Jogging the path

9 year old Indian girl passes MCP exam

2009-01-03T20:20:00.003-05:00

A 9 year old girl from Madurai has become the youngest person to ever pass the Microsoft Certified Professional exam. She also holds the record for reciting all the 1330 couplets in Tirukkural. She did that at the age of three. She even has her own website. I have attempted the Tirukkural part at a much older age and I could never do more than a hundred kurals at that time. So I can guess the difficulty of doing all of it at three. She has got quite a talent.

But something has been bugging me since I read this news. Why will someone train her for MCP when she is nine ? I am sure she is not looking for a job now. So why MCP ? Looks like she is being trained to go for the records. I hope someone channels her growth in other fields like maths, science or chess rather than training her for MCP.

Guns, Cars, Amazon & iPhone

2008-12-18T21:53:00.004-05:00

The only article that I have seen so far that advocates relaxing gun control in India to arm India against terrorism.

What if Steve Jobs ran US auto companies ?

Amazon and iPhone.

Four Bad Bears

2008-12-12T22:20:00.003-05:00

Seeni was wondering about how this bear market would compare to the great depression. Here is a neat comparison I found sometime back at dshort.com. I guess the image there gets updated daily.

Interesting Links

2008-12-09T23:02:00.003-05:00

Walmart's wild fire like growth.

Capitalist Fools.

Balls and Brains.

Wisdom from Wisdom Tooth Extraction:

2008-12-04T14:59:00.004-05:00

Laughing gas gives you high. I never thought I will come out of a surgery feeling funny and smiling. But that is what happened. But the recovery period was as bad as they said.

Mumbai Terror Strikes

2008-11-26T14:31:00.004-05:00

It appears at least 16 people have been killed and several wounded so far. Freakonomics author Professor Steven Levitt predicted such attacks more than a year ago. In his words :

I’d start by thinking about what really inspires fear. One thing that scares people is the thought that they could be a victim of an attack. With that in mind, I’d want to do something that everybody thinks might be directed at them, even if the individual probability of harm is very low. Humans tend to overestimate small probabilities, so the fear generated by an act of terrorism is greatly disproportionate to the actual risk.

and predicts what actually happened a few hours back

The basic idea is to arm 20 terrorists with rifles and cars, and arrange to have them begin shooting randomly at pre-set times all across the country. Big cities, little cities, suburbs, etc. Have them move around a lot. No one will know when and where the next attack will be. The chaos would be unbelievable, especially considering how few resources it would require of the terrorists.

In a follow up post he discusses about what can we do about it (emphasis mine):

But the obvious answer is a disappointing one: If terrorists want to engage in low-grade, low-tech terror, we are powerless to stop it.

That was an ominously prescient blog post from Professor Levitt.

Berkshire Hathaway - follow up

2008-11-19T18:51:00.003-05:00

Berkshire Hathaway is down more than 60% since I last blogged about it. The cost of protecting against a default by Berkshire, yes you read it right - default by Warren Buffett's Berkshire, has more than tripled. Crazy times.

A sentence to ponder over

2008-10-14T12:26:00.002-04:00

"I wonder, and not without reason why we chase so many things so much, and for so long. Is it because we believe life is like a bicycle that can only stand when it is moving?" by Anil P in Desipundit.

Hotel Saravana Bhavan, Atlanta

2008-07-03T17:36:00.004-04:00

I never thought I will do this : Going to Saravana Bhavan on an Anniversary. I just did. It being the most authentic Tamil restaurant in Atlanta and our pure Tamil blood could be the reason. Anyway, if you have a chance to be there try their Halwa and Gulab Jamun. It is the best tasting Halwa in Atlanta. The onion bajji brought back memories of rainy days in Chennai. Love it. Bon Appetit.

India Trip

2008-06-24T23:33:00.001-04:00

A Mosaic from the trip to India.

Movie Review : Dasavatharam

2008-06-22T10:28:00.000-04:00

1/10.

Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle

2008-04-04T20:01:00.003-04:00

Loved it. I know the movie is old. Watch it if you haven't. You will probably like it too. Especially if you like walking 3 kms to Tiruparankundram for eating Parotta and Kuruma at 3 am in the morning. Part 2 of the movie will be out in April.

IT Dog Tag

2008-04-03T18:57:00.005-04:00

Why do IT type people wear those ID cards wherever they go ? Do they fear about getting wounded or killed ? Or is it sort of a medal ? It is funny when you spot it in a marriage album along with silk dhothi and the works.

Indian finance websites

2008-04-01T18:30:00.003-04:00

For a person spoiled by Google Finance using MoneyControl is a nightmare. But looks like there are very few alternatives (Are there any ?). ICICIDirect is another website that comes to mind which is in a similar state with regard to the usability. So the question : Why will these companies try to do development in-house, looks like e-eighteen in MoneyControl case, when they can outsource ?

I know that typical trade-offs of in-house development vs outsourcing apply in this case. But in the Indian context it appears very few companies outsource. Why ? Can availability of cheap developers lead the management to believe they can do it as well as the IT shops but cheaper ? Is it because of the low quality work of these IT shops ? (See Ravi's blog for a discussion on the quality problem) Any other reasons why outsourcing is not that common in this context ?

