Existence Exists

Skeptic

2011-08-12T00:54:00.004+05:30

From closing lines of JusticeHarvard.org's course "Justice: A Journey in Moral Reasoning" (iTunes Link), by Michael Sandel.

"..., about how philosophy works and has always worked, by estranging us from the familiar, by unsettling our settled assumptions.

I tried to warn you that once the familiar turns strange, once we begin to reflect on our circumstance it's never quite the same again. I hope you have by now experienced at least a little of this unease, because this the tension that animates critical reflection, and political improvement and maybe even the moral life as well. ... ...

The reason is that we live some answer to these questions all the time. In our public life and in our personal lives philosophy is inescapable, even if it sometimes seems impossible.

We began with the thought of Kant, that skepticism is a resting place for human reason where it can reflect upon it's dogmatic wanderings, but it is no dwelling place for permanent settlement. "To allow oneself simply to acquiesce in sketpticism or in complacent," Kant wrote, "will never suffice to overcome the restlessness of reason." " Michael Sandel, JusticeHarvard.org

From I. Kant's original text -

"... Thus scepticism is a resting place for reason, in which it may reflect on its dogmatical wanderings and gain some knowledge of the region in which it happens to be, that it may pursue its way with greater certainty; but it cannot be its permanent dwelling-place. It must take up its abode only in the region of complete certitude, whether this relates to the cognition of objects themselves, or to the limits which bound all our cognition." - I. Kant in Critique of Pure Reason (L)

12 hours of class video, 3-4 books in addition to plenty of text to finish this 14 weeks course! Go ahead.

--
US

Special

2011-07-01T06:05:00.000+05:30

Kevin Kelly sometimes publishes a series on his site called 'Found quotes'. This is my first post under 'Quote' tag.

The first lifted straight from KK's post. Rest were collected over time.

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. -- Robert Heinlein

‘Act without expectation.’ -- Lao Tzu

“The generation that had information, but no context. Butter, but no bread. Craving, but no longing.” -- Meg Wolitzer - The Uncoupling

"Never pick a fight with a man who buys his ink by the barrel" -- Mark Twain Link

"You should never abdicate a responsibility, only ever delegate it." -- Emyth + Swombat Link

"Honesty is such a lonely word, Everyone is so untrue, Originality is hardly ever heard. Copycats, I'm crushing you-too." -- Modified song of Billy Joel ballad Honesty, performed by Andrew Mason and Weller of Groupon at SXSW 2011

"Institutions will try to preserve the problem to which they are the solution." -- Clay Shirky

"Charm is a way of getting the answer yes without asking a clear question." --
Albert Camus

“An investment is by all right-minded people to be commended, because it brings comforts and necessities to the citizenry. But, if continued indefinitely, it will lead to the endless pursuit of unnecessary things.” -- Adam Smith

"Today’s collectivists are going after malefactors of moderate means." -- P.J. O'Rourke (Link)

The full list of collected quotes is at Link.

--

Five

2011-06-13T23:08:00.000+05:30

TED is celebrating five years of 900+ video's being online. TED Blog asked few questions in their post - "Have you watched all the TED Talks?"

The answer is Yes.

Here's detailed answers to their questions -

How did you find TEDTalks?

I had bought my first laptop in February 2006 and at the time was living at a proverbial 'Bachelor Pad' without any TV. This meant that I was regulary spending time finding quality content online. At the time I read about TED in some 'random' content list blog post about documentaries. I watched all 6 of originally released talks, and immediately signed when TED.com started accepting members. I am member #929
At what point did you set the goal: “I want to watch every TEDTalk”?

Very first batch of talks released had me hooked. I've watched regularly throughout 5 years. Never been behind more than ~15 in iTunes playlist.
How are you keeping track?
iTunes + My own Spreadsheet (derived from original) - http://bit.ly/TED_US
What’s a talk you think you would not have watched without this goal?
None, however I may not have kept up the pace, without my iPod Touch + iTunes
What’s your favorite TEDTalk?
I have a list of Short list of 193 out of 900+, and a shorter list of Top 35 18-minute format talks and Top 20 3-10 minute short talks. Out of top 10, Bill Stone and Wade Davis share my favorite talks spot. I am yet to create a playlist for this on TED.com

What’s something you learned from this experience?
To watch every TED Talk, you may have to give up your cable-Television, else it's tough. And if possible blog about your favorite ones. (example - tag).

Best of Luck to everyone who is aiming to clear their 5-year backlog.

Ever

2011-05-15T08:46:00.002+05:30

"Have you ever" by Brandi Carlile from the Album "The Story", photos by Paul Nicklen. (Song starts at 2min:43sec mark). Direct YouTube Link

Album Link. Paul Nicklen's TED Talk. My updated List - http://bit.ly/TED_US, or refer to this Quora List.

