Kategorie: Allgemein

Hitiki has a Blog

As you may know, I work for the Hitiki project right now in Bangalore. This „online travel guide with a community feel“ is not yet online but already has a blog.

The reason we started it was mainly for the recruitment of new people. Many of our applicants have never been to India. And recruiting via e-mail and phone interviews is not an easy task (for both sides). So we hope the Hitiki Blog makes our project a little bit more real. 🙂

Have a look at the Hitiki job openings, maybe you know somebody who would like to work in Bangalore for some months?

And of course read blog.hitiki.com online or add it to your RSS-feedreader!

Venture Capital is back

FON got 18 million Euros funding from Google, Skype, Sequoia Capital and Index Ventures.

One example that VC is back in the Internet business and exciting all the new start-ups. I thought this goes nicely with the title of this blog. 😉

I admit I like the idea of FON very much. From the site:

FON is a Global Community of people who share WiFi. Share your WiFi broadband access at home/work and enjoy WiFi all over the world! FON, small cost, great benefit!

New Economy Crash Collector is Back

BOO vomit

The German website dotcomtod is back online as Boocompany. It’s purpose is to publish news about „exit-oriented“ companies. Posting a „BOO“ about a crashing new economy company was very fashy in 2001. The current „BOOs“ are mostly about offline companies. Let’s see when the internet companies are leading the list again! 😉

(via Netzeitung)

Smell blood

Jeffrey Zeldman from A List Apart wrote a rant about Web 2.0:

But nothing […] was as exciting as the scent of money. As the first properly valued “Web 2.0” properties began to find buyers, a frenzy like the old one popped hideously back to life. Yahoo spent how much? Google bought what? Here was real blood in the water.

But how to persuade the other sharks in the tank that this blood feast was different from the previous boom-and-bust? Easy: Dismiss everything that came before as “Web 1.0.”

His suggestion: Skip that and go directly to Web 3.0. But maybe he just made that title up to attract all the hype-lemmings. 😉

Back in Germany in Mid-March

I changed my flight ticket to Germany today. I will arrive in Frankfurt on March, 14th at 7am. So I’ll be in Berlin in the early afternoon. Before that I’ll have a 14-hours stay in Bahrain. Let’s see what I can do there. 😉

Changing a flight date with „Gulf Air“ was really a hassle. I tried their website first and expected some online tool to change a flight. But there wasn’t even a phone number on the website. So I asked my favorite travel agent where the office was. I had to go there four times:

  1. When I went there first last Friday, it was closed without showing office timings anywhere.
  2. So I had bad luck and it was closed an Saturday noon, the second time I tried.
  3. The third time, today, they where open but told me I should come back again because they had to wait for some approval from the Frankfurt office.
  4. The fourth time, today evening, I got it finally!

Internet is everywhere

A few weeks back I met a Danish journalist at his car (with German number plate) in Church Street in Bangalore. Yes, it is very unusual to meet somebody who made it from Europe to India by car. He drives around the world and sends his reports and interviews back home to Danish newspapers. He was on the road since two months and planned to visited about 40 countries during his trip.

I asked him what the most useful tool was for him so far. I expected something like a Swiss army knife or a satellite phone, but it was much simpler: He said he found it most convenient that there were Internet cafes all around. „Also in Russia and Iran?“, I asked. He smiled and said: „Sure. And it’s just so convenient to send the articles and photos back home instantly. And the people in Iran are so nice and friendly!“

For a moment I seriously considered to hitch-hike back home, it just sounded so easy.

I’m flying to Singapore!

I just booked an incredibly cheap airline ticket at jetstarasia.com!

From Bangalore to Singapore for 8800 Rs (169 Euros)! So Eva and me will have a closer look at that clean city from March 6th until 12th.

I saw an advert in the Times of India newspaper yesterday saying 2999 Rs but of course that was not true. I wonder why the airline companies don’t advertise at least somewhat correct air fares – since 8800 Rs is still very very cheap for a 5.5 hours flight.

Google Internet PC?

Talking about Hypes, here’s another one:

Rumours say Google may start selling personal computers for $200 each, with their own operating system. Let’s wait for the announcment on Friday, 6th. (Source: The Guardian)

Update January, 7th: Google announced a cooperation with Motorola, a video marketplace and a software pack (which is already available for free in the internet anyway). It was just another hype.