Are you been intrigued by high-profile assassinations?After that hush hush talk about one or the other intelligence agency being behind such an assassination? Have you wondered how such things are orchestrated? Then, read this book and hear out from the mouth of a proverbial horse.

Very interesting and captivating book. The author served as a secret assassin for CIA. Of course, he is bound by rules and regulations about how much he can say about all that he did for CIA. But he has very masterfully written a great memoir which reads like a thriller. Do not expect to learn about any famous assassinations attributed to CIA or any other intelligence agency. But you can expect to learn  general information about how such things are carried out.

Little dated in the sense that events in this book take place during 1970s. So, unless you are very interested, it may bore you from time to time. The book also gives a nice overview of hippy culture back then and how hippies used to go around the world on a shoestring budget. In fact the author went around the world as hippy and carried out his hits on the way.

Risks and rewards of the profession are highlighted very well for anyone considering the profession:) Read authors plight after he was caught by Iranian authorities and faced the death squad. If not for timely intervention of his handler, the author would not been alive to write this book.

If you consider this is as the memoir of blue-collar assassin and liked it, you may also like to read memoir of a white-collar assassin in another excellent book - Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins.

Cheers!

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Posted by Mahesh at 1:48 PM EST

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Beautiful novel by Indian novelist Chetan Bhagat.

Chetan Bhagat, who hit the literary scene a while ago by chronicling his IIT days into a novel, delivers another simple but nice novel. Simple but really enjoyable. He is truly a master story teller. It's amazing how he takes common things and instances like the demolition of a mosque, Indian middle class, nation's passion with cricket, communal riots, etc. and delivers a really nice novel.

Cheers!

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Posted by Mahesh at 1:20 PM EST

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Another excellent book for John F Kennedy history junkies. Deals with many interesting stories about JFK and his brother Robert F Kennedy who was also assassinated under mysterious circumstances a few years later after JFK was assassinated.

Good read if you are looking for some captivating read on JFK, RFK, conspiracies, mafia etc. to spice up your reading.

Cheers!

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Posted by Mahesh at 1:10 PM EST

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This book examines what businesses and people running businesses can learn from the way in which Obama ran his presidential campaign successfully.

Very interesting and insightful book. You will learn how information technology and social networking, in particular, played a very important role in Obama's successful campaign. Do you know one of the Facebook's founders took time-off to lead IT efforts of Obama campaign?

The book does not just limit to Obama's focus on technology. Traditional but nevertheless very important aspects of management like soft skills, hard skills also figure prominently  in this book. There are many instances that authors bring out the best managerial qualities of Obama in terms of motivating his people, admitting the mistakes, reflecting on what went wrong and how to fix it.

Very well researched and very well written book. After (wrongly) understanding that political campaigns only meant behind-the-screen-operations, ugly mud slinging, attacks on character etc., this book is a refreshing read about probably the most successful political campaigns in recent times.

I think many of us who are always looking for bits of wisdom from anywhere will find this book interesting.

Cheers!

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Posted by Mahesh at 12:53 PM EST

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Amazon.com is not paying me anything to write this:)

Do you like to read? Then you may really like e-book reader from Amazon.com called Kindle.  I got this device couple of weeks back. Amount of reading I have gotten done in these two weeks is probably more than what I would  read in 2-3 months. Easily. It's a different matter about the usefulness of all that I read. But, still :) I have been reading so much on Kindle that reading has taken priority over blogging. I would probably need a few weeks to write, even briefly, about all the books I read and reading.

For me Kindle is really useful for several reasons. First, Text-To-Speech feature. Most the e-Books have this and Kindle makes use of it. When reading paper books, I get bored after a 30 minutes or so. Mind wanders. Needs a break. It is difficult to keep going. With Kindle, just ask it to read it for you. When your interest comes back, you can stop that and read it yourself. Text-To-Speech feature is well developed in Kindle. It does not sound like some Robot reading. Pretty neat.

