Lets start with what wikipedia has to say:

Entrepreneurship is the act of being an entrepreneur, which is a French word meaning “one who undertakes innovations, finance and business acumen in an effort to transform innovations into economic goods”.

Surprisingly enough, that is exactly what I believe an entrepreneur  to be. First and foremost, an entrepreneur is an innovator. Without innovation, the world becomes stagnant. An entrepreneur must also apply business acumen (an innovator without business acumen is just an inventor or a researcher). The world runs on money. Everyone wants some. Startups want to make money. Investors want to make money. Non-profits want to make money (to help others). Fortune 500 companies want to make money. But all of these companied share one thing in common.

They all have room for entrepreneurs – people who innovate and change things. They break the rules. People who understand that a good thing is only a good thing when it can be turned into a viable business. These people are dedicated to what they do. They love what they are doing. They will stay up all night working on their projects not because of deadlines but because they enjoy what they do.

So, what is an entrepreneur?

An entrepreneur is an innovator with business acumen who is dedicated and loves what they are doing and hopes to be economically successful!

This comes to a maximum of 13 classes to go (my lucky number by the way). I am planning to take 4 in the Fall, 5 in the Spring and 4 more the following Fall. This led me to do some interesting “What-If” planning. The main question was, what if I get a full time job offer? Wouldn’t I want to get out [a term often used by Tech students instead of the word graduate] of Tech sooner. At the same time, what if I land an amazing internship for the Summer of 2011 (like the one I landed this summer )?

So, the idea I came up with was that I need to take a light load my last semester here (12-13 credits) and make sure that the classes will be offered in both the Summer and Fall of 2011. This means that I will not need to decide on my date of graduation till Early May of 2011 by which time, I need to decide whether I will be taking class over the summer or working. The solution was actually pretty simple. I actually found 6 classes (Probability and Statistics, Algorithms, Digital Design Lab, Social Psychology, Senior Design and my remaining Lab Science) that are being offered in both the Summer and the Fall. Of these, due to Pre-requisite/load balancing reasons, I will definitely be taking Prob/Stat, Algorithms and the Lab Science during my graduating term. Which leaves me with 3 classes [Senior Design, Digital Design Lab and Social Psychology] of which I will need to pick 2 for the Spring 0f 2011 and 1 for that last semester, which is great cause anyone who know about registering for classes at Tech will know plans rarely go according to plan due to time conflicts. The ability to pick and choose from those 3 will give me that flexibility.

Our Assistant Dean, Tom Pilsch always tells us that we students need to have a plan towards graduation. Well, I can say I’ve one upped that and have 2 plans for graduation .

What can throw a spanner in this wonderful plan? 2 things! Firstly, OSCAR scheduling. Even with all the flex room I’ve put into this plan, the odds are that there will be some weird time conflict. I am not too concerned about this as usually it is possible to work with the administration on this specially at the time of graduation. The second spanner thrower is me flunking out of one of these classes. It has been known to happen before… Multiple Times… [Calculus 3, I'm looking at you just so you know] and my luck, I still have to take Calc 3. GRR. O well, the pressure should motivate me to pass THAT class this time around.

Funny things that are going to happen? 2 things once again! Firstly, OSCAR might get confused in the Spring when I start registering for the exact same classes for both the Summer and Fall [do keep in mind that I will be dropping all those classes for one of those semesters before the term starts]. That will just be amusing. Secondly, career fairs in the fall will be interesting cause I will be carrying with be 3 different resumes; 1 for Summer internship, 1 for Summer graduation/Full time and 1 for Fall graduation/Full time + I have been planning on taking copies of the updated [soon to be] Visual Resume.

Should be an interesting year or two ahead of me. But for now, I have only one focus ladies and gentlemen: Being the uber awesome summer intern at Turner. One thing at a time people

The reason for this is simple. My name is not who I am! When asked who I am, I can not answer that question in 2 syllables. My being is much more complex in nature and the best way to answer the question, “Who are you?” is to get to know me. Shakespeare got the point pretty well a couple hundred years back.

‘Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What’s Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,
And for that name which is no part of thee
Take all myself.

- Juliet from Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

Now, to answer the question of how to pronounce my name, there is NO RIGHT WAY! There is not right way because I say there is no right way. I use a lot of different pronunciations of my name cause I am a very different person and am comfortable with having people call me different things. Most of my friends call me AJ (as in the letters A and J). I have gone by Ahai (the spanish pronunciation of the j) for a couple days too. Honestly, I don’t care. I’m ok with being called “Oii there” if you have a proper Aussie accent and can do a goo job with the Oii. Go ahead and call me Invictus (the name of this blog) for all I care, it actually means the same thing as Ajai though in a different ancient language (Latin and Sanskrit respectively).

But for those of you who still want to know what the right way to say my name is, I have a consolation prize: The original way to say my name. I was named by my parents who speak Tamil and my name is a Tamil name. I have spent the last couple hours figuring out how to write my name in Tamil and then transliterating that to IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet). In Tamil, my name is written as,

That when translated to the IPA comes to be [ʌd͡ʒaɪ], which consists of 3 distinct parts:

• ʌ – The starting sound which is the sound made by the ‘u’ in the word plus.
• d͡ʒ – The sound for the j in my name which is the sound made by the ‘j’ in the word jump.
• aɪ – The ending of my name which is the sound made by ‘gh’ in the word high.

There you go. I’ve thoroughly analyzed it and have laid it bare for all of you to see (well, more like say ). If you still are not sure how to say the name, start with the uhhh sound you make when you uhmmm in the middle of a conversation and end with the jai from the song jai ho from Slumdog Millionaire.

To start of, the first thing thats wrong should probably be the fact that the Web Browser is not a game. I’m not going to get into how they found Mature/Suggestive Themes on the internet (god knows there are a lot of those) but shouldn’t Safari have these same warnings?

Update: This is just an observation I made. I am not going anti-apple here and am not an Apple Critic. This post was supposed to fall under the humorous mixup category.

