Sunday, May 17, 2009

Story of the Graduation Commencement Speeches

Update: 50 Must Watch - Incredible/ Historical Speeches

Today I graduated from Carnegie Mellon, and as part of the commencement, we had a chance to listen to the finest commencement speech by Google CEO - Eric Schmidt



It was a great speech - and definitely the one that will make every single Carnegie Mellon graduate proud.

But speaking of commencement speeches - Steve Jobs commencement address at Stanford remains historic one




Just blogging - two of the the finest commencement speeches together - connecting the dots, and graduating with the Information...

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Don't be afraid of polarizing people

I am not talking about Political parties here, but rather - designing products. Some products will appeal to most, but there will be certain products which polarize people. And more likely or not these products will serve 'niche' markets and can actually make decent money!

Google is being central in search engine space... But I always believed there are areas around this central space which should serve niche areas. yes Google is the best - but it only fulfills 80% of my needs - I need niche product for remaining 20%...

This week, I found one - WolframAlpha- they call themselves computational knowledge engine... Search Engine product designed to address computational queries. You can find more information here

If these guys manage to churn out successful venture - there will be more people going after more niche products. And that could be beginning of the end of Google's super monopoly. If not - I don't see any threat to Google in foreseeable future. So lets wait and watch the alpha launch...

Monday, May 11, 2009

Just for the kicks

Do you like predicting what would be next? Do you like thinking about the future trends? Do you say - "oh I knew it" - after the result? Well... at least I do... And hence, I am sticking my neck out and predicting the result of the Indian General Elections 2009 - (well who cares about my predictions ? ok - read the title of this blog then)

Form of Government - Coalition (no brainer)
Leading Party - Congress
Opposition Party - BJP
What about others? - Sorry no predictions here.

Alternative scenario could be - unstable government with outside support of Congress, and then we will have reelections soon. But otherwise - its UPA/ Congress back in power.

Ok do you like to predict? Go ahead - and write your predictions in comments box.

Finally - I liked these readings here, here and here.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Origin of 'Soap' Operas - And Great Depression


Today media is filled up with stories of recession and comparisons to great depression. But funny things happened during the great depression. As with the economy Proctor & Gamble - a producer of household items such as soaps, was heavily suffering through economic tumult during the period of great depression. But P&G came out much stronger company towards the end of recession. How did the soap giant beat the Depression? Companies marketing team started heavily advertising on afternoon spots, and even started its production house to create radio shows and TV shows aimed at housewives. These shows turned out to be so successful - that these shows were further recognized with the name of 'Soap Operas'. Of course, P&G came out as much stronger corporation.