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25 Jun This post is from from my other blog here I saw this very cool chart on advertising from Erik on Techcrunch (via First Round Capital)  Newspaper spend in US is about 10% of total advertising spend and is receding at 7% YoY.Compare this to advertising spend in India:1. Newspapers (46%);
24 Jun This post is from from my other blog here the list of elements to consider when building a social media strategy for your organization
18 Jun This post is from from my other blog here  This is very specific to Bangalore and if you have not lived in India or not visited here, most of this may be "interesting" at best for you. Another warning - long post.That India has changed significantly & dramatically in the last 10+ years is obvious. On the flip side people & attitudes are changing slower (or resisting change) is also very clear. I have this new theory that the So QoL = physical aspects + psychological aspects. I notice that the physical aspects are a net neutral to slightly positive (see the previous paragraph). Within the psychological aspects; pleasure (with material acquisition) is greatly improved, but there's more stress now and its very high quality stress.Let me explain my theory with some examples:1. Buying a home: Homes were a lot cheaper and loans were harder to come by a few years ago. What's good is that now if you can breathe most banks will give you a loan to buy a home. The price of real estate is much higher, but the quality of basic home construction is better. The challenge is that if you are 2 income earning home, most accountants advice you to keep you "basic pay" small and "perks" large to avoid a large tax burden. Since mortgage interest is the only deduction to offset taxes, many folks buy a much larger home than they ever imagined (this part is not very different from the US). The trouble is buying a larger home in India has a lot more ...
17 Jun This post is from from my other blog here The best entrepreneur blogs – and often the most successful ones — do more than just promote the entrepreneurs or their projects. Star power can draw attention, but it won’t sustain it if the blog doesn’’t “give.” Give is a broad term. You
16 Jun
16 Jun This post is from from my other blog here Mobile phone giant Nokia's market share in India has increased to 62.5 per cent in 2007-08 from 53.6 per cent in the previous year, according to a survey by Voice & Data.
16 Jun This post is from from my other blog here If you are part of a startup or have a new product and are looking to expand into the "India market", here are some tips on what I have learned over the last couple of months.Some Cater to local tastes in application usage. This is a very obvious one, but an important point. Broadly speaking, Indians love Bollywood (local movies), cricket for entertainment. They are ...
16 Jun This post is from from my other blog here If you have never been in an autorickshaw before you have to go. One part like Barney Oldfield Speedway ride at Great America (only this is real), another part like a digestive system refresh after a long meal, these vehicles are a ubiqutous part of most Indian metropolis. Bangalore has a fair share of them. Most can seat 3 (with the driver in front) and in most cases seat more than 5 (I can vouch for 5 in a rickshaw personally).  I had to travel a short distance to meet a friend so I figured I would take an "auto" as its referred to here. The best part of the ride actually is the look on the faces of those traveling on it for the first time. The even better part is the "haggling" you have to do upfront to decide on the price or location - before you get confused as to the location let me explain. Either you go where you want to go at the price they want you to pay OR you go to the location they want to go at the price you are willing to pay. Makes sense right?All auto's here have a meter which supposedly displays the fare and is kept up to date. The rise in fuel prices however have not reflected on the fares for a long time probably so most drivers prefer to negotiate a price upfront. I.e. how much will you have to pay above the price quoted on the meter.I had really no idea of the distance (except for knowing its short) I had to travel so there was no way I could decide if I was getting a fair shake or was being "taken for a ride". I walked up to a fairly crowded rickshaw stand and noticed about 5-7 of them waiting. I went up to the first driver, mentioned I wanted to go to "Old Phillips building" and prepared to get in."No sir, I cant go there, I dont have enough petrol (gas)" he ventured. Hmm, was my thought, then why dont you either a) put some when we are on the way or b) go and get some in the tank rather than standing here.Oh well, I figured there are enough of these here, going to the next one."Its too close and I wont get someone to ride back" claimed the next auto driver. I was going to say something about what do I care, when I realized it was a futile attempt at commiserating with him, so I bit my tongue and moved to Bachelor #3.He was clearly happy listening to his radio station and could not be bothered to move. "I cant move until the two in front go" he said, not even waiting for me to mention where I wanted to go.Not wanting to waste time, I went back to bachelor #1. "I have time, lets go and fill gas", I ventured, not really confident I had any time, but hoping ...
12 Jun This post is from from my other blog here Most leading biologists at that time assumed that neurons would use the electricity in the nervous system to send signals across the cleft. The average synaptic cleft is extremely small—a mere twenty nanometers wide—and though the nervous system may n
12 Jun
11 Jun This post is from from my other blog here The author, a Google alum, noted three important characteristics: * team chemistry * rapid iterations * clear end-user focus
03 Jun This post is from from my other blog here
02 Jun This post is from from my other blog here I may not make a lot of friends with this post, since most people prefer "all you can eat Internet plans". Other utilities are already metered like water and electricity, so why such an uproar over Internet access is not obvious to me. Internet usage here in India is already metered. This morning Time Warner is attempting that in US. The main reasons why metering makes sense for the cable provider are obvious. 1. It prevents freeloaders. Many people in the US do not secure their wireless router with a passcode since they dont pay by amount downloaded. If you are going to pay by amount used, you will secure your wifi and ensure your password is guarded.2. There's incentive to invest in the network as application bandwidth intense applications are more prevalent.3. Allows for structured provisioning and capacity planning of their network, thus ensuring that more Earthlink type fiasco's dont happen.For consumers, there are benefits though:1. Makes your home network more secure. If you do put a password on your network, you tend to prevent unauthorized usage, typical to not allowing people to come by and use your network for illegal means - I dont mean downloading free music or the like, but for really nefarious activities.2. You pay for what you use and dont have to pay for those that abuse the network at the high end of usage. There is an negative (positive depending on the way you look at it). I have stopped viewing videos on the net and my use of YouTube has dropped by 80%. I used to view all videos that my friends recommended to me, but now that's rare.The downside is there are over 500 pictures I have taken in the last few weeks that are still waiting to be uploaded.
01 Jun
01 Jun This post is from from my other blog here A year ago no one was talking about $200 oil, and now everyone in the markets is, for scary reasons. Oil prices climbed from $10 in 1999 to $95 last year without slowing the surging world economy, in large part because the markets believed the spike was a
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