blogchomp

Obsolete...

2006-02-27T21:41:00.000-07:00

This blog is no longer maintained regularly. I will be posting new material and articles on my new site, http://thelittleendian.com/

Please follow me on to my new site. I appreciate the visit.

The year that was - in Google's eyes - 2005 year end Google Zeitgeist

2006-01-04T22:28:00.000-07:00

Google demonstrates its awesome power to harvest information and reap knowledge - sometimes arcane and sometimes interesting - but always mercurial.

Happy New Year!

For the times when there's just nothing else to do...

2005-12-21T12:11:00.000-07:00

Warning - its pretty addictive!

http://fun.from.hell.pl/2003-11-24/bubblewrap.swf

CHK - Chesapeake Energy

2005-11-18T11:14:00.000-07:00

I havent done a recommendation in quite a while and discovered its actually fun to do one. Here's a recommendation to consider.

Chesapeake Energy (CHK) has pulled back from its recent highs. The run up for the year has been over 70% (the stock doubling at one point). While this may seem like astronomical performance, my opinion is that this is an opportunity to buy. Natural gas stocks are currently under pressure due to unexpectedly warm Fall weather in the cold regions, thus lowering expectations on natural gas usage in the winter. First of all, the weather is as predictable as the markets direction.

Chesapeake in particular has come under pressure primarily because of profit taking. Insiders in the meanwhile have purchased in large quantities in September. The company has strong fundamentals and the long term technical trend remains bullish, with stock price still riding barely above 100 day and 200 day moving averages. The price did flirt with the 100 day trendline and dipped below it slightly during the recent pullback, but as mentioned earlier, insiders have been buying on these dips. Options based sentiment (contrarian indicator) suggests bullish action, the volume put-call ratio seems to be making a turn off a recent high indicating a bullish move. The Open interest put-call ratio is showing similar short-term high.

I would suggest adding this to your watch list and looking for opening a position on the first positive sign on natural gas. Compared to other stocks in the sector, CHK has a stronger growth potential with proven earnings, at an affordable price.

The real loser in the NFL - no its not TO

2005-11-10T23:03:00.000-07:00

The coverage of Terell Owens' debacle has been rife in the sports media all of last week. While T.O. may have really come across as a loser in the whole ordeal, there is a bigger loser in the NFL. His name is Tom Benson.

Mr Benson is the owner of the New Orleans Saints. After the pummelling of New Orleans and the Saints Super Dome by hurricane Katrina, the city has not witnessed a game by the Saints. While the team struggles losing its "foster home games", revenues from ticket sales have dried up for Mr. Benson. But before we all feel, oh so sorry, for this multi-millionaire septagenerian, we must all remember that Mr Benson has long enjoyed the benefits of a super sweet deal in which the state of Louisiana, upon Mr Bensons whining, built the Super Dome using tax dollars, and let Benson reap the benefits. While the city limps up and tries to stand on its feet, this southern gentleman chooses to kick it in the shins by demanding for a more state of the art super dome and threatening to take the team outside the state otherwise. The Saints have been in New Orleans and in Louisiana since 1967.

The success of sports leagues and teams could be attributed to the process of capitalistic enterprise, but in this endeavour, somewhere somehow, hearts and minds of fans get captured and the beauty of a team's identity can only be attributed to a sense of belonging - belonging to a people. It is a sad state of affairs when the owner of a franchise forgets that the franchise is also a team, with fans. Fans who paid for the stadium which generated income for him, fans who have lost everything in the wake of the biggest hurricane to hit their city, and who are at risk of losing whats remains as a shard of their identity. As one fan succinctly put it "we lost everything in the hurricane, the Saints, they're all we have left".

Inveneo

2005-09-26T11:08:00.000-06:00

I read about Inveneo in an IP telephony magazine and on the web. I was delighted to find out that a simple and familiar technology like VoIP is being applied in an unusual way to make communications a reality where it is needed most. I work as a Sr Network Architect for Vonage Networks and have considerable technology and industry experience in this field.

However, something that’s even closer to my heart is the dream to bring access to communications capabilities at the fingertips of rural populations. Their Uganda deployment is a shining example and a proof in a sense that this can indeed be done. As an engineer I have believed that technology can be applied for the benefit of rural communities if the right economic model is put in place. In this context, I have proposed a model for Rural Enterpreneurship and offered myself and my time as a volunteer in such organizations' continuing efforts to bring VoIP to the 3rd world. Being born and brought up in India, my affiliations and inclinations naturally belong to that country more than others. Does anyone know if there are any plans of bringing a similar solution such as the one deployed in Uganda, to Indian villages also? It would be a privilege to get an opportunity to be involved in such a project. As for the Rural Enterpreneurship economic model for bringing communications accessible to rural populations, I would be glad to expound upon it if you send me a message or leave a comment on this blog.

Hearty Congratulations and Warm Regards to Inveneo.

The Parable of Jesus and the Rubber Chicken - What if Christ spoke at a Republican Party fund-raiser? By Tom�Peyer

2005-08-25T12:12:00.000-06:00

Police use excessive force in busting Rave party in Utah County

2005-08-24T11:43:00.000-06:00

This is screwed up Man! I am glad I am getting out of this state. Here are links to a few more accounts of what happened:

Syne, DJ from Drum n Bass
Knick, of Evol Intent

Uncensored.com

Videowiki.net

Salt Lake Tribune

There's also amateur video's you can download off of these sites showing footage of the actual police brutality.

