Tim O'Reilly at Berlin Web 2.0 Expo

Check out this interview given by Tim O'Reilly for Intruders.tv on the sidelines of Web 2.0 Expo at Berlin.

O'Reilly talks about Social networking platforms, Google, OpenSocial and lots more.

Experimented

...with a new template for the blog and worked on customizing it. For lack of time, couldn't finish the work, and so am reverting to the current template. The new template should be up in a few days.

Have added Snap Shots to the blog. Should you decide this is not for you, just click the Options icon in the upper right corner of the Snap Shot and opt-out.

Jason Fried on collaboration..or the lack of it!

It ain't a very recent talk but do check up what Jason Fried of 37signals has to say about collaboration in the workplace.

Basic Ideas:
1. Smaller teams
2. Increased Interaction only decreases productivity
3. Meetings should be rationalized
4. Physical separation of employees may lead to better output for all

Interesting!

Want to Spock yourself?

Intended to be the people search application, Spock has its robots crawling the net to find out from 'trusted' sources (read LinkedIn, Blogger, Wordpress and like), information about individuals and presents them to the user. Additionally, it also provides a truly Web 2.0 feature of letting users tag other individuals.

Its limitation in being unable to track commoners effectively has been cited by some experts, mentioning that Spock would be most helpful in case you are searching for celebrities.

What caught my eye was a Spock banner I found on an Indian music site. Interestingly, the banner features Aishwarya Rai and the catch-line says 'Click to see tags and pictures'.

Now that is a big departure from the basic function of Spock - To search for people!

Mohan Veena

Its just not about music. Its just not about how some people do music so well. Its about everything related to an evening where you are mesmerized enough to start thinking about the highs and the lows. Of music notes predominantly. The Mohan Veena and the accompanying tabla do wonders. The Alaap and the Jugal bandi. The composition that won the Grammy. And then you start smiling, in a somewhat weird manner but may be at the most appropriate time.

Initially you wait. You wait for the music to reach the peaks and the troughs. You wait for the appropriate time to applaud. But after some time, the applause loses meaning. Cause by then, a state called trance overwhelms everything, everybody. Thats when perhaps even the credentials of the artist - Padma Shri, Grammy Award and much more - don't matter.

Thats all that could be told about Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt's concert at IIMK today.

Well done Spic Macay@K!

Photo Credit: Nilangsu (Class of 2008)

H '07!!

Horizons, the Annual Management Conclave of IIMK is here.

well.. its here -
http://horizons.iimk.ac.in

Hosting the Director of Fabindia, who has presented the success story at HBS and the CEOs/Partners/Directors of some of the reputed global and national organizations, Horizons 2007 hopes to cover a wide range of management paradigms (excuse me for that word, please!, had to use it).

60 years, 50 years... all the same!

I am not taking a very pessimistic view of things, but something just forces me to think in that manner. The way things are going with the independent entity that is India, I see no major difference in the celebrations that marked 50 years of Independence and the ones that are happening now, on 60 years of gaining independence.

My conscious, thoughtful self has seen both the events and the import that I get out of both is the same. The promises, challenges, demands remain the same. The same issues keep coming up, though re-packaged and re-positioned every time. Watching a panel on national TV discuss India-Pakistan relations and how cricket has linked both the nations, just gives you a feeling that nothing has changed in the decade that just passed by. There are changes in every individual's life, there are changes in how India is perceived by others, but there's no change in how Indians perceive Indians.

We assume that rural India will always remain on the periphery when majority of investments happening in India from global agencies is in that sector. We assume that Indians can be fed news when blogs have become the language that denizens are speaking increasingly. We assume that for every election, an issue can be created, cultured and raised, when the futility of it all is known. We assume that carrots can be dangled to the electorate before seeking votes when the anti-incumbency factors in the country are at play to the maximum extent ever.

and we assume that celebrating every 10 years would make us believe that we are progressing, when the same concept reminds you of the last such celebration.

Foodies all!

The inspiration of this post comes from a blog I was reading today. Hailing from Delhi and from a family that knows its food and the preparation well, it is certainly befitting for me to comment on cuisines and eating habits. Having stayed in Bangalore for something like six years adds onto my cuisine-ology!

North India (well essentially for a South Indian, everything northwards of Mumbai is North India, in much the same way as anybody hailing from south of Mumbai is a 'Madrasi' for a North Indian) offers a wide range of cuisines, the Punjabi cuisine being only a small part of it, though being the most visible one.

Punjabi eating habits are easily distinguishable from the rest North and Central Indian (UP, Bihar, MP) eating habits. Leave apart the Avadhi cuisine, and my impression of the latter states' staple is Arhar Dal (Toor Lentils) done in a variety of styles and eaten primarily with rice. Punjabi homes, on the other hand, usually consume a large variety of lentils. So, there goes a major difference. Additionally, the predilection for rice is something that Punjabis do not share with brethren from the rest of India, except when they are having Rajma Chawal, Kadhi Chawal (those timeless delicacies..)

