R. Rajesh Jeba Anbiah

Recently we had to try a new technology . As expected, we did hit edge case quickly. After analyzing thoroughly, we had to ditch part of the stack. But, I had developed much interest over Node.js , Redis , WebSocket and client app technologies lately and I hope that they'll take the lead. Some frequently asked questions about these technologies: What is Node.js? It is set of JavaScript libraries around Google’s V8 JavaScript engine, written by Ryan Dahl in 2009. Why Node.js is picking up? With Node.js, it’s easy to write web server in pure JavaScript. We can totally eliminate another language interpreter layer by programming the web server to handle the request directly (For example, in LAMP, PHP is required to handle the requests. But, in Node.js based server, no such layer is required). Is Node.js a right choice? It depends. Though few developers may find it easy to adopt, others may find it difficult to write quality code in event-driven asynchronous style. When th...

Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify and vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as crazy, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do. --  Think different, Apple's TV commercial Kids of Mac toys often attribute everything to Steve Jobs. But, I recently happened to read the people and story behind the inspiring "Think Different" ad . I think, everyone must read it--to be inspired.

Tamil writer Prapanchan is writing மனிதர் தேவர் நரகர் (Humans, Angels, Devils) in Puthiya Thalaimurai magazine every week. His writing style is amazing. I liked all the series, but close to my heart are his take on Kanimozhi/Karunanidhi and memories related to Kumudam magazine in which he has quoted Haiku of Issa : A world of grief and pain: Flowers bloom; Even then ...

Recently I came across some code snippets and it's full of mess, lacking fundamentals, lacking basic code separation... That made me to wonder why some developers aren't learning the basics before trying anything.

Mahendragiri ISRO is situated close to my hometown and now Koodankulam ... When ISRO was started, there were no industries. At that time, everyone was happy about the project as many believed that it would create more employment opportunities. (As per some conspiracy theories, Kanyakumari was sidelined for being Congress-fort then). Later on few guys got job there... and later on they complained that they're been transferred to other place for being local guys--by Anti-Tamil seniors. Few months ago, an Engineer from Secundrabad who's working in ISRO joined me in train. The guy shared some information... he's recruited/recommended by his Secundrabad colleague, his ambition is to work in NASA, his job is just to check meter and make a note of it..., many guys have similar boring jobs... Anybody who's complaining IT guys should talk to these ISRO guys! ISRO is a big example on how Indian government is spending crores of rupees lavishly. Majority of the projects--ac...

I greatly admired S.P. Udayakumar  ( Koodankulam anti-nuclear activist) for his calm and composed response; it is usually not easy to reply moronic Narayanasamy and moronic Ponraj (advisor of Abdul Kalam) who're always blabbering irrationally. By wrongly judging from his sober and humble look, I'd thought that he's an illiterate villager from Koodankulam. But, recently I came to know that he's studied in USA and worked as a professor there. My respect for him greatly increased when I compared him with other exhibitionist NRIs. Here are the details that I collected... Name: S.P. Udayakumar Age: 50 Native: Nagercoil Family: Wife Meera running SACCER primary and middle school, 2-sons Education M.A. (Peace Studies) from Notre Dame University in the United States (1990) Ph.D. (Political Science) from the University of Hawaii (1996) (Past) Occupation  Research fellow at Kirwan Institute Professor at Governor's School of Public Issues and the Fut...

For some time now, I was wondering why Times of India is reporting against to Tamils, especially on death penalty and Mullaiperiyar dam. Today, I came to know that it’s demanding 100 crores from The Weekend Leader for unhiding the truth with Rising emotions, falling objectivity, the truth behind Mullaiperiyar coverage in Chennai newsrooms authored by Radhika Giri. Fore more information, refer Savukku: Is Times of India, an anti-Tamil newspaper? , Death of neutrality in Mallu fanaticism , Demanding 100 crores

I personally find " Get well soon Kapil Mamu ", the political tag line against to Internet censorship is quite creative.

Our team always used to hit the edge cases quickly... Some technologies might be there for years, but when we start hacking, we'll immediately come across a situation that might faced only by veterans. Our experience with Delphi (one of the coolest technologies), ASP.NET MVC , MonoRail/ASP.NET , iPhone/Android programming proved that. This time, with another new technology... fingers crossed...

My post Save Perarivalan was sadly late, but one of the earlier posts written in English. I have also tried my best to translate popular conspiracy theories on Rajiv Gandhi assassination . Fortunately that seem to have worked well and the post got more attention -- especially news like this: The noose and their views [Mid Day, November 4, 2011] started to appear. Recently I have noticed traffic to the page with referrer links http://x.x.x.x:15871/cgi-bin/blockOptions.cgi?ws-session=xxx -- meaning the page is blocked using Websense . When I resolved the IPs, shockingly they're from some big IT companies!

PHP Ajax Cookbook is now available for pre-order.

