Jon Stewart on Jim Cramer

This article says how unfair the statements made by Jon Stewart were against Jim Cramer; and I totally agree with it. I am a huge fan of Stewart's and watch his show almost everyday - but this time I think he overdid it - he was slamming Cramer as if Cramer was a murderer. And this is not only about Stewart, it is about each and everyone who slams financial analysts for not knowing what was coming. Here's what I think: Jon Stewart never ever had a show where he brought in Bear's CEO and asked him why they had utilized a 35:1 leverage .. did he? Nope. But after everything happened, he wants to jump into the blaming pool to claim how simple it was to figure out that things were out of whack in the financial markets; and how he can't believe that someone like Cramer was so foolish to recommend buying Bear.

An analogy: Suppose you go take a class on guns, then go buy the one your instructor says is the best. You go home and the gun shoots a bullet at ya accidently, would you blame the teacher for telling you that the gun was the best; didn't you know that guns could shoot bullets? Did the teacher know that the reputed gun he was recommending to you would accidentally take off? Or would you blame the gun manufacturer?

I don't particularly enjoy Cramer's show, but I don't believe that someone who has a reputation for analyzing stock markets, and has a career as a host on a stock analytics program, will intentionally jeopardize all of that by making horribly wrong recommendations to the common man. Why would he do that? And ridiculing such a guy on national television is absolutely wrong.

If you hadn't foreseen the 'irrational exuberance' (ref: Alan Greenspan) blooming in the mortgage markets, and you got shot down because the markets misfired; you shouldn't be blaming the instructor, but the manufacturer!

Google sued

I've heard another friend tell me this .. they had google adsense, and one day the amount that Google owed them was wiped away to zero without any explained reason or cause!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/aaron-greenspan/why-i-sued-google-and-won_b_172403.html

TB's Interview

http://drummingworld.com/interviewwith-tusharbhatt.html

Pismo!

N and I went to Pismo last weekend. We rented ATVs and rode on the Oceano sand dunes and also visited Hearst Castle. The ATV riding was just way too good! We want to go back .. and maybe this time even camp on the beach.

It's surprising that in the five years I lived in Santa Barbara, I never went to Pismo - although I had passed by so many times. Well, I hope to make it up now ..

Send me an email for a link to the pictures and a couple of videos of N and I riding our ATVs:)

3G Networks: Where's the bottleneck?

I read this blog by Om Malik (of gigaom.com fame) claiming that the biggest bottleneck for 3G networks in the backhaul network of T1 lines that connect the base stations and the rest of the Internet. Can that be true? Does he really think that while all the desktops and laptops around the world that are watching live streaming videos on the Internet with T1 lines are perfectly fine, the specific T1 lines that support a 3G network is screwed up? Ha .. can't believe he made such a comment..

But anyhoo .. a recent startup Ustream claims to have built an application that will allow live streaming on video to a large number of 3G phone simultaneously. I bet they haven't utilized multicast protocols in any way, but if they do succeed in streaming Obama's inauguration coming up in a few days, I will be mighty impressed at what they've accomplished!

Your own domain - free - why not?

I just renewed my domain name registration with godaddy.com, which I have had since the past 5 years now. The total amount I have spent on it over the years is 5 * $8 = $40. Now that amount isn't too much, but I believe that people should be allowed to register a domain of their own name http://www.firstname.[middlename.]lastname.com) free for life ... and why not?

I got my name for free when I was born - nobody, neither the hospital I was born in, nor my government has ever asked me to pay registration for it. I think with the web so integral to our lives, we should all have our domain name for free. Moreover, from now on, every baby should be assigned a domain name that is printed on their birth certificate. That way nobody can take it from you:)

ringtones for the iphone

A colleague suggested this site. The site looks awful, but serves a good purpose - they convert mp3s to ringtones, extract audio out of youtube videos, and also lets you browse through the ringtones that other members of the site have created.

http://audiko.net/en.html

Apps on my iPhone

I love downloading apps for my iPhone and trying them out. Most of them have been very crappy, but some I like a lot. I decided to list a few .. and if you are an iPhone user as well , suggest some useful apps to me.

