Lakshman Srikanth

EiNSTASOFT to GAViSTA TECH

2011-12-07T14:19:00.001+05:30

GAViSTA - In Sanskrit means " One who takes a dip in the Ocean of infinite knowledge and rises "

I was inspired by a company named "Payoda - rain bearing cloud(in Sanskrit)", its a start-up which provides cloud services. So I thought, why not do some research and come up with a good name for our start-up. We spoke to a few Sanskrit scholars and finally made a list of names in Sanskrit which has some relevance to the kind of work we do! Here are the list of names we shortlisted - Gavista, Gabhasti, Gambharam, Gadhita, Gambheera...
I personally liked GAViSTA, which is short, crisp and has a beautiful meaning!

WHY GAViSTA TECH?

I've been told by quite a few people that its difficult to pronounce EiNSTASOFT, some even went to the extent of asking me if it was a tongue twister!!
There have been plans of late to register as a Private Ltd. Company and we heard from several people that its hard to get the name you want.
Being an Indian Start-up, and Sanskrit being a integral part of our nation's cultural and spiritual heritage, we considered using a unique sanskrit name.

To those who asked if something was wrong with the company or the team, well, whats with the pessimism guys? :D Thank you for the concern but things are going good and the change in name is just another step forward for us!

The start of yet another phase for our start-up - hope this change brings us good luck and fortune!!

www.gavista.com

iMiss you Steve

2011-10-06T08:59:00.000+05:30

Every software company and every software employee survives because of Steve Jobs and wozniak's vision of building a home computer! if it wasn't for Steve, we would have lived in Stone age!
Steve jobs is the reason why I was able to get motivated and start a company on my own without anyones moral support!
Running a startup isn't a joke, if there were no folks like Steve, it would be highly difficult to get inspiration and inner drive to Think Different. The world has lost a brilliant thinker.

I still remember when I was in college, where things around me were not so motivating to start a startup, Steve Jobs quotes taught me everything.It taught me how to start think different, How to develop a innovative product, How to sell/market it. That too in India where academic results matter a lot more than your LIFE ;), its hard to go against a system to start something on your own.

“what really gets you is the way he talks — there's something about the rhythm of his speech and the incredible enthusiasm he conveys for whatever it is he's talking about that is just infectious.” - Alan (Journalist)

The biggest lesson is Steve's RDF - Reality Distortion Field. Jobs has mastered RDF. I am still trying to get a pinch of RDF! I badly wanted to see Steve on stage in one of the Apple Dev Conferences, that was my dream! I even had saved money to goto USA just for Steve Jobs Keynote. As soon as I got up today, saw notifications on my iPhone! For a moment my brain was blank!

Well I can go on and on talking about Steve! He is and will be my SuperHero!

iOS enrollment woes

2011-09-11T19:45:00.001+05:30

We all know how Apple is hellbent on perfection in all aspects. Recently I wanted to register for iOS developer enrollment which costs $99 a year. I followed the instructions in http://developer.apple.com and at the end of my enrollment, immediately I saw a screen which said, "Please download the purchase form, fill necessary details and fax it to Apple" WTF! I thought this was highly ridiculous..why couldnt they have any provision for online payment? Frustrated and reluctant to fax my bank account details, I thought I would ask my friend in USA to register using his credit card. He was able to register and paid the amount using his US credit card and Apple even debited $102 with tax from his credit account.

I was relieved that it was finally done..Suddenly that night I recieved a mail from Apple saying "There is some problem with your identity, we are unable to match the credit card details with your iOS enrollment details so please FAX us identity verification form with Notary's Seal and Signature on it"
Aargh! I wanted to get the registration done at any cost, so I filled all the details in the identity verfication form, went to a notary , got it signed and sealed and even faxed it immediately.

Again that night, I received a mail from Apple saying, you will have to mail us photo identification (photocopy of your passport or Driver's license)! Without further ado, I dialed 1800-MY-APPLE from Skype. After a series of questions I was put on call to someone named Latisha from Apple Customer Support! I told her whatever had happened until then. She said it was against Apple policy to activate iOS Developer Program if the details of the credit card holder and iOS enrollment details dint match.

She also said, Please mail us your enrollment ID with Refund as subject and our customer support will get back to you!

A lesson learnt, I never bothered to see this before I registered for the program -http://developer.apple.com/support/ios/purchase-and-next-steps.html . I just googled and found that in a few forums they mentioned that it was possible using someone else's credit card and was misguided!

So finally, I created a new Apple ID, filled in details which matched my billing and credit card details. I downloaded the purchase form and faxed it to Apple.
They mailed me with iOS activation code and a link within 4 days. Finally, I have access to iOS Developer Resources!

Phew!

How Corruption affects Start-ups in India

2011-08-28T20:39:00.001+05:30

I am re-surfacing on the blog scene after a really long time and mainly because I got some inspiration to write this post after the Anna Hazare anti corruption movement. We all know how corruption is the root cause of most problems in our society. From an Indian start-ups point of view here is the gist of how corruption can be a huge pain :

Consider a startup has to be incorporated as a Partnership Firm or Proprietorship Firm or Private Ltd. Company. It all starts with the NAME that you choose for your start-up. If you want your chosen name to be incorporated, the Govt. sometimes reject the name even if it is unique without providing any valid reason as to why it was rejected. There is no transparency right from the start!

To register as commercial entity, dont even bother entering the Govt. office without a bulging wallet if you are not willing to wait for long periods of time, nobody will listen to you unless you start slipping money into their hands , starting from the attender till the officer.

The worst part is probably selling your product to the Govt. If you are a Rich Dad's kid, then consider it done. They wont even look at the product, you can even by-pass the tender process. They wont even call other companies for tender. They will only form new companies which have no existence except on the letterhead that is signed by random people.

An Indian Start-up is almost expected to consider bribe as a part of their investment and then develop a business plan.
I am not just cribbing about our system, I am just happy that there is something happening in the country, A great movement that we all are a part of and actively participating in. I am dead against corruption after facing tricky situations in government offices and I am glad to see kids and adults alike getting involved in the anti corruption movement and eager to learn about the steps that can be taken to curb it.

I am sure there are a few non-corrupt Govt Officials, but they all are interconnected with people who are corrupt. With LokPal Bill being passed, we are atleast at the liberty to sue anyone directly with no intervention whatsoever and with a fair hearing and trial if they are found to be against the law.

Hoping for better times ahead - communities,entities and individuals receiving funds and benefits which they are entitled to!

LokPal Bill

"Uncut" version of Bangalore Mirror Article - "The law on a screen near you"

2011-02-23T15:00:00.002+05:30

Tell us a bit about your entrepreneurial journey. Is this your first start up? [What's the status on others, if any]

Yes, this is our first startup, but we have previously worked on several ideas as students. We have tried our hands on ideas related to Speech Recognition, Carpooling and then on developing a NLP Search Engine.

How did LegalCrystal come into existence? [People-founders (full names pls), Idea, when it was founded (month, year), the 'tipping point' that made you feel that this is something you had to get out and do, how long did it take to firm up the idea]

Bangalore Mirror - February 21st 2011 - Page 6

LegalCrystal – the idea sprouted when I noticed my mother, Smt. Rekha Prasad – Advocate, High Court of Karnataka who blogs about several legal issues, referring to humungous books which have listings of judgments. In these books, Judgments are bifurcated into different subjects or based on different law points. That’s when I realized that a lot of time and effort was being wasted by numerous advocates and judges in the process of searching the precedents suitable to their requirements and in this process the main issue in focus was sidelined. Being a technology enthusiast, I figured it would be interesting and challenging to develop a search engine as easy to use as Google for Indian Law.

We began our research in March 2008 and discovered several other players in this market. We had several discussions with their customers (law firms, individual advocates) on the pros and cons of the products they were using. Most of them were frustrated with the products and they pointed out some features which would be really useful for them.

After analyzing the information we received, my friend Phaneendra Kaddi (Co-Founder and the brain behind the coding) and I strategized on what we could build and chalked out the basic outline of our product. Soon after that we started working on it. We started by building the search engine, then we structured the data, and several beta versions later, the end product was what we had dreamt of. We founded the company on February 28 2010 and launched the product on June 21st 2010 at High Court of Karnataka, Bangalore.

What is LegalCrystal's 'elevator pitch'?

The highlight of our product is the simple and effective search feature. Its hassle free and an advocate/user does not require any training to use the software. By keying in a phrase, our product retrieves judgments pertaining to Supreme and All High Courts related to that phrase in just one click. Any Advocate who is looking for a judgment supporting any "Point of Law" can search and research in one single window, and has access to the complete Library at the tip of his finger.

Who are the primary users for the service? There are similar services online, what is the differentiation? How have users responded to the service? How have you marketed the service? Any insights you'd like to share?

The primary users for this service are advocates/judges all over India. There are three segments to this Market – advocates/judges, Law Firms and Companies/Businesses. LegalCrystal serves the need of all these three segments. We will be releasing a Corporate Version sometime in April 2011 with additional features and tools, bound to make the job of the law fraternity easier.

We are a rapidly growing startup and at the moment, we have covered different parts of Karnataka. We have visited District Courts and the respective Taluk Courts. We usually fix a date, present our product and interested advocates or Judges contact us for subscriptions. We have covered High Court of Karnataka and bar associations in Kolar, Mysore, Mulbagal, Chintamani, Chickballapur, Hoskote and Malur. Our software is also being used by Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike and Karnataka Judicial Academy which is currently the training academy for judges.

The Main Differentiator would be the efficient search and ease of navigation. We have a panel of advocates who write Case Analysis, Headnotes for every judgment (Headnote – Gist of a judgment, User can get a glimpse of what the judgment says by reading the Headnote). We also manually format the judgment to increase readability. So far, we have received a lot of good feedback from our clients and it has motivated us to enhance the product further and also to consider international judgments ahead.

Is there a business model to this service? If so, what is it?

LegalCrystal is based on a yearly subscription and an annual fee. At the end of each year, the user can subscribe for the latest updates (Latest Judgments, Acts, and Amendments). The online version is updated on a daily basis and the offline version, once every quarter.

What are the trade offs you've had to do for making this work'? [Personal/professional]

Phaneendra and I started working on this product when we were students, while we were focusing on this, we faced a huge challenge in convincing our parents and the people around us regarding starting a company of our own.

The biggest challenge we faced was to successfully execute our idea and reach out to potential customers, with no prior work experience! It took us almost 6 months to get LegalCrystal running properly and when we finally did that it spurred us to go further.

It requires tremendous amount of effort and articulation to convince lawyers and while pitching our idea to them we mainly focused on “differentiators”.

Do you have a mentor/ investor? (Names please and whether they're mentors or investors)

Chief Mentors – My revered Parents who are advocates themselves, D. L. Prasad & Smt. Rekha Prasad. I would also like to mention here the people who have come out of the way in order to help me to run the company and sell the product – Mr.V.K.Haridas Bhatt, chartered accountant Mr.Chakra Pani / Mr.Krishna Murthy.

Investors – my parents, my uncle – D.N. Badarinath and Phaneendra's uncle Mr. Subbanna.

What are your plans for the immediate future? [Service evolution, funding/revenue model, break even, marketing]

In the near future, we are looking to expand our reach to advocates in every other state in India. Of course, usage of the software is not limited to advocates; even laymen could use LegalCrystal to find solutions to their legal issues.

Our main focus is innovation, brainstorming on new projects is an ongoing process in our startup.

So what's the entrepreneurship end game for you - fame, money or the adrenaline rush?

Entrepreneurship is all about the adrenalin rush for us. Any radical person would disagree with the risk of starting a company without prior experience of any kind. Its pure passion to work on new things which drives us.

Startup - The Truth - 1

2010-12-08T13:46:00.001+05:30

When we were working on our product, people’s reactions were :

If you don't respect education, why even be here?
Why are you dropping your engineering classes to work on something new?
Just look at THAT guy, why cant you be like him!
You are damn lucky to have gotten this far, right people, right time.
Your parents have made lot of money, you can take risks!

You get the flow.

I hated these people and still do, but they are the ones who made me who I am and drove me to work even harder to reach where I am now, so they indirectly helped me!

Many people think that to go against a group, or to be a rebel requires a lot of strength, courage blah blah!!! NO!! You need people who discourage you, who put you down, who undermine your effort!

There is no shortage of such people around us. A lot of people fear these Bozos (as I prefer to call them)! Fear that society wouldn’t approve and fear to do something on their own. There is no point in living in fear, and living your life for others. Instead, take the opportunity and drive your energy into the work that you love to do rather than wasting it on answering them and justifying why you are doing it.

To quote a few lines from an inspiring speech I read lately, and which I believe in,

If you do what is expected of you, you will be limiting yourself. You will be living your life according to boundaries set by average people. I have nothing against average people. But no one should aspire to be them. And you don’t need years of education by the best minds to prepare you to be average.

