In order to avoid suffering from Senioritis, I took up quite a challenging workload for this mini. Besides the regular project work going on for Citi and the Macroeconomics class (yea, its a full-length gig), I have the following on my platter:
Macroeconomics:
Prof Sleet continues this mini (yea, it's a full-length) further with Macroeconomics. We dig Ben Bernanke's book further for some more models, theories, etc.
International Finance:
As Prof Bob Dalton suggested, I have taken this course to learn how to finance cash flows in international business, and of course, how to manage risks (using say, hedging) and take advantage of opportunities made available by market sometimes.
Prof Chris Telmer has a specific chutzpah ! He is Canadian and pronounces "out" in the typical Canadian way. Besides, the part which makes the class interesting is his variety of interests. I couldn't believe when he mentioned Jimi Hendrix in the history of International Finance :) Very interesting. I look forward to see how this class shapes up. I am already excited with the first assignment as it was a good excercise for me.
Marketing Applications of Data Mining:
Fairly demanding on time. Learning curve involved is slightly steeper (as we have to learn SAS). However, that's a good thing. Heinz course on Data mining didn't have SAS involved and I wanted this eclectic mix (as its offered by Tepper) and not a pure Data Mining class (as offered by Heinz). Of course, nothing beats Auton Lab's data mining stuff at CMU !
Corporate Finance:
Lynn Pastor continues this semester with Corp Finance. (I have taken atleast one course per semester with her:)). Curriculum for Corporate Finance is fairly similar to Valuation class I have done and I think I may drop it eventually. Let me figure out my schedule in the next 2 weeks. The course does not have much demands - similar to earlier classes such as Accounting, Principles of Finance, etc
Sourcing Management:
Bill Hefley, ITsqc Director, is delivering this super-awesome course !
Man, he knows more about India than most of the Indians do (lol!). Of course some may argue that he is doing business with India and hence, must know about it. CMM Level 5 is created in Pittsburgh and implemented in Bangalore (this is a statement by my fellow colleague!). He knows Indian IT services business folks by names and they know him personally.
In this course, we go in depth with eSCM and several other aspects of Sourcing. This will be one of those dreamed of courses for me and I am fortunate that Bill chose to deliver it this semester :)
IS ProjecT:
Yes - The Project ! This is shaping up well and getting exciting with me studying more of ITIL and application of the principles to solve client's problems. We are close to entering the design phase soon.
Business Process Modeling:
I sampled this course last week and figured out that it is a great course. Karyn Moore, my academic advisor as well, is delivering this new course. Text book seems good and so does the tools involved in the course learning (IBM Websphere Business Modeler).
ITIL certification:
Have to get this done in this mini.
TAship for Enterprise Architectures course:
Yes - this mini the class is offered as a distance lecture making the dynamics completely different as compared to the earlier one. We had to change the syllabus, readings, nature of assignments, interaction protocol, etc. in order to ensure students get the most for their money.
Nice exercise though !
I have taken courses which demand quite a bit. The committment will be for 8 weeks and hence, I dont want to enter something I am not comfortable with. As you can see, this mini is fairly challenging w.r.t. time management. Off I go for the next meeting.
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Thursday, March 15, 2007
cap exempted
Soooooooo relieved to know from our Office of International Education expert on immigration matters today - "You are cap exempted". Yay - I dont have to worry about the damn caps (65k or 20k ...whichever).
I just have to do my OPT procedure with USCIS - no hassle of non-travel during the change of status filing as OPT still remains F1 status and employment authorization for the same is truly not change of status. Change of status will happen later - at the end of OPT when I file for H and that time, I dont have to wait till Oct 08 - lol
...Infy zindabad !
I just have to do my OPT procedure with USCIS - no hassle of non-travel during the change of status filing as OPT still remains F1 status and employment authorization for the same is truly not change of status. Change of status will happen later - at the end of OPT when I file for H and that time, I dont have to wait till Oct 08 - lol
...Infy zindabad !
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
associate offers in indian b-schools !
Finally, Associate positions make a scene on the indian b-school campuses... Check out this article on the same ! Ppl wanting to invest in US B-schools now have some hard time to think - instead of investing 10s of thousands of $s, they can get a cheaper one in India- but the competition is intense.
So, someone might say - if one is capable of competing - it makes economic sense to get one in India. However, that's not the case. The # of associate positions is fairly low. In IIM-A, out of 235, only 12 associate positions were made. If you compare that vis-a-vis a US b-school campus, the ratios are different. Moreover, the experience and backgrounds of US bschool folks is richer (it is changing though - it is getting dominated by desi folks these days !).
However, I am glad to see this progress year after year. Schools such as ISB are placing huge pressure on IIMs to perform. Even if they have bureaucracy, they have to cater to demands. I still remember huge demand for managers was a topic of discussion in 2005. The demand is evident in the Indian labor markets. Many companies are promoting their engineers to management positions whenever they cant fill those up with MBAs. Alternatively, they hire managers from tier 2 and tier 3 schools which drives up demand for students from those schools resulting in huge boom.
Supply must be ramped up from qualitative and quantitative dimensions. Soft skills are extremely important for this workforce to be prove themselves to be globally competitive. Team spirits are extremely important and lonely wolves lose out in the long race. I see Indian schools still requiring the soft skills part to be developed !
Most of the foreign firms which hire on Indian firms are looking out for typeAs. Their hiring does not indicate that we have a globally competitive workforce which is capable of grooming leaders. Leaders are groomed in a different setup than the one provided by the Indian schools. I wish someday they progress to GROOM leaders !
So, someone might say - if one is capable of competing - it makes economic sense to get one in India. However, that's not the case. The # of associate positions is fairly low. In IIM-A, out of 235, only 12 associate positions were made. If you compare that vis-a-vis a US b-school campus, the ratios are different. Moreover, the experience and backgrounds of US bschool folks is richer (it is changing though - it is getting dominated by desi folks these days !).
However, I am glad to see this progress year after year. Schools such as ISB are placing huge pressure on IIMs to perform. Even if they have bureaucracy, they have to cater to demands. I still remember huge demand for managers was a topic of discussion in 2005. The demand is evident in the Indian labor markets. Many companies are promoting their engineers to management positions whenever they cant fill those up with MBAs. Alternatively, they hire managers from tier 2 and tier 3 schools which drives up demand for students from those schools resulting in huge boom.
Supply must be ramped up from qualitative and quantitative dimensions. Soft skills are extremely important for this workforce to be prove themselves to be globally competitive. Team spirits are extremely important and lonely wolves lose out in the long race. I see Indian schools still requiring the soft skills part to be developed !
Most of the foreign firms which hire on Indian firms are looking out for typeAs. Their hiring does not indicate that we have a globally competitive workforce which is capable of grooming leaders. Leaders are groomed in a different setup than the one provided by the Indian schools. I wish someday they progress to GROOM leaders !
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
neo biz harp
It is fairly apparent that my exams are over. :P
The Verizon article in WSJ today morning made me log this post. Verizon wants to get into gaming and other stuff in order to capture value of the market they are creating. Stupid ! - they didn't play it safe like AT&T. Their top managers shouted from the top of their lungs that ATT will find it difficult to expand capacities later on. Expand for who? AT&T spent only 4.3 b whereas Verizon spent 20b. A huge committment doesn't always result in a huge return. Verizon has several plans but the original visionaries of the FiOS deal are still around - ask them and they seem to be scared. Scared that their plans may not pan out what they originally planned it for.
