Money, Matter, and More Musings

Need For Internet Income Regulations Reform

Published by golbguru May 4th, 2008 in personal and odds and ends. 27 Comments

I won’t go in to the details of what prompted this topic since it might get a little too bitter for my own taste, but there is a serious need for reforms in the way the government looks at internet income.

To put it in a concise way, I am regretting that this blog ever made any money at all.

There is only one piece of advertisement remaining on this blog, but I am positively sure that after a few months/years of unsuccessfully negotiating with the organization involved, the issue will remain successfully unresolved (for the lack of any clear guidelines to either party) and the money will be eventually donated to charity …or something of the sort.

Then, I heard someone say something about how there are stupid laws and stuff. On that I have only one thing to say - laws are only as stupid as the people who make them.

Anyways, the point is that there is a need to take a second look at internet income regulations. In one way or other I am sure some other bloggers feel the same way.

Lastly, to put a closure to this incoherent rant I have another thing to say. This “equal opportunity employer” legal statement thing is a big load of crap. Here is an example:

” … to ensure equal employment opportunity without discrimination or harassment on the basis of race color, national origin, religion or creed, sex, age, disability, citizenship status, marital status, genetic predisposition or carrier status, sexual orientation, …”

Almost every one of those issues listed in the statement has an effect on employment opportunities. Sometimes we are just blind enough not to notice it.

Or may be I am just jaded because of not being able to blog for so long.

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Lifestyle Deflation

Published by golbguru February 3rd, 2008 in personal and odds and ends. 53 Comments

Finally, it’s time to implement what I have been talking about on my blog over the last year or so - it’s time to address lifestyle inflation!

The first salary after getting a job is always a tempting excuse to indulge in a shopping spree. Plus, a new unfurnished apartment cries desperately for a several-hundred-dollars expenditure on furniture/bed/accessories.

However, with great restraint, I have finally managed to convince myself back into a sleeping bag. I have had some good (and prolonged) experience with sleeping bags, so I don’t mind it.

Also, most other things were acquired at much lower costs than what I had imagined earlier (new leather shoes - $50, trousers - about $25 each , shirts - about $20 each, etc.) - so most of the inflationary items have been under control. Plus, I threw away an incredible number of clothes/accessories during my moving/clean-up spree - so I ended up with a lot less “stuff” in the new apartment.

May be it’s lifestyle deflation or whatever… but it certainly feels good to carry less baggage and live light.

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The Stupid Passport Photo Ripoff

Published by golbguru January 14th, 2008 in musings and consumerism. 74 Comments

I don’t know what to call this passport photo business, so I am just going to stick with “stupid ripoff” for now.

During the weekend, we went into a CVS Pharmacy Photo Center to get some passport/ID photos. We wanted a specific size (as they say “from chin to crown”), so we asked the dude who was attending the photo center whether he can adjust the size. Pat came his reply “No, we just print the standard 2″ by 2″ photo and we can’t adjust any proportions“.

I asked him “But, don’t you have a software where you center the face in the photograph and mark the upper and lower boundaries for the face? All we have to do is to adjust those boundaries and then we can cut the photographs to the size we want - and approximately in the proportion we want“. He didn’t seem too impressed with the knowledge and insisted that he won’t do anything other than the standard 2″ by 2″ without any editing.

So we left the shop, and wondered why the heck they charge $7.99 if they wouldn’t do anything other than click the photograph and print it. Camera rental charges or something? - perhaps they use expensive digital SLRs to get good pictures (wishful thoughts).

Anyways, we then visited a Walgreen’s Photo Center and again got the same story. Next, we again tried a CVS - a different one this time - just to see if one of these “Kodak Certified” dudes could get our photographs the way we wanted. But we met with the same disappointment at this location too.

Finally, we surrendered and asked the CVS guy to click passport sized photos for one of us. We confirmed the price and he said $7.99 for two copies - additional copies will cost extra.

We decided to try it out with two copies to start with.

While we waited for the photos to print out, I saw (with my own eyes) that the photographs were printed on a 4″ x 6″ photo paper - and there were 6 copies on it. Then the dude coolly cut away 4 copies, disposed them, and handed us the remaining two copies.

WTF!?

Man, does CVS implement this type of idiotic business at all it’s photo centers?

Plus, the photos he printed didn’t look sharp at all - pretty sure it was some crappy point-and-shoot camera that didn’t do a very good job of focusing. When we pointed that out, he was like “Oh really? don’t worry all photos printed here look like that and no one ever came back because a photo was not accepted“. Wow! that’s an awesome argument to complement a crappy service.

What’s wrong with these photo centers. Why should a passport photo - clicked by a mediocre digital camera - without any studio-type lighting arrangements - without any professional photographers, cost $7.99?

Just to be sure that I am on the right side of statistics, we checked out another CVS Photo Center and two Walgreens Photo Centers - and got similar less-than-average-quality pictures, overpriced at $7.99 for two copies - topped with a totally unprofessional approach towards clicking good photographs.

Eventually, we gave up on these photo centers and decided to make our own pictures. Bought a 2 yard long white cloth (for background) from Walmart for $2, used our digital camera, adjusted the brightness and contrast in Photoshop, used this free service that lets you size your photos according to your requirements, and printed them again at Walmart (through their online photo service).

Total cost for 32 excellent passport/ID photographs: $2 for the white cloth and about $1 for photo printing = $3 (took a little bit of time with the Photoshop editing, but we were absolutely happy with the end result).

Down with $7.99 for two crappy photos!

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“The People’s Car”: The $2500 Tata Nano

Published by golbguru January 10th, 2008 in news and odds and ends. 72 Comments

I thought this was pretty interesting.

Tata Motors, India’s largest automobile company, unveiled the world’s cheapest car today - according to a press release on the company’s website. This brand new two-cylinder vehicle is priced at INR (Indian Rupee) 100,000 equivalent to $2549 US dollars.

tata nano exterior

tata nano interior

Image source: www.tatapeoplescar.com

Honestly, when I heard about this concept more than an year ago, I thought the project will sort of fizzle out eventually because of cost inflation and gross underestimation of technological challenges. Now, I stand corrected.

By the way, on a side note, Tata Motors is also in talks with Ford to buy Jaguar and Land Rover businesses.

If you think oil prices are high now, wait till this $2549 car becomes popular. It should be noted that “popular” has a totally different meaning when we are talking about a country with 1 billion people. But it could have been worse …. we are fortunate that China isn’t making any $1000 cars …. yet.

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Coming Back To Life

Published by golbguru January 8th, 2008 in personal. 16 Comments

Lost in thought and lost in time
While the seeds of life and the seeds of change were planted
Outside the rain fell dark and slow
While I pondered on this dangerous but irresistible pastime
I took a heavenly ride through our silence
I knew the moment had arrived
For killing the past and coming back to life

I took a heavenly ride through our silence
I knew the waiting had begun
And headed straight..into the shining sun

- Coming Back to Life - Pink Floyd (The Division Bell) (video)

I don’t know why, but I feel sort of connected with that song about now.

After 6.5 years of considerable efforts (not always successful) and some really bold and unconventional steps (and super-anxious waits) in the last few months, I finally have a job/career I have been dreaming about for a long time. I feel rejuvenated. Alive. Back to life.

However, this dream comes at the cost of another dream: my PhD degree. It was extremely painful to let go of several hundred hours of research and painstaking work, but ultimately, I had to be more practical than theoretical.

I don’t know how long this goodness is going to last, but I am going to enjoy it as long as it does.

With major distractions out of the way now, the inspiration to blog is slowly coming back to life too.

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