Sriram Krishnan™ Live

Folks, after one fruitful year in Stockholm, it’s time to say good bye to Stockholm. I leave for Singapore on Tuesday and head to Malaysia soon after for a few days before I am off to China for a week and a half. The next couple of days will be spent catching up with some mates, settling some academic reports, and visiting my work place for presentations and such.

Hej Hey Hi Hello guys, I just stopped work a couple of days ago and I will now embark on a one month Eastern European (+ Berlin + Vienna) holiday before I head back to Singapore for good. The only element of the whole trip that’s confirmed so far is my flight to Budapest tomorrow afternoon (or late morning, need to check) and my flight to Singapore on the 5th of August (waitlisted for 12th, 13th, 14th). Everything else, I am playing by ear or liver rather. Here’s what I have planned or thought of:

1) Budapest from 9th July onwards

2) Next up is Vienna. When? I don’t know. It depends on how cool the Sziget music concert (largest european music festival) in Budapest is. And how drunk my friend Peter gets me everyday. I will probably leave for Vienna somewhere between 13th to 15th. Leaving for Vienna on Monday 16th after the big ass Balaton Sound music concert in Zamardi and the Renault World Series race on Saturday and Sunday respectively. Will be back to Budapest on 18th.

3) How long I will spend in Vienna I don’t know. Might want to check out Salzburg or some Austrian rural village. Also, I might head to either Bratislava or Slovenia for a couple of days. This again depends on how battered I get in Vienna.  Three days in Vienna till18th.

4) All I know is that I need to head to Timisoara, Romania on the 19th July. So happened to be my birthday as well. Will be participating at the BEST competition for two weeks. So might be taking the train from either Slovenia or Croatia to Timisoara from Budapest afterall.

5) Timisoara - Two weeks of non stop drinking, eating, sightseeing, design, debates, competition

6) This is the tricky part. This course ends on the 31st July. And assuming I don’t get to go back to Singapore later, I need to get back to Stockholm by the 4th night at least. But I want to chill in Berlin with Martin, Eric, Alex and co. So after partying away till the wee hours of the 1st, I might take the 24 hour train ride to Berlin or take a train Vienna and fly to Berlin. I don’t know anything else apart from this. Need to find out more about the distance etc. Back to Budapest. Fly to Athens for 5 days. Then fly to Stuttgart and then to Berlin.

7) 3rd night or 4th morning. Hitchhike to Hamburg to catch the some o’clock Ryanair flight to Stockholm. If I get to postpone my trip back home to a later date, I will stay in Berlin for a few more days and probably fly back to Stockholm from Berlin I am flying back to Singapore on the 14th.

Travel necessities and important things I will bring along in my journey

1) Laptop. In between all that mess, I need to whip up a 30 page report that’s due on 31st July and a 15 page report that’s due mid August

2) The Google story and Plato’s Republik

3) Phone for Jaiku

Now if only Dopplr can capture this sort of information, the world would be a much better place to live in

Yes, nothing wrong with that sentence. Who is their source I wonder. Read here.

Yes, I want to give them away. I am not that hooked onto Pownce because I think it’s redundant, to me at least. My friends and I use Jaiku, Facebook, Gmail, MSN and Skype, so I don’t see any reason to use Pownce nor any reason to persuade them to use Pownce, especially when most of their features can be replicated via the above mentioned services.

But that’s not stopping me from giving it away. To you. So here’s the deal. The authors of the first 6 constructive criticism (comments) about any aspects of my blog will get an invite in their mailbox. I’ve been blogging for about 3-4 months now and would love to hear a refreshing take on my regular writings, style, blog design or whatever else which relates to this blog that tickles your fancy. Besides, giving it away just like that is just too easy.

So shoot away…really.

[Special thanks to Joakim for the Pownce invite ]

Chris Brogan, of of the organisers of Podcamp Europe 2007, has gone berserk (in a good way of course and proposed several exciting, interesting social media projects for the summer period. If you’re free and always have something to say wrt this issue, pop Chris an email about it.

What do I think about this? It’s a fantastic initiative.

100 Comments Project- Someone starts a post, we fill up 100 meaningful comments. End result: **updated** Some good conversations (not doing ebooks).

Social Media Architecture Project - We’re plumbing out the network, and then tuning it for value. (Going beyond “having” a Facebook or MySpace page, and into actually making worthwhile USE of it).

Barnstorming Project - Let’s raise the roof on several new media properties. Let’s get Justin Kownacki’s Something to Be Desired sold or funded, for instance.

Grasshopper Factory - a small unconference themed on creativity, DO!-ing something, and community.

PodCamp Network - we’re going to bring the conversation all together in a distribution hub, sharing our best stuff, making sure we don’t lose the threads.

YOUR ideas - remember, I’m just starting something. It’s your game. What’s your idea?

OMG, Apple is venturing into cars now! It comes as no surprise to me as to who they chose as their partner. Mercedes has always been the industry leader by far when it comes to in-ride innovation. Their S class introduced the world to anti-lock brakes, airbags, electronic control and a partnership with Apple definitely looks beneficial to both sides. Mercedes stays ahead of the curve and Apple enters an extremely new market.

It would be interesting to see how Microsoft or Google reacts to this. Would they jump into partnerships with other car companies? Would they wait to see how this turns up before deciding anything? Do they have secret discussions with car companies already? Microsoft Surface as car seats? Google Maps as navigation systems?

NOW, I am definitely looking forward to the newer episodes of Top Gear.