Bangalore traffic (and I can’t seem to get enough of it) can be partially dealt with. Indeed. If you take more than an hour to get to your work place then one thing you can do to utilize all that commute time is listen to audio books on your phone or mp3 player. If you don’t take more than an hour to reach your workplace, you definitely don’t stay in Bangalore and can ignore the rest of this post. Unless, of course, you are a fan of my writings.

All you need to do is buy an audio book or download one from the hundreds of free AND legal versions available out there. While the audio versions of new books are relatively expensive, there are hundreds of classics which are in the public domain and are available for free download!

Legally free? Yes. Head over to OpenCulture and check out the catalogue there. The caveat is that only classics are available for free. But then, when were you going to sit down and start reading all the classics? Never. So it makes sense to be done with them while driving through all that mess of this city. If not anything, you definitely will come across as a well-read road-ragist.

I have finished two audio books in the recent past: Stephen Hawking’s The Grand Design and Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. The Grand Design has been shared over at InGoodBooks.com.

I am now reading, er, listening to E. M. Forster’s A Room with a View. The only drawback I see (hear?) with audio books is that it is difficult to appreciate fine writing while listening to it. Sure, a book like Hawking’s can be listened to since the core there is the idea, the concept. In Forster’s book, for instance, the emphasis is more on the writing styles, the metaphors, the juxtaposition of prose over a poetic framework – all a tad difficult to infuse in your literary senses while you are avoiding potholes and other fellow motorists.

Nevertheless, an audiobook is worth giving your ear to. If not anything else, it will keep you well-insulated from those seemingly clever music radio stations and their mind-numbing RJs and the singularly inane music that they dish out in between screams of sponsor company names and equally mind-numbing advertisements. Enjoy, ladies and gentlemen.

There is something about using superlatives that is just so easy to catch on.
Hence, here is one very very insightful interview of Mark Cuban, the founder of Broadcast.com, HD Net and several other companies.

Who’s the entrepreneur you respect most? Current or past?

MC: I guess Bill Gates. Larry Ellison I respect. You know, old school entrepreneurs, it was just diffferent. There was a different crede. I used to want to be profitable every month, before going IPO. But then later I accepted running at a loss. From the Netscape moving on, that’s what has happened since — the whole idea now is to get pageviews and then figure out a revenue model. I think entrepreneurs these days have been cheated because for them, its not about understanding how to make money. But when the money goes dry, you’re shit out of luck. When the bubble burst, 9 out of 10 businesses went away. With weblogs, our mantra was sales cures all. We used to talk about bottom line, not top line. It always came down to what you’re putting into your pocket. I want a cash-in-pocket strategy not an exit strategy.When you walk down these halls, you dont have people making money yet.

Read the complete interview here. Definitely more than worth your time.

Just discovered that Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and I have at least one thing in common – we are all on Twitter. Of course, its a different story that no body follows my updates on Twitter.

However, I found that both Clinton and Obama are quite active on Twitter and here are their twitter links:
http://twitter.com/hillaryclinton
http://twitter.com/barackobama

Going solely based on these logs, I find Obama to be a lot more energetic and proactive as compared to his competitor.
Some updates of Obama:

- Encouraging everyone in DC, MD and VA to vote today. Heading to Madison, WI for a Rally for Change event at the Kohl Center (6:15pm tonight)
- In Las Vegas, Nevada. Fired Up & Ready to Go!
- is Fired Up!.. And Ready to Go!

Updates of Clinton:

- I’m delivering a major foreign policy speech at George Washington University in Washington, DC today.
- This afternoon I was at an energetic rally in Providence, RI. Later today I’m heading to Central Falls for a health care roundtable.
- I am in Tacoma and Spokane, WA to talk to voters about “Solutions for America.”

For me, it is interesting how technology has easily permeated into the political domes of the USA, whereas in India most politicians struggle with even simple SMS-ing or checking mails on the internet.