Philips DVD Player 3336

Got Philips DVD 3336 as a gift from my company. Nice gift!

Really good product as it is compatible for almost every type of CD format & accepts even USB drives. Sleek & less weight!

Internet

Dial *123*10#(toll free) to check the free MB in your account in your GPRS enabled Airtel Prepaid connection.

Youngest CEO

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Suhas Gopinath

When 14-year-old Suhas Gopinath started Globals Inc ten years ago from a cyber cafe in Bengaluru, he didn't know that he had become the youngest CEO in the world.

Today, Globals is a multi-million dollar company with offices in the United States, India, Canada, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Spain, Australia, Singapore and the Middle East and has 100 employees in India and 56 abroad.

Among the several honors that have been bestowed upon this young man, the most prestigious is the invitation to be a member of the Board of the ICT Advisory Council of the World Bank..

In 2007, the European Parliament and International Association for Human Values conferred 'Young Achiever Award' on him. He was also invited to address the European Parliament and other business dignitaries assembled in the EU Parliament. He is also recognised as one of the 'Young Global Leaders' for 2008-2009 by the prestigious World Economic Forum.

Suhas is the youngest member ever in the World Economic Forum's history. The other members include the Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal, Hollywood star Leonardo Di Caprio, musician A R Rahman, Prince of Brunei, etc.

In this interview from his office in Bengaluru, Suhas Gopinath talks about his decade long journey and his dreams for the future.

Suhas Gopinath with former President APJ Abdul Kalam

· On his childhood:

I come from a middle class family. My father worked as a scientist for the Indian Army. I used to study in the Air Force school in Bengaluru.

As a child, I was more interested in animals and veterinary science. But when I saw my friends who had home computers talk about it, I had this urge to learn and talk in their wave length.

But we didn't have a computer at home. In those days, computers were very expensive and we couldn't afford one.

So, what I did was, I located an Internet cafe near my house. With my modest monthly pocket money of Rs 15, I couldn't afford to surf the net every day.

I noticed that the shop was closed in the afternoon from 1 PM to 4 PM. So, I offered to open the shop for him after my school hours and take care of the customers.

In the bargain, he let me browse the net for free. That was the first business deal of my life and it turned out to be a successful one.

Suhas with Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates

· On building websites using open source technology:

Once I got the chance to manage the shop and browse the net, I started building websites. It became my passion in no time.

I got hooked to open source technology after I started looking for e-books on how to build websites. They were not available as they were created in propriety sources.

So, I started using open source to build websites.

On getting the first contract to build a website

There is a freelance marketplace on the web where I could register and offer my services to build websites. I registered myself there as a website builder.

The first website I had to do was free of cost as I had no references. It was for a company in New York.

My first income was $100 when I was 13 for building another website but I didn't have a bank account. so, I told my father that I built a website and got paid for it.

I was not excited to get the money because money was not a factor that drew me to it. It was the passion for technology that attracted me. I used to build websites free of cost also. I was only a 9th standard student.

After that, I built my own portal and called it Coolhindustan.com. It was focused on NRIs. It was a portal where I wanted to showcase my skills.

After that, many companies approached me to be their web designer.

Suhas Gopinath speaking to students' at a conference in Austria

· On buying his first computer

When I was in the 9th standard itself, I had made enough money to buy a computer for myself. At that time, my brother was studying engineering and my father thought he needed a computer.

In no time, I also bought one for myself. But we didn't have a net connection at home.

My spending hours in the net cafe working on websites did affect my studies. I spent the entire summer vacation after the 9th standard in the cafe.

On rejecting a job offer from the US

When I was 14, Network Solutions offered me a part-time job in the US and they said they would sponsor my education in the US. I rejected the offer because that was the time I had read a story about Bill Gates and how he started Microsoft.

I thought it was more fun to have your own company. Many US companies used to tell me that I didn't even have a moustache and they felt insecure taking my services. They used to connect my ability with my age and academic qualifications.

So, I wanted to start my own company and show the world that age and academic qualifications are immaterial. I decided then that when I started a company, I would recruit only youngsters and I would not ask for their academic qualifications and marks cards. I follow that in my company.

