Journey into the Unknown

Summary of "Don't Just Present, Enchant"

2012-02-13T18:40:00.002+05:30

Here is it. The summary of entire talk at BarCamp 11 held at Bangalore 2012.

Somebody asked me to share the presentation, and I replied - "You won't find it enjoyable unless its me who is delivering it". So I compiled the slides into points that talk about the content covered in the presentation. Hope all of you will enjoy it. Go out and Enchant ! (BTW, Love the book - Enchantment by Guy Kawasaki)

Don't just present. Enchant!
11th Feb 2012, BarCamp Bangalore

Summary of the session :-

0. The Real Problem of the world is NOT Global Warming, its Global Yawning. Millions of minutes are wasted each year in presentations that do not create any impact, thereby leading to Global Yawning problem. A solution to Global Yawning can solve all problems of the world.

1. Bad presentations are awful. They waste time, energy and create moments of despair. They kill people.. literally.
a. Why do people suck at Presentations ? Some say
- They don't have time to prepare
- They do no have any idea about the topic to present
- They need to cram as much of information in one slide
- They feel they are color blind i.e. they do not know about design and color.

2. Three BIG ideas to change your presentation - AWARE, STORY, PLAN: "Aware of the story and plan of your presentation."

3. The AWARE aspect of the becoming a presentation rockstar includes having a fair knowledge of the:

a) Audience
b) Content
c) Message
d) Body Language
e) Style
f) Story

4. Know Your Audience: Each presentation is different. Every audience is different. Knowledge of the type of audience is the most important key to creating great enchantments.

5. The power that any speaker has over any audience - The speaker should be in control of the NEXT. In other words, the speaker knows what comes next. (Inspired from the book Confessions of a Public Speaker - by Scott Berkun)

6. Audience wants to be entertained. They want to learn, and they want the speaker to do well.

7. The Density Theory - To increase the impact of the presentation, it is essential to increase the density of the seating arrangement of the audience. This creates a better setup to enhance the energy of the talk. For example, its essential to bring the audience closer to the speaker in a room where people are seated evenly and far apart.
Note: The speaker needs to always have the front row occupied - that's the moral booster.
In a room where people are seated far apart and are less in number, it makes sense to bring them together in a semi-circular arrangement.

8. There is absolutely no escape to having thorough knowledge of the content of a talk. Knowing the topic is in itself a confidence booster. In-depth knowledge allows the speaker to take risks and use creative ways to impart the idea.

9. What is the core of the message?
The core of the message is the very nucleus of the presenter. When weighed against the presenter's content, this weighs slightly more than the content in importance. Finding the core of the message is a difficult task. People may forget the content, but they will always remember the core message.

10. Key ways to find the core of the message :

a) Learn to let go - The core of the message is a singular concept. The way to reach to it requires filtering down the content. Content is noise as opposed to message which is peace- its tranquillity.

b) Focus on the important parts of the content: Interrogate yourself with this question- What is one thing and the only one thing you want the audience to remember if they don't get anything else?

c) Use the 'so what?' principle: Instead of asking what - focus on so what. The so what principle allows you to zero in on the point that the audience really would care about.

11. Read the book Made to stick - The book provides 6 simple ideas to find the core message. The core of the message should be simple, unexpected, concrete, credible, emotional and cushioned with a story.

12. Body language complements the 'AWARE' aspect-
a) Hands are an important vehicle to transport messages. Use them to your advantage.
b) Do not be a robot. People want to see the human side of the speaker - they make mistakes, they laugh, they have emotions.
c) Do not show your back to your audience. Face them!
d) Always use verbal emphasis.
e) Just Relax: Presentation is not the end of the world. Be your natural self - not a copy-cat. Do not be someone else. The world needs you to be the real you.

13. Find your style: Every speaker has a style. Develop your own style through practice.

14. Always think about the good and bad presentations that you may have attended. Learn from them. Keep a Journal that you can use to collect these ideas.

15. Story: Stories need to be emotional. They better be true (not always :)). Stories come out of experience. Stories impact remembrance. It enforces ideas into our memory.

16. How can you tell a story: The key to a successful story telling is to:
a. Find the Hero - element of the idea that needs to be sold
b. Find the obstacles for the Hero
c. What is at stake for the Hero ? Why is getting rid of obstacle so important ?
d. Create the big climax for thero

17. Don't enforce story telling techniques: The story must match the mood, message and the type of audience.

18. How can you be good at story telling: Here are some tips:
a. Think of how your grandma or anybody else who used to tell you stories did it
b. Listen to people
c. Read as much as possible
d. Travel to new places
e. Interact with local culture

19. Plan: Planning for a presentation includes:
a) Being analog
b) Planning the layout
c) How to involve/engage the audience
d) Use visual medium to impart ideas
e) Using the right tools
f) Designing your presentation

20. Always start analog: Avoid the need to use PowerPoint, OpenOffice or any machine in the first place. Use pen, paper, pencil, whiteboard, paper notebook. Collect ideas first.
Remember: Ideas come when we are analog. So, first be analog and then go digital.

21. How can you be analog?
a. Find some time alone : Take some time out of your schedule to reflect on the content and message that you want people to remember.
b. Scribble: Use analog tools first. Figure out the entire story and then start off with the computer. Remember: PowerPoint is not the presentation.

22. We are all fascinated by bullet points. Did you know? There are ways to avoid them. Bullet points if used incorrectly can make your presentation look like a document.

23. What are the alternatives to bullet points? Typography can be your answer: Use a mix of varied sizes of text and a proper lay out. Use icons, shapes and images. Look at good presentations on slideshare.net

24. How do you engage the audience? Involve the audience by asking questions, views and feedback.

25. Use visuals instead of text as much as possible. Visual imagery has a larger impact than text. They evoke emotions and guarantee a better learning experience.

26. You can use varied tools to accomplish a presentation:
a. For images: iStockPhoto, Flickr and sxc.hu etc.
b. Newer ways to create presentation: slideRocket and Prezi
c. Alternative to ppts: movies and animations
d. Look at Impress.JS - fascinating tools for developing presentations for geeks.

27. Design is universal: Everybody is a designer.

28. Things that you can best avoid (as much as possible, if not completely):
a) The tendency to fill every space on the screen
b) Usage of text animations: Try not to make the text fly, jump etc.
c) Usage of footers in your presentation: You do not need footers. Page numbers are a visual clutter. Avoid anything that is not required in the presentation. Read, re-read and edit your presentation.
d) Usage of brand Logos on each and every slide is a passe. Nobody uses it. Its a clutter and does not add any value to the presentation. Instead, it adds to the visual noise.

29. Everybody is a designer. Learn about design, i.e, fonts, colors and human psychology.

30. Lastly, CARE about the audience. Care about their time, patience, limited levels of concentration we all have. Care for them.

31. And again, PRACTISE. There is no shortcut to success. You got to practise like crazy. It really makes things for the presenter near to perfection (in not completely perfect)

30. Get more information at:
a) www.presentationzen.com
b) www.ted.com
c) http://headrush.typepad.com
d) www.scottberkun.com

31. Learn more from the following books :

a) Slide:ology
b) Presentation Zen
c) Made to Stick
d) Confessions of a public speaker
e) Zen of creativity
f) Resonance

32. Conclusion:-
Presentation is not about powerpoint. Its about you!
Sometimes the best presentation is NO Presentation

Geeks Day Out

2012-02-12T13:18:00.000+05:30

It was a foggy Saturday morning on 11th Feb and geeks from all around Bangalore headed to SAP Labs for the 11th edition of BarCamp. With around 600+ people registered for the event, it was a day destined to be exciting and eventful. For me, it was the first time I was attending the event. Being in Bangalore for so many years, it was weird why I missed it all the time.

There were talks on almost every topic that concerns the geek in each one of us - Electronic Product design, User Interfaces, Programming languages, Cloud, Mobile, Web, and everything that matters. There were even sessions on Cooking, Interactive Fiction and guess what.. Hypnosis. Wow!

I was blown away with the variety of information flowing around in all directions. The venue of SAP Labs was an awesome stage to host the geek congregation.

The event also marked my first stint as a speaker at BarCamp. I was talking on the topic close to my heart - How to enchant the audience with your presentation. Being in software business for sometime, I was surprised how bad presentations really are. Each day people all around the world, people spent time listening to presenters that bore them to death with their slides and speaking skills.

It intrigued me for a long time till I took a shot at it. I have been a passionate speaker since my college days. Me and my gang going around the colleges in Bangalore evangelizing technology. It was a tough task but something that taught me a lot on how to enchant the audience.

Lately, I have been talking to groups helping them become good speakers and create enchanted presentations. And BarCamp was a perfect opportunity for sharing this to a wider audience. The session was titled : Don't just Present, Enchant

The crowd was brilliant. I was surprised to see so many people turn up for the session even when there were so many good sessions running in parallel. The session turned out to be a good venture for me. Loved every bit of interaction from the audience. I want to have a separate post just on the topic summarizing the presentation.

I was happy to see so many enchanted faces and loved the feedback I received about the session. Some of them are mentioned below :-

Please Note: I have hidden the twitter handles to protect privacy of the audience.

Thanks again to all who turned up for the session. It was a great learning experience for me. And Thank you BarCamp Bangalore.

Audience is the King : DroidCon India 2011

2012-02-11T22:26:00.003+05:30

I wanted to share the success of my stint at speaking at the popular DroidCon conference in Bangalore last year. It was a fantastic conference with high rated speakers and amazing content. More than anything, there was immense energy among enthusiastic Android geeks to network and partner for their projects.

My session was on User Experience and patterns adopted by popular apps on Android market. The talk was titled : Humanize the Android. I was glad to hear positive feedback from the crowd, and how it helped them think about building experiences for a Mobile device.

Below is the feedback I received via twitter for my talk :-

Please note, I have removed the twitter handles to protect the privacy of the audience.

Thanks again to all of them and others who provided me with wonderful feedback.

Don't just Present, Enchant !

2012-01-25T16:15:00.000+05:30

Don't just present, Enchant!This is the title of my next outing as a presenter. I had recently undertaken a workshop at my organization on the same topic which got great reviews. The intention of the workshop was to give the audience a toolkit to create and deliver extraordinary presentations. The focus was not limited to creating powerpoint presentation, but covered the intricacies of delivering a great talk. This included Style, Body language, Clarity, Stories, Visual Emphasis etc.

I soon realized the importance of this workshop extends beyond an organization. Every day we spent millions of hours around the world giving presentations. Each presentation has the ability to change the world we live in. If we can focus on few important areas of this art, I believe we can create wonders in our career. And like all aspects of art, nothing is impossible or magic. It can be learned, practised and, over the period of time , excelled in.

I am planning to speak at the upcoming BarCamp-XI Bangalore edition to be held at SAP Labs, Whitefield on 11th Feb 2012. The topic will be the same. However this time, it will be more interactive. I would attempt to involve the audience to understand this important need of modern workplace and look at simple ways to create enchantment for your audience.

