It has been more than 10 days since Google launched the "Google Buzz" and it has already come under a lot of criticism for breaching people's privacy. Buzz seems to be a combination of Facebook and Twitter especially Facebook since there is no limit on the number of characters one can post. I have seen some people post entire 4 paragraph length blogs on Google Buzz.
Well, I personally feel that it is very convenient to use from right inside GMail and it seems like an enhanced version of Twitter in terms of posting pictures and videos. But, there are certain things I do not like about Google Buzz. Not only that, Twitter has its own charm. First of all, Google Buzz "now" offers Buzzing only among contacts you add by yourself. Sometimes you even get to see other people's profile on some friend's Buzz. Clear lack of privacy. Although not as bad as Facebook where you can go to your friend's profile and see the photos of that friend's friend who you are not directly connected to. Also, you need to add people you want to Buzz with by knowing their Gmail IDs. That might be debated to be its single biggest disadvantage (lesser people buzzing)or rather its biggest advantage (more number of Buzz users). Google Buzz can never make any celebrity join or rather Buzz his/her updates. GMail ID of a person has become the single biggest identity since the last 3 or 4 years. And nobody would like to put that identity at risk.
Buzz also cannot match the speed of the updates that Twitter offers. An example is you go for a small coffee break of 15 mins and when you are back you see that you have 20 new updates on Twitter. You just click there and it shows you all of them in descending order. For Buzz, it is very similar but to actually see the updates you have to click and goto the Buzz sidetab. Additionally, twitter is an excellent example of a real time search engine. I have used it many a times when I need to read about something that has just happened and the Bloggers of this world or the Search Engine robots have not updated the pages or their databases. Twitter is really great at that.
Till Buzz becomes more of a serious competitor not just in terms of the number of users but also in terms of the features or the uniqueness of Twitter, here are a few Buzz jokes. These jokes have been contributed by a lot of my friends and by yours truly as well. Here they go:
Ab Buzz bhi karo.
Buzz aur kuch nahi
Buzzy bee
Buzz itna sa khwaab hai.
Buzzigar o Buzzigar
Na kuch tere Buzz mein na kuch mere Buzz mein
Buzzting into laughter
Ghungru ki tarah buzzta hi raha hu main.
Buzz ek pal.
No Abuzzing.
Ok fine. My apologies for all the bad buzzare jokes.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Thursday, February 18, 2010
ISB interview experience
I have been monitoring the percentage increase in the number of users visiting my blog and till now Google Analytics shows an increase of 433 % over the last 15 days. Interesting. All such stats remind me of the quarterly financial statement of a company. I wish one day my company would do that. Anyways, back to the real world, I decided to further increase the number of visitors to my blog. Seriously I should stop now. I actually wanted to give back to the MBA blogger community by posting an interview experience with the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad.
I know I am late and I regret that. But I could not help it. I was invited for an interview at Hyderabad when I had applied to ISB in the first round. The interview was on a Sunday and I left Bangalore Saturday evening. Since the interview was at 3:00 PM I took the risk of leaving just the day before. I reached Hyderabad in the morning and went to a friend's place. I just spent the time chatting with friends and eating breakfast at Chutney's. No pressure of the interview till now. I had bath and got all dressed up. One of my other friends came and he took me to the ISB campus. I met another class mate from college at ISB who took admission last year. It was 2:50 PM and I had to report at the reception.
I got a sheet of paper and a topic to write about for about 15 mins. The topic was "Banking". I wrote whatever came to my mind and was sitting quietly in one corner. I observed other applicants talking to each other about their work experience, earlier interview experiences, GMAT scores and what not. It seemed like those guys had arrived a good half to one hour back. It was 3:20 PM and I was still waiting for some panel to call me up for the interview. There were 4 panels I think. Suddenly I felt the urge to yawn. I thought it would be fine. As I was halfway to my yawn (read as mouth wide open), a lady came by and asked for my name. I somehow tried to hide my yawn and gulped it. I thought to myself "What a loser I am ? What a great time to yawn !"
