There is more to it than meets the eye

It has been a long while since my last blog post. Things have been very hectic at my startup.

In between work-related activities, I have been (re)thinking what I wrote last time in regards to Obama bowing obsequiously to the Emperor of Japan. The conclusion I reached is that my earlier comments were written in haste. There is always more to any matter than meets the eye.

Peggy Noonan mentioned in an Opinion column on WSJ that, "A picture or photograph becomes iconic only when it seems to express something that people already think." So, when Gerald Ford was incessantly ribbed (even today!) for tumbling as he came down Air Force One, it was not because he was clumsy but because his policies were bumbling. The picture iconified a growing perception.

If USA were perceived in the eyes of the world as a strong and thriving nation, the bow may have seemed gracious and "following protocol". The fact that it was not viewed as such indicates that there is a growing disillusionment on Obama's qualities as a leader.

Since that event last month, the Obama administration has successfully passed a landmark, historic Health Care reform; formulated a well articulated plan for success in Afghanistan. It is still Obama's first year in office. He has three more years to improve the economic mess that he inherited. However, they need to keep in mind that it is in the first year that inedible impressions are made. The bowing picture is not yet iconic. If they are not careful, other iconic pictures may emerge for all the wrong reasons.

Where do people find the time?

I am just amazed at how people find the time to react and respond to frivolous things.

First there was the issue of Obama's bowing to the Emperor of Japan. It is regarded as being obsequious and showing "weakness". Bloggers and analysts seem to be having a field day over this. What struck me is the huge number of vitriolic comments people are posting on these blogs/articles. Get a life people! Obama was following protocol. In India, you greet by folding your hands in front of your chest (aka "Namaste"). In Japan, you greet by bowing. If other world leaders did not do this in the past when greeting the Japanese Emperor, it only means that they did not do their homework on Japanese customs and culture. Don't make this a political issue. Surprisingly, the excellent speech that Obama gave after this greeting has not received any air time in these blogs.

Next, there is the issue of Newsweek's cover on Sarah Palin. Once again, it blows my mind that 400+ people found the time to respond to this and submit comments. At the outset, I wonder if Sarah Palin and her Going Rogue book deserves this kind of attention (she is no longer running for VP, you know). Sarah Palin has not offered any political insight concerning policy (other than parroting the party line). Come on people, get offended that she is being taken seriously - not for what she is wearing.

Is Obama a deserving winner of the Nobel Peace Prize?

I was surprised to learn that Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009. Soon after I heard, I went to the official site to see the committee's reasoning. There I found this picture of the Chairman of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee, Thorbjørn Jagland, holding a picture of the 2009 winner - with a painting of Alfred Nobel in the background. They cite Obama's, "efforts to strengthen international diplomacy" and his "vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons" and "for inspiring hope and creating a new climate in international politics" as reasons for awarding him.

I am an Obama fan and supporter. I voted for him in the last Election. However, I think that this award is premature. It is okay to give an award to school kids for effort and for being an inspiration. The bar for a Nobel Peace prize should be much higher. There needs to be significant contributions towards World Peace - similar to the actions of a Nelson Mandela (1993) or a Mother Theresa (1979).

In the past, the Peace Prize committee has shown a propensity to recognize anyone working on resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (starting with the award in 1978 to Sadat and Begin; to the award in 1994 to Arafat, Peres and Rabin). Obama has shown that he is a man who thinks of achieving world peace. He has reached out to the Muslim world. To quote former Peace Prize winner Kofi Annan (2001), "In an increasingly challenging and volatile world, President Obama has given a sense of hope and optimism to millions around the world" and "has shown that the only way forward is through genuine cooperation with other nations." However, Obama has not done anything yet.

Obama will most certainly give a stirring speech at the ceremony in December. That should not and does not make him a deserving winner. I am sure Alfred Nobel is turning in his grave.

Celebration of Life

There was a Rajeev Motwani Memorial Celebration at Stanford on Friday, September 25th.

The event was held at Stanford Memorial Church. It began with the recital of a poem, "We remember him"

In the rising of the sun and in its going down,

we remember him.

In the blowing of the wind and in the chill of winter,

we remember him.

In the opening of the buds and in the rebirth of spring,

we remember him.

In the blueness of the sky and in the warmth of summer,

we remember him.

