Leading Trump - Pradeep U.N. & his Blog about Nothing. : Random Rants

The world is Flat. The Immigration requirements say otherwise.

Pradeep U.N. — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 01:26:00 GMT

Recently I completed listening to Tom Friedman's "World is Flat" on an audiobook had to agree with a lot of his statements, especially given how my life has been spawned over several countries and continents in the last decade. But when it comes to immigration requirements - I have to tell Mr Friedman - The world is still has a while to go before it really becomes more flat. Ofcourse Mr Friedman wouldnt mind - his book seemed a lot more focussed on how Americans (And ppl in developed countries) should innovate than worry abt ppl from developing countries are competing with them in brilliant ways.

Even though this post might could not be any more ill-timed given the recent developments (Terrorist attempts which were foiled) in the UK-Heathrow airport about it is still true: Travelling for most immigrants who are not part of the developed western world is not a walk in the park. Most of my American colleagues and good friends' vacation plans start and stop at scheduling tours, vacation packages, hotel and OOF (Out of Office) notices at Microsoft - they can walk into most countries for 90 days and out with just their passport, and credit cards.

On the 3rd edition of my "Hello World" Tours (I was lucky to go to abt 12 countries in Western Europe for 45 days after school in 2004, Egypt in 2005) - The plan for this year is to make it to Berlin and Prague during Labor Day Week for which as an Indian passport holder - I need 2 Visas.

Enter the concept of the "Tourist Visa" - the most easy annuity revenue for most countries. At an average of 50$ a pop the tourist visa for most countries last abt 30 days (Czech/Switzerland) - 2 yrs (Canada). But if the expenses do not get to you and the varied levels of paperwork required in propreitary formats: copies of insurance, bank statements, payslips, Tax forms, birth certificates etc - just raises your frustration - The fluctuating exchange rates (and therefore visa fees) combined with the non-updated websites - makes ur hands curl into fists - its the photo requirement that is usually the last straw that ultimately makes u ram that fist through a corkboard on the wall. Newton's third law does the rest. Action and reaction are equal and opposite. Well when your knuckles showcase the pain that your brain has had over the last few days in the immigration, Newtonian physics is the least of your issues.

The American Immigration which is one of the most stringent that I have faced have strict rules on their photos but the German "photo police" raised that bar in their document of "FotoMusterafel 2005" where it shows how you cant move, smile, laugh, turn, tilt or do anything but look like you were a zombie. A Zombie with all necessary documents. There are lot of similarities with the American rules - but the Germans also suggested that flash reflection on your face is Verboten! A little light on your glass? Nein Das ist verboten auch!

Ofcourse I do what every independent, self confident, well educated person from the biggest socialist democractic country in teh world would do - Comply to the last word.

But it does make me wonder - Why is this example (of Erika Mustermann) on the german photo-requirements website not complying to any of the guidelines mentioned in the FotoMusterafel 2005? But then again I cant figure out why an "Erika Mustermann" would apply for a German visa either.

WA Lawyer gets Both Speeding Tickets dismissed!

Pradeep U.N. — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 00:17:00 GMT

Late June, I had managed to get myself 2 tickets within a week which were to be contested at the Bellevue Court and one at the State court. The fines for the infractions were initially to about $300 (total) though the potential damage it could do to my insurance given that I drive a sunset-6spd 350Z Touring could have easily sky rocketed.

Enter Jeannie Mucklestone a lawyer who specializes in traffic-law in the state of Washington.

2 short Emails later the guidance she gave me was to snail-mail her the original citations and copies of the notice of hearing that I would receive from the courts. An agonizing silence that last 4 wks later - I get the good news snail mailed to me by her:

From the City Court: "The judge dismissed your case because my motions to suppress evidence were granted and there was not enough evident to find you committed the infraction..."

From the District Court: "The judged dismissed your case because the State did not meet their burden of proof after our motions to suppress were granted..."

What was really awesome about this (expensive) experience was that Jeannie absolutely minimized my involvement once I had her represent me. She took all the burden on her, didnt even have me go to the court during the hearing (both times) and got a great result. Brilliant and impressive.

The obvious question in my head - What does "Motion to suppress evidence" really mean?

Howe & Howe from NJ state: (The paragraphs below are cited from Howe&Howe's web pages)

"A motion to suppress evidence is a legal proceeding designed to challenge evidence on constitutional grounds."

