Wow!

[Full Disclosure: I own HPQ stock. The following blog post, however, is not written from a shareholder perspective. These opinions, as the others in my blog, are solely my own]

I mean WOW! In my blogging past, I have heaped praise on two CEO's:

1. Ramalinga Raju and
2. Mark Hurd

Ramalinga Raju is currently in Hyderabad's Chanchalguda jail and Mark Hurd has been unceremoniously dismissed as the CEO of HP. I wonder what drives these (and other) talented individuals to such grave deeds of misconduct (I provide an POV later in this posting)

Sexual misconduct/ethical lapses and Corporate world are certainly not strangers. Recently, IBM's Robert Moffat resigned on an insider-trading charge after "becoming intimate" with tipster Danielle Chiesi. I agree with Chris O'Brien that the circumstances of Hurd's dismissal are mysterious - especially with the comment that Hurd would keep $20,000 in his shoe :) However, I disagree with Chris in wondering if Hurd had to go. Curiously, it was the same Hurd that spoke not too long ago of the ethical challenges that he faces in running a large, global company :) If there is one thing I admired about the leadership at Sun it was the high moral ground maintained by its executives (Sun won the award for the World's Most Ethical Company). They may have been recognized as the worst leaders in American History (for the record, I do not share that opinion), but they did their jobs ethically :)

Given the increased scrutiny in a post Enron world, you wonder what were Hurd, Moffat, et al thinking? We are not talking about minor reckless driving incidents before they became the CEO of large corporations. We are also not talking about improprieties by sports figures. After all, the only one affected in this case is their family (not that it condones the despicable and dastardly behavior!).

There is a certain responsibility that comes with running the world's largest computer company - to the 300,000+ employees and shareholders. Words used by Tiger Woods in his apology come to mind, "I convinced myself that normal rules didn't apply. I never thought about who I was hurting. Instead, I thought only about myself. I thought I could get away with whatever I wanted to". History is replete with examples of moral hypocrisy from absolute power.

Lord Acton's dictum of "absolute power corrupting absolutely" has been proven time and time again ...

Micello Indoor Maps v1.1 now available ...

v1.1 of Micello Indoor Maps became available in the iTunes AppStore earlier this morning.

In this version, we have integrated the compass (available on the iPhone 3GS) that will allow the indoor map to rotate and align the orientation of the map with the real world. On the picture to the left, the user was outside the "Sino" store at Santana Row (in San Jose) walking towards "Left Bank Brassiere". As I have mentioned before, we are able to add these innovations to the indoor maps because Micello's maps are accurate and ge0-coded.

In addition, this version has much smoother scrolling and panning of the maps and some performance improvements. So non-iPhone 3GS users will also benefit from upgrading to v1.1

Micello Indoor Maps unique features ...

In an earlier post, I introduced the Micello Indoor Maps application that is available at Apple's iTunes AppStore. I had mentioned a few of the unique features of the app that are not available in other applications that offer indoor maps. Here, I will talk about a few more unique features of Micello's maps.

Yesterday was Valentine's Day. Outside of the Holiday Season (Thanksgiving and Christmas), this day is one of the biggest shopping days in the year. Micello celebrated Valentine's Day by applying a special color theme to its maps. The screen shot to the left shows the King of Prussia Mall in Pennsylvania. It shows the stores that are highlighted from a search result for "Shoes" (Nordstorm, American Eagle Outfitters, Forever 21, Wet Seal). It also shows "The North Face" as a selected store. Finally, it shows Ralph Lauren and Tiffany & Co. as favorite stores. Notice the stair icon is highlighted in Blue. This indicates that this is a 2-story mall and there are search results in other floors too.

Another unique feature in Micello's Maps is the ability to provide a "best fit" of the store name within the store outline. When the map is zoomed out, the entity names are not displayed. As you start zooming in, the store names start appearing within the store outline in a manner that can be best fitted.

There are additional capabilities that we will unveil within the next few days. You will have to stay tuned for that ...

Micello Indoor Maps now available ...

The Micello Indoor Maps application is now available for download from the iTunes AppStore. We wanted to wait until v1.0 to provide a rich experience to our users. Once you download the app, you will agree that it was worth the wait.

We have started receiving some good reviews:

• ReadWriteWeb
• VentureBeat
• NextWeb
• MobileBehavior
• Sun Startup-of-the-day
• PrWeb (Press Release)

Recently when Google announced Nexus One, they showed navigation to IKEA. We wanted to show that you could go into IKEA with the Micello App. The idea was not to misrepresent that the Micello App is available on Android, but to inform that Micello is extending the navigation metaphor to "Go Inside". Here is the video:

Here are a few unique features in the App:

• The only app that provides your location on a map that is not an outdoor map. We are able to do this because our maps are more than just "pretty pictures". They are accurate and are geo-coded. In the above picture, the blue-dot indicates the user's position inside the community.
• The maps are personalized and interactive - so you can set your own favorites (the yellow entites above are this user's favorites)
• The maps provide iPod Touch users a rich experience by doing intelligent caching and not requiring a data connection all the time
• Multi-level communities are handled intuitively - with a "stair icon" to navigate between levels using a thumbnail sketch of the level

There are even more unique features. I will save that for the next post.

If you own and iPhone/iPod touch, download the app and give it a spin - even if there are no maps for communities in your neighborhood. You can experience the interface and then give us feedback on the maps that you would like to see become available.

Implementing SOA with Java EE Book

The book (that I co-authored with BV Kumar and Tony Ng almost two years ago) has finally published.

It actually released (on Borders, Barnes and Noble and Amazon) on December 31st 2009. I waited until it got some additional visibility before I posted about the book here. On Friday, Jan 15th, the book got mentioned in java.sun.com

I would like to thank Greg Doench for his tireless effort and determinedness to push the book through. Many times in the last year I would ask him, "Greg, are we really going through with this. I am not seeing things moving forward." He would calmly reply, "I am working on it." There is a companion site to the book that provides a sneak peek into the book. We will be using this site to provide updates, samples and take your comments.

Avatar - Why I liked this movie

This movie is about humans attempting to take over an alien world - an earth-like moon, Pandora, in search of Unobtanium. The story line is familiar - one that we have known since the beginning of civilization - whether it is the British conquering India or Europeans settling in North, Central and South America. They came, they took whatever they wanted and displaced and marginalised the indigenous people. If anything, James Cameron (the director) is saying that human tendencies don't change.

The indigenous people, the Na'vi, are one with nature in Pandora - a lush, tropical paradise. This planet, with its floating mountains, is especially beautiful at night when the flora and fauna catch the light of a nearby gas planet and the rainforest glows. Seeing this is 3D is a visual treat.

I liked this movie for its creative use of Computer Graphics and cutting-edge digital technology. We have seen all kinds of techniques used to make humans look like aliens - including rubber masks and make up. This is inherently limiting because the proportions of the body and the size and spacing of the eyes and cannot be changed. We have also seen the other extreme - where dinosaurs (Juarassic Park) and characters (Toy Story) are completely computer generated.

The Na'vi characters in Avatar are Computer Generated - thus allowing for fundamentally different proportions. However, they resemble the actors who play them - including capturing their facial expressions accurately. This was accomplished by using an "image-based facial performance capture" system - thus making the characters more believable.

So ... don't go to see this movie for stimulating dialogues or interesting characters. In fact, the main characters in Avatar are as stereotypical as they get - Colonel Quaritch could have walked out of a Marvel comic from the 1960s. See it to appreciate the use of digital techniques to transform us into a make-believe world.

Just as Star Wars ushered in a new era in film making back in 1977, look for Avatar to spawn a new generation of digital movies.

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.