Sanvad

After Bynum

2008-01-17T22:51:00.001-08:00

So they say Phil Jackson is so great making adjustments that's why he has six rings. We have seen him making exact adjustments against suns last to last year. We have seen him keeping players in game and letting them figure out of adversity but this is the best test we are going to watch for Phil. I believe right now Laker's need to play small ball. Either that or they sign Chris Webber. I don't see both happening. Webber though can not play defense is at least smart. With him and Kwame in middle defense is not going to be that loose. More important, offense is going to be easy as it was with Andrew. He will be best reserve bet for Lakers in playoff. But this is all if he signs with Lakers. Small Ball: We have good shooters. Farmar and Sasha both shoot around 50% from 3 and given we can use Kobe we got a real good shot of using them. Lamar really works on rebounds and we should by now understand that he is not effective beyond that 3 point line. He is good around rim. So here is the way offense could play.

Lamar play around rim, get the ball get the second chance points if possible. (PF)
Kobe plays small forward no shooting guard
Sasha/Jorden/Fishy/Java play SG/PG (Sasha/Java at SG and Fishy/Farmar at PG)
Luke can be used depending on mismatch. He is slow and playing him against Phoenix with so many mins is just mistake. He is not at all athletic. Good basketball IQ though, In half court game does get dominated by likes of Kenny Thomas or Diaw basically physical small forwards or athletic point guard kind of games.
Ariza is really good back up, lock up forward who is offensive liability. The reason he was getting easy scoring opportunities was presence of Andrew inside. With Webber that can open up again.
Kwame plays center when we require defense on dominant center not athletic like Amare but once like Yao or Shaq etc. Otherwise we bring in Webber if not signed then use Ronny with Lamar is enough.
Basically First unit and second unit should be broken. We need offense on both units and first unit is going to struggle without Drew and second unit can not start with bit up forward like Ronny. They need fresh legs player not only guards.

The sooner Phil makes these adjustments easier life will be. I know this unit without Andrew being dominant has played last season until Jan and played very good. They can get back to that. We have an upgrade in Fishy now too. But remember they played this style until now, suddenly they are not going to change and are going to struggle making this change. Plus we have high playoff teams on schedule with that monster road trip. We just need to be 0.5 team (from now) until mid march to make 5th seed. But sooner Phil makes these adjustments the better life would be and lower wear and tear would be. Lets hope we Laker fans that suffereing will not go for long.....

Mr. Pawar please

2008-01-06T23:33:00.000-08:00

Here is your chance Mr.Pawar to create your national image. Just recall Indian cricket team from their current Aus tour. This is matter of national pride. One country which owns this sport of cricket and another like ours who own the money for it. Just recall, make ICC pay for this. If they fine BCCI, Just walk out. We will see how ICC makes the revenue without us in that game. With our national league we are enough to pull that revenue by playing Indian stars. I will write more on this but please Mr.Pawar do this. Just recall Indian Team from current tour. This is will make wonder for your political image. If anyone wants to know about this topic, Google india -Aus cricket test match. Man, how many mistakes a umpire (referee) can make when he has chance to make max of 40 mistakes in 5 days and he makes 6 and that too only on one side. Then Aussie bloggers come out in his support. This is really worth watching how Aussie media keeps supporting the umpire who is above his age of umpiring.

Lakers state

2008-01-02T14:18:00.000-08:00

I was so pumped up for the last weekend Laker's Celtics match that I could not wait for sunday evening even if it's end of my weekend. I monitored whole match on chat boards, Score board etc. I could imagine where shot was happening etc. Man, that played out bad. I imagined that Lakers would put Kobe on Paul and Lamar would guard KG, Allen would be guarded by Ariza. I still don't know why they sucked so bad... From comments i think it was something like this. Bad shooting night starting everything else. For me it was the run they made in the end of third quarter (6 points spread to 16 points) and fourth quarter. On right side you can see Bynum handling Perkins last year, now today he is giving up because Garnett is there. I just don't get it. Is Perkins better so much in 10 months , I don't think so. Hopefully they will learn from this. I know they are not elite yet, but they can be. Given talent of Kobe (which he is not using much these days) and rest of the Lakers they can hang around for 5th spot and get in second round. After that I really feel that Kobe would not let them loose. Anyways, Let's keep checking again since it was just 31st game of the season. Most of their test are on that 9 game road trip.

Business Model

2008-01-02T14:08:00.000-08:00

The new discussion this morning is about business model (its about twitter but let's make it more generic). Running a startup myself, I find this too appealing when they say, Today startup business model is not about scaling and not making money. Example is Google, Facebook, Youtube all these companies did not have revenue figured out when they started. They provided something people like and use and they build on that mass. Once you hit a 10 MM page views per month now you can talk about revenue. I disagree. At least not in mobile space where every sms is going to cost even if you are successful in lowering their cost. Out of topic (Yup i am that unstable in my mind to change the subject.. ) Currently i am pondering about different startup ideas besides the one i am in right now. I think in general sports and comments market is huge. Just huge. Since all the content providers has upgraded (ESPN, NYTimes etc) their infrastructure to allow comments its becoming a huge inflow of them. It is also difficult to manage all of them with different password and log in rules. People are also using them as chat sessions, where you respond to one comment go away see who responded to your comment come back again and respond. Let's talk about this idea some other time.

Back to blogging

2008-01-01T21:36:00.000-08:00

The reason i started blogging in first place was to improve my writing ability. Basically pen down the thoughts in serial order, easy to understand and then express them in correct grammar. Problem is that I am pretty much against communication of any sort. It's really tough for me these days to reply a few emails a month (considering no. of friends i have). Not that I don't want to communicate but it's pretty lengthy to write reply etc. This year, getting various comments on my writing ability i have decided to start blogging again. This time more with purpose, so it may not be all that fun for a while but hopefully practice will make it fun. Some of things i am going to post about:

Business
Sports (Lakers mainly, on side New England Patriots)
Some pics (Yes pics straight from my phone camera)
Entertainment
My time pass thoughts.

So for new year, I am watching everyone posting their wish list on technology, here is mine. May be things below exist right now but again I am not first adopter or tech nerd to go search for them unless its really a pain for me so if they exist let me know.

A RSS reader which can sort the post based on tags: I know the tags with blog from a long time but I still have not searched for how to set my google reader to show me the posts from one author with certain tags only. Classic example is Fred Wilson's blog. I really don't want to read his family matters or his fav band. I just care about his business thoughts. But i don't know how to sort this incoming RSS blog feeds.
A financial management online service which will let me analyze my data, give me right offers from vendors and kind of like my personal dash board. I like the Mint.com start but its way behind i thought 2 years ago (Still). I think basic flaw is collecting data online through service and then getting offers from vendors directly. Basic aim is easy for me to figure out if i need to take $1000 on credit which of my credit cards offer i should choose considering payback i want to make, what are my returns on my current investment including 401k etc and assist me every short financial decision. I really need this service. I know there is something called calculator is out there but i need this one because i am lazy.
A text to audio online converter. I know the exist but in it's simple form so I can convert the posts i want to read into audio and listen to them on my way to work.
Easy javascript and AJAX based composer which will make code writing and creating online templates easy.

Hopefully this is it.

