Software For the Future

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There has been a lot of fuss in the online community about Firefox being better then IE7. I went through a lot of articles on Firefox 2.0 features and found that almost all the features that Firefox boasts of are present in IE7. Still the online community is shouting that IE7 is not better then Firefox and Firefox easily beats IE7 in many ways. Infact CNET has given this review for Firefox. Some of the common features that i found in both were:-

1: tabbed browsing/group of tabs saving/session restore in case of crash where all tabs with their sites are restored on next browser open

2: builtin anti phising protection

3: rss feeds

4: inbuilt search provider selection and addition of search providers of your choice.

Somethings that only Firefox boasts of are:-

1:inline spell check which are available as sidebar gadgets for Windows vista.

2: Suggested search terms from the search engine

3: Firefox is available for a variety of platforms like Windows/Mac/Linux

4:Live Titles which are basically Microsummaries which allow websites to stream updated data to your bookmarks

negatives about Firebox

1: It did not pass the Acid2 test designed by w3c organization

2: leaves a lot of files/directories/registries after you uninstall it

Overall i could not be satisfied abt how Firefox 2.0 is better then IE7. Let me know if somebody knows about this.

Here is the review link from CNET http://reviews.cnet.com/Firefox_2/4505-9241_7-32126746.html

Posted Saturday, October 28, 2006 10:58 PM by Mayank Kumar | 4 Comments

Emgerging Markets: What can we do through software for them ?

Emerging Markets to me is the market that has not yet been touched by software. So what comprises emerging markets. For India, the answer to this lies really in the rural markets. For e.g. how can i use software to make the life of a farmer more enriching and value added. Can software help him earn more and lead a more meaningfull life. Is there a value in making a cycle mechanic learn to use a software. How can computers help him? On initial thoughts, some of the things that can be done for the rural poor are:-

Enabling farmers and poor people manage there money through the use of atm's in their natural language to provide such facilities as drawing money/sending money orders/making drafts/depositing money/taking out detailed statements/buying products without the help of money lenders/bankers/brokers how take advantage of them. This can only be done through kiosks/atm's which are very simple to use. This will empower the comman man. Reduce the limits on these atm's so that even a cycle mechanic can use it to manage his money.
Enabling the common rural person to see competing products of their interests available not just locally but in adjoining areas to enable him to make more informed choices about buying/selling etc. This can be done again through online kioks/search engines which are more suited to these farmers/poor people who can not be looted by lack of information.
Communication in another front. Cheaper and faster cmmunication whether thru mobile or local language e-mail. How abt a mobile that has no screen/no sms facility.
Can maps help villages and how can we have maps for rural areas which do not have road numbers and house numbers.
Can villages take advanatge of bidding kiosks for selling there product at the correct price and can villagers advertise there products online. An online community by the villagers for the villagers. For e.g. a DL/online market place to discuss and advertise crops/fertilizers/current prevaling prices for various items.

I can go on and on but this has to end somewhere. I will disucss more concrete ideas as and when they come. Concrete in terms of implemenation.

Also the above does not mean that emerging markets is only in the villages of india. We just have to see around our own lives to find out how software can enlighten the lives of we social animals. It can be in our kitchen to our 5 year old kid, to daily necessities like ration card/electricity bill to trekking or travel.

I will keep on writing on new avenues that software has to touch and the great potential that it already has.

Posted Monday, August 07, 2006 12:16 AM by Mayank Kumar | 4 Comments

My Blog's and what to expect here

My blogs are going to cover a wide range of topics which will include:-

SUA/SFU(Serices for Unix based Applications) earlier called Services for Unix. I am a developer working for this team in Mcrosoft and would by means of this blog like to promote this, help people both inside and outside Mcrosoft use this and help customers move their unix code to windows. Will also talk about cool things possible here as well as what we intend to do here.
Software for the Future as the title of my blog suggests, i will write about my ideas on how software of the future should look like, how to write software for the future and how the new paridgm of software as a service will affect us. Also i will try to find out if this is the correct model and if there is really another paradigm better then this.
About Operating systems for the future which should be pretty much common to 2 above
About coding techniques
About security in general as i built expertise here
About hot startups and innovative ideas being followed
My ideas in general on various subjests from software to hardware to cool ideas for the emerging markets to making business out of them. Sort of entreprenurial.

That's all for today. I will start blogging soon

Here's my another blogging site where i have tried blogging as well.

http://mayank-kumar.spaces.msn.com

Posted Monday, July 31, 2006 12:41 AM by Mayank Kumar | 2 Comments