tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58235272011-11-27T15:57:05.068-08:00Abode of AadiAadi's thoughts loud and clear on the web!Aadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.comBlogger581100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-57405665099380454272010-08-30T05:50:00.000-07:002010-08-30T06:09:33.198-07:00Part V: 1 year into KumaransA few comments on my blog post, necessitated me to come back from my slumber. Its been 1.25 years into the school, and i am been very happy with the progress that my kiddo has done there. Fun, Discipline, Facilities - Everything has been good so far. She is excited to go to school everyday, and that tells it all!Aadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-33014441880820291702010-08-30T05:49:00.001-07:002010-08-30T05:49:37.490-07:00Aadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-59549378048271080832008-12-21T05:53:00.000-08:002008-12-21T07:25:28.845-08:00Part IV: Ball in our courtNow, we had to decide between Kumarans, NPS Koramangala & Brigade school. So, our curious mind went on to define that we want to define a good mix of academics & co-curricular activies so that we get a well-rounded personality. In terms of academics, we wanted more the aptitude types than the mug-your-life types. So, we devised an experiment to put out our top 10 school Aadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-9142708268750901812008-12-21T05:04:00.001-08:002008-12-21T05:42:04.431-08:00Nursery Interview process & selectionAround first week of November, i got a call from Kumarans to come for an interview, along with my wife & daughter. First, we were surprised that there is an interview process, and obviously started wondering the need for the same. Call it the boon or the bane of the internet, we saw even questions posted on the Internet for Nursery admissions! (Sample it Aadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-50712033459808840822008-12-21T04:28:00.000-08:002008-12-21T08:23:44.122-08:00Bangalore Nursery admission saga - Part IIWe stay in Jayanagar 7th Block, and after a little bit of asking around, we decided to get admission forms in the following schoolsDelhi Public School (South) : Brand name, location, reputation for co-curricular activitiesKumarans: Brand name, location, reputation for academicsBrigade School: Liked the ambience, Age relaxation, and we knew somebody who Aadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-34189905194697588132008-12-19T08:37:00.000-08:002008-12-21T05:03:08.526-08:00Nursery admission process in Bangalore schoolsLet me do a post on nursery admission process in Bangalore.Our daugther was growing up fast and learning faster than we could believe...We truly believe/d that she was a genius (as do all parents). We thought that she was getting bored at home & we decided to put her in a playschool (Roots at Jayangar 7th Block). She refused to adjust to playschool & Aadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-40879469232868884732008-12-19T08:27:00.000-08:002008-12-19T08:37:31.750-08:00Back to blogging after a short hiatus of 4 years! Some trivial things happened in that time (wedding, baby, parenting etc... :-) & now hope to do some serious blogging!Aadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-1098176995493280162004-10-19T02:06:00.000-07:002004-10-19T02:09:55.493-07:00Reading Rich Dad Poor Dad over the last two weeks. Some useful insights, but sometimes goes overboard advertising Network Marketing.
Some insights.
a) Invest in income generating assets and not expense generating assets (ie. liabilities :-)). E.g. the first thing people do after stabilising is buying a house/car on loan. This will create an expense in your income which diminishes the cash at handAadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-1097728517648197972004-10-13T21:12:00.000-07:002004-10-13T21:35:17.650-07:00http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/9857?4798
Open Source PBX on VoIP!!! Amazing!
Read Accounting fundaes again today :-)
Gross Profit - Revenues from Core operations - Direct costs (e.g. raw material cost...)
Operating Profit = Gross Profit - Operating Expenses (Salaries, Rent, Power...)
Net Profit = Operating Profit + Other Income - Depreciation - Interest - Taxes
Retained Earnings = Aadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-1097124600613955912004-10-06T21:42:00.000-07:002004-10-06T21:50:00.613-07:00A good article on an entrepreneur turned professor.
As told and heard from countless entrepreneurs, first and foremost is cash flow management. Second is sales. Third experience - Generalistic.
http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/oct2004/sb2004106_0020.htm
Aadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-1097037754320167962004-10-05T21:16:00.000-07:002004-10-05T21:42:34.320-07:00Space Tourism might be a reality in 2 years. Branson (yes the Virgin Guy ;-)) has teamed up with Mr Rutan who is the brain behind SpaceShipOne, which in June became the first privately funded spaceship, reaching the edge of space. It was done again last week.
