As an Engineer, all of us wanted to work in companies like Infosys, Wipro, Satyam Mahindra Satyam & many other so called Indian MNCs. However, times seem to have changed now due to accessibility to lot of resources available on the internet & some credit also goes to the change in our mindset. Startups have really become a buzz word & guys don’t feel shy that they are now working in a startup !!! In fact, many of them even prefer working in startups than working in MNCs.

As per the recent update in my LinkedIn profile, last 2 years provided me with the best learning(s) in my professional career and it was entirely in startups. In fact, I was thinking of an appropriate title for this article and one which struck me was “Why should you AT LEAST ONCE work in a startup“. Each one of us have a reason to do or not to do a thing, so if you are interested to work in startup than the following reasons may help you to decide “Whether you should or should not” ….

Entrepreneurial litmus test
If you aspire to be an entrepreneur, it is very important to work in an early stage startup or should we say “To pass the litmus test“. There are MORE ups & downs in a startup which not only teach you to deal with difficulties but also help you understand yourself better. As for me, startups have taught me to survive on less money & also to understand “Whether I can myself startup sometime?”. Working in a startup becomes the very first step to look within yourself & say “Can I do it?”…

Relationships Matter
In a startup, it becomes difficult to isolate from the startup community which in turn teaches the Art of Networking. This not only helps to build the startup’s brand through WOM but also to network with fellow startup guys. Not to forget relationships inside the office; it is very important to keep best of the relations with every person inside the startup as well since, you cannot stay isolated neither inside nor outside your startup. It is a small world and you never know when you would again work with your colleague

Learn to save[for present & future]
There is a famous one liner “It’s all about the money honey“. Every person in a startup always hopes for the best but is prepared for the worst.In other words, once you enter the startup arena, the first to do IMHO is to become a bit stingy and keep check on your finances. Hence,a startup would also turn out to be a finance institution !!!

Contribution
If you are a person who is interested in multiple things [being an expert in one], your startup may become “fuel to your interest/passion”. Since the barriers are low in a small company, it becomes easy to contribute in multiple areas & prove your passion eg. Engineer with an inclination to marketing can help market the service/product which might be impossible to do in an established company.

ONLY results matter
Big corporations focus on the process along with the results however, startups look out only for results. Hence, if you are a fresher looking out for some interesting work, startup would give you the push-up and later on MNC would give the necessary branding. Startups are less hierarchical and more result focused.

Bootstrapping
As mentioned before, startups help to bring out your other qualities some of which you might have never exploited !!! This helps you master the Art of Bootstrapping. This would become an important step not only when you startup but also when you are in a crisis situation[like the current tumbling economy].May be sometimes, it becomes necessary to be “Jack of ALL trades than be a master of NONE”

If you have some more reasons to share, please leave them in the comments and it would be added to the article.

After Google announced the arrival of it’s open source Chrome OS, things are looking quite bright for the open source community. Though Chrome OS would be an excellent competitor not only for existing Linux distributions but also for the upcoming Windows 7, there are many reasons why Microsoft may not worry about the Chrome OS

However, it seems Microsoft is also trying to extend more support to the open source community. Recently, Microsoft released 20,000 lines of Linux code [LOC] to the Kernel community.Below are some of the highlights of the Microsoft release[received via an email from Microsoft's PR group]

• Microsoft has released 20,000 lines of Linux code to the Linux kernel community. The code, which includes three Linux device drivers will be available to the Linux Community and customers alike, and will enhance the performance of the Linux operating system when virtualized on Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008.
• In addition to this significant code contribution, Microsoft is also highlighting the ongoing investment the company is making to optimize PHP on Windows Server and the Microsoft SQL Server database system. For additional context regarding Microsoft’s ongoing work with PHP and the Microsoft SQL Server driver for PHP available to support more native features in Microsoft SQL Server 2008, please see the IDC white paper–Microsoft, PHP & Open Source, a Pragmatic Alliance for more information.
• These milestones and the motivation behind the work is simple – Microsoft is committed to ensuring interoperability between the Microsoft technology and open source technology to provide the choices our customers are asking for.

Though 20,000 LOC is not a very huge number [considering Microsoft's size], it is good to see Microsoft embracing the open source technology You can read more about it here

Few months back, I had blogged about GMDesk – the Adobe AIR app that makes access to all your favorite Google services easy. However, the issue with the app was that it worked fine on Windows but on Linux, the app crashes when you type M/m in user-id/password text box !!!

