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Recently I purchased a brand new copy of QuickBooks Pro 2007, since I figured with the new Vista, it’s better to get the most recent version as opposed to even attempting to install the older versions that I already had. I bought the retail package from the Stanford Bookstore on 06/15/2007.

I came home and installedit. First, Quickbooks Pro 2007 requires about 730 MB of disk space — kinds of excessive for an accounting package! Anyway, the installation proceeded smoothly. Then I proceeded to launch the program from the icon on the desktop. “Loading Quickbooks…” — a good sign. Then up came the splash screen, immediately followed by “This program has stopped responding” and then it shut down. And so it started…

So I searched the web for solutions to the problem. The posts on the Quickbooks forum by “Community_Guru_Brian” seemed to suggest that you have to uninstall and then do a clean install after removing all the Intuit folders. Did that. No luck.

Some other posts suggested that it was a permissions issue and that I should try running as Administrator. Did that. No go. Another post suggested rubbing “reboot.bat” to fix permissions. Did that. No go. Unfortunately, I was doing this on a Friday evening and so when I called Intuit support, of course, the support call was answered by someone with a distinct Indian accent, but with an americanized name. The support person insisted that in order to get support I would first have to “register” my version of Quickbooks and start the free 30-day support. I indicated that I did not want to start the free 30 day support clock by registering yet and all I want to do is get the product installed to at least be able to try it out first. Well, she said that in that case I would not be eligible for any help from Intuit. I asked for a supervisor, was put on hold and ultimately hung up after no one came back on the line.

Over the weekend, I continued to troll through the Intuit forums to try and find the solution to the problem. Tried everything, but no result. Must have spent a good 6-7 hours on this over the weekend, not counting the time spent on Friday (another 2-3 hours).

On Monday, I finally bit the bullet, called back in, “registered” for the free 30 day support and spoke to Jyoti in the Intuit call center in New Delhi. I indicated to her that I had alrady tried several things, but she insisted that I try them again. So we went through the same process all over again. ANything she would look up and suggest, I had already tried before. After over an hour and a half on the phone she finally gave up and said that this will need to be “escalated” and that she would need to get permission first etc etc. Anyhow, she said she would call me back the following day. We set a time for 1:00 PM Pacific — which I explained to her was 1:30 AM in New Delhi, but she agreed.

The following day, I didn’t get a call back at 1:00 PM. Finally I got a voicemail at 5:30 PM saying that the matter had been escalated and scheduled for a call back.

The next day I got a call back from David from Donovan from Intuit support. He suggested that I try downloading the FULL release (330 MB) off the web and then reinstalled. He said he would call back in 1/2 hour after I was done downloading.

About 2 hours later, I get a call from James in Tucson, AZ. By this point, I had uninstalled, cleaned folders and started to re-install. BTW, even the “full release” on Intuit’s website is not quite right. It is supposed to be R7, but is actually R6. And so even after installing a fresh download, you have to download an additional web patch (95 MB) and installed that to supposedly get up to the latest version which is R7 as of this writing.

Another couple of hours on the phone with James (1 hour and 37 minutes is what I counted) which included booting in Safe-Mode, turning of all startup applications and services, then re-installing. Removing and re-installing .NET 1.1. etc etc.

NOTHING worked. The symptoms are all the same — QuickBooks would still crash before launching.

James was stumped and said he would discuss this in their team meeting and call me back the following day. Scheduled a call back for 9:30 AM. Of course, the next day, no one called at 9:30 AM or anytime close. Someone finally called and left a message in the afternoon, when I happened to be out of the office.

The next morning, it is now June 22nd and 9:15 AM — I called back in to figure out when I should expect a call back. The person I spoke to “Abby” who sounded quite clueless, said that they would have to “re-escalate” in order to schedule a callback! When I finally explained the whole thing yet again, she schedule a call back for the same day. As of noon, there has been no call from Intuit. Even when they do call, I wonder what resolution they will have to offer.

