Code/Decode

Narain is the founder & CEO for 360 Degree Interactive, a web services firm based in Chennai, India. This blog is about his personal views on Web 2.0, RoR, Social networking,Digital media, interactive advertising, SaaS, Service Oriented Architecture, India Inc, rural education, Web standards, mobile 2.0 and more.

Monday, June 30

Master of Design

Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO is a simple man behind, cutting edge designs incl. Apple Mouse, Handspring and a whole range of others. This article Technology Review, explains the sync. between Technology and Design. Read this Master of Design

In a similar fashion, there are few companies in the world, which are worth surfing. My fav. inclu. Frog Design

Master of Design

If you would like to know the synchorinisation between Technology & Design, Tim Brown is the man whom you need to acquint with. Tim Brown, is the CEO, IDEO renowed for its work on products such as Palm V, Apple Mouse and others. Click this Master of Design to know more. This intervu was given to Technology Review know more..

Sunday, June 29



Nothing special about the weekend. Spent time with the friends at Mint. Things are looking prospective. Let's hope for the best.

Saturday, June 28

Why you need to Global now?





how many times, you encounter this. Talking to a overseas client, he refers a particular term, you understand it differently. At the mid / end of the project, you will come to know what he actually meant. Sitting in India, and doing global business is always been a challenging stuff.

This site [Marketing source - click here makes it easier to understand & work on the way you work truely transnational. I know, there are zillions of websites talking about this, but the beauty of this site is that it is neatly arranged all the information which are relevant.

Some of the categories are so unique, that i have never come across such a arrangement, anywhere in the web [i dint google :-)]. One of the few article, I enjoyed is this article from the people at P & G. This article talked about how the world' best companies utilise Internet for their business and customers.

Had a good nite dinner along with the team yesterday @ Karaikudi. Finished the "Ad Club" meeting at GRT, screening "SHOTS" a collection of best works from European & South African advertising. Seen, that PEOPLE THINKS AMAZINGLY!!

Thursday, June 26

ECML, Google toolbar & Consumer consideration.



It is been 2 tough days back-2-back [ I haven't moved anywhere. Just brainworking]. Think will be busier with a MNC client by next week.

Google has launched the new toolbar with additonal features including, Pop-up Blocker, Auto Fill for forms and blogger direct and other great enhancements. chk it here. The interesting thing i have noted is not the toolbar but a link from google for the Autofill feature, which talks about a standard called ECML (Electronic Commerce Modeling Language). It is a guideline and principle thru which the field names [Form Field Names] to be defined and named. Worth reading & practicising it if you are a web developer & ecommerce vendor. ECML specification

Getting more resumes, more offers & more information. It is tough to handle all the emails along their way. Interesting to see that there is a compliant [global] site available for all e-com related issues. chk this site called eConsumer for the rest of the people.

Apple has relesed G-5, which is hottest topic running around with 64-bit processor, who cares in the world whether it is 32 / 64 /128-bit, afterall, everybody now needs to know where do they take money from ?


Tuesday, June 24

Seth Godin, Sergio Zymen & the power of permission

Have you ever been to Seth Godin's Website ? If you are a thinker, creator or marketer, or simply a viewer, Seth Godin's words will definitely transform the way you think & work. His works are exceptional in a way, it actually demystifies the marketing myths and breaks new grounds in the way you think & market. The best part is some of his sentinal works are available free as a e-book. chk his off. website Seth Godin you know, what i am talking about.

His blog is one of the "you-cannot-escape-from-reading-this" kinda stuff. chk his blog & you can subscribe to alerts . Seth Godin's blog

Life seems to be going heavy with projects & discussions. Pressure builds in terms of the projects & projections which went thru' recently in the discussion. Not much break thru' stuff are happening. The only thing I envisage is to have the official website 360 Degrees [http://www.360in.com] and a sister site for integrated emarketing [http://www.1to1interactive.com] will go live by mid of July with packed features and informations.

Just in case if u are marketing hungry,
these 2 are worth read.
Marketing Profs-The destination where all the mktg & advertising guys meet

The legendary former Coke CEO Sergion Zymen's consulting company is again a worth read. Zymen unplugged

and last but not the least, a collection of e-books from Seth Godin & some of the best marketing minds in the business Click here to land there

Monday, June 23

E-mail Marketing & Information Update

Nothing great to add on monday nite. Week is going to be heavy in terms of work.

chk this email s/w link worth taking a demo Listrak

Sunday, June 22

Softimage Launch

Attended the Softimage | xsi 3.5 launch yesterday. Seems in 5 years from now, we will have all the tools to create a complete fully realistic cinema, right from the desktop with off-the-shelve tools [with a P-6 processor :-) ]. The launch was started an hr. late, we were waiting for the Managing Director of Softimage to inagurate the session. But it is worth waiting & watching the awesome product demo from SI people.

Nothing much to add. Sevensys is back with 2 more projects.

so, worth reading today is www.softimage.com

Friday, June 20

Trends 2 watch for

Things are ok. At last, had spent time with friends at "Chicking" over a "kalassal" weekend for saravanan.

