Zillow Median estimated Home Value/price in San Jose Area

Zillow's algorithm of calculating home values (also called as zestimate) is unknown and can be disputed, but there is no doubt that zillow estimates provide a starting point when you try to buy or sell a home. Fluctuations can be attributed to the lack of relevant data (as they say) but here is the chart for greater San Jose area:

Zillow Home Value Index

More San Jose Home Values

Why SaS is Fortune's #1 company to work for ?

Fortune publishes its list of top 100 companies to work for. Business Intelligence company SaS gets the top slot. Watch the video posted here and see for yourself. The other companies in top 10 shows here.  The full list of top 100 can be found here.
So why SaS? Is it profit sharing among employees or the perks like in-house child care, in-house doctors, flexible work options or everything combined as a package?
Interested to know what you think...

Happy 60th Republic Day !!

Image source: www.santabanta.com

Tolerance over-stretched and over-practised in India?

This is a thought provoking blog comment by Suresh M Soni on PPI blog under the topic - Solution for better governance. Please be aware that this topic has specific context of Socio economic progress in India and Indian's mentality of tolerating everything in life. In case, you do not know about PPI, It is an unusual initiative taken by Indian professionals(doctors, lawyers, technologists and other working class people) to setup a political party to contest elections with pro-people progressive agenda. My objective is to draw your attention on the comment by Suresh M Soni. Let me know what you think...

Sapne Salamat - What's your dream?

I have been an occasional listener of KLOK1170 AM in the past, but recently, I was really impressed with the broad spectrum of topics they cover on their talk show. Today, the talk show "Sapne Salamat" hosted by famous Serial Entrepreneur Rohit Chandra caught my attention.Last I heard that my friend and ex colleague Siva Sreeraman (founder of Indian Music Band Eastern Winds) was invited to his show. Today's guest on the show was a distinguished women Dr. Anuradha Basu who is Director of the Silicon Valley Center for Entrepreneurship and Professor in the Department of Organization & Management at San Jose State University in Silicon Valley. Rohit Chandra, a successful innovator and entrepreneur himself sounds very passionate about what he talks and does. He owns a very famous patent for Personalization of web url and currently runs a web company roohIt.com which provides free highlighting of content on any website that you visit. To appreciate this idea, you will have to use it, but in summary:
When you type any web page address preceded with roohit.com (roohit.com/http://www.cnn.com) you will be able to highlight using yellow highlighter the piece of content on the web page, bookmark them, share them and even post them to your blog.
From what I heard him over radio for an hr, I must say, Rohit Chandra is a visionary and excellent communicator. Well time spent on klok1170 , good job Rohit ! For my readers, here is the podcast of the past shows including my friend's Siva's. 

Tweet I follow

The popular micro blogging site Twitter has become an avenue for marketers, promoters, technologists, celebrities and now catching on with investors as well. I am not immune to this phenomenon. I subscribe these tweets (micro commentary - junk most of the time) in the search of some goldmine :) See the number of followers some of these tweets have (including some big names):
      
Twitter                           Followers       Why
News & People  
ABC News                     7,549              To  get notification about important shows
CNN Breaking news       2,848,743      Get breaking news from CNN
BBC South Asia News    1,455             BBC south Asian News (primarily Indian sub-continent)
NDTV                             11,972           Indian TV News update
Anderson Cooper            411,855         My favorite CNN anchor
Gavin Newsom                1,383,891      I live in SF bay area and he is prospective gov candidate


Financial Update
KipTips                           1,638             Financial Tips from Kiplinger magazine
PennyStockChaser          30,196           Daily Penny Stock Tips (very risky advice)
TheMotleyFool               6,951              Investment tips from fool.com
SuzeOrmanShow            1,091,670       Tips and responses from Suze
Bill George                      1,365              Insights from Harward Business school professor

Science, Technology Entrepreneurship & Fun
Inc Magazine                   22,965           Inc magazine micro commentaries and updates
Science News                  3,181            Daily news of science advancements
Reuters Science              10,464            Reuters news from science world
Dr. Richard Wiseman      14,465           Boy, you don't want to miss this - he rocks:)
Webtrends                      15,030           tracking enterprise technology and trends

Please post your comments with your favorite tweets and also say why..

Can White Space Internet bridge the digital divide in America?

