Thought Garage

On October 15th, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind - the environment. Every blogger will post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic. Our aim is to get everyone talking towards a better future.   I thought for a moment, what difference would it make, if every blogger writes something about the issue? I remembered the Starfish story. If every blogger take one single action along with writing their ideas about the issue on thier blogs, it would make a huge difference.  "The Starfish Story” by Loren Eiseley Once upon a time, there was a wise man who used to go to the ocean to do his writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach before he began his work. One day, as he was walking along the shore, he looked down the beach and saw a human figure moving like a dancer. He smiled to himself at the thought of someone who would dance to the day, and so, he walked faster to catch up. As he ...

Short answer, because it's kind of  a blue print of my own dream phone . Some time around August last year(2006), I started blogging about Cellular Lifestyles , exploring the new lifestyles today's smartphones are creating.   I drew a raw picture that capture my idea of dream mobile phone (you can guess that I am not a graphic designer, and it doesn't take more than a minute with powerpoint). I also expressed my frustration and pain of carrying multiple devices available at that time in more than one article and eagerly waiting for the domination of smart phones (multi-function).  What I really want in a mobile This is that crazy simple picture showing all the functionality that I always wanted in a mobile phone. I received over 100 emails, some of them  criticizing that I am being foolish to combine everything into one device or some nicely put it as the swiss army knife approach is just not smar...

The Sun Startup Essentials program was launched the U.S. on November 2, 2006 on an experimental basis, and was launched in India on  August 8, 2007.  Sun Startup Essentials offers startup companies groundbreaking Sun technologies and software at breathtaking prices or free. For more program specifics, take a look at the Sun Startup Essentials Datasheet . Free Software  : Get popular open source software, such as Apache, MySQL, Perl, etc. -- all optimized for the Solaris operating system, free for the asking. Discounted Systems  : Get rock-bottom prices on industry-leading Sun systems and run the OS of your choice. Discounted Partner Hosting  : Get top-notch web hosting from Sun partners at great discounts. Startups Ask Sun  : Our professional engineers will talk with you through emails and will try to answer your questions.

Forbes Special Report : India at 60 Indeed, India today is nothing like the nation of its great liberator, Mahatma Gandhi--free but also buried in poverty, and very much an underdeveloped country. Now, by virtue of pressure from some visionary entrepreneurs and links to global telecom networks, India has emerged as one of the half-dozen most dynamic economies in the world. Its stock market is surging, a new middle class is developing and the nation is anticipating the moment when the vast bulk of its population begins to enter the global economy. That's the real challenge for India, and the rest of the world: a billion more people suddenly driving cars, heating and lighting their homes and setting ever higher aspirations for themselves and their children. Rediff Special Series : India at 60

After going all Google do I need to give another reason why I love Google so much? Well, if you are still wondering, here is a special announcement from Google, a little treat to Indians on 60th of birthday of India after independence. Keeping up with the spirit and celebrations of India's 60th year of Independence, we present to you a new platform that showcases our favourite ideas for Indian users: Google India Labs . Though 60 years young, India has a history dating back to the dawn of civilization. The incredible diversity of this great nation is the kind of challenge Google loves. And in line with our mission of making information universally accessible, we're now offering an easier way to search in 14 Indian and South Asian languages. You don't need a special keyboard or software; all you need is a web browser, a mouse, and a Unicode font for your language. So whether you speak ??????? ( Assamese ), ????? ( Bengali ), ??????? ( Gujarati ), ????? ( Hindi ), ????...

AT&T sent nice and heavy packets to most iPhone users. If you are wondering if they are some promotional material or coupons or some bonus package, you are in for a big suprise. Those big packets contain AT&T wireless service bill for the customer. Detailed or itemized bill that lists out each and every network access iPhone ever made. AT&T should have summarized all DATA access and should have included itemized details only for actual calls made. All iPhone users must be subscribed to unlimited data plans, that means no user cares about how much they downloaded from the network. But it looks like AT&T never cared to update their billing systems to take care of this for iPhone users. Result, about 300 pages of bill for many iPhone enthusiasts. Watch this user video uploaded on youtube with such hefty packet of bill.

The revolutionary iPhone costs about $500. If everybody thinks, all manufacturers will go that way and produce simular Multifunction phones with rich user experience, you might be wrong. Many manufacturers are trying to enter to in to new markets as a strategy instead of competing in developed markets by focussing on producing cheaper and ultra low function devices. More than a dozen handset vendors will be shipping sub-$50 models by 2008. The ultra low cost handset marketplace is currently dominated by Motorola and Nokia, but Samsung, LG, and Sony Ericsson are showing increasing interest and other smaller vendors including ZTE, Kyocera, Huawei, Haier, Sagem, Ningbo Bird, Philips, and Rose Telecom are also beginning [...] ( | Via RSS Feed | Link to Article | )

Dental Tourism, just another form of outsourcing. Who says 'price' is not a factor when it comes to healthcare? At least 2,544,000 people around the world will search the internet for dental treatment abroad this year, according to Reva Health Network. In June alone, 636,155 dental tourism-related searches were carried out globally by 212,051 unique users on Google, Yahoo! and MSN search engines. ( | Via RSS Feed | Link to Article | )

2008 Olympics is quite an advantage for China, to channel more funds to technology and infrastructure. And that may act as the largest differentiator when compared to other Asian powerhouses, like India.  China's strategy is definitely paying off. In 2011, China will lead the world in IPTV subscribers. The massive size of the population, combined with the government’s technology emphasis for the 2008 Olympics, are the principal reasons for the growth. Revenue, however, will be driven by the United States. ( | Via RSS Feed | Link to Article | )

   Product Workshop on -What & How to build Challenges of a Product Business NASSCOM presents a workshop  on “What & How to build Challenges of a Product Business”. The NASSCOM Product Forum has identified the need to guide entrepreneurs who have business ideas in the software product space and are striving to get those ideas off the ground. This workshop would contribute towards creating a software product ecosystem in India, learning from the experience of Silicon Valley, Canada, Israel and other technology centers. This Product workshop will be led by experienced people from technology, business and venture funding backgrounds who are keen to contribute to aspiring product entrepreneurs, Product Companies, Product teams and Incubating companies.  Venue/Date : 9:00 AM To 5:30 PM 01 September 2007, The Royal Ball Room, The Leela Palace, Airport Road, Bangalore Click on Event Page Link  for more.

That's what marketers do, after all. We spend time and money to change the role of our products and services sometime in the future (whereas salespeople try to change the now). Changing tomorrow is really, really difficult. It's expensive and abrupt and rarely works out for the best. Which is why the worst time to change your marketing is right after 60 Minutes calls on the phone. Tomorrow is so close, it's probably going to go down the way it's going to go down, regardless of what you do. Changing the future of tomorrow is tough. Changing next week's future is a little easier, next month is easier still. You can lay the groundwork now to change your team and your products and your story so that over time, you're in a different place than you are now. Changing next year, though... that's really hard. It's hard because a year is so far away, you can count on the world being a very different place by then. Something to think about if you're running...

Creating Passionate Users is one of my favorite blogs and very happy to see this post after a long time (since those blog threats).  I love to see this blog with those vivid pictures that convey the pragmatism and real wisdom that could otherwise takes 1000s of words and yet unclear.  The revolutionary way of  teaching  concepts(HeadFirst Series) is beyond any comparison to any other book I have ever read. I love to see her back on the blog and with new books. It is very difficult to say any visualization as my favorite, as I love almost all her graphs and pictures. Just linked two of them, that are quite relevant to a discussion that I am bringing up in my next post. While it is tough to beat an argument on table that a team of people bring a lot to the table and consensus always brings better results, in reality it is quite the opposite in almost all ocassions.  Consensus is something everybody is comfortable with, not necessa...

Ignoring 'Misses' and highlighting 'Hits' without proportions... interesting talk. Link to TED | Talks | Michael Shermer: Why people believe strange things (video)

Psychologist Barry Schwartz takes aim at a central belief of western societies: that freedom of choice leads to personal happiness. In Schwartz's estimation, all that choice is making us miserable. We set unreasonably high expectations, question our choices before we even make them, and blame our failures entirely on ourselves. His relatable examples, from consumer products (jeans, TVs, salad dressings) to lifestyle choices (where to live, what job to take, whom and when to marry), underscore this central point: Too many choices undermine happiness. Source: TED | Talks | Barry Schwartz: The paradox of choice (video)