The Dong Rule

Presenting At The Dot Com Hatchery

This was a time in my life when I did not have the option to accept investment money.

My Non Personhood Of 2009, 2010

But I ended up with five minutes at the Hatchery. After I was through the Hatchery came up with a new rule called The Dong Rule. That rule would now on allow the organizers to ask a presenter to get off the stage even if their alloted time was not up yet.

Microsoft's Alliances And Acquisitions

Image via CrunchBase

Forbes: Nokia’s Smartphone Chief On Microsoft Alliance, Future Windows Devices: the Finnish giant’s transition from its homegrown Symbian platform to Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system ....... The future of Nokia and, to a certain extent, of Microsoft’s mobile ambitions largely hinges on the success of the two companies’ alliance. ..... several Nokia devices were already running Mango, the latest version of Windows Phone software. ...... the first batch of Nokia Windows Phones will be a “small portfolio” of multiple devices. ...... Nokia was an early advocate for NFC, which enables phones to wirelessly exchange data such as payment information, mobile tickets, business card contacts and website links. ...... Early Nokia Windows Phones may also include a China-specific device.

Microsoft allied with Nokia, the number one name in mobile phone hardware. Nokia was struggling under the onslaught of smartphones and it looked like Android was about to take over the world. And Microsoft was largely missing in action. The Windows phone was widely considered a joke.

Bing - But It's Not Google - used to be an industry joke as well. Search was best left to Google.

Windows and Office looked passe. Chrome was coming. Google Apps were all over the place. The smart crowd was into Google Apps.

Odd Future: Sandwiches

(Via Bryce Roberts)

Sonar: How Whales Roll: Mike Arrington My Sonar Friend

National Geographic: Military Sonar May Give Whales the Bends, Study Says: Undersea noise from naval exercises appears to give beaked whales the bends, an ailment most commonly associated with scuba divers who rise to the ocean surface too quickly ...... Scientists for years have suspected a link between sonar activities and mass strandings of marine mammals—similar events have occurred recently in the Bahamas and Greece—but they are uncertain as to why sonar causes the animals to strand themselves. ....... They found gas bubbles in blood vessels and hemorrhaged vital organs. ..... Sonar technology, such as that used during the Cold War, was passive: essentially big microphones that listened for the distinctive sounds emitted by large submarines. ....... Environmentalists say incidences of marine mammal strandings have sharply increased since this mid-frequency sonar technology was deployed. Environmentalists are now actively opposing testing of a new technology, called low-frequency sonar, which they say would significantly expand the geographic range the sound travels. ...... the sonar likely either causes a behavioral change in the whales such as rising too rapidly, or there is a physical effect of the sonar on bubble precursors in nitrogen-saturated tissues. ...... low-frequency sound waves can rapidly compress and then expand microscopic bubbles of gas in the tissue. Each sound wave causes the bubble to absorb more and more of the gas dissolved in the bloodstream, eventually making the bubbles big enough to rupture tissues.

Standout App

Sonar was an app that stood out of the many that presented at the TechCrunch Disrupt. I am not saying that was the best app. I am not saying I watched all presentations. I did not. But Sonar is the one I remember.

Passion Pit

Major Music Talent

Am I A Musician?
The Magic Letter A

@paramendra 10 Things to do right now to improve your music sales --> @TALENTHOUSELIVEless than a minute ago via web Favorite Retweet ReplyRonin Podesta
Ronine581

@Ronine581 You obviously think I am a major music talent. #music http://bit.ly/mJdaV3less than a minute ago via web Favorite Retweet ReplyParamendra Bhagat
paramendra

Video Blogging Would Beat Panels And Ignite

Image via WikipediaInternet Week Fail Whale
Ignite NYC Premonitions

It is only a matter of time before I get into video blogging in a dedicated way. Video blogging, to my mind, would beat sitting on panels and presenting at Ignite, neither of which I am opposed to.

Brad Feld says he does what he does not for accolades or money, but because he has stayed curious. So maybe the lesson there is to work on being curious if you don't have the accolades and the money already. Those will follow if you stay curious. And staying curious is a reward on its own. It perhaps is the primary reward.

Fred Wilson does not like to sit on panels. He has sat on panels. But he does not like to.

JFK absolutely hated the idea of shaking hands.

To me all of that points to the promise of video blogging.

Wow Technorati

See that spike in daily income from AdSense? Almost all of it is coming from Technorati on a lazy Sunday from just one article: Microsoft's Second Act?

It is the shortest of the few posts I have done for Technorati so far. And it brought me $12 in just one day. Wow. This is my best one day return on AdSense ever.

Just when my tech startup is taking off in a way that I don't really need to make money from blogging, my blogging is also taking off looks like.

Southern Hospitality

Story 1

I showed up in Kentucky. For a few weeks I did not understand people. People did not understand me. I would ask questions in class. The professors would make me repeat a few times and give up. I spoke fast.

"Are you from New York?" someone asked me.

Never been was the correct answer.

Meet My New Friends Twin Sisters Joy And Cindy

Met them at this party last night. Talked to them for two hours. They are good people. Joy sent me a Facebook friend request on her phone in my presence. I just sent Cindy a friend request as well.

"Your name is Joy, and her name is Sydney. How come she lucked out? How come she got named after a city?" I asked. That is how the conversation began.

Organic Growth

Image via WikipediaMy Cofounder Anuj is really something. He grew from one engineer to 50 engineers over five years completely organically. They don't do angel investing in Kathmandu. Venture capitalists live on Mars, not in Kathmandu. But so far the team has worked like hired guns for clients across the world. They have done some pretty sophisticated work on top of the regular web design and development they do on an ongoing basis.

Now that we have teamed up to do a tech startup, it is quite something to watch Anuj's thought processes. He is Mr. Organic Growth. Even for the tech startup what he has in mind is organic growth. His gameplan is sound. He is not opposed to me raising money on behalf of the company. It is just that he does not see raising money as do or die. We might as well not do it. The idea of raising money is not in his universe.

BusiCopy is a social network for businesses. No, we are not a Facebook imitator. If it is just about creating a simple page for your business, you can do that either place. But BusiCopy is more. If you are a business in NYC, and you want to list yourself on BusiCopy and also need web design, development work done, BusiCopy can help you, Facebook does not do that. If you are a business in Kathmandu, and you want to go global without getting on the plane, without getting a business visa, we will have the platform for you. We don't have it yet. But we are working towards it.