Oil change

Last weekend, I finally raised my car on two jack stands and changed the engine oil on my own. Tinkering with my car and making it work the way I want has been a dream for me since childhood. When I got my first bike and took it to the mechanic, I would watch the mechanic's every move. I would ask him "can you make it go any faster" and he would explain how it could go faster and how much gas it would consume and all that. During the 4th year of my Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering, Automobile Engineering was my favorite subject. I was fascinated by the topic of how automobiles work. Ever since, I wanted to do my own car and bike.
This year, I had planned to do this during the winter when there would not be anything else to do outdoor for many-a-weekends. My first try at it was bad. I raised the car, put the jack-stands under it and squeezed into the little space between the car and the floor. I realized I could not see a thing under there. Obviously, the whole car was between the engine and the overhead light. I overcame that lack of visibility and found the drain plug. Then I realized I did not have the right wrench! How stupid. That was it for the first try. The weekend after, I asked the guy at Pepboys as to what is the right sized wrench (how intelligent of me!) and he recommended me to get a complete tool-set - which I bought. Again, I raised the car and tried to undo the drain plug! AH! It wont budge! But after applying plenty of brute force the nut suddenly moved and I unscrewed it all the way by hand. Out came the completely black colored warm oil and the drain pan underneath started filling up! I was ecstatic. Then, I went for the oil filter and changed that as well.
All this took 30 minutes and no sweat at all. Here is my invitation to all my friends to get their oil changed for free! You know my address. Just bring the right spec and quantity of oil with you.

My accent

A couple days ago, I took my son to the Barnes and Noble in Naperville. He likes to visit Thomas the Tank Engine train table assembly at the second floor when he is there. There was another family of 4 there and one of the son's name was Drew. His mother's voice somehow sounded as though she was calling out Dhroo with a mild sound on the 'h' and a rather pronounced 'r'. It definitely did not sound like Droo with heavy 'D', very little 'r' and long 'oo'. So, I was surprised and I asked the mother if his name was Dhruv. Thats my son's name too. That was it, that was the end of my curiosity and surprise. However, later on, it looked like I surprised the mom too. You see, this family was not Indian-born immigrants (as I am). They were many-generations-born-in-America Afro-American and the mother immediately shot back with a wide smiling face - " Where are you from?". Now it was my turn to be surprised. Why am I being asked within the first 30 seconds of a conversation as to my origins? Somewhere in my mind I felt like I'd ticked off the woman. I searched for an answer - Should I say Aurora or Naperville? Then I saw the really perplexed yet know-it-all look on her face and got the drift. I said I am from India. Pat came the next question - "yeah but which part". I go "Mumbai - Bombay". She goes - "Ah!". I go "why?". She goes, "no your dialect sounded like you came from the southern part of India". That honestly is the first time I ever heard that. Especially so because she mentioned dialect. When could I have changed my dialect? However, it was delivered with such confidence that for a moment I thought. "Really?". Then I went, "you seem to know quite a bit about India". And so on until the conversation went into easy territory.
Well, I don't think either of us meant anything else than surprise at each other's pronunciation. But, I just felt like writing about this little piece. God bless her on the very holy day (holiday) today and tomorrow.

Found in a gym bathroom

This is what I found stuck to the wall of the bathroom in my gym. Very good, factual and accurate reading material for all who are interested in fitness - despite the unlikely location!

US Legal Employment-based Immigration pains

On Dec 14th, the DOS released what it calls the visa bulletin. This bulletin is a monthly release of visa number information. These visa numbers are are a statistic. A statistic resulting from application of the Immigration and Naturalization act. First enacted in 1952, this act was an important milestone in shaping the immigration policy in the United States. It abolished race based immigration and set the course for future demographic development of the country. 1952 was 7 years after the world war had ended with the US being at the top of the table in terms of its stake in the world and its power. Japan was demolished. Germany was split. Europe was liberated. America had the best science (by some accounts) and technology. China was not a significant power in those days. It was the time when the first of the baby boomers were being born. I was more than 2 decades away from being born. What a different world and what different nation that was. Time flies. Flash forward to 2007. Between then and now, the law has changed a few times. Once it was to change the quota system and then to curb illegal immigration. The quota system still continues the in a similar way till today. This law creates a great system for the people of United States to accept immigrants. It is especially good for the American people to welcome highly skilled labor force into the country to do the tough jobs which need lots of bright men and women. The particular section of the law (I don't know the section number) that brings in highly skilled labor is the one that stipulates employment based immigration. In other words, this section of the law allows American businesses to hire foreign workers for job positions that they cannot fill with American citizens or permanent residents. This list of job positions are controlled by the Department of Labor which maintains a list of jobs that are hard to fill with American citizens and permanent residents. The American employer petitions the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services for an H1 visa for the benefit of a foreign worker. Unlike a visitor visa, this H1 visa is considered a "dual-intent" visa. It means that foreign workers entering the US on a H1 visa have the option of formally expressing a desire to remain in the country permanently. I don't know how better to say it. Let me re-phrase it. It [dual-intent] means that an American employer can petition the USCIS to immigrate the alien worker into the United States. The formal request for doing this is done on the form I-140 by the employer and subsequently or concurrently on form I-485 by the employee. To get to this stage, there is a long wait period until the crucial visa number (created by the Immigration and Nationalization Act) becomes available. You see, only when the law allows can the dual intent immigrants express their immigration intent. Until then, the law allows (expensive) extensions to status quo. Depending on which country one is from, one may have to wait many years to simply be able to apply for an immigrant intent. This wait is very painful for the applicant. During this wait period, applicants are not allowed to change jobs unless they want to start the wait all over again. For example, take the case of a foreign worker who starts a highly skilled job in the United States in the year 2007. This person could have to wait anywhere between 5 to 7 years to simply apply for the I-485 form. During this period, if the person decides to make a career move and the employer revokes the I-140, the person has to start waiting all over again. In most cases, it is impossible to change jobs. In harsh words, you become an indentured laborer albeit highly skilled. It is true. As unlikely as it sounds, it is true. If the person has a spouse who is not highly skilled or by choice did not take a job when in the US, this spouse has to be on a H4 visa. On an H4 visa, this person is not allowed to take a job or any other form of employment at all. No work. I am no expert on this, however, from what I understand, H4 visa holders are not even allowed to do voluntary work. That truly sucks. All this goes on until the visa number statistic becomes favorable. These visa numbers are a statistic. A statistic resulting from application of the Immigration and Naturalization act.
In an unrelated article, I read somewhere that US law defines a mentally incapable person as a person who cannot take decisions on his own volition and whose decisions are heavily and unduly influenced by an external [evil] entity.
From what I am experiencing and seeing many others experience. This is a classic case of dementia. Demented Immigrants and Evil Law.

