Canceling Vonage phone...

Vonage... the name conjures up so many good things in life. 1 low flat monthly fee, the ability to take your phone anywhere, no hidden charges...really!

However, for the last one year we have had trouble with the service. If we are downloading data from Internet, voice quality on Vonage phone goes south (well I realize that both data and voice are sharing same Internet link to the home). And sometimes, the voice quality will go bad for no reason (we have all read news reports about cable operators and ISPs giving some special treatment to Vonage ;-)).

Anyhow, I finally did cancel the Vonage service due to it being not compatible with the home security system we just installed. When I called 800 number, I was quickly transferred to a customer representative who very politely handled the call. Upon mentioning my reason, he referred to a website "alarm.com" which provided home security service/products that are compatible with Vonage (interesting!). Anyhow, when I asked how much I will be returned back for the service I did not use for this month (Vonage takes payment at the beginning of the month for the service to be provided for that month)... he told me zero! Vonage does not pro-rate the monthly charges and may be it is mentioned in their not-so-brief contract (an industry standard BTW). Now the amount owed to me was insignificant but I found it a little odd that a company will charge for a service that it did not really provide. So much for good things in life.

Chrome enhancement

In an earlier blog, I had mentioned about a Chrome enhancement: To be able to view the content from 2 or multiple tabs simultaneously. This would be helpful if you need to compare data from multiple Chrome windows.

Today, I'll mention another enhancement which I believe is equally powerful but on a priority scale I would give this one more priority.

If anyone of you has gone through experience of crashed/malfunctioning hard-drive and have a new hard-drive installed or have an existing hard-drive reimaged, you would probably understand this pain point: you lose the bookmarks of your browser quite a few of which you very likely aggregated over a period of time.

I know one can try to extract the bookmarks from the old hard drive... but how about the following:

Since most people using Chrome anyways have a gmail account, how about Chrome having a facility to upload the bookmarks (could be done automagically as well) and have a facility to download them to Chrome as well. This has multiple benefits:

1) In case of crash/reimage (as mentioned above), you can restore your bookmarks by literally doing one mouse click.

2) Let's say you are working on a different computer and need to access your bookmarks, you would have them readily available. (provided there is an option to delete the bookmarks when you are done without interfering with existing bookmarks on the Chrome that your friend is using.

3) (Google would be happy this)... Google already targets ads on gmail based on your personal emails. They could also target ads based on URLs (or their content) that you have bookmarked.

Seems to be win-win....

Bluetooth for cordless phones

By making driving while holding cellphone illegal in California, the lawmakers have obviously given a big push to the use of bluetooth headsets that have pretty much become a common sight now. And honestly even though some of us may gripe about spending money in buying a headset (including yours truly), the benefits of hands-free talking are almost instantly felt. So far so good.

What happens when the same user is using a cordless phone at home? (As regards to why users may prefer using a cordless phone at home versus their cell phones should be a no-brainer; talk to anyone who ever dared to exceed their day-time minutes and thereby incurring the wrath of cell phone company's per minute charges). Coming back to the original question, the same user who is used to using a bluetooth headset while talking on cellphone would want the same ease of use while talking on cordless phones. One would almost think that the cordless phone manufacturers would have incorporated Bluetooth in their gigantic (relative to a cell phone) handsets.

Its time for a reality check....

Panasonic (world #1 in cordless phone sales)

None of its cordless phones have bluetooth capability. However, they do sell a model which allows one to "link" one's cell phone to the cordless phone over bluetooth so at home you would use only one phone ... your cordless phone. However, the phones handsets do not have bluetooth capability for pairing with a bluetooth handsfree.

http://www.panasonic.com/consumer_electronics/telephones_central/bluetooth_phones/default.asp

Vtech (World #2)

They are doing much better with their high-end models having a bluetooth capability for both linking with cell phone and also pairing with a bluetooth headset. It seems as of now this feature is available in only 3 models (I am assuming that the cost of adding a bluetooth transciever in a cordless phone will only be marginal considering that the technology is fairly standardized and as such I'd expect bluetooth to be a must-have feature in all cordless phones). Vtech currently provides Bluetooth capability in only 2 models:

http://www.vtechphones.com/vtechui/store/dsp_products_list.cfm?parent=23644

Gigaset aka Siemens (World #3)

They seem to be doing the best of all by having multiple phones supporting Bluetooth but I must say that even though their phones look the sleekest, they ccompensate their strength in design by creating a technology confusion... have a look at their website and you will see acronyms like ECO DECT (I had heard DECT but what the heck is ECO DECT), HDSP, HSP....

