kvrlogs

I have started writing here in http://artofstart.theindianstartup.com . The theme mainly is books that are inspiring and valuable for an entrepreneur. Here are the three posts I have written : Follow your heart like Santiago - review of The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho Blaze a new path like Howard Roark - review of The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand Find the tipping point of your venture - review of The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell I will continue writing in this blog about technical things and a developer's perspective of running a startup and of course my frustrations with that browser and that operating system :)

"The Tipping Point" is another interesting book from Malcolm Gladwell. "Tipping points" are the levels at which the momentum for change becomes unstoppable. He analyses how social epidemics start and classifies 3 kinds of people you will need - who will help your product/portal/message reach the tipping point. Connectors : Connectors are passive information passers. "Hi I heard about this cool website..." - is what they will say - and they will say this to quite a few. Mavens : Mavens are more factual. "Do you know you can get this and this done in this website..." - is what they will say. They analyze threadbare the features/shortcomings and will help the listener make a fair judgement of the product. Salesmen : Salesmen are more persuasive.  "You should be using this website because it will save you time and effort...." is what they will say.  They not only do the job of mavens - by giving you facts but they also will list out the adv...

"The FountainHead" by Ayn Rand is an eye opener in many ways. Howard Roark is an architecture school student who has a different philosophy on how buildings should be built. He wanted to build structures that will be aesthetically pleasing, economically meaningful, in tune with the environment and the building should make a statement. Whereas the industry was aping what the Gothic and romantic architectures of the past had built - with meaningless arches, facades and wasted space. He is thrown out of his college because he refuses to design the traditional architecture and struggles for work - but he never once compromises on his ideals . He waits and his time comes and the world accepts his style of architecture. It is one man against a well established industry who tries hard to keep him down. But the harder you push a ball into water - the faster it rises out and with more force - Howard Roark wins in the end. As an entrepreneur - you might have battles yourself - as you...

I was in school - 7th or 8th Standard is when I heard about Michael Jackson. I did not know how he looked, how he danced, how he sung - but I was already a fan. My friends who had listened to his music and seen video brought by their Amru uncle - told in such vivid details that MJ was already dancing in my imagination. Then I caught MJ on World this Week - hosted by Prannoy Roy - the only window to the world I had at that time. And what I saw was better than what I had constructed in my memory. Over the years I watched him fall from one disaster to another and prayed silently for him. And in 2000 he was awarded the greatest entertainer of the century by Mtv. And in his acceptance speech he said "You ain't seen nothing yet". Gave me hope - perhaps he has turned a new leaf and will produce another amazing album. Sadly the clock stopped for him. I saw a tweet from someone yesterday - "even my office peon knows about MJ" - that sums it up how great a person he was.

I love twitter. If you don't like twitter - still you can read this article - because you will get some fresh twitter bashing stuff 1. Boarded plane ! Oh you have a GPRS enabled mobile is it - oh it's an iPhone - so you are able to tweet till the flight attendant comes and asks you to switch off your phone and then give a dirty look to the guy next to you who has a Nokia 1001. 2. Good morning! Dood - I live in India - and its evening for me. Try to understand - the world is not flat how much ever Thomas Friedmann has made millions out of that statement. 3. RT this RT that ! Well even I RT that at times but not all the time.There are tweeters who live only to RT. At times Tweet something other than 1) and 2) and I will follow you. 4. #fail ! I fail you. I see so many fails that it depresses me. I wish the tweeters use some other hash tags..like #boo, #yuck etc. Be creative. Fail brings back school day nightmares. 5. I bought an iPhone 3GS Good for you. You can now tweet till the...

