Please Welcome www.Simplelife.in, a Men’s clothing, Fashion Apparel online store to buy t-shirts in India. Interestingly, The one behind this men’s branded clothing website in India is a Woman. A good friend with deep e-commerce interests. She is not designing the stuff herself though (thankfully). They seem to feature only premium international brands. The site seems to focus on tshirts, although it would not be surprising to see them venture into new apparel categories in the future.

There are about two new e-commerce companies launching every day. In my view, there are better things to spend your life on. Like Poverty, World Peace or even Bangalore’s traffic Jam. The SimpleLIFE site itself is clean and their Cash on Delivery checkout option works like a charm. Although the SimpleLIFE service encourages ordering multiple sizes and returning the bad fits at no extra costs, I am skeptical of the business’ margins and defensibility in the market long term. One will have to see how far SimpleLIFE goes, and whether it lives up to its name.

I got myself a nice looking Puma T-shirt. Package arrived promptly with a little gift in it. (I don’t think you will get the extras though). Please do encourage them. If something goes wrong, I will give you their phone number. Infact, we can shout at them together.

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Nothing is impossible for a determined man with Two & a half days & Google.

Have an Iphone 3G that I bought off craigslist a couple of years ago in the US. It has only been trouble since then. I have done nearly everything to get it to work such as:

• Driving to a remove place in Nagarbhavi to pick up a turbo SIM,
• Pwangetool on Mac, Redsn0w, blackra1n, sn0wbreeze on windows
• Restarting windows hundreds on times.
• Re-installing itunes a few ten times.
• Putting iphone in all modes (DFU, Recovery, hard reboot) hundreds of times,
• A folder full of IPSWs starting from ios 3.0 upto 4.2 etc.

It has always worked at varying levels, just that I have spent a truck load of my time on it. There is a sewerage that runs behind my house. I thought this iphone’s rightful place is the drain. Not anymore. everything (Except wifi) is working smoothly. The problem is not lack of information about jailbreaking & unlocking on the internet, but too much of it. It is only fair that many are confused. I was.

This is for you if you need to “jailbreak” & “unlock”. So, without adding to more confusion with another stey by step tutorial, very briefly, this is what you should keep in mind:

• If you are on a baseband that begins with 04, stay there.
• If you are on a baseband that begins with 05, Your only option is to upgrade to the ipad baseband. Kudos to folks at the iphone dev team. What a hack!
• Furthermore, dont bother with ios 4.1, you can never get into to install. Move straight to ios 4.2
• Never restore to a stock IPSW via itunes.
• Different sn0wbreeze versions work for different IPSW versions.
• Use Redsn0w if you need to jailbreak.
• The downloads for all the tools are all over the place. Exercise caution.
• Install iphonebrowser to connect & change files via usb. You may need this to enable editing APN settings.
• Use cyder2 to install Ultrasn0w for carrier unlock incase wifi doesnt work.
• All the very best.

Nothing is impossible for a determined man with Two & a half days & Google. Hence proved.

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Needed a backup internet connection for work. Having heard great things about their network/pricing and bad things about their customer support, I decided to go with BSNL.

• To begin with, I didnt know where to go find a BSNL SIM card.

1. Turns out, BSNL offices are in the many BDA Complexes in Bangalore.

• Being a backup connection, it makes sense to take a Prepaid connection. But:

1. 1. BSNL Prepaid cards are hard to find.
   2. There are no yearly or forever validity packs available on 3G data plans.

A quick study revealed that the only difference between prepaid & postpaid plans is when they take the tax & not pricing. (700 Rs plan valid for 60 days in prepaid may be better than Postpaid, but due to lack of availability, I went with Postpaid). Took a monthly 400 and odd plan.

• Buy a data card or just connect a mobile phone as modem?

1. 1. Many cheap mobile phones may not have 3G. For ex, I had a spare Nokia 2690 which only supported EDGE.
   2. The max speeds on these mobiles phones may lesser than a dedicated stick. So, I decided to buy a dedicated stick.

I tried connecting an old Nokia N73 as modem but I felt that the (download) speed was slow. Three variables (I hear) when it comes to data cards are: Max speeds, HSDPA & tri band. HSDPA is an extension on top of 3G network which enables faster download speeds. Point being, even if your mobile phone operates on 3G, you may get lesser speeds than data stick.

