ඇන්ඩ් කොම්පැනි

what corruption by ordinarypoet

බොහෝම කාලෙකට ඉස්සර අපේ පවුලට අයිති වෙලා තිබුනා ලොකු කොම්පැනියක්. පවුලේ හැමෝම ඒකෙ කොටස් කරුවො. ඒ උනාට මේ කොම්පැනියෙන් ලොකු ලාබයක් නෑ. ඒ මදිවට  කොම්පැනිය ඇතුලෙ ප්‍රශ්න ගොඩක්. ඒ හින්දා පවුලෙ කට්ටිය තීරණය කලා අලුත් මැනේජර් කෙනෙක් පත් කරන්ඩ කොම්පැනියට. මේකට නම් කීපයක් ඉදිරිපත් උන නිසා පවුලෙ කස්ටිය අතරෙ චන්දයක් තියල පත් කර ගත්තා මාර  කෙනෙක් අලුත් මැනේජර් විදිහට.


ඉතින් මේ මාර මැනෙජර් මාර වැඩකරුවෙක් කියල තමා හැමෝගෙම කතාව. එයා ඇවිල්ල ටික දවසකින් කොම්පැනියෙ ඇතුලෙ තිබ්බ ප්‍රශ්න ගොඩක් විසඳුවා. එයාගෙ ප්‍රශ්න විසඳන ක්‍රමය සැර වැඩියි කියල ගොඩක් කතා තිබුනට මොකද පවුලෙ කස්ටියෙ හිතුවෙ කොම්පැනියට හොඳක් වෙනවනම් හොඳින් බැරිනම් නරකින් හරි කමක් නෑ කියලයි. කලින් හිටපු මැනේජර්ලගෙ කොන්ද පන නෑ කියලත් ගොඩක් අය කතා උනා. ඒ නිසා මාර මැනෙජර්ව තවත් පාරකට චන්දෙන් පත් කරගත්තා පවුලෙ බහුතරයක කැමත්තෙන්.

දෙවෙනි පත්වීමෙන් පස්සෙ කොම්පැනියෙ ලොකු දියුණුවක් බලපොරොත්තු උනා හැමෝම. මාර මැනේජර් මහත්තයගෙ කටේම තිබුනෙ කොම්පැනිය ආශ්චර්යය කරා ගෙනයනව කියන එක. එයා ලොකු බැන්කු වලින් ලොකු ණය ගත්ත ආශ්චර්යය උදා කරන්ඩ. මේ ලොකු ණය වලින් හැදුව අලුත් ලොකු ලොකු බිල්ඩින් ගොඩාක්. හැබයි මේ අලුත් බිල්ඩින් වල කරන්ඩ තරම් කොම්පැනියෙ වැඩ තිබ්බෙත් නෑ, සේවකයො හිටියෙත් නෑ. එයා ආයෙ හැදුව හැම බිල්ඩිමක් අතරම රත්තරන් අතුරපු පාරවල්. හැම අලුත් බිල්ඩිමකටමයි පාරකටමයි එයගෙ නමත් දාගත්තා. එහෙම තමා ආශ්චර්යයට යන්නේ කියල මාර මැනේජර් කිවුවා. කොම්පැනියෙ ආදයම නම් ආශ්චර්යමත් ආකරයට වැඩි වෙන්නෙ නෑ නේද කියල පවුලෙ සමහර ද්‍රෝහීන් අහනකොට එයා අර ලොකු බිල්ඩින්, රත්තරන් පාරවල් පෙන්නල කිවුව බලන්ඩ කොම්පැනියෙ වත්කම් කොච්චර වැඩි වෙලාද කියල. පවුලෙ ගොඩක් දෙනෙක්ට වත්කම් හා ආදායම් අතර වෙනස තෙරුනේ නෑ.

