Dignified RompingStomping

Oh damn!

2009-03-09T22:55:00.000+05:30

Wake up and smell the extinction

2008-06-05T01:04:00.001+05:30

The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

2008-06-05T01:03:00.000+05:30

Aapka Niraash Customer

2008-06-05T01:02:00.000+05:30

What every Tata customer should ask.

design for children

2008-06-03T23:15:00.000+05:30

design for children

One of the better blogs I have seen in quite a while. Do visit.

Checklist

2008-05-20T01:16:00.002+05:30

Here's the checklist to starting and cracking a new business:
1. Do what you love.
2. Start your business while you're still employed.
3. Don't do it alone.
4. Get clients or customers first.
5. Write a business plan.
6. Do the research.
7. Get professional help.
8. Get the money lined up.
9. Be professional from the beginning.
10. Get the legal and tax issues right the first time.

Detailed shit can be found at http://smbzone.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-1108088,curpg-2.cms.

Reminds me of ...

2008-05-16T02:36:00.002+05:30

... the great lengths we went to when we were kids, just to trouble our parents.

Sorry Mummy, sorry Daddy. I didn't mean to.

Holi In Hyderabad

2008-03-22T23:42:00.003+05:30

I don't remember a Holi when it rained. But it rained plenty in Hyderabad today, and sure hell it was Holi today! Started reading "Everyone Loves a Good Drought" by P. Sainath, long after the excitement around the book has died out. Also read a few essays on the Telangana movement; dated essays but quite eye opening nevertheless. Not that any of them were convincing at the least: two of three that I read (from the same compilation, mind you) were directly opposed to the other's central claim. Did a lot of translation work for Mum today. Anyway, should have some beautiful pictures from this beautiful day soon. Maybe a couple of them will be just right to put here. In the meanwhile, I am enjoying the sound of rain outside and a crisp rainy breeze drifting in from the windows :)

2008-03-11T01:45:00.001+05:30

some days are seen in sepia before they become memories. some moments become timeless before they come to pass.

A student's best friend is hunger.

2008-03-02T02:53:00.000+05:30

Starving is better.

Are derivatives out to get you?

2008-01-28T02:49:00.000+05:30

Financial Derivatives and Globalization of Risk - by Edward LiPuma, Benjamin Lee. I picked up this book on a sidewalk, to flip through after dinner today. Instead of having any calculations or mathematical logic (VaR, volatility smiles etc.) instead it was full of dense text. Impatient (as one might be after a hearty dinner, eager to go home) I checked out the back cover. Turned out that one author was an anthropologist and the other a philosopher and an anthropologist. Made me wonder how qualified these persons were to ponder on financial derivative trade and financial risk.

Turns out the book is not meant to teach you anything about derivatives or risk, rather is very erudite pondering on how the global risk market affects national economies and poorer nations at that. Back home I searched for the text and found it quoted vociferously in the anti-globalization, anti-derivative rhetoric.

One web author used it thusly: [On Picketing Henry Ford]

Barclays’ lightweight local philanthropy—fixing basketballs courts, further perpetuating the racist mythology that all blacks care about is “hoops” and that the only ticket out of the ‘hood is round and bouncy—withers in comparison to the destructiveness to real estate markets, pensions, and health insurance, plus the endless credit-card debt, wrought by financialization.

Thus I learnt of the neologism "financialization" as being "pattern of accumulation in which profit making occurs increasingly through financial channels rather than through trade and commodity production". And it's not a good thing, if the author Stuart is to be believed.

But why this mistrust of the derivatives market? Because one doesn't like the sound of pension funds going bankrupt at the drop of the ticker. Because provident funds and health insurances ride the slump with least grace. A lot of peoples' lives are ruined whenever a billion dollar write-off is made. That kind of thing should not happen.

Credit derivatives are meant to do away with the risk and bring stability, especially to investors like the pension funds and health insurers of the world. Then why do they sink? Why do people distant from the markets find themselves mired in bad trades they never consented to? That we can answer right off. Because they chose vehicles for investment that did not have the wisdom to trade away the risk, instead of buying into it.

It works in the same way as an electoral system. You vote for a candidate you think will represent you (in the US, an electoral college decides that for you). The candidate with the most votes has the power to go to the Parliament/Congress and vote in the lawmaking process, which may or may not favor you. The representative may not have been able to control the passing of the law or he/she may not have had your best interests at heart.

Similarly, in a pension/provident fund, you give your money to a company. Companies with a lot of money invest in one or more of the markets out there, which may or may not favor you. The company may not have had control over the market, or it may not have had your best interests at heart. For if it did, why would it use pension money to buy risk? Should it not hedge away whatever risks it was carrying instead? Is it the credit derivative that lost you the money or the fund manager? You are sure you won't buy a credit derivative ever again in your whole entire life, and that's great. But will you give your money to the same fund manager again?

Sadly, yes. You will end up giving your money to a similarly trained person and -- unlikely but not impossible -- even the exact same person. Because it is the pension funds that are betting your moolah, not the instruments. Equity has its own volatility, gold is not fast enough, commodities are again derivatives, there's not enough real estate to go around, excuses excuses.

Your pension/health plan/insurance/investment ambitions are as ambitious as possible. Any reason your fund's ambitions should be lower? After all, how can you expect steep returns on your money if your fund doesn't risk it?

