Showing posts with label Google. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Google. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 11, 2023

11: Google DeepMind



Why the Early Success of Threads May Crash Into Reality Mark Zuckerberg has used Meta’s might to push Threads to a fast start — but that may only work up to a point. ......... The year was 2011 and Google had just rolled out a social network called Google+, which was aimed as its “Facebook killer.” Google thrust the new site in front of many of its users who relied on its search and other products, expanding Google+ to more than 90 million users within the first year. .......... But by 2018, Google+ was relegated to the ash heap of history. .......... dislodge Twitter and make Threads the prime app for real-time, public conversations. ......... the numbers that Threads racked up “objectively impressive and unprecedented.” .......... Elon Musk, who owns Twitter, has appeared agitated by Threads’ momentum. With 100 million people, Threads is quickly surging toward some of Twitter’s last public user numbers. Twitter disclosed it had 237.8 million daily users in July 2022, four months before Mr. Musk bought the company and took it private. ......... On Sunday, Mr. Musk called Mr. Zuckerberg a “cuck” on Twitter. Then he challenged Mr. Zuckerberg to a contest to measure a specific body part and compare whose was larger, alongside an emoji of a ruler. Mr. Zuckerberg has not responded. ............ (Before Threads was announced, Mr. Musk separately dared Mr. Zuckerberg to fight a “cage match.”) ......... What Mr. Musk lacks at Twitter, Mr. Zuckerberg has in abundance at Meta: enormous audiences. More than three billion users regularly visit Mr. Zuckerberg’s constellation of apps, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger. .......... Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, said in a Threads post on Monday that there was a running list of new features to add to the new app that people have requested. “They say, ‘make it work, make it great, make it grow,’” he wrote, adding, “I promise we will make this thing great.” ............ Some saw Google+ as something that was forced on them while they were just trying to gain access to their Gmail. .......... Google+ mainly defined itself by “what it wasn’t — i.e. Facebook.” ........... Of course Mr. Zuckerberg could pull a Bill Gates with Threads. Mr. Gates, a founder of Microsoft, built his empire on Windows, the operating system that powered a generation of personal computers — and then successfully used that scale to crush competitors. ............. Once Windows dominated PCs, Mr. Gates famously bundled other products with the software for free. When he did that in 1995 by packaging the web browser Internet Explorer with Windows, Internet Explorer soon turned into the default browser on millions of computers, overtaking the then-dominant browser, Netscape, in just four years. .

A.I. Could Solve Some of Humanity’s Hardest Problems. It Already Has. Demis Hassabis, the chief executive of DeepMind, discusses how A.I. systems can accelerate scientific research. .

Why I Regret Debating Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Opinion columnist Farhad Manjoo on why it’s a bad idea to debate conspiracy theorists. .

Ron DeSantis Doesn’t Know Whether He’s Coming or Going

The Flawed Moral Logic of Sending Cluster Munitions to Ukraine

The Next Battle Over Colorblindness Has Begun

The Tale of Two Invasions: What the Last Attack on Jenin Tells Us About Israel Now

Desperate to Debate: Why a G.O.P. Candidate Is Offering $20 for $1 Donations The candidate, Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota, is one of several Republican presidential candidates going to great lengths to reach a crucial threshold to qualify for the first primary debate. ..... the Republican front-runner, former President Donald J. Trump, and his top rival, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida. .

Friday, May 19, 2023

Bard

Thursday, December 08, 2016

The Indian Trinity In America





Monday, February 01, 2016

Can't Wait For Google 5G

A network made up of thousands of autonomous drones, powered by solar energy, would then be used to deliver high-speed, reliable Internet around the world.
The push by major tech companies like Facebook and Google to deliver universal Internet access has been praised for its potential to connect the two-thirds of the planet without access to broadband, but critics have suggested it is solely motivated by private gains.......“We shouldn’t celebrate Facebook’s efforts to ‘bring the Internet to all’ because that is not what they are doing,” transparency advocate David Sasaki said in a blogpost published shortly after the unveiling of the Internet.org foundation........“When Zuckerberg says that access to the Internet is a human right, what he means is that access to Facebook should be a human right.”