Secondly, the regular 6" Kindle I have is excellent for speed reading. In speed reading, we are taught to scan as opposed to reading word by word. Scanning and reading in whole as opposed to reading word by word works best when your area of coverage is small. Kindle screen is best suited for it. With large fonts, there are like 10-15 short lines that fit into the screen. Very easy to scan and speed read. You can skip easily when there is not much substance.

OK, e-Books cost money. Although there are several thousand free e-Books available, if you want to read latest books, you will have to pay. Good thing is a lot of books on Amazon.com are $10 or less. This is like more than 50% saving over paper book price. On top of it, you will get the book instantly using free wireless connectivity that is part of the Kindle's price. Amazon.com itself has several old books, that are free. You can Google and you will find several sites with free e-books.

You can convert most of your standard word, PDF etc. documents to Kindle format using several free tools available. Mobipocket Creator is the tool that I use. OK, these converted documents may not be as slick as professionally crafted e-Books with features like jump to page, scanning for words etc. But, you can read them easily and comfortably. This is a great advantage if you have access to online libraries like Safari.Com. My employer provides full access to Safari.Com. My membership allows limited number of full downloads. So, I can download latest books, in full, as a PDF from Safari.com, convert the PDF and transfer it to Kindle. This way, I have avoided buying some books. Connection to computer is through USB and works without any problem.

All in all a great gadget especially if you like to read. There is absolutely nothing not to like about Kindle. If you like to read a lot, get one for yourself. Of course, if you want to study seriously, then nothing beats paper book. But, if you want to read broadly for knowledge and/or entertainment, then reading on Kindle will get you more reading done in less time.

Kindle is still quite pricey. Price has come down quite a bit over last one year. Also, make sure you search for refurbished Kindles. Amazon.com itself sells refurbished Kindles. You can get them for like 30% less than brand new Kindle.  Refurbished ones are as good as new ones as long as they are sold by Amazon.com itself.  Be careful if you are planning to buy a second-hand one from a third party.

Cheers and happy reading!

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Posted by Mahesh at 11:10 PM EDT

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There is a good place to buy Kannada books, CDs etc. online. You can order from - http://shopping.totalkannada.com/shopping/vpasp/. I have bought several books, Kannada movie VCDs etc. from this web site and have been very happy with their service. They have a full fledged store in Bangalore. If their rep in the USA does not have what you want, they can get it from India quickly and send it you. They accept payments by check or by PayPal.Very convenient.

I chose to write about them because some visitor to my blog left comments asking where they can buy some books such as 'Dadagiriya Dinagalu' or Ravi Belegere's recent books.

Hope your buying experience will be nice.

Cheers!

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Posted by Mahesh at 12:40 PM EDT

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There are so many banks. They offer so many savings and certificates of deposit accounts with varying rates. How can you find the best deal? Won't it be great if somebody can announce your intention to open a new savings or certificate of deposit account and ask banks to bid for your money? Won't it be super cool if the banks are also FDIC insured so that you can invest without stress? How about if you can also access reviews from other customers? All cool things. OK, no good idea goes unexploited by smart people. As a result, we have MoneyAisle.

MoneyAisle is really cool. All you need to do is to go to their web site and provide some basic information like amount you want invest, duration of certificate deposit etc. and start the bidding process. The system talks to several banks and finds out the highest possible interest available for your amount for the period you specified. Then if you like, you can accept the non-obligatory bid and choose to open an account with the bank that won your bid or just move on. No commitment from you at any stage.

Before you open your account with any of the banks, please do check the rates offered by your own local bank. Since this is a new service not all banks and more importantly credit unions are not participating. For example, in my case, my credit union offered better rates than any bank that bid for my money.

In the era of failing banks, credit unions seem to be fairing better. I have mainly banked with a credit unions for last 10 years so. I had not-so-great experience with one of these large banks in the earlier days. No personal touch to their service. Callous attitude etc. So, I chose a credit union and been banking with them even though I have moved several times in last 10 years. Most of my accounts remain with a credit union in Boston area. With their excellent Internet portal, I have found no reason to bank elsewhere. I was not sure if they were offering best possible rates. Checking on Money Aisle kinda proved it. So, why bank elsewhere? Credit unions are also insured by something similar to FDIC. So, you money is safe up to $250,000.