Richard is offering seats on his flights for £115,000 ($210,000), to include three days of training and about three minutes of Aadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-1097035355672513582004-10-05T20:58:00.000-07:002004-10-05T21:02:35.673-07:00Software on Demand - Catching up these days. Pay-as-you-go pricing. All new jargons.
Three to four years back, Application Service Provider was the buzzword. I dont think there is any big difference in the concept. But probably it was much ahead of its time. It failed miserably.
Now biggies such as IBM have put thier weight behind this. The basic concept - Conversion of fixed costs to variable Aadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-1096954075852449832004-10-04T22:25:00.000-07:002004-10-04T22:27:55.853-07:00Another interesting view about Bush and Kerry (source: businessweek.com).
Risk preferences.
Bush seemingly approves of personal risk over government/organization taking risk while Kerry thinks otherwise. One example is the Social security. Bush is for privatising social security wherein people put in a small amount in an account and there is a chance for the private company to invest. Therein a Aadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-1096953046560345882004-10-04T22:05:00.000-07:002004-10-04T22:10:46.560-07:00Regarding the runup to the Bush-Kerry elections on Nov 2nd.
Bush - More focus on Security, Nuclear proliferation,... (International)
Kerry - Economy, Healthcare (Domestic)
Kerry is notably against outsourcing saying that he would end tax breaks for companies which have oversees subsidiaries. (Until now, overseas subsidaries didn't pay tax until profits were reaped in the US). If this is done, Aadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-1095222392585133692004-09-14T21:26:00.000-07:002004-09-14T21:26:32.586-07:00Telcos all round the world were used to be dominated by the suppliers i.e the Network Equipment Providers. The landscape is changing now with dominant telcos (like Vodafone) demanding thier needs to be taken seriously.
One problem which will be of utmost priority would be the network management landscape. The situation is mired with interoperability, standardization and lack of uniform thinking. Aadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-1095154505511380702004-09-13T20:47:00.000-07:002004-09-14T02:35:05.510-07:00Blogging can be dangerous.... Somebody got fired last month for the same. Read more at
http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=10839§or=Industries&subsector=Communications&hed=No%20Friendster%20of%20mine
Aadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-1095133468761713712004-09-13T20:29:00.000-07:002004-09-13T20:44:28.760-07:00Ills of Monopoly
"Critics see Wal-Mart as an anti-union predator whose relentless price-cutting actually hurts the towns where it operates by driving out other traders and imposing such low wages that many employees have to rely on welfare to supplement their income"
- Economist in a article on Walmart
Interesting Quote from Mr. Scott (CEO of Walmart) on Disintermediation.
“Most of what I see isAadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-1088508720825100802004-06-29T04:29:00.000-07:002004-06-29T04:32:00.826-07:00Why do companies offer bonus shares?
Say Wipro's stock price was quoting at 1500. Now wipro announces a bonus of 2:1 , i.e for every share, two shares will be additionally given. So logically what do you think should happen? Since at that point of time, there is no real increase in output of the company (i.e no major increase in projected earnings just because a stock is split/ technically no Aadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-1070601531733544072003-12-04T21:18:00.000-08:002003-12-04T21:19:31.793-08:00"All of this has happened since the tariffs were introduced, but did any of it happen because they were introduced? Gary Clyde Hufbauer of the Institute for International Economics (IIE), a Washington think-tank, warns against the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy"
post hoc ergo propter hoc - the logical fallacy of believing that temporal succession implies a causal relation
Amazing wordAadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-1070601186199225532003-12-04T21:13:00.000-08:002003-12-04T21:13:46.326-08:00A really gut-wrenching editorial in the indian express today.( Backgrounder: Satyendra Dubey, a young NHAI engineer, wrote confidentially to the PMO about corruption in the Golden Quadrilateral project in Bihar. This IIT Kanpur graduate was murdered after his identity was leaked out by the Government despite his request to keep it confidential).
