@ STARTUP CITY

I had been to a convention yesterday, organized by SmartTechie called Startup City. The program was to showcase the works of the some of the high-technology startups that have been groomed in Bangalore. The were also some sessions & panel discussions catering to the startups' needs.

A panel discussion moderated by Dr. Y.L.R.Moorthi (an IIMB prof) focussed on marketing techniques for startups.
Bharat of Amazon.com opined that a strong word of mouth is essential for a startup.
Paul Murphy of Microsoft felt that its important to build a good network of partners, a B2B network.
Suresh from Nokia said that a product needs to have key differentiators & it needs to be innovated continously.
If you were wondering what were these people from the big companies doing in a convention meant to focus startups. The answer is these companies were main sponsors for the event & these companies are supposed to have initiatives specifically focussed on startups as customers. (I haven't been able to explore them yet)
In the Q&A section, when someone asked how the big cos reward failures. Paul answered that his department used to give bonus to the concerned executives on each failure!!

Later, I attended a seminar by Jinseh Varia from Amazon Web Services on Utility Computing or Cloud Computing.
Basically, Utility Computing has emerged with the idea that access to servers for storage or computation is no longer dependent on the server location, thanks to high speed broadband. Hence there's no more need for companies to have their own dedicated servers. Instead, they can make use of several terra-byte servers from host companies who provide the service for a fee. Use of such a service are supposed to allow you to work "under the clouds", anywhere on earth. This is also supposed to make your web portals more agile to sudden spikes in accesses.

After this I visited few of the desks of startups & got to see some of the cool work that's currently being done by these cos. Surprisingly, most of the apps showcased were for m-commerce, mainly catering to the local market.
A application developed by Seclore caught my attention. This application allows secured, password protected access to documents (MSWord, PDFs, etc) having different options to save locally, print, distribute, modify the document, etc.
I also got to talk to guys from Sloka Telecom who have developed a patented architecture for WiMAX. I was awestruck to see a Base Station of a size of a 14'' laptop, this was drastically smaller compared to its UMTS equivalent that I work on. The company has already deployed its solution in France, Sweden, Indonesia, etc.

Even though I wanted to attend few more sessions & explore more stalls, I was constantly getting calls from my gang to return soon as we had to go to Bonda's marriage. So with a heavy heart, I left early.

my recent updates

Dear friend,
I am sorry I was not able to write much in the past few weeks. Colloquially speaking, I have been "busy like anything" or "sakkat busy maga" in the last couple of weeks. :)

The IEFC loan rejection has had few serious repercussions. Now I had to apply to Indian banks which besides the exorbitant interest rates require an endless number of docs to be submitted. I finally got all the relevant docs ready & submitted my loan application last week. I would be hearing from the bank about my loan in a week's time.

With the Indian loan I can get only half of my estimated expenses. In order to show to the Visa authorities that I have sufficient funds to fulfill all my expenses I needed to prepare another extensive set of docs. The entire last week was spent on collecting that. This week I need to get all my finance docs certified by a CA. After this is done & I get a sanction letter for my loan, I can apply for my Visa. I hope to do this ASAP.

I am also working on tickets booking & on the look for a good laptop.


Things have got a bit hectic at work place also. I submitted my resignation last week & have got a mail mentioning the formalities of the exit process. I need to follow up on this.
I'm currently working on quite an interesting & a challenging feature. I need to finalize the Deisgn Document before quitting.


The biggest causality of my hectic schedule is my reading. I've stopped reading Telecom Flash newsletters altogether. In my mailbox I see I have 30 unread CS newsletters. I hope I finish going through them before the content becomes too stale.

Despite of all this I've able to take some time off to meet my would-be class mates gang from Bangalore yesterday night. Chatting with this guys definitely helps to take off some pressure since these guys are also sailing in the same boat as I am.

Bonda's marriage, the 1st marriage in my gang, is coming up this weekend. Vinay, Viji & I had been to Commercial Street in the evening to get a nice little gift for him.
Its Sunday 11 PM now & another weekend draws to a close. Time to sleep & prepare myself for another high activity filled week. Good night.

its voting time guys..

Just a week to go for the 1st phase of Karnataka state assembly elections & the campaigns are reaching a feverish pitch. Thanks to the Election Commission, buntings have been banned, effectively eliminating pollution due to plastics & the use of loud speakers has also been banned that has reduced the regular din that we were so much used to all this while. Doesn't this seem a lot more mature now? The way to go for the largest democracy & unarguably the country that sees the maximum elections in a year.. :)
The candidates don't seem have an option but goto each voter & literally beg each one for his/her vote. This might help them in shedding a kg or two from their bodies.. :)

It was shocking to see a common problem among all the leading parties: so many contenders for a single party ticket. This has lead to quite a few skirmishes, the defeated has promised vendetta. I felt a bit pity for these guys; the booming economy has created so many nouveau riche & each of are in a mood to "serve the people". How can you accommodate all of them without increasing the seats? Why couldn't have the delimitation committee created some more constituencies?

If you are a rich guy, planning to stand for elections, here's an argument you could make: each year the IITs & IIMs increase the number of seats to accommodate the ever increasing number of applicants, in the same vein, why shouldn't EC increase the number of constituencies?

For the rest of us, from the voting fraternity, who still don't know how to choose the "best among the worst" (as one thinker asked us to vote), here's an argument that you could make: Why shouldn't the ballot paper contain a "none of the above" option? There have been on & off discussions on this & I think its something worth a try, instead of lamenting on low voter turnout.

As for me, I am still thinking how to make the "best among the worst" choice. If you know how to make this choice please let me know.. :)
Happy voting !!

the legend lives on..in our hearts

Today is Annavru Dr. Raj's 80th birthday. There are celebrations all over the state; so many cultural programs, blood donation camps -- all in the honor of the Kannada matinée idol. Two years have passed since he has passed away, but he remains fresh in our memories.

I don't intend to write an essay about him because I'm afraid it many run into tens of pages. :)
But I want to enlist few of his qualities that has made him the icon that he is.

1. He was a perfectionist - he would retake his shots several times until he was completely satisfied with his performance.
2. He knew his core skills & didn't allow distractions to lose focus on his core abilities - after he gained immense publicity after the Gokak Chaluvali, many political parties pleaded with him to join their party. But Dr. Raj plainly refused responding that he was not made to be a politician. He would continue to serve Kannada & mankind along with his acting career.
3. He gave back to society from where he had gained so much. He donated generously to orphanages, widow upliftment programs, etc. But while giving such donations he always made sure that his left hand wouldn't know what his right hand gave. Isn't he so different from those whoDuring the Kargil War crisis, he roamed across Karnataka to collect donations for the Kargil fund. Gokak Chaluvali that was initially started by the Kannada thinkers assumed the proportions of a movement only Dr. Raj joined in his hands.
   

Above all this, he was a talented & diversified actor, unparallel to none other. This combined with singing talent made him such an unique personality. Who else have got a Dada Saheb Phalke award and a National award for the best playback singer?

3 days-3 marriages

Mom returned today evening from her '3 days-3 marriages' trip to Kolar. Its the season of marriages here now. So its not uncommon to have 5-6 marriage invites for a single day!! My dad is on a business trip to Mumbai, so its was imperative for my mom to attend all the marriages.
When she returned, she gave quite an interesting account of her experiences, something worth blogging about. So here it goes..
She left on Thursday morning to attend a family friend's marriage in Chintamani (my native). It was a "no hassles" marriage & everything went fine, as in 99.99% of marriages.
That evening she traveled from Chintamani to Kolar (about 40 kms) to attend a far relative's marriage-reception. As she was entering the marriage hall, she saw the bride & party (our relatives) standing outside the hall. For some unknown reason (with so many people around, its easy for the main reason to be lost in translation :) ) the bridegroom was objecting the bride's party entering the hall. The bride's party were all waiting there, at the enternce. Then Bang!! entered my mom, went & spoke to the groom & his parents & managed to get the bride & party in. After that the groom (again for some unknown reason) refused to wear jewelery during the function & objected even the girl wearing it. This was turning to be really absurd, a nightmarish situation to the bride's parents. Again Bang!! entered my mom, convinced the groom & he agreed to allow the bride to wear jewel but he wouldn't wear any. A groom's jewel would be hidden by his suit anyway, there wouldn't be many objections to this condition.
All the experiences my mom had from arranging umpteen number of marriages for my cousins had proved useful here ..
Later that night, she along with my sister, 2 cousin-sisters & their bunch of kids has to spend the night at another cousin's house & return to Chintamani and travel further 40 kms to attend another relative's marriage, the next day.
My cousin had been out of town (for a marriage ofcourse :) ) & had given the keys to a neighbour. Mom & gang were welcomed to the house by a swarm of mosquitoes. Unluckily for them, mosquito mats were empty & the mosquito net would be sufficient for just two people. After all the confusions in the marriage, everyone seemed to have lost their apetite during the dinner & now with the mosquito menace, they were feeling the hunger pangs. But nothing could be done now, it was 10:30 PM & all the stores in that small-time town would be closed. The elders in the gang packed up the kids on the cot having the mosquito net & they got into bantering that comes so naturally to women folk. But the mosquitoes & empty stomachs wouldn't allow them to have a meaningful conversation.
Only those who've been through such experiences can understand how dreadfully long such nights can be. You'll be just waiting for even a small streak of light outside your window to conclude that its morning atlast & run out of your bed.
The next day the elders got ready at 4:30 AM itself & got their kids also ready in jiffy & headed to the bus stop to catch the 5:30 AM bus to Chintamani. Still starving but nothing to eat, they luckily found some snacks at Chintamani bus stop. With their stomach Gods happy, they boarded the bus that would take them to another of those 99.99% successful marriages.

