A few weeks ago, A&L turned one.

This picture is of them surrounded by all their party presents. This was them at seven months. And here was my post the day they were born.

They are so adorable.

Perfect. Family.

One of those festivals where I miss being in India. Getting up early, wearing your new clothes, and bursting the required crackers before the sun comes up.

Charlie and his partner Alex are taking a very open the kimono approach to their startup, Path 101.

I’ve always believed that if you have an idea, there is bound to be someone else who’s also had a similar idea. So execution is nine tenths of the battle¹. Given that, their approach makes a lot of sense. In addition to sharing what they learn (thereby helping other entrepreneurs), they also open themselves to feedback from many more people.

One of their more recent posts was on how they’d like to work with LinkedIn. I loved this post for a number of reasons. Ever since Charlie has come up with the idea for Path 101, he’s always expressed that he wants to leverage great products that are already out there and get his users onto other platforms as well. I agree completely. Many of the ideas he suggests will result in expanding the value of Path 101 while at the same time expanding the market and network of LinkedIn to a market it does not currently capture – college students and recent college grads. Read the post – some interesting ideas.

If you want to follow a startup from inception including details like their weekly meeting schedules, head on over to their blog.

_{Disclosure: I’m involved with Path 101 in advisory and other capacities.}

1. another reason why entrepreneurs should not bother with NDAs ↩

I don’t think I’ve quite seen this before – some guy takes a Tamil song and does a transliteration – the subtitles are not the meaning of the song, but how it sounds to him in English. OMG!! Too funny.

I speak Tamil, so not all of it sounds close, but still worth watching… Thanks to Manish for sending.

I missed the Democratic Debate on September 26th. So, I decided to catch up on it on the NY Times website. They have really done a great job.

The visuals are accompanied by a transcript on the right hand side. The visuals and the transcript are synced together – moving the video along automatically adjusts the transcript to the correct spot. Selecting a spot on the transcript moves the video to the right place. Broad sections are also provided so you can jump to them directly.

Perfect execution.

So far, the only option was to pay to unlock your phone. Now, the open source team has done it! The iPhone can be unlocked for free without paying anyone, without sending it anywhere… This version is still for the tech-savvy. A GUI version will be coming out shortly.

And yes, I know this blog has become just about this one topic. That shall soon be fixed. When, exactly? Soon!

While you hold your breath, read more here and here.

This morning I was in a meeting and finally held a real iPhone and played around with it, but told the group that no, I wouldn’t be getting one quite yet. BUT…

It is here!! The UNLOCKED iPHONE! Yes, it was just a matter of time.

Engadget reports that the iPhone has been unlocked. And they’ve used it on T-Mobile. You can now use it with any GSM carrier around the world!

Again: we can confirm with 100% certainty that iPhoneSIMfree.com’s software solution completely SIM unlocks the iPhone, is restore-resistant, and should make the iPhone fully functional for users outside of the US.

And it is restore-resistant. Of course Apple will try to wipe this out with an upgrade, but it is supposed to be upgrade resistant (not not sure about that, but we’ll see).

Yay! I might just head out and get myself an iPhone – finally!! 🙂

I’m a bit late on this news from last week¹.

On Wednesday, Kaboodle was acquired by Hearst Corporation. Congratulations to Manish and the entire Kaboodle team for all their hard work in building a great site.

I became an advisor to Kaboodle early last year and have had a great time working with Manish and his team. A very passionate group, they were willing to change their focus to ensure they were sucessful and provided a valuable service to their users.

I couldn’t be happier for them. I hope they continue to cool things as an independent company within the Hearst organization.

1. Apologies – have been fighting off a stomach bug I picked up in India ↩

Nutjobs of the world, unite! Wait, they already have… unfortunately! It is the turn of our Muslim brethren to step up to plate with the attack on Taslima Nasreen.

Unfortunately, media double standards have also leapt to the fore. And societies… Why aren’t artists and writers and creators of all kinds protesting what happened to Taslima Nasreen? Why aren’t they on the streets in protest? Why is everyone so much quieter now versus when what happened in Baroda?

Why is that? Because she’s not technically Indian? B.S. The Indian government won’t even give her permanent residency when she’s running from a fatwa (shame!)

Because she’s Muslim and her attackers are Muslim? Hmm – minority groups don’t get profiled in the press for their bad behavior any more? If that’s what secularism is about, what a load of bunk!

This is a just as much a violation on the freedom to create as the situation in Baroda. Let’s treat it with the same disdain and disgust, please.

Barkha Dutt has a great piece on this. Thanks to Sepia Mutiny for the tip.

Updated on August 14th

More reactions from Abi, who disagrees and makes some valid points that people have indeed protested this incident. I do agree with Abi that the timing is a bit ridiculous from Barkha Dutt (demanding a reaction within a day). Maybe it takes time to build… maybe people are jaded and tired of protesting all the nutjobs that are floating around… We’ll have to see how things unfold.

MumbaiGirl has more links to bloggers talking about the issue

Finally, the NY Times outs the Forbes journalist behind the very popular blog.

Ending the online manhunt that went on for months, FSJ admits he’s been outed. Ah, sad day. I just hope he continues to be his acerbic self.