And another video by the same people who made the last one

AT&T offers 3 messaging plans. A 200 messages plan for $5, a 1500 messages plan for $15 and Unlimited for $20. There is a lot of room between 200 to 1500! I personally text about 300-400 times a month but have to pay the $15 for 1500 messages.

Come on AT&T! Get something right for once and make a $10 messaging plan for 600 messages a month or something!

Sounds like a deal doesn’t it. Wavee advertises between 70-99% discounts on the final bid price (vs. the retail cost of the item). How does Wavee make money? Well, my rather inquisitive nature led me to figure out the math behind Wavee.

My goal is to figure out the relationship between the Value of an item and the final selling bid at the break even point.

The total revenue (which at break even point will be equal to the retail price of the item) from the sale of a product is the revenue from bids ($0.75 * number of bids) and final selling bid ($.01 * number of bids). The gets the total revenue from a sale to be $0.76 * number of bids.

Since the final selling bid is $0.01 * number of bids (hence, number of bids = 100 * final selling bid), the total revenue can be written as 76 * final selling bid. So, we come to the conclusion that Wavee breaks even when the final selling bid is 1/76th the value of the item. This equates to final selling bid having a 98.68% discount on the value of the item.

So, you can see that Wavee makes a profit whenever they sell a product at a 98.68% discount or less. Sounds like a deal for both the startup and the buyer. Check them out and have some fun.

Note: This analysis is done with only the sale of the item in perspective. You got to keep in mind that there are other expenses for the company such as development costs and employee salaries. Wavee also provides 5 free credits to each new account and also gives reward credits which are not accounted for. But the basic idea remains the same. If the winner of the auction is not a total idiot, he is definitely going to make a saving on his purchase; and as long as Wavee has enough users bidding, they will make a profit too.

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. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them, disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them.

About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They invent. They imagine. They heal. They explore. They create. They inspire. They push the human race forward.

Maybe they have to be crazy.

How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art? Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written? Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?

While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

Whats more to say? Say’s it all doesn’t it!

The basic idea is that you should play your part in making the world a better place. Some people are great developers. So, great idea people. And some really good at getting things done. But what do you do when you are not one of these people? Well, you help them. The age old saying comes to mind; “Those who can’t do, teach”.

I like to use a different word instead of the more common tool. I like to think of myself as an enabler. I feel that by helping other reach greatness, I have done my little bit to change the world.

Now why am I talking about this topic in particular? Well, I have rebooted the Young Entrepreneurs Society once again. Though I hope to work on my side projects which will probably include a startup and develop myself professionally, YES is going to be my #1 priority for the coming academic year.

The success of this organization will mean a lot more than you would expect. This groups goal is to change the very culture at Georgia Tech and get more startups to come out of this wonderful institute. I am going to embark on the quest to make YES awesome once again and this time, I am joined by 2 other people who are crazy enough to thing this will work too; Welcome aboard Michelle Bjornas and Mike Skalnik.

Because the people who are crazy enough to think
they can change the world, are the ones who do.

So, this is what I say. If you have the opportunity to enable someone to be greater than they are now, take it. It is probably one of the best thing you could do.

PS: Quoting the Apple Think Different ad has inspired me to write another post today. Way too much coffee I tell you

In my search, I stumbled into far more than one job posting that had a GPA cutoff, (usually 3.0) which meant that I had no hope of getting the job even before I applied. This led me to think more about the whole GPA situation and how much it actually spoke about my abilities.

Firstly, I must say that having a fixed GPA cutoff is inherently biased against most Georgia Tech students. Due to the academic rigor, the average GPA at Tech is lower than that of most other universities. For instance, the GPA requirement to graduate cum laude from Georgia Tech is a 3.15 while at most universities it is closer to 3.5. This does not create a standardized GPA scale between different colleges and I am happy to say that many of the Atlanta based companies and most of the companies that come to career fairs at Tech are aware of this. But even still, GPA cut-offs seemed to be disqualifying a lot of eligible candidates.

Secondly, the GPA seems to fail at measuring your academic success and is more of a measure of your academic failure. Why do I say this? Well, the GPA seems to be based on not what you have learned at the time of graduation but more on what you didn’t know at another point in time. The easiest way to explain this is with an example: I have personally registered for Calculus III for CS Majors 4 times during my time at Tech. I dropped it twice and have failed it once and  by the look of things, will be failing it once again this semester. My GPA has been drastically affected by both of these ‘F’s but when I do graduate, I will have the calculus knowledge imparted by these classes as I won’t be able to graduate without passing this class.

Lastly, GPA doesn’t account for the difficulty of different classes nor does it account for learning styles of different people. For instance, I have many junior level and senior level classes during my Freshman year and have been taking graduate level classes throughout my time at Tech. Being the youngest person in these classes should definitely mean that I am ahead of the curve, but were I to make a B in one of these classes, my GPA is lower than my friend who is taking the same class 3 years after I am. Does a freshman taking a senior level class and getting a B show more ability or does a senior getting an A in the same class. Exactly my point!

As for learning styles, I earlier wrote about my bad luck with calculus. My personal learning style is oriented towards learning by applying what I learn in my day to day life. I am a very hands on person and love to get my hands dirty while I try to figure something new. This is quite difficult to do with a subject such as calculus. It is kind of funny how my being bad at calculus does not even demonstrate my ability with Math. I got an easy A in both Combinatorics and Constructing Proofs, two of the more difficult mathematically oriented classes at Tech and I plan to have a similar experience with Probability and Statistics.

There we go. My rant about GPA. I’m not even going to talk about how the GPA doesn’t say anything about extra-curriculars and work experience since I hope that goes with out saying. Please feel free to continue this discussion.

Six ways to make people like you

Win people to your way of thinking

Be a Leader

Note: I took this from www.westegg.com – I believe that my readers would find this very interesting and useful

My pet projects are usually something I have started myself or have led a major change in and am a key player. I am a leader by nature and am usually found closer to the top of the pecking order of most organizations I am affiliated with. What can I say, I like being at the top.