In the end it comes down to micro-finance and not global risk. Global risk is meant for major banks and, sadly, it works very well. Which is why, during the sub-prime crisis, the ones to falter were not the original lenders but those who had bought up the risk. Imagine what would have happened if Freddie Mac had folded. As on August 2007, the company had held USD 120 billion in sub-prime loans, 12% of its total portfolio. As the crisis loomed overhead, the company predicted USD 1-5 billion in write-offs which later ballooned to USD 12 billion and stayed there. If sub-prime mortgages, mortgages that offer the poorer off, and therefore less credit-worthy, citizens a chance to own a home, are so bad then how come Freddie Mac survived? Having to write off 10% of loans is deadly and banks have been known to buckle under much less severe crunches.

Freddie Mac bundled sub-prime mortgages together and sold them as AAA mortgage backed credit derivatives. In plain English, it repackaged the risk and sold it to investment banks for a slightly higher interest. After selling the bundle if a certain (critical) number of loans defaulted from that bundle, the loss would be borne by the institution which had bought the bundle. In the meanwhile, Freddie Mac had to keep paying a certain amount of money to the buyer depending on the notional risk of holding the bundle.

Advantage #1: What is important here is that it sold them as AAA rating credits, which is the safest rating (lowest risk). Any one of the mortgages in the bundle would not have qualified for the high rating individually, but since there were many eggs and many baskets within the credit derivative, it was a much safer bet, when it was made. It made high rollers** want to buy that risk, which in turn gave Freddie Mac the ability to finance more loans, now that the risk was off its shoulders.

Advantage #2: When eventually a critical number of home loans defaulted and the credit went sour their risk was in possession of high rolling investment banks. None of them died either: they absorbed the sub-prime risk and are now on their way to recovery.

Advantage #3a: When the mortgages fell through, Freddie Mac did not shut shop because it did not lose all the outstanding cash.

Advantage #3b: When the mortgages fell through, the non-Sub-prime mortgages did not get affected since they were in a different risk category of their own.

Of course Freddie Mac suffered.
#1: Not all the credit risk had been traded off.
#2: It could not sell credit risk anymore.
#3: It's share price took a huge hit because their core business is in home loans, which is/was not doing well at all.

So all in all, there are two conclusions:
Conclusion #1: Do not buy risk if you crave security. It will lose you money, whether in risky derivatives or in risky equity or anywhere else: rule of thumb is that higher returns come at higher risk. It's not the security's fault that it's not doing well, it's your fault that you expected it to.

Conclusion #2: Credit derivatives, and derivatives in general, are special purpose vehicles for special financial needs. Just because one doesn't understand them does not mean they are no good. That sounds xenophobic.

** Pension funds, education funds, badly off economies of the world, health insurers should NOT consider themselves part of this group, which they do, and hence the debacles.

What CAN'T we do here?

2007-11-21T01:22:00.000+05:30

Bro uses a Nokia 6xxx cell running Symbian S60 OS.
Bro needs an aviation calculator.
Can I write one for the other?
Let's keep looking.

(A few googles later)
There seem to be many available, some for free:
http://www.bobrathbone.com/pilotcalcscreens.htm
http://www.aeroplanner.com/calculators/avFltCalcInst2003.cfm
http://www.cupitt.com

But neither do I want to pay, nor do I want anything for Windows Mobile. Let's keep looking. I am thinking either Carbide.vs or getting an applet (as opposed to writing it). Which will it be? The plot thickens.

RompStomp This

2007-11-20T04:16:00.001+05:30

Never thought Stairway To Heaven could be so do-able. Of course in my arrhythmic way I slaughter the song to mince pie, but what the heck. It's music to my ears. So if you have a guitar handy, get a crash course in guitar tablature (it's easy as 1-2-3) and start playing. Refer http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/tabs/l/led_zeppelin/stairway_to_heaven_tab.htm for note-by-note guidance.

TA -umm- DAA?

2007-11-15T05:22:00.000+05:30

Half past five in the morning when you had promised yourself that you would sleep by 11 and wake up by six. Doing what? Assorted online applications, random reading. Printed myself a 21 page manifesto of systems analysis, written as lead up to morphological analysis. Don't even know if MA is a credible tool but what the heck. The only other SA text I know of is a 200+ pages pdf that I do not have paper or time for. And this bugger starts off with a Greek etymologies of 'analysis' and 'synthesis'.

I changed the look, as you might have noticed. Give myself a break, besides many people had commented on the readability of the last template; didn't have time so I just used something from the staple templates. In the process I also learned how useful Google Cache is to retrieve cbox html when you have been dimwitted enough to wipe out your modified html, forgotten your registration details and so on.

The Cure

2007-11-15T03:43:00.000+05:30

Listen.

Alu Gobhi

2007-09-26T01:20:00.000+05:30

3 fist sized potatoes
1 cauliflower "flower"
7 pieces garlic

Take 3 tablespoons of cooking oil, warm it and add methi dana, 20-25 seeds of it. Add pinches of red chili, tablespoon of salt. When methi dana starts popping, add garlic, pinch of haldi and any other spices you feel like. Mix the paste, add the veggies, toss till mix is homogenous. Cover this up and leave it for 10-15 minutes. You will know it is ready when the potatoes are tender and on the whole it looks and smells good.

Another bug-ridden product

2007-08-26T05:16:00.000+05:30

Read the declaration on a fly/insect killing machine. The "perfect flying insect killer" has a not-so-perfect label. This one sits in our office canteen.

Short-changing customers

2007-08-26T05:11:00.000+05:30

And I ask you, do you see a 12" pizza? I certainly don't! With the bottle of Tabasco (look alike?) sauce next to it, it shouldn't take a genius to figure out that the pizza is in fact less than 8" in width. Shouldn't Pizzeria (at Marine Drive) learn how to use Vernier Calipers?