I enter the interview room and I see 1 guy sitting on his chair. The other interviewer was the lady who called me. They had my application open in front of them. They introduced themselves to me. One was an Admissions committee member and the other was an alumni. The following is the transcript (not exact, but very close) of my interview:
G = (Guy) : L = (Lady) : M = (Me)
G: So you play guitar ?
M: yes.
G: Since how long ?
M: Since last Jan.
L: Why did you learn it now and not before ?
M: (hmm. good one. I expected this) I always wanted to since college and never really had the time or the push to learn. It just happened last Jan and I enrolled myself.
L: But you have written that you are a guitar player. So do you play somewhere ?
M: No. just at home. (noticing that the lady is not convinced)
L: So which newspapers you read ? (Note that this was somewhere mentioned on my application)
M: Mint and Hindu
G: What do you like in them ?
M: Mint i like it for its wall street journal's columns and the last 4 pages expressing different views. Hindu for general news and sometimes I read Paul Krugman's column.
G: What was the last column that Paul Krugman wrote ?
M: (Oops. What was it ? what was it ?) I suddenly remembered the headline of his last blog and told him the same.
G: Do you think the US job market will improve ?
M: Yes it will but not so rapidly. Its kind of a W shaped recession. I would have loved to explain here but I just could not gather the thoughts and the next topic came.
L: So you applied before also ?
M: yes
L: When ?
M: Last year round 2.
L: So what was the feedback you got and what have you done ?
M: Blah blah feedback. And I did this and that to improve on it.
L: Hmm..some more questions on my community work.
G: So why do you want to do MBA ?
M: My usual answer.
G: What kind of work you do and how you think it will help you in your future ?
M: Prepared answer.
L: What are your plans for future at work ?
M: this and that.
L: Have you taken any steps towards that ?
M: (Obviously thats why I applied...kidding). No. right now I love what I do, had lots of opportunities here and I did not see any reason to jump from being a developer to a Business analyst or some managerial role.
L: hmm...
L: Can you estimate the number of computers in the campus. We just want to know your approach and not the exact number.
M: (cool). Number of students + teachers + different departments + library and other things + other staff. I just arrived to some number close to 800.
(I actually got the number of teachers wrong.)
G: So you know how many departments make up a B school ?
M: Admissions, Placements, Corporate board, Hostel, Different centres, and ummm....
(Later realized I could have said more like Media, Company relations etc.)
G: Do you think Facebook can give Google a run for its money sometime ?
M: (something that I read a lot about) Yes definitely. The number of users is phenomenal. It can leverage that to may be beat google at search. May be develop new ways of earning revenue other than advertising. Social networking is big and all that. Facebook is the leader in that right now.
G: what should google do then ?
M: It should develop a new Social Networking website. Rethink from the bottom. (this was before Buzz came in)
G: But they already have Orkut.
M: I know. But Orkut is way below Facebook. Although there are certain ways it can improve Orkut. (This was also before they renovated Orkut..am not being visionary but it is just true..may be that guy was at google :D )
G: How ?
M: Improve performance and user interface (was that too geeky). Improve user registration. Currently anyone can do it as against Facebook which requires us to provide a mobile number and a code to confirm online. That will result in lesser spam on orkut. (Seriously there is way too much spam and fake profiles on orkut, may be facebook is slowly approaching that).
G and L looking towards each other.
L: I think we are done. Do you have any questions ?
M: yes sure. (I asked my question and they answered it).
All in all, I did not feel that it was a very good interview and I smashed it. But it was not that bad either. I did some mistakes but I answered some things very well. Probably.
I hope you enjoyed reading it and benefit from it.
