To a life lost without a cause

A very well written post about a life (rather, many lives) lost without a cause at One of the best Indian blogs

Yes, 'n' how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?

Suman Live!

A Study in Usability

I wanted to sample the usability of Web Applications to actual business users and how they perceive value. In order to do the same, I went ahead and created a survey at LinkedIn : http://www.linkedin.com/answers/technology/enterprise-software/TCH_ENT/36530-4256932

The advantage of a global community like LinkedIn is we always get high participation from people who really think and try to innovate. Without an exception, the answers show some real insights from real users of Applications. I think all of us developers might periodically learn something from the end-users and align our priorities. Hope everyone finds the survey as useful as I did.

Synopsis

This discussion has added so much value that I decided to share it over here...it has been truly global and I can't thank enough the few good men who participated in the discussion...so many horizons are opened when we get exposure to such a rich group of users...

My Question:
--------------------
When you use web-based business applications, what is the single factor you appreciate the most?

I would appreciate to-the-point answers, like "Speed" or "Less no. of postbacks" or "Lots of tooltips/help links" etc. However, your comments are definitely invaluable and could not understate their importance by any means. So feel free to give a one-word reply and then expand it.

Intention : Being a business application developer, my sole parameter for success is "Quality as perceived by the end-user". Want to increase that score.

Ed Lass, Albany says

OK, I'll bite:

Results for the user--the app gets the job done better than if it didn't exist.

Roshan Shah, Canada says

Minimal Clicks to get to what I want and fast loading of page and small forms to fill if any.

Devesh Dwivedi, Washington DC says

User friendliness: The application should be very user freindly and by that I mean easy to comprehend and apply/use as well. It should be a breeze and not a plop of technical junk. I love more advanced features and functionalities but if it comes at the cost of user friendliness, I won't buy that. - My two cents:)

Alok Jain, Washington DC says

If this is your sole prameter, I would suggest putting some time understand users and their needs.

The importance of any factor depends on users and context. For e.g. for a call center app used by young guys speed is important because their success parameter is dependent on number of calls they can handle. While in Internet banking feeling secure and having precise control/clarity is much more important than speed.

You could apply various techniques to find users' priorities, best would be to just go and observe them and talk to them.

My Take -

I totally agree with that "everyone can't like chocolate ice cream"! Different segments, age groups and job roles will definitely have different priorities and they cannot be judged by a one-size fits all approach. However, what i am trying to accomplish with this question is getting the opinion of different users in different professions and see if I can really find out any common subset - a pattern which would then give us a basic set - after which the specialization would come.

Shane O'Neil ,Canada says

Integration ... Software as a Service (SAS) companies that "get it" develop an API. Importing and exporting data is a necessity; however, an API allows the customer the ability to integrate the web based app with other applications for more flexible functionality, back end integrations and reporting.

From a software provider perspective, APIs can form the basis of a partnership and create stickiness. There is an investment from the client perspective to code to the API. To change vendors means new development cycles and hence a new investment so you'll have to really suck at what you do to make the client go through that pain. Clients will be more forgiving.

An API will also allow the client to develop functionality against your app that may be important to them, but off-strategy or a lower priority to the you.

Two cents. Hope this helps.

Vinod Kumar, Greater Boston Area says

I would extend upon Roshan's answer and say - Usability.

Usability has 2 parts - Intended & Perceived. Intended usability is quantitaive, can be measured by some of the factors that Roshan mentioned - e.g. no. of clicks it takes to go from one place in the application, to another. Perceived usability is subjective - It is how the user views the software as being user friendly.

Paulo Arancibia, Argentina says

A minimum number of click and postbacks by each action and a good balance of color.

Thierry Thomas, France says
Portability: it should really run the same way on any browser.
And speed, of course!