Gopinath delivering a lecture at the DLD Conference

· On starting his own company at 14

Soon after my 9th standard summer vacation, I started my own company, Globals Inc. I wanted the name Global or Global Solutions but both were not available, so I named it Globals.

I registered my company in the US as in India, you will not be able to start a company unless you are 18. It takes only 15 minutes to start a company in the US.

I became the owner and CEO of the company. My friend, an American who was a university student, became a board member.

I was very excited because that was what I wanted to do. From that day, I started dreaming of making my company as big as Microsoft.

· On doing badly in school

In my pre-board CBSE exam, I failed in Mathematics. The school headmistress was shocked because that was the first time I had failed in any subject. She called my mother and said she was horrified by my performance.

At home, like any typical South Indian mother, my mother made me swear on her head that I would focus on academics.

I told my mother that the world's richest man Bill Gates had not completed his education. Why do you force me then, I asked her. She then said, I am sure his horoscope and yours are not the same!

I come from a family where entrepreneurship is considered a sin. My mother was quite upset. She wanted me to do engineering, then an MBA and work in a good company.

As per my mother's wishes, I took a four-month sabbatical from my company and studied for my board exam. I passed with a first class.

I still feel that you cannot restrict yourself to bookish knowledge. I believe that practical knowledge is more important.

In the first year, the turnover of Globals Inc was Rs 1 lakh (Rs 100,000). The second year, the turnover went up to Rs 5 lakh (Rs 500,000).

Suhas receiving the Incredible Europe Innovation Award at Vienna

· On looking at Europe as a market

Till I was 16 or 17, I didn't tell my parents that I had started a company. I kept it a secret because I thought they would object to it. They only knew that I was a freelancer.

We used to build websites and also offer online shopping and e commerce solutions. We even gave part time work to a few programmers in the US when we got many projects but we never had any office.

When I was 16, I saw that there were enormous business opportunities in Europe as a majority of the Indian IT companies were working for American companies.

When I contacted a Spanish company, it rejected my offer saying Indians do not know Spanish. As an entrepreneur, you can't accept rejection, especially when you are young.

I hired five student interns from some Spanish universities and told them they would be paid based on their successful sales.

They were the people who met the companies and bagged the projects for us. By now, we decided to have a home office in Spain.

I replicated the same model in Italy. I contacted some Italian university students.

Suhas meeting with Sheikha Nayhan, Minister for Higher Education, the UAE

· On going to Germany to talk about entrepreneurship

The American newspapers were writing a lot about me as the world's youngest CEO at 14 from India, from a middle class background.

It was a good story for the BBC also. I never expected to be in the limelight. For me, starting a company was like realising a passion of mine.

On seeing these stories, a B-school in Germany invited me to talk to its students on entrepreneurship. I was 17 then. By now, I had completed my 12th standard and had joined Engineering in Bengaluru.

When I was 18, we set up an office -- the European HQ in Bonn. Then, we moved to Switzerland. Six months back, we started our operations in Vienna as well.

That is how we spread our operations from a small Internet cafe to become a multinational company with significant operations in Europe, Middle East, the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, etc.

· On registering a company in India at 18

The day I turned 18, I registered our company in India as Globals, opened an office and recruited four people. I opened the office next to the Internet cafe where I started my career.

By then, he had closed shop and joined a factory as an employee. Whenever I met him, I used to tell him, 'you made me an entrepreneur but you stopped being one.'

· On moving to creating products

We wanted our company also to be a product development company and our focus was on education, like the software that manages everything about a child while in school starting from admission till he/she leaves school and becomes an alumnus.

It is a nasty software which students are going to be quite unhappy about! This software was aimed only at the Indian market. I want to be the market leader in ICT in education.

Our software is being used in more than 100 schools all over India, Singapore and the Middle East.

We are now in the process of raising funds. Once we do it, we will separate the company into two -- service and product development. I want to concentrate on products as I can't sail on two boats.

World Bank president Robert Zoellick

· On meeting former President Abdul Kalam

I met Dr Abdul Kalam when he was the President of India. I was 17 or 18 then. My meeting was scheduled for 15 minutes but we had such an intense conversation that it went on for one-and-a-half hours.

