How To

How to Organize and Manage your Money

noreply@blogger.com (sneh) — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 18:45:00 +0000

Organization is the key to a better life. Organizing things definitely saves a lot of time and money. It avoids unnecessary tension and our life seems a lot in our control but it’s all easier said than done.. Organizing money and finances can be quite overwhelming and of course requires a lot of commitment.

but the truth is tracking every penny you spend can save you some more and can give you peace of mind.. Most of us don’t keep track of our daily spending, many times we forget to pay bills on time and we don’t care where those coins are going that get collected in the form of change.

There are few Steps that can help you organize your finances-

Effective filing system is very important to remain on top of your paperwork and finances. I personally like presentation folders for most of paperwork but- to each his own.
Paying all the bills online and setting automatic payment reduces paperwork and late payments to a great extent.
Another good idea would be buying a coin collector or coin counter kind of
thing. That way your coins will be in one place and you would know how much they
are adding upto..It worked for me at least.
Choosing personal finance software is a great idea too as you can keep track of your money with the help of reports and graphs. They include features like online portfolio management, online bill payments. They can also help you with your taxes, budgeting and
investing. For example Quicken data can be automatically transferred into turbo
tax to reduce data entry. Some of the personal financing softwares are -

Microsoft money
Quicken
Money dance
TurboTax

Its a good idea to first download and try a trial version and see which one works for you best.

If you like you can read more about personal finance software and their reviews onthe internet.

How to tell if you have a Healthy Weight

noreply@blogger.com (sneh) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 19:28:00 +0000

After working with WiiFit for quite a while now, yesterday I decided to research a bit about BMI(Body Mass Index) good and bad weight etc and found interesting stuff which I thought of sharing with you all. If you don’t already know it, it’s a good read.

Okay so a good thing to know is that being Overweight and being Obese are two different things.
However both terms mean that the body weight is more than what it should be for a given height.

A body weight may include muscles, bones, water or fat.
Overweight is having more weight than one should according to his/her height regardless of what the weight comprises of.

A person is obese if the all the extra weight is because of fat content. .

It is important to know whether your weight falls within healthy weight range or not because there are certain health risks that maybe associated with extra body weight like heart attack, diabetes, high blood pressure, osteoarthritis etc.

A good way to measure your body fat is to calculate your BMI.
The formula is -
BMI = (Weight in Kilograms / (Height in Meters) x (Height in Meters))
This is to evaluate a BMI of adult but not for children and is based on height and weight.
These BMIs are defined by National Institutes of Health(NIH) as

Underweight-BMI (less than 18.5)
Healthy weight – BMI (18.5-24.9)
Overweight – BMI (25-29.9)
Obese- BMI (30 or higher)

Though BMI is a good estimate of excess weight, it has certain limitations because it does not give you an idea about the difference between muscle and fat, also it does not consider age and gender and therefore it is possible for a fit person to have a BMI in unhealthy range just because s(he) has more muscle mass like athletes.

Waist circumference is believed to be another good estimate of your body fat.

A person having body fat around waist has more chances of developing health related problems like high blood pressure etc than a person having body fat somewhere else.

According to NIH
Women with waist measure of 35 inches or more maybe at increased health risks.

Men with waist measure of 40 inches or more maybe at increased health risks.

So I guess it’s a good idea to keep our waist circumference as well as body weight within the healthy range.

How to make Spicy and Tasty Chicken Curry

noreply@blogger.com (sneh) — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 03:34:00 +0000

This chicken curry is real tasty and spicy, try it and you will love it. The masala is properly absorbed by chicken.

It’s easy to prepare with minimal ingredients usually available at home. tastes best with naan, rice or roti. I like it just like that.

