- UBS to Pay $1.5 Billion to Settle Libor Charges
- Morgan Stanley Coughs Up $5 Million in Facebook Settlement
- Standard Chartered Bank has agreed to pay $327 million to settle federal and New York charges it laundered money on behalf of four countries that were subject to U.S. economic sanctions from 2001 through 2007.
- HSBC settles US money laundering case for $1.9B
In what way does it really help me? Is this my wish? Am I truly compensated? Looks like the Government is helping the lawyers get their money (pension?). May be some ego/promotion of government official is met...
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Government Settles on my behalf?
Saturday, December 15, 2012
China subsidy vs US subsidy
The US government complained to ITO and imposed tariffs on Chinese products imported to the US.
The US federal government offers various subsidies, including farm subsidies for goods end up getting exported. Also, various state,county and city governments provide various subsidies like tax holidays, free land to attract large companies to relocate to their region.
Don't understand the logic - other than calling it double standard.
Wednesday, March 07, 2012
Apple Store dns ttl change
@Wed Mar 7 15:15:16 EST 2012 the dns ttl for apple is
store.apple.com. 259 IN CNAME store.gcsis-apple.com.akadns.net.
store.gcsis-apple.com.akadns.net. 19 IN A 17.112.156.51
store.apple.com. 259 IN CNAME store.gcsis-apple.com.akadns.net.
store.gcsis-apple.com.akadns.net. 19 IN A 17.112.156.51
while
apple.com. 2484 IN A 17.149.160.49
apple.com. 2484 IN A 17.172.224.47
apple store loosing their copyright protection?
Apple copy right as of March 07, 2012 12:12pm Pacific Time says
Copyright © 2011 Apple, Inc. All rights reserved.
I am sure they care for copy protection... Or, did they give up any copy protection after the iPad fight with China?
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
can't call directly from Android OneNote
Downloaded OneNote Android today (2012/02/28) on receiving promotion mail from hotmail.
- I can not insert a method to call a number in notes. tel: protocol does not work.
- On web interface there is no way to insert check boxes.
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Megaupload <> roads
Why should we not sue the owners of 'roads & streets' for allowing bad people drive/walk on them doing bad things? This sounds comparable to the reasoning by Justice department indicted Vestor Limited
http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2012/January/12-crm-074.html
http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2012/January/12-crm-074.html
Megaupload diagnostics
Megaupload diagnostics after Order of US District court was executed
megaupload.com. 26607 IN A 107.21.243.42
;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
megaupload.com. 172800 IN NS ns5.cirfu.net.
megaupload.com. 172800 IN NS ns6.cirfu.net.
;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
ns5.cirfu.net. 172800 IN A 107.21.224.156
ns6.cirfu.net. 172800 IN A 107.21.226.254
154.140.174.in-addr.arpa. 1798 IN SOA ns1.carpathiahost.net. hostmaster.cirn.net. 2008112100 10800 3600 604800 86400
megaupload.com. 26607 IN A 107.21.243.42
;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
megaupload.com. 172800 IN NS ns5.cirfu.net.
megaupload.com. 172800 IN NS ns6.cirfu.net.
;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
ns5.cirfu.net. 172800 IN A 107.21.224.156
ns6.cirfu.net. 172800 IN A 107.21.226.254
---
whois:
Domain Name: MEGAUPLOAD.COM
Registrar: DOTREGISTRAR, LLC.
