Status Update: New ipod

Yours truly is the owner of a new ipod, courtesy of Deutsche Bank. Won an internal competition inviting ideas for "living green" as part of Earth Day. I think this idea has some serious legs and could be implemented bank-wide. Lets see how the thing progresses...

Quantity vs. Quality

"Quantity Has A Quality All Its Own"
-- Lenin


Can apply to so many things... Offshore engineering, The Sherman vs. Tiger etc etc...

Ramblings for 2008-04-29

Indian Railways- BEST Buses to get Smart cards | India Business Blog Making Millions in Milliseconds at McIntire Hedging Tournament "In this information age, stocks are traded primarily over computer networks linked to the hub at the New York Stock Exchange building, which seemingly would reduce the need for physical proximity. But the firms moved closer, sometimes by just a few block BBC NEWS | Business | Brazil's booming economy "Brazil used to be a basket-case economy but now it rivals India and China as an economic powerhouse. Gillian Lacey-Solymar reports." Debut season fiasco runs down IPL's costliest team- ET Cetera-News By Industry-News-The Economic Times DNA - Mumbai - Sex, lies and CD: Four held for blackmailing Santacruz hotelier - Daily News & Analysis ""After getting pally with the victim, Babu told him that he knew several female models and invited him to come to his house for sexual pleasure. Initially the victim refused to join Babu, but later accepted the invitation after being forced constantly, The Sartorialist: At Hyeres 2008........Haider Ackermann, South of France Mallu fisherman does modelling... The Sartorialist: At Hyeres.....Louise, South of France Cutie pie.. Forces: Ghosts Come To Life Military Photos: B-2 Flies Again DNA - After Hrs - Exotic Kuttanad lures tinsel world - Daily News & Analysis Ahh... memories of staying overnight guarding the paddy fields when stayng with grandpa... Web Exclusive | 15-year old cars to become history - livemint DNA - After Hrs - 'No kissing scenes for me' - Daily News & Analysis Come on... The Lefferts law of management "It's your fault" I AGREE. THIS IS THE WAY TO GET THINGS DONE I'll get you next time! Don't fool yourself -- they're coming for us Self-assembling robot... How to Get Rich with Green Putty How to sell something for 8 bucks what you can get for 50 cents Pankajakasthuri : Breathe Easy Mallu cream...

Ramblings for 2008-04-28

Slashdot | IBM's Inexpensive Notes/Domino Push Against MS Half of London found love on tube-UK-World-The Times of India Boeing to outsource US fighter jet components to India- Airlines / Aviation-Transportation-News By Industry-News-The Economic Times Ploy to get the Super-hornet contract from India What I Learned Today - Common vs. Preferred. Stock, that is.. 1959-Cadillac-Cyclone-Concept-lawn-1600x1200.jpg This Is Unfortunate LOL Jeffrey Zeldman Presents : The vanishing personal site Good observation Skies not so bright for China pilots - Los Angeles Times Tim Harford — Article — Cash for answers "In 1737, John Harrison, a self-taught clockmaker from Yorkshire, stunned London's scientific establishment by presenting an idiosyncratic solution to the most important and notorious technological problem of the 18th century. He was hoping to win a the Goldman Mortgage Chief Sparks to Leave After 19 Years "Dan Sparks, who runs Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s mortgage division, is leaving after a successful bet on the declining value of subprime home-loans helped the company produce record earnings last year." Hot Chicks with Douchebags: This Guy HCwDB Warplanes: F-16s Too Good For Aces "Thus there are no more aces (those who have shot down five or more aircraft) on active duty in the United States, or anywhere else. That's been a trend for decades, and in a few more decades, there will be no more living aces at all." Attrition: B-2 Flies Again SpendMatters: Boeing: When Your Suppliers Fail You, Buy Them! "What's the lesson here? For one, when suppliers fail you in the middle of a giant, multi-billion dollar project, it's essential to take all actions necessary to shore up control of the situation -- even if that means stepping in and getting creative on t Toshiba making *another* bad storage bet | Storage Bits | ZDNet.com "Fresh off the HD-DVD fiasco, Toshiba execs are stepping up to pursue another expensive flop: notebook SSDs. Memo to Toshiba: people won't pay huge SSD premiums unless it's worth it. That won't happen in the next 3 years. Here's why." Attrition: A Few More Good Women "The U.S. Marine Corps is about six percent female, and the marines want more BAMs (broad ass marines)" Nude Vacations: No Shoes, No Shirt, No Worries - New York Times "WHEN Larry Massa says he likes to travel light, he means it. No need for a jacket and tie at dinner, a pristine set of tennis whites when he hits the court, or even a bathrobe to wear when heading from his hotel room to the pool or the spa." Submarines: The Chinese Underground "The base has underground docking facilities for nuclear and diesel-electric subs, created by tunneling into coastal hills." GM increases exec salaries to "normal" levels - Autoblog "Well boys, it looks like we can stop shopping at Walmart" LOL. I WONDER WHY WAGONER IS STILL THERE Mig downs drone | Military Tech - Mark Rutherford looks at how the military merges with the digital age - CNET Blogs I'm Going To Scale My Foot Up Your Ass - Ted Dziuba First features... then scaling Nearly infinite "Organizations that can help us manage the infinite are facing a huge (can I say it? nearly infinite) opportunity." Another Hindu Meal on SQ Pretending that you care "No, you can't always hire exceptional people for these jobs. No, you can't always invest enough time to train them sufficiently. But yes, you can make, "pretending you care," a barely acceptable alternative." Brand Update : Ceat "The saddest part is that Ceat has done away with the famous mascot ( Rhino) and the golden tagline " Born Tough"." Got Supplements? Good advice Harbhajan Assaults Sreesanth? Cry-baby Grains of Wheat "The Abbess was one of those persons who have allowed their lives to be gnawed away because they have fallen in love with an idea several centuries before its appointed appearance in the history of civilization..." IT boom spawns fake ?experience? providers - livemint Derivatives losses keep adding up - livemint

