The funniest tech thread i have ever read...
Hard drive weight increasing?
Jul 15, 2009
Jul 14, 2009
Bias?!
This is my Kiva page.
I started lending in Kiva last September. So far, i have successfully lent to 10 borrowers.(either fresh contribution from my side or reused the amount paid back by previous borrowers) My first borrower is still paying back. While my second borrower has paid back 100%. I was invited to join a group. I hesitated for a month and then joined. And never had a great conversation with the group so far. Honestly, i don't know what to contribute.
But i see an interesting pattern in my lending.
All my 10 loans are for females. Yes, i never favor lending to males as i strongly believe that a strong female always implies a strong family whereas a strong male need not necessarily imply the same.
I seem to have an instant aversion towards borrowers with more than 2 or to some extent 3 kids.
I seem to have a bias against lending to people who are slightly well off. In other words, i seem to look out for people who are struggling for the next day bread and lend to them or those who are trying to move away from poverty.
I seem to have a soft corner towards single parents.
I seem to have a soft corner towards borrowers who have mentioned about educating their children.
All my loans are only $25 and not more.
I have never once contributed to Kiva admin costs.
I seem to have a bias against lending to so called developed nation borrowers like USA, whereas i don't seem to have bias against regions based on ethnicity,religion and hey, i have even lent to a Pakistani borrowers :)
I hate loans which are meant for females, but the photo shows her male relative. I prefer to see the borrower photo even if she is completely covered in burqa.
I don't seem to like Group loans. Actually, i agree that this is a good model for recovery from micro finance perspective, but i never seem to feel a personal touch with the borrowers in case of group loans. But nowadays, i am consciously trying to overcome this bias.
And nowadays, i seem to look for a better repayment terms, as i think that it might help me to reuse the money often.
Also, initially, i used to lend only when the repayment amount is received fully. Later, i started contributing additional amount to the repayment amount for a new loan. Nowadays, i am consciously trying to lend once a month.
So, is there an economist out there who is analyzing the lending patterns of individuals? If yes, here is your first sample ;)
Anyways, all in all, i wonder whether i am lending for my own emotional selfish perspective?!
I started lending in Kiva last September. So far, i have successfully lent to 10 borrowers.(either fresh contribution from my side or reused the amount paid back by previous borrowers) My first borrower is still paying back. While my second borrower has paid back 100%. I was invited to join a group. I hesitated for a month and then joined. And never had a great conversation with the group so far. Honestly, i don't know what to contribute.
But i see an interesting pattern in my lending.
All my 10 loans are for females. Yes, i never favor lending to males as i strongly believe that a strong female always implies a strong family whereas a strong male need not necessarily imply the same.
I seem to have an instant aversion towards borrowers with more than 2 or to some extent 3 kids.
I seem to have a bias against lending to people who are slightly well off. In other words, i seem to look out for people who are struggling for the next day bread and lend to them or those who are trying to move away from poverty.
I seem to have a soft corner towards single parents.
I seem to have a soft corner towards borrowers who have mentioned about educating their children.
All my loans are only $25 and not more.
I have never once contributed to Kiva admin costs.
I seem to have a bias against lending to so called developed nation borrowers like USA, whereas i don't seem to have bias against regions based on ethnicity,religion and hey, i have even lent to a Pakistani borrowers :)
I hate loans which are meant for females, but the photo shows her male relative. I prefer to see the borrower photo even if she is completely covered in burqa.
I don't seem to like Group loans. Actually, i agree that this is a good model for recovery from micro finance perspective, but i never seem to feel a personal touch with the borrowers in case of group loans. But nowadays, i am consciously trying to overcome this bias.
And nowadays, i seem to look for a better repayment terms, as i think that it might help me to reuse the money often.
Also, initially, i used to lend only when the repayment amount is received fully. Later, i started contributing additional amount to the repayment amount for a new loan. Nowadays, i am consciously trying to lend once a month.
So, is there an economist out there who is analyzing the lending patterns of individuals? If yes, here is your first sample ;)
Anyways, all in all, i wonder whether i am lending for my own emotional selfish perspective?!
Idea
A few years ago, this thought came up after a few visits to Walmart in US.
One of the important things which Walmart should care about is reducing the time taken for the customers to finish the checkout of purchases made. Ideally there is a barcode tag in every item and the employee has to show this to the reader one by one, while the items are kept on a rolling table.
My idea was, why not have a screening machine kind of setup for this activity. Say, the items are kept on a line on the rolling table. Every item passes through this screening machine. As it moves along, the barcode is read and the item is billed. So, the time lag involved in the employee picking up the item and showing the barcode to the reader is reduced.
One of my friend suggested that i am crazy... but i still consider this to be a very innovative idea. Infact, this might simplify the self checkout counters as well.
I am reminded of this idea after reading about the Patent filed by Bill Gates & co for stopping Hurricanes.