A NEW BLOG

2007-08-04T22:40:00.001+05:30

Those of you not in the know, I have started a new blog http://ofdudeanddata.blogspot.com for all the stat related stuff I write. So far I have not moved my previous posts, nor copied them there. But I might. As of now I have a couple of ideas. For posterity:

1. adjustments in data sets
2. methods in six sigma
3. optimization problems (queue modeling in particular)

Let me know if any of all ye faithful are interested in anything of the sorts, and I'll try attacking that topic first.

Randomly

2007-07-30T04:43:00.000+05:30

So is Yellow Ledbetter the best PJ song ever, or what?

But This is ET for God's Sake!

2007-07-28T05:45:00.000+05:30

I don't know how many of you read the Economic Times -- I don't, regularly that is -- but I was just flipping the pages over The Porcelain Throne (aka The Thinker's Throne) this night when I came across an article by Robert J. Samuelson. In the piece, titled Prius politics is a green PR that might hurt US economy, Samuelson despairs at American politicians taking the green route to people's hearts. To start on a generous note. he makes one diligent observation that the politicians are making promises of pollution reductions whose projections reach well beyond what their respective tenures can command influence on. I'd pile it on and say I don't expect Governor Shwarzenegger, to stay alive till 2050, when he hopes California's pollution levels will drop below 80% of their 1990 levels.

But alas, that was the only witty part of the article. Witty, as in, uttered with wits truly in control. Witty, as in, not dim-witted. Keep in mind that Samuelson's very first book was Numbskull Factor: The Decline of Common Sense in America. Don't reach for that Amazon account just yet. For what caught my eye was further down the article:

"...here's what the Congress should do:... eliminate tax subsidies... for housing, which push Americans towards ever-bigger homes. (Note: if you move to a home 25% larger and then increase energy efficiency by 25%, you don't save energy."

WHAT!?!? Dear Man, you are editor for the Washington Post and Newsweek! You are being published in ET! Been writing about business and economic issues since 1977! Whip out your pocket calculator and knowing that there exists a linear relationship between energy consumption and size of house, you ARE saving energy by living in a larger home! In fact, you are saving 100 - 125*0.75 = 6.25 percent energy!

Those of you who are following the real world scenario along with the maths have probably caught on to my gaffe: if there are immediately realizable energy savings on expansion of house-size, why, if everyone just broke one wall, built 25% extra capacity into their houses we should have 6.25% savings instantly, all across the country! Heck, why stop there! Let's just keep expanding until the US is covered by one giant roof coast-to-coast and we can approach zero-energy consumption (asymptotic behavior)!

But statistics don't work that way. I don't know the jargon for this, but there's a law that says distributions don't always expand conveniently; what applies in one set of behaviors won't necessarily scale in an expected manner. The linear curve can start to slope exponentially (up or down) as the independent variable (size of house) is changed disproportionately.

Anyhow, that got me actually reading the article. (Remember, I was sitting on the Thinker's Throne, not a library).

But like hippies, they're [Toyota Prius buyers] are making a loud statement: We're saving the planet;...
This helps explain why the Prius so outsells the rival Honda Civic Hybrid. Both have similar base prices, about $22,000, and fuel economy (Prius, 60 miles per gallon city/51 highway; Civic, 49 mpg city/51 highway).

Does this stink or does it reek? Forget the calculator this time. Seems like Samuelson was writing his autobiography in his first book. If 11 mpg (4.67658076 kilometers per liters), 22.45%, savings don't mean anything to this guy, if 49 mpg and 60 mpg sound even remotely "similar" to this guy, I wouldn't let him pass elementary school, much less write on business or politics, and definitely not on the environment.

ET, save your pink paper. From this guy, at least.

P.S.: I have tried to refrain from any political stances but you know how sometimes you are unintentionally biased against whichever side has more embarrassing idiots? Yes, that might have happened.

Footnote 1: Norwegian study shows that (size of house, its energy consumption) curve is almost a perfect straight line, while a British study shows that (number of family members, energy consumption) decays exponentially. Thus we assume (size of house, energy consumption) is a mix of the latter two, and therefore linear for practical purposes. To be particular, the first study shows that dependence on electricity levels off as size-of-house grows. Since households are moving towards electric solutions from coal (I wonder what, besides fireplaces) we can even have a leveling of the (size of house, energy consumption) curve.

Footnote 2: If you don't have food for thought yet, try this. Why does the average size of house increase? Besides just growing American mores. I can cite a greater than 4% increase in single-parent families, for one. But that still leaves a 62.43% difference to account for.

2007-07-05T01:39:00.000+05:30

Lady Luck shines. I got spammed by the same agent again. My guess: they are trying to evade filters. Try reading.

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Dostoevsky And Spam

2007-07-02T01:51:00.000+05:30

What's the connection? The kind that just makes my day (night, if you insist).

So, I open my Gmail, and there's one piece of spam (unlike Yahoo, where spam overflows the inbox). Anyway, there are a couple of innocuous words peeking on the subject, so I decide to read it once. And lo! and behold! I am reading an extract from The Prince!! It's been real long since I last reread that book, so I couldn't place it, but it was The Prince for sure. Why would a spammer send Dostoevsky extracts? To find out, I clicked the "Display Images Below" link and true to nature, a scrambled .gif appears advertising the usual prescription drugs.

Sadly, I deleted it before it occurred to me to blog it, or I'd have shown it off here. Hell, it's not everyday that you get spam written by classic Russian authors :)

Don't Try This At Home Warning: Please don't start opening images in spam because of this. They can be viruses, and god knows there's no safe file format when you are on windows.