For instance, in the gaming space, there is already this company in place: Digital Chocolate. Name of the company aptly suits it as it is going to indulge public in mass-consumption of the cellphone gaming.
Podshow is another firm which will take major piece of the content provision pie in this convergence game. It will be mostly the non Verizon firms which will come in and derive value from the high bandwidth networks made available. How can Verizon stop them from free-riding? Differential QoS is already in doubts due to the whole net-neutrality saga.
There is no point for Verizon to spend so much on the backbone in order to create such large networks which will eventually be used by others. One conspiracy theorist mentions to me that the person who politically forwarded this decision for laying out the fiber had personal interests in the entire affair. Neither the shareholders nor the BoD were convinced about this. So, what does a shareholder do? Sell !
btw, other neo-biz which excited me recently were: Tell Me, Akimbo, Good Technology
Tell Me: has created this seemingly huge platform already. Slowly, steadily, they plan to takeover. Before we even knew, they have 35 m folks working on their systems daily ! They arent the state of the art but they have been able to capture the market relatively fast. Personally, I love the Tmobile IVS - its awesome !!! However, in this world where network externalities come into play - Tell Me may start to rule !
Akimbo: Your wish is on demand ! This continues in my line of harp - IPTV and the digital convergence. Akimbo is well-positioned to take advantage ...they might be little too late to create a lock-in with set top boxes similar to those of 2Wire's or Scientific Atlanta's. However, they are making sure that they have the content !
Good Technology: got acquired by Motorola - dayyuuummm ! Motorola's fatherhood may either provide a huge impetus or suffocate this new startup's spirit. Let us see what happens. Good Technology take advantage of the fact that there are more cell phones than personal computers !
Now, I need to get going to prepare for an engagement tomorrow !
The Verizon article in WSJ today morning made me log this post. Verizon wants to get into gaming and other stuff in order to capture value of the market they are creating. Stupid ! - they didn't play it safe like AT&T. Their top managers shouted from the top of their lungs that ATT will find it difficult to expand capacities later on. Expand for who? AT&T spent only 4.3 b whereas Verizon spent 20b. A huge committment doesn't always result in a huge return. Verizon has several plans but the original visionaries of the FiOS deal are still around - ask them and they seem to be scared. Scared that their plans may not pan out what they originally planned it for.
For instance, in the gaming space, there is already this company in place: Digital Chocolate. Name of the company aptly suits it as it is going to indulge public in mass-consumption of the cellphone gaming.
Podshow is another firm which will take major piece of the content provision pie in this convergence game. It will be mostly the non Verizon firms which will come in and derive value from the high bandwidth networks made available. How can Verizon stop them from free-riding? Differential QoS is already in doubts due to the whole net-neutrality saga.
There is no point for Verizon to spend so much on the backbone in order to create such large networks which will eventually be used by others. One conspiracy theorist mentions to me that the person who politically forwarded this decision for laying out the fiber had personal interests in the entire affair. Neither the shareholders nor the BoD were convinced about this. So, what does a shareholder do? Sell !
btw, other neo-biz which excited me recently were: Tell Me, Akimbo, Good Technology
Tell Me: has created this seemingly huge platform already. Slowly, steadily, they plan to takeover. Before we even knew, they have 35 m folks working on their systems daily ! They arent the state of the art but they have been able to capture the market relatively fast. Personally, I love the Tmobile IVS - its awesome !!! However, in this world where network externalities come into play - Tell Me may start to rule !
Akimbo: Your wish is on demand ! This continues in my line of harp - IPTV and the digital convergence. Akimbo is well-positioned to take advantage ...they might be little too late to create a lock-in with set top boxes similar to those of 2Wire's or Scientific Atlanta's. However, they are making sure that they have the content !
Good Technology: got acquired by Motorola - dayyuuummm ! Motorola's fatherhood may either provide a huge impetus or suffocate this new startup's spirit. Let us see what happens. Good Technology take advantage of the fact that there are more cell phones than personal computers !
Now, I need to get going to prepare for an engagement tomorrow !
usability and free products: google, yahoo, microsoft
Can you imagine having a service provider (having no monopolistic advantages) trying to give you, a user, a hard time with their interface for your interaction. What do you do if you have other options? Switch !
Ease of use, and relevance are of prime importance. There is a reason that there exists a graduate program named "Human Computer Interaction" in some of the leading universities. There is a reason why these students get hired by most of the leading companies quickly. Ease of use does matter.
Check out why Google made it's way much ahead of its competitors such as Yahoo and Microsoft. Google has about 55%+ market of the search market. Yahoo is about 25% and Microsoft, a pithy 5-8%. There are many reasons and HCI is one of the prime ones. Larry Page, one of the Google founders, was a HCI grad student ! Their products beat Yahoo hands down. Microsoft was busy with anti-trust trial and totally lost track.
Microsoft has now started having good HCI products in their portfolio. Also, Yahoo has a similar ideology. They still don't have as much user-inclusion in their product developments. An acquaintance from Microsoft program management team for their search product explained me their process and I believe that they still need to allocate more time for the usability piece. However, to be fair - they are getting better!
Ray Ozzie has discovered that Google is way ahead and MSFT was left behind. However, he also respects them. At the same time, he is pushing his product dev team to get their act right with Live search product. He wants Microsoft back in this game. This market is going to double from USD 40b to USD 80b in 3 years. Microsoft cannot afford to stay back with a mere 5-8% market share.
One way to get back in the game is consolidating the smaller players. I foresee this consolidation happening. How - I dont know....! Let us say, what if the software giant makes a kill and buys out Yahoo? Picture this -
At today's price of 30-32 and outstanding shares of 1.34b, we get about 40b market-cap. If MSFT makes a bid of 20% higher, it will be about USD 48-50 b. MSFT can afford this purchase without any leverage - given their warchest of cash they've built up on their books. Besides, they needn't buy the whole pie; they can just buy a 51% stake at about USD 24 to 25 b. If they wait a bit, they can get it for cheaper as the stock market capitulates due to economic outlook - lol !
MSFT-Facebook romance is going on anyways. (Is this due to the Harvard connection???) So, MSFT will have a good usability team at hand and will be back in the game to take head on with GOOG. This wont be a serious threat to Google because the merger will be disruptive for both the companies from a talent perspective. However, this move will still strengthen Microsoft's position vis-a-vis Google and this move is the only way for Microsoft to get into this search arena, if they are serious about it.
Going back to the usability game, it is interesting to note that Govt of America has considered this seriously and has guidelines at usability.gov.
Ease of use, and relevance are of prime importance. There is a reason that there exists a graduate program named "Human Computer Interaction" in some of the leading universities. There is a reason why these students get hired by most of the leading companies quickly. Ease of use does matter.