If you are interested in this talk, or want to chat, join me at BarCamp XI - Bangalore on 11th Feb. Register and vote for my talk @ http://barcampbangalore.org/bcb/bcb11/dont-just-present-enchant

PaaS is here and its Real

2012-01-04T00:45:00.000+05:30

I was encouraged to write this post by the influx of articles relating to predictions about Cloud computing in 2012. A common theme surrounding most of them is the rise of PaaS (Platform as a Service). While 2010 and 2011 was spent in understanding the real impact of IaaS and the value it brings, 2012 is destined to be the year when PaaS comes out of the closet with mass acceptance. Following are my ideas on what PaaS would be like in 2012 :-

1. Domain specific PaaS

A domain specific PaaS would allow organizations of all types to build software infrastructure over existing domain platforms. Lets talk about Telecom domain. There are various IT implementations that need to be built, maintained and supported on a daily basis for a telecom provider. These include provisioning, charging, customer on boarding, analytics, customer service and support, value added services etc. All such application environments need to have a common infrastructure of reusable components ready to be deployed and orchestrated to create solutions. A Telecom PaaS would provide telcos an unprecedented access to scale, grow and utilize the best practices of the industry without reinventing the wheel. This would create level playing opportunities for telecom providers of all sizes. Imagine how it would affect other verticals - Manufacturing, Egovernance, Logistics, Retail etc.

2. PaaS enabler buzzword

IaaS platforms would attempt morphing into PaaS enablers. This would allow organizations to create PaaS platforms for the specific business needs at will. Currently the approach the organizations take in this regard : Use existing / Implement an IaaS layer, create application provisioning infrastructure, support deployment of apps on demand etc. However there are challenges that stand before a perfect implementation of PaaS environments using the traditional means. No longer organizations need a bespoke implementation of application provisioning and deployment automation. IaaS players would allow customers to start building these platforms. A lot of traction is already visible in this space. More on this in the next point.

3. Platform-enable anything

The rise of API enabling eco-system to drive the functionalities over a service has been the biggest driver of innovation. Social networks are the living breeding example of such a revolution. PaaS enablers and newer platform services would create opportunities for organizations to platform enable their services at a fast pace. This would allow a faster time to market and easier setup process. Currently this process requires a strategic cap-ex based approach for its implementation. Its not for the weak hearted. A sustainable process to create platforms for service eco-system is the need of the hour. Take example of an Ecommerce enterprise :- With PaaS enablers, the enterprise would be able to create platform for hosting applications built by third-party developers using its services.

What do you think of this trend ? Share your comments and ideas.

In the next post, I would like to touch upon Domain specific clouds in more detail. More on this later.

Why community matters - even to IT services

2011-12-13T18:57:00.000+05:30

An interesting question was haunting my mind since some time. Why does Community matter to a services firm ? In this case, it refers to thousands of IT Services firm all around India and elsewhere. A community makes sense to a Product firm. It allows engaging the end customers, developers and solution providers to drive the eco-system. Whats in here for a Services firm ?

My 5+ year stint in IT Services firm has helped me discover interesting answers for this question. No organization works in silo, and an investment in community opens up great opportunity. The following are some of the points that come to my mind :-

1. Recruitment

Finding the best talent does not always require sneaking the job portals or social networks. The old paradigm of Job advertisements does not entirely work. An investment in community by the firm allows it to be able to scout talents that they cannot find with the usual ways. The community attracts people who are inquisitive in nature and seeking to learn from every opportunity that they can get. An IT service firm requires people who exhibit the same behavior. Driving community gives a chance for the recruitment team of the firm to be able to meet these individuals and initiate the conversations with them.

2. Brand

Like Product firms, IT services too require a brand recall that impacts customers, media and technology community. An IT firm with a strong brand image is a great marketing vehicle in itself. A community opens up the opportunity for the organization to build a great brand around itself. The community also allows external people to be the spokesperson for the organization. It enhances brand awareness and value.

3. Interaction

Interaction allows exchange of ideas. Ideas to innovate, engage and create impact. An IT service firm can use the community to engage in dialog. It provides a way to assess and discover what people external to the company are thinking about. A perfect gold mine to discover trends in technology adoption. The community also allows the employees of the organization to learn best practices and apply it to the business.

4. Culture

A strong culture of an organization has its root in how its employees help each other. This attitude is the core foundation of a community. To make better employees and culture, it is mandatory for the company to have the spirit of helping each other in its core DNA. A community involvement will provide the employees of the organization the chance to polish this aspect of professional behavior. Thereby, creating better culture inside.

5. Pre-Sales and Partnerships

An important aspect for the IT services firm is to also look for opportunities for pre-sales and scout for partnership. Its evident everywhere - Great partnerships are not formed on golf courses or elaborate lunch meetings, its formed in small informal interactions. A community gives a chance to people of specific interests to come together. This provides a perfect ground for informal discussion, leading to a possible opportunity or a chance to work together.

There are plenty of other points that can be added to the above list. The five mentioned comes immediately to me. Lastly, a community gives a chance to the firm involved to give back to the society and create a long lasting value that cannot be bought or sold.

My first Cloud Computing Talk at HIVE Forum

2011-12-06T01:12:00.001+05:30

My first talk on Cloud Computing and Amazon Web Services - September 2008.

2011-11-27T11:59:00.001+05:30

The preview video for my talk at DroidCon India 2011 held between 18-19 November in Bangalore

My talk @ DroidCon India 2011

2011-11-19T22:46:00.001+05:30

Humanize the android

ADDENDUM : -The apps mentioned in the above presentation is as following :-

1. Endomondo (Slide no.32, 41)
2. Quit Now (Slide no. 55, 56)
3. Foursquare (Slide no. 25, 40)
4. Lookout (Slide no. 48, 49)
5. Remember the Milk (Slide no. 47)

The Boiled Frog and User Experience

2011-11-14T09:02:00.001+05:30

I believe some of you if not all have heard about the boiled frog story. The premise is simple - A frog is captured and placed into a vessel containing boiling water. Result - the frog leaps out of the water immediately. Next, another frog is placed into a vessel containing room-temperature water. The vessel is kept on a heater to boil the water. The frog adapts to the change in water temperature, but never leaps out. Result - the frog dies a slow and painful death.

The thing we learn out of this experiment is the sense of adaptation. Humans like all other animals adapt to their sorrounding, and this is same with their engagement with software. Too much changes in a small period of time in the application's UI can have negative connotations with the user. The trick is to allow the changes to be dispersed in steps - to allow the user to digest the modifications and finally adapt to it.

So the big idea is : How do we use the Adaptation element of the human pscyhe to our advantage while designing the next app for mobile and web devices.

Please Note: No frog was really harmed in this experiment.

This post is a continuation of the series leading to my talk at DroidCon.2011. Come participate in the Android festival (www.droidcon.in)

Balance in User Experience

2011-11-13T20:22:00.001+05:30

With the rise of new buzzwords every day, it is becoming increasingly difficult for engineers to adapt and build for change. I have seen new techniques and ideas thrusted on to the customer, only for the need to stand out. A marketing driven development isn't the right solution. It always happens when an idea spreads like a wildfire - People start noticing it, especially those who build technology solutions for others. They start thinking of how this idea could be rolled into their product and the new avenues it would create.

Let me explain this with an example : A while back I was talking to some of my acquitances about creating great presentations, not just powerpoints. A point widely discussed was raised in that conversation - the sense of minimalism. The minimalism wave has swept the world, and I too believe its for good. But here comes the challenge - we adopt these techniques without understanding their pros and cons. After the conversation, I found a couple of my acquitances started religiously following minimal designs in all of their presentations, with occasions where audience felt the sense of emptiness and were annoyed . And sooner than later, these guys came back with the result - people do not always love minimal presentation. The question that came out was - Does minimal design in presentations work all the time ?

There are lots of factors that go in defining what level of minimalism should go in a presentation. Finding this "balance" is critical to the success of the method. Like this, there are multiple techniques available in the field of User Experience.Applying a technique as it is won't make a solution a rockstar. It requires due diligence from the practitioner to apply, measure and iterate through these techniques. The result of this would be a pure balance between what the user expects and the designer intends.

More thought on this in my talk at DroidCon.in. Register today at www.droidcon.in

The Human Element

2011-11-12T13:12:00.001+05:30

This is the first of the many blog posts I would be putting up as a prequel to my talk at the DroidCon.in Conference to be held on 18-19 November in Bangalore (droidcon.in).

I will be speaking about a topic quite close to my heart since a long time. The talk is titled as "Humanize the Android" and will include insights on how do we as engineers use the findings from brain science, cognitive psychology and the emerging field of applying game mechanics, to create great experiences for android mobile users.

Its ironic that we as engineers do not learn as much about the "user" as we do about the machine. We spent zillions of money of learning new programming paradigms, machine complexities, new software architectures but very little on the actual "endpoint" of the software that we intend to build. I am pointing about the study of how humans think, decide and behave. I believe it should be mandatory for engineers to learn about cognitive psychology, HCI (human computer interaction) and user experience - in order to create software of the highest order. The order for the next decade demands understanding of the human element in the experience that we impart from the software we develop. The rise of iPads, iPhones, Kinects, Siri re-inforces the point quite well.

In the next few posts over the week, I will attempt to provide my views on what we need to know about the field of Cognitive Psychology and Game mechanics, and how do we apply that to the software that we develop. There are tons of stuff available on the web, and my posts would anchor these links for all you readers.

If you are interested to know more about this, meet me at DroidCon.in (http://droidcon.in/2011/) next week.

Game Never Ends

2011-10-09T21:04:00.002+05:30

I am not a big fan of gaming now, but lately I have been intrigued in how regular applications are employing game like features. Points, badges, avatars, bonus features, leaderboards are employed in variety of domains - Enterprise and Commercial Software, HR, Politics, Governance etc. A little more research on this and it reveals the wealth of work around Game Mechanics.

A field of work that embraces how mechanics, that make games work and engaging, can be employed in making anything and everything fun. This is not new, the techniques were in business a long time. Remember, how our parents come up with stories so that we can have our veggies, or the medicine when we were young. You can say it was Game Mechanics at play. Or should I say - Gamification at work.

I am intrigued by the opportunities this field has to offer, and how it can be used to make engaging applications in all domains. To further my research, I found the following material that may be helpful for anybody curious to follow my breadcrumbs :-

Technical Talk Videos to watch :- (Google the topics for links)

1. Fun is the Future - Mastering Gamification

2. Meaningful Play - Getting Gamification Right

3. Game On - 16 Design Patterns for User Engagement

Books :-

1. Gamification By Design - Implementing Game Mechanics In Web And Mobile Apps

2. Reality is Broken

Paper :-

1. From Game Design Elements to Gamefulness: Defining “Gamification”

Hacker's day out

2011-08-02T02:34:00.006+05:30

As I reached the venue for 2011 Yahoo Open Hack day on a windy Saturday morning, I was greeted with a large ensemble of police men trying their best to sway the attention of the large media contigent. The ex-chief minister of the state was in a meeting with his supporters to tackle the situation that his governance had got into. I won't go to details of that, which perhaps is a topic out of my general interest and of my blog.

The venue was host to the largest gathering of engineers in India on a weekend to share a common brotherhood - the adventure of building something interesting in a span of 24 hours. And this time around, the stage was bigger and so were the stakes. My pals Vinod and Abhishek were interested enough to join me in my third stance at Yahoo Open Hack day. A couple of ideas were floating among us for sometime, and we hoped to take our adrenaline to the next level this time around. What we did not anticipate was the number of other people who shared with us the same enthusiasm and anticipation that day. A number no less than 800 non-Yahoo engineers came over from all parts of the country for this event. The crowd was a mix of professionals looking for their next big thing, to students of engineering colleges stepping up to be the next Zuckerberg of their times.

