Microsoft Meme - Cheap XP

Microsoft said it would make Windows XP Starter Edition available in India starting early next year at the estimated price US$35, far below the full-priced version of XP, which wholesales to PC makers in the U.S. for closer to $70.

Recenlty in India allmost all the MNC and local brands are offering Linux preloaded on their PCs instead of OEM copies of MS OS. This reduces their desktop prices to 2000-3000 INR and makes the offer look attractive.

Most of the lazy and non-so-enlightened buyers simply remove the linux and call the next door geek to install their favorite flavor of MS Operating System. Here is the link to the report - Desktop Linux a vehicle for pirating Windows . But those who have engineering student or budding programmer at home find it cool to have Linux pre-installed. In India most of the people have PCs at home just because they can have it (afford it) or they really need it (engineering students, budding programmers, freelancers and independant professionals, etc.)

In Mumbai the pirated copies of Windows is openly available in Lamington Road & Fort area. It's not that people are very fond of Microsoft. Most of the people are not aware about the other operating systems and benefits of it. Moreover piracy is so easy in India, nobody wants to invest his time , energy and money in a better alternative.

I am not sure but I think that Microsoft also knows about the wide spread piracy in Asian countries, but piracy also helps Microsoft and I think it would be no shock to me to learn that MS itself might be supporting it to spread the Windows Meme.

Piratcy acts as viral marketing tools or a 'launching pad' in some cases. For example in Music - The dedicated fans of Yanni or Chemical Brothers would religiously buy their every album. But suppose if a Music Company has to lauch a new bimbo who has a big WMD instead of a great voice, what would they do ? The simplest trick would be to spread her pirated album & skin filled pics. Similarly through Piracy Microsoft has actually won the Asian Market. Othwerwise what big difference it would make for a complete starter to start on Linux or Windows or Mac OS.?

Microsoft in India has always squeezed the corporate users to buy more and more licenses and very conviniently ignored small computer institutes and retail pirates. Why ?

There are millions of computer training in institutes who just teach MS Windows & MS Office. If MS is really against piracy there will be just handful of computer training institutes remaining. But MS is not coplaining.

The poeple (students, freshers in the job markets & all others) get trained in Microsoft products on these MS pirated copies and in turn in their offices they prefer MS products. Hence the employers also feel more comfortable in buying Microsoft product. And this cycle goes on.

Earlier in India there were only two types of PC (branded - not assembled) with MS operating systems and with NO operating system. But now the branded PCs are offered with Linux pre-installed.

With pre-installed free linux , some very lazy fellows are not minding to try their hand on the OS and to stay with it and this is bothering Microsoft. And before the Linux PC becomes the market norm, MS wants to counter it with cheap XP so that it can convert some more users to switch to XP.

So the moral of the story is Microsoft utlimatley goes cheap to counter Linux and not the Piracy.

TRAI urged to veto new anti-3G proposal - CIOL

CIOL The GSM Association has urged the regulator to veto a proposal that could effectively isolate India from the global mobile market :

The GSM Association (GSMA) has encouraged the Indian government to maintain its alignment with the global community and protect the International Telecommunications Union's (ITU) recommended IMT2000 core band for 3G services.

According to the press release, GSMA has urged the country's telecom regulator to veto a proposal that would effectively isolate India from the global mobile market, a risk that would undermine the current growth and development of the country's telecommunications industry and restrict the ability of mobile users to roam internationally....

What the Bubble Got Right - Paul Graham

Via Slashdot Pual Graham, founder of ViaWeb which was aquired by Yahoo in 1998 writes : What the Bubble Got Right. The Bubble are the days of .COMs and .GONEs.

had a front row seat for the Internet Bubble, because I worked at Yahoo during 1998 and 1999. One day, when the stock was trading around $200, I sat down and calculated what I thought the price should be. The answer I got was $12. I went to the next cubicle and told my friend Trevor. "Twelve!" he said. He tried to sound indignant, but he didn't quite manage it. He knew as well as I did that our valuation was crazy.

Yahoo was a special case. It was not just our price to earnings ratio that was bogus. Half our earnings were too. Not in the Enron way, of course. The finance guys seemed scrupulous about reporting earnings. What made our earnings bogus was that Yahoo was, in effect, the center of a pyramid scheme. Investors looked at Yahoo's earnings and said to themselves, here is proof that Internet companies can make money. So they invested in new startups that promised to be the next Yahoo. And as soon as these startups got the money, what did they do with it? Buy millions of dollars worth of advertising on Yahoo to promote their brand. Result: a capital investment in a startup this quarter shows up as Yahoo earnings next quarter-- stimulating another round of investments in startups.

BitPim - Get Into Your CDMA Mobile Phone

Yesterday I used BitPim to get into my Reliance India Mobiles's Handset and modify the Ringtones (of LG-RD2030). The handset stores only 3 additional tunes and if you delete those , all the tunes would be lost. I had to reload the tunes from RWorld and use "Overwrite" option to change the tune (melody05.dat, melody06.dat and melody07.dat). I spent more time in finding the right tune than looking at the software, hence more updates later. But a friendly warning : You might screw your phone while doing so. So please do not play with it.

BitPim

BitPim is a program that allows you to view and manipulate data on LG VX4400/VX6000 and many Sanyo Sprint cell phones. This includes the PhoneBook, Calendar, WallPapers, RingTones (functionality varies by phone) and the Filesystem for most Qualcomm CDMA chipset based phones. (Note: you need to use the 0.7 development releases if you have any phone other than the LG VX4400).

BitPim is distributed as open source and free software under the GNU General Public License (aka GPL).

