Lets Talk ...

Interesting....

2007-11-29T23:10:00.000-08:00

1. Winning isn't everything. But wanting to win is.
2. You would achieve more, if you don't mind who gets the credit.
3. When everything else is lost, the future still remains.
4. Don't fight too much. Or the enemy would know your art of war .
5. The only job you start at the top is when you dig a grave.
6. If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for everything.
7. If you do little things well, you'll do big ones better.
8. Only thing that comes to you without effort is old age.
9. You won't get a second chance to make the first impression .
10. Only those who do nothing do not make mistakes.
11. Never take a problem to your boss unless you have a solution.
12. If you are not failing you're not taking enough risks.
13. Don't try to get rid of bad temper by losing it.
14. If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you.
15. Those who don't make mistakes usually don't make anything
16. There are two kinds of failures. Those who think and never do, and those who do and never think.
17. Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win.
18. All progress has resulted from unpopular decisions.
19. Change your thoughts and you change your world.
20. Understanding proves intelligence, not the speed of the learning.
21. There are two kinds of fools in this world. Those who give advise and those who don't take it.
22. The best way to kill an idea is to take it to a meeting.
23. Management is doing things right. Leadership is doing the right things.
24. Friendship founded on business is always better than business founded on friendship.

B+

2007-11-29T22:58:00.000-08:00

Keeping Yourself Positive
By: Brian Tracy

The most important thing you do for your success is to take control of the suggestive elements in your environment. Be sure that what you are seeing and listening to is consistent with the goals you want to achieve.

Listen Your Way to Success

Listen to educational audio programs in your car. The average person drives 12,000 to 25,000 miles per year which works out to between 500 and 1,000 hours per year that the average person spends in his or her car. You can become an expert in your field by simply listening to educational audio programs as you drive from place to place.

Take Courses in Your Field

Attend seminars given by experts in your field. Take additional courses and learn everything you possibly can. Learn from the experts. Ask them questions, write them letters, read their books, read their articles and listen to people with proven track records in the area in which you want to be successful.

Get Around the Right People

Associate only with positive, success-oriented people. Get around winners. As we say, fly with the eagles. You can't fly with the eagles if you keep scratching with the turkeys. Get away from the go-nowhere types and above all, get away from negative people. Get away from negative coworkers. If you've got a negative boss, seriously consider changing jobs. Associating on a regular basis with negative people is enough in itself to condemn you to a life of underachievement, frustration and failure. Associate only with positive people. Get around winners.

Visualize Your Goals

The last thing before you sleep and the first thing in the morning, think about and visualize your goals as realities. See your goal as though it already existed. Your subconscious mind is only activated by affirmations and pictures that are received in the present tense. See your goal vividly just before you go to sleep. See yourself performing at your best. See the situations that you're facing working out exactly the way you want them to.

Feed Yourself Mental Pictures

See yourself living the kind of life that you want to live. See yourself with the kind of relationships, the kind of health, the kind of car, the kind of home you really want. Visualize just before you fall asleep at night. The first thing you do when you get up in the morning is to feed yourself mental pictures. Those are the two times of the day when your subconscious mind is most receptive to new programming, when you fall asleep and when you wake up.

Action Exercises

Here are two things you can do, all day long, to keep your mind and emotions focused on your goals and financial success:

First, listen to audio programs in your car and when you travel around. Continue feeding your mind with a stream of high-quality, educational, motivational material that moves you toward your goal.

Second, resolve to associate with positive, optimistic people most of the time. Get around winners and get away from negative people who criticize, condemn and complain. This can change your life as much as any other factor.

"Increase Your Contacts, Expand Your Influence and Build Your Business Faster!"
You've heard the saying... "it's not WHAT you know, but WHO you know"... how many times has this proved to be true?

Prashanth Rai

ERI - Desalination - Water - VC - Entrepreneur

2007-02-17T11:14:00.000-08:00

Was reading this interesting interview at Sramana Mitra's Blog , Its an interview of HP Michlet, focussing on ERI (Energy Recovery Inc). I am going to list out some of the points that i found interesting for the interview.

What our device does is it recuperates up to 98% of the energy of the brine or the rejected high pressure stream and circles this energy back into the loop. But the practical consequence of this is that we de facto reduce the energy consumption of converting seawater to fresh water by two thirds.

Amazing economics: today, it costs $6-8 to desalinize one gallon of sea water and turn it into drinkable water; with this (ERI/PX - Ceramic pressure exchanger) technology, one is able to do this for 80c.

Desalination world can typically be divided into two camps. One is called thermal which is really an evaporation technology and the other is reverse osmosis.

Middle East has been all about thermal. Just because they’ve had abundant energy and there really has been no opportunity cost attached to this energy

As a function of isobaric technology that we are part of, is that reverse osmosis is going from a historic share of about one third of the market to 60% and I think we will see it stabilize around 80%.

Current state/ Factors influencing:

depleted ground water wells

increased affluence of the Chinese and the Indian markets

increased urbanization

global warming an accepted fact

rain patterns around the world changes

Desalination becomes a bigger & affordable source of clean water.

Water supply of California is likely to dry up in the next 40 years due to global warming.

Desalination how affordable for california:

California, desalinate a cubic meter of water for a total of 1.58 kilowatt hours.

Colorado today spends about 1.9 kilowatt hours just to pump the state water project water around to California.

In addition to that you spend about 1.6 kilowatt hours just to slush the Colorado River water around in California.

energy being consumed by California today just by pumping water around, you realize that it is actually cheaper to use desalination.

26 major desalination projects along the coast of California

So by saying no to desalination plants you are also able to limit economic growth in various areas

Discovery Channel called the PX the most significant engineering breakthrough that you will see in your lifetime.

California is already into a drought

Desalination as such in the U.S isn’t new. But it’s a lot of brackish. If you go to Florida you see a lot of brackish plants.

Next big thing is Osmotic Power

What is Osmotic Power?- where we go from fresh water through a forward osmosis membrane and into salt water. In that process we generate the pressure that will be used to run the turbines which in turn will create electricity. This is the next big wave, I think, for this technology. And this year will be the first major prototype, with an osmotic power plant built somewhere in Europe with our device in it. This is still a few years away from commercialization.

SCOPE: one of the largest utility companies in the world using renewable energy, estimates an annual market of about 1600 terawatts. That should be equivalent to about 50 billion Euros in annual electricity production. It is sizeable and is really a function of the PX that this is possible.

Source: 1,2,3,4,5,6

Apologies for the SPAM

2007-02-02T05:51:00.001-08:00

Apologies for the SPAM, Will try and find a way around it over the weekend

Interesting facts - Nandan Nilkeni

2007-01-01T23:47:00.000-08:00

The numbers were also encouraging. In 2006, India accounted for 65% of the global offshore IT market and 46% of the BPO market. And, R&D spending grew about four times the global average.

2006 was also the year that India and China came to be spoken of in the same breath. Interestingly, at the start of the industrial revolution, India and China contributed close to 45% of the global GDP. By 1970 this figure had shrunk to 7%. Now it is on the rise again. It is expected to climb to 30% by 2040.

from a post by Nandan Nilkeni in the Infosys Think Flat Blog

Consulting 101

2006-12-19T05:16:00.000-08:00

Consulting 101 by Services Safari
Always travel on your own time, not client time
Always dress one notch better than client's do
Concise, frank, honest communication will win more client loyalty and referrals over time than evasion, obfuscation or avoidance will ever net.
Never accept work that is unnecessary or work you are not qualified to complete. Smart consultants stick to their core competencies.
Always keep the big picture in mind.
Always be a diplomat.
People are always in the heart of every project and great consultants learn to make the most of them.
Solid ethics are not situational.
Always seek second party review.
Lastly, always travel in business attire.

Warren Buffet

2006-12-13T04:42:00.000-08:00

Got this is an email....

THE WORLD'S SECOND RICHEST MAN - SOME INTERESTING ASPECTS OF HIS LIFE:

There was a one hour interview on CNBC with Warren Buffet, the second richest man who has donated $31 billion to charity. Here are some very interesting aspects of his life:

1)He bought his first share at age 11 and he now regrets that he started too late!

2)He bought a small farm at age 14 with savings from delivering newspapers.

3)He still lives in the same small 3 bedroom house in mid-town Omaha, that he bought after he got married 50 years ago. He says that he has everything he needs in
that house. His house does not have a wall or a fence.

4) He drives his own car everywhere and does not have a driver or security
people around him.

5)He never travels by private jet,although he owns the world's largest
private jet company.

6)His company, Berkshire Hathaway, owns 63 companies. He writes only
one letter each year to the CEOs of these companies, giving them goals
for the year. He never holds meetings or calls them on a regular
basis.

7) He has given his CEO's only two rules. Rule number 1: do
not lose any of your share holder's money. Rule number 2: Do not
forget rule number 1.

