Dio's powerful vocals, Iommi's plodding doomy riffs and trippy leads and cryptic/philosophical lyrics - the very makings of many a Sabbath song. Ponder over these lyrics for a while till I am back with some worthwhile to write.
Sometimes I feel like I'm dying at dawn
and sometimes I'm warm as fire
But lately I feel like I'm just gonna rain
and it goes over, and over, and over again, yeah
Too many flames, with too much to burn
and life's only made of paper
Oh, how I need to be free of this pain
but it goes over, and over, and over, and over again
Yeah, sometimes I cry for the lost and alone
and for their dreams that will all be ashes
But lately I feel like I'm just gonna rain
but it goes over, and over, and over, and over again
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Sunday, July 30, 2006
Motörhead: I Ain't No Nice Guy Anymore
When I was young, I was the nicest guy I knew
I thought I was the chosen one
But time went by and I found out a thing or two
My shine wore off as time wore on
I thought that I was living out the perfect life
But in the lonely hours when the truth begins to bite
I thought about the times when I turned my back & stalled
I ain't no nice guy after all
When I was young, I was the only game in town
I thought I had it down for sure,
But time went by and I was lost in what I found
The reasons blurred, the way unsure
I thought that I was living life the only way
But as I saw, that life was more than day to day
I turned around, I read the writing on the wall
I ain't no nice guy after all
I ain't no nice guy after all
In all the years you spend between your birth and death
You find there's lots of times you should have saved your breath
It comes as quite a shock when that trip leads to a fall
I ain't no nice guy after all
I ain't no nice guy after all
I thought I was the chosen one
But time went by and I found out a thing or two
My shine wore off as time wore on
I thought that I was living out the perfect life
But in the lonely hours when the truth begins to bite
I thought about the times when I turned my back & stalled
I ain't no nice guy after all
When I was young, I was the only game in town
I thought I had it down for sure,
But time went by and I was lost in what I found
The reasons blurred, the way unsure
I thought that I was living life the only way
But as I saw, that life was more than day to day
I turned around, I read the writing on the wall
I ain't no nice guy after all
I ain't no nice guy after all
In all the years you spend between your birth and death
You find there's lots of times you should have saved your breath
It comes as quite a shock when that trip leads to a fall
I ain't no nice guy after all
I ain't no nice guy after all
Saturday, July 29, 2006
Downtown Philadelphia
Canon S2 IS in night mode. It was still twilight outside and the prolonged exposure has over exposed the horizon. That apart, the city and the Schuylkill river have come out in striking contrast - deep blue/black as opposed to the lights of the city
Friday, July 14, 2006
The fury of the maker's hand
I am infuriated.
Let me repeat.
I am infuriated -
1. at the incompetence and the pig headedness of the people I am surrounded by.
2. because I am dependant on these nincompoops.
3. because the outcome of my actions involve many people and as is the case, most of them are clueless cretins and do not comprehend that their dispirited existence will cost me dear.
I am infuriated.
Period.
Let me repeat.
I am infuriated -
1. at the incompetence and the pig headedness of the people I am surrounded by.
2. because I am dependant on these nincompoops.
3. because the outcome of my actions involve many people and as is the case, most of them are clueless cretins and do not comprehend that their dispirited existence will cost me dear.
I am infuriated.
Period.
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
All That Glitters is not Gold Pt. 2
This definitely seems like a comparison that has far exceeded a reasonably valid scope - Chennai being a threat to Detroit. The article talks about the infrastructural revolution taking place in Chennai and how it is fast becoming a center for automotive and manufacturing excellence, how government has reformed policy to make all this happen and how the doors are opening but not open yet amd how ever increasing international recognition is transforming the manufacturing landscape in Chennai.It is here that this comparison (with Detroit's might) takes flight. The tone and the comparison with Detroit and the suggestion that Detroit's auto manufacturers are shaking in their boots because Chennai exports engine valves seems a little far fetched (though I am not excluding this future possibility) and designed just to fill the Indian balloon with more hot air. As always, a comparison with China follows suit.
[Warning! ONLY interested readers and insomniacs proceed]
In September 2005, I had linked to a tangible statistical comparison between China and India vis a vis their trade volumes as percentage of GDP, sectors that contribute most to trade (export and import) and finally a look at social indices such as literacy rate (adult and more importantly, women), poverty rates etc. The numbers speak for themselves.
[Link] to my earlier post and to save you, my assiduous reader, the trouble of an extra mouse click I will reproduce all the relevant links in this post. [Link] article by Shankar Acharya, the Chief Economic Advisor to the Govt. of India. He rules this as a no contest in favor of China. Not to worry though, James Waterton says the future is indeed colored saffron. His a case against China is [here] and one for India is [here]. As the adage goes, "A picture is worth a thousand words" comes to mind as these numbers are visually pie charted in this [report] by Deutsche Bank. [hat tip: New Economist]. I urge the reader to take some time out to carefully read these documents and as a thought experiment, introspect on the state of India's society and economy. Read this Deutsche Bank [report] on their thoughts on India becoming a major economic powerhouse. Though all this reading is quite involved, it will lend some form and structure to the opinions you may have formed while going through Shankar Acharya's column and Deutsche Bank's visual comparison of the two economies.
