Monday, July 31, 2006
Just like that ...
Today...I took my second Microsoft Certification Test... I was so tensed. The exam was in the afternoon @ 1.30pm. I woke up @ 7 in the morning (Had to go to sleep @ 12 though). Took the certification book and started to read...not to miss anything. Even @ office I was reading ... lil bit of office work. I just didn't know what was happening...I was wavering between the moods of calm and tension. Reached the exam center @ 1pm. I handed my ID cards to the receptionist and showed the receipt for taking the test...She was chinese... Now I was really tensed ... as I always mess up with Chinese... since I messed up my Microsoft and Google interviews interviewed by CHinese....[If the reader is Chinese...please dont take this as an offense]. I had to go to the rest room before the test...saw myself in the mirror and starred @ myself...then a sudden thought of fire...what the HECK...just go do it...as I have always done for the f***g past 27 years of school...undergrad...masters...! Took the test... I passed with a 1000/1000 perfect score!!! Damn what a DAy!
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Exxon Mobil makes more than $10 billion
"No. 1 U.S. oil company earns $1,318 a second - topping forecasts - but comes in just shy of a record."...
Profits at Exxon Mobil surged 36 percent to a near record $10.4 billion in the second quarter as surging oil prices helped the world's largest publicly traded company soundly beat Wall Street forecasts.
The earnings equaled $1.72 a share, topping the $1.64 a share analysts had forecast on average, according to First Call. Total revenue in the quarter was just a bit more than $99 billion.
Exxon (Charts) shares rose modestly in afternoon New York Stock Exchange trading.
The $1,318 a second would buy enough gasoline, even at the current $3 a gallon national average, to drive a HUMMER H3 between Los Angeles and New York three times.
Irving, Texas-based Exxon Mobil caught considerable flak from the general public for its record fourth quarter, which came soon after gasoline prices hit record highs.
Compounding matters, the company gave its outgoing CEO Lee Raymond a retirement package worth about $350 million around the same time.
Tensions in the Middle East and other parts of the world and speculative buying by big investment funds have also helped fuel the run-up.
Profits at Exxon Mobil surged 36 percent to a near record $10.4 billion in the second quarter as surging oil prices helped the world's largest publicly traded company soundly beat Wall Street forecasts.
The earnings equaled $1.72 a share, topping the $1.64 a share analysts had forecast on average, according to First Call. Total revenue in the quarter was just a bit more than $99 billion.
Exxon (Charts) shares rose modestly in afternoon New York Stock Exchange trading.
The $1,318 a second would buy enough gasoline, even at the current $3 a gallon national average, to drive a HUMMER H3 between Los Angeles and New York three times.
Irving, Texas-based Exxon Mobil caught considerable flak from the general public for its record fourth quarter, which came soon after gasoline prices hit record highs.
Compounding matters, the company gave its outgoing CEO Lee Raymond a retirement package worth about $350 million around the same time.
Tensions in the Middle East and other parts of the world and speculative buying by big investment funds have also helped fuel the run-up.
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Friday, July 21, 2006
Microsoft vs. Infosys
I just discovered that Yahoo! Finance is one of the best resources on the web to get quick stats on any company – size, market cap, cash flow, share prices, financial history, analysis – you name it, they got it!
Anyways, so a few days back I was in a meeting when the growth rates of Indian companies such as Infosys and TCS was being discussed. Out of curiosity, I wanted to get a feel for how say Infosys stacked up against say Microsoft. So I went and dug up some numbers from Yahoo Finance.
Infosys (with around 49,422 employees, as of 31st Dec 05) is almost half the size of Microsoft, however, its market capitalization trail M$ by a factor of 7. The yearly revenue of Infosys is almost a 20th of Microsoft’s. On the other hand, Infosys is trying to grow to around 70,000 people in the next two years. I haven’t read of any such expansion plans from Microsoft.
