Something will inevitably come along and take it from us ...

“History shows that popular technology is often supplanted by entirely new models.”

That simple observation, presented in a letter from Google Chairman Eric Schmidt to the Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights, summarizes Google’s single best line of defense against the blunt instruments of government regulatory dismemberment. You don’t have to fear our power, Google says, because something will inevitably come along and take it from us.

Well, that something is finally here. Her name is Siri.

Read full story from TechCrunch

Comments in Compurer Programs - why?

IMO comments in computer codes are waste. 99% of the time these are dead text that no one uses or doesn't carry much sense. I kept 1% separate hoping there are cases where probably it make sense - though I have my doubt.
Like any other languages - English, Assamese, Hindi, Marathi, France  etc, computer languages like java, C++, Ruby, SQL, C# etc are also medium of expression - a medium through which a programmer expresses what he or she wants to perform - his/ her thoughts. In "Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs", Abelson and Sussman mentioned what computer programs are for

First, we want to establish the idea that a computer language is not just a way of getting a computer to perform operations but rather that it is a novel formal medium for expressing ideas about methodology. Thus, programs must be written for people to read, and only incidentally for machines to execute

So, programs must be written for the people to read and understand. When we speak to some one we don't use comments - listener understands what the speaker is talking. Using comments is like using interpreter - the other person doesn't understand what speaker is talking & such cases cause transmission loses & productivity.

                                      

NASSCOM RIM Conference & Two Interesting News today

Indian IT Industry association NASSCOM organized a two day Infrastructure Management summit at Bangalore on September 21 - 22. At the end of 2 day, when I came out, I was literally  cursing myself why did I spend 2 days here - pretty disappointing! Expectation was to understand current issues, new technology, market dynamics, case studies on new approach (self healing, self management etc) on Remote Infrastructure Management (RIM) & associated services - like CLOUD etc but most of the speakers spent time either giving "gyan" or narrating their company. However, highly energetic Dr Anil Memon from Cisco broke the monotony by delivering a thought provoking speech but not on the subject.  Bob Beauchamp from BMC was exception as well.

Anyway, Remote Infrastructure Management (RIM) & CLOUD are the buzzwords in current IT space. While there is a tremendous market potentialities - Verizon predicts $150B by 2020 from current $10B but question is from Indian IT perspective how do we prepare ourselves for a bigger pie of this. Do we continue to take the cost arbitrage approach or we look for alternatives. Here goes the 2nd interesting news that came today - "Using humanoids, IPSoft making the low-cost business model of Infosys, Wipro and IBM look like relics of the past" 

Desire Vs Decision

 Bharat Goenka, Founder of Tally, explained the difference between desire & decision in a recent conference on global shared services centers organized by Zinnov in Bangalore. He said ...

Many a times to meet project deadlines we work very hard and as a result we stay late at work. No matter whatever the time is at the end of the work we eventually reach home. That is because we made a Decision within that no matter whatever happens at the end of the work we need to be at home. Instead, if we have a Desire than we would land up in neighbor home.

Most of us, including me, are unable to convert our desire to decision.
I have been using these 2 words for sometime and many of you have asked me to explain. So, hope this helps and let me know if you guys have found a good technic to convert desire to decision!

Two Interesting Article This Morning ...

1. Some of you might have heard about this start-up by name "Narrative Science" or might have heard about what they are trying to do - Converting Data into Stories. If not read this post in today's (September 19, 2011)  The Economic Times about how "A software that turns raw data into news articles".

2. VJ narrated his thoughts about  Reverse Bidding almost a year back. He spent some time and was checking if idea looks promising particularly in India eCommerce space. I introduced him to Vineet - an entrepreneur by himself and keep exploring new ideas/ thoughts. VJ didn't pursue further - he got into the typical problem of Desire Vs Decision (will write about this later). The subject came up again with Vineet in our last weekend blabbing sessions - this is high potential area looking into how Indian eCommerce market is saturating and getting accepted. Flipkart is now valued $1B.But there is tremendous competition - so reverse bidding make perfect sense. Here is a story from Times of India about this is growing - Bid online for bookings.

Question is, not for VJ, how do you convert the Desire to a Decision!

 

It is not about working software anymore!

Undoubtedly,  Agile Manifesto brings in a tremendous change in our mind set towards software development. It is very easy to understand that -

"Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

Working software over comprehensive documentation

Customer collaboration over contract negotiation 

Responding to change over following a plan 

                    That is, while there is value in the items on 

                    the right, we value the items on the left more.

However, this was a thought in early 2000. Today, it is not about working software anymore - it is all about customer delight. We have multiple experiences where we developed applications that does the job perfectly but failed miserably to bring customer satisfaction or delight.
So, is it time now to update the Agile Manifesto? Rather than focusing on working software we need to focus on customer delight. After all Agile needs to be Agile as well!

Mr Jobs' Attention to Details

One thing that makes successful CEO and (probably) successful organization different from their other counterparts is the attention to details. Though I don't belong to the perfectionist category , & I don't want to be, but lot people with whom I work at times becomes unhappy due to the fact that I put lot of emphasis on making our delivery naturally attractive. I believe this come from attention to details. Here is one great story from Vic Gundotra — the man behind Google +,on one of the great person of our time - Steve Jobs. Here is how it goes -

One Sunday morning, January 6th, 2008 I was attending religious services when my cell phone vibrated. As discreetly as possible, I checked the phone and noticed that my phone said "Caller ID unknown". I choose to ignore.  After services, as I was walking to my car with my family, I checked my cell phone messages. The message left was from Steve Jobs. "Vic, can you call me at home? I have something urgent to discuss" it said. Before I even reached my car, I called Steve Jobs back. I was responsible for all mobile applications at Google, and in that role, had regular dealings with Steve. It was one of the perks of the job.

"Hey Steve - this is Vic", I said. "I'm sorry I didn't answer your call earlier. I was in religious services, and the caller ID said unknown, so I didn't pick up".

Steve laughed. He said, "Vic, unless the Caller ID said 'GOD', you should never pick up during services".

I laughed nervously. After all, while it was customary for Steve to call during the week upset about something, it was unusual for him to call me on Sunday and ask me to call his home. I wondered what was so important?

"So Vic, we have an urgent issue, one that I need addressed right away. I've already assigned someone from my team to help you, and I hope you can fix this tomorrow" said Steve.

I've been looking at the Google logo on the iPhone and I'm not happy with the icon. The second O in Google doesn't have the right yellow gradient. It's just wrong and I'm going to have Greg fix it tomorrow. Is that okay with you?"

Of course this was okay with me. A few minutes later on that Sunday I received an email from Steve with the subject "Icon Ambulance". The email directed me to work with Greg Christie to fix the icon.

Greatness brings greatness! And in business that brings customer delight.