8)He does not socialize with the high society crowd. His past time after he
gets home is to make himself some pop corn and watch television.

9) Bill Gates, the world's richest man met him for the first time only 5
years ago. Bill Gates did not think he had anything in common with Warren
Buffet. So he had scheduled his meeting only for half hour. But when Gates
met him, the meeting lasted for ten hours and Bill Gates became a devotee of
Warren Buffet.

10)Warren Buffet does not carry a cell phone, nor has a computer on his
desk.

11)His advice to young people: Stay away from credit cards and invest in
yourself.

Amazing individual indeed.

The high performance Entreprenuer....Bagchi

2006-11-26T22:33:00.000-08:00

I recently stumbled (not enough in the press on it) onto the book "The High Performance Entrepreneur" authored by Subroto Bagchi, a author i like, ever since reading his story titled "Making of the Mindtree", It is a great piece and one i will always enjoy and re-read.

Quick review: I like the book , but to be honest i expected much more from Subroto Bagchi, his speeches & past articles have set very high expectation.But I completely agree with CK Prahald the book is "A treasure trove of perspective & advice". The book is simple and provides an indicative thought map for budding entrepreneurs.

Quote

2006-09-07T00:02:00.000-07:00

Hire for attitude and train for skill

How to prepare for meetings:

2006-08-31T06:11:00.000-07:00

1. Do your homework and prepare for the meeting
2. Figure out what you want out of the meeting
3. Have a plan B.
4. Map the meeting
5. Memorize your opening sentence
6. Memorize a closing sentence

Source: 1

Quote

2006-08-31T05:38:00.000-07:00

A good leader listens to other members of a team. A good leader encourages ideas from every member of a team and encourages everyone to debate ideas. But a good leader decides which ideas to pursue herself or himself – and makes clear to the team that this is what’s going to happen at the end of the discussion.

Great Start-Up CEO

2006-08-22T10:01:00.000-07:00

15 elements defining Great Start-up CEOs

Highly intelligent
Terrific negotiator
Charismatic leader
Great communicator
Technical expertise
Management guru
Marketing maven
Tough as nails
Soft as tissue
Flexibility
Zero Ego
Teacher
Creative
Disciplined and hardworking
And most importantly, CRAZY

Source: 1

MindMap on Mobile Internet

2006-08-17T01:57:00.000-07:00

Rajesh Jain at Emergic has a series running on the Mobile Internet, a topic of great interest for me, So i have taken excerpts from his posts and put together a mindmap on the same.

Quote

2006-08-15T00:02:00.000-07:00

You must retain faith that you can prevail to greatness in the end, while retaining the discipline to confront the brutal facts of your current reality.

StockDale Paradox

Source

Quote

2006-08-14T00:23:00.000-07:00

Desicion Makes Destinity - TED Talk

Windows Live Writer

2006-08-13T20:30:00.000-07:00

Microsoft launched Windows Live Writer today. This is a free, downloadable application that runs on your Windows PC and allows you to write blog posts.

Downloadable here

Success Factors

2006-08-09T23:00:00.000-07:00

What’s important to any person in any job/business is :

- UNDERSTAND what the important ingredients of your success are;
- Keep QUESTIONING whether the conditions that made these ingredients important still exits;
- DON’T assume past results predict future results;
- Make a new plan BEFORE the old plan fails.

Source: Fractals of Change

Blogs at Infosys

2006-08-05T13:01:00.000-07:00

In one of the PDF's i downloaded from the infosys site i saw a mention of a web address that goes - blogs.infosys.com.....What do they have there??..Is it just going to be only within the firewall?...Lots of questions...If there is anybody out there who knows? please pitch in and tell us what exactly is happening?

sunsilkgangofgirls.com

2006-08-05T02:34:00.000-07:00

I have been seeing the ad of Sunsilks gang of girls.com for sometime now and have been wondering how successful they have been looks like we will get an opportunity to find out in blogcamp...Chaya Brian the brain behind might be there, looks like Kiruba is going to do a podcast as well.

Update: Website name corrected - thanks suman

How not to lead Geeks!

2006-08-05T02:12:00.000-07:00

Here is a list from the Chief Happiness Officer:

1: Downplay training
2: Give no recognition
3: Plan too much overtime
4: Use management-speak
5: Try to be smarter than the geeks
6: Act inconsistently
7: Ignore the geeks
8: Make decisions without consulting them
9: Don’t give them tools
10: Forget that geeks are creative workers

I agree with all of them and have tried incorporating them in my schedule.

Detailed here

Loyalty programs in Multiplex's

2006-08-04T11:01:00.000-07:00

Satyam the multiplex in Chennai needs to implement a Loyalty program and work on improving the whole movie experience, they have improved the infrastrucutre, the facilties but i think they are missing on a whole set of benefit that they can deliver giving them a huge advantage.

Today there is no competition for Satyam, but thats not going to be the case for too long, Infact the poster boy for multiplex in india - PVR...Could also do the same.

Call Center ....Business ...Is there a future in India?

2006-08-04T10:24:00.000-07:00

Was reading the article at Business Week on Call Center Business in India...Lots of interesting data points:

"Call centers have become commoditized," says B. Ramalinga Raju, chairman of Satyam Computer Services Ltd.

That doesn't mean India won't be doing call center work anymore. But outsourcing powerhouse Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., for instance, has turned away potential clients offering call-center-only work. "We are thinking about whether this is work we really want to do," says TCS Executive Vice-President Phiroz Vandrevala. At Satyam, just 35% of business process outsourcing employees are in call centers, down from 60% 18 months ago, Raju says.

2000, they represented 85% of the total back-office business; now they're about 35%, according to Nasscom, India's outsourcing industry trade association. And while call centers are still growing in India, the business is expanding at about 30% annually, compared with 60% growth for nonvoice back-office work, Nasscom says.

The BPO industry doubled in size last year, to $6.3 billion, and is expected to clock 37% annual growth over the next five years, according to Nasscom.

Genpact, a former General Electric Co. (GE ) subsidiary spun off two years ago, prefers to take on jobs that let it tap its expertise in analyzing zillions of bits of data to help clients work more efficiently. If call centers happen to be part of the equation, that's fine, but Genpact is reluctant to take up contracts for call centers only. "We tell our clients, 'Don't start with call centers -- if you do, do it together with something else,"' says Genpact Chief Executive Pramod Bhasin. "This is harder than customers expect and needs to be handled carefully."

Source Business Week

ServerLess Apps - Future of Consumer Apps?

2006-08-03T22:26:00.000-07:00

I was just reading another post at emergic about Serverless Apps, On how a Client based wiki is using Amazon S3 as storage and there is no server in between, do we think its the best way to go....Thoughts????

Mobile internet to take off in India

2006-08-03T22:15:00.000-07:00

Emergic gives 6 reasons why mobile internet is expected to take off in india

1. User want more, Not just SMS/Voice Calls
2. Excellent Mobile Infrastructure - I have been using Airtel GRPS for some time now to check mail and read blogs, the experience has been great...though i wish they didnt keep deactivating it for some strange reason...trying to work that out with support.
3. Improved phones...i use the nokia 9300 its pretty good, big screen etc, but i wish the o/s was not as sluggish (might need a reinstall of the firm ware, but in genral the capability of the phones has greatly improved, there is a lot more they can do.
4. Economics for mobile operators, today they are focussed on Customer Acquisitions...but tomorrow its going to be a fight to get the ARPU's up....so they will need to start focussing here.
5. WIFI / 3G, the two disruptions, though i agree with this i think the disruption will come else where i dont think the problem is the speed or connectivity i beleive that the disruption will be in the application space, Operators do something hardware infrastructure is good, but what can u do to help me build more usefull applications
6. "More people will access/expereience the internet via thier mobile phone than a pc" i beleive Jonathan schwartz said it some time back, this is particularly true in India, Every body seems to be having a mobile phone...the only thing that they are probably waiting for is an application which would force them to use the data services.

Would love to hear interesting ideas for mobile applications.....comments please.

Mobility....Game Changer

2006-07-18T03:31:00.000-07:00

"Ten years from now, how will we describe how the world is different due to mobility, and how mobility has changed the rules of competition." - Think about it....Got it off the Tech dirt WIKI, I think it was put there by the director of strategy of Sprint mobile service

No rowing today...because of Tsunami

2006-07-17T09:49:00.000-07:00

Tsunami hits Indonesia killing 40 people, so no rowing today just to be on the safer side. Need to try again tomorrow.

Coffee World

2006-07-17T04:59:00.000-07:00

Coffee World, I have gone to the one at Koramangla, Bangalore quite a few times, when i was stuck there for a good part of a year, sometime back they opened shop in Chennai. I have always found them to be pretty good, thier sandwiches are particularly good.

I was there last evening got an Indicom WIFI cupoon got my self a cup of cold coffee and sat down to plough through my email.