411 Problem

2007-05-20T09:39:00.000-07:00

In Sept 2005 I traveled to beautiful Shasta Lake for long weekend. We rented a boat there and three days of non stop fun. One incidence i remember at that time was we were searching for Denny's at 9 or 10 in night at Reddigs, CA. I tried to call 411 and they could not tell me which one is near they just told me there 4 of them in Reddings area. I had no clue which one could be near since I just had normal map and finding streets was impossible (at least for me) in that map. I tried to use Google on my phone to find out the data but it was stupid of me. Basically every information provider out there has required data but missing piece was where am I. I can not just get out and get zip code. I know that GPS was the answer, but hey what If I don't want to pay $10 every month just because i need Denny's once every 3 months at some place I don't know of. The real answer is triangulation data availability. This is very great area and so little has been done here. We have one missing piece of data and if we can get that then ton of data is available rest of the way. I thought getting this data could be a feature but we really want it to be free of cost. I believe this is real mobile advertising based on physical location. So far, after Sept 2005, I know of 10-15 different companies who tried to create 411 solutions. Each one of them on average raised about $10 million. None attempted the solution on this track. If anyone knows about a company which gets triangulation , then please let me know. Update: Reason I remembered this is because i am going there again next weekend. Will post pics soon (this time for sure).

Hrishi Demo

2006-09-08T18:11:00.000-07:00

This is Hrishi This is first time I am showing Hrishi how to use blog. Hopefully he will be a great blogger one day. Just like everything else, this is new thing for him in America. According to him this is kind of stupid as there is no difference between a blog and Geocities webpage. Rather he would geocities. I dont know what he thinks of myspace but he is active user of Orkut.

Techquiz

2006-08-07T13:31:00.000-07:00

I came across this great quiz on web 2.0 company names. Results have nice categories. Specially for Techcrunch author. I was struggling to find a name for the web domain i wanted to register. Finally, I have one now. I am still not sure if I want to build on that but it still beats all of the listed names.

What bLaugh Needs To Do

2006-07-14T08:03:00.000-07:00

This is another cartoon on software patents. Some thoughts from a VC.

What bLaugh Needs To Do: " I am really digging bLaugh, the new blog comic. It's a little inside baseball and if you aren't a blogger, you might not get the jokes. But I get them and I like them. They make me want to blog them with a link back to bLaugh. But that's not easy to do. I hacked into the page source to show you what I want. I purposefully didn't fix the right margin because I want to make the point. I want to click on the cartoon and be given some HTML to put on my blog, or better yet, let me blog it right there, like I do on Flickr. That's the way a blog comic should work. "

What Lakers need to do to beat Suns!

2006-04-21T14:55:00.000-07:00

It's Laker time again (not Kobe Time)...and these are some of things which are obvious to Laker fan like me. Phil will know at 10000 times better than me on those matchups but if I don't see those adjustments in playoff then I will be pretty disappointed in his abilities. So basically trying to write down the things I feel are important (rather than posting on 100 different sites, 100 different times). - Marion is the key and there is nothing u can do about him. Accept that and shut other down. We have seen this too many times. Some how Marion gets ball inside and then every Laker will try to go in, (same with Nash going in) and nobody protects 3. That's where Suns live (on 3 pointers, they miss some but make most). So even if u give up easy 2 don't feel bad in that u saved 1 point (and hey got chance to score same or more). - Barbosa, House etc guys should be sticked all the time. Don't leave ur assignment player open. When it comes to pick and roll, only Marion and Nash combo does a good job of creating space or mismatch, other players are not that good. So just don't away. We have seen this in regular season, and it was killer for at least 3 times. - Offense will come in from inside presence, so just don't try to jack up the ball to Kobe even if he does want it, needs to be controlled. I think he is better player than thinking and making it one on one competition with Raja Bell. What Mike will thing from his coaching point- He gets credited for Sun's new found offense and that's true but what people don't realize is that this team lives and dies with strides. U control their 3-4 three pointers in first quarters and they start missing them. There is nothing much he can do in terms of designing play. Fast break is key for them. Get them out of tempo and don't forget basics of not leaving 3 point shooter open and we should be fine. If we start to do that (which sometime is done by Kobe...Leaving Bell open for inside man) then they come back in a 4 mins. U can play good defense in 3 quarters and sit on 20 point lead but still Suns can make a comeback. I just wish that Phil will make these adjustments and Steve Nash is not best player and we have seen that he tried to take on himself once other Suns start poor shooting and that's the point when we know that we have a game. Go Lakers...

Quote of the day!

2006-04-03T13:26:00.000-07:00

It is better to be patient, than it is to become one. -- Unknown

Come on Nike use some talent!

2006-03-24T13:23:00.000-08:00

I have been watching Nike's "Love me or hate me" kobe commercial. It is good but not good as "Go carter" etc. Just reading on one of the laker blogs, I found these good links to the Kobe video's made by people. Just amazing editing talent. Come on Nike, go and use some of it, its 100 times better than what u have their. Capitalize on it if u can't produce. Link for one of the video : Here. For other video's just search on Google video with kobe.

photo booth!

2006-02-04T10:08:00.000-08:00

I wish i had more jay leno videos. This is one of my fav. Free Photo Watch the old desi couple.

Books and movies!

2006-01-25T14:24:00.000-08:00

Book I am listening to: Winning by Jack Welch. Movies watched recently: Enron Constant Gardener Podcast: Usual stuff..

Web 3.0 Discussion!

2005-12-27T00:51:00.000-08:00

There is new discussion started by Mark Cuban. According to him, blog will provide customized search results for people, so when one wants to see the search results according to his view, they can find it. This is what he is calling as web 3.0. I certainly disagree. Web 2.0 itself is based on the concept of social collaboration (whatever u call it aggregating etc) , so u can certainly do that by watching views from one angle. Whole search experience in terms of news or search is gone deteriorate since people are cracking page rank algorithms and we can certainly experiment that with google.

So what will be web 3.0 when we are in this tide of 2.0, will be repetition of history of transaction from 1.0 to 2.0. Or something big different. There is interesting pod cast in Venture week, about search experience, prediction of 2006. The guys discuss there, the notion of attention data vs private data and need of attention data to customize the things. So I think we are gone rapid increase in attention data aware software in whole 2.0 era. The interesting thing which will come and collaborate in 3.0 will be availability of this data according to need anytime, anywhere without hassle or money. So it could be smart GPS who remembers every attraction point, your actual refrigerator remembering ur beer chill temp and time when u want to have it (simple thing, but that is communicated to refrigerator through Tivo). U getting customized advertisement on bill boards, the one u want to see. Basically every part of life can be connected seamlessly. The main problem today is that even if such technologies are available, they don't talk to each other. They don't share data, there is no personnel data repository where each of my action is recorded, made sense of and then communicated to required device. What we are talking here, is 24*7 helper without effort on human. The same thing will switch on fav radio station, will remind me of Lakers match, get new green day songs on that. Interesting pod casts, i don't have to transfer my lists, from one place to other don't need this data sharing personally. In simple, its like a address book, every other device can read it and then take inputs for itself. AND all this without COSTING me anything.

Just smart and simple world. I guess, these devices talking and sharing is not big deal just need to do that, without putting pricey tag on it so application can achieve more adaptability.

So I guess I am starting to analyze what will be big thing for next 10 yrs. (My main question when I am writing blog, watch on right side).

Sting operations!

