Recently, I came across open source messenger server called OpenFire. It’s basically based on Jabber (XMPP) server and provides web interface to handle the server and various settings. (Incl. users and groups obviously). OpenFire made my life easier because, it can directly interface with Active Directory (LDAP) and import all the users and groups automatically. The installation is pretty simple too. I installed it on my Windows 2008 R2 just by running an exe file and going to few configuration steps. (OpenFire is available for Windows, Linux and Mac)

Yes, I did face some issues while connecting Openfire with LDAP but I think that was more or less due to my lack of knowledge in Active Directory management.

Once the server is setup,  you can use free messengers like Pidgin (Windows, Linux, Mac), Adium (Mac), iChat (Mac). Select XMPP or Jabber from the list of servers and login.

I am not going to write a guide for installation and setup as there is plenty of good material available online. I will simply share some important links here:

- OpenFire Installation Guide
- OpenFire LDAP Guide
- Connecting to OpenFire Server using iChat
- Connecting to OpenFire Server using Pidgin

I guess that’s it. I hope this helps you to save few dollars.

If you show your card with CEO to a corporate guy, he will end up laughing at you, coz he knows what it takes to becomes a CEO or any officer level guy. Calling yourself a CEO, President, Director for a sole proprietorship company is totally wrong. The best suitable title for a proprietor will be “Founder” or “Proprietor”.

I have been running a sole proprietorship company for the past 6 years, I call myself Founder, I am totally cool with that. I am partner in another company, I call myself as Partner for that company and I am Director of Technology in another company so I use that title, but I can’t just sit and make up funny titles myself.

It looks really funny when we use these cool terms without having any knowledge of it. Give yourself the right title and be proud of it, don’t try to copy others just to present yourself as “cool” and new age guy.

One last thing, I have seen many people using too many titles under their profile.. e.g. “Blogger, The Startup Guy, Evangelist, CEO” and what not.. all these guys, please understand, these funny combination of titles is a BIG NO in a practical world. But Yes, you can keep those if you love being in your own imaginary world. Generally we laugh whenever we see anyone with so many titles.

Select the correct appropriate title for yourself, don’t mix zillions of titles just because it sounds cool.

Just my 2 cents.

Image: Question Mark by Marco Bellucci

Thankfully, Tax Information Network website came handy.

So, now the question is, how do we check our Tax Statements?

Well, you need to register to get access to Annual Tax Statement (Form 26 AS) first. You can register by visiting this page. The registration process is manual. You will have to fill in required details, then within 5 days,  the authorized person will get in touch with you, their person will visit your place, verify the details and collect Rs. 100 + taxes as fees. And within 3 days your account will be activated.

Once the account is active, you need to login here with your details, once logged in, the site will give you access to Tax Statements of all the years. (From the year you have started filing tax). The statement will show the details of Tax Deducted at Source, Tax Collected at Source, (Advance) Tax Paid and Tax Refunds Paid. Next to each TDS entry, it displays the status of each entry, which basically says, the Tax amount was accepted by the government or not.

Okay, now, if you just want to check the status of your Tax Refunds, then you can directly check it here. Absolutely no need to register to check the status, you just need a PAN card number. If you are facing any difficulties there, you can call them up on the helpline: 1800 425 9760 or email them here

Thanks to the IT Department for developing such a wonderful site, I can’t imagine myself calling or visiting the babus just to get this basic info.

I guess that’s about it, I hope this helps someone.

Image Source: “Tax by definition” by Alan Cleaver

Since my monitor was HD, I was planning to get HD based STB as it won’t require any TV Tuner card and will give me better quality for Audio and Video too. (Even on the normal SD channels).

I got Airtel’s Digital TV HD. Pretty decent looking stylish STB and remote controller. So, to get it working with my monitor, all I needed was HDMI to DVI cable / converter. I am not sure if all the HD monitors have HDMI port but if your monitor has DVI port, then you should get this cable. You will also have to keep in mind that, the type of DVI port can be different for your monitor. In this case, mine is DIV-D (24+1, this one is a common one) but some the monitors might have 24+5 pin DVI port too. Check here for more info. These cables cost merely Rs. 250 on eBay India website.

