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Linux Compatible Equipment

March 20, 2006

The most common question I see on mailing lists is“I bought XYZ recently, and now I can’t get it working under Linux. Can anyone help me?”

Given the fact that Linux is only a second priority for most vendors when it comes to driver support (especially for consumer items), wouldn’t it have made sense to check whether the item you are about to purchase is supported under Linux before you spend your money?

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Participating

I have been driving (and been driven by) a number of communities over the past decade.And one thing that continues to amaze me is the effort it takes to get people to participate in any meaningful fashion.

When I ran my BBS, I was constantly trying to make people stop downloading files, and getting them to start messaging in the forums.

Today, with the Internet becoming the world’s biggest BBS, and with countless mailing lists, web forums and other modes of mass communication, I find that just about everyone likes to stay in “lurk” mode - i.e. read-only.

Then, when a community dies for lack of participation, they look for all sorts of reasons.

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IT Slowdown in India

This is an old article that I wrote in May of 2001 - many months before 9/11. I was quite shocked when I re-read it recently, only to find that half a decade later, it is as relevant as it was when I first wrote it.

Since one of the reasons for this site is for it to be a single place where one can find all my old articles, I am moving it here. –ac

I have been quite vocal with my reservations about India’s “techno slavery” approach to IT business, and I definitely haven’t made any friends at NASSCOM that way.

Sure, the tech slowdown in the US *has* been a rude awakening for Indian IT companies, but I bet that we haven’t yet seen the worst of it.

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COMversations Update

March 19, 2006

It’s been a long time since anything happened here - but that is about to change.

First and foremost - a new interface - I decided to dump my old homebrew stuff and switch to WordPress. This will allow for comments, some additional stuff, and make my management job easier, so that I can concentrate on the writing.

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Mobile Connectivity

April 15, 2005

Now if there is one thing that scares me, it is loss of connectivity for any period of time. Whether via my notebook or my PDA - if I am not connected, I feel lost.

I need not have worried.

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The Corporate Eyeball Trap

January 17, 2005

Bruce Perens spoke about some of the threats facing Linux. He specifically pointed at things like software patents, which he rightfully identified as a real danger to any form of innovation and growth in Linux.

However, it isn’t the only one. There is another one - sneakily creeping up on the Open Source world, ready to bite - something I call the “Corporate Eyeball Trap”.

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WiFi Q&A

July 1, 2004

As wireless networking becomes more and more interesting to organisations, the questions naturally start flowing. Here’s a list of questions from IS managers of mid-size companies-and some answers.
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Dataquest to publish my articles

April 26, 2004

DataQuest has acquired the rights to publish my articles, starting from the May 2004 issue (whether May 1st or May 15th I am not sure about), and you will able to read my articles in their printed issue twice a month.

As part of the agreement, I have agreed to “lag” my articles online by a month, which means that my articles that appear in DataQuest will appear only a month later on this site. This is a fair enough.

The other piece of good news is that all this gave me a major incentive to write even more, and there are lots of new articles queued up for publication.

I will be writing about mobility (handheld computing, wireless), Open Source (from the corporate perspective) and technologies that I perceive to be important. If you have any suggestions for topics you think I should cover, please let me know.

The best part of all this is: I am again working with Prasanto Kumar Roy as my editor - the guy who got me started with writing more than a decade ago.

Why Bookshops will die

October 9, 2003

My friend walked into this shop, looking for a particular book that he had read about. This bookshop (spread over multiple floors), is typical of its kind - rows and rows of shelves, stacks of books, generally classified into broad topics (Fiction, Science, Art, etc.). Customers wander into the relevant section, and search for their book, bring it to the counter, and pay for it.

He couldn’t immediately find it, so he asked the sales personnel to help him. They in turn asked him for the exact name of the book, the publisher’s name, etc. - all information that my friend didn’t have. He had just read about this book (either in a magazine or on the Internet), and since it was of interest to him, he thought he’d buy it. He didn’t think that he’d have to bring in so much information just to find it!

Well, he didn’t get the book, so tried in another shop, with similar results.

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Personal Digital Adventure - Part 4

September 20, 2003

Rumour became fact as Palm announced the Palm Tungsten C and the Palm Zire71.

Tale of two PDAs

The Tungsten C was probably everything a business person would want. 64 MB of memory, a fantastic high-resolution colour screen, and two rather unusual things: no Graffiti writing area (and a small mini keyboard instead), and wireless (WiFi) connectivity. All this came with two “warts” - a high price (street price $500) and monophonic sound.

However, the lure of a wireless PDA is almost irresistible. Wireless hotspots were springing up all over the world - at a airports, in offices, at coffee shops, at home. Imagine being connected all the time, being able to pick up the latest news, the newest information, anything.

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