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Educate!

I, U, We All want to change this world, make it a better place to live – beautiful, clean, green, heavenly paradise of peaceful co-existence of all living beings on mother earth.
Is that what we hear, see, feel every day in News? – Humans exploit the planet, global warming, Polar ice caps melting, sea levels rising, high carbon trails, depleting ozone layer, endangered species. Are we all really part of environment blah blah... drama plot??
Heard the story of our common sparrow and its slow extinction due to mobile towers and waves? Is it true even our extended digital organ - the mobile phones we use adding to the misery? Is this the end of world? Are we all being wiped out gradually? Will this human race be in a museum some day of some unknown species that will evolve or has evolved in another milky way (right now an extraterrestrial in a UFO spying our Planet, may be ;) )
What do you THINK?

As humans we all have the inherent capacity of struggling against any odd, emerge out as new breed of winners (Our evolution history is enough proof). We have that tiny, trot within us which emerges when we are pushed to the extreme. We don’t resign and surrender, we fight till the end.
The innate power within each of us lying dormant - Is it required only during the case of emergency? Is it needed only when we are put under tremendous tension? Will it come out when someone attacks us with a weapon? Or does it emerge when we want to out-beat or out-smart our arch enemy? What does it take to make ourselves realize our own strengths, powers, capabilities, limitation? Is this trait not required in everyday life? Do we all need an ignite switch to unlock us to ourselves? Ok even if we all do require an ignite switch – it’s a self switch not external hardware are software. How can we self-start? How can we bring out the vigor and vitality of the powerful yet humble soul in us?

1. First we need to realize we have it in us. “I Can!” than “Can I?”
2. Take one step at a time.
3. Join hands with similar minds may be

Surpass our assumptions on limitations of an individual – “Can I change the world?” are self-imposed anchors that we drag along. Let’s surmount this hillock called Fear, Hesitation, and Doubt unleashing the mighty energy within us.

Environment, this world - our planet we definitely should respect and do our part. But wait a minute; are we first helping our friends, family, society, people? Caring about this world and environment are an extension of care towards our fraternity - human race.

What are the sins within our race? – Genocide, sexual offence, killings, corruption, discrimination, human trafficking, infanticide, child abuse to name a few.

Who are these sinners? Sinners are mostly people who as a child had suffered. The sufferings caused by lack of home, food, education, love. Also being at the receiving end of crime creates a new criminal.

So how can we eradicate these crimes and create a beautiful world? We have to start at grass root level. Children – sweet and innocent before our eyes should not be allowed to turn criminals. If only each of us realize the small actions we can do are enough to change a life forever. Recall the 3 points we read.

1. First we need to realize we have it in us. “I Can!” than “Can I?”
2. Take one step at a time.
3. Join hands with similar minds may be

Let’s start with one small step at a time - We can start with helping kids at orphanages or public schools. It can be as little as your time to make a loving phone call – reassure kindness still is there, they are not alone in this big world.

You can spend few hours to teach them anything you know – teaching is also a stress buster from your everyday activity. Be a mentor to a kid. As the quote by Lao Tzu -"Give a Man a Fish, You Feed Him for a Day. Teach a Man to Fish, You Feed Him For a Lifetime".

Also you can share your old reusable stuff which may only be a dream for these kids.
Teach them the true meaning of faith, trust and love along with education.

okay I understand, we all are very busy. But at heart we want to do and not able to do now. So what? Spread the word. Someone, somewhere in the world has time and does not know how to.

Joining hands with similar minded people helps to keep the energy high. Sharing of ideas, views, opinion creates a true mass collaboration platform for us to contribute for a common goal. Bavishya is one such platform.

Remember the mighty Banyan Tree too has a humble start - from a Seed! Thanks!!!

Facebook Developer Garage -15Mar2009

In train on way to tup from chn,enjoying my Bournville - dark fine hazelnut choc(my dinner too today), am writing this Sunday of mine(15th Mar 2009). It was a long wait before I can get hold of this delicious big bar and is worth mentioning(I like the ad too - you earn one!!!). I remember Tom Sawyer somewhere quoted and recalled by Dan Ariely in Predictably Irrational - 'that in order to make a man covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain'. May be it isn't true for SMM or may be partly true as the case may be. okay now its not the true dark chocolate I expected but anyways enjoy!!!

It was a long 2\3 weeks since i spent some quality time at home...a word or two about this place - yes cosy place as we all like but this one, a little variation. You can sight all strays and wilds(humans included) also have found a corner - u name any urban animal you'll find at our place. A stray dog, numerous cats(I stopped counting, dad wud have seen atleast 100 kittens in last 5-6 years), pigeons, parrots and love birds..hmm wild are the squirrels, sparrows but living inside our roof too, not to mention the crows that promptly come for their bread in the mornings. Dad n amma's foremost duty is to protect the birds from cats n dog and I love our Jamun tree!