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

There are no warranties as stated above (ie this software may damage your phone). This software is in no way associated with Audiovox, LG Electronics, Qualcomm, Samsung, Sanyo, Sprint, Verizon Wireless or any other handset manufacturer or wireless carrier. It has not been certified or endorsed by them, nor was it written using information directly supplied by them.

Steve Wozniak : The Cool Dude who learns from his mistake

HBS Working Knowledge has an article about Steve Wozniak, the creator of Apple Macintosh. "The Apple II was a hit. The Cloud Nine universal remote was not. Here’s what Steve Wozniak learned about creativity, and what it means for his latest venture. An excerpt from Juice: The Creative Fuel that Drives World-Class Inventors.".

Steve Wozniak is considered a revolutionary in computing world; He along with Steve Jobs has started making Apple (the most sinful and sexiest computer) in 1976 before IBM+Intel+ Microsoft Trio came in to this world in a garage startup .

Many people wonder even though with such high standards in design & usability why Apple was not able to hit big as PC ? He has the answer...

We were also naive to think that the best technology would prevail. It often doesn't. Consider the tale of the 50-year-old Dvorak keyboard and the conventional typewriter. The conventional English typewriter was designed to be slow, to prevent key jams. The Dvorak, which arranges the letters in the most logical way, can improve typing speed by 10 to 30 percent and is much easier to learn. But it never took off, because people had already learned the standard keyboard. Like the Dvorak keyboard, Apple's superior operating system lost the market-share war.

Reporters and others have been asking me what I think about the problems at Apple. With such huge losses ($69 million in the most recent quarter), they figured I would be devastated. But I'm not. Apple is very much alive despite the serious mistakes and poor luck. What happened to Apple happens in corporations every day: losses lead to reorganizations, and finally recovery. Apple's troubles are just another example of how bad news can become a self-fulfilling prophecy: I read the papers to find out who I am, so I can be it. I read the papers to find out how ill Apple is so I'll know when to give up my Mac. I suppose I should have just told my partners to forget about starting the company. Who would ever think that the day would come when we'd sell 4.5 million computers in a year and be declared a company whose time has passed?

Wozniak is now enagaed with Woz.org : a free exchange of information, the way it always should be. He lives in Los Gatos, California, where he teaches computers in public school. Read his old interview on Slashdot, where he speaks about Apple, Startups, Open Source & his passion - Education :

How do you see education making better use of technology and technology making education better?

Woz: Personal love is certainly the most important thing. To some extent, a teacher offers this, but only to each student 1/30 of the time. 30 computers could become like 30 teachers, but they have to become as personal as possible. They need realistic graphics like games have. They need realistic sounds. They should be voice operated, especially since very early elementary students can't type well. Every time a computer program gets more human-like, it attracts better student attention. But the software needs to be many times as deep as it is today in terms of a personality. It needs to be more like a real person, with many ways to present the same subject, backtracking intelligently, even to the far past, following a student through years of education. The programs should tell lots of jokes as well, and play occasional games too. Today the class presentation is fixed. Each student hears the same presentation in the same time frame. Then a test is given and the varable is the grade. But with 30 teachers, the presentation can be variable, with students going at different speeds in different courses. The student can pick their grade in advance, with the grade now being fixed.

It's too hard to predict that schools will disappear as rapidly as many stores and newspapers and other things of the physical world. Schools currently serve as a parking place for the kids during the day and, even when everything is available at home on the web, parents will still want their kids in a socially healthier environment during the day.

Cisco bets big on India

Om Malik writes how cisco is betting heavily on India:

So my statement that the 'axis of technology has shifted to somewhere in the South China Sea' is finally coming true. Couple of days ago, Cisco Systems announced that it was setting up a $32 million R&D labs in China. Today there is news that Cisco Systems is setting up a venture capital arm in India.

Cisco is bullish on the Indian market, which it says is amongst the top three strategic markets worldwide and its fastest growing. New product launches and the recent establishment of separate vertical business groups there have buoyed hopes for Cisco in the country, whose own manufacturing and services industry has been maturing in recent years because of de-regulation and privatization. [Venture Wire News]

'India has been referred to for years as 'the land of eternal promise' because its markets always seemed on the verge of really taking off,' Daniel Scheinman, senior vice president of corporate development for Cisco told News@Cisco. ......

Om Mallik's Related Posts :
- India, the new land of opportunity
- India, the next telecom boom market

The Micro-Multinationals and Extreme Personal Outsourcing

Wired has this article on extreme outsourcing which means that not only big MNCs but even Startups and small time contractors are outsourcing their jobs/work. Sill Jason Pontin maintains a view that its still a job creating venture.

Wired : Micro-multinationals turn inside out an organizational fad of the 1990s: the incubator. But whereas incubated startups divest some business functions to their investors, micro-multinationals purchase these functions from subcontractors. Incubators allow startups to concentrate on what economists call a "comparative advantage" - the thing that any economic entity does best and most cheaply. Alas, incubated startups were also at the mercy of their patrons' whims. Micro-multinationals, by contrast, control their own fortunes.

The wisdom of outsourcing applies to businesses great and small. When companies have some of their operations performed elsewhere, they reduce costs and allocate capital and labor instead to those activities that cannot, or should not, be subcontracted. When businesses use capital and labor efficiently, they can better explore expanding markets. And faster growth creates a need for new workers. The result is almost always a net gain in employment.

Startup difference : After a decade

Via Emergic ] Joe Kraus one of the founders of Excite, has started a blog on entrepreneurship and writes :

I've been reflecting on how different it is to start a company in 2004 vs. 1993. While I still break out like a nervous teenager, which looks awfully strange with graying hair, at a professional level, there are three substantial cost differences that make it much easier to start a business on much less capital. I think this is a great trend for entrepreneurs and has a not-so-clear impact on the venture business.

