Walk In The Park
Freehand Exercise: 1,000 Push-Ups, 1,000 Squats, 1,000 Crunches
Brazil And Argentina: My Choices And Those Of My Favorite Actor
The Eyes Of Truth
Hey Now, Hey Now
Tomorrow
Samuel Eto'o
Watch The Games
The impending Age Of Abundance was prophecied in the scriptures thousands of years ago.
Friday, June 25, 2010
Young Folks
Walk In The Park
Freehand Exercise: 1,000 Push-Ups, 1,000 Squats, 1,000 Crunches
Brazil And Argentina: My Choices And Those Of My Favorite Actor
The Eyes Of Truth
Hey Now, Hey Now
Tomorrow
Samuel Eto'o
Watch The Games
Walk In The Park
CBC FIFA
At this point it feels to me like this is Argentina's cup to lose, although it can be argued Brazil is just getting warmed up. Those are the two teams I am rooting for. (Brazil And Argentina: My Choices And Those Of My Favorite Actor)
Diego (Maradona) looks as majestic off the field as he used to look on the field: for the love of the game, he will do anything, even come back as a coach.
I own three Brazil shirts, two Argentina shirts.
France and Italy are out. Those used to be heavyweight teams.
The US team has surprised many people. I commend their spirit, and their victories. I don't expect them to win, of course, but it is possible they pull a few more surprises. Expect to see a lot of soccer in Central Park this summer.
Freehand Exercise: 1,000 Push-Ups, 1,000 Squats, 1,000 Crunches
Brazil And Argentina: My Choices And Those Of My Favorite Actor
The Eyes Of Truth
Hey Now, Hey Now
Tomorrow
Samuel Eto'o
Thursday, June 24, 2010
My Secret Sauce
Image via WikipediaDo you want to know what my secret sauce is, and how I make it? It usually goes with steamed dumplings, which is one of my favorite things to eat. Chatfe dude Paul Orlando (Chatfe: Audio, Interest Based Random Connections On Skype?) introduced me to Lam Zhou on 144 E. Broadway in Chinatown. I get my frozen dumplings there. I steam them up at home. But dumplings need sauce. I make my own. You can't find anywhere what I make. How do I make it? It is not that complicated at all. You just need green chilli, tomatoes, and some salt.
I like my sauce really hot - not temperature, but spicey hot - and I get my green chilli from the Patel Brothers in Jackson Heights. I used to be Mayor of that place on FourSquare. But if you like it only mildly hot, jalopenos will also do.
Don't use oil at all. You feel healthier.
Gently fry up the chilli and grind it in a grinder. Cut up the tomatoes, fry them a little, grind them in a grinder. Put both into a bowl and mix, and add some salt.
See? That easy. But you can't get this anywhere. I like my sauce to look green - as in, heavy on chilli - but you could make yours look red. It is just that some like it hot.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Rich People's Kids
Image via WikipediaBill Gates: Life Is What You Make It
Contrary to what many people might assume, Peter won’t inherit great wealth from his father.Warren Buffett gave most of his money to the Gates Foundation, an entity I am a fan of. I never called myself a fan of Microsoft, although I have admired Gates' path in business greatly. I hope Buffett left at least one billion, or half a billion for his kids. Or I am going to think the guy is cheap, a rich cheap guy. Buffett's logic has been, "but I did not deliver my children myself either." As in, his children perhaps are not the best professionals to be doling out money. Let Bill G do it.
Sam Walton went the other way. Many people don't know this but Walton created more wealth than Gates: there is more money in people skills than in software, always will be. That Republican dude left everything to his children. I don't approve of that either. That is taking family values a little too far.
An honest rich guy is Larry Ellison. He was not born rich. He was born in "Chicago's Jewish ghetto" - his words - where you could hear "gunshots." He talks of having to eat "macaroni and cheese" late into his 20s. He claims his first wife left him because he "did not work hard enough." He went ahead and bought a boat, and that sent the wife into therapy. His second wife left him because he "worked too hard."
About money and children he said, "I am not going to pretend that my children are going to have to work for a living." That's my kind of a rich guy: brutally honest, interesting.
Although, did I say, I am a huge fan of the Gates Foundation? I am a Third World guy, after all. Bill Gates has challenged many racist viewpoints about the "bottom two billion," as he calls it. He is not talking about the first two billion he made, but the two billion poorest people.
Steven Spielberg once said about his huge wealth. "It's just numbers. Some accountant takes care of it." Bill Gates said only a few weeks back about being rich, after a few million, it does not really matter. Makes no material difference to your life. I buy into the Spielberg line. I have 47,000 followers on Twitter. I remember being very excited when I hit 2,000 followers. Me? What? Popular? At 47,000 it just feels like numbers.
