Time to Break Telecom Companies again?

Non-coherent thoughts/Rant...... on why can't I do communication/entertainment/news from any where any time from any device at much lower rate than today. Most money seems to be going to inefficiencies, lawyers, restrictions - instead of openness and effectiveness/efficiencies.

Today some of my friend's expense is close to $200/month. Why not get a whole lot more than what we get for $200 than what we get today? Especially, when we allow air waves to be used by folks, land be dug on the roads by cable companies, allow laying cables under the seas and allow for satellites to go over my head.....

It was in 1984 AT&T was broken due to Anti Competitive practice. Here are the concerns that I have with these large Telecom companies and my thought process on solution

What would Like to see happen

1. Charge customers on the itemized actuals - not blanket

• Last mile - Cell Phone ping (The phone will be able to receive/send it's location to the nearest tower) - If you roam, you have to be charged differently. You must have the capability to tell if you are 'home'/'work' in which case, you can configure automatically to be routed to home/work number - instead of expensive air waves
• Last mile - Cable Companies collecting the cable from home to hub
• Last mile wired connection going to the Exchange

Home internal wiring by yet another company/skill set.

There does not seem to be a reason for old analog thingy any more. All can be digital - people can charge - more like electricity fees on consumption and possibly flexible rates on peak rates.

1. Once the last mile is connected other set of companies can provide trunking facility
2. Another company can provide customer service - so we can provide for 'packaging' companies - these are 'Walmarts' of the communication world
3. 
   

1. Why should I not have Vonage Phone software installed on my AT&T or Verizon phone

What would this bring to the greater good? Better usage of the resources available - 'airwave' and Superior quality service (expertise), competition. Gives opportunity for small players to get on equal footing. Possibility of rapid innovation

ATI from AMD - TV wonder tuners

http://www.amd.com/us/products/pctv/tv-wonder-tuners/Pages/tv-wonder-hd-650-combo-usb-for-mac.aspx

Available for Mac & PC. There are multiple vendors for PC (including HP, Dell)

Comcast M-Card support HD

1. DCH 3200 Comcast user guide; DCH 3200R
2. DCX 3200
3. DCH 6416
4. DCH 3416; DCH 3416R
5. DCX3400
6. Pace RNG 110

cablecard - HDTV

Comcast offers cablecard free that can be used on "Digital TV Ready" TV.

I need to take back the previous statement. See article

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/fasterforward/2010/10/fcc_fixes_cablecard_rules_cabl.html

FCC fixes CableCard rules; CableCard market likely to stay broken

You won't have to sit around your house waiting for the cable guy to pop a CableCard into your TiVo, under regulations approved by the Federal Communications Commission today. The FCC's rules will also require that cable companies clearly document their CableCard options and provide the same channel lineup to subscribers who rent their own boxes and those who buy other vendors' CableCard-compatible devices.

But don't think that today's rulings will yield a greater selection of cable-compatible hardware anytime soon.

The FCC's actions, as outlined in a press release (PDF) and documented in a 59-page filing (PDF), attempt to fix long-running problems with CableCard. This technology, developed a decade ago, miniaturized the security and authentication features of the cable box into a card you could pop into any compatible TV or video recorder.

The idea was to allow the cable-TV hardware business to function like a normal electronics market: Instead of being limited to devices offered by your cable operator, you could buy the gadget of your choice and then pick a service.

But cable operators failed to support CableCard in practice, insteadcontinuing to push their own boxes and DVRs. Manufacturers, in turn, backed away from the technology after seeing poor sales. The FCC's 2007 requirement that cable operators use CableCards in their own products failed to budge things.

(The Washington Post Co. owns a cable service, CableOne; I have no idea what its management thinks about this issue and don't particularly care, as it doesn't provide service anywhere near the Washington area.)

At this point, you don't need the fingers of one hand to count your CableCard options: There are TiVo's DVRs, Moxi's lesser-known recorders, Ceton's computer add-on ... and then nothing, as far as I can tell.

