No TV Day–I mean it Amol Mategaonkar10:26 AM 1 comments

Last week the School of my children sent out a note about a drawing competition, inviting parents to join along with children. I wasn’t particularly keen, especially since it was on a Saturday and I was looking out for a relaxed weekend after a damn hectic week. The note also had some brochure titled “No TV Day” advertising Hindustan Times. That even put me down further as I already dumped the concept as some marketing gimmick from HT. However, I was not given an option to give it a miss by my kids and I was forced to join.

The overall experience was quite contrary to what I had expected.

Firstly, the entire environment was made quite conducive for an event like this. The big auditorium of Udayachal School was packed with parents who came along with their children and they jointly painted their imaginations about “Mumbai”. The results were quite amazing. Gateway of India, Juhu Beach, Marine Drive, Bandra Worli Sea Link, and even Kala Ghoda Festival - we had everything covered. Apart from the end result, I enjoyed the whole process. Given our background, we do frequently spend time with children on Music. However, this was probably the first time we actually participated jointly with my kids for a drawing competition. It was quite enjoyable. I have almost concluded that I am not that bad in drawing as I assumed earlier .

Apart from enjoying the time that I spent there, I liked the concept itself. No TV Day. Instead of wasting time watching TV, spend time with your children by letting the creative juices flow free through drawing and painting. This time it was painting. Next time it could be Games. Could be Music. It is important to realize that the idiot box has intruded into our lives possibly much more than it ideally should. I have seen families where people do not even speak to each other for hours when Ekta’s characters are in full swing in the evening. Or children who do not eat if the Cartoon network is switched off. There is a need to seriously relook at this addiction that is catching up our society big time. This has exponentially increased over last 5 yrs with digital cable services, HD content, LED TVs and what not. Children, instead of playing in the ground, prefer to waste their times watching Shinchans of the world. The broken knees are soon getting replaced by spectacled eyes.

We followed the “No TV Day” instruction quite well that day and came out quite satisfied. Have decided to follow this as a practice. Not sure about the frequency though. But have made the beginning at least. I am forced to extend this to other devices as well that have intruded my personal life. My children are behind me to follow “No Laptop Day” and “No Office Cell phone Day”. The thought process has begun. I am willing to follow.

How about you?

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The Big Change at Google & the Microsoft Analogy Amol Mategaonkar12:23 AM 1 comments

Yesterday Google announced that the current CEO, Eric Schmidt, who ran the company for more than 10 years will step down. The co-founder of Google, Larry Page will take over from him. It is interesting to see a giant like Google shaking it’s leadership even after consistent stellar performance on the balance sheet. At the face of it, it might look as if all this was uncalled for, especially when the company is doing so well on the stock market, on its revenues as well as net profits.

That’s where new age technology companies like Google differ. Balance sheets are the last thing to worry for them.

Google is at a stage where Microsoft was at one point in time. It had demonstrated phenomenal growth and leadership in technology innovation and a mass reach that seemed to be unparalleled in the history of computing. The king of Desktop software (Windows and Office) was on a dream run for almost decade with more than 90% share of whatever market it entered. However, things changed with the fast changing winds of early 2000s and it could not keep pace with the rapid innovation driven by the internet. In spite of an early advantage that it had with the acquisition of Hotmail, Microsoft has been by and large a laggard in bringing in internet based innovations. A small start-up from California like Google went on to become giant and has already started challenging Microsoft on its own turf of Operating Systems and Office Applications. While MS still continues to enjoy market leadership position in Desktop software, it is no more perceived as a Technology Innovation Leader.

Google has potentially similar problem in-front of it.

The way MS missed the internet innovation bus, Google is threatened by the Social Media trend. While the Social Media has reached billions across the world, Google has been rather unsuccessful in creating a space for itself here. Orkut was once popular in India and Brazil, but failed to have a global reach. Buzz was a disaster. Google Wave started with much fan fare but had to be shut down within 18 months for very low adoption. On the other hand, the world saw the rise and rise of Twitter and Facebook. Facebook, with an estimated revenue of 1 Billion USD last year, already has a valuation of 50 Billion USD. With a user base of more than 500 million and growing, it is the most popular internet app in the world. Two months back the overall time spent on Facebook surpassed the total time spent on all Google properties put together. It has already become a household name, just like Google.

