Random Thought!!

How did we end up having to pay more for water than for oil?

Not in my backyard!!

The Oil prices are high and there are no signs of slowing down. An global demand is not going down anytime soon.
New solar and wind power technolgoies have years to go before they get affordable and mature. Battery technology and Hydrogen fuel cell cars are still in budding stages to be adopted on a mass scale. It would probably take atleast 50 years to significantly displace the existing energy sources with these Greener ones

We have to try working with the current technologies we have while continue exploring new frontiers and adapt to them. There is an urgent need in short term for energy to continue to be competitve in this globalized world.
There is a need to diversify the portfolio of energy sources and have a right mix to decrease the dependency on the foriegn oil.

I do not understand why for every step in that direction, there is huge resistance in this country.
Produce more oil with offshore drilling in US?? NO. Oil Spills.
Produce more power with more nuclear plants?? NO. Nuclear Waste.
Produce more Ethanol/ Bio Fuel?? NO. Food Security/ Unethical.

Yes, we need to move towards cleaner and greener energy sources. But you need to have the Economic strength to be able to make that bold change. It does cost significant amounts of money to turn green. There is absolute need for a practical and affordable path to get there. And that would come only with Economic strength. And Energy security is a must.

My head spins!!!

A collection of the irrational unfair and sexist comments from many TV commentators on Hillary that has got nothing to do with her positions or her politics.
Strangely none of them has raised much of controversy. We are truly imbibed with sexism.
http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/05/25/special-comment-for-keith-olbermann/

Let's do the Math!!!

I know, I know!! I thought I would keep myself out of it.
I was wondering why Hillary is still in the race while the complicated democratic delegate math makes it next to impossible for her to win the nominee. Dig deeper, there is more sense to it. There are number of ways Hillary could hypothetically win the delegate math.

Lets consider, winner takes all delegates for a state, like the Republican Math. No super delegates here -
After PA, Hillary leads Obama by a healthy margin
Appx. 1560 vs 1260 not including Florida and Michigan.
Appx. 1735 vs 1260 including Florida. (No Michigan)
Wow!! that's a big lead.

Now lets forget about Republican math and work out General Elections math which probably makes more sense -
After PA, Hillary leads Obama
251 - 197 not including Florida and Michigan
278 - 197 including Florida (No Michigan)
She'd already be president ;)

If we discount the states which held caucuses which obviously do not reflect the popular vote. Remember Texas, where Clinton won the primary by 5% but lost Caucuses square and out by more than 15%. Barack leads Clinton 69 to 5 in electoral college votes for Caucus states, which could have gone either way -
Then, Hillary's electoral college lead in the states that held the primaries -
256 - 128 with out FL
273 - 128 with FL

There is more than one reason for Hillary to stay in the race. :)

I am sure they are presenting the super delegates with this kind of Math. If they are not already doing that, they should. But to atleast make a case, I think the popular Vote is something that she must probably win. Obama leads by 1.4% including Florida before PA results are counted. 422K more votes in hard numbers.

These are calculations from my own spreadsheet with data from different sources. So there are approximations. Hmmmm, don't I have anything better to do?

The All-Star Game of the Web

Look at the players - Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, News Corp's MySpace, Time Warner's AOL.
It all started Google's unstoppable growth in Web advertizing at the expense of others. Despite of numerous high quality efforts by Microsoft, Yahoo and others, there is no stopping the Google's march. So MS cannot see itself fighting Google on its own on the web, wants to buy Yahoo in the hope that 2 is better than 1. Yahoo then tried to run away from MS to court News Corp to maintain its independence. News Corp didn't see itself able to compete MS offer and tried to join MicroSoft in the deal. MS see no benefit bringing in News Corp when it can have Yahoo all for its own. Yahoo doesn't want to have anything to do with MS, tries to tag in with AOL and its even prepared to work with the player that is responsible for all its problems, i.e. Google to keep itself independent.

It'll be interesting to see how this game ends. To me, it doesn't look like any of the outcomes would even come close to challenging Google's domination on the web advertizing. You can't beat an innovating market leader at its own game. MS should have known it from its Zune experience. Xbox experience has got more to do with Sony's bigger plan to push BluRay.

MS, instead of buying Yahoo to play Google over the web, should take the game to a different battle field - In-Game advertizing for Xbox, Contextual Advertizing for Television with IPTV, In-car advertizing with Sync or other GPS and what not. If it doesn't make its moves on other fronts faster than it is doing now, it'll be too late.

Yahoo, there is no syngergy to go with MS or AOL or even NewsCorp. It'll be another business deal that would result in different degrees of failure. For Yahoo the game should be to be independent and work with everyone. Be the media company it always supposed to be. Delivering the content and services to its user community whether they are on the web or tivo or mobile or gps or facebook or myspace. Be the no.1 destination and monetize the traffic as best as you can.

Google is at the top of this game with majority of the marketers in its fold. Just sit tight and make no mistakes.

Done with Clinton - Obama business

No matter whom I support and how hard Clinton tries, Obama is going to be the Democratic nominee. So its probably better not to lose mind over whats happening. In the end, all this discussion is inconsequential.
Just sit back and enjoy the circus.

India... hmmm!!

Is India becoming a playground for the intolerant? The evidence is mounting that it is. Jodhaa Akbar cannot be screened in Rajasthan because some Rajputs have taken umbrage at the heroine's name. Sania Mirza has court cases slapped against her for resting her foot too close to a national flag; Richard Gere for resting his lips too close to Shilpa Shetty's. Viking Penguin has been served a legal notice because Jaishree Misra's historical novel on the Rani of Jhansi actually treats her as a human being. Our most famous living artist, M F Husain, is living in exile because he fears harassment if he returns to his own country — at an age where he should be able to live with love and honour in his homeland. An exhibition in Chennai on Aurangzeb is shut down after protests by Muslims claiming it misrepresents the mediaeval emperor. Taslima Nasreen, a persecuted author to whom India had given asylum, has now fled the country, her peace of mind and health broken by the relentless hounding of fundamentalist Muslims and the cravenness of both the West Bengal and Indian governments.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Time_to_stand_up_for_a_tolerant_society/articleshow/2890122.cms

Obama and Wright

I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely – just as I’m sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.

Ok, you knew that your mentor made Anti-White remarks that can be considered 'controversial'. (I assume based on the context). What did Obama do to 'Change' his attitude and make him 'Hope' for a future without racism. Did you make an effort to bring in 'Change' in his attitude. What is your reaction, just disagreement?? Like many of US?? You are not one of us - you are running for president. If you cannot 'Change' the attitude and the mind set of a person who is closest to you, What 'Change' can you bring in to the entire nation?

Obama's failed speech... Change, Not This Time!!!

Transcript: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/18/us/politics/18text-obama.htm

Yes... media will sing praises on his speech and those who support Obama would claim it to be the singpe most important speech on race post civil rights movement. I've already seen head lines that use words like bold, unconventional, daring, unique etc... This carefully crafted speech does nothing to change the status quo. He explained in pages and pages how we have come to this point. He says he condemn Wright's speech but went on to subtly explain why he would give such a speech. And explained why White's have resentments against the Black community and that they are born from the circumstances. Renestment doesn't mean racism. That appplies to both sides. And this speech is supposed to be about racism and not resentment.

Everyone knows there are resentments on either side. And that all races need to work towards the 'perfect union'. Ok. Whats new. This is what any person who wants to talk diplomatic about the race situation in USA would say. Any politician who is looking for votes would say the same thing. Those words suddenly do not gain weight just because they are spoke by a black politician.

