How I became a Stanford Igniter

Final day at Ignite! Got my Stanford Ignite Diploma today. End of an exciting Journey or lets say the beginning of an entrepreneur career. The real journey starts now. Here are some pictures.

Yossi Feinberg, the most amazing person I have met this year, teacher and mentor. Learned a lot from Yossi in last three months felt like a century.

But the one thing I will remember for the rest of my life would be

Feedback is a Gift - Yossi Feinberg

Stanford Ignite, a set on Flickr.

Happy New Year 2013

Wishing all my friends and family a very happy new year 2013. What a wonderful way to start a new year with a great quote

The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new Year but that We should have a new soul

10 principles of clear writing

From the book the power of simplicity, here are 10 principles of clear writing.

1. Keep sentences short.
2. Pick the simple word over the complex word.
3. Choose the familiar word.
4. Avoid unnecessary words.
5. Put action in your verbs.
6. Write like you talk.
7. Use terms your readers can picture.
8. Tie in with your reader's experience (The essence of positioning)
9. Make full use of variety.
10.write to express, not impress.


Nice gem of a collection.

Joining Stanford Ignite

Got the acceptance letter for Stanford Ignite. Super exciting journey begins January 13th. Stanford Ignite is a program on Innovation and Entrepreneurship for aspiring Entrepreneurs.

When I first heard about this program, an year ago, I immediately knew that I am going to do this. Stanford's best of the best teachers come together for a 3 month part-time program, once a year. For a bay area professional, it just cannot get any better than this. I waited around 8 months to apply for the program. But In their information seminar when I saw 1000 people in the Auditorium, and knowing that there batch is of ~65 people, in which they will select around 30 from Stanford and 30 from outside, I did not believed I had a chance. Nonetheless I have been preparing for it all of this year. And preparation never fails you.

Then I met Yossi Feinberg, Director of the program a few weeks ago in the group interview. I felt a unique connection, an inexplicable feeling, that I knew him from events from future. I somehow knew I will get into ignite, it just felt right. There is an old saying, that the teacher cannot teach a student until the student is ready. I felt as if I am ready for this. I just knew that my destiny is entwined with his in things much bigger than both of us in future.

This amazing photograph of Stanford university by Linda A Cicero sets the stage for a beautiful academic experience, coming soon.

Stanford Ignite

Stanford Ignite is a nine-week, part-time certificate program that teaches innovators how to formulate, develop, and commercialize their ideas. More about the program in the Video.

Happy New Year to All

Time for New Year Resolutions !
-------------------------------------

Here are few of mine to get you started !

1. Be Bold in Executing Ideas !

Because "Most ideas never work - unless you make sure they do" and "The bold idea has a higher probability of realization than the conservative one" - Genrich Altshuller





2. Read More Great Books

No matter how busy you may think you are, you must find time for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance. - Confucius

3. Learn something new ! Photography ?

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." Mark Twain

4. Think/ Write about Design

"Design is not how it looks, Design is How it Works" - Steve Jobs

5. Talk/Present and Share your knowledge on Technology

Sharing teaches you more than Learning

6. Have More Fun !

"If you are not having FUN you are NOT doing it right" - Bob Basso

So, what's your Resolution ?

Steve Jobs: Tribute to a legend

Here are my favorite 7 Quotes from Steve jobs.

1. Computers are like a bicycle for our minds.



2. Good artists copy great artists steal



3. Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.



4. Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want a chance to change the world? - To get John Sculley as Apple's CEO

5. Make it like a sunflower.
Steve Jobs, CEO, Apple, to Johnathan Ive, Vice President of Design, Apple, on prev version of iMac

6. Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes... the ones who see things differently -- they're not fond of rules... You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can't do is ignore them because they change things... they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do. -- narrated by Steve Jobs




7. Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is expected.

8. Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.

9. When you’re a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you’re not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall and nobody will ever see it. You’ll know it’s there, so you’re going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back. For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through.”

