By Sandil Srinivasan 13:12 | 30/Jul/2007 | 2 Comment(s)
This Blog ends here
It's been nice blogging here folks, and it's time to bid adieu. I loved the exposure here at rediff iLAND but it's time to shut down this blog for good -- I will be blogging more often at Mutiny.inand hope to see you there sometime.
The prime reason to have suspended blogging is because I want to focus on completing my book. In the interim, I have setup a personal blog for myself where I play around with fiction, and photoblogging -- 2S
By Sandil Srinivasan 15:44 | 28/Jul/2007 | 0 Comment(s)
BCB4 -- Lunch and Tea
Just had lunch here @ BCB4 at the IIM campus, not much -- a few puris, daal and rice. Still, we're pretty filled up with the stuff happening here. Lots to talk bout.
Jerry just popped in with tea -- 'here you go' he says, -- thanks bro :-)
AJ was kind enough to give a session on microblogging. It's an interesting concept for those who don't really have lengthy contents, but want to quickly share a few lines, a link or an image. Micro-blogging relies on the friends network for maximum reach, so check it out. A few sites AJ recommended are Twitter and Pownce. You can find AJ here.
I met the creator of this blog here, who"s featuring it. He"s talking about how he publishes events, how many events he gets, etc. He"s planning to start a video show :-) Perhaps he might start off with BarCamp Bangalore.
By Sandil Srinivasan 13:07 | 28/Jul/2007 | 0 Comment(s)
BCB4 -- Late Noon update
Been here for a couple of hours -- my first BarCamp -- and I can already see why they"re so successful, because there"s a lot of sharing in an informal casual environment.
I"m at the Blogger"s Collective right now, and we"re talking widgets now -- the whats, the whys and hows. There"s an ongoing discussion about the different widgets available, and the all-famous flickr widget that adds your flickr photos to your blog.
For whose who want to make some quick bucks outa this, there are the Google AdSense widgets. You can add a ShoutBox widget to allow people to quickly post a random comment. So we"re checking the top ones out.
Right now, Krishna and Nilesh are speaking about where to put the widgets. There are also widgets that are added to RSS feeds, now that"s a surprise for me :-)
Here are a few pictures @ the lovely IIM campus.
Jerry is also blogging with me -- have a look here
By Sandil Srinivasan 20:41 | 26/Jul/2007 | 1 Comment(s)
No power, no responsibility
It's about time we get our priorities in place, because Bangalore is quickly embracing the limelight, when in reality the city remains in the dark for most of the time. And literally.
Par example, the last two nights - no power where yours truly lives. Uncle Ben gave us wisdom - 'with great power comes great responsibility'. And I tell BESCOM this - with no power comes cold dinner, no internet, and a hell load of mosquitoes. This, from an urbanite - so spare a thought for the slums and the rural strongholds.
It's now nearly official, as Vicky Nanjappa suggests: what apparently tarnished Bangalore's image was the UK terror plot, silly! Two individuals - suspects, mind you - have actually given the city's reputation a battering. Er - what about the traffic that crawls every day at a speed that puts the snails to shame? The issues with basic utilities, with power-cuts being as frequent as a commercial on TV? The strays who've declared genocide against humans? ((Stray dogs maul girl to death)) Shootouts in broad daylight? ((Murder rattles Indiranagar)) Children falling from a mall or a pit, meeting with fatality? ((6-year old dies after falling from 4th floor of city mall))
A token of gratitude to the authorities then, for confirming that those were just incidents that required ignorance. To recover from the battering reputation, everyone's looking at Bangalore IT.in. Right.
To this, critics say it's not a big deal, as every other city faces the same problem. Fine - but does every other city hype itself like heaven's datacenter on earth?
The core of the problem *is* the lack of service support around the substandard infrastructure (yes, we agree to live with 'substandard' infrastructure for now). These are the 'band-aids' that hold the city together - and they're missing. All we need, as citizens, is to have someone at the BESCOM hotline answer, and give a time-frame as to when the power will be back. Or just notify us in advance, without arbitrarily depriving us of our basic need.
Before the question is put - yes, I've tried this numerous times in vain. Speaking to a BESCOM representative during a power-cut is as easy as speaking to the President.
And giving credit where it's due - the folks at the Income Tax office are extremely polite, and handle extended calls during prime business hours. I've had more than one incident where a CSR spoke very politely handling my issues with the tax-returns, escalating a request when necessary, and even the courtesy to ask if there was anything else he could assist with before hanging up. Very 'MNC'ish, and for a government department, that says a lot.
