Tonmoy Goswami

The butterfly that made us a customer for life

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 14:42:21 +0000

When my wife was pregnant with our son, we received a goodie bag. You know the kind. Every expecting parent in Sweden gets one. It’s stuffed with freebies: diapers, baby cold creams, shampoo, discount coupons at baby ecom sites. You open it, you flip through the stuff, and most of it ends up in a drawer.

But one thing didn’t end up in a drawer.

Among the trail packs and samples was a Libero diaper starter pack. And next to it, a small butterfly remote toy. The kind you hang from a stroller or a car seat so the baby has something to look at. It had big eyes, a smile, and tiny wings. Cute. Minimal Libero branding. You wouldn’t even notice the logo unless you looked for it.

One takeaway from 7 years of building Storypick

Wed, 16 Dec 2020 05:03:15 +0000

7 years ago, on 14th December 2013 Sangeeta and I looked at each other and said, “Let’s do it” before hitting the publish button.

10 seconds later, the first ever article on Storypick was live.

5 months later, the CEO of one of India’s largest media companies flew us to his office & offered to acquire Storypick. We passed.

We passed not because the offer was low (we weren’t making any money then, but we had millions of readers) but for the opportunity: the opportunity to grow Storypick on our own terms, while getting our hands dirty, learning entrepreneurship the hard way.

Let technology assist you in your morning reading ritual. Here's my setup.

Thu, 12 Nov 2020 10:31:23 +0000

My morning ritual consists of making tea and spending at least an hour reading on my phone. The calm ambiance of the morning makes for probably the best time of the day to soak in quality knowledge. My experiments with super productivity keeps evolving with time; for instance 5 years ago my daily productivity schedule looked very strict. Here’s a sneak peek into my recent focus on outcome based outlook. I have also shared my current productivity bundle.

How to think like an entrepreneur #2: When to DIY & when to delegate?

Sat, 07 Nov 2020 09:11:38 +0000

In the first part of the ‘Think like an entrepreneur’ mini-series, we learned to think of pain-points rather than ideas.

In entrepreneurship, much like life, we shouldn’t try to do everything ourselves. You might think that it’s cheaper to DIY, but we’re losing time (which is costly) trying to do something that can be done better & quicker by an expert.

Obviously, if you’re the expert yourself, by all means do it yourself. But let’s be real, we all have our limitations.

How to enable automatic reminders for articles in Pocket

Wed, 04 Nov 2020 15:25:57 +0000

Pocket is a read-it-later application that takes your bookmarks to the next level. It lets you save content for future reading, listen to them (if you’re too tired to read), save them for eternity (even if the original source goes offline), tag by category, highlight sentences and much more. Best of all, its Freemium plan works for most light readers.

But any heavy user of Pocket will realize, sooner or later, that a reminder functionality would be a great addition. Because, let’s admit it: we find a fantastic article, save it to Pocket, and then forget to go back to it on a later date.

Does your perception of yourself match with people's perception of you?

Thu, 29 Oct 2020 16:09:23 +0000

In TGIF#1, we realized that most people don’t want to retire, they just want to do things that make them lead a more fulfilling life.

With the next instalment of TGIF, I decided to go deeper into the human psyche. Personally, I believe most people have a ’ positive outcome, future oriented’ perception about themselves. It simply means that people have plans for their future and they strive everyday to be the person who would turn those dreams into realities.

3 Nova Launcher tricks for power users

Tue, 27 Oct 2020 14:00:20 +0000

If you’re on Android and love customizations, you probably are already using a 3rd-party launcher. But there’s a reason why Nova Launcher is often considered as #1; it’s because of its extreme customization possibilities. The tricks mentioned in this tutorial are meant for power users who use Nova to make themselves more productive.

Without further ado, let’s jump straight in.

1. Gestures + Activity = #1 reason why I love Nova

Nova has eleven gesture types, from simpler ones like ‘swipe up’ to complex gestures like ‘Double tab + swipe down’.

The riskiest thing is to take no risks.

