Wireless Mesh in Bangalore..

As a fallout of barcamp(BCB5), I happened to get in touch with Rene, who first presented his idea of creating a wireless mesh in Bangalore. He has done this in Germany and it sounded an interesting proposition to replicate the success here. I am more interested in replicating this in rural areas in and around Bangalore, but before that I got to see it happening inside Blore.

There are several advantages of a wireless mesh network The devices which provide wireless service would themselves need lot of expensive wiring to network provides and Internet in addition to the setting up and maintenance of copper/fiber optic wiring.

Wireless mesh networks are cheap and easy to build. The single most distinguishing characteristic is the ability to self-manage (self configuring, self re-configuring, self tuning, self healing and self monitoring capabilities). Bandwidth is increased by simply expanding the mesh.

If you can build a cheap network, grow/share bandwidth, why then this has not yet become popular? One reason is that network operators and admins cannot trust a "self-everything" network.

Rene has been kind enough to create a wiki page , a Wireles mesh blore group (of which I am a member) and also kick start real wireless mesh build up exercise in Blore.... We are meeting up this weekend and I am excited to see it happening:-)))

Here is the full text white paper

Good night and good luck!!!

Day2 @ barcamp Bangalore (BCB5)

Quickly called my friends and asked them to be at the venue by 11. Reached around 11.30. Day2 is a bit more chaotic.. I decide to attend the mobile collective at L21.

First session was by Prakash, Business Development at Forum Nokia, Bangalore. I am a regular user of forum nokia, but the presentation made me realise I didn't know 40% of what was in there..its an excellent platform for developers. He spoke of Mosh, business models, operators, billing models etc. I found the "Try for free catalog" very interesting. Developers could partner with Nokia and get their application on "Try for free", an application which resides on Nokia mobile phones. Any end user can try this developer app and the developer gets the revenue. Real cool idea. Some interesting discussions on tapping the power of wide distribution channel that Nokia has in India...

The second one was on "Mobile Internet market" by Lalit Bhise, CEO of startup mobisy . We had a very interesting discussion on mobile internet applications, usage, technology, different market segments etc.. Rajan (Mobile Monday Bangalore) has promised to blog the proceedings at momo , so I will not write more here. Learnt a lot from this session.

The next session after lunch was at L11, Python collective. As we were waiting for this, some music enthusiasts started playing electric guitar..good English numbers -Floyd et al..and were trying to mash up a theme song for barcamp!!!....(see snaps)

In the python collective, we discussed on Web frameworks for python (WebPI etc), dynamic tracing etc..Had some good demos. Around 30 python geeks were gathered in the classroom and I just let the antenna above my head transmit everything above:-)))

Then I decided to join in for a lighter collective at D2.. "Education and IT"..We discussed on the education gaps in colleges, role of faculty, on missing feedback system that would be take back failure lessons from industry to classrooms (like the failure of Corba..it is still taught in classrooms as a great platform for interoperability).

Time for the BCB5 Quiz.. other sessions on, but can't miss a quiz..so I join in with Kannan (until then we had been in different collectives, different rooms, finally we had a common interest;-). There were 7 rounds.. It was not just a normal quiz, for every question we also shared as much as info as possible.. we were around 15 ppl in the room, so its was pretty informal and informative.. some questions.. what is the chip used in OLPC? In the movie Transformers what are the good robots called? Who is the Indian in the Nokia board of directors? What is the full form of WiMax? what is the markup language used for facebook? when was the first barcamp in Bangalore started? What is the currency used on second life? What is the top level domain for mobile applications? etc...
Quiz is over and I pull Kannan and ask him to call it a day! On the whole a gr8 weekend:-)

Thanks to everyone at BCB5 (barcamp bangalore) for this experience!!!

Snaps(slide show) of day2 here.......

Flash Slideshow

barcamp bangalore (BCB5)- The Winter Edition - Day1

Its day one at BarCamp - the fifth edition....I enter the registration area with my husband Kannan(who never registers online!!) and find some cool logos and badges..I decide to sport "I am barcamped!", "Barcamp 5 Chilled Out!", "Mobile Collective" and ofcourse "I am speaking!".

Attended some interesting sessions.. The first session I attended was in room L12. The session was given by 2 guys from Headstart, an initiative floated this year in June, primarily to help startups. Instead of approaching VC's, the startup company can approach this group which comprises of review panelists from different companies and different domains..

The second session in this room was given by yours truly ;-).. I talked about the importance of webvideo and gave a live demo on my mobile. Big thanks to Bhuvan(Nokia), Navjot(Opera, GuruGeeks), and Ashwin(he sports a badge with title Cruise Maniac) for helping me out with setup for the presentation and for all the participants for the lively discussion.

Navjot gave a presentation on GuruGeeks.inspired by the spirit of barcamp, he wants to create a developer community..He says his website will be up and running by Monday and also demonstrates a stubborn resolve to do whatever it takes to get GuruGeeks up and going.. I am tracking GuruGeeks

Rene. an East German gave a presentation on how broadband can be shared between neighbours through wireless mesh..

