Farmshoring refers to a specific variety of outsourcing where, apart from services being sourced outside of the contracting company, they are outsourced from urban to rural locations. Governments, especially in the US, offer incentives for shifting employment from offshore to rural communities. It is conceptually similar to onshoring (also referred to as domestic outsourcing). Continue reading Jargon: Farm-shoring
Respecting the yellow line
Driving is perhaps the most frustrating act anybody can indulge in Mumbai. Although, it is worse in some other cities including Delhi & Pune, it needs to get better in Mumbai. The biggest problem I see is that people don’t respect the yellow line. Continue reading Respecting the yellow line
Jargon: RFx
RFx is a generic term used to refer to a ‘Request for’ some document. Most commonly, that document is a proposal, quote or information and in rare cases for the bid, thus the acronyms RFP, RFQ & RFI. These are used by companies to seek information from vendors in order to analyze their solutions and ability to meet the business needs.
Review: Liferay Portal
I was going a Sun white-paper on Open Source technologies for Web applications; Sun was soft-marketing the Glass fishframework. My take from it was LifeRay, an open source portal technology. I never really of a Java-based portal other than Alfresco, and this is something so close to Sun. I created a demo site for myself to test the feature set. Continue reading Review: Liferay Portal
The Mayonnaise Jar
“The Real Winners in life are the People who look at every situation with an expectation that they can make it work or make it better” – Barbara Pletcher
I do not intend to use my blog to publish silly chain email. But this one was a real exception! And for a couple of reasons: It was a pleasure reading this although prolix, and that my friend Rohit Patkar sent me this. Rohit has also been in my good books (of etiquette) for his email habits – sheer quality and nothing else. For other things, he is an atheist. Read on… Continue reading The Mayonnaise Jar
Jargon: Gemba
Gemba, in Japanese, means ‘the actual place’ or ‘the real place’. In business, gemba refers to the place where value is created; in manufacturing the gemba is the factory floor. Its use is extended in IT where the consultant is supposed to assist users at their place so as to make them comfortable with use of the system. It is also suggested that solutions to problems, improvements & ideas will come from going to the gemba. Continue reading Jargon: Gemba
Review: Bing – Search & decide!
I had heard Steve mention Microsoft’s interest in the search arena, but he hadn’t said too much – not even revealed the name! Soon I heard that Yahoo Search had given way to Bing, and Microsoft was making money from it. Today I spared some time to get my hands on to Microsoft’s newest product, the Bing decision engine to check if claims are true. Continue reading Review: Bing – Search & decide!
Jargon: Data Jailhouse
It is the operational crises that results when the warehouse flaunts data abundance, and yet adds no values to business. The crises is also termed data-in-jail (DIJ). This is mostly on account of poor availability or presentation of data. Continue reading Jargon: Data Jailhouse
Bulk Image Compression & Gift-CD in Picasa
For the last decade, I have been scuffling to find a tool that will reduce the quality of several images at once. Before Picasa Web Albums was available, I used to manually reduce the quality of my scanned or digital images to meet two constraints: available server space and bandwidth (offered by a free host) I used evaluation versions of a couple of tools, that didn’t live too long. In this post I will explain how Picasa lets you compress several images at once so that they can be attached to email; also, creating a Gift CD – a great way to share pictures with so-called ‘computer illiterates’! Continue reading Bulk Image Compression & Gift-CD in Picasa
Jargon: Crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing is a newly-coined term for delegating tasks to the open user community, and optionally rewarding results. Typical tasks include testing, verification, development, promotion and evaluation. Free-lancers in IT and contributors on the web, believed to be a key constituent of the Web 2.0 mass collaboration ideology, are central to this process. The ethical, social, and economic implications of crowdsourcing are subject to wide debate. Continue reading Jargon: Crowdsourcing