The Hindu Business Line : From bytes to business

CULTURE and politics in the age of cybertechnology is the focus of Pramod K. Nayar in Virtual Worlds, published by Sage (www.indiasage.com) — a book that is not about any software, circuitry and such, but on how bits and bytes are biting into our lives. "Networked and wired, jacked-in and cyborged... the rhetoric erupting from the new techno-scientific reservoir inundates descriptions of contemporary culture and the popular imagination," he begins in chapter 1, and if that's getting heavy, try this: "From online shopping to e-governance to electronic voting, we perceive an increasing `technologisation' of the quotidian."

Microsoft Word is redlining and suggesting `cabbaged' for cyborged and drawing blank on certain other words, but Nayar is an English prof and so you can pardon yourself for a weaker vocabulary. `Tehne,' is the root of the word technology, he would explain.

"Originally, it meant any skill or craft, and described a range of activities from engineering to the arts... Slowly, it split along two lines: one, the technical or technological, and two, the arts." For Nayar, `bit' or `code' is an example of minimalisation and complexity, plus autonomy too. "Technoculture exhibits a certain mutational aspect," he adds, and you may check if your mouse has turned into a cat.

On individual identity in cyberspace, the author would take you to a different level of discussion: "Identity fluidity contributes to anti-hierarchic nature of cyberspace... Women masquerading as men online, for instance, seek to neutralise gender-based discrimination."

A good fun read, as long as you don't question lines such as: "The challenge then for a cyberfeminist ethics is to develop further the argument that shows how the masculine individualism of traditional ethics is damaging in extreme circumstances, particularly when coupled with the dystopian, apolitical stance of cyberculture that allows individuals somehow to justify to themselves that their activities are not wrong."

Reports de rigueur

ANNETTE Harper, OCP, ACE, MCNE, provides essential skills for database professionals in Crystal Reports 9 on Oracle, published by Tata McGraw-Hill (www.tatamcgrawhill.com) . The book has inputs on "one of the most powerful data analysis tools to draw information from Oracle databases, query and rank data, consolidate results, and develop integrated, interactive reports." Crystal is a report-writing tool and the author does not delve into basics beyond that, because `a moderate level of expertise with Crystal Reports 9' is presumed.

In the intro, she talks about the gulf between report writers and database developers: "This distinction is artificial. As a report developer, you are writing queries against the database just as any database developer would. You might even be creating views and stored procedures." In a chapter on optimising, Harper discusses selection formulas that are equivalent to Where clause in a Select query. "Crystal Reports converts some operators and functions to their Oracle equivalent when they are used in selection formulas, but it does not convert all, or even most, operators and functions."

However, if you wanted to use native Oracle functionality rather than Crystal Reports formula, your speed can be affected. Whole chapters are devoted to Crystal Repository, more tips, PL/SQL and so on. Useful appendices tackle errors and problems, as also functions and nuances. Add to your read-ware library.

From barstools to business

YOUR ideas flowed when the only writing material you had was toilet paper.

Again, they bubbled when sharing a drink and so you scribbled on beermats. Okay, how do you proceed from there? For an answer on how to turn your good idea into a great business, here are Mike Southon and Chris West with The Beermat Entrepreneur, published by Pearson Education (www.yourmomentum.com) .

"This is not another book on theory," Charles Dunstone writes in his Foreword. "It is based on authors' real life experiences at the sharp end." If you love success, this is a must-read, but remember that success in business involves hard work.

"Lots of it, twenty-hours-a-day-for-five-years hard work." The authors write in their intro: "The air is still clearing from the great dotcom collapse. Incredible amounts of money have been lost — because people have gone about founding businesses the wrong way."

The highway to hell, or the dotcom model of business development, involves the following steps: Get someone to come up with a clever-sounding idea; get some MBAs to invent a scenario whereby this idea makes pots of money; get a VC to throw millions of dollars at it; headhunt any skills you suddenly find you need (sales, accountants and so on); and get the hell out as quickly as possible, via an IPO.

If you want to succeed as an entrepreneur, check if you are free from a weakness: The inability to complete things. This is part of a bigger weakness, the book would advise, and that is lack of focus. "Focus on detail. More important, listen to your closest colleagues when they focus on detail.

Also check if you have cornerstones, that is, your associates. "Cornerstones are professionals, at sales, accounts or management, or they are experts in the relevant technology. Their solidity comes from their commercial or technical discipline." What you need in a cornerstone is lots of SPPHCD: That is, solidity, passion, personal skills, hard work, courage and doers. "What you need is not ideas but good ideas, ones that really will grow into thriving businesses."

There is no need to instigate a total, radical change; simply keep a sharp eye for how things are going, advise the authors. Lookout for `dislocations': "Text messaging is the latest idea suddenly to catch on. Experts in the telecom business said it would replace pagers, which it has yet to do. They did not predict it would change the way teenagers communicate, which it has done."

One of the worthwhile poster-able thoughts is this: "Business has already ceased to be about spreadsheets and software, and has entered the world of personal judgment and emotions." Time to get up from barstools and put your ideas to action.

Tailpiece

"I have so many remotes that I'm looking for just one more... "

"To add to your woes?"

"No, to remotely operate the other remotes."

Books2Byte@TheHindu.co.in

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