Mehul's thoughts on stocks & technology - Blog

Announcing the launch of WatchPlanet.in

Sun, 24 Jan 2010 10:50:40 -0800

Well, things have changed a lot in last one year, and it's with great pleasure that I announce the launch of our website for wrist watches:
http://WatchPlanet.in : online portal to buy quality wrist watches in India.

What's more ?

We have a new blog, http://WatchPlanet.in/blog : this blog will mainly feature articles related to e-commerce etc., so wanted to mention it just in case....

Wishlist for September 9 event ( Apple)

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 12:31:47 -0800

To read the complete wishlist, please visit:

http://mehuljain.in/technology/wishlist-for-apples-september-9-event/

Also, starting tomorrow, this site will directly forward to mehuljain.in. Please update your RSS feed if interested.

Thanks,
Mehul

Wonderful web 2.0 discovery: zoho.com

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 03:42:32 -0800

Summary:
A post on the wonderful web 2.0 (SaaS) services that Zoho.com has to offer. Zoho offers a great variety of apps (for free*) including Mail hosting, CRM, Invoice management etc. that can be a blessing for almost all the small business owners.. A definite must try for business owners!

For the full article, please visit www.mehuljain.in ( my new wordpress blog)

Note: Please update your RSS link to:

http://mehuljain.in/feed/

This site, www.mehuljain.com, will directly start forwarding to www.mehuljain.in, starting September 1, 2009.

Thank you!

Transition to wordpress etc.

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 14:34:14 -0800

I guess I am dropping here after a whole month or so...

Things I have been busy with:

1. Migrating from weebly.com to wordpress : I finally decided it was time to move to a more powerful blogging platform. Wordpress seems to have endless options for almost everything. Migrating each post manually was sort of a pain. But the new blog is almost ready. It's still on www.mehuljain.in and I need to link the two.

Even after my best efforts, I think there will still be a lot of broken internal links etc...

I guess the rss feed will get broken too...please go to mehuljain.in and subscribe to the new one just in case. I'll try my best to link the two, but don't really know how easy that's going to be.

2. Learning oscommerce etc: I am in the process of launching an ecommerce site. While searching for website designers, I spoke to a couple of them, and most of them wanted to use oscommerce. Curiousity got the better half of me, and I devoted several late nighters to oscommerce. It's basically an open source e-commerce solution. Quite a few templates are available online, and it's not very tough to install them. I was able to launch a fully functional e-c0mmerce site, but customizing the template took way too much time. I finally decided that I am better off getting it customized by professional designers :)

3. Finding right professionals online: Don't know if addicted really fits the category, but I have been using guru.com alot to find the right people to work on several IT projects. Posting projects is easy ( easier than rentacoder.com i think), and the response is very decent.

Well, before I end, I must thank indiblogger.in for awarding me 48 Rank. Not sure if that's a big deal...., but well, having a rank is so much better than having no rank at all :)

Thank you indiblogger!

Windows XP to Windows 7: An inevitable journey for the Corporate World

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 12:59:03 -0800

I won't be far off the mark if I say that this decade clearly belonged to XP. Windows XP was first launched in 2001, and as far as I can recall, it took a while for people to give up their love for Windows 98, and move up to XP. Though the product at launch was unstable and buggy, Microsoft improved the stability and performance over time (matching Bill Gates's philosphy in 'Business@Speed of Thought').
Windows Vista, released worldwide in 2007, received a lukewarm response from the corporate world (though it sold twice as many copies as XP in the first month itself). The terrible initial reviews, gazillions of compatibility issues, licensing costs, very short life span etc., all fueled the corporate world's hesitation towards Vista. It even managed to get #2 spot on Tech's all time top 25 flops.
Now that Windows 7 release date is around the corner, corporate world should get ready for the migration journey and start thinking about making some investments in IT again. While the extended support for XP won't end till 2014, I am not sure if it'll be possible for organizations to procure new copies and licenses after an year or two. Gartner is suggesting companies to move over to Windows 7 by 2011 / 2012.
I guess, you really have to work in a large company to appreciate the time and money it takes to make this journey. There are countless internal / customized softwares and applications, all of which need to be tested for security and compatibility. That's apart from validating the OS itself. Then, the licensing costs for the OS, and other third part apps come into the picture.
This time however, no matter how much it costs the companies, they will have to migrate to Windows 7! Though companies succeeded in avoiding Vista, thanks to XP's extended availability and support, this time around, that won't be the case. I guess the good news is, the initial reviews of windows 7 are very encouraging. The OS is supposed to be a lot faster, and also a lot less annoying ( as compared to Vista)
Only time will tell how successful Windows 7 will be, but if I had to bet, I'll put all my money on Windows 7!Speaking of money, I think, as the economy gets back on the track by mid 2010, and companies get ready to invest in IT, it might be a good time to buy stocks like Intel (NASDAQ: INTC), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), HP (NYSE: HPQ), and Dell (NASDAQ: DELL)
My prediction about Windows 7's success should in NO way undermine my loyalty towards Apple. I remain as always, a loyal fan! :) It's just that the premium price tag and a totally different architecture keeps most of the corporate world away from the awesomeness that is APPLE!

