I wuld have probably dropped out. Yes, that’s right! I would have probably dropped out. I was in college during the peak time of the dot-com boom, and there’s no way I would have stayed in college and forgone the great opportunities in the economy back then.
Even in India, I was able to experience the rise of the dot-com era in a very spectacular way, and I am pretty sure that things would have been a lot different for me if I were in the US. Who knows, I could …

I just came across this company called Redbox that directly competes with Blockbuster video for DVD rentals and sales. Basically, the business model is about setting up kiosks at various McDonalds and grocers that enable self checkout of movies. The price is $1 for a day and the return is due at 7PM the next day.
It makes sense because Redbox started out as a McDonalds subsidiary and is 47.3% owned by the people at Coinstar, who specialize in coin exchanging kiosks across the US.
At present, the only locations served by …

I am working on a new project, and what’s different this time is that since it’s not a coursework project, I am having to deal with requirements planning, engineering, and source versioning. Working in an academic setting usually means that the infrastructure is already in place, and you just have to start writing code. Hence, software projects have a short design to production time span.
In the real world, I am collaborating with others on project requirements, design documents, and various other nitty gritty. On top of that, I am having …

I have switched to Google for managing my domain’s email from my hosting provider. The main reason was the growing email traffic that was consuming a lot of storage resources.
My first impressions of the free beta service are good. The interface is clear, and resembles that of Gmail. Every user gets exactly 2GB of email storage space, and there are 25 free users per domain. There’s no other difference compared to the basic Gmail service.
What remains to be seen is how long this beta remains free. I am enjoying it …

I am sure everyone is aware of the raging debate over what is being called “Net Neutrality”. There’s a bill pending in the US Senate that deals with how our Internet experience is going to be fed to us in the coming years.
The first time I wrote anything about this ‘corporate plan’ was back in December 2005. The ISPs and telecom service providers were just opening up about this idea back then. What has become of the idea right now is a complete mess, a corporate disaster, and essentially undemocratic.
I …