Saturday, January 30, 2016

How To Turn Patna Into A Smart City For Free

Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, was in India last year wanting to help spread internet access through the TV spectrum. You broadcast the internet like you broadcast TV waves. Nitish could talk to Satya and offer Patna as an experimental space for the initiative. If the entire city of Patna can be blanketed with internet broadcast over the TV spectrum, paid for by Microsoft, Patna will end up the smartest city in India. Nitish already has a great personal relationship with Bill Gates. Time to cash on it, maybe?

Nitish laments absence of Bihar on smart cities’ list



Bihar CM Nitish Kumar attacks Centre for 'ignoring' Bihar in Smart City list
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today hit out at the Centre for not selecting any city from Bihar in the the list of 20 smart cities and said the BJP-led Union government has no consideration to maintain regional balance. ...... "There is no rule or law before them...something other is going in the country these days," he said........ "There is no 'maryada' (decency), 'niyam' (rules), neither they have any consideration to maintain regional balance," Kumar, who is senior leader of JD(U) said. ....... "This is example of 'andher nagri' (misrule)," the Bihar CM said.
Microsoft wants to bring cheap broadband to 500,000 Indian villages
Last November, the company began experimenting with the unused spectrum between TV channels, known as ‘white space‘, to provide internet services to a school in the Srikakulam district in the state of Andhra Pradesh. ...... It’s now extended its pilot testing to the city of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh. Nadella said Microsoft plans to work with the central and state governments to bring connectivity using this technology to 500,000 villages across the country. ...... That could be huge for India, where roughly 70 percent of the population inhabits nearly 640,000 villages. ...... Between Nadella’s announcement and Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s plan to bring public Wi-Fi to 400 train stations in India, it looks like Narendra Modi’s visit to Silicon Valley is proving to be rather fruitful for the millions of citizens who are yet to log on to the Web for the first time.
Report: Google testing 5G drones that deliver internet 40 times faster than 4G
Google is testing solar-powered drones at Spaceport America, a New Mexico facility that formerly played host to Virgin Galactic. ....... The project, codenamed SkyBender, aims to test several prototype transcievers and drones using millimeter wave radio transmissions. ...... Millimeter transmissions occupy the 28GHz frequency and although the range is shorter than that of current 4G technologies, the speeds are incredible. ..... Theoretically milimeter wave technology can transfer multiple gigabits of data per second, up to 40 times more than current 4G LTE systems.
Microsoft plans to provide free Internet across India using ‘white space’ TV spectrum
Microsoft has announced its plans to bring Internet connectivity across the country completely free of cost. ...... Microsoft has proposed to make use of

the “white space” or the unused spectrum between two TV channels

, to make Internet connectivity to a vast population an economically-viable solution. .......

Unlike Wi-Fi, which has a range of only about 100 metres, the 200-300 MHz spectrum in the white space can reach up to 10 km. This spectrum currently belongs to the government-owned Doordarshan TV channel and is not used at all.