Google goes shopping... will it run into Skype?

2005-08-24T11:08:00.000-06:00

Gadda is making quite an insightful speculation on what Google might want to do with the proceeds from their $4 Bill secondary offering on our Quasters Blog. In my comments to his post, I mention that there is a good bet on Skype. The hype surrounding Skype's purchase is sky-high right now as you will read on Om Malik's VoIP blog as well as many others.

There are several candidates for GOOG to swallow. My feeling is they are looking for the best value for money. And currently that is available in privately held startups which have good success record and/or promising technology. Vonage falls in that category. But the problem I see in GOOG trying to purchase Vonage is the fit, or lackthereof. Vonage is a high tech company in a low-tech service. Telephone service provided by Vonage is for the masses, not for the tech-savvy. A huge part of their success is the simplicity of their solution. Google, IMO is a company that appeals to techie, geeky, "what else can I do with my PC" kinda people. The converse is also true. There is nothing in Vonage that fits within this philosophy. Besides, the biggest proble IMO, is that Vonage does not have a clear technological competetive advantage.

Skype on the other hand would be a great fit within the GOOG universe. It is P2P, PC-based, software-based, appeals to the tech savvy, "i want more free" and "what else can I do with my PC", kinda user, right in Google's ball park. That said, there are some who do think Skype is not GOOG's type.

Another player that comes to mind is Asterisk. This is an open source IP-PBX software and would fit in well with GOOG's philosophy. Asterisk itself is Open Source though, so an acquisition of Asterisk is out of the question. But Google may show interest in Digium which is the company that employs Mark Spencer, the creator of Asterisk. It is quite a far shot, but if it happens, this would be huge for a small company like Digium and for Mark Spencer himself. He has a big fan following in the open-source VoIP community, sort of a legend.

A search company in the media domain that comes to mind is Blinkx TV. They have beaten GOOG at its own game and have had a lot of succes with TV and Video Search. This combined with TiVO (Personal video Recorder) will be a great match for people to search their own recordings and/or Electronic Program Guides (EPGs) for video content they want to watch.

Another search company that comes to mind is Technorati. It is an invaluable resource to help search for "tags" through over a million Blogs. Search is always going to be Google's playground and GOOG may have gotten smitten with the success of these two startups.

It is also possible that Google may be looking to make multiple acquisitions to enter into the triple/quadrupple play market. Convergence is the name of the game and Google might want to get a foot in before its too late.

Going to Vonage

2005-08-23T10:37:00.000-06:00

I accepted a job offer from Vonage recently. Will be joining work after labor day! This is exciting because it brings us closer to New York, one of my favorite cities. Here's an aerial shot of what is soon to become Vonage Headquarters in Holmdel, NJ.

More about Vonage here, here and here.

Pimp That Phone | Welcome to Pimp My Phone! Four Contestants, Four Phones, One Big Prize.

2005-08-12T10:33:00.000-06:00

Pimp that phone contest by Vonage.

Pimp That Phone | Welcome to Pimp My Phone! Four Contestants, Four Phones, One Big Prize.

The Long Tail theory of marketting...

2005-08-08T03:48:00.000-06:00

The author makes an interesting case for niche' markets in selling to peer-to-peer type social networking customer base. His observations are, in my opinion, a result of years of riding the bleeding edge by many social networking companies, whose ideas have been later embedded within "mainstream" internet shopping portals. Epinions comes to mind as one, Gomez.com, and many more. The author used Amazon.com's "Readers who read this book, also liked or bought..."feature, as an example on how P2P and social networking is changing the marketting and PR game. Does this mean it is time for Diversification for PR firms??

Despite the author's best intentions, I cannot help but imagine, that eventually, just like press media, this domain will be cornered by a handful of "name-brand" PR sites. Internet-savvy shoppers however will continue to use features such as Amazon.com's recommended list.

Extreme Makeover

2005-07-07T01:08:00.000-06:00

Last night on Larry King Live, Larry featured the 'magicians' behind ABC's hit series Extreme Makeover. Some of the patients in this show were truly suffering from deformities of the sort that was affecting their entire life and well being as well as self esteem. Many others were primarily cosmetic enhancements to improve dating prospects. How many of them would fall under the underprivileged, poor, who's direct livelyhood and maybe future life prospects depended upon corrective surgery? A grand total of 1.

The whole situation is a sad one. It was tragic to see Larry and his guests talking about how good the surgeons felt when they helped someone look better, look what they wanted to look like. How benevolent this act of performing corrective/cosmetic surgery on someone was and how refreshing and gratifying it was to the experts to have given their time to perform these modern day miracles for men and women who were badly in need of a .... date!

It was even more tragic that Larry did not point out any charitable work that these miracle surgeons may have been doing, basically donating their time and expertise for nothing in return, to benefit the cause of the truly underprivileged and disadvantaged as a result of congenital or accidental deformity which directly affects their livelyhood, self-esteem and potentially survival. Perhaps Larry forgot to point these acts of benevolence, or perhaps there weren't any to point out, or perhaps it didn't fit in the theme of the show that night.