A Filler

2007-07-01T19:18:00.000+05:30

The blog template is morphing. Let's see if I can find a nice one, like that last one. The problem with that, I discovered, was that the background image was fixed-size and so while it looked fine on my laptop, my desktop monitor would show empty spaces on the side and top =P

And, well, the posts (the lack thereof), umm ... can we talk about something else? =D

A Movie And A Book

2007-05-29T01:13:00.000+05:30

Today I came to realize how much I really loved the movie Little Miss Sunshine. Watching it for the third time today I found myself waiting for the next bus-pushing, the next over-the-top grandpa joke, the next oddity, just like the first time. The music tugged just like the first time. It was an awesome movie, and I am happy I watched it with people I love.

I am reading "A Glimpse of Bihar: Sleeping Only To Rise", by Kalpana Shastree. If it wasn't for the first-hand treatment of the subject, the book would be useless. But it is rare to find true accounts of women and dalits, that too in Bihar, and not ravings or political manifestos. Now, usually you will find people who have: the truly ignorant, political, radical view against the status quo of societal norms, and the culture steeped, orthodox view. The author here belongs somewhere in the middle, a rarity: though she acknowledges the atrocities and inequities, she also knows how the structure evolved, what it was meant to protect and what exactly is flawed about it beneath the surface.

There are second hand narrations of plights and ironies at various levels, some even self-incriminating. The frankness of the words would've touched you, had the writing been better organized or in a readable flow. Instead you are left to your own mental sorting of subjects; the author just about puts it all down for you. Great book nevertheless. Ask me for it in a week if you want a read.

A nice old age...

2007-05-09T02:32:00.000+05:30

Old people are nice. My mother met a 74 year-old in the club's gym. His building's watchman walks him to the club everyday, and the club's watchman helps there. So my mom got introduced and told him that my grandfather would be coming soon and she was wondering if he would like his company.

The old man asked,"How old is he?"
"78"
"Does he play carrom?"
"I am sure he can learn"
"It'll be alright then."

I call that getting right to the point. And now I am sure my grandfather will have a nice time here =)

The Cold War - A new History

2007-04-07T21:52:00.000+05:30

The Cold War - A New History anything but flatters Late President Truman. From casual press statements that set off nuclear alarms world-wide, to building the hydrogen bomb for bargaining purposes, the book has nothing good to say about the accidental president. Funny, then, that the book is the recipient of the 2006 Truman Book Award!

And then again, the author doesn't not contradict himself. While he starts out saying that the Cold War was fought bloodlessly, silently, without any declaration or battles. Yet all I can see is war and bloodshed. Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iran, Cambodia, Baltic Conflicts, Slavic Conflicts, Communist purges (across the world), Israel, and there may be some events I am still missing here.

To tell the truth, I have no interest whatsoever in politics of any sort. Be it contemporary Indian, Cold War, Partition, British Imperial or even gender politics that's such a pet of the literary academia. But I found my reason to read the book in the Preface:

"... because as Marx once said (Groucho, not Karl),"Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside a dog, it's too dark to read."

The Internet Radio Business Model

2006-12-14T02:13:00.000+05:30

I am sure early music radio did not have to contend with RIAA when they broadcasted. I am not talking BBC-early, I am talking post-WW1-early. To achieve the maturity of a market any opportunity must be given the chance to gain currency, which is mostly viral by nature. Viral and organic.

Internet radio has been, to this point, a hobby or passion at best for most. Even Yahoo's Launchcast didn't voluntarily pay royalties. And now, by passing a dozen laws to reap money from immature ventures, RIAA has effectively added at least 5 years to the time it will take internet radio to evolve a replicable, profitable business model.

2006-12-08T04:26:00.000+05:30

There are a number of things I should have blogged about. I did have the time but I spent it doing something less worthwhile so at 4:30 in the morning I have decided to blog the topics, just in case I start forgetting them:

1> Identity and how/why Amartya Sen wrote one whole book for a single spark of common sense.
2> Why Yuddhishtira needs to come clean and things I have to say in his defense.
3> My nonexistent love life and constant pursuit thereof (read babbling).

2006-11-02T01:35:00.000+05:30

Philosopher, mathematician, and writer, Bertrand Russell once said,

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are
always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts."

And Goethe said,

"Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now."

Sorry for not blogging at all for a long time. Wrote exams, took a vacation, started working in the meanwhile. Let's see if I can blog a little more frequently now. Ciao, my non-existent readers!

2006-09-15T14:45:00.000+05:30

sometimes you just sit there on the floor back against the wall
staring into the palm of your hand

2006-08-28T12:16:00.000+05:30

As far as I understand, modern democracy has no place for violent means. This is the fundamental mistake of terrorists and vigilantes who resort to barbaric acts reaching back through time into the dark ages when loot and plunder were a part of political mechanisms. The sole reason so much progress has been made in the last couple of centuries is because war and violence have been ostracized and brute strength is not a valid means of persuasion anymore.

Gandhian non-violence is not artificial: it is in our first nature. For most of us, it is something we knew before we knew how to swing fists at other people. It is what we did when our parents acted contrary to our wishes. Non-cooperation was the first tool of rebellion we fashioned -- and perhaps most importantly -- against higher powers and figures of greater authority.

Shallow Ghemawat

2006-08-27T16:20:00.000+05:30

Despite having had his Business Strategy textbook in my possession for quite some time I never bothered to read it. Reason? First, strategy is like macroeconomics: it can give you a framework at best, not the tools. There are no tools. And without tools you are left floundering with four P's, 5 C's thirteen Z's and what not. Secondly, I amkind of myopic with my readings: what I am not likely to apply pronto, I procrastinate reading. Reason? I have too much to catch up with in real-time (*cringes*, sorry for being cliched.)