an embarrassing start

Certainly Dravid, Vijay Mallya and gang haven't done a good job in team selection. They had to pick up a few good hitters. Without these run making machines its not possible to do well on such batsmen centric wickets.
We need good fast bowlers than spinners, coz usually the later can be easily taken for boundaries than fast bowlers.
Hope Dravid & Mallya keep these in mind when selecting for the next season.

Today's fielding has left a lot to be desired. C'mon Royal Challengers, u need to better than this to make us proud.. :)
All the best for the next matches!!

Some brainless talks..

The evening coffee breaks these days with my coffee-gang: Manoj & Ashok, have invariably have lead to some interesting discussions.
The other day, while we were sipping coffee, as usual an a plane flew past our GVC (Golf View Campus) office. "ಥ್ಹು, ಈ ಪ್ಲನೆಗಳದ್ದು ಏನ್ ಕಾಟನಪ್ಪ..." (these planes are a pain in the ***) I said to myself. I think, only those who have been victimized by the constant sound of flight takeoffs can understand my then state of mind. :)
Anyway, the discussion had been shifted to air travels and Manoj was mentioning how some people throw-up (a condition where the food you've eaten moves in the opposite direction in your digestion tract, resulting in the emission of the food through you mouth) during flights. Just as I was wondering what could be the reason behind this, Ashok mentioned the research he had done on this topic.
As we become air-bourne, our inner ear that is sensitive to even slight pressure differences sends a signal to the brain that it senses motion, while on the other hand, our eyes sense that our surroundings are static since there's no relative motion visible and hence signals that everthing is still. Now the brain, the master controller, detects that there is inconsistency in the data received from the sensory organs & concludes that the body is under hallucination caused due to poison ingestion and induces the stomach to "throw out" whatever was eaten. In biology terms this is called "Motion Sickness"

Now, being a techie that I am, I couldn't resist the temptation of writing down the brain (modelling it as a programmable machine) implementation in this condition:

/*this is the brain code */

main ( int argc, char* argv[ ] )
{
while (1) { //run this forever (till we are alive :) )

//many things happen here..
//a few hundred billion lines here..

receiveMsgFromEars( &msg );
setMotionStateFromEars ( msg.MotionState ); //values = inMotion or static
receiveMsgFromEyes( &msg );
setMotionStateFromEyes ( msg.MotionState ); //values = inMotion or static
if ( g_motionStateEars != g_motionStateEyes )
{

//poisoned !!!
while (!TheDigestiveSystem.stomachContentsEmpty ( ) )
TheInvolutaryMuscleManager.move ( INVMUSC_STOMACH, DIRECTION_REVERSE );
}

//a few more hundred billion lines here..
//many things happen here..

} //end while :(

} //end main :(


Seems to be some crappy code, right? But by writing these few lines of pseudo-code, I've realized how immensly complex our brain/body is. Call it God or call it evolution, it has given shape to one hell of a machine: ourselves..

I't it fascinating how evolution & natural selection has shaped organisms to handle even minutest situations in order to ensure their survivability?

It may however take a few hundred generations for our brains to learn not to trigger "false alarms" of poisoning just because we are flying.. Seems providing the patch-fix takes time. It certainly wont be delivered in our lifetime.. :)

So the next time you feel like puking during the flight, you know whom should be blamed.. :)