celestri.org

As part of my back to basics series, I’m going to walk you through a quick and cheap way to create a web presence for under USD 55 a year.  I hear people all the time tell me they are going to hire a web developer to create a website for thousands of dollars, my first reaction is to cringe. 80% of the time you can get away with a website that I’m going to describe. Then if you really want to hire a graphics designer and not a web developer. You can create a website in 3 easy steps:

1. Register a name with a domain register.  The one I recommend and have been using for years is GoDaddy.com, if you want a .in address for India then head to registry.in. The domain name should cost around USD 10 a year. Update: GoDaddy can now can register .IN addresses for about USD 5/year.

2. Select a hosting provider.  I’ve been using GoDaddy.com for the past 4 years and have had no issues. But there are others such as Rackspace or 1and1. A yearly GoDaddy plan can be had for USD 45 a year.

3. Install WordPress. This is the critical step and the secret sauce. WordPress is an open source blogging package but also a content management system.  Thousands of companies use it for their corporate website not to mention the millions that use it for blogging.  As you can imagine this blog uses WordPress and has been for the past 5 years. Once you install WordPress you no longer have to deal with the technical details of a website from this point forward you use the WordPress GUI dashboard.

4. Pick a theme for WordPress.  A theme is what sets your website apart from others.  The beauty of WordPress is the community of developers that are creating tons on themes. Most are free and some can cost USD 100 which is cheap for a corporate website. Below are two places that have a ton of themes to pick from:

WordPress.org Themes Directory
Weblog Tools Collection

So who can benefit from this quick and cheap tutorial? Doctors, consultants, architects, jewelry stores, media professional, ad agencies, etc…the list goes on and on.

So there you have it, a quick and cheap web presence that should work for more then 80% of the people looking to create a website.

Yes, I’m on vacation but I had to blog about my Skype usage on the iPhone. I was able to download the app via the hotel Wi-Fi and started making calls right away. I’m in Thailand and used Skype to call back to India at 9 cents a minute. The prepaid SIM card rate is something like 80 cents a minute. I love it…now back to my vacation.

And yes, this entire blog entry was done via the open source WordPress iPhone app.

Web 1.0 was about commerce and Web 2.0 is all about social.  MoneyVidya is a social stock investing site geared for the Indian stock market. The idea is pretty simple – once you sign up for MoneyVidya you can make stock recommendations, then MoneyVidya tracks the return and riskiness of the stock picks. Based on the aggregate performance of your stock picks, you get a rating based on 1 to 5 stars. The concept makes sense and thrives off the idea that a good portfolio manager can be found anywhere and not necessarily have to wear a suit or show up on CNBC.

However, the timing of the site might be a bit off as many people are turned off by the stock market but that might separate the real portfolio managers from the posers. Gautam Kshatriya, the founder, sums it up best “It would be silly to deny that market conditions have hit us. But we’re going to hang on. Besides, the users that join a site like this in the beginning are ‘passionate’ investors anyway, who are likely to be in the market no matter what.”

I finally got around to migrating my GrandCentral account to Google Voice (GV)…feel stupid for not doing it earlier. GV is loaded with a ton of features and takes voice messaging to a whole new level.  The idea behind GV is that you get one phone number issued by Google and hand out that number to people.  Then behind the scenes you connect it to your cell phone, home, work, or Skype number.  Currently, GV is only available for the US and thus you can only get a US issued number. Also, GV does not forward to an international number which is an issue for me so I get around this by using a SkypeIn number. But of course, that means I have to be near my computer to answer calls and that defeats the whole purpose of mobility.

There are several real benefits for me:
- When people call my GV number, the voice message get’s transcribed and sent as an email in addition to the audio MP3 file
- I can use GV to call any US number for free by utilizing my SkypeIn number
- The iPhone interface for GV is slick but good be better

After using GV for the past several days, I’ve realized Google is intent on taking over my digital life.  There are several things that I would like to see before they announce a general launch:
- International numbers
- Forward calls to int’l numbers
- Integrate GV with Gmail for true unified messaging
- Ability to use PayPal and not just Google CheckOut to buy credits

Below are some screenshots

On Tuesday, Apple gave a preview of what new features can be expected in their latest software (v3.0) for the iPhone. The event was a mix between features for end users and also for developers.  Apple said the latest Software Development Kit (SDK) includes over 1000 new API’s and over 100 new features.  v3.0 will be released later this summer (June/July) which is exactly two years from the launch of the iPhone in June 2007. It’s a bit sad that some of basic features in a USD 30 phone are finally arriving such as ability to forward an SMS. Below is my wish list, items crossed off are coming in 3.0.

• Smart groups in contacts
• Export Business cards
• Implement copy and paste
• Notes program syncs to computer
• iCal to-do list syncs to iPhone
• Play DivX files
• Forward SMS’s
• Multiple signatures for different mail accounts

Check out Terry White’s massive wish list, it seems Apple still has a long way to go.

Wow…is all I have to say after getting a chance to use Cisco’s video conferencing solution called TelePresence, it’s the way video conferencing should be. Over the years I’ve used video conferencing products from Cisco, Polycom and Tandberg to name a few and they were all kludgy and just never really worked. Granted, you can never replicate an in person meeting but TelePresence gets pretty close. I was in Bombay and initiated a call with several people in Irvine, California and you felt as if everyone was in the same room.

