Here’s my address to the graduating class the IITM BS Program today: Make five new friends today. Your CGPA is what you’re most focused on. When I graduated, my CGPA helped me get a job. It didn’t help much after that. Getting that job helped me for the four years I worked there. That’s it. The things I learnt in class helped a bit longer. Maybe six years. There is a long tail. ...
Dharmendra Singh shared how they built an app with AI. That’s normal. I’m just thrilled they used client transcripts as the source. Basically, they converted the “voice of the client” to working software. To quote them: “A strong spoken business narrative can be converted into a usable product brief quickly when the capture step is disciplined.” You know what this means? Interviewing is a skill to hire for. Better questions = better answers = better apps. ...
Arindam Roy suggested a business idea post-COVID: an online QR code for business cards. The benefits are clear. Never print or carry cards. The scanned card goes straight to the other person’s contacts. There might be social metrics we could capture as well. That idea never got past the discussion stage, though I’ve begged for it a few times. Last year, I decided to use existing tools to solve the problem. My current approach: generate a vCard QR code. ...
Here’s the easiest way to set up a Windows XP virtual machine that I could find. (This is useful if you want to try out programs without installing it on your main machine; test your code on a new machine; or test your website on IE6 / IE7 / IE8.) Go to the Virtual PC download site. (I tried VirtualBox and VMWare Player. Virtual PC is better if you’re running Windows on Windows.) If you have Windows 7 Starter or Home, select “Don’t need XP Mode and want VPC only? Download Windows Virtual PC without Windows XP Mode.” If you have Windows Vista or Windows 7, select “Looking for Virtual PC 2007?” Download it. (You may have to jump through a few hoops like activation.) Download Windows XP and run it to extract the files. (It’s a 400MB download.) Open the “Windows XP.vmc” file – just double-clicking ought to work. At this point, you have a working Windows XP version. (The Administrator password is “Password1”.) Under Tools – Settings – Networking – Adapter 1, select “Shared Networking (NAT)” That’s pretty much it. You’ve got a Windows XP machine running inside your other Windows machine. ...
Recently, I have ended up giving bits of advice to people recruiting at start-ups, and a few patterns have emerged that are worth sharing. Before I go ahead, I should warn you that I have no qualifications whatsoever. (All consulting advice should come with this caveat, perhaps!) You might be better off reading Joel Spolsky’s Smart and Get Things Done (read). I haven’t read it myself, but from what little I see of it, the thoughts seem similar. ...
Google’s internal subdomains.
500 mile e-mail: the story of a server that would not send e-mail beyond 500 miles.
The next geek dinner is with Tim O’Reilly. Have to attend!
The next London Geek Dinner is on July 11th. I’ve registered.
There was a geek dinner at London yesterday. Pity I didn’t know about it.
My Blogtree.
Effective networking.
Apple’s got wireless DSL. Wow!
The McKinsey presentation was this evening at Lord’s. Yes, that’s the Lord’s Cricket Ground. So at 7PM, there was this huge crowd of people strolling over to the Nursery Pavillion, wondering why Lord’s had a square cricket pitch. Google and AskJeeves haven’t given me an answer yet. McKinsey’s presentation had two high points. First, it was mercifully brief. The entire presentation was for 2 or 3 minutes, and all that this partner said was, “Hey, we love LBS. You know about us. So we’re all standing here, here, and here. Come over and talk to us.” ...
The session on Mergers, MBOs and other corporate reorganizations by Paulo Volpin started 5 minutes late. Reason: They had a problem with the computer projector. Fixing it turned out to be a hi-tech exercise, though. A guy came in with some kind of a hand-held device, pointed it around like a remote control, and the projector was on. 6:05PM – 5 minutes lost. 5 minutes later, “IP address conflict”. The Professor gives up and moves on to trusty slides. He came prepared. ...