January 22, 2013

Most Un"Reliable" IPTV: Review on Reliable IPTV

I purchased internet TV and Phone services with Reliable IPTV in September. The sales representative claimed good service even better than the current phone service I had with Vonage. I paid for 6 months service for TV and Phone. From day one the service has been below par, the TV service is choppy with inconsistent video and audio freezes. The phone service was even worse, calls could not be made and received regulalry and when made the quality of the call was very poor such taht the other person hung up due to the noise. I called the company for fixing the service multiple times, each time I got some lame excuse that some servers are not working well, so they were switching me to a better server and made me reinstall the firmware on the box a couple of times. Inspite of having a new born baby at home I made efforts to call them multiple times to fix the TV and phone issues. I regularly make calls to India to talk to my family so I could not take it any more and asked them to disconnect the phone service but they mentioned that they were going to fix it but could not so I had to go back to Vonage for phone service. I was told that i could not get a refund as I had paid for 6 months of service. This i felt was unfair as they were not able to provide the service that was promised, so after multiple calls to customer service and many hours on the phone I got them to agree to extend my TV service to 9 months instead of 6 months. I settled for it as i we had family from India and had a new born at home and the alternate was to lose the money I paid. I was hoping that the TV service would be better due to my complaints, but my concerns seem to fall on deaf ears as I keep getting same issues of choppy video and audio with some days of total blackout where I could not even watch TV. Each time I called they came back with the same sequence of events "Check internet speed & Ping rate", update firmware and finally "change servers". Inspite of promising to call back to follow up on quality I never received a call back. The service is still choppy and cannot be watched for more than a few minutes without refreshing or restarting the device.

I have registered a complaint with Better Business Bureau  (BBB). But the business is very arrogant and does not even want to respond to my complaint. I just received an email from BBB that due to lack of proper response from Reliable IPTV they are classifying my complaint as "Unresolved".

My suggestion to anyone that is considering this service... think hard before your commit to them. You definitely will be in for surprise as this is the most UNRELIABLE TV.

July 06, 2012

Introduction to Project Management


Source of this information is http://www.pmhut.com/


In late 19th century, in the United States, large-scale government projects were the impetus for making important decisions that became the basis for project management methodology such as the transcontinental railroad, which began construction in the 1860s. Suddenly, business leaders found themselves faced with the daunting task of organizing the manual labor of thousands of workers and the processing and assembly of unprecedented quantities of raw material.
 


    Figure 1: This is what can happen without effective project management.


Near the turn of the century, Frederick Taylor began his detailed studies of work. He applied scientific reasoning to work by showing that labor can be analyzed and improved by focusing on its elementary parts that introduced the concept of working more efficiently, rather than working harder and longer.

Project management in its present form began to take root a few decades ago. In the early 1960s, industrial and business organizations began to understand the benefits of organizing work around projects. They understood the critical need to communicate and integrate work across multiple departments and professions. 

Project management seems to appear in the media mostly when it fails. Studies are released frequently to great fanfare on why projects fail. Senior officials appear in the news to apologize for major cost overruns in public projects.

You’d think that project management would be something to avoid!

But to an entrepreneur it is one of the most important skills they need. And it is one of the most important skills they need to seek out as their organization grows. Unfortunately, it is also one of the least understood skills that a typical entrepreneur brings to the table. And it is the last skill they think of as they build their business.

What is project management? And more importantly, why should you care?

One might think from the term that project management is managing projects. However, that is portfolio management. Project management is a much more difficult and complex discipline. In this article, I’m going to define project management, and explain how it differs from normal business management. Along the way, I’ll also explain why you, as an entrepreneur, need to encourage its development within your business.

First off, let’s get the term project out of the way. A project is a business endeavor, which produces a unique product, service or result. So far, that isn’t very helpful. Most business operations do that. However, a project has two key characteristics that aren’t common.

First, it is temporary. It has a beginning and an end. Most business operations do not have an end. Or at least one hopes not. Normally, business operations begin during the entrepreneurial phase of the business. But they quickly settle into a permanent routine. Project management, however, does not deal with the routine.