--
US

Charge

2011-04-15T21:49:00.001+05:30

9 People were named in charge sheet filed by CBI in 2G scam

A. Raja - Former Telecom Minister, a Poet, Lawyer, Politician
Siddharth Behura - Former Telecom Secretary,1973 batch retired IAS
R. K Chandolia - A. Raja's private secretary, 1984 batch Indian Economic Service
Shahid Usman Balwa - DB Realty, Etisalat DB Telecom (Swan Telecom), youngest Indian Billionaire at age of 36
Vinod Goenka - Dynamix Balwa Realty Group Promoter -#54 richest Indian
Sanjay Chandra - Unitech's MD
Gautam Doshi, Surendra Pipara and Hari Nair - ADAG Reliance telecom executives

Charges -- Conspiracy, Cheating, Forgery, Abusing official position.

Goenka's profile in Forbes

"Age 51, College dropout co-founded DB Realty, prominent Mumbai developer with Shahid Balwa. Owners of its Turf View apartments in South Mumbai, overlooking the racecourse and costing upto $14 million each, include Kishore Biyani (No.72) and Anand Jain (No.53)." Link

Balwa's profile in Forbes

"Youngest billionaire on list and partner of Vinod Goenka (No. 54) in property developer DB Realty and telecom startup Etisalat DB Telecom (formerly Swan Telecom) of which he is vice chairman. Launched its Cheers mobile service in March, bagging Bollywood star Aamir Khan as brand ambassador. Interests include unlisted hospitality arm which owns two Le Meridien Hotels and is building 11 more, including the 135-story India Tower in South Mumbai, that will house a Park Hyatt Hotel due to open in 2015." Link

Primary commercial corporations involved

Unitech - India's 2nd Largest realtor
Uninor = Unitech + Telenor (Norwegian company)
DB Realty - India's 3rd Largest realtor
Etilstat DB Telecom = Cheers Mobile (Etisalat UAE + DB Realty)
Reliance Telecom ADAG

The charge-sheet is merely ~80,000 pages long, and was delivered along with other evidence in 7 trunks to the Judge hearing the case. Also it'll be joined with supplemental charge sheet later as investigation continues.

--
US

Media

2011-03-27T21:17:00.005+05:30

I had bought a TV (jointly with @singhyuvraj, @kwlvarun and @puneet3010) in 2006 for $190 to watch the World Cup. It was sold 3 years later for $100. Since then, I often get asked what do I watch? Here's the generic list -

What
iTunes Podcasts - ~6 hours a week

The Economist - ~1 hour a week
TED - 1.5 hours a week
Brookings Video Podcast - 10 minutes a week
SALT - 1 hour a month
NYtimes Book Review - 30 minutes a week
Twit / Twig - 1.5 hours a week
60 minutes - 30 minutes a week
Misc - 30 minutes a week

Butterfly

2011-03-05T22:30:00.001+05:30

"It has been said that something as small as the flutter of a butterfly's wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world." - Chaos Theory

A recent and remarkable example of such a disproportionate effect came from Tunisia. A municipal inspector slapping a Tunisian fruit seller on December 17th 2010, triggered the set of events which eventually led to the tumbling of two regimes in Middle East, and third (Libya) in a state of deep unrest. Links - NYtimes, Economist (Audio)

Another example where a single Tweet on the ownership of IPL Kochi from @lalitkmodi eventually triggered the exit of him from IPL and @shashitharoor from from cabinet.

And more recently, a strong anti-semitic comment from designer John Galliano has brought serious repercussions for the house of Christian Dior ($28.5bn revenues in 2010).

"I Love Hitler ... ..." - John Galliano - YouTube link, Story link.

Even though Dior has sacked Galliano, the implications are still hard to predict. Another butterfly-effect may quickly damage their brand and business.

We are only beginning to see the disproportionate effects triggered and accelerated by the power of digital media (YouTube, Twitter, FB etc.). These are only three examples.

--
US

Quarter

2011-03-03T08:21:00.000+05:30

I missed out on two important categories in the previous post.

Health - 6.1% ( 5.6% Insurance, 0.5% Rest )
Telecom - 1.15% ( 0.24% Phone )

Following is the chart of expenses for pre-paid cellular service for last 5 years (in INR) -

It's been ~150 days now in UP and following is the expense category split -

Taxes - 32%, Rs. 230 per day
Rent - 28%, Rs. 200 per day
Misc - 13%, Rs. 92 per day
Travel - 11%, Rs. 78 per day
Food - 9%, Rs. 66 per day (subsidized)
Internet - 4%, Rs. 27 per day
Commute - 2%, Rs. 15 per day
Electricity - 1%, Rs. 8 per day
Water - Free!

