Wireless Utopia

An article in ZDNet about the various Portlet/AJAX/Flash based hompages currently in news. The questions being asked are which ones are going to survive. I tried out each one of them and frankly speaking none of them have given me a reason for to switch from the Google homepage. I like it because of its simplicity and RSS feed support. All my daily list are on my homepage.

But one is really surprised by the number of such services. Netvibes for example. In comparison to Google it offers no requirement for signing up. And thats it. There are others on the list, Protopage, Homepages, Goowy are noteworthy. The only answers one can think of is, if each person alive in this world would have to have an homepage, then it thier prefererences would be distributed amongst the srevices as per the Bell Curve. Its just that big players will be at the top and the niche players at the fag end. But till they are there, they'll enjoy a market share.

Is there a market for it anyways? Not if you cannot display ads on them!

Tags: AJAX Web2.0 Google Yahoo Netvibes Protopage

Kudos to Wired for taking up the cause of singles. From the cultural perspective, singles in India are generally pressureized to get married as soon as possible. I personally have had to come up with creative excuses to counter the questions of when are you getting married. Bangalore in particular is very single unfriendly. Going to the pubs alone is a big mistake and the clubs dont even let you in. Even in coffee shops, which are meant for hanging out in the first palce, you get awkward glances from people if you are alone. The only places where singles were welcome were the erstwhile Dance Bars. But to borrow Chetan Bhagat's quote, we singles live in perpetual hope.

Single life sucks!

Techdirt links to a somewhat funny article about a company getting sued because they poached from Yahoo and discussed plans on Yahoo IMs. And it raises a question on privacy. If Yahoo is archiving all your IM converstations, then you're being watched. Its possbile that they are doing it for all IM conversations as well; if Google can have a cache of all the websites then how difficult it will be for yahoo to archive all the conversations!

But this really is scary. Turn it off, before it comes back from nowhere and hits you hard. Go to File -> Perferences -> Archive Tab -> and say NO.

Tags: Yahoo IM Privacy

News about an online Identity Management System which will provide an alternative to a MS' Infocard. There is a debate going on about Infocard at IdentityBlog and this peice of news is going to heat it up. For MS Infocard lies at the heart of its vison of the internet without passwords. And it has the first mover advantage in that. IBM it seems is up for the challenge.

A bigger question is whether the open source community finds a need for such a system. All the code, the technology, the binaries, the knowhow is provided for free in this world. Does it really matter if a user or contributer is not authentic. I dont know. Although the trend of big corporations backing open source is becoming popular, thier adoption by the open source community is yet to be seen.

Previous posts on OSS. New Frontiers. OSS Cryastal Gazing. Sex Appeal of Open Source.

Tags: Project Higgins Open Source Infocard Identity Metasystem Microsoft IBM Novell

The excitement is building up to Apple's press conference today. There's keen interest in Steve Job's next move. There have been rumors going around for iPhone. Although it seems that its not on the cards yet, but dont rule out anything yet.

Previous post on iPhone.

Update 1: CNN's on the story as well.

Tags: iPod iTunes Apple Steve Jobs Mac

Mashup's are the flavor of the season. It demostrates the power of a well designed API and how Web 2.0 concept is creating layers of services centered around them. There are lots of useful as well as just for fun mashups. And they are very creative as well.

Also, yesterday I finally managed to get on Orkut (thanks to Hombal) and here's the link to my profile (u have to be on orkut to be able see it). Generally all the Google applications are pretty slick. But Orkut is the exception. Its simple and fairly easy to use, but looks very dull. To the point that it seems that they are averse to bright colors and trendy looks. And it does not have any AJAX!

The membership of Orkut is phenomenal. I have been looking to network with techies in Bangalore and I found at least 10 groups where I could post a message. There are groups on everything there, even one devoted to sex in Bangalore! Even more surprising was the number of desis in each group. I was not expecting that. Most of them are there for social networking and Orkut is providing the platform due to the lack of good India based dating websites. The ones that are there are too costly and have very few babes on them.

