gotta break free

The Ideas to Execution Weekly (Jul 25, 2011)

Gaurav — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 06:13:00 +0000

A better way to cool LEDs gets attention from GE: Overheating electronics and lighting: it’s the bane of laptop and light bulb users everywhere. But a better way to cool electronics and LED lighting systems is getting attention from GE and a group of VCs. On Tuesday, electronics cooling startup Nuventix announced that GE’s lighting unit has entered into a licensing agreement for its LED cooling tech, and at the same time, GE and a group of VCs have invested $10 million into the company.

The Dream of Becoming an Ivy League Drop-Out: Through the launch of his 20 Under 20 Fellowship initiative, billionaire entrepreneur and hedge funder Peter Thiel is engaging in one of the most radical experiments yet about the future of American higher education. He is, essentially, paying 20 of the best and brightest students in the country to drop out of college and, instead, to move to Silicon Valley to pursue their personal entrepreneurial passions for two years. He is bankrolling each of the students to the tune of $100,000 each, hoping that the combination of youth, passion, genius and a significant amount of capital backing will result in truly world-changing innovations. Instead of getting tied down with tens of thousands of dollars in student loan debt, these college students will have two years of freedom to pursue their entrepreneurial passion. Is this the new American dream?

45 Mile Wi-Fi Range is Now Possible with Lower Power Consumption: On-Ramp Wireless has invented a new way to transmit Wi-Fi signals that actually less power to strengthen the signal. Wi-Fi signals become more and more distorted as they travel through the air and, of course, after a while they become too distorted to be useful (after one-twentieth of a mile) due to noise.

Mitsubishi Unveils Solar-Powered Vehicle Charging Station: Driving an electric vehicle (EV) can be a source of personal pride and a strong statement of how you see yourself in the world. Unfortunately, it can also be a little stressful if you have to worry about your car’s charge running out in the middle of nowhere. Enter Mitsubishi, who has recently announced the debut of a solar-powered charging station at their headquarters in Cypress, California. Preceding the launch of the new Mitsubishi i electric vehicle in November, the opening of this charging station is designed to show the company’s commitment to improving the national infrastructure for EV drivers.

GE’s Holographic Storage Tech Enabling 500GB Discs Steps Closer to Commercialization: GE’s research team has successfully demonstrated a micro-holographic material that can support data recording at the same speed as Blu-ray discs. GE plans to start sampling the new discs and optical drives to interested parties in the coming months. GE’s breakthrough material, when used in a disc, will match the capacity of 20 single-layer Blu-ray discs, 100 DVDs or the hard drive of most laptop computers. Ultimately, the team is working toward micro-holographic discs that can store more than 1TB of data.

3-D Printing – Bringing Digital Fabrication Into Every Home: It just may be the oldest technology of which you’ve never heard. And now it may become the newest addition to the list of home gadgets you simply must have. Commonly called a 3-D printer, this exciting machine is more a fabricator than a printer in the traditional sense of the word. 3-D printers have been used in the manufacturing world for more than twenty-five years, with multi-million dollar machines punching out prototype parts primarily in the aerospace and automotive arenas. Technological advances have pushed the price of these printers down to a point where it is now possible to envision a model designed as a personal home accessory available for under $1,000.

The Ideas to Execution Weekly (Jul 18, 2011)

Gaurav — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 05:53:00 +0000

Soft Memory Device Opens Door To New Biocompatible Electronics

Researchers have created a memory device with the physical properties of Jell-O, and that functions well in wet environments. Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a memory device that is soft and functions well in wet environments – opening the door to a new generation of biocompatible electronic devices. “We’ve created a memory device with the physical properties of Jell-O,” says Dr. Michael Dickey, an assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at NC State and co-author of a paper describing the research.

Tata Group to sell Ikea-like flat packed ‘Nano’ house for Rs 32,000 (US$720)

India’s Tata group will sell a flat-pack house that costs just $700 and can be built in a week. The Tata group , maker of the $2,500 Nano car, said that the 20-square-metre (215-square-foot) home comes from a pre-fabricated kit that includes doors, windows and a roof. “We have already prepared two-three different designs based on discussions with users and are gathering more feedback,” Sumitesh Das, the head of the project at Tata, told reporters in Hyderabad on Friday.