But CableCard can still work fine when properly supported--as I found out last Christmas, when my in-laws got a new TiVo HD. Since Comcast allows Bay Area customers to "self-install" CableCards, all my father-in-law had to do was pick up a card at the local Comcast office, pop it into the TiVo and call up Comcast to read off some numbers on the TV's screen. HIs setup can't get Comcast's video-on-demand programming--a generic limitation of CableCard systems, since they can't tie into interactive cable offerings--but I have yet to hear him say "we miss the old cable box."

The FCC's action should ensure that every cable subscriber--as well as customers of Verizon's Fios TV, which is classified as a cable service--can get that experience by nine months from now. (Comcast spokeswoman Sena Fitzmaurice wrote that the Philadelphia-based company had already been working to make self-install the standard and so expected that effort to be "substantially completed in the first quarter of next year," well before the FCC's deadline.)

It may also help more people discover that CableCards exist and can save them money.

But it won't breathe any new life into the market for cable-compatible hardware. Electronics manufacturers have largely written off CableCard; TiVo essentially owns that market, even though I regularly hear from readers who don't care for TiVo's monthly service fees.

Meanwhile, the FCC's rules don't affect satellite TV services, which have shown even less interest than cable operators in opening up their hardware business to outside competitors.

The only real hope lies not in CableCard or an upgraded but largely ignored cable standards initiative called tru2way, but in the FCC's proposal for a universal interface that currently goes by the name AllVid. But that is years from resulting in hardware we can buy and use with any TV service: cable, satellite or fiber.

So for those who don't want to pay the TiVo tax, it will be cable boxes as usual. I wish I could be more optimistic, but I've seen this movie too many times; I know how it ends.

Are you expecting a different ending? Tell me in the comments what I'm overlooking.

By Rob Pegoraro | October 14, 2010; 6:33 PM ET

10 waterfalls in single park - Oragon

This is bit too far from San Jose (near Salem, OR)

http://www.oregonstateparks.org/images/pdf/silverfalls_trailmap.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Falls_State_Park

catsone clients list

"Password Retriever" site:catsone.com/careers

1. http://www.cbsinfosys.com/
2. http://redolentech.com/
3. http://www.tricitywellness.com/

iPhone Apps

1. slideGrabber
2. TV Guide
3. Vonage
4. CrunchMap
5. E*Trade
6. Messenger
7. PeriodicTable
8. Tirukkural
9. Bible
10. SF Way
11. Chess Free
12. Contacts+
13. NPR News
14. LinkedIn
15. Y! Finance
16. KARAJAN
17. Relative Pitch
18. VNC
19. Connect4
20. Tirukkural (2?)
21. Unit Conversion
22. Evernote
23. GPSLite
24. Public Radio
25. iWant

iPhone web/ app ideas

iPhone apps ideas

1. Thirukkural (Books)
2. Name of Tamilnadu places
3. Schedules - bus, train, flight (preferably - status, reservations)
4. PIN / STD codes
5. Places/Points of interest
6. temple list
7. classified advertisements
8. 
   

Pay Day and Direct Deposit - some info

1. Each employer has their own pay cycle. They can pay 2 times a month or monthly.
1. The pay cycle is legally required to be informed to ALL the employees. Usually, this information is posted in the coffee break area (a big poster - with the date written by hand).
2. Asking about your pay is just a normal question - should not feel shy/bad to ask.
1. If you feel bad/shy to ask, you probably should not be working for the employer. Seriously, there are other difficult/hard things that can happen in employment - if you cant even ask what's the status of your pay, how can you deal with much difficult situations?
2. It is YOUR hard earned money that you are giving on "LOAN" for your employer. So, asking about the status of your pay is legal and is usual.
3. Some hourly payments, the cut off date for each pay period can be different for the actual pay.
1. If the pay day is the first of the month, the cut off day might be 26th of the previous month (or 5 business days).
2. Getting accounts and cutting checks take physical time. Some times this is done by third party and the paper work (including checks) has to be sent across physically
3. This cut off date can be announced or need not be
4. Direct deposit can take up to 3 pay cycles for it to actually go through.
1. Until this happens, you will get a physical check.
2. Checks can be handed to you in person or sent be snail mail
5. Even if pay is sent through direct deposit, they still owe you pay stub. This is legal document you can use to tell some one that you are getting paid (like bank or loans)

