Sudeep D'Souza

Blog on dental hospitals

noreply@blogger.com (Sudeep DSouza) — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 06:11:43 PDT

Mona has worked with dental hospitals over the past 3 years helping them with their social media strategy and IT related strategic plans. You can read more about her experiences in her blog on dental hospitals.

Given below is an extract of an article she has written about dental hospitals

There are more than 1500+ dental hospitals in Hyderabad. Consultations cost anywhere between Rs. 100/- to Rs. 300/-. It is a business that functions a lot on word of mouth and references. However, if you are someone like me who came to Hyderabad and don't have anyone to point you in the right direction, then this is the dental review blog for you.If you call up JustDial, they will redirect you to the one that is paying them the most and who is in your area, ofcourse. However, for me, teeth are personal and sensitive and after horrible experiences, i decided to come up with this blog - To share information on good dental hospitals and in my own way give back to society.

If you refer to JD's reviews they are fake and from what i've seen on most review sites, there is no way of assessing the genuiness of the complaints as none of the people posting put their real name and contact details.

You can continue reading this article by going here.

Landing a programming job

noreply@blogger.com (Sudeep DSouza) — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 20:31:54 PDT

It is getting harder for freshers to break into the software industry and land a good job especially if you are from a tier 2 or 3 colleges. So what can you do.

The answer to this is very simple – the industry is looking for people who can do a task that is given to them – when you join the industry the key is to be able to “write code” as that is what you will be hired as a fresher to do. Let us say you go for a training you should ask yourself at the end of it – can I write code and if the answer is NO – then you will find it extremely hard to get a job in the software industry.

The key is to get a computer and get comfortable with it. The more you work on the computer the more comfortable you will get at it. So go for the training and come back to your PC and you need to work hard at it writing programs – what programs? – You may ask and the answer is simple – any program that will teach you the concept that you learnt.

You can find these programs to code at these locations

Mindqjobs.com and we have a section on programming and their solutions.
Click here to get a list of programming questions - 50 programs for software engineers looking for jobs
Any book will be able to give you enough samples to understand and learn.

Do not copy-paste the sample and execute it and say you tried it out. Read the sample – close the source – try and do it without looking at the source – if you run into difficulties stop what you are doing – go back to the source – read it once again – close the source and come back to the computer and fix the problem – that is the only way you will learn and get confident. The key is to be able to implement things on your own.

Let us say, now you have the required knowledge and the confidence that you can program given the problem – you may ask – How do I now get a job? Write about the tougher programs that you have programmed or what you have learnt on a blog. Some examples of blogs of students that have trained under me are

Include this URL in your resume. You should be able to write these programs if asked to at the interview and I can assure you that in 8 out of 10 cases you will land yourself a programming job. In any circumstances do not lie about your skills or experience – even if you get through the interview your shortcomings will be exposed and things will get tougher once you start working.

Who best fits the QA Role ?

noreply@blogger.com (Sudeep DSouza) — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 03:57:38 PDT

For those of you who are not too familiar with these terms I would advise you to read my first article - Quality Assurance Vs Quality Control where I have spoken about my understanding of the two terms and it kind of leads into this article.

I have been asked this a few times by professionals who do QC (essentially testers although testing != QC) - "How do I move into a QA role?" and I have also read in a few websites and newsgroups for QA and QC where one looks at moving from a QC role to a QA role like a natural progression in ones careers.

Since I have played the QA role I would first talk about some of the things that helped me perform this role.

Since the QA role expects the person to have a holistic view of the process of software development it is important to have a bit of experience in all the facets of software development right from requirements to design to development to deployment. Its only when one understands all of these elements in software development can one be competent enough to be able to define a process.
Its important to understand the business for which the process is being developed. The process that is developed for software product development will be different from software services. Hence it is important to understand the business so that the appropriate process can be developed or enhanced.
The person implementing a process needs to understand the implications of a process change. Process change is a mindset change - you need to get everyone else to think like you and then get them to implement the process. Hence it is very important to gradually move them to where you want the process to be. Hence reading some theory and saying oh it will be great to have it lets roll it out may backfire very badly its important to understand the implication of each step of the process and implement it gradually showing the benefits of the process that is being implemented.
A QA person needs to be an evangelist - he needs to convince a lot of people that he/she knows what they are doing. Hence it is good to have good communication skills and marketing abilities to be able to sell the benefits of the process. Secondly the experience of the person in implementing what the person is preaching will go a long way in convincing everyone that what is being implemented will work.

Hence as you can see just understanding the testing phase of a project development lifecycle or being very good at testing and identifying defects in the software does not gaurantee that the person will be good playing the QA role. Hence it is important to understand that moving from QC (aka Testing) to QA is not a natural progression of ones career.