Once this is done, you will need to get the speakers working. You may want to connect your surround sound system (2.1 or 5.1) but for my office, I just had basic speakers, so I just needed a Mini Stereo (Female) to 2 RCA Male speaker cable. This costs just around Rs. 30 and you get it at any local stores.

So for me, by spending additional Rs. 280, I saved myself for lot of mess (wires) and got much better sound and video quality. I use this monitor as a dual monitor and whenever I want to watch TV, I just take out the VGA cable from my monitor and we have the TV ready.

I know, this is not any rocket science but this will surely help the newcomers.

Image Source: HD by phjellming

I googled around for quite sometime, checked many solutions and finally I managed to get things working.

So, here is the solution:

Get the video working (Ubuntu detected the cam but for some reason, it never worked with skype). So to get it working, try this command in the terminal first: (Solutions is posted here)

env LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so skype

This will basically load skype with the help of a shared library called libv. (Correct me if I am wrong here)

Once the skype is loaded, you can test the video and if it works. Just edit the Menu entry of Skype:

Right click on the Applications menu > Click on Edit Menus > Locate Skpye (Mostly under the parent menu called Internet) > Select Properties > enter the above command in the command box and hit close.

This will make Skype load using the shared library. (i.e. whenever you open it from the Applications menu)

So, this solves the problem with the video. Now, on many computers (Including mine), the mic never worked too. The mic showed under the Sound Preferences > Input devices but there was no sound while testing it.

So, this is how we get the Mic working:

1. Download my patched GSPCA: gspca-2.9.51-vx1000-patch-20100712.zip
2. Extract the zip file on your Desktop (so you have the folder “gspca-2.9.51-vx1000-patch-20100712?).
3. Open a terminal window and enter the following commands:
   cd Desktop/gspca-2.9.51-vx1000-patch-20100712/
   make
   sudo make install
4. Reboot your computer and test your webcam in an application such as Cheese (which can easily be found in the Ubuntu Software Center).

The above solution is provided here

So, after applying these 2 fixes, my Microsoft Lifecam VX-1000 worked perfectly fine and this helps me to solve another Windows to Linux migration issue. Will post more tips / pointers soon.

Hope it helps.

I call this system a “Point Based Reward System”. I have assigned points to various tasks and each employee should achieve certain level of point slab to get the rewards.

Here is the table with break up of the points:

Most of the points are self explanatory but I think some of the points might need some explanation.

Same Date Notice for Leave: For the pas few years, I have noticed that many employees take the day off without informing in advance, they just call up in the morning saying, “I am not keeping well” or any other reason. Now, this affects the scheduled tasks a lot. So I have assigned 10 points to it. For the first leave, 10 points are deducted and if it repeats again, additional 1 point will be deducted from the total earned points. Exactly same logic applies to 2nd point too.

If you notice, I have given very high number of points to tasks related to QA and Timelines. As in the end, quality is what matters to us. To track time lines and bugs, we are currently using ActiveCollab. It comes with a desktop timer application which helps to track the time of the user.

Now, this has some backdrop too. Some of the employees might feel restricted to the timelines and might give the highest importance to finishing the task on time rather than on the quality of the code. So to solve this issue, currently, I have not put any time based strict restrictions, I have asked the team leaders to maintain weekly milestones and make sure his / her team finishes the tasks in that period. No total number of fixed hours required.

For the Bugs, so far we have been using ActiveCollab but we have some in-house application planned for this but it’s going to take sometime for us to develop it. So you can either use ActiveCollab or applications like Trac or Mantis

We have also set certain procedures and standards for the code, so these standards must be followed. At this point, we are relying on the team leader’s feedback but it’s on you how you want to go ahead with this.

Another 2 important aspects are, Communication via emails and employees not spending more time on doing personal work.