The whole ordeal of managing 800+ engineers with their hunger for wireless connections was big enough to detour even the best of the organzing teams in the world. Not to mention, the added uncertainity at which every wireless access point behaves, poured in more worries for Yahoo. This was supposed to be the biggest gathering of this kind in the world and anything Yahoo ever attempted.

A word for Yahoo. The company is going through interesting turmoil of activities at the top management while slowly sinking away from media glare since sometime. The law of dimishing returns had taken Yahoo for a ride. Not only it was losing its top tech people to competitors, its products had also taken a substantial amount of hit. But this event reminds the community every year that Yahoo still exists and carries the muscle to attempt the change. The Open Hack day becomes a religious visit for every Web and Social Software developer around the world, and is a trend now copied by all leaders in the tech space.

A word for HackDay. The concept of creating something useful and interesting in the minimum time possible is no immune to Uncertainity principle. The two different school of thoughts on this space have a distinct view on this mode of software development. The argument of a pure adrenaline based software development under time pressure challenges the opinion of well crafted and meticulously planned development approach. I agree to both the opinions and consider HackDay more like a long extended party for engineers. The idea of HackDay is not to come up with a full fledged product but to experiment and use the constraints to an engineer's advantage. A word of caution for readers who misunderstood Hackers in this space for individuals trying to steal and create digital (and physical) havoc. Hackers like fiddling, coming up with ideas and implementations that challenge the ordinary, and provide a creative relief to existing scheme of things. Hacking in Open Hack's dictionary is to come up with intuitive solutions that solve a real problem or does something really interesting. The sum of parts could potentially be a completely new thing compared to how each part works. Yahoo through its Open Hack days allows engineers to come together and share a common space to brainstorm new ideas and build models to demonstrate them in front of their peers and leading minds of the industry.

This time around the event was graced with the presence of the JSON guy, Doug Crockford. A popular name in the world of Javascript and Web Applications. Many among us if not all have grown up reading and appreciating Doug's work. He received a large round of applause from the audience as he walked up the podium with a Namaste pose, not able to derive how long he needed to have the same posture. But the crowd loved his stance and generosity. His talks had a sprinkle of geek humour bringing out the child like curiosity and a true spirit of a tech visionary at all times. Off podium he was frequently seen chatting with fellow engineers or sneaking in quietly to observe the progress of hacks.

As hackers proudly started off with their hack, there was a general sense of excitement and cheer in the air. Old faces were met, and new faces made connection. Hackers were quick on getting their hands on to the violet bean bags spread all across the venue. From a distance, it looked like a violet sea full of ships (laptops) with their masters around them. I have yet to see so many laptops and devices in a single room in any event. After a series of sessions by Yahoo illuminati, the stage was set for some entertainment. A dance troop by the name Shadows enthralled the audience with the moves on stage.

Post dinner, hackers turned over to their faithful partners (laptops) for a night that would set the stage for the champion of the competition. A good number of them broke the rhythm of coding by indulging in geek delights of Video Gaming, FoosBall, Chess and Carromboard. Microsoft Kinect was the star of that show, with people queuing up to take their chance at it even at wee hours of the night. We made a choice of using the night hours to finish up a core functionality of our hack - an attempt to use GPS Location of a mobile user to play Treasure Hunt. We wanted to develop something viral and what better than a game. The idea was to allow users to play Treasure hunt game through their Mobile while a Game server would track their location and provide the gamer with clues. Each clue was meant to be decoded by the gamer and clue lead to a location in the city. The gameplay allowed the gamers to play against each other, with the winner being the one who reached the treasure in the minimum time. It had all the ingredients of a winner, and is what kept us going through the night.

I am usually not a morning person, and a nightful of coding had left me in a trans-zombie state. The morning was painful, as our hack kept on crashing on our test mobile. We resolved to fix the issue, or worst - we had to demo it on the Emulator. We tried till the end to make the demo ready but the Mobile app refused to comply. At around the end of the hack timings (24 hours), we found ourselves with a Mobile app that refused to work, and the only solution was to use the available emulator on our laptop to demo the idea. We were disappointed but it was least we could do to justify our efforts all through the night. The Sunday evening began with judges looking over each demo entry, where the hackers would have to demo their ideas to the elite team from Yahoo, including Doug.

Our demo to these judges went surprisingly well, inspite of our failed attempt to make the Mobile app work. I spoke to the judges and took them through the concept to the application including a demo on the emulator. The judges appreciated our efforts and were pleased to see somebody trying their hand on building a game using GPS as a social data. We thoroughly enjoyed that experience and came out ecstatic and surprised. Getting into the demo finals was still a distant dream as we knew that the key to finals was the correct working of our application on a real mobile and not a emulator. Yet we comforted ourselves with the best we could do in the situation and enjoyed the time before the results were announced.

The results came out, in sync with our fears. We couldn't make it to the final demos . But our effort in making the idea work in 24 hours was enough boost to our adrenaline that kept us going. We cheered the other hackers as they proudly shared their demo with the audience. Out of a total of 170 hacks, 110 hacks were judged and 50 got their chance to demo on stage in front of all. I wasn't really impressed with the quality of hacks demonstrated compared to the expected potential of our idea. However a couple of hacks took our attention, especially hacks like FakeMyTrip - app that uses your photo to generate a fake travel pic which you can share with your friends on social networks, iPad app to transfer pictures from one social network to another in a jiff, Web application to shuttle auto rickshaws.

The event ended with the winners being announced in all categories along with the grand prize winner that included a full paid trip to New York to participate in All Star Hack Day. An open bar followed the event, as people rushed in to get their hands on free beer. A few smiles and thank you's here and there, we moved out of the venue to head home.

A few words about the determination of Yahoo in making sure that each one of the hacker present there got internet access inspite of the overclocked access points and idiotic array of similar named hotspots people created. All participants were allowed to own a bean bag along with an electronic participation certificate. But bean bags apart, the fun for hackers was to be a part of a gathering of this size. It brought in a sense of self confidence among all participants in terms of what they can achieve out of a limited time frame and a right attitude.

The Yahoo Open Hack Day ended with a big applause for the participation of engineers, the interesting app ideas that it generated and finally for Yahoo for their courage and determination to execute an awesome event that will remembered for a long time.

Cheers to all.

Bring on the good news

2011-08-01T23:43:00.000+05:30

How about building a newspaper dedicated to bring in good news from all parts of the daily life.

The modern newspaper is full of news that reflect poor role models, widespread corruption and painful parts of life. Is this what you need to know when you get up in morning ?

One idea that could work. A news service that is whole-heartedly focussed on bringing you whats good in the world every day. So every morning, when you read the newspaper, all you get is the fresh brew of the best in your city, country and world about goodness. And what is good ? What is not. A person's fight against corruption, initiatives by government leading to good life of its citizens, entrepreneurs working hard to create job opportunities, sportsmen and women on being the true role model for their community and country. Anything and everything that's good around you, the reader.

Is this idea worth a try ?

I bet a good idea shared is far better than fighting a bad idea.

Inspired by Nature

2011-07-11T20:57:00.001+05:30

This image was taken at Lalbagh garden in Bangalore on a beautiful Saturday. As I walked past this tree, I was amused by the intricate beauty the leaves and the tree had to offer. The low hanging part of the tree caught my attention. There it was, an exquisite display of engineering : a spider web creating subtle connections across the interesting set of leaves. To find more, click on the image to look into the detail.

Why I think referral bonus is a poor excuse

2011-05-25T20:29:00.002+05:30

The concept of referral bonus is a poor excuse to motivate employees to bring in their friends and family to the organization. Compensating employees in return of their recommendation for hire is a poor excuse to building corporate culture that allows employees to evangelize their work and organization to others.
Referrals is a fantastic idea. This creates a stronger bond between the employee and the employer.
Referral bonus however is a left brain trend. The concept of reward in return of getting your contact to join in for a position at the company requires a serious re-thinking. Instead, organizations must work on creating a work culture that acts as a catalyst in inspiring employees to bring in their contacts as future co-workers. Asking your acquaintance to join you at work is a way of adding new dynamics to the existing relationship. This new layer of relationship better be formed on the foundation of trust and honesty. I believe organization must look at ways in leveraging this new layer of relationship and create occasions of strong bonding. This could be the reward the employee would look out for, and cherish longer than a handful amount of cash.

A number of ideas cross my mind that organizations can work on as a replacement for referral bonus :-

a) Appreciate and recognize employees having one or more of their connections working in the company.

b) Reward roles like "Organization Evangelist" to employees that bring in referrals.

If you as a reader believe that this makes sense, add your ideas for the same, in the comments below.

Rules to live by : My Mantra @ Work

2011-04-26T13:58:00.000+05:30

I have a old sheet of paper scribbled with "Rules to live by" in my workplace. I am not sure when I wrote this, but it has been with me for a while. I call it my Mantra.

Its amazing how a single scribble event can drive how I live my work life. I do not term it as a Vision document or Mission Statement. But a Mantra, or should I say - list of Mantras.

Let me share with you this list, and hope it helps you as to have your own list of Mantras.

1) Speed up Development process

2) Improve Effectiveness of Code being written

3) Make it extremely easy to write Great code

4) Build Great responsive and elegant apps

5) Balance between - using 1/2 time and build 2x quality in everything

6) Mitigate Risks in Software Development process

7) Reduce Initial hiccup time before development flow becomes steady

8) Create Reusable assets and Knowledge management features all along the SDLC

9) Make yourself and co-workers proud of their work

10) Build skills to complement each other in a team

More on these later, in subsequent posts.

Till then, Happy being great.

2011-04-17T21:37:00.000+05:30

Coming soon, on the web near you :-

The "Wow" Effect

2011-02-13T13:04:00.003+05:30

On my pursuit to research on my next presentation on "What makes Great Presentation", I found the web to be a zillion-gallon full of good resources on the topic. Everybody has a say on what makes a great presentation work. Thanks to what now we know as "Apple-era". Steve Jobs has epitomized the fact that the future belongs to the right part of your brain. Not that the left is not required, but its not the only one. For people unaware of what the previous lines meant, the truth stands : Logic is not enough, Creativity is the next frontier. "A whole new mind" by Daniel H. Pink speaks a length about it.

Irrespective of the fact that the web is full of great wisdom about "Presentation / Speaker skill", I still crave for speakers who can blow my mind. Be it conferences, corporate presentations, or trade seminars - there are same people. People who understand and appreciate the "right brain", have access to the great depth of "Web knowledge" on what needs to be done - but in the end, they are waiting for the "Tipping point".