The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho This book written by the Brazilian author, Paulo Coelho - is a very very bad book - in a good way  - because it has the potential to change your life upside down !! You can finish it on a weekend  - 160 pages is all it is. It traces the journey of Santiago, the shepherd boy who goes in hunt of a treasure. This book will have a huge impact on your life. While reading and after reading it will leave you disturbed, questioning yourself, and if you had suppressed a dream - a dream of starting your own business, or learning something like guitar which you keep postponing, or going on a crazy bike ride to another city - anything - these dreams will come alive and will dance before you. The book teaches  you to follow your heart. It is as simple as that. In fact all of Paulo Coelho's books have this recurring theme - do not suppress your dream, you have one life and you have to allow it to go where it is destined to go. Do not restrict yourself saying this is ...

I wasted sleep yesterday night to watch Indians play test cricket and lose. And here is my advise to India - stick to IPL and do not bother about playing world cups.  3. Better Prime time In this world cup India matches start(ed) at night 10.00PM. Given that only Indians watch cricket how can they schedule all India games at 10.00PM? You are wondering about the non-Indians sitting in the stadium? -  they were brought to the stadium with beer - like how they do in Indian elections.  With IPL the game bends for you. Games start at 3.00PM to kill afternoon boredom at office and they give a break so commuters can fight the way through traffic and reach on time to watch the next match at 7.00PM. And go to sleep at night 10.00PM. Early to bed and early to rise - IPL is good for your health. 2.  Guaranteed Runs In IPL, any team will have 2 good bowlers and the rest will be like henchmen in movies who are there to be beaten up. So just save your wickets till the henchmen come on the scene. And...

Following the phenomenal success of BING ( aka - Bing is not Google) which is actually Microsoft's Live search renamed and a 100 Million dollar marketing budget , Microsoft is preparing more product launches along similar lines. PINIP - Pinip is Not iPod. Bloggers will go crazy with this name - Zune never had the hipness to it. Along with a 1000 Million dollar budget, they can use the money to buy it off the shelves and prove Zune has more market share than iPod. MINO - Mino is not Oracle. With Oracle now owning MySQL the rich and poor use Oracle's databases. By renaming MS Sql server with a jazzy name like MINO - Oracle will have to forego hogging the database market and instead concentrate on reviving the companies it killed by buying them - like PeopleSoft, Sun etc. VINOSX - Of course you guessed it right - V is not OS X and is actually Vista repackaged. Difficult to pronounce but with a 100000 Million dollar marketing budget with lots of youtube ads, banner ads, televis...

The last couple of days I am watching Tamil TV Serials - during lunch and dinner. I have to socialize with the guests who are visiting us. It will not be manners to read a book when guests are around you see. So here is how I entertain myself. 1. Watch the side actors . Usually the main heroine ( no heroes ) will be talking a few pages of scripts in one go. And time to time the side actors will keep looking at each other. It is so funny. At times one actor will try to look at the other - and she/he will be listening intently and will not look. 2. Watch for mistakes . There are so many. Usually when there is a large crowd there will be 5 or 6 people who will never get a dialogue. Keep looking at them - and they will keep seeing into the camera now and then. 3. Guess the cliche statement that will emerge out of the actor's mouth. You will win all the time. "Enn uyiruai kuduthaavathu unnai kaapaathuvaen" "Vaanga. Coffee saapidureengala" "Nalla mugurtham paar...

Finally I have made the jump from Windows to Linux - the 3rd time. First 2 times I did it when I was on a J2EE project ( weblogic environment ) and a SOA project ( Tomcat ). Once I rolled off the projects again I had to go back to Windows. Now this is the 3rd time I am switching and along with it the development environment of Apartment Adda to Ubuntu and I will be here for quite some time - perhaps till I get a powerbook ;) The build and production are already on linux - so it was easy to make the switch - the scripts were all working. A few things were holding me back - like Nokia PC Suite, ITunes, Chrome - but I am feeling better already for having made the choice. 1. Ubuntu 9 is slick, good on eyes and blazingly fast My thumbrule for judging the performance of an OS is - everything should launch like how a notepad launches in Windows XP ( vista notepad takes longer than XP notepad). In Ubuntu most of the apps meet the critieria. Ubuntu boots really fast and is immediately responsiv...