So I have devised a plan to conquer the MySpace domination. Assume that every single guy and girl has a GMail account. So create a mashup which uses GMail for mail services, Google Pages for profiles, flickr for photo storage, Gtalk for messenger and Google Base for indexing. First ask the person to send a google invite to himself and create a new account with a nickname. Then use a predefined set of questions, the same ones that are asked everywhere, to generate a profile page on google pages. If you have a photo the upload it to flickr and tag it. If not (most of the Indian Babes do not have a soft copy) then use the Yahoo Avatar instead. Make an index entry in google base and maintain a MySQL database to link the profile and the pic.

Provide search services. Since all the profiles already are indexed in google base, use the API. Use the MySQL database to connect the profile with the photo. And then use the gmail API to provide mail service. Since GMail already has messenger, it will provide instant messaging as well. A single website can serve this all up using the Google and Flickr API.

To generate revenue, again use Google AdSense to attach a simple text ad to the end of each message sent. Also display the text ads when the user searches. Provide some premium services which any average user will not require. Provide a blogging service as well. Load up your website with AJAX and pick a cool name (eg. ishkvishk, love86, love.google.com etc.). Do some advertising and voila, you have the MySpace killer!

Now I got to run and get some VC funding on this. This is definately better than Yatra!

Update 1: Tech Crunch informs us that Google Base can support payment systems now!

Update 2: Two back to back news items on My Space in Wired.

Update 3: Rights Of Mashosphere.

Update 4: The SourceForge project is almost up! Pls. do contribute.

Tags: Mashup Web2.0 Social Networking Google GMail Flickr Google Base Orkut My Space

An cryptic article in Wired about charging users for the kind of services they run on the internet. It does not give any specific details about the technology being used, but isnt IP QoS supposed to do the same thing? The word never appears on the article and the only existing technology option is either diffserv or intserv.

So does this mean that the US telcos. are planning to deploy QoS on thier routers? The deployment of such routers are very limited on the public networks. Although its just a software upgrade, the cost of going to the field and updating it is still very high. With low demand for it, the risks outweigh the gains. But with the internet being used for more and more real time applications (eg. VoIP) the demand is increasing.

It also does open up the possibility of a billing mechanism based on the type of traffic. With the telcos making noises about major internet companies getting a free lunch on thier infrastructures and missing out on the big bucks, it seems that they are thinking about charging both the service providers as well as the users. Maybe all those statements were just for testing the waters. Is this the end of free voice services then?

But the deployment of QoS is still a step in the right direction. Its frustrating that although we have the technology, it cant be used since the routers dont support them.

Tags: QoS Routers Network Netutrality VoIP.

PS: wired being plagarised by Sify.

Somebody will be mighty worried at this bit of news. The cash cows of major Telecom vendors, which reads like a who's who in the wired world, is being threatened by Open Source Software now. An excerpt.

"Vyatta is one of the many start-ups that are bringing open source disruption to the highly profitable and closed world of networking. While open source software movement has ravaged the bottom lines of companies like Sun Microsystems; networking behemoths like Cisco and Juniper have continued to enjoy fat margins they earned even before the telecom crash of 2000."

Objectively speaking, its not going to be an immediate threat to anyone. Every company has its own base of customers who would not switch camps just because its now available for free. And in this particular universe, once you start using one product, you're hitched to the product line eventually. What it does do, is that it gives options. And in a way that is commendable in itself, given the high entry barrier. The networking world needs such kind of competition.

But undoubedly there is a large market for such kind of products; given the lack of interoperatiblity between vendors, security concerns and the high expense. Even though there have been attempts to agree to a specific standard, in the end each vendor adds some extra features to thier box to make it stand out. Over a period of time they evolve and become different animals altogther. An open platform, with products available on it for free, will only be beneficial for the industry. A good starting point at least.

