Are you really safe on the web?
Posted on April 11, 2008 | Categorized under Internet
Just a few days back, I received an interesting email from Bank of America! Yes, financial nerds too can send interesting messages; for a change may be, can’t they? Oh! come on! life can’t be that funny! … the message wasn’t really from them; it was rather made as if it was though! And, the interesting part began with the subject line itself - “Security Notice From Our Security Team“. Now who could possibly ignore such an email? So I opened it too!
The message read as -
Click on image to enlarge
Why do you wanna be an entrepreneur?
Posted on April 4, 2008 | Categorized under Entrepreneurship
Why do you wanna be an entrepreneur? Sometime back, I had placed this question on various discussion boards, and that received overwhelming responses; an instance of it can be seen at a Facebook Group Discussion Board (please join our Facebook Group for more such discussions).
Well, some of the most popular answers are -
- Freedom/Independence
- Money
- Fame
- Philanthropy
- Power/Influence
But (yes, there is indeed a “but”) to me, entrepreneurship doesn’t look “the right” option to fulfill any of the motivations above! Don’t agree? Well, lets talk about it one by one then.
Are software patents evil?
Posted on March 28, 2008 | Categorized under Software
Software patents have constantly been under the fire of debates; if you are not yet exposed to it, following links are for you -
Patent system is more than 200 years old now. It was devised to address two main problems related to inventions -
- You invent a great idea but someone else, who is more powerful than you, exploits it without giving back anything.
- You invent a great idea but hide it from the world due of fear of exploitation.
Patent system offers an inventor a right - to control exploitation of his invention for a certain period. Now, it’s true that nature and economics of this relatively new software industry are quite different from other pre-existing industries. And so when the same system of patents is applied to it, as it is, we see many problems.
Permanent Link | Leave a Comment
Can business schools build entrepreneurs?
Posted on March 21, 2008 | Categorized under Entrepreneurship
Can entrepreneurship really be taught inside business schools? Well, every business does need a theoretical knowledge base of accounting, finance, marketing, and public relationships; and a business school precisely provides that through a systematic process, which otherwise would take longer time. One can meet and make connections with other like minded entrepreneurs there and not to forget, one can gain experience of starting a venture, inside a secure cocoon, where failures won’t bring bankruptcy as in real world. So then business school is the way to go, isn’t it? Well, let’s also consider the fact that formal education often builds template based stereotypes and entrepreneurship is all about making difference!
An entrepreneur philosopher Anita Roddick says,
“Actually, potential entrepreneurs are outsiders. They are people who imagine things as they might be, not as they are, and have the drive to change the world. Those are qualities that business schools do not teach”.
Free = open source?
Posted on March 21, 2008 | Categorized under Software
Some think and often use these two terms - Free Software (FS) and Open Source Software (OSS) - interchangeably. That’s not completely right. Moreover, some relate both these terms with softwares available for free of any charge. And that’s completely wrong.
Both, OSS and FS, offer free softwares but the word “free” here refers to freedom as in “free speech” and not as in “free bear”. This freedom allows users to use, study, modify and redistribute the software.
Now both - OSS and FS - ask developers of software programs to share source code with users. In fact, this sharing of source code is a prerequisite of the freedom offered - specifically freedom to study and modify the program. This requirement of - sharing source code - is also the root cause of this very confusion — the confusion that makes both, OSS and FS, look the same. In reality, guiding principals behind the two are drastically different.
ADVERTISEMENT
-
Communities
-
Network
-
Listings
MyBlogLog Community 
BlogCatalog Neighborhood 
Facebook Group
Orkut Community 
Thinkers Writers Instigators