Google can not just sit and watch this happen.

With the size and complexity of its business, Google has somewhere hit the Big Company Syndrome, making it slow and less friendly to innovation. The change at the top, is precisely to address this problem. Under Page’s leadership, Google hopes to bring back the pace, speed and nimbleness of the young companies like Facebook while still being a large financial giant.

The Adult Supervision that Eric Schmidt brought to the then young and budding Google, seems to have become a bottleneck, just 10 yrs down the line. Google has been proactive to fix this. Unlike Microsoft.

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Adam - A Desi iPad Killer ? Amol Mategaonkar9:32 AM 0 comments

It has been quite some time that I wrote on this blog. However, I wanted to write about something that I am really excited about . Adam - soon to launch Tablet Computer from NotionInk. The innovative design of this Tablet has already created lot of excitement since when it was first shown in the Mobile World Congress 2010. What is more exciting about this is that it is completely Desi at heart. It's designed and built by an Indian company in Bangalore - NotionInk under the leadership of the young innovator - Roshan Shravan. http://www.notionink.in/ The super cool innovations in this product, coupled with a lucrative price makes it a potential iPad killer. Here is why.

Design

The Adam has loads of innovations built into the design of the Tablet itself. With the unique "Curve" design, 180 degree turning camera, multi-touch capacitive touch screen, Pixel Qi e-ink technology (will explain this below), innovative track pad navigation from the back side, NotionInk has dozens of patented elements into the new gadget.

User Experience

The User Interface of the Tablet is extremely fresh and young. Have a look at some of the screenshots here. The company promises completely new user experience on this gadget. The Adam is built using Google's Android Operating System, however completely customized for its use. As you might know, Android is fast becoming the Operating System of choice on the Smart Phones. However, looking at the size of the Tablet, which is quite larger compared to a smart phone, NotionInk has customized the OS to suite their needs and also made many innovations to enable far richer user experience. Going by the limited previews available for the product, they seem to have done pretty impressive job.

Performance

Adam boasts of an impressive nVidia Dual Core 1GHz processor, supposedly faster than the Apple A4 processor in iPad. This means much faster processing speeds and graphics responses. Roshan Shravan claims a battery life of 16 Hrs compared to 10 hrs of iPad.

Pixel Qi e-ink Display

The Adam has an optional Pixel Qi display. This means simply that you can clearly read the tablet even if you are standing in bright sun. This feature is currently found in eBook readers like Amazon Kindle. Even iPad does not have it so well. See the demo of this in the video.

Connectivity

Adam supports three USB ports and an HDMI output. This means that you can connect external devices like hard drives, mouse, keyboards to it at the same. Also, you can project the tablet on a High Definition TV using the HDMI port. Sorry. The iPad is nowhere closer Mr. Jobs. Apart from this, it also supports Wifi, 3G and GPRS. It also has GPS chip.

Price

The Adam is priced between $375 to $549 (depending upon connectivity and display options). Compare this with iPad that ranges between $499 to $799. Moreover, Adam will have a global price. This means that this will make it even more attractive price in Europe. India hasn't seen the formal launch of iPad yet. The max price of $549 of fully loaded Adam (Rs. 24,000) is extremely exciting compared to an iPad that is available for 38000 in the gray market. The price is cheaper than many smart phones like higher end Blackberry, Motorola Droid and iPhone.

See an interview of Shravan here

A few Questions though

All the above looks very lucrative and exciting. I do have these questions before I finally give out my verdict.

• I understand that Adam has customized Android OS for its use. What does this mean for the millions of applications available out there on the Android market? Will those applications work on the Adam? If they don't, then Adam has a huge set back given that iPad has a killer app market and anything and everything you need is available there.
• The looks of it are impressive - especially the User Interface. Will the experience itself be as impressive? I mean, will the response time of the touch screen be as lucid as an iPad?
• Will it be available in India? :-) Steve Jobs was ok. But hope Mr. Shravan does not ignore his own motherland.

The Adam has started taking pre-orders since couple of days back. It is being manufactured in China and being shipped world-wide from there. If it stands up to the expectations and excitement it has created, it is definately an iPad killer and surely a reason enough for all of us to be proud of. Finally, are we up for a real global IT product Made (oops, designed) in India?