In the past, I have come across so many instances where, either employee or me forget the important tasks or assign the task explaining few features mutually. Now, in this, there are very high chances that the employee might forget some of the points or he might do something the way you did not want. And this will end up raising questions like “You didn’t tell me about it” etc..

So to avoid this, I have added few points for communication via mails. Yes, it takes out some good amount of time to write the mails and all but it certainly helps to make your application better.

Another point I have mentioned is related to the personal work. Let’s face it, we all do personal work when we are at work. Be it phone calls, chat or surfing the sites. I don’t see anything wrong in that but in most of the cases, these kind of things affect the work and timelines. And if that happens, as a businessman, it’s surely going to pinch me hard. So that’s why the points come in for this.

I have also added 10 additional bonus points for the ideas. I am open to great ideas and suggestions always. This helps specially when you are developing your own application. So if anyone suggests the idea and if it’s been implemented, the 10 points goes to that employee.

So now what we have to do with these points? How does it work?

Well, We review these points at the end of every month and have made following slabs:

So, to get rewarded, you will need atleast 80 points in a month. More you work harder more you earn.

And in my opinion, it’s not at all difficult to achieve 90 points. You just have to be extra careful while doing your work. Specially when it comes to timelines and the bugs. You will have to start thinking logically rather than doing work like a machine.

In the current scenario, most of the employees work like a machine, they do not take care about the quality and bugs. Designer blames programmers and programmers blame designers for it. So this will help to squash all these issues. If the designer has given the HTML with no bugs then it has to work same way after programming too.

This was just a small example, there will be many other instances you will find that employees work like a machine.

NOW, there is 2nd part to it which I am not sure how many will follow.

On the basis of these points you can work out your annual or bi-annual appraisal structure too. I had planned it but I scrapped it after getting suggestions from the various employees. (Yes, we sit and discuss everything before making any new policies)

This is how the structure can be: (Following is for the period of 6 months)

I personally liked this structure for the appraisals but some of the employees felt this will end up reducing their freedom and ability to work in team. (As everyone will be working for themselves rather than working as a team)

So for now, in our company appraisals will be based on their overall points and the performance based on the feedback from the team members.

There are few more things which I am going to implement soon to make everyone’s life easier. I will share the same with everyone once we are ready.

I hope this helps and yes, do let me know your suggestions, would love to hear from everyone. Specially from the people currently working for any company.

Image Source: Show us your smile! by Ben Smith

Let me start with an example..

You are driving the car, suddenly RTO stops you in the middle of the road and asks for your car papers.. you realize that your car’s PUC has been expired or you have left it at home.. so? the officer tells you, you have to pay Rs. 1,000 as fine.. and.. the process of pataofying mama starts.. you end up paying him Rs. 2oo 0r 300 bribe and feel proud that you saved Rs. 700..

But did you even bother to check if there is actually fine of Rs. 1,000 for the PUC? or he was just fooling you to get the bribe money?

Well, if you are not sure, then you should do something to make sure that, you know the fine you have to pay.. so that no one can fool you with some bogus charges or figures..

I have been into this kind of situation more than twice.. we have even fought with the RTO guys in their office and made them read their own rule book… and realized that, the charges which were told to us did not exist at all.. the fine was 10 times lesser than what they had told us..

Obviously this does not happen all the time but we never know when it will happen to us.. so it’s better to be prepared…

Not many of us know about this.. Traffic Police of Mumbai website has a PDF document with the list of all the charges.. you can download it from here, take a print of it and keep it in your vehicle.. so next time, if someone tries to slap you any charge.. you better be ready with the exact figures

I hope it helps..