Here is what I have learnt from the opportunities to listen and experience the "Wow" speakers, and use this consciously and some times in a manner that surprises me long after the talk is over :-

1) Surprise the audience

People love surprises. Surprises that don't hurt, but the ones that they can cherish long after the talk is over
Incorporating surprises : The best thing that works for me is the subtle pause once a while, or a two way interaction with the audience
Surprise humor works as well

2) Audience is intelligent, and they need a massage once a while to prove that they are intelligent

Never underestimate the audience.
They love as much being appreciated and "massaged" for their intelligence, as much they hate being told that they are foolish

3) Connecting the dots

Ideas that need to be communicated in steps, need to repeated
People need to have the big picture all the time in their head
In the heat of the content, people may loose the focus on the big agenda, so repetition never huts, however a balance is more than necessary
In explaining a complex scenery, I tend to always come back to the big picture because sometimes we get so deep and covered in the finer nuances that we loose out the 20000 feet view

4) The "Energy" is the suit for all seasons

Wear the suit of energy : I believe energy flows from the speaker to the audience, and a reciprocation flames it more
Energy does not always mean shouting loud, jumping around the stage
Being passionate about it also means energetic

5) Lateral thinking helps

Communicating ideas require connecting existing idea to the new idea, sometimes those ideas could be unrelated
Be aware of not just what you know about the topic, but everything and anything
Its a never bad idea to ride on the existing ideas that worked - be it films, culture, current affairs

6) Overconfidence hurts like a bad ego

You may not know it all, but you don't need to be all knowing
Don't force your ideas on the audience
If nothing works, leave it at nothing

7) Reading helps. Full Stop.

The above ideas resonate with me all the time, and has helped me to shape up my talk, and my presentation each day. And like any art, its a work in progress.

So go out, make the "Wow you audience" your mantra.

Thanks. I don't work for you, I work for the Customer

2010-12-27T16:26:00.000+05:30

Again a reflection on how we work, and perform in this changing knowledge economy. I don't work for you, I work for the Customer. This was the thought that came to my mind when I read Ram Charan's What the Customer Wants You To Know over the weekend this time.

The thought applies to anyone who is either in a services domain building solutions for customers, or in the products field, making stuff that world uses day in and out. It happened one day - I spoke to an ordinary looking guy. He told me he was excited with what happened at work today. He was sent a Thank you card by his Boss. I asked him more. He worked his head off the last weekend, as they had some strict deliverable. So as a ornament of gesture, his boss (not the company owner) delighted him with this. Of course he was happy, elated and a joy that deserved a drink or two.

I asked him a question which amused him. "Whom do you work for ? "

"I work for my company, and my boss." Pat came the reply. What's so different about it. I probe him further. "What about the customers of your company ?" And, he was fast to come back. "Yes, of course, I work for them too" - he replied.

"So does that mean, you work for your company, your boss and then the customers. Why not the reverse. " - I said.

"What do you mean ? " - he looked pissed, no denying he was in not in a mood to get probed further.

"If I do a good job at work, and the guy on my head replies - Thanks. How does that sound ? Does it sound like I helped him / her in getting some work done. What is the thing I did that deserved a Thanks for ? I worked so that our customer gets the worth of his/her penny. " - I added more spice to the talk.

Lets dissect this for a moment. I feel, the word "Thanks" from your Boss and not from the customer makes you disjunct from the company. That single word has a potential to prove that an employee is just another contributor in the vast chain of things in an organisation. This worked fine in an era when industrial revolution was the order of the day. Not now. "Thanks" to a junior employee for a work he was assigned to do, means - "You helped me to get a work done. Thanks for your help."

What really is in between the line is the fact that you are just another brick in the wall.

But Is a perfect wall just a set of nicely set bricks or more ?

Today, when organizations are talking about involving an employee in the growth story, by giving away more ownership opportunities, and a chance to own the set of things by being more entrepreneurial, how good is a "Thanks" ? I guess its an insult. Strong words, but true.

If you really want to connect the employee to the organization, don't say Thanks.

Yes, this is true. Try it.

Instead of Thanks, ascertain the fact that how his contribution added another feather in the cap. Ascertain the possibility it opened up for the company. Ascertain. Stress the point that glues his / her bondage with the company. Not a "Thanks", because the employee does not work for you, he / she works for the Customer.

Conference is about Conversations

2010-11-12T20:03:00.000+05:30

A beautiful Friday evening marked the end of the annual BT (Business Technology) Summit held on 11th and 12th November 2010 at NIMHANS Convention Center in Bangalore. BT Summit capitalized on the popularity of current hot picks in technology - Cloud and SOA. SOA being in news since some time, had a extra bit of makeover thanks to Cloud. This attracted not only developers, but decision makers, senior managers of IT companies, startups and the conference regulars.

The event divided over 2 days, the first about Cloud and related technologies, and second for the SOA.
The first day really saw the entire main auditorium full with attendees waiting to grab the next available IP address off the Wireless Internet Access point. Needless to say, once you loose the signal, you are put in a waiting queue for the next burst of Wireless access.
Among the day's highlight was the introductory talk by Dr. Soley of OMG on why standards and quality are important. A cliched topic, but explained in his humorous and straight-to-business style.
I had already gone through the numerous Windows Azure and Amazon Web Services introductory talks, so the next talks were not really an appeal. I especially had different expectations from Enterprise Cloud Computing talk, waiting to hear about use cases and implementation scenarios for Public cloud in enterprises of all sizes, but with no success. The talks were good, but repetitive if you have already been through the similar sessions.
The talk by Mr. Udayan of NIIT Technologies about designing apps in cloud was full of new learnings and excellent material. I regard that talk as one of the best in the list of talks I attended on both days. Full of real, practical advice, without been spoon-fed. Great work.
The next half of the day, saw me attending talks ranging from implementing private clouds for enterprise, to Windows Azure.
I liked Janakiram's no-nonsense-straight-to-point style of presentation, completely "paisa vasool" or "worth-the-penny".
My colleagues also poured in inputs from a talk about Multi-Tenancy on Cloud by Mr. Vikas and rated it as one that provided them with good practical knowledge. Along with the talks, the twitter hash "btsummit" was on fire, thanks to flurry of tweets flowing from all corners of the venue. It brought the summit in prominence on twitter hotspots in Bangalore.
I had my chance to participate in a Chalk talk as a result of a cancellation of a Q&A session, where along with me, two other attendees got a chance at microphone for 10 minutes. The topics included "Implementing Mix-breed Private cloud", "Amazon Web Services Case study" and "Using Cloud in enterprises". I had a good day with my luck, and bagged a elegant golf-set as an award for my chalk talk, rated top on public poll.
As the curtains came down to the first day, I had a mixed feeling as a take-away. The topics I had high expectations with, didn't really had punch, and under-rated ones surprised me.
The second day's highlight was the mix-bag of demos shown by Mr. Rohit of Kronos Inc. He talked about Semantic web and HTML 5, and amazed the audience with his bagfull of jazzy demos from all around the web.
I have a soft corner for panel discussions and see those as a perfect platform for brainstorming and value creation opportunities. The panel discussion on the second day about SOA in the age of Cloud and Integration did not disappoint me. It was the sheer aura of Dr. Soley as the moderator that kept me in the session. He got the best and the funny out of all, not just the panelists. It was a fantastic display of how a serious topic can be discussed in the light of intentional humour. Good Job.
The end of second day, made me to compare and contrast my expectations with real outcome of the conference. There were highs and lows, as with any other conference. But the whole point of coming together of a community, conversations over lunch and in middle of talks, networking, and finding new twitter friends is an amazing proposition alltogether. I made a set of friends thanks to twitter, and lucky to meet two of them in person - uma_kanth and _bharath (I better know you both from your twitter handles than your real names :)). All in all, a good experience and a learning opportunity.

A couple of points popped in my head as I browsed through the array of talks in my head:-

a) The presentations (not just powerpoints anymore) are still the old-school-style. Not all, but some notable ones still prefer to have the too-much-text syndrome. No pointers from me in this post to solve this, just read from Guy Kawasaki, Steve Jobs, Presentation Zen blog etc. - you will get the signal.

b) Beat around the bush and cliched-terms-to-save-point - I sometime found that talks, especially the process of talking involved abstraction and lacked a real sense of done-it-seen-it feel. We can make out when you see people talking like that, don't we ?

c) Ramp up the skills of presenting a talk - I found some talks to be little bland and less engaging, leading to a one-sided affair. I believe a talk or presentation is all about conversations and engagement. And this doesn't disarm the talent and skill of any speaker of a conference. The conference is a learning experience for the speaker too as its for the audience.
I sincerely hope to get feedback questionairres for each talk I attend, so to provide a consistent and focussed review, that not helps me, but also the speaker. Saltmarch, please do so from next time.

All in all, a great effort and wonderful opportunity to meet the fellow technologists from all walks of life.

Do we deserve this ?

2010-11-08T12:05:00.000+05:30

The Telegraph newspaper in Kolkata carried this news on Monday morning (8th November 2010) in the Metro edition of the paper. The news on the front page of Metro highlights the plight of a Bangladeshi national stuck in Kolkata Airport with a dead body of his uncle for more than 24 hours and been harassed by the "customer-centric" behavior of airport authorities and police department.
It throws open very important questions in front of us. The news channels are filled with pictures of how we treated the President of a big and powerful nation with red carpets, traffic freeways and best of our behaviors. And then you see this news about another foreign national, but without the designation of a high profile position. Do we deserve this or, do we deserve to do this to another guest. To get a decent humane behavior from authorities, do we need to carry the high profile designation with us. Or we are so blinded by the aura of a celebrity that we just need to impress them with our fake and camouflaged intentions of behaving best with them. This story is important, and is not the only one that shows to the world that we are not really what we do to a high profile guest in actuality. I know similar type of incidents have happened to fellow citizens of this great nation, but as a part of our culture, dont we subscribe to the philosophy of "Atithi Devo Bhavah" or Guest is God. Is this philosophy lost in the advertisements of Aamir Khan talking sense on the television or its a part of our greater evil design to lure innocent tourists.

To read the news in the above article in Telegraph newspaper, follow the link :-
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1101108/jsp/calcutta/story_13150408.jsp

Trek to Shingani Gudda

2010-11-01T17:03:00.000+05:30

Internet Explorer in Ubuntu

2010-08-17T16:47:00.002+05:30

Interested in running Internet Explorer in Ubuntu ! The following link really makes it easy to set it up.

http://stream-recorder.com/forum/install-internet-explorer-7-ie7-ubuntu-10-t6721.html?s=2ea6c33d4ea2434e02323cd0b5929781&

The paradox of 50% off and Buy 1 : Get 1

2010-08-14T11:28:00.000+05:30

I had been to one of the Shopping malls in Bangalore to purchase some items. And in my head was the chanting of Dan Ariely's Predictably Irrational, a book that throws open the mystic nature of human decision making. I was sure to make use of Dan's reasoning together with my instinct to do some really effective shopping.
As I browse through the store looking for a great pair of Running shoes, I was overwhelmed by choices. The choices that were slowly hampering my decision making abilities. The human mind can unconsciously decide with a vast number of choices, but when they are explicit, conscious and the sense organs too taking part in the decision, that is a recipe for disaster.
I liked some shoe pairs based on the comfort factor, looks and other related areas. But soon I find myself standing next to a great pair, which costs around 4k, but available at a discount of 50 %. I started reasoning in my head, convincing myself that this is better than the rest of them. Its like a Mind talking to other Mind. May be we should soon have a movie, the Conversations of a Shopaholic Mind. :)
But the best was yet to come. I see an even more appealing offer : Buy 1 Get 1. Wow. I buy a pair worth 2.5k and get another pair for free. My other mind found something to fight. Now it made me feel that I could really use this discount. I might pay 500 bucks extra, but to the satisfaction of getting another pair of shoes for free.
So I finally landed with buying two shoes at a price of One. My other mind was victorious. As I head to the Billing counter, I realized something. The billing guy bills the two pairs each at half of the amount I was ready to pay. That means, I pay Rs. 1250 for each pair of shoe. And I was like, damn. I came here to buy one good pair of running shoes. And here I am, buying two ordinary pair of shoes, not really matching my requirement, at a price greater than what my first mind registered, the worst : I did not want to pay 1.25k for that 'free' pair of shoes.
Purchase was done. I shelled out the amount. Dan's talk in my head about how the human mind gets fooled by clever antics of the marketers. If the billing guy would have told me that he is charging 2.5k for the first pair, and the other pair is for 0.0, my head would feel happy. After all, that's what I agreed on. The thing that created this confusion in my head was the fact that he charged 1.25k for each pair, which logically is the same, but is not a good reason to buy the two items in first place. I am at loss. The human mind hates losing. Two things have happened here :-
1) I bought two items, when I wanted one.
2) I paid 1.25k for each pair, and one pair wasn't that good.
The perils of free and discounts have treated my mind. The shopkeeper was happy. He was able to sell 2 items for a good price, rather than just one item (50% off one).
The only good thing out of this experience was the motivation to write a blog post about it. I am sure many of us had similar experiences but we never discussed the loss part of it. Its the success that gets Facebook updates and Twitter tweets, not the losses.

