kvrlogs

This is a post I wanted to write for a long time. Here are some screenshots of how Apartment Adda looked at different stages. October 2007 : I spent a weekend creating a prototype of Apartment Adda. Got an open source web design template from owsd.org and was able to quickly create a working site. We had one goal for our UI to begin with. When a user logs in he need not click on different pages to see what is happening in his or her Adda. In one click he should get to see all the updates and also get a bird's eye view of everything - without getting flooded with information. We finally came up with a dashboard design that will show the latest updates in nice little widgets - where each widget will act like a summary page for the detailed page. After this prototype was done we used this to brain storm about Apartment Adda and flush out the stories. Around September 2008 when I started full time development on Apartment Adda, I got one more template from oswd.org. Decided to go wit...

For a developer nothing in the world makes him happier than a green build. ( Well of course there are things like Wii, a power book, an iPhone, an Audi A4 - but they all cost..a lot.). There was one suite that was failing the build consistently for the past few days. I could have just commented it out and said to myself - will fix it later. It is as bad as Satyam's Raju inflating his accounts. Because the commented test will never get fixed ( trust me - it might get deleted but never fixed ) and more functionality will be built on this untested one. It is better to have a failing build than have a green build which just gives a delusion that everything is alright. Anyway, I fixed the tests - it took some time but got a green build in the end and the world feels alright !

At times when I feel bored, I will randomly pick an ip address from the logs and see where it is from ( http://ip2location.com ) - and wonder of wonders - this ip address originated from Renault's network in France. Hmm...when will Ferrari's computer browse Apartment Adda?

The  Congress spokesperson says that Congress has created a "conducive environment" that has led to the emergence of 'Achieving India' during the UPA rule and hence the oscar. Perhaps he did not see the movie ? The movie glorified India's slums and the filth that is associated with our country. And Congress has created a "conducive environment". Amen to that.  Please think twice before you try to take credit for everything.  And the news article :  http://in.news.yahoo.com/20/20090223/1416/tnl-oscar-wins-are-a-proof-of-achieving.html

In my blog post a year back (  http://kvrlogs.blogspot.com/2008/04/rendezvous-with-vista.html  ) I had given a favourable review of Vista. Now i take everything back that I said. Earlier I thought my Dell 620 ( had a Vista performance rating of 3.0 ) was not man enough to run Vista - so I was forgiving. But now I have a Dell Studio 17 which has a performance rating of 5.0 - and it is still troubling me.  Here are the reasons : 1. I have an apple USB keyboard with the mouse attached to it. Every time the machine comes out of sleep I have to wait 1 minute before it gets activated. And yes the year is 2009 and it takes such a long time for Vista to detect a USB device/hub. Good job. 2. BSODs - I see it 2 to 3 times a week. I still have not found a pattern and I do not have any freebies off the net.  3. I am in Bangalore and power goes off frequently. And along with it my internet connection goes off. Mostly I will be connected to Apartment Adda through putty and it will stop responding. T...

Hello Mr.Advani - err.."Ad"vani. You are killing me. You are there everywhere - wired posts, slashdot posts, lifehacker posts. One Mr.Obama had tremendous success by working the internet machine - but it will not work for you. Here is why. 1. Ads annoy people - especially if it is not targetted. Why should a prosperous India ad show up when I am reading about Pirate bay's defence or some tech forum topic.  If I am reading about a political blog or on some serious concern related to India then there is some sense. Just throwing money and plastering an ad everywhere will not work.  2. Is it a wholesome media campaign or your campaign team has bought a big bag of google adwords? I close my laptop, open Indian Express and if I read some thought provoking Ad it will sure impress me.  3. The "How" is missing. I agree Mr.Advani will try to make India strong prosperous and all that. And so are Mr.Manmohan Singh, Mayawati, Jalalalitha, Laloo etc.  - but "how" i...