Why Apple’s ITC patent victory over HTC Android phones is scary

Friday dealt a serious legal blow to HTC and the Android platform in general. A U.S. International Trade Commission judge has ruled that HTC infringed on two patents Apple submitted in a March 2010 complaint. Naturally, HTC appealed the judgment to the six ITC commissioners, who will ultimately have the final say on the patent verdict. But it’s easily possible their decision, which is due by Dec. 6, will uphold the judge’s initial ruling. The ruling is scary for competition because it could ultimately lead to the ban of all HTC Android devices and, to take things to the extreme, the ban of all Google Android phones and tablets. The two patents ruled to be infringing appear to be vital to the Android OS itself, so other companies’ Android products will be in Apple’s sights too.

Graphite and water could be as good as lithium ion batteries but recharge in seconds

A combination of two ordinary materials – graphite and water – could produce energy storage systems that perform on par with lithium ion batteries, but recharge in a matter of seconds and have an almost indefinite lifespan. “The reason graphene isn’t being used everywhere is that these very thin sheets, when stacked into a usable macrostructure, immediately bond together, reforming graphite. When graphene restacks, most of the surface area is lost and it doesn’t behave like graphene anymore.” Now, Dr Li and his team have discovered the key to maintaining the remarkable properties of separate graphene sheets: water. Keeping graphene moist – in gel form – provides repulsive forces between the sheets and prevents re-stacking, making it ready for real-world application.

Japan’s Shimizu Proposes a Loony Solar Idea

Taking space-based solar one rather giant leap further, Japan’s respected construction giant Shimizu is recommending that Earthlings build a huge moon-based solar plant to power the entire world from a Lunar Ring. The idea behind Shimizu’s lunar solar belt would be to build an array of solar modules extending like a belt around the 11,000 kilometer equator. Using robots (because they don’t need to breathe), solar modules would be constructed in situ, on the moon, using lunar material resources which Shimizu claims would be adequate for the task.

The Ideas to Execution Weekly (Jul 11, 2011)

Gaurav — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 09:02:00 +0000

Researchers develop flexible circuits to harvest ambient electromagnetic energy: Wouldn’t it be incredible if we could tap the electromagnetic energy from our surrounding sources like radio & TV transmitters, satellite communication systems, and even cellphone networks, and provide power to small electronic devices? Well, all this is feasible courtesy a new technology that harnesses energy from the ambient environment.

New LED bulb has the same color light as an incandescent bulb but uses about 5 times less electricity. Switch’s 60-watt-replacement bulb will sell for about $20, and the 75-watt and 100-watt replacements will cost slightly more. As LEDs are mass-produced over time, their prices will plummet. A year from now, Switch’s 60-watt-equivalent bulb should sell for under $15, and could hit $10 the year after that.

The road ahead in mobile games: Mobile gaming is the wide-open battleground of the entertainment industry. While Zynga dominates social games and big publishers rule console games, the global smartphone game market is still up for grabs. Since there are potentially billions of users in this market, mobile gaming could become the largest game market of them all. Who will win it?

McDonald’s in the UAE to Power its Trucks with Used Cooking Oil: Do you equate McDonald’s with sustainability? I thought not. So this is an oddball news item: the greasy fast-food chain famous for making American obese is now partnering with Dubai-based Neutral Fuels to recycle all the used cooking oil in its deep fat fryers in the UAE into a biodiesel fuel for its fleet of trucks.

Student’s WiFi Software Could Double the Life of Your Laptop Battery: WiFi downloads can drain a battery so fast it would put True Blood to shame, especially if you are using a smartphone or laptop in an area where other WiFi devices are lurking. Now a grad student at Duke University, Justin Manweiler, has developed software that enables your mobile device to sniff out other Wifi users nearby. Manweiler’s “SleepWell” system will put your device into a trance until your neighbors are finished downloading their latest episode of – well, True Blood or whatever, then arouse it whenever its turn comes up.

World’s First Solar Power Plant that Works at Night Constructed: Gemasolar has completed the construction of the world’s first solar power plant capable of generating electricity all day and night. As significant as the “all night” feature sounds, keep in mind that the fact that solar power plants do not normally generate electricity at night is not actually their biggest reliability obstacle — the electricity generation interruption from clouds is more problematic.

