Marlinspike

I got out of an especially grueling session of our weekly management committee meeting. A typical meeting for us is the board room table occupied by different business unit heads from different offices, each armed with a tablet or a laptop (and a couple with both). Today, someone commented on the appearance of the ever popular iPad with yet another participant. And the few hold-outs (yours truly included), queried about utility and whether we could junk our laptops in favour of the iPad. After the gushing was over, the usual grumbles started. Great for consuming content, but not so great for creating it. You need to be hunched over to type at a decent speed (God help when the soon to arrive aches and pains from bad posture start). No Excel. No Outlook (I piped up). Which is what set me thinking. What is an ideal Tablet for Execs? The core functionality that you need a computing device for. A device with a sufficiently large screen to read reports and presentation. (Rules out a ph

What is the first thought that comes to your mind. when I say "I am wearing a Chinese Watch"? Not a Casio, Made in China watch, but a Chinese watch? It's a fake? Copy of a Rolex. Omega Seamaster clone.   Well, yes. There are those, but there are also Chinese brands like Sea-Gull, Parnis and my personal favourite Tao International (primarily for great finish and sub $100 prices (including shipping)).   So the Chinese (watchmakers for now), like the Japanese, 40 years back are starting to make the slow long climb to respectability.   But first…   A flashback on respectability and watch technology   The Swiss watch industry (with notable exceptions like Patek Philippe) was chasing the volume market and like anyone going down that path was known for indulging in counterfeits. Copies of British marques like George Graham and Eardley Norton was common and for a while the American brand Walthams (Walthams became famous, because they brought precision mass

A lot has been said about Amazon's offering in India. Chiefly amongst them, why not a full fledged site. I have a different question for you. What's the hurry? First, the legal question is not clear. Till the regulations sort themselves out (and they will, retail giants are beating down the door to enter India). Second, Amazon can serve the Indian market well from their existing properties in the US/UK/Germany and others and quite often it is cheaper than buying it India (performance and warranty issues aside) I have had a good experience shipping books, toys, DVDs and electronics from across the seven seas from the US & UK. Germany is the latest in the lot. All without a hitch (Well, there were some unexpected delays a few times. But still). Germany is important because the voltage range of the electronics is the same as ours AND the plug is the same unlike UK. More compatible electronics. A thought for a product manager at Amazon.de. Introduce an English lang