....... The initiative seems to have come right in time when PM Narendra Modi has announced his Digital India project. The project that would cost $1.2 billion aims to connect 250,000 gram panchayats in order to make Internet connectivity accessible to every part of the country. The project has garnered the interest of several tech giants, including Facebook and Microsoft, who have shown their willingness to offer support to make it a reality.
White spaces (radio)
National and international bodies assign different frequencies for specific uses, and in most cases license the rights to broadcast over these frequencies. This frequency allocation process creates a bandplan, which for technical reasons assigns white space between used radio bands or channels to avoid interference. In this case, while the frequencies are unused, they have been specifically assigned for a purpose, such as a guard band. Most commonly however, these white spaces exist naturally between used channels, since assigning nearby transmissions to immediately adjacent channels will cause destructive interference to both. In addition to white space assigned for technical reasons, there is also unused radio spectrum which has either never been used, or is becoming free as a result of technical changes. In particular, the switchover to digital television frees up large areas between about 50 MHz and 700 MHz. This is because digital transmissions can be packed into adjacent channels, while analog ones cannot. This means that the band can be "compressed" into fewer channels, while still allowing for more transmissions. ...... In the United States, the abandoned television frequencies are primarily in the upper UHF "700-megahertz" band, covering TV channels 52 to 69 (698 to 806 MHz). U.S. television and its white spaces will continue to exist in UHF frequencies, as well as VHF frequencies for which mobile users and white-space devices require larger antennas. In the rest of the world, the abandoned television channels are VHF, and the resulting large VHF white spaces are being reallocated for the worldwide (except the U.S.) digital radio standard DAB and DAB+, and DMB.
White Space, the next internet disruption: 10 things to know
White Space has started spreading internet access to unconnected areas. Here's what you need to know about this confusing, widely-hyped, emerging technology.
In even the most developed countries, there are huge gaps in internet access. Fixed broadband access is unaffordable for 3.9 billion people around the world. In the U.S., about 72 percent of people have home broadband internet access, but 60 million people are still living without it. ....... White Space stands to transform the way we purchase and use wireless internet. It isn't yet widely adopted, but this unlicensed, free form of broadband is gaining traction. ........... Typical home Wi-Fi can travel through two walls.

White Space broadband can travel up to 10 kilometers, through vegetation, buildings, and other obstacles.

Tablets, phones, and computers can all access this wireless internet using White Space through fixed or portable power stations. The actual amounts of spectrum vary by region, but White Space spectrum ranges from 470 MHz to 790 Mhz........ In 2011, Wilmington, North Carolina implemented White Space technology to connect the city's infrastructure, allowing public officials to remotely turn lights on and off in parks, provide public wireless broadband to certain areas of the city, and monitor water levels. At West Virginia University, White Space technology is used to power a "super Wi-Fi network". It started in 2013 with wireless internet on the campus public transit platform, which transports about 15,000 students a day. WVU is the first campus to utilize White Space broadband internet. ....... "The Gigabit Libraries program is using TVWS devices to deliver Internet service to local libraries and a number of operators in rural areas are using these devices to provide service to homes and businesses in rural areas" .........

Google and Microsoft are already chasing the emerging White Space market in Africa, where only 16 percent of the population is online. Because the waves can travel up to 10 kilometers in radius, it is great for remote, off-the-grid villages.

...... Microsoft's 4Afrika initiative is focusing on White Space technology throughout the continent, hoping to bring millions of people online, and has projects in place in Tanzania and South Africa. ...... Rural areas, both in the U.S. and abroad, are often inhibited from wireless access because they are inaccessible and off the local power grid. Cell towers are difficult to install and can't connect, either. Fortunately, White Space power stations can be charged with solar panels, and the excess electricity generated can also power other institutions in the area such as schools....... With a cell tower or other device, the White Space technology can travel 10 kilometers and service many more customers at one time. ....... Microsoft has implemented White Space projects throughout Asia, including a recent deployment in Singapore through partnerships with Singapore government research agencies and a UK wireless service provider in areas where vegetation makes wireless access difficult. In conjunction with its projects in Europe, Microsoft is also creating a database for White Space in the U.S., much like Google's. ........

Internet service providers were ranked the lowest customer service satisfaction of any industry in America, according to American Customer Satisfaction Index's most recent survey. The two largest providers, Comcast and Time Warner, were ranked the lowest out of all internet service providers.

...... So far, the FCC has allowed very few internet service providers to license the White Space spectrum. Hopefully, they will continue to be cautious about who they allow to purchase the spectrum so that it can be a disruptive force in connecting more people to the internet.


