Logic2Go

Political dumbness at its usual.

Some dumb political worker thinks hiding an important road sign at a busy crossing on Tumkur Road, Bangalore will help things improve!

So Surabhi and I decided to finally go and spend some time looking at Ranga’s cartoons over the years at the Indian Institute of Cartoonists.

Pretty good collection, I must say. Though, a lot of the politicians were completely alien to me (well, most are, I know, but I digress).

That exhibit’s over now, but there will be atleast two exhibits every month from now on at their Midford House location (take a right just after Big Kids Kemp on MG Road, then 2nd or 3rd building on your right. Go down to the basement) .

I look forward to seeing my old schoolmate Keshav’s cartoons alongwith popular ones from Sri RK Laxman, Miranda and others at future shows!
The events were sponsored by the NICE team (Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises).

Good stuff, overall.

Ok, so I went ahead and retired my most beloved, most excellent, the most most, k750i with another Sony Ericsson model … the P1i (see P1i photos)
It’s a pretty cool phone, as phones go. And it was a tough choice between P1i and the iPhone (Arvind, Jace and Suramya, un-drop your jaws now).

Firstly, why the iPhone, and more importantly, why not the iPhone?

The iPhone is finally a piece of Apple technology that does not involve my ditching Visual Studio as a development platform. There, I’ve said it!

Why not the iPhone?

This was a tough question, but simply put, I need a phone with “real” buttons that could give me tactile feedback. And my experience with Surabhi’s MDA (aka i-mate) showed me that I was definitely a “real” buttons person. Also, iPhone’s so-so email strengths and lack of initial 3rd party application support.

The P1i not only has a standard phone-type keyboard, but also uses two-side-pushable keys that give me a full keyboard experience without making the device too wide and uncomfortable for trouser pockets.

And the touchscreen is pretty useful for other non-typing related tasks.

And the 3.2 megapixel camera helps. Also the fact that it has wi-fi, bluetooth and infrared (Infrared ports on phones are pretty important, if you know what I mean and do the kind of work I need to get done!!!). But lack of 3G data downloads sucks big time. I guess there’s always the next model for that!!!
Also, being a Sony Ericsson device, it builds on a proven track record with my previous phones (T28, T39, T610, k750i, and now the P1i)

However, there was a scary thing that happened … mostly a sign of the times being a mobile user in India.

The first 3rd party application I installed on my new phone was an SMS anti-spam software (SMS Spam Manager). SMS spam is a bloody pain in the ass now-a-days. And now, to find a Junk-call blocker!

Arthur C Clarke moves on to a higher plane of existence.

After all, one of the God’s of S and SF would not want to consider merely something as mundane as death the end.

There is an argument in my mind.

Should I reduce plastic wastage and use wood based products where alternatives are possible or try to stop cutting down more trees?

Very often there aren’t options that don’t use plastic or wood. Whats an eco-lover got to do?

Or, maybe just reduce consumption overall??
Much easier than it sounds.

:-(

Why is it that most modern books and movies, when showing traits of the good character of an 18th century story, depict niceness in general with the assumption that they were nice to their slaves and helped fight for their freedom.

Are those the only kind of nice/good/honest/truthful people who lived in those times? And were all good people anti-slavery and all bad people pro-slavery?

By this definition, no plantation owner or anyone in his family could be a good person! Unless you let go of all slaves and became a pauper (imagine trying to compete against other plantations that had relatively free labour vs. “paying” for labour)

Being nice to slaves could not be, by itself, the only or the best criteria. Could it?

Thats like future books/movies depicting all nice/good/honest/truthful people from the 21st century as someone who never had a maid or always gave to charity or helped solve world hunger and fought against genocide by going to Darfur.
I havent helped solve world hunger or always given to charity. Heck I even have multiple maids at home. And I don’t see myself stopping this lifestyle right away.

Would I be portrayed as a bad person in future history?

It’s been what, over 2 months since I last blogged?! And a month and a half before that last post too??
And thats just not cool, methinks.

So here’s to restarting the blogger in me …

But whatever happened to keep me away?

Mostly, resting. And traveling. A lot. Different places. Different civilisations. The more I travelled, the more I realised that the world isn’t just whats seen through the omni-directional english-spewing mass media.

