It was Day 2 of my trip (Dec 23 Sun). My plan was to go in the DHL balloon so that I can get a good view of Singapore. When I reached the MRT station, I suddenly got interested in randomly walking around. I really wanted to see the place.

After more than an hour of walking around in the hot sun, I came across a really huge building. I got curious and tried to figure out the name – it was the Lee Kong Chian Reference Library. It’s a library?! I just had to get in there, for the AC as well as to explore the books collection. I thought it was a good idea since it would be relaxing. After all, the point of a vacation is to do things you wouldn’t do in daily life, as well as to have a relaxing or invigorating fun time. At least, that’s my definition of a vacation.

I went in, saw many rows of shelves. I clearly avoided the row which had some books with some strange titles like “Java & XML”, I wonder what that’s all about. I picked up a few books from the other rows and went and sat down at the benches. Lots of people were studying, with music on, writing down notes in their laptops and utilizing the free wifi.

I started reading a book titled something like “The Practice of Philosophy – A Handbook for Beginners”. Unfortunately, within ten minutes, I was sleepy. Either it was the exhaustion and lack of sleep the previous night, or it was the subject. I went and sat on the couches and started to doze off. I was encouraged by the fact that there was some other Indian dude also sleeping.

After a while, I realized I was snoring, and there were other new people around trying to read, so I went and washed my face. Then, I went down to Level 1 to give a phone call to Abishek Nair (my gracious host for the trip). He was laughing that I came all the way to Singapore to sit in a library and read some books! He told me to come over to his company VHQ Post (an advertising post-production i.e. visual effects company) in an hour so that he can show me around.

After that, I stood near the wide glass and I look left and see the DHL balloon right there! It was funny since I wasn’t actively looking for it.

I went back inside the library, the books were still there. This time I started reading a book more closer to my tastes – “The Runner’s Handbook” by Bob Glover, and I went prepared with my iPod. Music always gets me going. I started playing “Sutrum Vizhi” and started reading. I started with the nutrition/fuel section because that’s where most of my problems are. Then started taking down some notes:

• Hitting “the wall” refers to that point when you run short of glycogen. This is an experience that every runner should try
  • once. After you’re survived it, you will respect the need to prepare better for your next marathon.
• Learn the values of long training runs, tapering, eating plenty of carbos, and not starting too fast. Ignoring these factors all contribute to hitting “the wall.”
• Most often associated with marathons. After an hour and a half or so of running, you begin to run low on glycogen. For most runners that will be 10-13 miles into a run. The average well-trained runner may store enough glycogen to last 15-20 miles, depending upon such as factors as pace, body weight, fitness level, and how well they loaded up on carbs going into the race.
• When you run low on glycogen, your body attempts to conserve what remains by burning more fat for energy. But since fat is 15% less efficient than carbs as an energy source, you are unable to hold your pace and have to slow dramatically (even though fat releases 9 cal/gm compared to 4 cal/gm for carbs and protein)
• Long training runs develop mechanisms for your body to utilize fat more efficiently throughout your race, thus “sparing” some glycogen for use later. Workouts at marathon pace and faster will also train your muscles to utilize carbs more efficiently at these paces. In addition, starting your race at a conservative pace will help conserve glycogen for later in the run. Tapering for a marathon combined with carb-loading is the key to surviving “the wall.”
• Back-of-the-pack runners benefit most from carb-loading.
  • Dr. Costill notes: The difference between elite and average marathoners is that even if both started out with the same amount of glycogen, the elite marathoner would spare it by burning a higher ratio of fat. Although more oxygen is required to burn fat, the highly developed oxygen transport system of the elite runner allows this. Furthermore, he moves more economically, which means that he uses less oxygen to accomplish the same task. The average runner, on the other hand, depletes his glycogen supply sooner and doesn’t have as efficient an oxygen transport system to burn fat. That’s why hitting the wall is so devastating and why carbohydrate loading is more important for the average runner than for the elite runner.
• For shorter runs (< 90 min), glycogen stores don’t get depleted much and hence carb intake isn’t as critical.

The best part is that I realized that this problem is not unique to me! It’s a documented scientific problem experienced by enough runners to have a section dedicated to it in a runners’ book. Now I know what the problem is! Next, I need to actually figure out how to train to tackle this which the book didn’t explain satisfactorily.

