[A snip from the interview]

There was this funny thing that set us back by almost 1 month…

We applied for a PAN card for Four Fractions. First, our application somehow got lost in the process. Then someone in the government department managed to put down our address as 108 when it was supposed to be 10 B (8 and B are very similar looking). Read more…

[/A snip from the interview]

PuneTech.com is an initiative from Navin Kabra - with an intent to bring together in one place all information about interesting software technology in Pune - the companies, the products, the people, and the technologies.

(Hopefully) I’ll be reaching Delhi before Midnight Saturday (23rd Aug 08). Very excited and anxious at the same time as I’m traveling via Train

Bon voyage Maku!

The solution is simple!

Using ApnaBill.com, now you can recharge your prepaid mobile in just seconds. The process is very simple.

How to recharge?
1) Visit www.ApnaBill.com
2) Select a coupon
3) Click pay
4) Pay via netbanking or credit cards
5) PIN code is delivered via SMS

Some benefits of using ApnaBill.com
- 100% safe transactions
- No transaction surcharge - 100 bucks coupon for just 100 bucks!
- Great discounts!
- Netbanking for almost all banks - UTI, ICICI, HDFC, etc.
- Excellent and responsive customer support

Now can anyone beat that?

Google has some awesome tools for Web Masters. I’d recommend them to anyone looking for better Google visibility.

The finals for IRock are scheduled here in Pune and you bet we arn’t going to miss them!
Dodge this - I have just booked 13 (yes thirteen) tickets for this Sunday!
Its also my much awaited birthday party (well sorta :P)

So come Sunday - and we iRock!

Thanks to Rohan, I started off with an inclination towards Orkut apps.

I must say, Google has done nice job of documenting the OpenSocial API’s. The starting point was ofcourse Orkut developer docs

• OpenSocial tutorial for Orkut
• Anatomy of an Orkut app
• Orkut Developer Guide
• API’s : OpenSocial, JavaScript and Gadgets

Ofcourse, to use any of these - you need the Developer Sandbox access to Orkut

The docs and the presented examples seem all good - but if you are a first time OpenSocial developer, the disconnect would be very obvious to you - specially how the OpenSocial API’s and Gadget API’s and JS API’s are all connected.

What I understood from all the reading was that OpenSocial is a set of API’s which all conforming web services expose. Each of these web service (Orkut/Hi5/etc) is a Container and each container exposes some proprietary API’s as well. So if you are developing an app which is to be deployed across multiple websites, make sure you do not use any proprietary code.

And what was the best way of understanding the codebase? Read the Examples! All of them! The more you read them, the more you would be able to the connect between all ingredients of OpenSocial API’s.
OpenSocial apps are primarily HTML and JavaScript - styled using CSS. The HTML forms the display of your app while the JS (bulk of your app) helps you fetch and render the data to & fro from your web service (Orkut/Hi5/etc).

There’s something interesting to note here…
Orkut’s sandbox environment requires your app to be stored on a publicly accessible location. That mean, if you have a website where you can host your JS/XML/CSS - you are good to go instantly. If not, try the Google Gadget Editor and save your files on google’s server.

I was lucky when it came to app hosting. Tata Indicom in Pune, gives static public IP’s for postpaid broadband connections. That means if I run apache on my server and dump my app files on /var/www/orkut folder (Ubuntu) then I can edit the files on my local machine while Orkut sandbox environment can fetch them straight from my machine - awesome! Now I get to use my favorite editor… yay!

App’s main view - Canvas

Profile view of the app

As you can see, my app does nothing intelligent - just lists my friends and their details. But what’s interesting is, I can detect at runtime that which view is being rendered - is it app’s main view or is the app being shown in my profile.

Think of this in more productive sense. If I am building an app for ApnaBill.com (lets say), I can display summary or something on the profile view and a more detailed analysis of the same thing in the app view - isn’t that interesting

What’s next? - Giving purpose to my app!

My example codebase - app.xml, canvas_view.js, profile_view.js
Please replace REPLACE_ME_1 with path to canvas_view.js and REPLACE_ME_2 with path to profile_view.js
Note - I am learning JS as I am proceeding with OpenSocial apps. Please use the above code at your own risk.

[update]
I am a big fan on “Emote” application on Orkut - so decided to examine how it works… loaded up Emote and inspected the “net” tab in Firebug and found this - http://www.rockyou.com/google_apps/emote_example/view/Emote_XML.php -if you can see, Emote is using completely different set of HTML for canvas and profile views. It also has included “dynamic-height” feature to hide the nasty scrollbars - interesting! You might also be interested in checking out the localization technique and the app headers - lots interesting information is there on how they should be used.

This is the sweetest possible message Bugzilla can ever show a developer
Tonight, I’ll be syncing live ApnaBill.com with the most stable version we ever had - the operations are still getting formalized but the code-base looks awesome!

If you come across any bug @ ApnaBill.com, feel free to ping us at our support channel - who knows, you might just save the day for thousands of users

Check him out - isn’t he just too much into the presentation?

Taking questions from the audience…

Finally the team together on stage - its so tough to get all 3 in one frame!!!
Sameer, me and Sandy

BTW - the ApnaBill.com Tee’s are ultra hot! I already have the next versions planned…

Source: Proto.in July Edition photo set on Flickr

ApnaBill.com Team - checkout the slant in the seemingly created skyline

Pictures courtesy Pravin from LifeBlob (one of the 15 finalist at Proto.in)

The presenting startups didn’t got much time to attend the conference talks - we were quickly rushed for the rehersals which were to prepare us for the upcoming showcase on 2nd day of the event. Helping us all along was the great team of Proto - which made sure that we had everything we needed to be ready for those 6 minutes of showcase - a big thanks to the Proto Team.

A quick presentation from ApnaBill kicked off the rehearsals - we fumbled alot, were mixed up alot - and the feedback was all worth it. Just a quick work of advice - never go to a presentation unprepared. ANY preparation is better than NO preparation

After the day of reharsals, we mutually decided that Sameer would head our pack onstage. He did a nice job with the presentation and I guess our point got communicated across to the audience pretty well.

ApnaBill.com Presentation

Sameer presenting ApnaBill.com to a hall packed of audience

ApnaBill.com team (Sameer in front (second from start), Me and Sandy)

Before the day ended, each startup demo’d their products on the stalls. Checking out the stalls were potential users and investors alike.

Me posing with ApnaBill.com (ghosh! that right click…)

Here are some goodblog articles which described the event pretty well.
Rishabh from Mutiny.in - Proto.in goes North
Amit Ranjan from Webyantra - Proto IV at New Delhi: Impressive show for startups, entrepreneurship & technology
Slideshare - A list of startups showcasing at Proto4, Proto4 pictures
AlooTechie - Proto 4- A Winner’s Showcase

* More pictures and videos to follow…
**Pictures courtesy Amit from Slideshare.

Proto.in is India’s premier event for startups. Going to be held in IIT Delhi on 18th and 19th July 08 - its one of the most promising events that a startup can begin with. With more than 30 participating investors and almost 20 media houses covering this event - this is something to be very proud about. The fact that more than 100 startups applied for July’s Proto.in edition and ApnaBill.com was amongst the 15 who got selected - makes it even more awesome.

I feel jubilient to announce that ApnaBill.com would be presenting itself (for full 6 minutes) in the startup showcase on the second day of Proto.in - to a hall packed with potential investors, future channel partners and our dear current/future users.

If you are attending Proto.in, make sure not to miss this!

Hurray!