This is part of my Save Perarivalan series. In Tamil, we have lots of news articles available on the conspiracy theories surrounding Rajiv Gandhi assassination, investigation, Subramanian Swamy's alleged involvement, Chandraswami's alleged involvement, P. Chidambaram's alleged involvement, Jain Commission report, other countries' alleged involvement, etc. But in English, we have very few articles available on the topic: The Deadly Duo  Crucial evidence linking Chandraswami to the Rajiv case went missing from Rao's PMO. Outlook investigates. Outlook Magazine, dated November 24, 1997 The Scoop Is Ours  THE Jain Commission's interim report on Rajiv Gandhi's assassination has created a furore in political circles and hogged the headlines in all major national dailies. Outlook Magazine, dated November 24, 1997 Dusty Trail  TWELVE extensions in six years and no sign of the final report yet. Outlook Magazine, dated November 24, 1997 "Some Files Weren...

I have stopped reading Savukku.net ( Once I called it as WikiLeaks of India ) for sometime-- when it started J.J. evangelism after the state elections. But, recently, when I checked, it seems to be back to its core journalism with good hidden truths on Pramakudi incident and articles on death penalty. Its article on Afzal Guru is first of its kind in media--especially when everyone is crying foul to hang him. In மரண தண்டனையை ஒழிப்போம் 4 (Let's stop death penalty, Part 4) article, it highlights counter theory about police brutality. I have noted that majority of the information are already available on the book written by Afzal Guru available online from JusticeForAfzalGuru.org website--but not prominent in mainstream media.

Our team has developed GroupDeal, group buying software platform that powers many Groupon competitor sites. Being ours is the first and popular groupon clone in the market, our team introduced many new features. Like I already pointed out , we added self service merchant login in the first version itself and Groupon introduced the same feature--much later as Groupon 2.0. By August 2011, our team introduced another killer feature termed as "GroupDeal Live". It is more than Groupon's Groupon Now: It has street marketing ability. With it, merchants can create deals for the (sudden) crowd. By looking at merchant control panel, they can find the users around their shops and branches. The users are classified into Normal/Web Users and iPhone Users--and so, merchants can identify the new crowd. They can then create deals to attract the online crowd. The platform will be of huge help during any procession or sudden crowd in any branches. I hope, Groupon will adop...

I have lamented many times about rise of hypocritical smile among men --because of the fad for imported soft skills. Earlier, girls used to have these characteristics: Smiling and laughing without reasons Being chatterbox Being shy to stand alone (often pairing with other girls, during events) In recent times, guys acquired all these characteristics, while girls have acquired the opposite. Recently, I happened to attend one pooja function and majority of the men couldn’t stop chatting even during worship time.

Lately, friend of mine texted me to read Arundhati Roy's I'd rather not be Anna article published in The Hindu newspaper. Previously I too blogged on the topic and it once received huge traffic . I always boast myself that Tamil has huge number of authors who can get to depth . Though there are lots of critical views on Anna Hazare issue, the best critic I have read is from Settaikkaran blog  "உண்ணா" ஹஜாரேயும் ஊழல் எதிர்ப்பு நாடகமும் As long as we have such in-depth articles in Tamil, we may not get victimized by TRP mafia of north India.

Perarivalan's MCA degree has drawn my attention on his case. I thought of digging little deeper on this. He is one of the convicted persons on Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, sentenced to death/ capital punishment . Perarivalan's Judgment Search for "Arivu" (Perarivalan's alias) on the final judgment by Supreme Court titled " State Of Tamil Nadu Through ... vs Nalini And 25 Others on 11 May, 1999 " and then compare the judgment of any acquitted person on the list. It seems that all are weighted equally on the case, but Perarivalan's got death sentence. I then searched over and found a Tamil blog dated January 7, 2007 where he explains his case as " Rejected Justice ". English version of his text/book is available in slideshow format " An Appeal from The Death Row " Possible reasons for his innocence After reading judgment file and his blog/book, it all looks like: He's a guy with D...

This article was written on Jan 16, 2011 and updated on Jan 26, 2011, Mar 16, 2011, Mar 21, 2011, Mar 28, 2011, Apr 10, 2011, and May 1, 2011 In 2008, I have written Save American College, Madurai that seemed to help many people including alumni to understand the situation, politics and chaos. At that time, I was favoring Principal's party as favoring Bishop's party could turn adverse as they're was already trying to replace non-permanent staffs; in fact, I have even donated a meager amount for the legal battle.[ Update : Corrected the sentence to convey the intended meaning. Thanks for those who pointed out] This time, people hit the same old article and asking the details. When I contacted, this time, nobody have clear reason for the chaos--except that it's a ego clash between Principal and Bishop party. Problems and reasons Till now, all bishops were being part of The American College, Madurai Governing Council. All/Most of the bishops played subtle r...