I didn't feel that I was talking to the President of India. We talked like two friends. He was sitting in his chair across the table but after some time, he came and sat next to me. He is such a modest person that it was a learning experience for me.

· On being on the board of the World Bank

As per the wishes of my parents, I joined engineering but didn't complete my engineering: like Bill Gates! When I was in my 5th semester, the World Bank invited me to attend their board meeting. I am the only Indian on the board of the World Bank.

The objective was to explore how ICT can improve the quality of education in the emerging economies, by bringing in accountability and transparency in their financial deeds.

Robert B. Zoellick, the president of the World Bank, decided that they could not have only Americans on the board and needed people from across the world. As they were focusing on education, they wanted young minds to add value to the work.

He preferred a young mind from an emerging country and that was how I got the invitation in 2005. Not even in my wildest dreams did I imagine that I would be on the board of the World Bank. The invitation was the most unforgettable moment in my life. I report directly to Robert B Zoellick!

Some of the others on the board are the CEO of Cisco, the vice president of Microsoft and the CEO of SAP; all Fortune 500 companies and me, the only Indian!

I am helping the World Bank set policies on ICT in university education so that employability can be enhanced. My aim is to reduce the number of unemployed eligible youth in the world.

Right now, we are concentrating on Africa. Soon, I want to shift the focus on to India. It has been an amazing experience for me.

But I had to discontinue my engineering education at the time I joined the board, as I didn't have enough attendance in college!

Suhas Gopinath

· On his dreams for his company

I have always believed that IT is not just technology but a tool that can solve the problems of people.

That is what I want to do in my company.

I want my company to be a market leader in software solutions concentrating on education.

When I was younger, I didn't care about money. Now that I am responsible for my employees, I care about what we make. If I am not bothered about money, we cannot scale up our business.

When I started my company from a net cafe in Bengaluru, I never ever imagined that one day my company would be a multi-million dollar company and I would be on the World Bank board as a member.

What drives me is my passion and it has been an amazing journey so far

Indian Visa People

Yet another news on US Visa & why people in US are still hiring Indian workers for technology stuffs. Yet another way to provoke US government to take stricter measures for reducing the outsourcing, reducing the visa count & refining the US schooling system.

EVM

At one end, there was a news saying that a company is demoing the vulnerability of EVM in Hyderabad. And at the other end, there was another news saying that the EVM that was used by the company is a very authentic one which was in fact stolen from some place & so, the MD of the company is in fact arrested for legal reasons:)

In fact the EC is not ready to accept the fact that EVM's can be tampered...

mChek

Ahhh... I have been facing a bit too much trouble with this mChek. I really don't understand how or why they are not making things easy.

• First of all, the SIM is not getting the mChek menu items to my mobile, after activation.
• The customer care execs are of no help. They really are worse.
• Then, I went to the internet to recharge directly.
• I have no idea to which mobile my credit card is already locked into. I tried to delete all the previous accounts on which my credit card would have been used.
• Then I tried my debit card & the response is, to use a card given by an Indian bank...Totally ridiculous.
• Then, I went ahead with another credit card & before I could completely understand if the transaction is complete or not, the recharge went thru. Got no idea, how things are said to be made customer friendly & yet, they are so bad.

Lesser H1B's?

Democratic Party senators Chuck Schumer and Claire McCaskill moved the Bill in the US Senate on Thursday (Friday morning, India time). “A handful of foreign-controlled companies that operate in the US—such as Wipro, Tata, Infosys and Satyam—rely on H-1B and L visas to import foreign workers to the US,” said McCaskill in a statement on her website. “The Senate Democrats’ border security proposal would increase the visa fees paid by these companies by roughly $2,000 per visa application.”