Advertising as primary revenue stream in startups

noreply@blogger.com (Sudeep DSouza) — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 22:15:31 PDT

Over the last few months I have seen a lot of business ideas that base their revenue generation through advertising. In my experience this is a very dangerous strategy for a startup. Let me narrate my experience about implementing this strategy on a website that Inforica had developed called mindqjobs.com.

We launched this website in the last week of december 2012 with much fanfare with the assumption that we will get the traffic to monetize through advertising. The assumption was made on the fact that the website was to be used by the students of a software training institute Mindq Systems which number in the 1000s every month. We started off by putting Adsense and the pennies started to flow in almost immediately. Thats right, all we got were pennies which added up to a few dollars every day, an amount barely enough to pay for hosting the site on a shared server. One of the reasons is because the traffic was from India and not the west, so you end up making very little in terms of CTRs and CPCs. About a month later one fine day we get a mail from Adsense saying that our adsense account is banned for illegal traffic and that was the end of adsense on the website.

We then went on to try out other ad networks such as Komoona ads. We get absolutely nothing from this ad network, just a few cents every day which we continue to get as of now. We got an account on infolinks - this made the whole page very ugly by linking up text to extra information and it was not the kind of user experience that we desired on the website. Another ad network that we tried out is Chitika - the issue with this is that it is targeted towards search pages and not content pages so they have very few ad types. The new one that I am trying out now is Tyroo - this is an ad network where you promote products and you earn commissions.

Based on my experience this is my feedback for all those considering an advertising as their main source of revenue

Ensure that you have 10's of thousands of page views per day with a majority of the traffic from the west.
Adsense is by far the easiest ad network to implement with the least amount of work. They have a wide array of ads suitable for every kind of page and the kind of revenue you earn from it is much more than any other ad network we have come across.
Have one person full time only evaluating and trying out ad networks and changes to your web pages so that you manage the fine line between a good user experience and good chances of a click through.
There is very little control that one has over the ad network and if all your revenue is dependent on a third party you have very high risk inherently built into your revenue model that can drive you into the ground very easily.
Since traffic takes time to build up so ad revenue takes time to build up and also there is no guarantee that the ad revenue is directly proportional to the growth of the traffic although a pattern develops over time.

My personal opinion is that ad revenue cannot be your primary source of income of your product unless you are a google, facebook or linkedin and none of us are that when we startup. Ad revenue should only be a supplementary source of income. Build something that a customer is going to love using and is willing to pay you for it. That should be your primary source of income.

10 guidelines to be a valued associate

noreply@blogger.com (Sudeep DSouza) — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 22:29:00 PDT

Its appraisal time and everyone wants to be the most valued associate. But how do you become the most valued associate - here are my thoughts

Creating a belief that you can meet your commitments. Given a task you will do what ever it takes to complete it in the allocated time.
Take pains to ensure that the task is done with minimum defects or issues. This can be achieved by multiple practice runs or by a lot of testing.
There is an eye for detail to ensure that simple things are not overlooked and there is no compromise made on quality.
Shortcomings of delivering the application are noted and brought to the attention of the superior as soon as they are identified so appropriate action can be taken. Do not wait to be asked for status to bring this up.
Having the knowledge to deliver and train others so that you gain respect within the community. Should have the passion to learn new things and apply them in ones work.
Documenting what is being done so that anyone else can take over and continue if you have to ever leave the task mid way.
Being open minded and inclusive in discussions and meetings.
Having good communication skills both written and oral. They should have the ability to write well written emails or be able to hold a discussion comfortably with clients and fellow associates in the organization.
Being able to admit ones faults and shortcomings and put action plans in place to rectify them.
Not being afraid to challenge the norm and work on actionable points to improve the organization.

With inputs from Vidhyashankar Kannan - you can read his blog here.

Startup events in Hyderabad

noreply@blogger.com (Sudeep DSouza) — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 03:30:02 PDT

Was reading this small write up in the times paper about the NASSCOM initiative to create 10000 startups and over the last one month I have been part of 3 startup events in Hyderabad focused
primarily towards students and encouraging them to take the entrepreneurial plunge rather than take up a campus recruitment offer.

Startup Weekend University

Startup Weekend University is similar to a regular startup weekend event except that the combination of students to experienced professionals is 70% students and 30% professionals. We had about 75 participants and the event was held at the beautiful BITS Pilani, Hyderabad campus over 3 days with many students staying on the campus. The students were primarily from BITS, IIT, IIIT and Vignan University, Guntur with a few students from other colleges in the city.

The event was a highly successful event in showcasing that students can build products over the weekend that have a business side to them. There were 13 startups formed over the weekend and all of them had a working prototype to show the judges on sunday evening. There were ideas ranging from playing puzzles to win free food orders to home automation systems where hardware was fabricated at the venue.