This is what we had in mind, while we worked on our product. We strived to make a difference, nevertheless a tiny one at least. We faced a lot of difficulties during bootstrapping which I can just write briefly about. I am sure that any startup (founded by people straight out of college without getting funded by any investor) would face the same for that matter! I will share few experiences which got us going, helped us in implementing our idea effectively and finally selling the product to the targeted crowd!

First thing we learnt, was to accept uncertainty. It’s quite easy to write or just theoretically understand uncertainty. In reality, it’s a disturbing feeling which will continuously nag you 24/7. When you don't know what's going to happen in the future or even in the present. If something goes wrong, you are doomed and people who are dependant on you are doomed too. This is the feeling you have to live with, not just live, but you will have to work with day in day out.

Its always comforting to share this uncertainty with someone whom you have known for quite a long time, someone whom you can trust. When you do, get ready for a lot of debates, arguments, and mental trauma. Because there is no easier way!! At the end of the day, you will figure out what your problems are, what has to be done and cope up with it.

Time is something which cannot be undervalued. You would’ve fixed a date for the launch of your product. I am damn sure the product might not be ready even the day before the launch. So the day before the launch feels like climbing a hill and never reaching the hilltop! The feeling that you get the night before the product launch is just ultimate! I am sarcastic of course but these are the realities of a startup!! Working with the people who share your uncertainty, trying to get things done under pressure, and handling the tension in the room is something we have to get accustomed to, the night before any deadline. In the end, it’s worth the effort, all done to show your customers that your product is one of a kind!

Before you blink your eye, the deadline has been reached, the demo is over and you sigh in relief. You think you are now certain about things to an extent. A list of customers sign up to buy the product. And the feeling of “Hell yeah, we finally did it!”. But the story doesn’t end. There are a zillion questions popping in your head, a zillion more tasks to complete and It’s the beginning of yet another cycle of uncertainty..

Welcome to my world. :P

image courtesy

EINSTASOFT - The LegalCrystal Story - 2

2010-10-21T16:51:00.003+05:30

Before I start talking about the product, I just want to share a few experiences in running a startup!
It's been one hell of an amazing experience running a company, developing a product, Marketing and Selling the product. Before we launched the product and before we even started the company, there were a lot of uncertainties.Today looking at what we have achieved, we are more confident in executing tasks, working with people of great stature and of-course on great ideas. Looking at the future we are more enthusiastic, adventurous to work on Great Ideas with Talented people.

Today we have customers in Bangalore, Mysore, Chintamani, Kolar, Chickballapur and Judges all over Karnataka i.e in every district. There were few major milestones that we achieved in the first three months after the product launch.

· Product Launch at High Court of Karnataka

· Selling it to first few customers.

· Implementing new ideas and suggestions from our customers.

· Demo at Karnataka Judicial Academy

· LegalCrystal used by District/Taluk and High Court Judges of Karnataka.

Product Launch at Karnataka High Court was huge Success! Our first few customers loved the product and W-O-M spread, we received valuable feedback , ideas from our customers and started working on next version of LegalCrystal.

Judges were completely impressed looking at our Product, the very next day after the demo they called us saying "Can you come over to our office , we have a list of judges lined up to buy your product". We successfully completed the installation within two days! Our product requires atleast 10GB of Hard Disk space.Soon, Judges from Mysore were impressed, and they called us for a DEMO.

We reached out to few other courts in and around Bangalore. The response from Taluk and District courts have been okay. Everyone who owned a computer bought LegalCrystal. In these areas there are only few advocates who own a computer, they still use books for their research and to find judgments. Few other advocates are a little hesitant, they just don't want to use a computer and they are very happy with their books.

As they say "Sky is the Limit", In this product the "Things to do" is huge! its never ending! not just in terms of Software Development, even in marketing, sales. We want our software to make advocates’ life easier and hassle free. Even a layman should be able to use LegalCrystal if he has any legal issues. We want every advocate in every nook and corner of INDIA to use LegalCrystal.

And, that's the mission statement of this great product.

EINSTASOFT - The LegalCrystal Story - 1

2010-06-30T13:23:00.001+05:30

I am not going to talk about LegalCrystal!, I am just going to answer WHY LEGALCRYSTAL? , hope you get a better understanding of LegalCrystal that way.

Well, if a business has to prosper, you need three kinds of people , first you need domain experts (R&D) - the ones who knows everything about the kind of product that you are developing. Secondly, those who build the actual product (Developers). Lastly, those who are articulate,has the ability to convince people or the market that you are targeting(Product Evangelists). These are the key resources which a company needs to exist.

In my case, I am lucky to have found out right people at the right time, We have Developers, Domain Experts, Evangelist/Marketing Experts.

Born and brought up in a family of advocates, the reason for LegalCrystal to exist and to grow each day is because of my parents. My dad runs a century old office and one fine day he heard of a software which could just give you the relevant judgment by entering few details. I was a computer freak from primary school , of course I was lucky because my dad was one of very few advocates who owned a computer at that point in time that too in a town known as Chintamani - A beautiful place, 80km from Bangalore.

So this sales rep. from that software company gives a demo of their product and installs the software, me having attended many lectures about W-O-M(Word of Mouth) and Viral Marketing! This was like seeing live, if you just plant the virus properly!! how more viral can your product be? , my dad just heard from his colleagues about this software, he is convinced and he bought the product!!

Here it was , a complete ~~SHIT.~~ Just to view a judgment you have to approx. undergo 10clicks, finally you end up getting no judgment, very soon you lose all your interest using the software, You should be a genius or a computer freak to reach level of viewing the judgment. It would be lot faster if you had searched manually with help of books. Well How did I know that its useless, Well in my family I am known as the computer guy! "any computer problems call Srikanth"! So my dad never used the product, instead I did! This was the moment where LegalCrystal was born in my damn brain.

My mom, genius behind the product! She is the one who gave us proper advice to develop LegalCrystal, later on my dad joined and poured in more valuable thoughts!. From the moment I thought I could build a better product than the existing software products, I started researching on Indian Law, spoke to lot of advocates, did a lot of research on what they are really looking for? and How can I develop something better , innovative than the existing products?.

Everybody Googles nowadays, even I am googler! I love Google! Based on research that I did, the nearest possible way to build a effective UX is to minimize no. of clicks, GOOGLE is one of the best products which gives you relevant data with just a single click! hence we thought of design something similar to Google. We developed it and advocates just loved it from the first instance showed it to them! Well its not just the UI that made advocates to love our product! there is more, lot more!

EINSTASOFT - The LegalCrystal Story - 2 is more interesting and is on its way - it will answer few questions , What makes LegalCrystal so unique/innovative? Our Product Launch at High Court of Karnataka, Our first few Customers....

How to develop iPhone application on windows 7

2010-05-12T13:55:00.019+05:30

Developing iPhone application on windows is possible!

You can easily install MAC OS X Snow Leopard and then Xcode on Windows 7 , deploy your iphone/ipod application on jailbroken iphone/ipod. I installed Mac OS X Snow Leopard on my Sony Vaio E series which has Intel i3 Proc. , 3GB Ram, 512MB graphic card. Snow Leopard works smoothly and Xcode too!, successfully deployed my application on my jailbroken Ipod-touch which has Iphone firmware 3.1.3. If you have an upgraded firmware i.e higher than 3.1.3 then you will have to Google and find out the latest version of RedSnow or any other tool to jailbreak.

Requirements :

Vmware workstation v7
Xcode v3.2.1 iphone SDK 3.1.3
MAC OS X 10.6 retail DVD
Darwin Snow leopard ISO
RedSnow to jailbreak your iphone/ipod (if it isn't Jailbroken)

*If RedSn()w doesnt work for you , Use Spirit to jailbreak OS 3.1.3

Mac Os X retail v10.6 DVD ISO : Search in Torrents or Rapidshare

To install Macintosh OS X Snow leopard v 10.6 :

http://www.redmondpie.com/how-to-install-os-x-snow-leopard-in-vmware-windows-7-9140301/

Darwin ISO to boot MAC :

Without Darwin ISO you cant boot MAC in VMWARE. So download this latest version of Darwin iso for mac v10.6 and follow the instructions as in 'RedmondPie'

http://www.rapidshare.com/files/328517751/Darwin_SnowLeopardv2.0.zip

Xcode and iphone SDK :

This is the only version of Iphone SDK in which which works on Mac OS X v10.6 , please dont upgrade your mac after you installed Mac in Vmware.

iPhone SDK 3.1.3 with XCode 3.2.1 for Snow Leopard :

http://developer.apple.com/iphone/download.action?path=/iphone/iphone_sdk_3.1.3__final/iphone_sdk_3.1.3_with_xcode_3.2.1__snow_leopard__10m2003a.dmg
*If you cant download in windows, try downloading in MAC or search for torrent.

Removing code-signing :

You should remove code signing which makes possible to deploy your Iphone application on real jailbroken Iphone/Ipod i.e without ADC membership, but you cant host your Iphone Application on Apple Appstore! .

http://www.alexwhittemore.com/?p=270

Vmware Tools :

This tool lets you connect /share folders from windows and mac and few other utilities.

http://www.rapidshare.com/files/327912184/Install_VMware_Tools.app.zip

Einstasoft - The Formation

2010-02-25T10:50:00.015+05:30

"Keep your heart open to dreams. For as long as there's a dream, there is hope, and as long as there is hope, there is joy in living."
My dreams are now slowly transforming into reality. Phaneendra K N, my friend and I, recently started a Web Company called "Einstasoft". Web, here, doesn't signify website designing or web solutions. We strive to be an innovative web product based company and are currently working on a major product which reflects our ideals about the kind of products we aim to build.
Getting to the crux of what i want to share in this blog-post, I just wanted to share our experience on the entire registration process for the start-up briefly and the hiccups we faced along the way. As soon as the company was officially registered, we were soon on the fast track and currently, things are moving as quick as greased lightning! As the current scenario is proving to be highly ideal for aspiring entrepreneurs, hope the information in this post helps all you aspirants out there to speed up the entire registration process and avoid the roadblocks which we faced, especially those in Karnataka.

How we registered Einstasoft :
My dad is an attorney, and one of his clients is a Chartered Accountant so we had the advantage of professional guidance from a close acquaintance. As we were novices in this matter, he was able to clear up several issues bothering us regarding the company registration and give us crucial pointers. He gave us three options, to register Einstasoft as a firm , as a private limited company or as a public limited company. The last two , we were informed, would turn out to be pretty expensive, approx more than Rs.25,000. As our startup is completely self-funded at the moment, a major chunk being the prize money from Google summer of code, we came to a decision that Einstasoft would first be registered as a firm. After a while, we could move on to being private limited and then finally a public limited company as time goes by.

Registering Einstasoft as a Partnership Firm :
The first thing to be done was obtaining a Rs.1000/- stamp paper in the name of the company i.e Einstasoft from one of the Sub-Registrar Offices in Bangalore. Due to security issues, Stamp Papers aren’t available in State Bank of India or any other nationalized banks.
We received a mail from the Chartered Accountant regarding the partnership deed, The deed had details of the company, the shares in profit of the partners, and additional valuable information about our start-up which are pre-requisites. The cost of registering as a partnership firm is around Rs.3,500/-. After a subsequent payment of Rs. 3500/- to the Chartered Accountant, we were half-way through the process!
Basically, the Chartered Accountant takes care of going to the Govt and submitting the form to the concerned officer on paying a certain amount, so a major part of the company registration process is taken care of by him. We were just required to fill form 1 of the India partnership act.
Applying for PAN in the name of the firm is a must for filing company tax returns. So we photocopied the partnership deed attested by a gazetted officer( in any of The Central Library) and submitted the PAN form in one of the PAN center's. A pan application costs around Rs.100/-.
The entire registration process was successfully completed with approximately Rs.5000!

Opening a current account in the bank of our choice :
For filing tax returns and accounting the profit/loss margin,every Company needs a Current Account in some bank. We thought of opening a current account in Canara Bank, Basavanagudi for our convenience and also because of our opinion that as it is a nationalized bank, we would be on the safer side in case of an economic crisis!
For opening an account, you are required to fill the Current Account opening application and include the following supporting documents :
· a photocopy of the Partnership Deed
· two photographs each of the partners
· address proof(D.L /Passport) of each partner and of the company premises
· an introduction by a current account holder in any of the bank's branches.

We were not aware of anyone who had a current account in the bank, and though it was not personally a easy task to find out about customers who could give an introduction initially, you might have a better chance at it. Luckily , my friend's mom was an employee of Canara Bank and she referred us to the Branch Manager directly, soon after which we were able to proceed more smoothly.
The wheels have been set in motion and our Revenue Cycle will be starting from July 2010. Hoping that our efforts are rewarded soon and that we make some good profits with your best wishes.

