Short Visit to China!

Its the fall of 2013 and time for short business trip to Beijing - China's cultural and international business hub. Last time i went on a biz trip was back in January 2010. 1st thing you notice in Beijing is the large amount smog in the air (especially in the economic zones, there is still lot of greenery and peaceful life around the city, when i say peaceful i meant to say is less traffic and much lesser pollution).

1st day at work and it started little early than expected at 7 am!! One of my colleague from client's office picked me up from my hotel, not much of traffic at that time in the morning. He introduced me to all other teammates and straight to work right after that.
Language was bit of a challenge, especially when i am training them on how to use the software and how to run the tests. It wasnt easy but i picked it up pretty fast and i was able to explain better in the afternoon.

Street vendor!

Lunch time and i like the way the chinese do! "Sharing is caring" is the right word for. Moslty followed the same culture back in India for almost 23 years, so it was a good feeling. We ordered variety of dishes that will be placed in the center of the table. Dining is something Chinese see it as a social pastime. Lot of dishes to taste and eat, you can cover many chinese dishes in a short travel. When we get back from Lunch, almost everyone in office used to take a short 15-20 nap. They said that it helps them concentrate more after that, i did test that theory and rightly so.

Bird's nest

Water cube: Olympic aquatic center

Since i was here for a week, i covered most of the places right after work. since we used to start work at 7am, that helped as well. I covered olympic city, Water cube (Olympic aquatic center), Forbidden city, Great wall of China, Summer palace, Ming tombs.

The amazing GREAT WALL!! 

Summer palace

Bargaining: It's impossible to say that "a quarter of the starting price" or a tenth or anything else, is the price that you should pay. On the other hand: if it was that easy, bargaining would lose a lot of its charm, wouldn't it? Brought 1 laughing Buddha gift item for 10 rmb; Shopkeeper qouted it 180 at the beginning! Yay! :)

bargaining time!!

tags: #Beijing #greatWall #summerPalace #china #bird'snest #biztrip 

iPhone 5: Tested OK?

I have been using Apple iPhone for a while now. Its an amazing device. And no doubt its the market leader. Whenever people think "OK this is what we say the top/Model in the market", Apple always come up with the cool new features and a great phone.
I recently upgraded my phone to iOS 6 and must say, its pretty much good. of course even with the one time blunder from apple on the "Maps", but it is still a good bet.

With increasing crimes in my area, i always want to protect my iPhone from stealing, so i store my data on iCloud but i feel there is still threat to my iPhone.
Find iPhone is nice app, it finds your phone accurately but what it cant do is to find an switched off iPhone. If the phone is switched off you will be able to find the last known location but not the exact location. well as a software Engineer myself its next to impossible to send the signals from the switched off iPhone.

Potential Workaround or Fix:
When you try to switch of iPhone, it says "Slide to Switch Off", when you do that phone turns off.
But Apple can tweak a little here, when you slide to switch off, ask for the pass code. That way, only you can switch off the phone. And also when you connect your phone to the iTunes ask for the pass code as well, that way you wont be able to factory restore as well.

Well then we all know, find iPhone will locate your phone most accurately!!

A short business trip to Riga (Lativa).

I am here writing a blog after a long time. And this time a very interesting topic.
My short business trip to Riga, Latvia.
My journey started from Bangalore (BLR) international airport. I was boarding my 1st ever flight, and straight away i got
Business class in lufthansa airlines, not because i was travelling for 1st time but my friend durgesh is a check in manager in lufthansa.
No comments on biz class, its simply amazing. why i'm saying amazing? bcoz i am typing this blog to text pad from the economy class on my return journey! dont feel any good here !
On the way to Riga, we had a airport transit in Frankfurt for 2 hours. most of the time is wasted in security checks and immigration checks.
Landed in Riga international airport in the afternoon at 2 o'clock. Thought its 2 o'clock in the afternoon, it will be warm.
oops! its -10 degrees. :) Chilling! Just thrown my luggage into the taxi and went away.
On the 1st day in Riga, we were like christoper columbus inventing Riga in 2010! everything feeling like amazing and strange too!

Next day, monday 4th jan 2010, was our 1st day in office. finally some work!
It was interesting office space all together. people were so cool that they used to come to office at 10 o'clock and leave at 5 o'clock! which is not usual here in india!
Leave that office, and work it will be there for all the time !
1st weekend went around Riga, very good place to hangout. went to St. Peter's church, wow! it was amazing.
it was demolished completely in 1941 during world war 2. but still they managed to re-build with the same architecture which was before.

finally managed to find 1  indian hotel here, "Indian Raja".. had some north indian food! I wont say "Indian food" because daily coming from office we used to have
indian food! south indian food.
Had some great cooking time here as well, used to cook Puliogare, Rice, sambar, alu mutter, vangibath...etc..
great cook now!
Our stay in riga is extended by a week, just to have more knowledge and more hands-on into the project.
1 thing i was impressed with the Riga was night life. We heard partying till vee hours in india, but here party starts after vee hours!
went to a party at 11 o'clock in the night (Most part of Bangalore is closed by 11) and came back at 6 o'clock in the morning! tats too much of partying :)

The best part of whole trip.
Enjoyed like anything in the hotel rooms. were 7 people in the hotel and enjoying! and just guess what will happen if 7 more people join.?
Yes!!! 7 more people from another project joined us in the same hotel. we named the hotel Konventa Seta as "Indians hotel"
in the last week, it was too cold, it was record low in that place in the month of january, it was around -29 degrees + windchill.
Saw AVATAR (3D) in one of the forums near by. it was cool.
And it was the final day in Riga (Friday), took our counterparts for lunch. Had some good time outside office.
returned to hotel, packed the bags and left to frankfurt.
All together it was a very good trip. Enjoyed to the core. :)

1st Day in Office

Hi all,

Its almost 1 year now to be specific "1 year and 2 days" i was recruited into S7 Software Solutions pvt ltd. through campus interview. and I joined today on 1st September 2009.

While leaving to office, my brother (Sanju) told me that he will drop me to office (only today) and just like any bollywood movies petrol got over in the middle of the road. :-) luckily petrol bunk was very near by.
And its 11 when i entered the office (on time though).

At 1st Sridevi RK ( our HR) introduced me to the policies that are being used here. Later Karthikey S (my Buddy) took me around the office and introduced me to everyone in the office and then took me for lunch.

Its Tuesday and its playing time :) Straight away went to our Cricket ground. We paly cricket every tuesday.

Thats all for the day !!!!

Hope to write more blogs...

Tata Nano - Boon or Bane ?

Finally, Tata motor’s one lakh rupee car "Nano" is delivered in Mumbai today. Ratan Tata chairmen of Tata Groups himself handed car keys to the 1st ever NANO owner. From the times of Tata’s announcement of making a car with price tag of one Lakh, this car has become a matter of debate. Large numbers of peoples were waiting with lot of eagerness when Tata will deliver its small car. "Nano" is believed to be a new revolution in Indian car market and many experts believe that this car also has lot of potential for world market too.
but....does fit in indian market?
The top challenges it may face
1. Increase in traffic... yeah the traffic will increase almost 2 times the current rate. especially in metros where the traffic congestion is already out of control.
2. Parking... What about parking.? already there is no space for even 2-Wheelers where you will accomodate this mini coupe.?