Iftar: Breaking the Fast

This month, some of our friends and fellow co-workers are observing Ramadan. Muslims all across the globe take part in this month of fasting by not eating or drinking anything from dawn until sunset.

Fasting is meant to teach the person patience, sacrifice and humility. Ramadan is a time to fast for the sake of God, and to offer more prayer than usual. During Ramadan Muslims ask forgiveness for past sins, pray for guidance into the future, ask for help in refraining from everyday evils and try to purify themselves through self-restraint and good deeds. - From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

During this month of observance, our office hours have shifted slightly, but the lives of our friends and co-workers have shifted a bit more. They wake with their families early in the morning and take part in Suhoor, which is their morning meal before sun up. In the evenings, the fast is broken by Iftar. This meal is often done as a community, and traditionally a date is the first thing to be consumed.

The photos above are from an Iftar Feast with VTEAM members in Lahore.

The end of Ramadan is marked by Eid-ul-Fitr, and since it's based on the first site of the new moon, the dates change each year (more on that a little later). This year the Eid holiday will fall on October 1 - October 3, 2008.


Tomara


My reading mentioned that the fast is broken with dates and water or sometimes Rooh Afza (which appears to be some sort of fruit drink), but nowhere did it mention Pepsi :-). I believe, that from the markings on the bottle (the cresent moon), it is probably a popular beverage during this time as well.

Learning Urdu

While my progress may be slow, I am still attempting to learn a few Urdu words per week and will continue to share some of my first words and phrases.

yes: jee
yes: haan (showing willingness)

good/fine/okay: umdah (ok is also common)

sure: zaroor

thank you: shukria

you are welcome: khush aa'm deed

--Shannon

The Bomb at Marriott and the vteams office we never opened

A few years ago, I almost opened a vteams development center in Islamabad. Very close to where the Marriott is located. The reason was coffee.

Marriott is the only hotel in Islamabad which serves half decent espresso. Had I opened the development center, I could walk up to the hotel, have my coffee and walk back. Kill two birds with one stone. Get a good jolt and a good walk.

By the way, Islamabad is a nice city to walk in. Not that I am going to walk about on constitution avenue any time soon. Thanks to our friendly neighbors from Afganistan.

Although the hotel is completely destroyed, I admire the owner's resolve to rebuild it. When he does, I will probably open a center in Islamabad too. This time it will not be about coffee alone.

Lunch in Lahore

I received some new photos the end of last week from the Lahore office, and couldn't wait to post them on our blog. Take a look.

Elusive programmers in their natural state

The Subway Team

Tomara

Team Lead, Developer, and Keeper of Photos: Haseeb Ahmed

I have had the opportunity to spend some time online with Haseeb Ahmed over the last few weeks. He has been very instrumental in our blogging efforts, since apparently he is "keeper of photos" at the Lahore office. Who doesn't love a picture blog?

Usman and Haseeb

Since I am in Phoenix, Arizona, and Haseeb in Lahore, Pakistan, I thought I would send some questions via email, so we could find out a little more about him.

He was quick to reply.

Haseeb (pictured on the right, above) was born in DOHA (QATAR), and at the age of seven he moved to Pakistan (home of his ancestors). They were anxious for his arrival since he was the first boy in the family.

He started programming during his graduating year (about 8 years ago), and he excelled at C++. Haseeb's first job outside of school was VC++. He worked on this platform for about two and a half years. Currently, his specialty is UML and OOP.

When asked about his strong points, Haseeb responded, "I am a good team lead, team player, and I know how to work with my guys." He also mentioned that his weak point would have to be, "I am straight forward."

When it comes to work, Haseeb writes that the best part of his job is communicating with the client as well as project planning. He is currently the team lead for Track 2 of the Subway team. "Subway is the best VTEAM here." boasts Haseeb, "Their work process is well defined. The environment is different from the other teams. We have fun."

Outside of work, Haseeb enjoys hanging around with his friends and coworkers, going shopping, and travel.

In July, Haseeb traveled with other members of the Subway team to northern areas of Pakistan (you may remember some of the pictures from an earlier blog). "I will never forget our trip to the Northern Areas," noted Haseeb, "thanks to Mark who sent us for that extremely thrilling day, when we were headed to Lalazar. Oh, the track... I could hardly open my eyes in the four wheeler!"



Tomara


Thanks, Haseeb, for taking the time to answer my questions and putting up with my obnoxious instant messaging habits.

Cell Phone Woes

Yesterday, I lost my cell phone. I wasn't too upset because I can't use it most of the time anyway. My service sucks. Sprint sucks.

I lost my cell phone, and decided I better call and report it missing. While I have plenty of minutes to spare (did I mention my service sucks?), I did worry about the possibility of someone making international calls.

The gentleman was kind enough to place a restriction on my phone, prohibiting is use. I proceeded to ask him who I needed to talk to to cancel service with them altogether. Of course it was another department, and he transferred me.

I have had Sprint for 2 years, since I moved to Phoenix. When I lived in Northern Phoenix my service was great, but when I moved south to Laveen (about 19 miles from my last residence) I no longer had service. I can occasionally talk on my cell phone: if I am standing in my driveway, facing east, and balanced carefully on my left foot. Sprint considers it good.

I have called multiple times to complain and to see about cancelling service. Since I currently have two phones on my plan, they were going to charge me $200/phone. I really didn't want to pay it, but yesterday I did.

After transferred to the department that handles cancellation, I sat as patiently as one can sit, while the representative tried to sell me everything under the sun. It usually says "sucker" all over my face, but I was on a mission... I was cancelling.

