February 28, 2010

Blackberry for Work – Upcoming Book Release

Filed under: General, My articles — Tags: , , — kunal @ 6:57 pm

Books are written and published by the hundreds every day. Topics ranging from technology to philosophy throng the literary market. So what is it that gave this book the courage to reach out to you? It isn’t the content of it, neither is it the style. It is the soul of the book that eternally hopes for many such repeats in the future.
Shikha Gupta, my co-author (really – she did all the work!) of the book “BlackBerry for Work”, which is being published by Apress, has decided to direct all proceeds (author’s share) of our book to a charity in India. The Mitr Foundation is a Trust founded in the city of Hyderabad, with the objective of contributing its might towards the empowerment of the girl child through education. Somewhere between the elite and the underprivileged lies the core essence of our endeavor. She has pledged to undertake the responsibility of educating 3 children.

Shikha Gupta and Kunal Mittal


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September 26, 2009

US Citizenship

Filed under: General — kunal @ 6:45 am

I got my US citizenship yesterday. I must say this was the least painful immigration process that I have been through in the last 13 years of being in the US.

1. Started with a Student Visa in 1996
2. EAD in 1999
3. H1-B in 2000
4. Green card application in 2002 and subsequent EAD’s till 2004
5. Green card in 2004
6. US Citizenship in 2009

I applied on 5/11, a day after I crossed the 5 year mark on the green card. Within 3 weeks, I was called for the fingerprinting. Another 5 weeks later the interview and yesterday was the Oath ceremony.

The Oath Ceremony is a fairly elaborate deal. 2312 people took the oath with me in the LA Sports Arena. The area was designated a district court with a US judge presiding over the session.

The Oath process is as follows
1. Reach the arena and park 20 bucks to park
2. Stand in a short line to register – basically turn in your green card and review the N-445
3. Take the oath – this includes actually taking the oath, hear a coiuple short speeches, a couple videos (incl. one from President Obama) and then the pledge of allegiance and the national anthem (no you don’t have to sing it)
4. If you want to get your passport made the same day, you take that oath right there

Once you are done with this, you form lines again to pick up your Certificate of Naturalization. They had also setup a passport office so you could apply for your passport right there – they do take your ORIGINAL certificate. They did offer photo services too.

Overall a really well organized and good event to welcome you to US Citizenship….

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September 1, 2009

Gmail outage today

Filed under: General — Tags: , — kunal @ 8:28 pm

I am reading way too many articles and blogs really dinging Google for its Gmail outage today. Don’t get me wrong – I was as impacted by this as anybody else – I use Gmail and Google Accounts for personal as well as multiple businesses.

However, the last Gmail outage that I can recall was in Feb for 2.5 hours. Before that sometime in August of 2008 – if memory serves me.

Overall, for the type of service that is being provided, the volume, the # of customers and the fact that it is “FREE” .. I beg to argue that the outage can be forgiven. Hey.. any other email service I have used in the past or still use (I will not take names) tend to have more issues then Gmail has ever had!! But no one seems to make a big deal of that….

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August 17, 2009

Consulting CTO’s

See this interesting blog posting about the value of a Consulting CTO. Consulting CTO’s can help you out on a short term basis; generally for small amounts of equity.

Depending on the type and amount of work; you will end up giving 25,000-100,000 stock options (where you have 10 million outstanding @ .01 – .10 cents). These will generally vest based on the terms of engagement and deliverables you require from the freelance / consulting CTO.

My recommendation; as someone who actively plays this role for multiple startups is to be very clear up front on the scope of involvement, deliverables and compensation. Startups are by nature fluid. The core team and all need others involved to be flexible; but putting some structure around this at the beginning can lead to a successful relationship long term.

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June 17, 2009

Web 2.0 changes the Art industry

Filed under: General, Web 2.0 — Tags: , , , — kunal @ 5:17 am

I recently ran across a new innovative Web 2.0 marketing campaign. ArtFlute is a premier Art portal based out of India. They have artists wanting to post art from all over the world – however for now they are focusing on the Indian market.

In partnership with a boutique consulting firm in Hyderabad (Bodhtree Consulting), they are changing the way art enthusiasts can find and buy art. They are combining the concept of a simple online portal, an offline gallery and Web 2.0.

In just 1 month,
258 Facebook members
937 on Twitter
Somewhat equal numbers on LinkedIn, MySpace, HiFi, Friendster etc.

Just by using a daily twitter post, they were able to network with someone to partner in opening an offline art gallery as an extension to their online business.

A few days back they have launched a collection of applications for the leading social networks like Facebook, MySpace, etc. This will have a dramatic impact as now art fans can view this art within the context of their favorite online presence.

In talking with the founders, Neeraj and Chandni Harlalka, they are looking at expanding their presence using Google Gadgets, Vista Gadgets, iPhone applications and truly leverage the Semantic Web for Art.

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