I would like to recommend the book "Predictably Irrational" to all of you. Go grab a copy and enjoy the revealing of the human decision making.

Bath Spa : The Romans and their intense history

2010-07-25T17:41:00.001+05:30

AndroidOnO2Joggler.wmv

2010-07-09T05:00:00.001+05:30

Running Android OS on O2 Joggler Device :-

O2 Joggler - on treadmill

2010-07-05T22:09:00.004+05:30

I got an O2 Joggler at a throwaway price. The device looks great, and packs a good enough power from inside.

o2 Joggler Specification:

Connectivity: Wi-Fi
Screen: 7 inch Touchscreen
Resolution: 800 x 480 pixels
Memory: 1 Gig onboard, expandable via USB.
Power: Mains only.
Video formats: MPEG-2, MPEG-4 part 2, MPEG-4 part 10 (H.264), WMV 9, DivX, Vc1, FLV
Audio formats: MP3, WAV, WMA
Size: 180 x 130 x 115mm.
Weight: 700 grams

The device has a USB connectivity, and is entirely hacker's treat. Runs Linux 2.6.24-19 kernel. I already made the device do thousands of things that the seller never intended to do thanks to google. Looking for experimenting with the Software platform, which is interestingly Flash based. Every App is a flash. (quite a story, compared to iPad). The touch screen is great but still lacks the punch of Apple.
The only bad part : no batteries, runs on Mains. Need to do something about it.
Quick snaps of the Joggler :-

Greenwich - Time stands still here

2010-07-05T22:07:00.008+05:30

London : View from the water

2010-07-05T22:07:00.007+05:30

How Piracy can generate alternate revenues and charity

2010-06-19T06:19:00.003+05:30

A very interesting TED talk from Youtube. Must watch !!!

And if you are wondering where to get the wedding dance video which was shown in the TED presentation, here it is :

James Cameron : A curious boy who went in search for his dreams to realize them one by one.

2010-06-19T06:09:00.001+05:30

My Favorite TED Talks

2010-06-19T04:55:00.006+05:30

I had this blog post long pending. Thanks to one of my friends, this idea got its catalyst. My list of favorites from the TED (www.ted.com) from all the videos I have viewed over the years. Every single talk on TED has something to offer. The below list includes the ones that made me to stop for a while, think and go deep into the real meaning of the talk. Each one of them has a class of its own. The list is not ordered and not exhaustive. Some of the talks are not exactly TED hosted, but are now available on the TED site.
List :-

1. Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity
2. Jill Bolte Taylor's stroke of insight
3. Tony Robbins asks why we do what we do
4. Benjamin Zander on music and passion
5. Jeff Han demos his breakthrough touchscreen
6. Arthur Benjamin does "Mathemagic"
7. David Pogue says "Simplicity sells"
8. Brian Cox on CERN's supercollider
9. Pranav Mistry: The thrilling potential of SixthSense technology
10. VS Ramachandran on your mind
11. Jeff Hawkins on how brain science will change computing
12. Blaise Aguera y Arcas demos augmented-reality maps
13. Jonathan Harris: the Web's secret stories
14. Richard Branson's life at 30,000 feet
15. Golan Levin on software (as) art
16. John Underkoffler points to the future of UI
17. Thulasiraj Ravilla: How low-cost eye care can be world-class
18. Rodney Brooks says robots will invade our lives
19. Steve Jobs: How to live before you die
20. Michael Shermer on strange beliefs
21. Johnny Lee demos Wii Remote hacks
22. Ze Frank's nerdcore comedy
23. Golan Levin makes art that looks back at you
24. Frans Lanting's lyrical nature photos
25. Derek Sivers: How to start a movement
26. Derek Sivers: Weird, or just different?
27. Devdutt Pattanaik: East vs. West -- the myths that mystify
28. Dan Pink on the surprising science of motivation
29. Seth Godin on standing out
30. Malcolm Gladwell on spaghetti sauce
31. Bill Gates on energy: Innovating to zero!
32. Al Gore's new thinking on the climate crisis
33. Hans Rosling's new insights on poverty
34. James Nachtwey's searing photos of war
35. Emily Oster flips our thinking on AIDS in Africa
36. Yossi Vardi fights local warming

I will be attaching the links to each one of them in some days. Meanwhile, happy hunting them on TED. Thanks Pragathi for being the catalyst for this post.

And Twitter does it again... :)

2010-06-18T21:20:00.003+05:30

The text "What's happening? " is so aptly placed below pointing to the text "Whoops!". I am still waiting.... What's happening on Twitter ?

Paradox of Success : You ain't ready for more.. Twitter

2010-06-18T21:14:00.001+05:30

Afterword to Great point from Seth Godin

2010-06-18T02:34:00.002+05:30

"Pleased customers tell a few people, angry ones tell everyone"

Now there are companies like Apple who know how to make Pleased customers tell everyone. So my afterword to Seth Godin's statement is :

"Pleased customers tell a few people, angry ones tell everyone. Great Marketers make those Pleased customers shout out loud to everyone."

Seth Godin @ ISB, Hyderabad

2010-06-17T19:48:00.002+05:30

Catch Seth Godin at ISB Hyderabad on 7th July 2010.

Check the link for the complete information :-

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2010/06/benefit-eventhelp-wanted-in-hyderabad-india.html

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/freeprize/2010/06/how-to-get-reserved-seats-for-the-july-7-event-in-hyderabad.html

Great point from Seth Godin

2010-06-17T19:45:00.001+05:30

"Pleased customers tell a few people, angry ones tell everyone"

- an excerpt from Seth Godin's blog : http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2010/06/amplifying-the-lizard-brain.html

Shimmering

2010-06-17T18:53:00.000+05:30

This is how Google defines the word "Shimmering"
- "The partial invisibility that sometimes remains after true invisibility is broken"

For me, this picture defines Shimmering. Sunlight is invisible. But it gets broken when it meets the river down here.

My Second visit to London

2010-06-17T03:21:00.004+05:30

An old friend of mine, Abhishek and me visited London on a lovely Sunday.

Caught me Cooking

2010-06-17T03:20:00.000+05:30

Slough - A walk in the Park

2010-06-17T03:18:00.003+05:30

Oxford - The City of Dreaming Spires

2010-06-07T03:46:00.003+05:30

Trip to London - Part II

2010-05-23T06:57:00.002+05:30

Trip to London - Part I

2010-05-23T06:55:00.000+05:30

Geeks Can Cook

2010-05-14T02:47:00.003+05:30

Slough - First Week

2010-05-14T02:43:00.003+05:30

My trip to UK

2010-05-09T16:34:00.002+05:30

I am Torry Harris : Brand Video

2010-04-10T14:12:00.007+05:30

Hi all,

Me and Manoj N.V, one of my colleagues in the company had worked on building an inspiring video showcase of our company, and boy we did it with style. Sharing with you all, is that video that brings out the best in all of us here. Cheers and Enjoy.

Part 1 (I am Torry Harris)

Where is the PM ?

2010-03-27T19:10:00.016+05:30

This thought came to my head when I was talking to my friend Abhishek Parolkar.

I found an interesting scenario amongst set of people i speak to. Most of junior engineers have a different impression of what role a Project Manager plays. In a usual Software development team, there will be a set of development engineers, testers, designers and one or more project managers. Each and every role is critical to the success of the project. However, this team work can only sustain on the foundation of trust, caliber and communication. One other important aspect is the sense of respect and empathy of each other's role and contribution to the success of the project. In most of the failure stories of project, its not just the result of incompetent technical team, technical bottlenecks and crappy management, but also the absence of this sense of respect and empathy. Partly the responsibility of this absence is the lack of understanding the importance of the role of a contributor. And this absence is prevalent in most of the teams i have seen. I understand the source of this problem : lack of initiative from the team management to make sure each and every member understands the importance and challenges of all the roles : tester, developer, designer and PM. But my focus in this post is not about solving this problem. The point i want to make is how a PM role is understood by the other team members. Most of them are junior engineers / testers who have a little or no knowledge about the PM's role. The impression that they get is that a PM is more of a interruption rather a boon for the team. We know the role of a PM is amazingly critical. It includes resource planning, estimation, risk assessment, delegation etc., and makes sure that team is well on the way for on time delivery.

However, a friction gets developed, when the PM and delivery team do not go well together either on delivery timings or estimations. This friction not only divides a team but jeopardizes the delivery. The insight into understanding these differences is important for all teams.

A leader is respected when the team is aware that the leader understands each and every one's work, not just in theory, but has been there, and done that. This means, the source for respect for a leader, in a knowledge based world, is only possible when a leader has experience in most of the functions that he leads. Take example of Army, a Leader in defense wing is respected only when the junior officers are aware of the accomplishments or experience of the leader. This brings in the confidence in the officers about decisions made by the leader. And creates an atmosphere of trust and empathy, so critical in the functioning of the unit.

Coming back to my point, I prefer a person who leads my team to be someone who has a field experience in various functions of a Software team, and is one who empathizes the challenges faced by each and every role. With that, I advise my fellow team members and people whom i mentor to always strive for multi-functional role. Whether it is Support, or Testing or Development, or any other role, each one brings value to the table, and hence to grow as a leader, it is advisable to have hands full with experiences from all around. There are many examples in industry that makes this point evident by following it religiously. However, there are scenarios where individuals are not exposed to other facets of job, but that requires initiative from the individual too. We all have to start knowing in detail, or at least empathize the various roles. This will bring out the best in us, and give us all the support to lead in this knowledge centric economy.

Can Doing Good be Easy ?

2010-01-16T23:01:00.009+05:30

I was talking to a friend today who shared the concern of Bangalore getting dirtier each day. Some areas are in such pathetic state, that we wonder where the filth was coming from. Talking about ways to combat the menace, I happened to get a brain wave while discussing this topic with the same friend. The menace of Filth on Bangalore roads is obviously thanks to citizens of Bangalore, me, you and all. Some of us are concerned enough to put it at their designated locations. But the interesting nature of filth is that it somehow finds it way on roadside. BBMP is doing its best to solve the issue. But the root of the problem lies elsewhere.