*Our First product : LegalCrystal.com

**A note of caution : Registering as a partnership firm has its own limitations. If anyone sues u , your personal assets are doomed with the company’s assets! As the chances of that are pretty rare considering that you have done your homework, it is still a feasible option for registering. As soon as your profits reach 2lakhs, you should register your firm under shop and establishment act.
**Special Thanks to my beloved uncle Mr. Badrinath D N, IBM who believes in us and our startup, our FIRST INVESTOR!

Guy Kawasaki at NASSCOM 2009, Bangalore

2009-10-27T11:38:00.018+05:30

Here is the presentation by Guy Kawasaki at NASSCOM Product Conclave 2009, Bangalore. It was really an amazing presentation by Guy.

view more presentations from bloggersrikanth.

Lakshman Srikanth with Guy Kawasaki *

Who To hire - Guy Kawasaki

2009-10-01T08:01:00.003+05:30

Here is an amazing video from GuyKawasaki about hiring right people for your startup. Watch and enlighten your senses ;).

Google Technology User Group - Launch Event

2009-09-11T11:49:00.005+05:30

un-official video : Google Technology User Group Launch Event at Google,Bangalore... ;) Njoy googl-ing

*for more details about the event click here

My brand new Yamaha R-15

2009-08-11T06:10:00.017+05:30

For the past few months I have been away from the blogosphere... due to frequent "F-U-D" . First of all I would like to share information about my new bike - Yamaha YZF R-15 .

Why did I buy R-15? Why not Pulsar 220cc?
People have been asking me this question! For heaven's sake don't compare Pulsar with Yamaha! its like comparing "sunny" with "R1" :O..

Yamaha R-15 is a subset of Yamaha R1 and it looks SEXY HOT!
It has a liquid cooled engine which is far better than oil cooled or air cooled. Idling rpm is 1500rpm which is normally prevalent in high-end racing bikes!
and moreover it is powered with Yamaha Engine.
The feel is Ultimate!The power is simply awesome!

Facts:

India’s first 150cc 4 valve engine.

It is India’s first Bike with forged pistons.

It is India’s first Bike with a Diasil Cylinder.

It is India’s first Bike with the Deltabox frame, again based on the R1.

It is India’s first Bike with a 6speed gear box.

I have driven both pulsar 220cc and R-15 and I really liked R-15. R-15 is a 150cc racing bike! For those of you who are looking for Power, Speed and grabbing the attention of everyone on the road - go for R-15.

So within 5 days i covered 1000km. Had been to Savandurga, Manchinbelle Dam, almost near Mysore, KailasaGiri-Chintamani. Will be posting few videos of my stunts on R-15 asap. :P

*On-Road Price : 1,11,400 INR

Off from the Blogosphere...

2009-04-25T11:36:00.004+05:30

Working on a Search Engine!

Clue : Indian Law Search Engine (watch out for : Legal Crystal)

I will start blogging in a few months.... :P

though this was a completely unnecessary post..just wanted to keep you all posted!

Academic Developer Conference 2009

2009-03-19T14:59:00.014+05:30

BDotNetStudent User Group is proud to announce its annual event for Student Developers to get started with their Software Development, The event comprises 4 talks and 4 DEMO sessions + lots of Goodies.

Entry for registered members only!

For Registrations logon to http://bdns.in

Here are the Event Details :

*Online Registrations are only for Colleges with no Microsoft Student Partners.Also applicable when referred to by your Microsoft Student Partner.
*referral code : srikanth

iRobot at Virtual Tech Days

2009-03-17T09:28:00.006+05:30

It was a great experience being a part of Virtual Tech Days , a online tech event which took place in February. Here is my live Webcast.. check it out!

Classic Chennai

2009-03-15T05:33:00.007+05:30

Chennai UG is organizing an event called "Classic Chennai" (http://classicchennai.net). The event is an online one which spans a month from March 15th to April 15th and is mainly aimed at students students to motivate them and let them discover how fun technology is. Through this we also intend to popularize the UG and its activities.

The event is divided into the following categories :

1. Blogging
2. Photography
3. Photosynth
4. Short Film
5. Documentary
6. Poster Design

Intro to Classic Chennai:

CLASSIC CHENNAI is a fiesta of month-long online competitions for students, organized by the combined efforts of the CNUG student Chapter and the Microsoft Student Partner (Chennai) community.

Event Description:

Classic Chennai is a kaleidoscope of creative, inspiring and thought -provoking competitions that are sure to be a huge favorite among Chennai’s student community. The Classic Chennai banner comprises of an exciting set of online events held throughout the month of March, aimed at finding the hidden talent among the youth of the city. What makes Classic Chennai one of a kind is that it doesn’t restrict itself to any particular sphere and hence, personifies the diverse community that Chennai is, as a whole.

Theme of Classic Chennai:

It is impossible, not to forget, unwise to classify or categorize something as vast and varied as the city of Chennai. It equally unfair to try to categorize the vast and varied talent pool that the students in Chennai are blessed with. Categorization imposes restrictions and Classic Chennai aims at breaking this very unwritten rule that competitions should pertain to some theme or the other. The crux of the competition is that there is no particular topic a participant should adhere to, in any of the events. Just make sure your entry revolves around what you think Classic Chennai is, in any aspect, and send us your entries. So what are you waiting for? Put on your thinking caps and start expanding your horizons! Let the spotlight turn on YOU and CHENNAI!

Google SearchMasters 2009 India

2009-02-28T08:25:00.007+05:30

for instant updates.....
follow me on twitter : www.twitter.com/bloggersrikanth

Yahoo HackDayIndia

2009-02-15T19:33:00.008+05:30

Hackday was a fantastic event and i thoroughly enjoyed myself. Our Team H-U-B "Hack Ur Brain" did a good job. We used Yahoo Messenger SDK and SunSpot SDK and developed a small app , its a sort of Software - Hardware Hack because we used a device known as SUNSPOT and developed a app which notifies you if somebody pings you on your Yahoo Messenger. The notification appears on the SUNSPOT which is a wireless device which has an accelerometer, a temperature sensor etc.

Moreover, I had a great time with all the GEEKS/UBER GEEKS who coded through the whole night. All the attendees were given away BEAN BAGS,Labels and T-SHIRTS...... and at the moment , i am blogging ,seated on the same BEAN BAG i was sitting on while hacking...! :)
From Left : Nitin Rao, Vittal P, David Filo(Co-Founder Yahoo!), me.
Phaneendra Kaddi - the Photographer ! who was also in our team.
This is our team(H-U-B) with David Filo who started Yahoo! with Jerry Yang.

"Thousands of people were producing new Web sites every day. We were just trying to take all that stuff and organize it to make it useful" - David Filo

just some twitter updates by attendees .... about the DEMO of our hackproject!
*click on photo to zoom...
*Winners

Barcamp Bangalore 8

2009-01-26T18:03:00.006+05:30

Woah! BCB 8 is here, on march 7th and 8th! looks like there are a lot of positive changes this time , check out www.barcampbangalore.org.

See my older posts
Barcamp Bangalore 5 "Chilled Out
Barcamp Bangalore 5 "Winter Edition"
Barcamp Bangalore 6 "Summer Edition"
Barcamp Bangalore 7 "Completing the innovation spectrum"

I attended bcb 3, bcb 4 but never blogged about it... :( anyway I will be blogging,twittering live for bcb8!

All in all, Barcamp is heaven for Startup Enthusiasts, Geeks, Entrepreneurs and is totally FREE!.
*New to Barcamp find out what is Barcamp?

Innovative Ideas

2009-01-22T19:58:00.010+05:30

While digging out some old docs in my system, I noticed a document which Phaneendra and I did for our College Tech Club. Its called as "Innovative Ideas"..... We Give you a list of situations/challenges and you need to give us some ideas to solve the issue!... I would love to share this document, here are few questions from that doc. Please reply ... add a comment.

The amount of piracy is extensive all over the world. 98% of the software in India is pirated. Companies invest billions of dollars to control piracy. Innovate an idea to control piracy..maybe then, you too can make billions of dollars. :)

If you have, by chance visited our college library you might have come across many quotes related to education. It tells how an education system should work, how teachers should inspire and motivate students, how the goal of learning should be knowledge alone etc. Inspite of that our education system still has many loopholes. Please suggest an idea that can revolutionize our education system.

You might have heard about Apple(iPhone), Google(search), Yahoo(mail) and many other companies which make amazing products and people buy them at any cost. These products have become a part of life for many human beings. Have you ever wondered why there isn't any successful Indian company for whose products Indian people crave for. What do you think is the drawback in our country which is preventing us from producing such a company? What can be done about it?

When you query a search engine in the internet you get a lot of results. These results are links to websites which are accessible to everyone. Have you ever wondered why you don't get results which link to pages present in people's e-mail account. The reason for this is because all the search engines give out results which link to pages present in the surface web, which forms only a part of the complete web. The part which is not accessible to everyone is called Deep Web. Deep Web includes pages which need authorization, pages which are available to specific users and similar kind of pages. Please suggest an idea which would allow everyone to view pages from the DeepWeb.

If you find any grammatical mistakes or a silly question, kindly ignore. Thank you
image courtesy : imagery

Forum Nokia Developer Conference

2009-01-20T19:28:00.009+05:30

Sometime in May 2008, had been to Forum Nokia Code Camp @ IIIT-B where I learnt developing basic applications for Nokia S40 based cellphones, You can check out my earlier blogpost here.

I received a mail from Forum Nokia ,which was an invite to Forum Nokia Developer Conference.It was a paid event. Normally I never attend paid events but I got lucky this time! I received one more mail from Kesav - CEO of Numo saying that you have free passes from MOMO. woah! without further delay , i registered for the event! Thanks Kesav and momo!.

The event was really great , had the opportunity to listen to some brilliant people from Nokia R & D, CEO's of successful companies and their mind blowing products. It was absolute fun! They discussed about the Mobile Industry in India, specifically VAS - Value Added Services, apart from VAS they are looking at different marketing strategies , one of their proposed marketing strategy is : " A cellphone user, instead of listening to normal Ringing Tone i.e while you call someone, the service provider(airtel,vodafone....) will play a small AD. This is one of the emerging AD campaigns! ".

The presentations will be soon available here : www.nokiadevcon.in. Check out the website for more details on the speakers and sessions :) .

From Un-conferences

yeah I know that's me :P! click on "Un-conferences" for more pics from event.!

Without me!

2009-01-16T22:40:00.007+05:30

I am taking leave from my usual stuff. But before leaving I would love to share the products that I use for my survival....

Gmail
Skype
Google Talk
Facebook
Blogger
Windows Live
Windows Live Groups
Ubuntu 8.10
Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate
Microsoft Windows XP
Twhirl
Orkut
iPOD
iRobot
Microsoft Robotics Studio
Netgear Wifi Router
UT Starcom - ADSL modem
Sony HC36e Handycam
ACER 4020 laptop
Frontech Headphone
Timex Data-Link wrist watch
Intel 3.3Ghz PC
Yahoo Messenger
iTunes
Ulead Video Studio
VLC Media Player
Google Earth
Virtual Earth
Nero 9
Nokia PC Suite
Picasa(photo editing)
Camtasia
uTorrent
Microsoft Office XP
Microsoft Visual Studio 2008
Mozilla Firefox
Microsoft Photosynth
Acrobat

Phew.... just wondering, What the world would be, without these products in front of my eyes!
I think I'd rather continue what I have always been doing.....! :P

*the list is filtered.

Startup Savvy

2009-01-15T12:59:00.006+05:30

In one of the recent OCC meets , I met Hemanth from Cisco who discussed with us about making a new Video-Documentary of Entrepreneurs and Startups from India. I was really interested and thought of contributing some articles to their blog.Blogging about startups was an amazing experience and it increased my startup enthusiasm. Thanks a lot to Hemanth and "Entrepreneur Blues" for giving me this opportunity.

My article

Check out "Entrepreneur Blues/Startup Savvy"

Here is the Movie - "Startup Savvy"

see 'credits' in video 4, my name is listed. :P :D

"Stay Hungry Stay Foolish"

2009-01-14T17:54:00.009+05:30

Recently I had been to Sapna Book house,Jaynagar and I accidentally came upon this amazing book - "Stay Hungry Stay Foolish" written by Rashmi Bansal. the book talks about 25 Indian Institute of Management(Ahmedabad) graduates who started their own Companies.
It is divided into three sections...

THE BELIEVERS :
People who knew entrepreneurship was the Chosen Path. They took the plunge straight after their MBA or after working barely a couple of years. And they persevered until they made it big!

THE OPPORTUNISTS :
These entrepreneurs did not plan to take this path but when opportunity knocked they seized it. Their stories go on to show that you don’t have to be ‘born with it’, you can develop an entrepreneurial bent of mind at any age.