Toshiba Battery that Reaches 80% Charge in 15 Minutes to Power New Mitsubishi Electric Vehicles: Toshiba Corporation’s SCiB battery has been selected by Mitsubishi Motors Corporation to power two new models of electric vehicles (EV), the i-MiEV and MINICAB-MiEV.

Coming Soon: the Laptop You Power by Typing: A team of researchers at Australia’s Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) have successfully demonstrated a new, “nano-scaled” piezoelectric film’s capacity for turning mechanical pressure into electricity — bringing the (admittedly geeky) dream of perpetually-charged laptop batteries one small step giant leap closer to reality.

Cut the Clutter

Gaurav — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 06:56:00 +0000

It’s been a while since I posted anything here. And as one would expect, Alexa tells me that more than 20 million websites have managed to do better than me over the past five odd months. Anyway, blog statistics notwithstanding, it is time for me to get back more seriously to putting up something useful more regularly here.

For those of you who may be interested—wonder if there’s anyone who falls in that category but nonetheless—I shifted cities and jobs in January earlier this year. The few months after that have been consumed in just getting used to a new place, gaining momentum at a new firm, and a whirlwind tour of the US in the midst of some highly critical assignments. Looking back, I cannot think of a single day not well spent. But then, there’s always room for improvement and so it’s time for me to squeeze out a few hours every week and get you something that is worth a read, to say the least.

Having said that, I realize my human limitations, owing to which I have decided to leverage technology for part of the job. Going with a philosophy that I choose to very unimaginatively call “Cut the Clutter”, I will publish a weekly roundup of top stories around the web on specific topics. Before you thumb your nose at me, let me add that the process to select these stories is a mix of using various automated metrics around popularity and social engagement, followed by a level of manual filtering to get you stuff that does not add to your already cluttered inboxes and RSS readers.

To begin with, I am launching the “Ideas to Execution Weekly”, which will carry exactly 10 articles handpicked every week (Duh!) and will span a range of articles around entrepreneurship and innovation. Needless to say, I look forward to your feedback on the selections so I can fine-tune the process.

Whither responsible journalism?

Ajit Grewal — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 13:51:34 +0000

The Indian TV screen appears to have taken away the image of the crusading journalist who fearlessly campaigned for a cause and investigated leads to come up with disclosures, which satisfied (i) the journalistic urge of the writer, and (ii) made for good and informed discussion among the readers/viewers of today.

What has emerged instead is eager newbies focused on getting ahead in life (definitely nothing wrong there), happy to rub shoulders with both the ‘important’ and ‘damned’ of the moment. Volume and sensationalism have eclipsed understanding of issues and therefore real content. It follows therefore that anchors often end up missing the substance of any issue, which requires extensive research to be well understood, and in turn often misinforming the public. The discussion is sometimes limited to asking the various participants (with opposing views) to simply respond to statement of other members of the panel, with almost no contribution/insight/direction from the anchor.

Probably somewhere in the process of riding the media explosion, our brand of journalism has forgotten the research support that needs time, commonsense, and a thorough understanding. The objective appears to be conflict rather than informed debate, with a copious helping of sensationalism. A thick skin definitely helps!

While the entire pattern of dissemination of news on round-the-clock channels has necessitated sensationalism to an extent, competition and greed have ensured half-baked and me first news. The latter is particularly visible in anchor-driven shows where spokespersons of political parties—mercifully not all—bare their political biases and their desire for power even if at the expense of misinformed propaganda.

As if some of these politically motivated individuals were not enough, the modern news anchors have jumped into the ‘Great Indian Misinformation’ race, albeit with the least monetary benefits compensated in part by public recognition, which provides them the opportunity to rub shoulders with the influential and the ‘connected’ (the not-so-common man).

Journalism and news gathering at one time had similar noble credentials in society as those ascribed to doctors and the like. However, what we have today is not paper journalism but the instant and masala 24/7 TV journalism. The instant nature of the news—and the mandatory sensationalism to sell it—requires the ‘blink’ as opposed to the ‘think’ type of coverage. While the misinformation may not be deliberate per se, it does arise out of a known incompleteness of knowledge (and possibly understanding), which the concerned journalist could/should do well to acknowledge via a disclaimer. In the process, the journalists lend themselves to becoming agents of misinformation, agents of interested parties, and agents of their own biases. The last aspect would not necessarily be a major issue, but the quality of today’s anchors leaves much to be desired, apart from their ability to sensationalize the most mundane news.