Going for the punch line, I consider myself successful with my pet projects when I get them to a point where they do not require me anymore. Despite the simplicity of that statement, it is unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you see it) not as simple. It involves me building the organization to a somewhat stable point, getting other people to work with me and getting these people to the point where these “other” people have as much passion as me (if not more) for the project. As many startup people can probably vouch, not many people are as excited about your product as you are.

Despite these I have had a couple successes under my umbrella, the most notable of which would be the Firewall. Though the firewall was not initially my idea, what it evolved to before we launched was more of my brain child. I took one the role heading the organizational aspect of it and now the organization is thriving with both founder completely unaffiliated with the paper. Their last issue was much better than any issue that I put forth, and I proud of that fact.

I am writing this post tonight cause, I believe that I have reached this level of success with another organization. The Undergraduate Council was resurrected by me over the last year and is now a very strong group comprised of some of the best people I have had the chance to work with. Today, I announced the elections for 2 weeks from now and have spent the last couple hours thinking whether I want to run or not for my position again. No decision in sight for the near future. I’ll let you guys know how it goes in 2 weeks time.

I have 3 possible options, and  none of them seem to be right. Should I put in India, the country I am a citizen off? Or should it be the United Arab Emirates, where I lived most of my life? Or is the United States the right one? All and none at the same time. Hence my crisis.

A little background about myself. Born in India to Indian parents, I lived in Dubai, United Arab Emirate pretty much all my cognitive life. For the last three years, I have been doing my undergrad in Atlanta.

Can it be the United Arab Emirate?

Unfortunately no! Despite my having lived there all my life and considering it my home, I am no longer a legal permanent resident, if ever I was one. I was a dependent of my parents on their work visas till I was 18 and can’t enter the country without a visit visa.

Can it be India?

It is the country of my citizenship. Why not? Well, JFK once said, “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.” In my eyes, India and me have not done anything for each other. I have not lived there. I feel like an outsider every time I go there. And finally, I do not thing I have the right to claim being even Indian due to the fact that I have done nothing for my so called country. And shall I say, neither has it done anything for me. On the contrary, it has disadvantaged me cause the first impression people get of me when they see me is Indian and not for who I am. I consider myself a Third Culture Kid, but that is something for a different post. This is no offense to Indians, its just annoying being classified in a category that is 1 in every 6 person belongs to when I do not belong in said category. Keep in mind that I really do enjoy considering myself unique.

Finally, the United States?

So, many would say that I do not have a claim to the United States. But it keeps popping into my head every time I see one of these forms. It arises from the fact that for the past 3 years, I have spent 49 out of 52 weeks in this country. I was only on a student visa but in practice, my permanent residence is in this country. That is the address on my business card, my bank account, my resume… you get the jist. But no. Can’t do that! I’m only a permanent resident if I have a green card. Unfortunately, I haven’t got one of those.

So, 3 down and none to go! You see the dilemma I’m under.

Fact 2: I am crazy enough to follow through with a bunch of them. Proof!

Fact 3: I do not have the time for more (seriously, my new years resolution is to not do anything new till May)

Hence, my decision to open source my next idea to my readers. If you think you can make it, go ahead an do so. Let me know cause I will probably end up using it. Keep in mind that this is a non-profit idea.

I volunteer at the atlanta humane society. I love doing what I do, ie. playing with the cats/getting them adopted. Being in this environment, I soon realized that very often, non-profits have needs that require skilled labor which many of their volunteers are able to fill but are not being advertised about.

So here is the idea. A website that lets non-profits post certain volunteering needs they have that require skill (building shelves to coding a database for the animals). It would also let people search for projects based on the skills they possess. And TaDA! We have a match.

Funny how I just explained the entire idea with 2 lines. Well, some of the best ideas in the world are very simple in nature, aren’t they?

Let me say first that I love what I am doing. I have gained a lot from the college of computing and feel like this one of the best ways I can give back to the college and also make an impact on the experiences of future students within the college.

Earlier today we had a debate over whether or not the UC members should put their personal reputations on the line with regards to one of our projects. Over the course of the discussion, I had a moment of clairvoyance, in which I realized the following:

• The members of the UC exist in order to serve the student body of the college
• The officers of the UC exist to serve the members

It is our responsibility to serve the people we need to and while representing them, our personal opinions do not matter at all. If we are not willing to do what the people who we represent want us to do, then why are we in the positions we are? Unlike what many would think that the officers have additional power over the members, I have often emphasized that the title only add responsibility and not power.

1. It looks gorgeous. The Unibody is amazing. I love it on my macbook. I’m going to love it on the iPad (I seriously did prefer iSlate personally.)
2. People are going to buy it. Apple is going to sell the iPad because it is cheap! And because they have and awesome PR department. Its functionality might not be that great (for those who wanted a Mac OS on it) but it does what it needs to do.
3. I saw Steve type on it with 2 hands. Not something I have seen before and not something I will believe until I check it out for myself.
4. The apps on the iPad are great. I look down at my dock right now and see the apps I use the most often. MailPlane for email (I can haz an app for that pretty please). The rest is the iWork suite, Pandora, Meebo running on Fluid and my alarm clock. All of which can easily be ported onto the iPad or have already been in certain cases.
5. Did you see iWork on the iPad? It looks gorgeous. I almost cried in joy when I saw iCal.
6. Will the iPad kill the Kindle? Hell No. The iPad and the Kindle are not the same. I own a kindle and I like it cause I can read on it for about a week between recharges. It also is less of a strain on the eyes too. The iPad is not the Kindle!
7. 10 hour battery life. Great Job apple. Anyone who knows me well will know that my biggest frustration is more battery like on all products. When I read the TechCrunch prank article which said ARC Reactor (design: Tony Stark) I was salivating though I knew it was not going to be true. Next one, I was 24 hours
8. I am not happy by the fact that there are ZERO USB ports on this device. If for nothing else but to plug in a flash drive to copy files quickly.
9. I find the lack of flash support to be disgraceful.

So, there is my report on the iPad. Am I a Fan Boy? No! Do I want an iPad? Yes! Will I get an iPad? No! Why? I can’t afford one right now and I would rather wait for the iPad Version 2 which has improved on this wonderful product (and hopefully I have on interned for a couple months and made some money by then to buy myself an early birthday gift.)