TechCrunch featured CollegeBudget , group buying site similar to Groupon but targeting college students. The concept is promising and can be extended to other areas.

Currently our team has 10 premium products in hand. Reportedly few clients are not happy with support process and so I had to look into it closely. It was a great surprise for me, our support team managed by Meganathan handles support tickets at ease, usually closing within 24 hours... remember that we have 10 premium products to support and reportedly we're giving free support for some long days after purchase. We have finally found that the problem is not with the process, but how some of us had communicated. Mere "fixed", "resolved" words weren't enough for some technical clients who want to know how we have resolved.

It is a big day for us. Though I keep saying that our  Burrow product is superior to AirBnB , finally AirBnB has listed most of Burrow features in their roadmap (Refer TechCrunch post  On Safety: A Word From Airbnb ). It was a great moment for us as we could claim the innovation card now--unlike we couldn't do it other day , make humble noises, all because we had documented it in our Labs site. The documentation effort was possible purely because of Abuthakir and Boopathi; these guys are leading other teams and not related to actual Burrow team of Sivachidambaram and Balaji; but still they helped us to get this glory. This is a great story on team effort. My heart goes back into the history and thank everyone--from Abuthakir, Manonmani,... our alumni,... and the great (current) team. Together we can make at least small/humble things.

I came across a site that has a loading time of 180+seconds. When discussing about how to fix such sites, a person who has steep corporate culture/experience, informed these notes. Very interesting... Politics... Politics... Create more and more politics. Create politics on URLs, labels, design and any weird things. Also, create mad/unnecessary competition--competition without any excellence. Hype... Hype ... Create fake hype around the crap site. Make everyone speaks about it. Team building = poaching! Look for good performers in other team and poach them. Break other team through sneaky attempts. Get help of cabals. Factoid... Factoid... Spread rumors and factoids about other teams. Appraisals... Appraisals... Recommend more and more appraisals for sycophants. Flexibility... Flexibility... Treat sycophants like scientists and throw them with flexible timings. Still defend them so that you'll also be praised. Time++ Time++ Develop the project for 13+ months; ...

Once a darling of industry, the supply chain-focused Dell has lost its growth and value as a raft of new MBA leaders – mostly recruited from consultancy Bain & Company – have kept applying traditional industrial management with its cost curves and economy-of-scale illogic to a market racked by the introduction of new products such as smartphones and tablets. -  Why Steve Jobs Couldn’t Find a Job Today , Forbes Blog

Gopinath had a shocking news for me this morning... the site that we were cloning--cloning with additional features and innovations had just released a new version, but with six features taken from our version. Had we released it some days before, we might have grabbed the innovation pride. But... The weirdest thing was that we're forced to clone including the landing page as in their previous version (and that is the reason for this delay), but when we're doing, they switched to our homepage version! Damn... It doesn't stop here. I was pacifying myself and pushing the software to be released by afternoon--at least then to claim the innovation card. Now Kanagavel has another "good news" for me, that we have to "tune" the product to be exactly as in PSD that would take another week to ship...

I'm noticing a steep decline in gifting (on special occasions like wedding) interest among IT people. IT people are very much interested in celebrations, but not interested to spend money on gifts for their colleagues. I think, it must be due to poor (more specifically fake ) relationships among peers or short-lived relationships because of job hopping. Abuthakir told me that it's due the attitude that "Why should I spend money for him ?". For the sake of record... in my father's era, it was common to gift gold items, even though their earnings were not close to what the least earning person in IT draws now. But, these days, IT people's average spend on colleagues' special occasions is Rs.100/- (which is too less and not even close to my father era)

During my college days, I had a gut feeling that Java would die pretty soon, but it wasn't. My reasons were: Java was locking me down on unnecessary OOP Too lengthy programming as in C++ Slow JVM After long time, my gut feeling is becoming true with reason #2 mentioned above. This space is now getting bitten by: Scala (pronounced skaa-lah or skey-lah) Clojure (pronounced closure)

Personally, I don't value MBA degree (even though I have met and had very knowledgeable friends at college). For me, it's a hyped and useless degree. Most of the MBAs I have seen are pure Juggu Boys (sycophants) and irrational cabals, who can't take any decision on their own, but can only create chaos and politics. That's one of the reasons I like Paul Graham of Y-Combinator . He's a great icon for Hackers (to get back the respect). I just stumbled upon this link through Hacker News where TIME magazine reports on Bob Lutz's latest book Car Guys vs. Bean Counters: The Battle for the Soul of American Business . Some interesting notes: we need to fire the M.B.A.s and let engineers run the show. "if you can measure it, you can manage it" The only time Apple ever lost the plot was when it put the M.B.A.s in charge.  "Shoemakers should be run by shoe guys, and software firms by software guys."

This is one of my findings on Facebook user base. Will blog more on this later.