Total - Rs. 716 per day

Clearly the housing and communications are not in desirable range, however the rest of the infrastructure is overall competitive.

My rough energy intensity calculations have gone a bit haywire. I'd skip the lengthy calculation and directly give the number - 1120 tons per $mil expense. (excludes investment and professional outlay). This was ~750 for the time in Bangalore. Why the sudden increase

More per-capita electricity usage (~3 base units per day, 1.4 tons GHG)
More miles in traveled in a private four-wheeler (1000+ miles, 40mpg ~0.26 tons GHG)

I was stacking up some of these numbers, to put things in context. Again cutting out the conversion math, following is the breakup of major energy sources and their per day usage by India (rough 2009-10 figures) -

Oil - 2.7mn bbl per day = 4.63 GkWh per day
Gas - 4.9 bcf per day = 1.47 GkWh per day
Coal - 842,563 tons per day = 5.43 GkWh per day
Others - 3.2 GkWh per day
Total ~ 14.7 GkWh per day (~=0.46bn toe per annum)

Gapminder's 2007 estimate puts Indian per annum energy usage at 0.59bn toe, so it'd appear that my calculations are underestimating the other's category.

If we take Gapminder's 2007 number, then we get the same 703 watts per capita (16.8 kWh units per day). From my data it comes to be 560 watts (13.4 kWh units per day per capita).

Few sample reference points -

Average human body requires 2100 kCal per day or ~2.5 kWh units per day (~102 Watts)
CFL - typically 16 to 24 Watts
Laptop - 18 to 40 Watts (with 60-90 Whr batteries)
iPad - 2 to 4 Watts (shipping with 25Whr battery = 10 hours usage)
Smartphone - 0.15 to 0.6 watts (with typically 1200 mAh = 3.5 Whr battery)
Nissan Leaf ships with 24kWhr batteries with ~3.7 miles range per kWhr charge.

--
US

Million

2011-01-10T21:59:00.000+05:30

My personal expenses crossed a key milestone last December - One Million Indian Rupees.
Following are few key stats -

30% spent using Credit Cards
33% Cash
16% TDS
15% using Cheque (for Rent)
3% Debit Card / Bank Transfer

It took 2012 days @ Rs. 497 per day to cross the first million.

Where the money went?

Travel and Commute - 22% (5.8% Bus, 1.2% Indian Railways, 10% Airlines (2% Jet Airways))
Food - 18%
GOI Direct Taxes - 16%
Rent - 16%
Electronics - 14.5% (Dell 7.1%, ASUS 2.4%, Canon 1.6%, Sony 1.5%, Apple 1.3%, WD 0.4%)
Internet - 2.1%
Movies - 0.25%
Digital Music - 0.008%

The largest chunk of went to local and central government - 16% direct taxes, 2.5% government transport, 7-8% indirect taxes = ~26%

The second largest chunk went to Domestic Airline Carriers - 10%

The third largest chunk went to US Consumer Electronic giants - Dell etc. - 8.7%

The fourth largest chunk went to East-Asian CE companies - Canon etc. - 5.5%

Intensity

By rough (back of the envelope) calculation my personal GHG emissions stand at ~3 metric tons per year, for a grand total of 16.5 metric tons of emissions in 5.5 years (5.8 for flying alone!).

Rs. 1 million = USD 22,000 led to 16.5 metric tons emissions.

$1 million = 750 metric tons GHG. And, after taking PPP into account, the final figure comes out to be 263 metric tons per $1m

For USA the carbon intensity for 2007 by WRI is 450 metric tons GHG per million dollars. Europe / California are in 300-320 metric tons GHG per million dollars range. (China 1000, India 482 in 2007)

How can one reduce carbon intensity further?

Spending less on carbon intensive industries - Electronics and Flying
Spending more on carbon efficient / neutral activities - Local Food, Carbon Offsets

I may purchase offsets @ ~$15 per ton, which would cost <1% of the total expenses to be carbon neutral!

Next Million

At my current run rate, the next Million-Rupee expense mark would come much sooner. I am projecting ~2 years.

p.s. - These exclude company expenses, investments and externalities arising from them.

2011

2011-01-07T21:22:00.000+05:30

43. AUS vs. WI (A1, B4, Dhaka)
44. SRI vs. IND (A2, B3, Ahmedabad)
45. PAK vs. SAF (A3, B2, Dhaka)
46. NZ vs. ENG (A4, B1, Colombo)

47. WI vs. SAF (A1/3, B4/2, 43 vs. 45, Colombo)
48. IND vs. ENG (B1/3, A4/2, 44 vs. 46, Mohali)

Final

49. WI vs. IND (A1/3.B4/2 vs. B1/3.A4/2, Mumbai)

Winner - WI

Air

2011-01-07T21:04:00.000+05:30

Apart from the run away success of Apple iPad, the other product that defined 2010 was the new Mac Book Air.