Anyway, I do read Harvard Business Working Knowledge regularly and I came across the article The Real Wal-Mart Effect by Ghemawat. I am intrigued by the larger consequences of Wal*Mart type mass retailing for the Indian economy and so I read with great interest.

I was disappointed.

If you go through the article you find Ghemawat in praise of Wal*Mart. You find him saying things like

"..questioning whether Wal-Mart's overall economic impact has been positive or negative reflects a failure to engage properly with the data."

And then he proceeds to "engage the data". In the manner of a 6th grader newly introduced to ratios and proportions.

"Thus, juxtaposing these customer savings against the estimate cited by Fishman and others that Wal-Mart destroyed 2,500 jobs (on a net basis) in 2005 yields customer savings of more than $7 million per year for each job lost."

And

"Wal-Mart still accounts for less than 10 percent of total nonautomotive retail sales in the United States"

And, lastly,

Wal-Mart operates 2-1/2 times as much selling space per inhabitant in the poorest one-third of states as in the richest one-third. And within these states, it focuses on poorer districts and consumers. Without Wal-Mart, therefore, the rural poor in particular would pay several percentage points more for the food and nonfood merchandise that—after housing—is their second-largest household expense.

For an HBS professor, of no less a subject than Business Administration itself, I cannot believe the way he has slapped this unintelligent data on me.

Seriously.

I mean, think about it, people!

1. The US$ 7 mil of savings that are caluclated have no meaning. Wal*Mart's efficiency does not come from optimizing value creation. It's not like their shampoos have better a detergent base that costs less. Wal*Mart cuts corners. All of them. (1) It doesn't pay healthcare to it's employees, throttles unions and pay packages (2) It is sending logistics and transportation industry into a decline (3) It makes its suppliers (P&G, etc.) cut corners (4) It charges more (not less) where there is no competition.

The loser, in the end, is not the citizen as a consumer, but the citizen as a producer. The average truck driver, the P&G factory worker, even the Wal*Mart worker: they all earn less because of Wal*Mart.

2. Only 10% of non-automotive sales? Only??? What in the world is that supposed to mean?

3. In poorer parts of any country, land is cheaper. So Wal*Mart builds bigger stores. In the poorer parts, there are fewer, less competitive stores, a.k.a. Wal*Mart competition. So Wal*Mart can move in, slash a few prices, drive the competition out of business, and hike prices again. Really, it has happened [citation needed though]. It is well known that Wal*Mart sports higher prices in places where it has less competition. One and one makes two, right?

Apparently not. For Professor Ghemawat at least. Can someone please argue in his favor? I want to read his book without a bias against him.

Ani DiFranco

2006-08-05T23:26:00.000+05:30

Ani DiFranco, great lyrics, haven't heard any songs though. My brother has made an e-mail signature of her words and that' where I found it for the first time. I found out that she's from Buffalo, NY, that she's bisexual and politically active. She makes what is called punk-folk or folk-punk. That she says even rap is folk, something I agree with whole heartedly. Sample the lyrics below and if you find them to you liking, read some more, like I did, purely for the fun of reading nice lyrics at Pearl Jam forums.

Our father who art in a penthouse
sits in his 37th floor suite
and swivels to gaze down
at the city he made me in
he allows me to stand and
solicit graffiti until
he needs the land i stand on
I in my darkened threshold
am pawing through my pockets
the receipts, the bus schedules
the matchbook phone numbers
the urgent napkin poems
all of which laundering has rendered
pulpy and strange
loose change and a key
ask me
Go ahead, ask me if i care
I got the answer here
I wrote it down somewhere
I've just got to find it.

From the song Coming Up.

Laws of Information Economics

2006-08-02T21:29:00.000+05:30

First Law
>>>Knowing is everything
The rest -- knowledge is power, is the edge, is money, is time -- all follow matter of factly.

Second Law
>>>Knowledge is not a Candy Bar
Knowledge can be shared without diminishing its value; the value of the info itself or its value to the people between whom it is shared.

Third Law
>>>Knowledge has no shelf life
It cannot cannot be put away for some time. It won't last.

Idea (and some phrases like "Candy Bar") thanks to Po Bronson in Bombardiers.

2006-08-02T21:02:00.000+05:30

(when) she has stars in her eyes, her feet barely touch the ground

2006-07-09T17:20:00.000+05:30

Irony Is Dead

most soldiers found it stressful and devastating to return to normality after the trenches - there is a limit to how far you can take irony before you have to shoot yourself

Today I was thoroughly enlightened on what Irony is, and more precisely, what Irony is not. Not just for the sake of the eccentric few readers of this blog but also for the sake of keeping this distinction handy for future reference I jot the points down here and the references at the bottom. Hope I like it. (That was irony.)

What Irony Is:

Irony is the use of words in a way to conceal true intention with literal intention. More clearly, irony is when you say one thing but mean another.
e.g.: When someone dies in the collapse of a bridge from which they'd gotten rich by embezzelling funds earmarked for safety mechanisms, that's not at all ironic. However, when another party looks over the edge of the bridge at the crippled and dying embezzler's body, and says "hey, good thinking stealing those guide rails," that's irony well placed.

