Well, regular readers of this blog might have been wondering if I stayed back in Vegas ! :) .. its been quite some time since I posted an entry here!… well, I am back.. and kind of pretty busy with work.
Our Vegas trip went on pretty good. We had a nice time. Clicked tons of snaps… But, work has been very very hectic ever since we came back. So, I am not finding enough time to post the Vegas snaps out here.
Will do soon once I get some time .. may be over this weekend. Else, all is good…
Will be traveling to Las Vegas later today on a 4 day vacation. Its been quite some time since me and Chitra had a nice break from work, … and thanksgiving is the best time to have one ! (ideally.. not! - but given our work/situation!)
So, we start on the 21-Nov, and return back to Houston on the 25-Nov. Also plan to drive to Grand Canyon on one of the day.
Just added the new “Photos” section to this site. The idea is to share personal pics among friends and relatives.
Did some research over the weekend for some tool to generate web-based photo albums, and finally zeroed in on JAlbum. So far, I am happy with what it does, but I will get to know all the Pros and Cons only after I use it for a while.
BTW, the Photo Album is password protected. If you know me personally, feel free to request for a userid/password using this link.
Oh yes. I am very much alive :) but almost buried in work….. haven’t done much in Houston yet. But I think now I am quite familiar with the places around, and the important roads in Houston.
Last Sunday (24-Sep), we had a Infosys hosted party at a private Ranch called Buck Horn Ranch. It was fun. The Ranch itself was pretty scenic, and it had a pretty huge lake within. There was a toy train too, which took us around the lake. And then there were other fun stuff. The HR folks organized some games tooo. So, it was kind of fun and a good break from the hectic work.
On the work front, lot of things piled up. The month or so has been very very hectic. But things are taking shape slowly. But its definitely taking more time than I expected it to! Oh…and I am learning lot of lessons too.. and I guess, that’s what gaining experience is all about ! :)
Yes, it has been a long time since I posted. I think more the two weeks! I think I have never blogged soo infrequently !!. And the reason for the same is ………… yes, you guessed it right……. work.
The past three weeks have been very very hectic. Kind of in meetings all day long. There have been days were I was in meeting for the entire day with a 45 mins lunch break. And then, during non office hours, I need to catch up with my mails, do some documentation stuff, co-ordinate with the team back in India and…. setup my home. We did have a long weekend in between(Sep 3-5), but we were at home, setting up things. Bought quite a lot of stuff for our house, and it took quite a lot of time and effort to assemble and setup things.
Well, Houston as such is a much bigger place compared to Kingsport. Lot of places to go around, but so far, I haven’t got a chance to do much of exploring around, except for Walmarts and Targets around :).
The weather at Houston is pretty decent. Its not as hot as I expected. Or, may be I am lucky to totally avoid the Houston summer. The weather is comparable to the weather at Mangalore, my home town. And…………..no hurricanes too so far! (touch-wood!!)
Extremely sorry to all the people who have left comments on other posts. I was just not able to reply. Will try to catch up with it soon.
Finally said bye bye to Kingsport yesterday. There are somethings that you never forget in your life. And my stay at Kingsport is one among them. It was my first city in the US, calm and peaceful with very scenic surroundings.
I also got a chance to interact with some really great bunch of people, both at work and otherwise. They were always ready to help, very friendly and full of fun!
My next assignment starts on Monday i.e, 21st of August at Houston for our client (BP). I would be back working on web-based stuff, which I love!. For the last 6 months, I was in more of VB.net and VB6 kind of environment. It was good. Anything to do with computers/Internet is fun for me :).
But, above all, now I get to stay with my wife. So, now we can finally get rid of long Skype/gTalk calls.
On the work front, I am all set for the next challenge!
After staying away for more than 8 months now, I would be finally staying with my dear wife!. If all goes well, I would be relocating to Houston soon. My assignment here in Kingsport would end on the 18th of August.
It has been a long wait, and both of us have been looking forward for this to happen since long. Now that its in sight, both of us are really happy and excited about it. Hope all goes well as planned.
