Posted on

My Audio Post – Battle of Energy zones

Did few crazy things today like making a PPT for Inferno Blog hunt (soon it will be available of the website) and creating this audio post free of cost, thanks to Hedir. I tried few services but all are costly affairs (currently not in mood of investment). This is a slight tweaking with Hedir Music files (I have sent an email with details to Hedir admins). Do let me know your feedback (the voice problem may be due to bit rate, I need to check).

This post is about Battle of Energy Zones:-

  • How one room/project of your company can be a positive energy zone and other a negative one.
  • Organization structure based on Energy zone points. How is more important a Senior Tech leader or Facility Assistant or cook? A whole new approach to organization structure.

It was really difficult to do an audio as I had no script. Somehow I have managed. Sorry for the voice (THATS NOT MY VOICE, but then it made it sweeter 🙂 ). http://www.idealwebtools.com/audio/ – Enjoy my first audio post.

Posted on

Web Business is a pure Brain business

Writing after some long time as was busy with designing new salary structure. Also was busy with the Inferno Blog hunt (which is going great guns with over 170 blogs). Indian Web business is heating up with the new generation becoming more Internet Savvy because of cheaper broadband (Rs 500 for a month with great speed and download limits).

Read the stories of successful businessmen/businesswomen and you will find that they started the business with very less amount like Rs 15,000 (+ Rs 15,000 , Reliance) or Rs 10,000 (Infosys). During late 80s this was quite some amount (worth atleast Rs 1,00,000, present value).

For a startup web business all you need is $10 – $ 50 per month and one or two quality brains who are ready to spend 20 hrs a day. Web business is more of a brain business than the power of money investment, infrastructure, man power e.tc. Lets take it point by point that why a web business is a pure brain business :-

  1. To implement an idea you do not need a shop (a shop will cost you atleast Rs 50,000) of your own, a simple web page will do. Domain charges $9 per year, hosting (with ssh and required programming platforms) $5.
  2. Advertisements – With blogs, social networking sites, free chat rooms, free emails this is absolutely close to $0 affair. You will just need a viral idea. Other means of advertisements will cost anything over Rs 10,000 (min).
  3. Hiring people – You do not need a lot of staffs, just 2 programmers with quality brain can start the work and a billion dollar company can be run with just 50 staffs. Even you do not need offices, just get hold of people who can work from home and earn money through your platform. In the initial phase of project you may have to spend some additional amount on them but later on they can earn their own salaries.
  4. Everything else is free. From a webserver to a script everything comes free. You just need the right brains to make it work for you with some modification.

Some Stories which look real

  • YouTube (founded by 3 in Feb 2005, was sold for $1.65 billions with just 67 employees) :
    Youtube
    Money is no more a barrier in Web business. It is the real brain tussle. Google with few billions won’t be able to beat Youtube (which started with just 3 members and was sold with just over 60 members) they can just accept the defeat and buy success through them. YouTube was founded by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim, who were all early employees of PayPal.
  • Digg (founded by 4 in Nov 2004) :
    digg
    It Started out as an experiment in November 2004 by Kevin Rose, Owen Byrne, Ron Gorodetzky, and Jay Adelson. Taking bigger news companies with an idea.
  • Del.icio.us (founded by 1 during Late 2003 and acquired by Yahoo for some 15-30 million dollars)
    del.icio.us
    The site came online in late 2003 and was founded by Joshua Schachter, co-maintainer of Memepool. It is now part of Yahoo!.
  • Wikipedia (founded by 1 in Jan 2001 and now has over six million articles in 250 languages)
    wikipedia
    Wikipedia was launched as the English Wikipedia on January 15, 2001, as a complement to Nupedia, an expert-written and now defunct encyclopedia. The project is now operated by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization created by Jimmy Wales, and has over six million articles in 250 languages, including 1.6 million in the English edition. Wikipedia has steadily risen in popularity since its inception and currently ranks among the twelve most-visited websites worldwide.
  • MyBlogLog (founded by 2 in Mar 2005 acquired by Yahoo in 2007)
    mybloglog
    The company has deployed close to 100 million profile cookies, signed up 14 thousand blogs in their first year and more than 1000 blogs currently display MyBlogLog widgets.

There are more such stories (blogger, skype messenger, hotmail, urchin …) and I will also cover the Indian Stories. I have already seen Indian doing great in this field and still calling many Techno-leaders to pinch in.