Whois Server: whois.dotster.com
Referral URL: http://www.dotster.com
Name Server: NS5.CIRFU.NET
Name Server: NS6.CIRFU.NET
Status: clientDeleteProhibited
Status: clientTransferProhibited
Status: clientUpdateProhibited
Status: serverDeleteProhibited
Status: serverTransferProhibited
Status: serverUpdateProhibited
Updated Date: 20-jan-2012
Creation Date: 21-mar-2005
Expiration Date: 21-mar-2014
Registrant:
Megaupload Limited
P.O. Box 28410
Gloucester Road Post Office
Wan Chai, Hong Kong 00000
HK
Registrar: DOTREGISTRAR
Domain Name: MEGAUPLOAD.COM
Created on: 21-MAR-05
Expires on: 21-MAR-14
Last Updated on: 28-NOV-11
Administrative, Technical Contact:
Lam, Bonnie domain@megaupload.com
Megaupload Limited
P.O. Box 28410
Gloucester Road Post Office
Wan Chai, Hong Kong 00000
HK
+852-3013-7707
Domain servers in listed order:
NS1.MEGAUPLOAD.COM
NS2.MEGAUPLOAD.COM
NS3.MEGAUPLOAD.COM
NS4.MEGAUPLOAD.COM
whois for cirfu.net
Domain Name: CIRFU.NET
Registrar: GODADDY.COM, LLC
Whois Server: whois.godaddy.com
Referral URL: http://registrar.godaddy.com
Name Server: NS73.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
Name Server: NS74.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
Status: clientDeleteProhibited
Status: clientRenewProhibited
Status: clientTransferProhibited
Status: clientUpdateProhibited
Updated Date: 30-nov-2011
Creation Date: 01-apr-2009
Expiration Date: 01-apr-2013
Registrant:
Federal Bureau of Investigation
935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, District of Columbia 20535
United States
Registered through: Go Daddy
Domain Name: CIRFU.NET
Created on: 01-Apr-09
Expires on: 01-Apr-13
Last Updated on: 30-Nov-11
Administrative Contact:
Division, Cyber ipr@ic.fbi.gov
Federal Bureau of Investigation
935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, District of Columbia 20535
United States
+1.2023243000 Fax --
Domain servers in listed order:
NS73.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
NS74.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
| Hostname | Region Name | City | Postal Code | Lat | Long | Organization | Area Code | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 107.21.243.42 | Washington | Seattle | 98144 | 47.5839 | -122.2995 | Amazon.com | 206 | |||||
| 107.21.224.156 | Washington | Seattle | 98144 | 47.5839 | -122.2995 | Amazon.com | 206 | |||||
| 107.21.226.254 | Washington | Seattle | 98144 | 47.5839 | -122.2995 | Amazon.com | 206 |
Some of the DNS Servers are still returning
| London, United Kingdom (BT Global) | 174.140.154.24 174.140.154.23 174.140.154.22 174.140.154.21 174.140.154.20 |
| Istanbul, Turkey (TTNET) | 212.156.4.8 |
Business entities who helped in megaupload.com site to be brought down
- Amazon.com - hosted servers & hosting name server ( http://usdoj.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/ )
- dotster.com - DNS registry
- godaddy.com - DNS registry for domain name used for the name server for megaupload.com
megaupload.com
HEAD /banner.jpg HTTP/1.0
Date: Sat, 21 Jan 2012 07:38:47 GMT
Server: Apache/2.2.21 (Amazon)
Last-Modified: Fri, 20 Jan 2012 19:31:19 GMT
HEAD /banner.jpg HTTP/1.0
Date: Sat, 21 Jan 2012 07:38:47 GMT
Server: Apache/2.2.21 (Amazon)
Last-Modified: Fri, 20 Jan 2012 19:31:19 GMT
HEAD / HTTP/1.0
Date: Sat, 21 Jan 2012 07:40:03 GMT
Server: Apache/2.2.21 (Amazon)
Last-Modified: Fri, 20 Jan 2012 21:36:33 GMT
Wednesday, November 02, 2011
list of names part of 1%
As my contribution to occupy wall street movement, I want to collect the list of people who belong to the 1%. This list is going to be 3,125,380 (3M+). Well, that's a tall order to meet. We should give it a try - why not!! Who knows what we will see/get..
Couple of places to compile from
- Forbes list (potentially, Copyrighted material)
- sec filings
- How about property list (Zillow?)
- Political Campaign contributions
Bells and whistles:
- May be provide a wiki style for people to add/edit?
- Looks at what is spent (how about list of expenses - especially that huge for ordinary things)
- How to maintain this list as information changes. Can this change on a day to day basis when share market moves around?
- Why limit to US - why not expand to world wide
- How to differentiate family wealth from individual wealth
- How to differentiate office spending on wealthy individuals - as compared to personal spending (Example: President of the US & President of Exon fly to places with whole bunch of people with them. Do we include this trip in their personal income?)
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Irritable bowel syndrome
Friday, September 02, 2011
what do you not pay tax today
- Bank account transactions
- Home Mortgages issued to buyer
- Loans Received
- Initial issuance of a stock or bond
- Short-term revolving loans
- Individuals who have 401(k) or mutual fund accounts
- Stock purchase
- securities
- purchase of debt
- Stock options purchase
- credit swaps
- foreign currency “bets”
- derivatives
- Earned Income Tax Credit
- Higher education Tuition Payment
- Payments to non profit
- Home mortgage interest
- Income Tax Paid to local government
- Property Tax
- Medical Insurance and expenses
- Business Travel and entertainment
- Home Office deduction
- Moving Expense
- Alimony
- Job Search Expenses
- Stock & Gambling Losses
Financial Transaction Tax
http://www.nationalnursesunited.org/pages/financial-transact
Related quotes & rant (from us perspective)
"Discourage Wall Street's reckless, job-less gambling. The greed of large banks and Wall Street firms have wrecked our economy, wiping out pensions and portfolios, throwing us into a recession, costing us millions of jobs, and squandering American productivity. Yet nobody on Wall Street has paid the price for this wrongdoing. No one has gone to jail. In fact, they remain some of the most profitable businesses in America, doling out hundreds of millions of dollars in executive bonuses. And they pay some of the lowest tax rates in the country."