To puts things in a little perspective, Google’s is around a 10th the size of Microsoft, while its market capitalization is already about half of M$. Google’s annual revenue is around a sixth of Microsoft’s.
But what do all these numbers mean? Honestly, I don’t really know. I hope some of my learned friends will be able to shed some more light on this. I just have some qualitative comments to make.
The first surprising thing to me was that Infosys was already so big (in number of employees). I mean, comparing it with M$, I’m actually amazed that they are able to sustain such a large working force. I guess thats one of the advantages of being based in India – a big company can save billions in salaries, employment benefits and taxes. Though I don’t know enough to make any claims, I feel slightly worried whether Infosys will be able to attain its target growth rate, unless its revenues and assets grow in proportion.
There was a news story in Time a couple of weeks back on how Ford Motors is struggling to get back into the US auto market. They mentioned that back in the 90s, Ford was losing around $250 per car manufactured (because of the employment benefits, health care etc that they had to provide), while Toyota was making more than a 1000 dollars on similar priced cars because they weren’t incurring these costs. Sounds somewhat similar to what Microsoft is/would be dealing with as companies like Infosys encroach its markets?
I was also a bit taken aback by Google’s figures. I mean sure Google’s been all over the news since like forever, but I had never actually taken a look at concrete numbers before. This is a crude way to look at it, but one way to visualize Google’s figures is to imagine it being roughly twice as productive as M$ on a yearly basis, and almost five times as valuable. Its truly remarkable. Google has also been growing at an almost alarming rate – almost a 100% growth rate in the past few months I believe (I think they were recruiting 100 new people every week at one point). I read somewhere that they will probably slow down their growth in this coming year, but its still quite remarkable.
Note that Infosys’s target growth rate is actually almost similar. I’m quite curious as to what kind of strategy Infosys is taking to achieve its goal. Its probably in Infosys’s favor that its not on the radar of newsmongers like Google is. IIUC, even HCL (my former company) and TCS are on similar growth curves. I’ll try and read up a little more on their plans and post an update if I find something interesting.
Anyways, so a few days back I was in a meeting when the growth rates of Indian companies such as Infosys and TCS was being discussed. Out of curiosity, I wanted to get a feel for how say Infosys stacked up against say Microsoft. So I went and dug up some numbers from Yahoo Finance.
Infosys (with around 49,422 employees, as of 31st Dec 05) is almost half the size of Microsoft, however, its market capitalization trail M$ by a factor of 7. The yearly revenue of Infosys is almost a 20th of Microsoft’s. On the other hand, Infosys is trying to grow to around 70,000 people in the next two years. I haven’t read of any such expansion plans from Microsoft.
To puts things in a little perspective, Google’s is around a 10th the size of Microsoft, while its market capitalization is already about half of M$. Google’s annual revenue is around a sixth of Microsoft’s.
But what do all these numbers mean? Honestly, I don’t really know. I hope some of my learned friends will be able to shed some more light on this. I just have some qualitative comments to make.
The first surprising thing to me was that Infosys was already so big (in number of employees). I mean, comparing it with M$, I’m actually amazed that they are able to sustain such a large working force. I guess thats one of the advantages of being based in India – a big company can save billions in salaries, employment benefits and taxes. Though I don’t know enough to make any claims, I feel slightly worried whether Infosys will be able to attain its target growth rate, unless its revenues and assets grow in proportion.
There was a news story in Time a couple of weeks back on how Ford Motors is struggling to get back into the US auto market. They mentioned that back in the 90s, Ford was losing around $250 per car manufactured (because of the employment benefits, health care etc that they had to provide), while Toyota was making more than a 1000 dollars on similar priced cars because they weren’t incurring these costs. Sounds somewhat similar to what Microsoft is/would be dealing with as companies like Infosys encroach its markets?