Day Trading pick criteria

One possible day trading pick criteria

1. large company (More than $1Billion in Market Capitalization)
2. Large volume trading of stock - Liquidity
3. high inter-day stock price volatility with stability in long term fluctuations (More than $0.10 change in a day)
4. Stock price less than $50
5. If the profit $200 in a day, using $15,000 investment is decent non-work income
6. average @ 4-5 trades per month
7. US only stocks - gives some level of focus
8. One should at the minimum know the name of the company prior to buying
9. Local company - even better
10. Buy in the morning to get enough time to sell
11. Sell initiate right away - review at 15-30 minutes before close and sell
12. One must be prepared to hold the stock for long time, if needed

Well, let us see how good these rules hold.

Day Trading - Wikipedia

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bid-offer_spread
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scalping_(trading)
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pump_and_dump
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_and_distort
5. 'Dump and Dilute' that PINK:PRXM did 1:100 in May 17, 2010. Stock tumbled from $16.5o to $11.10 on June 15th, 2010.
6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microcap_stock_fraud
7. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_manipulation

• http://allpennystocks.com/aps_us/index.aspx
• http://www.redchip.com/home.aspx

Contactless payment by Bling Nation

Contactless payment by Palo Alto based Bling Nation is having marketing push. Don't know how the veteran / pioneer in this domain, VivoTech, are doing on it these days.

Bling Nation dopes not seem to have their own web site. It is redirecting to Facebook.

City of Palo Alto accepts Bling payments.

Trading Terminology - what do they mean

http://www.marketintellisearch.com/articles/1052480.html

Interesting Options Volume for Brocade Communications Systems (BRCD)

NEW YORK (Market Intellisearch) -- BRCD options saw interesting call activity today. A total of 2,742 put and 13,281 call contracts were traded raising a low Put/Call volume alert. Today's traded Put/Call ratio is 0.21. There were 4.84 calls traded for each put contract.

Put/Call ratio is often used to measure investment sentiment, the ratio serves as a predictor of investor behavior. Unusual options volume provides reliable clues that the stock is expected to make a move.

Brocade Communications Systems closed at $5.72 in the last trading session and opened today at $5.72. The stock price declined $0.04 (-0.70%) to $5.68 in today's trading session. BRCD is trading between the range of $5.62 - $5.77. Volume is 8,945,539 in relation to the three month average volume of 12,867,300 shares. BRCD is trading above the 50 day moving average and lower than the 200 day moving average. The stock's 52 week low is $4.64 and 52 week high is $9.84.

Compare Testing: Data Driven vs Action Driven

	Record-Playback	Data-Method Driven	Action Driven
Time to Market	Low	Medium	High
Learning Curve	Low	High	Medium
Maintenance	High	High	Low
Code Reuse	Low	Medium	High
Tool independence	No	No	Yes
Division of Labor	No	No	Yes
Abstraction Layer	No	No	Yes

one Possible growth path

1. Develop great product
2. Work with partners
3. Add Marketing
4. International markets

Day Trading

Some of the criteria while picking the stock/volume for day trading

1. You must be prepared to hold the stock, if not able to sell
2. Options can come in handy if you are not ready to hold
3. You want the stock to fluctuate rapidly and widely in percentage of the stock value
4. Look for the charges for trading. You must try to make more than the trading charges (otherwise, your value will erode just because of your trading activity).
5. Pick more number as compared to larger per stock value
6. 
   