You would have heard about facebook changing its TOS and reverting it back. Only google is allowed to own you and everything you create - no one else. Facebook tried to change this and failed miserably.  Perhaps facebook can change its motto to "We also claim we don't do evil" and perhaps people's perception might change and they can own the rest of the content google does not own. Jokes apart, I am liking facebook. I created an account a year back but only recently I got on facebook - and find so many of my friends partying over there. Facebook feels more mature than orkut and the applications seem to be well evolved.  I feel it is somewhere between Orkut and linkedin. And I liked the facebook page concept - created one for Apartment Adda   http://www.facebook.com/pages/Apartment-Adda/67354785534  .  25 things about me seems to be quite interesting - planning to write one sometime. Also planning to check out the facebook APIs.. watch this space for a facebook app fro...

Hi Jeff Bezos! How are you doing? Feeling recession pangs? Don't worry - you have got a solid business. You can recession proof further and consider expanding to India. When are you releasing kindle here btw? This is the one gadget I really really want.  I have 30 or so books in my reading list ( in shelfari ) and none are available in India.  I feel guilty when I buy books - dead trees and environment and all that.  I need to search - lot of times I would think of quoting from a book but feel lazy to go search through the book Can read multiple books at the same time But please please please do not do an iPhone in terms of pricing. Thank you. 

Last weekend we saw the movie "300" - the amazing story of a crazy bunch of 300 Spartans who bring the mighty Persian army to its knees - almost. Had I watched this before I started working on Apartment Adda , I might have only appreciated this movie for its slick production and technicality. But I was emotionally involved and felt charged up while seeing this movie.  The Spartans believed firmly in their abilities - all their life they practiced for this one day. They were able to draw all their life's experiences and lessons to this one fight - which they know is extremely hard and odds are stacked heavily against them. Yet, they hold on amazingly as wave after wave of attacks hit them. It is a fantastic story that will inspire you and push you to do things that seem daunting - just like running any startup. Like the Spartans, Apartment Adda is a lean team now  - and we are trying to build useful features, build a brand name, sell the product, support our customers, fig...

This time I experimented by starting to read 2 books  - Joseph Heller's Catch 22 and Strategies for Marketing which is based on Sun Tzu's Art of war. It is like eating a pickle and a rosogolla at the same time!!  I read how you should prepare for an assault in one book, and a little later in the other book read how Yossarin ( the main protoganist ) moves the bombing line in the middle of the night - so the attack gets called off. Both were fun to read - and can be summed up with the most used Indian word - "timepass".  Did I gain anything out of Strategies for Marketing so I can use some tips in promoting Apartment Adda ? - only time will tell!!  Wish Sun Tzu had written about how to market a Web 2.0 product - how to increase SEO, how to develop and maintain a buzz - now that would have been really useful to me! Did I gain anything out of Catch 22? It was hilarious reading and the end did get a little dark but good it did not end bad ( oops spoiled this one for you di...

Apartment Adda was launched on Nov 12th-2008 and today, Feb 1-2009, the 1000th "unique" visitor has visited our site.  It is a great feeling - something that we have created has been looked at by 1000 people - many of whom I might never meet or get to know. I feel as if I have shaken hands with those many people - virtually.  Some might have patted my back, some might have rubbed their chin, some might have just said a neutral hmm.. - to all those pairs of eyes - Thanks for visiting Apartment Adda.  Next milestone - 10,000th unique visitor.

" The brick walls are not there to keep us out; the brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something." -  Randy Pausch This quote is from the last lecture delivered by Randy Pausch. There is so much to learn from his life experiences.

My week is getting better and better - like the saying when it rains it pours - one challenge after another is coming my way.  When you are living through one of these setbacks it sucks big time. You really wish it passes off fast and the proverbial bend around the corner comes so things suddenly become alright. From my personal experience I have started appreciating these setbacks. When I look back at all the setbacks I ever had - each one of them has helped me add an important skill/value. I once lost a job interview, and I became good in Performance tuning. We goofed up in a UAT drop and that lead to a foolproof automated deployment system. I lost a lead but now I know why and I am working on filling the gap. Each setback teaches something new.   How do we deal with setbacks? 1. Try to get to the bottom of a setback - I recently read about 5 Whys technique used in Amazon's fulfillment center. An employee cut his finger and they asked 5 Whys to go to the bottom of the truth. Its...