- Bloomberg: This free app is a great resource for stock market updates. These days it has been the bearer of bad news most of the time, but it aint it's fault huh:)

- Pandora: A very nice free app .. the same music recommendation engine.

- AOL radio: I get a few old hindi songs and new indian songs as well.

- Palringo: Free chat..

- Flixster: lets you look for movies and book tickets as well ..

- Shazam: app to identify songs playing .. it records snippets of sound and sends you the name of the song, artist, etc

- Taxi Magic: this is a very slick app that lets you call a cab from wherever you are and also sends you updates on how far the cab is from your current location.

- Snaptell: take pics of products and books, and the app will give you links to buy and even reviews of the products.

- Labyrinth: this is one of the most impressive iphone games Iv played .. its implemented so well!

Watching Shamu in San Diego

We got ourselves nice seats in the shade to watch the Shamu show ..


and then Shamu's long lost tullu cousin .. err .. NS grins ..



and then it was Shamu's turn ..



VT decided to eat a candyfloss to reminisce his younger days ..



We finished the day with some tasty dhabha-made pakodas and biryani!

SAJ and RJ's daughter TJ

fruit cake

I used to love eating the plum cakes sold at the Bandra fair every year. So I tried making a drunken berry fruit cake myself, and it turned out super! I abstain from bragging most of the times, but these were really good. N and I finished one entire loaf in one go:)

Reno and Tahoe

N and I went to Reno and Tahoe during the christmas weekend. (Send me an email if I have not sent you our pictures). The trip was great. We left MV early on Friday morning for Reno to avoid getting hit by the usual traffic backups on highway 80 because everyone from the bay area takes that freeway to go to either south or north lake tahoe and reno. fortunately the roads were congested only after we crossed the snowline and reached a 6000 foot elevation.

For someone who spends a lot of time in non-snowy areas, the sight of snow-topped mountains and coniferous trees is very exciting .. and excited we were! Unfortunately, if you do live in non-snowy areas, you don't realize the challenges in driving on icy roads and in low temperature conditions. Once we drove above the 6500 feet elevation, the temperature dropped to 15F. At one point, a large truck drove past us throwing a lot of dirt on to our windshield .. and so I used the water spray to clean it. Only a little spurt of water came out of the water-spray and before it hit the windshield, it had already frozen into ice crystals in mid-air. and then I believe all the water inside the spray had frozen. It was absolutely scary to drive a distance while looking ahead only through the few clear streaks on the windshield. We stopped at a gas station at a city called Truckee and bought some freeze-resistant windshield liquid to avoid driving part-blind. We intended on doing a snowmobile tour in Truckee, but all the spots on the two tours they had that day were taken.

So we just headed to Reno. Reno to me looked like a poor man's Vegas. The main strip area was very short, although some of the casinos such as Circus Circus had free trapeze shows. We had pizza for lunch and then walked around the other casinos. We had a room at the Sienna hotel. Positives - they give out a plate of dessert every night to each guest! Negatives - nothing to do at the casino, and their swimming pool and jacuzzi were out in the open:( (it was 20F in Reno).

The next day we drove to the northern rim of lake tahoe. Unfortunately the roads were too icy and slippery, and most of the parking lots next to the lake were also blocked with snow. So we drove to the Northstar ski resort. This ski resort is one of the best I have gone to. It is owned and developed by the ritz-carlton group and they'd built a neat village area with restaurants, heated cabannas, and drinks carts. That afternoon we had pizza again (yeah, most of the highly-reviewed restaurants in the area were pizza places .. no complaints from me;). We ate at Paluso's NY pizza .. nice thin crust!

We did the river walk along the Truckee river in Reno. There was this little ice rink there as well.

That night we hung out at the Atlantis and Peppermill casinos in Reno. We had dinner at this awesome mexican cucina called 'Miguel's'. They had good tortilla chips, very good service, awesome blended margaritas, and yummy spicy burritos and enchiladas! N isnt a fan of mexican food, but even she enjoyed the meal. We got back to MV on Sunday afternoon .. nice trip overall!

Below are pics of the complimentary dessert at the hotel, northstar resort, and the ice rink at Reno: