...the musings of a psycho...

Secret: How to get into Hulu without an invite!

2007-10-29T23:51:00.000-07:00

I guess you've heard of Hulu - the new video website launched by the NBC and News Corp just yesterday. Hulu lets users watch premium quality, full length videos of their favorite TV shows for free. And it's completely legal! The problem is that it's still in private beta - which means that you'll have to give them your email address and then wait till you get invited.
Well, guess what? I've figured out how to get into Hulu even if you do not have an invite! Here are the steps:
1. Sign up for the private beta on Hulu.com by giving your email.
2. Go back to the homepage and click the 'Forgot password' link.
3. Type in the same email address you gave for the private beta registration.
4. Check your email. You will find a mail from Hulu with a password.
5. Use the above email id and the new password to log onto Hulu!
6. This will take you to a registration screen where you can enter a user id and a new password.
7. And voila! You're inside Hulu :)

I guess its a small bug in their system and they'll probably fix it soon once the word gets out :). So hurry!!!

BTW, for those of you outside the US (like me), the videos don't work. I guess using a proxy might help, but I haven't tried it yet.

Prashant.

Pownce invites!

2007-07-20T21:48:00.000-07:00

I've got a few Pownce invites left... Want???

Hot salaries!

2007-04-30T04:18:00.000-07:00

Check out this list of top paying jobs in the US by Business 2.0.

Here are some of the surprises:

- The highest paying job is Senior Database Administrator, raking in a whopping $93,000 a year! (actually I remember my databases prof at Stanford mentioning something like this... so this isn't too much of a surprise :)

- Oh wait! Actually the highest paying is Anesthesiologist at $225,000! Woah!

- The highest paying engineering job is Project Engineer followed by Civil Engineer ($57,200)! (I would have expected Computer/Electrical/Bio engineering positions to pay better)

Prashant.

Gmail slow?

2007-04-30T01:59:00.000-07:00

Doesn't Gmail seem to be getting slower by the day???

The leopard delay isn't such a bad move...

2007-04-16T23:08:00.000-07:00

Industry analysts have cried wolf over Apple's recent announcement delaying the Leopard OS' release by a few months. Apple has explained that the iPhone requires more resources (engineering and QA) than previously expected and so they are shifting some manpower from the Leopard team to the iPhone team.

First of all, this is a 4 months delay - hardly anything compared to the years that Vista was delayed. This is not such a big deal. Not even to the hardcore mac guys. Why? Apple will only be delaying the Leopard so that they can thoroughly test it before releasing it. The actual OS will be complete by the WWDC in June as originally planned, but they will not have enough time to QA it before WWDC. And so, Apple is going to release a Beta version of the Leopard to the developers at WWDC for free. This will definitely keep them happy - for a while.

Many claim that this move signifies 'Apple abandoning the mac for some toys'. While this does initially look like the Mac were abandoning its staple Mac OS for the unpredictable and risky iPhone venture. But lets take a step back and look at the options that Apple had at this stage. Just a few months ago, the iPhone announcement received massive media coverage - almost every single publication (tech and non-tech) had something to say about the iPhone - and in most cases, the feedback was positive. The Leopard, which was announced a couple of Macworlds before the iPhone got almost no coverage when compared to the iPhone. While the Leopard 'represents' the Mac, its delay isn't such a big deal actually - especially when you compare it to what might have happened if Apple announced that they were delaying the iPhone.

Some argue that Apple has no right to give the excuse of insufficient manpower. They say that Apple should have no problem spending a little more money on hiring more engineers. Well, a look at the career section of the Apple website does show that they are hiring feverishly. However, hiring cannot help them solve a short-term problem like this. They had to shift resources.

It is also wrong to assume that the iPhone is completely independent of the 'Mac'. iPhone runs the Mac OS and its potential to turn PC users to the Mac is incredible. According to John Welch , the iLife, the iPhone and Final Cut Pro are all doing one thing - bringing back attention to the Mac. The iPhone is perhaps going to have a stronger influence on getting in new Mac users than the Leopard itself.

Therefore, concerns about Apple fumbling around are definitely misplaced. Steve and his guys know what they are doing and they seem to be on the right track. If all goes well, lots of people are going to be really happy when the iPhone comes out. And they will be pleasantly surprised to see Leopard when it does get released.

Prashant.

Check out my portfolio and analyses at Socialpicks.com

Why 'stink-less durians' may not be a good idea

2007-04-16T10:47:00.000-07:00

Seth Godin has an interesting take on stinky and stink-less durians and why the latter may not be such a good idea...

He suggests that the reason why non-durian eaters avoid durians may not be the stink at all.. And so, solving the stink problem may not result in a new breed of durian eaters... He goes on to explain by saying that non-customers are not the right people to get feedback from. This is because, in most cases, they are telling you why they don't buy something as opposed to what will make them buy that thing.

Interesting point and it kinda makes sense... Check out the post here.

Prashant.

Photo courtesy: Peter Emmett

'Hot' - ology!

2007-04-15T14:19:00.000-07:00

Haha... This one's hilarious! Finally we have one good article that takes aim at the crappy lyrics we find in most songs these days... Check out this sarcastic commentary about America's No.1 song today...

Hot Hot Heat

The best part about this article is how they 'analyze' the lines of the song with flowcharts and venn diagrams n all... Good stuff!

Here are some interesting lines from this 'song'...

I'm hot coz I'm fly/You ain't coz u not!

and check this one out...

I could sell a mil sayin nothin on a track!

I haven't heard this song yet, but I sure know how its gonna sound :) Haha... How do people listen to this kind of stuff?!

Prashant.

Today

2007-04-12T02:27:00.000-07:00

Google Calendar

Today Thu, Apr 12

10:00am 4218 Presentation
05:00pm EE4401 Term Paper deadline
6:00pm EE4210 Presentation

:(

TED Talks: Debunking myths about the "Third World"

2007-04-08T15:12:00.000-07:00

This is a fantastic presentation made by Prof. Hans Rosling at the TED Talks last year. Prof Rosling is a global health visionary and a professor at Sweden's Karolinska Institute. He is also the founder of GapMinder, a company that "unveils the beauty of statistics by converting boring numbers into enjoyable interactive animations."

In this presentation, Prof Rosling uses these beautiful animations to disprove some myths and misconceptions about the state of the "Third World countries". What I love about this presentation is the incredible amount of energy that this guy has. He mixes in humor, excitement and drama to capture the attention of the audience. Good stuff :) Check it out here...

Btw, if you are looking for some great speeches and presentations by visionaries, you should check out TED - Technology, Entertainment and Design. It's an annual conference where thinkers and visionaries from around the world come down to share their thoughts. These are some of the TED Talks I found powerful and inspiring:

U2's Bono on Poverty in Africa
Steven Levitt, Author (Freakonomics)
Richard Dawkins, Author (The God Delusion)
Jeff Han, Inventor of Multitouch Technology (a la iPhone)
Al Gore on Global Warming
Majora Carter on community building in the Bronx

Prashant.

Getting your email read...

2007-04-05T14:47:00.000-07:00

Here are some interesting tips on how to write a good subject line for your email... Some are obvious, some are not...
Word Wise: Subject to Change

Prashant.

twist in the story...

2007-04-05T13:54:00.000-07:00

Wow.. Just when you thought the story was wrapping up with a happy ending.. the prison break guys have done it again!

I just finished watching the last episode of Season 2... and I'm hungry for more. I don't know who the story writer for Prison Break is, but I know that he's one helluva writer :) For those who haven't seen the episode yet, I suggest you go n watch it ASAP... and for those who don't know what I'm talking about... well... wake up!

Prison break has done a brilliant job of keeping the excitement alive for 44 freakin episodes... And they have a brilliant way of mixing in suspense with the story line... There's always some question or the other that keeps nagging you as soon as you watch each episode! And the smart thing is that, even though its all just one story, they keep changing focus every few episodes... and that keeps you from getting bored... The timing is perfect too! Just as you get a vague feeling that you might get bored, they pop in these totally unexpected twists!

And of course the acting is awesome. Coupled with good camera work and smooth screenplay, the production is just kick ass.

This time around, it seemed like they were wrapping up the entire series... all the bad guys were dead/in jail, the good guys were free and it looked like a fairy tale ending. And boom! I'm suddenly in a different world... from out of nowhere, they bring in a secret military research center and.... oh wait, don't let me spoil it for you. Go watch it!

Have you heard of Kanban?

2007-04-05T08:40:00.000-07:00

I've heard the word before, but I never really thought too deep about its meaning. I think I first came across while I was working at Ford Motors in India and I knew that it was something to do with the Japanese way of manufacturing. I didn't bother to explore beyond that.

Over the last few weeks, however, my interest in everything Japanese has been growing and I'm beginning to admire 'Jap' stuff :) I guess this was fueled by an application I've made for an internship in Japan this summer...

So, in the midst of this Jap craze, when I came across the word 'Kanban' in Seth Godin's post, my curiosity jumped to life! In his blog post, Seth actually talks about how companies tend to launch 'incomplete' products and then blame it on deadlines or resources or other things. He stresses that it may be better to not launch a product at all, as opposed to launching it with flaws because of time and resource constraints. He advices fellow marketers to not accept to market a product that is 'mediocre'. And that's when he mentions Kanban.

Did you know that in a Japanese car factory, if a car part isn't perfect, the worker refuses to install it! And the entire production line just stops! Until a better quality part is retrieved, the production just doesn't continue. Its a matter of trading production quality over efficiency.
No wonder Japanese cars are far more reliable than American ones! This reminds of me something that happened when I was looking for a car in the US last year. Almost everyone told me to stick to Japanese cars unless I wanted my car to break down in the middle of the highway. Now, I know where that comes from!

When I read up here n there to find out more about Kanban, I came across some pretty interesting stuff... This quality control aspect of Kanban is only one part of it. The actual purpose of Kanban is to implement JIT (Just In Time) manufacturing, where the amount of inventory on hand is just enough for the manufacturing to continue without stopping. Excess inventory actually translates into greater costs and therefore the JIT system makes the manufacturing process highly cost effective and efficient. Kanban involves the use of signalling. The workers have signal boards with them which they use to communicate the levels of available inventory. The suppliers replenish the inventory as and when it gets used up. This same concept is used in modern day computerized inventory management systems as well. Its all about information and having a transparent supply chain, where each member has access to all the relevant information from other members right when they need it. In fact, I was involved in building one such ERP system while I was working at Excelics Semiconductor in Sunnyvale.

Hmm... so that's one more thing on my list of admirable things about the Japanese :)

Prashant.

This is heights...

2007-04-03T20:19:00.000-07:00

No action against Singapore swim pair

"...The two Singapore swimmers accused of smiling at the misfortune of their American colleagues at the 12th Fina World Championships are not likely to face any disciplinary action..."

What the...?!

"...Singapore Swimming Association (SSA) vice-president Oon Jin Gee said that there would be an investigation and an official apology would be issued if the boys were indeed guilty of 'poor sportsmanship'..."

Huh?! Action against someone for bad sportsmanship?! I am truly at a loss for words right now...

Prashant.

Smart Kid :)

2007-04-03T11:56:00.000-07:00

Found this on the Freakonomics blog...

Tagliamonte’s son lost his first tooth when he was nearly seven; the parents didn’t know how much to pay, so they asked their son. “He asked for one penny for his first tooth,” Tagliamonte writes, “but wanted to double it to two cents for the second tooth, which was also loose. … We’re now up to 64 cents for the forthcoming seventh loose tooth with the stipulation that once he receives $10.24 for the 11th tooth, all subsequent payments, including the $5,242.88 payment for No. 20, will go into his 529 college-savings account.”

Damn! How could I miss this opportunity to make thousands of dollars!

Prashant.

Tumblelogs

2007-04-03T08:33:00.001-07:00

I just created a new blog on Tumblr... its called laid back.

Oh wait... This doesn't mean I'm ditching this blog and moving to a new one! You don't have to update your RSS readers.. (not yet, at least!) I'm just checking out a new site called Tumblr.

I heard about Tumblr a few weeks back on techcrunch or something. Tumblr claims to be a tool for creating tumblelogs. As soon as I read that, I was like...

"What! Another blog term? Aren't we already tired of photoblogs, vlogs, linklogs, sketchblogs, phlogs, moblogs, splogs, slogs and all that other crap?"

Haha! But then, something looked different about Tumblr and I decided to find out more. It turns out that tumbleblogging may be a pretty interesting idea after all!

As most of us know, one of the biggest problems with blogging is that its difficult to keep the momentum alive. All of us have created a blog at some time or the other, but few are able to keep blogging for sustained periods of time. For some reason or the other, people just stop blogging. Apparently, some 75% or more of the blogs out there are inactive!

This has happened to me many times in the past... In fact, this very blog has already gone through at least three long periods of inactivity. (I hope I can keep up this stretch of blogging going for as long as possible!)

The funny thing about the above phenomenon is that (contrary to what many people think) we do not stop blogging because we have nothing to say. I think, all of us have plenty of things to say. Its just that the effort behind actually blogging is just too much for lazy fools like us.

And that's where tumbleblogging comes in. Tumbleblogging removes the pain away from blogging. According to Wikipedia:

A tumblelog is a variation of a blog, that favors short-form, mixed-media posts over the longer editorial posts frequently associated with blogging.

And Tumblr.com says:

If blogs are journals, tumblelogs are scrapbooks.

The idea is to provide an easier and faster way of blogging - really short posts with not too much writing or effort involved. A post could be just a video or a photo or a quote. And the best part is that the templates offered by providers like Tumblr.com are suited for exactly these kind of posts. Check out what a Tumblelog looks like right here. Do you see the difference? Big fonts and formatting that is suited to short, mixed-media posts. So that's what Tumbleblogging is about.

So, why am I interested? Scroll down a bit... You see those pics and videos on my blog? Each time I post a pic, it involves finding it on some site, copying it to my computer, uploading it to photobucket, getting the link, putting it into blogger, resizing/aligning it, adding tags and publishing it... phew... for my Tumblelog, all i need to do is click Tumble on my browser bar and it goes right into my tumblelog. And that means, no more 'too busy to blog' excuses...

Let me try it out for a while and maybe I'll do a more in-depth review of Tumblr later... As for moving completely over to Tumblr, I don't see that happening anytime soon. I like to write stuff :) I'll stick to this blog when it comes to writing posts like this one. But when it comes to photos, videos, quotes, etc., I'll probably just tumble it. (Did I just invent a new word?!)

Prashant.