The event kicked off on friday evening with pitch fire (1 min to tell everyone what your idea is), voting for the top ideas and team formation. By 11 PM on friday night we had 13 teams ready to start building their startups. Saturday was filled with mentoring sessions with successful founders, investors, CEOs of companies and product building using the resources that startup weekend provides. Sunday saw final demos being presented in front of a panel of judges that run incubators and accelerators.

Idea Carnival

TiE along with Hyderabad Angels and the Uber Accelerator conducted an event called Idea Carnival at IIIT, Hyderabad. This was a 2 day event with students from IIIT, IIT, BITS and ISB that attempted to put together a business model and a wireframe/throw away prototype over 2 days to be presented to a panel of judges that consisted of almost 10 angels. It was amazing to see the confidence of the students in putting forth their ideas and business models to a large audience in Avasa Hotel.

Ideato

Ideato was an event conducted in IIT Hyderabad by the students of IIT Hyderabad for the students of IIT Hyderabad. They got about 35-40 students to spend a weekend to ideate and validate their ideas. The ideas were very exciting from creating videos out of images to local search and coupons.

Other articles I have written about startup weekend

Staying the course

noreply@blogger.com (Sudeep DSouza) — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 04:42:28 PDT

Life can be challenging for an entrepreneur. The inherent risks of running the venture are high and thus each
day presents their own challenges. The risks are there as the number of people that can do a job is limited, the money available on hand is limited, the number of customers you have is limited and vendors do not give you attention as you are small. Any one of these can change every day and you will notice that you have ups and downs in quick succession - just like you are going on a roller coaster. This can play with the mind of the entrepreneur in a very significant way.

The important thing is to keep evaluating your position with respect to your employees, customers, suppliers and money flow as often as possible and take actions accordingly. There are days when it would seem impossible to manage all of this and you feel like throwing in the towel wondering if it is all worth it. It is at this time you have to go back to your vision and believe completely in your vision and then stay the course to reach that vision. That is where it is very important to have a vision as an entrepreneur.

Forming a vision is like dreaming and can cover

What kind of an organization you want to create - its values, beliefs?
What kind of work do you want to do in case of services?
What kind of a product do you want to build in terms of a product?
Understand who are your best customers, suppliers and employees - figure out how you are going to work with them in the future to grow your business and organization?

Your vision should create assets (Read Post on Assets and Branding) - assets can be in the form of a very good customer list, a fantastic set of employees, suppliers who answer your call on the first ring :) and products or services that more and more customers want. If you have this vision and you feel you are moving towards it then it is a lot more easier to stay the course and reap the rewards in time.

Passport Renewal Application

noreply@blogger.com (Sudeep DSouza) — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 10:56:16 PDT

Its been 5 years since I have applied for my daughters passport and I wrote a series of articles at that point of time on the process

The process now has changed significantly and so much for the better. I got the passport in about a week after applying for a tatkal passport. Let me go over the steps here. Please note a few things with respect to my application

It was for a minor.
It was a renewal of a passport that expired less than 3 years ago.
There was no address change. The address on the expired passport and the new passport is the same.

Step 1 : Create a login

Create an account on https://portal2.passportindia.gov.in/AppOnlineProject/user/userLogin. Give a valid email id as you will need to validate the email id after registration.

Step 2 : Apply for Fresh Passport / Reissue of Passport

Once you login, click on the link that says apply for fresh passport / Reissue of passport. Follow the instructions and download the PDF and complete it. If you are using Adobe 10 then you can save the PDF. Use the offline method where you have to fill in the form > Save an XML file on your desktop and then upload it onto the site.

Step 3 : Schedule a date

On the same site you have to schedule a date at the Passport Seva Kendra. There are slots that open up every day at 4:00 PM and within about a minute they get filled up. The important point to note is that they open up at 4:00 PM on the server time at the passport office and this time is located at the top left hand corner of the screen. Keep applying for a slot right from 3:55 PM continuously refreshing the time. If you stay idle then it times out the session and you will have to login again. Do not login with the same id on multiple computers it will log you out of all the sessions. Do not give up, it took me 3 days to figure it out and finally get a date. Each day they open up the slots for 1 day about 4-5 days from the date you try to make the booking.

Step 4 : Collecting the documents

You can get the list of documents needed by going to this URL - https://portal2.passportindia.gov.in/AppOnlineProject/docAdvisorSecure/attachmentAdvFresh. Select the appropriate choices and it will give you the list of documents needed. You will have to carry photocopies of these documents and also the original on the date and time that you got a booking for in the Passport Seva Kendra. In addition to these documents I was asked to give the photocopy of the fathers passport and the mothers passport. You do not need to carry photographs. They are taken in the passport seva kendra.