Second, projects are unique. They exist to create a single product, different from all other products. An operating business is all about repetition. It’s about creating the same product over and over. Only in that way, can the process be refined.

Building your business is a project. It has a beginning — when you first conceived the business. And it has an end — when the business moves into the growth and stability phases. And it creates a unique result — the business.

Project management, then is all about managing under these two conditions.

Normal operating management is concerned with repeating the same thing over a long period. And it develops the appropriate skills and knowledge to deal with that. For example, a manager learns to keep his team happy and producing at their maximum. He seldom if ever deals with the initial building of a team. And hopefully, he never has to deal with the end of his team.

Project management however, is concerned with building a unique result in a cycle of creation, doing, disbanding. It has developed the appropriate skills and knowledge to deal with beginning and ending a cycle. For example, a project manager learns to build a team and to disband a team. She is constantly in the building and ending phases and often never deals with a static team’s problems.

From an entrepreneur’s view, there are two major points of interest. First, building a company is a project. During that project, the entrepreneur will be involved in both strategic and operation elements. For example, he or she needs to identify the market and niche to address. And they will frequently be involved in selling to major or even all customers. However, management of the process of building a business is a case of project management.

But it doesn’t end with building the business.

In any business, there is a need to identify what is happening around the organization and how the business should react. This is strategic management. Its focus is on change and the future.

On the other hand, the organization needs to carry out its current function. This is the job of the operations elements of the business. Marketing, accounting, production are all concerned with today, and yesterday. Their focus is on continuation and repeating the same processes. Change is their enemy.

Of course, operations can’t be allowed to stay running in the place. They need to be steered or the business will fail eventually. The plans, goals and strategies identified by the strategic managers need to implemented. This is the role of project management. And it’s why an entrepreneur needs to ensure that project management skills are available to the organization as quickly as possible.

The Project Management Institute, better known as PMI, and on the web at pmi.org, is a certifying entity that offers a credential called the Project Management Professional. Managers will often follow their name with PMP; this means they are certified. To qualify for the credential, applicants must meet a number of requirements. I often get calls from people who want to change fields and work as a project manager but don’t have certification. It actually works in reverse; to be eligible for certification PMI requires that project management experience before you can earn your certification. That’s where some of the confusion really begins. The clearest point of reference you should always look to is the most current version of the Project Management Professional Handbook, available for download at PMI.org. It details everything you need to know about certification-how to get it, how to qualify, and once you do become PM certified how to maintain your credentials.

August 07, 2008

SDCC3 outclass Inland Empire

THIS GAME WAS PLAYED ON THE 29th of JUNE.....

SD3 had an outstanding day on the field today against Inland Empire. The week was a terrible week from personnel stand point as we had to recruit new blood to make up the team due to unavailabilities and injuries. We had 4 new players in the team and were without our captain Arshad, Sakthi stepped up to take the responsibility and did a wonderful job.

We won the toss and elected to bowl...as is usually the case with our side...better bowling team. Started off with a beautiful first over from Shiva with a wicket maiden....Fanil (new player) started off well too and complemented Shiva with some controlled and economical bowling, he was unlucky to not get any wickets (due to some dropped catches) but with Shiva leading the wicket taking effort all Fanil had to do was support him and he did a fabulous job. Shiva got another break through and by the end of their spell we had Inland Empire 10 overs..24/2....Suneel and Raju P (new player) came in as first change bowlers....Raju making his debut got a wicket with his third ball uprooting the middle stump....that was a treat to watch...little did we know that we were going to watch some exceptional stuff from him...he just took over the game and got a wicket almost in every over of his to finish with 7/17 in 6.2 overs....a stupendous effort for any level of cricket....beautiful piece of bowling from him...all of us were witness to a performance that is not a every day occurence on the cricket field. Ajay...the other new comer...didnt want to be left behind and added with a beautiful wicket of his own...he bowled the batsman with a peach...all in all we were able to get the opposition out for 58 runs !!!!!!!!!!!!! thats the lowest total in a game that I have been involved in (30 overs or more)......we got them out in 24 overs....a clinical performance on the field by SD3...