10. “Click. Boom. Amazing!” – Macworld keynote 2006

11. "I would trade all of my technology for an afternoon with Socrates."
—Newsweek, 2001

12. "I want to put a ding in the universe."

13. I make 50 cents for showing up ... and the other 50 cents is based on my performance.
On his famous $1 annual salary, at the annual Apple shareholder meeting in 2007, as quoted in "Jobs: 'I make fifty cents just for showing up'" in AppleInsider (10 May 2007)

14. “I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.”

15. People with passion can change the world for better !

Better Presenter than Steve Jobs ?

I never thought I will write a blog with this title. I have learned a lot from Steve Jobs after my target of 2009, but recently I came across a presentation on "Patterns of Human Interaction" by Marko Ahtisaari (Global head of Nokia Design) at Copenhagen Design Week, which not only blew my mind, but changed my perspective about presentation all together.






About the presentation
Five billion people have a mobile phone. Today, no single, technological device is more in our hands than the mobile phone – it has become the media through which humans interact.


Marko Ahtisaari is the global head of Nokia's design unit, and he is responsible for Nokia’s product and user experience design. During Copenhagen Design Week, Marko shared Nokia’s thoughts on how design will shape and influence the patterns of human interaction in the future at a Nokia event at Bella Sky Hotel.



What I found unique about the presentation is, Marko leaves a deeper impact without trying hard to sell. Its plane awesome, and it is modest and it is honest, which I think appeals to everybody equally. Marko is well dressed and extremely efficient in his walk, and he talk with a very positive body language. He always seems to be at ease and is smiling most of the time in a most friendly manner. Each of his words tell, he is clear and concise, he does not repeat, he does not overstate, his words all fit precisely in his talk. He makes a point he is trying to make, in a straight forward and most effective manner. And most important of all his presentation does not even have any bells and whistles. Blank white screen with a white door ! Most of the first few pages are hand drawn concepts or a single image. No chimming sounds, no explosion effects and no cutting edge graphics. 


Absolutely awesome ! My new idol ! If you want to learn how to present well learn from him Marko Ahtisaari (The Best presenter I have seen in the world). Each and everything he does is simple, yet mind blowing.

That also reminded me of something very unique, when I joined Nokia 2 1/2 years ago. I came to know that Nokia is all about "Being Humble" and I think thats the finiish culture completely opposite of American culture, which is a bit more aggressive salesmanship like ofcourse Steve Jobs.


Thank You for the Inspiration Marco Ahtisaari


Here are excerpts from another blog about the same presentation .


http://raesmaa.wordpress.com/2011/09/10/the-finnish-awesomeness-and-entrepreneurship/




The Finnish Way of Being
Serendipitously I happened to bump into another type of Finnish awesomeness.  I listened to Senior VP of Design at Nokia Marko Ahtisaari’s presentation at the Copenhagen Design Week.
The first 12 minutes (the rest of it is mostly about Nokia design and future development, interesting as well) of his speech ‘Patterns of Human Interaction’ had an effect on me. His humble way of speaking about how better design can help us to make each other feel that we are welcome, is just awesome. A beautiful perspective! 


Another observation I made is his style of speaking, it is very Finnish (read: very non-American). He is not shouting and feverishly waving his hands – no, instead he applies the traditional Finnish style: he is calm, speaks very softly and is overall adorable and kind. And all that without being boring. It kind of reminds me of the way Facebook’s COO Sheryl Sandberg speaks. Or Alex Osterwalder, or Aalto Entrepreneurship Society’s president Miki Kuusi. So I warmly recommend you to listen to Marko, at least the first 12 minutes.


