2006

It’s a good time to be a mathematician.

Boot up Windows before you log in.

Banks install ATMs to lower their branch costs, and to attract new customers. When working out the economics of ATMs, we found that lowering branch costs alone could not be a viable reason to install an ATM. The bank argued as follows: “Every time someone withdraws money from an ATM, they avoid going to the branch. With enough people going to the ATM, I can afford not to increase my branch size, and that saves me money. Since it costs me Rs 20 every time a person withdraws cash (in terms of salary, rent, etc.) and an ATM costs about Rs 2,200 a day, I’ll break even if there are 110 cash withdrawals from the ATM.” ...

Starbucks economics. Why Starbucks has a better, cheaper coffee that it keeps a secret. Comments Dhar 11 Jan 2006 10:28 am: This was so damn interesting! ritzkini 12 Jan 2006 6:14 am: “The more market power firms have, the less attractive they make the cheaper products.” I can think of N Marketeers in India doing this ! Madhu 13 Jan 2006 11:10 am: Interesting to compare this with the Bottom of the Pyramid concept of CKP.

Python vs Perl. Sums up my feelings perfectly: Python may be better for larger projects, but for my meddling, I’ll stick to Perl. It’s served me well for 10 years. Until 1999, I used Perl a fair bit, but no more than Java or C or anything else. My first “real-life” use of Perl was in 2000, when I was processing 600MB of IBES data. Access and SPSS couldn’t handle the load. Perl slurped all the data in a few seconds, though. A few years later, when processing bank data (3GB worth, this time), Perl again was the only saviour. In fact, between Excel and Perl (and CPAN), I think I have all the data analysis power I’ve ever needed. This blog, for instance, is written in an Excel spreadsheet, exported to XML, and converted into the blog format by Perl.

How to get smarter, one breath at a time. Time magazine on the benefits of meditation.

Len goes in search of Bill Watterson, the author of Calvin and Hobbes. He visits Bill’s home town, and manages to interview Mom. Apparantly, Dad is quite like Dad, but Bill is more like Hobbes than Calvin.

Finding subversives using Amazon wishlists.

dots not google. An interesting Java animation that reminds me of Michael Crichton’s Prey.

Burned CDs last only 2-5 years.

The qualified Yes. Somewhere between saying “no” to a new project or taking on something in an open-ended type of way, be clear from the start on what you can commit in concrete terms. So, what used to be “Sure, I’ll do your web site” is now more often “Sure, I’ll give you 10 hours and 3 calls over the next month to use however you want.” If nothing else, it helps everyone understand that time is a precious commodity, but it also gets me out of being the de facto manager for every aspect of a project I touch. ...

Reliance Infocomm, after launching their prepaid business in India, introduced an new scheme. Pay Rs 4,300, and get a mobile phone PLUS prepaid vouchers worth Rs 4,300. Effectively, you’re getting a mobile phone for free. The scheme made good financial sense for Reliance. With a million subscribers to this scheme, they could recover Rs 430 cr of their upfront capital investment and retire their debt. Besides, the Rs 4,300 would have normally been bought over a period of around three years by prepaid subscribers, making its present value around Rs 3,600, at an interest rate of 12%. Add to that the reduction in distribution cost due to bulk selling, and possibility of non-usage, etc… the economics might work out. ...

Google search trends. Here is an interesting piece from my search trend. What I don’t understand is, where did thiep and amway come from? Comments ritzkini 9 Jan 2006 10:29 am: from the “the” and the “am” perhaps..dunno.. Madhu 10 Jan 2006 5:15 am: If you realise shareholders of google can just keep clicking away on the links in their mail or search results. Google makes money but shareholders have no cost. If I were an analyst firm covering google, I would employ people just to keep clicking on the ads;) I guess in a proper market, the per click fee would come down over a long term. Sash 13 Jan 2006 5:26 pm: hey ; are u from jamuna hostel @iit madras? sorry for spamming the place but i want to know S Anand 13 Jan 2006 8:56 pm: From Alak, actually. Class of 96.

Folder Size lets you see the size of folders in Windows Explorer. Useful to find out where all the junk is hidden.

Over my last few years as a consultant, I’ve seen many interesting ways in which markets have emerged where they shouldn’t have, creating havoc in pricing and scarcity. Fixed prices fluctuate, free goods acquire a value, and non-tradeable goods are traded. I’ll share a few of these examples over the next few weeks. Once, a fan manufacturer asked us, We did an analysis and found that our wholesalers’ margins fluctuate. How could that happen, when we are fixing their buying and selling prices? ...

A crash course in learning theory. Comments Prakash 7 Jan 2006 12:00 pm: This link was very kool Anand. I m goin to train few users next week. It cud b of gr8 use. Thanks…

Retrievr. You sketch out what you want to see and it tries to make a match on Flickr.

I’m awaiting AllPeers. It’s a Firefox bittorrent extension that makes it easy to share files among peers.

Had tea at the Ritz today. Initially, after reading that “Gentlemen are politely requested to keep their jackets and ties on during tea”, my reaction was rather like Calvin’s. But the tea (Earl Grey) was outstanding. So were the scones, sandwiches and desserts. Although most people were ladies above 60, the younger ones were among the most beautiful I’ve seen in London.

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