ටික කාලයක් යද්දි අපේ මේ මාර මැනේජර් බැන්කු වලින් ණය ගන්න එක නවත්තල ගිනි පොලියට ණය ගන්ඩ පටන් ගත්ත කොන්ඩෙ බැඳපු පොලී මුදලාලිලගෙන්. එහෙම තමාලු කොම්පැනියට ප්‍රේමී අය වැඩ කරන්නෙ. මේ පොලී මුදලාලිල සෙට් එක අපේ මාර මැනේජර් එක්ක මාර විදිහට සෙට් වෙලා  අරකටයි මේකටයි හැමදේටම කොම්පැනියට ණය දෙන්ඩ ගත්ත. හරියට එයාල අපේ පස්සෙන් එලව එලව ණය දෙනව වගෙ. පවුලෙ ඉන්න ද්‍රෝහීන් ඇරුනාම අනික් හැමොම කතා කලෙ මෙහෙම ණය දෙන්නෙ කොම්පැනියෙ දියුණුව දැකල වෙන්ඩ ඇති කියල. දියුණු වෙන්ඩ නම් ණය ගන්ඩ ඕනි කියල තමා එයාල කිවුවෙ. ගත්ත ණය ගෙවා ගන්ට තරම් ආදායමක් නැතිකොට මොකද කරන්නෙ කියල අහපුවම පොලී මුදලාලිල පැනල උත්තර දුන්න, "බය වෙන්ඩ එපා, ඒ ණයේ පොලිය ගෙවන්ඩ අපි තව ණයක් දෙන්නම්" කියල. ණය ගන්ඩ කලින් ඒකෙන් ලැබෙන ප්‍රතිලාභ ගැන හොයල බලල ඉන්ඩ ඕනි නේද කියන ද්‍රෝහීන්ට අපේ මාර මැනේජර් කිවුවෙ "ඔය ප්‍රතිලබ්බ වගේද රත්තරන් ගාපු පාරවල්" කියල. මේව අහල අපේ පවුලෙ අයටත් මාර චූන් ඉතින්.

ඔය කාලෙ තමා මාර මැනේජර් මහත්තයගෙ වියදම් එහෙමත් සෑහෙන්ඩ වැඩි උනේ. පුදුමේ කියන්නෙ අපේ පවුලෙ අයගෙ ආදායම ඒකට සමානුපතිකව අඩු උනා. මැනේජර් මහත්තය අලුත් කාර්, හෙලිකොප්ටර්, අස්සයො ගන්නකොට අපිට සිද්ද උනා පවුලෙ තිබ්බ පෞරාණික බඩු ටික ටික විකුනන්ඩ. මැනේජර් මහත්තය අලුත් ගෙවල් ගන්නකොට අපිට සිද්ද උනා අපේ ගෙවල් උකස් තියන්ඩ. හැබැයි කාටවත් තාම හිතගන්ඩ බෑ මොකද එහෙම උනේ කියල.

තව ටික කාලයක් යද්දි මාර මැනේජර් මහත්තය කොම්පැනියෙ අධ්‍යකෂක මණ්ඩලයෙ අයවත් සල්ලි වලට ගන්ඩ පටන් ගත්තා. එයාට ඕනි උනා කොම්පැනියෙ ව්‍යවස්ථාව වෙනස් කරල ජීවිත කාලෙටම මැනේජර් විදිහට එයව පත් කර ගන්ට. පොලී මුදලාලිලත් මේකට ෆුල් සපෝර්ට්.

කොහොමෙන් කොහොමෙන් හරි දැන් මැනේජර් පත් කරගන්න චන්දෙත් අත ළඟටම ඇවිල්ල. ඉතින් මං මේ කල්පනා කලේ  අපේ පවුලෙ උදවිය තාමත් කොම්පැනියෙ ප්‍රශ්න විසඳපු එක ගැන, ලොකු බිල්ඩින් ගැන, රත්තරන් පාරවල් ගැන කතා කර කර ඉන්න එක ගැන. කොම්පනිය දිගින් දිගටම බංකොලොත් වෙන එක ගැන කතා කරන අයට ද්‍රෝහීන් කියල ලේබල් අලවන එක ගැන. අපේ කොම්පැනියෙ අනාගතේ ගැන හිතනෙ නැති එක ගැන. අනේ මන්ද මේවා කාට කියන්ඩද කියල.