Small Talk and Positive Silence


These great people and the two events – AaltoES with Steve Blank & Marko Ahtisaari and his talk about more human design principles – made me think about what is “Finnishness”, and why I’ll find it awesome and full of possibilities for the entrepreneurship too.
The Finnishness?, you may ask. Yes, we do have some national characteristics that can be more rare among other nationalities, we can be seen as very shy, but on the other hand our curiosity and creativity makes it easy for us to connect and share. To connect and share, and most importantly to listen. On top of that we are very persistent and diligent; we don’t like to give in. Except in football.
We Finns can easily be silent in company with other people. It’s natural. Foreigners often find our silence odd, or fascinating. Professor of Communication Donal Carbaugh, from University of Massachusetts at Amherst, have written an excellent paper about this – Silence and Quietude as a Finnish“Natural Way of Being” [pdf], with the following description:

“A Finnish communication code that structures some cultural scenes as occasions for positive silence, exhibiting a social model of personhood for which this is a valued, respected, and natural practice.”

I just love this expression, positive silence. Please consider positive silence as time for thinking, reflecting, and listening. The paper explains the Finnish way of communication with many good example stories; it can truly help in understanding us Finns…


Another great read is this short article of the Helsinki Times – No small talk please, we’re Finnish, in which freelance journalist Susan Fourtané describes her experiences:

“I particularly enjoyed the thoughtfulness and the moments of silence in between, giving space for observing our own thoughts before speaking. Yes, you have heard it right. Finns don’t do small talk. They don’t think a moment of shared silence is awkward. On the contrary, it is part of the conversation. A direct question gets a direct answer. There is no nonsense talk about nothing. There is no asking “How are you?” ten times until someone says something else, or stating the obvious. Finns are more interested in how you think, how you perceive Finland or what keeps you in this small and cold country, as they refer to beautiful and peaceful Finland.”

Less small talk and more positive silence, I believe that this enables better listening, and further better understanding.

3 Keys to Startup Success by Twitter's creator, Jack Dorsey

Jack Dorsey outlines three core takeaways from his experiences building and launching Twitter – and more recently – Square, a simple payment utility.

1) Draw: get your idea out of your head and share it,
2) Luck: assess when the time (and the market) is right to execute your idea,
3) Iterate: take in the feedback, be a rigorous editor, and refine your idea.
4) (surprise) Knowing when to stop: how do you quickly move from an idea to a drawing to a Prototype to a position where you can say this is something I want to spend life doing.

About Jack Dorsey

Jack Dorsey is the Creator, Co-founder, and Chairman of Twitter, Inc. Originally from St. Louis, Jack's early fascination with mass-transit and how cities function led him to Manhattan and programming real-time messaging systems for couriers, taxis, and emergency vehicles.

Throughout this work Jack witnessed thousands of workers in the field constantly updating where they were and what they were doing; Twitter is a constrained simplification designed for general usage and extended by the millions of people who make it their own every day.

Jack is dedicated to creating public goods that foster approachability, immediacy, and transparency, and is starting a second company – Square – focused on bringing these concepts to commerce.

Logo Idea Human Rights

Here is my logo idea for Human Rights,


'Right' Hand at Heart

'Call against Rights Violation'

A Human with a right symbol which symbolizes a "one hand call out" against rights violations

if you like it Vote for it here
http://humanrightslogo.net/ideas/14568

http://humanrightslogo.net/ideas/14080

Here is the video to fill the gap, great eye opener context !

Nokia in Wonderland !

Nokia Silicon Valley Grand celebration in Sunnyvale got everybody excited. The theme was Wonderland so every floor was decorated with full of curiosities from "Alice in Wonderland". You could meet, The Queen, The Caterpillar ,The Rabbit and a number of Alice's were roaming around the floor. They seems to have captured almost everyone's imagination.

In the picture from MeeGo Team, Samir, Markku, Anna, Sarvanane, John, and more...



Here is the slideshow

Picture with Steve Jobs, and Steve Woznaik

Don't believe it ? Here is the proof.



My recent trip to Computer History Museum, Mountain View was an exhilarating experience.

Here is another historic picture of Vinod Khosla and other founders of SUN Microsystems.




If this does not inspire the Silicon Valley Mojo into you then I don't know what will :)

Don't Judge a Book by its Cover

My recent move had me with 20 boxes of non-technical, and 10 boxes of technical books, If you are trying to imagine how they look like, here is the non technical books piled together.