I expected him to talk about the harsh realities and what needs to be done. I expected him to talk straight and condemn wright in all its content and intent. If we keep looking back at the History, how can the 'Change' happen. I expected him to strongly warn all the commentators and political pandits to stop bringing race into the picture. I expected him to tell Blacks that it is time to stop blaming whites for every problem they face and ask them to stop cry 'racist' even at the harmless comments on race (bill clinton, ferrero etc). A small town racist in Alabama is not responsible for the murders in Oakland. I expected him to inspire Blacks to get rid of the hiphop bitch and ho culture and the guns on the street culture. America is providing equal opportunity to anyone who has the will to succeed. I hoped he would raise the need for that will power. I expected him to pursue young blacks to stop looking at the past and work towards a bright future. I expected him to address the root cause of the poverty in black neighbourhoods and layout a plan to wipe out the economic disparities.

Hmmm.. Not This Time. All we got is another politically motivated and extremely calculated speech. And in all possibilties he is going to be praised by all with out question. And his speech would likely inspire (sic) many more votes from the 'American Idol' nation.

Why Clinton and Not Obama!!

I preferred Clinton over Obama based on the debates and other speeches from the initial primaries. I felt Clinton was more informed in what she was talking about and I thought having Bill Clinton on her side would be a great asset. We'd have a great 'buy 1 get 1 free' offer.

Obama while a good orator, I did not think his speeches were inspirational. For, I did not think he was strong in the content. I did not understand from the speeches what 'Change' he wants to see and how he is going to bring that change. It felt like KCR of TRS saying that splitting AP into two states would magically solve all the problems of Telangana. Obama did not come across well when talking issues and answering questions in the debate. He was dodging questions and wavering around while giving answers to straight forward questions. More importantly, I could not see an accomplishment of his that stands out to convince me that he is capable of changing America. Its like making a mid level manager, the CEO of a multi billion dollar company. He might be good at what he does, but that would not make him qualify to the most important job in the world. I guess, Americans are ready for any one after George Bush.

While he talks about Hope and Change, I felt that he is also a seasoned politician not unlike Clinton trying to get to the white house. He said he was going to bring in new kind of politics, but it is for all to see in the past few days he is anothe feather from the same bird. His politics did not last half the campaign. He was an underdog, and media loves underdogs. He is not any more and we can see Media already having a field day. And Wrights and Rezkos cases are only the start.

I always hear from the media that Clinton is divisive and polarizing. Having been in America only from 2002, I did not have much idea about the Bill Clintons' time that gave her an image of a polarizing figure. While I think they are not rational, I can see why people have uncomfortable feelings about her. And I see that people want to wipe out the slate clean and start afresh with this new guy. Which I felt is an escapist mind set. Truly, I am more impressed with Dr. Ron Paul and his message. He truly reflects change. But America is not ready for the Change he wants to bring in.

Between Hillary and Barack how ever, I'd any day go for more knowedgeable, tried and tested Hillary. She has the will, the strength and the skills to get the America back on the track that veered off in Bush's administration. Obama is a smart politician who like Clinton, benefitted because of his historic candidacy, but he is not ready for the job. My guess is Obama would become Democratic candiate but would be defeated by McCain in November.

Obama and Caucuses Take II

Update:
Add Texas and Wyoming Caucuses for Obama. Its 14 out of 15, And the one clinton lead was in American Samoa 2 delegates to 1. It more or less a unanimous sweep for Obama. Whats troubling is, if you take texas where primaries and caucuses were both held on the same day with same electorate, Obama while trailing in the Primaries by a good 4%, leadin the caucuses by atleast 15%. Thats a huge disparity!!

That leads to the question - are caucuses democratic and do they represent the public choice?? Remember, there are no caucuses in the general election. We would never know what would have happened if primaries were held in those 15 states instead of caucuses given the Results in TX. Definetely something to think about for democrats at the convention. I am sure Clinton will bring that up late in the game.

Obama and Caucuses

Obama lead the delegate count in 12 of the 13 democratic Caucuses held. With 262 delegates vs Clinton's 135, i.e two thirds majority.

After reading the article in NYTimes on how Caucuses are held, it looks like Clinton is not too far behind Obama in popularity as it appears to be.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/14/opinion/14collins.htm

Selective Ignorance

When Hillary uses generic phrases like 'fired up! ready to go', Everyone unanimously shouts that she picked up the line from Obama. She is not even allowed to say she is for 'Change', for 'Change' is owned by Obama.

Now it turns out that the speeches of Obama are taken in form and content, from Mass Gov. Deval Patrick 's election speeches in more than one instance and were never credited publicly until caught. More over, Obama dismisses it as a non issue. No one in the Media points a finger. Sure, they discuss. They discuss on how Clinton is trying to attack Obama.

I am surprised! In a country where copying and plagiarizing without credit is considered very menial in a very over the top way, Obama escapes unscathed.

Change we are looking for!

Clinton Attacks... Obama Targets!!!

The way Media works -

When Clinton says something about Obama or his policies.. Headlines scream 'Clinton Attacks Obama...'
When the reverse happens... they softly read 'Obama Targets Clinton...'

Can we call it bias??

Live Super Tuesday Results

Source: RealClearPolitics.com

Pathetic TV9

I can't believe how low the Indian media is stooping to. A 15 min program titled 'Choli ke Peeche Kya Hai' on how bad Rakhi Sawant is and bad mouthing her, at the same time showing the controversial kiss with Mikha, a wardrobe malfunction with Madhuri's Choli song in the back ground. Also shown generously are other wardrobe malfunction videos from all over the world and deriding the ethics of those involved in those incidents.
Wow!! 15 min news special on some stupid news with a good dose of sleazy visuals with senseless and ridiculous comments on the ethics of the women involved..
Kudos to the 4th Estate.

Indians in the Middle east!!

Instead of worrying about the 'Indian descent' people in Malaysia, India should first look at the plight of the 'Indians' in Dubai and other parts of the middle east. Not to disrespect Indian descent Malaysians, Any one who has made a trip to Dubai, would easily realize how the Sheiks are building an Expensive Empire with the cheap labour from India.

The workers from abroad, with majority from various parts of India are kept in camps with sub human living conditions. The construction happens round the clock with two 12 Hour shifts. Hoards of the workers are unloaded sharp at 6AM and works until 6PM, to be taken back to their 'Camps' in buses. And the other set would be unloaded at 6PM Sharp. There are no labour laws, no rights. These guys are with out any family life or social life. Their passports are with hold by their contractors. They are bound by illegal contracts and can't leave at their will. No real health benefits. Tough luck if you are injured by chance. They are paid meagre amounts compared to the living standards in their host countries. By any standards, they are bonded labor or can even be called slaves.

These countries are building paradises with the blood of these workers. No voice is raised against these atrocities. USA sees these middle eastern states as allies and do not comment on these human rights violations while they happily bark about the Chinese doing business with Sudan. Indian corporates make money off the contracts. Indian government couldn't care any less.

In the end innocent Indians accept their fate and suffer for the unfair amounts they are paid.

Android, Open Handset Alliance and Google

Last week I was hoping for a mobile OS that is not targeted at smart phone market but one that could serve the consumer market and help the handset makers and carriers move away from the software business.
>>This would probably help the carriers and device makers move out of the software business and concentrate on providing hardware and services instead, which are their core business.

We got that and even more and Google had done that, it announced an open handset alliance and android platform.