Posted on

Gurukant Desai VS Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambani

[Note: Some of my related popular posts are: 1) why mistakes are often mistaken – It talks about what are real mistakes. 2) Orkut used for crime, is orkut responsible for it anyway? ]

I am back from Delhi. Delhi was fun, I could explain about Inferno 2007 to some Big Pockets. Also I had Parathas from Mulchand Parathawala (very del.icio.us). Also I got a chance to Watch Unclaimed biography of DhiruBhai (GURU). It inspired me to read the biography of THE AMBANI.

Unauthorized Biography
I am planning to buy
DhiruBhai Ambani
Till then here are some of the comparison.

Gurukant Desai VS Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambani

Abhishek Bhachan DhiruBhai Ambani
There are many similarities (with slight modification) and I am putting some some 15 here.
  1. Guru born in Idhar of Gujrat. His Dad was a school teacher (a head master as shown in the movie).
  2. Guru Going to Turkey when he was a kid somewhere around 16 years.
  3. Guru was shown as smart guy playing with coins and making money in ball tricks (In short he was shown as a person who knew the trick of minting money). Guru worked as a clerk and then later worked with Shell. He also got a promotion.
  4. Ten years later, Guru returned to India and started a business Shakti Corporation (I do not remember the exact name, may be it was Shakti Trading) with a capital of Rs. 15000.00.
  5. The business was setup in partnership with his brother-in-law.
  6. The primary business of GuruKant was to import “Kela Silk (polyester)” and export spices.
  7. Brother-in-law ended his partnership with Guru.
  8. He was called Guru Bhai. He was then later better known as Guru Bhai. “Guru bhai ka Salaam”.
  9. The Shakti Trading was a 350 Sq. Ft. room with a telephone, one table and three chairs.
  10. Public offers for Shakti corporation targeting the rural India. Many became the partners to Shakti corporation. This was also one of the initial IPOs as he explained them the concept in details.
  11. Shakti corporation conducted its Annual General Meetings (AGMs) in stadiums. This is one of the highlights of the movie. Over 35,000 partners attended the meeting. Even the movie starts with the a ground and the AGM description.
  12. The conflicts/discussions with another business baron (Forgot his name). If I am not wrong some English person.
  13. Manik Dasgupta (Mithun da) or Nanaji, a friend/Mentor of Guru and then later turning against Guru because of his business approach. Mithun is the owner of a big newspaper (If I am not wrong the name of the newspaper was “The Independence”). Mithun
  14. Mithun asked Shyam(Madhavan) to write against Guru and going after him. Along with MAnik, he has to face his editor Shyam opposing all his moves while his company keeps growing.
  15. The scene where Gurukant Desai speaks to a political bigwig in New Delhi. Politician was not giving him any time and finally gave one opportunity. In the meeting Guru offered a biggy to the politician.
  1. Dhirubhai born in Chorwad, Junagadh in the state of Gujarat. Dad was a school teacher.
  2. Dhirubhai moved to Yemen when he was 16.
  3. Dhirubhai would buy the Rials, melt them in pure silver and sell it to the bullion traders in London. Dhirubhai worked as dispatch clerk and then later worked in Shell. Dhirubhai was promoted to manage the company’s oil-filling station at the port of Aden
  4. Ten years later, Dhirubhai returned to India and started a business Reliance Commercial Corporation with a capital of Rs. 15000.00.
  5. The business was setup in partnership with Champaklal Damani, his second cousin who was also there with him in Aden, Yemen.
  6. The primary business of Reliance Commercial Corporation was to import polyester yarn and export spices.
  7. In 1965 Champaklal Damani and Dhirubhai Ambani ended their partnership and Dhirubhai started on his own
  8. He was called DhiruBhai and was better known by this name.
  9. The first office of Reliance Commercial Corporation was a 350 Sq. Ft. room with a telephone, one table and three chairs.
  10. Dhirubhai Ambani is credited with starting the equity cult in India. More than 58,000 investors from various parts (mainly rural) of India subscribed to Reliance’s IPO in 1977.
  11. Reliance Industries holds the distinction that it is the only Public Limited Company whose several Annual General Meetings were held in stadiums. In 1986, The Annual General Meeting of Reliance Industries was held in Cross Maidan, Mumbai, was attended by more than 35,000 shareholders and the Reliance family.
  12. Dhirubhai had to cut through lots of red tape and face rivalry from another big businessman, Nusli Wadia – chairman and majority owner of Bombay Dyeing.
  13. At one point in time Ramnath Goenka of Indian Express was a friend of Dhirubhai Ambani. Later on Ramnath Goenka choose to support Nusli Wadia. At one occasion Ramnath Goenka is believed to have said “Nusli is an Englishman. He cannot handle Ambani. I am a bania. I know how to finish him” Ramnath geonka
  14. Ramnath Goenka did not use his staff at the Indian Express to investigate the case but assigned his close confident, advisor and chartered accountant S. Gurumurthy for this task.
  15. Meeting between the late Rajiv Gandhi and Dhirubhai Ambani. Rajiv Gandhi wouldn’t give any time for a meeting to Dhirubhai Ambani and when he finally gave time, Dhirubhai Ambani made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.
There are more points like corruption cases against Guru, Guru getting paralyzed, Guru with two daughters, the biggest company in India e.t.c. In 1982, Dhirubhai created waves in the stock markets when he took on a Kolkata-based cartel of bear operators that had sought to hammer down the share price of Reliance Industries. The cartel badly underestimated the Ambani ability to fight back. Not only did Dhirubhai manage to ensure the purchase of close to a million shares that the bear cartel offloaded, he demand physical delivery of shares. The bear cartel was rattled. In the process, the bourses were thrown into a state of turmoil and the Bombay Stock Exchange had to shut down for a couple of days before the crisis was resolved. I will recommend you to read Two faces of Dhirubhai.

