Got a mail from Airtel regarding a service listed under “Broadband” services. Not sure why - apart from the fact that one could use Airtel broadband to order Photos from zoomin - and then who cares - the broadband connection is just the behind-the-scenes plumbing.  Next, will we have “Airtel Travel”, “Airtel Accomodation”, “Airtel Movies” ? Is Vodafone listening ? :)

Of course, good marketing, awareness creation and (slightly ?) increased business for the actual company doing the work - zoomin. Interestingly, their website mentions FutureBazaar as a partner but not Airtel.

Today is supposed to be an All India Bandh. But there are quite a few companies which are able to not declare a bandh, and get work done as usual (well, almost).

Cisco is one of the unique…

This post, shared by a friend at work, highlights the effects of caste based reservations in India. It is sad that students resort to submitting blank answer sheets to multiple choice type…

.. Like Salary hikes, promotions, and number of Paneer cubes in a curry at the office cafetaria

StackExchange goes “free”, which should be good news .. except for the people who have invested effort and money in getting a paid site running. And, of course, the fact that now even if you have the money, you need some traction with the owners to get your site approved.

Great product, but you can’t please them all :)

From the article :

In a series of experiments, people who counted money felt less pain when their hands were dipped into scalding water. The soothing power of cash also helped them shrug off the emotional pain of social exclusion.

The findings might offer an easy way to ease life’s stings and hurts, from painful medical treatments to social ostracism: Simply flip through a bulging wallet before enduring a painful experience.

Nice. Also, no more net-banking, all transactions should be in 100/- notes.

Gmail Labs recently introduced a couple of new featurettes. One of them is Nested Labels, which is a way to organize your gmail labes into a hierarchy, simply by delimiting them with a /. So,…

So this is why there are no power cuts these days in Bangalore, despite the soaring heat. Another poll gimmick targeted at the right audience, while the rest of the state suffers.

Got quite a few mails from big MNCs (banks where I’m a customer, etc) regarding Earth Hour 2010. Not sure why these big corps are so enthu about it, considering :

* It is on a Saturday, 8:30 - 9:30 PM IST (practically no one will be in office any way)

* These firms are already doing a good job of controlling energy after office hours (only few elevators function, cubicle lights are dimmed starting at 5-6 PM) - not just for being green, but for saving money (co-incidentally, all this started last year, when the down turn was in effect and firms were looking at ways to cut costs)

So basically, firms are pledging support to the Earth Hour, well aware that they don’t have to do anything more than what they’re already doing - and trying so show how “green” they are :)

(Of course, people at home, do participate in this campaign, please - you’re the real people who will be doing anything substantial :) )

Why does the FM (as in the ministry, not just the man) need to make simplifications to the Saral form almost every year ? Why not get some design experts, and get it done with in one shot ?

Someone from google should help these guys !

This free guide to Google Wave is a great starting point for understanding how to leverage the power of the new platform. In addition, it’s free, and will be updated regularly as more features are added in wave.

Neil Davidson has come up with a great guide to software pricing, which also covers the basic microeconomics therories on demand-supply curves, etc. Good read.