The point of concern on the other hand would be thier dependability. OSS still has to prove itself in the corporate environment before anyone takes it seriously. Large corporations have not really embraced OSS in a big way. Another question mark would be on the sustainability companies who provide such OSS products. The OSS Revenue Model is yet to be proven and companies have known to go down.

More interestingly though, if the wired caslte has been breached, is the wireless frontier far away?

PS: Previous posts on OSS. OSS Cryastal Gazing. Sex Appeal of Open Source.
Update: Aswath points out to its VoIP implications.

Here's an example of innovative use of the expensive 3G telecom services. Its the birth of a new breed of routers called the Mobile Routers. They use the EVDO or HSDPA network and provide the services of a small WiFi Hotspot. A very novel idea indeed. It enables you to use a single wireless plan and use it for all the computers at home, instead of relying on different ones. A good example of how both WiFi and 3G technologies can coexist together.

But the bandwidth on the wireless network is usually limited. The 3G systems have been designed with a single user in mind which can move around at will. The most practical speeds provided to a stationary user is generally around ~700 kbps, which is good enough for a single user. If that has to be shared by several users, it will be as good as a dialup.

This is exactly where backhaul WiMAX comes into the picture. The backhaul WiMAX specifically targets the problem of having and managing leased lines for WiFi hotspots. The hotspots can connect wirelessly to the internet instead. The only poroblem; its not available commercially yet. Maybe all these devices will move to a WiMAX backhaul eventually, provided WiMAX deployment is a success.

Till that happens, its bad news for the operators.

PS: an earlier post on WiMAX.

Update: Featured on Slashdot as well.

Update 2: Review of Kyocera's product in Wired.

Tags: Mobile Routers Portable Hotspots EVDO WiMAX 3G

This tuesday I attened a seminar on the Evolution of 3G technologies by Qualcomm University in Delhi. The event was the annual Globalcomm Exibhition. It was a three day exibhition in Delhi's Pragati Maidan, attended by large and small companies in the Indian Telecom Sector.



What was amazing was the presence of Qualcomm there. They were one of the sponsors and took up some premium real estate in the hall. Large banners were visible all throughout and they were even hosting a seminar along side the main event.



The seminar was a well attended event. Tata Indicom, Reliance and BSNL are the three major players in the CDMA field in India. And Qualcomm had invited all of them for ditching out some marketing propaganda.

The seminar started off with a session on 1xEVDO. A marketing guy started off with a introduction and then the technical guy took over. They tried to explain EVDO Rev 0 and Rev A in about an hour or so and I thought they did a pretty decent job.



The afternoon session was about UMTS Rel 99 and HSDPA. Since this was my first session on these ones, its was pretty informative. Seems that QC has quite a good presence in those two technologies as well if you take in the similarities between 3G 1X and UMTS Rel 99. Even HSDPA takes quite a few concepts from EVDO, especially the single TDM forward traffic channel.


Thier stall had the whole product line on display. The CSM's, the MSM's, BREW etc. It was nice to see the MSM's one on one. They are our counterparts actually. We talk to them, manage them, handle all thier mischeifs and try to serve them as best as possible. They are our overlords in a way!

But the overwhelming expericnce was the display of QC's clout. They were trying to woo the service providers and going by the attendence of senior officials, I guess that they have been very sucessful in that. QC has been the been the dirving force behind EVDO and has a significant contribution to HSDPA and HSUPA. These three technologies form the backbone of 3G services.

And with thier recent acquisition of Flarion Technologies, they have a large patent base on OFDM as well. OFDM is a key technology for 4G telecom services and QC already has plans to introduce it in DO and UMTS roadmap. Being a major player in both the erstwhile CDMA and GSM camp, QC has slowly transformed itself into a giant in the telecom world.

No wonder they have a halo around them.

