Moving to Wordpress

After a long thought, I have moved to a Word press account. Please do continue to be my patron and visit http://www.harisays.wordpress.com 

Canon Rebel XT

After a serious research and hunting for a cost effective camera, I zeroed in on the Nikon D40 earlier. However, after a little more research and analysis I decided to go for the Rebel XT, the EOS series Digital SLR from Canon. 

This is a 8 MegaPixel camera which came with 18-55 MM lens Kit. I will not speak more on the technical configuration, as the camera model link above will give you all the details (even those which I will not), but will speak a little bit on my experiences. 

Well, the first think I will need to admit is the ease of use of the camera. The menu is very user friendly and you will not need to go through the manual too, if you have already handled a point-and-shoot camera before. I felt that the operation is much better and easier than point-and-shoot and also other cameras in its category. I have been using a Pentax ZX 50 Analog SLR camera for about 6 years now and recently bought a Nikon Cool Pix point-and-shoot just to capture small moments when I do not carry my Analog SLR. 

Buying my Mac

As I mentioned in my earlier post, I was serious about the Mac this time when I came to the US. As per my itinerary, I would be in Kansas City

on the  26 October when Leopard would be launched by Apple :) For the first time, I would be traveling when something is being launched by Apple. 

On the 26, I came back from work and was trying to check Apple's website to see if the store on the Plaza would be open. Just then my friend called me and said that they were coming through the main road and saw a huge line in front of the Apple store. I 

wasted no time, just ran to the store and found a huge line. It 

was 6:15 PM and I was there, about 1/2 KM from the store wondering if I would be able to make it to buy a copy today. The store was distributing coke and water to people who were standing...

 

At around 7:15, entered the store to first be invited by a cool black T-Shirt freebie. Then the store attendent asked me what I was looking for? I told her and was guided to another counter for only computers. I told that person what I wanted and lo! my Mac 

his arrived in front of me :) 

I am really enjoying this great PC. 

Am really amazed with the usability it has and I do not think I would enjoy working with a Microsoft OS anymore. I do agree that I would take some time to get acquainted with this system, but wow! what an amazing computer this is... 

BangaloreIT.In - A new look

On the 17 October, I, along with Arun, Saurabh, Prasanth along with few others was invited to meet Mr.Vidyashankar, Secretary to Government of Karnataka, India for an introduction and Q&A of the new version of BangaloreIT.In, a mega event showcasing Information Technology, Bio-Technology and Science & Technology event organized by Karnataka Government every year during November.
We were given an appointment time at 7 PM and we were in his chamber by around 7:15 PM. The discussion lasted for almost 2 hours, but I had to leave a bit before. Here are few key highlights of our interaction with him:

IT Infrastructure in Karnataka, an Overview of Present and future....

• IT in Karnataka contributes to 26% of GDP and nation contributes to 4.7%
• This will cross 50% by 2010
• There are 4,90,000 people working in the IT sector
• Karnataka has more than 225 organizations in the BT sector
• Karnataka has more than 1,900 organizations in IT sector
• All Fortune 500 organizations in the world have presence in the state
• Karnataka will have its First Knowledge City in the country in an area spanning 10,000 acres. There are 5 townships planned around Bangalore
• When organizations buy land for their offices, they will also need to take land for providing residential accommodation. This will help de-congest the city.
  
• The 10,000 acre Knowledge City will have 25,000 Square Foot built up area.
  
• The first township is coming up at Bidadi, a suburb in the south of Bangalore.
  
• The Bidadi township is to be completed in 3 years and will have 13-14 Software Export Zones.
  
• Lowest agricultural land has been acquired for this project.
  
• Total investment of Rupees 60,000 Crores.
  
• At the present rate of growth, Bidadi Knowledge City will suffice until 2015.
  
• There were 32 Bidders for the Project and 1 has been shortlisted.
  

BangaloreIT.In - Redefining the Technology Event...

BangaloreIT.In is being organized for the last 5 Years in Bangalore during November every year. The first two editions of the event have a great success, and after that, there has been a downturn in organizing the event, with the key objectives not being met...

This year, the Government has realized the importance of showcasing the event in a better fashion and ensured that all steps are taken from the beginning to re-invent the entire show. 