How new 'white space' rules could lead to an urban super-Wi-Fi
White space, or buffer channels, refers to the unused channels between the VHF and UHF spectrum. In the pre-cable era, when over-the-air broadcasts ruled the day, these buffers were used to prevent broadcasters from interfering with one another. We all know how prevalent over-the-air broadcasting is now; today this spectrum is largely unused. ...... a super Wi-Fi network knitted together with next-generation TV or smart remotes. ...... wireless data could be transmitted over UHF channels during active TV broadcasts without interference. ......

The UHF spectrum, which ranges from 400 to 700 MHz, is superior to the higher-frequency signals used for existing Wi-Fi hotspots

...... as these signals carry for miles and are not blocked by walls or trees.
TV white space will connect the internet of things
White spaces in the radio spectrum can now be used for anything from wireless flood defences to city-wide Wi-Fi. Services using the technology could appear before the end of the year with surplus spectrum filling in gaps where Wi-Fi and Bluetooth fail. ........ The spare spectrum comes from bands currently shared by digital TV and wireless microphones. ..... Broadly the technology will allow internet of things devices to communicate with one another and the internet. White space spectrum could also improve broadband coverage in rural areas and boost Wi-Fi signals in crowded cities. ...... King's College London is currently researching how white space spectrum could be used to improve broadband coverage by linking white space connections between buildings. The technology could also be used to add extra capacity to crowded networks.

Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Zuck, Free Basics, India (2)

Free Basics And Facebook’s Waterloo In India
What is limiting the spread of the Internet in India isn’t the cost of mobile data. Cell phone plans and data access are really cheap there. The problem is that most people can’t afford smartphones or tablet computers. But this is changing because prices of computing devices are dropping......Lower-end smartphones can be already purchased for around $50 in India and data access costs as little as 50 cents for 100 MB. A farmer who can afford to buy such a device can certainly afford the data.
Zuck, Free Basics, India

How about this? Any entity, be it Reliance, Facebook, Google or Flipkart, may pay for and make available Free Basics to anyone. There would be a consortium of the leading 20 corporate players that would decide on the details. Any site/app/service may compete to be listed. But since there are only 100 slots available, it will have to meet the data requirements and will have to be sufficiently popular. Free Basics must come with some free data, the amount of which can increase over time. Users may use that free data to go to any site/app they want. The list of 100 itself should be competitive. Unless you stay in the top 50 by usage, you drop off. If you are not in the top 50 for 90 days in a row, you are no longer on the main list, making space for other sites/apps the user might choose. Also, the user should have the option to actively rearrange their list. They might add and delete as they please. A user will also have the option to get Free Basics from multiple providers on the same phone/device.

The upside is you end up with a billion users. I can't think of a better gift to the tech startups in India. So, don't oppose, instead negotiate.


Saturday, January 09, 2016

Saudi Arabia: SuperPower?

English: Saudi Arabia 2010 estimated populatio...
English: Saudi Arabia 2010 estimated population density. Data source: http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/gpw/ (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
What is this talk of a 10 trillion dollar company? Whatever it is, this godzilla of a company, I want this company to invest in my company, like Yahoo invested in Alibaba. If this goes through, and there indeed is a 10 trillion dollar company ..... and there are people who lose sleep trying to figure out if Apple or Google will be the world's first trillion dollar company ....... Saudia Arabia is suddenly right there with America and China. This super duper mega corporation. This can't be called a corporation, or even a mega corporation. We need a new name. What could it be? A billion dollar company is a unicorn. A 100 billion dollar company is a godzilla. (Sorry, that name is already taken). What is a trillion dollar company? What is a 10 trillion dollar company? Yet to be named.

I think Donald Trump is responsible. ISIS is putting out recruitment videos featuring Donald Trump. The Saudis have done two things in a row. They have picked a fight with Iran that has all the inkling of a fight between unequals. And now this. The message is, Donald, come be janitor, we hire billionaire janitors.

Saudi Arabia is ruling the era of oil. They could also do really well in the era of solar. They do get a lot of sun. And 3D printing could simply scoop up the sand. You could manufacture all kinds of things with the sun and the sand. And you got trillions to invest.


