Vendor Etiquette

I just replied to a post at Mathew Diehl's SEM blog. You can read his blog and my response here

Not happy but lucky

Woke up this morning to find out that someone broke my car window presumably to rob something. I say presumably because nothing was taken. There were two pairs of sunglasses that the perp clearly saw because he kept them on the seat. I also had a GPS in the glove compartment and it seemed like the glove wasnt even opened.

So I was ticked off because I was on my way to a breakfast meeting and got delayed because I took a few pics and had to clean up the glass (amazing the amount of glass from one window) before I could leave. I couldnt get it fixed today which means I have to wait till Mon morning and drive around with the driver's window open.

All of which is inconvenient but I am glad that nothing was stolen.  

My must have iPhone apps

Here in no particular order are my must-have iPhone apps. All of them are free - so far I havent felt the need to pay for an app, but I'm willing to, if there's value.

These are on my home screen:
Fake Caller - just cool to show friends. I haven't actually used it ;-)
Pandora
iTV - I dont watch TV; this is more for Gerard's programs on the weekend
Quitter - tracks how long I've quit smoking and is a good motivator for me to stay stopped
The Weather Channel
Zenbe - nice To Do/Lists app; there could be better ones in the App Store, but I havent looked that hard
Linked In
Facebook
Say Who - phone dialer; havent used it for a while, since I got my new Bluetooth

Other screens:
Mobile News - headlines from AP
Easy WiFi - auto log into AT&T hotspots
Word Wrap - word game, very addictive, you have to create words using 6 letters and have to have at least one 6 letter word to move to the next level. My highest score is 5960. I could beat that but it gets too easy/boring after some time
If found - call xxxx
yelp
Snap Tell
iChess
SOS Torch
Mini Piano
Pac Man Lite
FSS Hockey
Apple Remote
Guitar Chords

Games that Gerard likes:
Armado Lite
Tap Tap
Light Sabre - cool Star Wars thingy you can play sword fights with
Trace
Whoopie - a fart thingy - Gerard's 5 y/o - enough said

More snow?!

I may be wrong but it seems like we havent had much snow the past few winters. Whether that's the case or not, you certainly can't say that about this winter. We had two snow storms in the last couple of weeks of 2008, one more in early Jan and in the middle of our 4th storm today.

Because I don't live in a single family I don't have much shoveling to do - I still have to shovel in front of our building, but that's shared with the other two owners in my building. But there are two other factors that snow storms add complexity to: one is I live in the city and park on the streets, which means that parking spots are limited to begin with and more so when there's a lot of snow on the ground.

The other, more *interesting* aspect is that my car has rear wheel drive and a very skittish rwd at that. so before I get into a parking spot I have to consider whether I'll be able to get out of it! All of which means that I should probably sell my car, which is a dangerous position for me to be in! Buying a car, I mean!

Gerard on YouTube!

Most of you have seen this but check it out if you haven't and it's still good for a laugh if you have http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8zVWIRQf0k

Just started a new gig!

I just started a consulting position with blue green ventures which is headed by Jeff Eckman , friend, father of a handsome boy, entrepreneur and drummer extraordinaire.

I'm helping Jeff with biz dev for ion interactive, a fast growing firm that focuses on post-click marketing to increase client conversions by at least 400%. This is my first experience with a start-up, having worked for huge organizations for pretty much my entire my career, and the experience thus far has been great!

Happy weekend and for those of us in the Boston area, all the best with the latest storm: go easy with the shoveling and be careful walking on those sidewalks - a close friends' wife fractured her arm last week.

I guess I need to blog more often!

So often, on my way back home I'll plan to update my blog and equally often I forget. But today a good friend of mine said that I haven't updated my blog for a while. I was very pleased that at least one person checks this blog and felt the least I could do was make an entry today. Not tomorrow or next week; today. Thanks Fred!

Gerard and I spent Christmas at my cousin Ajoy's place in NJ. His sister Tania and her family were there too. They both have 2 kids each and Gerard loves hanging out with them. We spent a week with them in the summer which was also a great experience for both of us.

I spent Christmas Eve with Robert and Elke and Elke had made some German cookies which were amazing. We had a great evening and it was very nice to meet their parents and daughter. One highlight of my visits to my cousins' is the food which is always great, but more importantly for me are the sweets which are outstanding; more so at Christmas - memories of Christmases in Bombay!

Another highlight was playing in the snow with Gerard. We had a ton of snow over the past couple of weeks and Gerard and I had such a great time. We went sledding last year which was fun too.

I want to take him skiing but I'm apprehensive about the whole process. I'm planning to take him tubing with Mark, Salil and their boys which should be a good way to start.

That's it for now. I hope to be back soon. I wish you all the very best for 2009!