We didnt want to repeat the same mistakes that we made during our last low scoring loss against the same team in the season opener so Sakthi asked all the batsman to play positively. It was a great confidence booster to have the team's leading scorer, Raju S, back in the line up....the batting looks a lot more assured when he is in there....Ajay and he opened the innings and got us off to a good start before Ajay fell for a dubious decision. In walked Tejuswi..Another new recruit....he started playing some lovely drives and lofted the ball before perishing to a slower ball...all of a sudden it seemed to be a similar story of batting collapse when Vinit fell without scoring...and the bowlers bowling a tight line without giving anything away…..runs had dried up….Sakthi then made a smart move and sent Shiva up the order....Shiva played some attacking shots that brought the momentum back to SD with Raju playing steadily at the other end....they brought us home in 14 overs....for no more loss of wickets...all in all it was a well earned victory that the team has been waiting for....

August 06, 2008

SDCC3 registers a big win against Regal CC

The day started with the usual rolling of the pitch, laying of the match and running around to get supplies, it was a typical home game morning, with nothing out of the ordinary but turned events that unraveled from then on made the day special for the team. Arshad won the toss and as discussed prior to the game...elected to bat. He said that he wanted to challenge the team with the task of defending a total after it has failed to do that inspite of scoring 230 plus runs not once but twice and both the times against Brit & Dom. Coming off from the last ball thriller and morale killing last ball loss to Brit & Dom the team seemed all pepped to take on the captains challenge.

Arshad and Raju opened the innings for SD3....with Arshad looking more and more confident with each innings and Raju trying to make amends for a rare failure in the last game it was a perfect setting for a big score....Regal bowlers started off well by yielding only 19 runs in the first 6 overs with only 7 coming off t he bat....it was a slow but a steady start and the growing confidence in the strokes of both the players was apparent and it looked like a perfect platform for the two of then to launch....with the first bowling change brought the welcome relief that the bastmen were looking for an they turned around the scoring rate in an astonishing manner. Arshad was the first to up his scoring tempo with a brace of boundaries and Raju soon followed suit. In not time the score coasted towards fifty and at the first break the score was aorund 65 in 13 overs for no loss. Refreshed from the break the Arshad started scoring at a fast pace and started increasing the scoring gap between him and Raju...he was racing towards a well deserved fifty when he fell against the run of play for a slow bowler for 48. By then Arshad and Raju put together a Century partnership....thats was the first time I had seen a century stand for SDCC 3. It provided a perfect platform for the rest of the batsmen. With Raju playing the sheet anchor role Aman was sent in to hit some quick runs and he started off in a stylish manner with a couple of well timed boundaries but he perished to a slower bowler too...Raju on the other hand completed a well crafted fifty....Satish...our star from the last game....walked in confidently....he started playing himself in and runs started flowing at a brisk and steady pace...Raju perished trying to increase the scoring rate and fell for 61. Hari walked in confidently and it looked like a good setting for him to get back to scoring ways....the guys were rooting for him to strike form as he has been really unfortunate so far this season....but his bad seemed to continue as his lofted drive off the first ball he faced was plucked out of the air by the fielder....he stood there in disbelief....Suneel was sent in to stem the sudden fall of wickets....with Satish going great from the other end all Suneel had to do was stay at the crease....Satish was scoring runs at a brisk pace though not all from the middle of the bat....Suneel decided to go at the slow bowlers when they picthed the ball up and connected the first time for a four but the very next ball he persihed for trying to be over aggressive...he got LBW for completing his pull shot before even the ball reached him...yeah it was that slow....suddenly the 260-270 score started looking like a distant possibility....Tejuswi walked in and started off confidently driving down the ground and flicking the ball with ease....Satish was playing a composed innings and was begining to open out....Tejuswi fell in quest of quick runs for 10....in walked the man of the day...little did we know that Shiva was going to take charge of the game and dominate Regal. He started smashing the ball all over the place and that kind of even encouraged Satish for taking on the bowlers....score crossed 250...and was on path for a good score....when Satish played one lofted shot too many to fall for 49 runs to the surprise of all the SDCC players....Shiva finished with 22 runs off 9 balls...SDCC3 finished with 257/8 in 40 vers....seemed like a good score...but so did 237 in the previous game.


