Kapil's Take

This video is amazing, brilliantly told and what an inspiration. I won't say more,… You must watch this video!!

Have you ever tried Googling yourself? Were you surprised? Was it a good surprise? Was it the worst thing you did all day when you first googled yourself? Or are you one of those who google themself all the time? Or is your name not even on google?

For me, showing up on google is 80% of my marketing whether it is for business reasons or personal. Today when I googled myself, I found that there were other Kapil Busaras who were sharing the first page on Google. I am the face of my company. Most of the time my business depends on my name. My clients have found their way to me to GIVE me business from googling me.

Why have I put so much emphasis on my name up until now? Because the world we live in is very dynamic and is ever changing. I started off as a software developer, then as  Performance Test Engineering, later I became a free lance  web develper, and when that was going well, I founded Okinara Consulting Services. Although when the company was formed it's core business was focused on web development, the name that was chosen did not indicate that it was strictly a web development company. I knew I wanted to expand into other areas. Today Okinara does so much more than web development, we design Logos, flyers, brochures, create strategic solutions to social media marketing, and we will soon be launching a new product.

Tomorrow I may wish to start another business or get into a different industry. If it is a brand new company, people may not know about it, however people who know me as Kapil Bulsara, will know me even if it is a new company, and building on my previous successes I can relatively easily transition into a new field of work or business.

Some of you may not have the luxury of owning a domain name that is your personal name because it might already be taken, and even if you do have that domain name, you may be plagued by having to share the Google spotlight with other people who have the same name as you, which I am currently facing.

For that reason it is important to expose yourself more with the use of social media sites. Everyone has a Facebook account, and If you don't, stop everything at once, including reading this article and create an account NOW!. Once you have a Facebook account, what you should do is create a facebook username which gives you a public facebook page, but don't worry your personal stuff like your wall and photos because it will not be visible to the public, unless you chose to. For e.g. this is mine: http://www.facebook.com/kapil.bulsara. It is not very professional you might think. It does not have to be. Everyone knows you have a life outside of work.

Another think you need to do is get a linkedin account. If you don't already know, LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking site. Here is my page http://ca.linkedin.com/pub/kapil-bulsara/31/4a8/821.

You also need to get a twitter account. Here is my twitter page http://twitter.com/kapilbulsara. The common thing I hear about twitter is that they don't like that it is all open to public. Well you don't need to post personal details on twitter. I use twitter to share some semi-personal stuff and also tweet about my business or just general information that will be useful for the average citizen of the Internet.

All this creates exposure and awareness of who you are. If you haven't noticed this is not new, this is the norm now. You absolutely MUST have an online presence. Traditional networking still exists and can't really be replaced, but you cannot neglect social networking. A lot of your success depends on who you know!

There are some things that you don't have words. Check this video out. It's one of those things that you don't even need any words for. This video put a smile on my face. Be Kind .

The mainstream desktop operating system market has been long dominated by Microsofts’ Windows. Second to Windows is Apple’s Mac OSX. Although Linux has been around much longer than most people would know, its inability to capture even the slight market share in the desktop market had been known for a long time.

For those who don’t know what Linux is, Linux is a free open source operating system. There are two parts to it(yes I am grossly simplifying this). The first part is the Linux core operating system called the kernel, and then there are different flavors or distribution of linux. Individuals and companies can take the core operating system, modify it or add more on top of the existing core. There are literally over a hundred different flavours of linux!

Linux desktop was always for hardcore computer geeks and programers and it was NOT pretty.

Enters Ubuntu!

The main Linux desktop players according me were Ubuntu, Fedora and Suse. What Ubuntu has done to Linux desktop is amazing giving it the wow factor! We’re not just talking about which free open source operating system is better, we’re talking about competing with proprietary  software like Windows and MacOS.

Let’s start of with this stunning Login in screen! Nay, not a login screen, … a welcome screen!

Office Suite

Ubuntu comes preinstalled with LibreOffice which has all that you need and perhaps a little more too – its FREE! I have used MS Office, then moved to OpenOffice, which is also a great office suite and one which you can installed on Ubuntu too, and now I use LibreOffice. Libre office opens every possible document type you can think of even MS office 2007 and 2010 files. You can even save in .docx which is what MS Word 2007 uses.  And you can export it into PDF format!

The Ubuntu Dash

Here is a side by side Simple and Advanced view for you. Things are really easy to find with their smart categorizing and if you cant find what you’re looking for, just type it in the search bar! If you want to play some games,…type games,. if you’re looking for Office apps, well type that! Looking for music…you know the rest.

It even shows you what is installed and what you can install from Ubuntu Software Center! That is amazing!

When has my MacOS spotlight search showed be available games when I type “games”? ..