The making of a religion

Prologue

In the aftermath of the recent events in Aluthgama and Beruwala, there are those who wonder how such a situation could have arisen in the normally peace loving and generally well educated Sri Lankan community.  I for one, am not surprised. Not when otherwise rational thinking people take side with the argument that these events were the response of the Buddhist community faced with the threat of the spread of Islam. Not even when people who ought to know better suggest that it is the duty of a true Buddhist to suppress such movements to ensure the survival of Buddhism. Take this video for example, which have been shared enthusiastically by many as an attempt to explain the root cause of what happened.

On the contrary to all those who blame the religious extremists, I blame the concept of religion that has paved the way for extremists.  I find the fault in the very idea of a religion, which is, sadly, what Buddhism has become.

The making of a religion

A religion and a philosophy are fundamentally different. A religion is a collection of beliefs imposed on what could have otherwise been a rational mind. A philosophy does not entertain believers. It presents a collection of facts about a certain aspect of life and asserts a conclusion based on those facts. Those who study a philosophy have the freedom to either accept or reject that conclusion, employing logic and common sense to analyse the said facts. The longevity of a philosophy is based on how its conclusions stand against the test of reason, not how many believers it has.

A philosophy can be easily converted to a religion by replacing facts by beliefs and logic by fear. By replacing “I do not steal from others because I do not like being robbed” by “I do not steal because I believe that stealing is a sin and all sinners go to hell”. This fear, of hell or otherwise, is an essential ingredient of all religions. It is far easier to make someone fear the idea of stealing than to make them understand the reasons to prevent from stealing.

Harmless as it may appear at first sight, these beliefs and the associated fear is the first step in a process that may easily be led towards “I believe those who do not believe in my beliefs are sinners” to “My beliefs are superior so the world should only consists of those who believe the same”. I specifically said “led towards” because it does take leading. A philosophy can become a religion over thousands of years of small, seemingly innocuous changes that converts facts into beliefs. However, this last step of employing an indoctrinated mind to harm another human being in the name of religion does require cunning and self-centered leaders.

Therein lies the problem of religion. What does it take to be a religious or philosophical  leader? To become an authority in a philosophy requires a deep understanding of the said philosophy. To be accepted as a leading authority in a philosophy is to be acknowledged by ones’ peers as a person who has contributed to the development (not spreading) of the philosophy. But to become a religious leader, one only has to wear the right cloths and be capable of exploiting the weaknesses of human mind. Specifically, one only has to be capable of exploiting minds that were, from a very young age, trained to accept that religions transcend reason. That religious beliefs cannot be questioned. For someone with the right skills, it is not difficult to guide such a well trained collection of minds towards goals that would only further his or her survival, but not those of the minions. Religions are far more dangerous weapons than any nuclear bomb that was or will be ever made.

In that light, let me attempt to analyse the recent events in Sri Lanka. Richard Dawkins, a famous critique of religious beliefs and a man who is widely considered as the successor to Charles Darwin, in his book “God Delusion”, says that Buddhism stands apart from the religions of the 21^st century as it is more a “way of life” than a religion. He mentions this while decimating the three most popular religions contemporary to Buddhism; Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Many Buddhists take pride in the fact that Buddhism is (or was) a philosophy and not a religion. This concept baffles many of my Iranian friends who ask me about “the fundemental belief” of Buddhism. Sadly, after confusing them by talking about how Buddhism is a philosophy, I then have to go on to confuse them even more by saying that the version of Buddhism practiced in Sri Lanka is indeed a religion and not a philosophy. Hundreds of years of evolution has resulted in a version of Buddhism that, in the one aspect that set it apart from the religions, is nothing but another pea in the pie.

However -  and perhaps because it was originally a philosophy - until recently, Buddhism the religion remained untarnished by religious wars that have so often plagued other religions. But when the time is ripe, leaders capable of exploiting the minions so created begin to emerge. They preach that Buddhism needs to be protected from the extreme elements of other religions. It is exactly this that makes Buddhism a religion - a belief that need to be protected from other beliefs - and not a philosophy based on facts and reason. Killing others to ensure the survival of my religion makes me no different from the so called “Jihad terrorists” who kill in the name of their god.