The press statements are a bit vague on what it is coming up with, but based on what I have been reading an OS platform for phones (can be a smart phone or a normal consumer phone) that works on all kinds of hardware where developers can build apps that has access to local resources and the device makers and carriers can pick and chose the applications... And how it is different from WM/OS X/Symbian/ Palm/ RIM, the carriers still have the say on what they want to provide. The power is still with the carriers, but Google is making it easier for them to have good stable and capable solution and at their own terms.

If I were Jerry Yang

I'd put all new updates to the services on hold and create both open social and facebook applications for all its services, if it wants to continue to be the number one destination on the web. Social web sites with all these new functionality would probably be the place where a good chunk of web users spend their time, if they get all their tv and movie schedules, finance quotes, news and gossip in their social networking platforms like facebook, bebo, myspace... fewer people would have incentive to go yahoo services for such information. So the best idea would be to go where the users are. If web browser is going to be replaced by social network, you better be there with full force and provide the best widgets/ gadgets/ apps or whatever they are called. Of course you can still be in control of the advertising that goes with in the app. And also probably can use the expertise to server ads for other apps as well... And if the Yahoo! Mash comes up well, Yahoo would have the advantage that no other social network platform, no other app developer and even google would have as Yahoo will have the option of holding the user to its Yahoo! mash.

Yahoo, start working on your apps and let them be the best.

Beginning of the End (Part One)

I think Nov 2007 will be marked as the beginning of the end for Yahoo! There are two big developments from Google, one in the social networking and one in the mobile space. These announcements not only demonstrate the brilliance of Google, but also Yahoo!s failure. Yahoo! was first in the game with its Yahoo! 360 and Yahoo! Go more than two years ago, but their lack of vision and lack of implementation is now costing them dearly

Yahoo had its best bet before facebook to make Yahoo! 360 a truly powerful social network. It was a great idea, as a platform it was better than other social networks at that time. Its the implementation that lacked. It couldn't even put up all the Yahoo! services on 360. I was hoping they would slowly but surely get there. The unrivalled user base and the content they generate on the Yahoo! is un imitable and can not be repeated. Facebook was not an open platform then, once the Facebook platform is opened up, it was a closed chapter for Yahoo! 360.  To match the facebook, Yahoo came up with another social networking platform called Yahoo! mash, which doesn't have any significant benefit compared to facebook. Still they have not learned from its 360 failure, and the mash team apparently couldn't convince other Yahoo teams to come up with their app for Yahoo! mash. Sure, it is still in beta, but there is no place for excuses in Tech world. With Open Social from Google, hmm its all over for Yahoo! social network plans unless it goes onboard the train run by its biggest rival. Clearly Yahoo! recognizes the glorious future of Social networks which is evident from its purchases like Flickr, Del.icio.us, jumpcut, mybloglog and many others long before Google paid any real attention (Orkut was stupid), but it failed to deliver it twice.

Now they have all these disparate and wonderful services which would eventually fade away once people start having their content on all these apps that are going to be out there on the Open Social unless they become a part of it.

 

Sorry Yahoo!, you couldn't think big enough.

Where is the plan?

BSE Sensex hits 20K. 540% increase from 2001. Good.
GDP growing 8 -9 % a year. Great.
Mukesh Ambani is almost the richest man in the World. Nice.

But where are we heading. Is there any real plan or road map or even any discussion happening on Food security, Water Security, Energy Security, Basic Infrastructure and Environment?

70% percent of population still working in agriculture related industries which doesn't even contribute 20% of the GDP and is still growing at 3-4 % a year. Next green revolution is over due.

Retail Industry is multiplying with a blink of an eye. We have a Reliance, a Tata and a Subhiksha fresh retail stores on the same street in the interior Vijayawada. What happens to those millions of small vendors.

Good that we have plenty of rains. What do we do if we have 2-3 draughts in quick succession.

Where is the infrastructure. The roads in the cities are not even good to walk, forget about driving. The sound pollution and the smog. Billions of hours wasted in the traffic and hundreds of unnecessary accidents and deaths every day.When would our freeways get safe and hit 110 km/ hr speeds. How long before the IT revolution reaches the second level cities. Where is the broadband connectivity.

When would India make significant Science and Technology breakthroughs. When would India win Olympic golds at will. When would India have its own Google, its own BMW, its own SONY, its own Nokia, its own Samsung?

Is there a plan, a vision, on where we want to be and when we want to be there, not to mention how?? When would we cross the bridge of mediocrity to the side of Excellence???

Future Tech Mantra

You are only there.. if you are Everywhere!!!

How about mobile OS for non smart phones??

Device independent mobile operating systems like Palm, WM, Symbian, Blackberry all target at mobile phones with data plans/ web access and mainly aiming at providing advanced features which most of the mobile users do not need or do not want to pay for. Of course there is an option of buying these phones unlocked and just not pay for the dataplan, but there is also this mental picture in the common masses on what a smart phone means. We now have the device makers and carriers come up with their own versions of the software that they ship with the devices. There are no open standards and this system is a closed one and doesn't allow innovation. There are some java apps out there that are supported across multiple OS,
but the utility is minimal where u need to download the apps over the air?


There can be many advantages of having these open OS platforms even in the non smartphones. There can be many applications that can be designed and built for mobile phones with PC - Mobile Eco System like iPods which doesn't need web access. This would probably help the carriers and device makers move out of the software business and concentrate on providing hardware and services instead, which are their core business.

This is one rung lower than what Google is suggesting for the 700MHz spectrum. And a good first step in that direction.

World Wide Widget Web

You see Google Gadgets and iGoogle, Mac OS X Dashboard and iPhone, Yahoo Widgets, Yahoo Badges and Yahoo Go, MS Vista Sidebar gadgets and Live gadgets, Opera Widgets and Facebook applications. They are not all the same, but they are everywhere. These small applications give access to your online services like Email, News, Weather, Calendar, Maps and the like and they run off the servers. The desktop versions still work even when you are offline and syncs when you are connected.
All these services point to the direction of pervasive computing, where you have access to your data everywhere. The widgets are important because eventually they work the same way on your PCs, your Mobile phones, your mp3 players, your in-car entertainment devices, your GPS devices, your televisios, your game consoles, tivos, your digital photo frames and many other platforms. Right now, you have multiple platforms, operating systems for each and every one of these segments and its a hassle because the developers cannot build their applications for every new platform that crops up now a days. The only unifying aspect as of now to some extent are the web browsers with unified standards. But the web browsers are built for PCs with a mouse and a keyboard. And we see how the developers are struggling from many years to port that to the mobile devices with small screens and still there are no where close to interoperability. they all still suck. Now add the future generations of internet connected devices like set top boxes or gps sets. The web browser doesn't make much sense.
Since most of these widgets essentially use the web technologies, I guess there soon would be a time where you can simply port widgets from one platform to another. Google already does that with its desktop and iGoogle versions. Yahoo does that with same base code for mac and win. Other companies would join and probably release simple tools to just port widgets from one platform to another and it might not be very long before that happens.
That makes it easier to adapt to the newer electronics and gadgets connected to the web and it is of course good for the tech companies as it gives them more places to reach to the customers with out having to invest a lot for development. Companies like Slide and Widgetbox have a lot to look forward to.

Lets see how long it takes for the W4 to materialize.

It's not Google, It is Adobe!

Looks like Adobe has the best chance to be a Microsoft Killer!!!