How would this exactly work in a court?

"Defense counsel initiates the motion to suppress evidence by filing formal papers with the court. The prosecutor and defense counsel then submit legal arguments in an official document known as a brief. If there has been an arrest or a search without a warrant, then the prosecutor files the first brief. In the prosecutor’s brief, he or she must justify each step taken by the police. The defendant then responds with a legal brief explaining how and why the police violated the defendant’s constitutional rights."

"After the briefs are submitted, the court then holds a hearing with testimony and exhibits to resolve any contested issues. The state has the burden of proof at the hearing. If the court grants the motion to suppress evidence, then the prosecutor is barred from using the challenged evidence against the defendant in court."

Interesting read. And from experience - Great strategies on paper is one thing, to implement them consistently to get desired results is entirely another. And on that regard Law and Business have the same concept.

Thank you Jeannie Mucklestone :)

The Bad Omen of Ipod Nano and Me.

Pradeep U.N. — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 23:58:00 GMT

Before Christmas on my first attempt to buy a Nano on the internet I was scammed by some scam artistes who had a history of scamming and changing their names. Ofcourse having bought everything on Ebay from books, to batteries, to digital cameras to even my Saab 9-5 (before I got my 350Z) I thought Ebay was foolproof. Until now. For the second time in 2 attempts I have been been Ipod Nano-Scammed!

Well after I won the Bid (and paid $230 or arnd there) for it - I get this mssg:

Item Number - 9743118990
Item Title - Apple iPod nano Black (4 GB, MA107LL/A) MP3 Player

Seller's Name: MATTHEW DEDEWO
Seller's Email: MD7931@YAHOO.COM
Our records show that you were a bidder or buyer of one or more of this seller's items. We recently removed this seller's active listings and suspended the seller's trading privileges. Due to privacy concerns we cannot share further details about this seller.
If the seller asks you to complete this transaction outside of eBay, we strongly recommend that you do not proceed with the transaction.

UGH.

I raise the issue with PayPal (who I used to pay) and they came up with the following in a wk or two:

It has been determined that the seller was at fault, and as a result, we have recovered funds on your behalf. $175.00 USD has been credited to your account. This is the maximum amount covered by eBay's Standard Purchase Protection Program.
If your claim was for more than the amount covered by eBay's Standard Purchase Protection Program, the balance of the claim is due to you directly from the seller. We will make our best effort to recover the remaining balance from the seller on your behalf.

There goes another 50 bux for nothing! Danggit! And All I really wanted was a chic mp3 player for hearing some podcasts while running!

2010 - the Visa Odyssey: Last Hurdle before the H1B Visa turns to a Green Card ...

Pradeep U.N. — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 09:34:00 GMT

Another of my longfound truths of life was deemed false today.

LongFound Truth of Life # 671: "Any email that usually starts with the words - "Congratulations" is a Junk Mail from a newly minted "multi-Millionaire" from a faraway country to wants your help to move money into the US in exchange for a share of the millions.

Oh well Today#671 was deemed false for once.

"Congratulations" began the mail - "We are pleased to inform you that the I-140 petition filed on your behalf has been approved by the Immigration Service. This is yet another step on the road to permanent residence. As of July 2006, visas in your category are available to Indians with a priority date of Jan 1 2003 and since your application date is April 14, 2006...."

As any immigrant would know, There are three phases to the Green Card process:

1. Labor Certification (ETA 750 Application for Alien Labor Certification); (Estimated time to complete: 1-2 yrs)

2. Preference Petition (I-140 Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker); (Estimated time to complete: 4-10 months) and,

3. Final Application for Permanent Residence (I-485 Application for Adjustment of Status) (If visa is available, then Estimated time to complete: 10-18 months).

Details of myApplication:

Perm Labor Certification Applied: April 14th, 2006

Perm Labor certification Approved: May 2nd 2006

I140 Petition Applied: June 8th 2006

I140 Petition Approved: July 5th 2006

So yes - the immigration dept has decided to twiddle its thumbs for 3-4 more years atleast before a visa will be "made available" to me, even though I was deemed "worthy". Efficient. Not! 2010, here I come...

Why do Speeding Tickets happen in Pairs?

