mere funde

Author: Amit Goyal

  • General Post

    According to the Met department, it has been the quickest the Monsoon has hit the Indian Capital in more than a century. Well, I don’t know the weather record, but the rains have sure made for the best summers in this part of the country in many many years for me..

    Anyways, this weekend has been especially wet and very very nice. Sunday morning and the Gurgaon skyline resembled the Darjeeling weather. I have been using the DSLR a little more nowadays and the extra time this morning gave me a chance to experiment with it.

    Clicked a few snaps but this is the personal favourite. Comments welcome 🙂

  • Tata Sky Sucks

    I have been a great fan of the Tata Sky service for the past one year. The picture and sound clarity is worth the additional money for the installation and the premium one pays for the monthly subscription. However, the events over the last week or so has left a very bad taste in the mouth and I would say that everyone should stay away from them.

    About a week back Tata Sky announced that they are reducing the monthly charges and providing the Sports Channels (ESPN-STAR bouquet, Ten Sports) and the BBC add-ons at the same cost but as optional components. While this is a welcome change I had two issues with it. Bad implementation and incorrect information.

    Bad Implementation – The ideal way to implement it would have been that each customer should have been called or given an option to opt out (rather than opt in). That too while the French Open is underway and the Euro 2008 is a week away. If they are changing the plan, they should ask the customer, rather than the customer having to take the pains. That said their helpline was busy and unavailable, and they did not have the courtesy to call back after making me wait on their stupid helpline for 20 mins, thrice.

    Incorrect Information – They said that the cost would remain the same even if I added the optional package. I think this is incorrect since if you add the BBC channels and Ten Sports, the cost is more than the existing cost.

    Now – Super Saver (Rs. 260) + ESPN-STAR (Rs. 40) + BBC (Rs. 30) + Ten Sports (Rs. 15) = Rs. 345

    Earlier – Super Saver Pack (Rs. 300). (My subscription charges for the month of May is provided below as an example)

    01-Jun-08 Subs Fee Monsoon promo pack- 3 for the period (30-May-08 to 31-May-08) @ Rs 8.55 per day 17.10
    01-Jun-08 Subs Fee Monsoon promo pack- 3 for the period (01-May-08 to 29-May-08) @ Rs 9.86 per day 285.94

    I am shocked that Tata – very recently crowned to be a trusted brand – would take such a stupid step and harm its own image. I would now advise all friends to go for the cheaper option of DishTV despite the very very irritating SRK ad. You guys have lost a loyal customer is all I have to say.

  • Gmail spam filter gone nuts!

    That’s an email from the Google Alerts not spam!!

    Google spam filter is broken

  • STN vs GenomeQuest

    … or why STN is going to fail. DGENE and USGENE recently introduced an option to limit sequence searches (BLAST) by % match. But I think it might just be too little to late for them.

    For too long now STN has enjoyed the benefits of monopoly in the field of patent sequence searching. However, a new entrant in the domain threatens not only to end the monopoly but might also bring an end to STNs business in this field. GenomeQuest has quietly, but steadily has become the tool of choice for patent information searchers. More and more people, including some patent offices, have started accepting it as a standard. So why exactly is this happening??

    Sequence searching on STN is complex, not-user friendly, and extremely expensive. On the other hand GenomeQuest offers a easy and intuitive interface for searching. Also, for searches with more than 50 odd patent results GenomeQuest becomes a more cost effective option, that too if you are searching on one database only through STN.

    However, GenomeQuest is not without its share of problems. Their coverage so far is not comprehensive, and they do not have clear information on what patent-ranges (date or jurisdiction wise) are covered by them. Also, GenomeQuest lacks amount of filtering offered by STN.

    The geek in me loves the STN for the impressive options, and here is what they need to do to get back ahead.

    1. Introduce a simple single combined search on all interfaces with automatic duplicate reduction. I understand this might not be possible in cases where the databases are supplied by different companies, like CAS Registry and DGENE, but you got to do it for business – so figure it out, will you!
    2. Reduce the cost and make the search affordable. Treat sequence searches (structure too if possible) as one search and charge a fixed amount (say USD 200-250) to do the search and display the results. No separate display charges.
    3. Keep up that brilliant customer service 🙂

    So here. No go ahead, make the changes and be the best again STN!

    PS: The views expressed above are mine alone and do not reflect those of my employer. Also, this post is not to defame any service.

  • I am back

    … after a brief hiatus. I have been away for almost a month, mostly due to increased work load. But I am firmly and surely back again. I recount below some of the more interesting things that have happened over the past month.

    1. BarCamp Delhi 4 was attended. It was my first BarCamp and a very nice experience at that. It was held at the Amity Incubator in Noida, and they were excellent hosts with brilliant WiFi and lunch. Met a lot of interesting people. The event was low on tech and more on networking I was slightly disappointed. I personally delivered a talk on “Software and IP” and Akshat one on “Folksonomies”. After the camp clicked a couple of snaps at the India Gate and got caught in hail and rain. Thankfully the lappie and the cam were unaffected. Photos here.

    2. The Quiz at office was won. The Bong (Aditya Chakrobarty) and me – named as “Two Bongs or Not” – defeated three other teams by a huge margin and got ourselves coupouns for Landmark worth a grand each. Luck played a huge part, but I am not complaining.

    3. Gurgaon experienced a week of “Awesome Mausum” – I phrase I can claim to have invented. Rain pounded and the temperatures fell so low that the fans were switched off! In the middle of May – who would have thunk!

    Fell in love with Poets of The Fall – Carnival of Rust. Other than that I have been twittering quite a lot. You can follow me here.