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Is that a New Dawn at Ayodhya? Amol Mategaonkar6:40 AM 4 comments

30th Sept 2010 was one of the most anxious days in the recent past. The much awaited verdict on the disputed land at Ayodhya was supposed to be delivered at 3:30 PM. The sheer anxiety around the potential communal conflicts and riots resulting as a result of the verdict saw most of the cities closed, schools given off, offices closing early, streets almost empty and citizens camping in their safe homes before 3:30 PM. Thankfully, all this proved to be unnecessary. Not only the verdict received peaceful reactions from all corners of the society, the verdict itself paved the way for much cordial and amicable solution to the issue - a birth of a new Dawn at Ayodhya.

The Anxiety

The issue that started as a local conflict of ownership of the land between Hindus and Muslims more than 150 yrs finally turned into a national issue in early 90's when BJP's made it a political manifesto to win over the Hindu hearts and come back to power at Delhi after decades of dominance by the Congress. While the historical Rath Yatra by Advani was a major booster for his career, helped BJP come back as a National Party to recon with, it also manifested into falling of the Babri Masjid in Dec 1992, followed by one of the worst communal riots in the country killing close to 2000 lives. The 1993 Mumbai serial blasts were supposed to be a revenge of the same.

With this background the Allahabad High Court was to deliver the historical verdict on whom the disputed land belonged to apart from answering a few related questions like whether the place under dispute was really the birth place of Ram, did a temple exist earlier, was the Babri masjid constructed after demolishing the erstwhile temple, etc. While the Ayodhya is no longer a lucrative political manifesto for BJP since it has lived its life as a political issue in the minds of people, the aftermath of it - the massive communal riots - are not forgotten. No wonder this was the most anxiously awaited verdict, not from the perspective of what the verdict would be, but more for the possible communal conflict it could potentially create.

The Verdict

Here is the summary of the verdict.

For me, following points are important.

• The disputed Land equally divided into the three parts - one each for Muslims, Hindus and Nirmohi Akhara.


• Established that the central dome was really the place of birth for Ram


• That a Ram temple existed before Babri Masjid was constructed


• Paves the was for construction of Ram Mandir

The merit of the verdict lies in the way it balances both sides. While it paves the way for the Ram temple, reaffirms it to be the birth place of Ram at the same time gives equal ownership of the disputed place to Muslims. The very respectful and dignified response from people all the country from all religions is a testimony to this fact. There are extremists from both sides that may not be completely happy with it, but that's OK. These are the people who have made their careers and living out of this issue. It will be in their interest not to let this die out.

The Dawn

The calm and matured reaction given by one and all is an indication of the fact that India has moved on. The first thought in the minds of a common Indian (Hindu or Muslim) was that of a sense of relief rather than the verdict itself. Given that the verdict has something for everyone is a bonus. We all have moved on. We love religions. We respect and worship our Gods. But we no more want it at the cost of our own lives. The dreaded memories of 92 riots haunt us even today. We do not want a repeat of the same at any cost. This division of land has offered to unit us, keeping all the memories of 92 behind. It has paved the way for Ram Temple and offered equal share of the land to Muslims. Can we join hands to build a temple of Ram Lalla as well as a Masjid side by side? Can we turn around the place that currently reminds one of the worst hindu-muslim conflicts in the history into a monument of secular peace and harmony for centuries to come? Time has come to tell the world that India has really moved on. That the youth of this new India does not carry the legacy of 1947, 1971, 1992 and even 2002. That no political party can use our religious sentiments to their benefits. All that is behind us. What we want is the birth of a new Dawn.

With no untoward incident being reported from any part of the country even a day after the verdict, I am sure the Ram Lalla himself will be much more satisfied to see the new found calm, maturity and resilience in his own erstwhile Kar-sevaks.

Jai Shree Ram

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Swadeshi Coming Full Circle Amol Mategaonkar11:56 AM 1 comments

Recently my kids were reading a chapter in their Std IV English text book - "My First Encounter with Swadeshi" by Indira Gandhi. I remembered this lesson from childhood as well, where Indira Gandhi, then a kid, gave away her favorite imported doll under the influence of Swadeshi movement. The recent developments in the US made me to think that the Swadeshi movement has come a full circle, after more than 100 yrs.