I wish I had more time to write and read about Mr Ambani. It was great to go through the history. I am looking forward to buy another book
Programmers at work.

Still I am left with 549 blog spams and need to start driving lessons (Can you believe that Grmtech is forcing me learn driving on company’s expense and during company’s time. I really appreciated the move). Requesting everyone to be a part of Inferno 2007.

Visit

http://inferno.aimk.org

for the latest.

Posted on

I have 562 spams waiting for me

I am not blogging for quite a few days, 562 spams under akismet account just reconfirms it. I am busy with inferno and new office. Also we are buying an office in US (checked few places at starton and tracy but not happy, so boss is checking few more).

I am moving to Delhi for 3 days, I got up early (2:00 am IST) and my flight is at 5:45 am so thought of updating the blog. I will get back to blogging in another 3 days. you can read some more of my posts at http://inferno.aimk.org/blog/.

Posted on

3 step illegal gmail account creation

Here is a creative way of creating gmail accounts (first hand method), sorry if illegal (why should it be illegal, it is just a free account creation?). Creating gmail account with invitations is just a big pain and everybody needs to create and manage various accounts. I prefer gmail accounts over others for obvious reasons (as they are the best).

Here is a small 3 step trick to create one without any alternative email:-

  1. Sent an invitation to any email id.
  2. Go to your sent mails sections.
  3. Use the link to create a new account.

This image will explain it properly (Life can’t be simpler).
gmail account creation

Some notes

  • Sometimes an invitation to an email id which does not exist may not work so send it to your friends.
  • Use two browsers to avoid logging out.

Enjoy Gmail and you can use the gmail multi account manager to manage more than one gmail account.

Posted on

When is the next bandth?

“Hi, How are you? When is the next Bandth?”. This is not a para from a fiction but a normal Bangla talk these days. We had some 5 to 6 bandths during last 30 working days and expecting few more in the days to come. For all who do not know what is a bandth, “it is a call (for a statewide strike) from a political party (or parties) against a policy of the ruling party”. This is most general definition but can vary too.

I am not saying ruling party did not do it wrong and neither I am saying that the ruling party did not take the right step. But are bandths a solution to sort out things? For every notion there is a for and there is an against but can we then have 366 days off every year?

It is certainly bad for all, as Bengal is losing something in the global race. How can we ask the investors to invest few more millions in West Bengal, when we are not sure of its working? Our judicial system needs more power. Why can’t such deals be discussed before implementations. Why only an after-effect? West Bengal voters need to think and improve the overall system, its now or never time. What is your opinion?

Posted on

Broadband getting cheaper and cheaper

I am sorry for not blogging for quite few days. I was busy with our new office and some work related to Inferno. Now the team will take it from here. My part if over for Inferno and got some time for blogging (Another thing: Today I went for root canal).

Story of the day, there has been some major changes for the broadband services in kolkata. Let me put that into various points (w.e.f from 1st Jan 2007, a very happy new year to all Internet users.)

