YahoooOOooo! revisited

Though I liked Yahoo! much before. Now I am beginning to dislike it. Mainly because of its current CEO, Jerry Yang. He's an idiot. If a company goes public, it no longer belongs to the founder. It is owned collectively by each and every shareholder. Just because one individual (Yang) is an ardent MSFT hater, shouldn't affect the dynamics of the lucrative online search/ad market.

Yahoo! survives till now because of its mail. Its a legacy system. You can not get rid of it. I created my first email account with yahoo. So had to put up with it till now. Just because I had to visit its home page each time when I sign in/sign off, i got hooked into their finance & movie section which I very much like. But never used their search engine though.

Google dominates the search market. Yahoo & MSFt are distant second and third. Many don't realize that Google is becoming a bitch like MSFT in 90s with their arrogant monopoly. Google's sole income is through advertising, driven by their search engine. With so much cash in their hand, they are releasing so many free products killing many small industries. So an alliance between MSFT-Yahoo! would atleast bring in a viable competitor against Google. On top of averting a merger with MSFT, it struck a deal with Google. What a fucking shame!

What the fuck is happening to the economy?

What the fuck is happening to the economy? One bubble after another is bursting in this decade. First was the tech bubble at the beginning of this decade and then the housing bubble. None other than Greenspan ( ex-Fed chairman) should be blamed for this. He reduced the interest rate dramatically to 1% and made people to look at mortgage as a better investment as soon as the tech bubble burst. He was responsible for the over inflated housing market ('02 - '05). SEC should also be blamed for this. They should be regulating the financial institutes. All the financial institutes were given a free hand in the subprime mortgage sector.

Even after 2 bubbles people don't realize that if one entire sector of the market goes bullish its a fucking bubble. The commodities sector is way too much over priced. Blame it on the speculators twisting the supply-demand theory. Oil and food prices are soaring sky high because of the "sudden" increase in demand in growing markets like China/India. Just 5 months before, Oil was trading under 80$/barrel. Then the speculator jumped in and inflated the price now to 140$. I don't understand how the demand could increase in just 5 months.

Bernanke followed the footsteps of Greenspan and decreased the interest rates from 5 to 2%. Thank god, he, unlike Greenspan, realized that inflation is also a factor that should be considered. Look at Europe, they didn't cut back on the interest rates to ease a problem and making Euro a stronger currency. None of the presidential candidates talked about the real issue of this financial mess, except for Ron Paul. He was demanding an answer from Feds for artificially fluctuating the interest rates. Though Ron Paul is a Republican, I liked his ideas. Unfortunately he could not get the presidential nomination.

Many lessons should be learned in this decade. Few

1. Don't touch the interest rates, unless it really necessary.
2. A general body to strictly regulate the financial institutes and their lending practices.
3. Eliminate speculators.

The Big Kahuna!

One of the finest movies I have ever seen. There are only three characters in the movie played by Kevin spacey, Danny DeVito and someother. The title reminded me of "Pulp Fiction" the scene where Jules (Sameul Jackson) kills the guy who eats Kahuna Burger to get the suitcase in the beginning. Well, Kahuna means priest in Hawaiian.

To start off theres nothing new in this movie. Intelligent script is what makes it stand apart. Most of the talking is done by Larry (Kevin spacey), Bob at the listening end and Phill (Danny DeVito) gives a moving performance at the end. Kevin Spacey does excellent what hes brilliant at. The location is a suite in a hotel in Wichita, there are three characters which are sales person attending a sales convention and trying to get a deal with an industrial big shot attending the convention. But the script revolves around religion, philosophy, soul search, etc. There are many funny, intelligent scripts in the movie. Some:

Larry:There are people in this world, Bob, who look very official while they are doing what they are doing. And do you know why?
Bob:Why
Larry:Because they don't know what they are doing. Because if you know what you are doing, then you don't have to look like you know what you are doing, because it comes naturally.

The big shot comes to the convention and Bob happens to talk to him and the other two have missed him. After the convention, Larry asks Bob what did you talk with him. Bob says he talked about Jesus. After some argument, Larry says "Did you mention perhaps what line of industrial lubricants Jesus would have endorsed?". Industrial lubricant is what they were trying to sell.

