Sunday, December 28, 2014

Goodbye 2014. Welcome 2015.



We've reached the last Sunday of 2014. That time of year when we look back at the year gone by and plan for the year we're about to usher in. That time of year when we make our New Year's resolutions.


For 2015, I have just 1 resolution. To not have any resolutions. This year I plan not to plan, but rather to "Just Do It".



Here's wishing you and yours a Happy and Eventful 2015 filled with joy and happiness.


Sunday, December 21, 2014

Gifts I'd like from Santa


 

Its that time of year when you give and sometimes get gifts. Here's my list of 5 of the favorite things I'd like to get from Santa. For some strange reasons Santa doesn't listen to Adult wishes, but nothing stops us from hoping for the next few days.



Chromecast
Chromecast is a thumb-sized media streaming device that plugs into the HDMI port on your TV. Simply use an Android phone, tablet, iPhone®, iPad®, Mac or Windows laptop, or Chromebook to cast your favorite entertainment and apps right to the big screen.



Smart Watch
A smart watch allows your app notifications and personal information come with you, like flight status and messages. And when you say “OK Google,” you can ask a question about anything, from turn-by-turn navigation steps to team stats—even find out your heart rate.Just when you thought wrist watches were passe, they're back.



GoPro Camera
With stunning image quality and powerful new features, the GoPro cameras take video recording to a whole new level. The cameras have an incredible high-resolutions and high frame rates. A built-in touch display completes the perfect camera package that makes amateurs into professional photographers.





Photographic Drone
A good drone is one that is easy to control while having great battery life and range, terrific safety features, and a smartphone app that lets you preview your on-drone camera for photography and piloting ease.



Robotic house cleaner
This is what everyone would love to have. Imagine the cleaning being done by a robot.



All of the above is greed. I need none of it. But I can make a difference, albeit a small one. And here are 2 gifts I'd like to continue to give.


a. Enabling a few families get decent meals.
b. Enabling a few kids get an education

And this is something I'll continue to work on over the next year to do in a small but sustainable way.

Happy Holidays !

Sunday, December 14, 2014

Supporting Open Source Initiatives

In the last few weeks I noticed a new message pop up in 2 of the services I use most frequently. Mozilla Firefox, the browser and Wikipedia the free encyclopedia. Maybe because its that time of the year which is the time for giving and everyone is expecting you to give.


Here's what the Mozilla Firefox message said:
"Hello there: We know you love Firefox, but did you know a non-profit called Mozilla built Firefox? Thanks to donations, Mozilla does a lot more than build this awesome browser. We teach people to code, fight for online privacy, and protect this amazing thing called the Web for future generations. Just a few times a year Mozilla asks for donations, and tens of thousands of people all over the world give. If they didn't, we couldn't do all this good stuff. If everyone reading this chipped in just a few dollars we could wrap this fundraiser up in under an hour. You can make a donation here. Thank you."



And this was what was on the top of the Wikipedia page"
"Wikipedia is one of the top sites on the web and serves 500 million different people every month – with billions of page views.

Commerce is fine. Advertising is not evil. But it doesn't belong here. Not in Wikipedia.

Wikipedia is something special. It is like a library or a public park. It is like a temple for the mind. It is a place we can all go to think, to learn, to share our knowledge with others.

When I founded Wikipedia, I could have made it into a for-profit company with advertising banners, but I decided to do something different. We’ve worked hard over the years to keep it lean and tight. We fulfill our mission efficiently.

If everyone reading this donated, our fundraiser would be done within an hour. But not everyone can or will donate. And that's fine. Each year just enough people decide to give.

This year, please consider making a donation of $5, $20, $50 or whatever you can to protect and sustain Wikipedia.

Thanks,

Jimmy Wales
Wikipedia Founder"


What I found intriguing was that the number of users using bot these amazing products are so many that their fundraising could be done in under an hour, yet doesn't get done for a year.

