My Instincts

Where it is leading

2011-12-10T08:28:00.000-08:00

Do we have our own senses, to do things right, or we have given our control to virtual world, where outside world is controlling us.

where the future generation is leading towards.

Thought provoking video, by this guy(designer him-self), see the video until end, where the speaker is making a point.

Worth seeing!!

PS3 Games - E3 2012 -

Less Stuff, More Happiness

2011-12-10T06:13:00.000-08:00

How true, it is, when we get more and more stuff, it longer enhances our happiness, after certain level of stuff we accumulate.

I guess if everybody start realizing it, there will be less shortage of food and other natural resources.

Bootstrapping !!

2010-03-16T14:49:00.000-07:00

Came across a nice article on bootstrapping, so, reproducing it here, so that others can also read it.

My thought is that anyone, could have in his/her life, this situation where he/she would need to bootstrap to achieve something big or a goal. So we need to know, how we can achieve that, by using these valuables guidelines.

"Over the last five years approximately 600,000 entrepreneurs pitched first tier venture capital firms in North America and about 15,000 received funding. Your chances of getting funded are 2. 5%. This is a fact. Many of those that were funded became quite wealthy and many more failed. Venture capital firms are looking for home runs not base hits.

To begin, let's say you're having difficulties raising capital for one of a multitude of reasons. You lack an experienced management team with a track record of prior success, your product is still in development, the service you've created hasn't been market tested and you still haven't refined the sales process. Or, your company may simply not be a "VC deal" or a "home run", that is, something that will go public or be acquired for a bazillion dollars. Finally, your organization may be a non-profit with a cause like the environment or autism. Does this mean you should give up? Not at all.

I could build a case that too much money is worse than too little for most organizations, not that I wouldn't want to buy a NBA franchise one day to emulate Mark Cuban. Until that day comes, the key to success is bootstrapping. Bootstrapping refers to a group of metaphors that share a common meaning, a self-sustaining process that proceeds without external help. The term is often attributed to Rudolf Erich Raspe's story The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen, where the main character pulls himself out of a swamp, though it's disputed whether it was done by his hair or by his bootstraps. Regardless bootstrapping sounds a lot more businesslike and appealing than hairstrapping. What follows is some practical advice for bootstrapping a start-up or small business.

First, focus on cash flow, not profitability. Generating revenue and profits is the key to survival. If you could pay the bills with theories, this would be fine. The reality is that you pay bills with cash, so focus on cash flow. If you know you are going to bootstrap, you should start a business with a small up-front capital requirement, short sales cycles, short payment terms, and recurring revenue. Service oriented businesses or new products in hot market segments come to mind immediately.

Next, forecast from the bottom-up. Most entrepreneurs do a top-down forecast: "There are 150 million cars in America. It sure seems reasonable that we can get a mere 1% of car owners to install our satellite radio systems. That's 1. 5 million systems in the first year. " The bottom-up forecast goes like this: "We can open up ten installation facilities in the first year. On an average day, they can install ten systems. So our first year sales will be 10 facilities x 10 systems x 240 days = 24,000 satellite radio systems. 24,000 is a long way from the conservative 1. 5 million systems in the top-down approach. Guess which number is more likely to happen. This is one of the most common mistakes I see entrepreneurs make. Stop dreaming and let's get real.

Hire an affordable mentor or small business coach to offer guidance based upon relevant experience. Most likely they've bootstrapped their own businesses in the past. They can provide you with valuable objective advice steering you around potential pitfalls and hopefully save you money, along with time, by keeping you from making the same mistakes as they did in the past. They also aren't going to want equity in your business just by having their name attached to it or request a seat on your board of directors. Check out Ethos Mentor, www. ethosmentor. com, as an example of what I'm referring to.

