My favorite phone Xperia Mini Pro is alive and kicking......

I already have a lot of posts on the favorite phone. I have written all about its features, rooting it, installing custom roms and everything. This post is particularly about the attitude of big corporations and their lethargic attitude towards the customer once a sale is made.

Business institutions are full about various subjects relating to customer satisfaction/customer requirements/repeat customers. Students from these institutions get high packets based on the things they learn from these institutions and are taught about all the ideals of keeping the customers happy.

But once these students end up with big organizations, with a very costly noose around their necks, called the "tie", they are re-programmed to work in the traditional way the whole business is being carried out. The very best example of how these organizations work has been the android eco-system. Being an open eco-system based on apache licence has put into open the negatives of traditional way of customer satisfaction.

Customers these days are over-whelmed with information about products and their features. This information is again adulterated by paid reviews of the product and see that it gets maximum penetration. This is one side of the coin which deals with selling a product to the customer. Now, the android eco-system starts with a sale, while other products end with a sale. Organizations are finding it difficult to assimilate the fact that a sale with open systems, dont end with a sale, in fact it starts with a sale. Customers are eagerly waiting for additional services/product upgrades. So, why are the customers so much demanding? The answer lies in the open nature of the android eco-system

Once a device is released, the kernel code which is under GPL is to be released in parallel. So, what do traditional companies do to continue doing their traditional business? They delay the release of the kernel sources. Now, once the kernel sources are released, there is only one task remaining, build a custom rom for that device with all the updated features available in the AOSP code released.

AOSP is a moving target, being updated everyday with bugfixes and new features from volunteers worldwide. But the device came with a static rom and that is exactly what the big organizations are ready to give you. Well, the customers dont want that, they want their device to be alive as long as it meets their requirement or they can make the device meet their requirement by using upgraded code from the AOSP project.

How do big organizations stop users/devs from doing the above? Create binary only drivers packaged as blobs and Linux supports blobs to be loaded as it is(This is exactly what makes RMS fume on the licensing choice of the linux kernel). Now, without these blobs, the custom built rom would not function out of the box, resulting in a rom, with limited functionality compared to the stock rom which came with the device.

Let me come back to the subject, xperia mini pro. Awesome design for a qwerty phone, little heavy thats it. Its an awesom device. Sony upgraded the software radically only once. They upgraded it to ICS from GB, cribbing all the way about the lack of hardware capability to run ICS throught the build process which took almost an year. After that they orphaned the phone. Another team, the freexperia team which is responsible for bringing cyanogenmod to xperia devices also lifted their hand from upgrading the phones to the next version, JB.  Half hearted attempts were made by them to build cm10 for the 2011 series. Once they saw that the device did live it up to the task, they became serious and we had 4.1 for our phones, then, they stopped and decided that 2013 is too late for 2011

Now, it is the turn of the individuals to expand the life of the device. nAa, did the unthinkable and unimaginable for 2011 devices he started with 3.* kernel and has succesfully built 3.4* kernel for them, But of course he was still standing on giants. You should feel the device in your hands running this fantastic kernel and 4.2.2, the lates branch of android. In fact the 2013 flagship sony devices are still on 4.1.2. The device feels snappy and ready for future android releases. Thanx to all the devs at Cyanogenmod and users/devs at the xda forums, my fav phone has got a new lease of life and is completely rejuvinated.

So, shall we jump to Customer satisfaction 3.0....................

Destitute

That, now, is a term which sends shivers down the best politician, economists and all "comfortable" people of the world. Let us not delve into the dictionary meaning of the term. Let us spare a moment and think about what we know about the word, destitute. Yes you have heard it a lot of times. You would have shown somebody and described him as so. Well, are they different form the poor or both the words synonymous?. Otherwise are each other having subset-superset relationship. A destitute is the last level in the hierarchy of "our" society, considering the social and economic factors.

Now, Where did the destitute come from? Why are they like this? It is like the residual of all the reactions taking place in the society. It is the last filtered by-product of our present social structure, which nobody wants or likes to own up. Is he meant to be ignored? Has he transformed himself that way? What is the reason?

