Good / Better user interfaces techniques : Example of the worldcup schedule

I was pointed to this page a couple of days ago by a posting in my old company network ie. Tulbuddies.
As usual, I kept the URL aside and did not bother until I was surfing last evening and happened to check out the schedule - was blown away with the simplicity and completeness of the UI design.


When you have time, please check out http://www.marca.com/deporte/futbol/mundial/sudafrica-2010/calendario-english.html

I love the way Adobe flash has been used in the structure and I'm sure this will look better if I had a touch screen rather than a point-&-click mouse.

Goes to show that we need to all unlearn our old usability metaphors (of quick-keys etc) and re-think how we can deploy multidimensional UI structures both in these kind of static pages as also reports and business intelligence within applications.

A game changer in the traditional server industry : SeaMicro ?

I came across an article about SeaMicro and then went onto their site to find out what the noise is all about.
I think they've done a game changer as most people seem to be point out.

For the un-informed - What SeaMicro has done is to bring in virtualization to the hardware industry. They've pulled together 512 Intel Atom processors onto a single 10U Rack.

This means that they've effectively brought together a hugh change in running costs (Power @ 1/4 of a normal system, space usage @ 1/4 of the normal system) etc.More importantly, if they can deliver on manage'ability' - then, I'm sure they have a winner.

It is supposed to be able to run the standard OS (off the shelf) and this is probably the key to adoption. The first beneficiary will be the people who are trying to offer Infrastructure as a Service for the the cloud folks.

Let us wait & watch the uptake...

Providing Solar Lanterns to stimulate productivity in rural India : Options

It was good to read in the papers today that some of the "Bulleteers" were going to collect money (@ a minimum of Rs. 500/- per person) and donate that towards a Solar Lantern in Tribal Areas.

As part of Sikshana, a trial has been run in Kanakapura school district where we've seen some very encouraging results. Please see the posts @
       http://sikshana.blogspot.com/2010/03/lighting-for-night-studies.html or just http://Sikshana.blogspot.com

As we had anticipated, there has been a marked increase in results during the period of intervention. While it is too early to demarcate the impact of the individual programs (remedial + lighting for extended study hours), the social impact is indisputable.

This also goes to prove the point that an effective light extends the time available for a family to come together, spend time indoors during evenings & nights without need for a smokey, smelly and risky kerosene lamp.
It also seems to have an efficient ROI on the spend.
    Cost of each lantern : Rs. 600 (Approx USD $ 13 at current conversion)
    Expected /Average life of Battery : 2.5 years (I've used this as life of LED seems irrelevant as battery is the bigger 'replacement' cost over the life of the equipment.
    Average charging time for a 2-3 hour usage in the night - 6 hours.

In effect, for less than Rs.2 / day over an year, every family can have almost full light coverage during the nights. I'm sure the social impact & dividends are going to be larger & better than what our trial has produced w.r.t 10th standard students.

Can we hope for green / micro-financing folks to take this up as a larger program ?
Imagine the opportunity to rewrite the words "burning midnight oil" !

US "discovers" $ 1 Trillion worth of minerals in Afghanistan : Really ?

It has been a long time since I posted onto my Blog. Basically, have been trying to get off the earlier note that I used to blog on under "Inatech" to a more "open" topic.

What better topic than this ?

Was not at all surprised to hear of this discovery. Infact, the only question I have is - why now ? ie. Why is the press release timed for now ? Esp. the bit related to to how Afghan soils contain a LOT of Lithium ?
Maybe post the BP spill, US is really (I mean seriously) looking for a new-age Saudi ?

Over the last few years, I've read time and again how a new 'find' of natural resources spurs a frenzy of social unrest. Even in India, my guess is that a significant portion of the problems related to the insurgency (Naxals) is probably related to the proverbial war between development (eg. Mining) and sustenance (Local living).

Imagine the same set, but, from a global perspective ?
My guess is that Afghanistan has another set of challenges coming through - this time, it may actually be more difficult.

Will red tape hit Angel Investing in the US of A ?

I read with a sense of Deja Vu' this morning, the post in a few VC sites about the new "Dodd's Bill". I think this is going to impact the angel / incubation business very adversely in the Valley. While we folks in India are used to working with similar set of restrictions and have gotten used to this - not sure if the valley can support such levels of compliance. In short, we are going to say "goodbye" to back-of-the-napkin deals & termsheets.

There are 3 specific clauses to the bill :
     The bill would require startups raising funding to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and then wait 120 days for the SEC to review their filing.
     The bill raises the wealth requirements for an “accredited investor” who can invest in startups — if the bill passes, investors would need assets of more than $2.3 million (up from $1 million) or income of more than $450,000 (up from $250,000).
      The bill removes advantage of federal pre-emption allowing angel and venture financing in the United States to follow federal regulations, rather than face different rules between states.

Street Art : The Bangalore model is spreading !

I was in Chennai last week and was very pleased to note that some stretches of the roads are getting a set of street art (ala the paintings along roads in Bangalore). I saw some work on the Dr. Radhakrishnan Salai and it looked very nice :-)

I hope this is a model that gets replicated very quickly across all other Indian towns. It is certainly a welcome change to the numerous bills pasted on the walls. I'd rather look at the painting of a "pile" in a monument than an ad for "piles" !

My other fond hope is that these paintings do not get plastered with the various political posts / movie posters etc. Who knows - this may be the precursor to getting to a NO PAAN spitoon areas also ;-)

Moving Individuals to the cloud : Is this cirrus or nimbus ?

Just learnt that Google has announced public APIs for Google power meter.

What this does is allows individuals to setup on the cloud (google personal home) a ticker that will get a set of feeds from individual power meters. This feed allows individuals to track their power consumption. The question is - will this work ?

I guess it makes sense in those cases where the utility provides a feed directly to google / cloud. It also makes sense when devices start to get intelligent and transmit power info to the web - but, that IMHO is still a looong way off ?

So, why bother ?

I actually think that this is a neat way to get people to incorporate the "talk / transmit" capability into devices. Just like most telecom / IT equipment comes with a "call home" option, my guess is that the structure will allow for this to reach out on the web.

Will all these devices talking together make it a chatter ?
Hmmmm.......

_________Google Powermeter image from their website________