Cost Difference #1. The tools to develop software cost nothing now.

Cost Difference #2. Hardware costs are approaching 0.

Cost Difference #3. Start-ups have access to global labor.

with today's ability to work with people all across the world comes the the great responsibility of needing to manage them to get what you want. It's going to change the required skills for successful entrepreneurs. Successful management ability early on, not just great drive and persistence, is going to become an absolute must.

Microsoft proudly presents Passportimages.com

Kaushal KarkhanisWrites :

"Just as I was about to check my Hotmail, I noticed my browser loading up something from 'passportimages.com' - Curiosity took over functionality, so I had to drop by that site! What do I find? The MSN group site common 'sign in' image - resting there singularly, nicely, proudly and lonely.



I'm guessing this is where the New Internet is headed, yeah? One image, one site. So if you're Acme Inc, your logo would exclusively rest on theacmelogo.com :) Applause! "

"

Internet Service Providers (ISP) : India

Internet Service Providers (ISP) : India
- Mantraonline
- Powersurfer.net
- Pacenet
- Asianet Dataline
- Kerala Online
- CJ Net 4 U
- ComSatMax
- NOW ISP
- Del DSL
- Dishnet DSL
- Estel
- Exatt
- GNFC Online
- Guj Info Petro Limited (GIPL)
- GTL
- HATHWAY CABLE INTERNET
- HCL Infinet
- DIRECWAY
- i2i
- L & T Netcom Ltd
- Netmagic Solutions
- n-Logue
- Pacific Internet
- IndianSPider.com
- Primus Direct/UniLynk
- Only Smart
- RoltaNet
- Reach
- RAILTEL
- Satyam Online
- Spectranet
- Software Technology Parks of India
- Zeenext.com / ZeeAccess.com
- Tatanova
- net4india
- VasNet

Organizations
- Internet Service Provider Association of India
- Telecom Regulatory Authority of India
- Department of Telecommunications
- Broadband India User Group

Telecom Links : India

TELECOM ORGANIZATIONS : INDIA
The New Business Destination For Telecommunications and Business Process Outsourcing
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India
Mobile First Alliance
Cellular Operators Association of India
GSM India

TELECOM NEWS : INDIA
India Telecom Infrastructure Sector News: from India Telecom News Weekly
Telecom News - Economic Times
India Telecom News
Telecom News - BSNL

TELECOM OPERATORS : INDIA (As per the brand name)
Spice Telecom
Hutch
Aircel Limited
Essar Cellphone
AirTel
BPL Mobile
Escotel Mobile
Oasis Cellular
Orange
Idea
Dolphin
Reliance Mobile
RPG Cellular
Cell One
Tata Indicom

Ericsson to make BTS in India

Ericsson has announced to set up base stations manufacturing unit for cell sites used in Mobile communication near Jaipur in Rajashtan, India. It would be the first BTS manufacturer in India, with a investement of around 50$ M over the next years. Ericsson is a leading supplier of mobile networks & has large telecom customers like like Bharti, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Reliance in India.

Outsourcing starts in Startups / Micro Multinationals

The US Startups are learning the new tricks of the trade and turning in to 'micro multinationals' by moving cutting-edge product development to Indian Silicon Valley - Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune and beyond with their top managers and sales teams in the United States, but design products in India at one third of the cost. The new jargons of the trade now are - 'right-shoring', 'any-shoring' and 'smart-sourcing'. Reuter has a detailed report : New Start-Up Breed: Born in the USA, Made in India


Some 'Micro Mulinationals" mentioned in the article are Infinera, InSilica, CollabNet & NetScaler.

Fast Internet Access & Social Interactions

A new Study by University of Michigan suggests that people who used a fast Internet access also tended to be more social than those who use the dial-up method.
Press Release on NewsWise.com

Many computer users increasingly subscribe to broadband service, most through cable modem and DSL, which allows access to the Internet at a faster speed than narrowband service through a telephone modem. The number of high-speed lines for residential and small business subscribers more than tripled to 26 million in December 2003 from 7.8 million in June 2001, according to the Federal Communications Commission. In recent years, more politicians, including President Bush, have recommended that affordable high-speed Internet access become available to all Americans by 2007.

Kwak's study also supported other published research that broadband is used more often by a younger audience, in part, because of the multimedia availability. But while the research sheds further light on the broadband use, the study's participants were asked about Internet use at home, not at work, school or public libraries.

The findings will be published this month in the Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media. U-M doctoral candidates Nathaniel Poor, Marko Skoric and Ann Williams assisted Kwak in the research.

Our very own local internet fraud & some safety tips

Kerala Next: Three people have been arrested in Delhi for duping people of millions of rupees by offering fraudulent Internet business opportunities and matrimonial services, police said. U.S. Bhardwaj, Hari Kishore and Akelesh Tripathi were arrested Monday by Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police. They have duped around 4,000 people, collecting Rs.60 million from them by creating a company, Bhasse Infotech Solution, and a fake websites : indya2net.com, i2nmatrimonials.com, i2nfashiondesign.com and i2ndoctors.com.

Before punching the credit card number on any site look for these things :

* Verify the contact details by querying the domain name and its registry , for example I have checked Indya2net.com on Checkdomain.com

* Read the FAQs and Disclaimers fully; some people are not total fraud : a partial cheating or hidden surprises are also possible.

* Check the contact details in Contact Us section of the web sites. No respectable business would hide its contact details.