"... discourage the reckless, high-volume/short-term profit computer-driven Wall Street gambling that lead to our current economic crisis."
“Wall Street got bailed out. We got sold out.”
“These corporations have gotten so greedy right now. It’s not only Wall Street, but if you look at every major corporation that has outsourced any kinds of job in the area, we need to make sure that those jobs ... We need to make sure that those jobs remain right here in the United States.”
“They were so hungry,.... They came to us. We feed them.”
"What we have in America is corporate socialism, publicize the losses, and privatize the profits. I was not in favor of bailing out the banks, because these are the same people, who complain about big government, but when things go belly up they want the government to bail them out. And by the way the bank bail out took place under Bush. They got bailed out and now have refused to lend the money out. Corporate America is flush with cash because they have figured out how to get 5 people to do the work of 10."
... WE bailed THEM out and in the process lost OUR jobs, homes and retirement funds. Now THEY got all the cash and wouldn't spend them. THEY are forcing US to borrow for them to get richer.
They take away my job and give it to other parts of the globe and wouldn't pay taxes or even bring back the profits to spend here.
If I sell my pottery to ordinary people, they pay tax. If I sell a piece of my pottery company to a rich person, there is no tax. Is this fair? Is this capitalism? If so, do we still need capitalism?
Related quotes & rant (from us perspective)
"Discourage Wall Street's reckless, job-less gambling. The greed of large banks and Wall Street firms have wrecked our economy, wiping out pensions and portfolios, throwing us into a recession, costing us millions of jobs, and squandering American productivity. Yet nobody on Wall Street has paid the price for this wrongdoing. No one has gone to jail. In fact, they remain some of the most profitable businesses in America, doling out hundreds of millions of dollars in executive bonuses. And they pay some of the lowest tax rates in the country."
"... discourage the reckless, high-volume/short-term profit computer-driven Wall Street gambling that lead to our current economic crisis."
“Wall Street got bailed out. We got sold out.”
“These corporations have gotten so greedy right now. It’s not only Wall Street, but if you look at every major corporation that has outsourced any kinds of job in the area, we need to make sure that those jobs ... We need to make sure that those jobs remain right here in the United States.”
“They were so hungry,.... They came to us. We feed them.”
"What we have in America is corporate socialism, publicize the losses, and privatize the profits. I was not in favor of bailing out the banks, because these are the same people, who complain about big government, but when things go belly up they want the government to bail them out. And by the way the bank bail out took place under Bush. They got bailed out and now have refused to lend the money out. Corporate America is flush with cash because they have figured out how to get 5 people to do the work of 10."
... WE bailed THEM out and in the process lost OUR jobs, homes and retirement funds. Now THEY got all the cash and wouldn't spend them. THEY are forcing US to borrow for them to get richer.
They take away my job and give it to other parts of the globe and wouldn't pay taxes or even bring back the profits to spend here.
If I sell my pottery to ordinary people, they pay tax. If I sell a piece of my pottery company to a rich person, there is no tax. Is this fair? Is this capitalism? If so, do we still need capitalism?
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Capitalism - Cheating?
Rich and intelligent cheating the poor and less intelligent?
Democracy, Capitalism, Monarchy - all have the same (defect?) feature...
“Civil law is for the rich. Criminal Law is for the poor.”
Monday, August 22, 2011
Thursday, August 18, 2011
US hand in Anna Hazare Movement against corruption?
US hand in Anna Hazare Movement against corruption? This is a statement/suspicion hinted by Republic of India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. This information was also reinforced by Mr. Rashid Alvi of Indian Congress party. From certain perspective, this can be true. Let us try to see what's happening...
I am all for the reduction/elimination of corruption every where - not just in India. This is one of the bad behavior that's worth changing in the gene.
Anna's supporters are from US as well. http://www.dandimarch2.org/ is owned by Ranadheer Kumar Varma Dantuluri 3901 Parkview Ln Apt #9B Irvine California 92612 9493506498 varmadrk@gmail.com . The web site says "6 main marchers (Jawahar Kambhampati, Kewal Parnami, Srihari Atluri, Srinivas Nandiwada, Subhash Karri & Sunil Kumar) walked 240 miles in 15 days and concluded at Gandhi Statue in San Francisco. 600 or more walkers supported them in over 30 cities with 5000 man miles. Varma Dantuluri alone added 100 man miles."