Step 5 : Submit documents at the Passport Seva Kendra

Report at the allotted time at the passport seva kendra. Its a 4 step process

Get the documents verified and get a token. At this point they will put the photocopies of your documents in a file.
Your original documents are scanned, photograph is taken and fees collected. At this point they will collect the fees based on whether the application is tatkal or normal.
The documents are verified online that were scanned in step 2 vs what is present in the file.
The file is submitted and a receipt is given to you and the old passport is stamped.

Step 6 : Passport is sent to your address by speed post

The passport is then dispatched to your house by speed post. The status of this can be viewed on the website by logging in. The day the passport is dispatched you are sent an SMS on the registered mobile number.

The process is very simple and straight forward now. The documents can be photocopied at the passport seva kendra as there is a photocopy center inside and also there is an ATM to withdraw money if needed. The kendra's are air conditioned and there are chairs to sit down and wait for your turn. You have to wait for your token to come up on the big TV displays and then go to the appropriate counter. It took me about 2 hours inside the kendra to complete the entire process.

Technology Entrepreneurship Certificate

noreply@blogger.com (Sudeep DSouza) — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 19:00:00 PST

This is the certificate I got for successfully completing the Technology Entrepreneurship course on Venture Lab.

The courses here are really good and I would advise all those that can do these courses to take them up.

10 Reasons to join mindqjobs.com

noreply@blogger.com (Sudeep DSouza) — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 20:56:29 PST

Inforica in collaboration with Mindq Systems launced http://www.mindqjobs.com. Mindqjobs.com is a website that is going to cater to the needs of the student community. Here are 10 reasons why every graduating student that is preparing for a job or for higher studies has to join Mindqjobs.com.

Browse the job board for up to date job information that is curated and posted.
Create a professional looking profile by using the Resume Builder. Once your profile is ready share it as a standalone URL to everyone and then track who has viewed the profile.
Use the online material to prepare in various topics such as Quantitative, Logical, Programming languages and so on.
Take tests in different topics and see how prepared you are in terms of speed of answering questions and also accuracy.
Connect with others through the discussion board and discuss common topics.
Find solutions to common programming problems in different programming languages. Many technical interviews involve answering programming logic problems and this can help you build up that logical capability.
Evaluate your typing speed on the website and improve on it which shows proficiency with computers.
Get access to professionals to review your profile and ensure that it is written in a professional manner.
Access to downloads such as sample resumes and programming problems for you to try out.
Take sample tests of competitive exams. The IBPS bank exam and more exams are coming soon.

The Entrepreneur mindset

noreply@blogger.com (Sudeep DSouza) — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 19:25:44 PST

Just read this very insightful quote by Oliver Emberton, Founder of Silktide - Most people spend their money to get the most utility - fun, food, whatever. Entrepreneurs spend their money to make the most money.

This picture is worth a million words. As a consumer we spend money on things for personal gratification - things that give us pleasure, satisfaction, meeting a need, motivation, enlightenment, satiate our ego or whatever else that makes us feel better. They do not help us make more money unless the money is spent on buying an asset of value. An an entrepreneur one needs to spend money on creating assets that will help create more money. This goes back to an earlier post that I wrote on Building your brands and assets. It is these brands and assets that you can monetize and generate more money.

As an entrepreneur it is very important to think this way. Its important to take stock of the assets you have and evaluate if these assets are being monetized properly and at the same time figure out what new assets can be created that can be monetized even more.

Whats a good idea to startup with?

noreply@blogger.com (Sudeep DSouza) — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 19:40:51 PST

How do you select a good idea that can make money and the picture above illustrates very nicely what such an idea can be. Ideas are plenty and if you put your mind to it you will come up with so many ideas that it becomes overwhelming after a bit. But which of these ideas can be converted into a company that can make money?

We all end up doing what we do well and what we can be paid to do - because that is the easiest thing to do. We know how to do the work and we get paid for it so the rewards are instantaneous. But can we do this day in and day out for the rest of our lives - the answer is no because its not what we want to do. The passion will be lacking. When there is no passion there is no yearning to be the best or to give quality or to go to all lengths to ensure that the customer is delighted. When this does not happen you will start to lose customers and the business will not sustain.

It is important to focus on ideas that you want to work on and are excited to work on and then hope that it all comes together by becoming an idea that you are very good at doing and a customer is willing to pay you for doing it. Hitting this sweet spot happens over time and significant effort.

Hotel Review : The Claridges, Surajkund

noreply@blogger.com (Sudeep DSouza) — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 19:36:00 PST

Back in July, I got to spend a couple of nights in The Claridges, Surajkund. The hotel itself is very nice and spacious and is located about 25 km from the airport. As you enter the hotel the lobby and the reception is very spacious and inviting.

