Our moronic leaders

I am simply amazed at the comment made by Oscar Fernandes over the death of L.K. Chaudhary. How can a cabinet minister make such an irresponsible statement. I think he is either too dumb which he might be or he is simply trying to preserve his vote bank. 

And then there was this fiasco by Mamta Banarjee.  On one hand Chidambram goes around giving talks all over the world inviting people to invest in India and on the other hand our beloved politicians. To top it all the Prime minister refused to take a firm stand on any matter. Amazing !! 

Sometimes I think the country would be better managed in the hand of thugs. Should I be concerned about the state of affairs or laugh at it? 

What appalls me most is the stark indifference of the people of India to the political/economic climate in the country. People care more about Shilpa Shetty in Big Boss that bomb blasts in Bombay!!!

Old Memories

An old pic that I chanced upon while going through gazillions of Photographs I have. CSE Batch of 2003 :) It brought pleasant memories from the only department trip we ever went to. People were literally dragged out of their beds to join this picnic :D

Code Monkey like You

Keep walking...

The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself.

Blurb

I have aged 10 years in the last 3 months.

WOW !!!

Super 30



I am IMPRESSED !!!!!!

Hal Varian on Google

I read this post by Hal Varian on the Google blog and my first knee jerk reaction was what crap!! This seems more like a quickly put together office memo than a statement from the Chief Economist, much less coming from Hal Varian.

Here are some of my gripes about it:

Network effect

1. I think Google is what it is because of its people and that has a very strong underlying network effect. In the early years of Google, most of the tech companies were laying off workers right left and center. This led to Google getting the best and the brightest and not necessarily at the highest cost. So from a company point of view G! benefited a lot from the negative externality it imposed on other companies.

2. The initial batch of great people led to more great people joining Google, they led to more great people joining Google. More network effect.

3. Lots of creative people with small startups are in a race to sell their products to Google, some of them startup with a sellout to Google as their exit strategy. This makes Google a storehouse of innovation. Which again induces a positive externality.

4. I will be on the IM n/w that has most of my friends. DUH ? Did I miss something here?

5. The number of users affect the no of advertisers who would come to Google. Thats one of the most common stories people talk about when they talk about two sided networks.

I fail to realize how he misses these points especially for a company like Google, most of whose wealth is lying around in Intellectual capital.

Switching cost

1. It has been proven time and again that there is significant switching cost in online services even though it is assumed not to be so. I won't join a new mail service even if they paid me to, because everyone mails me on Gmail and I am used to the interface. My mails are archived here etc etc. They amount of money they pay me for which I will be indifferent to switching will be my switching cost (~$250. Come on, I am a poor grad student and this is a HIGH switching cost). There is a significant cost even though the alternative is just a click away.

Economics of Scale

1. The only this that works in these information goods driven companies is the initial capital you can put into your product, aka setup cost. The more money you have the better you are. (Hint hint: Google market cap). The marginal cost is zero. You can product a gazillion copies after the first one, almost for free. Why does he even talk about economics of scale here ?

I personally think Google is a great company. The biggest reason I can think of is its GREAT EMPLOYEES.

And yeah some bit of luck and accidental good timing.

PS: For those of you didn't know Hal Varian is one of my favourite economists, but this article by him is badly reasoned. Period.

Games

Did you know its a good thing to have a rotten child? Well even I didn't but I found out last night at 2. And have you ever played the centipede game?  And contrary to what people think , its not always good to have more information.

Well why I am blabbering all this? Because I really like this Game Theory class I am attending, though I am not smart enough to get most of it. I generally try hard to put my heart and soul in the class but most of the time I end up doodling or dozing off. Given that its a small class I guess the instructor can't help but notice. 

Though I think I am picking it up slowly and steadily. I better do because most of my research would use economics and game theory. And this class is a good preparation of George Mailath's class, who hates every thing Nash and is extremely likely to get the Nobel one of these years.

... another one of those geeky rants.

Amazing Gimp plugin

Neat plugin for image resizing. Look for the object removal method.

Happy New Year

The world is beautiful, in many unfathomable ways. In our hurrying, though, we frequently miss what is beautiful around us, in the same way that we forget from time to time what we want our lives to mean. Just to stay afloat in the modern world, many of us reluctantly choose detachment from the constant stimulus. We even turn away from beauty, as if it were another thing we had too much of.

This year, let us resolve not to turn away and embrace the beauty that surrounds us.

On Fire

A room with a view

The failing sunshine sets the trees and the building on fire. Now the tree lay barren and the ground covered with snow.

Yay it snowed :D

"You're Beautiful"

My life is brilliant.

My life is brilliant.
My love is pure.
I saw an angel.
Of that I'm sure.
She smiled at me on the subway.
She was with another man.
But I won't lose no sleep on that,
'Cause I've got a plan.

You're beautiful. You're beautiful.
You're beautiful, it's true.
I saw your face in a crowded place,
And I don't know what to do,
'Cause I'll never be with you.

Yeah, she caught my eye,
As we walked on by.
She could see from my face that I was,
Flying high,
And I don't think that I'll see her again,
But we shared a moment that will last till the end.

You're beautiful. You're beautiful.
You're beautiful, it's true.
I saw your face in a crowded place,
And I don't know what to do,
'Cause I'll never be with you.

