Showing him the Ropes

A good deed for the year, at the end of the year....I am showing one of my colleagues...sri..how..what..blogs are....welcome a new member to the Blogsphere...sri..welcome..hope you have a good time doing it.....

Prashanth

update:
And he started a blog...http://www.know-treasure.blogspot.com/

Web....Services...Web2.0

Listened to a conversation between Tim O Rielly & Bezos...thanks to itconversations.com...(I simply love that site it has put me in touch with so many new & interesting thoughts & people...that's really what I love about PODCASTs, you get to hear people who you otherwise probably wouldn't meet....)..enough digressing let me come back to the point of this blog.

During the conversation, they split up the Web in to 3 eras first web0.0, which was basically the HTML pages, more the "Catalogue World"...then we moved on to the Dynamic content generation stage...this is basically the personalization phase....now moving forward we are moving into web 2.0, which would be the web services phase...services/content that is taken in by other computer...computer to computer...human or his action...would only be a trigger.

While reading this I understand that most of you must be thinking this is pretty obvious so what is the point I am trying to make...the point I am trying to make is that what are we doing to get ready for this world...what is my Father's World Companies...doing to get ready for this.....How is our educational system preparing for this?

YES, that is right everything will change...everything needs to change...you change or you left behind, was the dialogues of the past...you change or your toast is the point NOW.

Well, No its not in the near future it is not some time later...IT IS NOW NOW NOW....

Just to give you a few examples....

1. amazon.com has enabled web services & has a strong push towards it
2. ebay...same here
3. google.com - well they are right up there....
4. bloglines.com - Yes the RSS feed reader....
4. Another site that I came by during my reviews, I do think I have mentioned them in one of my earlier blogs is...grandcentral.com

These are allowing for some cool new services to be created...bezos..mentioned a few that were create on top of Amazon..will try & compile a list..there are two that I remember right off the top, the first is the A9 search engine by Amazon, it uses the web services offered by GOOGLE, another one…I forget the name, allows you to scan the bar code of a book in a garage sale & decide what is the highest price you could/should pay for it.

well if you needed to rethink you business models to incorporate the web...well would need to "REIMAGINE"...both your business & yourself for WEB2.0.

Being the GEEK i am my plan is to spend some time putting together some applications on top of all these services to get to know these services better & to understand how better to use them.

My idea at this time is to put together an "Agent", YES I did take that off the semantic web concept..., which would be responsible for all the activities....well. I would like to have a Rich Client interface, I one place information aggregator which would take care of most of my needs....well yes that was too generalized...let me get more specific....

1. It would pull up all the blogs that I have to read...show it to me in my interface & allow me to store/save some of the information I want specifically.

2.I buy a lot of books, but don't get any deals on them, one service would be responsible for checking for books.

3. Need to start bidding for things in eBay that is a world most of us in India, still haven't awakened to..even though bazee has been doing a great job, here...well its time …I tested this out......

2004 - Lists - List

Here is an excellent compilation of the lists of 2004

Merry Christmas

Wishing One & All - A very Merry Christmas....have a Blast!!!

Christmas Gift

"Incredible Repitity of Change"

/---Tom peters live meeting along with Kevin roberts.--/

Note:I simply love the phraseology....

Quote of the Day!

emotion leads to action!!!!
while reason leads to conclusion...

Kevin Roberts...CEO Saatchi Saatchi...LiveMeeting with Tom Peters

Infosys

Infosys - One of companies of the future!! - As per Tom Peters.

Was just listening to the "podcasts", Well they were not called that.....recorded analysts call for 2004....thats what they are called.

Listened to the CEO, Nandan about what they are planning to do.

Things he spoke about.

* Global Opportunity....There exists a clear business opportunity around the world.

* Infosys has an or is building an Engine with ability to grasp the opportunity.

* Need to have a Scalable Business Platform ....for Services..like DELL, WalMart.

* The organisations with Scalable business platform are usually...

Information Driven
Grow Organically
Process Innovation Driven..Continous Improvement

TRAIN/HIRE/PURCHASE - GROW...Scale!

* Once they construct the Scalable Business Platform....they can add many more services to this model - Take any service , dissect it & Reconstruct it leveraging the existing infosys model.

* They need to Differentiate...to avoid / beat orgs & competition which have similar models.

New Functionality - Leverages Blogs

Google News, Collects news in an automated fashion across the various sites & presents it, well that was definitely a wining model. Not we have "memeorandum" which as per the 'about us' page on the site defines itself as "memorandum presents a distinctly readable and relevant hourly synopsis of the latest online news and opinion, combining weblog commentary with traditional news reports."

