Then again, there are some companies that do not have growth plans, or let’s say their strategy is to stay small and profitable. Not everyone manages to sustain themselves in such a state. Retail shops do. But not many companies are able to. Or, maybe some are. Some technology companies survive being small, and stay so by taking few projects, and also working on a niche area.

Micro breweries are another example. I just found this through the blog of 37Signals, whose folk seem to take up every opportunity to justify how to stay small and happy. I guess they believe their company has similar principles.

The posting refers to an article on Chow.com, where the interviewer asks Vinnie Cilurzo, a Microbrewer on the importance of their local company going national, to which he answers…

Not at all……I get calls from distributors all the time from all over the country. But we do this more for the lifestyle…..I can ride my bike to work. …..I think you can get caught up way too much in growth. We don’t have any growth goals.

I guess it’s good to be clear about whether one is in business to grow or to live a lifestyle

People wanting to update what they are up to are switching to Twitter, and people who are trying to keep in contact with their acquaintances, share photos, talk about life etc, are doing so using Facebook.

Furthermore, the new Facebook has crossed over in to the Twitter space, with it’s ‘what are you doing now?’ feature, where people are litterally ‘twittering’ within a closed group of acquaintances. And to top it all, since services like Facebook only allow access to ‘friends’ we see more personal and detailed updates being shared with each other.

All in all, it’s nice to be witnessing a natural process of sorting of information dissemination happening on the Web, and I guess this is good.

Space exploration is a ‘country versus country’ thing.  It’s a showcase of a country’s growing technological prowess. It’s not a ‘yay! we build rockets too’ thing, it’s a finally, ‘we too’ build rockets thing… But what happens when a private company gets in to this space.  That’s exactly what happened when Space X an American company, showcased it’s capabilities in an area that’s traditionally the domain of a few privileged countries.  I just saw a video that shows them successfully launching Falcon 1, a space vehicle.  Now, ‘this’ is history, as it is the first ever privately developed rocket that has made it into space. Notwithstanding the fact that this was their fourth attempt.

I wonder how long it would be before a private company in the ‘East’ takes up a space mission.  Technically, it isn’t possible in China, unless they usher in democratic reforms and privatisation :). Then again, who knows what’s going to happen in the next 50 years in Asia! That leaves India! Well, we are yet to put our first man out there! It’s still a long way to go.

According to Reuters the deal with Reliance allows the studio co-founded by director Steven Spielberg to leave Paramount Pictures. Apparently Spielberg has not been having a good time at Paramount where he often clashed with it’s studio chief.

I guess this is a win-win for both parties. Spielberg gets to go ahead with a new company, and Reliance Entertainment gets to build their brand further.

The LA Times says that this occasion might be a reason for Hollywood to celebrate. “With so many companies foundering, in a desperate search for funding or totally out of business, seeing DreamWorks back up and running with a nice chunk of cash in the bank is probably music to the ears of agents, producers and screenwriters everywhere.”

This isn’t the first time that Hollywood’s seeing Asian participation in it’s business. The last I remember was Sony’s purchase of Columbia Pictures back in 1989! Not sure there were many Asian entrants since.

Well, am quite glad to see more and more Indian companies going global

“I am essentially racing for free. No salary. No bonus. Nothing on the line.… This one’s on the house. And you know what? At the end of the day, I don’t need money.… Not only will I be fine, my kids will be fine, my grandkids will be fine.�

Now, that was Lance Amstrong, saying what he seems to believe in!

Inspired by Olympic triumphs of older athletes (the 41-year-old swimmer Dara Torres and the 38-year-old marathoner Constantina Tomescu-Dita for example) Lance seems to believe that he can return to racing and weave his magic! And, having come second in a recent 100-mile mountain bike race, he might as well have a reason to do so.

A lot of people say that it’s best to get out when you are at the top. At 37, almost three years after having retired, I guess it’s either a lot of courage and conviction or just vanity and megalomania!

Whatever be the case, I am happy to note that Lance Amstrong is not (yet) history. It doesn’t matter whether he wins or not! He proved that one can kickass after having fought and survived cancer, and now he is bent upon proving that a sporting life doesn’t end by one’s late 20s / early 30s. So…way to go ‘Mellow Johnny’.

Four years back, the media was talking about ‘a new browser from the makers of Mozilla, called Firefox’. Back then, the Mozilla Foundation funded by Time Warner, IBM and Sun Microsystems launched Firefox version 0.9 on June 15, 2004. And, Firefox 1.0 was out by early November the same year. By 2006, Google had become the largest revenue source for folks at Mozilla with their paid referral agreement.

And, all that Microsoft could pull of in these years was Internet Explorer 7, which had a few features such as a Google-circumventing search bar, and a tool that auto-linked addresses to Microsoft’s Live Maps. This cut no ice for the folks at Redmond. It was soon touted to be one of the worst browsers with poor standards compliance, and a serious memory hog.

