Monthly Archive for May, 2008

Next-Generation Email: separating Interface from Storage

May 9, 2008

There is a market for start-ups that provide only an interface for existing email. For people who are willing to pay for (cheap) storage of their email and for bandwidth. Users will be able to migrate from and to such services without needing to copy huge amounts of email to their new email provider.

The Background

It’s no secret that the inbox paradigm we use today wasn’t designed to handle today’s volume of communication. Several start-ups have ideas to fix this, notably Xobni and Xoopit. Others want to go deeper and rethink the email client. Their biggest barrier to their entry is that data stored with an existing email providers (esp. webmail) is impossible to get at, short of copying that entire data. Zenbe, for instance, is an email client startup that is importing email from other POP3-enabled email accounts (including Gmail) to its servers.

The Opportunity

I’ll admit this is far-fetched, some way into the future, and has a relatively small target audience.

If users were to move their existing email into a database in an online storage service like Amazon’s S3, then several email clients could access this data, perhaps even simultaneously. If a user chose to move from one email client provider to another, the data itself – email, contacts, calendar, tasks – would stay intact; the new client would only have to create a new index for that data, and the old index could be deleted.

For users with email addresses from their own domain (such as rahul at rahulgaitonde dot org), even the email address would remain the same. The user would only pay Amazon for the storage and the bandwidth; the email service is still free, typically ad-supported. You could even use IMAP and access this from a desktop or mobile client.

The Upside

Innovation: Start-ups will be free to “fix” the traditional idea of an email client without having to worry about storing or importing tons of email.
Data ownership: Since the storage of is distinct from its interface, the user has far more control over their data than with today’s webmail services.

The Downside

Market size: The notion of having to pay for email storage seems anachronistic today. Most users also don’t care about what client they use. I contend that there will still be sizable numbers of users willing to pay, enough to make such an email service work.
Loyalty: While it is easier for such start-ups to acquire new customers, it is also easier to lose them – the cost of moving to a new interface is almost zero.
Failure point: Should the online storage service experience downtime, email will be unavailable.

Choosing a Laptop, B-school Edition

May 6, 2008

The most important device at B-school, a laptop is purchased without too much thought, through a bulk deal. A little consideration can make a world of difference to your computing experience at B-school. Most B-schools vote for one of 3-5 shortlisted models. This guide will

Comment on how to approach the purchase decision
List what features are important and what are overrated
Discuss these features in detail
Make a final recommendation

This guide is for

Students who are managing the laptop deal on behalf of the incoming batch
Students who are buying a laptop through this bulk deal
Students who are buying a laptop just before joining the institute

A laptop will be used mostly for your projects and assignments (Web browsing and Office), communication (email, chat) and entertainment (movies/sitcoms, gaming). No heavy-duty software development/Photoshop work.

The Purchase Decision – Price

Buy an high-end laptop (in a bulk deal) instead of a mid-range one. No one does this. Unfortunately, year after year students opt for cheap laptops instead. They draw a psychological line at Rs. 60000. Spending about Rs. 15000 more on a laptop will give you a dramatically better laptop, and a dramatically better experience over two years. It will also be a sophisticated high-end personal laptop for 2-3 years after B-school. Relative to the total size of your loan (~6-8 Lakh), Rs.15000 is a small amount. So do the smart thing, spend that much more and get a better laptop.

Your vendor will also be willing to sell you a high-end laptop at a good discount. For one, such laptops are already sold in bulk to companies for their higher-level executives, so their actual sales price is much below the stated retail pricen. Two, the vendor gets a higher total deal size (in Rupees) as well as earns a better margin.

As for the “Company baad mein laptop deti hi hai” argument, the reality is that with very few exceptions, post-MBA companies buy the same mid-range laptops for new joinees that students do. Do yourself a favor and get a Good Laptop in B-school. Such laptops have rather high retail prices, and a bulk deal is your best opportunity to own a high-end machine at a bargain price.

The Purchase Decision – Features

Important Features
Weight and Screen resolution are what push the price of a laptop up. They are also what will make the biggest difference to your laptop experience.

Weight (you’ll be lugging around your laptop during summers too, remember)
Screen size and resolution (sharper displays, more screen area, more lines of text) (more)
USB Ports (more)
Microphone (more)

Overrated Features

Price (see above)
Widescreen monitors
Processor
Battery capacity (more)
Hard disk (more)
Video card (more)
RAM (more)
Webcam

How the ideal B-school laptop will look

Rs. 75000 – Rs. 80000
2 kg weight
14″ non-widescreen monitor
On-board video card with shared memory
80 GB hard disk
1.5 GB RAM
2 USB ports
6-cell Li-ion battery

Recommendation

The Lenovo T-series (currently the T61) is *the* best 14? Windows-based laptop on the market. Superb build quality, great ergonomics, best-in-class keyboard, high native resolution, light weight and plenty of processing muscle. A T-series laptop will be a bargain at Rs. 75K and won’t be obsolete for 4-5 years at least.