* Any Ecommerce (recieving payment from web site) should offer secure transaction & verification certificate from a third party : For example when you go to Bazee.com and click on Verisign's logo at the bottom it pop ups a certificate. Go to Indiatimes Shopping check for Verisign and EBTrust certificate.

* Online payments tips from Fraudbureau:

Notify your credit card provider or bank immediately if you suspect someone has intercepted or learned your credit card number or your password. This will limit your liability and stop any one form using your information to make unauthorized purchases or withdrawals in your name.

Always read the privacy policies or FAQs of web sites on which you will be transacting online business to determine how your personal information will be collected and used.

Never disclose any credit card or other personal information unless such information is absolutely necessary to make the purchase. If more personal information is required than is necessary to make a purchase, go to another site to transact business. For example, when purchasing online with a credit card, there is no need to disclose your address, telephone number, social security number, or e-mail address. Even if the privacy policy indicates that personal information will not be used except in relation to your purchase, fraudulent websites will not adhere to their own policies for obvious reasons.

Only do business with trustworthy companies you know .

More Detailed Tips :
- Online banking security tips
- Online Payment Security Tips
- On-line Payment Security Advice

Cisco launches leasing arm in India - Sify.com

Cisco has announced that it is launching - Cisco Capital a leasing arm that would lease network equipments to the customers and provide fininacing options. Cisco dominates the network equipment market but recently India is becoming that target of new vendors from Europe & Asia (China) who are offering equipments and services at a very competitive prices. There are several big network rollout planned in the country for broadband implementation by ISPs & Telecom companies, the broadband penetration being very low in the country provides great gap and hence great opportunities in the coming year since many ISPs & Telecom company are either planning it or looking for a vendors. Cisco wants to attract these customers . Cisco being the pioneer has less issues with compatibility and scalibity of the network but customers are taken aback by the cost and now Cisco is trying to answers these issues.
Sify :
'The new entity will serve as an added incentive for customers by helping them lease equipment such as routers, switches and related services,' Salgame told a press conference on Tuesday. However, he refused to divulge details on Cisco Capital's tie-ups with financial institutions and the quantum of capital it had committed to the Indian market. "

How do you value your StartUp?

Asheesh Advani (Entrepreneur.com) gives the three steps to help & determine what your new business is worth. Here is the first step :

1. You are what the market says you are. If investors are telling you that your startup is worth $1 million, then that's what it's worth. You might think it's worth more. You might even know it's worth more because your company may have more than $1 million is liquid assets, or more than $1 million in receivables, or more than $1 million in sweat equity. But if you're unable to raise money for your startup with a valuation above $1 million, then you'll have to accept the market valuation.

However, this isn't always true. If you raise money from relatives and friends rather than professional investors, it's possible that your company has been overvalued or undervalued (more likely, overvalued). For example, if you persuade your father and your rich aunt to purchase shares in your business at $20 per share, it doesn't mean that future investors will pay more than $20 per share—even if your business grows and prospers. More...

Sender ID not recieved after all

In continuation to my earlier post Opensource not ready to recieve MS Sender ID. "The MARID working group at the IETF responsible for deciding on which extensions to SMTP will be used to try and prevent spoofing of the sender has made their decision. An initial analysis of the text of their decision, available here with a brief analysis, would suggest not." - Slashdot

Wi-Fi in Rural India

Wi-Fi Planet has an article on the implementation of Wi-Fi in Rural India

Just weeks after the Indian government gave the go-ahead to Wi-Fi, 802.11 chipsets from Atheros Communications (Quote, Chart) are powering a high-speed outdoor wireless broadband suite in the country.

"We're proud that our technology is helping to power a system that brings wireless connectivity to remote communities in India and elsewhere," said Colin Macnab, vice president of marketing and business development for Atheros.

Atheros is just one of the vendors that pushed India to open that country's door to 802.11. Until recently, the government there restricted Wi-Fi to 802.11b and then to only indoor installations, according to Praveen Singh, Atheros' country sales manager.

On August 25, the Wireless Planning & Coordination Wing of India's Department of Telecommunications de-licensed and opened up the 2.40-2.48 GHz band, permitting 802.11g to be used for certain applications.

* Express Computer : Networking Special : Wireless

Lets Play Restrictions

Yet another stupid decision by TRAI which restricts ISPs to offer Private Leased Lines and services such as VPN :

BSNL had argued that ISPs, who do not pay any entry fee or licence fee, should not be allowed to offer corporate leased line service as it was infringing on the turf of long distance operators. Companies such as Sify, HCL Infinet and Tata Internet had made representation to the regulator against the stance taken by BSNL.

The telecom regulator has taken a position favouring BSNL by saying that the public sector company was justified in its demand, as ISPs were not eligible to provide services such as VPN.

This service is used by large corporates to network all their branch offices spread across the country.

However, a TRAI report on the issue said that BSNL was fair in demanding that ISPs can use the leased lines only for Internet purpose and not resell it, because they were not entitled to do the business of reselling bandwidth leased from other telecom service providers.

Outsourcing of the IT department

Via Rajesh Jain : Economist writes about the new trend in outsourcing of IT infrastrucutre management services :

India's outsourcing boom started with software development and has expanded into a whole range of business services that can be handled a continent away, of which the country's hundreds of call-centres are just the most prominent examples. This takes that trend one stage further, and shifts offshore much of the administration and maintenance of a firm's IT systems. Gartner's Partha Iyengar divides remote IMS work into three categories: monitoring global network operations; providing helpdesk support and maintenance; and administering databases. 

