vista

Vista is an A$$

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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. The CPU usage will shoot up to 100%. It took a long time before I found this problem. I started suspecting that my machine got infected and ran scan after scan. 
How did the kernel overlords allow any process to consume 100% CPU – that too a lowly SSH client called putty which is 300KB in size.
4. Search and Indexing is a joke. Microsoft is trying to compete with Google? Good luck. 
5. Finally, booting speed. It is as slow as Windows 3.1, Win 95, Win 98, Win ME, Windows XP. Nothing has changed. I have to start the laptop, go brush teeth, read newspaper and drink coffee, wash the cup, read A to Z to my son, and then when I come back it might be ready – or it might have installed updates and restarting.
Oh so you recommend trying windows 2007? And I have to pay for it. Naah – I think I have had enough with Windows OSes the past decade. 
Now I have Ubuntu on the other partition and it blazes – takes full advantage of the hardware that is offerred to it. I am going to format this machine with just Ubuntu in another couple of weeks. Wish chrome is ready for linux soon.
india, politics

Mr. “Ad”vani

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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” is what I want to know. Answer me – either in your speeches, print ads or even in those google ads. People are way too smart to be brainwashed these days.
So till then please stop these ads – they are doing more damage than you guys can imagine. 

blah

The Facebook somersault

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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 from me – once I hit the magical dev complete status for Apartment Adda !!
gizmos, india

When will Kindle launch in India?

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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. 
inspiration, movie

An inspiring movie – 300

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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, fight the recession’s scary omens and some more – the challenges that are confronting us are numerous. But what drives us is the sheer enthusiasm and determination to grow this little baby of ours into a great portal – that one day Apartment Adda will be counted with other useful and much loved Indian portals like a rediff, or yahoo or a money control. I wish I can imbibe atleast a fraction of the audacity and determination of those mighty Spartans.
 
Do  watch “300” – and let it inspire you to do amazing things. 
Ok… now I will put my sword back in it’s sheath 🙂 Shinnnng.

books

Catch 22 and Strategies for Marketing

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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 didn’t I? ). Will I recommend this book – naah – there are better time passes around. 
Next I am starting on 2 more books – Walden by Thoreau and Motorcycle Diairies by Che Guevera. Walden seems to be a tough nut and the other one seems to be lot of fun – and matches my adventurous startup mentality.
apartmentadda, statistics

A mini milestone for Apartment Adda – 1000th Unique visitor

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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.

experience, setbacks

Setbacks are like Power Petrol

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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 not easy to find out the final why  – but it is a start.

“1.Why did the associate damage his thumb?

Because his thumb got caught in the conveyor.

2.Why did his thumb get caught in the conveyor?

Because he was chasing his bag, which was on a running conveyor.

3.Why did he chase his bag?

Because he placed his bag on the conveyor, but it then turned-on by surprise

4.Why was his bag on the conveyor?

Because he used the conveyor as a table

So, the root cause of the associate’s damaged thumb is that he simply needed a table, there wasn’t one around, so he used a conveyor as a table.  To eliminate further safety incidences, we need to provide tables at the appropriate stations and update safety training.  Also, look into preventative maintenance standard work.”

2. Try not to get depressed – I know it is not an easy thing. Even recently I went into bouts of depression but try to get out of it quickly. Try to do something fun – eat that 3 scoop Banana split of Baskin Robbins and brood why. You will be enlightened in the end ( and a little fat 🙂 ) 
3. Identifies the gaps in you – No one is perfect. Even the almighty iPod has some design failures ( when you use coverflow it stutters, videos take a long time to start) – but each revision removes these gaps. You might be an expert java developer but perhaps you do not know much about deployment and linux – It is a gap. Once you know it and you do something about it – you inch closer to perfection.
4. Negative feedback is extremely valuable – In Control Systems, positive feedback leads to an unstable system. Only negative feedback ensures system stability. There is mathematic proof for this ! If  you keep getting one success after the other, and everyone keeps praising you – start suspecting. There is going to be a mighty fall ( eg. golden peacock award year after year for one Mr.Ramalinga Raju of Satyam ). Start appreciating the negative feedback that setbacks give you.
So now do you agree with me that setbacks are like power petrol. They fuel you to great heights. 

Here is the life story of a speck

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