Check out why Google made it's way much ahead of its competitors such as Yahoo and Microsoft. Google has about 55%+ market of the search market. Yahoo is about 25% and Microsoft, a pithy 5-8%. There are many reasons and HCI is one of the prime ones. Larry Page, one of the Google founders, was a HCI grad student ! Their products beat Yahoo hands down. Microsoft was busy with anti-trust trial and totally lost track.
Microsoft has now started having good HCI products in their portfolio. Also, Yahoo has a similar ideology. They still don't have as much user-inclusion in their product developments. An acquaintance from Microsoft program management team for their search product explained me their process and I believe that they still need to allocate more time for the usability piece. However, to be fair - they are getting better!
Ray Ozzie has discovered that Google is way ahead and MSFT was left behind. However, he also respects them. At the same time, he is pushing his product dev team to get their act right with Live search product. He wants Microsoft back in this game. This market is going to double from USD 40b to USD 80b in 3 years. Microsoft cannot afford to stay back with a mere 5-8% market share.
One way to get back in the game is consolidating the smaller players. I foresee this consolidation happening. How - I dont know....! Let us say, what if the software giant makes a kill and buys out Yahoo? Picture this -
At today's price of 30-32 and outstanding shares of 1.34b, we get about 40b market-cap. If MSFT makes a bid of 20% higher, it will be about USD 48-50 b. MSFT can afford this purchase without any leverage - given their warchest of cash they've built up on their books. Besides, they needn't buy the whole pie; they can just buy a 51% stake at about USD 24 to 25 b. If they wait a bit, they can get it for cheaper as the stock market capitulates due to economic outlook - lol !
MSFT-Facebook romance is going on anyways. (Is this due to the Harvard connection???) So, MSFT will have a good usability team at hand and will be back in the game to take head on with GOOG. This wont be a serious threat to Google because the merger will be disruptive for both the companies from a talent perspective. However, this move will still strengthen Microsoft's position vis-a-vis Google and this move is the only way for Microsoft to get into this search arena, if they are serious about it.
Going back to the usability game, it is interesting to note that Govt of America has considered this seriously and has guidelines at usability.gov.
global sourcing
Mellon bank's senior officials visited CMU for a presentation on Global Sourcing. They wanted insights into what incremental innovations they can make in order to add productivity, security, performance, and nurture further relationships with their vendors, namely, CTS and INFY. The representatives from both CTS and Infy were present there. I had a talk with Ajay Bhandari, Sr. Engagement Manager from Infy thereafter on some other dimensions.
I could think of application of ATAM from SEI for architectural evaluation by Mellon and Octave from Cylab. Besides, all my productivity tips will go straight to their wiki and cannot be discussed any further. Its interesting to know that this was part of curriculum for a grad education program. Besides, the crowd also provide some other strategic insights for certain cultural aspects. I must appreciate the step forward from Mellon to place a Mellon personnel at offshore DC to be their eyes and ears for the sourcing initiative to be successful.
eSCM certifications are now happening both for service providers as well as clients. These are conducted by ITSqc or IT Services Qualifications Center. Global Sourcing is maturing to the next level. More on the topic later...
I could think of application of ATAM from SEI for architectural evaluation by Mellon and Octave from Cylab. Besides, all my productivity tips will go straight to their wiki and cannot be discussed any further. Its interesting to know that this was part of curriculum for a grad education program. Besides, the crowd also provide some other strategic insights for certain cultural aspects. I must appreciate the step forward from Mellon to place a Mellon personnel at offshore DC to be their eyes and ears for the sourcing initiative to be successful.
eSCM certifications are now happening both for service providers as well as clients. These are conducted by ITSqc or IT Services Qualifications Center. Global Sourcing is maturing to the next level. More on the topic later...
Sunday, February 25, 2007
stalkerish..
This is stalking to the extreme !
Earlier, they wanted to know what everyone is searching for - now they wanna know the locations(lat/long coordinates).
Man, this is compromise of privacy - big time :) Ppl give up privacy for services they receive - not knowing what price they might pay for it later.
The recent one in stack is Google's Dodgeball
Is this Google's answer to 2 challenges:
1. orkut not being as popular/usable as facebook.
2. need to locate folks and provide advertisement possibilities to local businesses.
well, letsee wait-n-watch what happens !
Earlier, they wanted to know what everyone is searching for - now they wanna know the locations(lat/long coordinates).
Man, this is compromise of privacy - big time :) Ppl give up privacy for services they receive - not knowing what price they might pay for it later.
The recent one in stack is Google's Dodgeball
Is this Google's answer to 2 challenges:
1. orkut not being as popular/usable as facebook.
2. need to locate folks and provide advertisement possibilities to local businesses.
well, letsee wait-n-watch what happens !
Sunday, February 18, 2007
which company is your favorite company?
Usually, many of my colleagues ask me this question: Which is your dream company?
My reply: my own company :D
They ask: Besides that?
My reply: From what perspective?
They ask: to work for...duh!
My reply: None
My reply: my own company :D
They ask: Besides that?
My reply: From what perspective?
They ask: to work for...duh!
My reply: None
india business conference
Date: 2/16
Theme: Investing in India: An Entrepreneur's Canvas
Organized by: South Asian Business Association
Experience:
The event started off with a panel's meeting. Panel included CMU's Ashish Arora, Madan Mohan from Infosys, Rick Russow from USIBC, and some others.
Citi India portfolio owner for CitiCards managed his session over Webex as his flight from NYC got cancelled. CEO of iGate, Mr. Sunil Wadhwani had come down for one of the speeches. Besides, Rick had one speech as well. Rick is remarkably aware about India's political, economic, and cultural panorama(Of course, he had coffees with most of the bureaucrats including Montek Singh Ahluwalia and deals with bureaucrats in Tamil Nadu quite often!) Last speech was by Vish Mishra, from Clearstone Venture Capital. Clearstone invests in India-centric ventures (for instance, BillDesk)
In between, there were breaks with Indian foodstuff lined up (samosas, dhoklas, etc). I was unimpressed by CMU's Indian populace who didn't participate at this event ~ doesn't talk well about the entrepreneurial spirit of the community at the school.
Theme: Investing in India: An Entrepreneur's Canvas
Organized by: South Asian Business Association
Experience:
The event started off with a panel's meeting. Panel included CMU's Ashish Arora, Madan Mohan from Infosys, Rick Russow from USIBC, and some others.
Citi India portfolio owner for CitiCards managed his session over Webex as his flight from NYC got cancelled. CEO of iGate, Mr. Sunil Wadhwani had come down for one of the speeches. Besides, Rick had one speech as well. Rick is remarkably aware about India's political, economic, and cultural panorama(Of course, he had coffees with most of the bureaucrats including Montek Singh Ahluwalia and deals with bureaucrats in Tamil Nadu quite often!) Last speech was by Vish Mishra, from Clearstone Venture Capital. Clearstone invests in India-centric ventures (for instance, BillDesk)
In between, there were breaks with Indian foodstuff lined up (samosas, dhoklas, etc). I was unimpressed by CMU's Indian populace who didn't participate at this event ~ doesn't talk well about the entrepreneurial spirit of the community at the school.
Thursday, February 15, 2007
spring courses
Technically, the school authorities call it the spring semester - I have no idea why - this cold is getting annoying - the temperature is 8F and feels like -2F. Man, that's -18C....! that's coooooooooollllllllddddddddddddd !