It is easy to accurately predict who all will lose in this election. A fractured mandate is bad for the country.  Here is my list of losers because of this election 09. 1. Environment With the makeshift horse traded government trying to hold on to power on a day to day basis - the environment will never show up any where on the radar. Instead we will see environmentally unfriendly projects getting sanctioned at a furious pace - because even before the PIL can be submitted - the minister in charge might be replaced and a new government would have come. Make hay while the sun shines will be order of the day. Sorry Earth. 2. Economy I feel sorry for the poor sods (including yours truly ) who have sunk their money in Stock Market . I am predicting market to fall to 8000 in the next few months. The parliment will be run by everything other than pragmatism. With the netas whims and fancies changing on a day to day basis - and along with it the fluctuating majority - and along with it the mar...

There is this age old debate - should you specialize on a skill, or generalize and become a jack of all trades? Heres a quote that answers the question : “A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, and die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.” – Robert A. Heinlein — from The Notebooks of Lazarus Long There are exceptions - but as a generalization - the above quote is spot on. In any career you will have your main stream ( BA, Developer, QA, Architect etc. ) - but to become really kickass in your stream - you have to develop other surrounding skills. Where I am coming at is - as an entrepreneur you will be forced to don many hats. I have met a few entrepreneurs who will dig ...

Some people will live and die for a city. I am not one of them - and I will objectively analyze which city is a best fit for me - a 30+ year old dad, techie, non-pub hopper, digs Chettinad food and Saravana Bhavan, and who enjoys the beach. By now you know where my allegiance is :) Beach Vs Mall The beach might not be how it used to be 10 years back - but still the salty air and cool breeze are the same. No one can prevent the breeze from hitting me - and every time I go to Beasant Nagar beach it reminds me one of the fun times I had there - late night cricket, intellectual and mushy exchanges...numerous. When I go to a mall I get blinded, suffocated and when I come out I feel drained of my energy and am happy to get out of the mall. Chennai : 1  Bangalore : 0 Traffic Traffic has shot up everywhere - even in tier 3 cities. Chennai traffic is still smooth like butter. You wait only once in any signal - lots of flyovers and smart traffic management ensures you keep moving. Bangalore - ug...

Book Review - The Pilgrimage The book is all about fighting the good fight! When we were young we had dreams but did not have the skills to achieve the dream. Then we educate ourselves, and through apprenticeship learn the skills to achieve the dream. However while doing so we lose sight of our dream and when we have the skills - we do not fight for the dream. "F ight the good fight" - Paulo's guide tells him - inorder to achieve your dream.  The second interesting thing is - we all fight for a reward. We achieve a dream so we can get a reward. But we never think what we will do with the reward. Once you answer it - the process of achieving your dream, getting your reward becomes easy and more meaningful.  Finally, during the course of the book you will realize how a devil is as important as an angel. Confused - let me explain from what I understood. Angel is the one that protects you. Devil always looks out for its own good and is selfish. Wondering how a devil can help ...

I feel Election 09 is more wholesome entertainment than IPL 09 - here is my top 5 reasons. 5. Cricket is a boring sport and IPL is trying to make it interesting and is quite successful in it. Politics has been the world's most oldest profession/game/sport and Elections make it really interesting. So no contest in this front. 4. IPL has got too many statistics - Net run rate, Batsman's average, Bowlers average - it all confuses me and is too much for my mind. I like what Election 09 is going to throw up - all within 545 seats distributed among 1025 parties - and you can play the permutation and combination to see who can make the magic 272 - except make sure you dont club the 2 big parties ( now why don't they partner for a change...that will be fun!) 3. IPL needs gimmicks like cheer leaders, bollywood actress and actors to keep people glued to the screen. Netas need no help from any quarters. They goof up enough, say outrageous things, call names of their opponents - its li...