I had lost track of time because of the awesome reader-friendly environment and suddenly realized I was late. I then headed out to meet Abishek. I got to see all the whizbang gizmos they use to create all the special effects that you may or may not notice in the advertisements you see. These guys have amazing talent and patience to do the things they do. But that’s a story for another day.

I never really could imagine what Utopia could be like, but having stayed in Singapore for more than a week, I can say I don’t need to imagine it, it’s already here.

To be frank, it’s spooky, it’s eerie. I think it’s something taken straight from ‘Demolition Man’ script and something’s going to happen now. But it’s for real, and I can’t stop wondering WHY!? Why and how can things work so smoothly here?

Actually, a better description is the last scene in Ajnabee movie where Bobby Deol exposes Akshay Kumar’s password (in big bold letters): “EVERYTHING IS PLANNED.”

For example, let’s just consider the online component to Singapore which is jarring for the sheer depth of information available.

Want to visit Singapore? Sure, just head out to their Itinerary Planner, tell them how long you want to visit and who you’re coming with, and they’ll tell you what you can explore each day! Uniquely Singapore, indeed.

On the same note, everything has a website here:

• whether it is a mall
• whether it is an island
• whether it is a library
• whether it is a river cruise
• whether it is an upcoming garden
• whether it is a new year countdown
• whether it is a competition to paint dust bins to raise awareness
• whether it is a weekend bazaar
• whether it is podcasts from the national radio
• whether it is the latest events
• whether you want to figure out why or how you should visit/live/work in Singapore! (they even have a site specifically for Indian tourists)

Phew.

Oh, and the simplest best way to get around is to consult the Street Directory and it’ll tell you the best way to reach from anywhere to anywhere (including the exact building number) via the bus, metro, walk or driving directions.

That brings me to the topic of the well-planned metro which they call MRT (Mass Rapid Transport), you just need to check out the MRT map to figure out how to get to any place and since every train has a frequency of 6-8 min, you can always get there fast.

You can travel by bus as well and you’ll reach there fast too. In fact, the roads are so good that there will be a Formula 1 race in Singapore on the public streets. This is going to be the first ever F1 race in the night!

What I still do not understand is how such cleanliness, discipline (especially traffic) and order is maintained when there are no cops around! (I have seen them only once so far in the past 9 days).

I guess it has got something to do with this fact:

Singapore legislation requires every able-bodied male Singaporean citizen and second-generation permanent resident to undertake National Service for a minimum of 2 years upon reaching 18 years of age or completion of his studies (whichever comes first), with exemption on medical or other grounds. After serving the two years, every male is considered operationally ready, and is liable for reservist national service to the age of 40 (50 for commissioned officers). More than 350,000 men serve as operationally-ready servicemen assigned to reservist combat units, and another 72,500 men form the full-time national service and regular corps.

That is amazing. In case of any kind of emergency, every Singaporean man can face the problem and solve it then and there instead of wasting time waiting for “a cop”. Probably also explains why they are all so fit!

All this for just an island which is 42×28 km in size. It is one of the 20 smallest countries in the world and at the same time they are the second most densely populated country in the world.

And they’re still charging ahead.

The past month, I have been experiencing what I can only describe as a burnout). When I think about it, I have been juggling too many things, but they were not extraordinary tasks, so I wonder why I felt ‘stressed’.

Things have been so hectic that I even missed foss.in this year (I have attended every year since 2003) but good to know that it went so well.

The good thing was that the vacation was right around the corner which kept me going. Even an hour before leaving from home for the flight, I was struggling to complete chores.

I am now in Singapore, staying with my friends, and exploring the place since the last 5 days.

Singapore is a really amazing city to live in. Everything is streamlined. Even the fish in the Underwater World at Sentosa Island are RFID-tagged!

IIRC, I once saw a board that said there’s a 1000 SGD (singapore dollars) fine if you are found sitting on the stairs of the underground metro. I need to get one of those T-shirts that says ‘Singapore is a fine city’. Heh.

P.S. If you’re in Singapore too and want to meet up, give me a holler.

Update: Looks like Ben Rockwood is going through a strikingly similar phase.

Yesterday, I attended Day 2 of the Web Innovation 2007 conference.

