Intelligent Mutt

Sales talk - makes me wonder

2009-08-10T13:30:00.002+05:30

A long time ago, some of us went for dinner and ordered hot butter cuttle fish. The waiter comes back and says "no hot butter cuttle fish, but we have stir fried prawns (or something to that effect" - and goes on to say that both tastes the same! I found this quite hilarious.

I went to buy some trousers over the weekend. Assume that my waist is 36. Well, I found a comfortably fitting trouser at 36, but wanted another colour. The sales girl - genuinely tells me that they have the colour that I want in size 34, and that there is not much difference between 36 and 34. Makes me wonder.

Met a friend - such a long time

2009-08-04T15:26:00.003+05:30

Met a friend after close to three years for Coffee. I was very fond of her, and still am. It was amazing how we could almost start where we left.
Too bad she is going back to her country. Never asked her out because I knew for a fact that she wouldn't be in Sri Lanka and I would rather be here :P

Hm, I meet the nicest people at the most unexpected places.

Green Tea

2009-08-03T16:30:00.001+05:30

IMO, drink it if you like and enjoy it; not because of the claim that it is good for you.
Same goes for red wine.

Banning mobile phones in schools - a mistake

2009-07-28T09:31:00.004+05:30

Why throw the baby with the bath water?

Sad that we are missing another opportunity of teaching proper phone etiquette at a young age, including not answering the phone while lectures are in progress, and speaking softly.

Technology in itself is not evil - and better to train people at a younger age on how to get a handle on it.

Anyhow, until the child is of suitable age, I think data connections should not be given to children so as to prevent them from accessing porn. That is the easiest, cheapest, nastiest way. However, the better way to get around this would be to create a white list, and say allow GPRS connection, and allow them to access Gmail / Yahoo / MSN / LBO etc.

And imagine having your child, and yourself logged on to Google Latitude?

Facebook third party add story - false

2009-07-27T17:18:00.002+05:30

I cannot access the following link because it says "invalid URL". Its from the Facebook Blog, not really sure why it throws up an "invalid URL" message.
http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=110636457130

Anyways, I copy-pasted it to Google, and clicked "Cached" to see the cached version. Will give real colour on Facebook's alleged use of our pictures in plain English.

Dialog new detail bill format good for company and customer

2009-07-27T09:13:00.003+05:30

A few months ago, to reduce costs, Dialog trumped up the "environment" card whereby it requested customers to shift to a summary bill instead of the detailed bill to "help save trees". The obvious truth is, it was motivated by the need to reduce costs, rather than save the environment.

I take a number of calls and I send a few hundred SMS a month, so my bill contained about 20 pages. So I shifted to the summary bill - because I wanted to help Dialog save some money (which is arguably good for us customers in the long run).

Somehow or other, their systems are screwed - and I still get the detailed bill - but they have shifted to a new format. Difficult to explain using words, but they have reduced the font size, but printed it "bold", and instead of having only one column displaying say the numbers that I have made calls to, now they have two columns. I find this particular cost cutting method both helpful for the company, and to us customers. Why didn't they think of this before?

Sri Lanka - porn sites blocked

2009-07-27T08:18:00.003+05:30

What people do behind closed doors is their business - as long as it does not hurt anyone else. So obviously, those who indulge in child pornography should be prosecuted: i.e. all those who encourage child pornography, including those who watch such.

Guess it's time for the government to step in and introduce a law banning pre-marital sex, based on moral grounds.

Ice Age 3 - Liberty Cinema

2009-07-24T12:41:00.004+05:30

The show wasn't bad - this is not the same as saying that the show was good. I enjoyed it somewhat - but not something that I would call "awesome"

I was disappointed at how the Cinema staff directed me towards the queue. I went to get the tickets for the 1:30pm show around 12:45. I was told that the tickets will be issued at 1:00 pm and that I should stay in the queue - so, I placed myself in front of the ticket counter. Then, around 12:55 or so I am told that the queue begins "outside" the gate; if only they had told me so before.
However, there wasn't a crowd, so I got the tickets.

This arrogance displayed to customers is disappointing. Success should not breed arrogance. Can they "afford" to be arrogant? Sadly, yes - after all, people do not generally go to watch a movie at the Cinema with the sole intention of watching the movie.

Missing my friend

2009-07-23T16:20:00.003+05:30

My best friend just took off to the US, after marriage. Obviously, I am very happy for her - and her husband; but this does not stop me from missing her.

Email and Skype will still keep us talking.
Somethings, never change.

Aristotle classified friendship in to three classifications:
1) Based on utility
2) Based on pleasure
3) Based on "goodness"

The third one is very rare to find; I know that by looking at all the old years. The thing is, once you find "3", it lasts a lifetime. A lifetime.