There is another patent for a temperature stabilized self containers which sounds similar to thermo flasks. Also imagine how it would be if there are ziplock kind of covers/ wrappers which can be used to cover a specific item and set a specific temperature... Maybe this is possible due to nano technology. When it does become a reality, i wonder what'll happen to refrigerator, microwave ovens and many other stuff. Would it be like how ice machines gave way to refrigerator?
One of the important things which Walmart should care about is reducing the time taken for the customers to finish the checkout of purchases made. Ideally there is a barcode tag in every item and the employee has to show this to the reader one by one, while the items are kept on a rolling table.
My idea was, why not have a screening machine kind of setup for this activity. Say, the items are kept on a line on the rolling table. Every item passes through this screening machine. As it moves along, the barcode is read and the item is billed. So, the time lag involved in the employee picking up the item and showing the barcode to the reader is reduced.
One of my friend suggested that i am crazy... but i still consider this to be a very innovative idea. Infact, this might simplify the self checkout counters as well.
I am reminded of this idea after reading about the Patent filed by Bill Gates & co for stopping Hurricanes.
There is another patent for a temperature stabilized self containers which sounds similar to thermo flasks. Also imagine how it would be if there are ziplock kind of covers/ wrappers which can be used to cover a specific item and set a specific temperature... Maybe this is possible due to nano technology. When it does become a reality, i wonder what'll happen to refrigerator, microwave ovens and many other stuff. Would it be like how ice machines gave way to refrigerator?
Jun 22, 2009
Tanishq Ad
When i first saw this ad, my response was,"Bah, what a crap... Is it really practical? Won't someone be ever conscious of all those small pieces spread across the hair? And she is really arrogant".
But then, this ad seems to have grown on me after watching it quite a few times and now i seem to really like it :)
But then, this ad seems to have grown on me after watching it quite a few times and now i seem to really like it :)
Jun 18, 2009
Factory visit
One of the good things about working in a product development is one gets to see and use the final product with one's software/bugs in it.
Also, it's quite a proud moment to see fellow human beings(customers) using the product.
Often, i have wondered as what exactly goes into the manufacturing of the product and how the whole process happens.
Luckily, last wednesday, i had a chance to see this manufacturing side of the product. Thanks to my manager, our whole team had a one day visit to the factory. It was a great experience. Infact, i was quite sad that few of us are ending up with a different manager from next week!
Coming to the trip, as a first thing, we were given an intro by the director of the factory. Unfortunately, i can neither mention the figures nor the complete details. But it was more than impressive to learn that this factory caters to the 1/3rd of the global company demand.
The factory had more female employees than male employees. When i posed the question as whether female employees are preferred, he replied,"As a company policy, we are not supposed to have any bias based on gender,race, creed. The only reason why there are more female workers is because they pass the dexterity test easily than male candidates". Hence, there are 70% female employees :) Another point which surprised us is the fact this factory is the cheapest in the world, than china as well. That was an amazing news.
Only sad point was, not a single electronic component is supplied by an Indian company. It's all supplied by foreign corporations, and all major component suppliers have set up factories in the same place.
So, overall, this single Software Export Zone (SEZ) employs close to 20000-25000 people directly. This is an amazing figure and stresses the need as why there should be more manufacturing bases in India. (SEZ sounds moronic for a factory zone :))
Later on, we went inside the shop floor. As usual, most of the things are automated, making one appreciate the whole control system concepts :) Infact, Control systems was one of the most difficult subjects during college days and students in the Instrumentation & Control Engineering department had all the difficult subjects as well as difficult professors.
There were few activities in the line which we were manual, although they mentioned they are experimenting the automation process for those as well. I think the car manufacturing has more percentage of assembly line automated when compared to the other device manufacturing.
I wonder whether manual labour might be cheaper than automation for these small tasks in device manufacturing.
But, it was interesting to see the complete process of a real product development. It seems to happen in a jiffy,highly streamlined way and totally different from software development in all good ways :)
One concern though...eventhough the working environment was extremely safe and pleasant, most of the worker ought to stand through out the day. And the work might get really monotonous after a while. Infact, the average age in the factory was in early 20s. I wonder what'll happen as people become old. When i posed this question to the supervisor, he replied that work does get monotonous in any factory and people are given a break of 30mts for every 4 hours, while they can also rest in between if they feel so. This made me wonder about what my parents would have gone through while working in a Textile mill before venturing into business. At the end of the day, there is a difference between blue collar job and white collar job. Yes, even our job gets monotonous at/most of the times...still, there is a difference and we are better off.
I wish i had a chance to talk to a shop floor employee as how one feels and whether they aspire to move to higher things. Because, all these employees are minimum 12th Pass and above 18. Ofcourse, many of them would consider themselves lucky to have this job with all benefits better than many other Indian manufacturing companies. Still, i hope they aspire for many higher things.
Infact, it was nice to see the distance learning courses and few other Learning session details mentioned in their notice board. I am sure they will be getting the same personality development plans as we get as per the process.
btw, there was one silly moment. First time when i saw the factory employees, i exclaimed to my teammate,"Oh...they also have the similar ID cards". She replied,"Yes. it will be similar across the company". This made me realize as how the thought that we are all part of one big company hasn't completely sinked in :)
Also, it's quite a proud moment to see fellow human beings(customers) using the product.