Evening was total fun... At D5, beds and mats were spread for the collective "Generic girls, generic boys" - started off by Nishant!!!. It was essentially abt the myths each gender had on each other..my husband and I thoroughly enjoyed this session.. An interesting fact was that there were around 40 guys and 3-4 girls!!! Talk of gender equality!!!

Its past 6pm, we are abt to leave..but again we hit an interesting discussion near the registration area.. Nishant from Goldman Sachs' trading arm had some extremely interesting anecdotes on some company HR policies.....extremely interesting views...those who were there know what I mean ;-) - Shourya, Swaminathan, Vibhash!!!!
Nishant- have a great time ahead

Snaps(slide show) of day1 here.......

Flash Slideshow

Think twice - Another day in paradise

Here is the lyrics of my all-time favourite song sung by Phil Collins. How many times would I have passed such a person...Too good a song..very touching...Thanks Phil:-)

Listen to the song here...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftlYLcEW_I4

Here goes the lyrics..
------------------------
She calls out to the man on the street
sir, can you help me?
Its cold and Ive nowhere to sleep,
Is there somewhere you can tell me?

He walks on, doesnt look back
He pretends he cant hear her
Starts to whistle as he crosses the street
Seems embarrassed to be there

Oh think twice, its another day for
You and me in paradise
Oh think twice, its just another day for you,
You and me in paradise

She calls out to the man on the street
He can see shes been crying
Shes got blisters on the soles of her feet
Cant walk but shes trying

Oh think twice...

Oh lord, is there nothing more anybody can do
Oh lord, there must be something you can say

You can tell from the lines on her face
You can see that shes been there
Probably been moved on from every place
cos she didnt fit in there

Oh think twice...

Tick Tick

Looking at my blog, I realise I haven't blogged for close to 8 months now:-(( Have just been too busy at work and home... Will try and visit atleast once in a month..no promises..looking at the promises I made in new year, I realise I haven't done much except to remove myself from orkut..hardly few days and I hated it...can't phanthom how ppl stand such sites and get glued to it..leaving home at 5.30 happened just 4-5 times in the past 8 months..and not being critical..hmmm less said the better..so overall, I have scored pathetic;-)



I just have so much to write...have to start blogging again..it provokes me to think and I don't want to leave it.



Cheers,

Raji

Ramya TV

Ramya TV

Hi!

I am a late entrant into the blogging world. I enjoy writing, and sometimes sharing what I write as well, hence this blog.
I wish I had written so many things! I at least intend completing some travelogues, maybe some poems, and a few articles, some humble views and opinions! Lets see how it goes...

I hope I will find encouraging readers, and encouraging writers as well!

Cheers!
Ramya TV

Happy New Year

Wish all readers of this blog a very happy new year.....

Time for new resolutions .. atleast resolutions gives me the time to introspect myself ;-)) leave alone the implementation part... but this year will set some simple resolutions (hmmm.. God Knows !!!) & try to implement them...

I just read one of my friend's messages which said EOY is not exactly the time to start implementation of resolutions .. its the time to plan.. Will wait for Jan 2nd to start implementation ;-)) Same here...

So what's the resolution??? Here it goes..

1) Spend more time with my lovely little daughter
An indirect implication => cut on time spent on orkut (currently 30 mins a day, still added to criminal wastage of time, I see no value add here, I allow others to break on my privacy and allow myself to break on others privacy;-)

2) Utilise office timings more efficiently - Thank God I am already doing this ..9-5 strictly work, work and work ...only exception is lunch and cricket break (The LCD TV, even without sound, is distracting..who needs sound to see cricket scores??) and I have die hard cricket fans in my team...sushma cs that's u buddy ;-) she is an encyclopedia of cricket..her knowledge of cricket can put guys to shame :-)))

3) Increase presence in Nokia blogsphere and Nokia wikisphere( I have moved technical posts to Nokia blogs http://blogs.nokia.com/blogs/rajikannan , sorry, non -Nokia junta can't see this, if OPK blogs http://blogs.nokia.com/blogs/opk, why not me;-))), add to S60 Idea box, may be even file an IPR (just for the kick of it;-)))

4) Increase patience, be less critical and be happy(completely in our hands)
(will not ellaborate on these;-)

I am catching the new year's party live on www.nokianewyearseve.com
Thanks Nokia...excellent branding strategy :-)))

Happy new year once again...enjoy maadi...