At a meta level, the quality of customer support and even more so the quality of the product from a company as large as Intuit is really quite astonishingly poor. There is no concept of true troubleshooting. Their agents work of scripts and knowledgebases (like most companies these days) which turns there more into non-thinking automatons than into human beings who can think and analyze a problem.

I’m very close to calling their bluff on their 60-day money-back guarantee and at least recouping the cost of the retail box, though I doubt that will do anything to recover the countless hours I have spent with a poor product and even poorer customer support and will still leave me without a solution for what I was trying to do in the first place — setup the accounting for a new company!

Over the weekend

I’ve been using Gallery 1.x for a while. When I found Gallery 1.x I was thrilled as it was the first web based album software that really met the needs of what I was looking for. I installed it and liked it so much that I donated to help it’s future development. And I can say today that I am so happy to see what the developers of Gallery have done with it. Gallery 2.0 is truly amazing. Really well done. Smooth install. Good documentation. Great UI. And just overall smooth. It is the best example of a truly valuable opensource development effort.

Kudos and a big thanks to all the developers!

Enough said

OKay, it’s a done deal. I’m offically hooked on Tivo (well, on the concept of a PVR. Tivo just happens to be the dominant one at the moment and there is nothing wrong with that! )

Check if out:

Oh, and if you plan on getting the Tivo service, you can use my referral number: R4071379 or just my email sneaker@sneaker.org

A great movie after a long time. Well worth seeing! More details to follow soon…

L’Auberge Espagnole is a movie about seven international students sharing an apartment in Spain. It wasn’t a movie that gave me a deep meaning, but it was just a movie that did a fine job of storytelling. With interesting characters, lots of laughs, and sometimes seemingly-yet-not-so deep comments, it made for an interesting flick. My recommendation: Go watch it.

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of watching Bend It Like Beckham a film by Gurinder Chadha starring Parminder Nagra. I decided to see this movie because I received an email from a highschool friend of mine who is into films which contained a forwarded message encouraging people to go to the movie opening night in the US to give is a huge reception to help the movie do well in the US. (Honestly, I wasn’t receptive to that idea since I would rather support merit rather than sheer ratings — but then again, that is why I’m writing this review).

So when I had nothing else to do one evening, I dragged a friend of mine with me and we went to watch the movie. It literally had me in splits to watch all the typical desi and more so punjabi, ABCD (in this case ABCBritt), parental and sexual orientation stereotypes. The movie was funny in terms of typifing stereotypes of all kinds, but at the same time raising a fair number of issues — probably more so than you would expect from a movie that has you in splits quite often. An overall crowd pleaser and a highly recommended movie to watch.

Weekend before last, I had the opportunity to visit the capital of sin — Las Vegas. Where there are no open-container laws and everything is about drinking, gambling and sex. By all means I expected to hate Vegas for the very thing that it stood for. Sex, money and hustling.

So when I decide to make the trip to Vegas over a weekend thanks to an extended weekend stay over in LA for work my expectations were pretty low. I expected to see a tacky place with neon signs all over just something very cheesy and lacking class.

My impression now couldn’t be further from it. Vegas is in a class apart. A city unto itself in the middle of nowhere (and I should know since it took 7.5 hours to get there even though it is generally a 4 hour drive from LA thanks to very bad traffic on 10E and 15N), I can only think of comparing Vegas to Disneyworld for adults. (I’ve never been to Disneyworld yet, but conceptually the comparison seems to fit.) I could literally have spent a day in each of the hotels just checking out the hotels and the attractions there in. Each hotel is a world in itself. The Luxor (where we stayed the first night) which was done in an Egyptian theme, The Venetian - Venice, Manadalay Bay, Bellagio, MGM Grand, Monte Carlo, Bally’s all one fascinating hotel after the other.

We started the evening out right with a ‘Margarita by the Yard’ and the show Midnight Fantasy (a topless revue as it was described on the hotel brochure!). Of course after than both my friend I concurred that relatively speaking all the other women in Vegas were no comparison to the cast of the Midnight Fantasy! The comedy act was pretty good too btw.