Just tried out the latest serivce from Google and here's the result. Its a pretty slick and trendy looking AJAX application although it did crash my Firefox once. But I am pretty much satisfied with the end result. Long back Geocities also used to offer a similar sort of platform for page development. It went on to became the web's back alleys with people storing all kinds of stuff on thier homepages, from music to porn. But trust Google to outdo others; this one is far better looking.

This does gives us an interesting peek into what lies in the future. The rumor mills have been rife with speculation that Google is coming out with its on OS/browser/whatever. If web development suite has arrived, can a web office suite be far behind?

Via: Digg.

Update: Dont miss the user comments on Slashdot. As entertaining as ever.

Update 2: Combine this with the blogger template, and you can create your own cool templates. I hope its on Google God's mind!

Update 3: Its now been released as public beta.

IP Indemnification that is. In simple terms you are using and OSS product and it is patented by someone else, then you are liable to pay the damages to the patent holder if they sue you. A recent example is that of NTP vs RIM. MS's propagnada machine looks set to go into an overdrive once again. Especially if NTP gains something out of its patent infringement suit. MS has always been publicy critical and dismissive of OSS. Its just raising the pitch now. Why now but?

Via: Slashdot.

Going through a handy list of the best of web office products available currently, reminds me of my early computer days in college. With the popularity of AJAX continuing to rise, expect more such products on the market. The concept of Web 2.0 bets heavily on such products intended to make the internet a platform in itself rather than a service. Comparing this with the earlier incarnation of this concept, called the Network Computer, it seems to be a comeback of the loveable Dumb Terminals. Only it doesnt have to be of a similar shape and form now. It can be a your mobile phone as well!

Shouldnt it be called a handy terminal then?

Update: Another list.

A good article about the promise that WiMAX holds. It is being touted as the technology which is will give 3G a run for its money. The big telcos. are are circumspect and have dismissed its potential compared to the mobility inherent technologies such as 1xEVDO and HSDPA. But with the impending roll out of WiMAX equipment by the end of this year and the deployment of 3G technologies also also increrasing in US, i will be an interesting battle. If WiMAX adoption is as rapid as WiFi's, it will surely eat into the revenues of the 3G pie. Both of them will co-exist eventually but the telcos. will be definately cut down to size.

Due to a lack of spoiler warning I ended up reading the whole storyline of the currently most talked about movie in this part of the world. But not to be left out, I watched it. And watched it for the second time yesterday after a two week gap. The second time it was a better experience although the theater had a bad projection system and an even worse sound system. All because of the level of crowd involvement which nowadays is a passe in multiplexes. After all when you are watching a movie with patriotism as its theme, you would want some screaming and shouting.

Back to the movie, its good no doubt. Its has an original storyline and an imaginative approach of drawing parallels between the revolultionary figures in history and the lives of some present day youths. It thrusts the long forgotten issue of MiG crashes right back at your face and forces you to think about it. It raises a bigger question on the use of voilence as a vehicle for acheiving justice and reignites the controversy of the contribution of these revolutionaries in the Indian Freedom Struggle. And the story has some bollywood'ish far fetched moments to complete the effect.

But the heated debate is about the message of the Rang De Basanti and a lot has been said about the way it preaches the use of voilence to the youth. As Charandas says,

"Unholster your pistols then, O youth of India, and if you've been wronged in any way, think of who it is you want to eliminate."

IMHO this is not the message that the movie wants to present. Case in point; consider the caller at the end of the movie who asks the same question. The answer that Karan gave was exactly what Ajay Rathore has said about India in the first half, when they sat about debating it sitting at Mitron Da Dhaba. There are things which are wrong in this country and its our obligation to correct them. Join politics, join the IAS, clean it up. Participate. And participate our heroes do. They attempt to change the system, however flawed their methods may have been. Credit does go to them.

