nope .. i don't think this is blowing your trumpet ! just factual info .. no idolising or seeking idolatory either
thks for letting the list know that there are such enormous qualities and potentials in some members here in our list hope we can give the flash to the diamond after the grinding that this list is going thru ..pk (proud .. not glad .. to have you on board raja .. you'll be an asset anywhare !) ----- Original Message ----- From: Raja Guha <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, September 21, 2002 8:50 AM Subject: [ilug-cal] Slaking Manas Laha's curiosity ( and blowing my trumpet ! ) > > This used to be the "Re: [ilug-cal] Re: Points to ponder" thread. > > Manas Laha wrote: > > >>What? Oh! What has the list achieved since its inception? > > > > For one thing, it has brought so many of us, Linux-lovers together. That > > is no mean achievement. I feel it all the time, since I live away from > > Kol and do not have the chance to physically meet you all. > > yes, that it has and I have often expressed gratefulness to the > list-admin for making this possible. But my question to > the list has been "Is this all we want to accomplish?" Remain > a forum for (IMHO pointless and fruitless) "adda"? Gathering people is > fine - motivating them to act in unison is better. > > > > >>Tathagata Bannerjee stated that all but one founder member has left the > >>city - I have a thought - Perhaps, the wrong people founded the list! > >>Perhaps the list was their ticket to whereever they masnaged to run > away to. > > > > > > Now, this is too much. I personally barely know any of the founder > > members. But I am aware that they did not start this list or the LUG out > > of selfish motives. > > I have been on this list long enough to have learnt that. > > Yes it was too much. I merely wished to point out that whatever the > dedication of the founders to "ilug", their dedication to "cal" is > displayed by their leaving it. Even this is an unfair > statement considering the reality of finding employment in the city. > > On a broader perspective - it seldom makes sense to try to judge > motivations - just accomplishments are enough! > > > And finally, what Raja Guha hints about his activities has aroused my > > curiosity. Would he please let us know more? > > > > glad you asked - > > A sad sad story > --------------- > > Overall goal of the project was to bring the benifits of the internet to > the general populace of countries like India (large populations with > low-income, low-education levels) > > Technical goals were to create a complete UI based on voice I/O alone. > This was choosen because it had the dual benefits of making the system > accessable to illiterate persons and also to drastically reduce costs by > elimination of the CRT. (Old 486 boxes could be had for the cost of > transport in the US) > > Actually accomplished was a multi-user voicemail box(VMB) system using a > touchtone phone as the I/O device. Users could manage accounts via the > phone and admin could be accomplished remotely via dial-in. > This was publicly demo-ed in Sept. 2000 > > It found mention in the TOI and the Telegraph. That was the beginning > of the end. Enquiries by several parties began to use up my time. > > Nothing panned out. Pressure to find funding began to rise. > > Designs were created for expanding the VMB for e-commerce transactions > and some trial-code was written. It was hoped that business services - > such as marketplaces for grains, marketing channels for corporates etc. > - could pay for the cost of providing free personal VMB service, > especially for those without easy access to telephones. It was dreamt > that this technology would have a substantial impact on the lives of the > economically deprived. > > Nothing panned out. Pressure to find funding rose higher. > > Several utilities of use to corporates were writ ten. A notification > system that allowed monitoring of any SQL database or any Internet > webpage for any condition and notification delivery by email, voicemail, > fax or phone was demo-ed several times to several business persons. > Said persons would be visibly impressed upon an email to their yahoo or > hotmail account triggering their mobile to ring and announce the name of > the sender. > > Nothing panned out. Pressure to find funding rose to the point where I > returned to the US to start working again with vague hopes of marketing > our Notification Server there. > > Sept. 11th happened. The bottom dropped out. > > I soon found I was on the wrong side of the battle lines and returned > home. Sadly, sadly I had to ask my two collaborators to find other > employment. > > ----end of sad story----- > > Currently, I am involved w/ two projects. > > The first is a continuation on the theme of our ultra-low cost > communications systems. It is the creation of a medium distance > (5-25+km) wireless data link. A design based on enhancement of > existing low-cost short-range data network cards has been done. I am > trying to learn from my mistakes and actually trying to find marketing > support BEFORE making layouts on development. A wireless expert has > been helping me on this. > > The second project is one which I expect to pursue for a while. It > currently takes up (or used to take up till recently) most of my time. > It is a set of XML Schemas for commonly used commecial documents such as > a challan, bill of sale etc. They will form the core for a acccounts and > financial management system. > > The 2nd stage will be to create an app server and commandline client > (SOAP or XML-RPC based) for accounting, inventory, financial management > tasks. At the third stage GUIs will be developed. The development plan > allows incremental development w/ little coordination by any number of > developers after the initial frameworks are erected. Individuals could > write new Schemas or write short programs for single functions as > add-ons to the server or to the GUI w/o stepping on the toes of others. > > Total networking support (especially suited for the Indian reality) and > Indian language support would be built in from the start. b2b ecommerce > would be possible using this server. > > This project was choosen after realizing that the only kind of software > produced and consumed in India is accounting software. I am being > helped by a couple of CAs in this effort. > > It isd hoped that this product will cause small businesses to adopt a > computer based accounting system and will eventually lead to b2b commerce. > > Any or all of these projects need a home. It could be ilug-cal if > members allow it and choose to become a more formalized affiar. Hence > my additional interest. > > --------- > > So TGB - if you have read this you know what the "blah blah" is - I am > sure it fails to beat Q3 for thrills! > > -- > Raja Guha > --------- > > > > > -- > To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the body > "unsubscribe ilug-cal" and an empty subject line. > FAQ: http://www.ilug-cal.org/help/faq_list.html > -- To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the body "unsubscribe ilug-cal" and an empty subject line. FAQ: http://www.ilug-cal.org/help/faq_list.html