It is as yet a small part of India's IT business. According to NASSCOM, the Indian industry's lobby, the country's exports from the software, other IT services and business-process-outsourcing industries grew by more than 25% to $12 billion last year, of which infrastructure services accounted for just over $300m.

But the potential is huge. A report by Deutsche Bank puts the entire size of the global infrastructure-management market at $86 billion. Firms have been outsourcing infrastructure management for years. Arno Franz, of TPI, an outsourcing consultancy, describes it as an industry created in the 1970s and 1980s by EDS, an American giant that came out of efforts by General Motors to automate its car plants. Along with IBM, EDS still dominates the business. Often these firms would actually buy their clients' computer systems. Or they would have annual maintenance contracts. Either way, their customer had fixed their information-technology costs and were free to concentrate on their “core competencies”.

A gift from Avneesh.com

My 3rd best friend ;-) Avneesh Kumar a.k.a Avneesh.com is a true e-generation .net guy. As a birthday gift , he has gifted me a domain with web space so that I can have my own blog on Sanspeak.com. I wish every blog*spotter had a friend like you.

Thanks Avi & Rits Bhabhi Ji :-)

Opensource not ready to recieve MS Sender ID

Computerworld has an extensive story on Microsoft's Me, Myself & Microsoft Reloaded implementation of Sender ID & its licensing policy. Opensource & Free Software Foundation have both rejected the proposed technology, saying that it is incompatible to opensource. Apache Software Foundation and the Debian Project declared that they won't be able to support the Sender ID e-mail authentication standard in their products due to clashes in way they share Intellectual Property with their users which makes supporting Sender ID impossible.

An introduction to Sender ID by Microsoft :

The Sender ID Framework is an industry standard created to counter e-mail domain spoofing and to provide greater protection against phishing schemes. This combined specification is the result of Microsoft's Caller ID for E-Mail proposal, Meng Wong's Sender Policy Framework (SPF), and a third specification called the Submitter Optimization. These three draft technical specifications were recently submitted to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and other industry organizations for review and comment.

Domain spoofing refers to the use of someone else's domain name when sending a message and is part of the larger problem of spoofing (the practice of forging the sender's address on e-mail messages). Domain spoofing can also be used by malicious individuals in phisher scams, which try to lure consumers into divulging sensitive information by pretending the e-mail is from a trusted source, such as a consumer's bank.

The Sender ID Framework is tasked with verifying that each e-mail message originates from the Internet domain from which it claims to come based on the sender's server IP address. Eliminating domain spoofing will help legitimate senders protect their domain names and reputations, and help recipients more effectively identify and filter junk e-mail and phishing scams.

Arstechnica however reports that Microsoft may face lawsuit from F. Scott Deaver, owner of Failsafe Designs, is now claiming that Microsoft has stolen his intellectual property, property which he claims was eventually to be released as open source.

Deaver has been the registered owner of calleridfore-mail.com for almost two years, and has in that time developed beta versions of a software application called Caller ID for E-Mail, an e-mail validation program that works in, ironically, Outlook Express -- a Microsoft product. Currently his trademark application (filed in March 6, 2003) for the term, "Caller ID for E-Mail" is pending approval at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), and Deaver said in an e-mail interview he has substantive and numerous registered patents on file dated January 2003 and 2004 at the USPTO on software that predates and precedes any other claims.

The Other Irony is that that Sender ID was already based, in part, on Pobox.com's Sender Policy Framework, which is still free to use and implement. Thats why I think Microsoft is ready for a favor :

In order to promote Sender ID, Microsoft is pleased to offer its necessary Sender ID patent rights on a royalty-free basis but only to those who are also willing to make their Sender ID patents available on a reciprocal royalty-free basis. The license is also important to Microsoft for defensive reasons. The reciprocity provisions and the ability to reserve defensive rights for Microsoft's implementations of standards are very important elements in our decision to contribute technology to standards.

A New Charge Against Outsourcing

BusinessPundit quotes an economist article which claims that outsourcing is unsafe (Outsourcing to India / Safety matter)

FIRST they steal our jobs, then our credit-card numbers. Those seem to be the fears inspired by outsourcing back-office financial-services work to India. In both Europe and America, the argument that outsourcing costs jobs at home still has political resonance. But it is making way for another bogey: that India cannot offer the standards of privacy and data protection that consumers expect at home. Outsourcing is dangerous and perhaps even illegal. Both claims seem dubious.

They have come together in a complaint to Britain's information commissioner, the data-protection watchdog, by a customer of Lloyds TSB, a big British bank. The bank is accused of breaking the law by failing to secure its customers' explicit consent before sending personal information outside Europe.

His comments :

If it is a valid argument, fine. But if it is just more rhetoric to prevent outsourcing, all that will happen is we will sacrifice short-term employment for long-term uncompetitiveness.

Why Adrew Foss is Serially Successfull?

Redherring interviews serial entrepreneur Andrew Foss & discusses today’s company-launching hurdles and his success in the networking & telecom startups. Just last week, his latest enterprise, Swan Labs, secured a $15 million Series A round. His first company Network Translations which built firewall was acquired by networking giant Cisco and his second venture Caw Networks which made the software for analyzing application traffic on the WAN was acquired by Spirent Communications.

Red Herring: A lot of people outside the Valley believe the only way to make money on a startup is to do an IPO. Is it easier to do a deal with a big buyer?
Foss: Acquisitions can have great financial results, but when we plan to build a company, we look toward eventually doing an IPO. With Caw, we had a product, a market, a team, and a great space. We could have done an IPO. But in 2001 and 2002, there was no public market.