Why doing the Right thing is so difficult, and doing the Wrong thing is always easy. Disposing the filth at their designated location is difficult, while throwing the same on roadside is easy. Why is that ?

I believe the answer is the lack of dustbins. I am staying in Bangalore for last 7 years, and I have to fight to find out a dustbin to dispose filth. And this exercise is futile most of the times. Having a good spread of dustbins across a locality will lead to a cleaner locality. It is obvious, isn't it ?

A common citizen has to go through so much of trouble just to get rid of filth, and tired of the options, he has to resort to throwing it to any location accessible. So, who is to blame here, and who is responsible for fixing it.

Would installing dustbins all around Bangalore solve this issue ? I believe yes and no. Yes because of obvious reasons, and No if only these dustbins are NOT maintained by the community or BBMP, i.e daily disposal of the filth in dustbins so to make it ready for the next day.

Also, we need to work out the way the Dustbins have to be installed, as there have been plenty of cases when even dustbins were stolen. Not to mention the Dustbins should not allow insects and flies to gather around it, thereby inviting diseases.

Above all, the basic idea that leads to the above solution is : We have to make the process of doing good and right things an easier option compared to the bad/wrong things. If this process is easier, then all of us will be motivated to do the Right thing. As doing Right is the easiest.

Let me know your comments

I am @ THBS Annual Company Day

2010-01-15T12:14:00.001+05:30

Yours truly at Torry Harris Company Day

Road to Ozzie Land

2009-12-05T12:07:00.009+05:30

I am on a 3 week trip to Ozzie Land (yes... you are right. Australia).

With a tiring journey from Bangalore to Bangkok to Melbourne, the

Spring in Melbourne was a great welcome one I needed the most.

As soon I landed, the moist cold air took off all my fatigue of the

journey. This being my second Visit to the city, I was excited to

explore more of the culture, weather and the charm that the

city holds.

The First few days went in jiffy, managing the meetings with our

Clients here and of course the food. I am really not a foodie, but

do not mind cherishing good food. The area where I am staying,

Southbank in Melbourne is a wonderful smorgasbord of food,

wine and people. Often walking back from Work, I get to see

people from all parts of the world I know about. And little less

to say, the evening of the city is as charming as the mornings.

Thankfully, I have a great view of the city from my Home.

Sometimes, I just wait for the sunset, because thats when you

get to see this...

Discounts on Book by Oreilly for SAPNET

2009-12-03T06:48:00.004+05:30

Special offer for O'Reilly User Group program members: Along with your 35% discount off print books, you can now get 45% off all ebooks you purchase direct from oreilly.com for a limited time.

Contact Me if you need the offer.

NPTEL - IISc and IIT Lectures available Online

2009-11-27T13:49:00.002+05:30

http://nptel.iitm.ac.in/courses.php?branch=Comp

Revolutionary Input Technology from T9 Developer

2009-11-26T15:46:00.002+05:30

http://news.cnet.com/1606-2_3-50003669.html

Do it for the Country - Chetan Bhagat

2009-11-21T23:16:00.011+05:30

21st November - Chetan Bhagat addressed an audience filled with eager young people, and equally young at heart, the senior citizens of Bangalore. The venue was the Odyssey Bookstore

on 100 feet road, Indiranagar. The place was jam packed with people eager to get a glimpse of Chetan, who came with his wife and 2 kids. Also accompanying him were his in-laws

who play a great deal of fictional role in his new novel "2 States". The event was organised by Odyssey to mark the launch of the same book, and the excitement was evident from the participation of the audience. I reached late with my friend, but thankfully the event had just started. It was like a mini Press conference, where people from all corners of Bangalore

had something to express. Many shared how their own life and the story of "2 States" were similar in so many sorts :- the disconnection of North and South, the confusion, the chaos and chatter that goes on in the head of the people in love. And for once, they all found

a hero who they can look up to.

There were really interesting conversations, and Chetan's take on people opinions and their own real life drama. Not just the young folks, but even the senior citizens were intrigued by

the the style of Bhagat. All in all a great session for readers from Bangalore.

More photos of the session in the below slide share.

Chetan Bhagat Session

Google Chrome OS Revealed

2009-11-20T14:28:00.003+05:30

Have a look on the Upcoming Google Chrome OS, revealed
publicly for the first time on Nov 19, 2009.

http://www.engadget.com/photos/google-chrome-os-event

SEI Cloud Computing Webinar Q&A

2009-11-18T21:31:00.006+05:30

I had a chance to attend the SEI Webinar on Cloud Computing as a part of the SEI Webinar series. I had posted some questions during the seminar, and hence I thought of sharing them with you. The questions were answered by specialists in Cloud Computing at CMU SEI.

What is the scope for Enterprise Cloud ?

Enterprise Cloud is the term that is currently associated to the implementation of private clouds within the enterprise. The goal of enterprise clouds is the virtualization of resources leading to reduced maintenance and acquisition costs from a business perspective and hiding IT complexity from a technical perspective.

How an existing Customer can scale their already purchased infrastructure to Cloud?

There is a term called cloud bursting that is associated to only using cloud resources when local resources are not enough. This is one way. Another way is one-time usage, which is to move to the cloud one-time processing or archiving.

How do you see the Standardization of the Cloud Computing vendors coming up, and the timeline for it ?

The only standardization effort that I know of is from Eucalyptus Systems. Standardization is going to be hard.

How do Cloud Computing Implementors convince Customers regarding Security of their data in the Cloud?

The only way would be to look at their SLAs and analyze the security clauses. If you are comfortable with placing your data given those clauses, then it should be acceptable. It is a matter of trust, both from a partner and a technology perspective.

Thanks to Shane McGraw for getting back to me with the answers.

Is that God really wants ?

2009-11-15T21:31:00.004+05:30

It seems we Indians have a special place for the so-called God Men. And these God men attract not just faith loving senior citizens, but an impatient lot of Indian youth, ready to compromise and looking for easy shortcuts to success, ofcourse in a religious way.

I met with some of my friends (all in mid 20s), independent and aware of right and wrong, who got into the hands of these God Men by mistake or sheer bad luck. Based on the conversations I had with some of these people, I realised how gullible we all become in the hands of a God Men. Of course, these God Men have tools of their own trade required to so create the charm on their "victims". Some of the experiences of these friends of mine have been through embarrassing situations not just for their themselves but their families too. These encounters usually start with the a chance acquantanice connecting the to-be-victim's family to this God Men who supposedly holds the mysteries of what lies ahead and can diagnose or even cure bad lucks, missteps and failures in life. The family / individual strong in the faith of God gets convinced to check this God Men and hopes to fulfill the desires. What starts is a lengthy dialogue, where the God Men uses the context of an Evil Spirit influencing the life of the Victim. He then plays around with the faith of the individual and bends him/her to his / her demands. All in the God's name. Shocked relatives, and family members remain witness to this "Godly" act, disturbed but still hopeful of the "miracolous power of the God Men".

All said and done, the point I want to make is why our society so gullible to take in any God Men so serious. Why we leave the chance, the destiny in the hands of other individuals rather than taking steps ourselves. What is going on here, that we allow such God Men to make merry on our beliefs and faiths, and allow them to have their own agenda. The Agenda of Power, the agenda of Control - thats what the God Men really wants.

But is that God really wants ?

Database Taxonomy

2009-11-11T14:33:00.002+05:30

Amazing article about the various Databases
and their classification in an intuitive
way.

Must read for all geeks

http://perspectives.mvdirona.com/2009/11/03/OneSizeDoesNotFitAll.aspx

Cheers!
Vivek

Somebody caught me questioning ?

2009-11-10T23:10:00.002+05:30

Me at Bangalore Cloud Users Group

concat() method in String class uses StringBuilder

2009-11-09T12:13:00.002+05:30

Hi,

Good link to understand that concat() method in String
class uses StringBuilder class.

http://www.venishjoe.net/2009/11/java-string-concatenation-and.html

Also, included in the link is the performance analysis of
+ operator, concat method, StringBuffer and StringBuilder.

Bye,
Vivek

Amazing Startup - Emo Labs

2009-11-09T01:12:00.001+05:30

My Library - Part 1

2009-11-08T22:10:00.003+05:30

This is part of my library at home, open to world for the first time :)

It shows an array of books on topics spanning from Technology,

Leadership, Sales & Marketing, Entrepreneurship, General Fiction,

Sci-fi, Strategic Planning and others. Some of my collection here also

includes Books part of the SAPNET library that I had reviewed or

reviewing at present. Thanks to OReilly for that.

At any point of time, I concentrate on 3 books on diverse focus areas.

But I always keep referring to other in the library.

Stay tuned for part 2 of my Library, including some real exciting

additions recently.

Frontal view of the shelf

Side View (Closer)

Closer View of the shelf

View of the bottom Row

JAD Decompilation Log Analysis Tool

2009-11-06T11:35:00.002+05:30

JAD Decompilation Analyser
--------------------------------------

Lately, I was involved in some work revolving
Decompilation of a Java Web Application. The Source
Code is unavailable, and the Client requires some
immediate changes and features in the application.
JAD comes out to be the forefront of the solution
to this problem. Hence I used the same, and found
not everything is retrievable. But JAD really gives
an extensive Log to the users abou the problems
it faced with extracting the source code.
I also needed to generate some Documents stating
per Class file basis, the status of its Decompilation,
whether it generated errors/warnings and how many.
To Solve my woes, I wrote a simple Command Line
App in Java 5.0 that parses the Log file generated
by JAD, and creates an Onscreen report stating
the following :-

1. Per file, Status of Decompilation : PASS, PASS with Warnings,
FAIL and if Errors/Warnings, the list of the same neatly aligned
with the classname.

2. Summary of Result : No. of Files Decompiled without Errors/Warnings,
No. of Files Decompiled with Warnings, No. of Files Failed

3. Success Ratio.

I hope some of you would require this at any point of time,
and hope the tool serves that purpose. I will make available
the link around Evening today (6th Nov) once I am back
to home.

See you around and keep looking for this post for updates
(link first.. )

Bangalore Cloud Users Group Meet - 2nd Nov 2009

2009-11-02T23:36:00.004+05:30

I had been to Bangalore Cloud Users Group Meet held at

HSR layout on Monday, 2nd Nov 2009. The Agenda was

the Introduction to Cloud Computing with AWS by

Jinesh Varia, Evangelist from Amazon.

I was accompanied by my colleagues Karthik, Ankush

and Siva.

The session was kickstarted by the founders of

Bangalore Cloud Users Group, and instated the spirit

of a Users group and their vision. Then the stage

was taken over by Jinesh who presented a crisp

session, partly hijacked by the flurry of questions

from the audience (some highly relevant).

Nevertheless the event turned out to be a success,

with Pizzas and Cola treating the hungry souls.

I really appreciate the effort of Mr. Prem and

Mr. Vinod from the Bangalore Cloud Users Group

to have arrange this thoughtful session, and looking

forward for many more of the same.

Any new technology or a paradigm requires the

effort of their proponents to spread the word

and encourage the adoption. Bangalore Cloud

Users Group surely has long way to go, but has

definitely started in a style.

