First came Best Buy.

People were happy, they got good deals, saved some money. Good … but meh! Perhaps their launch was before time. Avante Garde.

Then came Groupon.

A multi-billion dollar valuation, e-commerce 2.0 buzz, social media tongues wagging about. It was the next big thing since the Internet.

I guess over a period of time, folks soon realized that the business model was pretty simple really. Get bulk, negotiate with vendors and give back a small share back to the users. That was also the eYantra model. I hear its gotten its second round of funding as well.

Followed by a slew of Groupon clones … there are too many of them really to name a few. The unfortunate thing is that not one of them is willing to call themselves a Groupon mee-to. We are different is what they all say.

Everybody on this planet is unique, just like 7 billion other people.

If you thought that I would be writing another nerdy review of Star Wars, you are mistaken, Ser.

With Groupon clones sprouting everywhere on the Indian e-commerce scene, its going to be a war out there. The war is going to be played out in our inboxes, on our cellphones, on our social media pages and in our tweets. Our credit cards will be the trophies, each transaction a battle on who will get us the cheapest deal. If you thought that it would make me happy, its not.

All the discounts in the world are not worth the beauty of a spam free life. It’s been ages since I have seen an empty inbox, gotten no sms-es. The Clone Wars are on, and you are the next battle!

When talking with some colleagues at work, I realized that they are working on a supposedly ambitious project – to categorize all the possible jobs and opportunities for people in India. It struck me that this has already been done by the U.S. Labor department; and very well executed at that. In fact that site is often cited as the basis for a lot of research that goes into the space of work and careers.

This got me thinking, if Uncle Sam can do such an awesome job of documenting all the career spaces, then why can’t Mother India do the same? A few googles and some clicks saw me come to the Directorate General of Employment & Training, Ministry of Labour & Employment, Govt. of India website. It’s in a mess … I know. A usability nightmare and it takes someone with grit and determination to make sense out of the plethora of content strewn on the website. I was suddenly appreciating content rich sites in a whole new light.

I did not start this post with the intention of bashing the government’s websites, so I will not. I urge you to go through some of the sites that I have linked in the post if you are in the IES industry. The Central Institute for Research and Training in Employment Service (CIRTES), is one such initiative that needs to be commended. It’s not in the same structure and format as the U.S. Labor department, however it’s a start. The Government of Maharashtra also has a website for employment which is a similar model to Naukri, do check Rojgarwahini out.

All in all, my view that the Government of India is not doing anything to sort out Labour problems of the country has been shattered. It feels good to be wrong

Good going India!!

Five years after the launch of this very successful game, and 11 million players later, I decided to give this game a whirl. This would be my first experience with a full fledged massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG). The decision to give this game a try was influenced by two factors, one was an article about a book I had read recently. The other was the fact that Blizzard was giving away free 10 day trial packages of WoW. You sign-up and you get an account trial for 10 days, simple.

Give an Indian a free deal, and you can be rest assured he will try. So without any further thoughts, I registered for my account, and got my 10 days worth of WoW – wheee!!

World of Downloadcraft

To begin with, the installer file is around an MB or so. I was happy, so I started the installation on Saturday. To my horror, the installer was just the start, the actual installation files were a mammoth 4.6 GB! This is just the Burning Crusade, and no add-ons. With a stripling connection speed of 256kbps, I downloaded the files over two days (my poor laptop was on for 2 days at a stretch). Now, the game installed and I eagerly clicked the shortcut, some animations followed (breathtaking yes, anxious yes, appreciating the animations – no!!). A moment in the game, the application informs me that it has to be patched before I can log onto any realm (a realm is a server where other players would also be playing). Fine, another 1.2 gigs to be downloaded … phew!! On the third day, everything was downloaded, installed, patched and updated. I was cursing WoW and Blizzard, such a bad experience to start with.

Totally Worth it

After all that bitching, I created my first character … a male night-elf fighter. There is a tutorial, and small quests where you learn running around doing small chores and killing weak animals. The entire application acts as one helluva thick client, with only minimal co-ordinates data being exchanged with the server. The loot is just about interesting to keep you hooked, and the quests keep on changing. The key is to take out as many quests as possible for good loot and faster experience gains.

All in all, the game is still running in my head. In some fights I fought alongside other new players, and we got to understand the pros and cons of each character. I immediately shifted to a female human mage – which suits my style more. Aim, fire, cold … the game is a completely different world, with two professions to learn, you can make your own weapons, or you can make food for others, or be a professional healer. The options are many.

I have been hooked onto this game for 4 days now and my laptop cringes whenever I run it in its full glory. I have lost some sleep when battling the minions, but I am loving every minute of it. Ill give the upgraded account a shot … but only after getting a proper gaming station

Microsoft’s report on Boomers & Technology