The episode must have been a great PR event for all the surgeons interviewed, the stylist and fashion designer in the show, as well as for ABC itself. What an ingenious way to promote the show and the surgeons? Wow! Needless to say, these expressions of benevolence on the part of surgeons, gratitude on the part of the patients (from the show), and wonder on the part of the audience in the show as well as Larry, does nothing, nada, zilch to advance the cause of putting smiles back on the faces of people and their destinies back in the hands of people in this world who struggle for survival because of their deformity.

Perhaps, Larry should do another small segment in an unrelated show, to maybe showcase the works of the likes of The Smile Train, who are a non-governmental organization (NGO - not for profit), which performs these miracles almost daily in a variety of countries and in a variety of cultures uplifting those who not only cannot afford it but do not have any hope of a good life, living with a cleft lip deformity.

Deformities, congenital or accidental, are considered taboos in many societies of the third world. It is a deficiency which inherently leads to prejudice and assumption of incompetence or ineffectiveness. It is a curse to many. In countries like India and China, a child born with a deformity such as this determines to a large extent that child's future life achievements of lack thereof. The Smile Train, puts smiles back on these faces and their lives back in their own hands so they can chart their destiny without being prejudged and denied the opportunities that lie ahead. Thats benevolence. That's applying a technology, effort and manpower to a great cause.

Perhaps Larry should have had one more cosmetic surgeon, Dr. Upadhye, who lives in the USA and despite the fact that his heart operates at a fraction of its capacity, despite the fact that he himself cannot walk or talk clearly, performs hundreds of surgeries for free by visiting India's poor every year. Perhaps Larry should have relied on the first class investigative journalism that CNN and their anchors are so famous for to dig up those timid and shy souls who stay away from the limelight while performing these acts of greatness daily. Perhaps Larry should meet Dr. V (see post dated July 3).

Then again, perhaps Larry just wanted to look at his shows ratings and ABC's ratings for Extreme Makeover.

The nature of perception

2005-07-04T00:17:00.000-06:00

We are led to believe a lie
When we see with, and not through the eye
Which was born in a night to perish in a night,
When the soul slept in beams of light.

-- Blake.

Read a beautiful article by Deepak Chopra on Resurgence. This is Part One of a two part series on The Flaws of Perception.

The trip about nothing

2005-07-03T00:04:00.000-06:00

[ This was a travelogue written for a Road trip to Lake Tahoe in March 2002]

On sunday we got back from our trip to tahoe. It was nice for a change... It was one of those trips when it's not so much the destination, but the journey itself. Definitely felt that way since we drove for over 16 hours to and fro!Burning gas at the rate of 3 gallons an hour, we almost flew to Tahoe on Friday. It started off as a bad dream when my boss wouldn't give me paid vacation. Things didnt get any better when we reached to find out that the hotel had only one room instead of the two we had booked for us and another couple we were supposed to meet. As a result of that we ended up upgrading to a lake-view room for ourselves. Another hour later my friend called and said he was stuck on the highway in a snowstorm and CHP had closed the highway due to accidents... So he turned back towards frisco and cancelled the whole deal... so here we are, in the middle of a snowstorm, in Lake Tahoe just by ourselves and spending inordinate amount of money just to go snowboarding... You'd laugh if i told you we drove all the way there for all that from Utah.... But we did!!! (You see what i mean when I said it's not the destination - but the journey). Anyway, we swallowed the frustration along with the fish and chips and numerous shots of tequila as well as Bushmills on the ice that night and decided to check out the next morning and head home... this was already a nightmare. Early morning the next day Deepa got up and noticed the lake! And her spirits were back. (or maybe it was all the spirits from the night before). And we decided to stay! So we rented a snowboard and went on to the resort (a nice place by the way) for some snowboarding. I think the high point of the trip was that Deepa finally got rid of the fear of getting off the lifts. She managed to do it sweetly without falling over, leaning on, pushing or pulling me along with her to the ground more than once! It was a snowy, stormy afternoon but we got free hot chocolate at the end. It wasn't until on the way back that it dawned on me. That it's not the destination, but it's the journey. Kinda like life itself (if u excuse my platitude).

It was quiet in the car, we were cruising on the freeway as I watched the tachometer tick away the miles every second. When was the last time we did this? Couldn't remember. Some people will tell you how precious it is to be able to admire your car when you are on a long trip. I love my car! I watched the birds sitting on the side of the road with their backs to the freeway waiting for the next car to bring that sudden gust of air, just so they could take flight. As I watched them fly away I noticed the distant storm descending itself on some tiny Nevada village. The vistas and the desert and the peace and the calm, it was all right there and as I watched my baby sleep soundly on the passenger seat, I decided it was time to listen to some music.

Mind the Gap!