The irony to note is that the conference website is so NOT Web 2.0. For example, where are the slides that people can download? These guys can learn a thing or two from the foss.in website and conference. Again, for a web innovation conference, why is there no wifi? How are you supposed to access the websites?

On the other hand, this conference has been surprising to me in the sense that it actually turned out to be interesting. I think the quality of people who have come to speak here is high and that’s probably because these people are high up in the decision-making chain and they have come to talk about what they do best – websites and business.

Of course, the other half of the speakers are doing just boring sales pitches but that didn’t deter the audience from asking tough questions and seeking their value from it. They even directly questioned how their company lives up to what was described in the presentation.

Continuing Day 1′s trend, here are the transcribed notes:

• Jayabalan (CTO, Netmagic) on “Building scalable and resilient infrastructure for web applications”

  • Users, Connectivity, IT infrastructure, Application infrastructure
  • Challenges – Growth (number of concurrent users), Hardware failure, Software bugs, Security threats
  • Management and maintenance, Connectivity/routing issues, Secure connectivity, Cost
  • Failures can’t be avoided
  • Features and functionality alone not sufficient, Performance also required
  • Difficult to get people with end-to-end knowledge
  • Recommended setup – Storage, SANSw, Web + App + DB, Switching, Accelerator, Firewall
  • Develop for future – scalability in all layers
  • Performance optimizing techniques – Compression, TCP multiplexing, TCP optimization, TCP buffering, Caching, CDN, Load balancing, URL/content/cookie switching, Content modification, SSL offloading, Surge protection
  • Please outsource parts of these infrastructure to experts who have good infrastructure and service
  • Netmagic caters to all of the above (can it get more blatant than this?)
  • jb at netmagicsolutions.com
  • Replies to audience that Yes, Providers in India do have such infrastructure now. Power and Connectivity are major issues that you can’t scale in-house, so outsource it.

• Rohit Varma (Founder and CEO, Techtribe) on “Delivering Value through Social Networks”

  • (Unfortunately, missed this session in the business track because the session in the other tech track was long)
  • Get into the press, only way, do not depend on viral marketing

Yesterday, I attended Day 1 of the Web Innovation 2007 conference.

The first half of the day was quite useful, but the latter half turned out to be pure marketing pitches by the sponsors.

First and foremost, I think the title of the conference is a misnomer. Although it says “Web Innovation 2007: The Nextgen Web Technology Revolution: 2.0 & Beyond”, it should have been “Web 2.0 : How can India catch up” – the discussions were really about the ‘current’ situation of things rather than ‘innovation’ or ‘future’. By ‘current’ I mean, the internet products and services market in the western world and how India can catch up.

The No.1 and possibly only gripe that most speakers mentioned which is a barrier for internet and Web 2.0 to become omnipresent is that broadband connectivity is pitiful in India.

I agree to this as far as locality reach, reliability, and pricing is concerned. However, let’s compare it to mobile phones which is the second-most discussed topic, on how it is booming and all that. Why did mobile phones take off and not broadband? I think it’s because mobile phones had a killer application – communication. That too, communication any time, anywhere.

Similarly, let’s take the case of computers in many shops and distributors – accounting solutions whether it is by the local software shop or well-known ones like Tally, they bought computers just so that they can use these software. Just like Lotus 1-2-3 for Apple Mac I in the history of computers.

Unless we have killer applications that people in India want to use, why would anyone want to buy a computer or a broadband connection? And if there are killer applications, won’t there be demand for broadband connections, and won’t supply follow? Just like the mobile telephony market today?

Maybe I’m completely off on this one, but I still don’t yet see killer applications on the web today for the common man in India, let alone Web 2.0-style applications. Forget common man, how about the educational aspects of things, if there are products and services that can be beneficial to school and college students, that alone is a big deal. As B V Naidu (one of the advisors in the Karnataka IT committee) said, 54% of the Indian population is below 20 years!

Naidu also mentioned that there are 7 million new phones being bought every month, you won’t find such a high number anywhere else in the world. Yet, there are a meagre 1.6 million mobile internet users. Again, what are the killer applications for them? At least, I never felt the need for internet on my mobile phone. (As an aside, getting it working for the first time is a pain which is another major factor).

Today, I caught the 4.45 am transportation to get to ONV for the first ever Bangalore Ultra Marathon where people can get to run or walk 26 or 52 or 78 or 104 km. A true endurance event.

I participated in the 26K run. I can’t even imagine how so many of those guys and gals ran 52+ km.

The first 19 km of my run was good. My knees felt good during the pounding of the feet although my shoe soles suffered and literally came apart. After that, it was a nightmare.

I got severe backache. Probably because my rotund belly has added layers over the past couple of months because of lack of exercise. I really struggled for the remaining 7 km. The killer was the last 3 km.

I somehow managed to complete in 3 hr 52 min. A timing that I’m not proud of, but under the circumstances, I don’t think I could’ve done better.

In the end, I must say kudos to the Ultra Team for one of the best organized events I’ve ever participated in! They have looked into every little detail always putting the runner first in all their decisions and especially for choosing such a picturesque location for the run. The grassland field that we entered in the start of the run was a true sight to behold just as the sun was coming out.

My aim next time is to do a half marathon without me throwing up in the end, which has become a custom these days.

As I twittered a while ago: “Sometimes I wonder why I even run. Then again, I wonder why I’m even alive.”

Update: Sabine has lots of photos in these two albums.

Update 2: Congratulations to Niara for winning 2nd position in the Women’s 26K Open category with a timing of 2:38 hours!

“I always loved running…it was something you could do by yourself, and under your own power. You could go in any direction, fast or slow as you wanted, fighting the wind if you felt like it, seeking out new sights just on the strength of your feet and the courage of your lungs.” – Jesse Owens

There has been a lot of press mentions lately about the BSNL Bangalore International Marathon which is going to happen tomorrow. I will not be running it because it is not intended for people who love running.

Why do I say that?

1. The Bangalore Ultra Marathon was announced eleven months ago that it will be held on December 16, 2007. The BSNL Bangalore International Marathon was announced by the Karnataka Athletic Association just about one month two weeks ago that it will also be held on Dec 16, 2007. They knew very well that the Ultra is happening on the same day! I don’t know what is the inside story, but I think it’s pure one-upmanship, they got ticked off that the preparations and publicity for the Ultra seemed to be going well.

2. The organizers of the BSNL Bangalore International Marathon do not take running seriously. If they did, they would not organize a training camp for just ten days. Do they really think they can convert a new person interested in running to eventually run 42 km in just ten days?! If you consult advice by professional runners, you will find out that it takes 18 weeks to train for a marathon according to the charts whether you’re a beginner or an advanced runner. Talk to any runner on how long they took to prepare for their first marathon and you’ll know the difference. In fact, if you want to know what kind of preparation hardcore runners do, see this marathon day checklist.

3. They are not allowing women to run the full marathon! When asked for the reason, they say that they don’t expect many women to run it so they decided not to allow it. I have many things to say about that but let me stick to facts – there are many women runners out there, it’s just that the Karnataka Athletic Association does not seem to be encouraging about it. Do they know there are women runners in India such as Priya who ran 100 miles (160 km) in the Himalayas?

As a running enthusiast, these are enough reasons for me to not take the BSNL Bangalore International Marathon seriously. Instead, I’m running the Bangalore Ultra Marathon tomorrow.

In fact, there were discussions in the open-for-all RunnersForLife mailing list regarding postponing the Ultra because of this clash, but the race director Madhu strictly said no. As an aside, if I’m not wrong, Madhu is a volunteer organizing this and is not even part of the Ultra organizers company! Compare this with how the other marathons are being organized.

Even CrossOver who organized the previous marathons held in Bangalore have postponed it at least four times this year! It’s appalling that these organizers don’t take these events seriously.

Contrast that with the participants in the Ultra marathon who met on Friday night for carb-loading and had a ball of a time meeting other fellow runners.

I attended that pasta party and met a lot of enthusiastic people. One of them was a guy called Andrew. What’s special about him? He’s a 68-year old guy, and the Ultra tomorrow is going to be his 592nd marathon! That’s right, that’s three digits. He’s been running since 1976. In fact, he’s flown down from New York just to run the Ultra. He’s also participated in the Himalayan run that I mentioned earlier. Now, that’s true passion for a sport!

As for myself, I have not at all trained properly in the last two months but I’m hoping that the old routine of running 16 km every weekend morning will kick back in tomorrow and I’ll hopefully run well.