I wanted to write this post since a long time but either didn't have time or didn't have an inclination towards it. However, right now, I think I am over my writer's block period and can write ...and yo, I am back !
Macroeconomics
Prof Christopher Sleet has recommended the textbook of the most influential economist in the world - Mr. Ben Bernanke !I have the fifth edition but the professor insists on the sixth one which came out midway between the mini. However, this is a semester long course.
I am grasping some important macroeconomic concepts which help give an added dimension and credibility to any of my analysis.
Some of the CMU students are so impudent - they keep their feet on the bag! Check out the adjacent picture !
Business Law and Ethics
Course on Contracts by Ashish Arora was cancelled. That made me take this course and I am so glad I took it. Prof Dale Hershey has close to 40 years of experience practicing civil lawsuits. The book by Beatty Samuelson on Business Law is exhaustive and interesting at the same time.
This gives me a perspective on strategy analysis and also good amount of information required for a manager while making decisions and taking actions.
Contracts, Corporate structuring, intellectual property, cyber law, class actions, jurisdictions, shareholder rights, insider trading, antitrust, environmental law, consumer law, uniform commercial code (UCC), CISG, etc are the topics which are broadly well-covered in this mini-course.
On a sidebar, I met a bunch of first years (MBA) students in this class for our group presentation - all of them were caught up in a crazy chase for the internships .... 2 of the 4 I worked with got offers from Amazon which are freaking amazing offers :) One got from AT Kearney and one is still looking as she wants more !
Digital Transformation
Prof Ramayya Krishnan brings in some good models to think while making decisions w.r.t. IT and deployment of IT for strategic purposes. We mostly deal with IT user category of companies and not the creators.
However, I have a complaint: As participation has such a high grade component, in order
to be fair to everyone, he gives way too much time to some of the folks in the class who crave attention. For instance, someone gives a long pregnant pause (just to get the footage) once s/he is given an opportunity to talk. Moreover, there are folks who bring in previous points while the discussion is in a specific flow (no matter how irrelevant they are to the current discussion). Then there's someone that takes at least 3 mins to describe the point s/he is trying to make.
I feel stuck in this class.... I didn't have a choice while taking this course as it has been made a capstone course which is compulsory. It must be dropped from the list of required courses - or must be allowed to be exempted if something similar is done. My strong opinions come from the fact that I had to miss the Capability Improvement for Service Organizations class due to time conflict with Digital Transformation. If DT wasn't a core course, I would've taken the Capability one !
Information Security and Risk Analysis
Interesting course with a great deal of insight in valuing risk. This is close to Options Pricing which I studied last semester. When I put up the point regarding security firms coming up with insurance for the clients w.r.t. managed security services, professor mentioned that there is lack of data. I could quickly correlate it to the fact that in case of stocks, there is second to second ticker data.
Prof Ashish Arora puts out the ideas really neat - these are useful for a consultant in general and a security department personnel in specific.
One of his TA Sasha Ramanov has a nice site which you can check out here. Another TA suggested me the WEIS 2007 event. I will try to make sure I am in Pgh around that time in order to attend it.
Lectures are conducted in Collaborative Innovation Center (CyLab hosts Google, Intel, etc offices here) for the infrastructure setup as the classes are being relayed to Kobe(Japan) as well.
Capstone project: Citigroup Corporate and Investment Banking
I can't write much about this as we have to protect the interests of our client.
In order to maximize the learning experience, our advisor Dave Burke has given roles to the
folks who did not have experience in those areas. For instance, I have acquired knowledge on being an architect but never worked as an architect before - so, I was made the architect. Someone else hasn't done project management, so s/he took up prj mgr role and myself and someone else who has done it will guide him/her. This method has its own pros and cons.
All in all, a busy semester going on. I can manage to hit the gym several times a week and I am happy about that. Moreover, I am able to undertake other activities such as ice-skating, skiing, clubbing, latino dancing, etc in some free pockets of time.
I wanted to write this post since a long time but either didn't have time or didn't have an inclination towards it. However, right now, I think I am over my writer's block period and can write ...and yo, I am back !
Macroeconomics
Prof Christopher Sleet has recommended the textbook of the most influential economist in the world - Mr. Ben Bernanke !I have the fifth edition but the professor insists on the sixth one which came out midway between the mini. However, this is a semester long course.
I am grasping some important macroeconomic concepts which help give an added dimension and credibility to any of my analysis.
Some of the CMU students are so impudent - they keep their feet on the bag! Check out the adjacent picture !
Business Law and Ethics
Course on Contracts by Ashish Arora was cancelled. That made me take this course and I am so glad I took it. Prof Dale Hershey has close to 40 years of experience practicing civil lawsuits. The book by Beatty Samuelson on Business Law is exhaustive and interesting at the same time.This gives me a perspective on strategy analysis and also good amount of information required for a manager while making decisions and taking actions.
Contracts, Corporate structuring, intellectual property, cyber law, class actions, jurisdictions, shareholder rights, insider trading, antitrust, environmental law, consumer law, uniform commercial code (UCC), CISG, etc are the topics which are broadly well-covered in this mini-course.
On a sidebar, I met a bunch of first years (MBA) students in this class for our group presentation - all of them were caught up in a crazy chase for the internships .... 2 of the 4 I worked with got offers from Amazon which are freaking amazing offers :) One got from AT Kearney and one is still looking as she wants more !
Digital Transformation
Prof Ramayya Krishnan brings in some good models to think while making decisions w.r.t. IT and deployment of IT for strategic purposes. We mostly deal with IT user category of companies and not the creators.
However, I have a complaint: As participation has such a high grade component, in order
to be fair to everyone, he gives way too much time to some of the folks in the class who crave attention. For instance, someone gives a long pregnant pause (just to get the footage) once s/he is given an opportunity to talk. Moreover, there are folks who bring in previous points while the discussion is in a specific flow (no matter how irrelevant they are to the current discussion). Then there's someone that takes at least 3 mins to describe the point s/he is trying to make.I feel stuck in this class.... I didn't have a choice while taking this course as it has been made a capstone course which is compulsory. It must be dropped from the list of required courses - or must be allowed to be exempted if something similar is done. My strong opinions come from the fact that I had to miss the Capability Improvement for Service Organizations class due to time conflict with Digital Transformation. If DT wasn't a core course, I would've taken the Capability one !
Information Security and Risk Analysis
Interesting course with a great deal of insight in valuing risk. This is close to Options Pricing which I studied last semester. When I put up the point regarding security firms coming up with insurance for the clients w.r.t. managed security services, professor mentioned that there is lack of data. I could quickly correlate it to the fact that in case of stocks, there is second to second ticker data.
Prof Ashish Arora puts out the ideas really neat - these are useful for a consultant in general and a security department personnel in specific.
One of his TA Sasha Ramanov has a nice site which you can check out here. Another TA suggested me the WEIS 2007 event. I will try to make sure I am in Pgh around that time in order to attend it.
Lectures are conducted in Collaborative Innovation Center (CyLab hosts Google, Intel, etc offices here) for the infrastructure setup as the classes are being relayed to Kobe(Japan) as well.
