Blessed are the Ignorants!!!

Star News, an Indian news channel has recently conducted an opinion poll ahead of the upcoming national elections. And they predicted 257 seats for Congress lead UPA, 184 for BJP lead NDA and 96 for the mix and match alliance with out a name tentatively being called 'Third Front'. 

Sounds Alright... until you see the sample size for the poll - 50, 402. Yes, about 50K in a country of a billion non homogeneous people. Less than 100 per seat. Any one with even a slightest idea of the complexity of Indian electorate understands how ridiculous this is.

Are these polls even eligible to laugh at?

Comprehensive Site...

... about the results in past elections and interesting caste demographics for Andhra elections.

http://teluguone.com/election/

What's made the iPhone successful?

Success of iPhone is phenomenal and beyond the imagination of consumers, analysts and competition alike. While 'Steve Jobs' and his pursuit for perfection has been the driving force, I'd attribute three reasons to its continued success - Design, AppStore and Marketing.

Design: 'Keep it Simple, Stupid'. There are more powerful mobile phones all over the world that are incredibly more powerful and feature rich than iPhone. But smart phone software had mostly been stripped down versions of the desktop software, ‘User Interaction’ paradigms from the personal computers with windows and menus with a key board are translated to mobile phones. iPhone redefined the mobile user interaction and kept it simple.

App Store: 1st generation iPhone is incredibly successful even with limited features. To sustain the innovation and maintain its leadership in a market that has innovators like Google, Microsoft, Nokia, Sony and RIM is a challenge. Opening up the platform and letting hundreds of other companies innovate is only part of the story. Providing a platform for these applications in iTunes AppStore, making it incredibly simple to explore, buy and install apps replicating the iPod/iTunes eco system is critical for the explosion of the app market. This increases the iPhone’s capacity to expand and retain the user base .

Marketing: Smart phones before iPhone have positioned themselves for business users and have been competing to capture the small but profitable market. iPhone instead marketed its smart phone for mass market. Its approach to market these ‘smart phone’ features to the mass market has opened up the incredibly large market. Apple's continued reliance on the ‘Apps’ instead of ‘coolness’ in its marketing campaign has taken iPhone beyond traditional Mac/iPod consumers would ensure its long term success.

It's the new world!!

It's time when TIME wants to know your thoughts on this ->

List of Major Scams in Andhra

sarasadevi & DIPEP scam Congress
passports & human trafficking scam Congress
Kodela Siva Prasada Rao involved in endowments land scam TDP
Gowru venkat reddy Scam Congress
Endowments land scam TDP & Congress
krishna yadav and telgi scam TDP
Satyam scandal TDP & Congress
costal corridor Congress
sports village, in gachibowli TDP
velugubanti Surya Narayana Fisheries scandal � Congress
Corruption in Upadhi hami pathakam Congress
Paniki aharam padakam TDP
Krishi Bank Fraud TDP
Corruption in Rajiv Arogyasri scheme Congress
Iron ore mines Obulapuram mines in anatapur dt scandal Congress
Indiramma Illu Congress
grabing of temple lands , wakfat board property TDP & Congress
Corruption in Vox Congress
sand scam JC diwakar rao Congress
bhimrao bada - firing slum dogs from their homes Congress
Murder of Paritala Ravindhra Congress
Aluminium diggings from Araku Valley Congress
Diverting Iron ore from Vishaka to Private Steel Factories Congress
Destroying Noble Hills in vizag and making real estate buiness Congress
Maytas Metro Rail Project Congress
Charminar Bank Fraud TDP
THE VANPIC link Congress
POWER FRAUD Y S Jagan Congress
WAQF LAND SOLD ILLEGALLY Congress
SAKSHI: INVESTMENTS AND REWARDS Congress
Raghu Ram Cements Congress
Sripada Sagar irrigation project Congress
Heritage Scam TDP
Diveting SC, ST Funds to other schemes Congress
Releasing Criminals from Jailson the occasion of Independence day Congress
Murder of 250 TDP workers Congress
Murder of Moddhu Seenu in jail Congress
Prostitution in Devotional Places Congress
passport & Human Trafficking Congress
GO 1439 TDP Congress
Sale of Govt Lands TDP Congress
maytas Frauds like never before Congress
IMG Bharata TDP Congress
Stationary TDP
margaDarsi TDP
Donations from Satyam TDP Congress
Wolkswagon Scam Congress

Source: Some user forum.

Right problems - Wrong solutions (Education)

In his 'Not State of Union' speech Obama recognized some important problems that needs to be addressed for long run health of the economy.
Health Care, Education and Energy. I'd add social security and defense spending to that.
I was impressed. But once his solutions are being laid out it is not good.

Education
California has the highest state taxes in the country and it spent 31% and 10.3% on K-12 and higher education respectively in 2008-2009. (20.4% and 8.6% in 1992-1993)
I have no big problem with spending on higher education. US has the best of the schools in the world. It is an merit based open system. Any one can study anywhere as long as they can get an admit.
But K-12. Spending 31% of all state tax revenues on state run education system is unacceptable. This is not all that is spent on education, local and federal governments also spend money on k-12 education.

What is the problem with the state run education? too many to list.
low paid teachers
no competition and no incentives for the brightest minds to be in the teaching...
choice of schools
you can only go to the school in your community. no regard for choice. homogeneous class rooms. artificial inflation of real estate in communities with good schools.
no child left behind
...
...

Pouring more money into the failed education system would not lead to more quality or quantity, it just goes down the drain. giving computers to the schools wouldn't help if they don't have competent teachers. competent teachers would be possible only with competitve incentive based market. Most of my friends never knew how to use computers until they got admitted to engineering schools, but now they are doing cutting edge work in computer science because they all came from a very competitive education system and knew all the basic mathematics and sciences.