NUS vs. NTU vs. SMU

2007-04-03T07:51:00.000-07:00

Yay!!!

PsychoTel?

2007-04-02T02:37:00.000-07:00

Check this out...

Sonopia, a Menlo Park, CA based company, actually allows you to launch your own mobile phone career... And apparently it just takes minutes to set up!

Obviously, by 'mobile phone career', they are actually referring to an MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) - a company that leases out cellular bandwidth from conventional careers and provides it to customers with additional value added services.

You can create your own calling plan and tailor the service to serve a particular set of customers.. One can only imagine the number of wireless 'companies' that are going to spring up as a result of this! They have already set up a number of networks - including NWF mobile, DOGSF and 4x4 wireless. NWF (National Wildlife Fund) for example offers a 450 minute plan for $40 and they even guarantee you that a good portion of the money that you spend will go towards protecting wildlife!

I can't wait to launch "PsychoTel" :P

Prashant

Thump!

2007-03-31T15:25:00.000-07:00

Found this one right inside NUS (my university)...

Prashant.

Courage

2007-03-31T13:38:00.000-07:00

A lone woman shows incredible courage as she struggles against soldiers from the Israeli army. This incredible photograph, by Oded Balilty of the Associated Press, won the World Press Photo Awards 2007.

Prashant.

Image Courtesy: digitaljournalist.org

Just Google!

2007-03-31T02:09:00.001-07:00

Nikon Universcale: Beautiful flash animation

2007-03-30T16:01:00.001-07:00

The entire universe in one little flash animation - right from the smallest subatomic particles to the farthest nebulae... beautiful! Check it out here...

-Prashant.

Swim across the Atlantic?!

2007-03-29T03:36:00.000-07:00

It looks like the Google Maps guys are getting a little bored these days :).

Mohan points us to this interesting Google Map search result that a friend of his encountered after typing the wrong addresses into the search box. Check it out here!

Prashant.

Update

2007-03-26T22:10:00.000-07:00

If you've noticed, I've finally moved to the new Blogger. I was using the old template until now, only because I had no time. Moving over to the new template requires you to redo all the changes you've made, including the little bits of Javascript you've added here and there... Well, I've now done it finally.
The new Blogger really isn't all that great. I for one, didn't find anything too special in it except for the new post categories. I'm now contemplating a move away from Blogger itself... to Wordpress or something. I don't really know the pros or cons of Wordpress over Blogger, but all the cool bloggers seem to be on Wordpress :P

Prashant.

A free mobile phone carrier?!

2007-03-26T13:59:00.000-07:00

Blyk, a Helsinki-based startup may soon become the world's first free mobile phone carrier. Yes, you read that right! A free carrier! No more mobile phone bills!

And how exactly do they plan to do that, you ask? Well, how else... Blyk, which launches in UK this summer, will be completely supported by advertising.

Now, these guys are not traditional mobile phone operators a la Starhub or Singtel... These guys are actually MVNOs (Mobile Virtual Network Operators). What this means is that they resell wireless services under their own name, using the network of another operator. This usually allows MVNOs to focus on providing other value added services. What is different about Blyk's approach is the fact that MVNOs like Ampd Mobile have tried to position themselves in the upper end of the market by providing premium services, whereas Blyk seems to be doing exactly the opposite. Blyk will be focusing on the 16-24 year old market and they hope to provide advertisers a way to reach out to this group of people through an "innovative mobile media channel".

According to Red Herring, Blyk has signed up some major advertisers for its service, including Coca Cola. However, I am still doubtful if this service can actually be supported completely by ads. Take me, for example. I pay a monthly bill of about S$50 to Singtel. Now, assuming that Singtel makes a tidy 40% profit on that, the cost of providing that service to me is about 30$. If ads were going to replace my bills, then companies like Coca Cola are going to have to pay at least 30$ per person per month to keep a company like Blyk alive. Now this would mean that the advertiser expected me to purchase something valued at much >30$ from that company (else the advertising would be a waste). Right?! Isn't that a bit of a long shot?

Well, I'm not too sure if that logic up there is correct. In any case, I'm a little bit sceptic about how Blyk might pull this off. And if it does, I couldn't be happier (no more phone bills!).

Prashant.

Google Homepage Themes

2007-03-21T06:39:00.000-07:00

When I opened my browser this morning, I had a pleasant surprise waiting for me. I've been using Google personalized homepage for a while and today they finally did something about their painfully crappy UI. They've finally announced Themes! Right now, there are only a handful of themes, but all of them are quite nice. One little extra feature I really like is a dynamic wallpaper that actually portrays the real weather in your city! So if its raining outside, for eg., your background will show rainfall too. Nice :)

There are scores of personalized homepage websites out there - Pageflakes, Netvibes, My Yahoo, Google Personalized Homepage, AOL something, MSN something, etc etc. All of them are cool in their own little ways and compete with each other on features. And among these, the Google and Yahoo one were pretty much the crappiest looking... boxy, old-fashioned, themeless... Yet, they are the market leaders in this segment. This makes sense, considering the fact that (almost) every Internet user has a Google/Yahoo account. I, for eg, had to choose Google over the rest coz that's the only one that gave me access to all the Google services. I have my Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Reader, weather, todo list, etc all in one place :)

Until now, the only thing that sucked about this service was the look. By adding themes, I guess they've made it perfect :)

Prashant.

Interactive mirrors! Now we're talking :)

2007-03-20T16:23:00.000-07:00

Wow, I can't believe that no one thought of this until now!

Bloomingdale's New York has just debuted the first interactive mirror! No, I'm not talking about a Snow white kinda mirror which talks back to you when you ask questions... This, in fact, is even better :)

This new mirror actually functions as a high-resolution digital display which shows images of selected clothes on it... which means... you don't have to keep changing clothes again and again at the shop when you wanna try them on! All you have to do, is choose the outfit you like and stand in front of the mirror. It'll show you how you would look with those clothes on. Neat!

Well that's not all. It will also upload a digital image of you 'in' those clothes to a website where you're friends can comment on it and tell you whether it looks good or not... Hmmm, not bad. But then again, as Josh Spear points out - 'Women go shopping together for a reason! What woman would want to sit behind a computer screen and give her friends fashion advice?!' True, but I really can't comment on that coz I don't fit into the target demographic (I hope...).

In any case, the basic idea is cool. Not having to repeatedly change up to try clothes on at a store may just be a need that's strong enough to propel this technology on. If this test turns out to be a success, Bloomingdale's plans to install similar setups in its other stores across the US as well.

This kinda reminds me of TryEmAll... Wondering what that is? Well, don't worry, you're not supposed to know anyway :)

Prashant.

Image courtesy: www.joshspear.com

5000 :)

2007-03-20T01:27:00.000-07:00

No, that's not a new movie with 5000 Spartans fighting off 5 million Persians...

That's the number of unique visits this little blog of mine has gotten so far!!! 5000 unique visits! Cool, right?!

Yea, 5000 doesn't look that big, but when you consider the lengthly blog-winters I've subjected this blog to and the random crap that I've written about, it's not too bad either...

Hmm, lets do some math here... there are 136 posts on this blog (that's it?!) and that would mean that each post has been read close to 37 times! (I get the feeling that there's something terribly wrong with that calculation back there :P)

Anyways... as always, I hope I can keep the current blogging streak alive for as long as possible... And 10,000 might not be too far away :)

Prashant

Photo: Screen shot from Google Analytics showing visits and page views over

Want Joost Beta invites?

2007-03-17T02:56:00.000-07:00

Ever heard of Joost? Well, they're the new Interactive Internet TV Startup founded by Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis (the founders of Kazaa and Skype). Joost offers a downloadable client that uses P2P technology to stream TV content to you on demand.

Notably, these guys managed to sign a deal with content providers Viacom (the guys who own MTV and Comedy Central) recently.

I've tried out their software and it's pretty cool! The UI is really slick and the video quality is great! And mind you, Joost is not like the Democracy player or the Metacafe player where the videos are downloaded to your computer in the background and then play from your hard disk. Joost actually streams the content to you over P2P. I'm not talking about puny, low quality vids like Youtube. Joost gives you what looks like TV quality video.

The amount of content is not that great right now, but that's understandable as they're on beta. They should be adding a lot of good quality content soon.

So, any of you interested in a Beta-invite? Let me know in the comments and I'll send you one. Hurry up, coz my invites expire by Mar 22...

Prashant.

Apple at it again!

2007-03-16T05:04:00.000-07:00

Haha! This is a good one I found on Digital Inspiration...

I guess you must be familiar with the M$ Vista 'Wow' campaign. At least M$ hopes you are coz they apparently spent over $500 million on it! (if you can't get the word around with that kind of money... you can't get the word around, period.)

Well, just as the Marketing dudes at M$ are getting prepared to explain where they threw all that money, the folks down at Infinite Loop (aka Apple) couldn't resist having some fun!

Check this out...

Prashant :)

Photo courtesy: Digital Inspiration

Shift happens!

2007-03-15T12:37:00.000-07:00

Huh?!

2007-03-15T12:31:00.000-07:00

"If you have love stray dogs, you should take responsibility for ensuring that they do not bite people"

This was a 'concerned' Bangalore resident complaining about the fact that Animal Rights Activists all over India condemned the indiscriminate killing of hundreds of stray dogs in Bangalore.

What amuses me is the clearly flawed logic in what Mr Santosh is trying to say!

Does this mean that just because you love/like something/someone, you need to take responsibility for their actions?!

What if we were talking about tigers here? I love tigers! But does that mean that every time someone around the world gets killed by a tiger, I should be put in jail?!

I understand Santosh's concern for the residents of Bangalore and I definitely value the safety of all of them. But going out and ill treating these animals and indiscriminately killing them is definitely not the solution.

Prashant.

Blogger troubles?

2007-03-15T12:29:00.000-07:00

Have any of you had problems lately with Blogger.com? I've been finding it really hard to post anything new out here for a while! Every time I try to upload an image, it gives me a weird HTTP error... It looks like its a bit better now.

Prashant.

Bezurk to power TODAY hotel search

2007-03-05T08:28:00.000-08:00

Starting today, Singapore based travel search engine and former E27 presenter, Bezurk will power the TODAY newspaper's online hotel search service.

According to this post on Channel News Asia, Bezurk will provide Todayonline with a database of dozens of hotel suppliers, allowing users to search for the latest information including availability and pricing on over 100,000 hotels worldwide. After comparing multiple deals and making their selection, users will be redirected to the Bezurk site to make their booking.

This deal is clearly an ace for Bezurk. Inspired by the success of travel search engines like Expedia and Priceline in the US, Bezurk hopes to recreate this experience for frustrated Asia Pacific travellers. According to their website, Bezurk comes to the aid of numerous people who go "berserk" searching for travel information on the Internet.

Having initially focused on hotel search, Bezurk seems to be building a new Flight search engine as well. Not too long ago, I was looking for some cheap tickets to India. Normally, I would've just called my travel agent and booked the most economical ticket that he would offer. This time around, I decided to try Bezurk. While not expecting much from a Singapore site in terms of user experience, I was pleasantly surprised by the simple and intuitive interface. It had all the things I needed and in the right places. They had also added just the right amount of AJAXy goodness in the page to make it feel like it was always a step ahead of me. Bezurk also allowed me to tweak things like desired flight times, currency type and price range.

However, the results turned out to be pretty disappointing. The minimum price that Bezurk's search returned was almost S$200 above what my travel agent offered. Of course, it wasn't the same airline, but that wasn't one of my considerations. I was simply looking for the most economical way to fly home. And I couldn't find it using Bezurk.

Well, to give them a break, Bezurk's flight search engine is still in Beta and they are perhaps in the process of adding more airlines to their database. I will definitely return to the site the next time I need tickets. Hopefully, I am not disappointed again.

Prashant.

What's so special about India and China?!

2007-03-05T08:13:00.000-08:00

Another question on the SGE Forum:

Yes, yes. The two great upcoming superpowers. So what? What is available there that you can't have in Singapore?

My reply:

Hmmm... Haven't we all asked ourselves that question - 'What's special about India/China?'

Well, I'm from India and I can safely tell you that it is much easier to start a business in Singapore than it is in India. It is much more straightforward, and nowadays there is a reasonable amount of capital available as well (as long as you have a good idea). In India, on the other hand, you've got a million other things to worry about. Right from the high(er) levels of corruption to the pitiable infrastructure (it takes >1 hr to travel 16km from my home to the airport at Chennai) you end up sucking it up to a million people just to get your business started. So why India?

Well, its simple (I think). The opportunity. Business goes where the opportunity is. Business goes where the customers are. Business goes where the money is. With a burgeoning middle class and increasing amounts of disposable income, this billion-strong market is ripe for business - almost any kind of business. I think this is the single strongest reason for this sudden love for India/China. Of course, the large pool of professionals, increasing penetration of broadband, etc are contributing to this trend as well. But its the market and the opportunities that top the list. So much so that entrepreneurs and businesses are overlooking the disadvantages of corruption, bureaucracy and infrastructure to get to this market.

With that said, I must say that I wasn't really impressed with the state of the web startup sphere in India. There are a few web startups here n there... a few Youtube clones, a few digg-clones... all of them virtually unknown. The only really popular web-destinations are the matrimony sites. Isn't that unusual, especially considering the fact that India has the single largest population of web developers in the world?! Why is it that India's 'upcoming-super-power-brother' China paints a whole different picture as far as web startups are concerned? Hmmm... There could be a number of interesting reasons for this. But that warrants a whole other discussion

Any thoughts?

Prashant

Is Silicon Valley passe? Nah!

2007-03-05T08:03:00.000-08:00

Gwen asks on the newly launched SG Entrepreneurs forum:

Is Silicon Valley passe? Way past its prime? Going down and getting replaced by India as the next IT hub?

This was my reply...