What Irony Isn't:

Irony isn't reciprocity.
e.g.:If person A does thing X, and somehow it comes back and bites them in the ass, that is not ironic. If something happens to someone which would have been preventable had they not done some awful thing they did, that's not ironic. There is no irony in catching someone doing what they told others not to do, nor is there irony in something happening after someone suggested it wouldn't/couldn't. There is no irony in someone aspiring to better someone else by improving one facet and ending up with an even lesser result. There is no irony in trying to prevent something and thereby accelerating or worsening it. There is no irony in a situation being supported solely by the belief in a preconception about said situation. These things are coincidental, karmic, synchronous, biting, chiding, bittersweet, concurrent, foreshadowed, predictable, correspondant, cruel, telescoped and even occasionally educational. They are not ironic.

"Sarcasm is sneering, jesting, or mocking a person, situation or thing. It is often used in a humorous or ironic manner..." (Wikipedia) Sarcasm and Irony often overlap but that's more of a coincidence and there is no rule that they must. Statements can be separately sarcastic ("No, believe it or not, I can't read your mind!") or Ironic ("Irony is dead."). Further sarcasm need not be cynical either. More on these couple of distinctions and also on the topic of Sarcasm, later.

Latter part was not taken from http://sc.tri-bit.com/Irony
Neither was the first paragraph copied from http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,3605,985375,00.html
That wasn't the most pitiful rhetorical irony ever concocted. Neither is this. I must not refrain.

2006-06-22T14:04:00.000+05:30

Start with a cage containing five apes.

In the cage, hang a banana on a string and put
stairs under it. Before long, an ape will go to
the stairs and start to climb towards the
banana. As soon as he touches the stairs, spray
all of the apes with cold water.
After a while, another ape makes an attempt with
the same result - all the apes are sprayed with
cold water. This continues through several more
attempts. Pretty soon, when another ape tries to
climb the stairs, the other apes all try to prevent
it.
Now, turn off the cold water. Remove one ape
from the cage and replace it with a new one. The new
ape sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs.
To his horror, all of the other apes attack him.
After another attempt and attack, he knows that if
he tries to climb the stairs, he will be assaulted.

Next, remove another of the original five apes
and replace it with a new one. The newcomer goes
to the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer
takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm. Again,
replace a third original ape with a new one. The
new one makes it to the stairs and is attacked as
well. Two of the four apes that beat him have no
idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs,
or why they are participating in the beating of the
newest ape.
After replacing the fourth and fifth original apes,
all the apes, which have been sprayed with cold water,
have been replaced. Nevertheless, no ape ever again
approaches the stairs. Why not?

Because that's the way they've always done it and
that's the way it's always been around here.

And that's how company policy begins....

2006-06-18T01:06:00.000+05:30

"O Fortuna"

("O, Fortune") fr. Carmina Burana (c. 1230) Language: Latin

Text:
1.
O Fortuna,
velut luna
statu variabilis,
semper crescis
aut descrescis;
vita detestabilis
nunc obdurat
et tunc curat
ludo mentis aciem,
egestatem,
potestatem
dissolvit ut glaciem.

Translation:

O Fortune,
just as the moon
you vary your state
always increasing
or decreasing; 5
the detestable life
now difficult
and then easy
with your games sharpens
poverty,
power 10
dissolves like ice.

2.
Sors inmanis
et inanis,
rota tu volubilis,
status malus,
vana salus
semper dissolubilis,
obrumbratam
et velatam
mihi quoque niteris,
nunc per ludum
dorsum nudum
fero tui sceleris.

Often great
and empty,
your revolving wheel, 15
an evil state,
vain health
always dissolving,
concealing
and veiled 20
you also strive for me
now by game,
a lost shirt
I guiltily take because of you.

3.
Sors salutis
et virtutis
mihi nunc contraria,
est affectus
et defectus
semper in angaria;
hac in hora
sine mora
cordis pulsum tangite,
quod per sortem
sternit fortem
mecum omnes plangite.

Often my health 25
and my virtue
are now contrary for me,
affected
and defective
always in torment; 30
In this hour
without delay
take the pulse of my heart,
which through fate,
she overthrows my strength: 35
weep all of you with me.

Edited by George F. Whicher
Translated by Craig E. Bertolet

2006-06-08T16:55:00.000+05:30

I am considering writing a small paper and I have short-listed these three questions for a topic. Can you suggest your preference?
The questions are:

1. Employees always value themselves more than they are paid. Is it possible that if they were paid exactly what their value is, the company will be running a no-profit-no-loss show as far as the work-force is concerned?

2. To show that tech (IT) stocks are much more sensitive [to some factors or behavior like interest-rates, sentiments, forecasts etc.] than any other sector.

3. To evaluate the effectiveness of the reservation mechanism as implemented by the central government as tool for social upliftment. [will involve limited quantitative work and may have to substitute a certain amount of social commentary.]

I would appreciate it if you could suggest any modifications or qualify the problem statement of choice.

2006-06-07T01:17:00.000+05:30

This little girl is learning to dance. Her parents want her to show off for the camera but she just wants to get all those little steps right. Her dance teacher taught her. The brother sits on the sofa with a broken leg because the parents want him in the picture too. He doesn't look on as affectionately as they would have liked him to but you don't really ask people to give expressions on camera. Besides, with this little boy, they are happy enough to have him sitting peacefully at one place for a few minutes, for the camera. Oh, he's a spoilt brat.

The girl, she's a little chubby angel. The kind whose hands and feet are a little chubby; they can only clap softly, thump the floor softly, jump only so high and land softly. The cute little cotton fluff childhood is made up of. When every color is a joy, every line from your hand is art, every move in rhythmic abandon is dance and every driven din is a beat.