All of us talk a lot about freedom and choice and how we should be paid for every little thing we do. Its a little sad that most of us don't think twice about buying a cup of coffee at Starbucks, a coffee that gives us a little pleasure for a few minutes. Yet so few of us are willing to reach out into our pockets for a couple of dollars to give to initiatives that we use multiple times a day, day after day, month after month and year after year.


I've practiced what I'm preaching and have done my bit. Will you ?

Sunday, December 7, 2014

Hunger in America

Last week at a family dinner during a discussion poverty and hunger came up. And Frank made a comment that over 10% of people in the US went hungry. I didn't believe the numbers. I've always thought that the issue of poverty and hunger only exists in developing countries and the Western developed countries are free of it. As it turns out Frank was wrong. He underestimated the number at 10%. It was over 16%.


As a follow up to our conversation Frank sent me the link to a non profit Feeding America. It was an extremely interesting website that not only made available all the relevant data, but was heling reduce the problem and allowing participation by each of us.


Here are some shocking data points about hunger and poverty:

Hunger and poverty often go hand in hand, but poverty is not the ultimate determinant of food insecurity. People living above the poverty line are often at risk of hunger as well. Research demonstrates that unemployment, rather than poverty, is a better predictor of food insecurity among people living in the United States.


The most recent government data collected shows that in 2012,
  • 46.5 million people (15 percent) were in poverty, including 16.1 million (22 percent) children under the age of 18.
  • 49 million Americans lived in food-insecure households, including nearly 16 million children.

According to the Feeding America Hunger in America 2014 study,
  • Based on annual income, 72 percent of all Feeding America client households live at or below 100 percent of the federal poverty line.
  • The median annual household income of Feeding America clients is $9,175.
  • More than half of client households (54 percent) report at least one employed person at some point in the past year.

You can check out more details at:
http://www.feedingamerica.org/

Sunday, November 30, 2014

Pope Francis


Pope Francis became Pope in March 2013. In less than 2 years he has managed to win hearts and minds all over the world. Not only has he managed to capture the imagination of Catholics, he has managed to  get ex Catholics once again interested in listening and rethinking.


Pope Francis simplicity and humility which he practices more than preaches makes for an extremely refreshing and previously unseen approach to the papacy.


His observations about evolution, divorce, gays and lesbians, social issues and a myriad of topics are reasonable, practical and forward thinking. A complete contrast to the rare comments that traditionally had been emerging from the Vatican.


In a speech to the Pontifical Academy of Science, the Pope said that the theories of evolution and the Big Bang were not incompatible with the existence of a creator. He held that the scientific theory of the beginning of the earth was accurate as opposed to the conservatively held belief of the earth being created in 7 days by God.


"The Big Bang, which today we hold to be the origin of the world, does not contradict the intervention of the divine creator but, rather, requires it."

He went on to say that evolution was
"more than a hypothesis" and "effectively proven fact".

http://www.christiantoday.com/article/pope.francis.backs.science.against.creationism.in.vatican.speech/42268.htm


Pope Francis has managed to change the catholic church and its traditional unwillingness to be forward thinking and practical and insistence on being literal in its interpretations. Pope Francis has made the Catholic church modern, meaningful and relevant.





Sunday, November 23, 2014

e-Upvas

This month was my vegetarian month. At dinner today, a friend noticed I was being a vegetarian and checked about it. I told him about my plan of doing something different for a month, and that this month was the "Vegetarian Month". He found it interesting and mentioned another friend of his who was practicing e-Upvas. I found that fascinating and a great idea. An idea I hope to implement at least once a month, if not once a week.


So what is e-Upvas, leads us to the more basic question, What is Upvas ?.

Upvas is a Sanskrit word, used in Hindi for "fast". The Indian Heritage Research Foundation says this:

"In Sanskrit, the word for fast is Upvas. This literally means, "sitting near to..." Sitting near to whom? Near to God.

Fasting is a time in which our bodies are light, a time in which our vital energy is not being dissipated through the process of consumption and digestion, a time in which we are free from the heaviness and lethargy resulting from overindulgence."

http://ihrf.com/messages/fasting-its-meaning-and-purpose.html



And e-Upvas is "Electronic Upvas", or an electronic fast. A period of a day when we avoid all electronic items. The primary ones would be the Phone, Laptop, PC's, Tablets, Kindles and other e-books, TV, ...