Well, I don't think so...
It really depends on what one means by 'past its prime' actually.
Yes, its true that among all the clutter of new startups in Silicon Valley, very few are really promising. The last time a 'Google' happened was... well, Google itself.
However, in essence, Silicon Valley today is what it always was - a great place to start a technology business. As an entrepreneur, one can still find all the people, resources and support they might need to get their business going in Silicon Valley. SV VCs are still investing in Big Hairy Audacious dreams... smart people are still aplenty in the valley... and Wall Streeters are still willing to bet their hopes on Silicon Valley. In all those respects, Silicon Valley is still Silicon Valley. And its probably going to stay that way for a while.
I say that because it ultimately boils down to one thing - the spirit of innovation and enterprise. And that spirit, like knowledge, cannot be given or taken. It can only be shared.
In Silicon Valley, the moment an opportunity arises, people pounce on it with smart innovations and smart ways to make those innovations into businesses. Now, another group of people in another part of the world are learning to do that. And they are targeting "local" opportunities that lay untapped until today.
Today, Indians and Chinese from Silicon Valley are going back to cater to the opportunities back home. And by doing so, they are just spreading this spirit. They are making another part of the world aware of the opportunities that exist. The only thing that is going to happen is that more problems are going to be solved.
India and China are now witnessing their own little nirvana with all the attention being focused on them. And we all can see them growing into strong hubs of innovation and enterprise (India has already been an 'IT' hub for a while now). But, I don't think this will happen at the expense of Silicon Valley.

What do you guys think? Is Silicon Valley slowly losing its importance? Is this initial trickling of money to the Asian superpowers going to turn into an avalanche soon? Will it drain Silicon Valley? Or will it rejuvenate it?

Prashant.

Back in Singapura!

2007-01-06T02:41:00.000-08:00

Well, my one year stint in Silicon Valley is now over. I reached Singapore a couple of days back. It feels good to be back... back to my dear friends, back to my brother, back to college, back to student life, back to buses and mrts, back to modules and caps, back to tiger beer, and back to lovely little Singapore.
Still, there are some things that make me yearn for Silicon Valley... topping that list of course is the freakin heat down here... omg... i can't believe how i stayed here for 2 whole years... i'm sweating 24x7.. and its winter for God's sakes!
Well, other than that, I've become pretty jobless these days (kinda figures, now that I dont have a job!)... My calendar has suddenly become almost empty... I've had to switch from the daily view to the monthly view!
And of course, I miss the in-n-out burgers, the jamba juice and the jack in the box biscuits! (that's where most of my extra 15 pounds came from, btw)

Anyways, now that I'm back, I'm really looking forward to the next one year at NUS. After all, this may well be the last year of college in my life!

psycho.

Business vs. Technology

2006-12-21T18:21:00.000-08:00

From Young Singaporean Entrepreneurs are not Pop Idols by Bernard Leong on sgentrepreneurs:

The next problem that I see in Singapore is that everyone wants to be the business people and no one wants to be an inventor. Singapore are short of good technologists and geeks...oftentimes, there are a lot of money but no good ideas... Actually, the reason is simple. Any fool can learn business lingo, marketing and financial stuff...The technologists have an unique selling point that will always tip them in the stronger position. So, lack of innovators make up most of the problem in young entrepreneurs.

Well said, Bernard! That is sooooo true!

Every other day, I see my friends joining the leading banks as IB. And these guys are all engg students - brilliant ones in fact. But I guess the lure of money and a “work-hard-party-harder” lifestyle is just too strong!

The other possible reason for this is the fact that technology and engineering is no longer cool! I mean, for some odd reason, over the last 30-40 years, business graduates and business schools have been given this unfair advantage over their technology counterparts. We all know that a biz school grad (who partied his/her way through college) gets paid much higher than someone who slogged his/her feet through a PhD. Hell, its probably easier for them to get girlfriends too!

But then, just looking at the statistics tells us that Silicon Valley was almost entirely built by technologists! From the Fairchilds to the Apples, from M$ to Google… it was all done by geeks! Noone is claiming that these guys are good at running businesses. But they are good at giving birth to innovations that can change the world.

And that is precisely what we need in Singapore. Innovations.

Prashant.

Dinner with the CEO

2006-12-21T16:54:00.001-08:00

Since this is my last week at Excelics Semiconductor, my CEO, Tao Chow, took me out for dinner last night. We went to a nice seafood restaurant called the Fish Market in Sunnyvale.
During the course of our conversation, Tao asked me the inevitable question:

"What do you plan to do next?"

Now that this chapter of my life is coming to an end, I've been putting some thought into figuring out where I want to go from here. And the first thing that comes to my mind is that I want to join a small, high-energy, early-stage startup and make something that's really cool. But then again, if I think about it a little longer, I realize that I am actually pretty confused. There are way too many options out there! I could join a large company. I could become an Investment Banker at a big bank and make loads of money! I could do a Masters in Engg or an MBA. I could work in Singapore or come over to the US. I could even start my own company. All these options have their own pluses and minuses, making it all the more difficult for me to decide!

And so that's what I told Tao.

His suggestion was something that I didn't really expect from an entrepreneur. He said:

"Why do you want to plan so much into the future. Just take things as it comes! Just remember to do what you like!"

I thought he'd ask me to sit down and come up with a roadmap of what I would like to do in the next 2 years and all that stuff. But what he did say actually made a lot of sense! Firstly, it made me feel much better. I decided to stop overly worrying about what's going to happen and just do what I feel like doing! So for example, while choosing modules for my next semester at NUS, I'm not going to worry about which industry is hot right now. I'm not going to worry about which specialization will give me the best jobs. I'm just going to take the courses that sound cool and interesting to me. And I'm just going to be confident that things will eventually work out. This may not be the best thing to do, but I'm going to do just that.

Tao also went on to talk about how it is important to work in the industry for a few years before you start your own company - simply because it makes more sense from a business point of view. Business is all about risks and how you manage them. Working for a few years for another company allows you to minimize your risks and therefore is the smart thing to do.

After that, we went on to talk about how Tao actually started his career and why he decided to start his own company and so on. It's a pretty interesting story actually. He graduated from UCLA and came to Northern California to work for a company called Harris Semiconductor in the late 70s. After working there for about 7 years, he realized that he didn't really belong to a large corporation like Harris. He liked to be in a fast paced environment where things got done fast! He liked to call the shots. And so, he decided to call it quits and start his own company. Well, it wasn't exactly a split second decision. He said that he actually planned it out for about 2 years. He sat down every weekend and thought about every single aspect of the company he would start. He calculated every cost and expenditure and he tried to visualize every possible situation. After putting a lot of thought into it, he put in all his life savings and started his company - CNS Hybrid. And he ended up being quite successful at it! After many years of profitability and sustained growth, he sold the company in the late 90s to another company called REMEC. After a short break, he was called in to join Excelics as its CEO.

From my point of view, he's had a great career. He's done what he likes, he's enjoyed it, he's been successful and he's happy today. Well, that's a great career right. That's kinda where I wanna be 30 years from now. And I'm sure I will get there.

Prashant.
Photo courtesy: Brandon Cirillo, flickr.com

Wanna climb the corporate ladder? Listen up...

2006-12-20T18:18:00.000-08:00

gapingvoid has a nice post called "The Career Manifesto" with an interesting list of tips for employees who want to quickly climb up the corporate ladder. Check it out...

This is the one I liked the most:

2. Yes, your boss is an idiot at times. So what? (Do you think your associates sit around and marvel at your deep thoughts?) If you cannot give your boss basic loyalty, either report the weasel to the proper authorities or be gone.

And these made a lot of sense too...

1. Unless you’re working in a coal mine, an emergency ward, or their equivalent, spare us the sad stories about your tough job. The biggest risk most of us face in the course of a day is a paper cut.

9. Don’t expect to be perfect. Focus on doing right instead of being right. It will simplify the world enormously.

6. Your technical skills may impress the other geeks, but if you can’t get along with your co-workers, you’re a litigation breeder. Don’t be surprised if management regards you as an expensive risk.

Check it out here.

Prashant.

Photo: cadmanof50s', flickr.com

Getting Dugg!

2006-12-19T14:15:00.000-08:00

I was just checking out my blog's visitor stats today and saw quite a few visits from a digg.com page... Curious, I clicked on the link and to my pleasant surprise I saw a digg story on one of my posts!

Here's the link: http://digg.com/tech_news/Thanking_Kevin_Rose

Someone called thespy apparently submitted this story to Digg.com and I even got dugg 6 times! Pretty cool, huh?! hehe... :)

And Andre Fedor, the Canadian guy who I mentioned in my previous post acutally found my blog through digg and commented on my post!

Prashant

Thanking Kevin Rose

2006-12-18T17:10:00.000-08:00

Last Friday, Brian, GC and I went down to the Digg office to meet Kevin Rose one last time before we head back to Singapore. It was just a short meeting where we thanked him for mentoring us for the past 6 months. We also gave him a little gift - something that Brian had brought from Barcelona.

I've learned quite a lot from Kevin in these 6 months. I've been inspired by his go-get-it attitude and his passion. And the best part is that in spite of being where he is, he is extremely down to earth...

Take me for example... Who would expect Kevin Rose to take some random person (me) who walked up to him at some conference, as his mentee?! He had no reason to say yes... He just did it coz he thought I would benefit from it... I think that this attitude is what separates him from the rest... and it will definitely go a long way towards guaranteeing his success.

Ultimately, it all comes down to this personal touch... Personal touch to your customers, personal touch to your employees and personal touch to the people around you... Going out of your way to make the others around you happy... I think that's the best way to build strong relationships and networks...

Another good example is this post I just saw on Digg.com. Basically, a Digg fan from Canada wrote to Kevin Rose telling him that he really loved the site and that the new revision (Digg v3) was really cool... Most Founders/CEOs would probably read something like this and forget about it... Not Kevin.. He actually wrote back and included a nice little gift for the Digg fan.. pretty cool, huh? Besides being a nice gesture, this is a smart PR move as well! This story has got Dugg upto the front page!

Prashant.

Watch Youtube on your Ipod

2006-12-18T16:47:00.000-08:00

Wanna watch Youtube videos on your iPod? Check out iTube!

iTube downloads your favorite Youtube videos, converts it to the iPod format and imports it into iTunes with just one click! All you have to do is paste the URL of the Youtube video into iTube and it takes care of everything else... pretty cool, huh? Now you can watch those dumb ass videos wherever you go!

iTube's free btw... and it also works with Metacafe, Dailymotion and other video sites...

Prashant.
Photo: iPod by Franck, Flickr.com

StumbleVideo - Just what I wanted!

2006-12-15T16:50:00.000-08:00

So you've heard of StumbleUpon right? What StumbleUpon did was to bring the concept of TV channel surfing to the Internet. StumbleUpon is a browser plugin that allows you to basically 'stumble upon' new sites that are recommended by other users. So you don't know where you're gonna go next but you know what kind of stuff you wanna see (you specify your interests in the settings). Pretty cool idea, but... It's just that this channel surfing concept didn't really gel well with websites... I played around with it for a bit, found some cool websites, and then later got bored...

NOW, the same company has just released their latest website - StumbleVideo, where they go one step closer to a real TV. StumbleVideo basically allows you to 'channel surf' through videos from YouTube, Metacafe, Google videos, etc. Again, you specify the 'channel' you like - this includes humor, guitar, news, dancing, etc. Have you ever gone to one of these video sites just to look around? To look for something to watch? Have you gone to these sites just to waste time? Well, then StumbleVideo is just for you. It takes the effort out of timepass! You just click the Stumble button to go to the next video...

The Digg aspect
Where's the Web2.0 part you ask? Well, of course! Users can vote for the video ("I like it") or against it ("Not for me"). So, the videos are basically streamed based on their popularity. Pretty cool, huh?

And oh yea, if you register an account (the cool part is that you don't have to, if you just wanna watch some videos), it will keep track of your preferences and show videos that you might like. Also, you can connect with other Stumblers and see what they like/don't like...

Hmm, I guess they've covered all the bases for a Web2.0, UGC, community-powered site! Anyways, do check it out... I liked it!

Prashant.

Guess who's back?!

2006-12-14T15:46:00.000-08:00

Yea i know... I ditched my blog and disappeared again. Well this time around, it wasn't for too long... Well let me see... the last post was on Nov 1st. Hmm, that's not too bad, isit?

Well, the thing is, I've been really busy for the past two months... and I mean really busy! Just to give you a snapshot, this is what I've been busy with for the past coupla months:

1. NUSEA's Rainmakers Live conference: This was really big for us. I was heading the marketing team and this pretty much took away all my time... All that effort did pay off in the end and it turned out to be a great event (more on that in a separate post later)

2. Mum's US Visit: My mum came over to the US for about 3 weeks! I took her to the east coast as well as to places around the bay area (big sur, napa, san fran, etc)... we had a great time and i hope she enjoyed the trip :)

3. My database course at Stanford: This wasn't too bad... except for a crazy project and my exams (which just got over today), it was pretty smooth sailing... The project required each of us to build an ebay-like auction website.. pretty interesting stuff...

4. Business case: As part of the NOC program, we are required to write a business case and analysis on our companies... we had our draft presentation last week and so that's off my head for another month or so :)

5. Global Entrepreneurial Leadership: Another course I did at Stanford... We had our last class last week...

And in the midst of all this we had stuff like the NOC Farewell party, the NUSEA SABA mixer, an NFL game I went to, etc...

And even though I'm finally done with my courses, my business case, NUSEA, etc I dont have time to relax... I need to wrap up things at work (I'm quitting on the 22nd) and also pack up (I'm leaving to Singapore on Jan 2nd)... and oh yea, i need to sell my car!

And once I'm done with all that, I hope I get some time to sit down and reflect on this one year and think about where I want to go from here...

Prashant.

Bomb explodes at Paypal Office

2006-11-01T15:52:00.000-08:00

A bomb went off inside the PayPal headquarters in San Jose today. The bomb was placed at the exit that leads to the company's conference center. According to the fire department, there was no fire however. The paypal.com website is still up and running (obviously, coz they wouldn't be running the actual website from their building. It would be running off distributed datacenters).

Click here for the CBS report on the incident.

Well, things are getting really scary up here in the Bay Area. Last week, I read about two gun shootings in Sunnyvale (where I live). Sunnyvale, btw, happens to be one of the safest cities in the US. And then, last night, at the mega halloween party at Castro St, SF, gunshots were fired and 10 people were reportedly injured. Luckily, I was stuck in my office, preparing for an exam. Or else, who knows, I may not have been alive to write this damn post!

And now - A BOMB?! That too in the bay area? That's freakin scary!

And why Paypal??? I dont think terrorists are behind this.. they wouldn't target Paypal out of all the things out here... they would perhaps go for the big guys like google or oracle, if they even chose the bay area... So then, who could it be? I would say it's probably some disgruntled employee who went crazy... What do you think?

Prashant.

The Starbucks "Asshole" Test

2006-10-30T14:20:00.000-08:00

I was just reading a post on Guy Kawasaki's blog and I came across a nifty little tool to readily identify an asshole in your midst :)
It's called the "Starbucks Asshole test" by Robert Sutton. Robert is the author of a book called 'The No Asshole Rule' and also a professor in my dept at Stanford
And the test is pretty simple actually... here's how it goes...