For the time being, let us absolve the society from being the reason for destitute. Let us say, destitute are born. They have fallen from the sky. How do we go about uplifting them, like, at least to the status of the poor? How do we remove the label "destitute" and give them the label "poor"? How? Now, you will ask, since the society is absolved of the responsibility of creating them, why should the society involve itself in uplifting them? What is the obligation of the society towards them?

Since, we don't believe in chance, with the present scientific structure, let us see what is the real reason of the formation of this class. Destitute are the result of the anomalies in the societal/political system which has been designed by an elite few for all the others to follow. The critical anomaly is the majority of the people have been programmed to ignore this class over the years. It is as though, the present societal system is ideal and this class is a necessary glitch for the system to be in equilibrium.

The society is more interested in knowing the un-known. The things in front of them take second preference. We somehow have been programmed with an in-capability which is what the creator of the present society wanted. The main thing is the in-capability/gumption to look within ourselves. We know of the evils around us. We know the anomalies. But, we have chosen to ignore it because we are confident that this anomaly cannot disturb the existing system and the glitch has not got the capability to fight back or question.

So, where do we start? We start by identifying them. Identifying them is possible only by the participation of people in the last mile. Try to know what they can do. Try to know how the destitute can contribute and come back into the regular societal system. If they don't know anything, teach them. Incubate them for a certain amount of time and make them understand how the system works, It is a two way learning process, wherein the present system can understand the reasons for these glitches. They should be made to grasp the socio/political/economical system. We have done two things here. We have identified them. We have brought them up to the more known "poor" slab. Now, give them all the benefits which the "poor" slab are supposed to get. There you have now added to the national product. The world is a more happier place.

Wars are History

History as we have learned all along, builds on the various wars, innumerable wars which have been painstackingly documented. In fact, wars were fought to create/write history, to write one or get it written. It is again the 1% deciding the fate of the remaining 99%

It is only in recent times, that we have seen the common man, the front line soldier, rise up and question the logic of war. But, again, this percentage is very small and will be crushed by the vast majority which is schooled in various chauvinism's and cliche's.

I, Many times, I, had a thought, whilst watching films of the said great warriors, single handedly butchering people, that, this is in fact, bravery. Where do the meek stand in a war? Well, I am sorry, I don't have an answer for that. But I do know the answers I will get from chauvinists like "He could become the strategist", "He could be an archer", "He could cook" and the like. It is ultimately optimum utilization of all the 99%.

So, when will the 99% of the war contingents wake up and start thinking. They have to start now. Why Now?. Because we have to write history. The 99% should write history, not the 1%. It should be as varied as the 99% of the people. Now, is the time to write and represent all the 99% of the people who silently killed each other without asking a question. Now is the time to question the 1% of their decisions and actions. Now is the time to opt out of situations like war wherethe same species destroy each other. Every body of the 99% should write. If plants, animals, stones, planets, stars, could they should write now.

Major industries/governments in the world are thriving on the Nation/religion/color/race/language/area chauvinism. The 99% also have he responsibility of keeping that percentage to add on to the 1%. They should force the content in the 1% to join the 999% and create a uniform whole. How do they do it? They have to do it by talking, writing, each one of the 99%. Out of all this chaotic writing/thinking will emerge a pattern. A pattern which will bring out the human side of the world. A pattern which is homogeneous. A pattern which the 1% is always afraid of.

After all this, how would you identify the 1%. The answer is simple. The percentage whose action you have not questioned/is not questioned because of all the FUD is the 1%. Why should the 99% have FUD over this paltry 1%. The answer lies in the history, of politics and economics. The 1% is responsible for all the politics and it has the economy of all the 99% put together. Just enough is with the 99% to keep the 1% keep getting more of the economy.

Now, is the time for war. The 99% should now wage a war. Can they? Going by recent history an attempt towards this happened in the Russian revolution. The only fact I did not like about it is the method employed to overcome the 1%. Taking to arms and harming fellow species is not the method of the enlightened. They should talk and write. Coming back to the revolution, I would like to jump to the time where the workers ran the country with ethics drawn out of mutual agreement. It started well in the beginning, but failed to gather momentum because the political and economic experience was only with the 1%. Further in depth analysis is left to the reader. The present 99% should find out why this failed.

I am not telling that the Russian revolution and its model is the best. But I thought the mutual admiration, mutual help, self help and co-ordination is un-parallelled in history which always depended on some 1% like the kings to hold the country together.

