Saturday, March 29, 2014

Hunger Games

The Hunger Games (film)
The Hunger Games (film) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)


For the longest time I avoided the movie. What? Kids getting into fights kinda movie? I thought. But once I watched one, I realized the last time I got this excited about a movie was with the Bourne movies. Movie effects can't carry a movie. But they can help a strong plot. And there has to be a timelessness to the theme.

Technological advances will not cure the basic savagery of human nature. There are other remedies to the savagery. And The Hunger Games speak to that. With the Bourne movies it was the idea of a super soldier going to battle with a super government agency. That is the eternal tussle between the individual and the state.

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Friday, March 28, 2014

Facebook Drones: Super Exciting

This is super duper exciting. Does anyone know when 100% penetration is expected? With this immigration reform can take as long as it wants in America. This should have been part of the 2009 stimulus package.


Facebook Looks to Drones to Boost Internet Access
Facebook's new Connectivity Lab is looking at the high-flying devices - not to mention satellites and lasers - to assist in providing Internet access worldwide. ..... work in the Philippines and Paraguay, where 3 million more people now have access to the Web .... Ascenta, whose five-person team worked on early versions of Zephyr, the longest-flying solar-powered unmanned aircraft. ..... Zuckerberg launched Internet.org in August, with the intent of increasing access to the Web, and bringing the Internet "to the next 5 billion people." As of now, about one-third of the world's population has online access. ..... where satellites may do the trick in lower-density areas, solar-powered drones are better suited for more high-frequency locations. ..... Located 20 kilometers above the earth, these drones, which can stay aloft for months at a time, will broadcast the Internet to local users at significantly higher speeds and better connection than a satellite would.




Facebook Will Deliver Internet Via Drones With “Connectivity Lab” Project Powered By Acqhires From Ascenta
While they both have somewhat altruistic objectives, Facebook’s Connectivity Lab could compete with Google’s Project Loon, which uses huge helium balloon vessels to beam Internet to the developing world. ..... Internet.org will use different vehicles to deliver Internet to different types of locals. In suburban areas it will use “solar-powered high altitude, long endurance aircraft” that can stay in the air for month, are easily deployed, and can provide reliable Internet connectivity. Less populated areas will be served by low-Earth orbit and geosynchronous satellites. ..... when I spoke to Mark Zuckerberg at an event at Facebook headquarters last year, he seemed earnestly adamant about the potential for Internet.org to empower the world through access to the web

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Wednesday, March 26, 2014

The List

The List: Mobile Gaming

































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Audio: One Of The Next Big Things?

I would put audio in one of the next big things category. Textual conversation is nice, it sure is efficient, but if so much is gained, so much is also lost in the process. Would you argue that SMS has finally managed to displace in person meetings? I don't think that will ever be possible. If online video has not managed to displace in person meetings, what are the chances of SMS?

SMS is convenient, it is efficient, and by now it is also cheap. Free is cheap.

There is an inherent richness to audio that textual conversation simply does not capture.

There are a few things that get in the way of audio. One is bandwidth. Audio files are half way to video. They take so much space. There are huge hurdles in search when it comes to audio. We don't have machines that "read" audio files as readily as they read textual files. A comparable search engine for audio files would figure out the language of the audio files and their content, and there would be the option to translate the content into a language of your choice.

Maybe literacy is overrated. And I mean literacy even for the literate. It has always amazed me how the so-called illiterate masses of the Global South tend to be so verbally gifted in their mother tongues. It is a waste that they do not fall under the knowledge worker umbrella.

There should be buttons attached to the comments sections of top blogs that would allow you to join group, real time audio conversations on the topic at hand.

Audio blogging is not as easy an option as textual blogging right now. Believe it or not, I was a huge fan of what the Twitter dudes had before they gave up on it and launched Twitter. I have missed it since.

The best way to reach out to the "illiterate" masses of the Global South is to tackle audio. 
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Thursday, March 20, 2014

San Fran And New York

Out of fog Bay Bridge and Golden Gate Bridge a...
Out of fog Bay Bridge and Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco in fog and crepuscular rays. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
San Francisco is not a "city" the way New York is a city. San Fran is not big enough. It is not dirty enough. It is not Delhi/Mumbai enough.

