Captive Adaptations

GoogleMaps

2005-07-08T01:18:00.000-07:00

This is an idea that displays the current content on this blog on Google Maps.

iUpload Perspectives Applied (what's this):

View this post in Google Maps

Annotating Annotated Adaptations

2005-06-24T00:00:00.000-07:00

The title sounds a little too geeky. But that is exactly what this blog entry is. No points for guessing where the link has taken you to !

Unthinkable Courage

2005-06-17T01:17:00.000-07:00

This news article left me with a overwhelming emotion of joy and pride simultaneously. Amongst ordinary people like us, its these rare gems who demonstrate such awareness, intelligence, effort and above all faith to fight for their beliefs.

I am ashamed that this industry has "crowned" such evil empires as leaders and bestowed them with power which has only made them such irrational bullies. Big corporations with such atrocious attorneys and legal advisors haved failed both the consumers and people within the industry with such shameless deeds. A $40 billion dollar company, who cannot keep their legal dogs at bay, what a shame !

Unthinkable acts of courage from people like Zamos empower us with a willingness to dare, knowing pretty well that all odds might be agains us. True fighter !, I am really thrilled with this guys feat.

Epiphany - An Astounding Realization

2005-06-14T01:46:00.000-07:00

Connecting the dots, its almost second nature to me and its what I DO BEST, or so I thought, and it took me nearly 17 odd years to realize what I am blogging below. Its perhaps a no brainer that this will force me into deeper introspections and will command more careful attention from me. Without further ado, on to the topic....

Last night, I was casually skimming the excerpts from "Devil in the White City". Its about "The Greatest Fair in American History: The Chicago World Fair"

Now this book is about an Architect and a Serial Killer, whose fates where linked by this Fair. But while reading it, out of no where, I suddenly realized I know of 2 events that happened exactly during that time frame, the idea of 2 men whose fates where linked some how encouraged me to dig for what was just an occurring thought. But I decided to give it a shot !

Swami Vivekananda and his talk at the Parliament of Religions is common folk lore in India and is etched in the minds of almost every Indian. I sure remember it was Chicago, and it was 1893. But I did not remember anything about a "Fair" (speaks volumes of my attentiveness)

Very recently, I learnt Edison lost out in his battle for popularizing DC, because of a fair in 1893. Read the aforeblogged link for the genesis of that idea. Following that I learnt that Tesla was the guy who invented AC. (As a matter of fact he is one of those rare brilliant geniuses who is known very little inspite of being the first of many astounding inventions)

I am also biased into believing that "Great Men are made because of Great Times". This instinct and pure inquisitiveness opened the doors for something I had not realized. "The Columbian Exposition 1893". Its legacy is credited with the following firsts

Dawn of Corporate Culture in America
Dawn of Consumerism in America and Paradigm shift from Producer to Consumer Society
Adoption of Electricity and Technology in America

And the most interesting by-products - (Vivekananda and Telsa also apparently met here, became friends and Telsa started to use Vedic insights into his research). This is clearly the dawn of the aforeblogged Convergence of Eastern and Western Sciences.

The Other Road Ahead

2005-05-17T23:44:00.000-07:00

Each of us demand more from our lives. We are constantly reassessing ourselves against the environment we live in, wanting our lives to be richer and more substantive. But at the same time we are held captive by the fear of the unknown, and are trapped in our strides with a reluctance to even try.

People who have unearthed their true calling have always intrigued our minds. Its their fight against the seduction of wealth, comfort and desire, that humbles us. Those who broke away from the norm, and followed their dreams, seemed so brave that we chose to tag them as heroes, as legends.

Should we make peace with our ambitions ? Should we make money first and then fund our dreams ? Should this be our destiny ?

The biggest obstacles to these questions are that we don't permit our minds to consider them seriously, for the fear of failure, the uncertainty of the outcome, and the doubts on our own capabilities shroud our reasoning.

Lets step aside for a moment and reflect back at the road that we have just traversed. How did we reach where we are today ? Did we not start off with just the pursuit of excitement on our minds ? Where we not armed only with our weakness ? Was not "fear" the only equipment we carried ?

If we seem to radiate wisdom from our choice of the road yesterday, why is it today, we can't seem to choose "The Other Road Ahead" ?

Bangalore vs BayArea - Part III

2005-05-13T22:55:00.000-07:00

The genesis of the problems of most developed nations are their aging population. Japan, Western Europe led by Britain, America, are all sitting on a time bomb that is bound to hamper their economic growth. Popularly known as "Inverted Pyramid" the demographics of these developed nations clearly show that the aging population will outgrow the "income generating" youth population, more "spending hands" than "earning hands", ineffect losing the capacity to attract any potential investment, since there will be no significant ROI in the next 20 years.

Population Pyramids for United States

Population Pyramids for Japan

However, China and India are two very important economies with emerging markets, which coupled with their surging youth population, are sure bets for ROI in the next 20 - 50 years.

Population Pyramids for India

The first generation of Baby Boomers (the people who made almost everything happen in IT for the past 30-40 years for US) will start retiring starting 2008. And this trend is going to continue every year for the next 20 years until 2027.

So here is the enumeration of the issues that US has.

1. The technology group of the 70's, start this retirement cycle in another 3 years, and there are not enough "youths" to replace them, the enough "engineers" is still a secondary question.
2. The IT jobs are also moving to lower cost destinations and this trend is not going to slow down any sooner.
3. US is clearly not capable of producing enough engineers to retain its dominance in IT or to attract newer investments.
4. Since the GDP of the nation will now have to be met with fewer "working hands" it will only mean more "chronic" working hours for all working people, productivity levels are hence bound to fall.

On the other hand, Bangalore and Indian economy, led by IT have some real good opportunities to capitalize on.