Fred Held, Greater Los Angeles Area says (I love this discussion!)
Sorry for the wordiness, but I love talking to developers.
1) Gets the job done faster, easier, 24/7 availability, remote capability
2) Help really works and does not send you to FAQ. I have NEVER found an FAQ that met my needs. Why that is done is amazing to me.
3) Chat help is incredible. I don't care if it is outsourced to the Congo as long as the person helps me and it is available 24/7
4) Mobile capability, over 40 percent of IBM Global services employees work from their home office small office or mobile locations. This trend is accelerating globaly.
5) Reliability and work is not lost due to a system glitch. An example of "cave man" designs is the clarification tool on linkedin. It crashes and gives a 1970 type meaningless insulting error report and the work is lost. Remember the now famos windows error message. " a fatal error has occured" WTF does that mean.
6) Intuitive usability, I can not say too much about user testing for usability. When at IBM we spent a lot of time on the system we were developing for our client on this. We created a user group who we tested. One such group were truckers. That was fun going to truck stops.
7) Downward compatability. MS and IBM are known for not providing this and forcing the user to upgrade making all the work done in the past unusable. This is bad marketing since the investment in this work far exceeds the cost of the upgrade.
8) How do you measure "Quality as perceived by the end-user". here is an example of IBM's Intranet ran by Mike Wing. They measure the soft stuff very well. A key question answered by the user population is the following. "What percentage of the time do you used the Intranet in your work to find out information versus co-workers and your supervisor" In 1994 they started measuring this the exact same way every year. They gained a lot of information in the survey and used the process of continous improvemnt. They then set a paremeter of succes. The paremeter was when 50% of the time the employee used the Intranet ot get the necessary information or help, they have achieved success. In 2000 they crossed 50% and started accelerating towards much higher numbers.

Once again I apologize for such a long answer but I am passionate about helping developers with rigid requirements documents, small budgets and tight time frames create software that is loved not loathed.

My Take -

I agree with you - "Don't make the customer think" should be the mantra for every web developer....because if I do, someone else won't and the customer would go to him....and web 2.0 is really a revolution.....its not just a technical overhaul....but it signifies the control going back to the customer...the web merging with "customer is the king" philosophy...I would go as far as to term as "The biggest revolution so far in the largest democracy (the web)"

what we really lack is to know that "Am I making that guy happy to whom the tool is being rolled out by the management?" Because at the fag end of the day, that is success to me.....to enable the user smile a bit more...as the system makes his life easier...proactively shares some of his real life work load...I don't want to make him grim with a 200 page user manual :) ...and customer satisfaction is THE GOAL for me....not knowledge of all the technologies or mesmerizing funda over recursive algorithms (though I would be more than glad to have both :) )...... even Simon and Garfunkel sang "Keep the Customer Satisfied" [;)]

Only thing I don't agree with you is the FAQ think....I have often been greatly helped by them:)....

Sachin Palewar, India says
I appriciate simple interfaces much like google and straight-forward navigation so that its intuitive and visitor doesn't feel lost and confused.
In technical terms use of Web 2.0 technologies and Usability concepts play an important role.

Alexander Samarin , Switzerland says
I think, first, you have to define "Quality" in your sentence.
My favourite - flexibility of business applications.
My experience shows that the business people like when their separate requests for change are quickly implemented in existing systems/applications. These changes are typically small (from the point of view of the business) and unpredictable.

My Take -

I couldn't agree more with ur answer...but one thing I want to point out is that you are talking more from the perspective of the management rather than that of the end-users. Extensibility would be a priority for the guy who sanctions the project budget...i.e. if I wanna add x functionality which was not there, I would like to shell out much less dollars than I did for the system implementation...it should be incremental and not break/recreate existing functionality....but that is something we devs nowadays usually keep in mind from the very design phase....however what we really lack is to know that "Am I making that guy happy to whom the tool is being rolled out by the management?" Because at the fag end of the day, that is success to me.....to enable the user smile a bit more...as the system makes his life easier....I don't want to make him grim with a 200 page user manual :)

All in all, a thrilling discussion, am overwhelmed :)

LinkedIn rocks!