If you ask a single question and get 10-different indirect answers, then the person might be a westerner. If you get 5-different indirect answers, then the person might be from Indian corporate mafia. If you happen to read any sane corporate interviews, it might be either from  Shiv Nadar or Shivkumar (of Nokia). The reason must be that both are Tamilians. (On a personal note, I strongly believe that only Tamilians and Tamil TV channels have "to the point" discussions/communication). Having said, I keep following Shiv Nadar's interviews and news (Wikipedia says that he's alumnus of The American College!)... and recently found that he started Shiv Nadar University  ... Great story.

Our team has developed Burrow , an online rental booking software in line with AirBnB (AirBnB clone). Ever since, we're asked to build a better rental booking software, we've thoroughly studied every websites on the domain including: 9flats.com, myfriendshotel.com, crashpadder.com, istopover.com, roomorama.com, metroflats.com, vrbo.com, couchsurfing.org, globalfreeloaders.com, Stay4Free.com, lodjee.com, evergreenclub.com, sublet.com, homeaway.com, onefinestay.com (and, now Wimdu.com) Though AirBnB was popular and gaining news, we noted that AirBnB's UI is a great pain and it lacked many necessary features available in other similar sites. Our team has thoroughly analyzed the project and applied all necessary knowledge that we gathered from our FPPlatform product (that powers most of the Fiverr alternative sites). Recently we keep noticing that AirBnB is chasing Burrow's calendar UI, referral concept, flagging option and review rating. Ironically, I think, it woul...

I have been agnostic about prayers for some years now. In the beginning of May, our family faced a big financial boomerang that I thought was immutable. My parents and Heleena put their faith in prayers and within few days, we're back to normal. Those who're aware of the situation say it's a miracle!

For last couple of days, I have tried to get overall idea about appraisal system in other companies and materials about appraisals. While checking, I came across an interesting checklist and warning indicators : Your organization is more than likely in trouble if any of the following holds true: chronic industrial relations problems no means of resolving employee grievances increasing / erratic employee turnover increasing number of customer complaints no pride in the organization inter-group conflicts no career paths for ambitious talented employees dissatisfaction with pay and conditions unclear job roles no clear performance measures quality is unimportant bad product service / delivery records poor recruitment standards / practices no management development programs no induction training for new employees critical skill shortages inter-departmental conflict you do not know if any of the above are applicable you ignore any of the above

Whenever I'd praise Madurai people's helping tendency, others would ask me if I like their idlis or noticed anything peculiar. Like I already mentioned, I don't like Madurai foods. I had a vague memory that someone said that Madurai people would brag for drinking plain water as they did drink alcohol. But, for me, I was always surprised at they way they spit--more often and unnecessarily.

Don't know why, like I already mentioned , I'm getting irritated with guys who smile like girls. These days, I'm getting mad as both Madhavan and Suriya are appearing often in TV ads.

Poor leaders

There's huge cry that Madurai idlis are best. Having stayed in Madurai for 7-years, I can give assurance that they're crap. Madurai foods (especially available in hotels) are of poor hygiene and poor in taste. But, I always like the people--they're friendly and helping. My favorite is always Azad Hotel's (Nagercoil, near Tower Junction) chicken kothu parotta . Nagercoil food like aviyal , samba (red) rice , etc are always good and healthy as they're cooked in coconut oil and with high hygiene--even in hotels.

Of late I'm noticing that there's a huge demand for dummies and scapegoats. I suppose, this is due to cynical world that is leaning towards sneaky approaches.

I have noticed some high traffic on my take on Anna Hazare (Published on Apr 11th). But, I'm quite surprised that Gnani's thought (Published on Apr 16th) is close to mine.

Chinese may be learning English but they are not switching their medium to English—all higher education takes place in Chinese. ... The obsession with English-medium education, particularly for technical and higher studies, is keeping millions of Indian children behind. The top business and professional schools in India remain English-based—their entrance exams are not only in English but specifically test English-language skills. A child in China, or for that matter, Japan or South Korea, does not have to deal with debilitating switch in medium to go to engineering, medical or business school. ... it is worth remembering that only four of the richest 20 economies in the world, by highest per-capita income, are English-based . Universal education, not English-medium, is what gives China the advantage over India. ... It is also a fallacy that our software success is built on knowledge of English. Israel’s population is half of Delhi’s, yet its software exports rival our own. It is...

Steve Jobs , CEO of Apple Inc sometimes walk in barefoot in their comapus (I don't know, how I missed this earlier!). They're able to use/market it to differentiate themselves. Whenever some newcomer or new manager--influenced by British colonial rule, visits our team, they complain about barefoot and casual dressed hackers. For years, I have been defending that they're not intentional but they're geekish. Had I known this earlier, I would have compared Apple Inc culture with our team! Not to mention that our Online Marketing Manager (who's from London but working in Chennai) never wears suit or tie. He once told me that he wears suit only on Christmas dinner and for funeral.

