mere funde

Author: Amit Goyal

  • WordPress upgrade and…

    The blog now runs WordPress 2.6 and I will be in Hyderabad over the weekend and plan to have a lot of fun 🙂

  • Catchy headline of the day!

    “Get into Mallika’s pants”

    Get where??

  • ABN Amro lacks FF support!

    ABN Amro – India, recently made some changes to its website which renders the NetBanking option unusable on Firefox (any version!). I sent an email to their support desk about this, and am reproducing their response below.

    Dear Customer,

    This is with reference to your email dated July 09, 2008. At the outset we would like to thank you for the time taken and effort made by you in sharing your concerns with us.

    We wish to inform you that currently you will not be able to access our Net banking service through Fire fox browser. However to access our Net banking services we recommend Internet explorer browser version to be 5.5 and 6 and we would also request you to kindly check if your Internet Explorer browser is configured for JAVA applet.

    Should you require any other assistance, please feel free to call our 24 Hour Bank by Phone service* in your City and our executives will be glad to assist you.

    Assuring you of our best services.

    Yours Sincerely,
    Service Delivery, Consumer Bank, India

    While I appreciate their quick response to my query, I am thoroughly disappointed with the response. For a company of ABN Amro’s size, simply stating that it does not work is not acceptable.

    Just for the record, ICICI Bank which runs the same software (FINACLE by Infosys), supports all sorts of browsers and their NetBanking is much easier to use.

  • And it rained..

    I have lived at in my current apartment complex for almost three months, and have almost never seen anyone else outside, except in the morning.

    But it rained today and it brought a lot of people out of their homes. The old gentleman trying to cover the stuff lying in the balcony. The neighbour and her three small kids, with outstretched arms, trying to feel the rain. The cute kid in the bajoo wala ghar, playing with her dalmation. The uncle (in 605 I think) having a smoke outside. And me having chai, and feeling the rain on my face.

    It felt so fresh 🙂

  • The post about Yahoo!

    So much has been said about Yahoo over the recent past, that it seems like a blessing in disguise for Twitter. The laundry list of senior execs leaving has not gone down well either.

    However, I do not agree with Mike Arrington when he says that Yahoo should have sold out to Microsoft. I have great respect for Mike but I think he is wrong, and big time at that, about this issue. Maybe the decision seemed to make business sense, but personally I feel that the two companies are so different that merging them together would have been the great disaster since Yahoo’s move with Geocities.

    Anyways I would like to agree with a contrarian view put forth by Danny here. And to add to it I have some suggestions. Yahoo currently owns some of the best stuff on the internet.

    1. Yahoo Mail – As much as I dislike the service now, loads of people still use Yahoo mail. Provide free POP access. Remove those obscene ads. And think of a better way to monetize it. STOP THE SPAM. Let me say that again. STOP THAT SPAM. And no, Ymail won’t solve your issues here. Also, the RSS reader (does anyone use it??) is a joke. Do away with it.
    2. del.icio.us – Yeah, the founder is leaving. But you guys are to blame. Release the new version already. You know what people using it are thinking. Use it. Use it with Answers. Use it with Search. Probabaly integrate with Flickr.
    3. Flickr – Again, the founders are leaving. Don’t mess with the product. Its awesome. Think integration with Image search results.
    4. Messenger – Cut those stupid ads. Simplify it. Let it do the job. I dont need bull shit on it. Let me talk and chat.
    5. Answers – Something I know least about, but have heard awesome stuff about it. Let it be.
    6. Finance – Good as is. Let it be.

    Get back into the game by getting back those users who used to swear by Yahoo at a point of time. You can always look at better ways of monetizing. Get rid of non-committed people. Don’t let go off good ones. Get rid of pro email. Perhaps you missed the memo but people have stopped paying for it ages back!! Get rid of competing products. Get rid of stupid execs. Focus on technology, the money will follow. You don’t need to do everything. Get rid of non-core products. Slim down and focus your energies.

    I grew up on the internet with you folks. Don’t throw in the towel just yet. Stop eating peanut butter.