Sure Google is doing great on the web, but that was never Microsoft's money making machine. It's strength is its operating 
system, its development platform and the office suite where MS makes most of its money which it could funnel into the newer fronts. It could sustain losses for multiple years for its Xbox platform and Mobile OS and of course it would do that with 
Zune which is soon going to be a force in the MP3 player market. Google is putting its billions to take the Office suite with its web based apps. But the fact is that it is no where close to challenge MS on that front and it would be few years before it could come up with a serious challenger. Of course MS is not going to sit sucking its thumbs. Already there is a major push 
with MOSS to improve collaboration using the office tools. Also Google doesn't have much experience with Enterprise Business sales, which is on a different plane when compared to Adwords accounts it has got.

But it is different with Adobe, whose intentions are getting clearer by the day. It has already got a great foot hold in the small business with it Creative Suite and its Macromedia web tools. And it has got a dedicated army of developers who use their tools. It started with the online versions of its creative suite. Then came the killer Adobe Integrated Runtime, which I think is the future of the software with its unique ability to bring the best of the desktop and web worlds together and has very little learning curve for the scores of the web developers to adopt to. With the huge success of Mac OS X in the recent days and lack of cross platform support with .net (they are trying), there is a great potential for Adobe to become the choice for the developer community. And then it has Adobe flash which is on 98% of the browsers and is improving with every version. 
Now it is coming with the Office suite based on AIR. With its amazing presence in the small business world in both PC and Mac worlds and its connections with the web developer community, Adobe has all the armour to take on MS .net  and their office suite. 

I think Google has to stick with its ad selling business and take it to television, radio, news papers, magazines and hoardings and make the most of the 1 trillion dollars of Ad Money out there.
And leave it to Adobe to cut the life line of Microsoft.

Recall and Media

It is amazing how media feeds their interests into the general public minds like a slow poison. Subtle references and opinions are embedded all over the commentary in the news or op-eds or talk shows.
Last week I was watching a news cast in CNN about the recalls of toys in United States sold by US companies which happened to be manufactured in China. And there is a collective media effort to blame it on the Chinese. OK, agreed. Chinese plants are not sticking to the standards. But they are just factories and manufacturers. If there is a problem with the quality of the products, it is an issue between the company that sourced its manufacturing to these Chinese companies. It's the US companies which are selling those toys in USA and it is their responsibility to make sure they are checked for Quality and are adhering to the standards of the market they are selling into. Even a kid can understand that.
But if you watch day after day, show after show, they blame it on the Chinese. And even more subtle is the way the Media project China as a nation. Check this comment from Lou Dobbs.
Tonight, a massive new recall of dangerous toys imported from communist China, another recall, another example of our government's failure to protect American consumers from dangerous toys, food, and other imports from China.
He referred to China as 'Communist China'. Where does communism come into picture in this scenario. There is no nation by the name 'Communist China'. Given the fact that, here in US, the word 'communism' is more or less a swear word it shows how the media is using to slowly inject the poison into the people heads. And trying to brand China with poor quality. If there is any one to blame here, its the US government and the Company which released them into the market.

And now you have 21.7 million pounds of Beef recalled from the US company from a US source, which is much more dangerous and serious situation than having a little lead in the toys. And I am curious to know the adjectives the media use for United States. Beef recalled from 'Chauvinist US', 'Imperialist US', 'Democratic US' ... hmmm.. Don't get me wrong here...I love US and I think it is the best place to live in.. but can't turn a blind eye on such manipulations. So in the true American tradition, I don't act on it, I just Blog ;)

Vanaja, a Telugu Film

I haven't seen the film yet.. But its great to see a Telugu film to get such a raving review from my favorite movie critic and possibly one of the greatest critics for the english movies, Roger Ebert, a 4 out of 4 stars.

More so because its not a cross over film but a true stick to roots rustic and rural telugu drama with an Andhra Village as the backdrop.

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070913/REVIEWS/709130308

This will probably give a big boost to the film in festival circuit and in having a limited release in America to make more than enough money to cover its costs. And this probably gives some boost to some of the movie crazy telugu engineer to venture into the movies.

Congratulations to Rajnesh Domalapalli.

Big Joke

Apple pulls out the NBC TV shows after being show the door by NBC.

Apple is the most expensive MP3 player in its class. Even after it has this amazing market share and un heard of profit margins per device that comes out of its scale. It doesn't reduce the price and it doesn't allow the 'VENDORS' to play with the prices as they want. Yes you cannot sell an iPod for less than the price specified by Apple.

But it does not agree to the owner of the content to sell their content for a price they want. That is alright, it can deny if it doesn't make business sense for Apple. But trying to blame NBC and making it look like Apple is for customer and NBC is this evil corporation because they are not dancing to its tunes is stupid.

Of course, Apple can afford to be stupid. After it has a stupid and loyal fan base who thinks Apple is always right and Steve Jobs is God to root for it and blast NBC with out even listening to what NBC has to say about this whole deal.

They might want to have the content sold through their Hulu for a cheaper price or make it available for free with the support of Ads. With the new video technology that can display un obtrusive in line ads with video based on context, it might have its own plans.

Oops, I am an Apple fan boy and I can't think.

Thats a pattern... i can recognize that.

Oh! we are so nice.. we are so great... we want to make the world a better place to live in... we are the greatest company... we love people.. we do no evil... we empower people.. hmmm...

for the 12 questions asked, this guy was able to parrot the same statement 7 times irrespective of what the question is... OK it is good that Google is participating in the auction for the 700MHz spectrum and proposed some constraints that will sure help every one in the US to make it more open.. but to act like they are doing all this for the greater good of the world and not to increase their dominance beyond the PCs. may be they want to do good to people while making money. But not even once he mentioned that they are doing this to reach more people for longer periods and make money off that. He kept repeating the same phrase and want to stress that they this because telecom companies are evil and they are the robinhoods.

"Brand Management"

http://news.com.com/Googles+battle+for+wireless+spectrum/2008-1039_3-6199374.html?tag=st.num
Sacca: "The 700MHz spectrum auction represents the last big chance that the United States has to create an opportunity for meaningful change in access to the Internet for the broadest set of people possible."
"We have fought hard on a number of fronts to make the Internet as available as possible to the largest number of people as possible."
"What is going to make the Internet most available to the broadest number of people at the lowest price possible?"
" Google is willing to do anything necessary to introduce some competition into this space and to really drive the prices of service to where they are most affordable to the broadest number of people. It is reprehensible that there are still so many people left off the Net."
"We are deeply committed to changing this industry for the benefit of end users."
"we are trying to do what we can to remove obstacles that are standing in the way of making the Internet available to the largest number of people possible."
" We are trying to look one by one at those obstacles to see where we can have an impact to make the Internet available to everyone. "

Funny he said this -
" I think we do have to question when Verizon and AT&T jump to accept any proposal. We have to look at what their ulterior motives are."

Yahoo! should think BIG

Yahoo is the largest visited site with more traffic than any other site and is consistently at the top for several years. Still in terms of revenues its lagging way behind Google. It is also lagging in innovation. Yahoo! is coming up with more and more services to keep its leadership intact, but it was not able to deliver that next 'BIG' thing. It adopted web 2.0 stuff like RSS feeds, tags etc.. faster than other portals and even Google. But it has lost on its best opportunity with Yahoo! 360, which could have been a best combination of social networking and taking advantage of the huge content that's generated by users every day on Yahoo properties. Shame, it failed on that and didn't go that full mile. Now facebook has hit with its platform strategy and made it big. Wait till it hits the wall street. It may not be as big as Google, but I think it may topple Yahoo! s position.