Rambings for 2008-04-26

EastSouthWestNorth: Carrefour in Hefei: A Photo Play "The following is a photo play of the events that took place outside the Carrefour store in Hefei city (Anhui province) on April 19, 2008...." FRENCH GET FCKED EVERYWHERE BMW Targets New Drivers Pls dont dilute your brand. You will end up like the old geezers at Merc singles_map.gif Map of singles in US At Trade Show, China’s Police Shop for the West’s Latest - New York Times 50 best cult books - Telegraph Fountainhead, and ZATAOMotorcycleMaintenance I agree with ad:tech Takeaways Good... Bloomberg.com: Pimco's El-Erian Sues U.S. Over Citizenship Delay "Under federal law, if the immigration service fails to decide on citizenship within 120 days of interviewing the applicant, that person can ask a court to either rule on the naturalization request or to compel the government to take action." Of shoes and money …. and information "People aren't interested in medical records, they're interested in getting well, and staying well. People aren't interested in bills and receipts, they're interested in knowing that they did what they said they will do, or that they received what Pixar’s Brad Bird on Fostering Innovation « FoundRead "Walt Disney's mantra was, "I don't make movies to make money—I make money to make movies." That's a good way to sum up the difference between Disney at its height and Disney when it was lost. It's also true of Pixar and a lot of other compa The bachelor paradox | Free exchange | Economist.com "What's a single girl to do? I hear the summer is lovely in Alaska...." Harbhajan Assaults Sreesanth? Grains of Wheat Mumbai gets smartcards for local trains and BEST buses

Ramblings for 2008-04-25

DNA - Sport - ‘Dot ball as good as wicket’ - Daily News & Analysis Bowling Strategies from Dennis Lillee Evolving Excellence: Teaching Penguins to Fly LOL Human Body : Pushing The Limits : Discovery Channel Awesome show.. Should buy th DVD Dear prudence - - Guess Who's Coming to Diwali "I am a 25-year-old Indian-American who has been in this country since I was 5. I started dating a Caucasian classmate four and a half years ago in college. .......My parents are very traditional Indians and have told me if I did "bring home an American g Start a business, not a startup After the first enumeration required

Born to kill

"I can tell you the license plate numbers of all six cars outside. I can tell you that our waitress is left-handed, and that the guy sitting up at the counter weighs 215 pounds and knows how to handle himself. I know the best place to look for a gun is the cab of the gray truck outside, and at this altitude, I can run flat out for a half-mile before my hands start shaking. Now why would I know that? How can I know that and not know who I am?"
-- Jason Bourne

Unfettered...

"Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage's whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men."
-- Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead

Choose life

"Choose Life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television, choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol, and dental insurance. Choose fixed interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisurewear and matching luggage. Choose a three-piece suite on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who the fuck you are on Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing, spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pissing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked up brats you spawned to replace yourselves. Choose your future. Choose life... But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life. I chose somethin' else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you've got heroin?"
-- Opening lines from "Trainspotting"

Long list of things that have to go right

"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."
-- Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, Chapter 1, first line

A very interesting application of this principle came in Jared Diamond's very interesting book - Guns, Germs and Steel. Why is it that very few ancient cultures were able to master domestication of animals (especially horses) while almost all cultures had some form of agriculture? Because, to domesticate an animal, a long list of things had to go right -
-- Having surplus food to feed animals
-- Having access to animals with the right temperament (You cant domesticate bears)
etc etc

Just like so many things need to be done right to create a happy family...

Ramblings for 2008-04-24

Google's Ginormous Free Food Budget: $7,530 Per Googler, $72 Million A Year* - Silicon Alley Insider Debt Collection Done From India Appeals to U.S. Agencies - New York Times Making Money, the How-To Way - New York Times This works... I look up a lot of videos on how to do some gym workouts... Diff to read and visualise for many things like these What I Learned Today - sail away sail away sail away Cruise ships and tax Twitter Turmoil Not Finished: Engineering VP Lee Mighdoll Out - Silicon Alley Insider YouTube - Paramore - That's what you get [official video] The chick's voice is growing on me everytime I hear this... If you’re working in a big group, you’re fighting human nature - (37signals) I agree... Hot Chicks with Douchebags: Tony and Clara's Dilemma Zoho Launches In China With Baihui Rolling Around ...