2005-12-20T17:19:00.000-08:00

This is the highlight of Indian news now a days. ( Apart from Saurav not being Indian team). I am not sure why do we require these operations to tell us that these maps or for that matter politicians are corrupt. I learned basic civics in childhood, but nobody answered me the simple economics question in that. When I have spending limit of may be say 10 lake rupees for a single election, then I officially spent that much (remember its official basic figure we are not talking about any non visible stuff), then after 5 yrs of my job (which we are not sure will last) I am not going to recover that much money. So for example if I put in 10 lkh upfront considering that I will get 8% on that amount in open market, what I get in return as MP is 20,000 per month. Then additional facilities such as air-fare and some administration rights. So my total for 5 York is 12.5 lakhs. Where as my original amount would be now 20 lkh after 5 yrs. I am loosing 7.5 lakh Rs over 5 yrs. Why would I want to be a MP then ? For public service, no matter how Nobel soul i am, i can't spend that much to do public service, that is not good way considering various risk factors. Plus every party has party expenses as conducting their meetings in some location (I would not make fun by saying in 5 star hotels since these parties are like corporations they have to run it nice way no matter what). So basically parties need money to run, MPs need to recover their basic expenses, and though we know that whole system is corrupt we should first modify basic premises around that. Then we can even hangup the MPs which are caught in this kind of operation. There is no point in saying these are criminals etc since they proved that they have skills to manage public portfolio not you and me. I think this applies to every other democratic political system.

First basketball match!

2005-12-08T12:17:00.000-08:00

It is ironic, considering, a huge professional sports fan I am, but this is the first live basketball match i have seen. It was kind of boring as Nevada was on top from start.

Search Engine!

2005-11-21T17:22:00.000-08:00

Check out this search engine, It has nothing but some metadata programmed for Yahoo and Google.

They just sold it on Ebay for $100,000.00

http://www.jux2.com/

I think these kind of things do show that tech party is starting again. Hopefully they have something more which i dont know of.

My Pic

2005-11-17T13:41:00.000-08:00

MSNBC posted my pic (according to Mary). She came running to show me that.

Books and Movies!

2005-11-15T21:21:00.000-08:00

I left the habit of mentioning movies, and books I came across recently. Will start this again. Book: The Search Tipping Point Usually I m not great on books since I get very bored by reading for hours. But I m very good with blogs. I try to keep myself upto date with blogs. But may be because of excessive blog reading I m also starting to read books. In between, I will post the review on The search, a great book. Movies: Jarhead A very good and exact movie (except burning oil fields). Listening: Every other podcast on business and counting crows or something (courtsy: My car pool partner Manjula)

Some Interesting facts!

2005-11-14T15:05:00.000-08:00

I have started to use the Adsense on my blog which introduced me to so many new facts and questions. Browsers: It has been great problem for browser to add the feeds. Neither firefox nor IE does a great job on them. I tried flicker it was good for blogging but not good feeds (or I did not understand it), Today I m trying this new browser which has IE base (which means all my IE related applications work here so as international script papers based on IE such as esakal). The name of browser is Maxthon. Created by some people, I guess it runs on donations. The best part is that it has all features of IE with required additional such as RSS handling, tab, blockers etc. Check it out yourself at Maxthon. Another interesting fact, I was always wondering why google did not buy Firefox or at least some connections. Turns out, there is connection, google pays you if you put firefox icon on your site, and people actually install it on their machine. Also google is default page for firefox. Blogger: There are several deficiencies in blocker tool here and I like what Typepad has at their site. But since it is paid, I am not going to subscribe it, I wonder why google can't make these features here at blogger and not after next 6 months but NOW. Google Ads Browsers like these have inherent capability to block the google ads. This is amazing and also warning how people can stop google business. For example if you open my blog in this browser you wont see the google ad which is normally displayed in other browsers.

Some New things!

2005-11-08T14:04:00.000-08:00

This is gone be some personal stuff. It has been long time since my struggling Pune days, when I found my first assignment in IOTA. It did not last more than week i guess but the major reason for me to be in that company was Mr.Chitale. Now how come i remember this suddenly. The story behind is Rahul Didwani was in Reno visiting me. When we were going around Tahoe and parties, I asked him about his journey after graduation. He told me the story of how he joined Tata-Honeywell. Now I remember someone from the same company and it was Harshwardhan Chitale. He was the only guy I knew because of Mr.Chitale being neighbour at Vedant Gruhkul. I asked him how Harsh is doing and to my amazement, he told me that Harsh has become CEO of Honeywell Automation India Ltd. (formally Tata-Honeywell) and looking after a business of Rs.150 cores per quarter. I remember when I meet Harsh he was into business from 3-4 yrs. He is mostly 5-7 yrs older than me and great guy to talk to. He was Strategy and Business director of that business at that time. That was one of my ideal dream job at that time so I was pretty much impressed. Then after doing some look up on him on Google i found that he was attendee at Tata Administrative Services right after college from Delhi IIT. I did not know that major company in India such as Tata's have such facility. GE has same kind of base in Crotonville. Looking at these companies, I find lot of similarities. Anyway, rather than moving away from main topic, it was very aspiring to see some one so near by achieving such a high post in corporate world. We have seen lot of people around us, who became carodpati's in short amount of time while starting with nothing. We hang around with these people but still they are older generation to us. Each one of them did something related with political connections. This is first example I found who achieved so much in corporate world.

Some experimentation: I m trying google Ad-sense first time on my blog. I will also try to flicker and RSS things for the blog. Currently I got feedburner feed for this one, just need to put link. If any of you have been following in Internet industry, there is this new thing called Web-2.0. Currently I am listening a lot on that. I will put down story on that soon. This time I am sending the email to some of you lazy readers so that you don't have to go online to check the blog. I was also checking back on when I started to write the blog, I guess it was in 2003 when I was updating one web page called "Daily Update". Blog just made a simple tool available to do this. So basically blogging is nothing new, anyway I don't want to incorporate my web2.0 post here.

Trying Flock

2005-10-26T10:39:00.000-07:00

I m still not sure how i will drop the image in this one, which is being big problem for blogging.

US infrastructure!

2005-10-23T20:40:00.000-07:00

I am thinking about this particular post from a longtime. Currently I m doing lot of research in bay area startups. Their situation in golden yrs of 2000 and now. The current buzz about funding new startups. This is what I have read, listen (some really good podcasts out there) and watched. - There are few good VC funds out there and what ever they fund, other try to copy it. - There are new people coming in VC sector which are getting money through hedge funds and other media VC funds are new gold mine after the success of google. - There are really some cool ideas out there which failed because of low penetration of internet and broadband which could work right now. - There are some new buzz words out there called "Web 2.0", WAP services. People are throwing ideas like crazy. I am not great visionary and I failed to judge, why and how this social networking sites will earn money. Then I heard interview of meetup.com CEO interview. He was great explaining the phenomena. Then I researched some more and found that there are at least 20 companies out there which are getting funds on these sectors. And then one blog post, (Which I forgot to bookmark so I can't give the link) which explained why these all sites could fail. Anyway, I don't want to put this post as summer of my reading and then reading between the lines so I will update it later.

Learning from .com past

2005-09-20T12:24:00.000-07:00

This post is about the area we usually call .com boom. There are plenty of lessons to be learned over that period. First and foremost I was astonished that how come hard nose investors (I don't have right to say this, but making a statement with general sentiment) made so much huge investments in these companies. Last week, I saw a very good movie called startup.com . In general movie came out great. May be a old movie but I certainly enjoyed it. Then I started my search over internet about the relative posts and topics. Of course, basic lesson for every company here is that they were not able to make their revenue projections in first place. There could be other side reasons but inability of generating revenue is foremost. Sometime companies have idea which has potential to make the revenues but they just could not because of execution, marketplace or infrastructure condition (less % having high bandwidth connections). There is very good list of these companies available on the cnet. You can check it out at this page. I guess all this spending whoop has given guys like me who lost nothing in that boom, pretty valuable lessons. Now my next task is to compile this information. There is recent spring of acquisitions in market and every investor whether in form of funds, VC, Angel, individual etc are trying to cash in. Magzines like businesses are trying to put a value by article to each of these companies. Sometime perception is that the company will work with some event such as Katrina. (Article which tried to sell the idea that satellite phones will work and company will make revenues). But some IPOs are gone be interesting. I always wonder whether market is causious in its approach at least now after this web spring. But after Google zoomed up, people expect the same from baidu, that is shit. That is right there tells us that there are some fools down there who still don't get it. Google on other hand, a amazing story defining revenue heights and expanding, making itself more valuable each day with technology and getting away from the path of being saint. I will continue to write on this and post my further findings soon. Between any of you who read this, know any other movies or books please post them in comments.