Why San Francisco Is Not New York
For one thing, today’s San Francisco is much more of a company town. Go into any bar in San Francisco and you will hear people talking about their start-up, or a battle they recently had with a line of code. Stop by a coffee shop in some neighborhoods here and you will be surrounded by venture capitalists being pitched a new idea for a new app. All of these people rarely, if ever, interact with people outside the tech world...... In New York, if you meet someone who works in tech you feel like you’ve met a long-lost relative. Bars, coffee shops and restaurants are a mishmash of people from vastly different industries. ..... The lack of diversity between social groups in San Francisco isn’t going to change anytime soon, as the number of tech employees in the Bay Area is only going to continue to rise. ..... in the early-90s, tech workers made up less than 1 percent of city workers in San Francisco. In 2000, tech employees had risen to 3 percent of the workforce. By 2013, that number had passed 6 percent. ..... Unlike New York, which arguably has more economic, social, and employment diversity than anywhere else on earth, San Francisco’s tech-on-tech layering has created a not-so-little echo chamber. As I wrote last year, people seem to build products here that would make the rest of the country scratch their heads. ....... In San Francisco .. (I know of one successful founder who owns an old beat-up 1985 Honda that he drives to his secret private jet.) ....... When I came across a passage in the book, “The Annals of San Francisco,” about the 1840s Gold Rush, I found the answer to that question...... “Despite the amazingly high cost of living and the extraordinary opportunities for frittering away money, everyone in early San Francisco was supremely confident that he would soon be able to return home with an incalculable amount of gold,” the author writes in the book while describing the city decades ago. “Everything was conceived on a vast scale, and there was always plenty of cash available for any scheme that might be proposed, no matter how impossible or bizarre it seemed.” ..... Well would you look at that. It seems that San Francisco is the new San Francisco.

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Friday, March 07, 2014

Public WiFi In India's Poorest State


This is monumental. Nitish has built many roads and many bridges to help Bihar catch up with the rest of India. But he needs to build public WiFi to help Bihar catch up with the rest of the world. And he is doing it. I am proud.

The entire city of Patna has to be turned into one free public WiFi zone. Bihar has to be turned into a world class knowledge economy.

There is no internet without electricity, and just like the Yellow River was turned from being the sorrow of China to a boon for China, Bihar and Delhi have to work in concert with Nepal to turn Kosi from being the sorrow of Bihar to a boon for Bihar and Nepal. All of Nepal's 200,000 MW hydroelectric potential has to be tapped for the benefit of Nepal and India. That would be the best long term solution to Bihar's energy needs.

I find Nitish endlessly inspiring. To those who say if democracy is the superior form of government, why is China growing so much faster, Nitish is the answer. Nitish Kumar's Bihar is growing much faster than China clocking at 14%.

