Hari's Corner

(This public service message brought to you by the Papa Hari Correctional and Reformation Center and the Papa Hari Police.)

Our Prisoners aren't like Your Prisoners.

We are Papa Hari Police, tormentors of tomorrow!

Ding... ding-dong ding-dong...

Postscript: I'll go mad if I hear that ubiquitous chip-manufacturer's signature tune again... or maybe that explains this post...

I've observed that over the years, I've grown more and more comfortable with Debian that other distributions seem to be as alien as RPM is to DEB (sorry for the techno-pun ).

In my view, using Linux effectively for day to day computing is a different skill from being a geek user who tweaks with many distributions and gains satisfaction from experimentation and knowledge of obscure details. If you start using applications for real productivity (I also include software developers here), your desire for tweaking, experimentation and system configuration for its own sake will drop dramatically. 90% of all flame wars over Linux distributions seem to arise from this basic difference in view. One section of the community insists that tweaking the system is a good thing for gaining knowledge while others desire the system to be well configured by default to minimize user intervention allowing them to concentrate on "real" tasks. Of course, there are always those who insist that Linux can never be a tool of productivity, but that's another story.

I too have gradually shifted my focus over the years to applications (including CLI) and desktop productivity. It might also be just another sign that my geekiness has worn off a bit and I no longer view the computer as a plaything.

Well, the North-East monsoon had been busy this November in our city (and indeed all over the state). Here are some photos taken from the front balcony of our house on a rainy day (taken a few weeks ago).

I've learned pretty well that not everything that sounds smart, logical, catchy or entertaining is necessarily right. However, the biggest problem is that most people have learned to respond positively to slogans and even consider them truisms. This is why public debaters learn to deliver catch-phrases in an attractive manner, use subtly inappropriate but entertaining examples and unlikely metaphors that "sound right" to force their arguments through. The one who gets the maximum applause wins in that business. The truth sometimes is never easy to explain, forceful, necessarily appealing to pure logic or fits into an attractive package.

Well, anyway, it's been a long time since I wrote anything around here and I figured I'd share this thought with you all. Hopefully a few more meaty articles (and of course, comics) are on its way after I wind up this semester examinations.

I am starting to become less and less of a geek these days. And one of the reasons, I discovered, is because of the process of claiming warranty for electronic gadgets and computer hardware. It's one thing to be reassured about the warranty offered by manufacturers before you buy a product. But when a part fails and you need to actually get it replaced or repaired the mood quickly turns to something like facing a dentist's appointment. I don't know about other countries, but here in India, it's not exactly a breeze to get a defective product replaced quickly and efficiently.

Some time back I had mentioned that my external USB hard disk had failed. Only today did I actually get around to taking the piece to the manufacturer's local customer service center to claim the warranty on it.

Actually, I had tried earlier, but I couldn't locate their office after a preliminary search near the location mentioned in the address and gave up for a while. Here's a clue: while most companies (especially the international big brand owners) have swanky, prominent showrooms on major roads in posh localities with bright lights, air-conditioned interiors and enthusiastic sales personnel, the service centers and agencies are shy and retiring by nature. They usually are located in nondescript offices well inside dingy by-lanes in an over-crowded commercial area with little or no external signs of their existence. The shop where you bought the product usually don't have a clue about their existence and will refer you to the manufacturers' website. Very rarely they will give you precise directions.

When I finally located the service agent today after a more thorough search, I had to hand over the hard disk no questions asked and was handed back a computer-generated receipt. I could not even get them to confirm that nature of the problem because they just took the piece and placed it in a rack. When I asked about how long I would have to wait, I was told that the product will have to go back to the manufacturer and they will decide whether I will get a replacement or not and the whole process will take around 3 weeks. They could not even confirm whether there WAS a valid warranty on the product or not! No commitment; just a vague time period of waiting. In these places, you have very little time or space to argue and so I dropped the matter. These people are mere desk clerks with zero authority and even less knowledge about the products they handle day in and day out. From a customer's point of view, the entire process is opaque and unsatisfactory. There should be some way of getting feedback on the product immediately and a confirmation that the product does have a defect.

So there you go. I wonder why these big name companies even bother to have these kinds of service centers. They might as well ask me to mail the defective product back to their head office/manufacturing plant directly. That would save me both time and money.

Claiming warranty is a process I generally detest, especially for electronic stuff. These companies may not be dishonest, but their methods of dealing with customers after sale leave a lot to be desired. I can understand that hard disks are mass produced and mass consumed, but still they could easily streamline the warranty process by establishing REAL service centers in more locations, where, you know, servicing of hardware actually take place by qualified engineers.

A notable exception in my experience was dealing with HP's official service which was a lot more pleasant. My laptop which had gone kaput some time ago, was fixed within a week and the engineer who took charge of it was quick to determine the nature of the problem. I also got timely status updates on the issue.

My advise is that the next time you want to buy an electronic product, be careful to check whether they have an easily accessible service center near where you live, otherwise the process of claiming warranty could be sub-optimal and frustrating to say the least.

By culture, I mean the internalized culture of an individual and not the collective, shared culture of communities. What exactly is this? What defines a "cultured" person and how does one recognize this facet of personality?

I offer no exact definition of this term. Indeed, it would be impossible to put into a few words the wealth of meaning hidden in this term. Personally I think what defines this culture is a combination of a person's refinement (in terms of attitude/personality), personal integrity and values, a certain amount of generosity as well as that stature which commands respect almost intuitively. But it's not just a combination of these factors. There is something more. I believe strongly that you cannot just define culture without the spiritual component.

Culture implies something more than the external person. It's so easy for anybody to feign good qualities and keep up pretences for years; indeed, one can make a habit of them. Yet, a truly cultured person will be so natural that it is impossible for him NOT to exhibit these attributes. Culture is an inseparable part of that person and will not change according to circumstances. A pretence of good attitude or behaviour can easily be unmasked in a particularly stressful situation. A good guide is the kind of language (or rather, obscenities) people sometimes mouth when provoked. A man's personal values will be tested only in times of difficulty. Similarly integrity will be tested only in situations which demand responses to ethical dilemmas.

This is why I believe that it is dangerous to judge individuals based on a few encounters or situations. Masking behaviour is easy under normal circumstances. Judging a person's sense of values is even harder. Only experience in life can help here. A few people develop an uncanny knack of probing the real person behind the external mask.

More than anything I don't think one can "learn" to be cultured. You either have it from birth, acquire it at a very early age or you don't. Lack of culture doesn't necessarily imply that a person is bad, unethical, mean-spirited or otherwise ill-mannered. It just means the absence of the qualities I mentioned.