I enjoyed the experience quite a bit, the variant of cold coffee which i ordered, i didnt like much but the browsing exprience was good convinient and fast.

Great job guys!!!

Its a great place for a small blogger meet up.

zizu's head butt animated

2006-07-12T07:31:00.000-07:00

Check out this animation of Zizu's head butt...here...Good laugh. But wasnt that funny when the real thing happened.

Large Outlook Attachments - Problem

2006-07-12T01:25:00.000-07:00

GigaOM....Peer to Peer file sharing start-up, Pando Networks has developed a cool little plugin for Microsoft Outlook, that allows people to send large files right from within Outlook. It makes sharing big files such as Powerpoints, videos and large sized PDFs a breeze.

via GigaOM

How to make Wealth? - Paul Graham

2006-07-11T10:31:00.000-07:00

All Paul Graham's posts/essays are a must read, please start with the one titled "How to Make Wealth". This is a simple , clearly articulated view.

7 Blasts in Mumbai

2006-07-11T10:00:00.000-07:00

First the rains....than the riots, now the blasts, couple of days back i sent out a set of text messages, to my friends in Mumbhai to check if they were ok after the rains...than i did the same after the riots....today i am doing the same thing to make sure none of them are effected by blasts...What the hell is happening ?

As per the news there are 140 people killed in Mumbhai, But the one thing i dont understand are why are the Cellular/Telephone networks down?

Chennai 2010

2006-07-11T09:42:00.000-07:00

I have been thinking about what chennai is going to be like in 2010, Please chime in with your views....the specific areas of interest at this time are:

IT Services, How that business is going to grow in this city and impact the same.
Real Estate, Today it looks crazy ...How are thing going to be after some time, what are the areas of growth going to be? How is the city going to expand?
Traffic/Road Infrastructure - Are we going to be the next bangalore.
Water/Power/Fuel, How are things going to be !, Water has been a big problem in the past and continues to bother us, power might not have been a big issue but what does the future hold in store.
Other Infrastructure - Airports etc - if i understand right we have an airport coming up in Sriperumbathur.
Industry...What is the industries that we have in place...what are the kind of industries we are going to have in place moving forward, Auto & Auto Ancilary are quite prevalent here, what else?...Where?

Amazing Wigs

2006-07-11T09:09:00.000-07:00

i was reading in todays economictimes about how students in Indonesia are paying good money (1000-3000$) to get wigs made with cellphones built into them to allow them to cheat in exams.

Hi-tech copying is going to reach new levels over the next couple of years.

2006-07-09T22:57:00.000-07:00

I was checking out the Brainstorm 2006 Conference blog (here),

What is Brainstorm 2006?
Brainstorm brings global-minded business leaders together with leading thinkers from government, science, art, academia, entertainment, technology, and other key fields to explore both the present and the future. The gathering will have a special focus on technology and its impact, now and in the future. How does the new connectedness change business, society, culture, and daily life around the world? Brainstorm—even more so than other FORTUNE conferences—is guided and organized by our editors. Our group is kept small to promote a high level of interaction and cross-fertilization of ideas.

There were quite a few bloggers there, list here.

Below is a summary from the notes of Ross Mayfield(check out the post) on one of the sessions from the conference conducted by Diana Farrell, McKinsey Global Institute.:

Macro
1. Shifting centers of economic activity
2. Overburdened public sector
3. New Consumers
Social & Environmental
4. Social Life in a Connected World
5. Turbulent Tides of Talent
6. Social Cost of the Free Market
Business
7. Limited Resources, Unlimited Demand
8. New Global Industry Structures
9. New Science of Management
10. New Economics of Knowledge

Note to Radio Jockey's / Producers - Radio Mirchi / Suryan FM

2006-07-09T22:13:00.000-07:00

On an average I am in the car for about 2-2.5hrs on weekdays and 3-3.5hrs on weekends, and my entertainment is

1. The Radio
2. Movie / Music CDs that I carry
3. Podcast that I have written into CDs

Radio I am inclined to as I expect something new and there is some form of people/social interaction (people calling in). Of course I would like it more if there was some variety the channels we have in Chennai are only for Tamil Music, I would like it if we had channels with english/hindi music, which should come in sometime. But this post in not about lack of variety but more about the current set of programming.

RJ/Producers you have my attention, which is the most critical currency in an attention economy, please use it wisely and let be benefit from the same...and so can you.

You guys are riding a wave, one because of the novelty of the radio programming content, but I think that is coming to an end, to sustain the audience please improve the content.

When I was thinking of these things I was reminded of a movie , "Good Morning Vietnam", Check out ...its might not be educational but great fun to watch nevertheless.

A good litmus test for your content will be , if you think it is worthwhile to record the session/program and put it up as a podcast for people to download, I assure you, simple yesterdays interview of Nandan Nilkeni & Naryan Murthy on Times Now (TV) if it was available as a podcast / VLOG, I would definitely download it.

New found appreciation for Wiki's

2006-07-08T11:29:00.000-07:00

When I was visiting SAPPHIRE'06, I met with Ross Mayfield, of SocialText, he is as expected an aggressive promoter of the usage of Wiki's inside and outside the enterprise. At that time I was not a believer in Wiki's but subsequently I have turned into a complete believer.

For the last month I have been using it extensively for collaborative document development and organizing & brain storming (collaboration) with multiple location teams, the experience has been great.

The Wiki's I have tested out till now are

1. Wetpaint
2. Jotspot
3. Socialtext

Quote of the day

2006-07-08T10:34:00.000-07:00

Today I was reading the book by Amartya Sen the Argumentative Indian, Here is an excerpt from the book , which is a quote by Rabindranath Tagore from his poem "Gitanjali" which expresses Tagore's view towards politics and culture, nationalism and internationalism, tradition and modernity.

"Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;....
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into deary desert sand of dead habit;...
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake."

These points are applicable as much now as they were than.

Web 2.0 User

2006-07-07T03:51:00.000-07:00

For sometime now i am trying to move all my activities to the web , that is mving away from the need to have my laptop/ HDD with me at all times...and thus far i have been reasonably successfull.

Bookmarks - Delicious
Email - Gmail
Calendaring - GCal
RSS Reader - Bloglines (Newsgator on the web on & off...but its just too slow.. bloglines is lighting compared to it, i wonder why?)
Documents - Realistically, i just leverage the word processor that is available in the PC i am connecting from (Open office in most cases) but am confortable using Zoho Writer for the same. Also now i am very happy using Wiki's for the same, currently i am checking out Wetpaint.com
To Do - I am not a big to do users, but i enjoyed the experince provided by rememberthemilk.com

I still havent gotten around to using box.net fully, that is going to be my storage platform.

Wouldnt it be great if we had a search product,similar to the desktop search, which would search all the above listed applications / platforms and provide me with one window with the results.

Zimbra - Inputs

2006-07-07T03:31:00.000-07:00

Was evaluating ZIMBRA, Would love to get feedback from any end user here who has experience using / setting up / running the same.

Row row row a boat...gently down the stream

2006-07-07T03:15:00.000-07:00

For the last 3 months i have been rowing quite regularly when i am in town, infact at this time it is once a day must do activity, i can confidently say that it has become a habit now! And a habit which i am quite happy about.

I joined in January the Madras Boat Club, but didn't start rowing till April. We row on the famous (infamous) Buckingham Canal, which is alternatively know as the "koovam"(tamil), well this river that flows through Chennai/Madras was (is still is i think) used as the exit point for most sewage.

The water might be dirty and there are days & places where it stinks but the experience is still great.

I am still in the learning process and have a feeling that it is going to be a long one, But i have graduated from Pleasure Boat >> Out Trigger >> Maiden Scull...still have to go a long way in thier hierarchy, While parallely doing the pairs.

Best part, this will probably be relevant to the people who are familiar with the Geography of Chennai / Madras, it is possible to row from the Club all the way to the Besant Nagar Beach via the broken bridge and that i assure you all is a fantastic experience, i have been there only twice, but its a great trip, it about 7-10 km of rowing but its a great sight.

More later.

Is this blog dead? - NO

2006-07-07T02:15:00.000-07:00

Its been 69 days since my last post on this blog, so the few readers of this blog who are wondering if this blog is dead or if i am ...the answer is NO, I am very much alive and this blog is on its way back.

Why haven't i been writing ?
Well, it started with me being a little busy with my new role, than it was me traveling and finally because i was spending a significant amount of my blogging time at the CIO-Weblog.

But these are only secondary reasons, the primary reason was that i thought it was time to rethink this blog, give it an angle, i wanted to find ways for this blog to deliver more relevant content/value/use to all its stakeholders = myself & you!

So why start blogging now, have i figured out what exactly i am going to do? - NO i still haven't figured the whole thing out, but i have a few ideas and am going to try a couple of options and see how things work out. But for the process to succeed the one thing that i do need a lot of is feedback, please give me a lot of it.You are spending your valuable time & attention at this blog, so help me to make sure you get the best for it.