2006-06-06T23:07:00.000+05:30

Something today reminded me of this quote from bash.org:

A woman has a close male friend. This means that he is probably interested in her, which is why he hangs around so much. She sees him strictly as a friend. This always starts out with, you're a great guy, but I don't like you in that way. This is roughly the equivalent for the guy of going to a job interview and the company saying, You have a great resume, you have all the qualifications we are looking for, but we're not going to hire you. We will, however, use your resume as the basis for comparison for all other applicants. But, we're going to hire somebody who is far less qualified and is probably an alcoholic. And if he doesn't work out, we'll hire somebody else, but still not you. In fact, we will never hire you. But we will call you from time to time to complain about the person that we hired.

2006-06-06T03:55:00.000+05:30

What was the last time you read stuff like this in a book?:

Louisiana in September was like an obscene phone call from nature. The air - moist, sultry, secretive, and far from fresh - felt as if it were being exhaled into one's face. Sometimes it even sounded like heavy breathing.

The Middle Ages hangs over history's belt like a beer belly. It is too late now for aerobic dancing or cottage cheese lunches to reduce the Middle Ages. History will have to wear size 48 shorts forever.

Above the building, the sky recalled passages from Les Miserables, threadbare and gray.

My lunar sign is in Virgo. Every month when the moon is full, I'm driven to balance my checkbook and straighten up my apartment. I can't help myself. Instead of a werewolf I turn into an accountant.

Well, now you can buy this book Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins and enjoy. I know I will, come tomorrow :) In the meanwhile, check out more quotes from Jitterbug Perfume. Hope you fall off your seat laughing :D

2006-06-05T06:55:00.000+05:30

Here are some serious Latin quotes. Reflect on them.

cogito, ergo sum
- I think, therefore I am.

cogito ergo doleo
- I think, therefore I am depressed.

cogito sumere potum alterum
- I think I'll have another drink.

Prehende uxorem meam, sis!
- Take my wife, please

Quid quid latine dictum sit, altum viditur
- Anything said in Latin sounds profound

and one last one:

sanctos subiunctivos, Vivespertilio!
- Holy subjunctives, Batman!

2006-06-05T06:37:00.000+05:30

sometimes a single instrument lifts you out of the here and now and wraps you in a sound like the cool breeze of the hills. Till Broenner's Danny Boy is one of those numbers. Without much ado, go get the album (I don't know where you can find just that one song.)

Till Broenner - Oceana

Great New Blog Found

2006-06-05T06:15:00.000+05:30

In the flotsam of online communities I found this one awesome blog. No! It's not yet-more-teen angst: it's a part-picture part-reflections kind of a thing. If anything it is not tiring on the eyes at all =) Go check it out.

aboltabol

Future Shock

2006-06-01T00:47:00.000+05:30

Wisdomless Politicians
Meritless Admissions

Meaningless Curriculums
Substance less Examinations

Faculty less Departments
Student less Colleges

VC less Universities
Knowledgeless Society

Developmentless Nation
Into that hell of gloomdom

My Father, let my country
go to Sleep
let my country go to Sleep.....

Poem by BR Natarajan BITS Pilani

2006-05-30T06:25:00.000+05:30

Increase in quota will divide nation: SC

2006-05-30T05:49:00.000+05:30

Increase in quota will divide nation: SC

New Delhi, May 29: In a caustic remark the Supreme Court said that the proposed increase of OBC reservation would divide the great nation on the basis of caste.

A vacation bench of Justice Arijit Pasayat and Justice L S Panta ordered the Union of India to answer to three crucial questions:

1. What is the basis of the norms for fixing the OBC category?

2. What is the rational behind fixing it?

3. If the proposed reservation is implemented, what are the modalities and the basis for modalities?

The apex bench gave an eight weeks' time to file counter-affidavit on implementation of the policy.

The court said it would examine the effect of the policy's implementation and the matter has “serious political and social ramifications and has to be adjucated upon”.

In a moral observation the judges said “agitation should stop now, although we are not making it a part of the order”.

When the petitions council sought an interim stay, Justicse Pasayat said “it’s not necessary. We have put them on enough alert”.

A petition, challenging the 93rd constitutional amendment making provisions for extending reservation to socially and economically backward classes in aided and unaided educational institutions came up for hearing before the Supreme Court on Monday.

A vacation bench of Justice Arijit Pasayat and Justice L S Panta heard the petition filed by Shiv Khera.

Another writ petition, filed by a Supreme Court senior counsel Ashoka Kumar Thakur, who also argued in the Mandal case for fixing economic criteria, resulting in the creamy layer came up for hearing. The PIL seeks to quash the proposed quota law and the Constitutional amendment.

In his petition, Thakur said, “Affirmative action by the Government to remove discrimination, inequality and disparity is quite an important step in a healthy democracy. But recent developments in this context, which infringe fundamental and legal rights of the larger section of citizens, create social upheaval, anarchy, chaos and unrest leading to an adverse law and order situation, when the issue of reservation is already settled by Supreme Court, requires to be judicially reviewed in the interest of equity, justice and fair play.”

“The last caste census was done in 1931” and “all census since 1951 have break-up of population based on religion only” not caste. Referring to the Constitution which provided reservation for only SC/STs and that too for a period of 10 years commencing 1951, the petitioner contended that the SC/ST reservation of 15 and 7.5 per cent respectively “has been extended indefinitely” and now, another “new section” of the citizenry, OBC, not sanctioned by the Constitution, has been added “with a political view”.

Thakur, in his petition, has quoted Jawaharlal Nehru, saying he had opposed continuation of reservation “as a principle” in 1961. The petition refers to the Kaka Kalelkar Committee which in the 1950s had “enumerated approximately 1,200 OBC castes” and the Mandal Commission which listed some 2,200 castes as OBCs “based on social and economic criteria”.