Then a visit to the nightclub Ra - also at the Luxor - but unfortunately, this place just didn’t do it for me. Probably because the wonderful California laws of non-smoking don’t extend to Nevada and also because the crowd just wasn’t “right”.

Though I loved the way the hotels were done up - each creating its own version of simulated reality which in fact was in some cases amazing and in some cases overkill, the casinos had pretty much the reverse impact for me. They were all the same. Tacky, cheesy, and despicable. Obviously they make tons of money for the hotels since the it took us under 30 seconds to loose 20 bucks a piece in blackjack. I guess there is something about being pragmatic and not having any desire to gamble since you know that the only way to win in a casino is to own one (stole that from the website of a friend of mine - www.maximustiger.com - I still have no idea what he is trying to do, but I agree with his tag line)

The casinos in every hotel were the same. So at least in my opinion if you’re going to Las Vegas to gamble, then you’re really missing out. Because what I would go to Vegas for and I’m ready to do it again - would be for the hotels, the shows, the 24-hour a day party atmosphere and the masses and masses of people all out to have fun and a good time.

Things that deserve special mention - the Venetian - Fantastic reconstruction of the Grand Canal of Venice and re-creating the ambience of being outside while you are inside the hotel. Had me fooled for the first few minute for sure! St. Mark’s Square at the Venetian was amazing.

And not to forget the highlight of my Vegas trip! Blue Man Group. They ROCK. Go see it. Enough said!

Writing this blog as I sit at Starbucks by the window - unfortunately all the comfy chairs that I like are occupied and so this was the only alternative. Right on the other side of the glass pane, every so often there are people standing in order to smoke. It’s kind of ironic, since one of the things I had put on my list of things to bitch and moan about recently was smoking and smokers!

My grandmother used to smoke about two packs a day. My dad probably still smokes about two packs a day. So you would think that I would be used to smoking and that it wouldn’t be that much of a bother. Having now spent close to the decade in the US where luckily there is some respect for non-smokers (unlike India, Europe and a lot of the rest of the world), my tolerance for smoke and smokers seems to be bottoming out.

This past weekend I was out with some friends for dinner and drinks to a bar where I literally had to leave my mouth open and breathe through my mouth because the smoke was making it impossible for me to breathe normally. But that’s more me than the smoke or the smokers since I’ve realized that I actually cannot tolerate smoke more than a certain degree very well. My nose just doesn’t think it’s supposed to function well in a smoky environment and contrary to the orders sent down to it from the brain, it just goes on strike.

But that said, I so have a basic problem with smokers. Why is it that smokers feel that it is their right to keep throwing their butts all over the damn place!? Regardless of how educated or well to do a person might be. When it comes to smoking, they seem to have no qualms about throwing their cigarette butts right where they are standing. Walk outside any building and you will see a collection or smelly cigarette butts all over the damn place.

Secondly, why is it that smokers thing that they are just so freaking cool… maybe they think that just because they smoke the exhaust of their lungs is sacred and thus it is their duty to make sure that they direct the “holy-smoke” directly towards someone who isn’t as lucky to be able to produce their own holy smoke.

Oh… and how can I not talk about the smell. The noxious smell of smoke in someone’s breath or in your own clothes after you’ve been to a smoky place. Ugh… disgusting. What’s especially bad is when the next morning, as you wash your hair you can smell the remnants of the previous nights smoky excursion.

You could take the most beautiful woman and all she has to do is put a cigarette in her mouth and start to light up and it’s an instant turnoff. (Ironically, I seem to see more women smoking than men these days)

My grandmom stopped smoking finally after a series of illnesses which required that she stop smoking. But I definitely didn’t make it easy on her when she was smoking. Her birthday presents were usually little table-top placards with anti-smoking slogans on them. They said:

Kissing a smoker, is like licking an ashtray.

Kiss a non-smoker and feel the difference.

Cancer cures smoking.