All the meek, the strong, the intelligent, the everybody, the 99% have to make peace with the universe. Blend with the universe remove all the chauvinistic boundaries and become one with it. The universe as one in such a situation would shame the creator, if there is one.

We the people of the world, now will make history, voice and write our opinion. We will make history, which our further generations will be proud of. I, for one. would be proud, even if they think our efforts were primitive. Let this be the last war. The 99% winning over the 1%

Karl Marx said "Workers of the world unite". He wanted the 99% to have all that the 1% was having. I mean all. Cant we have a self sustaining universe sans the politics where everybody is free to do what he wishes, free from religion and geographical boundaries. The upgraded war call of Karl Marx can be taken as "Resources of the world unite"

P.S -> I am not suggesting that Marxism is the answer to the issue in question, in fact the last issue of the universe. I am not for any war which is traditional. This should be unique. It should be transformational. It should bring the 1% into the 99% and the collective one should become one with the universe.

Productivity and innovation for sustainable development

The three factors considered in this writeup seem to contradict each other at the outset. Let us start by thinking that they do contradict each other. We shall proceed and find out whether our Null hypothesis holds good.

Productivity, normally is associated with the rate of production. If we leave the mathematical definition alone and try to spread the petals, we see that it has various layers to it. It is more related to the efficient and effective use of limited resources at our disposal. "Limited" because there is no need of productivity measure for "Unlimited" resources.

Is productivity the conren of only the corporates and the business they run?. No. It is the concern of every living being. It is the tactic of squeezing the last drop from the resource.

Innovation, the desire to see things in a new light, with a new perspective, or invent a whole new way of ding things resulting in improved efficiency and effectiveness. Does innovation(the process of innovating) happen at the cost of productivity? Yes. It happens. That minor glitch has to be borne to result in a qyantum leap. There are industries who have embedded innovation in their "way of work". It is apart of the job, to think, out of the box. The result of innovation, thus is "always" an improvement in the way things are done which indirectly lead to better utilization of resources, which again is nothing but improvement in productivity.

Innovation deals with the creative part of the "improvement in productivity", wherein the present way of doing the job is given a re-thought. Well, well, well, that sounds like BPR.

BPR strategies are normally associated with Big Bang approaches to improvement aimed at matching the "best practises" in the indsutry. This process is not frequent. BPR normally precedes the process of modernizing an existing plant. Like, implementing ERP, changing the business model from traditional to E-commerce.

We have now studied the inter-operability of these two factors and their mutual dependence. Now, let us take up the catch phrase of the century, "Sustainable development"

"Sustainable development" was coined by the bruntland commission in their paper "Our common future" in 1987(No, No, This is not out of my memory, This info is from wikipedia)

Sustainable development is the development/improvement of product/service organizations with the limitations/brakes applied by the development/betterment of the surrounding environment.

While we were on the subject of defining sustainable development, we notice that there is a lot of cross-referencing between the three terms we have taken up already. They cannot exist independently, If they do, we will not be here for long. So, if it is so obvious why are we discussing their relatinship here? The thing is, we neglect/ignore the term  which dont get along with our business plan/strategy. These aspects are not to be forced into the business plan/strategy just to meet the statutory requirements. These three ideas are to be embedded in the business plan, They should be the base to the business plan along with the obvious, "profit"

Sustainable development is an encapsulating term which includes all the optimization techniques like TQM, Lean strategies, EMS, Other statutory laws of democratic nations. If we take up the study of these techniques we will see that they are themselves once again based on innovation, productivity and sustainable development. In a way, the dependency is recursive. The sustainable development function has a limit and it is the status qou of the environment(or its improvement). In summary sustainable development puts a limit switch to the activity of productivity which can be bettered further only by innovation. In the race to better products/services, we should consider the entire environment not just the target market.

It is time we started innovating new products/services or improving existing ones with an onus on Sustainable development and thereby longetivity of mother earth. She is referred to as God, the force(whatever you want to call her), But today, we know she has her limitations. In other ways, strategic development should be taken as the new GOD.