Late Posts!

2005-07-19T16:09:00.000-07:00

From last 2 months I was visiting differernt places for differnt reasons. That's why could not post here. But i was writing up and saving them at my laptop. So just posting all those old posts. Hope this wont be practise for me.

Some Promising areas for Business Part II

2005-07-19T16:08:00.000-07:00

As we started the discussion on ageing effects in developed nations, I lost touch with outside world information (basically internet) since I started traveling in interior parts of India. Here u get very poor connectivity with normal dial up. With this speed, you can barely check your emails leave apart reading a article or going through current stuff. Anyway coming back to main discussion, there are two major effects in terms of ageing. You loose a major chunk of population who was efficient in their jobs, so new job opportunities are created for expert people and since these old people have plenty of time to kill as well good money. These people expect fixed gains without major risks even if the returns are low. Current house development boom in Lake Tahoe area at least is caused by these retirees from California. Since they can sell the houses purchased for pennies and then sell them at after retirement for millions. May be this is too specific, but if we dig into the housing boom we will find funds coming from this major source. To make a natural analysis of this, let’s think rationally. If I am a retire, got some major money coming in which I want to invest in safe but fixed income fund where would I go? I should either think of some mutual funds but since mutual fund market is over flowed with money I am not quite sure of handsome gains there, then real estate market is hot, and with exception of some high risk areas that market is not gone go down. The worst could happen in this case is that I would loose agent commission and end up selling the house for the price I bought it. Now the market is soaring very steep in these old age popular areas. Old age popular areas mean the areas where old population wants to move in. What is common in areas such as San Diego, Miami, Orlando (or for that matter I guess whole Florida), have common. These are old people popular destinations. If someone wants to say those are naturally beautiful places with nice quite sea and towns I would say Oregon is better in those terms but oldies are not moving in there so market there is still pretty stable. It might have some boom such as normal real estate market in USA but not more than that. Now another factor, what should these people do with their time, why not make some golf clubs where these people live. Since they got plenty of money to spend too, they can afford this pretty easily. Why not make some card games and gambling opportunities where these people will fill like champions while loosing the money. Now, let me say this, being from Nevada does not make me to say something like this. But if you watch the popularity of Texas Holdem or any kind of poker game, immaterial if it is played at an Indian casino or online, has lot spectators as well as participants. Now how come, all of sudden such normal poker games gets famous. If I am looking for business opportunities in this sector, then I would say two things. First create some solid business investment scheme which will assure of safe money at particular amount of interest and second what it is called in Indian software industry as body shopping. Ship the person with particular skills for particular amount of time. Now, software industry assumes these roles for particular amount of time but in open market this could be done at every level. Lot of these jobs may be going through BPO market but stocks of companies like AppleOne or these stand by employment companies are gone go up. No one wants to bear the cost of employee health insurance, retirements etc. No one is ready to pay for that either. Though we are seeing the job market growth going on, I think that will be short time trend. Demand and supply chains in terms of human skills will be more powerful business. I think that is the reason companies like IBM are making strategic shifts from being a products company to become a service company who would provide these services. But I will say this, companies like size of IBM are not good for this market since they can kill every new player and charge the market at their own rate which will help to stop this trend. Another thought comes in my mind here is that this market is not high investment market, if I got good contacts and ability to keep these good people I can survive in this market. Now getting back to original discussion, both these opportunities could be profitable for Asian countries where interest rates for borrowing are still high, where lot of infrastructure spending is still pending and there are millions of people which are not ready to invest in high risk market. If I can take example of India, being a developing nation, everybody is investing in industry and naturally expecting from government to invest in infrastructure to facilitate the growth. Now politicians lacking vision are eating out from government money with short term gains. It is the classical example, where a farmer is killing is hen to get all gold eggs once but eventually ignoring the gains he is going to get. But I might stop short, on making comment on this being very sensitive subject for me. In short, whatever government has opened for private sector to invest in is growing (for example power generation, telecom) but what ever is still restricted is not. (Roads, water supply). If someone can make use of these opportunities then it will be best business to go in. I am quite sure either its India or Brazil its gone take a lot of capital at first term to invest and a solid political background to come in such business but I think it is possible with foreign investment. I think it is not at all possible to attract a solid investment from these retires for a dot com or any new technological boom. Proving gains first hand for short time will attract lot of investment. Rather than buying circuit city which is in a business sector over populated players I would invest in something like this. Let’s continue this discussion.

Pistons and Spurs!

2005-07-19T16:07:00.000-07:00

Pistons and Spurs: I was guessing that series will end in game 5 since spurs started with 2-0 lead and had lot more depth than pistons. But turned out that series was extended, though I was not able to watch both game 3-4, I heard that the credit mostly goes to sloppy play by spurs and inability to capitalize on three point range. Today I was able to watch game for first 10 mins and then last 40 mins (thanks to power cut here in India), I found one thing, pistons gained lot from those 2 games they won. They were right there until end if Ric could made a smart choice rather than shooting by himself or I can say Larry could have draw a better play then they had nice shot of winning the game. It was just a one point difference with 4-5 secs and you are into 5th game of final series, you can afford to play like a normal game. I also suspect that much of the credit of Spurs turnover goes to officiating in game 3 and 4. After game 2, ratings were down, seemed that it was turning out one more uninteresting series but after some thought I think I was wrong thinking that way. If that was the case then last year final series would have been different. Lakers could have started game 6 at home. (May be they were to busy in internal fighting that officiating did not able to pull that out either and there are other zillions reasons such as injured Malone but this post is not about that..god stop writing about Lakers). Now everyone thinks that Spurs will win championship mostly in game 6 but I guess it will go up to game 7 unless, Pistons hang up their head. Anyways, next year is gone be more interesting that this year since Larry will not be coaching pistons and I don’t think that bunch could be awaked by anyone else other than LB. Since Heat will not have a single good competitor in East, I guess only playoff matches to be watched will be on Western Conference. Or shift Seattle or SUNS to East, we have plenty of talent of West.

Sarkar!

2005-07-19T15:42:00.000-07:00

Sarkar: Today I watched another hindi version of ‘God Father’. The title lines by director were very pragmatic, sounded like this “Like every aspiring director, this is my version or tribute to God Father’. I just hoped Ramu should have been true to his words. The movie is sluggish, with unwanted details. For example, he has changed the script for modern hindi films, killing big brother by younger one rather than he is getting killed by the rival gangs. I don’t think that was something audience ( at least audience who has watched God Father before) looks forward to. I was thinking at the same moment what I will incorporate in this script new. I will not do anything different with core concept of don utilizing his power for people, a parallel system created by void of capable system. Something which government does not want but has to live with it. This time, I will definitely not show a poor father or inspector who complains about rape over his daughter. In fact while watching this movie today, I got sense that best version of this core concept was depicted at best by Naykan not by God Father. Though movie has hindi cinema style dramatic moments which could have been avoided Kamal Hasan has shown best performance by far. Marlin Brando was unique in his style and none of these version ever tried to copy him, in fact I can say that in God Father, Marin Brando made the movie first father oriented rather than script giving importance to son, but every other time due to script first father got second position in films. Sarkar was not even exception for this rule even if Amitabh was enacting as first father. Abhishek dominated whole movie beyond anything. But I think it came with the help of script. In Naykan, they changed the script so the son was not at all visible on screen. That might have caused it to be more powerful. Rather I will say this, Naykan was not diverted from core concept but still made best changes with the script ever possible. More about the movie experience at theater, it was tremendous. People love Amitabh, I think he is the only actor in hindi movies ever, who gets so tremendous response at this age. This movie response will be more about this following and people want to see him with his son. Legacy with such great script, expectations are sky rocketing as well as no matter what ever quality it has, if u are die hard Abitabh fan then u got to watch this one.