I was also a bit taken aback by Google’s figures. I mean sure Google’s been all over the news since like forever, but I had never actually taken a look at concrete numbers before. This is a crude way to look at it, but one way to visualize Google’s figures is to imagine it being roughly twice as productive as M$ on a yearly basis, and almost five times as valuable. Its truly remarkable. Google has also been growing at an almost alarming rate – almost a 100% growth rate in the past few months I believe (I think they were recruiting 100 new people every week at one point). I read somewhere that they will probably slow down their growth in this coming year, but its still quite remarkable.
Note that Infosys’s target growth rate is actually almost similar. I’m quite curious as to what kind of strategy Infosys is taking to achieve its goal. Its probably in Infosys’s favor that its not on the radar of newsmongers like Google is. IIUC, even HCL (my former company) and TCS are on similar growth curves. I’ll try and read up a little more on their plans and post an update if I find something interesting.
YouTube - microsoft ipod packaging parody
This is *the* best video I've seen in a long long time. Hilarious!
Check this video
Check this video
Google Profit Surges on Strong Search Advertising
Google’s profits more than doubled in the second quarter, as the company continued to increase its share of the lucrative search advertising market.
The company, which announced results yesterday, exceeded analysts’ expectations for both sales and profit. That is in contrast to Yahoo, which disappointed Wall Street Tuesday with lower-than-expected revenue from search-related advertising. Yahoo met profit expectations because it postponed some hiring and advertising spending.
In after-hours trading, shares of Google rose nearly 1 percent, to $390.55. The stock has fallen this week in sympathy with Yahoo, which dropped 22 percent on Wednesday. Shares of Yahoo rose 0.3 percent yesterday, to $25.27.
Google, based in Mountain View, Calif., attributed its success to several areas in which Yahoo fell short. The company said it continued to develop technology that increases the advertising revenue it earns from each search, while Yahoo said its already delayed effort to build such technology would be another three months late.
Google also continued to expand the number of sites that display advertising it sells, while Yahoo is still absorbing the loss of its largest advertising client, MSN from Microsoft, which is selling its own advertising.
“We did really, really well in a quarter that is seasonally slow,” said Eric Schmidt, Google’s chief executive, in an interview. “Big companies as they get larger seem to slow down. We continue to innovate.”
Google earned $721.1 million, or $2.33 a share in the quarter, compared with $342.8 million, or $1.19 a share, in the period a year ago. Excluding charges related to stock-based compensation and a gain from the sale of its shares in Baidu, the Chinese Internet company, Google earned $2.49 a share. Analysts had expected the company to earn $2.22 on that basis.
Google’s revenue was $2.46 billion, up 77 percent.
Excluding the payments it makes to companies like AOL that carry its search advertising, Google’s revenue was $1.67 billion, up 88 percent. That is a bit higher than the $1.65 billion that analysts expected.
In a conference call with investors, Mr. Schmidt said that one top company priority was to expand its advertising business. One aspect of this is to build services for graphical and video advertisements of interest to brand marketers, the strongest area of Yahoo’s business.
The company said its business was especially strong in Europe but that it lagged in most of Asia.
The company, which announced results yesterday, exceeded analysts’ expectations for both sales and profit. That is in contrast to Yahoo, which disappointed Wall Street Tuesday with lower-than-expected revenue from search-related advertising. Yahoo met profit expectations because it postponed some hiring and advertising spending.
In after-hours trading, shares of Google rose nearly 1 percent, to $390.55. The stock has fallen this week in sympathy with Yahoo, which dropped 22 percent on Wednesday. Shares of Yahoo rose 0.3 percent yesterday, to $25.27.
Google, based in Mountain View, Calif., attributed its success to several areas in which Yahoo fell short. The company said it continued to develop technology that increases the advertising revenue it earns from each search, while Yahoo said its already delayed effort to build such technology would be another three months late.
Google also continued to expand the number of sites that display advertising it sells, while Yahoo is still absorbing the loss of its largest advertising client, MSN from Microsoft, which is selling its own advertising.
