So who was he?
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
The Incredible Scooter Heist (True Story)
So who was he?
Friday, May 1, 2009
What's wrong with Indian Regulations?
But there was this one email I just received from TataCommunications today, which completely outraged me, and made me think ' What are the people in the Indian Government thinking'?
In a nutshell, they apparently issued some directive whereby the use of Wifi routers has to be regulated / controlled (registered) in the interest of national security.
Ok, I understand, there are lots of challenges India is facing, but the solutions some of these Government Officials seem to come up with seem... surprising. Maybe the mail I received was a hoax - I can only hope so?
I invite comments, and further discussion on this topic - I'm not an expert here, but all I can think is 'wtf'!
Here the email I received:
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Dear Customer, As you are aware it is our constant endeavour to continuously offer services that ensures utmost satisfaction of our customers. While doing so, we have designed, implemented and are constantly reviewing our processes to safeguard national security interests while we carry out our business of licensed services. In this process we are also committed to extend all our support and cooperation to the Government, as and when required. You would no doubt be aware of recent cases of misuse by the anti-social and anti-national elements, of internet access provided to the customers by various ISPs particularly when internet access using W-iFi technology. In order to overcome this problem, Department of Telecom has recently issued a directive dated 23-02-09 to ensure secured use of Wi-Fi based internet access under the delicensed frequency band(Directive attched) Under this directive, any usage of Wi-Fi connectivity including deployment of Wi- Fi Routers by the customers themselves needs to get registered with us to meet compliance of DoT guidelines and instructions. Therefore, if you are using a Wi-Fi router to access your broadband connection kindly register with us by filling in the attached format and mailing to us at regwifi@tatacommunications.com within 30 days of receipt of this communication. Please note, Tata Communications Internet Services Limited will not be in any way held responsible or answerable in case any unauthorized usage of WiFi technology resulting into the non-compliance of DoT directive is detected within your Premises/Location by the Authorities concerned. Please note that any liability including civil and criminal liability for such unauthorized use and any resulting event connected thereto will be your sole responsibility. We would also be constrained to withdraw our services without any further notice in such an eventuality and without any liability on our part. Continued usage of Wi-Fi connectivity or deployment of router without registration shall amount to unauthorized usage of Wi-Fi technology. We would request for your immediate response and co-operation on this issue of importance in the interest of the national security. Click here to download the Wi-Fi Security Registration Format. |
Thanking you, |
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Thursday, January 15, 2009
Going to HeadStart in Bangalore with EnTrip
Yippieee!
So how did this all happen?
HeadStart.in is an annual conference that showcases Indian Startup Innovations, and brings together the all the stakeholders of the innovation ecosystem in India - EnTrepreneurs and startups, researchers from industry and academia, early adopters of new products as well as investors.
Out of nowhere, we received an inivtation to demo and showcase our product, and be part of HeadStart 2009. Awsome! I was unfamiliar with the HeadStart conference format, and soon learned that it was akin to an Indian model of TechCrunch50 - but at a different level, of course, and not focusing on web, but technology startups in general.
In a last-minute renegade style fashion, we (Akshay, Anthony, Shardul and Subh) produced banners, presentations and handouts on monday, hopped on a train from Pune to Bangalore, and had a great Conference-TeamBuilding-Road-Trip to Bangalore.
What we've been focusing on in the last few weeks and months was to build (and 'launch') our first product: a Map-Based TravelBlog. EnTrip as a concept has finally received it's first incarnation as one tangible product. Now, for the first time, we would be demonstrating it in person to a large (mostly tech) audience at HeadStart, and subject ourselves to public and personal scrutiny.
We used this opportunity to yet again use EnTrip ourselves, and have blogged about our experiences on EnTrip itself on our trip EnTrip at HeadStart. Please get the full story there.
In a nutshell, it was a great experience:
- It was a areat opportunity for team building
- It was great to get some direct user and techie feedback, in person
- We could finally showcase to people, in person, some of what we've been working on in the last few months - something most software/web developers don't ever get to do in their respective (large) companies
- It was great to interact with other Stakeholders of the industry
- And most importantly... it was lots of Fun!
Monday, November 17, 2008
One Pune, and our decision to startup here
Monday, November 10, 2008
On pasta in India
Now, while I'm not from Italy (I am from Germany and Taiwan), I do like my pasta, so tonight Nick and I decided to have some pasta again at our local 'Italian' (at this point I have to mention that the 'authentic italian cuisine' they offer features 'penne masala' as one of the first items on the menu).
Unfortunately, they can't ever really cook the pasta right: it's ALWAYS too soft. You could drink it through a straw, so this time, I thought I'd explicitly ask them to cook the pasta less soft. Ambitious, I know, because the concept of 'al dente' is not widely known here, but I tried nevertheless.
I was totally intrigued by the fact that one of the managers told me that the pasta is mostly prepared, and it would take them another 2h to make fresh pasta.
TWO HOURS???
I was so intrigued that I came up with my own theory as to why this might be...
Fresh pasta from Italy
I am convinced that they must be getting fresh pasta from Italy - that's why it takes them two hours. A quick napkin calculation, some reasonable assumptions, yielded the following:
- ~12'000km or 12m meters
my estimated distance from Pune to somewhere in Italy - 4m people at 3meters average inter-body spacing
since we're talking about India, it is safe to assume that they use lots of manpower to execute, since manpower is cheap. If we assume they form a human chain with a uniformely distributed average body-spacing - ~0.4% of the Indian population
That is how much this epic human pasta supply chain to italy would 'cost' the nation - ~5s return
to pass up the message that new pasta is needed nd subsequently hand down the fresh pasta, from one person to the next - -> ~20'000'000 seconds, that's about 5555h or 8months
from order to delivery
- 2500 times faster
Since they claim they can do it in 2h instead of 5555h, they must be about 2500 times faster than I initially guesstimated! - instead of 5s, they must be operating at ~2ms
to hand over pasta from one person to the next, since they are around 2500 times faster than initially guesstimaged - 3meters / 2ms ~= 1500meters/s ~= Mach5
given that the speed of sound is around 340meters/s, the pasta would be moving at approximately Mach5 down the human supply chain
- 10Rs/h
We're not talking rocket science here, and wages are generally low - 4m people, 2h => 80m Rs
For just this one delivery of pasta. This is not adjusted for low occupancy of this human supply chain, so real costs are likely to be much higher! - 150Rs
Is the price they actually sell the pasta at, even after spending 2h on it to make it al dente (or 'not sloppy'). - 533'333 times more efficient
Since I cannot account for other hidden costs, I have to assume that these guys are actually muuuuch more efficient than I originally thought. Economies of scale, and learning curve effects apply, which would contribute a bit towards them being able to offer the pasta at 150Rs - but still, their operational efficiency far surpasses that of my so-very-efficient home country of GermanY! Respect!
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Startup Cinema in Pune
One of the most important aspects for a successful Startup, I think, is a healthy startup community. Having nice office buildings and IT Parks and tax subsidies doesn't seem to work (of course not, duh!).