Like I mentioned before , I often used to say that "trust is the binding force and hope is the driving force". The things that destroy the team I have noted are: Cabals They are always opinionated, push themselves, bypass their reporting people/hierarchy, look for other cabals to understand the "shortcuts", etc. I find these people are quite damaging, they can never trust their reporting people--even though the reporting person is quite rational. Cynic bossism These people will never trust their immediate subordinates. They'll constantly spy their subordinates as they're panic and will try to see if they have better subordinate below their immediate subordinates. By doing so, they always damage morale of their subordinates, their spirit for the team, etc. Often these people will have their enemy within their own / peer level than from sub-levels. Though many times I have noted that these people are quite damaging, till now, I have no experience in ...

For years, we have celebrated Tamil New Year on April 14th. But, the "doctor" Karunanidhi has changed that and willfully declared April 14th Ambedkar Jayanthi--Holiday! The most affected people here are those who work in private sectors. Sad that government servants aka Karunanidhi's servants are still playing sycophancy

When I was studying in schools, I've noticed that Rajinikanth fans were insane and irrational. Of late, I'm noticing such attitude with cricket fans who take sportive things so serious and take serious things so sportive--moronic. Similarly I'm also noticing Facebook "herdy kids" and Mac fanatics (though I agree that iPhone is better, but can't agree that Mac is better for it's "usability").

For the sake of record, I'm noticing Cricket voyeurs [sic] on rise.

MBAs Vs Hackers war is always on and hackers win with creating Linux to Firefox internationally. But, in India, coding is always considered to be a lower end job . In the international hacker cult, they code, code and code even at their 60s. In India, MBAs always take a lead saying "anybody can code", so every programmer is forced to "switch" to leadership role. Another problem with India is that there is no "real hacker" comparable with International cult. I have been lamenting this for years and smelling the "gap" for years. I've consoled myself with "Learner, Hacker, Idiot" tag in LinkedIn profile. Recently I noticed some guys who branded themselves as hackers when they're bashing MBAs in Quora . Having impressed by their "attitude", I checked their product and found nothing better than StockFox . Some hacker chauvinistic links I'm fond of: The Hacker FAQ How to be a Programmer: A Short, Comprehensive, ...

Disclaimer: This list contains some of our team's projects Sites that are useful and usable erail.in - created by a single person and serves useful to quickly find availability in Indian trains ClearTrip - seems to be inspired by many other sites like Vayama , but able to get better UI RediffMail - speed is the big boost Myntra - good idea, but poor UI redBus - good idea, but poor UI and execution Sites from The Times Group are also of good idea, but poorly executed/architected. They clearly try and target the web startup "gap" Sites that are innovative (world's first/never seen before kind) SocialAV - World's first and only antivirus building community (by our team) CSSilize - World's first and only project management tool for slicing works (by our team) jobreapr - World's first and only fixed price job search engine (by our team)

My post Bra & Condom eCommerce website for Indian market is getting more hits now. Looks like they're of high demand or some are trying to create such sites. Some even brought my attention about CondomShopee ; but that's not complete with "sizes" that I mentioned. Someone brought my me another shopping site that's also selling bras TheAgada ; though the site is looking cool, the bra shopping isn't perfect. Not to mention, I'll be greatly interested in architecting or ideating such bra and condom websites/business.

It was a great moment for our team as it was planned more than 5-years ago; but last week we get the Labs launched.

In recent times, barkhagate scam clearly shows that the Indian media is much corrupt than the politicians. They give unnecessary hype to certain things to get TRP . Ever since Anna has gone compared himself with Gandhi and Shivaji , it was clear that he's trying to draw politicians attention. It was a clean tactic than what Medha Patkar or any maoists couldn't get such hype. The TwitGens [sic] can't really understand how a Lokpal (ombudsman) system can even be corrupt; remember that the author of Savaukku did quit from DVAC (Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption). Economic Times article on this issue shares my views; I don't understand why they couldn't get such views published in Times of India. I think, we can't expect anything good from the media that's vehemently pushing AIADMK. Will Lok Pal be a Super Bureaucrat? Anna Hazare: Was Lok Pal protest compatible with constitutional democracy?

Since, I blog on weekends, the number of posts are heavy on single date. I was looking for a solution to streamline and found draft.blogger.com ; hereafter the posts will be scheduled--including this post...

Recently I have followed OurVote.in , the site that tracks Tamil Nadu Assembly Election 2011 through Facebook voting. According to the site, AIADMK is winning on huge margin as per Facebook users and everybody is mentioning Jayalalitha as a "change". I think, it's mainly because of media mayhem. My personal opinion is to oust both DMK and AIADMK. BJP is Indian Taliban. PMK is chameleon. Vote only for Congress, CPM, DMDK, Dalit parties... and wherever DMK is facing AIADMK straight, vote for IJK or best independent candidate. When Congress gets majority, control goes to Rahul Gandhi and he appoints Nallakannu like person from CPM as Chief Minister... and CPM becomes half capitalists (pure communism is failure)... I have a dream...