The sad state of the much lauded "world's largest democracy" is on full display - The hindu [reports] that the DMK government in Tamil Nadu is actually making good on its poll promise of dishing out free color TVs. The "beneficiaries" have also been identified. I cant think of which is worse - the DMK actually fulfilling their promise or that the next time around the shrewd public will want more thereby raising the ante for electorate sellouts. Since this largesse comes at the expense of tax payers, maybe I should be thankful that the AIADMK wasnt elected - they had free computers as part of their electoral bribe, I mean promise. The immaturity of our democracy is reminiscent of cargo cults in the Pacific says Atanu Dey. To learn more, visit these links [1] and [2]
[Update: Atanu's blog seems to acting all of a sudden, will let you know when it behaves]
[Update 07/05/06: Atanu informs us that his blog is back up!]
[Warning! ONLY interested readers and insomniacs proceed]
In September 2005, I had linked to a tangible statistical comparison between China and India vis a vis their trade volumes as percentage of GDP, sectors that contribute most to trade (export and import) and finally a look at social indices such as literacy rate (adult and more importantly, women), poverty rates etc. The numbers speak for themselves.
[Link] to my earlier post and to save you, my assiduous reader, the trouble of an extra mouse click I will reproduce all the relevant links in this post. [Link] article by Shankar Acharya, the Chief Economic Advisor to the Govt. of India. He rules this as a no contest in favor of China. Not to worry though, James Waterton says the future is indeed colored saffron. His a case against China is [here] and one for India is [here]. As the adage goes, "A picture is worth a thousand words" comes to mind as these numbers are visually pie charted in this [report] by Deutsche Bank. [hat tip: New Economist]. I urge the reader to take some time out to carefully read these documents and as a thought experiment, introspect on the state of India's society and economy. Read this Deutsche Bank [report] on their thoughts on India becoming a major economic powerhouse. Though all this reading is quite involved, it will lend some form and structure to the opinions you may have formed while going through Shankar Acharya's column and Deutsche Bank's visual comparison of the two economies.
The sad state of the much lauded "world's largest democracy" is on full display - The hindu [reports] that the DMK government in Tamil Nadu is actually making good on its poll promise of dishing out free color TVs. The "beneficiaries" have also been identified. I cant think of which is worse - the DMK actually fulfilling their promise or that the next time around the shrewd public will want more thereby raising the ante for electorate sellouts. Since this largesse comes at the expense of tax payers, maybe I should be thankful that the AIADMK wasnt elected - they had free computers as part of their electoral bribe, I mean promise. The immaturity of our democracy is reminiscent of cargo cults in the Pacific says Atanu Dey. To learn more, visit these links [1] and [2]
[Update: Atanu's blog seems to acting all of a sudden, will let you know when it behaves]
[Update 07/05/06: Atanu informs us that his blog is back up!]
Saturday, June 24, 2006
All that glitters is not gold Pt. 1
I am, quite frankly, tired of reading and hearing about how India and China are the next global economic superpowers - the cliched contrasts of abject poverty juxtaposed to astounding wealth, how inspite of the education and health sectors being in disarray India churns out "world class" graduates who are spearheading this breakout. But what exactly are these graduates good for? For joining the workforce as customer service agents? For seemingly to shine as part of technical support? Thats the impression I get from reading all thats out there on India's economic boom. I know better than to believe everything I read but in order to improve the abysmal signal to noise ratio I have decided to link to articles/commentary/essays/blogs of eminent scholars who call it like it is.
Tomes have been written about their socio-economic growth and scholars have endlessly exchanged letters and written countless books opining what they see about their (India and China) future. Though all this makes for fascinating reading, most of the recent ones have become rather cliched and often just regurgigate thoughts and ideas that have long since been accepted as the state of affairs. Of course, once an objective effort is made into investigating the claims to superior economic status of the two nations, social indices and a whole lot of other measures of development in industrial and allied areas follow suit. It is in these numbers and their interpretations that the truth lies. Hope follows closely.
In response to Smitha's comment and before I introduce commentary on developmental policies, I reiterate the importance of hanging back a second to take a closer look at various indices of social and economic development will give us a better picture than just outrightly denouncing India's apparent economic advances (whether it is as notable as it is made out to be is a matter to be seen). India is a nation that houses most of the world's poor people, life in India is stained with poverty but when a country makes rapid strides (India's growth being a documented 7% - 8%) it is important that this growth be reflected in all sections of society. Policies that try to ensure that this growth be reflected more or less equally across social strata rein in the growth rates of forward sections and invest more resources (effort, money and time) in trying to improve the lot of the lower classes.But there exist certain drawbacks of equality centric policies as they aim to improve the lot of the masses under the working assumption that the masses can be banded together as a collective. It is my personal opinion that there are deepset inherent inequalities in Indian society that preclude any attempt to address the society as though it was one. Also judging by the sheer mass of Indian society, lifting them collectively out of poverty is a monumental task both effort and time wise. As opposed to equality centric policies there exist progressive policies that recognize that rapid growth first benefits only certain sections of society and only certain regions of the country but they aim to share this growth and wealth by allowing it percolate down to the lowest classes. These policies work on the assumption that no section of sociey is denied access to this growth or denied partaking in it. The reservation I have about these policies is that by ensuring that all sections partake in the nation's growth they might be able to lift the lower sections out of poverty (poverty as defined by world bodies), but since they don't ensure equal access to growth/wealth the more progressive sections, on account of their greater accessibilty to wealth and resources pull away much faster from other poorer sections resulting in greater inequality - greater inequality even though the masses are progressively moving out of poverty. A little irony eh?