Fri, 23 Oct 2020 07:23:12 +0000

When you realize that most people are risk-averse, the path to success seems almost obvious: embracing calculated risks.

In life, to start a journey, nobody waits for all the traffic lights between their home and destination to turn green.

If you know the destination, you simply acknowledge that there might be traffic jams, detours, red signals on the way. You check Google Maps and decide to take calculated risks.

“Oh, that’s not it. I actually have too much at stake if I lose.”

If you get $1 million dollars today, will you retire?

Sun, 11 Oct 2020 16:59:25 +0000

Two months ago, I started an experiment on Instagram.

I wanted to check if my friends (and followers on Instagram) would engage with deeper questions on life. My assumption was that most people love to have these discussions around deep philosophical inquiries. Hence, one Friday I decided to test it. Branded it as #TGIF ( T onmoy G oswami’s I nteresting F ridays) because hey, let’s be real…who would want to pass an opportunity to create an acronym. ;)

A simple trick that produces surprisingly creative solutions

Sat, 10 Oct 2020 15:47:17 +0000

If you are trying to find solutions to a problem in your life, you may consider adding the below approach to your strategy (among other methods):

Ask ‘What if the reverse happened’. And try to answer it.

E.g. The problem is: You want to test drive a car, but due to (insert your unique situation) you’re unable to visit the car showroom.

Applying the reverse approach: Instead of you visiting the car showroom for a test drive, what is the dealership sends someone to your home with the car?

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

Fri, 09 Oct 2020 18:11:52 +0000

There’s a lot hidden in this seemingly simple saying.

To win, you will have to figure out the game. But remember- it’s a stupid game. The rules are not predefined.

Then, where to start?

Start by taking a detour.

If you play the game like everyone else is playing, you can’t expect different results.

Need more hints?

Observe your behaviour, list down the things you do in a week. Then compare it with the activity of your peers, colleagues, family, friends, relatives, extended circles and beyond.

Doers have an unfair advantage over Idea-generators

Thu, 08 Oct 2020 16:43:03 +0000

As clichéd as it may sound, ideas are dime a dozen.

Although rarer than opinions, they are aplenty.

Yes, plenty of ideas.Inside people’s heads.

Some really good ideas. But still safely locked inside people’s heads. Some are even paranoid that others will steal their golden ideas.

But unless someone executes on those ideas and turn them into reality, the idea itself isn’t intrinsically valuable.

Doers > Ideas

If you fail while executing an idea, you learn. If you succeed while executing an idea, you win.

How to win amongst 7.8 billion people?

Wed, 07 Oct 2020 17:29:36 +0000

There are 7.8 billion people out there in our world.

There are limited skills. There are limited jobs.

So only a limited number of people will be ’the best’ in the world for a particular skill. Does that mean, everyone else, will have to settle for the 2nd best or B-team, B-companies, B-jobs, B-pay, B-lives?

The answer is NO. And we already know it because we see almost innumerable successful people around us, every day. Then what are these people excelling at? If they are not ’the best’ in this world at a particular skill, how are they achieving?

Money, popularity and success. How do they fit together in an equation?

Tue, 06 Oct 2020 15:10:31 +0000

Our shared belief is that success in life is a subjective concept. And the definition varies from person to person. But can we break the concept down to its most basic constituents?

Here’s my attempt:

In my world-view, A truly successful person has freedom.

This freedom manifests itself in three different ways:

The freedom to positively impact others. (after taking care of oneself)
The freedom to pursue dreams.
And financial freedom.

From Bill Gates to my mother, I could fit in every successful individual in this definition.

2 exercises to develop Independent Thinking

Mon, 05 Oct 2020 15:04:08 +0000

Our world view (and most opinions) are based on the Company we keep. In short, the media we consume (books, tv, internet, social media) and the people around us (friends, family, mentors, colleagues, neighbours).

And more often than we realize, our world-view is mostly a simple mashup of the opinions, principles, world-views of our Company without us actually analysing them, filtering them, connecting them to our existing understanding to form independent views. Because it’s easier, we simply accept the way others think and adopt them as our own.