• There was were bunch of kids trying to start a website which will allow the users to setup websites in just few clicks. The concept was pretty good but their idea was broken, they decided to implement something social, where as a user will make template and share it with other users, so everyone can use it. I am not sure how practical it will be as the business model. Apart from this, they were not even ready for the alpha stage and they were having demo at the demo pit. In short, they were not “ready” yet..  They did not have clear picture of what they are going to do in the future. (And if they had, they could not convey it to me…)
• There was another team with the idea of making something on the basis of Getsatisfaction.com, again, no clear business plan, the voting manipulation wasn’t taken care of. The making money part wasn’t so promising at all.
• Another one was based on GetAFreelancer.com, again no proper business plan. There were no answers when I asked, there are plenty of other biggies providing same kind of services, why would people come to your site? Frankly, speaking, this guy was pretty much new to this and needed some boost, I gave him few ideas and if he works on those ideas, the things should work out for him. 
• There were many others, from something like Google docs / MS live document sharing clone, to some educational portal with great idea in mind but no proper planning etc..

I am not going to list them one by one but if you notice, everyone had some kind of base idea ready, be it based on any international site or not, but none of them had proper process lined up. No business model. Infact many of these guys never thought of any business model. They were like, we will see when things work out..

From what I understand, their thinking might be like.. we will make a good product and sell it off to any company and earn some good bucks.. (Well, I might be wrong too) But I don’t think this is what business all about… You need absolutely planning and clear picture keeping the worst conditions in mind. You should have a backup plan ready.

And most importantly, the high focus should be on money, profit.. you are spending lot of time over the project.. and for what? Social service? Just to make your name? Don’t you want your daily bread and butter? Think about money.. make a proper business plan and then just into so called startup bandwagon. If you don’t have any plans ready, I don’t think you have any right to start any business..

I know I know.. there will be people with examples like Twitter, Facebook etc.. but they all have a proper business plan, it is just that it’s been kept under the wraps and they are waiting for the right time…

I think people should not simply get into the hype of “startup” and all.. they need to sit, get back to the basic and make a plan, think about the future and think about the worst conditions.

That’s it.

Oh Yea, I am not any so called “startup guru” or anything. I am just a businessman. I understand money, profits, loss along with the great ideas. That’s it. So these are the things which always run in my mind and thought of sharing with everyone, so atleast some of the guys planning to do something new can get tips from this topic.

This is how the mail goes…

You already know that here in the U.S. we are outsourcing almost everything!  For you to acquire new clients might you consider this possibility?

Alexa, Ranking, and Compete.com all rank xxx as #1 in its category with more than 100,000 absolutely unique start-ups and online & eCommerce Business Owners per month (plus we operate the #1 ranking Web Hosting Directory with more than 300,000 monthly owners/visitors at xxxx)  …and xxxx for SEO interests.   And note that more than 50% of our 300,000 monthly visitors at xxx are in India with 25% in the U.S.

The mail ended with…

  Stay well,
  xxx

I am not sure what exactly was in their mind while planning out these kind of mailers but I personally find these things pretty funny.. I mean, writing couple of words in Hindi doesn’t make you familiar to India.. get some info on what’s happening around in India.. write those things in the mail, so Indians feel a personalized mail.. and it will make more sense too..

So, the point of this post: If you are planning to start marketing campaign to woo people from other country, make sure you do good amount of home work about that country and then you start sending out the mails..

First, I noticed around 3000 odd tables in the DB, thought it might be the reason (spambot attack) but later found out that this is how BuddyPress RC 1 behaves.. it creates 3 activity tables for each user.. and we have around 1400 users. (I figured it out quite late actually haha)

So, after spending numerous hours finding the issue, I got on to IRC channel of BuddyPress, got in touch with the user Burt (Burtadsit), We spent around 2 odd hours, tried out few things and then we moved on to the plugins section, disabled all the plugins, enabled every plugin one by one and finally found the issue.

The plugin Sexybookmarks was trying to connect to its server and the server was throwing back 500 error code (actually, 403 error, this means mostly mod_security rules are blocking it). So, our server was retrying or getting stuck and causing the page to load very slow.. (it used to take around 12 minutes to load the page).

Finally I traced the issue and fixed the things up.

So, the purpose of this post is to make you guys aware that, whenever you feel something wrong with your WordPress installation, first thing you should do is, check the plugins. (Apart from the normal routine checks, DB check and all)

That’s it guys..

Cheers,
Deep

Note: If you wish to see detailed issue, you can check this thread on BuddyPress forums