The only article that I have seen so far that advocates relaxing gun control in India to arm India against terrorism.

What if Steve Jobs ran US auto companies ?

Amazon and iPhone.

Seeni was wondering about how this bear market would compare to the great depression. Here is a neat comparison I found sometime back at dshort.com. I guess the image there gets updated daily.

Walmart's wild fire like growth.

Capitalist Fools.

Balls and Brains.

Laughing gas gives you high. I never thought I will come out of a surgery feeling funny and smiling. But that is what happened. But the recovery period was as bad as they said.

It appears at least 16 people have been killed and several wounded so far. Freakonomics author Professor Steven Levitt predicted such attacks more than a year ago. In his words :

I’d start by thinking about what really inspires fear. One thing that scares people is the thought that they could be a victim of an attack. With that in mind, I’d want to do something that everybody thinks might be directed at them, even if the individual probability of harm is very low. Humans tend to overestimate small probabilities, so the fear generated by an act of terrorism is greatly disproportionate to the actual risk.

and predicts what actually happened a few hours back

The basic idea is to arm 20 terrorists with rifles and cars, and arrange to have them begin shooting randomly at pre-set times all across the country. Big cities, little cities, suburbs, etc. Have them move around a lot. No one will know when and where the next attack will be. The chaos would be unbelievable, especially considering how few resources it would require of the terrorists.

In a follow up post he discusses about what can we do about it (emphasis mine):

But the obvious answer is a disappointing one: If terrorists want to engage in low-grade, low-tech terror, we are powerless to stop it.

That was an ominously prescient blog post from Professor Levitt.

Berkshire Hathaway is down more than 60% since I last blogged about it. The cost of protecting against a default by Berkshire, yes you read it right - default by Warren Buffett's Berkshire, has more than tripled. Crazy times.

"I wonder, and not without reason why we chase so many things so much, and for so long. Is it because we believe life is like a bicycle that can only stand when it is moving?" by Anil P in Desipundit.

I never thought I will do this : Going to Saravana Bhavan on an Anniversary. I just did. It being the most authentic Tamil restaurant in Atlanta and our pure Tamil blood could be the reason. Anyway, if you have a chance to be there try their Halwa and Gulab Jamun. It is the best tasting Halwa in Atlanta. The onion bajji brought back memories of rainy days in Chennai. Love it. Bon Appetit.

A Mosaic from the trip to India.

1/10.

Loved it. I know the movie is old. Watch it if you haven't. You will probably like it too. Especially if you like walking 3 kms to Tiruparankundram for eating Parotta and Kuruma at 3 am in the morning. Part 2 of the movie will be out in April.

Why do IT type people wear those ID cards wherever they go ? Do they fear about getting wounded or killed ? Or is it sort of a medal ? It is funny when you spot it in a marriage album along with silk dhothi and the works.

For a person spoiled by Google Finance using MoneyControl is a nightmare. But looks like there are very few alternatives (Are there any ?). ICICIDirect is another website that comes to mind which is in a similar state with regard to the usability. So the question : Why will these companies try to do development in-house, looks like e-eighteen in MoneyControl case, when they can outsource ?

I know that typical trade-offs of in-house development vs outsourcing apply in this case. But in the Indian context it appears very few companies outsource. Why ? Can availability of cheap developers lead the management to believe they can do it as well as the IT shops but cheaper ? Is it because of the low quality work of these IT shops ? (See Ravi's blog for a discussion on the quality problem) Any other reasons why outsourcing is not that common in this context ?

When you go to Roopa-Deepa or Madhu Theatre to watch a scene padam with 10 friends and there is an interval. What on earth do you discuss ?

Unknown Tamil Boy introduces himself and starts discussing student type stuff. You know easy subjects, GPA and the likes. As an afterthought asks "neenga Brahmin-a ?". Wanted to respond in Vedam Puthithu style with "Iyer-ngrathu neenga padichu vangina pattamma ?". But the environment was too formal for the imaginary slap. Thayir satham thappichuduchu.

Nallar oruvar ularel avar poruttu ...

Barani once wished for an alcoholic drink that is good for liver. Looks like someone listened. Scientists say Beer has cancer fighting agents. Say a toast to Xanthohumol (whatever that is) when you are able to increase your quota of beer citing its use.

Do you think that with so much information available choosing the right digital camera for your needs will be easier than before ? It is actually more demanding now.

When I started shopping for a digital camera almost everyone in the friends circle voted for Canon. So that was settled. But there were too many options in Canon : Five series to be exact (A , SD, S, G, DSLRs). DSLRs at $500 was quite tempting. But when the lens costs were factored in I bailed out. G series was never seriously considered as the price point was close to DSLRs. That left three models. Now I started searching for the reviews. Cnet Reviews, Dpreview, Consumer Reports all had good things to say about the SD series and S series. But all the reviews brought Panasonic DMC-TZ3 into the picture too. The sample pictures at the end of the DPReview helped to decide. I liked the Canon's output. But it was one photographer's take. Flickr helped me there. Check the pictures from Panasonic DMC-TZ3 and Canon's S5. The pictures from variety of settings confirmed the recommendation. It will be Canon. The reviews and photos from Amazon.com helped too.

So I had to short list one out of the 3 series. One visit to BestBuy the A series was out. It was too toy like. The choice was between SD and S series. Both had good reviews. The SD series was cheaper by 50$ - 100 $. But the actual decision was between ultra compact low zoom camera and high zoom, manual options, heavy S series. I went with the S5 for the zoom and the easy access to manual features.

So here is a Test shot of a Beer ad.

Neither Madras food. Nor Chettinad food. It is not even Tamil food. Hanging posters of Madras from the past is just not sufficient. That which matters doesn't pass the test.