Sadly, this trivial yet momentous fact is lost in the minds of those who have been, from a young age, trained to not to question the beliefs that were imparted on them in the guise of a religion. Be it the layperson, the blue color worker or the well educated white color worker or the university graduate specifically trained to rational thinking, our minds are trained to shut down the rational thinking part of the brain when religion is involved. Instead, we rely on emotions, feelings that can be easily misguided by those who are in it not for our well being, but to further their own selfish goals.

We should not be surprised that such religious leaders have emerged in Sri Lanka to reap the rewards of religious indoctrination. It is for the above reasons that we should neither be surprised by the fact a vast majority of Sri Lankans are receptive to such manipulations by those who claim to be the saviors of religions. 

Let me reiterate. Religions are weapons, memes lurking in the depths of minds of its believers, waiting to be triggered by those who know the art.

මා දුටු පරිණාමය - Part 1

Ever since I was little, I've heard of the "Theory of Evolution". I guess most people today do hear about it. Most (including me) take it for granted. We never really give it much thought. For me, that changed after I had the privilege of reading "The Selfish Gene" by Richard Dawkins.

Most people who know me, would probably have already heard me ranting about how I really enjoyed that book. Do not want to repeat that here, except to say, it is a good read for the inquisitive. I just want to write down a few things that has been bothering me since reading the book. This is more like me trying to coherently write down my own thoughts to make some sense of them, than a guide to "THE" book or to evolution.

Disclaimer:
All the questions I ask below are actual questions that pops in my mind and the answers are how I would "try" to answer if someone actually asked those questions. They are my views and as such can be erroneous at times. I will not repeat this in my answers, please read them keeping this disclaimer in mind.


How Life came to be ?
For life to appear out of nowhere, and to become what it is today, two things are necessary.

• A (not so perfect) replicator
• A finite amount of raw materials which can be used to make replicas of replicators

The word replicator here does not mean a conscious living being. A replicator is anything capable of making copies of it self., be it chemical or mechanical. Simplest example (and the one that's relevant to earth) is a chemical replicator. Say we have a vast pool of randomly moving, various molecules. Assume A and B are molecules which are abundant in this pool. Also assume that molecules of A and B can form a chemical reaction and as a result each can attach with two of the other molecules. So if two A and B molecules happens to meet, they will form a chemical bond to form.

                                                                   A-B

Now if the A side of this new molecule happens to meet another B, that would form a
 
                                                                B-A-B

if this meets another A molecule, that would form

                                                              B-A-B-A

This can go on forever. We will name such a strand of A and B molecules (that itself is a molecule) an Alternating AB Strand. (AABS)

AABS will form individually in many places of the pool, among with thousands of other molecules. But, what's special about AABS is that a given AABS - due to various other chemical reactions - might, at random, break in to two AABS. When that happens, that AABS has replicated it self. This precise replication will cause the number of AABS to grow exponentially, as long as there are enough A and B molecules to go around. This process is neither overseen by anybody, nor are the AABS consciously trying to replicate themselves. It's just another chemical process, which happens when A and B molecules are in the same pool.

Alas, AABS is not the only replicator in our pool. Let us assume another replicator called CDB Strands (CDBS). It is formed by a D molecule bonding with two C molecules and two B molecules on its four sides.
                                                                         C
                                                                          |
                                                                 B -- D -- B
                                                                          |
                                                                         C

Given that there are only a finite amount of B molecules, we see that unconsciously, AABS and CDBS are competing for B molecules. At some point in time we are bound to run out of B molecules to make further AABS or CDBS.

So what happens now? It is likely that this stagnant stage is never reached. This is where the "not so perfect" characteristics of the replicators comes in to save (or create) the world. The replication is a natural process, and being natural, it sometimes makes mistakes. In our case,

• Sometimes, the chains breakup in wrong places. 
• Sometimes, the chains gets attached in wrong places. 
• Sometimes AABS and CDBS attach together and then breakup. 