Larry, again, has quite another attitude. "There is nothing that can be bought with money that I can not buy," he boasted to a biographer. Well, that car you see is going down Larry Ellison Boulevard.
There has got to be joy in actively giving. Dying and letting others figure it out can't be joyous. You are not even around. But I am not against financial freedom for one's children. They can still end up normal people doing good, productive work. I think.
Larry Ellison
There are only two income/wealth brackets that fascinate me: the dollar a day people, and the self-made billionaires. In between lies the gray zone.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Swype: Type On Your Smartphone At Laptop Speed
Image via WikipediaSwype Hopes to Bring Pattern-Based Typing Technology to the iPad and iPhone iPad Weekly (blog)
Don't type on that smartphone: Swype instead TECH.BLORGE.com
Android Beta of Swype Input Software Goes Live
Move fast: Speedy Swype keyboard for Android now in limited public beta CNET (blog)
Swype Swipe App Announces Open Beta PC Magazine
Swype Beta reopens for all Android smartphones Mobile Burn
Video Demo: Swype For HTC EVO 4G Skatter Tech (blog)
Swype for Android and other top apps the week
Trial the Swype Android phone app for free
Motorola Droid X Coming With Plenty of Pre-Installed Apps? [New Motorola Droid... TFTS (blog)
Verizon Teases Droid X, Big Reveal Next Week? ChannelWeb
Motorola Droid X Packed With Popular Apps Not Found On Other Androids Oxford Zeiss
Verizon Teases Droid X on Droid X Web Does 4.3 Screen and HDMI 7/19? Wireless and Mobile News (blog)
Want Swype? (yes, you do) – Get It Tomorrow For Android Phones TechCrunch (blog)
I have a feeling Swype will finally make tablets competitive with laptops.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Freehand Exercise: 1,000 Push-Ups, 1,000 Squats, 1,000 Crunches
Image via WikipediaI started around 2 PM. I made myself some coffee - whole milk, some Nescafe coffee, and some brown sugar - and put a few slices of bread through the toaster, four. Then I drank a liter of water. I strolled around the apartment for about 30 minutes. Then I started doing some basic warm up.
Around 3 PM, I hit the floor. I would do 25 push-ups, then stroll around for a minute or less, and then do another 25. At around 600 I felt like I could not do more, but I pushed and I am glad I did because the block was mental and psychological. Because at 1,000 push-ups it felt to me like I could do 100 or 200 more. 600 used to be my previous ceiling. That is where the mental block came from.
Around 5:45 I got done with the push-ups. Then I drank another liter of water and sliced three apples. Then I went for a stroll to a local store. I had run out of paper towels. I needed that to steam dumplings. About half way through the push-ups I had decided I was going to blog about the experience, and that I was going to celebrate by fixing me some steamed dumplings.
Around 6:30 I started doing squats. After having done 300 of those, I took some time off to shave. I also washed my feet with cold water. It felt so good. With a shaved skin and wet hair, I was looking martial. From 300 to 600 squats was rough. Now you know how they feel at the Everest base camp, I thought. I was breathing so very heavily, mouth wide open.
I got done with the 1,000 squats around 8:45 PM.
I drank another liter of water. Three liters for 3,000 units of exercise is a fair bargain. I drank slowly. Then I decided to take a shower.
9:15 PM, I decided to start on the crunches. This was the easy part. For most people crunches are the hardest. Because most people most of the time totally ignore their stomach muscles, even people who work out or exercise. But I am at a point where I could do 1,000 crunches in my sleep. I hit the mark quite effortlessly. Like today, I would do 35, then just lay there, do another 35.
After 300 crunches, I needed to take a restroom break. The roughage from the apples, and all that water, and the crunches were doing their trick. After 600 I turned my computer on to where you could see the log in box for Windows.
At the 800 mark I signed into Windows, and I put 15 dumplings to steam. I allow 20 minutes for steaming. But I got done five minutes before that and that is when I decided to make myself some lassi. I made it better than last time. ("Where Was This Google All This Time?")
Nine hours would be many people's idea of a work day. It has been my idea of a workout day.
Half way through the push-ups a roomie suggested dumb bells. I said no dumb bells.
"I don't want to get bulky. I want strength and fitness."
I don't do machines. I do freehand. I just feel this immense sense of freedom doing it. Early this decade at one point I had managed it such that everything I owned fit in my car. It was a station wagon, but still. It was a good feeling. I am a huge fan of the minimalist Google homepage, and the Craig's List. Less is more. With a freehand exercise regime, you can do it any place any time, or so it feels. A gym is constricting. And freehand has some major positives to it. Less risk of injury is one.