Healthcareless

Today's (Nov 20 '07) Wall Street Journal carried a front page article about a woman & family in the state of Missouri who went through quite a bit of trouble in life when she met with a really bad accident. The article is pretty detailed and describes the situation in all respects. The matter that struck me the most is the absolute apathy of the way the Federal & State law is codified and with what ruthlessness corporate America enforces it. Of course, we are a capitalist economy and businesses should do all that they can to further their economic causes. However, at the same time, how should we treat human life? This is always contentious. Just as in the Iraq war, is human life expendable in return for economic gain? And this particular situation was not even about war. This is just Walmart and its employee.
The gist of the matter was that a car was hit by a semi-trailer on the passenger side with a poor Mrs. Shank being seriously injured. This lady was left in coma at the age of 45 with a family of three sons. The health insurance system was good enough to pay the bills promptly. Eventually, the Shank family sued the trucking company and was awarded a $750,000 benefit by the courts. Justice served ain't it? Of that 3 quarter million dollars, quite a bit went towards bills and medical expenses. About $470,000 was put it into a court-created trust for future maintenance or whatever. Three years passed by with life coming to a routine for the Shank family. Suddenly, Walmart woke up and decided to sue the Shank family for all the money. The logic is a "subrogation" clause that walmart employees sign up to when they sign up for their employment contracts. From the article, it sounds as though subrogation is a common item in employment contracts. The courts favored Walmart in this case and the Shanks had to give up all the money. To add injury to the insult (after the first injury), the middle son of the Shank family was killed in the Iraq war serving the very country where his mother was injured and was not paid benefits. Now, Mrs. Shank is divorced (apparently because she may get more benefits as a single woman as opposed to being a married woman) and lives in memory loss, unable to feed or dress herself with the husband in grief and one son no more. Walmart on the other hand has a market capitalization of close to $185,000,000,000 and has 1,900,000 employees. This company went and sued the poor lady and her family and took away what little they had.
I agree that the law took its course and the situation may be legally fair and binding. I am a complete free market proponent and would not let my emotions come between sane business decisions. However, does this make sense? Heck no! It is obvious that the law needs some looking into and Walmart could surely do with one or two less lawyers with free time on their hands. According to Walmart, they did this because they have the obligation to other employees by recovering costs and in effect contributing to the health planning for all their employees. However, something tells me that those $470,000 are going to find a nice place in the P&L statement and eventually into shareholder pockets. Once again, I agree that shareholder is king. However, in this case, the subjects are clearly at loss.
Hope someone corrects this in the Congress.

Have you been approached with Hedge Fund Investing?

A financial adviser recently approached me with the prospect of investing into a fund that in turn invested in large hedge funds. While the idea looks fascinating, I am pretty confident that hedge fund investing is not for me and for most of the people I spend my time at work and play. Agreed, hedge funds probably return in many multiples of what an average joe mutual fund or directed investment plan will return. Hedge funds have the best names in the market associated with them. Agreed that partners at Hedge Funds are perhaps the most handsomely paid professionals or owners in the country today. However, all these positive points have a cost. Firstly, it is the risk. That's the biggest factor to consider. Having said that, I won't talk too much about it. Thats coz risk is matter of individual/institutional perception. There is no yardstick for risk. It is all relative to your risk appetite. For example, skiing is considered very risky by some people and hence not a favored game. There are others who would rather spend all their time in the mountains over anywhere else. The fact of the matter is that hedge funds are also extremely expensive. It is typical for a hedge fund to charge upwards of 2% of assets under management as fees. At the lowest level that puts it close to an expensive mutual fund. Next, Hedge Funds usually keep something like 20% of profits for themselves. WOOOOW! Finally, most hedge funds lead to ordinary income and hence taxable as short term gains along with your other income (you have your bread and butter job don't you?). These three things make Hedge Fund investing really unsuitable for an individual investor putting her/his hard-earned money into a fund of Hedge Funds. There is a very good article at the NYSE website that provides more information. Happy reading and wish you a safe investment.