1) Modem getting cheaper (Modem Rental)
Earlier

Type – I Type – II Type – III Type – IV
Rs. 100 Rs. 150 Rs. 125 Rs. 165

Now

Particulars Type – I Type – II Type – III Type – IV
Modem charges per month* Rs. 60 Rs. 90 Rs. 60 Rs. 90


2) Home plans getting even cheaper
Look at the downloading limits, it is increased 2.5 times. I will getting a downloading limit of 2.5 GB instead of 1.0 GB (which is welcome change). Also the extra charges are reduced.

Earlier

                Particulars
Tariff in Rs.
Home 250
(New)
Home 500
Home 1000
Home 1800
Home 3300
Bandwidth
256 Kbps
256 Kbps
384 Kbps
512 Kbps
1 Mbps
Monthly Charges (Rs)
250
500
1000
1800
3300
Discounted Annual Payment Option   to
Customers (Rs)
2500
5000
10000
18000
33000
Download/ Upload Limit (GB)
0.4 GB
1.0 GB
2 GB
5 GB
10 GB
Additional Usage Charges/MB

Beyond free download/upload limit    (Rs)

1.4
1.2
1.00
0.80
0.80
Free E-mail IDs/Space (Per E-mail ID)
1 / 5 MB
1 / 5 MB
1 / 5 MB
1 / 5 MB
2 / 5 MB
Security Deposit
NIL
NIL
1 month rental
1 month rental
1 month rental
Night Unlimited
(0200 – 0800 Hrs)
Not Available
Available
Available
Available
Available
Minimum Hire Period
Three Months
Three Months
One Month
One Month
One Month

Now

                Particulars
Tariff in Rs.
Home 250
(New)
Home 500
Home 1000
Home 1800
Home 3300
Bandwidth
256 Kbps/Up to 2 Mbps
256 Kbps/ Up to 2 Mbps
384 Kbps/Up to 2 Mbps
512 Kbps/Up to 2 Mbps
2 Mbps
Monthly Charges (Rs)
250
500
1000
1800
3300
Annual Payment Option   to Customers
(Rs)
2500
5000
10000
18000
33000
Download/ Upload Limit (GB)
1.0 GB
2.5 GB
5 GB
10 GB
20 GB
Additional Usage Charges/MB
Beyond free download/upload limit    (Rs)
0.90
0.80
0.80
0.70
0.70
Free E-mail IDs/Space (Per E-mail ID)
1 / 5 MB
1 / 5 MB
1 / 5 MB
1 / 5 MB
2 / 5 MB
Security Deposit
NIL
NIL
1 month rental
1 month rental
1 month rental
Night Unlimited
(0200 – 0800 Hrs)
Not Available
Available
Available
Available
Available
Minimum Hire Period
Three Months
Three Months
One Month
One Month
One Month

3) business plans getting cheaper
The downloading limits are increased. It will be a great help to smaller companies. I welcome the change.

Earlier

Particulars
Tariff in Rs.
Business 700
(New) 		Business 1200 Business 3000 Business 5000 Business
9000
 Bandwidth
256 kbps 256 kbps 512 kbps 1 Mbps 2 Mbps
 Single /Multi User-(SU/MU)

 SU SU MU MU MU
 Monthly Charges (Rs)
700 1200 3000 5000 9000
 Annual Payment Option to  Customers
(Rs)
7000 12000 30000 50000 90000
 Download/ Upload Limit (GB)
2 GB 4 GB 10 GB 20 GB 40 GB
 Additional Usage Charges/MB
 Beyond free download/upload  limit (Rs)
1.20 1.00 0.80 0.60 0.60
 Free E-mail IDs/Space (Per   E- mail
ID)
1 / 5 MB 1 / 5 MB 2 / 5 MB 2 / 5 MB 4 / 5 MB
Static IP Address (on request) Not Available Not Available Not Available One One
Web hosting space (on request) Not Available Not Available Not Available 5 MB 5 MB
Domain Name (on request) Not Available Not Available Not Available One One
 Security Deposit One Month rental One Month rental One Month rental One Month rental Rs 5000
 Minimum Hire Period One Month One Month One Month One Month One Month