Capstone project: Citigroup Corporate and Investment Banking
I can't write much about this as we have to protect the interests of our client.
In order to maximize the learning experience, our advisor Dave Burke has given roles to the
folks who did not have experience in those areas. For instance, I have acquired knowledge on being an architect but never worked as an architect before - so, I was made the architect. Someone else hasn't done project management, so s/he took up prj mgr role and myself and someone else who has done it will guide him/her. This method has its own pros and cons.All in all, a busy semester going on. I can manage to hit the gym several times a week and I am happy about that. Moreover, I am able to undertake other activities such as ice-skating, skiing, clubbing, latino dancing, etc in some free pockets of time.
Saturday, February 03, 2007
Rendezvous with a Mayor!
Last night, at the PNC Park, I had an opportunity to meet the youngest 
Mayor in the United States Mr. Ravenstahl. He is young, dynamic, understands business terms and concepts well, and a visionary. He is fairly matured for his age and has the burning desire for turning around the City of Pittsburgh. Accordingly, he has taken steps at the micro-levels to work on converting the "Iron City" to a "Techno City". I wished him all the best in his endeavors when I met him and briefly introduced myself to him and where my origins are from (Mumbai).
After the Mayor's event followed the Network Pittsburgh event for Alumni networking. I met a few Deloitte folks out there and met some other interesting folks from the Heinz school who I had never met before. Nice event !
Post-networking meet, we went for the happy hour to Atria's to have some more meetings with the folks. Ron, our career services director, gave me compliment for being the "best dressed MISM" - so flattering ! Thank you Ron !
The travel back home was horrendous. My lips hurt due to the extreme cold weather in Pittsburgh. I didn't drive down to the event because I was planning on having some drinks. Hence, I had to use several connections of the bus routes to reach back home. One such link made me wait for half an hour and I think the temperature was -5 F. This coupled with the thin suit trousers sent shivers through my spine...literally ! It taught me a good lesson that I must never be out in the cold - no matter what my cold tolerance is.
Mayor in the United States Mr. Ravenstahl. He is young, dynamic, understands business terms and concepts well, and a visionary. He is fairly matured for his age and has the burning desire for turning around the City of Pittsburgh. Accordingly, he has taken steps at the micro-levels to work on converting the "Iron City" to a "Techno City". I wished him all the best in his endeavors when I met him and briefly introduced myself to him and where my origins are from (Mumbai).
After the Mayor's event followed the Network Pittsburgh event for Alumni networking. I met a few Deloitte folks out there and met some other interesting folks from the Heinz school who I had never met before. Nice event !Post-networking meet, we went for the happy hour to Atria's to have some more meetings with the folks. Ron, our career services director, gave me compliment for being the "best dressed MISM" - so flattering ! Thank you Ron !
The travel back home was horrendous. My lips hurt due to the extreme cold weather in Pittsburgh. I didn't drive down to the event because I was planning on having some drinks. Hence, I had to use several connections of the bus routes to reach back home. One such link made me wait for half an hour and I think the temperature was -5 F. This coupled with the thin suit trousers sent shivers through my spine...literally ! It taught me a good lesson that I must never be out in the cold - no matter what my cold tolerance is.
Sunday, January 28, 2007
social entrepreneurship
Jerr Boschee, the grand-daddy of social entrepreneurship had recently visited CMU. Received a lot of gyan from him on why SE ventures must make themselves self-sustaining and how to acheive that.
Moreover, he also mentioned that someone in this field, if in a dilemma (does it matter? types) can approach him for a discussion.
He had visited and taught students in India in the past ...after which he got this enlightment about devoting himself for a social cause - fairly noble person it appears.
Moreover, he also mentioned that someone in this field, if in a dilemma (does it matter? types) can approach him for a discussion.
He had visited and taught students in India in the past ...after which he got this enlightment about devoting himself for a social cause - fairly noble person it appears.
Saturday, January 20, 2007
ice skating
screeeeetch, whoooosh, whooop, THUD ...... are the sounds you easily get to listen at the ice rink if there is no music in the background. Yes, my first experience with ice-skating was yesterday evening. It reminded me of roller-blading days of 1995 !
Despite of few hurdles, a few MISM colleagues finally managed to reach the Schenley Park ice rink (on a lighter note, how many MISMs does it take to locate the rink ...LOL). While I was waiting at the rink, I saw quite a few kids doing nice maneuvers. As folks arrived and we tied our skates, we entered the rink with some apprehension. Some crashed at the beginning and some others as the time progressed.
Fortunately, I didn't fall in the first session. In the second session, in the last five minutes, I was stretching too far and my muscles had given up. I was unable to lift up my legs for the gliding action and hence, lost balance and fell. I crashed softly though and it was fun - no pains, no tears. The muscles of the lower back and the tendons of vastus medialis were screaming at me -
Manik Manik
Go away
Come again another day....
Little tendons want to lay !
When I learnt rollerblades, I had someone to teach me baby-steps with the skates on and then hold my hand for making a few rounds of the skating ring. I learnt faster that way. Yesterday was different as none of us were good at this though UD did well at the learning curve part - he was way ahead. However, I did have a bunch of folks who were constantly motivating me. Nah, not my colleagues, but a bunch of folks from UPitt who I met while tying up the shoes. Drea was one of them and she was half American and half Puerto Rican - very warm personality ! She was fascinated by Indian culture as well. I could never believe that she was skating for the first time because she was doing it so well!
All of us (MISMers) had decided that we shall have a look at the city from the point above the ice rink - however, that never happened ! A few other aspects ruined my mood towards the end of the event but that was fine - a part n parcel of this journey called life. After the skating event, I met some friends at Silkys and enjoyed some drinks with them for about a hour or more!
All in all, it was a good part of the weekend activity. Letsee whats lined up for today!
Despite of few hurdles, a few MISM colleagues finally managed to reach the Schenley Park ice rink (on a lighter note, how many MISMs does it take to locate the rink ...LOL). While I was waiting at the rink, I saw quite a few kids doing nice maneuvers. As folks arrived and we tied our skates, we entered the rink with some apprehension. Some crashed at the beginning and some others as the time progressed.
Fortunately, I didn't fall in the first session. In the second session, in the last five minutes, I was stretching too far and my muscles had given up. I was unable to lift up my legs for the gliding action and hence, lost balance and fell. I crashed softly though and it was fun - no pains, no tears. The muscles of the lower back and the tendons of vastus medialis were screaming at me -
Manik Manik
Go away
Come again another day....
Little tendons want to lay !
When I learnt rollerblades, I had someone to teach me baby-steps with the skates on and then hold my hand for making a few rounds of the skating ring. I learnt faster that way. Yesterday was different as none of us were good at this though UD did well at the learning curve part - he was way ahead. However, I did have a bunch of folks who were constantly motivating me. Nah, not my colleagues, but a bunch of folks from UPitt who I met while tying up the shoes. Drea was one of them and she was half American and half Puerto Rican - very warm personality ! She was fascinated by Indian culture as well. I could never believe that she was skating for the first time because she was doing it so well!
