A device is statistically going to either break down within a year of it’s operation or would break down after an “extended” period of time. You are covered by the manufacturer’s warranty for the first year and extended warranties would not cover you over a very long period anyway. If you put these two facts [...]
Category Archives: Opinion
Extended warranties are not worth it
20-Jan-10People do not have enough information to make health care choice. You cannot expect a person to shop around for a blood test lab or an MRI the same way a person shops for groceries. There is no dichotomy between catastrophic and other types of health conditions; one leads to the other, both for individuals, [...]
My health care premium
16-Oct-09just went up by a whopping 18% for 2010. I am fortunate enough to be working for a decent sized company with a decent medical coverage and they will absorb about 13% of that. So I am facing a premium increase of a (still absurd) 5%. There will be some increase in the deductible limits [...]
G1
22-Aug-09Bought the G1 yesterday. The G1 is a HTC phone and it seems to me that it’s supposed to rival the iPhone. Not really used the iPhone but this phone is a beauty! The only problem is that the battery life sucks majorly and that’s where this comes in. I’ve ordered my piece and am [...]
My list of the reasons for the financial crisis is as follows: The Global Pool of Money – There was a global savings glut and the money was seeking the best returns to be found. Investment Banks Commercial Banks Glass-Steagall Act (and it’s Repeal) Community Re-Investment Act Greenspan’s Put The Housing Bubble and the Politics [...]
The Mangalore pub incident
04-Feb-09The great Indian guardians of morality strike again, valiantly protecting our “sabhyata”. This incident is getting a lot of attention primarily because part of it was caught on camera. What you see is a bone-chilling indictment of the health of our society. I’ll leave aside my revulsion and hatred of such acts, my anger and [...]
Felix Salmon excoriates Ben Stein
02-Feb-09…here. Perhaps a little unfairly? I had blogged about a talk by Ben Stein at the Commonwealth Club a while back. I found him to be quite reasonable and the concerns about the economy that he raised and his mention of the importance of friends and family and community had a ring of sincerity and [...]
The dreary and monotonous Jagjit Singh had this to say about A. R. Rahman and his compositions. It’s really sad that an accomplished singer such as Jagjit Singh made this comment. That’s a sign of someone who’s essentially cemented himself in his own musical concrete. Any contemporary phenomenon requires you to get out of your [...]
My Ahmedabad trip
26-Sep-08I visited Ahmedabad to attend a couple of conferences. Namely, the National Conference On Information And Communication Technologies (ICT) and the Access India Convention This time, I decided to travel by train since the air fair was too expensive. There were a lot of us going to Ahmedabad but most people were going to the [...]
The immersion of ashes
12-Sep-08We set out this morning for immersing my grandmother’s ashes in the Ganges. We had to get to the river which was about a 2 hour drive. Before that though, we had to visit the crematorium to collect the ashes. Mind you, those are not ashes in the technical sense of the term. They are [...]
I made my first visit to a crematorium. No funeral dirge, no waling women since, in our community, they are not allowed to come for the cremation. We had elected to go with the electric crematorium. The crematorium is in a small tree lined complex. There is the traditional wood burning one and the electric [...]
More relatives and a glut of phone calls
11-Sep-08So, people have begun streaming in. They are all sitting in the lobby talking in hushed tones. The phones have wrung almost every 12 minutes. Some callers are very persistant. How does one handle them nicely? I can smell a lot of incense so I guess things are ready for the next phase. The certificate [...]
Adrift in bereavement
11-Sep-08My grandmother died this morning around 07:45. It was not sudden and everyone knew that this could happen. What is to be done now? Everyone is calm and mom is busy in arranging the body etc. Is there a point to all this? Perhaps the point is to be busy doing something so that the [...]
Laser lithotripsy
04-Sep-08One of my relations is under going Laser lithotripsy as I write this post. The family is in a state of controlled panick even though this procedure is quite safe and is considered minimally invasive. As usual, it is only yours truely who has done some research on the whole thing. I should have done [...]
Holi rant
18-Mar-08That festival is just around the corner again. Yes, I am talking about Holi. I appreciate the sense of community, the triumph over good and evil etc., but please, one water balloon is one too many and don’t spray water and or color on me without asking! Yes, I have played holi with gusto many [...]
Mobile Asia 2008
04-Mar-08I paid a visit to Mobile Asia 2008. All I can say is that it was a very “me too” affair. All the vendors had the same kind of phones with touch screens. Everyone was showing off their cameras and music playing features. Samsung had an interesting Haptic phone while Nokia was betting big on [...]
Brad DeLong on China and India
20-Jul-07Generally very positive on India. Negatives: Corrupt and Bureaucratic government, Illiteracy, Infrastructure.
Sample accessible form
03-Jul-07The formI have created a sample accessible form. I need to check this though.
Exponential moving average
30-Apr-07Exponential average workbookPlease review the attached Excel workbook. Have I calculated the exponential moving averages correctly?
On expensive
20-Mar-07I was recently discussing purchasing adaptive technology with a blind computer user. A standard refrain in such discussions is that the adaptive technology in question is very expensive. I cannot understand the term expensive in this context. Yes, one has to make a significant financial outlay for the technology but, it is an investment which [...]