The concept behind Coders Anonymous is to learn programming languages somewhat individually but in a group setting. The way I currently plan to implement this at Georgia Tech is a weekly two hour meeting where we get all interested students into a room (a big one based on current feedback). We decide on a language or two to focus on (I see rails, php and django being the hot topics initially) and start going through some online tutorials. When one person gets stuck, there is probably someone else in the room who understands the concept and is able to clear the doubt. We also hope to have a couple people in the room who are proficient with the language to help out.

The advantages:

• It becomes a group activity.
• You have someone to push you when you start slacking. Kind of the same as getting a workout buddy.
• When you get stuck, there is someone who can help you out.
• With a large enough group and a couple months, you will be able to pick up not 1 or 2 but quite a few languages.

On top of the basic concept, I also see some potential for other tertiary activities such as instructed classes by members of the community (for instance someone from the Atlanta Ruby Users Group doing a seminar on Rails) and hackathons. Another problem this will fix for those of the entrepreneurial mindset will be a larger pool of good developers looking for a job/project to work on.

This is just my initial concept but I do plan to launch this by the end of this month, so any feedback or suggestions are welcome.

Update

The ACM is planning on launching a program of options classes this Spring. In order to not confuse students, I’m putting this project on hold for the near future.

While, Sanjay Parekh replied “Everything“, Merrick Furst countered with “Nothing“.

The explanation is simple. The CEO is responsible for doing everything and must be willing to do it all (this includes taking out the trash). In reality, a CEO does not have the time to do anything at all. A CEO’s job is to hire people to do different tasks, tell them what to do and make sure they get it done. Once that is done, the CEO has run out of hours in the day.

This is not only true with startups but also with organizations and pretty much any leadership structure.

What keeps the CEO from going crazy and doing everything themselves? One word: Trust! A CEO must be able to trust their subordinates to get their part done. The moment an employee loses the trust of his superior, it’s going to be hard for everyone. The CEO has to micromanage the person (which he doesn’t have the time for) and the person gets annoyed by having someone micromanage them.

Rules of thumb:

• If you say you are going to do something, do it!
• If you need help, ask as far in advance as possible!
• Make sure not to lose someones trust, it isn’t easy to get back!

Those are my rules, what are yours?

For those wonder what freemium is, it is a business model that works by offering basic services for free, while charging a premium for advanced or special features. Common examples of businesses that use the freemium model include wikipedia/wikia and Pandora.

Having a free product means people will use it more. You will have a larger community around your product and can reach out to hundreds of millions of users. On the other hand, a paid product will attract less people but create a more tight nit community around the product as well as your bank balance will soar (IF you have a good product).

My question here is, is it too much to have both? When Pandora announced that they will be restricting users to 40 hours a month of free usage, it too me less than 3 seconds to click the link to subscribe for Pandora ONE. The value I get out of Pandora was well worth the $36 I pay a year. 95% of Pandora’s users will never actually reach the hour limit and are happy with the free version while the few power users such as myself are more than happy to pay for it.

Being the entrepreneur that I am [and also the cut-throat mercenary that I am ], I believe that if there is money be made, make it!

So, here is my proposition for Craigslist: Keep what you have and launch another craigslist Premium. Craigslist Premium will charge $1 per posting. People who use craigslist can continue using the free version that is filled with spam listings and scams. There will be a small percentage of power users though who will recognize the value of the premium service and will migrate over to the premium version and start crunching out $$$ for Craig Newmark. And the best part still? It’s going to cost them practically nothing. Craigslist already has all the things they need for this to be implemented. The premium version will have the same features as the free version and craigslist already charges people for posting in certain sections.

Will the freemium model work for you? It all depends on a factor of how good your product is and how much you are giving away for free. If you give away too much, people won’t pay for the premium version; give away too little and they will not be attracted to try it for free. But one thing is for certain, it has to be good.

Please do take this with a grain of salt and do contribute your thoughts on this. If you like the idea and want to turn it into reality, do come talk to me and I’ll help anyway I can. It is after all 1% idea 99% execution.

The Ideal Co-working Space

by Ajai Karthikeyan

Coffee Shop

The Atlanta community knows that the Tech Square Starbucks and Octane are major hubs for startups and students. There is always a crowd there and over the last couple weeks, I have clocked more hours in there than their employees(I am not joking). Most entrepreneurs and students are not adverse to working out of coffee shops and many, including me actually love to work in such a setting. It is a fun environment. The Coffee is flowing and it is also a great spot to meet with other people, both scheduled meetings and randomly bumping into people whom you know.

For most of us, all we need is a comfy. the design should also be so that no seat is over 5 feet from a power socket and ample number of power sockets should be made available to the customers.

Meeting/Breakout/Private Rooms

Despite everything, there are days when Starbucks is not my perfect working spot. Either, I am getting a little too distracted, or I need to make a conference call, or I need to have a closed room conversation with other people. I personally, walk across the street to the Entrepreneur Resource Center when I have this problem, but having this problem solved would be great. This is where Meeting/Breakout/Private rooms come in. I foresee two types of room here, a private room with a single desk and a phone serving as a temporary office and conference rooms of varying sizes (from 2 to 12 ideally). Some of these rooms could have additional features such as projectors and screens and some with conference call functionality while other will be plain old meeting rooms without any additional features.

I won’t go into the logistics of how many such rooms will be needed as that will be proportional to the scale of this project.

Lockers

I’m not actually going for lockers like most of you had in high school. My idea for this is a place where you can store your files and other stuff so that you don’t need to carry things home and back everyday. Portability is also of the essence as you will need to move these around to your Private rooms when you do use them. My concept here is more along the lines of a small file cabinet or chest of drawers on caster wheels. I would ideally have different sizes too cause not everyone will need the same amount of space space. These units should be stored in a side room when not needed.

Capsule Hotel

Probably the single reason why this idea is not like all the others. I propose we use the Japanese capsule hotel idea and set up rooms with sleeping capsules. So, the basic concept of sleeping capsules is a box about 1m x 1m x 2m stacked with one above the other. What do they provide? A place to take a nap or get a good nights rest cause a rested body works better any day.

I have had to sleep on couches and in chairs many times when I worked late into the night. What does the capsule hotel do to this startup environment? We have better rested startupers. You need a short nap? You managed to work till 3am and don’t want to drive 1hr to go home at this ungodly hour? Well, here is the solution to your problems. A comfortable bed in a somewhat private area.

The low footprint and the fact that the only feature of each of these “rooms” is a bed, the maintenance costs should be minimal.

Showers

Two words: Atlanta Summers! Got all sweaty in the Hotlanta heat? Go take a shower! Took a nap in an uber awesome capsule? Go take a shower! Need to clear your head? Go take a shower!

The whole idea behind the showers is to help the people using this space to be refreshed (and to also reduce the odors in the area). My idea is for basic shower stalls with maybe a changing area for each stall. Also included will be some lockers (on the line of gym lockers) for your towel, soap, toothbrush, a fresh set of clothes, etc.

Restaurant (optional)

Despite my desire for it to be, not all meetings (or meals) can consist of coffee and muffins . Sometimes, a meeting calls for a decent meal (and for some, a glass of wine to go with it). As many of the Tech Square croud frequents WaterHaven, we are all aware of the need for another watering hole for the community other than a coffee shop. This is, as I have mentioned, optional, but it will be a great addition to the community.

Laundry Service (optional)

What can I say? We are going to need something to handle all the linens that the capsule hotel will be generating. Might as well add a laundry service to wash, iron and dry clean our guests clothes, for a nominal fee of course (we do have to keep this thing running and maybe make some profit out of it too). It doesn’t even need to be on site laundry; we could send it somewhere else but having a collection point on site would be beneficial. Once again, this too is optional.

The Logistics – brief and concise version

• Uber fast free Wifi – #1 Priority
• Printer and copier.
• So, most of these will work on a membership system. The coffee shop is open to all, but everything else is accessible to only members.
• Memberships available at different levels based on amount of usage of additional features (rooms, sleeping and lockers).
• A reservation system for rooms and sleep capsules?
• Private/meeting rooms and sleep capsules available to walk-in non members if they are available (for a fee of course)
• Located close to a stationary shop?
• Located in an urban area. Don’t know why, just a personal preference.

Thats about it folks. Did I miss anything?

Let me know what you think about it. Also, if you spot any errors/typos, do let me know (I am not the best at spelling when I was doing this at a rather ungodly hour)

I also have it available in pdf

I plan to print this on a 11 x 17 bi-fold sheet and have my “normal” resume on the back side with a simple cover on the front in time for the career fairs. Lets see if whether this gets me a job (or gets me kicked out of the room).

So far the facts are:

• Only a small segment of the 4th floor collapsed. It took down all the floors below it.
• Doing the Math: Max cars involved = 32
• No causalities reported so far. Announcements have been made in Centergy One and TSRB to account for all individuals
• Georgia Tech does not own this building.
• Centergy has announced that no cars will be leaving the lot for 2 days minimum.
• A large slab of cement fell off the 3rd floor and is visible on the grass below.
• Social Media was faster than traditional media once again.

Check out the second video below.

Apple Fans can broadly be classified into these categories, some people will fall under a couple:

Apple Heads: These are the people who own everything Apple. You can’t see them without at least 2 Apple products on them at the same time. They talk only Apple. Steve Jobs is god! (He is not guys. That would be Larry Elison)

Apple Heads tend to buy everything Apple and integrate it into their daily lives to an extant that I would classify them as the Borg. My personal thoughts on Apple Head: They are just those people doing what they like best which just happens to be Apple Products. Don’t dislike them. Do get annoyed by them when they start talking about Apple this and Steve Jobs that and will not stop. – I have also been informed that Apple Heads are referred to with an ‘i’ in front of their name as they have turned into Apple products themselves.

Mactards: These guys use Macs or have an iPhone. They will defend Apple on anything and everything. I own this and it is awesome. My personal thoughts on Mactards: They are just Apple Head Lite (as Microsoft would call them

Macaholics: These are the people who have used Macs for a very long period and are happy where they are. They used it for at least 10 years and have not actively used an other OS in that time period. So, basically these have been living in the Mac bubble. They will usually compare their current mac to their old one. Nice people in general. My personal thoughts on Macaholics: You are in my ok book UNTIL you start comparing it with Windows or Linux – you have no idea what you are talking about as by this definition, you have not used them before.

iWannabe: Prepare for a rant, these people strike a nerve. The iWannabe does not own a Mac! The iWannabe does not own a iPhone! They just want one NOW! They have probably never used anything by Apple other than the iPod and even if they have, it is only for a couple hours at best. These people are the once that Apple’s Marketing (AKA Propaganda) division makes their money off. These guys have been convince of the awesomeness of the Mac by the ads, the people talking about it and the every so awesome looks (and sometimes the exclusive price tag). Honestly, I don’t like you cause you are so easy. I am a marketing guy to an extent and seriously the fun in the hunt is in the chase. Give me (and Apple) a challenge people. My personal thoughts on iWannabes: I don’t like you. The Macaholics only fight against something they do not understand. You are fighting FOR something you do not know. Change!!! Try out a Mac from a friend for a while or go to the local library. Figure out why exactly you like it before you say you want one. I will be happy with you telling me its only for the looks if that is the reason you are getting it. —- I just wonder if an violent iWannabe will mug an Apple Head. Now trying to stop thinking of an iWannabe and an Apple Head I know fighting over Apple goodies.

Those are the 4 main categories I would put people into. Some would fall into multiple of these. Some will fall into non. There is always the regular guy and then the super regular. So, the reason behind why I did this, where do I fit in to all this.

I have used Windows most of my life before college. Was not very happy with it at all times, but never had any major issues (except for the time when I went without a computer for 2 years due to an untimely death of an old computer). I will also say that I am not a big gamer, only play games occasionally when I am bored and am not in the state for activities that require 2 or more people. One of my biggest annoyances with Windows that within a year of purchase, your anti-virus hogs up half of your system resources. And before we even continue, all this si based on XP – I disqualify Vista as Windows on the basis that Vista was so bad, that I don’t even want to bring it up – take that all you Vista lowers.