All of us (MISMers) had decided that we shall have a look at the city from the point above the ice rink - however, that never happened ! A few other aspects ruined my mood towards the end of the event but that was fine - a part n parcel of this journey called life. After the skating event, I met some friends at Silkys and enjoyed some drinks with them for about a hour or more!
All in all, it was a good part of the weekend activity. Letsee whats lined up for today!
Saturday, January 13, 2007
GramIT - phenomenal !
At the turn of the millennium, I asked KB Chandrashekhar aka Chandra, about when does he think that IT will become a part of India's GDP contribution and help at the grass-root levels. His reply was that when the jobs from all this IT boom in India reach the country-side, it will mark the significant contribution.
Seven years later, I read this news piece on GramIT. If offshoring is to remain India's growth engine, this must happen. Wage inflation and attrition at major centers such as Hyderabad, Bangalore, and Mumbai are causing huge problems on the supply side for the companies who are setting up shops in India. For GramIT employees, lack of other paying jobs make sure that currently, these are not the issues. With Indian service providers moving up the value chain, the lower end work can go to places such as GramIT.
I feel that this cartoon of outsourced CEO is exaggerated. However, moving up the value chain is so evident - few years ago, we could not imagine an Infy employee doing Application Management and yet, I was both, a Project Manager and Application Manager at AT&T. These are functions traditionally offered to US-based consolidated labor suppliers such as IBM, EDS, Accenture, Deloitte, etc 
Traditional model put virtual team mgrs with other vendors such as IBM. However, cos like Infy are invading this chain from right to left - right uptil client coordinator :)
Will this journey stop?
India has a significant challenge in maintaining its supremacy in being the preferred offshore destination. The offshoring industry is going to be 1.45 to 1.55million in strength and will contribute to about 7% of GDP by 2008 end. Challenges arise from the fact that clustering has happened during evolving stages at locations such as Hyd, Blore, Bbay, etc pushing the prices higher. This has caused huge internal competition within clusters and coupled with lack of supply (talented pool) has accentuated the problem. Let us look at the real numbers.
There are about 14m young grads in India with about 2.5m new ones getting added each year. However, only 10% are suited for the MNCs setting up shops. English skills remain a major issue. Bigger problem lies in the fact that Indian univs have varying quality of education. IITs and IIMs are world-class. However, the quality steeply declines as one goes into the second and the third tier institutions. The higher suitability figures lie in the engineering crowds - roughly 25% are suitable for MNCs. However, given the supply side constraints of engineering schools and huge demand in no. of IT workers and middle managers required, the wages are being pushed northwards. This is similar to demand for a stock in absence of floating stock and institutions placing huge orders.
Some doomsdayers say that Indian wages will get equated to US wages. This belief is misplaced. When the threshold of 30% of US wages will be crossed, Indian IT labor suppliers ( Infosys, TCS, Satyam, etc) will start looking in other low-wage labor supplying countries such as China. Infosys Shanghai already has already been set up and TCS has made several acquisitions in China. PRC provides cheap programmers but costly managers (with dual language skills) and hence, cost of team is the same at both the places in India and PRC. Suppliers are looking at Philipines as another destination for call centers as they have lesser Indian accents and can understand US accent with relative ease.
So what must GoI do?
---------------------------
Disperse the clustering
This is risk-diversification. GramIT is on right track - more such things must happen in India which will help both, Indian populace coupled with capitalists. More regions will get developed. Currently, due to origins of most of IT entrepreneurs being from Southern part of India, they are mostly concentrating in the South with Pune, Chennai, etc being the alternative destinations to avoid clustering issues. However, MNCs such as Accenture, IBM, et al have set up their shops there as well. So, cos such as Infy run to Kolkatta, Jaipur - nice solution :)
In order to enable this dispersion, government needs to focus on infrastructure such as airports, utilities, telecom network, etc. The effects of neglect by GoI in this matter have been benign so far but they will rapidly become a hindrance for the growth in next 3-5 years.
Airports
When interrogated about the bias for Chennai and other south Indian destinations, entrepreneurs mention that the infrastructure in other places is not as developed. For instance, Infy setup a shop at Chandigarh but there's no easy international airport access. Hence, government must focus on developing international airports fast. Jaipur is a good destination because of the international airport decision made in 2002 budget.
Telecom network
If telecom network is well developed then telecommuting can be started in India leading to easing pressures on wages. This will help dispersion of work in low-wage areas within the country. GramIT is the best example. Labor is available at $800 per head at less than 5% churnover rate- wow !
Utilities
Individual companies have been making sure that electric power, water, etc do not become an issue at their offshore development centers. For them, it makes business sense as economies of scale ensure lower marginal cost which they can pass on to the customer under component of reliability. However, GoI can provide this to the smaller startups who can compete far better. This takes us to the next aspect why should GoI support smaller ventures.
Showcase the depth and the breadth of Indian pool
India's talent pool can be showcased in other fields such as industrial R&D, Finance & Accounting (culture which invented zero man !), etc. Small ventures are starting in these arena and must be helped by GoI in various forms and they will reap the benefits of the same in next 5-10 years in form of higher $ revenues, money sent back by expats, etc. In order to scale up on manufacturing supply, we need roads, roads, and roads ! Bharat Forge is an innovative auto-component solutions provider helping companies from the developed nations become more competitive. I agree beating PRC is very difficult given the lead they have over India...however, its not impossible. PRC supplier rates are going up. India can become an alternate supplier
location for competitive supply chains.
Brand India as a destination for alternative services. This includes wide range from medical tourism in Hinduja hospital in Mumbai to exotic Himalayas in the north and the healing Ayurveda destinations in Kerala. Our slogan must become:
What can Mr. Bharat do for you?
Besides, investment in educational infrastructure is required.
Private sector
Companies such as Infy, Wipro, TCS, etc must invest in educational centers. Profits seen today on a quarter to quarter basis will vanish soon if they remain myopic and do not address this 3-5 years pending issue. Their margins will be squeezed out if they dont invest in educational institutions which ensure a steady stream of good quality graduates. For this, both Indian as well as MNCs will have to form a consortium of sorts in order to invest together.
GoI
It can help setup an IIT in every state. Even if quality of existing grads is improved then the existing numbers will yield huge supply metrics which will satisfy demand of foreseeable future. India still remains a low-cost labor supply nation with cost of a grad being 12% of that of US grad and working hours being atleast 5% higher (2058 hours p.a. vis-a-vis 1900 p.a in US).
Bottomline: Collaborative execution committee between corporate world and govt is required which will yield results that can help country reach the BRICs dream drafted out by Goldman Sachs in y2k.
Seven years later, I read this news piece on GramIT. If offshoring is to remain India's growth engine, this must happen. Wage inflation and attrition at major centers such as Hyderabad, Bangalore, and Mumbai are causing huge problems on the supply side for the companies who are setting up shops in India. For GramIT employees, lack of other paying jobs make sure that currently, these are not the issues. With Indian service providers moving up the value chain, the lower end work can go to places such as GramIT.