The Cisco team built TelePresence from the ground up and went as far as designing the room, chairs and table that need to be used. The unit I was using cost around USD 300k per side and had three 65″ LCD’s running full 1080p…yes 1920 x 1080. That means several gig’s of data was compressed to under 15Mbps which is still a lot of bandwidth but it is so worth it. Below are some pictures but they really don’t do justice, first 5 pics are from Bombay and the last 2 are from Irvine. I really should have taken a video!

More info on TelePresence from the Cisco website.

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been debating whether to upload my personal data contained in my address book and calender to the Googleplex. I figured Google is already a massive part of my life with search and Gmail do I really want to hand over more of my life to Google? I have no doubt Google will not profile my data or pilfer it, but in this current environment of anything is possible (countries going bankrupt, USD 50 billion ponzi schemes, Starbucks closing stores etc…) you never know.

For me, it comes down to hardware independence.  I would love to buy a cheap USD 100 phone when I travel and not have to tinker with all the settings. Currently, I use a MacBook Pro (MBP) and iPhone combo to organize and manage my life, the two make sweet music like Hall and Oates.  My iPhone data is backed up to my MBP and my MBP is backed up to an external 250GB Toshiba drive.  My dilemma is I’m locked into an iPhone only solution at the moment and living in India means if something happens to my iPhone I have to shell out USD 640 for a new iPhone…that is a HUGH deal breaker for me.

There are two solutions to this:

1. Apple expands it’s iSync software to natively work with many of the new phones from BlackBerry, Nokia and Google’s Android platform. Most likely won’t happen as Apple historically is a closed platform. I’m a hugh iPhone fan, but the power of open source technology is no match for a closed architecture platform.

2. Move my data to Google which would be my central data repository.  Then using the various Google tools such as Google Sync I could download my data to a new phone and sync on the fly. And as more companies offer Android based phones I would have a much larger selection of phones to choose from. For example, Motorola just scraped their own phone OS and decided to exclusively use the Android platform.

I hope the competition between Apple’s iSync and Google’s Sync make both products better in the near future. Ideally, I’d like to stick with Apple’s iSync and not have my address book and calendar reside in the cloud but I’m guessing it’s just a matter of time.

Every year for the past several years I would make a New Years resolution to get organized, then I would download a bunch of Mac applications and get frustrated with them.  During the last half of December 2008, I decided to try 3 programs: OmniFocus, The Hit List and Things.  All 3 applications allow you to use the Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology from David Allen. I like to call it “Getting Shi!@# Done.”

OmniFocus (OF) from The Omni Group.  I’ve tried this program several times and loved that it was really just a blank sheet and you could customize it. OF has both a desktop and iPhone version that sync up. But for some reason I just couldn’t fit it into my daily work flow. Otherwise it’s a great program from a very talented company.

The Hit List (THL) from The Potion Factory. THL is in beta and has a great interface.  THL fit in with how I work, but it’s iPhone app has not been released yet and that was part of my criteria for picking an application.  The iPhone app is in the works but I really wanted something on day one – Jan 1, 2009.

This finally bring me to Things from Cultured Code. I have been a part of their beta program and have tried using Things several times over the past year.  As their official launch at Macworld 2009 neared, their code base got better and was very rock solid. I again started to use Things and was impressed how much better the application was when I first started using it. The Things interface is so simple you can start entering data right away without reading a “how to” guide. The interface was a natural fit for how I work and took me no time to get organized. The iPhone version synced via WiFi without any issues to my desktop.  The iPhone version has a couple features missing but the team at Cultured Code are making sure those get implemented ASAP.

Overall, I would highly recommend Things if you are looking to get organized.  Things desktop is USD 50 and Things iPhone/touch is USD 10.

Update: Watch the Things screencast I created

Cook as in cooking the books. Satyam is the 4 largest IT major in India and was started by Rama Raju. Today he dropped a massive bombshell that involved an accounting scandal which sent the stock tanking 77%, it closed at Rs 40.25 a share (the 52 week high was Rs. 542). Rama faxed a letter to SEBI Wednesday morning where he outlined the level of fraud and why he did what he did. The letter tries to show him as the knight in shining armor trying to rescue the company…what a crock of sh!@#. According to the letter he is solely responsible and nobody knew anything but him, even though Satyam has over 53,000 employees, had 9 directors on the board and PwC as the auditor.

The meaning of Satyam in sanskit is truth, which brings me to this point about trust. Who can you trust? The founders of the company? The board of directors? The auditors? The analysts? The regulators? The ratings agencies?

To quote a line from my spiritual advisor – LA rapper 2Pac Shakur:

Before I go to sleep
Tell me, who do you believe in?
Who do you believe in?

So why did he do it? The usual culprit is pump up the numbers to drive the stock price up (aka pump and dump). Based on my extensive research (using google and talking to one person) I have two theories:

1. The numbers for the past several years were pumped up by using the cash on the balance sheet to play in the equity markets. When the markets fell last year, that cash disappeared. Is this likely, maybe. When I came to India a couple years ago, I met with a pharma company that had Rs 50 CR on the books and wanted to invest in the equity markets. They said “why invest in our business when we can make 30-40% in the markets.”

2. Government payoff (read bribe). IT companies in India are usually free of corruption but infrastructure and real estate companies are the exact opposite. Rama has two sons – Teja (runs Maytas Infra) and Rama Jr. (runs Maytas Real Estate). Where did Maytas Infra get the money to “win” the contract for the Hyderabad Metro project?

I would highly recommend reading the letter he faxed to SEBI, below is the best line from the letter:

It was like riding a tiger, not knowing how to get off without being eaten

Update:
The lead partner from PwC who handles Satyam is Srinivas Talluri, you can email him at srinivas.talluri@in.pwc.com to get all your questions answered.