The room
The room is very spacious and airy. All the amenities that one expects in a 5 star hotel are present. We did not get much time to spend in the room as it was quite a hectic 2 days filled with meetings and discussions.

The swimming pool
The swimming pool is really nice. We spent a lot of time in the pool - might explain the lack of time spent in the room :). The swimming pool is next to the spa and it is an elevated pool with nice privacy. The water was warm and just lovely to lounge in for hours together. They do not sell swimming gear at the hotel so make sure you carry it and also they are quite strict with the clothing in the pool.

Restaurants and Bars

Dhaba - is a north Indian restaurant that has a rustic feel to it. The food is good and very tasty but also very very expensive. The bar Azure is a great place to just relax and have a drink. The Coffee Shop serves up a very good breakfast in the morning and there was not a single dish that I did not like - they were all tasty.

Other facilities
We used the conference room facilities and they were quite impressive and well equipped. The only issue we faced was with the internet connection. They also do have a gym that is well equipped and a spa. Although I did not visit the spa those who did go for a treatment came back very happy and contented.

The hotel is very nice to spend a day or two in away from the hustle and bustle of Delhi to just relax and unwind. There is not much to do in the immediate vicinity of the hotel unless you have a vehicle of your own. Call cabs do come to the hotel if you call them well in advance. Spur of the moment activities to do outside the hotel without transport is non existent unless you are willing to pay the heavy price of hiring a cab from the hotel.

Windows 8 : Hibernate Vs Sleep

noreply@blogger.com (Sudeep DSouza) — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 19:00:03 PST

By default the Windows 8 operating system does not come with the hibernate option. When you close the lid the computer sleeps by default. This is how I left my system for the first couple of days but what I quickly realized that even though I was doing nothing - my computer was just sleeping and so was I, my battery would be drained by morning. There would be absolutely no charge left by the time I put on the laptop in the morning.

Thankfully Microsoft has not removed the hibernate option in Windows 8 - you just have to search for it under the many menus and you will find it or just follow the steps in this article and you will be there in a minute - http://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/how-to-enable-windows-8-hibernate-option/

The option to find the menu to hibernate is quite hidden and a pain to do each time so what I have done is configured the sleep button to hibernate. Now I have no issues with my battery and my laptop does not feel like a heater each time I put it on. The hibernate option is much improved in Windows 8 and my laptop is able to hibernate in less than 10 seconds.

Windows and XBox 360

noreply@blogger.com (Sudeep DSouza) — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 19:12:46 PST

Being a person who watches a lot of downloaded content I was trying to figure out a way to stream content directly from my laptop to the TV. Since I have an XBox 360 I wanted to do it through that. In the past I have used Boxee but that meant having another computer connected to the TV.

Windows 7 + Windows Media Center + XBox 360

When I had Windows 7 on my laptop I installed Windows Media Center and then connected that to the XBox 360 and streamed movies. The connection was a bit convoluted and painful. And I suffered from the following problems

It would not reliably connect every time. Sometimes it connected with no issues sometimes it would just not behave. Its not a router issue as both the XBox and the laptop had wired connections into the same router.
Not all kinds of downloads played. The WMC software would play it on the laptop if the codecs were installed but the same would not play on the TV.

Windows 8 + XBox 360

I then went on to install Windows 8 on my laptop. This had some very nice options once you install the latest update of the XBox. The XBox gets instantly recognized in case you are on the same network and you can right click on the movie and say play to XBox. Or you can go into the Videos App on Windows 8 and then play the movie directly onto the XBox. Well this was not the perfect solution either.

You cannot fast forward, rewind or start the move from a particular position. Each time you start the movie it starts right from the beginning.
Not all kinds of movies play. For the last movie that I had the XBox had to be signed into my XBox online account for it to be able to use some plugin to play the movie. When ever for what ever reason the online account got disconnected the movie stopped playing and you have to start from the beginning all over again.

Windows 8 + PS3 Media Server + XBox 360

To overcome the above 2 issues the answer was to install the PS3 Media Server and to stream movies through that onto the XBox. Since the movies were streaming through the Media Server they can be watched from anywhere and also it had all the encoding software to play any kind of movie. All seemed very good in theory and looked like just the hack I needed to get my movies playing. But it was not to be. Neither does my media server show up in the XBox nor does my server show the XBox as a renderer. Tried all sorts of things including turning off the firewall but did not have any success.

Well I am not sure if Microsoft plans to upgrade the software in the mean time I will try and figure out a way to get this done and if I succeed will give me content for another blog post :).

Review : Novotel Hyderabad International Airport

noreply@blogger.com (Sudeep DSouza) — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 19:46:46 PST

A couple of weeks ago I got to spend a night at the Novotel International Airport Hotel. The hotel is located in shamshabad about 3 km from the International Airport. The hotel is 5 star and there are a lot of facilities available at the hotel to keep one engaged for a day. In this article I will review some of the facilities I did get to use in the airport.

