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...
Sunday, May 17, 2009
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...
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.
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.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Vote Chooser - Indian Version
Recently I came across this interesting site - VoteChooser.com This site is simple way to allow people to decide to vote between Obama and McCain based on their respective policies. Site poses simple 10 questions - and bang you know whom you should support at the end of the questionnaire. (By the way, I was supporting 7 Obama policies out of 10 total questions).
Since, Indian general elections are around the corner, I thought building similar website would be very useful. Despite many differences, most of the Indian politics revolves around UPA, NDA, and Left forming two and half major fronts. So the concept is simple - posing 10 questions, answers to which should lead you to vote for either NDA or UPA alliance.
Unfortunately, I couldn't find 10 differences at policy level between UPA (Congress) or NDA (BJP)! I checked Congress's website - a major party in UPA alliance and BJP's website again a major party in NDA alliance for possible publicly declared manifesto/ policy document. But there is nothing on those two websites.
So my quest for VoteChooser Indian version has hit the major road block in the absence of 10 major differences between two poles of Indian politics. Irony is that parties representing 1.2 billion people do not have policy agendas on things that matter such as infrastructure, education, health care, foreign affairs etc. This is surprising, may be I am missing something. Any suggestions? Can you lead me to form those 10 questions?
Since, Indian general elections are around the corner, I thought building similar website would be very useful. Despite many differences, most of the Indian politics revolves around UPA, NDA, and Left forming two and half major fronts. So the concept is simple - posing 10 questions, answers to which should lead you to vote for either NDA or UPA alliance.
Unfortunately, I couldn't find 10 differences at policy level between UPA (Congress) or NDA (BJP)! I checked Congress's website - a major party in UPA alliance and BJP's website again a major party in NDA alliance for possible publicly declared manifesto/ policy document. But there is nothing on those two websites.
So my quest for VoteChooser Indian version has hit the major road block in the absence of 10 major differences between two poles of Indian politics. Irony is that parties representing 1.2 billion people do not have policy agendas on things that matter such as infrastructure, education, health care, foreign affairs etc. This is surprising, may be I am missing something. Any suggestions? Can you lead me to form those 10 questions?
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Captchas... Kaptchas that make me feel illeterate!
Well, I know Captchas are an invention by Carnegie Mellon guy, and we all are so proud about it and all.... but hey look at these captchas... I just can not read them!
These funny things were originally designed to identify 'human' user from a script attack. Later people wrote scripts to crack these captachas. So programmers added more complexity to make them 'unreadable' to a script. Unfortunately, we have reached the stage, where even humans can no longer read the words in those capchtas!
These funny things were originally designed to identify 'human' user from a script attack. Later people wrote scripts to crack these captachas. So programmers added more complexity to make them 'unreadable' to a script. Unfortunately, we have reached the stage, where even humans can no longer read the words in those capchtas!
Saturday, November 15, 2008
New World Order
Uncertainty is part of life. Ok, So we have this concept
of risk that comes naturally with uncertainty. Then comes risk assessment and then risk mitigation etc. We also have all financial derivative instruments to cover these risks. As events are unfolding, I am sensing need of new order to manage this uncertainty. Lets take example of 2 events that have unfolded in last 6 months:
1. Dollar has strengthened by over 25% against Euro (and also Rupee)
2. Oil is down from $146 to now below $60
These two statistics carry unprecedented change for businesses around the world. My view is, its impossible to do business and emerge as a winner on your business strength, too much luck involved in those numbers. This is hurting. Classical economics of demand and supply is not working. We have not stopped drinking oil in half, nor we are eating more dollars...
For stable long term growth, we need to cap these swings. Yes, I am for regulation. As a society we can never sustain 10-15% growth y-o-y, and we need to cap this growth. As a society we will be more happy in long term steady growth as opposed to
erratic swings we are observing through this economy. More certainty will bring more consistent business opportunities and more capital will flow into pure business models as opposed to trading models.
My guess is post crash of wall street, our leaders will embrace new world order,
where uncertainty and volatility will be discouraged with regulation and innovation will be encouraged by sound policy making....
of risk that comes naturally with uncertainty. Then comes risk assessment and then risk mitigation etc. We also have all financial derivative instruments to cover these risks. As events are unfolding, I am sensing need of new order to manage this uncertainty. Lets take example of 2 events that have unfolded in last 6 months:
1. Dollar has strengthened by over 25% against Euro (and also Rupee)
2. Oil is down from $146 to now below $60
These two statistics carry unprecedented change for businesses around the world. My view is, its impossible to do business and emerge as a winner on your business strength, too much luck involved in those numbers. This is hurting. Classical economics of demand and supply is not working. We have not stopped drinking oil in half, nor we are eating more dollars...
For stable long term growth, we need to cap these swings. Yes, I am for regulation. As a society we can never sustain 10-15% growth y-o-y, and we need to cap this growth. As a society we will be more happy in long term steady growth as opposed to
erratic swings we are observing through this economy. More certainty will bring more consistent business opportunities and more capital will flow into pure business models as opposed to trading models.
My guess is post crash of wall street, our leaders will embrace new world order,
where uncertainty and volatility will be discouraged with regulation and innovation will be encouraged by sound policy making....
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