How to identify if you're internally driven or not?

Sun, 04 Oct 2020 16:46:35 +0000

I was in my early teens when I read my first self-help book. It was the classic ‘You Can Win’ by Shiv Khera.

I don’t really remember how I got hold of the book (probably from the school library or maybe someone gifted it on my birthday) but one particular story left such a deep impression on my mind that I can still quote it.

Here it goes: Scenario 1: Your friend calls you up in the morning and praises you to no end. “You’re the most generous, most talented, most humble person in my life. Thank you so much.” You feel elated, the call makes you happy. You go to your office smiling with your chin up, pretty proud of yourself.

How to start thinking like an entrepreneur?

Sat, 03 Oct 2020 13:50:26 +0000

Entrepreneurs are creators.

They create value, they spot business opportunities, they break out of linear work.

To begin thinking like an entrepreneur, there’s one simple approach:

Don’t think of ideas, think of problems.

Real problems faced by real people.

Don’t think: If I create this, many people will buy it. Think: If I can solve this problem for them, people will pay me.

And before you know it, you will start spotting problems to solve everywhere you look. Trust me.

A sneak-peek into my personal productivity bundle

Fri, 02 Oct 2020 14:35:30 +0000

First things first, one can’t be more productive just by using a few apps. The way we use it matters more than the actual products themselves. Having said that, some products are better designed to nudge us in the right direction. Again, what suits me might not suit your style of working.

The motive of releasing a list is to help each other discover products that we might actually need but aren’t using already.

How to create value?

Thu, 01 Oct 2020 14:23:11 +0000

One fundamental tenet of life is that you cannot extract value without creating it first.

E.g. nobody’s going to pay you if you don’t offer something of value in return.

It applies in every sphere of life.

If your presence, your advice, your thoughts, your blogs, your tweets, your Instagram stories, your Facebook posts, your emails, your products, your services, your work, your job doesn’t create any value for someone, then you can’t expect to extract value in return.

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Wed, 30 Sep 2020 16:35:14 +0000

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What person will you be in 5 years?

Wed, 30 Sep 2020 15:18:58 +0000

Someone wiser than I once said that the person you will become in five years depends on two things viz.
a. the books you read
b. the people you spend time with

We can actually summarize it by saying: it depends on one thing: the Company you keep.

Company (Capitalized to distinguish from the usual word ‘company’) can be books you read, people around you, movies you watch, blogs you read, social media (or specifically the kind of accounts on social media) you consume and so on.

Be a good listener, they said. It'll be fun, they said.

Tue, 29 Sep 2020 15:32:44 +0000

Almost every communication tutorial will tell you to speak less, and listen more. Be a good listener, they say.

So you try shutting up.

And try to listen. You try to be a good listener.

Only to be distracted by your brain that starts fidgeting, trying to instantly judge every sentence, trying to form responses to every argument made, waiting impatiently for its turn to finally speak; to finally tell the other speaker how she’s wrong, how you don’t agree to her opinions/observations, or how you agree completely to her perspective but have a few more intelligent points to add to her statements.

The 15-minute Rule to earn instant credibility

Mon, 28 Sep 2020 10:18:41 +0000

How do you judge a person you’re meeting for the first time?

Non-verbal cues, body language, dressing sense, social manners, behaviour, mobile phone(!) or something else? While some of these are legit ways of forming a first impression, personally I follow just one principle: punctuality.

Punctuality means being on-time. And being on-time means being 15 minutes early.

Being 15 minutes early shows that you respect and value the time of the person you’re meeting. It also give you the opportunity to:

Communication is not a soft skill

Sun, 27 Sep 2020 15:56:51 +0000

Every successful _________ in the world is good at communication.

You may fill up the blank with any job title, position, career choice, occupation and still the statement will stand.

Because to be successful at something, one not only needs a canvas to draw their ideas on, they also need to sell it. By selling, I don’t mean the usual exchange of money against goods/services.