Some Promising areas for Business!

2005-05-23T15:28:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the world wide known facts. - North America, Europe and some parts of Asia are aging. - South Asian countries are hungry for energy. Specially India and China are gone be facing this as tough problem ( energy in terms of power and oil). - Africa is new source for oil and most promising with stocks unexplored. - Every major communication source is gone go on path of being dirt cheap eliminating need for physical travel, unless do it for pleasure. (May be it is reality right now but still long way from what I am trying to say here). - No govt in developed countries can afford to keep control on supply-demand on any commodity. If they try to do so, they will face larger consequences and the market will be survival of fittest after a while. So with this summary of known facts, which business I think will be more promising ? Everyone has their own conclusions, so do I. From so last couple of months, I am trying to explore opinions by reading different articles, talking to various people, reading parts of some books. By the way, I found a very good book which was describing what will be big thing for next 10 years. If you read on my profile it has the same question. "What will be the big thing for next 10 years ?". Next post I will put the name and author of the book. But without that book, I think I can find out that new area and prove it statistically that the area I have described will gain maximum benefits. So let's go through the one by one on each of the fact and the impact on the business progressing in that region, production sources and feasible sections to start with.

American Citizenship

2005-04-27T13:52:00.000-07:00

Usually u dont feel that you are citizen of differnt country. At least not where I live. I think US has best policy (since I lived in USA only after India) which allows other nationals to work here. But past few weeks, I have been realizing that, its not your country. They limit your opportunities by forcing you to work for one company, where as I am doing two businesses simultaniously then I have much more potential for growth. Its all about utilizing it, rather than stopping me from doing that they should be happy to add one more company on country map, but "no" they have to stop me. At work too, you will not given preference to visit other countries since for US citizens it will be easy to get approval. And then their racial behaviour at stores at other places. Fortunately I have not come across many of such incidents but two in last 3 weeks were sufficient for me to rethink about what I think. I guess best way to exploit the opportunity should be learned in this case. I have done that in past and executed successfully in VISA matters. I should just go back to that but question then again comes in mind, WHY I HAVE TO DO THIS. Basically, Stop bitching about it and live with it.

Some New songs!

2005-04-12T18:50:00.000-07:00

Currently I am listening to music from some new hindi films. Some of them which are really good are, Bose, The forgotten Hero My Brother Nikhil and some good tunes on Dil Mange More, relesed long ago and flopped but nice copy of old style music.

Presidential Race 2008!

2005-04-08T14:27:00.000-07:00

I was reading a article on India-US relationship on indian express and their I found a google ad for a website on Rice. They also made a blog on Hilary considering that she is going to run in 08. This discussion of running a black in 08 with republicans is going on from a while. Previously Powell was the running candidate. Then after Bush had Rice in his place, now she is more fav candidate. Being a women to fight a women, one thing will be assured that Americans will get their first lady president. But I don't think conservaties on both sides will let that happen. I can understand the Cliton influence in this process but for Republicans, this will be tough to sell. So ruplican primaries will be more interesting to watch than presidential fight. Let's see. If you ask me, I would rather amend the constitution and give former president two more terms so then there will be big fight. Bush Vs. Cliton.

Defending Kobe!

2005-04-07T10:04:00.000-07:00

ESPN and everyone out there is taking shot at Kobe for not making playoffs.. Though guy does not need someone to defend him but here is something which those haters should consider.. Shaq: 1) Kobe was the guy who passed last shot to Shaq in 04 all star game which made shaq MVP for that yr otherwise he had same score. 2) He was only guy along with Fisher playing hard defense (yes Malone, Gary played hard too but not consistent), Shaq tried only in third match against pistons, never played defense upto his potencial (like he is playing currently in Maimi)but still got all credit which made Kobe a side stick, he never wanted to become. 3) I will prefer game of a running guard anyday rather than a junky dominating floor, its more enjoyment. But for some people it's more about junky.. 4) Nothing against Shaq, but he made a very good move when he found out that next season is going to difficult for Lakers and he is not going make any more money. Since Lakers put all their money on Kobe and no good effort to put solid players aroud him (Mihim is no center, ya he is good backup). In sense, Kobe failed to bail out himself, rather getting accused of everything, and Shaq mean while made nice move by switching to Miami where rest of the pieces built soild and need a good center. Phil: 1) Plz go through Jackson's book before making comment that Kobe took him out of lakers. The way he praised Kobe for playing his heart out vs. spurs, or their mental war etc. He never said, he wanted Jackson out, frankly the way guy understands game he is not going to get rid of best coach. Some reminders: 1)After 03 season, There was some rift between Shaq and Jackson according to this media (ESPN ediots) and Kobe was the one who stood up for Shaq. 2)Against Spurs in match 5 (the amezing game where Fisher made that shot in 0.4), kobe was so ill that he was unconscious for 1 hr after the game, still played the game with every bit of energy. No player would take such risk, at least i never saw it. So what Lakers are not making playoff: 1) Give Lakers starters and not bench players..look at Mihim, Atkins. These guys never started on playoff teams particularly in West. Odam and Butler are good differnt players than required for system. I will prefer them in team but when you say you need a running team then coach should have that mindset, not you are trying to implement trangle or whatever you call it. 2) Look at Lakers record, before Kobe going on injured list, they were fine. If he would have been healthy, they might have won those 4-5 games they lost by close margin. Where as Shaq who was regualrly missing games in 03 season now playing with 100% without shouting in between match on Pat for more money. 3) Once offense starts to go through other players Lakers are gone do just fine. All those predicters betting that Lakers are lottery bound team for years to come. I can bet they move 3 new good players and put current players on bench (so first time Lakers will have solid bench not Medvendko, they will make conference finals next year, right there with Spurs. (May be exaggaration since Suns will also be there, but way they are playing their starters, I don't know if Suns can hold all of them in good condition next season). I can definately bet on Lakers making playoffs next season if some good moves come along. (Mitch act or leave.) On Kobe's personal matter, I would care less on how he is in his personal domain, whether he rapes or sleeps with other women, at the end of the day, I enjoy game than anything called gossip. If the guy got great play then he has every right to show attitude. Hopefully, Next season they put real running team in Lakers and we can see more good basketball.

My Situation!

2005-03-21T20:12:00.000-08:00

You know that movie called "Wallstreet". I can relate my situation to one of the scenes in movie. (May be I am exaggerating situation here). But scene is something like this. Charley has one opportunity to talk to Big bull on wallstreet which he gets by begging and doing so many other things. That is one single thing which can make his life on street. Now Mr.Bull asks him, tell me something which I don't know, Surprise me. I have to do samething, and I am confused as hell. It's not like I don't have information but I don't know which will surprise him.