[hat tip: The Middle Stage, Pankaj Mishra's resistance to temptation]
With that I introduce few links to some excellent commentary on the very same topic. To coincide with the release of his book "Temptations of the West : How to Be Modern in India, Pakistan, Tibet, and Beyond", Pankaj Mishra argues that the value system of the free market model that heralds us as emerging economic powers is a western one that assumes that the end result of economic growth is a western lifestyle with its attendant consumerism. Though his arguments get a little less convincing as he progresses, The Middle Stage attributes this to the difficulty of a comprehensive analysis of a topic of this magnitude. In reponse to Mishra's column, Salil Tripathi replies with his own piece arguing for a progressive economic policy. Mishra replies and Tripathi counters. I urge everyone to carefully read these essays/letters and follow up on most if not all embedded links so that you are aware of the complete picture. These essays are instructional to the novice (like me) and showcase opposing theories of India's (and China's) economic explosion.
More articles by Pankaj Mishra and Salil Tripathi.
[cross posted on Frost Bite]
Tomes have been written about their socio-economic growth and scholars have endlessly exchanged letters and written countless books opining what they see about their (India and China) future. Though all this makes for fascinating reading, most of the recent ones have become rather cliched and often just regurgigate thoughts and ideas that have long since been accepted as the state of affairs. Of course, once an objective effort is made into investigating the claims to superior economic status of the two nations, social indices and a whole lot of other measures of development in industrial and allied areas follow suit. It is in these numbers and their interpretations that the truth lies. Hope follows closely.
In response to Smitha's comment and before I introduce commentary on developmental policies, I reiterate the importance of hanging back a second to take a closer look at various indices of social and economic development will give us a better picture than just outrightly denouncing India's apparent economic advances (whether it is as notable as it is made out to be is a matter to be seen). India is a nation that houses most of the world's poor people, life in India is stained with poverty but when a country makes rapid strides (India's growth being a documented 7% - 8%) it is important that this growth be reflected in all sections of society. Policies that try to ensure that this growth be reflected more or less equally across social strata rein in the growth rates of forward sections and invest more resources (effort, money and time) in trying to improve the lot of the lower classes.But there exist certain drawbacks of equality centric policies as they aim to improve the lot of the masses under the working assumption that the masses can be banded together as a collective. It is my personal opinion that there are deepset inherent inequalities in Indian society that preclude any attempt to address the society as though it was one. Also judging by the sheer mass of Indian society, lifting them collectively out of poverty is a monumental task both effort and time wise. As opposed to equality centric policies there exist progressive policies that recognize that rapid growth first benefits only certain sections of society and only certain regions of the country but they aim to share this growth and wealth by allowing it percolate down to the lowest classes. These policies work on the assumption that no section of sociey is denied access to this growth or denied partaking in it. The reservation I have about these policies is that by ensuring that all sections partake in the nation's growth they might be able to lift the lower sections out of poverty (poverty as defined by world bodies), but since they don't ensure equal access to growth/wealth the more progressive sections, on account of their greater accessibilty to wealth and resources pull away much faster from other poorer sections resulting in greater inequality - greater inequality even though the masses are progressively moving out of poverty. A little irony eh?
[hat tip: The Middle Stage, Pankaj Mishra's resistance to temptation]
With that I introduce few links to some excellent commentary on the very same topic. To coincide with the release of his book "Temptations of the West : How to Be Modern in India, Pakistan, Tibet, and Beyond", Pankaj Mishra argues that the value system of the free market model that heralds us as emerging economic powers is a western one that assumes that the end result of economic growth is a western lifestyle with its attendant consumerism. Though his arguments get a little less convincing as he progresses, The Middle Stage attributes this to the difficulty of a comprehensive analysis of a topic of this magnitude. In reponse to Mishra's column, Salil Tripathi replies with his own piece arguing for a progressive economic policy. Mishra replies and Tripathi counters. I urge everyone to carefully read these essays/letters and follow up on most if not all embedded links so that you are aware of the complete picture. These essays are instructional to the novice (like me) and showcase opposing theories of India's (and China's) economic explosion.
More articles by Pankaj Mishra and Salil Tripathi.
[cross posted on Frost Bite]
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
The free market economics of "justice"
I've read enough free market 101 books to understand and appreciate its (free markets') philosophy and do lean towards a liberal view that the government is responsible for maintaining an atmosphere condusive to engaging in trade, one can consider this atmosphere as consequence of maintaining law and order. I have a few misgivings, unlike true free market liberals, of the morality of totally free markets and their apparent self correcting nature. I do believe that the government, as part of its responsibility in maintaining law and order, ought to protect the interests of the minorities without, I repeat for emphsasis, without getting regulatory in nature. Though the government represents the majority, the rights and interests of the minority have to be protected keeping in mind that policies framed by the majority can be very well done at the expense of minorities. Just because the majority wants it doesn't make it right. Though I have used the example of policy framing in order to make a point, the analogy can be easily extended to protecting (without getting protectionist) minorities (economically speaking) in a free market that potentially could get immoral. This fine line within which a government must confine itself is transgressed so often that it doesnt exist anymore, much like the case of many a socialist Indian government. It is when the government's policy becomes regulatory and when the markets march to the beat set by the government that everything starts to fall apart. There has been so much said about the detrimental nature of socialist indian policies that nothing I say can add any fresh perspective nor can I say it any better.