Savings accounts and CDs are fairly safe investments. Safety also comes at the expense of investment returns. Highest possible rates for say 3 year CD are in like 3% APR which is less than annual inflation. So, your money is earning less than inflation. But, if you want the safety of your principle, bank deposits are better.

For long term investors, stock market is still a better place to invest. Agreed that definition of long term has definitely changed over years now. Earlier they said 5-10 years. Now with stocks close to their 12 year lows, probably horizon now is 20 plus years. But, that's ok. Ask yourself if you believe in the basics of capitalism. If you do, then act like a investor and stay put invested in a diversified portfolio of entire US market plus some exposure to international market. Chances are you will create enormous wealth for yourself and your next generation in next 30-40 years. If you want the safety of retaining your principle, then open certificates of deposit and sleep soundly that your $1000 remains as such although today's $1000 may be less than half after few years of 4% inflation.

Cheers!

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Posted by Mahesh at 12:42 PM EDT

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Vanguard introduced a index mutual fund tracking the entire world's stock market. I do not know if any other company had introduced such a fund a before.

Having been a very satisfied customer / investor of Vanguard, it came as a great news for me. Great opportunity to invest in one fund and ride (or fall) the entire world market. As usual, expense ratio is very nominal. Helps to keep most of your money in your own pocket. No fancy fund managers nibbling away at your hard earned money.

Looking at recent stock market performance, it is easy and natural to feel like taking away all money from market and think of doing something else. Of course, that is a good strategy if and only if you have a better investment opportunity. Otherwise, pulling out money when market is not doing well is the worst thing one can do. This is even more true if you are invested in a highly diversified portfolio. Highly diversified portfolios with long investment horizon (say 10 years or more) have done well regardless of intermittent market downturns. Unless history proves us all wrong, this time should be no different. Sit tight and very soon you will be sitting on a pot ( that is pot of gold).

Cheers!

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Posted by Mahesh at 1:23 AM EDT

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My old wireless router stopped functioning after giving good service for over 5 years. It works fine as a regular router but 'wireless'ness is gone for some reason. May be something wrong with the transmitter. It was an old Belkin router bought in 2003. Good service so far.

Bought a new router. Belkin G. Nothing fancy as I do not play games on the net to require a fancy router. I have a separate Hawking Broadband booster to provide QoS (Quality of service) for VoIP phone. So, the router QoS does not matter much. This is a simple router. Much smaller than my earlier bulky router.

Worked out of the box. The set up CD is a waste of time. You do not really have to run it. Windows recognizes the router easily and you are online in no time. Always remember to configure some sort of security for your router so that nobody easily steals your broadband connection. It is easy to configure security using the console and choosing some simple encryption scheme.

Somehow I messed up the settings while doing something and wireless functionality was gone. I could go online by connecting directly to the router but not wirelessly. It was a mistake I had done while renaming the wireless connection. This was hidden somewhere in their console and I could not easily figure it out. So, called Belkin tech support. The engineer was very knowledgable and helpful. He set me right in no time and I have had good experience with this router since then.

Bought this at Best Buy as I could not wait a week to order it online and then receive it. That's how we are addicted to net these days. Right? The price online is much better. You can probably get the same router for $30 or so. At Best Buy, it was close to $40 plus taxes etc. On top of it, going there, parking and all hassles. I wish I had bought this one at the first sign of my older router dyeing. Anyway...

Cheers!

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Posted by Mahesh at 10:52 PM EDT

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San Francisco bay area normally has nice weather all through the year. Sometimes during summer months, weather can become quite hot. Since the weather is nice most of the time, many apartments do not have air-conditioners. I happen to live in one such place and when it got really hot a few weeks back, need for a cooler or air-conditioner became apparent.