The room
The room is very ordinary. There are a lot of other 5 star hotels that have rooms that are much more spacious and luxurious. There are two views, the swimming pool view and the airport view but there is not much to view either way so it does not make much of a difference. The room has all the standard accessories and fittings one expects in a 5 star hotel. We did not get any night service where the bed is prepared to sleep in. Newspapers are only given on request. The television has a few foreign language channels other than the usual cable channels that one gets in India.
The Square

I had all my meals at the square. That is lunch and dinner on the first day and breakfast the next morning. The lunch was regular 5 star restaurant quality food with some live counters one for Chinese, one for pizza and pasta and so on. The food was nothing to be overly excited about. In the night they had a more international spread with dishes from different countries including a sushi counter. The food again was average - didn't really go for seconds. The breakfast was very average - the Indian food was actually bad. Would I spend money to have food here again - not with the current quality. There are a lot of better places to eat in Hyderabad. Although around the hotel there are no places, one would have to go to the airport for fast food kind of fare. There is a free shuttle that one can take to the airport from the hotel.

Swimming Pool

The swimming pool is within the confines of the hotel so it is surrounded on two sides by rooms and on one side by The Square. The depth of the entire pool is only 4 feet and there is a smaller kids pool of 2.5 feet. There is not much sunshine that hits the pool other than in the afternoon when the sun is overhead and being December the water was really cold even at noon. We saw the person adding a lot of chlorine powder into the pool in the morning. Only towels are available at the pool and there is no lifeguard. They were not strict on the dress code while getting into the water.The problem is also that the pool is in a very public place so there are a lot of watchful eyes all the time. So anyone who is public shy will not be comfortable swimming in this pool.

Gymnasium

The Gym is quite big and has a lot of equipment. There was no trainer available and also there were very few people using the gym. They have a nice table tennis table with quite a bit of space around the table to have a good game, the bats and balls are present with the spa front desk next to the table. They also have a sauna separate for men and women.

The other facilities at the hotel include another restaurant called Haldi that serves indian food and The Bar that you will see as soon as you enter the hotel. The 02 spa is quite extensive and have quite a few pricey treatments on offer. For sport, they also have a basketball court and a beach volleyball court.

Generally the staff is a bit cold and they don't make you feel at home and comfortable. On the whole it was just an okay stay with okay food and some okay entertainment options. No real wow factor here.

Crime in India

noreply@blogger.com (Sudeep DSouza) — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 19:16:45 PST

It was bound to happen at some point of time - the tragic rape of the girl and the bungling of the case by the police and the administration with the politicians non-committal and making stupid remarks about women leading to public anger. The problem is not with the law. There is no point in getting the death penalty for rape - the reason being that if the death penalty comes in then there will be more ambiguity added to the law such as "rarest of rare cases" with additional procedures such as getting a presidential assent and so on. Thus never bringing a case to an end.

What we need is a strong police and administration that is fair, thorough and decisive in their action against the culprits. We need the perpetrators of the crime arrested quickly and convicted as quickly so that they are scared that in no time they will pay for their crime. Its the fear of facing the punishment that will reduce crime. Having a punishment which has no way of being implemented because the process is weak will not reduce crime, it will only embolden the criminals for they know they won't be punished.

I am not sure what is the process in India once the sexual offender is freed from prison but there should be curbs and monitoring in place to monitor their activities. I know this is not easy to implement but if thought out i am sure that ways can be worked out with the technology we have these days to put these monitors in place on these offenders.

What we need is an investment in the police to strengthen it and train it to protect the citizens that it exists for. We need investment in more judges and courts that can give out speedy justice. We need investment to be made in good forensics and investigators that can create water tight cases that will stand up in a court of law. We need the police and the administration to be free of political influence. If we do this it will automatically create the deterrents.

60 seconds on the internet

noreply@blogger.com (Sudeep DSouza) — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 18:27:01 PST

Ever wondered what happens on the internet every minute? This picture gives that view so clearly. The amount of information that gets created is just incredible. Its also getting easier to find information we are looking for with a lot of specialized sites for curating the data. It is also easy now to reach out and ask people for solutions and its fantastic how random people from around the world are so enthusiastic to help out.

Online Learning

noreply@blogger.com (Sudeep DSouza) — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 20:27:36 PST

Online learning has never been more exciting than it is now. There are so many wonderful free resources out there for online learning but there are 2 specific resources that I have tried out in the last three months that I would like to talk about which I think are really amazing. The first one is Venture Lab and the other is The Khan Academy.