I feel that this cartoon of outsourced CEO is exaggerated. However, moving up the value chain is so evident - few years ago, we could not imagine an Infy employee doing Application Management and yet, I was both, a Project Manager and Application Manager at AT&T. These are functions traditionally offered to US-based consolidated labor suppliers such as IBM, EDS, Accenture, Deloitte, etc 
Traditional model put virtual team mgrs with other vendors such as IBM. However, cos like Infy are invading this chain from right to left - right uptil client coordinator :)Will this journey stop?
India has a significant challenge in maintaining its supremacy in being the preferred offshore destination. The offshoring industry is going to be 1.45 to 1.55million in strength and will contribute to about 7% of GDP by 2008 end. Challenges arise from the fact that clustering has happened during evolving stages at locations such as Hyd, Blore, Bbay, etc pushing the prices higher. This has caused huge internal competition within clusters and coupled with lack of supply (talented pool) has accentuated the problem. Let us look at the real numbers.
There are about 14m young grads in India with about 2.5m new ones getting added each year. However, only 10% are suited for the MNCs setting up shops. English skills remain a major issue. Bigger problem lies in the fact that Indian univs have varying quality of education. IITs and IIMs are world-class. However, the quality steeply declines as one goes into the second and the third tier institutions. The higher suitability figures lie in the engineering crowds - roughly 25% are suitable for MNCs. However, given the supply side constraints of engineering schools and huge demand in no. of IT workers and middle managers required, the wages are being pushed northwards. This is similar to demand for a stock in absence of floating stock and institutions placing huge orders.
Some doomsdayers say that Indian wages will get equated to US wages. This belief is misplaced. When the threshold of 30% of US wages will be crossed, Indian IT labor suppliers ( Infosys, TCS, Satyam, etc) will start looking in other low-wage labor supplying countries such as China. Infosys Shanghai already has already been set up and TCS has made several acquisitions in China. PRC provides cheap programmers but costly managers (with dual language skills) and hence, cost of team is the same at both the places in India and PRC. Suppliers are looking at Philipines as another destination for call centers as they have lesser Indian accents and can understand US accent with relative ease.
So what must GoI do?
---------------------------
Disperse the clustering
This is risk-diversification. GramIT is on right track - more such things must happen in India which will help both, Indian populace coupled with capitalists. More regions will get developed. Currently, due to origins of most of IT entrepreneurs being from Southern part of India, they are mostly concentrating in the South with Pune, Chennai, etc being the alternative destinations to avoid clustering issues. However, MNCs such as Accenture, IBM, et al have set up their shops there as well. So, cos such as Infy run to Kolkatta, Jaipur - nice solution :)
In order to enable this dispersion, government needs to focus on infrastructure such as airports, utilities, telecom network, etc. The effects of neglect by GoI in this matter have been benign so far but they will rapidly become a hindrance for the growth in next 3-5 years.
Airports
When interrogated about the bias for Chennai and other south Indian destinations, entrepreneurs mention that the infrastructure in other places is not as developed. For instance, Infy setup a shop at Chandigarh but there's no easy international airport access. Hence, government must focus on developing international airports fast. Jaipur is a good destination because of the international airport decision made in 2002 budget.
Telecom network
If telecom network is well developed then telecommuting can be started in India leading to easing pressures on wages. This will help dispersion of work in low-wage areas within the country. GramIT is the best example. Labor is available at $800 per head at less than 5% churnover rate- wow !
Utilities
Individual companies have been making sure that electric power, water, etc do not become an issue at their offshore development centers. For them, it makes business sense as economies of scale ensure lower marginal cost which they can pass on to the customer under component of reliability. However, GoI can provide this to the smaller startups who can compete far better. This takes us to the next aspect why should GoI support smaller ventures.
Showcase the depth and the breadth of Indian pool
India's talent pool can be showcased in other fields such as industrial R&D, Finance & Accounting (culture which invented zero man !), etc. Small ventures are starting in these arena and must be helped by GoI in various forms and they will reap the benefits of the same in next 5-10 years in form of higher $ revenues, money sent back by expats, etc. In order to scale up on manufacturing supply, we need roads, roads, and roads ! Bharat Forge is an innovative auto-component solutions provider helping companies from the developed nations become more competitive. I agree beating PRC is very difficult given the lead they have over India...however, its not impossible. PRC supplier rates are going up. India can become an alternate supplier
location for competitive supply chains.Brand India as a destination for alternative services. This includes wide range from medical tourism in Hinduja hospital in Mumbai to exotic Himalayas in the north and the healing Ayurveda destinations in Kerala. Our slogan must become:
What can Mr. Bharat do for you?
Besides, investment in educational infrastructure is required.
Private sector
Companies such as Infy, Wipro, TCS, etc must invest in educational centers. Profits seen today on a quarter to quarter basis will vanish soon if they remain myopic and do not address this 3-5 years pending issue. Their margins will be squeezed out if they dont invest in educational institutions which ensure a steady stream of good quality graduates. For this, both Indian as well as MNCs will have to form a consortium of sorts in order to invest together.
GoI
It can help setup an IIT in every state. Even if quality of existing grads is improved then the existing numbers will yield huge supply metrics which will satisfy demand of foreseeable future. India still remains a low-cost labor supply nation with cost of a grad being 12% of that of US grad and working hours being atleast 5% higher (2058 hours p.a. vis-a-vis 1900 p.a in US).
Bottomline: Collaborative execution committee between corporate world and govt is required which will yield results that can help country reach the BRICs dream drafted out by Goldman Sachs in y2k.
Monday, January 08, 2007
winter break ends..
With the last week in the winter break, I want to blog the winter break experience. After the initial hedonism, I wanted to focus on family-time and health.
Bal, Val, and myself headed for a trip to Virginia beach in the week before Christmas to celebrate Christmas at Val's mom's place. On the trip, we once took an exit towards Williamsburg which has one of the oldest schools of US - College of William and Mary. On that night, we went for holiday lights at the beach front. The waiting line was quite long for the car-drive-thru but we were enjoying with christmas carols in the background. The best lightings were the ones towards the end - depicting the 12 days of Christmas.
On the day of Christmas, we all awaited the princess to come - Angelina - Val's niece. After she arrived later in the day, the gift exchange ritual started and undoubtedly the princess was the center of attention. I was in complete festive mood because the family provided me with such warmth, care, and hospitality. The gifts which Bal, Val, Val's mom and Val's sister gave me will go long way in helping a student like me :) Thank you for everything...it was so thoughtful of you guys!
Bal, Val, and myself headed for a trip to Virginia beach in the week before Christmas to celebrate Christmas at Val's mom's place. On the trip, we once took an exit towards Williamsburg which has one of the oldest schools of US - College of William and Mary. On that night, we went for holiday lights at the beach front. The waiting line was quite long for the car-drive-thru but we were enjoying with christmas carols in the background. The best lightings were the ones towards the end - depicting the 12 days of Christmas.Next day, myself and Val headed for the Virginia beach museum and I checked out some marine species out there. Touching a ray-fish with bare hands was the high point for that visit ! Later in the day, we forgot that the shops will get closed after 3:30 pm for Christm
as eve and we were having difficulty finding a good place to eat. Finally, we got to eat at Val's favorite Mexican place. ....yummy salsa they had. The family spent the evening watching "walk the line." I watched it for the third time - but everytime I keep on finding something new in it. 