2005-07-02T23:36:00.000-06:00

[ This travelogue was written in November 2003, after returning from a trip to London. ]

I am back from london having been busy "minding thegap" on the "tube". It was a fantastic trip in hermajesty's service (serving the london economy thatis). In a place where they eat beans and toast forbreakfast, have puddings with names like "the spotteddick", and where you are constantly being reminded to"mind the gap" and many times even "mind your head!",there was no "way out" of the the compelling andconspicuous British motifs. The famous red telephonebooth, the red post office box, the double deckerbusses and crazy drivers were solemn reminders ofIndia's inheritance from the Raj and the Tikka wrapsand Tiffin box meals were stark signs of how theindians have taken over the Raj. More than anything else, it was the history thatstares you right in the eye when you look everywherearound you, that made the trip so memorable. It wasimpossible not to notice that at any given place inlondon, you could be standing on the very same sitewhere old day legends would have stood and lived.Like the famous Thames walk, the River trip in a boat(which was the normal way for royalty to tour london),the Waterloo bridge where Napolean fought (there wasno bridge then), the London bridge (subject of thefamous nursery rhyme as well as the sight ofdecapitated heads amast on stakes to remind whathappened to traitors to the monarchy in those days),the infamous Tower Hill where the beheadingsthemselves took place, the Tower of London whereMonarchs lived for ages, the beautiful dome of the St.Pauls Cathedral that to this day (for almost 300 yrs)adorns the London sky, Shakespeare's Globe where thelegend himself must have performed for the people, SirChristopher Wrens historic architecture, the infamousLondon Dungeons where Jack the Ripper went to work onhis victims and the plague spread, the Tower bridgeunder which sailors must have passed bidding theirlast fairwells to their families, Westminster Abbeywhere the both the houses of parliament sit, the BigBen and the Royal palaces themselves.And these are just the historic places. They arejuxtaposed within the same skyline with modern wonderssuch as Sir Norman Foster's glassy architecturalconcept buildings, the London Eye (a giant ferriswheel on the banks of the Thames providing spectacularviews of all of London and beyond), the MilleniumDome, the Millenium Bridge, and on and on and on. Thesight seeing never ends.But the trip to London had to "terminate"unfortunately, a lot like the trains in london"terminate" (I found out this was not a perilousending but just the end of railroad!) and we had tosay farewell on our "way out". But we will go backsometime again and I am sure the history of londonwould have been re-written again and again by then.Until then, I will be busy "miding my head".

2005-07-02T23:32:00.000-06:00

who r u god?

I am the grief that makes you wonder
Is there but a God here or yonder
I am your guilt, your conscience I am
I am the heartfelt, apology you have
I am your shame, that stops you from sinning
I am your taboo, your bane, your inner meaning
I am not a flower, not energy, not matter
I am that prophetic glimpse of disaster
I am not song, no verse no symphony
I am but the meaning that touches your heart in agony
I am not beautiful, nor ugly i am
I am the duality of the yin and the yang
I am not here, not there nowhere
I am in your wonder, your wish, your stare

Kissinger regrets deriding India's leader - South and Central Asia - MSNBC.com

2005-07-01T10:32:00.000-06:00

“The Indians are bastards anyway,” Kissinger responded. “They are starting a war there ... While she was a bitch, we got what we wanted too. She will not be able to go home and say that the United States didn’t give her a warm reception and therefore in despair she’s got to go to war.”

Kissinger was then the national security adviser.

“I regret that these words were used. I have extremely high regard for Mrs. Gandhi as a statesman,” Kissinger said. “The fact that we were at cross purposes at that time was inherent in the situation but she was a great leader who did great things for her country.”

Kissinger regrets deriding India's leader - South and Central Asia - MSNBC.com

Fun With Markov Chains

2005-06-30T12:52:00.000-06:00

For the ultra-geek I present you this... Its fascinating to me - I guess I am ultra-geek by my own definition. Fascinating, I say, fascinating!!

Fun With Markov Chains

Batman...

2005-06-29T23:09:00.000-06:00

Saw Batman Begins today and I figured out the mystery behind Dr Levitt's conundrum over where did all the criminals go?! It was BATMAN Mr Levitt. All those numbers are misleading - you got the wrong answer - it wasn't Roe v Wade that eliminated crime (although its a compelling argument for the cause of Pro-choice activists nationwide), it was BATMAN!!! Didn't ya see the movie?!!! Didn't ya get the memo? :)

The perfect Vision of Dr. V

2005-06-27T10:05:00.000-06:00

Beautiful Article on Dr. V, the catarct surgeon from India. This is a slightly older article. But recently he was discovered by a San Francisco businessman and investor named David Greene. David learned that Dr. V used his profits from cataract surgeries to fund the charitable surgeries that he did for free. They also discussed his business model and found that he spent about 600$ for each pair of artificial lenses he installs on his patients. David Greene then setup a manufacturing plant, which manufactures and sells these lenses to Dr. V for a little over 4$ and still makes a profit. This means that Dr. V now can put in $596/- more of profit towards charities. He has done well over a quarter million free cataract surgeries and restored eyesight for the poor in Southern India. Just simply beautiful.

http://www.fastcompany.com/online/43/drv.html

Sun Tzu - The Art of Parenting

2005-06-21T10:19:00.000-06:00

If you can't teach obedience, then settle for humiliation
Sun Tzu�s The Art of Parenting: A lesson in humility - Blogging Baby - www.bloggingbaby.com _

A conviction worth more than 300 Million

2005-06-21T10:09:00.000-06:00

Buffet is sticking to his conviction that the dollar is weakening. Berkshire has lost over 300 million in its bets against the dollar so far this year (thats just about 2 quarters), but the Oracle of Omaha is standing his ground. Read the story and read between the lines if you can.

George Coztanza really exists..