I bought this one - http://www.air-n-water.com/product/AF-340.html. No complaints about the cooler as such. It does seem to do its job pretty well. Pretty heavy duty cooler with a large water tank where you can put water and if you desire ice cubes too. I wish it was bit smaller. Picture on the internet site looked smaller but in reality it is slightly larger than a mini-fridge. Since it was going to be a chore to return such a large item, I chose to keep it. Hopefully, it will be a good investment.

Few things to keep in mind if your apartment does not have an air-conditioner. You can buy a portable AC but you have to work the details of installing it before hand. They are not easy to install. Even the most portable AC requires some sort of mechanism to push hot air out and you need to do some do-it-yourself work to fix it. Since I was not game for all that especially if it required alterations to the windows etc., I chose to go with cooler.

Coolers work only if the humidity is not high in your area. Most of the dry areas should be fine. If the air is humid, they do not work well. Also they need to be placed in such a way that, they can draw fresh air which gets circulated over a wet screen to provide cool air. If you can not place it in such a way, cooler may not work well for you. Coolers also consume much less power. If you put ice cubes also, the room gets cooled pretty well.

The online retailer Air-N-Water seemed like a good place to shop. They have a wide variety of coolers and ACs. Prices seemed very competitive. They also offer free shipping on selected models. Just be careful about their restocking fee and return shipping if you have to return something if you do not like. Their 15% restocking fee plus having to pay return shipping was certainly a deterrent for me to return my cooler. I would have bought something much smaller if returning was free.

Cheers!

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Posted by Mahesh at 10:36 PM EDT

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Not sure if you have ever used UPS' 'I want my stuff now' feature. It's pretty neat. If you are like many, most of the times when UPS tries to deliver your package, you are away at work. They a leave a note and then make few more attempts to deliver. In the mean time, you can call them, ask them to hold your package at their facility, then you go and pick up your package when it is convenient to you. That's the normal process. There is another nice feature that I discovered recently.

When you get that note from UPS informing you that they tried to deliver and missed you, you can normally go online and when trying to arrange for alternate pick up method, you see a small hyperlink 'I want my stuff today (now)'. Once you click that, you can pick up your stuff on the same day as long as you are making that request within their time window. What happens is that when you select 'I want my stuff now' option, you can go to the nearest UPS center at the end of the day and pick up your package. This is especially convenient if you miss your package on a Friday. You do not have to wait till Monday to pick up the package. After you select 'I want my stuff now' option, UPS arranges to take out your package when the driver returns at the end of the day and they open their center for a short time at the end of the day (normally after 8 PM) and you can go and collect the package. UPS is pretty good about making sure that they can really hold the package for you on the same day. That's why they ask you to expect a phone call from UPS after you have placed the request. Normally within an hour after you place the request, they call you and tell you the time and place where to come and pick it up. You go there, follow the same process by showing your missed-delivery notice and ID and collect your stuff.

I was very impressed. I had missed the first delivery attempt on Friday. It was not going to be possible to be at home on Monday or visit UPS office to collect on Monday. I was preparing to wait for next week end to collect the package. Then I came across this nice feature and thought why not use it. I clicked 'I want my stuff now' link, provided my phone number. As expected, got a call from UPS within one hour and was asked to come to their facility at 9 PM sharp and that they would be open only for 15 minutes and I should collect it within that time. I went there around that time and there were quite a few people already. Looks like people like this feature very much. No wonder. Collected my stuff and was back in no time.

It is because of this kind of convenience features that UPS has continued to excel. I will certainly consider buying some UPS stock in the future. If a company can execute so efficiently, it is worth my business and investment. I liked their process very much. They want to make sure that they can really hold the package for you on the same day. That's why they ask you to wait for their call and only after they confirm, they ask you to come and pick it up.

Good job UPS.

Cheers!

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Posted by Mahesh at 11:41 PM EDT

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A lot of great Kannada audio stuff is available at - http://www.kannadaaudio.com.