Mobile greetings

Mobile greetings...will help all bogus friends

I always miss my friends bdays.. its not fair to always send "belated happy bday".. so will use mobile technology .. not just say "Happy Birthday" but say with a nice looking card, a flash card, with images, videos, animation, text and what not!!! My friend (Vikrant - due credit given) and I wanted to do this, publish this, et al.. but as usual the lazy bug took over... so here it goes

Application in app-shell
-------------------------
The "Mobigreet" (if u get a fancier name tell me pls) app will be linked to contacts and calendar applications (these already existing in phone) and the user can add his friend , his/her bday, edit a greeting card, and send (email/multimedia message) to the recipient. Mobigreet will have the following options

1. Add friend - This will link to contacts application and from there u can select u'r buddy...

2. Set date - This will link to calendar app - select the bday

3. Edit - When u r free, choose from the custom greeting template and save
- There u go the greeting along with the bday and friends's name is stored.. You can have a jazzy flashlite (Macromedia Flash for mobiles) editor for selecting the greeting, adding text, animation and all other eye catching features... You won't need to set an alarm -event is automatically triggered a day before the bday - u friend will get the greetings - u can even time it so that he/she gets it at 12 At 12, the calendar application will send an event... Mobigreet will send the saved greeting to u'r friend for sure...Your friend sees the greeting and is very happy... little does he know that u haven't remembered his bday, u haven't sent the card... mobigreet does it all for u... u'r friend will never realise how bogus u r...Enjoy u'r sleep.. and wish u'r friendship lives long ;-)

Add Ons ... U can use custom greetings not just for bdays but also for wedding anniversaries, valentine day, diwali, christmas, halloween day, mothers day, fathers day, sister day, brother day et cetera ..et cetera

IT NASSCOM Women Leadership Summit

The summit was to spotlight the challenges women face in their career growth and how they can be addressed. The chair person for the summit was Kiran Karnik (President NASSCOM).

The first speaker was Narayana Murthy..I entered in the middle of Narayana Murthy's presentation (was a bit late - big jam on airport road:-( ). He told about different policies in Infosys..

The second speaker was Hari, HR Satyam. He talked about how telecomputing has changed the way we work.... most of the companies now have work from home. In his opinion, to be sucessful, we should be ready to let go of what is known and grab what one doesn't know...

The next speaker was Rosalyn O'Neale- CEO Barnes O'Neale & Associates.. I loved her speech so much that I will devote 70% of this post on what she had to tell..She first talked about "Gender bias".. She defined gender as "a particularly powerful lens through which all of us see and organise reality". Qouting her from now.. "The moment a baby is born people around announce with glee "Its a girl or a its a boy", the first message it gets is of its gender, we don't get an announcement like "she is a pontential engineer". The gender message is also conveyed through family and society.. The gender bias that exist is because of our conceived perceptions .. when a little girl falls, she is hugged, pitied for the small blood loss, whereas when a little boy falls and cries, he is told "little boys don't cry". Women are identified with attributes like "gentle, emotional, compassionate, collaborative" while men are identified with attributes like "aggressiveness (they play rugby), competitiveness, action oriented, individualist". She showed us an image of a brain (blue color) and asked us to identify if it belongs to a man or a women.. ofcourse we can't say that seeing an image...

She then talked about "Gender Stereotyping" .. Ultimately stereotyping undermines and undervalues women's leadership qualities. This stereotyping unfortunately is not just from men at workplace.. women are equal culprits...she sited an instance where her female colleague once stated "I don't a want a woman boss anymore.." That colleague has generalised and made an opinion - typical stereotyping. She also cited a humourous example of Senator Hillary Clinton.. people say that she is tough person ... not warm enough..unlike most women.. Hillary Clinton replies "You elect me President and I will become warmer".. Rosalyn also quipped that her husband, Mr, Clinton had got too warm ;-) This example was just to cite that if u r not warm its stereotyped as a male attitude and if u r too warm u still come under criticism....

"Lack of network"
I liked this quote ... "In the rarified upper reaches of high altitude careers, when the air is thin - men have a much easier time finding oxygen". She cited examples where when u talk to a guy about certain issues his eyes rollback and give a blank look and he says "oh ya.."

She went on to explain the positives of women workforce - some data which suggests that women remain in same job 2.5- 4 times more time when compared to their male colleagues. Its because of their nature ..women in general think deeper and take more time to arrive at decisions.. Another strong point in women is their inhrent capacity to multitask.. their different roles as a wife, daughter, daughter-in-law, mother etc make them more adept at multitasking.. also she sees others viewpoints with fairness, she is able to adapt more easily with lesser complaints ..this again is due to her different family roles.. She went on to explain how successful companies like IBM, Intel, HP, Motorola have leveraged talent and made the workplace better suited for women.

Other tips she gave - Trust ur instincts, n/w and support, don't be limited by cultural stereotypes, study- learn and grow...

She ended with this quote
"Today is all we have
Yesterday is gone and nothing can bring it back
Tomorrow is only a dream
Today is all we have to do things the best way"

Other speakers were Kalpana Morparia- ICICI Bank, Sangita Reddy- Apollo Health Street, Pari Sadasivan- IBM, Kalpana Sharma - The Hindu.

The last session was on "Glass ceiling for women leaders in Industry - Myth or reality?" This was more like a debate session with Kalpana Sharma as moderator.

There were two workshops of 80 people each ... Suprabha, Asha and myself (3 of us from Nokia) attended the training on "The power of networking and persuasive communication ". The other workshop was "Recipes of success : An interactive session with women leaders in IT"..

More on the workshop in a separate post later..