Once in college I started experimenting with Linux. Spent a year and a half with Ubuntu and it was quite simply love at first sight. Great platform. No useless .exe files running. Simple. Low on system requirements. And just about great for anything I needed to do except for design work. And that was something I was wiling to accept and walk to the CoC/Library to get on a machine with Adobe (usually on a Mac).

During the time I was tweaking with Linux, I was also dabbling with Macs mainly for design work and video editing. Me being the person who answers the interview question “Do you know so and so programing language?” with “I will when I come to work on Monday”, I got my act together and my fiddling with Mac impressed me. Everything except for the price tag was at my sweetspot. Note: I do have issues with Mac, which I can ignore they same way I used to ignore the lack of Adobe for Linux. On top of this, some problems that most Windows users have with Macs are not issues for me at all, such as the low game count – not a big gamer here.

Anyways, as I started with my summer jobs, and the money was going to start rolling in, I got myself a Macbook – which is going to become a Macbook Pro in a couple hours. Right now, I am in the position to say that I like OS X. Over a years experience and now even after 2 weeks of running my life from one, it is great. Had a couple minor issues that I don’t care about cause nothing is going to be perfect. (Had myself a fit when I realized that sudo apt-get won’t work anymore)

I have had experiences with all 3 major OSes and I will say – Don’t Like Windows but will use it if I have to – Love Linux and will use it any day unless I want to do design work – OS X Happy with it for now and it seems to have the best functionality of Linux with a beautiful GUI and front-end application collection. And my love for OS X stops at the computers. I don’t like the iPhone!

At the end of it all, what impresses me the most? The hardware! I love the trackpad on the Macbook. Illuminated Keyboard is just WoW (and before you WinHeads get started, I know Dell also offers that). I typed most of this in the dark about to fall asleep without annoying typos. And the main thing keeping me away from getting an iPhone is the lack of a physical keyboard.

So, what am I? I am ambiOSdextrous with a love for Linux, uses a Mac willingly and enjoys the experience and does not want to see a Windows computer in front of him with a passion.

What do you think?

Anyways, on to the reason for this post. As many of you know, I recently purchased a Macbook and from recent tweets, that I will be getting it replaced with the newer and better Pro. Here is the story behind it. I bought myself a Macbook with the student discount a day before they started giving a free iPod Touch with all macs for students.

I tried to get the freebie but the GT bookstore was not working with me and I let it slide. The real deal for me came on Monday while I was keeping an I on #WWDC. Not a Mac Fanboi – Long rant on why I am not will be my next post – but I will say that 4gigs of RAM and the built in battery is what I need being a crazy multitasker who never shuts down the laptop. I will probably use up the 5 year no deaths battery in 2.

Well, this was how my adventure began with customer service sometime late Monday (I had gotten off a little early from work that due to brain not being in optimal coding mode (caffeine) – Blame Kate and the weekend fun for that – Karaoke and 3 movies might have been too much). After preparing my repertoire of curse words to use at customer support ( I have found that incompetent buffoons seems to be the best fixer at Dell) and past Customer Dis-service fiascos. I would say that my first shock was the rep providing me with his phone number and extension in case we get disconnected or I have further issues after the call. A great first impression and the part of my mind that told me to social engineer my way through this convinced me to switch tactics here (I couldn’t play an angry card with such a nice guy).

The second prop to Apple will be that they only transfered me to someone else after finding out that what the problem was and the right person to handle it. This was great cause Dell usually ends up transferring me to approximately 17 people on average (I start swearing at the 5th or 6th). They guy heard me out and gave a deal I could not refuse.

They have already shipped a brand new, top of the line MacBook Pro 13″ with super-nuclear insides (should be hire tomorrow by 3:00). To make up for the whole iPod Touch fiasco, they are giving me a my AppleCare for free. Which is great cause I don’t need a Touch (would have probably given it to Mansi since she wants one and I don’t). And I need to ship the laptop I have back within a month, so it gives me time to copy all the files onto the new one.

So, over all, I am a happy trooper. Apple has been great so far. Only issue I had was the 1-800-MY-APPLE automatic transfer thingy kept transferring me and then disconnecting me. Bug in system probably but the Human Beings were great. Now I can do all my design work and multimedia stuff without going to a lab since I got hold of CS4 Master Collection.

So long folks. Be back very soon. Sometime tomorrow – I have the post half done, feeling the yawns hit me so I am off.

This is just iteration one and a lot more improvements are coming over the summer but the important facts are there. Check it out and give me some feedback.

I was very happy to meet a lot of new people including but not limited to Courtenay Bird, Russell jurney, Chris Morrell and of course the entire gang from Mashable. I also got the time to catch up with people I had met earlier that week at the StartupChicks afterparty (Yup! I actually got invited as a Friend of Chicks) such as Jen Bonnett, Shannon Hubbell, Celia Dyer and Kristin Colier among others. I was also glad to meet some people after a pretty long hiatus including Sig Mosley, Tim Dorr and Jason Ardell. Not a list of everyone I met, but not intended to be one.

Anyways, I made a small video of the highlights of the night. check it out below. The last clip is probably the best, #courtenaybot accepting that she might be a robot.

Updated summer plans

Following my usual policy of make a plan so you have something to change later, my summer plans have been heavily revamped from the post a couple months back. I will be working this summer, not taking any classes and will be doing everything possible to make YES a success once again.

On Monday, I will start work for the College of Computing where I will be setting up some computer labs with Chris Stuckey, setting up the FIREwall Production Studio at some point in time and be coding a project in PHP. Part of my job also includes inventorying the Orgs room and making it suitable for human presence . Look forward to this.

On Wednesday, I will start my internship with Highgroove Studios, a primarily Ruby on Rails consulting firm. I will be be learning to code in Rails and be working on project for CBQ. Will post a recap of this experience in 2 weeks.

