Just saw this great video (courtesy of @naughty_hot) on GOOD called – Hey You ! What song are you listening to. Basically, one guy put together the video by asking random strangers on New York’s streets what they were listening to on their iPod’s, Walkman’s, MP3 players etc. Its great, because he also overlays the background track with the music that the person on screen on listening to. It makes for an interesting medley of tracks.

But here’s the really interesting thing – a significant amount of the people on screen have to actually look at the screen on their music devices to be able to tell what they are listening to !! Makes you wonder what direction humanity is taking, if we can’t even pay attention to what we are listening…

(On a side note, classical music seems to be dead and Frank Sinatra is still alive and kicking )

Recently, Google announced that it was depreciating some of it’s APIs (including the very popular Translate API). This announcement was met with a fair amount of flak from the developer community, with people going as far to say that they would never ever use a Google API ever again.
Here’s what I don’t get, people are complaining in spite of the fact that:

1. The APIs are Google’s property. It can do as it wants with them.
2. Most of the people who are crying out against this haven’t contributed in any form to either the API development or maintenance.
3. Almost all the depreciated APIs have replacements.
4. Quite a few of the APIs were still under API Labs – which means that they were experimental.
5. The Termination clause in the Terms & Conditions (which I assume most people expecting to run a business / project based on a API would read) clearly states that Google may terminate the API if, I quote:
   

   the provision of the Services to you by Google is, in Google’s opinion, no longer commercially viable.

6. The Warranty clause in the Terms & Conditions further states that:
   

   IN PARTICULAR, GOOGLE, ITS SUBSIDIARIES AND AFFILIATES, AND ITS LICENSORS DO NOT REPRESENT OR WARRANT TO YOU THAT:

   1. YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS,
   2. YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE OR FREE FROM ERROR,
   3. ANY INFORMATION OBTAINED BY YOU AS A RESULT OF YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES WILL BE ACCURATE OR RELIABLE, AND
   4. THAT DEFECTS IN THE OPERATION OR FUNCTIONALITY OF ANY SOFTWARE PROVIDED TO YOU AS PART OF THE SERVICES WILL BE CORRECTED.

(Note the emphasis on the ALL CAPS text)
So, given all this, did all those complainers really expect to keep making money off Google’s efforts and data in perpetuity? And is basing a business model on a API, that clearly states that it might vanish overnight, really such a smart idea?

Google also drew a lot of flak for pulling the plug on Translate citing API abuse as the reason. A lot of people felt that, given how “smart” Google was, they should have found some other way round the abuse problem. My take on this is that, people give Google some credit. Given how “smart” they are I’m sure they must have explored all avenues before coming to that drastic conclusion.

I think in the end, its the developer community that needs to shape up and stop having unrealistic expectations of experimental APIs and be ready to change legacy code when API’s depreciate or stop using them. And Businesses need to realize that depending on other companies for core functionality is never a smart move. I’ve already been involved this year with cases that show how both depending on API’s and building missing functionality using API’s can seriously boomerang.

Thats my 10 cents on this issue. What’s your take on it?

The firm I work for has business interests in Africa, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. As a result of this, we often have people traveling to countries in these regions for sales and pre-sales pitches, implementations etc. Thanks to my work, I got an opportunity to travel to – wait for it – Dhaka, the capital of our “beloved” little neighbor, Bangladesh.
The trip was for a Product demo to the senior managers of a prominent bank there. The weeks leading up to the trip were spent in getting the product demo ready for the trip. I was so engrossed with the lead up to the trip, that it didn’t feel like I’d be going on a short trip across the border. Eventually D-Day arrived and I caught an early morning flight to Dhaka via Delhi. Thanks to the wonderfully close Bengaluru International Airport, it meant catching a cab at the surreal witching hour of 3:00 AM. (On a side note, why is it an International Airport? Find very few International Direct flights from there anyway…) Continue reading ‘Dhaka Diaries’ »

Here is what the next Bond Villain should have:

• A Bond Villain Worthy name and style
• Must be Universally reviled and feared by world governments all over
• Must Have a secret army of minions that can take down his opponents
• Must Have a “secret base” in Iceland
• If arrested, must be confined to a stately English Manor, rather than a prison

Oh, wait a second, I just described Julian Assange – our dear beloved “Techno-Terrorist” !! Bond movie deal for Mr. Assange anyone?

In 2007, I began my first long time association with Linux when I installed openSuse 10.2 on my Laptop. Since, then Linux has come a long way. Sadly, I didn’t keep my system updated, and soon found myself back into the familiar jungles of Microsoft Vista. Of late, though hard disk space crunches on my Windows Partition forced me to think about going back to Linux. This time round I decided to go with Ubuntu.