Disclosure: I’m NOT part of the RFL club, just an avid runner. I may join the RFL runs in future, but I’m certainly not biased towards them. However, I am biased towards running and runners.

From New York Times, November 26, 1991:

DOS computers, made by I.B.M., Compaq, Tandy and about a million other companies, are by far the most popular, with about 70 million machines in use worldwide. Macintosh fans will note that cockroaches are far more numerous than humans, and that numbers alone do not connote a higher life form. There is strength in numbers, however. The White House uses DOS computers.

Note: I no longer work with IonLab since Nov 12 of 2009.

The other day, mom was telling me why she has completely switched from the traditional neighbourhood HOPCOMS (Horticultural Produce Cooperative Marketing Societies) outlet to the fresh@ store to buy the vegetables. I got curious and asked to explain. She mentioned several points:

1. HOPCOMS doesn’t allow the customer to choose the vegetables/fruits, they can’t pick the good ones. fresh@ allows it and this ensures quality.
2. A minimum quantity of 250gm is imposed at HOPCOMS, but no such thing at fresh@.
3. fresh@ is open from 7am-11pm compared to HOPCOMS which is open for 8 hours and is closed during the afternoon.
4. fresh@ provides all kinds of items, like milk, curds, rice compared to going to HOPCOMS, neighbourhood shop i.e. different places for these items.
5. fresh@ provides separate covers for each item whereas HOPCOMS requires customers to carry their own bags.
6. fresh@ stores perishable food in the freezer whereas HOPCOMS keeps it in the open.
7. fresh@ has a much better ambience and a more friendly environment (don’t underestimate this)
8. They have many offers and a points systems – this is not important according to mom, but if you’re anyway going to buy from fresh@, people are going to use it.
9. Amazing thing is that the cost is not the differentiator!
10. The important thing is that mom never intends to go back to the old way. If fresh@ goes poof one day, it is going to have a negative effect. This shows that fresh@ is really making a difference.

This brings me to the 2.0 part… consider how fresh@ takes a leap forward in bettering the customer’s life. Compare that to the latest mumbo jumbo startups out there. Are they really adding value?

I think the first thing a wannabe-entrepreneur should consider is whether it is a must-have or a nice-to-have utility that they are creating.

I mean how many more photo sharing sites or video sharing sites do you really need? And how many more social networking sites?

(Well, on the other hand, if you can sell your me-too social networking site for Rs. 39.3 crore, sure why not?)

But seriously, how many people really know all the India-specific social bookmarking sites out there? Ever heard of xoomly.com? Well, neither did I until just now. And I’m probably never going back again.

I don’t mean to pick on only ‘social’ websites, but I feel many other hardware and software startups out there are solutions looking for a problem. (On a lighter note, a christmas tree that lights up when I connect it to my laptop via USB can be really handy).

As Paul Graham says:

Let me repeat that recipe: finding the problem intolerable and feeling it must be possible to solve it. Simple as it seems, that’s the recipe for a lot of startup ideas.

I can say that this is true because of (yes, you know it was coming) our experience in ion.

In fact, in one of the interviews we have given, we were asked the question “Why a product like ion?”, and we replied:

1. “To scratch an itch.” Vikram didn’t want to spend money on the expensive official Apple iPod Charger, and being an electronics geek, he designed a circuit himself and started using it to charge his iPod.

2. Then, we discussed about many people who are facing the same problem. For example, people who are not aware of the official charger (or don’t want to purchase such an expensive one) even leave their computer switched on overnight just to charge their iPod! That’s a lot of unnecessary wastage of electricity.

3. There are many unbranded chargers available in the market, but it is sold on the condition that it may or may not work, and there is no assurance on the quality, or even that your iPod will be safe when using these chargers.

The charger that Vikram built was a perfect fit to solve all these problems, with reliability, and within a reasonable cost. We got together to take it to market.

The bad news is that ion ran out of stock sooner than we expected after the recent Economic Times article and we apologize for the several customers who wrote in to us asking when it’ll be available. We’re working on it and will update you all as soon as possible.

One customer said he desperately needed it before Christmas because he’s going for a long vacation and he wants to be able to use his iPod during the trip.

It feels good to know that we are solving a real problem. It’s not life-changing but it does meet Paul Graham’s criteria.