Raintree .....Ecotel

2006-04-28T00:00:00.000-07:00

News from home town:

Rain Tree Hotel in Chennai, was on Wednesday awarded the Ecotel certification by the US-based HVS International, the authorised licensee of Ecotel.

Mr Geoff Magee, CEO, The Rain Tree Hotel, said this was the first hotel in south India to get the Ecotel certification. The Ecotel certification is based on five areas of environmentalism — conservation of energy and water, solid waste management, employee environmental education and an environment commitment.

Mr Manav Thadani, Managing Director, HVS International, said that only four other hotels in India have qualified for the Ecotel certification.

The Ecotel Collection is a group of international inns, hotels and resorts that define the concept of environmental responsibility in the hospitality industry. All Ecotel certified hotels must pass a detailed inspection and satisfy stringent criteria set by environment experts , he said.Ecotel Collection began in 1994 when the New York Vista Hotel reopened as the world's first Ecotel certified hotel after the bombing of the World Trade Centre. Mr Thandani said since then over 1,100 hotels, resorts and inns have applied for the certification. Currently, there are 36 Ecotel hotels in the world.

Pretty Cool eh!

Source: Businessline

Blogging & Career

2006-04-19T01:40:00.000-07:00

Boston Globe article lists 8 reasons why blogging is essential for your career

Blogging creates a network.
Blogging can get you a job.
Blogging is great training.
Blogging helps you move up quickly.
Blogging makes self-employment easier.
Blogging provides more opportunities.
Blogging could be your big break.
Blogging makes the world a better place.

Tim Bray, who now works at Sun Microsystems, goes the Globe one or two better with 10 reasons why Blogging is Good.

You have to get noticed to get promoted.

You have to get noticed to get hired.

It really impresses people when you say “Oh, I’ve written about that, just google for XXX and I’m on the top page” or “Oh, just google my name.”

No matter how great you are, your career depends on communicating. The way to get better at anything, including communication, is by practicing. Blogging is good practice.

Bloggers are better-informed than non-bloggers. Knowing more is a career advantage.

Knowing more also means you’re more likely to hear about interesting jobs coming open.

Networking is good for your career. Blogging is a good way to meet people.

If you’re an engineer, blogging puts you in intimate contact with a worse-is-better 80/20 success story. Understanding this mode of technology adoption can only help you.

If you’re in marketing, you’ll need to understand how its rules are changing as a result of the current whirlwind, which nobody does, but bloggers are at least somewhat less baffled.

It’s a lot harder to fire someone who has a public voice, because it will be noticed.

via: Don Dodge

Blogs ....Career Impact

2006-04-19T01:39:00.000-07:00

Boston Globe article lists 8 reasons why blogging is essential for your career

Blogging creates a network.
Blogging can get you a job.
Blogging is great training.
Blogging helps you move up quickly.
Blogging makes self-employment easier.
Blogging provides more opportunities.
Blogging could be your big break.
Blogging makes the world a better place.

Tim Bray, who now works at Sun Microsystems, goes the Globe one or two better with 10 reasons why Blogging is Good.

You have to get noticed to get promoted.

You have to get noticed to get hired.

It really impresses people when you say “Oh, I’ve written about that, just google for XXX and I’m on the top page” or “Oh, just google my name.”

No matter how great you are, your career depends on communicating. The way to get better at anything, including communication, is by practicing. Blogging is good practice.

Bloggers are better-informed than non-bloggers. Knowing more is a career advantage.

Knowing more also means you’re more likely to hear about interesting jobs coming open.

Networking is good for your career. Blogging is a good way to meet people.

If you’re an engineer, blogging puts you in intimate contact with a worse-is-better 80/20 success story. Understanding this mode of technology adoption can only help you.

If you’re in marketing, you’ll need to understand how its rules are changing as a result of the current whirlwind, which nobody does, but bloggers are at least somewhat less baffled.

It’s a lot harder to fire someone who has a public voice, because it will be noticed.

via: Don Dodge

World's most modern management - in India - HCL

2006-04-16T23:01:00.000-07:00

Fortune carried an article with a similar title ...where it highlights the management practices implemented in HCL techologies and the results there in , Nice to see an Indian Company achieve this.

Some excerpts from the same:

Vineet Nayar, president of India's 30,000-employee HCL Technologies (Research), is creating an IT outsourcing firm where, he says, employees come first and customers second."Everybody was aghast the first time I said that," admits Nayar.

Here are some things I can say about him with confidence: He is good at motivating employees, very committed to building a great team, but a little shaky on getting things done on time. These are not my observations. They are what his employees told him in an extraordinary process of upward evaluation he implemented last year at HCL.

Every employee rates their boss, their boss' boss, and any three other company managers they choose, on 18 questions using a 1-5 scale. Such 360-degree evaluations are not uncommon, but at HCL all results are posted online for every employee to see. That's un-heard-of!

And that's not all. Every HCL employee can at any time create an electronic "ticket" to flag anything they think requires action in the company.

Explains Nayar, "It can be 'I have a problem with my bonus,' or 'My seat is not working,' or 'My boss sucks.'" The ticket is routed to a manager for resolution.

WiFi City - Taipei

2006-04-13T04:46:00.000-07:00

Q-ware says it is investing about $93 million to build the network
More than 10,000 wireless access points will be in service
Providing coverage to 90% percent of Taipei's 2.65 million citizens
The network, dubbed WIFLY, costs NT399 (Rs 550, $12) per month.

More details here

Via Emergic

Google Calendar

2006-04-13T00:45:00.000-07:00

Google Calendar....LIVE(ooops...beta)...I am checking it out right now.

Innovation Driven Model

2006-04-09T22:32:00.000-07:00

Check out post at A VC

Technical Innovation vs Business Model Innovation
We invest in innovation; new ideas, new products, new services, and new approaches to the marketplace that result in opportunities to build new businesses.

Over the years, entrepreneurs have been mostly known for technical innovations. And there are many great companies that have been built on top of technical innovations like Intel, Cisco, Oracle, Apple, and arguably Microsoft.

But I wonder if business model innovation isn't as powerful, maybe a more powerful opportunity to build a new business.

Art of Executive Summary....

2006-04-06T23:12:00.000-07:00

Guy Kawasaki has a nice post up on writing a good executive summary....its a little long .....but has some good ideas

Writing a Compelling Executive Summary :

the key components that should be part of your executive summary:

1. The Grab
2. The Problem
3. The Solution
4. The Opportunity
5. Your Competitive Advantage
6. The Model
7. The Team
8. The Promise ($$)
9. The Ask

Entreprenuers

2006-04-06T02:45:00.000-07:00

THINK LOCAL.....THINK INDIA.....630 million people in India are of working age, projected to go up to 837 million by 2010 making India a continent of consumers in six years.

Quote.

2006-03-30T00:14:00.000-08:00

Napoleon is reported to have said, "No battle plan survives contact with the enemy."

"Le" Age

2006-03-28T01:02:00.000-08:00

Nice analysis here on Company/Domain names....Excerpts

we have now entered into the era of “LE”. While some might argue that flickr's success has made "kr" is the Official Suffix of Web 2.0, I disagree. After Google’s phenomenal success, there’s been an influx of companies wanting some "le" magic.

Get your Fouls

2006-03-27T23:58:00.000-08:00

Good piece on RISK TAKING, at RedEye VC ....Summarised well by the below excerpt

If Alan Iverson fouled out in the first ten minutes of an NBA basketball game, you can be sure that his coach would immediately talk to him because he was playing too aggressively...and "urge" him to play it a little safer. However, if Iverson played several games without getting any fouls, Van believed that a good coach should also talk to him -- because he was playing too safe...and "urge" him to take more chances and be more aggressive.

Quote

2006-03-27T22:49:00.000-08:00

"Before you start some work, always ask yourself three questions - Why am I doing it, What the results might be and Will I be successful. Only when
you think deeply and find satisfactory answers to these questions, go ahead."
Chanakya quotes (Indian politician, strategist and writer, 350 BC-275 BC)

Escalating Appeals

2006-03-26T22:56:00.000-08:00

You should check out the post with the same title at David Maisters Blog here....here are a few of them....and the ones that i use most often in bold.

1. The Personal Request – Do it as a favor to me. I’ll owe you one.
2. The Ego Protection Ploy – You’ll look bad in the eyes of others.
3. The Team Play Appeal – It’s important to the team.
4. The Fun Promise – You’ll enjoy it once you start doing it.
5. The Isolation Gambit – You don’t want to be the odd person out.
6. The Guilt Plea – You’re a better person than that.
7. The Values Volley – It’s consistent with what you believe in.
8. The Perspective Point – It will pay off for you in the long run.
9. The Have Mercy Message – Other people will suffer if you don’t.
10. The Contractual Comeback – You agreed to this when we discussed it.
11. The Principle Principle – It’s the right thing to do.
12. The Context Framer – When you do this, it has the following consequences for others.
13. The Achievement Temptation – You could get good at this if you wanted to.
14. The Recognition Response – People will really think highly of you if you do this.
15. The Desperation Resort – Do It and We’ll Pay You (We promise.)