Ramblings for 2008-04-23

Localization Problems: A Cellphone's Missing Dot Kills Two People, Puts Three More in Jail "Ramazan wanted to write "You change the topic every time you run out of arguments" (sounds familiar enough) but what Emine read was, "You change the topic every time they are fucking you" (sounds familiar too.)" Ten things to know about Microsoft’s Live Mesh | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com Attrition: The Ghost Subs Of Oz "The problem with the small crew was that every one of the sailors had to be pretty sharp to begin with, then required years of training to learn the job." SAME SITUATION AS IN A SOFTWARE PRODUCT COMPANY. GIVE STOCK OPTIONS... hehe Morale: Screwing Private Ryan "In this case, a soldier, one of three brothers, was released early from his enlistment because of the 60 year old "sole survivor" rule. This regulation allows for the sole survivor of a group of siblings to be released from service." All Systems Go -- General Electric -- Aviation in China | Fast Company How do u determine the bonuses for all the cross-selling? Amazon.com: Inside Steve's Brain: Leander Kahney: Books "Jobs is an elitist who thinks most people are bozos—but he makes gadgets so easy to use, a bozo can master them. " YES I TOO AM LIKE STEVE JOBS. YIPEEEEE Sherlyn Chopra | Inside Girls | Girls | Maxim Magazine India "We caught Sherlyn Chopra on her way up the Bollywood ladder, and got her to service our jalopy – she bent it outrageously out of shape!..." Submarines: Tropical Paradise For Bubbleheads Indian nuclear sub info. Didnt know the nuclear SSN was this close... My bro is planning to join the sub force next year... From the Book Inside Steve's Brain I seem to be mentally more and more like Jobs.. hehe... Where Your Taxes Go: 31 - The India Uncut Blog - India Uncut If I get a Mac, will DB shareholders complain???? Its aboutthe productivity people... Happy people are more productive... The traeoff in getting a good laptop is worth it. Must I Bank? | WallStreetOasis.com Very insightful analysis of the different kinds of jobs out there (not only banking) and to see where you fit.. deal architect : Data Center Makeover Very true... Mahalo Adds Microformats - Sean Percival's Blog So this is what microformats are all about Photos: NASA's top 10 views of Earth | CNET News.com Why Is Mariah Carey Popular And Why Do We Care? - Silicon Alley Insider "People are still willing to buy music -- from a handful of artists they like and care about..." AMEN TO THAT. Toyota takes 1Q world sales lead from General Motors: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance Better? "but the truth is that marketing rewards improvement. It didn't used to. It used to reward stability" First, do no harm "Sometimes, in our zeal to avoid loss at all costs, we focus too hard on the false positives (that guy might be a robber) and not enough on the false negatives (we just turned away a good prospect)." YOU HAVE TO LEAD BY LOOKING AT WHAT CAN GO RIGHT. The Trust Is Gone "he trust is gone, and now all of the investing will unwind. Do whatever regulation you want, the trust is not coming back that easy. It will take a long time for us to realise that while there may be a lot of money in the "sidelines", it will not come ea Southwest’s Crazy Eagle Airplane Porn Nice airplane paintjob The Supplements And Products I Use And Recommend Sensible recommendations. Guys dont use all the hyped up stuff like "NO Xplode" etc. 1 day your heart will xplode.. Sub-prime shadow on Indian realty "Delhi-based developer BPTP Ltd, which was banking on overseas institutions to fund the acquisition of 94 acres of prime land at Noida for Rs 5,006 crore, has sought an extension to pay the first instalment of the money." Oz girls' club celebrates sex, drugs-Rest of World-World-The Times of India As Economy Slows, So Do Laser Eye Surgeries - New York Times Interesting correlation LASIK - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Some info on LASIK ICICI not to give bonus to employees-India Business-Business-The Times of India Racked: Street Scenes: Reva on Mott Street She looks so dirty........... Philip Greenspun’s Weblog » Girl from Bangladesh at one of America's Top 100 high schools I agree with the first commenter... Is Apple going back to the PowerPC? | Storage Bits | ZDNet.com NO... But maybe something to do with the ifone Philip Greenspun’s Weblog » Cooking GDP, Unemployment, and Inflation numbers

Tackling problems

"This is nothing. This is nothing. Piece of cake, walk in the park. This is nothing"
-- Dustin Hoffman as movie producer Stanley Motss in the movie "Wag the Dog"

PSP: The tipping point

It seems every 2nd person under the age of 18 on the train is engrossed in their PSP. And quite a few office-goers too... Has the PSP crossed the tipping point into mass usage?

You really think Nike is THE sneaker brand?

Yeah, I am the prick who will turn his nose up if you tell me you run in your Adidas/Nike/Puma...

If you are doing any serious amount of running, the best advice that I can give you from my experience is to get the right pair of Asics for your feet. Seriously. It is outrageously expensive, but totally worth it.

Long-distance running was never something I did before I came to Singapore for my university studies. Initially I adopted typical Indian cost-cutting strategies and got a pair of "Power" shoes from Bata. Gave it up after the first run. I could feel my feet pounding the pavement hard every single step.

Key thing to consider for running shoes (as well as for anything) is value. It is ok to spend a bit more on good running shoes as your legs are more important than the marginal extra cost you need to spend.

Next in line were Adidas and Nike. They seemed ok. No problems when running. Thats the problem here. They are good enough... So you never notice anything short term. But they never felt great. Over many years, they can do some damage to your knee...