In Tamil Nadu, it's common for politician like Vaiko and activists like Nedumaran , Seeman , Thamarai , etc to support LTTE and Tamil Nationalism. But, the critic I read long time ago, by a Sri Lankan Tamil is an eye opener at least for me பியசேன: கபடத் தமிழ்த்தேசியத்திற்கு கடிக்க நல்ல அவல்!

I often used to tell that "trust" is the binding force of team. Now, I have added "hope" as survival of life/business/team.

Just for the sake of record, I have noted that "idea crazy" people who think theirs is novel and should be kept secret are on rise. Though I agree to some extent that the ideas be kept secret to get pioneership [sic] credit, I wonder, why they can't compare Coca cola and Pepsi. People giving "free advices" on "ideas" are also on rise.

Recently I had an interesting conversation with someone who brought me a new theory that integrating sales team and development team "closely" will increase the productivity. Conversation went on like these: Someone: Sales team and development team should work closely for better productivity. Me: What are the IT companies having such setup? What are the IT companies that increased productivity through such setup? Someone: (No answer) Me: How have you arrived at that theory? Someone: 'coz the sales team will get more technical questions and only when they closely work with the development team, they can able to answer . Later I felt that the person is somewhat right, the problem lies with the customer base and the person's inability to bring better solution. Then, I come to an analogy of Waiter, Cook and customer base in a hotel. Waiter, Cook and customer base in Hotel Here, the Waiter can be compared with the IT salesman and Cook can be compared with the developer. F...

I read the article People Power -- the Engine of Any Business by Richard Branson (founder of Virgin Group) in Entrepreneur magazine some long time ago, but the following piece is still echoing in my mind: One main reason people leave a job is that they are not listened to. Be aware that a bad leader can destroy a business very quickly. In small businesses this is easily apparent. On my island of Necker in the Caribbean, we had a general manager who tried to change the way things were done. He discouraged the staff from drinking with our guests. This soured the atmosphere fast. We had to step in to replace the manager and restore staff morale and the sense of management’s trust in them, which had been broken.

When I was doing UG, my super-senior friend Ronald introduced me to MLTR and I was totally taken away by the music then. About 15-years later, I'm feeling same ecstasy when listening to Zac Brown Band 's Whatever It Is and Highway 20 Ride . The voice and music are amazingly cool.

Just noted that Eric Meyer has released new version of reset.css by January. The important thing I have noted is that he addressed the concern I raised over :focus{} styling on his earlier version, by dropping that altogether.

For some years, I was subscribed to The Hindu and Economic Times alone; but when the sales person of Times of India forced me to subscribe with offers, I was kinda reluctant and finally subscribed just for the offer. I didn't like the Arnab Goswami of Times Now and still don't like him. Now, it looks like Times of India is leading in terms of journalism, though I don't like how it's pushing AIADMK. At this moment, Times of India is a clear winner though The Hindu is trying with Wikileaks articles.

Ever since I have given my Humble Award to Gaana Rahman , the Gaana singer whom I thought will get popular soon, I keep my fingers crossed --'coz the fame reaches only very few. For instance, many people forgot Devendran, the music composer of Vedam Puthithu . I had to first create a Wikipedia page for M. M. Keeravani , whom many people can't realize that he composed the classic Devaraagam

Of late, I'm noticing that the News entries in Yahoo! is getting more comments than digg . Looks like Yahoo! is having more user engagement.

Summary: Why Indian government's eligibility criteria sucks... How do you want our policemen look? 1. Like an actor? 2. Tall and chesty? 3. Ability to match dots and dots to solve puzzle? If that's your preference, then our government's criteria rocks, otherwise it sucks. Look at the eligibility chart published by Tamil Nadu police . It may look sane for those who're already swallowed by the crazy system. Otherwise, it's extremely crazy. I don't know, if Veerappan had necessary chest; but he really rocked every chesty policemen! In the world of pistols, are these things really matters--especially the height?? And, the "age". Why can't they fix the retirement age to 35 then? In other words, why the "criteria" is only for the "entry"? Someone told me that they ask puzzles and "joining dots" type of questions in IPS examinations. Are they going to solve puzzle or crimes?

Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. Albert Schweitzer

"If you work your way down the Forbes 400 making an x next to the name of each person with an MBA, you'll learn something important about business school. After Warren Buffett, you don't hit another MBA till number 22, Phil Knight, the CEO of Nike. There are only 5 MBAs in the top 50. What you notice in the Forbes 400 are a lot of people with technical backgrounds. Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison, Michael Dell, Jeff Bezos, Gordon Moore. The rulers of the technology business tend to come from technology, not business. So if you want to invest two years in something that will help you succeed in business, the evidence suggests you'd do better to learn how to hack than get an MBA." Paul Graham in How to start a startup But, I'm very much amused, in real world, how such sane hackers are been ruled and overtaken by sales, marketing and HR guys. How those guys put the words into hackers mouth and outsmart? On a second thought, it must be for God's sake....