Bush Jokes

Just like Santa Banta jokes and blonde jokes Bush jokes are always funny. Even better are those serious mistakes he makes as President of our great nation. Surely, I do not condone those mistakes, but hey, everyones gotta get a break. Somebody gets a blowjob, others take international bribes. This guy fights expensive wars and gives out a steady stream of bloopers! What serious fun! Here is the output of a nice little utility from http://www.chimpomatic.net/ that gives out a new funny blooper serious mistake from El Presidente each time you refresh this page. Enjoy! (If you refresh and don't see a new blooper, you might feel like complaining; If you do, pleas go to chimpomatic site to complain. Or, go to www.whitehouse.gov.)

Dr. Didgooder

This is a follow up to my earlier post. A close friend of mine responded to the call for blood donors. Here is what he had to say about it:

Hi Sachin,

Just wanted to let you and your friends know that I met the
parents and gave blood. As of now I think they have good number of
IOUs from the blood bank. Manish was mentioning was that he needs
a couple of IOUs for A+ platelets, so if I knew anyone who was A+
then i should contact them.

I also spoke to Mahish and Shweta as well for about 15 minutes.
The situation is very heart-rendering and brought tears to my
eyes.
Shweta is the pillar of strength, was cheerful and smiling while
speaking to Om. Om likes Spiderman and doesn't like coming to
hospitals.
Mansih's mom also spoke a few words.
Manish told me that they had lost his dad some 15 days back. His
dad was in the army and very strong in life. And very attached to
Om and very affected by the news (revealed to them on August 7th).
Manish courageously mentioned that his dad's blessings were with
them now and hopefully things will improve.

The Tata Memorial (cancer) Hospital's doctors have said that this
99% curable and from what i have read from your link seems to say
that the child will be fine. I pray so.

This is a very courageous family; this sort of test seems
unimaginable and seems to shake one's faith.

I urge our community and whoever knows them to express their
friendship and support in whatever way possible. A card,gift -
spiderman would be a good gift - the parents must not feel
alone.

Thanks for letting me know of this and allowing me to make a
contribution.

Regards
Santanu

And hence the world spins around.

Dr. Dogooder

This week, I received a request from a couple of associates. It was for locating help for a 5 year old boy who was suffering from Leukemia and was in need of blood donors. I am in Chicago and this boy is in Mumbai, so I could not have donated (could I have?). However, I did forward on the message to others who were in a better position than me to help out. The boy has help now but you never know when he may need more help. If you read this blog, please do call the parents of this boy (ask me for the phone number). Here is the message to my friends, associates and the readers of this blog:

Friends and Associates,

Time to time, life puts all of us through different tests. Some of us pass tests with flying colors and others don't. These tests come in various shapes and sizes and never come with a warning. Some tests are easy and others painful and hard. One family in my extended friend circle is going through one such tough test. This family is in Mumbai and their 5 yr old child is admitted at the TATA hospital in Parel with Leukemia. For the few (like me) who did not know, leukemia is a cancer of blood in which the bone marrow produces excessive and defective white blood cells which then inhibit many other functions of the blood stream. I found lot more info here: http://www.kidshealth.org/parent/medical/cancer/cancer_leukemia.html.

Sitting in Chicago, I cannot do much else but pass this message to all of you. If you are connected to Mumbai please heed this family's request for locating blood donors. You could also pass this request to other equally committed folks who may be willing to help out.

The contact number for the parents of this 5 yr old child is ... and the names are Boblu and Shweta. The child's name is Om. The parents are currently based out of Santa Cruz and the hospital in Parel.

Please do what you can. Do not hesitate to write back to me if you have questions or cannot reach Boblu and Shweta on the phone number above.

Thanks,
Sachin

And hence, ob-la-di, Ob-la-da.

Facebook IPO talk

Gotcha! You read the title of this article and clicked on the link to read a prediction on the next big investment opportunity! Didn't you? Sorry, no predictions from me. Me no Nostradamous! However, I did read something very interesting on Barron's. I am going to copy paste that piece of text verbatim here. Also, before you read that, I encourage you to read the article itself on Barron's. Thats my lame attempt at being fair to Barron's since I am copying their text on my blog. Anyway, without further ado:

• Clearly, this is Mark Zuckerberg's world we're all living in. The Facebook founder said the company has nearly completed its much-discussed next round of financing, though neither he nor Ballmer would say whether rumors that Microsoft will sink $500 million into the company are true. Zuckerberg also said the company is years away from going public, though I would note that two is a plural number; how about an IPO in 2009? I say that for a reason. Zuckerberg said the company has 300 employees now, and likely will have 700 in a year. He also said that it is likely that all employees will continue to receive stock. If that is true, it would appear the company next year will trigger an SEC provision requiring regular financial filings for companies with more than 500 shareholders and more than $10 million in revenue. The rule is that you have to start filing within 120 days of the end of the fiscal year in which you trigger the provision; it is hard to imagine that the company simply will start filing 10-Qs without at least raising some capital. That is exactly the dynamic that led to the Google IPO, in fact. So by that logic, I predict a Facebook IPO filing in April 2009.