Technology and workplace: The last 50 years

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 12:48:58 -0800

As someone who started office life not so long ago, I wanted to take time today & write about how the technology has transformed the workplace in the last fifty years or so.
In 1943, the president of IBM predicted that there was a world market for maybe five computers. Now, sixty six years later, imagine how the work will be affected if the computers stop working! Each and everything will come to a halt, period!

Even though data intensive organizations like banks used computers even in 1950s, they were HUGE, ridiculously expensive & kept in special climate controlled rooms. It wasn’t until 1981 when IBM released it's PC that the world actually took serious notice. PCs became more and more popular, & more commercial apps like Lotus 1-2-3 were launched. Once computer had a solid foothold, Internet which till later 1980s was primarily used for military, research & education started peeking into the corporate world as well. Rest of it is relatively recent history, worldwide web, emails, cellphones & now e-commerce.
In the last fifty years or so, technology has completely overhauled the workplace again & again. First the computers became mainstream and then the internet and email. A lot of companies already have an intranet messenger or at the very least use one of the popular messengers to facilitate easy communication between employees. Almost all the meetings are over the phone or internet now & very often, meetings comprise of people spanning multiple continents! Corporate emails & messenger are now finding their way to smartphones, & a new culture of “work anytime anywhere” is being promoted.So, in short for people who started their career about 40 – 50 years ago, it’s very hard to imagine how many changes they have adapted to in a relatively short span of time.
Now, the question is, should we not expect a similar (or much faster) transformation curve in the next 40-50 years? There is absolutely no reason to think why the work place won’t evolve at a fast pace! While it’s almost impossible to predict what the changes will be, we can try & make an educated guess:

- Cloud computing: I guess I believe in it very strongly, but I think in the next 5-6 years, any device with a screen & an input channel that has access to network will be able to provide you with all your data no matter where and how it is stored.

- Avatar: I think our avatars will eventually lead a much more meaningful life online. Even today, several virtual platforms exist today (most notable being “Second Life”) however, there will be a lot of raised eyebrows in the room if you tell them that you spent real money (or Linden dollars) for buying a new pair of shoes for your avatar. However, I think as people develop more mainstream uses for the virtual life, avatar’s will become more important. For example, consider attending an e-conference with people from around the world while you are “working from home”. You might or might not be very comfortable with 10s of people watching you on webcam, but I am sure your avatar won’t be “camera shy”! Infact, all the avatars could potentially meet up in a virtual meeting room & discuss matters that will change the world! (Hey, you better buy land in Second Life while the Linden dollar is still cheap!)

- During the presidential elections in US, CNN used a holographic technique which received a lukewarm reception. Nevertheless, it can have some very interesting applications in relation to “avatar” point above.

Nokia 5130: I and Nokia meet again!

Sat, 30 May 2009 12:42:16 -0800

I used to be an avid Nokia fan till about 3 years back. I knew all the Nokia phones and model numbers by heart, and it was my favourite hobby to identify the phones whenever I saw them. Around that time I was using Nokia 6620, and I was absolutely in love with its design. But eventually, I got a feeling that Nokia had stopped innovating. They had started to come up with run of the mill phones with exact same software. I parted my way with Nokia, and eventually shifted to Sony Ericsson W810, Motorola Q, Treo, Blackberry and Samsung Instinct.

Now, that I needed a phone again, I decided to give Nokia another shot. I went to a store and it didn’t take very long for me to pick Nokia 5130 out of the crowd. It’s one of the phones in the XpressMusic series.

Nokia XpressMusic 5130

Here's what I really like about this phone:

1. It looks very elegant. It's hip and classy at the same time...if that's actually possible.

2. The music player is mind blowingly awesome. It is dead simple to use, and the in-built speakers are surprisingly good and LOUD. I don't think the walkman series phones like W810 stand any chance, atleast as far as speaker sound quality is concerned. The interface is a whole different story, and I am noti going there.

3. The screen resolution isn't the best ofcourse, but it's satisfactory.

4. I was impressed by the inbuilt Opera mini browser. Haven't used this phone for browsing much, but I have nothing but praise to shower upon the Opera browser!

5. Then some small things like ambient light sensor, bluetooth stereo are always nice to have.

p.s. I am not comparing this phone to the Treos, Blackberries et all. All I am saying is , it's good to be back in Nokia's world! and this phone most definitely gives a good bang for the buck!

For an exhaustive review, please check GSMArena.

Out of Office...or well Out of Home! till May 28th

Thu, 21 May 2009 23:34:10 -0800

I'll be travelling a lot for the next couple of days, so will be hopping in and out of here. I'll use any time that i can find to catch up with all the blogs, and may be post a thing or two here.

Till then, take care!