Watch Apple's official video. (Youtube Link, 20.5MB at 360p)

Starting at $999, these are not exactly cheap, but noteworthy for following reasons

Sleek yet sturdy Unibody construction
8.5Watts power usage vs. 13-45W typical (iPad is ~3Watts)
2.9 pounds. My current Dell weighs 7 pounds.
All Flash storage

One key element lacking is Sandy Bridge (Core i5 2537M). MBA 2011 should close that gap.

Consult

2011-01-04T22:12:00.004+05:30

I am sharing links to a short series of articles written by a 22 year old MIT graduate. He joined BCG Dubai as a consultant in June 2009 at $200k + benefits. He was fired 9 months later.

These were published in the April 2010 edition of MIT's Tech magazine. The third article is particularly thought provoking.

Part 1 – The city of tomorrow - If it sounds too good to be true, maybe it is

Part 2 – Welcome to your Caste - If you’re not an Emirati, you’re just a carpetbagger

Part 3 – The story BCG offered me $16,000 not to tell - The city was strange and the society unnerving, but what disturbed me the most about my experience in Dubai was my job as a business consultant.

Part 4 – Dispatches from the collapse - For the city whose solution to every problem was money, there would eventually come a day when money became the problem

Few excerpts from the articles -

“If there is an urban analogue to shock and awe military campaigns, Dubai is it. Giant malls, grand hotels, towering skyscrapers, indoor ski slopes, islands shaped like palm trees; to be poetic about it, what the mind imagines, the Emiratis built."

“After a few hours of exploration one gets the feeling that Dubai is not so much a city as a giant sprawling suburb, an insipid tessellation of apartment buildings, shopping centers, restaurants, and office parks, plopped unceremoniously into a barren desert."

“Caught offguard by the global recession, Dubai’s haphazard expansion has been frozen in mid-stride for all the world to gawk at, like rubberneckers at a traffic accident. Its unfinished metro system, a patch-work solution to an awkward, poorly planned network of roads, connects partially built apartments to idle construction sites.”

“Seven months in the Middle East had taught me only one lesson: Even in the best of circumstances, business consulting can be a morally ambiguous and soul-crushing profession."

“What I learned is that burning out isn’t just about work load, it’s about work load being greater than the motivation to do work.”

“What I could not get my head around was having to force-fit analysis to a conclusion.”

“Who was I kidding? I wasn’t going to donate half my salary to Red Cross. I was going to deposit it into an index fund and speed off as soon as I was sure there was enough gas in the car. The conscience is a pesky thing. It was no consolation that I had gotten the moral calculus to work out in my favor. I should have been the most relaxed man on the planet”

“There is an interesting kabuki dance to be done when crafting figures to fit a conclusion. The conclusion may be wrong, but you still need to make it believable.”

“The classic “find me a rock” story is as follows: A manager goes to his engineer one day and asks for a rock. “A rock?” asks the engineer. “Yes, a rock. That isn’t going to be a problem, is it?” replies the manager. The engineer laughs and tells the manager he’ll go pick one up during his lunch break and it will be no problem. After lunch, the manager visits the engineer again and the engineer shows him the rock. The manager looks at it for a moment before telling the engineer, “No, that one won’t work at all. I need a rock.”

“From the very beginning of my employment, I hadn’t met a single employee who planned on staying with the company — all of them were scrambling for lifeboats, trying to land cushy jobs with cash-stuffed clients or find their way back to their home countries.”

"I would argue that consultants are a product of their surroundings, not the other way around"

--
US

Primary

2010-12-31T13:08:00.005+05:30

I haven't had much success in secondary, future, derivative and even fund markets. However one segment which continues to give me decent results is the primary market. 2010 was not a good year for primary markets as more that 2/3rd of offers are currently trading at prices lower than the offer price. Following is the list of my investments in primary market in 2010.

They've given ~15% return over last 9 months, roughly the same as the major indices for the same duration. While, these are by no way spectacular returns, they fall in the category of easy money on the table, especially when most Navratna PSU's offered a 5% discount to retail investors.

Lets see how the primary markets fare in 2011. I am looking forward to the offers from MicroMax ($1bn+ valuation), BSNL, DMRC etc.

--
US

Toe

2010-12-28T14:57:00.002+05:30

Gapminder.org recently updated their Gapminder World Application with new data on energy indicators. Specifically -

Energy use, per person
Energy use, total
Energy production, per person
Energy production, total

Although this information has been available from DOE / WDI etc. in the past, it's the visual approach of Gapminder which makes these numbers alive..

