Alabama

Image via WikipediaDuring orientation week, fresh off the boat, I was saying hello to anyone and everyone. Finally it was the turn of this guy. He said, "Hi, I am Jeremiah, I am from Alabama, but I am nice."

I shook hands and played normal. But I was like, wow, what's up with this guy, he feels the need to announce he is nice. What's going on? He is kind of immodest, don't you think?

It took me about a year to realize as the shit called racism hit me full force just as I formally ascended to the most powerful student position on campus.

He had meant that although he was from Alabama he was not racist or anything like that.

Like William Faulkner said, the past is not over, it is not even past.

Jeremiah went on to become my Class President.

Subhash Chandra Bose
Happy 4th From My Friend Luke
With John Liu
The Facebook Effect
Southern Hospitality
At The Buspark
On A Bike

Facebook Beats Google Plus On Design

Image via WikipediaI Am On Google Plus Now
Facebook Videocalling: I Am On Now

Google Plus is not a threat to Facebook just like Facebook Messages, touted by the media as the Gmail killer, has been no threat to Gmail.

Facebook has its advantages. It has mapped the social graph. Google Plus is not even trying to. Plus has a Google Buzz like awkwardness to it in terms of who all end up in your circles. Apparently you don't need people's permission before you add them to some circle. So it is a little diffuse.

Facebook has a sleek design. One of my very favorite parts of Facebook for years has been that font. How did they do that!

The starting point for Google is search, not social. The starting point with the Facebook experience is social. Just like FourSquare will beat Facebook in the check in space, Facebook will keep the lead in the social space.

But I see me using both services. There is a place for Google Plus.

My Google Plus stream seems to be dominated by the two social media stars Robert Scoble and Anthony De Rosa, the Ashton Kutcher of Tumblr. I like both fine, and I personally know Anthony. But my Facebook stream is different, although there too another social media star - Baratunde Thurston, another person I happen to know - shows up quite often. But Facebook is much more likely to throw up people I know.

I Am On Google Plus Now

Image via WikipediaLooks like somebody at Google read my blog post from earlier in the day.

The Facebook Skype Integration Is Huge

Now if only people from the Department Of Homeland Security started reading my blog, I would be all set.

Using Political Contacts To Beat The Immigration Beast
Subhash Chandra Bose

Hillary Clinton went to Beijing as First Lady to speak on women's rights. This was in 1995, I believe. In her hotel room she wondered if she might be able to read the Wall Street Journal. A copy mysteriously got delivered. That is when they realized the Chinese had bugged her room and were listening into her conversations.

So someone on her staff wondered aloud, I wonder if we could have pizza.

The pizza did not magically appear.

I am on, yo.

Facebook Videocalling: I Am On Now

Image by jdlasica via FlickrIt was easy to do. All you needed to do was go read the official Facebook blog post about it. The post told you where to go if you wanted to get in right away.

http://www.facebook.com/videocalling

Call Your Friends Right From Facebook

Otherwise earlier in the day I complained I felt excluded.

Mark Zuckerberg is right. Facebook has the huge advantage that it has the social graph. Google might have to struggle to rebuild that graph. But I see me using both services.

Subhash Chandra Bose

Finally the British said, "You want independence? Okay, you can have independence. But you are going to have to give us Subhash Chandra Bose, dead or alive."

Using Political Contacts To Beat The Immigration Beast
Ugh, Immigration (4)

@azipaybarah @NYGovCuomo Hello. I am here! http://t.co/8d2bpSS @jeffkurzonless than a minute ago via web Favorite Retweet ReplyParamendra Bhagat
paramendra

Immigration Limbo

The Facebook Skype Integration Is Huge

Image via CrunchBaseMy number one gripe with Skype is it does not have all the people on it that I wish were on it. This Facebook Skype integration takes care of that problem. Now you don't need a phone number of that person who is in your Facebook network. This is huge.

This is bigger than Google Plus, a service I am not in yet. A friend sent an invite today but Google says they are so full of it. They did not let me in.

Happy 4th From My Friend Luke

The Facebook Effect
Southern Hospitality

Luke was my next door neighbor when I showed up. We were in the same suite. He was a music man.

