Why?

 Why is Cheney all over the news defending the Bush Administration policies? Aren't his days in the sun over? 

Just what I wanted to hear

Contrary to the notion that daydreaming is a sign of laziness, letting the mind wander can actually let the parts of the brain associated with problem-solving become active, a new study finds. 

    

Bumper sticker for the day

Be Veg, Go Green, Save the Planet. 

Infosys

Some stats based on a talk that Infosys CEO Nandan Nilekani gave in Chicago that I thought would be interesting to share.

Infosys was formed in 1981. From 1981 to 1992, their revenue grew from 0 to 4 million dollars. In 1991, India liberalized the economy and instituted several reforms that opened the Indian market. From 1992 to 1999, Infosys revenue's grew from 4 million to 120 million dollars. 1999 was when things really took off. From 1999 to 2004, their revenues grew to 1 billion and that doubled by the end of 2006.  2009 marks their twenty fifth year of doing business and they are set to reach 4 to 5 billion in revenues. 

It is never as good...

...as it seems or never as bad as it seems. That was what Obama said in his press conference on the 100 day mark of his administration, revealing his even-keeled, cool and calm approach to the issues facing this country. That to me was the standout line of the presser. 

  BTW, why all the hullabaloo about 100 days? Judge him a year or two from now. That will be a more realistic measure. 

Milk

Finally got to watch Milk. Another great performance by Sean Penn. He never disappoints. As I saw the movie depict the tension surrounding the fight against Prop 6, I couldn't help draw parallels with the fight against Prop 8 waged in the recent election. What struck me was that thirty years later, the same divisions that existed in 1978 continue to prevail today and drive the debate on both sides of the issue. 

Social Networking

What's the deal with Twitter? Why is anybody interested in what I had for lunch today? The whole idea just doesn't make sense to me. As a close friend opined, Twitter just happens to be the flavor of the day. It is a passing fad. Will it still be fashionable to tweet next year this time?

10 years ago

....we were in the midst of an Internet boom. Anybody with a computer and a business plan had a dot com  that had either gone public or was about to go public. There were paper millionaires galore. The stock market was booming. I had friends who punched in the wrong stock symbols, bought the stock of a company that they had never heard of and still made money. Life was good!

 Then the boom turned into a bust. What was unsustainable had to come crashing.  Sanity prevailed or so we thought.  But we hadn't accounted for how versatile greed can be.

 The Internet boom was replaced by the housing boom. And ten years later, we find ourselves in a deeper pit.

  Have we learnt a lesson? Perhaps this generation has, but history suggests we never will. So ten years from now, how many more boom and bust cycles will we have cycled through? 

   My guess is as good as yours

Itching for a fight already

David Souter's resignation is not two days old, but the various protagonists on Capitol Hill are already suiting up for a battle. Add to that, Obama hasn't even made his pick and won't for another month at least. Gives you an idea of how polarized politics has become in this country. 

Actually, I follow Indian politics having grown up there and if you want to talk polarized politics, then Indian politics takes the cake. 

Forever

The 2009 edition of the IPL tournament over is being held in South Africa. Is it me or the tournament just keeps going on and on. I think they need to cut the matches by half and get it done in fifteen days or risk over-exposure and lose cricket fans. 

Picking up the thread.....

Quite a bit has transpired since my last post. In a historic election, America elected its first black President. The economy has been wrecked by an earthquake of volcanic propotions. And in his first few months of office, the new President has had to make many momentous decisions that will decide not only the fate of his Presidency, but also that of the economy. In short, much water has flown under the bridge. 

There is not much consensus among economists as to the right course of action. You have economists on the right calling for tax cuts as opposed to government spending to boost the economy. And you have an equal number on the left calling for government action to avert a full blown depression. When economists can't agree on the right solution, then it is fair to say no one really knows how this is all going to turn out in the end. 

It is not uncommon these days to begin and end every conversation discussing the state of the economy and the adverse impact it has had on jobs and even the technology sector that I am a part of. This is a bad time to be out of a job and everybody is trying to cling on to the ones they have. BusinessWeek has an article of how slackers everywhere are suddenly working harder than never before.

One thing for sure is that this is going to get worse before it gets better.