If you hear someone at Starbucks order a “decaf grande half-soy, half-low fat, iced vanilla, double-shot, gingerbread cappuccino, extra dry, light ice, with one Sweet-n’-Low and one NutraSweet,” you’re in the presence of an asshole.

I totally agree :)

Prashant

Mentorship Unplugged: Innovate Incisively by Dr Thomas J. Buckholtz

2006-10-11T14:29:00.000-07:00

I had organized a talk by Tom Buckholtz a few weeks back at the NUSEA office. This talk was a part of the Mentorship Unplugged series of talks that I organize for NUSEA and this time around the topic was "Innovate Incisively".
Vivien wrote about the talk on NUSEA's Rainmakers blog. Check it out here.

Prashant

Fashion?!

2006-10-09T22:46:00.000-07:00

Just saw this pic on the Yahoo website... Shocking is all that I can say! My God! You call this fashion??? This girl's starving for God's sake! Even the hungry children in Darfur would spare a bowl of rice for her... I don't know whether these models do this intentionally or they're forced to do so by their fashion agencies... This is just so sad... And it doesn't even look good, with all the bones sticking out n stuff...
Go get a cheesecake girl!

-Prashant

MSN Soapbox Preview

2006-10-09T20:30:00.000-07:00

I just got my invitation for the beta of the MSN Soapbox today. Soapbox is Microsoft's answer to Youtube. (refer to my previous post about Google's acquisition of Youtube here.) So, it basically allows users to upload and share their videos.

I just checked it out and here's my take on it...

The interface looks pretty cool. Microsoft has departed from it's Windows Live color scheme while designing Soapbox and it looks like they've done a good job. (Click the thumbnail below to check out a screenshot).

There aren't too many videos there yet though and I guess it's just because it's still in limited beta. I was amused to see that many of the videos were Microsoft or Bill Gates related. These were probably from the initial bunch of videos that Microsoft must have put in there to start off with.

The user interface is pretty intuitive as well. The player looks pretty good and handles well. One thing I liked in particular about the interface is that you can click away on the other parts of the page without interrupting the video that is playing on the side. This is a welcome change from the YouTube interface where you essentially cannot browse other videos while one video is playing.

The videos are limited to a maximum file size of 100 MB and the site accepts a number of different video formats including AVI, MPEG, MOV, WMV and even 3GPP (a popular video format used in mobile phones).

So, all in all, the site seems pretty good. Unfortunately, that's not sufficient to ensure success in the online video sharing space. There are plenty of sites out there that do all this and much more. And of course there are the well entrenched ones like Youtube. (Now that Google's behind Youtube, they are perhaps more formidable). Exactly how Microsoft plans to compete with all these sites, I really don't know. Of course, they will try to push it through their MSN network as well as their messenger and Live Mail. Still, I think they're gonna have a tough time amassing the kind of user base that Youtube boasts of today.

-Prashant.

Google acquires YouTube!

2006-10-09T17:04:00.001-07:00

Yes! You heard me...
After all the speculation on the web recently about Google's acquisition of YouTube, it has finally been confirmed. Google will acquire YouTube for a total of $1.65 BILLION in stock. This is the biggest purchase ever made by Google!
In it's press release, Google notes that "Following the acquisition, YouTube will operate independently to preserve its successful brand and passionate community."
It is also interesting to note how Google sees this acquisition in the light of it's own competing video sharing site Google Video. The press release goes on to mention that "When the acquisition is complete, YouTube will retain its distinct brand identity, strengthening and complementing Google's own fast-growing video business."
According to Techcrunch ,Yahoo might have been in the race for Youtube until the very end!
You can listen to their Press Release Conference Call by dialing 888-203-1112 in the US and 719-457-0820 internationally. You can use the confirmation code 2260624 to listen to the recordings.
Eric Schmidt, Sergey Brin, the Youtube founders - Chad Hurley and Steven Chen and others were present in the call. They discuss the reasons why Google decided to buy Youtube and why Youtube agreed to the offer. They also discuss technological aspects and other details of the deal. Google will integrate its ad platform into Youtube. They also take some questions from some of the callers.
This is a really big deal and can be expected to change the online video sharing scene quite a bit. It will be interesting to see how Google monetizes Youtube and how they fend off the copyright violation suits that may be expected to hit Youtube now that Google has acquired them.

Prashant.

The logic behind impulse buys

2006-10-07T13:12:00.000-07:00

I just read a post on Seth Godin's blog where he compares a real life experience where he is rushing for a meeting, with the impulse buying behavior.
Seth recalls an incident where he was rushing to a meeting and did not have time to talk to an old friend that he had met. However, later on, when the friend mailed him, Seth was unable to recall what the meeting (that had seemed so important) was even about.
He then concludes with 2 interesting observations:

the first is that a lot of our day is spent doing stuff that seems urgent but really isn't.
and the second is that most people buy most things in a state of urgency, not relaxation. We pay what we pay when we buy what we buy because right then, in that moment, it's not just important, it's vital.

The second point here is very important. This impulsive buying behavior of customers is something that every marketing guy has to keep in mind. This is the reason why, for eg., grocery stores display items at the check out counter. The customer has one last chance to buy those things. Once they are done billing, it is a big hassle to pick up that extra item and queue up to purchase that item. So, there's a sense of urgency associated with that buying decision. And that can be key in tilting the customer's undecided mind towards a decision to purchase the item.

That's why, I strongly believe, that there is a great scope for advertising/marketing solutions that target the customer when he/she is in a position where they are most likely to make an impulse purchase. Location based mobile phone advertising can be a great tool in this regard. In fact, this is one area that I'm interested in actively pursuing in the near future, because of it's obvious potential to change the state of advertising as we see it today. As compared to TV advertising, where the customer's actual buying decision is not done at the same time as the customer is exposed to the advertising, mobile advertising can effectively bridge that gap. Internet advertising did solve that problem to an extent. But it is again limited to certain types of consumer purchases only. Mobile advertising, on the other hand, can clearly be extended to all forms of real world, consumer purchases. Don't you think so?

-Prashant.

Image: Check out counter at grocery store, nuanc, flickr.com

Free Hugs - An inspirational story

2006-10-07T12:35:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, a hug is all you need! Check out this video. You'll genuinely feel good after watching it! It's about a guy called Juan Mann who's sole purpose in life was to hug strangers to brighten their lives. Watching this video overwhelmed me with this strange but beautiful sense of hope. It reminded me of both the power and the good nature of the incredible human spirit. I'm touched. I'm sure you will be too.

-Prashant

New mentor: Kevin Rose

2006-10-05T16:22:00.000-07:00

Whooo.. i'm excited!
Guess what? Guess who I was just speaking to on the phone???
Kevin Rose! Yes... THE Kevin Rose... The founder of Digg.com and Revision3... the guy whose photo Business Week splashed on their covers recently... the guy who made $60million in 18 months!
I've gotten Kevin in onto the NUSEA Mentorship program! This is the 5th mentor that I've managed to get in the past 5 months... and every time I get a new mentor for the program, I get this really amazing feeling - a sense of achievement... and this is one of those moments :)

Prashant.

Grand Opening Ceremony

2006-09-28T15:56:00.000-07:00

On a lighter note (to the previous post), the opening of the new wafer fab was accompanied by a Grand Opening Ceremony.
The ceremony started with the Company Communication Meeting by our CEO, Tao Chow, followed by:
1. Giving out gifts to the Recreation Committee members. I'm one of them :). We got these little alarm clocks for our desks.
2. Presentation about new wafer fab.
3. 5-year anniversary for employees
4. Raffles
5. Recognizing new employees

It ended with some great food and fresh orange juice :)

-Prashant.

A new day at Excelics

2006-09-28T15:30:00.000-07:00

Excelics has just opened its new 4" wafer fab at the DeGuigne office. Prior to this, we had a 3" wafer fab at our Santa Clara office. Now, with the new and bigger wafer fab, production is expected to become more effective and efficient.
More importantly, it is an essential step towards achieving the revenue and profit projections that Tao outlined today in his presentation to the company. As of now, Excelics' bottom line is still red. And the company is 11 years old. However, the future seems to be looking good and the management is confident of breaking even soon and being quite profitable by 2010.
I think they're right. Although I've been here for less than a year, I can somehow sense a feeling of renewed hope around me. Something tells me that this company is actually going to hit or at least come really close to the ambitious projections that Tao has laid out.
In the 11 years of it's existence, Excelics has been unfortunately hit time and again by unforeseen circumstances that the company wasn't really prepared for. These included the Asian Economic Crisis as well as the Dot Com bust.
Now, however, sales have picked up again and we are at the border line of profitability. There has also been a greater investment in upgrading the facilities (new wafer fab), hiring more personnel and developing new products. The Transceiver, for example, that Excelics indigineously developed and started producing last year, has been a huge success. The demand is so high that Excelics finds it difficult to produce as many transceivers as the customers want. There have been some shuffles in the top management as well. My supervisor, Eric Casida, was bumped up to the CTO position and the old-CTO cum founder, RT Chen, was given the boot.
I will be writing my business case on Excelics Semiconductor pretty soon and in the process, finding out a lot more about this company. I guess my assessment would be more accurate at that stage and it would be interesting to compare it with what I've written now :)

-Prashant.

Second Life servers hacked!

2006-09-09T00:36:00.000-07:00

I got an email from Second Life today. It had a link to this article on their website.

Apparently, there has been a huge database breach at Linden Labs (the creators of Second Life). The hackers were able to access and steal the encrypted passwords and encrypted credit card information of all 642, 720 users of Second Life. Amusingly, Linden Labs mentions that users' unencrypted credit card information was not compromised. Yea right! Is that supposed to make the users feel safer?

Anyways, Linden Labs has reset the passwords of all users. With Second Life growing in popularity in the recent past, this was just the thing that they did NOT need at this time. With the credit card information of hundreds of thousands of users potentially compromised, this could be a nightmare for the guys at Linden Labs.

Luckily, I had signed up only to check this thing out and so I never gave in my credit card information.

Prashant.

Innovate Incisively, a talk by Tom Buckholtz

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

NUSEA Mentorship is proud to present…

INNOVATE INCISIVELY
Gain Impact… Save Time… for your customers, company, and colleagues.
A talk by Tom Buckholtz, PhD., Business Advisor and Executive Coach.

Location: 465 Fairchild Dr Suite 207, Mountain View, CA (map)
When: Wednesday, September 13, 6:30pm

About the Speaker:
Dr. Thomas J. Buckholtz helps enterprises and individuals define and achieve business strategies, develop and market products and services, augment corporate culture, and work effectively. He anticipates that his GIST thinking tools will catalyze a global enhancement in business and personal effectiveness.

Tom has led a $1 billion business unit, corporate operations for startups, and automation endeavors. He helped pioneer several technologies. As a Commissioner in the United States General Services Administration, he served as co-chief information officer for the federal government’s 4,000,000-person Executive Branch and also as GSA’s CIO; his team catalyzed the early 1990s nationwide grassroots movement that spotlighted improving governmental service for the United States national agenda. He catalyzed innovation and $100 million in recurring annual benefits throughout Pacific Gas and Electric Company and established a new business practice in the world software marketplace. Tom authored Information Proficiency: Your Key to the Information Age. His concepts led to the creation of the Palos Verdes Estates (California, U.S.A.) Shoreline Preserve, a Rotary International service program, and two business practices that streamlined the U.S. federal government’s acquiring billions of dollars per year of information-technology products and services. Tom earned a Ph.D. in physics from the University of California, Berkeley, after receiving a B.S. in mathematics from the California Institute of Technology. He completed business administration programs at Stanford University and the University of Michigan.

For more information about Tom, please visit www.human-landscaping.com/buckholtz

The event is absolutely FREE of cost. Refreshments will be provided.

For further queries, contact Prashant at 650.483.8458

-Prashant

Tech Tags: nusea mentorship tom+buckholtz innovate+incisively noc GIST

Launch of the Rainmakers Blog

2006-09-08T22:40:00.000-07:00

We at NUSEA just launched our new blog - Rainmakers, a couple of weeks back.

Rainmakers will be the primary mouthpeace for NUSEA where various NUSEA members as well as guest writers will talk about:
- Entrepreneurship
- Business
- Marketing
- Updates from Silicon Valley
- Events in and around Silicon Valley
- and other random musings by aspiring entrepreneurs from Singapore.

This blog will be of interest to anyone associated with entrepreneurship, business, Silicon Valley and Singapore. Do check it out. We hope you enjoy it!

Prashant.

Tech Tags: rainmakers nusea entrepreneurship business silicon+valley singapore blog

When kids write...

2006-09-08T22:21:00.000-07:00

Kids say the darnest things... But that's nothing compared to what they can come up with when asked to write!

Check out this list of metaphors and analogies that teachers from across America found in some high school essays...

Haha... this was perhaps one of the funniest things I've read in a while! My personal favorites are:

8. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife’s infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM machine.
and
24. He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.

Prashant :)

Tags: humor kids high+school metaphors analogies

Finding confidential documents with Google

2006-09-06T15:27:00.000-07:00

Want to find a confidential document using the Google search engine?

Well it's a no-brainer actually...

Search for confidential: "do not distribute" on Google and voila!

I guess Q is gonna add the Google search engine to Bond's arsenal of super cool weapons really soon...

Prashant.

Tech Tags: Google confidential search

Lessons for an aspiring entrepreneur - Part 1

2006-08-31T00:01:00.000-07:00

As an aspiring entrepreneur, my mind is usually plagued with hundreds of doubts. These are issues that any other aspiring entrepreneurs can easily relate to. It’s as if the decision to turn towards entrepreneurship, as opposed to a regular corporate life, wasn’t hard enough; we now bear the burden of a million harder decisions. Sometimes, questions like what to start, when to start and how to start, can get so overwhelming that we begin to question our initial decision to start something in the first place!