I had brought a full supply of Bollywood with me. I also had plenty of Gazals. I would listen to them when I got a chance.

One day Luke approached me. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"Why do you listen to the same song again and again and again!"

I had been listening to tens of different songs.

Using Political Contacts To Beat The Immigration Beast

Image via WikipediaMy friend Jiwan who I am crashing with for now in Sunnyside convinced me yesterday that I need to go the political route to get sorted my immigration mess.

"If the most powerful person on earth can take your help, why can't you take the help of that most powerful person?"

Seeking 10 Minutes Of The Senator's Time For Personal Reasons
(To: Linda at Senator Bill Perkins' office)

Hi Bill.

I have been in an immigration mess since late 2005. A no name State Senator in New Jersey just helped another Nepali get a green card in a month, and the story circulated and a close friend of mine has been urging me to approach you to get the same done for me. If you are in a position to help, I'd much appreciate. I'd remember till the last dog dies, like Bill Clinton said in 1992.

I came to America in the fall of 1996 on a student visa to the top
liberal arts college in the South where I got myself elected student
body president within six months of landing. I finished school in May
2001. After a year I was on OPT, Optional Practical Training. .....
a green card...... Believe it or not I did not renew the card. My
lawyer says I had the option to. I was working days, nights and weekends
for the democracy movement in Nepal at the time, the only Nepali in
America doing full time work to that end. I was not much thinking about me.

I was Barack Obama's first full time volunteer in NYC like you were
the first elected official in the city to endorse him. That was good
work. The day the national primary ended in 2008 they had me
disappear, machine politics at its most effective! They had me inside
for six months. Obama won. I was out a few days later. My first
immigration court date after that was in Chicago. There were two court
dates in 2009. The last one was in June, last month, that got
postponed indefinitely. This political asylum thing has been dragging
on like a bad dream. The three court dates have been about giving me a
new court date, that's it.

I am under the impression you have the option to use some political
levers at your disposal to get my original green card renewed,
backdated to the fall of 2005 when it should have been renewed. If
that can happen enough time will have lapsed that I would by now
qualify for a citizenship.

Once I have the paperwork I can start functioning at full capacity. I
am a tech entrepreneur who wants to go into microfinance in a big way.
http://technbiz.blogspot.com/2011/02/googlefacebook-of-microfinance.html
I can do for the Arab world what I did for Nepal in 2006. This wave of
democracy, done right, could hit all of the Arab world, all of Africa,
maybe Russia, maybe China. But right now I feel like my hands and feet
have been tied and I have been thrown into a corner. Such waste. And
there is the no small matter of Obama 2012. In many ways 2012 is more
important than 2008.

My alien number is ___________.

For now I request to meet you in person for 10 minutes.

Thanks.
Paramendra.

Rockettothesky: Grizzly Man

(Via Katzenmutter)

The Sheryl Sandberg Profile: The Tech Startup Angle

Image via CrunchBaseI am going to be honest. I went to this article first and foremost not from the gender angle. I remain curious about the career trajectory of this woman, as I stay curious about the career trajectory of Mark, The Zuckerberg. Little bits and pieces I have gathered on her life have only whetted my appetite. So I dived in for more details. She has had an amazing life story that both men and women can learn from.

She is not a techie. She is an operations person. You can hope to become a billionaire going down that route as well.

Sheryl Sandberg: New Yorker Profile

Related articles

• Sheryl Sandberg & Male-Dominated Silicon Valley : The New Yorker (policyabcs.wordpress.com)
• Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg, the New Yorker and Women in Silicon Valley (allthingsd.com)
• Sheryl Sandberg & Male-Dominated Silicon Valley (bjconquest.com)
• Mark Zuckerberg's adult supervision (kottke.org)
• Ken Auletta: Can Sheryl Sandberg upend Silicon Valley's male-dominated culture? (newyorker.com)
• Mark Zuckerberg Is On Google+ (But He Doesn't Look Happy About It) (blogs.forbes.com)
• Why Facebook Needs Sheryl Sandberg [Voices] (voices.allthingsd.com)

Sheryl Sandberg: New Yorker Profile

(Via Change The Ratio)