Archive for the 'Musings' Category

New Laptop

Here comes the first post from my new laptop HP dv1345 (from HP dv1000 series). It is a small little workhorse and I am getting excited about it as the days pass. (Pictures taken with Nokia 6680 camera phone).

HP dv1345

Got it on 3rd October, and it brought a good omen with it. I won the Intel Kismat ki Chaabi contest on the very next day. So now I would be treating myself to a new bike soon, thanks to the Intel promo that is going on India right now. It was a tough decision to make, as the grand prize is a cool gift voucher for INR 1 lac for the five options, viz. an International Tour courtesy Thomas Cook, Dubai Shopping Festival, Child Education Plan, Samsung Digital Home Range, and Bajaj Motorcycles. I opted for the motorcycle option, as I can buy two bikes for around 1.20 lacs, one for myself (yours truly desperately needs one as commuting is starting to become an expensive and painful proposition in autorickshaws). So would need to shell out 20k more and gift my younger brother a bike as well. Not a bad deal at all. I am on a new high ;-).

Coming back to Adam (yeah, that is what I am planning to name my laptop - name brings many connotations along with this being my first laptop), it has the following specs:

  • Intel Centrino 1.73 GHz
  • 60 Gb HDD
  • 512 RAM single module
  • DVD/CD +/- RW
  • Wifi 802.11 b/g
  • 14.1″ Wide Screen
  • Quick Play Functionality - a cool feature that lets you play music and watch DVDs without booting the laptop
  • Beautiful blue-lit keyboard
  • 3 USB Ports, 1 Firewire, 1 Card Reader (SD, MMC, XD, SM), 1 Network Card Adapter
  • HP Remote - Loved this. Can use this while watching movies, and can also do a windows shut down using the remote
  • Windows XP Home Edition

Here is a picture of the Brightview Screen:

Screen of HP dv1345

It weighs a decent 2.3 kgs and is not very heavy to carry. I will be writing a review on this soon. For now, I am hooked :-).

One Year at Netscribes

Today I am completing one year at Netscribes. As I look back, it has been a year well spent learning new things, meeting interesting people and learning some more :-).

I have always wanted to join a startup. Even though fat pay packages that IITians usually command from bigger firms are galore, yet the idea of being just another face in a big organization never appealed to me. My paradigm of an ideal organization has always been the one where you have independence of thought and working style, and at the same time the liberty to try out new things. I always wanted to be a part of something that was full of positive energy and looked favorably at innovation and new ideas. And with all these things in mind, I hoped that Netscribes would be an interesting first job.

I had my own start-up during campus days, called iDhoom Technologies, which was primarily a web services firm. The startup was just like any other startup that were blooming at those times. In our case, I and a few of my fellow batchmates from IIT got together and thought of an idea to put into practice whatever we were learning in programming and coding. So along came web projects, C++, java, security coding, designing and a lot of other programming stuff. We had a good run for two years, and after that we dissolved the firm with a unanimous decision of pursuing different fields. The basic ideology, of applying what we were learning to the real world, was fulfilled and the goal accompolished.

So, I did have a feel of the start-up environment, when I joined Netscribes. But coming here, and seeing a company that was just coming out of its formative years is an incredible experience. I have seen excellent dynamics at play in the organization; and my own experience in introducing a new concept has been very stimulating. An idea that was introduced on a very elementary level in the organization got enthusiastic attention and a lot of fillip for trying it. How we went about it and how it was embraced is another exciting story that I will put up some other time. The bottom line is that it is things like these that make working here such an EXPERIENCE.

I think that everyone wants some basic things in their work life which would essentially include a fun-filled work environment, intelligent and pragmatic colleagues, and openness towards new ideas. Well, I have been lucky to have all this in my very first job.

Talk about tense times, and I have seen them rarely in my project. It is not only about planning and operations; but the professional demeanour that people carry makes it easy to approach anyone even if you have the slightest of doubts or confusions. Right from my immediate senior to the seniors above him, everyone carries a light-headed charm and smile on his/her face. You cannot expect sunshine everyday, but the peer group always manages to find the silver lining in the darkest clouds. And I strongly believe that this is one of the unique strengths of this company.