You're beautiful. You're beautiful.
You're beautiful, it's true.
There must be an angel with a smile on her face,
When she thought up that I should be with you.
But it's time to face the truth,

-James Blunt

Sometimes you live your life in an instant. And sometimes even an eternity seems too less...

Kids at Play...

And at Work...

LFS School Anthem

Welcome to this amazing performance, *ing Abhishek Ranjan, Neha Sinha Pappu (aka Abinash Rout), and PV Sushmita.

Great job guys !! Keep it up ;-). ROFL !!!!

ALCOHOROSCOPES

GEMINI Drinking style

Gemini's can drink without changing their behavior much-- they're so naturally chatty and short-attention-spanned that it's just hard to tell sometimes. They can amaze you by conversing with finesse and allusion, then doing something to belie an extremely advanced state of intoxication, like puking in your shoe. Gemini's possess the magic ability to flirt successfully (and uninfuriatingly, which is very tricky) with several people at once. They like to order different cocktails every round -- repetition is boring -- and may create a theme (like yellow drinks: beer, sauvignon blanc and limoncello) for their own amusement.

Quite true I must say. Except the flirting part ;-)

Note to self: Sleep properly before an exam. Especially an econometrics exam.

Energy: The Politics and Economics of

This post couldn't have come at a more opportune time. With Al Gore winning the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to make the world aware about global warming it time we start talking about energy and the powers that govern them.

Most of the unwarranted politics in the world is around one of two things arms and oil. Oil primarily. One who has control of the oil well controls the way the world goes around. The developed world is so dependent on gasoline, aviation fuel and what not that it shudders to think of a day when people turn up to the gas station and the pumps have run dry. Especially the US. Hence its ever increasing desire to control the oil supplies in the world, by money or by force as witnessed by the recent wars (on terrorism ??). A lot of strife in the world is perpetuated by this fight for oil. The Al Kahida hates the US and the US hates their guts and both of them engage in mindless bloodshed that hurts the world at large. It divides people, us versus them. And I think most of it goes back to this fight for Oil.

Now why am I talking about oil politics? I think we have depended on this fossil fuel for a long enough time and definitely the debates show that this mechanism is not sustainable. We should look for alternate sources of energy. That has been common knowledge for years. But I believe asking the developed nations to lead the way would not help. Their switching costs are too high and most of the people in power want the monopoly of oil to continue. It fills up their coffers. An average American can't even imagine a day when there would be no oil left such is the dependence. Its very unlikely that they will make the switch.

This offers the developing nations a big incentive to explore new and sustainable energy sources. They have not made extensive investments for exploiting these fossil fuels and most probably they will not have a say in the allocation when OPEC decides the quota. I think it offers then an excellent opportunity to do extensive research and develop alternate forms of energy.

If they were successful this would definitely make them a more independent and prosperous as a country. It will also make the human race more sustainable and maybe the world a more peaceful place to live in.

Fall Break is here. YAY !!

Have a great fall break guys !!!

Life as a grad student

Life has strange ways of playing tricks with you. At times it puts you through really hard times, and yet you feel happy about it. I don't think I would have worked as hard ever in my life before, not even for the JEE. I guess that was a piece of cake compared to the effort I am putting in now. Some of that is definitely due to the fact that I have been away from student life for a long time, but most of it just because grad students in the US are expected to work a lot, especially here at Wharton. And I am doing mostly economics and statistics courses this semester dosent help things a lot, they being almost new topics for me. Add to that the fact that I am considerably underpaid compared to my last job [ boohoo :'( ], I am away from my friends and family and do not have the material luxuries that I was used to in my earlier life.

Even after having said all this, I somehow like this life. I like working till 2AM only to get back to my office around 9 in the morning. I think thats because I really love my department and the people around, it just has this energetic vibes. Like one of my friends said, "We have the coolest profs ever in our department. They are much cooler than the students". I don't think that speaks too much about the doctoral students here but I think she is absolutely right :-) Most of them bike to school, have a couple of startups/companies to their name and are real fun people to hang out with. And YEAH they are very well respected academically.

The only thing that worries me is I need to get into a routine soon and take out some time for myself, for my photography, travel and having fun. Or I just might die of boredom. But now I must head back to my books :-)

PS: I think I'll update my blog more frequently

Mindstorm NXT

Something that I conceptualized 5 years back comes to life. WOW !!! I feel accomplished, though I am still a poor grad student :-)

I pushed so hard for this distributed architecture to be adopted while I was interning at LEGO in the summer of 2002. Though I worked closely with the Mindstorm team for well over a year I am not sure that they still remember me. I guess I would have been lost in the mound of paperwork and office politics. But I feel really glad to see that my baby finally materialized into a product :D

WOW !!

If any of the LEGO guys are reading this PLEASE SEND ME A COMPLIMENTARY KIT :D

The Doors of Perception

“We live together, we act on, and react to, one another; but always and in all circumstances we are by ourselves. The martyrs go hand in hand into the arena; they are crucified alone. Embraced, the lovers desperately try to fuse their insulated ecstasies into a single self-transcendence; in vain. By its very nature every embodied spirit is doomed to suffer and enjoy in solitude. Sensations, feelings, insights, fancies - all these are private and, except through symbols and at second hand, incommunicable. We can pool information about experiences, but never the experiences themselves. From family to nation, every human group is a society of island universes.”