Pradeep U.N. — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 00:14:00 GMT

There have been tons of discussion around "Flashy Car Colors leading to tickets", but do speeding tickets happen in pairs (read: within a week) ? Well based on my experience in PA and in WA, and some of my friends here at work (who shall be unnamed for once on my blog), The the answer to this is Yes.

This is counter-intuitive to logic. One would argue that after the first infraction you would go slower for a while and the chances of the 2nd ticket closer to the first would be a lower probability event.

Apparently not. I am lost on explanation for this observation though. Are there any other theories out there?

Office12: Chunk up ur Outlook PST File - sayz the HelpDesk Police

Pradeep U.N. — Mon, 26 Jun 2006 22:58:00 GMT

On my migration from Office 2003 to Office 12 - Outlook went from slow to Stop.

After long calls with the IT Helpdesk the problem was resolved. My PST files were 1.8GB big, the recommended size is about 1 GB.

It took a good part of 4 hrs to chunk that up into smaller PST files before Outlook12 started working with a speed that warranted the usage of Outlook and producitivity in the same sentence. Summary - Large PST Files - Bad.

Dammit Jim! Wherez my wallet?

Pradeep U.N. — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 02:12:00 GMT

Remember the mainframe concept of consolidation? Where all the CPU power, rules , data are all in one central server - and if that crashes all hell breaks loose? Well the way I maintain my wallet is not too dissimilar to that. All credit cards, cash, membership cards, IDs and licenses are all stored in one consolidated wallet - which makes for great efficiency in access.... till I lost track of it yesterday.

Therez an entrepreneurial idea - as soon as the distance from the wallet to the person who owns it increases by more than 10 yards - there is a mssg going on to alert my laptop, smartphone abt its location.

Question is - Whatz the business model? How does one make money out of this? For one - not losing a wallet would be a good starter.

Analyze this: A Visit to the Doctor's V/S a consulting engagement..

Pradeep U.N. — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 09:17:00 GMT

Prologue: In a few wks I am on point to launch the Security SKUs from the Enterprise Services - so I have been dreaming about assessment frameworks, customer paintpoints, value propositions etc for waay too long these days. Maybe a function of these hallucinations is the reason I am writing this blog post in 2 conscious streams of thought - one in the present and one in a parallel analogy... Never tried that one before - so here goes my pilot post :)

Present Stream: Sinuses, Allergies and the constant wetness in Seattle dont mix - so I've been under the weather (what weather one might ask - given our 27+ days of constant rain days). So finally after trying a month of Benadryls, Tylenols, Nyquils, Dayquils and everything that your average shelf-medicine threw at me did not but inflate the revenues for Pfizer and P&G - I decided it was time for a visit to the doctor's.

Parallel Stream: My behavior was not much unlike typical customers in a data center. When things are troubling - you throw some quick-fixes, some custom code, some configs, some custom patches at it. And then it all works while for a few days till all hell breaks loose... when they decide it is time to call the consultant.

Present Stream: So scheduling an appointment with relative ease, I got grilled by a series of questions each one not legal in a hiring scenario - but guess when you are a doctor everything goes! Age, Marital Status, Alcohol habits, Smoking habits, Sexual activity, History of illnesses and hospitalization, Family history of illness, Place of birth. Wait a minute - Why is a place of birth even relevant, I asked. ("Oh it is not - we just ask it anyway" the doctor said! Ha????!!!) Then there were a dozen other questions - I threw in a few of mine jus for kicks like what football team she supported - (it was the RAMs apparently)

Parallel Stream: You know where I am going with this. Consultants do the same thing too. After a series of meetings scheduled with different stakeholders - come the series of discovery questions across various aspects of the client's business. People, Processes, Business, Application, Network, Security policies etc etc. Coming to think of it a consultant asks more relevant qn than the doctors do!

Present Stream: And then finally - I have the doctor look through all the diagnostics, all the symptoms and finally conclude - "I think you have allergies." ... Uh, what allergies doc?.... "We dont know yet, but I think you do have allergies.".... "You should have some anti-histamines".... Wait a minute - arent Benadryls a type of anti-histamine?.... "Oh well... mmm... yeah.... keep having that!"

Parallel Stream: Ofcourse a consultant cant get away with that! He/she has to come up with scorecards, risk profiles, compare it with industry average, recommendations, risks, contingencies and next course of action. and if all that was the same as what went on in the data center - God help you as an engagement manager.