Sustainable development is a relatively new term. Industrial revolution ignored all the relations between the environment and the humans(Since when man is "out" of the environment, I would like to hear from anybody). Before the industrial revolution, mass production concept was not that big. Produce would be made aimed at the "real" customer. Industries catered only to the rich and the military. If we rewind our clock further, man grew whatever he "needed". The first industry stated when human stopped moving(stopped being nomads) and they formed into groups related to the kind of work they are specialized in. Now, people started producing more than they "needed" and in turn exchanged goods produced with similar results. But people honored their environment and took steps to keep their land cultivable.

As people started thinking about new issues like power, prestige, level, the first signs of strained relations among themselves and with the environment started. With the growth of democracy and removal of barriers between people, caste, countries and continents reduced, the market for products/services blew out of proportion by using latest productivity improvement techniques and innovations culminated with the Industrial revolution and capitalism(No money is enough money). To start with the industrial revolution had a generous supply of raw materials at cheaper costs owing to the discovery of fertile countries. The strategy was to produce and produce and produce and ............ owing to the gurantee of them being sold.

As the raw materials started shrinking in supply and competing capitalists entered, industrial revolutionists turned to Production managers to optimize the production time, giving vent to scientific management techniques. These techniques concentrated more on the ability of HR and their dexterity. Never a thought was spared for the environment.

If we come back to the present times, the present businesses are putting up a half hearted attempt at considering the environment in their overall strategy. Normally the attempts are cosmetic and on paper. We, now are staring at a market growing every moment. Every baby born is a potential customer. The productivity as a quantitative measure is passe. Raw materials are ever shrinking, competition is every increasing and environment is getting &^%$#d like anything.

We have realized, rather late, that the resources in this planet are limited unless the renewable resources are made to renew and No-renewable resources are taken very very seriously.

So, How do we produce/service right? Well, by thinking towards development which is sustainable for a long long loooooooooooooong time. DO IT. NOW.

We want Indian premium brands.

So,

We Indians cannot make or generate any premium brand? If at all we do can we continue to keep it premium? Come on, what is a premium brand? It is to take a very simple ingredient and add premium to it so that a "common" person does not have or not allowed to have access to it. A leather hand bag is a "hand bag" at its roots. A Macbook Air is a laptop at its roots.

Should we wait for starbucks to tell us what or how a premium coffee should be made?
Should we, Since how long do we know about coffee and tea?
Do we need KFC to come and show us how a chicken is to be sold or made a premium product?

Just look at the variety we have in our presentation of chicken. Just imagine travelling the length and breadth of India and see how differently chicken is prepared at every village. Just imagine.

Cant we have Burgers made of idlis. Cant we find out that secret ingredient which will make idlis remain fluffy and still allow them to be packaged as "take aways"?. Cant we make dosas premium by adding gold dust...(Oh, I just got a little carried away, sorry). But cant we? Why is the entrepreneural spirit existing only in the IT sector. For how many years shall we ape the other biggies? For how many years will we be able to sell chicken currys to the British?

So, you are gonna ask why cant you do it yourself, dude? Exactly. This is exactly the same question all the billion people ask to each other and will continue to do so. Come on guys, Entrepreneurs need ideas, ideas can come from kids/elders alike. I have seen people laugh at my hobbies but I have slogged on with mine. Turn your hobbies into something big. I want to see more premium brands from India. Not the likes of coffee day, which my son doesnt talk or know about. I want it to be like Mc Donalds, KFC, starbucks. There should be an awe and then to continue that, there should be an element of surprise everytime. This element is what keeps the brand going on.

When customers buy the service/product the feel should be that We have consumed something premium. We have consumed something healthy. We have consumed something which was worth every penny. The customer should not think even once before chalking out the required money.

Can we make it happen, or will we have starbucks making us drink coffe and Mc donalds ask us to have breakfast and ofcourse have lunch and dinner at a KFC/pizza hut.

I, for one, would like to have a premium idli/dosa/roti. Can I.

Generics and Specifics

            There are various classifications of the "working" class. When I say working class, I meant everybody. Everbody? Yes. Everybody. Everybody works for "something" It is very difficult to tell the "something" of everybody. The Marxist theory considered only one part of the people who were doing physical work.

           Physical work is the result, byproduct or a requirement for the mental processing. By processing I meant everything from an empty gaze to finding the answers about "everything" and "nothing". Work aganin should not be restricted to what people do for money or to extend their existence. Even shifting a position should be taken as work. In fact if we broaden the scope, anything which changes the entropy of the world is work.