Yahoooooooooo... Google approves my site for adsense...

Thanks Google...

Mobile Monday

Caught up with my friend after a long time... consulting...amma chaapaadu.. work from home... jammaai raja... this post is dedicated to u.. just to prove u that i blog...now u won't complain na blog pannalainu...illaya...

Was catching up with Mobile Monday group (http://bangalore.mobilemonday.in/) will come there when u invite Nokia folks.. Mobile TV is interesting...announce the venue..I will be there with kid.. Infant seat.. spl reservation...

U have been doing good work...keep it up...

Btw, don't miss on Google adsense.. Google guys hope u r reading this while u approve my site ... three cheers to google.. can't stop admiring...

Think inside the box...

Was wondering what happened to my idea baggage... pondering why i haven't posted a technical blog for so long... I had to think laterally(n' parallely) after all... chanced to read this para(click title 4 original article) about thinking "outside the box" which says
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- "We wondered whether thinking outside the box really does enhance creativity. To find out, we checked in with Dr. Peter Suedfeld, a psychology professor at the University of British Columbia and an expert in human cognition. He told us that creativity is a "very mysterious thing" that "exists in pretty much everyone" -- but that there are indeed ways to improve it.

One method he has studied extensively is what he calls the Restricted Environmental Stimulation Technique (REST) -- putting people into places with no light or outside stimuli. "What I've found," he said, "is that far from making people crazy, moderate deprivation lowers blood pressure, improves mood, and makes people more creative."

Does that mean a person wanting to be creative is better off thinking, say, inside a box?

Dr. Suedfeld considered this a moment, and then said, "To the extent the box keeps the outside world away -- then, yes, it is better to think inside the box."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lights off and pls. pls. No disturbance...I am thinking "inside the box"... hee hee hee ;-) I hope my next post will be a pure technical one....

Nov 21: Indha REST theory ellam rest iddaka thaan layku.. nalla thuukamaa vandhadhu...

Vission.....Version problemo..

My job @ Nokia means different things to different people...

#1:

It was my first day @Nokia... Took an auto n' told him to go to Nokia office @ Basawangudi...I am not good in remembering routes ... When I reached Basawangudi, I told him "Solpa slow hogi guru...". Within seconds he told me Nokia is here n' asked me to get down.. I was wondering if there were 2 offices... I look at the board and it said "Nokia Priority Dealer" ... I patiently told him this is not the Nokia I want to go ... solpa mundara hogi.. The driver was damn confident and said this is the only Nokia in that road... Few meters away, as we arrived at the destination, I showed him a small board inside which read "Nokia India Pvt. Ltd." and told him its Nokia's Bangalore research center... I don't think he understood ...

#2:

This incident is after some months... It was a quite afternoon.. Only 50 employees at that time... Myself along with my friends were returning from our "after lunch walk"... To our surprise we found 3 guys walking towards us ... One of them addressed me and told in Kannada.. "Madam I have so and so problem with my cell phone .. we want it repaired quickly...." .. I was stumped..My friends behind had a good time.....I told them this was not Nokia sevice center, but nevertheless had a look at the phone and the problem...

After this, I have had numerous people expecting me to solve their handset problems...right from my next door aunty..

#3:

I am having lunch with my friend ... her friend who works in a different field joins us .. In the midst of our discussion on ads and Nokia's success story in India, he tells me "Oh u work for Nokia.. I am highly disappointed... The ad on Nokia 6600 downplays tataindicomm's ad by saying "Mobile is not just for talking" ... I didn't expect this from Nokia... U should do something about this..." Tata's ad says "Mobile is only for talking" ...Again I am stumped.. I told him I was not in Marketing division.. since my friend is a mba grad may be he thought I was in marketing... He didn't leave it there... he told me to send him the contact of Nokia India marketing head...


Maybe I should try my hand sales and marketing too:-)

I love cbe...

I love cbe... After marriage,managing home dept(toughest..as in politics), work n' studies have greatly reduced the visits to my hometown (barely managed to visit once every year:-( .. but thanks to my daughter .. my maternity period was a welcome change - my stay in cbe was close to 9 months...thanks to NOKIA n' my boss too...

My baby had her shots today - its a 5 in one - she refuses to leave my lap ..i have learned to type in one hand n' hold her head with the other hand... n' swing my legs.. with cushions around my seat n' my lap - this setup works fine 4 me n' my sweet baby..she is happy in her comfort zone...she is smiling in her dreams n' ocassionally opening her eyes to check if her cozy setup is alright.... i have got her a crib n' a automatic rocking chair..but those r of no use today.. she knows my touch...

