Saawariya is now following you on Twitter!

I just got this email

From: Twitter ;
Date: Oct 26, 2007 12:59 PM
Subject: Saawariya is now following you on Twitter!
To: ******

Hi, s4ur4bh.

Saawariya (Saawariya) is now following your updates on Twitter.

Check out Saawariya's profile here:http://twitter.com/Saawariya

You may follow Saawariya as well by clicking on the "follow" button.

Best,
Twitter
--
Turn off these emails at: http://twitter.com/account/notifications

This is for the first time when an Indian movie has used twitter as advertising tool. The very fact that I am blogging about it means that they have been able to get my attention. And more than that I would spread the word.

I might watch and might not watch the movie but I will sure talk about it to my friends. I will brag that one I twitter and two Saawariya is cool enough to follow me.

The Ripple Effect
Virals are like ripples. Someone needs to drop that pebble that starts the ripple. People at Saawariya are sure throwing a lot of pebbles. These pebbles have to be dropped at the right places. Where water is deep enough to create a large ripple. And where a ripple would not die down after some time.

Food for thought
And finally my another theory about social networks. I cant reinforce that human beings in the end are social animals. If a marketer can give humans some food for thought, something to talk about, a context that helps people diffuse time in social gatherings, something people can become master of (by virtue of thought and/or use of words) and the master can attract followers, the marketer would have done his job.

Most of the time people hang around with same set of people and after a time you know everything there is to know about a person. What do you talk about then? You have to find something to talk about. This is where the Food for Thought would come in. Let people use the food supplied by marketer to kill their time. And spread the world.

Any thoughts? Comments?

Comments on Microsoft and Facebook

I sent this email to a friend in response to his views on Microsoft and Facebook. I have repalced names and email addresses with *****

Hi *****,

I also have my two cents on Facebook deal and why I think MS paid that kind of money.

To start with, it is not about the advertisement at all. It is also not about buying a stake in the company. 1% is too less a stake to have any meaningful say in the company. Ok, it is meaningful but if I was serious about partnering someone, I would rather take 10% odd stake and make meaningful suggestions to the overall vision of the company.

With 1% MS is saying that they are confident about FB and they like the business and want to be partners.

The reason could be psychological too. May be after Steve Balmer's announcement last month about getting 25% of MS revenues from advertising, they had to show something to the world. May be they wanted to prove something to Google .. ? Who knows. Men do funny things to prove themselves are superiors. Envy and Jealousy are two of the most potent forces in the universe.

As far as exclusive advertising rights, MS already had exclusive rights on FB. This deal just extends those rights to international markets. One might argue that 60% of FB traffic is now international and deal makes more sense, I would say that in web environment, national and international segregation dont really make a sense. If I am in Antarctica and want to advertise about the latest Igloo design, I dont have to advertise from Antarctica, I can advertise from US also.

Now if I was Bill (I hope I was), I would have thought that the entire Social Networking thingy has gone past me without me making any serious inroads (ok, Windows Live was for sometime making people happy but all it has got is measly 10 mn users), how about getting a piece of the pie?

There are more things that aren't really in public domain as yet. Like they have said they would have other partners. They also said that they would not disclose the exact terms of technology exchange that they would have. May be it includes access to user preferences? May be it includes MS and FB's entry in to Software as a Service space? With this they can take Google head on. May be FB will now truly become a platform rather than just a website where you upload pics and poke at firrends?

And did you notice that share price of MS jumped after FB deal was announced .. ?

Regards,
******

P.S.: You have said that it makes "FB, a 100 million OTS website" .. what is an OTS.. ?
P.P.S.: Please share this with your friends also. I want to see if this makes any sense to them. Thanks :)

He had sent his comments on Microsoft's recent stake in Facebook

Evolution of The Future

This link talks about Evolution. No, not the things that have already happened but things that might happen in future.

The new report shows that after they reach their peak around the year 3000 humans will begin to regress

These humans will be between 6ft and 7ft tall and they will live up to 120 years.

Men will have symmetrical facial features, deeper voices and bigger penises.

Women will all have glossy hair, smooth hairless skin, large eyes and pert breasts, according to Curry in a report for men's satellite TV channel Bravo.

Racial differences will be a thing of the past as interbreeding produces a single coffee-coloured skin tone.