1/12/14...Have been most successful for me...:)

Staying ahead of the curve

2006-03-23T22:00:00.000-08:00

"best way to look ahead is to do it collaboratively with the community." - Fred Wilson, This quote is a part of a follow up post on "Staying Ahead of the Curve" by A VC(Fred).

Community how? = blog is a big part of that as are other blogs, delicious tags, and a host of other resources on the web.

Online Banking in India

2006-03-23T04:50:00.000-08:00

I belong to the 4.6 Million People....

December 2005 study by the Internet & Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and Cross Tab Marketing Services, says that an estimated 4.6 million Indian Internet users currently bank online and that the number is expected to cross 16 million (inclusive of Internet and mobile banking) by 2007-08.

Online banking user traits

* 60% had relationships with 2-3 banks while 59% have 2-3 bank accounts

* 25% users were in the age group of 18-25, 43% in the group of 26-35, 19% (36-45 years), 10% (46-60 years) and 2% (61+)

* 83% are males; 17% are females

* 41% access their online banking account from home

* 51% cited convenience as the most important factor to bank online

* 38% said that they liked the facility of checking bank balances and statements online

* 45% operated their online banking accounts on weekdays and weekends; 17% use online banking between 6-9 pm and 15% between 9-12 pm

Source: Business Standard
Via: Venture Intelligence

Dont lie to yourself - Blog Maverick

2006-03-23T00:40:00.000-08:00

Mark Cuban has a nice piece as a part of his long running series "Success & Motivation", In this piece he states how important it is for a "Entreprenuer" to be "Self Aware" ....And not let confidence come in the way of being realistic of what one can / cant do. Check it out here

Excerpts from the same:

The same applies to business people and particularly to entrepreneurs and want to be entrepreneurs. We tend to be less than honest with ourselves about our strengths and weaknesses.

I have been just as bad at this as anyone, particularly when I was getting started in the business world. For those of us who dream of starting and running a business, we know that we have to have a level of confidence in our own abilities. We dont want to believe that there are things we cant do. We want to believe that if we try hard enough, work long enough, and get a little lucky, that the sky is the limit. The problem is that we let our confidence cloud our judgements of what we truly know about ourselves.

Im one of the least organized people I know. Today, i have an assistant and others that help me run my life. If you ask me where IM going to be in 3 days. I have no idea. I do know that i have a kick ass assistant who is going to make sure that when i wake up that morning, I know where Im going and how to get there.

Computing ...Going the Electricity approach.

2006-03-22T22:34:00.000-08:00

Brad Feld has a post on the Union Square Ventures, Where he talking about how computing is going to become like electricity, I had first read this relation in Jonathan Schwartz (SUN) Blog , i remember seeing a presentation also to that effect - Will try and dig it out.

Brad very succintly explains the same here ....excerpts below

Many years ago, I read an article that made a big impression on me. It compared the adoption of information technology to the adoption of electricity. The article noted that, in the late 19th century, when electricity was a novelty, it was a quirky, visible, high maintenance presence in the lives of those adventurous enough to embrace it. When electric motors were first introduced in the household, they were bulky units that most often sat on a big stand in the front hall. The motors powered a belt that turned a shaft mounted over head. Appliances like washing machines were also connected to the shaft by belts. The system was inherited from manufacturing operations that had been powered by water wheels prior to electricity. The proud owners of these early systems would show them off to all their friends, but they also had to be willing to get their hands dirty greasing the shaft, replacing the belts and rebuilding the motors.

The author of the article argued that the information technology business was then in the same stage of development. [I should be pointing to the article, but I don’t remember its title, author or publication - so my web search did not find it.]

I do remember, however, thinking that the article was on to something. Information technology was, at the time, proudly displayed in a glass houses with raised floors. Anyone brave enough to use it in their daily lives had to be willing to maintain it themselves. I also felt certain that there would be a day when, it would be come as invisible to us as electricity. We would stop proudly displaying the infrastructure of IT, and would eventually be blissfully ignorant of how it worked and even who provided the basic infrastructure. How many of us know which national conglomerate owns the local utility that delivers the amps to our home?

Technologies importance in Start ups

2006-03-22T05:35:00.000-08:00

Quite an interesting survey....particularly in the context of web2.0 applications.

We contacted about 75 key venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, press and analysts and asked them – with a short survey – what they thought. We got an extremely high response rate; it turned out that almost everybody was interested in the topic, and in sharing their opinion. A number of people commented that the question was provocative to them because no one else seemed to be asking it.

And, as it turned out, nearly everyone was still interested – very much so – in technology as a crucial asset to start-ups. You can look at the data yourself – a summary report can be found here. But let me give you the bottom line: 91% of the respondents believed that unique technology is “usually” to “always” crucial to the success of start-ups. We asked a half-dozen additional questions, trying to ferret out why they thought it was important (for competitive positioning, for higher valuations, etc. etc.) and the report will also tell you that. But that 91% was a surprise, given the vibes I was feeling, and to me, the results were quite pleasing.

I was pleased because we have always felt that unique, cutting-edge technology is a defining characteristic of those companies that truly and dramatically improve our lives in some way, and that such companies usually have the makings of the best, most successful, and most interesting start-ups. Certainly other factors matter – a lot. But technology is at the heart of a start-up company’s leadership. I was also pleased to see – and to be able in turn to share with entrepreneurs and those that make up their ecosystem – that creating new ideas and unique approaches – often from the ground up – continues to matter – very much.

via Venture Blog

MS Project Training - Chennai

2006-03-19T21:16:00.000-08:00

Guys, I am looking for a MS Project Trainer, Who would spend a week or so training a staff of 10 people in the Nungambakam Area....Leave comments.

Something Different!

2006-03-15T19:51:00.000-08:00

RE: It's hard

Thanks to Jarvis who pointed me to Dave Weinberger who pointed me to:
Ian's Shoelace Site. I am now tying my shoes differently.

Not because the laces used to come undone (they did, but not anymore... I use method 2 now) but because the act of starting every single day doing something that feels so different is a great subconscious reminder to reject the status quo.

And an even better reminder that the chances that 4 year olds will be taught this better way any time soon is pretty tiny. Good ideas spread, but old ideas stick around.

[Via Seth's Blog]

Be the Star of Your Business

2006-03-15T00:21:00.000-08:00

Interesting Point!

By Jeff Burrows
Faculty Member, Trump University
If you're running your own business, you had better cast yourself as the star of the show. Too many entrepreneurs waste their time playing every supporting role from sidekick to understudy.

[Via The Trump Blog]

The end of boredom

2006-03-14T20:53:00.000-08:00

Portable media devices, whether Ipods, portable gaming devices, phones with all their features, or whatever have
solved what has been a generations old nuisance for all of us, boredom.

We have our little devices and now we are never bored. We dont find ourselves staring off into space unoccupied,
wondering what to do. We dont find ourselves muttering about how bored we are sitting on the train, or on a plane,
trying to do anything to make the time go by more quickly.

Our little mobile devices are so popular because they are the ultimate, continuous distraction. They are the easiest
cure for boredom.

Check your email. Call your friend. Play a game on your phone or PSP. Watch a movie on your Ipod. It doesnt matter
where you are anymore. You always have at least one.

When we leave the house now, its keys, wallet, phone/pda/IPod, lock the door. The minute we have nothing
better to do, or our mind starts to wander, regardless of where we are, meetings, events, elevator, exercise bike,
walking down the street, out it comes.

When we have to do something that we want to go by quickly, like those 45 mins on the bike. Out it comes. You dont
care how big the screen is, you just want to be distracted…and maybe catch up on your favorite show or watch the
video of the kids soccer match

We are going to become increasingly dependent on these devices not because we think they are amazing or wonderful,
but because they are there. They do their job. They distract us.

Portable video will be successful not because it will siphon off viewing from traditional tv. Portable video sells
and will sell in increasing numbers because its a better cure for boredom, and a better distraction than just music, or
just a phone, or just games.

Daydreaming and zoning out arent dead and gone, but they now have a soundtrack and a video

[Via Blog Maverick]

Web 2.0 - Profitability?

2006-03-14T02:47:00.000-08:00

So what could be the model? One that I am beginning to develop some conviction for is towards experiences so far in monetizing high affinity communities. In an offline model, we already have experience in monetizing a Harley Davidson club, or Rotary, and so on. Some thoughts basis that:
1) The key to these communities is not the size (the key to “enabling technologies”, such as tagging, will be size), but sharpness.