After the break, Shiva opened the bowling with Fanil....Neville...the opener for Regal CC started off well by pulling and cutting the ball with unbelievable power....after Shiva got the first break through with a swinging ball, the usually reliable Fanil was dispatched for a few runs mercilessly by Neville...which prompted Arshad to bring on Raju P...he was greeted by Neville with a monstrous six.... but Shiva kept pegging away from the other end and got wickets at regular intervals,....then Raju and Shiva settled into a rhythm and were working in tandem...and that paid dividends and Shiva teased Neville and forced him to play one shot too many.....Neville perished playing across the line...and with him the hope for Regal CC as well...as he seemed to be the only batsman that showed some sense of responsibility to stay at the wicket....Raju P joined the act and got a couple of wickets of his own....Shiva with 4 wickets was easily the pick of the bowlers... he could have had his fifth too but a misunderstanding between Fanil and Tejuswi resulted in a dropped catch....Renga and Suneel continued the restrictive bowling that Raju and Shiva had started....and were rewarded with wickets as well. Shiva was brought back into the attack and he struck straight away to grab his 5th wicket....in the mean time he also dropped a dollly...that even Boycott's mum could have caught.....all in all Regal was bowled out for 88 . The man of the moment Shiva was given the game ball and SDCC3 players finished day with a 171 run victory....now they have a well earned 2 week break before they head to Woodley grounds to take on Anaheim.

August 05, 2008

Olympics - India's eternal desire for a Gold...will it be fulfilled in 2008?

With the Beijing Olympics around the corner, only one thought is on most of the Indian people's minds....will we get a medal this time ?? (No...not a Gold...any medal would do). Thats been the sad story of the indian sports ever since Olympics have been established. The fact that India has never won an individual gold medal is surprising to believe when countries like Cuba, Jamaica, Israel & Saudi Arabia have managed to bag Gold medals. The fact the Rathore...who won a silver was considered pride of the country and was given a promotion in the indian army and was awarded all kinds of honors that take people a lifetime of excellence to achieve tells the sad tale of the current state of Indian sports. On the other end of the spectrum is USA...where they literally dominate the medals tally...what ever said about the competition from China, Russia, Australia etc....USA is the team to beat. Michael Phelps....the swimming sensation that won about 6 gold medals in the previous edition Olympics took a sabbatical because he couldnt achieve his goal of 8 GOLDS !!!!!! And he is back this year to take another shot at getting 8 Golds....1 more than Mark Spitz....and most of the people in the US wouldnt even know who Michael Phelps is....he has not been conferred with country's highest honor nor has been invited to every damn award ceremony organized in the country....and the most surpising thing is that he is not even 24 yrs old!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We as a nation cry or erupt in joy with the performance of the Indian Cricket Team...the "Alpha, Beta and the Gamma" of Indian sports. The kind of recognition, fame, money and media coverage that these cricketers get is envied by all the other sports men & women. People like Dhoni...who has not even achieved a lot in like is given Rajiv Khel Ratna award.....thats the highest honor given to a Indian sports person....was Kapil Dev awarded with that ? Sunil Gavaskar ? And ask any indian cricket fan....who has contributed more to Indian cricket (so far) Dhoni or Kapil/gavaskar/Dravid/Ganguly ? Dhoni has no doubt transformed the Indian ODI team but I think the government should have taken their time as they did in SACHIN's case....8 yrs !!!!!!! Same with Sania mirza....she is honored like crazy at all the award ceremonies and people turn a cold shoulder to Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupati who actually win tournaments....Sania no doubt has brought Womens tennis into limelight in India but she has done little of note to be honored with lifetime achievement awards.