Gapminder's charts give all energy metrics in TOE - Tons of oil equivalent. One can easily convert it to more digestible metrics. Here's few samples (data for 2007)

USA Annual energy use (1st overall) - 2.34b toe
China Annual energy use (2nd overall) - 1.95b toe
India Annual energy use (4th overall) - 0.59b toe
USA Annual energy use per capita - 7.8 toe
China Annual energy use per capita - 1.5 toe
India Annual energy use per capita - 0.53 toe
1 toe = 11,630 kWh
USA power usage per capita - 10,355 Watts (14.73x India)
China power usage per capita - 1,991 Watts (2.83x India)
India power usage per capita - 703 Watts

My personal estimates hovers around 1800 Watts (Personal) + ~4000 Watts (Professional + Externalities) = 5.8 kWatts ~ 2.5x the global average of 2.4 kW.

Head over to Wattzon for calculating your personal estimates, and Gapminder World application for more data.

--
US

Link to original the original discussion on buzz. For more conversions refer to this earlier post.

2010-12-20T22:10:00.005+05:30

I prefer Twitter over FB for more than one reason. Just compare their year end posts. (FB vs. Twitter).
Following are my 10 favorite Re-tweets from 2010. RT @poloolop - (in chronological order)

10 predictions for the world of January 1, 2020 http://bit.ly/5mBMe6
@newsycombinator, 3rd Jan, Link

Norwegian 19-year-old crowned world chess champ http://reut.rs/fNFVIP
@newsycombinator, 5th Jan, Link

sense of ennui creeping in. India needs game changers, people willing to travel to edge and back with ideas and experiments. break sameness
@BDUTT, 11th Jan, Link

Nokia tries to reinvent itself: Bears at the door http://bit.ly/55gpV5
@newsycombinator, 11th Jan, Link

Blog update... Good Artists Copy, Great Artists Steal (could AT&T sue Apple over the iPad?) http://ow.ly/1gc7s
@OpenJonathan, 10th March, Link

"Keanu Reeves Gives £50 Million to Unsung Heroes of 'Matrix'" - http://digg.com/d21T0pK?t
@digg_2000, 5th June, Link

Scott Adams: How I (Almost) Saved the Earth http://j.mp/aReexy
@newsycombinator, 21st Aug, Link

Worth a read, I liked this Economist article about Brazil and its agriculture work in the Cerrado - http://bit.ly/aljju8
@BillGates, 5th Sept, Link

Woot!!! SO HAPPY TODAY - Rafael Nadal has the "Career Golden Grand Slam" #AustralianOpen #RolandGarros #Wimbledon #USOpen #OlympicGames @staneymv, 14th Sept, Link

Don't Work. Be Hated. Love Someone. [Speech @ NTU Convocation 2008] http://j.mp/a4EAW
@newsycombinator, 31st Oct, Link

The best investment advice you'll never get http://j.mp/13IOiB
@newsycombinator, 29th Nov, Link

These are actually 11. Twitter +1.
And to close, two Tweets, from yours truly @poloolop

Saul Griffith on Heriloom Design - "Planned obsolescence and fashion seasons are new and constructed problems." http://bit.ly/8IOYFp
@poloolop, 14th Jan, Link

"Cumulative time devoted to creating Wikipedia, ~100 million hours, is expended by Americans every weekend, just watching ads" @cshirky
@poloolop, 6th June, Link

So which one is your favorite Tweet of 2010?

--
@poloolop

TED

2010-12-18T22:57:00.004+05:30

I've watched most of the 800+ talks released by TED since June 2006. I have the profile #929 on their site, a number that has crossed 710k now (link).
In the last 4 and a half years, I've shared my favorite ones with friends, family and colleagues. The short list itself has now grown to 100+ talks. Now I'm publishing the same. I will try to keep it updated.

So which one's your favorite? Mine is the one from Bill Stone.

--
US

Data Credit - The data for my spreadsheet is copied from a list of TED talks - Link
Edit 12/19 - Added a new Top10 tab in the embedded spreadsheet. You can run through them in 3.5 hours straight.

Tablet

2010-12-12T09:46:00.001+05:30

iPad

Apple played their cards well by pre-empting the market and releasing iPad ahead of the competition. This has set the benchmark remarkably high for other vendors. Although tablet's have been available for a long time, they were never a compelling competitor to a laptop in features or cost.

Netbooks tried to fill the gap, but without any dramatic improvement in battery life, weight, or functionality. iPad did that.