Bihar Beats Beijing As World’s Longest Free WiFi Zone Opens In Patna
If you are travelling from Patna to Danapur, then between NIT-Patna on Ashok Rajpath to Danapur you can get absolutely free Wi-Fi connectivity. This 20 Kms stretch is the longest free Wi-Fi zone, anywhere in the world. ...... Recently, Bangalore became the first city in India to have free Wi-Fi zones. Named “Namma WiFi”, free Wi-Fi is available at MG Road, Brigade Road, CMH Road, and around the bus stations of Yeshwantpur, Koramangala and Shanthinagar. ..... Narendra Modi has promised that Ahmedabad will also have its own free Wi-Fi zones so has Delhi government assured us of this luxury. Before this, China’s 3.5 Kms long Wi-Fi zone was considered the longest but Patna has now overtaken this achievement. ...... eBihar summit where CM Nitish Kumar also inaugurated ‘Dial 100’ and ‘City Surveillance’ services wherein hundreds of CCTV cameras would be installed all over the city for better safety and security. A dedicated data center has been opened as well, which will store the data captured by these CCTVs all over the city. ........ a bid to make Patna crime-free. In a first of its kind, this project will enable CCTVs to capture vehicle numbers and person’s identity instantly, which would be shared all over the network to nab any criminal. Every vehicle entering or exiting the city would be monitored this way. ..... the state is rich in natural resources and human talent (maximum number of IAS officers are from Bihar) ..... CM Nitish Kumar is now forcing everyone to take notice of the new Bihar.
Bangalore Gets Free Wi-Fi , Starts With MG Rd & Brigade Rd
After ‘Namma Metro’ meaning ‘Our Metro’, Bangalore is all set to get something we all are dreaming of but never got - free Wifi, the first such service in the country, branded as ‘Namma Wifi’. ...... To access free wifi in the hotspots, users will have to open their browser, which will take them to the “Namma Wifi” page. They have to key in their mobile phone number to which a password would be sent. Once the password is keyed in, the user can browse the net free for 30 minutes in 24 hours. Users can expect internet speeds of about 512 kbps. ...... Plans are also afoot to provide similar service in Mysore, Mangalore, Hubli-Dharwad and some other towns in north Karnataka in the coming months. ..... One would have expected such services to start in Mumbai or Delhi first but this is a good move by the Government.
Maharashtra State Transport Buses to Offer Free Wi-Fi!
MSRTC will be installing wi-fi sets in around 100 Shivneri Volvo buses connecting Mumbai and Pune that will enable bus passengers to access internet completely free of cost. ..... Not only will these buses have Wi-fi, but will also be fitted with CCTV cameras and GPS tracking that will help in monitoring movement of buses from central control room as well as deter bag-lifters and thefts that are quite common on these buses. ..... MSRTC will cover the expenses of these extra features by offering advertising on these AC buses. ..... Internet will come to these Shivneri buses via direct satellite link-up.
Outernet: Free Internet to the World Via Satellites!
A New York based non-profit organization called Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF) has announced its intention to build an “Outernet”—a global network of cube satellites broadcasting Internet data to virtually any person on the planet—for free. The idea is to offer free Internet access to all people, regardless of location, bypassing filtering or other means of censorship. ...... Around 40% of the people in the world today are still not able to connect to the Internet— not just because of restrictive governments such as North Korea or China —also due to the high cost of bringing this service to remote areas. ...... An Outernet would allow people from Siberia to parts of the western United States to remote islands or villages in Latin-America or Africa to receive the same news as those in Los Angeles, New Delhi, Tokyo or Sydney. ...... In today’s digital age, the Internet has grown in size and importance – human rights organizations and others promoting freedom of expression propose that access to the information that the Internet can provide, is a basic human right. What they suggest is that restricting access to the Internet is a violation of human rights. ...... MDIF is proposing that hundreds of cube satellites be built and launched to create a constellation of sorts in the sky, allowing absolutely anyone with a phone or computer to access Internet data sent to the satellites by several hundred ground stations! ........ Project Lead of Outernet Syed Karim says: ‘We have a very solid understand of the costs involved, as well as experience working on numerous spacecraft. There isn’t a lot of raw research that is being done here; much of what is being described has already been proven by other small satellite programs and experiments. There’s really nothing that is technically impossible to this.’ ...... Such satellites typically run $100,000 to $300,000 each to build and launch. ...... deploying the initial CubeSats can be as early as mid-2015. Outernet project also aims to ask NASA for permission to test the technology on the International Space Station. ....... In this era of Edward Snowden, the veil of secrecy and shackles of capitalism should be atleast shaken, if not broken!
Now Free Internet access and Satellite television on Indian Rails
Two premium trains of India – Shatabdi and Rajdhani – will now be boasting on-board free internet and direct-to-home (DTH) services....... The premium trains have been consistently loosing market share over past couple of years to low cost budget airlines offering very competitive rates. In a bid to stem this loosing streak, the Indian railway minister is expected to announce many new initiatives including Free Internet access and DTH services. ..... The tourism ministry has been exploring the idea with the railways for launching at least 5-7 tourist trains as a large number of foreign tourists visiting India do not visit places beyond select destinations like Goa, Delhi, Agra and Jaipur. ..... The upcoming railway budget may also open up advertising opportunities on select trains. Under this proposal, which has been successfully implemented in the southern part of the country, companies will pay a fixed fee for advertising on the trains. ...... I had not expected much from Lalu when he was named the union Railways minister, however, in last 5 years he bought a sea-change in Indian railway services and kudos to him for doing that!
I personally love train journeys, but one of the reasons why I have preferred low-cost airlines in recent past was long train journeys break you off completely from the world – no TV, no Internet.
The 20-km free Wi-Fi zone in Patna is world's longest
Once known as a backward state, Bihar has made a strong bid for a mention on the world's infotech map as chief minister Nitish Kumar unveiled the 20km free Wi-Fi zone, the longest across the globe, at a function christened e-Bihar summit in Patna on Wednesday. Kumar also unveiled a 'city surveillance and dial 100' scheme under which at least 100 CCTV cameras installed in different localities of the state capital became operational. A state data centre has also been opened for storing of the 'data' collected by these cameras. ....... CM Kumar announced an IT City would be developed on a 200-acre plot at Rajgir. He also said the government has in principle approved an infotech building on a plot of one lakh sq ft and another on a plot of 5 lakh sq ft in Patna. Besides, an infotech park is coming up on the outskirts of the city....... "Our state should now be the IT industry's fave destination," he said. ...... The state's free Wi-Fi zone is the longest in the world since China's 3.5km zone was treated as the longest so far. The 'city surveillance and dial 100' project is first of its kind in the country as it integrates the surveillance of the city, vehicle tracking and dial 100 control centre schemes. An automated number plate recognition system has been installed on 11 roads, which will automatically note the registration number of the vehicles entering and exiting the city. "It was with this surveillance system's help that the Patna police rescued the son of a city-based trader from Ara within 24 hours of his kidnapping recently," CM Kumar said. ....... IT minister Shahid Ali Khan said free Wi-Fi facility would be provided at all the tourist spots in the state. Principal secretary (IT) N K Sinha said Bihar might be a late entrant to this sector but "we are on the cusp of IT revolution".
BJP-LJP alliance 'unprincipled': Nitish Kumar
Nitish Kumar rules out possibility of JD(U), Congress alliance
Railways gearing up to run Shatabdi Express at 160 km per hour speed
For US high-speed rail, California project is bellwether
a route between San Francisco and Los Angeles will be a watershed moment for a transport concept that has yet to take off across America. ..... would race across California at up to 200 miles (320 kilometers) per hour ...... the 400-mile St. Paul-to-Chicago route takes a tedious eight hours and 16 minutes today, 90 minutes longer than in previous years
Congress open to special status for Bihar, engages JD(U) in tie-up talks
Modi's Gujarat: AAP state leaders quit amid confused signal from Delhi
AAP, BJP neck-and-neck for Delhi Lok Sabha seats: Survey
Arvind Kejriwal attacks ‘Narendra Modi-Ambani link', says 'Modi wave' a media creation
"Apparently, he (Modi) spends Rs50 crore on each of his rallies. He uses (Mukesh) Ambani's helicopter to travel from one city to the other. Modi claims he will bring back black money. But how can we expect him to take actions against Ambani's bank accounts abroad when he has accepted so many favours?" ..... shot down reports of "Modi wave" as media hype and articulated his party's national ambition as "at least 100 seats" in the parliamentary elections. The next government at Centre, he said, would not be formed without AAP's support. Kejriwal plans to hold a four-day roadshow in Modi's Gujarat with a big rally in Ahmedabad on March 7. ...... While UP is central to Modi's PM project, so is it for AAP's national ambition. The party's approach in UP is to focus on 15 Lok Sabha seats — including Meerut, Ghaziabad, Agra, Lucknow, Kanpur, Banaras, Allahabad and Gorakhpur — which are relatively urban in geography and where there is a direct contest between Congress and BJP. "We have projected ourselves as an alternative to the Congress and the BJP. So the 15 urban seats in UP, where the two national parties usually perform well, will be our priority," said Adarsh Shastri, grandson of ex-PM Lal Bahadur Shastri, in charge of formulating the AAP's vision document for UP.