More about Features

Screen Size and Weight
Important! Opt for a 14″ (14 inch) laptop screen over a 15″ one. There is a noticable difference in weight. This matters because your laptop will do some serious traveling around the campus. Usually, both 14″ and 15″ screens have the same native resolution (see below), so a larger size screen will only add weight without the benefit of extra screen space. Widescreen monitors mean extra screen area but also more weight, so you’re better off without a widescreen. Note: The screen size is measured along the diagonal:

Screen Resolution

Important! Resolution is the number of pixels you can see on your screen; a higher resolution means larger screen area. This is important – you can see more lines of text (in Word), more cells (in Excel), and sharper visuals (while watching movies or gaming). A high-resolution screen can dramatically improve your laptop experience.

Common 14″ or 15″ CRT desktop monitors are capable of a resolution of 1024 pixels (horizontally) and 768 pixels (vertically), denoted as 1024×768. Low-end 14″ laptops are also capable of 1024×768. Ask for a laptop screen that does better – a resolution of 1280×1024 on a 14″ screen is very good.

Video Card and Graphics
Dedicated video card or onboard? Separate video memory or shared? For all your needs, an onboard card will be more than powerful enough. A dedicated card is a needless expense. Just make sure you have enough system RAM (see below) (back).

RAM
You can never have too much RAM. 1GB – 1.5GB is enough for most tasks. A few of you will plan to use your laptop beyond B-school; buy another 1GB chip (ask for a student discount) and fit it into your machine’s expansion slot. Note: I went through B-school with a 4-year-old 14″ IBM Thinkpad with 768MB RAM and faced no problems. It is still my primary machine. (back)

Hard Disk Capacity
80GB should be enough. In my post on Essential College Gear, I recommended buying a high-capacity external hard disk. Keep your photos, movies, videos and other large files on that disk. You will watch several movies during B-school. In fact, a ton of them. Download them from the campus server, watch them, delete them. Copy your favorite ones to your external disk. You really don’t need 100+ GB hard disks. Needless expense. (back)

Battery capacity
Most laptops will have 6-cell Li-ion batteries with 3.5 hours capacity without WiFi and 2.5 hours with WiFi when new. You don’t need the larger 9-cell batteries with 5+ hours capacity. The protrude from the back of your laptop and add to the weight. Needless expense. Keep your meetings short instead In the future, I will write about maximising the life of your laptop battery. (back)

USB Ports
Most 14″ laptops will have two USB ports. Check that you can insert two devices simultaneously into the ports (they are usually one over the other or beside each other): plug in your USB mouse and your USB Pen drive. If you need more ports, invest in a 4:1 USB expansion hub. (back)

Microphone
Choose a laptop with a built-in microphone. The Lenovo Thinkpad, for instance, has a microphone receiver just above the ESC key (or just below the CTRL key on newer models). This way, you don’t have to wear a headphone and with a speaker attachment during voice chat via, say, Google Talk. (back)

Bluetooth
A must for syncing your phone (or your friend’s phone) with your laptop. Also great for open-laptop exams where the classroom WiFi router is switched off

Kensington lock
Some vendors might include a Kensington lock for your laptop as part of the package. A Kensington lock guards against the physical theft of your laptop. Not likely to happen on campus. Ask the vendor to discard it and lower the price instead.

What else would you like to read?

Essential B-school software
Getting the most out of your smartphone, B-school Edition
Maximising your laptop battery life

The Sensible College Gear Guide, B-School Edition

May 2, 2008

A sensible guide to what computer gear and electronic accessories you’ll need for a two-year MBA. What’s necessary? Why? What’s optional? What’s a waste? What to buy before college? Hindsight is 20:20. After twenty months at IIM Kozhikode, I can answer those questions. Do note that this guide is written with Indian B-schools in mind – although they make sense regardless where you’re from.

Update: How to choose a laptop, B-school Edition is now available. Click here.

The Necessary Stuff

Laptop

Choose a laptop over a desktop any day, even if you think you can easily transport your home desktop to college. Account for cramped desk space and complete lack of mobility. You need a laptop to take with you to class, to the common room, to the library, meetings, project presentations, home. You can always add functionality with accessories (see below). If there’s enough demand, I will write a post on how to choose a laptop for B-school. Lenovo’s R-series Thinkpads are excellent choices.

How: buy in a bulk deal at college unless you have one already, of course.
Price: between Rs. 50000 and Rs. 60000

Mouse

You can’t get by with tapping and dragging your fingers on a laptop touch-pad. With the amount of time you’ll spend with PowerPoint, Excel and games you’ll definitely need a mouse. Buy a ball mouse or a laser mouse. Optical mice (at least, the affordable ones) aren’t as sensitive as even ball mice. Contrary to popular perception, you don’t need a wireless mouse – the only time you’ll be using a mouse will be in your room. iBall’s Uni-Retractable Laser Precise mouse is a good option.