Monday, December 14, 2015

Indian Bureaucracy At Its Worst

This is no different from Nepal's politicians and bureaucrats blocking four billion dollars in global aid from reaching Nepal's earthquake victims. This is insane. You'd think India would want to celebrate the fact that there is an Indian sitting atop Google right now. It is a big deal. More than that, Internet is water, Internet is air. The Internet is the oxygen the people need. This is insane. This is outrageous.

Follow the money. Obviously there are ISPs in India who think their markets will shrink, markets they have not even bothered tapping and have no plans to tap. No immediate plans. This is tragic.



A Potential Blow to Google’s Project Loon: Indian Official Throws Water on Internet Balloons
Project Loon, Google’s pie-in-the-sky plan to blanket the globe with Internet through a chain of balloons floating in the stratosphere ...... India, the country with the largest number of unconnected people (after China). ..... comments from India’s top telecom government official ..... Google has moved to purchase spectrum in the country for Loon. Here’s what Ravi Shankar Prasad, India’s minister of communication and IT, told the nation’s upper house of Parliament about the purchase: “The proposed frequency band to be used in the Loon Project of Google is being used for cellular operations in India and it will lead to interference with cellular transmissions.” ..... In other words, India might not let Google fly its balloons....... We’re confident we can address any questions any government officials have about cellular interference, and are looking forward to working with them to conduct initial tests and validate our non-interference analysis. We have already successfully tested integrating the Loon system into the infrastructure of several major telcos. We believe that we can operate a balloon network on shared spectrum in a way that will enhance coverage without impacting existing operations, just like a telco can roll out new towers to expand coverage without causing interference....... (Kashmir, India’s disputed territory, is among the most militarized worldwide) ...... In October, Access — a separate Alphabet company from Google or Loon’s X — announced a deal to outfit India’s railways with Wi-Fi technology.
Google’s Project Loon in trouble due to spectrum interference in India
Google, under its Project Loon, is using big balloons floating at a height of 20 kilometers above earth surface for transmission of Internet services. It has already tested this technology in New Zealand, California (the US) and Brazil. As per Google, each balloon can provide connectivity to a ground area about 40 km in diameter using a wireless communications technology called LTE or 4G....... To use LTE or 4G, Project Loon partners with telecom companies to share cellular spectrum so that people will be able to access the Internet everywhere directly from their phones and other LTE-enabled devices. Google uses solar panel and wind to power electronic equipment in the balloon throughout the day.
In The News

Allowing women to do more aid work could hugely boost India's GDP
Indian women can add $2.9 trillion, or 60 percent to annual GDP, by as early as 2025, if allowed to participate in the workforce on an equal basis as men ...... Indian women's contribution to the economy is the lowest on a global scale, at 17 percent. .........

Gender inequality, a lack of education and childcare facilities, social pressures and rising crime in cities are all cited as reasons for women opting out of the workforce.

..... Limited financial inclusion, with women getting less than 10 percent of all loans granted, along with a preference for a male child and rules such as the ones that mean

a woman needs to get her husband's signature for even a car loan

, have all contributed to women being left behind in the Indian economy ....... Manju Taneja, a 42-year-old who asked that her real name not be used, has an MBA from the top ranking Indian Institute of Management but has not worked for the past 10 years. She gave up her job when she had her first child and today spends most of her time looking after her three children. ....... Out of the 30 girls in her batch at the IIM, 15 are currently not working. If Manju had not left the workforce, today she could have been earning 10 million rupees ($150,000) a year ...... In India 48 percent of women drop out of the workforce before they reach middle management positions ...... "Childcare facilities are the biggest push to get women into the work force" ..... "Studies across the world have shown that working women's children are better fed, better educated, thus building social capital for the economy. This is called a double dividend" ..... women spent 93 percent of their earnings on the family's nutrition and education, while the men spent only 60 percent on family needs, the rest on their personal expenditure. ..... women are great multi-taskers and work harder to prove themselves, according to managers ......

companies that achieve diversity in their management ranks attain better financial results

