வணக்கம் தோழா / नमस्ते दोस्त / Hello Buddy!

लोकाः समस्ताः सुखिनो भवन्तु

Lokāḥ Samastāḥ Sukhino Bhavantu
May all beings find happiness and freedom. May my actions help bring joy and liberation to everyone.

I am Balakumar Muthu, an International Award-winning Entrepreneur, TEDx fellow, and Technologist, who received the Top 50 Asia Innovation Award from SingTel in Singapore, Top 100 Startups Award from NASSCOM, Java Master Award & Duke's Choice Award from Sun Microsystems and BenQ Siemens Germany, and Red Herring Asia Award for technology innovation.

With over 17+ years of experience in IT/Software Consulting, with a particular focus on Japanese companies and strong expertise in Design & Product Engineering, UI/UX Web Design and Development for various B2B / B2C startups, SMEs, Enterprises, and several Fortune 500 companies. I specialize in architecting, designing, and building web applications to address both technology and business challenges across various domains, such as Software as a Service (SaaS), E-commerce, Online Marketplaces, Social Networking Services (SNS), Blogging platforms (CMS / Wiki), Usability/Branding, Cloud Computing, Enterprise Apps in Ed Tech, Retail Tech, Prop Tech, Med Tech, and Logistics Tech.

As an entrepreneur, my journey began in 2007 when I founded LoveLogger, the world's first private social blogging platform for pairs, which received a massive response from Hong Kong, Japan, China, and South Korea, accumulating over half a million users before its exit. It was featured in many prestigious internet magazines, including Yahoo! Japan, MSN Japan, Infoseek, Japan.Internet.com, Livedoor.com, Sina.com and various other popular Asian publishers. I have also launched a couple of other successful startups, sold a few, and had a few fail.

An avid Travel & Culture Photographer, documenting my journeys at CasualWalker.com, which is ranked as one of the Top 75 Travel Blogs in India. Additionally, I am a Travel & Culture Media Reporter and have been selected as the Official Honorary Reporter for the Korean Culture and Information Service of the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism.

I enjoy meeting new folks and replying to all emails, so feel free to drop me a line and say hello to balakumar.muthu@gmail.com

Awards & Recognitions, I have received


Selected at Google India - Interview as one of the Top 5 Finalists out of 16,000 + people applied. Created Google Kids – a search engine for kids prototype for demonstrating during my Google India Interview.

My Startup was selected as one of the "Top 100 Startups" to get showcased at NASSCOM Product Conclave (NCP), Asia's largest platform for Product and Startup Companies to connect with Software Product leaders.

First Prize Winner of "Java Master Award " contest, conducted by Sun Microsystems and BenQ Siemens Germany.

Received Sun Microsystems Duke's Choice Awards - 10 Year Celebration of Java Technology and Sun Microsystems appreciation for my contribution to the early versions of Java Platform.

My Previous Startup LoveLogger, the world's first Collaborative Blogging & Private Network for Pairs, which received a great response from Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, and China. LoveLogger was awarded the “Asia's Top 50 Apps 2011 Award” (winner lists) from SingTel, Singapore and the Winner of "Red Herring Asia Award" for Technology Innovation. It was also featured in many popular magazines & portals from Japan, Korea, and China. This product was launched even before the current popular pair apps like Pairy, Between, Hey, Cupple.

TEDx Fellow and Mentor for NurtureTalent Startup Boot Camp at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras.

Selected as the Official Honorary Reporter for the Korean Culture and Information Service of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

I started tech blogging in 2002 during my early college days and listed as the 'Top 10 Tech blogger' by 'Blog Street India' and rated as the 'Top 50 Tech Blogger' by 'Blogs Top List'. My Tech blog is also listed as Favorite Blog lists at their Official Sun Microsystems Web Blog. My Tech blog posts have also been featured at Google Blogoscoped.com, Netscape.com, Java.net, Webpronews, Planet Mozilla, Linux Toy and few other popular blogs. Made my own blogging site at Yahoo! Geocities as geocities.com/i5bala (screenshots) in early 2002.

Early contributed member of World Wide Web Consortium (W3.org), W3C HTML 5 Working Group and Internet Society (ISOC) India Chapter.

Wikipedian contributed to more than 100's of Wikipedia pages in various topics in the Computer/Internet Technology category. Contributing writer of DeveloperIQ Magazine on the latest Web Technologies.