What it takes to win NBA Championship

2005-03-12T14:29:00.000-08:00

I am not a basketball player. Yes, I do fallow and watch it, but when it comes to play I suck because I can not shoot. But this post is not about me or my fav team. I trying to put down my thoughts on what it takes to win a championship analytically. Simultaneously I have also tried to look into the economics behind the scene. Ok, so what are necessary factors. 1) You need a star if not superstar: Memphsis has no star except Gasol who is in and out this season. This team performs great in regular season without any star. But when it comes to playoffs, you will not see them with same results as playoffs. Reason, in playoff every team has ton of time to just concentrate on one team. They know how you run plays, and if you opposition know your chemistry or technique, you need something extra ordinary show to make them eat their words on you. I think only stars have that power. Simultaneously, if you got superstar (only one), then other team knows your offence is gone run through him so they just block him and then if others can make shot then you win, which is not possible in all 7 games. So you need mutiple stars or superstar and a star. 2) You need depth: There should be at least one proper backup for every position (considering there are only 3 positions Forward, Guard, Center) So you need 8 players. Example, Pistons: They got Hunter, McDyess, Arroyo. That's why they look so good, they place exceptional defense but if starters failed to score then bench does. I don't need to talk about Spurs because they got more than required depth. They got at least 2 backups for every position. 3) You need medium size players with good Basketball IQ or Big bodies: Take for example Ben Wallace. I don't think he plays smart, but got big body, rebounds like hungry dog for a bone. That's his job, then at least one of his team will score. Opposite to him, Chris Miami (Lakers), he got medium size body, good height but no IQ at all. He will move around, but never picks up when his guard is gone get in, or where he should stand when you need to make a bucket. The guy who got both, SHAQ but I will talk about him later. 4) Last but not least "shooters": Take phoenix, they got Richardson, Marion, Johnson and Nash. All these guys can shoot 3 at anytime, any distance. They got inside presence with Amare and Marion can also work inside. Perfect game for offense. So after talking about all this let's see if i can apply my theory and find out what any team lags and why best teams are best. Let's start with Spurs for why they are best and what are their chances of winning championship: Spurs: They got stars (Manu, Tony) and superstar (Tim). They got depth (Brown, Bowen)as I said earlier. They got big bodies(Rasho, Massenburg) or smart IQ (Berry, Horry). They got pure shooters like Berry and Manu can do the same. Heat: They got star (Wade) and superstar (Shaq). They got slight depth (Doleac). They got big bodies (Alonzo) and but not great IQ. They definitely got pure shooters in Jones. So with the speculation that Heat and Spurs will meet in final, what's the result. Heat lags in 3 areas with Shaq doing couple more things you can say they lag in one area. So if they meet and none of the areas are lagging due to injuries spurs will take over. If any area is hit by injury then Heat will win. But we are forgetting about Detroit. Now let's see, a team with 3 areas covered just lags one and that's why it's not gone make until conference finals. Dallas: They got star (Finley) and superstar (Dirk). They got depth (Daniels (really he is good player), Bradly, Keith Van Horn). Big bodies (Eric Dampier who pulls at least 10 rebounds and anytime equivalent of Wallace) and IQ (Stackhouse, Terry). But yes they lag pure shooters. Terry, Stackhouse can shoot but once you get anyone double job they can handle it for some games and some games their real talent dies. Considering same 4 factors, I will talk about my two fav teams next time. (Lakers, Kings) Also, this analysis may not be true when Jordan or someone else played. But I guess this is true for current time.

MSN Search!

2005-02-07T01:38:00.000-08:00

This week MSN launched thier sp. so called fast pace etc...serach engine. Now I have to be a google fan this area. According to my personal experience and CNN try following search strings.. 1) Bill Gate's net worth 2) London to Rome Distance 3) Pallavi joshi u will get the difference unless Microsoft comes up with new patch, after reading my blog :)

Energy!

2005-01-26T15:54:00.000-08:00

Today I am realizing the importance of energy. I think what it comes down when u see successful people around. Look at those people, after hours of fight or political fight I can say, they go to bed early and ready next day for another day. They also enjoy sports etc. So I think basically how you spend energy, and kind of engery u got makes u a successful person. Today, I had big meeting. I fought against misconceptions, some stupid leaders etc. and now its it just 4 in afternoon and I am tired. I think having this huge amount of inner energy will help, but question is how do u gain it. If you can't then, atleast I should learn the art of spending it properly.

GE's Result!

2004-12-15T14:56:00.000-08:00

Check out the results from GE. I have never seen such detailed analysis from a global company before. It's not a praise exactly, but my first experience reading business plans through CEO presentation. Anyways, Check out the report and be amazed how big is the company, I am know I am.

9th Dec

2004-12-09T14:10:00.000-08:00

This day, which happens to be my birthday, is killing me from 12th standard. Every year I get some bad decesion news on this day. This year it was time for first strike from corporate culture. I was working on this dream project for a new engineer like me. Project was providing orientation in every field. I was fighting with all the political decesions inside company and was trying to answer the big mantra of SHOW ME MONEY. Yesterday, I made some proposals and got feedback from PLL (product line leader) to go ahead. Today, all of sudden software team decides to pull out of the project sighting other critical quality issues. May be I am making more hype on this one than required and these kind of things are normal in corporations such as ours but this is really making me feel bad. I know that I was not putting my heart out on this project, nor I was making a great contribution, but I was atleast backing a great claim from company, which is the basically followed by everyother product generating company. Now we are gone concentrate more on quality than introducing new products. Come on, we should do that in first place when generating any product. I think it goes as wallgreens ad (which by the way I hate very much) .....but Life is not perfect, thats why we have wallgreens around the corner I was delibarating yesterday, what I am gone do this bday. Think what I want to do next year or cry on why i am growing up or just do nothing and let it pass as every other day. I am still confused about that. I think first thing i need to do in my life is get away with all this confusion in everything. What ever we do, there is reason behind it, we just need to figure out that reason rather than thinking of decesion. That's the new way in software life cycle which applies to life too.

Show me the Money!

2004-11-30T16:28:00.000-08:00

This is the best mantra in corporate world. I currently working on requirement gathering for a project. Then I suppose to work with Product Line Leader (PLL) for justification of this project. This is going crazy. Actully this project will enhance the value of the product itself beside charging seprately for it. But I guess that is the last thing this world will understand. I guess there should be proper marketing strategy department and there is small but big difference between the Product manager and Product Marketing Manager. I am getting that now. I guess this will prepare me for my new job. Today is last day to submit my account for last yr work. I have been here for 2 months and not much on product table to show. Though I think I will just do fine.

Purpose

2004-11-28T01:53:00.000-08:00

This weekend just sucked as I never went out and did any outside activity. This was a big long weekend. But it was very pleasant with movies I watched. Notable are "Purpose" and "Swimming with Sharks". Purpose specially appealed me more. This movie is about a Stanford dude who makes a big start up in dot com boom. Tries to drive his company with a vision but unfortunately or say (as usual) getting more money forces drive him to list this company public. This puts lot of changes on company part against which he fights. Good script narration and getting essence of out of the story. But the fact that it looks much similar to the Google makes it more interesting. Google I guess fought against the idea of going public and owners were against it for a long time. Now everyone there is millionaire but company is doing what it wants. Market considers this as too risky but company is doing what it enjoys. Going through research way still making money. Nice combo, after lot of wiz kids failure to convert their ideas from Stanford into corporate reality. With all these, comes a direct message that a tech company runs on priciples and vision, not for the sole purpose of profit making. Though I consider as bullshit, I still respect the fact. That is why I admire google for being a fine blend of profit and research which is operating currently with lot of success. Swimming with Sharks is another film on a stuggler who is trying to make it in Hollywood. Becomes assistant to great producer played by Kevin Specy. The story has nice shocking end but unnecessary. Film depicts the ass kissing and kicking, Hollywood style so nicely, you get a feeling that you are present there. It also divulges the difference between the two cities as far as carrier goes (NY and LA). Though the only cute face in both film was GF of startup dude.