News Article - So, for sure even companies which consider sponsoring H1B will take a back step & reconsider the additional expense of 2000 bucks. For people who sponsor their own H1B's using consultants will have their troubles of paying 1 lac more. I guess, companies hereafter will themselves ask their employees to bear some cost of the H1B visa processing fee before they get to an agreement of even sending to US

Taking Kindle - Head On

Recently, I could say that I had a very close encounter to get in touch with Kindle & play with it for a long time to come. But somehow things didn't go as expected & it was more of a disappointment for me. Because, I know there is going to be such a fierce competition for Amazon's Kindle when placed against any other e-book readers which are up-coming. I was in fact very positive that Amazon will go offense - will have to add more value to the product for the money spent & at the same time get the price reduced.
But in the wake of IPAD, I just wonder what is Amazon's winning strategy.

ATM Pin Reversal

I don't know this, but for sure, is really good to know.
If you should ever be forced by a robber to withdraw money from an ATM machine, you can notify the police by entering your PIN # in reverse. For example, if your pin number is 1234, then you would put in 4321. The ATM system recognizes that your PIN number is backwards from the ATM card you placed in the machine. The machine will still give you the money you requested, but unknown to the robber, the police will be immediately dispatched to the location. This information was recently broadcast on CTV by Crime Stoppers however it is seldom used because people just don't know about it.
I tried looking for related video in Youtube but couldn't find...

Unlock your car

It seems you can unlock your car using your mobile phone. Well, I haven't tried it but thought of sharing...

• Give your car remote to your friend in some other place.
• You stand next to your car & have your mobile.
• Call your friend.
• Let your friend press the unlock button in your car remote, having the remote close to his mobile.
• Your car is unlocked. Is it?

Sixth Sense... Pranav

Blu Ray... Is it?

I have been waiting to hear this news story for a long time - probably from the time i started blogging - like anyone else in the world... Which format of DVD is gonna win?

Seems like Blu Ray is making its impact. What are the statistics? Sony, Fox & Disney are ardent fans of Blu Ray. Lately, Warner Bros attached themselves to Blu. With that goes all of HBO & New Line. Blockbuster has now its word for Blu Ray. The remaining majors are Universal & Paramount pictures including Dreamworks. With Universal also claiming that their exclusive commitment to Toshiba's HD DVD is ending, in no time Blu Ray will be all over.

Blu Ray better got to start working on customer friendly features on top of its heavy storage capability.

Wireless...

After I have landed back in India, at last I found sometime to set up my Wireless router (with 220V to 12V adapters for the US modem which has its 120V power supply etc). Felt so good to set it up and now I want to access things wireless using the laptop which I have.

The one I have is provided from the company & is Dell Latitude D600 with Intel Centrino Mobile. As I used to do before, I thought this'll also be a very smooth process - MAC, WPA, Access List, Static IP, Modems etc. Everything is ready except the Wireless properties under 'Local Area Connection' properties or the wireless icon in system tray. So, after some initial analysis & setting up things in bios, I'm still not able to get my notebook connect to my router.

Fn+F2 is also not working. Rather I'm not sure if it is working or not. And the best thing is there is quite some references in internet about this but nothing really useful. I also tried the Dell Support site but in vain. Still trying...

Titanic Revisited

So, the news of yet another Cruise ship getting hit by an ice berg and is now being in the verge of sinking reminds us only of Titanic. Though now, there are no dying passengers as reported and everyone is safe enough.

But even after such a long time from Titanic, do we conclude that people haven't learnt a lesson about such tragedies? The whole cruise ship is sinking because it is taking water into it & the hole is because of ice berg. Can't technology find some simple solution which can look out for such items around the ship's circumference, cut them through if needed?

What More in a Mobile?

Yesterday I was seeing Nokia N95 and was having discussions with my friends on what more...

• To start with, N95 can be just upgraded only to 4GB. When iPod's are having 60GB we can't accept only 4GB upgrades. Cell phones should come to a level to replace external hard drives in short.
• Battery life need to be increased considerably.
• Along with GPS, it should start acting more like Satellite phone.
• We should be able to watch live television programs by directly linking it to satellites.
• Cell phones should in short replace laptops.
• They should have bio-thumb scanning, voice scanning, eye scanning to be accessed.
• An in built mirror
• Projector
• A credit card storer - initially to store those external credit cards & get back the ones which we need. But later the cell phone should itself become credit cards - Just store the codes to act as Visa, Mastercard, Amex or whatever. The customer selects what he wants to swipe/scan and that happens.
• An compact optical disc custom built for mobiles only which stores info, videos, movies...
  