...... companies with the most female board directors outperformed those with the least on return on sales by 16 percent and return on invested capital by 26 percent. ......... gender balanced teams at companies lead to greater innovation and result in more patents ......

women perform 9.8 times the amount of unpaid work than men in India

Why smartphones could be dead in 5 years
In its place will be artificial intelligence which will "enable interaction with objects without the need for a smartphone screen". ..... they will be able to talk to household appliances as they do to people. ..... AI will take over many common activities, such as searching the net, getting travel guidance and as personal assistants ..... Nearly half of those polled (44 percent), think an AI System would be good as a teacher, a third would like an AI device to keep them company, and 29 percent would feel more comfortable discussing their medical condition with a n AI system than a doctor.
Russian fighters are joining ISIS in record numbers
"Despite Putin's repeated statements of alarm at the problem posed by returning jihadist fighters, the Kremlin's campaign to prop up the Assad regime is, over the long term, likely to make the terrorist threat to the Russian homeland even greater"
Ex-Russia Fin Min: We need 'painful' structural reforms
"We need structural reforms in various areas. That will lead to diversification .... the reform of the pension system, decentralization of the budget and allocation of more funds for infrastructure." ..... whether or not privatization and de-monopolization of certain industries will take place. .....

this is a country which in 2013 depended on natural resources for an estimated 18 percent of total GDP

Here's why it is so warm on the East Coast
"Arctic Oscillation" is a change in air pressure at the North Pole that affects how far south cold air travels from the Arctic. ..... The polar vortex is a ring of cold winds that swirls around the north pole (there is one at the South Pole, as well). Low pressure keeps those winds — and the cold air they carry — wrapped around the poles. At the furthest perimeter of this vortex is a jet stream of fast-moving, cold air. ..... The cold weather in the early months of 2014 was largely attributed to that shifting of the polar vortex away from the Arctic and toward the equator — a "negative" Arctic Oscillation. Over half of the United States was covered in snow, and some regions saw record cold temperatures. ..... Currently, the Arctic Oscillation is exceptionally positive, and the polar vortex has been stronger than average. The cold air that would otherwise chill the northern regions of the country is staying around the Arctic. ...... the temperatures in Florida are puzzlingly high right now
Marine Le Pen Far From Humbled by National Front’s Bruising Defeat
The party “doesn’t realize that in order to win power, it has to make allies and expand its audience,” said Sylvain Crépon, a political scientist and an expert on the National Front. ...... “Their ideas continue to repulse over 70 percent of the French,” Mr. Crépon said...... Both right and left freely steal from the National Front’s ideas, with the left often sounding law-and-order themes and the right vowing to crack down on immigration. “The other two parties wage their campaigns around the Front’s ideas,” Mr. Crépon said. But they are always careful to avoid its extreme xenophobia ......

The party’s dilemma, never resolved, is that “if it is too radical, it marginalizes itself, but if it normalizes itself, it becomes too commonplace.”

..... “With all this immigration, and then the immigration leading to terrorism; she said it, and nobody was listening,” said Nellie Viaro, a National Front municipal councilor from the Paris suburbs. ...... He added, referring to France’s flag, “With the Socialists, there is no blue-white-red, there is only red.”
Marine Le Pen Lost a Battle But May Win the War in France
The Front National may have been shut out of office, but the party’s overall strong showing points to the its arrival as the third major force in French politics. The 6.8 million votes cast for the FN yesterday was a record high, and there is no sign that support is ebbing
Galaxy S7 likely to get pressure-sensitive display and high-speed charging
Apple added a pressure-sensitive display to the iPhone 6S earlier this year, allowing the phone to interpret the added force on a screen touch to create a different response. .... The reported fast-charging port is a USB Type-C, allowing a full day's charge in under 30 minutes or faster. LG and Huawei have already offered such a feature in smartphones.
Facebook Is Killing Photo Syncing, Asks Users To Download Its “Moments” App Instead
The move also comes at a time when rival Google is seeing success with its own standalone photo-syncing app, Google Photos, now a top 20 “Photos & Video” app on iOS, and a top 10 app on Android.

