Life in Balance: Amit Chaudhary’s Blog
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Other than the main feed, there are now separate feeds for Work related blog items (Technology, Software development, etc) and Spiritual items(Yoga, etc). Miscellaneous items such as Personal Development, Northwest are still only in the complete feed.

Here is the list.

• Complete blog feed
• Work items blog feed
• Spiritual items blog feed

Greg Kroah-Hartman, author of Linux Kernel in a Nutshell writes on his blog: Free Linux Driver Development!

Yes, that’s right, the Linux kernel community is offering all companies free Linux driver development. ….

… you will receive a complete and working Linux driver that is added to the main Linux kernel source tree. The driver will be written by some of the members of the Linux kernel developer community (over 1500 strong and growing)

…. If your company is worried about NDA issues surrounding your device’s specifications, we have arranged a program with OSDL/TLF’s Tech Board to provide the legal framework where a company can interact with a member of the kernel community in order to properly assure that all needed NDA requirements are fulfilled.

This offer is in effect for all different types of devices, from USB toys to PCI video devices to high-speed networking cards. If you manufacture it, we can get Linux drivers working for it.

There is also a FreedomHEC unconference equivalent of WinHEC conference with an fairly large list of device driver developers participating.

This means times are changing.
It could mean better support for hardware out of box for Linux. It also means for Software Developers like me and many of my ex-colleagues who have done linux device driver development for corporations in the past, some of the work is going away. Interesting…
HatTip: Slashdot Linux Kernel Devs Offer Free Driver Development

Greg Linden writes in Is Microsoft’s Web war lost? and believes that Microsoft can still win the internet war with Google.

The key though as far as I see is in perception, Search though an important part, is not the Internet neither is it the Web. Here are some numbers of Microsoft (MSN, Live) service users from Microsoft TechEd 2006 where Microsoft is ahead in quest for Internet users:

• 240 million Hotmail users
• 230 million MSN messenger users
• 72 million MSN Spaces (blogging, photos etc)

And in blogging it started after Google’s own service (blogger.com)

Google and others know this and so does Microsoft, we the audience sometimes forget.

Update: ReadWriteWeb has a blog entry on the topic: Web War Not Won Yet

From the Fortune The Midas List

No. 4 Ram Shriram of Sherpalo, the angel investor in Google.
HOT: The growing, consuming Indian middle class. Tech that powers mobile phones, which are the PCs for many Indians. Clean water in India.

NOT: New consumer Internet startups in search, social networking or video.

No. 20 Mark Tluszcz of Mangrove Capital Partners

HOT: Russia, especially administration, encryption and security software. Technology that bridges the Internet to mobile devices. Targeted advertising. Intuitive search. Internet TV. Security for mobile devices; third-party attacks on phones will surge in coming years.

NOT: Copycats in VOIP, music and photos.

No. 32 Peter Barris of New Enterprise Associates

HOT: Technology services companies that handle business functions like printing or logistics. Communications services companies. Bringing mature offerings, like dish TV, to emerging markets in Asia. Wi-Fi.

NOT: Security is overfunded. The old models of delivering enterprise software.

No. 37 Arjun Gupta of TeleSoft Partners

HOT: Biometrics for identity management in mobile commerce. Location-based wireless services. Strained silicon for low-power, faster chips. Mobile advertising.

NOT: Most enterprise software and semiconductors.

My thoughts:

-I believe that consumer internet startups will do well, though they will have to provide real value to users. As always, except the year 2000.
-Because there are a large number of these (web 2.0) startups, quite a few will not make it in the next 2-3 years

-Mobile is getting as crowded as the internet consumer space and it is more difficult a space due to the service providers being the middle man and risk averse, that typical consumers particularly in the US are not on a mobile lifestyle like in Asia and many existing companies are targetting the mobile market.

Questions to ask about your startup or idea from TechStars, the Startup bootcamp from Boulder, CO.

Actually from the TechStars application, but apply when thinking about your startup or idea

• What’s new or different about what you’ll be doing?
• How will your company make money?

• What excites you most about your idea?

• Who are your competitors, or who will they be? Provide any relevant details about them.

• What are the risks in your business? What could go wrong?

• Are any of your ideas hard for competitors to duplicate? Why?

• How long will it take you to complete a working prototype? How long will it take you to complete a marketable product?

• If somebody offered to buy your company at the end of the summer program, how much money would it take to get you to say yes?

• For each founder, please tell us what makes them special or demonstrates that they have what it takes to succeed in your market and company.

• How and when did the founders meet? Have any of the founders worked together before? If so, where and on what? Provide URLs if possible.

• What does entrepreneurship mean to you?
  

Summary of Rajesh Jain of Emergic blog’s article on moving From Employee to Entrepreneur

• Contemplating entrepreneurship is like a N+1 syndrome. It keeps getting postponed to the next year and that next year rarely comes.
• It is an intensely personal decision. It is one which needs to be discussed and debated with family and friends. It depends on each one’s appetite for risk.
• Once decided, the parachute needs to be cut. If we know that there are always the options of going back to the safety and security of the other world, it will be much harder making the entrepreneurial option work.
• To create a roadmap, create a mental model of the industry instead of an idea as ideas will change
• To develop a mental model, start blogging and create a one page vision document. Discuss this with friends and experts in the field.
• Entrepreneurship is a life-transforming experience. Give it a try at least once in your life.