Mobile technology and work life: Work anywhere, anytime (ALL the time!)

Tue, 19 May 2009 23:00:57 -0800

Mobile office. Image taken from http://www.iftelecom.com.au

Ok, I am just bad at coming up with catchy names! I try, but well, let’s just leave it at that…

Till early 2007, I was more or less unaccustomed to the sheer awesomeness of web @ mobile devices! Occasionally, I had seen people glued to their blackberries, but their importance in worklife hadn’t dawned upon me. It’s only in summer 2007 that I got my first Treo (and the data plan to go with it) and suddenly a whole new world opened up for me. The whole experience of having information at my fingertips anytime and anywhere I wanted was almost like a divine revelation!

I am not at all exaggerating, that’s exactly how it was! Suddenly, I was reading news, engadget.com etc., and replying to emails while stuck in a traffic jam, or while standing in a line, waiting for a movie to start….pretty much all the time! Both personal and professional productivity got a super boost…I had so much more time to catch up with current events, latest gadgets, financial news etc..

It doesn’t matter if you are working an 8-5 job, or running your own business. It doesn’t matter whether you want to play along or not, mobile technology is changing the whole work culture and dynamics, and it is here to stay! Slowly, more and more employers and businesses are realizing that it’s to their advantage that employees stay connected via Blackberries, treos etc! It’s an investment that’s worth every single penny.

While trying to make a case for this, it’s only fair that I share my experience and how it has changed my work habits and personal attitude. The experience with Treo was an eye opener ofcourse. It didn’t matter where I was, or what I was doing, I had access to all the information whenever I wanted. My boss didn’t have to wait for me to come back from lunch to get answers to questions that would help move the project along. If an urgent meeting was set up for early next morning after I called it a day, I didn’t miss it anymore. A few months later, I moved to a blackberry, and my mobile experience immediately went up a few notches! Now, I got access even to the corporate messenger etc. I was never more approachable and available to people. I could feel the immediate difference in productivity. Having most up to date information all the time gives you a sense of confidence, and in some cases, an edge over the others.

I can’t imagine it being any different for business owners. It’s about having all the information you need to make important decisions available at your fingertips. If you don’t make an effort to reach out to your customers the fastest possible way, someone else for sure will!

Some of the biggest arguments I have heard against this are:

-          I don’t want to be a workaholic

-          If I am not at my desk, I am UNAVAILABLE!

-          Once I am out of office, I am OUT!

-          I am not getting paid for this…

-          Waiting another hour before replying isn’t going to bring the Earth to a halt

I am not saying these points aren’t right…there should be a balance between work and personal life, but this is not about that. I agree, once in a while it does get crazy. I have been there…replied to emails at 10 in the night. Most of the times, it’s just about having the right information at your fingertips whenever you need it. It’s about improving your work efficiency and reaching out to people, teammates, and customers sooner. And lastly, it’s about adapting faster and faster to the changes in schedules, requirements and unexpected incidents.

And I’ll sum it up by just saying that if you are not ready for this…there are thousands of people who are! Employers will find employees who are more available and more adaptable to changing office dynamics, and customers will find better informed (and more available) businesses! If you are absolutely sure that no one else in the world can do your work, or provide services that your businesses does, then go ahead and keep using your Moto Razr! If you aren’t so sure..then I urge you to be more open to this rewarding experience!

I can make the exact same case for Web 2.0, but I’ll leave that for a later time!

Revolutionizing Restaurants with Microsoft Surface

Mon, 18 May 2009 00:55:03 -0800

Microsoft has been investing heavily on its Surface product for some time now. Microsoft believes that the product will be embedded in all aspects of life, right from bedroom, kitchen and closet, to bars and restaurants. Right now the price is probably one of the main factors that's preventing Surface from telling what I can do with the flour (lol!, see the video below), but eventually the price is going to come down, or hopefully a lot of scaled down versions will hit the market.

Though, I think talking to the kitchen part in the video above is very unnatural and somewhat creepy, the rest of the ideas are super cool. (Especially, extending the phone's desktop to Surface and pushing data to the Cloud) While, I can think of hundreds of uses and applications, I particularly like the idea of implementing Surface at the restaurants. Consider the scenarios...
Once you get seated, you bring up the menu on Surface and browse through all the options. Selecting an item brings up pictures, ingredients, user rating/reviews and other useful information. To order, you just press the 'order button', and even enter special notes for the Chef. When the Iced Tea starts running low, the waiter automatically gets notified, and you don't have to wait for the waiter to look at you to get more drinks! Once you are done with the food, you could split the check with friends any way you want, and just tap the card on the table to make the payment... So much more efficient. I am sure this will be a big turnoff for a lot of people who prefer the personal touch, and the special treatment at nice cozy restaurants, but this doesn't necessarily have to be an 'either/or' thing. A picture is worth a thousand words, and a cool video still some more, so here's another one showing the implementation in restaurants. Like I said in the beginning, the price has to come down significantly before the main stream deployment even starts!