Android Initialization... and the advantages of blogging

I was looking at android system startup and found some useful material on the ENEA Android blog. Look at the various posts starting with http://androidenea.blogspot.com/2009/06/android-boot-process-from-power-on.html.

I think blogs are a useful mechanism for companies to publicize their expertise and start a conversation with interested parties - prospective customers, potential employees etc. Of course it needs to be done right to avoid appearing as a cheap attempt at publicity. I wonder how many companies in India have successfully integrated blogs into their public communication...

Individuals too can use blogs to showcase their expertise. I believe that useful to have externally accepted proofs of achievement, especially when looking to change jobs; things like patents, papers, participation in standards or open source communities are good examples of such proofs. Blogs too can serve a similar purpose if you can build a track record of meaningful posts..

LinkedIn Recommendations

I have been spending some time clearing up some long pending items on my

to do list. I was able to tick off one item over the last few days – respond to the

recommendation requests I've received on LinkedIn over the past two years.

The reason that this has been on the to-do list for a while is not because I have

received lots of requests (the number is in single digits); it was because I was

against this idea for quite some time for a number of reasons. Firstly, a lot of the

recommendations were filled with hyperbole and therefore writing in my usual

(bland, though I would prefer to call it 'under-stated') style would make the person

look quite ordinary; secondly, many of the recommendations seemed to be cases

of “i'll scratch your back if you scratch mine” with two people writing glowing

recommendations for each other; lastly, not writing any recommendations gave me

a convenient excuse to avoid writing recommendations for people I may not be too

keen to recommend (i.e. “as a matter of policy, I don't write LinkedIn

recommendations”).

On thinking some more, I began to feel that maybe the above reasons though

somewhat valid, were also excuses. Maybe the real reasons were my aversion

towards expressing opinions in public and good old-fashioned laziness; also I am

certain that there are good things that can be said about anyone (though it may

require more effort in some cases :-)). On a selfish note, I think that a well-written,

thoughtful recommendation reflects well on the writer. Lastly, it would be quite rich on

my part to publish recommendations that I receive while declining to write them for

others.

Another item on my to-do list is to write a blog post at least once a week. I hope I

am able to do this over the next few weeks; if I can post at least twelve times before

the end of the year, this task too can be considered done.