These doubts had kept my mind whirling until I had a chance to meet Gokul Rajaram a few days back at a mentorship session organized by NUSEA. Gokul is the Product Development Director for Google Adsense and also a mentor for NUSEA (refer below for further details on Gokul Rajaram). The points that Gokul mentioned over the course of our discussion seemed to instantly clear my cloudy vision of the future and put things in place. These are some of the things he spoke about:

Choose a space

Gokul said that the first step for an aspiring entrepreneur to take is to choose a space. A space is a broad industry or technology area. Mobile phone software, for example, is a space. Gokul emphasized that it is essential to focus your efforts to a particular area, even before the brainstorming stage. This would help the aspiring entrepreneur focus on understanding the market trends and customer needs of a particular area and thus avoid being overwhelmed with information about other areas. This made a lot of sense to me. I have been trying to brainstorm on a number of ideas for a startup lately and all these ideas are from diverse fields. And what I have realized is that, while evaluating these ideas, there are too many factors in the equation and these can keep you from approaching a single idea in a decisive manner. Factors like your interest and proficiency in the area come into the picture. On the other hand, if you chose a space based on your passion and expertise, you can begin to concentrate on other aspects like technology, market demands and customer needs.

Passion over fashion

Another point that is closely related to the previous one is the importance of passion. Gokul recalled his experience as soon as he graduated from MIT. He noted that ‘optical networks’ was the ‘hottest’ field in those days and he decided to work at an optical networking company solely for that reason. Within a few months, he realized that this was clearly not his passion. While he was able to do his job proficiently and smartly, he was perhaps not performing up to his potential. He decided to quit and go into computer software, which was his forte. And he never regretted that decision. Gokul simplified this idea to one single question that everyone must ask themselves before starting a company or taking up a job – ‘Every morning, as I get up, will I be excited to head off to work and do that particular job?’ If not, Gokul said, don’t do it. Even as we spoke, Gokul had a number of offers from VC firms to join them as a venture capitalist. “But I just can’t imagine going to work everyday to read business plans!” Gokul said.

Mohan, one of Gokul’s mentees, had this to say after meeting him:

Many a times, we reach crossroads in life where important decisions have to be made as they will affect what we do in future and in turn, shape who we are. I believe most of the time, these decisions are made based on market trends, potential gain factors and even parental and peer pressure. When was the last time you were advised to follow your heart and take the unorthodox path? When was the last time you actually took it?
Meeting Gokul Rajaram, product management director for Google Adsense, and being advised to follow your heart was a refreshing change. He inspired us to live our lives by following our hearts and making decisions based on what we truly feel passionate about. Passion is the fuel for the mind.

Following this, Gokul highlighted some of the key issues that an aspiring entrepreneur has to keep in mind once he/she gets the ball rolling and actually starts a company. These include staying lean, choosing and building a key differentiator, time to market and the equally important art of accepting defeat. I will cover these in detail in the next part of this series. So stay tuned!

Prashant Sarkar.

GOKUL RAJARAM

As Product Development Director of Google Adsense, Gokul Rajaram designs and implements the product strategy for Adsense, the heart of Google’s revenue model. In this role, Gokul defines new features and then works with the Google engineers to implement them. Prior to this, Gokul has taken up various software engineering as well as product management roles at Juno Online, Sun Microsystems and Onetta. As a mentor for NUSEA, Gokul meets up regularly with the NUSEA students to speak on a wide variety of topics ranging from entrepreneurship to advertising.

Tech Tags: entrepreneurship NUSEA mentorship Gokul+Rajaram adsense google

Google CEO joins Apple's Board of Directors!

2006-08-29T22:51:00.001-07:00

Eric Schmidt has just joined the Apple board of directors according to an announcement made by Apple today.

Could this possibly spell trouble for Microsoft?
Especially in the wake of its Zune effort?
Are we going to see a Google-Apple collaboration in the Digital Media segment? A Google-backed iTunes maybe?

The media (both traditional as well as online) is giving a lot of attention to this issue. The Newsweek is proclaiming that this could be a move towards the toppling of the other Silicon Valley software giant, Microsoft. The Wall Street Journal says that this board member appointment 'unites two of the most high-profile executives in the business — Mr. Schmidt and Apple CEO Steve Jobs — prompting speculation that the move could lead to a deeper alliance between the companies at some point'.

This could mean a number of different things. Or it could mean nothing. In any case, this is going to generate a lot of interest. Well we'll just have to wait n watch.

Prashant.

Tech Tags: apple eric+schmidt google microsoft board+of+directors

Tea Partay - advertising redefined

2006-08-18T23:59:00.000-07:00

I met Gokul Rajaram (Product Development Director, Google Adsense) today to have a chat. A few minutes into our chat, he began talking about his take on the future of the online advertising industry (Trust me, his views matter. He is the strategy guy behind Google's Adsense!)

One of the things he stressed upon was the need to deliver advertising that is deeply embedded into content. The thing about content, he said, is that good/interesting/whacky content has an intrinsic nature to spread virally - more efficiently than a carefully planned buzz advertising campaign. I think that makes a lot of sense. And companies today are trying to explore different ways in which they can use content to deliver their messages.

Gokul gave me one example of such advertising... It's a rap video on YouTube called 'Tea Partay'. The song is pretty crappy by most standards. But it is one of those videos that you might share with your friends. And that's what's important. The interesting part is that it is actually an ad by Smirnoff. Nowhere in the video do they mention that it is an ad. However, there are some cleverly placed references to the brand - enough to create a few impressions on the viewer's mind. Check out the video here:

While emphasizing that this is the direction that advertising might take in the near future, Gokul also raised the issue of scalability. The key is to find a way to make a scalable model that allows advertisers to advertise using videos and content. Videos with rich-clickable content could be around the corner too. Google is doing some interesting stuff with video advertising, but obviously, Gokul wasn't going to delve into the details of that.

I think there might be a lot of potential for startups to explore this emerging area. A new generation of smart online advertising is just waiting to take off.

Prashant.

Tech Tags: tea+partay Gokul+Rajaram youtube viral advertising marketing online+advertising smirnoff google adsense

Youtube to release new features

2006-08-17T21:41:00.000-07:00

The Youtube website is down right now. The homepage has this message:

We are releasing a couple of new things and doing some maintenance. We'll be back in a bit.

Wonder what those new features might be...

Prashant.

Tech Tags: youtube offline upgrade new+features

Google Music Trends

2006-08-16T17:25:00.000-07:00

I just received an update notification in Google talk asking me if I wanted to automatically send my music listening history to Google's new Music Trends service. I obviously clicked No and proceeded to check out this new service.

Google Music Trends lists the most popular music that Google Talk users are listening to. According to Google:

Music Trends is a snapshot of the music that's popular right now among Google Talk listeners. Every Talk user who has opted in to Music Trends will cast their vote automatically, each time they listen to music on their computer. We'll gather this information and display the trends by country and by genre, listing the favorite songs of the most musically-active locations around the world.

Firstly, who uses Google Talk anyway?! (I do, but that's not the point :P) According to research done by ComScore, Google Talk is a distant 4th in the IM market after MSN, Yahoo and AIM and has a pitiful 1% market share. This article in the New York Times suggests that GTalk had only 44,000 unique visitors in June.

With such crappy adoption levels, I think the Google Talk team should be concentrating its efforts on improving on the client itself. Lots of work needs to be done. Compatibility with MSN and AIM would be awesome. Video chat and conferencing could be added too. There's a lot of work to be done on that front. And once that's done, i think more people will start adopting Google Talk. Until then, these guys shouldn't be wasting time creating stuff that relies on the existence of a large userbase.

Prashant.

Tech Tags: Google+Talk Google+Music+Trends

Google - do a lil evil

2006-08-16T02:34:00.000-07:00

It looks like Google's starting to drift away from its famous 'Do No Evil' motto. In it's latest version of the Google IE toolbar, Google has added a new 'feature' that ensures that Google remains the default search engine in IE's search bar. And this feature is enabled by default.

An exe called GoogleToolbarNotifier.exe is made to run at startup and it monitors any changes to the default search settings in IE. Every time an attempt is made to change the search engine (from Google), the attempt is blocked and the following message is displayed in the system tray.

According to this post in the Google Operating System blog, Google says this is a bug and that they are working on removing it.

A bug that prevents you from changing your search engine to anything but Google?! Haha!

Prashant.

Tech Tags: google toolbar internet+explorer do+no+evil GoogleToolbarNotifier.exe search

Apologies

2006-08-13T23:21:00.000-07:00

As soon as I published my post about Windows Live Writer using Live Writer, I tried to view it in Firefox. To my horror, my blog refused to load! I tried the link in IE and it showed up just fine.

After a few tries, I was quite pissed that my blog was not viewable on Firefox. So, I immediately posted another entry proclaiming that Live Writer sucks and it screws up your blog. Well, what was I supposed to do when my bloody blog wasn't loading in Firefox and there was absolutely nothing I could do about it.

Following this I went to the MS blog where Live Writer had been released and posted this comment:

Windows Live Writer has totally screwed up my Blogger blog - http://prashantsarkar.blogspot.com.
The blog is not viewable on Firefox anymore. It only displays in IE. This stupid software has ruined my blog. Please tell me how I can correct this problem.
One good thing about Live Writer is the Web Layout view where I can write a post using my blog template itself. It is very useful when I am trying to get the alignment of photos and text right.
However, I am back to using Performancing because of the fact that Windows Live Writer has made my blog unviewable on Firefox.

After about half an hour of fiddling around with Live Writer, my blog suddenly showed up fine on Firefox! Around the same time, I got a mail from a guy at Microsoft asking me what exactly was wrong! I was surprised at the promptness of this reply. It's 11.12 on a Sunday night, and this guy at Microsoft is actually taking the pains to tend to the problems of the beta users. I'm impressed!

Now that everything is working fine, I've removed my blog entry titled "UPDATE: Windows Live Writer - disappointing". I've also replied to the developer from MS who emailed me.

Well, I don't think I'm going to switch back to Performancing after all. I'm posting from Live Writer right now and I guess I'll continue to do so. I just have one more request - support for Technorati tags. Until that gets added, I don't mind taking the trouble to add the tags manually.

Prashant.

Tech Tags: Microsoft Windows+Live+Writer Firefox Performancing

Windows Live Writer - pretty good!

2006-08-13T22:00:00.000-07:00

I've been looking for a good blog editor for a while now. Until now, I've been using Performancing for Firefox. I've also tried out Qumana, w.bloggar, MS Word 2007's built in blog editor and many more. While all of these came quite close to meeting my blogging needs, each of them had some problem or the other. For eg, Qumana had WYSIWYG editing, tagging, image publishing and many other features. But it ate up too much RAM while residing in the system tray. Performancing, on the other hand, did not have a very good interface and always screwed up when I tried to edit existing posts with it. Here are my reviews of Qumana and MS Word 2007 Blog editor.

I just installed the new Windows Live Writer (beta). After checking it out, I think this thing just might solve all my blogging woes! I'm not exactly a Microsoft fan as is obvious from my post on Word 2007's blog editor. But this little piece of software might have changed my views a bit!

First Impressions:

As soon as I set up my blog on the Live Writer, I was stunned to see my blog template right inside my editor! Most blog editors have WYSIWYG these days. But Live Writer takes it to a whole new level! It actually puts the template in directly from your blog. Instead of one, Live Writer offers 3 different WYSIWYG modes - Normal, Web Layout and Web Preview.

Normal is the mode that is available in most editors - the one with the plain white background. The problem with this view is that, in some blogs like this one, where the text layout is narrow, you don't really get to see how the post will actually look when you publish it. In Live Writer, however, the Web Layout mode makes the editor screen look exactly like the blog. The width and the colors are the same as that on your blog. Now I don't have to keep publishing and checking the blog out to see if the layout of the post is fine.

The Web Preview mode is equally awesome. In less than a second, this mode actually pulls up your blog and shows you how the post would look in your blog if you published it!

Other cool features:

Another problem that I've had with other editors is that they don't let you upload your photos to the blogger.com servers. I had to upload the file to photobucket and insert the photo URL into the blog editor to get the photo inside. And even after that, some editors like Performancing don't let you change the layout of the image easily. Live Writer on the other hand, works perfect. You can upload images right from your desktop and arrange it like you would in Word, for example. You can also add effects like shadows for your images. Nice!

UPDATE: I just realized that you still need to upload the photos to a server before they can appear on your blog. Live Writer will do it for you if you enter the details of your FTP server in the options. I use ripway.com for free FTP file hosting.

Another interesting feature is Map Publishing where you can directly add a map of any US address directly into your blog. This is great when you want to describe a tour or vacation in your post. Redmond is actually beginning to innovate again... hmmm... Very interesting!

Live Writer also comes with a bunch of features that are common among blog editors. You can save your drafts both locally and on the blog server itself. There is a built in spell checker too. You can view and edit your previous posts.

They've also released their SDK (very unusual for MS products) so that people can create and submit plugins. I haven't yet found out how to add Technorati tags and how to ping various blog search engines yet. But I'm sure these will be there somewhere.

Live Writer is a great product and it is compatible with most blogging platforms. I think I'm gonna stick to this. Well done, Microsoft!

Prashant.

Tags: Microsoft Windows+Live+Writer Firefox Performancing Qumana review blog+editor

Corn flakes without milk

2006-08-11T16:50:00.000-07:00

Corn flakes without milk sucks. And right now, I'm eating just that. Here's why...

Excelics, the company where I work, just threw away all my food. Food that I had kept in the fridge. The fridge that was provided by the company for its employees. And this is the fourth time this has happened. I'm pissed... Really really pissed.

About 3 months back, the Excelics management started a practice whereby the fridge would be cleaned every Friday and so we needed to clear our stuff from the fridge before that happens. A couple of weeks after that, I went to the fridge coolly, one Friday afternoon, only to find all my stuff gone! After enquiring around, I learnt that they had actually thrown away everything. Everything! I had spent atleast 35 bucks the previous day stocking up on my food. I had bought milk, frozen food (that's what I eat), juice, butter, yoghurt, etc. And they had just thrown it all away! I was obviously bloody pissed.

Who throws away food like that?! And more importantly, who throws away their own employees' food?! First of all, being a silicon valley startup, you'd normally expect the company to provide you with some sort of food and snacks. But, Excelics, was redefining convention out here! They were, in fact, taking away what the employees had brought! Outrageous...

I would be more understanding if it was an absolute necessity to throw away my stuff. But, in this case, all they had to do is leave it on the dining table. Better still, they could've removed the stuff, cleaned the fridge and put back the stuff inside. What's the big deal?! Why throw away good food?

I literally live in this company. I stay in office till very late every night. I even spend my weekends in this hell-hole. And obviously, I need to keep my food here in the fridge. I eat my lunches, my dinners and everything in between at my company. And that's why, when something like this happens to me, it is twice as demoralizing as it would normally be. It's like they don't give a shit about what I do or what I go through.

I asked Nestor, our janitor, about this and figured that the upper management had directly instructed him to do this. I was amused actually, when I heard this. If this isn't micro-management, I dont know what is.