Though I am by no means a professional marketeer, how do they imagine the potential buyers of cordless phones understanding and appreciating this complex terminology. Even though the observation is definitely not new by any means, I fail to understand why companies fail to empathize with their customers.... please talk to us in a language that we speak, understand and appreciate and hey, we will reciprocate by making more money for you!

Uniden (World #4)

Let's not go there....

How not to organize a retail store

If you have visited Kenneth Cole store in Valley Fair Mall, San Jose you may probably know what I am talking about. Out of so many times I have visited the store, I have hardly bought anything. Why? For one, they do not seem to have any variety in any of the products they carry. There are so few designs, so few choices that even when my catches a unique design and I want to look for more, I see none which is a big disappointment. Second, the store is organized in a somewhat haphazard manner which confuses the customer. Women's clothes are at the entrance and then again at the back of the store, mixed with men's clothes. Then there is no clear section for trousers, full-sleeves or half-sleeves shirts and mostly clothes are hung so close together that they do not offer a quick sneak preview to the browsing customer. I love Kenneth Cole brand as I have been really happy with however many products I have purchased from them. The brand is strong but the product display really lacks character.

On the contrary, the Armani Exchange store in the mall is a complete opposite. Even thouh AX has only roughly half of the space that KC has, AX store is organized in a much clearer and cleaner manner which provides for a good customer browsing (and hence customer purchase) experience. I have also noticed that AX store gets much more fashionable items (and replenishes them at a faster rate) as compared to KC.

I am sure KC will do a turnaround some day.... at least if someone is keeping a watch on the store sales. As for me, I will continue visiting the store hoping to see a better KC.

Unsympathetic news reader?

While watching report of Air France tragedy on CNN, I noticed an odd thing; the news reader on the left side seems to have a little smile on her face. I don't know what was running through her mind at that time but the expression on her face was quite disrespectful, to not only the people who lost their lives in this terrible tragedy but to their families and friends as well. I hope such behavior is not repeated.

Air france tragedy

As we have all heard by now, Air France went down in Atlantic few days back on its way to Paris from Rio. 228 people all dead. Was it bad weather... complete failure of electrical systems, it seems no one will ever know as from the media reports it appears that it is highly unlikely to locate the black box considering that it may be at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean or stuck in the mountainous region in that part part of the Atlantic. This made me think why don't they make black box to be floatable. I googled it and came across the following:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090603083335AAxBlmS

Particularly, I found following reply from a person named "propman" quite relevant:

------

Cockpit Voice Recorders (CVR) and Flight Data Recorders (FDR) would certainly be easier to locate if they floated but there are serious engineering problems to overcome. The recorders are usually located in the rearmost compartment, near the centerline of the fuselage and as such is surrounded by the structure of the aircraft. This is done to provide the recorders with as much mechanical protection as possible in a crash. The recorders can also record up to several dozen (in the case of FDRs) channels of information. This means the electrical connectors are very large and require a bit of work sometimes to disconnect. The recorders are also big and heavy. 

In order to separate the recorder from the aircraft would require some mechanical means to eject the unit from the aircraft during the beginning of the impact event, before the tail structure became distorted. The “Launching Charge” must not present any danger of starting a fire and be powerful enough to push the recorder a safe distance from the plane. Think of an scaled down ejection seat, only pushing against a heavy steel box. The box would still be heavy since it would need to suvive the crash in case it didn't eject. The electrical connectors must also release instantly, completely and reliably. Perhaps just cutting the wires with a squib charge.

Now we have to get the box to float. Floatation foam is simple enough, but the shear volume required would make an already unwieldy box even more difficult. Perhaps a self inflating bag, like a life vest? That may work. And if the box is floating, an Emergency Locator Beacon (ELT) would assist in locating it. The recorders are already fitted with a device for finding it if it sinks. This device is called an Underwater Locator Beacon (ULB) and is NOT part of the recorder but is separate and located on the outside of the recorder case attached by brackets.

There we have it: Recorders that jettison from aircraft during impact and float.

So why don’t we have them?

The answer is MONEY.