A piece of art won’t gather an audience by itself. It needs a story. A new reform bill won’t pass by itself. It needs persuasion. A LinkedIn profile won’t get you a job by itself. It needs an interview.

How can Jio offer Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+ Hotstar with its postpaid plans?

Sat, 26 Sep 2020 15:41:15 +0000

Jio recently announced new postpaid plans with three major OTT providers bundled with it viz. Netflix (single-device, mobile plan), Amazon Prime and Disney+ Hotstar. Bundling OTT providers with postpaid plan isn’t a new concept. Airtel and Vodafone Idea (recently co-branded as Vi) had been offering such plans for quite some time now.

While bundled OTTs is a no-brainer strategy for Jio (it gets new postpaid users, who are highly valued in telecom), if you’re wondering how will it benefit Netflix, Prime and Disney+, it’s not that complex either.

The best way to learn something is to create

Fri, 25 Sep 2020 16:44:34 +0000

One of the fondest memories from my childhood is when my cousin, Mausum and I learnt to ride a bicycle within a day.

It was the first bicycle of my life, and it didn’t come with a user manual. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

From morning till the sun went down, we tried to master it; we fell, got scratches all over our limbs. But we returned home victorious, finally getting the art of pedalling while maintaining our balance. What a jubilant feeling that was!

Is Parkinson's Law getting in the way of your productivity?

Thu, 24 Sep 2020 14:31:28 +0000

Parkinson’s law states that “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.”

It basically means that when we have more than enough time to complete a task, we almost always end up making the work ‘stretch’.

E.g. if we need to prepare a presentation and have a month to do it, we will somehow make the task more complex, procrastinate, work at a slower pace than usual, have more ’let me first have a cup of coffee’ breaks, watch 3 seasons of an obscure crime series on Netflix and finally complete the task on the penultimate evening.

How do billboard ads track you & what to do about it

Wed, 23 Sep 2020 15:17:30 +0000

You must have experienced a variation of the following situation:

While travelling home, you notice a billboard of a brand (say, Toyota’s latest car); you make a passing remark about it to your partner.

“Toyota Glanza looks eerily similar to Baleno, isn’t it?” “They are basically the same car.”, replies your partner.

The next day at office, Toyota Glanza ads are all over your Facebook, Twitter, Google, Gmail etc.

You don’t believe it!

Do you write book summaries?

Tue, 22 Sep 2020 15:53:38 +0000

There are two major ways to truly soak in the knowledge present in good books viz.

Write book summaries
Discuss/teach it with/to someone who can comprehend

Finding someone who’s really interested in the same topic, share the same mental wavelength, have the intellectual prowess to comprehend/question/add their own independent thinking to the discussion is not always possible.

Thankfully, you don’t need another person to write book summaries. And even if you find someone to discuss, book summaries are so powerful that you can’t possibly not write them.

What's inside an artist's soul? A photograph that took 6 years to shoot holds a clue

Mon, 21 Sep 2020 12:33:32 +0000

One of my favourite quotes is by James Clear and it sums up life goals perfectly in just 6 powerful words:

https://twitter.com/JamesClear/status/1297189305023107072?s=20

While the first two are relatively easier to understand, how does one decipher an artist’s soul?

In my humble observation, there’s one clear difference between an artist and (say) a business person/logical thinker/normal practical everyday person- the soul of a great artist will often defy logic.

Let me explain.

How to answer a loaded question

Sun, 20 Sep 2020 17:15:00 +0000

“Why are millennials so lazy?” “Have you stopped hitting your pet?” “Will you still vote for this stupid politician?”

These are few examples of a loaded question. Such questions are ’loaded’ with an unjustified presupposition and it tricks you into answering in favour of the person questioning.

The above questions assume that millennials are lazy, you hit your pet and the politician (in question) is stupid.

And that’s the trap to avoid.

The secret to being a great artist is hidden in an episode of 'The Office'

Sat, 19 Sep 2020 16:29:38 +0000

What does it take to be a great artist?

Creativity? Talent? Practice? Inherited ‘gift’ from parents in your genes?

Maybe none of the above.