Projects at last, started flowing in, so i will be in & out of the blog.

Bookmark & subscribe to the following locations.
Springwise
Trend Watching

Worth seeing how marketers in developing countries utilise technology for business.

Watch The Trends

Things are ok. At last, had spent time with friends at "Chicking" over a "kalassal" weekend with saravanan. 2 projects back-to-back to work. will have a tough next week ahead.

Bookmark & subscribe to the following locations.
Springwise
Trend Watching

Worth seeing how marketers in developing countries utilise technology for business.

Thursday, June 19

Back in Business

After 2-3 days of brain working, i am back to biz. from today. Had to work for a assignment for Intel along with ad agency. Things are ok with me. If you are serious about web standards & other important web-based, CSS2 information, chk the Zeldman's website.


Nothing to add more. yawning ...:-()

Wednesday, June 18

Cannes, Jargons & Understanding the Customers

If you happen to see the presentations of large companies, particularly Tech companies, you can come across words like "leveraging", "paradigm shift" "repurposable solutions" and other jargons, you will never know, what they actually mean. To kill these jargon busters, leading consulting company [Deloite] came up with a MS-Word add-on called "bullfighter". You can get this nifty utility from their website as a free download Bull fighter . Be a part of the Staright Talk group!!

Working on my JV draft still. Not completed. Too many parameters to evaluate. Things are looking bright at the end of the tunnel, where i am halfway in. Finished the new draft for the official website 360 Degrees. If you would like to contribute by saying what would you like to see in the site in its new avatar, do email me at mail me

Quote of the Day::
Ultimately, an organization can increase its profitability and enhance the experience it provides its customers by ensuring that the treatment customers receive across different touchpoints matches their individual needs. The increased profitability is derived from increased efficiency
- from 1to1 Magazine, June 2003 in the article "Why Customers buy is more important than what they buy"

Indian advertising has come of age. We scored 4 [2 Gold, 1 silver and a bronze] till today @ Cannes. More in the offing. Finally, the world recognises the indian creative :-) Thx. Piyush Pandey, Prasoon Joshi, Renil D'selva, Josy Paul and the countless, nameless creative directors working in Indian ad. agencies. Get the up-2-date info on Cannes & the Indian rally at here

Tuesday, June 17

By now, the @d:Tech event had started in San Francisco. Going thru' their Exhibitor Listing, seems pretty interesting & exciting. Missing you guy there on the Floor. But these kinda events, actually kindles a lot of exciting possibilities in the future of online & digital interactive advertising. If you are an interactive planner or marketer, move straight to their website to know more and feel the future !!

After a week & a half of battle, finally, i found the answer to open native applications from flash. This question was boiling me for days for a client. I found the answers from one of the unknown flash site. There are many tutorials about how to open a .pdf or .avi file in flash boards, but none of them has a tutorial for opening the native application itself, say Acrobat Reader or QuickTime Player.

The solution is like this.

There are 2 parts in this solution. 1. Non-flash Part 2.Flash Part. First, let's know the non-flash part. Windows Environment comes with a magic genie called ".bat" files. The famous example of a bat file is your autorun file. Now get into the code.

1. Open a notepad file
2. Type the following
@echo off - - - - - - - - - - - This turns off the ugly (?!) Dos window once it finished its work.
Start AcroRd32.exe - - - - - This is the code for the app. I used the file name as represented inside the Acrobat folder [AcroRd32.exe]
3. Save this file as "launcher.bat"
4. Put this inside the folder named "fscommand" [Flash MX] or in the same folder [Flash-5] where your swf resides.

Flash Part.

Write the following code in a button or MC

fscommand ("exec", "launcher.bat")

Wait and look for your Acrobat Reader opening.

Seems simple na....took a week to find out :-)

This article on Evolt brought a real smile in the face. This is the sum of all 6 years exp. in this industry. Damn good article to refer to if you are a interactive marketer. Click here

Today's Read: Listrack - a decent email marketing & campaign solution provider

Subscription: Ofcourse, the breaking news, Tips & Excl. Interviews from the Speakers of AD:TECH subscribe here. it sits in the bottom cornor of this page and dont forget to read their sample issue from Marketing Sherpa Sample Issue look here

Worth reading: Wanna customize your windows OS 9X/2K/NT....if u dont have anything to do and can tinker around the shell of Windows, head straight here for cool shell imaginery
Virtual Plastic

May be we can use the same stuff for desktop & in-store branding. spare a thought!!



Sunday, June 15

Matrix Reloaded - Seen - Just cann't believe where they are taking the film as a medium. Each Frame designed like a talented Sculptor's work, takes you to the next level film making. I haven't seen, such a interactive film making even with Lucas & ILM.

Yet like every sequel, Matrix Reloaded as its, over emphasis & sucking the juice from its predecessor. Unlike it's part I where, there is a constant tension & expectation in the audience, Part II dint have that magic running in. But it is worth a watch. don't stand up and walk back, once the titles are on, you can see a sneak preview of "Matrix Revolutions" , dont miss that.

Sunday It's Holiday.