The eco system for programming languages and frameworks is well evolved - and is continously evolving. As a web developer you are faced with many choices. I have tried to capture some of the options I had to evaluate for Apartment Adda. I have left out the esoteric languages and frameworks which have not become mainstream yet. Programming Language - Java, PHP, Ruby, Python This is the first decision a developer has to make and might be the easiest choice - pick the one where you have the most expertise. However if you are well versed in more than one language - pick the one that will suit your startup - based on the funds you have ( cheapest to host will be php to Java hosting being expensive) , speed at which you want to release ( php/rails being fastest to Java being the slowest ), team's expertise ( java developers being easy to find and ruby developers being hard to find ) etc. Framework Choices - Rails, ActiveRecord, CakePHP, Spring, Hibernate, Django.. In most of the cases t...

With much bravado I began reading Walden by Thoreau. After completing Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Ayn Rand's Fountain Head and Atlas Shrugged - I thought I can take on anything. I tried reading this book off and on for the last 3 months. During this time I finished reading a lot of books ( I read in parallel and have atleast 2 books that I keep alternating ) - but I never got beyond 20 pages of Walden.  I can safely apply a quote of my friend, Akbar - "it is a lot of tedious nonsense" - he used it for the Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance.  Thoreau brags about his minimalistic life. But he has not seen the iPod, iPhone, Audi A4, Wii, Internet, Kulfi icecream and so many good things in life - why the heck will I let go off enjoying them or not work hard towards achieving these pleasures. Second reason why I gave up was I never quite got the writing style of Thoreau. I would read a page then at the end of it will realize - man I have been dreaming of ...

Tata Nano is back in the news - for all the good reasons - booking is open online and launch date has also been announced. Here are my top 3 reasons why Nano is actually good for all of us. 1. Nano will make better citizens out of us : Nano is going to congest the roads - which is a good thing. Now the lazy ones who always had better alternatives to commute will just give up driving and take to cycling, walking, take the public transport or try car pooling. One cannot drive on 1st gear for 20 kms daily - the clutch foot will hurt and petrol bill will bite like a vampire in the neck. Ouch. So these lazy bozos will now suddenly "discover" new ways of commuting - which are cheaper, cleaner,stress free and faster too.  Time to recommend two of my friends who are doing their part to change the world - Rohan Kini's pedal power - bumsonthesaddle.com Vipul Kasera's Car pooling portal - commuteeasy.com 2. Govt will make better Public Transport: This will be the second effect. ...

Today I was setting up a cron job and suddenly realized - Linux has been such a good friend to me all these years and I never recognized this fact. This post is how Linux has stood by my side silently and quietly helped me do difficult things easily, has never once failed me, is always there when I wanted, does not require me to pay, teaches me cool tips & tricks and is a joy to talk with - what else can you expect from your best friend. I will summarize some of the features I love linux for. 1. tail -f error.log I use tail command a lot. Only Textpad in windows world has something equivalent of it and that too is a little jerky and with large log files Textpad becomes slow. Tell me if there is a better alternative to Textpad and Notepad++ ( should I have to always manually reload in Notepad++?). 2. crontab Hats off to the geniuses behind crontab concept. Scheduling programs to run every minute to run on a particular day once a year - is so simple. Just by editing a text file you c...

And before I begin the usual disclaimer : This post is for the developers who have a startup idea for a click and mortar business ( meaning an online portal or a software product ) and not the traditional brick and mortar types. Hi there my developer friends and those developers who are contemplating a career as an entrepreneur and running their own startup. My recommendation - take the plunge - we have an unfair advantage already :) In the world out side of World of warcraft I chose my career as a developer - not a cook, not an artisan, not an F1 driver, not a manager - but a developer. And now in my current role as an entrepreneur I am patting myself for the decisions I took on all the career forks that were put in front of me - and kept choosing the paths so I remained a developer. Here is why being a developer/architect is perfect for an entrepreneurial stint. Advantages 1. You will save a ton of money on developing your product.Currently my expenses are hosting, printing, hardw...