Perhaps BESCOM, BSNL and the RTO need to take a leaf out of the Income Tax office's book, and we all know that they could do with an upgrade or two, of their 'services'. And maybe they should stop funding the process of rechristening the city. And when *that* is done, Bangalore IT.in makes sense.
While on the subject of Bangalore IT.in, J Parthasarathy - Director of the Software Technology Parks - offered these words:
"It is our endeavour to make Bangalore IT.in - 2007 a platform for participants to understand the unique IT ecosystem available in the country."
For the record, I work in at a firm where the lights go out (but the network stays up). And 'we' - the techie breadwinners - are more often the 'software coolies' - who support more often than develop. A rather unique platform indeed. Let's hope Bangalore IT.in 2007 changes that, because I love this city for all that it has and all that it can give.
By Sandil Srinivasan 12:59 | 23/Jul/2007 | 7 Comment(s)
of aid, fake-wars and techwaste
Call us developing, call us transforming -- or just call us an inexplicable phenomenon, but it's one hell of a challenge to find a single foreign conglomerate that isn't showing interest in India. Blame it on the cost advantage, the cheaper skills or anything that comes to mind, but it's impossible to deny that every significant milestone that the world comes up with -- technology or otherwise -- has an Indian hand that helped at some stage. In spite of everything we are (and everything we're not), we get noticed, and that's the last word.
Incidentally, these aren't personal thoughts, but the views of many MNCs and foreign governments who share a mixed bag of emotions when they see the kind of mammoth change this nation undergoes. Most are excited as they see an opportunity yet envious of the growth in the subcontinent.
Or that's what it seems from the crust. Everyone knows that with all our growth, we have underlying issues at the grassroots, and while India has prospered in the recent past, no growth can be sustained without a strong foundation. This calls for direct or indirect aid from the very international community that created the impression of Brand India.
Not that we are oh-so-desperate for foreign help -- recent policies favour trade over direct aid -- but what cheeses me off is the generosity to Israel when there are folks who deserve it more. I mean, excuse me?
Condoleezza Rice's new aid plan is 'tilted towards strife torn countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan'. With $2.4b for Israel, Iraq and Afghanistan have to share $1.85b. Now that is some seriously erect and upright tilt.
Why the overfeeding to Israel? Have the US taken outsourcing to a totally new level, by outsourcing their counter-terrorism tasks to Mossad? Is this the check they're dishing out for those services? Have they fallen for the Muslim=Terrorist equation, hence rubbishing every act of terror that Tel Aviv inflicts on the Arab world? Yes, they have increased the funding to Iraq and Afghanistan (which the rest of the world is so happy about), but a quick reality check here -- guess who actually went on-site and bombed those nations? Not us! You *ought* to clean up your fake-war mess after all, Uncle Sam.
While on the subject, it beats me as to why New Delhi has maintained close ties with Tel Aviv. As a nation, we only acknowledge the Palestinian struggle without recognizing it, and that's a pity. Forget having the largest Muslim population in our backyard -- considering that we as a nation rebelled against the occupants for our independence, we ought to relate. Yet, we turn a deaf ear to their call more often than not, because hey -- Israel is a close buddy after all, isn't it? Military might is the light after all.
Such acts of ignorance by the foreign office speak little of our national commitment to secularism and religious harmony. India is the perfect example -- a billion people, a hundred-odd religions, yet the violence only sparks up in bits. Like Didier says in Shantaram, 'If this were France, there would be rivers of blood everywhere'.
And as far as funding is concerned -- give us a break. CEOs? Entrepreneurs? Call centers? Help desks? Support staff? Labourers? Skilled workers? Cleaners? Maids? Look around yourselves, and try and live a single day of your life without a 'brown' man getting involved. Just try.
Hence, a message for the arrogant who look down upon us as Third World ugly -- here we are. Fund us or not, and with all our national issues that pull us down -- we're still steamrolling ahead. And since you've recognized our 'fast-growing' economy after all, it's time you stop referring to us as 'cheap labour', and as a techie, it's time you stop dumping your techwaste into what you think is -- and what you've crafted -- a software dump.
Everyone knows that with all our growth, we have underlying issues at the grassroots, and while India has prospered in the recent past, no growth can be sustained without a strong foundation. This calls for direct or indirect aid from the very international community that created the impression of Brand India.