At the event of quarterly financial results of an organization, a television channel host interviewing the head of the company asked: "Are you optimistic or cautious about the future". The head of the company replied: "We are Cautiously Optimistic"
So the obvious question is what does he exactly mean?
I found a amazing response posted by somebody on the net
It means "I believe things will turn out well, so I want credit for
having the wisdom to predict it. But I don't have the courage to say so
out loud, so if everything falls apart, I want credit for having the
wisdom to be cautious." It's a phrase used extensively by economists,
politicians, and other spineless creatures.
Could it have been described better! ;)
Sramana Mitra suggests Software-as-a-service vendors are the most recession-proof in a event of the recession in this Forbes article
In the context of large Indian IT service providers, this is significant. Even in non-recessionary times, SaaS is an opportunity to break the linearity between employee and revenue growth. Such non-linearity strategies are much-talked internally and to an extent externally too. However, result-oriented outcomes are yet to make significant contributions to revenues.
Found this excellent resouce @ Amit Ranjan's Webyantra- India Salary Handbook by Kelly Services India. I am pretty surprised to find it to be free since such a report which is probably the first time in India (by my knowledge), could have easily found buyers. Much appreciated.
Download
Update: World Startup Timeline, in the same lines as Indian Startup Timeline with the same purpose but at a global scale.
Indian Startup Timeline is an initiative + application to build a single-point reference of the milestones and events that make up the lifecycle of any startup. The beneficiaries would be startups, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and practically everybody in the community. As I write this, the idea of IST is just 2 days young. It is an implementation of only my thoughts and I hope it garners support from startup bloggers/event organizers and startups themselves, to achieve it objectives.
The [Add Startup Milestone/Event] link will pop out a form to fill out some basic details about the startup and the past or future event/milestone. (If you think some additional fields or change in existing fields will help, feel free to let me know.) To avoid spam and junk, I review the entries before they show up in the timeline and views. Though I have said "New additions will be reviewed within a day", I can assure you it will be much faster. Email addresses will not be exposed and I might only use them to establish contact to validate the data.
Behind the scenes: After I visualised IST, I started off with an agenda to accomplish it without writing backend/server code! I had watched the interview of 'Mr. Office 2.0', Ismael Ghalimi in the WorkFast.TV show and this charged me up. I tried a few apps I knew and those I found in the Office2.0 Database. Did I meet the agenda? End of day, I managed to meet the agenda by about two-thirds. Zoho Creator powers the database, forms & views while MIT's Simile Timeline plots the timeline. Zoho gave a RSS while Timeline expects a custom xml format. I expected Yahoo Pipes to do the plumbing. Unfortunately, pipes only outputs to any of RSS-related outputs. EditGrid was another candidate that could have replaced Zoho since EditGrid lets me define a format of syndicated data and hence no intermediate plumbing would have been required. However, EditGrid lacks the powers of forms. So, finally its Zoho Creator + XSLT with PHP + Simile Timeline.
To-Do List:
1. RSS feed (Using Yahoo Pipes)
2. Email notifications (Built-in Zoho Creator)
3. Zoho Creator hiccups (JS errors + Favicon missing)
You can get it touch with me at rajiv @ rajspace.net or rajspace in GTalk.
So said the subject of SPAM mail in my spam folder! In the body, it said "this is the proof, watch:" and followed with a link to a ".exe"!
Its spam and crap, no doubt. But within that, its a very innovative crap! Never had a spam mail caught my eye to this extent.
Anyways, NO, I am NOT a moron! :)
I found Vysr from FastCompay.TV's demo-cum-interview of Guda Venkatesh (Alumni of IIT,Kanpur). Vysr is new toolbar released in beta for Internet Explorer and Fire Fox. It aims to enhance browsing experience by giving easy access to popular services like Google News, Wikipedia, YouTube, MapQuest and others (called Apps) within the current view of the webpage. On the top of this, it adds a context of the selected text to these apps. What this means is that you can select "abc" on a webpage and click on the Wikipedia app on Vysr. An in-page display shows the Wikipedia page on "abc". I like that! This acts like a lookup within the scope of my current webpage rather than opening another window or tab. Hence, I call it a Lookup bar, than a Tool bar. The position of Vysr is another difference among other toolbars. Vysr does not take away valuable real estate in your browser. It is well position in the bottom right corner. It is also easier to enable or disable which just a click, without having to through seek through the browser menus.
For developers, they plan to release a developer api. I await the release to design a Vysr app to search for shopping deals in India with DealSearchMaadi.com and stock analysis with Stockoogle.in.
Apart from the developer api, here is my wish list:
1. Google Web search app. (How can they forget this in the first place!)
2. The bar gets longer as I choose more apps. I would like to have a Windows quick launch bar's double-arrow styled option that on click pops up the other apps.
3. Geo-focused apps, especially for India for local weather, maps, stocks, news, search etc.
I would keenly watch out if Vysr replaces my Google toolbar over a period of time, also considering the possibility of Google using its toolbar to sketch the Google Trends!
Japan Rocks! :)
4th block, a common reference to Jayanagar Shopping Complex among friends and people in the area experienced turbulent times when a fire broke out on Friday night.
It is a place close to heart for me and many of my friends. It was the most popular hangout especially when I studied in Vijaya PU and NIIT, until everybody got busy with work and life. It was the "mall" of those days when the likes of Forum were unseen and unheard. During the 80s, when we used to come granny's place in Bangalore for summer holidays, I could sense my mom's excitement to shop in "4th block". My dad, even till today, loves to visit the vegetable market (which got gutted in the fire) in "4th block". In short, it is one of those "nostalagic" places.
Am glad the fire did not eat away everything. I wonder how many of shops have any insurance! Nevertheless, I hope the charm gets back soon.
After a long wait for 2 weeks, Google completed review of my application. Flaunt It! lets you flaunt support for your team/hero in your profile. You can also watch for whom your friends support. Currently, 3 themes are up: IPL, Formula1 & US Elections. Euro 2008 will be up in a few hours. Cricket Stars, Football Stars, Tennis Stars, Proto.in Shortlists will be coming soon. Indian Elections, MTV Roadies and more such coming soon.
Click here to add the application. Let me know what you think.