Things an Indian does after returning to India from “US”.

22 things an Indian does after returning to India from “US”.

22. Use Nope for No and Yep for Yes.

21. Tries to use credit card in road side hotel.

20. Drinks and carries mineral water and always speaks of health conscious.

19. Sprays deo such so that he doesn’t need to take bath.

18. Sneezes and says ‘Excuse me’.

17. Says “Hey” instead of “Hi”.
Says “Yogurt” instead says “Curds”.
Says “Cab” instead of “Taxi”.
Says “Candy” instead of “Chocolate”.
Says “Cookie” instead of “Biscuit”.
Says ” Free Way ” instead of “Highway”.
Says “got to go” instead of “Have to go”.
Says “Oh” instead of “Zero”, (for 704, says Seven Oh Four Instead of Seven
Zero Four)

16.Doesn’t forget to crib about air pollution. Keeps cribbing every time he steps out.

15. Says all the distances in Miles (Not in Kilo Meters), and counts in Millions. (Not in Lakhs)

14. Tries to figure all the prices in Dollars as far as possible (but deep down the heart multiplies by 43 times).

13. Tries to see the % of fat on the cover of a milk pocket.

12. When need to say Z (zed), never says Z (Zed), repeats “Zee” several times, if the other person unable to get, then says X, Y Zee(but never says Zed)

11. Writes date as MM/DD/YYYY, on watching traditional DD/MM/YYYY, says “Oh! British Style!”

10. Makes fun of Indian Standard Time and Indian Road Conditions.

9. Even after 2 months, complaints about “Jet Lag”.

8. Avoids eating more chili (hot) stuff.

7. Tries to drink “Diet Coke”, instead of Normal Coke.

6.. Tries to complain about any thing in India as if he is experiencing it for the first time.

5. Pronounces “schedule” as “skejule”, and “module” as “mojule”.

4. Looks suspiciously towards Hotel/Dhaba food.

3. From the luggage bag, does not remove the stickers of Airways by which he traveled back to India, even after 4 months of arrival.

2. Takes the cabin luggage bag to short visits in India, tries to roll the bag on Indian Roads.

Ultimate one:
1. Tries to begin conversation with “In US ….” or “When I was in US…”

R .SAS .NYT. One great discussion.

The NY Times carried an article on R titled  at this link here titled

“Data Analysts Captivated by R’s Power”.  However it included a line on page 2 saying

The popularity of R at universities could threaten SAS Institute, the privately held business software company that specializes in data analysis software. SAS, with more than $2 billion in annual revenue, has been the preferred tool of scholars and corporate managers.”

 

 

This led to a round of debates in the SAS-L list here

The debates were

1) SAS Institute has seen many upstarts through the years.

2) SAS Institute  really really needs to change some stuff on this new free and advanced software.Especially with a Base SAS equivalent at 10 % of the price at WPS.

The same NY T article contained this statement

“I think it addresses a niche market for high-end data analysts that want free, readily available code," said Anne H. Milley, director of technology product marketing at SAS. She adds, “We have customers who build engines for aircraft. I am happy they are not using freeware when I get on a jet.”

Unfortunately SAS Institute does use some freeware as components and is also supportive of open source in the past.

The R list on the other hand was jubilant. Finally some recognition.See their reactions here. specifically following this message.

While I do contribute to the NY Times Blog in comments section a lot (see here)

http://www.google.com/search?q=bits.blog.nytimes.com+www.decisionstats.com&hl=en&filter=0

I was surprised by all three ( lists and newspaper).

It reminded me of the saying-

1) You can choose your opinion but the facts must remain the same for all.

2) In God we trust. Everybody else must bring data

( Ajay-ALL THE DATA.Not just the data which suits you)

 

Anyways- Thanks to Satyam accounting scandal, the year 2009 is off to a rocking start.Sometime too much rocking…..

Yahoo Finance for Analysis-Indian ITES

A great graphical tool is Yahoo finance- As a test case I took the Indian Outsourcing and IT industry and compared their stock performance for the whole of 2008.

Note I am using the website http://www.tiny.cc/ which has a great 10 sec method of shortening urls, just like www.tinyurl.com

You can view the graph here http://tiny.cc/ITES and add in last year’s value including SIFY (Satyam’s arm here http://tiny.cc/INDIA

Business case- As you can see, the Indian IT sector lost tremendous value in 2008 , perhaps too much so you can see the sharp pullbacks in the last one week ( WNS pulled almost 18 % up). One view I belive this industry will do well to adopt is stop being an Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) and start moving towards Information Technology Enabled Products ( ITEP)

Updated- I didnt factor in Satyam’s acounting scandal in the analysis.If you click the link above now – you would note the impact such events have on domains ( and curiously happen again and again.It also leads to better data mining solutions than simplistic history repeats itself models).

Yahoo finance is extremely user friendly and the design of the interface is sweet,short and simple. But the biggest weakness is ( and it seems like a Yahoo weakness) – there are almost no ads compared to Google Finance which focuses on the ad placement and relevancy over anything else. I hope this site endures ..as it is a great boon for analysts and even stock market researchers.

image

Who really killed The Joker ?

Was it the studio and director that pushed him over the edge.

Playing a man with a painted face. Day in .Day out. Take after Take.

All in the name of excellence. But its the money that wanted.

Was it his loneliness. From the estrangement of the mother of his son.Because actress wives need high maintainability not creativity.

When the body was found, the police report was delayed, till she was informed by the maid first.

Was it the drugs he took. To fall asleep from the insomnia

When the nightmares come from playing someone else

day in day out.How did the Knight tale ended with the Darker Knight.

Was it God. Who called back his beloved child

Because HE loved him so much he called him back to heaven.

Was it the Devil. As in the song “American Pie”

Was it the medical explanation of accidental overdosing from a variety of chemicals.

Who sold him those chemicals? Did he need them.

And in those last moments, as he choked on his vomit to breathe.

Who did Heath Ledger see.

Loving him. Leaving him. Pushing him. Killing him.

(PS -Republished from August 24,2008 .Heath Ledger is in contention for the Oscar posthumous)

All the Inventors and Pirates

A terrific site for filing patents is http://www.patentstorm.us/

It has great features and a great database as the US Patent office, and it makes sense for an average Joe without needing a patent attorney.

image

A terrific site for copyright infringement is http://thepiratebay.org/

Apparently it is legal as per Swedish law, and thus makes it easier for people to download songs ,videos and movies and softwares for free. One NY student even scanned his whole chemistry book and offered it for download as a protest against high prices, which seems a bit extreme in any case.

Swedes have been trying to shut down the site for 5 years now!

Their blog is quite interesting here http://thepiratebay.org/blog

And they say piracy is a problem in Asia

Poetry for Free

Dear Reader,

 

Here are my E Books for free. I belive some things ( if not the best) things should be free

You can preview them and order the hard copies from the right sidebar.

Enjoy!

In Case I Dont See You Again

Corporate Poetry

OT-New Year Gift-Poetry for Free

Dear Reader,

 

Here are my Poetry E –Books for download for free. I believe some things ( if not the best) things should be free

You can preview them and order the hard copies from the right sidebar.

Enjoy!

In Case I Dont See You Again

Corporate Poetry