Death, be not proud

DEATH be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not so,
For, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee,
Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee doe goe,
Rest of their bones, and soules deliverie.
Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poyson, warre, and sicknesse dwell,
And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as well,
And better then thy stroake; why swell'st thou then;
One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.
John Donne

Hillarious!!!

That is HILLARIOUS!! While Google Maps is cool, this shows while we CANNOT rely on computers all the times in every sense....we gotta drive 'em!

Thanks to my namesake Sircar!

Google Suggests You Swim Across The Atlantic Ocean

India court suspends quota system along caste lines

Kudos to another judge!!!

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court of India on Thursday suspended a government program to reserve spots for lower-caste students at the top medical, engineering and professional schools in the country, a plan that has repeatedly prompted protests.

The quota system for prestigious public educational institutions was to come into effect with applications due to be reviewed in the next few months. But the Supreme Court temporarily halted the program Thursday, saying it could not be implemented until judges had ruled on its legality.

The Judgement Day!

Justice has finally been served! A judge has unleashed a well-deserved death sentence to Manjunath's killer and appropriate punishment to others. Even in India, truth just gets heard sometimes. We wouldn't forget the wide protest that were sparked by the brutal killings of Manju as well as Dubey. May be the online petitions and blogosphere also played a part in this victory. Kudos to the judge.

Manjunath was a good man, an honest man. May India be fortunate enough to get more public sector executives like him.

LAKHIMPUR KHERI: Aghast over how an unarmed man was put to death without provocation, a district court on Monday sent to gallows a petrol pump owner for murdering Indian Oil executive Manjunath, who had exposed a thriving racket in sale of adulterated fuel.

While awarding death sentence to Pawan Kumar Mittal, the prime accused, 16 months after the murder of the 27-year-old IIM-Lucknow graduate, district judge S M A Abidi, sentenced seven other accused to life imprisonment.

Yehudi Menuhin Beethoven Romance

Thats what Class means (other than being the backbone of OOP off course!)

Steve Morse Classical Guitar Solos

This guys rocks(and plays classical music too)!!!

Genious!

Google Adwords advertises Microsoft Adcenter!!!

Thanks to my colleage Mr. Santosh Kumar Sahoo for this image!!

Wall Street Journal Most Reputed Companies of 2006

The ranks are out here .............

Look at the top name :)


Rocks!

N Murthy on Land Acquisitions

From http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Narayana_Murthy_opposes_SEZ_policy/RssArticleShow/articleshow/1788673.cms

BANGALORE: Software icon N R Narayana Murthy on Wednesday opposed the practice of acquiring farm lands for special economic zones (SEZs), saying that the earlier practice of companies building their own campuses was good enough.



"I agree that we cannot take land from farmers", the non-executive chairman and chief mentor of Infosys Technologies Limited told reporters, who sought his views on the raging debate over SEZs.



"The earlier policy, where individual companies were building their own campuses, was a good one," he said, adding that bringing real estate players in between was probably not the best thing to do.



Murthy, the face of India's booming IT industry, added: "and that's why all this furore has been created. I think the earlier policy of requesting companies to deal directly to get land and build their own campuses is a good one".



He said that the recent Nandigram incident in West Bengal, where 11 people were killed in police firing during a protest, is likely to have "some repercussions".

Can u hear it now, Mr Bhattacharya?

Blog in Hindi!

Blogger, now in Hindi

Our Bureau

Bangalore, March 15

Bloggers can now publish in Hindi. Google-owned Blogger on Thursday launched a Hindi transliteration service.

Transliteration implies conversion from English text to phonetically equivalent text in Indian languages. So a user could type ``mera Bharat'' and this feature will convert it into the corresponding Hindi script. So users can now publish content in Hindi while using English keyboards for entering text. Keeping in mind that many in the audience is bilingual, Google allows users to freely switch from English to Hindi and back. Google News is also available in Hindi now, the company announced. ``These launches will enable our Hindi- speaking users to express themselves better and access information in a language they are comfortable with,'' said Mr Prasad Ram, Centre Head, Google India R&D, in a release issued by the company.