Most start-up small business entrepreneurs don't have a "proven team" and you can't create experience out of thin air. Proven teams are often over-rated anyways. Especially when most people define proven teams as people who worked for a multibillion dollar company for the past ten years. These folks are accustomed to a certain lifestyle, and it's not the bootstrapping lifestyle. Hire young, cheap, and hungry people. Employees with passion and desire along with low overheads are going to be much more likely to stick beside you during the inevitable ups and downs your business will face. Once you achieve significant cash flow, you can hire adult supervision. Until then, hire what you can afford and make them into great employees.

What type of business is best for bootstrapping you ask? One path to take is to start as a service business. Let's say that you ultimately want to be a software company: people download your software or you send them CDs, and they pay you. That's a nice, clean business with a proven business model. However, until you finish the software, you could provide consulting and services based on your work-in-process software. This has two advantages: immediate revenue and true customer testing of your software. Once the software is field-tested and battle-hardened, flip the switch and become a product company. You'll also have obtained a list of satisfied clients and developed important industry connections which can be priceless.

During the start-up stage be prudent and focus on value. You don't need the fanciest office furniture, phone system or computers. Look for the best value, haggle and shop around for the best deals. There is no shame is negotiating pricing and terms on almost anything related to your business. Sometimes the best isn't always the best either; it's just the most expensive.

When it comes to employees make sure new hires have multiple skill sets and can handle stress because if they can't they're going to crack or go crazy lowering overall moral in the process. You are the visionary and leader of the company. Your employees need to believe and put their faith in you. Take your time; hire carefully. At times you'll be asking your employees to do three jobs at once, while learning a fourth, and eating lunch that day at their desk because there's so much work to be done. Your employees look to you for leadership and make sure to lead by example. YOU are the first one there and the last one to leave. Every day.

Go direct and sell, sell, sell. The optimal number of mouths (or hands) between a bootstrapper and customer should be zero. Sure, stores provide great customer reach, and wholesalers provide distribution. But ecommerce was invented so that you could sell direct and reap greater margins. By taking this route you'll also learn more about your customer's needs. Stores and wholesalers fill demand, they don't create it. If you create enough demand, you can always get other organizations to fill it later. Why would a store or a wholesaler put time, money and effort into selling your product or service if you can't? If you don't create demand, all the distribution in the world will get you nowhere fast. Sell, sell, sell and if you're not good at selling one of your first hires better be a superstar in that department.

In summary, focus on creating revenue, retain a qualified affordable mentor/business coach, forecast from the bottom up, pick the right business model for bootstrapping, focus on value when purchasing goods and services for your business, take your time to hire the right people and sell, sell, sell. For a small business or a start-up nothing happens until someone sells something to someone."

source :http://xahrs.wordpress.com/2010/01/27/bootstrapping-basics-entrepreneurs-need-to-know/

The Art Of Writing A Business Plan

2009-12-09T13:30:00.001-08:00

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

The Art Of Writing A Business Plan (Zafar)

View more documents from Naeem Zafar.

Innovation through design thinking

2009-11-17T09:59:00.000-08:00

Lots of ideas and lots of ways to generate energy

2009-08-07T13:40:00.001-07:00

I came across this site and thought could be useful to others so putting it on this blog, feel free to go through it.

Also there is Basic electronics, if one is not familiar with eletronics and basic principles, which we generally ignore out of ignorance, saying

"Ignorance is bliss" true, may be not, because if things need to be innovated then we can't simply ignore them, when world is looking free energy resources and human kind is looking for generating energy through alternative sources and means.

free energy Enjoy !!

System software solution provider company....

2009-08-02T13:43:00.000-07:00

Dencomm, is operating out of Copenhagen is concentrating in area of embedded software development, with domains of telecommunication, health care and automotive sector.

more details could be found on

home page : dencomm

Why Play is important for human beings

2009-06-22T15:48:00.001-07:00

Check this out, where this scientist explains why playfulness is important for us.