Obama's love for Outsourcing
President Obama's always had the "anti-outsourcing" agenda high on his election manifesto. No wonder the US Govt is taking steps to curb outsourcing to Indian companies, to the extend possible. Recent few developments in particular are indicative of the overall mood against outsourcing to Indian companies.

Firstly, US hiked Work Permit (H1-B) Visa fees from $320 to $2,320 - a huge 625% increase. Although the stated reason was to fund the millions of dollars required to beef up the security at Mexico border, the real reason was to discourage US companies from getting knowledge workers from India. $3000 is quite a significant amount and is likely to hit the profitability of an "on site" resource from Infosys, TCS and Wipros of the world.

Second - more severe - was that the Ohio state disallowed any government IT and back office projects to be outsourced outside to countries like India. The country which is still in the process of recovering from one of the biggest economic downturns of the recent past, is struggling with issues like unemployment. This is an effort to to address unemployment issues. Many see the upcoming elections as a major motivating factor.
Whatever the reasons be, such protectionist steps are counter-productive to the very economic recovery process of the US and against the spirit of open global trade. The only option for the US govt to address unemployment is to create new employment opportunities by letting the US companies (and Govt) be more competitive. More than 50% of the Fortune 500 (read top 500) companies in the US outsource their IT projects and back office to India. Steps like these will only make them lesser competitive. The ban has been widely criticised and seen as very narrow & short-term focused.

Life coming Full Cirlce
Relating it back to the "My first encounter with Swadeshi", I feel this is life coming full circle. Swadeshi movement was started in 1905 by Gandhiji. It was an economic strategy to improve economic conditions in India through self-sufficiency by boycotting foreign products and the revival of domestic-made products and production techniques. The second wave of Swadeshi was driven by the "Sangh Parivaar", 50 yrs after Independence when the Indian economy opened up and allowed foreign companies to setup their shops here. The second one was to protect the local businesses from the biggies from US. Almost 15 yrs down the line, India has moved on. The economy has seen steady growth. We have survived the largest global downturn of 2008-2009 and have emerged stronger. India also established itself as the global leader of IT and back office outsourcing. Giants like TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Bharti, Tatas, Reliance, Essar, etc have gone global, acquiring large enterprises of the west and established themselves as globally competitive organizations. The term "Indian MNCs" became popular. Gone are the days when the desi companies ran under the threat to go out of business because of MNCs from US comping to India. The things have actually turned upside down. The biggest Capitalist economy on the planet is today forced to take steps to save its companies from the threat from the East. Its Swadeshi coming full circle.

Can he ?
All said and done, outsourcing is a reality and an inevitable need of the US companies in order to remain competitive in an economy increasingly dominated from East (read China, India). Obama administration can not stop outsourcing by private companies. Incidentally I am writing this at a time when my own company is in the process of moving some jobs to Hyderabad.
What is the next thing to come full circle. Is it Indian Rupee against US Dollar? Will that happen?

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A. R. Rahman - Doubting the Legend Amol Mategaonkar9:53 AM 4 comments

Nothing seems to be going well with Common Wealth Games. As if the controversies relating to the corruption surrounding CWG were not enough, even the theme song composed by A. R. Rahman as well has become a point of controversy. The media has gone crazy in criticizing Rahman on the song to the extend of concluding that he no longer has his focus on India and is too occupied with assignments from Hollywood. Did we forget so quickly that he is the one who put India on a global map and brought home the Oscars and Grammys of the world? Why is our memory so short and reactions so extreme?
Last week the theme song for CWG was released. You can listen to it online here.


General reaction to the composition has not been very encouraging all over. The critics didn't like it. Common people didn't like it. There are open reactions to the song on Facebook with fans expressing their dislike for it. The media stretched it too far. Mumbai Mirror ran a huge article on him "Lost to the World" claiming that he has more ambitions in Hollywood, is inaccessible to producers in Bollywood and hence is "lost to the world". It was only a few months earlier that the same media made him the God after he brought home the black lady of Oscar. Suddenly after not so great innings with Ravan and CWG, his very commitment to his own country is being doubted.
Our media, and we as a society, are so extreme in our reactions to our heroes. Whether it is Rahman, or Sachin or Dhoni we tend to go aver the board when they succeed, bring us glory, and quickly forget it within no time if they lose form.
Let us not forget the umpteen number of super compositions that the "Mozart of Madras" has given us. Starting with Roja, Dil Se, Taal, to Bombay, Lagaan, Swades, RDB, Guru, Jodha Akbar and so on. His melodies are incomparable to his contemporaries. Have a revision of his body of work here, if you need to.