1. Its been proven that "Disruptive Innovation", ultimately takes over the "niche" markets too, and Indians starting off at the lower end of the value-chain have to only start the improvement cycles to move higher up in this "Value Chain". So far, the Indian IT industry has performed and lived up to its hype, and I am sure that "innovation" and "entreprenurial" spirit is already seeded in my peers and the younger generation.

2. India can surely benefit from the promotion of "Open source" and "free software processes", because the barriers to enter and compete are torn down by such measures. The new age management philosophies have documented and corroborated the success of such cultures.

3. Perhaps the icing on the cake for India, is the timing of the adoption of "Software as a Service" by the markets, while this idea has been around for some years, only recently has the momentum shifted and is gaining critical acceptance that ultimately enables all software to be hosted, managed, and just provided as a service.
The service model of software, currently looks like the panacea for India's poor showing in producing software goods. With investments on infrastructure currently being pumped into the Indian market, India can use this and directly enter the "SAS" economic model, and not worry about building sales channels for selling products, It should be able to generate "inorganic growth" if it plays the "Utility/Grid/OnDemand Computing" card well.

4. The developed nations will fuel the investment of such initiatives further because of the "Innovation Blow Back" effect, which is bound to benefit their markets too in the next few years.

5. With all these trigger points lining up in India's favor, and with the right education system, and a highly-charged youth energy to boot, Bangalore currently looks all set to win this battle. (I am assuming the political/geo-political situtations will be handled appropriately by the people at the helm, to facilitate technology to lead the way for a booming growth phase)

6. If Bangalore and India can demonstrate steadiness for the next decade, doing whatever it takes to lead the "Software as a Service" model, I think they will also stand to reep the "Long tail" in the global and local markets.

And to quote someone "The 19th century belonged to Europe, 20th century belonged to America, and the 21st century belongs to Asia", India and Bangalore in particular. While tomorrow comes with its own set of uncertainities, the battle can only be lost by Indians and its not for others to win. If Indians stay their course, this will be their Golden Harvest !!

Tomorrow or my next blog entry : What are the important ideas Bangalore can emulate from BayArea ?. How to fuel entreprenurial hunger in the otherwise complacent Indian "Think tank", what are the tactical, strategic and demographical similarities of Bangalore and BayArea ?. And much more.....

Bangalore vs BayArea - Part II

2005-05-10T00:24:00.000-07:00

In my previous blog entry we looked at some serious threats to the Indian Software Economy, if India continues being just an Offshore vendor supplying IT personnel based on hourly billing. For now, it has a cushion/buffer period because the threat is a little distant in time. However, this revenue model is organic in growth and cannot be sustained for many years. Over a period of time the value proposition will cease to exist, as profit margins start declining because of global competition, and worst its heavily dependent on countries like USA to provide them with business.

Threats to US Software Economy
The US Software Economy on the other hand has its own set of threats to handle right away. While the past few years have seen rapid adoption of Outsourcing and particularly Offshoring to lower cost destinations like India, the question that is most frequently asked by every programmer here in the US (including those on H1) is "Just how seriously can I compete with some other programmer in a country like India who is delighted to do essentially equivalent work for a fraction of the price that I work for ?"

Well, the harsh truth is they CANNOT. Its one more thumb rule of globalization, the international market always sets the "price of programming". Hence the threat is very real and immediate. So what are the options for companies/programmers. Can they lower their prices to stay competitive ? Its a no brainer that US programmers/companies simply CANNOT lower their prices to the point that countries like India can.

So to retain their dominance in technology and software US companies and programmers will have to look at avenues to change the economics of software itself, and look for business value in other parts of the "Software Value Chain".

Approach
Here are some of the options that US companies can adopt to still retain their supremacy. Mind you these are just options (not solutions, so adoption of these options will have to be deliberated and have bearings on political, social climates as well).

1. US Companies can promote free software process, by good licensing agendas and hence commoditizing software. Since the "free" price cannot be undercut, new products coming out of developing countries like India essentially have no seemingly greater value, hence the nature of business essentially shifts to different parts of the value chain, like managing business contracts and not software development as such, and this US certainly has a better control on.

2. US can try to Reform Software Patents, mostly eliminate any further patents on Software, and open up patents on "Business methods" instead. (First to file rather than first to invent). We have already seen most Senior executives advocating this. This can only help US companies, and tear down the competitive barriers in other countries by using its political muscle, thus normarlizing those markets at a rapid pace.

3. US companies can invest in raising the standard of living in India for example, in effect over a period of time the "value differential" between dollar and rupee will be lost, and India can lose its "low cost" tag.

4. Impose Tariffs on software products written outside of US. This might not sustain in the Globalization Era.

So with these (and may be many more I can't currently think of ) options, US can still make it difficult for other countries to challenge its technology dominance and to an extent alleviate some of its current threats.

Tomorrow or my next blog entry : There are however bigger issues looming large on US, which is "Graying of America" and the end of the "Bay-Boomers Era". How can India take advantage of this, and will the ever growing Indian youth population prove to be its boon in this struggle for dominance. Stay tuned for more !

Bangalore vs BayArea - Part I

2005-05-08T22:44:00.000-07:00

Era of Globalization has made each of us competitive and fight for our share of the larger pie. Starting today, I want to document all my thoughts on the new age/old age economics as well as compare both Indian Software Economy and American Software Economy in particular and provide a way to monitor how things shape up, accordingly. While this can be a generic topic, I want to be esoteric enough to objectively address only these two economies for now.

I've had the exposure of both the environments (born in Bangalore and living in Bayarea for the past 5 years), and I clearly think I have started to figure out the differences and know more about how these places tick currently. As we start its always beneficial to be ambivalent towards both these economies and objectively try to compare and contrast each in order to enable all of us to understand how Globalization is changing "Software Economics", the industry that feeds us and hence comments are welcome from all of you.

A little bit of History
We need to learn from our legacy its quite fascinating and really important to see the parallels.