Well-made movie, I must say. I extended in the night to watch "Christmas with the Kranks."
as eve and we were having difficulty finding a good place to eat. Finally, we got to eat at Val's favorite Mexican place. ....yummy salsa they had. The family spent the evening watching "walk the line." I watched it for the third time - but everytime I keep on finding something new in it. 
Well-made movie, I must say. I extended in the night to watch "Christmas with the Kranks."On the day of Christmas, we all awaited the princess to come - Angelina - Val's niece. After she arrived later in the day, the gift exchange ritual started and undoubtedly the princess was the center of attention. I was in complete festive mood because the family provided me with such warmth, care, and hospitality. The gifts which Bal, Val, Val's mom and Val's sister gave me will go long way in helping a student like me :) Thank you for everything...it was so thoughtful of you guys!
Sunday, January 07, 2007
UK users gagging for IPTV
Check this out - this is just the beginning of the end for the cable folks .....as mentioned by the proponents of IPTV gang.
However, I feel that cable folks have some long way to go before giving up the battle. Comcast had taken up AT&T Broadband last year - and their results haven't been as impressive yet. Company has megalo-debt with it and it will take some time before they make themselves fit in order to compete. This keeps them on their toes at all the times in order to strive for the best. The consumers are the obvious ones to benefit due to this competition.
Stay hungry - stay foolish !
However, I feel that cable folks have some long way to go before giving up the battle. Comcast had taken up AT&T Broadband last year - and their results haven't been as impressive yet. Company has megalo-debt with it and it will take some time before they make themselves fit in order to compete. This keeps them on their toes at all the times in order to strive for the best. The consumers are the obvious ones to benefit due to this competition.
Stay hungry - stay foolish !
Apple Keynote Bloopers
| Some funny clips of Steve Jobs and his gang over at Apple mssing up on their very important keynotes. ....so much for the ones who try to poke holes into Microsoft's imperfections .... | |
Friday, January 05, 2007
Thursday, January 04, 2007
reading spree
I've been on a reading spree in the last few days and would like to share some of the highlights.
After I finished The Tao of Warren Buffett, I got onto the online video search for Warren Buffett - I didn't find very many videos but some interesting ones are posted on my bazaar blog.
The next one in line was My life as a quant. The book is a recommended reading for the Financial Engineers. Bernstein, Rubenstein, Taleeb, et al have all given good reviews for and the same. Mr. Derman is program director for MSFE program in Columbia these days and will shape the future of this field as he has in the last decade or so while at Goldman Sachs. His model was fairly popular. What drove me to read this book was the excellent class by Prof. Duane Seppi for Options.
Next one was 7 indicators that move the markets by Paul Kasriel and Keith Schap. That's a fine book and recommended for anyone trying to get the correlation of macros with the markets.
Besides, the reading on Strategy Power plays from Businessweek is enlightening. They havent been as good as HBR case studies, however, help me get updated on some of the fields that I wasn't as update.
While searching for tax-saving books, I had a glance at the book Financial guidebook - 9 steps to work by Suze Orman - which I will recommend to anyone seeking practical to-dos in order to lead a financially independent life. Most of us know most of the concepts she presents and yet ppl act contrary to the conventional wisdom. What I liked in particular about the book was her down-to-the-dirty-details approach and charts etc created for layman. For instance, she has mentioned a checklist of aspects to figure out what all to check while considering a credit card offer. Also, she has beautifully pounded on the idea that if you dont respect your money (by spending it too much) then you disrespect yourself. I like this lady as she gives practical advice and her show must be watched by everyone who feels they know very little about financial matters because she elicits it so well. I knew most of it but it is a sort of book which I will recommend folks who are trying to get in grips with that kind of information/knowledge.
A bunch of other books too - however, I left them mid-way either because the topics were not of my priority or because the content was not good enough.
Also, I read a bunch of other mags - Readers' digest, Scientific American, Scientific American Mind, some other health related reads. Apparently, USDA has changed the food pyramid this year from what it was in 2005- shifted focus from having lotssa carbs to having lotssa other nutrition. So, less pasta, bread, etc. Carbs were included in the pyramid at the base in 2005 when a major revision was done after the earlier revision in 1992. I read about some of the secrets to live longer:
1. Large number of anti-oxidants from veggies and/or fruits.
2. Croatian olives and oil used for cooking must be plant oils such as olive oil, soy oil, etc.
3. Eating a few 100 cals less per meal. This is inspired from Okinawans from Japan.
4. Red wine (frequency: 1 to 3 per week in less to moderate amounts).
Shall keep my blogreaders updated about the other reads which I may find interesting. I have CKPrahalad's residual reading next in my mind.
After I finished The Tao of Warren Buffett, I got onto the online video search for Warren Buffett - I didn't find very many videos but some interesting ones are posted on my bazaar blog.
The next one in line was My life as a quant. The book is a recommended reading for the Financial Engineers. Bernstein, Rubenstein, Taleeb, et al have all given good reviews for and the same. Mr. Derman is program director for MSFE program in Columbia these days and will shape the future of this field as he has in the last decade or so while at Goldman Sachs. His model was fairly popular. What drove me to read this book was the excellent class by Prof. Duane Seppi for Options.
Next one was 7 indicators that move the markets by Paul Kasriel and Keith Schap. That's a fine book and recommended for anyone trying to get the correlation of macros with the markets.
Besides, the reading on Strategy Power plays from Businessweek is enlightening. They havent been as good as HBR case studies, however, help me get updated on some of the fields that I wasn't as update.
While searching for tax-saving books, I had a glance at the book Financial guidebook - 9 steps to work by Suze Orman - which I will recommend to anyone seeking practical to-dos in order to lead a financially independent life. Most of us know most of the concepts she presents and yet ppl act contrary to the conventional wisdom. What I liked in particular about the book was her down-to-the-dirty-details approach and charts etc created for layman. For instance, she has mentioned a checklist of aspects to figure out what all to check while considering a credit card offer. Also, she has beautifully pounded on the idea that if you dont respect your money (by spending it too much) then you disrespect yourself. I like this lady as she gives practical advice and her show must be watched by everyone who feels they know very little about financial matters because she elicits it so well. I knew most of it but it is a sort of book which I will recommend folks who are trying to get in grips with that kind of information/knowledge.
A bunch of other books too - however, I left them mid-way either because the topics were not of my priority or because the content was not good enough.
Also, I read a bunch of other mags - Readers' digest, Scientific American, Scientific American Mind, some other health related reads. Apparently, USDA has changed the food pyramid this year from what it was in 2005- shifted focus from having lotssa carbs to having lotssa other nutrition. So, less pasta, bread, etc. Carbs were included in the pyramid at the base in 2005 when a major revision was done after the earlier revision in 1992. I read about some of the secrets to live longer:
1. Large number of anti-oxidants from veggies and/or fruits.
2. Croatian olives and oil used for cooking must be plant oils such as olive oil, soy oil, etc.
3. Eating a few 100 cals less per meal. This is inspired from Okinawans from Japan.
4. Red wine (frequency: 1 to 3 per week in less to moderate amounts).
Shall keep my blogreaders updated about the other reads which I may find interesting. I have CKPrahalad's residual reading next in my mind.
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