Try to build such a piece for all the composers of the contemporary hindi cinema and you will run out of stock even before you start.
I honestly did not like the CWG song. But then, I also think that "Jai Ho" is not Rahman's best composition. It still took the world by storm. My opinion does not matter. As a fan, I don't expect that I will love all of his compositions and I am perfectly fine with it.

Rahman is a hot topic of discussion everywhere right now. Unfortunately for wrong reasons. Through a discussion thread on Facebook with my friends Uday and Anish, an important observation came up. The comment Rahman made before the release of the CWG song, as Uday points out, was very "non Rahamanish". He said - "Song would go beyond Shakira's chart-buster for this year's soccer World Cup 'Waka Waka'. This is a humble request to the legend. We would love to see the same low-profile, humble Rahaman who would let his music speak for him rather than he making such tall claims and eventually not fulfilling them. We understand he is also a human and these things are normal. But as Anish says rightly, "Its tough for anyone, more so such greats, to not make such a faux paux once in their lifetime. Rahman's greatness will lie in how he takes this experience and comes out of it". I can't agree more.

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Google's Changing Personality Amol Mategaonkar10:15 AM 4 comments

I am not sure if you have observed this, but recently Google added a small new feature to the legendary http://www.google.com/ page. The change might look very subtle, but it indicates a major shift from the very fundamental principle of UI Design that google is known for - minimalistic design. I have no clue why google has done this. Let me explain.

The Classical Way

Google is known for its simplicity in User Interface (UI) design. Its UIs are easy to use, intuitive and free of clutter. The best example of this is http://www.google.com/ The world's most visited website just had a google logo, a text box and two buttons - "Google Search" and "I am Feeling Lucky". Over a period of time Google added links to other google applications such as News, Image Search, YouTube, Orkut, Photos and so on in addition to some language options. It even added a feature last year where all these options and links are hidden by default and get enabled only when you move the mouse a little.

The story has it that when the google founders created google, they didn't know HTML coding and they created a very simple design which they could code. Over the period of time that became the signature design of google. Just a plain white background, google logo and a text box with two buttons. I loved it. Millions loved it the world over. However, Google just lost it... well almost.

The New Option

Recently google added a new link towards the left side bottom of google.com. It reads "Change Background Image". You need to sign-in with your google ID in order to use this feature. What this allows you to do is that you can either upload your own image or select from an existing set of publicly available images that you can set as background to your google.com home page. The image shows up in the background whenever you use google.com anywhere in the world.

Issues

The classical plain white simplistic design has been googl's signature. I am not sure about the motivation for this feature. Somehow I feel, this is a step away from its own legacy. There are some challenges with it as well. The user can really shoot herself in the feet. Try uploading an image that is too small or too big to fit your screen. It messes up the entire look. Second issue is with the logo. Since google can not predict the image color scheme, it has made the logo transparent white. This is again a big deviation from the signature multi-color design of google logo. Thirdly, if you upload a heavy image, it makes the loading of the page slow. Google is known for its speed. Its the most reliable and fast website in the world. A heavy background can make it slow.

Copy Cat???

Did google find motivation for this feature in Microsoft's bing? The way Plain background has been the signature design for Google, beautiful background images has been the key design principle of Microsoft's new search engine - http://www.bing.com/ I love that as well. It has a slightly different approach and does not have any of the issues relating to googl's approach that I mentioned above. Every day it has a new, rich quality background image, showing some famous place in the world. It also provides some useful info about it on mouse over. It does not allow user-uploaded images. The user can not shoot in her feet. When it was introduced last year, this looked new and fresh. Many who used it, loved it.. including me. However, was this the motivation for the new feature in google? I hope not.

I hope the biggest innovator on the Internet didn't have to copy it from Microsoft and had some other inspiration that I am not aware of.

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