What's missing in iPad -

iPhone 4's design
Gyroscope
Face-Time
Dual-Core Application Processor
MicroUSB (w/wo OTG)

Chrome OS

This is a clear bet on attacking the weak points of other modern OS'

Expensive - Win-7 Basic is usually $20-$70 in developing countries.
Broken - IE, AntiVirus, Auto Updates
Complex - 30 minutes to setup, and technical help for support

The other bet is on 'Thin' client. A balanced machine in price/ performance/ efficiency for increasing usage of internet. This area has been tried several times in vain, by Sun Microsystems and others like Novatium (here in India).

MeeGo

They are an outside entrant. They have a more flexible approach, applicable to multiple devices - App Phones, Tablets, Thin clients etc. I am not aware of any disruptive design goals, but rather to have maximum compatibility with different devices. This approach depends on having compelling products to compete with ChromeOS, iOS, Android, WP7, and even Windows 7.

Honeycomb

Finally, the fourth contender comes again from Google and it's army of Mobile partners - nVidia, Samsung etc. This is a head-on competitor to iPad. Till now their differentiator seems to be on 3D graphics accelerated interface. That added with other aspects which differentiates Android against iOS are on the table.

Multiple versions vs. One iPad
Multiple Open interfaces (MicroUSB, replaceable Battery etc.)
Better Google Apps support (Free Navigation etc.)
Open and Free development platform (Apple charges $99 per year)

The space is getting serious traction and its difficult to take sides

Apple - iPad - iOS,
Google - ChromeOS - CR48, Android Honeycomb with nVidia
Microsoft - Netbooks with Windows 7
Samsung - Galaxy Tab - Froyo
Nokia - Meego (+Intel) No product
RIM - QNX OS - Playbook
Misc - Novatium Neon, OLPC, NotionInk's Adam, etc.

I am yet to take sides on this one. I wanted ChromeOS, but they'll debut with Intel Atom rather than ARM Cortex A8/9. Also it'll have its own first generation issues like Cupcake, Donut.

Which side of the Tablet fence are you rooting for?

Shift

2010-12-10T23:19:00.001+05:30

After 1900+ days in Bangalore I recently shifted to an acronym called N.O.I.D.A, and just to keep things interesting I decided to stay in the 'Greater' section.

After spending 5 years in three 'Bachelor Pads', shared with 12 different members. (@rosogulla, @singhyuvraj, @mohit82, @kwlvarun, @gautam_purohit, @puneet3010, @parvin_s, @mradulj, etc.), the move was anything but trivial.

Following is a comprehensive list of every item costing above $50, which I carried -

Dell Inspiron 6000 (L, L)
Sony DSC W5 (L)
iPod Touch 2G (L)
Dell E2209W (L)
WD Passport Essential (L)
BlackBerrys Jacket (L)
American Tourister Bag (L)
Logitech wireless mouse (L)
Ralph Lauren White Shirt
Dockers Never Iron Trousers (L)
LG 3330 RD CDMA Candybar Phone (L)
Logitech for QuickCam Pro for Mac (Gift, L)
Win-7 Ultimate DVD (Prize, L)

Total Cost at purchase - Rs. 1.15 lacs ( ~ $2500 USD)
Current Market Value - Rs. 25,000 (~$550 USD)

Total weight - A grand total of 53kgs net. I paid $40 as extra baggage charges to Indigo Air, which is currently my preferred local low-cost carrier. The heaviest item being my Dell Monitor, followed by Laptop, few utensils, clothes, etc.

The total mass of my belongings turned out to be lower than my current body weight. Since shifting, I've gathered few new items (bedding, household items, new utensils etc.). I'd say the current weight of all items would be around 85kgs.

--
US

Inflation

2010-09-02T22:24:00.002+05:30

Slowly but surely inflation catches up with you. At the start of 2010, I had posted my per-day expenses in Bengaluru. Few friends pointed out that recent surge in inflation seems to have had no impact on me. Sadly, that's not true, as the chart posted earlier was merely 'Cumulative Average'. If we are to look at the moving average, the true picture emerges.

One cannot simply pump Rs. 1.1 million crores ($235b, FY11 GOI budget) in the economy without having major side effects. This spending spree has single-handedly reduced the value of our savings by ~10-15%.

My cumulative per day expense is currently at Rs. 512 ($11, for 62 months, excludes investments). However inflation has finally caught up and it will take some miracle to keep my expenses below Rs. 1000 ($21) per day for FY11.

I have updated the breakup chart. The previous chart had mistakes in tax numbers.

--
US

p.s -- Example -- My per day expense on food, cumulative average has been 15.3% of Rs. 512 = ~Rs. 77 (Rs. 25 Lunch, Rs. 12 breakfast, Rs. 25 dinner and Rs. 15 misc). But for FY11 this number has roughly jumped to Rs. 150 per day!