To design such a system and maintain it would not only cost a large amount of money, but that cost would provide a disproportionate cost-benefit. That is to say it’s not worth it. The purpose of the recorders is to assist in crash investigation but they are not the only source of information and as such are nice to have but not absolutely necessary.. Besides, there have been recorders that have been recoverable in water crashes by other means. Very few have been ‘lost’.

Perhaps in the future we may have a palm sized combination CVR-FDR that weighs mere ounces and be mounted on top of the rudder under plastic film.... 

Hmmmm……Maybe……..But not today.

----------

LTTE is gone. What Mahinda Rajapaksa must do now...

It is time for the world to congratulate Sri Lankans for having taken out LTTE, a home grown group of separatists who had used terror and suicide killing to further their agenda. The approach of using terrorism as a means of achieving an independent state has seldom worked (it worked in case of Nepal Maoists whose main agenda was to give equal rights for lower-caste people). To understand more about Maoists and its movement refer to these (BBC, Time) links.

In any case, at this juncture in Sri Lanka it is important that President Rajapaksa works towards providing a equitable life for Tamilians in Sri Lanka otherwise it could be a matter of time when someone fills in the shoes of Prabhakaran. 

Name of countries and the radical groups that are known to use violence

Country   Radical Group   Why Status

Peru Shining Path  Marxism Ongoing

Nepal Maoists Marxism Currently form the official govt. of Nepal

Sri Lanka  LTTE Separate State Eradicated

Columbia        ELN Marxism Ongoing

....

Popular phrases by profession...

What do people belonging to a particular profession/situation say most often :-)

A Witness: I don't recall...

A Manager: It depends...

A Lawyer: I object...

Design Gotchas

Apple is known for its cool, innovative and user-friendly designs and rightly so: iPods and iPhones have revolutionized the otherwise lackluster electronic consumer product market. However, it is equally surprising when a design conscious company makes some very obvious design blunders. I recently bought an iMac and as much as I was amazed by the beauty of the product, I was disappointed to see the extra-ordinarily short keyboard and mouse wires. Even if I place the desktop at an arm length, the mouse wire comes really short. Sometimes I like to place the keyboard on the tray, in which case the keyboard wire falls short. Honestly, this is frustrating. Moreover, I was hoping to not get a laptop-sized keyboard with a Desktop computer. Maybe they could have packaged an ergonomically designed keyboard with Bluetooth (so that I can reduce the wire clutter on the table).

I am reminded of another product design annoyance from an otherwise design conscious company - Ikea. Ikea never stops to amaze the new shopper setting a step in their store and even for the regular shoppers it is a pleasant experience looking at the diverse and beautifully arranged room settings. On my first visit several years back, while I was enjoying the unique experience, I remember almost feeling disoriented in the big showroom; easy navigation in a store with large real estate is a rare phenomenon. In any case, the design gotcha that was most glaringly obvious was when I went to the check-out counter. The conveyor belt was quite narrow and it was difficult to place even modestly small items on the belt. It could be a small thing but it was definitely a bit annoying to try manage putting all the products on the belt. If you have been to Ikea, I'd be interested in knowing your thoughts.

1st Customer of HYC

Today, I drove my first customer of Help-You-Carry. She was an old lady living in San Jose. She had gotten information about HYC from Los Gatos Senior Center and she wanted to utilize the driving+shopping service, as she couldnt drive herself. My wife had accompanied me this time and that helped: the lady was using a walker and having my wife helped in overall logistics. Also, while the lady was shopping in the Target store, my wife and I did some of our own shopping. Overall it took about 3+ hrs from the time we left our home to the time when we were back.  It felt really good to be able to help someone!

Does California owe money to you?

Heard this on a local news channel:

Go to the following site and enter your name/city information to see if you are owed some money (at least I wasn't)

http://scoweb.sco.ca.gov/UCP/

Thank you Apple for listening!

I have had the iPhone for more than a year now and I was experience dropped calls very often. More often than note, my phone will go to voicemail and I will hear the voicemail beep roughly about 10-15mins after the call was placed. Obviously, my wife was not happy about this. But I carried on with my iphone hoping Apple will fix the "minor" glitch. And so it did.

http://www.apple.com/iphone/softwareupdate/

Amongst the list of new updates, Apple mentions at the end of the list:

 "Decrease in call setup failures and dropped calls"

Thank you Apple for listening!