$12.95

Do you like wearing glasses? I do not. Thankfully, it was never utmost necessary for me to wear glasses. See, my prescription is a mere -0.75 and -0.50 on the two eyes. This means I can get a driver's license w/o restrictions, I can read almost all that I need to from a respectable distance. I can get by with little trouble and no one ever suspects that I cannot see clearly from a distance. Yes, there is some trouble when I am seated in the very back row of a room and the presenter is particularly merciless to backbenchers. There is some trouble reading road names and road signs from a very long distance. But none of this ever bothered me. Despite my calm over my short sightedness, sometimes, I did get frustrated at not being able to see. On one such frustrating day, I went to lenscrafters to get my glasses made. The optometrist came back with the un-surprising result. She recommended me to use glasses if I want to - as usual. I looked at some of the frames they had on the wall. The frames I liked were close to $200 a pop. I asked the lady at the counter for lens options and found out that with anti-glare coating, anti-scratch coating and high-density lenses, my total expense would be close to $400 and then they would apply a discount to land me a pair of unnecessary see through holes in a metal frame for about $325. Sears optical had a buy one get one free and I could get something similar for $275 or $300. I decided, as usual, to drop the idea.
On a lark, I searched for the term "glasses" on google. The second link from the top (in the sponsored links) was Zenni Optical. This is the best e-commerce business to happen to folks who have prescription glasses! One look at the link will tell you what I mean. The cheapest glasses you can get from them costs - get ready for this - $12.95 shipped to your mailbox. The most expensive set with all the bells and whistles would probably be under $80. Now thats a bargain.
This website has a left hand side vertical panel that organizes its catalog with price, fashion and material with which the frames are made. The way you order is to first choose a frame from their catalog and then enter all information from your optometrist's prescription into the website. When I entered my info, there was no ambiguity on what was required. The terms used on this site and the terms on my lenscrafter prescription were exactly the same. The only metric missing was "pupillary distance". As you must have guessed, its the distance between your pupils when you re looking straight ahead. As per the website and as per wikipedia, the pupillary distance can be measured simply by holding a ruler in front of your eyes and getting a physical measurement in millimeters. You can be off the mark by as much as a couple mm or more - it is OK. Then you choose the lens type, any coatings you want and then you pay via credit card or whatever they accept and thats it. Just wait for the glasses to arrive in your mail. Mine came in a week. I am thrilled with what I got. For $12.95, I think the glasses I am wearing are a STEAL. The lens comes with anti-scratch coating, UV protection within the cost. Best part is that I am going to place an order for at least three more pairs. One for parties, one very light one for travel and the third one as an spare pair. I'll get an upgrade to 1.67 RI glass for $37 and a premium anti-reflective coating for $4.95. That will be just cool!
Here is some more very interesting reading on this topic: glassy eyes.

Fire vs Revolution

I had a solid fun-filled weekend. Really. I had a blowout Friday & Saturday. I attended the TiECon 2007 event at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Chicago. They started with a couple of speeches and a discussion of the main topic between Howard Tullman and Glen Tullman. Two Chicago area entrepreneurs. It was funny because the Tullmans kept hitting each other with funny comments while back tracking their lives (as much as they could in an hour) as entrepreneurs for us to learn from. Then there were 4 hours of panel discussions on relevant topics. It was nice to hear the panelists talk, however, I was surprised by the questions the audience asked. Many questions ought to have been in finishing school for entrepreneurs or just in school. Not that I am an expert already. But it felt too straightforward. Anyway, that conference was not the blowout part (am not that old yet!). Later, I caught up with a friend and hit Duke of Perth in the north side. Thats one hot scotch bar. I got one of their samplers. The name was - get ready - "The Kilt Warmer". I told the waitress, I really gotta have that right now. (It did not sound as cheap as it sounds while I am writing this!). They had selections across the board in all types of hues and blends of scotch. I like scotch and I think I could have all the scotch I wanted there. I am surely going to visit that place again. And still later, we caught up with another friend and hit Kingston Mines. Thats a really hot blues bar. That night, the groups playing were real good. We drank and did music, then drank again and then heard more music. It was great! Now, thats still not the blowout part! The best part of the weekend was that I got to see the Chicago Fire play against New England Revolution on Saturday night! Wow! It was very good. Fire made two goals against New England's one. What made it even better was that I hooked up with a group that plays soccer by Montrose harbor. These guys had hooked up with the Fire team to sell "50/50 Raffle" tickets at the stadium. So, I showed up at the stadium 1:30 hours before the game began with the whole family and they gave me some singles, one roll of tickets and a yellow vest (not to forget the ID card to get me in and out of the stadium and a placard about the charity which the raffle was about). I went around the stadium holding up the placard shouting like a peanut vendor. "Raffle Tickets" "Raffle Tickets". It was fun! All this was followed with a Sunday morning at the "Frontier Park" at Naperville. They have 12 Soccer grounds there! Imagine that. I've decided to field a team in Spring - either a kids team or an adult team. We will see how that goes.