Ingredients:

· Chicken- 10 medium pieces
· Yogurt – 1 cup
· Onion – 2 medium-finely chopped
· Garlic- 5 cloves- grated or paste
· Ginger-1 tablespoon- grated or paste
· Tomatoes-4 small/medium- blend
· Turmeric-1 teaspoon
· Coriander/Dhania powder- 2 tablespoon
· Red chili powder-1 tablespoon
· Garam masala powder- 1 teaspoon
· Garam masala whole- 4 cloves’, 1 big cardamom, bay leaf, whole red chilli- 2
· Salt-to taste
· Coriander leaves for garnishing

Method:

· Mix yogurt with half red chili powder, dhania powder and salt.
· Add chicken pieces to the yogurt mixture and keep aside
· In a deep frying pan heat oil and put whole garam masala in it
· Add onions and sauté till they become translucent
· Now add ginger garlic paste and sauté
· Add all the masala powder stir and add chicken and yogurt mixture
· Cook on slow heat till the chicken is 3/4th cooked
· Add tomatoes and cook further on slow heat till chicken is fully cooked and oil starts separating. · Garnish with chopped coriander

Notes:
No need to add water while cooking. If you like thin gravy you may add water at the end.
If you want you can also add chicken curry powder available in grocery stores in the chicken yogurt mixture.

How to Prepare for Business Analyst Interview

noreply@blogger.com (sneh) — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 18:00:00 +0000

Have you got a problem? Do what you can where you are with what you've got~ Theodore Roosevelt

A business analysis is essentially solving problems by identifying the stated and implicit needs, understanding requirements and facilitating the solution development.

The business analyst is the bridge between various stake holders including the client teams, the solution teams and other stakeholders such as third party vendors. The analyst must facilitate gathering and understanding of requirements and ensure the communication is clear and unambiguous.

A business analyst role is applicable across industry and technology domains. The essence of the analyst is to bring a rational thought process and an understanding of the underlying industry (e.g. financial, retail, telecommunication, banking, manufacturing etc.) is an asset.

Sample Interview Questions – General:

1. What are your strength and weaknesses?
2. What are your future plans?
3. Why do you want to join us?

Business analyst interview would also include questions of interviewee’s understanding of what business analysis means and the process thereof.

Typical Topics of discussion:

1. Software development life cycle (SDLC).
2. Some methodologies like Rational unified process (RUP), Agile modeling etc, their definition and comparison.
3. Unified modeling language (UML)
4. Tools like rational rose, ClearCase, Poseidon etc
5. Traceability matrix – Definition and how to create it.
6. Joint application development (JAD) session

Notes:

It is very important to go through the company’s website before going for the interview and do a detailed analysis. Try to understand their corporate style and culture.
A reasonable understanding of the relevant industry domain is always an asset in an interview and can mean the difference in the success in an interview.
Internet is a good source of basic understanding of terms related to specific domains.
Here I am listing some terms and topics I think you should know, at least the definitions, related to finance and retail domain.

Finance domain:

1. Mergers and acquisitions
2. Capital markets
3. Money markets
4. Financial ratios such as P/E, IRR, ROI, EPS
5. Equity
6. Dividend
7. Budgeting

Retail domain:

1. Merchandising
2. Procurement
3. Shipping and Logistics
4. Inventory
5. Supply chain
6. Consumer and Consumer behavior
7. Point of sales-POS
8. Customer relation management(CRM)

How to make Pani Puri/Gol Guppa at home

noreply@blogger.com (sneh) — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 03:34:00 +0000

Pani Puri/Gol Guppa/Gup Chup also called Phuchka in some places is the all time favorite of all the chat lovers.
Gol guppa is basically small round crispy puffed puris. The most appealing and interesting part is the manner in which these are served.
The Puri or the gol guppa is filled with potato or chickpea masala and then dipped in water and served and you have to put the whole thing in mouth.
Since it has to be eaten by dipping in water , eating out can be quite unhygienic but at the same time it is very hard to resist.

so here is the recipe for all pani puri lovers out there to make it at home.

INGREDIENTS

For the puri
· ½ cup semolina
· ½ cup Maida/all purpose flour
· Salt to taste
· Oil for frying

For the pani
· 4-5 cups of water
· 5 tbsps Jaljeera or chat masala powder
· 2 lemons
· 1 tbsps sugar
· 2 tbsps black salt
· 1 teaspoon of roasted cumin(powder)
· Fresh mint leaves

For the chutney
· 4 tbsps mango powder
· 4 tbsps of sugar
· 3 tsp of black salt
· Water

For the filling
· 2 boiled potatoes peeled and cut
· 2 tbsps of boiled chickpeas/chana
· Salt
· Red chili powder

METHOD

Method for puris/gol guppa–
· Mix rava and flour together with a little salt.
· Add water and knead into dough.
· Cover with a damp cloth and let it stand for 15 minutes.
· Make medium sized balls from the dough.
· Roll each ball into thin rounds.
· Cut into small puris ( I used a cap from a small bottle to cut the puris)
· Deep fry in oil.