I spoke about The Khan Academy a long time ago in this post. But a lot has changed since then. They have applied the concepts of gamification to it along with a learning path. This gives a logical path for the student to watch the videos and do the exercises and as you do the exercises and watch the videos you earn leaves and badges that keeps you motivated to continue learning.

I was listening to a podcast where they were talking about how this is changing the teaching paradigms in many schools where what used to be homework is now done in the class and what used to be taught in classes is now being given as homework. How is this accomplished? The students are given the videos to watch at home as homework and all the exercises that used to be done at home is now done in the class where the teachers and the students help each other in doing the exercises, thus making the class more hands-on and engaging where the concepts that are learned in the video are applied.

The Venture Lab consists of courses that are taught in Stanford. It is a gamified learning environment where there are learning videos and exercises. What is more exciting here is that one needs to form teams with other individuals from around the world. I just completed a course on Technology Entrepreneurship and I met some wonderful people from around the world in order to do my assignments. They bring a different perspective to the whole learning environment.

With all the videos on You Tube, the question/answer forums such as Stack Overflow and just the power of Google and Bing Search to filter information to programmers there are very few problems out there that do not have a solution online. Learning and being able to apply concepts is so much easier now than it has ever been in the past and one should only have the perseverance to continue learning and applying those concepts in what they do to really flourish in their careers.

Kids should be introduced to Khan Academy and encouraged to use that as a learning environment and adults should do courses on The Venture Lab and Coursera.

If you know of other sites that offer online courses, share this information in the comments section below. I would also like to connect with others who are taking courses on these sites so let me know if you are taking any of the courses and what was your experience.

Mindless Killing : Need for gun control

noreply@blogger.com (Sudeep DSouza) — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 04:50:08 PST

The debate around gun control has been going on for some time now but I think the US has reached a point where they have to take some hard and tough decisions around gun control. The second amendment gives the person the right to carry arms but it was written more than 200 years ago when weapons were not as lethal and accurate as they are these days. These weapons can discharge 100s of bullets in a matter of seconds with deadly accuracy and cause maximum damage in a very short while which was demonstrated in such a brutal manner in the killing of 20 innocent children. Its time to take serious decisive action against assault weapons that can discharge large number of bullets in a short time.

15 Reasons why attend Startup Weekend

noreply@blogger.com (Sudeep DSouza) — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 19:30:00 PST

Here are my 15 reasons why every person who wants to be an entrepreneur has to attend startup weekend especially if they are planning to startup in the technology space.

Get to evaluate and try out your product idea in a risk free manner. If you have an idea and don't know if it will work you can come to the event and pitch it - if you get enough votes probably there is some credibility to your idea.
Connect and network with developers and marketing and business professionals who can possibly work with you in the future. You can evaluate their skills over 54 hours in the toughest circumstances and find the right person who you can work with.
Get to meet mentors and spend 1 on 1 quality time with them when in real life trying to get even a few minutes of their time is very hard. They will help you fine tune your idea even further.
Ability to brainstorm with experienced professionals and fine tune your idea to something that can be taken to market.
Learn how to pitch and sell your idea in 1 minute. This will force you to practice your pitch.
Ability to present in front of Angels, VCs and Incubators. If you are able to impress them then the world is yours to conquer.
Learn through practice. Try out things and find out things that work.
Learn about different tools and techniques people use and see the effectiveness of those techniques that different teams adopted.
Understand the process of going about in starting up a technology product startup that takes you through the phases of ideation, team formation, market evaluation, product development and roll out all in 54 hours.
Teaches you to never give up. There are times it looks so daunting what needs to be done but with perseverance it is amazing what can be achieved in 54 hours.
Be a part of a global community of startup weekenders who number in the 10s of thousands.
Learn to have fun and achieve great things that you feel very passionate about.
Give you a preview of what the 18 hour days would be like when you are actually doing your startup.
Forces you to learn to make quick decisions.
Finally the awesome food - 7 meals to keep your batteries running.

Startup Funerals

noreply@blogger.com (Sudeep DSouza) — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 10:34:39 PST

I went for a very interesting event today and its called Startup Funerals. I was surprised at the size of the audience that made it to the event and that stayed all through the event. The event had a very simple format of networking and a few speakers talking about their experiences. The event focused on startups that did not succeed, in other words they failed or they gave up. The idea of the event was to share the learning from these startups with the rest of the community.

The speakers were a couple of Hyderabad Angels who shared their experiences with the audience but the stand out speaker was K.Ramakrishna who gave a chronological history about his experiences through his entrepreneurial journey and he very openly explained about the reasons why the startups he tried out did not work out. There are not many who are very open like this about their failures. So its wonderful to see people starting to open up and explain what went wrong so that no one else makes the same mistakes.