Saturday, June 14

Sorry dint post yesterday. Off for sleep early. Chennai, at last saw a few rain drops from the sky. Finished the Client Requirement Study with Murari. Seems interesting and considers fine.

There is a different community of bloggers started sucking the web called b-blogging [business blogging] had a thorough read about them, seems it is intersting information how we can work on. This raises a few questions in the mind, is these b-blogs can be xploited commercial, if they become commercial, the credibility & the freedom of information they provide is reliable or like the ad sizes, sites, will there be a competition among the b-bloggers for content / ad space. So much to think about. for starters, look into this click Z's article http:// www.clickz.com/ feedback / buzz/article.php/2221421

If you are looking into some sort of creative exploration in terms of Images, check out this weird collection of Image bundle from Punch Stock

Got to say a few thanks to Toxi, [www.toxi.co.uk] for sending me the info i requested. Look into his site for his contribution & experimentation in Director & a bit of Flash.

I am off today [Saturday] for the most awaited film for the last 2 years - Matrix Reloaded. Will post what Neo whispered me :-)

Today's Read : Tech Republic

Subscription: Software CEO If you think you are in any portion of IT & Software, this news letter and website provides you the bunch of info. you can REALLY use

Worth Reading :: If you use Flash, then you will know What COllin Moock has contributed to the Flash community. Offlate, he also started blogging. Like his website, this is thoughtful and well written on issues spanning beyond flash.Moock's Blog

Wednesday, June 11

Longer day in the office. started working on the intel's presentation, ended up @ 10 PM that the presentation is put off [ Clients.....................can you hang all the CEO's in the client companies]. Just got bugged up with that.

No time left to read. Prakash has blessed with a boy. [ It's a boyyyyyyyyyyy..................]

Projects are increasing. Need to stress this week into documentation & finalising the JV.

Today's Read :How to make your deliverables count?

Subscribe : Search Guild, if u r a serious SEO

Worth Reading: How Schools have spoiled us, in killing our natural creativity. This article from box&arrows neatly summarises the effect

Tuesday, June 10

Just in a hurry!! Do you meanings for address munging, word of mouse, hand salsa, citizen terminal, chip graffiti.


chk this Word Spy

Monday, June 9

Sunday 8th June

Morning I had a meeting with TR Pubs. a rel. of Murari, nice people with great books to turn your heads on. Will work on their new website. [tht's biz!!]

Well from my machine i was not able to access blogger, so consider this as a sunday post :-) . OK here we go, Reading the morning Sunday Hindu paper, one article which attracted a lot of attention,is that about Vedic Mathematics. how the Vedas [ Indian ancesstral texts] have indicated, earth is not square and provided info. in terms pi & worked on pithagerous theorm before even the Greek, guy reinvented ;-) . I believe u can search for "shashi taroor" column in the The Hindu

Today's Read : 1-to-1 communication & relationship managment

Subscribe: The legendary Collin moock's Flash Newsletter

Worth looking: test your ranking with amazon This is the worth surf area where amazon & google got together in ranking your details in amazon style details.

I am for the work. ;-)

Saturday, June 7

It's a Saturday!!. Entered office only at 5.00 PM to close its door on 6. Pretty Hot outside & busy in personal works. Finished the Sample Keyword Analysis report for my SEO Client.

Offlate, from a creative director's view point, I work more in terms of business information solutions and one to one marketing arena. Watch this place, once we are up with our sister arm for 1-to-1 personalised marketing / communication solutions / services aptly named as 1to1interactive.

It's been a criminal waste in spending huge amount of money in terms of the look and feel & countless, useless, downloaded scripts in many of the Indian companies Websites by the designers & developers. It is a pathetic & horrible state of affair, that except for the big spenders & few good visionaries in the business, none of the Indian business sites, can provide the information we like to take. Quite disgusting to find those huge graphics, useless features, mouse trails and unwanted flash intros [maybe, some of the fellow designers / developers / freelancers across India makes money on this] which is not going to solve the purpose at all.

This article which I received a week back thru' my subscription can give an exact answer on "why companies & organisations need to look beyond traditional web & its usages"

Why Usability Matters to Your Business
"Most, if not all, Internet users are familiar with the hallmarks of poor usability. How often have you invested time at a site only to be frustrated because you were unable to complete a purchase or registration process, or couldn’t find the information you sought? More importantly for commercial websites, how was your perception of the brand behind the website affected by your experience?"
UsabilityCompany

From today i have decided add a bit of a buzz to this blog by providing information on ever expanding search queries of mine with intersting area to park your browser for a sip of tea.

Today's
Read : Jim Collins' official site [ Happen to glance thru's his article, and book "Good to Great" worth parking your cursor.]

Subscribe: SEO submission Tracking service [ Finally, i found one location where I can track info. about all my SE submissions ]

Worth Surfing:

Friday, June 6

Hi, Welcome to my new blog "Interactive Marketing Musings" a online-diary of the happenings in that domain, will my personal interests. To make a shameless self promotion, look into my website, www.360in.com for the organisational level updates.

Look out for a great ride ahead.

Performancing