Yazad Jal presents us with a free market look at how justice will prevail in a true free market.[Link] The central idea of this post comes from the ideas proposed in "The Market For Liberty" by Linda and Morris Tannehill. The authors being true libertarians re-think the role of government in a revoultionary way and in the book, deal with "private arbitration agencies in managing with disputes and criminality, the role of insurers in providing profitable incentives for security, and private agencies in their capacity as protection services." [book review]
Though I tend to be liberal, being a total libertarian and actually believe heart and soul in the spirit of the said post is a little hard for me. Maybe reading the book and thinking of counter arguments will give me a better perspective and a convert I may become. Time (and the markets) will tell.
Yazad Jal presents us with a free market look at how justice will prevail in a true free market.[Link] The central idea of this post comes from the ideas proposed in "The Market For Liberty" by Linda and Morris Tannehill. The authors being true libertarians re-think the role of government in a revoultionary way and in the book, deal with "private arbitration agencies in managing with disputes and criminality, the role of insurers in providing profitable incentives for security, and private agencies in their capacity as protection services." [book review]
Though I tend to be liberal, being a total libertarian and actually believe heart and soul in the spirit of the said post is a little hard for me. Maybe reading the book and thinking of counter arguments will give me a better perspective and a convert I may become. Time (and the markets) will tell.
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Long live Dr. Raj's memory
the viral "If you come today video"
the next "if you come today" -
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls and childen of all ages, presenting the anthemic "Love me or hate me"!
"Love me or hate me,
Kiss me or kill me,
Oh darling, do something to me"
well, love it or hate it is what I say. After watching it a few times, I think some of the late 60s and 70s hindi films have equally good (or bad, depending on your point of view) music scores. I think this video just got famous on account of Dr.Raj's popularity with the viral hit "If you come today". Of course, "If you come today" is altogether in another league.
the next "if you come today" -
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls and childen of all ages, presenting the anthemic "Love me or hate me"!
"Love me or hate me,
Kiss me or kill me,
Oh darling, do something to me"
well, love it or hate it is what I say. After watching it a few times, I think some of the late 60s and 70s hindi films have equally good (or bad, depending on your point of view) music scores. I think this video just got famous on account of Dr.Raj's popularity with the viral hit "If you come today". Of course, "If you come today" is altogether in another league.
Friday, March 17, 2006
The Torture Garden
After a couple of months of silence, I am back with a worthwhile post.
What would you expect from a 25 yr old with a PhD in Bioinformatics, a Masters degree in Applied Math and Computational Biology and Bachelors in Physics?
Sounds like a poster child for someone destined for the hallowed halls of MIT, a National Lab, meritorious awards exhorting research skills and academic excellence? You wouldn't be too wrong if you did decide that it was so. But Asya Schween, the 25yr old in question, did something out of the expected. She seemingly "threw it all away" and turned into a very unique photographer. Even this turn around might fail to register high enough on the 'sit up and take notice scale', if there was ever one. But one glance, even if it were fleeting, at her work is guaranteed to do that. She creates self-portraits - creates a setting with the right lighting, takes a picture of herself, spends hours on photoshop and other manipulation software and produces masterpieces - each serving as a looking glass into the human psyche often coughing up raw human emotions in their undistorted, dusturbing form. Each portrait offers layers of intrigue and insight into the human psyche. Peel off one and understand the emotion attached to it and you are presented with another that betters the previous layer.
[Here] is link to an article about her in Bending Light magazine. In it you will also find poster child behaviour for Freudian psychology at work. It is almost fascinating to see his theories take to life.She is a troubled soul and from this "torture garden", the darkest of flowers mirror the grim underside of the human psyche.
Check out her landing page on the devianART community [here]
"Mother, Look!"
I will leave you to ponder Asya, her work and more importantly, her mind with this quote [used in her interview in Bending Light] -
"Either way, I would hope that my work, the thing I make so many sacrifices for, would outshine my dull, uninteresting, predictable, petty, small-minded personality. In other words, I hope my work is much more interesting than me."
What would you expect from a 25 yr old with a PhD in Bioinformatics, a Masters degree in Applied Math and Computational Biology and Bachelors in Physics?
Sounds like a poster child for someone destined for the hallowed halls of MIT, a National Lab, meritorious awards exhorting research skills and academic excellence? You wouldn't be too wrong if you did decide that it was so. But Asya Schween, the 25yr old in question, did something out of the expected. She seemingly "threw it all away" and turned into a very unique photographer. Even this turn around might fail to register high enough on the 'sit up and take notice scale', if there was ever one. But one glance, even if it were fleeting, at her work is guaranteed to do that. She creates self-portraits - creates a setting with the right lighting, takes a picture of herself, spends hours on photoshop and other manipulation software and produces masterpieces - each serving as a looking glass into the human psyche often coughing up raw human emotions in their undistorted, dusturbing form. Each portrait offers layers of intrigue and insight into the human psyche. Peel off one and understand the emotion attached to it and you are presented with another that betters the previous layer.