This weekend had some physical exertion as our landlord sincerely thought of gifting us with newly painted interiors. Though amma n daddy did the major part i played my part of moving non-delicate things in n around. Sunday I sincerely promised my dearest friend Reks for movie day-out. It was the disappointing and hatred looks of her that popped in my mind when i received Sharads mail "Can you go?" A note on Facebook Developers Garage Conference on Mar 15th 2-5PM.Hah there goes my movie... though my curiosity rose on reading the title. Invited my cousin bro along (In-case even if I try to back out at last moment due to self-imposed self-pity on how restlessly life is moving, he will be my motivation to attend)

ok at-last all contemplation of skipping, landed up at the venue. It was a compact group around 40-45 and I don't regret a bit for attending. Although my regret was for not sharing. Assumed mine wouldn't add any value but looking back I feel It would have definitely. So here i go...Lets see what really entered my mind during the meet and if it had any relevance to what happened for us at our workplace I will share along the way.

It was during the end of intro section we entered and from there on...first it was Thomas who won Facebook Apps in France who gave a presentation on his Dannon-Grammin initiative. Felt happy to learn the app gained recognition and was awarded. Its this book 'Creating a world without poverty by Mohammed Yunnus' I started reading 2/3 weeks ago (as all my book reading initiative suffer this is still half way through...) created the excitement on hearing the news. This app was built in 10 days by 2 people. Also the stats of Thomas made sense. 60M total France population out of which 8 M are in FB, Why should I target separate site? His Business approach, Identify clients in France requiring a Social media Platform as FB, Create creative Ideas, build sample app (this may be my add-on), approach companies (Marketing division although IT division are much more open) if encouraged by client then order acquisition and happy ending...

FB apps does it Spam its users or not? undoubtedly yes. BUT, If only your friend sends you the app request, it creates spam. FB doesn't do on its own.
Does FB offers context-sensitive ads? No!
Monetization of FB Apps - Not virtual money but reaall..Its still unclear though difficult. By all means everyone aims for crowd pulling.

Orkut or Facebook was another interesting debate. Which one is gaining popularity in India? It is Facebook for sure, may be Orkut in the initial stage as FB was not public then. Its the dimension or the mental state of users coming to these sites. Linkedin is purely professional - more of corporate personality that you want to portray than as an individual. FB its a mix of both. Its the identity you are willing to portray influences the way you use the social networks. Also the way you see the social networking platforms. Plaxo used only as Address book. Flickr even having the best of social featues is used predominantly for Photo sharing. A voting on active orkut users amongst the gathering proved clearly the decline in popularity - may be its a FB garage :)

On Twitter, dimensions which I perceived never before exists came up - Twitter is it a competition to FB, Will they bring in all FB functionality and features. Will it replace search engines? FB is a closed (User generated content) UGC whereas Twitter is not and content is searchable even if the UGC is not of ur friends. Digg failed on its aspiration to take off. Will this happen to twitter too?

When Kiruba raised the question, How many of you are on Niche Social Networks? Are Niche Social Networks worth the try? Various views started pouring in - Why spend money on building a separate netwrok, build it as a Facebook App. Pros & cons of both options were discussed. (Areapal did I hear???)

If on FB - There is a chance of Lack of corporate identity element. What if Fb shuts off your app like scramble, how do you migrate users from FB app to your app after the pilot phase of testing (If FB used as pilot launch), will your business become available only for FB users and the risk of losing out Non-FB users, Is FB hosted app good for monetization?

Does Niche means building site from scratch without open API's. Is google the true niche platform as they dont use others open API - This thought out loud comment was thrown for discussion. And as evident it is - its against open API concept. co-existence is the word.

My views - FB App can complement a Niche social networking community but it cant only be on FB. Fb users come there for different purpose. For instance am an observer\(absorption happens too) on Twitter and FB. Also FB\Twitter is the place i gain entry point of the info required, then I begun to seek clear niche quality content outside of it. Its a mental frame again of the user...Our Niche platform have to use open APIS we cant be truly self dependant as google.

A small talk on FB Mobile API and its UI on IPhone was appreciated. FB on iPhone is cool than on BB. A demo on iPhone (SDK, Objective C )-FB Connect was demonstrated.

Philip, UN intern showed us his Presentation on UN initiative program for Student disarmament. FB cause for a weapon free world. Hans Blix... Create a cause, Have FB App for spreading message. He also caught our interest on POKEN a small interesting gadget used to poke friends on FB and read business cards. We can store multiple accounts of FB, Flickr. The saved business cards can be downloaded to computer later. 400rs priced currently and expected to go down to 200rs in next production.
http://www.doyoupoken.com/PokenWeb/corporate/welcome.jsf

Facebook connect and Open social Id - compare, discuss, debate happened. Are they similar - No. It is not. Open ID consortium standard. FB Connect not a standard. A demo on how to include FB connect to your site was demonstrated. FB Verification code, FB Secret key some frequently heard jargon's echoed...