• BSNL sells Terracom data cards (7.2 MBPS) for 2500 Rs which is locked

1. That means you can use it only with BSNL SIM. There maybe ways to unlock it (Google is your friend), but neither did I want to worry about it nor did I want to get locked with BSNL (considering I did’nt know what actual speeds I will get now or in the future).
2. Decided to go with a generic USB stick that will work across networks. BSNL Sells Huawei E173 in their offices for Rs. 4700 or so. These USB sticks are not easily available in computer stores but they are in Ebay.
3. Because I didnt want to increase failure points, decided not to order from Ebay despite the fact that the same model was available at around 2900 Rs or so. (How can there be such a big price difference unless they are eating into warranty?).
4. Now a proud Owner of Huawei E173, HSDPA enabled, tri band & speeds upto 7.2 Mbps. Great.

• Huawei card does not do anything. There is nothing in the Network Managar applet.
  

1. The Huawei E173 stick also has a slot for shoving in a Mini SD card & so, by default, the stick gets recognized as a USB mass storage on Ubuntu 10. So, connect the stick and do:

$ lsusb

Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 005: ID 12d1:140c Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 058f:6366 Alcor Micro Corp. Multi Flash Reader
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

12d1:140c is the ID of your device. Now do:

$ sudo apt-get install usb-modeswitch

$ sudo usb_modeswitch -c /etc/usb_modeswitch.d/12d1\:14oC

$ sudo modprobe usbserial

Now you should see the connection in your “Network Manager” applet. Configure it. The only thing you need is the “APN”, which is “bsnlnet”.

I restarted & didnt find the connection in network manager. So, created a shell script called “3G” with those two commands. Ran it & we are up again. And here is what I got (which is significantly faster than what I got when I did the test on Windows)

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This is set in the United States:

In the 80s, the technology to reach people wasn’t so advanced. But the desire to get people to buy stuff they don’t need wasn’t any less. Someone invented direct mail marketing. Which is, to send posts about stuff on sale to people who never evinced any interest in buying it. Initially, the response was astounding. So, everyone did it until it started piling up. Today, the US direct mail marketing’s ROI is touted to be at 1.9%. But, marketers won’t give up (Actually, they are). They have a budget and it needs to be spent.

Back to India, 2010:

SMS! Never before in the history of this country was it possible to have a two way (remote) conversation with half of it’s citizens. No other medium of technological communication is so Simple & as wide spread. I don’t know what folks waiting for the 3G roll out & for the supposed ubiquity of smart phones think, but to me, this is already magical. Solutions on SMS show up in my mind every time I think about real world(India) problems. The applications are not just myriad but will actually work. SMS is indeed the lowest common technology denominator for India. But Alas, it is being poached just like those Tigers.

You probably already know about Bulk SMS. Forget it for a moment to become the “Average Ajay“. If you were to get an SMS from a number & you tried calling it, wouldn’t you be petrified to know that “This number does not exist”!? Try calling the Google SMS Channel number (+91-9870807070) or say, “TDSnapdeal” (that would be a 5 digit short code. You can never call anyone there). Weird, “Average Ajay” would think. Twice. Thrice. He will not bother. He has learned to ignore.

It seems TRAI was set up to protect consumer’s interest. They must be behind the brilliance of “TDLOR“, A message from “LOR” via Tata Teleservices, Delhi. Excellent & Thank you. Now I don’t want it. What do I do? Can I call someone & Shout?

Even as I write this, I have 22 unread messages & I don’t plan to read them. Bulk SMS marketers…You will have to take the credit. You will continue to look at SMS as a way to broadcast. To you, along with (and cheaper than) Radio, News paper & TV, SMS is a channel to create pain in people without having to shoulder the responsibility, thanks to TDLOR.

Very soon, you will take the ROI of this industry to 1.9% too (If it already isin’t). You are probably paying 2 Paise per SMS now. It will get cheaper, maybe 2 Paise for 100 SMSes. But, You will soon run out of people.

“SMS”, the species, is dying. Thanks to you & All the best.

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Two hours have passed since the credits of Endhiran (Robot) rolled up in a Cinema hall at Bangalore. I was there, dragging my feet along towards the exit, saddened that it is over. There will be a second time, but, it wont be the same. Hormones don’t function that way. I sit here and wish for another Rajni movie in a few years or for someone to rise out of the ashes to hold me captivated like Rajni. The latter…will remain a wish.

But, this is not about Endhiran or Rajni. This is an appeal to Journos, Commentators & Authors who are suddenly forced to write about an industry, a person & a movie they hardly know about. Asia’s costliest movie, Asia’s second most paid actor, 2000 screens worldwide: Everybody from Rajeev Masand to a Dog has to write with every drop of ink in their pen (Or, key in their keyboard). I have been keenly reading most of the content and, as an ardent fan of Thalaivar, have been able to notice the uber-cool, intelectual point of view that most critiques are taking. A common weaving thread of sarcasm hinting “How is this guy able to do this?“, is evident. One thing becomes clear. None of these guys know a god damn thing. Neither factually nor emotionally.