As the myriad benefits of an Upvas, I feel that e-Upvas will have similar benefits. My guess is that the 2 primary benefits would be doing other things. Such as reading, going for walks, going to a movie, ... The other would be to appreciate the usefulness of the devices we have and getting into a habit of using them wisely and effectively.

Sunday, November 16, 2014

School & College : Do we need it ?

Earlier this week I met with Tony and Tom from Mazz Media. They have over 30 Years of experience in the Educational Media and have won hundreds of industry awards for excellence including an Emmy® Award.


What distinguished them was not that, but the fact that they enjoyed what they did which was teaching kids. You can check them out at
http://mazz.com/

We got around to discussing kids with different learning abilities, a topic close to my heart due to Reia. As it turned out, it was close to Tony's heart too because his daughter's a Special ED teacher and one of his grand-kids too has ADHD.


We figured that the biggest challenge was not the lids. They were good learners. It was the system. Ignacio Estrade put it beautifully "If a child can’t learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn."

And that led to another conversation. Is school and college as we know it required to lead to a successful career and life. As it turned out, the answer is No. And its been represented and talented about by several people. Here are my 3 favorites, not coincidentally all TED talks on the subject.



And now I have the challenge of explaining to Reia why going to college is actually a good idea.

Hackschooling makes me happy : Logan LaPlante



School is optional : Ken Danford



How schools kill creativity : Sir Ken Robinson


Sunday, November 9, 2014

Does it pay to be an extrovert ?

Earlier this week on Wednesday was my colleague Al's birthday. And no one knew about it. Until around 10 a.m. when Al walked into the main area of our office and yelled. "Its my birthday today, and the very least I expect is to be wished".


All of us promptly wished him and joked around about the celebration. He said he'd organize lunch in the office for all of us. At around 12.30, Janice, his wife walked in with a huge tray of assorted sandwiches. The looked delicious and tasted even better. Set back my diet by a week, because I ended up trying all the various varieties.


I remembered that Al had once mentioned that he loved ice-cream and Carvel ice-cream cakes were his all-time favorite. And so, after lunch, I went to Carvel and got him an ice-cream birthday cake. We had a small cake cutting with the traditional and in our case badly sung, "Happy Birthday" before polishing off the extremely tasty Carvel delicacy.


It doesn't end there. Al has been a very nice and helpful person and was especially nice to me. I saw this as an opportunity to say "Thank You" and got him a gift that would help keep him fit. A "Fitbit".

This incident set me thinking. What Al did was something I would never have thought of doing. Self announcing one's birthday. Al is an extrovert and has the ability to engage in a conversation, a loud conversation at that with anybody, possibly even an inanimate object. And this is an awesome and useful skill. His ability to network and generate business makes him a successful business person.


And what's interesting is that being an extrovert, in addition to having a huge upside has virtually no downside. As an example in the birthday example, most of us including me, would be silent about our birthday and would think in the back of our mind about how nobody cares.


Al by announcing his birthday made us aware, and all of us were very happy and even thankful that he reminded us of something we should normally have known. All of our wishes and camaraderie made Al happy and his birthday special. All of us had a good time with the food and cake. And Al got himself a gift. How much better could it get. All by not being too shy to be an extrovert and engaging with others pro-actively.

Sunday, November 2, 2014

Hey Guys. Freia's famous. Well almost...

I've always wanted to be famous. And interviewed. And appear in some publication. All of that happened, but not to me. It happened to Freia, who's now a celebrity who was interviewed. Well, almost a celebrity.