Economic Impact during the BRITISH RAJ :
Indian economy was transformed into a colonial economy whose nature and structure was determined by the needs of the British economy.

India supplied all the raw material required for Britain's Industrial need, especially the cash crops like jute, cotton, iron ore and became the ready market for Britain's large-scale finished product. The cottage industries were destroyed systematically and India was forced to accept British goods, which were cheaper than the Indian counterpart.

High revenue demands and rigid manners of collection forced peasants into the clutches of the moneylenders. Expanding population put greater pressure as there was no corresponding development of industry. Britain's policy of trade ruined India's urban and rural industries.

Fast Forward to Service / Software Economy Driven by America (especially with all the Outsourcing happening), this is how it will read.

Economic Impact NOW :
Indian economy was transformed into a "vibrant" economy whose nature and structure was determined by the needs of the American economy.

India supplied all the IT resources required for the American Service Industry needs, especially the cash crops like software engineers, business process managers, technical gurus, call centre operators and became the ready market for Americas large-scale finished product. (Remember India still to a large extent does not produce Software Products). The local software industries were "acquired" systematically and India was forced to accept American software products, which eventually were "cheaper" than Indian counterpart.

High revenue demands (The P/E ratio that American Companies look at) and rigid manners of collection (software & service licensing) forced small & medium scale software shops into the clutches of the "moneylenders". Expanding population in India put greater pressure as there was no corresponding development of service infrastructure within India. America's policy of trade "took advantage" of India's software industries.

Approach
Well, do I have to take a pessimistic approach and assume that this how its going to be. NO. There are enough thinking brains in "India" not to allow this to happen. I have already read a few blogs which are calling out loud to prevent this from happening.

Will the USofA essentially create such a "Hostile Environment" with its "green dollars" and will Mergers, TakeOvers and Acquisitions be the norm of the day. Interesting questions, according to me, its not nations or people as such that resort to hostile actions. The "Laws of Global Economics" is unlikely to spare any industry which fails to adapt itself to the changing paradigms both in "Economics" and shifts within the "industry itself".

Tomorrow or my next blog entry : So will Indian programmers/companies start orienting themselves to produce "Software Products", then what about an American Programmer, can he then compete with someone who produces goods, by laboring at a fraction of a price (like $400 a month) - what are the options for programmers in America ? Stay tuned.

Castle Rock

2005-05-07T22:37:00.000-07:00

Where, When, With Whom and What I was doing today ? Here, I have corroborated enough data to pin point the time, date, latitude, longitude and the lovely group I was with, in a manner that the world can take notice.

Cool Uh ? Thanks to the folks at Geobloggers. This is one more service in Utility computing similar to the aforeblogged "GoogleMaps + Craigslist"

Free Speech and Adapting Anonymity

2005-05-07T01:01:00.000-07:00

As the playing fields are levelled and information barriers are torn down, the power of free speech that it vests on individuals is so overarching, that it can create mighty reprisals from powerful entities like the Corporates and Governments.

I have closely followed Pradyuman Maheshwari's plight and the premature demise of his blog due to his tussle with the elite and "pristine" in the media world. So, its very important that each of us understand the rules of the game well, before we get on the field. Its no accident that I hide my real identity in all my public blogs, that would be one good way to start.

Most of us are naive about the repercussions our candor can invite, and I am happy to see that at least some steps are being taken to spread this awareness and also find social/technological solutions to protect all such free speech bloggers and this may well be applied to podcasters too.

While I am by no means a journalist and know nothing at all about laws protecting individuals against such backlash from biggies, I am thinking anonymous and community blogging (with groups of bloggers) may be a simple way to avoid such slander. As I write this, it seems more pertinent for me to do some digging to learn about some important ideas in this regard.

Fifth Element

2005-05-06T19:12:00.000-07:00

I missed it, did not realize that yesterday was so significant. According to some blogs, it was quadruple 5s. Just out of curiosity what we consider the moments like this the fifth second, of the fifth minute of the fifth hour of the fifth day of the week during the 5th month of the 5th year of the century.

05/05/05/05:05:05 during 5th day of the week.... Man, I better get back to more useful work.

Radio Adaptations

2005-05-06T02:06:00.000-07:00

Have always been a big fan of Public Radios. Like the npr and the pri. In my opinion, its public radios, public television broadcasters and public libraries that facilitate true information awareness. The cable and private channels are too shallow and have failed miserably in using this powerful mass medium.

As we enter into the "Participation Age", the tools and "information abstractions" over the web, also need to scale to provide a platform for such community conversations. "Web 1.0" had already shown how "radio" can be propogated regardless of distance over the internet. This also reminds me of thrills and struggles during our childhood days while listening to Pop music via Radio Ceylon & BBC. Remember, how most of the time it would just be a futile exercise with just noise reception inspite of additional antennas, self-made boosters and tuner knob experiments.

But, nostalgia aside, we surmounted those distance barriers easily few years back when most radio became available online. Now we have leap-frogged one more step further with "Web 2.0". Enter "Open source radio". The first radio station to get all its programming from podcasts. Time to reset a preferred channel on my "Car Radio" to AM 1550 KYCY.

And Boy, am I eager to listen to all the "starry" crap from each of you. Can't Wait !!

Life Blog

2005-05-04T00:04:00.000-07:00

Did you think Bloggy was just a thingy of the future or an engineering exercise yet to become a household commodity. Well, wake up from your slumber, I just came across this commercial version of Bloggy. Nokia LifeBlog. Reproducing verbatim what Nokia has said about lifeblog reads like this "Lifeblog automatically organizes photos, videos, text messages, multimedia messages into a chronology that can be easily browsed, searched and shared". Cool Huh !!, I must admit life never ceases to surprise me.

And the quote of the day "With Lifeblog, the phone becomes the Life Recorder and the PC the Life Archive". A powerful and very-much-on-track-to-become-true statement.