2005-06-16T00:19:00.000-06:00

Remember that balding guy with glasses and a yankees baseball hat on his head? Well he's for real - and he has a blog! Read Coztanza's Commentary.

More applied economics...thank you Mr Levitt

2005-06-16T00:12:00.000-06:00

Slate magazine has an article published in May, by the two Steve's (Dubner and Levitt), of Freakonomics fame, which mentions some new discoveries behind the mysteries of the inverse male/female ratio in asian populations. The search for the missing ladies is on. Read it here.

Work is for production, Leisure is for consumption

2005-06-16T00:07:00.000-06:00

Insightful post by this avid and articulate blogger. Good read.

http://battlepanda.blogspot.com/2005/06/taking-lumps-of-labor-part-ii-work-is.html

An impending Housing market bubble "bust" or a "controlled deflation"?

2005-06-13T11:27:00.000-06:00

The link at the bottom of this message, goes to an article that discusses Interest Only (IO) loans and gives a list of a major metro cities with percentages of IO loans. It's an interesting study and maybe we can learn something about the housing market "bubble" from it. Naturally, IO financing is not the smartest or wisest form of financing. In a housing market bubbling as fast as this, and in the face of warnings and cautions of a bubble bursting, it is in fact unbeleivable. Leaving people's financing choices and prudence aside, if we look behind the numbers, there may be a different story to tell.

According to the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University's study on The State of the Nation's Housing 2005, the housing price increases do not appear to be speculative in nature. Under 6 % of houses in the most aggresively rising markets were purchased as second homes. According to the study, most households make a house purchase decision despite the fact that renting a similar house can be 30% cheaper in the hottest markets. This indicates, according to the study, that the average home buyer is not being speculative in the classic sense but simply optimistic based on current increases. Also, a very small percentage of homeowners are actually turning over the homes for a quick profit (although that number did rise by 1 % in 2005). This again indicates that it is not speculative. They attribute the housing price increases to restrictive land use and building policies by city councils in townships and counties surrounding burgeoning metro areas. This artificially creates a scarcity of land and thus raises existing home prices in the face of increasing true demand.

To distill something of importance from these two reports, it seems to me that one thing is striking. If housing demand is true, and short term interest rates are rising (thanks to the Fed), then the impending bust that everyone is talking about, will disproportionately affect those markets where there is a large number of unwise borrowers who are not taking into account the possibilty of defaulting when the interest rates rise on their Short Term Interest Only loans (ARMs and such). Thus, if there is a bust, it will most likely affect markets at the top of this list of IO mortgages. If you are looking to buy a home in one of these areas, it would serve to wait for a year or 2 or even 3 to let those homes come back on the market for lesser than they were bought, unwisely. As a corollary, if this were a correct hypothesis, then then so-called housing market "bust" will really be a controlled "deflation" largely localized in such IO islands across the nation and may as well serve to be a "boon" to the economy.

MSN Money - BusinessWeek Business News: The Home Loans Vexing Greenspan

Freakonomics...

2005-06-11T22:40:00.000-06:00

Finished the book today. Basically, I did something that I have never ever done in my life, ever. I started and finished the book page to page, start to end, cover t0 cover, prologue, epilogue, acknowledgements, preface, praise for the book, author's bio everything, every printed word in the same day. Non-Stop. Thats how un-put-downnable the book was for me.

It does strike to me that if you liked Freakonomics, the book, then it is likely that you might also like Circles: Fifty round trips through history by James Burke.

Like Levitt, Burke also has a forensic mind when investigating connections between seemingly unrelated events and is an astute student of causality. In fact, Burke has more than one titles that explore such "freak" connections within technology and sociology much the same way as Levitt does in economics and sociology in Freakonomics.

I have read Circles, but it was not as un-put-downnable as Freakonomics, however, the style of the two books was strikingly similar - sort of a journeyistic feeling with an intellectual P.T. Barnum of economics (and, in case of Circles, history).

Vidz poem and my answer

2005-06-08T00:27:00.000-06:00

A few weeks ago, my cousin Viddy posted a cute poem on her poetry blog. It was called who are u god???

Well I have a dark solution to the jingle - you can read it here.

The end of mangoes

2005-06-08T00:13:00.000-06:00

The end of Mangoes

Then one year, while the mangoes were still unripe, a fruit wholesaler from Delhi came to visit Ramu's father and offered him a sizeable sum of money for the entire crop. It was an offer that couldn't be refused.

Damien Rice - And so it is...

2005-06-07T23:51:00.000-06:00

Beatiful poetry, bakwaas movie.

From the soundtrack of the movie Closer.

http://www.warnerbrosrecords.com/damienrice/

And so it is..
just like you said, it would be
Life goes easy on me
most of the time.

And so it is...
a shorter story, no love no glory
No hero in her sky

I can't take my eyes off you
I can't take my eyes off you
I can't take my eyes off you
I can't take my eyes off you
I can't take my eyes off you
I can't take my eyes off you

And so it is..
just like you said, it should be
We'll both forget the breeze
Most of the time

...
...

Technically Speaking � For the Love of Science

2005-06-06T13:49:00.000-06:00

The worst job in science!

Globalization and Poverty - continued...

