Work from home

A great benefit that technology has offered us as a boon is the option to work from home. Such an arrangement would have been unacceptable 5 years before and that too in India, even now it is not a common practice. This may be because of various reasons like immaturity of the employer and the employee, failing to establish a shared goal and a common vision, unwillingness to take responsibility and commitment, lack of mutual trust, etc. In the western world, flexi-hour work, freedom from the cubical, fun at work and all such factors that would turn work into gratification for the employee and enhanced productivity for the employee has become a commonality. This mutual benefit comes from freedom that the employee experiences which makes him more creative, innovative and be focused on what had been assigned to them. Now, I understand why I get so excited when it snows too much forcing me to work from home. Let the vitual offices at home grow and the children get all the warmth that the very presence of their parents would give them.

What do you think?

Here is an interesting column that inspired me post on work from home.

When Less is More

Triple Play

The dramatic increase of broadband Internet access in the domestic consumer sector, the communication and multimedia entertainment options, changing communication and entertainment preferences, explosion of new multifunctional consumer electronic devices, shift of use in case of current consumer electronic devices, competent availability of offerings from the operators, service providers and content providers, promising wireless access technologies like WiMax turning the hot spots into hot zones, healthy per capita income and affordability, fast emerging digital homes .. all this and more pave a strong foundation for Triple Play – the voice, video, data services.


Triple Play essentially empowers the people at home to play an interactive fun-filled online game through the Desktop that is wired (Ethernet) , working from home and attending a web conference through a wirelessly connected laptop (WiFi or WiMax) , watching the favorite live TV program (Set-top Box) or demanding a past episode of a favorite program (IPTV) , calling their friends and family on the other side of the globe for nothing (WiFi or WiMax Phone) , calling the grocery store for a carton of milk (Analog Phone), receiving a call or an SMS or MMS in the cell phone, listening to the favorite music (Media Center), all this through a single connection (Residential Gateway), paying a single bill, dealing with a single service provider, through a single cable.

With so many services being packaged into a single offering are sometimes refered to as Multiplay. But, I still like it to be called Triple Play for its rhythm for it sounds good when pronounced. Give it a try. Say it loud!


Triple Play also demands a tightly knit interoperability of various players in the communication and IT industry. The telecom operators, services providers, network vendors and enablers, system integrators, content providers and all other players would end up establishing a common platform creating and end-to-end Triple Play service delivery Architecture to serve the consumers competently, there by, positioning themselves to maximum capitalize the latent potentials of Triple Play minimizing their CAPEX / OPEX and maximizing their ARPU.

Though major players like Microsoft, 2-Wire, Motorola, Alcatel-Lucent , Verizon, Comcast, Siemens, MTNL, Reliance Infocomm, Bharti Televentures having already launched Triple Play and are chasing each other to reach the market, the race is still on. Hope 2007 will bridge the digital divide and turn the Triple Play dream a reality.

Mind - the multi-channel TV

I remember Sri Sri Ravishankar in one of his satsangs quoting that, most of us let our minds become a 100 channel television. I was able to relate his quote to my mind and it has become more synonymous with the recent advancements in television technology like Plasma TV, HDTV, IPTV and more. The mind surfs so fast that, sometimes we see only the advertisements being broadcasted in all the channels. Interesting ads targeted at acquiring this, possessing that, fulfilling dreams, satisfying expectations, saving big bucks, improving credit history, consolidating debts, relishing the delicious caviar, owning the whole world and more, all without shouldering any responsibility and making an effort.

Then it stops at a technology channel to grasp a few things that might help blabber in today’s meeting. Jumps in to a sport channel manifesting itself into a Sachin or Magic Johnson or Michael Jordan for it appears to be the only way to shelve the frustrations of not being able to be a part of the school team or the college team. The Discovery Channel or the Animal Planet is the next jump, hoping to gain knowledge on mother earth, swearing to become an active member of Green Peace or Blue Cross, and then jumps back to the technology channel. Happy home coming turns out to be the SUN TV mega serial only with the exception of Pogo TV or M TV that is visited in between. With all this in a day, Adult channels are not spared. Finally, settles in spiritual channel that lets the rest of the channels to pour into it, so that the TV can be shut down in the night.

Sometimes, the channels run day and night. Many a times, multiple channels run simultaneously. A thriller movie, an action movie, a music channel, a sports channel, a financial channel, an adult movie and a spirituality movie, all running at the same time, is when is confusion. Migrating to IPTV, I believe, would o ffer video-on-demand, enabling me to opt the right channel at the right time, like the good old poem -

A time to be born and a time to die;

A time to weep, and a time to laugh;

A time to mourn and a time to dance;

A time to embrace, and a time to refrain;

A time to loose, and a time to win;

A time to rend, and a time to sew;

A time of war, and a time of peace.

Life moves fast. It rushes us from heaven to hell in a matter of seconds, turning our minds into a multicasting television. Opting to be an IPTV is wise in a life where pain being inevitable and suffering being optional with video-on-demand.