Often, i have wondered as what exactly goes into the manufacturing of the product and how the whole process happens.
Luckily, last wednesday, i had a chance to see this manufacturing side of the product. Thanks to my manager, our whole team had a one day visit to the factory. It was a great experience. Infact, i was quite sad that few of us are ending up with a different manager from next week!
Coming to the trip, as a first thing, we were given an intro by the director of the factory. Unfortunately, i can neither mention the figures nor the complete details. But it was more than impressive to learn that this factory caters to the 1/3rd of the global company demand.
The factory had more female employees than male employees. When i posed the question as whether female employees are preferred, he replied,"As a company policy, we are not supposed to have any bias based on gender,race, creed. The only reason why there are more female workers is because they pass the dexterity test easily than male candidates". Hence, there are 70% female employees :) Another point which surprised us is the fact this factory is the cheapest in the world, than china as well. That was an amazing news.
Only sad point was, not a single electronic component is supplied by an Indian company. It's all supplied by foreign corporations, and all major component suppliers have set up factories in the same place.
So, overall, this single Software Export Zone (SEZ) employs close to 20000-25000 people directly. This is an amazing figure and stresses the need as why there should be more manufacturing bases in India. (SEZ sounds moronic for a factory zone :))
Later on, we went inside the shop floor. As usual, most of the things are automated, making one appreciate the whole control system concepts :) Infact, Control systems was one of the most difficult subjects during college days and students in the Instrumentation & Control Engineering department had all the difficult subjects as well as difficult professors.
There were few activities in the line which we were manual, although they mentioned they are experimenting the automation process for those as well. I think the car manufacturing has more percentage of assembly line automated when compared to the other device manufacturing.
I wonder whether manual labour might be cheaper than automation for these small tasks in device manufacturing.
But, it was interesting to see the complete process of a real product development. It seems to happen in a jiffy,highly streamlined way and totally different from software development in all good ways :)
One concern though...eventhough the working environment was extremely safe and pleasant, most of the worker ought to stand through out the day. And the work might get really monotonous after a while. Infact, the average age in the factory was in early 20s. I wonder what'll happen as people become old. When i posed this question to the supervisor, he replied that work does get monotonous in any factory and people are given a break of 30mts for every 4 hours, while they can also rest in between if they feel so. This made me wonder about what my parents would have gone through while working in a Textile mill before venturing into business. At the end of the day, there is a difference between blue collar job and white collar job. Yes, even our job gets monotonous at/most of the times...still, there is a difference and we are better off.
I wish i had a chance to talk to a shop floor employee as how one feels and whether they aspire to move to higher things. Because, all these employees are minimum 12th Pass and above 18. Ofcourse, many of them would consider themselves lucky to have this job with all benefits better than many other Indian manufacturing companies. Still, i hope they aspire for many higher things.
Infact, it was nice to see the distance learning courses and few other Learning session details mentioned in their notice board. I am sure they will be getting the same personality development plans as we get as per the process.
btw, there was one silly moment. First time when i saw the factory employees, i exclaimed to my teammate,"Oh...they also have the similar ID cards". She replied,"Yes. it will be similar across the company". This made me realize as how the thought that we are all part of one big company hasn't completely sinked in :)
Jun 17, 2009
Jun 15, 2009
Intel ad
Everyday, i see a hoarding of Intel with the following lines,
"Today we are creating tomorrow."
Even though it seems to convey the meaning that Intel is involved in creation of stuff needed for our lives tomorrow, the sentence sounds quite moronic to me.
When compared to the above line,"Sponsors of tomorrow" is sensible and better.
The below ad is simply amazing. It's part of new Intel promotion campaign. Very highly innovative and definitely worth copying by any tech company. What makes this ad stand out from the other previous versions of internal people promotion is the fun component.
But one problem is, it would've been better if it had been taken with the real Ajay Bhatt instead of a comedy actor. Maybe the fun component might have got toned down a bit, but still the authenticity would've got retained.
Below is another amazing Intel ad...But i hope people understand it.
"Today we are creating tomorrow."
Even though it seems to convey the meaning that Intel is involved in creation of stuff needed for our lives tomorrow, the sentence sounds quite moronic to me.
When compared to the above line,"Sponsors of tomorrow" is sensible and better.
The below ad is simply amazing. It's part of new Intel promotion campaign. Very highly innovative and definitely worth copying by any tech company. What makes this ad stand out from the other previous versions of internal people promotion is the fun component.
But one problem is, it would've been better if it had been taken with the real Ajay Bhatt instead of a comedy actor. Maybe the fun component might have got toned down a bit, but still the authenticity would've got retained.
Below is another amazing Intel ad...But i hope people understand it.
Jun 8, 2009
Petronas ad
I have often wondered as why there are no ads which fully utilize the rigour and speed of F1 for their promotion.
Atlast, i found one from Petronas which is quite nice.
Atlast, i found one from Petronas which is quite nice.
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