THE ALTERNATE VISION

These individuals are using entrepreneurship to create a social impact. Or as a platform for creative expression.

Entrepreneurs Listed in the book :

Sanjeev Bikhchandani ,naukri.com

S B Dangayach , Sintex

Nirmal Jain , India Infoline

Vardan Kabra , Fountainhead School

Venkat Krishnan , GiveIndia

Ruby Ashraf , Precious Formals

Shantanu Prakash, EduComp

Vinayak Chatterjee, Feedback Ventures

Ashank Desai, Mastek

R Subramanian, Subhiksha

Narendra Murkumbi, Shree Renuka Sugars

Chender Baljee, Royal Orchid Hotels

Madan Mohanka, Tega Industries

Sunil Handa, Eklavya Education Foundation/Core Emballage

Deep Kaira, makemytrip.com

Rashesh Shah, Edelwiss Capital

Vikram Talwar, EXL Service

K Raghavendra Rao, Orchid Pharma

Jerry Rao, Mphasis

Shivram Dugal, Institute for Clinical Research in India (ICRI)

Shankar Maruwada, Marketics

Deepta Rangarajan, IRIS

Cyrus Driver, Calorie Care

Anand Halve, chlorophyll

Vijay Mahajan, Basix

Overall the book shares the challenges faced by successful Entrepreneurs in India and how they tackled it and made it to the TOP . It is a good read for budding Entrepreneurs and Start-up Enthusiasts.

BugTrack - Hackers are Ready , Why not you?

2008-12-29T08:29:00.006+05:30

bootcamp Description

The boot-camp is designed for people who have basic knowledge of programming and have the desire to build up a career in Computer Security. In this boot-camp, details regarding the tools and techniques involved in conducting professional Penetration Testing, Network Security, Web Application Security audits. Participants will realize their responsibilities as a security professional. This camp will open doors to new and exciting career opportunities. Moreover it will give participants an edge over their fellows while applying for employment.

bootcamp BENEFITS

Learn and interact directly with the industry people on computer security of the country.

Benefit from the invaluable experience of working on securing real assets from real-world threats.

Receive an unparalleled education on the art of computer security with personal one-on-one attention from Nishant Das Patnaik.

Innovate7 Technologies certifications are well recognized in the security industry.

Improve your job prospects and get an edge over your colleagues.

PowerPoint Presentation, Live Demos, Interactive Question & Answer sessions and comprehensive reading material.

Earn starting salary of up to Rs. 30000 per month in India and up to 70000 USD per annum abroad.

Toppers of each batch to be personally interviewed by Nishant Das Patnaik personally and will receive a chance to work with him on security projects.

PREREQUISITE

Sound Knowledge in using computers, Networking Basics

Knowledge of Web application development (in HTML, Js, ASP, PHP, JSP, Python, Perl etc.) will benefit.

bootcamp Duration & fees

Duration: 10 hours

Fees: Rs. 1449.00/- (including +11.1% VAT)

for more information contact nishant.dp@gmail.com or www.innovate7.com

Proto.in 2009

2008-12-19T09:23:00.005+05:30

Proto.in is a startup event organised in India which is a must for every Entrepreneur! It provides Entrepreneurs a platform to share their vision and showcase their imaginations and the working model of their product for the whole world to see.

It also helps Startups to grow in strength and number , drawing wisdom from each other.

Make sure that you attend this event on January 23rd at Nimhan's Convention Center,Bangalore .... for more details visit www.proto.in

TOP movies for GEEKS-Entrepreneurs

2008-11-21T21:38:00.020+05:30

Movies keep us engaged all the time, some movies inspire/ motivate and some of them just make us Happy! Being a Technology Enthusiast and a budding Entrepreneur, have seen a lot movies which depict technology, entrepreneurship and geekology :P! .... here comes the list...

Pirates of Silicon Valley
August
The secret of my Success
Jerry Maguire
World's Fastest Indian(Burt Munroe)
Wargames
I,Robot
Swordfish
Tron
Hackers
Eagle Eye
Die Hard 4.0
Pursuit of happyness
Dead poets society
October sky
Into the wild
Infinity
The Matrix (1,2&3)
Boiler Room
Pay Check
Enemy of the State
Requiem of a dream
Antitrust

The first one i.e POSV is about Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, How Microsoft and Apple Revolutionized this world?! ... Its definitely worth watching, for a start-up enthusiast.

August is about a startup called Lionshark! and how the CEO tackles all the challenges he comes across... i.e stocks, Venture Capitalists..... EGO! :P again, its a great movie for entrepreneurs!

The Secret of my Success is about a Village boy who dreams of becoming the next CEO of a BIG corporation in Newyork!...

Wargames,Hackers,Diehard, Eagle eye, Tron are real GEEK movies, If you are totally into Technology and just adore technology go ahead and watch it.... :-)

TRON is one really good 1982 movie..
Synopsis:
A hacker is literally abducted into the world of a computer and forced to participate in gladiatorial games where his only chance of escape is with the help of a heroic security program (source:IMDB,grace)

Holy Saint! How could I forget "Paycheck"!! I have seen this movie thrice... never got bored! Its about a freelancer who ends up getting 'ZERO' money with the Time Machine he just built! and he somehow manages to escape with a huge JackPot in the end... watch it people you will love this one, "Ben Afleck" at his best! Thanks a lot "Rajeev" for reminding me about this movie.

More movie reviews coming up....will update this post asap... :-)

If you have seen movies of similar kind do share it here...and add a comment ! :)

Mozilla - On the Street

2008-11-17T15:55:00.005+05:30

Recently we made a short film / like a review about "Mozilla Firefox" on the streets of Bangalore. Take a look at it :

Thanks to Anil(Mozilla Campus Rep.) & Nitin.

I-robot Simulation Experiment

2008-11-03T06:47:00.007+05:30

Every software developer needs the right kind of programming tools to develop software based on the requirements. 'Programming tool' is the key for a good software although the skill set of the developer also matters!
Towards Robot Application development, its not just software! a lot of other components come into picture. Software and Hardware interaction, device drivers, passing threads to all the components of the hardware,sensing,coordinating,logic/computation. Each one of these should be managed properly for proper robot movement. Microsoft Robotics Studio comes with a interesting authoring tool called "Visual Programming Language" and a simulation engine "Visual Simulation Environment",

What is Visual Programming Language(VPL)?
" Microsoft Visual Programming Language (VPL) is an application development environment designed on a graphical dataflow-based programming model. Rather than series of imperative commands sequentially executed, a dataflow program is more like a series of workers on an assembly line, who do their assigned task as the materials arrive. As a result VPL is well suited to programming a variety of concurrent or distributed processing scenarios. "

What is Visual Simulation Environment(VSE)?
" The VSE is designed to be used in a variety of advanced scenarios with high demands for fidelity, visualization, and scaling. At the same time, a novice user with little to no coding experience can use simulation; developing interesting applications in a game-like environment. The integration of the AGEIA™ PhysX™Technologies enables leveraging a very strong physics simulation product that is mature and constantly evolving towards features that will be invaluable to robotics. The rendering engine is based on Microsoft XNA Framework. "

So if you don't have the Robot Hardware, not a problem you can run your program in Simulation.

VPL Hands-On-Lab tutorial video:

Feel free to add comments.... :-)

Session on I-robot at Dr.A Institute of Technology

2008-10-24T22:50:00.002+05:30

&amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?vid=fa782c2c-1f45-494b-9fc8-fd1d4cac715e" target="_new" title="Irobot@AIT"&amp;amp;amp;gt;Video: Irobot@AIT&amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;gt;

Will write more details soon.... :) watch the video add comments :)

Tech Vista 2008

2008-10-20T15:34:00.005+05:30

It's been quite a long time since I wrote something in my blog! As i have been travelling a lot, had sporadic access to the Internet hence couldn't blog for sometime .... Recently had been to an interesting event known as TechVista in Chennai, Four Microsoft Student Partners from Bangalore had registered for the event! The event comprised of a series of interesting sessions from Microsoft Research.

The speakers and sessions at TechVista 2008 included:

Computer Science in the Future Abstract
* Prof. John Hopcroft, IBM Professor of Engineering and Applied Mathematics in Computer Science at Cornell University. Prof. Hopcroft has also been honored with the A.M. Turing Award.

Program Obfuscation and One-Time Programs Abstract
Prof. Shafi Goldwasser, RSA Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and of computer science and applied mathematics at Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. Prof. Goldwasser has twice won the Gödel Prize, first in 1993, and again in 2001.

Computational Cameras: Redefining the Image Abstract
Prof. Shree Nayar, T. C. Chang Chaired Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Columbia University. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academies, Washington DC in 2008, and received the NTT Distinguished Scientific Achievement Award from the NTT Basic Research Laboratory, Japan, in 1994.

Making an Impact, Microsoft Research Abstract
* Dr. Rick Rashid, Senior Vice President, Microsoft Research. Dr. Rashid was presented with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Emanuel R. Piore Award in 2008. He was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2003 and 2008 respectively.

Weaving the World's Photos Abstract
* Dr. Rick Szeliski, Group Lead, Interactive Visual Media Group, Microsoft Research. He was elected an IEEE fellow in 2004.

Computational Biology and Vice Versa Abstract
* Dr. Vijay Chandru, Chairman, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Strand Life Sciences. He is an academic turned entrepreneur. A co-founder of Strand Life Sciences, a leading in silico life sciences company, he currently serves as Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of the company. He also co-founded the Association of Biotech led Enterprises (ABLE) and continues to serve as an executive council member. Dr. Chandru is the recipient of several awards and honors.

It was indeed a great event and learnt a lot regarding Research, some innovative ideas on new technology, and met great minds from the Computer Industry and Academia.

Special Thanks to Diwaagar , Microsoft Student Partner from Chennai for making good arrangements for all the Bangalore MSP's , Thanks a million Diwaagar :-) .

Blogs of similar interest:
Scream Arena

MSP Boot Camp

2008-10-14T16:03:00.008+05:30

My session at Microsoft Student Partner Meet @ GOA

Oh yeah it was one hell of a joy ride to heaven! First thought !

Dude are you going to GOA for some Tech Event!??? that's disgusting man! People go to GOA for enjoying life, Romancing with Hot Women on the beach side, play beach volley ball.... you know those kind of things.....!

Hmmmm.....Thats exactly what i thought too! But being a Technology Enthusiast what excites me is Technology with Fun and that's what happened in GOA! We had great fun and at the same time learnt a lot , networked with people all around India. Had a great night @ Disco, Parasailing.......!

Parasailing was really awesome, after that i have decided to sky dive! atleast once in my Life.... I tried my hand in all the water sports, Water skoot, Jet Ski, banana ride. Even Danced with an Italian @ Disco! She taught me Salsa! although i just managed to move my feet! :P....

If you want a detailed description umm... like a book on "Trip to GOA" check out Sattvik's post.

Open Source OS from Microsoft Research

2008-10-04T10:25:00.008+05:30

BdotNetStudent User Group organized a Hands-On-Session in the Microsoft building in Bangalore on September 28th 2008. The topic of the session was "Singularity - Open Source OS from MS Research".I have come across a lot of people who are ready to debate when they hear Open Source and Microsoft! They even start comparing linux and windows! Now lets see what "singularity" does being a Open Source Operating System from Microsoft Research.

From wikipedia :

"Singularity is an experimental operating system being built by Microsoft Research since 2003. It is intended as a highly-dependable OS in which the kernel, device drivers, and applications are all written in managed code."

Sattvik Chakravarthy , Microsoft Student Partner from RNSIT was the speaker for the Hands-On-Session, here are his Presentation Slides :

Singularity

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own.

You can also try out the tutorial i.e compile the source and run it on Virtual PC , just see the links below.....

Links :
Sattvik's take on Singularity
Urjit on Singularity
Singularity from MSR

for more details on "singularity" , feel free to contact : sattvik@gmail.com

Bangalore .Net Student Meet

2008-09-24T10:24:00.006+05:30

BDotNETStudent is a User Group supported by Microsoft and is organized "by Students and for the students". It feels really cool to hangout in the Microsoft Campus in Bangalore on weekends. :) Last weekend i.e on 21 september 2008, We (Microsoft Student Partners) talked on four topics

Intro to VS2008
- Anil B Pai from Dr.AIT
Microsoft Student Partner

Controlling I-robot using C#
- Lakshman Srikanth from Einstasoft
Microsoft Student Partner Lead

WEB
- Akash Bapna from PESSE
Microsoft Student Partner

Search Engine Architecture
- Samartha from RVCE
Microsoft Student Partner

Find the ppts here
VS2008
WEB

No of people attended : 108
Average Feedback Rating : 8/10

Driving I-robot using C#

2008-09-22T13:51:00.010+05:30

I will be more specific and focussed in this post! no no to all the philosophy and lectures! :D

If you don't have a i-robot, not a problem! You can learn serial port programming using C# in this tutorial, You can implement it for your own device if you know the hardware specifications.