“We did really, really well in a quarter that is seasonally slow,” said Eric Schmidt, Google’s chief executive, in an interview. “Big companies as they get larger seem to slow down. We continue to innovate.”
Google earned $721.1 million, or $2.33 a share in the quarter, compared with $342.8 million, or $1.19 a share, in the period a year ago. Excluding charges related to stock-based compensation and a gain from the sale of its shares in Baidu, the Chinese Internet company, Google earned $2.49 a share. Analysts had expected the company to earn $2.22 on that basis.
Google’s revenue was $2.46 billion, up 77 percent.
Excluding the payments it makes to companies like AOL that carry its search advertising, Google’s revenue was $1.67 billion, up 88 percent. That is a bit higher than the $1.65 billion that analysts expected.
In a conference call with investors, Mr. Schmidt said that one top company priority was to expand its advertising business. One aspect of this is to build services for graphical and video advertisements of interest to brand marketers, the strongest area of Yahoo’s business.
The company said its business was especially strong in Europe but that it lagged in most of Asia.
Friday, July 14, 2006
Blast, from the past??
Today, I found news reports pointing towards the same indicators as I thought were responsible for the attack viz the LeT, SIMI & Indian locals. Here is the video. Right click and save to download it.
Bombay blasts, bleeds & bides in helpless disbelief. It has happened before, & the state of affairs point towards its happening again. Six blasts in twenty minutes cannot be the doings of the largely unorganized, under-funded, & tech non savvy naxalite organizations. The underworld can be dismissed on this one as it only stands to lose ‘hafta’ from such acts. So here is my not-so-surprising guess on the perpetrators of this act: Islamo-fascists backed, trained & brainwashed by the basket-case of the subcontinent a.k.a Phuc-kistan.
Don’t get me wrong pakis, I’ve personally known you to be a nice people, but it is your government’s (elected like those of Nawaz Sharif or military lie Zia / Musharaff ) anti-India stance for the sake justifying its existence & your extremist factions (there is a sizable population of these considering the amount of hatred preached in Madrasas in Phuckistan) that celebrate the death of innocent Hindus/Christians in the name of religion.
Although LeT is officially recognized by the International community (including the US) as a terrorist faction, Phuckistan lets its leader roam free in its territory! How about Dawood Ibrahim, the mastermind behind the 1993 blasts? His son got married to Pak cricketer, Javed Miandad’s daughter in a public ceremony in Phuckkistan! This after India submitted forensic evidence to Interpol implicating Dawood’s role in the ’93 blasts! Not to mention the 2000 hijacking incident of Indian Airlines Flight 814 which was refueled in Phuckistan while India’s request to deploy a commando unit to diffuse the situation was conveniently ignored. Inciting trouble in North East India, inciting secular violence to induce hatred between Hindu’s & Muslims phuck with the fabric of secular, tolerant Indian society.
Truth is that RAW officials are recruited from senior military / police personnel and it is no secret that these organizations are the epitome of corruption. RAW has been infiltrated (working against the agency) 4 times by the CIA, and we are not even in a cold-war with the US! The biggest & most recent case was that of Rabinder Singh, who is believed to have escaped to the US on an American Passport! Paul is also known to be involved in the same infiltration. The US must have smuggled Singh out of the country to protect the identity of other such moles which would have surfaced if he were arrested. Also, RAW is known to be strewn with ego issues between top officials hampering its activities considerably.
Many may argue that a minority extremist faction gets more than its fare share of coverage in the media and the majority’s views remain unrepresented. I buy that too, but a lot remains desired from the majority. How come the Iraq invasion and Bush visit to India brings out lakhs (1 lakh = one hundred thousand) of muslims onto the streets in protest in strongholds like old Delhi or Hyderabad but an act like this never draws a response form their most vocal spokesmen? Is the cartoon of the Mohammed more important to you than the deaths of your innocent countrymen? Here is your big chance to prove the extremists wrong, speak out against such acts, issue your fancy religious Fatwas on the guilty, spread preach & educate religious tolerance to young impressionable minds & imbibe patriotism and nationality. Do your bit, don’t claim to be innocent by-standers and point fingers at fanatics. Their existence is your negligence!