http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?Aadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-1070269805217719612003-12-01T01:10:00.000-08:002003-12-01T01:10:41.623-08:00now a days, i am getting spammed left and right in my yahoo account. of all the things, it is about some updates from microsoft patches. looks authentic with all that microsoft logo, but comes from a microsoft.yahoo.com id ;-).
i think it is high time that software companies must be made liable for thier faults/bugs. there is absolutely no incentive for them to write safe code!!! they would Aadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-1070269567485891032003-12-01T01:06:00.000-08:002003-12-01T01:06:43.950-08:00back after almost a month-long hiatus. was a bit busy with work of all things :-(.
got more insights on business intelligence esp in telecom over the last month. I think getting into neural nets/bayesian nets/genetic algos now is the right time. shud start working on the team fast.
bot a book on story of philosophy yday at strands. really amazed at the greeks and esp plato/aristotle. i feel Aadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-1068128958472024802003-11-06T06:29:00.000-08:002003-11-06T06:29:16.636-08:00I saw the RBI governor's press conference announcing the new credit policy. I think he has a greenspanish demeanour though i shud agree that he is humorous at times. In fact, he handled the questions well with ease and putting in humor whereever necessary.
RBI has not altered any of its rates - bank rate, repo rate ... Also he has told banks to up their credit income and not rely on bond/gsec Aadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-1067487379731182032003-10-29T20:16:00.000-08:002003-10-29T20:16:15.256-08:00"hallelujah" - expression of joy (actually means praise of the lord).
Aadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-1067424804794702262003-10-29T02:53:00.000-08:002003-10-29T02:53:23.556-08:00Some basic fundas of eco:
"A final reason why America should welcome and not bash China is that Chinese money is helping to prop up America's economy. To prevent its currency rising, the Chinese central bank has bought huge amounts of American Treasury bonds and mortgage securities (see chart). Its willingness to provide cheap credit to the American government to finance tax cuts and, indirectly,Aadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-1067346397104321182003-10-28T05:06:00.000-08:002003-10-28T05:06:36.576-08:00The ADC as it is levied at present is the difference between the cost incurred by BSNL to provide fixed line services and the amount charged from the subscribers. Since the rentals and the call charges are below cost, the ADC which is imposed on the private operators, is meant to compensate BSNL for keeping the service affordable and incurring this extra expenditure. This component is Aadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-1067346228016401562003-10-28T05:03:00.000-08:002003-10-28T05:03:47.530-08:00The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has recommended that fixed-line operators migrating to the unified licence regime should pay the difference between the licence fee paid by them and the fourth cellular operators.
If the government accepts this recommendation, fixed-line operators looking for an all-India presence will have to pay Rs 1,200 crore. This is because in the fourth Aadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-1067314118429975042003-10-27T20:08:00.000-08:002003-10-27T20:08:37.960-08:00Official statistics tend to understate the role played by IT outside America, because of differences in the way it is measured. American statistics count firms' spending on software as investment, so it contributes to GDP. In much of Europe and Japan, most of it is counted as a current business expense, and so excluded from final output. Aadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-1067256308441506482003-10-27T04:05:00.000-08:002003-10-27T04:05:08.090-08:00Economist on oil cartel:- Some snippets.
"Such moves by Saudi Arabia may seem reassuring, but in fact they point to a cause for great concern: the real problem with the supply of oil is its concentration, not its scarcity. Fully 25% of the world's proven reserves of oil sit under the parched deserts of Saudi Arabia. Add in four of the kingdom's neighbours, and the share of the world's oil Aadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-1067247607739846152003-10-27T01:40:00.000-08:002003-10-27T01:40:06.920-08:00GK on luxury industry/fashion industry:
By MCAP:
a. LVMH - 28.7 bn - Christian Dior Couture, Cognac Hennessy, Dom Pérignon, Givenchy and Donna Karan, Tag Heuer, Lious Vuiton,
b. Richemont - 9.8 - Cartier, Monteblanc, Baume&Mercier, Piaget, Dunhill
c. Gucci - 7.6bn - Yves Saint Laurent, Gucci, Stella Mccartney,
d. Swatch
e. Hermes
f. Burberry
h. Bulgari - 2.2 bnAadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-1067154874089981192003-10-26T00:53:00.000-07:002004-01-27T08:44:54.043-08:00Boring day!!Aadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-1066739603228429692003-10-21T05:33:00.000-07:002003-10-21T05:33:23.100-07:00MS, Vodafone - OMIP kind of product.