Best part of (at least for me) the site is an excellent collection of Kannada dramas. Nice dramas from legendary artistes like Master Heerannayya, Dhirendra Gopal are too good. Dhirendra Gopal is my all time favorite. It is very unfortunate that he passed away a few years back. He was too good. His dialogs are simply superb - witty, funny and hard hitting.

Cheers!

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Posted by Mahesh at 12:41 AM EDT

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If you are looking for a free software to edit PDF documents, you may want to check out PDF editor from Foxit software. PDF editor from Foxit Software is pretty good. Free trial edition is pretty good and trial period is six months. Free trial version puts a small watermark at the top of the document when you save the document edited.

User interface may be somewhat confusing or may be I did not explore it fully. I had to fill out few form fields in a document and the way I did was to right click on each form field and 'add text'. I had expected editing it like any word document. That was okay as long as I could edit the document without having to buy Adobe.

You can download the trial version from - http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/pe_intro.php.

Cheers!

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Posted by Mahesh at 11:39 AM EDT

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Tibet is in the news once again. Ever since China invaded and annexed Tibet in 1950's, Tibetians have been stateless people. Many along with their religious leader came to India after Chinese invasion. They were settled in 3-4 places in India.

One such place is Mundagod - small town in North Karnataka. Mundagod is probably 30-40 miles from nearest metropolis Hubli-Dharwad. Being from Dharwad, I got to see Tibetians and their life quite a bit while growing up in Dharwad. Mundagod was also on the way to Sirsi/Honnavar in North Kanara district - my ancestral places. So every time I took a bus ride to the native, it passed through Mundagod and Mundagod bus stand used to full of Tibetians.

Tibetians who were settled in Mundagod wove sweaters. You could see them selling their sweaters on the footpaths of Dharwad and Hubli. Since many of them used to go to Nepal, Tibet etc. they also used to bring along rare items such as imported sneakers, jackets, jerseys etc. Not sure how it is now. But, during my time, most of the sweaters worn by people were made in Mundagod. There may still be some old sweaters at home - made in Mundagod.

It was a different story about the bargaining with these Tibet women selling sweaters. It was funny to watch them bargain with people from Dharwad in their own version of Kannada. It must be appreciated that these Tibeti people, rooted out from their homeland, forced to settle in some totally alien land, starting their lives from scratch, making a honest living by selling sweaters. They also started providing Tibeti medicines later. No experience with that. My dealings with them was over with probably half a dozen of sweaters bought over the period of 10 years.

It was a pure bargain game. Tibeti woman would say some price. You would quote something less than half of that, you go back and forth and then settle at something. Pay money and take your sweater. These Tibeti women were no less audacious than car salesman if you decided to back off after they agreed to sell at the price you asked. If you dared to do that, then be prepared to be humiliated by their entire lot occupying the footpath for being a sissy and what not.

Despite their extreme hardships (at least during initial days), Tibetians have rarely been caught for any criminal activities. This may be due to the fact that entire community was well managed by their religious elders. Absolutely no non-sense and hardworking people. Over the time, they transformed their colony in Mundagod with lush farms, home industries and medical facilities. Dalai Lama visits once in a while. His deputies run a tight ship and Tibetians continue to do well in their adopted country.

Hats off to these people.

Cheers!

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Posted by Mahesh at 1:40 PM EDT

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Recently I had a reason to contact DELL customer service. I had bought a laptop few months ago. The power adapter conked out during warranty period. Not a big deal. These things do go wrong.

I chose to contact DELL using their online chat facility. Their web site is pretty good. It can detect your computer id if you permit it. That id will speed up getting technical support. That was neat. BTW, that id is also put on the back of the laptop where you can find laptop serial number. That service tag id is the social security number of computer. Have that handy. All communication with DELL is done using that.

First online chat person was helpful. He had to determine if it was battery or the power adapter that was the problem. One step was for me to restart the computer and check for some BIOS setting. So, I had to end that chat session. He was nice enough to provide his name and id so that I could try to request for the same person when I reconnected for online chat support.

