Thoughts of A Lively Mind

BSNL provides this service to their current employees and staff at DOT (probably above a certain grade) and to retired staff from BSNL and DOT. However, the treatment of these subscribers - who often times pay a bill anyway as the free service is for a limited number of calls - is usually not even as good as for regular paying customers. I have frequently seen lines being left in an in-operable condition. So the problem is universal, when subscribers pay they should get the service they are paying for.

In general, what exasperates subscribers (including yours truly) the most is that to keep their numbers looking good, BSNL support staff regularly close complaints even if the underlying problem is not fixed. Subscribers waiting to hear back on their complaint find out a few days later that the "complaint was closed as the fault was rectified" and have to re-file their complaint to get it addressed.

The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Himachal Pradesh Edition

It is also difficult to understand the rationale behind providing free services to employees of the Telecom Department when the BSNL fails to provide proper services to the people paying for them!

Technorati Tags: BSNL, DOT, India

Feedburner is in the closing stages of being acquired by Google for around $100 million. The deal is all cash and mostly upfront, according to our source, although the founders will be locked in for a couple of years.

I found this tool called Outlook on the Desktop yesterday while going through my reading list of newsfeeds. Great for bringing outlook's calender right where it matters - on the desktop. Its already done wonders for my ability to stay organized in the one full working day I have used it. Lets hope this keeps up ;-)

Michael Scrivo's Personal Site - Outlook on the Desktop

Oulook Calendar is pinned to your desktop

Some feedback on the program: I have this possibly unique situation where I need to restart outlook if I leave the office and try to connect back in or if I used Outlook outside the office and am returning - has to do with Outlook's IP address cache not refreshing often enough. Would love for a programmatic way for this program to auto-launch (or re-launch) along with Outlook.

Technorati Tags: outlook desktop, outlook, microsoft

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Telecom & IMS: Quote: "IMS is a polygamist. It tries to marry all the protocols and hogs bandwidth resources, just as it should."

Vijay Anand's got a post up on Telecom & IMS that discusses a conversation he had on IMS. I agree 100% with the quote. IMS is to communication what middleware is to IPTV - soon even middleware would need to be IMS compliant :)
In fact, this is another reason why the operators who are investing heavily in IMS-ready platforms (and planning to have IMS systems) are the same operators who are maneuvering for a tiered Internet. They want to ensure that at least their IMS-compliant services get through even when the customers are watching something on Google Video or downloading a tv show from iTunes.

Technorati Tags: Telecom, IMS, tiered internet, communications

Here are the characteristics that I find most commonly in great entrepreneurs:
- Super bright, smartest person in the room syndrome
- Engaging, compelling, social personalities
- An insatiable passion for creating things
- An expertise and focus on the product
- The ability to rapidly mediate between the market and the development team
- A hunger for the big hit (ie the payday)
- A flair for PR and marketing
- The ability to listen to and really hear what others are saying

The one skill I value most highly in my current role (as a change agent within a larger company) is the ability to rapidly mediate between the market and the product teams.

Also read the comments from Dave mcclure in Fred Wilson's post.

Technorati Tags: entrepreneurship, VC

In his latest article on the column Converge Sense at Business 2.0, Om Malik points out a very intriguing trend: while the startup buzz is back, entrepreneurs are neglecting a major platform with over 5 million ready users who are frequently early adopters – Apple’s Mac.

For greater insight on why entrepreneurs (or even developers) should consider the Mac as a platform to launch their product on, read Om’s article here: Startups Are Missing the Mac Opportunity.

Following up on my earlier post on the subject (first time I’ve posted to a weblog from work!), here are some articles that discuss the acquisition of AT&T by SBC.

BBC News: SBC agrees to buy AT&T for $16bn
I’d especially like to highlight this segment of their article:
Faced with fierce competition, revenues at AT&T have fallen over recent years and the slide is forecast to continue.
…
It does, however, have a strong business client list that contains "virtually every member of the Fortune 1000" list of the biggest businesses, AT&T said.

As expected, Om Malik breaks the news ahead of the curve (10 AM Indian time according to NewsGator, a good 3–4 hours before I noticed the alert):
AT&T, SBC about to shake hands (@ 6.13 AM Indian Standard Time)
AT&T SBC deal is done (@ 10 AM Indian Standard Time)
and Ma Bell, SBC deal may hit WiMAX (@ 9.08 PM Indian Standard Time)

Analysis from Om indicates that WiMAX might be the first to suffer, and possibly be dead-on-arrival, apart from being the most hyped technology since Bluetooth (another technology generally considered DOA).

Another article that seems to capture it all, is Light Reading’s: SBC/AT&T: Possible Winners & Losers

The next ripe target for acquisition in the telecom sector is MCI (formerly WorldCom)…

SBC and AT&T have announced their merger today.

SBC To Acquire AT&T; Creates Premier, Global Provider for New Era of Communications  (Press Release)

Transaction is valued at $16 Billion. This puts together a strong combination of SBC's wireline business with AT&T's strengths in VoIP and business services.

Read the rest of this post »

Mitch Ratcliffe has a great transcript and comments on Robert Scoble’s keynote at the Blog Business Summit.

Also, Pete Blackshaw learns not to leave his IM client running while presenting on stage!

Michael Hyatt wrote about PowerPoint’s “Presenter View” earlier this week. I’ve loved this feature and in fact enjoy using it more in Mac OS X than in Windows. This might have something to do with the fact that my laptop is a Powerbook G4

An entire session can be timed from the moment you start, comments from the audience can be noted directly, as well as prior notes displayed. Overall, the advantage of knowing what the next few slides cover keeps the momentum going and helps me make sure I don’t repeat the same statements over and over!

Now playing: Linkin Park - Forgotten from Hybrid Theory