Just a week left in coimbatore... can't help thinking of my childhood days... yday as i walked thr' the familiar streets... i realised how much i missed cbe... such a peaceful walk... i can't even walk this way in blore.. no space:-( .. i passed thr' my old house at kk pudur... i wished i could go inside..sit on the swing in the portico.. all scenes vivid in my memory ... the plants, trees, the way i used to climb the fence to go to my neighbours house ..the way we used to make tents in our terrace with sari, bannana leaves n' sticks... the puppies..i used to give them milk with ink filler.. how my brother and I used to play all around the house.. we had a big space in the front... my brother ..then just 5 yrs old..always used to put the torch in the small water tank.. he made me catch the cat for him..and it bit so hard... when he was 3 - the gate was open and he kept walking in the middle of the street.. a lorry driver picked him up and i went behind the lorry driver shouting its my brother..now the look of the house was changed .. trees cut to accomodate car parking.. no sight of children playing

The days in Bharathi and Avila r also equally memorable... I couldn't help thinking of my close friend.. oh we were so close... studied together..shared so many thoughts..and the hrs spent together.. as i left my good old street I couldn't help asking ..Oh God..why did it all have to end? why did i grow up? i prayed.. to revisit those wonderful moments with my old neighbours, friends, family...just once more....maybe just an hr..i couldn't help the tears rolling down my eyes....they wouldn't stop...

As I passed close to my pesent house.. i was tempted to peep into my school.. how could i forget Nagalakshmi ..our english teacher.. she is a gem.. she was so close..so good.. and my friends..rajashree, gayathri... all our classroom pranks...how could i not peep in... as I entered my school, I saw lot of things had changed... sister patrick was no more the principal.. thank God Nagalakhmi miss was there.. as i stood waiting for her class to finish and wondering if she would recognise me... she came after 10 mins.. she looked quite old now... the strain was visible... as soon as she saw me she addressed me as Raji.. i didn't expect her to remember me.. we had a good chat for the next 15 mins.. i gave her a card and a book (Bhagvatam)..and i told her I would never forget her and she will remain my all time favourite teacher... I could see the joy in her eyes.. she told me ..often after the batch of 12th std students was complete ..she would look at the front rows and scan for familiar faces...and realise they were all gone..but now i had come to visit her after 11 years and she was happy...she gave me a hug .. i didn't know what to do.. i asked her about her latest book collection .. and told her my daughter would split the house into 4 if i didn't return in 10 minutes for her next feeding...i got her phone number and left...

I wish I was a child...I wonder if my child will have a garden to play daily... if she can climb trees and fences.. if i would let her in open wihout me having to worry if the mosquitoes outside would cause her chikungunya, muttongunya, dengue or some other disease.. without having to worry if some car or scotter will hit her...btw, where is the open space?? 723 apartments...6 phases on a little land in the busy marathahalli junction...with plans to convert it to 6 lane..with never ending construction activity.. let alone playing she can't even cross the street... why it takes me 30 mins to cross:-( I wish my I gave my child plenty of space and time to play in the open than give her laptops and mobile phones...


I love cbe...

Challanges for an entrepreneur

Happened to read this nice article...very practical

http://www.rediff.com/getahead/2006/oct/20entre.htm

Oliver twist

Had read the novel written by Charles Dickens somewhere in 7th or 8th std. I don't remember liking the novel much, but now I got a chance to watch the movie...

Directed by David Lean, the musical(1948) is a treat to watch. Excellent performance by John Howard Davies, the kid who plays Oliver twist. The sets looks very impressive..the music is too good too.. All characters (Fagin, Nancy, Sikes, Oliver, Artful Dodger and the kids) have played their part well. Oliver's journey from an orphanage to London is well depicted.

A good trailer from apple
here

This movie was also remade couple of times - by Roman Polanski and by Carol Reed. Watch these for the color version.

Emails as voice mails - another thought

The idea is to develop a voice application that delivers e-mails as voice calls. The voice application converts text e-mail to voice. It doesn't end here, it will call the user on his mobile and inform the user that there is a mail in his inbox. The difference from conventional applications is that the user receives a call from the voice application. He does NOT have to download his email, he does NOT have to pay for the connection. Even to read a big e-mail, all that is required is a voice call to the user's mobile at standard call rates.

Working of the voice application

1) The user(say an employee of NOKIA) registers with the NOKIA mail server.

2) The voice application resides in the NOKIA mail server side.

3) Whenever a new mail is received, the voice application retrieves the employee's mobile number and will make a voice call to the mobile user (NOKIA employee) at standard voice call rate.

4) The NOKIA employee can do the following
a) Accept the call and listen to the mail message. The mail message will first read out the subject of the mail and will pop-up a message asking the user to choose if he wants to listen the complete mail or just the subject of the mail.

For security reasons, the employee will have to key in a password from his mobile before the message is read out.

b) Deny the voice call. Either because the employee is busy to take the voice call or he doesn't want the entire message to be read

c) The employee will have other options to customize, for e.g. a read message can be marked as unread so that he can re-read the message when he is available online and connected to NOKIA mail server.

NOKIA has already come up with an e-mail system comparable to the one in blackberry www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/ptech/09/13/nokia.email.reut/.
Good...But It would be great if the voice application (as explained above) would be attached to this service. This will take the e-mail system steps ahead of Blackberry and can penetrate easily to corporate offices....