When TV broadcasting went digital last summer, fragments of analog TV spectrum were left unused. Traditionally, TV stations used to broadcast over wireless frequencies that carry information longer distances. They used spectrum between 512 megahertz and 698 megahertz, to broadcast analog TV channels 21 to 51 which is totally unused now. Now these so called "White spaces network" are being utilized to provide high speed internet to rural America where the broadband companies did not want to go before. United States rank 17th in the International rankings for percentage of homes that have broadband/high speed connection.
Next month FCC is expected to allow commercial white spaces internet, which can bridge the digital divide and hook up 54% of rural america with high speed internet.

source: spectrumbridge.

A company called Spectrum bridge built a white space network under FCC's experimental license in Claudville Virginea. The company setup a radio transmitter at the town's edge and connected schools, business district and few homes using modem like radio receivers. The unused frequency spectrum was used to braodcast 2.4 GHz wifi signals.  To protect the rights of current TV and wireless broadcasters, company uses its own database to assign the proper white space channels to the radios called whitefi radios.
Microsoft researchers Ranveer Chandra and others have been very instrumental in bringing White space networks to practical use of broadband for rural america. This technology can be proven very effective in the  remote country area of many developing countries where bringing broadband internet is not practical if not impossible.

GenoType - another way of understanding who you are ?

I am currently reading the book GenoType Diet and I must say, its probably the best health and nutrition book I have ever read. I haven't read Dr. D'Adamo's previous books (Blood Type Diet and Eat right 4 your type) his GenoType calculator and formulas are already making sense to me. So,
What is GenoType ?
According to Dr. D'Adamo, an individual's GenoType determines every trivial details such as shape of your teeth, length of your legs and the pattern of your finger prints. The most importantly, your GenoType decides, which illness you are most at risk for, which food will suit you and help achieve happier and healthier life. Sounds interesting? Wait, by the time you finish reading this blog, I am sure you are going to order this book or reserve at library. Dr. D'Adamo has identified six GenoTypes: the Hunter, the Gatherer, the Teacher, the Explorer, the Warior and the Nomad. He provided simple tests in the book which if you take, will decide your GenoType. Once your know your GenoType, you will be able to learn about the diet and exercise which will help prevent the conditions your are most vulnerable to.
The author also has a website called Change your genetic destiny, where you can join GenoType Diet Forum and participate in the discussion. I also love his GenoType Tip of the day. and you don't want to miss his blog on personalized healing.
I never found a better explanation of chromosomes and DNAs before, you got to read his blog on Tension and Relaxation, where he explains chromosomes and DNAs and the mechanism of epigenetic inheritance. You will specially like the surprising facts such as:

If the entire DNA, in every cell of your body, was stretched out and laid end-to-end in a straight line, it would reach to the sun and back over one thousand times.

Good luck determining your GenoType and finding the right diet for yourself !!

BEWARE of "Strathmore's Whos Who" Email SCAM

I got this spam in my work email Inbox. I have pasted the email below, If I remember, I have got this email a couple of times in the past and instantly figured out that its a SCAM. Please don't feel proud that you were selected to be included in this unknown "Strathmore's Whos Who" and DO NOT fall into this trap. This time, I decided to do some internet research and found that many "professionals" were fallen into this trap and send them money for plaque and certificates. The thing bothers most to me is that how do these scammers get my work email address. I used my work email address only to subscribe professional journals and magazines(some are free) I am sure they sell the email address to third parties to make money in exchange of free magazines they deliver. At the bottom of the email there is a unsubscribe link which points to a domain called http://analeptic.sunsetresources.net/ which again is a scammer. Here is the email, if anyone knows any official website to report such scams, please post.
________________________________________________________________________________
It is my pleasure to inform you that on January 5th, 2009 your information was reviewed and accepted for inclusion in the 2010 edition of our registry.
Strathmore's Whos Who each year, recognizes and selects key executives, professionals and organizations in all disciplines and industries for outstanding business and professional achievements.
This recognition is shared by those who have reached a distinguished level of success in their chosen profession.
Please take a moment to complete the invitation by clicking on the link below. We ask that you complete it carefully, as it will be reviewed by our editorial department.
http://www.strathmorewwonlineform.net
** Please complete the online link by January 31st.
Strathmore's Whos Who is pleased to inform you that there are no fees or dues to be included in the publication.
On behalf of the CEO and our esteemed staff, we wish you continued success.
Sincerely,
J. Edward SimmonsVice President, Research Division Strathmore's Whos Who26 Bond St.
Westbury NY 11590
_____________________________________________________________________________