Recently, I started getting a niggling pain in my knee every time I ran more than 50 mins etc. A colleague referred me to Asics. (My first comment was "Asics? I thought it was pronounced Basics??") Looking at the proce of S$220, I blanched initially. Then did some research on the web and found out that this was THE shoe for running.

But you need to get the right Asics for your feet. This will be based on normal-feet/flat-feet as well as a concept called Pronation/Supination. You have to find out what feet type you have based on these 2 variables. Each Asics model is meant for a particular feet-type. So before plunking down 200 dolls on a pair, please make sure you understand your feet type.

In Singapore, you can go to Federer Sports in Peninsular Plaza (Level 2). The proprieter - Jimmy - is somebody who is passionate about running, and will examine your feet and recommend the right Asics model. I have had some very good experience with him. Completely different from the fuckin businesswalla's in Queensway. Jimmy is more expensive by around 20$, but again, it is worth it. He will also provide a warranty, which is difficult from the assholes at Queensway. Also you can try out the shoes and run a short while in Peninsular Plaza to see if you like the initial feel.

I plunked down 220$ on the Gel-Nimbus 9. Jimmy had recommended a less expensive model, but LOL, I couldn't resist the lure of wearing the "World Shoe of the Year 2007". And believe me, these things are worth 500$ to me... Only when you run in an Asics will you understand what you have been missing all these years. You hardly feel any impact when your heel impacts the ground.

So in short, when getting a running shoe:
-- Know your feet-type
-- Don't go by aesthetics (Get another shoe for going out)
-- Get an Asics

Leadership

"Be the change you want to see in the world"
-- Gandhi

Give-me-a-sentence

"You can lead a whore to culture, but you can't make her think."
-- Dorothy Parker's answer when asked to use the word horticulture during a game of Can-You-Give-Me-A-Sentence?

UBS explain how they screwed up

UBS published their shareholder report detailing how they got shafted so badly with mortgage bonds. Seems to be a pretty honest appraisal.

Download the report here (pdf link on right side of page)

The higlights:
-- 66% of losses from CDO warehousing
-- 16% of losses from trading by Dillon Read (UBS-owned hedge fund)
-- 10% of losses from cash-collateral trading

The concept remains the same, the materials have evolved

The world's first condom, dating back to 1640, and displayed at a museum in Austria currently.

via this site...
"The reusable condom dates back to 1640 and is completely intact, as is its orginal users’ manual, written in Latin. The manual suggests that users immerse the condom in warm milk prior to its use to avoid diseases. The antique, found in Lund in Sweden, is made of pig intestine and is one of 250 ancient objects related to sex on display at the Tirolean County Museum in Austria this summer."

Ramblings for 2008-04-22

Gadgets at Work: The Blurring Boundary between Consumer and Corporate Technologies - Knowledge@Wharton Wing Men | Popular Science Awesome... Realistic scale model of the A-10 Warthog, the only "pilot's" fighter left in the USAF today. Night4Joy - Never post your photo on internet oldie but goldie Ohio Record Roller Coaster - 420 Ft High, 120 MPH Down... LOL Polar Bear Workout LOL.. warm up by being chased by a cub. Then got for intensity training with the mother bear TiE and Canaan Partners announce Entrepreneurial Challenge 2008 |Technology and Business Startups in India Twitter May Not Have To Care About Uptime Any Longer Accenture to up India headcount to 50,000 in a year Accenture turned ME down for an internship in Singapore in 2001... How times have changed and standards have slipped... Bobbleheads and swaps "In simplest terms, what seems to have happened is that the people with all the knowledge conspired to take advantage of the people with no knowledge." Is El Bulli Really the World's Best Restaurant? Richard Vines Who the fuck cares... Duesseldorfer Hypo Rescued by Bank Group After Crisis Just another day in paradise... BBC NEWS | Americas | US military recruits more ex-cons Broken window theory will hold in this case... BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | What can we learn from climbing trees? Ahhh... the idyllic summer holidays climbing the giant cashew trees at grandparents place... We used to have 8 different ways to get to the terrace of the house without using the stairs. 1 involved climbing the sheer face of a show-wall. Bill Flagg: Be a tyrant - make great products I agree, and I am a tyrant when it comes to my products at work... Virtualization Goes Mobile Stupid.... Virtualisation is to be used for consolidating servers and running multiple OS etc off the same hardware. Wtf do u want to do that in a personal device??? The Supplements And Products I Use And Recommend This guy is sensible Ex-Googlers working on stealth social search | Tech news blog - CNET News.com Social search is the next improvement... but I think Google will use friend info from Gmail to start offering you custom friend-influenced info... They are like that only Statins, cholesterol, health; fancy employee compensation, EBITDA, and company value "So… if you're on a Board and you decide to compensate a manager with anything other than cash or a long-term stock option, make sure that you're not granting compensation based on a number that the manager can easily manipulate." Bezos On Innovation "I think frugality drives innovation, just like other constraints do. One of the only ways to get out of a tight box is to invent your way out...." Worst Captcha Ever « Depressed Programmer Hilarious The silent majority BBC NEWS | Health | High calorie diet linked to boys Should pass to Mr. Nishith Prabhakar for his analysis and use... BBC NEWS | South Asia | But is it really cricket? I say "Bring it on"... GE: Reinventing Tech for the Emerging World Constraints driving innovation

Character

"When a defining moment comes along, you define the moment or the moment defines you"
-- From the movie "Tin Cup"

Close encounters of the LOL kind

Was walking along Robinson Road today when I saw a poser draped in this...

