Wireless Utopia

Here is a useful tip if you are working on winsock. If you ever get the error 10035 (EWOULDBLOCK) while sending data from the application, then one thing which might work is increasing the send buf size with SO_SNDBUF option. It may still come but the frequency will reduce by a large amount. Here are some example usages. And this tip is proved to be a lifesaver for me!

BTW, Google Codesearch rocks! Here is a gem I found! Ah. Coding sometimes gives kicks, doesn't it. :)

And yup. The template has finally been changed. In preparation for the new year. A very happy new year to everybody. Enjoy!

A detailed backgrounder on the challenges WiMAX is facing right now, both political and technical. The technical issues are mainly the size of the device, power consumption and handover. It is far from being realized as a truly mobile technology which gives users high data speeds on the move. That is one of the reasons why its called Fixed Wireless or Nomadic. But then it is a relatively new technology. They will be solved as more and more money goes into it.

The political one is a bit more complex though. Its the 802.20 standard. Better known as Qualcomm's Flash OFDM! Seems that it has been already standardized by TIA and it has actually worked out a solution for the handover problem. QC has always maintained that Flash OFDM is a technologically superior. Seems that it is so! The last time 802.20 made news was when the working group was suspended. The article has a very nice summary of why and how did it happen. IEEE has sorted out things now and the working group is back on track.

The year 2007 seems to be poised for a rollicking start. Its back to the high stakes games!

Tags: WiMAX, 802.20, Flash OFDM, IEEE Standards, 4G

This is hilarious. Somebody is posting India FM links to Digg. The stories are not getting any attention but the speed at which the user is submitting the stories surely is. So much so its on the Front Page of Digg! A picture of a diligent employee who has been instructed post stories on Digg comes to mind instantaneously. Someone out there just discovered Digg it seems.

Poor guy. :)

read more | digg story

Tags: Digg, Crowdsourcing, IndiaFM, India, Funny

The most cost-effective use of the mobile phone is, of course, communicating via missed calls. I guess everybody has used this method sometime or the other. Its intuitive and does not cost anything. Missed calls have become such a craze nowadays that it is starting to worry the operators. But charging them might really offend the users and run into regulatory troubles as well!

But that is besides the point. Here is a great study about the use of shared mobile phones in Uganda. A short summary is here. The same rules apply elsewhere as well. Read it to get an idea of how the masses use communication tools effectively.

The communication revolution is happening around us right now.

"There is an old joke within the wireless industry, from years ago, that, in the beginning, God created the heavens, part of which is the electromagnetic spectrum. He then gave the spectrum to Motorola, who tells the FCC what to do with it. Maybe it’s not that much of a joke anymore,"

More here.

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a very happy 2007.

The winter has finally set in here in Bangalore. To warm up things a bit we have a hot topic to discuss in this month's edition of Mobile Monday Bangalore: 3G In India. The hype around it is just starting to build. The trails were announced a few months ago, TRAI is actively working on the spectrum issue and the government has clamped down on Internet VoIP Telephony at the operators behest! Sure signs of things heating up in 2007.

This is therefore the perfect time to delve a bit more into this topic. Look out for more discussion on this topic here.

If there is one standout sector in the new economy of India, its Information Technology Services and they ecosystem of Enabled services (ITES) they have spawned. It has created millions of jobs for young graduates, created wealth for them, has been a major factor in the Real Estate boom, contributed to a high spending middle class consumer base and most of all, given India a brand name. The back office of the world! The TCS's, Wipro's and the Infosys' of the India have captured the imagination of people all around the globe. They are great companies, something every Indian should be proud of.

But it has come at a price. The price of Innovation. Services has been such a big money puller that the product making startups in India have been laid by the wayside. They have sucked in talent, set the bar too low for them, given them mundane work and ruined their careers. For the average Ramu who has been in the industry for around 5 years, he's doing good if he is into people management, owns a Apartment somewhere, has a car and a 9 to 5 job. He is right on the path of becoming a email processor, excel sheet expert with a good knowledge of CMMI.

Unfortunately that is not what is needed to create world class products. Passion and sweat is. You have to put your ass down, write the code, test it and do the work. And keep doing the same thing for nights and nights without end. Marketing and everything else always follow the work. This is an alien culture for the vast majority of workforce out there who are just happy with a 9 to 5 job which involves handling a few fire fights, sending mails and indulging in some office politics. They cannot code and do not want to code. And they fail spectacularly when put in a situation where they are in charge.

So it came as no surprise to me when the organizers of Barcamp drew up a list and found that there are only around 100 of product startups in India. 100? Thats the number of startups which start and wind up in Silicon valley in a month I guess! This is not the only factor, but one of the major one's in my view. But the attendance of Barcamp (around 300) also proved that people are revolting against this. They are the one's on which our hopes depend. They are the harbingers change, of a brave new world.

Man. It was two amazing fun filled days. I had loved the first one and this one was even better. Suddenly now its back to work and I miss the excitement! It was heartening to see new faces there along with the second timers. Almost everyone whom I bumped into there had a plan. They are either doing something or are thinking of. Its like dry hay. It just needs a spark and a huge deluge will come. A deluge of innovation and entrepreneurship from Bangalore. More on that later.

Here my presentation about the open source project I am running.



You can check out all the presentations here. The flickr photo stream is here. Enjoy!