Effective EMS ( I don't know longform for EMS)

2004-11-23T01:26:00.000-08:00

EMS is the a short para which you have to write at the end of year when you are a part or full time GE employee. I guess every mnc has some kind of system for employess to express their achievements and then management to shoot it back. I am even not sure how my EMS is going to cross over outside of my firm, But I thought of writing it nicely. When I went through examples, I found that to write best EMS show numbers. Means show management that you have reduced testing time by 30% using new methods. Even if new methods are not that effiective you EMS for that point becomes attractive. I am not sure if I have the correct alternate way for such huge org. But I am sure that this is not the right way to do this. When reading Jack Welch, you feel that this guy forgot what he was at the grass root level and how he could have done with better productivity. I think not only him but everyone at his level should be doing same as long as you are posting good profits. I guess that is what matters in first and middle and end. Giving to Society, doing for community or powering employees are just sugar coated things tought in business collleges to make bitter things sound sweet.

More from Life!

2004-11-13T22:45:00.000-08:00

Basically whatever written in this entry is for me and for my own understanding. If you can make sense out of it, you are welcome to read it. But I am not sure if you will. These days, more from life is my inspiration for doing anything. I am trying to get free from the basic level. I dont remember what Jack Welch call it but its the proper word for it. Currently reading books like these on IBM, Dell or GE. Basically now being in there i can relate my experiences to them. Not exactly though. But somewhat similar to Jack as he started from the basic post of junior engg in GE. Basically I am finding out that Bently people are still not into GE. They have been working with different style. The moto is same. Earn ton of money for COMPANY but the way is certainly different. I am not sure how it changes on the part of management but its great to know some insides in it. That's why I am trying to understand the mentality on both sides (management which acquired company, people who are working for the company). My approach is quite different towards the things. I am asking so many questions like these big guys asked when they joined as CEO. THE BIG differece is that I am just a junior engg. But people are very nice to me, particularly Ken, Scott, Dave and Bob are trying to explain everything they can. They dont have to but they are. That's nice start. The project is gr8 to work. But again, when rethinking of this whole thing, Its not that simple to work with that SHOW ME MONEY eq. I am getting into it but dont how i will apply it over here. Feeling like my growth is blocked and I need to do something about it. But I am not sure of the way. One thing is sure, I should pay more attention to what I am doing right now. They hired my as programmer and not as management consultant. NO,, no ,, i am not going right way here so I will stop this entry.

Home !

2004-11-11T16:11:00.000-08:00

This week is most stressful for me in months. Not because I have been busy at work but due to the home search situation. From last 4 days I dont have my own place to stay. I am staying on couches, small rooms and whatever. The bad thing is that I am missing proper meal (eating out and that too boring stuff). I know I should not be bitching about the minden situation here but inspite of having a good job, you dont get good living conditions, I think that is very sad. 2 days back, I took decision of moving in a place ignoring its massive rent of 900$ but then suddenly, I meet a desi guy and then felt that I should save money too. You know the feeling after meeting a desi that savings is most important thing in your life and not your own enjoyment. Though there is fine line between enjoyment and necessity, most of the times its invisible for me. I realize that line after i spend money. This time I am trying to save on me. Everybody here is advicing me that I should buy home here to save money on Tax and Rent. This makes financial sense, only problem is that you never know when prices are going to go down. Since being a single guy you dont want to commit to any other thing. I almost checked out every single house available for rent. Every apartment agency which rents out apartments. No luck uptil now. Meanwhile everytime I write this blog, I forget to mention about the beauty of this place. Its very beautiful place to be. Green on fields and snow covered mountains everywhere. You look out from conference room or every other window and you can be speechless watching that beauty. This one perfectly matches Ranrang description. I am not sure what kind of weather is there in india right now but its like shravan or mansoon here. Only you will see snow beside rain. Now I am feeling much better, so lets get back to what I have been doing.

Race Around!

2004-11-01T16:08:00.000-08:00

I need to write this blog today since what I think today will prove me right or wrong tomorrow. If I don't have any opinion then it does not matter. Presendial elections: Never touched this topic until now expect that poster from Kerry. By this time all the media in the world must be jumping to tell the difference between their system and American system of elections. So must be they explaining who is doing what. Or last min attempts by both candidates. I think everyone now knows that whatever might be output at the first day, its not going to get the clear signal in very near future. They according to constitution, court can not interfear in this system more than some predefined time. This time its going to that last min when lawyers from both the sides will try to strech it as long as they can. All elections are focused on battle ground states which are still undecided. Those are Florida, Wisconsin, Ohio etc. One of them is Nevada. That's why John Kerry and Bush both visited the city near to my place. Gr8 traffic jam but not as it use to be back in india. Whatever the key issues are, Undecided voters will make the difference. Some news channel though try to be accurate and impartial they can perform that role when elections come near. For eg. now almost all channels are favoring Bush over Kerry though they are endorsing Kerry they are giving more positive news about Bush. Something which is quite unusual in india. Voting system is critiqued all over the world still people travel to see these elections. ( I guess that is cheap technique to do a USA tour). Candidates on both sides know this fact but never made an attempt to improve it. One of my colluge told me the reason behind this (from his pt). All these systems are tied to county level matters (in indian context Nagarpalika or corporation level management). Thats why somebody who moved from one place does gets an absenty ballet but sametime can register to local voting office. There is no way in hell that these county's will communicate with each other and will rectify the mistake. USA has this very well defined system of social security no which can solve this problem. Put all the controls on federal hands as these are fedral elections or create something unique to specify identity but no. That is not happening. Other gr8 difference is that you can vote anytime you want. Dont have to be election day. You can vote 3-4 days before election day and people know about their counts. People use absety ballets heavily. Pretty good orgnization this way but due to those missing facts, spoils everything. I read this good article(http://indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=57266) which tells why people of Indian origin should vote for Bush. Though I do not agree on all points, I do like some points there. I think Bush will win this elections utimately and Hillary will be next president. I am not sure if things go wrong in mid way but its what looks like. In between, saw a gr8 movie last night "Flavors" on desi americans. Reminded me some of the other things but that's later.

Big Big Corporation

2004-10-28T11:46:00.000-07:00

From last few days I had several topics lingering in my mind. I was thinking about writing on each of them but due lack of energy after work I was unable to do it. Now doing this before lunch shows how intense the feeling of writing is inside me. I am trying to understand this big GE system. This company I am working for is a sub company of GE energy. GE has divided itself in some areas but again integrated itself in some other areas. So you have to find out where you stand. They are asking to feel up the information on these long list of benefits. Some of them are really useful but the text is so long that it took me 2 weeks of will to complete this. After reading I have my choices decided. Then comes the part of completing the basic courses. GE has this virtual online university. They have thousands of courses residing there. You can find course on virtually any important topic needed for a corporation guy. It includes programming, management etc. It starts with courses such as safety information, signs etc... I guess these things are included to save GE from big lawsuits. Every normal person has this knowledge. But no, you have to take it. I have around 20 courses to be completed. Though there is 2 months time frame for me but I want to get rid of this before real hast work starts to kick in. Being a new employee you have to fight or sometime learn for every minor thing. Like I want to a good laptop, or how to download code from Starteam, how to use it or build it. There are thousand stupid ways to do this. I am quite sure that it will be different even at other GE Optimization work place. Then comes the SAP. Big bullshit from a employee point of view. I have given access to this system for nothing. It does not even allow me a single transaction. Being a SAP BW Consultant for a while I know some inside transactions but forget about that. I can not fill basic time sheet in it. Just a mess. Meeting different guys and understanding the way to deal with them is big issue. Always has been but never occurred to me on this large scale. I meet guys so arrogant that you can forget Vivek Deshpande ( a respectable person from Aurangabad). But in American way. They don't talk of breaking system but they know the system inside out. I am trying to understand the basic information of company such as product line, main competitors etc. There is no summarized information anywhere might be because these guys hired nobody in last 3 yrs. will continue later on as this is basketball time at lunch..