The last time I had tried Ubuntu, it was a rather bitter experience. My graphics card wasn’t fully supported and Ubuntu refused to show anything but a blank screen!! This time round though it was delightful experience.

Continue reading ‘Running with the Maverick Meerkat’ »

I’ve been meaning to update the theme of this blog for quite some time now and I finally got some time to work on it this October. So after much waiting, here is version 3 of the blog.
Some of the things that are new:

• Sleeker, cleaner design that will hopefully reduce the clutter. The design is also “fluid”, so you should be able to read the blog easily on most resolutions
• New Social Sharing features that will let you “like” and “tweet” the blog posts you like
• A new “reading” section that will track what I am reading. It has been updated with everything I have read since Jan 2010, so go ahead and discover some new titles
• A mobile version of the Blog. Thanks to WP Touch, the blog now has a sleek new mobile skin to make it easier to browse on the phone
• You can now subscribe to an email newsletter that will send you my latest posts

Hope you like the new design

I’ve been a big fan of Flipkart for quite some time now and regularly use it to buy books online. I had placed an order for some books this Sunday, and was a bit surprised when I got an email from Flipkart yesterday saying that all four items were shipped. While Flipkart is normally quite efficient, I was overjoyed to see my items so soon. That was until I saw the shipping agent – a “Flipkart Self Delivery”.

I had no tracking number to track the shipment. The email didn’t give any link to a website to find out more about this “Self Delivery”. Flipkart itself didn’t mention this anywhere in its FAQ’s or its website. To top that, the link to the “Self Delivery” website in my order summary was broken. I was a bit perplexed. What was this “Self Delivery”? Did it mean that I needed to go and pick the books up from somewhere?

At my wits end, I posted a quick tweet to the official twitter account, @flipkart, saying:

@flipkart what is “flipkart self delivery” ? How do I Track my order ?

Within a few minutes I got a short reply from Flipkart saying:

@enygmatic_in One of our people. We’ll buzz you in a bit.

And a few seconds after that, like a scene from the Matrix, my phone rang!!

A helpful customer representative from Flipkart quickly explained what “Self Delivery” was all about and assured me that my books would be delivered by Tuesday. With that one simple action, Flipkart raised my expectations of customer service to a whole new level.

I think going forward brands will need to take customer service to new heights, tying real time conversations (queries, complaints etc) on social media to faces (real customers) and delivering through both online and offline channels (like the telephone, snail mail, shop interactions etc). If done right, it has the potential to turn every customer interaction into one of more respect and admiration for the brand. With the online and offline worlds merging, like in my little tale above, I think we are about to enter a brave new world.

Oh and by the way, “Self Delivery” is Flipkart’s attempt at logistics (something I wasn’t aware of, since I hadn’t ordered anything from them since July). And if you are curious, I ordered: Birds of the Indian Subcontinent, The 33 Strategies of War by Robert Greene, The man who died laughing by Taraquin Hall, Blowback by Mukul Deva.

Yeah, aspiring bank robbers always have an “accomplice” present when making “large” cash withdrawals..

It was 7:00 am and my alarm rang dutifully with its high pitched whine. I promptly hit the snooze button and went off to sleep. About 5 minutes later the phone rang, cutting through the deep abyss of sleep.

Lady on phone (in Kannada): Manju? (Or something thereabouts)
Me: Sorry, Wrong Number

Five minutes later:

Man on phone (in Kannada): Manju?
Me: (by now, wondering who this Manju is) Nope, Wrong Number.

Another five minutes later:

Lady again: Some rapid fire Kannada sentences and then Manju?
Me: (in silent desperation, rueing the lost sleep) Sorry, This is the wrong number. Please don’t call again.

After this, it seemed like some the callers had given up trying to contact Manju and I thought that was the end of it and I’d get to sleep peacefully again. But I think I was being too hopeful for about 10 minutes later the phone rang again:

Lady: Manju?
Me: For the 10th time, this is the wrong number!!!
Lady: (Finally guessing, I don’t understand a word of Kannada) *Something something* English *Something*
Passes phone to man. I am hopeful that he will understand English. But…
Man (now on phone): Manju??
Me: (Inwardly regretting for not putting the phone on silent mode) Wrong Number, Sir.

Five minutes later, sure enough the phone rings again. I am now at my wits end on how to get rid of this caller.

Lady: Manju?
Me: (Let’s try broken Kannada, maybe it will work) Sorry, I don’t speak Kannada and this is wrong number (or near enough in Kannada)
Lady: Oh so you are not Manju? So then who are you? (in Kannada)
Me: (FacePalm) Disconnect phone

Finally after much pain, they got the message that I am not Manju and the calls stopped, though not before they ruined a perfect Monday morning of blissful sleep. I think the next time I need a wakeup call I’ll ask this duo to wake me up.

Here are some observations from my short walks in a small portion of Bangalore: