Month: May 2013

Review: California Burrito, RMZ Infinity, Bangalore

This is a new eatery opened at the food court at RMZ Infinity, Old Madras Road, Bangalore. California and Burritos? Yeah sure, California has a lot of Latino population, but never really associated these 2 names. Perhaps a competition to California Pizza Kitchen (which incidentally, I cannot place the association either).

It is the first week that the restaurant has been open. So this place was crowded. The food was good too. Again, the above two comments are probably because of the first week factor. We would have to check it out a month later and then figure.

  • Had the Spicy Panneer Burrito. The Burrito is fairly authentic. Slightly sticky on the outside. Warmed a little bit. The other options are salad bowl style and hard taco.
  • Next the filling. The two veggie options were spicy panneer and barbeque panneer. Panneer in a burrito is mixed-racial already. I didnt want to mix one more cuisine (bbq) in it. So spicy panneer it was.
  • You get an option of Pinto beans or black beans. And you get to choose if you want it spicy or not. I chose spicy pinto.
  • Additions include guacamole, sour cream, jalapenos, and grilled veggies. I took grilled veggies, guacamole, and sour cream. I was a little wary about the guacamole, but it was done just right.
  • Each of the above steps is a different guy. So it is a three person assembly line operation. Fairly swift and efficient. The last guy rolls the burrito and gives it to you in a bowl.
  • I also took a side of chips and salsa. Right amount of crisp and salt. The salsa was fresh as well.

Damage to wallet was Rs. 150.

Verdict: Pretty good (for now). If only they can sustain the quality, I think this would be a good place for a lunch.

Advise (for now): Reach before 1PM. Gets super crowded. Not much seating left. So you would have folks waiting for you to finish and get up (a la CTR/MTR style).

 

 

 

Product Description in BigBasket

Disclaimer: This is not a paid post. I do have purchased from BigBasket a couple of times. The information contained in the post is my opinion on the way online marketing/retailing is changing.

I got an email in the morning from bigbasket.com. The email subject was to tout their latest android app. True to the subject, the first section of the email was a banner which described the arrival of their android app.

bbandroid

Nothing special about this. Then it went on to describe the latest deals. Nice bright pictures with their original price and the new deal price.

prices

Again. Nothing special about this. I get atleast a couple of such emails these days.Then comes the kicker.

rice

This seemingly innocuous note about Sona Masoori has more than what meets the eye. Firstly, it invitingly says, “A note by Subramanyam J,National Head, Staples Merchandising”. Intriguing. So I clicked on, and it took me here.

This page gives some very nice information on what is Sona Masoori rice. Where it is grown. Where the original rice comes from. What processing is done on it. And then, it also says, where BigBasket sources this rice from. It then goes on to give the quality metrics that it observes. And the yield. Yes, get that, the yeild. How much cooked rice does a cup of uncooked rice yield?

rice2

Wow. You dont get that information from ‘any’ grocer that you visit. Just not possible. This is where online retailing is headed to. And I like it.

Spam is no longer binary

Saw this statement in an article which was announcing the new tabbed Inbox for GMail (which I totally dig and am waiting for).

Spam is no longer binary.

I think this is very true these days. There are ofcourse some emails which are clearly 100% spam, but GMail and other webservices catch these pretty well. I rarely get any of these any more.

There are some of the other emails that land in my inbox announcing offers and getaways and deals. Most times it looks like spam to me, but there are times, when I let them be, because I feel there might be use for it later. A 50% offer on all best seller books in flipkart is something that looks like spam, but I may look it up some time.

Similarly, emails from my credit card company and/or banks. Most times I dont read them (except for the statements). But I am always afraid that there is some important information that these guys may have told me and that I may need to look up later (maybe during tax filing season!). Thank God for the Archive button in Gmail.

The third type of grey-spam are the social updates. Updates from Twitter, facebook, and LinkedIn. These are important to me, but look like spam to me sometimes.

The new tabbed inbox that is due to roll out very soon in GMail takes care of this, by separating these in different tabs, so that it does not distract you from the important actionable email.

tabbed

Read the FastCo article here about the new tabbed GMail

(pic courtesy – the same fastco article).

Coca-Cola Sharing Can

Wow. Coke is on a roll these days. After the Happiness Project, now comes the sharing can. Some (or maybe all) parts of the video are stage managed, but the actors reactions are exquisite. Law of human nature of sharing between friends (or like-minded people), when folks see their can suddenly become two, they extend it to the nearest person. All in all, a nice concept.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72fRuE8vmo0

Right after the acquisition …

I was reading this great article from an ex-Flickr employee on how Tumblr (and its employees) should ride the acquisition wave. In specific, I think some of these points are awesome, immaterial of the current scenario (Tumblr + Y!). These are applicable in almost all big company buys smaller company scenarios. I am reproducing the four points below with some of my observations that I went through during the one acquisition I went through and a few which I have closely seen happen.

Don’t pretend it’s not happening or that it doesn’t matter.

Totally nailed it. It matters. You need to soak it in. You need to absorb in some of the acquiring company’s culture. Make new friends. Get some folks with whom you can gut-check processes. Most importantly, make friends with the non-tech crowd at the bigger company – HR, Finance, Facilities. You will soon realize you would need their help. And help is so much easier to get if you are on their side.

Don’t forget you’re awesome.

You got acquired because the parent company felt that either your technology is awesome, or your talent is awesome. Either ways, you are important to them. Acknowledge that. Dont succumb to giving up everything. A good merger/acquisition is a layer-by-layer mixing of what is best for the joined entity. Do not give up silly little traditions when you were smaller. At the same time, embrace larger cultural practices from the bigger company.

Plan for the Bear Hug.

I think the original article nails this one beautifully. In the initial stages, everyone will jump in and give you ideas. Embrace this togetherness, but have a point-contact for traiging these requests. Else you will get in to a rat hole.

Think bigger.

Now you can. You can think beyond the local market. You can think beyond the handful of customers you have now. You can think beyond restraining marketing budgets. You can ask for help in designing UI. You can ask for data. You can do so much more if you start thinking bigger.

Know how deep the rabbit hole goes.

Now this is one thing, that I have seen happening right in front. After the acquisition happens, there are a certain set of things that happen either due to standardization (example in the article is moving to a common data center, which happens everywhere now), or something that resulted from you thinking bigger. Some things might seem easier when doing it on a larger scale, but along with, comes a ton of headache. Localization, internationalization, local laws, patent disclosures. And I fully agree with the advise in the article about – “Dont be afraid to get a gut-check from someone in the parent company.” These headaches have a thing for magically appearing only  mid way through the project.

Read the original article here.

Google Glass Creepiness

5PointCafeGoogleGlassBan_2

Wow. This is creepy.

As I approached the line to the restroom, I took a deep sigh, thinking that I might find some respite from the hundreds of cameras strapped to people’s heads at the conference.

Yet when it was finally my turn to approach the rows of white urinals, my world came screeching to a halt. There they were, a handful of people wearing Google Glass, now standing next to me at their own urinals, peering their head from side to side, blinking or winking, as they relieved themselves.

Read the full article here.

Image courtesy blogs.cio.com