As noted - both these activities are similar but with distinctly different pieces of work which will be accepted. The only thing both of them really do agree on potentially is that - once you start either - there is enough reason to carry on having more of such visits.

Yea - there is another visit to the doctor scheduled in 2 wks... Maybe I will be prescribed the nightime, sniffling, sneezing, sore throat, coughing, aching, stuffy head, fever. sleep better to feel better Medicine. Then again maybe she wont know - I already know about Nyquil. BAH!

Bi-weekly Mortgages … What was I thinking?

Pradeep U.N. — Thu, 12 Jan 2006 03:40:00 GMT

Have you ever had a situation when you read too much into something, made some assumptions and consequently the wrong decisions? Well we all have! Here is my recent story on this. The Bi-Weekly Mortgage Payment companies

Background: If you had a mortgage you know its compounded and the way compound interest works – is that for the initial years you pay a ton of interest and at the latter part of the period – you pay a ton that goes towards equity. Biweekly payments towards the mortgage can reduce your loans tremendously if you do get biweekly paychecks (and I do) and if you are allowed to split the monthly mortgage payment and apply the payments split twice a month to your account. I even had a good spreadsheet on this to show that this line of thinking is correct.

Situation: A mail comes along with spreadsheets that says that they can do this for me for 150$. Bah! That is nothing since you make that much in savings within a yr (The way I calculated) … even when you factored in the $3 per transaction (every 2 wks) charge. Sound too good to be true? It is!

The RANT: Apparently the biweekly mortgage payment program takes money from you twice a month but gives it to the mortgage company only once a month “holding” your money for a while till its time to pay. So for the same benefit as before – you pay more in transaction costs, initiation costs and also opportunity cost of your money not held with you. Ofcourse the “selling point” for these firms were the 13^th month payment that goes towards principal which eventually cuts your mortgage payoff from 30 yrs to a 26 ….

In other words – the biweekly mortgage payment is a payment you make to keep yourself honest and pay someone to take money from you! Especially transaction costs are free these days with online billpay.

The Result: Of course once I realized there was a clear miscommunication in terms of my understanding of biweekly payment and what was communicated to me – I realized I had immediately forfeited my “setup” costs since I had paid for it. But atleast I had saved the $3 per transaction payments bcos that can add up pretty quickly!! Sunk Cost I guess...

Santa Baby - Just hurry down a virus tonight...

Pradeep U.N. — Thu, 22 Dec 2005 05:09:00 GMT

Long airport lines, crowded malls, distant Sleigh-bell sounds in bars (I know! it is crazy) arent the only "scroogey" part of the holiday seasons - but lately - it has been the viruses too.

This holiday season - its the new Santa IM Worm - bah thats old news you say... Well it is - but not that interesting until you get hit by it. I was not really a victim but jus a recepient of an IM from a friend. It is quite funny how anyone expects to click on a website from an IM .. abt Santa. Ofcourse it did not work....

Now if it was to lead me to an XBox 360..... thats a totally different argument.

Brand New Ipod Nano - for $200??? Fraud Alert on Michele Acton

Pradeep U.N. — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 00:05:00 GMT

$250 is the retail price for the Nano and thanx to Froogle and some other websearches I found a great deal at Micheles2Go/Seconds2Go4You.com which had the Nano for 200$ only.

Here is what happened

* Bought and paid for the Nano on Oct 9th 2005.

* I get an UPS Tracking code by Nov 1st (oh well they said it would take 2 wks to ship and it was a new product so I was patient enough). Even though that itself is a long wait!

* Till Nov 5th there was no update on UPS.Com on that tracking no. but then I have a tracking number

* The tracking number doesnt track the package and it still is stationary at "Billing info received"

* Then on Nov 11th - I get an email from them (after several phonecalls and emails that went unresponsive) that "A pallet, with several hundred orders, had left our warehouse several
weeks ago and was shipped to a destination outside the U.S. After investigating, we found that your order was in that shipment.We have been able to locate almost all the orders, however, your order is still missing. This was an oversight on UPS and they are going out of their way to correct the problem."

* By then the website www.seconds2go4u.com" is no longer in service. The voicemail is "full" and cant take any more mssgs and there is no email responses (PANIC PANIC!!)