Requirements :

I-Robot Create
Microsoft Visual C# Express Edition (free)
A laptop or a Desktop Computer with Serial Port *

Procedure :

Connect your I-robot to the serial port of your comp. and go to device manager click on Ports and know the port number (eg :COM9, COM11....)
Open Visual C# Express Edition/Visual Studio , Start>New Project>Windows forms application
Drag and drop two buttons from toolbox window, Name them "Sing" and Square".
Double Click on sing, write the following event handler code
In the code "COM11" , key in your COM#.

//
SerialPort robotport = new SerialPort("COM11",57600, Parity.None, 8, StopBits.One);
robotport.Open();
robotport.Write(new byte[] {128, 132},0,2);
robotport.Write(new byte[] {140, 0, 4, 62, 12, 66, 12, 69, 12, 74, 36},0,11);
robotport.Write(new byte[] {141,0},0,2);
robotport.Close();
//

Double Click on Square, key in the following C# event handler code

//
SerialPort robotport = new SerialPort("COM11", 57600, Parity.None, 8, StopBits.One);
robotport.Open();
robotport.Write(new byte[] { 152, 17, 137, 1, 44, 128, 0, 156, 1, 144, 137, 1, 44, 0, 1, 157, 0, 90, 153 }, 0, 19);
robotport.Write(new byte[] { 153},0,1);
robotport.Close();
//

Save all and build the solution.
Run
Click on Sing/square and see how the i-robot responds!

Check out the videos and see how my i-robot responded!

DEMO

CODING/SCREENCAST

*If your laptop doesn't support Serial Port, Buy a USB to Serial converter!
*If you have any queries please add a comment, I shall reply to your queries asap.

Linux Embedded

2008-09-22T13:25:00.008+05:30

Everyone talks about embedded nowadays, and in a country like India where Mobile Service industry has reached nook and corner of the country , its really a Hot Cake! Sharing and Learning is a part of everyone's lives but Open Source has marked its values and redefined the word "sharing". Recently I had been to an amazing event in Bangalore,as I was curious about Linux Embedded and after attending the event I learnt a lot about the Linux Community, Embedded Devices, OMAP specification, how to deploy kernel to your device, how to configure the devices! We worked on a device called as Beagleboard .........About Beagleboard :

DVI-D for connecting digital computer monitors

Compatibility with a huge collection of USB peripherals including hubs, keyboards, mice, WiFi, Bluetooth, web cameras, and much more

MMC+/SD/SDIO interface for memory or wireless connectivity

S-Video out for connecting your NTSC or PAL television or wearable visor

Stereo audio in and out for a microphone and headphones or speakers

Power via typical USB chargers for cell phones from your laptop, from an automobile adapter, from batteries, or even from a solar backpack

*If you want to try it out, just see this wiki.
*Photos

i-Robot- Endless opportunities

2008-09-16T19:18:00.011+05:30

I-robot is a hobbyist robot! which is highly customizable and is generally used to develop path finder robot, maze solver bot, line follower bot ...............Using Microsoft Robotics Studio its lot more fun to develop robot applications for the "i-robot create". Being a Microsoft Student Partner, I had requested 'i-robot create' from Microsoft so that i could start building apps using Microsoft Robotics Studio ,see my previous article on MSRS , i.e on "how to simulate a i-robot create using Visual Programming Language", This time I will show you "how to drive a robot in real time and to sing a song (ofcourse in morse code).... using Microsoft Robotics Studio! hmmm... but as of now my laptop doesn't support Serial Port(gtg and buy a converter)! hence it takes two to three days to post the videos. Have a look at the pics :-)
*Special thanks to Microsoft and Mr. Reza(our team lead) ....

Barcamp Bangalore 7

2008-09-12T13:42:00.013+05:30

Hi Everyone,

I will be "live blogging " the event tomorrow , here is my twitter feed www.twitter.com/bloggersrikanth , also will update this post with latest discussions and sessions going on! Those of you who are new to barcamp check out my friends post BCB7. Hope to see you @ bcb7.

Embedded Linux : Low cost Embedded Device which is similar to a computer! cost is 10k you can develop applications, watch videos..all you need is that device , monitor and a keyboard! The device is very small! Tts really great and open source community driven ! The OS is linux. It has S-video, USB .......... ! check out www.beagleboard.org . The session is still going on @ L-22,IIM-B.

Hacking Orkut/Gmail passwords :
Parashuram talked about , How Orkut Developers can have access to your gmail passwords , while you use the open social applications like i-read, emote......... see Dy-Verse. I was really amazed to see my own password hacked!!

Barcamp ROCKS!

Wifi Booster

2008-09-09T11:04:00.013+05:30

If you have a wifi router and are not getting sufficient signal to your laptop, then download(print) the pics from this site , so that you can enhance/boost your wifi router signal with just alluminium foil, cardboard, gum and a pair of scissors....

So what are you waiting for??...... start building....

See this video :

How To: Double Your WIFI Signal EASY AND FREE! - Funny video clips are a click away

The first pic is what I have right now @ home and i am getting full signal . Before that , my laptop use to lose connection with the router repeatedly! Now its working awesome.

You can build this for your Wireless PCI card too(for your PC) so that you can get better signal reception.

Nokia Code Camp

2008-09-03T19:50:00.018+05:30

Hi Everyone

Dear readers , Sorry, I was busy with my startup so couldn't blog for a month.....Well I am back now with full zeal and ofcourse passion! Recently had been to Nokia Code Camp by Forum Nokia at

IIIT-B , It was real fun, had free wireless internet, laptop, tea, lunch and yeah a bunch of GEEKS!As the name says "Code Camp", I thought there would be more coding than just talk but it was the opposite! :( . Although provided laptops to everyone, I used my laptop as i am kinda addicted to it, like a Girl Friend :P. So I had everything, and was just waiting for the session to start.

The Session started, again a business guy!(Prakash Sayini) In every event business people talk first and then the real thing, i mean tech happens! hmmm... will have to figure out why???.... phew.....and they gave us a document which had the agenda and all the tutorials,ppts to start developing small appl

ications for Nokia S40 cellphone. So I didnt wait for the session i.e coding session , and started browsing tutorials online.Starte

d using Netbeans 6.0 (mobile edition) , J2ME and then developed 'hello world' application for my cellphone and transfered the application to my cellphone and luckily it worked!woooot :-) If you are interested in developing a hello world app for your cellphone check out these steps ........

Pre-requisites:

S40 based cellphone (check if your mobilephone is S40 based cellphone)
Netbeans - Mobility Pack (download "mobility")
Nokia S40 SDK (download 5th edition , feature pack 1)
JDK 6.0(32bit) (choose-[others])

*if you dont have a S40 based cellphone ,dont worry there is another way to test your app, just read.....

Open Netbeans - > New Project - > Select mobility -> MIDP

Key in the project name and click next , next and finish!

The default file "Hellomidlet.java will be open , In your workspace change the view->editor->screen

Select "Hello", In the Properties Window key in some text in text field, this will be displayes under the label 'hello'.

Press F11 to build main project and then F6 to run..

Now to open this app on your S40 based Nokia Mobile phone , goto Documents->NetbeansProject->MobileApplication1->dist

Copy MobileApplication1.jar and send it to your cellphone memory through PC Suite or any other application

This above tutorial talks about creating a hello world J2ME application for a mobilephone , but in the Nokia S40 SDK, Start-> Nokia Connectivity Framework-> Run Emulator , You can see a simulated S40 cellphone here , so that you can test the app right here using the SDK if you dont have a S40 cellphone.

After doing all this , it was lunch time and the theory session was still going on about Nokia S40, MIDP, J2ME, Mobile media API...... by Balagopal K S.

Theory ,tutorials , softwares, SDK's :

http://www.forum.nokia.com/main/platforms/s40/

Web Search Engine's (otherthan GOOGLE!)

2008-08-09T09:31:00.025+05:30

Google has changed the way we surf internet, Everyone needs information and the easy way to access information is GOOGLE.It has dominated the whole search engine market and online advertising. But its the perception which really matters , i mean the emotional connection with their customers is really impressive. Well as I am a startup enthusiast ,I did some research on new emerging search engines already available in the market, and found few of them which I feel, are better than google (although some of them use google api's :-p), I was really amazed :-o......... Take a look and feel free to comment :-)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SEARCHME

"Searchme lets you see what you’re searching for. As you start typing, categories appear that relate to your query. Choose a category, and you’ll see pictures of web pages that answer your search. You can review these pages quickly to find just the information you’re looking for, before you click through."

Links :

*About John Holland, Co-founder of Searchme
*Interview with John Holland
*Searchme blog

See their demo video:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

KartOO

This is also an amazing search engine which displays the search results on a map , which shows the connection between different pages for the search keyword.Try it out, it rocks :-)

Links :
*Article on KartOO

Interesting video on Visual Search Engines check it out

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Oskope

"Oskope is a free online service developed by oSkope media gmbh in Zurich and Berlin. A great team of highly talented and skillful people worked on this project." You can search you favourite videos on youtube or a product in amazon in a unique way.... search and have fun :-)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Viewzi

"Viewzi is a new and highly visual way to search that brings all your favorite stuff together in one place. " There are different views where you can view the search results, "Web Screen shot view", Simple Text View, Time line view, 3D photo cloud view...... many more , go ahead and check it out! :-)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Quintura

"Visualization becomes the center of user experience replacing antiquated listings and Boolean strings" The search results are in form of tag cloud, and has a relation between each tag and the links are displayed when clicked on keyword.

*How quintura works?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FACESAERCH

"Facesaerch is an image search engine for faces powered by Google. All images (thumbnails) are provided, hosted and managed by Google. Facesaerch RSSflow visualized free available RSS feeds. All images are provided and managed by respective feed owners."

Facesaerch - Search for faces

*facesaerch blog

Entrepreneur Blues

2008-07-21T18:06:00.026+05:30

Generally people have lot of misunderstanding (myths) about Entrepreneurship, they think it is something really big and most of them aren't even aware of what exactly Entrepreneurship is.This is a troubling issue which hinders the growth of great leaders in any nation :o

On July 20th 2008 I had been to 'Open Coffee Club - Startup Ecosystem' the speaker of the day was Hemanth Haridas(former IIT-ian) who works at Cisco , He and a bunch of enthusiastic guys are making a video about "Entrepreneurs" , he showed us the trial video which showcased CEO's of different startup's in INDIA and asked us to put forth our views and to give some thoughts which will have a greater impact on the viewers. The session was quite interesting and few of the attendees were entrepreneurs who had already started companies.So their experiences were valuable and had a specific focus on how to inspire the viewers. I guess it helped the TEAM.

The video covers all these brilliant people :-)

(1)Mamta, interior designer by profession.
(2) Shashank, CEO of Naabo Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
(3) Yusuf Motiwala, TringMe
(4) Pranav Bhasin, Lifeblob
(5) Prateek Dayal and Nithya, Muziboo
(6) Ashish Solanki
(7) Vishwas and sandeep - Jobeehive
(8) Sandhya Ramachandran - Sudhiksha
(9) Priyanka , Hungry Bangalore

Well check out the video and i must say it inspires me a lot! :D

I hope their final video will help budding entrepreneurs to be successful, because there is lot to be learnt from others' mistakes.
For more information about their TEAM and how it all started, check out Entrepreneur Blues.
*image courtesy - Suffolk University

OCC - 'Basics of Viral Marketing'

2008-07-07T19:09:00.021+05:30

Most of the things that we use in our daily lives are products from companies ;) hmmm.... Well why do people buy products recommended by others(friends)? why not from a 'local company' or as a result of their own thinking (deciding the product to buy on their own) ?.
Companies build a perception around the product, its like an aura of their product! Its very hard to build a product and market it successfully. Viral marketing is one of ways to make an emotional connection between the product and the customer. Recently I was present in OCC(Open Coffee Club), here is a brief write-up about it....

On July 07 (2008) ,OCC had organized a talk on "Viral Marketing" by Rashmi Vallabhajosyula from Altius Consulting, This time the turn out was around 30 :-) , Here is a brief excerpt from her speech....

Why Viral Marketing?

Interruption marketing just doesn't work anymore(irrelevant ads,impersonal,unanticipated won't break through the data clutter)
Stop marketing at people. Get out of the way and let people market products to each other.

What is Viral Marketing?

Use Existing Social Networks.
To achieve marketing objectives(brand awareness,sales)
Through self replicating viral process like a disease.

Is Viral Different from W-O-M?

Traditional WOM : Travels Slowly, dies off, eg: recommended a book to some friends.
Viral Marketing : Spreads Fast, Travels Far, Exponential growth(amplification).

Evolution of Viral Marketing :

Rumour : psst........ Have you heard? :~
Word of Mouth Marketing.
Viral Marketing.