Case study : Niche social networking platform for IIT students reaching out to Alumni and FB Connect will eliminate the pain of filling up long forms. Linkedin helped in placements of IIT this year when reached out to alumnis.

Platforms of Mobile development - iPhone and Android were compared. Android a winner with developers (app development n launch happened in 6 days for Photon Infotech)! Android's admirable barcode scanner, price compare within miles and returning back the store name made its mark. A similar dating apps is also attempted.

At the end, FB architectures for a client of Photon - Tracklet got its Min's of limelight.

1) Existing FB user. Access app using FB connect in Tracklet site
2) Bring Tracklet App into FB

Books recommended : Throwing Sheep in the Boardroom: How Online Social Networking Will Transform Your Life, Work and World - by Matthew Fraser and Soumitra Dutta
Apress Developing Facebook Widget (Although I tried to amazon it, i wasnt able to find. May be i heard it wrong)

Thanks to all who organized and esp - Kiruba, Varun, Vasanth & Mani
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The story of our company.

Now to Social Networking Niche Platform attempt of ours. Will document it in detail and share later (If i don't do the rough cut at-least now it will add to the to-dos\wishes that never happen).

1. Proto done in Ning. Issues faced : Data Migration\Backup, Ning ID for all users, Role based theme not possible, Admin cannot assign default specific custom application to its users. Not cost effective when scalability becomes a factor, UI not entirely at our hands to customize.
   
2. Other Social Network creators explored - Socialgo, Soceeo, PeopleAggregator,KickApps,two others which I cant recall the names too now were not up-to the mark of Ning - Issues faced : Browser compatibility, Less flexibility
3. Next step lets build our own platform. Since we all have our hands well into Java. Java only Content Management Systems(CMS) were explored. Before then was CMS required or not debate arose? And considering all the utility value CMS will add it was accepted into our living.
4. Java only CMS - Lenya had its drawbacks - db conn, roles and permissions. Criteria's required to evaluate a CMS for a Social Network platform was framed
   
5. ok now what? Do we have to be open to PHP too?
   
6. Wordpress conference @ Delhi in feb 09 opened doors for co-existence of Ning and Wordpress for our Proto.
7. CMS explored - Wordpress, Drupal, Joomla, TYPO 3. Drupal came out as the winner for the evaluation criteria we set. (Imp to note - It shud accomodate both PHP & java struts as we already have few modules in Java available).
8. Next what - omg - MVC architecture - CMS based again. 1 Min, Is a framework required at all? evaluate again. Our associates said a big Yes. Drupal has its own framework but also compatible with ZEND. What is it FB is using? - Zend or Yii Framework? It is Zend we assume based on info available online.
9. Now we all set with MySQL, Drupal, Zend.

On our Facebook App development - We have nicknamed him Pied Piper - Ranjith. As u all can recount the story of Pied piper mesmerizing children to his music, we expect Our Piper to mesmerize big kids to pull them to our site. He has comeout with sample application for our recruitment portal Whereismyboss.com.
On Mobile front - we are into iPhone, BB, Windows, Android, Nokia-Symbian native platform apps development. Again it is built around WIMB
If you all wish we can gather sometime for our Pied Piper and Mobile Musketeers to give us lesson for building a sample simple app from scratch.

QA SocialVibe

A trip to Hyd

Impressive Rajiv Gandhi Airport, Shamshabad. Organized, Neat n Clean only if whole of our country is like this.


Birla Mandir, was crowded with kids from Bombay on a school trip. The innocent, carefree chatter on everything under this sky created a longing, desire to go back to those days.


Lumbini Park


Hussein Sagar Lake. A 10 mins ride in Speed boat excites a bit.


Charminar. Pearl Dive, a possibility.


Golconda Fort




View from the top.

Stairs leading to pinnacle.



Child at work at a sugarcane vendor. The mischievous smile made heart sink for incapability of mine to do any good to that poor soul.


Stopped for a glass of fresh cane juice.


One man's collection of largest artifacts, I haven't until then realized art can fluctuate my mood so much.


At Old City, all girls irrespective of age were behind veils. Tried my part a bit, will have to get used to the option of breathing within veils.


Shilparamam, crafts village. A bazaar for handicrafts and artwork.

Getting to explore Left Brained Vs Right Brained after i stumbled on this "Which way is she turning?" - http://www.readnrock.com/?p=38. Confirmed my thoughts "Mind sees how you want it to see". I see her turn clock-wise and then when I wish to see her the other way, It happened she turns anti clockwise. Got curious on this theory and took a Brain Lateralization Test.