So, what should Yahoo! do now. Adding more yahoo properties may not help much. Yahoo should take a leaf from facebook and amazon which are providing the front end and back end of the new innovation on the web with Facebook platform and Amazon web services by building on their core strengths. So Yahoo! which is now creating or licensing and hosting most of the content with portals like Yahoo! news, Yahoo! TV, Yahoo! Sports and like. should build on its strength - Scalability in hosting content.

If you break the content to the elemental types, most of the web sites have text, images, audio, video in various page layouts. There might also be other elemts like maps, lists, comments, ratings etc.. And who is better than Yahoo! to present them to largest user base.

I think Yahoo! should open up its website for content providers. Allow the companies to create their own micro sites. Give them elemental blocks and give them the power to change the look and feel in the way they like. Provide them a hosted web content management system, where they can upload their content and present it in the way they want. Provide them what Amazon and Facebook are providing separately, give them the storage space to store their content and UI blocks to present it in the way they want. Make it really really easy to add content, just like blogger, flickr and youtube. Host it for them, provide them all the web analytics, host the ads and share the ad revenue.

Its taking Yahoo! web hosting to the next level. Make it for the content creator instead of small business. Smaller content creators like news papers, magazines, local radio, local tv channels, smaller television studios, indie film producers, professional photographers, sports teams, celebrities and what not. And you give them access to all your users and all your services where ever it makes sense. With this, they do not need to worry about all the IT infrastructure and web developers and designers and eliminatr a whole lot of overhead and spend their resources on their core competency, ie creating content.

Its a win-win.

Create A Yahoo! Web. (like world wide web)

Yahoo! digital home??

I just found this new cool product from Yahoo!

Fantasy Sports on your TV
http://digitalhome.yahoo.com/sports/

It looks like a piece of Yahoo! Go for TV, which has been sidelined for a while.
One surprising aspect is, it works with the Windows Media Center instead of being a part of its own Yahoo! Go for TV which more or less is a competitor to Windows Media Center. Is it some sort of death knell to Yahoo! Go for TV, just like the Yahoo! Go for PC is left to death?

But more than that it is the URL that invokes my curiosity. digitalhome.yahoo.com redirects to Yahoo! home page. Sounds like Yahoo! is going to come up with a whole suite of applications for TV that works through Windows Media Center which is being shipped as a part of Vista Home Premium.

But I strongly believe any digital home strategy that requires a connection to a PC is bound to fail. Be it Windows Media Center or Apple TV or Yahoo! Go for TV. If you want to hit the mass market you must go with a set top box like TiVo or XBox 360.

Yahoo! Go and Yahoo! 360 are the biggest bets that Yahoo! made and failed miserably.
Hope they turn around and come up with a cool product that works.

Do No Evil (Series)

"Viacom is a company built from lawsuits, look at their history," Schmidt said on Friday.
"Look who they hired as CEO, Philippe Dauman, who was the general counsel for Viacom for 20 years," he added.

Google takes swipe at Viacom

Now it is getting personal.
You built an empire by pirating the copyright material, i.e youtube. You are making money off the content you do not own. And when they ask that you should do something about it you didn't care. And when they file a law suit, you come around and abuse them. When you can screen sexual or racist content from appearing on youtube, why can you not screen copyrighted content? Which part of it is not Evil. May be you can get out of the court unscathed but that doesn't make what you are doing any less evil.

It just shows that they all are the same, Evil Corporates.

Wii Want Wii!!

Wii is going to release a new controller called "Wii Fit" some time next year. Wii has already been a great success in united states and outselling every other gaming console in US. Even after so many months in Market, it is still very tough to get a Wii. And analysts say that it is going to stay like that even into the holiday season and further.

I think once this new controller is out, it is going to be a mass phenomenon. I think it would overtake both the iPod revolution (100million units sold) and sony ps2 revolution (90million units sold) and the first set top box that is connected to the broadband network that is going to tke over the living room.

It already has an internet channel, and an online video service with HD output would seal it for Nintendo.

Move on MS, Move on Apple, Move on SONY.

Wii and TV, lives happily ever after.

Google Socialstream??

"Socialstream is the result of a Google-sponsored capstone project in the Master's program at Carnegie Mellon University's Human-Computer Interaction Institute. "

This seems to be a nice platform to integrate a number of Web 2.0 UG content at one place. Lets see how this pans out.

I am still bitter about Yahoo! 360. Yahoo have more user generated content than any other website. They were at the right place in the right time to bring it all together and come up with a true social networking platform. And they gave us 360, which sucked big time. Now facebook is doing what Yahoo! could've done with 360 and they are building content from ground up. But I do not feel it is adequate enough to last till the last mile.

I'm sure this war is going to be interesting.

In UGC domain, Google has youtube and blogger for video content and text content. Yahoo has literally unlimited user generated content from music preferences, movies and local reviews, flickr for images and also a lot of professional content, that it can pull together to give us a wonderful platform. I still have hopes for Yahoo! They still are in the best position to pull it off.

Google's unwanted child!!

I keep hearing about the failure of google and yahoo in the social networking arena. That myspace and facebook has taken over. But a quick look at the alexa rankings reveal that orkut.com is 8th in the rankings. And it has been that way since last october.

But why is it considered a failure? coz it doesn't make money?
True, but youtube doesn't make money either. Why does it get all the hype and media coverage and most important, a very superior treatment from its parent, The Google. Why is the youtube evolving so rapidly with wonderful new features all the time, while the orkut is more or less the same for over an year.

Simple, orkut is popular in third world countries and would never have enough money to prompt google to increase spending on this neglected child. In US, it stands at a distant 30 in the rankings and probably skewed towards the immigrants rather than americans. So we don't care about them?

If Google has the noble intentions of making the world a better place, why not spend some research dollars on Orkut and make it more stable and add some desperately needed features to it, so that the millions of loyal Orkut user can have better experience?

Answer: Show me the money!!!!

iPhone's succeess

iPhone crossed 1 million sales in less than a week.to put that in perspective, Windows has 3.2 million licences sold in the first quarter of 2007 and that account to about 60% percent market share. So total of 5.1 million smart phones. Ammaaazzzinnnggg!!!

• the iPhone is not competing with smart phones, and I think the people who bought iPhone are not existing smart phone users.



• it is clear that people have enough money in hand, but they did not find any of these existing phones worthy of their money.

It sounds like all these million users are iPod users and are upgrading to iPhone. would these guys have bought it irrespective of the features?Did they buy it just because they want to own that coolest thing in town. Does that mean iPhone is going to cannibalize iPod market to certain extent.

It is rumoured that wide screen iPod is on its way with the touchscreen goodness with out any kind of wireless connectivity (no phone, no safari). What would happen then? is ATT going to bite the dust? Or would people be willing to pay that extra money to ATT when they can still own all the coolness with one time payment and probably less upfront.

It'll be interesting to see the statistics of the early adopters, how many of them own nanos, video ipods and existing smart phones. That'll probably tell us how many iPods vs iPhones will apple sell in the future.

But when I think about it, I think you can throw all the Market research and analysis to trash. Apple would probably defy all the conventional wisdom and sell these gadgets in millions anyways.

Apple is already came to half the market cap of MS. Its probably going to reach MS very soon. On the other side, MS's hopes to get hold of the living room is under serious threat with the failure rate of 33% and less than desired success of IPTV so far. If MS doesn't get its act right and overwhelm the TV set top box market by this holiday season, it is as good as gone. Come next holiday season, I expect to see a completely revamped Apple TV that's going to storm the living room, the fourth leg.