Volunteer Lawyers

I just came to know about this wonderful volunteer program that provides 20 min free legal consultation. Its called "Lawyers in the Library" program.  It runs out of King Library in San Jose. There are other locations as well. The following link also contains pointers to similar volunteer efforts.

Check out:

http://www.sjlibrary.org/about/locations/king/lawyers.htm

Counter intuitive!

As many of us already know, California State is in deep red. At a high level, I wonder why the 8th biggest economy in the world is $41 billion in deficit. Sure we had the housing bubble, reduced corporation tax due to lesser profits.... but does that all add up to $41 billion. I am curious to know the reason for the shortfall. I quickly googled it but have not yet been able to find any analysis on the issue. So, I turned to the source of information:

http://www.dof.ca.gov/budgeting/budget_faqs/

There is a lot of information and I will be analyzing it in coming days but for starters lets look at the sheet that details of the distribution of California State employees for different functions.

http://www.ebudget.ca.gov/pdf/BudgetSummary/BS_SCH4.pdf

Number of "Executives" is proposed to increase from 14,303 to 14,787 from 2007 to 2009 (a 3.3% increase).

Number of "Resources" (a very vague term) is proposed to increase from 14,509 to 15,616 (a 7.6% increase).

During the same time the number of K-12 teachers is proposed to decrease from 2903 to 2848 (a 1.8% decrease).

Now, when the state is going through a financial crisis, I am wondering why we are creating more "Executive" level positions. Moreover, I am curious to understand what functions "Resourcing" covers. Decreasing the number of teachers, quite unfortunately, seems to be the easiest thing to do but I wonder if anyone considers the long-term impact of such decisions.

What is Leadership?

Leadership is a loaded word; it means so many different things to different people that often the essence of the word is lost in lofty definitions. My tryst with leadership comes from my job as a manager at my workplace where day in and day out I am in situations where someone looks up to me to make a call. I may not know the right answer; in fact there may be none but that is where the leadership gets defined. I not only need to make the decision but I need to get everyone on board with it. Leadership is about passion of one becoming passion of many and that I believe defines the essence of being a true leader. Leadership is about character and integrity... it is about having the backbone, accepting when you make a mistake and also sticking by your call which you firmly believe in even if you meet with resistance. Leadership is about inspiring the backbenchers, making them believe they also can. 

I embrace leadership more naturally now than I used to earlier and it is fun!

Do you like your Martinis up or over?

Ok... so I started the bartending class this week :-) It is an absolute fun being behind the bar but it is not as easy as I thought it would be! I know how to make around 30 drinks and the variations of them thereof. Learning the lingo is a big part of the job e.g., when someone says give me a drink "mex style" they mean add 1/2 ounce of Tequila in the drink, and then there are terms like against the wall, with a little english... I know what they are asking for. I hope to learn the skill by next month... and then I'll be looking for internships!  

Why Apple TV does not sell well?

First, I love Apple TV. Because of it, I have been able to listen to music more often, entertain guests with funny youtube videos, and see long forgotten photo albums. However, for the all good things Apple TV does, there are so many others that it doesn't do so well, which probably explains why the product didn't take off in the market.

1. Apple TV has only supports HDMI and Component Video ports for connecting to TV; older TVs have neither of them. Just by that, the market reach of the AppleTV reduces substantially. 

2. Oversimplistic remote. Apple is known for cool and functional designs. However, AppleTV remote is way too simple. Desired options: a) control volume, b) TV option to choose HDMI port to use (currently, first I have to use TV remote to first switch input to AppleTV HDMI port and then use AppleTV remote). c) one-button-play (as the name suggests, with the press of one button I'd like to listen to music on AppleTV)

..to be continued.

Open letter to California Senator Ms. Elquist

Dear Senator Alquist,

My name is Sandeep Jain and I am a resident of the city of Santa Clara.

I care deeply about state of California and with this letter I want to bring to your kind attention the pressing issue of water scarcity in California. On its website, the Department of Water Resources mentions that “California is facing the most significant water crisis in its history”.

I would like to suggest one approach which can help save several millions of gallons of water per year – through the use of waterless urinals in public places. 

States of Arizona and Oregon have already enacted bills and to this effect.

Arizona Bill 2276 (effective Jan 1, 2005) 
http://www.azleg.state.az.us/FormatDocument.asp?inDoc=/legtext/46leg/2R/adopted/H.2276-SE-ENV.DOC.htm

Oregon State Plumbing Board Ruling (effective around Jan 7, 2005)
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4184/is_20050107/ai_n10047708

I sincerely request you to enact similar law for the state of California.