* Nov 16th I call UPS and say wassup, the response I get is "Maybe you have the wrong tracking ID - how about you have the shipper talk to us - we can start an investigation."

Ofcourse I called my credit card and started a dispute at this time and know things will be taken care of..

But Michele Acton, Kelly Acton who runs MichelestoGo have had this issue before - read these negative feedback from yahoo auctions. But seriously - Having a website say its no longer in service, and no response to phone and email - is just scary and downright unprofessional. Hence this mssg on FraudAlert on Michele Action an her Micheles2Go shopping site.

Ipod Nano - worth it? NO say customers!

Pradeep U.N. — Sat, 12 Nov 2005 21:32:00 GMT

There is a class action lawsuit filed against Apple according to this article that says Customers across the world have reported a flaw in the Nano screen. The lawsuit is the result of UK resident Ben Jennings’s complaint - which is typical (according to the article by The Business Online. Despite being careful with a new iPod Nano bought in September, Jennings claimed the device’s screen became so scratched that it became hard to read. Seattle-based law firm Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro (HBSS) has filed a parallel complaint from Jennings with the US District Court for Northern California.

I do not usually blog about competitive issues such as this - but in this case - I am a potential customer Dammit! I just put in my $200 and my Nano is in the mail. Dang-it Apple!

Rant: GMail Sucks so Good - I think it competes with USPS.

Pradeep U.N. — Thu, 22 Sep 2005 02:40:00 GMT

First up - yes I do have a Gmail account (1 yr old), just like I have a hotmail account (11 yrs old), a Yahoo account (8 yrs old). The concept is cool, the Huge storage is a great benefit for customers and hey I do also see some merit in searching v/s sorting mail. But then I do have the same terrible affixation that haunts all geeks or ex-geeks who suffering from a constant need to try out new-technology. Sufficiently warned? Here comes the rant:

When it comes to using webmail systems - despite all the features thrown at you - or the minimalist-feature (Is that an oxymoron?) one thing I shall not compromise on is the ability to receive the mail sent to me on time - and the ability to send out email consistently from my mail account. That is a requirement as fundamental as a car-shopper looking for cars on a plethora of features ranging from heated seats to GPS navigation... but just hoping for the car to go from point A to point B when required by the driver. Simple. Just like I dont want to spend a sleepless night worrying about if my car would start the next morning when I need it to drive to work - similarly I dont want to worry about if my email would have reached the intended recepient - as intended on time.

Now in the last 2-3 months, I have come up with solid reasons on why I can build a case on why Gmail Sucks::

Losing my mail - while I type a mssg and click send - to find instead a "login expired" message! A quick MSNSearch says there are others who have had the same problems too!
Sometimes - I can just not plain login. Instead I get a mssg on the screen that says "Oops"! Okie Britney you have a fan at the G! team alrite! Yes - they did it again. More folks with same problems have had this too. I know Error Code 32 or Error code 00zhgy0 are worse - but what kind of an error message goes... "Oops!" ?
Quite often (read intermittently) - emails sent out from a Gmail accnt (mine or others) takes 2-3 days to reach my inbox. And I thought Hotmail, Yahoo were competition! Apparently not - Gmail seems to compete instead with USPS! Fedex/UPS would ofcourse have an ontime overnight delivery - so no competition there.

Before I wrote this rant I did a test over the last month... A simple Ping-Pong test. PING: First I would send someone the email and PONG - call them up after 10 mins to ask - "Hey seen my email yet?". 9 out of 10 times the response would be "Why email me when you were going to call me?" but then every once in a while - that email would be lost ... and arrive 3 days later! A look at the email headers to check routing - was enough proof. The bottle neck seems to happen at the Gmail Proxy: "Sent (from gmail accnt) on Sept 19th... received by Gmail Proxy on Sept 21st.... received by (corporate mail) on Sept 21st." 21st?? Thats 3 days! Atleast 5 times before in the past 3 months I know this has happened - and about 3 times my message was never delivered. Never Delivered? Hullo - USPS atleast gets my packages delivered on time - maybe its in a bad shape (if you bought furniture from Overstock.com you know what I am talking abt) - but atleast it is delivered.

