Abhinav

Apr 19

Airtel Photos -

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.

Jul 05

Bandh ? Not for IT Companies ! -

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…

Jun 29

Reserving India ? What about the Deserving India ? -

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…

Jun 07

The “good” things in life are all rationed..

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

Apr 17

StackExchangeBlog: Stack Exchange 2.0 -

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 :)

Apr 13

Justification for higher hikes ... -

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.

Apr 10

Gmail’s Nested Labels – Could have been Better ! -

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,…

Mar 26

Bright lights in big city, towns in the dark -

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.

Mar 25

Earth Hour - What’s the big deal ?

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 :) )

Mar 23

Beauty is skin deep

Feb 27

Simplifying Saral

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 !

Nov 08

A free guide to Google Wave -

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.

Nov 05

Short ebook on software pricing -

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.

Dear Facebook,

I do NOT want to
* Poke someone
* Right on someone’s wall
* Send a message to someone
* Reconnect with someone I am already connected to
* Suggest a profile picture for a needy
* Help make facebook better for someone by sending a message
So please stop suggesting these irritating activities which you recently started suggesting !

Nov 04

“If tumblr is a microblogging site, why isn’t the page load time on its site in microseconds ? Takes more time for a new-post page to appear than the time it takes to write a post !”