Mozilla Labs came out with an interesting add-on called Prism which like GMDesk allows you to access your favorite sites as a standalone app.Yesterday, I gave a try to Prism and really loved it – some of the reasons listed below:

• Firefox on my PC has lot of add-ons and few like TwitterFox make it really very slow since they have to poll for new messages every xyz minutes.
• For users of Chrome, this would be one of the potential reasons to switch to Firefox since Prism does not share the memory with Firefox and hence Prism app continues to run even though your browser crashes/hangs.
• Last but not the least, Prism enhances your productivity since you don’t have to switch tabs or open multiple windows to get to your favorite sites since, the desktop shortcuts to your Prism apps would do the trick

Though Prism apps take up lot of memory [snapshot below] yet they really make browsing fun as well as interesting.

Important Links :
Prism download page
Youtube channel

Do give Prism a try & definitely it would be a big productivity booster for you like it has been for me !!!

With changing times, we have seen PC’s and Laptops becoming sleeker and more & more sexier.But though the outer looks or configuration changes, the Desktop still remains the same/boring; this is the thought that gave rise to BumpTop.As the founder Anand Agarawala claims that “He wanted his desktop to be an exact reflection of his office desk and hence, he started BumpTop”.

As BumpTop website states:

BumpTop is a fresh and engaging new way to interact with your computer desktop. You can pile and toss documents like on a real desk. Break free from the rigid and mechanical style of standard point-and-click desktops. Interact by pushing, pulling and piling documents with elegant, self revealing gestures.

You can check out the interesting demonstration of BumpTop below:

As seen from the video,the usage of BumpTop makes the desktop more lively just like your working desk, but it would be very interesting to see the statistics wrt CPU consumption,memory uage etc. for the same.

You can sign up for a Beta invite here and if you are very curious to see BumpTop in action, check it out here.You can also follow BumpTop on Twitter.

The unanswered question:
Apart from making the desktop look real & cool, which real life problem is BumpTop trying to solve[since, no one wants the desktop to be as cluttered like his/her work desk] ?..Any thoughts…

PS: Thanks @ArunRam for the tip on BumpTop

While browsing through some of the links on Google Chrome, I stumbled upon an interesting Adobe AIR application. The application is called GMDesk and is a must have for avid users of Google Apps namely Gmail, Docs, Maps, Picasa etc.

As mentioned on the GMDesk official website:

GMDesk is an application that lets you run Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs and Google Maps as a stand-alone application to do all your mail handling, calendar event reading etc with. No need to open it up in a web browser, or have it clutter your workspace.

The best part is being an App, the CPU is free to do the other important work[which is not the case with browsers] but on the downside since it is just an App[and being an AIR app, it is browserless], you may miss the Spell Check functionality of the browser while composing important emails I am quite addicted to this App and am using it to the fullest !!!

To use this App, you need to download the latest version of Adobe AIR from here and you can download GMDesk from here.The creator of GMDesk, Robert Nyman has an interesting article on his Blog as to what made him develop GMDesk.

Though I am nowhere related to Adobe Flex , after checking this App; it seems to have entered my list of Must Learn technology

Came across an interesting Video Presentation by Peter Merholz of AdaptivePath where he points out “How important the experience of using a PRODUCT is !!!“

He also points out that a reverse cycle of Experience –> Features –> Technology may lead to Products with BETTER user experience ….Enjoy the presentation

How many times do you come across an advertisement “Wanted Software Engineers Experience: 2+ Skills : C, C++, RTOS etc etc.” Opportunities always look good and we jump to say “Yeah this is the company and suddenly out of nowhere , that company becomes your DREAM company”.

But times are slowly changing and the way in which companies place Job Advertisements is also changing[though slowly and steadily]. Currently, there are many options for a suitable candidate to change a job and companies need an “ADDITIONAL TOUCH” in their Advertisements to lure the right person to join the organization

Try a Google search on Why should I work in a startup , after browsing through a couple of the crawled websites, I came across an interesting presentation titled : Why should you quit your job for a startup.The contents of the presentation touched upon all the aspects of a startup : Funding, Team Work, Learning , Salary[in a Venture backed startup] etc etc. but the end[Slides#7 and 8] was quite dramatic, “The presentation was an advertisement for a startup Cobaan and the benefits of working in Cobaan”

Now let us move from India to the west, where you find the ultimate source of innovative job advertisement.Netflix , the online DVD Rental company in the US[and one of Guy Kawasaki's hot favourite] has an interesting list of benefits(if you work in Netflix). The advertisement is not like a recruitment page but it is written in such a way that makes the reader to JOIN Netflix that very moment The advertisement also touches on the dominance of Netflix in the online DVD rental business!!! Below are the top 8 reasons[listed on the site] to work in Netflix.

