Its been a good productive month for me in terms of my personal reading. I was a little bit behind in my reading list last month and I had to do something about my time management. I fixed up a time everyday for reading now and I guess I am improving in my reading habit.  

Books I have read recently

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: Thanks to my colleague Srinivasan G for giving me the hard copy of this book.

http://www.amazon.com/Five-Dysfunctions-Team-Leadership-Fable/dp/0787960756

The Four Obsessions of an extra ordinary executive: Thanks to Venkat H for the book. After reading "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team", we are obsessed with the author's writings.

http://www.amazon.com/Four-Obsessions-Extraordinary-Executive-Leadership/dp/0787954039  

Excellent Books. A Must read for people who are into managing people/teams.  

Games Indians Play: Why We Are the Way We Are:

http://www.amazon.com/Games-Indians-Play-Why-Are/dp/0670999407

Thanks to Sendhil for suggesting and lending this book. Excellent Book and it analyzed the games we (Indians) play in our day to day life. After reading this, I have started following couple of things as whenever I try to bye-pass  some thing, immediately his comments is coming into my mind. A Must Read for every Indian.

Goal II - It's not Luck:
http://www.amazon.com/Its-Not-Luck-Eliyahu-Goldratt/dp/0884271153/ref=pd_sim_b_1/104-7407102-5101525

When I saw an Indian edition of this book, I purchased it immediately (I have the US Edition of the Part I). Though GOAL II is not as interesting as GOAL I, it talked about the importance of thought process and how ALEX ROGO was able to get thru the critical situation by using it effectively. Good Read.  

In Pipeline

Working Effectively with Legacy code

http://www.amazon.com/Working-Effectively-Legacy-Robert-Martin/dp/0131177052/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-7407102-5101525?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1183129987&sr=1-1  

The 360 Degree Leader: Developing Your Influence from Anywhere in the Organization

http://www.amazon.com/360-Degree-Leader-Developing-Organization/dp/0785260927/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-7407102-5101525?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1183129737&sr=1-1  

You're in Charge, Now What?: The 8 Point Plan

http://www.amazon.com/Youre-Charge-Now-What-Point/dp/1400048664/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-7407102-5101525?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1183129778&sr=1-1  

:)

I was using SIFY Broadband at home for the last 8-9 months. Initially I was pretty impressed with their service and whenever I speak to my friends or colleagues, I used to recommend them saying their service is far better than other service providers.

Everything went well till I got a problem with connecting to their local gateway last month. After couple of calls to the call center, finally a Service Engineer came and attended the problem after a week’s time. He told me that my LAN Card was the problem and asked me to change. Since there was no other option (and I had faith L), I asked a Hardware Engineer to come and check the problem. He tried with a new LAN Card and even after that we were getting the same problem.

I called up the SIFY Service center again and told them the problem and a Service Engineer came and again said the problem was with my LAN Card. My HARDWARE Engineer said, there were no problems and I got into a position where I could not do anything with the broadband connection.

I got frustrated and moved to AIRTEL. With the same LAN Card, I am able to connect and it’s much faster than the SIFY Broadband.

What I did not like with SIFY was, they are charging RS-50/- per month for the Cable maintenance and when there is a problem with their cable, they do not know how to troubleshoot the problem (or not ready to accept its there problem). In the whole process, what has happened is “I did not have any connectivity at home for more than a month and paid RS-1000/- for the new installation”.

I hope I will not have any issues with my new Broadband connection.