The voilence and the killing portrayed in the movie was a part of the storyline. If the hisotrical characters showed in the moive had been Gandhi, Nehru, Patel and Goakhle, then a more logical juxtaposition would have been a satyagraha. But the historical figures depicted were revolutionaries whose ideologies were diametrically opposite to that of Gandhi. And for todays youth, those ideals are more inspiring. The blame for that lies in the socio-economic culture and the current state of the world more than anything. The ideology of the director should not be questioned for that.

In this fast moving information age, people hardly care about what history means to them. It does not affect day to day life or even the future. The youth could not care less about it. Rang De Basanti repackages it for the youth and gives them the MTV'ed version of it. It involves them at least at the entertainment level. That to me is a big plus of the movie. Bashing it up for causes that it does not further is pointless.

If a movie can move you so much to sit and debate about it with your friends for hours, then it must have some substance to it. I am thankful for it. And for the kind kistch bollywood churns out, RDB is a welcome fresh breath of air.

Update 1: Sujai's take on it.

Sony has been a latecomer to the iPod party. But now its gearing up to challenge it. Given the predictions that Apple will come out with its own iPhone, it will be a nice head to head between the company which pioneered the concept of portable music players and the other used it to rejuvenate itself. With Sony packing features for mass appeal and Apple targeting the hearts of consumers with design innovations, its the consumers who will gain in the end. Whereas Apple has been known not to compromise on its quality and price, it will be interesting to see whether a price war happens in the end or not.

Update: Check out the cool Sony Ericsson phones displayed in CeBIT. My Fav is M600.

Tags: iPod Apple SonyEricsson

Continuing on the previous post on Open Souce software, here's an article which delves deeper into the issue. Oracle sent ripples through the industry with its aquisition of Sleepycat Software and the jury is still out on its repurcussions. It presents an interesting counter point.

"Gartner predicts that by 2010, software vendors that don't incorporate open source software into their products risk becoming uncompetitive because of the cost associated with relying on in-house engineering resources"

Questions about the traditional model (Cathedral) of developing software are being raised here. That has been the revenue model for all the tradional software companies. The licensing of software is what generates the funding and the profits. But since the software is developed by a closed community, the richness which is provided by the Open Source model is missed. The future it seems would be combine the two.

"After all, altruism alone isn't going to sustain software developers who have to make a living, Snyder says. "The reality is that the two - commercial and open source - actually thrive better together than they do separately," he says."

If thats the way it goes then OSS sure has a bright future.

Study finds the the phenomenon of outsourcing is moving more towards high end jobs including research. Whereas the power shift in terms of technical knowledge still lies in the west, it points to a trend which is definaltely towards east. East was supposedly the seat of knowledge and learning in ancient times. And things are completing the full circle.

Economics sure is a wonderful thing.

There's a popular saying in Hindi. Kabhi kisi bus aur ladki ke peeche nahin bhaagna chahiye. Ek jaati hai dusri aa jaati hai. Literally translated it means never run after a bus or a gal. Another one invariably comes along. But in case you dont subscribe to this line of reasoning, here's something you may want to try out. Parallel Dating is really a hard to manage. Not anymore!

This is clearly the next evolutionary step for the male species. There'll be a breed of men who'll have this ability hardwired into them, thus making them stronger and fitter. Needless to say, they'll be the ones who survive. Rest will be extinct.

With Amazon joining in the fray for music players and downloads, users are going to be slapped with another DRM scheme. Apple already has one. Google recently joined in. Microsoft's had it for a long time. There are countless other ones as well. With the RIAA going after anyone and everyone found sharing files, it is going to proliferate more and more. In the long run, its the users who will suffer, juggling with all the various DRM flavors. As it gets more harder to maintian, consolidation will start happening and finally there will be few left in the market.

In between all this the industry for a DRM less (read free) media distribution will be created. An opportunity waiting to happen.

Another search engine for codes. Till now whatever that I have used have produced very unsatisfactory results. For example, trcStack. This function is a hidden function in VxWorks which is used for stack trace. Only Google groups gave me an example. Its still the first place I go to whenever I want to search for code snippets.