After I finally made it 100% clear that I was not going to buy ANYTHING, and I was indeed going to pay 200 bucks per phone to cancel my plan, he put me on hold. I was on hold probably close to half an hour. I can only assume the reason I was hold so long is that he was hoping I would tire and hang up, so they could cancel the transaction.

Thankfully, I found enough patience to stay on the line and be done with them once and for all. I will never do business with them again.

Who's the sucker now?


Tomara



I recently read that Sprint has gotten into trouble for making customers pay to get out of their contracts early (California). Who knows when this will spill over into Arizona and the rest of the US.

Learning Urdu - one small bit at a time

Having daily interaction with our offices in Pakistan made me curious to not only learn more about culture but the language (Urdu) as well. I thought others might be interested in learning some of the basics along with me.

How are you?: Kya haal hey (informal); Aap kysay hain (formal)

yes: jee

no: nahi

thank you: shukriya


Personally, I have started with only a handful of words and phrases at a time, but it has been an enjoyable experience so far!

-Shannon

A Motorcycle Trip to Canada

Last month, Mark made a trip to Canada on his motorcycle to meet with Afzal.

Pictured from left to right Mark Mian and Afzal Sharif

They posed for a couple of friendly shots. Then Afzal tried to be sly and take off on Mark's bike. No one has seen or heard from him since.

Just kidding!

Afzal is currently taking care of things at our Lahore office, and will return to Canada in a couple of months with his family.

Mark is pictured here with Hamad Hakim, the owner of Techalutions. He is not only a vteams customer (seasonal), but he is also Mark's first cousin.

Tomara

Manila Here We Come!

Our new office, located in Makati City, is set to open October 1, 2008. I am excited to see the new faces that will make up our Manila Office, and I hope to see this beautiful city myself someday soon (hint hint).

A new developer coming aboard our Manila office, Brian Dimarucot, sent me a link full of amazing photos. Check out this slide show!

Makati, Ortigas, and Baywalk Manila, Philippines

With VTEAMS Manila underway, who knows where else we will pop up in the near future.
I have some ideas.
Tomara

Sometimes its better not to get vteams

Today we lost an opportunity to do business with a dream customer. I personally gained a special kind of satisfaction from this loss. The kind that comes when you foil a disaster before it happens.

The whole thing played out in our first (and last) 30 minute sales teleconference earlier today.

Since we had done our homework right, we opened the call with the declaration that the biggest success factor for them [in their specific situation] would be to have a dedicated person (in house) to manage the outsourcing and the work done by vteams.

Not having such a person or having such a person but not full time, would lead to all kinds of issues in the short and long term. After the declaration, we went back and forth with some questions.

In the end, they were convinced that they should not outsource their work as yet. They didn't have the right staff (in house) to manage the outsourcing.

We are glad that we were part of this realization.


If you have at least 4 in house developers and a backlog of projects, vteams is a great solution for you. But only if you have someone on your team to interface with the team at all times. This person cannot be an overloaded multitasker. This has to be someone whose sole responsibility is to ensure that there is enough work at all times.


A 4 person vteam is a like a plane with 4 engines. Your projects are like passengers. The plane won't get anywhere until a pilot flies it. The pilot comes from your team. Or if you are a small company owner, you are not only the customer, but also the pilot.

The Subway Team's Trip

In July and August, the Subway team broke into 3 groups and headed to northern Pakistan.

Group 1 (July 11, 2008): Amir, Atif, Haseeb, Ishaq, and Usman
Group 2 (July 25, 2008): Ayaz, Mubeen, Nadeem, Rashid, and Zulfiqar
Group 3 (August 8, 2008): Asad, Farhan, Majid, Mubashar, Azeem, and Rahim

While I would like to add the specifics of the trip, I am going to let the photos below do the talking.

Look for details in a later post.
Tomara

Customer Chargeback Fraud. Thank You Paypal

A few months ago, a customer signed up with a new vteam for only 3 weeks. He complained that we had not given him the right programmer and he felt no reason to continue. Fair enough.

A few ago he called me on my cell phone and demanded that we give him his money back. He said that the programmer was not up to the mark and wasted his time. I reminded him that he interviewed the guy out of many and he made the selection himself. At this point he brought up something I have never heard before. Not from a client.

He said that he paid with a credit card and he was going to file a chargeback. He offered me to just refund the money because if he did file a chargeback, it would hurt our merchant ratings. I hated the black mail but appreciated the opportunity. You stay in business long enough, you hear the word "Chargeback" but you never get such a nicely packaged blackmail.

I figured we were already cheated by him. Why not at least save a chargeback claim. So we tried to process his refund. The refund window with Paypal had lapsed. I called the guy again and got his bank account info. We just wired him the money.

Next business day he filed a chargeback. I could not believe what just happened.

Anyway, good thing our outgoing wire clearly mentioned this payment as a refund. Paypal came around and released the chargeback.

Phew.

Outage, Again?

Yesterday I spoke with Rodney Daugherty from Digital Solutions. He complained about the power outages at our Lahore office. He mentioned that outages are common this time of the year, and he can almost set his watch by them.

Rodney has had his own VTEAM for close to three years, so I consider him quite the authority.

Rodney needed some files for his client. These files were to be uploaded before the end of the day. Luckily, one of his developers stuck out the outage, and uploaded the necessarily files for his client.

I spoke with Mark later in the evening and he said we have two backup generators and we're in the process of acquiring two more. He asked that I speak with Afzal to get the specifics on the outage so we can see what's going on.

Apparently the problem was due to an internet outage and service was down for a few hours.

I will relay the information to Rodney.

Tomara

I think we are lucky to have people working for us who are willing to put out that extra effort, by hanging around and waiting for the internet to reconnect while everyone else has gone for the day... Thank you.