Your kind attention in this matter is most sincerely appreciated.

Thanks & Best Regards,
Sandeep Jain

Help-You-Carry (more...)

Last week I sent out emails to Senior Citizen centers of Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Campbell, Cupertino, Fremont and Los Gatos. I got strong interest from Cupertino city. 

I met with the co-ordinator at the Senior Center today and she mentioned that the service would be quite useful for 15-20 seniors she serves. She also promised to discuss this service with other organizations working for seniors. 

I am happy to see that the effort is progressing!

Help-You-Carry

I started Help You Carry (HYC) this week after seeing the discomfort certain people have in carrying basic shopping items.

Help-You-Carry (HYC) is a volunteer effort to help people with disabilities and old people to carry shopping items. 

Logistics: 

1. Send email to helpyoucarrry at gmail.com to schedule time/pick-up 
2. Proposed time: Sundays 1-5pm. 
3. Currently servicing requests within roughly 20 miles of Santa Clara. 
4. If you do not have your own vehicle, HYC can bring its own car. 
5. Pick up from home and drive to the shopping place (preferably close by) 
6. HYC will help in shopping and picking items and finally delivering and dropping them off at pick-up place. 

Water Conservation: Another milestone to reach

In 1994, US Government released a mandate that restricts the capacity of single toilet flush to no more than 1.6 gallons of water. It was a great step to reduce water consumption across every household in US. 

If you wish to learn more about water conservation standards mandated by US and individual states, check the following site:

http://www.facilitiesnet.com/bom/article.asp?id=2734

Through this site, I came to know that in Arizona and Oregon, water cannot be used for flushing in urinals! I haven’t been to either of the states so far, but will be on the lookout.

I suppose there is one more way to substantially reduce water wastage: Push-button water-control for showerheads.

Most of us have a lever based water-control for our showers. At the time of entering bath, one has to fiddle around with the right setting of the lever to get the desired temperature of the running water. Due to the effort involved in doing this, I suspect if anyone turns off the shower while soaping. And this is where the problem lies. Assuming an average bath time of 10 to 15 minutes, I would suppose one spends roughly 20% of the time is spent in soaping (during which running shower is not required), we end up wasting around 5 gallons of water per bath (federal standard mandates water flow rate of showers to be less than or equal to 2.5 gallons/minute). Now, if we had a way to turn off the shower at the push of a button and restart the shower which delivered water at the same temperature as before, we can save 5 gallons of water per bath!

Doing some rough calculation (see below), based on Santa Clara country water rates, a family of four will save the following:

Total water savings/year = $9.80 (modest)

Pride in saving 7300 gallons of water = Immeasurable

Calcuations:

Water usage per year = 365 * 5 * 4 = 7300 gallons

Water rate for Santa Clara, CA = $0.877 per Hundred Cubic Feet (HCF)

1 HCF = 748 gallons

Total cost of water usage per year = 7300/748 = $9.80

Doing some rough calculation based on US population, the average savings per year comes to be around 456 billion gallons of water!! 

HDMI - a useful feature it lacks

When you connect a device to your computer through USB, you may have noticed how the computer “recognizes” the USB device and displays the name of the device in the directory. USB standard must have a provision which allows for easy identification of devices connected to the computer through USB. 

Let’s move over to HDMI. A High Definition television (Plasma or LCD) contains usually a few of those (1-4 ports). Now, usually multiple HDMI ports are in use simultaneously e.g.,

HDMI port 1    connected to   Cable box

HDMI port 2    connected to   DVD/Blue-Ray disc player

HDMI port 3    connected to   Game console (Playstation/X-Box)

....

The trouble comes when you have to switch the input to the TV from one HDMI port to another. Since HDMI standard very likely does not have provision of device identification, my TV just displays “HDMI port 1, HDMI port 2,....” leaving me to guess which port is connected to which device.

I wish HDMI had device identification built-in in which case the TV could have displayed “HDMI-1: Cable,  HDMI-2: DVD,...” or something like that making it really convenient to change the inputs.