2) Once you have sharpely focussed communities, what you sell on top of them has to be much higher value than adwords. Amazon’s expected “Productsense” model could be one, as also the ability to “click-to-talk” enabled by VoIP providers. Affinity driven products and services would be the key, and relevance will need to move far beyond adsense.

3) Think of this — if you had a community of Harley fans online, what would you sell to them? and how can you now take that example, and generalize the technology? I think seeds of those enabling technologies are beginning to emerge today.

4) Due to high concentration of value, the enabling businesses will not all be automated — especially, the part where “relevance” gets captured (the hosting part may be automated, as a contrast). Tagging is an example.

5) I still think there will be a mix of “interest-centric” and “user-centric” communities, and hence the ability to “follow a user” across interests could be another possibility — this is same as trying to derive user profile from content being browsed. The current intent-based-paradigm will get far sharper, and/or evolve into user-based-paradigm.

6) High affinity should imply lower customer acquisition costs, though that by itself might not be an exit driver.

So the problem to be solved is

a) What creates high affinity communities on the web (I do not think the early experiments in Web 2.0, such as myspace, are the answer)

b) How does one maximize value per member with sharpely focussed communities

[Via VentureWoods]

Innovation

2006-03-13T02:43:00.000-08:00

A must read speech on Innovation by Subroto Bagchi, Midtree at the Symantech Conference. Get the PDF of the speech here.

Update: Sreedhar thanks a lot for the comment i finally came around to reading that document by bagchi it was great, i think i will need to read it a couple of times before i understand every nuance of it.

Announcing BarCamp Chennai Ever since I heard ab...

2006-03-13T02:29:00.000-08:00

I am getting involved!

Announcing BarCamp Chennai

Ever since I heard about the original BarCamp that happened in Palo Alto and later in New York City, I've been yearning for such an event since last November. I've been thinking of putting together an unconference for quite some time. The turning point came after seeing the success of Delhi BarCamp. I decided to scratch the itch. I put together initial plans and it quickly gathered momentum. It's definitely the most exciting event I'm planning up along with some uber cool folks.

Check out this Wiki on BarCampChennai for full information.

BarCamp is an ad-hoc unconference born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos and interaction. The two day BarCampChennai focusses on Web 2.0 and Next Generation Internet. It takes place on April 8th and 9th (Saturday and Sunday)

It's an open, welcoming, once-a-year event for geeks to camp out for a couple days with wifi and smash their brains together.

The event will be free or very close to free. But there's a catch! Every participant *MUST* participate actively. "Active participation" might mean giving a presentation, helping with a presentation, helping in organizing, blogging or podcasting the event, or whatever other creative ways to contribute people can come up with.

There is no audience. Only participants! This is unlike any conference you have been to before. It's new, it's different. Anyone with something to contribute or with the desire to learn is welcome and invited to join. Visit the Wiki, and just add in your name and your presentation title. We are actively seeking volunteers. There are lots of ways one can contribute. Just take it up and let's colloborate together.

There's already lots of interest brewing. There are participants coming in from as far as Delhi and Mumbai. If you are technology aficionado interested in Web 2.0 and the next generation of Internet, don't miss this. Join in and let'd do this together. Visit the BarCampChennai Wiki and add yourself.

Here are a few snapshots from BarCamps around the world.

[Via Kiruba.com]

The Value of Vision

2006-03-09T00:12:00.000-08:00

Competition for the future is competition to create and dominate emerging opportunities - to stake out new competitive space. Creating the future is more challenging than playing catch up, in that you have to create your own road map. The goal is to develop an independent point of view about tomorrow's opportunities and how to exploit them. Pathbreaking is a lot more rewarding than benchmarking. One doesn't get to the future first by letting someone else blaze the trail.

There is not one future but hundreds. Getting to the future first is not just about outrunning competitors bent on reaching the same prize. It is also about having one's view of what the prize is. There can be as many prizes as runners; imagination is the only limiting factor. In business, as in art, what distinguishes leaders from laggards, and greatness from mediocrity, is the ability to uniquely imagine what could be.

[Via Emergic]

Ram Shriram, John Doerr, Ray Lane presentations in Bangalore

2006-03-07T21:58:00.000-08:00

Good Presentations...

The TiE Bangalore chapter has made the presentations made by angel investor Ram Shriram and KPCB's John Doerr and Ray Lane at its "Entrepreneurship - yesterday today and tomorrow" event on January 31 availble for download from its web site.

Relationship Capital: John Doerr

Consumer Internet Web 2.0: Ram Shriram

KPCB in the Software Industry: Ray Lane

Arun Natarajan is the Founder of Venture

[Via Venture Intelligence India]

Essence of Leadership - Robert Altman

2006-03-07T21:44:00.000-08:00

Essence of Leadership
Mr Altman won the lifetime achievement award at the Oscars last night. I loved this from his acceptance remarks, and I paraphrase: "The role of the Director is to create a space where the actor or actress can become more than they've ever been before." (Or, maybe: "dreamed of being." Better yet. I'll have to find a transcript.)

To me that's the essence of leadership—in any context.

Posted by Tom Peters |
Comments?

[Via The Tom Peters Weblog]

Searching across multiple desktops

2006-03-07T21:38:00.000-08:00

Some time soon i need to get around to implementing this....

Brandon talks about how to search across multiple PCs here:

...you should try Windows Desktop Search combined with the free FolderShare application.Â� With FolderShare your data remains safely on your PCs, but you can search, browse, and access your data from any internet-connected PC.Â� FolderShare added search integration with WDS last summer.Â� They were acquired by Microsoft a few months ago and the product was made free at that time.

Sounds like a more palatable solution than the one discussed here...Â�which is frightening to me:

"If you use the Search Across Computers feature and don't configure Google Desktop very carefullyâ€”and most people won'tâ€”Google will have copies of your tax returns, love letters, business records, financial and medical files, and whatever other text-based documents the Desktop software can index. The government could then demand these personal files with only a subpoena rather than the search warrant it would need to seize the same things from your home or business, and in many cases you wouldn't even be notified in time to challenge it. Other litigantsâ€”your spouse, your business partners or rivals, whoeverâ€”could also try to cut out the middleman (you) and subpoena Google for your files."

Hey.... I'm just sayin'!

[Via Torres Talking]

12 Steps to Immersion in a Topic of Interest

2006-03-07T21:32:00.000-08:00

Interesting!!!

I've been thinking lately about how to get the students I mentor to really dive head first into their interests. Schools don't really teach students the degree to which they need to fully research and follow a topic enough to form opinions, discover opportunities, etc. In other words... how to throw gas on the fire in their bellies. Here's a 12 step list that I think can be helpful to fill out and follow:

We'll use digital media as an example.

Define. We're talking television, radio, music, movies, etc. and all of the screens and speakers it can wind up on.

Follow the money. Creative people are paid to produce by publishers who pay distributors to send the content to consumers, who either pay directly for it or are subsidized by advertisers. (Oversimplified and changing of course, but its a start...)

Stakeholders. Who's involved? Creatives, consumers, publishers, advertisers, distributors (channels, stations), big media, new media, investors, analysts, researchers, academics, the government.

Mainstream media. Read the newspaper. Watch the news. Read books on this topic. What's your digitial media reading list look like for MSM?

User generated content. Read blogs: Paid Content, Rebuilding Media, etc. Message boards, listservs. Make a list of the places you can get insider and alternative info.

Participate. Comment. E-mail. Share your thoughts with smart people and listen to them. Go to conferences and speaking engagements.

Record. Keep a blog about following digital media, what you're learning and what you think about it.

Network. Join LinkedIn. Write a bio. Invite people you know and search it. Do some informational interviews and stay in touch with the people willing to share time with you. Keep these people in a PDA, Outlook, wherever you keep contacts and a calendar to remind yourself how often you want to talk to people.

Visit. Don't just sit at your computer. Try to visit some companies in the space or other repositories of knowledge on the topic in person.

Associate. Join a professional society or social networking group related to digital media. (Like nextNY of course!)

Know the issues. Look into DRM, privacy, the disaggregation and reaggregation of content. New business models and Exploding TV.

Experience. Seek out a job or project in this space. Use Indeed!

[Via This is going to be BIG.]

Sleep less. Live more

2006-03-06T03:10:00.000-08:00

Sleep less. Live more. And as Benjamin Franklin observed: “there will be plenty of time to sleep when you're dead.” (I've always liked that guy)

IT ONLY TAKES A MINUTE

2006-03-06T03:05:00.000-08:00

It only takes a minute to tell a loved one you adore them
It only takes a minute to run towards a fear
It only takes a minute to set a big goal
It only takes a minute to drink a glass of water
It only takes a minute to read a great idea (that just might rock your world)
It only takes a minute to write the most beautiful thank you note you have ever sent your parents (or a teammate or a customer or a high school teacher who blessed your life)
It only takes a

[Via Robin's Blog]

Seven CEO lessons for the new year from the fall of former CEO's Fiorina and White.