As per the site they get their news from both traditional media & online media over which they use web blogs....They have also defined web blogs as mentioned below

Weblogs (or blogs) are crucial for making memeorandum possible. Weblogs are online publications (usually arranged in a journal format) produced by small groups or individuals (bloggers), normally without the guidance - and interference - of editors. This freedom empowers bloggers to publish their immediate reactions to news and events, allowing memeorandum to capture these reactions within minutes. The common practice among bloggers of linking liberally in postings is key to helping memeorandum determine when two disparate writings share a common theme.

Here they extol the benefits of using web blogs, that since this is not an edited or moderated output/environment it gets the immediate reactions/opinions/responses of people, this concept though it has its benefits, is not without its share of problems. People are ill informed/ have limited information/inputs they are driven by emotion rather than facts therefore their opinions or reactions could be wrong/false...so more people who read these false/incorrect opinions, might take away the wrong information/input......how is that to be managed/controlled/moderated? Blogs are not necessarily a source of accurate information!!! - Needs more thought!!!!!

via Scoble

Desktop Search

The desktop search market is heating up with the impending release of the Microsoft Product....than we are expecting the Yahoo one well, Scoble at this time writes an essential note "Desktop Search Reviewers' Guide" All of us are reviewers...I have been using lookout with outlook both at office & at home, its really helped me a lot. At home i have been using GDS(Google Desktop Search) it is quite fast at getting the files...but i havent really had a chance to test it out. Now will need to review this & the upcoming / about to come Microsoft Product.

some things to consider when trying out desktop search:

1) Give it time to index.
2) Know what it can and can't do.
3) Watch for comparisons this week on resources.
4) User interface.
5) Security/privacy.
6) Does it play well with others?
7) Does your favorite engine work well on one machine, but not well on another?
8) Does your engine have advertising?
9) Does your engine integrate into the apps you use most often?
10) What's the price?
11) What's the download size?
12) How many file types does the engine index? How many languages does it support?
13) This one probably should be first, but how good an engine is it? Does it find what you're looking for?
14) How customizeable is it? Can you add shortcuts to the engine to make it easier for you to search for common things?
15) What advanced features does it have? Can you make it automatically launch applications, for instance?
16) How much space does its logo take up? Can you get rid of that kind of space-wasting stuff? How small can you make the UI?

via Scoble

All the Best

The colleague is starting his new job tomorrow, I would like to wish him the very best for his new job. U are missed here.....

Prashanth

Quiting Colleague

Well one of my colleagues is quitting....he is a very key part of the organisation..but is quitting to join a pretty uptown ;) place...doing some really interesting work....I wish him all the very best!!! He was the first patron of the site. And we have shared some pretty interesting conversations over the past 6-8 months..his presence will definitely be missed.

He is completing the last couple of days here..before he joins the other company. Today i received an interesting mail from him, i have just cut & paste the mail & my response to it , i think it is a really cool idea...

Mail i received:

Prashanth
I would like a feedback on the following:

-- THREE Things that I must continue to do (to do well in life)
-- THREE Things that I must work on to get better

I am sending this note as I feel I am on an important phase in my life where I need to prioritise and work for betterment.

Thanks and Best Regards

Response:

I understand that to do well in life includes both professional & personal angles to it, since I have know you mostly in a professional/work related capacity my points will focus on your work life/professional life…though I can never stress enough on the importance of good / healthy personal life.

-- THREE Things that I must continue to do (to do well in life)
* Continue Improving/Driving Operational Efficiencies…this seems to be a strength that you can leverage on ….and will be useful where ever you are….in the likes of process definitions/improvements & so on…

* Read On…I think this keeps you in touch with the outer world..i suggest that there is some areas of self/management that u can learn from books

* Communicate/ Talk/ Connect….There are more intelligent people out there than in here/ so try and connect to them talk to them..basically build relationships/ networks

-- THREE Things that I must work on to get better
* Don’t execute..think...Think strategic not operational.

* Present…Publish…Engage….you have a nice story to tell…so tell people…more people want to hear your story…u have a nice story to tell.Also listen to stories there are interesting ones out there.

* People…hire A level…learn to interact with A level…they are a different kettle of fish…u cant manage them only guide them and make them see your vision.

Regards
Prashanth

Hope fully my points are of some use!

What is the FUTURE?

From talking about Astrology in the last entry, now we are begining to make predictions of our own, no this was not based on the planets / stars just stuff i have been reading in the Blogsphere.