• Looks like I can patent some of them:)
  

Cloned Monkey

Guess today's hottest headline from the medical field is the cloned monkey. When monkey can be cloned we are obviously very close to cloning humans but as always it is a question to be answered if this is going to be a good development. As far as human cloning & related stem cell growth are gonna be used for curing diseases and other such medical advancements we can be in the right path.

Have you watched the movie 'The Island'? The concept was great - cloned human beings who live a real life are basically available as medical insurance for rich actuals. If the 'actual' lose a limb, then the respective clone's limb will be used as a replacement hence extending the life of humans by double & more. So, if humans are cloned then we may probably be getting into such cases...

By the way, is Kamal's 'Dasaavathaaram' based on human cloning?

Air Conditioner Criteria

I happened to run a quick research on Air Conditioners and how to select one of them... But the number of criteria seems to be a lot. So just look for the following if you are making a decision.

• Brand
• Price
• Window or Split
  
• Dimension (in door, out door)
  
• BTU (Ton) - This depends on your room capacity. 12000 BTU = 1 ton. And the products range from 8000 to 36000 BTUs. Also, remember to select the BTU based on the total volume that'll be empty in the room, how much will be the usual temperature in the room, how many people & how often do they access the room, which floor the room is in if you are staying in multi-storied building. (Check reference)
  
• EER (represents energy saving) - Move closer to 10.78
• Noise Level - Products range from 25 to 50
• Type of compressor - Rotary (is preferred with less noise) vs Reciprocating
  
• Digital (non-analog)
  
• Fan Speed settings (how many)
• Air direction
• Types of filters - Anti-Bacteria, deo-odorizing (Some new varieties are Plasma etc)
• Ease of cleaning filter
  
• Dehumidification
• Auto restart, Timer, Energy Saver - Really helps in saving energy
• Warranty
• Remote Control
• Preferable - Fast cooling, Child lock
  

Cars' Onstar

There was a day in US when I went for an auto show and I did get a chance to drive any car I like. There were so many options that I had to run for next choice because I had that only day to drive the best & the luxurious cars of today.

In that auto show, I had my first experience of OnStar technology in one of the GM cars. I was in the car which was central locked. On press of the OnStar button, a customer service rep started conversing. I asked about the location of the car and they could tell that. So, now I really wanna test them and so asked them to unlock the car & start the ignition. Voila! The next moment all doors showed unlock & the car started. How nice!

And now the technology has taken one more step further by controlling the speed of the vehicle. As of now, they have taken this to a level where a stolen car can be stopped (by not allowing fuel to flow to the engine) from remote location, ofcourse after getting confirmation from the car vehicle owner & the cops.

I think this technology should become more sophisticated where if the car exceeds the defined speed limit in the location by more than 5Miles/Hour, then warning should be shown to the driver and if the driver continues to do the mistake for more than a specified time, the car should automatically start slowing down and go to auto cruise at the defined speed limit. And we can take this a lot more further...

Electricity... W/o Wires...

Who would not look forward to this - Wireless way of transferring electricity?

I have always wanted this to happen, & atlast a news on the same. Hope, this comes reacheable soon for daily use.

To Move...You Think

This is kind of cool. All we need is a brain implant and we are almost ready to work on our computer without touching the mouse:)

And the simple strategy is, our spinal cord is by-passed. Well, the neural signals from brain that are supposed to be transferred to the hand mucles and finger nerves via the spinal cord are received by the Interface called the BrainGate, implanted, decode them and transfer them to the computer as mouse movement signals.

And the experiment has been successful on a patient who is paralysed.

The first of those is Matthew Nagle of Weymouth, Mass., who has been paralyzed from the neck down since his spinal cord was severed five years ago. After receiving his implant two years ago... The device allowed him to open e-mail, draw circles using a paint program and play a simple video game - using only his thoughts. -- CBC News

That's worth an invention to keep someone happy who has lost one half of his/her body movements!