Curator of Casual Walker a Travel & Culture - Photography journal and guide, focuses on a wide range of visual stories - connecting Travel, Traditions, Indian Temples, Art Galleries, Culture, Events, Museums, Yoga & Vedas, Foods & Eats, Indian Dances, Wild Life, Hotels & Stays, and Nature and Living. It is ranked as the Top 75 Travel Blogs in India.

Co-organizer of Mozilla Firefox Party India, for the most early release of Firefox 2 and the IdeaCamp Pune. Regular to Tech meetups from BarCamp, BlogCamp, WikiCamp Unconferences to Sun TechDays, BEA Dev2Dev Days, Oracle Developer Forum, Google Developer Days and many other tech conferences. Attended Sessions with David Axmark, CoFounder & VP of MySQL and with Richard Stallman [RMS], GNU Founder Lectures.

Designer of DevCamp India Unconference Official event brand and WikiCamp conference India event brand, participated by Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales.

Being a big supporter of Linux - Ubuntu & Open source movement, organized the "Ubuntu Dapper Drake T-Shirts Contest" to create more awareness and interest for the early versions of Ubuntu Linux.

My Expertise & specializations


I specialize in most aspects of Web business, including strategy, creativity, design, development, and its growth. My strong expertise and experience include front-end development, UI/UX web design and usability, branding, content management systems (CMS), e-commerce, software as a service (SaaS), cloud computing, social networking services (SNS), Amazon Web Services (AWS), enterprise apps in Ed Tech, Retail Tech, Prop Tech, Med Tech, Logistics Tech, and Food Tech, web security, firewall, user onboarding, typography, product prototyping, SEO, and Linux & open-source technologies.

My Personal Interests


I enjoy travel & photography, rock climbing, simple things — nature, reading. I love philosophy, art, culture, highly interested and passionate about the Indian, Korean & Japanese traditions, trying different flavors of tea, Wabi-sabi, Zen philosophy, making mistakes & learning from them, DIY hacks, and Western movies and Comics.

My Works featured at press / media


My works have been featured & covered by ZDNet Asia, Economic Times, British Council India, Times of India (TOI), Citizen Matters, Yahoo! Japan, MSN Japan, Infoseek, Japan.Internet.com, Livedoor.com, Google Blogoscoped, Netscape.com, Java.net, Webpronews, Planet Mozilla, Linux Toy, DeveloperIQ, Sina.com and many other popular Asian publishers. Java.net published my Java Duke Holiday Pictures from 1000's of submission.

My Travel & Culture Photography


Contact & Reach me


Want to work together, grabbing a coffee, or say hello? Good! personally, I have zero presence on Facebook or Twitter. You can ping and text me:

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Self - made man
the statue I greatly admire & the principle I strongly believe

“... left to his own devices, man will use his god-given talents to be creative, productive, & prosperous. Using free will, he will better his own situation and that of those around him, thereby influencing in a positive way his own destiny...”

Top 10 Weirdest Keyboards!!

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Keyboards come in many shapes - from the simplest computer grey standard 102-key keyboard to variants that seem to come straight out of a Star Trek episode. Here’s is a Top 10 list of the weirdest keyboards ever. I like the Virtual Laser Keyboard... looks cool. >>

An Apple Tree ;)

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Apple Turns 30 !!

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On April 1, Apple celebrates it's 30th birthday. Having created one of the first personal computers and the graphical mouse-and-menu interface most PCs now use, it is now reshaping the music industry with the iPod and iTunes. To celebrate the company's birthday, Wired News has a series of special features this week that can be viewed here. Quite interesting to see how things evolved ... >>

Watching Our Front Door From Anywhere!!

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An article from Popular Science, teaches us how to Watch our front door from Anywhere... Networked cameras let us keep an eye on our stuff from any Web-enabled device, and we don’t have to be a security pro to install one. Here’s everything we need to know to watch our world. >>

iPod eBook Creator : convert books into notes on iPod

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Apple iPod eBook Creator utility loads large text file and splits it into notes for use on iPod. It is easy to read our book in plain text format on our iPod via Notes functionality. All notes will be automatically linked, so we can move from one to another with absolute ease. It's as simple as turning pages of the book. Nice cool tool. >>

My Team’s Tour in Green Paradise Kerala: Photos !! :)

Last week, my company organized a 3-day tour to the Green Paradise Munnar, Kerala and we enjoyed and had a blast!! :) . Here I am posting some of the wonderful moments photos we had in the tour… It’s really God’s own land. Our journey started from Munnar and ended in Kumarakom.