Of late, I'm quite serious to find some PR personnel to get media attention for our products and labs initiatives: Labs CSSilize - World's first and only project management tool for slicing works (PSD to XHTML conversion and WordPress theme works) SocialAV - World's first and only antivirus building community (start building antivirus online...) jobreapr - World's first and only fixed price job search engine Uboo - India's first full blown consumer portal (private beta) Products GroupDeal - powers many Groupon competitor group buying sites FPPlatform - powers many Fiverr competitor fixed price job sites SFPlatform - powers many Kickstarter competitor crowd funding sites Why PR? As I blogged earlier, our team has added lot of innovations and features. Recently our GroupDeal product/company got a mention in The New York Times . Similar or better coverage might give our team great energy to innovate further and may get good VCs. How Groupon is doing PR? T...

I have noted that there are decent voice for Indians in TechCrunch , the popular technical blog: Rahul Nihalani , Leena Rao ,... But, still there's no importance given for Indian entrepreneurship and Indian tech news. As far as I see, Indian companies that get the mention are just from NRIs, for example Micromobs . Unfortunately, these companies are not at all comparable with the Indian entrepreneurship spirit. This clearly proves that there's huge untapped potential on the startup and media in India.

I've finally got an account in Quora . Google Groups once captured Usenet and now Quora is capturing the market. Right now, my profile and activities are in stealth mode. The information is quite addictive. But, I couldn't still find a button to link to Quora profile--something like Twitter's follow button or LinkedIn's button. I think, Quora is yet to focus here on promotion.

I liked the content of Entrepreneur magazine from Infomedia 18 . When I thought of subscribing for 3-years, I sent the amount by DD to them by December 2010. Despite sending number of emails and contacting them over the phone, my subscription wasn't successful. Being desperate, I have sent mails to all available emails and they finally responded this week.

Previously I wrote about fake smile male-queens [sic] . In this trend, it looks like actor Surya is trying to beat actor Madhavan.

Things learnt from interviews lately... Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish - book on entrepreneurship When people don't feel the growth of company in terms of headcount, they move. When people decided to move they're confused about the reasons and priority. Money is the only motivation. People who leave company can easily access the confidential information like billing, etc. When the people realize that their efforts can better be promoted by themselves than a sales guy, they move. Being "employee" alone is not sufficient for some; some expects partnership.

our team has developed popular FPPlatform (aka, fiverr clone) and SFPlatform (seed/crowd funding platform). I see, here we're facing huge crunch in terms of payment gateway solutions. The least closest here is the solution from PayPal called adaptive payments. But, due to their API design and approval process, there's gap creating (Not to mention that PayPal is working with us to improve that). Over the top of my head, thinking of creating a payment gateway provider on the top of PayPal or Authorize.net with improved API design (something like Braintree )

Recently surprised to find the ad of mobile phone that has similar look but costs just Rs.6,490/- and found the shopping page here .

Recently I got to be highly skeptical about the future and quality of the Wikipedia , especially on the article about people. Problem People from West create pages for the "winners" of a TV show and think it's perfectly ok--as those "winners" do deserve the Wikipedia page People from India create pages on "bloggers" and "cinema people". They think that it's perfectly ok to have them featured. People like Vilayanur S. Ramachandran have decent page and where as notable people like Dr.C.N.Deivanayagam are absolutely ignored. If the trend is continuing, some college topper may get a page in Wikipedia and... heck everyone may get a article just like a profile page

MySuperDealToday is a very important site for us as it uses our GroupDeal group buying platform. They launched the site with amazing 1,440 sale for the very first deal. The recent deal page of Groupon and MySuperDealToday somewhat confirms that MySuperDealToday has already captured the market.

Pillai has just turned 3. Heleena and myself are going to complete 5-years of married life. Time is running fast, pretty fast--like tomorrow I gonna die. Who knows about tomorrow?...

Of late, I feel that I'm wasting my energy on impossible things and worrying about the things that I shouldn't really care at all.

I previously mentioned that our team has developed jobreapr the fixed price job search engine that searches through Fiverr alternatives and gives better results. In the phase-2 release, team has worked hard to add few more sites and more importantly introduced similar and duplicate listing through new algorithm. With this version, user can quickly check for similar jobs across all sites and also find if the job is duplicated across other fixed price job sites--and then order the job in best place/site.

There's huge cry that MySpace--the site that was popular few years ago is kind of dead--kind of killed by Facebook. So, what's the problem?... Often startups start with the some "killer idea". The startups are usually started by a guy who is technical savvy or a sales guy who thinks he can sell it better or a marketing guy who thinks he can market it better... but, often these startups missing a person who is willing to scale it up (I think, such person's designation can be set as Scaler[sic] or so)--instead of just getting satisfied with his technical/sales/marketing ability. So far, I have noted in interviews that people move from company to company when it doesn't grow and scales up. Word of mouth and crowd power is essential to get the startups running. But, companies like MySpace's death are already predicted.