After reading them, you would feel that Netflix is the ONLY company you could ever work for !!!

Click on the image below to read the complete description:

Hey wait, but I could not see what are the Technical requirements for Netflix These are small examples of how companies have started to realize that sometimes you need more than a normal advertisement to lure the job seeker.

Times are sure changing and companies need to be innovative in every angle to send a message to the job-seeker – IF YOU ARE NOT WORKING HERE, YOU ARE TRULY MISSING SOMETHING !!!

Netflix inputs : BusinessWeek

After the success of FaceBook being open to developers, it was now the turn of the hottest product ever to be open to developers….Developers would now be able to download their applications in the iPhone [but from the month of February,08]. As per the statement from Steve Jobs, “iPhone would be COMPLETELY open to APPLICATIONS” Below is a copy of the statement from Steve Jobs [taken from Apple's official site]:

We want native third party applications on the iPhone, and we plan to have an SDK in developers’ hands in February. We are excited about creating a vibrant third party developer community around the iPhone and enabling hundreds of new applications for our users. With our revolutionary multi-touch interface, powerful hardware and advanced software architecture, we believe we have created the best mobile platform ever for developers.

It will take until February to release an SDK because we’re trying to do two diametrically opposed things at once—provide an advanced and open platform to developers while at the same time protect iPhone users from viruses, malware, privacy attacks, etc. This is no easy task. Some claim that viruses and malware are not a problem on mobile phones—this is simply not true. There have been serious viruses on other mobile phones already, including some that silently spread from phone to phone over the cell network. As our phones become more powerful, these malicious programs will become more dangerous. And since the iPhone is the most advanced phone ever, it will be a highly visible target.

Some companies are already taking action. Nokia, for example, is not allowing any applications to be loaded onto some of their newest phones unless they have a digital signature that can be traced back to a known developer. While this makes such a phone less than “totally open,” we believe it is a step in the right direction. We are working on an advanced system which will offer developers broad access to natively program the iPhone’s amazing software platform while at the same time protecting users from malicious programs.

We think a few months of patience now will be rewarded by many years of great third party applications running on safe and reliable iPhones.

Source : Apple Hot News

Related News:
Apple iPhone hacked !!!
Nokia Taps Web Developers for Next Killer Mobile App [Thanks Manish Panchmatia]
MySpace open up to developers

Few months back,there was a article – “Other side of outsourcing“, where the main focus was India..India and only India.Startups coming to India,global players in IT, ITES, Manufacturing …. watching and investing in India but recent study shows a future decline by 30 percent

The annual growth of India’s IT and BPO industries may fall to 30 percent for the next four years, after expanding by 35 percent in the past two years, says a study.

Over the years most of the Indian IT services and BPO players have been moving up the value chain and in most cases are integral to the business of the client,’ chamber president Venugopal N. Dhoot said.

‘Considering the positive outlook toward Indian IT/BPO service industry, private equity and venture capital investors are looking at investing in these companies to be part of India growth story,’ he added.

However,IMHO with the recent positive and upward trend of M&A in India,India would still remain one of the most preferred outsourcing hubs

(Note: The same story(word by word) was also seen on Silicon India , so now after bloggers copying content(without giving credit to the parent source of information) , we have magazines who have entered in the plagiarising case )

Infosys has taken a step ahead and formed “InfYi“, a new initiative within the company through which it will support, and in some cases fund, ideas on social entrepreneurship and convert them to viable business plans.

As stated in The Economic Times,23rd May 2007:

The initiative, called InfYi will function as the corporate chapter of the Young India initiative started by the Confederation of Indian Industry. Reflecting that charter, all its members below the age of 35 will be Infoscions.

The stress won’t be on funding but to provide guidance to the Entrepreneurs. Based on the inputs that a project or idea needs, a senior council member will contribute to it. The projects could be in youth affairs, education, healthcare, economy or any other socially-relevant area. So far, InfYi has received 13 project ideas. Three of these will be shortlisted taken from concept to execution. They will be put through the paces by a team which has worked out how to capitalise on opportunities and survive downturns.

Read the complete article here