I know I am late and I regret that. But I could not help it. I was invited for an interview at Hyderabad when I had applied to ISB in the first round. The interview was on a Sunday and I left Bangalore Saturday evening. Since the interview was at 3:00 PM I took the risk of leaving just the day before. I reached Hyderabad in the morning and went to a friend's place. I just spent the time chatting with friends and eating breakfast at Chutney's. No pressure of the interview till now. I had bath and got all dressed up. One of my other friends came and he took me to the ISB campus. I met another class mate from college at ISB who took admission last year. It was 2:50 PM and I had to report at the reception.
I got a sheet of paper and a topic to write about for about 15 mins. The topic was "Banking". I wrote whatever came to my mind and was sitting quietly in one corner. I observed other applicants talking to each other about their work experience, earlier interview experiences, GMAT scores and what not. It seemed like those guys had arrived a good half to one hour back. It was 3:20 PM and I was still waiting for some panel to call me up for the interview. There were 4 panels I think. Suddenly I felt the urge to yawn. I thought it would be fine. As I was halfway to my yawn (read as mouth wide open), a lady came by and asked for my name. I somehow tried to hide my yawn and gulped it. I thought to myself "What a loser I am ? What a great time to yawn !"
I enter the interview room and I see 1 guy sitting on his chair. The other interviewer was the lady who called me. They had my application open in front of them. They introduced themselves to me. One was an Admissions committee member and the other was an alumni. The following is the transcript (not exact, but very close) of my interview:
G = (Guy) : L = (Lady) : M = (Me)
G: So you play guitar ?
M: yes.
G: Since how long ?
M: Since last Jan.
L: Why did you learn it now and not before ?
M: (hmm. good one. I expected this) I always wanted to since college and never really had the time or the push to learn. It just happened last Jan and I enrolled myself.
L: But you have written that you are a guitar player. So do you play somewhere ?
M: No. just at home. (noticing that the lady is not convinced)
L: So which newspapers you read ? (Note that this was somewhere mentioned on my application)
M: Mint and Hindu
G: What do you like in them ?
M: Mint i like it for its wall street journal's columns and the last 4 pages expressing different views. Hindu for general news and sometimes I read Paul Krugman's column.
G: What was the last column that Paul Krugman wrote ?
M: (Oops. What was it ? what was it ?) I suddenly remembered the headline of his last blog and told him the same.
G: Do you think the US job market will improve ?
M: Yes it will but not so rapidly. Its kind of a W shaped recession. I would have loved to explain here but I just could not gather the thoughts and the next topic came.
L: So you applied before also ?
M: yes
L: When ?
M: Last year round 2.
L: So what was the feedback you got and what have you done ?
M: Blah blah feedback. And I did this and that to improve on it.
L: Hmm..some more questions on my community work.
G: So why do you want to do MBA ?
M: My usual answer.
G: What kind of work you do and how you think it will help you in your future ?
M: Prepared answer.
L: What are your plans for future at work ?
M: this and that.
L: Have you taken any steps towards that ?
M: (Obviously thats why I applied...kidding). No. right now I love what I do, had lots of opportunities here and I did not see any reason to jump from being a developer to a Business analyst or some managerial role.
L: hmm...
L: Can you estimate the number of computers in the campus. We just want to know your approach and not the exact number.
M: (cool). Number of students + teachers + different departments + library and other things + other staff. I just arrived to some number close to 800.
(I actually got the number of teachers wrong.)
G: So you know how many departments make up a B school ?
M: Admissions, Placements, Corporate board, Hostel, Different centres, and ummm....
(Later realized I could have said more like Media, Company relations etc.)
G: Do you think Facebook can give Google a run for its money sometime ?
M: (something that I read a lot about) Yes definitely. The number of users is phenomenal. It can leverage that to may be beat google at search. May be develop new ways of earning revenue other than advertising. Social networking is big and all that. Facebook is the leader in that right now.
G: what should google do then ?
M: It should develop a new Social Networking website. Rethink from the bottom. (this was before Buzz came in)
G: But they already have Orkut.
M: I know. But Orkut is way below Facebook. Although there are certain ways it can improve Orkut. (This was also before they renovated Orkut..am not being visionary but it is just true..may be that guy was at google :D )
G: How ?