Some really great pics of the Taj

Truly beautiful... I have never been to the Taj Mahal, and looking at the pics, I used to wonder what the big deal was. Now I get it...

via Amit Ranjan

| View | Upload your own

Ramblings for 2008-04-21

YouTube - F-16 model with afterburner! This is what I call interesting... RC Jet Hilariously Bad Take Off Video Find another hobby dude.. silly on Flickr - Photo Sharing! LOL Sushi Pictures Only in Japan Krav Maga - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Should learn this... How Safe Are Diet Supplements? This is an issue Isolation Exercises- Good or Bad for Beginners? | World Fitness Network Should do isolation for back... Try to get chin-ups to 12 from 4 If You’re Depressed… - The India Uncut Blog - India Uncut Sick joke The secret of open marriages Check out the reader comments... Hilarious Where's the feeling? Heads In The (Tar) Sands "The teeth of the giant shovels that scoop up the tar sands have to be replaced every 12 hours. That's a lot of steel to chew through in half a day - it surely isn't beach sand..." Is Fund Size Leading to Perverse Decision-Making? Space Junk. Since the launch of Sputnik in 1957, approximately... Progressive Overload Or Going To Failure - Which Is More Important? | MuscleHack Should follow this... get a training log

The human spirit, redux

"The human spirit can overcome many things. Little things like fear... and even big things…like gravity"
-- Olympics promo trailer

One of the ads that really grasp at you to go out and do great things. The video had these words in a voice-over as a ski-jumper leaps off...

B-52 giant scale model

Posting about that F-16 scale model reminded me of this monster 1:20 B-52 scale model that I had seen on youtube quite sometime back. I first heard of it when reading an article about the miniature jet engines from Wren used to power this monster.

The B-52 is simply the most beautiful plane IMHO. It is graceful, elegant, functional and cheap. First deployed in 1952, it is planned to form the backbone of the US bomber command till 2040. There can be no better validation of an airplane than this.

The B-52 entered popular culture thru the film Dr. Strangelove. The film was so realistic in depicting the B-52 and its nuclear deterrent operations that Stanley Kubrick was investigated by the FBI. As shown in the film, for a long time, the US Strategic Air Command did have a fleet of B-52's airborne at all times, ready to strike into the Soviet Union on command.

Anyway, enjoy this masterpiece in scale model engineering. Too bad the pilot was not as good as the engineers :-(

The human spirit

"There Is No Gene For The Human Spirit"
-- Gattaca

Law and Justice

"Unlike my brother judge here, who is concerned with the law, I am concerned with justice."
-- Alfred Thompson Denning

F-16 scale model with afterburner

via Jeremy Zawodny... A scale model F-16 with a miniature jet engine fitted with an afterburner!!

A few years back, when in London on business, I bought some scale model kits from the Imperial War Museum for my lil sis... To get her introduced to the creative side... LOL, she took one look at it and made it clear that I would be getting creative... In order not to waste the 40 pounds on these things, I spent the next 2 weeks carefully piecing together the HMS Ark Royal and a Lancaster bomber and slowly going mad. I have done a lot of tedious monotonous tasks in my lifetime, but this one took the cake. Since I wince every time I hear about a Lancaster bomber on the Discovery channel, I believe I haven't recovered yet...

So i salute the skill, dedication and concentration of the chaps who built, tested and troubleshooted this thing and managed to land it without crashing...

Ramblings for 2008-04-20

Collecting - Old Tractors Don't Die, They Just Ride in Parades - New York Times "You can take the boy off the farm, but you can't take the farm out of the boy." Hershey's Global Gambit Get fat kids.... Better for my future gym business... Amazon.com: H.M.S. Ulysses: Alistair MacLean: Books This is the best book I have ever read. As one Amazon reviewer said, "Don't read this book unless you plan on leaving a part of yourself in the frigid waters of the North Atlantic..." Amazon.com: World Without End: Ken Follett: Books To read... Sequel to the awesome "Pillars of the Earth" DNA - Money - Market for cookbooks booms in India - Daily News & Analysis Same carb crap DNA - Money - Shah Rukh is king in world of business too - Daily News & Analysis Good stuff.... Now got to find out all the owners of the IPL teams DNA - Money - Knight Riders attract investors galore - Daily News & Analysis Ultimately it will all depend on match results... lets see how that plays out Gillette's Lost Edge? Fuck it. Lets got to 6 blades... Fake Food: A Baby’s Perspective | Weird Asia News This kid is gonna grow up to be a typical guy... Loldogs ‘n’ Cute Puppy Pictures - I Has A Hotdog! Nice dog pics... shld get sis a lil puppy. Will teach her some tolerance and patience. BMW scraps plans to launch ?Mini? in India by 2009 - livemint Good decision IT industry goes slow on hiring, courtesy US slowdown- Jobs-News By Industry-News-The Economic Times "Although Indian IT companies are venturing into the European market, the US still accounts over 70 per cent of their revenues..." The science of kissing - livemint "You need to eat more fibre, my mother said in the completely tangential way that mothers are wont to talk. Eat your vegetables, take an oil bath, polish your shoes. What, I ask you, does that have to do with kissing?" NCS Sugars says ICICI has sought out-of-court settlement - livemint Saving the Indian marriage - livemint Love is a lie that rewinds, a tie that binds - livemint This lady writes well Alternate Life | A misty marriage - livemint Nice... Amazon.com: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn: Betty Smith: Books To read... Amazon.com: Where the Red Fern Grows (A Bantam Starfire Book): Wilson Rawls: Books To read.. William lands copter in Kate's garden-It's a Mad, Mad World-World Idiot Are you ready with your plan B (C,D, E…)? DNA never fails to entertain... "Her friend Neel is her back-burner, and she is very sure that she has a good thing going. "If I don't have a partner by the time I am 30, I will just get married to him." LML Vespa :RIP 1960-2006 Yet Con Chicken Rice, Singapore Sea of Red For Real Estate Lenders Great Moments In Granularity "See it's the 4:00-5:00 PM menu. At 5:01, presumably, there's another menu they give you, with different items and prices..." Why flowers have lost their scent - Nature, Environment - The Independent EXCLUSIVE! Secret Pix of Google China - Silicon Alley Insider "A weight room at Google -- must be really dusty....." Philip Greenspun’s Weblog » Airplane engine manufacturer loses $4 million judgment