Can MS at least get hold of the tail, i.e Cars?? By the ways things are going, it doesn't look like it.

Business Sense

I am Borders. I want to sell each and every book for $9.99.

No matter
how new or how old the book is,
how popular or how flopped the book is,
whether it is a paperback or a hard cover,
whether it is 100 pages or 1000 pages long,
whether it is written by John Grisham or Joe Writer,

And I'll pay only $2.99 to the publisher no matter what because I have 80% market share, I can dictate the terms.

Makes great business sense, doesn't it.

Do no Evil!!!

http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2007-06-30-n86.html

This is exactly what I was talking about in one of my earlier posts on why trusting Google blindly is foolish.


A huge WTF


Google is not a small start up anymore with just a handful of employees with everything under control.
This time it is a small slip up and thanks to the world watching Google with all eyes is Called pretty quickly. Just don't submit to Google with blind love. Companies change, people change and policies also change.

Get over it...

I am another guy who is tired of the iPhone coverage in the media. I can't believe that some one dropping a iPhone is worth covering. Now I see all these warnings and notes to the prospective buyers on the cons of buying an iPhone. What features it doesn't have and how pricey it is and that ATT is evil.
Wait! Ten Things You Should Know Before You Buy an iPhone


Now get over it... when does price become an issue with Apple products. iPod is always pricier than each and every mp3 player in the market. What abt the features? I would say each and every mp3 player in the market does more than what an iPod does.
You can shout over the roof tops, but you cannot stop people buying iPhones. They are not buying it for the utility, they are buying it because it is iPhone. And these guys do not even care about what other phones are in the market and what those gadgets can do. They do not do research on what kind of features it has. If they need to change their ways of using a phone and settle for less functionality, they would do so. You take out the maps, safari, youtube, weather and maps, they would still buy it. They just buy it because it is iPhone. and you made the iPhone what it is.

Steve Jobs chickened out??

The reviews of the iPhone from the hand picked reporters is out a couple of days ago and the verdict is Unanimous.
Apple iPhone is a ground breaking product and is fun to use. But ATT sucks.

I can't help but wonder how similar all these reviews sounded, right from the keyboard and the testing for scratches. As if they got step by step instructions on how to test this product. In particular each of these guys said the same thing about the keyboard, that u'd get used to key less keyboard. hmmm, can't imagine if any of these reviewers would patiently test a product for 5 days to get used to in order to give a positive feedback on the keyboard. May be a call from Jobs himself helps. yes he did spoke personally to each of the reviewers. That shows the marketing genius of Steve Jobs.

But even after all these every one is disappointed with ATT service. We are told that Jobs even considered taking the MVNO route like Helio. But he seems to have chickened out.

If he wanted to give out the best ever product to the customer, he could have opted for 3G and go for an MVNO and could have controlled the entire eco system, just like he does with itunes - ipod, mac os x - ilife - .mac. As far as availability of edge in more places than the current 3G service like HSPDA/ EVDO, they are covered in the places that matter, that is most the cities across the US where the bulk of the iPod market and also the smartphone market is. And having 3G doesn't mean that the phone do not work in the non coverage area. He seems to have gone for the ATT option and EDGE for two reasons, not daring to go all alone for the afraid of losing? And for better battery life and the device size?? (Then why do you put up charts comparing the talk time and size of an EDGE phone with 3G counterparts). Also, he must be getting a lot of subsidies from ATT to control the price to $599.

I think he could have gone all alone and could have succeeded to the same extent. Who is buying iPhone for features anyways? He should probably comeup with a UMPC on the same platform with GPS and other extra features like GPS sans phone.

Apple and MS

Hmmmm.... i like apple products... but am not a great fan. I particularly don't like the smugness of the apple fanboys. I do have a Powerbook which I like very much. I have ipod shuffle which I repent buying. I don't think Mac OS X is a better OS than Windows XP or Windows Vista. Infact I like the bright colors and the ease of use of Windows and all the software that is available on windows. The only thing I miss in windows is the 'expose' which can be set up using 3rd party softwares. But there are a whole lot of features I miss when I am using a Mac. I think what makes Mac OS X seem better is the combination of Mac OS X and well designed hardware. In built webcam, well thought out placement of keys on the key board, back lighting of the keyboard, two finger scrolling on the mouse pad, the sleek power cord and the built in mike and speakers and such. Security is a non issue for me, because I know what I am doing.

I think Microsoft should work more closely with their hardware partners to bring out the best of the Windows OS. There are Sony Vaios and Lenovo thinkpads, but I don't think they are doing a good job in Marketing their products as well as Apple does.
I know how it works when you have a partner channel selling your product. Its not very easy. The image in the public is that Macs are cool, easy and fun to use and that Windows is boring. Which is completely ridiculous and false. Mac is not much just as an OS, but with the Apple hardware it has one of the best computer line up out there. And they only have one line up to market and can pump millions into that small line up for marketing.

Microsoft should partner with a partner to pitch some windows pc (say vaio) directly against the Macs and market aggressively. they cannot pretend that they are not affected by the Apple phenomenon thats happening. It may be too late if they wait longer.

Other Web Badges/ Widgets

I was trying to aggreagate all the badges from Yahoo! at one place and found other websites that let you create badges and host on your blog. A couple of them here -

A tool that can convert your blog in to a badge that can be hosted on your other sites or on your friends sites
http://docs.widgetbox.com/developers/blidget/

NBA player widgets
http://www.nba.com/playerfile/kobe_bryant/index.html#widget

Digg
http://digg.com/add-digg

Yahoo badges/ web widgets

I love Yahoo!
I have come across what they call 'badge' for some of their services. You can add them to your blog to publish what you've been upto on their services. This didn't catch up with the masses much, but I think they are pretty sleek and Yahoo should have a location where you can find all Yahoo badges.

I am posting few of them here, may be others can help me find if they are other badges.

Yahoo Finance Badges
http://finance.yahoo.com/badges

Yahoo Site Explorer (not too fancy)
https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/badge

Yahoo My Web, for saved pages badge or tag cloud badge.
http://myweb2.search.yahoo.com/myresults/badge

Flickr Badge
http://www.flickr.com/badge.gne

Yahoo Answers badges
http://answers.yahoo.com/my/badge_selector

Yahoo Travel, Trip Planner badge
http://travel.yahoo.com/trip?action=badge

Yahoo News Photos badge
http://news.yahoo.com/badge/wizard/photo

Yahoo Babelfish to translate the webpage in to chosen language
http://babelfish.yahoo.com/free_trans_service

Yahoo Upcoming.org badge
http://upcoming.yahoo.com/badge/

It has to happen someday

A joost set top box, sitting in your living room next to your TV removing the hassle of connecting via a PC and a TV tuner. I guess there would be multiple manufacturers jumping on to the wagon, just like Skype phones. But I would love something from the Joost guys them selves with ultra sleek design and a fun controller.
http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/18/joost-evaluating-its-hardware-options/

Sure, there would be more devices with other online options other than Joost that would be popping up and I see a new market for set top boxes along side the xbox 360, wii, TiVo by next Christmas. And I hope one of them will hit the Bulls Eye, like Wii did, to make it to every living room and it would be from a player, who control the software and hardware. (Apple TV 2??)

Damn, they beat me to it!