Large Cap Companies

Name Symbol Last price Sector Industry Citigroup Inc. C 3.88 Financial Money Center Banks Bank of America Corporation BAC 13.28 Financial Money Center Banks Wells Fargo & Company WFC 25.1 Financial Money Center Banks JPMorgan Chase & Co. JPM 38.16 Financial Money Center Banks General Electric Company GE 15.15 Financial Consumer Financial Services HSBC Holdings plc (ADR) HBC 50.36 Financial Regional Banks Pfizer Inc. PFE 16.4 Healthcare Major Drugs Merck & Co., Inc. MRK 35.35 Healthcare Major Drugs GlaxoSmithKline plc (ADR) GSK 38.95 Healthcare Major Drugs Vodafone Group Plc (ADR) VOD 24.35 Services Communications Services AT&T Inc. T 27.4 Services Communications Services Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. WMT 51.76 Services Retail (Department and Discount) Hewlett-Packard Company HPQ 39.68 Technology Computer Hardware Intel Corporation INTC 18.28 Technology Semiconductors Cisco Systems, Inc. CSCO 20.52 Technology Communications Equipment Oracle Corporation ORCL 22.48 Technology Software and Programming Microsoft Corporation MSFT 23.94 Technology Software and Programming

BPO companies in India

1. http://billedright.com/
2. http://gramarinfo.com/
3. http://uniquebposervices.com/
4. http://www.revenuexl.com/

SEC Edgar advanced search

http://searchwww.sec.gov/EDGARFSClient/jsp/EDGAR_MainAccess.jsp?search_text=*&sort=ReverseDate&formType=FormD&isAdv=true&stemming=true&numResults=100&fromDate=02/01/2010&toDate=07/14/2010&numResults=100

You can get only 100 per page (or is it 1000)
It displays a maximum of 8000 per search
Data available only for 4 years back

ftp://ftp.sec.gov/edgar/README.txt

Using .gz seems to be the best archive.

vmware player - distributed teams: Interesting challenge & current thoughts

We have a person developing software in India for the client in the US. Indian team is developing in Windows (WAMP stack) while the US team is using it on Linux (LAMP stack). It could be trivial to have the Indian team to ensure no Windows specifics are used to develop the software. This is easy said than done if the Indian developer is short of resources (network) and having less professional experience (Kid out of school - or smart high school student).

Few alternate possible solutions and their challenges.

• Solution 1: Use vmware player on the US & Indian side so that both have good chance of seeing identical information.
• challenge1 for Solution 1: The Indian team still need to download (read as bandwidth i$$ue) vmware player & the virtual appliance.
• challenge2 for Solution 1: If the correct virtual appliance is not readily available, the system need to be created in one place (US?) and the virtual disk shipped to other location (storage + bandwidth restriction) - use free file transfer sites like YouSendIt. You might be limited to 100MB limit.
• Solution 2: Use WebEx for sharing other sites' screen and discuss.
• challenge 1 for Solution 2: WebEx probably don't come for free.
• challenge 2 for Solution 2: This assumes both parties getting oneline at the same time. Offline, independent verification is difficult with this method.
• Solution 3: Have each team take screen shots or record the screen as a proof of what they see.
• challenge 1 for Solution 3: This approach is good after the product stabilizes and there are few bugs that need fixing. Time consuming and limited use in the early stages.
  

Once we agree that vmware player will be used we still would have the challenge of syncing up the systems on 2 continents.

• Solution 4: Save the virtual disk and keep exchanging it between teams.
• challenge 1 for Solution 4: The virtual Disk can be super big for transfer and viewing incremental.
• Solution 5: Send only vmware disk incremental between teams.
• Challenge 1 for solution 5: Does vmware really provide this facility? Can this be plugged in?
  
• Solution 6: Install the OS on web drive (like free GMail drive) and have the 2 teams use the common data.
• Challenge 1 for solution 6: Still bandwidth can be a problem.
• Challenge 2 for solution 6: File name length, file type and file size can still be limited
• Challenge 3 for solution 6: When large files change, there can be a penalty on change update in terms of bandwidth.
  
• Solution 7: Install software and the engine (vmware player + linux) on local machine. Store the moving parts on remote storage like GMail drive.
• Challenge 1 for solution 7: high initial cost (time, effort & skill needed) to make this happen
• Challenge 2 for solution 7: Challenge 2 & 3 for solution 6 is applicable for this solution too
• We need encryption along with key sharing between remote teams for external storage.
• Solution for large file size in terms of MySQL - use text based database. This is ugly and probably wouldn't work when single table is larger.
• We need a true block level external storage device for managing larger file sizes.