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Our Journey Starts

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Ever Green Tea Gardens

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AnnaiMudi Hills

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Echo Point

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Setuparvatipuram Dam

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Special Kerala Lunch..

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My Whole C-O-O-L Team!!

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Anil Abraham Jacob very cool friendly guy from HappyHolidays http://www.happyholidaysmunnar.com who wonderfully organized the tour at Munnar, if you are planning for Munnar : trekking or any tour package do check him out at http://www.happyholidaysmunnar.com or call him at 94470 31814 … you will just love their service … I really mean it!!

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The G-R-E-A-T Horse Riders ;)!!

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Super B-U-I-L-T-U-P Ma!!

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My Team Mates always R-O-C-K-S!!

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Backwater Boating at Kumarakom

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I just LOVED and Enjoyed the whole tour… at this moment, I would like to thank Sumesh, Babu, Anil from HappyHolidays http://www.happyholidaysmunnar.com for well organizing the tour and my team who made it unmemorable and evergreen moment for all of us… Thank you guys !! :)

--
Balakumar Muthu

History of Programming Languages Chart by O'Reilly

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For 50 years, computer programmers have been writing code. New technologies continue to emerge, develop, and mature at a rapid pace. Now there are more than 2,500 documented programming languages! O'Reilly has produced a poster called History of Programming Languages, which plots over 50 programming languages on a multi-layered, color-coded timeline.>>

Steve Jobs in More Magazine Covers Collections !!

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Steve Jobs has graced the covers of more magazines than some super models. Check out this site that has a number of magazine covers featuring His Steveness. That's quite amazying... and no wonder steve in more magazine covers... >>

Linux Documentation Project Guides !!

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The Linux Documentation Project (LDP) is working on developing good, reliable documentation for the Linux operating system. The overall goal of the LDP is to collaborate in taking care of all of the issues of Linux documentation, ranging from online documentation (man pages, HTML, and so on) to printed manuals covering topics such as installing, using, and running Linux. It has a very good documentation of Bash Guide for Beginners,Linux Kernel Module Programming Guide, Linux System Administrators' Guide and lots of Great clear documentation for all levels. >>

EQO : Skype Mobile Phone

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EQO allows the skype users to use skype from our Mobile Phone. The software is available for free as a Beta product to consumers via the EQO (pronounced “echo”) and supports more than 40 different phone handset models from vendors including Nokia, Motorola, and Sony-Ericsson. Using a combination of a phone-resident J2ME client and a presence-enabled Voice-over-IP (VoIP) signaling network, the EQO Mobile Internet Phone Service is capable of bridging online identity, VoIP calling and Instant Messaging services to more than 150 million J2ME-capable mobile phone handsets already in use worldwide. >>

Apache Server Configuring for Maximum Performance!!

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Apache is an open-source HTTP server implementation. It is the most popular web server on the Internet. The December 2005 Web Server Survey conducted by Netcraft shows that about 70% of the web sites on Internet are using Apache. Here is a list of steps to Configure Apache Server for Maximum Performance. Great simple tips by Bobcares. >>

Steve Jobs's Salary Still Remains $1 !!

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Apple Computer chief executive Steve Jobs received a $1 salary and no other compensation for fiscal year 2005, unchanged from the previous year. Mr. Jobs's 10 million restricted shares, which were granted to him in 2003, were valued at $532 million at the end of fiscal 2005. In addition, Mr. Jobs has 120,000 fully vested options that he received in 1997 under the director stock option plan, according to the filing.>>

JRat: Java Runtime Analysis Toolkit

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JRat is the Java Runtime Analysis Toolkit. Its purpose is to enable developers to better understand the runtime behavior of their Java programs. The term "behavior" includes, but is not limited to performance profiling. It can accumulate timing statistics (a few ways), create trace logging, track rate methods are called over time, track the response time of methods over time. >>

Running Linux on a USB Drive !!

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Getting Linux to run on a USB Drive may easily seem to be an overwhelming process, but this tip put together a very simple guide that an absolute novice could follow. It successfully installed a distribution of Damn Small Linux on a Lexar 512mb Secure Disk USB 2.0 Jump Drive and it worked quickly and flawlessly. There's no guarantee that every USB Drive will boot Linux using this method. >>


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