Citigroup has eliminated its entire technical analysis team and apparently has no plans to replace them. Is this the beginning of the end of technical analysis ?
Article on theStreet.com: Citigroup Eliminates Stock Technical Analysis Group
Friday, February 18, 2005
Boldly walking as all humans have done before
Slashdot article: Looks like the days of C3PO are coming - scientists have just mastered the feat of getting robots to walk like humans, probably the hardest of feats. Part of the enthusiasm in furthering AI and robotics is our quest for self-discovery.
Artice on livescience: New Robots Walk Like Humans
Toddler:
Artice on livescience: New Robots Walk Like Humans
Toddler:
Thursday, February 17, 2005
The last day of classes
Tomorrow (err... today) is the last day of academic classes at xlri ! Can't believe its almost two years since I landed up at this place :D
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
Vinton Cerf and Robert Kahn win the Turing
Vinton Cerf and Robert Kahn, the fathers of the TCP/IP protocol (and probably the internet ??) have won the 2004 A.M.Turing Award given by the ACM, considered to be the Nobel Prize in Computing.
Article in the NewYorkTimes: Laurels for Giving the Internet Its Language
Article in the NewYorkTimes: Laurels for Giving the Internet Its Language
Saturday, February 12, 2005
R.I.P Microsoft ?
A very interesting and controversial article seems to have come up on slashdot: Silicon Insider: R.I.P Microsoft. Written by a veteran Silicon Valley Journalist, Michael Malone, the article muses on whether MS is on the verge of a collapse!. Though shocking and improbable at the very least, the tech industry is one place where its almost impossible to predict anything.
Some very interesting tips in the article on how to assess the potential of tech companies - for an enterpreneurial company: "...one of the tools I'm best known for is Folding Table Theory of Start-Ups. It says that when you walk into a new entrepreneurial company and you see a nice lobby and expensive office furniture, that company has its priorities screwed up -- either it is more interested in comfort than success or it is over-capitalized and lazy -- and it will never make it.
By comparison, when you see the start-up team working at folding tables or old army surplus desks, you know that it is properly focused both on getting the job done and financial discipline -- and has a good chance of being a winner. That's what I saw at the beginning of eBay (and Siebel, Tivo, Electronic Arts, Atari and a host of other great companies)"
On Microsoft and similar behemoths - "...Great, healthy companies not only dominate the market, but share of mind. Look at Apple these days. But when was the last time you thought about Microsoft, except in frustration or anger? The company just announced a powerful new search engine, designed to take on Google -- but did anybody notice? Meanwhile, open systems world -- created largely in response to Microsoft's heavy-handed hegemony -- is slowly carving away market share from Gates & Co.: Linux and Firefox hold the world's imagination these days, not Windows and Explorer. The only thing Microsoft seems busy at these days is patching and plugging holes."
Interesting about the kind of vibes that veteran people seem to look for in a company - some time back I attended an equity research contest at spjain - the jury was pretty impressive, chief investment officers of a lot of big funds. Their advice to us was telling - they told us that more than all the financial FCF valuation and the monte-carlo simulations, it is the softer aspects, the culture of the firm, the management team and a feel of the work the company is doing that determine the true value of a firm.
The above hints that Malone says he looks for are interestingly similar.
Some very interesting tips in the article on how to assess the potential of tech companies - for an enterpreneurial company: "...one of the tools I'm best known for is Folding Table Theory of Start-Ups. It says that when you walk into a new entrepreneurial company and you see a nice lobby and expensive office furniture, that company has its priorities screwed up -- either it is more interested in comfort than success or it is over-capitalized and lazy -- and it will never make it.
By comparison, when you see the start-up team working at folding tables or old army surplus desks, you know that it is properly focused both on getting the job done and financial discipline -- and has a good chance of being a winner. That's what I saw at the beginning of eBay (and Siebel, Tivo, Electronic Arts, Atari and a host of other great companies)"
On Microsoft and similar behemoths - "...Great, healthy companies not only dominate the market, but share of mind. Look at Apple these days. But when was the last time you thought about Microsoft, except in frustration or anger? The company just announced a powerful new search engine, designed to take on Google -- but did anybody notice? Meanwhile, open systems world -- created largely in response to Microsoft's heavy-handed hegemony -- is slowly carving away market share from Gates & Co.: Linux and Firefox hold the world's imagination these days, not Windows and Explorer. The only thing Microsoft seems busy at these days is patching and plugging holes."
Interesting about the kind of vibes that veteran people seem to look for in a company - some time back I attended an equity research contest at spjain - the jury was pretty impressive, chief investment officers of a lot of big funds. Their advice to us was telling - they told us that more than all the financial FCF valuation and the monte-carlo simulations, it is the softer aspects, the culture of the firm, the management team and a feel of the work the company is doing that determine the true value of a firm.
The above hints that Malone says he looks for are interestingly similar.
Tuesday, February 08, 2005
Monday, February 07, 2005
The new kings of capitalism
Wonder how many kings capitalism will have :P - one seems to be turning up almost every day, these finance journalists have an obsession with the grandiose - they trumpet anything and everything that they can lay their hands on as the next kingy thing. But still, a beautiful article on private equity in the Economist: The new kings of capitalism
The Drexel Alumni
Many of the alumni of Drexel Burnham Lambert today hold top positions across Wall Street. A nice article in the New York times about how the alumni still have fond memories of the time when they used to shake up the financial world: The Drexel Diaspora
Most of the junior bankers chose Drexel over other top-flight banks. They picked it because they thought they could learn more, advance faster, make more money and - corny as it sounds, even on Wall Street - become part of history.
Many former Drexel employees speak glowingly of Mr. Milken. "He's so brilliant, it's like getting near the sun," Mr. Wagner said.
"There's a difference between being very competitive and can-do, and winning at all costs, all costs is costly."
Most of the junior bankers chose Drexel over other top-flight banks. They picked it because they thought they could learn more, advance faster, make more money and - corny as it sounds, even on Wall Street - become part of history.
Many former Drexel employees speak glowingly of Mr. Milken. "He's so brilliant, it's like getting near the sun," Mr. Wagner said.
"There's a difference between being very competitive and can-do, and winning at all costs, all costs is costly."
Friday, February 04, 2005
Global IT industry structure
The computers hardware and software market is worth $1 trillion, the telecom market is worth $1.3 trillion and electronic goods market is worth $300 billion dollars.
Article based on a talk by Prof. Nik Dholakia at XL: 'India poses a nebulous threat to US'
Article based on a talk by Prof. Nik Dholakia at XL: 'India poses a nebulous threat to US'
India's IT Industry to cross 1 lakh crore in 2004-05
India's IT industry is likely to exceed 1 lakh crore (approx $28.3 bn) in turnover in 2004-05. The ITes segment will grow at approx 20% (up from 18%), the IT services and software segment will grow at 58.8% (down from 59.3%) and hardware at 21.2% (down from 22.4%). Presently the ITes and the ITS segments contribute over 78% of the turnover. Further, increasing from the present 3.5% contribution to the GDP, IT will contribute over 4% of GDP in 2004-05 fiscal.
Article in the Hindustan Times: IT industry to cross Rs 1 lakh cr in 2004-05
Article in the Hindustan Times: IT industry to cross Rs 1 lakh cr in 2004-05
Thursday, February 03, 2005
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