Or sort of....
I've been writing about the broadband connected set top boxes taking over the living room.
There is a huge non gaming market that doesn't need all the power of PS3 or Xbox360, but need a solution to get content to the TV directly from the Internet without having to connect to another PC (like Apple TV/ Windows Media Center).

This Archos TV plus does exactly the same, a set top box connected to the TV that can download content directly and even browse the web and has a QWERTY remote controller.
http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/15/archos-tv-plus-details-hands-on/
Exactly what I prescribed. But the difference is where they can get the content from, just the Archos store, which would not help them gain any market.

I think, there is a Huge (with a capital H) market if they could tie up with Joost/ Opera and a couple of other big players to get more traction in the market.

Come on VJ, get the iceCUBE out of the door.

A huge WTF??

Eric Schmidt with Financial Times -

“We are very early in the total information we have within Google. The algorithms will get better and we will get better at personalisation."
“The goal is to enable Google users to be able to ask the question such as ‘What shall I do tomorrow?’ and ‘What job shall I take?’ ”
“We cannot even answer the most basic questions because we don’t know enough about you. That is the most important aspect of Google’s expansion.”

Hold ON!!!

Okay!! let's assume that Google is a great company and the trio leading the Google now are the greatest philanthropists that the world has ever produced and are on a mission to make the world a better place to live in. But what if?? they are not?? What about those who succeed, what about the hordes of employees we trust our information with?? what about the future laws, patriot act anyone? what about privacy? what about the meaning and purpose of life? getting advice from some bot?? Ridiculously Ridiculous.

Let us for a second, imagine those words coming out of Steve Ballmer's mouth.
Hell's Frozen!!!!
How much should one trust a Corporation?

Approving of everything Google (or anyone who wants to get into your mind) does just based on love and trust is just like giving Bush' the mandate to go to Iraq. Only with worse results.

American Democracy

Here in America, people take pride in their democracy and freedom. I find US a great place to live in. I am single healthy guy with a decent job, with not many responsibilities and earning enough money to live well.

But when I try to look deeper, I understand there are many problems. Lack of sound education system for the kids, failing social security and health care, an economy that is going down, a foreign policy that makes more enemies every day and arrogant politicians who stick to populist politics rather than doing a reality check.

What is more appalling more than any of this is public inaction. 70% of the nation do not believe in Iraq war any more, but they are doing nothing to end it. US spends more money on defense and military than rest of the world combined. The budget on military is more than the entire economies of countries with a billion citizens. I hear politicians say, there is a cost for freedom, but how much? When security is a bigger concern than education and health care and quality of life, it is a clear indication that there is some thing is wrong. We are paying taxes through the nose around 35% of what we earn, then sales tax of 8% on everything we buy and many more.
And its a big disappointment looking at how this money is being transferred to the big companies.

But where is the reaction, why don' t people take to streets. Why do they just leave it to the politicians to work it out. How does these opinion polls help, if the president can ignore them like its just some noise. Democracy doesn't just come into picture, when there is an election. Look at the Mexicans, in spite of having no legal ground for their cause, they are brave and strong enough to march in millions on the street and initiated this whole debate. What are the natives doing to get us out of Iraq? Get more money to health care, decrease the war spending. You spend a trillion on homeland security and have a wide open border on the south and a free for all shipping yards. US cannot even control the drugs with in its own borders.

USA is stinking rich when compared to other countries and pay more taxes to the government than any one else. Why do they need to settle for less quality in life. If US cannot afford it, no one can. What is the use of democracy, when the people cannot dictate the policies.

Bring in the JOY!!

I recently bought a camcorder for my sis, a Panasonic gs85. And it has got this joystick as one of the input devices on the camera. And I realised what an amazing input device joystick would make for many many devices. I'm not a gamer, so I didn't use a joystick or any similar input devices much before using this camcorder, so this is revealing to me. No need to use the touch screen, just use the joystick to go up and down the menus.

Take my favourite, television remotes as an example, there are separate buttons for channel up and channel down, page up and page down, volume up and volume down resulting in a device every one hates. Replacing it with joystick doesn't need any drastic technology changes, it should still be able to work with the same RF and IR technologies that remotes use now.

Or take any mobile devices, be it mp3 players or phones or pdas or GPS devices or digital cameras or UMPCs, most of the browsing we do on the menus are these same controls, that is up down, left and right and page down. How easy it would be to browse your menus with a joy stick. You don't even need to worry about technology as it is on device and you can keep what ever you want on these devices.

I know quite a few devices already have joystick. But still the percentage is very minimal, when compared to the number pad. I can think of many amazing things that you can do with out lifting your finger if you have the right interface. So, spread the joy.

Xbox 360 and TiVo

In line with my previous posts on the future of home PCs and 'set top boxes with broadband connections' being the future of the living room, looks like TiVo and Xbox 360 would be the major competitors in the near future to occupy that space. For one, they are already there in the living room and they both are connected to the Internet.

There is no stopping Xbox360, with all their live community and likely netflix, zune, iptv integration and a easy to use controller with a chatpad and of course with the MS Marketing Muscle. Once they have the foot in the door, everyone knows what they are capable of doing. Xbox 360 already has a huge 'paying' community and Xbox Live Marketplace is offering more and more content. Xbox platform could easily become the Windows of the living room. As Xbox system is a closed system with no third party software, it is more easy to control and avaoid security issues like in Windows. And for the same reason, it could emulate the success of iPod/iTunes closed environment by controlling everything in the ecosystem, but only in a larger scale. There are already 15 million Xbox 360s out there, but primarily as gaming system. I guess at some point, they should release a less expensive, non gaming xbox system with IPTV and other entertainment services.

TiVo is more conventional box in the lines of VCRs and the DVD players of the old times with familiar remote controls and a bunch of extremely useful features that integrate with the current living room eco system, i.e broadcast TV. With the new marketing push, they might capture a significant market with the non gaming crowd. But still needs more killer features to have a permanant place in the living room. And the push from the dishtvs and comcasts is always there for their 5bucks. TiVos already have this unique feature, i.e DVR which Xbox cannot do yet without a Windows Media Center PC in the network. But any feature that needs an additional hardware is as good as nothing. TiVo is low in sound and power and doesn't generate as much heat as Xbox. TiVo is already integrated with Amazon Unbox. So it has the biggest store backing the download service. TiVo is inexpensive with all the subsidies. TiVo to Go is another killer feature, get all the recorded content on to your laptops, ipod and other PMPs. You can already share your content with other TiVo users.

Wii is also an interesting contender with the Opera web browser integrated and allow you to browse internet unlike XBox360 and TiVo. Apple TV, doesn't seem to have much applications and is not good enough to be a mass market phenomenon. PS3 is too expensive and is overrun with Xbox Marketplace. Slingbox is a feature in the future settop boxes rather than a separate gadget. I really dread to see an application like Yahoo! Go on the TV.

And then there is my ICECUBE ;)

Future of Television?

Like I mentioned in an earlier post here, I think the days of home PC are numbered. And they are going to live the life of secondary citizens. And the set top boxes are going to rule the home.
I see the evolution of the set top boxes, just like mobile phones.

There are a number of device manufacturers like nokia and motorola, a number of service providers like Verizon, AT and T and Sprint, a number of platforms like Linux, Windows, Symbian etc.. there are device/OS combo like Palm with its own Palm OS, Nokia with Internet tablet OS, iPhone with Mac OS and Blackberry etc... But the technology is either CDMA or GSM.