Search Engine for Mathmatical functions

2009-06-19T07:36:00.001-07:00

A very good search engine came across for mathmetical functions, it can give you graph presentation for your linear, bionomial equations

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/

and general tools is

http://www96.wolframalpha.com/

Ideas, Innovation, technology

2009-04-11T09:03:00.000-07:00

Came across a good site for learning, thinking and looking out for new and better ideas on business, marketing, innovation and technology.

http://inaworldofideas.com/

Future Designs, Technology, Gadgets, and Concepts

2008-04-29T04:38:00.001-07:00

This site has some really good futuristic designs & concepts, mobiles, cars, clocks, and everything else you can imagine.

Future Designs, Technology, Gadgets, and Concepts

and this link shows some competitive designs

http://www.tuvie.com/category/design-competition

Danes are happy of all ( I would say content)

2008-04-26T02:59:00.001-07:00

here this is article I came across, on net, may be good way to represent world problems !!

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/jeremy_clarkson/article1682382.ece

scientific demonstrations ( for data analysis)

2008-04-14T15:53:00.001-07:00

http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/

Considerable info...

2008-04-14T13:42:00.001-07:00

Growing architects

To address these challenges, Reuters started the Growing Architects Programme (GAP) in Asia in June 2006. The programme aims to create a sustainable source of architects within Reuters by growing them from within the Asia development centres' existing staff through a structured learning program over a period of 18-24 months. According to Reuters, it is the first major programme in a company that systematically develops software architecture human capital through a structured program.

The programme, which emphasises learning through practice and feedback, not classroom-based theoretical exercises, consists of three interlinked components: on-the-job practice, personal mentoring by experienced architects, and community (internal forums, external architect communities, presentations, workshops, peer reviews and discussions). It is supported by quarterly maturity assessment and feedback, internal certification and career mapping.

To date, the GAP programme has a total of 21 candidates from four development centres including Bangkok, Beijing, Bangalore and Tiverton, UK. While they are now still students of IT—and business—these practitioners might well become tomorrow's CI

Classic puzzles

2008-04-13T12:54:00.001-07:00

Here this blogger has assembled some, classic problems, I dont want to repeat them so here is the link

http://classic-puzzles.blogspot.com/

technology watch...

2008-01-22T14:00:00.001-08:00

http://www.technologyreview.com/

and India's Endeavor in energy generation http://tyler.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2008/1/16/3468532.html

"Oil, Smoke & Mirrors."

2007-12-09T14:05:00.001-08:00

Oil crisis, going to be there around the world. Definetly we have to come out with alternative energy solutions pretty soon.

Oil, Smoke & Mirrors.

49 min 42 sec - 5 Oct 2006

"Oil Smoke & Mirrors" offers us a sobering critique of our perceived recent history, of our present global circumstances, and of our shared future in light of imminent, under-reported and mis-represented energy production constraints. Through a series of impressively candid, informed and articulate interviews, this film argues that the bizzare events surrounding the 9/11 attacks, and the equally bizzare prosecution of the so-called "war on terror", can be more credibly understood in the wider context of an imminent and critical divergence between available global oil supply and increasing global oil demand. The picture "Oil, Smoke & Mirrors" paints is one of a tragically hyper-mediated global-political culture, which, for whatever reason, demonstrably disassociates itself from the values it claims to represent. While the ideas presented in this film can at first seem daunting, it's ultimate assertion is that these challenges can indeed be met and perhaps surpassed if, but only if, we can find first the courage to perceive them.

good video of Robert Newmans History of Oil

2007-12-09T12:54:00.001-08:00

History of Oil

This guy has really addressed some of the tricky issues of the history and hold of US & UK on major policies around the world especially on Oil.

Robert Newmans History of Oil

45 min 23 sec - 21 Apr 2006

Description: As shown on Ch4 and repeated several times on More4, available at IndyBay on the web and many other places, now on google video (not great video quality) Robert's stand-up act examines the history of the last 100 years or so but putting oil center-stage. Brilliant!

Networking rules...