2005-06-03T11:57:00.000-06:00

I do beleive we can make a difference in the world and our understanding of the issues will only help us to make that difference significant.A while ago, the PBS program "Commanding Heights" (a series on global economic history and trends) did a group discussion in which the participants were several high profile "thinkers" of our era. More than "thinkers" many of them were also "doers" meaning they were heads of state, finance ministers, economists, activists.A link to the home page of this discussion is below:

Commanding Heights - Up for Debate

There is a link on the top right of this page called PDF which will launch another page where you can download complete PDF transcripts of all discussions they have had. The "Globalization and Poverty" discussion is towards the bottom of this second page in the "Up for debate" section.

VoIP - The race is on

2005-06-01T16:00:00.000-06:00

More evidence that VoIP is here to stay and catching on fast as the choice for Telephone service. Om Malik's blog gives some numbers to prove.

http://gigaom.com/2005/05/31/the-us-voip-race-is-on/

Globalization and Poverty - Part Deux

2005-05-18T15:00:00.000-06:00

A while ago i had mused on how I thought Globalisation will reduce poverty in the world is a false thesis. Here's a link to that article.

NPR is currently running a weeklong special on globalization. On Wednesday (today) they telecast a discussion on globalization and poverty. You can tune in for the retelecast by KCPW at 7pm or listen live at the same time on KCPW website.

Here's NPRs brief about the program:

GLOBALIZATION AND POVERTY
Garrick Utley and Kojo Nnamdi host this town hall style discussion. The show features discussion with experts on globalization, economics and global poverty. Panelists include John Ambler (Oxfam), Adrian Wooldridge (The Economist), Professor Jagdish Bhagwati (Council on Foreign Relations), Professor Allan Meltzer (Carnegie Mellon University), and Professor William Easterly (New York University). Listen for “Globalization and Poverty,” Wednesday at 2, with a repeat broadcast at 7 on KCPW.

VoIP - it is happening!

2005-05-12T11:17:00.000-06:00

Two or three recent stories have led me to write this post. There was no doubt in my mind that VoIP is the "killer app" for broadband access. In January, Standard & Poors declared "cable operators call on internet phones for growth" and went on to say VoIP is fuelling growth in broadband customers. A new report (May 10) on VoIP Spending and Trends by eMarketer says "More telephone services are being offered over the Internet through VoIP (Voice Over Internet protocol) and its steady growth this year will see a spillover into mainstream US residential households and businesses by 2006". I personally use Vonage as my VoIP service provider. Privately held Vonage recently announced that it raised 200 Million in funding led by Bain capital. But what happens to the service providers may still not be as clear. While Vonage has run up to the top with more cash (maybe cash is a means to show its credible), there are over 1100 different VoIP service providers. Then there are the RBOCs who are as of yet watching from the sidelines. From this murky picture, two certainties arise:

VoIP equipment manufacturers will win - specially the leaders. And the leader today is none other than Cisco. Cisco reported earnings on May 10 and whats important to note is that "the IP telephony group "blew past" the $1 billion run rate, joining security in the billion-dollar club" according to CEO Chambers.
VoIP bandwidth providers will win. The bandwidth providers are the backbone for VoIP service providers, their data networks and fiber pipes carry the packetized VoIP data from a subscriber to the service provider. Mind you, that it is not just data, but it is a VoIP call. Level 3 is among the foremost in this intelligent voice bandwidth provisioning with many products at different entry levels geared towards VoIP service providers. More importantly, Level 3 already has its network built out (since they got such a head start thanks to the prescient CEO Jim Crowe).

Microsoft and Tata Consultancy Services to Deliver Connected Services Framework to Telecommunications Providers

2005-05-11T14:44:00.000-06:00

"We are extremely pleased to extend our long-standing collaboration with Microsoft to jointly provide leading-edge solutions such as Microsoft Connected Services Framework to the telecommunications industry,"

Microsoft and Tata Consultancy Services to Deliver Connected Services Framework to Telecommunications Providers

Virtual Voice Network - from Interoute

2005-05-11T11:50:00.000-06:00

Interoute is a European network carrier, has launched a "web-based commission free voice trading ARENA". They say "traditional providers of voice exchanges charge a commission for passing traffic throught the exchange, [Interoute] customers are only charged for port use on their softswitches." India's VSNL is one of their customers.

Its basically, a web-based VoIP peering services management portal.

press release: Arena Launch

GM, Ford Junk Bonds

2005-05-11T11:29:00.000-06:00

If you care about the auto industry, the recent flaylings of the American auto manufacturers and hybrid cars, read on!

GM, Ford Junk Bonds

A buoyant India dares to ask: Is a billion so bad?

2005-05-09T10:45:00.000-06:00

"...a growing chorus of academics, business leaders and writers question the conventional wisdom from which population control flows: the very idea that a billion is too many"

A buoyant India dares to ask: Is a billion so bad?