It's so easy to see anywhere in the world and I am stunned how the US is turning a blind eye to the facts. Govt. involvment should be in oversight, not in management.

http://www.ebudget.ca.gov/pdf/BudgetSummary/SummaryCharts.pdf
http://www.caltax.org/RESEARCH/spending96/spend96.htm

ICL

http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/nzvind2009/content/story/392501.html
http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/nzvind2009/content/story/392882.html

Wow!! I can't believe the players are being denied their careers because they play for ICL. They are not doing drugs, they are just playing cricket. What gives BCCI/ ICC or other cricket boards any right to dictate what players can and should do??

This is Ridiculous with a CAPITAL 'R'.

Apple netbook/ umpc??

I see the tech blogs rooting for Apple netbooks. I say apple will not and should not get into the netbook business.
In fact, I say they have already have a netbook. It's called iPhone/ iPod Touch. Serves the same market fairly well. They do not need to design and market yet another device.

Words No More!!!

Obama on Fire... Way to Go!!

>> Transparency with Recovery.gov
>> Healthcare reform kickstart in 2009.
>> Iraq withdrawal timeline
>> Increased troops in Afghan
>> Closing Guantanamo
>> Tax increases for those earning more than $250K.
>> Increased govt. spending - short term and long term.
>> Potential spending cuts

Though there are no details on how he is going to achieve many of these goals. Love the fact that he is ambitious in setting his goals, I don't understand the talk that he is trying to do too many things. He can hire enough people to drive these things.

May not be successful or if successful may ruin the country, but the fact that he is actually attempting to do what he said he'll do is impressive.

Now we know how those billions disapper...

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1881770_1881787_1881780,00.html

In 2007 Google Earth sleuths found that four unconnected buildings on the base formed an unfortunate shape when viewed from above: a swastika. The Navy says it's spending more than $600,000 to mask the shape.

Race and Cowards?

How can americans of any color talk about race when things that are not even close to being racist are being called so and the person who says them are vilified.

Remember when Bill Clinton mentioned that Jesse Jackson won twice in SC, he was branded as racist. He might be wrong in his purely political calculation, but racist? how??
NYPost's cartoon, their politics not withstanding, is a insensitive comment on the pet chimpanzee, but how in the world can some one come up with the racist theory?

No wonder that Americans are scared to talk about the matters related to race. Can they afford not to be cowards?

Nice slide show of Indian Cricket Jerseys

http://specials.rediff.com/cricket/2009/feb/18pic1-team-india-jersey-changeth.htm

Invest in the developing world??

One of the fundamental reason for all this economic mess seems to be 'Gluttony' or 'Over Saturation of Markets'. Needless spending as a driver for growth instead of required spending.

A simple look at the USA how wasteful things are -
Hundreds of car models in tens of auto dealerships in each city.
Couple of huge malls for every few miles. A JC Penny next to a Sears or Kohls. A Macy's next to a Nordstorm. A Best Buy next to Circuit City. Office Max next to Staples. 4 gas stations around 4 corners of major cross streets. You see this everywhere.
More houses built than people could afford for.
More TV Channels than people could ever watch.
A new cell phone, an ipod and a camera every year, leasing a new car every 3 years. You cannot continue this for ever. We should realise the fact that growing for the sake of growing is not sustainable.

Spending on things that increase productivity is good, like adding lanes to decrease commute time and save on gas, building high speed rail, spending on next generation broadband network. Invest in R & D and promote innovation.

Instead of investing in rich countries with saturated prosperity, invest in developing countries like India where major portions of people are still struggling for basic amenities and the productivity is criminally low when compared to the developed world. The clogged streets, flood farming, rotten food for the lack of proper storage, dated weather forecasting and many inefficient processes in every aspect of living. Invest in developing world to lift them up and in turn benefit from their spending by selling stuff to them.

Just Words!!

Bipartisan - I'll accept your opinion only if you agree with me.
Transparency - I'll give you the details when you can do nothing about it.
Hope - You can't hope for something if it already happened. (synonyms: Catastrophe)
Lobbyists - Lobbyists minus my friends
Healthy Debate - 'I Won!!'

Too Soon??

Quote on a T-Shirt on BART

"Do not have a strong opinion on things you don't understand."
- Right, tell that to our friends in Media.

Superbowl Ads at one place.

Random Thought!!

Is Rafael Nadal Human?

Indians in Australian Open 2009

Just realised we have Indians in finals of three events in Australian Open Tennis.

Yuki Bhambri - Junior Boys Singles

Bhupathi - Men's Doubles

Bhupathi/ Sania - Mixed Doubles

Paes lost in Men's Doubles Semis

Yuki Bhambri lost in Junior Boys Double Semis

Random Thought!!!

Is India a model of a responsible power for not escalating Mumbai attacks into a War with Pakistan in the day of American/ Russian/ Israeli style unilateral military aggression Or Is India just a spineless directionless soft target??

India's 9/11???

Last months attacks in Mumbai are being termed as India's 9/11 by the World and even Indian Media and all of a sudden government is all worked up setting up new agencies.

So what are all these.. diwali crackers??

Is it because the wealthy and foreigners got killed? Would the attacks be called the same if they just attacked the VT/ CST station. I bet not. How cheap is the life of an average Indian?

And stop this war posturing and stop blaming Pak for everthing. They can't protect their land from their own... and as it is evident so clearly, so can't we. Stop the Naxals, Stop the ULFA, Stop the SIMI, Indian Mujahidin and the likes, Stop the rioting mobs, Stop the police inaction and corruption, Stop the vote bank politics. Then, we can point fingers.