Unfortunately when I reconnected the same person was not available. The other support person was equally helpful. Walked me through their regular process and determined that most probably it was power adapter that was defective which was causing batter not charge. Turned out be true.

Great thing was how quickly they processed the replacement. Once they confirmed and agreed to replace, I got my replacement in less than 2 days excluding the weekend. They shipped using DHL. Kept me posted on the process using their automated e-mails so that I could stay on top of the process. Their supply chain system seems to so well oiled. It was a pleasure. As part of warranty replacement, I have to return the defective part. They enclosed DHL label for return shipment. I just need to put back the old adapter and ship it back to them. How much more easier this can get?

I certainly recommend DELL based on this experience. I certainly did not want anything to go wrong. But, things do go wrong. When they do, having someone like DELL take care of your concerns promptly is worth the business you give it to them.

Cheers!

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Posted by Mahesh at 8:52 PM EDT

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Firefox version 3 beta is available for sometime. I started using it for last few days. It's been good.

Ever since I switched to Firefox 3 years ago from IE, I have never gone back. It is such a nice browser. Browsing is so smooth. So fast and it loads in no time. Compare that with IE. With every new version, it has become slower and uglier. I use IE to browse only those pages in some Indian languages which Firefox does not seem to render fonts correctly. I am sure there is some setting which can be changed or some additional fonts to install. I have not done it well or simple tasks such as changing encoding does not work. Another place I am forced to use IE is to watch movies online from Netflix. Their DRM scheme works only in IE and you can not watch movies online using Netflix. That's about it and rest all only using Firefox.

Firefox version 3, performance seems to have further improved. Seems faster and smoother for most of the pages. I would have preferred UI to have remained same. Some things they have changed are not very intuitive. For example, home button has disappeared. You can get it back but it is not very clear. I had to Google to find out how. Another pet peeve is the disappearance of nice separate menu item for bookmarks for live feeds. That has its own tool bar now but is not that user friendly. I can live with those annoyances for better performance.

So far no problems. Being beta, it is bound to have some issues. They have built a nice feedback utility which can transfer back the information if and when the browser crashes. That's neat. So far in last 3 days, it crashed only once.

I hope a day will come when I do not ever have to use IE. It's such a dog of a browser.

Cheers to Firefox and Mozilla for such a nice browser and for free.

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Posted by Mahesh at 3:45 PM EDT

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Even in these days when majority of the communication is done by e-mail, on certain occasions need arises to use a fax. This is especially the case when someone asks you to sign something and fax it. You can buy a fax machine and use it, if you want to spend money. Otherwise, services like Fax Zero are very useful.

Fax Zero offers free Internet based fax service. 2 faxes per day are free. If you have additional faxes to send, you can buy additional services. Works very well. You simply upload the document, you want to fax and enter the fax number and hit send. You will get a confirmation e-mail in no time. After you confirm the e-mail by clicking the embedded link, you are done. Within a few minutes, you will receive an e-mail to let you know the status of your fax. If the fax machine on the other end is fine, your fax should go through just fine.

When we normally fax, normally the document has our signature. How to capture signature on a word document? I used a simple technique. Just sign clearly on a piece of paper, take picture of the paper with the highest resolution possible with maximum zoom. Edit the picture and make it a nice small jpeg picture and insert it into document. If you do a good job, when you print or fax the document with signature inserted, it looks perfect as though you have signed it. Another way is to scan your signature to get the jpeg. Either way works fine.

If services like Fax Zero can save me a trip (& money) to Kinkos or Mailboxes etc., I am all for it.

Thanks for the great free service Fax Zero.

Cheers!

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Posted by Mahesh at 2:02 AM EDT

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Sometime back, I wrote a couple of post about my dealing with car insurance company. I had a car accident in Nov 07 and then had to go through the process of getting the claim settled. My insurance was with Mercury Insurance. Now that all the processing is over, I thought it is time to record my feedback about my insurance carrier.