2007-10-29T00:52:00.001-07:00

These are some specific things, I found useful for maintaining any network/contact, I got this info from one of subscribed e-mail from ladders.com, US based recruitment agency

1. Ask for Information, Not a Job.

Networking is not about asking everyone you know for a job. As a matter of fact, when you network you should never ask someone for a job. Instead, you ask them for information that will help you in your search. Your goal is to build a relationship and establish rapport so that if a potential opportunity becomes available in the future, you'll be the first person they want to refer.

Let's compare two scenarios where you, as a job seeker, attempt to network your way into a new position.

Scenario One
You say, "Joe, I've been out of work for six months, and I'm really strapped for cash. Do you know of any open positions in your department?"

In this approach, you've put Joe in a very difficult position. Sure, he can sympathize with your situation, but he may not be able to offer you a job. Perhaps he's not in a position to refer you, or there's a hiring freeze, or there aren't any openings right now. Whatever the reason -- and he doesn't necessarily have to give you one -- it's bound to be disappointing.

So to redeem himself, Joe says, "I don't know of any open positions, but why don't you give me your resume, and I'll send it to my HR department." Great, right? Wrong. Unless your skills match a specific opening in the company at that point in time, it's bound to never be looked at. Joe will feel that he's done what he can for you, but you'll be no better off.

Scenario Two
You say, "Joe, as you know, I most recently worked for a medical device company in their marketing group. I know that you've been in pharmaceutical sales for the past 15 years, and I'm very interested in learning more about marketing roles within your industry. If you have the chance, I'd love the opportunity to briefly speak with you to learn more about your organization and the pharmaceutical sales industry in general."

Because the pressure is low and expectations are reasonable, most likely Joe won't mind spending a few minutes to share his knowledge with you. Does he know you're looking for a job? Probably, especially if you've been consistently keeping up your relationship over the years. But you're not asking him for a job, just for some advice and insight, so the pressure is off, creating a comfortable environment for you both.

2. Be Considerate of Other's Time.

Any time you have a networking meeting, be sure to have an agenda written up before hand and stick to it. It's hard to ask someone to cram yet another meeting into their already jam packed day, so promise a specific time and don't go over it, even if you haven't covered everything you wanted to.

Contrast these two meeting situations:

Scenario One
You met with Mary after a mutual friend agreed to set up a brief, 20-minute meeting between the two of you. You were busy at work this day and neglected to prepare for the meeting, so you ended up rambling and got off topic. Before you know it, an hour had passed.

You've abused Mary's time and you haven't gotten to the critical questions you'd hoped to ask during the meeting, so you've ended up wasting your own time as well. Unfortunately, you may have ruined this networking contact for good.

Scenario Two
You walk into the meeting with a prepared mental agenda that includes:

A reminder of who referred you and perhaps some brief talking points about that mutual acquaintance.
A planned statement that you're not asking Mary to offer you a position and a reiteration of why Mary's information is of interest to you.
An explanation of your agenda and what you'd hope to accomplish like hearing Mary's perspective on the future of your industry. Remember to discuss your skills and accomplishments and show how you can add value to an organization.

When you plan out your meeting ahead of time, you establish your professionalism, gain credibility, and cover all critical agenda items. A successful encounter for you both - hopefully the first of many!

3. Listen First. Then Ask Questions.

Now that you've successfully landed the meeting, it's time to listen and learn. Since you're asking another person for advice, make sure they have the opportunity to offer it rather than you dominating the entire conversation. To keep the conversation going and to follow your meeting agenda, have a list of strong, open-ended questions prepared.

Here are some sample questions you might ask to keep your exchange balanced and to establish rapport.

How long have you been with this company/field, and how have you seen it change throughout the years?
What do you like/dislike about your job?
What type of training do you need for positions such as yours?
What is the culture of this company and what are its guiding principles?

4. Expand Your Network.

The main goal of networking? To network! Think about it, each person you meet knows 200 or more people. If you can gain contact or introductions to some of them, you quickly increase your own network and therefore your chances of finding the right connection, which is what networking is all about!