The Department of Science and Technology has announced the dates of the event well before and ensure that it sends out invitations to various organizations and country representatives to help them block their calenders. 

This year, the event is happening between 29 October and 2 November at the Bangalore International Convention Center and all measures are taken to ensure that there are no troubles to reach the venue in any way. Special bus's have been organized periodically from central locations in the city to ensure convenience. 

PS: As I write this post (it is late though), I am traveling on business and misplaced my notes :( Am trying to recollect as much as i can, but would promise my readers that i would ensure that i come with more information from next time..

Read more in detail on Prasanth, Saurabh or Arun's Blogs. 

iMac and Nikon D40

Apple Mac Notebook

For a long time now, I have been really raving for a Mac Book. Earlier, when I got my Acer, was seriously thinking of picking up this dream machine, but it was not able to afford. Now, I think I am very serious about this machine and I am seriously thinking of picking up very soon. The configuration I am looking for is 13 Inch, 2.16 GHz, Intel Core Duo, 1 GB RAM, 120 GB HDD, CD/DVD RW. At the current exchange rates, i feel this is the right time to pick this beauty. Hopefully I can....
Nikon D40

This is my another wish. I researched a bit on the DSLR Camera's and finally zeroing on this one for its afford ability and features. This has got a 2.5 inch LCD screen, comes with 18-55 MM lens, Remote control to shoot self pictures, Auto and Manual modes for preference of picture shooting, Auto flash, Portrait, Landscape, Child, Sports, Close Up and night portrait pictures. The other lens I would definitely suggest is the 35-200 MM lens which will help a mature photographers the flexibility of taking various kinds of pictures. Photography is science and going forward, will try writing reviews / understanding of lens for people who are beginning to have their own photography collection. With technology advancing everyday, buying a good camera is just being affordable.

Let me get into photography classes later, just wanted to share my thoughts on this computer and camera...share you thoughts if you already have one of these and make me make a better decision.

OCC New Format

OCC Bangalore has had a good reception from many Entrepreneurs in Bangalore. Ramji and Vaibhav have put in lot of energy to get this group going and I am happy that they are doing an excellent job. When we last met, we discussed that this group should have more focus in the meets and there should be a better format. As on date, this group meets once in two weeks at some location mutually agreed by people. Honestly, till date, we have been meeting at Brew HaHa at Koramangala. We have come out with a new format - Technically, meeting once in two weeks is twice in a month. We thought one meeting in those two weeks should be focused on a particular topic and one person can speak on the topic / start a discussion on the same. The other meeting, will be a general catch up and we can have open discussion.
Today, as I write this post, the group has met up at ThoughtWorks office to discuss on IP Protection and Patent Laws. I am waiting for an outcome of this meeting, and requested Ramji to get some kind of minutes for people like me, who were not able to make it for the meet.

BCB 5 Planning

Today, we had the first meeting for BarCamp Bangalore (BCB) 5 which will happen end of November/beginning of December.
I should confess that it was a great way to start with around 20 enthusiasts willing to be part of the group of Planners and take this forward. We had loads of discussions, arguments and debates on the format of the camp, willing to consider few thoughts which have come up. Arun was coordinating the discussion and others pitching in.
Here are people who came in today to kick of planning for BCB5:
Arun
Jace
Kesav
Aditya (on Phone)
Akash Mahajan
Mansi
Nishant
Srinivas
Shahnawaz
Pawan
Saurab
Vinayak
Prasanth
Satish
and we had an unexpected guest - Kiruba.

Last but not the least, even I was there :)

I will not get into the details of what we discussed or how it went, but it was a good 2 hour brain storming session and I am sure everyone enjoyed it.


Few more pictures on my Flickr...

If you are interested to be part of this exciting and most happening Bar Camp in the world, please add yourself to bangalore_barcamp@yahoogroups.com.

If you are interested to be a planner for the event, leave a comment for this post and I will write back to you.

IT Department Blog

I was pretty impressed with Income Tax Department, Government of India having a Blog and someone updating it regularly with few FAQ's. See for yourself - http://www.incometaxindia.gov.in:8080/itblog/default/

Online Grievances in India

Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances which falls under the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions has initiated the Online Public Grievance Lodging and Monitoring System which you could use to record any of your grievances to the Government.