Now I Know why I put Left Indicator and Turn right while driving, Noone can point hands at me, its in me ;-)

Brain Lateralization Test Results

Right Brain (68%) The right hemisphere is the visual, figurative, artistic, and intuitive side of the brain. Left Brain (32%) The left hemisphere is the logical, articulate, assertive, and practical side of the brain

Are You Right or Left Brained?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Right Brain |||||||||||||||| 68%
Left Brain |||||||||| 32%


*results won't usually add up to 100% as this test measures each side seperately

Left brain dominant individuals are more orderly, literal, articulate, and to the point. They are good at understanding directions and anything that is explicit and logical. They can have trouble comprehending emotions and abstract concepts, they can feel lost when things are not clear, doubting anything that is not stated and proven.

Right brain dominant individuals are more visual and intuitive. They are better at summarizing multiple points, picking up on what's not said, visualizing things, and making things up. They can lack attention to detail, directness, organization, and the ability to explain their ideas verbally, leaving them unable to communicate effectively.

Overall you appear to be Right Brain Dominant

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According to Darwinian theory, optimal evolution takes place with random variation and selective retention. The evolution savvy individual will try many different approaches when faced with a problem and select the best of those approaches. Many historical intellectuals have confessed their advantage was simply considering/exploring/trying more approaches than others. The left brain dominant type suffers from limited approaches, narrow-mindedness. The right brain dominant type suffers from too many approaches, scatterbrained. To maintain balanced hemispheres, you need to exercise both variability and selection. Just as a company will have more chance of finding a great candidate by increasing their applicant pool, an individual who considers a wider set of options is more likely to make quality decisions.

Tree n Me, Nov 3, 2005 at 11:05 AM

At Washington DC - Union Station, 3 Nov 2005
A letter to Kowsi.

The best thing i like here is lot and lot of trees...that too this is my first time to c autumn season. Watching the crimson,orange,red golden leaves are addictive..

I commute by metro train from office to home. Got to change two trains. The metro station near to office is just 2 mins walk. But if u walk 15 mins, down the road will be a tree..so beautiful ..it glitters majestically in the sunshine at daytime...even a Pile to the size of my tree ( made it mine) having Gold ,Silver,ruby,emaralds or anything wat ppl declare as precious cant beat its allure.

During evening hours, makes itself a backdrop..blue and pink shades alternate to show the hue of its beautiful leaves...it will mesmerize anyone..anyone who makes time to watch...

One of my college classmate-friend happen to work near my office. we walk together till the station and have lunch together in a bench overlooking the tree. i purposefully take the long route to have a glance of it...sometimes i make it earlier to the place than him and will collect the leaves.. iam wondering if am getting crazy or something..even a look at it gives me sudden jerk of calmness..i donno..:))

My frnd tells me i hav gone mad..may be am..or may be ppl are too busy to notice its enchanting charmness and have not turned like me

Behind it stands a tall castle like place with a high tower.. i remembered Rapanzel(fairy tale ...Do u ?)

Got frm Web - Story is like:

Rapunzel, the fairy tale of a girl, who gets promised to a witch by her mother before her birth. The witch hides her in an inaccessible tower. A kings son, noticing Rapunzel, says "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair". The young prince climbs up her braid and rescues her.
The loving couple get caught and are punished, separated and finally are reunited in the end.

May be the witch still living in the tower behind...am spellbound :))

i'll imagine the prince standing down the tower and shouting
""Rapunzel, Rapunzel..Let Down Ur Hair..""
jus a imagination..dont think me as someone who believes in prince or princess..:)

coz we used to watch disney cartoon fairy tales when we were young..made me visualize it..:)

Squirrels are to the size of cats here..will mail u some of the fotos i took...and a common bird i c is our sparrows and pigeons...they arent afraid of ppl.. they come near us and takes the food we offer. Myself and my frnd give off most of our food admiring them pecking gently...

i havn't , (since i have been on the earth) had a deepavali without frnds,lights,crackers,sweets..

we used to make sweets,murukku( some other snacks too) at home ...go around with my frnds to neighbours home and distribute...and in some places get their blessings and money too if we behave good and kneel down and get their blessing..(that wud be a small amt but we used to collect all the money and will hav a rating who collected most)..:)) everything seems to be far of memories...

i hav bored u enough.... i know i wud hav knocked off all ur patience by now.. will stop with this..

think this is a holiday week back in India..(deepavali,ramzan all in a week..) great ..enjoy have a nice time..mail me whenever u find time..take care

Kowsi My fav verse as of now

""By the time you swear you're his
Shivering and sighing,
And he vows his passion is
Infinite, undying -
Lady, make a note of this:
One of you is lying.""

or as my Anna modified the last 2 satz "Make a note of this: Both of u r lying"

;)