Starry-eyed startups & search for excellence

A few friends & I are trying to organise a conference called TEDxHitechCity.
The experience has been refreshing.
Getting to meet so many intresting people, from such different areas.

One such meeting today was with Sachin Rahlan of NotionInk
Sachin agreed to come & speak at our event and also demo his device.

While I was seeing him struggle to communicate with one of the admin staff, I asked the inevitable question, why Hyderabad. And his answer was "We strive for excellence and will go wherever, we have to, to get it"

Notion ink is developing a tablet/netbook/e-reader (however you want to call it)
They have got a phenomenal response for their prototype at CES2010 and are working overtime to get ready for a launch in June/July. Final details, pricing, availablity etc are under wraps . Look for some annoucements at World Mobile Congress in Spain in February.

Google Reader adds “Send To” feature

Testing the Send to Feature of GR.

Google Reader adds “Send To” feature:

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I’ve wanted this forever. Google Reader just added a feature where you can send items directly to Twitter, Reddit, and a bunch of other places:

To enable it, click on “Settings” in Google Reader and then click on the “Send To” tab to choose which services to add. Note: make sure you disable pop-up blocking so that Google Reader can pop-up a new window on twitter.com (or wherever) to share your item. You can even add custom services:

Suppose I subscribed to a bunch of different blogs, or subscribed to the Twitter feeds of a bunch of people. I could make a custom link that sent individual items to (say) a custom web service that I wrote. For example, any time I saw someone report a Google bug, I could send that to a web service that might let appropriate people triage or vote on that bug. I love the flexibility behind this feature. Thanks to the Google Reader team for adding it!

"

Book review by Ross Dougthat

Book Review - 'Digital Barbarism - A Writer’s Manifesto,' by Mark Helprin - Review - NYTimes.com

... “Digital Barbarism: A Writer’s Manifesto,” is a vindication of the aphorism about the perils of wrestling with a pig. (You get dirty; the pig likes it.)

Mr. Grumpy

 

A little grumpy having woken up from sleep.
Notice the Oliver Hardy chin? There is not going to be a jaw line on this face is there? 

Tai Chi or Bharatanatyam

 

Sriks Jr. displaying some gesture... not sure if it looks more like Tai Chi or a dance mudra from Bharatanatyam. 

Sleeping like an old man

 

I am being bombarded by so many child rearing tips/myths/superstitions that I am paralysed on what to do sometimes.
One of those was that you should not let the kid lie on its back.
So when the nurse expertly balanced him on his side (I have not got the knack yet, he just turns-over to his back when I try) I thought I would take notes & learn from the master.

FYI Srikant Jr. held this position for close to 2 hrs..a record of sorts. 

Shades of TINTIN

 

Notice the teeny little cowlick..reminds me of Tintin.

Incidentally a big fight is going on in the naming front..
Suggestions received so far include..
1. Siddarth
2. Anirudh
3. Varun
4. Aprameyan
5. Lakshminarayanan (in memory of both our grandmas)
6. Vishwamohan
7. Hemarangan

As you can see a lot of suggestion do end in N. This indicates a high probablity that the kid is south-indian. But a NAN ending pretty much seals its fate :)

Jump in and add your suggestions...counting begins in 1 week.
Results to be declared on 19th ;) Click on the comments link below.  

Face only a mother could love?

 

A slightly disoriented Srikanth Jr. 

The New Arrival

  

Where there is a will..

I know that this might sound like a scam, but this guy did make it all the way.

Kind of ironic though that his original reason to do this was to go to University but
since it became a success he has effectively droped out of college.

Swadeshi

The term SWADESHI making a comeback though in un-expected form from a foreign source

Swadeshi

COSTCO's CEO on why taking care of your employees makes business sense

In an age of corporate cut-throat competition to cut costs, COSTCO shows why taking care of your employees is a good business strategy.

After reading how McDonald's & Wal*Mart and a host of other retailers use temps, minimum wage workers & skimp on benefits to keep costs down, this comes as a refreshing change.
NYtimes article here

Also another one on why Toyota is moving north to Canada inspite of better tax breaks from Texas. (The answer is in Education & Healthcare, the unfortunate victims of the dying welfare state)