NPR : George Soros Discusses Efforts to Spread Democracy

2005-05-09T10:28:00.000-06:00

NPR : George Soros Discusses Efforts to Spread Democracy

Blog Maverick - www.blogmaverick.com _

2005-05-09T09:23:00.000-06:00

Blog Maverick - www.blogmaverick.com _

Globalisation and Poverty

2005-05-03T20:08:00.000-06:00

I seriously doubt if the benefits of "Globalisation" will ever directly affect the poor in any 3rd world country. Globalisation in my opinion serves as a catalyst in many ways - it opens up markets, trading opportunities, sharing of technologies, etc. however it halts at the local government level. Those who understand the benefits of globalization get into the game early but those who are handicapped by their own lack of education, infrastructure and responsible leadership can only but wait for someone more privileged to uplift them. This can happen only at the local level not at the global level. When Vinoba Bhave (even before Gandhi) worked for the upliftment of the Harijans in the Hindu society, there was no globalization; today when thousands of social workers dedicate their own time, effort and money in to help bring electricity or education or freedom of speech/religion/etc. to the poor in various quarters of the third world, there is no globalisation effect that drives it. It is (1) the desire of those who want to move up combined with (2) good willed and benevolent volunteers. Tying it all back together, I think Globalization plays a role in the sense of raising awareness of the poor to a larger audience, thereby theoretically increasing the possibility that more volunteers may come forward to help them. But thats about it.

A more current example is China. There is little argument that China is fiercely and aggressively becoming a dominant economic force in the world as a direct result of their open-ness to globalization. And yet at the same time it is also well reported that China's poor, rural population still waits to benefit from the massive inflow of capital, job creation and outflow of manufactured goods. The proponents always make it a point to point out that there is job creation which directly affects the poor - but blindly discount the displacement of workforce and skill-sets at such a grand scale. A farmer who now has to weave wicker baskets because thats where the money is does not equate to a new job. A school teacher in a village school who now transcribes medical records is not a new job. It is, in my opinion, a zero sum game. Yet another argument is that Globalization helps the new members who enter the workforce. While this argument holds some ground, it stears away from the topic of addressing poverty.

An argument can even be made that it is raising the gap between rich and poor in the world.

FreeBSD!!

2005-04-30T02:48:00.000-06:00

FreeBSD is an open source Berkeley Sockets version of UNIX. Touted as the most robust and stable as well as popular TCP/IP stack in the world, Yahoo's websites run on FreeBSD servers. It is not Linux. I chose FreeBSD to install it on an older PC which was recently replaced with a much cheaper and 4 times faster, bigger, lighter, .... Dell PC for Windows stuff. The older PC is a multiprocessor PIII machine and one of the bigger concerns for installing anything on it was to make sure SMP support was available in the OS Kernel. Secondly, I had some experience installing Gentoo Linux on yet another older PC and I really loved the "portage" feature of Gentoo. However, the hardware support for Gentoo was dismal (at least in my experience). So I chose FreeBSD, even though it is not Linux. The Gentoo portage has been incidentally copied from the "ports" utility in FreeBSD and therefore I got the best of both worlds in choosing this OS. Additinally, I wanted something that would also support Asterisk - the open source IP PBX.

Current status of this project is as follows:
1. Installed FreeBSD base OS
2. Installed FreeBSD common packages
3. Installed FreeBSD Ports utility
4. Installed X and Gnome GUI components
5. Configured kernel settings for Symmetric Multi-Processing (SMP) and other hardware specific options/devices, and rebuilt the entire kernel for this custom hardware.
6. Installed the new custom kernel with SMP support in place of original kernel.

Next steps to do are:
1. Configure system to boot with a desktop manager (mostly Gnome).
2. Get CVSup port
3. Configure CVSup to use Asterisk
4. Download latest source and binaries for Asterisk via CVSup.
5. Compile Asterisk for server.

Other next steps for making this an intranet server are:
1. Configure inetd.conf file to start appropriate internet servers (telnet, ftp, www, samba)
2. Re-Start inetd (and thus other network services)
3. Configure NFS Server
4. Configure Print Server and spooler
5. Configure domain name and hostnames

Phew!!

The woods are lovely dark and deep...
but I have promises to keep...
And miles to go before I sleep...
Miles to go before I sleep.

My Cousin Vidhi

2005-04-29T09:52:00.000-06:00

This is her Blog! Shes a poet....and a good one!

~~peppermint~~

The Bard Goes to the Super Bowl

2005-04-28T17:14:00.000-06:00

This is why Frank Deford is my favorite sports writer.

---- Copyrighted Material ----

The Bard goes to the Super Bowl
by Frank Deford

act 1

FAVRE:

Hail, young Bledsoe. What serendipity joins us quarterbacks
Here within the Quarter upon the quarter of the hour?

BLEDSOE:

Beware, noble Favre, for soon enough, by Patriot authority
'Twill be your Green Bay team that will be draw and quarter-ed.

FAVRE:

Forsooth, Bledsoe, for the quarterback you may be,
You speak with but a half a wit and full all of nothing.

BLEDSOE:

Oh, mark me, good Favre, for though have they called you
Most Valuable of Players for your autumn grandeur
'Tis winter now, and this January encounter, will send you
Out upon your shield, and me aloft to Disneyworld.