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Shake That Thing: Does Amazon Have No Limits?







The Atlantic: RadioShack Is Doomed (and So Is Retail)
RadioShack's long slide coincides the steep ascendance of Amazon as America's great brick-and-mortar destroyer. In 2003, Amazon and RadioShack each had about $5 billion in sales, as WSJ business editor Dennis Berman pointed out. Last year, Amazon had $75 billion to RadioShack's $3.5 billion. ....... At the end of 2013, RadioShack had 5,000 brick-and-mortar stores with 27,500 employees and $3.5 billion in sales, which is $127,000 in sales per employee. Its website is the 1,066th most popular in the world. At the end of 2013, Amazon had zero brick-and-mortar stores with 117,300 employees (full- and part-time) and $75 billion in sales, which is $640,000 in sales per employee. Its website is the 5th most popular in the world. ..... The company's biggest sales category is the wireless market, and that's some of the worst news for RadioShack. “The mobile phones category was very weak, and mall traffic is very weak,” analyst David Schick said. “The majority of folks have their mobile phones. We are past adoption.” ...... the confluence of e-retail and increasingly efficient global sourcing and stocking (i.e.: the Amazon & Wal-Mart Effect) would eventually gut retail employment ...... With $600,000 in sales per employee, Amazon is 3X-4X more efficient than the stores it's eating.

Does Amazon.com have no limits? It does. It has severe limits. (1) It is not even attempting to do High Touch. Health and education are all about High Touch, it seems. That same principle can be applied to traditional retail. (2) You can piggyback on Amazon infrastructure and do retail. You can use their warehouses.

Stores like RadioShack do have the option to rise from the ashes. But I doubt they will. The rethink that is required, I don't think they will go for it. RadioShack is like the New York Times. It has taken a Huffington Post to "get" digital. News is not going away. Neither is retail. If anything it is getting bigger than ever. RadioShack has to move from being a poorly stocked itty bitty warehouse to being an experience.





Amazon lockers are one step beyond delivery by van. It is a little more High Touch, but not all the way still.

