Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Khosla ka Ghosla

Disclaimer : The title of the post has entirely meant to what is in the post. It may be the case virtually, but different case otherwise ___ aBsTrAcT ___ :D

Vinod Khosla, as I mentioned about him in my last post is Pune born Technologist, Venture Capitalists, Commercial Environmentalist (?)

- Studied in IITD then in Carnegie Mellon University and then MBA from Stanford School of Business.

- Founder of Sun Microsystems

- Was partner in Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, one of founders of The Indus Entrepreneurs

- Owns firm - Khosla Ventures funding indian households through MicroFinance

- Founded ck12.org as it quotes :: "CK12 aims to reduce the cost of textbook materials for the K-12 market both in the US and worldwide. Using an open-source, collaborative, and web-based compilation model that can be manifested as an adaptive textbook - termed the "FlexBook", CK12 intends to pioneer the generation and distribution of high quality educational web texts". I am curious to see how they will be doing it so now waiting for their actual launch.

- Significantly investing in Ethenol Industry in US. What I mentioned in my last post is also part of it.

- Has invested in Praj Industries listed in India - not sure if he is also on BODs of Praj.

- Writes blog. and I am yet to figure out what is Prop 87 as he has mentioned many times in his blog.

- Is associated with Zaplet.com which is now MetricStream.com - it is Governance, Risk, Compliance, Quality Management Solution provider company. It's ComplianceOnline.com give online training for these mentioned things. By the way Tata Consultancy Services is also one of the metricstream's partners.- Serves as Directors for renowned companies like Juniper Networks, Siara Systems, Qwest communications, Centrata, Corvis Cooperation, Corio, SEEC, Infinera, etc.

What all this man has been doing. Can you sense 'Sense of Vision' in his attempts so far ?

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Coskata

Coskata-Coatue Wildlife Refuge

'Coskata-Coatue' pronounced as "co-skate-uh co-too". This Wildlife Refuge is famous for its white-sand beaches, salt/sweet water, excellent fishing environment, oak woods and also historic light house. This is a natural and partially developed ecosystem that accommodates rare and diminishing habitats, plants, and birds.

This is the place that influenced the founders of Coskata Inc who were there for visit to Nantucket island. They were amazed by the beauty and natural wonder of this place. And this visit to the land refuge concluded as booster to their effort and inclination of preserving Mother Earth in though commercial but efficient way, so is the establishment of Coskata Inc to generate bio-fuels/ Ethanol under $1.00 per gallon (whoop) that too can be ported to any part of world and it can process any material as input which include waste materials, tyres too using their proprietary bio-reactor designs.

Coskata Inc. has made available the 3 step process of converting input material into Ethanol through first converting input material into synthesis gas, then deriving energy from oxidation of the converted gas (fermentation) and finally separation and recovery of Ethanol.

You see, there is a roaring concerns to the traditional auto car manufacturers. The concerns will mostly turn out as threats to their survival of business in next 20-30 years if they don't take necessary measures to tackle the major causes of concerns -
1. Depleting oil reserves : The OPEC still rules. Recently they have decided not to expand their capacity.
2. Increasing environmental awareness : World is becoming really worried about this. As one can see the thoughtful actions being taken by different country groups G7, EU, etc. WTO is working and establishing norms for countries involved in it.
3. Country specific economic preferences: Developed countries are encouraging the R&D efforts of Private players, entrepreneurs for finding alternatives to oils/gases and reduce dependence of third countries for oil import and ultimately reduce the trade deficit.

No wonder GM motors , Ford motors and now TATA motors, M&M in India have started emphasizing on environment friendly ways to drive/sustain their business in future. So it's clear that GM has extended strategic partnership with Coskata Inc. So are Khosla Ventures, Advance Technology Ventures and Great POoint Ventures.

Coskata claims to have their processes and bio-reactor design being validated by world class research labs, universities and companies. It has sought help of academicians from various universities.

Founded in 2006 by Todd Kimmel and Dr. Rathin Datta, the company has compiled a strong IP portfolio of patents, trade secrets, know-how and assembled a first-class management team ... Wow !! So in all this company, as experts are saying, will be bringing revolutionary changes in Ethanol industry.

Remember Vinod Khosla ? The same techie and businessman who was founder of Sun Microsystems is involved in Coskata through his ventureship.

Also we have Praj Industries which is one of the leaders in Indian Ethanol Processing industry and to an extent can be called successful one. So long way to go for Praj looking at the pace with which the companies in US are moving in Ethanol processing.

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Yoga with Shipa Shetty

The follower of Yoga and Baba Ramdev - Shilpa has completed her video on Yoga. I think she has signed the contract of shooting this video immediately after winning Big Brother in 2006-07.

Shilpa Shetty featuring in Yoga video would definitely give commercial and glamour value to it.

Surely, I am not the guy who can have 'say' about whether she has done Yoga Steps properly or not :D but it has a reason for me to be able to induce a thought of practising Yoga one more time ;-)

Old pick

I normally access rediff 5-6 times a day, more than I do with bbc and maharashtratimes.

While surfing came across old stuff on rediff..... hmmm ... not really too old but in case of rediff, which people normally access mainly for recent news, happening and money, career related information and buying activities, (email - I left it). That's why I don't think people dig much in older stuff available with rediff.

This business quiz is about Infosys. Revisited interesting facts :)

Mia Rose

Just around that time I was addicted/fascinated towards/about youtube. And happened to watch MiaaRose video. I liked it in first go. Time was somewhere in Feb 07. And after couple of week, I again tempted to see if there is any related video of her being published or not. I was surprised to see that her Heaven video was being most favourite and wached on youtube.

Almost a year passed, I didn't follow much about her. Not that I forgot about her but apperantly didn't happened. Just recently I came across her video again. Now her video is being posted my many of her followers-fans.

But now it really shows the kind of platform youtube has given her and many such aspirants. Just with couple of music instruments, a camera given this nice voice and beatiful face a chance to release her own album, 3-4 sites of her won, huge fan following.

Great going !!
Kudos to youtube for this proposition given to new-bees and even more for following the ethics of the game to possible extent. It has restricted sensitive contents across board. It i s good to see that hentai followers are not flooding it.

Really it has brought a transformation phase in internet era and still a lot to be exploded. It is very easy for any common user to have his video on web and sharing it with others, see how easy - friends go for bowling, shoot their excitments, upload it to youtube and they can watch whenever they want share with anybody. And it have become possible just because of Youtube and Adobe.

Sunday, February 03, 2008

Unmaad is On

Unmaad is here. I consider, it was at its peak today.

Santy came down to IIMB campus to enjoy Satarday evening. Arguable he has missed the ecstasy of Yamini happened in earlier month and Zero, Mother Jane show happened yesterday.

Erlier, I have never been able to apprecited Rock songs much. But magic of live programs is something different. I actually loved the show by Mother Jane band. Their lead vocalist ' Suraj' is good. First thing I noticed about him was his generosity and his humane nature. Their guitarist 'Deepu' was also very good. It's great enjoyment to listen and appreciate the skills of the guitarist in live program.

Strings were also here. But despite of being an international band, I didn't find it so fascinating. Mainly because, I have not heard many of their songs and only partially been able to recollect their popular numbers.