information with the receipt numbers. By this time my last payment had also been updated in the online payment history and my account balance was - 2973.37. I replied to that mail with all identification and payment details and requesting them to clarify the issue but did not receive any reply as of yet. I also sent a reminder on the 23rd as well.
If any of you have contacts at Dialog GSM, please pass this on to them. If needed, I do have all the email communications with me.
Monday, October 23, 2006
Work life in US
One thing I really like about my client office is that all of them leave office by 5 P. M. Very rarely some stay till 5.30. If anybody stays later than 5 P. M., it’s considered as staying late! Work starts at 8 A. M.
One clearly evident advantage of it is that the productivity level is really high of every employee compared to our Sri Lankan offices. I experienced myself that I accomplish much more within the 8hours than what I did within 10~12 hours in Sri Lanka. And what’s more, I have time for myself after work. So work isn’t the only life I have here as it was in Sri Lanka.
I believe that Sri Lankan software firms should also realize this fact and encourage their employees to leave office by 5 or 6 P.M. More often than not, our employers in Sri Lanka believe, staying late is working hard and it’s productive and them implicitly expects us to stay late at office. But they don’t realize that it degrades the quality of their products as well as the quality of our lives.
One clearly evident advantage of it is that the productivity level is really high of every employee compared to our Sri Lankan offices. I experienced myself that I accomplish much more within the 8hours than what I did within 10~12 hours in Sri Lanka. And what’s more, I have time for myself after work. So work isn’t the only life I have here as it was in Sri Lanka.
I believe that Sri Lankan software firms should also realize this fact and encourage their employees to leave office by 5 or 6 P.M. More often than not, our employers in Sri Lanka believe, staying late is working hard and it’s productive and them implicitly expects us to stay late at office. But they don’t realize that it degrades the quality of their products as well as the quality of our lives.
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Chili cook-off
Friday the 13th was the chili cook-off day at my client office.Basically several contestants cook different kinds of chilies and the best is selected. It’s driven by the “need for chili” than the competition.
Most of the chilies were meat so I had to settle for the only vegan on available. Which wasn’t even hot as much as my regular lunch...
Saturday, October 07, 2006
Back to old title
I changed the title of my blog to what it was. ICloneable.com is now directed to my google hosted home page. Blog would remain as Mahasen does blogging...
Park in Lynnwood
It's a sunny weekend so I went out to see the park I saw last Sunday on my way back to hotel from Shoreline (Car rental place)
I bought a pack of rechargeable batteries for my camera on my way and walked in to the park. The side I entered first was almost deserted and was quite calm and beautiful. But it wasn’t large as I expected and there was nothing much to see except for the woods.
Then I went to the other side of the park where there were people playing with kids, saw some squirrels but besides that there were nothing much to see either.
So I just took some photos and headed back to the hotel. Seems if I’m to do any serious site seeing, I’m gonna have to rent a car.
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Sunday, October 01, 2006
Time
This morning I returned my car back. My hotel is just .8Miles away from office so I decided ~25$ per day for the car is just not worth it when I could walk or take a bus easily.
The car rental place AVIS is some 12Miles away from the hotel. When I picked it up, Nalin gave me a lift. But today I had to come back alone. So I looked up communitytransit.org and found out the bus route I should take and went off early in the morning.
The temperature had been around 70F for the past week so I didn't expect it to be cold today. But since the weather channel predicted rain I took the jacket. When I arrived at the AVIS, the temperature was 49˚F (~9˚C). Luckily I took my jacket with me. I was regretting I didn't wear gloves.
How ever things at the rental place finished fairly quickly so I was too early for the bus I was planning to take. Normally busses here run hourly, so I decided to walk a bit towards the next bus stop. Just as I arrived in that bus stop, a bus pulled over from there. So I decided to keep walking. And another bus went passing me. Mind you the temperature was still around 50˚F.
I received a call while I was walking and couple of more busses passed me by. So I decided - I’m not gonna take a bus. I pulled out my camera from the haversack and tried to capture as many images I can on the 12 Mile walk back to the hotel!
I didn’t felt tired at all while walking, but when I finally arrived, I felt exhausted. I waited for a while, had a shower and cooked enough for few days. I’m too lazy to cook every day. At around 5 p.m. I felt really worn off so went to the bed to relax a bit and fell asleep almost instantly.I haven’t worked out for quite some time now and a 12 mile walk within 3.5 hours didn’t seem to be a good way to start. Any how, after the sleep, I feel quite ok now. But sadly, the weekend is over and tomorrow I have to go to office by 7 a. m. My project manager has set up a nonsense call at his more convenient 7.30 p. m.Oh - by the way - I’d be walking to office… thanks for the concern…
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