Ahh… I guess I’m done with my rant about smoking… I’ve had enough discussions with my dad over it, since I won’t go into his room any more when I’m home, since it put plainly, stinks. I guess my only refuge will be when I eventually move to California where I can go to a bar and get a drink, without coming out smelling like someone sprayed hydrogen sulphide all over me and my clothes!

When I first saw the preview of the movie Fight Club, I told myself that “oh, I don’t think I’d be interested in seeing this movie as it looks like a fucked up movie.” So I never made it a point to see it. Then over the past several months multiple people - and some of them people who’s opinion I respect - told me that I have to see this movie. They told me that they can’t tell me anything about it and I just have to watch it. They did tell me that it had a slight cult element to it, which did get my curiousity piqued enough.

So I finally borrowed the DVD from a friend of mine - and it sat on my desk now for a couple of weeks. I put it on a couple of times, but everytime I would begin to watch it, something or the other would come up (generally an IM from someone while I’m watching the movie on my computer since like the guy in the movie said… I only need a single-serving movie player - a movie for one…so the computer works just fine thank you…) and I would never really get to watch more than the opening scene.

Well, tonight, I came home - no scratch that - back to my apartment and popped in the movie and saw it straight through in one sitting. And here is what I really think… I think that is one of the more fucked up movies I have seen and I would put it up there with something as stupid as Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs (can you tell that I dislike movies by Quintin Tarantino and I’m glad that hasn’t made another one in recent times?). What a stupid freaking movie. I cannot think of enough words to kind of pick it apart as well as I would like to.

The guy was a freaking psychopath. And yes, everyone in the world has problems of their own and everyone has things about their life that they like or dislike. I am less disturbed about the movie. I don’t as much of a problem now with seeing people blow a hole through their head with their brains splattering all over or with people beating each other into a pulp… TV and the news has done a wonderful job of de-sensitizing us to the horrors of the world. That is now entertainment for some people. If people can watch stupid shit like WWF and call it entertainment, then heck showing people getting their brains blown off as a form of amusement isn’t far behind now is it.

What *really* bothers me about this movie is the fact that some people actually thought of it as a good movie. Had they described it to me as a “disturbing” movie, I would have been okay with it and probably not been so harsh. But there is a significant different between good and disturbing. It is okay for a movie to be disturbing — because it makes you think. Some people actually told me that they learnt things from this movie. I am afraid to think what they learnt if they called it good and not disturbing.

I’ve now maintained for a long time that the mind is fragile — that’s something I’ve not written about in detail on public blogs — yes there are still things which don’t make it out in to a public forum. It is had enough for people to keep their thinking straight and honestly I just don’t have faith in the ability of the person on the street to be able to look deep enough into a movie like Fight Club in order to figure out what they really should take away from it.

For me, the only thing this movie did that was positive was that it re-affirmed my conviction that the greatest thing to fear is losing the ability to think rationally and your grip on what is perceived as reality. But I knew that already, and I don’t think I needed Fight Club to remind me of it again — I see enough instances of it around me everyday.

P.S. After I wrote this blog I was putting the DVD away and noticed one of the quotes on the inside cover. It said: “…a witless mishmash of whiny, infantile philosophizing and bone crunching violence that actually thinks it’s saying something of significance” — Kenneth Turan, L.A. Times. Now… if that was the best thing the makers of this movie could pick to quote from the L.A. Times, then gee, I couldn’t say it any better myself.

Flipping through the inside cover of the movie…it seems clear that the movie was intended to be provocative and my reaction to it was in line with the reaction fro a lot of other people who put it more eloquently than I did — but the sad fact is that I don’t have a sense of humor about this stuff any more. It would be humorous if you still believe that “it’s just a movie,” but when you know that there are people out there who are deranged enough to even believe what they see in a movie, then it’s not funny any more.

Some of the choice quotes that are included in the cover of the movie (really, I did get these from the cover..):

“I would deliver a long tirade against it if it weren’t such a dog — such a laborious and foolish waste of time …” — David Denby, The New Yorker.

“Fight Club is to intelligent men what Catherine Breillat’s Romance is to inteliigent women — an insult” — Gregory Weinkauf, New Times, LA.