There are infinite possibilities, even in this most simple hypothesis. These random changes are called mutations. Given enough time we can see these mutations popping up. Some of these mutants might be replicators themselves. Others not. Those who are replicators will spread like the AABS and CDBS, and similar to them start to compete against other replicators for the limited resources available. Again, it is important to realize that these molecules (replicators or not) are not conscious. They do not have a goal to replicate. They do not foresee the future and plan for it. These processes just happen.

Given enough time we can expect some mutated replicators to become better at replication than AABS and CBDS or other replicators in the pool. (actually the correct way to say this is "Some mutations cause better replicators")
 Better how? Well there maybe many ways. Let's just look at a few that comes to mind.

1. Some becomes capable of forming more complex bonds and starts replicating faster
2. Some becomes capable of bonding with other molecules (except A,B,C,D) in the pool and start to spread faster
3. Some others (and these are the most elegant. for no particular reason we'll call them predators) form chemical bonds that are capable of exerting chemical forces on other certain replicators (call them prey), and in the process breaks up the pray molecules (into say individual A,B,C, D molecules) and attach those to themselves. These predators then can spread faster and much more efficiently. 

Note: Though we name them predators and pray, these are still inanimate molecules.

Even more elegantly, some pray will (through mutation) will develop mechanisms which prevents them from being broken by predators. Say, for example an external layer of tightly bound inert molecules. These will then become more numerous. Some pray will then develop capability to break apart these layers of protection and use the resulting molecules for them selves.

It is obvious this can go on and on. And given billions of years, replicators which are unimaginably complex can form. These replicators would then utilize even more extraordinary mechanisims to replicate. Those which can replicate better will grow in numbers while those who are not will fade away. But REMEMBER, still, these replicators themselves are (albeit unseemingly complex) chemically formed molecules. They have no purpose. They are not driven by a goal. These are natural processes, no different from the process of raining or snowing.

The simple hypothesis presented above can be extrapolated to explain how life (I'm not sure whether this is the correct word though) came to be and became what it is today. However, there are still bits and pieces which are not completely clear and if at all, fuzzy, both in the actual theory and more so in my mind. I'm not wise enough to tackle those gaps in the actual theory of evolution, but in the coming posts, I'll try to write about some obvious questions which challenge this theory of how we came to be. I'll end this chapter with a postlude to the above hypothesis, that will hopefully excite your mind, to the extent it has excited mine.


"Remember those replicators we talked about? Where are these replicators today? 


                                  THEY ARE INSIDE OUR BODIES!!!     


The replicators are our GENES. And who are we? We are but a bunch of robots who devote our lives to the survival and replication of these replicators"




                                     

Truth about SLT - Peo TV (IP TV)

I've been meaning to write this for some time now, but

couldn't find the time. Any how, to the benefit of all those who are planning/thinking of buying Peo TV, I'm going to break it down to you here. The goods, the bads and the hidden facts. I will try my best to make this analysis as objective as possible, but .........one never knows how it will come out.

First my setup. I brought the SLT Megaline Platinum package and with it came the Peo TV Gold package + adsl entrée package. A UTstarcom Set-top box, and a ZTE adsl router was installed free of charge with this. I later upgraded the ADSL to unlimited Home package (512kbps) as I wanted to download torrents frequently.

The Good Side of Peo TV

I don't want to go in-detail in to this as SLT Visioncom already has a good marketting campaing. A quick list of facts would suffice.

1.) "Timeshift TV " on the local channels let's you watch any program within the "past 48 hours" anytime you want.

2.) Some interesting programs on following channels

a.) Discovery

b.) Fox History and Entertainment

c.) Nat Geo

d.) Star World

e.) Star Movies

3.) Clear pictures without any distortion for all the channels.

well, that's about it.

The Dark side (and the hidden facts)

There is a lot to talk about here. Especially the things that are not obvious for the average user reading a Peo TV broacher. I'm going to list each problem with how sever it is to the viewing experience, so that you know how much it would affect you.

