Monday, March 24, 2008

TelePhishy!

So, like I am working away at office and I get a call on my office number:

Caller: Is this Nikhil
Me: Yes this is he
Caller: Sir, I am calling from Amazon!
Me (a bit interestedly): Ok, and
Caller: Sir, you see we are having a convention in Bangalore coming Saturday
Me (interestedly): Ok, and
Caller: Sir, we would like to invite you to be a part of our elite discussion panel about Databases
Me (chest starting to puff up): Why me?
Caller: Sir, you have experience. Don't worry we will pay for your to-fro airfare
Me (reeking of interest): Oh, do you have a website with information about this
Caller: Sir, its happening in Leela. As you know its a 7 star hotel and rest assured we will make all arrangements. I have provided all information, we do not have a website though..
Me (sold on the proposal but suspicious about no online information, its Amazon - hellooo): Ok
Caller: Sir, if you can give me your personal emailid and personal cell number and also refer us to your friends....
Me (chest deflated): Sorry can't do.

There goes my interest poof in a cloud of smoke. If he is inviting me, why does he want me to refer my friends - I am the expert ain't I! Then stupid me realizes that this is tele phishing at its best. He needs mine and my friends information so that he can maybe headhunt me and them later. My office pals, Pavan and Atuld had similar phone calls - but am proud that mine was the grandest tale of them all :P

You know, for a while, I was already on the dais addressing an august assembly, giving fundaes about databases and whatever little I know about it - dream on.. :)

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Under the OAK tree

So, last weekend, my cousin bro who is studying engineering at a college in Pune, took me to a counseling workshop by Dilip Oak. It was supposed to be a workshop on how to interpret the I 20 (it is a form received by hopeful US college admission seekers) and then how to fill up the relevant US visa forms. People (cousin included) had paid huge sums of money for this additional counseling. I was like WTF!!!! Is this the amount of spoon feeding people need nowadays? Aren't students intelligent enough to figure out how to fill up a form?

On retrospection, it seems people always try to be safe (I guess, I would too. I have been guilty of spending my mom's hard earned money on tuitions for my senior high school..). At the end of the day it is just some financial inconvenience, but I guess the peace of mind that one derives by settling for such counseling outweighs the inconvenience. One thing I am sure about though - Dilip Oak does not mind all of this and is surely laughing all the way to his bank with the enormous kitty :)

Monday, March 3, 2008

Am I Online!

So, some time back I wrote about Open Contributions. As a follow up, me and Ashish (my friend and office colleague who also happens to be the spokesperson for PostgreSQL in India) met up with folks from the media. We had a good session of Q & A, with us trying to put across the gist of what open source and contributing to it means. Check it out!

The article is pretty fine, but what got me a bit amused was the reference to me as "Nikhil S"! I am sure my visiting card mentions my full name (goes and affirmatively cross checks). But I figured that maybe, it has to do with my online presence. I tend to use "NikhilS" in a lot of my conversations on mailing lists and generally on emails too! Blame it on my tryst at this place quite a while back. But this reference surely means that I have an online presence (pretty small though) where people actually might know me as "Nikhil S"! I am not sure who amongst us is Jekyll and Hyde though. Keep guessing ;)