tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-130894842011-08-28T08:42:17.062-04:00My thoughts on the latest news and happenings around the world. Most of the posts will be on technology and finance.Sandeepnoreply@blogger.comBlogger311100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13089484.post-1152838512295246752006-07-13T20:48:00.000-04:002006-07-13T20:55:12.306-04:00

Enough is enough. How long will India tolerate killings of its citizens? What started in 1980s in Kashmir has now spread all over India. Terrorists have struck Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Coimbature, Ahmedabad, Varanasi, Ayodhya and many more places. If it were not for the reactionary and weak policies of the Indian government, we would have probably saved thousands of precious lives. But it's not

Sandeepnoreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13089484.post-1148759601261700172006-05-27T15:35:00.000-04:002006-05-27T15:53:21.273-04:00

I have just recovered from my frozen state (which was induced by hyper dose of laziness and apathy). Lots of interesting things happening in the world and noone to hear me blabber about them, so I thought I should get back to posting. Now let's see what are the issues about which I want to write:1. Stock markets around the developing world crashed. India was badly hit too...2. Students around

Sandeepnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13089484.post-1125626996554112592005-09-01T21:59:00.000-04:002005-09-01T22:11:39.483-04:00

It's really saddening to see how the situation in New Orleans is unfolding. If this happens in the world's richest and most powerful country then is there any hope for rest of the world? Why is it taking the government this long to at least provide food, water, medicine and blankets to the people? As always, it's the poorest of poor who are suffering.I hope people who are responsible for this

Sandeepnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13089484.post-1124932935279099522005-08-24T21:13:00.000-04:002005-08-24T21:22:15.286-04:00

So you have been hearing about LAMP and wanna start playing with it. But there's a small problem, you only have Windows on your computer. So what do you do? Simple. You replace Linux with Windows and you are good to go. For beginner's getting the three parts (Apache server, MySQL and PHP) installed and configured correctly can be a bit challenging. But I recently found a cool package called

Sandeepnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13089484.post-1124151505635067352005-08-15T20:16:00.000-04:002005-08-15T20:18:25.640-04:00

Seems like that is what everyone is talking about. BusinessWeek has devoted lot of ink to this topic. I have just started going through the different articles. Will post my views later. Enjoy!!

Sandeepnoreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13089484.post-1123633526428164822005-08-09T19:45:00.000-04:002005-08-09T20:25:26.436-04:00

I have started thinking of it as the most important word in the English language. It struck me while reading this blog post called "How to Save the World." It says that to exercise our brains we should (among other things) learn a new language and learn something outside our comfort zone. Isn't that diversification? So, diversifying our knowledge is good for the brain. Now let's see how else

Sandeepnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13089484.post-1123035918337773502005-08-02T22:23:00.000-04:002005-08-02T22:27:40.256-04:00

Yes I do. But what the hell!!?!?!

Sandeepnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13089484.post-1123031529641531542005-08-02T21:00:00.000-04:002005-08-02T21:12:09.646-04:00

Just got the current issue of Time in the mail. Was browsing it and there were 3 references of India (haven't read it completely so there might be more). Since I haven't put anything in the blog in a long time, I thought I should share this. One was, of course, about the rains in Mumbai. Second was a statistic which I thought was interesting. Here it is,"76% of doctors in US believe in God (83%

Sandeepnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13089484.post-1122335547787609192005-07-25T19:51:00.000-04:002005-07-25T20:43:59.926-04:00

Is your money lying in your savings account earning less than 1% to 2% depending on your balance? There is a better place to put that money. Smart Money has a great article with links to several banks which give upto 3.5% interest. This could be a great place to put your emergency fund in as you would not only get good interest rate but also easy access to your money. Now everyone knows (I hope)

Sandeepnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13089484.post-1122000305744896422005-07-21T22:29:00.000-04:002005-07-21T22:45:05.750-04:00

My Suse Linux 9.3 (Sony Vaio Centrino with Intel 2200BG) had been working really well on my wireless network until yesterday when I installed a bunch of updates using YaST. Then today after I rebooted I couldn't connect to the Internet. This had happened to me before, but I couldn't remember how I had fixed it. The system had an IP from the DHCP server but still didn't connect. After trying

Sandeepnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13089484.post-1121555575633179122005-07-16T18:59:00.000-04:002005-07-16T19:12:55.640-04:00