Ubuntu Software Centre

Ubuntu Software Centre is your one stop shop experience. This is just like App store on your Iphone and is a response to the App store on  a mac. Does Windows have something like this? Not that I know of, but then I haven’t used Windows in the past 2 years or so.

In Ubuntu Software Centre, you can browse by different categories, you can check your history of what program was installed/remove at what date, and you can see a quick snapshot of all the programs installed on your Ubuntu.

Social Networking

Your Ubuntu system comes pre-configured to get you started with Facebook, Google Talk, twitter etc..And you can manage all of your networks from one place. Take that Windows,… take that Mac Os and take that Google Chro…umm… never mind…

Amazing Search

Ubuntu search is brilliant. You search by name, and then you can narrow your search down by size of the file, type of file; whether it is an image, document, audio, video or presentation and by when it was last modified. It is also very quick to give you your search results!

Mac’s Expose clone

So ya, sure they have copied macs expose feature. For those who don’t know what this is, when you click twice on an application icon on the dash you see all your application windows. See below. This is an awesome feature for folks like me who have multiple windows running in the background.

Multiple Desktops

Ubuntu has had this since its inception, and no need to explain. See below.

Ubuntu One

This is Ubuntu’s cloud service. You can store and sync your files and music on multiple computers so that you’re always up to date and its FREE!(you get 5GB of storage; upgrade is available). Ubuntu One Music Streaming offers music-streaming apps for iPhone and Android phones. The “Music Streaming” package costs $3.99 a month or $39.99 per year. It just keeps getting better!

I want to wish all my friends, family and blog followers a very Happy Diwali…

For those of you who do not know, Diwali is a Hindu festival very commonly known around the world as “the festival of lights”.  It’s the celebration of good’s triumph over evil. It is believed that Diwali brings good fortune and wealth. In some parts of India and even around the world the very next day marks the beginning of a new year. Even businesses decide to start their new business cycle on this day.

Here I’m sharing a slightly different perspective on Diwali… I hope you enjoy it!

Happy Diwali and a prosperous  new year!!

So on September 4th, 2011, I performed on stage a Shayari. I used a very unorthodox style of reciting it. It was more on the rap side, but not completely because according to the rules of stage performance set for the event, participants were not really allowed to sing. And although some people would argue otherwise, but that really would have been considered singing.

I think I did well, considering I only went through the whole thing from start to finish 3 times before the actual performance.

People laughed and it was received well, which was a pleasant surprise. I really did not expect anything. All I knew was I wanted to do this and I did it. It all started off as a joke, and then I thought.. hmm.. maybe I should do this.

Some people were offended and I’m sure of that because I saw it with my own eyes…Oh well…

And this makes 3…First,… jumping off a 30 feet cliff without even ever daring to jump into a swimming pool, off the dock into the river or a lake….then sky diving…. and then ..not just public speaking… shayari in front of a few hundred people.

Summer was officially AWESOME!!

One last word before I let you enjoy the show,…Courage is not the absence of fear, it is the ability to take action despite the presence of fear!

And Every time you do it! You grow stronger!

Apple calls it “The worlds most advanced operating system advances even further”. Could it be? Could apple have come up with another ‘Magical Thing’? Just like the IPad2?… Wait.. what? Is that sarcasm? Maybe… or maybe not.

My first reaction which I tweeted was, “The new Mac OSX Lion gives me stuff I wanted, but takes away stuff I need and then gives me stuff that I neither need or want…”

Then there were a bunch of “WTF”, but now slowly using it for close to 3 weeks I am getting accustomed to the so-called features that advances the most advanced operating system even further.

Here’s a few things that I like about the new OSX Lion.

• Mission Control - and the Grouping of Apps.  Lion’s predecessors created a mess of all the open apps and files in one big clutter. At first this grouping feature felt a bit annoying because I was so used to looking at all my files at once. But now that I have gotten use to it, this is so much better. It keeps things organized and saves you time in the long run(once you get used to it)

• Desktops – spaces were removed and replaced with Desktops, and I know many people who are complaining about this. Some even going on a rant like little kids who just got their candy stolen from them. I never really used spaces on my Snow Leopard because I actually thought it sucked (yet another technical term) in comparison to Ubuntu’s desktops and how easy it was to move from one desktop to the other and move files around. Lion actually does it different now and at first glance (just like all other new additions) seems like a very wrong thing that Apple did. But it’s actually much easier to move files around and keep things separated and spawning off new desktop is a breeze… just drag and drop

• New Finger Gestures - I am still not a 100% satisfied with this.  I no longer can zoom in and out in Finder, or go Top-Bottom with 3 fingers in Firefox. Safari seems to have crashed a few times, but that’s why I use Firefox 99% of the time. And they took away my 4 finger swipe to switch between apps, instead of I have to use Command+ Tab, feels like windows again. But I can use that to switch between Desktops so I guess it’s still okay.