Rajasthani families usually use large helpings of oil and ghee. Dal Bhaati is something that a Rajasthani/Marwari will give anything to have and believe me, a major reason for its taste is the amount of Ghee used! And the physical appearance of a close friend of mine is evidence enough of the gastronomic tendencies of the people there.

Bangalore exposed me to a large variety of cuisines. Thanks to my friends who kept exploring, there was always a hearty Andhra meal from Nagarjuna's and later Maharaja's as part of my palate, as was the authentic Tamil Dosas and idlis (Murugan's or Krishna Cafe) or the rather fit-for-a-king meal at MTR at one point of time.

Andhra cuisine did match my liking to a large extent. The easy availability and the zing in the food, is a perfect recipe. In Bangalore, Andhra restaurants are aplenty and I certainly recommend places like Nagarjuna's, Maharaja's or similar chains to people who haven't yet had a royal Andhra meal. It does not pinch your pocket and its sumptuous.

[A queue of people (comprising of both North and South Indians) waiting to get a table at the Andhra Bhawan Canteen in New Delhi on a Sunday afternoon bears testimony to my proposition.]

Jargonalia...

The risk-weighted measure that could discount the pre-determined margins and limits of the holdings can be got as a return of the changes in the hedging activity where you have shorted (the) future (and longed the past?).

This discounting process coupled with the implementation of prudential measures for (capital) adequacy should be helpful in making good the downside risk to your holdings and belongings.

"Jargon is the verbal sleight of hand that makes the old hat seem newly fashionable; it gives an air of novelty and specious profundity to ideas that, if stated directly, would seem superficial, stale, frivolous, or false. The line between serious and spurious scholarship is an easy one to blur, with jargon on your side." - David Lehman

Bulleh Shah...

Few lines (in Punjabi) by Bulleh Shah (Sufi saint):


Bulleya padh padh aalam faazal baniyo...
kade apne aap nu padheya ee nahin..

bhaj bhaj wadhdan e mandar masiti...
kade apne andar tu wadhiya hi nahin..

ainwey roj shataan naal ladhdan e
kade nabz apne naal ladhiya hi nahin..

Bulleh Shah.. asmaan udhdiyan phad da en..
jehda ghar baitha ohnu phadiya hi nahin.


Goes something like this (translated):

[He] Read a lot and became a scholar,
But never tried to read himself.

Goes to temples and mosques with full gusto,
But never tried to enter his own heart.

[He] Fights with the devil everyday,
Never tries to fight his own thoughts.

Tries to reach for things in the sky,
when [he] hasn't got hold of things at home.

IT policy Workshop

Attended a workshop on the Draft IT policy of the Government of Kerala as a part of a delegation from IIMK. The policy measures looked sound enough to start with, and the panel discussions on IT's role in society, governance and industry further improved on them. I was a part of the panel discussion on E-Governance measures and was amazed to see the awareness levels of the officers of the state government particularly with respect to the needs of integration of various software apps across departments and the challenges for FOSS.

Another thing, The Draft IT policy does talk a lot about promoting open-source, even to the extent of visualizing Kerala to be the future hub of FOSS in the country!

Online Journals and Weblogs

Saw this piece journal vs. weblog. (courtesy Manu Bhardwaj@LJ)

This sounds pretty interesting. Online Journals are different from Weblogs (or Blogs)!

Shiv Kumar Batalvi

HAD to write this one.

if there's beauty to music and poetry, its because of the work of Shiv Kumar Batalvi and Jagjit Singh/Chitra Singh's rendition of the same. I just can't help being a big admirer of this particular brand of music. The way the duo have weaved magic into (already) superlative lyrics and thoughts of Batalvi, is unimaginable. This particular album is named 'Birha Da Sultan' and is a pretty old work. But do get hold of it if you are game for some punjabi soulful music (and of course poetry).


PS: A particular piece goes like this:

Ghamaan di raat lambi e
Jaan mere geet lambe ne

Na Bhaidhi raat mukdi e
Naa mere geet mukde ne


Is it the night or my songs which are longer..
Neither the evil night nor my songs seem to end.
---

Environmental concerns and solutions - 2

okay, I can explain this sudden inclination towards environmental problems!!!

When you have a course called 'Environmental Management', you can certainly hope to pick up some gyan on happenings around the world. While most of my colleagues here may not agree with my viewpoint, I feel the course is pretty decent.

And I have a midterm to give for this very course after two hours. :)
And I have not read much for the same.
And I feel theres not much to read.
And I feel courses like these should not be evaluated!!!!!

Environmental concerns and solutions

The founding fathers of IIM Kozhikode's now famous campus were definitely visionaries. How else can you explain an educational institution that is built on top of two hills and possesses a magnificent rainwater harvesting system. The system is such that the catchment area at the foothills collects almost all the rainwater that falls on the campus through an efficient drainage system and some traditional and efficient construction practices.

I am almost 8 months into the programme here and had caught only a glimpse the system I just told about, until I read this:

IIM Kozhikode runs on rainwater

Blogger!!

Got to admit, this place surely rocks.

Happy to get a new blog!! :)