What makes an Idea Viral?

Send if - Want to spread it, Spreading it will enhance power(income, friendship), Effort less than benefit.

To build a Viral Campaign :

Idea must be compelling and desirable
Easy to try
Can try immediately
Try without risk
Network of close contact people
Trial mechanism of product

Keys to implant the virus :

Product Difference( Your product should be different from the hive(homogeneous).
Re-think about your Decision Tree(check list) and estimate the spread intensity of the virus.
Make it easy "smooth" to send :- Ask recipients to forward your e-newslatter, email, or SMS message to friends, Include on your site "E-mail this page to a friend", Make it a fill-in form that allows the visitor to pass it on to a number of people at once(contact finder- sending invites to all your contacts)
Go after a demographic or psychographic group where your 'ideavirus' can dominate.
Like people hang out together(vidyarthi bhavan, Forum mall, Adigas.....)
Target those sympathetic to your cause ( Mercedes dealership don't target Tata Motor owners :p )

Summary :

Viral marketing dwarfs WOM, you have to make a compelling offer and exploit the motivation , make it easy to spread("smooth"), Only influence, don't control.

Thanks to Rashmi for sharing her insights on "Viral Marketing".

**take a look at my old post on OCC-'Open Social Apps'

Importance of "User Xperience"

2008-07-02T05:48:00.021+05:30

Let me share a little secret with you :-p whenever I blog, I try to think from the 'readers point of view' and then extend my thoughts , i.e, make a connection between the readers' thoughts and my thoughts :$ . Here, thinking from the 'readers point of view' is very important as readers should have a good eXperience while reading my blog. I am talking about 'User eXperience'. Whether you are a software developer,carpenter or a CEO, How can you make the end user experience your product/service in a smooth and sexy :D way? Is there any myth involved in getting a better User Xperience? :o Is User Xperience the User Interface? hmmm let me think.

Yesterday I received an e-mail from my friend Sreedh ar Ambati (from Proteans) , it was about 'User Xperience', Vic (from infragistics) who took a session in Bdotnet on User Xperience shares his views and showcases the basic guidelines for a better 'UX'. He talks about the basic entity of a USER, answers some curious questions about UX... here is my friends e-mail

"Kalpesh(aka Vic)started his session with a slide which had a question like "Is UX=UI? Or is it just another buzzword.." He answered all the questions and also shared the importance of it. User Experience is about everything like adaptability,extensibility,scalability,reliability,performance. He explained the different roles played by different persons in the industry like Information Architect,Interaction Designer,Usability Engineer,Visual Designer,software architect and how these people fit in User/Human-Centered design. If the developer has taken some care about the UX while coding , it will show great impact on the user acceptance and it differentiates in the market place which helps organizations in deciding where to invest and how much to invest... That graph shows user-adoption vs purpose.
Choose agile for a UX-friendly process like Test Driven Development,Behavior Driven Development,Domain Driven Design Testing UX can be done using heavyweight ,lightweight ,tunnel vision. He discussed about UX patterns. Can find at infragistics.com/ux. Re factoring also plays a vital role in UX. Internet gives you so many technologies but not UX expertise and design or Human - Centered Thinking. So you have to incorporate those qualities. For better UX change your approach, Design from OUTSIDEIN"

As I was going through the presentation, there was this slide "Guiding Principles - Design from OutsideIn" which caught my curiosity and made me ponder..
It said....

"Design from the Outside In
Don’t Think About What You/the App Need; Think About What the User Knows and What the User Needs
Don’t Assume: Preempt Questions/Avoid Confusion by Guiding Users
Make Software Smarter, More Context Aware
Consistency. Consistency. Consistency."

Here are the slides :

| View | Upload your own

Some references:
www.welie.com
www.lukew.com/ff
www.uxmatters.com

Thanks a lot to Sreedhar and Vic for sharing this wonderful session on 'UX'.
I Hope you(readers) also enjoyed it :-)
Vic can be reached at vic@infragistics.com

I versus I - India and Internet

2008-06-27T19:20:00.022+05:30

Internet has changed almost everything on earth. According to juxtconsult, India has 50 million(50,000,000) internet users, out of which 25 million use internet everyday . Just think of this as the ultimate source to market a product/service online.... I mean enormous amounts of hits can be achieved if your product/service just grabs the eyeballs of all those 25 million internet users in INDIA alone, imagine about other countries!:o.

Indian population is 1 billion(1,000,000,000,000)+ and there are 50,000,000(50 million) internet users! If my math is correct(it rarely is :P), then 5% of Indian population use internet. What about the remaining percentage i.e 95%.. What are they doing??? ........ This got me thinking on how India needs change to become ready for global competition.

While pondering about it a few weeks ago, I was discussing about 'the internet' with my mom :-) who is a legal adviser, I explained to her about the internet and the websites where you can learn whatever you want in just a 'click' and about Blogs where you can write your own thoughts......and she was amazed and inspired........with no further doubt, she started to blog, and showcased her thoughts and ideas to the whole world, and she has written totally 6 posts in 10 days! All are worth reading, They talk about Human Rights and legal awareness for the general public.Everyone in India must read and know about their Legal rights! She blogs about 4 hours daily, navigates the web to find interesting articles, and improves her knowledge and thinking pattern!..... You can chance upon other adventures if you go on browsing.......This is her blog-> LEGAL CRYSTAL feel free to add a comment or ask any questions.

Finally, The reason why I am talking about my mom's blog is :D ....... Each one of you out there, should start blogging and those who already have blogs, please help/inspire other people to blog and let them know the power of human spirit and thoughts.... because blogs spread the 'INTERNET MANTRA' and in a small/big way we can change the world. So basically "If you start blogging, a lot of amazing things happen, which in turn enhance your life."

Have a look at these interesting Links -

* This is my first step in spreading awareness to the ignorant 95% , about the internet and I hope to see more people utilizing its power and reach!

Open Coffee Club - Bangalore

2008-06-21T15:24:00.014+05:30

Open Coffee Club is a place where you can discuss any topic, talk IDEAS, trouble-shoot a generic problem or just share whatever you know and much more. This was my first OCC meet.There were GEEKS, Entrepreneurs, and of course developers from open social community. This time the agenda was "Open Social and its applications",

The discussion was started by Rajesh from CIRCLEUP, he spoke about Facebook developer API, Using FBML, CIRCLEUP has developed a app for facebook check it out. Their app targets upon managing focused groups,events,teams......It also helps in Viral Marketing of a group.

Then there was slight turn towards ORKUT apps security issues, i mean developer bugs, there are bugs wherein crackers can know your username and password by phishing, it is also done by Cross-site scripting/ SQL injection.

Monetizing the app is one of the ways to make money, but there are some apps wherein they promote their company's website, so if a user adds the app, they target them to their website, IREAD app on ORKUT and TRUTHBOX app on myspace are some of the examples.

Prateek co-founder of muziboo talked about future of opensocial apps, according to him there will be no "add this app" link...., just LOG-IN and you have all the apps because of the current speed in developing apps and using it. He pointed out one major drawback i.e Open social isn't stable, every quarter the company releases new version and the developer has to change the code of the app for each version, according to lot of open social developers that's a major issue. He also touched upon statistics and monetizing open social apps and mentioned about SGN , a Social Game Development company which is very popular on social networking websites and they are very good at viral marketing and monetizing ads. Facebook ads is also on example for VM.

My friend Akash Bapna developer of "TAG FRIENDS" app on ORKUT said that myspace is highly restrictive and its not as easy as Hi5,ORKUT,FACEBOOK........ to develop applications. He also talked on "Intro to Open Social"........ here are the slides....

View Upload your own

Pooran Prasad, founder of Zealous Solutions and also a MVP just shared a thought that , .net can be used to develop facebook apps check out this "FACEBOOK.NET".

As It was a open discussion and my first OCC meet, i didn't know many of the speakers.The discussion continued, they spoke about "coderunner" test-app which runs java script calls to test your app and finally the discussion turned out to be totally hi-tech which went totally over my head!

Thanks a lot to Amarinder Singh, the event organizer and all the participants for sharing such a vast amount of knowledge :-) .
Pictures of OCC-bangalore meet
*For those who attended OCC, If i have missed out some discussion or thoughts please add a comment....

Student Entrepreneurs

2008-06-12T09:28:00.011+05:30

Entrepreneurship is a challenging sport! It is filled with uncertainties and yet each step gives a lot of experience and satisfaction, I feel , here in India there is no encouragement for student enterprising. Based on statistics, there are more number of students joining IT companies, rather than working on their own ideas or making choice on their own.First of all they aren't aware about what innovation actually is ! I have seen many blogs talk about many points on starting a startup or being successful, but there is no blog which has content in a practical way for a student.

I have a IDEA, but I am not sure whether it can be implemented or not, this is how it starts, then we plan , discuss and think on all possible angles and open ourselves to new opinions, finally we try to eliminate all the uncertainties to the possible extent, then financial problems arise hmmm... wait a second , Isnt this applicable to all people who are starting a startup?? i agree whatever i am discussing holds good for a graduated professional too, but remember one thing these exams are the worst enemies for student entrepreneurs and in a country like India where they totally believe in marks its very tough to go against or balance both! The best place for student entrepreneur is "UNCONFERENCE". But I hardly see students in any unconference!, Here is a video where student entrepreneurs share their experiences on starting their own business even before they graduate... In one of My previous posts on "Education" I have share my thoughts on , how to eliminate this problem from the current system.

I google'd and found some interesting links... check it out

* Our Education should support Student Enterprising and encourage entrepreneurs for a better world.

Image courtesy : IMAGERY

Imagine Cup - "INDIA" SDI National Finals

2008-05-09T18:07:00.021+05:30

IMAGINECUP INDIA SOFTWARE DESIGN INVITATIONAL FINALS

These are the Eight teams selected for the Imagine Cup National Finals in Software Design Invitational challenge...

Team BlankSpace :

Anuj Kumar
Ishan Bishnoi
Prateek Khurana
Ravi Atluri
Details :
A system to connect those who want to dispose of “garbage/junk” with those who might have innovative uses for the same. The system also gives potential users of such items optimal collection-paths to collect all the items in a locality.
From :
Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology, Gandhi Nagar

Team Green Waves :

Aadhar Mittal
Gagandeep Singh
Sandeep Bansal
Shobhit Sinha
Details :
A citizen-activism-based solution that exhorts the public to take photographs of environmental issues in their daily life, and to send the same via mobile-phone to a centralized grievance-redressal agency, which can then disseminate the information to appropriate NGOs.
From :
Delhi University

Team Eco Warriors

Apurva Arvindakshan Nair
Charu Rajkumar Jain
Ishita Sunity Chakraborty
Mamal Jayendra Karani
Details :
An ecological e-Governance mechanism that gathers information from different service-providers about usage by citizens, and then calculates corresponding carbon-emission-levels. Ecological-performance reports are also generated for individuals, based on which they can be taxed.
From :
Vivekananda Educational Society’s Institute of Technology, Mumbai

Team Gurus

Abhishek Chhajer
Amit Prakash Ambastha
Archit Jain
Sasank Tatinen
Details:
A system that accepts inputs from the public on the preferred locations for civic utilities and resources such as sewers, dust-bins, etc. The system then uses Vertex Cover algorithms and K-Means algorithms to determine the most suitable location for the same, thereby offering an ideal blend of democratic participation and scientific rationale in town-planning.
From :
Chennai Mathematical Institute
Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology, Gandhi Nagar

Team EcoPals

Arpita Shrivastava
Kshitij Shukla
Rohit Bhat
U. Karthik
Details :
An interactive application to dynamically guide farmers as to which crops are best suited to their soil, water and weather conditions, which fertilizers, irrigation schemes, and other agricultural methods to use. The application also assesses the effect of the current crop on the soil condition and suggests the crop that should be sown next, which it then iteratively uses to suggest a series of crops to grow one after the other.
From:
National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra

Team Novices@Work

Krunal Dedhia
Paras Doshi
Saili Dharia
Veenit Mavan
Details :
A self-configurable wireless-sensor mesh-network system that monitors and analyzes agricultural-soil parameters such as moisture-content, nutrient composition, temperature, pressure, and light. This system can be used by the government or NGOs at a large scale in order to provide recommendations to farmers on crop-related decisions.
From :
Vivekananda Educational Society’s Institute of Technology, Mumbai

Team GRAS

Abhishek Kumar
Gaurav Paruthi
Shubham Malhotr
Details :
A mobile-phone-based application that uses Web-services to share real-time data with potential buyers of products at the point-of-purchase. The data contains information on the carbon-footprint of each product and aims to educate potential buyers into making smart and ecologically empathetic choices.
From:
BITS Pilani, Goa Campus

Team SKAN

Amith P George
Karun A. B.
Noel Sequeira
Sameet Singh Khajuri
Details :
A centralized power-management system to monitor an organization’s entire computer network and to switch idle computers into the power-save mode.
From :
Bharti Vidyapeeth College of Engineering, Mumbai
Fr. Conceicao Rodrigues Institute of Technology, Mumbai
Vivekananda Educational Society’s Institute of Technology, Mumbai

Out of these eight teams again three (Skan, Novices@work, Green Waves) were shortlisted and these three teams had the opportunity to present their ideas to all the delegates and to all other attendees which was really marvelous. Finally NOVICES@WORK were the winners of the national finals.They will be going to Paris to compete in the Finals of the Imaginecup. For more insights into their project/idea see the video .......

