It's that time of the year again

The trees are shedding leaves.  The temperature has cooled down significantly over here in CT.  The forecast says that it starts dipping into 50's (maximum) in a couple of days.  I was on my deck in the afternoon and the sight of all the trees in my backyard, sporting all shades of colors between Red and Green, was B-E-A-Utiful.  It reminded me of why I moved here from the city that never sleeps.  It reminded me that this is my favorite time of the year!  I just wish the work load was a little lighter, so that I could enjoy the weather a little more :-)  On second thoughts, I guess it is a lot better to be busy than not, in this market!

Market Bailout, Business, etc.

Henry Paulson's bailout program hasn't impressed me at all. Let me just say that in principle, I am against any of those bailouts. I would rather chase those executives down and squeeze out the many millions they pocketed during their last days before the lights were shut off. And I do not believe $700B would suffice to bolster the economy. I hope I am wrong, but I am afraid I am right.

All that said, I am very worried about the current state of global economy. I lived through the technology market meltdown earlier this decade in this country. I wasn't too worried of it. I felt that the market was good for people with real talent, in spite of the market situation. But this current mess makes me worry a lot. Surprisingly, our company has been doing extremely well in these weeks of extreme uncertainty. I was worried at the end of Q3/beginning of Q4, but we have closed record revenues in the midst of all that is happening around us. But I can feel chills up my spine when I think of 2009. I think the job market going to get much worse. I think foreclosures and personal bankruptcies will soar. If I were in Detroit, I would consider moving out ASAP, as the auto industry will probably have its worst year. If oil starts trading in Euros, or if some of those OPEC nations unpeg their currency from USD, life in the US will become much tougher. So, even though my business is at a peak, I will just keep my fingers crossed, hope for the best and shy away from forecasting anything for the next 12 months.

Economy and the local mall

We moved to CT from NYC in December 2006. We found that the local mall (Buckland Hills Mall) was a very nice, neat and reasonably crowded mall. It wasn't empty and wasn't as crowded as the NYC malls we were used to. We moved here during the winter months and the mall served as the primary destination almost whenever we ventured out in the evening. First of all, we found a newly opened outlet in the food court that served Indian and Thai food. We fell in love with it. We started going there so frequently that I befriended the guy that operated it. He was from Bangladesh and we used to chat up in Hindi. There were other places in the mall that also became attractions for my son. There was a Disney Shop with large characters on display. There was a pet store with lots of dogs, hamsters, birds, etc. Of course, there was a fountain too. And there was a candy shop that my son loved. There was a Minnie Moo Ice cream shop as well in the food court. There was a play area, but my son wasn't too interested in it.

Sometime last year, my friend from Bangladesh told me that his business was slow. I told him casually that it would pick up during winter. Little did I realize that he could not have survived until winter. One fine day, I saw that the shop had been closed for good. Very soon, I saw Minnie Moo shutting the door down. Even the large chain Arby's could not keep its shop open in the food court. These seemed alarming to me. And none of these spots had been taken up by any other merchant. Shortly thereafter, Mickey Mouse and his friends at the Disney Store were also forced out of the mall due to lack of business. I still used to take my son out there for a ride on the carousel and a brief stop at the pet shop. One fine day after a couple of months, I found out that the pet shop had been shut down overnight. My son felt very bad that the dogs were gone. Oh, the candy shop was gone long back too. And these are cases of just the shops we were interested in. There were many others that shut the door in the mall. Some of them were replaced by new stores, and some of them are still empty.

The last time I took my son for the carousel ride, the operator mentioned that they were closing down at 7 PM, instead of the regular 8 PM closure. I could only shake my head at how economy had affected my local mall. I felt really bad about it, but there was nothing I could do about it. Winter is right around the corner and I need to find other spots to entertain my son over the next 5-6 months! Because the only thing that now attracts my son to the local mall is the fountain that has stood as a witness to all these closures!

iPhone 3G

After staying away from the iPhone hype all these days,  I decided to take the plunge.  I switched from my favorite T-Mobile to AT&T and got an iPhone 3G last week.  It is a nice phone.  Luckily for me, the initial issues with 3G coverage had all been resolved by the time I bought my gadget.  The initial usage was impressive.  But very soon, I realized that iPhone 3G is like one of those movies where you see the trailer and you've seen all the good stuff in the movie.  I guess I had higher expectations given the promos and ads.  I settled down to accept what it had to offer and I liked it for being an easy-to-use, intuitive phone.  Once I flew back home from San Francisco, I realized that the biggest advantage I got by switching to iPhon,e had actually nothing to do with iPhone itself!  The last time I had checked, none of the cellphone providers had any kind of decent coverage where I live (and where I work).  I guess AT&T has deployed new towers in the vicinity.  I now have great 3G coverage at both home and work!  That made it a sweet deal for me.

I am in the process of exploring App Store to sweeten up my phone.  I have installed a few apps that I liked.  I guess we can expect more applications to get to App Store in the coming months, and I am looking forward to that.  While I like the instrument, I wish it had a few features that made the Blackberry very useful, like - Typeahead dialing.  I also miss the weekly view of my calendar (linked to Exchange).  Lastly, if I reply to an email using my iPhone, the "replied icon" does not show up on the Outlook Inbox pane.  I am sure not many people would even have noticed the last two of these points.  Apple has gone a long way in making this a cool toy for consumers.  I just feel that it could have gone a little farther to ensure that no gaps were left for business users.