The lifeblog application currently works only with select mobile phones, and integrates into select Blog engines, but its sure is something to checkout. For starters here is a link to the lifeblog protocol specification.

Secret Sauce

2005-05-03T06:30:00.000-07:00

The vast majority of businesses particularly in the Western World had up until now believed that having a "Secret Sauce" was the true way to sustain and grow business. And hence safeguarding "Intellectual Property" and stretching the "mileage" gained from a single idea, seemed to corrupt even the brilliant minds like that of Edison.

I had known that Edison was as shrewd a businessmen, as he was a technical innovator, but while listening to this wonderful talk from Johnathan about FOSS at the OSBC conference, I learnt about how he tried to stifle the adoption of "AC" during the mass electrification process, simply because he liked "DC" more than "AC".

In one of my talks in 2003, I had touched upon the concept of "Open source" and how most cusines were rendered rich in variety and quality because of their receipe's being open source.

In this talk Johnathan goes on to show how standardization and "openness" has helped almost all industries in the past from Canals, Rails, Electricity and Telecommunication, and its quite but a natural course in the evolution of any industry to adopt openness and standardization. This idea is very elementary, and it pains to see that "Corporates" with their greed for material gains, have tried many roadblocks to delay such standardization. Most do not even participate in trying to achieve normative standards for the benefit of a bigger and better cause.

However, I am pleased to know leaders like Johnathan have not only realized that "Community Models" are the way to succeed in adding value to the goods/services sold, but are also advocating and are being vocal to speed its adoption.

Hotel Rwanda

2005-05-02T02:28:00.000-07:00

Managed to get a hold of this DVD, and the much needed time this weekend to finally watch this good movie about the genocide in 1994. Its imperative that all of us be aware of these darker sides of human nature and the sheer apathy of international community to be unable to respond to this crisis when they had all the information to be able to prevent it. The happenings in Darfur (Sudan) for the past year has not had mainstream media attention, and is one more evidence of how disconnected we can suddenly become.

While I am not an idealistic person, and don't necessarily believe in advocating the path of righteousness - which to me is a little extreme - because all humans have their own limitations, I think we need to understand the extremities in human thoughts and actions which are happening for real in this ever shrinking world.

The effects of Globalization is one way or the other having an impact in all of our lives. And we need to have a heightened awareness of our roles in this new world of connected globalization. The extreme thoughts/actions are particularly dense in the parts that are most disconnected, and below is a map which shows where we belong in this new adaptation.

There are a lot of interesting thinkers who have provided their valuable insights into this New Age of accelerated Globalization, while most are pessimistic in their conclusions, I think Thomas Bernett's approach is more refreshing (the above map is from one of his books). Its based on factual accounts of human response and adaptation to adversities, and I think his rulesets based approach is the most objective way to identify ourselves with the changes in this endevour & will likely form the foundation for diplomatic connectedness.

Hike

2005-04-30T17:40:00.000-07:00

Human capabilities need a regular nourishment of exercise and practice, otherwise they fade away into eternal dormancy. Today, I took out some time to hike on Mission Peak, its been nearly 3 years since i visited this last.

With an altitude of 2517 ft, a good gradient of ascent, and a final leg which is a steep climb to the summit, this was one of the trails I used to effortlessly surmount during my "hay days".

But, the abuse that my physical body has undergone in the past 3 years, with a completely sedantry lifestyle, showed up as early as 20 minutes into the climb. With some effort, I was able to finish what seemed to be a herculean task at times, but I must admit that it was also an alarming realization of how bad my current fitness level is. The mind and body seemed so much out of sync, which only prolonged what should have otherwise been a simple physical activity. Fitness & Weight loss is certainly something that needs my attention soon.

I am sure most of you must have tried various ways to monitor, control and reduce weight gains. So I would be happy to learn about some creative ways to lose weight and get back to my previous fitness levels soon. Shoot your comments.

Professional Adaptations - My daily pickle

2005-04-25T23:51:00.000-07:00

I managed to meet my own deadline last night, and I am happy that I finalized on another playground to cater to my professional adaptations as well. While this blog provides my daily diet of personal improvement, the new blog should supplement this, acting as a daily pickle to my professional pudding.

I have accumulated significant amount of empirical observations, and I am hoping for a continuous improvement on these observations while I capture, categorize, publish, index, connect and articulate ideas on emerging technologies and market trends, and crave to apply my objective analysis on the resultant.

In short my captive thoughts on the "Genesis, Taxonomy and Emerging Ideas in the world of Technology and Software" will be found on that blog. I will disclose the blog when the time is apt enough for me to share it with you, my dear fans and the rest of the world.

Noble Truth

2005-04-22T02:47:00.000-07:00

If you have ever experienced life in a pure startup which is at its earliest stages, its easy to arrive at a conclusion that its a natural course of human thought to gear up and wear on the mentality of a warrior. The point of having a pointed focus to doing whatever it takes to get things done, almost pushes you to the brink of erasing the thin line that distinguishes humans from being just another animal who will not hesitate to kill to prevail.

Moderation finds no relevance or place when you start living within this shell. If you have an open mind however its easy to find people around you, who can still reset your drive of madness, and assert that life has much more "meaning" than mindless accomplishment. I had the pleasure of participating & sharing a sweet evening with one such group of friends today.

Most of the time I am good at getting my own job done, but how many times in the recent past have I spent some thought to invest a little bit of my energy and time to celebrate the joy of simple things associated with my friends ? This question leaves me with nothing but mere embarrassment. The noble truth is today I did take note of the gestures and efforts of a few people, and this has only enhanced my admiration and respect in return.

Dating Methods - Mythical Security

2005-04-21T01:40:00.000-07:00

Excited about the topic, can't help it, I have to spoil it. Topic isn't about social dating, neither is it about Carbon dating. I reached my "half life" as the clock struck 12 and remembered "Dating Methods" associated to Half Life. As you can see, I am still to come to terms with the concept of considering myself a 30 year old. Life has just been zoom... zoom.. ZOOM.... Its time to say goodbye to my first half life, and usher in the next which I know will not be as eventful as the first, but will demand more wisdom and discipline from me.