Each time you meet with someone, it's vital that you ask if he or she can recommend a professional organization or the names of some other people you should be talking to. If you say you're going to follow up, do so promptly. There's no faster way to burn a bridge than to abuse someone else's connections.

5. Follow up.

The key to becoming a great networker is simple: establish a relationship. So, ask the person you're meeting with if you may keep them informed of your search progress. Then, find ways to follow up. For example, if you read an article that pertains to a discussion you had at a networking meeting cut it out and send it to them with a brief note. Try to find at least two to three opportunities per year to reconnect with members of your network.

6. Reciprocate.

Building a network is about creating genuine, caring relationships. Most of the time, politeness and courtesy are all it takes. Thank your contact for meeting with you and mention the specific information they've shared. Then, ask if you can help them in some way.

Maybe your contact is interested in living in an area that you are familiar with. Or maybe he or she has a child interested in attending the same school you graduated from. Share your knowledge! Keep notes on what you learn about your contacts so that future correspondence can have a personalized touch like "How was Jane's first year of school?"

7. Send a Thank You Letter.

Always, always, always thank your contacts in person and also follow up with a letter. If your handwriting is legible, the personalized touch of a handwritten note is always appreciated, though an email works just as well.

Remember, networking is an ongoing process. It requires persistence, attention, and organization. Incorporate the art of networking into your job search campaign now and you'll be surprised by the opportunities and life-long relationships you'll gain.

watch list

2007-08-22T04:04:00.001-07:00

http://uk.snitker.com/services/

Fortune equation at the bottom of pyramid

2007-08-02T07:08:00.000-07:00

Whether it is a process of wealth creation by selling cheaper goods in poor countries or it is really a process of helping poor by finding good solutions for critical problems. well what exactly it is, it is really debatable, but it is creating a buzz word in business schools around the world.

But some people have really worked for poor people in real sense, without thinking for themselves, this I am sharing here for some kind of motivation
work of Nobel Winner Yunus: Microcredit Missionary
you can see the video here...http://www.izzit.org/,
May be in India also we can encourage (have) such kind of programs in Villages. If someone out there really interested in such kind of activity, then I am passionately looking for such enthusiasts.

check it out the full article here, http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/aug2007/bs2007081_122512.htm?campaign_id=rss_daily

I also gone through the book "Fortune at the bottom of Pyramid" by C K Prahalad, which has some unique point of view and lots of case studies, worth going through and extract some solutions out of that.

Adrenaline

2007-07-28T12:02:00.000-07:00

I thought it interesting, that's why putting this info here

There are some tests done, where they showed if one can generate his/her adrenaline, he/she can be more masculine powerful. Adrenaline is a chemical (actually a hormone) produced by the two adrenal glands, which are located on top of the kidneys (ad - renal, on - kidney). These glands secrete adrenaline directly into the blood stream when people are exposed to something that they see as potentially dangerous.

Good article on C for DSP

2007-07-17T05:32:00.000-07:00

This is part 1
http://www.dspdesignline.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=197006981

part 2
http://www.dspdesignline.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=197008568

Some interesting books

2007-07-02T13:36:00.000-07:00

some books to go through once, or if you have time ...

Globalization and Its Enemies, by Daniel Cohen, just published by the MIT Press., is a blessedly short but very interesting exploration of the issues of globalization. His analysis is terrific; historical, sensible, and he is neither a cheer-leader nor gloom-sayer. A short and excellent introduction to the whole concept by someone who knows whereof he speaks.
A much weightier tome is The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedoms, by Yochai Benkler and published this month by Yale University Press. Benkler is a law professor at Yale, and this book is a very interesting and profound analysis on how the new, social, and technological production of knowledge has legal and philosophical implications that have yet to be addressed. Benkler has some great discussions here on how wealth is being created anew, and what it means not just for the law, but for economics and business in general. The first 100 pages or so were the most interesting on the subject of knowledge and wealth creation.

Sites I found useful

2007-06-22T09:22:00.001-07:00

Danish to English translation
http://www.visl.dk/trs