LG Incite, Bestbuy and finally new iPhone

I got sick of having blackberry pearl since last 2 years, but was not having any alternate unless I buy an unlocked phone. I wanted to buy a smartphone and after visiting Bestbuy store and browsing through their phone buyer's guide, I decided to go for LG Incite as I did not want to spend 200$ for iPhone and on top of that $30 for the data plan mandated for iPhone, but wanted to have the iPhone like features.
I had the phone for 1 week, I don't know why but I was not really motivated to use this phone. Somehow, look and feel was not very attractive, user interface was not so exciting, screen was pathetic and it was looking like an old phone since day one. No wonder why everybody at home was not so excited by seeing this phone? Later I figured out that everybody wanted to play games on phone, daughter seemed to have peer pressure - another twist. I was also not very enthusiastic about this phone.

Somehow I waited for the weekend to visit to bestbuy store and return this phone. It was Sunday evening 4 PM. I was sitting with in-store customer service professional to exchange this with iPhone. She mentioned that there is an exclusive Reward Zone members event tonight between 7:30 to 9:30 PM and I will get some bonus points and discounts if I come at that time. I decided to come back at that time for the exchange. Holy cow, Bestbuy system had a glitch in the system and it seems they don't allow exchange of other phones with iPhone and for every such exchange, they need to contact their customer service center which was closed at 8 PM on Sunday. They asked me to come the next day. Ouch, I not only need to spend an extra hour but loose the bonus because customer service is closed. Later, they told me that bouns is only for new customers and I don't qualify for that. Bullshit. People were having different kind of opinions there and it seems that nobody had any clue. I decided to leave without wasting even an extra minute and visit the next day. Finally, I got the iPhone next day.

I am amazed to see the features it has. Everybody at home seems to be very happy except me as now I hardly have the phone with me :-).

Somehow bestbuy customer service experience was not very encouraging, but at the end I feel happy because I not only have better phone but also the happy family :-)

Is US most favorable place for IT Professionals

I tend to disagree with the argument that US is a most favorable place for IT professionals, particularly the way things are happening in US. I would like to discuss this in context of Indian IT professionals. First of all, US government is discouraging Indian IT professionals by imposing hell lot of restrictions in issuing work visa. This month I was shocked to see the current US Visa Bulletin pushes the EB2 category based Green card dates from 15 Feb 2004 to 01 Jan 2000. Secondly, it is unfair to disallow qualified Indian IT professional to work in a company who has received TARP money. There are umpteen instances, posted on the net, where Indian IT professionals who went to India for vacations have been deported at the port of entry while entering into US. Thirdly, in spite of request from various technology giants to increase H1-B cap, US government seems to be unfavorable to honor the request. One may argue that one side where Americans are losing jobs, why there is a need for increasing H1-B cap? My sincere argument is that as part of global economy, every one has to be competitive whether it is an individual or an organization. If US companies fail to get qualified people, they will lose out to rest of the world. India is no more behind when it comes to developing software and now India is progressing fast in developing products. Indians are getting treated unfavorably in US and my sincere request to Indian IT professionals is to work back home, flourish Indian economy and feel proud of it.