2006-03-06T02:39:00.000-08:00

Even the greatest leaders are nowhere near as great as their press clippings make them out to be.
The omnipotent leader sets a deluded company course.
Minding the company's culture is one of the CEO's most important responsibilities.
Even the "friendliest" board of directors will eventually turn on their superstar CEO.
The sales and marketing oriented CEO needs a COO.
Your biggest enemy is not your true enemy.
Failure is never final.

Source: 1

Quote

2006-03-06T02:27:00.000-08:00

"Intellectuals solve problems; leaders prevent them. " Albert Einstein. ( Atleast, try to prevent them ... )

New And Exciting Stats

2006-03-04T22:24:00.000-08:00

Brad Feld...Has an interesting post on blog statistics....

I love stats (also know to serious people as “analytics.”) In the past, I’ve written about the variety of stats packages I use and track regularly (e.g. at least daily.) Today, FeedBurner came out with an upgrade to its stats that add a number of new things, including uncommon uses, the concept of “reach”, and item popularity. Mike Arrington at Techcrunch has a comprehensive post up with screen shots - rather than repeat this here, I’ll simply point you there to take a look.

FeedBurner: Core RSS feed and page view metrics

AWStats: Core page view metrics

Google AdSense: Page views by channel, ad click throughs

Amazon: Online purchase metrics

Bloglet: Email subscribers

MyBlogLog: Outbound link tracking

MeasureMap: Inbound / outbound link tracking (in alpha)

Technorati: More link tracking

Feedster: Even more link tracking

Here’s the new list as of today:

FeedBurner: Core RSS feed, page view metrics, item views, reach, and email stats

BlogBeat: Core page view metrics (plus feed data via integration with FeedBurner API)

Google Analytics: Page views

Amazon: Online purchase metrics

MyBlogLog: Outbound link tracking

Technorati: More link tracking

I’ve dumped the others for the following reasons:

AWStats: Stats weren’t telling me much

Google AdSense: Google Analytics (and now BlogBeat) gives me much better data

Bloglet: I dumped Bloglet and use FeedBlitz, which has stats integration with FeedBurner

MeasureMap: Slow, wrong data, and now part of Google (hence I expect integration into Google Analytics someday)

Feedster: Increasingly irrelevant / redundant data

Yes – less is more in this case (since I’m getting a lot more data from the services I’m using as they evolve.)

[Via Feld Thoughts]

Chatting in my inbox

2006-03-01T22:06:00.000-08:00

Could agree more with "This is going to be Big" , Infact my usage of GTalk has gone up significantly after the integration.

So, at first, Gtalk was underwhelming.

But, integrated into my Gmail inbox, I've been using it all day... but in a different way than I use AIM. I've noticed that, when someone sends me an e-mail, and they're online, its a quick way to ping somebody right back--because they're still in the inbox. Its very task oriented, whereas AIM is more conversational.

Anyone else feel the same way? Differently? Have you used it more now?

[Via This is going to be BIG.]

“the secret path to the top” or Fast-Tracking My Career

2006-02-28T01:14:00.000-08:00

Working Smart by Michael Hyaat has an excellent post on the secret path to the top or Fast Tracking My Career, His anwer to both is "RESPONSIVENESS"

Excerpt:

I'm not sure I could boil it down to one thing. Life isn’t usually that simple. But if I really, really had to boil it down to one thing, I would say this: responsiveness.

So many people I meet are unresponsive. They don’t return their phone calls promptly. They don’t answer their emails quickly. They don’t complete their assignments on time. They promise to do something and never follow through. They have to be reminded, prodded, and nagged. This behavior creates work for everyone else and eats into their own productivity. Sadly, they seem oblivious to it.

When I was a kid, we used to play “Tag.” The objective was simple: keep from becoming “It.” If someone tagged you (touched you), you became “it” until you tagged someone else. Whoever was “it” when the game ended, lost.

Business is very similar. People “tag” us in countless ways every day. They place calls. They send emails. They mention something to us in a meeting. Suddenly, we are “it.” And, just like the game, if you stay “it” too long, you lose. The only winning strategy is to respond quickly and make someone else “it.”

Reality is that we live in an “instant world.” People want instant results. They don’t want to wait. And if they have to wait on you, their frustration and resentment grows. They begin to see you as an obstacle to getting their work done. If that happens, it will begin to impact your reputation. Pretty soon people start saying, “I can never get a timely response from him,” or “When I send her an email, I feel like it goes into a black hole,” or worse, your colleagues just roll their eyes and sigh at the mention of your name.

Source: Working Smart

Taking a day out...Seems look a good idea!

2006-02-23T06:27:00.000-08:00

I need to take a day out soon!!!, I can feel my productivity reaching all time lows .

by Britt Parrott

Many people forget how routine their lives are. While this is especially true for those, like me, who have a regular 9-5 job, freelancers often get into their own routines, even while being less constrained by hours and location.

Doing the same thing over, day after day, contributes to creative blocks. Some might work through these blocks temporarily (by visiting sites such as this one), but it neglects the root cause of what got them into the block in the first place: routine.

I schedule a day out for myself as often as possible. I don’t call it a day off because those are usually taken for a specific purpose: a trip, work around the house, etc. For me, a day out is a way to temporarily break out of my routine. In the process, I usually get a boost of creativity.

[Via To-Done]

Presentation Zen - Presentation documents and writing for non-writers

2006-02-22T02:18:00.000-08:00

Good advice.....

"When in doubt, simplify." I so love this point by Scalzi that I'm quoting almost the entire passage here (item number nine in the list of ten):
"Worried you're not using the right words? Use simpler words. Worried that your sentence isn't clear? Make a simpler sentence. Worried that people won't see your point? Make your point simpler. Nearly every writing problem you have can be solved by making things simpler.

This should be obvious, but people don't like hearing it because there's the assumption that simple = stupid. But it's not true; indeed, I find from personal experience that the stupidest writers are the ones whose writing is positively baroque in form. All that compensating, you know. Besides, I'm not telling you to boil everything down to "see spot run" simplicity. I am telling you to make it so people can get what you're trying to say."
â€” John Scalzi

[Via Presentation Zen]

Seth Godin - A million little cuts

2006-02-20T21:31:00.000-08:00

Think about it...What is happening in your org?

Most businesses don't fail dramatically.

They do it slowly.

But you wouldn't know that for sitting in at meetings or listening to speeches. Same is true, of course, for countries, non-profits and other organizations.

Human beings respond to emergencies. It's easy to get everyone to take action if we're in the middle of some sort of security crisis... but fixing the educational system isn't going to happen.

Faced with the gradual, inexorable decline that faces most organizations, it's just natural to try to fix the problem with a broad stroke. A big ad campaign or a new slogan or a totally redesigned website.

The answer, more likely than not, is to consistently and regularly stop the bleeding. To improve the boring stuff.

Organizations fail slowly. They often succeed fast, though. That's where the remarkable comes in. So, if I had to summarize it: You take a big step up... by being bold. But you avoid a slow death by getting every little thing right.

[Via Seth's Blog]

Tom Peters - The IMAOA

2006-02-20T21:08:00.000-08:00

Check out this post at tom peters blog.

(In a way I'm stealing this from my old friend, the late Ren McPherson, legendary/Fortune Business Hall of Fame CEO of Dana Corporation, featured 100 years ago in In Search of Excellence. Ren used to say that, "The high-flyers will take care of themselves, and I'll eventually weed out the losers. My real job is to engage the 'middle 60 percent.' If I can induce a modest productivity boost from them, I can move mountains." I think he was right—and his track record surely supports that conclusion.)

Posted by Tom Peters |
Comments?

[Via The Tom Peters Weblog]

Thought provoking.....

2006-02-17T04:29:00.000-08:00

Read this post by adam bosworth.....

Unlike many of my peers in the computer industry, I was a history major in college and have loved and read history ever since. I studied, in particular, the progressive era in history, an era when the industrial revolution evolved from the grim satanic mills of England into the modern industrial world. But the understanding I always had was that none of this would or could have been possible without the renaisaance and without the slow but sure rise of secular humanism and the spirit of scientific and intellectual inquiry that started at that time. After the fall of the Roman empire, in many ways the lights went out and, in the 14th century particularly, life in Europe hit a new low stroke the the terrible plague, the start of the mini ice age, and the wars between France and England. In the 15th century we saw the Spanish inquisition and the reconquista, but really, it was the last gasp of intolerant religious fanaticism and the spirit of inquiry and discovery from art to music to science was everywhere. The lights had been turned back on. As a child, growing up in New York City, I took for granted that mankind had learned these lessons. I assumed that mankind understood that freedom to think, to reason, and to experiment were paramount and that any irrational intolerant irrational beliefs that threatened these freedoms or, even worse, abused or injured people in the name of some mystical or fanatic cause were horrific reminders of the past.

i hate itunes..