As if the coverage in Indian media was not enough, Ambanis are still getting international coverage as seen here on Yahoo Finance! The article on Forbes discusses six billionaire family feuds. About Ambanis they have this to say:Once-inseparable brothers, Mukesh (right) and Anil (left) Ambani fought publicly and bitterly for months over control of Reliance Group. The company was founded by their

Sandeepnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13089484.post-1121483026563282202005-07-15T22:54:00.000-04:002005-07-15T23:03:46.566-04:00

This is the heading of an article on MSN Money which dares to raise doubts about China's future growth. The author lists the following factors which he thinks are going to affect Chinese march to prosperity:1. inefficiency, 2. low profitability of Chinese industries, 3. political interference, 4. unequal spread of wealth and 5. aging populationThere are lessons to be drawn by India. Many in India

Sandeepnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13089484.post-1121293710086443412005-07-13T18:17:00.000-04:002005-07-13T18:28:30.103-04:00

Just when you think Times of India can't get any worse, they go ahead and print an article like 'Working' for Bill Gates, boy cons Microsoft as their headline. From the article it's unclear how the boy conned Microsoft and it seems the only people conned were the TOI guys. But isn't Times of India the largest selling English newspaper in India (maybe World...not sure)?? It is, but then isn't

Sandeepnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13089484.post-1121252731075669432005-07-13T06:59:00.000-04:002005-07-13T07:05:31.076-04:00

For a complete list of countries ranked by their Gross Domestic Product(GDP) go to this site.In terms of Purchasing power parity (PPP), India is at number four. Complete list.

Sandeepnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13089484.post-1121225153627056982005-07-12T23:14:00.000-04:002005-07-12T23:25:53.633-04:00

From NY Times (needs bugmenot)Europeans Step Up Investigation Into Intel... seeking evidence that Intel, the world's No. 1 chip maker, has been abusing a rebate program intended to keep PC makers from buying chips from Intel's competitors....In March, the Fair Trade Commission in Japan found Intel guilty of breaking its rules by giving rebates to five Japanese PC makers in exchange for buying its

Sandeepnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13089484.post-1121214473137613352005-07-12T20:13:00.000-04:002005-07-12T22:39:35.933-04:00

Another great city has been hit by terrorism. :(This has been in my mind for some time, but somehow I always forgot to post it. In India, a similar act of terrorism took place in Bombay in 1993. While reading about the London bombings a thought occurred to me that it was really sad that such a thing happened in London when Blair seems to be doing so many right (1,2,3) things. Of course, these

Sandeepnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13089484.post-1121212369646110932005-07-12T19:39:00.000-04:002005-07-12T19:52:49.653-04:00

Amazon is turning 10 (awwwww...) and it's throwing a grand birthday party. The best part about the party is that we will be the ones getting gifts! :)Amazon will be giving away many prizes with the grand prize being that 2 people will receive their Amazon wish list upto $5000. But the wish list has to be created between July 7th and July 16th. So log on and create your wish list now. I haven't

Sandeepnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13089484.post-1121135537776321712005-07-11T22:02:00.000-04:002005-07-12T17:58:50.990-04:00

Found this cool Business Week graphic from Free Money Finance which shows the debt of some of the major economies. As expected, USA leads with $724 billion of debt. You must have seen articles why this debt is so bad, and why American over-consumption will lead to serious economic problems in future. But is this debt and over consumption really that bad for America and world in general? I am not

Sandeepnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13089484.post-1121129691979264422005-07-11T20:52:00.000-04:002005-07-11T20:54:51.986-04:00

If you guys are interested in the HOT Indian stock market, you should check out http://indianipo.blogspot.com. It has links to company prospectus, reviews, demand graphs etc of upcoming IPOs.

Sandeepnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13089484.post-1121020510517441232005-07-10T14:16:00.000-04:002005-07-10T14:35:10.523-04:00

In Fakish, Tekfin means "one who possesses infinite knowledge of technology and finance" and of course that's me.Ha! Just kidding, there is no language called Fakish and Tekfin doesn't mean anything and I hardly possess finite knowledge about anything. I just thought Tekfin sounded like a cool word. So why a blog about technology and finance. Am I an expert of any of the two subject matters? Of

Sandeepnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13089484.post-1121011676203589572005-07-10T12:00:00.000-04:002005-07-10T12:07:56.203-04:00

I don't know how I forgot about this... but one of India's most well known brand is Amul. It's a dairy company which is credited with bringing the milk revolution in India. Best of all it's a cooperative. I think it was established by farmers in Gujarat. You can read more here. The cooperative movement is actually credited with making India world's largest milk producing country. Just to show

Sandeepnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13089484.post-1121006826616853382005-07-10T10:45:00.000-04:002005-07-10T14:14:33.396-04:00

Read more on Wikipedia.

Sandeepnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13089484.post-1120930305004284232005-07-09T13:31:00.000-04:002005-07-10T10:18:34.353-04:00

Every investment book worth its salt asks people to start investing early. So I started wondering at what age did the legendary investors buy their first stock. So here's what I found...Warren Buffett:1941: At eleven years old, Warren buys his first stock. He purchases 6 shares of Cities Service preferred stock [3 shares for himself, 3 for his sister, Doris], at a cost of $38 per share. The

Sandeepnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13089484.post-1120886918983758292005-07-09T01:05:00.000-04:002005-07-11T08:18:40.706-04:00

This was a big news today.CNN - Report: India No .1 for retail expansionIndian Express - India is top destination for retailersThis seems like a good news for India. The retail giants like Walmart, Benetton and Tesco etc. are already salivating. Besides bringing millions of dollars of investment they will also bring expertise and experience. Worldover retail is a big employment generator. This

Sandeepnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13089484.post-1120882137280524862005-07-08T23:56:00.000-04:002005-07-09T00:10:05.103-04:00

I searched Google news for news regarding oil prices... and here's a synopsis of the results:Search: "Oil falls"Oil falls on profit-taking -- Reuters - 7 hours agoOil Falls on Signs Hurricane to Miss Most US Gulf Platforms -- Bloomberg - 9 hours agoSearch: "oil rises"Oil rises near $61, London bomb impact seen limited -- Reuters - 23 hours agoCrude Oil Rises as Hurricane Threatens Gulf of Mexico

Sandeepnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13089484.post-1120876455223834102005-07-08T22:14:00.000-04:002005-07-08T22:34:15.230-04:00

It has been a long time since I wrote anything. Again there are a number of reasons, which I don't think anybody cares about. Anyways, since writing the last post I have been to Florida twice. Once on the Memorial Day weekend and again on July 4th weekend. The first visit was to West Palm Beach where my brother and bhabi (sister-in-law) live and second was to Orlando where I met them again. Boy,

Sandeepnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13089484.post-1117065566396144132005-05-25T19:41:00.000-04:002005-05-25T19:59:26.400-04:00

How else can you explain this -Bowling for Google - just one day after my post!!!Btw, I think I gave too much credit to fool.com yesterday. I have also read a bunch of investing books, most of them are beginner books. I will probably post their names/review sometime.Anyway, moving on from the world of Finance, read a news item today that made me happy - Millions in India to get OpenOffice."CDs

Sandeepnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13089484.post-1116990474823914482005-05-25T01:43:00.000-04:002005-05-24T23:08:06.896-04:00

Have you looked at the stock price of Google lately? Check it out. It has more than tripled from the original price. I wish I had bought some! :-(From the stock price it would seem that Google is grossly overpriced. However, if you look at the P/E of Yahoo (50.18) and Microsoft (18.13), Google (39.02) doesn't seem that expensive. Even more importantly, the PEG ratio of Google (1.58) is less than

Sandeepnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13089484.post-1116901563218299522005-05-24T01:15:00.000-04:002005-05-23T22:26:03.223-04:00

Read this in The Economist...http://www.economist.com/finance/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3993400(You can get a "day pass" by going to economist.com)Default rates on bank retail loans, at 2.5%, are not yet alarming. However, credit-card defaults have risen to 6.3%. One problem is that borrowers' credit histories are not generally available. A credit bureau set up last year by State Bank of India (

Sandeepnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13089484.post-1116892256030971692005-05-24T01:10:00.000-04:002005-07-08T23:46:49.250-04:00

So, here I am with my second post. I am still trying to make this blog more homely. Don't have much experience with css so it will take some time. Meanwhile, here is something about me...I work as a software engineer in a software products/services company in Charleston, USA. We make financial, fund-raising and educational software. Most of the work is done in Microsoft technologies/products like

Sandeepnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13089484.post-1116772644592831842005-05-22T13:33:00.000-04:002005-05-22T10:37:24.596-04:00

Actully, nothing funny here. This is my third try at blogging. Hopefully, this one will be a success. Earlier two failed mainly because I lost interest, was too busy/lazy. But this time I am going to be regular and post every day (hopefully!).Happy Blogging!!

Sandeepnoreply@blogger.com