You can check it out at :
http://www.thehbicproject.com/interviews/tech-talents-freia-lobo-terri-burns/

The Tech Talents: Freia Lobo and Terri Burns


From the moment The HBIC Project launched in June, my mom has asked me to feature a woman studying computer science. She graduated with a computer science degree in 1986. I always assumed she was one of the few women in her classes, but it turns out that couldn’t be further from the truth. The year before she graduated, 1985, 37 percent of computer science degrees went to women. That number has been on the decline ever since. Today, just 18 percent of computer science degrees are awarded to women.

“Mom, it’s harder to find a woman in computer science than you think,” I kept telling her. But I was about to be proven wrong!

A few weeks ago, two emails landed in my inbox within seconds of each other. Freia Lobo, an NYU sophomore from Mumbai studying computer science and economics, and Terri Burns, an NYU junior from Long Beach, CA studying computer science, each suggested I interview the other one. It turns out they’re both highly accomplished in the tech world — and best friends, too. Since meeting in an Intro to Computer Programming class last year, they’ve been inseparable.

Screen Shot 2014-10-29 at 2.04.35 PM
Terri, left, Freia, right.

Freia is on the board of Tech @ NYU, where she leads a program for freshmen. She also works for NYU’s Women in Computing, writes for NYU Local, and has interned for Girls Who Code. Terri manages Startup Week, a week-long event kicking off this Saturday run by Tech @ NYU. She also is an RA, founded the blog Hackers of Los Angeles, works at NYU’s Information Technology Services, runs events for NYU’s career center, and is a Google Student Ambassador. (Whew!)
The three of us met up for a conversation about what it means to be a woman in tech today.

HBIC: Your support for each other is so sweet. It must be amazing having such a close friend in the same industry.
TB: I can honestly say I have no idea if I’d be able to survive if it weren’t for Freia. No, seriously. We live in the same dorm and just Facebook-message each other all the time. Do you want to know what she did? She did the sweetest thing. I was sick a few weeks ago. She’s messaging me, like, “Oh, how are you feeling? If you need anything, let me know.” I said, “Actually, I could use some motivation from the outside world.” And then 15 minutes later, my doorbell rings, and I opened it. There was no one there, and I look on the ground, and there’s this bag of candy and chocolate and a little note with a heart on it that says, “Dear Terri, you can do it! Love, The Outside World.” How cute is that?
FL: It’s a very cool thing to a have a peer in your industry or field of study because most of my friends that I know outside of the CS major don’t care. As much as they’re like, “I’m so proud of you for scoring Google technical interviews,” but they don’t really know what it means. ” When I found out about Google, I told Terri and she reacted so differently than my parents or my friends, because she’s gone through the exact same process. So it’s cool to have someone to squeal with.

HBIC: What does it feel like to be a woman in the computer science department at NYU?
TB: I have a good number of women who are in my computer science classes. I would say maybe 40 percent or so. It’s very interesting because I do think there’s kind of this new movement going on about technology and getting people to learn how to code and all of that. But those numbers are still lacking for women. It’s something I personally think about quite a lot.
FL: We’re still in classes that any computer science minor would have to take, so once you make that jump, it apparently drops, but not too much. It’s not like you’re the only girl in the room or anything. But at NYU, you don’t feel it as much because one, there are so many people, and the rest of the school has a skewed to girls ratio, so except for those two hours when you’re in your CS class, you don’t feel outnumbered.


10548207_10152654653194382_145493170332224847_o_(1)

HBIC: Do you see an emphasis on tech programs actively trying to recruit women?
FL: I run a program called Freshman Circuit at NYU. We accept usually 20 freshmen. We get tours of different offices in the city, so we get to visit Microsoft, Kickstarter, and more. I really pushed a lot of girls to apply. While I was like, “Hey, are you a freshman? You should apply,” it was even more so if that person was a girl. When we accepted people, it was name-blind, but it ended up being almost 50/50 anyway.
TB: My initiative that I run is Startup Week. I was very aware of the number of women that applied. It’s always a weird balance to play, right? Because you want to get the best candidate, but I also like very much striving for diversity and different people and different personalities. I got very lucky because I interviewed around 15 people. The majority of them were men, but we did have a good portion – again, maybe like 40 percent or so – that were women, and they were all awesome. My team is now 50/50 exactly.