I am going to add yoga to my regimen down the line. Yoga is in a league of its own. Freehand is muscles and organs. Yoga is the joints and the mind, primarily the mind.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Saavn's Great Business Model For Movies
I just finished watching one of my favorite movies by my favorite actor on the planet, Amitabh Bachchan. It is a full length movie that you can watch legitimately on YouTube. I think they made me watch three 30-second ads along the way. And I was happy to watch those ads. This is the comment I left with the video.
"Amazing business model. I hope your library size grows by a factor of 1,000. Hollywood should also follow this business model. Don't fight the technology. Instead come up with better business models. Great lesson that I hope more people learn."
Brazil And Argentina: My Choices And Those Of My Favorite Actor
This particular movie has had almost a half million views to date on YouTube.
I love it that the movie has English subtitles. I understand perfect Hindi, but the subtitles allow me to share the movie with those who don't. I have always believed Amitabh has global appeal. He is the most recognized face on the planet.
I grew up watching Amitabh.
And, by the way, the ads were served by Google. So all movie producers have to do is agree to use the YouTube platform to serve full length movies. After a movie has been out in the theater one summer, put it up on YouTube. What about one year? You keep making money ad infinitum, pun intended.
Brazil And Argentina: My Choices And Those Of My Favorite Actor
I just found out Amitabh is also rooting for Brazil and Argentina. Those have been my two choices as well. I got the shirts for both.
I also just now discovered his Twitter account. I have known a while he is an avid blogger. I am too. I find out he is avid on Twitter. He has sent out 20 reply tweets just this past hour. Yes, it's him. And looks like we both watched the Denmark-Cameroon game.
Social media is an amazing thing.
We share the same birthdays. His is his. Mine is his too, it is not my real birth date, but it is my official birth date.
I also had his hairstyle, but that was before my hair went bad on me. My current hairstyle is more along the lines of what he dons in Sarkar (second video below). Looks like he also gives up at times.
The Eyes Of Truth
Hey Now, Hey Now
I also just now discovered his Twitter account. I have known a while he is an avid blogger. I am too. I find out he is avid on Twitter. He has sent out 20 reply tweets just this past hour. Yes, it's him. And looks like we both watched the Denmark-Cameroon game.
Social media is an amazing thing.
We share the same birthdays. His is his. Mine is his too, it is not my real birth date, but it is my official birth date.
I also had his hairstyle, but that was before my hair went bad on me. My current hairstyle is more along the lines of what he dons in Sarkar (second video below). Looks like he also gives up at times.
The Eyes Of Truth
Hey Now, Hey Now
Towards Threaded Conversations On Twitter
Image via CrunchBaseWhen someone replies to one of my tweets, I should not have to right click and open up a new tab with that tweet of mine to figure out what exactly that person replied to.On Friday TechCrunch put out this blog post: Might Threaded Conversations Be Coming To Twitter?
one area that’s still lacking is a good way to view conversations. Clicking on the “in reply to” links is tedious for long conversations. ..... Twitoaster’s speciality was the threaded conversation view it gave to tweets. ...... Another key focus of Twitoaster is tweet archiving. That’s another feature Twitter could definitely improve upon. Currently, thanks to Twitter’s search limitations, once a tweet is a couple of months old, it’s basically lost in the Twitter.com ether. If Twitter had a better archiving mechanism for old tweets, it could extend the life of them, and make them much more useful.Saturday, Twitoaster's Blog: I'm Going To Work At Twitter
and it’s going to be awesome at Twitter! :)It is a good feeling. I call it my vision resonance. If I am not the one being read, I am in tune. This reminds me of when TechCrunch, several months back, published many private documents of Twitter. Twitter had its own iPhone 4 moment. One of the things that emerged from all that was that the Twitter team was talking about "a billion people on Twitter" around the same time I was talking about a billion people on Twitter at this blog. That was a good feeling. I felt like I had vision resonance.
April 2009: A Billion People On Twitter
I am really good at the vision thing, aren't I?
Thursday, June 17, 2010
How To Monetize Tumblr?
Image via CrunchBaseA few months back - and if it has been less than that sorry, I have been on internet time, time moves faster online - when Tumblr raised its newest round of money, there was some talk from various quarters on the topic. I meant to read up on those thoughts and share my own thoughts in a blog post, and I just never got around to, I am doing now. But I have not had the chance to read those thoughts. That probably is a good thing for this blog post.
Google could not have done what Yahoo was doing really well: banner ads. Google came up with its own ad platform that spoke to the Google Search experience, and Google hit the jackpot with it. Similarly Facebook could not have done what Google did. (Facebook's Ad Space Is Different) Ads on Facebook needed to be able to climb the maze of people's social graphs. Social gaming needed a newer ad platform.
