Welcome Moscow!

I boarded the flight (SU-536) to Moscow, Russia on Nov.5th at 5am Indian Time. This was my first international flight and I was obviously very excited about it. I was about to join the most coveted company in my campus for non-CS guys.

Last few weeks were quite dramatic (regarding the VISA and other document related process).

Starting with delay in Letter of Invitation by a couple of weeks followed by mismatch in Russian translation of my first name. In Letter of Invitation my first name was translated as: митаншю. However, the consulate in India, translated it as: митаншу on my VISA. This meant that I have to go a little early to Moscow to get correction in MFA in Russia. After another week, there was a problem in Date of Birth on my Insurance Letter (1978 instead of 1987). Fortunately, that was corrected quickly!

After all the above problems, and a few more, I finally managed to get a ticket and fly to Russia.

Welcome Moscow!

I got accommodation from my employer in Holiday Inn for my entire stay in Moscow.

Moscow is a nice city if you leave out a very high population density and high costs for foreigners. Also, "Russia is for Russians". You will find almost all sign boards in Russian only!

I went to Red Square and Kremlin on Saturday, 8th November with 2 other newbies in my company - Rachel from Northern Ireland and Tonette from Norway.

WWW

In a recent conference, I got to hear a new definition of WWW - Whatever, Wherever, and Whenever!

For nerds: WWW means - World Wide Web

[Video] Art of the Start

I found this awesome video by Guy Kawasaki on "Art of the Start".



The top 10 things he mentions are:
1. Make meaning.
Increase the quality of life.
Right a wrong
Prevent the end of something good

2. Make mantra (mission statement) for your organization
Ex: FedEx: Peace of Mind
Nike: Authentic Athletic Performance
Target: Democratize Design
Wendy's: Healthy Fast Food

3. Get Going
Think Different
Don't be afraid of polarizing people
Find a few soul mates

4. Define a Business Model
Be Specific
Keep it Simple
Ask women about your business model

5. Weave a MAT (milestones, assumptions, tasks)

6. Niche Thyself
Ability to provide unique product or service
Value to Customer

7. Follow the 10/20/30 rule
You should have 10 slides in your powerpoint presentation
20 minutes
30 point font

8. Hire Infected People
Work Experience
Educational background
Love your product

Ignore the irrelevant
Hire better than yourself
Apply the shopping center test

9. Lower the barriers to adoption
Flatten the learning curve
Don't ask people to do something that you wouldn't
Embrace your evangelists

10. Seed the clouds
Let a hundred flowers blossom
Enable test drives
Find the influencers.

11. (Bonus point): Don't let the bozos grind you down.

What I learnt from this video: How many Macintosh guys does it take to screw in a light bulb? The answer is 1 - the Macintosh division employee who holds up the light bulb and expects the universe to revolve around him!

Dhoni's Banana on eBay

Following is a piece of online commentary from cricinfo.com during the 1st innings (36th over) of India Vs. Sri Lanka (4th ODI):

A tired Dhoni is down on the ground and is eating a banana. He hands over the banana skin to Ojha who might or might not sell it on ebay.

35.6 Muralitharan to Raina, SIX, There comes the big hit. Almost expected. He cleared the front foot and slog-swept Murali over deep midwicket boundary. The runs are flowing here for the Indians. What can Mahela do?

Good (geeky -?) sense of humor .. :)

Russia Georgia Conflict and energy markets

How does the conflict between Georgia and Russia affect energy markets?

The conflict is now phasing from military to diplomatic stage. The conflict broke out on 7 August when Georgia launched an assault to wrest back control of the Moscow-backed breakaway region of South Ossetia, triggering a counter-offensive by Russian troops who advanced beyond South Ossetia into Georgia's heartland.

Following crisis talks in Brussels, Nato's 26 foreign ministers said in a joint statement that they could not have normal relations with Russia as long as Moscow had troops in Georgia.

"The Alliance is considering seriously the implications of Russia's actions for the Nato-Russia relationship," the statement said, read out by Nato Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. "We have determined that we cannot continue with business as usual."

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Nato of bias and of trying to save the "criminal regime" in Tbilisi. Russia has dismissed a warning by Nato that normal relations are impossible while its troops remain inside Georgia.

How will it affect the prospects of Central Asian energy producing countries for independent export strategies? Europe will have to pay attention to Russia for the foreseeable future. They are highly dependent on energy pipelines for oil and natural gas. It will be interesting to see if these current problems make a difference in the energy sphere.

"Recent escalation in military engagement between Russia and Georgia poses a threat to certain key oil and gas pipelines which transit Georgia," the International Energy Agency said.

Is Russia's incursion into Georgia an initiation of what will become the slow process of reclaiming the former Soviet Union?