As people grow old, they tend to eliminate risk, look forward to what I term "Mythical Security". For the most part its when you see all your youthful dreams of adventure, accomplishment, travel & romance buried under the cloud of conformity. Will I be more happier being a conformist ?. A tricky question for my own mind.

Mostly I have been more happier when I have braved the storm of life rather than when I have stayed securely on shore and merely existed !. So as the new half life unfolds itself, I am thinking life should be more a matter of tastes than being a matter of tasks.

May be this fresh perspective will help, I am betting on time to spring up a few surprises as well. Just to lighten up the serious topic, here is the link for a cool site, that I accidentally came across today. A nice image to text converter. And guess what sprung up.

Pleasant Surprises, already ;) Huh ?.

Occam's Razor

2005-04-20T01:22:00.000-07:00

Today, I just had a marathon argument with my CEO, on the technology vision and product road map. Not that this is new to me, but at the end of it, convincing every one just drains out your entire energy and it becomes almost impossible to finish off the coding tasks that are piling up at an incredible pace.

Information Overload all around certainly brings with it an overwhelming set of options to filter and details to pay attention to. But this alone does not merit that people just give up reasoned decisions. There will always be multiple ways to skin a cat, and litte time to find the right knife, but that is where "Human Reasoning and Empirical Rules" help you sift through, to get to the most appropriate way of achieving the desired result.

While its difficult to model all the variables into the microcosm of your product offering, it would be pertinent to model atleast the minimum needed according to Occam's Razor. And any behaviour that we percieve naturally, I think can be modelled with a finite set of variables, provided we identify the core elements around which the others, position themselves. But at every place the Senior Leadership tends to think otherwise, and wants a quick solution. Passion is important in a startup, but it should not warrant anyone to be impulsive. Attention to detail is equally important to build a successful company. Having convinced my CEO to incorporate the right blend of innovation, and time to market, I have invited more work for myself.

I also made a conscious decision to keep work/professional matter outside this blog, but given the need of the hour, I have to find another blog space to capture, categorize, and build a taxonomy of the ideas that are floating in the fabric of my mind. Ideas are ephemeral, blog them for posterity. (nice, i like this statement that my mind just spewed out)

Here are the options I am currently weighing.

1. I thought about the space at 360 that I recently created, but there I reveal my true identity, which is not suitable for professional blogs. ( I don't want to be liable for conflict of interest issues, nor do I want to answer breaches of confidentiality etc)

2. So should I opt for another space in Blogger itself ?, or are there other blog sites that provide richer features to articulate my ideas.

3. Since those daily updates will comprise a heavy doze of Intellectual Property, I need more control and flexibilty to play with the content.

I need to wrap this up by the weekend. Any suggestions are welcome.

Bouncing Back - Tiger Stroke

2005-04-18T15:15:00.000-07:00

I have never been an avid TV viewer, and for the past 2 years I don't own one either. But sports is something I miss, and especially moments like this. Click on the link below.

Its all about showing the ball some direction and allowing gravity to do the rest, it truly left my jaw dropping. While writing the above statement I am in no way undermining Tiger's amazing control on his nerves and instincts, having just played "mini-golf" a week or so ago (at which I sucked), I can seriously relate to how tough it is for these guys.

I am sure my fellow golfers over the previous weekend will enjoy this !

Podcasting - My adaptations

2005-04-17T14:30:00.000-07:00

This is my first attempt at podcasting. The content is of a "Standup Comedy" act that I did in Oct 2003, for a "Diwali" event, where the entire Event Management was also my responsibility, finding no takers for this entertainment slot, I just decided to have a go at it. Whether it was a success or not, is for lurkers ;) (and my only fans) like you judge !

The talk orients around a lot of intellectual stuff as well, as it tries to bridge the Eastern, Western and Indian cultures in a very satirical level. Check out the links below and click on the respective icons.

For advanced bloggers/podcasters, the atom feed on this blog or the feed on the feedburner should enable the ipodder client, or the Doppler client. However I have not tested them. Any comments/issues on your finds while using them are welcome, I will try to correct them as and when I find time.

Utility Sprout - Dawn of a new adaptation ?

2005-04-10T22:46:00.000-07:00

Most of us by now have heard the gaint strides of computing towards becoming a utility, and many among us have wondered how Grid and Utility computing are going to change the way we work, live and grow. While almost all of them have concentrated on the "Utility Infrastructure", I think the best gains of electricity as a utility was in the "Consumerism" it fuelled.

Imagine all the gadgets we use today because of electricity as a "utility". Almost everything !!. So, I have always believed that the emergence of computing capability as a utility will catalyze the use of services as we know, and today I came across one such simple adaptation.

Craigslist with Googlemaps. Simple but fantastic consumer utility. Thanks to Paul. Enjoy !

Bloggy Adaptations :)

2005-04-07T23:13:00.000-07:00

Ah !, the world (with creative humans) seems to have answers for everything. I was just too tired for the past couple of days, and felt like I needed some help even to blog. While consistency has never been my forte, I have somehow managed to stay ahead of the curve, attributing everything to the magic of "chance".

And yet again, I chanced upon this. "Bloggy", say hello to the cousin of the aforeblogged "Clocky". Don't people tire coming up with innovative ideas like this. But then may be, they will come up with a "Thingy" for that tiredness too. World is so full of amuzements.

BLOGGY's BLOG
CLOCKY

While machines start taking over our mechanical jobs (like waking up) and even our creative jobs (like blogging), i think "Automated Reasoning" is not far behind. And may be "Semantic WEB" has already catalyzed the idea of EPIC, and it might happen sooner than 2014. Are we missing something right under our nose ?. I am feeling a sense of urgency as I write this, this might be our true "Wake up call".