For a long time, I have noted that there's huge potential for an online shopping site that targets bras and condoms. Why a bra site in India? There's no good site available in India. Currently, only enamor has a website; but that doesn't seem to be active and friendly. Majority of the Indian women don't know how to find the right size . Majority wrongly refers the size as a single number--just referring the circumference around breast; but good brands have two-letter representations. Why a condom site in India? There's no good website available except that some manufacturers have static websites. As of now, CondomKing alone exist in this market. There is only one size condom available in India. But, BBC reports that condoms made according to international sizes are too large for a majority of Indian men . There's more possibility for data mining.

I previously noted that Groupon is chasing GroupDeal , the group buying software platform that our team has developed and also powers many Groupon competitor sites. Remember the self-service platform and QR-code based online validations are first introduced by GroupDeal. There are lot of Groupon like sites introduced in India. Here, I list few of them. But, I'm pretty sure that any site that use our GroupDeal product can do much better. SoSasta - Bought by Groupon even before getting active. Not sure, why did Groupon buy this. SnapDeal - by Delhi based Jasper company MyDala taggle - Bangalore based Koovs - Like Gilt, but public FashionAndYou - Exactly like Gilt. From DealsAndYou DealsAndYou SnatchDeals - Like Yipit BindaasBargain - Like Woot Groffr - on real estate Issues with Indian Groupons When quickly checked, there doesn't seem to be clarity on the focus for these players and some are looking aggressive but doesn't seem to have good software platform...

Out team has developed Uboo portal and it's ready for launch much before. People started asking about the launch date... I hope, it will be launched soon and fill the gap found in current Indian portals.

I have noticed some incoming hits about Puthiya Thalaimurai magazine. When I first read the magazine, I've immediately taken 2-life subscription (one for me and another for my parents) because of its content. Though the magazine quality is still good, some people rumored the following (google and related sites confirm that too): SRM group is behind "Puthiya Thalaimurai" magazine They've launched India Jananayaka Katchi political party They're about to launch SRM TV channel

Don't know why, but of late, I'm much comforted with the verse " You reap what you sow "

The inspiration for this post is a post by Peter Claridge You're nearing 25 years, you've got painful wisdom tooth growth, you're even getting high fever due the pain, your dentist is asking Rs.15,000/- plus for removal/extraction and showing scientific papers claiming that wisdom tooth is unnecessary growth... First of all don't pluck it--unless you hit very very very serious problem. I was also about fell prey for one dentist whom tried to convince me a lot for the extraction surgery. With some sort of hesitation, I had to inform it to my Mom that time. She immediately suggested me to rinse with salt water and take mild foods for about 1-week. She strongly insisted that the pain will definitely go in 1-week time. To my surprise, that did really work for me. So, far I have suggested that to many people and all of them were about to have the surgery scheduled. Are you still going to pluck the wisdom tooth or just treating it with salt water rinsing?

When it comes to PHP frameworks, my ideal choice is UIMS kit as mentioned here . UIMS, in my term is a webpage creation kit in which the client/end user can easily create the UI, forms, validations, etc by dragging and dropping (more like Delphi). Though I strongly believe that the future of web application development will totally be driven by UIMS, it needs time and effort to build the UIMS kit. In the meantime, any framework that is lightweight or feature rich is the economic option. Some of the lightweight PHP frameworks: Green Framework - Features (developed by the author of the Frog CMS Extra Light PHP Framework - I believe Green Framework is born out of this fase - By original author of CakePHP

I'm trying to constantly update this list. It should have been titled "remarkable" or "notable"--instead of "famous". Prof. Kalyani - Social Activist ( link ) Mahendran (birth name: Alexander) - 54PUC?? - film director of Mullum malarum, etc Prof. Solomon Pappiah - 53TAM?? ( link ) Dr. R. ​Prabhakar Vedamanickam - 80ECO?? - Professor, Music Director, Font Creator, known for creativity M. Vallalar IAS - 84ENG?? - Collector of Dindigul District Bala - 83TAM?? - film director of Sethu, etc Vivek (birth name: Vivekanathan) - 78COM59 - comedy actor Ramki - 78?? - actor Thota Tharrani - 64PUC?? - art director Shihan Hussaini - 84ZOO?? - Karate expert and actor Karu. Palaniappan - 90ENG?? - film director of Partiban Kanavu, etc Ram (birth name: Rama Subbu) - 93TAM?? - film director of Katrathu Tamil, etc Shanmugharajan - 99TAM?? - actor (acted in Virumandi, etc Jacob Sahaya Kumar Aruni - 93PHY?? - Chef and VJ