Video :

Photo Slide show :

Read an article on "The Hindu"

MS Robotics -- 1(simulation basics)

2008-05-03T09:46:00.010+05:30

As I am passionate towards robotics and have worked on speech recognition and natural language processing,I wanted to work on "Robotics" ( related to software), I mean controlling the Robot hardware from software! Searched on internet and found this cool software known as Microsoft Robotics, started working on Microsoft Robotics Studio last month, finally read some MSDN documentation and as I don't have Robot Hardware thought of trying out the simulation, its real fun controlling the robot in simulation so Just wanted to share with you , on 'How to Simulate I-Robot Create using Visual Programming Language', Before watching the video make sure you download the Microsoft Robotics Studio v1.5. Install it on your computer and then just see the video! Feel totally free to leave comments/queries.

Run Visual Programming Language
Start>New Project>Filename.mvpl
Feel free to look around the IDE
See the video

Click to download the videoGraphics rendering is done using AGEIA Physx technology. In order to get full graphics experience, your computer should support pixel shader 2.0 or higher, Asap I will be uploading a video on "how to control a i-robot from your PC using C#(.net)" so keep in touch with my blog :-)

One more thing, If you already have a robot and you want to use MSRS to interact with it then download Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio 2008 CTP and read the manuals and hmmmmm.... Well I am still working on it, will write about it as soon as I am finished with it.

For some background theory on MSRS have look at my ppt!

| View | Upload your own

Join http://groups.msn.com/bdotnetstudent , A unique .net Student User Group in Bangalore, B.Net Student organizes User Group meets frequently and is very active in the student community. Please join and learn/share thoughts and ideas.

A new competition known as ROBOCHAMPS is introduced! check it out and sign up for a challenge. Watch this video , its about Robochamps

Barcamp B'lore 6 - "summer edition" hotter than your Microprocessor :-)

2008-04-29T09:13:00.014+05:30

This is my 4th Bar-camp, but still I love the first bar-camp..... anyways this time the intro to all the sessions or un-conference started in the IIM auditorium, a lot of cool dudes spoke about their respective sessions and the room no.! hmm.... in last barcamp - winter edition , I had attended Ashish's session on "yulop" so this time he was giving a session on LOGO - Design. It was good! you can find the ppt - click here.

Wandering here and there, meeting people, talking about the latest gadgets and state of the art technology, browsing internet, finally saw the noticeboard , there was a talk on Lifeblob by the lifeblob group! Well as they say " lifeblob - Timeline creation of your own life! "hmmm... it sounds like a kewl idea! interesting too! So I registered and found it good! you can also try it out.

Well finally had lunch with my friends, I was waiting for the discussion on "startup pain"! , so i involved in the discussion , The discussion was about how startups sell their idea! and then finally the discussion took a different turn towards VC funding , negotiating with VC's for funding.... It was quite interesting, some dudes spoke about their pain in convincing a VC to get funded, I learn't a lot, It was really amazing!.

Last but not the least, there was a talk on "save nanda road", Well as I live near jaynagar, I have been on nanda road quit a lot! The real truth is , whatever the season be, still nanda road has a pleasant atmosphere and its always cool! Its really awesome to stroll in the morning. Our government has come up with the metro project wherein the metro rail is built on nanda road which intern affects the trees/ It should be removed! The discussion was about how to solve this problem, towards saving nanda road. See the wiki for more info on nandaroad, join the discussion panel and save nandaroad.

Changing the WORLD

2008-04-03T22:35:00.011+05:30

While I was browsing internet yesterday, came across a blog about an entrepreneur 'K K Mookhey' who started a company known as NII Consulting when he was studying engg, I listened to his talk on VOA, Its really inspiring and motivating, he has covered main key points in starting a startup from scratch (in INDIA), It answered some of my questions. But still I had some more doubts in "changing the world"! luckily I found this awesome mind blowing video on viddler wherein Guy Kawasaki working as Managing Director at Garage - Technology Ventures , also author of famous book "ART OF START" ..... In this video he has covered all points on how to nurture your IDEAS into REALITY. The speech is so humorous that you don't feel bored at any point! A "MUST WATCH" for budding entrepreneurs/enthusiasts to "change the world" !

Download the video : Art of Start

The Great Indian Education

2008-03-16T17:32:00.009+05:30

"I love beautiful objects, I love creating them.......... but NEGATIVE people upset me"
-------Steve Jobs (CEO of APPLE, PIXAR,NEXT)

After PU/12th most people join engg/any course.........Then they have this "SYLLABUS" its... like a perfect circle of protection to every problem in this Universe.
Teachers teach everything inside this syllabus, You can also hear them saying "This question was there in 1998 exam..... very important" So its kinda narrowing your thought and suppressing your ideas............You as a student , slog ......slog..............every lesson, copy everything in your brain .......Its like Pointers in C, It points to your memory fragments, so when a question is asked in the exam ................. the content at the memory fragment is executed
and you write the answer.................... The whole thing is "The magic of ctrl+C and ctrl+V" .........While studying if you get any new ideas you ignore them and narrow your thought towards scoring marks. Well I am not here to just comment on others or other things, I/We are here to Innovate, ..................See think deeply................... Marks Oriented Teaching is not required ,
its hopeless, ..................instead KNOWLEDGE ORIENTED TEACHING is required. Then finally one day you become a engineer, All this so called BIG companies will hire you, You feel , "Oh My God I am the ONE , finally I have done" ............... But there is no difference there too.................Still you are SLAVE , So the BIG companies don't allow you to think and innovate,or to build up something on your own IDEA........... they put you under a project , So you have to work
under this...........and they will pay you in lakhs ............but the company will be getting crores......................... So people, Think think ................ "THINK BIG, ACHIEVE BIG" Dont
narrow your thinking........ Be positive always............

Sir Ken Robinson who is recognized as the World leader of Creativity has spoke about the education system. See this video, its really thought provoking!

Source : Technology,Entertainment,Design

Bill - Ctrl+Last+Day

2008-03-10T21:04:00.005+05:30

I was searching about Bill gates's latest speech in Carnegie Mellon University and accidentally found this!
Its funny though!

Stop Talking -- Start Doing

2008-02-17T20:29:00.003+05:30

Well nowadays everyone is fascinated towards "innovation", Big companies are investing a lot of time/money on building a product which captures peoples imagination. Also defining new innovative Business models to get their head on with current era of technology.
It may be a startup or a big industry, but few of us(companies) in this competitive arena succeed. The remaining ones do this------>>> please check out the video

Macworldexpo 2008

2008-01-17T10:02:00.000+05:30

Steve Jobs introducing Mac Book Air.......

This presentation below talks about great people/managers/entrepreneurs........
Its insipiring.

| View | Upload your own

Where exactly is this............ "Innovation"???

2008-01-06T20:17:00.000+05:30

I had been to a conference in bangalore last october known as i3-India Is Innovation. A lot of discussions were going on about innovation but onething that striked my mind is 'innovation may be anywhere' Its not only in technology or science! I had wonderful experience on that day,
Ravi Venkatesan - Chairman Microsoft India spoke about education in india and is it supporting innovation? and also about innovation in management and business, he gave example of "dabbawalas" where they have excellent business model and awesome time management! the whole keynote address is here.

Ashok Ganguly Chairman of Firstsource talked about these 3 points

Rise of new interest is equal to rise of new qualities which foster the growth of innovation.
Innovation is everything to do with an IDEA.
Innovation Intensity should increase in INDIA!

I searched on the net found one presentation which describes the management style of dabbawalas. I think this appeals to everyone that anyone anywhere in the world can bringup Innovation.

| View | Upload your own

Feel free to throw your thoughts on this ..... add a comment! :-)

A successful Entrepreneur

2007-12-31T14:34:00.000+05:30

As Vinod Khosla says "An entrepreneur is someone who dares to dream the dreams and is foolish enough to try to make those dreams come true.", Entrepreneurship is something really challenging and exciting, trying out new things with new ideas, its just like exploring LIFE to the maximum extent. As we can see Internet as the fast growing media to communicate, a lot of new areas have opened for business and innovation, entrepreneurs who exclusively focus towards WEB are known as 'netrepreneurs', So the next best revolution maybe is on WEB.
I just saw this presentation and would like to share with you , it talks about the six points to be a successful Entrepreneur.

| View | Upload your own

"feel free to add a comment"

Meteor!

2007-12-21T19:55:00.000+05:30

As usual every eve I sit in my balcony and read some novel or some good interesting book! but this time I noticed something special! It was twilight! and I just gazed at the sky ......... at first I thought it was some fireworks but I was amazed that it was there in the sky for more than 3 min...... within no time I realized its a "shooting star(meteor)" and just ran to my room to get my handy cam! I captured this video for about 2min just have a look at it!
I searched on net for more info about these meteors and this article says that most of the meteor showers occur in December till January and its also called "ursid meteors". Another article on meteor showers in December! It will be real fun to just watch it dropping down from sky!!!

"Vision" ---- Forethought of SUCCESS

2007-12-05T15:42:00.000+05:30

Every time people ask me what do you want to do in LIFE? well the answer is always the same I am working towards my vision. Developing a vision in life is very important according to me, Its that strong vision which makes everything possible in this universe! I am not talking any success stories here..... I see a lot of people have a negative notion to think big! always they limit themselves to a particular boundary. Vision is everything in this world even at this present moment the technology you are using was started by visionaries, Its all got to do with positive attitude and Great thoughts then finally the destination i.e enlightenment will be waiting for us...... I hope maybe our education system should have been focussed in developing visionaries than slaves!
I found this slide which is totally catchy!!, do check out!

| View | Upload your own

Barcamp ---where Passion is "Enlightenment"!

2007-11-17T11:09:00.000+05:30

This time barcamp was cool, met a quite a lot of geeks and entrepreuners interested trying out coolest things in this technological universe! Well it started of at 10:30am with all the speakers using that cool mic! i would rather call it a loud speaker, but the sound output wasnt good eventhough all of managed to hear something! So we all got a fair idea as to what barcamp bangalore 5 is upto!

Then i attended XP collective which stands for 'Xtreme Programming' everything was totally overmyhead........ but still i heard somestuff and tried to figureout what exactly is going on, it was about AGILE software development......cool! Sharath was there, he showed his new cool MACBOOK and all its features..... wow it was damn cool and awesome really mac rocks! Then I met Keshav who has started three startups and now he has joined a startup! He was a part of activmobs.

I also spoke with Sean Olin Blagvedst CEO of babajobs. Actually I had seen him quite a lot of times in Microsoft! He use to be a part of Microsoft Research India team! Now he started babajob! thats pretty cool!.

So then we attended another session on "GURUGEEKS" sounds geeky! Well Its a social networking site wherein all geeks meet! just like barcampbangalore but on the internet! and it is yet to be online! , the founder spoke about what is gurugeeks, How exactly it works, What is the need of somthing like Gurugeeks in a country like INDIA and some good stuff!

Next we went to room L22 where a session was going on User interface design! and then about yulop , Its a startup....... check out there website wherein you can search anything around bangalore and its pretty accurate!!.

Last but not the least! This was awesome and interesting , It was discussion about "Why should I start a startup", the crowd was mixture of business enthusiasts and Tech enthusiasts and it was real fun....... Impulsesoft CEO was there , she spoke about her experiences in building their first product which is a bluetooth device for an ipod!!(sounds kewl) , she also said" having conviction about the product that you have built is very important". I also saw someone from US , she says that its far better to start a startup in INDIA rather in US!!! finally the debate endedup and final thought was "start a startup having good reasons".

Here are some cool snaps!

WIFI duniya!!!

GET SET GO.......vrooooooooooooooom!

I should have brought my LAPTOP!! :(

I will upload the VIDEOS soon keep in touch with my blog!!!

Barcamp Bangalore 5 ----"Winter Edition"

2007-11-15T18:02:00.000+05:30

Barcamp Bangalore rocks everyones brain! I was there for BCB3, It was total fun and super cool, I saw a lot of like minded people! Its a total un-conference wherein even you can speak about something interesting! Its not a session where a speaker speaks and rest sleep!!! here you have freedom to interact! share your thoughts, your works,maybe your research too! Whatever you want to us to know! I met quite a lot of startups at BCB3........ and you get free internet/free WIFI! So Get your laptops, boost your energy and blog about BCB5!
Date: 17th&18th November 2007
Venue: IIM-B
Time : around 9:30am

click on this image to register
Its free!