• LaunchPad – This feature is something that I have totally ignore and is of no use to me, and it just feels annoying to say the least. However, it may still come in handy for most people out there. It organizes all your applications like the Iphone, and the Ipad and uses the same kind of finger swipe to switch between pages of applications. A plus for the average user – not for me.

• Air Drop – have not used it and A bit disappointed because it only works with Lion. Not Cool.

• Full Screen mode – nice but not a must. If they took it away tomorrow. I wont even notice it.

• Mail & Calendar – I like the fact that exchange support is better than before and Create Account wizard is much like that on Iphone and IPad, some improvements in the Mail and ICal interface. So overall its a nice improvement, but I still wont be using it because it’s not enough and simply no match for Gmail and Google Calendar.

• THE LION REMEMBERS – I saved the best for last. This by far is my most loved features. When you want to shut down your computer it asks you: “Reopen Windows when Logging back in?”. and I gleefully say Okay . And the next time I turn my computer on, the Lion remembers all my open applications and files and arranges the windows the way I had left it. When I get to work, I want to get started right away. This gets everything ready for me and I don’t need a note to myself, or even have to remember what I was working on the night before. It’s right there… This is one feature where I can say “The Lion Roars”

Has anyone ever a difficult time organizing their meetings, leads, prospect clients, current customer issues, projects and TODOs. I know I have. I am pretty organized, but still I want and need a centralized system from where I can track everything, something that quickly gives me an overall picture. Currently I use text documents, spread sheets, gmail, google calendar and my memory to accomplish this.

I have thought about getting  a CRM system or a Project Management Software to help me with my getting more organized and efficient. Just yesterday I seriously started doing a lot of research and testing things out. I was looking for a LAMP based web application that handles project management and CRM (Customer Relationship Management). Although I’m a proud owner of by business, I’m still pretty much regarded as a freelancer as opposed to an entrepreneur. I need something simple that gets the work done.

I narrowed it down to these 3:

1. SugarCRM
2. Dolibarr
3. PHProjekt

Now I’m really confused as to which one I should use.

These are some of the things that I need.

• Ability to have customer accounts related to projects
• Add and schedule different tasks inside a project
• Time tracking for each task and summary of time spent on each project
• ability to calculate ROI (not a must but good to have)
• Keep customer related info such as project history, internal notes as to what kind of sales strategy is working with this customer, project proposals, services they are currently using from me etc…
• Keep track of work that I outsource
• Controllable access to let contractors check and update their tasks, and have clients update and check project issues and progress

Any help in deciding what I should be using is very much welcomed. Please leave a comment or contact me from my contact page. Thanks

It has been quite some time since we’ve been living in the information age. We have already quite matured in the web 2.0 and online social network age. I’m sure you’ve heard so many times that we are just bombarded with information from everywhere. I call it the “excessive information age”. All of us are now more than ever so easily influenced by everything and everyone around us from all sorts of social media, and at the same time we are getting confused by all this noise.

It is almost inevitable that we will have to evolve. We are pushing limits of our social and logical cognition. If you really think about it, the situation almost requires quick judgement and adaptation. Stability almost seems nowhere to be seen, and for thousands of years in our evolution, stability is the one thing that we have experienced and adapted to. Our environment(by this I mean our day-to-day activities, by which I mean interaction online and interaction with computers in general) is changing at such a rapid pace that our minds are getting pushed to this quick form of adaptation. Cultures all around the world seem to be blending too. So what we learned while growing up might not necessarily be very useful when interacting when we start encountering people from different races and cultures around the globe. But we are learning and evolving now more or less a single unit.

What does all this mean. Well if you go to the theory of evolution and natural selection, this is what I think is bound to happen. Success in this time and age depends on quick, rapid yet correct action. You can either make it or break it in a few actions, sometimes in a matter of weeks, and crazily sometimes even in a matter of days.

What is needed in this age is not a 1000 hours of research to make a decision, as some people do when chosing a product, a service, a house, or a job. What is required in this age of excessive information is intuition and instinct to make a correct judgement and to be able to do it quick AND TAKE ACTION, at the same time being aware of  the risk of burning out too quickly. We are seeing instant successes – it no longer takes decades to reach a level that most people dream about, it takes a few years and sometimes just a few months, or in some extreme cases just a day, or well… just a single video of less than 5 minutes on this thing called ‘YouTube’(I’m sure you’ve heard of it)

I don’t see all of this as luck. I see all of this as evolution. People who might seem like they don’t have the slightest clue about what they are doing are becoming instant success. It is my belief (and please don’t sue me for this) that these people are instinctively driven to behave in a certain way, or to act a certain way.These individuals who posses this instincts to act in a quick and correct way will become successful, and to some ‘intelligent’ hard working people this may seem very scarey, because you no longer need to get a degree, or a Phd to get ahead in life(actually who am I kidding, that never was the case anyway).