Honestly, I did not expect things to go so smoothly with insurance claim settlement. Mercury offers great rates compared to other insurance companies. Their costs are at least 10-15% less than what is offered by competitors. So, I was thinking you get what you pay for. If a insurance company is charging you low premiums, they will try to squeeze you when you file a claim. At least that's how I thought and shuddered when I was in a major accident and car was totaled. I feared they would low ball and give me a short shrift. How wrong I was.

I am happy to report that Mercury and the professionals I dealt with turned out to be fantastic. They offered a very fair price for my 2002 Honda Accord V6, provided adequate rental car support, completed the paper work as quickly as possible, always available for questions, promptly returned my calls, worked relentlessly with the other insurance company to get me my deductible as I was not at fault. How refreshing it is to deal with a honest insurance company in this era when honesty and insurance never seem to go together.

Despite all this, I hope no one has to ever go through this experience. If not anything, it is extremely stressful and time consuming. Too much paperwork.

My insurance company Mercury Insurance was very fair. It was a different matter with the other insurance company. They gave me fair bit of run around to decide on the fault. Ultimately they decided that their policy holder was at fault.

I recommend Mercury Insurance. Their premiums are probably the lowest. Coverage is good. Web site is very good. Provide several discounts.

Cheers!

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Posted by Mahesh at 7:49 PM EST

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Sri Eknath Easwaran (www.easwaran.org) introduced a very simple program called 8 point program to find peace in this mad world. His 8 point program draws best points common to all spiritual disciplines and puts into simple 8 points which if followed with sustaining enthusiasm and regularity is sure to improve your well being. I can say that with personal experience after having followed it for more than 5 years now. I do not call myself the die-hard follower or extremely diligent follower of this program. Even with mediocre practice of this program, benefits I have received from this program immense. Generally improved outlook towards life, resilience to face day-to-day challenges, increased peace level are some of the biggest gains.

What are 8 points.

1) Meditation

2) Spiritual reading

3) Putting other's first (or putting the interest of other people before yours own)

4) One pointed attention

5) Slowing down

6) Spiritual companionship

7) Training the senses

8) Repetition of the mantra

Whether you are spiritual aspirant or someone who is wholly centered on improving your own well being, this program gives you a great start.

I came across this program and one point - spiritual reading- got me hooked. I have been a voracious reader all along. Prior to coming across this program I was reading a lot anyway. However, most of my reading back then was what I today call junk. Good amount of reading pertained to my education. That was not all that bad. Other category of reading related to reading all sorts of sensational news in print or on the Internet. When I started reading wonderful books from Sri Eknath Easwaran, my time started getting spent well. I have read most of his books. Many books over and over again. The wisdom which is present in enormous amounts has trickled little by little in me. How wonderful.

There are some points in 8 points I have not practiced much. But they are all important. It is very important to make sure that we follow this program without ignoring any points. Even if it is not possible to follow all points of 8 points equally well, we can not afford to ignore any of them all together. We should try to follow each of them as well as possible.

When this world is full of many bogus program aimed at well being, this 8 point program is so refreshing. It is deceivingly simple at the outset and it is easy for us to suspect if it really packs the punch. We can only verify for ourselves.

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Posted by Mahesh at 12:41 PM EST

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Extended warranty for automobiles seems to be next only to used cars business in terms of negative publicity. You can search on the web and you will so many people complaining and cursing extended warranty companies which did not pay legitimate claims by using some fine print or made it so difficult that the customer could not wait them to resolve the issue and went ahead and paid for the repairs and some flimsy companies even went belly up.

I had not really thought about extended warranty. However, soon after my previous car - 2002 Honda Accord V6- was out of warranty, my repair shop recommended that lower ball joints be replaced. I am not sure if it was really required or was simply ripped off. Since it was related to safety, I went ahead and had it replaced. Cost of the repair was around $500. That's when it really started sinking into me that even reliable Japanese cars can lead to costly repairs. What if transmission were to fail or engine or something other than routine parts such as brakes, bulbs, tires etc. It is one thing to plan for known wear and tear and totally a different thing to suddenly be hit with an expensive repair bill which can go up to a few thousand dollars in case engine or transmission rebuild.