Late night thought of the day

"All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others."
-- Animal Farm (Author: George Orwell)

Ramblings for 2008-04-19

Mad Science: Double Your Lifespan with a Drug that Mutates Your Ribosomes "The key is to lower protein-production in cells, which is why eating less can cause lifespan extension" Advertising war between BMW @ AUDI Via Maoxian... LOL Time together "Dear Economist, We're planning to marry next summer. The question is: should we live together over the next year, or wait until we're married?" Death of the guidebook: lost in a cutthroat world BBC NEWS | UK | England | Sussex | Man hypnotises himself before op The power of the human brain Photos: Tesla Roadster ready to hit the streets | CNET News.com "The car is black, but the first hundred that go to buyers will come in a limited-edition dark green. The roadster, which can go more than 200 miles on a charge, costs $98,000." Sony EL display is paper thin | Tech news blog - CNET News.com Awesome Encyclopedia Britannica Now Free For Bloggers If they play it right, they can beat up wikipedia... View from the Wing » Blog Archive » Off to Roses, and Dinner at El Bulli This guy flew from US to Spain just for dinner What Your Bear Fund Won't Tell You Brave Words From A Dissenter Hot Chicks with Douchebags: Pimp Daddy Looks like Tarak... LOL Mayday! ATC shortage spells turbulence-Special Report-Sunday Specials-Opinion-The Times of India Growth in Indian air travel After 43 yrs, IAF plans to reactivate Ladakh airstrip-India-The Times of India Belated response to the chinese tibet rail line??

Ramblings for 2008-04-18

Technology Review: Boeing's Composite Problem When will Boeing stock crash? IIT, IIM profs can expect salary hike up to 200% About time English Russia » Unknown creature was found by soldiers APJ Abdul Kalam: 'A Leader Should Know How to Manage Failure' - India Knowledge@Wharton Great interview... AppleInsider | Apple files for patents on laser-based head-mounted displays iHeadsUp Watch Restricted YouTube Videos The arms race continues Full List of Stuff White People Like « Stuff White People Like Should read thru this over weekend. Hilarious. Falkenblog: Barack Obama as the Ultimate Corporate Climber I agree Everything that's bad for you is suddenly good for you! India Windmill Empire Begins to Show Cracks - WSJ.com Hmmm.. Need to focus on research Somebody Left the Toilet Seat Up! Cadex, Twelve Alarms, and Parkinson: Confinement. Armed forces prefer Russian armour Zoho Blogs » Very Expensive + Affordable = Still Very Expensive Zoho CEO strikes at SF.com

Late night thought of the day

Schadenfreude SHOD-n-froy-duh\ -
Intense pleasure you feel when you see two Mercedes Benz 's collide.

Extreme

Was watchin VH1 today, and this came on... Hadn't listened to it in such a long time. One of the great songs of the 90s IMHO... Here's Extreme with "More than Words".

Datapoint of the day: Foreign reserves in oil terms

In 2003, oil prices were at US$25/barrel.
China's foreign reserves were US$ 400 billion.
China's foreign reserves in oil terms = 16 billion barrels

Today, oil prices are US$115/barrel.
China's foreign reserves are US$ 1.6 trillion.
Foreign reserves in oil terms = 14 billion barrels

Leadership and failure

via an email forward...

Former President of India APJ Abdul Kalam : 'A Leader Should Know How to Manage Failure'

India Knowledge@Wharton: Could you give an example, from your own experience, of how leaders should manage failure?

Kalam: Let me tell you about my experience. In 1973 I became the project director of India's satellite launch vehicle program, commonly called the SLV-3. Our goal was to put India's "Rohini" satellite into orbit by 1980. I was given funds and human resources -- but was told clearly that by 1980 We had to launch the satellite into space. Thousands of people worked Together in scientific and technical teams towards that goal.

