Kiran Jonnalagadda’s Blog

Over at jacemobile, we’re having a fascinating discussion on the origin of names like “Huchamma” (mad woman), “Tippeswamy” (garbage master), “Gundappa” (grinding stone man) and “Saakamma” (enough woman).

Yahoo! had a recruitment ad on the back of my boarding card when returning from Hyderabad last week. This looks like it could be a far more effective strategy than advertising in the career opportunities section of the local papers. It’s in a place where it can’t be missed, and it reaches out to people who are very likely travelling on work – and are among the types Yahoo! wants to hire.

The Big FM ads in Hyderabad don’t have a celebrity endorser and aren’t in the local language, unlike as in Bangalore, where they promise to play mostly Kannada. Curious.

What does it cost to have a kid? For those of you who are recent parents, what have your major costs been for each year of your child's life?

Just curious. No kids coming down the line.

So we’re trying to book one seat at PVR and the website fails saying while tickets are available, it can’t allocate all seats in a contiguous block.

Whoever built the site deserves an award.

Our water bill comes addressed to a “Huchamma”. In Kannada, that loosely translates to “mad woman”. How did they come up with that one?

Here’s an art dealer putting out a full page ad, nationwide, assuring people that art from “future masters” is a “sound investment”. The woman in the picture? She just supplied a quote expressing confidence in the dealer and got to be eye candy for the ad. There’s no representation of the actual art on sale.

Curious. Investing in art has never been for the masses (considering where they placed the ad). That the advertiser chose to present his case using glamour rather than charts and facts is interesting. It appears he seeks to reinforce the occasionally heard statement that art is investment, establishing himself as the authority, while avoiding appearing to plead his case.

MacDonald’s getting into the marble flooring business? Or preparing to file a lawsuit?

What is it with Air Deccan and tires in the cargo hold? Merely odd coincidence?

In today’s VoIP news bonanza, Fring brings Skype to mobile phones and actually works. I made calls to test.

Whee! Check it out. Call me if you need someone to test with. I’m “jackerhack” on Skype.

Check out Fring, a Skype and Google Talk client for mobile phones. Fring does not require a PC; it runs completely on the phone, and works anywhere there is connectivity.

While the site claims a 3G network is required, it works great on my EDGE connection with Airtel. Installation was painless and usage is straightforward. Open Fring, login if offline, select your contact, and call. That’s it. There was a lag of about a second in the call I made for testing, thereby reducing conversation from dialogue to sequences of monologues, but this is still pretty incredible.

Fring can connect on startup and set your phone up for receiving both regular and VoIP calls (and does so by default), but this isn’t recommended if you care for more than a few hours of battery life. The company says they’re working to fix it.

With the recent announcement of Gizmo Project for LJ Talk, the first new IM network in recent years that I was actually delighted to sign up for, we seem to have passed a notable milestone for VoIP.

Go check out Fringe and give me a call. I’m “jackerhack” on both Skype and Google Talk.

Rajeev Chawla, e-Governance Secretary, explains the system to Jagadish Shettar, Revenue Minister, while Karnataka Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy examines a computer generated certificate.

Mr Shettar inaugurated the Government of Karnataka’s “Nemmadi” project in the presence of Mr Kumaraswamy on October 1. 800 telecentres will be opened across Karnataka by early 2007, offering a variety of governmental and non-governmental services to citizens. The current roll-out focuses on Revenue Department services, but other departments are expected to include their presence too. The project is being executed by the consortium of 3i Infotech, Comat Technologies and n-Logue Communications.

Yours truly has a bit role in the proceedings and is very much enjoying the view from his vantage point. Perks include being able to slip into the room in advance, in position for a good shot, before the paparazzi jam the place.

In all seriousness though, while the work can get uncomfortable sometimes — the technology’s nothing extraordinary, the quality of the software, especially that which manages sensitive information, can send shudders down the column, and the rush to digitise records makes the process suspect — it’s worth being here to verify a premise: that “bridging the digital divide” (if you’ll forgive the jargon dropping) may be achieved not just by reducing the cost of technology until it is more widely affordable, but also by deploying the technology in a manner that reduces barriers to participating in the larger economy, without bringing the technology itself to the forefront. For a blunt example, that would be the difference between handing out computers to individuals, vs opening an information centre that is not owned by anyone in the neighbourhood, doesn’t give them the run of the place, but does give them access to the sort of information they likely need to make the most of their existing occupations.

So get this. Broadband internet providers who use optic fibre cables use light for data transmission. This ‘light energy’ is a ‘moveable property’ (as proved by the fact that it is the only thing transferred between provider and customer), which is categorised as ‘goods’, and hence attracts 12.5% tax. The Commercial Tax Department claims the state has lost 1200 crore because people have been shining lights down pipes.

Even the government’s not sure how the state’s name is spelt?

… if there's one conclusion that's been repeatedly impressed on me the last few months, it is that homogeneity is a good and desirable state of society. Homogeneity is not the opposite of diversity. It is instead the common platform for a higher order of diversity.

Life is the process of adding a new layer to the homogeneity stack, pushing diversity a bar higher. Societies that insist on retaining their notion of diversity at lower levels are only setting themselves up for much pain.