2010

2010-05-31T21:12:00.004+05:30

I made my predictions in 2006, and below are my predictions for 2010

Group Stage

A - France, Uruguay
B - Argentina, South Korea
C - England, USA
D - Germany, Ghana
E - Netherlands, Cameroon
F - Italy, Slovakia
G - Brazil, Côte d'Ivoire
H - Spain, Honduras

Round of 16

France - South Korea
Argentina - Uruguay
England - Ghana
Germany - USA
Netherlands - Slovakia
Italy - Cameroon
Brazil - Honduras
Spain - Côte d'Ivoire

Quarter Finals

1-3 - A South Korea - England
2-4 - B Argentina - Germany
5-7 - C Netherlands - Brazil
6-8 - D Italy - Spain

Semi Finals

A-C - England - Brazil
B-D - Argentina - Italy

Finals
England vs. Argentina

Disclaimer - No Wall Street Wizardry methods followed to come up with this list.

--UPDATE--
As on 22nd June, following are my revised predictions

Group Stage

A - Uruguay, Mexico (France)
B - Argentina, South Korea
C - USA, England
D - Germany, Serbia (Ghana)
E - Netherlands, Japan (Cameroon)
F - Paraguay, Italy (Slovakia)
G - Brazil, Portugal (Côte d'Ivoire)
H - Chile, Spain (Honduras)

Round of 16

Uruguay - South Korea (France)
Argentina - Mexico (Uruguay)
USA - Serbia (England - Ghana)
Germany - England (USA)
Netherlands - Italy (Slovakia)
Paraguay - Japan (Italy - Cameroon)
Brazil - Spain (Honduras)
Chile - Portugal (Spain - Côte d'Ivoire)

Quarter Finals

1-3 - A South Korea - USA (England)
2-4 - B Argentina - Germany
5-7 - C Netherlands - Brazil
6-8 - D Paraguay - Portugal (Italy - Spain)

Semi Finals

A-C - USA - Brazil (England)
B-D - Argentina - Portugal (Italy)

Finals

Brazil vs. Argentina (England)

Intermediate Statistics ( as compared to Revised predictions)-
Pre-Quarter - 10/16 - 62.5%
Quarter - 5 / 8 - 62.5%
Semi's - 2/4 - 50%
Finals - 1/2 - 50%
Winner - Same

(Green are the new additions, Red were the old predictions)

--
US

Puducherry

2010-04-02T12:37:00.009+05:30

In the previous decade (2000-09), I've been on exactly six vacations.

Jaipur - 2003, with Family. 2n, 3d
Dehradun - 2005, with Suchit. 1n, 2d (24+ hours travelling in a 40 hour trip)
Mumbai - 2007, with Amol and Sachin. 2n, 3d
Mysore / Ooty - 2007, with Family. 3n, 4d
Kerela - 2008, with Mohit et. all. 4n, 3d
Puducherry - 2009, with Yuvraj and Aditya. 3n, 2d

The trip to Puducherry trip was to catch up with friends, see the French Heritage sites, and unwind on the Coromandel coast. We stayed at a Guest House on Beach road. The weather was on warmer side (30 to 35C in daytime) and humidity levels were off the charts. But I am usually comfortable in such conditions. No shopping.

Total expenses - $57 (per person)

I also visited the 'Life-of-Pi' famed Indian Coffee House on Nehru Street. It no longer sports the green walls, except in the kitchen area. Also the tables are rectangular rather than square.

Apart from sight seeing, we recounted anecdotes, discussed Genetic Determinism at length, occasionally venturing into Environmental Determinism (mitigation vs. adaptation), Global Trade etc. I will put a disclaimer here that none of us are experts in matters of public policy, economics or genetics.

The second main site visited on the way back from Puducherry to Chennai, was Mahabalipuram's (now Mamallapuram) Monolithic Shore Temple built by Pallava's in 700 AD. This is a world heritage site. I looked at the list of World heritage sites in India to find out which one's I've visited. This one was the seventh following Agra Fort, CST Mumbai, Fatehpur Sikri, Qutub Minar, Red Fort and Taj Mahal. Due to lack of background information and sweltering heat, we missed out on visiting the 'Five Rathas', Varha Cave Temple and Arjuna's Penance. Our local contact had never explored his neighborhood thoroughly.

This was my third visit to the great state of Tamil Nadu. I've visited all neighboring states except Andhra Pradesh, but my next trip is more likely to be within Karnataka.

Web

2010-02-27T18:42:00.005+05:30

This is an update to my 'Google' post. I deactivated my Facebook account last year in favor of @poloolop now Buzz.