Advantages:
1. Provide value add to employees around the world
2. Users don't have to pay for downloading the content. There can be a minimal subscription charge (to cover the voice call rate).
3. For low-end phones, that cannot handle huge data or formats like pdf etc, e-mail though voice is the answer. No other infrastructure is needed.

NConnect..simple thought

Some thoughts on NConnect.. I have been thinking about this for sometime now here it goes..

This application can be used to connect friends or in general by anybody for voting/polling.

Use Case: Invite friends
------------------------------------
Suppose I want to invite my friends for a movie - I will invite the friends through this software. My friends can in turn accept/deny the invitation (similar to what u have in outlook). I can visually see a consolidated view (Whenever I select this view - a synchronisation protocol will run in the background) which shows the name of my
1) Friend,
2) Status of invitation (accept/deny/tentative)

Variation 'A' for this use case: The software can be linked to calendar application. Suppose I invite 5 of my friends for a movie on 2nd October - I will set for a recurrence alarm on 3pm Oct 1st and 3pm Oct 2nd. My friends will get these alarm alerts from the software.

Variation 'B' for this use case: The software can also be linked to the Contacts application. This way through the software I can select my friends list who will receive the invitation from my phone book.

Variation 'C' for this use case: This can be combined with location services. Now my friends have got the invitation, arrived at the venue (shopping complex or movie hall). Now, as soon as they arrive, I will also get an alert that they have reached the movie theatre and are quite near to where I am.

Variation 'D' for this use case: Since I have invited, I will also be on the attendee list and I can cancel the invitation through cancel option. In this case, all entries on the attendee list will get an alert (let the others who have accepted, go ahead and watch the movie)

Advantage: I don't have to make repeated calls/message to remind my friends.
I get to see the consolidated attendee list with their decisions. My friends do not have to give any lame excuses, they simply have to accept or deny or use the custom buttons. Any time my friends can change their decision and they don't have to call me or message me of their decision.

Use Case: For voting
-----------------------------
Suppose a TV serial producer wants to know the opinion of its viewers, all it has to do is to create voting buttons through the application. This can be custom buttons too. For e.g. say The Friends TV Serial producer wants to know from its viewers which actor/actress they like best. There will be four buttons with the names of actors, the viewer selects one of the options.

The options entered by all viewers will now go a central server and consolidated opinion list is delivered(through synchronization) to the TV serial operator.

Variations : Can be used for any voting/polling applications.

Mobile billing...

I was just pondering on how much money would an mobile application developer get for a decent application...It depends on quite a few factors..

The mobile network infrastructure - 2.5G, 3G and 4G...
GPRS, W-CDMA and 4G (future)are all packet based, so u can monitor the packets...also content based billing (CISCO was the first one to propose it - this means a if u r downloading a richer content to u'r mobile, u could be charged more) could fetch more
CISCO billing model

On operator - for a 6Rs SMS, Airtel gets a small pie, KBC will also get its share..and don't forget Siddarth.. it depends on how much revenue an application developer can project to Airtel and convince the operator to get a larger pie of the revenue. Operators are powerful (look at vodapone and DOCOMO- they dictate so much - I wish this reduces more and more as we progress...it should be the retailers and not operators who should have so much say...who knows..the shop next to u probably understands what the user needs better and dictates the features in a phone..)

Quite a few billing models - edge pricing and paris-metro charging, market based reservation charging etc ... i am not interested in any of them..
Other billing models

Coming to original point on how the application developer gets the money ...
Say I am dowloading a page from server. The network infrastructure consists of mobile(client), WAP gateway(which does the encoding/decoding), and the server. Now the payment gateway can be at the operator or the operator can re-direct the payment request to the application developer's payment gateway. If this redirection happens (oh already quite a few follow this model - paypal, paypaisa, many banks - banks have their own payment gateways for security reasons. It's like having an account with paypal or the bank. One disadvantage, the user has to switch profile since now the gateway is changed and maybe will have to bear with a subscription charge as well..), its gr8...but operator wants it all..so its a difficult proposition to convice the operator..

One last way...at the server, the number of hits can always be monitored(number of times the user is downloading the content), so we can make a predictive model of how much revenue it generates. This way the operator cannot give u a vague sum when it comes to revenue sharing.

Last option- sell the application to the operator...combine this option with the two options explained above..

With so many standards, not so good and costly network infrastructure there are not many options to break the operator supremacy...but given a chance, consider all the options and break it..This is to all those application developers...

Bonus shares

Regarding the bonus shares or stock split, what Raji said was true as to why companies go for a stock split. But some companies like Berkshire Hathaway (Warren Buffet's) dont go for a stock split because they want their share holders to self-select themselves. Basically they only want people who have lot of money and who can hold on to their shares without constantly trading for small profits. So, thats also an interesting view I guess.