India is truly developing and these are small steps to reach there. So, next time when you have a concern, try this. You don't know, it might just work.

OCC Meet on 2 Sep 07

Today, we had another meeting of OCC@Bangalore. Actually, during the first meet, they have decided to meet once in 15 days (I didn't know this as I left early that day). So, going forward, OCC@Bangalore will be meeting alternative Sunday's at a location discussed and agreed on the mailing list.
It was interesting as around 30+ enthusiastic people came together. It was good to see good number of repetitive participants which makes the discussion more interesting.
Today, we discussed on "Marketing your Start-up" and it was really great to see people sharing their ideas and views. Ranjit from Kapston started the discussion. His company (Kapston) works on helping entrepreneurs with On-line marketing and he shared few insights into what his organization does.
Sharman, who has ventured into starting various organizations and also closing few of them shared his experiences with Marketing and mentioning that many entrepreneurs fail to understand the customer and being flexible because they have a strong bonding with their idea. I do agree with him...our idea/thought might be very powerful and we might be obsessed with it, but towards the end of the day, we need to look at what the customer needs. If this calls for re-thinking our idea, we should.
Pratik of Muziboo, took this discussion more forward. Muziboo is for people who compose their own music and the site allows them to upload their work and see what the world thinks about it. Here are few points from his thoughts:

• Muziboo does not have any set budget for Marketing.
  
• Friends are main source of spreading the word.
  
• Started marketing on Orkut.
  
• Spending time with bloggers to get the word of their idea to spread.
  

A very different approach for marketing and in few ways makes sense too. He is clear that he would wait until they reach good number of registrations on the site to work on other aspects of marketing. Why wait? Because, this site is for amateur and professional musicians to upload their composition and hear what others have to say. For this kind of functioning, they would need serious musicians and Pratik feels that he can get serious people to join the community through word of mouth and by personally speaking to people. I think this is a good approach when you are not rushing or looking at break-even at the earliest. Not every organization looks for breaking-even, but if you would like to sustain on the long-run, you need credibility and serious community.
Swaroop who started Ion, has a good and simple idea. In India, most of the time we do not carry our laptop to charge i-Pod. So, they have come up with a simple charger for charing their music machine.
Ramji did mention that having a "Personalized Story" for your idea would add lot of value in explaining what your service/solution does...practically.

This is an overall summary of our discussion. I have few pictures of the event on my Flickr account.

OpenCoffeeClub@Bangalore

Yes, have been late in posting about this event, but even then, I was there at the First OpenCoffeeClub - Bangalore meeting which was organized at Brew HaHa in Koramangala on 19 August 2007.

Ramji and Vaibhav came together to organize this event and it was a real grand success. I have few photos on my Flickr account :)
Now, coming to the event, I should say that it was fantastic to see more than 50 Entrepreneurship Lovers gathering there. Most of BCB4 Planners were there too :) Unfortunately, I had to leave immediately after the round of introductions. Ramji, Vaibhav and Himanshu given a complete overview of the event, so please read what happened there in their blogs...next time will ensure to be there for the complete discussion.

Here is the list of enthusiasts who dropped in at the venue... Himanshu has a good list and I am just putting the list copied from his blog (I think its legal, because I am giving due credits to him...what say Himanshu?).

Ramji - OOC Planner
Vaibhav - OOC Planner
K. Aditya
Saurabh Singh
Kaushik Gala
Deepak Shenoy, founder of MoneYoga
Pooran Prasad, co-founder of Zealous Solutions
Vaibhav Pandey
Harish Kumar, founder of OneBigWeb
Sandeep C Senan
Kiran Jonnalagadda aka Jace
Manasi Baranwal
Shivakumar Ganesan
Prashant Acharya
Gunasekaran S
Sameerkanth , ConsultantNEN Bangalore
Venkat Ramana
Anand
Piyush Gupta, Co-founder of RouteGuru
R. Senthil
Kiran Kadekoppa
Parvez Ahmed
Ajit
Rohit Bansal
Prateek & Nithya Dayal, Co-founders of Muziboo
Karthik Jain, Co-founder of PicSquare
Satish TJ
Anshul Gupta
Meera K , Community & News media
Rajan, Co-founder of Motvik
PV Sundaram
Vipul Gupta
Bhasker Kode,Co-founder of "The Returnable Project"
Laura Parkin, Executive Director, NEN & Wadhwani Foundation
Yiting Shen
Saurabh
Paveen Kumar
Parineeth Reddy
Siva - now an Entrepreneur
Akshat Choudary, Co-founder ActivMobs
Amit Singh, Co-organizer of BCB4
Ashish Solanki, Co-founder Yulop
Puneeth Prasad

and last but not the least ... me too :)