MS, Orange - Handsets
MS, Reliance - IPTV
Wireless carriers now take home nearly half of global voice revenues, up from 9% a decade ago
The question is: Do people buy phones like computers, where they expect to upgrade and change the product over a longer lifetime, or like consumer electronics, where the configuration is fixed and you simply buy a new model Aadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-1066368558040951552003-10-16T22:29:00.000-07:002003-10-16T22:29:17.900-07:00Microsoft and Telecom - Isn't it tired?
Vodafone and MS have announced a joint mobile web services initiative(similar to OMIP) to take head on the industry's initiatives of OMA and Parlay X. From 2 yrs, MS is trying to make its windows powered smartphone and till date only Orange has release a smartphone on its OS. Also recently it announced a software for IPTV which would be tested by Reliance Aadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-1066142050171958172003-10-14T07:34:00.000-07:002003-10-14T07:34:09.976-07:00I drove vijay's new diesel indigo and here are some observations:
a) Overall the price came to 5.23 Lakhs and for that price it is a great deal.
b) The leg space in the front is really good and the back seaters can also be comfortable.
c) The body is good and i even liked the almost 90degree opening for the doors.
d) When you drive the same, you dont feel like you are driving a big car - 1. A Aadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-1066139260226128582003-10-14T06:47:00.000-07:002003-10-14T06:47:39.916-07:00All truth passes through three stages.
First, it is ridiculed.
Second, it is violently opposed.
Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.
Aadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-1066128846177696932003-10-14T03:54:00.000-07:002003-10-14T03:54:06.370-07:00Economist has a very interesting article on the history of Telecom. Very interesting.
Wireless subscribers are more than fixed line subs now - 1.3 bn vs 1.2 bn. Internet subscribers are around 650mn currently. The article goes to say that enough money has been spent by overzealous operators on the pipe and now it is upto content to fill in these pipes. So it has 3 predictions for the future of Aadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-1065763718784074332003-10-09T22:28:00.000-07:002003-10-09T22:42:34.480-07:00Interesting news on broadband debate (cable vs DSL - cable cos vs telcos)
In OECD countries, cable companies, rather than incumbent telecommunications carriers, have been the leaders in introducing broadband access services. This is especially true in countries like Korea, Canada, Belgium, Sweden, and Japan.
In 1999, 84 per cent of OECD broadband subscribers used cable modem services and 16 per Aadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-1065674870650732832003-10-08T21:47:00.000-07:002003-10-08T22:01:09.710-07:001.3 Billion mobile Users worldwide.
200 in china, 400 in europe, 400 in americas, Japan - 80and the rest. (In general ARPU have come down from the days of govt regulation from 50$ to roughly 35 now and that is why operators are a worried lot these days).
ARPU - 35$ per month - 400 per year => 400Billion revenues per year for the operators.
10% of it is data -> 40 billion.
P2P Messaging accounts Aadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-1065672565362784272003-10-08T21:09:00.000-07:002003-10-08T21:09:25.403-07:00Tech spending has shown signs of increasing, but at a much lower pace that it was before. (though hp, dell made optimistic noises, oracle,Sun on the negative). Giga suggests that tech spending would grow by 6% for the next 4 yrs. (11% in the boom time and 5% of GDP and now 4%).