Occasional hiccups - Low severity

First of all, there are times when the Peo TV service stops function w/o any apparent reason. But that happens occasionally and a quick restart of the set-top box fixes the problem. You will also find that sometimes the set-top-box doesn't respond to the remote. Very annoying!!!

Takes ages to change channel - Medium Severity

Those of us who are used to quickly browsing through different channels to pick one of interest, PeoTv is a nightmare. It takes approximately about 5 seconds to change from one channel to another, and sometimes the channel doesn't change at all. The menus are equally frustrating. Now I know that this channel changing delay is due to the inherent limitations in IP TV technology, but there are ways to overcome these difficulties. SLT simply chose to ignore these for profitability, I guess.

Loss of time shift TV Service - Medium Severity

This has been happening more often recently, and it is very irritating when this happens. This can happen in two different ways. First some past programs simply refuse to play. (I'm NOT talking about programs older than 48h. These are should be accessible programs in local channels). When you select these programs from the menu, all you get is a screen indicating "system Error".

Then there are time when the program title disappears from the content selection menu. This usually happens to the only international channel offering TS TV- star world. All the programs are displayed with a common title and therefore you have no way of knowing which which one is the program that you want- thus effectively making the TS TV service useless.

Repeated Program Content - Medium to low severity.

There are two English entertainment channels in Gold package. "Star Movies" and "Star world". Both these channels have about 20% new content per day. The rest is just repeat of the same content. They usually play the same episode of a tv series 4-5 times a day. Each movie is repeated for months, and at least 5-6 times. So most of the time, these tow channels are useless

Lied about program content - High Severity

SLT makes a big hype about the number of channels that comes with each package, but most of these channels are useless. One VERY IMPORTANT thing that people don't realize before buying Peo TV is that most of the channels are taken from Indian content providers. Most of these channels are customized for an Indian audience. Following are just some interesting examples.

a.) Discover India - The discovery channel is actually not Discovery International channel. It features about 20% of programs custom made for India, and are usually of no interest to us. NatGeo and Fox History is just the same. They seems to be coming from the same Indian content provider, as these channels share content and advertising.

b.) Nickelodeon - I'm a BIG FAN of cartoons!!! (so What?). And I hate to see PeoTV lying to us about cartoon channels. The Nickelodeon in PeoTV is actually Nick India. At about 80% of the cartoons are Indian cartoons, some of which are even dubbed in Hindi. There are 2 or 3 other cartoon channels but they also offer the same useless content. (MAN I'm sooo pissed about this)

Actually, take a good look at the programs under offer in different Peo TV packages. You will see that about 70% of those are useless Indian channels.

Adult Version of Sinhala Classic Movies!!! - Severity Very High (as you might die laughing)

I'm not kidding. There are a very limited number of on-demand content on offer, and if you go to the sinhala classic section you will find movies like "Gehenu lamai" , "Gamperaliya" and "Beddegama". Following screen is what you see when you select anyone of them.

Classic !!!! right..?

Advertising on Pay TV - Medium Severity

Free-to-Air channels survive with advertising and that's just fair. But why should we see advertising on channels that we pay for. The rental for the Gold TV package is about 1600/= monthly and that's that. No advertising please!!!. Besides, SLT is not earning a cent out of the advertising that appears in the international channels. So why on earth are they NOT taking some action to spare us the stupid ads ????

Peo TV with Internet - Criticality Very, very very severe.

Now this is something that most people don't know. According to SLT, PeoTv service is seperate from the ADSL service and one service in no way affects the other. Technically, that's how things SHOULD BE. But, try downloading a torrent when watching PeoTV, or try to take a Skype call when watching Peo TV. You will notice that PeoTV becomes unwatchable, in such instances. The pictures gets distorted and the frames get stuck every 5 seconds or so, making PeoTV service useless.

(on a side note I've complained about this to SLT, and their conclusion was that there are Viruses on my computer!!!! I've come to believe that this is a prob with the adsl router, but they insist that it is not)

"Not so HOT" line - Criticality Medium

Stop telling me to call Visioncom to report these, cause I DID. Truth is, I've never once managed to talk with a Visioncom personal by calling them. They have a hotline number, but I doubt they know the meaning of a Hot Line. I guess they simply ignore the calls on the hot line, as they are too HOT for them to handle.