By, 2008, Mozilla managed to take up close to 19% of the market share. In it’s fourth year, the company set a record with Firefox 3.0 being downloaded 8 million times since it’s release in June the same year. To top it all, by August, Mozilla announced the renewal of their contract with Google till 2011, ensuring revenue streams for quite some time to come. This was all that we got to hear about Google’s Browser strategy. Back Mozilla!

Redmond rolled out Internet Explorer 8. Soon enough, experts pronounced that IE8 had a long way to go if it was to catch up with Firefox 3.0 in terms of JavaScript performance and web standard compliance.

By now, Apple was pushing Safari, Mozilla was pushing Firefox, Microsoft was pushing IE8, and there was Opera lagging behind with it’s slice of the pie. And, this was all that people were talking about. Microsoft seemed worried about Mozilla! And, everyone seemed to be betting on it to take on Microsoft.

And, all of a sudden, on a sunny September morning, we all wake up to see that folks at Googleplex had a plan! Chrome! Overnight, we have a new wild-card entrant. A Google browser which integrates it’s search engine into a browser like never before! And, the initial responses are amazing.

Chrome in brief:

• a. Is quick to launch
• b. has an intuitive User Experience (tabs are above the address bar)
• c. Integrates ‘’search” and ”address bar” allowing one to type in the address bar and get suggestions for both search and web pages.
• d. Is going to be open source, would include a new JavaScript virtual machine, and Google Gears add-on by default

Well, they’ve packed quite a punch for a start. Wonder which way the browser wars would go now? Is Google planning on dislodging Firefox with Chrome, or is it looking to take on Microsoft? Is Google’s relationship with Firefox a purely commercial one or a strategic alliance? Was it’s support to Firefox a Red Herring all this while, as Google prepared to enter the space with it’s new weapon! Or will Chrome and Firefox complement each other, co-exist and together take on Microsoft’s IE? Well, we’ll see! One thing’s for sure, all this competition can only do good for the end-user, and that’s what matters

In fact, when I first realised they claimed to have delivered my books, I also left them feedback ‘Where are my books?’. No response. They just don’t seem to care.

Here’s a screenshot of what my dashboard says. Lies, lies, and lies…now, who is to blame?

All I can think of is that Rediff is burnt out, with a set of people who don’t know what to do next.компютри

I was warmly surprised to see that the site not only shipped books for free, but also allowed it’s customers to pay on delivery. Excited, I picked three books, and placed my order. They also confirmed my order and showed me ways to track my order through an SMS service (57333) and the Website. no fax faxless cash advance payday loan,advance cash faxless loan,faxless cash advanceadvance cash line loan,budget line cash advance,advance cash on lineadvance cash loan loan paydayadvance cash day pay,cash advance until pay dayadvance america cash loan,cash advance america,advance america cash advance center incadvance cash faxing no,1000 advance cash faxing no,no faxing required cash advanceinstant approval cash advance,advance approval cash instant secure,instant cash advanceadvance cash faxing no payday,no faxing cash advance,advance cash faxing loan no paydayadvance america cash advance,advance america bank cash,ace advance america cashadvance card cash creditquick cash payday loancash advance payday loancash until payday loaneasy fast cash advance,fast no fax cash advance,fast cash advanceadvance cash check credit no,cash advance no credit check,advance cash check credit no onlinecash advance servicepay day cash advance,advance cash day pay,advance cash day pay untilinstant cash advance online,online cash advance,cash advance online no faxingadvance cash overnightadvance cash loan payday service,world wide cash payday loan,cash loan paydayfirst cash advance,first time cash advance,first cash advance houston txbusiness cash advance,business cash advance loan,cash advance business opportunityallied cash advancesame day cash advance loan,same day cash advancecash advance till payday,payday cash advance,advance cash payday ringtonecash loan payday untilcash advance nowloan oneclickcash paydaypayday payday loan cash advance loan,advance cash loan payday,advance cash cash loan loan payday quickinheritance cash advancecash advance new yorkadvance cash loan overnight,advance cash overnight,overnight cash advancepay day cash advance payday loan,pay day loan cash advancecash fast loan paydayadvance bad cash credit loan loan,cash advance for people with bad credit,bad credit cash advanceadvance cash fax no,advance cash fast fax no,no fax cash advancecash in advance loan,advance cash loan personal,cash advance loan idahoadvance advance america cashadvance cash lawsuit pre settlement,lawsuit cash advance,lawsuit settlement cash advancecash loan payday tiladvance cash cashing check springfield,springfield,check cash advance,advance cash cashing check gainesville,gainesvillemagnum cash advance,advance cash faxing magnumace cash advanceadvance cash day loan pay0 advance card cash credit,no cash advance fee credit card,cash advance credit cardadvance cash check credit nocash advance loanpayday cash advance,business cash advance,cash advanceadvance cash loan payday softwareadvance cash company,scams on cash advance company So far so good.

Khatam! That’s it! I haven’t heard from them since. I’ve since used the 57333 service twice, paying Re 3/- each time I sent my query, and I keep staring at the Web interface.

I see that one of the books is shown as ‘dispatched’, the other two are ‘pending’. But as far as I am concerned, I have no clue what’s happening and when I will get my books. I am off, out of station soon and I don’t care what happens in my absense.