HBIC: What is Startup Week?
TB: Startup Week is Tech @ NYU’s flagship event. It happens once a semester and its a weeklong series of events related to tech. So we have coding workshops for people who are very beginner to people who are very advanced, we have design workshops, we have entrepreneurial debates, we have networking events where companies recruit and talk to people who they’re interested in, we have a keynote speaker, we’re going to have a huge rager that’s going to be awesome, plus we’re collaborating with a bunch of other tech clubs in the New York City area It’s the biggest Startup Week we’ve ever thrown thus far, we have a lot of events. It starts November 1st.
[Editor's note: Want to get attend a Startup Week event? Buy tickets here.]

linked in approp

HBIC: What do you want to do after graduation?
FL: I really want to be a software engineer when I graduate. I have a family member who worked for an early-stage startup when it was very few people. Then it really blew up and then they retired, but they had enough money so they only code for nonprofits now. So you have your money, so your life is okay, and then you’re also doing social good so someone else’s life gets better. That’s a very ideal combination. I’m on the hunt for a company that’s going to blow up, except every company thinks they’re going to blow up.
TB: I’m interested in product management or program management, which are positions in tech companies that are at the intersection of hardcore technical skills and business and marketing. I cannot be sitting in front of a laptop all day. I’m a people person. I like chatting with people and managing different teams and thinking about the user.

HBIC: What are your dream companies?
TB: We’re Google soul sisters right now.
FL: You should email my recruiter and tell her to hire me.
[Editor's note: Days after this interview, Google hired Freia as a summer intern!]

HBIC: Why Google? I mean, duh, it’s Google, but what specifically attracts you to it?
FL: They have divisions like Google X, which is this sketchy, top secret lab where they work on the world’s biggest problems. They came up with something called Project Loon that’s literally a network of WiFi-providing balloons that they’re planning to deploy in parts of Africa, India, or wherever, because you don’t have to go through the process of building the network and cable towers and all of that to get Internet access to these people.
TB: So how awesome would that be, to be on that team and traveling to Africa and Asia and New Zealand and launching these balloons into the sky?

HBIC: That sounds like such a crazy sci-fi novel. 
FL: Last year, as a freshman, I got a coding interview at Google.
TB: We both did.
FL: It was so hard. After my interview, I called my mom and cried and ate chocolate. I thought, “I’m never going to get a job at Google until the day I die.” And then a month after that, I had an interview with Girls Who Code, which is where I ended up working this summer.

HBIC: I’ve heard such cool things about Girls Who Code (a summer academy for high school girls to learn coding skills, sponsored by companies like Facebook, Twitter, and Uber). What was that like?
FL: I still get texts [from my students] at 1 am Pacific Time being like, “Can you help me with my AP CS homework?” It’s like, “Ahhh. I just woke up. Are you still up?” They’re like, “Yes! I’m still awake! I can’t figure this out!” It’s like I’m a TA.

Screen Shot 2014-10-29 at 2.04.46 PM
Freia teaching at Girls Who Code. Photo courtesy of SFGate.

HBIC: Last month, you went to the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Tech conference in Arizona, right? What was that like?
TB: Yeah! Grace Hopper’s like the OG of women in computer science.
FL: There were several early women computer scientists in the military. This was still a lame job within the military, so they were like, “Yeah, we can give it to women, because, you know, it’s them sitting at a desk and literally punching holes, handwriting things.” That’s what computer science was then. One of the computers she worked with had a moth in it, so it wasn’t working. She was like, “Oh, why isn’t this working? There’s a bug.” That’s why we call it debugging. 
TB: It’s the largest conference for women in computing in the world, I think. Freia is like the networking queen. We’d be walking around, and every five seconds, Freia’s like, “Oh my God, there’s so and so from this company! You have to meet them!”

HBIC: Networking is such an important skill. How do you do it?
FL: This is my secret. I know, like, five people. But they just always show up at the right time. On my first day at Girls Who Code in San Francisco, I ran into someone I knew from New York. My boss was like, “How do you know everyone in San Francisco? You literally got here yesterday.” The five people that I know are really well-placed.