EXEUNT the two quarterbacks.

act 2 scene 1

ENTER LORT RUPERT OF FOX, who delivers a woeful soliloquy:

LORD RUPERT:

How dismal is this television world,
That I should come from distant isle,
To empty all my pretty purse for rights
To this grossly spangled grid spectacular,
Yet find upon my field of schemes no America's team
To prance its star-blue rogues before a breathless fandom
(Nor e'en San Fran's heroes, measuring up to two score and nine)
But, instead, a coupled unknown elevens:
The underdog, hailing from the Athens of America, so call-ed,
It's better rival from a frozen crossroads, where, perchance,
More cheese resides than do viewers for Fox news.
(Despairing:)
Oh, what sparse ratings means this ghastly pairing?
Cowboys, Cowboys! Wherefore art thou, Cowboys?
But, soft ye now, here comes the rugged Parsells.

EXIT

scene 2

ENTER BILL PARSELLS, THE PATRIOTS COACH.

PARSELLS:

Once I brought true Giants to this titled greensward,
But now, all my pigskin genius must be applied
Am I to obtain vict'ry for my current yeomen.
Alas, these Patriots are known, e'en 'mongst friends
As Patsies!
Patsies!!

ENTER BLEDSOE AND MANY OTHER PATRIOTS, running cross the stage, exulting.

PARSELLS sees them and raises his arms in hope.

PARSELLS:

But hear me from without the sideline stripe:
With the royal arm of daring Bledsoe, I will make
The Pack the patsies and my own Patriots super men!

BUT SUDDENLY, there is a forbidding voice, and then a ghost appears before PARSELLS.

GHOST:

Beware, rank Parsells.

----------- Copyrighted Material -----------

This and many other fantastic sports commentary is found in his excellent book: The Best of Frank Deford: I am just Getting Started

Gladiator Nation

2005-04-28T16:42:00.000-06:00

America is turning into a "gladiator nation". I think the onset of this trend began when Michael Jordan declared "I am back". Or may be I am wrong. Maybe this is just a process brewing for much longer than I can even imagine and is just getting faster and faster, like the athletes and sports heroes we watch on TV, on courts all around the nation and on "Inside the ..." programs after hours. As if the current sport superstardom is not enough to quench the thirst for starry-eyed-admiration of these jocks, ESPN now has a history channel of sports. My favorite sports writer, Frank Deford tends to agree.

My take on this state of affairs is that this is the first sign of a society heading towards decadence. In the last years before the Roman civilization headed into the "dark ages" Gladiators were the superheroes of the nation. The masses were estranged with the politicos, Caesar was but a mere puppet. What does that tell us? Is it that we as a civilization always *need* somebody to look up to? We need super men (and women) to show us that there are bigger greater things that can be accomplished by the same body that envelopes each one of us? Why does it have to be sports? Why not humanitarian causes? Why not intellectual superiority? There are pieces missing in this puzzle. It's strange. But then again, these are strange days.

Getting back to sports, Tiger won again, finally re-establishing that an American is still a leader in Golf - not the funny sounding Vijay Singh from Fiji (although he looks and sounds Indian to me), not the any number of South African's flooding the Golf circuits, not the paunchy fluffy American white boy in Phil Mickelson, but yes Tiger - none other than the super man himself. Sports commentators, TV sports anchors, Golf TV and Golf Digest must be finally relieved that they can reinvest in their hero again. Sometimes I wonder, is it really national pride, or is it all money. What drives American sports fans more - the fact that the superheroes they admire are american or the fact that they are being sold this product by capitalist league commisioners. Go figure.

Oh yeah, and Go Tiger!

The Shannonizer..

2005-04-25T09:55:00.000-06:00

No Cinemax viewers - it has nothing to do with Shannon Tweed - so keep your shorts on! This is for those folk who think they know literature....

http://www.nightgarden.com/shannon.htm

Fast Company Now - blog

2004-08-02T17:52:00.000-06:00

Fast Company Now

Project Looking Glass by Sun Microsystems

2004-07-24T05:40:00.000-06:00

This is amazing!

Project Looking Glass by Sun Microsystems

telecom experience

2004-07-24T04:44:00.000-06:00

have been lately toying with the idea to start consulting or do contract work for telecom clients - there is definitely a lot to offer here - specially in the category of next generation network NgN analysis tools development. such tools are invaluable to telco's who want to save money and time troubleshooting their networks as well as recover revenues that may be falling through the cracks. lets see how far this goes. must find a good PR first.

bloodbath may be getting over on the street

2004-07-24T04:32:00.000-06:00

The Bottom is near - SmartMoney

MSFT - a dividend play?

2004-07-24T04:17:00.000-06:00

MSFT announced it would distribute a special dividend of $3 per share, buy back significant amount of shares in the open market over the next couple of years and double its regular dividend. What does it all mean for the company and for current or future shareholders?

Noticeable is several announcements timed very carefully by the company to neutralise any effects of the buyback / dividends may have on the stocks valuation.

Slate is on sale
The "D" word - WSJ login required
MSFT to hire up to 7000 more employees
How to handle MSFT dividends

vfr

2004-07-24T04:09:00.000-06:00

when i bought my VFR i had no idea how much i will begin to like it. it was almost with some hesitation that i got it. but then things got zippy pretty soon. i now use it every day in the summer.

I am finally in the blog world

2004-07-24T03:53:00.000-06:00

It had to happen someday, it was just a matter of time. A momentary spurt of "irrational exuberance" from my otherwise slothy existence prompted me to post some photos i have taken in the past, to my companion photoblog - photochomp. If anyone ever visits it, it is testimony to my theory that there are an awful lot of people online who have nothing better to do!