BusinessWeek: Do Amazon's Lockers Help Retailers? Depends on What They Sell
The incentive for any business hosting an Amazon locker isn’t the monthly stipend the online retailer pays—”not even worth it,” says the manager of a Manhattan copy shop—but the lure of higher store traffic given the online retailer’s enormous sales volume and the gazillions of brown boxes sent across the nation each day...... many people who can’t reliably get their online purchases at work or at home ..... Coffee shops, parking garages, supermarkets, pharmacies, and copy-printing stores don’t have Amazon as a rival, whereas a retailer such as Staples will quickly realize that Amazon sells virtually everything it does—and possibly cheaper. ...... one reason 7-Eleven, home of the microwave burrito and gargantuan Slurpee—neither sold fresh by Amazon—seems to like its lockers just fine. (You can purchase a $24.99, 7-Eleven-branded Slurpee Maker machine on the site, however.) .... Bonhomme says his copy shop’s traffic has gradually picked up over the six months that the business has had a locker.
Disney Bets $1 Billion on Technology to Track Theme-Park Visitors
Walt Disney’s (DIS) $1 billion experiment in crowd control, data collection, and wearable technology that could change the way people play—and spend—at the Most Magical Place on Earth. ..... If the system works, it could be copied not only by other theme parks but also by museums, zoos, airports, and malls. ...... MyMagic+ promises far more radical change. It’s a sweeping reservation and ride planning system that allows for bookings months in advance on a website or smartphone app. Bracelets called MagicBands, which link electronically to an encrypted database of visitor information, serve as admission tickets, hotel keys, and credit or debit cards; a tap against a sensor pays for food or trinkets. The bands have radio frequency identification (RFID) chips—which critics derisively call spychips because of their ability to monitor people and things. ..... Disney’s $14.1 billion theme park and resort business. ...... “a more immersive, more seamless, and more personal experience”—allowing Disney employees to address a child by name, for example, or wish someone a happy birthday. “The implications for big data and for personalization are extraordinary,” says Quinby. “It could radically change interaction between customers and the company.”
Apple's Location-Tracking iBeacon Is Poised for Use in Retail Sales
a new technology called iBeacon that can pinpoint your location to within a few feet. ...... Prior to iBeacon, iPhones and other Apple mobile devices relied on GPS and Wi-Fi tower triangulation to track their location. Those are great technologies and remain part of iOS, but they’re only precise within 30 feet or so. That’s fine if you’re walking into an airport; iOS Passbook users already see their boarding pass pop up when they arrive at their terminal. GPS and Wi-Fi are less useful in smaller spaces such as stores. IBeacon can nail down device location more precisely because it uses Bluetooth Low Energy, a new version of the ubiquitous wireless standard. ...... Bluetooth LE can run constantly, announcing your phone’s presence to nearby devices with the short-distance accuracy of a conventional Bluetooth at little cost to battery life. ........ IBeacon’s range is about 84,000 square feet, Gottipati says. A typical Macy’s store of 175,000 square feet would need two or three iBeacon transmitters. Third-party manufacturers such as Estimote sell a three-pack for $99 ...... That’s another advantage iBeacon has over NFC: It’s not just a payment system. “There are opportunities for marketing and selling that don’t play in the NFC world”
Dell's Pitch: You Can't All Use Amazon Why Amazon Is on a Warehouse Building Spree
For a company whose showrooms are all online, Amazon.com (AMZN) spends a staggering amount on bricks and mortar. The e-commerce giant has invested roughly $13.9 billion since 2010 to build 50 new warehouses, more than it had cumulatively spent on storage facilities since its 1994 founding, bringing the total to 89 at the end of 2012. ..... Software that can sort items by delivery date and optimize storage space has helped Amazon roughly double the number of items it can ship per facility, says Clark. The warehouses are operational within 10 months, down from two years before the building spree started. ..... as the company adds 5,000 full-time jobs in 17 U.S. warehouses to its 20,000 existing employees, along with 2,000 customer service workers ...... Upstarts such as online grocery deliverer Instacart are moving in the opposite direction. “We don’t have to build warehouses, lease a fleet of trucks, or manage perishable inventory,” says Instacart Chief Executive Officer Apoorva Mehta, a former Amazon employee. Unlike AmazonFresh, which ships groceries in Seattle and Los Angeles, Mehta’s San Francisco-based startup guarantees delivery in less than two hours, using contract shoppers who drive their own cars to customers. ..... Since the start of 2010 the company’s stock has more than doubled.
To Tout Good Jobs, Visit Main Street, Not Amazon

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