Bombay blasts, bleeds & bides in helpless disbelief. It has happened before, & the state of affairs point towards its happening again. Six blasts in twenty minutes cannot be the doings of the largely unorganized, under-funded, & tech non savvy naxalite organizations. The underworld can be dismissed on this one as it only stands to lose ‘hafta’ from such acts. So here is my not-so-surprising guess on the perpetrators of this act: Islamo-fascists backed, trained & brainwashed by the basket-case of the subcontinent a.k.a Phuc-kistan.
Don’t get me wrong pakis, I’ve personally known you to be a nice people, but it is your government’s (elected like those of Nawaz Sharif or military lie Zia / Musharaff ) anti-India stance for the sake justifying its existence & your extremist factions (there is a sizable population of these considering the amount of hatred preached in Madrasas in Phuckistan) that celebrate the death of innocent Hindus/Christians in the name of religion.
Although LeT is officially recognized by the International community (including the US) as a terrorist faction, Phuckistan lets its leader roam free in its territory! How about Dawood Ibrahim, the mastermind behind the 1993 blasts? His son got married to Pak cricketer, Javed Miandad’s daughter in a public ceremony in Phuckkistan! This after India submitted forensic evidence to Interpol implicating Dawood’s role in the ’93 blasts! Not to mention the 2000 hijacking incident of Indian Airlines Flight 814 which was refueled in Phuckistan while India’s request to deploy a commando unit to diffuse the situation was conveniently ignored. Inciting trouble in North East India, inciting secular violence to induce hatred between Hindu’s & Muslims phuck with the fabric of secular, tolerant Indian society.
Truth is that RAW officials are recruited from senior military / police personnel and it is no secret that these organizations are the epitome of corruption. RAW has been infiltrated (working against the agency) 4 times by the CIA, and we are not even in a cold-war with the US! The biggest & most recent case was that of Rabinder Singh, who is believed to have escaped to the US on an American Passport! Paul is also known to be involved in the same infiltration. The US must have smuggled Singh out of the country to protect the identity of other such moles which would have surfaced if he were arrested. Also, RAW is known to be strewn with ego issues between top officials hampering its activities considerably.
Many may argue that a minority extremist faction gets more than its fare share of coverage in the media and the majority’s views remain unrepresented. I buy that too, but a lot remains desired from the majority. How come the Iraq invasion and Bush visit to India brings out lakhs (1 lakh = one hundred thousand) of muslims onto the streets in protest in strongholds like old Delhi or Hyderabad but an act like this never draws a response form their most vocal spokesmen? Is the cartoon of the Mohammed more important to you than the deaths of your innocent countrymen? Here is your big chance to prove the extremists wrong, speak out against such acts, issue your fancy religious Fatwas on the guilty, spread preach & educate religious tolerance to young impressionable minds & imbibe patriotism and nationality. Do your bit, don’t claim to be innocent by-standers and point fingers at fanatics. Their existence is your negligence!
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Zidane's legacy is his elegant game, not a vicious exit
France top player Zinedine Zidane received his 14th red card of his career after a vicious attack on Italy's Marco Materazzi in the world cup 2006 final. Zidane said Materazzi provoked him by insulting his mother and sister.
And he said that while he apologized to the "children" who had witnessed the incident (but, bizarrely, nobody else who might not have enjoyed seeing a grown man assault another adult) he had no regrets and would do it all over again.
And he said that while he apologized to the "children" who had witnessed the incident (but, bizarrely, nobody else who might not have enjoyed seeing a grown man assault another adult) he had no regrets and would do it all over again.
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