Such practices will be very damaging to employee attitude and company culture in the long run. In a startup, it is essential that every employee is a die-hard fan of the company, its policies and its practices. In this company, I dont think that will ever be the case. This is perhaps one of the reasons that this company hasn't managed to do well after 11 years of operation. Where can you find motivation amongst your employees if you resort to such cheap practices against them?!

From my perspective, throwing away the employees' food is totally unecessary and avoidable. But, this was a company run by an East Asian management team. I guess they brought over the Chinese management practices to Silicon Valley, thus resulting in this - a situation where the authorities wield their power unecessarily and engage in micro management and anti-employee practices.

I was considering going and talking to the management about this and giving them my 2 cents. But, I decided against it because I dont see anything positive coming out of it.

So, I've decided to do this. Firstly, I will come to work exactly at 9 in the morning and leave at exactly 6 in the evening everyday. That instantly reduces 3-4 hours of productivity per day from my side. Secondly, I will go out for exactly 1 hour during lunch everyday and eat outside or at home. I will never ever eat in my cubicle while punching away code again. There goes another 30-45 mins of productivity. In addition, I will calculate, in hours, the value of all the food that they threw away, and make sure I spend those many hours doing absolutely nothing at work.

There! That's what happens when you mess around with an employee. When you demoralize an employee. When you behave as if you're an enemy of your employee. There goes my patriotism towards my company - down the drain.

Well, on the positive side, I've at least learnt how NOT to treat my employees when I start my own company.

Prashant.

Tags: anger, anti-employee, micro management, Excelics

Consultants...

2006-08-10T15:11:00.000-07:00

psycho.

Technorati Tags: dilbert, comic, consultants

This is broken!

2006-08-09T15:45:00.000-07:00

I found a blog called thisisbroken.com while reading Seth Godin's blog today.

The description of 'This is Broken', according to it's author, Mark Hurst:

"A project to make businesses more aware of their customer experience, and how to fix it."

Thisisbroken.com has a nice long list of all things broken. From bad product design to poorly designed websites to misleading signs. And lots of people have been talking about this site - including the New York Times!

Here are some of the good posts I found there:
- A computer mouse box with an interesting seal - here.
- A Dell computer with poorly designed USB ports - here.
- an amusing bungalow sign - here.

This is a nice place to vent some consumer frustration and have fun at the same time! An interesting idea for a blog and great timepass too! Check it out.

psycho.

Technorati Tags: Seth Godin, broken, thisisbroken.com, Mark hurst

Steve Jobs' keynote at WWDC 06

2006-08-09T13:28:00.000-07:00

I just finished watching the video of Steve Jobs' keynote address at Apple's WWDC 06. I was looking forward to this and in fact I followed the live text updates of the keynote from my office on Monday.

But after checking out the video, I'm a bit disappointed. Maybe because they really didn't release any significant new consumer products. Before the keynote, rumors about an iPhone release and other crazy stuff were all over the internet. There was nothing of that sort in the keynote.

Instead, Steve started off by introducing the new Intel-based Mac Pro workstation. The configuration and performance of this machine is pretty good - with a quad Xeon processor. It is roughly 2x faster than the G5. And all this for only 2500 bucks. Good stuff.
He also introduced the new XServe server.

An unusual thing about this keynote was that Steve actually shared the stage with 2 other Apple employees. He was perhaps training new guys to do this presentation thing since he seems to be getting older. The other thing is that Steve did not perform as well as he did at previous Mac keynotes. He seemed a little less enthusiastic and a bit tired. Perhaps this dampened the effectiveness of the presentation.

After this, they introduced the new features in the upcoming OS X Leopard. The OS is slated for release in Spring 07. They started this part of the presentation with a little bit of Redmond bashing. They showed a screen-by-screen comparison of various OS X features and the copied versions on the Vista Beta. In fact, Steve mentioned that he will not be mentioning some of the Leopard OS's features because he doesn't want Redmond copying any of the stuff before they release their OS!

Most of the Leopard OS features were pretty standard stuff and nothing too great. Stuff like to-dos and notes linked to your email, Spaces (a virtual desktop application), etc. Although all these mundane features got applause from the Mac-crazy audience, they failed to impress me. However, there were two features that did manage to excite me.

The first is Time Machine - an automatic backup software. This is more like an automatic versioning system for all your files. Every little change is recorded and ready for backup/restoration. Microsoft is introducing something like this too in the Vista. A file versioning system of sorts. And so, I wasn't that excited until the presenter actually showed the demo of Time Machine at work. Man, the UI was awesome! This is exactly what Apple is good at! He started by showing a folder view with 4 files. A fifth one was supposed to be there, but was missing. So, he clicks on the Time Machine icon in the dock. And instantly, everything but the folder fades to black and you can see many copies of the folder behind this one... going towards infinity on a dimension that was going inside the screen. It was breathtaking - so seemless and intuitive. You've gotta check out this stuff on the video.

The other thing was the new iChat. They had managed to put a few nifty, but mostly useless features into it. Features of the type that were demoed for iPhoto in the last MacWorld (or the one before that). Now, you can do all those nice iPhoto tricks in iChat. These include visual effects like pinch, pull, mirror, etc for video. Another cool feature is that you can replace the background with a photo or a video (!) of your choice while video chatting on iChat. No blue screens or green screens required. So, for example, iChat could show you in front of a bustling Times Square, when in fact, you were sitting in the comfort of your bedroom. Another good feature is screen sharing. You can share the desktop as well as presentations or slide shows while video chatting on iChat.

The reason I am disappointed is because Apple did not have any truly amazing innovation to showcase here. I understand that the engineers have been busy porting their Mac OS over to the Intel architecture. They have now completed that and they took only 210 days to do it - an amazing feat. But still, the kind of stuff they showcased at WWDC 06 isn't something Apple should be boasting about at their WWDC. I don't see anything great in todo lists and stationary for your email or in adding WebDaV support for iCal. Hopefully, the secret features that they didn't mention this time are something really cool. I'm already waiting for the next MacWorld.

Prashant.

Technorati Tags: Apple, WWDC 06, iChat, Mac Pro, Steve Jobs, Microsoft, Vista, Xserve, keynote, Time Machine, iCal

New Apple products!

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

Check out the Apple online store here. The website is down! They are busy updating. My guess is they are adding new products to the store!
Today, Steve is going to make his keynote speech at the WWDC06. There is a lot of speculation on the internet about new Apple products that might be announced today. These include iPhones, a touchscreen video iPod, new Macbooks and so on.
Check out this page for live text updates on WWDC!
It's gonna get exciting!

psycho.

Technorati Tags: apple, wwdc, iphone, macbook, ipod, apple store

NUSEA's The Road Less Travelled series

2006-08-06T16:12:00.000-07:00

We started a new series of events called The Road Less Travelled at NUSEA a few weeks back. We basically get one of our friends or mentors down to the NUSEA office at Mountain View and they speak to the NOC students about their experiences. We have had one of these until now where Desmond Tan (President, SEA) and Jasmin Ong came to speak about their personal experiences as Singaporean expatriates in the US. It was an interesting talk followed by a nice discussion.

There are a number of objectives behind the Road Less Travelled series. Firstly, the exposure to the experiences and perspectives of these individuals would be highly beneficial to the NOC students. Another goal is to encourage the NOC students to open up and network with these individuals. It would perhaps improve their networking skills too.

So, how is this series different from the other programs that we organize (Mentorship Unplugged, RainMakers Live). Well, this brings us to the 3rd objective...

Due to a geographical separation between some NOC students, we have found that there is a dearth of communication between them. We also understand that if there's one network that the NOC students can hope to capitalize on after the program, it would be the NOC alumni network. Over the period of one year, these students literally live with one another. They form extraordinary bonds during the course of their stay in the US. Some of these students are well on their way towards becoming successful entrepreneurs.

During the Road Less Travelled talks we hope to encourage the students to discuss and debate amongst themselves. This would help them to learn together and, in the process, understand each other better. Ultimately, this would strengthen the bonds between the students and form a strong network of NOC students who can reach out to each other long after the completion of the program.

This is a pilot project by the NUSEA committee and we will monitor the progress to see the results of this effort. We hope it turns out to be a success and achieves all of the above mentioned objectives.

Prashant.

Technorati Tags: NUSEA, Road Less Travelled, NOC, Desmond Tan, Jasmin Ong, SEA, Mentorship Unplugged, RainMakers Live, NOC Alumni

408 Reviews for a gallon of milk!

2006-08-05T12:02:00.000-07:00

Check this out... A gallon of Tuscan Whole Milk put up on Amazon.com received 408 reviews! Unbelievable! Here are some of the amusing reviews:

"One Gallon Whole Milk
It does a body very good
Now the chicks dig me"

"One cannot merely sip or drink this full-bodied bovine nectar; it must be thrust at great force into one's mouth to appreciate it. Few things in life reach such perfection - the gleeful laughter of children; the strong but vulnerable movies of Ang Lee, and the lactastic, liquid ectasy of Tuscan Whole Milk. For our own protection, it can only be sold in 128 ounce portions, lest we lose ourselves in autogestive insanity."

"This is the richest, creamiest milk that has slid down my windpipe in ages. I can't believe this came out of a cow's teat, held lonesome in some old barn, flies around. And yet, that old world flavor! I don my tuscan breeches and hed for the sea. It's olive harvest time and my sister's friend is looking ripe."

Haha! and many more... all this for a carton of milk...

psycho.

Technorati Tags: milk, tuscan, amazon, reviews

DV Labs - Really high quality streaming video

2006-08-05T00:35:00.000-07:00

I came across a post about DV Labs on some blog (don't remember which one).

DV Labs is a very interesting online video delivery company. They have actually come up with the technology to stream extremely high quality videos online at amazing speeds. They have a sample video stream on their homepage. Just take one look and you will know what I am talking about. The video I saw was definitely the best quality video that I have seen online. And yes, it took a little longer to load than a regular YouTube video, but it was definitely worth the wait.

Currently, I believe they serve videos online for very high volume content providers. This might be an excellent platform to deliver high-quality movies online to consumers.

psycho.

Technorati Tags: DV Labs, streaming video, high resolution, online video

Lifehacker junk

2006-08-05T00:24:00.000-07:00

Lifehacker is a great blog that is updated daily with numerous interesting and useful tips for life (or 'lifehacks'). These include nifty software and web-related hacks to improve productivity and the way you do things. Their website proudly declares: 'Don't live to geek; geek to live'.

And so, I've been following this site for quite some time now and have picked up a number of useful things from here, including how to open one beer bottle using another!

Lately, however, I've noticed that this site is getting filled with junk. By junk I mean absolutely useless, nonsensical and obvious tips. Bullshit, basically.

Here are a few examples:
1. How to convert time from the 24-hr format to the 12-hr format
(yea, someone actually thought he's posting a cool trick that hundreds of lifehacker readers will be eternally grateful for!)
2. Alphabetize the Start menu
(dude! are u a freakin windows newbie?! why the hell are u posting absolute bullshit on lifehacker and wasting our time?!)

I've come across many more which I can't recall right now. Let me make myself clear here. I am not sayin that Lifehacker sucks. It's an awesome site, with plenty of great tips. But it'll be much better without all these junk posts.

psycho.

Technorati Tags: lifehacker, lifehacks, junk posts

The Techcrunch Party thing...

2006-08-04T12:44:00.000-07:00

This happened a couple of weeks back.

Not able to get sleep, I was browsing Techcrunch a few weeks back when I came upon this entry about the next Techcrunch party to be held on Aug 18th. Although, I haven't been to any of those before, I've certainly heard about them. The techcrunch party is a huge gathering of tech people (read geeks) that happens every year. This one was Techcrunch7.

This was around 2am and I decided to sign up for it. Surprisingly, when I went to the wiki that Arrington had setup for the party, there were only 2 people who had signed up - Michael Arrington and David Hornik, a VC from August Capital (which was a sponsor for the party). I quickly added my name at the third position. I also added a link to NUSEA, a student entrepreneurial organization that I'm part of. Only later, would all the Techcrunch readers see this and sign up for the party in the hundreds. A few of them actually sneekily added their names above mine, pushing my entry to the 6th or 7th position.

Anyways, after adding the event to my calendar, I forgot about this until I came across this article on Valleywag. I had been mentioned on Valleywag! Valleywag is a popular blog in the Silicon Valley, and I was quite surprised to find my name in one of their articles. It mentioned the fact that I was one of the first to sign up for the party. This is what it read:

Prashant Sarkar, a man from a Singapore entrepreneurial group, was the first guest to sign up at 2:36 AM. Probably in another time zone, so that's forgiveable. [Update: The group, NUSEA, is based in the Bay, so he is refreshing TechCrunch at 2:36 AM.]

hehe... Considering the fact that there are atleast a few thousand people following Valleywag, that is a lot of much needed and good publicity for NUSEA!

Arrington has however, moved the wiki to SocialText now and rearranged the list of attendees by name order. So, my entry (Prashant Sarkar) appears somewhere far down the list now.

If you are in the bay area, do try and make it for the techcrunch party (after registering, of course)... the attendees include all kinds of startup ceos, bloggers and vcs... it'll be a great place to network and have fun.

UPDATE: I just saw Justin Lee's post about this techcrunch party thing - Another TechCrunch party and Prashant does NUSEA proud.

psycho.

Technorati Tags: techcrunch, techcrunch party, august capital, nusea, valleywag, michael arrington, Prashant Sarkar

Zulu Pad - Smart!

2006-08-03T15:36:00.000-07:00

The developer calls it a 'notepad on crack'!
Zulu Pad is a personal wiki notepad - a smart cross between a notepad and a desktop wiki!
So, what does it do? It automatically and smartly links all your notes together using hyperlinks. This is very useful in a number of different scenarios as highlighted on the product homepage:

Say for instance, you're a music major, and you're studying Bach. You've taken notes on Bach in ZuluPad, and after a long 16 weeks have finally completed the semester. Sometime after the summer break, you're taking notes on Beethoven, and your teacher mentions a way in which Beethoven was influenced by Bach. As soon as you type "Bach" into your notes, it's underlined as a hyperlink. You think to yourself, "oh yeah, I know a few things about Bach". So you click the link, and you can read all of your Bach notes. While you're reading your Bach notes, you happen to notice a link to a page about Henry Purcell, and you can refresh your memory about him, too.
Or, for instance, imagine that you're a salesman with 100+ clients. You recognize them all when you see them, but it's hard to keep their names straight. You've jotted down an appointment to meet with John Smith in ZuluPad, and "John Smith" is immediately highlighted. You click the link, and you're reminded that John hates fish, loves golf, tends to annoy you, but always orders a lot.