The above may appear to be too harsh and generalized a commentary on the ‘aam’ journalist. However, it is not necessarily directed towards the eager, zealous, and aspiring young journalist trying to make a mark. It is directed at those who have already arrived and present themselves as the fountainheads of knowledge and the saviors and keepers of India’s moral ethics.

It is pathetic to see news anchors of two major channels display their poor and completely inadequate knowledge of the subject under debate. This aspect is brought out best when the ‘guest’ happens to be well clued in to the subject, and reaches all-time highs when the ‘guest’ is a suave and veteran lawyer politician. The senior of the two journalists (recently in news for innovative journalistic techniques) managed to handle the debate marginally better because of brashness and a thick skin, more than anything else. Case in point is the recent telecom scandal, which in many ways triggered this article as well. Kapil Sibal did an outstanding job—rather belatedly—of bringing out the complexity of the issue and providing a firm context to all the allegations. But how many of the viewing public will appreciate and remember the real issues at stake? Not many, given the barrage of conflicting and half-researched information already served to a less-than-discerning public.

So whither responsible journalism? How is a journalist any better than a politician who routinely misinforms the public at large and in particular the population, which forms the pillar of parties other than his own. As said earlier, the little and incomplete information the journalist has is packaged as a complete, well-researched piece that can awe the average guest on the show and an audience with short memories. It requires the occasional politician/thinker with facts and figures at his fingertips, which can upset this ‘packaged’ applecart.

I do not quite know how to separate the wheat from the chaff when it comes to anchors and talk shows, but there must be a methodology of rating anchors factoring in various aspects of an anchor’s abilities that include knowledge, experience, and unbiasedness particularly in the case of sensitive matters. Similar considerations are due for guests on these shows – it seems rather surprising that some familiar faces tend to pop up more often than others. Finally, a good cross-section of opinion can be made possible by also taking into account certain details of viewers who can vote on their evaluations of these shows. To start with, the studio audience cannot, and should not, remain just a passive consumer of what plays out.

And finally, coming to the rather obvious question, why does all this upset me so much? I find it criminal to see such blatant misinformation spread through TV to large audiences who have no other source of knowing the truth.

Wake Up India !!

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A guest post by Ajit Grewal, who keenly follows broad political issues as portrayed on TV and is keen on impartial and accurate portrayal of issues aimed at informing, and not just attracting, an audience. more about Ajit

Objectivity and Sensationalism (socyberty.com)
The Fall of India’s Katie Couric? (thedailybeast.com)
OKAY, WHY SHOULDN’T THE ANCHORS BE PATRIOTS? (profanity alert): (brothersjuddblog.com)

Welcome Ajit, our first guest blogger

Gaurav — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 13:36:09 +0000

At the risk of sounding unduly formal, I take immense pleasure and pride in welcoming Mr.Ajit Grewal as the first contributor to this blog/site. He brings with him multiple decades of global experience in banking and credit risk management. In recent years, he worked with a microfinance firm in his effort to be part of a socially conscious and noble initiative, much before the industry entered its latest bout of troubles.

I came in touch with him during my few years at a research firm I was engaged with until recently. He made me truly appreciate the irreplaceable value of experience and an approach to management that rests on commonsense and careful thought.

I welcome him to the site and am sure you will find his articles thought-provoking, to say the least. His frank unbiasedness, grounded in years of observation, will strengthen the core of this site, which aims to break the mold and look beyond the obvious.

If you are interested in contributing to the site, please click here.

Clients don’t like surprises

Gaurav — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 10:35:00 +0000

Over the past years, I have worked with a variety of small and large institutional clients both as part of delivery and sales teams. In both capacities, the one thing I have realized—and sometimes rather painfully—is the value of keeping client stakeholders in the know. Most often, providers find it counter-intuitive to share the bad stuff with clients, assuming it would cast their abilities in negative light. Sometimes, secrecy may well be required depending on the implications to the client’s business. However, that should only be the exception and not the norm – something that most providers don’t tend to appreciate. In my experience, this is even more visible in outsourcing relationships, particularly the offshore kind. Clients naturally harbor certain apprehensions about offshore providers, especially if the relationship is not sufficiently mature. To top that, providers withhold what could otherwise build a different level of trust and understanding between the stakeholders.