Gandhi Jayanti

For my kids, I started lighting a lamp at the altar every morning (I confess, I have become less regular after they got the concept). For my kids, I stopped using swear words inside the house (on the phone, while talking to friends etc). So, today, I decided to tell them about Mahatma Gandhi for their bedtime story. I have two boys. One is 5 and the other 2. I was surprised how much interest the elder one took. Of course, the for the younger one it was a bed time story as any other. The elder one wanted to know more. So, we got out of bed and I looked up Gandhi videos on video.goolge.com. Showed him a couple of small parts of the movie and then showed him a few photos from images.google.com! Thanks to technology for all this. Coming back to the point: me and my wife told him about MK Gandhi's birth place, his education for barrister in London, his apartheid experience in S Africa, his non-violence concept, British Raj, independence and stuff like that. All this in 10 or 15 odd minutes. Very good intro to Gandhi and some part of our old culture. Afterwards, my wife and I discussed how Bharat came into being.

Anyway, if you have kids and you have the chance, please tell them about Gandhi and his ideals. Some of his ideals are applicable in all walks of life whether in USA, England or in India (or wherever else in the world). Please introduce your children to some of the good values that Gandhi represented.

Finally, they are showing the movie Gandhi on cable in Aurora, IL. So, if you are reading this at about 9:38 PM on Monday Oct 1st central time, stop reading and turn to channel 40 on TV.

Good night.

Photography

I recently did a long overdue meeting with a friend of mine. Actually, he is a friend by default. His mother and my mother are real good friends from their childhood. So, goes a long way huh? Anyway, it was a real pleasure meeting Abhijeet Patil. He works in Torrance California. He is only minutes away from a couple of real nice beaches. He took me their to eat Mexican food on the beach-front and then we had a short walk on the beach before returning to our work. Very good guy. His other facet is that he is a wonderful photographer. He has uploaded all his photos on flickr here. I shared his online photo album with my friends via email. That set off a conversation that surely needs to be broadcasted. I have planted the one email from Abhijeet that tells a lot to a photography newbie. Without much further ado, I give you this:

Kartik, I am a relative n00b myself, so not sure if I have anything of major insight. But I can surely share a few of my learnings over the past year and a half or so.

To begin with, here is my set up:

Nikon D80

Nikkor 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 lens (kit lens which came with the camera - really handy "walking-around" lens)

Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 super wide-angle lens (by far my favorite lens)

Sigma 70-300mm f/4-5.6 macro/telephoto (definitely should have spent more money and gotten a better lens)

For me Internet in general and Wikipedia in particular have been an invaluable resource in understanding the basics of photography. These three pages in particular:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aperture

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shutter_speed

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exposure_%28photography%29

Even with elementary understanding of these 3 components, you can improve your shots dramatically.

Taking a photo pretty much boils down to how effectively you use the light in any shot and how you manipulate light to get the effect you want. I would recommend that you start shooting in manual mode. Keep a close eye on the camera meter -- in case you aren't familiar with it, the last diagram on this page shows you where to look for it: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/NikonD40/page3.asp. The "0" indicates "correct exposure".

As you take more photos, you will realize that the camera is not always correct. For instance, in a scene which comprises of both brightly lit areas and areas with deep shadows, you will have to make a choice which area you want to accentuate in the shot. If you expose for the shadow, the bright areas in the shot run the risk of being washed-out. Similarly, if you expose for the brighter spots, the darker areas might turn almost pitch dark and you'll loose detail in those sections.

I mostly operate in manual or in "aperture priority" mode -- especially in bright daylight. AP is where you control the aperture (f stop) and let the camera determine the shutter speed. Aperture is very useful in determining the DOF, or depth of field. If you want a shallow DOF (main subject in focus and background blurry), use a larger f stop (smaller number). And if you want a deep DOF (sharp photo with most visible detail), use a smaller f stop (larger number). With your lens, the largest f stop number at 18mm is f/3.5 and smallest is f/22; and f/5.6 - f/38 at 55 mm. Typically for a lens of this range, the sharpest photos come out between f5.6 - f8.

A good way to learn about which settings to use in what circumstances is, of course, to take a lot of photos. But you could also explore websites like Flickr and look at the "EXIF" data that a lot of photos display. A lot of times you will see a photo and wonder what setting was used to make it possible. Studying the EXIF data, which is stored as image information on almost every JPG, helps a lot. For example, this photo ( http://www.flickr.com/photos/abhijit/603679429/) taken at night and this photo (http://www.flickr.com/photos/abhijit/540052578/ ) taken in bright daylight will obviously have different settings. And you can see what controls were used if you scroll down the page and click on the "more properties" link on the right hand side. For the record, almost all of my photos go through Photoshop.