Awkward Moment #23

2008-03-18T16:46:00.004-04:00

When you go to Roopa-Deepa or Madhu Theatre to watch a scene padam with 10 friends and there is an interval. What on earth do you discuss ?

While waiting in a line

2008-02-18T21:45:00.003-05:00

Unknown Tamil Boy introduces himself and starts discussing student type stuff. You know easy subjects, GPA and the likes. As an afterthought asks "neenga Brahmin-a ?". Wanted to respond in Vedam Puthithu style with "Iyer-ngrathu neenga padichu vangina pattamma ?". But the environment was too formal for the imaginary slap. Thayir satham thappichuduchu.

Snow

2008-01-19T19:06:00.000-05:00

Nallar oruvar ularel avar poruttu ...

My wish came true

2008-01-19T11:52:00.000-05:00

Barani once wished for an alcoholic drink that is good for liver. Looks like someone listened. Scientists say Beer has cancer fighting agents. Say a toast to Xanthohumol (whatever that is) when you are able to increase your quota of beer citing its use.

Choosing the Canon S5 - The Process

2008-01-14T19:27:00.000-05:00

Do you think that with so much information available choosing the right digital camera for your needs will be easier than before ? It is actually more demanding now.

When I started shopping for a digital camera almost everyone in the friends circle voted for Canon. So that was settled. But there were too many options in Canon : Five series to be exact (A , SD, S, G, DSLRs). DSLRs at $500 was quite tempting. But when the lens costs were factored in I bailed out. G series was never seriously considered as the price point was close to DSLRs. That left three models. Now I started searching for the reviews. Cnet Reviews, Dpreview, Consumer Reports all had good things to say about the SD series and S series. But all the reviews brought Panasonic DMC-TZ3 into the picture too. The sample pictures at the end of the DPReview helped to decide. I liked the Canon's output. But it was one photographer's take. Flickr helped me there. Check the pictures from Panasonic DMC-TZ3 and Canon's S5. The pictures from variety of settings confirmed the recommendation. It will be Canon. The reviews and photos from Amazon.com helped too.

So I had to short list one out of the 3 series. One visit to BestBuy the A series was out. It was too toy like. The choice was between SD and S series. Both had good reviews. The SD series was cheaper by 50$ - 100 $. But the actual decision was between ultra compact low zoom camera and high zoom, manual options, heavy S series. I went with the S5 for the zoom and the easy access to manual features.

So here is a Test shot of a Beer ad.

Restaurant Review : Madras Chettinad, Atlanta.

2008-01-10T21:28:00.000-05:00

Neither Madras food. Nor Chettinad food. It is not even Tamil food. Hanging posters of Madras from the past is just not sufficient. That which matters doesn't pass the test.

Berkshire Hathaway value and price

2007-12-18T22:15:00.000-05:00

Barron's story says Warren Buffett's company is too pricey. Their valuation is $130, 000 a share. Well it came close to that price within a day. Well, you may wonder what am I doing monitoring this share. Someone said there are class B shares of the same company for people like me. Guess its price $4510 ! That is what is called overestimation of someone's net worth.

BTW, If you are shopping for books feel free to skip "The Warren Buffett Portfolio". Instead read the Warren Buffett's shareholder letters.

Amazon buys "The Tales of Beedle the Bard"

2007-12-14T12:53:00.000-05:00

The Tales of Beedle the Bard is J.K. Rowling's handwritten book. The tales were first referenced in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Only seven handmade copies of the book exist. J.K.Rowling gave six copies to people closely connected with the Harry Potter collection. Amazon bought the seventh. Here is the link in Amazon's site which also has the review of the first tale and photos of the book.

I wonder how Amazon is going to profit from this investment of four million dollars. Do they have the right to reprint it ? I hope so. I will be one of the first to preorder then.

Etiquette Question

2007-12-07T15:39:00.000-05:00

You walk into an office with a series of doors. Someone who walks before you holds all of them open for you. How many times should you thank him/her ? If once then should it be for the first door or last ? Does it differ based on whether the someone is him/her ?

Presidential Primaries

2007-12-06T14:47:00.000-05:00

With just a month to go for the Democratic Presidential primaries and almost every new poll claiming how close the race is will search trends help us to find the leader ? Take a quick look at Google trends results for Obama and Clinton for the past one year.

Obama and Clinton in Iowa :

Looks really close.

Obama and Clinton in New Hampshire :

This is closer than Iowa.

Obama and Clinton in US :

Not as close as one would have hoped.

Can we say where should the candidates concentrate their campaign based on search trends ?
Obama - Hillary leads in Davenport, IA by almost 3 to 4 times. (in terms of searches of course)
Hillary - Keene, NH. No one searches for Clinton there. Either they know everything about her or they really don't want to know.

Nation level search trends are much more interesting in The Republican graph. (Huckabee is leading)

Just for fun :

Bush and Kerry in US for the year 2004

Options

2007-11-12T22:48:00.000-05:00

Why is Google stock options making a millionaire news ? Unless the writer wanted some of us mortals to introspect the decision to join a company in the height of dot com boom and get stock options. Infosys is doing bad too. I am not alone.