Executive Compensation

I think if the executive compensation (variable component like bonuses and stock option exercising is spread over long term (around 4 years rather than annual), there may be incentive for these people to think strategically and not gamble with investments. But well..I dont know if free market economy champions agree to such things.

Money is somewhere

Who benefited from Sub-prime Mortgage Crisis? Whatever way I think, it seemed the biggest beneficiaries are realtors, mortgage brokers, builders and building industry? They must have got their cut long back? (and might have lost if they had pumped all their income into the market again).

Home owners - Lost their fortune. Their equity sometimes became negative.
Primary lenders - sold off their loans to secondary lenders. (but may have enough sub-prime mortgages in hand that needs to be disposed off)
Secondary lenders - Sitting on those loans which are getting foreclosed. Nobody will be ready to buy white elephants.
Innovative banking firms - who convert everything from baby puke to old mans worn out shirt into securities and traded them enthusiastically.
AIG like firms - invested in such securities
Shareholders- having positions in such firms
Bond holders - based on the company bonds of such companies
Retirement Investments like 401(k) - who invested in instruments having exposure to such companies and worse mortgage based securities themselves.

So, what is lost is a dream I think. Somewhere money is safe. Our optimism about the growth of money is shattered. Well isn't that not recession?

Black Monday

It happened as expected. After a querter of uncertainty, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy. What it means is that their assets are less valued than their liabilities and that they will not get fresh infusion of funding from its creditors(other Wall Street Banks). Now the next steps will be Court appointing an examiner, credit board, filing of all assets and liabilities and plan for reorganization etc. None of the really bring back a historical Wall Street firm. Too bad..

The other news is Meryl Lynch being bought over by BoA. Two major investment banks out of the Wall Street landscape over 1 week end. That is preceeded by Freddie and Fannie merger, and a quarter back Bear Sterns buyout. This is definitely a very crucial time for American (and also global) financial markets.

There will be important lessons that can be learnt from any event. If I predict correct, for this sub-prime mortogage crisis, it could be "Never be too greedy".

On the side note, one friend of mine told last monday that he bought Fannie Mae stock for 2K $ the Friday before the merger weekend. Another friend of friend bought 2.5 K $ worth of LB stock on last Friday. This is nothing but financial stupidity. During such hard year when market is unpredictable, when even pros are scared to trade, what made these amateurs go and buy such stock is greed. Dont fall for it. It is not worth it.

Format Wars

Very interesting read about current wars DC versus AC. I wonder how people will feel about Betamax versus VHS or HDDVD vesus Blueray format wars 100 years from now.

My iphone 3g story

I went to window shopping iPhone and ended up buying one. First I used it for 10 minutes. I felt it very userfriendly compared to my T-Mobile Dash. It's internet browsing experience on wi-fi is second to none. 3-g speed on AT&T is OK. YouTube videos are great. I also found App Store with 100s of free apps very cool. When I called T-Mobile to check if my wife's contract is over, they told that even I am outside contract. Amusing..Then I found that that day is the last day of the current billing cycle. I would call it divine intervention (LOL). I went into store again and encountered a smart orange tshirt clad, what Apple calls 'genius'. He seemed to know all about Apple products and very less about ATT plans which Apple mandates to sell. I bought the iphone and the whole process of credit checking, number porting, and credit card swipe is all done in less than 10 minutes. It was thoroughly professional. No waste of time anywhere. The Geniuses in apple store carry a handy POS terminal  connected over wi-fi with them and come to the customers. Not like in other stores.  Then the genius asked me if I am interested in Apple Care Protection plan (70$) and other accessories like phone case, protection skin(30$ and above) etc which I denied. Then he brought the iphone from inside. The funny thing is the way he held the iphone. I wish I handled my new born son so carefully. With the light in the eyes he gave it to me and encouraged me to ---guess - access internet. Yes, not to make a call. That is where the core strength of iphone lies it seems. I made a call and I found there is a strange echo. I did not like it much. Went to ATT store in the same mall and added my wife to my iphone family plan. This process is also seamless. I played it since last 3 weeks, also used it at NYC, JFK, Subway station, Penn Station etc...I found that the reception is excellent compared to my T-mobile. Though I pay 20$ per month more than what I pay T-mobile, I think it is worth every $.

Coming to features, I will cover push email, web browsing, internet access, ipod, iTunes, you Tube and App Store

Onething I liked in Windows Mobile 6 which I miss in iphone is Exchange GAL.  Usually I do need to get some of my colleagues contact details while I am on the road. Windows Mobile Exchange access used to fetch me addresses from Company Address book. With iphone I get at most my Exchange contacts. It is certainly limiting. Calendar sync is also not as elegant as in WM6.

Web browsing is a treat. I get 3G almost every place I go in Tampa and New York and browsing is fast.  If I check in any hotel, I see wifi. So I am connected. It is a wonderful device in that aspect.

Only thing I miss is tethering iphone to use its 3G with my laptop. ATT seems to be blocking this which is a shame. We already pay for the internet..what if we use that in emergency to check email?

ipod is decent. Not a replacement for your 30GB gadget. But a wonderful alternative. if you organize your music into playlists and shuffle them often with latest ones, I think you can always carry fresh music as well as your favoirites.  It is much better than WM 6's handicapped Windows Media Player Mobile. If only Apple gives a way to insert a MicroSD card, no need to buy an ipod. But Apple knows that and hence they prevent that. Also they may be thinking in cloud terms and keep content away rather than in the device.

iTunes is good. I think I like this version than the big monolith in the laptop for its ease of use and singular nature.

You Tube is a killer app. Wonderful clarity and excellent streaming speed on both 3G and Wifi. 

App Store is another killer app. What a brilliant design? UI is clean, buying an app is a cake walk. Download of app and visual progress bar on the app being downloaded and installed is a testimony of Apple's UI poweress.

I downloaded Twitterrific, CheckPlease, Facebook, Linkedin, Wordpress, Googlr, Wikipanion, Currency, Units, IMPlus and Pandora. All the applications are well designed. 

My complaint - 2 weeks of usage..and none major. Perhaps security because when the users type password, each letter briefly highlights in magnified mode. I always felt that someone is watching my iphone and can read my entire password within few feet away in the line of sight. Creepy...

Otherwise...it is a good gadget...I am a happy iphone user.

What is the hype around Google Chrome

Yes it is an important milestone for Google. For a company that makes almost all it's revenue out of Web naturally wants to build a web browser. I liked the reason why they started this project. Being a Google fan, I liked the clean L&F as well as making the tab, a first class entity.

But what is it for the Internet as a whole? Did this release really revolutionalize the Web? It is making an already existing product even better. Firefox did that already before bogged down by the heaviness of the plugins and memory leaks. Firefox 3 is better. IE is improving. Safari is cool. And Opera etc are having their own share however little it might be. But the whole blogosphere is gaga over this release which seems odd. Now it seems to justify all the mileage iphone got. Well I will also blog about my new iphone..that is a separate post.