You can tell a lot about a person by looking at the books he read, or can you ? More ? here, here, here, & here

Money Intelligence

If you are interested to start a startup you might want to check the following video by Mint CEO Aaron Patzer’s. Quite inspiring.

Mint CEO Aaron Patzer on Startups from Techcrunch on Vimeo.

Here is his presentation.


Startup Building 101 -

Everything You Wanted To Know About Startup Building But Were Afraid To Ask

Info on the company and Aaron

CrunchBase Information

Mint.com

CrunchBase Information

Aaron Patzer

Information provided by CrunchBase

Most Effective Designs are Least Complicated

My experiment with Parasignals in design course gave birth to the following quote and design


Do I need an example ?

If you don't know parasignals here is a crash course.



Here is some more information by Crawford Dunn

Give me your comments !

The Book is here: Developing Web Widget with HTML, CSS, JSON and AJAX

My most awaited book on Web Widget got published today (11th march) by CreateSpace and is available to buy from all the popular book stores. So if you ever wanted to create a secure and high performance web widget, here is a comprehensive book on the topic.

About - Developing Web Widget using HTML, CSS, JSON and AJAX

Buy the Web Widget Book



To create a successful web widget, the only complete guide you need is Developing Web Widget with HTML, CSS, JSON and AJAX.
In the Complete Guide to Web Widget you learn:

1. Know what are Web Widget and how they work

2. Create Hello World Widget with HTML, CSS and JavaScript

3. Create Rating Widget using HTML, CSS, JSON and AJAX

4. Know design guidelines and standard practices for Widget development

5. Create high performance Widget with bootstrapper

6. Create RSS Widget with Ajax, cross domain proxy server and Google ajax feed APIs

7. Create Widget using Facebook APIs and Facebook UI framework

8. Understand the Revenue Model of the Widget

Back Cover

Download Free source code and sample chapters from http://widgets-gadgets.com

Buy the Web Widget Book

What Makes a Good Design

A good design in my opinion, needs to achieve its goal clearly, what it was primarily meant for.

The goal of the design can be:


• 1. Solving a problem creatively
• 2. Communicating an idea effectively
• 3. Plain aesthetic, which makes people wonder

To solve a problem creatively "Form follow function" is a great principle because its focus is the functionality which is the solution to the given problem. To communicate an idea effectively, visual delight becomes more important, effective display of the core idea with the help of minimum amount of pictures, words or illustration makes a greater impact. Plain aesthetic design can be achieved with both simplicity as well as abstractness, it is not limited to any design principles and neither are means to an end. It could be a visual delight and can also reflect an Idea.

So what makes people wonder ?

I think that this quality is the impact of a good design.

1. One way would be to make it very simplistic, for example Picaso's famous painting make people wonder because of hte simplicity.
   
   


2. Another way is if the picture has extraordinary depth for example the Barbershop by Norman Rockwell has amazing lights http://www.nrm.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Shuffletons_Barbershop_300.jpg
   
   


3. yet another way to make people wonder is by hidden meaning or trick in the picture

So what do you think ?

First step in the Right direction

After working for a decade in software industry, when I realize that it is not the MBA or Project Management route I want to take, my options looked quite limited, but some soul searching, and I realized what I really want to do, to learn fundamentals of drawing, design, typography, and illustrations.

Not long after, I came across the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and their online course in Design which also give a Diploma in Digital Design.



The Diploma in Digital Design course was almost mesmerizing. It was like waiting there to be discovered by me.

* Fundamentals of Design
* Concept Development
* Typography
* Digital Image Manipulation
* Electronic Design
* Design Principles
* Digital Illustration
* Design and Technology
* Portfolio G313
* Foundations of Electronic Production
* Interactive Portfolio Design
* Advanced Computer Graphics

Small enough to be finished in 5 quarters and big enough to give me a diploma, now that's a lucky find.

