I will not wait for your answer. I know you cannot see a child die when he can be saved with medical intervention.

But the fact is that millions of newborn infants die worldwide due to Congenital Heart Defects (CHD). These are a lethal constellation of birth defects of the heart. Eight of every 1000 children born alive (0.8%) will have some form of congenital heart defect.

CHD affects not only patients, but entire families. Along the winding, tortuous road ahead, with major surgery and continuing medical care looming, most families need a helping hand, a friendly shoulder to cry on and peers they can count on for support and encouragement in difficult times. Here is a list of some wonderful resources to find such assistance.

More info about CHD can be found at CHDinfo.com

So what can you do?

There are thousands of families below poverty line, who cannot afford the medical expenses when CHD strikes them. You can help them by donating at (http://www.chdinfo.com/chdaware/donate.htm). You can also help by donating some valuable time by spreading a word about this problem and the noble work Dr. Mani is doing to help people who are suffering from CHD.

Now who is Dr, Mani?

I was told about Dr. Mani by my colleague Arun Agrawal. I was curious about this person who is an expert heart surgeon, an Internet marketing professional and someone who find enough time for social cause. It encouraged me to dig deep into his profile and this describes him very well:

Dr.Mani is a heart surgeon. He lives in India. He treats little children born with congenital heart defects.

Heart surgery is expensive. Many of his patients, from poor families, cannot afford the cost of treatment. So Dr.Mani decided to try and help sponsor the operations.

This was the simple concept behind an online adventure that started in 1996.

Ten years later, Dr.Mani's team has raised over $100,000 and funded heart surgery in 23 children, with many more to follow. He's well on his way to achieve an ambitious mission – make high quality heart health care accessible and affordable to every Indian child.

More information about Dr. Mani can be dound at http://www.drmani.name

So friends, come up with an open heart and help Dr. Mani in every possible way for the cause he is so committed. Donate for those poor children who cannot afford heart surgery and medication on their own. Give them the right to live. Save them.

I will be off to participate on my 4 hour tweet_a_thon which Dr. Mani is doing to raise awareness about this noble cause. If you care, do follow us there and tweet about it to spread the word. My twitter feed is available at http://www.twitter.com/abhishekrungta

Have a great weekend!

I thought only Microsoft messes up their products / releases.

I could not understand, why will Google release such a major product i.e. a browser to compete against Microsoft and the Firefox without support for their own toolbar. Also, after five days of usage, I find Google Chrome still lacking in many areas:

• Browser plug-ins won't work!
• Text editor of my blogging software does not load (Must have some problem with Java Script)
• I am missing the option where Firefox posts the POST-DATA when something goes wrong, so that you do not have to fill up the form from scratch.

So, I have again started using Fire Fox after the initial Google Chrome mania. Yes, I will still continue to use Chrome to see how it develops.

Will keep you all posted.

I was reading about Google Chrome.

> Some blog says that it has snapped up 2.8% market share in 24 hours. Amazing. Isn't it?
> Some feels they have dumped and back-stabbed their partner, Mozilla / Firefox

So I decided to try it out. My observations (based on two days of usage) have been:

> Quick to download and install
> Faster than IE (for sure) and seems to be faster than Firefox
> Wide, open interface gives a feel of "freedom" and gives more space to see the website
> Interesting pop-up blocker. It minimizes the pop-up!
> Incognito window – for those who want to surf without leaving a trace
> A quick homepage with most visited websites listed to improve productivity
> Address bar doubles up as search box of Google.

So far it looks fantastic.

Few things I did not like (mainly interface and usability):

> Favorite button is not very intuitive
> Settings icon is definitely not a decent visual metaphor!
> It has a minimalist design. So some less-used features has not been accommodated.

However, one question is disturbing me – What is Google trying to achieve?

Is it "organizing the information of the world" or "becoming the central processing unit of the world" with a thin client (the chrome browser) and the client to access the web based operating system to access this massive central processing unit powered by clustered Linux servers!

Their attempt to monopolize is very evident. And with monopolization comes manipulation. So keep your eyes open.

Are anti-trust activist taking note of it?

Today I came across an online tool called Quillpad.

This online software let you type in most Indian regional languages (including Hindi, of course). The quality of application and usability has blown me away! I think such applications will make vernacular content a reality on Internet.

This is how they describe their service:

Quillpad is a free online Hindi typing tool. Now it is very easy to type in Hindi. For example, type 'aap kaise hain' in the text field below. Quillpad will convert it directly into Devanagari script. If you write a word like 'vishesh', first sh should become 'श' and the second sh should become 'ष'. Quillpad will intelligently do that for you. No need to use shift keys or to memorize any key mappings. So 'राष्ट्रपति' can be written by typing 'rashtrapati' or 'raashtrapathi'. Quillpad can also predict if multiple words are possible for your input. You can click on the word to select from those options. In addition Quillpad allows you to type English words freely in between Hindi words. It intelligently transliterates them into Hindi.
(taken from their website)

It took me a minute (yes – just one minute) to get used to this tool and I was off to a flying start. In minutes, I managed to write this line in Hindi, which is near perfect.

मैने आज क्विलपॅड मे हिन्दी में टाइप किया. यह बहुत ही आसान है. इस तरह की आसान टाइपिंग सुविधा होने से कई लोग कंप्यूटर्स पे हिन्दी का उपयोग कर पाएँगे. क्विलपॅड के डेवेलपर्स तो मेरीशुभकामनाएँ.

I highly recommend this wonderful software.
Go use it and start typing in Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati or Tamil. Feel free to post your experience with this software.

I have finally started using Twitter.

My twitter page is http://www.twitter.com/abhishekrungta

To be honest, I do not think Twitter is a great thing. Micro blogging does not catches my fancy, since it does not help me to add any value to myself or anyone else. It is the last thing that could have happened to me after the distractions from phone calls, emails and blogging.

But then why did I joined? Good question!

Millions of people may not be wrong. So, I joined in to validate my assumption. I do not want to get left behind if Twitter turns out to be something a world-changing application. Again, I wanted to have a first hand experience before confirming my theory about micro-blogging.

So I thought – Lets give it a try and see what people love about it.
Keep following me on Twitter!

Regards
Abhishek

I am always interested in investing in new venues. Few days back, I stumbled upon a bunch of entrepreneurs who wanted to develop a 3D action game. It looked like a freaky idea and I was all game for it. I asked them to put together a basic business plan. Nothing monstrous. Just a simple paper-napkin business plan.

I got back a business plan, which looks like this:

This is the most funny business plan I have ever seen. I could not help myself but share it with you all. I have removed the name of the company which was scribbled on top of this page!

Few things to notice:

• The plan talks about all expenses. It does not talk about revenue channel.
• The salaries of administrative staff = salaries of production staff.
• They want to start off with 3000-4000 sq feet space. I do not remember seeing many start-ups doing that. May be I am an old fashioned guy, but I think start-ups should work at shoestring budget to pull break-even point closer and to allow more space for experimentation.
• No cost for the game development engine. I have heard that this is one of the major costs in starting off a game development company.
• No breakup for administrative expenses which amounts to almost INR 1 million every month.
• Investment in 2.25 million pieces media for a product which has not been test-marketed. 
• Approximating INR 75.425 million to INR 80 million. It clearly shows that they do not value money.

The business plan clearly shows:

• There is no plan.
• The team does not know about the business that they want to get into.
• They are non-committed.

It goes without saying that I will never associate myself with such a business.