Which brings me to my next point: Post Processing. I think post processing has earned a wrong reputation with the general public. Do not shy away from using post processing to retouch your photos. And here's why: I'm assuming that more often than not, you'll shoot photos in JPG. And JPG is essentially extremely good camera guess work, based on complex algorithms, on how an image should look. If you take a photo of, say, an apple, the camera is basically going to guess how red the apple is or what shade of red the apple is and compress that information into JPG format. But it will not be a 100% match. This is where post processing comes into play. Think of it as a digital darkroom. BTW, if you have Photoshop, well and good. If you don't, try Gimp: http://www.gimp.org/windows/

As for white balance, it is mostly about reproducing the correct color in any giving light. To begin with, you could just match the description on the WB setting to the conditions you're shooting in. For instance, if you are shooting in cloudy conditions, use the "cloudy" WB setting. You will mostly find it effective when you are shooting in, say, a bar lit mostly by neon lighting. With automatic WB, your photos will veer to one end of the color spectrum. But if you use the appropriate WB setting, the camera will capture truer colors.

Phew! All clear as mud? Good.

Just be careful because this hobby might just suck you in and before you know it, you'll be up till 3 in the morning working on your photographs.

Anyway, man, hope that at least 25% of this gibberish makes sense. Have fun shooting!

And so crumbles the cookie.

immigration voice rally

I was recently at a rally organized by a group called Immigration Voice that represents legal high-skilled immigrants who are trying to make a career and life in the United States. The event was held over two days Mon Sept 17 and Tue Sept 18 in the US Capital. This group had organized many meetings (about 150 of them) with senators and congressmen who were in the Capital City. About 1500 legal highly-skilled immigrants turned out for this rally from many states. Yours truly got some face time with Congressman Danny Davis (7th District Illinois), Congressman McDermott (7th district Washington state) to talk and hear about legal highly skilled immigrants. On Sept 18, the full contingent slow-marched peacefully from the Washington Memorial to the US Capitol. Congressman McDermott gave a little speech about overall immigration policy and acknowledged that the law should include issues faced by legal highly skilled immigrants. The Business Week covered this event here: http://tinyurl.com/yvd7jq, NY Times here: http://tinyurl.com/238nef and Washington post here: http://tinyurl.com/yt5h64

My capacity in this group is minimal, I happen to be a friend of a very energetic gentleman who is the Illinois chapter VP for Immigration Voice: Anil S. I do believe in the objectives of the group and have supported them with my presence at the rally and purchasing merchandise from their website. At the rally, I met the organizers: Doctor, Software Engineer, Ad Creative and other professionals - like some of us. They seemed very motivated and committed. They have done a great job in highlighting some of the issues in the US immigration process. Some folks have a lot of trouble with immigration and others do not perceive it as trouble at all. In any case, this group shows that the issues are clear and present.

I wanted to share the experience with my readers and encourage everyone to support the group in whichever way they can if they'd like to. Immigration Voice accept donations on their site, they have directions on how to reach out to your local political offices, they have cool merchandise for sale on their site and they cover most of the nationwide immigration events. Their website is: www.immigrationvoice.org.

What we do

This week, I had a short but still very important conversation with a person I worked with before. I think it is important because it embodies one of the principles of what we do at Saven. Really, as a company providing consulting, solutions and global delivery, we are our customer's partners towards business leadership. We will always focus on that goal. Over the long term, we will always strive to bring leadership to everyone we engage with. As a day-to-day guide for us, here is what we do with all customers and people we meet:

<person>, building a great business is way too much fun. I am liking it. The uncertainty, ambiguity and constant optimism is a heady combination. Plus, motivating other people to do things is both challenging and rewarding. I am realizing that sales is actually all about motivating people to change, improve or achieve something and money is a sweet side-effect.

We truly hope to lead our clients on every front towards leadership.

Labor day

Today was one of the best days of the summer. It was also the last. The Sun was out. The breeze was blowing, it was hot yet nice. I enjoyed every bit of it.

Save lives on the I's

On Fox News this evening, I saw news item that I found somewhat ridculous. It was about a "Save lives on the I's" campaign being run by some government authority in Illinois (my dearest home state). The objectives and the intention is great. They want to prevent accidents and save lives on the highways during the labor day long weekend. Great! But whats the point in coming out a giving a needless press release about a campaign? The guy on the press release said that we want to keep the roads safe. It sounded to me like, "let me tell you how bad I want to keep my job and hence how bad I want to create a hype around this". Can't they just do their job (and do it better on labor day)? Whats the point in raising an unnecessary scare just to make oneself important. That is like George Bush & Mike Chertoff creating the 5 threat levels and having TV channels trumpet about it everyday on news...

