I have a Google applications account for 2 domains I own. One that I use rarely and another that I use fairly frequently. This morning Chris broke a story of Nick Saber whose Gmail account was disabled. Possibly due to security reasons, quite possibly something else – either ways he was locked out.

This is not the first time Google’s been heavy handed about this.

Here’s a form that you can use to address hit issue, but you need to know a lot of details you probably dont remember. Good idea to keep this written down someplace.

Brings me to another question: If its free should you expect any customer support? Obviously you sign an end user license agreement (EULA) which prevents you from account misuse etc. when you sign up. So lets assume you have not willingly violated any agreements. Still, if its free what recourse should you expect?

I suspect most companies that provide services would say – nothing.

I also suspect most individuals using the free services would say – complete restoration and basic support (with basic varying from ridiculous to the bizarre). Or they would want an explanation of why – which any vendor will not / should not provide since it then opens that vendor’s system to gaming. E.g. if I know that Google locks my account if I send more than 10 emails a day (fictitious) then I will send 9 daily and use another hack to send more.

So what would I do/suggest? For the account I care about I plan to pay the $50 / year for Google domain applications. Its a small price to pay for something that I use daily and also I dont have the time and patience to look for customer support when there’s none to be expected.

When I was a kid my learning (in India) was mostly writing and repetition. I went to a fairly good school in Bangalore, but it was not exactly the world’s best when it came to creative or unusual thinking. I was taught that the best way to remember things you wanted to was to repeat it (several times), either to others or to yourself and write (as in a paper, or assignment).

As I have grown older I tend to think about how I impart to my kids the value of the writing and repetition, but mindful of the Internet and its ability to deliver something in a second. Even with Google, bookmarking, sharing, blogging and all the other tools available, I still find the writing and repetition to be most valuable to remember things that I have to. This is different from things I just want to keep at the back of the mind or things that are mildly (or temporally interesting). I categorized the 5 levels (not types, but levels) of reading. I think I ought to call it 5 levels of recollection, but lets go with reading for now. They are progressively more valuable for things that I would like to commit to memory.

1. Reading passively or actively (commenting): Just reading means I have forgotten it as soon as I read it in most cases. If I comment I tend to remember 20% since I would likely go back to the page to see counter opinions, etc.

2. Reading then telling someone: Mostly my wife bears the brunt of all my “knowledge I gained from blogs”. From the inane to the weird and from the innocuous to the bizarre, she gets to hear most everything. Sometimes its the kids also and other times my extended circle of friends and family. I think my retention in those items is about 40% since I after I tell them they usually either ask me a question or ask me to clarify.

3. Reading then bookmarking (tagging) or sharing (via email, delicious, etc.). I am not sure this is better than level 2 but I have found that if I tend to tag or email it to an extended set of people, I invariably get comments, notes or questions, which makes me go back and read the article or page and clarify.

4. Reading then linking on my blog. If I write about it on my blog, then I tend to remember it very well. My recollection of items from my blog tends to be higher than items I bookmarked.

5. Reading, internalizing, reading again, then writing about it on my blog (paraphrasing) and relating to my experiences. This is the best retainer and recollection level in my opinion. If you read something, then write it in your own words relating it to your own experiences there’s a sense of internalization. Close to 80% recollection.

When it comes to books – i.e. not online reading I have found similar patterns, but I would replace the bookmarking with the garden variety pencil marks and sticky tape on the side.

I realize most of these things require multiple “readings” of the same content, which in itself might be the point of reinforced learning.

What about you?

There are over 1 Million people in the world who have a net worth more than US $5 Million. Here’s what’s common to them all:
1. First and foremost, they are almost always entrepreneurs — risk takers for whom wealth is a byproduct of pursuing their passion.

2. They’re friendly and fond of new experiences, traits that put them on a collision course with new opportunities.

3. They’re too pigheadedly optimistic to heed the long odds and call it quits.

4. And almost all of them made their fortune in a big lump sum after many years of effort.

5. Rich folks often make their fortunes after they make up their minds to
solve a problem or do something better than it’s been done before.

6. Getting rich also requires a certain amount of stubbornness and clarity of purpose.

7. The odds for solo founders were more like the oft-quoted one in 10, in
part because they often found themselves working at cross-purposes with
hired guns who see things differently.

8. Paradoxically, the road to riches often means acting as if you already have that freedom.

To Cori-centre—bringing all your mental
force and faculties to bear steadily on a given center with-out
deviation from that exact point—whipping into line all wandering
fancies—stray ideas or thoughts that go off on a tangent—to hold
steadily all your power on the central thing under consideration
without an instant of wavering—that is Concentration.

Hat tip.

Branding every PC with an Intel Inside was possibly one of the best quality initiatives that Intel taught their customers. Its probably a HBS case study in making a brand out of something most people dont visually “see”. I mean you see your PC, but its a DELL or Compaq/HP or Lenovo not an Intel machine.

Same for Made in China, but not sure the connotations are of “quality”. Usually Made in China means, inexpensive (or cheap, depending on your perspective), good enough quality (until recently) but it also means mass produced.

I am not sure we can categorize a “backlash” against the Made in China brand yet, but there are enough questions about the quality, environmental effects and type of labor pool used to build those products.

So, it begs the question, what about the “Developed in India” brand for software that has either a significant portion of its design, architecture and development or maintenance done in India. I wonder why NASSCOM or other organizations have not initiated this branding effort yet.  There is a strong need for this effort before the “Developed in India” brand does not stand for anything. Already there are signs that outsourcing is not bearing a lot of positive experiences with its customers. If the branding effort comes with some really good quality assurance of the provider, their background and assures the buyer of the authenticity of the transaction, it would go a long way in addressing cautionary tales such as the on above.

You gotta laugh at a lot of things in Bangalore these days. Take for example all the “extra security precautions” that are being implemented in the wake of the bomb blasts. Let me share 3 examples.

1. I was walking into Bangalore Central (a mall in downtown Bangalore – M. G. Road) with my wife over the weekend. The better half wanted to check out the “sales”. The place was packed and so were the entrances and exits. Imagine a crowd at the entrance and an airport-style metal / security detector at the front. And over 5 guards next to the metal detector. There’s a line 12-15 people deep. Every time a person went through the detector, it beeped (like really big time, loud beeps). The 3 security guards all smile, look at the next person and wave you forwards. Happened with EACH and every person who entered before us. Beeps every time and everyone was let go with a wide smile. What’s the point? I am not sure and I did not care to find out.

2. The security wand metal detector is another contraption that’s become in the vogue in most office entrances these days. I have really no clue what they’re supposed to do with those things. I am pretty sure neither do the security guards. Its not like they ask you to remove any metals, coins or other paraphernalia before they wand you. So what happens is the enthusiastic guard with the wand goes all over you from top to bottom and it beeps like crazy. He smiles and asks you to move on. My cousin’s also very confused about this. His question to me was “Is it supposed to beep? Does beeping mean its okay? Or is it not supposed to beep and that’s considered okay?”

The funniest part is when some employees come in packs of 3-4. So the guard mass wand-ed them. Really! No jokes. Imagine 4 people standing next to each other (not in a single file, beside each other), and a guard starting to wand them from left to right and top to bottom, front and back. Why? – Saves time.

3. Of course in places that are “extra sensitive” like government offices, they have to frisk you. Not the simple touch, but imagine someone soaping you (no dirty thoughts, since its same sex “frisking”) top to bottom. After 6 frisks, the guard gets tired (obviously since he’s frisking every person). He’s got a backup guard and another who then takes over. So they cant really do things in parallel because if there are more than 20 people, they will all get tired.

I do feel a lot more secure. Why? If someone has to go through all this fake security and still do something nefarious, they’re nuts.

Is “It depends“. This article & writer lost their credibility as soon as I read the first paragraph. When you are in sales of any kind and you cannot clearly explain your pricing strategy, its dependent components and give a ball park estimate, most customers self qualify themselves out of the sales cycle.

That’s not to say you ought to give them the exact price because in most cases you cannot. Not giving ballpark estimates though just seems like you are hiding something.

Pricing strategy overall especially in software is clearly not cost driven. Its value or the perception of value. If you are coming out a version 1 product in  most cases you will have a “sense” for what the value of your product is to its customer and be able to price lower (if you want huge adoption) or price higher (if you want a perception of quality).

Most enterprise sales people will tell you that the “It depends” is a consultant’s answer or probably an answer from someone who has not sold anything that requires you to close a deal.

<Getting off soapbox>

Things are always a lot harder to do than they seem don’t they? I have a new found respect for the “On the scene” reporter. The banal chiche’s were about the only ones I was used to when talking about the “television reporter” on the scene of an incident.

“All she’s doing is repeating the same thing over and over again”.

“He’s saying what we know already, what’s the new news here”.

“He has no clue about what happened and is saying exactly what the police man said”.

“She’s trying to make the story a sensational one, and generate hype so they can get more viewers”.

Or my personal favorite:

“What kind of a dumb question was that? Even my 4 year old can ask a better question”.

Well its time to eat humble pie and realize their job is hard. At about 2pm on Friday (local Bangalore time) I got to know about 4 blasts in Bangalore from my cousin who called me. Few minutes later when I checked twitter, there were over 20 tweets on Bangalore blasts. Having learned one of the blasts was very close to where I was working yesterday I decided to head out there – dont ask why.

Since I had broadband access I also was viewing CNN IBN and NDTV on my browser. The news was coming in fast and furious. the numbers slowly climbed to 5 then 7 and finally 8 blasts. It got more unnerving as I heard more and I was rethinking my decision to get a little closer to the site of one of the blasts. Since I did not have an option to head back home (I sent the car back home with the driver and most taxis/autos were not plying), I decided to just go for it. I decided I’d ask my cousin to come by and pick me up later. Most people were streaming out of the office at the central business district anyway, so I figured it was the only option.

