The Transparent Toaster Corollary

Here’s a meme that resounds quite often in the startup world: Execution is more important than ideas. Good ideas are only so good in the mind of the beholder, unless proven to be useful or effective through execution. Ideas matter. The execution of those ideas matters more. But,…

How To Build Something People Want?

The real question is not “how to build” something. There are enough technology experts around us who can build stuff. Capital, technology, processes and standards are only secondary to good product design. The real question then, is “what to build”, or “what to build”…

Why Writing Software Is Like Engineering

How would you classify writing software? Is it science (as in computer science), a form of art (as in code is poetry or prose) or an engineering discipline? Terence Parr, a professor of computer science at the University of San Francisco, recently wrote about why writing software is not like…

In Touch With Augmented Reality

I’ve been reading a lot about “Augmented Reality” lately. Just the other day, I saw this beautiful short film titled ‘World Builder‘, that also depicts this powerful holographic technology to express the fusion of the physical and virtual worlds. Augmented Reality (AR) is basically…

First look at Windows 7

At PDC 2008, Microsoft gave the first public demonstration of Windows 7, its next generation operating system. I’ve been following the state of engineering behind Windows 7 for a while, both architecturally and UI, and after looking at the simplistic look, I hope it delivers a more secure,…

Content, not Chrome

Today, most of what we use the Web for on a daily basis aren’t just web pages, they are “applications”. These applications, which run inside our Web browsers, are increasingly becoming more advanced in their functionality and more interactive in their usability. The Web browser acts…

Simple Authentication for the Web

Automated email-based password reestablishment (EBPR) is an efficient, cost-effective means to deal with forgotten passwords. Simple Authentication for the Web (SAW) [pdf] improves upon this basic approach to user authentication to create an alternative to password-based logins.…