[Here] is link to an article about her in Bending Light magazine. In it you will also find poster child behaviour for Freudian psychology at work. It is almost fascinating to see his theories take to life.She is a troubled soul and from this "torture garden", the darkest of flowers mirror the grim underside of the human psyche.
Check out her landing page on the devianART community [here]
"Mother, Look!"
I will leave you to ponder Asya, her work and more importantly, her mind with this quote [used in her interview in Bending Light] -
"Either way, I would hope that my work, the thing I make so many sacrifices for, would outshine my dull, uninteresting, predictable, petty, small-minded personality. In other words, I hope my work is much more interesting than me."
Monday, January 30, 2006
Links for today
Steve Jobs is the new [mickey mouse]
of bubbles and [2.0] - Web, Publishing, Media. [Top notch article!]
Since I work in a small cash strapped company, the "VC" always looms over us. Should we look for venture funding, trade freedom to set policy over having liquid capital? [Here] is a good discussion and/or call to reform the VC industry. Scoble chips in with some of his demands of VC 2.0 [here]
of bubbles and [2.0] - Web, Publishing, Media. [Top notch article!]
Since I work in a small cash strapped company, the "VC" always looms over us. Should we look for venture funding, trade freedom to set policy over having liquid capital? [Here] is a good discussion and/or call to reform the VC industry. Scoble chips in with some of his demands of VC 2.0 [here]
Monday, January 23, 2006
The power of Math
"Math Will Rock your world" declares this Business week [article]. Not a revelatory declaration if you ask me, but does present an interesting set of companies as evidence. If you didnt already know this God only help you.
Thursday, January 19, 2006
GOOG or GAAG?
check these links out -
Google stocks [hit] a low of $445 after topping a whopping $475.xx a week ago. Read what this forbodes for the industry. Very interesting read.
The Dubya administration subpoenas Google for refusing to comply with their demand that Google turns over search records - it is their intention to find out how many kids are searching for porn by looking at data that is totally disconnected to the age/sex of the user. Go figure! head over to the Search Engine Blog for this masterful [article] on the whole issue. It gives a lot of insight on what this sort of legal action actually means and hopes to achieve. Interestingly, MSN and Yahoo were also asked to turn over data and the statements that they have provided do not say "No. We have not provided any data". Well, if they didn't provide data, they would be in court now. They aren't. Meaning that they did comply and turned over records to the Dubya administration. This is being touted all across [Memeorandum]. Google will suddenly become the cynosure of all privacy groups, the poster child for freedom and privacy groups many of whom are already sueing Dubya. Is there a stock resurgence in this for Google?
Important stock tip: Buy into hype. Sell before reality crashes the party!
Google stocks [hit] a low of $445 after topping a whopping $475.xx a week ago. Read what this forbodes for the industry. Very interesting read.
The Dubya administration subpoenas Google for refusing to comply with their demand that Google turns over search records - it is their intention to find out how many kids are searching for porn by looking at data that is totally disconnected to the age/sex of the user. Go figure! head over to the Search Engine Blog for this masterful [article] on the whole issue. It gives a lot of insight on what this sort of legal action actually means and hopes to achieve. Interestingly, MSN and Yahoo were also asked to turn over data and the statements that they have provided do not say "No. We have not provided any data". Well, if they didn't provide data, they would be in court now. They aren't. Meaning that they did comply and turned over records to the Dubya administration. This is being touted all across [Memeorandum]. Google will suddenly become the cynosure of all privacy groups, the poster child for freedom and privacy groups many of whom are already sueing Dubya. Is there a stock resurgence in this for Google?
Important stock tip: Buy into hype. Sell before reality crashes the party!
Friday, January 06, 2006
Am baaaaaaaaaaack in the saddle again!
after a long work related hiatus and a vacation, I am back to spam the 2-3 people who read my blog. Woe betide them!
ideas for old unfinished posts and for swanky new ones galore!
ideas for old unfinished posts and for swanky new ones galore!
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Whats Up?
Thats what you can ask at this [webpage] and get answers to almost everything thats interesting AND happening in and around Bangalore. Whats more, if you are miffed that your event isn't listed, all you have to do is send the mods an email.
I tried to subscribe to the newletter so that I can see for myself the wonderful exciting things I am missing while I am away from home and what do I see, a yahoo group subscription box?!! have they never heard of RSS? Inspite of the *loud* colors and lack of RSS support, the content speaks for itself.
Viva Bangalore!
I tried to subscribe to the newletter so that I can see for myself the wonderful exciting things I am missing while I am away from home and what do I see, a yahoo group subscription box?!! have they never heard of RSS? Inspite of the *loud* colors and lack of RSS support, the content speaks for itself.
Viva Bangalore!
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Time: The beginning and the end
I haven't found the time to do anything of note besides work. I have loads of non-work work left over and hardly any time to do any of it. I need a secretary! and a cute one at that. I am behind on many posts including my pet project on the Lemons model. All in good time, my good sirs.
Over the weekend, I did make time to go to an awesome Opeth concert. Come on, please tell me you know who Opeth are. For those of you who don't have a clue, they are a "bunch of jaded swedish c****s who are out to make money". Melodic death metal bliss - thats what it was. These guys are some of the most awesome musicians you can ever see! One does recognize class when one is hit in the face by it and Opeth comes at you with a sledgehammer!