Anyhoo - That is just unacceptable. And for any comments that are going to respond to this rant and defend about the tag "BETA" on Gmail - I tell you - its been on Beta for a yr or more now - and you'd think sending out mails is something Gmail would have gotten fixed by now ..... instead of pointing me to ads when I read my mail!

Money Order roommate Scam meets Travellers Check Scams!

Pradeep U.N. — Fri, 09 Sep 2005 21:03:00 GMT

At first it just does not make sense. Something as mundane as getting a roommate in (it's after they come in - that the problem arises) - has a scam associated with it.

I have been looking for roomies for my place for a month and advertising in the usual places - craigslist/roomates.com etc.

My past experience when I came to the US and looking for a room to rent was not atypical. The conversation with the landlord went pretty much like this:

"Hello. I just came over for my MBA at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh and would like to find a place to stay for my 2 yrs here."

"Great. Congrats. Awesome school. Do you have a Social Security Number - so I can do a credit check and everything will be smooth."

"Well. I just came to the US. It takes a few more weeks before I can get a SSN. And there will be no credit history since i came only a wk ago!"

"But you need a credit history for us to lend you the room..."

"But I wont have one. That is the point!"

"Ah, well. Sorry about that. It is our policy to...."

So while I understand the landlord's perspective, it wasnt helping me too much. Anyway I did resolve to help other internationals/immigrants should they be facing similar situations.

Following is the Story as it happened

So a month ago when I posted my "Room to rent" ad and I got an email from "someone in the UK" who was going to make their trip to the US on a contract and had to spend a few months here - (perfect market for my month-month furnished room lease deal) - It was my time to help..... or so I thought.

After talks online and email exchanges - the person sounded friendly and I agreed to the deal. Then I get similar stories from 4 more ppl plus another common them:

They all wanted to send me "money" towards the deposit by money orders/travellers checks from their "agent in the US" and for amts more than was necessary and have me send them "Cash" for their travel to the US. Sure enough - that smelled Fishy.

A simple MSN search (notice I have begun swaying away from using the G-word as a verb for websearches) provided me with a craigslist popular scam definition and not to mention the USPS moneyorder scam alerts webpage.

These scams were popular at EBAY and UBID but now they are in the rental/roommate market. The scam works this way in the rental market:

a) Person from international country mails you abt interest and gets your interest in various ways.

b) They want to pay the deposit (Which is what you want too) immediately and "book the place"

c) They send you twice the required amount from a US "agent"

d) They request you to mail the extra sent back to them as cash or some form of payment which is legit (Note that the letter that they send has no signature or letterhead - very fishy!!!)

e) Once you do that - your cashing of the checks/money orders will be deemed counterfeit after a few wks or a month and you have just paid off for nothing!

Anyways I just wanted to go the mile and see how long these ppl would go. Do bear in mind - I was a still a little cognizant of a few rotten apples spoiling the basket concept - so I did give them the benefit of doubt and asked them for Fax docs of their passports, visas, employment contracts etc. Once those were refused with all kinds of excuses. It was obvious it was a scam. So I just played along..... and just yesterday was fedexed 5 AMEX Travellers checks for $500 each with hologram and watermark et al! Quite authentic looking.

Well with AMEX just across the road here at Redmond - it wasnt long to confirm that those were counterfiet.

On the bright side - it was a great learning experience abt going the whole nine yards on these Money-order-scams and knowing how ppl just cheat on the "goodness" of others.

The flip-side was ofcourse that I went without roomies sharing my house-payments burden for a month - but hey the learning experience was priceless.

And now ofcourse I find a website that runs on scamming these scammers - You go Gal! So I am forwarding all my email threads to her for her collection :) Trivial pursuits of fun :)

Comcast Cable: 4 Hr ETA time window and STILL late!

Pradeep U.N. — Wed, 17 Aug 2005 02:14:00 GMT

I remember having a conversation I had with a fellow colleague 2 wks ago when I had scheduled my Comcast Cable setup for my home.

The Comcast guys said that they'd arrive at my place between 12noon and 4 pm and that if they could not make it on time - then I would get a 20$ deposit to my account.

Well - how many ppl do manage to get that 20$ credit I asked my colleague ... and rephrased that to ... How can anyone have a 4 hr time window, live in the neighborhood and STILL ever be late???

2 wks later - today Guess wat - its 4:15pm today and the comcast guy hasnt yet showed up! Yes - I know - it is unbeleivable.