Do you know her!

2004-10-14T16:04:00.000-07:00

I always feel that I have nice vision about the looks of other people. This is why my fav models have something sp. in their face. Following lady is one example of that. She is playing leading lady in Swades. She is the one who use to act in some surf or other ad. I researched on her and found that she graduated from my fav college in Mumbai. This I did when I was in engineering 3'rd yr or final. When internet was expensive and difficult to access. some other examples are Sonali, Neha (Unsuccessful as actress but famous for her innocent looks).

India catching up!

2004-09-02T15:56:00.000-07:00

These are some old posts I stored on laptop. Just posting them late without editing so there might be some mistakes. Things are written in flow. India catching up: India is all around me so the feeling grows. Really I am feeling those typical Indian conditions. Today there was no electricity for 5-6 hrs. This is common from last 4 days. The problem is that you can not switch on mosquito repellent unless there is electricity and these mosquitoes make your life hell. They are biting me right now. But I was normal to this condition before. I don’t know why I am finding it so difficult now. This transformation in me is taking its time but it is surely happening. I am still not American. The man habituated of the systems. First time I freaked out watching traffic. No rules, cows and anyone can come in between, you blow horn, they don’t move and then you curse them, this was common practice for me. This time it was more difficult to find these things. I think the traffic situation is becoming worse but as this change is slow people are not noticing it. As a visitor after long time, I am feeling that. People are totally in your life here. Until this moment I have meet 3 old grandmas whom I did not recognize, but they are asking me to stay here and get married as soon as possible. This is kind of situation shown in Roja, a village with lot of buddies. Mom makes it compulsory for me to meet and greet each one of them. Then there is big discussion on every aspect of life. It may be politics, it may be cricket but people love to discuss things. I have been presenting my opinions on American society very confidently. Sometimes I am not sure of the situation but still you have to create and move your opinion otherwise you soon become crowd, listening some fool expressing his thoughts or in his language “visionary” thoughts on situation. Being with Mukund mama in my journey from Abad to Nanded, I had lot of time on hand to discuss agro business in country. He was talking about the returns as minimum as 14% and maximum as 100%. When I calculated the whole economics I found it to be near 18% on average. The big hurdle lies in the risk factors agro business faces.

Packed, Ready to go!

2004-08-27T16:01:00.000-07:00

Packed, Ready to go: When you are getting ready for long international flight then you feel like you have lot to do. But in reality you don’t if you are not going to country for the first time. Besides making sure that I have all the documentation needed to return back to USA there is nothing else to do. Packing clothes is easiest part. You just need to put clothes inside bag when you are going to India. Rest of the things are taken care by Mom. This time I was much more pressurized with shopping. Everybody wants something for them and I was not sure where I am going to get the best deal around. Plus to make the matter really worse, people list their demand in general so you have to go and choose. Sometimes you don’t really understand what they wanted and it makes both sides upset. I was put in same situation. But fortunately this time everyone cancelled the items as time progressed. So I end up buying three or four things only. Air travel is sometime quite boring but with this new laptop and IPod it is quite good uptil now. You start on a small plane. People are boring there. But I hope the people on long journey will be good. A short drink also helps you to feel good. I was not sure what I was going to do and feeling like sleepy but then I saw this power point and thought I can use this time to write and watch something fun. This is the reason I am writing it now. Now about some serious blogs, last time I was explaining the things going around the blog world. But it is not constrained to the simple people explaining the things in their short and limited life. Couple of big company executives also write something on company discussion forum. It might be for investors to make them comfortable with the direction company is heading. Or it might be to communicate with the users who believe in the company. The couple of examples are Shai Agasi (SAP), Mark Cuban (HDTV) – actually these are the one I read and never thought of others. I think it is also true for the Indian software giants like infosys and wipro. This type of communication makes it easy on the part of the company saving some money to get interviews published for big executives. Leave the boring purpose, but interesting thing is that you feel like you are one of the board members for the company. Something on India trip: I am really looking forward to this trip. Though are some worries in my mind which make me think that this trip will not be interesting but the positive side has huge margin. I hope I am not going to spend some boring time. I will write rest of the part in Hongkong where, I am thinking of taking a little tour. I am not sure how I will manage the time which will be at max four hours. Hong Kong airport: Just sitting at hong kong airport.first about typical desi attitude. We always complain about desi’s ignoring other desi. One of my friend describes this desi attitude very well. It has look saying “you are following me here too”.

Kerry and Edwards

2004-08-25T16:22:00.000-07:00

Look at the following picture. Left side is John Kerry who is presidential candidate for democrats and other is John Edwards who is running mate for Kerry for vice presidential post. They were running in primary against each other. You will be amazed what Edwards said previously to Kerry and what he is saying now about Kerry. I think this picture reflects what Edwards was saying before. This picture is available on Kerry's official election website. .

Go Blogging!

2004-08-24T23:07:00.000-07:00

From last two days I was craving to write here. Craving is correct word as I had lot of thoughts and subjects going through mind. Particularly after giving long speech on blogging to Manish I thought I should restart it. I got idea of blogging when I was preparing for GMAT. Then I screwed exam and stopped doing writing. Currently there are literally thousands of bloggers out there. Purpose of blogging can be anything. For some people it is way of writing their dairy. Before, people were too sensitive about the privacy of their diary but now they keep it open on internet. For example, if you click "next blog" button at the right corner of the screen you will find some random guy or girl writing about his/her day. You have no clue about it but certainly interesting to read about the life of other people. I read some student blogs. They are putting up thoughts on their interests (car, music, science etc). This is becoming big business in USA. I think every major website which offers free public services offer blogging facility. I like to read some blogs but what I like most is checking out random blogs. It gives so many things you never expect. I was reading a blog on indiatimes, the guy posts various news or comic news around the world. It had funny story about how government is going to collect data about you and then sell it to private companies. So the next thing you know, A pizza guy is giving you advice on which pizza suits your diet and what is balance on your ATM account. Another one was a struggling director talking about the way location of a short film is selected. Another big thing for me is to be particular about spellings and grammar. I know I am weak in that area. Few subjects I was thinking of writing on, - Remember the titans ( A film on community integration using Football (American off course)) - New media companies (HDTV, Microsoft's 24 Hr TV channel). - Rain in Reno and weather around - Book (Former IBM CEO ) I am reading from ages - My new iPod and in general Music player along with my hobbies - Normal confusion while purchasing a car. I think these subjects should keep me busy for coming week, especially with lot of time on hand on 36 hr flight.

Ajay

2004-08-01T01:56:00.000-07:00

Just remembered him on his Bday!

Test

2004-07-21T09:27:00.000-07:00

This is first test blog. I am not sure how well google is going to handle this. I tried this on Rediff but did not work for me. There was not an single attractive thing in rediff which will force you to write something beside your own instints. I think google got very attractive user interface. Hopefully this will work out for me. Currently I am working on simple PHP scripts. I was searching for Google functionalities where I can put my own search box on my page. I know how to put the box with Google Sign on it. But without it, I have to search for. I think this should be enogh for first blog. Let's see how this works for me.