Red Herring: How do you keep a company innovative?
Foss: The number of companies that go public and stay in business is too few. There are too many one-trick ponies. Most startups have a great idea and get tunnel vision on it. They don’t keep reinventing. We have a saying around the office: It’s okay to be wrong, but it’s not okay to stay wrong. That’s often times how we push the ball forward.

Red Herring: The companies you have been involved with targeted network niches. How do you find the right angle into a full field?
Foss: It’s more important to look at what can be improved on rather than look at how crowded the field is. Each of the companies worked with connecting applications with networking.

It’s like the old Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup commercials, where the two guys bump into each other on the street and one says “you got peanut butter on my chocolate,” and the other says, “you got chocolate on my peanut butter.” The applications networking space is the same way. There, the apps people say “your networks are slowing down my applications” and the network guys say, “your applications are clogging my network.” There’s a lot of finger pointing. We’re out to solve this problem once and for all. MORE...

Ernst & Young's Global Hotbed Cross Border Showcase

Ernst & Young is inviting nominations from Indian companies for the 'Global Hotbed Cross Border Showcase' this is an opportunity for technology and ITES/BPO companies seeking US venture capital financing. Download the Form and Brochure from here in pdf format, for more information visit this page
According to Times Of India :

The entrepreneurs led by TiE plan to introduce Indian technology and ITES/BPO companies to the Silicon Valley investment community at the Ernst & Young Global Hotbed Cross-Border Showcase. Ernst & Young's Global Venture Capital Advisory Group has opened doors to its landmark Global Hotbed Cross-Border Showcase in California to Indian companies for the first time. The annual forum will bring together 40 technology companies from India, China and Israel, to meet Silicon Valley investors in a day-long programme that will feature company presentations, panel discussions and networking sessions.

The VoIP is for Real & it's big

OM Mallik has a story on his Corante / VoIP blog about Daily Camera's report on the state of VoIP, and who are the real players in the business.

Will Stofega, a senior analyst on VoIP services for IDC, another research firm, says the companies that provide hosting VoIP services, such as Qwest, SBC or those that resell Level 3's network, will log $222 million in sales next year and $880 million in 2006. By 2008, IDC sees that market exploding to $7 billion.

One thing that's prompting some businesses to make the shift, says Elizabeth Herrell, an analyst with Forrester Research, is that they're already looking to replace an aging phone system. Companies that aren't in that position, though, likely won't entertain the thought of VoIP until a major upgrade or repair unfolds.

BSNL to launch IPTV in delhi

Converge Digest Reports

Atlas Interactive (India) has bought Israeli company Orca Interactive's suite of middleware applications -- RiGHTV -- to deliver Interactive TV services over IP networks to BSNL subscribers. BSNL has decided to launch IPTV or Interactive TV to its initial 50,000 subscribers in the Delhi region by the end of 2004 using the Orca Interactive's suite of middleware applications -- RiGHTV for the delivery. The Atlas netTV project is scheduled to launch services under BSNL's brand name of DATAONE with an initial 50,000 subscribers in the Delhi region by the end of 2004, said a statement from Orca.

* Orca Interactive Wins Contract for IPTV Services in India | BusinessWire
* Atlas Telecom | One World Interactive | BSNL

Numbering Plan for Voice Over Broadband (VoB) proposed by Ofcom UK

Ofcom,the regulator for the UK communications industries (television, radio, telecommunications and wireless communications services) has issued a Statement on numbering arrangements for new voice services (PDF). Internet Telephony Service Providers Association (ITSPA) has welcomed Ofcom’s measures to encourage Internet Telephony. Here is an excerpt from Independant.co.uk

Ofcom also outlined plans for a new numbering system for VoB users. Providers will be able to offer customers who are switching from traditional services geographic numbers beginning with 01 or 02 that will allow them to keep their existing home telephone numbers. There will also be a new code, 056, not linked to any location which can be used anywhere in the country.

BT said it was planning a major marketing push to highlight its own VoB service, called BT Communicator. The Internet Telephony Service Providers Association (ITSPA), an industry trade body, welcomed Ofcom's statement. Eli Katz, a founder member, said: "ITSPA welcomes the new stance, and all the key issues we called for have been delivered. We hope to continue to be actively involved in the shaping of policy and other industry-led activities, including a code of practice, which will be crucial for the successful growth of this area."

* Voice Over Broadband | Ofcom
* VoIP - Voice over IP | Wikipedia
* The 2nd Annual Voice over IP (VoIP) India 2004 | IBC-Asia

An Independent Study on Offshoring IT? | Slashdot

Slashdot has this story about an independant study on Offishoring IT :

Slashdot | An Independent Study on Offshoring IT?: "vsprintf writes 'What are the real effects of offshoring on the U.S. technology sector? Pick your economist on the subject. The Bush administration's Gregory Mankiw says it's all good, and exporting jobs is just a new way to do trade. In Congressional testimony, Ralph Gomory says a little bit is okay, but too much is bad, while Herman Daly says it's just plain bad. The ITAA's paid mouthpiece, Harris Miller, says it must be good because IT workers in India wear Nike tennis shoes. At last, it appears the IEEE-USA has persuaded Congress to pay for an independent study to determine how offshoring really affects U.S. IT.' "

Internet Dating Blues

Diane Mapes (The Seattle Times) explains how to find the right Internet Dating site and avoid online horrors.
The Internet dating sites she covers are:
Match, Lavalife, Udate, , Blacksingleconnections, Tallfriends, True, Esquire, Eharmony, Nerve, Thestranger, Craiglist , Gay, Planetout , Lemondate , Kiss & Matchmaker

VoIP : The Skype Hype

James Fallows (NYT) describes how Skype lives upto the hype.

