:: Sense - The Way I Sense ::

Yep !! So it says….Nah, it ain’t my story…How I wish it were, though (the guy ended up as a lawyer)..This one’s by a wannabe engg grad in the US who just had to give up in the face of what he feels is a very badly framed system…Gives quite a few interesting insights into how the system currently is…Would be pretty interesting to draw a parallel with the system currently in India, where engg has basically transmogrified into an extended holiday of wild binges!! You can find the article at TCS (Nope, not our desi public sector s/w company, but TechCentralStation) !!

Reporters Without Borders have brought out what they call a Handbook for Bloggers & Cyber-Dissidents….Although I am not really sure to what extent it might help any Indian Journos (considering, we are, to a large extent a free-speech country ;)), however it sure acts as a primer for people not really acquainted with blogging and how it can be exploited…It talks of, mostly in brief, about how to start blogging, a few search engine optimization techniques, and for the dissidents/anonymous bloggers, how to remain anonymous and yet carry forward their views….Considering the fact that bloggers are increasingly venturing into areas hitherto restricted to mainstream journalism, this guide should help a lot of our tech-challenged wannabe journos into understanding the what/why/how stuff of blogs…You can download the guide here.

And while at it, check out this critique of guides such as this at Silicon.com !!!

Do countries progress forward by following principles of Market Economics or by breaking out of them ?? Noam Chomsky has this small, but intriguing piece on his blog that he maintains at Zmag !!He believes it is only by radical violation of market principles that countries like the US have advanced !! A pretty interesting read, I thought…

And while at Zmag, do check out this latest piece on Community Internet and how Telco giants in the US are trampling upong local communities to make sure that internet access is something that flows from the fat pipes that these organizations have built, rather than thro’ initiatives taken by the local community… You can find the article here …

It took just around six weeks for the world to prove to me that the madness is here to stay… Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock the past 24 hrs, you would know what I am referring to !! The insane $4Billion being paid to Skype by eBay ($2.6b now + remaining based on growth nos, which Skype is bound to hit pretty much on target)!! While the amount sure is causing a lot of consternation all around, there are a LOT more funny facts sorrounding this acquisition…Take for instance, the bidder, eBay!! Having been a garage startup, one would expect eBay to have shown a bit more prudence in juggling with the numbers..No, I am not any i-banker who sits and sells companies for a living. But I fail to see any huge synergies between eBay and Skype, except for allowing “free” calls between eBay users!! And like The Register so very rightly pointed out, Meg Whitman could have surely done better than suggesting selling the account details to spamsters !!! And I certainly don’t see it contributing to the synergy than paypal did (poor fellahs were only found worth $1.5B last year !!) Most analysts now seem to draw solace from the fact that eBay would want to tap into the new advertising streams that it can pull in through Skype!! And yea, eBay also hopes this to be a foot in the door for markets such as India !! Could somebody tell them the absymal tele-density/internet penetration and even lower broadband availability stats !! Baah, whoz bothered with them…The stock markets are booming and so is the perception that India Rocks bigtime now !!! If eBay can really pull this off without getting pulled down with this albatross around their neck, it is gonna be a story like no other, and I sure am looking forward to watching this from the sidelines…

Hmmm…Insane amounts of money, startups being snapped, and more importantly, an over-riding faith in ad revenues…Need more proof???

ps: Came across this blog during some reading up on Skype..Do check it out…

Feeling depressed….SMS xxxx…Feeling Love-struck…SMS xxxx….Feeling intelligent (duh!)….SMS xxxx…Hell…Feeling socially conscious….SMS xxxx….Welcome to the brand new Indian phenomenon called the Sick Message Service, in short the SMS…That magic 160 chars that can help you get a grip of life..Those that can make your voice *reach* out to whosoever it is listening out there in the world…Those magic four numeral numbers that are in the process of attaining a life of their own…Those four numbers that now seem to over-run and trample perfectly sound business models !!

What is it about these services that every biz worth its salt is now going overboard over this new media…Of-course, it being a given that we usually tend to go over-board with any new *techie* revenue streams…Who can forget the spate of adverts on every little indian website in the early days of the dotcom boom….Infact, it had made sifting for *content* on those sites practically an art !! And now, with the boom in the mobile phones market, we are seeing a pretty similar trend here…However, what I fail to understand is the reason why a lot of companies tend to over-do it..Take this wonderful example of a Telugu TV channel which has almost a quarter of its screen covered by the adverts of its sms service offering tones/pics et al. And there was this hugely promoted service by STAR over the movie Swades….Targetting those who had a sudden rush of social conscience into sending an sms worth Rs.10/- !!! I am yet to come across any report which has conclusively proved that these services are indeed a potentially sound revenue stream… And I am yet to come across many people who actually respond to any of these services….Am I missing something??

Overheard yesterday at the airport….Two guys neatly dressed, I’d assume some s/w company folks from their tag, waiting to pick up a third….

Guy#1: Anna endha company (where does brother work?)
Guy#2: Adu oru company….Texxaass Instrumentaa….adu kooda MNC daan…US company( its a company…..it is also an MNC..from US)
Guy#1:Yenna adu…Mechanical Engineering companyaa…repair pandradukku(what is it??a mech engg company?? for carrying out repairs)
Guy#2: Ille…adu oru electrical company…industrial Wiring panna…(No..Its an electrical company that does industrial wiring)
Guy#1: Oh….

So much for one of the world’s best DSP companies and prolly one of India’s earliest international *MNC* visitors !!!