M: Improve performance and user interface (was that too geeky). Improve user registration. Currently anyone can do it as against Facebook which requires us to provide a mobile number and a code to confirm online. That will result in lesser spam on orkut. (Seriously there is way too much spam and fake profiles on orkut, may be facebook is slowly approaching that).
G and L looking towards each other.
L: I think we are done. Do you have any questions ?
M: yes sure. (I asked my question and they answered it).
All in all, I did not feel that it was a very good interview and I smashed it. But it was not that bad either. I did some mistakes but I answered some things very well. Probably.
I hope you enjoyed reading it and benefit from it.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Happy Valentine's Day
While I am watching nice romantic songs on all TV Channels since morning, I would like to wish all people reading this blog a very Happy Valentine's Day.
Friday, February 12, 2010
Multiplex Prices in Bangalore
I have been wanting to write a blog on the ridiculously high multiplex prices in Bangalore. I think it was 3 Idiots and Avatar that made me sit up and take notice of the insane prices across Multiplexes in Bangalore. I have been in Bangalore since the last 8 years and have never seen any movie ticket selling at Rs. 350. It is not that I cannot afford it. It is simply not worth it. Paying 350 bucks for a huge block-bluster in an ordinary multiplex with an average seating capacity of 150 just does not make sense. I am not saying that 10 years down the line the movie tickets will still cost 200. I agree the inflation is high but it is not that high. I agree that Bangalore has tremendous buying power but that does not mean you punish the average middle class movie freak.
The same thing happened this time when I checked the availability of MNIK in the theaters. I could hardly find a couple of shows (all morning) that had tickets less than 240. All shows in the big multiplexes are above 260 and most are above 300. I have seen this trend for the second time after Avatar and 3 Idiots release. I do not know the cost-benefit analysis, but common sense tells me that making the ticket price 350 will definitely attract lesser crowd in the first few weeks the movie is released.
Till then, I will wait till I get a ticket for 200 or less. Its a different debate that even Rs 200 is a huge price for a movie ticket. Add to that the costs of buying popcorn or cold drink and you will realize how ridiculous and senseless the multiplex ticket and food pricing has become.
The same thing happened this time when I checked the availability of MNIK in the theaters. I could hardly find a couple of shows (all morning) that had tickets less than 240. All shows in the big multiplexes are above 260 and most are above 300. I have seen this trend for the second time after Avatar and 3 Idiots release. I do not know the cost-benefit analysis, but common sense tells me that making the ticket price 350 will definitely attract lesser crowd in the first few weeks the movie is released.
Till then, I will wait till I get a ticket for 200 or less. Its a different debate that even Rs 200 is a huge price for a movie ticket. Add to that the costs of buying popcorn or cold drink and you will realize how ridiculous and senseless the multiplex ticket and food pricing has become.
Saturday, February 06, 2010
MBA Tour. New concept. Refreshing.
Some 20 days ago, I attended the MBA tour event in Bangalore. The very reason that I dedicate a full blog post to it is because it was different and refreshing. It was much more informative than the earlier MBA tour that I had attended. This MBA tour was called the MBA round table workshop. It had a different concept than the earlier ones that are primarily held during September each year. This MBA tour had 8 round tables, each table marked with numbers from 1 to 8. There were only 8 or 9 schools participating and each school's representative (usually the director of admissions) had to spend 10 mins on each table.
Not many people knew about this event and even if they knew, the timing was quite odd given that most of the schools just got over with their Round 2 deadlines. Not many people care about such tours during the months of Jan or Feb. But I think the reason I liked it was lesser crowd and greater interaction with the school representatives. The MBA tour in September was analogous to Bangalore Traffic where a lot of vehicles ply on narrow roads and then there is chaos. The earlier MBA tour also had lots of attention seekers and time wasters. Surprisingly, a lot of people ask questions about average GMAT score and placement numbers in the schools when all this information is easily available on the internet. The recent MBA tour did not have such chaos and many such people.