There are two things that separate a good artist from a great one. And surprisingly, the answer is hidden in plain sight in one of the episodes of the popular sitcom ‘The Office’ (US). Incidentally, most people would have overlooked this part of the episode because the dialogues are delivered by a side character; but it has stuck with me since.

How to convert any Sitemap to RSS Feed

Mon, 30 Mar 2020 08:16:31 +0000

Since you’re reading this tutorial on how to convert a Sitemap to RSS, it’s safe to assume that you already know about Sitemaps and RSS feeds. Here’s a quick primer:

A sitemap is an index of webpages of any website. It’s mostly there to help web-crawlers (think Google search bots etc.) crawl your website effectively and discover new (or old) content. Mostly for search engine ranking & discoverability.

An RSS feed is a standard XML file that contains a web-feed of any website. Why standard XML? So that any application can easily read it to display in any format it wants. Why web-feed? So that an application (or an end user) can keep track of updates to a website. E.g. keeping track of a news site using an RSS feed.

My experiments with super productivity: TickTick plus Trello

Thu, 31 Oct 2019 15:00:17 +0000

ToDo apps actually work well if you figure out your own personalized way of using it effectively. Unless you’re living under a rock without an internet connection, no responsibilities, no recurring thoughts, no tasks to complete, no goals to chase, no motivation or the need to actually ‘do’ anything, in my humble opinion, you must use a ToDo app.

Here’s why everyone should use a ToDo app

Need more convincing? Let me share the biggest reason why everyone must be using one.

I reimagined Firefox Preview for Android (with wireframes)

Thu, 17 Oct 2019 07:40:22 +0000

Introduction

If you’re using a mobile browser to read this article, chances are high that it’s either a Chromium based Blink engine powered browser on Android or a WebKit engine powered browser on iOS. In fact, all browsers on iOS are actually WebKit based because Apple forces all third party browsers on iOS to use WebKit, essentially making them just re-skinned versions of Safari.

Unless you’re among the 0.35% of the world’s mobile users who prefer Firefox on Android.

Book recommendations

Sat, 12 Oct 2019 16:04:27 +0000

Who you become in the next 5 years depends on two things:

a. The kind of people you hang out with, and
b. The kind of books you read

Thankfully, both options are in everyone’s control. But it’s easier to pick good books than good company.

Here’s a list of insightful books that have shaped my thought in some way of the other. (Disclaimer: This is not a definitive list, it’s a work-in-progress collection)

Blog

Tue, 08 Oct 2019 09:22:12 +0000

Contact Tonmoy

Tue, 08 Oct 2019 06:45:35 +0000

📧 Email: t[at]tonmoygoswami[dot]com

✉️ Twitter: You can slide into my DMs on Twitter.

📷 Instagram: You can leave me a message on Instagram.

About Me

Tue, 08 Oct 2019 06:45:22 +0000

Hi, my name is Tonmoy Goswami. I’m a computer engineer by education, entrepreneur by spirit, tech enthusiast by passion, artist at heart; a lifelong student in the school of life. 🙏

While some of the products I’m involved in building are used by millions of people every month, some of them were…well, good learning experience for me.

I share/retweet stuff I find interesting on Twitter. You may follow me at @protonycle. If you’re more of a visual person (and ❤️ travel pictures), say hello to me on Instagram at @tonmoy.jpg

Privacy Policy

Wed, 04 Sep 2019 11:56:05 +0000

Who we are

Our website address is: http://tonmoygoswami.com.

What personal data we collect and why we collect it

Comments

When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.

An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

How to wake up at 5AM everyday

Tue, 08 Sep 2015 03:52:00 +0000

After my last post on super productivity, a few people were curious about waking up at 5 in the morning. The common question was, “How to wake up early?” Well, there aren’t any tricks per se, but a few things from my own experience/reading might help you fine-tune your biological clock, get you motivated & achieve super productivity.

1. Go to bed early

A good deep sleep of around 4-5 hours is sufficient for an adult. So, if you’re planning to get up at 5, retire early. 10:30 to 11:00 is the ideal period.