At end of the movie Bob gives a final dialogue on character: "I'm saying you've already done plenty of things to regret, you just don't know what they are. It's when you discover them, when you see the folly in something you've done, and you wish that you had it do over, but you know you can't, because it's too late. So you pick that thing up, and carry it with you to remind you that life goes on, the world will spin without you, you really don't matter in the end. Then you will gain character, because honesty will reach out from inside and tattoo itself across your face."

Danny DeVito is amazing in the movie. Just his presence and expressions are enough to give more to the movie.

Then the movie ends with Baz Luhrmann's "Everybody's Free" sound track. If you have not listened, listen to it. (http://music.yahoo.com/ar-294236---Baz-Luhrmann) Lyrics is great!

How stupid is that?

Its about adobe PDF reader. I am using version 7.0. 0.

Try to open 2 or more PDF documents, you will notice that many readers opening. I believe, in the earlier versions, all the documents open in the same reader and one can change to other PDF documents thru' the "view"/"history" (not sure) menu in the menu bar. Now as many readers as the PDF documents open. Well, it appears so. You will notice all the open PDF documents on the windows task bar.

I opened 2 PDF documents each of like more than 400 pages. I was cross referencing both the documents. I closed the second document as I have gone thru' that. Guess what, both the documents are closed and I am left with an empty PDF reader. I didnt book mark the other document :-(

It, in fact, opens each pdf document in the same reader, but just that it shows a PDF reader application for each PDF document in the windows task bar. Careful observation will reveal a close button for the document frame just below the close button of the reader itself.

Why not tab all the documents like in firefox browser?

YahOooooOooooo!!

I am a big yahoo fan. The things that I like much about yahoo are:

1. Yahoo mail:
I have an account with gmail and I still use yahoo account just because of their cool interface. Its absolutely amazing. (But its still in primitive stage if you make a comparision with zoho mail) The web mail is completely driven by AJAX.

2. Finance:
I visit their finance section to research on stock market. I have seen many sites but I like this very much. One thing that none (as far as I know) has is their forecast. They give a 1 year target estimation of each share. Well, you can not expect it to be accurate. If thats the case, then everyone will make millions in stock market. When I bought shares of starbucks around same time last year, it was around 38$ and the 1 yr estimation was 43$. But its ~30$ now, which means I am losin money :-(

3. Music:
I mostly listen to the linkin park's fanclub radio. The collection is amazing. It just picks the right songs of right artists in that genre. The collection is well tagged. Occasionally heavy metals pop up. I like them too but no hip-fking-hops. Only annoying thing is the yahoo's own ad. All the other ads are tolerable. A guy with a VERY deep voice spells out crap while one soft voice says "To get rid of ads with deep voices, subscribe and pay for yahoo music" The frequency of this particular ad is high. This really annoyed me. So I tried out MSN's Linkin Park radio. The service is provided by Pandora acquired by MS recently. Their tagging is horrible. Lots of Hip hops and trash music. I switch back to yahoo and can live with that deep voice ad.

Though Yahoo lost the technology race but will live longer as a Media Company!

C-Fucking-NN

Its after a long time that I am blogging. Its mainly driven by anger than anything else. Just writing this to vent out my anger.

I was watching CNN International today morning before leaving to office. They were covering the massacre in the Virginia tech school that killed 33 people. That was a real sad news. But the coverage of CNNI was the worst. I never used to watch CNN Local, for that matter, any US local news channel for their mediocre content. One evening Fox local news channel was covering a police pursuit LIVE. Such is the state of the news channels here in US, a real pathetic state.

Coming back to CNN. CNN International is a little better than CNN local. But after today, I am left with no other news channel to watch. There were just reporters around the crime scene reporting the same stuff over and over with different words live. And also interviewing people who doesn't know what to talk about. There was this president of student union or whatsoever was bragging about a morning gathering he was organizing. And to top it off, the news was showing a social networking site's, Facebook, user community and pointing out the profile of one of the victims. I don't know why they want to cover something like this. Of course, everyone grieves but why add fuel.