Divine Path

2005-04-05T14:38:00.000-07:00

Its time to ruffle a few feathers and stir up a hornet’s nest. I just can’t help but touch upon the controversial subject of “Religion & the Divine plan”. While being brought up in a traditional Hindu family and having studied in a strict “Catholic Convent” my parents and relatives would have expected me to be a Theist. But as in turns out, I quite moved in the opposite direction.

The biggest fallacy of religion as I analyze is attributing everything to a “Divine Plan” and concluding that all human actions (good or bad) are pre-destined. If all human actions were accordingly the result of a predetermined “divine plan”, then this premise undermines the “human ability” of choosing to be good, if one wanted to, and at the same time provides an easy alibi for people who knowingly choose the wrong path.

Lets take the example of “Mehmet Ali Agca”

who shot the Pope and then when the Pope said that “Virgin Mary intervened to save his life”, Agca in all his innocence, just claimed and insisted that he was part of the “Divine Plan” and hence was not liable for his actions. Do you see the irony?

How do you counter this ? If all people who choose to be virtuous are not doing anything “great”, (it was all destined) and all people who have submitted themselves to rotten vices are doing nothing “damaging”, (it was their destined path), then why should anybody do anything good at all?. Why should humans show restraint, empathy and practice virtues like sacrifice, love and sympathy.

Personally, I don’t really appreciate the concept of “Religion” in any form, although “Spirituality” is something I am open to discuss. I feel all humans are born only with vices (the pure instinct to survive), some of them choose and try to transcend this barrier, while for others like me :) it’s just too huge a barrier to surmount.

Creative Writing to EPIC - Adaptation of the Media

2005-04-04T12:18:00.000-07:00

Creative Writing was a concept invented in US around the late 60s – early 70s. This was a manifestation of a vague idea of just having an opinion or a “feeling” of awareness, to be called a sentient human, rather than being reasoned to have an opinion. Heard of “Modern Art”, and how vague you feel when you try to understand them, that was a sibling of this same idea too. This cultural change in America more or less has had a spiraling effect in degradation of civic virtues, and hence the need for intellects from outside to contribute to its “Brain power”. I am not complaining, its given me a platform and an opportunity to put my skills to good use.

“Individualism”, I think was a byproduct of the cultural concept that everybody needs to have an opinion, no matter how incoherent and vague it is. Don’t’ think, just feel; and if it feels good, just do it; forget about reasoned decisions, and responsibilities or consequences of your action. In effect “wishful thinking” outmoded “logical reasoning”.

Fast forward to 2002, have you closely observed Google News, all content on it is edited by machines, and there is no human reasoning involved, just matching of key words and based on clicks on links the priority of a news items gets decided, how bad is this compared to “Creative Writing”.

If you think this is where we are going to stop, just check this idea out. Googlezon and EPIC – Evolving Personalized Information Construct. Googlezon, was a string I picked up from the aforeblogged “Churchill Event”, but just watch this flash video, its so wonderfully evangelized and packaged that I felt inspired, it sounded so contemporary, and at the end downright frightening.

But, if you are an optimist like me who sees the glass half full, rather than half empty, this fear can be transformed into a world of unfound liberty and tremendous opportunities, to create, consume and play with information.

Leadership and Working with Passion

2005-04-04T00:35:00.002-07:00

When people associate passion to work, especially with an academic mentality they tend to think more with their heart!! So all creative thoughts, which excite them are shared openly without applying their mind so much so as to keep in mind the interests/agendas of all people in the hierarchy.

Yes, for accountability reasons from a corporate standpoint I understand the need for positional authority, but the defining scope of this authority should not limit the free flow of ideas/thoughts, which brings in that "refreshing & cheerful" feeling of shared accomplishment.

Personally, for me any stress on the "Pecking Order" especially while brainstorming newer and innovative ideas, is symbolic of divided vision. And I have literally fought with my superiors almost in every place I have worked, when they mix up “positional authority” and “logical authority” and people who know me personally, have more than once advised me to stop being a rebel, and play the game by its own terms.

Although from a practical standpoint I have to a certain degree compromised my ideals (compromise is not exactly true, mostly I have quit all those companies that failed to understand this), the disappearing barriers for information flow, almost makes the old style of autocratic leadership passé, and it surprises me that so many seniors and peers around me, still believe in this form of Corporate Governance.

But today, I accidentally stumbled upon Jonathan Schwartz’s podcast of a recent Churchill club event, which has left a sweet impression on my mind, for the clarity, candor, and refreshing approach of all of these leaders. Rightfully, they are at the helm of their respective companies, and I think serve as role models to every individual associated one way or another with them.

The Dreaded Question

2005-04-02T19:22:00.000-08:00

Parents – funny people, for the first 24 years of my life I have lived with them, and now at 29, I still cannot understand them. This morning, I made my weekly mandatory call, back home, (which off-late makes me a nervous wreck) and true to my apprehensions the call turned out to be a disaster, so to say.

When are you getting married ?. The question I dread to hear these days. To be honest, I have no clue, but that seems to be such a tiny problem for me. The more daunting task is how will I evade this recurring question, over a 3 year period now, there are many times I have asked myself if I have any real answer to this difficult question, or for that matter if I have any sense of the difficulty of what I am trying to pull off every week, and most of the times I have been successful. But its becoming increasingly complex to manage.

What is it with parents ? At the age when I used to drool over every passing girl (like 10 years ago), and when my inclination was towards the need for companionship, I was chided, strictly monitored and carefully guided to the responsibilities of my studies and my career. And now when I am thoroughly absorbed with what I do, and have very little time & energy to think, appreciate or even accept the need for a companion for the rest of my life, I am forced every week to come up with creative answers, and worst my own parents are unwilling to accept that its prefectly normal to lead a single life.