For example, I now know that I have more in common with the Uzbek’s and Tajik’s than the Europeans/Americans, even though I’ve grown up studying their books, reading their novels, watching their shows and listening to their music!

I don’t feel disjointed from either side, yet. Just a better understanding of the different cultures that have helped shape the modern, educated man I consider myself to be. It really really is true. There is nothing like travelling to put your head back on straight and get your ideas flowing again!

Still, this post is very not complete. Thankfully.

No, don’t fret, this isn’t one more of “those” posts showing off the author’s eco-friendliness and stating that “I will not burst fireworks this year”

I’ve been doing the eco-friendly thing for 7 whole years. And this year is an exception.

So I went out yesterday and got a box-ful of chakras, flower-pots (anars), phul-jari’s, laxmi bombs and lari’s! And going out to burst the first firecrackers in 7 years.

A very very happy diwali indeed!!!

I’ve just posted my first idea on IdeaBlob, a website for entrepreneurs and small businesses to share and discuss ideas/challenges.

So, before you do anything else today, please take a minute to view the idea I posted http://ideablob.com/ideas/315 and vote for it.

Also, if you have some ideas yourself, I’d recommend atleast try the rest of the website out!

(with apologies to Josh Quittner, whose mag Business 2.0 I totally loved)

But, Seriously!

As an entrepreneur … I don’t need another social network letting me meet and chat with other entrepreneurs. Sure it’s all nice and fuzzy and maybe sometimes helpful meeting other entrepreneurs, but hearing from more than a few at a time and it’s over-kill. and Linkedin.com works well, already.

For example, I was a big fan of news.ycombinator.com for a few weeks … then, the excitement wore off. Same thing with GoBigNetwork.

Why do I say this?
Entrepreneurs are a flowing crowd. By the time you make a community of your peers (and it does take months, quarters or years), you have either gotten rich with your startup (and it’s a startup no more), or are struggling soo much that you’ve become weary of over-excited kids raving about their 1-week old startup.
Once you’ve had a successful startup, you are no longer that “loner” entrepreneur. You’ve made it; the investors know and trust you. You can either raise money quickly or find partners fast. You have a team you can trust.

As an entrepreneur … what I do need and what is critical for me is to meet with and connect with these 3 types of people:
1) Vendors who can sell me stuff that can
1.1) Save me money (reduce costs)
1.2) Increase my sales (part marketing & part sales tools)
1.3) Help recruit talent (or fix talent problems)
2) Potential leads, who I meet through
2.1) Industry-specific associations
2.2) Geography-specific associations
2.3) Vertical- and Horizontal- partnering opportunities
2.4) A-list bloggers are not potential target customers for the every type of startup, yet. (read more below)
3) Potential investors, who I meet through
3.1) Personal networking (most of the time)
3.2) Business relationships (my ex-boss’s former dorm-mate who is an Angel investor, types)
3.3) Conferences/trade shows (read more below)

Meeting other entrepreneurs to discuss similar “tax and marketing” problems is passe. I learnt more about sending mass-postcard mailings from an uber cool Photoshop wizard (you, Danny Glix) and a printing company in Tampa than from any other entrepreneur I know. They deal with it all day, not once in a blue moon.

Why I don’t target A-list bloggers?
Honestly, because they don’t link to anyone in my target market. If you are a web 2.0 service company, then, by all means go ahead and get the A-listers blogging about you. But if you happen to be selling sales and manufacturing software for transportation, logistics (www.adeena.net) and hurricane and construction industries (www.HurricaneBOSS.com)… there is little they can do to help you.
(It’s always nice to get the word out through them, but it’s more of an uphill battle for niche industry startups than for a web 2.0 company)
(That does help, with Google ranking, though   )

Meeting investors at Conferences/Trade Shows
I don’t think it helps as much meeting investors at a “Venture Capital Show”. But to actually get an investor to talk to you at your (non-investment-related but industry related) trade-show booth is awesome. The potential investor is getting a first-hand look at how you handle yourself with potential clients, seeing you form partnerships and close sales. Also, how you deal with competitive pressure when your bigger and better funded competitor’s booth is just 1 row away! No elevator pitch can beat this kind of real-world demonstration!