NOW, What next? We want BANGLA also!!!

Gujrat and West Bengal - two faces of the same coin

While Trinamool congress displays prehisoric political immaturity at West Bengal, here is a bit of from where it all started, and what really lies beneath the "Enterprise and Common Man friendly" communist government of West Bengal.

Source - http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Scribe_confined_by_CPIM_cadres_at_Nandigram/articleshow/1763238.cms

NANDIGRAM: Journalists covering the Nandigram violence were not spared by ruling CPI(M) cadres who beat up the correspondent and prevented him from filing his report.

Gouranga Deb Hazra, the correspondent, could only communicate to the agency's Kolkata office over his mobile telephone that he was surrounded by CPI(M) activists near Bhangabera area. He was beaten up and threatened not to talk, he said.

The threats were even heard over the mobile phone. "Chup kore thakun... Eto katha balar darkar ki (Keep your mouth shut. Why you are talking so much?)," asked a woman's voice.

"Mere bhut baniye debo.... Mobileta bandha korun (We will beat you black and blue. Switch off your mobile)," shouted a male voice and the connection was snapped abruptly

Canada's Ice Floes Turn Red With the Blood of Baby Seals

March 9, 2007 JOIN OUR ACTIVIST NETWORK | DONATE NOW Dear Sayan, It's that time of year again: The ice floes off the Canadian coast are about to turn red with the blood of the countless baby harp seals who are slaughtered for their fur. Words cannot describe the cruelty of the annual seal "hunt," which is really more of a massacre and will begin in just a few days. To stop this yearly atrocity, we must generate an international outcry against the Canadian government. I hope that you will support PETA's public call for an end to this slaughter by immediately taking two important actions: Sign PETA's international petition to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Our goal is to gather signatures from more than 50,000 people who want to tell the prime minister that "fashion" is no justification for spilling baby seals' blood. Support PETA's efforts to stop the slaughter of baby seals and the use of all animals for fur. Your online donation will bring more pressure to bear on the Canadian government and the international fur trade. Canada's annual seal hunt is the largest slaughter of marine animals on Earth. Last year, more than 330,000 baby harp seals were beaten to death so that they could be made into fur coats, collars, and cuffs. The Canadian government claims that hunters only kill adult seals, but 97 percent of the seals killed last year were less than 3 months of age. Most of these seals are too young to realize that they should try to escape when their killers approach. They lie totally vulnerable on the ice as their heads are bashed in with clubs. Many are dragged across the ice—still conscious—with boat hooks. Often these sensitive animals are skinned alive for their fur. Their bodies are left to rot on the ice because there is no market for their meat. The Canadian government has authorized hunters to kill more than 335,000 harp seals this year—one of the largest quotas in history. There is no place in the 21st century for this wanton and frivolous cruelty. Canada must end this abomination, but it will take a lot of pressure to compel the government to stop the hunt. Please support PETA's global campaign to stop the baby seal hunt and raise awareness about the cruelty of fur. Your contribution will have an immediate impact on our ability to pressure the Canadian government. Thank you for your determination to end this terrible injustice. For all animals, Ingrid E. Newkirk President P.S. Governments respond to public pressure. Please help us meet our goal of 50,000 signatures and tell Prime Minister Harper that Canada will face international condemnation until it brings an end to its annual seal hunt. Then help PETA bring even greater pressure to bear on the Canadian government and the international fur trade by making a generous online donation. Sign the petition to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper urging him to restore Canada's international reputation by bringing a permanent end to the annual slaughter of baby harp seals. Make a donation to sustain PETA's global efforts to stop the cruel seal hunt and the fur trade.

And the Loser Is...