The next 30 minutes were enlightening at best. The site of one of the blasts was an absolute mess – not from the carnage of the blast, and neither from the traffic – just from the number of curious onlookers – yes I was also guilty of the same. In the midst of this were 3 reporters from local television stations, at least 150-200 people watching and about 15 policemen. Here’s what you as a reporter have to go through:

1. Separating fact from fiction & opinion. 3 policemen were offering 3 different variants of the blast. No kidding. Wonder why they even chose to speak to the reporters – I am sure they were not “authorized”. On top of that 2 “eye witnesses” were offering their slight of the “sequence of events”. Learning what happened and when was difficult at best, let alone trying to determine why or who. So imagine you are the reporter (and its hard enough trying to locate who was there), you are now being asked on your headset to report what’s going on. No wonder the reporters back in the studios ask layup questions like “What’s the mood out there?” and “What are you hearing?”.

2. Determining what to report from all the information available or what’s “newsworthy”. Ultimately all people want to know (I think) is “What happened, when and why”. Facts and numbers speak more clearly than multiple story lines to the same plot. There were 2 or 3 other subplots – size of the bombs, impact of the blast, what the bombs were made of, etc. But the main story line remained – there was a bomb that went off, 2 people were injured and no one died at Vittal Mallya road. But its hard to stop at that is it not? The subplots make the rest of the story.

3. Understanding who to listen to. Eye witnesses probably know best what happened. Police came there about 25 minutes later. There were onlookers who all have multiple opinions, but since they get to see the whole picture, their opinions sometimes contain certain facts that are relevant to report. In this particular case, the guy who was one of the eyewitnesses was largely ignored by the police who were busy trying to sort the wreckage. I dont blame them. There’s enough panic around to deal with and multiple people asking you questions to which you hardly have any answers. The reporter in this situation has to prep the interviewee (at least understand which language to ask questions in and translate if necessary), prepare the shot and then report on cue. So who (all) do you get a perspective from? I chose to just ask the one policeman who was close by to where I was situated and a couple of people who claimed they were there during the blast. Obviously I got a certain perspective, not sure if it was the complete view.

4. Putting the story together so it makes sense. I thought the best story lines are those that are viewed with the dimension of time. Well turns out that’s only one view. The subplots are more interesting to certain audiences. Many viewers (me included, all the time watching NDTV, etc.) wanted to know the extent of the damage. Others back in twitter-land wanted to know if their loved ones were okay. Still others wanted to know who was responsible for this. You get the picture.

5. Giving information that’s timely versus repeating it as it comes. I sat on a couple of key pieces of information relayed to me by people next to me – why? – I was not sure of its authenticity. To give you an example I heard from a few others about a total of 8-10 blasts and I did not repeat that until 2 hours later, when IBN confirmed it. Realizing all along most people following did not want all the details, I stuck to information verified by 3 people or something I heard from the policeman. Not sure that was the right thing, but there’s a lot of value to being timely. At the same time, letting everyone in twitter-land know everything I was exposed to made no sense. If you are a reporter however and you get scooped on the news – there’s probably hell to pay from your news editor.

Long story short – there’s more to television reporting than meets the eye.

Balu talks about the lack of privacy for his ATM pin number. Its a good read and a very strange yet disconcerting part of living in India. What’s funny about this is that most people are so “curious” they really want to know your pin.

Mojo (dont know his real name) captures the essence of living in Bangalore – its a city most people love and hate at the same time. Especially long timers who feel the soul of the city has been compromised and sold to the IT crowd.

There were 7 bomb blasts (602 pm update: 8 blasts) from 120 pm to 235 in Bangalore: Madiwala, Mysore Road, Audogodi, Koramangala, Vittal Mallya Road, Nayandanahalli
and Richmond Road  (Shivaji nagar).

2 people died and 4 were injured. (Updated at 545 pm local time – 1 person is claimed dead and 6 injured)

They were fairly small blasts apparently meant to cause panic and fear.

I found out about this from twitter 3 minutes after the blast and since then have been twittering with what information I have available.

Nearly 2 hours after the blast the city pretty much shutdown. Offices closed and everyone was asked to go home. Since nothing of this ever happened in Bangalore before, everyone pretty much panicked.

(Updated at 545 pm local time – Bangalore is returning to normal with traffic worse than usual at the locations of the blast). People are returning to normal and the panic seems to have settled down.

Since two of the blasts were nearly telecom posts, mobile communication was shut down for voice.

Text message (SMS) services were working fine. Calls to US (I called my sister and others) were working fine. Local calls were unable to go through.

All roads leading to and from the main downtown area (M. G. Road) were pretty much closed.

A perspective:

1. For communication: the Internet rocks in India – twitter stayed pretty much stable throughout.

2. Text message beats voice calls during emergency.

3. Local news providers were absolutely useless in getting information out. There was more nonsense and speculation on the motive and the reason for the blasts than real facts. Television did work, but it was useless information that was being transmitted.