I recently got myself a Canon 40D. After a 3 year wait, I can finally afford to buy myself a DSLR, and have been going crazy with it for the last couple of weeks.

larger version.

Largely influenced by Thomas Hawk’s passion, I have started carrying the camera everywhere I go: to work, when I go shopping, and even when I am just walking around the neighbourhood. I shot this picture, on my back from work, last Friday. With all the shooting, I am running out of HDD space very quickly. I am ok, for the next month (I have 2 external 80GB HDD + around 60GB in my laptop). After that, I will need to move the old ones to DVDs (something, which I hate doing: easy to lose shots, and difficult to retrieve).

Any suggestions are welcome (If anyone is reading this!). Oh.. I almost forgot,

Here are the links to my photostream:

zooomr: http://www.zooomr.com/photos/shiva/ [RSS]

zooomr sets: http://www.zooomr.com/photos/shiva/sets/

Join zooomr, it is an amazing community, and Kris (founder) and Thomas (CEO) and the most amazing folks, and truly understand how important the community is, and are very active users themselves. I learnt a lot about photography in the few weeks that I have been pro on zooomr. Add me as your friend on zooomr.

Technorati Tags: zooomr, dogs, vancouver, pictures, canon40d, canon, canon 40d, DSLR, Thomas Hawk, Kirstopher Tate

Update: I have also signed up for flickr pro account, and will be uploading pictures to that too. So do check that out also.

Tags: canon 40d, DSLR, zooomr

Dang! I got stung today, by a bee, for the first time in my life. The little critter was trying to sniff some aroma from the back of my head, and I reached out with my hand, grabbed him (sorry, it must of hurt), and he got pissed and wanked me. Just as any normal, crazed-out geek would do, the first thing I did was to search the net for home-grown, bee sting remedies and I found this post by William Brantley. Being a much braver individual than I can be (when it comes to bee stings), he went through a series of bee-biting to test various remedies, that exists in the market-place and several home-grown remedies.

So, how did the home remedies stack up against the pharmaceutical offerings? It depends on the home, I guess. The worst home remedies were worse than the worst pharmaceuticals, and the best home remedies better than the best pharmaceuticals. The Caladryl was the sole pharmaceutical remedy I’d use again. If I had to leave the house to go get it, though, I’d buy the meat tenderizer instead and use it in the vinegar/baking soda paste. Yet why bother with either of those when you already use, on a daily basis, the two best bee sting remedies? The winners: toothpaste and ice.

I am going to test the above two, and let you know the results. I am hoping that they work their magic. Oooo.. that hurts! and again!

Update: I don’t know about the toothpaste, but the ice definitely works!! I can’t feel my finger (forget the sting), after icing it for 30 mins.

I hate posting links, so I embed.

First off, this is a rant. You have been warned.

I have been banking with ICICI bank for the last 6 years. I have generally had a pleasant experience banking with them, since you could do pretty much everything you want to do with your account through their online interface. With my recent move to Canada, I was pleased to see an branch here in Vancouver.

I opened an account with them last week, and had used a check to make the initial deposit. A week passed and with no sign of a confirmation of account activation, I called their call center.

Call 1:

Customer care executive(CCE): Good morning, ICICI bank, how may I help you?
Me: Hi, I’m Shivanand and I opened an account with you last week. I see that my cheque has been cleared, and I haven’t received any confirmation of the same. I would like to know the status of my application?
CCE: Can you give me your First Name, Last Name and Phone No?
Me: <I give them the info>
CCE: I’m sorry I am unable to see a record of your account. Do you have your Customer Identification No?
Me: I don’t. I will call you back

I had left all the documents at home, and had to call the next day.

Call 2:

Me: <I give him, my First Name, Last Name, Cust ID, my dog’s name, and the exact dimensions of the turd left by my dog yesterday, in the park)
Cust ID: I am sorry, I can’t find your account. Can I take a request from you, to send a request to ask for information from your branch?
Me: umm… what? Whatever, how long will it take to know the status of my application?
Cust Id<in a very loud voice>: I can send a request to my back office, and it will take 2 days.
Me:Why?
Cust Id<in a very loud voice>: I have to send it to my back office and it will take 2 days.
Me: Why? I called the local bank, why can’t you just forward me to the local branch, and I will ask them?
Cust ID: We don’t have that information?
Me: whatever.. <and I put the phone down>

With billions of dollars worth of technology, in the banking systems in the world, banks can’t afford to forward a call to a specific branch, to ask for a some information? I find that absurd, and downright stupid. I am trying to give you business and the first experience I get is inability to tell me why you’ve taken my money, but not activated my account?! If such is the level of incompetence, how well can you take care of my money?!!

Well, being fed up with call centers, I decided to call the branch itself. I called in, using the branch’s number, and someone at the branch picked it up. She got my Cust ID, and my phone number, and said, she will call me in half hour. End of call and I am actually happy that I got the thing moving! That was simple, wasn’t it? I spent 2 minutes, and got more confidence than a 20 minute conversation with a call center employee, who just doesn’t care enough about the customer.

I also sent, this mail to ICICI customer care.

Hi,
I recently opened an account with ICICI bank Canada (I have been a ICICI bank customer for the last 6 years in India) and have not received confirmation of account activation. I tried calling your call center and was faced with a shouting employee. I found like to refrain from mentioning the person by name. Please educate your call center employees, that as a customer, I have not interest in the limitations that you have in your back office.
I gave the employee my First name, last name and my customer identification number, and all he could give me was that my account was not active. (which is why I was calling). Also, remember this is after ICICI bank had withdrawn $5000 from my account (I gave a cheque for the initial deposit) a week back. I think it would be best if you can sensitize your employees on the ethics of phone conversation and also try and provide a solution rather than try and get rid of the call.
I usually make it public, when I rant about something and have posted this mail on my blog. Click on the link below. I would expect a response from you, either through mail, or on my website.
regs
Shiva
–
code-freak, blogger, tech-enthusiast and moderate photographer!
http://shvelmur.com
Mark Twain - “Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest.”

I will post the replies here. Let’s see if ICICI is agile enough.

Technorati Tags: ICICI, call center, rants