		Explore Business Week Online >> Search BW Home This Week in BW Daily Briefing Investing Global Business Technology Small Business B-Schools Careers Video Views Forums ----------- Executive Conferences Services Support

And the loser is......... sent you a Business Week link: And the Loser Is... The moviegoing audience, which is ignored by the Academy, and the telecast audience, which is subjected to an overlong, overwrought Oscars show

Sanskriti 2007 @ Jadavpur University

Competetive events Invitation Letter For Competetive Events

This year prelims for Eastern & Western Solo & Group Vocals will be held. No participant(s) will be allowed in the finals without participating in the Prelims

For events in our Technomanagement Fest Srijan 2007, do drop by at www.srijanju.org

Keep an eye on this space for updates..........

Event	Date	Time	Description
Photography (Start)	7-Mar-2007	12:00 PM	Off Stage
General Quiz	8-Mar-2007	11:30 AM	On Stage
Face Painting	8-Mar-2007	1:00 PM	Off Stage
Medley	8-Mar-2007	1:00 PM	On Stage
Antakshari	8-Mar-2007	2:30 PM	On Stage
Hair Styling	8-Mar-2007	3:30 PM	Off stage
Cartooning	8-Mar-2007	4:00 PM	Off stage
Sports Quiz	9-Mar-2007	11:30 AM	On stage
Debate	9-Mar-2007	12:30 PM	On stage
T-Shirt Painting	9-Mar-2007	12:30 PM	Off stage
Eastern Solo and Group Vocals	9-Mar-2007	1:30 PM	On Stage
Creative Writing (English and Bengali)	9-Mar-2007	1:30 PM	Off stage
Western Solo and Group Vocals	10-Mar-2007	11:30 AM	On Stage
Poster Painting	10-Mar-2007	12:30 PM	Off Stage
Rangoli	10-Mar-2007	2:30 PM	Off Stage
Eastern Solo Dance	11-Mar-2007	2:30 PM	On Stage
Western Solo Dance	11-Mar-2007	3:00 PM	On Stage
Eastern Group Dance	11-Mar-2007	4:00 PM	On Stage
Western Group Dance	11-Mar-2007	5:30 PM	On Stage

Exhibition events

A list of confirmed events and the schedule is summarized below. However the events are subject to changes depending on the availability of artists/performers.

Please watch this space for updates regarding the empty slots.

Event	Date	Time
Curtain Raiser - Fossils (Venue: Salt lake Campus)	4-Mar-2007	6:00:00 PM
James	6-Mar-2007	7:00 PM
Students` Performance (Venue: OAT)	7-Mar-2007	6:00 PM
Drama by Nandikar: Borda (Venue OAT)	8-Mar-2007	6:30 PM
Indian Ocean (Venue:OAT)	9-Mar-2007	7:00 PM
Neil Mukherjee, Betty Jardin, Siva Prakash, K Peters, others(Venue: OAT)	10-Mar-2007	7:00 PM
Aman Ali Bangas (Venue OAT)	11-Mar-2007	7:00 PM

Posted from Word 2007 running on Windows Vista

Yet Another Blog

Yeah!! Shorter of breath and one year closer to death, I add a tech blog to my array of blogs! So now, the content organization would be like

• Insanity Intensitied – My Wise Words
  
• Where Dreamers Dare – the entrepreneurs speak
  
• Techie Talk – My tech blog
  

  and finally

{
http://blogs.msdn.com/sayanghosh
}

Happy Blogging to me!!

Posted using MS Word 2007 running Windows Vista

Comeback of a Prince

"Written off, humiliated, accused of being a mercenary and an injury-faker and haunted by the demon of low scores and by his obvious technical shortcomings, who would have thought he would be back in full cry, playing some of the best cricket of his life in South Africa and now in India?"

Thanks to Great Bongs .....
read on @ http://greatbong.net/2007/01/23/the-eye-of-the-tiger/