Will Linux Rule The Digital Home?

Om Malik discussus this interesting topic:

"The embedded Linux has already been adapted and widely deployed in everything from Sharp PDAs to Motorola Mobile Phones to set-top boxes. Many of the newer digital music systems such as Sonos are powered by the little Penguin. TiVo, for example is based on a version of Linux. So is DirecTV’s set-top box! Moxi, is another set-top box maker that uses Linux. AT&T HomeZone is powered by Linux as well.

Scores of other start-ups are experimenting with Linux-based home entertainment systems, music players and digital video recorders. IntAct, a spinout from set-top box maker, Amino has just started selling a Linux-based software stack that runs on any kind of chip, and can also run Opera browser. And there are many more similar packages out there, or under development."

Good Books: The Change Function

Rajesh Jain reviewed a book called 'The Change Function'. He has some interesting comments.

This book is about - why some technologies succeed -- and others fail.

After years of studying countless winners and losers, Coburn has come up with a simple idea that explains why some technologies become huge hits (iPods, DVD players, Netflix), but others never reach more than a tiny audience (Segways, video phones, tablet PCs). He says that people are only willing to change when the pain of their current situation outweighs the perceived pain of trying something new.

In other words, technology demands a change in habits, and that's the leading cause of failure for countless cool inventions. Too many tech companies believe in 'build it and they will come' -- build something better and people will beat a path to your door. But, as Coburn shows, most potential users are afraid of new technologies, and they need a really great reason to change.

Ram Shriram: Things looking bubbly in India

SiliconBeat reports:

Similar to Silicon Valley's boom in the late 1990s, the Indian tech world is in full frenzy.

Ram Shriram, the founding investor in Google, started frequent travel to India last year to look for opportunties. He initially seemed close to Silicon Valley firm Sequoia Capital. But lately, Shriram has cozied up with Sequoia rival Kleiner Perkins.

Venture capital firms and private investors last year poured $2.2 billion into 146 start-ups in India -- compared with $1.7 billion invested in 71 deals in 2004, reports USA Today, citing data from TSJ Media's Venture Intelligence India Roundup, and we're assuming this includes U.S. venture investments into the country too.

Tags: startup, funding, entrepreneur, venture

Intelligent Failures

Business Week has a very interesting article (via. Rajesh Jain):

"Everyone fears failure. But breakthroughs depend on it. The best companies embrace their mistakes and learn from them,

Intelligent failures -- those that happen early and inexpensively and that contribute new insights about your customers -- should be more than just tolerable. They should be encouraged. "Figuring out how to master this process of failing fast and failing cheap and fumbling toward success is probably the most important thing companies have to get good at," says Scott Anthony, the managing director at consulting firm Innosight."

Must read -- here.