Anyway, governments are governments. Most of the things they do are needless.

corporate valuation models

Yesterday, a couple of my friends came home while they were on their way to Austin, TX to see family. The common factor between all of us was that we had all studied Management at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM). IIM is one of the best educational institutes for business studies in the eastern hemisphere of this planet. On the short road-trip from my home to the O'Hare airport, there were 4 b-school graduates in my car. Naturally, the discussions veered towards current events, investments, financial markets and such. At one point, I stated that the US financial markets, especially equity, are complex compared to the Indian markets. I added that it is hard to derive revenue/profitability predictions and hence stock price predictions due to that complexity. I stated that the number and complexity of brands in India is very low. That is, there are fewer brands in India and the value of those brands for marketeers, shareholders and customers can be established easily. The response I got from my fellow travelers was a count of famous brands from India. Hamam, Dabur, Reliance, Airtel, etc. The discussion was not towards establishing any point or for proving any technical fact and was casual banter. No one really delved deeper beyond stating names, counts etc. However, the counts and the names prove the point that, traditionally, brands in India have not been complex or many. One can count national and some local brands on a small trip to the airport. Almost every brand has a single value proposition and large mass appeal. Compare that to United States. A brand like Sara Lee is made up of range of other brands. Each brand has equity amongst diverse set of customers. Fidelity means different things to different people and customer groups. Fidelity's markets are amongst individuals, institutions, other financial institutions and it provides a range of products to every customer group. In such a case, what is the process to confidently propose a relation between broad market factors such as trade balance, credit environment, job market and individual corporate performance? For less complicated corporate structures where the corporation has few brands, markets are not diverse, sales (revenues) can be easily attributed to corporate efforts. However, in the developed markets such as United States and now increasingly so in India, it is not straightforward to link performance to market factors. Analysis gets complicated. The confidence of decisions (i.e. probability of accuracy) is lower. To get better quality decisions, one has to have better tools. One of my companions did mention that one needs to outsource some of the decision making inputs to outsiders. That is, it is important to bank on high quality institutional research done outside your realm to make your decisions about investments. Now lets include commodities, fixed income and other trade-able things (complex things such as catastrophe bonds, weather futures), then investment decision making becomes even more complicated. Thats the reason why the financial analysis industry even exists. Really, if you take a look at the details of a firm dealing with investments, you will notice the level of analysis and research that goes into every decision support activity they undertake. Recently, a business associate demonstrated a cutting edge corporate valuation model for the middle market that deals with the exact same challenge of complexity. This model is based on a number of parameters of current corporate performance and economic environment factors. With great confidence, we executed back tests after back tests of market events from the recent past and simulated possible scenarios for a clutch of middle market companies that Saven works with. It was thrilling to see how a quantitative model accurately predicts potential corporate performance changes due to functional actions such as new product launches or operational efficiency improvement or due to economic factors such as overnight interest rates (set by the Fed). As I understood, this valuation model not only models known and broadly understood factors I mentioned but also has the ability to model newly conceptualized factors. This is of most interest to our customers at Saven. Most of our customers have their custom valuation models - some quantitative and others driven by proprietary qualitative processes. However, no one has a framework of modeling performance in a dark alley. This is especially pertinent in the online, Internet driven business models that abound. In this scenario, where companies engage with their customers through the online media, business models change often. Especially, middle market companies have to deal with a lot of ambiguity. Would it not be nice to have a model that can predict the future value of functional actions and economic environment today. I am betting on it. To my peers and customers, I have made the case for including this valuation tool into FundAide, our online platform for the asset management industry. It works like a charm! FundAide is online; users (subscribers) of this platform can easily use this application much like they can choose to use iLike in Facebook. I cannot wait to bring our first beta customers online with this and other tools. More on this later.

classic jokes

Why, after all, did the blonde write her exam sitting right by the door of the examination room? That's because, she was told it was an "entrance" exam. Oh boy! This was told to me in the classic Indian way. It went like this: "Why did the Sardar sitting by the door when he was writing his exam?". I put in a genuine effort to think of the answer (really!). After racking my brains for a few minutes I gave up. Immediately, the gap was filled up. Unimaginably funny! The Sardar was sitting by the door because it was an entrance exam! I split my sides with laughter.

Here are two more classics:

Q. What do you call a Mallu who is very handsome?
A. Debo Nair.

Q. What do you call a genious Mallu?
A. Pheno Menon.

To my readers who don't know what is a mallu: Mallus or Malayalis is the plural term for singular Indian folks who belong to Kerela and speak Malayalam as their main language. I've many Mallus amongst my friends, just as I have many blonde friends. "Nair" and "Menon" are common last names amongst this regional, Malayali speaking gems of persons.

workout thoughts - body building

There once was a time when I was really proud of what I had done with my body. I was just finished with high school (what is known as Junior College in India) and was 18. I had decided that the best way to be good looking and also do something good with life was to build a great body; somewhat like Sylvester Stallone or Milind Soman (a fashion model in India). I was really hooked on it as much as I could have been. I was never a person to put up wall posters or otherwise show signs of being a big fan, but inside, I always dreamed of winning championships or perhaps landing a ramp walking career. I never came close to either of goals, but as they say, I aimed high and got to a pretty good shape. I was proud of myself for that. The other really good thing that happened was I really absorbed a lot of knowledge and experience about body building as an exercise and till date believe that body building is one of the best exercises to do. This is especially true for those who are starting late (in their 30s) and have not done much exercise in their life except for a little sporadic running, gym or swimming. That actually might cover more than 3/4ths of the 30+ population. (Please comment if you know of any study indicating numbers).
Anyway, the trigger to write this post is that a few of my very good friends and my dear wife who fit the generalization above have recently taken to body building. I don't think any of them has the goal of winning championship or looking big, they are modest and would be happy if they could lose extra pounds, gain some muscular strength, gain good metabolism (so they stay awake through the day) and promote general health. Indeed, body building can give one all these benefits and a lot more. I was pleased to read somewhere that body building promotes bone health too. This is especially good for women above 30 and who have gone through childbirth. (Childbirth can be excruciating to calcium and other good reserves in the body). Then of course, there is the great benefit of muscular strength. Isolated on its own, the term "muscular strength" creates a picture like Arnold Schwarzenegger in one's mind. What really matters though is that even a little muscular strength gives your body the elasticity and bounce in your every day activities such as walking. Muscular strength allows body structure to pass along some of the jerks and shakes for the muscular system to absorb. This means your joints could be saved from injury from simple things of life. Further, physiologically, body building is essentially the process of breaking and rebuilding muscular tissue over and over again. This means that as you are doing your exercise, you are actually working your physio functions. There are quite a few benefits. One could find a lot of info at http://www.bodybuilding.com.
The main objective of this article was to list out a few do's and don'ts for readers. So let me not digress any further. Here are a few things one should actively try to keep in mind when working out with weights with the intention of building lean muscle mass and gain some strength.