My experiments on how to be super productive

Thu, 27 Aug 2015 14:20:00 +0000

Lately, I’ve realized that I have read a lot of material on two topics viz.

a. How to stop procrastinating b. How to be productive

And I was wondering if it would make sense to share my progress with the world so that I get more inputs & suggestions from people who’re trying something similar. So here’s the plan: I will keep sharing life hacks, tricks, tools, utilities, apps, habits, daily regimes, factoids, scientific findings and everything in between on how to be more productive in life.

Startup Chronicles - Test of an Idea

Sat, 21 Sep 2013 16:06:00 +0000

There is no formula for success, but the formula for failure can be avoided, hence the comic. Enjoy.

What can Lord Ganesh teach us?

Mon, 09 Sep 2013 01:34:00 +0000

Staying in Pune, Maharashtra, I don’t need a Hindu calendar to know the date for Ganesh Chaturthi. The drum rolls and the festive mood tell me that today is the day.

I was born on Ganesh Chaturthi. (Now my birthday rarely coincides)

Although, I’m an atheist, I find deep gratification in questioning, discovering and understanding the reasons behind mythology/religious doctrines. The stories revolving Lord Ganesh are no exception. I would like to share two moral lessons that are neatly woven into Ganpati folklore.

Can a smartphone save your life?

Sun, 08 Sep 2013 03:34:00 +0000

In an earlier post, I wondered about a wearable security/safety device that can be triggered at times of personal danger esp. in cases of molestation, rape, risk to life, burglary, robbery etc. Now that Samsung has launched Galaxy Gear smart-watch, which basically is the first crude version of a wearable device that lets you interact with your phone without pulling it out of your purse or pocket, my thoughts are on a roll again. Coz that’s exactly what is needed in times of sudden danger: something that can quickly help us raise an SOS.

Getting started with freelancing? Here's the ultimate cheat sheet

Sun, 01 Sep 2013 06:30:00 +0000

INTRODUCTION

At the outset, let me clarify that I’m not a freelancer. Then why did I write this post? Who is this post intended for? Well, this post is a result of an experiment I successfully pulled off recently. (More on that shortly) And this post is intended for anyone who’s struggling to get started with freelancing. (Read: haven’t grabbed their first project yet).

I wanted to pick up AngularJS and learn LESS. So I decided to put myself in a situation where there would be an incentive to learn and a constraint to perform. In short, I was thinking how can I get paid to learn, how can I work on real life use cases to experiment. I decided to give freelancing a shot. My stint lasted for 10 days after which I returned to my startup life.

8 stories to read this weekend

Sat, 20 Jul 2013 08:31:00 +0000

Give the Perfect Elevator Pitch

How to use the Hedgehog Concept to compete with massive competitors

“Tim Cook doesn’t send you a hand-written note after you buy a laptop. He can’t. But you can.”

Daniel Kahneman: The riddle of experience vs. memory

“The problem is not the problem; the problem is your attitude about the problem.” - Jack Sparrow
— Movie Quotes ❤ (@itsmovies) July 11, 2013

Marissa’s first year: How Mayer became Yahoo’s best CEO yet

6 stories to read this weekend

Fri, 12 Jul 2013 09:10:00 +0000

15 TED Talks That Will Change Your Life

How Startup Valuation Works

Chrome 27, Firefox 22, IE10, And Opera Next, Benchmarked - and the winner is….

“Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow”. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

How do I install and use cURL on a Windows machine?

Startup Investing Trends

Comparing Canada and U.S. startup visas

The idiot-box is getting smarter

Sun, 07 Jul 2013 00:49:00 +0000

Lately, I’ve been following the advent of the Smart TV phenomenon. At first glance, connected TVs (with or without a net-top box) do seem like the future of home entertainment where you can stream your own content, subscribe to original series instead of the whole channel, watch movies on demand and enjoy YouTube from your couch. But there are challenges.