Today I was listening to Thiruda Thiruda - A.R.Rahman's 3rd movie which whenever I listen transforms me to the slogging days of 12th Standard. However, I was listening to Raasaathi en usuru ennuthilla and remembered the voice - Shahul Hameed - the unfortunate singer who died so young in a car crash near Chennai in 1998 or around that time. I was appreciating the intense song the way Shahul Hameed had song with so much passion and life - I felt sad. How unfortunate - he could have been a great singer with his high pitch and powerful voice. However, he still lives on. 10 years down the line, a soul thought about him. Isn't that wonderful. Very few can leave a mark on the world they lived - it is easy for artists - musicians, painters, singers, dancers, actors,writers. What will people like me leave behind? Anyway, Shahul Hameed - your voice is immortal. Thanks for the great song. 

It has been 5 months since I started my life as an entrepreneur. Things I miss - in no particular order !! 1. Salary!  2. Coffee machine gossip 3. 335E rides with a book in hand 4. Hearing aahaa moments from other developers 5. Architecture and design discussions/fights 6. Code Pairing, learning new techniques, stand ups, IPMs, Showcases! 7. Routine  What I experienced new 1. Feeling real exhaustion after 4-6 days of serious development. I thought I was the only one but another entrepreneur friend of mine confirmed the same feeling. At the end of it I am forced to take a break for a day because my brain switches off. 2. Learnt to think of things outside an IDE ( IntelliJ in this case ! )- branding, opening page text, vision, mission, goals - the art of written communication . 3. Getting into the zone more often.  I start working slowly, and at one point I feel time stops and the air around me becomes still. Things flow smoothly and earlier unseen features,potential bugs automatically...

I purchased a Dell Studio 17" for 58,000Rs. I am a big fan of Apple and I am now going to say a sacriligeous thing - Mac is ****ing expensive - atleast in India. Even before I considered the Dell laptop I went over to Apple's India store and drooled over the laptops - but the ones I wanted were all in 6 figures - over 1.2 Lakhs. The starting price of MacBook was 56,800Rs. I dropped the idea of buying an apple. So I went over to Staples and looked around. Acer was the cheapest less than 30k. Then lenova,compaq and HPs were in the 45-55K range. Thanks to Vista having the windows performance index - I was able to quickly see how these machines perform without even checking their processor, memory information. Only Dell had a 5.0 or higher. Dell Studio 17 registered a decent 5.0. The XPS laptops registered even higher. The rest of the pack - HPs, Acers had between 3.5 and 4.5. Also the rest had unnecessary freebies thrown in - audio system, choice to pick 2 gifts from some 10 ...

Guy Kawasaki is following me on Twitter !! Woohoo - I was shocked when I saw this message. Thanks Mr.Kawasaki!! Some day I will take you out for lunch - to a sushi bar or an Indian restaurant when we meet. You have been a great influence on how I think and run my startup. 

Its a sad day for us. In the last post I was exulting that the next apple or google is being cooked up somewhere in India. And yesterday I was shocked to hear about Satyam with its hand muddied with a Rs.8000 crore fraud. We have managed to create an ENRON. I hope other Indian Companies do not get in the rat race to give bigger better balance sheets compared to the previous year - in order to have better share market results. Focussing on near short term and missing out on the long term benefits - of happy customers, happier employees and a rock solid business. Thank you Mr.Raju - you have in one stroke made us cheaters. Don't know how long it will take to  clean up the tarnished image in the world's eyes.

I was not aware of the startups in India till I had my own startup. It is the same feeling you get when you are in the market for purchasing a Maruti Swift and suddenly you spot lot of Swifts. I am spotting startups in bus loads.  I am just bowled over by the number of ideas that are emanating out of India - not just Bangalore but from various parts of the country. Who said Indians are not creative enough? Yes we have been stifled a lot all these years because of various reasons and that could have given the impression that we are just followers and not leaders when it comes to ideas and technology.  But now our entrepreneurs are getting more adventurous - and people on the fence are letting it go and jumping into the fray - who knows the next Apple, Google is being cooked right now somewhere in an apartment.  Head over to this page - to see what I am talking.  http://enbase.net/db/Main_Page Wish luck to all my fellow startupians - you guys are crazy and be that way !!  Also I am dedic...