So I filled the online application and came to the part where you have to write an essay why you want to join. That stopped me, but not for long, today afternoon my admission counselor called me and said she will hold the call till I finish the essay. now thats some persuasion ! Phew, no way out, she is waiting in the call. So here is the 185 words I came up in 10 minutes !

--------------------- ESSAY ---------------------
I remember the first time when I came across the book "Universal Principles of Design" by William Lidwell, I was immensely fascinated by the possibilities to which design principles can be implemented in the real life. Another revolutionary book which affected me a lot was "The Design of every day things" by Donald Norman. These two books opened my eyes to a good design and a better user experience, since then I started blogging about design at http://abcofdesign.com and got interested to learn the fundamentals.

After working for many years in designing and developing user interfaces for desktop, distributed and mobile applications, I have realized that a good design makes a lot of difference, and having an aptitude for User Interface and User Experience, I think learning about digital design can help me get to know the basics.

Being a Senior Engineer with an interest in Software and Product design, I see myself as a future design engineer changing/shaping the world, and for that a diploma in Digital Design is the first step in the right direction.
-------------------------------------------------

Needless to say when I re-read the essay I liked it and so did my admission counselor, she said "it was phenomenal" and "I passed it". I wonder if she says that to every other essay, but I felt really happy and so that's my first step in the direction of design.

What will Apple iSlate Have

There has been too many speculations on Apple Tablet PC. This is my take on that.

Apple has a reputation of emerging from the average by using mature technologies which is available otherwise to everyone and differentiate in the user experience.

For example

1. IPod had no new features than an MP3 player cannot have but it was cool and it was a phenomenon
   
   
2. IPhone, any new feature ? well touch screen was there but not utilized in that way ever, apart from that everything else was there
   

Now comes the Tablet

Microsoft has a Tablet for almost 5 years now, they have got everything but success.

Amazon Kindle eReader is a reading device which does not utilize the technology to the full but earns by limiting them, you don't have USB port to transfer to and from your device.

Now, what will apple tablet have that will differentiate them from these two giants.

• They will utilize the Tablet multi touch screen interface
  
• Second, a major functionality missing from Kindle is eWriter which everyone is ignoring, Microsoft Tablet has got that in a medicore way, thats where Apple will excel first. An eWriter with excellent touch, draw and write capability, if you think of it these functionality are already mature and available in any tablet.
  
• Third eReader, where Kindle retricts and limits user by going against technology, Apple will utilize technology to the full, Wifi, usb, blue tooth, a device completely independent of the service, unlike Kindle, but can be used to download ebooks from an Apple service
  

Thats how Apple will do, beating Microsoft tablet and Amazon Kindle
by producing a great touch screen eWriter and a boundless eReader.

Lets see.

Vote Now: 10 Tips for Mobile Web Design !

How to create a mobile version of your website? Do you need to optimize your current website for mobile devices or design a completely new website? Do you need to worry about different platforms, Windows Mobile, iPhone, Symbian, Blackberry, Linux, Brew, Android, and Nokia? What resolution, what screen size you should target, and what is this PPI anyway? How to design for maximum number of users and devices, in the least amount of time? In this session, mobile web usability expert and author of "Beginning Smartphone Web Development", Rajesh Lal will discuss ten pragmatic tips, for designing website for mobile devices.

Interested ? VOTE for it at Mix 10 (1. Add to ballot,2. Submit ballot)

http://tinyurl.com/10TipsMobileWeb

Vote Now: Top 10 Features of Silverlight 4

What makes Silverlight a complete platform for RIA development? What are the top desired features of a rich and interactive language, and why JavaScript, CSS3 and HTML5 cannot compete with Silverlight, not now, not ever? In this session, "Silverlight 4 How To" author Rajesh Lal show you why Silverlight really shines, by demonstrating the top ten features of Silverlight 4 and how it fits with the current web scenario. You will learn How To use these features and see running demos. More information about the book at http://silverlightfun.com

Interested ? VOTE for it at Mix 10 (1. Add to ballot,2. Submit ballot)

http://tinyurl.com/10Silverlight