By 1979 -- I think the month was August -- we thought we were ready. As The project director, I went to the control center for the launch. At four minutes before the satellite launch, the computer began to go through the checklist of items that needed to be checked. One minute later, the computer program put the launch on hold; the display showed that some control components were not in order. My experts -- I had four or five of them with me -- told me not to worry; they had done their calculations and there was enough reserve fuel. So I bypassed the computer, switched to manual mode, and launched the rocket. In the first stage, everything worked fine. In the second stage, a problem developed. Instead of the satellite going into orbit, the whole rocket system plunged into the Bay of Bengal. It was a big failure.

That day, the chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization, Prof. Satish Dhawan, had called a press conference. The launch was at 7:00 am, And the press conference -- where journalists from around the world were Present -- was at 7:45 am at ISRO's satellite launch range in Sriharikota [in Andhra Pradesh in southern India]. Prof. Dhawan, the leader of the organization, conducted the press conference himself. He took responsibility for the failure -- he said that the team had worked very hard, but that it needed more technological support. He assured the media that in another year, the team would definitely succeed. Now, I was the project director, and it was my failure, but instead, he took responsibility for the failure as chairman of the organization.

The next year, in July 1980, we tried again to launch the satellite -- And this time we succeeded. The whole nation was jubilant. Again, there was A press conference. Prof. Dhawan called me aside and told me, "You conduct The press conference today."

I learned a very important lesson that day. When failure occurred, the leader of the organization owned that failure. When success came, he gave it to his team. The best management lesson I have learned did not come to me from reading a book; it came from that experience.

Ramblings for 2008-04-17

Mallika: Million dollar babe-India Buzz-Entertainment-The Times of India Nice midsection... China Pays Up For Potash - Forbes.com Tagline for "The Graduate" remake in 2008 - "I just want to say one word to you: 'POTASH" DNA - Mumbai - The name’s Dawood... Dawood Ibrahim - Daily News & Analysis A good guy having the misfortune of the same name... Damn that Flex is sexy! - Autoblog Olympic Boycotts Make Casualties of Sacrifice After reading this, I would kill any fuckin idiot who asks for a boycott. Even the Dalai Lama. The Indian Investor's Blog: CRR Hike And Rupee Woes "Inflation has to be controlled. No choice on that matter." Paramore - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The chick has a good voice Maybe Money Does Buy Happiness After All - New York Times "absolute income seems to matter more than relative income" MAKES SENSE cluetrain fucktard 2.0 Classic Hugh... Insurance? Facebook knows who you are, and that's worth more than you think Read the article... Talks about the next big thing in search. A reason why I think Mahalo.com is going to be BIG Building the Excel Media Player – Part 2 American Mobility in 2010 YouTube - R.E.M. | Imitation Of Life Existential... YouTube - James Blunt - Carry You Home This guy is getting unbearable... All the girls will love this... BBC NEWS | Special Reports | Polar cub Wilbaer's debut Cute Amazon.com: The Art of Looking Sideways: Alan Fletcher: Books via Vyom Spiraling costs drive some smaller tech firms from India - MarketWatch The problem is this - There is no upcoming base of great programmers coming out in countries other than India/China. Nobody wants to learn Comp ENgg anymore as there is no future in them outside India/China. Due to this, the mgmt outside canot identify truly great programmers in interviews. Only extremely good techies themselves can do that McDonald's Salads Cut Analyst's Calories, Boost Salt PR dipshit Sway (song) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Powerful song... Originally by Dean Martin. Nicole Scherzinger from PCDolls has a vry good cover version out as well... China to loan Pakistan $500M - CNN.com Putting some of the 1.6 trillion reserves to work... Olympic tech getting fit for Beijing 2008

Late night thought of the day

“You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.”
-- Leon Trotsky

Ramblings for 2008-04-16

The New Great Walls Beijing buildings photos German schoolboy, 13, corrects NASA's asteroid figures: paper Sudden Debt: Crunch Metric "Probably the best measure of the seriousness of the credit crunch is the ratio of rates for 3-month bank CDs to those for 3-month Treasury bills" 'Antioxidants won't prolong life'-Health/Sci-The Times of India Eat drink and be merry In Brazil, Another Gusher Why Things Cost $19.95: Scientific American Project status report: 62.34% complete Cisco opens ISR routers to software developers | InfoWorld | News | 2008-04-14 | By Tim Greene, Network World Too much customisation... dunt think this will work