Choice of Embedded databases

Embedded databases are hidden gem, their prime advantage is availability and speed. Embedded database does not run in a separate process, instead linked into the application that requires the database. This is in contrast to the traditional databases like DB2 or Oracle which runs as a separate process and to which application connects using some protocol such as TCP/IP or sockets. I needed an embedded databases to use with my hobby project, so last few days I did a lot of research and compare with various alternatives. If you are looking for same thing, this blog post intends to make your life a little bit easier.
#1 IBM solidDB
solidDB is IBM's in-memory database that can be embedded directly into application. It supports standard application interfaces such as SQL, JDBC and ODBC. solidDB is good for critical applications as it keeps two copies of databases and can restore data in seconds in case of failover.
IBM allows you to download and use trial version for 90 days. This Developerworks article is a nice starter tutorial to build PHP based dynamic webpages with imbedded solidDB.
License: see the website above
#2 SQLite
SQLite is a freely available and widely used imbedded database engine. It is claimed as a zero configuration database which does not need to be installed or setup or configured in order to use.
Features:

• cross platform file format - once database file is written, can be used on any machine and any architecture. No need to backup and restore because all architecture and machine utilize the same format.
• ultra compact - everything included, whole SQlite is 275 KB in size. 
• supports VARCHAR
• Manifest typing - datatype is decided by the column value itself and not the column type
• supports SQL extensions

License:

quoted from SQlite webpage:

"SQLite source code contains no license since it is not governed by copyright. Instead of a license, the SQLite source code offers a blessing:
May you do good and not evil
May you find forgiveness for yourself and forgive others
May you share freely, never taking more than you give."
 There are few more choices such as Firebird and Oracle BerkeleyDB.  I am currently evaluating the above two for my embedded db project. I will add my implementation findings to this post, so check back next week. 

Whats the buzz about Zero Client Computing?

Many tech gurus are calling Virtualization of server and desktops a red hot tech trend of 2010, but a hardware vendor has taken virtualization one step further with a device called Pano Device. They refer Pano devices as Zero Client as they have no CPU, no memory, no operating system, no drivers, no software and no moving parts. A pano device connects to a virtualized Microsoft Windows desktop running on a server in the data center. These devices are made stateless, so you can disconnect your virtual desktop from one Pano device and connects from another. Pano device has won the Best Innovation award for 2009 in Computer Hardware category. Does this mean desktops days are over? I don't think so... first of all these devices are not cheap, the panalogic online store shows a started bundle price (includes 5 pano devices along with 5 client pano manager licenses) of $1899, which comes around $380 a piece. Today, you can get a very powerful desktop computer for $400, probably much less for the corporations who buy in bulks. But thats not the point. If this device solves the problem of administrative costs for maintaining desktops and upgrades, then it can prove itself a viable alternative to desktops. Anyway, its worth watching the trend as we see more players in virtualized device space in 2010.

SWIG (Simplified Wrapper and Interface Generator) demystified(not really)

One of my friends asked a forum question last week about Python and its growing adoption in big companies like Google. When you think about a scripting language being used at enterprise level then obvious question is raised that how do these power users manage to use a scripting language alongside with mainstream programming language such as C/C++ and Java. No one can ignore the benefits of scripting language; John Ousterhout Prof. of Computer Sciences at Stanford and creator of scripting language Tcl calles scripting languages, a higher level programming language of 21st century. SWIG makes it easy to connect scripting languages to C/C++ code. So, what's magic behind SWIG? David M. Beazley creator of SWIG explains in his tutorial SWIG Master Class. 
How did I get interested in SWIG?

