Vijay Basrur

PHP List and my experience with open source products

We use the LAMP technology stack at my current work place. At my previous work place even though we were using more of MS dependent technologies we experimented successfully with a few open source products. We used Asterix to drive an inhouse VoIP network and Zenoss to monitor our entire network.

At Quikr we were struggling to figure out a mailing solution to communicate with our user base. Enter PHPList. PHPList is a simple program which lets you manage your registered user base and send out mailers as and when required. You can set up filters for collecting data (city, gender etc.) and can send out mailers as and when required. It has an easy interface for your users to unsubscribe, if they need to. If you need a mailing solution give PHPList a shot. But make sure you got a good guy who know how to set up linux based applications.

We also use OSticket to manage Customer Service emails. It works like a breeze but lacks in some features which could have made life a wee bit easier. But ope source products come with some limitations and you have to learn to live around them.

Will post about more products as and when we start using them.

Mime version of Torn

Spotted this on Facebook and hunted it down on You Tube

A mime performance of Torn by Johan Lippowitz with Natalie Imbruglia

A nice watch

Hiring

Hiring good people is probably the most toughest task for any organization, especially a startup. Ironically folks are still weary about coming on board startups even if the startup is well funded.

We have been trying to hire folks over the past 3-4 months and its been tough. We’ve tried quite a few options (LinkedIn, consultants, job sites, databases, friends, networks and the works). while we have made some progress on some of these fronts, the overall progress has been slow.

I’ve spoken to a few folks in Tier 1 IT firms and I get a general feeling that most folks in these firms have totally de-risked their careers. No appetite or hunger to take on a challenge. The only factor most care about is the money.

While its a personal choice of being a small fish in a big pond or a big fish in a small pond, it is proven that startups teach you much more than conventional large organizations, atleast I’ve experienced it first hand and can vouch for it.

As far as job security goes, I don’t think large firms offer very high security. After all don’t the Oracle’s, Yahoo’s of the world handout pink slips when the going gets tough. Yeah sure even if they do, they usually dole out decent severance packages but that’s another story. So I guess it boils down to the fear of unknown. There is little unknown in large firms. Everything is standardised and you just get down to doing your well defined job.

In startups it is a different story. There are very thin lines about job descriptions and if the situation so demands you gotta be ready to do whatever it takes. Right from lifting furniture to pitching in for a high level presentation. I have a nudging feeling that job satisfaction levels are higher at startups than large firms.

So what do you prefer, job satisfaction or a role predictability?

Haywards Stout

I had a pint of Haywards Stout a few weeks back and kinda liked it. I picked up a few sometime last week and downed one tonight. It is no where near Guinness but its not bad either. Quite a refreshing change from the conventional lager.

Steve Jobs Stanford Commencement Speech 2005

Watch this legendary speech of Steve Jobs (Stanford Commencement Speech 2005):

Text of the speech here

From PluggdIn

Various Cuisines in India

I got a forward today which was an excellent resource for the foodie in me. Its an representation of all cuisines available across India.

It is making me hungry

Long URLs

Bumped into http://www.kapoormedicalandambulanceservices.com/ while reading Amit Ranjan’s blog

Considering the kind of service these guys are offering, you may actually run out of breath by the time you finish typing the URL.