Another interesting feature is the free 'ZuluSync' account that will store all your notes online so that you can access it from anywhere. Nice!

It is currently available for Windows and OS X and the Linux version will be released soon. I see it as a smart and convenient tool for research, note taking and GTD. Very useful.

psycho.

Technorati Tags: ZuluPad, notepad, personal wiki, zulusync, notepad wiki

Posting from Word 2007

2006-07-31T17:34:00.000-07:00

I've been playing around with a number of blog post editors lately. I’ve tried Performancing, Qumana (refer to my earlier post on Qumana), w.blogger and ecto.

Well, now I’m trying the ‘Publish to blog’ option under Word 2007 beta. It seems pretty cool, especially bcoz I can edit my post in the familiar Microsoft Word interface.

But on second thoughts, I don’t think this will replace other blog editors out there. Microsoft can, but will not add support in here for Technorati tags, del.icio.us bookmarks, ping-o-matic pings or Google Adsense – stuff that is commonly provided by other blog editors. In fact, they may not even provide Wordpress support. Maybe its too early to comment, but I strongly believe that this will be the case.

This is nothing but a tool to promote their own crappy blogging platform (MSN spaces or something) and will not be of any use to serious bloggers until they learn to play with the other players.

I don’t mean to be bashing Microsoft. But it saddens me to see how they limit themselves when they actually have so much potential to make great stuff.

psycho.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Word 2007, Blogging, performancing, qumana, ecto, w.blogger, technorati, del.icio.us, ping-o-matic, adsense

Update: OMG, Word has totally screwed up my post! It had put in some weird formatting shit and now I almost rewrote the entire post using the Blogger editor. Damn.... Microsoft! After all these years they can't even make a blog editor properly...

Google Analytics

2006-07-31T15:51:00.000-07:00

I had signed up for the Google Analytics beta last week and I got the invite today. I just set up my account for this blog and also inserted their code into this blog. It hasn't started tracking the page yet.

My first impression is that Google has done a very good job. The interface seems pretty intuitive and the features are quite professional. Until now I have been using StatCounter (the counter on your right) which gives me pretty good stats. But Google Analytics seems to offer a lot more information.

I will post a review of it here once I'm done checking it out.

Screenshot (click to enlarge):

psycho.

Tags: Google, Analytics, Statcounter

Cuba - A Biotech Superpower?!

2006-07-31T15:44:00.000-07:00

I was just listening to the audio book version of "The World is Flat" by Thomas L. Friedman and was taken aback by Friedman's comment on the Cuban biotech industry.

I have always been under the belief that Cuba is a poor, socialist state that had the balls to confront the United States. And that after the decades of UN sanctions, its economy would barely be able to stand on its feet. The last thing I would have expected is for this country to be a growing biotech power!

According to Friedman, almost a billion dollars have been invested in various biotech research units on the west coast of Havana. All these institutes are staffed primarily by Cuban biotech scientists mostly educated in Europe. In fact, a US company called CancerVex (I'm not too sure about the name) actually licensed three cancer vaccines from Cuba in 2004! Wow! Its rare to see a US research firm license anything from a third world country.

Pretty impressive, i must say, especially for Cuba!

psycho.

Tags: Cuba, Havana, Biotechnology, Cancer, Vaccine, The world is flat, friedman

Blingo - free movie ticket!

2006-07-31T14:41:00.000-07:00

I just got my free movie ticket from Blingo!

Blingo is a new search website that gives away free prizes to lucky users of its search engine. I started using it a couple of months ago just to give it a shot. The fact that it actually showed Google results meant that I wouldn't have to compromize on the quality of my search results. I just added it to my search bar in Firefox. I had nothing to loose. I was searching the same way I used to before and was getting the same results as before. But now, I stand the chance to win an Ipod nano or a movie ticket or a gift certificate.

This went on for a while until I got a pleasant surprise while searching for something. The webpage said that I had just won a movie ticket and that it is already on its way! Cool!

And of course, I publicized Blingo to all my friends and many of them are actually using it. Well, now its your turn. Give it a shot. Who knows, you might end up with a cool, new iPod Nano!

psycho.

Technorati Tags: blingo, free movie ticket, search engine

Must Try - Margharita Chicken Drumlets at Chili's!

2006-07-31T10:45:00.000-07:00

Last night, Dev, Guangchen and me decided to go someplace nice to eat. After checking out the high priced menu at Black Angus and acting like vegetarians to get out of there unembarrased, we ended up at Chili's.
GC and Dev ordered a Country Steak each. I wasn't really hungry and so decided to look for something less filling. After browsing the menu for a while, my eyes settled on a picture of delicious looking chicken wings neatly packed into a margharita glass!
Intrigued and amused, I decided to order it... And that was the best decision I've made in a looong time!
What I got was a piece of heaven. Yummy chicken wings marinated overnight in margharita (yea, thats right, margharita!). Served with a lovely honey lime sauce mixed with the margharita marinade. Awesome!
Haha.. you should have seen the looks on GC's and Dev's faces. They were reluctantly trying to down the crappy, fried steak while I was gorging away at my juicy drumlets :)
And to top it off, Dev and I ordered the hot chocolate cake with icecream - another one of Chili's specials. It's soft chocolate cake dripping with warm chocolate syrup, topped with vanilla icecream. Mmmmm!
Perfect!

psycho.

Tags: food, Chilis, Margharita, Chicken

Google Talk Upgrade!

2006-07-28T19:25:00.000-07:00

Google has released an upgrade for Google Talk today. I like the way that Google Talk upgrades happen automatically without you having to download and install something. In fact, it doesn't even require you to restart the messenger.

This upgrade brings in three new features.

1. File Transfer: This has been the most requested feature among users of Google Talk. Users can now send an unlimited number of files to other Google Talk users. There is no limit on the file size either. MSN and Yahoo Messenger have had this feature for ages now.

2. Voicemail: Now this is something interesting. You can leave a voicemail for your Google Talk buddies if they're not available. The best part is that if the other person is not a Google talk user he/she will get the voicemail as an email attachment. That's pretty cool. The Voicemail message can be up to 10 minutes long. I know that Yahoo messenger has a similar feature but I don't think MSN does.

3. Music Status: As the name suggests, Google Talk will display the title of the song that you're currently listening to on your status. Currently, 4 music players are supported - iTunes, Windows Media Player, Winamp and Yahoo Music Engine. Again, both Yahoo and MSN messenger already have this feature. However, if I'm not wrong, they support a smaller number of music players.

All of the above upgrades are nothing new to the IM world. If anything, Google is just playing catch up with the likes of Yahoo and MSN. But its good to know that they are at least working on releasing upgrades to this product unlike the case of other Google products which have been left a bit too raw for too long.

Google Talk's performance in the IM market has been miserable to say the least. It's been a year since the launch of Google Talk, but they still have only a miniscule 1% of the IM market share. According to the New York Times, Google Talk had only 44, 000 active users in June.

While this upgrade is good, I don't think it will do anything to improve Google Talk's and low market acceptance. I don't see IM users shifting from one service to another because of an extra feature or two. They will stick to the IM service in which they can find all their friends/colleagues. Its the same thing as with social networking sites. Once all your friends are on MySpace for example, you're not gonna move from it just because another site pops up with better features.

What I think Goolge needs to do is to use its search and email domination in an innovative way to attract more users to Google Talk. The fact that they integrated Google chat functionality to Gmail is proof that they have started working in that direction.

Screenshots:

psycho.

Tags: Google Talk, MSN, Yahoo, IM

Map of World happiness

2006-07-28T15:18:00.000-07:00

Well, guess what? Scientists (probably jobless ones with nothing better to do) have come up with a map of World Happiness Levels. It shows all the countries in different colors varying from yellow to red. Red indicates the countries with the happiest people, while yellow indicates one with the least happy people.

Check it out here.

For the purpose of this research, Happiness has been defined as being healthy, wealthy and wise. Wise?! I wonder how the US is marked as a happy country in that case!

Also, the economic powerhouses of Asia (China, India and Japan) are apparently not that happy.

psycho.

Tags: happiness, map, research

Techcrunch down?

2006-07-28T14:11:00.000-07:00

Looks like Techcrunch is down...

psycho.

Tags: techcrunch, site

Howto: Download videos from Youtube.

2006-07-28T14:03:00.000-07:00

Most new online video streaming websites are moving towards the FLV (Flash Video) format created by Adobe. Youtube uses FLV format exclusively. The problem with the flv format is that it isn't very easy to save these files. And even if you do, most video players such as Windows Media Player or Realplayer cannot play these files. They can be viewed only through special viewers or on your browser (with Flash plugin).

I will outline a few easy ways to download and view FLV videos from Youtube and other online video streaming sites.

The first step is to download the file. An online tool called KeepVid comes in handy here. KeepVid basically allows you to input the URL of the page which has the video in it. These videos need not be in the FLV format. KeepVid then recognizes the provider and automatically generates a download link for you. So, if you put the URL of a Youtube video page, you will get the download link for an FLV file which you can save onto your computer. KeepVid currently supports over 40 different video sites.

An alternative to KeepVid is the Firefox Videodownloader extension which adds an icon to your Firefox status bar. Clicking on this icon while you are at a video page allows you to download any embedded content on that page. Pretty neat.

The next step after downloading the FLV file is to get a viewer. There are many good, free FLV viewers there. The most common one is FLV Player. Alternatively, Riva FLV Viewer is a good option too.

You also have the option of encoding your FLV files into avi, mpeg, iPod, PSP or any other format you wish. SUPER Encoder does a fine job of just that.

I hope you found this tutorial pretty useful. Now you can go ahead and compile your own library of cool videos right on your hard drive!

psycho.

Tags: Howto, video, Youtube, FLV, KeepVid, Videodownloader

Revenge of the tenants!

2006-07-28T10:39:00.000-07:00

We moved last week. Guangchen, Dev and I have been living at Foxtail Dr for quite some time now and we decided to move into a bigger house nearby. We spent the whole night packing up and cleaning the house to make it look absolutely spotless. After a long night, Dev and I went to the new place to sleep while Guangchen (GC) waited at the Foxtail apt for the landlords. After a while, I got a call from GC. He sounded quite worried and asked me to come over to the old house.

I went there and found out that the landlord had seen a cockroach in the house while inspecting the place and so he had decided to withhold 100$ of the deposit. Apparently, it takes 100$ to remove a cockroach in the US. Haha, these people should come to India! Anyways, I went to the landlord (Mark) to object. This is the conversation that transpired:

Me: How can you withhold 100$ from our rent? How do you know that the cockroach came from our apartment?! There are three other apartments in this building and it could have come from anyone!
Mark: The other tenants have been living here for a long time and we never had this problem before. So it must be you.
Me: That's not true! The guy upstairs moved in only a month ago!
Mark: Yea, but he complained to me about cockroaches a few weeks back. You guys didn't tell me anything about it.
Me: Well, so the problem is that we didn't approach you when we saw cockroaches? But then, you are blaming us for the cockroaches! How do you think we caused them to get here!
Mark: Well, I don't know how cockroaches come.. Maybe they came in your food.
(that pissed me off a bit)
Me: Well, for starters, we haven't cooked here for months now. And secondly, we buy the regular stuff from Safeway and Albertsons! Do you mean to say that there are cockroaches IN the food?!
Mark: Yea... I don't what all you guys eat.. Maybe it was in your food!
Me: That's bullshit! You're just using us as scapegoats because we're vacating and you have our deposit. You cannot withhold our money like that!
Mark's wife (one true bitch): Mark, why are you even talking to these people. We have the money and we can withhold what we want!
(and that really pissed me off!)
Me: You can't do that!
Mark's wife: Well, tough luck! Go to court if you want.

By this time I was fuming. I obviously did not go to court for a 100 bucks. But I had to do something. So as soon as we vacated, the first thing I did was go to Craigslist and find their ad for a new tenant. And then I posted an ad just next to that. Check it out.

Within a day, I got three replies thanking me for warning them about the landlord. I couldn't get the deposit back but I at least caused the landlords to loose a few days' rent. Well, that's my kinda revenge!

psycho.

Tags: tenants, rent, revenge, landlords

Alert! Firefox Extension Spyware

2006-07-27T15:39:00.000-07:00

McAfee has issued a warning about a Trojan virus that disguises itself as the popular 'Numberedlinks' Firefox extension. Once installed, it logs all the credit card information that you enter in your browser as well as all of your passwords. It then sends this information to a server.

The scary part is that this extension does not install itself through the Extension Manager (which requires an explicit confirmation by the user). Instead, this plugin directly copies itself to the Firefox configuration data.

More info here.

psycho.

Tags: spyware, firefox, security

Qumana - desktop blog editing software

2006-07-27T13:47:00.000-07:00

I've just started using Qumana to post on my blog. It is a nice little software that allows you to post to most kinds of blogs. It also supports automatic pings to technorati as well as tagging, categories and trackbacks. And its of course absolutely free (else, I wouldn't be using it :P)

It also comes with a built in feature to put up ads on your blog. These are not Google ads. They are QAds - Qumana's own advertising solution.

I was using Performancing for Firefox earlier. But I had some problems with it like missing posts, etc. I still have that installed, but I'm just giving this a shot and it seems to be pretty good.

Download Qumana here.

Screenshot (Click to enlarge):

psycho.

Tags: software, blogging, Qumana, Performancing

Crime in Sunnyvale?!

2006-07-27T13:18:00.000-07:00

Sunnyvale is one of the 20 safest cities in the US. I've been living here for six months and I have actually experienced this sense of safety. I know for sure that you can walk on the streets of Sunnyvale alone at night and not be one bit scared. I have even cycled (i wanted to burn some fat :P) from home to office in the middle of the night without any problems whatsoever.

Last night, however, things changed. This is what happened...

I went to the gym at around 12 in the night (24-hour fitness) for a quick workout before heading to bed. Just as I finished and was getting ready to leave, a Hispanic guy came into the gym. He was a short guy and he seemed quite perplexed. Since I was the nearest to the door, he came over to me and said something that I could not understand. Just then I noticed that he was bleeding quite profusely under his right eye. It was a ghastly sight.