Head over to Venus's blog for a note [here]
Over the weekend, I did make time to go to an awesome Opeth concert. Come on, please tell me you know who Opeth are. For those of you who don't have a clue, they are a "bunch of jaded swedish c****s who are out to make money". Melodic death metal bliss - thats what it was. These guys are some of the most awesome musicians you can ever see! One does recognize class when one is hit in the face by it and Opeth comes at you with a sledgehammer!
Head over to Venus's blog for a note [here]
Thursday, November 03, 2005
Quote for today
"Its hard to be religious when certain people aren't incinerated by bolts of lightning"
Who dya think said this?
Who dya think said this?
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
The Desi Dream
Riya Introductory article here.
Course Cafe Introductory article here.
Speak With Me Introductory article here.
Desi startups that are making the grapevines buzzzzz. These are totally awesome, inline with the latest business models integrating "user generated content", user interfaces and the web. I think companies of this kind are said to be ushering in the age of web 2.0.
Course Cafe Introductory article here.
Speak With Me Introductory article here.
Desi startups that are making the grapevines buzzzzz. These are totally awesome, inline with the latest business models integrating "user generated content", user interfaces and the web. I think companies of this kind are said to be ushering in the age of web 2.0.
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Its snowing!
Its snowing! Thick, fast and heavy and its only the end of October. I love watching snowfall but it is distracting me from work.
Sunday, October 23, 2005
Beauty
Where beauty is worshipped for beauty's sake as a goddess, independent of and superior to morality and philosophy, the most horrible putrefaction is apt to set in. The lives of the aesthetes are the far from edifying commentary on the religion of beauty.
Aldous Huxley
I am still trying to think this through.
Thought: Beauty is inextricably tied to morality and philosophy. If we consider this as an assumption then the next sentence just serves the same idea by saying that the lives of those sentient to beauty are far from instructive on the religion of beauty. The crux of this, I am not sure what to call it - argument, statement lies obviously in the idea put forth initially that (if simplistically put) beauty without brains does not last and withers away. If beauty is worshipped for beauty's sake, i.e., worshipped just as an art form without being embellished with philosophy and morality then its akin to a cat's meow but without a cat. I am still having trouble crossing the chasm on this bridge of 'morality and philosophy'. I definitely see that beauty by itself just as a pure art form cannot and will not last for all to see and revel for a long time. It has to be associated with an 'edifying commentary'. I am having a little trouble associating beauty with morality.
I am still going to mull this over.
Any thoughts? Anybody?
Update 2:
Let me draw a simple analogy to religion and add in the same breath that I am not religious.
When the Gods are worshipped for worshipping sake, most probably because one has always been told to worship God (whatever the reason, it falls outside the scope of the argument that I am trying to present), people (at least people like me) start to question the givens in this religion. With unanswered questions comes doubt. With doubt comes decay in the once strong belief system. With decay and an absence of an equally strong second set of beliefs, putrefaction sets in. It is the same in the case of beauty - it is not lasting, it is not captivating enough when seen and appreciated just for what it is in the present frame of reference. For eg., when you watch a beautiful sunset at a beach, your eyes might pop out at the sight of it. When you try and describe it to your friend and try to tell him/her about the wondrous riot of colors, the streaks of motley hues of red in the sky, gold shimmering on the waves - what do you think happens? They might excited for the first time. What about the second time? and the third? How long do you think they are going to share, in their mind's eye, this wonderful image of a sunset at the beach?
Back to the religion analogy, the aesthetes in this case are high priests involved in worship. Do their lives, in any manner, serve as an edifying commentary on religion? In my opinion, not at all. So what is it what keeps me interested in religion, continue to foster my belief in God? Theology? Maybe. Why? because it is the philosophy of religion. It rationalizes, tries to explain and answer your queries. It puts religion and its underlying foundation of a system of beliefs in a different perspective. The change in perspective is what makes it self-sustainable and not the aesthetes themselves. Would you remain interested in God and religion and recite the same prayers over and over because the priests (aesthetes) do? or would you be interested in religion if you were to read vedic texts, upanishads?
Back to the sunset at the beach example, if you distill the essence of nature's beauty into lets say, a poem (or an essay) wouldn't that be more self-contained and sustainable than all your explanations? - the functional being a change in the frame of reference, "philosophizing" beauty. Or would the fact that you are sentient to nature's beauty generate continued, sustained interest on the part of your friends.
I rest my case.
Aldous Huxley
I am still trying to think this through.
Thought: Beauty is inextricably tied to morality and philosophy. If we consider this as an assumption then the next sentence just serves the same idea by saying that the lives of those sentient to beauty are far from instructive on the religion of beauty. The crux of this, I am not sure what to call it - argument, statement lies obviously in the idea put forth initially that (if simplistically put) beauty without brains does not last and withers away. If beauty is worshipped for beauty's sake, i.e., worshipped just as an art form without being embellished with philosophy and morality then its akin to a cat's meow but without a cat. I am still having trouble crossing the chasm on this bridge of 'morality and philosophy'. I definitely see that beauty by itself just as a pure art form cannot and will not last for all to see and revel for a long time. It has to be associated with an 'edifying commentary'. I am having a little trouble associating beauty with morality.