Now

Particulars
Tariff in Rs.
Business 700
(New) 		Business 1200 Business 3000 Business 5000 Business
9000
 Bandwidth
256 kbps/Up to 2 Mbps 256 kbps/Up to 2 Mbps 512 kbps/Up to 2 Mbps 1 Mbps/ Up to
2 Mbps		 2 Mbps
 Single /Multi User-(SU/MU) SU SU MU MU MU
 Monthly Charges (Rs)
700 1200 3000 5000 9000
 Annual Payment Option to  Customers (Rs)
7000 12000 30000 50000 90000
 Download/ Upload Limit (GB)
4 GB 8 GB 20 GB 35 GB 75 GB
 Additional Usage Charges/MB
 Beyond free download/upload  limit (Rs)
0.80 0.80 0.50 0.50 0.50
 Free E-mail IDs/Space (Per   E- mail
ID)
1 / 5 MB 1 / 5 MB 2 / 5 MB 2 / 5 MB 4 / 5 MB
Static IP Address (on request) Not Available Not Available Not Available One One
Web hosting space (on request) Not Available Not Available Not Available 5 MB 5 MB
Domain Name (on request) Not Available Not Available Not Available One One
 Security Deposit One Month rental One Month rental One Month rental One Month rental Rs 5000
 Minimum Hire Period One Month One Month One Month One Month One Month

For more details you can visit http://www.calcuttatelephones.com/tariff_broadband.shtml. These changes are required to improve the internet penetration level in India. Computers are getting cheaper as well, now a person can spend Rs 20,000 and get a highly configured computer. Happy surfing.

Posted on

Happy New Year to everyone

Just got back after new year prayers, it was a great blessing to all of us. May God bless all of you this year. A very very happy new year to all. Pick of the day from my inbox (by Debapriyo Ganguly)

Heres wishing you a very happy and safe new year! As Oprah Winfrey said, “Cheers to the new year and another chance for us to get it right”.

You can feel Jealous, look at the pics, home made cakes :), specially made for the day (or night)

(Click on the image to enlarge it)
New Year 2007

Some other images
After Heavy Lunch

Lunch

Sunday Worship (Translating our dear Pastor’s Message to Hindi)
Message

Once again,

Happy New year to all

Posted on

Farewell party to Mr 2006

I just came back from the Morning session and now going back for the farewell party for Mr 2006, followed with a fresher party for Mr 2007.

I will write more about the fresher party once I come back (may be morning 5 am). This is the time to thank many people who have helped me make 2006 a better a year.

I will like to thank God for everything He did in my life. As I keep saying that all you can do is “word hard” but then the result still has some more parameters. I count myself very lucky as there are many who pray for me daily (in thousands). Thanking my parents for everything, they care of all my pains and I keep enjoying the moments being away from all pains. I thank all my Church members, ICPF groups, CGPF groups and other youth ministries for their continuous support. I thanks everyone in Grmtech, where I spend almost half of my day. Its been a great year with Grmtech, taking many important decision, done some really helpful recruitments (people make the company and now we have the right team for that). I thank all my friends for being their at all moments. I know there are many whom I should thank and I do that with whole of my heart, may God bless you all abundantly.

I need to push back in another 10 mins else I will go late for the special dinner :). Saying farewell to

  • Year 2006.
  • Old office building.
  • I will complete the list once I am back.


Bye Bye, Mr 2006.

Posted on

Multi Gmail Account manager not that safe

As I wrote earlier that multi email accounts can be managed using one gmail account. Is it protecting my identity (my primary email account details)? On the surface it is hiding your primary email but not at a technical level.

We use some ids which are anonymous and the person should not come to know the sender (this is used for some internal communication for improvement, we are using it with inferno team).

Let me again use the screenshots for better explanation with a step by step description:-

  1. I am sending an email to xyz(at)gmail.com(Manojit) using aji(at)aimk.org. aji(at)aim.org is an additional email account added to my primary account ajiissac(at)gmail.com.
    Google account manager not safe
  2. My friend Manojit gets the email. On surface it looks as an email from aji(at)aimk.org
    Google account manager
  3. Even while reading Manojit can’t figure it out.
    Google account manager

How can Manojit figure out then?
How can Manojit figure out that it is sent by ajiissac(at)gmail.com (who is managing another email id aji(at)aimk.org)? It can be done by Looking at the full header of the email. Click on the “reply down” and choose the option “show original”.
Gmail options

You will get the full header where the sender is ajiissac(at)gmail.com not aji(at)aimk.org and thus anyone can figure it out.
full header

In the above example it is not a problem as there is no harm if my primary email id is exposed but take a different case where [email protected] says “You are doing the right thing, please correct yourself Mr Manojit.”.

Now if Manojit figures out that it is not anonymous but ajiissac then the purpose is lost. In short Multi Gmail Account manager is not safe if you do not want to disclose your identity (your primary email account).