• I was looking at ways to put C/C++ programs in scripting environment to be able to test and debug. Can I use python interpreter as an interface to test/debug C++ code? 
• If I can create python extension modules out of C++ libraries components, then system integration can be done in scripting language environment

I followed the tutorial on creating python extension module out of C functions and get to know SWIG a little bit. I will be playing more with C++ and SWIG with this tutorial. I will be posting specific comments/tips on testing and debugging once I am comfortable SWIG  way :)

Highlights of Intel's Paul Otellini's keynote at CES 2010

If you don't know about CES, its the biggest and greatest consumer electronic trade show of North America. CES 2010 is in progress Jan 7 - 10 2010 and Intel's Paul Otellini delivered a keynote at Hilton Las Vegas at 4:30pm this afternoon. Here are the interesting stuffs(quoted by news outlets and cnet reporter, no youtube available yet):

• HD is out, 3D is in. According to him, 3D is the next big thing going to explode in 2010. 3D TV, 3D games, even home user might be able to record home movies in 3D and stream. 
• everything user creates will need to be shared - USB 3.0 has arrived and LightPeak (high speed optical cable technology that transfers data at 10 Gigabits per second, WOW 1 blueray movie downloding in 30 sec) is coming
• Intel Wireless Display or WiDi which is available on Intel's i3, i5 and i7 core systems and using WiDi, these processors based systems can talk to each other with just an adapter. 
• 40 million netbooks using Intel's Atom processor have been shipped worldwide. Apple's Appstore like  app repository coming for netbooks, windows and linux will be able to use that.
• Intel Moorestown technology for Video coming soon on LG phone.
• every consumer device will be internet enabled, personalized ad and service will be possible using camera and touch screen display

Sounds like fun-filled gadget year 2010 !

Google Nexus One arrived earlier than expected

Today, I went to google to search for something when I noticed Nexus One (specs here ) link below the search box. Phone looks cool, google selling unlocked phone for $529 ( we were debating this yesterday over lunch table - this price will scare the crowd) , with Tmobile 2 year contract $179. Verizon and vodafone options are grayed out currently and coming in Spring 2010.
This is definitely going to start the trends of buying an unlocked phone without being tied to service agreement, most of Asian countries do not have any service agreement concept. You buy whatever phone you want, you buy whatever service works best in your area. Recharge your sim card when you are out of minutes; just like a phone card.
Lets see whether consumers win as a result of all out war between Apple & Google.

Have you unConferenced lately?

I was researching some innovative ideas to share peer knowledge at work and came across rather old but interesting concept of unConferencing. The idea is to embrace free form gathering like coffee break for peer to peer learning collaboration and creativity. Kaliya who is an acclaimed designer and facilitator of more than 100 "unConferences" maintains a website where she writes everything from attending and organizing an unConference. I have been an active participant in a coffee break at my workplace, but now when I know the modus operandi of so called "unConferences" I can't claim that ours fit that category. MassTLC innovation 2009 was one such unConference organized by kaliya last year. I liked the idea of freeing the audience from pre planned agenda and let them create the agenda on-demand. This can spark innovative and new discussion and engage audience more. To learn more about how it works and how to prepare for one, you have to browse through kaliya's blogs. Let me know, if you unConferenced yourself in 2010? I am going to try!

MySQL founder's appeal for keeping the database out of Oracle's hand

Michael ‘Monty’ Widenius the co-creator of famous free database MySql has created a website to garner support for saving the database from Oracle's acquisition of Sun. So far he has gathered more than 19002 petitions (according to the website)  from MySql users, developers and customers. Here is the petition if you would like to support.

A Daily Dose of Drucker

Yes, I am talking about the remarkable collections of ideas of the great business philosopher and management thinker Peter F Drucker. I bought this book sometime in June last year, so decided NOT to read because the daily dose starts from January 1 and each one of his thoughts and ideas is concluded by an Action Point. I loved the idea because the book does not just leave you with open ended thoughts and philosophies, but ask you to work on it. In my opinion, some of his doses convey extremely powerful message yet simple to understand, but some of them are difficult to understand for some one like me who lacks academic knowledge in the field of management. As planned, I started taking doses this year and I am going to write about some of them every week. This week, I am picking up
his January 2 does on Identifying the future. In this dose, he highlights the importance of identifying the 
future trend which has already happened. He suggests that futurists and visionaries count the number of their predictions that came true and do not count that they did not predict and came true.
The Action point for the reader:
Identify the major trends in your market that have already appeared. Write a page on their likely longevity and impact on your life and organization.
When I thought about this a little more, there must be a reason he mentioned this at very beginning of the year. Specially in the field of computers & technology, identifying the future which is already happening is essential to keep yourself highly marketable and adaptable. I am going to work on this Action Point and post in coming weeks. Comments and suggestions are welcome !