Reasons:
a) Regret over over-spending during boomtime.
b) economy doldrums
c) long-term tech cycle - waves of 15 yrs. Aadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-1065671746405528352003-10-08T20:55:00.000-07:002003-10-08T20:55:45.773-07:00Modligliani died recently. I came to know of his "lifecycle hypothesis" recently. ”. In essence, this says that people save during their working lives in order to spend when their income wanes in old age. (obvious u said, but wasn't at that point of time as Keynes wrote in his “General Theory” that it was a “psychological law” that saving rose with income. and obviously according to keynes, Aadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-1065670213575186542003-10-08T20:30:00.000-07:002003-10-08T20:45:08.093-07:00Article on Wharton Newsletter about Sun: (similar to one i had posted a few days back)
Sun is being attacked by low-cost m/cs by HP, IBM, and Dell. (The industry is moving to m/cs with more microprocessors, not necessarily powerful ones. ) Sun is good at making stable os's and cross-platform languages like Java. But the company is making the same mistake as Apple did - bundling so-so hardware Aadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-1065610643453920152003-10-08T03:57:00.000-07:002003-10-08T20:38:53.223-07:00Seemingly cell cos in india have lost 10% in ARPU after making the incoming calls free. Partly due to the loss in revenues ( as the termination charge is now 25% of the revenues when incoming calls were charged). Also cell operators blame the expensive spectrum which is based on the number of subscribers and not on the number of minutes/airtime ppl talk.
Data: in the last 5 months, the talk time Aadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-1065589147010201492003-10-07T21:59:00.000-07:002003-10-07T21:59:06.366-07:00News today:
Nokia selling gaming handsets (in competition with Nintendo) - pricey (350$ in comparision of 90 of Gameboy). Games worth 20$ - but only 20 games available. Network economics has to come into play ;-). (telephone networks worked only after a critical mass was available).
BT(the fixed line operator) is selling Free-to-air TV settop boxes to counter the cable cos threat of internet, tvAadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-1065587974375852082003-10-07T21:39:00.000-07:002003-10-07T21:39:33.990-07:00Back after a long vacation at Goa. Goa is THE place for a laid back vacation - beaches, babes and beer. We (friends from KREC - had to convince quite a few about thier last bachelor vacation ;-) ) took 5 days off and travelled to Goa by a Tata Sumo. Please book your tickets in advance as you would have to do the same as we did. Seemingly, the best option would be to go to Mangalore by bus and Aadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-1064551372829241052003-09-25T21:42:00.000-07:002003-09-25T21:42:52.386-07:00Motorola chief Gavin resigned last week. The mobile phone business which contributes to 40% of its business is losing steadily to Nokia. Siemens and Motorola held talks few months back to swap the infra and handset business. But gavin was too emotionally attached to its networks business. Now with this news, will the deal come through?Aadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-1064550943340568252003-09-25T21:35:00.000-07:002003-09-25T21:35:43.000-07:00A good story as usual on the economist abut MS banning chatrooms.
Summary:
a) Microsoft is using "corporate citizenship" to make its MSN business profitable. It now requires users of chatrooms to be subscribers of MSN so that they can be tracked.
b) Is it against the fundamental premise on which the internet thrived - Openness and anonymity?Aadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-1064381417371561122003-09-23T22:30:00.000-07:002003-09-23T22:30:17.216-07:00Recently, news is coming that hedge funds are coming to India.
What are hedge funds?
It is similar to a hedge funds, but unlike mutual funds, they take both short and long postions in equity so that beta is close to zero. (Say buy Reliance and sell Mahindra). Now if reliance goes up by 10% and m&m/market goes up by 7%, then overall they make 3%. (they try to reduce market risk, but bank on stock Aadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-1064378940204899362003-09-23T21:49:00.000-07:002003-09-23T21:48:59.870-07:00Some fundas i have learnt the hard way on the stock market:
a) Please Please dont invest in non-profit making companies.
b) I have found P/E to be a good indicator for investing. Other investing variables - NP, Dividend Payout, Previous Quarter Earnings, P/E of industry, Any recent news, Current Fancy of the stock market, Sales Margin.
c) Book profits. Book Profits. Book Profits at each Aadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-1064377893287669152003-09-23T21:31:00.000-07:002003-09-23T21:31:33.136-07:00My first experiences with open source software:
a) Checkstyle - a code convention checker for Java.