2006-02-16T04:28:00.000-08:00

When i start itunes it takes up 100% of my resources i have a 2gb ram laptop and still when i turn on itunes, most other apps are not accessible ...the ones that are slow ...why is this?

I have had similar problem with firefox.

.....

Communication....

2006-02-15T17:06:00.000-08:00

A nice post at Tom Peters Blog

Excerpt
"the big idea/s": (1) We spend most of our time communicating. (2) Our career success or failure depends to an extraordinary degree on communications excellence ... or the lack thereof. (3) The overwhelming majority (perhaps 90 percent) of experimentally measured communication effectiveness comes from the "soft stuff" (do you project energy, etc, etc). (4) We rarely systematically "work on" communications effectiveness. (5) As leaders, we seldom have our troops work on their communications effectiveness. And (6) "Those who practice improve. Those who don't, don't."

Work Escape

2006-02-15T06:03:00.000-08:00

At Feld Thoughts came across this web puzzle, quite good...see how long you last, i lasted 16.765 seconds...:)

ps: Just realised the similarity, this blog is called Rai's thoughts and that that blog is called Feld Thoughts...

RSS Reader that i want!

2006-02-08T06:37:00.000-08:00

Excerpts from Get Real...

I am constantly fiddling around with RSS readers and various strategies for "RSS readering" -- William James remarked that you coin a new word at your own peril, so verbing "RSS reader" may be dangerous for me, but I do so with a plan.

I want to be an RSS reader: by which I mean to say that I would certainly rather (in theory) receive alerts about posts and -- perhaps even the posts themselves -- within some some window of time of their being posted. However, I haven't generally liked the various RSS readers I have tried. And I have tried gazillions.

I tried NewsGator integrated with Outlook when I was still (hiss) living on a Windows laptop. Yes, in principle I keep my email client open all day, and, yes, in some way getting email is similar to RSS-transmitted posts. But the email metaphor, of folders and messages doesn't quite jibe with my experience of browser mediated blog reading. So, ultimately, I dropped it.

The same is true of standalone RSS reader tools, like NetNewsWire and Fire. I tried them for a time, and then dropped out. These annoy me for similar reasons: I don't like the Pez dispenser feel, where all posts are like another, and you assume the role of a pigeon in a Skinner box, hitting the button to make the pellets roll out.

I have been lusting for something, a new solution, that actually parallels my most rewarding reading experiences.

Web 2.0 ....Online Word Processor...Blogging

2006-02-08T02:43:00.000-08:00

i am submitting this blog post from the zoho writer ( http://www.zohowriter.com ) , so far the experience has been pretty good, nice product.

The Art of Schmoozing...Guy

2006-02-02T09:44:00.000-08:00

Guy Kawasaki Theory of Schmoozing version 1.0

Understand the goal.
Get out.
Ask good questions, then shut up
Unveil your passions
Read voraciously
Follow up
Make it easy to get in touch
Give favors
Ask for the return of favors

Web Movie - Honda

2006-01-30T10:11:00.000-08:00

Check out this web movie by Honda

Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Report for 2005

2006-01-19T01:11:00.000-08:00

The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Report for 2005 has just been released by Babson University, and it has some interesting findings:

- Entrepreneurs in middle income countries are beginning to catch-up to their counterparts in richer economies by tapping into technologies unavailable to them just a year ago

- Entrepreneurs with 'innovative' businesses drive higher growth rates of GDP per capita

- Middle income countries tend to start more businesses than high income countries

Source: 1

Predictions for 2006 from an Indian perspective

2006-01-18T23:27:00.000-08:00

The Web 2.0 bubble will burst
Yahoo will continue upswing
Outsourcing: A shortage of good tech workers
The blogosphere expands and consolidates
Resurgence of newspapers
Consumer storage will be hot
Major breakthrough in the attention problem
Content will become more valuable
U.S. real-estate slowdown will have global consequences
Uncertainty in China will cause investors to hedge bets

Source Venture Woods

CES Update

2006-01-17T01:55:00.000-08:00

Excerpts from "Who has time for This"

HOME AUTOMATION

Home automation includes the remote control, synchronization and monitoring of electronic products through wall switches, remote controls, phones, PDAs, PCs and web browsers. I observed this year at CES that home automation products have finally matured to the point where consumers can stitch together broad, integrated functionality in existing homes without having to pay $50,000+ for professional installation and programming.

(Yes, the X10 protocol has been around for 20+ years to cheaply control household elements over powerlines, but I and many others know from experience that X10 does not work reliably, especially in large homes or alongside increasingly common electronics that draw current even when turned off.)

The first step is to decide which electronics you wish to control--lights, media, climate control, sprinklers, shades, window cranks, thermostats, door locks, alarms, garage doors, etc. (For some of those elements, you will need to replace existing products with controllable ones.) Then select a control protocol that supports those devices through in-house powerlines or wireless -- such as Z-Wave, Zigbee or Insteon. (Since Z-Wave is furthest along, my firm Bessemer invested in Zensys, the Z-Wave chip vendor, as did Cisco.) Finally, buy and install products that control those elements using your selected protocol, such as wall switches, touch panels, remote controls, TV interfaces, key fobs, and PC application or widget.

Patent Process

2006-01-12T23:19:00.000-08:00

Excerpts from Scott Maxwells Blog

My takeaways (filtering out all of the patent law issues and all of the traps and opportunities that good patent lawyers can tell you about):

David recommended two basic patent strategy points:

Develop a strategy for pursuing patent protection. What are the core technologies that you wish to protect and why? Revisit this strategy periodically.
Develop a strategy for pursuing foreign patent protection. There are a lot of countries (read more costs!). Where are your major competitors and where is your customer base. Revisit this strategy periodically.
I particularly liked several of David’s very practical steps for managing the day-to-day patent process:

Give incentives for each member of the development staff to submit short “invention disclosures” that describe the problem, the solution, and why the solution is novel. David suggested $25 or a dinner out for each disclosure. (I have also heard of larger companies having a quota for disclosures as well as patents…not sure which is best.)
Set up an IP group to review the invention disclosures periodically and decide which to move forward with. David pointed out that it will probably be budget that sets the bar for the number of disclosures to move forward with (assuming innovation in the company and an incentive to create the invention disclosures).
Do not bother reviewing third party patents (it will take too much resource and you won’t necessarily get to a meaningful answer).
Contact a good patent attorney to prosecute the patent application (Wong Cabello comes highly recommended).
A basic patent will cost about $8-10k if done regularly and if you build a relationship with the right firm.

Nice note...

2006-01-11T23:07:00.000-08:00

There's an old saying in consulting which basically goes like this: there are three factors you can impact in a project: scope, time and resources, choose any two. As a client, you get to define any two of the three factors, and the third one will be basically dictated to you.

Nice one, Applies to most types of projects.

Source

Zen of management. You can tell others about your pain, you can express your needs in eloquent language, you can scream about how important your pain is. None of that really works all that well. What does work is to set expectations, goals and compensation of the people who work for you in line with what's important to you.

Types of VCs

2006-01-03T05:02:00.000-08:00

Excerpts on type of VCs
. Some key parameters as you look to choose a VC:

1. Stage — Angels, Series A VCs and Series B VCs are different breeds. While the first one will invest (maybe under a crore in India) for an innovative team and idea, the series A VC wants to see a more broad based team, lead paying customers and clear differentiation — this kind of VC funds the path to profitability. Gaps in team are acceptable but to be clearly recognized. Investment size will very with plan, but typically under $5m. Series B VC will typically take a profitable (or close to it) company, with the management pretty much in place, and basically fund expansion (depends on the business, but typically over $5m).

2. Expertise of the VC — Especially at early stage, it is hard to understand and fund businesses where none of the VC partners have expertise.

3. Portfolio — See if the firm you are looking at ha

The 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint - Guy Kawasaki

2006-01-03T03:56:00.000-08:00

the 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint. It’s quite simple: a PowerPoint presentation should have ten slides, last no more than twenty minutes, and contain no font smaller than thirty points.

The ten topics that a venture capitalist cares about are:

Problem
Your solution
Business model
Underlying magic/technology
Marketing and sales
Competition
Team
Projections and milestones
Status and timeline
Summary and call to action

You should give your ten slides in twenty minutes.

Good ....New Year Resolutions

2006-01-03T03:26:00.000-08:00

AVC
This is going to be big

More on New Year Resolutions

2006-01-03T03:04:00.000-08:00

One thing about setting goals for the future - make sure they are RAM. Realistic, achieveable and measurable. For instance, I can establish my yearly goal of losing some weight, or I can establish a goal to lose 10 pounds by March 1. This is a clear goal that is realistic, achieveable and measurable. For some goals it may make sense to identify milestones along the way. If my goal is to build a new building in 2006 which will take eight months, I may want to include some significant milestones along the way - foundation in place by February, framing in place by April, etc.

Source: Thinking Faster