Ramblings for for 2008-04-15

MonkeyBusinessBlog: Option-ARMS The coming Option-ARM problem Sudden Debt: Crude Facts In the last five years, as the average price of oil more than tripled, but Exxon's production has been flat Why There Aren't More Googles Another masterpiece from Paul Graham Up and Then Down: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker THIS ARTICLE IS AWESOME. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED........ ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT ELEVATORS. WITH THE OBLIGATORY PERSONAL STORY STUFFED IN APOD: 2008 April 15 - Sky Delights Over Sweden Expat@Large: Duxton Hill Rd Conversation I know a batchmate who used to be a regular here... AND HE USED TO GO ALONE... Shld email and get a reaction... BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Handcuffed man steals police car Keystone cops strike again! Video shows pirates pursued, captured - CNN.com Overexposure. Desert Survival Useful when visiting Dubai??? Building the Excel Media Player – Part 1 Unenumerated: Gas stations grant real options The reason why I prefer trucks to trains for goods transport.... and highways to planes/rails for transport infrastructure... It reduces upfront planning, and you can react to events quicker. Also more tolerant to failures, just like the internet as it i DNA - India - Meet Delhi’s contract killer: Smart & sophisticated - Daily News & Analysis Slowly, India is becoming like US and Russia... DNA - Mumbai - 3 held for planning to kill airhostess - Daily News & Analysis People need more EQ Qualcomm Ventures debuts in India There are not too many targets to fund in the tech sector... UNLESS THEY WANT TO FUND ANOTHER SERVICES COMPANY Racked: Street Scenes: Amit on Tenth Avenue Sorry dude, you don't even look like a poser. BECAUSE YOU ARE FAT. Show Time: TAG Heuer unveils eight new driver's watches - Autoblog Monster Cables Gets Soundly Beaten | Venture Chronicles I could nevr understand Monster Cable's prices... and the people who bought these. THE SIGNALS ARE DIGITAL PEOPLE. AS LONG AS THE SIGNAL REACHES UR SET, THERE IS NO LOSS IN QUALITY... No.1 Mistake People Make On The MANS Diet | MuscleHack This thing works...

Links for 2008-04-14 [del.icio.us]

Question Questioning the govt redneck_electric_toothbrush.jpg LOL Boycott Beijing True pic of reality... Israel's Nazi-porn problem - Beyond the Multiplex - Salon.com Hmmm Calculated Risk: Housing Bust Goes Global MonkeyBusinessBlog: Boiler Room Great metaphor of FED actions... FED running a boiler room operation to provide a false sense of liquidity that will whipsaw individ. investors jumping into financials. Kerala MP Wahab had entered plane cockpit: Report-India-The Times of India "Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) had said they would file a defamation suit against Wahab for allegedly calling the pilot a "glorified driver" and asked him to tender an unconditional apology." LOL. He left out the bit about the glorified maid Blockbuster Bids Up to $1.35 Billion for Circuit City ``It's an odd move,'' Nick Bubb, a retail analyst at Pali International in London, said by phone. ``Synergies between a video store and an electronics store aren't that obvious.'' DNA - India - Men, beware of gigolo sites - Daily News & Analysis "I thought I had never had sex, so why waste a chance when it was coming with money," said Khanna, who had come from Meerut to Delhi four years ago for studies." LOL. DNA JUST KEEPS GETTING BETTER Bugatti Veyron targa confirmed for next year - Autoblog This is one fugly car The Top Drops on Convertible Sales "There are few better illustrations of sheer hedonistic, profligate enjoyment than driving a small car at high speed into the sunset with the top down. It is a supremely selfish, environmentally uncool act. But boy, is it fun." DNA - Mumbai - Booming India draws NRI docs home - Daily News & Analysis Short the USD. The biggest strength of the US is the immigrant smart people. That is ending. BECAUSE THE FED HAS ABANDONED THE USD Lisp as Blub "And there's the problem with Lisp for writing server software. Long lived processes, shared state threading, and garbage collection make it extremely difficult to fail gracefully." The wealthy gardener "Blogging is much the same way. The best bloggers make money, but mostly as a side effect, not as a direct result of setting out to use a blog to make a profit." Hot Chicks with Douchebags: The Kisser For want of tyres, Sukhois grounded-India-The Times of India What else is new Forget US, IITians prefer to stay home-India-The Times of India Short the USD German Tots Learn to Answer Call of Nature - WSJ.com "The birthplace of kindergarten is returning to its roots. While schools and parents elsewhere push young children to read, write and surf the Internet earlier in order to prepare for an increasingly cutthroat global economy, some little Germans are takin Google Maps + YouTube Videos = Local Video White Pages Slowly gogle will start to make money on this... This internets thing is gonna be huge I say... Cassandra Does Tokyo: Collateral Damage "But I wonder: isn't this inflation, and the CEO-like salary deals of players all the stuff of bull-markets? Maybe even one would go so far as to suggest that the business of professional sports is a soon-to-be popped bubble - collateral damage victim of In China, returning to greener pre-plastic shopping tech | Sinobyte: CNET Blog on technology and the impact on China's environment, politics, and international affairs. - CNET Blogs Should be done in Singapore also...

Scenic tree-lined mountain road

From Digg. Click on pic for larger version...

Pretty please... with sugar on top. Clean the fucking car

I used to be like this chap...

The last part of this video is one of my favorite parts of the movie...
The Wolf: Jimmie, lead the way. Boys, get to work.
Vincent: A please would be nice.
The Wolf: Come again?
Vincent: I said a please would be nice.
The Wolf: Get it straight buster - I'm not here to say please, I'm here to tell you what to do and if self-preservation is an instinct you possess you'd better fucking do it and do it quick! I'm here to help - if my help's not appreciated then lotsa luck, gentlemen.
Jules: No, Mr. Wolf, it ain't like that...
Vincent: I don't mean any disrespect, I just don't like people barking orders at me.
The Wolf: If I'm curt with you it's because time is a factor. I think fast, I talk fast and I need you guys to act fast if you wanna get out of this. So, pretty please... with sugar on top. Clean the fucking car!