In 2006, I researched for extended warranties. There are literally thousands of companies selling variety of auto warranties. It seems to me many are simply fronts to the same business entity based on their advertising pitch. Most of the extended warranties are exclusionary type. Unlike bumper to bumper warranty you get on a brand new car, these extended warranties specify in finest detail and finest print, what is covered and what is not covered. It looks like they want to sell you something so complicated that when time comes, they can give you a run from pillar to post with all that legal jargon. What do you do at that time? Fight with them or pay for the repairs and get moving.

After some research, Warranty Direct (www. warrantydirect.com) stood out for several reasons. First they had many types of extended warranty plans. Each one clearly explained so that you can make a reasonable decision on what plan to buy. Easy quote process. Excellent web site. Variety of payment options and plans in case if it is important. One of the plans which covered most of the items was closest to bumper to bumper warranty. Exclusions were routine stuff like brakes, bulbs only. All other parts and repairs fully covered. No fine print and legal jumbo mumbo. Even the price was very reasonable. Like $1275 for 100, 000 miles or 8 years whichever came first. Seemed like less than dollar a day for 4 years coverage. Also impressive was the requirement for them to examine your car before they decided whether it made sense to sell the warranty. Fair enough. If you are serious about selling extended warranty and honest, you want to make sure the car you are going to cover is a fair deal for you and the customer. They waive this examination if you buy the extended warranty when your car is still in the factory warranty. Since my car was out of warranty for close to an year, I had to have this exam and they charge you extra for this. Like $90. They will send an expert mechanic who can come to wherever your car is, does a through check up, takes it for a ride (you can go with him) and then files a report. You will get a copy of the report. If your vehicle passes, you pay the quoted fee and your vehicle is covered under extended warranty.

Luckily there was no occasion for me to make any claims against my extended warranty. My car was in an accident recently and was totaled. Due to this, I remembered another positive point from Warranty Direct. They let you cancel extended warranty anytime and refund you pro-rata. Good feature. I was not sure how it was going to be to get my money back. I went to their web site, called the customer service line. Their rep gave me a fax number to fax my request for cancellation and refund. I did that and waited for a week or so. Then called them again and was told it would take up to 4 weeks. In less than 2 weeks, I see today they have promptly credited the refund to my credit card. No hassles. Refund seems reasonable. I was midway through the 4 year period and I got little more than half the money back. May be because I had not put much miles anyway. Not sure what formula they use. I am happy to get more than half as I go by time and not necessarily how close I was to 100,000 miles.

I can not really say what would have been the experience if I had to claim warranty services if something were to go wrong and I had to have it repaired. You can search Internet and you will find experiences of other car owners. I can certainly recommend them from the point of smooth business transaction and professionalism. Also, not many companies seem to offer the comprehensive plans they offer. Extended warranty comes with basic road side assistance, trip break coverage etc. Prices are reasonable. Seems like a ethical company in the industry which is marred by some many scandals and bogus companies. You can also transfer the warranty to the new owner for a small transaction fee. This should make it very attractive to prospective buyers if you want to sell your car.

If you want better extended warranty, it makes sense to buy the extended warranty from the manufacturer of your car. If you buy it from the dealer when you buy the car, chances are you will pay a steep mark up. But, there are several other dealers who have taken extended warranty seriously and sell the same factory extended warranty at much competitive price. For example, you can buy Toyota or Honda factory extended warranty from say Bernardi Warranty (also a dealer in MA). I have not yet purchased for my new Toyota Camry. But, prices seem very reasonable, extended warranty plans are good (from most comprehensive to very basic) and you can get repairs done by any factory dealer or other mechanic.

All said and done, I prefer "best warranty is one which you will never have to claim". It is more of peace of mind than anything else. Who wants to have the hassles of a broken car. Give me a car which runs well for a long time with least maintenance. Luckily for us, most of the cars these days are like that. May they get even better.

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Posted by Mahesh at 11:51 PM EST

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