As i have not stayed longer after introductions, I am not able to write anything more, but just want to stress on one point - Meeting at events and discussing aspects of varied nature is good, but we should also strive to make our discussions a reality. I sincerely hope this happens.

So long...

Making for BarCamp

I know its late, but as promised earlier and as one of "proud" participants and also fortunate of being with minds behind the camp, wanted to share my experiences with Making of BarCamp.The first Planning meeting for BCB4 happened on the 3 June 2007 at Cafe Coffee Day on Richmond Road. From then on, every week all of us meet every Sunday at 10 AM at some CCD or the other (mostly at the Koramangala CCD) taking our planning session step-by-step. The day we began Jace came up with the idea of grouping tracks, which we called "Collectives". There were loads of debates every week and concluding was pretty difficult. Each one of us had our own thoughts. Synchronizing and framing one concept is really a tough task. Imagine, a group of 10 people who have been totally un-known to each other (few of us knew each other from BCB 1), coming together to make an event which will bring in various like-minded people to a common platform to share, learn and understand various "ideologies" is not a simple task. However, we were determined. We wanted to make this happen and the only aspect we were looking at is the Event itself. It was like the situation when Dhronacharya asks Arjuna as to what he could see on the tree for shooting and Arjuna replies "the eye of the bird" (I am very bad at mythology, but just trying to convey as precise as I can). We were looking only at the event and all the discussions we had were like the deviations which pulled us apart. We took them as tests and by the next week we would come together taking the discussion to the next level. Finally, we concluded that this time BarCamp should be different from earlier versions and should be a "Collective Edition".

Dates

What we announced during BCB3 was in July. The first weekend was turning a bit difficult with venue and other logistics. The second weekend was Proto.In which we did not want to coincide to ensure that we have our friends from Chennai join us :) So, it was the last weekend which was working for everyone and hence 28/29 July were finalized.

Collective Edition

As i remember, our thought was to bring various communities together under one roof for sharing, knowing each other and forming a community. Our vision was that these communities which will be formed/are formed will go from BarCamp with deliverables which they would work on themselves. If there were anyone who did not know that communities existed, they would know during the camp. If groups already existed, we would have provided a platform for them to come together. I really dont know if I am doing a good job of explaining what we intended, but in one line - "We wanted to create a platform to bring various communities together" and in other words - "An incubation center for like minded people"

What happens after BarCamp?

The communities which have formed will go forward with take-aways and build their associations. If possible, would come back next time with planned activities and collective projects.

NSRCEL Support

On a parallel note, preparations were going on for sponsorships and other logistics. After BCB3, NSRCEL came forward for a long term partnership with BCB and wanted to host this event to ensure that an "educative and motivational" environment is created for creative minds to shape the future of "innovation" and "entrepreneurship". Now, that is divine blessing. Right?

Sponsors

Our platinum sponsor - DirectI, came forward for sponsorship shortly after our request to them. This was the first motivation for us that this event would be really a success. Later our other sponsors - TCS and ThoughtWorks showed their appreciation. Honestly, TCS and ThoghtWorks were from BCB 1 standing behind us and motivated us. PureTesting and Yahoo also supported this event showing their

The D-Day arrives

As the dates were getting closer, our To-Do lists were increasing. Fortunately/Unfortunately all of us were having hectic schedules even at work. This happens in life, Right?

We asked for volunteers for various tasks, and there were enthusiasts who pitched in. I communicated to volunteers to come to IIM on 27th evening at 5 PM to help us with arrangements. Only two - Hema and Bhavana were the only two who turned up sincerely that evening. They were surprised to see the way things were going. Pradeep, who has his office incubated in IIM was our main venue coordinator. His office was our dumping yard of all the material. We sincerely thank Ashwin, head of MapUnity for baring with us even though we messed up their office.