IT & Unions

I fully differ from Rajan regarding the reason for the non-existence of Unions in IT. The following is my reason why it does not exist in our industry. First of all, you have to examine the hierarchical structure of the IT industry vs a traditional industry. Unionism started off as an offshoot of Marx's communist idealogy where he asked for the oppressed(workers in industrial age england) against the oppressor(factory owners). So in such a set-up there was a clear demarcation between the workers and the management. The maximum position a worker could go was till the Foreman level. So when management and workers were strictly divided thus, it was in the self-interest of the workers to group themselves as a union for collective bargaining. If you see Unions in universities, it is again the same principle where the student cannot directly become a Professor or the Dean and the students have to have a representing body. Now if you see the IT industry, well, our own company, the Project lead is almost half-management and ca surely become management within a few years. Also, the compensation in the IT setup was attractive enough right from the initial stages to kill any desire for a union. The other reason is that in the IT industry, people move to a different company if not satisfied with the pay/role since the industry allows this movement, that too in a beneficial way. So, all these things combined never allowed the concept of Unionism to evolve. So, it is wrong to say that the typical IT guy is less social and more aloof than a factory worker. So the clear demarcation between management and worker and difficulty of movement across factories/industries made sure that Unionism thrived in other industries.

Ownership

Nice article...

http://in.rediff.com/money/2005/apr/12guest2.htm

To quote from the article ..

"Whole Foods even posts everyone's salaries. This policy is undeniably radical. But in a democracy, openness is strength. The policy banishes the destructive whispers and rumours about who makes what.

Every store has a book that lists the previous year's salary and bonus for all employees. And the trust-building payoff is substantial."

Interesting ;-)

Unions & IT

Raji previously posted about IT professional & unions. I wanted to post my thought about that and had drafted the post quite some time ago, here it goes
"Software profeesionals are individualists.Adam Smith's statement that humans act in self interest might not be a very good assumption to make in general but this assumption holds very good for the software professional. They are ever ready to beat their colleagues( Impress their boss more than their colleague's ) and rise up the career leader and get a more hefty packet. Most of the them like to work alone and are very aloof. The very idea of group, social is alien to them. Thats why you won't find software professional forming unions.
Well that could be a conclusion coming out of analysing situation oversimplistically but nonetheless the statement can't be thrown out of the window totally, it does carry some amount of weight."

Today I read an article in fortune by David Kickpatrick, titled "Meetup and Cyber Rabble-rousing" , some excerpts

' In several Meetup groups in Bangalore, India, of which there are now 100, he says that software programmers are working together to improve their working conditions—it’s a nascent move toward collective bargaining. “When people get together, they see what they have in common and talk often turns to 'how do we make things better?’" Heiferman says. "These are like the new unions.” '
Hmmm !!! that's interesting !! Maybe I am wrong, just maybe !

For quite some time I wanted to checkout some of the RedHat User Meetup Group to find out how good the idea of meetup works , I might check out these as well.

- Rajan

Players in media industry

Thanks to Kannan for this. I was always confused as to who r the players in the media industry.

1) AOL TW- I think we know abt them :-))) - one point to add is that they
also own MAD magazine ;-)))). CNN, Cable biz, Time,AOL,Cartoon network.
2) Viacom - owns MTV, CBS TV, Paramount pics,
3) Sony - Columbia Pictures and Music, and also Playstation
4) Vivendi - now with NBC (which is GE) - Universal Music and Pictures,
Theme parks, StudioCanal in France - one of the largest French giants.
5) Disney - is still independent. Walt Disney pictures, Disneylands, ABC
network and lots of other film studios
6) Bertelsmann - BMG Records, Random House publ and other big publishing
houses. Dominates germany- also Napster.
7) NewsCorp - owned by Rupert Murdoch - more into press. and very big in
other regions too - UK, India, Asia. and ur question - It owns FOX. (Tv as
well as 20th century). Star stake in India!!

BMG tie-up with Sony Music.

Cable cos in the US - Comcast(AT&T), and the rest owned by Warner, Disney and Viacom. HBO?? AT&T??.
The real battle is at the access side wherein DSL and Cable Modems are battling it out to get broadband to the consumer. Even voice is now being offered by cable companies which is coming out as a real threat to the telcos.

Why does a company issue bonus shares?

a) A high denomination share is not easily tradable on the market! ppl would like to trade in lower denominations of good shares. So a stock split helps in increasing the liquidity of the share.

b) Generally, the company thinks that the valuation of the share might be better in the future and it splits the share so that it is tradable. It is a virtuous cycle - lower denomination vs price rise :-). So it is a confidence building measure in the stock by the company.

c) In the short run, the valuation might increase (more speculative than real)! but anyways, stock market is kind of speculative ;-)

d) Another reason (similar to stock buyback) could be the tax benefits. Shareholders can use the capital loss due to reduced stock price to set off the capital gains.

Apple ads

Apple ads- The 1984 ad and Think Different ads(1997) are simply superb. Its amazing that way back in 1984 such wonderful creativity could be translated.
This ad was shown just once in the Super Bowl event of 1984. Targeted against Big-brother(IBM), produced by director of Gladiator- Ridley Scott.

Here goes the entire story behind it.

All Apple ads

Thanks to Rajan for the links!