HBIC: The tech world sounds like a bubble. What’s one thing you love to do with your friends outside the tech world?
FL: Almost every Friday night, my friends from high school and I go to the Times Square AMC to watch whatever new Bollywood movie they have. A few weeks ago, we were watching Khubsurat and the most famous romantic comedy director of all time (in Bollywood, romantic comedies are everything) [Karan Johar] was just casually sitting next to us. We took a picture with him. Bollywood’s become a bigger part of my life now that I’m away from home.
TB: I’m still continuously in awe of New York City, even though I’ve been here for more than two years. One thing that me and my friends like to do is just walk around random places, just wake up in the morning and go for a walk. My top three places to visit are…
  1. The Upper East Side, starting at 86th and 3rd. My aunt lives there, so my sister and I will often take the subway up there and that’ll be the place where we’ll stop. There’s a Shake Shack and a Victoria’s Secret and a couple of other shops.
  2. The Highline is just a given, because it’s so close by and it’s also really beautiful. It’s super easy to walk there and just be inspired.
  3. The Lower East Side is one of my favorite places to go because I feel so New York when I’m on the Lower East Side. I feel young and hip there. I mean, I am young and hip, but whatever.
IMG_8315

Check out Freia’s website and contact her via:
Check out Terri’s website and contact her via:

Sunday, October 26, 2014

I went to Harvard


Yes. I went to Harvard. I also went to Brown, Yale and Princeton. And if you're wondering about the significance of these 4 universities, they are 4 of the 8 Ivy League universities. The colleges everyone would like to go to, but few get in.


Many believe that graduating from any of these universities ensure a successful career. In fact, it seems like dropping out from any of these universities ensures even greater success. As shown by Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, both dropouts from Harvard.


My sister Mabel was visiting and has a list of things to do. She's always wanted to, or so she says, go to an Ivy League College and so decided to do just that. Albeit visit them. And so we did a 2 day trip and went to Yale, Harvard and Brown. Mabel had visited Princeton on a previous trip and so now has completed a visit to half the Ivy League colleges.


 Yale



 Harvard



Brown
 


Princeton


She has 4 more colleges to go to. I'm guessing we'll visit the remaining 4 during her next visit. The eight institutions are Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale University. The term Ivy League has connotations of academic excellence, selectivity in admissions, and social elitism. There's an extremely well written wiki page that gives information on everything you've ever wanted to know about the Ivy League Universities.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivy_League

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Getting a patent

Last month, we were finally granted a patent and a few days ago, we received the document from the USPTO aka the Patent Office.


Our patent is the product of work done in the financial space whereby financial data was extracted from multiple electronic documents/reports (see some samples attached) and stored in a database.  From that converted data someone could do any analysis they wanted at any detail level they needed.

Data extraction happens in real time and access to it is instantaneous.  Continual use of it against new documents/reports expands the databases and informs the historicals.  More importantly the data can be massaged and manipulated any way you’d want to view trends, implications, test theses and outcomes, etc.  It is the mechanism, speed and accuracy that makes this unique for those who need information quickly to get ahead of a curve.

If you're interested in knowing more, you could read about it at :
http://www.google.com/patents/US20090234818

In view of getting this patent, several people asked me about how difficult it was and what the process was. We initially filed a provisional patent on March 12, 2008. So it took us over 6 years to finally get it. But that's not the point of this blog. Its about how easy it is to file the provisional patent, which will give you a patent pending status and a year to figure out whether or not you want to pursue the patent. This is really important as you can go out and find out whether your idea is invest-able, before embarking on the main patent process which can be time consuming and expensive.


You can do it yourself by going to the patent office website,
http://www.uspto.gov/

Have a look at the process itself,




Check out "Getting a Patent in 5 steps"




or you can use cost effective online legal portals like legal zoom, which make it fairly simple.
http://www.legalzoom.com/patents/provisional-patent-application-overview.html
All the best.