Now, I’ve tried to fish out a contact number at Rediff who can address my problem, but they seem to like playing hide-and-seek, and I have no intention of spending an hour searching for a page with a number, if they have one such.

My conclusion so far.
1. Pathetic delivery model
2. No call-center/support (if any, not promoted well)
3. Unconcerned of time to deliver
4. Inefficient (what happens when I am not around, will the courier company return the books to Rediff?)

It’s sad to see that Rediff’s not figured out online commerce yet. And it’s been around for donkey’s years now! It’s pathetic…must be having dinasours on it’s payrolls.

…over a thousand IIT alumni, students, professors and technical staff are protesting against Dow’s attempts to recruit engineers from the IITs..
On October 25, IIT-Madras cancelled pre-placement talks by Dow Chemicals. IIT-Bombay followed suit on October 28.
Dow did not get an invite for placements at IIT-Kharagpur and even their sponsorship for a college festival stands cancelled.
And in IIT Kanpur, students are demanding that the institute refuse Dow sponsorship for a big international seminar in December…

Now, I am not particularly fond of the average IIT graduate. They’re smart, no doubt about that. But brains without a purpose is pointless. Then again, there are times they rise and make a statement. Highlighting an issue like the Bhopal Gas Tragedy being one.

It is not acceptable altogether

This was what India’s Planning Commission Deputy Chairman, Montek Singh Ahluwalia had to say, rejecting the UN Development Programme (UNDP) report that India should reduce it’s carbon emissions by 20% by the end of 2050 to tackle the issue of climate change.

Well, we, as a nation, have the right to defy anyone bullying us, especially on matters such as carbon emissions. And as he rightly pointed out, no one, including UNDP has the right to make any recommendations in matters of such ‘national’ importance! Well, sort of. That is assuming we clean up our act ourselves.

One wonders what gets folks at UNDP doing what they do?  In relative terms, the West has done most of the damage since the industrial revolution and world wars. The Russians and Americans continue to out-emit everyone one-on-one. And, for all the moral platitude, countries like Germany, France, Holland, Belgium, Spain etc, have consistently exploited this planet for over a century in the name of progress, industrialisation, packaged food, energy exploration and exploitation! Now that countries like India, and China have joined the bandwagon, everyone (the West) cries foul!

What’s funny is the mention about China. The report states that Chinese are the largest emitters on this planet. This does sound skewed. considering the fact that one should look at the consumption side as well, and not the production side alone. Most if not all, of what the Chinese produce is consumed by the West. They are just the smoking kitchen, the dirty laundry room! So, where on earth have the West reduced their emissions? They have just moved their workshops to China. And, that’s easily explained by China’s trade surplus that seems to be doubling every year! In the first 9 months of 2007, they’ve soared to over $187 Billion. And, despite startling human rights abuses, no one dares speak against it, but that’s for another day.

Thanks to Western influence and eroding Indian values (which I believe are environment friendly at their core), we are living in times when every Indian seems to feel ‘Entitled’. True, that this also means we are spending, consuming and contributing to the mess at a startling rate. Then again what could one have expected. You take a country that’s dated Socialism for long, and have it wake up to free markets, capitalism, shopping malls, and multiplexes. People are are too busy experiencing it all, to be bothered about rights and wrongs.

And, when it comes to making commitments to reduce our emission levels by 80%, it’s wrong timing! We are just about beginning to consume! If push comes to shove, we have statistics. It’s simple. We have over a billion people. Only a small percentage of Indians have the wealth to splurge, hence the ability to contribute to emissions. So, the ‘average’ Indian will never be able to out-emit the average Westerner.

Coming to think of it, as long as we have a good number of ‘have nots’, the smaller percentage of ‘haves’ can continue to drive gas guzzlers, and sip soda out of aluminium cans sans guilt. And, as long as we do not make a fuss when the West decides to drill for oil in the Arctic region, we can all pretend like everything is just fine. In truth no one’s bothered about the environment. No one’s bothered if we move people in to whatever little we have left of our forests and pillage it all. No one’s bothered about the tiger! Maybe one should just finish off with them. Why pretend to care!

Viva styrofoam cups and plastic bags, Time to get rid of this greenery we have around us. The new mantra should be chop-a-tree-a-day (this already seems to be the motto of the municipal folks of Hyderabad, my city). We have enough carpet grass dotting road dividers around a couple of neighbourhoods in every city.

We should rid this country of any sustainable practice it has left in it. And, this needs some more effort, as we are culture that isn’t as unsustainable yet. Our desperate attempts to ape Western urban lifestyle isn’t just good enough. We need more two car garages and air-conditioners for every urban family. We are making great progress on that front, so that’s good news. We’ve got to keep course and hold on to the right to indulge in our whims, now that we got our chance.

It’s ironic to even react to a toothless UNDP report. Suddenly, the West become a benchmark for conservation and sustainability for countries like India! That they are being more sustainable today with their policies and consumption is a flawed argument, as long as they have a Chinese laundry!

So till there’s a fair view on this, we can continue to piss around. Right?