My understanding of the Hindi language & culture is far superior than an average non-tamilian’s insight into the dravidian likes & dislikes. Very recently, I quipped to a north Indian friend who has lived close to five years here- less than 40 kms from the boundaries of Tamil Nadu- “Well, Tamil does not have a script“. She innocently went “Oh! really?“. I don’t blame her. The exposure is such.

To bring about my opinion, Here is what I feel about, lets say, Singh is Kinng:

I didnt understand the punjabi/Hindi mix-bag in the movie all that well. Long ago, I was told that Akshay kumar worked as a Bartender in Bangkok. I thought he was averagely attractive (My wife goes head-over-heels, by the way). As a kid, I grew up on Superhit muqabla, watching him jump up & down with Big brother-ess on “Churake dil mera” Frankly, it/they did not go very well with the curd rice I was eating.

I couldn’t stop staring at the mis-spelling-”kinng”. Further research informs me how Bollywood believes in Numerology. Lucky Singh? This dude got to become a don in Australia with that name? Did he just get Lucky? And there is one more called “Happy”. Folks kept laughing around me on stuff that I thought wasnt worth a giggle. Hindi audience have an extremely low humour quotient, I felt. I was eager to get out. Katrina Kaif couldnt keep me in there.

Point is, this is not the true review of this movie. I am welcome to have a point of view, but not qualified to write under the pretext of Journalism.

Dear Journos from Bollywood and elsewhere, you all probably know this better than me. A Movie review isint exempt from best practices of Journalism. There are three things you need: Facts, Context & an opinion formed based on the former two.

I am extremely delighted that Endhiran is forcing you all to travel & see beyond Borivali. Furthermore, I have a few suggestions to you: Throw your suburban train tickets & Vada pav away. Fold up your Dhoti, Drink up Filter Coffee, Listen to Carnatic Music & dance for hard percussion on the road. Because, 60% of our 1256 million Dollars in Movie Industry is made by non-hindi movies.

I find it exhilarating that the costliest movie in India has to come from an industry half the market size of bollywood & 1/5th the consumer base. How does it make you feel?

Do you know that from down here, Bollywood seems low-grade (loaded with flesh & item numbers), SRK, pretentious & Kapoors, Comical? Still don’t know what I am talking about? Go ask Rotten Tomatoes on for review on Dabangg and compare it with yours.

DOT.

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Thanks to an excellent Article in Today’s DNA Bangalore edition, we have again been busy by the Phone. The printed version is below and the html version on Roopit is here.

Roopit featured on DNA 18th August 2010

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I never really wanted the iphone. My Ipod experiences were not excitingly great. I didnt like the Mac all that much other than the hardware and I was/am exceedingly in love with the freedom & choice of open source.

But, few things captures a woman’s mind as iphone. And I have two women at home to impress. And so, I have two iphones . But the problem? I have two iphones to fix.

Try doing something, anything that Apple does not prescribe. I shall tell you a few and I promise this will not include the standard crib about Jail breaking, unlocking, video recording and the likes.

• Transfer contacts from iphone to a reasonably dumb phone that cannot be connected to a computer. Try it.
• Send a file from computer or another phone to the iphone over bluetooth.
• Connect the iphone to a linux computer and try syncing photos or music.
• Try exporting/backing up text messages to another phone.
• Try to sync only your photos and not everything else.
• Try to manage two iphones with one laptop.
• Add a “+91″ to the front of the number you just typed in the phone dialer without deleting anything.
• Type any setting information, all in caps (say the APN of your cell network)
• Copy paste text into SMS app and try to edit it.

Obviously, this is a list of cribs at the top of my mind. Also, there are solutions to all the above, but with headache.

Stay away from Apple products if you want to do stuff with your gadgets. When they say, buy an Apple product and forget it, they literally mean it.

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I earlier wrote that, as an entrepreneur, nothing frustrated me more than power cuts. A true entrepreneur sees opportunities in difficulties. So, I sat down to think of how best to utilize the time when I had no access to Internet/power. Here is the list:

Unlike desktop computers, laptops are a boon to the Indian Entrepreneur. These days, you get a laptop for cheap. You probably have one already. Make full use of the built in battery time (roughly 2 hours).

Code: If you are a coder, now is the best time to create a dev environment on your laptop. If you are building sofware that needs two Operating systems, there are solutions. If your software needs two machines, there are solutions for that too. And the two hours without power is a gift. No twitter, no email. What more can you ask for as a coder?