In my previous post I reported using 47 Google services/products. The current number is 53

The new one's being -

AdSense
Android (development)
Chrome Bookmark Sync
Wave
Squared (labs)
Buzz

The dashboard now shows 41 of these. The other 12 being either stand alone applications or currently in Labs (Chrome, Earth, Toolbar, Trends etc.).

In the one year since, I've added 6500+ search queries (~20 queries per day). Overall average being 10.5 queries per day in 1860 days since Web History started recording this data.

I titled this post as Web, but have listed only Google till now. Other services being actively used by me are -

Backupify
Dropbox
Wakoopa
Shelfari
LifeMojo
Audible
Gdgt
WattzOn
Amazon
Networks - Twitter, LinkedIn, Geni
Media - iTunes, TED.com, twit.tv, Fora.tv
News - NYT / NDTV / NewScientist etc.
Search - Wolfram Alpha, Bing
Portals - Yahoo, MSN - infrequently

All my shared items are split (repeated) between Buzz, Reader, Friendfeed and Twitter. All these links available on my Google profiles page.

p.s. I am also registered at countless other websites, but usage is substantially less.

Meter

2010-02-27T14:52:00.014+05:30

In my 4+ years of experience of travelling in Auto-rickshaw's, I've found that a most of them employ one of three tactics to maximize their revenues -

10-20% faster meter
Take you via 10-20% longer route
Coerce you to agree for a high fixed charge

Current prices in Bengaluru are -

Rs. 7 per km. (minimum hire - 2km)
1.5-2 times the rate from 10PM to 6AM

Here are few tips while hiring an three wheeler in Bengaluru -

Prefer Digital Electronic Meters
Fix the rate if you are not sure of the route. Check online maps such as Google Maps OR btis.in for distance estimates.
Notice when the meter starts ticking after 2km mark. If this is substantially earlier than expected then immediately get out and find another Auto.
Electronic meters have a secret - When being flipped, they should briefly display "2-Stroke" OR "4-Stroke". If not they are likely to have been tampered. This tip was told by a rickshaw driver himself.

Since FM has recently increased fuel taxes, Auto community will be highly motivated to protect their income. Here are my few of my long pending wishes -

Compulsory tamper-free Electronic meters
Pre-paid NFC Smart cards for payment.
More pre-paid auto stands
CNG for all new Auto's

Why this post?

Earlier this week I boarded yet another turbo-charged analog meter Auto. The driver instantly agreed for 1.5x charge (at 4:45 AM). This raised my suspicion, but instead of going for a fixed charge, I accepted the deal. Around 1.5km mark he switched to a longer route which I didn't object. This was going to cost me ~0.5km extra distance so I kept silent.

To my horror, the meter starting ticking early. I realized this when it had clocked Rs. 19. We were roughly at the 2km mark (Rs. 14). This was a ~40% faster meter, taking me through 10% longer route and that too at 1.5x the cost. I immediately aborted the trip and got off.

This was an extreme case, but 10-20% excess charge is commonplace in Bengaluru.

If you have tips on hiring an Auto-rickshaw, post in comments.

Photo Credit - 1 - Wikipedia, 2 - Google Maps

Expense

2010-01-17T17:07:00.008+05:30

I recently crossed $17k mark in my spendings (excluding investments). This post is a review of where that money went in the last 55 months stay at Bengaluru, India.

Here's a per day chart (cumulative average)-

Summary

Per day expense - Rs. 464
Per month ~ Rs. 14,120

Where it went (in %)

A Forbes article on World Spending (2008, Link) gives a data point for India -

Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages - 34%
Alcoholic Beverages, Tobacco and Narcotics - 2%
Clothing and Footwear - 5%
Housing, Water, Elec, Gas, Fuels - 12%
Furnishing, Household Equip - 3%
Health - 7%
Transport - 15%
Communication - 2%
Recreation and Culture - 2%
Education 6%
Restaurants and Hotels - 2%

Let me know your thoughts in comments.

Resolve

2009-12-28T14:37:00.006+05:30

1. Cola / Milk based Beverages

2. Dining @ Restaurant

3. Movies @ Theater

Must

4. Exercise 5 days a week (min)

5. A book a week (min)

6. Get Initiated

7. Measure

Maybe

8. Travel

9. Seven Year Lock in

10. Web

Ten items for 2010 and beyond.

Ergo

Avatar (3D) @ Inox was my last visit to a Theater (12/26)
BBQ Nation Lunch was my last Restaurant visit (12/26)
Last Cola - 2 years back
Last Milk based beverage (Tea/Coffee) (12/28, Today!)

All starting 1-1-2010. Looking forward to an exciting new year.

Your resolutions?