Best 10 min introduction of Hedge fund

We always had lunch table discussion on hedge fund after the credit default swap fiasco, but I must confess, I never understood the characteristics of Hedge Funds until I watched this youtube video. Educate yourself by spending 10 mins:

Are homes in Sacramento cheap?

Depends, how we look at it. If we look at sales data of last 4 years, the current prices look very attractive. The other side of the equation is that homes are abundant in this area and there are more than 18000 properties either foreclosed or in the process of getting foreclosed. I was told by a real estate professional that banks are sitting on most of them and not listing them at once. I verified his claim both on city-data reports and local MLS Listing service myself. One thing is sure that, Sacramento and surrounding neighborhood real estate saw the boom first so when credit crisis was exposed, Sacramento was the one which crashed first. Take a look at the Home sales graph from city-data; the median price touched $370k in 3rd quarter of 2005 which started to decline in late 2006. It nose dived early but look carefully, when entire nation was seeing sharp decline in home sales, in Sacramento investors started to move in again. I was told that bay area investors are the one who changed the equation and changing again. But the important trend to look at is that Sacramento real estate may have hit its bottom in 2008 itself when median price settled on $150k - more than 60% decline. I am not sure any other part of country saw this much decline on median home price. I recently took a day trip to Sacramento to see the market situation myself. I was really surprised to see some quality homes build by Centex home (I know that they build quality home) in Elk Grove area that have been foreclosing at 60% lower value ($230k)  compared to its peak sale value. In SF bay area the similar homes in evergreen and elsewhere resell for more than $800k. The real question is, if 2005 was the peak time and most of the loans were 5/1 ARM then not all mortgages have renewed yet. In other words, if 2010 is the year when these 5/1 ARM are going to expire, more and more home owners are going to run away from these homes and what will happen to the current long list of short sales in the area? Its anybody's guess. but I will be closely watching !

Software application challenge for making government transparent, accessible and accountable

This is the coolest thing, I have found lately in the area of eGovernance. This sounds like best use of tax payer's money to open up government agencies to the citizens. The city of New York has opened a software challenge in October which is closed for entries but opened for public voting. There are $20K award associated with this challenge. I love the idea, can other local governments learn from this?
I played with some of the submitted applications, check it out the Application Gallery. I specially loved these:

• NextTown - This map based app lets you track your representatives and also what are they doing for your community. Wish Indian local governments could make the data available to make it possible to build such apps.
• Actuatr - This is a platform built to open up data for developers. Anyone can upload data and developers can build apps using simple REST API. Request URL is provided for API and data is returned either in JSON or XML format. There are datasets available to build apps. Check it out..
• NYCParkevents - The interactive map application lets users find park events by selecting on  the map or by searching. Clicking on the found events then take user to the respective content. Very useful and intuitive.
• NYCWay - WOW !!! This is the coolest one - 30+ iPhone apps   in one package. Must check..

and many more...I am still reading/using/playing. My best wishes for all the entries and good luck for lunch with Mayor !!

Do New Year Resolutions work?

I googled for "New Year Resolutions" last year and it returned over 24 million results.. Surprised? wait... I googled just now and it returned 72 million results. I don't know what to infer from the information growth of this particular topic, but one thing is sure that a huge number of marketers and fitness gurus have been  targeting individuals using internet. Resolutions are nothing but goals that you want to achieve in life, so my question is that do you really have to wait for new year to start working on your goal? Absolutely NOT. Many experts point out that for majority of people resolutions do not work because of lack of dedication and commitment. Lack of dedication and commitment can be attributed to the following:

• We typically consider resolutions as "should be doing" items instead of "need to be doing" items. For example, exercising/ practicing yoga 15 minutes every day is going to be a new year resolutions for many. In my opinion, to make it work, we will have to make it a required activity of the day and attached this activity to a measurable goal. I am going to find a way to motivate/ increase my commitment to my resolutions. Example- your quarterly blood report can be a measurable result of the resolution. 
• Why picking New Year to start something good? Experts also points out that one third of new year resolutions made are abandoned just after January. Any day can be a resolution day, if we have determination and practical road map to accomplish. 

So, if you are going to make new year resolutions, make sure you buy this book Getting things Done and read page by page first before acting on your resolutions !! Good Luck and Happy New Year !

Happy New Year !

Click the "I am feeling lucky" button on google and you will see Happy New Year messages popping up all over. Happy New Year again !