By the time we all assembled (after last minute shopping) it was 10 PM. Banners and other material arrived. Saurabh and team from ENI (Students wing of IIM) which supported the event, took care of organizing the sign-boards and sticking them around.

We had dinner and worked out the final logistics which needed to be taken care. We dispersed at around 12 AM committing that we would assemble back at 7:00 AM on 28th to tie up banners around (it was raining and windy the previous night and we decided not to put them up). The next day, we came in by 7 AM (I came in a bit late though :( ) and put up the banners and set-up the registration desk.

I would not write any thing more from here. You have experienced in person and also, I wrote about it in my earlier post too.

BCB 4 Planners

Feedback

I need to run now, will post feedback summary in my next post...sorry about that.

BCB 4 - Event Summary

Amidst all enthusiasm and cheer, BarCamp Bangalore 4 – The Collectives edition concluded at IIM Bangalore campus on the 28^th and 29^th July 2007. I have been fortunate to be part of the organizing team which included Arun, Amit, Akash, Amit, Jace, Kesav, Pradeep, Arpit, Ashish, Jayanth (sorry if I missed anyone on the list) was really an amazing experience. I remember the days when we were getting together for planning the camp, and today, the event is successfully complete. I will write what all went into making this camp in another post soon which would be titled “Making of BarCamp”.

Day 1 started with close to 450 Registrations. People started coming to the venue as early as 8 AM. By 9:45 we had the auditorium filled with enthusiastic crowd eagerly looking forward for the inauguration. We had people from Chennai, Delhi, Pune, Hyderabad and also a student group from New York University coming. It was really a great experience to see the diversity of the participants.

Day started with introductions, brief about the history of BarCamp and explaining about the Collectives Edition.

Prof. Kumar of NSRCEL (NS Raghavan Center for Entrepreneurship Learning) started his discussion “How to effectively write a Business Plan”. This session won loads of participation and went beyond the scheduled 30 minutes to about more than one and half hours.

The remaining day saw Bolger’s Collective, Cycling, and Photography were among other collectives which attracted many new comers.

Day 2 started in the auditorium again with introductions from various speakers. All speakers got about 30 seconds time to introduce themselves to all the participants and the topic they were going to speak about.

Second day had serious participants with Ruby on Rails, BOJUG, e-Governance, Startup’s and Photographer’s collectives taking the lead.

Being part of the organizing team (for which I am fortunate and lucky), I could not attend any sessions on day 1. On Day 2, I could attend Startup’s collective and a little bit of e-Governance collective.

Day 2 (29 July 2007) is very memorable for me personally – I launched Dazasya, an NGO for Society, Technology and Entrepreneurship. I will write more about Dazasya on my other blog.

Take a peek at my pictures which I shot during the camp.

Meet Subroto Bagchi

TiE Bangalore Chapter is organizing an evening with Mr. Subroto Bhagchi, author of the most acclaimed title - The High Performance Entrepreneur.

Date - 19 July 2007
Venue - Taj Gateway, Residency Road, Bangalore
Time - 7 PM Onwards
Entry - Rs. 1000 for non-members of TiE
Dinner - 9 PM Onwards.

Be there and meet the High Performance Entrepreneur.

Read my notes of this event here.

BCB 4 - Overview

BarCamp Bangalore 4 is fast approaching. It is happening on the 28th and 29th July 2007 at Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.

We have 16 Collectives for this event. Few of them are roll-over's from BCB 3 and few are new.

I am fortunate to be one of the Volunteers. Also, I am taking part in the SocialTech, Bloggers and Photography collectives. I know it is a lot of multi-tasking, but I really would want to be a part the above three. I really hope I can learn and contribute to the learning during the Camp.