Well, that also means that the past couple of days have been very hectic. One of my friends/colleague would be replacing me at work here at Kingsport. Its his first visit to the US too. So, Its kind of a deja-vu feeling for me, when it comes to setting him up, both at work and otherwise. Around seven months back I was in his place……. Anyway, the show goes on!
So, this also explains the why my blogging activity has come down in the past couple of days. :D Should be back to normal in a couple of weeks from now. i.e., once I settle down at Houston.
Come July 25th, I would have finished 6 months using Skype-In. I had used Skype prior to that, but it was mainly for Skype to Skype calls or Skype-out calls. I would also be finishing my 6 months here in the United States this month end.
During these 6 months, i have used Skype as my *only* phone to receive calls. This service is called the Skype-In service. The main reason for me to go for Skype-in initially was, I wanted a phone number which I could give to my parents before I left India!. So, I had a US number of Kingpsort Area code, when I was in India. I also had a feeling that it would take some time for me to settle down in US and get a phone number.
Over all, I am kind of satisfied with Skype. But I must say, I am not very happy. Here are some of the Pros and Cons of using Skype in no particular order:
Pros:
The Call quality is great. No questions here.
Outgoing calls - Very Cheap. I can say dirt cheap. Initially, it used to cost me around 2.1 cents per minute to call any number in US, but later on in May, Skype make all calls made from US to US and Canada free.
Incoming calls - The Skype-in service costs $12 for 3 months (or some $38 for a year). So, its cheap again. The local phone service here (Sprint) costs around 30$ per month. So, comparatively its much cheaper.
Voice mail is free with Skype-In. Its a very basic voicemail service. But it works. Well, most of the time.
You can forward your calls to any other number
You can make and receive calls from anywhere as long as you have Internet access.
Skype worked pretty well from my office network too which is behind a firewall. Skype is pretty popular for this reason too. So, I can make long distance calls or even receive calls at office
In its current version, Skype allows upto 4 parties in a conference. Works well while making international calls.
International calls rates are pretty cheap and are comparable to other VOIP players. Its a bit expensive when compared to Reliance India call - when making calls to India, But again, Skype - to - Skype calls are free.
Has got excellent SDK/API support - so, there are lot of third party tools/software which interact with Skype.
I have bought a skype-to-usb-to-Phoneline adaptor. So, I use a regular cordless phone to make and answer calls. So, I am not tied to the computer.
Video conference works great - Quality of video is much better than other applications.
Cons:
Well, Skype is not a true telephone company. Its a Internet company based out of Europe. So, there is absolutely no customer service. There is an helpdesk and a ticket system on the Skype website, but it sucks big time.
Even though you buy stuff from Skype, you don’t get a proper invoice (phone bill), which shows your name/address and phone number (Skype-in number) on it. Now, you might be wondering why the hell that would be required?.. .. Its required when you are new in US, and you want open and bank account or something similar, and they ask you address proof etc. I had a very difficult time trying to open a citibank account, which they refused to open without a phone bill.
Couple of months back, Skype had some technical problems, and I think i missed some incoming calls.
Same with the case with voice mails.
No caller id for your outgoing call. So, the receiver receives your calls as a call from 012345.
You get caller Id for your incoming calls, but only the number. It does not display the name. (the local phone lines, and some other VOIP players show caller ID with the name of the caller).
If you don’t have a the adapter that I have mentioned about, then you must be close to the computer (with a mic) to make/receive calls.
The Processor utilization is relatively high when call is in progress.
Video chat take lots of bandwidth - It does not matter here in US, but if you are in India, and have a Usage Limit on your Internet access, then you need to be very careful while using video chat.
No 911.
Overcall I would rate my Skype experience around 6 on a scale of 10. But I must say, you can really save a lot of money if you can live up with basic telephone connectivity.
Currently, at Houston, in Chitra’s appartment, we have subscribed to the Sunrocket service which is again a VOIP service, but works much differently from Skype. Its not as cheap has Skype, but has lot less cons then mentioned in the above list. Will post more about Sunrocket in the future after using it for a couple of months.