Well another conversation between me and sharanya led into a topic on genetics….well she is the engineer/the intellect of the conversation and I just tag along trying to make sense of what she is saying.

But while talking yesterday, we had an interesting thought about what are the things that will drive the future or be the corner stones of future development…well…interestingly we came up with 3 areas,

Nano..Minute…smaller & smaller..yes…this is the truth…as we go forward into the 21st century everything will become smaller and smaller…one excellent example of this is storage…you will have terabytes of storage in the thumb drive which presently stores measly megabytes. Every thing will become Smaller….Nonoization…..it is a reality.

Genetics….cloning….well our knowledge in this area is extremely limited so I am not going to delve into the details but just leave you with an example …bio mechanical limbs will be developed to aid the handicapped people. DNA corrections will be done to new born/yet to be born babies removing critical ailments.

Dream…experiences…This we picked from the thinking of tom peters, All organisations will focus on delivering excellent experiences and trying to make peoples dreams realities rather than just sell products and make profits..this will be a complete change in the mindset of the people/organisations…it will need to entirely new class of value provides in the "Organisational Value Chain"


Update:from Sharanya....

Well here are her thoughts on my entry

genetics.... cloning might be looking far ahead into the future but people have already come up with artificial limbs for injured dolphins etc. bio infomatics is the hot field right now... combining electronics and biology... 2 very very important fields working in tandem could produce something really really awesome.

selling dreams and experiences is not a thing of the future. i believe its already here... though people haven't really given it a name and classified it as that.... all marketing tactics use this on you.... whether you realise it or not... on a sub-concious level its there.

nano.... not only storage... our knowledge on everything is increasing day by day... with a craving to learn more and more. the world around us is getting smaller. trips to the moon for a holiday is not such a distant future!

ps- i also like the part about me being " the intellect of the conversation " ;)

Update: 13th December

Dont think you got the concept of "Dreams...experiences.."...you are still thinking/looking at these terms from the view of tranditional advertising, but they way i see this is more from the delivery side of things. Well i am going to try & put together a post to better explain it while, i try the best place to get an understanding of it will be at the tompeters site, there is an interview with Kevin Roberts the author of LoveMarks....particularly where he clarifies what a love mark is? ....read it and get back with more views/comments.

h/4pi - Uncertainity Principle

Last evening a friend of mine & I were having a discussion on a wide variety of topics, one of them I am going to put on this blog and other will need to wait till I start a bloc for personal thinking/thoughts, I realize that I need to start one, still deciding a few things about how I am going to go about it, so not yet started on it.....Well.... Digressing as ever let me get back to the topic of this blog.

The Uncertainty Principle: The discussion started with a view of the theory of uncertainty, Now I am going to make a lame attempt at trying to explain it, I am sure I will have to correct it once some people read it.. here it goes...

The uncertainty principle: The position and velocity of a particle cannot be simultaneously measured with high precision.The more accurately you measure one, the less accurate you can the other. This is not a statement about the inaccuracy of measurement instruments, nor a reflection on the quality of experimental methods. Even with perfect instruments and technique, the uncertainty is inherent in the nature of things.

Well while discussing this further, since I have very limited knowledge about physics/forget quantum physics...I started reviewing this concept with a view of life as such and began wondering along the following lines.

Every human that is born has an ordained path in his/her life, which is probably defined/decided by the stars/planetary alignment at the time of birth. This is what our astrologers say. Let's assume this to
be true. Now take the earlier mentioned theory and apply it on this. And we get the following thinking "Life from birth to death is expected to follow a certain preordained path, but there is a limit to this certainty and this path can be changed/modified/corrected based on the actions of the person"

"That is there is a limit to the certainty there is in life, so if you have gone to an astrologer and he tells you that the stars/planets will lead you have an X life don't resign yourself or be jubilant about it, as there are limits to the certainty, your actions during the course of your life can alter/change/correct this preordained path"

Microsoft Playing Catch Up

Well ...looks like last night (US time)/this morning India time, Microsoft has launched thier own Blogging facility. I checked it out setup a blog there, will check it out and get back to you. For those that havent started a blog yet and are looking to...i think its worth trying out.

The good part about them is that they have intergrated all quite a few facilities into one interface.

http://spaces.msn.com

Interesting Movie

Thanks to WebTalkRadio, i just saw this interesting movie about the the technology scene is going to play out over the next 10 years. Its has some very cool ideas, Its a must see.

The flash movie is really cool, very well done