Even though its been a year, it seems like yesterday. The time has just rolled by without the slightest notice; and I still come to work with the same excitement and energy that I started with a year back. This sounds strange from the numerous stories that I keep hearing from my batchmates about their work life. Instead of a face, I would rather want to be the spoke in the wheel. And that is the feeling I get at Netscribes.

And here is saying Hello to the start of another great year here …

Apple Or Windows?

I am planning to buy a notebook but am stuck between an Apple iBook and IBM T42. I have considered Dell, HP et al, but nothing beats the durability of IBM products, and especially the features of T42. At least, that is the feedback that I have come across from various friends. However, in terms of stability and battery life, Apple scores much higher. Apple’s shift to a Unix based operating system (Tiger) is another initiator. Just when I was making up my mind, out comes the announcement of Apple planning a shift to Intel chips. The shift is tentatively for the Macs, but skepticism still prevails about how soon Intel Centrino chips will entice Apple. So the juxtaposition remains.< ?xml:namespace prefix = o />

Netscribes Turns Five

Since quite some time, I have wanted to write about the company I am working in but somehow could not find the time due to a lot of work pressure. However, today the company celebrated its fifth year of existence, and it makes an opportune time to put my thoughts up. Netscribes is based out of Mumbai and has offices in some of the major countries worldwide. The company provides information and knowledge management outsourcing services including business intelligence, financial research, consultancy-based services and market research et al. The company was formed by a group of journalists in the year 2000, and has shown a consistent growth since then. I am working as a Research Associate in the company, and I love my job. There is a lot of learning involved, and everyday something new pops up which I inquisitively delve into. There is great enthusiasm in my team and my peers come from diverse backgrounds, thus adding to the cultural mix. It’s a melting pot of ideas and resources.

Working at Netscribes has been a very humble and refreshing experience. The first thing that comes to my mind is the unconventional and down-to-earth attitude across the firm. Even the senior management does not get typecast in hierarchal role-play, but is always eager to help and open to views at all times. I like Netscribes’ openness to new ideas and the intellectually stimulating work environment. I have come to know and interact with people from diverse backgrounds and have had both learning and entertaining chat sessions.

It feels great to be a part of an industry and an organization which epitomizes industry dynamics in the current global scenario. The industry has a very fast paced environment and the same paradigms are at play in Netscribes as well. Competition, adrenalin rush, learning, development, and growth - amazingly I am finding everything here.

Knowledge Management

I have been reading a lot on Knowledge Management and K-blogs. There is a lot of theory on this controversial topic, when it comes to using blogs as a knowledge management tool, with lots of paradigms covering both for and against notions. However, there is still a dearth of good case studies or implementation/practice examples of K-logs on the net. I think that given a fair amount of freedom, any knowledge worker can utilise this new technology to the fullest, without getting side-tracked from the work that he/she does. A Team K-log not only fosters community-based feeling, but also helps an individual in getting a direction with respect to his thought process et al. However, the content that can be put up on the blog still traverses a thin line between the personal and the professional. Will be posting more on this soon, as I am still trying to put together the thoughts in my head.

A Purple Cow

I recently shifted to a new apartment in Andheri East (Mumbai), and went down to the nearby market to check out the grocery and food stores. Seeing a pharmacy shop called “The Medicine Shoppe”, I went in to purchase a few medicines for common cold and fever. The service I got at the store was amazing. The guy on the counter asked me if I wanted to fill out a free membership form. I saw no harm in doing that, and in the next two minutes I was holding a laminated personal ID cum membership card. It entitles me to lots of discounts and free home delivery of medicine at any time; all that at no extra cost. A remarkable first for a pharmacy store here in India.

VerbForShoe

Verb For Shoe, is a new “physics defying” shoe from MIT spinoff company VectraSense. Its not clearly defined how it defies physics, it does supposedly wirelessly communicate to your computer and to other shoes (for inter-shoe e-business cards exchange), have adjustable air bladders, and a performance/health monitoring system (not yours, the shoes’! Don’t you know your Verb For Shoe’s health is more important?)

Engadget takes a dig at this new idea by commenting, “Look, in all seriousness for a moment—we feel we must say this as sort of a public service announcement—MIT spinoff or not, if you buy this shoe we’re totally disowning you.”

An interesting concept, though I found it hilarious. And well, as of now, I am happy with my lowly non-IT and random@health shoes.