The Highlight Of My Internet Week
Anu Shukla Has Found The New Frontier In Advertising
Look at how Twitter is rolling out its monetization efforts. They have introduced the concept of resonance.
The lesson from all these examples is that the monetization of Tumblr has to be unique to the Tumblr experience. And the Tumblr experience is different from the Twitter experience, it is different from the Facebook experience, it is different from the Wordpress/Blogger experience.
So what exactly is the Tumblr experience. Define. Then monetize.
An obvious thing would be to allow businesses to set up tumblogs: paid Tumblr accounts. They can run campaigns on their own outside of Tumblr to get people to show up on their tumblogs and to follow them on their own. It would be like people doling out their Twitter handles on non Twitter platforms. But if people are spending money on the Google platform to get people to their tumblogs, that is money that should have been Tumblr's. So.
You should be able to create a paid account for your business on Tumblr. And Tumblr should landgrab a small box on the top right of all tumblogs. Paid accounts would have the option to get their specific tumblogs or Tumblr posts listed there for money.
So I just put out a post about smartphones at my tumblog, maybe I will see an ad for smartphones.
And for a higher price tumblog posts that are clearly labeled Sponsored should be allowed to enter streams. This could get controversial. But there is the Twitter option where you only enter the steam when people actively search for certain terms.
Just like an ad on Twitter has to take the form of a tweet, an ad on Tumblr has to look like a tumblog post. And those posts have to compete. If you are not getting clicked upon, you are not being liked and reblogged, you lose your place in the stream, money could not get you back in. What's that word again? Resonance?
Advertising on Tumblr has to be in tune with the Tumblr experience.
Another way - perhaps a better way - would be to get the users of Tumblr to strive to earn badges and have each such badge sponsored by a major brand name. So if you can get 100 people to follow you on Tumblr, you earn the T100 badge sponsored by Ben & Jerry. Both the badge and the sponsor's logo get shown on your tumblog. The logo links to the sponsor's tumblog.
A third way would be to allow Tumblr users to buy virtual money at Tumblr with which they can buy each other gifts. You pay real money for fake money with which you buy gifts. Tumblr is the one you pay. Tumblr makes money. Get it?
Twitter: The Obvious Missing Features
Image via CrunchBaseTwitter does not have the buzz today that it had for the first half of last year. Following the same pattern, some of FourSquare's buzz is now dying out just when it is getting better and better as a business.
Twitter had major scaling issues last year. That was a high class problem to have. But it still should have walked and chewed gum at the same time. It should have scaled well and it should have added features as well.
My belief is that the best features have to be at Twitter.com itself. I have the Twitter ecosystem in high regards, but Twitter should buy or build the best of the breed.
What are some obvious features that Twitter lacks?
(1) A Four Column View
Just like I am for four or more native inboxes for my Gmail, I am for four columns for Twitter. You log in and the four columns are the default view. Save me clicks. (Reimagining The Inbox The Simple Way)
- The Stream
- The Inbox (@paramendra)
- Direct Messages
Okay, so that's three, not four.
(2) Several Lists At Once
I want to be able to view my four favorite lists at once. I might create and follow tens of lists, but this would force me to think which my four top lists are. Give me one click on the right hand side that leads me to four columns that house my four lists.
(3) Threaded Conversations
When someone replies to one of my tweets, I should not have to right click and open up a new tab with that tweet of mine to figure out what exactly that person replied to. Again, save me clicks.
(4) Deleting 20 Direct Messages At Once
Just like I don't have to delete one email at a time, I don't want to have to delete one DM at a time. I want to be able to delete 20 DMs at a time. Select all, and delete. I also want to be able to unfollow 20 people at a time in my DM box. You sending me a DM I did not want is often a good reason for me to start unfollowing you. But if I have to unfollow one person at a time, you have the upper hand.
(5) The @ Reply Ninjas
My inbox is often flooded with people who will put my Twitter handle in a tweet and there will be no message in there, or some unwanted marketing message. Often times they will put my Twitter handle and that of 10 others. They got 10 people's attention, they think.
People who I don't follow, when they send me a tweet, instead of giving me the two regular options of reply and retweet, give me three options: reply, retweet, block person. A blocked person should not be able to show up in my inbox even if they put my Twitter handle into their tweet.
Chris Dixon On Twitter: Not Impressive
Twitter Has To Scale The Signals
Twitter Does The Deed: Ads
Twitter Acquires Tweetie: The Drama
Twitter Need Get Work Done
Twitter Needs To Eat Into Its Ecosystem
Measuring Your Twitter Influence
Facebook And Twitter Suck When It Comes To Searching Their Own Sites
Twitter Visualization: Reading Many Tweets At Once
Twitter For The Masses
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