Thursday, April 14, 2005

IPTV's - content

Businessweek article discussing how content may hold the key for teh IPTV market.

IPTV's Revolution May Be on Hold

Hundred Years of Uncertainty

The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Contributor: One Hundred Years of Uncertainty: "Hundred Years of Uncertainty"

Good article in NYTimes on Einstein and Quantum Physics

Monday, April 11, 2005

Start-ups

Why Smart People Have Bad Ideas: "If you're going to spend years working on something, you'd think it might be wise to spend at least a couple days considering different ideas, instead of going with the first that comes into your head. You'd think. But people don't. In fact, this is a constant problem when you're painting still lifes. You plonk down a bunch of stuff on a table, and maybe spend five or ten minutes rearranging it to look interesting. But you're so impatient to get started painting that ten minutes of rearranging feels very long. So you start painting. Three days later, having spent twenty hours staring at it, you're kicking yourself for having set up such an awkward and boring composition, but by then it's too late."


- Another great essay on startups

China, India: Tech?

Wired News: China, India: Rule Global Tech?: "Cooperation is just like two pagodas, one hardware and one software,' Wen said. 'Combined, we can take the leadership position in the world. When the particular day comes, it will signify the coming of the Asian century of the IT industry,'"

Friday, April 08, 2005

Open Source Equity Research 2.0

Reflections on Equity Research: Open Source Equity Research 2.0

"Meanwhile I'm looking for a software/tech guy what would like to join me in developing this concept part time. The barriers of entry to this project is zero; all the initial capital required is probably about $20/month for web hosting, a computer, and two or more synergistic people with an understanding of equity research, software development and technology."

Thursday, April 07, 2005

BadCorp.org:

BadCorp.org: Stop funding your own oppression.

Another of these anti-corporations web-site

Wednesday, April 06, 2005

Consumer King

Economist.com: "Amazon, which has long evolved from an online bookseller into a mass retailer, uses a form of behavioural targeting by suggesting products its customers might like, based on their past purchases. Jeff Bezos, Amazon's chief executive, was among the first to spot that the transparent pricing and product information the internet was able to provide would allow people to shop just about anywhere. The trick was to make it easier for them, so Amazon's website now operates as a shop front for lots of other companies too. And it gives customers the chance to read not only the sales blurb but also other customers' comments on the products."

Sun criticizes GPL

Sun criticizes popular open-source license | CNET News.com: "SAN FRANCISCO--Sun Microsystems President Jonathan Schwartz on Tuesday proclaimed ardent support for the open-source software realm but criticized the General Public License, a widely used foundation of the programming movement"

What Should I Do With My Life?

What Should I Do With My Life?: "The previous era of business was defined by the question, Where's the opportunity? I'm convinced that business success in the future starts with the question, What should I do with my life? Yes, that's right. The most obvious and universal question on our plates as human beings is the most urgent and pragmatic approach to sustainable success in our organizations. People don't succeed by migrating to a 'hot' industry (one word: dotcom) or by adopting a particular career-guiding mantra (remember 'horizontal careers'?). They thrive by focusing on the question of who they really are -- and connecting that to work that they truly love (and, in so doing, unleashing a productive and creative power that they never imagined)"

Joel on Software - Publicity ?

Joel on Software - Good series, Joel: "Kind of makes you wonder, with all of Joel's proselytizing about how to run a small business/tech startup, how much of his success is due to JoS itself. Without the top-notch word of mouth generated by this site, would it really be feasible to hire the best and the brightest, give them unparalleled benefits, and still be in the black (which I assume Fog Creek is)?

In other words, could a company like Fog Creek succeed if you replaced Joel with someone just as savvy, but without his gifts for written communication?

I hope so, but it's not certain by any means."

Good comment ..

I would never have heard of Fog Creek if it was not for the blogs written by Joel. So yes, 'Joel on software' is a good medium for publicity. Nevertheless, if the blog was just about Fog Creek and its products, this blog would not be as popular as it is now. It is the wide variety of thoughts and good insights into different aspects of software development that makes this blog so intresting to read.

On the Internet, 2nd (and 3rd and . . . ) Opinions

The New York Times > Arts > Critic's Notebook: On the Internet, 2nd (and 3rd and . . . ) Opinions: "Ron Hogan, who writes a literary blog called Beatrice.com, recently began a second blog, Beatrix: A Book Review Review. He's not the only one reviewing reviewers. The blogs Bookdwarf, Conversational Reading, The Elegant Variation, Golden Rule Jones, The Reading Experience and Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind - all gloss, grade or review other people's book reviews. On Gawker.com, a writer known as Intern Alexis reviews The New York Times Book Review"

Magazine > It's a Flat World,

The New York Times > Magazine > It's a Flat World, After All:

"At one point, summing up the implications of all this, Nilekani uttered a phrase that rang in my ear. He said to me, ''Tom, the playing field is being leveled.'' He meant that countries like India were now able to compete equally for global knowledge work as never before -- and that America had better get ready for this. As I left the Infosys campus that evening and bounced along the potholed road back to Bangalore, I kept chewing on that phrase: ''The playing field is being leveled.''"

Venture Capital Thwarts Innovation

the level of innovation actually dropped sharply after 1996, even as venture funding was going through the roof


"VCs act like businesspeople, even when they have a technical background"

My experience with VC's has been reverse -

VCs act like techies, even when they have a business background and it gets frustating to explain your ideas and specifically your implementation and how your product differs with the existing ones.

Pay-Per-Click Fraud

The Advertising: Web Marketers Fearful of Fraud in Pay-Per-Click: "Pay-Per-Click"

Monday, April 04, 2005

Netline's Open-Xchange Server

IT-Analysis.com - Will Netline Open-Xchange be the next Fire

Saturday, April 02, 2005

Apple Hires DVD Jon

I never expected this :

Friday, April 01, 2005

Open Source in Yoga ;o)

Open Source Yoga Unity - Home

"copyright on a popular style of yoga"

- Isn't this taking things too far ?

Open Source Solaris

Riskwaters - OS

Analysis of the new business model that SUN will undertake

infinity+1 image from GMAIL


infinity, originally uploaded by vishal_sah.

Image on the gmail home page on April Fool's day

Flickr

Uploaded some pics at flickr as I wanted to post some pictures on my blogs

Gmail: now at 2 GB

Gmail: Help Center: "G is for growth
Storage is an important part of email, but that doesn't mean you should have to worry about it. To celebrate our one-year birthday, we're giving everyone one more gigabyte. But why stop the party there? Our plan is to continue growing your storage beyond 2GBs by giving you more space as we are able. We know that email will only become more important in people's lives, and we want Gmail to keep up with our users and their needs. From Gmail, you can expect more."

Here is the Premium mail services offer from Yahoo.
- 2GB of mail storage
- mail forwarding
- POP Access
- No Graphical Ads ;o)
All these great features at only $19.99/year


This is what I had noted earlier, the Free services will become 'good enough' so that charging for premium services will become redundant Business model