I am still going to mull this over.
Any thoughts? Anybody?
Update 2:
Let me draw a simple analogy to religion and add in the same breath that I am not religious.
When the Gods are worshipped for worshipping sake, most probably because one has always been told to worship God (whatever the reason, it falls outside the scope of the argument that I am trying to present), people (at least people like me) start to question the givens in this religion. With unanswered questions comes doubt. With doubt comes decay in the once strong belief system. With decay and an absence of an equally strong second set of beliefs, putrefaction sets in. It is the same in the case of beauty - it is not lasting, it is not captivating enough when seen and appreciated just for what it is in the present frame of reference. For eg., when you watch a beautiful sunset at a beach, your eyes might pop out at the sight of it. When you try and describe it to your friend and try to tell him/her about the wondrous riot of colors, the streaks of motley hues of red in the sky, gold shimmering on the waves - what do you think happens? They might excited for the first time. What about the second time? and the third? How long do you think they are going to share, in their mind's eye, this wonderful image of a sunset at the beach?
Back to the religion analogy, the aesthetes in this case are high priests involved in worship. Do their lives, in any manner, serve as an edifying commentary on religion? In my opinion, not at all. So what is it what keeps me interested in religion, continue to foster my belief in God? Theology? Maybe. Why? because it is the philosophy of religion. It rationalizes, tries to explain and answer your queries. It puts religion and its underlying foundation of a system of beliefs in a different perspective. The change in perspective is what makes it self-sustainable and not the aesthetes themselves. Would you remain interested in God and religion and recite the same prayers over and over because the priests (aesthetes) do? or would you be interested in religion if you were to read vedic texts, upanishads?
Back to the sunset at the beach example, if you distill the essence of nature's beauty into lets say, a poem (or an essay) wouldn't that be more self-contained and sustainable than all your explanations? - the functional being a change in the frame of reference, "philosophizing" beauty. Or would the fact that you are sentient to nature's beauty generate continued, sustained interest on the part of your friends.
I rest my case.
Friday, October 21, 2005
Quality, Uncertainty and Market Mechanism - Part 2
The Model with Automobiles as an Example:
Suppose (for the sake of clarity rather than reality) that there are only four types of cars – new and used cars, good cars (creampuff) and bad cars (lemons). A new car may either be a good one or a bad one and the same is true for used cars too. The individuals in this market buy new cars without knowing whether the car they will buy is a creampuff or a lemon. Let us say that the probability of buying a new car that is also good is “q” and that of landing up with a lemon is “1-q”. “q” by assumption is the proportion of good cars produced and “1-q” is the proportion of lemons. After owing a specific car for certain duration of time, the owner has a good idea of its quality and assigns new probability to the event that the car is a lemon. Note that this estimate is more accurate than the previous one. An asymmetry in available information has now developed for the sellers have more information about the quality of the car than do the buyers. It is also clear that a used car cannot have the same valuation as that of a new car – if it did, it would be clearly advantageous to trade a lemon at the price of a new car and buy another new car, at a higher probability q of being good and a lower probability of being bad. Thus the owner of a good car is locked in and not only cannot he receive the true value of his car but cannot even obtain the expected value of a new car.
Thus, the bad cars drive out the good cars as most traded cars are lemons. This is analogous to the way “bad money drives out the good” as stated by Gresham’s law. Gresham’s Law is explained in simple terms over at the Wikipedia. For those Indians who are reading without clicking through to Wikipedia, let me give you a quick analogy to illustrate Gresham’s law – remember the times when all the currency notes that exchanged hands were soiled, torn notes and everybody, in spite of possessing good clean bills preferred to trade in the soiled ones? As this practice continued, all the notes that were traded in the market were soiled torn ones that actually had a lower value (on account of being torn, when one exchanges these notes at the bank one is left a little short of the face value of the turned in bill) but were traded at the same exchange rate as good clean bills were. If the picture is still not clear, then I advise you to click through to Wikipedia and go through the explanation.
Utility Theory: A Brief Introduction
[Source: Wikipedia]
In economics, utility is a measure of the happiness or satisfaction gained from a good or service. There are mainly two kinds of measurement of utility implemented by economists: cardinal utility and ordinal utility. Utility was originally viewed as a measurable quantity, so that it would be possible to measure the utility of each individual in the society with respect to each good available in the society, and to add these together to yield the total utility of all people with respect to all goods in the society. Society could then aim to maximize the total utility of all people in society, or equivalently the average utility per person. This conception of utility as a measurable quantity that could be aggregated across individuals is called cardinal utility. Cardinal utility quantitatively measures the preference of an individual towards a certain commodity. Numbers assigned to different goods or services can be compared. I would assign a utility of 100 to a glass of chilled beer in summer and desire it twice as much as a cup of steaming coca which I would assign a utility of 50. There is already an obvious disadvantage – that of comparing cardinal utilities across people. The concept of cardinal utility suffers from the absence of an objective measure of utility when comparing the utility gained from consumption of a particular good by one individual as opposed to another individual.
Another approach is based on preferences - an individual is observed to prefer one choice to another. Preferences can be ordered from most satisfying to least satisfying. Only the ordering is important: the magnitudes of the numerical values are not important except in as much as they establish the order. It is nonetheless possible, given a set of preferences which satisfy certain criteria of reasonableness, to find a utility function that will explain these preferences. Such a utility function takes on higher values for choices that the individual prefers. With this approach to utility, known as ordinal utility it is not possible to compare utility between individuals.