In the rustling of the leaves and in the beauty of autumn,

we remember him.

In the beginning of the year and when it ends,

we remember him.

When we are weary and in need of strength,

we remember him.

When we are lost and sick at heart,

we remember him.

When we have joys we yearn to share,

we remember him.

So long as we live, he too shall live,

for he is now a part of us,

As we remember him.

Prof. John Hennessy then eulogized Rajeev - recollecting from the time Rajeev interviewed at Stanford to the time he came up for tenure to his numerous contributions. Each time, Rajeev far exceeded their expectations.

Robert Goldman, professor of Sanskrit at UCB, provided his blessings. He quoted from the Bhagavad Gita and called Rajeev a stithaprajna - the perfect man; a man of unshakeable intellect. He concluded with the Upanishad mantra, Asatoma sadgamaya.

Rajeev's daughter, Naitri Jadeja, recited the Nirvana Shatakam - written by Adi Shankara.

Ram Shriram introduced Rajeev's family. This was followed by several eulogies. Sergey Brin spoke first and talked about how every meeting with Rajeev resulted in piquing his curiosity and challenging his mind. He provided a concept of a "Motwani Number" - degrees of separation from Motwani. In the spirit of remembering Rajeev, Sergey promised that every day he will help someone, teach someone and enjoy life just a little bit more. Jennifer Widom announced the $2.5m Rajeev Motwani Professorship endowed by Google. Sep Kamwar, a mentee of Rajeev spoke about the influence that Rajeev had in his career. Gautam Bhargava, a classmate of Rajeev's from IIT Kanpur recollected the college days. He announced that Rajeev has been awarded the first Pan IIT Lifetime Achievement award. Lakshmi Pratury, a family friend spoke last. The speakers ranged from distinguished to professional to personal. It was, indeed, a good selection of speakers that gave us insights into various aspects of Rajeev's rich life.

Ron Conway provided the closing remarks. He urged us all to bear the responsibility to nurture the seeds that Rajeev left behind. He also wanted everyone to stay engaged by visiting http://rememberingrajeev.com.

Creating the Next Killer Mobile Application

App Stores have hit mass market. The estimate is that by 2014, the revenues will reach $25b! Mobile data services revenue have already exceeded $10b in Q1 of 2009. The opportunity for the Next Killer Mobile Application is real and we can all smell it.

At Micello, we have been working on creating such an application for the last 8+ months. Micello did a private launch at JavaOne two months back to validate the concept. We got good visibility and some excellent feedback. We are gearing up to launch our Public Beta pretty soon (watch this space for announcements on that). In the meantime, I worked with Marina Fisher at Sun Microsystems to put together a Webinar on "Creating the Next Killer Mobile Application" that includes lessons learned, best practices and collective wisdom. The Webinar will also delve into how Micello uses Sun's technologies in the deployment stack. So, sign up here and hope to see you at the Webinar on Wednesday next week.

Cool Widget to convert Text to Speech ...

Type in text to be converted to speech and provide any US/Canada phone number - including Land Line/Mobile/VOIP and the message is read to you. You need to be my friend on Facebook to know the password

Reading a Data Disk burned on a Mac from a PC

As I had mentioned earlier, we had a family reunion to celebrate the Golden Anniversary of our parents. We had four cameras clicking away and recording the indelible moments of our journey through Southern India: Trivandrum -> Munnar -> Madurai -> Bangalore. In end, we had a collection of over 950 pictures. Since these were all 8 to 10 MP cameras, this translated to a total size of 2.7 Gb.

I decided to collect all the pictures on my MacBook Pro and burn a DVD. Imagine my dismay when folks reached their respective destinations and said, "The DVD you gave us is corrupted. My PC is not able to read it." I quickly discovered that even though Apple claims complete compatibility with a PC, the disks are not compatible. I came across a software called MacDrive that is "the ultimate solution for sharing files between Mac OS and Windows". However, this costs $49.99. I could not ask folks to spend that money just so that they can read the DVD with the pictures. Some more searching yielded this free software that did the trick. Called HFS Explorer, it allows you to browse Mac volumes and extract files onto your PC.

It worked like a charm. After the program started, I said "Load System from Device":

Then I said, "Extract" and specified the Directory on the PC. About 2 hours later, all the photos were on the PC.