The setting up of the command line tool is a bit non-user friendly but probably this is the case with any non-proprietary tool ;-). One major observation is the number of plugins written by open-source enthusiasts to integrate the same into any IDE (Idea or JBuilder) which makes the setup Aadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-1064377218349571712003-09-23T21:20:00.000-07:002003-09-23T21:20:18.300-07:00The linux threat (or i would say opportunity) is getting more real and real. Recent events/reasons/indications:
a) IBM, HP, Sun throwing their weight behind linux. Sun recently announced the "Java desktop system" on Linux??
b) Telecom vendors also thinking of using linux (moving from sun solaris machines. Even i have seen a big sun machine for one of our Intelligent Networks Servers ;-)). IBM hasAadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-1064293102641148092003-09-22T21:58:00.000-07:002003-09-22T21:58:21.966-07:00Interesting article in the economist on the airline industry. For starters, the industry is loosely divided into 3 groups:
a) Skyteam - AirFrance, Delta Airlines, KLM??
b) Star - Luftansa, United Airlines, Singapore
c) oneWorld - BA, American, Cathay Pacific
(Pooling of flights, coordinating schedules, prices are the kind of functions these loose 'alliances' perform).
Airlines are deeply Aadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-1064205869001210792003-09-21T21:44:00.000-07:002003-09-25T21:17:12.810-07:00Thanks to Kannan for this. I was always confused as to who r the players in the media industry.
1) AOL TW- I think we know abt them :-))) - one point to add is that they
also own MAD magazine ;-)))). CNN, Cable biz, Time,AOL,Cartoon network.
2) Viacom - owns MTV, CBS TV, Paramount pics,
3) Sony - Columbia Pictures and Music, and also Playstation
4) Vivendi - now with NBC (which is GE) - Aadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-1063981712651019712003-09-19T07:28:00.000-07:002003-09-29T21:19:59.466-07:00Motorola plans to release phones with Microsoft Stinger software. So what the hell is happening? Microsoft has finally succeeded in getting one of the big guys to support its ailing costs for the last 2 years ;-)
Why did Motorola do this? Probly
a) It doesn't want Nokia to dominate the Mobile world. So in one way, tying up with Microsoft weakens the other world's fight against microsoft. ( When Aadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-1063979530456827012003-09-19T06:52:00.000-07:002003-09-19T06:55:36.196-07:00Sun will now (Scott wont be happy with "diversify") sell software also as it had been predominantly a box seller. (hi end servers). Now with companies looking to cut costs, Sun is looking to software to prop up its sales. ( for the uniniated, Sun was one of the forerunners of open-source software and the inventor of Java). It would sell the Java Desktop system ( which includes a windows like Aadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-1063974988048071372003-09-19T05:36:00.000-07:002003-09-29T21:13:12.220-07:00Hutchison launched the first 3G service in Europe.(Britain and Italy) as a new operator "3". 3 doesn't have any baggage of the past and it has launched 3g infra afresh. Since its first launch, it has done so in many other countries. But, it has so far signed up only 3 lakhs in italy and around 1 lakh in britain. (in 7 months and much less than its target of 1m each). Meanwhile incumbent operatorAadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-1063944785717793362003-09-18T21:13:00.000-07:002003-09-18T21:13:05.690-07:00Pollution at traffic signals is 10 times that at normal times. Now with the signals also showing the time to release, it should be very obvious for the vehicle owners to switch off the ignition and help reduce the pollution. ( It is understandable for say scooters, mopeds which might take some time to start, but not for bikes and cars!).Aadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-1063862184958219202003-09-17T22:16:00.000-07:002003-09-17T22:18:04.756-07:00HP is moving into consumer electronics.
Dell is moving into consumer electronics.
Microsoft is moving to gaming. (CE).
Why the hell are companies moving to CE?Aadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5823527.post-1063859823571131282003-09-17T21:37:00.000-07:002003-09-17T21:37:03.226-07:00A question which has been haunting me for the last two days. Why should companies pay dividends? The background is that a lot of companies in India are flush with funds. (Bajaj, Reliance, Infy, Hero Honda). I have tried to provide some kind of explanation of the same.
M&M (Miller&Modigliani) argue that the capital structure doesn't have any bearing on the valuation of the firm. In the same Aadihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00856164364686597627noreply@blogger.com0