DECISION STATS

I just created a new website (www.swanplc.com ).It took me around 45 minutes from the time I put in my credit card information for getting new server space to getting the final look of a website.

If you are a SME / Academic who has always wanted to create a Web 2.0 website but were skeptical  about the whole thing a jig, read on.

1) Choosing a hosting provider (www.bluehost.com  I chose Bluehost because for a 24 month plan I get the domain name registration also free . This works out to 6.95 dollars a month.

2) Choosing a domain name (This was simple and part of the sign in process above. Since my organization is Swarajya Analytics Private Limited , I chose the name www.swanplc.com as other alternatives were too long or not available.

Note I tried to choose a domain name that

• is easy to remember
  • (not too long ,
  • not too short,
  • doesn’t have similar sounding websites),
• is very related to my original task/name,
• and is available)

3) Choosing a web software –The website I am making is just a place for people to come, read and then contact me. The number of webpages would be limited to less than 5, so I choose WordPress. If I had to choose a large website with many web pages , I would probably choose Drupal (see www.decisionstats.com/drupal )

4) Use Simple Scripts – When you log on to the C-panel ( arrived after logging onto www.bluehost.com with your domain name and password emailed to you), search for the Simple Scripts icon. When you click it you can then choose the software ( here WordPress) for a 2 minute installation.

5) Choosing and Configuring a Web site Theme – For WordPress  I just Goggled WordPress themes (Works for even Drupal themes). Then

• I find the theme which I like,
• and download it to my desktop,
• unzip it 
• and upload it to my server using FileZilla

• Download and Install Filezilla from
• www.filezilla-project.org/download.php

• Go to Site Manager
• Click New Site
• Enter Username and Password (same as going to C-panel)
• Click Connect
• When you are in the website on the right side, click on www icon (top right)
• Click again to wp-content and then to themes
• Click and Drag and Drop you theme folder from the left top (Desktop) to Right Top (/www/wp-content/themes )
• See Screenshot

Use www.yorwebsite.com/wp-admin (where yourwebsite is the hypothetical name of your website ) to login with your WordPress Username and Password ( which is different from your Control Panel Username and Password)

• Go to Design in the Dashboard – Activate Theme.
• Go to Plugins- Activate Akismet (Anti Spam Plug-in).It will then ask you for a WordPress API key .
• Create a username and password on www.wordpress.com to get a WordPress API key (Alphanumeric) ,which would be needed to activate Akismet and thus avoid Spam contents.

6) Start Filling with Content – Start Posting posts or Pages ( For Separate Sections)for the content you have planned for in showing

Everything said and done, this whole process should take you less than an hour , after which you can tweak the website content or even the theme or add plugins to your heart’s content.

Use websites to write and express yourself, and also as a 24/7 showcase for attracting work /consulting /research assignments.

The article was first announced in 2008/4/1. Here is a reprint.

The successor to the popular open source language R has been announced. It has been called “Tea”.

Tea language and the software has the following features –

1) The Tea ( pronounced ‘teah’ ) community is divided between users and developers.Users use and file tickets, developers develop and use a wiki and they use a forum software  like vbulletin or PhPBB 3.0 (see https://decisionstats.com/forum/ )for posting appropriate threads.

2) It uses only GUI and menu driven features for its users. Most legacy R programs can be run in Tea, provided you click the icon for launching the command line separately ( like MS Dos and Windows). If you like command line for the love, then you should be having love ,not be having Tea.

3) You can download video tutorials of Tea shortly from www.youtube.com ( see dedicated channel for Tea Project in You Tube) and also use bit torrents to download it. Tea may be also available on Sourceforge and Downloads.com shortly. There will be no plans to create and maintain a CTAN or repository of folders around the world.Source code would be available both on Google Code as well as Microsoft Developer sites. They would also be searching for one Linux site for source code- as soon as they get all the Linuxes to agree who is going to take over the world.

4) Tea is not free, as it recognizes users have to spend a lot of time learning from its single click menu driven program, video tutorials or even search indexed  help guide. Tea help is updated based on statistical analysis of usage of popular packages (using advanced analytics on the Tea wiki and the flashy website www.tea-project.org)

5) Tea will cost 1 dollars for download (refundable within a month). Money will go to someday One laptop per child which will have Tea pre installed.In addition the Tea project will work with laptop manufacturers like Dell, Compaq and IBM/Lenovo and Acer for pre installation of Tea with its Tea Excel ,Tea Web (especially for the net books)and Tea Core builds.

Note from Ajay- I tried to arrange an interview but surprisingly the Tea Core Team wont be giving interviews to anyone.Apart from the New York T of course.

Note-This is not to be confused with the Template Language developed by the University of North Carolina at http://www.sdsc.edu/srb/index.php/T_Language

Once again I was just adding the numbers in the stimulus package of the US Senate.The economics pendulum has swung , and it has swung all the way to the left while staying there.

So here goes the math-

1) Money already spent in TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program)

700 Billion

2) Money promised in Stimulus Package

800 Billion

Adults in the United States – =306-82=224 Million

Excluding the top 10 % , we have 200 million Americans qualifying for direct tax or indirect stimulus and stimuli.

That’s Total Money ( Bush TARP + Obama Stimulus) per Person =

1500 Billion/200 Million= 7500 USD

Or 15000 USD per Household.

What is wrong with this math ? Why does this number seem so low even though people /senators complain about pigs with lipsticks and pork barrel etc.

Why does the new CHANGED administration need approval for ALL 700 million ( i MEAN billion) at once ………………rather than say how about taking it 100 billion at a time.

Mortgage Relief

If instead of the usual 30 year mortgage loan, banks were told to increase loan tenure to 45 years , where 50 % defaults would be insured by the TARP after the first 20 billions of defaults- this can help bring DOWN the EMIs to say without costing anyone for healthier mortgage holders ( assume 80%)- thus giving a tax relief which is paid by the people themselves.

The Law

In eight years , the US managed to lose trillions of dollars in financial and economic crisis. Why don’t we see any lawsuits ? ( psst– Because all the US lawyers are all reclaiming houses and doing middle class bankruptcies . When not running for President .)

Psst ! Wanna save some money for your organization. Lead a shareholder’s rally to accept federal bailout of a dollar. That puts a cap of $500,000 on the CEO’s salary. Easily the most profitable 1$ your company ever borrowed.

Where would all the CEO’s go ?Japan, China ,India pay less than this mostly. Unless you were the original owner of the company.

The top starting salary at my business school used to be $125,000  (that’s for locations out of US or UK). The top guy used to be hated by all the batch as his name got splashed in the newspapers , prompting the rest of parents to ask their child-

Hey , Why does he get so much while you don’t ? ( Now he wont)

On a serious note: If so many companies are declaring losses, that they will carry over on their books,they will actually get a tax benefit for the loss, as well as the bailout money at low rates of interest. Oh well, at least the CEO wont get rich ( if you think that half a million dollars is not rich).

There is something wrong in a world where a tea stall owner ( like in the movie Slumdog Millionaire)……….Wait ! There is something strange in a world where a tea stall owner makes more money than Citigroup and General Motors .Combined. But makes a thousand times less than their boss.

Do you make more money than Bear Sterns and Lehman Brothers ? Write in and share your perspectives.