Method for paani-
· Grind all the above ingredients together with a little water
· Mix rest of the water and refrigerate.

Method for chutney
· Mix sugar, black salt and mango powder with one cup of water.
· Put it to boil. Simmer and cook until it becomes little thick.

Method for the filling
· Cut boiled potatoes into very small squares.
· Mix boiled chickpeas
· Add salt and red chili powder to taste.

Serve filled gol guppas with chutney and chilled pani..enjoy

visit my recipe blog From My Kitchen to Yours..
for more interesting recipes.

How to solve the sudden laptop shutdown problem

noreply@blogger.com (sneh) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 18:31:00 +0000

Sudden shutdown of the laptop seems to be a very common problem nowadays. I just recently solved mine by cleaning the heatsink.

Well, there can be many reasons for it, the most common reason is overheating or dust in the heat sink unit.

What to do-
Clean the lint and dust from the heat sink unit or the ventilator by opening it up, a little lint can cause major overheating problem.

You can find various guides on the internet that tell you step by step method of cleaning the heatsink.

Things you can do to avoid overheating of the laptop-
1. Try not to keep your laptop on your lap, mattress, carpet or any other soft surface as it may block the fan from cooling properly.
2. Use air compressor every few weeks to blow the dust out of your laptop’s fan and heatsink.
3. You can use a cooling fan for the extra cooling of your laptop, works great.

As I said there can be other reasons too like-
1. It may be that the BIOS needs to be updated. Try performing the update and see if it still shuts down.
2. It might be a software related problem, in that case- try booting the laptop in safe mode and using it, it should work fine if it is some software creating the problem.
3. It can be a power issue also, you can try removing the battery and running it on the AC adaptor.

If nothing works try contacting the technical support.

How to be fit with Wii fit

noreply@blogger.com (sneh) — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 06:36:00 +0000

In my opinion Wii fit is the easiest, fun and affordable way to stay in shape. You can do a great workout without joining a gym, no need to diet and yes with a trainer at home at your own convenience. Cool isn’t it?

Its only 10 days I have it and I am already addicted to it, don’t know till when though but hopefully till I get fit or achieve the desired BMI(body mass index). What is most interesting for me is, I never seem to have time or motivation to exercise but with Wii fit I always have time just like I have time for videogames.

Let’s see what it is, and how it helps you.Wii fit basically is a bundle that has a pressure sensitive balance board and a game which has four types of workouts- Yoga ,aerobics, strength exercises and balance games and these are fun to do..I like the one in which it tests your rhythm but since its only 10 days I am yet to unlock many interesting exercises.

Assuming you already have a Wii console, you just need to buy Wii fit bundle which most likely will cost you around $90 and you are ready to go.

It starts by making you stand on the board, asks your height and calculate your weight which I think is quite accurate at least in my case. It then calculates your BMI that is your body mass index. A fit person should have a BMI near 22 and Wii fit will help you achieve that at your own pace. You set a goal for you and work accordingly.

This is another great thing about it, how many of us actually calculate our BMI when we try to lose weight through so many ways like gym, dieting, jogging etc?

It will also tell you your Wii fit age which is fun to know too because if you don’t have a good balance your Wii fit age can be 15 years more than your actual age!
And yes I think it’s worth the price because if you use it to get fit you will get fit!

Wanna share how you like Wii fit?
Please feel free to comment.

How to make daily indian cooking easier

noreply@blogger.com (sneh) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 20:34:00 +0000

As you all know, Indian cooking usually involves preparing a curry and its the masala which takes actual time, here is a tip to make your daily cooking easier.

Various indian recipes like Rajma masala, lobhia(black eyed beans), aloo gobhi masala, kathal (jack fruit) and so on actually have the basic ingredients same.

Make masala in bulk and keep in fridge or freezer for everyday use.

Just blend onion, tomato, garlic, turmeric, salt, chilli powder, dhania powder together in a blender .

Heat oil in pressure cooker and cook this blend till two wistles, then cook uncovered till oil starts seperating.

keep the masala for later use. You can always add more tomato or more masala powder when cooking various dishes.

Try this. it really saves time.