         But according to me all living beings have to do some sort of "work". Let us limit ourselves to Homo sapiens. My classification would be

1. Generics
2. Specifics

1. Generics:  Majority of the worlds population would come into this population. So what do generics do? They do routing jobs which is similar throught their existence on the planet. The job/work the generics do are the result of work done by the specifics. The source of all the generic work can be traced back to the work done by the specifics. Dont ask any examples here. Now, why is the majority of the population doing generic work? Is it that the major work available is generic? Is it because the majority is born that way? Is it because they are brought up in that way? Is it because we are supposed to be like this? Is it because the job/work available in plenty is generic? Is it all of the aforesaid and many other reasons which you may come up? Whatever be the answer, the fact is that majority of the jobs are generic in nature.

              How would you label a job generic? A generic job is easy to pickup, Maybe we already have that capability, You can be trained into it, You observe and pickup, In summation they require a minimum of mental effort and more of physical efforts. But we cannot tell all jobs requiring physical effort are generic in nature. But all physical jobs are to be made generic for optimization. Can the world do without generics? No. Just look around, look inside. There are generic jobs to done throught the life of everybody. Specifics also carry out a lot of generics like eating/sleeping/walking, albeit a little lesser. If we talk about industries generics have one more advantage. Generics are like pluggable modules. We can repair a minor flaw and plug it in once again. The same job can be carried out by another man effortlessly by observation, little training or by using the common sense gained over the years. Scientific management gurus and the japanese took the generics to a whole new level, by optimizing. Generic jobs are normally carrried out in mechanical frame of mind.

2. Specifics:  This is a very small majority of the population. But, they are the reason for all the generic jobs in the world. They normally carry out a very small portion of generics, only for survival. Specifics break new avenues or take the existing generics and take it to a whole new level. They are not pluggable/replacable that very easily. Negligible portion of specifics are born that way. They normally reach the specific mental level by starting from a generic background. They get paid heavily, But that doesnt mean that they yearn for that. They are more bothered about the environment. Some do want to make a "name". Some others would do it for pure fun. They can make the world a better place and at the same time improve on a negative aspect also. Capable specifics can be doing generic jobs owing to other reasons like ease of the job, no load on the brain or they just dont care.

Why dont "all" generics try to achieve that "specific" state of mind?

My answer would be that "They just dont want to do so"

It is my personal appeal to all the generics(including me) to strive towards the specific frame and make the world a better place and in turn motivate other generics to do so.

Freedom and Macbook air(AKA, "opposites attract")

I would loathe the Macbook pros and see that they were whitey, clumsy, heavy and awkward looking compared to the other notebooks in the industry. Of all the notebooks I liked the HP TX1301au for three reasons

1. It had an AMD Turion x2 processor( A processor developed with notebooks in mind )
2. It had a touch screen
3. It could be converted into what is called a "tablet" today by folding the display over the keyboard.

I saw this lappy being used by many users. HP had a very good concept but did not follow up on this( Just exactly what happened to one of the first professional looking GNU/Linux based touch phone, the motoming or a1200. It was a beautiful phone with a flavor of linux called the montavista linux, It was my first smartphone ). But I was happy with my lappy since It played good with GNU/Linux. Debian GNU/Linux ran on this beauty flawlessly. It was light compared to other laptops. It was smaller at 12" compared to other laptops. I went on and succesfully booted Debian GNU/HURD also on this lappy, but after the initial boot screen It was difficult. In summary, my lappy was free of all propreitory software, except for the nvidia driver(I know, I know, RMS is angry)

 It was the "apple" of my eye until Apple released their Macbook air. OMG what piece of hardware. I was drooling all over it. That was the best piece of notebook hardware I had set my eyes on. It was "gorgeous", "drop dead", "Awesome"........ All of a sudden "Light", "Small" and "Air" had a new meaning for me. I just compared the weight of my lappy with the air, it was shocking. I compared the looks, It was like comparing it with Mona lisa and the cave paintings. Evolution took a long time, as we all agree. But the "Air" was a "Revolution". A revolution which all others are trying to digest and cope up. I have still to see notebooks come anywhere near to the air(There have been a few and as Linus torvalds put it, others will catch up. But they will "catch up")

If we observe the Macbook air from its first iteration, nothing much has changed. The basic chasis is still the same. Changes occur when there are competitors and are forcing you to a corner. As of now the air leads the lot and others are catching up.