My attention returned to what he was saying and I heard the word "Espagnol". Of course! He was looking for someone who knew Spanish. Meanwhile, he was trying to explain something to me using signs. He moved his hands about in a pedaling manner, probably meaning cycle. Then he showed a '2' with his fingers and also flexed his muscles. That probably meant '2 strong men'. And then he showed me what looked like a punch. I kinda understood what happened at that point.

I asked him to relax and went to look for a Spanish-speaking person at the gym. I found a Hispanic lady who came over and spoke to this guy. After a short while we realized that this guy was riding his bike back home when two African American guys stopped him, beat him up and took his bike. And now, this guy wanted us to help him file a police complaint. I requested one of the people working at the gym to help him out with the call to the police, reassured the guy (using signs, of course) that everything's going to be fine and headed home.

This may seem like a really small, minor incident, especially compared to Chennai, India (where I'm from). But in Sunnyvale, you don't see such things too often. No matter how safe the place seems, there are always some precautions you need to take. You never know what might happen.

As for me, I sure as hell wont be riding my bike around at 12 in the night!

psycho.

Tags: safety, sunnyvale, crime

Amie Street - free music that pays!

2006-07-26T23:33:00.000-07:00

Amie Street is a new website lets users discover new music from new, little known artists. This obviously means that if you want to listen to a chart topping number, this isn't the place to go.

Amie Street lets independent artists upload their music onto the site. Users and their friends can then listen to and purchase this music. There is a social networking feel to this site too - users can gather themselves into networks and recommend/suggest songs.

You're probably wondering why I am wasting my time writing this post. Amie Street, at first glance, looks like one of those half-a-dozen or so companies launched in the past coupla years that allow independent artists to publish their music online. In fact, MP3.com did just that way back in 2000 or whatever... right?! And the worst part about those companies is that there is very little that differentiates one from the other. So where does Amie Street fit in in all this web startup noise?

As I ventured a little deeper into the website, I realized that there are a number of cool, refreshingly new ideas behind Amie St.

For starters, the pricing model is unique. All songs submitted to the site are initially free. However, the price begins to fluctuate based on the demand for the song. I haven't seen such a model being used for selling music before and I think that it just might work!

You can listen to the songs for free but need to pay to download the song. An interesting point to note is that all the tracks are DRM-free. This makes perfect sense, especially considering recent events that probably suggest a move away from DRM-protected content.

Artists get 70% of all proceeds after the first 5$ of sales. And of course, unlike big music labels, the artists are not subjected to any agreements of exclusivity. They can publish their content through any other online/offline publisher.

Another interesting feature is the recommendation and reward system that they have in place. Each user only gets a limited number of recommedations or 'RECs' (users get 1 REC for every 1$ they add to their account). If the price of the song goes up after a user recommends a song, the user is then paid half of the change in price of the song. This is an excellent way to encourage the users to actively take part in discovering and recommending new music.

The guys behind Amie Street seem to have done their homework. They have done a nice job of linking social networking to music discovery. And they have backed this up with a solid business model.

I see good potential in this company.

psycho.

Writing on water!

2006-07-26T14:12:00.000-07:00

A group of Japanese (ain't they all?!) scientists have come up with an interesting way to write and draw using waves on a standing pool of water!

These scientists from Japan's Akishima Laboratories used a special tub of water fitted with 50 wave generators to create cylindrical waves that "print" characters on the surface of the water. Each character takes about 15-30 seconds to be formed. The previous attempts at this had refresh rates of 1 in 15 minutes or so, making this a major improvement.

Cool as it may seem, I don't see any immediate practical applications of this technology. But with a little more refining and the ability to rapidly show actual images or video, this could be a big thing in the future.

Engadget has the details...

psycho.

Gotuit - free premium video!

2006-07-25T00:35:00.000-07:00

Gotuit is a refreshing new online video service that bridges the gap between Youtube and Guba.

For the uninitiated, Youtube allows individual users to submit their own videos. Youtube in facts imposes a 100MB size limit on videos submitted to it. So, obviously Youtube is not the place to go to if you want to legally watch professional/premium video content. Guba, on the other hand offers premium content for a fee. So, you can find stuff like music videos and tv shows here.

Gotuit brings together the best of both worlds. As of now, it offers content under 4 categories - Music, News, Sports and Entertainment. Gotuit has partnered with various content providers to be able to provide such a wide variety of premium content legally.

The best part is that you can stream all this video for free. According to Techcrunch, Gotuit intends to make money through advertising (advertising around the content + 15 second video ads).

The interface is really smooth and intuitive. Its completely flash based. The videos load amazingly fast - the second u click on them. Though there is no full screen view, you can resize the videos to make them bigger. Another thing i like about Gotuit is that its like a web-based TV with 4 channels. Once you click on entertainment, for example, it creates a playlist and plays videos continuously, one after the other. So you can have it running in the background at home while you're doing other things.

The collection of music videos is pretty impressive too. I searched for Nirvana and got over 6-8 nirvana videos. "Metallica" however returned none (they probably haven't tied up with their label yet). There are around 2000 music videos on the site already (the site is a day old) and I expect them to have a pretty impressive collection soon.

I would love to see TV shows (Scrubs, Family Guy, Prison Break and House are at the top of my list :P) appear on Gotuit soon. Free streaming of TV shows on Gotuit could actually change the landscape of online premium video content (iTunes included). In fact, with their continuous TV like streaming, you could watch an entire season of Scrubs back to back without even touching your wallet... mmm :P

Let me remind you, this is not a video sharing service. It is a site that allows you to view premium video content for free.

I like it. Check it out.

psycho.

when lady luck gets pissed...

2006-07-20T16:56:00.000-07:00

Have you ever had one of those days when just nothing seems to go right?! Just as you recover from one bad incident/news... you've gotta brace yourself for the next! by the end of the day, you're so beaten down by everything that you stop expecting anything to go right!

Haha... when lady luck gets pissed...you're basically screwed.

It was a nice sunny Saturday morning... I got up at a lazy 11am! the weekend was finally here!

(well, actually the weekend started at Tim's party the previous night, but that's a different story altogether)...

Anyways, after spending a few hours lazing around I went over to Sam's house to help them prepare for the SEA Summer barbeque that evening.. the barbeque went off well.. met a lot of nice people.. by the time that got over it was about 9pm already.. I should've just coolly gone home and slept.. right?

Well, just as i was about to leave, Stanley comes over and says that he has a few extra guest passes to a party tonight in SF! At first, I was thinking who'll go to SF n all.. lemme just go home n sleep.. but then, after a little bit of cajoling.. i was all hyper and ready to go! (refer to my previous post about my gullibility)

So off we went to SF.. in Dev's car.. we reached there at about 11.. and this is where lady luck started fooling around with us...

The first thing we noticed was the enormous queue! It was about 200 ft long! Well, since we had come all this way for the party, we decided to wait at the end of the queue..

We were in the queue for about half an hour (!) when the bouncer comes and says that sneakers are not allowed inside the club.. 2 of us (there were 5 in all) were wearing sneakers.. luckily (!) i was wearing black shoes.. After a small streak of panic, we decided that the two with sneakers would go to Brian's house (nearby) and change into proper shoes...

Just as we decided that.. the bouncer returns and coolly announces that they were closing the place down for the night coz the fire marshall had raised some issues with safety! DAMN! What are the chances of that happening to you! Well, we were still kinda hyper and so we decided to go to another club nearby... And we all got into Dev's car and drove off to RubySkye...

As Dev was parking on one of those highly inclined SF roads, he forgot to pull the hand-brake in time and the car slowly goes and hits the car behind us! Thank God, it wasn't a big hit and there were just a few scratches on both cars...

But wait! that's not all! the freakin car refused to start after that! Imagine the bloody situation - Dev's car is touching the bumper of the car behind and he isn't even able to start his car to move it in front!

After about 5 minutes of intense praying n stuff, the car finally starts and he moves it ahead and parks it. Luckily (!), the owners of the other car come out just after this and without noticing anything they drive off...

We all walk down to RubySkye and wait in another queue (slightly smaller this time)... After a few minutes we were right in front of the bouncer and as we took out our IDs to show him he announces that they don't accept international driving licenses! and guess what?! Brian had just that! We didn't wanna go in without him.. so we decided to head to ANOTHER club! (i guess we had a lot of energy left in us :P)

And as we were driving around the insanely slopy roads of SF, lady luck gave us one last thumping whack on our asses... the car stopped in the middle of the road! the engine just died! and this is in the MIDDLE of one of those crazy SF roads! I was looking at the sky and shouting - "Dude! You've gotta be kidding me!!!" Haha...

We all got out and pushed the car to a parking slot nearby... and then we called AAA... they came after 45 minutes! (apparently 1.30am on Saturday night is a peak hour for them!) and the AAA guy jump started the car and left... Oh wait!.. thats not all! AFTER the AAA guy left.. the car stopped AGAIN! by now... i had totally given up hope... In fact I kinda expected this to happen!

So we called AAA again, waited another 45 minutes and the guy who came told us that the alternator is screwed and we cannot go back to sunnyvale in that car that night.. so we asked him to give us a lift to Stanley's car which was parked near the first club we went to.. and then he dropped us back home at almost 4am... If I had just gone home after Sam's party, I would've been sleeping snuggly in my bed by now!

Well... hell... shit happens...

psycho.

pj...

2006-07-18T14:20:00.000-07:00

How many software engineers does it take to change a light bulb?

1) None. real computer geeks prefer LEDs.
2) None. It's a hardware problem!
3) Just one. But the house falls down.
4) Two. One resigns halfway through the project.
5) 10. One to change the bulb and one to explain binary.
6) Is this a dynamically allocated light bulb?

psycho. (sorry :P)

Add salt to taste!

2006-07-16T22:00:00.000-07:00

I have what some people may call a problem. Whenever I meet new people, I tend to place them on a pedestal and assume that they are in some way or the other, superior to me. Don't mistake this for an inferiority complex. What I mean is that, I generally give the other person the benefit of the doubt. I do not like to tie down my impression of the other person with any preconceived notions. And due to this, I generally tend to take their word on whatever they have to say about themselves. This has worked great for me, maybe because this makes me, you know.... more approachable.

Take for example, the following incident. A new neighbour moved in upstairs just a coupla weeks back. I met the guy one day while taking a walk outside my house. I introduced myself as a student from Singapore and went on to ask him what he does. His answer kinda surprised me. He said 'I make satellites for NASA'. And I was instantly full of awe for this guy! We went on to talk about some other stuff after which I headed back home.
A few days later, I was sitting at my desk at home, and my room mate Dev came inside laughing his ass off! I asked him what happened. Here's the conversation that followed:

Dev: "You should listen to that guy upstairs! Hilarious! He claims that he makes satellites... for NASA!!! Hahaha!"
Me: "So? What's wrong with that?!"
Dev: "OMG! You actually believe that guy?! For God's sakes, he is living in a 900$ apartment! And rides a bike to work! You think he'd be livin here if he was a satellite engineer?!"
Me: "hmmm.. yea! thats funny!"
Dev: "Listen to what happened next... I asked him what degree he had done... haha... and he was like 'i haven't really done college yet... but i'm planning to pretty soon'!! hahaha"

And then it struck me. I was just too gullible. I've been believing shit like this from random people for years now. And suddenly, I started recalling all the previous incidents where I probably ended up believing more than I should have...

OMG! Maybe I needed an attitude change. I've really got to take other people's words with a pinch of salt from now onwards! I've got to put a little extra thought before swallowing all the junk that I hear around me!

Hmmm.. interesting lil lesson learnt :)

psycho.

a dumb way to die...

2006-07-16T04:15:00.000-07:00

After a nice evening of watching Superman and havin a few drinks at the local bar, you head home to sleep. Next morning you get up and suddenly realize that your eyesight is perfect! (it used to be a -3 on both eyes before).
Being all surprised n shit, you head to the mirror and check out your muscles. They 'seem' to be much bigger! You're like... 'woah! cool shit!'.
The next thing you know, you have a towel hanging from your back and you're ready to 'fly' off the roof of your building!
And, as you step off the edge of the roof, to your horror and slight amusement,you realize that you had forgotten to remove your freakin contact lenses the previous night!!!
FUCK!
Well, being the man that you are, you decide to enjoy the last few milliseconds of your life looking at the amazing view on the way down.
And then, THUD! You're dead.

psycho.

...the musings of a psycho...

Secret: How to get into Hulu without an invite!

Pownce invites!

Hot salaries!

Gmail slow?

The leopard delay isn't such a bad move...

Why 'stink-less durians' may not be a good idea

'Hot' - ology!

Today

TED Talks: Debunking myths about the "Third World"

Getting your email read...

twist in the story...

Have you heard of Kanban?

This is heights...

Smart Kid :)

Tumblelogs

NUS vs. NTU vs. SMU

PsychoTel?

Thump!

Courage

Just Google!

Nikon Universcale: Beautiful flash animation

Swim across the Atlantic?!

Update

A free mobile phone carrier?!

Google Homepage Themes

Interactive mirrors! Now we're talking :)

5000 :)

Want Joost Beta invites?

Apple at it again!

Shift happens!

Huh?!

Blogger troubles?

Bezurk to power TODAY hotel search

Recommended Reading: Larry King on Speaking

What's so special about India and China?!

Is Silicon Valley passe? Nah!

Back in Singapura!

Business vs. Technology

Dinner with the CEO

Wanna climb the corporate ladder? Listen up...

Getting Dugg!

Thanking Kevin Rose

Watch Youtube on your Ipod

StumbleVideo - Just what I wanted!

Guess who's back?!

Bomb explodes at Paypal Office

The Starbucks "Asshole" Test

Mentorship Unplugged: Innovate Incisively by Dr Thomas J. Buckholtz

Fashion?!

MSN Soapbox Preview

Google acquires YouTube!

The logic behind impulse buys

Free Hugs - An inspirational story

New mentor: Kevin Rose

Grand Opening Ceremony

A new day at Excelics

Second Life servers hacked!

Innovate Incisively, a talk by Tom Buckholtz

Launch of the Rainmakers Blog

When kids write...

Finding confidential documents with Google

Lessons for an aspiring entrepreneur - Part 1

Google CEO joins Apple's Board of Directors!

Tea Partay - advertising redefined

Youtube to release new features

Google Music Trends

Google - do a lil evil

Apologies

Windows Live Writer - pretty good!

Corn flakes without milk

Consultants...

This is broken!

Steve Jobs' keynote at WWDC 06

New Apple products!

NUSEA's The Road Less Travelled series

408 Reviews for a gallon of milk!

DV Labs - Really high quality streaming video

Lifehacker junk

The Techcrunch Party thing...