What am I saying here? I’m saying, natural selection will take place because conditions have changed and the rules that applied in the past for success (and ultimately survival) don’t apply now. With these changes in the conditions in our ‘environment’ natural selection will pick out the new winners, who are instinctively driven by and towards quick correct actions.

So Canadians will be going to the polls yet again. Yes this is now clear because Parliament has been dissolved. But how did that all start?
For people who are keeping up, you must have heard leaders of the major political parties of Canada say that Steven Harper’s has been found in Contempt of Court. What does that really mean?

Actions which can constitute a contempt of Parliament vary, but typically include such things as:

• deliberately misleading a House of Parliament or a parliamentary committee;
• refusing to testify before, or to produce documents to, a House or committee; and
• attempting to influence a Member of Parliament, for example, by bribery or threats.

Following the budget, the three opposition parties were part of a sub-committee that released a report on ethics. The report recommended the Harper government be found in Contempt of Parliament for failing to disclose the price of new F-35 fighter planes and its failure to disclose the cost of some of its crime bills.

So the report on Contempt of Parliament led to the motion of non-confidence by the Liberal Leader and supported by NDP, and Bloc Québécois. This just means that majority of the members of parliament do not have the confidence in the ability of the Government to run the country.

Now to me its pretty obvious all the monkeys in parliament were just waiting to jump on an opportunity to throw the Conservative Party out of their throne, and this is their chance to do it in a legitimate way. That is not to say that what the Harper government has done is right in any way.

So now lets talk about the speeches that were given by the Leaders of the major political parties. I personally think Steven Harper gave a very powerful speech. Things that he said that were the highlights were (somewhere along the lines of): Harper was calling a coalition after being defeated in the elections as illegitimate, and then later corrected himself and used the words ‘not principled’, and that whichever party comes in power, whether as a majority or minority should be allowed to form government. And I agree with what he is saying. What the NDP, Liberals and Bloc tried to do in 2008 was just wrong – you cant lose and then try to form a government. The constitution of Canada does allow you to do that, but you it simply is against normal principles to do so.

Harper also added that having a party whose sole purpose is to divide the country (the Bloc) to be part of a government is just wrong, and I think is quite dangerous. He also added that the Ignatieff cannot be trusted and it’s his hidden agenda to form a coalition government if Conservative’s form a minority and was urging Canadians to vote for the Conservatives so that they can form a majority parliament.

Ignatieff seemed like he was taking the whole thing as a joke. Either that he was tried to cover up for something. Reporters repeated asked him about his stance of a coalition and although, he said that he was not going to form a coalition, he still was not clear enough. He kept saying that they will form a Liberal government and he kept saying that. He even said that if there is a minority Liberal government, he will not form a coalition, however he was not clear on what is going to happen if the Conservatives form a minority again. Will Mr. Iggy want to form a coalition then – just to not let the Conservatives rule? Ignatieff also argued that Canada is in a much better economic state then rest of the world because of the Liberal government that ruled previous to the Conservative government.

Jack Layton, did something that was quite smart and political. He took no questions, and took the role of a Hero. There was a huge crowd of NDP supporters, chanting, “NDP, NDP, NDP” and “Jack Jack Jack” in brief moments throughout Layton’s speech. He is running for Prime Minister, and he has made that clear. Both the Liberal and NDP leader commanded that cutting taxes for giant corporate companies was not the way to go. Layton used all the buzz words – health care reform, eduction, pension plan etc… Layton said that he is going to be providing support for small businesses and better opportunity for post secondary education. I personally agree to both of those. I being part of a small business myself believe that it will definitely benefit me. Also because of a job losses, many people have started small businesses. And small businesses need support to keep the competition going, because if can get difficult to compete with larger corporate companies.

I also agree to having lower taxes for larger corporate companies so that they can ultimately create more jobs. But what about the general public? He keeps cutting taxes for corporate companies and increases taxes for the general public …HST … anyone???

But is Layton ready to be Prime Minister? I think not! He did have a Heroes moment today, but where does he plan to get enough support? And I sure do no want to see a coalition government, because 2 years down the road we will see another election,.. then what?

And then a turn of events when Douchebag..err.. I mean, Duceppe, the leader of the Bloc party called Harper a liar and showed the press a letter which he said was waving a 2004 letter signed by Harper, NDP leader Jack Layton and Duceppe, addressed to then-governor-general Adrienne Clarkson, which the three opposition leaders proposed a coalition government in the event the Liberal minority government of Paul Martin lost a confidence vote. Could that be? I actually think Harper is capable of doing that.

And there is the Green party…or should i say “the Green Party?”. Are they even a real serious political party? No one from the party even won a seat in the last election. I am all for the environment, but we need real leaders to run a government and to lead a country not tree huggers.

There’s more to come in the following days and weeks leading to the election on May 2, 2011!