Challenges to mass adoption

1. Market is fragmented

Apple TV, Roku, Google TV, Boxee (now part of Samsung) and dozen others (find full list here) are currently trying to break into the market. While smaller startups will eventually be merged with bigger players, the market is currently too fragmented and nascent. Consumers are particularly worried about the fact that their choice of vendor might suddenly be acquired and shut down. (see Boxee). Although, there is enough room for smart new entrants and nimble incumbents, the space will finally be ruled by bigger companies who has clout and influence. Why? This brings us to challenge two: content.

9 stories to read this weekend

Sun, 30 Jun 2013 01:43:00 +0000

The redBus story

Just Say No: VC terms that can really hurt via @ venturehacks

A Chance to See Saturn, For the First Time in 7 Years

Top 10 Marketing Books of All Time

I don’t believe you have to be better than everybody else. I believe you have to be better than you ever thought you could be. - Ken Venturi

How Google, Yahoo, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon track you (infographic)

10 stories to read this weekend

Sat, 22 Jun 2013 23:49:00 +0000

Licenses Over Data: A Case Study with Github v BitBucket

Meet The Hackers Who Sell Spies The Tools To Crack Your PC (And Get Paid Six-Figure Fees)

The Anatomy Of A Failed Startup

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest – Complete Social Media Image Size Guide [INFOGRAPHIC]

When Someone Says They Don’t See the Point in Twitter Show Them This

There is a difference between knowing the path & walking the path. -Morpheus

Technology against crime

Thu, 20 Jun 2013 11:48:00 +0000

How about a wearable computer (maybe a wrist band) that tracks your location and not only send out SOS notifications to pre-defined end points (relatives, patrolling police, nearest police stations etc) but also sends out alerts to nearby sister/affiliated devices?

In layman terms: a smart wrist band that tracks your location & on one panic button press, it notifies the whole neighborhood of wrist band warriors + your relatives + police.

11 stories to read this weekend

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 05:41:00 +0000

Hacker Faces More Jail Time Than The Convicted Steubenville Rapists He Exposed

Dmitry Itskov wants to help you live forever by swapping your body for an android avatar

Claudia is Worried I Will Be Killed for Posting This

Learn more about Google’s Project[X] - Project Loon | Google Balloons Offer Free Wi-Fi, Internet | Photos

Diary Of A 5,000-Hours-Per-Year Internet Troll

This Time It’s Real: Google-Waze Deal on the Way

9 articles to read this weekend

Sun, 09 Jun 2013 03:11:00 +0000

Cowards

The curious case of disappearing HTTP referrers and how to get them back

Astronomers Find First Evidence Of Other Universes

5 Reasons Professionals Are Switching From SEO to Content Marketing

Product > Strategy > Business Model

Dell’s advice to entrepreneurs: Experiment, Test, Go-fast, Fail Fast and learn as much as possible

Don’t make the mistake of overlooking your Minimum Viable Segment

5 HTML5 Features you need to know

The pigeon that wouldn't fly

Fri, 07 Jun 2013 09:04:00 +0000

Recently one of my friends shifted to a new apartment. It’s a nice windy place on the 7th floor of a tall building with a spacious balcony. There was only one problem: two pigeons.

On the other side of the frosted window slides of the bathroom were two pigeons. When we tried to scare them away, one flew to a safe distance while the other would just ‘coo’ and shiver. On closer inspection, we realized that the ‘coo’- ing one was hurt on its head. But the wound was not fresh and there were no visible signs that it was hurt in its wings. My friend noticed that the unhurt pigeon would fetch food for the other bird.

10 stories to read this weekend

Sun, 02 Jun 2013 12:45:00 +0000

Ten news/articles worth reading this week.