At the end of Skype's first year in business, I spoke with its co-founder, Niklas Zennstrom, about his ambitions for the second year. High on his list were partnerships with manufacturers of cell phones and personal digital assistants, to build in compatibility with Skype.

The company will also sustain its push to sign up users. It says it has about 10 million users in 212 countries, with an average of more than 600,000 logged on at any given time.

From the user's point of view, there are also questions about whether this new form of instant access could become as intrusive as e-mail often seems. At the moment, it's hard to resist.

The Small but deadly gadgets (?)

The Small but deadly gadgets (?)

Business World (India) takes a look at the darker side of some of the sleekest gadgets in play like Camera Phones, PDAs, Pen Drives and MP3 players. For example : Samsung Electronics, the world's third largest camera phone manufacturer, has forbidden the use of camera phones inside its headquarters, factories and research centres.

Economic illiteracy

Economic illiteracy

Niranjan Rajadhakshya puts stress on the importance of economic literacy than scientific literacy. We are still being taught that the Eartth is flat.

Recently, I realised that the roots of economic illiteracy run deeper - all the way down to our schools. School children are not taught much economics. But the notions that are drilled into their heads at a very young age must be doing some harm. I often come across such notions when I go through the textbooks my two daughters use to study. Stories about evil merchants. Theories about how natural resources, rather than people and their skills, are the real wealth of a country. Claims that only the government can provide roads, education and healthcare. A lot about governments, but very little about the rights of individuals. And, perhaps most important, a complete blanking out of knowledge about the people of other countries. Is this how we are going to prepare the next generation for a global tomorrow?

The ideological assumptions of our education continue to be unthinkingly statist, even though statism has been thoroughly discredited since 1990. It's akin to teaching school children that the world is flat, even after scientists have shown it to be round. In economics and the social sciences, the flat-earth gang still seems to have control over school curriculums.

Nobody seems to bother about this. The political establishment seems happier raging on unnecessary fronts - be it Murli Manohar Joshi's devious attempts to rewrite history or Mani Shankar Aiyar's senseless attack on Savarkar.

The Telecom Equipment Scam : Norvergence

Via Techdirt :

Broadband Reports point us to a Forbes story concerning the huge telecom equipment scam operation called Norvergence. The company was apparently selling $2,000 router/firewall boxes (that were available for $300 on eBay) by calling it "The Matrix: a merged access transport intelligent exchange." They then targeted small, non-tech-savvy businesses with fast talking salespeople promising "unlimited broadband, landline and cell phone service with no per-minute charges." Even better, they weren't actually selling them, but "leasing" them at $300/month for a minimum five year lease. Then, to make matters even more ridiculous Norvergence sold those leases to leasing and banking companies. Norvergence got all the cash ($143 million in 2003) and ran, while everyone else got screwed. Meanwhile, the founders of Norvergence have already bankrupted another telecom startup, leaving creditors in the hole by nearly $70 million, and are already hard at work on yet another telecom startup. Why not? It seems to pay so well. Is there any possible reason these guys haven't been arrested yet?

MYVoice- Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP)

V3 Global announces - MYVoice- Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) device, which allows user to dial any number in the world using only the Internet as their telephone connection. It is scheduled to be available in the markets in late 2004.

"Our box is the only box, that I know of, which is compatible to all Internet connections, not just from your cable/DSL high speed connection; but also from your dial-up connection as well. It's called a box but its dimensions are also user friendly, approximately the size of a small clamshell cell phone. It's fantastic for us because we avoid toll free charges, In-network calling is free for us anyway so let's pass that along to the customers. We plan on capturing customers for at least a year or two, depending on the contract they sign. It's basically guaranteed money, we plan on running a high customer retention rate with superior products and service," said Sameer Mohan, president and CEO of V3- Global.

Mohan added, "Advantages include, In-network calling is free. $25 unlimited domestic calling. Local phone numbers attached to each box. If the box is anywhere in the world only the local number has to be dialed to reach it, as long as it's connected to an Internet connection. Highly discounted international rates. It's our niche, it's what we know - specifically for the South Koreans, Indians, and Japanese. Additional benefits include the ability for a customer to see their call detail record, real time and on-line. It's compatible with Wi-Fi, so if you're sitting at Starbucks and they are a Wi-Fi hotspot your box will work."

I-Neighbors.org : Geography based Social Networking Site

Slashdot announces the launch of I-Neighbors.org. "A social networking site based on geography, rather than affinity. Unlike other websites that allow global, national, or city-wide communication, I-Neighbors links members of a single neighborhood, defined by the people that create them. It is created by a team led by Pro. Keith Hampton at MIT"

What does I-Neighbors do :
* Meet and communicate with your neighbors.
* Find neighbors with similar interests.
* Share information on local companies and services.
* Organize and advertise local events.
* Vocalize local concerns and ideas.

Governments joins hand with Linux

Search Enterprise Linux reports how governments across the globe are getting cozy with Linux

Vendors like IBM, meanwhile, are finding new cash cows in government deployments. At the recent LinuxWorld Conference & Expo, IBM said it had started working with India's National Informatics Center (NIC), which will join Hawaii, Oklahoma's Department of Human Services and County Essex in Canada as governments or government agencies that have made the move to adopt IBM and Linux technologies.

IBM will also be contributing the military's largest Linux-based supercomputer to the U.S. Army. The 10 teraflop system is to be installed at the Army Research Laboratory Major Shared Resource Center in Aberdeen, Md., for use with the development of advanced military systems.

* Will Novell's Penguin Spoil Red Hat's Tux Party?
* Go open source, earn $ 1-mn

The de-licensing of the 802.11g in India

CIOL reports the opening up of the 2.4 GHz spectrum & thus allowing the use of 802.11g within this band also known as Wi-fi.