How: Buy before you reach college
Price: ~ Rs. 800

2GB USB Stick

You’ll use this very often. While delivering presentations, plugging into the Computer Center machines to print, backing up all sorts of stuff, transfering music, and so on. Carry one with you all the time. USB sticks have become extremely cheap, so purchase at least a 2GB one. I have a 2GB SanDisk Cruzer Micro, which has served me admirably during my time at IIMK.

How: Buy before you reach college; ones bought in bulk are typically cheap brands.
Price: Rs. 900 for the 2GB Cruzer Micro

Ethernet Cable

Buy a standard RJ-45 ethernet cable before you reach college – regardless of whether you have a laptop or buy it on campus. There’s a mad scramble for cables once the laptops bought in bulk arrive, so it’s best you have one available. Buy about 4-6 feet of cabling from any electrical store, get the connectors on the ends crimped at the store itself.

How: Before you reach college.
Price: Under Rs. 100 inclusive of the connectors and crimping charges

Scientific Calculator

Several courses will require one – statistics and finance courses in year one, and some in year two. The engineers among you will already have one; for the rest, Casio’s fx-991MS seems to be the model of choice.

How: Buy with a bulk deal before classes begin
Price: ~ Rs. 400 after bulk discount

Surge protector

So you don’t fry your laptop in case of a surge. This has happened not only at the IIMK campus, but others as well. You will charge delicate devices – your laptop, your phone, camera via the electrical socket. Buy one for their sake. Another reason is that your charger pins may fit loosely in the electrical sockets (very common), and you’ll need to resort to all sorts of tricks to fit things correctly.

How: Buy one before you reach college
Price: ~ Rs. 100

Laptop Bag

To lug your laptop around. While buying your laptops in bulk, ask for a backpack with a laptop sleeve instead of a traditional bag that you sling over one shoulder. Backpacks are better than sling-bags to store your other stuff – notebooks, files and the like.

If you’re buying one on your own, buy one from the Samsonite range. I’ve had one for over three years; been everywhere from the Kerala backwaters to New York City to the local trains in Bombay, keeping my laptop and other stuff perfectly safe. Avoid ones which have separate compartments for CDs, MP3 players, water bottles and cables.

How: With your laptop if buying at college; from any Samsonite store before you reach college if own laptop
Price: ~ Rs. 2000

Optional Stuff

External Hard Drive

To back up the gigabytes of movies, music, pictures, software, videos, MBA-related stuff and more, get a large desktop (3.5 inch) hard drive with an external case that connects via USB. A 2.5 inch hard disk (the kind that fit into laptops) are probably not ideal, since they only do about 4200RPM (the speed at which the disk rotates). Also, since they’re delicate, they’re more prone to crashes. Finally, larger-sized 2.5″ disks re obscenely expensive. So get a 7200RPM (or 5400RPM at a minimum) hard drive with capacities of about 250-300 GB.

How: Buy with a bulk deal
Price: ~ Rs. 3500 with casing

DVD Stack

Even though you have an external hard disk, you’ll want to store your movies, sitcom episodes and documentaries on DVDs. It also makes sense to back up essential data onto optical media – it’s much more stable than magnetic media such as hard disks – whether internal or external.

How: Buy locally in stacks of 25
Price: ~ Rs. 12-15 per DVD.

Smartphone

A smartphone that sync contacts and calendar events is extremely useful. Having your contacts backed up is extemely important. Also, by syncing your phone calendar with Microsoft Outlook (which most Nokia phones are capable of) is a great way to keep track of classes, submissions, deadlines and other events even when not tied to your computer. Finally, by syncing your Outlook contacts with your phone’s address book, you can store several details about people in addition to phone numbers. In a later HOWTO, I’ll demonstrate how you can use Outlook as your master information database during your MBA.

How: Buy before you reach college
Price: ~ Rs. 10000. The Nokia E50 is highly recommended.

Office chair

Most B-schools provide terrible chairs in hostel rooms. I’ve seen moulded plastic ones and a range of metal chairs with weaved seats and backrests. Add bad posture to that and I’m not surprised at the number of classmates that complained of backache all the time. It’s worth investing in the best office chair you can find locally. Remember, you’ll be using that chair several hours a day for two years. Do it for your back’s sake. You can either auction it to your juniors when you leave, or have it transported back home.

How: Buy at the local furniture store. Try to round up enough numbers for a bulk deal.
Price: ~ Rs. 5000

Speakers

2 satellite speakers and one subwoofer should be enough. Remember to place the subwoofer unit as close to the ground as possible.

How: Buy in a bulk deal or from a senior
Price: ~ Rs. 2300

What else?

So there it is. If you’ve been through a B-school, do write if there’s anything this article missed or got wrong. If you’re a to-be B-schooler, let me know what else you’d like to know.

Coming up – Essential Software Guide, B-school Edition