Write: This is a great time to write posts for your blog. Having lost have lost the external world, you can go inward on a deep search of meaning and perspectives on the topics that you want to write on. Original content is a natural side effect of no wikipedia. Incidentally, this blog post itself was written when there was no power (Actually, power just came).

Meet: Every business has it’s customers. And every business owner needs to meet them. Over here in Bangalore, there isin’t really a load shedding schedule, but I roughly know when the power goes. And I head out to meet my customers, mentors, interesting people. I learn a ton lot more about my business than I would have, if I were to be sitting in front of my computer.

Think: Thinking is a bizarre activity. For me, the net result of thought on a task ends up un-necessitating the task. It seems to me that the more you think, the less you do. And doing takes more time than thinking. Your hands are much slower than your mind. As you can see, internalized thinking saves time. It may be different experience for you, depending on the person that you are, but all of us agree that it makes sense to put your mind to something before jumping on it.

Play: An instrument, football. Run. Yes, You are pursuing a hobby, it rejuvenates mental and physical health and all those other things. But Importantly, all of these are mind activities. You think analytically, mine patterns and crunch numbers when you play a guitar. Stuff that will help you in your business.

Read: Crossing the Chasm? Innovator’s dilemma? Good to Great?

What else do you think one can do?

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This entry is a part of  “What is sales? – A blog book“. Read more about it here.

Sales Promotion goes hand-in-hand with advertisement and many manufacturers/dealers operate contest, quiz, etc., offering attractive prizes to winners. In most cases, the contestants are required to enclose the bill, labels, cartoon, etc., along with the entry forms to qualify for entry in the contest. In some cases, gift or discount coupons form part of the advertisement that could be exchanged or redeemed with the dealers/retailers for a discount on purchase of the product. During festive seasons, special discounts are announced and products sold at most competitive prices that help consumers get bargain deals. All these and many other Sales Promotion campaigns result in both the retailers/dealers stocking the items and inhibit the customers to make trial purchases. In other forms of Sales Promotion campaigns, door-to-door selling of new products and offered at prices lesser than the market with or without free offers motivate the customers to try the product and later patronise.

It would not be enough to manufacture products and advertise in order to create customer awareness and enquiries. It is most important to make the product available to the targeted customer at the nearest retail outlet so that the customer could purchase the product. This function is known as MERCHANDISING or DISTRIBUTION. The principal aim of Merchandising is to ensure that company products are made available with as many outlets as possible and also at close proximity to the customers. The retail dealers must be assured of adequate supply of the product range through a channel of distribution like distributors, stockists, wholesalers and/or company depots.

In industries that cater products which require installation, commissioning, servicing and after-sales-support, SERVICING and CUSTOMER SUPPORT become secondary function forming part of the sales contract and considered to be part of Marketing responsibility towards fulfilling customer requirements, specially during the warranty period obligations

Thus, Marketing is an integrated activity comprising of various functional aspects like Planning, Market Research, Sales, Distribution/Merchandising, Advertising, Sales Promotion. Servicing and related activities and is a complex subject by itself. Sales is one of the primary and core function of Marketing and gains importance in so far as identifying customer wants and needs and meeting with the requirements through company’s products and services by virtue of specific and innovative strategies and plans are concerned and is aimed at company’s productivity, profitability and growth.

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Well, I will join them. I will tell them I will add value.

It seems like many business owners are afraid that a competitor or a new entrant will copy their idea and become successful. I can’t help but see the paradox here.

Your idea?

• If you are an innovator, you observed a market need. You applied your knowledge (that someone freely offered you) and you created a solution – USP
• Then you observed more and took more ideas from other sources and adapted them to work in your niche – Features
• Then, you took some more and did not even bother to change any of it and used it – Integration/Bells & whistles/Enhancements
• Then you worked with others who possess a USP in their niche to add value to yours – Partners
• Some more people saw something more than what you saw and joined you to help your cause – Employees
• You created Something – A company

And what do people like?  Your company.

As you can see, most of what most of us are doing is someone else’s idea. Your USP is probably yours (most often, even that is not true). And what is it? An observation. A thought. Did you get it because you are a genius? Is that observation such a big deal? E=MC²?

If someone is executing your idea better than you, join them. What are you doing all of this for anyway? To help make someone’s life better and happier isi’nt?

What did you lose that you cry about? What did you bring with you, which you think you have lost? What did you produce, which you think got destroyed? whatever you have, you received from here. – Bhagvad Gita.

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