Let X be the consumption set, the set of all packages the consumer could conceivably consume. The consumer's utility function u: X-> R assigns a happiness score to each package in the consumption set. If u(x) > u(y), then the consumer strictly prefers x to y. In microeconomics models, there are usually a finite set of L commodities, and a consumer may consume an arbitrary amount of each commodity. This gives a consumption set of R_L and each package x Є R_L is a vector containing the amounts of each commodity. For u to be a utility function on X, it must be defined for every package in X. A von Neumann-Morgenstern utility function u: X -> R assigns a real number to every element of the outcome space in a way that captures the individual's preferences over both simple and compound events. The individual will prefer a lottery L1 to a lottery L2 if and only if the expected utility (iterated over compound lotteries if necessary) of L1 is greater than the expected utility of L2.
I’ll give you guys a couple of days for all this to sink in – it is a little heavy on the digestive system
Suppose (for the sake of clarity rather than reality) that there are only four types of cars – new and used cars, good cars (creampuff) and bad cars (lemons). A new car may either be a good one or a bad one and the same is true for used cars too. The individuals in this market buy new cars without knowing whether the car they will buy is a creampuff or a lemon. Let us say that the probability of buying a new car that is also good is “q” and that of landing up with a lemon is “1-q”. “q” by assumption is the proportion of good cars produced and “1-q” is the proportion of lemons. After owing a specific car for certain duration of time, the owner has a good idea of its quality and assigns new probability to the event that the car is a lemon. Note that this estimate is more accurate than the previous one. An asymmetry in available information has now developed for the sellers have more information about the quality of the car than do the buyers. It is also clear that a used car cannot have the same valuation as that of a new car – if it did, it would be clearly advantageous to trade a lemon at the price of a new car and buy another new car, at a higher probability q of being good and a lower probability of being bad. Thus the owner of a good car is locked in and not only cannot he receive the true value of his car but cannot even obtain the expected value of a new car.
Thus, the bad cars drive out the good cars as most traded cars are lemons. This is analogous to the way “bad money drives out the good” as stated by Gresham’s law. Gresham’s Law is explained in simple terms over at the Wikipedia. For those Indians who are reading without clicking through to Wikipedia, let me give you a quick analogy to illustrate Gresham’s law – remember the times when all the currency notes that exchanged hands were soiled, torn notes and everybody, in spite of possessing good clean bills preferred to trade in the soiled ones? As this practice continued, all the notes that were traded in the market were soiled torn ones that actually had a lower value (on account of being torn, when one exchanges these notes at the bank one is left a little short of the face value of the turned in bill) but were traded at the same exchange rate as good clean bills were. If the picture is still not clear, then I advise you to click through to Wikipedia and go through the explanation.
Utility Theory: A Brief Introduction
[Source: Wikipedia]
In economics, utility is a measure of the happiness or satisfaction gained from a good or service. There are mainly two kinds of measurement of utility implemented by economists: cardinal utility and ordinal utility. Utility was originally viewed as a measurable quantity, so that it would be possible to measure the utility of each individual in the society with respect to each good available in the society, and to add these together to yield the total utility of all people with respect to all goods in the society. Society could then aim to maximize the total utility of all people in society, or equivalently the average utility per person. This conception of utility as a measurable quantity that could be aggregated across individuals is called cardinal utility. Cardinal utility quantitatively measures the preference of an individual towards a certain commodity. Numbers assigned to different goods or services can be compared. I would assign a utility of 100 to a glass of chilled beer in summer and desire it twice as much as a cup of steaming coca which I would assign a utility of 50. There is already an obvious disadvantage – that of comparing cardinal utilities across people. The concept of cardinal utility suffers from the absence of an objective measure of utility when comparing the utility gained from consumption of a particular good by one individual as opposed to another individual.
Another approach is based on preferences - an individual is observed to prefer one choice to another. Preferences can be ordered from most satisfying to least satisfying. Only the ordering is important: the magnitudes of the numerical values are not important except in as much as they establish the order. It is nonetheless possible, given a set of preferences which satisfy certain criteria of reasonableness, to find a utility function that will explain these preferences. Such a utility function takes on higher values for choices that the individual prefers. With this approach to utility, known as ordinal utility it is not possible to compare utility between individuals.
Let X be the consumption set, the set of all packages the consumer could conceivably consume. The consumer's utility function u: X-> R assigns a happiness score to each package in the consumption set. If u(x) > u(y), then the consumer strictly prefers x to y. In microeconomics models, there are usually a finite set of L commodities, and a consumer may consume an arbitrary amount of each commodity. This gives a consumption set of R_L and each package x Є R_L is a vector containing the amounts of each commodity. For u to be a utility function on X, it must be defined for every package in X. A von Neumann-Morgenstern utility function u: X -> R assigns a real number to every element of the outcome space in a way that captures the individual's preferences over both simple and compound events. The individual will prefer a lottery L1 to a lottery L2 if and only if the expected utility (iterated over compound lotteries if necessary) of L1 is greater than the expected utility of L2.
I’ll give you guys a couple of days for all this to sink in – it is a little heavy on the digestive system
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