13 Critically Important Lessons from Over 50 Growth Hackers http://t.co/4IqONRZjPi

The Future Of Technology Isn’t Mobile, It’s Contextual http://t.co/tMZHTRTA2j

What Steve Jobs And Bill Gates Really Thought About Each Other http://t.co/oKZGJqPV3K

[List] India’s most prolific angel investors http://t.co/5sROJT6L4q

Principles of Flat Design http://t.co/AqoCkyLBmx

Opera launches Next, the Chromium-based browser for Windows & Mac http://t.co/NY0El6PKcb

Anatomy of a hack: even your ‘complicated’ password is easy to crack http://t.co/n3lpbrWtoU

Accelerator Tandem will start funding mobile startups in India http://t.co/1EQdHkQ72G

9 stories to read this weekend

Sun, 26 May 2013 12:29:00 +0000

I consume a lot of news on a daily basis. Most of them revolve around technology, startups, the Internet and entrepreneurship. I make it a point to share the best reads on Twitter. Why keep the knowledge to yourself, right?

To take this motive (of spreading insightful news) a step forward, I did a little tinkering and now I can easily curate a daily archive of my selected articles on Evernote. (hint: It’s as simple as attaching a hash to my tweets & ‘favoriting’ others)

You can buy a BMW, but can never buy class

Wed, 22 May 2013 12:02:00 +0000

I was on my bike riding back home, the summer heat of Pune burning my fingers, as the hot breeze pass through the narrow opening of the helmet. Although it was hot, I had my jacket on; home is not far.

Green….Orange…..RED.

Just missed the green traffic signal at the East Avenue - North Main Road junction. What do you do when you’re on a bike and you’ve 40 seconds to spare: I stare and observe people: people on bikes, on cars, pedestrians, beggars. Time seem to quickly pass by.

Start a business, not a startup

Mon, 20 May 2013 07:14:00 +0000

“Start a business, not a startup”

“Ah, the startup. It’s a special breed of company that gets a lot of attention (especially in the tech world). The startup is a magical place. It’s a place where expenses are someone else’s problem. It’s a place where that pesky thing called revenue s never is issue. It’s a place where you can spend other people’s money until you figure out a way to make your own. It’s a place where the laws of business physics don’t apply.

Why don't you leave office at 6PM?

Fri, 17 May 2013 17:40:00 +0000

Before I quit my job, I worked for two software companies for 4.5 years and I followed one rule throughout: reach and leave office on time. Six ‘o clock and shut the lid of my laptop, pack my backs, pick my helmet and stroll away gently as most of my colleagues look at me in awe. Most would often say, “Tera sahi hai yaar, time pe nikal leta hai” ( “Your life is set mate, you leave on time”). Some would even consider me gutsy.

How to enable Gzip on Amazon Elastic Beanstalk with Tomcat and Apache

Wed, 15 May 2013 11:36:00 +0000

Follow these steps to enable gzip on Amazon EBS

Step 1:

Create a top-level directory named .ebextensions in your source bundle.
And create two files in it as shown below.

The contents of enable_mod_deflate.conf

# mod_deflate configuration
<IfModule mod_deflate.c>
# Restrict compression to these MIME types
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/plain
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xhtml+xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xml+rss
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-javascript
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/javascript
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/css
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE image/png
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE image/gif
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE image/jpeg

# Level of compression (Highest 9 - Lowest 1)
DeflateCompressionLevel 9

# Netscape 4.x has some problems.
BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4 gzip-only-text/html

# Netscape 4.06-4.08 have some more problems
BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4.0[678] no-gzip

# MSIE masquerades as Netscape, but it is fine
BrowserMatch bMSI[E] !no-gzip !gzip-only-text/html

<IfModule mod_headers.c>
# Make sure proxies don't deliver the wrong content
Header append Vary User-Agent env=!dont-vary
</IfModule>

</IfModule>

The contents of myapp.config

Why did a cancer patient travel 260km all alone to meet my dad?

Wed, 15 May 2013 03:53:00 +0000

The 7 hour long bus journey of a cancer patient

On Wednesday, 2nd Feb, 2011, a cancer stricken patient got on a State Transport bus from Guwahati to start a 7 hour long journey to reach Numaligarh, a small town near Golaghat, Assam. After reaching Numaligarh, he walked for 20 min, under the sun, to finally meet my father. The first thing he asked for was a glass of water. He was all alone. But, for what purpose?