Monday, September 01, 2014

A Comprehensive War

In the book, Blair writes that he hoped that G...
In the book, Blair writes that he hoped that George W. Bush would win a second term as President of the United States in 2004. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Russia is unfinished business. Just like George W Bush prematurely declared Mission Accomplished after a few days of airstrikes in Iraq, it can be argued Bush Sr. did the same thing when the Soviet Union collapsed. It was a tectonic milestone, no doubt, but unless Russia becomes a democracy, it will keep causing trouble.

Suddenly there are two broad fronts. There is Russia. And there is ISIS, which is in a stronger shape than the Al Qaeda ever was, with the same ill intentions to match. It would not flinch to unleash a biological attack somewhere, it would detonate a dirty bomb if it could. The dangers are grave. Obama might have similarly prematurely declared the death of Al Qaeda with the death of Bin Laden.

I happen to think the top idea here is what Google has. Beam internet from the skies and flood the earth with cheap Android phones. Google already has the prototype. I think the US government should massively scale it. If Google is thinking one billion, the US government should pump in 100 billion into the same effort. That would go a long way to the spread of democracy.

Wednesday, July 09, 2014

You Can Not Beat Modi Just By Building Alliances

English: The temple at Modinagar, Ghaziabad di...
English: The temple at Modinagar, Ghaziabad district, Uttar Pradesh (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Nitish has a great record on development. He can compete with Modi. He was an excellent Chief Minister, and Laloo was an excellent Railways Minister. If they come together, they can give Modi competition.

But Uttar Pradesh is not the same. There not only Mayawati and Mulayam don't have a development record, they are nowhere close to even talking, let alone seeing an alliance's need. Political arithmetic might suggest a Mayawati-Mulayam alliance would trounce Modi. But that is like when Microsoft and Yahoo ganged up to take on Google. It did not quite work out. Google's share did not diminish. In fact it ended up with even more users in the aftermath. You compete with Google on the quality of your search results not by building alliances.

The way to beat Modi is with development. Alliances are secondary, though important. Modi, in his historic victory, might have prepared ground for the unthinkable: the coming together of the Left and Mamata in West Bengal, Nitish and Laloo in Bihar, and Mayawati and Mulayam in Uttar Pradesh.

Nitish has to take the lead for all three states on the development front. Otherwise it will be a Modi juggernaut all the way.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Iran Democracy Activist, Tech Blogger, New Yorker

Iran Democracy


My new tag line on Twitter and Facebook: Iran Democracy Activist, Tech Blogger, New Yorker.

My old intro both places: Tech Entrepreneur. Advocating Inventor. Third World Guy. Netizen. Global Citizen. New Yorker. Googleable. Global South Advocate. Overall Nice Guy. Bossmanperson. Subway Comrade. Inspiration. Visionary. Troublemaker.

I am not right now a tech entrepreneur, thanks to my immigration mess. I fear I might get sued if I keep calling myself a tech entrepreneur. I have enemies in town. I will revisit that in about a year. For now tech blogging is my tech thing to do.

But my primary push is for Iran democracy. My immediate push is to do some fundraising for the work.

I want to do the Iran democracy thing while I wait to have the option to do the tech entrepreneur thing. I am very much in mood to do the tech entrepreneur thing. Tech blogging is a prelude to that. Learn from Fred Wilson the value of having a daily updated blog for someone who wants to stay active in tech.

My Iran democracy work is going to be social media intensive. I am presenting myself as a digital ninja/commando. It is as much politics as it is tech. I like the intensity of revolutionary work.

This is the crowd I am targeting to raise 150K plus: Prominent Iranian Americans. 100K pays for my work for 12-15 months. 50K is bonus upon task completion. Task completion is regime change leading to an interim government mandated with holding elections to a constituent assembly. If I raise more than 150K, the extra money I spend on the same cause in ways I choose.




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