Israel War

Every war has its beginning. This war probably had its beginning in Jan 2006 when Hamas defeated its only rival Fatah in the Parliamentary Elections of 2006; Palestine people were ready to give Hamas a chance to resolve the Israel-Palestine situation. It is notable that both political parties -- Hamas and Fatah -- have militant factions, though only Hamas has been declared as a terrorist organization by several countries. Fights between the two militant groups are quite common, however the situation took a different turn in Jun 2007 when Hamas successfully rebelled against the Fatah party and took control of the Gaza strip. After that war, Palestine Authority took control over West Bank, a distinct part of Palestine and Hamas took over Gaza. 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2f/Palestine_Map_2007.gif

Since the power shift after Jun 2007 conflict, Hamas has fired rockets into Israel territory essentially trying to escalate the bigger Palestine-Israel conflict. To stop the rocket attacks and very likely to disengage the Hamas, Israel attacked Gaza in Jan 2009. The war still continues with no hope of ending; UN resolution on ending the war continues to be stalled with key members in UN Security Council not backing such a move.

The war will however end one day. I suspect that with the kind of terror civilians in Gaza have seen will further fuel Hamas's purpose.  Maybe Israel needs to fight this battle differently by turning the civilians against Hamas. May be during this ongoing conflict, Israel can show a humanitarian approach by offering to take care of injured civilians women and children. Such a move will not only help in saving lives, it will also help Israel tremendosuly in gaining civilians vote of confidence.

Middle East Mayhem

World is divided between right and wrong. Someone's right could be someone's wrong. 

In the case of middle-east conflict, the root cause of the matter seems to be that Hamas (an organization that publicly uses terrorism as a means to achieve its goals) is leading Palestine (vs. a much more diplomatic Palestine National Authority). However, Hamas came into power through democratically held elections. In that sense, one would suppose Israel's real issue is with Palestine people and not Hamas. 

If at all Israel needs to amend the situation, it needs to wage public opinion against Hamas.  Lets face it, no one wants to see their homes getting bombed and their children, women and youth being killed. By attacking Palestine, it could be prompting more civilian Palestines to think or be like Hamas. A moderate individual from Palestine could now very well decide to become a revolutinary now. What good can it do for Israel? 

Instead, Israel should have focused first on diplomatic means to resolve the issue. With "new" US government support, they could have possibly gone quite far with it. As any able statesman would agree, there are subtle ways of turning people opinion against a Government that uses means of terror to rule. At the end of the day, a civilian living in Palestine cares no less for peace than a civilian living in Israel.

Another thing that this conflict brings out is a template for other countries to follow in future. UN clearly seems to be an ineffective organization, sadly, yet again. [after its failure in Darfur and continued failure for improving situation in Zimbabwe]. In near memory, UN has never been able to take any concrete steps for benefit of people; they always seem to be bound by the diplomacy of the Security Council. UN , for all practical purposes, has been reduced to a red-tape organization. As regards US, they have officially endorsed Israel attack. The other day, I was watching an interview of Dick Cheney. He responded that Israel did not seek"US okay" before starting the aggression. 

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1052558.html

I wonder why anyone needs to take an okay from US before trying to solve their international disputes. They should be going to UN; but oh well, I just mentioned earlier how efficient UN is in solving such problems, so never mind.  Coming back to response from US, does that mean that US will now endorse any such similar actions by other countries as well. Does it mean that any country can now attack Somalia if their vessels have been attacked by Somalian pirates? How about Pakistan and India situation? Routinely, terrorists from Pakistan (whether they are State sponsored or endorsed is disputed though) cross the border into Indian territory and rage a proxy war there. If India attacks Pakistan, will US or World react similarly as it has done in recent Israel-Palestine conflict.

When will we stop this hyprocrisy? When will our leaders actually start caring about the people who do not want war, but to be able to live peacefully? Why cant diplomacy be in vogue again?

I am definitely not pro-war and I firmly believe that any sort of aggression should be used only as a last resort. 

Chicago Circus

May be Roland Burris really reserves the Senate seat. However, I fail to understand how any self-respecting man would want to be elected to the Senate by an alleged (though very clearly) corrupt Governor. If Burris thought he was the rightful candidate for the job, why he did not wait for allegations against Blagojevich to be cleared or the next Governor to be elected.

CNN quotes "Burris, 71, is a lifelong Illinoisan and one of the state's most accomplished African-American politicians."

However, Burris recent actions seem to point at his desire for the post of Senator more than anything else. And that clearly does not seem to an action of a deserving leader.