I recently read the book “Web 2.0 Heroes: Interviews with 20 Web 2.0 Influencers“ and it was interesting from several perspectives. The book’s format was Q&A with several luminaries who are shaping the user experiences in the internet today. From behemoths like Ebay, Microsoft, Skype, Adobe, IBM, Sun to startups like Ning, Technorati, StumbleUpon, Twitter, Meebo, Zoho etc. The questions were mostly about trying to define the term Web 2.0 as well as about other terms like Semantic Web, SAAS, S+S etc.

The first interesting thing was the absence of Google or Yahoo. Well, maybe they are not big into the whole Web thing.

The second interesting thing was this frequent mention of the fact that Web 2.0 was about giving more control back to the users.

For example, the guy from Bloglines says:

Greater user control is really one of the key things for Web 2.0. The users are now in control, whereas in the past they were not in control. It was really what big companies wanted to broad-
cast or distribute, whether it is a broadcast via a media model or via an old software model. Now, you can modify and take apart your application. Kind of like the modders who souped up their Toyotas, jack them up, or do whatever. A lot of people are doing that. That is one of the really cool things in how the users take control of their user experience.

How could that be? Allowing programmable APIs access does not equate to greater user control. Yes, it means greater developer control, but for the normal user, the programmable API doesn’t change his experience that much. I also don’t understand when he mentions that a lot of people are doing that. Just because something is programmable doesn’t mean many are doing it. It is like saying that just because the COM controls and widgets on your PC are programmable, a lot of people are actually going ahead and using them in new, unexpected ways. In my opinion, user control equates to greater control on stuff that actually matters, like control on the user data, how it is shared, how it is made available, who is looking at it etc.

The same kind of comment from Zoho

But what we really like is the movement that’s happening at the grassroots level where control is given back to the users. That is the key thing and if you want to have a term, then yes, that is probably where Web2.0 is a good marketing term.

and from Adobe

We’re taking advan-tage a lot of that infrastructure in the trends that have defined Web 2.0, which is user-generated content; content is king, giving the users a lot of control, opening up APIs, opening up feeds and being able to bring lots of different content types together to create new experiences.

Maybe the definition of user control is different for these folks, but my perception has been that the whole new software paradigm that is being rolled out is ultimately lesser user control. With all these ways of now combining information, someone can combine your LinkedIn Profile and all your pictures and comments(and rants) from MySpace, Facebook and the Web into a single page for an employer to look at before offering a job. Thats a scary thought.

So what do you get when you work non-stop 12 to 14 hours every day on your computer, almost continuously for 10 months? You get acute pain on your wrist that completely immobilizes you from working on the computer.

It starts innocently enough on the upper right hand. You mostly disregard the pain as you dismiss it as a strain or a pull from something. You continue typing merrily,mainly because you can and then it hits you like a truck. You can barely move your fingers or change your wrist position without yelping in pain. Welcome to RSI.

It took me a while before I understand what I got. It was pretty serious, because for the first time in many months, I had to basically sit still without interacting with my computer. Then you realize how much you take for granted. A software guy without the ability to use his keyboard is pretty much dead on the water. Similar to a pianist, there is no way to make software music. That was the day the music died.

The next 4 days were pretty much nursing my wrist back to health; a wrist support brace helped a lot in the recovery.

Since then, I have realized the error of my ways and take all the precautions to avoid the same injuries. I replaced my keyboard and mouse with the ergonomic versions (Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 and MS Natural Mouse 6000). Mainly to avoid twisting my wrists into unnatural positions.

It appears to help a bit. The downside is that my typing speed went down from 50 WPM to about 20 WPM on the natural keyboard (but I am improving slowly).  However, I would take 20 WPM rather than 0 WPM any day.

The other thing that helped immensely is Workrave. A little opensource software that sits in your system tray and makes you take breaks every once in a while that helps your body from being forced into an bad posture too long. It is annoying and I do make it “postpone ” the break many times when I work on something with full concentration, but nonetheless, it is helping me quite a bit.

Only time will tell whether these precaustions are enough. But the good part of this episode is that I am now acutely aware of the potential for injury and what it means for my career. So its been an eye-opener for me. It should be one for you too. Be warned.

After what seems forever, I found some time to post. Tonido is coming along, progress is being made, though what seems like an inch at a time. But that is a post for another rainy day.

Anyway, developing Tonido is a fun affair, I need to run several copies of Visual Studio 2008, Eclipse, a couple of browsers, several tail programs, then a couple of SSH sessions. Its fun stuff. Getting all this going takes a fair chunk of time. And on some days, I need to run a Virtual Machine to boot.

My aging Athlon 64 3000+ (from 3 years ago) couldn’t even pretend it could do this and I didn’t try. I finally got a Dell XPS 1330, Core 2 Duo laptop in the beginning of this year that was able to bear this load. I finally ended up connecting via Remote Desktop to my laptop, so I could at least use my desktop monitor (Dell 24 inch). Still this was a sub optimal experience, especially for long sessions.

The Gods must have taken some pity on the laptop after seeing it run its heart out and I got the blessings to go get a new machine. Yay!

After looking at the current PC market, I had to consider whether I should get the quad core cpu vs the dual core cpu. The dual cores were much faster than the quads and were cheaper, but the quad core.. well they just had 2 more CPUs. After endless research, I decided to get the quad (Q9450) and I think it turned out to be a *good* thing. Rounding out the specs, the rest of the system is fairly straightforward, ASUS P5Q, 4 GB RAM, 500 GB HDD, ATI Radeon 4850, Antec Titan 650 with 650 W PS.