Hands on IPHONE!!!!

2007-10-15T21:00:00.000+05:30

Woah the coolest thing I hav dreamt of is this awesome piece of technology from APPLE i.e Iphone! It really ROCKZZZ!!!! My friend Aakash Bapna bought an Iphone last month, He is using airtel on his IPHONE, check out his blog http://aksblog.co.nr , He unlocked the Iphone himself. Well I invited him to my place and we did a lot of research on this new cool IPHONE! and also made a amature video!! the cam what i had was hopeless! I have given my old Sony handycam for service so until i get back the cam I want to share my experiences! check out the video ........... I will be uploading the fully professional video within few days! In one of my previous posts i had mentioned that the Iphone will be available in india in march 2008... but folks its already here........ well in bangalore, goto National Market or Burma Bazaar, you can get it for Rs,24k for 4gb and approx Rs32k for 8gb........ enjoy people! Technology kicks ass!!!

Geekology!!!

2007-10-01T23:44:00.000+05:30

Oh man ........ Why am I sitting infront of my comp.......blogging, listening to rock music, coding, hacking, searching the internet,Why am I not hanging out with my friends?, Why shldnt I have a Girlfriend?!!!......... WHY................ WHY.......... Well even I dont know why???? Well I m sure that,I dont know the answer for this question but one thing is surreal! i.e he/she is a GEEK.

Who is a GEEK? well actually the terminology came from US military, GEEK stands for General Electrical and Engineering Knowledge. These are the people who know everything about technology. These Geeks are Cool dudes whose passion cannot be described in words!!

Have a look at the GEEK's lifestyle!

Speak Naturally

2007-10-01T20:24:00.000+05:30

Every Human communicates through a language, The communication may be in different languages but the matter of the fact is ,Every human UNDERSTANDS the language and responds to it! Well What in case of a Computer/Machine?, Will a computer be able to respond accurately to Natural Language spoken by humans????

Natural Language Processing is a subgroup of Artificial Intelligence, It deals with automation and study of Natural Human Languages. While searching on google and I found one interesting link check it out http://start.csail.mit.edu/ , the future is right here the next best thing on earth will be Natural User Interface with NLP(Natural Language Processing).

Digital Reasoning plays an important role in NLP, Its about choosing the right one out of somany choices! See this video..........

For an insight into what exactly NLP is check out this slide.........

Rules Of Revolutionaries

2007-08-17T18:49:00.000+05:30

Guy Kawasaki has shown the Rules Of Revolutionaries in this awesome presentation which showcases everything about a good leader or a revolutionary, truely inspiring. I love one of his slides which says "Think Digital, Act Analog", this is like really cool thought.

Hear It from the unfeigned GEEK-- "Steve Wozniak"

2007-08-04T23:01:00.000+05:30

In 1975 Steve Wozniak decided to build a computer for a 'bit of fun' known as APPLE I. Three Decades later and that bit of fun has spawned a billion-dollar company and over 30 million APPLE users - they call it perfection.

Here in this video Steve Wozniak starts of with Electrons,Atoms, Transistors to a computer that changed the whole industry and lives of many people.

oh man Is it a DREAM??? No it isnt, ITS WIPRO CHAIRMAN AZIM PREMJI

2007-07-18T19:44:00.000+05:30

I can never ever forget this in my life, this was my one of the most enchanting moments! I learned a lot!! Well the Ultra super thing is

" I MET WIPRO CHAIRMAN AZIM PREMJI".

Well folks it was Annual General Meeting on 18-07-2007 at 4:30pm in WIPRO campus, gate 7, cafeteria hall. My *** is a stakeholder in WIPRO, so I read the Annual report book sent by wipro for this year ,I always dreamt of companies and entrepreneurship, innovation. In the book it mentioned about the share holders meet and what is procedure to attend the meet, I saw the agenda, I was amazed that Mr. Azim premji was coming to the meet, So I wasnt a share holder, I was very sad but as I was going through the book and saw a page which was saying "Proxy share holders" WOAH!!! and then read the requirements, This was all at my exam time!!! that bullshit semester exam time!! Well now I went to basavanagudi Post office to get a revenue stamp, so i got it and did what was suppose to be done and HURRAY!!! the application form for proxy share holders was ready!!! , and then I asked Phaneendra my friend to join me, and we were suppose to goto Sarjapur Registered WIPRO office to submit the proxy form, there we went into the reception there a lady was sitting, so we asked her " maam this is the proxy form for the Annual General Meeting , so can you please take this and give us the acknowledgement" Well she was totally dumb , what one earth ......... she said" what? whom do you want to meet?? where is the apointment!! all the irrelevant questions to current situation!! and then she asked us to wait and we were sitting watching the reception there were boards like "Welcome to WIPRO feel yourself free till some one escorts you" you know stuff like that.......... then she called us and said please submit your form sir! oh ghosh at last we submitted.
Today morning we planned that if we get a chance to meet Azim Premji what are we going to say!! Phaneendra said "Dude I dont think they are going to allow you"........... well I am Always POSITIVE I challenged him!! and at last we were there at Wipro Campus at 4:30pm i.e today approx 4 hours ago, Security didnt allow my camera inside the campus ! damn that guy! then we both went in............ It was like " we were kids who came to watch some fun show!!!! Well actually it was like this for others who were watching us , I saw almost all of them were bald and above 40s!!! well they saw us like what i have said!!! and really It was our first experience with what business is. Azim Premji was taking polls from audience , he was asking questions , We actually didnt understand half of it!!! They gave some Poll sheet where we were suppose to vote for merging wipro health and wipro IT so we didnt knew nothing so we voted like we were executives!!! and then after the meeting , I was waiting for opportunity to shoot out my questions to him! I was waiting near the stage for him...........my heartbeat increased, i was hyper excited, But my questions what I had prepared earlier remained in my memory, I was eagerly waiting ......................Then Azim Premji just came walking down the stage, I made eye contact with him and as he was walking , I joined him and asked these questions to him , It was for 5 min from stage to the cafeteria we were just walking like friends.... hahaha !!! I wasn't dumb, I asked a few questions and the answers were just "GOLDEN".

What is the difference b/w a startup and a big successful company interms of goals and achievement??
Well a startup needs to work hard, I mean lots of hardwork, A big company need not do so much hardwork compared to a startup, After a company is big and successful ,interms of achievements and goals , I think there isnt any big difference bcos even big companies have goals, achievements.

Sir We have started a company known "Einstasoft" so would you tell us the secret sauce to be successful???
He grinned at me and said these GOLDEN WORDS FOR MY LIFE "Put your HEART and SOUL into whatever you do then success is all yours".At last he was about to goto cafeteria I TOLD him SIR REMEMBER OUR company's name its called "EINSTASOFT" we are into ROBOTICS and Artificial Intelligence................... We both had a handshake ! and he said "yes" , and he went into cafiteria, but I tried a lot to accompany him for few more questions, but the security didnt allow me inside!!!!

Super ---- "SIX"

2007-07-17T17:38:00.000+05:30

Never ever under estimate a Human Spirit!, It was in 1994 when SIX students Graham Spencer, Joe Kraus, Mark Van Haren, Ryan McIntyre, Ben Lutch and Martin Reinfried all were Computer Science students from Stanford decided to start a company known as "Architext".
They started in a garage!, Well it was internet which was booming at that time, they were one of the successful companies on the internet.

Joe Kraus and Graham Spencer

In July 1994 International Data Group paid them $100,000 to develop an online service. They developed a Internet Portal known as "EXCITE". Soon lots of people used their service and it became a million dollar company. Some of the founders bought cool cellphones, BMW cars a lot of cool gadgets. After tasting success, one of the founders "Graham Spencer" a strict vegetarian and Joe Kraus started "JOTSPOT" a software company that offered enterprise social software (structured wiki). Search Engine Giant Google acquired this company in 2006!.

Watch "NERDS 2.0.1 -- A brief history of the internet", A good film about INTERNET and about how, where, when it was started and the first companies to mark their stamp on the internet ....a lot of cool stuff.

A journey from "Entrepreneurial LOVE to Heavenly abode of SUCCESS"

2007-07-17T16:52:00.000+05:30

It was in 1970's when people use to say, "dont try to do things which you cannot! be simple, first settle in your life", Well I guess people who said this will repent forever! Folks It was 1981 when INFOSYS chief Mr. Narayan Murthy had a thought in his brain to start a company! He had already met his true love and success was waiting for them! I read a great article in geocities written by Smt.Sudha Murthy which is very inspiring!!

Here is a small excerpt from the article.....

"It was in Pune that I met Narayan Murty through my friend Prasanna who is now the Wipro chief, who was also training in Telco. Most of the books that Prasanna lent me had Murty's name on them, which meant that I had a preconceived image of the man. Contrary to expectation, Murty was shy, bespectacled and an introvert. When he invited us for dinner,............"

Narayan Murthy and Sudha Murthy with our Prime Minister.

Read the entire article here "Story of INFOSYS -- Sudha Murthy"

Innovation "Redefined" --- Theo Jansen

2007-07-17T15:45:00.000+05:30

Many people ask me what is innovation? Well here is the answer! Its THEO JANSEN. This guy is a Genius, He is an artist and a KINETIC SCULPTOR, actually he is more than that! He builds a new kind of huge machines like an artificial animals using sticks/plastic! Its truely amazing, He says "The walls between art and engineering exist only in our minds." those kinetic sculptures move with the help of wind near beaches, he is also working on creating artificial life throught genetic algorithms. He lives in holland, I think this is guy is a extreme genius and ultra creative! Below is a cool BMW TV commercial showcasing his talents, watch and innovate

More about his works "Strandbeest"
About Theo Jansen
Cool videos on youtube -- "A Modern-Day DaVinci Genius?" and "Search"
About "Kinetic Sculpture"

Good Bye "Bill"

2007-07-13T17:22:00.000+05:30

Even I too love that smile!

Woah! Mr. Bill Gates founder of Microsoft and (worlds richest man), Well he is no more "the worlds richest man", Time is going to change and it has changed folks , now Carlos Slim CEO of three companies Teléfonos de México (Telmex), Telcel and América Móvil is the worlds richest man , He is a Mexican Businessman with networth US$67.8 billion from july 3rd 2007.

I would like to share this presentation with you, it is about Bill Gates Rules :D

Special thanks to SOLITARY HACKER

IPHONE (What/When in INDIA??)

2007-06-30T15:45:00.000+05:30

Iphone was launched on June 29th 6:00pm (EDT) in U.S. We heard people waiting inline for that awesome Hi-End technological cellular device the whole night!!. There are two models of Iphone, the 4 gigbyte model which costs $499(approx Rs.24,950) and an 8 gigbyte model $599(approx Rs.29,950) ontop of this you need pay $59(approx Rs.2950) for At&T Service plan. Folks in India have to wait till 2008 to get hands dirty on the new IPHONE.

So the total cost for 4 gigbyte model would be Rs24950+2950= Rs.27,900 and for 8gb model would be Rs.32900 for more detials about the pricing click here . Check out the cool videos updated in apple's official website www.apple.com/iphone . To see views/comments on the new iphone by people in U.S click here

KEWL LINKS :

IPhone touch screen’s secret sauce: “gesture-interpretation software” by ZDNet's Russell Shaw -- So maybe you have an iPhone in hand, or have one on order. Or maybe you are fascinated with how the heck this device can take a simple tap on a screen and turn it into a phone call or other action. Well, I recommend you read a newly posted article on the website Howstuffworks, which [...]

TIME MACHINE

2007-06-30T11:43:00.000+05:30

Apple's new feature in LEOPARD known as TIME MACHINE. You can go back in time in that specific file,folder,application.......... in an amazing 3d graphics look.

click on those links for more information.

KEWL Gadgets.

2007-06-26T19:15:00.000+05:30

Two months back I was in IIIT-B to attend a Techfest known as "Innofest". it was really exciting participating in all the events although I didnt win any prize. Well the best part was I saw a banner "Computer Kitchen"(sponsor) and saw their web link and noted down. I walked into the institute, I saw their(computer kitchen) small mall, I saw few gadgets like mp3 watch, mp3 sun glasses, usb light, usb coffee cup heater, Usb pen ............it goes on and on , I saw a lot of cool products which can be used with your computer or a laptop!!

I bought a USB light which I use with my laptop bcos at night it acts as source of light to see the keyboard/touchpad and it has helped me a lot! I tried out a few gadgets there itself like that mp3 sunglasses, I listened to few songs , its really amazing! Its no more in movies that you see all those crazy gadgets its here check out "COMPUTER KITCHEN"