So the delivery of content to the living rooms would be cable technology, satellite and in addition to that would be delivery over Internet. I am not familiar with the technology behind satellite and regular cable technology like comcast and the flexibility those platforms have, but content delivery that offers interactivity like Internet would be the future.

It's not a one way traffic anymore. Broadcasting and even on demand can only be a part of the equation. The future would be about incorporating the interactivity that Internet brings to the PCs to the content on TVs. No more browsing for the content being broadcast, not even scheduling the TiVo to record the programming to watch it later, Not even a catalog of movies and shows available on demand.
This will simply not do.

Its about making the Content available anytime. Want to watch the episode of F.R.I.E.N.D.S, where Rachels finds out that Ross loves her. No waiting for the network or cable channels to broadcast, no searching the DVD collection from the closet, No rushing to the DVD store to rent or buy the entire DVD collection. You should be able o do a simple search on the TV and play it. Nothing else will do. All content everywhere. No waiting for the downloading.

Want to watch the show with an old friend from school, no need to get on the aeroplane. Just kick up the messenger widget on the TV and buzz him. Synchronize your show and chat over the web cam while watching your favourite episode. From your couch.

Are you watching the Television alone and are excited about the impression Jon Stewart made on Bush and want to share your feelings with every one, just rate it 5 stars by sitting back on the couch and write up your feelings to the blog or a discussion board. Is it not enough, just select the start and end of the 2 min part of the 20 minute show and send it over to your friend in the east coast. From your couch.

Wait! I've just got an email to my Yahoo Mail, open it up and read it through. From your couch!

Just saw the advertisement about the new Bimmer in the middle of the episode and want to see the specs of the ultimate driving machine? Boom, push a button and go right on the product page of the new BMW Z8. Right from your couch.

You get the idea, the power of the Internet over the TV. Ability to read yesterdays news today. Ability to read the search over the Internet for an article you read a few months ago. Bookmarking your favorite websites and vi sting them again everyday. Getting alerts when some one update a blog. Get this power on to the TV content.

No Windows Media Center extensions like in XBox360 and No Apple TV that can just play the content from your other PC. No TiVo that can only play the content you recorded yesterday.

The future is for the set top boxes with 'innovative' and 'light weight' and 'ridiculously easy to use interface' and 'silent' platforms with simple and more powerful controllers (remotes are so last century) that deliver HD content with Internet interactivity. (and access to the user activity for googles and yahoos to sell ads on;) There will be competing hardware devices, with competing OS, with competing services, mix and matched.

Who is going to be the Microsoft, Nokia and Verizon of the TV.

Defining India

What characterizes India? How do you define India?
India is an epitome of 'Unity in diversity!!!'
It is amazing to see India as one, when you look at the politics across the worlds and struggle carried over by billions.
Look at the middle east and Africa, how disarrayed they and struggle with problems plagues by religion and for land smaller than a single major city in India.
India does have problems, but the strength and unity we show as Indians is amazing for a land that cannot be more diverse. I think this strength come from the culture that respects others opinion and beliefs. This strength comes from attitude to live and let live. This strength comes from the understanding that it okay to be different from each other. To agree to disagree. It is a nation that has democracy in its DNA and not something that is imposed.

I was impressed with Shashi Tharoor's (former UN under secretary) book "From Midnight to Millennium" about the journey of the Nation from 1947 into the 21st century. The book showed me the India I didn't see, the book made me understand about the very environment I live in but didn't care to learn about it. I have not ready many books about the India, but this book has to a great objective analysis on the country, its culture, its people and its politics without any political or ideological bias.

He is making another effort to define the country. In his column in Times of India, he is writing a glossary of Indianness. He is already into his 2nd column, and I am looking forward to the series he is coming up with.

Don't miss this -
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Columnists/Shashi_Tharoor/articlelist/1568338.cms

Coming Soon!!

ICECUBE
Just Chill!!!!

Forget PCs

The clock on home personal computers as we know them is ticking, especially with emergence of the newer markets like India, China. The future is with mobile phones/PMPs with larger screens, that you can hold in your palm and large HD televisions. There majority would have mobile phones in a few years with most of them having seen or used a PC.

What do you your PCs for at your home? To communicate using emails, messenger and to get entertained with your music, videos and to get information on weather, tv shows, movies. It's about ICE, Information, Communication and Entertainment.

• Gaming is moving to hard core consoles with fancy controllers,
• Digital Music moved to high capacity ipods and PMPs ,
• watching digital movies and browsing multi megapixel photographs are moving to High def Television,
• emailing and messaging and social networking is moving to mobiles and smartphones
• Browsing news and getting weather and traffic information would move to the 3G mobiles with RSS feeds and easy to use search apps (yahoo onesearch) and TV sets with IPTV/TiVo/Xbox/Wii/AppleTV connections and qwerty remotes.
• With more applications moving to web based solutions, ofcourse to a host of enterprise solutions that are moving to hosted models, the browser is going to be the only software that you need. Thanks to google, you now don't need to download docs, pics, mp3s when you get them in email. (eventually videos).

All this is pointing to the decline of the time share for a Home PC. And the functionality would move away to TVs and Mobiles and possibly UMPCs. They might be only used to serve content, (Windows Home Server?? anyone).

At work? You are struck with PCs for your life time. Corporates cannot move and adapt as fast as consumers do.

Google's Future??

Going by the way things are moving, I feel that google would become basically an 'Ad-Selling' company, with all these Orkut, Youtube, Maps, Gmail, Maps and even docs would become less critical and non core.
google would become the destination to buy and sell ad spots in all media, TV, internet, radio, mobile, gps, publshing or where ever the content is. Thats a lot of money.
All these internet web sites would become a small channel to host their ads, would become less profitable as google would go on to host ads on other major portals like aol, myspace, mapquest or any new killer web portal that may come by. And it would not make sens developing and hosting all the data and applications, it can just get money from the others doing the job for them and happily share the revenues.

Einstein and God

When asked directly if he believed in God, he always insisted he did, and explained it once this way: “We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many languages. The child knows someone must have written those books. It does not know how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books but doesn’t know what it is. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God. We see the universe marvelously arranged and obeying certain laws but only dimly understand these laws.”

Do not miss the article in TIME on Einstein -
http://www.time.com/time/2007/einstein/1.html

To all the Losers ;)

My last post on Indian debacle at the Cricket World Cup. I have the same question that always come to mind looking at the people who comment on the Cricket team. People who talk about the field placement or the batting order, never even played at the school level. They do not know the pressure in the game, even when playing for a small team. Analyzing is not bad, blaming is. And people who complain about the others failures are not even great achievers in what they do. Forget about achievements or success. They should just ask themselves if they are doing justice to the work they do for which they are getting paid for. These are the same people who watch 'Cricket', by skipping the work. There is nothing wrong in 'failure', but it is criminal to bad mouth the failed, when you are not honest to your duties. Panchjanya editor seems to have conveyed the same in a better way.

Sangh asks those who frown at them to introspect on whether they themselves have won every match in their life. An editorial in the latest issue of the weekly Panchjanya has ridiculed the “childish” and obsessive way people in the country make cricket a life-and-death issue, dragging the 11 players of the team from heroes to zeroes in a trice and even committing suicide over losing a game. “Is losing so bad...Is the country hanging on the performance of a team of 11?” the RSS has asked, exhorting those who “expect them to always win to look within and see whether they themselves have always been successful”. Also, to ask themselves whether every time they failed, was it willfully to aid some kind of betting scheme, as the cricket team is accused of doing in the wake of every loss.