Million dollar baby

I saw the movie y'day @ innovative multiplex

The story is all about Maggie (Hillary Swank)- she is very poor - she eats the left over of other custs in the restaurant. - she dreams big - to become a boxing champion. She comes to Framkie (Clint Eastwood) to be trained - Frankie doesn't want to train her as she is a woman, but she will not let it go...she manages to convince him to train her. Frankie sees in her his lost daughter...slowly they a build a strong emotional rapport.

Frankie Dunn, is a man who has trained boxing champions. He is a man at odds with himself. He has demons within him that are tearing away at his soul. We watch him going to mass on a daily basis, but does that qualify him as a devout Catholic? Not according to Father Horvak, who sees a troubled soul in search of redemption.

Frankie's letters comes back, returned from a daughter that wants nothing to do with him. Frankie, at the beginning of the film, loses the services of one his better boxers because a richer competitor is willing to pay the fighter much more. Frankie keeps the older Eddie "Scrap-Iron" Dupris employed in the gym because he feels guilty in having let this former boxer down at the highest point of Scrap's career.

Into this world comes Maggie Fitzgerald. She is a young woman who wants to make it as a fighter; she comes from a white trash background and everything is against her. The only reason she has been allowed in the all-male gym is because she has paid six months worth of membership. We watch Maggie as she struggles on her own without any help from Frankie, the man she would like to interest in coaching her. Frankie realizes there is potential in this young woman, who he sees on a daily basis practicing, and he relents. Maggie proves she follows his instructions well. Then we watch her progress as she wins fight after fight until the million dollar fight with the vicious title holder.

The ironic twist toward the end of the movie arrives out of nowhere; it shakes us up because it was totally unexpected. It makes Frankie and Maggie become father and daughter. Because of the guilt he feels in his own life, Frankie does the right thing in accepting the responsibility of the situation.

If anyone had doubts about the genius of Clint Eastwood, they should run, not walk, to see "Million Dollar Baby", perhaps the best movie that came out of Hollywood on boxing...

Some trivia - as far as i can recollect

1) movie made in just one month
2) name of the restaurant - Irash roadside diner
3) name of the gym - Hit Fit gym
4) Hillary swank (best actress), Morgan freeman(best-supporting actor), Clint Eastwood(best director) bag oscars...
5) For the professional fight - Frankie gives Maggie a beautiful dress with "Mo Cuishile" written on it. It means "My darling/My blood" in Irish. frankie always says "Always protect urself" to maggie. Maggie fails because she forgets her mentor's words to always protect herself. Her last words " I think I did allright"
6) Franki reads out an Yeats poem ="The lake Isle of Innisfree" - Its Irish...so how do I understand? :-(

Padma awards

Sharukh, Cartoonist R.K. Laxman, Anil Kumble received padma awards...

WiMax and WiFi..

Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax) for short is a point to multi point, non-line-of-sight (NLOS) wireless broadband access technology. WiMax also known officially as 802.16-2004 (its IEEE name) can transfer data at rates around 70Mbps with a range of close to 30 miles all from just a single base station.

Unlike WiFi, WiMAX's range is typically measured in miles rather than feet. The main distinction of the difference between the two standards means that WiFi is focused on a local-area networking (LAN) technology and that WiMAX is a MAN technology.

Imagine the possibilities: A business with many stores through out a metro area could network all of his stores together, wirelessly. The hardware savings alone would be sufficient to justify the switch to WiMax.

Another reason that WiMax should be given a good look is the speed factor. The most common Wi-Fi technology; 802.11b currently allows for data transmission speeds of up to 6Mbps under ideal real-world conditions. While this is relatively fast, its nothing compared to the speed that WiMax can provide. WiMax has the capability to provide data transmission rates of up to 70Mbps. That's nearly the equivalent of 60 T-1 lines.

Combine that with the range of WiMax and you can see why the possibilities for WiMax's applications are almost endless. One Broadband provider with one WiMax tower could provide wireless Internet service for hundreds of users while maintaining DSL equivalent data transmission speeds.

WiMax is 'Max' hyped....

WiMax has been hugely overhyped. Despite claims by several firms that they are offering WiMax technology today, the actual number of WiMax devices on the market is precisely zero. That is because the WiMax Forum, is yet to certify any devices with the WiMax label.

Still not the time to take off all the wires! Its to expensive to come in either in developed or developing countries. Its only feasible if it comes inside a mobile. For that WiMax enable chips have to become very cheap. Intel has huge dreams on it... It plans to introduce it in laptop by 2006..

Wait & watch....

Sophies' world

Reading the books Sophie's world and Sophie's choice...

Its all about how we see philosophy from a child's eyes...

Good reading..will update once I finish

Should IT industry have Unions?

The IT industry has so far been clear of unions... Now a debate has sparked on the need for Unions ...

What sort of issues could be sorted if such a Union is to be formed?

Will competent people be interested in joining such a sort of an alliance?

IT organisation generally deals employers in a case to case basis..
Will top-end professionals come forward to form common laws, discuss on ergonomics and workplace condition and issues?

-Rajeswari Kannan