International Sporting events on local channels is not available - High Criticality

Please look at my earlier post here

That's it for now. Hopefully, after reading this, you might be able to take a better informed decision on whether or not to buy PeoTV. And also hopefully (Fingers crossed) Visioncom people will read this and find a way (and a interest) to fix these issues.

To Visioncom - Don't be Greedy !!!!!!!

Peo TV Blunder

I recently purchased Peo TV service and I was happy that I would get the chance to watch T20 serious in good quality using it. That was up until I tried to watch the match last night, only to find out that in place of Peo TV they (Peo TV) are broadcasting Rupavahini, only during the T20 matches. I was very upset with this situation and tried calling SLT to fix this. (As I initially thought this was a technical issue). But apparently they say that they are doing it on purpose because channel Eye has not given them the permission to show T20 matches via Peo TV.

Now I understand these kinds of legal issue are there, so I can't blame about it. But I paid to watch channel eye and if they are not showing it, there has to be some compensation to me. Besides, there is another very easy way for VisionCom to remedy this situation by including Star Cricket in the basic package at least only during the T20 series. It is they who messed up with Channel Eye, therefore they should pay some price for it, but instead we are the ones paying the price.

so I called up SLT to inform them of this situation and above is the response that I got from them.

The video says it all. Listen to it (will come soon)

Right now I'm fed to my teeth with these operators pushing us around the way they want. It is time we hit back. and that I will do in every possible way. If you are also being ill-treated by these blood suckers, join in. Right now we the consumers have no control over the Service Providers because we are individuals, and as individuals we cannot make a big impact on them. But if we team up together, then we are unstoppable!!!!

singh-is-kinng songs

music @ dhingana.com

Dialog HomeNet, a lookback

Well, I've used the connection for a while and on the verge of a radical change in my lifeline (THE INTERNET CONNECTION). So thought I'll look back on the past few months with my beloved connection (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)




In-terms of speed...I was neither complaining nor really happy. The connection was serving the purpose for the most of the lifetime, but nothing fancy. I would have liked it to be a bit more speedy during the morning hours of week days, but I rarely stay home on weekdays in the morning. Weekends was a complete disaster though, speeds drop to about less than 10kBps. Still, at most nights I get a good speed of about 40-50kBps.
This is a bit strange though, as in the morning is weekdays, there should be minimum congestion. This is what I've seen with Mobitel HSDPA connections. But in Dialog HomeNet, it is quite the opposite. Probably because, Dialog has their corporate client base connected via WiMax

In-terms of cost.... I think at the current rates, the Dialog HomeNet is ridicules. SLT is offering ADSL at 1600/= Mobitel is offering a good HSDPA connection of 2Gb for 900/=. (and thats with a nominal speed of 1Mbps) Even Dialog themselves are offering a 5GB campus package (which isn't very hard to get even if you haven't seen a university) for about 1600/=. BUT with all this in the market, Dialog HomeNet is still at 2587.50Rs. Now that's STUPID. Hopefully Dialog will understand this and decrease the tariffs soon, but they'll be a be too late by then....

As for the service offered....it sucks. I remember calling a customer care guy sometime back to figure-out why I got a 5175/= bill the very first month, and this guy wasted about 45 minutes of my (very valuable :) time telling me "that it is like that and I just have to admit that" since I demanded to know why exactly it is like that, he put me through to a senior executive who took about 2 minutes to clear out the situation to me. PATHETIC. But I guess the customer care at even Mobitel is like that, and even worse in SLT

NOW..... I'm going to switch to a simpler PLAN. I have several options at hand.

1.) Dialog HSDPA campus package
2.) Mobitel HSDPA
3.) Airtell HSDPA
4.) SLT ADSL
5.) Lankabell WiMax


I'm weighing my options these days... soon I'll come out with a comparison and a new connection........!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!





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