According to the petition, the OBC list has been increased further with some 3,200 castes being included.

“Mandal Commission had fixed OBC population in India at 52% based on fictitious data. In case we add SC/ST (24.4 per cent), Muslims (13 per cent), Christians (2.4 per cent) and Sikh, upper caste population in India should be only 6 per cent which is quite ridiculous,” it stated.

Moily to head oversight committee

• Former Karnataka CM Veerappa Moily will be chairman of oversight committee to implement quota, expand intake and infrastructure

• Secretaries of Planning, Finance, Agriculture, Health, Education will be members of committee

• Separate sub-committees will look into each stream of education

• Govt to explore option of using state run hospitals for new courses, start faculty recruitment, extend retirement age to 65

• On students’ demand for review committee, Union Minister Oscar Fernandes says “govt has taken note of this demand and will get it examined”

• Planning Commission looking at major “structural changes” in education system, will work on long-term policy of bringing in talented faculty

URL: http://www.financialexpress.com/latest_full_story.php?content_id=128776

Statistics, More Statistics and The Meaning of Life

2006-05-29T01:54:00.000+05:30

I have always known that data is the key to mastering the world around us. Somewhere, somehow, I always thought, there are numbers that will tell me everything there is to know, past present and future.

Sometimes I positively felt that I have them within reach, like when I dealt with differential equations for the first time. I thought: here is the perfect way to include all dynamic dimensions within the differentials, to algebraically link these differentials and include them in a family, perhaps a matrix, to solve it all! ALL!

But alas, things weren't as simple (of course not!) There was a lack of initial state. And then the fact that you rarely have an equation to start out with in the first place. Okay, so projectile motion could be described by a quadratic. But what about discrete numbers? What about observing, say, the stock market, or the trends in a mass of people? What about sheer numbers that do not have bounds in the first place? No amount of curve-fitting can tell me anything about such phenomena.

So now I have adopted statistics and quantitative methods as my Bible and Koran. Hoping that between these sigmas and myus there lies the key to the future =)

A Summer To Remember

2006-05-23T12:16:00.000+05:30

This is certainly turning out to be a summer that will last a long time in our memories: Stock Market Crashes, Reservation Protests, Australian Wheat Board scam, the huge arms and explosives catch which is exposing doctors and politicians alike. The consequences for what is happening around you will, for sure, ring through the rest of your lives, so keep your ear to the ground friends. If you are one who can heed to the words of not-so-glib celebrities, remember: " The soothing light at the end of the tunnel, is a freight train coming your way."

2006-05-12T17:01:00.000+05:30

BY Allard...:When America was young and innocent, before white men came with their books, their missionaries, and a hunger for land, Indian children learned many things through the imagery of legends. From the adventures of Coyote, Fox, and Grizzly Bear, they learned the virtues of bravery and honor, and the tragedy of greed. Around the warmth of winter fires they heard about the mysteries of plants and animals and the sacredness of Mother Earth. And in one of the most ancient legends they learned that Coyote had once predicted the coming of a "new age" - the time of "human beings." With that age, he had said, would come struggle to overcome sorrow.

Product Design - K.I.S.S.

2006-05-12T15:48:00.000+05:30

IT Product design when left in the hands of the developer tends to include everything the programmer, or the team thereof, is capable of accomplishing. As a result the product tends to have many Swiss Army knife type features, but lacks any real cutting edge, since the development time gets distributed around many small features while the main functionality does not get enough attention to be robust and mature (read fault tolerant, adaptible, portable, et cetera.) The latest technology article on HBR, Feature Bloat succintly discusses this phenomenon and its cures:

1. Consider long-term customer equity and not just customers' initial choices.
2. Build simpler products.
3. Give consumers decision aids.
4. Design products that do one thing very well.
5. Use prototypes and product-in-use research.

The fourth tenet above deserves special attention: focus on the one functionality that the product was conceived for in the first place; for should it fall short at its core, no amounts of bells and whistles can rescue the product from the consumer's ire. Imagine a cell-phone with a 10 Mpix camera but without battery life or talkability.

The Pareto Principle too should be kept in mind: 80% of the work gets done in 20% of the time. Blame it on beginner's luck, blame it on the freshness of the work, but it is very true. What you, as the manager, should NOT want is for your team to spend a single moment of that valuable 20% time on features that are not central to the product.

Lastly, one thing the manager should learn to avoid is giving in to the whims of the programmer. As such it is great to have very talented, experienced and innovative team working on a project. Such members are most likely to have ideas about what features can be integrated and each developer will have ideas based on his / her experience / ability. The more of them there are, the more the gizmos that will get added. DON'T fall for it. Keep the fourth tenet above and put away early add-on ideas; work on them later if they mature in the time it takes to have the core functionality up and running.

And always remember one evergreen principle of software design: Keep It Simple, Stupid!

Note: This blog is not meant to be against product complexity - due complexity reflects well formed requirements gathering and testing processes. Such complexity is in fact desirable compared to simplistic design. The blog and the article cited concern the utility, not the internals.

"I Feel Lucky" From Firefox Address Bar

2006-05-08T13:40:00.000+05:30

Did you know that you could get the Google “I Feel Lucky” results for any search string by typing it into the Firefox address bar and hitting return? Try it J

Roll Over Gutenberg

2006-05-08T02:37:00.000+05:30

Roll over Gutenberg and Blake, here comes the Xerox machine. I will henceforth reproduce, review and rant on articles I like and let the reader know my opinion vector. Hope you like it.