The other Collectives we have this time are:

Free and Open Source Software (FOSS)
BangPypers - Python Programming
Photo Collective
Mobile Collective
Internet Collective
SocialTech Collective
Ruby Collective - Programming
BangAJAX Collective - Programming
Bloggers Collective
UnBand Collective - Music
Investors Collective - Financial
BandFun Collective - Functional Language
Startups Collective
Programming Languages and Compiler Design Collective
Content Management Systems Collective
SysAdmins Collective - IT System Administrators
E-governance Collective

Visit the Collectives Page to know more in detail and register yourself for a collective :)

If you are a Blogger and would like to write about BarCamp and your experiences/participation, please register your blog here.

Hoping to see you around in the IIM Campus...Be there...

Blog 'A' loreans

Sanjukta gave Bangalore Bloggers a name - Blog 'A' loreans. I think I personally like the name. We now have a google group too, don't hesitate to join....

Here are few links to pics and few of Bloggers thoughts...

Ramjee Ganti
Niranjan Kaggere
Anand Bora

Sanjukta's Pics

We are also coming out with an agenda for the meet on 21 July...So, be tuned in to experience the future of Blogging :)

Bloggers Meet

Yesterday, 7 July 2007 we had the Bangalore Bloggers Meet. Probably this is the first time we were doing this kind of a meet and am fortunate to be there.
We initially met at CCD on MG Road, but due to space constraints we moved to Koshy's, another famous and old Coffee joint on St. Marks Road. There was a good turnover and I think there were around 20 of us there.


More pictures are on my Flickr.

Dhivya is organizing a Bloggers meet on the 21 July. Visit the event Wiki and register yourself for being there...

Also, we are trying to make Blogging a collective during the forthcoming BarCampBangalore. Sanjukta, who coordinated organising yesterday's Bloggers meet, is also coordinating with this collective during the BarCampBangalore. If you are in Bangalore during those dates, dont wait to be there and be part of this event.

Coming to the event, it was a good start. We discussed on how we can make Blogging much more productive so that all of us benefit and also create a new dimension to aspects of Blogging.
Sridhar Rao, was sharing his ideas on how we can create a web NGO and contribute to various aspects of Society. Also, Sanjukta was speaking about how she would like to talk to the underprivileged and people who are being ignored by the society and bring their problems to light and in this direction if we can provide any kind of service, then Blogging can be a very useful.

I had to leave shortly afterwards, but I am looking forward for the next meet and see how we can help ourselves to uplift the quality of Blogging.

Here are few of the attendees (few could not make it too) and links to their blogs. Hope you enjoy reading....

Gopal
Anand Bora
Vinu
Snigdha
Jyothi Vel Moorthi
Niranjan
Naren
Ramjee
Maruti
Amit Gupta
Sumesh


To top it all, Bangalore Mirror had a small coverage for the event (Ref to Bangalore Mirror paper on 8 July 2007, Page 3)

BarCamp Bangalore 4

BarCamp Bangalore 4 is being happening on 28th and 29th July 2007 at IIM Bangalore campus.

Visit BarCamp Bangalore home page for more information regarding the event.

Bloggers Meet

Bangalore Bloggers Meet is being organized on 7 July 2007. If you are into Blogging (Reading / Writing) you should be there.

Date: 7th July 2007

Time: 5 pm

Venue: Café Coffee Day MG Road

RSVP: Sanjukta - 9900119681

Or confirm your participation here: http://sanjukta.wordpress.com/2007/07/03/bangalore-bloggers-meet-july-07/

Also, Blogging will be a 'Collective' during the forthcoming BarCamp Bangalore 4. Be there and be part of the future...

Frames of Mind 2007

I have been to the "Frames of Mind 2007" exibition organized by the Bangalore Photography Club. It is really worth a visit. I took my dad along and he too liked it very much.
Few of the photograph's which stood out in the gallery (my list) are:
Suprabhatam - Ajay
A New Beginning - Missed the photographer's name :(
Wild Silhouette - Sanjay KH
Natures Mirror - Rakesh Balaji
What Next - Ashish V
Evening Hues - Ankit Pai
Misty Morning, don't see no sun - Bob Marely - Arun Kurian (This is a fantastic photograph)

I tried looking and adding links to the photos I mentioned above, but could not find them in open album, but if you want to see amazing works of other Photographers, visit www.BangalorePhotograhpyClub.com.

Although I have just mentioned about few photos above, all photographs displayed in the exibition are absolutely fantastic...

Good going BPC, hope to see many more excellent works in the near future.