But still would be interesting to check it once its launched. I hope it support tags.

A nice peice on Emergic outlining the issues for Venture Capital investment in India. More than anything, its the mindset which is to blame. The geographical distance and the lack of transperancy in Indian Professionalism (if there is something like it) creates it. Doing business in India, as anyone who has lived here would know, is very different ballgame than in the Silicon Valley. The dynamics are different and so are the numerous hurdles. But there's an underlying current towards product development happening. All it needs to break out on to the surface is a big success story.

PS: Amit Varma's essay on difficulties in doing business in India.

Does anyone see an opprtunity here. The business model of Open Source projects has always been viewed with skepticism. Nobody really believes that an Open Source company can really become a giant. Even that does not deter developers from coming out with more and more open source products. Maybe its because of the Sex Appeal it has, the idealism that is inherent to it.

Maybe thats the same reason why its attracting more and more attention as well.

PS: a very contrasting view.

Its the Bugdet Season here in India once again and the industry is busy will all kinds of proposals for our finance minister. Each sector uses its own muscle to get thier proposal into the budget. The Software Industry also has such a body called the NASSCOM and plays an important role in formulating the IT Policy of the Government.

One of the main focus of Nasscom is to promote Innovation and Enterpreneurship in the IT Industry and it has a forum for it. Even a list of VC's have been provided. An Award programme also has been instituted. But the surprising omission is that no Tax Breaks have been to startups at all.

Amongst all the difficulties that Startups face, one is to attract good talent. Most of the recruitement happens through word of mouth and aquaintances rather than the formal process. During the gestation period when money is hard to come by, its difficult to compete for talent with established players. As an incentive, a tax break can be offered to the employees. For all employees of startups the tax should be waived off till they start showing profits.

It would be a win-win proposition since its in the interest of the government to nurture the startup. The startup's investment to profit ratio is generally much higher than the established companies. If they become sucessfull it would mean more money for the government coffers. Even one good startup can make up the losses suffered due to the exemption.

Product based companies are on the rise in India. Although services is still the backbone of the industry, there are more and more product based startups coming up. As the numbers grow a tax break will provide a much needed shot in the arm for them.

Better start familiarising yourself with these on your mobile. The Windows Mobile is finally taking off. More handset makers are embracing it and products are already available on the shelves. The attraction definately is there, specially if you want to open word/office attachments on your most accessible device. Would be worth a try.

Only if I could load it on my one.

Microsoft's latest casualty. The latest addition to a growing list which includes several noteworthies (deja-vu anyone?). MS therefore finally gets a foot hold in the mobile market. Another battle won in which is going to be a long drawn out war. Keep watching this space; things are bound to get hotter.

Here's a possible killer app for video phones. Not an app in the real sense, but a use. And a very practical one too! With all the Major Telcos moving towards deployment of VoIP over thier network, video calling will become more and more commonplace. Japan always has been ahead in the 3G game and going by this, there'll be lot more people doing the same thing.

Now if I only had someone to call...

This blog is a scratch pad for all my ideas, views and analysis on the wireless industry. Its an aggregation point for all the noteworthy news articles that I come across everyday. The primary sources for them are the blogs that I read everyday (listed on the blogroll). I present my point of view on these, analyze them and to borrow a cliche, add my two cents. Everybody is welcome to discuss, trample, disect and curse at will.

As evident from the title of this blog, Wireless Utopia, its my belief that the right to free wireless service is a fundamental right as is the right to access to telecom services. As the wireless penetration grows and more people start using the services, the number of free services provided will also increase. Extending this trend, the utopian wireless world will be the world where even the infrastructure services are free. Free, as in a free lunch. We may or may not actually see that happening in our time or even in our lifetime. But Dream We Shall.

As somebody said, we surely live in interesting times.