As for YES, I am working on a project that has had all my attention since last week and will be done by Monday when I will make the big announcement. I also plan to set up the speaker series and other programs and also get some sponsors so we can have the money to do what we do best.

Now, heading out of the library and then to the CoC to send out an email (the file I need to attach is on the computer there) and then home and sleep.

PS: I will be getting an award tomorrow at 11:00 in Klaus Atrium, come cheer for me.

PPS: C-5: College of Computing Community Creators Celebration is on Wednesday at 6p in Gordon Biersch. Come join me in having fun.

So on to the point. I received an email a couple weeks back and I have only told 2-3 of my friends (and my parents of course) till now. I have been selected to receive the Outstanding Sophomore Award from the College of Computing for 2009. I was truly not expecting this till I got the email, specially since I was rooting for someone else to receive it but am greatly honored. The Award will be presented to me in a ceremony on April 21st 11:00am in the Klaus Atrium. Come join me for the ceremony. 

It was at this point that Jared Fry (Fry boy as I like to refer to him after a year in Hall Council together) and I decided to find a white board on wheels. We soon found this in the storage closet with help from the facilities people and returned to class 5 minutes later towing a white board much to the surprise and amusement of both the Students and the Professor. What can I say? I live to amuse.

The class soon moved out into the grass outside the Klaus building.

Only thing I can say is that this change of setting was refreshing and shows that our prof are truly ready to try new things. It was indeed a success. No one got sick or anything and the weather was great. I even learned some interesting stuff about IP Addresses.

Summer

For the summer, I decided to finally take a break from being a lunatic with my time commitments and have decided to catch a break before I collapse from over-exertion. For those who know me well enough, basically this means try to get enough sleep every single day of the week (considering that this post is being written at 4am, you know exactly what I mean).

I will be taking 1 class during the first short semester (mini-mesters are so much more fun). This will be the Introduction to Psychology class. Should be an easy way to get that out of the way so that I don’t have any pre-requisite issues for my other classes. Being only 5 weeks long, it shouldn’t get in the way of me enjoying my vacations either. I will also be working about 15-20 hours a week for Cedric Stallworth. Not exactly sure what my job description is but I trust Cedric to make it fun. I do know that there is some PHP coding to be done and I will most probably be joined by Chris Stuckey. The job should keep me occupied (and ensure I don’t sleep all day long) and also will be a way for me to not drive myself crazy due to boredom – Me being bored is not good, things usually end up exploding or in 3 or more pieces.

On top of these there are a couple things I hope to get done over the summer for self improvement (A.K.A. cause it is fun). These include learning as much PHP and RoR as I can cram into my head. Definitely have a study buddy for RoR, looking for one for PHP. I have also been talking with an Atlanta startup to possibly work with them for a while over the summer to help their marketing efforts. Should be interesting how that turns out. I will also be setting things up for the Young Entrepreneurs Society so that I don’t have to scram at the last minute and also be fine tuning some pre-napkin stage startup ideas over the summer.

That about wraps up my summer. It might sound like a lot but should be a pretty relaxed time for me. One thing I hope to achieve is to stay awake for more time with the sun in the sky than with it on the other side of the planet. Should be fun.

Fall

Now this is the semester I am probably looking forward to the most. Just the fact that there are so many awesome new things is probably enough justification for this. Another thing is probably the return of my friends who are heading home for the summer and the arrival of a new group of freshman to make up for the loses due to “getting out” of Tech (we all in the CoC know of the one exception to that rule). There is just so much going on that I am going to divide this into sections.

Classes

First of all , registration was a breeze. Mainly cause I cheated . Due to having really great friends with time tickets earlier than mine, I was able to make sure I got into all my classes without a hassle this semester. Don’t even need a permit for anything.

Now most Tech Students who see my schedule will notice the shafting involved but I actually like it. The 9:00am classes make sure I get up (and trust me, I will be getting up for a class with Morley and I hope Nitya and Moinak will help me with the other ones). The relatively free afternoon will be optimal for me to get work done and also having Monday and Friday evenings free will help me focus on the Speaker Series on Mondays and relaxing on Fridays (its important for my sanity and indirectly yours).

My favorite part is having friends in my classes. Nitya is probably in 3 of my classes and I know atleast 2-3 people in every class. So, having people I know to keep me on track and help me out when I am going crazy is not much of a problem. So, these are my classes for the Fall: Combinatorics, Calculus 3 for CS, CS 2340 (do people actually ever use its real name), Educational Technology and Habitable Planet.

Young Entrepreneurs Society

We are done with one semester I am already looking forward to the next year. I have been informed by one of my financial contributors that our first semester was indeed a success and we will be getting a reinvestment for the second semester. I am going to be working to get the coming year set up over this summer so that this doesn’t become a stress causer in the fall. I am sticking to my original “No Officer” rule (basically, YES is run like a benevolent dictatorship which works well for me cause things just get done faster. I like to say I run it like I start-up and this is true to an extent). I am looking for people to help me make this organization a success once again.

We will be sticking to some of our successful events from the past. 16 speakers series sessions spread out over the two semesters and this time, I will be formulating a “syllabus” so that the speakers each speak on a topic that is relevant and in a structured order. That will be my major project for the summer and I am very open to any and all input. We will also be having coffee meetings at starbucks which will happen at random times yet to be determined (I don’t want to schedule 2 regular meetings every week).

I am once again budgeting for a Conference Fund that will be used for helping students attend Startup Weekend, Startup Riot and the such. The students who went to Startup Riot found it very useful and at least one found a job.

So, here is the fun part. What’s new you ask? Not one, not two but THREE new events. The first is the Startup Fair. Tentatively scheduled for mid November, this will be an opportunity for Startup companies to recruit from the best that Tech can offer. I want to connect students to the totally different world that exists within startups and also to their future partners. As I say, don’t work for big brother, work for the next big brother(and take stock options). All companies interested, contact me for more information. Next event is basically a Dinner for Studentrepreneurs and Successful Entrepreneurs (and those who are both) to interact in an informal setting over dinner. The Final event is schedule for early April and is a surprise for now. More info coming soon.