I think the we should stop idolizing & creating media publicized demi gods like our cricketers, Anju George, Sania mirza and start concentrating and encouraging the guys that go unnoticed....Indian Hocket team, shooter, boxers, chess players etc....

As somebody said "We did our part by participating, thats what counts...winning is only a bonus"...unfortunately thats been the kind of attitude that has been inculcated in us since we are kids.....what we see is what we learn.....

the Olympics is not only about participating...its about winning too....I think we have participated enough...its time to start winning...atleast take the right steps towards winning.....

The classic example of how things have gone to worse can be seen by the sheer lackluster performance of the mens hockey team...once the Badshah's of the world with a lot of Gold medals...we had come to a stage where we had to play the qualifiers...and now we have hit the rock bottom....we failed to qualify for the olympics.....that should serve as an eye opener to a lot of people that something needs to be done....

Some might say....."in India we concentrate on studies and not on sports"....I would say "why not" sports are a form of expression....we need to have some kind of exposure to sports as it gives you a different platform to excel....why should we only excel in studies....as such most of the schools in the indian system only require you to memorize things and mechanically solve the problems from the last "10 years" to pass the final exam. Are we blind to believe that only people of india study, and others dont ? Look at China, germany and other major countries....they are developing as a nation....in research, education, manufacturing, sports etc....

The basic flaw I think is in the system that is not being able to identify and nurture the talents at an early stage....people get into sports teams with influence, bribing, seniority etc....that is not the right way to build you infrastructure...and more over we are teaching the kids that you can get anything with influence, bribe etc....and that hardwork is just one of the ways to achieve the goal when on the contrary it should be preached that HARDWORK is the ONLY way to achieve your goals....

I can go on & on....now I can only hope that we win some medals to justify the 1 billion population tag that India has.....

June 14, 2007

Compuware Game....

After that loss against NCC we headed to Nationwide ground to play the second half of our double header....the umpire was very very rude...we werent scheduled to leave the ground we played on earlier that morning but due to some conflict we had to move to another ground....we had 45 mins between the games on which we banked on to get some lunch....but becoz of the change in venue...we lost most of that time and the umpire wasnt even considerate enough to let us get some food...he said that we wil have to lose some overs if we went for food...thats rubbish....when our car got there the umpire was on the field already gesturing us to come for toss....we had 6 people at that point so when I won the toss i elected to bat....it was a forced decision...but turned out to be a good one....

Sham and Baji opened the innings and were hitting at will against the relatively weaker bowling team....both of them scored briskly....Baji was playing himself back into form by gradually increasing in confidence with each of his knocks....Sham was at his attacking best....both of them put in a quick 60-70 run partnership when against the run of the play.....Baji got out....then Uday was sent in....he too got out quickly...Guru was promoted to get some batting practice....but he got out for a duck.....too bad that he didnt utilize the opportunity....by that point the groupism in the team was brewing....we developed a group system and divided the team into 3 groups and each groups would be awarded with points based on the players performance...this was done to incorporate healthy competition within the team....little did we know that Raghav...would abuse it to the advantage of his group...hehehhehehe...well....Raghav and I kind of steadied the innings and took the score close to 170 when I got out...trying to get over aggressive...Vijay went in and started belting the ball to all parts of the field with neat hits....his hitting was so effective and outstanding that he outscored Raghav ( playing since the 9 or 10th over) in a 9-ball knock...we ended up with 210 odd runs....

their batting too wasnt that great....so Raghav decided to experiment with the bowling....which was a good idea....but he abused the system to give bowling only to the people in his group....result being that his group got about 7-8 wickets that fell that day....anyways....Gabroo bowled and over and so did Guru....Uday bowled a couple and Harsha bowled 3....then Rajni and Thimma bowled 4 each in which Rajni got 5 wickets....he was bowling very well....with a decent flight and good line.....he deserved the wickets he got....the best part was his celebration after each wicket....in panesar style....with pumping fists and running to the batsman...accompanied by a shriek of joy ( or heckling the batsman)....Rohit also joined the party with a couple of overs and wicket....my contribution on the field was just a catch....we got them out for 70 runs or so.....it was a relatively easy game after that close match against NCC...so we ended the league phase with 3-1 record and luckily for me...we topped the group...in spite of my terrible performance against NCC that brought some solace to me....