Although 10 mins was a bit too short, but it seemed like the MBA tour committee was trying out something new. I really liked the concept and felt that it was informative. Each representative talking about their school and answering whatever questions they could answer within those 10 mins. Yes, there were always the "crowd-surrounding-admissions-director-clearing-doubts" type of sessions at the end of the event. But the new concept would work only if there are fewer MBA aspirants attending or rather if the space were much bigger and more schools were participating.
Not many people knew about this event and even if they knew, the timing was quite odd given that most of the schools just got over with their Round 2 deadlines. Not many people care about such tours during the months of Jan or Feb. But I think the reason I liked it was lesser crowd and greater interaction with the school representatives. The MBA tour in September was analogous to Bangalore Traffic where a lot of vehicles ply on narrow roads and then there is chaos. The earlier MBA tour also had lots of attention seekers and time wasters. Surprisingly, a lot of people ask questions about average GMAT score and placement numbers in the schools when all this information is easily available on the internet. The recent MBA tour did not have such chaos and many such people.
Although 10 mins was a bit too short, but it seemed like the MBA tour committee was trying out something new. I really liked the concept and felt that it was informative. Each representative talking about their school and answering whatever questions they could answer within those 10 mins. Yes, there were always the "crowd-surrounding-admissions-director-clearing-doubts" type of sessions at the end of the event. But the new concept would work only if there are fewer MBA aspirants attending or rather if the space were much bigger and more schools were participating.
Friday, February 05, 2010
The benefits of failure
I am sorry for stealing this blog post (topic as well as content) from a fellow MBA blogger (MBA Bubbles). But I could not stop myself. It is just too good. J.K.Rowling (author of Harry Potter book series) delivers a commencement address at the Annual Meeting of the Harvard Alumni Association.
Each and every line of this speech is so important and so true. Some of the lines are forever embedded in my memory. Before I admire it more and more, you should yourself watch it and experience it. Here it goes:
For the full text version and video visit http://harvardmagazine.com/commencement/the-fringe-benefits-failure-the-importance-imagination
Each and every line of this speech is so important and so true. Some of the lines are forever embedded in my memory. Before I admire it more and more, you should yourself watch it and experience it. Here it goes:
J.K. Rowling Speaks at Harvard Commencement from Harvard Magazine on Vimeo.
For the full text version and video visit http://harvardmagazine.com/commencement/the-fringe-benefits-failure-the-importance-imagination
Wednesday, February 03, 2010
Application Status
Its been a long time since I have updated the blogosphere with my application status. Getting yourself involved in so many activities always keeps you super busy. That is exactly the case right now with me. I have lots to tell and lots to write about my MBA Application experience. It will be done gradually. Here is a summary:
1. ISB (Round 1) - Interviewed and Dinged
2. Fuqua (Round 1) - Dinged without interview
3. Foster (Round 1) - Interviewed and Admitted
4. Haas (Round 1) - Dinged without interview
5. McCombs (Round 2) - Submitted.
6. Kenan-Flagler (Round 3) - Will submit by this weekend.
Blogs about my interview experience will be up shorty. All I needed was a "wake up sid" type of blog by MBA Bubbles to get me started on my daily blog writing activity.
Well, I do feel sad when I think I came so close, but I understand the decisions of all those schools that have given me rejects.
PS: MBA Application process is Rocket science :)
1. ISB (Round 1) - Interviewed and Dinged
2. Fuqua (Round 1) - Dinged without interview
3. Foster (Round 1) - Interviewed and Admitted
4. Haas (Round 1) - Dinged without interview
5. McCombs (Round 2) - Submitted.
6. Kenan-Flagler (Round 3) - Will submit by this weekend.
Blogs about my interview experience will be up shorty. All I needed was a "wake up sid" type of blog by MBA Bubbles to get me started on my daily blog writing activity.
Well, I do feel sad when I think I came so close, but I understand the decisions of all those schools that have given me rejects.
PS: MBA Application process is Rocket science :)
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