The build went pretty well and it posted into BIOS without a hitch. The only tricky thing was trying to understand how to attach the CPU cooler. It took me a while before I understood how to attach the CPU cooler clamps to the motherboard.  Anyway more of that CPU cooler in a bit.

Overall, the build was fine, and in a little over a evening, XP was installed and I was playing my free copy of The Witcher (that came with the Radeon 4850) at full 1920×1600 resolution at smooth frame rates.

Next, I threw my development workload at it and there was *no* problem whatsoever. VS 2008 is able to do parallel builds when it can and it really helps now. With Quad cores running, there was never a moment when I had to wait for the computer to do something, whether it be compiling or any other activity. I am just more productive, because during the VS build I could start another activity that could be done while waiting for it to complete. I guess you can never have too many cores.

A week went by and I finally decided to check out how stable the system was and I tried monitoring the temps. The case was running at 50 C! and, the CPUs at 50 C idle and almost 70 C load. And Intel’s spec said max temp was 70 C! Yikes.I tried several things, reapplied the thermal paste, reseated the fan etc. These didn’t help, and in fact I actually saw the CPU at 100 C in the BIOS once during my test! I thought it was cooked and expected to see smoke coming out. To see if I can salvage the CPU, I went and got a Thermaltake CPU cooler. I put this on and took out the stock Intel cooler. And what a difference it made! Temps went down immediately.

Then I found that the Radeon 4850 was running at 80 C!. After applying the Radeon “Fan hack”, the GPU temperature came down from 80 C to about 50 C!

Happy with the cooling, I OCed my Q9450 to 3.2 GHz from 2.66 GHz (my first overclock). Everything has been very stable. Idles at 45 C and at load never got above 60 C.

Here are some notes for someone building a new PC:

1) Choose a good case

A good case is crucial. My first build used a sub-par case and the front panel disintegrated during the build and I still use that machine with duct tape holding the frontpanel. ugly. The Antec Titan 650 is a very good case, almost silent. It has plenty of room to work with and comes with a very good PSU to boot.

2) Choose a good power supply

Enough said.

3) Buy a non-stock CPU fan

This applies if you are buying one of these new Intel chips. It is possible that I did a lousy job installing the cooler, but buying a aftermarket cooler really helps.

 4) Reuse your Windows XP Pro license if you have it

This one was news to me. I was planning on getting Vista, but I learnt that it is possible to move Windows XP Pro from an old machine to a new machine, provided you have the retail version. So I retired an old machine, installed Ubuntu on it and moved XP Pro to the new machine. This is better because, I now have Vista and XP on my development machines and it is good to have as much diversity as possible.

5) Check your operating temps especially at peak load

I didn’t do this enough at the beginning, but should have done this right off the bat. Running Prime 95 torture test is a good way. Another good way is doing C++ compiles.

My new machine, according to the CPU benchmarks is at least 10x faster than my Athlon 64 3000+ and it is atleast 3x faster than my dual core 2.2 GHz.Everything is getting done faster. Now only if I can write software faster..

Quotes from Ready to Lead by Alan Price, an interesting book, which tackles the subject of Leadership and how it is different from Management. The presentation is a little different, opting for a story to present the main content of the book, but it is nonetheless effective.

“Leadeship is the the unleashing of human passion towards a goal. And management is the organizing of skills and resources toward a goal.”

“Leadership builds a community of purpose. Management builds a community capable of purpose.”

The book stresses that the definition of Leadership is personal and differs depending upon the person and they have to come up with their own take on the subject.

Mine

“Leadership is about making people believe whereas Management is about managing beliefs.”

I am not sure how it feels. And I certainly don’t want to find out. But becoming an entrepreneur can be likened to such a leap, with no safety net, no parachute, and into the pitch darkness. In the scale of crazy things to do, this probably ranks up close to the top. Still, I guess a certain fraction of the human populace would dare try really jumping off a cliff. And I guess the same percentage would want to strike it out for themselves as entrepreneurs.

The question any sane person asks is ‘why‘?

The answer is ‘why not?‘

As long as the humans have walked the face of the earth, they always have been trying to extend beyond the limits of the possible, trying to remove the ‘im’ from it. Originally driven by the sheer requirement to survive weather, predators, hunger, Man had to innovate, push the boundaries or risk ceasing to exist. I have to believe that this has to be an innate primary requirement for survival. How well he did would depend on how much he had this drive.

With advances, stability and generally conquering the environment, he had less reason to go beyond the normal. The reasons changed, political oppression, promise of wealth etc became the reasons for pushing beyond the ordinary.

Over the course of the last century, advances came so quickly that most reasons have disappeared or almost disappeared. And the way society is setup(I have to revisit this subject later) tends not to favor those trying to step outside the line. Conformity is required and anything else is frowned upon. A dangerous mindset to have for the human society as a whole. Because, unless Man tries to push the envelope, innovation would slow down…limiting what can be achieved.

So coming back to the subject at hand, what does this have to do with entrepreneurship? Everything. Taking risks, attempting something in the face of insurmountable odds is what drives people to startup companies. The same thing that drives man to the moon, to the deepest depths of the ocean, and to the darkest depths of gloomy forests.

Even if the centuries of conditioning are starting to remove this drive, it lives on as a tiny spark amongst everyone. It just needs a push to ignite it. Maybe thats what it needs, a push or a shove.

A jump off a cliff. I just did it.