BarCamp at IIT-Delhi, India on 11-12 October 2008

I am happy to invite you to the fifth avatar of BarCampDelhi, which will be held at IIT-Delhi on 11th and 12th October. With 100+ registrations already, the event is set to be super-exciting this time.

For those of you who do not know what BarCamps are all about, check this wikipedia entry. Barcamps are mainly user generated events with no fixed agenda. All the attendees are invited to participate in the talks and whoever wants to voice his opinion on anything, he can. As the word goes around, “BarCamp is an event where no one is barred from speaking.” [Courtesy: Prashant Singh...  Read the entire post โ†’

What Hackers Need to Learn

To someone with a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

More than for anyone else, this is most true for hackers. If they have learnt a new technology or a new methodology, they subconsciously hunt for where they can apply that new-new thing. When they have a so-called epiphany, they work like asses to come up with self-contained solution, which they like to call as a startup. Then they enter into a cocoon thinking that auto-magically their startup will be next big thing and probably change the world.  ...  Read the entire post โ†’

A New Internet on the Anvil?

[Note: The following is a guest post written by Heather Johnson exclusively for this blog. If you too want to write a guest post, you are most welcome. Contact me at [email protected]]

In todayโ€™s scenario, is it possible to even think for a moment about life without the Internet? The web as we know it has evolved tremendously over the past 15 years to be used for purposes beyond sending email and its popularity has spread to every nook and corner of the globe. But has progress truly been made, especially in the way that it should have been? ...  Read the entire post โ†’

New Features in MyJugaad.in – Slideshow for Webpages

I am very proud to announce you that we have developed a whole lot of new features in MyJugaad.in. Some of them are the following:

  • The Search Zone. Now you can search the web, blogs, images and videos from MyJugaad.in and watch results as a slideshows. The feature uses Yahoo, Google, Flickr and Youtube for powering the search.
  • Instant Creation of Slideshow. On the main page, just enter the feed URL and a slideshow is generated. No need to register!
  • Sleeker Navigation Bar. If you haven’t checked the new slideshow interface, you are surely missing an experience. The navigation bar of the slideshow is sleeker and cooler than ever.
  • The Best New Feature: Embed Slideshows on your Blog/Website. Just grab embed code from the desired slideshow and paste it in your blog. Check below to see how the embedded slideshow looks like.



By the way, MyJugaad.in has had excellent reviews from numerous websites. Some of them are KillerStartups, DesiStartups and Anti Social Development. If you too can help us by spreading the word, nothing like it!

Do check out the new features and let us know how you find them. Your feedback is sincerely appreciated. ...  Read the entire post โ†’

Hindi’s First Social Network – Kindo.com Launches in Hindi

Following is straight from the Kindo team:

We had been working hard on the release for quite sometime and we’re quite excited with this Hindi launch. We believe that the service would provide tremendous value to the Indian families across the globe. Especially ‘Indian students and engineers’ now living in the US, UK and Australia can easily create a network of all of their family members. Hindi is one of the most popular languages and is amongst the top 3 widely spoken languages. ...  Read the entire post โ†’

Mnemonic Dictionary: A Quick Review

A quick review of Mnemonic Dictionary:

  • Concept: Interesting. When I prepared for GRE, I used mnemonics extensively. So, thumbs up to the team for actualizing this concept of creating and sharing mnemonics for difficult words.
  • Team: Seems to be dedicated to me. While I must admit that initially I thought that the website is a hobbyist venture, now I feel that it is on a solid footing.
  • Revenue Model: It seems that their primary source of revenue is through advertisements. But it is interesting to note that they offer one-to-one sessions for GRE preparation. I wonder who is the tutor on the other end. Founders themselves?
  • Target Audience: Clearly Indian students preparing for GRE, GMAT or CAT. Most of the mnemonics include Indian connotations.
  • Suggestions: Rely on advertisements for revenue to a minimal level. Offline version of mnemonic dictionary. A better looking website. A section for mnemonics which are universal in nature (that is, the ones which are not just for Indians).
  •  ...  Read the entire post โ†’

    How I built a web app in six days for Rs. 350 ($8.75) only

    I just read this story where they talk about how they built a web app in 4 days for $10,000. Voila! It struck me that I have been equally competitive (if not better) in terms of building a web app. So, here I share my story of building a web app.

    I recently built MyJugaad.in, which lets anybody create a slideshow from a set of webpages or RSS feeds. Following is the time line and the money involved during making this web app.

    • Day 1: Conceived the idea. Explored the idea space. Refined it. Drew user interface for the slideshow on a paper.
    • Day 2: Realized that Javascript is the way to go forward. Researched on Javascript Toolkits. Found JQuery to be the best. Learnt Jquery. Started programming Slideshow front-end using JQuery.
    • Day 3: Wasted a ton of time on sorting cross-browser incompatibilities. Done some more programming. Working prototype ready by evening.
    • Day 4: Wanted to make a system for user authentication and management, slideshow creation and management. Confused between Django, CodeIgniter or CakePhP. Chose CodeIgniter. Started Learning and programming the web app. (Used SimplePie for RSS feed fetching and parsing.)
    • Day 5: Finished Programming. Discovered that NYTimes.com was breaking the slideshow due to their iframe breaking script. Had a hell of a time trying fixing that.
    • Day 6: Looked for interesting free designs on the web. Chose this. Implemented and integrated the design with the web app. Wrote a basic ‘about’, ‘faq’, ‘contact’ page. Uploaded the web app on a shared hosting account free of cost (courtesy: my friend). Used a domain already purchased: myjugaad.in (cost Rs. 350). Seeded the app with a few initial users and data. Announced the web app on my homepage and status message on GTalk.

    What’s missing?

    • Market Research: I should have done initial market research. Instead, I simply jumped into programming the web app. If I had done some market research, I would have discovered a product with almost the same feature set as mine’s. Nevertheless, I learnt a lot during my six day journay. So, I don’t regret making this app.
    • Testing: I just did some initial testing. But should have done a little bit more testing.
    • Users: I didn’t do any marketing for my web app. That’s bad and I am going to fix it soon.

    Hope this post helps you write and launch your own web app in record time.
    Any thoughts? ...  Read the entire post โ†’

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