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	Monday, August 30, 2004

What is the value of 2 seconds?  ( On Tech)   When Bill Gates, founder and chairman of Microsoft, came out with the book entitled, “ Business at the Speed of Thought, “, it set off a new standard on how fast it should take technology to react in order to be really useful.  Every year, we see technology, and I believe the most important function it does should be to allow us to do it a little bit faster and lowers the time it takes to translate intent into action.  There was a time when the minute advantage also meant the slight edge you have over competition.  In this time and age, it might be more appropriate to call it the 2 second advantage.   We just upgraded hundreds of computers for a customer.  The difference between the Pentium III that he gave up, and the new Pentium 4 computer?  I believe it takes 2 seconds faster to load or run most processes.  But that translated between being welcomed by the users, as compared to perceptions of general slowness of the previous machines.  I believe that was the reason also why a great technology like Transmeta Crusoe, a processor that consumed much less heat and power, did not quite succeed.  It was just a second or two slower in most tasks.   In our country, being able to send short text messages to cell phones is a big deal.  It is the primary way to communicate, and on a daily basis, over 150 million text messages are sent or received – that of a population of about 86 million with about 20 million with cell phones. That generally means the average cell phone users send an average of 5 to 10 messages on a daily basis. I just upgraded my cell phone to one with a thumb keyboard. The reason?  It would probably enable me to write a short text 2 seconds faster than using the numeric keypad.  But if I am in the office, I used the computer to send that out.  It took me hours to configure to make it work properly, but the satisfaction of again cranking up a short note another 2 second faster than a thumb keyboard meant sometimes the difference whether many of intended communication get send out,  gets ignored, or gets deferred and forgotten.   Yahoo and Google became foremost portals and search engines. Their sites were kept simple so that on average, it would take 2 seconds faster to load than many of the comparable sites that were graphics heavy, or use less than optimal programming.   If a company would take 2 seconds on average longer to answer their phones, most of the callers might already have hung up.   In the Olympics, split seconds determines gold medals, and has beens. In technology,  people are becoming edgy, and I think more and more people are giving more thought on the “ faster”, rather than the “better”.  Success means you have to build your 2 second advantage.   Have you given it thought?       7:44:48 AM     comment []   trackback []

	Monday, August 23, 2004

Learning to Switch on, Switch Off at light Speed I am what you would call a connected person.  I have two offices, both with connected desktop computers. When I travel, I bring along a notebook computer which is used for long mails in the evenings, a PDA which can also access email easily through wireless hotspots, and a cell phone which can access my email through GPRS.  Of course, in addition, in our part of the world, I get dozens of short text messages in the cell phone too.Hardly a day pass when I don't check my emails multiple times, even weekends, and even on travel and vacation.  Many of my colleagues, friends, and customers have my cell phone, and I encourage them to call. People tell me I should get a life.  I HAVE a life, and enjoy it.  Many people are increasingly defining having a life as being disconnected, and not being reached or bothered.  I don't.  I travel, I enjoy sights and places.  Whenever I am on a resort, I tell myself it would not have all been possible if I was NOT connected -- in short, instead of blaming having so much work with so much interruption, I blessed myself I would never have been able to travel without all these wonderful gadgets. We are in a world that is fast changing, where things can radically change in days.  WE have to stop lamenting for all the good old days when you can live off a product or an economic cycle for months or years. Or have 5 uninterrupted days of pure leisure. The old dial up internet was no good not only because it takes so many seconds to switch and connect.  The newer DSL is good not only because of its speed, but because it can connect and disconnect  instantaneously.  I see the skill of being able to switch from leisure mode 1 to business task 1 and back to leisure mode 1 in seconds as an important factor in being happy.  If you are being interrupted, don't let it ruin your day.  Switch on, take the task, and then switch off.  Till the next interruption.... 9:16:42 AM     comment []   trackback []