For now, the spontaneity in me has worked, but where its going to go from here, is something they have to start thinking, its no big secret that I am very happy with the way I am now, and have no real thoughts of conforming to anything.

Simple Adaptation - Infinity+1

2005-04-01T12:11:00.000-08:00

Here are my comments on Gmail's Infinity+1 storage plan. (BTW, I like the coffee cup mark in this image below - its very much a geek's way)

Business Perspective: Google will likely increase the storage capacity of Gmail by 1GB every year. This will give them a good edge over their competitors. And for the 1st anniversary, it means doubling the storage capacity from 1GB - 2GB. (the word doubling will enable them to raise many eyebrows - a good PR exercise)

The Ticker: As per my analysis on April 1st of every year, which is today, Google will increase the capacity by 1 GB which is 1024 MB. And in a day there are 86400 seconds, so if you increase the storage by 0.011851 MB per second it will round up to exactly around 1024MB. So on every April 1st Google should have this ticker ticking.

Infinity+1 : Time is infinite and increments by every second, and in a programmer's language (i = i+1) is how i increments. And the way Gmail increments is .01 MB every second.
Also if you increase storage every year by 1 forever, it is Infinity+1. (may be I am stretching this too far).

Will definitely wait & watch, if this analysis holds good. In the mean time throw in your comments.

Wishful Thinking

2005-03-31T22:52:00.000-08:00

Its 5 years since I set foot on the American soil. It was on this day Mar 31^st 2000, that I landed in SanFrancisco, with a friend of mine. Like most quasi-philosophical beings, I reflect too and provide space for the much needed introspection.

Having switched about 5 employers in 5 years, and having worked with a dozen or so companies, I can probably write an epic on my experiences so far, but lets save that for a later date. As you travel places, you get an opportunity to learn, adopt, adapt and grow in dimensions, which one never realizes otherwise. But paradoxical as it may sound, its always simplicity and the most “obvious” that clearly eludes our meandering mind, and these 5 years in US, have vindicated this more than once, and I think I have to a large extent, learnt to separate the weed from the chaff in identifying both opportunities and people.

I would like to visit many more countries, and while this thought crossed my mind, just for the heck of it, I tried to map the countries I have visited so far. Here it is below, these form roughly 2% (so much for all that talk above) of the total number of countries on the globe.

As for countries on my wishlist, this is how it looks (and this is just another 5%).

Is this asking for too much ?. May be I need to look for a pilot as my spouse, what say :) ?

Sleepy Adaptations

2005-03-30T23:49:00.000-08:00

For over 25 years, I have seen my Dad wakeup at "will", just tell him the time to rise, and be rest assured that he will match the "Sun" in his promptness, without the help of any mechanical/electronic aids for the wakeup call. Fear in the heart, and a well trained biological clock are two invaluable things, that I inherited from my Dad.

But only some of his habitual instincts rubbed off on my lazy bones, while not as consistent as him, I have so far resisted an alarm for waking up. Hey, times change, due to increased demands and heavy nocturnal activity at work - a good excuse ;) -, I think sleep deprivation, has outmoded this instinct of mine, so rightfully I decided to take a peek at the gizmos around.

This caught my eye. "The Clocky". Needless to say, while its still an engineering exercise, I am sure that such sleepy adaptations are definitely a "wakeup call" of the future.

Cosmic Adaptations ??

2005-03-30T00:09:00.000-08:00

Human beings are natural succors for truth, and I think have a natural inclination to wander towards the “unknown”, and this is their biggest asset gifted by nature. The universe with all its complexity appears so chaotic (to a large extent it IS chaotic) that any thoughts to even begin the pursuit of its origins is not entertained by our cognitive senses. But, our subconscious mind every now & then finds itself on the trail of the cosmic genesis.

There are several interesting theories that are in vogue, the most popular being the “Big Bang” theory. But some really interesting theories based on new ideas and scientific measurements, have started to gain our attention. One is the “Big Rip” theory, which is based on the fact that the Universe is not only expanding, but is expanding ever more faster. So ideas relating to gravity and its effects of slowing the expansion of the universe are shelved for the moment.

The other interesting theory is the “Big Splat” theory, which is based on “String theory”. In fact mathematical evidence from String theory does not rule out the existence of “Parallel Universes” and I personally, am inclined to believe that the whole Cosmos is indeed like a “loaf of bread” and we inhabit a universe, which is just one slice from that loaf. The findings of “String theory” are so profound that for all you know the entire Universe we belong to might be in some other “GIANT BEING”. This reminds me of the Hindu mythology where Krishna showed his mother the “entire Universe” in his mouth.

Whatever the approach, each of these theories need to assume a set of initial conditions which are simple and graduate over billions of years to the complex conditions we live in. And this model is what is precisely being followed by “NKS”. Intrigued ?. Wait for the redux.

Earths Adaptations

2005-03-29T00:36:00.000-08:00

While the tectonic plates move and adapt into newer forms, these changes create a tragic and humbling experience to its inhabitants on the surface, the world is once again held captive to mother nature’s fury.

What is hurting however is that its always death & disasters like these that provoke a wake up call, while otherwise complacency takes over the better part of human intelligence. A small peak at the usgs website shows that we have earthquakes around 6.0 or higher occurring nearly every month, which shows how vulnerable we all are.

In a world where information collaboration can be instantaneous, I think its important for all of us in the Indian Ocean region to learn and adopt the best practices that people in the Pacific Coasts are following.
"Pacific Tsunami Warning Center" & "West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center"

Global Tsunami Warning systems: While technology exists today to provide us warning bells, I think its more evident from today's incident, that its just education & awareness that people most probably needed in the previous incident, and we could have probably saved many lives. Hopefully we will learn faster, and adapt to nature's rage in our own tiny but measured ways.

