Ace Sundays

Think Different
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Doubling Down On Tech Consulting

Image via WikipediaThe immigration bureaucracy in this country is so fucked up, it's not even funny. It is like getting in line for a land line with the state ownned telco in Nepal before I left the country. It took years. Now they have mobile phones, easy to purchase, but the immigration bureaucracy in this country continues to stay fucked up. Bajeezus fucking Christ.

I once quoted Lincoln on immigration. "I will prepare and perhaps my time will come." I felt like I was about to get the paperwork sorted out. But no, they went ahead and postponed the court date.

I guess I get to double down on tech consulting and plot to become my own angel investor when the time finally arrives, if it ever does.

I also recently got approached by someone to help take Shakira to Nepal to perform for a hefty commission. I am tempted to branch out beyond tech consulting.

Bryan Adams In Kathmandu

As for tech consulting, I have three associates in NYC looking daily for projects - it is not easy - and I have three teams in India always ready to get the work done. I could so scale at both ends. This is not bootstrapping, this is flying by your pants.

I guess fate will have it that I end up my own angel investor.

Using Political Contacts To Beat The Immigration Beast
Ugh, Immigration (4)
Immigration Court Date: June 6, 2011: Prepared Statement

Paradigm Shifts And Challenged Assumptions

Image via WikipediaMy personal hero in tech Larry Ellison (Larry Ellison, Larry Ellison's Personal Life) often talks in terms of paradigm shifts. When entire industries collapse that is a tectonic paradigm shift. When banks collapsed in New York and freed up tech talent for tech startups, that was a paradigm shift.

Larry's own life is full of paradigm shifts. My favorite detail probably is when one of his wives left him for a Harvard MBA. Wait, there is another. One of his wives had the option to take the family pickup or Oracle stocks. She picked the pickup truck.

Larry Ellison's Personal Life

The very best entrepreneurs cascade from paradigm shift to paradigm shift. Ordinary mortals don't even see the tsunami coming. When you ride the wave - you could also call it the tiger - a lot of your assumptions get challenged. What was just true is no longer true. And that is a hard thing to navigate. The ordinary person feels tremendously unsafe when that happens.

I look at the details of Larry's personal life, one failed marriage after another, and the many paradigm shifts Oracle has navigated, and no wonder I think his biography reads like fascinating.

Freshly divorced yet one more time Larry shot this email to a friend: "Congrats on getting and staying married!"

Think Different

Yesterday some of my Nepali friends had a meeting about me.

"He is not like you and me. He is different from us," one said.

Months back another Nepali friend bought bakery products for me. That was his way of his saying this guy has become too Americanized.

There is a flip side to the coin: Americans coming to me from the Bollywood/yoga angle.

Happy 4th From My Friend Luke
The Facebook Effect
Meeting Fred Wilson In Person

From: Paramendra Bhagat
Date: Sun, Jul 10, 2011 at 2:13 PM
Subject: {New York Metro Madhesi} Sunday ---- Come out and dance --- free event
To: nycnepali@googlegroups.com, New York Metro Madhesi

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=137120103034144
http://www.acehotel.com/newyork/calendar/sundays-live-music-series
https://twitter.com/USRoyalty/status/90104312633622529

Ace Hotel
20 West 29th Street
Sunday, July 10 · 8:30pm - 11:30pm

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.