The government on Wednesday cleared one more small hurdle towards unwiring India. Through a notification dated August 25, but released today, the WPC (Wireless Planning & Coordination wing of the DoT) has opened up and de-licensed the 2.4 GHz spectrum (specifically, the 2.40-2.48 GHz band), thus allowing the use of 802.11g within this band – indoor, or within a campus.

Earlier, only 802.11b and BlueTooth devices were allowed within this band, which was 'partially' opened up in early 2003. Since then, a number of vendors and others, including CyberMedia through its Project W inititative and even the Department of IT, were urging the WPC to open up 802.11g too.

However, the restriction about indoor/in-camps use continues. For outdoor hot spots in public areas, a license from the WPC is mandatory. Violation of the same is considered illegal and liable for penalty....

* DoT INDIA
* A whole new Wi-Fi - Networking Special - Express Computer India
* Wi-Fi in India: Hit by High Cost and Low Awareness - Infotech

TRAI proposes Publishing of Telephone Directory and Directory Enquiry Services for Mobile subscribers

TRAI releases Consultation Paper on Issues Pertaining to Publishing of Telephone Directory and Directory Enquiry Services :

Presently, the printed telephone Directory is available only for fixed line subscribers of BSNL/ MTNL and the frequency of publication of these directories is generally three to five years. The private operators have so far not brought out printed Telephone Directories, even though the old Cellular Mobile Licenses and new Basic Service Licenses provided for publication of telephone directories of their subscribers.

Mobile subscribers now represent about half of all the telephone subscribers in the country. At present due to non-availability of directory, they are largely unreachable today, unless the Caller has the number. Now with intense competition in the telecom services market coupled with high growth rate and increasing use of telemarketing by the companies to sell their products, the issues involving publication of telephone Directory have increased manifold. This requires a comprehensive look into the whole gamut of the issues.

This Consultation Paper aims to raise a number of issues, one relates to publication of printed Telephone Directory and the other pertains to Directory Enquiry Services. The licenses for mobile and basic services mandate for provision of Directory Enquiry Services. In the present multi-operator multi-service scenario, a need is felt for Directory Enquiry Service across different network and different service areas.

If mobile and cells are personal communication devices then this is not a good idea. There should be option with the user to get him listed in these kind of services i.e it should exist as a opt-in service. But then what about the comfortable timing ? I have recieved tele-marketing calls in loos , hospitals, while travelling and even on sundays. But surely there is one advantage to the mobile operators : vale added services charges for Voice Mails ;-).

BT Broadcast Service to enter India

EETimes reports :

BT Broadcast Services, the broadcasting arm of British Telecom, has signed an agreement with India's ASC Enterprises to provide direct-to-home broadcasting services. The deal also enables European and U.S. broadcasters to access direct-to-home subscribers via the Dish TV platform in India. Both BT and ASC Enterprises will market broadcast services that includes 3-Mbit/s capacity, encryption using Conax conditional access and provision of signals from Europe and the U.S. into India, Australia and other English-speaking markets in Asia.....

India : Booming Telecom Market

[ Via Rajesh Jain ] Om Mallik writes :

With all the buzz around China and Korea, many tend to overlook that India is turning into one of the hottest telecom markets on the planet. While visiting India I saw many US venture capitalists were out pitching their companies to Indian telecom giants, recognizing that growth is in Asia, and not in the US.

Last week, Susan Kalla told me she was headed to Bombay and then to Delhi for a quick visit. To me she is always a leading indicator of the next big telecom trend. While visiting India in April 2004, I met with several telecom executives who indicated that Indian telecom companies could spend nearly $10 billion a year for next several years as the country tries to build out is basic wireline, wireless and eventually broadband infrastructure. Actually I was wrong. The Indian market for equipment and services is expected to jump to $24.3 billion by 2006, up from $13.7 billion in 2001, according to telecom research firm Frost & Sullivan. The mobile infrastructure market in India hit $1.17 billion last year, Gartner said, and is forecast to grow to $1.885 billion by 2008.

Pinxit Blue bags Google India account

Via AgencyFAQs :

Google, which is synonymous with internet search, has just got an Indian partner.

Pinxit Blue, a Mumbai-headquartered advertising agency, has bagged the creative and media duties for Google India, sources said.

The first advertisement has rolled out on today's (Wednesday) edition of The Times of India, Bangalore. It is about Google searching for computer scientists.

Sources in the know said, “From September onwards, Google India will be initiating a brand building campaign. This initiative will be both above-the-line and below-the-line.”......

Two Way Internet Via DTH ?

Netherlands-based New Skies Satellite is interested in India for providing two-way high-speed Internet (or broadband) access via satellite in areas where dial-up or digital subscriber line (DSL) infrastructure is not possible. New Skies at present offers DTH transmission platform through NSS-6 satellite to Doordarshan and Essel group.

About New Skies

New Skies Satellites owns and operates five geostationary communications satellites that offer high-power global coverage for the delivery of video, Internet, voice and data transmissions services virtually anywhere in the world. This space-based communications system, one of only four truly global fleets offering fixed satellite services, is supported by experienced professionals on six continents and a worldwide network of owned and affiliated mediaport facilities.

These vast resources allow New Skies to offer a wide range of cutting-edge and reliable satellite services to broadcasters, cable programmers, news agencies, telecommunications carriers, Internet service providers, corporations, governments and distance-learning networks. In total, New Skies fulfills the diverse communications needs of more than 250 customers located in over 79 countries worldwide.....