Takeaways from the Jinesh's talk :-

1. Interesting Case studies of AWS uses

2. Some really interesting questions from the audience

3. Security issue still a great hurdle for Cloud Computing

adoption

4. Software licensing on Cloud - utility model - a topic that

requires more discussion.

I hope to see myself to speak at any of the future sessions

of Bangalore Cloud Users Group and hope to find the

readers there too.

Note:-

Only concern was the travel time to and fro for the

Event. Hope the event is held at City Centre rather

than one corner of Bangalore.

Till then Good Night

Finding the Professional

2009-10-26T23:00:00.005+05:30

A few months back, I had the opportunity to visit a one-of-its kind Outdoor learning programme called Pegasus around 3 hrs ride from Bangalore in the middle of nowhere. That opportunity landed me among a batch of bright engineers and managers, all anxious and excited to

explore the possibilities of the programme. The motive for this team (me

one of them) was three-fold. First, we were expected to participate and learn from the outcomes of the programme so to apply them in our daily work. Second, To evaluate the programme and bring in new ideas so to adapt the activities for our organisation's work culture and customer

centric practice. And third, to relax, enjoy and have a great time.

I am not here to describe what all happened there, which is supposedly to be kept secret, but to

reflect the outcomes of the same. The 2 days gave us a chance to go beyond our cliché , our invisible bindings and forces that keep us stuck to what we know. The variety of activities that we all participated brought the best and worst of all us in open, thereby giving us a chance to rediscover the "Professional" in each one of us.

Today, while reading Subroto Bagchi's new book "The Professional", I was not surprised when he mentioned an interesting incident with the Pegasus camp, and how he found true leaders among the team of individuals who had been to this camp.

A great read. If you guys haven't got a chance to read the book, grab a copy now. Its an excellent read. Or you can grab the last issue of Forbes magazine and read the review for the same.

What Am I Reading these days ?

2009-10-20T13:28:00.001+05:30

Do you think Entrepreneurship can be taught, learned or is it an instinct?

2009-10-20T10:20:00.002+05:30

Entrepreneurship can be taught, learnt and is an Instinct too.

There are countless examples to prove that Entrepreneurship is an instinct. Look at the rags to riches stories, how ordinary people start with a small setup and end up being a role model for all budding entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurship as a Science can be taught, but not the Art.

Now, what is Art and Science of Entrepreneurship. Science is the executional principles of starting and then growing as an Entrepreneur. Embracing an idea, building a product on the idea, pitching to a VC and other steps in the life-cycle of a startup. The Art of Entrepreneurship is the guts and instinct that cannot be taught. It is the Spirit and urge to build something valuable. This cannot be taught, but it can be acquired but not learnt. The great stories of Entrepreneurs, their efforts, their losses and wins act as a catalyst to inspire and to instil the spirit. This is because as Humans, we learn more through

examples.

A budding entrepreneur is like a Child, who looks for inspiration and motivation from his/her parent. The parent in this case are those wonderful individuals who have built and sustained great organisations. Therefore, I feel there is more than need to connect these children with parents.

Random Pics

2009-10-15T20:21:00.005+05:30

Valley of the Digital

My Old Book Rack

Gloomy View of the City (15th October 2009, 3:50 PM)

Old is Gold

IT is Kolkata

2009-10-09T23:29:00.002+05:30

I landed in Kolkata on Thursday, a cloudy day mostly bringing
in lot of lazy moments for me. Slept the whole day. The next
day I was really interested in exploring the IT landspace
in Kol. And there I was on this Website : http://www.kolkatatech.com/

Not much of fancy events though compared to Bangalore, where
everyday something or other is happening on IT events front.

But nonetheless, It makes me feel that IT in Kolkata is still
an half-written book, which needs lot of work, and initiative
to stand up against the mights of Southern cities.

I would love to hear more from you guys on this. Add your
comments on this, and lets start a conversation.

What a Picture

2009-10-02T14:57:00.002+05:30

Today I found this photo in my mailbox sent by one acquaintance.
The Picture was taken from Nandi Hill, Bangalore around early
evening some days back, shows a part of the city in rain.
Now who ever took this, must be real fortunate to capture
this nature's beauty. I say its WOW.

Using AWS : Experiences shared by Picnik.com

2009-10-01T22:19:00.001+05:30

2009-09-27T12:07:00.001+05:30

LinkedIn - A Professional Network built with Java Technologies and Agile Practices

View more documents from linkedin.

'Bengal'uru Part 2 (Arko performing at Jayamahal - II)

2009-09-26T02:39:00.000+05:30

'Bengal'uru Part 2 (Arko performing at Jayamahal)

2009-09-26T02:38:00.001+05:30

'Bengal'uru

2009-09-26T00:48:00.007+05:30

A tiny Kolkata in the heart of Jayamahal in Bangalore

celebrating Durga Puja.

Durga Puja has begun. I really enjoy the exuberance, energy

and positivity of the festival. It has more to do with how people

of Bengal celebrate it. A smorgasbord of emotions, cheerfulness and love.

I happened to be at Jayamahal Durga Puja festivity on 25th Sept 2009, below

are some of the pictures I took with captions.

Devotees with the 'Devi'

Different view of the venue of the Durga Puja in Jayamahal, Bangalore

'Durga' goddess in all her glory

Different view of the Idols at the Venue

The music and the Devotion

Hard metal Bengali band 'Arko' playing

View of the venue (@ 11:30 PM)

Dark Clouds in Bangalore

2009-08-10T00:05:00.003+05:30

My Notes from Event Faster Websites by Steve Souders

2009-08-09T23:59:00.002+05:30

Understanding AJAX Performance
Chapter 1
1. Principles of Optimization
- Cost of Program : Execution Time
- Optimizing Inner Loops
- Fixed Overhead of a Loop
- The Axes of Error
- Test Applications with Slow machines and Slow networks
- YSlow tool
- AJAX Data Packets should be small
- Use of YUI
- DOM API - Inefficient
- Velocity 2008 Conference
- Alexa top 100 pages
- Wow features - improve experience of the User
- Programs should be coded for correctness and clarity
- Do not tune to the quirks of particular browsers
- Measure before Optimization

Breaking the Jinx

2009-08-08T12:19:00.002+05:30

I gathered a delightful insight in the future of Indian IT Service Industry recently. While a lot has already been told and talked about in the media and other circles, a considerable amount of work is required to be done in order to break out of the notion of how IT Company works and profits in India.

When I say The Indian IT Industry, it reflects the IT Services companies in India, those who provide Development, Support and Maintenance of IT systems for all breadth of Customers. As the one who is a part of the same race, I tend to reflect most of the times, the way these companies operate and increase their profit margin. The typical IT Company starts by networking with key people, people who are part of its own Clientele, or Business partners or Independent Consultants, or even Big mammoth IT Companies (looking ways to cut down Operating and Production costs). Once the networking is in place, the company seeks information from the above networking agents, to find out the possible Clients. Once this search is over and the Company got a list of Clients that it can talk to, it starts with approaching the key people in these companies, either hawking them in Socialite parties or Business get-togethers. An exchange of Business cards, and they are talking. Sooner or later, it gets an indication that there is a possible requirement of a Solutions provider or a scenario where existing provider isn’t worth the price. This is the moment for which the IT Company waits for eternity. A possible deal. A close talk between the parties, and there is a Maintenance project that it could work on, and for that the preparation starts on the Ground. People are recruited, staffs rotated, all in a process of preparation. The Company starts the process, projects their expertise to the prospective department of the Client, and enumerates the previous work in the same field if they have. If there is more than one provider in the race, things become more competitive, and the discussion on price-performance benefits are done. If the situation demands, it goes to the extent of providing freebies or a company tour, the team meets, all in the hope that Customer likes them.

The above is just a narration on a possible process followed by an IT Company in breaking the deal, however it is not whole or complete and does not indicate in any way how it operates.

It is this Jinx that some of the providers are breaking very soon. The process of Selling that Indian IT Company has been using for last 5 – 10 years is in great need for change. I was lucky to encounter some great chaps from inside and other sources to discuss the same, and to my luck, all of them reiterate the same thing. We need to own the Client’s problems. Customer Centric behavior isn’t just keeping the customer informed, leveraging the best technology and people to solve the Customer problems, and having a sense of Empathy with them.

To this, the cliché saying comes to my head, A Friend in Need is a Friend Indeed, or should I change it to match the Indian IT industry, A Provider in Need is a Partner Indeed. Ram Charan in his book “What Customer wants you to know” clearly states the need for the companies to act like Partners of Growth for the Client. A Partner who stands by the Client in moments of truth and at the pinnacle of Success. There is a bunch of stalwarts who are championing this spirit, and are breaking the Jinx. We are saying to the Customer that we want to be the engines for your growth and in that process we earn our bread too. No longer is the success of the Project by a Vendor, a measure of good relationship. The “IT Aaj Kal” goes the following way : We as a Vendor want you to be profitable and successful, and would make sure the Projects we execute with you improves your odd, predictability and profit margins from what it was before we came in. And with this, bring in processes and standards in our way of work that promotes Creativity, Innovation, On-time delivery and Zero tolerance to Bugs/Issues, and a relationship that promotes future growth for both of us.
More on this in my later posts.

Writing Faster Javascript

2009-08-05T00:35:00.004+05:30

Lately, I am researching into creating faster Web Application
FrontEnds using Javascript. And there is one quote that
smiles me most. It goes like, Users of Web application dont
really care for how faster your application is designed
and implemented, they more care about how the application
gives the impression of Speed. This is a great statement.
It all boils down to a great idiom in designing faster
and performance driven applications on Web. If you cannot
fasten or optimize a particular part of the application,
just make it look or behave like its fast. And it works too.
This apart, I also happened to watch Nicholas C. Zakas
talk on creating Faster Javascript Apps.
The whole talk sums up into the following points to consider
while debating on how to increase the performance of Javascript.

1. Minimize Global Variables Lookup
2. Cache the Global Lookup into Local variables
3. With Statement is bad
4. Minimize DOM Manipulations
5. Use DocumentFragment to reduce Reflow.
6. Minimize Object Property lookups
7. Cache Array Lookups

More on the above topics in my next posts.

Book Review: Slide:ology

2009-07-20T00:30:00.000+05:30

The book stands out immediately
from any other on this topic not just because
of great design of it, but the infamous author
: Nancy Duarte of Duarte Designs, one of the
largest design firms in Silicon Valley. Nancy
is a leader in presentation development and
an authority in design. The book beautifully
crafts the understanding of the Art and the
Science of creating Great presentations.
A color rich smorgasbord of design insights,
must dos, and all the elements required to
create impactful presentations. I thorougly
enjoyed reading this book, and got a completely
new mindset on how to build great Presentation.
Also included are great presentations and their
creators and what was the thinking behind them.
I recommend this book to anyone who fears preparingd
and giving presentation. I know each one of us
realise how important is to know and to create
presentations in our day-to-day life. And to all
of them, just go and grab this book. You will
thank me forever :)

With this, I would like to share some my finds on
great sites that would enlighten one and all on
the Art and the Science of Great Presentations :-

1. www.presentationzen.com by Garr Reynolds.
2. sildeshare.net - Everybody knows that
3. ww.TED.com

Movie Review : Hotel Rwanda

2009-07-20T00:26:00.001+05:30

An outstanding epic of one common man's
stand against the brutal massacre of
a tribe of people in Rwanda. He is not
a soldier, he is not a politician, he is
an ordinary Hotel manager of a 4 star
hotel in Rwanda. using his wits, humour
and people skills, he builds a network
of white friends who he hopes will help
him and his family in any trouble. But
it all backfires when civil war erupts
in Rwanda. This war was a fight between
two tribes of the country, fighting for
power and one's revenge over another.
It was his leadership skills that saved
over 1000's of people in Rwanda from
the Genocide, when the whole world
had shown their back to them.
This real life incident depicted in
a great poise by Don Cheadle, is a must
watch. I just happened to see the trailer
of this movie, and got the urge to pick
it up from my neighbourhood DVD Rental
store. And I was surprised.
In my book, i would rate this movie a 5/5
at any day.