I always like BBC. News coverage is excellent and their site is just amazing and you get a neutral news. Unfortunately, I don't receive the BBC. For an average American, his whole world is just US of A. Even Sun News back home is better than CNN.

Whats the next step in career??

Most of the students in india after school enter into some engineering degree just driven by the current job scenario and by parents influence. I never would have thot of doin engineering itself if it hadnt been forced by my parents. But at that point i never had strong interest in any of the subject.

Well, now that am in computer industry in US after a short stint in Germany, I have to think what i should do next. Evyone and many articles suggest MBA should be the next step. But I dont seem to agree with that. What kinda knowledge would you gain frm MBA after having been in an happening industry for quite a sometime??? You are not just a tech guy, u interact with many (from your team mates to ppl way up in the hierarchy of your organization to the end user and customers) and u get to knw well the business of your organization. But being a tech guy in a financial industry has its own reward.

Having MBA attached to your name doesnt really make much difference. Its people management thats important, as far as I see it. Being real good in your area of expertise with good people managing skills and understanding your companys/clients business domain, will raise you to greater heights. If you want to switch from one business domain to another at the management level, then you might need a degree.

The way I see myself in next ten years: switch companies that are in different business domain, get exposed to different industries and somewhere down the line start workin on building own company!!

Any comment is welcome!

MyEclipse

This is not abt the MyEclipse that offers plugins and tools for J2EE development in Eclipse platform. I am talking abt the Eclipse model of Mitsubishi. Yes, its abt car.

When I decided to buy a car, buyin a second hand car was ruled out outright. After lots of analysis, the list boiled down to Ford Mustang, Mazda 3 and Mitsubishi Eclipse. As you can see, Mazda3 is the odd man out. I included it in the list because it had a nice engine for a lower price. But the standard features of the car includes just the engine and the body. After adding the "optional features" (even A/C is in that list), the price matched that of the other 2 cars in my list. So first one to go off the list is Mazda3. Now between Mustang and Eclipse.

The first thing that bothered me abt Mustang is that its from Ford, an American company. Ford is making huges losses recently and the only profit making model is the Mustang. It has nice engine (210hp) but V6. It consumes lot of gas. And its a muscle car. Because of V6 engine and the rugged body, have to eliminate this car frm my list.

Eclipse GS 2006/2007 model is the mitsubishi's newly revamped model frm 2000 model. It has a nice engine (I4 & 165hp) and body is slick. The car is gender independent. Only thing that distinguishes from being a girl's pet is the color of the car. So I chose black color. The acceleration is amazing. I think it reaches 60mph in less than 9 sec. I got the car yday and I was driving the car the whole night yday. And the car is a real head-turner. I am completely satisfied with Eclipse till now :-)

Now that I got my car, I can be independent now!!

My first driving experience!

Texas really sucks when it comes to public transport. There is not even one city in Texas that has a good public transport. And moreover, space is not at all an issue in this state. Each city is widespread. Even to buy a gum (chewing or condom), u need some mode of transportation to get them. That mode is always a car.

When I was in Dallas for 2 weeks, I had no problem as my friend was my official driver. But whn I moved to Houston, my life really sucked. To top it off, my apartment was like 15 miles from the office. I commuted to the office by cab for more than a week and cost me almost 80$ a day. I could not get a licence as I didnt receive my SSN. Then I moved to an apartment which is like 2 miles from office. I bought a bike(bicycle) to commute to office. But I still needed someone to buy groceries and stuff. I didnt have any problem with that as the people here are so friendly and nice.

I got my licence after some failures in the road test:( Last week I rented a car to have a nice time with my brother who came down here from California to visit me. I saw a glimse of "american dream" whn i got the car. Total independence and go anywhere anytime u want. I just enjoyed drivin alone with some good music playin along. ( But my taste has gone awful, I now like Tamil Rock songs like freeya vudu, vaadi vaadi, et al.) When i retured the car after my brother left, I felt like I am handicapped.

I'll blog my experience whn i get my own car which will be in near future! Till then drive safe!