Eleven Dimensions - Scientific Adaptations

2005-03-27T14:18:00.000-08:00

Today, I had some time to catch up with the some very valid debate attributing the similarities to “Superstrings Theory” and “Vedic Brahman”. So as India emerges to be a global leader, the rich knowledge base of spiritual wealth & “Science of the Hinduism” which remains untapped, should serve as key Intellectual Property for it to enhance & extend Western Science as it stands today.

Most of the work on “Theoretical Physics” during the early 19^th century, today have given us plenty of house hold applications (Microwave, Infrared, Cellphones, Computers) all these were conceptualized way back then, but are a reality which is taken for granted today.

As we stand on the cusp, of this great convergence of “eastern and western sciences”, its up to us, to ensure it serves humanity & India in the most constructive and profitable of ways.

While the course of action and the necessary steps to steer through this exciting phase are still to be articulated and laid out, there are some preliminary and necessary steps to be taken up by all thinking Indians.

Develop a sense of appreciation to all forms of thoughts, and specifically for what Vedas, Upanishads and other literary works had to say.
If our forefathers were poor in adopting the mathematical & physics models of the western world (which really were non existent during the time the vedic ideas were floated), how can we bridge the gap and articulate them with the tools of current day mathematics and physics to make it a reality.
What adaptations should our educational infrastructure undergo, to ensure that our current bias towards adoption of “Western science” is counter balanced with a refreshing look into our own literary works.
While “Western science” has started to lean and take deeper interest into what Vedas and Upanishads had to say, how can we collaborate and build a symbiotic relationship for the “mutual gains” of both schools of thought.

While my own understanding of both these topics are but a mere spec in its vast horizon, I am eager to learn more about the interesting ideas, questions, thoughts from all individuals who are already captivated by these.

Crossover Appeal - Bollywood's Adaptations

2005-03-26T23:57:00.000-08:00

While India’s growth has held the world captive, and India has the potential to adapt and conquer the world, today I wanted to draw your attention upon the Entertainment element and how we need to plan to make Bollywood movies part & parcel of every household primarily in the West.

A good plan to boot "Aishwarya" and her beauty. Aishwarya meaning "Fortune". Kind of makes sense, you start any conquest only if you have a "Fortune". (I know there are many other Bollywood actors/stars who have previously made their presence felt, but I am only quoting "Aishwarya" as the first potential candidate poised to garner "Critical-Mass"). And not just me, the industry has definitely put its right step forward in our conquest of Hollywood, by presenting her in a big way to Hollywood.

But some very important issues to be addressed in our conquest of the Western living room are issues like

Duration of our movies (3 hours ?? – will average western citizens, always pressed for time, sit through 3 hours, or should we make shorter versions of our movies)
Song and Dance sequences – Can we make this our biggest strength, or will this be our Achilles heel.
Innocent Protagonists – Will our hero & heroine, running behind trees, delving into the fantasy world of illusions in songs, pathetic and emotional elements like hero crying over losing the “love of his life”, etc suit the “macho” needs of the American/Western audience or should we make a Rambo, Tomb’s Raider out of Salman Khan & Bhipasha Basu
Crossover / Fusion of narration, style, music – will it help ?. Oooh… imagine wet sarees and Hollywood style sex (Fusion, ColdFusion or ConFusion ??)
Will subtitles, background singers in English, dubbing work ??
Incorporation, Government involvement – Will infusion of corporate culture in Bollywood (Big B’s ABCL, SRK’s Dreams Unlimited) bring in a much needed fresh & professional appeal, and should these companies play a leading role in marketing & distribution in our conquest, what should be the role of the Government ?

So inviting your enthusiastic (I know most of you were waiting for such a topic) ideas / questions / lateral thoughts. Remember the goal is to be successful in capturing as many western eye-(balls) as possible, so dig deep into your gray matter.

Murphy's Mischief

2005-03-25T02:05:00.000-08:00

Its almost becoming second nature to me now. Recognizing patterns which are precursors to the many things that can and will go wrong. While, I firmly believe that chance always finds its way even through the best of plans, sometimes its just too overwhelming. For the most part of this week all our efforts was in trying to foil the spontaneous acts of the mischievious murphy.

Humanity has survived with one such "minute chance" in the chaotic continium of time, and maybe this adaptive instinct is what has allowed me to stay on top and regain lost ground. But hey, tomorrow will arrive with its own set of uncertainities, can't wait.

A Craving for Resurgence

2005-03-24T01:47:00.000-08:00

Demands both professionally and intellectually have held my valuable time at a premium and have transformed it to be invaluable. While I expect extraordinary hours at work, over an extended period of time, I have been consistently going the extra mile, hence the stagnation on other creative ventures.

I am hoping to be a better performer, and crave for a resurgence with innovative means towards a disciplined time management exercise, till then I am at time's own mercy. I will also be disclosing this activity of mine to my friends, with a selfish desire that at least their expectations will leap frog my daily efforts towards such writings.

So for all those first time visitors, wish me luck, and be ruthless in your demands for your daily dose of captive adaptations.

Leap in Faith

2005-02-12T16:03:00.000-08:00

My dearest friend is taking the plunge. His wedding is tomorrow (actually tonight in India), and most wedding ceremonies give very little space for the close friends of the groom to be in their fortress of solitude and capture the essence of the moment, but being miles away, I have enough time to be myself and reflect on all the wonderful moments we spent during our wonder years. Its time to adapt to the dynamics it will likely bring with the new relationship.
Its a huge leap in faith for all of us friends to see this guy take the vows, since most of us around him, had (ad)ventures which have turned into a fiasco. But, perceptions change over time, and will this be a precursor for one such change?. Time will tell.

Humble Beginning

2004-10-02T11:40:00.000-07:00

Mundane activities have always pushed me to search for newer pastures of thought. Such random thoughts have more than once appealed to my inner voice to seek creative beginnings. But the captive creature that I am with what I do, I almost fear such adaptations. But then, there is always a first time for everything. This is just one such act