We all go through ups and downs in startups and its about how you steel your way through these situations and over come them. Its great to see events like this where people come out and explain about these challenges and how they over came them or learnt from them to make bigger and better startups. Unless you try it you will not make a mistake and unless you make a mistake you are not going to learn. We have all made mistakes from when we were toddlers and that is how we have learn.

One question that keeps haunting me is "Why is it that we did not fear to fall down when we tried to first walk as a toddler but fear to try things out as an adult?" Is it because we are more knowledgeable of the risks involved in failing that it restricts us from trying things out?

Galaxy S + Windows 8

noreply@blogger.com (Sudeep DSouza) — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 18:36:51 PST

Getting my Galaxy S phone connected to Windows 8 laptop has really ruined my weekend. Usually I just connect my Galaxy S phone to my laptop and it all works fine with the device showing up in Windows Explorer but after installing Windows 8 on my laptop I try it and nothing happens. So I turn to my best friend in need "Google". After Googling for a bit I ended up with some interesting solutions

1. Reinstall some drivers - Did not work. Told me all my drivers were upto date.
2. Change some registry values - could not find the values to change.
3. Open the config file of Kies (software used to connect the Samsung phone to the desktop) and make some changes in it. Could not save the changes as some program or the other was using it.
4. Finally found a blogpost on the Samsung asking me to install Kies Mini which is another version of Kies and some operators of Samsung specifically block the phone from connecting to Kies.

Its easy to find content on Google if one is patient enough to search on the right key words. The problem always ends up being which content to trust and which content not to trust. Curated content is the answer. But with a large content base already there and as it explodes daily with new content added how does one constantly update the curated content so that it ends up being useful to people. Stackoverflow.com has kind of done a good job regarding this for programmers. Why I say it has done a good job is because when I see a link with stackoverflow.com for a question that I have asked, I almost always click it because I know the answer that I get from there will be the closest to answering what I am looking for.

Stackoverflow.com is building a series of such sites to provide curated content for users on a platform called stackexchange.com. But there are so many topics around which curated content is needed and this is just the beginning.

Windows 8 and Office 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Sudeep DSouza) — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 19:39:57 PST

About 3 weeks ago I took the plunge to install Windows 8 and office 2013 on my 4 year old laptop that was crawling. It was a spur of the moment decision due to the frustration of my laptop just not responding to me. Now I don't regret that decision at all. My laptop has got a new lease of life. Its much faster and very responsive, the UI looks modern and sleek and all the software that I had on my Windows 7 OS works like a charm.

I did not do an upgrade, I did a complete rebuild of my laptop with Windows 8. So that kind of cleaned out 4 years of junk that I had accumulated and I started off with a clean machine. The whole transition from Windows 7 to Windows 8 including backup and restore of my data and installing all the applications I needed took me less than half a day. This is my fastest OS build ever since I started using Windows since way back in 1992.

What do I like about Windows 8
1. As mentioned already its fast and responsive. All the applications open so much more faster and work so much more better.
2. Interface to the XBox 360 is nice. You open your video and then just do a share-to and choose the xbox console and it all works.
3. The live tiles on the desktop are nice to look at but I really don't find that much use to them as I rarely work from the desktop. But it really brings your desktop alive.

What I do not like about Windows 8
1. The removal of the start button from the desktop. Since the desktop is the traditional desktop on Windows they should have left the start button in there. There are applications you can install to get similar features. Click here to read more about them.
2. The skype program comes with the metro UI but many of the features that we love in skype are missing such as screen sharing and adding other participants to an existing call and it is really not that easy to have multiple conversations at the same time in the metro UI of skype. Also since it is a metro UI you do not have access to your desktop and if there are other conversations going on in other chat programs such as GTalk you get no notification that there is a chat message waiting for you. The metro UI is really not user friendly on a desktop where a lot of multi tasking goes on.
3. The Metro UI menu options takes a bit of getting used to. Finding things on the Metro UI that one is used to finding in a particular place takes some time and this can lead to a bit of frustration. So Google becomes your best friend to find out where the option is.

My opinion is move to Windows 8. Its a fun interface that is fresh and its just so responsive when you do something on it.

Office 2013 comes with a very bland flat clean interface that feels odd when you first start it up having got used to the beveled buttons and the 3D interface of previous office products. I found it odd for a while to have the menu and the content area in the same white color thus not having the clear demarcation between the two. But again its fast, responsive and sleek so if you get a chance to move to it you should. In terms of feature set I have not used any of the features that are new in it like its integration into sky drive, syncing across devices (will try it out when I get my Windows phone), PDF Editing (Nice !!! - Didn't know it till I read this article).

In terms of feature set its not really a big upgrade from Office 2010 so you can move to it at your own pace.

Economic Times Article

noreply@blogger.com (Sudeep DSouza) — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 19:30:00 PST