Movie Review: Jashnn

2009-07-20T00:21:00.000+05:30

My friend from college urged to go for a movie,
and the movie was newly released Jashnn
staring Adhyayan Suman. It came out as a poor
story telling about a man in search of the Music
within him. Its just like any other rags to
riches story, his struggles and finally winning
the prized Music competition. Totally predictable,
and a tear jerker. The newcomer isn't any good,
and apart from Shahana Goswami, none stand out.
So in the end, i suggest better take a nap in
afternoon than wasting the precious tears watching
this crap.

Rediscover Failure

2009-07-08T23:30:00.001+05:30

Torry Harris ka Josh

2009-07-04T18:42:00.003+05:30

For the first time, I am releasing the video that excited,
sparkled and made everybody look forward to every morning
in Torry Harris. Check the video, and let me know your
comments :-

My Issues with Reliance Broadband

2009-07-04T17:52:00.003+05:30

With all fanfare, I recently upgraded my Reliance
NetConnect High Speed Wireless internet account to
a Broadband one, with speeds upto 3.1 MBps.

But alas, my excitement died very early, as I found
the modem had some issues with my OS (Windows XP
and Ubuntu). It refused to get detected
most of the times, and I had to go for a complete
re-installation. Things became worse, when I used to
do this procedure all the time whenever I need to access
the Net. No doubt, the speed was great, but this flaw
really hurt me a lot. The Customer care people had no
clue, and neither did the people who sold me the device.

Then finally, I came across a document regarding the modem
stating the problem and the solution for it. The problem
was with Device not being detected by the Dialer Software.
Hence I was instructed to go to the Device Manager of the
Windows XP OS and go for UPDATE DRIVER Option against the
modem listing. This could solve the issue. Now All I am left
is to try this out today when I reach back home and pray that
the solution works.

Non Stop Work

2009-07-04T17:51:00.002+05:30

I had a very hectic last week, with almost 12 - 15 hours in
office. Hence, I was not able to release the Tag in time.
However, work has subsided, and now I can look forward for
a release in time.

So all set for the Tag release now.

What I am Building - II

2009-06-29T10:35:00.002+05:30

After a lazy weekend, I am here to update all of you about
the ListTag which I am developing. I am building a Project
on Sourceforge today, and by afternoon will host it.

It will come with a JAR file, and a TLD (Tag Lib Descriptor)
which has to be imported in the project. Also, I will be
enclosing Documentation to explain the finer details of the
Tag usage. The Source also will be available for free.

More on the features soon coming :-
1. AJAX support. Already implemented in the ALPHA scope of the
Project, but will not be released until this Wednesday.

2. Some new UI patterns are being included, for which I will
provide Screenshots for all of you to have a better understanding.

So looking forward for reviews & comments.

Am I Reading anything ?

2009-06-26T01:03:00.007+05:30

These books have been lying on my bedside for sometime (3 weeks).
And you cannot really finish reading any of the below books.
I got to learn it, rather than read it.
And thats what I am doing.

Comments welcome from Everyone

2009-06-25T14:54:00.001+05:30

Thanks all for great comments. As you demanded, I
have enabled comments from all, even if you are not
a Google Account holder.
So comment, criticize and add value to my posts.

Thanks!!!

Movie Review : The Greatest Game Ever Played

2009-06-24T23:35:00.005+05:30

This movie reminds me of Iqbal. Remember !!. Shreyas Talpade as a dumb and deaf budding bowler trying hard to make a name for himself in the big bag world of Cricket. And in the end he defeated the dislikes of his dad, the naysayers, by reaching the Indian Cricket team. This movie is not the same, but follows the mood. A poor peasant boy raised his parents to believe that, the rich will never allow the poor to excel, goes against his Dad to play his passion. A God gifted hand for Golf, this boy fights the bureaucracy, and the opposition of poor to rise up to the ranks of master of the game.

I am no golfer, and do not understand it well, but this movie has
heightened my curiosity and interest in the game. The movie
dramatizes the game of Golf into a battlefield with amazing visual
effects that truly brings alive the different nuances of the game.
The concentration, strategy and competitiveness of this sport is
expressed in such elegance, it literally keeps you hooked till the
end.
Marvelous performances and believable characters make this
touching underdog story a must watch.

The Mistaken Identity

2009-06-24T23:04:00.003+05:30

Its sad that a lovely city like Melbourne is now in
news for all the wrong reasons. Racist attacks, brutal
wounds of Indian students, and what not. For the time,
I was staying in Melbourne, i didn't even have a slightest
hint that this place would turn into a battlefield.
I found the people ever approachable, extremely
caring and jovial. I was put up in Fairfield, a fairy
tale part of Melbourne and would daily train to city.
For not even once, I felt a sense of discomfort travelling
alone at nights and roaming around the city. Instead I
was overwhelmed by the calmness and peace of Melbourne.
A lovely place, and surely one I wanted to stay a little
longer. Its sad that these events have, if not tarnished,
spoiled the image of Melbourne. I still believe these
incidents are acts of selective few and does not
in any way reflect the mood of the city.

Hope this episode gets over and the life in this
lovely city comes back to normal.

TED : Gift to the World

2009-06-24T09:07:00.003+05:30

How many of you have heard about TED : The premier
conference on Technology, Education and Design,
bringing some of the most creative and expressive
people around the world, and giving them the stage
for 20 min only. I am a TED addict. Watched hundreds
of TED presentations from last 2 years and still
craving for more. What delights me in each TED
talk, is the sheer passion and creativity that
the speaker tries to portray in order to make sure
his thoughts are spread around the world in less than
20 min. TED talks are freely available for anybody to
download, and they have a growing user base, where you
can share, express and exchange your TED tidbits.

And what more can I ask. TED is coming to India, this
November at Mysore campus of Infosys.

Check out www.ted.com and experience the power of changing
the world.

SAPNET and the story behind it

2009-06-23T15:05:00.001+05:30

SAPNET was started in the year 2005 by enthusiastic team from Sapthagiri College of Engineering, Bangalore. Its initial agenda was simple: To empower students to create the next big thing in Technology.

We conducted programs, workshops and seminars in the college as well as allow some of our members

to spread the word to other institutions. And we did amazing work no doubt.

The present avatar of SAPNET has a different purpose and its agenda has changed to :

Contributing to the advancement of technology through collaboration.

Keeping this thing mind, SAPNET organises weekly meetings around Bangalore where group

members come and share their passions in technology and entrepreneurship. We host Brain-storming sessions, Code demos and technology discussions. Also as a part of the new initiatives, we are creating start-up teams to come out with innovative ideas and implement them in limited time. Then these implementations are carried forward through our contacts into the general audience. This initiative already has a team working on a solution to solve Traffic Snarl in Bangalore through Social Networking and Collective Intelligence.

We are marching towards this new phase by getting new people who are excited to work with technology and have a passion to create outstanding solutions for the world.

Now coming to the problems that we are having in the regular operations of SAPNET :-

1. Firstly most of the members are Engineers employed by IT MNCs and are running short of

time to participate every week in the meetings of SAPNET thanks to gruel some Deadline issues in their

respective projects.

2. Previously we used to hold the meetings at our college premises which was easy and convenient

for everybody to attend. Now as we moved out of the college premises, Space is one issue that is

holding us. But we have some support in the form of some temporary establishments where we hold

our meetings.

Apart from the above two issues, the others are minor to describe. We are trying to find the solutions to

above problems by either holding our meetings online through Web Conferences.

On the web we run a blog which is open through membership :-

http://riseofphenix.blogspot.com/

Thanks and Regards,

Vivek Juneja

Chief Co-ordinator, SAPNET

India

The Wave is Here

2009-06-23T14:49:00.003+05:30

Google has done it. On May 28, it presented to the

world, its shiny new toy for everybody : Google Wave.

I was blown away by the Google Wave webcast i saw

somedays back. They have truly reinvented Email for

21st Century. The features, some of them uniquely

intuitive and some out of the world. If you have not

yet seen the video, please rush and have a look. A

80 mins. of pure Technology bliss.

Some of the cool features I loved :-

1. Ability to reply to a part of a mail, instead of

the complete mail.

2. The awesome Spell Checker that comes as an

Extension.

3. Document Collaboration where participants

can see in real time, what the other user is

typing and making changes to. This really

rocked.

4. HTML 5 really rocks.

5. Ultra cool UI effects and functionalities.

6. Wave as an Real time component which

can be embedded into any existing Communication

tool like Blogging or Twitter.

and lastly,

6. The Out-of-the-World Language Translator

Extension which comes as an Extension to the

Wave. And boy it does awesome Real time

Language Translation.

Some links you must go through :-

http://wave.google.com/help/wave/about.html

ListTag : End to Data Listing woes

2009-06-22T13:30:00.004+05:30

After a short break from my passion, I am back to what I can do best.

Code. This time around I am working on an Independent project

called the ListTag.

A Custom tag to solve all your Pagination, Sorting and Listing woes.

My experience with the Engineering teams here at work, made me

feel that we spend too much time re-inventing the wheel. Take the

case of Listing a set of records, Paginating it and Sorting it. I know

Flex, .NET have great custom controls to automate this stuff. Even

Java has some of them. Not that popular though and each having

cryptic API which makes them implementing quite a task. So I

experimented with a brand new way of abstracting the

Web Developer on this trivial and repeated task, by building the

ListTag. It extends the JSTL TagSupport class and provides great

new features, with integration in a matter of seconds.

The initial BETA is being tested and I will release it to the World by

next week.

I am adding pretty neat AJAX features now which will attract more

audiences and greater performance.

More updates on this as I near the deadline.

Happy Coding.

Movie Review : Ladder 49

2009-06-21T19:53:00.000+05:30

I picked up this DVD primarily because I enjoy watching

Travolta. The charisma of this guy really shines in every

film I saw before. And one more reason to pick it up

was the great soundtrack, especially As I am Leaving

by David Gray, one of my personal favourites.

I dont want to review the story as you can easily get

it from any other site. Its the sheer experience of

wide range emotions that the film makes you go

through, one of the highlights of the movie. As it is

nicely said, after you have seen the movie, you will

never see Fire truck in the same way. I am sure

most of us have never even paid a single pint of

attention to a Fire truck or the people behind it.

This movie dedicates itself to the countless Fire-

fighters around the world, and celebrates their

emotions on screen.

A must watch. Joaquin Phoenix is great.

And so is Travolta.