1. This exercise creed is all about elegance. There is nothing to be gained from sudden jerking movements or high speed. Do all your motions with simple, rhythmic, slow motions. Focus on being slow. Unlike running where high speed leads to better cardio results, there is nothing to be gained from speed. If anything, speed kills. Speedy movements could lead to joint injuries, or massive muscle tear, tendon pulls etc. Stay slow.
2. Always keep a reserve available towards the two ends of your movements. For example, if you are doing curls, ensure that the elbow is always at an angle even when the dumbbells are at the lowest point of your motion. When squatting, never stand straight on the knees or sit all the way down when sitting. Keep the knees bent slightly and muscles tense. This ensures that the weight is always carried by muscles and not your bone structure.
   
3. Keep it steady. This goes sort of hand in hand with point 1. Slow AND steady wins the race. When doing arms, there is no need of making any movements on the knees. Do not try to help your main movement with an unnecessary motion from some other part.
   
4. While it is true that more the weight you lift the better it gets, it is important to find the right balance in weight and ability. If you are making more than 12 repetitions in your exercise, then you probably have too little to lift. If you cannot do even 6 repetitions, then you probably are carrying too much. If you can manage 8 repetitions easily and cannot do the 10th or 12th without having someone spot you, that perhaps is the most ideal weight/strength balance. Remember, if you do too many repetitions, you are no longer doing muscle building, you are actually doing aerobic exercise and that is a totally different creed of exercise.
   
5. Try to keep the number of sets you do in a single workout close to 27. There is nothing magical about that number, but somehow, from most text and what my mentors told me, 25 to 30 sets a workout sounds optimal. Even with 15 to 20 sets a workout, you will achieve a lot (from the datum that we are all at), but when you get serious, 27 is a good number.
6. Focus on major muscle groups. Towards the beginning of your body building life, try to work on the large muscle groups and perhaps even do two or more groups in the same day. For example, the legs are a large muscle group. Do squats, extensions, hamstring, calf all in the same workout. Next day, do the flat/incline/decline bench, pulleys, rowing all in one workout. As you become stronger/larger, start spreading your weekly routine around specific muscles.
   
7. Work to failure. Your focus on each set should be to workout till failure. if you were not able to push the weight on the last repetition and needed someone to spot you to go on, then you have probably made it. The point is that your muscles should be stretched to the very end. They have to break. Only when muscles break will new muscles be made. This new muscle is the lean muscle. This lean muscle mass is a factory of breaking food down into good things (i.e. metabolism). Eventually, even when you are sitting and watching a movie, your lean muscle mass will be consuming more calories than others in the theaters. Go get that buttered popcorn!
8. When doing heavy weights, use a belt around your stomach. That will keep the back straight and prevent injury. When assembling barbells from weights lying on the floor, never use a single hand or bend sideways to pick up weight. Use both hands. If you have to bend, bend forward. Ideally, squat and pick up weights.
9. Keep a dairy of workouts. Write the date, start and end times of work out on the top right corner of the page. Fill up five columns: 1) Exercise Name, 2) Set number (1,2,3...), 3) Number of repetitions done 4) Weights carried (25x2 means 25 pounds in each hand). 5) Rating or feeling about how you did in that set. When rating, rate yourself from 1 to 5. 1 being a broken or incomplete set to 5 being a workout to failure after 10 or so repetitions (ideal!).
10. This sport is all about self motivation and individual achievement. So, ensure that you are in the best of your moods when you start workouts. If you workout at home (like me), take a boom-box to the gym. If you are in the health club and don't like the music, take your mp3 player. Wear comfy clothes, be happy and push yourself. If you don't push yourself, the weights are not going anywhere. Look at yourself in the mirror and reward yourself if something looks better than last time. In any case, a few sets into the workout, the natural endorphins will take over and you will be at the top of the world.

Thats what I can think of. Of course, this sport, like any other is good when shared with friends and other fellow sportsmen. So find a partner to do exercise with. (At the minimum, write to me about how it goes for you!!!).

Hope you enjoyed reading this and enjoy your exercises a lot.