The other school of thought, which I subscribe to, is about transparently sharing the good and the bad in realistic proportions. Clients don’t like surprises; in fact, no one does. If something has gone wrong, go ahead and accept it; take the extra effort to have that difficult discussion instead of avoiding it. If not immediately, clients will appreciate it in due course and possibly empathize with your constraints. Even better, if the discussion leads both parties to collectively resolve a matter that could otherwise end up in an nonviable or strenuous solution, which—in no way—helps either. Don’t forget that even B2B relationships are all about people at the end of the day, and people like to be kept informed. Also, do remember that in the prevailing internet age, the repercussions could be far too embarrassing and irreversible if the client gets to hear of the issue from other sources. That—for most practical purposes—could be the virtual end of any trust that you may have built until then.

Can This Client Relationship Be Saved? Tips to Nurture Your Client Relationship to Build Trust, Loyalty and Business (livingstonbuzz.com)
Simple starts to big relationships….a lesson from RunKeeper (andyswan.com)

5 subjects every MBA should take

Gaurav — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 08:34:31 +0000

I recently did a guest lecture at one of the local MBA colleges in Hyderabad, India. On one side, it took me back to the days when I used to be a starry-eyed student myself. On the other, it made me reflect upon how we tend to give undue importance to certain things that eventually don’t turn out so.

I remembered how we used to be hopelessly concerned about the subjects to take up as electives. For the hardcore marketing and finance folks, the choice was rather straight forward, though not entirely ideal in hindsight. For the relatively more confused lot which I was a part of, the dilemma used to be intense.

Here, I have compiled a list of subjects/topics that every MBA must take up, regardless of the specialization. These, in my view, are fundamental blocks that will equip you with the right understanding and tools all through your professional careers.

Financial Modeling – The day you grow senior enough in the corporate hierarchy to evaluate projects and firms, you’ll realize how critical this is.
Operations/Project Management – Wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that more than 90% of modern corporate work is structured as projects. You’ll start off working with one, and end up handling many, so equip yourself well.
Data Analysis/Quantitative Techniques – It is no more about capturing data, it’s about what you can make from it – the intelligence you can drive.
Business to Business (B2B) Marketing – Whatever your area of work maybe (including B2C marketing, finance, IT etc.), you will at some stage end up dealing with other companies.
Services Marketing – It’s not the product that decides customer satisfaction in today’s world; it’s the experience.

There are others that come to mind, but I will restrict the list to these five. These are subjects that—more often than not—one tends to overlook given the preference for a certain specialization.

Master of Finance Vs. Master of Business Administration (thinkup.waldenu.edu)
How to stand out from the crowded marketplace (independent.co.uk)
The business school for anti-MBAs (money.cnn.com)

feeling less secure? research suggests you probably are

Gaurav — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 08:34:30 +0000

The recession of 2007 may have felt like a once-in-a-lifetime disaster, but it’s just the latest shock in what has become a more volatile world for the typical American household, according to a leading expert on household finances.

In a new article published by the Brookings Institution, senior fellow Karen Dynan says that the ups and downs in household income have become about a third larger between the late 1960s and the middle part of the 2000s. What’s more, the share of households experiencing big drops in income — of 50% or more — has also increased, to about 12% in the mid-2000s from about 7% in the late 1960s.

As Ms. Dynan puts it: “It remains to be seen … whether the recent financial crisis will permanently change the availability of credit in a way that undoes the (relative) stability of household consumption.”

Fasten your seatbelts.

Complete Article

Say hello to the new logo

Gaurav — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 08:34:29 +0000

Hello All,

Had a creative epiphany while stuck in a bad traffic jam on my way to work today. So ended up designing and uploading a new logo.

Would love to hear your opinion, so do take a moment to comment on this post.

Cheers…

gotta break free

The Ideas to Execution Weekly (Jul 25, 2011)

The Ideas to Execution Weekly (Jul 18, 2011)

The Ideas to Execution Weekly (Jul 11, 2011)

Cut the Clutter

Whither responsible journalism?

Related articles

Welcome Ajit, our first guest blogger

Clients don’t like surprises

Related articles

5 subjects every MBA should take

Related articles

feeling less secure? research suggests you probably are

Say hello to the new logo