June 06, 2007

Game against NCC (20-20)

Our next game was against Nationwide Cricket Club (NCC)....i know quite a few people on the team as I have been playing for quite some time with Akron CC....so it was nice to see some familiar faces...

The game started late as the NCC guys came late...the umpire rightly punished them for their tardiness by deducting 2 overs from their chase...there was lot of opposition to that....but we started the game finally....we were concerned becoz we had a double header that day and had to play two matches back-to-back....so we were banking on the break between the games to replenish our energy reserves....

Anyways...we started batting...Baji and Abhay started well....scored briskly....got a partnerhsip going...then Abhay got out against the run of the play....Sham walked in and tried hitting out from the first ball....bad strategy....well he got a life....then Baji went...he scored 15-20 runs...I went in with the hope of building some partnerships and keep the score board ticking....sham got out immediately....in walked Raghav....we decided to buckle down and get ones....dont know what got into Raghav....tried lofting the ball...not exactly his strength and got out....to a good catch....in walked the debutant....Vinay...we had a similar discussion in the middle....buckle up and run singles....he did the same things Raghav did and was caught at the same position....Guru came next....both of us are comfortable with each other as we can run our singles fast....so we had a nice little partnership going....then I had a rush of blood and was catch at short third man....we were in a little bit of trouble...as Vijay got out immediatelt and Guru after hitting a good six....thanks to rajni and Harsha...we played out the rest of the overs for 120 odd runs....

Well...we thought that it would be a god total as they had to chase it in 18 overs....Vijay and Guru started of well again...Vijay esp was brilliant...he was in a zone and bowled with good control....we got a few wickets but essentially kept the asking rate high.....Manpreet was introduced and he started with a brillinat yorker....we kept the scoring low and got wickets at regular intervals....I felt we were all good to go...little did I know that I was going to have a horrible day....first I dropped a catch on the boundary line....it was simple catch...that should have given me a hint as to what kind of a day I was going to have....Raghav threw me the ball in the hope of wrapping things up after the other debutant Harsha bowled well and got a couple of wickets...I was taken for 12 runs in my first over...with a six off my slower ball...its been a long time since I hadbeen hit for a six off my slower ball as I have been getting the ball spot on....but this time it didnt work....then harsha bowled another good over and I screwed it up again, i was taken for 12 more runs in the next over...with another six over deep sqaure....I asked raghav to stop me....he obliged....thank god....I dont know what would have happened had I continued....anyways...Gabroo and Guru brought us back into the game with some excellent bowling in the death....but we did give them some freebies by bowling fullish length....on Baji's and Sham's insistance raghav asked me to bowl the last over .....I was surprised ....I said "r u sure?? I am having a terrible day"....he said that he faith in me....I was encouraged....14 required of the last over....started off with runout from the first ball....but then i compenstaed with six of the next ball again....i was like...whats going on....why am I screwing up that bad...8 from 4.....they got 2....6 from 3....bowled a slower ball..that beat the batsman and the keeper all end s up....that went for a bye and another for unfortunate overthrow...4 from 2.....the ball slipped from my hand and I bowled a waist high full toss that went for a single...2 runs scrored....2 balls 2 runss... brilliant piece of fielding by sham...he shot the non striker end wickets down under pressure...1 ball 2 runs...we got the field up but I screwed up with a ball right in the slot that was hit for another six!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! end of the game and a disastrous performance from me....after all the effort from Vijay, Guru, Gabroo and harha....i gave up 42 in 3 overs!!!!! my worst ever performance....so we lost the game and fell to 2-1....we had to win the next game to top the group.....