Personally I agree to what Oliver Curry has to say. I am actually seeing the trend in that direction. Most people want good looking brides and grooms. Most people look for socially desirable characteristics - good looking, slim, convent educated, homely in brides and MBA, good looking, working in MNC, 7 figure salary in grooms. What about the people who are not from convents and working with start-ups? They would have to get married to girls who are not slim and fair and homely and they would end up having comparatively inferior kids.

No wonder kids of most doctor couples end up becoming doctor as kids. I am not saying that doctors pass on intelligence in the genes but the kid would be more inclined towards medicine since he has some traits of parents (nature) and he would grow up in a house (nurture) full of medicines and medical books and medical equipment. Most of his parents friends would also be doctors and their kids would also be doctors and hence all the more surrounded by doctors.

Things look scary.

Any comments .. ?

Warren Buffet and Bill Gates

Warren Buffet and Bill Gates - two of the two richest men on planet. Together.

The Romantics - Pankaj Mishra

Just finished The Romantics by Pankaj Mishra.

This was yet another thought provoking Indian piece of fiction. English, August is another one that allows you to read a lot between the lines.

The Romantics is about a twenty year old who has a very narrow view of the world. Born and brought up in a small town, educated in a grade two city, he is now in Benaras to live closer to an university and eventually achieve the IAS dream.

He comes in contact with few expats, realizes that the world extends beyond Benaras and Allahabad and people could have lives that are beyond schooling, jobs and kids. He starts questioning his thoughts. His belief system, his upbringing and finally meaning of his life.

Apart from expats, he meets a student leader, tries to understand lief from his perspective and gets even more confused.

Through all this he falls in love with a French girl who in turn is planning to marry another Indian guy. A typical love story.

The writer has a beautiful style of narrative. The way he talks about things, objects, people, you almost start visualizing those things. He has also been able to capture the Indian thought very vividly in his book. A lot of subtle emotions, actions, behaviors have been captured very well. A lot of Indian authors falter at this. They forget all these minute details that make living what it is - living. Pankaj Mishra has been able to do justice to it.

The book is fun to read and very thought provoking. There is a huge part of the book that I did not understand (because of references to a lot of old not-so-famous authors). A part of me wanted to stop everything and read those books and understand their philosophy and the other part said I need to move on. I need to drift on. No points for guessing who won.

I would rate the book at 3 on 5.

More
Amazon page for The Romantics

Opposites

For reasons, I had decided that I would not post anything irrelevant here, but could not resist the temptation to share this with the world.

Simply brilliant and too 1337 :)

Credits
Source: Unknown, received in email
Hosting: Flickr

Quality Revealed

I am a poor blogger.

BarCamp Mumbai 2

October 13 is now booked. Just signed up for Mumbai BarCamp2. Sign up at http://barcamp.org/BarCampMumbai2. Its being hosted at IIT Mumbai.

I am the 25th person to confirm my attendance for second version of BarCamp in Mumbai. My first ever. Lets see what comes out of it. I have heard from quite a few people that it can be real fun and in fact quite a few businesses have actually come out of it.

They also invite people to give talks. I would love to talk about a lot of things - especially not being able to start a company. Maybe someone can tell me how to start one. Beware Google. I am on the prowl.

Keep watching !

Keywords: BarCampMumbai2, BarCamp

UPDATE: As on 19th September, 41 people have agreed to attend and 2 people have agreed to speak at the BarCampMumbai2. Great going.

Update 2: As on 20th September, Barcamp Mumbai 2 has 56 attendees and 3 speakers.

UPDATE 3: Dates for the barcamp changed. Its now on 14th October rather than 13th. 10 speakers and 83 attendees. Looks like we will have a blast !

Final Update: Back from the bacCamp. I think something is really really wrong about all the people trying to launch their companies. Most of the people are launching companies with no visible revenue streams. I dont understand how will these companies sustain themselves.

In short, I am dissappointed.

Angelo d'Arrigo

Angelo d'Arrigo lived a dream life. He travelled the world, he crossed the Sahara, he rose higher than the Everest. All this while flying.

Sadly he died in an air-crash but he lived his life king size. Salute to the great man.

Please visit his website for more.

An Essay by Einstein - The World As I See It

This site has an essay by Einstein.

Here is a great quote

Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed

I did not know he hated military system. Full text available here.

The image above is Albert Einstein's signature.