Do we consider this information as US influence? Are these individuals and their supports American Citizens/immigration/residents (even if they are Indian Citizens / OCI holders).
Moving on to the support with in India. The movement is supported by younger generation - Some of them get paid on their day job by their US clients.
So, on a long stretch - US has supported Anna's movement against Corruption in India.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
How to know/track the owners of a public company
How to know/track the owners of a public company and how can we know how things changed in any unit time - say 3 month period. This info is available in different places. How to compile them to know the dynamics.
Possible source of info are
- SEC filing for the company.
- Institutional Holders and Mutual Funds Holders periodic reports
- Company's annual report
- Sell/Buy raters will tell their hand if they hold any (This is not as reliable and we can not hold them accountable)
- Press who cover the company
What can we learn when this is done methodically:
- Find Insider trading, if any
- Trends - just follow another knowledgeable person/company who do the research
- We can get some indication on the internal health of the company
Example: http://sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/789019/000119309911000056/xslF345X03/edgar.xml indicates this director got paid $10K (cash equivalent) + stocks - probably for attending a board meeting.
Waterfalls near Pune
Pune, Maharashtra waterfalls
Kundalika river - White Water rafting - around 2 hours from pune towards Pirangut. Lot of beautiful water falls on the way. The famous water fall close to pune is Tamhani.
Monday, August 15, 2011
Mid-day Meal Scheme
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-day_Meal_Scheme
"The Mid-day Meal Scheme is the popular name for school meal programme in India which started in the 1960s.It involves provision of lunch free of cost to school-children on all working days. The key objectives of the programme are: protecting children from classroom hunger, increasing school enrolment and attendance, improved socialisation among children belonging to all castes, addressing malnutrition, and social empowerment through provision of employment to women. The scheme has a long history especially in the state of Tamil Nadu introduced statewide by the then Chief Minister K. Kamaraj in 1960s and later expanded by M. G. Ramachandran government in 1982 has been adopted by most of the states in India after a landmark direction by the Supreme Court of India on November 28, 2001.[1] The success of this scheme is illustrated by the tremendous increase in the school participation and completion rates in the state of Tamil Nadu."
The idea was that Americans would be able to send “CARE Packages” those who were in desperate need of (food) relief.
In 1948, CARE was already working in many Asian countries—first came Japan, then the Philippines, Korea, India, and Pakistan.
"Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe" in 1945 to
"Cooperative for American Relief Everywhere" in 1953 to
"Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere" in 1993
The Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act (79 P.L. 396, 60 Stat. 230) is a United States federal law signed by President Harry S. Truman in 1946. The act created the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), a program to provide low cost or free school lunch meals to qualified students through subsidies to schools. The program was established as a way to prop up food prices by absorbing farm surpluses, while at the same time providing food to school age children.
----
Who can connect the dot - where CARE packages of wheat (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semolina) were in-fact used for Kamaraj's noon-meal program in the early 90s.
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Online version of numerically intensive papers
http://www.w2express.com
Noticed this feature recently where a paper document with full of numbers can be stored/distributed over the web as well. May be we can do similar thing for purchase order/Invoice and plain Point of Sale receipts.
Invoice sounds more interesting... We need more work flow (deeper integration into existing documents that consume the Invoices) and support dual mode (Paper containing a way to enable pulling the info online as well - in machine readable data format and human readable format for legal purposes).
---
Recently noticed the following software
Tuesday, August 09, 2011
Taxes for goods not stocks
When I buy goods and services, I Pay taxes. Even when I get paid for my labor (employment), government takes taxes. However, when I buy stock of a company (I become part owner) of a company, I do not have to pay taxes at all. (Today, I pay taxes only when I sell and make a profit on the sale, I need to pay tax).
Recommendation: Tax the sale of shares of companies.
Benefits:
- Gets more money in to US Treasuries
- Reduces the high volatility in stock prices
Downsides:
- Lower trade volume
- People may claim, that's not capitalism
Middle grounds:
- Charge on the sale of shares on any company that claims they are too big to fail
- Charge people/companies that sell/buy more shares (day traders)
Rant from a person who lost his job during 2008 recession: "The Companies who took my money (US Tax dollars), took my money, my job and my home with it. When things are turning around, the people who came for arms on my tax dollars are still keeping their jobs and my money - while I still suffer with no money."
Friday, August 05, 2011
Pure Day Trading Risk
What if the company releases it's results or sets revised expectations? As Day trader, this can be a big problem.
3.52
-1.37 (-28.02%)
This is fertile ground for insider trading of sell activity prior to this announcement!!