I am also working with a couple companies that like the direction this organization is going in and want to help the students out and not sure exactly how we will work them into this but we will (Hey, don’t look at me. I have a couple months to figure it all out). Any companies, organizations and people interested in helping us out, do let me know. Always looking for sponsors.

UCouncil

Most people might have notice the College of Computing’s Undergraduate Council has not been very active the last year. Some of you have also informed me that this organization has outlived its life and needs to be done with. Well, we have been working hard behind the scenes and found something a need (don’t even get me started on that) that we thing we will be suited to filling.

With the recent change in administration in the CoC and with a new Dean scheduled to arrive in August, we will need to create a voice for the undergrads. UCouncil will be transforming into the representative body for the Undergrads at CoC. We hope to serve both an advisory as well as lobbying board on matters of undergraduate concerns. Now I just have to figure out how we are going to achieve that (:P I have a couple ideas). UCouncil is looking for members for the coming year.

I am not sure what role I will be serving on this organization but I am going to be running for President a week from now. Wish me luck.

FIREwall

With my other involvements, I was originally planning on reducing my involvement from the FIREwall. Unfortunately, I made the decision of informing one Mansi Sharma of the fact. Current status on FIREwall: being blackmailed into staying on the exec board(by Mansi of course). Well, though I love this organization that I help shape into what it is today, I will definitely drive myself crazy trying to be any of the editorial positions without help from someone (one willing to do atleast half the work). Therefore, Badnews: I will NOT be running for Chief Layout Editor. I will still be active on the paper side with some help with layout editing (being an indesign guru must be of some use) and also write a couple articles once in a while.

Not to be disappointed, I still hope to be a part of the FIREwall’s leadership. Despite Mansi “Blackmailing me” into this situation, I am doing what I do best (NO! It is not doing way too much work. I meant do something that suits me and will be less work) and will be running for atleast one position tomorrow. I think I have found the best solution to my time problem and trust me, most of you are in for a surprise tomorrow.

Mentoring

Interesting is all I can say about this. A totally new program that could create a legacy or  end up a disaster. In other words, a place where I fit best. I will be one of the mentors for a group of about 10 incoming freshman and will be helping them better adjust to life at Tech and College and provide them with the resources and connections they need. Thats the official shbeel. In reality, I’ll just be their friend and a good one at that and help them the same way I do any other friend. I am not that worried about how I would do having both been a Team Leader for GT-1000 and also having played a psuedo-unofficial-mentor role to a couple incoming freshman. (They got really impressed by the fact that I was driving a golf cart and it went from there. The rest is a long story, a really long story. I could actually make a movie from everything that happened last year.)

Look forward to meeting the newbies (got to make a little fun of the younglings) and have a lot of hope in the new program.

Community and Misc

Thought that wraps up the majority of my future semester, I also plan to remain involved in the community (both CoC and Startup). For Startup, I will continue to attend S O Breakfasts on Monday mornings (There is one in 2 hours). Don’t forget to say hi to me at #ASW3, #CapitalLounge, #AWE and whenever you drop by 5th st. Starbucks.

Within the CoC, I will be rejoining (though I have been told I never left) the Student Activities Board as a regular member and all round (crazy) idea guy. Will also be exercising my honorary membership with Women@CC (one of 3 males to have an honorary membership. I am a member cause me and W@CC have the same goals, i.e. more women in the CoC and also because W@CC holds all the coolest events). And no! despite popular belief, I don’t plan to start another organization in the Fall but you never know when I will get an awesome idea.

I’m also thinking of being a TL again for GT-1000 but have yet to make my mind.

For those interested, the session is today at 5:30pm in the Klaus building Room 1116 East (GT Campus)

I plan to have Arbys to fill you stomachs too.

I had some vague ideas forming in my head ever since Atlanta Startup Weekend 2. I was not sure of what exactly what they were until around 5 am on the way to a late dinner/early breakfast after a really long night of FIREwall work.

I realized that morning that not many Tech students to my knowledge were commercializing their ideas.A couple great ideas were out there, but the money was not rolling in. I was talking to a couple friends and we realized that you never hear about a Facebook or Google that came out of Georgia Tech.

My first step was to organize my ideas and put it down on paper. I created a business plan for the organization (which at that time was called the SEC: Society for Entrepreneurs in Computing). I revised this several times, each time receiving input from fellow students, entrepreneurs, faculty and administrators at Tech. Props go to Vinutha Prabhakar, Shaun Zacharia, Chris Stuckey, Josh Silver and Kristin Marsicano who gave me a lot of input and whether they know it or not, their input did cause some changes from my original idea.

Once I had a final plan ready, I approached Cedric Stallworth (Assistant Dean of Outreach, Enrollment and Community for the College of Computing at Tech). Over lunch we discussed how the society was going to work (and whether it was going to work) and by the end of the hour I had $1,500 in funding to get this off the ground. Two days later, I met with Merrick Furst (Former Associate Dean of the College of Computing) who not only agreed to be the advisor for this organization but also offered $1,000 in funding.

After some thinking over how I was actually going to do this (and whether I was going to be able to do it) over the break, I got onto working on marketing the organization and getting speakers lined up as soon as I got back in Atlanta. Terris Johnson was kind enough to make the logo for this new organization. Special thanks to Mary Alice Blane of the College of Computing for her help in getting speakers. Stephen Fleming was the first speaker we got lined up and props to him for replying to my email, offering his help within 2 minutes of me sending the email.

Since then, we have had 5 great speakers including David Sung, Jeff Levy, Sig Mosley and Lance Weatherby. Our speaker sessions get about 30-40 people each week and a dozen or so come to the weekly thursday meetings and this number is only growing. We are already integrating ourselves with the Atlanta Startup Community. Recently, we were able to send a couple students to Startup Riot.

For the future, my goals for this organization are to provide students with the resources and access they need to be successful entrepreneurs. We have only just begun and there is a long way to go and any help is welcome. Look forward to seeing you at our next meeting.

Well, there you have it. My very first post. Posted before the site is even complete so that I can check out how it looks. Stay tuned for more interesting posts in the near future.