1. Yes, I know, RAM is soldered ---no upgrade
2. Backpanel is locked by propreitory shaped screws  --not to be opened by ordinary users.
3. No DVD drive --watching movies, opening presentations/documents at office on cd/dvd not possible(I dont know how many still do....).
4. Only two usb ports --Nowadays, I dont know what is the right number of USB ports required.
5. Runs on proprietory software  --A simple bios upgrade can disturb any custom OS on the device.
6. Hard drive capacity limited  --Though on a mid 2011 macbook air, we can still change the hard drives capacity, since it is not soldered.
7. Battery -- can be changed but at an apple store.

Oh, so many negatives. Let us get to the positives.

1. Incredibly thin/light/compact/portable
2. Unibody aluminium chasis  --No creaking
3. Awesome multi-touch touchpad(A very large one)(Clickpad, to be more precise) --The feeling of crossover between a tablet and a notebook with an additional "click" action throught the touchpad
4. Full sized keyboard --Completely relaxed position of the hands while typing, not to be disturbed by the touchpad. The touchpad can be made to respond to only the physical "click", that is, pressing the touchpad down(like clicking a mouse)
5. Lid opened with one hand only --The hinge tightness is just right to open with one hand and perfect enought to hold the display upright.
6. Keyboard backlight -- Intensity of the keyboard light can be changed via shortcut keys on the keyboard. Makes using it in dark environments a breeze(something from the smarphones, especially my sony ericsson mini pro). It is the right place to give sony, credit for the chiclet keyboard.
7. Magsafe charger --I liked the design of the charger, where it gets pulled(magnetic) to its charging point as it is brought near to the charging port(A deft touch, that).
8. Display --The 13.3" screen is just right at 1440 X 900 resolution. It is not the best out there, but ample enough.
9. Except the fan, No moving parts --It is "silent" most of the time. I noticed the fan rev up when flash enabled sites are visited. And the exhaust of the fan is let out at the hinge(I loved this piece of engineering). So your lap is kept as cool as possible.
10. The icing on the cake is an i7 processor clocking at 1.8Ghz with ondie graphics core and 4GB DDR3 RAM.

As a whole, I am just awed by the device hardware. All this comes to a standstill when you will see that it runs Mac osX, which is as propreitory an OS can get over a community developed code. It does make me happy(My happiness is nothing compared to that of the Freebsd community which prides itself whenever its code is being used for propreitory or "freedom" purposes) that it is using contributions from the free software community by using freebsd code and the mach kernel code for the core OS and using other nifty tools like the webkit code from the KDE project. At the same time, the user is completely locked by the propreitory layer of UI and graphics libraries. It is difficult to imagine that the worlds most profit making company is making profits by leveraging community code and returning near to nothing to the source.

So, how do we "Free" this awesome hardware from the clutches of propreitory software?

Run windows on it, ha? Installing windows on a macbook air is a breeze. The drivers are available from apple. Install the OS and install all the drivers. Thats it. Windows runs beautifuly on this device. Hey, wait, now we have locked both the windows and dooors. The ultimate lockin.

No, we are not even considering it. What are the options we are left with? GNU/Linux, GNU/BSD, GNU/MINIX, ANDROID..... I chose GNU/Linux for the obvious.

1. It runs beautifully well on x86 hardware.
2. It is my favorite OS for the past 11 years.
3. I know my way around.
4. Awesome community.
5. Thriving developer base.
6. Strong Ethics
7. Ever increasing user base.

Now, GNU/Linux comes in many flavors. My favorite flavor has been Debian GNU/Linux, the universal operating system. In its goal of becoming a universal operating system Debian cannot cater in particular to a very small group of elite users having the capability of buying mac hardware(I do not mean that they wouldnt do it, But it would not be worth, taking the entire world into consideration). I tried the latest testing build and failed terribly. But, do not go by my experience. There are people who have succesfully installed Debian GNU/Linux on a macbook air. Just search them on the public network.

Come on, then, Let us "free" up this awesome piece of hardware...........................................